General Anime/Manga Discussion 14: Second Cour [Archive] - Page 3

Lethologica

2016-01-17, 02:18 AM

Just finished Noragami Aragoto. Overall found it pretty excellent, and a big improvement over the first season thanks to a lot of the characters having matured.

I did, however, feel a bit lost on one particular plot point in the penultimate episode:

When Hiyori is trying to call Yato back from the Underworld, she at first refuses to try any other name because Yato is his name. This is reinforced by how happy he was to have a shrine with his name on it, and the very fact that the shrine works indicates that this is correct.

She then thinks back to the shrine and pulls "Yaboku" out of thin air, which turns out to be his real name.

So...how did she know that? The only thing I've been able to come up with is that it's an alternate reading of the characters that make up his name, which would allow the shrine to be technically correct and give Hiyori the hint she needs to guess it.

Is there something I'm missing, or is it as simple as that?

Also, after that cliffhanger they better give us a third season.
Yato = 夜ト
Yaboku = 夜卜

In addition, since the second character in 'Yato' is katakana, it's easy to see how that would not be the 'true' version of his name.

Spacewolf

2016-01-17, 07:42 AM

Yea I just finished watching that myself, thought the last episode was excellent.

Who would have thought you could feel so sorry for a Psychopath and an "Immortal" god

Fri

2016-01-17, 12:22 PM

Dagashi Kashi is sillier than I remember :smallbiggrin:

Also, I think it might got more blatant references than the manga, but that's also might just me misremembering the manga.

Ibrinar

2016-01-17, 05:52 PM

About the second Noragami season
I found it a bit weird that they decided to add some scene where they destroy the super spell from a bunch of gods. (And it overshadows Bishamon and Kazuma. Sure you can hit the lighning dragon. Yato can cut the imba spell.) Does the manga later show them as that powerful and with such a range? (I'm not up to date with the manga.) Otherwise it might be a bit weird for anime viewers if there is ever a third series.

Though I can understand why they gave yato a role in the fight in the anime version.

Fri

2016-01-21, 04:54 AM

So.. grimgar is really nice.

The artstyle can either be considered beautiful or jarring, depending on your taste.

The fights are.... really visceral, though not gory. Seriously, this underline what I said to my friends, that if I'm transported to a fantasy universe and have to be an adventurer, I'd be an archer (or crossbowman), because that way I wouldn't have monster blood spraying all over me.

The characters are also nice.

There's potential that it can be too maudlin, but it remains to be seen.

HMS Invincible

2016-01-21, 01:28 PM

There's two dungeons and dragons esque anime this season, one comedy, and this one. I like them both add they complement each other well.

I'd be the mage or priest as you get all the benefits of the Archer but you know exactly how tough you are in combat. Plus the utility of magic can't resist.

Fri

2016-01-22, 04:40 AM

Oh, by dnd comedy I assume you mean Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo? I read the manga actually, and really like it. I actually personally like it more than Dating in Dungeon, though I know that despite the skeezy sounding premise it's actually pretty good and have rather good production.

I'd be the mage or priest as you get all the benefits of the Archer but you know exactly how tough you are in combat. Plus the utility of magic can't resist.

The problem is, it depends on the rule of the land whether everyone can be mage/priest or not, while I assume with enough training everyone can be archer/crossbowman :smallbiggrin:

Duck999

2016-01-23, 05:07 PM

endoperez

2016-01-23, 07:49 PM

All of Grimgar's stills are pretty, but it's barely animated. So many of the scenes are just panning over stills. It's got good writing and scenes and characterisation though. Also the fact that they animate bouncing breasts but not talking people seems silly.

This other fantasy anime with the goddess, Aqua, though... Ugh. Some decent ideas but nothing to actually carry it . :(

Mx.Silver

2016-01-24, 04:59 PM

So many sides of the conflict. I'd try to draw it out, but that would never end well. We've got:
3 Saikas facing off
Izaya vs the world
Chikage vs Yellow Scarves
Blue Squares purging the dollars
Celt's group doing... stuff
Russian mafia (toned down a little now)
Shizuo (in prison though)
The Yakuza
And more!

Yep, sounds about right.
I really need to catch-up on Durarararara again. Unfortunately I'm still juggling a couple of other series, so it's been a bit difficult, although I did recently finish that thing I was forcing myself through despite it not being very good so hopefully I'll have a bit more time for it in the near future.

Hiro Protagonest

2016-01-25, 05:46 PM

Okay, so trying to finally get into Mushishi. Should I watch Mushishi, Mushishi: The Next Passage, both, or just read the manga?

Also, is the re-edited version of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure better or worse?

cobaltstarfire

2016-01-25, 05:51 PM

Both Mushishi anime are good, though I prefer the first one personally. I don't know much at all about the manga though.

BWR

2016-01-25, 06:04 PM

The anime is pretty faithful to the manga. There may be some stories that didn't make it to the anime but I cannot recall if that is the case, and if so, which. I honestly can't say which I liked better of the two seasons since they seemed to blend seamlessly into one another, and it doesn't really matter much since it is episodic and very little by the way of information is needed from earlier episodes in later ones. There are a few characters and a few references but I think those mostly stay within a season.
You might as well start with the first season and go on as long as you wish from there.

Mx.Silver

2016-01-25, 06:41 PM

There's no reason not to start from the beginning. There are a couple of episodes in The Next Passage that assume you've seen at least some the episodes in the first season, and even if there weren't I really can't see anyone liking one of the seasons but not the other.

If you're looking for links, the first season is one of the few things Funimation have up on their youtube channel that isn't region-locked (at least it's available here in the UK instead of being just North America, anyway). Playlist is here (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ELMvwzjNR4c5A).
The Next Passage is up on Crunchyroll.

cobaltstarfire

2016-01-25, 07:38 PM

If Hiro's location is to be believed both seasons of Mushishi are also available on Hulu.

Hiro Protagonest

2016-01-25, 09:15 PM

If Hiro's location is to be believed both seasons of Mushishi are also available on Hulu.

No trouble finding it, yeah.

Ibrinar

2016-01-26, 03:02 PM

…That just reminded me I forgot to finish the second series. I love Mushishi but probably because it has no main plot it's not something where I urgently need to watch the next one. Well since I have something I need to finish this week I will get to it next week.

CarpeGuitarrem

2016-01-26, 06:06 PM

Okay, so trying to finally get into Mushishi. Should I watch Mushishi, Mushishi: The Next Passage, both, or just read the manga?
Yes.

The episodic nature makes it very easy to get into. Although on the other hand, if you read the manga first, you'll already know the stories that are being adapted, so it'll be like seeing them again. I'd say just watch both series. Technically Mushishi comes before Next Passage, and there's some continuity callbacks, but you could watch the second first and not be lost. And it's literally like watching the same show.

Also, is the re-edited version of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure better or worse?
Re-edited as compared to the OVA movies that came out a long time ago, or is there another re-edited JJBA I'm not aware of? (I know that they did an abridged recap cut of the first two arcs, and honestly those two arcs are the ones least in need of editing.)

Hiro Protagonest

2016-01-26, 06:19 PM

Re-edited as compared to the OVA movies that came out a long time ago, or is there another re-edited JJBA I'm not aware of? (I know that they did an abridged recap cut of the first two arcs, and honestly those two arcs are the ones least in need of editing.)

Um... Battle Tendency, I think.

Fri

2016-01-26, 06:26 PM

Battle Tendency is the Best Jojo Arc so far. If there's anything that need abridging it'd be Stardust Crusader. I don't know how much abridging Battle Tendency got, but I suggest you watch it fully.

Hiro Protagonest

2016-01-26, 07:13 PM

Battle Tendency is the Best Jojo Arc so far. If there's anything that need abridging it'd be Stardust Crusader. I don't know how much abridging Battle Tendency got, but I suggest you watch it fully.

Okay. Yeah, the re-edited version looks about half the length or something.

Sith_Happens

2016-01-30, 04:51 PM

So I started Korezom with a friend last night. If anyone needs me I'll be looking for a necromancer to reanimate my sides.

endoperez

2016-02-01, 09:58 AM

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar continues being very beautiful in stills, but also continues relying on panning over stills. For animation, it has ridiculously little movement. The story is interesting, though.

Has anyone looked into the light novel and/or manga versions? How do they compare to each other? I've been wanting to find an anime about a fantasy world that's better than the generic fare, and Grimgar is perhaps the best one I've found so far.

Prime32

2016-02-01, 10:14 AM

Also, is the re-edited version of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure better or worse?

Okay. Yeah, the re-edited version looks about half the length or something.I'm not sure what you're talking about. :smallconfused:

There was an old OVA based on Part 3 of JJBA (Stardust Crusaders).
More recently there was an anime which covered Part 1 (Phantom Blood (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx4tM7z3bhs)) and Part 2 (Battle Tendency (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-GWFGwbEPg)). It got a second season for Part 3 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGMeg4fZvRk) which was longer than the OVA, and Part 4 (Diamond is Unbreakable) should be coming out soon.

Fri

2016-02-01, 10:47 AM

He's talking about the re-edited release of phantom blood and battle tendency, which is basically those season crunched into a couple of movie-length release.

DoctorFaust

2016-02-01, 08:54 PM

*ahem*

https://i.imgur.com/1sqqDi4.png
https://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2881422/daniel-bryan-yes.0.gif

JCarter426

2016-02-13, 11:02 AM

I just encountered this ad:

http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/ff140/JCarter426/Misc/Sailor%20Moon%20Civil%20War_zpsurykbrmc.png

So that's what started Civil War...

Kato

2016-02-14, 07:02 AM

BWR

2016-02-14, 11:25 AM

I have long since given up expecting people here to talk about the shows I'm watching and enjoying, at least on a regular basis. It's just the way things are.

I gave up on IBO after a few episodes. None of the characters appealed to me and the plot and action didn't interest me, just like the last time I tried watching a Gundam series (can't remember which that was). Heavy Object, on the other hand, is keeping me amused. I can't get over how MC looks like an anime sidekick and Sidekick looks like an MC.

Kato

2016-02-14, 12:56 PM

I gave up on IBO after a few episodes. None of the characters appealed to me and the plot and action didn't interest me, just like the last time I tried watching a Gundam series (can't remember which that was). Heavy Object, on the other hand, is keeping me amused. I can't get over how MC looks like an anime sidekick and Sidekick looks like an MC.

Eh, at the beginning I wasn't really hooked. And I will say that there are just a bit too many characters for even the mains to stand out that much. But apart from that I have become attached to the cast as a whole and the general plot, predictable as the main events might be.

Hm... just read the Wikipedia entry on Heavy Objects. Might be interested when I find the time to catch up with it. The premise sounds like what Aldnoah promised to be and then failed, somewhat.

kamikasei

2016-02-14, 02:58 PM

So... is anyone still following Ironblooded Orphans? Because to me it seems we might actually have a really good Gundam show going there with tons of potential to become a new generations singature installment... yet I seem to hear very little about it.
I'm watching it. It's interestingly distinctive compared to what I think of as usual Gundam, but it's been slow and rather laboured and they only now seem to have realized that Kudelia should probably actually do something. It has interesting aesthetics, and the setup has potential, but that potential is mostly being squandered.

BWR

2016-02-14, 06:43 PM

HO is far more light-hearted and amusing than Aldnoah. Sure it has its serious moments, but there is a lot more fan-service (rather tame, but still fan-service) and the characters are far more likable than whatsiface Protagonist from Aldnoah.

Mx.Silver

2016-02-15, 07:46 PM

I have long since given up expecting people here to talk about the shows I'm watching and enjoying, at least on a regular basis. It's just the way things are.

I can sympathise. Although it's also worth considering how many people might be refraining from talking about any given series because no one else is talking about it already. Potential for a self-sustaining problem there.

With that in mind, things I am currently watching.

Shiki
Somewhat refreshingly old-school 'vampire plague' story, which makes a fair effort of staying grounded. One the one-hand, it's fairly competent, and somewhat committed to portraying the human cast as being largely ordinary, flawed people which lends it a sense of being grounded that's not hugely common with vampire stories these days. Unfortunately, it still seems to be missing a sense of focus, dividing its attention between rather more characters than it can quite handle, which is a bit of a problem at the moment since I've hit the 'this is how the vampires work' series of exposition spiels.
It does manage to hold the tone together reasonably well though. Or at least, it would if its general character design philosophy wasn't best describe as 'unused Yugioh concept art'. Even the more restrained designs seem somewhat ill-fitting with what the rest of the series is going for, and the rest run to the point where it rivals Flowers of Evil's rotoscoping in terms of jarringly bad art decisions.

