Quit this? Nah... Shugo Chara, DCIISS, Macross Frontier

(tags anime, season 2007-10, season 2008-04)

I was used to my torrents coming in through my feeds, but for some reason its been harder to track down what I want to watch. I let this situation continue for about 3 months, which made me miss season 2008-01. I considered stopping the anime hobby, yeah right. The feed situation hasn't improved, but Internet searching makes it easier than I thought. So here I am, starting off this historically long Golden Week, catching up on anime. Ugh.

Did I blog about this Shugo Chara (しゅごキャラ) yet? Oh! I am now fully caught up on this season 2007-10 anime, based on the Peach-Pit manga. I like this positive kids stuff. The first episode totally reminded me of A Little Snow Fairy Sugar (ちっちゃな雪使いシュガー), with main character "Amu" cracking open her first shugo chara "Ran", a boisterous happy-go-lucky cheerleader-like fairy-thing.

Shown above, in episode 28, Ran (left) lends a shoulder to runaway "Elle". kawaii!

There are a number of things I like about this anime: Ran is totally kawaii. Main character Amu is "cool and spicy" (tsun tsun?) but a good big sister. There are a couple of guys she likes, but I like how the story keeps trying to bring her and "Ikuto" together. Is Ikuto really a bad guy? Well he's neko-mimi and play the sad violin. Seiyuu goddess Nana Mizuki (水樹奈々) lends her singing talents with the insert song for character "Utau Hoshina". Utau is on the "evil" side (?) and has some sort of unrevealed love interest in Ikuto that hasn't been explained even after 28 episodes. It must be the main arc. She has the "blonde" "twin-tail" that hits my character design spot, rawr. Too bad she doesn't smile at all. I'm going to buy that insert song CD single not just because Nana Mizuki sings it.

I was really surprised with the cross-dressing theme that was revealed 20 plus episodes in, though. The other things that make me cringe is the whole "Shugo Chara" concept of eggs. It's sort of a loose analogy for optimism and pessimism. There are two many characters so Ran doesn't get the spotlight often. Also there is the magic-girl-transformation sequence and magic incantations in English. "Watashi no kokoro Unlock! Negative Heart ni Lock On! Open Heart!". Okay okay.

I intend on watching this every week because the romance angle has a good setup. Can our heroine Amu turn around the bad guy Ikuto? Can she stop doting on the prince-like good guy? (Who cares about Mr. Perfect? I sure don't.) Can she wrestle his affection (attention?) away from Utau, who literally throws herself at him every chance she gets? All this from a kids' anime.

Speaking of romance, Da Capo is back. Add a "2" and a "second season". Jeez, this is sequelitis. A friend told me he's expecting good things from this anime, after just watching two or three eps. I, myself, can't forget how D.C. 2 ended with the robot win (oh please give it a rest) and Yoshiyuki-kun throwing away a perfectly solid romance arc with genre-typical main character indecisiveness.

Whoa, Junichi Asakura (left) from the first DC makes an appearance as the old guy (okay, two heroines' dad). First off, supposedly DC2 is like 50 years in the future or something but that doesn't explain why another first DC character, ever genki "Yoshino Sakura", doesn't seem to have aged a day. Let us not forget "Suginami", whoa. Anyways, I snapped this picture because its rare to see yourself twice.

Unfortunately for "Koko", the heroine who lost out last time, she doesn't regain the spotlight this time around. After only seeing four eps of this DC2SS, I still don't know who is the main heroine, despite the opening animation. Unfortunately it's not "Anzu Yukimura". I kinda go for the quiet, doll-like type myself (Galaxy Angel's "Vanilla H" comes to mind). Also seiyuu goddess Yui Horie plays tsundere "Yume Asakura", but she also doesn't seem to be heroine material. In any case, DC2 started off promising, and DC2SS is just as promising, so I feel like I'm setting up myself for the burn.

Oh hey, it's been more than 5 years since I've seen one of these "Valkyries".

I've been hoping for Macross Frontier to show up on one of my feeds. As a Macross and Robotech fan, I am enthralled with the way this outing weaves the story with strikingly similar plot elements of the original Macross. I've typed too much already so I'm not going to explain how I like this feeling of deja-vu. I've already watched each episode twice just to make sure I understand what's going on! I also like how my tolerance for CG mecha has increased. And I did check the bio data on "Ranka Lee"'s seiyuu, Megumi Nakajima (中島愛). Man, has she got some great pipes. I love her singing voice! I can't believe this is her debut work.

Ugh, to garner some entertainment satisfaction by finishing these stories, I have to manually check the torrent sites each week, which means I have to think about anime regularly. Here I was hoping to distance myself from these fanboy hobbies. Nope, I can't quit this.