New Moderator
The worst event that could happen to me did yesterday: our internet died. My whole planned day vanished. So I shifted through my room until I uncovered an anime series: Blood+. I recalled that Cross and Kenri at least had really enjoyed it, so I wanted to see if it was indeed worth watching. I thought I'd post my thoughts on the series in case they were interested.
It's not just Blood+, though that's what I'm starting with. Other series I have been recommended that definitely need watching are Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Eureka 7, FLCL, Full Metal Alchemist, Trigun, and quite a few others. Notice how most of these are old anime? They're pretty well known and those who cared to see them have probably already. I thought it might be funny to see someone's perspective when they're new to the series. It's not something that gets to happen much for these anymore.
So, yeah. Feel free to look in or laugh at me for being an anime-watching nerd. Blood+ thoughts next post.
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Editor
Singlehandedly redeeming the "vampires as romance" genre!
---
"There's a pony in the shop, but don't buy it. It might do something unfortunate to you." ~from the first Summoner's Seal topic
New Moderator
Most posts won't be this long or summarizing, but since it was quite a background episode I thought this would be best. Could be a while since people have seen it anyway.
[Spoiler for Blood+: Episode 1, click to show]Episode 1: First Kiss
First of all, I quite like the opening and ending songs. The scenes during them are nice enough, nothing outstanding but I like to watch them.
As usual, it began with an opening that was action packed. WHOA VIETNAM WAR WHOA GIRL CUTTING APART PEOPLE WHOA THIS IS EXCITING-
Oh wait now we're in a school yard. Where'd my action go?!
The main character, Saya, apparently remembers nothing before a year ago. Amnesia in the first five minutes? This is my kind of character! (Seriously I seem to have a habit of loving amnesia. Except the Pokmon move.) Then her friend who is a girl jumps on her to make male viewers be convinced they will like this anime. Hurray.
Then a guy named Kai shows up to take Saya to the hospital for a regular check-up. Saya's friend remarks that he is hot and quit playing baseball. Hopefully not for Higurashi reasons. Saya proves the first comment to be kind of disturbing when she soon tells us he is like a brother to her. From what I could gather, he's one grade above her. Don't quote me on that though.
In the hospital, Saya still cannot remember anything and gets some blood from an IV. Now we know where the name of the show came from!
While Saya is walking home, she sees a mysterious man with bandages around his hand playing a cello. I already love this because I always end up liking the dark mysterious guys the most, a cello is a cool and underrated instrument, and I am a sucker for ponytails. Saya on the other hand does not love this as she flashbacks into running somewhere with a key and trying to unlock a door. In real life, this causes her to fall into a flower bed. I find it amusing that this causes everyone watching the cello performance to look over and be like 'wow you're weird'. Normal reactions in my townspeople? What is this, a realistic anime?
Saya manages to get home and talks to the man who adopted her, George, and her other brother, Riku. Thankfully Riku does not have silver hair or large shoes or I would be concerned about DARKNESS. In all honesty, Riku is adorable and I look forward to the episode where he will be treated with a good dose of Break The Cutie, despite being a boy. Her father seems pretty cool at this point.
After realizing Saya forgot her shoes for a gym competition tomorrow, she goes back to school. Despite it getting dark. I'm sure this will end well. Oh and some blonde guy named David shows up. It's amazing seeing names like David and George in an anime. I can actually remember them!
So the school is closed, prompting Saya to lurk around in the dark to find her shoes. Only to meet the mysterious cello player who says, "I finally found you" and brings out a dagger. Saya does what any sane person would do and runs for her life until bumping into a teacher. When they go to investigate, he is gone. What, you mean a generic teacher actually decided to be useful?
Apparently not because he gets his blood sucked ten seconds later by a huge furry creature. Saya once again runs and is cornered in the school, where cello player shows up to help her. So I watch in anticipation. This guy has got to have some cool moves, right?
Wait, why is he cutting himself? Why is he offering Saya blood? Obviously she doesn't want to drink it, so okay, he drinks it himself and... KISSING ACTION COMMENCE. And thus several terrible fanfics were born about how a bloody first kiss was very sexy.
Kai happens to run in at this moment and sees the two of them with locked lips. Now in basically any other anime, this would have caused Kai to go "WHAT ARE YOU DOING KISSING MY SISTER THAT'S WRONG" and other stupidity to ruin the moment. But Blood+ thankfully does not have dumb forced humor. Instead Kai looks up, sees the creature, yells, and is about to be devoured. Episode end.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
Two things I forgot to mention because I wasn't sure how to squeeze them in. One, apparently serial killings are happening due to blood draining. I WONDER WHY.
Two, the 'villain' is quite... unique. He wears a white suit, pink tie, and sits around giving orders all day to the US military while eating candy. I'm not sure whether I like the originality or whether I want to punch him in the face. He has 'enraging' written all over him. He also mentioned a Mouse or something which I can only assume is the furry monster thing. Doesn't look like much of a mouse buy hey.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Advanced
Also hi everyone, it's been a long time!