Eden of the East
Only gotten around to this one recently. Seems good so far, potentially very good but it's still a bit early to say, particularly given that there's two films after it before it properly concludes. Does have one of the best ending credits sequences I've seen though.

I've also been introducing Mushishi to a friend. Which is still Mushishi and as such still has that same almost transfixing effect that characterises its atmosphere.

On a general note, I've put the 'bad list' to the side, mainly for the same reasons I'd already stopped posting them in general. Any series I'd consider bad would be one that I wouldn't consider watching it to be time well spent, so it's a bit difficult to justify spending additional time writing about them that I could otherwise spend watching things that would be worth spending time on. That and there's honestly a surfeit of 'this thing is the worst' type stuff online, particularly in more nerd circles.

There is also the point that about 1/2 of it is likely to just bring the fanboys running in guns blazing, since indulging the nerd habit of treating every difference of opinion as a call for debate/argument rather than discussion/conversation is something I lost interest in years ago, so again it's the question of whether it's worth the effort over things I'm not sure I'd consider having been worth watching :smalltongue:

ex cathedra

2016-02-15, 09:58 PM

i've been meaning to start mushishi for a long time for a multitude of reasons. given its reputation, i'll probably start it once i finish the slow-paced, thoughtful, episodic anime i'm currently working on, the aria (http://myanimelist.net/anime/477/Aria_The_Animation) franchise. i'm almost done with natural (http://myanimelist.net/anime/962/Aria_The_Natural), but i'm getting through it at a very relaxed pace. i typically just take in a couple episodes whenever i need to recover off of the protagonist's joie de vivre.

i have a question about mushishi; while looking for additional sawashiro miyuki (http://myanimelist.net/people/99/Miyuki_Sawashiro) va roles i noticed that she's one of two people that voice mushishi's protagonist. i assume her role is him in his youth?

humanity has declined (http://myanimelist.net/anime/10357/Jinrui_wa_Suitai_Shima****a) is the only other particularly enjoyable thing i've seen recently. i'm just looking forward to catching up on boku machi, kono suba, shouwa genroku rakugo shinjuu, shirayuki-hime, IBO, and koyomimongatari once they finish airing this season.

Mx.Silver

2016-02-15, 10:40 PM

i have a question about mushishi; while looking for additional sawashiro miyuki (http://myanimelist.net/people/99/Miyuki_Sawashiro) va roles i noticed that she's one of two people that voice mushishi's protagonist. i assume her role is him in his youth?

It is, in the small handful of episodes that feature Ginko's past.

Hiro Protagonest

2016-02-15, 11:02 PM

Sith_Happens

2016-02-15, 11:15 PM

When you're watching Korezom and get to episode 4:

https://images.rapgenius.com/42214d28bbf23e6343ab1a152ea939b5.500x375x1.jpg

Kato

2016-02-16, 03:58 AM

I'm watching it. It's interestingly distinctive compared to what I think of as usual Gundam, but it's been slow and rather laboured and they only now seem to have realized that Kudelia should probably actually do something. It has interesting aesthetics, and the setup has potential, but that potential is mostly being squandered.
I think they pretty intentionally kept Kudelia useless for so long... While I also expected her to be more active and less oblivious in her role as from the start I guess it kind of fits with her being that pampered, shielded princess character.
Yes, it is slow but while I usually really have a problem with that I'm more willing to accept it here. There is still stuff happening every episode it just sometimes happens to be... well, not so much.

Since I haven't watched any Gundam shows, I'll try it just to say I've watched a Gundam show.
Congratulations on a good life choice :smallbiggrin: Though, I'm not entirely sure if Orphans is the best for new comers, it is a bit slow and very un-Gundam in other regards. (i.e. child soldiering) Also because you can't binge watch it yet.

Sallera

2016-02-16, 06:33 AM

Hm... just read the Wikipedia entry on Heavy Objects. Might be interested when I find the time to catch up with it. The premise sounds like what Aldnoah promised to be and then failed, somewhat.
That was my initial thought on the premise as well, and that part was passably executed, but the excessive amounts of blatant fanservice that didn't even manage to be amusing drove me away after a few episodes.

Though, I'm not entirely sure if Orphans is the best for new comers, it is a bit slow and very un-Gundam in other regards. (i.e. child soldiering)

Really? I mean, I've only watched a couple others (Wing, 00, 08th MS), but IBO has been so Gundam it hurts a few times.

BWR

2016-02-16, 08:12 AM

i i'm currently working on, the aria (http://myanimelist.net/anime/477/Aria_The_Animation) franchise. i'm almost done with natural (http://myanimelist.net/anime/962/Aria_The_Natural), but i'm getting through it at a very relaxed pace. i typically just take in a couple episodes whenever i need to recover off of the protagonist's joie de vivre.

I'm about halfway through Natural so far, mixing it up with Azumanga Daioh.

kamikasei

2016-02-16, 03:43 PM

I think they pretty intentionally kept Kudelia useless for so long... While I also expected her to be more active and less oblivious in her role as from the start I guess it kind of fits with her being that pampered, shielded princess character.
Well sure, it "fits" with the character it turns out they wanted her to be (I don't seriously think they changed their minds while making the show), because that's the character they made her to be. It's just a much less interesting character than they could have made her, or it looked at the start like they were going to have.

When you ask a lot of people to risk their lives to help you do something, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that you have the first notion of what it is you're trying to do. At the start of the show, it looked like Kudelia was an idealistic rabble-rouser who would learn something about the ground-level impact of the ideals she was espousing. Instead it appears she literally knows nothing about anything, and the only reason she got in to the position she was in at the start of the show, kicking off all the events, was because a bunch of rich old guys settled on her as a convenient figurehead-slash-pawn. She then spent a dozen episodes literally doing and achieving nothing whatsoever while moping around making sad faces about how useless she was (and making the suffering and hardship of the people dying to fulfil the job she gave them All About Her).

Compare this to an alternate telling of the story where Kudelia may be sheltered, but does know how politics and high society work, and is using her connections and skills to manoeuvre Tekkadan through the pitfalls that they can't simply fight their way out of - the stuff that Teiwaz ended up doing for them - and using the travel time to lay groundwork for her arrival on Earth. Or hell, just a telling where they don't take a dozen episodes to get to Earth. Instead it looks like they're trying now to build her in to the character she could have been from the beginning, without the intervening time buying anything worthwhile in exchange. It may be deliberate, but it's bad pacing and bad use of the characters.

ex cathedra

2016-02-16, 04:40 PM

I'm about halfway through Natural so far, mixing it up with Azumanga Daioh.

i finished the rest of the season up this afternoon. i wasn't particularly immersed for most of natural but i thought that the last ~4 or so episodes were just wonderful. suteki as ****, really. the first cour's ED (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ1hGtQxHvs) was probably my favorite of the whole franchise, though.

Kato

2016-02-17, 12:21 AM

Really? I mean, I've only watched a couple others (Wing, 00, 08th MS), but IBO has been so Gundam it hurts a few times.
Okay, but apart from 08th these all have somewhat strong differences to the average Gundam. Wing, 00 and Orphans are rather explicitely about child soldiers, something other Gundams only do via "fallen in the cockpit$ kids. Also, the death count in Wing and Orphans is higher than average for Gundam shows. Or that's how it feels, anyway. While it's not a rule, many Gundam shows kind of stick closer to the Original plot of the 0079 series, albeit with twists. Those three (and G) are the furthest away from that.

Well sure, it "fits" with the character it turns out they wanted her to be (I don't seriously think they changed their minds while making the show), because that's the character they made her to be. It's just a much less interesting character than they could have made her, or it looked at the start like they were going to have.

[...]

Of course I know what you mean. And they could have spent way less time on the "Kudelia is useless" arc. As you say, the distinction is between someone who wants to help people and has some idea on how to do that and... well, someone who has no idea what that means. Both work but one gives more room for her to improve. Of course they could have also made a Kudelia who knows exactly what she wants and what she needs to do, but knowing how to run a revolution is hard and Kudelia being that oblivious... well, it makes her a tool to begin with :smalltongue: Okay, I guess I really can't say why I think it's fine except I'm fine with her growing up so much (or I hope she will).

Morph Bark

2016-02-18, 10:52 AM

I've recently been watching Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo (The Pet Girl of Sakurasou) and really like it. I'm typically neither much a fan of slice of life (they tend to be so similar) nor romance (as a sub-plot I like it, not so much as a main plot), but the characterization is done really well and I found it easier to associate with the main character than in other, similar anime, probably at least in part due to him trying to become a game designer like I am. It's not really one I binge-watch, but I find it a good one to watch in bed before going to sleep.

I've also tried out a bit of Fairy Tail to get a bit of a better understanding of it. I just started with looking up in the wiki what plots there are, and it seems to be a very arc-based thing, which I'm not really into (at least not anymore) with relatively little call-backs/foreshadowing aside from a few things relating to one or two characters. I really enjoyed the action scenes and some of the bigger plot stuff, but outside of that it felt a bit mediocre. Since I went out of my way to try and find exactly those parts that would catch my interest the most, the rest is undoubtedly not for me by a long shot. I guess it's a good entry-level anime, like many of the long-runners are, but this felt subpar to stuff like Naruto and One Piece. Is there something I'm missing in that comparison that makes Fairy Tail good enough to have gained the popularity to go on for so long? I read a few stretches of the manga that weren't turned into anime yet, and it feels really janky. Plot twists that should be big are treated almost casually, and some scene changes (as with Aquarius taking Lucy and another woman to another dimension) are incredibly abrupt without proper explanation as to why.

Rodin

2016-02-18, 11:26 AM

I've also tried out a bit of Fairy Tail to get a bit of a better understanding of it. I just started with looking up in the wiki what plots there are, and it seems to be a very arc-based thing, which I'm not really into (at least not anymore) with relatively little call-backs/foreshadowing aside from a few things relating to one or two characters. I really enjoyed the action scenes and some of the bigger plot stuff, but outside of that it felt a bit mediocre. Since I went out of my way to try and find exactly those parts that would catch my interest the most, the rest is undoubtedly not for me by a long shot. I guess it's a good entry-level anime, like many of the long-runners are, but this felt subpar to stuff like Naruto and One Piece. Is there something I'm missing in that comparison that makes Fairy Tail good enough to have gained the popularity to go on for so long? I read a few stretches of the manga that weren't turned into anime yet, and it feels really janky. Plot twists that should be big are treated almost casually, and some scene changes (as with Aquarius taking Lucy and another woman to another dimension) are incredibly abrupt without proper explanation as to why.

I tried watching Fairy Tail and only got through the first 50 episodes before giving up on it, so you're not alone in this. I found it to be very generic, and while it had some good fight scenes those weren't enough to hold me. I mostly found that I didn't care about the characters, and the humor wasn't as good as similar shows.

I keep trying to get into One Piece as well, but the early episodes of that show are so freaking weird. I don't know if it's something where the show outgrows that or whether it gets better eventually.

Morph Bark

2016-02-18, 07:21 PM

I think One Piece is a show that grows into and out of its weirdness at times, though it's never fully without. I watched the first 12 episodes of it before stopping, but I picked up the manga from the point where they encounter Moira(?), an infamous pirate necromancer, and read from there until after the timeskip when things got really slow and kinda boring during the mermaid island arc. I've seen some videos of fights that take place in the in-between times that looked great, with the humour being constant and not out of place (because all the characters are a little weird, but it's all well incorporated; character design, personality and fighting style all together), and I followed the anime for a bit during and shortly after the Impel Down arc.

I think One Piece is probably one of the long-runners that is pretty easy to jump into at any point, because the characters are relatively simple overall, but with hidden depths that get explored sometimes. It makes them instantly recognizeable (oh, that's the ladies' man, that's the samurai dude who's super strong, that's the mascot, etc.) and unless you jump into an episode/chapter that's really been built-up to, you're not going to be much out of the loop, much like with sitcoms or police procedural shows, though a bit less episodic.

Gintama's probably another one of those shows, considering it's huge length and how highly people rate it still, but I've never watched any of it aside from one badass fight with some side characters.

Naruto's less easy to get into, because the characters are a little more complex and it's quite heavily geared towards longer stretches of plot, for better or for worse. (A fourth of the manga takes place during a couple of days, for one.)

cobaltstarfire

2016-02-18, 08:31 PM

We recently finished Hanbei Renmei. It was ok, I feel like it didn't go to its full potential. (It also hit a little too close to home sometimes, but it did it in small enough chunks, and I actually kind of liked that about it). I want to see more stories from it and stuff.

