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Jul. 28th, 2007 08:56 amI am very, very far behind on some of my culture blogging. Since I actually have a few minutes to call my own, I'd like to mention some new items on the US TV screen.
First off, SciFi Channel has started running anime starting at 11PM Monday nights (Eastern Time) and running (usually) for two hours. They call the bloc "Animonday", and when they run mini-promo spots for Animonday during the bloc, they'll trash-talk: "Animonday: kicking other anime in the sac!" is but one example. Some of the spots are amusing, as they'll take snippets from shows and overdub them with something entirely different and hopefully humorous. Even with the trash talk and late night, though, they still do the same things you'll find on other non-premium channels: dubbed anime with all the naughty bits blurred and naughty words bleeped. Feh. This doesn't mean it's not worth watching, though.
The lead show is Noein. Take a junior high girl with a very kind heart, a boy who's her best friend, their circle of friends who can't quite see what's going on beyond the ordinary most of the time - and add some world-jumpers who are on a quest to find the one item that can help save their world, something called the Dragon Torc, often fighting each other along the way. Now have the girl be this Dragon Torc and not know it.
The acting quality is much closer to Stargate than DBZ, although some of the booms are standard anime action fare. A solid show, but it's taken several episodes to give a good feel as for what the situation is about.
The next show is Tokko. Ranmaru and his younger sister Saiya had lived with their parents until five years ago. They all lived in a very large apartment building, until the day almost every resident in the building was murdered, though how it happened was hushed up by the authorities. Since then, both of them have joined the police force, albeit in varying capacities. As the anime starts, Ranmaru is about to be inducted into Division 1 of the Special Mobile Investigation unit. He's late owing to some bad dreams he's had, a recurring dream of monsters killed by a pretty girl with a big sword who then slices him apart with tears of regret in her eyes.
When Ranmaru finds out that there really are monsters in the world, that's when he starts getting angry - and curious.
There are loads of social cues in here that are more satisfying for the adult, as well as some things that made some slashfic writers of my acquaintance wince, such as the occasional flirtatious teasing between Saiya and her older brother Ranmaru. Noein is good, but I prefer Tokko, not least of which is due to the voice acting of Tony Oliver of Lupin the Third fame.
The third slot has varied. So far I've seen some Macross Plus and some Street Fighter, among other titles.
TiVo-setters, if you like anime you'll want to add the bloc to your line-up. It's OK to push back your Daily Show and Colbert Report by a couple of hours, really.
First off, SciFi Channel has started running anime starting at 11PM Monday nights (Eastern Time) and running (usually) for two hours. They call the bloc "Animonday", and when they run mini-promo spots for Animonday during the bloc, they'll trash-talk: "Animonday: kicking other anime in the sac!" is but one example. Some of the spots are amusing, as they'll take snippets from shows and overdub them with something entirely different and hopefully humorous. Even with the trash talk and late night, though, they still do the same things you'll find on other non-premium channels: dubbed anime with all the naughty bits blurred and naughty words bleeped. Feh. This doesn't mean it's not worth watching, though.
The lead show is Noein. Take a junior high girl with a very kind heart, a boy who's her best friend, their circle of friends who can't quite see what's going on beyond the ordinary most of the time - and add some world-jumpers who are on a quest to find the one item that can help save their world, something called the Dragon Torc, often fighting each other along the way. Now have the girl be this Dragon Torc and not know it.
The acting quality is much closer to Stargate than DBZ, although some of the booms are standard anime action fare. A solid show, but it's taken several episodes to give a good feel as for what the situation is about.
The next show is Tokko. Ranmaru and his younger sister Saiya had lived with their parents until five years ago. They all lived in a very large apartment building, until the day almost every resident in the building was murdered, though how it happened was hushed up by the authorities. Since then, both of them have joined the police force, albeit in varying capacities. As the anime starts, Ranmaru is about to be inducted into Division 1 of the Special Mobile Investigation unit. He's late owing to some bad dreams he's had, a recurring dream of monsters killed by a pretty girl with a big sword who then slices him apart with tears of regret in her eyes.
When Ranmaru finds out that there really are monsters in the world, that's when he starts getting angry - and curious.
There are loads of social cues in here that are more satisfying for the adult, as well as some things that made some slashfic writers of my acquaintance wince, such as the occasional flirtatious teasing between Saiya and her older brother Ranmaru. Noein is good, but I prefer Tokko, not least of which is due to the voice acting of Tony Oliver of Lupin the Third fame.
The third slot has varied. So far I've seen some Macross Plus and some Street Fighter, among other titles.
TiVo-setters, if you like anime you'll want to add the bloc to your line-up. It's OK to push back your Daily Show and Colbert Report by a couple of hours, really.
