BasuGasuBakuhatsu is written by Hung Truong, who is currently working on done with his BS in Computer Science with a minor in Japanese at the University of New Mexico. Starting in Fall 2007 he’s a grad student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He likes writing about himself in third person. He does it a lot. Check out his personal blog, if you wish.
BasuGasuBakuhatsu.com was started in December 2005 as a way to procrastinate for impending final exams. Rather than work on a memory simulator in C++ or an Oracle Database project, I chose to start a blog. Actually, I did all of those things.
If you’re wondering, I named BasuGasuBakuhatsu after a Japanese tounge-twister that means "Bus Gas Explosion." Much more interesting than peterpiperpickedapeckofpickeledpeppers.com, I assure you.
Most of this blog will be devoted to anime series first impressions (and reviews if I finish a series). Ideally, I’d like my blog to be something that I’d enjoy reading myself. Rather than go through every single episode of an anime, I’d rather give my impressions on the first episode, so perhaps people who are undecided about a series can have a quick mini-preview. I find the descriptions on websites like Anidb and Animenfo to be pretty lacking. The website I always used to go to for anime previews was Jascii, but he doesn’t really update anymore, so I thought I’d give it a shot myself.
Here are a few notes about what I look for in an anime:
Story
First and foremost (usually) is the story. If the anime has no originality, or the story is just plain boring, I find it hard to keep watching. If the story is generic, the other aspects of the anime better be pretty good for me to keep my interest.
Character Design/Animation Quality
If the characters are drawn really badly, I can’t watch. I generally don’t have a problem with most character designs besides the occasional "weird lip" or "giant cheek" characters. It’s always a plus when an anime has good production value.
Cuteness
This sort of goes with character design, but it deserves its own category. Basically, I’m weak against cuteness. That means that if a horrible series has an incredibly cute character, there’s still a good chance I’ll watch it.
OP/ED:
It might not seem that important, but there have been series that I’ve watched merely because the OP was so good (.hack//Legend of Twilight Bracelet). Generally, if an anime has an OP by Round Table, I’ll watch it! If a bad series has good music, I’m more willing to forgive it. The music should also complement the genre/style of the anime.