My Anime Review

Higby's friend Jose is up here in Seattle. He's been working with us at the studio, writing spreadsheets, singing songs and righting wrongs, being mighty all day long, etc. He's also been lending me his anime DVDs.

The first one he lent us was The Twelve Kingdoms. Dan and I liked it so much that we now own the two English translated books and may get the DVDs ourselves. It's obvious from watching it how much background information the writer had laid as the foundation for its world. Apparently, there are a gajillion books but so far, only two made it into English. And the anime doesn't cover much more beyond these first two books, which is a shame.

If you get the books, you'll find them a pretty easy read even though there's quite a bit about different languages, political structures and other-worldly concepts. I likened them to reading Harry Potter. You don't really have to understand the details; you just get a sense of what things mean and that's enough.

A month or so ago, Jose lent me Fushigi Yugi. He warned me that it was somewhat schoolgirlish, but that it was a good series.

He was right about one of those things; it's very schoolgirlish. I hated this anime :D

Well, hate is a strong word. I just really didn't like it. What turned me off about it is how silly they went with their little anime squee faces and over-the-top antics, which were layered upon an otherwise serious story. The silly bits simply took too much away from the main story, dragging what could have been something like a girlish Full-metal Alchemist (which would have been okay) into something completely different.

The one element which Fushigi Yugi got down pat was the way teenage girls expect every remotely cute guy in their circle of friends to fall in love with them and profess undying love.

In any case, Dan gave up after watching the first DVD with me. I watched the rest of the DVDs in the mornings while knitting, mostly so I could see whether it got any better. It didn't. And even though the heroine wails his name every five minutes, I couldn't remember the hero's name at all when telling Chad about this series. I called the hero "Hamtaro."

His name is actually Tamahome. Whatever.

The morning I watched the last DVD, Dan happened to get up early and so he suffered through the last three episodes with me. Frankly, I can't tell you how it ended. By the time the last end credits were rolling, I was too busy working with my knitting to give another thought to this series.

Dan however was so irritated by it that he got up and cleansed our anime palates with a viewing of Cowboy Bebop. Now that's some good stuff!

My Anime Review

Higby's friend Jose is up here in Seattle. He's been working with us at the studio, writing spreadsheets, singing songs and righting wrongs, being mighty all day long, etc. He's also been lending me his anime DVDs.

The first one he lent us was The Twelve Kingdoms. Dan and I liked it so much that we now own the two English translated books and may get the DVDs ourselves. It's obvious from watching it how much background information the writer had laid as the foundation for its world. Apparently, there are a gajillion books but so far, only two made it into English. And the anime doesn't cover much more beyond these first two books, which is a shame.

If you get the books, you'll find them a pretty easy read even though there's quite a bit about different languages, political structures and other-worldly concepts. I likened them to reading Harry Potter. You don't really have to understand the details; you just get a sense of what things mean and that's enough.

A month or so ago, Jose lent me Fushigi Yugi. He warned me that it was somewhat schoolgirlish, but that it was a good series.

He was right about one of those things; it's very schoolgirlish. I hated this anime :D

Well, hate is a strong word. I just really didn't like it. What turned me off about it is how silly they went with their little anime squee faces and over-the-top antics, which were layered upon an otherwise serious story. The silly bits simply took too much away from the main story, dragging what could have been something like a girlish Full-metal Alchemist (which would have been okay) into something completely different.

The one element which Fushigi Yugi got down pat was the way teenage girls expect every remotely cute guy in their circle of friends to fall in love with them and profess undying love.

In any case, Dan gave up after watching the first DVD with me. I watched the rest of the DVDs in the mornings while knitting, mostly so I could see whether it got any better. It didn't. And even though the heroine wails his name every five minutes, I couldn't remember the hero's name at all when telling Chad about this series. I called the hero "Hamtaro."

His name is actually Tamahome. Whatever.

The morning I watched the last DVD, Dan happened to get up early and so he suffered through the last three episodes with me. Frankly, I can't tell you how it ended. By the time the last end credits were rolling, I was too busy working with my knitting to give another thought to this series.

Dan however was so irritated by it that he got up and cleansed our anime palates with a viewing of Cowboy Bebop. Now that's some good stuff!