Anime lately

I've been watching a lot of anime lately, and I'm always amazed that even thru the filter of another culture the work seems so superior to what I see in american animation. Not all of it is good by any stretch of the imagination, nor is all american animation bad, but in general the japanese stuff sports good story lines, detailed writing that carries an arc for one or more seasons. You can't really judge on what you see on tv here because those are what the american distributors think the viewing public can understand.

Ugh, I didn't start this post to be a rant but praise for a couple of recent shows I have finished, one being "Black Lagoon", a story of a group of mercenary/pirate types, its the interpersonal story that played out I wasn't expecting. It was also just a good ol' bloody shoot'em up some times. It has gangsters of all types, thieves, hustlers, and arms dealing nuns just for good measure.

The other was a story about a junior high kid feeling like he's stuck in a rut, until he "saves" this oddball little dog, and meets the dogs owner a local musician. His life gets better and he does join the band but that's all I want to give away. I really enjoyed this one despite myself, and in the end it made want to listen to music the rest of the weekend.

I have a couple more to watch "Darker than Black", "Mushishi", "Death Note" and a couple of others but the list is of course always growing. On the american side I watched the new "Hellboy: Iron and Blood" and it definitely rocked. I really hope they continue with this series of films, both animated and live action.