Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

Diabolik Lovers, Ep.1-6

This anime is ostensibly aimed at a female audience.  It's technically a reverse harem, with a solo female protagonist in a house full of very sexualized male vampires.  It's a gaggle of pretty boys doing bad, playfully sadistic things to this hapless female, over and over and over.  There's some hinted at plot involving the girl being the adopted daughter of possibly a priest, and of her rumored to have been a tacit blood sacrifice by the church to keep the vampires and the forces of darkness at bay...all she knows is that she's supposed to be attending boarding school...but it's a night school...specifically an over-night school.  Yes, the protagonist is made to live the nocturnal hours of a vampire, despite being a mere human.  She's called the "Bride sacrifice" by some of the boys, and basically she exists to have her blood drained from her little by little by all of the vampiric brothers in the mansion where she lives.  Each is cruel to her in turn taking her blood by force on a whim, each seemingly no better than the other until the one tsundere pink haired vampire counsels her to make her escape during a crescent moon, which she disregards because she's still driven to solve the mystery behind her adoptive father and how he's tied to all of this.

Honestly, it's just not a very good show.  It was mildly entertaining, but I have no desire to watch any of it further.  It's just one relentless episode after another of soft core torture porn.  It's really not my thing.  The over arching plot seems like mere afterthought to the pretty/sexy boy vampire fanservice all over the place.  I can see this appealing maybe to people who fetishize vampires and vampire fan culture, and it's certainly better than Twilight, but...that's damning with faint praise.

My recommendation is to give Diabolik Lovers a pass.  The dub is adequate, the cast is great, but the story is just so "meh".

Things received (Holiday edition)

I want to comment briefly on some things I received for the Holiday season, or more accurately, things I got for myself upon receiving some select gift cards from Target and Best Buy accordingly from my employer for 1) winning a new Cafe naming constest and 2) being recipient of a Friends of the Library gift card from the Friends organization.  From TARGET, I purchased for myself The Legend of Korra, Book 3.  I also have Legend of Korra Books 2 & 1 on DVD.  I need to listen to the commentary tracks for Book 2 & 3, having finished all the extras for Book 1.  I'm also looking forward to the eventual release of Book 4, and yes, for the curious, I also own all the box sets of the original Avatar: The Last Airbender, too.

From Best Buy, I purchased a few Hentai titles and then also invested in RWBY Volume 1 from Rooster Teeth, which I'm quite enjoying so far.  On Friday I took some time to look through most of the "special features" of Volume 1.  There's also a director's commentary track and a voice actor commentary track that I need to listen through at some point in the future.  I also very recently took in the screening of RWBY Vol.2 at Alamo Drafthouse and look forward to watching that again on DVD as well.  To the extent that RWBY has drawn in fans for anime that otherwise did not give a f*ck about anime before, I am most grateful.  RWBY cosplay continues to live on at Anime conventions, even making it into the latest (Dec) issue of Otaku USA, which I can only note as a positive thing. 

This has been a good year for me and for anime.  I need to finish up Part 2 of Season 1 of Attack on Titan, I need to get the Time of Eve movie from Right Stuf! and assorted other products, like the next volume of Kill La Kill, say.

Expelled from Paradise

Just got back from a special screening of the anime feature film Expelled from Paradise which features 3DCG technology.  It looks very smooth, nearly like hand-drawn animation, but it is all CG and visually brilliant.  Think Knights of Sidonia, only even better with respect to its visuals.

This anime not only looks really good, but it's a solid sci-fi story to boot.  It's a bit of a slow burn leading to some high concept Sci Fi leading to plot complications, conflict, and good old Anime mech battle badassness. The trailer did NOT prepare me for what was to come.  The beginning reminds me of Sword Art Online, and it was disorienting as I hadn't expected such an opening.

I was very lucky to attend this screening, which is apparently a world-wide premiere taking place only shortly after this film's release in Japan, so of course this was a subtitled show, which I didn't mind.  In fact, there is so much if it that revolves around singing and music that I'd be very surprised indeed if this anime even gets considered for an English dub, as music rights is always a formidable hurdle, and they'd have to pick thematically appropriate songs, too.

The screenplay was by Gen Urobuchi and I was definitely pleased with the writing of this show.  It's got solid Sci Fi elements in it, and reminds me a bit of the Utopian/Dystopian visions of Psycho Pass, which Gen Urobuchi was associated with for season 1. He's also the creative mind behind Fate/Zero, the prequel to Fate/Stay Night.

It was also a nice night out to meet up with my friends and fellow Aspies, S.R. and F.M.  It was the first time in several months we've managed to all hang out together.  We even had some good discussion after the movie, too, and managed some catching up chit-chat before the film, too.  All in all, I give Expelled from Paradise a big thumbs up for story and for its visual appeal.  Definitely a worthy film.

Fairy Tail makes me happy

It’s simply amazing what just a few episodes of Fairy Tail can do for my mood. That’s often all it takes to make me ridiculously happy. The show and its characters have so much heart and spirit that it’s simply infectious. 
Not unlike Gurren Lagann, and the secret behind the genius of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood
(in contrast to the relentless melancholy of the original FMA), Fairy Tail gives its audience little bursts of triumphant joy. Episodes of
Fairy Tail are my happy pills.