We also watched both seasons of Love, Chuunibyou, and Other Delusions. Which I thought to be really strange, but also really cute, and genuine in it's own way. (also kind of funny, is it reminded me of some people I knew in highschool who basically had minor chuunibyou...)

The list is starting to wind down, we've been watching some other non-anime things too. I think once we finish the whole list I'll come back and post my overall thoughts on the things we watched...if I can remember them anyway. I think we're probably going to do Full Metal Alchemist last...

I plan on having us watch the first Full Metal Alchemist that was made, I can't remember why, but that was the thought I had about it back when we had discussed it a little bit.

ex cathedra

2016-02-18, 09:27 PM

Naruto's less easy to get into, because the characters are a little more complex and it's quite heavily geared towards longer stretches of plot, for better or for worse. (A fourth of the manga takes place during a couple of days, for one.)

the most common complaint i've read about naruto is its long stretches of not plot. isn't it like half filler? i'm all kinds of not interested in that genre so i wouldn't take my own word for it, though.

Mx.Silver

2016-02-18, 11:25 PM

We recently finished Hanbei Renmei. It was ok, I feel like it didn't go to its full potential.
Would you mind elaborating on this a bit? I ask because personally I'm not sure how much further it could have really gone, given what it's about, so I'm curious where you think the missed areas were. Although I also wouldn't say that the subject matter of it that's liable to hit close to home is only there in small chunks either, so that might have something to do with it (of course, how much of that subject matter is apparent can depend on the individual viewer's mental wave-length - a phenomenon it shares with Evangelion to an extent, although Eva's a bit more obvious about it).

I plan on having us watch the first Full Metal Alchemist that was made, I can't remember why, but that was the thought I had about it back when we had discussed it a little bit.
The first series was the one that was recommended back when you were asking for suggestions, iirc.
Although that would have been before Funimation took most of it done from their youtube channel following their BluRay re-release of it in November (which , predictably, is not available in Region 2 because the PAL regions are hated by everyone outside of them) so availability might be more of an issue now.

Lethologica

2016-02-18, 11:33 PM

the most common complaint i've read about naruto is its long stretches of not plot. isn't it like half filler? i'm all kinds of not interested in that genre so i wouldn't take my own word for it, though.
Naruto has more filler episodes than any other anime, as far as I'm aware. But last time I checked, Bleach had a slightly higher percentage of filler.

Would you mind elaborating on this a bit? I ask because personally I'm not sure how much further it could have really gone, given what it's about, so I'm curious where you think the missed areas were. Although I also wouldn't say that the subject matter of it that's liable to hit close to home is only there in small chunks either, so that might have something to do with it (of course, how much of that subject matter is apparent can depend on the individual viewer's mental wave-length - a phenomenon it shares with Evangelion to an extent, although Eva's a bit more obvious about it).
Maybe the setting could have been more fully/broadly/whatever-ly explored? I mean, it's not really central to the show's development, but I really can't think of anything else.

Rodin

2016-02-18, 11:41 PM

Naruto has more filler episodes than any other anime, as far as I'm aware. But last time I checked, Bleach had a slightly higher percentage of filler.

What's driving me crazy at the minute is the fact that they're STILL doing filler for Naruto. The manga's done, guys. Finished. You don't need to spin it out any more. Plus, I don't know the ending but I have a vague idea, and even the anime can't be more than a dozen or so episodes away from being finished.

Wrap up the actual plot and then start diving into these weird alternate universe scenarios. Or just plain work on something else until the sequel series is far enough along to adapt. Something.

Mx.Silver

2016-02-18, 11:45 PM

Maybe the setting could have been more fully/broadly/whatever-ly explored? I mean, it's not really central to the show's development, but I really can't think of anything else.

Possibly. Personally I wouldn't have thought there's much more to the town that needed exploring (maybe a bit more on how the other group of haibane lived?), but that's why I'm curious about others' thoughts on it.

cobaltstarfire

2016-02-19, 09:43 AM

I feel like there was a lot of world building in it that was never expanded on. Though I understand some of it definitely shouldn't be expanded upon, but I would just enjoy getting more character stories from it I guess.

As far as it not hitting home for you, well of course everyone is different, you're not really suggesting just because it didn't tweak you a little bit that it shouldn't have tweaked me? Why is that a problem at all?

Certain things just resonated with me strongly. Maybe you don't go through life with the kinds of feeling Rakka and Reki in particular did, but I do, and I'm happy that things worked out for them.

Either way I'm happy with how it tweaked me, without completely embroiling itself in it, it moved forward it was nice, and therapeutic. I think it's a very good point about the show, which is why I mentioned it.

Eva's problem is that it wallows, and wallows, and then it wallows some more. It could tell the same story and get to the depths of how broken all the kids and adults are without all the wallowing. While I would never watch it again, I really do like many of the concepts. core story, and the creature designs in Eva, it's just too willing to bludgeon you over the head with all the broken people who are happy to just wallow in their pit and do nothing to climb out non-stop.

I never intended to watch full metal alchemist on youtube either way, so it's not a big bother to me if it's been taken down.

CarpeGuitarrem

2016-02-19, 10:12 AM

I think One Piece is probably one of the long-runners that is pretty easy to jump into at any point, because the characters are relatively simple overall, but with hidden depths that get explored sometimes. It makes them instantly recognizeable (oh, that's the ladies' man, that's the samurai dude who's super strong, that's the mascot, etc.) and unless you jump into an episode/chapter that's really been built-up to, you're not going to be much out of the loop, much like with sitcoms or police procedural shows, though a bit less episodic.

Gintama's probably another one of those shows, considering it's huge length and how highly people rate it still, but I've never watched any of it aside from one badass fight with some side characters.

I can confirm this about Gintama (I'm about 40ish episodes in). It's very much like a weird anime sitcom that transforms into a heartfelt drama at times. Very easy to drop into and out of, too. I'll go and watch other stuff, then come back and watch an arc or so of Gintama. Works pretty well.

Mx.Silver

2016-02-19, 02:00 PM

As far as it not hitting home for you, well of course everyone is different, you're not really suggesting just because it didn't tweak you a little bit that it shouldn't have tweaked me? Why is that a problem at all?
Oh no, I'm not saying that at all. I brought up the 'in small chunks' element because the thing in question struck me as being a very large part of the series - in fact I'd say its the probably the single biggest thematic element to it. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

I'm not saying it should have resonated with you more than it did either, just be clear - in fact if it wasn't more than small chunks than that's probably a good thing, given what's involved. I was just putting it forward as a potential difference in our viewing experiences, which might explain the difference in conclusion vis-a-vis its potential (as personally all I'd say about Renmei is that Reki's arc might have benefitted from a denouement).
I brought it up because it's an aspect of the series that a fair few people seem to miss almost entirely. Possibly both because Renmei is a rather understated series and that the topic in question can be a bit of a difficult one for a lot of people even in series which aren't understated at all about it.

cobaltstarfire

2016-02-19, 02:25 PM

I'm actually surprised to hear that people "miss" those bits, without them the whole series would be rather...pointless, I guess?

I do have a feeling of some lack of closure. I also feel like it'd be neat to learn a little more about the wall, and a little more beyond what was strongly suggested with the communicator. It's a very nebulous not quite filled feeling really. I wish I could elaborate, maybe I just really wish I could personally explore the setting and ask all the questions that would probably get me in a heap of trouble if I was actually in the setting asking those questions.

But yeah, bottom line, in the end I think it covered something very ugly in a very honest yet gentle way, and that is just...really nice, I wish more stories could handle the topics this one did with as much grace.

Mx.Silver

2016-02-19, 03:07 PM

It probably won't surprise you to learn that a fairly common sentiment among those people is that 'there isn't much to talk about' when it comes to the series. Either that or over-emphasising the more theological elements/imagery instead, even though a fair amount of that is tied-up in what I'd term the main theme, and aren't that central to the series (which I suspect is part of the reason why everything beyond the walls is left ambiguous).
That latter stuff is a bit outside the board-friendly area of topics though.

The unfullfilment is understandable, although given what the wall and everything beyond that represents/is elaborating on it would sort of defeat the purpose of it being The Unknown. Which wouldn't make it any less unfulfilling for someone who found it that way, of course.

Felyndiira

2016-02-19, 03:38 PM

One of the things I realized about Haibane Reimei is that the unexplained parts of the world are intentional. If the series started explaining everything about the world - like what's behind that wall, for instance - it might generate a dramatic moment, but it would take a lot of the mysticism away from the setting. As-is, the series explains just enough of the world for us to comprehend and feel for the main characters, so that the world continues to feel like a mysterious, unexplored place - thus putting us, the viewers, on the same wavelength as the characters in the show.

If everything was explained, the viewers would end up being more focused on the rules of the world rather than the experience of it, which would greatly diminish the show. A large part of why Haibane is so highly regarded in the anime community is because of this mystical, almost religious feeling from watching it, so satisfying our curiosities would make the show worse, in this sense.

(Though, to be honest, most of this is probably unintentional, as the entire show was based off fragments of unfinished Doujinshi by Yoshi/toshi Abe.)

I think One Piece is probably one of the long-runners that is pretty easy to jump into at any point, because the characters are relatively simple overall, but with hidden depths that get explored sometimes. It makes them instantly recognizeable (oh, that's the ladies' man, that's the samurai dude who's super strong, that's the mascot, etc.) and unless you jump into an episode/chapter that's really been built-up to, you're not going to be much out of the loop, much like with sitcoms or police procedural shows, though a bit less episodic.

I kinda disagree with this. One of the major aspects of One Piece is the growth of the protagonist - not just in power levels, but in terms of reputation, what he does, and the symbolic significance of each of his actions - as well as how the world changes around him. If you jump right into the series at, say, the Water 9/Enies Lobby arc:

The significance of Nico Robin's past, as well as the emotions behind the simple act of Luffy destroying the World Government flag, is lost to the reader. Also, the reader would have completely missed Luffy's "beheading", the relations between Zoro and Mihawk, as well as a number of past villains that show up in a significant way later on (Mr. 2 Bon Clay, for instance).

Or, if you jump in after the Marineford Arc:

You would miss pretty much everything about Whitebeard's crew, which is one of the most major events in the One Piece world influenced pretty much every single arc after this. Ace's history would also be unknown, and a lot of the political events that happen afterwords, like the conflict between Aokiji and Akainu.

Compared with something like Bleach or Fairy Tail, where pretty much the only thing that ever really progresses is the protagonist's power level/nakama power and any changes to the world quickly becomes a footnote, One Piece is one of those rare long-running series with an ever-changing world and significant events that continuously ripples through current events, and the reader would miss a lot if they went into the story without reading about prior events.

cobaltstarfire

2016-02-19, 04:54 PM

I don't want everything explained in Haibane Reiemi, there's just some things I'm curious about that I think could be explored without breaking the parts that are pretty clearly and intentionally left vague.

Mx.Silver

2016-02-20, 11:06 AM

One of the things I realized about Haibane Reimei is that the unexplained parts of the world are intentional.
[...]
(Though, to be honest, most of this is probably unintentional,

But is it intentionally unintentional, or is it merely unintentionally intentional? That's the real mystery :smalltongue:

Realistically though it's not worth getting hung up about 'intent'. it can be interesting if you're looking into the process of how the work was made - since just about every element in a narrative work is deliberately included - but it's not terribly relevant to interpretation of the work itself.

Kato

2016-02-21, 07:41 AM

I keep trying to get into One Piece as well, but the early episodes of that show are so freaking weird. I don't know if it's something where the show outgrows that or whether it gets better eventually.

Well, it is weird, but it is more than that. There is good reason One Piece is considered the best running Shounen by many, along with the best selling for most of recent times. Oda is just a great author who can mix comedy, drama and action (though, the action does work much better animated. Too bad about the filler)
It's clearly not for everyone but you should really give it another chance (and skip the filler if you watch the anime)

endoperez

2016-02-21, 06:21 PM

Boku Dake ga Inai Machi has been awesome, and stays awesome. It's some sort of a thriller / mystery thing with elements of "how do I redo the past to stop an accident" sorta thing going on, and it's done very well. It doesn't feel like anime, since it doesn't really follow any of the genre tropes I'm familiar with.

Morph Bark

2016-02-21, 07:47 PM

the most common complaint i've read about naruto is its long stretches of not plot. isn't it like half filler? i'm all kinds of not interested in that genre so i wouldn't take my own word for it, though.

