Retsgip’s Anime Blog

Darkshaunz prepares for the final farewell.

Score: 8.9/10 (animation quality seems to have dipped slightly)

After a long wait for this episode to be released, I felt a slight need to re-adjust myself after a relatively long grace period of badassery. Luckily, the action juice came early with the intense deployment of Balalaika’s men early on. The latest installment of Black Lagoon has everything one expects from the series, with the added bonus of Rock becoming even more GAR than usual. So strap yourselves in for the ride, as the anime takes its final step towards what has been nothing short of an explosive journey, all the way from Raunapour to Tokyo.

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They both fail so hard it almost hurts to watch

Rating: 8.5/10

Okay, I’m officially taking Bartender off of “on hold” status. I got me a new laptop and it runs better than my desktop back at my apartment. I almost feel spoiled, but then it was only 500 bucks after two rebates, which is pocket change when it comes to laptops. Unfortunately though, I feel pretty shitty so I didn’t take many pictures. Well, enough about me, on to Bartender!

I was a little disappointed with some portions of the artwork, which were pretty low at times (face shots mostly). Other than that, everything else was acceptable. The episode featured two stories, both involving extremely real situations involving couples, and it kind of hit home hard for me.

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Even Shizune is fascinated by Menma’s “piece”

Rating: 7.5/10

If you ignore the obvious shit-fest associated with the artwork and the so very underused Rasengan, this episode and arc actually turned out alright. The funny thing is, my “joke” of this being a homosexual innuendo is really NOT a joke because it really IS there and I find that quite amusing. Not that being homosexual is bad or funny, but I think that the writers are trying to make a serious plot and tried to portray a strong bonding friendship, but instead it turned out to be gay. (pun intended?)

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Surprise, surprise. Retsgip jumped on the bandwagon by offering yet another “Best of,” “Top #,” or whatever else you choose to call these ranking schemes. First off, I want to mention that I absolutely hate comparing one anime to another, because I feel that most of them have different traits, which all fulfill me in different ways. In order to make it easier on myself (and the reader), I’m going with a Top 5, and then I’ll finish it up with a few awards.

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Darkshaunz wants to max level.

The new anime year is upon us, for some there is much rejoicing (especially with all the Lolicious titles coming out January 2007), for others in the community there’s the opportunity to reflect upon the year of 2006, and what delivered and what didn’t. In fact, head over to our friend Danny at Novastorm to Nominate in his not-so-normal awards, also I’ve somehow been selected as a “Highly Professional Judge” (If you say so) at Impz’s THAT entry. But this evening, I decided to start breaking our level of “Hardcoreness” into nice, digestable layers. So join me as I unveil the 7-tiered Otakudom system, and hopefully you’ll be able to identify what level you are.

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Kariya is almost trying too hard to be GAR

Rating: 8/10

Well we finally have the semi-conclusion of the fillers, and as expected, it was a pretty shitty ending. I’m not going to even begin to pick out all the problems with this episode, but Danny will in a rather Retsgip-esque fashion.

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“A cigg a day keeps her loli at bay”

Rating: 8.7/10

I wasn’t as impressed with this episode as the last few, and it was mostly because of all the little coincidences here and there. Maybe it’s just me, but I absolutely HATE when animes have the “small world” syndrome. Running into people at certain times or in certain places, especially in such a huge city is beyond me. I guess it’s what they call “destiny,” but I just call it rubbish. Except for the coincidences, all the reasons I enjoy this anime were still masterfully executed, and I couldn’t even begin to hate it.

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Rating: 8.3/10 (better than the previous episodes)

I’m glad they’ve bounced back from the filler-esque type crap they’ve been putting out lately. I’m finally excited about where the plot is going, even though section 3 is still not relieving the pains of war by owning up some badguys. What I really mean is Panda-kun owning up some tanks with his schizo-lantern.

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