The Kawaii Menace

According to historical costumers, a properly-fitted corset is quite comfortable. Evidentally, in Foreland the craft of corsetry has sadly declined.

After the over-the-top first episode, the second episode of Murder Princess is a bit of a let-down as the former bounty hunter¹ discovers the challenges of palace life. It’s still quite watchable, though, and it’s hard to dislike a series in which the good guys look like this:

*****

Denno Coil is a hybrid of Serial Experiments Lain and The Poky Little Puppy, set in a near-future world in which the real and virtual universes overlap. The main characters are mostly schoolgirls who wear special glasses. One of them has a pet dog which isn’t quite physically there. Only the first episode has been fansubbed so far, but it looks promising.

Update: Here’s the trailer.

*****

Mecha shows are inherently ridiculous. Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann’s distinction is that it is intentionally so. It’s Gainax’s revised² version of the giant robot genre, flavored with a bit of post-apocalypticism and much broad humor. It is Gainax, so the adolescent hero periodically gets a faceful of boobs. There’s also a willowy guy with lavender eye shadow (at least he’s not a aging transvestite). I’ve watched the first two episodes, and that’s enough for the time being. If I hear that it ends well, I might eventually pick it up after it’s licensed, but for now I think I’ll finish up Abenobashi instead.

*****

Has Seirei no Moribito, aka Guardian of the Sacred Spirit, been licensed or not? Allegedly Geneon has it, and AnimeSuki doesn’t list it, but I couldn’t find any mention of it on the Geneon website. I did watch the first episode. A female warrior saves the life of a prince and becomes his bodyguard — a challenging position, since his father wants him dead. There’s also something supernatural involving the prince going on. This could be another outstanding series. It’s worth watching for the quality of the art alone.

*****

I started to watch the first episode of Darker Than Black a few weeks ago. One of the first sights was a man breaking his own fingers. That was enough for me. However, Astro has found the series worth watching, so I gave it a second chance. Once I was past the opening, it did become intriguing. I’ll probably watch a few more episodes to see if the story is strong enough to compensate for the horrors.

1. What is it with bounty hunters, anyway? I would have thought that Cowboy Bebop adequately covered the subject, but they keep turning up everywhere. Half the characters in El Cazador are bounty hunters. [↩]
2. Gainax was previously to blame for Evangelion, which I haven’t seen yet. [↩]