The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, novels and timeline

null

I watched all the episodes of the ever popular The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya almost a year ago. After going through the series the first time (I watched the fansubs in the original TV broadcast order by the way), I liked it a lot but I don’t think I loved it. Surprisingly, almost a year later, I got a sudden new interest in the series, probably mostly due to my 4 day attendance at Anime Expo this year. TMoHS was everywhere at AX, not just the autograph session and concert, but all over the shops as well. After getting a full dose of Haruhi-ism while I was there, I decided to watch the series a second time. Turns out I loved it more than I did the first time (I should’ve known that all good anime series’ should be watched at least twice to be fully appreciated). I then decided to try and find translations of the light novels. Luckily, thanks to the dedication of Baka-Tsuki, finding them wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought. And now that I’ve read the majority of them, I have an even greater appreciation for the series…

UPDATE: A 2010 revised version of the timeline is now available here

[Read more…]

Blood+: the halfway mark review

Blood+
I started watching Blood+ back in March, when it began airing on Adult Swim. After watching the first few episodes dubbed (and writing a post about my initial impressions of the series) I decided to download the fansubs so I could see the Japanese version and get through the episodes faster. And now, after watching about half the series (26 out of 50 episodes), I have to say that’s it’s definitely one of the better series’ to come out in recent years…

[Read more…]

Ouran High School Host Club: the halfway mark review


I know, I’m really late with watching Ouran. I only have time for so much anime at once, and I just didn’t have time for this one back when it first came out. Also, for some reason I thought it would be too “fan girlish” for my taste…but after watching half the episodes, I’m happy to say that my opinion of Ouran has changed =)

[Read more…]

Code Geass season finale review


Well, I finally sat down and watched the last episode of Code Geass a few nights ago. Better late than never I guess. Obviously that wasn’t the actual ending of the series, since episodes 24 and 25 will air in the summer, and I think a new season will begin sometime next year. But anyway, what started off as a pretty typical war/mecha series that was a bit too complex and fast-paced in the beginning, turned into a very good take on the genre, and the series has since established enough unique elements to make it stand out among the fall ’06 series’.

[Read more…]

Pokemon movie 9 review+Japanese artbook scans & movie 10 trailer

Though it’s not my favorite of the nine (soon to be ten) Pokemon movies, movie 9 holds a special place in my heart because I was studying in Japan in July 2006 when the movie first came out. I was lucky enough to get to see it in a small theater in Kyoto a few days before I had to return to the US. The theater was very small compared to the ones out here in CA and there were a lot of loud kids there, but hey, it was a great experience to see an anime movie in a real Japanese theater ^^ The English version of the movie just premiered about a week ago on Cartoon Network. I didn’t bother to watch it though because 1) Pocketmonsters.net had just released a fansubbed version of the movie a little while before and 2) I dislike the new PUSA voice actors and it’s the first movie that’s using them. But after watching the fansubbed version of it (and understanding a lot more compared to watching the raw in the theater =P), it turned out to be one of the better Pokemon movies in my opinion. So I felt like writing a review of it (plus I can’t think of anything else to blog about tonight ^^,,,)

[Read more…]

Kanon finale (and some questions about it)


I finally had a chance to watch the last episode of Kanon last night. I had a feeling that, like Air, I wouldn’t understand the ending too well and it would probably leave me with some questions. So after watching episode 24, I’m still a bit confused, but I think I understand the main gist of it. As I said before in my past Kanon reviews, it’s a very beautiful and touching series that gives you more mysteries to contemplate than answers…

[Read more…]

Death Note: the halfway mark review


Ok, so I’ve watched a little more than half the episodes of Death Note (20 out of 37) but close enough. Anyway, Death Note was one of the few series’ that I loved right from the first episode. My opinion of it has changed (for the better) since my initial review of the first 2 episodes, and now I like it even more and I understand why it’s one of the more popular (but not quite mainstream) series’ around nowadays…

[Read more…]

Naruto the Abridged Series, and other anime vs YouTube stuff


A while ago I wrote a post about Yu-Gi-Oh! the Abridged Series, which I still think has got to be the best anime amv/parody/spoof/fandub series there is. Whether you like it or hate it, as long as you’re a little familiar with Yu-Gi-Oh!, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t find LittleKuriboh’s series hilarious! XD But now I’d like to talk about a new abridged series I’ve started watching – yup, Naruto the Abridged Series. Though I still think YGO the Abridged Series is a bit more clever, this one is definitely worth checking out for fans (and anti-fans) alike.

[Read more…]

Mushishi review


I was a little late with watching Mushishi but I’m glad I decided to add it to my list of anime to watch. I just finished the last episode a few days ago and, surprisingly, for a series that remains basically the same throughout all of its 26 episodes, it was one of the best I’ve seen in a while.

[Read more…]

Kanon(2006): the halfway mark review


As I said in my first impression review of Kanon(2006), I have not seen the previous 2002 series and knew nothing much about Kanon before I started watching it. After watching the first couple of episodes, I thought the show was okay but it didn’t particularly catch my interest. But now that I’ve watched 13 episodes of it, I have to say that I have a lot more respect for it.

[Read more…]