Excel Saga

Excel Saga is... well... weird. It doesn't make much sense, and you really shouldn't expect it to- but that's what makes it so much fun.

The "plot" if you can call it that - is a standard world domination one. But it's really just an excuse to hang the jokes on. Excel Saga kind of reminds me of FLCL., - though the artwork isn't quite as good.

The artwork is so/so, the English version is ok- not terrific, but definitely passable. Even if you watch it in English, though it's best to leave the translations on as there are some jokes that just don't make the dubbed version. I've watched most of the series in English, but I'm going to back and watch the Japanese, too.

Because Excel Saga satires mostly Japanese culture (with a little western stuff thrown in, you'll love their visit to America) some of the content leaves me wondering what the hell is going on. Even in these cases, though, I'm laughing my ass off.

OK, the series ran a *little* too long, but I can live with it.

You know, I really wanted to write about this one, but find I just don't have a lot to say (might be because I am tired). Just go watch it!

Off topic: the Anime club next door

I found out that there's an Anime club that meets every Friday right next door (from the building where I work.)

I knew the University had an Anime club, but I also learned that everyone is invited. And, of course, that it's RIGHT NEXT DOOR.

How could I miss that?

Gunslinger Girl

13 eps
TV Series
Action/Drama

Hi there everyone this is my first post on this blog. It's nice to meet you all...my guess is that I'm talking to about 2 people but I like to introduce myself anyway. I'm one of those formal kinda guys. Anyway. I watch anime almost constantly so you're either going to get a lot of posts from me or I'm going to watch so many that I just don't feel like writing them all up and then I quit all together. I have adult ADHD...what can I say...it seeps into everything I do...case in point...there's a review in here somewhere!

Gunslinger Girl is about a semi-secret government agency in Italy that does some pretty despicable but cool as shit stuff. They keep an eye out for mortally wounded female girls between a certain age. They rebuild their entire bodies with artificial muscles and organs. They brainwash them and then they turn them in to highly trained assassins....and it works like a charm :)

The anime itself is really centered more around how each of the individual girls handle being cyborgs than anything else. It's got plenty of action but there's also a fair amount of talking and hanging out in the dorms as the girls interact with each other and their handlers. Parts of the show brought a tear to my eye and others got my heart pumping with excitement. Over all I would say the the show is a little scattered as it suffers from the feeling of being rushed and ultimately going nowhere just like most 13 episode series. Every episode sans a couple focuses on a different cyborg and there is no coherent plot arch. After the last episode nothing is resolved but since no real questions were asked you don't feel like any go unanswered...how convenient :) Anyway...it's a short series and there's lots of action and the characters are well written so I would give it a general thumbs up as long as you realize that you'll definitely be left wanting more by the end credits.

Tommy

Death Note

This anime keeps getting better and better. It's probably a good thing that this is currently running sot I have to wait for new episodes, because I would probably kill a few days completely glued to the screen otherwise. You can tell Death Note has a good following: new episodes are translated and made available very quickly.

The themes of humans playing god appeal to me, and the detective stuff is nice. The animation is beautiful and dark. Every episode ends with me thinking "where can they possibly go with this?" Death Note is set to run 37 episodes.

I have not checked out the manga yet, but plan to. English translated versions are already out- though not the entire series yet.