Anime in Review

I haven't reviewed any anime in a long while but that doesn't mean I haven't watched any. Oh, I've watched quite a lot. When I'm not working, I'm watching anime or watching football. And sometimes I read and write and record stuff.

Currently, I'm watching season four of InuYasha because it's been a long time since I've watched the series and I'm certain I skipped over a few episodes here and there. The first part of InuYasha: Final Act is out and I'm certainly going to get that when I reach the end of season seven.

But this is a list of what I've watched since I last blogged about anime:

Light Yagami

DeathNote - A co-worker sort of referred this series to me. It's a very dark series and the main character is a boy named Light Yagami who discovers a strange book called a DeathNote. The DeathNote is a book that can kill people. All that you need to do is write down the person's name while you have their face firmly envisioned in your head and within forty seconds they will die. Light (after a very, very brief moral conflict of whether or not he should use this book) uses this to cleanse the world of crime and to essentially become god of the new world. Light is often befriended (more or less) by a shinigami (or: god of death) named Ryuk and it is to Ryuk the DeathNote actually belongs but once a human touches a DeathNote they essentially own the book until their death or until they give up possession of the book. Ryuk simply hangs around Light until he can get possession of the DeathNote back.

Along the way Light and Ryuk encounter a masterful sleuth called L and it is L who begins to suspect that these criminals who are dropping like flies are not just dying from natural causes: they are being murdered.

It is an intense game of cat-and-mouse between L and Light that drives this series and that is why the second half of the series sort of loses its luster. The new characters introduced at the end of the series don't quite have the same presence as L and that is possibly the fundamental flaw in the series.

Good overall... but it should have had more L.

Outlaw Star - It's a show in the vein of Cowboy Bebop but not quite as good. It shares a few of the same voice actors like Wendee Lee, though. I believe she even directed the series. The show follows around Gene Starwind and his young friend Jim Hawking sort of travel through space on the search for something called the Galactic Leyline. Along the way they meet a strange tiger-girl, a semi-cyborg girl, and a tough-as-nails samurai girl. There are a few filler episodes and that's kind of a disappointment because the series is only 26 episodes. But it is a very strong show anyway. Could have been stronger, though.

Casshern Sins - This show was featured on the Adult Swim revamped Toonami but I didn't watch it on there because I normally have to be at work early on Sundays and staying up late on Saturday nights is not ideal for me. I did not know this show was a reboot of an earlier show called Casshan. The show was also adapted into a four part OVA series called Robot Hunter Casshern in the early '90s. This show is a lot different from what I've read about those shows so it's tough to call it a decent adaptation because it is such a different version. But I really liked the show. It is a stark show and it may not be so original considering that it is a reboot. We've all certainly seen post-apocalyptic shows about plagues and robots.

But I really liked this show. It was tough to tell where it was going at times and there are characters that I wish that could have stuck around a bit more. The angel of ruin was certainly a hoot and I'm disappointed she only made it into one episode.

Claymore - Maybe not the most clear and precise review given here, but all I can say is that it is AWESOME!!! If you like monster shows then this is the show for you. The show follows around a half-human half-Yoma woman named Clare as she battles these creatures called Yoma and deals with being shunned normal humans. There are fight scenes galore, scenes with smoking hot women duking it out with monsters, and a great story line.  If not for the abrupt ending, this show would rank among my top three favorites. As it is, it's in my top seven. Definitely in the Blog House Catalog of Greatness.