Overview fortelevision

Claim to fame

Two things Southern California is known famous for was on television earlier today: a high-speed pursuit and an In-N-Out Burger resturant.

Fast cars and fast food is what we do best here in SoCal.

First impression

I’ve only seen two episodes, but I’m loving Kill la Kill.  Didn’t know this show existed until they began airing it on Toonami two weeks ago, but apparently it originally aired in Japan back in 2013, so in the grand scheme of things, I’m late to the party.  Not that it matters, since this whole website is based on knowing I’m always writing about stuff way past its inception.

I guess I’m becoming a fan (or that I’ve always been a fan and didn’t know it) of Hiroyuki Imaishi’s work because I also enjoyed Gurren Lagann, his involvement with FLCL, and Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi.  Although the story was lackluster, I also thought Dead Leaves was an interesting film too, so I’ll include that as well.

If you don’t know Hiroyuki Imaishi’s work, it will be pretty obvious once you do see it.  The audience his stories tend to focus towards are for boys in their teens because they are mainly comedies with an extra heavy dose of action and ladies in skimpy clothing.  But the real eye catcher is in the animation; as he tends to have a lot of flair in it.  Kill la Kill includes all of the above and seems to do it well.  While I am enjoying all aspects of the show, I’m taking a liking to the climactic battle scene towards the end of each episode because of their over the top, ridiculous, and heavy action scenes which are normally crammed into a one minute or less time frame.  This short time frame allows the animators to go way crazy with the battle scenes and add a lot of polish and originality to where each frame can be seen as a work of art.

Hopefully the rest of the season is as good as these two episodes are, and considering the track record of my appreciation for his work, I think I will be enjoying it.

WataMote

I still like to watch anime, but I don’t seek it out like I used to.  Nowadays I basically watch whatever is placed on Toonami.  But while trotting around the web recently I unintentionally came across a show that caught my attention and had an impact on me that no show has done in a while.

WataMote is a slice of life/comedy anime that follows the daily life of Tomoko Kuroki, a freshman high school student.  Thinking she’d turn into an extremely popular person when she became a high school girl, she realizes two months into the first semester that she hasn’t made a single friend.  Not helping her situation is her crippling social anxiety that prevents her from having a conversation with anyone besides her family and her one and only friend from middle school (which they currently attend different high schools).  There is a small item to note though: she’s a rotten individual.  Seen an introvert, most of the dialog is in her head, so you’re hearing every mean opinion she has about everyone: people in her classroom, her younger brother, even her own friend!  But on the outside she is seen as a very shy, quiet individual who keeps to herself (again, because of her social anxiety).

The show basically follows her hair-brained schemes on how she can become popular; though because of something of her own doing, her plans fail in the MOST EMBARRASSING WAYS POSSIBLE!  Holey moley are some scenes hard to watch.  On one hand you feel bad for her, but on the other its kind-of deserved.

People who have watched WataMote say they can relate to Tomoko, and I guess I’m in that camp too.  Minus the whole gender thing, my time in high school mimicked hers in a few ways.  But I think the experience of adolescence is very similar to most and that’s probably why so many people say she is a relatable character.

In terms of show production, it’s well done.  The animation is superb and includes a hodgepodge of styles.  I really like how shades of light -- like from her computer monitor -- glows and are in shapes like hexagons.  The music is fantastic and includes some extreme music for the frantic scenes, but most tracks are mellow and fit the slice of life genre well.  The voice acting is great too -- especially the voice actor for Tomoko, Monica Rial.  I only watched the English dub, but I’ve heard great things about the Japanese voice actor as well.

I highly recommend WataMote.  It may not be for everyone, but with it being only 12 episodes in length, it tells its story well without any filler episodes.  In fact, I may check out the manga that the show is based on, No Matter How I Look at It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Not Popular!  Wow, that’s one heck of a title!

Late night surfin’

It’s been a while since I watched Last Call with Carson Daly and it’s been an even longer time since I saw someone on that show that I like (to be honest I don’t watch the show all that much).  I caught last night’s episode and to my surprise they were showing The Melvins.  Yep, that sludge metal/grunge/whatever rock band from Washington state that gave us hits such as "Night Goat" and "Honey Bucket."  I really love the lower chords they use in their music; it makes it a really unique sound of music, especially now a days.

The two songs they played last night were “Onions Make the Milk Taste Bad” and “Sesame Street Meat.”  Both of these tracks are on their latest studio album, Hold It In.

Coda

The mid-season finale of The Walking Dead aired last night and I can’t believe we now have to wait until freak’n February to continue where it left off!  Lots of good stuff was in this episode to keep me interested in the series, but man did they kick things up a notch.  I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise when comparing to the mid-season finales of the past few years, but regardless, a good episode as always.  Love the other, quieter story that seems to be happening in the background.  Looks like its building up for something great.

I still need to watch The Talking Dead to see if there was anything I missed, then a dry spell until 2015.  Hope they have some previews for what’s in store for the second half of the season.

No TV and no beer make Homer something, something

About to watch a marathon of the Simpsons with all episodes from their Treehouse of Horror specials.  Check out FXX today to catch it.