…to blog about something other than gaming, for once 😛
It occurs to me that after my intro to the last season of anime I haven't talked much about the shows I've been watching. In the intervening period I've added a bunch of shows and dropped one rather ignominously. In any case, here's what I've been watching (through fansubs, anyway). You'll probably notice that the vast majority of these are holdovers from last season, meaning of course that not a whole lot caught my eye this season.
Bamboo Blade
Fun series about a kendo team consisting mainly of girls. It does have some shounen sports-anime elements but pokes fun at some of them (like how the instructor's motivation for assembling a strong female kendo team is so he can win free meals at a sushi restaurant for the rest of his life). Most importantly, the characters are lovable, and the humour is pretty good. The fact that the animation (for the kendo bits, at least) is really good helps too.
Hayate no Gotoku!
40 episodes and still going, and somehow, still funny. Also it pokes fun at almost everything, from established anime to censorship policies to 24 and Knight Rider. Random cameos from Nabeshin are also awesome, as is Norio Wakamoto (aka the most GAR Japanese voice actor ever) being the narrator. My only gripe is that the series needs more Hinagiku, although a Maria is fine too.
Clannad
The best of Kyoto Animation's visual novel adaptations thus far. I look forward to this every week, but if you didn't like Air or Kanon this isn't going to do anything for you.
Sketchbook ~full Color's~
This series is technically from last season, but the subbers have been ridiculously slow with it. 🙁
It's another slow slice of life series (I seem to watch a lot of those these days) focusing on the members of an art club, particularly a slightly airheaded girl called Sora Kajiwara who has a very unique way of looking at the world. The narrative runs from her perspective (for the most part). One of those shows you can watch to relax and unwind, much like ARIA.
Shakugan no Shana II
After a very promising start it turned out the villain they introduced was no more than a bit player. There was a lot of slice-of-life stuff in between, which I don't necessarily mind since it did serve as character development fodder. I particularly liked the two-parter about Margery Daw's past, which tied quite nicely into the more recent episodes where things finally picked up again.
You're Under Arrest: Full Throttle
This, unfortunately, turned out to be pretty bad. Studio Deen completely dropped the ball on this one, completing stripping out interesting characters like Toukairin and Saori (and everything that made the existing characters interesting while they were at it). Interpersonal chemistry? That's gone too. The series somehow also manages to have worse animation than the ORIGINAL YuA series in spite of being made 10 years after the fact.
ARIA the Origination
It's…ARIA. I loved the first two seasons, and so far the third looks like it'll be just as lovable.
I do also plan on getting some DVDs (legitimate anime purchases? omgwtf), probably starting with boxsets of older series that I like (Escaflowne! Cowboy Bebop!) and progressing to more recent stuff that I liked (like Haruhi and Death Note).