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Genji is pretty much the only thing that interested me. Possibly Kurokami, and the Natsume one (need to see the original first).

I got the first half of Nadia: Secret of Blue Water on DVD so I have been watching that.

I've also been watching Suzuka, but its a bit on the boring side. Enjoyable in a way, but a bit hard to watch through so far.

I've finished Black Lagoon and Nanoha. Time for an update.

Black Lagoon - I've been told it's good, and has strong female characters. Let's try the first season then.
So far, it's pretty good. Lots of action.
Despite all the action (hardly an episode goes by without a gunfight and explosions), this anime's story doesn't move very quickly. You could almost call it slice-of-life in that there doesn't seem to be an overarching plot (stories last a few eps. each, but don't connect to each other).
The women are indeed kick-ass. The usual point of view may be Rock's, but Revy is as much the main character as he is.
Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage - I don't know why this is considered a separate season. The episode numbers continue just the same, and there was even the usual preview at the end of ep.12.
This 'season' seems to have a rather more melancholy atmosphere than the first. The violence and killings are more graphic, and characters reflect upon their lives and world quite often as well. All that reflection slows down the action a lot though, so in the end I'd rate The Second Barrage slightly lower than the first Black Lagoon.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha - A fun title, plus it was advertised by Richard J. It got a rather bad (as in negative), but rather bad (as in badly written) review recently, so I'm going to check it out for myself.
Two episodes in it looks a lot like CardCaptor Sakura and Pretty Cure, but different of course. Nothing bad at all really, except maybe the animation seems a bit shaky at times, and Nanoha's hair flips strangely.
After seeing all of it, I don't agree with Carl's review at all. There is some fanservice of course, but there are much worse offenders in that regard. Nanoha and her friends sometimes say things you'd expect from someone older than them, but it isn't exceptionally awkward or anything. Other than that this is a very nice magical girl anime. In the beginning it seemed to move a little fast, but it's only 13 eps. long, and the story gets deeper quickly, so it's actually paced very well. The ending was good too, with a solid conclusion. The animation and art are good. The bits where the animation goes a little shaky seem to be ones where Nanoha is shown running with the 'camera' following her. It looked like an experiment in improved realism to me, and not bad at that. The music is usually of the not very noticeable variety, but now and then it gets a lot better and is actually quite catchy. If there's anything bad about that I'd say it's that I'd have liked the entire soundtrack to consist of such quality music.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's continues right after the first season of Nanoha. In most respects A's is even better. The only thing I didn't like about it is that the fanservice was more noticeable too. Pity, because otherwise Nanoha is a really great entry in the magical girl genre.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS - This season was said not to be as good as the first two. Seven eps. in I'm not sure that's exactly true. It's different certainly. The first two seasons were more typical magical girl stuff, although with a distinctive identity. StrikerS is more like a cross-over towards military sci-fi. The fanservice is as bad as ever, but so far that's all. The animation quality is good, but the characters are a little bland.
I think it's the huge number of characters that is this anime's weakest point. There are too many to give each of them enough character development. Other than that it's quite good really.

Right now I'm watching Sisters Of Wellber Zwei. It finally finished subbing last month. It doesn't have the greatest animation and story quality, but it's enjoyable.
Next I have Ayakashi - Samurai Horror Tales, the first season of Initial D, Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi, and Voices Of A Distant Star. Initial D I'm only going to watch a little bit of because it was referenced in some other anime. I don't expect to like it. Ayakashi and Abenobashi I picked off my to-watch list because they seemed nicely different in genre from each other and from what I've watched recently. Voices is only a short movie, so that'll help shorten the to-watch list.

Black Lagoon has a third season coming, for the record. The Anime follows the Manga pretty closely (some small changes; Revy's a bit more violent in the Manga or at least gets the chance to BE more violent) but it does sort of feel like a bunch of loosely (and I do mean loosely) connected story arcs.

