happy new year

[piranha]

i don't feel very serious about this new year thing at all.

it's probably an omen that the old year ended (in this location) exactly as the last episode of the "soul society" arc of bleach ended. i've thoroughly enjoyed it, more so than i even expected at the beginning of this anime.

and my first accomplishment for the year is burning a CD with more episodes of monster since the paramour has taken to watching that. the advantage of watching so much anime is that i can cherry-pick the really good stuff for the paramour.

i usually make no new year's resolutions, but here's one i'll be able to keep without problems: i'll watch more anime and read more manga. clearly my second childhood is in full swing, and why screw with a winning streak...

i hope that for all you people who're productive members of society instead, this year will bring good things and a minimum of grief. me, i'll just try to keep my head above water while dog-paddling.

Comments

I'm still trying to get through Ghost in the Shell:Stand Alone Complex in japanese.

[huashan.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked Bleach. I'm looking forward to watching it in japanese and without months long gaps without new material sometime.

I find Death Note less compelling, and I'm pretty sure I'd punch the main character in the nose if I ever met him. I've heard the manga is a lot better, but it's unlikely I'll bother to find out.

bleach

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

bleach and death note are really on a different level (i'm just talking about death note's first season) -- the latter is much deeper psychologically, whether or not one likes yagami light. also, the art, OMG so good. obata takeshi is a god.

bleach on the other hand is entertaining fluff -- yeah, it contains serious subject matter (saving the world, yadda yadda), but it never once made me think. it's pretty typical shounen fare, just well done shounen fare -- action. adventure, fighting, proving oneself, protecting people. oh, and fighting. did i mention the fighting? the plot twists are great fun, there were a couple i totally didn't see coming. there is filler (two long arcs of it), but as far as filler goes it isn't even that horrid; it's just not as good as the main story.

actually the fighing is well done. it's usually a thing that makes me yawn in shounen because it goes on too long and is so much the same, but bleach manages to not bore me stiff with it. it suffers a bit from the "bigger and better" progression with which one has to fight more and more powerful opponents, and i would prefer if that all got toned down a bit, but the effects are many and different, and so one doesn't get as quickly bored by them. and at least for ichigo they actually show him working hard to "level up", and the way some of that is done is inventive (it's actually hard to show practice because the reality of it so easily gets boring).

the characters are fun. there isn't much development, but they all start out being fairly unique. and the girls are not useless whimpering idiots. fan service is very mild. i mostly watched it for the characters, a lot of whom are interesting -- there is enough backstory for most to give them believable motivation. and the lack of detail in their psyches means i can do that in my head.

the japanese cast is very good. i am constantly amazed at the depth of the voice acting pool; bleach doesn't have a lot of my favourite seiyuu in major roles, but it's still excellent.

Re: bleach

[huashan.livejournal.com]

I'd say that is a fair assessment of both. I do find some of the ideas of the afterlife, souls, death interesting in both though.

Re: bleach

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

oh, you have already seen it?

i agree, the basic setup about souls and what happens to them after death are interesting in bleach as well; just that nobody really does anything with that. and man, i wouldn't want that to be real -- soul society is horribly depressing, both in and out of seireitei; nevermind hueco mundo. i found that actually to be a major disconnect -- when performing soul burials rukia et al always talk to the souls about how soul society isn't scary and how they'll be better off there than wandering around on earth -- which isn't supposed to be a lie, but the reality of how soul society is shown is very much bleaker than that reassurance. if there are any good parts to it, i didn't see them. seireitei is better off, but it still feels incredibly sterile and cold to me.

i guess that's where bleach falls down seriously -- the worldbuilding.

Re: bleach

[huashan.livejournal.com]

I've seen most of Bleach...up to the point where Ichigo is about to get the final form of his sword.

It really is depressing. Ugh.