[1st episode] HunterxHunter 2011

And finally the long awaited Fall season 2011 is there! (If you don't count Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai)
My first victim is HunterxHunter, the remake of the first serie. I haven't seen it so I might as well tell you right away that I won't be able to compare them, but I thought the cast was worth it, and since the guy who wrote it wrote Level E too I thought it was worth a shot. (I never seem to watch enough anime anyway ^^)

HunterxHunter is a basic shonen, the story of the growth of a young guy who wants to follow his father's footsteps and doing so meets friends and fight alongside them etc etc.
Same as usual, really.

Which is why I'm not too sure I'll be able to follow through.
I mean, there's nothing wrong with basic shonen, but the problem is ... it lacks originality.
I don't like the lack of originality, because it brings along my most powerful foe in anime, predictability. Which, as anyone know, piss me off. Especially if the storyline is one of the only strong point of the anime.

To be honest, this is a bit below what I was expecting. Mostly because I expected to, at least, smile a little. (Hell, the original author wrote Level E). I didn't smile.
And all I got was a generic shonen first episode with a character design that reminded me of my first childhood anime (even the OP got that old feeling to it)
I know that usually this genre, especially when the manga was published in Jump, picks up later. But will I last?

The cast is wonderful, as expected. Seeing Keiji Fujiwara as Lerio was an interesting experience and Sawashiro Miyuki was really scary as the blond guy.
On the other hand, and mark my words because it's the first time ever it happened, the music was shit.
Ok not shit, just, definitely not fit to be used a background music, especially not in a shonen with such storyline, I bore with the composer in Break Blade because his kind of epic music actually fitted epic mecha fights, but it doesn't fit in HunterxHunter. This music should be played in a concert room for classical music fanatics. (If it should be played at all because to be honest, while I love classical music, this is not the kind I particulary like)
First time ever I considered dropping an anime mainly because the music pissed me off.

To sum it up? It barely makes the cut, and only because I at least want to hear Namikawa Daisuke in it and some people consider the original serie a classic.
If I end up having troubles to keep up with my shows, it'll be the first to be dropped.

Break Blade II

After the first movie here comes the second, I already there was going to be a third but I was surprised (in a good way) to find out there was going to be a fourth. Anyway, I'll allow myself to skip the necessary summary part since I already did it for the first one.

Just know it's the mecha kind of stuff, when we left our good-for-nearly-nothing hero Rygart he was engaging in a fight against the country of Athens, obviously facing his former best friend.



The story goes like that, fights, talking, fights, ooh a flashback, fights, deaths, fights, Rygart feeling guilty and wanting to leave but not leaving in the end because that would be really mean to his old friend Hodr.

Basically? Boring. It's your typical Gundam like type of plot "OMG I sooo hate war but I need to do it for the sake of the Earth/the humanity/my friends/whatever"
Well no, boring may be too strong, it's actually watcheable, and aside from the legendary originality of the plot it would be really nice, if it wasn't for the plot that is.
And it lacks some character development, we only see Rygart and how others reacts toward him, I don't really care for the Red Riding Hood queen or her strange named husband of a king (I just wrote kink, someone shoot me?) but I would definitely love to see more of Zess, he interests me.

Talking about him, he appeared soooo much more than on the first one, I was so happy you have no idea.

Figures it's time for me to give a final opinion, if you're looking for an original plot it's not for you, if you're looking for interesting character development it's not for you either, but if you want some nice mecha fights while waiting for Gundam 00's movie then go watch.
(oh and if you're just looking for some more Kamiya goodness this is for you too ^^)

Break Blade 01

I'm still looking for what exactly to do with this blog, never really had a blog like that, nor did I really keep up with it, doing episodes reviews doesn't suit my lazyness and I feel bad whenever I don't update as soon as I finish watching it, I can't even review everything I'm watching, so I'll review a whole serie and will do separated posts when I find something interesting/worth explaining with my modest knowledge.

Anyway, today's victime is the first OVA of Break Blade

Let's start by a quick (or not so quick) summary, what's Break Blade?
Easy, it's originally a manga by Yunosuke Yoshinaga, a mecha kind of manga, and since the mecha kind suits anime better than manga (at least to my standards) here comes an animated adaptation!

The story has the same setting than the average shonen, everyone has the power to use quartz for various purpose, except for one boy, Rygart Arrows. When he was younger he was sent to a military academy despite his handicap by his father, unfortunately he couldn't stay until his graduation and had to return to his farm due to lack of money.
Despite the little time he spent there he made really good friends, two of them (Hodr and Sygn) married and became rulers of their country of Krisna, the other one, Zess, returned to his country of Athens.
Rygart is called to the capital by his former friends to help when a war break out with the neighboring country of Athens ...



My modest opinion now, to be honest the reason I started this is named : Kamiya Hiroshi, Zess' seiyuu. I tend to start a lot of things because of seiyuus, don't mind me.
Fact is, the cast is good, that's something I can't deny, it has Marina Inoue and Kana Hanazawa, who are two of my favorite female seiyuu and it has my favorite seiyuu ever and the always surprisingly talented Hoshi Shouichirou whom I definitely can't dislike, despite my famous hate for one of his role.

Anyway if I start talking about the cast I'm still there tomorrow, so as I said it's a typical shonen kind of thing, the hero is weak at the beginning but suddenly becomes the last hope of the world thanks to a super mobile suit or whatever no one else is able to use. Cliché much?

In any case it's pretty, and the music is kind of fun, you know it feels like you're in one of those old Sissi movie or whatever.
I won't say it's a must watch but it's not bad either, average but since mechas are pretty rare these days it's still better than nothing.