Stuff I’m Watching

Well when I finish these series ill do reviews of them but ill write about my first impressions on watching the first couple of episodes

Elfen Lied – Not for the weak stomached, there is a deep plot and the characters are very well developed as far as I can see. Gratuitous amounts of gore and nudity as well. Its definitely the type of anime with themes both implicit and explicit. It feels alot like Chobits except with darker more adult themes such as child rape, incest and exploitation. I guess it can be related to a quote I heard in class the other day. The human capacity for cruelty expands the moment you stop considering the target as “human”. This is relevant not only to historical examples such Hitler and the Jewish Race but even today as people protest the killing of human-like dolphins. For this anime, the group that is mistreated are mutants with cat ear like horns and  powerful “vectors” that can act like psychic hands.  That’s the best I can explain it.  This anime seems to be the type that needs to be watched over and over since from only one episode many social criticisms can be seen. I look forward to writing a more in depth review later

Excel Saga – On a lighter note, Excel Saga is a weird and wacky parody type anime which can be hard to follow. The plot seems a little weak but it has its humorous moments. It chronicles the misadventures of the bumbling top agent of an organization trying to bring about a new world order by erasing scum from the world (the first targets are manga writers). In spite of the idiotic characters and disjointed story, it seems worth finishing

Black Lagoon – A little darker than the average anime it’s about a young Japanese office-worker who joins a small outfit of mercenaries who go on dangerous missions in South Asia. From the first few episodes, I can see that it is going to be interesting to see how the main character changes from mild mannered office worker in the new environment he is thrust into. The story seems to have shifted to a seemingly implausible collision between the mercs and a group of modern Neo-Nazis over a sunken U-boat in the South China Sea. Hopefully the writers behind the anime will keep the story from running wild, but that remains to seen when i finish this series.