Selections from What I Watched in November: Digest Version

Is it really true that the last time I posted one of these was in June?  Oh, goodness.

Hayate the Combat Butler: Still goofy, nerdy fun.  Did I mention that they're going to make a live action version?  The mind boggles.

Gurren Lagann: Well, the things that usually bug me about Gainax shows are present here, but there's just so much gosh-darn enthusiastic heart in here that I can't help but be kind of charmed.  Watching the show makes me tired. It's like watching a toddler: the sheer, shameless squandering of energy seems to take it out of me.  But it leaves me kind of mellow and happy sometimes, too.  The body count was brutal by the end, though.  And then that beautifully bittersweet ending . . .  Well done, folks.

Tweeny Witches: It was a lot of fun this time around, too.  Now that I've had real chestnuts (they taste very healthy), I'm wondering if what she was always eating was sweet chestnuts.  If so, I could understand her addiction because I had sweet chestnut soft serve in Japan, and I believe it is akin to the nectar of the gods.

Kimi ni Todoke: Quite a decent adaptation, really.  It was adorable and awkward, and I would have really liked it even more if I hadn't read the manga first.  The tweaks they made to turn it into a TV show just kind of squeezed a bit of the spark out, so I mostly preferred the manga.  That's not to say that the anime isn't really good, too.  I'd be curious about the opinions of any who watched the anime first and then read it and how things compare in their minds.

Macross Frontier: Loved it.  Sloppy space opera, occasionally great music, lots of cheese and angst, clearly understandable by someone with no prior exposure to Macross.  (Yeah, I know, it's like admitting I haven't read any Tolkien.)  The body count at the end got kind of brutal, but it never completely lost its heart (even though its mind was highly suspect at times).

I was watching a bit of anime in the fall, but I was working two full-time jobs, so it didn't really add up.  I tended to just write one-off reviews.  I think the only thing I haven't written about from last year is Moribito, which I plan to rhapsodize over soon.