Monday, March 20, 2006

Pipiru piru piru pipiru pi
I know I'm supposed to be watching School Rumble but I keep putting it off. I found another reason to procrastinate. I was perusing the internet and found out Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan is only 8 13-minute episodes (aka 4 full episodes).

Despite reading many bad reviews about it, I downloaded it anyway. I have a fairly broad sense of humor. I laugh at witty satire and I laugh at fart jokes. That may have had a hand in me having some enjoyment in the series. It certainly isn't for everybody. In fact, I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a really twisted sense of humor.

Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan literally translates to Club-to-Death Angel Dokuro, which explains the anime quite well. Dokuro is an angel who is living with a kid named Sakura but he doesn't know why. Dokuro weilds both a short temper and, unfortunately for Sakura, a large, metal, spikey bat named Excalibolg. The bat is used to ABSOLUTELY BRUTALLY kill Sakura many times but Dokuro feels instantly sorry every time and brings him back to life with a chant (pipiru piru piru pipiru pi).

You find out pretty quickly that Dokuro was sent to the past to kill Sakura because he would, in the future, invent something that would create internal life by stopping the aging process for females at 12. Dokuro ended up liking Sakura though and instead decided that she'd stop him in some other way. Her way seemed to be to distract him from school work and from anything else he really wanted to do. She basically makes sure he screws up as much as possible.

I thought the series was funny but I could see how someone may not like it. Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan is a very gory anime and is very mindless humor. It's certainly not for kids and not for older people who don't like silly/stupid humor.

As I've said, I enjoyed and and thought it was funny, but it wasn't hilariously funny. It wasn't as good as some other comedies like Azumanga Daioh or Excel Saga. Though I do find the opening song hilarious and have listened to it over and over (part of it translated: "Club-to-Death angel, blood-stained all over Dokura-chan/I'll cut you, punch you, toy with you/Stab you, leave you out in the cold, drip stuff on you/But that's just how I express my love.")

What I love about Dokuro-chan is how much she seems to enjoy bashing Sakura into nothing again and again. Oh no! Sakura's brains are going down the drain!

Watch at your own risk.


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Tuesday, March 7, 2006

Quick update
I've been putting off watching School Rumble... so I'm still where I was when I last posted. I had to redownload Azumanga and then rewatch them to make sure all of the damn files work. That and I'm a sports fan and I've been focusing a lot of attention on college basketball :P

I did buy two new manga today. Hunter x Hunter volume 7 and Death Note volume 4... which will only delay me even further.
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Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Azumanga Daioh
I've been putting off posting this. I'm lazy.

Anyways, as said in my revious post Azumanga Daioh was the 2nd anime that I crossed off what I now dub "Sean's Ginormous List of Anime That He Wants To See". Seriously, there's 34 serieses on this list and I'll most likely add more later. 2 down, 34 to go?

I'm getting off topic now. Back to Azumanga Daioh. I enjoyed the silliness. Osaka is the character that most definately makes this anime funny. Plus there's the craziness of Yukari-sensei and Tomo, Chiyo's naivity, and sometimes a cheap laugh from Sakaki and Kaorin. Ohhh... and how can I froget Kimura-sensei!? I don't think there's a time that he was on screen that I didn't laugh.

Anyways, here's a little overview of the characters for those who may read this and haven't seen the series:

Students:
Ayumu Kasuga a.k.a. "Osaka"
Ayumu is uncreatively given the nickname Osaka by Tomo because she transfered from the city of Osaka. She's a little bit slow and is in her own little world. She reminds me of my sister. the kind of person who seems like they could be on drugs when you know they aren't.

Chiyo Mihama
Chiyo is a 10-year old genius who skips a bunch of grades and goes to high school. She turns 11 during one of the episodes in her first year of high school so she had to be 13 when she graduated at the end of the series. She's so cute and sweet that you may get a toothache just watching her. Chiyo is understandably naive given her age.

Sakaki
Tall, cool, quiet, and very athletic despite not playing any sports. That's what people see on the outside at least. Inside she has a deep affection for all things cute, especially cats (though the cats don't seem to like her).

Tomo Takino
Thre's one word to desribe Tomo: outrageous. Tomo has a lot of energy, that much is for sure. She's not particularly good at anything but that doesn't stop her from thinking she is. Tomo constantly tries to prove how awesome she is but only succeeds in annoying others or embarassing herself.

Koyomi Mizuhara a.k.a. "Yomi"
Yomi doesn't really do much for the series. She's the "normal" girl of the group. Yomi has been a classmate of Tomo since kindergarten so they have their own unique relationship. She is annoyed by Tomo and yells at her often but is still best friends with her. Yomi also has a problem with her own weight and goes on many diets. I don't know whether that is supposed to be funny or not...

Kaorin
Kaorin is classmates with all the girls in the first two years but gets seperated in 3rd year. She has a lesbian crush on Sakaki... and that's about the only thing she's around for. She becomes the target of Kimura-sensei's affection in the 3rd year.

