Randy's Adventures in Anime - Winter Edition Part III

(NOTE: Originally posted on my livejournal account on January 17th, 2010)

Okay, it's been a while and I don't have too much to report:

I've finished a disc of Gungrave
I'm no further in Tenchi in Tokyo!
I started watching the Dragon Box again
I'm making progress in Slayers TRY and just finished episode 16

I'm sure there is more that I'm leaving out, but that's about the big jist of it.

What's compelling, neat, and hilarious is what I saw this morning. I was getting ready for work when I got the call that we were completely dead (probably due to the fact of the Vikings are in some playoff game today) so what did I do? Watch anime. Slayers in particular.

I finished watching one episode and watched the next episode preview and was stricken by something super familiar. Familiar because it look like something out of one of my favorite animes of all time! Here, I'll even show you. Up first we have a screen grab from the next episode preview from Slayers TRY episode 16, next is the image I recognized right away:



That's right, Kowaru fucking Nagisa. HOLY CRAP! Yeah, it's a little different, but they are so much the same it isn't even funny. Okay, it is kind of funny. Is it a rip off? Possibly. Is it an homage? That's probably a little more reasonable. I mean, think about it; Neon Genesis (Shin Seikai) Evangelion was one of the biggest anime phenomena of the 90's and it aired in '95. Slayers TRY was out in '97. If they were going to reuse a design, hell a whole frame, from EVA they knew that it would be recognizable and certainly wouldn't do it thinking no one would notice and they would get away with it. I think homage is definitely the most logical assumption. Am I arguing? Who am I arguing with? Bah, guess I wanted to just get things clear in case anyone actually cares to comment and make sure no one takes this as me saying, "OMG taht's plagiarism! Slayers is so teh suxx! Lololololol :D"

So, yeah, Slayers is kind of where my anime interest is at right now. And I better finish it soon as Read or Die OVA is coming in the mail along with Tenchi Muyo! GXP. R.O.D. I've seen and loved and GXP, well I've only experienced the first disc and it was enjoyable so I want to finish watching it and add it to my collection. Now all I'll be missing is the Pretty Sammy/Mihoshi Special and Magical Project S if I get enough desire to purchase the latter. The new Sasami show? Not even Tenchi to me so I'll skip it and try to ignore its existence.

Well, hope everyone is doing well and hope this was kind of enjoyable. Hopefully next time I'll have something finished so I can talk about it and give a little review.

Later!