Finally sat down this past

Finally sat down this past weekend and watched all the anime that's been piling up for the last few months.

I, My, Me: Strawberry Eggs:

I first heard about this series last year at FanimeCon during a workshop on voice acting. We had the voice actor and the voice director there having members of the audience try their hand at being the dubbed voices for the characters. Later on, at the con during the Pioneer panel, they showed a short 10-minute clip of the series. It made me laugh enough to pick up the DVD when it was finally released in September of last year. It's about a teacher who manages to to make an impact on the students' lives at the school. (Teacher based anime seems to be quite popular at the moment). It is a comedy, though, so some suspension of disbelief is required. Unlike most anime series, this one actually has an end.

You're Under Arrest - TV series, Season One:

I actually started watching this last week. This is an action-comedy series about a police precinct (think Lethal Weapon post-Joe Pesci). The creator of the series is Kosuke Fujishima, Who also created "Ah! My Goddess" and "eX-Drivers", which means a lot of detail is given to the background in being very realistic and very accurate (particularly with things mechanical). It's a pretty old series, so it's about time it was brought over.

Rahxephon:

This is a science fiction drama about a boy and his robot. There's many comparisons to the Evangelion series, mainly because of it's similarity in the core of the story (the reluctant boy who becomes the pilot of a robot) and the background music (which has the same style of piano work as Eva). While I wasn't immediately enthralled with the series initially, after watching a few episodes the story drew me in, and now I can't wait to see more of this series. The art style of the characters is much more realistic looking than most anime, quite reminiscent of Lain or Hellsing.

Noir, Vol. 2:

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this series before. It's about two female assasins trying to discover their past. In the second DVD, we see a lot more character development of both Mirelle and Kirika. The pace of the show still feels a little on the slow side but that's pretty typical of most 26-episode anime.

I didn't get to Spirited Away this weekend, but when I do, I'll make a note of all the cultural references and try to explain... although I'm fairly sure someone on the net has probably already done it.