I've waited a long time to say anything about Halt and Catch Fire. It seems too easy or pointless to use a word like "underrated." It's hard to say the most compelling aspects are "subtle." No matter how many times I try to dismiss the whisper "masterpiece," it still returns. This isn't a show that wastes time trying to "work its angle" well enough that you get cheap glimpses into "the computer world." It doesn't try to impress you with talk that makes you think of a snobbish adviser they consult with too often. It doesn't try to make profound statements about family or entrepreneurship. Halt and Catch Fire is the grind. It's the thing that gets you to the thing.
I crave entertainment that makes me think. Halt puts me into a kind of meditation. I can adopt the skin of practically any character and feel like I know how I'd react to any other. I want to forgive and grow and try and disappear as they did. I want to root for them, and be cut deeper and deeper each time I try to believe again. I want to feel like my home is where my heart is, and my heart can reside in so many people and everything we've tried to create together. This show can let you feel a dynamic and chaotic beauty and drive for every ounce of the pain it takes to do so.
I've reached a point where I can't find anymore words to wrap the swelling in my chest with that will quell what I'm going to miss now that it's over. What these characters have, what this story shows, is human perfection. Bloody, confusing, tumultuous and heartfelt perfection. While the show can end, what it represents is everything I want my life to be, and I feel humbled that they were able to strike the chord so soundly.
When the Hellsing TV version was initially released I was really into the show's edginess. At that time we didn't even have a broadband connection and so for most episodes I was left with checking sequences from the already downloaded packets and waiting for it to complete (funny how times have changed). Despite all this I never actually watched the whole thing. So to check this off I decided to watch the OVAs instead since they have been released for some time now.
Most people with the intention of watching "Hellsing" already know this but I'm saying it again; there is little reason to check out the TV version with the existence of the Ultimate OVAs. They are not only superior in production values but also true to the manga source material. So instead of fighting ghouls and vampires created by computer chips this builds to a showdown between religious factions and an army of vampire Nazis in the middle of London.
The thing is obviously not perfect. The comedy feels a bit misplaced and the pacing towards the end a bit uneven (with a lot of focus on shots of impaled people, blood streams, crosses or ruins) and the chief Nazi was quite anti-climatic.
Still, if you're up for a ride with one of the most overpowered protagonists ever and are not put off by a rain of blood and body parts this will suffice and is probably the only show of it's kind to receive this deluxe treatment.
Vash the Stampede, the wanted man of 60,000,000,000$$
If you are a die-hard anime fan than no doubt you have already seen this one. If you haven't already, shame on you! Go download/buy/borrow it right now! Trust me, you will not be disappointed.
Trigun is a very traditional anime, but at the same time very good. Traditional in the animation techniques used (it was made in 1998 and computers were back than not yet such an integral part of animation as they are right now), which are definitely not bad, visual speaking this anime does even now after 15 years still look amazing. If you have seen a lot of anime than you will definitely recognize some of the visual art tropes this anime has that are unique to anime (For more information about those take a look here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JapaneseVisualArtsTropes ).
What makes this anime stand out from the crowd is the story. The mood you get from this anime during the first half of series is that Vash the Stampede is really on a desert planet in the distant future. It is definitely a cool mix of the old American western culture and a distant future with cool technology where human colonists set out to colonize other planets. The first half of the series is without a doubt a hilarious, action-packed, phenomenal and awesome piece of artwork you will not soon forget. The stories are really of a fantastic quality.
The second half of the series is where it gets serious and where (in my opinion) the anime loses some of its quality story-wise. Its still good, but the fact that Vash is portrayed as some kind of Messiah that walks the earth trying to undo his errors from the past and who's life-motto is to do no harm under any circumstance gets to a point where it becomes annoying and makes him look like a pathetic douchebag not worthy of the enormous bounty on his head (For example, at one point in the anime in an attempt to save someones life he strips naked and barks like a dog in front of a group of thugs he can easily take down).
Nevertheless, This together with Cowboy bebop (http://trakt.tv/show/cowboy-bebop), Neon Genesis Evangelion (http://trakt.tv/show/neon-genesis-evangelion) and to a lesser extent Berserk (http://trakt.tv/show/berserk) are the anime series from the Nineties that every fan of anime should see at least once in their life time. Without these on your watched history pages here on Trakt the term Anime Otaku does not apply to you ;)
Oh boy, was this one a disappointment.
I saw the warning signs straight away and I was never expecting it to be as good as Soul Eater, but it's just so "meh" that, had it not been for the Soul Eater connection, I doubt I would have started watching it in the first place.
First and most importantly - this is nothing like Soul Eater. It may have been animated by the same studio (Bones), but everything is different, including the art style (there's no better example than what they did to poor Maka. Maka in Soul Eater: http://i.imgur.com/xKkDU0d.jpg vs Maka in Soul Eater Not: http://i.imgur.com/bdc2brV.jpg - ugh), theme and just overall tone. Rather than Shounen fighting, you have some pretty lackluster slice of life adventures with a lot of Yuri teasing. There is an antagonist, but it's not a particularly impressive one and nothing really comes of that arc (which considering this all happens before the events of Soul Eater isn't a big suprise, I guess).
The few action scenes that you do see are pretty lame and not very well animated at all, further evidence that the B Team at Bones worked on this, considering that Bones is quite well known for being capable of very impressive action scenes (Cowboy Bebop and Sword of the Stranger for example). You get a few cameos from the cast of Soul Eater proper, but all that does is remind you how much better it was and makes you wish you were watching that.
All in all a massive disappointment. If you haven't seen Soul Eater, for the love of god don't start with this - watch the proper thing instead. If you have seen Soul Eater, I still wouldn't bother.
