Lunchbreak quickie

I managed to spin up a couple of more shows last night, though by the end I was a bit too worn out to write about them.

First up, while eating dinner, I watched the raw of "Spider Riders" ep 5. Looks like they had a little backstory in there, though danged if I know what it was. Still, it's a simple enough show that I find it watchable even though I don't understand the "plot". Also in this one, we see more of the brooding babe, who appears to be a human Spider Rider working with the evil bug dudes. I think I now have a favorite character in this one... *ahem*

Then I popped in disc 1 of "Blue Submarine No. 6", which is apparently an OVA from around 1998 or so. It's a 2-sided disc with only 30-min episode per side, which seems to be kind of a waste. It's got a Japanese 5.1 soundtrack, but the mix seems really messed up -- it might be that my setup has issues, but I really think it's more because of the mix. Plus, even though it's got decent quality design and a high framecount, it's sadly a 4:3 normal-screen presentation, so it loses a bit of it's impact.

Also, it continues to prove my old axiom "higher framecount does not mean better animation", though really there wasn't a lot of glaring problems with it like other shows. But there was enough wooden lifelessness or awkward stiffness to warrant that observation. The gratuitous use of 3D CGI was okay and wasn't too distracting, but like I said before, the impact was a bit lost in the smaller screen format.

I did like the characterizations overall, even though they were more-or-less stereotypical archetypes. And despite some of the animation flaws, there were still a couple of sparks of life to be found. Particularly with the sea-creatures' "women" -- of course, they're the fan-bait that the whole show probably hangs on, so it's not surprising that some attention went into them.

Oh, and the soundtrack was pretty good. Quality stuff. I'll probably rent the rest of it, though it's a shame that such short discs will waste slots in my precious GreenCine queue. Oh well.

Finally, I managed to get through one more episode (#5 or 6? Hmmm...) of ".hack//Roots". I was in a better mood, and it was enjoyable enough, with enough of a minor twist/exposition to interest me, but boy-howdy, that last "confrontation" scene with the scary player-killer chick from the other guild was excruciatingly painful to sit through. The timing of everything was so glacial, the sense of distance between the characters so overblown... it was completely irritating.

Of course, it may have been a rather accurate portrayal of an MMORPG combat scene from what I've witnessed of the real thing... Heh.

Anyway, it looks like the next episode will reveal some more about the real "plot" for this series, which I'm looking forward to. Maybe I'll have a chance to watch it tonight.

I'm way behind on "The Sopranos", though... And "Doctor Who" for that matter... Decisions...