What I watched in November: Digest Version

b Ceres: Celestial Legend:  Dear Matthew Erickson, Thank you for your Yuhi.  Hands down best voice in the dub.  I think it was a good thing that it had been so long since I read the manga because there was really no way for me to know what was original and what was from the manga.  Any time I guessed and went to check the manga, I was wrong.  : )  Romantic tragedy after romantic tragedy and the sins of one generation being visited on the next.  Mysterious, amnesiac, tall, dark, and handsome guys, mad scientists, diabolical plots, love, family, and lots of creepiness.  Did I mention the tragedy?  Good stuff.

b Shura no Toki (Age of Chaos):  "Legend has it that in the Heian period, there were men who fought without weapons.  They were known as the Men of Carnage, and they reigned undefeated."  Holy cow, this was awesome and hilarious and lame in often equal measures.  This is MANime.  It loosely follows men from a particular weaponless fighting style down through the ages to times when they intersected with certain historical conflicts and affected or didn't affect outcomes.  Also, there's girls, and they're usually fighter girls, so the men of carnage get to have their fill of bloodlust and get the girl in the end.  So there's a lot of manly dialogue about fighting, and there is some actual fighting; one major showdown per arc.  And the last story arc was really sadly touching and frequently sent me to Wikipedia for historical background research.  History can be a real bummer.

b Wedding Peach:  So I alternated this piece of fluffy shojo fantasy with Shura no Toki because I love giving myself mental whiplash.  An early response to a love letter:  "Right now, soccer is my girlfriend.  But thanks."  Wedding Peach is Sailor Moon's younger, dumber cousin, but some of the voice actors had way too much fun with their roles, especially Igneous's VA (Nicholas Keene) in volumes 5-6.  He basically made every single line he could (especially the innocent lines) sound super-suggestive.  I was kind of blown away to see that the territory it took 40+ episodes to cover took one up to about volume three in the manga.  There was a great little extra in the next to the last volume that involved some interviews with the staff and cast and a gag episode that was pretty funny.  I would tell you about the last volume, but apparently Netflix doesn't carry it.  Dear Netflix, you're losing me with your having all the discs in the series but one.  Especially if it's the last one, and I don't realize it.  Dorks.