Editorial #4

Okay, so no Naruto chapter summary/review this week. Lupus has done a decent job over at Everything and Nothing, and the transitional nature of 310 doesn't warrant any additional gash from me. Plus, I received some of my exam results this week and I didn't do as well as I'd wanted, so I've been a wee bit bummed about that. I'd only end up brutalising poor Naruto and regretting it later, such as is the way with the ones you love. Still, I'll be back on track for blogging once I relearn how to the deal with the world at large and sort out this abject laziness. Cheer up emo, I know, but I really messed up this semester. The prospect of re-sitting some of those exams is pretty terrifying.

As far as site stuff goes, it's all pretty good. I needneedneed to learn to abbreviate my posts about anime, though. I impose a 500-word limit on manga stuff and it's worked out well thus far, but I always have something more to say about anime. I suppose the big, moving, pretty pictures have that effect on me. Or I just need to be more concise. Regardless, I might actually knock out more posts if I trimmed the flab off of what I publish. More space-filling screencaps also seem to be the way forward . . .

The spring season anime selection hasn't really tickled my fancy beyond Ergo Proxy. Both Nana and xxxHOLiC have fairly pleasant anime variations, but I still enjoy the manga much more and this undermines the anime somewhat. Plus due to limited bandwidth I have to be fussy with what I bittorrent, so I'm finding myself reading episode synopses and downloading the episodes with my favourite scenes (a tentative SQUEE~~~ etc. awaits the animated pipe-fox spirit in xxxHOLiC).

Still, the summer season promises a new series of the ubiquitous Honey & Clover - apparently the funniest thing my flatmate has ever seen. The boy is prone to hyperbole, granted, but H&C is consistently better than most things and he usually snubs anime, so it’s an especially worthwhile endorsement. I'm happy it's going to be a twelve-episode run. I'm with most people in saying that H&C hit a bit of a plot/character no-man's-land towards the end of the first series. Still pretty brilliant, just slightly repetitive. I can't even begin to predict where they'll take things with the new series, though. Was everything in the manga covered? I dread to think of the backlash if it fails to meet people's expectations. The OP just better not be shit. Big shoes to fill, imho. I hope and pray they do something creative with the opening animation, too. So disappointed when they ditched the claymation/foodmation; it never failed to make me laugh when others saw the soiled panties and had a bit of a 'WTF' Fight Club moment. Happy days.

This is a recommended watch. A film by Brendan Jamieson, Evangelion fandom elite, it documents (or mockuments, if you will) the trails of an anime fan and his girlfriend. Funny in tragic, urgh-I-see-parts-of-myself-in-him (and her, incidentally) sort of way. Hey, at least his favourite anime is FLCL. Too bad about the hentai, eh perv!

Signed,
Hige

P.S. HVO has a new layout, sorta. It's rather orangé. :x

Comments

[Lupus]

Was everything in the manga covered?

The first season covered the first 7 volumes of the manga, and there's quite a bit more out now in Japan. So, if it's treated with the same care and love shown by the animation team in the first season, everything should be fine.

If they manage to mess it up someone will pay, Mai-HiME style.