I know the pre-timeskip anime Naruto's filler is very much not plot (save for maybe the first filler episode and the last four that set up Shippuuden), but luckily it's concentrated so it's easy to mark where you can just skip a bunch. In Shippuuden, most of the filler I know of is actually very plot-relevant and simply fills out the parts that the manga didn't cover, such as having more stuff on the other Jinchuuriki and other side-characters.

Rodin

2016-02-22, 01:49 AM

I know the pre-timeskip anime Naruto's filler is very much not plot (save for maybe the first filler episode and the last four that set up Shippuuden), but luckily it's concentrated so it's easy to mark where you can just skip a bunch. In Shippuuden, most of the filler I know of is actually very plot-relevant and simply fills out the parts that the manga didn't cover, such as having more stuff on the other Jinchuuriki and other side-characters.

That actually irritated me more. The quasi-canon nature meant that I wanted to watch it to fill in the gaps in my knowledge, but the actual episode quality did not improve from the standard filler nonsense. It got especially bad later on, where they started shoehorning in filler episodes into the main plot so that you couldn't tell if an episode was filler until the bad writing made it apparent.

At least with the standard filler you saw it start and then switched off for a couple months until they got done and could pick the show up again.

Sith_Happens

2016-02-23, 05:19 PM

Is there something I'm missing in that comparison that makes Fairy Tail good enough to have gained the popularity to go on for so long?

It's not a matter of "good" so much as "fun." Sometimes you want a heart wrenching story of star crossed love or the horrors of war or whatever, and sometimes you just want to watch a bunch of hot-blooded people punch each other through walls while yelling platitudes about friendship. Fairy Tail delivers consistently well on the latter.:smallwink:

VariSami

2016-02-23, 05:38 PM

While at times I hate myself for watching Fairy Tail because it is often horribly written and repetitive, the show has its moments. I have been catching up with the Fairy Tail Zero episodes, and the game between Mavis and Yuri was resolved quite nicely with the exception that it turned out to be more or less meaningless. I would argue that little contest actually showed intelligent writing.

ex cathedra

2016-02-23, 08:28 PM

cobaltstarfire

2016-02-29, 09:59 PM

(I'm leaving the exclamation points off of the titles cause it's making me crazy to look at these sentences with them in the middle)

We're watching Durarara now, and we're really enjoying it!

I was a little bit worried since I know it was born from the same person who did Baccano, and we were too squeamish for that one. I think it's the only thing I've seen be too much even for the guy.

Anyway I really like the spiraly nature of the story being told, in Durarara the use of music/sound, and the animation too. (I also really like how the recaps are short and done during the intro). We've only watched...I think 3 or 4 episodes? But it's definitely very intriguing/entertaining.

Fri

2016-02-29, 10:03 PM

I know, I love durarara.

At first I thought I like baccano more than durarara, but after a while I realized I liked it more than baccano. Very much, in fact.

My friend said that she doesn't really like it, but realizes that if there's an anime specifically made for my taste, it'd be Durarara.

cobaltstarfire

2016-03-02, 02:37 PM

Sith_Happens

2016-03-02, 02:49 PM

I saw the first few episodes at a con years ago and it was really good.

mallorean_thug

2016-03-03, 12:23 AM

Dennou Coil is one of my favorite things and I'm still reeling from the shock of the news that it got licensed. Everybody should watch it. Maybe I'll be able to explain why in length at some other time.

Closet_Skeleton

2016-03-03, 05:05 AM

It got licensed?

Gasp, I might actually have to buy some DVDs.

If Dennou Coil is not the best anime ever made then it is the second best anime ever made and the first best one does not exist.

Mx.Silver

2016-03-03, 11:56 AM

Have any of you folks seen Dennou Coil?

I've seen a few gif sets/descriptions of it, and have wanted to check it out eventually (it got licensed and is supposedly due out in the US in June). It looks really neat and I'm thinking of getting it when it comes out.

Dennou Coil's very good, if somewhat let down by some very ill-advised filler content in the middle and a couple of minor cop-outs towards the end (both of which I'd attribute to nerves about it being 'for children'). It has some incredibly high-quality animation work and was generally seen as being 'the best series never licensed outside of Japan', although that moniker doesn't seem to fit any more*.
If you liked Erin then it's definitely worth checking out.

*an event I think everyone had assumed was never going to happen. Up there with 'the Serial Experiments Lain and Fullmetal Alchemist blu-ray re-releases coming out in the PAL regions' it terms of impossible dreams :smalltongue:

Nerd-o-rama

2016-03-04, 07:52 AM

i finally got around to watching neon genesis evangelion + EoE this weekend, and it was pretty good. shinji is a stellar antihero and misato/asuka are great characters of their own. there are a couple other characters that i probably wanted to enjoy, most notably rei, that didn't feel like they received sufficient development or exposition. anyways, it was a good experience, albeit not the best anime i've ever seen.

Glad you enjoyed it. Eva is among my favorite shows of all time, and I am glad to see someone appreciating Shinji's character writing right off for once. He's not a HERO, but he's a hell of a good character.

And while I think character writing is Eva's strongest suit, I agree that they didn't really know what to do with Rei after about episode 6. I think they were expecting to run out of money sooner...or this was just Gainax's first full length TV show.

Mx.Silver

2016-03-04, 01:32 PM

So, have now finished Shiki. Despite having a few more characters than it really knows what to do, and losing a bit of focus as a result, it stay pretty darn effective and comes together very well. It's a shame about the character designs though, because they just don't work for what it's going for. Not even remotely, and to be honest some other aspects of the art direction don't help. It's so obviously wrong for the tone that I can't for the life of me understand why they went with it, but that's what they did. As a result, it's sort of stuck in the same boat as Gilgamesh and Flowers of Evil.

I've also reached the series ending of Eden of the East. Well, I say 'ending' - in reality it most just sort of stops, with an implicit footnote that maybe it'll be continued in the films. Kind of a shame really, as there was a lot of good stuff in there (some rather silly stuff as well, but mostly good) and some pretty interesting ideas, a fair amount of which fall a bit too far into politics to really be discussed here.
Its closing credits (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsrhWMYeucM) are still great though

Now, in lieu of just doing the sensible thing and telling people what series I've on to now, I have instead opted to post visual references to their production companies and opening songs to see if anyone can infer the series in question. Because that is apparently the sort of person I have become.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3a/Grave_kelder_dewit01.jpg/640px-Grave_kelder_dewit01.jpg

+

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/09/Abingdon_School%2C_Abingdon%2C_Oxfordshire%2C_Engl and-23April2011.jpg/640px-Abingdon_School%2C_Abingdon%2C_Oxfordshire%2C_Engl and-23April2011.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Francisco_Goya_-_Casa_de_locos.jpg

+

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Las_Vegas_strip.jpg/640px-Las_Vegas_strip.jpg

or this was just Gainax's first full length TV show.

Aside from those 39 episodes of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water they did five years beforehand, anyway :smalltongue:

Felyndiira

2016-03-04, 03:27 PM

Dennou Coil is my 10th favorite anime of all time. The anime series actually came out before Google Glass was even conceived, and was phenomenal in portraying the dynamic between children and new technology - how children tend to be the first to pick up new things and form their own games and subcultures around them. The quaint (rather than dystopic) portrayal of augmented reality was a really innovative touch as well. It just seems so peaceful and real for an ultimately futuristic setting.

It was a shame that it ended the way it did, though. Still, I'm glad that it's finally licensed - it's one of the best examples of the diverse things that anime can portray.

Ossian77

2016-03-05, 07:29 AM

Just finished watching Souten No Ken (Fist of the Blue Sky), the Hokuto no Ken story set in 1930s Shanghai.

ADHD version: don't watch it. You are basically throwing away 13 hours of your lives (the anime series is much shorter than the actual story-arc of the manga, and for a good reason)

So.....

I read the first batch of manga tankobons, but the glacial pace of publication made me lose interest. It had some merit, the art was stuff already seen a million times already, with ludicrous anatomy etc etc, but the plot, with a pinch of extra effort, had potential.

Now take ALL of that and animate it (the word is a stretch...) using MS Paint, do 90% of the movements in stock animation and the other 10% by sliding up and down a static piece of paper in front of the camera (I swear some scenes look like they have maybe 2 FPS.....), dilute the basically already in-existent martial arts business with endless stares, glowering scenes, exposition, and soppy dialogue. Flatten all secondary characters.

Then leave to rot in the carcass of a stitched up dead seal (like an icelanding haggis, but more evil) and force it down everyone's throat.

Stay the hell away from it...

BWR

2016-03-06, 04:13 AM

I enjoyed SnK, though I've only not seen the anime (which I did not know existed until now). Yeah, it meandered a bit and could and should have been trimmed down a bit, but on the whole it was good.
I will probably not bother to track the anime down.

DoctorFaust

2016-03-09, 08:57 PM

HMS Invincible

2016-03-09, 09:46 PM

KonoSuba really is far better than it has any right to be, especially it's being animated by Deen. Good dark comedy that hits more than it misses, good (if not necessarily likeable) characters, a fantastic ED, and it convinced me to walk the path of Explosions.

Episode 9 was weaker than the others, but I like the series overall. For some reason, I burst out laughing watching 8.

endoperez

2016-03-10, 05:36 PM

KonoSuba is slow and meandering, and spends at least twice as long on a joke than it should, and all the jokes are handled in an embarrassingly immature way to boot. The end result is that every single episode-specific joke overstays its welcome. The character-based jokes almost work - I'm guessing there's some language-specific jokes in there that get lost in translation. The explosion joke keeps on giving, though. The contrast between it actually being awesome, but at the same time totally useless, might be what makes it work.

Morph Bark

2016-03-10, 07:15 PM

Just watched episode 18 of Sakurasou na Pet no Kanojo, one of the characters mentions he has a flight to "go to San Francisco to have a talk at a game developer's conference".

Instantly got sad, because next week is GDC 2016 in San Francisco and I didn't get selected for their international ambassadors program. :(

Spacewolf

2016-03-10, 07:19 PM

So Boku Dake actually managed to surprise me

I thought the teacher was too obvious to be the killer.

DoctorFaust

2016-03-10, 08:59 PM

Okay, I realize I gush on here about romance anime and manga a disproportionately large amount based on how much I actually consume, but seriously, if you like romance and/or magic and/or surprisingly accurate representations of mythological figures, The Ancient Magus' Bride is a freaking awesome series. Though I do have a soft-spot for characters like Chise, and Elias reminds me more than a little of Howl Jenkins Pendragon, who is fantastic. So I might be biased.

Fri

2016-03-10, 09:02 PM

Well, don't worry abotu it. Ancient Magus Bride really is that good.

Also I think it got going to be adapted into... something in the near future. Cant' remember if it's live action or drama cd or ova, but not anime series. but it might mean it's going to be adapted into anime series soon.

Talking about something people should gush about, Dungeon Meshi. That's the best manga me and my friends recently found. Might be one of the best fantasy manga around.

DoctorFaust

2016-03-11, 04:01 AM

Well, don't worry abotu it. Ancient Magus Bride really is that good.

Also I think it got going to be adapted into... something in the near future. Cant' remember if it's live action or drama cd or ova, but not anime series. but it might mean it's going to be adapted into anime series soon.

Yeah, the prequel announcement was how I found out about it in the first place. Which, of course, led to me staying up until 2 a.m. binging it. :smallbiggrin:

And, um, what Meshi about? Wikipedia makes it aound like it's a cooking show set in a dungeon.

Fri

2016-03-11, 04:51 AM

And, um, what Meshi about? Wikipedia makes it aound like it's a cooking show set in a dungeon.

Why don't you check it out :smallamused:?

(But yes, it's a classic fantasy story with dungeons and elves and dwarves and thieves and mages that revolves around cooking. Think of it as the gundam of Toriko's gurren lagann.)

Alent

2016-03-11, 08:35 PM

Well, don't worry abotu it. Ancient Magus Bride really is that good.

See also Futari no Renai Shoka. Same author, same heartwarming awesome. (It even has a Necronomicon in it!)

Talking about something people should gush about, Dungeon Meshi. That's the best manga me and my friends recently found. Might be one of the best fantasy manga around.

Seconding the awesome of Dungeon Meshi. That manga needs to be made into an RPG. :smallbiggrin: I also want a Dungeon Meshi crossover with Helck.

Rodin

2016-03-12, 04:08 AM

So Boku Dake actually managed to surprise me

I thought the teacher was too obvious to be the killer.

I was the same way.

I pretty much concluded it was him in episode 2 or 3, then moved away from him as too obvious a suspect. He started seeming like a really nice guy...until they made him guilty as sin again with the pile of lollipops and obviously BS explanation for them.

