It has definitely been years since I first saw the Cowboy Bebop film, which was my exposure to the franchise. Even without much knowledge about the series before it, I still was extremely entertained by the film and actually loved it! Even still it manages to be in my top 25 anime films of all time, but now that I have completely watched the series I guess its time for a rewatch because I would imagine that this time around I would have a different perspective about it all.
I think with any form of media you can always tell when something seems to have a bit effort put into it and Cowboy Bebop just seems to have a passion behind it that you can see as you watch it. It is a classic in the anime world that at least must be watched once and for myself, it may have taken awhile, but I did finally take the time to watch it eventually. For those who do not know, the story takes place in the future and essentially, there is a cast of characters who together either help or are bounty hunters. Besides having a pretty awesome story, it really is the characters that seal the deal. They are incredibly charismatic and all quite hilarious, Ed continues to be my favourite character since I have seen the movie and I don’t doubt that will ever change.
When it comes to the music, this series has no doubt one of the best soundtracks of all time and it works so perfectly with every scene. The opening with the song “Tank!” still stands as one of my favoruite opening from any series. As for the animation, for something made in 1998, it is incredible. It looks better than some of the animes being released today. So if you are one of those people who “hate old looking stuff” then don’t threat, Cowboy Bebop doesn’t fit with this idea.
Even with all this praise, on thing that got me sort of disappointed with was how despite really liking each episode, I never really got into the whole show. I was always hoping for that one little switch to go off in my mind where the series would become too good to put down. It took a little too long for me to watch this series and I got caught up with a lot of other animes, so I really should have just forced myself to marathon it all and my overall impression would probably end up better. To conclude, I only have good things to say really about this series despite the whole “I never really got into thing”, so I really think that this is a series that needs to be watched at one point or another and there is no better time than now!
The sixth round is out! To remind you of the rules you simply need to look at the number beside the image and if you know what film or series it comes from answer in the comment section below. If you know all the answers or most, try to restrain yourself and only answer a few for now enabling some others to guess. Anyway, Good Luck!
1. Dog of Flanders – Movie (midorij)
Hint: The English word for the Japanese word “inu” is in the title
2. First Squad: The Moment of Truth (Kitsune)
3. ToraDora! (kelakagandy)
4.
Hint: A series released in Spring 2007
5. Kamichu (Botch)
6.
Hint: Did a gust just go by? I can’t remember anything…
I have seen way too many blogs as of late that have been hating on the upcoming anime Iron Man and so I decided to cut it some slack and think about the positive of it all. With that said, I have put myself in a mind set that I will be the unofficial supporter until I can judge it for myself.
really think that Iron Man can be very interesting depending on how they approach the storyline. If we take a look at the Hollywood movie, I do not think it is too hard to admit that it was quite awesome. Of course, it probably was mostly because of Robert Downey Jr, but we can’t disregard the fact that the mix between Marvel and Madhouse could create a character that is just as charismatic. If we just focus on Marvel’s work, their movies are never beautifully scripted, but they have always ensured an entertaining time. As for Madhouse, they have even dealt with this type of genre and the characters in them. Take a look at Casshern for an example…Similarish premises and Casshern turned out to be a pretty good series. By working with Madhouse, it should in theory result with:
-An entertaining show
-Good Animation
-Great Action Scenes
-Possibility of charming characters
In the trailer alone we can see 2 out of the 4 possible reasons to how this could be an awesome show so if people were to give it a chance, maybe it will fit all the criteria I hope it will. With that, until I actually see and judge the series for myself, I will be supporting it and encouraging more people to give it a chance. I hope I have created some sort of change of heart with a few. I do not expect the appeal of Iron Man to be for everyone because not everyone even likes Marvel at any extent, but if you like action series then I would imagine you should look no further for your action fix with the spring lineup!
As you can probably tell, I recently watched Pale Cocoon and although in terms of the story I did not think it was the best thing out there, I do appreciate the art!
When I first heard about this series, I was interested in watching it, but just sort of forgot about it when it aired. Luckily yesterday I decided to finally give it a proper chance and became instantly engrossed. It took a serious topic and made it into an 11 episode series and made it something entertaining to watch. That in itself is very difficult to accomplish, but Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 managed to pull on all the right heart strings and came out with a series that was a near masterpiece.
It tells the story of if Tokyo were to be hit by an 8.0 earthquake and focuses mostly on young girl named Mirai and her younger brother Yuuki. Before the event happened, Mirai was a very selfish and cellphone obsessed girl who would look out for nobody but herself, but when the earthquake happens and she is left to take care of her brother alone to get home, so she has to find somehow a place in herself where she can soften up to others to help her get through it all.
I think this is more of a show that holds a greater impact in Japan, in the sense that when you see “monumental” places like Tokyo Tower and the bridge they were talking about throughout and the name escapes me completely collapse before your eyes. I would at least think that makes a bigger impact because I heard that for example, with the film 2012, people in the US actually liked it and it was hard for them to watch certain scenes like mentioned before, but I guess that still is not the best comparison. Well my point was that despite that, I still felt like this series hit home and I managed to catch myself crying through many scenes. It had some very good character development throughout and despite what say may say with it being boring in parts, I was very interested throughout. The production values were obviously very high as the animation was definitely top notch. Admittedly, the weakest part of the series was probably in the middle, but after episode 6-7, the rest of the series was still pretty incredible at showing the harsh realities of losing everything.
There is only a handful of series that I am able to say that I really marathoned or I just could not wait till the next episode was released and this was one of them. I have been a bit at loss of words to in what to say when I started to try to write this review, but I hope the fact that I felt this was an amazing series came across. Thinking about my top ten list of 2009, I would probably put it near number four if I were to rethink my list. By keeping in mind that this is a series that will probably leave you on the edge of your seat and that it will be an emotional ride, I do recommend this series. I recommend to watch it all at once for the main reason that once the first episode comes to a finish, the only thing you will want to do is watch the next.
