. Now before you say it, yes I have friends who are addicted to Fringe and have talked about how great a show it is which is all well and good. My thing was as I hadn't seen the pilot or any of the early episodes it was a lot of heavy lifting to try and catch up all at once to whatever season it is on now especially since I had no clue what the ORIGINAL driving factors are for characters. Even if you miss a few shows if you catch the first few and can get the starts of a lot of the back drop and back stories, at least in my mind, I believe you can follow along and kind of plug yourself in until you can go back and find whatever episode you are missing. I've also started a new new Anime(Don't know if I discussed Fairy Tail yet so if I haven't that is the old new one) called Soul Eater which looks like a sillier chibi version of Bleach, it's hilarious. I got a heads up to that one from Kitsune's Dragon Ball Z Kai
DVD's they had ads for it on there so I decided to check it out, looked like it had plenty of action and comedy in it.Similar to say how I always catch the "Criminal Minds" episode where Garcia gets shot(The Buxom Blonde computer wiz with love for literature, sculpted men, and happy mind states for those who have only caught an episode here or there) I may miss the next episode but I know her place in the crew, how most likely they would have reacted afterwards and how protective certain characters would have been towards her later. Roles grow, they blossom characters change and regress but you have to know where it all started and while I haven't watched a full season in order when the show first came out I did watch the pilot, and a few episodes after that. So for me getting in to "Fringe" was all about having a moment to find the pilot, watch it, decide if I like the premise and I felt it believable, catch a few of the next episode and see if the show was delivering on it's overall plot line. In the case of Fringe of course it's Fringe Science or Outlier science something that we suspect could be possible, hope could be possible, and is being abused in current time. Normally me being Mr. Sci Fi and all I would be all over it, save you know the way my work schedule is and how I can't always get my but on the couch(inside joke). So yeah in the first two episodes I am like awesome show, and to make matters worse they had the repeat of Brown Coats unite, another show a lot of folks love and wish had a lot longer shelf life.
As for the Anime, I haven't caught all the way up on Bleach yet(it is currently filler ville and while I don't mind watching filler it something you have to sit down and watch all the way through or you get lost), and I have I think 3 more episodes of Naruto Shippuuden I need to watch, Fairy tail should have a new episode out as well. So yeah pure curiosity I decided to watch a few episodes of Soul Eater, it looks pretty good so far. Like most anime fans if I get a good feel for it I will recommend it to others, I am still not big on Manga yet so I don't know what the manga looks like or how many issues have been written so far(that would be a Kitsune thing). The basic premise (as far as I can tell) for Soul Eater is a bunch of teenage/young Shinigami(death gods or Grim Reapers) who are in training to collect the souls of Kishin or Kishin Eggs basically the souls of the wicked or naughty. The purpose of every Shinigami is to collect 99 Kishin Eggs and 1 Witches souls to create the Death Scythe(the weapon of Death himself). The show focuses on 3 Shinigami Maka(a young female and a scythe technician), Soul(Maka's partner who transforms into her scythe), Black Star(an assassin and demon blade specialist), Tsubaki(Black star's partner who transforms into many different weapons but usually a chain scythe), Death the Kid(look I don't name them, he is the son of Death himself and a twin pistol user), and the Thompson twins Patty and Liz(twin sisters how transform into twin bilaterally symmetrical 45's though out of gun form as as asymmetrical as they come).
I'm also watching Arrow
from the CW and I am happily proven wrong. I originally thought when I read the previews on how his family life would be portrayed, to me it seemed to be all wrong(Ollie in the comics is an orphan both parents dieing in a plane crash) that it was going to be some angsty waste of a TV block. When I say WOW I was wrong, I was WAAAAY wrong. In any comic or cartoon you see Oliver Queen is usually a partying playboy, not dissimilar from Bruce Wayne Batman's alter ego, except that is usually also that useless and cocky in costume. Even in Smallville the real life version of him while he was eagle eyed, a dead shot, and strong willed he was still cocky, goofy and somewhat unreliable. Granted that Ollie was the Green Arrow, in the new CW live action show he is just the hooded vigilante. He doesn't have a name yet but his calling card is the bow and arrow he uses to take down his prey. And I say prey because he is hunting those who are destroying Starling City. Former playboy Ollie is the survivor of a shipwreck that took the life of his Ex Girlfriends sister(if you think it sounds sleazy now watch the show), The ships captain, and his father. When I say the light hearted and foppish approach I THOUGHT they were going to take with this show was so dead wrong, off base, and completely wrong that I must tell you if you like Smallville you need to watch this show just to see how non models and grown ups do super heroing. I don't know who's decision it was but while he still may seem to be wearing Robin Hood's outfit he no longer has Robin's playful demeanor when bow is in hand. Like all heroes Arrow is a tortured soul, now you actually see that torture, not only does his body wear those scars but so does his mind.Now this does not mean that Ollie can't find a perfect balance between his "life's work" and his more cavalier, flippant, and air headed persona that folks like me are used to. I am seeing, at least early, that they are really putting a lot of work into developing the characters. To setting up not just growth arcs but also spider webs between the characters that not only do they not see themselves but that if you aren't paying attention you will miss the slight flickers they make when caught just the right way in the sun. As much as I loved Smallville I like how they have decided to forgo the "sunny" times for Ollie: he's a spoiled rich kid, we really don't need to take 3 or 4 years of happy go lucky richie rich to them sweep the rug out from under him. The sunny times make more sense for Clark Kent, it isn't just a contrast between his super hero persona and his regular every day identity for Kal El/Superman it was about him learning to live in a world that could not contain him. For Ollie seeing how those who love him and thought he was dead are still trying to cope with how the man who returned is not the one who they knew so well and loved despite his faults. When they decide to use a flashback it opens a door to an important part of his mindset in the story you are watching it also lays the groundwork in case they want to come back later and explore a glimpse of someone, re explore a conundrum, or reintroduce a character that maybe they didn't think was too strong. So yeah that is me late to the party but slipping in the side door fitting right into the groove.
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