Sketchbook mk II

Well yesterday I finished the last few episodes of Sketchbook Full ColourS… I reached one overwhelming conclusion, Kate’s voice is truley and deeply irritating. Well not her voice per say, just her ridiculous accent. I mean I’m pretty sure that kind of accent is only possibly if you’re trying to do it that way. Seriously though, got on my nerves so bad… but she’s funny and her cats engrish is awesome. I kind of liked how this show took a page out of Excel Saga’s… [sketch] book and did the whole ‘talking animals’ I mean, it’s not like some whacked out Disney movie where the animals talk to people or anything. They just go and give us a few scenes where the cats sit around and talk amongst themselves. One scene even includes the cats complaining about how they wish they could communicate with humans so they could give them a piece of their minds. It’s kind of cute how Sora progresses through the show going from her super shy self to… well… almost normal levels of assertiveness. But by the end of the show she can introduce herself… sort of, and heck she even called out to people she knows who were on the other side of the street. Compare that to her old self where if someone she didn’t know showed up she’d be pointing at the label on her bag or writing her name in her sketchbook. Oh wait, scratch that she actually has a page pre-made for introductions. Though considering it’s Japan that has it’s uses… what with there being a good twelve gajillion ways to write pretty much every name. Still a good little show, the episodes did feel really short though… taht about sums it up… So… either I’m watching something random or I’m finishing off Saikano like I ‘ve been intending to for the last while… Just waiting till my angst tolerance has reached full capacity again. >.>

Crawfish

Sketchbook Full ColourS, or Colors if you happen to be from one of the places that spells the word sans u… Someone recommended it to me because it was in the same vein as Hidamari Sketch, which was awesome and cute and awesomely cute. I haven’t gotten too far into it yet, I’m only four episodes in due to mass amounts of time being spent with Rogue Galaxy in all it’s insane grandeur. (Way too much stuff to do in it, seriously.)  So anyway… I’m not amused by the subtitles… I forget what group I have it by but I originally had it soft subbed but eventually converted it into a watchable form, at least, on my t.v. Yes I burn discs of fansubbed stuff, not to replace retail discs but because my personal computer is broken so I have all this stuff on someone elses computer and well I can watch it on the lcd widescreen monitor whose size I forget or I could go watch it on the 52″ tv I mean, hard choice there. This way I don’t tie up the computer while I try to scrape enough money together to either fix mine or get a new one. (I’m sure I’ve mentioned before I buy what anime I can find, crappy english dub or no crappy english dub.)

Anyway back on topic. The subtitles were tiny, I mean half the size or less of ‘normal’ sized ones. To the point where , on a 52 inch screen I couldn’t read them from across the room without focusing on them alone. So I had to sit on the floor halfway between… Now sure my eyes aren’t the greatest when it comes to reading small letters from you know… four feet away, but normal subs I can see fine. This was too small, but for all I know it happened in the conversion process and is purely my fault. I don’t know, nor do I really care.

The show itself is great. It’s very random, to the point of the teacher walking around with a LIVE chicken. (Whose name is P-chan) There’s shout outs to other shows, shown most prominently by President Aria being all over the place, I mean two random locations in four episodes is what I like to call frequent. (He’s from Aria/The Natural/ The Origination/ Arietta and he’s just a strange looking and really fat cat, who happens to be the mascot for the Aria boat company… if two people qualifies as a company. Good show, anyway, the show is about Sora, this girl whom we first see sitting on a cinder block and trying to draw a cat who keeps moving around often enough to thwart her attempts. Apparently she likes drawing and cute things enough to take a sketchbook with her everywhere she goes so she can draw something she sees and likes. You know, cats, flowers, birds on power lines, fireworks… She’s a member of her schools art club and so far all of the students she’s run into and whatnot are members of the club. And the teacher with the chicken is the teacher in charge of said club. I suppose I should say the show follows the Art Club around but that’s not really true, it’s always pretty obvious that Sora is the main character despite random side trips to watch Hazuki wander around a store collecting things and then putting everything but one item back.