Wednesday or Thursday? Can't wait any more!!

The anticipation is killing me. Two whole weeks without a Madlax episode (well, except for the Sugarcube catch-ups that are up to ep 14), and at any moment over the next 24 hours, I can expect at least ep 21 (if not 21 and 22 simultaneously) to appear on the AnimeSuki tracker.

It is by the sheer force of will that is keeping me from looking over in the forum for the spoilers by the folks who watch the raws in Japanese.

That said, I actually have been watching a few other things to pass the time. As I've noted below, I finished the Kill Bill duopoly. Tarantino knows a lot about how to mimic the movies he obsesses about (not that there's anything wrong with obsessing), but there's this smugness about it -- an arrogance -- that led me to my slightly briefer reviews. I'm not sure if I'm going to rate it "purchase-worthy" yet. I'll let it set a spell and ferment in my head.

In my newfound anime obsessive realm, I finally started Bebop. I had caught a few eps in that Best Sessions disc, and two of those were on the 1st disc that I rented. I think I like the series well enough, and I will probably rent it all the way through. I won't buy it until the rumoured new box set with 5.1 surround sound comes out though (the Best Sessions disc was remixed in 5.1. Good stuff!)

Also out of my queue came the first Revolutionary Girl Utena disc. I've said quite often that I really dig "ultra-dangerous and/or brooding women", and the promise of that shojou-ai vibe can be irresistable, but I found it a bit too tedious, I didn't really like the character styles, and the characters themselves seemed rather thin and lacking life, as does the overall story. And it's anime-cliche-o-rama, which, while I tolerate, I'm not that fond of when there's not much to make up for it. I'll give disc 2 a go, and maybe try one of the movies, but this one was a bit of a disappointment.

I've got an earlier Mashimo series lined up next: Sorcerer Hunters. Looks a bit over-the-top to me, but being the Mashimo fan-boy that I've become, I can't help but give it a spin.

Which brings me to yet another Mashimo series that never got licensed over here, so I had to download fansubs for it: Popolocrois Story (the older 1998 version). I was surprised that this one didn't show up on any of the database lists for Koiuchi Mashimo until I checked CDJapan. This one is a kiddie story, aimed totally at little kids. I think it's unmistakably Mashimo, though, in the timing, pacing, and character patterns (it helps that I compared the credits with his name in Kanji to verify). So far, though, I could only get through 2 of the 4 available episodes (there are more in the actual series). It really is just too kid-oriented to me. And I can't recommend it to anyone with English-speaking kids, because kids of the age that can stand to read through subtitles will be too old for it. That said, it seemed to be a quality show overall.

Finally, for other fansub samplings, I've tried a few episodes of Uninhabited Planet - Survive! Not bad, but thin, cliche, formulaic, and aimed at a young-teen audience. Still, the characters had a bit more life than most, but I don't think I'll get much further along with it. The other sampling has been Hunter X Hunter, which I've only just started and haven't seen enough to pass judgement. Seems a bit to "young" for me as well, though.

That's kept me busy, I should say. Now to go check AnimeSuki again... Is it there yet? Nope. *sigh*

[EDIT] 7:25 PM!! ANBU/Lunar wins! 85KiB/s! 36 minutes left! Both episodes in a little over an hour! Me happy.