Fridays are always good days for me since I only have one class, JAPN101. Therefore, Fridays are usually my designated anime watching days (though only in name since I pretty much watch everyday). Anyways, today I ended up watching episode 1 of Prism Ark, episode 6 of Myself; Yourself, episode 5 of Shugo Chara! and episode 6 of CLANNAD. So today, I will talk a little bit about these anime and a few more (since I am watching literally a baker’s dozen different series right now).
I wasn’t very impressed by Prism Ark’s first episode but I will reserve my judgment until I have watched more. So instead, I will talk about Myself; Yourself. Honestly, the first 3 episodes were rather average and nothing really stood out. But starting with episode 4, things got better. If you know me well enough (AKA making fun of one my interests), you can probably guess why. That’s also why I liked episode 6 a lot. In short it was my dream in animated form. You can watch episode 4 below though the aspect ratio for this video as well as the proceeding videos is messed up since it was changed from 16:9 to 4:3.
Second is Shugo Chara!, an interesting mahou shoujo (magical girl) anime. It centers around Hinamori Amu, a girl who acts “cool and spicy” in school even though she really isn’t like that. She wants to act like a normal girl but she gave the wrong impression when she transferred in. She wishes that she could express her “would-be self” and she awakens to find 3 eggs. She finds out that the eggs contain Shugo Chara that let her change personalities and transform. This is by far the girliest thing I am watching this season but that doesn’t bother me. It’s too hilarious and cute. Besides, it was originally created by Peach-Pit, the female duo who created Rozen Maiden. Anyways, enjoy the first episode below.
Next up is Bamboo Blade. This is the entertaining story about a kendo club. The sensei in charge of the club has made a bet with his senpai to a match between their female members. However, Kojirou-sensei only has 1 student who still comes to practice so he makes a mad dash to recruit new members and train them so he can win a year’s supply of free sushi from his senpai’s father’s restaurant. My favorite character is Tamaki, the short, purple-haired girl. In one sentence, Tama-chan has the looks of Miyazaki Nodoka with the skills and power Sakarazaki Setsuna (both from Negima!) and the sense of justice of a Sentai Ranger. She’s quiet and reserved and has many cute points. Episode one is posted below for your entertainment.
Last of all is my favorite anime of the season, CLANNAD. With every episode, CLANNAD just keeps on getting better and better, both from a comedy perspective and a drama perspective. It looks like it will be a little more cheerful than Kanon or AIR. Having said that, I will still probably break down in tears a few times like I did with Kanon and AIR. I pretty much stopped watching anime for several days because they made me too depressed. If you haven’t already watched it you can enjoy the first episode below:
Also, I can’t wait until the CLANNAD Game Translation is complete. The translation team just announced today that they are 86% done. They have all the girls’ routes done so hopefully they will be completely done by the end of January 2008.
