好きか嫌いか。。。そのどちらかでないといけないのか？

Speaking of music, I've been listening to the new unlabeled Beck album and wow, really impressive. Pairing back together with the Dust Bros. has given it an Odelay 2-ish vibe. I'm hearing these tracks aren't even the final mixes and for just early works they are already fantastic. Can't wait for the full album in March.

Anime:

Just finished the 2nd and final season of Otogizoushi and boy was it terrible. Production IG did a great job at taking a very good Heian-era story and turning it into the world's most boring tale of reincarnation ever. I find it hard to believe the writers between the 2 seasons were actually one and the same. Season 2 was just so so stupid and boring...ugh. I'm just going to pretend there was ever a 2nd season.


Soukyuu no Fafner, a show that while not a ground-breaking show had great production values with a powerful and well-composed soundtrack and pretty good voice acting. The story was a bit weak and the series was mainly just an Evangelion rip-off...but the show was never 'bad' persay, and from a directorial point it was always a pleasure to watch so I guess I'd just call it popcorn entertainment.


On a more pleasant subject, Mai-Hime has gone into high gear as it gets a little past the half-way point. The show is Sunrise's big budget anime for at least 1/2 of 2005 and it shows. The quality of the animation is incredible and the action direction is handled with style. Tanaguchi Goro (Mugen no Ryvius, S.cry.ed, Planetes) is a "creative producer" on Mai-hime and it's really starting to show with how the series handles intense build-ups and just plain awesome pay-offs. With the cool GaoGaiGar-ish mecha designs, this is basically similar to S.cry.ed with girl characters and a little less badass-ness. The music by Yuki Kajiura fits very nicely with the high-budget everything else. Depending on where the show goes at this point, it could be one of the big shows of 2005.


So since Gundam SEED Destiny has managed to be not only the worst Gundam show ever, but even just one of the worst anime series in a while (doesn't look like it's getting better either. "Let's just fix the show by giving the main character a black version of Freedom" @_@)...I've finally got around to watching 1985 classic Zeta Gundam:

...and I'll be darned if it isn't as good as everyone's been saying. The 50ep epic is known by most Gundam fans as the best Gundam series to date. So far 1/5th in, I don't know if I can agree with that, but I can acknowledge that the series is damn good. Though my favorite mecha designs are from the 0083 OAV, the designs here are pretty solid in themselves. Can't wait to watch more :D