Oldtaku: Anime for Grownups

Friday’s show:

• Detroit Metal City 12
• Michiko and Hatchin 4
• Nodame Cantabile Paris 6
• Astro Fighter Sunred 1
• Skip Beat 4
• Kemeko DX 1
• Hyakko 5
• Soul Eater 18
• Kaiketsu Zorori 20

The final ep of DMC was suitably epic. We’ll be sad to see it go, but replacing it with Astro Fighter Sunred, another 15 minute gag show that came out of nowhere. Kemeko DX really freaked people out (as it seems to be intended to do), but mostly in a good way I think.

This was a really solid show – not a single disappointing episode (Hyakko and especially  Soul Eater can be a bit variable).

This Friday’s show:

1. Detroit Metal City 11
2. Michiko and Hatchin 3
3. Kannagi 1
4. Nodame Cantabile Paris 5
5. One Outs 1
6. Hyakko 4
7. Skip Beat 3
8. Kaisetsu Zorori 19

Michiko and Hatchin, Nodame, and Zorori are the anchors and Michiko was probably the best thing shown. Hyakko and DMC are the comedy relief, as is Skip Beat to some extent. Kannagi and One Outs are there since I try to make sure we watch at least one ep of the not completely horrible new stuff. I can’t really see showing more of either unless we’re short.

For the people who asked, this is not a big showing. Only me and four friends.

I need to get in the habit of updating this one more often, I missed at week. But here was Friday’s showing:

1. Zenryoku Usagi 10
2. Detroit Metal City 8
3. Michiko and Hatchin 1
4. Nodame Cantabile Paris 2
5. Kamen no Maid Guy 12
6. Kaiketsu Zorori 17
7. Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 12
8. Natsume Yuujinchou 12
9. Slayers Revolution 12

Kamen no Maid Guy ended with a total whimper. Slayers Revolution and Tetsuwan Birdy Decode were both visibly padding themselves out for the final ep, though Birdy at least tossed you a few bones. Michiko and Hatchin was pretty well received – hey, more Bebop is good. Nodame and DMC were of course awesome.

I supply the anime for a weekly showing. It’s an interesting exercise, because some of the people watching don’t really care for anything that’s plot or drama heavy – so it has to be stuff that’ll keep everyone interested, which becomes a useful exercise in compromise.  As one example, I like Yakushiji Ryoko no Kaiki Jikenbo, but the sensibility is too adult for the weekly showing, so that’s something I watch on my own. Or we watched Noein, but I know it wasn’t really liked, so I’ve become more conservative in my choices. Now with that said, I like everything we watch for one reason or another.

We watch about 3 hours worth, which works out to 7 22 minute shows plus one short show to lead off, which you think would be challenging to fill, but the real problem is trimming down to ‘only’ 8 shows. Here’s what we watched this Friday:

1. Detroit Metal City # 6
2. Bounen no Xamdou #2
3. Kaiketsu Zorori #15
4. Toradora #1
5. Tetsuwan Birdy Decode #10
6. Soul Eater #15
7. Natusme Yuujinchou #10
8. Slayers Revolution #10

This isn’t just a random layout – it starts with something short and funny, and ends with something upbeat and adventuresome, and I try to prevent any transitions that are too jarring.  The first and last positions are most important. You want to start out with something short and funny like Damekko Doubutsu or Zenryoku Usagi, then end up with something upbeat with action. Until recently that was Bamboo Blade, now it’s the new season of Slayers.

I stick in some new stuff when it shows up after filtering out the truly horrendous things like Akiba-chan, hence the Toradora. It probably won’t be showing up again, but it was worth seeing one ep of for everyone. This coming Friday will probably be a lot of new stuff.

The only thing on this list that feels like ‘filler’ right now is Soul Eater. If there was anything worth replacing it with I’d replace it fairly easy. The rest is all stuff everyone (and I) seem to like pretty well. Okay, maybe Natsume Yuujinchou is a little girly, but you need something pensive in the list.