Every now and then I get this unaccountable urge to mention anime that is actually still airing, so here’s a remark on the unremarkable Asura Cryin’.
If you want to watch anime — not to watch a particular kind or quality of anime, but simply to sit and think ‘Yes, I am most certainly consuming Japanese cartoons’ — then I must recommend Asura Cryin’, the meze of the current season. It presents a wide selection of the things I associate with anime: a sprinkling of mechanical war machines, the odd magical superpower, a dash of conspiracy, a mild case of amnesia, brief moments of fanservice, a threat to the very existence of the world, an incipient harem (seasoned, naturally, with a pinch of moe) and the inevitable school (I’m sure I’ve travelled, nonplussed, through far more fictional Japanese schools than real British ones). It’s quite entertaining.
So, if you’re busy but not picky, save yourself some time and just watch this. Mediocrity can epitomise an industry just as well as — perhaps better than — excellence, and Asura Cryin’ covers everything else that’s airing quite well. Except for the new Mazinger, of course, but that doesn’t so much ‘air’ as ‘rampage out from the television screen in a pyroclastic flow of sublimity’.
17 responses so far ↓
animekritik // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 12:29 am
No thanks. I’m making my own meze (mess?) of K-On! and Mazinger…
The Animanachronism // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 10:15 am
I wonder if there is a link, back in some reconstructed proto-language, between ‘meze’ and ‘mess’. I don’t know where either word comes from . . .
Ryan A // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 1:11 am
Yes thanks, I’m following Asura, and the second episode heightened my interests. Meze, it’s a good way to place it. And Mazinger, LOL, god Mazinger.
The Animanachronism // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 10:16 am
Yeah. There’s not much to say to Mazinger, is there?
lelangir // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 1:47 am
>>rampage out from the television screen in a pyroclastic flow of sublimity
Oh it’s far too…cerebral…for me.
The Animanachronism // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 10:16 am
Its name is about the only cerebral thing about a pyroclastic flow.
Author // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 6:50 am
What are you going to do if it turns AWESOME in a few episodes? You know, like Manabi or The 08th MS Team?
The Animanachronism // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 10:16 am
Then I shall have been wrong, and not for the first time either! I don’t know if I’ll be motivated to do anything, though.
Noirsword // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I initially thought of trying Asura Cryin’ but I’m not much of a mecha fan outside of Gundam, and even then I’ve mostly fallen away from that recently.
The Animanachronism // Monday 13th April, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Eh, like everything else the mecha element is pretty limited: we’ve seen them briefly, but after two episodes there still hasn’t been any actual fighting involving them. On screen, at least.
Michael // Wednesday 15th April, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Right now I watch whatever I have an inkling of even liking, so I’ve downloaded the first episode of Asura Cryin’. I haven’t watched anything from the new season, however. I need to fly to somewhere else soon AGAIN, so I’ve only managed to enjoy Regios.
The Animanachronism // Thursday 16th April, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I’d be interested to hear what you think of it. How’s Regios? I haven’t heard much about it.
Snark // Thursday 16th April, 2009 at 4:15 am
Hmm, I may possibly give Asura Cryin a shot at some point.
Mazinger on the other hand, has already made me cream my pants, and will probably continue to do so for quite some time.
The Animanachronism // Thursday 16th April, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I don’t generally like to make predictions, but given the new Mazinger’s pedigree and its director, I think I can agree with that one.
Extracting the goodness of the projection being x handler | hontou ni sou omou? // Saturday 18th April, 2009 at 1:48 am
[...] was quite ambivalent about it; miko x giant mecha x world destruction mix (or what IKnight called a meze) has already been done by Kannazuki no Miko, ya know? And the latter had nonsense doramaz yuri to [...]
moritheil // Saturday 16th May, 2009 at 2:07 pm
I thought Asura Cryin’ was awfully dense: it has so many things crammed together in so little time. Coming off of reviewing Bleach, with its interminable shounen decompression, this was a good thing. Still, you’re right: with that many tropes it may be impossible to properly develop them.
The Animanachronism // Sunday 17th May, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I don’t know if I’d judge AC on its ability to develop the tropes it gestures towards — I don’t know how to judge it, really — but I think, for some viewers at least, its very density is actually an advantage. Sometimes having more than you can process thrown at you is pretty fun.
Like gas stations in rural Texas after 10 pm, comments are closed.