Month: April 2008

Kaiba and creature

At last something really different in the new season! In an anime with a style somewhat reminiscent of the late Osamu Tezuka, a young man wakes in a totally strange-looking world. He has a large circular hole through his chest, and is wearing a medallion, and he can’t remember anything. In this world, memories can be separated from human bodies, and stored in pyramidal memory chips. They can also be traded and stolen. After some bewildering adventures in which he is variously helped and attacked, the main character, Kaiba, escapes in an aircraft.

This looks so different from the usual anime style that it’s fascinating to watch. I’ll follow this for a while to see how it turns out.

Punie wrestling with mascot

This parody of magical-girl anime is more like magical-princess anime on crack, as sweet-looking Magical Princess Punie from the Magic Kingdom joins a Japanese school for a year on Earth. She has to do this to prove herself worthy of becoming Queen. Punie, in a flashback to how she acquired her mascot, looks more like a brutal and evil witch.

A schoolgirl gang, a frightening collection of burly and well-armed freaks, take an instant dislike to Punie, but when they try to sort her out, she invokes her magic, with the call of “Magical Tokarev, kill them all”, and unleashes a swarm of fighting vegetables. In a later sequence, Punie, with her magic temporarily blocked, demonstrates wrestling skills which are equally dangerous.

It’s almost a shame to tell you all this, as if you watched it as I did with only the vaguest idea what to expect, you might almost fall out of your chair in surprise.

So, is it worth watching? Certainly the first pair of mini-episodes are a lot of fun, and I’ll probably follow it a bit longer to see how it develops.

Scene from Itazura no Kiss

Itazura na Kiss – traditional sort of school romance comedy where a girl from class “F”, the least able, has been for two years nursing a crush on Irie, a handsome boy from class “A”, and finally attempts to confess her love, only to find that he’s arrogant and hates stupid girls. Her father’s new house falls down, leaving them homeless. They are offered a place to stay by her father’s old buddy Irie who is none other than the father of Genius Boy Irie. She moves in, and finds that the boy isn’t at all friendly and even his rude kid brother is much smarter than her. Perhaps a bit early to say, but this looks like it could be a lot of fun.

Macross Frontier – same old tosh, but at least it’s superbly produced tosh.

Allison and Lillia – The politics look interesting, but it lost me when two of the main characters prang a motorcycle and sidecar combo, wrecking it, and then get up and run off to the next scene, and then “borrow” a light aircraft which just happens to be left in a hangar, unattended, fuelled up and with the keys in it.

xxxHOLiC Kei – a straight continuation of the previous and now licensed season of CLAMP’s comedy supernatural show. Lead character has a battle of obligations with his friend, and involving a vengeful spider. Looks good, worth watching.