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new anime update: Ouran HSHC & Death Note
Feb. 20th, 2007 11:54 amOuran High School Host Club, ep. 1 & 2
This is a bundle of enjoyable ridiculousness. There's a lot of levels of parody going on here... from the pseudo-European style of the school to the geisha-like duties of the "host" in the host club, to the flatly unbelievable gender disguise and, of course, the pounds and pounds of cherry blossoms that are constantly raining in the background. Even the protagonist is a parody, gender-swapped version of the "geeky, timid, average boy" used in harem shows like Tenchi Muyo or Ah My Goddess. It's cute, and promises to be harmless shoujo parody fun. My only complaint would be the large text boxes always popping up, as they don't actually say stuff that's very often funny, and they're visually distracting. The characters so far are harder to pin down--- none of them appeal to me as the cliches they are, but I'm told they get more complicated so I'm looking forward to that. I do like the blond leader quite a bit, if only for the fact that he reminds me of a slightly less gay Ayame Sohma of FB. I'm sure Tamaki eats his soba noodles with confidence, too.
Death Note, ep. 1
I don't know why I avoided this series for so long. I can certainly understand the appeal of it--- its perverse, dark, and full of misguided hubris. I'm amused that Light isn't even trying to be righteous this soon--- he's already decided he has the right to be god of his newly created world. He skipped the "do god's will" step entirely and went straight to megalomaniacal power-hunger. I feel compelled to talk about the flaws in his logic and the evil of what he's doing... but why bother? Anyone watching or reading who has a brain can pick out the ethical and logical potholes in his plan, but that's the fun I suppose. Even if it's a bad idea... who's going to do anything about it? All the same, it feels like the anime skipped over his first binge of killing for the sake of plot expediency, and for that I'm grateful. I didn't need to watch the next fives episodes of him killing criminals and trying to decide if he feels bad about it or not. We could tell from the beginning he was going to be stepping onto the crazy train, so I like that the series didn't waste any time getting him to that point.
This is a bundle of enjoyable ridiculousness. There's a lot of levels of parody going on here... from the pseudo-European style of the school to the geisha-like duties of the "host" in the host club, to the flatly unbelievable gender disguise and, of course, the pounds and pounds of cherry blossoms that are constantly raining in the background. Even the protagonist is a parody, gender-swapped version of the "geeky, timid, average boy" used in harem shows like Tenchi Muyo or Ah My Goddess. It's cute, and promises to be harmless shoujo parody fun. My only complaint would be the large text boxes always popping up, as they don't actually say stuff that's very often funny, and they're visually distracting. The characters so far are harder to pin down--- none of them appeal to me as the cliches they are, but I'm told they get more complicated so I'm looking forward to that. I do like the blond leader quite a bit, if only for the fact that he reminds me of a slightly less gay Ayame Sohma of FB. I'm sure Tamaki eats his soba noodles with confidence, too.
Death Note, ep. 1
I don't know why I avoided this series for so long. I can certainly understand the appeal of it--- its perverse, dark, and full of misguided hubris. I'm amused that Light isn't even trying to be righteous this soon--- he's already decided he has the right to be god of his newly created world. He skipped the "do god's will" step entirely and went straight to megalomaniacal power-hunger. I feel compelled to talk about the flaws in his logic and the evil of what he's doing... but why bother? Anyone watching or reading who has a brain can pick out the ethical and logical potholes in his plan, but that's the fun I suppose. Even if it's a bad idea... who's going to do anything about it? All the same, it feels like the anime skipped over his first binge of killing for the sake of plot expediency, and for that I'm grateful. I didn't need to watch the next fives episodes of him killing criminals and trying to decide if he feels bad about it or not. We could tell from the beginning he was going to be stepping onto the crazy train, so I like that the series didn't waste any time getting him to that point.
