Swords are cool

Katanagatari 1! And I thought Zetsubou Sensei had alot of dialogue. This show beats 'em all with how much the characters like to talk. I wonder if NisiOisin is as verbose in person as all the characters he creates.

+ Nice style, but
- Simplistic animation at times
+ Quiet humor in the form of sarcasm
- Once a month episodes, so we'll be here a full year
+ Episodes are 50 minutes
- Bland opening/ending songs

Quick impression~ A swordless swordsman gets convinced to find 12 'special' swords by the overly confident daughter of someone his father killed. The bad guys who have the swords sorta remind me of those in Rurouni Kenshin. I think the dumb jock and genki female pairing isn't what I was hoping for, but because we occasionally hear what the jock is thinking, it becomes amusing. Btw, the way they left the sister on the island was odd.

Inuyasha: The Final Act 17! Ah, another lovely Sesshoumaru episode. So the 'evil' part of the Shikon jewel takes a piece of Naraku's body and attacks Sesshoumaru to get to Kohaku. Inuyasha gets pretty upset when he thinks Sesshoumaru has been defeated. I rarely make complaints that a series is rushing by too fast, but this 'Final Act' season really could use better pacing, so that we can savor certain events. Anyway, Sesshoumaru surpasses his father to create his own sword (and grow his own arm back) and hopefully, will stop internally whining about Inuyasha's sword. But really? that was the best part of the series.


ETA: I was wondering where all the yaoi anime went, but hey, Nakamura Shungiku's Sekaiichi Hatsukoi will get animated! It's basically Junjou Romantica all over again with slightly less smut.

New drama part 2 - Chuno

Chuno kdrama 1-2! This won me over about 40 minutes into the show when Robin Hood-type Dae-gil saves the little girl and her mother. This series is a very well-made story about a slave-hunter, Lee Dae-gil. His sob story is that he used to be a noble who had a crush on a servant, but lost his family, and the girl through messed-up circumstances.

Dae-gil has two somewhat amusing sidekicks; a playboy and a stoic, older guy. Gang A who is annoyed at him for not hanging with them creates some mischief. We find the Dae-gil's love/servant suddenly married to an ugly noble, but runs away before having to sleep with him. So we have party B looking for her and a group hired by her brother, party C, looking for her. There's also a subplot involving a 'plague' which started with the royal family, and is being spread; so add party D & E who are 2 opposing political parties who blah, blah, blah. There's another main male character, a government slave, Song Tae-ha, who used to be a higher ranked military personnel. Tae-ha, learning of the last royal member's death, escapes his current position. Dae-gil of course, is hired to find him. Showdown in the field...dum, dum, dum...okay, episode 2's slow motion was really corny. Despite all of that, the first 2 episodes were well-played and drew me in. Looking back at all the subplots and random conflicts, I am guessing I will be watching this in random spurts. And judging by the preview, both guys will be drooling over the runaway bride/former servant.