While I think of something more interesting to say, I thought I’d share some thoughts on what I’ve been watching. Really I’m sad Fall and Winter seasons are over. Now I’ve got to find more new stuff to watch.
It’s depressing. Anyways…
Toradora!: Okay everyone else is on this bandwagon, so I ought to hook my leg over and get on in. I like this show. Really, I didn’t even have to warm up to it. It had me at its slightly vague and still somewhat confusing opening dialogue (I’m still not entirely sure what they were getting to with that, unless they were trying to say “LOVE.” Perhaps, I’m just over thinking it.) But really, I liked the characters. I liked the back stories. I wish they didn’t make Ami so cryptic and I wish the same thing about Minorin, but I’ll take what I can get.
Even the somewhat abrupt shift in Ryuugi’s character didn’t bug me. The harem bit did kind of bother me. I mean, really? Does he really need all THREE girls to be in love with him? Can’t he just fall for Taiga and be done with it? But beyond the minor gripe, I thought it was a good show.
Toaru Majistu no Index: Occasionally, I stumble across a show that really surprises me. Index is that kind of show.
Now, I’m not going to kid anyone. This is a shounen fighting show. There are fights in it. A lot of fights in it. In fact, there’s a major battle about every second or third episode. All of that said, the main character doesn’t really have super powers. Well okay, he has one superpower (his right hand can negate other superpowers, if he touches the effect.) This is not much of a superpower though and it doesn’t get any better. He doesn’t suddenly start shooting beams out of his hands or go into POWER LEVEL 9000 mode. No, he has to touch whatever it is and sometimes this proves a lot harder than what you might think. (Strangely enough there seems to be this theme of “luck” running through the show which I haven’t quite pinned down.)
The other thing I like about it is a pretty major twist about halfway through the series and it doesn’t try to sugar coat it. Arguably it does soft peddle it a bit, but not to the point where I got angry at it for getting my hopes up.
(And it even has lesbians.)
Tower of Druaga – Sword of URUK – : Yes, I like this show. Yes, I know it’s a David Eddings-style, brain-candy fantasy. Yes, I know every self-respecting anime fan dropped this show a long time ago. To be honest though, I still think it’s a decent show. It is the grilled cheese and tomato soup of anime. It doesn’t shoot for the moon in this second season, and I don’t really miss the self-referential humor too much. (Although I did miss it a little bit.) That’s all I have to say about that.
Tytania : This show needs a second season. I still haven’t watched the last four episodes and I know it needs a second season. Now I’m a fan of this show because I like court politics and I like Fan’s “the devil may care” attitude. Yeah, this is another one I don’t have much more to say about.
Glass Fleet: I really want to like this show. It has court politics, it has space battles, it has people trying to pretend they’re something that they aren’t. Really, it has some brilliant scenes and some remarkable episodes.
It’s just that it feels like it was put together by people who didn’t know what they were doing. The series will build a whole lot of tension up and then kill it with a flashback episode, or it will completely change it’s course, or it will have its main character be completely unwilling to participate in the action. It couldn’t decide whether it was going to be a character study or if it was going to be an epic. And while it’s possible for a series to be both, Glass Fleet doesn’t completely succeed at being either.
In Search of Number Nine — An anime blog 
Duraga is a fine show. I don’t know why people bitch about it.
Druaga was a fine show until the end, when GONZO’s skill level turned out to be inadequate for the project scope.
@ Author – How so? I’ll be honest, except for the lack of an adaquate denouement, I couldn’t see anything wrong with the ending.