What I watched in January: Digest Version (2 of 2)

b Nadia: That was a lot of fun. That dub was incredible! I'm actually glad they got folks the right age to play the young teenage leads. And that musical episode, oh my goodness . . . You can tell they had a good time putting it together. Good for Saturday morning cartoons most of the time, but sometimes it veered into good ole' Gainax T+A territory, and I don't think I'd want to be a parent trying to explain the ending to a child . . . As an adult, I found it to be a great adventure that had pretty much nothing to do with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which is okay.  I did a lot of cleaning while watching it, so I missed out on a lot of the rage-inducing filler stuff, which I think is probably for the best.

b Project Blue: Earth SOS!: Another fun one. This just never really slowed down. Some of the English dub was pretty terrible, but I think even that was mostly tongue-in-cheek. Gaping plot-holes papered over with exuberance!  Excitement! Adventure! Hilarious names! Aliens! Young people with no proper adult supervision! Way fun!

p Sukeban Deka (live action) movie: Give me back those two hours of my life. I beg of you. Why was this made into something live action? It's about a girl who fights evil with super-powered yo-yos. I am not making this up. I'm sure it worked way better in anime form. Live action? Um, well, I suppose it was good fanboy fodder for its intended audience. I guess . . .

b Xam'd: Quite obviously brought to you by the folks who brought you Eureka7, this fantasy adventure series has already introduced a fully-realized, complicated world packed with interesting characters (including adults!). It's like what would happen if Miyazaki's Nausicaa got dropped into Last Exile. The music, the political situation, the sprawling cast . . .  I am going to love this show a lot. Here's hoping it doesn't kick me in the face or the gut quite like E7. It only has 26 episodes to work with; it can't possibly destroy me as much as E7. Right?