Alex Row, coolest pirate ever.
"Claus is so cuuuuu...ute!" my sister said.
We were watching Last Exile. This is the best thing about a weekend at home: good food out (dad pays!), good food at home (dad prepares!), strong coffee (never in short supply!), get your car serviced (a really good job, for much, much less than you'd pay anywhere else... by wrench wench whose sister is dad's colleague), sleep as much as you'd like (14 hours straight!).
And watch tons and tons of anime. Some good, some... not so much.
Poppy had gotten hold of the last Bleach movie DVD (Memories of Nobody). Yes, turn your snarky nose up at me if you will (you know who you are), but I did watch - and ENJOY, dammit - the first sixty-three episodes of Bleach. I don't care if it's unintellectual or too mainstream, it was fun. But that horrid diarrhoea of a filler arc destroyed it for me. The movie wasn't much better, unfortunately.
It didn't help that the last good series I watched was Cowboy Bebop, and while I knew it would end on a downer note, I didn't expect it to be THIS much of a kick in the jewels. The part where Spike finds Ed's goodbye message really took me by surprise... and as for the rest, I guess you know how it goes (and if you don't, this isn't the place to find out).
To get over the post-CB funk, I decided to pick up something light and predictable. A colleague lent me on of those generic ordinary- teenager-thrown-by-very-hard-to-believe-circumstances-into-the-midst- of-a-bishie-harem comedy. Except that about four-fifths of the way through, the damn thing decided that it was going to leap across genres and grow a beard (a stubble really) and go for the 'shock' ending. (Well, nobody died; though when you think about it the series would probably have benefited from a well-placed homicide or six.)
I was tired of the annoying protagonist, and irritated that (a) the rivals were all given sudden, highly suspect flaws just as their popularity threatened the protagonist, and that (b) all potential love interests were super-talented, super-kind, super-bish types who spurned equally talented bish admirers - for the protagonist. I was hoping that the protagonist would be left mate-less (a la Alfie - triggering some much-needed introspection), but no, there's a happy ending with one of the love interests, which means a sad ending for the rest of the harem, including the one that you're led to believe will 'win'.
And then we have this movie, Memories of Nobody, which sucked razorblades.
Last Exile is a series made for moments like these. Watch it after a really good show, and it fails to grip. But if what you need something to cleanse your palate after a string of rotten shows, it's perfect. None of those cringe-worthy moments when you think "I hope nobody comes in and finds me watching this muck." Everything about Last Exile is... likeable. So far. And Alex Row beats the stuffing out of Captain Blood, Barbe Rouge, AND Captain Hook. (Jack Sparrow didn't make it as far as the battle, sorry.) So yeah, it's a good series to watch, so far. We'll see how it goes.
[UPDATE: Okay, there was ONE cringe-worthy moment: the part where Sophia kisses I-won't-tell-whom-but-it's-not-the-one-you-think-it-is; but at least the plot doesn't progress in that direction. Sophia seemed set to be the coolest person on the Silvana, and won additional points for (a) wearing glasses and (b) totally looking like our mum (who pwns when it comes to coolness). Plus we assumed she was 40-ish. (She's 19.) But yeah, Last Exile is still very watchable.]
Nice bonus for the week: Chapter 75 of Hagaren is out. Sheds light on Hohenheim's past, and what happened in Xerxes.
We were watching Last Exile. This is the best thing about a weekend at home: good food out (dad pays!), good food at home (dad prepares!), strong coffee (never in short supply!), get your car serviced (a really good job, for much, much less than you'd pay anywhere else... by wrench wench whose sister is dad's colleague), sleep as much as you'd like (14 hours straight!).
And watch tons and tons of anime. Some good, some... not so much.
Poppy had gotten hold of the last Bleach movie DVD (Memories of Nobody). Yes, turn your snarky nose up at me if you will (you know who you are), but I did watch - and ENJOY, dammit - the first sixty-three episodes of Bleach. I don't care if it's unintellectual or too mainstream, it was fun. But that horrid diarrhoea of a filler arc destroyed it for me. The movie wasn't much better, unfortunately.
It didn't help that the last good series I watched was Cowboy Bebop, and while I knew it would end on a downer note, I didn't expect it to be THIS much of a kick in the jewels. The part where Spike finds Ed's goodbye message really took me by surprise... and as for the rest, I guess you know how it goes (and if you don't, this isn't the place to find out).
To get over the post-CB funk, I decided to pick up something light and predictable. A colleague lent me on of those generic ordinary- teenager-thrown-by-very-hard-to-believe-circumstances-into-the-midst- of-a-bishie-harem comedy. Except that about four-fifths of the way through, the damn thing decided that it was going to leap across genres and grow a beard (a stubble really) and go for the 'shock' ending. (Well, nobody died; though when you think about it the series would probably have benefited from a well-placed homicide or six.)
I was tired of the annoying protagonist, and irritated that (a) the rivals were all given sudden, highly suspect flaws just as their popularity threatened the protagonist, and that (b) all potential love interests were super-talented, super-kind, super-bish types who spurned equally talented bish admirers - for the protagonist. I was hoping that the protagonist would be left mate-less (a la Alfie - triggering some much-needed introspection), but no, there's a happy ending with one of the love interests, which means a sad ending for the rest of the harem, including the one that you're led to believe will 'win'.
And then we have this movie, Memories of Nobody, which sucked razorblades.
Last Exile is a series made for moments like these. Watch it after a really good show, and it fails to grip. But if what you need something to cleanse your palate after a string of rotten shows, it's perfect. None of those cringe-worthy moments when you think "I hope nobody comes in and finds me watching this muck." Everything about Last Exile is... likeable. So far. And Alex Row beats the stuffing out of Captain Blood, Barbe Rouge, AND Captain Hook. (Jack Sparrow didn't make it as far as the battle, sorry.) So yeah, it's a good series to watch, so far. We'll see how it goes.
[UPDATE: Okay, there was ONE cringe-worthy moment: the part where Sophia kisses I-won't-tell-whom-but-it's-not-the-one-you-think-it-is; but at least the plot doesn't progress in that direction. Sophia seemed set to be the coolest person on the Silvana, and won additional points for (a) wearing glasses and (b) totally looking like our mum (who pwns when it comes to coolness). Plus we assumed she was 40-ish. (She's 19.) But yeah, Last Exile is still very watchable.]
Nice bonus for the week: Chapter 75 of Hagaren is out. Sheds light on Hohenheim's past, and what happened in Xerxes.
