Black Star…turned out completely different than I was expecting.

Just to clarify things though, I think the strength of the material comes more from the direction as opposed to the writing of Yamatoya (not to say that he didn’t organize the show effectively). Guys like him work on stuff that are adaptions, in fact all most all of his work is manga adaptions. So, unless the staff has licence (and talent) to do something radical and excitingly different, you’re basically at the mercy of the source material.

The first episode of Soul Eater was fantastic. The voice acting was cerntainly different, but refreshing. Although Maka’s voice bugged me at the beginning of the ep, I grew to love it by the end of the episode. It just suited her so well.

As for other shows…well, Kanokon might be my guitly pleasure show for the season, but I haven’t seen Ep 2 yet. And now that I’ve seen Ep 1 of Kyouran Nikki, I’d have to disagree with you. I actually think the male was a little boring, not the female. She was crazy, just like Excel.

I dropped Kamen no Maid Guy after 1 episode. Blassreiter and Druaga are ok; they have potential. And I still need to start Nabari, Special A and Kure-nai.

And, as Skua said, eventhough Blassreiter seems to be unfairly demonized due to the anti-gonzo and anti-cg bias, it does have a pretty interesting plot so far and seems to be much better than some other shows of this season.

As for Blassreiter, I totally agree actually. It has a nice dark atmosphere and the CG work is actually pretty good in High Def. I think the Gonzo-hate is spreading to Tower of Druaga, though I think Druaga is pretty serviceable so far as well.

As for the OSTs, I’m not entirely in agreement because I thought there were plenty. Namely Kaiji (not everyone’s cup of tea I’d admit), Aria Origination (though lot of it was carry-over from The Natural). Though in a way, the last summer’s epic OSTs are just ridiculously hard to one-up anyway.

Months before the show aired, posters at certain boards already picked Blassreiter as a pariah, so the hate is expected. Something about how Burst Angel (a CG-laden disappointment from Gonzo?) and Dragonaut turned out. To some degree, I think Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- suffered from similar issues since people loved to hate the show for its mediocre production values + setting authenticity.

Anyway, Blassreiter looks pretty fun so far (once you get past the silly-looking CG), although it’s impossible to say how the story might turn out. There’s an interesting premise and some nicely established characters, so lets hope the plot picks up sooner than later.

Glad to hear that Soul Eater is shaping up nicely. I was rather expecting it to be your standard or garden variety shounen show with epic fight scenes.

But regarding Ouran: what made its ending so good? To me, it just felt like a forced plot-device to get some forced character-development out of the cast that came way too late in the series.

I also disagree with Zettai Karen (they had to get past Kaoru if they’re going to go anywhere in that story) and you dropped Shugo Chara just because it had a few smattering of fillers? Whatever.

I actually am going to not drop a single fansubbed show that is released since I had enough fun with all of them. I do agree with one thing in that the side characters in Special A could be better.

And really… Ouran with a ‘crappy ending’? I don’t agree with that at all.

And…Kamen no Maid Guy? lol. As a friend commented to me yesterday, the only interesting thing was the joke about the over detailed maid figure.