mDuo13

In the course of the last three days, I've watched all of Maria-sama ga Miteru - Two original series (13 episodes each at 24 minutes), the OVA (5 episodes of 50 minutes) and all 11 episodes of season 4 that have aired thus far (24 minutes each). That's a lot of anime. And it's been a very enjoyable series for me, for several reasons. But as always when I finish with something as engrossing as this most recent marathon, the recoil when I finish is harsh. After such a break from thinking about ordinary matters, I end up reexamining everything with new perspective, often harshly. This time, the hard question I find myself asking is whether I'm actually making progress.

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Lately I've been watching a fair amount of anime - the list of things I'm keeping up with this season is long - but the one that's wowing me most at the moment is Kemono no Souja Erin, a 50-episode children's fantasy epic that nobody else seems to be watching. It provides something refreshingly different than the current lot of copycat fanservice anime. And even though it's (apparently) aimed at children, it is actually one of the more intelligent shows currently airing.

Take the most recent episode, for example. Even disregarding the unusually good music, the episode introduces us to several potentially recurring characters as well as the concept of the seizan; the one even undergoes a slight change of heart through his encounter with Erin; it brings our first visit to a larger, bustling town; it hints that a grand plot has actually been developing for some time now with the comments about a man who suggested stealing Touda eggs; it introduces a mysterious antagonist; it provides Erin with what will probably be her signature harp, and this is all on top of an episode plot where Erin stands up for a boy because she recognizes her own situation when he is separated from his mother for breaking the law; all this on the excuse of John needing to go into town. And on top of all that, we get a parallel subplot of a lost kitten told without interference by any of the main characters.

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I've made a lot of progress on various things in the past few weeks, schoolwork aside. For one thing, I read over 30 volumes of One Piece to finally catch up with the manga. It's strange: at times, I found myself thinking, "this comic isn't for me," but as I got further on, more and more I found that I was unequivocally enjoying it. Certainly, the comic grows deeper and more inspiring over time; but moreso, I simply found myself accepting the style and quirks of the comic, its own internal logic, and so forth. One Piece physics aren't the physics of our world; but they at least make some sort of wacky sense, and they're very, very, "Shounen Jump".

After that, I also found I had time to catch up with about 10 TV anime I'm currently watching, not counting Xam'd (which ended last week). Plenty of them are good, and may warrant future mention on this blog, but for now, the one I want to talk about is Toaru Majutsu no Index, and not because it's good, but because recently it has become apparent how poorly conceived it is.

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For some reason, lately, I just haven't been having any thoughts that I felt were worth blogging. Maybe that's just because I've been spending my free time reading One Piece so I don't want to take the time to blog. Maybe it's because I've had the obnoxiously long-lived remnants of a cold hanging over me. Maybe it's because I went back to school. I don't know.

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Well, this first post of the new year is long overdue, but I've finally gotten around to writing it. (I did, however, make a rare post to my anime music blog, Nekomimi Music in the meantime.) And, though I have some other interesting thoughts to post, I'll be saving those for a while. Right now, it's time to talk about the new anime starting this season.

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Well, here we are. Deep into the holiday season, it's time to deliver an update on pretty much everything I'm watching. It's an interesting time to do so, too, because a lot of shows are nearing the end of their run and showing signs of reaching a finale. I've fallen a bit behind ever since Thanksgiving (finals didn't help) but the things I've chosen to prioritize may or may not be indicative of what I think about them.

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