Neo Ranga is one of those ‘great shows that no one’s heard of’, only this time it’s underrated as well as overlooked. According to MAL, only one of my friends has seen the show (No Name, whose seen everything) and only a small number of total members as well. What’s more, the collective score is only 6.63, and the results are similar on ANN. Why? How could a show so great get so overlooked? Actually, I’m pretty sure I know.
|
|
||
|
I don’t think that there is anything inherently wrong with Ghost Hound. It is the kind of show that is only going to appeal to the most niche of niche audiences, and no one else. This is not surprising – the show was largely created by a veritable tour-de-force of cult favorite names, having been directed and storyboarded by Ryutaro Nakamura (REC, Serial Experiments Lain, Kino’s Journey) and written by the inimitable Chiaki J. Konaka (The Big O, Serial Experiments Lain, Mononoke, Texhnolyze, and some less weird stuff). But don’t get confused. I personally love every single show I just mentioned (half of them are favorites), but that does not necessarily mean that I fall into the same niche as people who like Ghost Hound. It’s a niche all it’s own. Kuuchuu Buranko was my favorite show of the last season (fall 09), and I would probably have blogged the whole thing episodically if OMG-Life hadn’t intervened. No matter, I knew I’d finish it before too long because there were only 8 eps left, and I got the drive to do so when I started listening to the OP and ED like crazy over the past week or so. So, on to Saki. I loved this show a lot while I was watching it, and I can see myself rewatching it in the future, as well as greatly looking forward to a season 2! (Don’t let this be like Bamboo Blade where they show the new opponent right at the end and then go a year and a half with no word of a second season in sight!) As far as the production goes, it was great. The whole thing was very well done, but the character designs and character animation were altogether utterly astounding. I can safely say that Saki ranks among the very top of my considerations for the show with the best character designs. Every character was distinct and lovingly crafted so that no one looked like less time had been spent on them or anything. Each design melded in with the characters’ personalities effortlessly, making them just that much more memorable and easy to appreciate. Bakemonogatari for me is like an old friend that you’ve known for as long as you can remember. It’s the kind of a friend whom you love and can hang out with at any time, but you do KNOW him. It’s not like the two of you have to sit there and talk about yourselves and get all interested in one another, and it’s not like a cute girl who you’re flirting with for the first time. In many ways, I may want to hang out with this friend more than anyone else. Sometimes, meeting new people and making new impressions is stressful and difficult, so it’s always good to have friends you can fall back on and know they’ll be good to you. A lot of the times, that’s what you do when you are rewatching a show you love, but for me, Bakemonogatari was that all along. If you’ve been reading me since last September, you may remember that I was fanboying pretty hard about Canaan, and then suddenly stopped. As a matter of fact, as of the first 7 episodes, I was considering Canaan a ’surefire favorite’. After two more episodes that weren’t quite as great, I was not deterred from loving the show, and yet somehow, I stopped watching it. Ghostlightning maintains that he will ‘never forgive me’ for not finishing the show when I’d convinced him to watch it to the end even though he didn’t like it. Why did I stop? That, my friends, is a matter of love. In a recent post, I detailed the fact that I have a tendency not to finish a lot of the anime that I start. In response to this, Ghostlightning told me that I should make a comeback in the following year and finish or drop as many of the shows that I can which I have left unfinished. I have of course wanted to do this for a long time, and being as I never back away from a challenge, I decided to go through with it. Through the use of MyAnimeList and a series of checks and eliminations, I composed a list of the shows I needed to finish. Unfortunately, this list came to 225 f-ing results, many of which are lengthy or have sequels. Obviously there is no way I will finish all of these in a single year, but I will nonetheless make an effort for as many as possible. My goal is to either finish each show or watch it to the point that I can no longer stand it and drop it. The first show is Outlaw Star. |
||
|
Copyright © 2010 Fuzakenna! - All Rights Reserved |
||