Been a stranger, Anime in progress
Jul. 27th, 2011 09:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foxinthestarsI've been bad and not posted for a week...
Since it's what I can think of to talk about, I'm still watching anime after finishing Haibane Renmei. I'm not sure my recent tendency to bolt them is such a good thing, though, so I'm trying to keep it to one episode per day of not more than two series and am so far succeeding (although I haven't yet tried with a series I found extremely compelling...). I'll have better reviews when I finish them, but hey, it's something to talk about...
As it turns out, both of the series I'm watching right now were adapted from novels for NHK! Whether you could call these ones fantasy novels is a little shakier, and, well, don't get too excited, neither one of them is exactly The Twelve Kingdoms.
The first one is Allison & Lillia (I'm watching fansubs, but it's been licensed since I got them), which turns out to have been based on novels by the author of Kino no Tabi. I have some mixed feelings on it so far; there's a lot to love in a fun happy adventure story heavily involving biplanes, but it doesn't always work so well on down-to-earth believability---I almost wish I'd started a tally from the beginning of how many gods are in this machine. Having just now found out it's the same author, I'm tempted to peg something in common with Kino no Tabi that's hard to describe, a nigh-surreal simplicity that you're not supposed to look at the mundane functionings behind, but Kino's milieu-driven and morally ambiguous qualities were uniquely suited to support it, and it doesn't work nearly as well for A&L.
The other one is Psychic Detective Yakumo (still in fansubs---I had trouble getting the FFFpeeps files to play correctly, tho, and had to go back for the AnimeOne version, so you may want to DL samples to test before you just grab the batch). I wanted to see this one because I had caught it raw through the KeyholeTV gadget and it looked interesting although I understood very very little. Not familiar with the novelist, but the animation studio is Bee Train, whom I previously associated with NOIR (and the villains are even introduced through nonsensical cameos at the ends of early episodes, although we get more on them much sooner this time); it's apparently been adapted into a TV Drama and two Manga, too (looking... Mangafox has one of them). It's kind of a paranormal film noir thing, with a hero whose jerkishness conceals his inner torment, etc. etc.; not exactly a fresh new concept, but it grabs you pretty well with what it's got, and I'm enjoying it.
My Amazon order did arrive in good time, too. I didn't realize the American release of A Bride's Story was hardcover until I got it; with art like that it really seems to fit, tho. The Gabor Mate book ("When the Body Says No") is, like, rearranging my head in good ways. Love and Rockets is kind of slow going for me, but I can't look at it without the "This guy is GOD!" reaction to Jaime Hernandez's art, so I am enjoying it. ^_^
Since it's what I can think of to talk about, I'm still watching anime after finishing Haibane Renmei. I'm not sure my recent tendency to bolt them is such a good thing, though, so I'm trying to keep it to one episode per day of not more than two series and am so far succeeding (although I haven't yet tried with a series I found extremely compelling...). I'll have better reviews when I finish them, but hey, it's something to talk about...
As it turns out, both of the series I'm watching right now were adapted from novels for NHK! Whether you could call these ones fantasy novels is a little shakier, and, well, don't get too excited, neither one of them is exactly The Twelve Kingdoms.
The first one is Allison & Lillia (I'm watching fansubs, but it's been licensed since I got them), which turns out to have been based on novels by the author of Kino no Tabi. I have some mixed feelings on it so far; there's a lot to love in a fun happy adventure story heavily involving biplanes, but it doesn't always work so well on down-to-earth believability---I almost wish I'd started a tally from the beginning of how many gods are in this machine. Having just now found out it's the same author, I'm tempted to peg something in common with Kino no Tabi that's hard to describe, a nigh-surreal simplicity that you're not supposed to look at the mundane functionings behind, but Kino's milieu-driven and morally ambiguous qualities were uniquely suited to support it, and it doesn't work nearly as well for A&L.
The other one is Psychic Detective Yakumo (still in fansubs---I had trouble getting the FFFpeeps files to play correctly, tho, and had to go back for the AnimeOne version, so you may want to DL samples to test before you just grab the batch). I wanted to see this one because I had caught it raw through the KeyholeTV gadget and it looked interesting although I understood very very little. Not familiar with the novelist, but the animation studio is Bee Train, whom I previously associated with NOIR (and the villains are even introduced through nonsensical cameos at the ends of early episodes, although we get more on them much sooner this time); it's apparently been adapted into a TV Drama and two Manga, too (looking... Mangafox has one of them). It's kind of a paranormal film noir thing, with a hero whose jerkishness conceals his inner torment, etc. etc.; not exactly a fresh new concept, but it grabs you pretty well with what it's got, and I'm enjoying it.
My Amazon order did arrive in good time, too. I didn't realize the American release of A Bride's Story was hardcover until I got it; with art like that it really seems to fit, tho. The Gabor Mate book ("When the Body Says No") is, like, rearranging my head in good ways. Love and Rockets is kind of slow going for me, but I can't look at it without the "This guy is GOD!" reaction to Jaime Hernandez's art, so I am enjoying it. ^_^