Plus, the fact that he's the only guy in the story who remotely looks like the killer in the present made it hard not to suspect him.

I suppose it's better than the alternative - with no other reasonable suspect, it had to be either him, somebody we'd never seen in the show at all, or some totally ridiculous asspull of a villain like we got in Rokka no Yuusha.

I still kinda wish they'd hidden it a bit better.

The show remains engaging - there's something about the presentation that gives a very nice feel to the whole story. Definitely looking forward to the final few episodes.

Zalabim

2016-03-13, 03:59 AM

Doorhandle

2016-03-13, 06:05 AM

Seconding the awesome of Dungeon Meshi. That manga needs to be made into an RPG. :

Thirding that. I'd be happy if it was just a supplement.

On a similar note, I just finished Tokyo Ghoul and I want an RPG made from that as well. Possibly world of darkness style, like "Ghoul: The Metamorphosis" or something like that.
So long as it emphasized the moral ambiguity of both ghouls and investigators, i'd be pretty happy.

Ibrinar

2016-03-13, 11:53 AM

I just finished watching it last night. I correctly guessed the fake around episode 6/7, but I totally did not guess right how it was done, nor have any clue as to the motive. To be sure, the clues as to how it was done were around, and the evidence to prove who was the fake were only brought out at the end. I can't explain it.
Hmm yeah I think the motive wasn't explained in the anime yet. If you want to know:
Motive: Well she basically allied with a third faction with another demon who is/was one of the leaders but developed other goals. IIRC the leaders have a bet that thewill obey the one who takes out 3(?) heroes.

Yuki Akuma

2016-03-13, 02:28 PM

Oh for God's sake Leomon died again. Come on, dude!

Eldariel

2016-03-13, 08:52 PM

I know I'm a bit behind the times on this one, but I finally got around to watching Death Parade. I have to say, I found it a beautiful show, and rather interesting too. It certainly touched upon some very complex matters (albeit on a rather superficial level), painted a rather intriguing settings and some rather colorful characters as well. Certainly right up my alley; something I could endorse to anyone interested in some philosophical consideration presented through mostly successful characters in a beautiful world.

cobaltstarfire

2016-03-14, 05:07 PM

Oh for God's sake Leomon died again. Come on, dude!

Oh the next one is up, cool gotta get back to that when it becomes available to free users. (also lol at the spoiler) Is part two leaning less on nolstagia/ect? I know it's being made kind of for the fans, but the first movie sat a little poorly with me because it was more "here's a giant recap, cool remember these guys and oh here's a tiny bit of story at the very very end.

Also I'm a little foggy on it, but didn't Agumon and Gabumon give up their ability to digivolve up into omnimon? It bothers me that we were able to get that evolution...

We finished Durarara!! and will now watch season 2.

The show definitely has something to it that most others lack. I'm not quite sure what, I'll just call it panache? Yes. *nods*. But really it was very fun, and weirdly down to earth but not at the same time, and I liked that.

And it did that thing I usually hate, but I didn't hate it this time. (characters who are or should be friends/allies turning on each other and then dragging it out in one big long annoying misunderstanding/waste of time).

Yuki Akuma

2016-03-14, 05:31 PM

Oh the next one is up, cool gotta get back to that when it becomes available to free users. (also lol at the spoiler) Is part two leaning less on nolstagia/ect? I know it's being made kind of for the fans, but the first movie sat a little poorly with me because it was more "here's a giant recap, cool remember these guys and oh here's a tiny bit of story at the very very end.

Also I'm a little foggy on it, but didn't Agumon and Gabumon give up their ability to digivolve up into omnimon? It bothers me that we were able to get that evolution...

It seems less "nostalgia only" to me, but I must admit I am a total sucker for nostalgia where Digimon is concerned.

I'm pretty sure the characters got their Crests back after 02 when Oikawa made a new barrier? They used Omegamon in the fourth movie anyway so it's not entirely out of the blue.

cobaltstarfire

2016-03-14, 07:31 PM

It seems less "nostalgia only" to me, but I must admit I am a total sucker for nostalgia where Digimon is concerned.

I'm pretty sure the characters got their Crests back after 02 when Oikawa made a new barrier? They used Omegamon in the fourth movie anyway so it's not entirely out of the blue.

Ahh I see, I have only watched most of the movies once, and a looooong time ago. I am satisfied with this information, thankyou. :smallsmile:

Doorhandle

2016-03-18, 07:05 AM

endoperez

2016-03-18, 08:35 AM

Anyone else watching KonoSuba, (AKA Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!, AKA God's blessing on this wounderful world? That's a lot of AKA.) I just finished the last season 1 episode.

It's a fantasy parody(Although more hewing to the console rpg/MMO crowd) so I thought it would be right up this forum's alley.

I did. I thought it'd fit more on the "Works of Fiction With Good Premises And Bad Execution" thread.

The fantasy parody part was nice. Like Overlord, the over-the-top spell effects were nice when the show actually got into that. The inversions of actual fantasy things were nice. But half the time, the show wasn't about fantasy tropes, and it wasn't a parody.

I was let down by the part of the show that insisted on being the same, boring type of fanservice that exists in so many other shows already. The immaturity of the writing was embarrassingly bad. I wish this would've been more like Slayers, which also was funny, subversive and over-the-top at times, but which played fantasy stories straight the rest of the time.

I mean, there hasn't been a single adventure played straight in Konosuba!

I liked the quests they did, the lake quest, and the "honorable" duel.

"There's scary ghosts, but people need to pee!" sums up like half of one episode. "Men want to have dirty dreams" sums up half of another. "The main character steals women's underwear" half of a third. There was so much more they could've used that time for!

We've never seen the party try to tackle a normal quest. I mean, it shouldn't be too hard to do something like The Party trying to fight some goblins, getting outwitted by the goblins (they e.g. walk out of the EXPLOSION!!! spell's area during the casting animation), and having to run away. Cue jokes about them losing to weak monsters, protagonist crying about how unfair it is, etc etc.

DoctorFaust

2016-03-18, 09:41 AM

Rodin

2016-03-20, 06:19 AM

kamikasei

2016-03-20, 02:08 PM

Aaaaaand Erased is back in my good books again.

The idea of him being recursively a 32 year old man inside a 6th grader's body now thinking he's a 6th grader inside a 32 year old man, while still having knowledge from "the future" which is now the present? That's such an amazing thing that you could do an entire series on it by itself.

I'm kinda sad that we're not going to get the time to explore the consequences of that. Still, it looks like we're set for our climax now, so I really can't wait to see who's out-gambitted who.
Unless I missed something, isn't he still in the past relative to his starting point? He jumped back 18 years, but was in the coma for 15, IIRC.

Anyway, yeah, that was unexpected. I'm curious whether it'll keep things like this, or whether he'll jump back to defeat Yashiro when he was 11 and cut off the coma timeline. I could see this being considered a sufficient personal price to pay to make the success of saving Kayo and the others feel earned, but it did also derail his mother's life and let the murderer continue to prey on children elsewhere. We'll see...

Oh, and I'm going to be annoyed if Satoru's committed the Standard Sin of this kind of situation: confronting the villain alone without taking measures to ensure what you know gets out if they kill you.

Spacewolf

2016-03-20, 03:06 PM

Unless I missed something, isn't he still in the past relative to his starting point? He jumped back 18 years, but was in the coma for 15, IIRC.

Anyway, yeah, that was unexpected. I'm curious whether it'll keep things like this, or whether he'll jump back to defeat Yashiro when he was 11 and cut off the coma timeline. I could see this being considered a sufficient personal price to pay to make the success of saving Kayo and the others feel earned, but it did also derail his mother's life and let the murderer continue to prey on children elsewhere. We'll see...

Oh, and I'm going to be annoyed if Satoru's committed the Standard Sin of this kind of situation: confronting the villain alone without taking measures to ensure what you know gets out if they kill you.

I doubt it , that would mean erasing Kayo and Hiromis baby which doesn't seem like it will happen. I think it's more likely he will carry on then hook up with the Pizza girl.

Edit: Grimgar Spoilers

These guys have some serious bad luck with stuff attacking them when they are resting. I'm still not sure about the setting though, something is obviously going on but it's hard to tell what. The weird skintight suits during the intro seem to suggest VR as does the moon, but why?

Alent

2016-03-20, 04:08 PM

Unless I missed something, isn't he still in the past relative to his starting point? He jumped back 18 years, but was in the coma for 15, IIRC.

Anyway, yeah, that was unexpected. I'm curious whether it'll keep things like this, or whether he'll jump back to defeat Yashiro when he was 11 and cut off the coma timeline. I could see this being considered a sufficient personal price to pay to make the success of saving Kayo and the others feel earned, but it did also derail his mother's life and let the murderer continue to prey on children elsewhere. We'll see...

Oh, and I'm going to be annoyed if Satoru's committed the Standard Sin of this kind of situation: confronting the villain alone without taking measures to ensure what you know gets out if they kill you.

We're off in Anime Original territory, so it's anyone's guess, but...

There's a reason the Japanese title is "The town where only I am missing". The meaning really hits when you see the intro without Satoru after Yashiro gloats about how Satoru's "won peace for the town". Changing the localized title to "Erased" really robbed the impact of that moment.

Interestingly, in the manga, instead of Yashiro destroying the tabloid photographers' film, it was a younger Airi, and recognizing her causes Satoru to black out until 2008, so when the confrontation hits, the full 18 years have passed.

kamikasei

2016-03-20, 04:19 PM

I doubt it , that would mean erasing Kayo and Hiromis baby which doesn't seem like it will happen. I think it's more likely he will carry on then hook up with the Pizza girl.
Logically, yes, but this feels like the kind of show where the timeline is robust against even fairly large changes. It could make the case that the current state of affairs is "good enough" and shouldn't be jeopardized, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Satoru were to go back again to fix things properly and Kayo and Hiromi still end up as a family. Unless you mean that a conscious Satoru trumps Hiromi in the shipping stakes...

P.s. the pizza girl is a little more than half his age, yeesh.

Norren: remind me to read whatever you said after the finale :P

Spacewolf

2016-03-20, 04:33 PM

Logically, yes, but this feels like the kind of show where the timeline is robust against even fairly large changes. It could make the case that the current state of affairs is "good enough" and shouldn't be jeopardized, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if Satoru were to go back again to fix things properly and Kayo and Hiromi still end up as a family. Unless you mean that a conscious Satoru trumps Hiromi in the shipping stakes...

P.s. the pizza girl is a little more than half his age, yeesh.

Norren: remind me to read whatever you said after the finale :P

Really? I thought she was a last year 6th former and he was a Uni student age. So 18->20something

kamikasei

2016-03-20, 06:03 PM

Really? I thought she was a last year 6th former and he was a Uni student age. So 18->20something
Nah, she's in high school (so maybe 18, I was exaggerating a bit), while he's 29. It's the kind of age gap (in anime rather than real life) where I'm fine with her having a crush and him thinking she's cute, but would be skeeved to hell and back if it became an actual relationship.

Rodin

2016-03-20, 08:33 PM

Nah, she's in high school (so maybe 18, I was exaggerating a bit), while he's 29. It's the kind of age gap (in anime rather than real life) where I'm fine with her having a crush and him thinking she's cute, but would be skeeved to hell and back if it became an actual relationship.

The only relationship like that in anime which I can think of is Nana, where she hooked up with at least a couple men that were at least 10 years her senior. Then again, those relationships weren't exactly portrayed as healthy.

Oh wait...wasn't there a gender-flipped version in Rah Xephon thanks to time dilation shenanigans?

DJ Yung Crunk

2016-03-21, 12:26 AM

Lethologica

2016-03-21, 12:58 AM

BWR

2016-03-21, 03:01 AM

I'm kind of a newbie to the whole 'anime' thing, but I've recently been taken with one called Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I'm aware that "magical girls" is sort of a genre, but I'm told PMMM is sort of a deconstruction of it. In the same way Twin Peaks can be called a "soap opera" or Evangelion can be called a "mech show". My question is, are there any other 'magical girl' deconstructions on par with PMMM? Because, gawrsh, I am having fun.

