Kyuuki-chan
The first big thing is I managed to find fansubs of the first two OVAs for DOGS: Stray Dogs Howling in the Dark. I've been a fan of the manga since shortly after the manga was completely scanlated, before the continuation Bullets & Carnage was announced or even before the oneshot sidestory Hardcore Twins came out. I was quite spazzed about the news a while back that the original four storylines from SDHitD were getting animated, and finally finding them translated was even better.
What impressed me from the manga were the fight scenes, mostly utilizing gun battles with some bladework used as well. The action scenes really managed to portrey more action than many action manga pull off - they weren't just still images, they were dynamic action shots! The OVA managed to get some of that kickass action in as well, seeing Mihai and Ian put their differences aside in "Weepy Old Killer" to jointly pwn the assassin gunning for both of them kept most of its affect as did Badou snapping from nicotine withdrawl in "Gun Smoker" - the animation even added to that one a lot with him puffing his invisible cigarette before spouting out some Engrish and mowing the Mafia goons down at their shins with two automatics was wicked!
The plot isn't perfect, I won't pretend it is, it's got it's cliches but it manages to do what it sets out to do in a way that one can enjoy for what it is. More depth shows up in Bullets & Carnage flesh out the world and characters, but it's still primarily a fun action series. If you like that kind of stuff look out for the manga, which is being published by Viz in North America, or keep an eye out for fansubs (and hopefully later an English language DVD release, or at least legal streams) of the anime.
On the opposite side of the spectrum I decided to look out for something fluffy and checked out the first volume of the shojo series Otomen. In case you don't know what an "otomen" is the word is a portmanteau of the Japanese word "otome" (maiden, young girl) and "men" - basically, guys with feminine interests like cooking, sewing, cute things, and sweets. They're not gay or trans or anything, they just tend towards a slightly more feminine bend than most guys. As someone with a little interest in the concept of how mental and emotional gender relates to one's physical gender and how they may not always sync up the concept of checking out a series focusing on one of these otomen sounded like it could be interesting.
I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was better than I had been expecting and rather than finding something simply novel it was something that had me at times laughing out loud and other times almost touched. Some of the "it's important to be yourself" thing was a bit overdone - or underdone - in parts, but where it shone was in the comedy of it. From Asuka, the closet otoman and protagonist of the series, Ryo, his romantic interest the not-so-girly girl who can't cook or sew but can kick butt and even save the day, and Juta, their friend, who is secretly a shojo mangaka who has based his female protagonist on our hero you have dynamics that manage to amuse you and even aww over.
The weak point so far seems to be the utter hard-headedness of Asuka and Ryo - Juta practically flings them together even when they seem focused on staying only friends. I'm not very romantically inclined and I'd have more sense than to turn a romantic Christmas Party For Two into a party for three whereas Ryo eagerly invited both Asuka and Juta. Granted it's her first real Christmas party and she wants to spend it with her two best friends, but Asuka didn't show as much dislike for a third wheel getting in on it as a guy seriously interested in a girl should. The end of the second volume ALMOST ended in a sour note with an overly done arranged fiancee story, but it managed to salvaged it with its own brand of humor and an amusing (if slightly predictable) end.
I'm eagerly awaiting getting my hands on more volumes of this series! While it could wind up in a rut in later volumes it could also wind up really shining.
