Mambo Papa (an anime fan who lives in Japan) posted his list to Usenet today; I'm taking the liberty of posting it in its entirety here rather than simply providing a link to it on Google Groups, since Google Groups has been flaky latey...
-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Quote:
From: "Manbow Papa"
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime.misc
Subject: My ratings to '07 Autumn shows
Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:10:56 +0900
Message-ID:
I've watched every first episode of all shows that I planned
to try. After I spent a sparse anime season this summer,
this autumn looks to be a busy season. There are also several
anime shows that got "near miss", i.e. if they get a litte charm
or quality they would be a better show to watch. This season's
keywords are amnesia and women's power (^_^
Based on the first eposide of every show. Ratings may vary
episode by episode. The number isn't the rank but only a
sequence for convenience.
Indication:
[for k:kids, shoujo, g:grown-ups]
(studio/production)
*:fair, **:enjoyable, ***:must see
a:good animation/artwork, d:good drama/story,
h:humorous/hilarious, m:good music, v:violent,
w:heartwarming, +:outstanding (e.g. a+ means
outstanding animation/artwork)
1) Rental Magica (ZEXCS): ***, adhmw
Members of Astral Corp try to exorcize an evil dog spirit.
But Itsuki, the president, is too weak to defeat it. Then Adilicia,
the head of Gatia, appears and exorcizes the spirit. The other
day, Itsuki is asked by Kunugi to find her lost grandfather
who had an obsession for collecting antiques. Itsuki finds that
her grandfather was already dead but employed a forbidden
magic to keep his spirit beside her in order to fulfil her wish for
him staying alive. Finally the magic run out of control and blew
him away. So Itsuki asks her to allow her grandfather's spirit
rest in peace. Good characterization, fluid animation, good
direction, and dramatic and effective use of music are making
this show very entertaining.
2) Shion no Ou - The Flowers of Hard Blood - (Deen): ***, ad+
Seven years ago, when Shion was a kid and playing with shogi
a murderer killed her parents, grubbed her jaw and left her
alive for unknown reason. But she lost her memory and speech.
A shogi professional player Yasuoka takes care of her and
teaches her how to play shogi. Now at the final match of the
women training league of shogi where only the winner is allowed
to be a professional, she is defeated by Ayumi who is actually
a boy. Later, Ayumi happened to see a stalker hugs Shion from
her back. Shion gets extremely frightened remembering the
awful memory of the murder. The story is very complex and
vicious yet intriguing. Much like a psycho thriller than a shonen
spokon anime.
3) Sketchbook (HAL): **, a+h
To find something humorous and/or unusual in daily life of
members of the Art club of a high school. Warm laughs and
beautiful water colored background. Sato Jun'ichi as the
advisor. You can see a statue of Aria-shacho on top of
the building of bowling. The ED song is sung by Makino Yui
who also sang the ED song of "Aria". I like the manga too.
4) Mokke (Madhouse+Tezuka Pro): **, admw
Shizuru is able to see invisible spirits and Mizuki attracts
spirits. Their grandfather takes care of them to teach how
to handle spirits. When Mizuki is collecting autumn plants
for "tsukimi" [moon watching], an evil spirit Mikoshi tries
to possess her. By means of grandfather's advice, however,
Shizuru succeeds to disperse Mikoshi. Beautiful scenery of
traditional Japanese countryside with spiritual nature.
Marvellous sense of wonder.
5) Genshiken2 (Arms): **, adh+
Sasahara is elected to the head of Genshiken and his first
contribution is to have won a booth at ComiFes. He gets
agreement from all members to publish a doujinshi at the
festival. Ogiue is very excited by the decision. But evil
Haraguchi tries to take over their plan and estimates his
own profit. Sasahara stands up for stoppping the evil plan.
Good characterization and excllent voice acting.
6) Blue Drop (B Stack): **, adm
Mari is sent to a dormitory of Kaiou Gakuen because her
grandmother is seriously illed. Mari met an accident five
years ago but she doesn't remember well. When Hagino
shakes Mari's hand, an image of a spaceship suddenly hits
her and pushes her to attack Mari. In the midnight on the
seaside, Mari sees a spaceship floating in front of Hagino.
Poetic imagination in presentation, artwork and lighting.
It also has word play such like Ajisashi (sea bird) vs
Ajisai (purple flower). Yuri flavor.
7) Ghost Hound (Production I.G): **, ad
Eleven years ago, Taro and his sister were kidnapped. Only
Taro survived. Nowadays, Taro drops asleep occasionally.
During his dream (or ghost separation) he sees a same scene
where he and his sister are still kids and bound to a bed in
a dark room. His school gives him psychic counseling for
his unusual dream. One afternoon, Taro meets a girl who is
seeing a ghost reminiscent of Taro's sister. Taro asks her
but she goes away remained silent. Work for Production I.G's
20th anniversary. Shiro Masamune is a co-writer. This show
doesn't look like a sci-fi, but Shiro's exploration of "ghost"
is still continuing.
