So, last week I was off from university classes for “Reading Week,” which is like Spring Break except it’s in February. I don’t know what the point is really ’cause it’s not like anyone actually goes home and reads anything. But whatever. I took the time to watch some anime, and technically that sort of counts as reading because one of these series was subtitled, so I guess I win.

I meant to have this post done yesterday but once classes start I lose the motivation to do anything but sleep, so yeah.

Slayers Return, Great, Gorgeous, and OVAs

These were all Slayers as hell and I can’t really say much about them. They’re goofy fantasy and I kinda like fantasy.

Well there is one terrible joke I want to make.

Slayers Great? More like Slayers Just Kind of Okay.

Also, I don’t really like ADVs dubs for these. Cynthia Martinez, who plays Lina, seems to mumble sometimes and I couldn’t always understand what she was saying.

But yeah, Slayers.

.hack//Quantum

Really not much to say about this either. It’s formulaic .hack. Weird things are happening in the world and people are ending up in comas. It has a few nice throwbacks to older stuff, with the three main characters being based on the main characters of the first .hack game series, plus a character from GU who’s older now. If you aren’t sick of the .hack formula, it’s probably worth checking out. But it doesn’t do anything new, so if you know .hack and really aren’t interested in seeing it tread the same ground again, don’t bother.

I’d also like to mention that the people behind Quantum clearly don’t understand how video games work, or more likely are taking some liberties for the sake of storytelling. Personally, it just bugs me when things happen that couldn’t actually happen in an actual video game, like the cat dude having a magic stick that can slice a ship in half. I mean, I get that the stick is hacked, but hacking doesn’t just allow you to do whatever the hell you want in the game. The ship would still need to be coded so that it could be cut and fall away, and the people on it wouldn’t die unless, again, the game had fall damage in it. In order for most of the stuff to work, cat dude would need to be rewriting the basic code of the game, which shouldn’t be possible when he’s playing an MMO.

Though, from my experience, the people who direct cutscenes in the .hack games don’t really get how games work either.

Sekirei Pure Engagement

I reviewed the first season of Sekirei a while ago, and I’m pretty sure I hated it, but I didn’t really have as much of a negative reaction to this season, and I know why. One of the main things that drove me nuts was how pointless all of it felt. It was all set up with no payoff. Well, Pure Engagement is the payoff I guess. We see the consequences of certain things that occur in the first season, important events start unfolding, and people start dying. Not that any of it really matters since this season, once again, ends on a cliff hanger that makes it painfully obvious that the story isn’t quite over.

I also have to give the series credit for fully embracing how stupid it is. It recognizes that it is an entirely dumb series and endeavours to be as dumb as it can. The villain self-destructs is own tower with the protagonists inside, not because he wants to kill them, but because he was going to have it rebuilt anyway and he just thought it would be more fun to demolish it with them inside. He has a rocket ship built into the thing to launch him into orbit in case he ever needed to get away from the building quickly. Most villains just use helicopters for that sort of thing. Maybe I just don’t remember the first season that well, but it didn’t seem to go full blown crazy like this one does.

Also apparently I have a favourite Sekirei and apparently it’s Benitsubasa. I like her hair. And her not horrifyingly oversized breasts.

Queen’s Blade

I’m not entirely sure how or why Queen’s Blade has managed to become a thing. I mean, I get the concept. Half naked women with swords. I like those things. But I’m pretty sure the half naked women thing only works when you have attractive characters designs, which Queen’s Blade is lacking in. There are a few, but they’re kind of overshadowed by Cattleya and that nun chick, who are horrifying to look at really.

It also has some pretty poorly animated fight scenes. I mean, I wasn’t expecting them to be good, but still. This franchise just baffles me.

Gundam Wing

I liked this show a lot more when I was 10.

‘Cause yeah, it does not age well. At all.

I also watched some Hayate the Combat Butler and Dragon Ball Z Kai, but didn’t finish either so I’m not going to write about them. Well, I have no plans to write about Dragon Ball Z ever again save for a free-verse poem about how useless Yamucha is and a thrilling piece about about Bulma’s hotness relative to her hairstyle.