-insert boob bounce here-

Things are mixed up once again, as now the kids will be competing with each other for the inheritance. Oh, and Kinzo has changed from his pathetic self in the second arc to this crazy ‘You all failed as kids, and should die!’

We flash back to Maria who goes off the deep end after the death of Sakutaro and attacks Rosa. To me, it felt excessive. Yes, Rosa sucked as a mother, but that doesn’t mean I want to watch Maria kill her off over and over again.

The episode definitely had its lulzy moments too. Shannon’s bouncing boobs that don’t follow the laws of physics at all anyone?

The theory is presented, thanks to RabbitPoet, who got it off Zilch, that Shannon may actually remember different archs. This actually does make sense.

Overall, this episode feels like one of the rougher episodes that happened earlier in the series, not the polished episodes I’ve come to expected, and not nearly enough of Battler and Beatrice showing off.

You should probably get comfy and use to painful deaths Shannon.

Ugh. I want cool Umineko back. Maybe I’m just missing the point. I don’t know.

            I think the main weakness of Kobato is the lack of any real conflict. Sure there’s the stuff with the nursery, and there’s the fact that Kobato only has a year, but none of it feels like real conflict. As a result, Kobato is never downright terrible, but it’s never amazing either. It’s very static and predictable. On the other hand, it’s nice to have something that you’re sure is going to turn out enjoyable.

Placement of the paint glob was lovely.

CLAMP is not CLAMP without yaoi bait, and in this episode, we finally get yaoi bait for Fujimoto. Kobato heals his scarred heart and receives another piece of candy.

Yaoi bait

This episode did a fair amount of developing Fujimoto as a character. Too bad I could care less about him. I suppose we know why he enjoys the kindergarten so much now…there’s nothing like the unconditional love of a kindergartener while your peers hate you.

Aw...so cute!

I really hope to see an outfit change for Kobato soon. The more I see the dress, the more I hate. I swear, those stripes make her look like she gained 50 pounds.

Crazy person alert.

As Thanksgiving is upon us for those of us in America, I want to present five anime/fandom related things that I am thankful for.

1. This blog and many others. I am very thankful, not only for this blog, but for the many people I’ve been able to talk to, and get the opinions of. While there have been bumps, and still make embarrassing mistakes (Mammoth anyone?), it’s definitely been a fun ride, and I hope to doing this for awhile. Also like to have a nice shoutout for RabbitPoet and Steelbound, you guys have a huge influence me and motivate me to do my best.

2. My boyfriend. I love him to bits, and one of the best things that have ever happened to me. While there’s definitely more to us then this, I’m not entirely sure we would have become such good friends if it wasn’t for our shared interest in anime—especially K-On. Even now, I love dating a guy that I can talk anime with, anytime, anywhere, and he still gets what I’m saying. It doesn’t hurt any that we have similar interests in anime too. Just recently we were talking about the last episode of Sasameki Koto.

3. Livejournal. If there’s ever a place I get to enjoy being an anime fan, its Livejournal. With many different communities for different shows, it’s not hard to find someplace that’s fun to hang out, and there’s so much to join in on, such as roleplays. There are also little things that have become part of my daily life, such as fandom secrets. I don’t advertise the fact that blog here, (although I mention it on my profile) so I always get a huge kick out of someone I recognize on Livejournal ending up here. Hi guys.

4. For reminding me that life goes on. I know this sounds weird, but I went through some downright brutal crap this summer, but when I felt like everything was falling apart, anime helped me keep moving foreword. Even as it felt like everything was falling apart, fansubs would still come out on a weekly basis, and remind me that life was good, and no, the world was not ending.

5. For providing me a way to bond with my sister. My sister and I have very different interests, and it’s not always easy to find something that we enjoy doing together. Luckily, watching anime has been something we both enjoy, and many an evening has been spent watching it with my sister. It’s been a great aid in helping us stay close.

I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Guess what?

Guess!

I have another Cross Game ship.

I’m really happy to have this series back on track. It just keeps picking up to the level of awesomeness is had when it first aired.

I think this series just gets better as it goes on.

Episode 5 of Trapeze was utterly delightful, although a little rough on me. I really liked having him break like glass every time his OCD kicked him, that’s actually a really good metaphor for what it feels like. I also liked how he became a chameleon as he just wanted to blend in to everything else.

crack

The humor was straight of for this episode too, from his inane fantasies to the wig drama.