Actually, saying loosely is still stretching it. Second Barrage first arc spoilers:
[spoiler]Seriously, Rock is never bothered by Gretel's death after this? Seriously? With the amount of time spent on Yukio you'd think that Gretel would've at least been something that would've nagged him a bit.[/spoiler]

Really, the closest thing to an actual plot was:
[spoiler]Rock's conflict with his new life ("day" vs "night"). Though, by the end of Second Barrage, he chooses to remain in neither--in the twilight, as he puts it.[/spoiler]

Still, the series as a whole just lacks closure ... but I suppose that makes sense since the Manga is still on-going and only on Volume 8 (anime used up to mid-way through Volume 6 I think).

And I also have no idea why Second Barrage is an actual "Second" season at all. I suppose it was due to the delay between airing (June for end of S1 and October started S2).

Yes, I know about the third season. It hasn't aired yet though, and it'll be a while after that before it's subbed.

I watched the first 6 episodes of Escaflowne with a friend the other day. We've both only seen the movie (though I watched the first 8 episodes long ago when I had it on VHS and was home sick from school).

It's a fun series. We were making fun of the EXTREME SHOJO SPARKLE that permeates it.

I've never seen the dub/Fox version. I [s]DETEST[/s] don't watch dubs.

I own the collector's box set <3 So, yes, subbed original Japanese.

fuck yes

I never had to opportunity to finish the show, but I got well into it...it was amazing ;_;

Here I thought Valkyria Chronicles merely did "okay" in Japan ... looks to be an .

Freesia as generic_Scout_01 or bust~!

Edit: Thinking it over, Freesia (Scout), Edy (S. Trooper), Marina (Sniper), Dallas (Engineer) and ... dunno who's popular as far as the Lancers are concerned. Quite frankly, if Edy doesn't make it and she's the most popular (in Japan) character ... EVEN THOUGH SHE'S A GENERIC (she even has a DLC coming) then I'll be fucking shocked.

As for Winter '09 stuff, White Album's first episode was interesting but it's really just setting stuff up. Haven't gotten around to the rest of the stuff that aired, mostly since not much else has been released yet. Chihiro picked up both Maria-sama ga Miteru and Minami-ke ... but after their terrible Skip Beat! releases, I'll just wait for someone better. I know, complaining about a speed subbing group is dumb but, hey, Eclipse put out a quality release for White Album!

Edit: Decided to start on something from my backlog ... which is a lie since I just now remembered about this series being finished and picked it up yesterday ... anyway, Allison to Lillia! First arc (Ep 1 - 13) finished and I will say the vast amount of coincidences and other "...well good thing that happened" moments were a little over the top.

[spoiler]Also, Episode 13 made me SAD. Shit, I paused halfway through and did other things for like an hour before I finished the episode. Then, I was very happy.

Wil x Allison~[/spoiler]

Second half ... first impression is: OMG MERIELLE <3 <3 <3

...that is all. Oh and Lillia too~

Anyway, finished this too and ... without giving too much:

"I'm sorry, Lillia ..."
T.T
T.T
T.T

[spoiler]...but seriously, how the fuck does he survive? Also, no closure for Wil / Travas and Lillia (you know, FINDING OUT HE'S HER DAD). Figured they'd just follow the Allison finale with her finding her father too. Oh well.

Also, I so wanted to see an adult Carlo ...err, Carla. That and what the fuck was the whole "Father that Allison and Wil had a hand in killing and the daughter that wants revenge" motif? I mean, sure, it was only one of the main plots (and Ax's motivation in the final one, though it gets nothing more than "YEAH I WANT[s]ed[/s] REVENGE") but still. I half expected the "real" villain to have wanted revenge on Travas / Wil for fucking up his father's life (i.e., a surviving member of the Terol family) and not because of some lame "My son should marry the Queen and not Treize!"

...oh well.[/spoiler]

I totally need to find the Allison, Lillia and Treize, and I guess even the Meg and Seron novels. I WANT TO KNOW IF THIS IS HOW IT REALLY ENDS.

Also, more Merielle yes?

