Cross Game

I recently finished watching the baseball anime Cross Game. I thought it was pretty good. I have watched a lot of sports anime in the past, and have generally liked them a lot. They tend to be exiting, with some comedy, and the occasional filler arc if the anime is long enough. Some examples of my favorite sports anime are Hajime No Ippo and Giant Killing.

Now then, this anime had a different emphasis, and that was on romance. I would say about half the anime was about romance, and the other half baseball. I really enjoyed the baseball half, I got caught up in the emotion and excitement, especially in the final arc, which is what you want out of a sports anime. I did not enjoy the romance part, but it wasn't badly done. The romance was able to keep me guessing for a while, which was good. So the baseball part I would give a 7 or 8, and the romance a 6.

If the review was over now, I would give it a 7, but sadly it is not. They felt the need to have a filler episode...and I really hate those. Not only was there no new content, but it was also entirely about the romantic part of the anime. Also, at some point near the middle-ish, they started to have an opening of Momiji either drawing a cat, or giving a quiz. This was pure fluff, and annoying, and I hated it a lot. I can't stand when any anime, and even more so an anime less than 100 episodes does something consistently just to waste time. They already had a recap, which I guess is tolerable, why couldn't they just extend that?

Anyway, due to the recap and idiotic intro, I am forced to give it a 6, and if the ending was not as awesome as it was, it would be a 5. So there you have it, 6 out of 10.

Soul Eater

I recently finished watching Soul Eater. It was by no means a great anime, but it did have what it takes for me to keep watching it. It had some interesting characters, and the plot actually came together quite nicely. The ending was pretty predictable, but that can be forgiven because there were a few interesting surprises.

It was basically an action anime, with some comedy, and some excessive fan service in the beginning arc. The world was well set up, with the exception of the death scythes that fought on their own. Why not just partner up with someone, wouldn't that just be better? But anyway, if you are looking for something pretty mindless to pass the time, and can suffer through Excalibur(you will know when you first see it), then its a good choice.

Musical Tolerence

I have been living with two of my friends for a while now, and I don't share either of their tastes in music. This has lead to an increase in my threshold for listening to music I don't like. I can tolerate it for quite a while. But ever since the new My Chemical Romance album came out, one of them has been playing the CD basically non-stop. I can't understand how someone can enjoy listening to the same album at least 3 times every day. I don't think I have ever listened to any album more than twice in one day, or even more than 5 times in a week.

So, I am stuck listening to an album that I don't enjoy at all at this point, every day. I think I am reaching my limit, and I have never reached my limit, not even close. The one thing that is saving me is the other roommate also hates the fact it is being constantly played, so I have someone to share my pain, and complain to.

Phone calls

At this point in my life I don't get a lot of phone calls(and my phone cannot text). My main means of non face-to-face communication is Instant Messaging and email. This makes getting phone calls awkward. When my phone went off today, I was baffled, as I had no idea why anyone would be calling me. It turned out to be a friend who doesn't use AIM, and wanted to see if I was going to a concert. But my first thoughts were, this could be really important, like someone died, or I got a job interview, or my brother is getting married. I could not fathom any other reasons, so I jumped off the couch and read the caller Id only to be a bit disappointed.

Being Photgraphed

Today I got my picture taken by a photographer for senior yearbook. It occurred to me that I was under his complete control while doing so, if he said jump, I would say how high. I have never had someone have that much control over my body and face. I also have never had another man touch my face/hair that much. Going to get your picture taken is like going into another world. He could say flail around and jump in place, and I would trust he was gonna get a great picture out of it, and I would do it. Its a strange feeling, because you want to look good, and you trust him for no real reason.

Re-cap Episodes

I am currently watching the anime Rainbow, and hit episode 13, the re-cap episode. Now sometimes the creators put in something extra at the end, or some interesting way to present the re-cap(like Gintama), but this one was just straight copy and pasting of earlier scenes. That pissed me off. No one wants to see that, why are the catering to the people who have missed episodes, they can find them later. It is really just a cop out, a way to extend the series without any work or new content. I am more than fine with a week without the show, over this useless episode.

Perhaps I am biased because I usually watch anime in large chunks instead of once a week, but I do sometimes watch once a week shows, and the re-cap is still annoying.

Music's effect on me

I have a feeling I will be updating/expanding this one pretty often.

First I would like to talk about the music I like. Lately when I heard the first few notes of Mors Principium Est's Pure, I feel a huge amount of relief and joy. It both de-stresses me, and fills me with energy and general happiness. The rest of the album, and a lot of my other heavy music has a similar effect. When I listen to power-metal, Rhapsody for instance, has less of a de-stressing value, but more of an energetic value.

I think the part of this music that effects me is a combination of what I call the Epic value, and the pure speed. Anything that is slow and not epic not only bores me, but can be quite annoying, I will get to this more later. Epic value is pretty much what is sounds like, a good example is a really amazing guitar solo, or perhaps and tremendous scream. But it should be noted music with Epic value does not have to be fast, for instance Twilightning's album Bedlam. It is also important to note that pure speed does nothing for me, it must have some amount of Epic value, which can be great musicality and/or rhythm.

Ok, now its time for the music I hate. As mentioned before, anything slow without Epic value. This includes a LOT of music, so I will just mention the genres I have found that have a combination of Epic value and speed: Metal(specifically Folk/Viking, Thrash, Power/Speed, Death), Electronica/Techno. Now slow music does include a lot of different types.

Rap is slow with no Epic value. It is all about the beat, and the lyrics. I do not listen to lyrics, but this might be a topic for another post. So a genre all about a beat, not only is it by definition repetitive, but the vocalist is not even singing, or expressing emotion. Emotion is a very big part of Epic value.

Well thats all for now, I will probably go into other specific genres later, either by new post, or editing this one.