Haruhi-Chan 3 Limited Edition: Otaku Yuki Nagato Petit Nendoroid Review.

I’ve ordered the third volume of “The Melancholy of Haruhi-Chan Suzumiya”, the parody/comedic version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. The limited edition came with a short “The History of Itsuki Koizumi“, and what interests us, a petit nendoroid of Yuki Nagato as an otaku. This is especially interesting to me, as while I don’t speak Japanese, I certainly can’t read it!

BTW, I also got a copy of Tony Taka‘s “Shining World” artbook, so that’s what Yuki is standing on sometimes :)

Yuki, accoutered in her otaku regalia

Damages (TV show). Not so Cliched.

This is about the TV show Damages. The one that has Glenn Close in it.

Anyway, this will be mostly about the first season, because the second season is currently airing here and we’re only at the third episode, I think.

Ok, when I originally saw the show, I thought to myself, “Good show, but cliched.” I think that overall, it’s both true and misses the point.
It’s basically a thriller movie, or a really well written thriller book. It has flashback, or future-flash glimpses. Where you get to see several moments of what happens, and then the main story is “6 months ago”. Each episode you get to see another several moments of the “now” while the “past” keeps progressing, until at some point they meet.

Politics, subterfuge, lies, relations. It’s a really tight show, with really great acting by most players involved. Shout-outs to Glenn Close, Rose Byrne, and really, most of all, to Zeljko Ivanek in his role of Ray Fiske. BTW, we were watching this while watching daily Becker reruns, and it was quite a shock to realize Ted Danson is so old, and over-tanned :D

So. Here is why to say Damages is cliched misses the point: It is cliched if you look at it as a suspense novel, or even a suspense book. But see, when you switch your medium, and you make something work? That takes skill, that makes it no longer cliched, in that medium.
Each episode of Damages is like a really good part of a movie, and the series as a whole is just really good. And you know, it reminds me of a discussion I’ve had with my mother regarding season 1 of Prisonbreak before, I’ll need to get back to it.

This gets a 9 out of 10 for superb acting and plot-construction. Watch it, y’all.

Nendoroid Review: Yoko Littner/Rittona

This will be a review, of sorts, of my first anime/manga figure that is not a trading figure (Ganshapon). This will also be my first Nendoroid figure review, naturally. Yoko Littner(or “Rittona”) from Gurren Lagann, which I covered here last post.

Yoko's box

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann; Definitive Shonen

Spoilers ahead.

Gurren Lagann, which is actually called “Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann”, is an embodiment of the shonen genre, in anime form.

Shonen series are series aimed at boys, many of them are combat/adventure heavy, series such as Bleach and Naruto. The protagonists are usually teens, who overcome their enemies, and like in Poke’Mon‘s 5th episode (I have one heck of a memory, I know), the protagonist often loses, and then through sheer guts and determination (bloody-cussedness) trains or just comes back and wins.

In Naruto Shippuuden, there’s a bit of a ridiculous moment where Team Guy faces their clones, they get kicked, and then win just because they decide to be stronger than they were yesterday… rather than just switch who they’re fighting or try new techniques. It was a serious “WTF?!” moment to me.

In Gurren Lagann, there are actually three phases to the series. It begins with the Kamina and Simon’s home community underground, and then quickly goes on war. They wage a war on the beast-men and their mecha who keep them down (both underground and stopping them from reproducing). They fight and fight and fight, and after episode 8 there’s a slight change in the atmosphere, though the fights continue.

Tenjho Tenge Review

First “Things I Like” post, a bit late, but it’s going up. And in case it’s not obvious, all such posts may have some spoilers.

I’ve watched the anime of Tenjou Tenge a couple years back, and am actually a bit surprised seeing it’s from 2004 and some comments, since I remember the art as being generally sub-par to what I consider the modern standard. Enough that I’m going to grab some episodes and re-watch them to see what’s up.

Anyway. I began watching the anime, saw cool cool fights, cool characters, and all was well and good. We then got to a flashback sequence, which lasts 6 episodes. I was all up for it in the beginning, but at some point I was going, “Hey, this is a limited run series, what’s up?”

Things I Like

I’ll begin cross-posting posts, see the “About” page, when it goes up after this.

So, this month’s “Blog every day” theme is to post about things you like. I’m going to do something different, and every couple of days, for as long as I feel like it, post about something I like. Many, especially initially, will be opinions on anime I’ve watched. There’ll be movies, books, games, serieses, you know it goes, right? :) I will try not to go into in-depth reviews/discussions, but I might. I am unlikely to cover what the series is about, cause that’ll be provided by a link to IMDB/Wikipedia/Amazon, etc. and rather share my observations and thoughts. Some posts might just be two lines, who knows? :) And I’m doing better, thanks for asking! Note, cross-posting from elsewhere, but it will allow me to at least link people here.