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silverthunder) wrote2010-04-13 10:21 am
silverthunder) wrote2010-04-13 10:21 am
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So I'm still working on some of the invitations, although most have been sent out now. The ones I still have to finish are for people who already know the date and time and are pretty much going to be there. I still want to get them done as soon as I can, but I'm waiting on more supplies in the mail. Bleh.
Still have a bunch of stuff to do, but again, can't do most of it just yet. It's kind of annoying. Oh well.
Cody and I decided to move the elliptical to the computer area, so we can hook up our computers to our 37" TV while and watch downloaded anime while working out. The TV also has a DVD player hooked up, so while it's not quite as nice as the 50" with the surround sound, it means we have more we can choose from to watch.
I'm planning to finish off some series I started a while ago, watch a couple of new series I've been thinking about looking into, and also probably still watch some Avatar here and there. Currently, I'm planning to focus on Toradora!, a new series called Working!! that looks kinda cute, and probably finishing up Shangri-La at some point. I've also got a few others I'll likely plow through. But today I'm going to finish the last two episodes of Tales of Symphonia. The new OVA for that series is going to be out this year, so yeah. Want to finish the first one.
Cody and I are also watching a new series together that he downloaded a week or so ago. It's called Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, and it's based on a supernatural murder mystery game. He was a few episodes in to what he thought was the only season for it, and looking over his shoulder, I thought it looked familiar. It looked a LOT like a series I downloaded an episode of back when I was looking for stuff like Ghost Hunt. But when I asked Cody about it, the first episode he watched was absolutely nothing like the one I'd watched. And I'd deleted mine, so I couldn't confirm it.
It looked more and more familiar to me as I started watching over his shoulder, so I actually went on MyAnimeList to see if I'd marked that series as 'watched one episode and dropped'. Yup, sure enough, same anime. So, I did a little more investigation.
Turns out there's more than one season.
So, yeah. Cody downloaded the second without knowing. The episode I'd watched had been from the first. He was kind of annoyed when he found that out, because a few things had been given away by this point. But, he dutifully downloaded the first season and we've been watching it pretty faithfully since then. Despite the fact that I dropped it after the first episode thinking that it wasn't my thing, it's actually got a kind of interesting twist to it.
The reason I dropped this one at first glance is because honestly, it kind of looked like a harem setup. You've got one dude as the main character and the rest of the main cast is female. Because it's set in a small enough town that all the grades in the school are squished into one room, a couple of those females are grade-school age, which gave me the impression that there might be some loli elements as well. The females also seem to gang up on this poor guy a lot, and occasionally a couple of them get away with smacking him around much like in harem anime, which typically annoys me because the guy can't retaliate or anything. I mean, these bitches can dish it out, but I doubt they could take it. How... empowering.
The guy himself isn't as annoying as a typical harem lead, but neither is he anything really special or exciting. In fact, even now, the characters are kind of 'meh' for me. Sometimes I find they grate on my nerves, other times they seem likable. Rika (one of the younger girls) and Keiichi (the guy) are probably the two I like the most; the others are an off-and-on thing for me. At least they're not all fighting over him. In fact, there's very little romance in the series at all and even less ecchi references.
The thing that makes this series really kind of neat (and somewhat addicting) is the way the events unfold. You just don't know what the hell is going on. Each story arc (about five or so episodes long) is a different version of the same time period, where different events lead up to this festival that seems to be at the heart of what's going on in this town.
The basic story is always the same: several years back, a decision was made to put in a dam that would result in the town being flooded and the inhabitants forced to relocate. The director in charge was brutally murdered during the construction, and his body was cut into pieces. Since then, every year on the day of the festival, at least one person will die and at least one other person will disappear. The myth is that the local deity demands this as a sacrifice to quell his anger.
I've watched two arcs so far, and it seems like the same two people always die/disappear on the night of the festival. However, after the festival is when the really nasty murders start to happen. Main characters die in horrible ways. This... really isn't a series for the faint-hearted. The culprit, motive, and methods always change depending on what led up to the festival, and you learn a little more about the town and its history each time, but we're still only catching glimpses of what's really going on here. Then when the main guy has been killed off, the next arc starts off some time before the festival as if none of the previous arc had ever even happened.
It's... kind of bizarre. But in an 'omg what happens this time' way, so I'm still watching.
The thing that gets me sometimes is how incredibly DUMB the characters can be, particularly the main guy. I mean, this chick just confessed that she brutally killed a bunch of people and you AGREE TO GO OFF ALONE WITH HER? She specifically warns you not to go near her if you see her again, and YOU DO ANYWAY? The knife in the gut shouldn't be a surprise, buddy. Sheesh!
But, ah well. I guess that's pretty standard fare for horror anyway.
