Gankutsuo: The Count of Monte Cristo

OK, so in short: I liked it. A lot. A hell of a lot. Here's the break down:

The Good

• The story. Holy crap. 
• The characters. Again, holy crap.
• The art style. I know some people will really hate it, but I love it. It's AWESOME.
• I have not read the book, but I liked this thing so much I went out and bought it.

The Bad

• World exposition. Why do I care that the Empire and Earth are at war again? Oh wait, I don't? What a pity.
• ANYTHING WITH A MECH. These scenes suck, because they don't really fit with the art style of the rest of the anime. Oh, and they're just awful, period.
• THE OPENING. Good Lord that thing is awful.
• The last episode. Totally unnecessary.
• The fact that Albert ALMOST starts acting like Shinji Ikari. That made me a bit mad.

Oh,  go masturbate over Asuka's body some more, ya wuss!

The Ugly

• This a pretty inspirational story, really. The second to last episode really showed me something I wanted to do in a novel some day.

Despite the fact that my "Bad" list is longer than my "Good" list, I really really like this anime. What it does well it does really well, whereas the bad things aren't really that important. Ultimately, I'd definitely recommend it. Watch this anime if you can. Put up with the art style if you can, because the story is more than worth it. 

Three Shows I'm in the Middle of Watching

So here's what I'm up to, TV show-wise. These aren't reviews;  I'm not finished with these shows. This is more of what I'm enjoying at the moment. I'm only about 6-8 episodes in on all these shows, so it's not like I have a full idea of what these shows are about, or if they're even good all the way through. I just wanna share the cool stuff I'm watching, hence the blog post.

Gankutsuo
The anime adaptation of the Count of Monte Cristo is incredibly gripping, with lots of twists and turns to make the show more than entertaining. So entertaining, in fact, that I bought the book at a used book sale! Now I know its not entirely faithful, but if the anime is a tenth as awesome as the book... I look forward to finishing both.

Oh, and the art style is awesome. It's divisive, but I'm one of the people who'll swear by their presentation.

Monster
How in the blue hell is this show 74 episodes long?? I'm about 6 episodes in, and these sorts of plots are... NOT 74 episodes long??? I don't get it. I genuinely don't. A story about a good doctor who accidentally heals a serial killer doesn't last this long...

....right?

Looks like I'm hopelessly hooked anyway. God, this show is awesome.

Avatar: The Last Airbender
Admittedly, this show doesn't rank in the same type of awesome as these other two shows, but that doesn't stop Avatar from being cool in its own way. The fire benders are, by far, the most interesting characters in the show as of episode 8. Now to just find out why the chief fire bender's such a prick. All in due time.


S'yeah, those are the shows I'm watching the at the moment. I think they're pretty awesome so far and, by the general reviews I've heard from my friends, they end pretty well too. Will they? Some day I'll write a full review.