My Anime List

The new anime season started a few weeks ago. I posted the anime I was watching a year ago and so will put up a quick summary of what I am watching now.

Continues
To start with, Naruto Shippuuden and Bleach are still going strong. Bleach finally got back to its core storyarc a couple of weeks ago. The episodes themselves have been somewhat repetitious and uninteresting, but there are moments of humour and there has been a little action. I just want to see the story through.

Naruto has been very emotional recently. Asuma was killed by some Akatsuki bastards. It was hard to hold back the tears. :o Incidentally, Asuma was the third Hokage's son. The third Hokage died during Orochimaru's attack on the hidden leaf village, Konoha, back during the original Naruto series a few years ago. Now we are going to get another funeral, I guess.

Sequels
Clannad -- After Story is turning out to be just as good as the original series. It has even more humour in it and the animation is still just as gorgeous: very solid and colourful, and the characters are all nice looking.

Kidou Senshi (Mobile Suit) Gundam 00 2nd Season. Unfortunately, the third episode has not been subbed for this, so I am stuck waiting. This series is set four years after the events that transpired in the first season, where Celestial Being were trying to remove all war from the world. Setsuna's uber gundam, Exia, undergoes a major upgrade and there is a new threatening organisation: A-Laws (the Japanese say "ah" Laws). Oh, and Lockon's younger brother shows up -- and he looks just like Lockon Stratos! (Lockon died at the end of Gundam 00).

Rosario + Vampire Capu 2. "Capu chu" is the sound that Moka makes when she bites Tsukune's neck. This slightly ecchi anime is hilarious, if lacking a little in graphical quality.

ef - A Tale of Melodies. Still very artistic, both musically and graphically. It is set in both the past and present, the present being slightly after the parallel storylines of the original series. So far it is turning out to be as interesting as its predecessor.

New Series
To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index). Index is a girl with perfect memorisation. She has memorised 103,000 (juuman sanzen) grimoires that the Church of England have locked away, but they take up 85% of her memory, so once each year she has to undergo a memory wipe so that her brain doesn't fill up and overflow, killing her.

So far it is proving to be pretty cool, with the mix of magic and technology (espers) in a city comprised almost entirely of students and the pursuit of study. The main protagonist is a young guy whose right hand anulls magic and esper attacks. He finds Index and swears to protect her from anyone that is pursuing her for the locked away grimoires.

I think that about sums up what is in my current listing. I hope that more episodes of Gundam 00 2nd will come out eventually. I want to continue through the storyline.

Oh, and if I haven't mentioned it before, don't come to Japan and claim to be "otaku". If I have mentioned it before, then you know it has negative connotations. At least here. So only use it at home, m'kay. ;)

Timotheos