Anime to watch.

[prillalar]

Too much fic to read! *brain breaks* While I'm fixing that up, here's what I'm watching from the new anime season.

Ookiku Furikabutte
Expect a detailed and persuasive pimp post on this series once the first episode is subbed. For now, let me say that if I set out to design my perfect sports series, well, okay, that would be a hockey anime with Kiyasu and Onosaka. But if I couldn't have that, it would be a high school baseball series with great characters, lots of heart, and a battery in love. Oofuri is all that and then some. Mihashi, the pitcher, has no self-confidence and it's up to Abe, the catcher, to build him up. And then there's Hanai. And Tajima. And Momo-kan and Shiga-sensei. And and and.

I don't think I can overstate how excited I am about this series. I've watched the raws for the first two episodes. I've read the three manga chapters that Entropy has scanlated. If the manga used furigana, I think I'd be struggling through the raws with my dictionaries. I made a comm for all the fic that you and I are going to write: oofuri_etc. There is also an info comm: oofuri.

You will be hearing more about this. A lot more.


Over Drive
More high school sports, this time cycling. After two episodes, I'm not super-impressed, but now that we've got over the First Trial for the Underdog Protagonist and we're on to Team Building, it should be a bit better. I guess I'm watching because A. it's a sports series, B. the credits sequence promises hot boys in bicycle shorts, and C. Okiayu Ryoutarou is in it. Allegedly. I haven't heard him yet.


Romeo x Juliet
ANN says: "This is a story of a young and tragic love, set in the aerial city of Neo Verona." Juliet kicks some fucking ass. And Okiayu is in this one too.

That's everything I've tried. What new anime would you rec?

Comments

[grasshopper.livejournal.com]

Not a rec per se, since this is the only one I've actually gotten around to watching, but I'm really intrigued by, if sort of reserving judgment on, Bokurano. From the summary I expected kind of a melancholy cyberpunk mindfuck -- I guess in my head it was going to be Serial Experiments Lain only with giant fighting robots? (It's not. Well, it's got the robots and the fighting, but the television fuzz and disorienting time-jumps that break up each section seem sort of like afterthoughts rather than integral to the action/themes?) Anyway, the premise is that these fifteen kids meet some shady guy at the beach and agree to beta-test his mecha video game. But what they don't know is *spoilerspoiler* :O Anyway, in the first episode there are hints that this could be exactly what I want it to be: game vs. reality mindfuck, self-sacrifice, people accepting or rebelling against their fate, etc. But only hints; it's one that I hope gets better -- judgment is reserved however because of course the first ep was going to be expositiony and awkward, what with introducing fifteen main characters and the high-concept... uh, concept :)

Eep, I hope Over Drive does get better! I was so excited when I first heard of it. Am also really looking forward to Lovely Complex.

[prillalar]

Ooh, I'll give Bokurano a try. And you -- you should watch Shibuyua 15. It's a live action show. Tokusatsu, really, but it has a kind of drama-ish feel to it too. It's got fifteen-year-old kids gang fighting in Shibuya, mind-fuck, great characters, and a really stylish look. (Also, the main character is a fifteen-year-old boy played by a seventeen-year-old girl. This, ah, appeals to me.) It's not a long series -- 8 eps, maybe? I forget exactly. I really loved it and I'm going through it a second time now. TV Nihon (http://www.tvnihon.com/) subbed it and if you can't easily get it from them, I can upload for you.

I think Over Drive will improve, but Oofuri is outshining everything right now. I've heard good buzz on LoveCom but it's not really the sort of thing I'm interested in.

[grasshopper.livejournal.com]

Okay, I totally missed the fact that Minagawa Junko is one of the VAs in Bokurano :O but now I'm twice as excited. And I am told that the manga is awesome, so I am going to hunt that up.

You probably caught two_if_by_sea's posts on some of the new anime (including Bokurano, Over Drive, and several others) but if not they're here (http://two-if-by-sea.livejournal.com/160287.html) and here (http://two-if-by-sea.livejournal.com/160994.html). God I wish there were more thinky posts about anime, just in general. I always feel like I don't have enough anime-watching experience to talk eloquently about the medium but I love it when other people do. Speaking of which, I eagerly await your pimping post on Oofuri, which I have just downloaded and am excited to try.

And Sh15uya? So excited, I can't stand it. I too find the girl playing a boy thing appealing -- is that part of the plot, that she's in disguise? Or did they just get a female actor to fill a strictly male role?

Okay off to watch things now! *\o/*

[prillalar]

Now I'm def going to try Bokurano. (Hey, I watched all of He Is My Master for MinaJun.) I think I saw two_if_by_sea's posts but it was when I had so little bandwidth over vac and I probably didn't read too closely. Either that or I was flailing so hard over Oofuri that nothing else would register. :D

So glad you're giving Sh15uya a chance! I got onto it because a couple of the actors from Kamen Rider 555 are in it. The main character is a boy -- just the actor is female.