I am not prone to argue

[wombat_socho]

I was a good boy yesterday and spent most of yesterday in bed like I was supposed to. The result is that the left leg is looking and feeling somewhat better, though it still hurts when I put weight on it. So there'll be more of the same on the agenda today. Most of the bed time yesterday was spent proving to myself that Civ III cannot be beaten at anything above easy mode if you are contending with the full roster of AI players. The remainder was spent watching a sample disk that came with the Angelic Layer box set I ordered for the ATC Library.

The freebie disk had the first two episodes of Samurai 7, a retelling of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai by GonzoBONES Studios, the folks who brought us Full Metal AlchemistLast Exile; the second episode of Burst Angel, which I'd seen at Anime Iowa; and the eighth episode of Kiddy Grade, which I didn't watch. Samurai 7 was okay. It starts slow, like the movie, and the setting is a steampunk Japan that looks sort of like the pre-Shogunate era in which the movie is set, but there appears to be more going on here than there was in the movie. I'd be interested in seeing more of this. As for Burst Angel, since I saw this subbed at AI I decided to watch it dubbed and get a tatse of Monica Rial's performance as Jo. Ooooo. Nice.

Angelic Layer also looks interesting, and may be the first thing I've seen from CLAMP since Magic Knights Rayearth that I've actually liked. The art doesn't seem as flashy and baroque as CLAMP stuff usually is, but then this is a more conventional story about a young middle school student coming to Tokyo for school who becomes involved in the national mania for the doll fighting game Angelic Layer. More comments once I've finished it.

Edited to incorporate corrections by acdragonmaster. Thanks!
SECOND EDIT: Well, apparently it's still all backwards. Go read the comments. You know you want to anyway.

Comments

[basilpsyche.livejournal.com]

Rest is always good. I have the day off, but had an 8 a.m. exam at the U. *groan* I plan on napping in a bit though.

What's the ATC library? Anime Twin Cities? I saw a few episodes of Angelic Layer, but couldn't get into it. Maybe it picks up later, but it just didn't hold my attention at the time.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

We need to talk up the ATC library a little more - we have a stock of anime that people can borrow, and it's stored at my place and Brian's. Mostly box sets of series, a few individual DVDs that show the first few episodes of a series.

Angelic Layer is kinda shojo, and it does start slow. I had the advantage of seeing the review by Steven den Beste (http://denbeste.nu/Chizumatic/reviews/AngelicLayer.shtml), whose opinions I've come to respect, and I have to admit the "Angelic Gear Solid" AMV sold me on the series too.

[tokenfanboy.livejournal.com]

We'll need to discuss how to track everything if we start loaning stuff out to people. We'll need to know who has what, and need everything returned to the library at least a month before the convention. We'll probably want to mark the discs themselves with a big ATC on them.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Oh, absolutely. We may want to consider taking peoples' credit card information so that we can charge them for lost copies.

[basilpsyche.livejournal.com]

How can I get involved with ATC? Also, do you guys have screenings?

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

If you're involved with Anime Detour, you're involved with ATC; ATC is the parent company respsonsible for AD and doesn't have a lot else going on at the moment. We're working on changing that. ^^;;;;

So far, no scheduled screenings. We do sometimes screen things we get from distributors at the meetings before the convention, and are looking at doing social meetings with screenings, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Comes of having so many of us who have too many other things on our plates.

[acdragonmaster.livejournal.com]

Err, BONES produced Fullmetal Alchemist, not Gonzo. Gonzo did Burst Angel and Samurai 7, BONES did Angelic Layer. Funimation licenced all of the above but Angelic Layer.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the correction. I'll fix that.

[acdragonmaster.livejournal.com]

Er, you still have it a little confused. ^_^;;; Let me be more clear-

Gonzo: Burst Angel, Samurai 7 (whole slew of other stuff, such as Last Exile, Chrno Crusade, FF: Unlimited)
BONES: Fullmetal Alchemist, Angelic Layer (+ more stuffs like Wolf's Rain and Scrapped Princess)

BONES and Gonzo are the two studios that I keep wavering on which is my personal favorite animation/production studio, so I'm pretty familiar with stuff done by both. ^_^;;

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Well, that should do it.

[acdragonmaster.livejournal.com]

....you still have it reversed. >_>

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Meh. People can always look at the comments and get squared away.

[hyperblaster.livejournal.com]

Magic Knight Rayearth is still my favorite CLAMP offering. Well, CCS comes in second though.

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

I need to see CCS sometime. Steven den Beste of Chizumatic likes it a lot.