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Halfway through the anime club showings, actually near the end of a couple due to short runs, so what do I think?
Card Captor Sakura: 10 year old girl in modern Japan releases Clow Cards, like a magical tarot deck (cf. the Basanos in Lucifer) and has to re-capture them with her magical powers, the Beast of the Cards, and lots of outfits from another 10 year old girl with a videocamera. Lots of cuteness and disturbing relationship subtext. I know people really into it, or who have been, like anima, but I'm fairly neutral.
You're Under Arrest: the saga of the traffic police continues. I still don't care much. I could easily skip the first two shows.
Juuni Kokki (Twelve Kingdoms): Aha! The obligatory fantasy drama for me to get excited about! I had high hopes and it's lived up to them well. Three high schoolers get blown to a China-like land where the gods are an active force, people (including furries and angelic unicorns) grow from trees, and no one speaks Japanese, leaving two of the high schoolers rather lost. The third one gets a magical Babelfish effect, which is related to the main plot. Politics heavy, romance light; nice character development touches on a villain; imaginative worldbuilding or at least exotic source material. World crossing is rare but not unique, goes both ways in different ways), and is common enough that one kingdom has immigration procedures for people blown in from Japan and gets to worry about natives faking being Japanese in order to get financial aid.
As someone descended from backward Western civilization, it's always a thrill to be reminded that China has been ruled by bureaucracy for at least 2000 years, so that even the fairy tales have paperwork.
Hikaru no Go: The shounen fighting series on a board continues. Currently in AngstPlot, I hope not for long.
Full Metal Panic The Second Raid: I skipped most of the first season, caught and enjoyed all of the humorous Fumoffu episodes, and have been intrigued by this (short) second season. I read on Wikipedia that the series tries to get most of the science plausible, and I thought I saw evidence of that last week, when Sousuke was talking about how they didn't need to look for an invisible mecha where birds were, because their stealth tech can't bend UV rays and so birds can see the machines. Unfortunately, a few days later I realized that we can see UV as well, through cameras, not to mention picking up the heat from cold fusion powerplants, so this stealth should be useless except for hiding from unprepared civilians.
Tsuki-Yomi Moon Phase: the story of a catgirl vampire who was locked up in a castle in Germany by her own parents; we don't know yet why. The show veers between unbearable cuteness and "oh my god they're all going to die". Intriguing so far.
Card Captor Sakura: 10 year old girl in modern Japan releases Clow Cards, like a magical tarot deck (cf. the Basanos in Lucifer) and has to re-capture them with her magical powers, the Beast of the Cards, and lots of outfits from another 10 year old girl with a videocamera. Lots of cuteness and disturbing relationship subtext. I know people really into it, or who have been, like anima, but I'm fairly neutral.
You're Under Arrest: the saga of the traffic police continues. I still don't care much. I could easily skip the first two shows.
Juuni Kokki (Twelve Kingdoms): Aha! The obligatory fantasy drama for me to get excited about! I had high hopes and it's lived up to them well. Three high schoolers get blown to a China-like land where the gods are an active force, people (including furries and angelic unicorns) grow from trees, and no one speaks Japanese, leaving two of the high schoolers rather lost. The third one gets a magical Babelfish effect, which is related to the main plot. Politics heavy, romance light; nice character development touches on a villain; imaginative worldbuilding or at least exotic source material. World crossing is rare but not unique, goes both ways in different ways), and is common enough that one kingdom has immigration procedures for people blown in from Japan and gets to worry about natives faking being Japanese in order to get financial aid.
As someone descended from backward Western civilization, it's always a thrill to be reminded that China has been ruled by bureaucracy for at least 2000 years, so that even the fairy tales have paperwork.
Hikaru no Go: The shounen fighting series on a board continues. Currently in AngstPlot, I hope not for long.
Full Metal Panic The Second Raid: I skipped most of the first season, caught and enjoyed all of the humorous Fumoffu episodes, and have been intrigued by this (short) second season. I read on Wikipedia that the series tries to get most of the science plausible, and I thought I saw evidence of that last week, when Sousuke was talking about how they didn't need to look for an invisible mecha where birds were, because their stealth tech can't bend UV rays and so birds can see the machines. Unfortunately, a few days later I realized that we can see UV as well, through cameras, not to mention picking up the heat from cold fusion powerplants, so this stealth should be useless except for hiding from unprepared civilians.
Tsuki-Yomi Moon Phase: the story of a catgirl vampire who was locked up in a castle in Germany by her own parents; we don't know yet why. The show veers between unbearable cuteness and "oh my god they're all going to die". Intriguing so far.