Kurogane's Anime Blog

Winter ’05 season was basically a hit-or-miss season, with only a few series I found interesting and even less that were actually good.

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August ’04 was really my starting point of watching anime online as I only had my broadband by then. Well, basically, I’m going to do my list by season, and starting it off, I’ll concentrate on continuing series that started in 2004 and ended well into 2005.

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Found this site off MAB’s Shoutbox, Unofficial Anime Theme Song 2005 2nd Half Ranking.

Top 10

1. ETERNAL BLAZE by Nana Mizuki from Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s – 252 votes
2. Kiiroi Bakansu by Momotsuki Gakuen 1-nen C-gumi from Pani Poni Dash – 218 votes
3. Seishoujo Ryouiki by ALI PROJECT from Rozen Maiden ~träumend~ – 218 votes
4. Hishoku no Sora by Mami Kawada from Shakugan no Shana – 105 votes
5. Otome wa DO MY BEST deshou? by Koshimizu Ami & Kikuchi Mika from Mai Otome – 81 votes
6. Shoujo Q by Momotsuki Gakuen 1-nen C-gumi from Pani Poni Dash – 80 votes
7. Roulette☆Roulette by Momotsuki Gakuen 1-nen C-gumi from Pani Poni Dash – 66 votes
8. Yoake Umarekuru Shoujo by Takahashi Yoko from Shakugan no Shana – 60 votes
9. ICE CANDY by MAKO from Kamichu! – 54 votes
10. Ichigo COMPLETE by Chiba Saeko & Orikasa Fumiko & Kawasumi Ayako & Mamiko Noto from Ichigo Mashimaro – 50 votes

Basically a much more fan-oriented result for 2005 rather than the Oricon chart ranking released earlier. I can’t say much about the first half of 2005 since I was offline that time, but IMHO, I still think that the anime themes of 2nd half of 2005 are the best of the year.

I have just about all the top ten songs in my playlist on Winamp now :) with the sole exception of Kamichu’s ICE CANDY, since I haven’t watched it yet.Other interesting entries are ARIA’s UNDINE at No.12 with 41 votes, YOU from Shuffle at No.15 with 37 votes, Jigoku Shoujo’s OP(Sakasama no Chou) & ED(Karinui) occupy No.16 and 17 respectively.

Well, not many suprises there on the ranking list with most of the fan favourites on top. I wish to see some KOTOKO or more I’ve Sound work soon though for anime themes ^_-.

Yet another spammed finished anime…… watched 24 episodes in a one night marathon…. haha. Well, I’d actually watched it once,when it was still running, but… meh… taking time to write the full review now (actually skipping class to do it, haha).

(it’s a bit long, so continue on…..)

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Well, I didn’t really liked the sound of this show in the first place, but after much egging from willuknight bitching about how no one’s taking up Gunparade Orchestra this season, I decided to watch it.

My first impression of it is that it’s pretty much average story about Angels aliens invading and the group of angsty teenagers piloting EVA’s mecha’s to destroy the Angels aliens. But it does set itself out in the end, a little though.

Firstly, the art is pretty OK considering J.C. Staff did it, which is a good factor to watch this show. Character designs were leaning to the generic but still OK and there’s still a semblence of individuality among the large cast.However, the same cannot be said for the mecha designs as they were really quite ugly and generic, with an even uglier acronym given to them, HMT(Humanoid Walking Tanks). I guess the good ones like EVA’s, AS’es and MS’es were already taken :P. Animation is good and steady throughout the show, but then, I was watching a DVD copy, so I guess I can’t comment much about that :).

Next, the characters are pretty much average and nothing much to shout about. We have the typical tsunderekko, ignorant wimp, womanizer, bishounen shoujo (think Chie), kawaii loli and the dojikko all rolled together under the large cast of Unit 5121. Pretty much most of the stereotypical anime characters are here. Individually forgettable, but the interaction between them is what makes them stand out. As for the enemies, they aren’t given much things to do, except just to stand around to get hit by the protagonist’s.

As for plot direction and story, it’s probably the best thing of the show, as it flows fluidly and manages to give most of the characters some form of development. The slice-of-life approach taken here by the show is probably not for those who are hardcore fans of mecha shows like Gundam and EVA. It’s best to describe GPM as the ARIA of mecha animes :). Still the story is perfectly developed and ended in the 12 short episodes it runs for as there’s no feeling of “being rushed” and “deus ex machina’s” being employed.

On the music part of the show, I didn’t really find the OP and ED interesting to listen to, which is quite a shame as it could’ve given GPM one more plus point for me. But the BGM is fine and funny to listen to with some overdramatic music being used at times, to a funny effect, which I think is probably intended by the production crew.

All in all, GPM is quite a nice show to watch, if you have nothing much more particularly interesting to watch/do. It’s 12-episode format makes it quite bearable to watch, when you consider the main point of the show is to watch the hero hook up with the heroine. Best watched on a lazy weekend with friends, like I did. In short, it’s not too good or outstanding yet not too bad or sucky, making it quite average.

Rating : 5/10

Ups:

- Good story pacing and flow.
- Good art and animation.

Downs:

- Bad mecha designs.
- Forgettable OPED’s.

Well, I’m a bit outdated but it’s still not too late to put up a review, eh ;). Well, to be honest, I actually stopped watching this series at episode nine because I was a bit unsatisfied due to reasons below. So I was waiting for the batch torrents to come out and I’d just batch watched 10-13 :)

(long post ahead, so get ready :)

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