What I Watched in May

Figured I'd get up to the beginning of summer (June) before summer ends (September).

b Casshern: So, that stayed darkly atmospheric and strange all the way to the bitter end.  And it was super bitter.  I still liked the music all the way to the end.  Can I buy the CD?

b Clannad After Story: So this one reeeeeally gets a bit silly, and it uses this deus ex machina crap (in its defense, it really did keep including hints along the way) in the end, but up until then, it was pretty good. Keep your tissues handy, my friends.  I do also have to give it respect for actually tackling what happens after the couple gets together and gets married.

b D.Gray-Man: The pacing seems a bit off, and the transitions from super-serious to wacky really don't work sometimes in anime form.  I'm also not super-fond of the English dub.  Maybe it'll be different in Japanese.  Yay, Timcanpy! 

b Darker than Black: Chinese Electric Batman forever.  That was a surprising, twisty, good ending to a dark and twisty show.  I think I'll understand it better the second time.

b Eden of the East: The best comment anyone made during a showing: "This show has an awful lot of naked."  And some gleeful mosaics, as well.  The TV series ends pretty well itself.  There's tons of stuff left open (much of it gets revealed in the movies), but I thought it ended on just the right sad, triumphant note.

o Gao-Gai-Gar: Why did I keep watching this all the way to the end?  Why did the end take so long?  It was actually pretty entertaining as long as I had the English dub to listen to while accomplishing other things (it was often gleefully over the top), but when I had to actually sit through a whole disc and read and watch, it was such a chore.  I'm not sure why I tortured myself like that, but now I can claim I saw it all.  In case anybody cares.  Also, the opening and ending songs are cheesy goodness.

b Heat Guy J: I still love the dub and the show.  For some reason, I thought this one character died, so I was getting all ready to deal with his death, but I was totally wrong.  Oops.  Well, I'm glad he made it to the end.

o Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE: The awful pacing is still evident, but there are many episodes that actually end on tense cliffhangers or make me want to watch the next episode NOW, so I'm still kind of enjoying it.  I can't really just listen to the English dub, though, because it's one of those Funimation Reversions where they don't just change phrasing; they change meaning and take out important plot points and stuff.  On an intricate show like this, it drives me crazy.

b Xam'd: Holy cow.  I need to watch these again on a real screen, so I can see all the magnificent desolation and figure out what exactly happened (I'll be crying a good deal more than I did when I couldn't see anything, I imagine).  It was epic; I know that much.  Part of me wishes this had been a two season, 51 episode extravaganza like Eureka because there is so much more I want to know about this world.  I'm glad we got what we did.