Anime Update

I'm already in the habit of writing these elsewhere. Gonna start putting them here too

4 reviews of what I've been watching lately

Preamble: I mentioned before that playing SRW got me interested in Majestic Prince. Majestic Prince was only on Hidive, and only for another 2 weeks (at the time).

So I took a break from what I was watching to binge everything I wanted/could out of that service over the last month.

Majestic Prince - Was pretty much everything I wanted: Gundam x Power Rangers. Neither as dark as Gundam nor as corny as power rangers. Good chemistry between the cast, and good pacing. It's also got a movie. They left the door open for a sequel that will probably never come. I even watched a large part of it dubbed (Monica Rial is in it; I think she's pretty delightful usually) I invested in a physical copy. 'Nuff said.

(Side note: the series is coming back for the new SRW, but I think they're just going to adapt the same storyline again? Not sure how I feel about that...)

Urusei Yatsura Reboot - Currently complete and exclusive to Hidive. I'd been exploring Ranma so much that it just made me curious. This... doesn't appeal as much. The pacing and jokes are to blame. "Manic" describes this series in one word. Even the opening/ending are just so frenetic. For a long time everything just gave me a headache trying to follow along. Anything can happen all the time and nothing has to make sense apparentlyy. (also, the main dude is a jerk) It's well made, but it's not for me.

... I might go back and read some of the manga someday. I'll probably definitely check out the movies if they're ever available to me.

Orguss - I didn't even know this was available when I signed up. I wish I liked it better. I've jokingly referred to it as "the macross we already have at home" b/c of the low-quality animation and battle scenes. Unfortunately, that's not the only weakness. The pacing is pretty bad (you don't find out what the plot actually is until episode 15), and most episodes don't actually contribute to the plot so much are just "things that happened".

There's also genuinely good stories and plot developments mixed in there though! And the characters grew on me. But then I got to the ending, and... it just isn't satisfying. The closest thing I can relate it to without spoilers is "End of Evangelion". I can't recommend it sadly. (Banger of an opening/ending though)

(also there's some weird gender stuff going on, where one race of aliens is largely female, who go infertile if they haven't gotten pregnant at 18 and lose all value in society as a spinster)

Hidive - TBH, watching off my streaming box (Apple TV), Hidive has a lot of problems. It lets me make watchlists, but then hides them under "Settings" (not the case for the website/mobile app). It's got a small, eclectic collection of shows, including a LOT of horny stuff, but also classics and odd ball stuff like Majestic Prince (no longer), Orguss, and Azumanga Daioh. It's not easy to navigate or search. Plenty of shows have missing seasons, and more than once it randomly switched the audio language on me from Japanese to English between episodes.

Its main strategy right now seems to be in securing streaming exclusives, but it's just not a great place to watch them? I went into this intending to sub for one month and watch as much as I could/wanted during that time. I had a specific show I wanted to see and I got to see it while making sure I didn't pay more than I absolutely had to. That's about the only way I would recommend interacting with the service as it stands. (at least there's no commercials though!)