Steerpike

I am a UK citizen who starting watching anime about 6 years ago, when finishing secondary school. While at university, i introduced my friends to Neon Genesis Evangelion. They loved it (obviously) and we started buying more between us (at the extortionate UK shop prices of the time - £20 for a single volume with just a few episodes).

I prefer television series in anime, as it allows more time for the plot to develop, although some films hold high places in my regard, particularly the first Ghost in the Shell film, as well as some Miyazaki's and Satoshi Kon films. Nothing has ever toppled Evangelion from the top spot, although I have greatly enjoyed many others.  I have now joined the UCL Anime Society, so hope to be introduced to new, unheard of gems!

Just went to my first ever anime convention! I love cosplay!  Seeing someone dressed as the Cat Bus from Totoro should be a daily experience!

Recently watched:Seirei no Moribito - at first i thought this anime was pretty average fantasy fare and that it would offer nothing that i hadn't seen before.  However, as the series moved on, not only did i realise that the scenery and art style alone made it worth watching, but that i was in for a measured and balanced story.  The plot moves forward at a slow, but engrossing pace, never throwing unecessary action or characters our way to provide fillers.  Instead, we are treated to a competent and confident stroytelling experience with strong characters and very smart action.

Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann - watching this at the same time as Moribito was fortuitous, as this is the opposite of the above.  While Moribito was measured, TTGL is deliberately outrageous, pushing sense to any possible limit in its quest for a bigger explosion.  Essentially using a psychedelic and fast flashing colour scheme and all manner of ridiculous battle cries, TTGL should be awful.  But Gainax have managed (just about) to get away with this one just because it never once asks you to take a step back and reflect upon what is happening, but just to buckle up and hold on!

Mushi-shi - Although all around me were seemingly enraptured by this series, i found it pretty boring to be honest....well that needs some clarification.  I like long, twisting plot threads - so perhaps the highly episodic nature of this series simply wasn't for me from the beginning.  That said, I still have some gripes with it.  Episodic, fair enough, but does the structure of every single episode have to be identical as was the case here.  Ginko (our main character) goes to a new identical little Japanese village and finds some strange affliction to a sense/dream/other human dimension of experience and hey - it's a mushi!  Now the mushi are strange pre-life forms which apparently aren't out to cause humans harm, although every single one we saw in this series did seem to harm people (guess it must have just been sample bias).  Ginko then either manages to solve the problem or not.  And that's pretty much the sum of the whole thing... There were some pluses - the music was pretty awesome (especially the way each episode would end with a new haunting melody) and it did cause some moments of deep contemplation, as i'm sure was the aim.  But overall, i found it quite a chore to get to the end of the series - which i just can't take as a good sign for my enjoyment factor.

Ergo Proxy: By god, what a disappointment.  I have to say i largely agree with the two reviews of this anime that exist on this site.  Ergo Proxy starts really well and had me fully engaged.  The story seemed dark and moody, the characters seemed moody and dark and the music was a mixture of the two. Where did it all go wrong?  I can't quite pin down when this show became a chore to watch, replete with plenty of eye-rolling at banal conversations and themes.  I think it was roughly when i stopped caring about any of the motivations for what anyone was doing, something that the show seemed to have down so well at the beginning.  More than anything, i feel annoyed at myself for being so drawn in by a beginning that subsequently clearly had no follow-up planned at all.  There were highlights, however, chief among them the animation which does look top-notch.  A special mention must also go out to the robot-child character Pino who i found totally adorable throughout, a tough feat for me: I usually wants to kill such characters with my icy stare a few seconds after they are introduced.  Top marks in that respect!

Kino's Journey: Wow, this is one well-loved anime.  On this site, the lowest score out of 4 reviews is 8.5/10.  Pretty impressive on top of the number of positive reviews i've had in person.  I was underwhelmed.  Sure, some of the stories were pretty interesting (Land of Books and the marooned traders come to mind) but many were plain uninteresting (the finale definitely comes to mind).  I agree with one reviewer here who comments on the story-book allegorical feel to the whole thing and would add that the whole thing feels uniquely like a western faerie-tale for a Japanese creation, which is accentuated by the simple, pastel pallette.  The main character is endearing, but all others utterly forgettable.  More than anything else though, while many on this site praise Kino no Tabi's reflection of man's inner soul (though some of these very same dislike Evangelion somehow), i think that it scores fairly low in this regard, scratching the surface of complex issues and painting them at their extremes.  One thing i disliked in particular was the ubiquitous nature of whatever 'philosophy' each land represented as embodied by its inhabitants.  Reality is simply far more complicated than anything Kino attempts to present and this simplified vision simply ignores the conflict at the heart of these ideals.  I digress.  Not a bad show, by any means.  It was not at all difficult to get to the conclusion.  However, i am left feeling that it is heavily over-rated and most certainly have no desire to watch it again.

Ouran High School Host Club: From the word go, i was smitten by this series.  Although it (unwittingly?) displayed some suspect gender politics at times (Nazi feminists, blaming women for their vulnerability), somewhat unforgivable for a show that is attempting to subvert normal gender roles and laugh at them, for the most part, the show is charming and funny.  The characters are well-developed and endearing, especially the heroine and prince characters.  The animation and soundtrack are divine, emphasising just how under-used original classical scores are in anime and just how relaxing they can make the watching experience.  Although many episodes follow a simple template, derived from a skeleton plot, the series never drags and filler seems absent.  Instead, I feel that I would be happy to sit down to a second series, a real rarity in anime.