Summer 2008 Anime – What I’m Watching

Since the new anime season is already well on it’s way and you can find other resources that list every show airing, this post is only about the shows I am watching.

Continued From Last Season

Macross Frontier

I’m enjoying Macross Frontier quite a bit and I think it will become a worthy addition to the Macross franchise. Of course the show does have it’s problems, such as the very noticeable drop in animation quality that occurs whenever they’ve just blown their budget on a space battle. And in theory I’d like there to be a few more of said battles and a little less of the whole school thing but I’d be lying if I said I haven’t enjoyed every episode so far, yes even even the terrible one involving Sheryl’s panties (did I just use panties in the first paragraph of my very first post? Oh dear I think I did). In short, if you like Macross at all you’re probably already watching Frontier and I’m wasting my breath.

Chiko Heiress of the Phantom Thief/The Daughter of Twenty Faces/Nijuu Mensou no Musume/The Show of Way Too Many Names

As of episode 11 I really can’t heap enough praise on Twenty Faces. I haven’t seen too many people talking about it (only one or two bloggers I know of) and that’s a shame because so far it’s shaping up really well. One of the most refreshing aspects of the show is that it relies on good storytelling and character development to engage it’s audience, not fanservice or gimmicks. I really hope this gets licensed but I’m not holding my breath.

Soul Eater

So far a fun action/comedy with a stylish Nightmare Before Christmas-ish asiatic. Like Twenty Faces, Bones is the studio involved and as can be expected the animation is pretty solid.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2

At first I was watching Geass R2 because I thought it might be better than the first season, then I was watching it because of deer-in-headlights syndrome and now I’m watching it because it just might be the single most ridiculous show I have ever seen and this makes it a masterpiece. It was the asshat episode that broke me.

New Summer Season

Antique Bakery

This new noitaminA block series is based on Fumi Yoshinaga’s (known for her boy’s love, shoujo and josei titles) manga which I purchased and greatly enjoyed, and not just for the scratch-and-sniff covers. Antique Bakery is a character driven story about the men working at a Japanese French bakery and their customers. It’s part drama, part comedy and Yoshinaga managed to juggle these two elements quite adeptly. In the anime the jump between super deformed faces and the normal look is a little more jarring but it’s probably nothing I can’t get used to.

Birdy The Mighty Decode

I never saw the original OVA so when I pressed play I really didn’t know what to expect but that the premise of a boy and a girl sharing the same body sounded like an excuse to pack as many “oops I accidentally felt your – I mean my – boob” jokes in as possible. But so far there’s not a boob joke in sight (though I have only seen two episodes) and frankly I’m hooked. The main character is leotard… er… unpractically-tight-suit wearing Birdy, currently posing on Earth as model Arika Shion in order to capture the alien criminal Geega. She’s smart and can kick a lot of ass but she’s also pretty good-natured. I mean, even if you felt guilty for accidentally killing a teenage boy would you let him share your body? Speaking of teenage boys, surprisingly Tsutomu seems more interesting than your typical self-insert male loser. In fact he even has an interesting hobby of exploring abandoned buildings, something I can see the appeal of.

Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora

I’m a big slice of life fan and this seems to be about as slice of life as they come. Besides watching this to unwind I’m also interested to see what director Osamu Kobayashi’s style is. I haven’t seen his well-known shows like BECK, Paradise Kiss and Kimagure Orange Road so other than the infamous Gurren Lagann episode 4 this is my first introduction to his work. Visually speaking something that already stands out is the use of photographs as backgrounds (they’re altered but still clearly from photographs, not drawings). Usually I hate anything that stands out next to 2D animation but I think this really enhances the feel of the show. Already I want to book my ticket to Sora’s hometown of Biei, Hokkaido.

Natsume Yuujin-chou

A boy who can see spirits inherits a book from his grandmother that contains the spirits’ names, enabling him to control them. That sounds pretty cliché but there’s something that caught my interest. It’s in the title which means Natsume’s Book of Friends. Now before you start imagining Natsume running around collecting spirits to add to his youkai deck let me just say that one of the main themes of this show is loneliness. I’m interested in this inherent contradiction of a monster-of-the-week setup that deals with a book of supposedly friendly spirits (except they’re rather upset about their names being written in his book) and a boy who is lonely because he is ostracized for seeing said spirits. Thus his only companions are the spirits. Er… I’m not sure I explained that clearly and I’m probably overcomplicating a pretty simple show. Whatever the case, everyone should at least see this whimsical ED.

And that’s about it. The only other thing I may check out is Blade of the Immortal although I’d rather read the manga first. Ryoko’s Case File also interests me if only because it’s actually about adults for a change instead of high schoolers so I’ll at least give the first episode a shot.