I think he looks better without the wig...

I liked hearing about Banto again too. Oh Banto.

By the way, did anyone else watching gg fansubs version see the trailer for Eden of the East movie? Definite moment for fangirl squealing.

Episode 6 was extremely interesting. I’m pretty sure we can all relate to knowing someone who can’t seem to live without their cellphone.

This episode was more then that though, as it played beautifully on the frustrations and dangers of adolescence

Shot down.

I really liked how the doctor and the nurse were developed in characters in the episode. Especially the nurse, I think she’s my favorite character. It interesting how their lifestyle does lead them to be sorta lonely people, although they at least have they patients they helped. Part of me thinks the ending was pointing that out while being a general, aw, so cute, and so so awesome.

Awww!

Next episode is another OCD patient, but not a type that I can relate to. I think I actually prefer not know about the disorder in the show.

While I am enjoying Trapeze episode 5, and am enjoying many things about it, let’s do some myth debunking.

1. Cause of OCD. While there are many theories to what causes OCD, most of my research points to it’s cause being a biological one. It’s caused by a chemical unbalence in the brain, the problem being with serotonin. This is the chemical that regulates anxiety. The weird obsessions is the malfunction from the chemicals, and the complusions are the bodies attempt to regulate it again. I, for example, was convinced my obsessive thoughts would stop if I put my mp3 player on shuffle, and a certain song would come up.

However, stress and other psychological problems can make the symptoms worse, going from something minor and not noticable to something that completely ruins your life.

2. Treatment of OCD.  Removing the stressor making the disorder worse can help. However, without medication, unless the disease stagnates, which happens in some cases, it’ll keep getting worse and worse without medication. I don’t think the character’s case in episode 5 was severe enough to need medication, or that he needed, just saying that it’s not always the case.

3. If you are experiencing problems of disturbing fantasies that seem connected to OCD, DO NOT ACT THEM OUT. Most disturbing thoughts are innapporiate, or violent fantasies, and often involve self half or hurting other people. Seek professional help.

Not that I’m trying to put down the episode, I personally thought it was great. I think what I’m saying is here, is the same old, don’t take anything at face value, or accept any single intepertation. Research it.

So Psgels (http://psgels.blogsome.com/2009/11/21/star-crossed-four-year-anniversarynew-irc-channel/#comments) made me aware that not only can you look at your search engine results that led people to the blog, but sometimes, they’re pretty dang funny. I looked at ours, and while ours pale in comparison to his, there still are some really amusing ones. See ours from the last seven days under the cut~

Pic unrelated

anime couple fighting-Any shoujo anime?
anime girls on bus-How about chucked under a bus?
anime pregnant-Clannad
no panty-I don’t think this is the blog you’re looking for
anime school thigh highs-Huh?
kobato episode 5 random curiosity-I think you may be a wee bit lost.
boob jokes-What did the one boob say to the other? …I don’t know.
over 9000- BORDERLINE HIKKOMORI IS OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!!!!
girls unconcious in hospital beds-o.O
i hate kyoani-I actually really like Kyoani when they’re not being trolls
messy crossdresser-Huh?
rage motivator-Your mom is a messy crossdresser
responsible people-Responsible people where? Not at this blog.
dominic anemone- And the award for the weirdest goes to…
pandora hearts alice school uniform-Sorry, I didn’t really like that outfit
dear daniel-He doesn’t even blog here!
talho pregnant-Try fanfiction.net
hot clothed girls-These two terms contridict…
why did the d.gray-man anime stop?-Because god hates you.
best manga artist-Tezuka. Next question
clannad robot-A musical Clannad robot?

Bamboo Blade

One of the great resources in anime fandom of late has been this guy. His charts have become almost indispensable when trying to figure out what to watch in the upcoming anime seasons. Recently, he’s started to compile these charts for previous years and the information that can be gleaned from these charts are extremely interesting and a real eye opener.

Last year, 2008, was the first year of this blog and as a result I watched many shows I probably won’t have otherwise and tried to make sure that I discovered all the “good” anime of a season so I could help other people discover these anime shows. So one of the first things I wanted to figure out was how much of the 2008 anime did I watch in the end.

Percentage of Shows Watched

This is the chart in question that I’m using; you can find it and more here. It lists 130 total anime shows that begun airing in 2008 and looking over these shows I realize there is a handful of shows that are aimed at very young viewers and these shows are never fansubbed, talked about, or licensed so the first step I’m going to do is remove these shows from consideration. I then tabulated how many shows I’ve watched, dropped and completed and I’ll summarize them here.