8) Bamboo Blade (AIC Asta): *, h
One day, the instructor of the Kendo club of a high school
finds a short girl Tamaki showing a great skill of Kendo.
But she doesn't want to join the club. Later, she temporarily
joins the club to stop Hayano from torturing a novice member.
Kurata Hideo (R.O.D, Kamichu!) is the ***** writer.
9) Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro (Madhouse): *, h
While Yako wants to solve the enigma of her father's death,
Neuro comes from the demon's world in oder to eat mysteries
to be solved, and Yako becomes his servant as a private
detective. The ED has a sequence of parody of the painting
of de Chirico and Escher.
10) Night Wizard (HAL): *, hm
Angelott often sends Renji to battle fields to fight monsters.
Satan Bell appears and Eri gets possessed by the red moon.
Eri takes a golden ball out of the cherry tree in the campus
and it fuses into Eri's left arm as a bracelet to protect her
from monsters' attack.
11) Suteki Tantei Labyrinth (Deen): *, h
30 years after a big earthquake destroyed Tokyo, "illusion
incidents" are occurring. An informer is providing the police
key aspects to solve the cases. The police finally find that
Mayuki, who looks like a little prince and lives in a mansion,
is the informer. I don't see where the story goes.
12) Juushin Enbu (FLAG): *, am
Keiro comes to Rentsuji in order to take the Sword of Ruler
and defeats most of guards of the temple. Taito stands against
Keiro and pulls out the blade from its sheath. It shocks Keiro
very much because only the real king should be able to draw
the sword. Very lively fighting sequence but the basic plot
looks dj vu of some old Celtic-German and Chinese tales.
13) Moyashimon (ShiroGumi+Telecom): *, dh
Sawaki is able to see and hear many kind of bacilli. In his college
of agriculture, a female student Hasegawa is missing. Sawaki
finds a place that produces a lot of bacilli, smells very badly and
looks like a grave. There is even a plate Hasegawa's name on it.
When the police arrive, Prof. Itsuki has digged a dead seal from
the "grave" and is eating a rotten black bird hidden in its belly.
It's called quiviak, a fermented food of Canadian Innuit. Then,
a witch, Hasegawa, appears out of blue and shouts, "It's mine!".
14) CLANNAD (Kyoto): *, ah
Story about Tomoya and girls around him. Whole tone feels
reminiscent of "Kanon". The ED song feels like of NHK's "Minna
no Uta". The latest work of "AIR"'s team.
15) Shugo Chara (SateLight): *, h
Amu saves a boy who is threatened for money by a group of
bad guys. Her reputaion for mighty savior becomes even
higher. But she wants to be seen as an ordinal girl that is
real herself. So she asks guardian spirits to give her courage
to behave her own self. Next morning, she finds three
Easter eggs on her bed...Feel of a typical "Nakayoshi" manga.
16) Da Capo II (feel.):
Koko tells Yoshiyuki that she loves him. A campus harem
love comedy. Dull.
17) Kaiji (Madhouse):
Kaiji gets on a gambling boat to pay back his large debt.
Very dark.
18) Dragonauts (Gonzo):
Thanatos that is on the orbit of Pluto launches meteorites
to the Earth where monsters are rampant. All about fighting.
19) Myself; Yourself (Doga Kobo):
After five years, Sana returns his home town. Nanaka gets
angry because he can't recognize her.
20) Minamike (Domu): h
It's funny that every one of three sisters of the Minami family
have a cat mouth even though their personalities are very
different. Compare to three sisters of Ranma 1/2.
21) Kimi Kiss (J.C.Staff): h
Mao returns from France and settles in Kouichi's house.
22) Maple Story [k](Madhouse):
A Korean game origin anime. To prohibit monsters from
governing the world, human beings destroyed the World Tree.
23) Prism Arc (Frontline):
Borrowing from Crusade and medieval love stories about
a princess and a knight. I think a main character's name
"Hayaway" is a spell-change of Yahweh.
24) ef (SHAFT): am
Parallel stories of boy-meets-girl in unusual situations.
Good music. Dreamy and beautiful background.
More humor, more interesting characters, please.
25) Shakugan no Shana II (J.C.Staff):
Furiagune attacks Yuji's high school. Yuji realize that he saw this
incident before...Will the story develop drastically?
26) Taiho shichauzo - full throttle - (Deen):
Miyuki saves a boy, Randy, from bad guys who are trying to
kidnapp him in order to take away his grandfather's inheritance.
An old worned out kind of story.
27) Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun (AIC Spirits): h
Poor Ninomiya is always getting sexual harassment by girls
around him. Just silly.
28) Gundam 00 (Sunrise):
In the 24th century, Solastalbeing developped Gundam
to stop any war activities in the world. Nothing new to
be found.
--
/ Ishikawa Kazuo /
-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012