If you like insanity at breakneck speed there is Puni Puni Poemy, a two-part spin-off from Excel Saga. It's not so much a deconstruction as an extreme parody of magical girl shows. It may help to have seen a number of them first to get most of the references but PPP was the first magical girl-related thing I ever saw and I had a blast with it. I just grew to like it more after becoming more familiar with the genre.

endoperez

2016-03-21, 03:39 AM

I'm kind of a newbie to the whole 'anime' thing, but I've recently been taken with one called Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I'm aware that "magical girls" is sort of a genre, but I'm told PMMM is sort of a deconstruction of it. In the same way Twin Peaks can be called a "soap opera" or Evangelion can be called a "mech show". My question is, are there any other 'magical girl' deconstructions on par with PMMM? Because, gawrsh, I am having fun.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha mostly plays it straight, but might still be interesting. It, especially the first season, plays straight most of the things PMMM deconstructs, which could be interesting to see. With just 13 or so episodes in 1st season, it might be worth watching for that.

And there's a bit of a genre shift happening in the show between seasons. If the names were accurate, it'd be:

S1: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
S2 (A's): Magical Warrior Lyrical Nanoha
S3 (StrikerS): Military Combat Instructor Nanoha After Timeskip
S4 (ViVid): Some Kids Fight In A Tournament!

S3 is more of a military fiction, really. Military fiction for kids, granted, but still.

tensai_oni

2016-03-21, 04:42 AM

It's not deconstruction that makes Madoka good though just like how it's not deconstruction that makes Evangelion good. So the question here should be "what other magical girl shows I can watch and enjoy without feeling weird for liking a little girls' series?"

Morph Bark

2016-03-21, 05:37 AM

Sallera

2016-03-21, 06:22 AM

From what I've heard of it: Yuki Yuna is a Hero.

Just what I was going to recommend. In terms of tone and theme, you'll probably see a lot of similarities, but it's an excellent show in its own right.

DJ Yung Crunk

2016-03-21, 07:28 AM

Revolutionary Girl Utena is your best bet, as long as you're okay with a slow start. I don't know how deconstructive Princess Tutu is, but that's my other recommendation given your comment.

I've heard that name thrown about. Thanks, I'll look it up.

If you like insanity at breakneck speed there is Puni Puni Poemy, a two-part spin-off from Excel Saga. It's not so much a deconstruction as an extreme parody of magical girl shows. It may help to have seen a number of them first to get most of the references but PPP was the first magical girl-related thing I ever saw and I had a blast with it. I just grew to like it more after becoming more familiar with the genre.

Is Excel Saga considered a legitimate anime? I had no idea. I figured that was like considering Airplane! a legitimate disaster film or Monty Python's Holy Grail a legitimate fantasy epic.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha mostly plays it straight, but might still be interesting. It, especially the first season, plays straight most of the things PMMM deconstructs, which could be interesting to see. With just 13 or so episodes in 1st season, it might be worth watching for that.

And there's a bit of a genre shift happening in the show between seasons. If the names were accurate, it'd be:

S1: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
S2 (A's): Magical Warrior Lyrical Nanoha
S3 (StrikerS): Military Combat Instructor Nanoha After Timeskip
S4 (ViVid): Some Kids Fight In A Tournament!

S3 is more of a military fiction, really. Military fiction for kids, granted, but still.

I get gradually less interested in each one of those, I gotta admit.

From what I've heard of it: Yuki Yuna is a Hero.

Just what I was going to recommend. In terms of tone and theme, you'll probably see a lot of similarities, but it's an excellent show in its own right.

Never heard of it. Googling now. Thanks.

It's not deconstruction that makes Madoka good though just like how it's not deconstruction that makes Evangelion good.

Speak for yourself. The aspects of both I like are symptoms of their alternative nature.

So the question here should be "what other magical girl shows I can watch and enjoy without feeling weird for liking a little girls' series?"

No, I still feel pretty weird about liking PMMM. That part I'm just going to have to live with.

endoperez

2016-03-21, 07:51 AM

Is Excel Saga considered a legitimate anime? I had no idea. I figured that was like considering Airplane! a legitimate disaster film or Monty Python's Holy Grail a legitimate fantasy epic.

Anime is a medium with some local flavour & style, like a Hollywood film, not genre, like a disaster film or a fantasy epic. So it is like Airplane!, but also an anime.

I get gradually less interested in each one of those, I gotta admit.

I was most interested in the third season, personally, but different tastes and all that. :smallsmile:

Drascin

2016-03-21, 07:55 AM

Is Excel Saga considered a legitimate anime? I had no idea. I figured that was like considering Airplane! a legitimate disaster film or Monty Python's Holy Grail a legitimate fantasy epic.

Excel Saga is a legitimate anime in the same way Airplane is a legitimate film. No, it's not serious, because it's a comedy anime, but all "anime" means is that it's animated, much like all "movie" means is that it's a feature film of some kind.

Excel Saga is brutally over the top, though. It doesn't just enjoy the ridiculousness, it thrives on it. If that sounds appealing, by all means, do watch it.

DJ Yung Crunk

2016-03-21, 08:07 AM

Excel Saga is a legitimate anime in the same way Airplane is a legitimate film. No, it's not serious, because it's a comedy anime, but all "anime" means is that it's animated, much like all "movie" means is that it's a feature film of some kind.

That's fair

Excel Saga is brutally over the top, though. It doesn't just enjoy the ridiculousness, it thrives on it. If that sounds appealing, by all means, do watch it.

I've already seen it, actually. Thanks, though.

DoctorFaust

2016-03-21, 08:37 AM

Never heard of it. Googling now. Thanks.

I'm not entirely sure of how much you'll like YuYuYu if you enjoyed Madoka because it was a deconstruction of the regular Mahou Shoujo tropes. They both share a theme of power at a cost, but without getting too deep into spoiler territory, Yuki Yuna veers very far back into what I think is standard territory at the end. Some, myself included, feel like that took away from the story because of how they did it.

ImperatorV

2016-03-21, 09:10 AM

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha mostly plays it straight, but might still be interesting. It, especially the first season, plays straight most of the things PMMM deconstructs, which could be interesting to see. With just 13 or so episodes in 1st season, it might be worth watching for that.

And there's a bit of a genre shift happening in the show between seasons. If the names were accurate, it'd be:

S1: Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
S2 (A's): Magical Warrior Lyrical Nanoha
S3 (StrikerS): Military Combat Instructor Nanoha After Timeskip
S4 (ViVid): Some Kids Fight In A Tournament!

S3 is more of a military fiction, really. Military fiction for kids, granted, but still.

This is not the most precise representation of Nanoha. As a die-hard fan I feel compelled to provide more detail.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (the original series) was the first magical girl show targeted entirely at adults, and can be considered the precursor to all serious magical girl anime (I believe one of the major creators of Madoka worked on the nanoha franchise first, didn't have time to fact-check because I have class. The two series certainly share a lot of voice actresses anyway). The show does play most magical girl tropes straight, but provides more serious explanations for some and does away with several conventions of the genre (there are adult and male magic users, not to mention the interdimensional military organization dedicated to preventing the abuse of magic artifacts). Overall, the first season is very rough in places, and has several less-then-endearing quirks, but is worth looking into as a magical girl show that is not for little girls. The first few episodes are a slog though.

The second season is similar to the first, but much more polished and with an amazing set of new anti-villains. The protagonists also end up working in more detail with the aforementioned interdimensional military organization and get snazzy technological upgrades from them - this is a precursor to the more sci-fi elements of the third season.

The third season is twice the length of the previous two, which it needs because it adds a bunch of secondary protagonists in addition to the already extensive cast (who are now all young adults after a ten year time skip). The series has a dual focus of the original cast (now elite mages virtually unmatched by anyone in their universe) and their proteges. Also a lot more sci-fi stuff and many of the magical girl tropes are abandoned entirely, leading many people to consider it as no longer belonging to the magical girl genre. This season suffers a little from trying to do too much at once but if you liked the first two seasons you'll like this one.

The so called "fourth season" is not a sequel. It is a spin-off with the same name. The characters from the first two seasons are now side characters. The secondary protagonists of the third season... Are also side characters. The protagonists of this season are either minor characters introduced halfway through the third season or later, and entirely new people. Like I said, it's a spin-off. It does return the more standard magical girl elements and cuts back/cuts out the sci-fi and military drama, however, so some people like it for that.

EDIT: Wow I went crazy with that. Maybe too much detail? Bluh.

Sallera

2016-03-21, 09:13 AM

I'm not entirely sure of how much you'll like YuYuYu if you enjoyed Madoka because it was a deconstruction of the regular Mahou Shoujo tropes. They both share a theme of power at a cost, but without getting too deep into spoiler territory, Yuki Yuna veers very far back into what I think is standard territory at the end. Some, myself included, feel like that took away from the story because of how they did it.

I don't know how to respond to that without spoiling both shows, so...
What did you see as the main difference there? Yuuna's sacrifice was perhaps more comparable to Homura's than Madoka's, given that she at least got to stay on in the world, but thematically I found them pretty similar.

tensai_oni

2016-03-21, 10:03 AM

Speak for yourself. The aspects of both I like are symptoms of their alternative nature.

Okay I'm not trying to pick a fight here but:

Deconstruction means playing around with established tropes and conventions of the genre, see what makes them tick or if they fall apart under scrutiny. You said it yourself that you're pretty new to anime - so you don't know what these conventions are, and how these shows work with them.

And if you mean that this is because Madoka and Evangelion are dark, serious and introspective/cerebral - you need to know, there were serious and introspective magical girl shows before Madoka. There were serious and introspective mecha shows before Evangelion.

It's not those things that make the two shows deconstructive. People who aren't fans of the genre wouldn't even notice Madoka is a deconstruction unless someone told them. But here's the thing, even if you don't notice that, Madoka is still a very good show. One of my personal alltime favorites.

It's not the deconstruction that makes it strong. A show's quality doesn't depend on whether it plays with tropes or plays them straight. And in some ways, the most important magical girl tropes and conventions are played 100% straight in Madoka.

DoctorFaust

2016-03-21, 10:12 AM

I don't know how to respond to that without spoiling both shows, so...
What did you see as the main difference there? Yuuna's sacrifice was perhaps more comparable to Homura's than Madoka's, given that she at least got to stay on in the world, but thematically I found them pretty similar.

The unexplained recovery from the effects of Sange. Just suddenly, right at the end, they completely remove the cost of their powers and the consequences of their actions. It would've been like if Madoka's wish, instead of changing the cycle and removing her from existence as a human, keeping the story a hopeful but fundamentally tragic one, had set up the world like Homura's labyrinth in Rebellion.

HMS Invincible

2016-03-21, 10:45 AM

It's been a while since a new magical girl franchise was announced. It's all sequels or too young oriented which is a shame. Maybe the K- something Pandora show. It has magical girl elements but it's really a ghost in the shell prequel.

DJ Yung Crunk

2016-03-21, 10:53 AM

Okay I'm not trying to pick a fight here but:

http://i.imgur.com/YNvM3zm.jpg

So that's a 'no' on the recommendations then, huh?

Mx.Silver

2016-03-21, 10:54 AM

Is Excel Saga considered a legitimate anime? I had no idea.

Essentially, if it's Japanese and animated, it's an anime. That's about all there is to it - although given that the most well-known anime works tend to be drawn from a small range of specific genres that fact isn't as obvious as it perhaps should be.

'Magical Girl' isn't really a genre I tend towards much, so I can't give many recommendations on that front, I'm afraid. If you're interested in more general stuff of a specific tone or style I could probably be of more use.

Okay I'm not trying to pick a fight here
In that case I'd suggest not immediately following-up this statement by picking a fight over semantics :smalltongue:

endoperez

2016-03-21, 10:58 AM

This is not the most precise representation of Nanoha. As a die-hard fan I feel compelled to provide more detail.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (the original series) was the first magical girl show targeted entirely at adults, and can be considered the precursor to all serious magical girl anime (I believe one of the major creators of Madoka worked on the nanoha franchise first, didn't have time to fact-check because I have class.

Thanks for the additional detail. I want more tho! :smallwink: Just watched most of if the past weekend. And I've watched the awesome part where Nanoha "befriends" Quattro like a dozen times. :D

I wouldn't be surprised if Madoka and Nanoha shared a lot of the creative crew. Nanoha's first season had clear parallels to Madoka's show. While much of PMMM is playing with magical girl genre in general, in some parts, it's spoofing Nanoha specifically.

I'm a fan of a specific ship and many of the characters and moments in Nanoha, even if the series as a whole isn't one of my favourites. I just finished S3 and looked a bit into the S4. It does seem a bit too much like a spin-off. Is there anything else?
Are the movies worth checking out? I understand they rehash the same thing with better animation, which, admittedly, is very intriguing... all those fancy spell effects, oh my.

What about the manga? How much extra stuff is there? The Force one seems unliked.

