Redwolf's Journal (continued)

Ergo Proxy looked like an atmospheric noir cyberpunk anime series. I suppose it sort of is. The best word for it that comes to mind, though, is phantasmagoric (ie. dreamlike - thank you, old word-a-day calendar). Visually, it's dark. Dark enough that there were a measurable percentage of scenes difficult to make out - not a particularly good thing. Characters are... okay, with some good and bad traits. The story is... scattered. Whole episodes of the 23-episode series are spent in internal reflection, dream states, or the out-of-nowhere quiz show. It's disjointed for no particular benefit. I suppose the creators were going for deeply psychological, but I can't help but feel the actual plot could have been presented more tightly and been a more thrilling and captivating 13 episodes, if that. Even then, the series feels like more style over substance. Snowpiercer was on TV over the weekend, and I hadn't seen it, but mentions have popped up a lot on sites I frequent si

I've seen the title before, but passed it over. Still, making my way through subtitled options, I settled on giving this one a try. The first season (and a full "season" of 26 episodes, at that) grabbed me initially with a good balance of action and mystery. As it went on, I came to appreciate more and more the distinctive pacing (while things develop through the series, each pair of episodes is a particular story) and the interplay between different characters and groups. The story primarily centers around a small group of agents for a "syndicate," pulling thefts and assassinations and the like. They manage to grow and bond to an extent, even though "contractors" (people with supernatural powers) and "dolls" (personality-deadened medium/scryers) are regularly said to not have emotions like normal humans. It's fun to watch, even though these are "bad guys." Which is why the second season (13 episodes) was so remarkably dis

With these anime titles, I often feel like there's some sort of context missing. X "on the Sky" doesn't make much sense in English, "of" or "in" seems more appropriate. But whatever. This series gets my most emphatic "I wish there was more, but there probably won't be" award in quite some time. I may have to keep an eye out for translated manga, but I'm not expecting a whole lot there, either. I believe it's based on light novels, which don't seem to see translation themselves very often. Alas. It's a war story. The main character is a lazy strategist who specifically wants to avoid becoming a soldier, but gets drawn into it supporting a friend. With the focus on strategy, there is some trace of the feeling from Spice and Wolf (about commerce) or Maoyuu Maou Yuusha (about society-building), but with a focus on warfare. The technology level seems a little in advance of feudal, with allied spirit companions providing

Ah, the holidays. They play out one of two ways for me these days: 1) Lots of scrambling, stress, and little sleep throwing things together to go visit parents over the hill for Christmas. This ends up being a pleasant enough diversion from the norm, but usually isn't very restful. 2) Boring time by myself because parents are away, with little feeling of celebration of Christmas itself. This time around was the latter, and stretched through New Years. I got some extra days off, so there was plenty of time to rest, but that also means plenty of time to struggle for entertainment. Over that period, I went through several things... The Games... Titanfall 2: I put this on my Christmas list with a little reservation, considering it's one of those first-person shooters where multiplayer is a large facet that I wouldn't really touch. As a single-player campaign, it's still pretty good. Perhaps not worth full price for the length of it, but the game plays well and the