Well, I see that Cowboy Bebop.com has been updated with a new site design, and new content. Unfortunately, it’s being hammered by site requests, so it’s rather difficult to explore today.
Meanwhile, there’s not much to report. I made a lemon cream pie last night, but it didn’t mix well and will probably come out lumpy. But that’s OK; cooking is like that. I’d like to attack something else soon; maybe donuts. And I definitely want to make something for Easter.
I’ve been grabbing new anime music videos off of a Hotline server lately. I’m getting tempted to set up an archive of these things on my site.
I’ve been writing a bit on Wine lately, though that’s slow going. It’s really just a matter of banging away at it, though. Oh, and Points of View has moved to www..
And I just got finished watching … thanks to fansubs downloaded off of that Hotline server (don’t worry; none of these series are available over here) … a whole bunch of anime. ::cracks knuckles:: Time for a little reviewin’.
- FLCL a.k.a. Furi Kuri — The latest show from Gainax, creators of Nadia and the Secret of the Blue Water and Neon Genesis Evangelion. In fact, I think this is their first series since the
ground-breaking Evangelion. In any event, it’s very very VERY unique in terms of style and storytelling. It seems to take bits from serial experiments lain, Niea Under 7, Evangelion, and Akira (not to mention fragments of Bubblegum Crisis). And all the while, it leaps from one animation trick to another; several minutes are spent panning a doujinshi (comic book) version of what’s going on. Very weird, and yet very enjoyable. And, because it’s Gainax, the animation is better than most OVAs’. - Gundam X — Done by the same character designer behind Gundam Wing, this is a more
adventure-oriented show than GW, taking place 15 years after orbiting space colonies were dropped on Earth, decimating nearly all of the planet’s population. Thus, it’s sort of like “Mad Max meets Gundam Wing,” with scattered towns having to deal with roving bandits who steal and sell old Mobile Suits. The main character is a boy who is more or less Duo Maxwell, both physically and emotionally, who gets caught up in an attempt tore-vive thesuper-powerful Gundams. - The Candidate for Goddess — A more
kid-oriented action/adventure show (borrowing heavily from Evangelion technology), Candidate follows a young boy as he trains to become a pilot for one of the five goddesses, giant piloted robots that fight off mysterious alien invaders who have captured all but one of mankind’s inhabited planets. It’s relatively light fare, but it’swell-enough presented that I never got bored with it. This is evidently going to be showing up on Cartoon Network at some point. I can’t wait to hear their version; the Japanese dub is pretty bad. - Inu Yasha — The latest series from Rumiko “Goddess of Manga” Takahashi (creator of Maison Ikkoku, Ranma 1/2, and others), this is a more
fantasy-oriented tale, in which a 15-year-old girl is sucked back in time 1,000 years, 50 years after an ancestor’s death. She also has the supernatural powers of her ancestor, which become very useful when she’s attacked by a centipede monster. She releases Inu Yasha, ahalf-goblin , to deal with the monster, but it turns out Inu Yasha isn’t exactly a hero himself. The series (eventually) focuses on the relationship between Inu Yasha and the girl. It’s very good, and it’s nice to see Takahashi attack a different genre than her usual modern romances (this feels sort of like a cross between the samurai epics and Tenchi Muyo!; in fact, Inu Yasha looks to be heavily influenced from Ryoko).
I also caught three of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time. One is a