Because I dunno when I'll be doing anime reviews again

[salinea]

Of the two shows I ended up watching last semester:

Star Drivers ended up somewhat disappointing. It was solidly entertaining through out, with good storytelling, great visuals and likeable characters. On the other end it totally failed to be subversive, especially on the gender front and despite all the shout out to Utena, and has a pretty bog standard narrative overall.

Hourou Musuko aka Wandering Son otoh was great; a lovely, subtle and delicate coming of age story that centers on two transgender teens and their friends. It had great characterizations, very well realised characters and some very deft and gorgeous touches in the animation and storytelling. Due to the necessity to adapt a long manga series in only one cour it ended up a bit uneven in pacing at the beginning an the end; but that didn't really stop it from being awesome. Owe to read the manga to properly assess it as an adaptation though.

Of the new shows of this semester, I'm not yet entirely sure what I'll watch, but so far I've got:

Hanasaku Iroha which I liked much better until the lattest episode which played an adult man doing bondage on our 16 yo heroine without her consent as comedy. Ugrh x_x Then again, it's got gorgeous animation, a main dynamic, romantic yet cynical female character I'm really liking, a secondary intense and overly serious female character whom she's totally crushing on which I'm also liking a lot, and some pretty good dramatic moments so far. Except the lattest episode. *sighs*

The X-Men anime which is.... VERY HAMMY so far, but somewhat entertaining and fun. I'm not entirely sure the storytelling is willing to let its female characters be badass though x_x

Comments

[elle_white]

I thought Star Drivers looked fun and interesting, but it didn't seem like a particularly groundbreaking or unique story. I looked up information about the series and it seemed rather generic in some respects.

I've never heard of Hourou Musuko, but I'm very intrigued by your review. I'll have to check out the manga one day!

[scriva.livejournal.com]

I wasn't really able to get into Star Driver so far, but I liked Hourou Musuko quite a lot. My favorite anime from the last season was Level E, whose main character is an alien trickster. It's a sort of episodic show with a couple of core characters linking the different chapters. It's mostly a comedy with some parody elements and some absurd situations. It has pretty cool female characters as well.

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

I kind of want to give Star Driver points for ending with the main trio as a 99% canon OT3, instead of going for the typical "pair one guy and one girl and hook the third wheel up with some other character" resolution. Other than that, though, yeah--it was fun to watch, but the amount of wasted potential drove me batty! I expected so much more from that writer/director combo.

[twhitesakura.livejournal.com]

I was just getting back into anime! I finished "Level E," am staring "Gosick" and was just thinking about "Hourou Musuko." I love your reviews!

[silver-sandals.livejournal.com]

...for a moment I thought you were talking about the old X-Men cartoon, which is AWESOME. I'd forgotten about the anime, but I'd totally watch it, except if the female characters aren't their awesome badass selves... *siiigh* Is there a lot of Wolverine in it? Can't stand him.


I think I've heard of Wandering Son before; that sounds lovely, I'll have to check it out.

[flo-nelja.livejournal.com]

Ca parle de quoi, Star Drivers et Hanasaku Iroha ?

Pour X-men, je n'ai vu que l'épisode 1, je ne dirais pas que j'ai trouvé ça bon mais j'étais déjà très surprise que ça ne soit pas abominablement mauvais, je dois avouer...
Dommage pour le manque de persos féminins badass. :-(