{"id":55,"date":"2010-01-18T19:53:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-18T19:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/?p=55"},"modified":"2010-01-18T19:53:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T19:53:00","slug":"whimsical-pictures-week-2-of-winter-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/?p=55","title":{"rendered":"Whimsical pictures: Week 2 of winter 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hello again. So, another week has come to pass, and new episodes have been watched. Did they hold up to the openers ? Did a show betray all my expectations already ? Well, read on to know !<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Sora no Woto &#8211; 02<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This second visit to the five girls&#8217; base was just as pleasant as the first one. It helped introduce the character better, even though nothing moved forward too much. In a way though, it&#8217;s a bit like the beginning of Haibane Renmei, so it&#8217;s not bad <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">per se<\/span>. Though I hope the next episode will see the start of some kind of overarching plot.<\/p>\n<p>There is a question that this episode really didn&#8217;t help answering : why the military theme ? For now, it could very well be simply for the <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">mo\u00e9<\/span> factor. Or, maybe it&#8217;ll develop into something more, a deeper reflexion. I&#8217;m praying that it&#8217;s the second option, as Sora no Woto seems clever enough. I was pleasantly surprised to see that even if Kanata, our main heroine, is the typical &#8220;genki-everything-is-wonderful&#8221; girl, she isn&#8217;t a brainless moeblob. For one, she isn&#8217;t scared of ghosts. Too many animes would have had their heroine squeal and make &#8220;cute&#8221; frightened faces, but Kanata seems to be above that. I still have great hopes for Sora no Woto, if only for the opening, which is intriguing enough.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TBxqwB9mI\/AAAAAAAAAYk\/FLNrgAOvvfU\/s1600-h\/soranowoto1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TBxqwB9mI\/AAAAAAAAAYk\/FLNrgAOvvfU\/s320\/soranowoto1.png\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428176509921785442\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>Verdict so far : Very Good<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Ookami Kakushi &#8211; 02<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ookami Kakushi 02 was a very good surprise. The mystery only thickened, with a new character having been introduced. As of now, it&#8217;s still too late to draw any conclusion, but I&#8217;m guessing that things are not going to end up well for Kaname, the girl who&#8217;s also kinda new in town, and is probably a little too curious for her own good. As for Hiroshi, our main protagonist, he&#8217;s still weirdly popular, but it seems like he&#8217;s going to go through some disturbing events, judging from the preview of episode 3.<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s something that Higurashi did not do. For all its gory and unsettling moments, it didn&#8217;t have characters that looked like they were sexual deviants. I hope it&#8217;ll be handled well, because if it&#8217;s the case it could make for a very disturbing show. I just hope it won&#8217;t go overboard and into fanservice territory. But I have faith, the storytelling here seems pretty solid, and only two episodes in I&#8217;m already hooked. I need to know the truth.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TGh3aWhQI\/AAAAAAAAAYs\/cj-MYEHsuCc\/s1600-h\/ookami1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TGh3aWhQI\/AAAAAAAAAYs\/cj-MYEHsuCc\/s320\/ookami1.png\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428181736000750850\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>Verdict so far : Very Good<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Dance in the Vampire Bund &#8211; 02<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is shaping up to be the big disappointment of the season. Even though it got some plot going, this episodes still felt quite empty. Plus, friggin&#8217; werewolves ? Come on, are all vampires stories required to have werewolves too these days ?<\/p>\n<p>Also, if at least it served an actual good plot, it wouldn&#8217;t be such a big deal, but having the protagonist suffer amnesia is a cheap trick. Then there are the scenes where our main character outruns a helicopter machine gun, or avoids a missile simply by ducking. And still in his human form, mind you. Add to that the totally gratuitous &#8220;shadow gel&#8221; scene, and you get something that is easily the worst show I&#8217;m watching this season. I still hopes it&#8217;ll get better, but I won&#8217;t hold my breath.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TKxteymTI\/AAAAAAAAAY0\/KvJ18yMFlYI\/s1600-h\/vampire1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TKxteymTI\/AAAAAAAAAY0\/KvJ18yMFlYI\/s320\/vampire1.png\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428186406259431730\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>Verdict so far : Bad<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Durarara!! &#8211; 02<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Durarara!! frightens me now. Honestly, I&#8217;m starting to wonder if the universe is suited to contain this much awesomeness. Maybe it will tear the fabric of space and time apart, I don&#8217;t know. Because, seriously, if this show manages to maintain this level of quality, it&#8217;s going straight into my top five animes of all time.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s already showing signs of greatness, and it&#8217;s only been two episodes. Already, the seemingly supernatural headless rider surprised me by actually being a character with a personality, and not just a plot device. Then Durarara!! does something that delights me to no end : it shows simultaneous events from the perspective of several characters. I cannot get enough of that kind of storytelling.<\/p>\n<p>And it&#8217;s plain gorgeous, artistically it&#8217;s really top notch, both graphically and aurally. Really, words fail me, I cannot convey how much I love this series.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TOOwVc4gI\/AAAAAAAAAY8\/ieGDRsP_97Q\/s1600-h\/durarara1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TOOwVc4gI\/AAAAAAAAAY8\/ieGDRsP_97Q\/s320\/durarara1.png\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428190203776655874\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>Verdict so far : AWESOME !!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu &#8211; 02<\/span><\/p>\n<p>This one is still totally crazy, and it&#8217;s still funny, so it&#8217;s good !<\/p>\n<p>I suppose a special mention goes to the main protagonist who spends a big part of this episode with a table glued to his hand. I suppose this could be compared to a show like Ouran : crazy antics and pretty standard romance. I hope the crazy part will remain the main focus of the show, or that maybe it&#8217;ll even turn into something more down the line, but anyway I&#8217;ll still be going with the flow. A very light series, but one needs that from time to time, I suppose.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TREgnR-PI\/AAAAAAAAAZE\/2LT1naV57u0\/s1600-h\/baka1.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_S-gF5oSLydo\/S1TREgnR-PI\/AAAAAAAAAZE\/2LT1naV57u0\/s320\/baka1.png\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428193326292662514\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>Verdict so far : Great<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hello again. So, another week has come to pass, and new episodes have been watched. Did they hold up to the openers ? Did a show betray all my expectations already ? Well, read on to know ! Sora no Woto &#8211; 02 This second visit to the five girls&#8217; base was just as pleasant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26,32],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grungi.gsmproductions.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}