• 114 total shows (19 from Winter 07/08, 34 from Spring 08, 21 from Summer 08, 37 from Fall 08, 3 from Winter 08/09)
• 50 shows watched (5, 15, 9, 18, 3)
• 19 shows dropped (0, 9, 3, 5, 2)
• 31 shows completed (5, 6, 6, 13, 1)

I should note that the Winter 07/08 season was a season that I essentially took off. I needed the break and the only new show I watched that season while it was airing was Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei s.2. Yes, It is strange that I decided to start a blog during a season I wasn’t actively watching but that just how I like to do things. Because of this, the only shows I watched from this season where ones that I really wanted to see at a later time. This skews some of the results I’ll highlight below.

• Overall watched percentage by season – 26.3% of Winter 07/08, 44.1% of Spring 08, 42.9% of Summer 08, 48.7% of Autumn 08, 100% of Winter 08/09
• Overall watched percentage of 2008 – 43.8%
• Percentage of watched shows that were dropped by season – 0.0%, 60.0%, 33.3%, 28.8%, 66.7%)
• Percentage of watched shows that were dropped in 2008 – 38.0%

While going over the list of shows, I’ve noted that there were a few shows that I still have some interest in catching and could see myself watching at some point in the future, time willing.

• Possible unwatched shows that may be watched in the future by season – 2 from Winter 07/08, 2 from Spring 08, 0 from Summer 08, 4 from Fall 08, 0 from Winter 08/09
• Total unwatched but still interested in shows for 2008 – 8
• 2008 Total of shows watched and possible shows watched in the future – 58 or 50.9% of all 2008 anime shows

This leaves 49.1% of the entire 2008 year of shows as shows that I have not watched nor am I interested in doing so. Just looking at the raw number, it seems like I’m leaving a huge percentage of shows unwatched but looking over the shows the I’ve missed – I don’t think I’m missing much. I wonder how this compares to other anime fans.

Soul Eater

Excellent Shows and Strong Seasons

Next, I compiled a list of shows that I consider being the best of 2008 – the titles that I would recommend to other people and would be worthy series to own on DVDs, if possible. I was curious to see how these shows were distributed and if the general thinking about the spring and fall seasons being the strong seasons seemed justified.

• Excellent shows from Winter 07/08 – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S.2 and Spice & Wolf – (2)
• Excellent shows from Spring 08 – Wagaya no Oinarisama, Library Wars, Kaiba, Soul Eater, Kurenai (5)
• Excellent shows from Summer 08 – Natsume Yuujin-chou, Birdy the Mighty Decode, Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, Ryouko’s Case Files (4)
• Excellent shows from Fall 08 – Toradora, Clannad S.2, Shikabane Hime:Aka, Ga-Rei:Zero, Mouryou Hako, Kurozuka, Michiko to Hatchin (7)
• Excellents shows from 2008 – 18

Looking at the pure number totals, it appears that the fall season was the strongest season and that’s definitely on way to look at it but I wanted to see it from another perspective.

• Percentage of overall shows that were excellent by season – 10.5% of Winter 07/08, 14.7% of Spring 08, 19.1% of Summer 08, 18.9% of Autumn 08, 0% of Winter 08/09
• Percentage of overall shows that were excellent for 2008 – 15.8%
• Percentage of watched shows that were excellent by season – 40.0%, 33.3%, 44.4%, 38.9%, 0.0%
• Percentage of watched shows that were excellent for 2008 – 36.0%

Looking at the number of excellent shows in the context of the rest of the season shows, it turns out that the Summer season squeaks in front of the fall season as having the highest percentage of excellent shows. If the saying about how only 10% of anything is worth fighting for and the rest is garbage then one can’t complain about the quality of anime from 2008 since it beat that by a bit.

Kaiba

Why It’s Hard To Be a Fan of Anime Without Resorting to Fansubs

I want to say up front that I’m not writing this to defend fansubs per se nor am I trying to pick a fight – it’s been my observation for a while that oftentimes when an anime is announced as being licensed, I’m disappointed because it’s not one that I felt deserved to get licensed and I want to see if this observation is backed up by the data.