Edit2: Also started Kannagi (and later Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu) ... Kannagi so far is interesting ... plus this:



...I don't remember that Higurashi arc...

...

Is it sad if red characters immediately makes me think of Higurashi? >>

Edit: ^_^ Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu is ... interestng so far. Yeah, bland line (hey, I used it for Kannagi too!) but I'll be honest here ... it's weird having this after re-watching Lucky Star. I mean, a protagonist "like" Konata except publically shy about her hobby? Oh well ...

On that note, where do I find my own Haruka? Seriously.

Anyway, favorite moment so far:



Subtitles don't show here (thanks VLC?) but the line is, of course, Shana's usual line Better yet, Hishoku no Sora (first intro) plays in the background. Made me laugh. A lot. I don't know why.

Anyway, finished the series (12 episodes) and ... hm. It is oh-so-totally cliche and what-not but, hey, it's a nice "feel-good" anime. For what it is (cliche romance), it's pretty much above-average, if only for the basis of the plot (closet otaku female!).

[spoiler]MAJOR ANNOYANCE AT THE LACK OF A REAL CONFESSION. Hell, they even obscure the view of the first kiss (in the Anime as well as the one shown during the opening ... not like that one counts but whatever). Though, there's plenty of "...I'll be with you forever," type lines for "confessions" but I was really surprised at a lack of a straight "I love you" deal. Hell, there's an episode NAMED that and it STILL isn't said. She also never gets told that he's the boy from her past (OH REALLY WHO SAW THAT ONE COMING?!)

Bonus points for the amount of Shana references though.

Also, did they randomly decide to get all the fanservice for Haruka out in one episode? She's relatively fanservice free throughout the series (barring some "MC GLANCING AT BOOBS" moments). Yukari is the obvious "exists solely for fanservice" character so ... whatever.[/spoiler]

Finished another, short batch of anime:

Sisters Of Wellber Zwei - The animation is the same quality as the first season (not quite top), but I don't remember the writing being this clumsy. It feels like the story was written by an amateur (fanfic writer or something like that).
Halfway through, the romance seems to have taken a path that it will be hard to return from with any credibility. And it's not very believable now either.
The ending is kinda meh, as expected.

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi - It started great. The first ep. reminded me of Dennou Coil, an adults' world viewed through kids' eyes. The second ep. was like Excel Saga or the Lucky☆Star OVA, a parody of RPGs. Then ep. 3 got all ecchi with a space hunt for Arumi's panties. *sigh* It could've been a new favorite, but that just ruined it.
Well, the rest of the eps. are likewise hit or miss. Some are great, some are meh. I think the whole anime would've been better without Sasshi actually. Arumi is clearly the more interesting character.

Initial D - I didn't expect to like this anime really; I was just curious what it's like from references to it in other anime. I think a few episodes will be enough.
And indeed, three eps. were more than enough for me. The art is quite bad, the characters are all men/boys who care only about cars and racing, except for one token girl who is there to be ogled. The music isn't bad, it goes nicely with the racing scenes, but I don't think it'll be much fun to listen to separately.
Ah well, I satisfied my curiosity. I understand now how Chiyo was so traumatized by Yukari's imitation of Initial D-style driving.

Voices Of A Distant Star - Quality animation and art, but it's a little too short to really tell a complete story.

Ayakashi Horror Tales - Three horror-themed stories. The first two were nicely animated, the third was an escapee from Mononoke (same protagonist and art style).

Miyori No Mori - I came across this while looking up Chitose Hajime, the singer of Ayakashi Horror Tales's ED theme.
Whoa, hidden treasure! This is one gorgeous movie. The story isn't super deep, but that's okay for a fairytale. It's like a Miyazaki movie (especially Totoro and Mononoke Hime), or Mushishi, or Arjuna (art and theme, not preachiness). This really deserves much more exposure (only 37 ratings yet).

Not sure what I'll watch next. Maybe Moribito (gets a lot of praise, and has a cool female protagonist) and Princess Tutu (mentioned quite often as good, and some video clips I've seen looked fun).