---
Seriously, knife him, hard. I recently started playing Type 1, so now I have a reason to carry around my big-ass pocket knife. ~Zergboy
New Moderator
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
New Moderator
Just don't get turned off the series close to the middle.
Try Higurashi if you get bored. Mysteries are always great fun.
---
Cross: "Thanks to these new shoes, my destroying power has doubled!"
DSB Moderator
watch it and then kill yourself
---
Mega Sonic
Endut! Hoch Hech!
New Moderator
Episode 2: Magic Words
Due to being given the cello player's blood, Saya now has red eyes. He tells her, "Saya, fight" which I'm sure will become a catchphrase in the show. He hands her a katana, she draws it, and it's... interesting in design, at least.
Then she cuts her hand and lets her blood pour into the sword. It slips through... ditches, I guess you'd call them? Basically a line goes down the katana of her blood, falls through other ditches to coat the blade, and she uses it to slice the monster in half. My first reaction: "That so would not work in real life." Second: "BUT WHO CARES THAT WAS SO COOL"
Kai calls out to Saya, she realizes she's covered in monster blood, faints dead away. At least the cello player has the decency to catch her after all that. He leaves with Saya and Kai right before the US military storms in. Drama!
Very displeased at being left on a roof with just an unconscious Saya and no explanation (I guess the cello guy teleported or something), Kai takes her to the hospital. Her dad, George, comes to watch over her. When Saya comes to, she can't remember what happened. Yay amnesia!
George leaves to talk to David. When Saya goes to the restroom to clean up and change clothes, she sees visions of the blood from yesterday. Oh boy, I wonder why this show is called Blood+, there clearly hasn't been enough!
Saya goes downstairs to find her father, only to overhear David saying that now that Saya has awakened, she must be turned over to them. I wonder why he couldn't have said this the other 365 times she woke up during the last year? *Lame joke alert*
Hearing this and becoming depressed that she is apparently meant for fighting and nothing else, Saya runs off. When George can't find her, he calls Kai to do a search. Kai finds her at a beach (it was mentioned previously that she really likes it). But he finds her talking to cello man what a surprise. Kai, who is ticked off about not having answers, decides that he should try punching the mysterious man. Said man shows this to be a wonderful idea as he makes the bold move of stepping backwards to dodge it. Several times. Down stairs. Until he picks up Kai and throws him over his shoulder. I was thinking 'narm' during most of this.
After Saya asks him to stop, cello man... disappears again. I want to know how he keeps doing that. Then Saya and Kai talk and it's very emotional and Kai does the cliche but fitting 'you will always be Saya no matter what' speech. Also he tells her to remember a magic word that their father always says. I can't type it because it is ridiculous and long. Episode ends.
Oh and the candy eater showed up again. He was like "awwww Mouse died but I wanna know what samurai man killed it". I'm still questioning what his purpose is besides being enraging.
Seems we're getting somewhere interesting. David appears more important than let on.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Advanced
watch it and then kill yourself
Do you realize how hard it is to watch cowboy bebop in Canada
---
Seriously, knife him, hard. I recently started playing Type 1, so now I have a reason to carry around my big-ass pocket knife. ~Zergboy
New Moderator
No I haven't seen Cowboy Bebop yet but I want to.
Thanks to Epyon for suggesting the term 'grooves' for the sword because I'm pretty sure that's what I meant.
[Spoiler for Blood+: Episode 3, click to show]Episode 3: The Place Where It All Began
Since I watched six episodes in a row yesterday without writing about them I'm a little fuzzy on details around this point. Might mix up some parts with others, so bear with me.
In fact, I forgot to mention how last episode ended. A guy in a telephone booth made a dog explode. It made me sad. Now for the next one.
George has a flashback! He has a gun! He points it at a long-haired and naked Saya! It's all very exciting! And I am left waiting to hear about it later on because surely it will come up again.
David shows up again and tells George they need Saya. George is reluctant to do this because Saya is his daughter and he isn't a horrible parent like many other shows would have. David says he has until sundown to explain things to Saya and leaves.
Saya is shown having a hard time at school due to constant reminders of blood and monsters. I like how they actually don't just toss aside the dead teacher from the first episode. He's given a short speech in school and they constantly talk about how the US military took his body. Even though he's a bit character, he still gets acknowledged, which is a nice thing.
George eventually comes to pick up Saya, who nearly got kidnapped by her friend who is a girl and I still do not recall the name of to go to a food place. Instead said girl and her mother look after Riku who remains adorable. What is with me and little kids? In before obvious joke. (Though I am actually curious about how old Riku is. They haven't given much information on him.)
