Viewing Journal: Completed series aplenty

Here's a quick overview of a few select anime that I have completed over the past year or so; because I'm sure you have just been dying to know:

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

Take an intriguing, well-thought-out story originating from one of the great masters in manga Masamune Shirow; mix it with strong characters; add in the genius of animation powerhouse Production I.G. and the musical talents of Yoko Kanno; and what do you get? Well, if you don't get one of the best anime series ever, somebody needs to get fired. Luckily, what we end up with is a smart, visually attractive show that is something like CSI set in the world of Bladerunner. This is one of my top TV series of all time -- animated or live action.

Gad Guard

From one of the best, we now go to one of the worst: Gad Guard. The one and only reason that I kept watching this show was because I thought the mecha designs were cool. Once you get past that though, the show is just a whole lot of nothing. I think I literally fell asleep at one point or another during almost every episode. My only hope was that there would be some great pay-off at the end of the series (which is usually the reason I keep watching bad shows), but I got nothin'.

Gungrave

The show literally starts out with guns blazing -- which is not necessarily a good thing because if you judge it from the first episode, it seems like the show will be a whole lot of pointless action. But once you get past that, the story flashes back to a story about family and loyalty and mob wars and zombies and revenge. Actually, the "zombies" part wasn't all that impressive but was necessary -- I guess -- to tell the story. The end of the series though, while stretching the boundries of believability, was ulitimately both surprising and satisfying. Very recommended.

R.O.D. TV

This show was kind of hard to get into at first as it starts out slow and initially seems to be a far cry from the original OAV on which it was based. Once you get further into the series though, and the conspiracies for world domination come more to the head, the paper sisters put their paper-manipulating powers to work and it becomes at least a little more interesting. Despite the cool action scenes, the plot was just so full of awkward holes that I was never able to get really into this series all that much.

Texhnolyze

Kind of cool, but I think I was just too confused by what was supposed to be going on to get into it at all.

Chrono Crusade

The visuals seemed kind of cool, as did the premise. But in the end, I just wasn't impressed. Again, I was waiting for a cool ending, but was let down.

Cutie Honey

A lot of half-to-fully nude heros fighting half-to-fully nude villians in a futuristic sci-fi setting. Not that that's a bad thing, but I think I've gotten to the point where I want a little bit more meat in the plot of my anime.

Paranoia Agent

A very original, dark, and weird storyline with believably crazy characters and a story that makes you think as much as it entertains. Just the kind of thing I love.