A little bit of catch-up

Just a couple of bits and pieces from where I last left off; I should have written them back then, but it just wasn't to be...

I re-watched episode 1 of ".hack//Roots" in the HDTV version (and after a couple of beers) and I enjoyed it much more this time around. Between the picture quality, and not having to worry about reading the dialogue to compete with the picture quality, I was quite happy with the results. That said, I am looking forward to some translation so I can get a better grounding. I'll probably keep downloading HD raws, though -- I can't help myself.

Speaking of "can't help myself", seeing the early teaser page for "Black Lagoon" (the teaser had the lead girl-with-gun-smoking-a-cigarette character as its, uh, primary visual...), I kept my eyes peeled for the raw and watched it when it arrived. I actually didn't expect a lot from it, and so far it doesn't seem to be anything beyond what it appears to be on the surface. Fun, maybe a little campy, and not particularly annoying. Not mind-blowing or really cool or anything. But it seems like it'll be worth sticking with. That said, it seems to be pre-licensed by Geneon already, so I don't know if I'll bother with fansubs or not -- I'm already going to be draining my karma with the Bee Train offerings this season as it is.

In the "I wish this was licensed so I can buy it" category, I caught up to episode 20 of "Mushishi". Excellent, thoughtful, serene series, with sharp, simple, rich storytelling. Gotta have it! I found out that this is actually being aired in "Hi-Vision" (Japanese HDTV), and there were HD raws at one point -- sadly, none of those links are active anymore. The series is on hiatus and will return in May, and I'm looking forward to it. If it's actually released in an HD disc format in Japan someday, I may find myself very tempted to import it. More like this, please!

Finally, I needed some cheering up on Saturday, so I re-watched Satoshi Kon's "Millenium Actress", which I realized I hadn't seen since I first tried it over a year ago. I don't have a lot about it that I can put into words right now, but I really, really like it. After that, I popped in disc 1 of "Paranoia Agent", but after the first episode I realized that I just wasn't in the right frame of mind, and decided I'll revisit that one another time.