Autumn ‘08 Quick Looks II

Good season for horror fans.

Vampire Knight Guilty

Mm, more like Vampire Knight Emo.

I don’t know if it just a matter of change of mediums, but Zero’s behavior comes off as way more emo in animated form than it does in manga-form.

Anyway, Vampire Knight Guilty is off to a great start, promising more fake-y sibcon, more erotic blood-sucking scenes, more angst, and just all around more of the stuff that made people like me watch it in the first place. VKG is not quality anime, but it is an excellent example of junk-food anime.

On the more positive side of the ledger, the music continues to be a high-point, particularly as concerns the ED (although the animation leaves a little to be desired, especially since the animation for the first season’s ED was just so damn good).

Kuroshitsuji

The first time I read this title, I misread it as ‘Kurohitsuji’ – ‘black sheep’. Although this actually would also make sense, at least from what I can tell so far, I was a bit off *blushes*

Anyway, I wasn’t going to watch this originally because it kind of looked like shouta-con, but a lot of people have been hyping it and saying that its a bit creepy. I flock to creepy anime like geese flock to grass, so of course I had to watch.

While not the creepiest thing I’ve ever seen, the second half of the episode was fairly unsettling. I was also quite impressed with the animation (sans the CG carriage scene), and I enjoyed the BGM’s. I’m definitely going to tune in next week (so to speak, ha).

By the way, why can’t I have a butler like Sebastian? That’s be seriously awesome.

Shikabane Hime: Aka

The high point of what I’ve seen this whole season is Shikabane Hime. The animation, the music, the art, the story, the characters… Shikabane Hime truly has it all over any other show I’ve seen thus far.

I have to admit to also finding this show interesting in ways the creator probably was not thinking about when he was drawing the manga. To briefly explain, in Hinduism there are cremation ground sects, and… actually, I really can’t explain this concisely, and am already sketching out a post of its own to explain, and to just do a quick analysis of Shikabane Hime.

Just, uh… watch this. Its really, very good, and I really feel it can avoid the usual pitfalls of shounen horror/action shows.

Speaking of horror, this seems to be a very good season for that particular genre – we have Kuroshitsuji, Shikabane Hime, Mouryou no Hako (subs, please!) and Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae (also subs, please!), just off the top of my head. I can’t think of a season in the past few years that similarly had as many shows hailing from the horror genre (you could even stretch it a bit and try to include Vampire Knight Guilty, although I wouldn’t). I have come to realize I love these sorts of shows, just as long as we don’t veer off into, say, Saw III territory (yuck), although that should be obvious by my love for the Jigoku Shoujo series.

Knock on wood for Mitsuganae and Mouryou no Hako subs! It would make me happy =)