badger11’s take on anime

I don’t remember the first round of this show (but then I don’t remember what happened last week either, yare yare). More than likely I watched the first episode and said “Fail”. Either that or I was in a “You can’t beat the greatness of Honey and Clover” mode. If I had known paid attention to the fact that Tomokazu Sugita was in both shows, I would’ve watched just to compare them both. So I figure that I’ll watch this version since I’ve dropped Code Geass and I’m looking for a fluffy cotton candy type show. Plus, it has the Asahina moe-ness, Otobuko Ichiko of in the form of Yuko Goto.

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I’m giving up on Code Geass. I tried. I really did. I liked the premise when I heard about it and I watched the first three episodes. But I really couldn’t get into it. I’ve gone back and watched all of the episodes to see if any of the later episodes would get me interested. Still no interest. From the start, I didn’t like the character design that much (I know, I know, its CLAMP. Oh well). I haven’t found any characters that I was really interested about. The only characters I was somewhat interested in were C.C. (they haven’t focused on her too much, perhaps in later episodes) and Karen/Kallen (oh Hell, let’s just call her K.K.) but even that interest was low.

Nope, not doing it for me. Maybe if she had the headband

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This show still surprises me, giving Sayuri a background story when in reality, she’s a secondary character. But given this story arc, I suppose its safe to call her a main character. And given the major event is this episode, even though I knew what was coming, it sure took me by surprise. At least the length to which they went. That was brutal. First they take Makoto away and now they put Sayrui through all kinds of grief (Who do they think she is? Sato from the NHK?)

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What is it about Kanon that causes me to absolutely need to watch it? This has been something I’ve wanted write/rant about for a few weeks now. Granted its visually stunning. Story-wise, its interesting. In terms of characters, from main characters like zombie Nayuki and her sleepiness to secondary characters like Jun and his Elvis impersonations, the quirks of the characters are endearing. But I still can’t explain why I want to watch this show. So consider this my rant about a Kanon addiction. Jeez, this turned out to be a long one.

When, just when did Kanon become a need-it-now addiction and a cannot-miss-all-social-interactions-be-damned* “event” that I have to see as soon as it becomes viewable? Why is that this is the only show that I’ll watch the opening and closing credits, humming along with the music? Where or at what point in time did my mind say, “Okay, I need more. Please man, just…just one more hit. That’s all I need until the next episode”. Of course that one more hit becomes one more re-watch the episode which can easily lead to the dreaded “marathon**.”

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Happy New Year everyone. I hope your first new year’s dream will be a pleasant one

If you’re reading this, something went right. Woohoo! Whelp, My name is badger11 and I like long walks on the beach or in the rain. But not at the same time. Oh, wait, wrong site. Except for the name. I’m migrating over from my Wordpress.com blog to be a part of the Animeblogger community (I read most of the blogs here, so I might as join y’all, right?). I’ve cut my anime teeth on shows like Speed Racer, Starblazers (yeah I know, its Space Battleship Yamato), G-Force (I know, I know, its Gatchaman), Robotech, and the Gundam shows ( hey, those were the names of the shows as I watched them. Yes, I’m thirty*cough*something*cough* years old).

Anime has always been something I’ve watched and been aware of, watching a show or two here and there, but it wasn’t until last year that I really become more interested in it. My tastes in anime resemble my writing skills: all over the place. Maybe they’ll improve (my tastes and writing skills), maybe not. As for my take on anime, I intend to make it as obtuse as possible. I doubt that I’ll contribute anything worth while to the anime blog community in general (other than causing a few people to wince and head shakes) but I’m doing this for fun. In the end, isn’t that what’s it all about?

I’d like to thank Maestro for setting things up and letting me join the Animeblogger community. I’ll try not to make noise (other than the occasional night-terror shriek)

I haven’t seen this show so I recently picked up the DVD. The only volume out now has the first four episodes (obviously). Despite the name of the show (Fate/stay night? What the hell?), I liked what I’ve seen so far. It centers on Nobel Peace Prize future recipient (not really) Shiro Emiya. A high schooler who gets involved in some life-death contest with magicians for the Holy Grail. One of these is magicians, a fellow high schooler, Rin winds up helping Shiro understand what’s going on. there are seven magicians who fight for the Grail and they each have a “servant” who fights for them. Each of these servants comes from a special class of fighters (why do I get the feeling that I’ll be watching an anime with card battles?).

As luck (and the plot) would have it, Shiro sees Rin and her Archer servant fighting a Lancer servant. They notice Shiro and break of the fight to go kill Shiro. Its a rule to leave no witnesses behind. As the Lancer is about to skewer Shiro, there’s a flash of light and a blonde servant appears and fights off Lancer then Rin’s Archer. This new servant realizes that Shiro, despite having some weak magical skills that allow him to fix things, isn’t a magician. But somehow he summoned her and they’ve now got a bond. She tells him that her class and name are Saber. Rin shows up and takes them to a priest who is the referee of this Holy Grail war. By the fourth episode, both Saber and Shiro are both injured but decide to fight on in order to win the Grail. Both have their own reasons: Shiro is fighting because 10 years earlier, as he finds out, there was another war for the Grail that wound up destroying part of the city and took the lives of his parents. The man who adopted him was a magician who apparently took part in this war. Saber is fighting for her own reasons, but they aren’t made clear.

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