Kagura
Kagura is a very athetic girl on Nyamo-sensei's swim team. She has minor appearances in the girls' first year because she is in another class. She becomes classmates with the rest in th 2nd and 3rd year though as Yukari-sensei recruits her so she can win the yearly sportsfests. Kagura, Tomo, and Osaka form a team known as Bonklers (or Bonkuraazu.. whatever) which is like the plural form of Baka. They seem proud that they do poorly in school.

Senseis
Yukari Tanizaki
Yukari-sensei is sort of like a grown-up version of Tomo. Homeroom sensei of the girls all three years, Yukari-sensei is quick to anger and likes to party and live dangerously. She also seems to have Tomo's lazy attitude for school.

Minamo Kurosawa a.k.a. "Nyamo"
Nyamo-sensei was a classmate of Yukari-sensei in high school and they are still good friends. She's basically the exact opposite of Yuraki... students love her, she loves her job, and she's pretty reserved. Nyamo teaches Phys Ed and also coaches the swim team.

Kimura
Hilarious character! Kimura-sensei became a sensei because he likes young girls. Yes, he's vry creepy and very weird and I wouldn't take him any other way.



There are a lot of funny moments in the series but three of them stand out to me. My favorite is during the 2nd sportsfest. Osaka runs the obstacle course because she really wanted to do the part where you stick your face into flour to get a piec of candy. When she got to that part she stuck her head in, lifted it up a little bit... then did it again and giggled... and again. It's something you'd have to see to find it funny. I laugh every time I see it. Another Osaka moment is when they were on some trip and Tomo lifts Chiyo up and shakes her around as they were looking off the side of a cliff. Tomo started to drop her and it cut to a slow motion shot of Osaka rushing to catch Chiyo. They go back to regular speed, with Osaka still of the screen, and Chiyo falls into Sakaki's hands. Osaka then comes from off the screen with her hands outstretched and her eyes closed and bumps into Yomi. The 3rd funny momnt that pops into my head is when they were all visiting Chiyo's summer home and she says that if she lost the key that they wouldn't be able to get inside... so Tomo takes the keys from her hand and throws them into the woods.

Azumanga Daioh is very funny and random. I recommend it. *thumbs up*

Staying with the school comedy theme, the next anime on my watch list is an already downloaded School Rumble. I've watched 1 and a half episodes before I got bored and stopped watching. I'll watch the rest later though and I'll be sure to post my thoughts on it soon.
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Saturday, February 4, 2006

The Beginning
I have decided to keep a blog related to my anime watching experiences on this site. Why? Because I feel like it.

If you want to know my history... it's on top. I don't need to get into that.

I have a large laundry list of anime that I want to download and watch. I finally made a dent into it recently, downloading Elfen Lied and Azumanga Daioh. Funny combination, I know. Elfen Lied downloaded first so that's what I watched first... and watched all 13 episodes in one sitting. I really liked it.

Elfen Lied is about a girl named Lucy. Lucy is a Diclonus, a mutant with small horns (which look like those little pertruding things on the head of the computers in Chobits) and these telekinetic hand-type things that, among other things, can slice through people like a hot knife through butter... which happens quite a bit actually. Lucy breaks out of confinement from the laboratory keeping her, brutally killing many guards and such in the process. The escape ends with her getting a high calibur bullet to the noggin and falling into the ocean.

Meanwhile, two cousins reunite after many years because they are going to be going to college together. They go to the beach to reminisce about the past when they find Lucy standing in the water butt-naked. They name her "Nyuu" after the only word she can seem to say and take her into the place thy're staying at. It seemed that the shot to the head made her very childlike, both in actions and ability to speak. Actually, she developed some sort of multiple personality disorder. When she's pushed, she turns into Lucy. When people are all nice to her, mostly Kouta, she turns back to Nyuu.

Anyways... this is one messed up anime. There's much more craziness (repressed memories, sexual harassment, lots of blood, quite a bit of nudity, and probably more that I forgot). If you haven't been scared away yet, you should check it out.

In much lighter news, I also downloaded Azumanga Daioh. After watching AMV Hell 3 (an hour+ long AMV. I recommend it.) I had an urge to watch this one. I'v also read many good things about it's general silliness and randomness. So far I have the first 13 episodes and have watched the first 6. I was very disappointed after the first 3. Wasn't really as funny as I thought it would be. I kept on watching though and was glad I did, as 4, 5, and 6 were all pretty funny.

Anyways, Azumanga Daioh is about a group of freshman high school girls. There's no plot... just a bunch of 5-minute segments put together into 26 episodes. Not much more to say.. it's just silly.

The opening should tell you all you need to know:



Anyways, that's it for now. I think I've typed enough. What's next? Well, I'm still working on Azumanga Daioh and I still haven't even watched this week's Naruto (I'm afraid to). I have to look at my list to see what I want to download. Stay tuned and you will eventually find out!
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