The first thing that needed done was to compile a list of what shows where licensed from 2008. I started with the list that animesuki keeps of shows that are licensed and thus they no longer list and then I checked out the various licensing articles from anime news network and finally I checked crunchyroll. I might have missed a couple but they won’t be enough to change the conclusions that I discovered. Onto some data.

• Total number of anime shows licensed from 2008 – 32
• Total number of licensed shows that I watched from 2008 – 13
• Total number of licensed shows that I completed from 2008 – 9
• Total number of licensed shows that I consider excellent shows from 2008 – 5
• Total number of excellent licensed shows that will come out on DVD – 3
• Total number of excellent licensed shows that will be dubbed on DVD – 2

I’ll note here that of the 19 licensed shows that I have not watched, none are on my list of shows that I might be interested in watching so those figures are final. Without running the exact numbers it’s pretty apparent what can be concluded but let’s run the numbers for completeness sake.

• Percentage of total anime shows that were licensed from 2008 – 28.1%
• Percentage of total anime shows that were not licensed from 2008 – 71.9%
• Percentage of licensed shows that I watched – 40.6%
• Percentage of licensed shows that I completed – 28.1%
• Percentage of licensed shows that I consider excellent – 15.6%
• Percentage of excellent licensed shows that will be released on DVD – 9.4%
• Percentage of excellent licensed shows that will be dubbed and released on DVD – 6.25%

The one glaring conclusion that I have to conclude is that the “anime fan” that the North American companies are going after is not me. If they were, I’d expect to see almost all of my excellent shows as having been licensed. (Afterall they should be picking the best titles to maximize the number of DVDs bought.) That’s not the case, though, and looking over the shows that did get licensed I find a lot of shounen/fighting shows, fan-service shows, and shoujo shows. I can’t help but feel that one of the results of a licensing pattern like this is that once an anime fan has been sated with enough shounen, fan-service, and/or shoujo shows that these fans discover they are no longer anime fans because anime has become either too childish or repetitive.

The reason I took the category down to excellent licensed shows that will dubbed and put on DVD even when I’m not the biggest dub fan is because there’s a segment of anime fandom that are people who like anime but don’t want to read subtitles and also want to watch on a TV. My one sister is like this and in the end she buys almost exclusively manga because she can find so little anime that interests her. When I was starting up my blog she told me that she’d read my site to find shows to buy but she quickly realized that this was not possible. I don’t blame her, of all the shows that I’ve watched and blogged about in 2008 there is a total of two shows – Soul Eater and Spice & Wolf that I could possibly recommend to her to buy and I don’t think she’d like Soul Eater. That leaves Spice & Wolf as the only anime out of the 114 anime that started airing in Japan during 2008 that I could recommend her to buy.

I feel like I should repeat that; for the entire 2008 year of anime, there is only one anime that I could recommend to my sister as being good enough that it’s worth buying on DVD. And these companies complain about the fans – maybe it’s not the fan’s fault.

I realize that 2009 saw a large increase of shows getting quasi-licensed on crunchyroll so by now it’s possible that my title about having to almost having to resort to fansubs may not hold as much water but I’ll leave that to a follow-up article in the future to see how the numbers work out. I want to hold off for a while to see how many of the 2009 shows get physically licensed and which ones will get dubs. Also left for a later article is my thoughts on how exactly to get the North American anime scene going in the right direction; here’s a hint, I don’t think there will be many people who will become fans of anime from having crunchyroll stream subtitled anime.

-
As an aside, if you happen to be looking to buy a good anime series on DVD (maybe for a Christmas present) and want a quality show that will get rewatched more than once, let me point out that Bamboo Blade is coming out soon. And there’s Spice & Wolf as well but it’s coming out the week of Christmas.

To be blunt, this episode was not one of the best that Umineko has to offer. I think it was a needed evil to set up the fifth arc, but still…

EDIT: I apologize for my love of Woolly Mammoths messing up how to correctly spell Mammon’s name.

Sakutaro is a pimp~

Go Mammon, go!

We open with wrapping up with Ange, and seeing what caused her to snap and give up her magic. She seriously pissed me off in this scene. She didn’t even try to stand up for herself, or tell them to back off. She just starts sobbing and demanding the stakes to kill them. Great conflict resolution there. At least Mammon tells her off and tries to talk sense into her.

Maria's outfit is really cute. 5 stars.

