Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Black Cat – episode 3

“A cat in the dark”

Pinky promises with artificial lolis! I’m there!
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City Hunter: The Secret Service

Note: Prime time TV special, not OVA.

“The first mokkori in four years!” boasts Ryo in one of the promos for this TV special.
“This isn’t the Olympics, you know,” says Kaori.
The first City Hunter property since City Hunter ‘91, this is one of the better efforts of all of the extraneous City Hunter productions. It is true that it could have been handled in 40 minutes, ala a two part episode, but The Secret Service miraculously fails to drag.
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Black Cat – episode 2

“A Bewildered Cat”

Black Cat Episode II: The Service Begins.
What happens here is Black Cat has several scenes with a girl who wears a yukata. This sort of undermines the whole “serious” vibe he’s got going. Meanwhile the series gets more supernatural and starts busting out wild colour schemes.
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Paradise Kiss – episode 3

“Kiss”

Right here is where Paradise Kiss starts to get complicated. This is because everybody is interested in each other, which is always a recipe for danger. Kobayashi’s cinematography tells an intriguing story, though, and the SD actually works in this episode.
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Black Cat – episode 1

“A Lonely Cat”

I’m behind, which can only mean one thing: I can catch up! Stylish GONZO animation with entirely random tone: I like it. The adventures of a nun kicking assassin and a man with a “vision eye” (vision eye!) … has to be good.
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GinRei Special

The three episodes that make up Giant Robo‘s “in-between episodes” GinRei Special, Barefoot GinRei, Steel Armed GinRei and Blue-eyed GinRei may as well have been called “Naked GinRei”.

It is difficult to argue the canonic value of these three side stories, but they are occasionally insane and undeniably fun.
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Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi

GAINAX strikes again! A group of amazing anime bandits, they travel the land leaving a path of destruction in their wake. Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi is one of their more excellent offerings, but seems to have fallen under the radar by comparison to FLCL, which is in a similar vein.

Yet Abenobashi is so full of metaphors about modern life and character that it is more than some super-kinetic nonsense: finding deep meaning in this work is some of the more highly rewarding anime viewing I’ve done lately.
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Bleach – episode 56

Better. Warmer. More focused. Still in a million places.
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Bleach – episode 55

Well, I’ve started it. I’m not going to bother telling you what Bleach is because everyone on the inter nets knows what it is. I’m not exactly its biggest fan and I don’t know why I’m still watching it, but here I go.

Keep in mind that, given the insanely huge amount of characters, I have to consult an encyclopedia just to write one of these entries; I suffer for my art.
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Mushishi – episode 2

“Light in the eyelids”

I used to think I really hated horror, but anime horror I can deal with; this episode was a bit more out there than the first, but it retains class. Besides which, Mushishi more supernatural than horror.
I’m not entirely sure that Ginko should have dealt with children for two consecutive episodes, as it might set a precedent, but this series is pure beauty.
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