Seriously? I'm watching Anime?
Since giving up cable tv and going with other solutions, like Netflix, I’ve been enjoying watching TV more, while watching less. I spend little time just watching what’s on and more time watching what interests me.
Of late, I’ve been experimenting with content from foreign sources, like Europe and Asia. In this mix of this, I’ve ended up watching 4 short Anime series with a max of 26 episodes.
Now, there’s a lot I don’t like about Anime (at least the Anime I’ve seen previously). One, I noticed there tends to be a lot of gore or horrible looking creatures - they seem to go hand-in-hand. I’m not a big fan of that. Two, they repeat themselves a lot. I remember watching a movie called “The Guyver” or something like that. It seemed like every sentence the phrase “The Gyver” would be there - sometimes more than once! Both of those are still true in these 4 series that I’ve recently watched.
However, these shows (mostly) were entertaining anyway. For the most part, I liked the characters and the overall story lines.
I’ve most recently completed the series “Claymore”, about a group of women warriors who were created to battle evil monsters (remember my two peeves? gore and monsters). Despite its problems, I enjoyed the main character “Clair”. I find that she had enough character growth to keep me interested in the series.
Best Student Council didn’t have blood and gore, but, like the title suggests it was centered in a girls school and focused mainly on a new student… and her puppet. Probably one of the strangest shows I’ve ever seen. The first episode of this show was apparently a freebee on iTunes at some point. I downloaded it but never watched. One day, trying to clear out my library of junk, I decided to watch this thing before dumping it. What a mistake THAT was! It hooked me with its odd humor and then I was stuck watching the series…
Last Exile was one of those stories that’s set in the far future with high tech but much of the people live poorly with low tech. It focuses on two characters and their van ship (a 2-person transport) and their roles as people who deliver messages. I found after you get through the first few episodes, the show was quite entertaining and interesting.
Another show I watched was Tokko. A similar situation as Claymore - women with big swords killing a bunch of monsters. While it has its moments, I didn’t like it that much.
So my experience with the these short shows is not unusual for me: enjoyed the experience but ultimately disappointed by then end. Endings for me are usually disappointing - it’s hard to write an ending that satisfies me, and if I enjoyed the show, I’m disappointed that there IS an end. So these short series are great - over relatively quickly, but I’m often sad that they’re over.