Then we wrap up Maria’s backstory, where we see all of Rosa’s violence against Maria is really nothing compared to this scene. It was very sad, and made me feel uncomfortable to watch Maria have to go through that. She doesn’t even have a village to go try to save her…

;_;

At least in the end of the episode, Ange actually has a bit of character development, and does something that makes her actually LIKABLE. Call the presses. She reconciles with the stakes, and even summons Sakutaro to try to reunite him with Maria.

GREAT facial expression.

Just…more magic next episode? Kthx. I think that this ends the backstory, so let’s move foreword with the actual story.

Kobato episode 5 was surprisingly dark, and rather well-done. After that, episode 6 was a bit of a letdown.

Hehe

The interesting part of the episode was the side story that focuses on Iorogyi, where we learn a little about his past life, and the rather interesting characters involved in it, as he searches to find what’s going with the nursery.

But the Kobato half of the story, while cute, was rather dull. Kobato can’t play hide and seek, and then a kid disappears for all of three minutes. Yawn.

Also, her new dress is pretty darn ugly. The fashion handcuffs go to Kobato.

Chibi Kobato is too cute.

One fourth of the show down, three fourths to go. And no, I don’t know why my screenshots are so tiny.

Last weekend, my awesome boyfriend came up, and we marathoned all 13 episodes of thes second season of Nanoha together.

I had previously watched the first season of Nanoha, and enjoyed it immensely, although I did have a few gripes. It took a little while to get started, and there was some really annoying filler. Luckily, the second season of Nanoha seemed to bring foreword all the positives of the first season, and leaves behind all the negatives. The series hits the ground running, and introduces us to whole new cast of new characters, and develops them very well while still focusing on the characters of the first season of Nanoha.

Nanoha, especially the second season, is one of those animes that I feels offers anything you could want in an anime. Cute girls. Cute boys. A complex, interesting storyline. Character development. Awesome fights fought with awesome weapons. Emotional depth, and the just right amount of cheesy and genuine emotions.

Overall, I feel Nanoha is one of those animes that fans should really give a try. While it does offer a lot, Nanoha is also different from the typical anime. Halfway through the fourth episode of the first season, this anime stops feeling like someone you’ve watched before, and starts to feel like something unique.

Nyan Koi

These three shows are the final shows that I plan on reviewing for this season and I figured lets to them all together so I can be done already.

The Scores

Tatakau Shisho

Average Rating: episodes 1-6 – 6/12 B-
Anticipation Level: 2/5 – Below Average

Seitokai no Ichizon

Average Rating: episodes 1-6 – 6/12 B-
Anticipation Level: 1/5 – Low

Nyan Koi

Average Rating: episodes 1-7 – 7/12 B
Anticipation Level: 2/5 – Below Average

Nyan Koi - In America, male fan service is considered art

The Story

Tatakau Shisho aka Armed Librarians is set in a world where a record of an entire person’s life is created in the form of a stone tablet and appears after the person has died; this tablet is known as a person’s book. These books get stored in a large repository and are guarded by the Librarians and they need to keep a careful watch on things because a religious cult has sprung up and it takes offense at the Librarians’ mission and the library itself.

Seitokai no Ichizon is a comedy show set around the daily lives of a high school’s student council. The four office holders are all female and each contain a set of character quirks that add to the comedy of the show and work against the natural desires of the fifth council member – a visual novel playing boy who earned his seat by being the top student in school and sees the four females as members of his personal harem.

Nyan Koi is a comedy show built around what happens after the main character disturbs a cat god’s shrine and is cursed to either help 100 cats or get turned into a cat. To help him out, he now has the ability to talk to and understand cats.

The Fine Print

Tataku Shisho has one of the most interesting premises this season and as a result I really want to like it. Sadly, I can’t say this show has been a great success because it does have it’s problems but it’s done just enough stuff right that it could end up in the good show pile. The show definitely has the pieces to be a good show but so far it’s storytelling hasn’t impressed me. It’s hard to describe exactly what I mean; I could point out that the first four episodes seem pretty unconnected to the later episodes or how the show kinda feels like a person is clicking between different programs and the programs doesn’t quite mesh well together but that doesn’t really explain what I mean – maybe the best way is to say it feels like the person putting together the story still needs to learn how to transition. I intend to continue watching because like I said, it’s different and I could use some variety this season.

