Still here.

If you haven't been checking lately, updates have been (not really) regular! Just put one up for all you Akagi and Kaiji fans. Also baseball fans. Also, young men with no shirts on fans (and really, who isn't one of those?).

Oh yeah, we have one of these.

In case you've missed it, and have been waiting, Fall 2008 reviews have been going up. Come on back, all you RSS readers.

Continuing Forth

I've crossposted this to my Live Journal as well, but just as a note, here's a list of shows I'm dropping to make room for blogging new ones (by "dropping" I don't necessarily mean that I'm going to stop watching them, but I won't commit to blogging about them because I have less time now and it's difficult enough to keep up with stuff as it is).

As far as Spring shows are concerned:

Finished:
Kurenai - All episodes received a blog post, and the show is finished.
Kaiba - Show is finished, still planning to blog the last three episodes when I can get time to re-watch them (that show really requires multiple viewings, IMO).
Toshokan Sensou - All episodes received a blog post, and the show is finished.

Dropped:
Golgo 13 - The show is so episodic that discussion isn't all that necessary, plus the show is a guilty pleasure anyway rather than a serious pursuit.
Soul Eater - I watch this at a slower pace with friends, also the story is uncomplicated and doesn't really warrant further discussion.
Nabari no Ou - It was kind of borderline for me in the first place, plus Funimation has been sending out cease-and-desist notices for fansubbers so I'm going to take the ethical high road and respect that.
Itazura na Kiss - fun show but also very formulaic and not really worth discussing. It'll be on the backburner until I have time to watch it on my own.
Chi's Sweet Home - I love the show but how much is there to say about a funny show with a cute kitty? I love it forever but I don't need to blog about it.
Himitsu - There haven't been fansubs past episode 7 for months now, and while it doesn't necessarily spell doom for the show, I can't really blog about something I can't watch, now can I? I definitely plan to pick it back up again if there are more episodes, though.

So, from a cursory inspection, that leaves Allison and Lillia, Real Drive, The Daughter of Twenty Faces and the rest of Kaiba to deal with. But never fear, there are of course some new additions from Summer to look forward to.

Antique Bakery - I mistook this for a BL show, when in fact only one of the characters is gay. In any case, pretty boys, pretty food, and Noitamina make it worth a second look.
Birdy the Mighty Decode - This show was very borderline for me, but I figured why not, the animation is really nice. We'll see how long that fact can carry the show for me.
Blade of the Immortal - Very dark, very violent. Plus I think it's on a every-other-week broadcast schedule, so it's easier to keep up with.
Detroit Metal City - This one will probably get a full review once Fall season starts (it's from earlier in the year, but fansubbers only just now picked it up). Death Metal + Comedy = Hilariousness. Beware of extremely vulgar language! And if you're thinking that this is nothing more than a Metalocalypse rip-off, don't. They're only superficially similar.
Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora - nice, relaxed slice-of-life with a bit of magic sprinkled in. Could be boring, but I'm hoping not.
Natsume Yuujinchou - Moyashimon + Mushi-shi, though not completely like either one. Nice animation to boot.
Ryoko's Case File - Classic-feeling story with an eccentric police woman at the helm. The first episode made me curious.
Xamd: Lost Memories - I don't quite know how good the story will be yet, but damn the animation is hot. I mean, holy crap. Also, the creators must have watched Nausicaa multiple times.

All this is dependant on how busy I am, and with legitimate DVD reviewing to work on and how much time kitty takes up (he tends to cling to me like glue whenever I'm trying to use the computer, so sometimes it's hard to get any typing done). Obviously the main S1E1 reviews will take a higher priority, and considering that Fall season is fast approaching, I may have to rework my schedule a bit. Though now I have most Saturdays by myself, I should be able to use that time since there should be fewer distractions.

Five more reviews up. The rest of the Summer reviews should be up on Monday, and the school starts. But don't worry. I'll still have time to work on the site. I hope. Maybe. But, for seriously, the site's just gonna keep getting better. Look forward to it.

BACK IN ACTION ACTION ACTION

Five new reviews up on the main site. A few minor changes here and there. The next few days should have lots of reviews going up, as school's about to start again and I want to get them all posted before I get a bunch of schoolwork.

In other, more interesting news, there's big changes coming down the pipe for s1e1. We're going to get faster, slicker, and (this is just a rumor) more comment-thread-ful. But don't tell anyone (please, tell everyone).

Enjoy the new reviews. And don't watch Nogizaka Haruka's Secret. It's rubbish.

On Being Critical

[Just to let everyone know, I've finished catching up with Summer reviews and it's up to Boris to get them posted. I'll be back into the blogging thing ASAP since we're now moved into our new place and have finally settled in]

Most of you are fully aware of this, but I'll say it outright - I'm extremely critical of the things I watch. This comes both from having seen a ton of stuff of varying quality, and having to pick things apart for my "second job", reviewing anime. I'm unapologetic because I have to be; I'm not doing anyone a favor by making excuses for a series or movie that I don't feel tries very hard or doesn't have a special quality that sets it apart. People are welcome to like things that I dislike, and I'm not about to go rip a DVD from their hand and go "no! Drop it!" because I like to think my insanity hasn't spread that far yet. But when I say stuff like "I don't think that person has very good taste because the only show they watched last season was Kanokon", I don't really feel too bad about it because I'm being truthful as far as I see it and I could give you a ton of reasons why I think that show is terrible. And the rest of the truth is, there are very few opinions that I really trust. And the people that I do trust I don't always agree with either, I just feel that they can provide a good explanation of why they like what they do that doesn't only involve "there were some sweet fights in it lololol".

Which brings me to what my point is. I can go to ANN and check out the most highly-rated and most popular shows, but the truth is that a lot of those shows are rated highly because they're more available and the story is accessible to a very wide audience. Just as an example (no wank, please), Bleach is rated very highly, but it's also an Adult Swim show which means anyone with cable can watch it for free and its story is very action-oriented and accessible even to young fans. Personally, though, it doesn't hold any interest for me. Thus those thousands of high ratings aren't trustworthy as far as indicating something that I would enjoy. I'm not necessarily saying that I have a superior opinion because I don't, but I base it on a lot more things than most people do because I have to.

I guess what I want is for people to just understand that I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm also not prepared to censor myself when someone asks what I think about something. I realize that the stuff I like isn't always widely-appealing, but I always have a good reason for liking it.

Moving Day is Nigh

Just in case anyone had neglected to notice, I haven't had much of a blog presence the past couple of weeks. Well, that can mostly be explained by the fact that we're moving into a new house and have spent a lot of time packing and bringing stuff over to the new place. Also, I've been trying to work on reviews for Summer anime (before Autumn rolls around, heh) so that's taken up the majority of my writing time.

Assuming our internet gets hooked up smoothly (we have Comcast, so we'll see how that goes), the new reviews ought to be up fairly soon and the blog should be back up and running as well.

Thanks for sticking around!