Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Quality distraction: anime

The weekly prime time line-up on Animax is delightfully distracting. The fun starts at 6:30PM with re-runs of Rurouni Kenshin, which never gets old. The classic is followed by a soon-to-be-classic, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, at 7PM. To round off the weekly routine at 7:30PM is the English-dubbed Bleach. This schedule airs Mondays thru Fridays.

When I was at my densest anime phase, people simply called the "seasons," story arcs. The episodes of Rurouni Kenshin now airing are still in the earliest arc where the characters are only just coming together. I missed it today but I figure it's just around the time Kenshin and Sanosuke meet for the first time (My chest tightens at the thought). The series truly hits its stride when it reaches the Shishio arc. The storytelling is superb, the quality of the animation excellent. The fight scenes were kicking ass way before Naruto was wiping the floor with Orochimaru.

The Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood episodes airing at 7PM are dubbed in English. As I understand it, the new, original Japanese episodes air Fridays at 8PM. Apart obviously from its intriguing premise, I have always been drawn to the show for the characters' names. Edward and Alphonse Elric (I've always had a soft spot for "Elric" to start with). Fullmetal. Strong Arm! Mustang! Hawkeye! Ross! Maes Hughes! Very cool.

Lem and I were watching Bleach long before everyone else caught on. We knew it was special right off the bat. We watched it on DVD and in the original Japanese. It is, however, interesting to watch the English dub. One never tires of brilliant writing and can enjoy it in any medium. And that is precisely what I've been appreciating the past few days as the show is beginning to get juicy. The arc currently airing is when Ichigo first enters Soul Society to rescue Rukia from imminent execution. (This is a poor summary, because the plot at this point is intense and elaborate.) Aizen has just died and the rest of the captains are starting to show off their *ominous music plays* power. The episodes are familiar and vastly comforting.

Every generation of school-going youths who feel burdened by the monotony of going to the same classes week after week has a prime-time schedule like this. When I was in high school, I escaped to Ghost Fighter, Flame of Recca (Tagalized on GMA 7, but Yuu Yuu Hakusho and Rekka no Honou to the purists), and Samurai X (Yes, Kenshin was with me even then). Here's to quality distraction.

2 seen below:

Unknown said...

Wow ate, I see your still into anime. I guess that's one factor we get along so well. Remember when you promised you'd burn me a CD of The Samurai X movie? :P I loved that. Such a sad but heart tugging story! Why'd Tomoe have to die?

Well, I've watched about 7 episodes of Full Metal Brotherhood and I have to say that this remake is better than the original series. The story goes on a much better pace and animation is definitely superior.

As for bleach, I've been getting tired of it already because of all the fillers. And I've been getting tired of the manga too because Aizen is just too powerful. I mean all the captains are getting their asses whooped by him!

Lately I finished Code Geass, Black Cat and Blood+. Code Geass was great for thinking, Black Cat was kinda boring and Blood+ simply was the best!

kubiyat said...

That's the OAV, I think :) But yes, it's one of my favorites too! All-time.

As for Bleach, I stopped reading the manga *guilty laugh* Inuulit ko nalang yung arc ng Rukia rescue hehe.

I saw your review of Code Geass. The animation looks great.

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