Also known as reviews of random stuff, by me, for me.
The Dark Knight: Wow. I thought Batman Begins was good, but Iron Man was more enjoyable. But TDK has really raised the bar for comic-based movies yet another notch. What an absolutely amazing movie, and there really isn’t much left to be said about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker. Oscar-worthy, and made the movie worth every moment.
Got into watching anime again. And as I usually do in these cases, have been binge-watching.
Gundam 00: Heard enough good things about it to watch it even though season 2 isn’t out yet (and I really don’t like watching incomplete series). I’m really not a big Gundam fan (08th MS Team aside), but it really did turn out to be excellent. Even if Setsuna F. Seiei is a bit… wonky. Enjoyed it enough to decide giving other Gundams a try…
Gundam SEED, Gundam SEED Destiny, OVAs, etc: The first series wasn’t half bad. The character designs look kind of weird – almost all the male characters look just slightly too short – and the reuse of footage can be pretty jarring (though probably wouldn’t be as big of an issue if not watching the entirety of the series at once), but overall it was fairly decent, with cool mecha (Freedom/Justice Gundams especially) and an enjoyable, if standard issue, storyline. Destiny, on the other hand, just felt like a poor extension. Shin is such a terrible character that I really couldn’t care that the entire series shifted the focus back onto the old cast halfway through. Another thing about Gundam series… do they have someone whose job it is to come up with all those semi-intelligible abbreviations which say “GUNDAM”?
5 Centimeters Per Second: One word – incredible. The visuals, especially when viewed at 1080P, is simply astounding, and the story is an amazing telling of what is at its core a very simple theme. I enjoyed this so much that I was compelled to write a review for it at MyAnimeList.
The Place Promised in Our Early Days: I watched this, also in 1080P, after finishing 5 Centimeters and falling in love with it and deciding to check out the other works of Makoto Shinkai. I really wish I had watched it in the reverse order, because then I probably would’ve appreciated this more. It’s certainly a good movie, and I enjoyed it, but it just can’t compare to 5cm. Whether it’s the imagery, or the characters, or the story, it seems that the newer work does everything just that bit better.
Welcome to the N.H.K!: Certainly among the most unique of anime/manga in terms of subject matter, this one really does hit pretty close to home. I’m still not sure if I would consider this series to be funny, good, or depressing, but it’s definitely interesting in an almost morbid way.
Ichigo 100%: Read the manga first. Story is classic textbook harem shounen, but I did like it nevertheless (because I almost always do -_-), and kind of surprised myself on which heroine I ended up liking.
ef – a tale of memories: Another anime based on a VN, it was very pleasant and touching despite the odd format of telling two concurrent and mostly-unrelated stories simultaneously.
xxxHOLiC: Really not sure what to think of this. It’s kind of repetitive, but funny; the story/setting is interesting, but nothing really ever happens. Kind of just a meh.
Kara no Kyoukai: It’s based on a story by Type-Moon (before they were Type-Moon). It’s voiced by Maaya Sakamoto. It’s got music by Yuki Kajiura. How can I not love this? Eagerly awaiting each new movie. The songs by Kalafina are also awesome.
Sekirei: It’s like the story of Fate/stay night, but expanded for more fan service. I’m not even sure what made me start watching this, but despite that fact that I can in no way say it’s a great anime, it’s still keeping my attention… enough that I read all the available chapters of the manga as well.
To-LOVE-Ru: Another fan-service harem show, but that the main protagonist actually has someone he likes from the beginning makes it an improvement, I suppose. Cute characters, even if episode 18 and it’s near-Bestiality subject matter is almost disturbing.