Watching 40+ episodes of Hetalia lead me to the conclusion that Studio Deen can’t quite do comedy shows and Seitokai no Ichizon has confirmed this. It’s close to being a great show but it isn’t quite there. As a result, I find myself only mildly amused when I watch this show – maybe laughing once an episode. This level is fine for Hetalia because those episodes last 5 minutes but it doesn’t work when a show runs 22 minutes. I think part of Seitokai no Ichizon’s problem is that it’s too aware of the supposed formula this type of show is supposed to follow to ensure success and it slavishly follows that formula even if that means it becomes a lesser clone of another show, never finding something to make it unique. Or to put it another way, the show has no soul and will never become a real boy. I’ll continue watching, hoping to see some real creativity, but I’m not expecting it.

Nyan Koi shares something with To Aru Kagaku no Railgun – it’s getting progressively better as the season unfolds. I was all set to like this show because I love talking cats but a couple episodes in and I was moving this into the pile of shows that I might drop. Episode 4 was this show’s last chance and it was in this episode that Nagi – a very masculine girl who appreciates the beautiful femininity in other girls that she lacks – gets introduced and it’s been quickly moving into the “I like this show” category. Add the new characters that get introduced into the show in episode 6 (who know about the curse and have enough power to protect themselves) and it suddenly feels like the show’s working with all it’s gears and the comedy just flows easier. I still could critique the show a bit, for example, the main character has been rather lazy about helping the cats and I’d like to see the curse in action, if only to make him more serious about ending it. At this point, though, my critics are relatively minor compared to some of the other shows this season and who knows, if the show can sustain the quality that episode 7 displayed – it might just earn a spot on my top shows for the season. (And Jeff Lawson likes it too.)

Miracle Train

Trudging on with these anime impression posts, next up is a trio of shows The Sacred Blacksmith, Miracle Train, and Trapeze. On first glance, this is a very diverse set of shows which would make it difficult to talk about them all at the same time but they all happen to share something in common that’ll make it easy to talk about them.

The Scores

The Sacred Blacksmith

Average Rating: episodes 1-6 – 5/12 C+
Anticipation Level: 0.5/5 – Very Low

Miracle Train

Average Rating: episodes 1-6 – 4/12 C
Anticipation Level: 0.5/5 – Very Low

Trapeze

Average Rating: episodes 1-5 – 2/12 F
Anticipation Level: 0/5 – None

The Fine Print

I tried to be patient and give each show a fair shot but I can’t take it anymore. The thing they share is that I’m dropping all three and it feels liberating to say so.

The Sacred Blacksmith is set a bland medieval-style fantasy world where our heroine ends up getting a super-sweet “Demon Sword” that is so powerful that it can cover-up the fact that she completely sucks at fighting and is only in the town’s military because of her family’s name and/or because the male soldiers have a thing for women dressed in metal bra armor who don’t mind comments about how big she’s gotten in that department. Even when she has this super awesome sword, she still needs help staying alive and a mysterious boy keeps saving her with an awesome sword known as a “katana” which is so much better then the swords of her town. As for the story, an evil person is set on doing evil things which for the purposes of this show include forcing people into contracts with devils which turns them into monsters. For what reason, I don’t know or care. So for lousy characters, weak character development, bland world-building and poor storytelling – The Sacred Blacksmith is dropped.

Miracle Train takes a recently opened subway system, anthropomorphizing it’s train stations into pretty guys who’s personality and likes represent the area around each train station and this pack of guys help women with their problems. The heavily episodic nature of this show means that every problem these women have can be solved within ten minutes of show time which is a good thing for these women because they’re not allowed to decline the help offered by these guys or return to their lives until it’s decided that the problem is solved. The most interesting part of the show is the trivia that’s inserted into the show about the history and local flavor around the different train stations but I’m here to watch an anime not a documentary so Miracle Train follows The Sacred Blacksmith and gets dropped.

This guy is the best part of Trapeze, too bad he has 30 seconds of screen time per episode.

Trapeze is another heavily episodic show about problems being solved but this time it’s a trippy psychologist treating people’s mental issues and it has even less going for it then Miracle Train does. It starts with the characters whose problems make up the reason for the show – I just don’t care about them. At least with Miracle Train, I felt something for the women with their problems; here, for example, I don’t care if a baseball player is having trouble throwing a baseball because the team has drafted a younger, handsomer player. This alone, is pretty much a death sentence but I also find the show’s absolute mess of an animation style to be just plain ugly and wholly lacking any redeeming qualities so Trapeze follows Miracle Train and gets dropped-kicked to the curb.