Tidbits

I've been kind of bad about updating lately, which can be blamed partially on Skyrim and partially on my poor sleep schedule which is also mostly the fault of Skyrim.  So here's some teasers for reviews I will and won't be doing in the future:

Gintama:  I finished the first run (all but the last of 178 episodes) and was generally very impressed.  It wasn't really amazing quality anime but I didn't feel like my 178 episodes were wasted, it stayed relatively fresh, though I often just had it running in the background.  It's good for that.

Cardcaptor Sakura:  I'd seen a bunch of it before, but had never finished the entire thing.  I liked it, but I felt it didn't make as good use of its length as it could have, and it's 'second season' was tacked-on and a little odd, though in the end it worked out.  I have to watch the second of the movies before I give a full review.

Bakemonogatari:  I recently rewatched the entire first season with a friend, and realized that the more times I rewatch it the more I like it.  While I still wouldn't quite rate it an S, I certainly rate it as one of my 'must see' shows.

Nisemonogatari:  This one won't be for another six or seven weeks, when the entire thing has aired.  So far, I'm loving it, despite it being notably slower than Bakemonogatari, it's more thoughtfully exploring relationships that we have only had inferred.  Nisemonogatari is thus far making it completely clear to me that the story is about people, not about monsters.

Arakawa Under the Bridge:  I watched the first episode a while back then picked it up again, it's very weird but fun, in a playful, thoughtful kind of way.  Very much about questioning what really matters... and also about just being absurd.

Bakatest Season 2:  I probably won't review this, since it only stood out to me as 'more of the same,' as in, 'more potential wasted on maintaining a status quo or faking progress.'  It was fun but ultimately not worth an entry.

Summer Wars:  I'd really like to review it, it was really quite a good movie (not quite as good as the Girl who Leapt Through Time, but still good) but ultimately I saw it at what was for me an emotionally relevant time in my life to the subject matter, and so I don't feel like I can give an honest rating.  It's good though.  You should watch it.

Hayate no Gotoku! Heaven is a Place On Earth:  The Hayate movie, it was cute but not unique or amazing enough to be worth reviewing on its own, it's more Hayate.  If you need more Hayate, watch it.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS:  I'm watching this for a third or fourth time with a friend who's never seen it before.  I'm not sure if I'll post a review when I'm finished, I consider it good but not amazing, fun to watch but considerably below the outstanding quality of Nanoha A's.

Fate/Zero:  So, I'll say right off the bat that this'll be a difficult one to review because I cannot in good conscience tell anyone to watch it without having first played through Fate: Stay/Night (the Visual Novel, not the godawful anime), which is a testy prospect at best.  The VN is wonderful and one of the most soul-crushingly depressing and horrific stories I've ever seen, qualities I adored about it even as they make me cringe at the thought of ever 'playing' through it again.  Fate/Zero is a prequel, set some years previous, and spoils a couple of the biggest shocks of the Visual Novel in the first 30 minutes of it.  It also looks very, very good.

Lucky Star, Infinite Stratos, Bakatest, Toradora OVAs:  Some of these I've already seen, some of them I'm working on getting.  None of them seem worth reviewing separately, being just individual episodes and not wildly divergent from the quality or subject matter of their originator series.

Shakugan no Shana Final:  I'm really looking forward to watching the third season of Shana, since I always was very impressed with the series' construction, but I feel honor-bound to rewatch the first two seasons so that I'm in the right mindset for the third, and that's about 65 episodes worth of watching, which I'm not quite dedicated to doing yet.

Ikamusume Season 2:  Pretty much exactly the same as Shana Final, though a bit less so; I saw Ikamusume more recently and the 'plot' doesn't require certain memory as strictly.

Durarara!!, Working!!:  I saw a bit of the first episodes and they didn't grab me, but I'm curious about them both.  More so now that I know that some of my favorite voice actors are involved.  Yes, I will watch series just to hear people with lovely voices talk.

Ao no Exorcist, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, Sacred Seven, RahXephon, Fate/Unlimited Blade Works, Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex Season 2, Hell Girl Season 2, Hourou Musuko, Eden of the East, Gokusen, Claymore, Starship Operators, Death Note:  Downloaded.  Waiting for inspiration to watch them, which may or may not come.

...now that you more or less know the contents of my "Unfinished" folder, I'm going to go back to deciding if I'm going to try to pull an all-nighter to hopefully restabilize my sleep schedule or not.