Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Bleach – episode 63

Blah. A recap episode with “commentary”, plus a slightly extended and poorly animated yet marginally nice epilogue.
During this episode, I realised that I don’t really watch anime for action. Then I wondered why I actually watch Bleach at all: peer pressure. Damned peers.
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Paradise Kiss – episode 10

“Rose”

Isabella finally gets to become slightly more than furniture, although showing her loveless childhood serves mainly to demonstrate that George was conceited even at ten; that, perhaps, he still hasn’t grown up.
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Mushishi – episode 9

“The Heavy Seed”

For all the talk about how depressing Mushishi is, and that all of the episodes lack happy endings, I find that the primary message of this anime is hope. Despite the themes of death, the ultimate feel of this episode was optimism and assurance.
An excellent course to stay.
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Angel Heart – episode 8

“True friends”

Ryo breaks the implausibility barrier for the sake of entertainment and Glass Heart’s satisfaction. Again, good stuff … but where the hell is Miki?
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Black Cat – episode 9

“A Charming Cat”

You know, Black Cat has not actually provided a convincing argument for having been licenced. As far as I can tell, the cease and desist applied only to Tsubasa and Solty Rei. The internet is disappointingly underdocumented on this case, and some fans are the usual stupid “omg I can’t believe it’s been licenced!” people (if I have lost your custom because you hate licensors, good – you give anime fans a bad name).

Anyway, I have returned to Black Cat and will drop it only when something substantial comes up … like an actual licence announcement.
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Angel Heart – episode 7

“I should love this town of mine”

An excellent episode, and the strange part is that it all feels natural: Ryo and Glass Heart go together as if they were made for each other, even without the involvement of Kaori. There are some new ideas for old characters here, and they’re weird; still, this episode works perfectly as an extension of what was already a living world, contrasting perfeclty with the theme of fatalism that runs as the subtext.
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Monster – episode 68

“Ruhenheim”

Not thrilling as Monster goes, but “Ruhenheim” is a great example of a slow boil that brings back two characters and perfectly sets up the last ten episodes of the story.
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The Snow Queen – episode 5

“The First Road”

At five episodes in six months, I have to wonder why the fansubbers hate me. Still, with Gerda hitting the road at last and already facing terrible adversity there’s little to worry about as far as the quality of the series.
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Ginban Kaleidoscope – episode 4

“Shocking Free Program”

A surprisingly good episode despite, or perhaps because of, all of the horrible, horrible English employed within.
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It’s 2006?

I appear to have not written anything all year. To guilt myself into getting Anime Pilgrimage DX up to date, I provide for your entertainment the list of stuff I have not yet done:

I’ve conquered my latest funk and, to be honest, have already written two of these, so it should be okay. I’ve neglected to include the completed series that I’ve still got to put up. Look forward to a semi-industrious 2006!