Prime32

2016-03-21, 12:32 PM

Senki Zesshou Symphogear is another seinen magical girl series, with three seasons so far (the original, G and GX).

It starts off looking Madoka-ish, but soon shifts to become more like Nanoha StrikerS. It's notable for having the VAs of Madoka and Fate in leading roles, and also for the characters wearing armor powered by singing. I don't know if the idea of "Madoka slowly grows into a ridiculously hot-blooded hero who punches destiny in the face, accompanied by Nana Mizuki insert songs" sounds appealing to you, but it was enough to sell me on it. :smalltongue: It might have been an influence on Yuuki Yuuna, too.

Here, let me just link the chart (http://i.imgur.com/gazTeHB.png).

EDIT:

I'm a fan of a specific ship and many of the characters and moments in Nanoha, even if the series as a whole isn't one of my favourites. I just finished S3 and looked a bit into the S4. It does seem a bit too much like a spin-off. Is there anything else?There's the Sound Stages. Sound Stage X is a complete storyline which takes place between StrikerS and ViVid, and ViVid references some of the events in it.

Are the movies worth checking out? I understand they rehash the same thing with better animation, which, admittedly, is very intriguing... all those fancy spell effects, oh my.The movies are in-universe propaganda films produced by the TSAB, with story elements altered to represent them in a better light. You can even tell that Fate requested they make her mother look less evil - it's all pretty weird.

mallorean_thug

2016-03-21, 01:39 PM

Hi DJ Yung Crunk,

Deconstruction is now a useless word (I blame tvtropes for its current state) but I know what you mean when you use it. The shows you're looking for on that note are Bokurano, and Now and Then Here and There.

Alternatively, Magical Girl shows are lots of fun even when they really are made for little girls. Try Princess Tutu, Card Captor Sakura, or Ojamajo Doremi.

endoperez

2016-03-21, 02:13 PM

Senki Zesshou Symphogear is another seinen magical girl series, with three seasons so far (the original, G and GX).

Here, let me just link the chart (http://i.imgur.com/gazTeHB.png).

The weird naming convention aside, the chart convinced me to at least give it a try. Thanks!

mallorean_thug

2016-03-21, 02:50 PM

Oh, I guess that Shadow Star Narutaru and Alien 9 would also qualify, but neither of them is actually all that good, imo.
--
Revolutionary Girl Utena is incredibly good, but I still don't understand people calling it a magical girl show. Like, sure it has a transformation sequence and a fight of the week, but the rest of the tone and structure of the show has far more in common with shoujo shows that /aren't/ magical girl shows. Definitely watch it regardless.
--
Or maybe what made you actually like Madoka wasn't it's genre, but was it's creative staff. In that case, if you're looking for something with a similar overall audiovisual feel, try Le Portrait de Petit Cossette, which has the same director and composer. If instead it was the writing that pulled you in, give Fate/Zero a try.

Mx.Silver

2016-03-21, 03:30 PM

Deconstruction is now a useless word

To be honest, it never had a very clear meaning since it was first used to refer to media rather than critique/analysis of media. Heck, even in the latter case it was always a little vague.

Sallera

2016-03-21, 03:47 PM

The unexplained recovery from the effects of Sange. Just suddenly, right at the end, they completely remove the cost of their powers and the consequences of their actions. It would've been like if Madoka's wish, instead of changing the cycle and removing her from existence as a human, keeping the story a hopeful but fundamentally tragic one, had set up the world like Homura's labyrinth in Rebellion.

Oh, you don't buy the theory that Yuuna took the entire burden of the war on herself in exchange for freeing the others? That's basically where I saw the Madoka parallels, but as it wasn't made explicit, I can certainly see where you're coming from if you prefer a different explanation.

So to DJ, how much similarity you see between the two shows will depend somewhat on your interpretation of the ending, but I'd recommend YuYuYu regardless.

cobaltstarfire

2016-03-21, 04:11 PM

So the X2 in Durarara X2 stands for twice as many characters, and double the complication right? :smallbiggrin:

I'm starting to find it difficult to keep up with who is who by name because the subtitles are using what I assume is first names, while of course characters usually refer to each other using last names. I still haven't worked out most of the characters names because of this, but now it's even harder!

Well I've got Anri and Iiiizaaaayyyyaaaaa worked out, cause everyone talks to/about them on a first name basis. And have worked out Mikado and Celty cause they're in every episode. But I'm not sure I've been able to commit any other characters names to memory because of the differences between the subs and what is actually being said.

Though at least so far X2 hasn't had entire parts of conversations simply missing, there were some problems with that in the first season. :|

Sallera

2016-03-21, 04:39 PM

At least twice as many characters. :smalltongue: Heck, there are still a couple characters I routinely forget the names of, if only because they almost never come up in dialogue, and that's near the end of the third cour. There's a reason they feel the need to name everyone of importance in the OP (which of course doesn't help me, 'cause even if I hadn't forgotten half my kanji, well, nanori).

(And then there's poor Togusa, whose name people routinely forget in the show itself.)

DoctorFaust

2016-03-21, 05:23 PM

Oh, you don't buy the theory that Yuuna took the entire burden of the war on herself in exchange for freeing the others? That's basically where I saw the Madoka parallels, but as it wasn't made explicit, I can certainly see where you're coming from if you prefer a different explanation.

So to DJ, how much similarity you see between the two shows will depend somewhat on your interpretation of the ending, but I'd recommend YuYuYu regardless.

I would've preferred an explanation. I've heard that there's more concrete details in supplementary materials, but the best thing we got in the main series that I can remember was Fuu's remarks about it being okay to eat offerings after a while during the beach episode. So it came off quite a lot like unexplained heroic willpower despite it having been stated (I'm pretty sure) that the effects of Sange should be permanent.

Though yeah, I guess I would probably recommend it regardless.

DJ Yung Crunk

2016-03-21, 08:09 PM

Deconstruction is now a useless word (I blame tvtropes for its current state) but I know what you mean when you use it. The shows you're looking for on that note are Bokurano, and Now and Then Here and There.

You overrate TVTropes influence, I feel. For example, I had no idea it existed until you brought it up.

Looking at it now I think I was better off that way.

Closet_Skeleton

2016-03-22, 10:42 AM

My question is, are there any other 'magical girl' deconstructions on par with PMMM?

No.

That's the literal answer to your question, but I doubt its helpful.

Ground Defence Force Mao-chan is a better deconstruction than Madoka, but comparing those series would be silly.

S3 is more of a military fiction, really. Military fiction for kids, granted, but still.

Nanoha was never for kids. Neither was Madoka Magica either of course, but Nanoha is insidious in how its not that obvious.

This is not the most precise representation of Nanoha. As a die-hard fan I feel compelled to provide more detail.

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (the original series) was the first magical girl show targeted entirely at adults, and can be considered the precursor to all serious magical girl anime

Not at all. Uta-Kata came out at exactly the same time and was much more adult themed (same audience though). It was only an OVA (the tv series had a younger demographic) but at least Pretty Sammy preceded them.

Sailor Moon is more serious than Nanoha. It doesn't have military organisations, but it has far more mature themes and plot details despite the younger demographic.

From what I've heard of it: Yuki Yuna is a Hero.

:smallannoyed:

Some, myself included, feel like that took away from the story because of how they did it.

Yuki Yuna's ending destroyed the whole thing completely. Though from my opinion, there wasn't much of value in the rest of it either. Sadly I can't say why I hate it on this forum because it involves a certain 19th century US quack doctor.

Its also clumsy, melodramatic and has an idiot plot, so I can say that at least.

There were serious and introspective mecha shows before Evangelion.

Eva is serious and introspective on the topic of growing up, which is kind of what all mainline genre compliant mecha shows are about anyway.

While much of PMMM is playing with magical girl genre in general, in some parts, it's spoofing Nanoha specifically.

I doubt it. Nanoha is very generic.

that the inability to save Sayaka is the opposite of the 'beat em up to befriend them' in Nanoha then that's really a very standard thing in both Tokusatsu and the sub genre of magical girl we're talking about (which is really just gender swapped Tokusatsu). If you're a similar age to me and saw the original Power Rangers, the Green Ranger was basically that story line.

The witches in Madoka are really more a play on the 'civilian turned into monster' trope common in magical girl series and Tokusatsu which is barely present in Nanoha.

Having to convince an evil friend to change sides is very common and comes in two forms. Villains who start as villains and change sides and heroes who have a brief time as a villain. Sayaka is the latter subverted and Fate is the former played straight so while they're the same trope they're different versions of it.

The biggest similarity between Madoka and Nanoha within the genre is that they both have wish twisting, but the jewel seeds doing that in Nanoha is quickly minimised while its a major theme in Madoka.

The thing about magical girl shows is that ironic self-awareness is in itself a magical girl cliche, so its hard to actually spot at time when something is being a spoof or just toeing the line.

I've seen magical girl parodies where all the jokes were shared with legitimate magical girl series, but less funny.

endoperez

2016-03-22, 12:05 PM

I doubt it. Nanoha is very generic.

that the inability to save Sayaka is the opposite of the 'beat em up to befriend them' in Nanoha then that's really a very standard thing in both Tokusatsu and the sub genre of magical girl we're talking about (which is really just gender swapped Tokusatsu). If you're a similar age to me and saw the original Power Rangers, the Green Ranger was basically that story line.

The witches in Madoka are really more a play on the 'civilian turned into monster' trope common in magical girl series and Tokusatsu which is barely present in Nanoha.

Having to convince an evil friend to change sides is very common and comes in two forms. Villains who start as villains and change sides and heroes who have a brief time as a villain. Sayaka is the latter subverted and Fate is the former played straight so while they're the same trope they're different versions of it.

The biggest similarity between Madoka and Nanoha within the genre is that they both have wish twisting, but the jewel seeds doing that in Nanoha is quickly minimised while its a major theme in Madoka.

Think smaller.

Animal mascot is long and thin with long tail.

Animal mascot is wounded in first episode. There's a dream, and the voice of the mascot asking for help. The protagonist & her two friends find the mascot.

Nanoha enters into a contract with Raging Heart, a magical gem she uses to transform.

Monsters drop magical things called Jewel / Witch Seeds.

That sort of thing. Visual gags & references. Also stuff like exchanging hair ribbons on last episode during a tearful goodbye. And shipping. The action & themes have much less in common.

Nanoha seemed to be written either for kids or for teenagers. Or then it was very lightweight. It's the animated equivalent of Young Adult fiction at most. If it wasn't, half the cast would be dead at the end of the third season. They pulled a lot of punches, as if their audience could not be handle more, even in their military fiction.

Prime32

2016-03-22, 12:33 PM

Think smaller.

Animal mascot is long and thin with long tail.

Animal mascot is wounded in first episode. There's a dream, and the voice of the mascot asking for help. The protagonist & her two friends find the mascot.

Nanoha enters into a contract with Raging Heart, a magical gem she uses to transform.

Monsters drop magical things called Jewel / Witch Seeds.

That sort of thing. Visual gags & references. Also stuff like exchanging hair ribbons on last episode during a tearful goodbye. And shipping. The action & themes have much less in common.
Those things are all incredibly generic. Like, Card Captor Sakura fits every one of those.

Nanoha seemed to be written either for kids or for teenagers. Or then it was very lightweight. It's the animated equivalent of Young Adult fiction at most. If it wasn't, half the cast would be dead at the end of the third season. They pulled a lot of punches, as if their audience could not be handle more, even in their military fiction.:smallconfused: Adults can only enjoy things where lots of characters die? Kids never enjoy things where characters die? You realise that the most popular childrens' book series of the 90s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animorphs) was about child soldiers slowly losing their humanity as they tore apart their friends and family with their bare hands?

endoperez

2016-03-22, 03:09 PM

Those things are all incredibly generic. Like, Card Captor Sakura fits every one of those.

Except the mascot isn't hurt in the first episode. And it's Clow Cards instead of Seeds. And her magical thing is a wand (with gems, admittedly, but not a gem).

I admit that since I don't know the genre, I might've thought some of the things that I thought were about Nanoha specifically were about the genre in general.

:smallconfused: Adults can only enjoy things where lots of characters die? Kids never enjoy things where characters die? You realise that the most popular childrens' book series of the 90s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animorphs) was about child soldiers slowly losing their humanity as they tore apart their friends and family with their bare hands?

That wasn't the only reason that I think it's a kids' show, but I'll expand on it a bit more.

The writing was limited in ways I associate with the sorts of writing that is dumbed down for kids, and avoided handling things in the way I associate with adults who try to avoid hard, tough topics when talking with kids or teenagers.