I gotta say, the opening themes for this series are pretty cool. I forgot to put them on my iPod before leaving this morning, unfortunately, but I will do so tonight. They're definitely haunting enough to go with this creepy series.
Season 1 OP on YouTube
Season 2 OP on YouTube
Still have a bunch of stuff to do, but again, can't do most of it just yet. It's kind of annoying. Oh well.
Cody and I decided to move the elliptical to the computer area, so we can hook up our computers to our 37" TV while and watch downloaded anime while working out. The TV also has a DVD player hooked up, so while it's not quite as nice as the 50" with the surround sound, it means we have more we can choose from to watch.
I'm planning to finish off some series I started a while ago, watch a couple of new series I've been thinking about looking into, and also probably still watch some Avatar here and there. Currently, I'm planning to focus on Toradora!, a new series called Working!! that looks kinda cute, and probably finishing up Shangri-La at some point. I've also got a few others I'll likely plow through. But today I'm going to finish the last two episodes of Tales of Symphonia. The new OVA for that series is going to be out this year, so yeah. Want to finish the first one.
Cody and I are also watching a new series together that he downloaded a week or so ago. It's called Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, and it's based on a supernatural murder mystery game. He was a few episodes in to what he thought was the only season for it, and looking over his shoulder, I thought it looked familiar. It looked a LOT like a series I downloaded an episode of back when I was looking for stuff like Ghost Hunt. But when I asked Cody about it, the first episode he watched was absolutely nothing like the one I'd watched. And I'd deleted mine, so I couldn't confirm it.
It looked more and more familiar to me as I started watching over his shoulder, so I actually went on MyAnimeList to see if I'd marked that series as 'watched one episode and dropped'. Yup, sure enough, same anime. So, I did a little more investigation.
Turns out there's more than one season.
So, yeah. Cody downloaded the second without knowing. The episode I'd watched had been from the first. He was kind of annoyed when he found that out, because a few things had been given away by this point. But, he dutifully downloaded the first season and we've been watching it pretty faithfully since then. Despite the fact that I dropped it after the first episode thinking that it wasn't my thing, it's actually got a kind of interesting twist to it.
The reason I dropped this one at first glance is because honestly, it kind of looked like a harem setup. You've got one dude as the main character and the rest of the main cast is female. Because it's set in a small enough town that all the grades in the school are squished into one room, a couple of those females are grade-school age, which gave me the impression that there might be some loli elements as well. The females also seem to gang up on this poor guy a lot, and occasionally a couple of them get away with smacking him around much like in harem anime, which typically annoys me because the guy can't retaliate or anything. I mean, these bitches can dish it out, but I doubt they could take it. How... empowering.
The guy himself isn't as annoying as a typical harem lead, but neither is he anything really special or exciting. In fact, even now, the characters are kind of 'meh' for me. Sometimes I find they grate on my nerves, other times they seem likable. Rika (one of the younger girls) and Keiichi (the guy) are probably the two I like the most; the others are an off-and-on thing for me. At least they're not all fighting over him. In fact, there's very little romance in the series at all and even less ecchi references.
The thing that makes this series really kind of neat (and somewhat addicting) is the way the events unfold. You just don't know what the hell is going on. Each story arc (about five or so episodes long) is a different version of the same time period, where different events lead up to this festival that seems to be at the heart of what's going on in this town.
The basic story is always the same: several years back, a decision was made to put in a dam that would result in the town being flooded and the inhabitants forced to relocate. The director in charge was brutally murdered during the construction, and his body was cut into pieces. Since then, every year on the day of the festival, at least one person will die and at least one other person will disappear. The myth is that the local deity demands this as a sacrifice to quell his anger.
I've watched two arcs so far, and it seems like the same two people always die/disappear on the night of the festival. However, after the festival is when the really nasty murders start to happen. Main characters die in horrible ways. This... really isn't a series for the faint-hearted. The culprit, motive, and methods always change depending on what led up to the festival, and you learn a little more about the town and its history each time, but we're still only catching glimpses of what's really going on here. Then when the main guy has been killed off, the next arc starts off some time before the festival as if none of the previous arc had ever even happened.
It's... kind of bizarre. But in an 'omg what happens this time' way, so I'm still watching.
The thing that gets me sometimes is how incredibly DUMB the characters can be, particularly the main guy. I mean, this chick just confessed that she brutally killed a bunch of people and you AGREE TO GO OFF ALONE WITH HER? She specifically warns you not to go near her if you see her again, and YOU DO ANYWAY? The knife in the gut shouldn't be a surprise, buddy. Sheesh!
But, ah well. I guess that's pretty standard fare for horror anyway.
I gotta say, the opening themes for this series are pretty cool. I forgot to put them on my iPod before leaving this morning, unfortunately, but I will do so tonight. They're definitely haunting enough to go with this creepy series.
Season 1 OP on YouTube
Season 2 OP on YouTube