Cult Labs - Sunday night is anime night!

So, like a few cult labbers I seem to have an overwhelming amount of stuff to watch. So much so i'm trying to compartmentalise all the things I have to watch and divide it up into nights. Monday nights are cinema night, Tuesday table-top wargaming/role play, wednesday random trashy stuff round at a friends. Every other is random movie night.

Sunday night is anime night.

I gues what i'm doing here is trying to start a little diary of stuff I've watched and share my thoughts so here goes....

Black bullet.

Last sunday was the 13 episode Black bullet. A sci-fi show that seems to be a mix of gunslinger girl and blue gender (think starship troopers on earth if you have never seen that show)

Basically some virus has altered the insects of eath into some large mutated, infectious strain. Those bit turn into monsters. Some pregnant women who were infected passed the virus into their children who were born with strange powers. Shunned by society they live in the ruins of old tokyo. Some however are selected to work with powerful adult fighters to try and police the menace.

Black bullet is an interesting 13 episoder, which means it was either unsuccessful or too damned expensive. The fixation of some anime shows on pre-teen girls has always bothered me some. Here they at least address that and it seems to mark a changing attitude in Japan to the trend. Thank goodness.

The show itself is pretty violent and bloody with lots of decent action and a dose of political intrgue. Overall its never going to be remembered as one of the classics but if you get a chance I highly reccomend it.

Knights of Sidonia.

A Netflix exclusive, and another sci-fi. This one is set in the far flung future, Earth has been destoryed by mysterious entities that seem to come across as cancerous, lovecraftian abominations. Whats left of humanity is crammed into 'seedships' travelling through space in a bid to escape the horror. Teen pilots fight the creatures in mecha (as is a tradition in these types of shows.) Things begin to turn around when a mysterious teenage boy is found living in the subsections of the ship and is recruited to be a pilot....

The set up for the show has been done a million times before, however Knights of sidonia is a frankly ingenious, beutifully animated show that might actually end up being classed as a classic. It's 12 episodes and each one looks to have been quite expensive. The characters are great, the writer seems to have some idea of what hes doing and the whole show is very entertaining indeed. A second season has been greenlit and I for one cannot wait. Highly reccomended.

Hunter x hunter/Naruto Shippuuden.

Inbetween these self contained shows i'm also playing catch-up on some of the more long running 'meta shows' currently airing.

Hunter x hunter continues despite being a kids show that caused some controvosy in japan for being too 'F***** up' for kids. Frankly its hard to disagree but the show is also very addictive. Its been going a few years now and I'm starting to worry as its catching up to the manga which is never a good thing...

Naruto shippuuden is the perfect example of this. Naruto was a must watch, purchase on day of release series. Then it caught up with the manga. Cue one whole year of abysmal filler material. Then after a sufficient period of time we got shippuuden which is great, BUT, then it caught up again, cue more filler, then back to the story, then more filler....

It gets damn tiring and frankly its already killed BLEACH stone dead as a show. Fairy tail was getting the same way then they stopped airing that for a while. One piece sort of gets away with it as it can accomadate filler easier than some shows. Thankfully Attack on Titan and Knights of Sidonia are taking breaks between series so the problem wont get as bad. Still, i'm watching Naruto, a once great show limp along to its finale and the stuff thats not from the manga is a CHORE to sit through. Sad.