redwoodalchan

 Disclaimer: I’m talking about Satyajit Shyamalan, the villain from the first season of the anime “Birdy the Mighty: Decode” here; I am not talking about the filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. I’m just saying this to make doubly sure no one gets the wrong idea.

( Read more... )

 Hey, it’s Valentine’s Day! I think I’ll celebrate by reaffirming my love of Iron Maiden and being rude about the Decemberists!

( Warning: suicide, death, and talk of rape and abuse )

 So, Railrunner. What exactly does he do throughout the course of the story?

-Remorselessly and sadistically murders people in the most gruesome way he can think of
-Enjoys every bit of it
-Thinks of humans (by and large) as useless insects (not that he admits it, but still)
-Can manipulate people's limbs to get them to do things against their will/kill themselves
-Eats (near as we can tell) nothing but meat and sweets
-Will kill any enemies he doesn't consider his worthy opponents in the blink of an eye
-Is single-mindedly determined to torture and kill said worthy opponents

You know who else does all these things? Legato Bluesummers from "Trigun!"

Tip from the experts: if your oh-so-noble, chosen one Jesus analog hero has anything remotely in common with one of the most notoriously-evil bad guys in the popular anime fandom consciousness, YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING VERY WRONG!

Sooo... I decided to rewatch "Baccano!" this year. My first experience with "Baccano!" came when I was a college freshman. It was the first show I watched with my school's anime club, and from the moment I saw the first episode it was love at first sight (so to speak). I watched the entire show my freshman year, but now I want to watch it again.

Anyway, there's a couple of things I'm looking out for that I think I might have missed the first time around. First of all, I intend to determine conclusively this time whether or not I think Lua Klein is my favorite character. It's been a suspicion of mine for a little while that she is, but I've never had the guts to actually say it because her role is relatively minor. However, now that I've confessed to liking the most unlikable character in all of "Shiki" I think I can fess up to my having her as my favorite, if indeed this is the case.

Speaking of "Shiki," I'll also be tracking Todd Haberkorn's and Ian Sinclair's characters, Firo and Dallas (respectively). I've only rewatched one episode and already I'm fangirling Dallas like crazy, so I wonder if I've developed a genuine soft spot for loser characters or if I'm just turning into an Ian Sinclair fangirl in general. Firo, meanwhile, is just as fun and badass as I remember him; but after the shock (in a good way) of seeing Todd Haberkorn turn over a new leaf in "Shiki" I'm not sure if I find Firo refreshing or boring since he plays those kinds of roles so often. And then there's J. Michael Tatum, who provides the voice of Seishiro in "Shiki" and Isaac in "Baccano!" Now, what's interesting is that in both of these shows his characters have fairly similar mannerisms--but they're treated very differently simply because of the overarching tone of the show (heart-wrenching horror drama vs. twisted black comedy).

So far I've only rewatched one episode, but already I'm seeing things I didn't catch the first time around. For example, Luck and Firo actually mention the Rail Tracer in the very first episode--though they don't reveal who he is or what his business is. Additionally, for some reason, I did not remember ever getting to see the Daily Days's Vice President's face. But apparently you do see it quite a lot in the first episode. For that matter, I'd also forgotten just how sexy Kent Williams's voice is in that role!

So... yeah. BACCANOOOOOOOOO!!!!

So, those of you who have access to Cori Falls' rants probably remember the way she railed against the notion that Jessiebelle could ever, EVER be sympathetic or have any psychological reason for her behavior:

( Cut for reproduction of paragraph )