Soul Eater

    Soul Eater centers around three groups of students enrolled at "Death Weapon Meister Academy" (DWMA for short). While all three teams include important characters, the team including Maka Albarn and Soul Eater (yes the name is the same as the series'). Each team is made up of the weapon meister (the weapon wielder) and the weapon (a human transformed into a weapon). The DWMA's purpose is to supply Death with weapons to battle "madness", the students must defeat humans whose souls have succumbed to madness to certify their weapons as Death Scythes, weapons which are worthy enough to be used by Death. The story mostly is about defeating the Kishin (the source of madness), and making a few jokes along the way.
    This series sports a rather distinctive style of drawing. In general characters have few distinctive features other than their overall design. What makes the style so distinctive is their noses. The characters' noses are drawn a bit short, and when viewed head on the underside of the nose is shaded (kind of like reality). On top of that the environment has a distinctive style too. The environment is generally draw with beefy outlines. In fact their is a lot of juxtaposition throughout (not just in the drawing, but also in the rolls played by the characters).
    Overall I would say this was slightly above average. The storyline was pretty good, there were some good characters, and the action and comedy were fantastic (in case you haven't figured it out by now I'm an action/comedy fan). The action had good choreography, and the animation in fight sequences was well done (I generally find this point in animation lacking because of the amount of movement involved). The comedy was fabulous, albeit it was pretty dark, it managed to maintain it's comedic value mixed with the seriousness of it. Quite possibly the most interesting thing about it was it's themes. The most obvious perhaps is is extensive use of juxtaposition, which defined just about everything in the series. The one thing I have to say was lacking was the ending. An ending should answer any and all questions, and an ending to wrap up the story with a nice bow. The only reason to deviate from this is if you are alluding to something (like a sequel), but this series didn't do that. Instead it generated even more questions, and gave an ok ending. Overall an OK series, it did very well with it's core themes, but had an ending that didn't live up to expectations.

Most of the major characters

   

Darker Than Black

    Darker than Black  is a science fiction (leaning on the side of fiction) animated tv series about several people who live in a world where the paranormal is commonplace. The first season is mostly set in Tokyo where an anomaly known as Hell's Gate has appeared, and has caused many strange things to happen. Firstly: it has replaced the stars with false ones, and has cause a good deal of destruction to the landscape. Secondly: people with mysterious abilities, and peculiar behaviors have surfaced. These people are known as contractors. Their abilities range from teleportation to fire manipulation, but come at a cost. After their power is used they must complete some act - this can range from dog-earing an entire book to causing themselves physical pain (kind of reminiscent of extreme OCD's). These abilities come at a bigger price though, the contractor loses what we commonly refer to as "humanity". Contractors have qualities of cynicism, and extreme rationalization. These qualities make them extremely effective spies and assassins. There are also dolls: supposedly emotionless "mediums" which mimic the forms of humans. Dolls are mostly used as reconnaissance because of their ability to observe remotely through creatures that appear to be made of energy.
    Now thats out of the way lets talk about the first season. The first season centers around a contractor named Hei who, with a team, carries out jobs for the Syndicate. The first half of the first season mostly is about Hei just doing jobs, and the detective who pursues him. The second half is about the conspiracy to destroy Hell's Gate. The second season centers mostly around Suō, a eurasian girl, and Hei who is more of a secondary character until near the end where the story starts to center more on him again.
    Overall I would say that the animation is pretty average. There is a little attention to detail of the environment, but is generally average. There is an interesting animating of the characters though. Some characters are drawn without pupils. In fact the main character is drawn without them. This is probably like this because of a story-wise reason, rather than an art style reason because of the few choice characters who are drawn this way. I fail to see the importance of it though.
    Overall I would say that this series was pretty good. Even though it didn't have much of a distinct animation style, it still had a good story. They did a good job of making a noir-like storyline in a science fiction setting. I think anyone who likes action, science fiction/fantasy, and a different perspective on what being human is will like this one.

Hei (contractor): Foreground, Yin (doll): left of Hei, Huang (human): far left,

Mao (contractor): cat far right 

Howl's Moving Castle

    It's not very often that I get to blog about animated movies that generally excel in all ideas represented, but today I do get to. Howl's Moving Castle was produced by Hayao Miyazaki, and based off a book by Diana Wynne Jones. It was animated by Studio Ghibli. For those who do not know Hayao Miyazaki is one of the most successful animation directors ever, he is known internationally (which when you think about it is kind of a big deal), Thus I will probably do several other post about his works (so get ready to hear his name a lot).
    The storyline centers around Sophie, an eighteen year old hatter. One day while on her way in town she runs into Howl; a powerful wizard whom rumors created a shroud of mystery over. Later that day The Witch of the Waste (who has quite the nasty reputation) lays a curse on her that transformed her into an old woman. Looking for a cure, she travels into the Wastes and comes across a living scarecrow, whom she later names Turnip Head. She asks him to find her a place to stay, and he hops off. Later he returns with Howl's Castle, a giant fortress that is moved about on giant metal chicken legs. She goes inside and meets the fire demon Calcifer, who apparently is the reason behind the castles ability to move, and Markl Howl's apprentice. After Howl returns she becomes his cleaning lady. And the story goes on from there.
    While the animation done by Studio Ghibli is always superb I found that there were some parts of the animation that really shined through in this production. First off: the wide-shot scenery. This is probably the most beautiful part of the film. The scenes of the scenery are done in a slightly extra paint-like fashion which gives it a very natal feel (versus paying close attention to each individual detail, which generally adds to much human perspective for my taste). Second: the odd little details. In this film I found that the animators seemed to be using a bismuth-like iridescent style to certain objects, particularly metallic.
    I have to say they did a good job on the setting. The setting is this kind of industrial revolution/victorian era that goes together amazingly well. The victorian era style comes into play ion the buildings and somewhat in the clothing. The industrial revolution comes in by the machines. The "cars" look kind of like if an original Ford automobile had a miniature steam engine powering it. Also there are some great flying machines, which I can only describe as "Steampunk Davinci". On top of the great style there are some interesting concepts explored. One of the more notable pieces of the plot is a war that is going on, and wizards are conscripted into it. One of the things one may do with magic in this story is change one's appearance/body. The conscripted wizards are forced to change themselves into beast-like creatures. One of the consequences of this is if used enough; one may not be able to change back to human. This has relevance because coupled with the quote "After the war they won't recall they ever were human" it shows a connection the psychological state required to take part in war. Overall I think anyone could enjoy watching this, but if you particularly like fantasy and dramatic elements with bit of comedy then you should definitely consider watching this one.

The Castle

Howl: tall guy in the middle, Sophie: girl in blue dress, 

Markl: kid in green, Witch of the Waste: old lady on the right,

Heen: dog on the left, Calcifer: blue thing in the upper right corner.

Better picture of Calcifer