They arrive at the grave of George's wife and daughter. They apparently died in an accident. George was going to kill himself to be with them but felt Saya telling him to live. He had promised a dying friend in Vietnam that he would look after Saya when she woke up. So George made the most of his life by adopting Riku and Kai, and then going to see Saya when she woke up by pointing a gun at her. Fantastic idea. Thankfully he rethinks that on seeing Saya smile at him and takes her in as his daughter. Believe it or not, I really enjoy all the family interaction. It's a good change of pace to the millions of anime who pretend parents don't exist.
They go back to see David is waiting at the shop. He tells Saya that he is in a group called Red Shield which is totally different from the Red Cross. Apparently only Saya can kill... Chiropterans. Am I spelling that right? Apparently they're the furry monsters, but they're really bats and they suck people's blood. Very different from vampires you see, especially due to lack of sparkling.
Then a guy in a cloak appears. Forest is his name and he is morphing into a Chiropteran. David responds to this by taking out a weird gun (it looks like a cone almost) and shooting him. Top tier response.
Now that they're outside, cello man appears/teleports/whatever he does and tells Saya to fight. That doesn't sound familiar at all. He offers her the katana and she says she can't do it.
So what does George do? Takes the katana, runs at the big bat monster, and tries to slash it despite having no experience with swords. I'm not sure whether this is incredibly stupid or incredibly awesome, but I'm leaning the latter since he basically yells "YOU WILL NOT TOUCH MY DAUGHTER" and stuff. Unfortunately Forest slashes his stomach open. Good going Saya, your indecisiveness killed your father. Thumbs up and high fives all around.
George is now dead or not dead and augh cliffhanger. Also the candy guy showed up looking for a second Mouse. Nobody cared.
</spoiler>
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Advanced
"What do you call those grooves in a sword blade and what are they for?
They are called fullers. Forged or ground in some blades they were created to conserve valuable steel by using less metal than a diamond cross sectioned blade. It also strengthened the blade in the plan of its width on the same principle as the I beam. When steel became easier to acquire the habit of using them declined, until fashion brought them back in vogue.
The fullers have absolutely no ability to increase blood flow from the wound as is often mistakenly believed, as well as the often repeated and absolutely false belief that a blade can get stuck in the human body due to suction. The only way to get a weapon stuck in a human body is to jam it between bones of sufficient size and mass to lodge the weapon firmly."
(so by finding this out we discover that this show Did Not Do The Research which is pretty awesome)
---
Seriously, knife him, hard. I recently started playing Type 1, so now I have a reason to carry around my big-ass pocket knife. ~Zergboy
Advanced
---
When the sheriff came around in the middle of the night,you hear momma crying. He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load. You could smell the Whiskey burning up and down copperhead road. ~ Steve Earle
Advanced
---
SIEG ZEON!
http://luigi87.deviantart.com/
New Moderator
I've actually been recommended Baccano! by a friend. What's it about and how long is it?
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Advanced
It's 16 episodes long (the series is based on a light novel series, that has much more content, but sadly the anime did poorly in Japan, so it probably won't have any following seasons. The English dub is fantastic).
---
SIEG ZEON!
http://luigi87.deviantart.com/
New Moderator
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Advanced
---
Seriously, knife him, hard. I recently started playing Type 1, so now I have a reason to carry around my big-ass pocket knife. ~Zergboy
DSB Moderator
watch it and then kill yourself
Do you realize how hard it is to watch cowboy bebop in Canada
There's something you may have heard of
It's called the Internet
---
Mega Sonic
Endut! Hoch Hech!
Advanced
watch it and then kill yourself
Do you realize how hard it is to watch cowboy bebop in Canada
There's something you may have heard of
It's called the Internet
I am pretty sure I know what the Internet is since I'm posting on an Internet message board. I'm also pretty sure that, being on the Internet, I'm only looking for high quality, dubbed versions of Cowboy Bebop and-oh hey look at that, a Remastered version on the site that doesn't exist, dual audio and in high definition for me to watch! It's like patience really paid off.
---
Seriously, knife him, hard. I recently started playing Type 1, so now I have a reason to carry around my big-ass pocket knife. ~Zergboy
Elite
watch Monster
---
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/9593/hxh17713kw2.png
New Moderator
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Legend
Legend
New Moderator
Should finish my other three episode comments tonight so I can continue watching soon.
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Elite
---
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/9593/hxh17713kw2.png
New Moderator
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears
Elite
---
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/9593/hxh17713kw2.png
New Moderator
Watch Season 2 of Higurashi. Then watch School Days. Delicious, delicious School Days.
---
Cross: "Thanks to these new shoes, my destroying power has doubled!"
New Moderator
I very much want to find season 2 of Higurashi. But School Days? I prefer to have anime with some quality thank you very much. >_> <_<
---
"That was pretty interesting. But dropping a warship on me is cheating... Take it back!"-Id, Xenogears