Washii Ponderings

‘Paranoia Agent’ Eps 1-6 (ANFO Wiki)

I don’t think think I’d ever been beyond the third episode before. It gets a lot more messed up than I thought. And with episode 6 being relegated to a video game-like experience…yeesh.

Well, 7 more episodes to go.

Burn Up Scramble and Real Bout High School will be the next two series. Not sure which to watch first, however. Maybe respectively.

So, I figure I might detail what I’m currently watching on my laptop instead of basically totally boring daytime-America TV. When starting a new series, I’ll detail it with AnimeNFO (ANFO) and Wikipedia (Wiki) links, when possible.

Mostly in order:

First season of ‘Mahou Sensei Negima’ ANFO Wiki
This ended in a rather…I don’t know, quick way. It seems like they tried to push airtime for all of the students in Negi’s class, whilst partially developing the story. The last few episodes seem like a rushed way to end the season. On the whole, though, it was pretty good.

First three episodes of ‘Flag’ ANFO Wiki
Hmm…I’m looking forward to a lot more of Flag. I need to grab the remaining episodes. The idea of viewing most of the anime through a camera’s lense was inspired.

First season of ‘Licensed by Royalty’/'L/R’ ANFO Wiki
Ahh, semi Brit-inspired anime. Was pretty good, though slightly tedious.

First season of ‘Spice and Wolf’ ANFO Wiki
Spice and Wolf? Oh frick yeah, awesome. I’m really looking forward to watching more. Plus, the Op and Ed was great. Thinking about them gives me an idea I might like to try on here…But, beyond that, the entire story was great. I just wish the last three episodes weren’t the entire wrap-up for a 13 episode series. I think this could have been much better if extended to a full 26-ep season. Either way, I’ll wait to see if a second season comes out. I can hardly wait for more Horo!

All of the ‘Please Save My Earth’ OAV ANFO Wiki
Well…this is old (1993!), but that age doesn’t hurt it. I know a person or two that would just gag at the drawing style, but I didn’t mind it and the story more than makes up for its supposed lack of glitz, compared to today’s styles. This was a great example of short-season storytelling (6 ~25 minute episodes without ending credits).

Addendum: Here is the list of anime I plan to watch next. I’m not yet sure if I’ll do my best to one-shot each one or if I’ll maintain a rotation of two or three shows at once.
The ANFO and Wiki links will go up on daily posts as I start watching the shows.

Up next :
Burn Up Scramble
Paranoia Agent
Real Bout High School
Rozen Maiden
Rozen Maiden ~Traumend~ (unfortunately, I don’t have the next group of shows after this season
Sister Princess
Sister Princess RePure

And, no, for many of you out there, that is not referring to editorials. It refers to opening and ending music to anime (in this case).

I’ve been belittled by some/a friend(s) for religiously watching the OpEds for some series (just the op, just the ed, or both). I’d like to know what others think.

Personally, if the songs are good (the ops for “Spice and Wolf,” “Shakugan no Shana” and “Rozen Maiden” especially), then I’d like to experience them over-and-over (especially with the penchant of most fansub groups to properly karaoke them (with 2 or 3 seperate lines)! I’ve always hated how Official releases have to have one or the other at once..but I suppose that may just be a limitation of the DVD subtitling).

The friend(s) likes to belittle me for ‘wasting time’ on watching what ends up being a full 5-7 minutes wasted, max. Well, whoopee, I can already basically fit THREE episodes into an hour, while also watching most of the OpEds on each episode. Sometimes this will also include waiting for the ‘Grand Sponsor’ banners to flip by, or sometimes I’ll skip them.

What do others say? I like music. And the choices for a lot of anime in the past couple of years (that I’ve seen, anyway) have been well above-par. Sure, there are some clunkers. In my experience, most of these are on the eds for quite a few shows, which is sad because it turns people away from seeing the credits given to those that helped create what may be a totally awesome show.

So? Do you like to watch most OpEds, or do you generally completely skip them? The question may be hard to answer for those watching DVDs on an actual DVD player, since skipping in those cases can be onerous. Because of that, answering with a bias towards fansubbed releases, watching on a computer, may be helpful.