Just Fucking Give Up: State of the Union [Spray and Pray]

Let's destroy ~~The Shagohod~~ your mind, one piece of culture at a time.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Beta
I've gotten the Xbox 360 demo and the PC beta.
360: Little lag. Plays just like Bad Company 1. Vehicle controls are better.
PC: Lags like shit. Server browser causes CTD. Lags like shit. GUI is poorly-designed, uses too much abbreviation. Lags like shit.
General: Still no prone?! UAVs = fucking awesome. Destruction 2.0 = the camping-killer. New unlock system = CoD4-inspired. I'm ambivalent. But, it's still in the Bad Company subfranchise and so of course I'll play it. For now, stick to the 360 demo. Ranking is locked at Private II and all class unlocks are limited to Lvl 2. You'll start with the AEK-791, 9A91, PKM, and M24--and unlock the XM8, SCAR-LC, M249, Type 88, and the tracer dart. Happy hunting.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
This show is the brain-melting culturally-aware show of the season. It's pretty much pure gold to anyone who consumes the anime medium. Let's count!

Zetsuboushita! A bit too early to reference the 3-season juggernaut that is Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei?
Hideyoshi has a magical girl transformation. Despite being a guy. And transforms into his own clothes again. This trap-ism becomes a gimmick for the rest of the show, and there's already porn of him. Yes. He's essentially the show's mascot.
There's a running subtitle side conversation, in the style of Colbert's The Word. It's new to the medium, but the content is stale.
I love how the SPECIAL ACE of the team is actually the most useless.
There's another running gag where the seme/uke relationship is consistently disgusting.
Usually saved for the season finale, the ultimate battle plan fails. In episode 2.
Oh god, the Ranka Lee (Macross Frontier) gang sign is viral. We'll be seeing it in the Gundam 00 movie, Christ.
Tons of visual gags and great design choices, which really make the most of the genre.

Watch this show.

Chuu Bra
I don't know what to make of this show. If we were to take the narrative from a purely textual point of view, it'd be a story about female development, societal mores, and amateur couture. If you actually watch the show, you'll find it to be what amounts to Japan's next wave of statutory rape. Somehow, the Batman-style transitions makes me think that Adam West is going to pop out and fondle little girls. Another thing to note is that they reference the job of an industry monitor, which, as I understand it, does not cooperate with the design house. Those guys use fit models and the feedback stays in-house. The previews are creative and are omake-esque. Overall, the show is too risque for its best audience--young girls 12-16.

Dance in the Vampire Bund
I haven't followed this show much, but from what I can tell, it's weird, quirky, and different. The character designs are detailed and a lot of care went into adapting it from the manga. Watch the pilot all the way through and decide if you're into it then.

Durarara!!
Show of the year. Yes, I've already called it. It's the perfect followup to Baccano!, as the same animation studio does the work. The original story comes from the same author and the character design comes from the same guy who did Yozakura Quartet and it shows--the show makes constant nods to Quartet, Spice and Wolf, and Baccano. Hell, there are way too many cat ears in these shows. Go ahead and check, I shit you not. This blog will still be here when you come back. Fucking boot up the Googles and look for the cat ears. And suffer the knowledge as I do. The plot is far less confusing than Baccano's, which had far too many timejumps for the typical viewer; this show's episodic structure deals with the narrative with thematic selection. There's a typical white vs black conflict, but that's not fully explored so far and for some reason there's the brown man, a black Russian (what the hell), so we've got a three-way power struggle that makes no sense but is hilarious. There's also a mystery group, the DOLLARS, whose colored visual vocabulary has only been hinted. Why are you still reading this start fucking torrenting.

Sora no Woto
This is basically the new K-On. 5-piece band in a post-apocalyptic world. Oh look, AMAZING GRACE IN THE FUTUUUUURE. There's a walking tank (is there any other kind?) that serves as the retrofuturist lampshade for the premise. I'm hoping for a little more musical emphasis (K-On had a little, but it was for a few brief moment), particularly regarding brass instruments. Our main female lead has a terrible weakass embosure, it makes me cringe. Anyway, the setting reminds me of the Festival de la Tomate, so it's trying to be somewhat Euro-centric. Oh yes, the token tsundere plays the clarinet, what a big fucking surprise (I play the clarinet as well. Does that make me a man-tsundere?). They have a mascot, an owl, which is on their unit patches--this instantly made me think of Pumpkin Scissors, but instead of a giant killing machine they have lolis. The OP really catches my eye because it reminds me a Elfen Lied's OP/ED, pulling from the gold leaf murals of Gustav Klimt (the only Sezessionstil artist you will ever need to know). Drop this show unless you like K-On.

Caprica
GENTRIFICATION IN SPAAAAACE. Only seen the pilot, missed last night's episode. Okay, it's not terrible but the plot is very easy to mock. Replace Cylons with golems and we've got a crappy fantasy show. The Greystones are your typical well-to-do family with a typically rebellious daughter. Zoe is some mastermind genius religious character. The Adamas are interesting, as the plot paints their origin as Taurons to be something of a mix between the Sicilian mafia and the Palestinians. The mixing of technological, ethnic, and religious topics is interesting, so I'll be following this show because there's a BSG-sized vacuum in my life.

Johnny Foreigner - Cranes and Cranes and Cranes and Cranes