Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Binchou-tan – episode 1

“Bin awakens on a Spring day”

The adventures of a tiny girl with a giant head. Dialogue not necessary.
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Angelic Layer

Angelic Layer is CLAMP’s shounen series … for girls. Eventually the viewer will realise that it’s all an excuse to see women in outlandish outfits beat each other up, but it’s a sweet, well executed excuse.
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Clear out

I’m presently working on articles that have laid unfinished for months – some as far back as late August. Don’t be surprised to be some quite random stuff, all based on DVD, popping up here and there.

Mushishi – episode 12

“The One Eyed Fish”

I really don’t know how to introduce an episode of Mushishi without sounding clichéd. It never fails to impress.

Vague spoilers
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Bleach – episode 67

The third “game” reveals a mystery that is directed so poorly that the answer is the most obvious thing in the world. The Soul Society material is both a Deus Ex Machina and a red herring.
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Mushishi – episode 11

“Sleeping Forest”

A slightly ambiguous episode in its dealings with the nature of Ginko himself, but an otherwise excellent story about choice and, again, fault lines.
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Bleach – episode 66

Ririn is incredibly ugly and subjects Ishida, Ichigo and Renji to an ultimately pointless puzzle. The story is fairly lame, but Kon saves the episode and makes it close to entertainment. I don’t “grade” episodes, or anything else for that matter, but I would give this episode “not bad”.
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Monster – episode 74

“The Real Monster”

Last week I wrote something very brief for the conclusion of Monster. I quickly scrapped it because I think the series deserves something more. When I reach the end of certain anime, I feel as if the series in question was more of a waking dream. Monster was just that nebulous, with an epilogue episode that very deliberately leaves some questions not so much unanswered as it leaves their answers unrevealed to the audience.

Ultimately, Monster is one of my favourite anime ever. If something can stir as much emotion as this, it’s definitely worthwhile. I laughed (very briefly), I cried (explosively), I convulsed in horror (on several occasions). Monster comes with my highest recommendation.

Epic spoilers – but not every spoiler possible!
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Series dropped

In the interests of time, I’m dropping Ginban Kaleidoscope altogether and also, in a fit of irony, Black Cat. If I don’t do this, I severely doubt I’ll manage to touch the new season at all. My interests that way lie in Yomigaeru and Hantsuki. I think I might just skip the fanservice this time around.

On the way is my final Monster, if I ever finish it, and also the Mushishi catch up (about the only thing on this site that isn’t my fault).

City Hunter: Goodbye, My Sweetheart

Released commercially as City Hunter: The Motion Picture.

Yet another City Hunter TV special, this time to commemorate ten years of City Hunter animation. Like most other City Hunter specials, Goodbye, my Sweetheart is decidedly overblown, derivative and lacking a lot of what made the TV series so enjoyable.
Still, it offers some themes that were never explored in the series that would later become plot points of Angel Heart, and has decidedly high production values.

This was actually the first City Hunter property to be released on DVD in the US, as a litmus test for the series. It must have worked after a fashion, but Goodbye, My Sweetheart is one of the more illogical stories offered by the franchise.
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