It's the fact that the show goes to extreme lengths to avoid the logical consequences of characters' actions, while previously, it intentionally showed the logical consequences of characters' actions. "This character overdid it, and was seriously hurt". "This character pushed too far, and broke". And then...

Vita, whose weakening healing capabilities had been specifically mentioned earlier, overdid it. That is, after being warned that she's using too much of her energy, after being stabbed through her chest, after fighting an army of minions only seen when stabbing characters through their chests or outright killing people, after barely making it to a room that is trapped, after she uses all the rest of her power and then falls down, knowing she spent her all... she lives, because reasons. After basically a death scene (complete with a winged figure appearing from within a white light and giving her an eulogy, then the whole room exploding) she's back on her feet and fighting. With the weapon she just smashed to itty bitty pieces. And some of her friends go past and go "nice, you're ok!". Uhhhh.....

The story, as written, seemed to be perfectly written so she'd die or at the very least severely hurt herself because she pushed herself too far, without listening to anyone's warnings. Then she didn't suffer any ill effects. Why? A magical girl did it.

I think that we might have very different tastes, and are interested in very different things in the series we watch. You mentioned Symphogear earlier, and while it was decent for a while and did some things well, I thought it just kept getting worse as it went on. Especially the final episodes of the first season. They were pretty much a constant nose-dive.

Perhaps we should just agree to disagree?

Prime32

2016-03-22, 03:43 PM

That wasn't the only reason that I think it's a kids' show, but I'll expand on it a bit more.

The writing was limited in ways I associate with the sorts of writing that is dumbed down for kids, and avoided handling things in the way I associate with adults who try to avoid hard, tough topics when talking with kids or teenagers.

It's the fact that the show goes to extreme lengths to avoid the logical consequences of characters' actions, while previously, it intentionally showed the logical consequences of characters' actions. "This character overdid it, and was seriously hurt". "This character pushed too far, and broke". And then...

Vita, whose weakening healing capabilities had been specifically mentioned earlier, overdid it. That is, after being warned that she's using too much of her energy, after being stabbed through her chest, after fighting an army of minions only seen when stabbing characters through their chests or outright killing people, after barely making it to a room that is trapped, after she uses all the rest of her power and then falls down, knowing she spent her all... she lives, because reasons. After basically a death scene (complete with a winged figure appearing from within a white light and giving her an eulogy, then the whole room exploding) she's back on her feet and fighting. With the weapon she just smashed to itty bitty pieces. And some of her friends go past and go "nice, you're ok!". Uhhhh.....

The story, as written, seemed to be perfectly written so she'd die or at the very least severely hurt herself because she pushed herself too far, without listening to anyone's warnings. Then she didn't suffer any ill effects. Why? A magical girl did it.
I'd say that character would be more likely to die in a (Japanese) kids' show, not less. Kids' shows tend to focus on the idea that the protagonist is the only person capable of saving the world - if you're not the destined hero, then "acting outside your place" is doomed to failure and it's stupid for you to even try. At best you can hope to delay the villain until the protagonist shows up. Granted, kids' shows are also more likely to have ways to bring dead characters back to life once the villain is defeated.

Shows aimed at older audiences are less likely to follow this idea, and more likely to spread the competence around.

I think that we might have very different tastes, and are interested in very different things in the series we watch. [...]

Perhaps we should just agree to disagree?On what exactly? I'm not trying to say any of these shows are good or bad, I'm just saying that the amount of death in a show has nothing to do with whether it was aimed at kids.

endoperez

2016-03-22, 04:50 PM

On what exactly? I'm not trying to say any of these shows are good or bad, I'm just saying that the amount of death in a show has nothing to do with whether it was aimed at kids.

I think there's no point to these arguments, so... on various things?

BTW, I agree that in most cases death, or lack of it, doesn't tell if a show is aimed at kids.

DJ Yung Crunk

2016-03-23, 04:47 AM

Well if "death" is substituted for "sent to the shadow realm" it's a safe bet it's a kid's show.

Lethologica

2016-03-23, 06:47 AM

TBF, three points on that:
1) The manga has a lot more death and less Shadow Realm than the anime.
2) The sub has noticeably more death and less Shadow Realm than the dub.
3) The Shadow Realm is fridge horror, like being plane shifted to Baator. (Fridge horror instead of death is a pretty kids' show thing to do, so this isn't necessarily arguing against you.)

Prime32

2016-03-23, 07:32 AM

In the Japanese version, a Shadow Realm isn't even a place you send people. It's just the field of darkness that appears around the duelists in a duel that involves magic.

That fight where "Dark Energy Disks" move closer to you as you lose lifepoints, and if they touch your legs your soul will be trapped? That was an edit for the English dub - in the original they're buzzsaws.

The English dub makes a lot of weird changes, like turning a random man disguised as Kaiba into "Kaiba's evil half brought back from the Shadow Realm", editing out all forms of guns (leading Kaiba to jump out a window to escape a group of thugs pointing at him with their fingers), and turning Marik's motivation from "Kill the Pharaoh because I mistakenly believe he killed my parents" to "Take over the world".

DJ Yung Crunk

2016-03-23, 08:44 AM

I know. I'm making fun of 4kids.

endoperez

2016-03-23, 10:40 AM

Well if "death" is substituted for "sent to the shadow realm" it's a safe bet it's a kid's show.

Phantom zone, shadow realm...
Superman is for kids. QED.

Spacewolf

2016-03-24, 03:40 PM

I doubt it , that would mean erasing Kayo and Hiromis baby which doesn't seem like it will happen. I think it's more likely he will carry on then hook up with the Pizza girl.

Erased Final spoilers.
Not sure if the ending was implying a romantic hook up but I'd say that was pretty spot on :P.

Overall I'd say it's been decent but not particularly memorable in anyway.

kamikasei

2016-03-24, 05:16 PM

Erased Final spoilers.
Not sure if the ending was implying a romantic hook up but I'd say that was pretty spot on :P.

Overall I'd say it's been decent but not particularly memorable in anyway.
I think the implication was clear. Only real quibble I have with the ending, which overall I thought was very satisfying.

I rate it higher than you, which I guess is just a taste thing. You can pick the plot and mystery apart, but I found it very moving. It's the thing I've seen this year I'd be most likely to recommend to others, with mainstream appeal too.

DoctorFaust

2016-03-24, 05:45 PM

I'm pretty sure a lot of people are going to **** on this as a blatant cash-grab, but I am genuinely excited about Adult Swim announcing that there will be more FLCL. (https://www.facebook.com/adultswim/posts/10153948493286745) And they're trying to bring back The Pillows (https://twitter.com/Clarknova1/status/713124474619473920)! And we actually have some plot details!

Back for the new season is FLCL series creator Kazuya Tsurumaki, serving as supervisor with director Katsuyuki Motohiro (Psycho-Pass) and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Neon Genesis Evangelion). Also joining this season is writer Hideto Iwai (Last Dinner).

Established in 1987, Production I.G has since produced a number of acclaimed feature films and TV shows, and has also partnered with Mamoru Oshii on every one of his animated films since Patlabor: The Movie (1989), thereby earning an international admiration which eventually led to the visionary collaboration with Quentin Tarantino for the animation sequence in his hit, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003). They are most known for the Ghost in the Shell franchise, and for the acclaimed animated TV series Psycho-pass and Attack on Titan.

“FLCL has become an anime classic over the years, yet it has remained vibrant,” said Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, co-founder, president and CEO of Production I.G. “This new season will capture the hearts of both longtime FLCL fans from around the world and new anime viewers.”

In the new season of FLCL, many years have passed since Naota and Haruhara Haruko shared their adventure together. Meanwhile, the war between the two entities known as Medical Mechanica and Fraternity rages across the galaxy. Enter Hidomi, a young teenaged girl who believes there is nothing amazing to expect from her average life, until one day when a new teacher named Haruko arrives at her school. Soon enough, Medical Mechanica is attacking her town and Hidomi discovers a secret within her that could save everyone, a secret that only Haruko can unlock.

mallorean_thug

2016-03-24, 08:50 PM

I don't really care about whether its a cash grab or not, but I have 0 interest in a sequel with completely different staff. The heart and soul of FLCL was in its energetic animation and direction. So, at least for me, if there's no Hiroyuki Imaishi, Yoh Yoshinari, Tadashi Hiramatsu, ect, ect, there's no sale. And putting the guy who directed Psycho Pass in charge of it doesn't really inspire any confidence in me. Not that he's an awful director, but the style he's used for Psycho-Pass is nowhere close to the zaniness you'd expect from FLCL, and he isn't somebody that's shown any ability to pull in cool freelancers for a cut or two.

So yeah, color me not impressed. Maybe more worthwhile than Adult Swim funding Dimension W (ugghh, I'm still watching it for some reason and its a bad show), but I'd much rather they fund actually cool and risky like more Space Dandy or something.

tensai_oni

2016-03-24, 09:06 PM

I'm pretty sure a lot of people are going to **** on this as a blatant cash-grab,

That'd be me. Hello.

FLCL is a self contained work that doesn't need a sequel, its shortness works for it. Also what mallorean thug said above.

If they really want to have an anime with the Pillows in it, why not adapt Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer instead.

DoctorFaust

2016-03-24, 09:47 PM

That'd be me. Hello.

FLCL is a self contained work that doesn't need a sequel, its shortness works for it. Also what mallorean thug said above.

Honestly, based on the description, it seems less like a sequel and more like a... rehashing or reimagining, I think the term would be. It's not a continuation of the story of Takkun and Haruko, it's just a story set in the same universe that focuses on more of Haruko's ******* about with other people's lives.

Which, come to think of it, describes a sequel pretty well, but not in the sense I was thinking of when I started writing this post. Isn't posting at 3 AM fun?

Anyway, it actually looks like Adult Swim called FLCL the best show they've ever aired on Toonami, so I would sincerely doubt they would've gone ahead with this if they thought it was going to be half-assed.

If they really want to have an anime with the Pillows in it, why not adapt Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer instead.

Honestly, I agree with you. I would much rather have Hoshi no Samidare get animated than this. Problem is, that probably has about as much chance of happening as season 3 of Spice and Wolf, so I'll take my Pillows where I can get them.

And mallorean, while I don't disagree with you about the animation and directing, saying that it has completely different staff is a bit of an exaggeration. The original creator of FLCL is on board, the original character designer is, and as far as I can tell, we know literally nothing about the animation team as of it.

mallorean_thug

2016-03-24, 10:51 PM

And mallorean, while I don't disagree with you about the animation and directing, saying that it has completely different staff is a bit of an exaggeration. The original creator of FLCL is on board, the original character designer is, and as far as I can tell, we know literally nothing about the animation team as of it.
Tsurumaki and Sadamoto? I sincerely doubt that Tsurumaki will be heavily involved at all, otherwise he'd be the actual director rather than the Chief Director. And he should still be busy with the last Rebuild movie, unless Khara already finished it without telling anybody. And while I'm always glad to see Sadamoto on staff somewhere, I generally don't regard characters designs as nearly as important as other core staff positions.

As far as the animation team, we know its being produced at Production IG, which is a large enough company that they mostly do stuff in house. Here (http://www.productionig.com/contents/works/)'s what they've done recently. You can look at the staff lists on ANN, they mostly don't bring in freelancers. So, does anybody notable that worked on FLCL work for current Production IG? As far as I can tell, the answer is no. Most of them stuck together and are all at Trigger. A few of them are at Khara and given Tsurumaki's involvement, might end up on the project. So that's fair enough.

Of the people at Production IG, we also know that it won't be a group that's already working on a project. So it won't be any of the people working on Joker Game right now (which look like they were mostly working on GitS Arise and the movie previously). And with Haikyu! Season 3 announced for the fall, it won't be any of them. I think that leaves the chunk of staff that was most recently working on the Psycho-Pass movie? Which makes sense given that its the same director? Yeah, I'm not too excited about that group of people.

kamikasei

2016-03-25, 06:55 AM

I forgot some stuff I meant to say about ERASED.
I was really, really pleased that Satoru told people what he knew. Aside from how it tied into the idea of not trying to take everything on yourself and being willing to reach out to the people around you, it's also just not stupid in a way that so many stories sadly lack. Given the timing on the scene with his mother immediately following Yashiro saying he'd text her a suicide note, I was half expecting that scene to become "by the way, I am 100% not suicidal and if it looks like I've killed myself in the near future that's because someone's covering up my murder, please investigate". Which I'd honestly have loved XD

On FLCL: eh, I love the original but it doesn't feel incomplete or in need of continuation, and it seems inevitable that anything trying to follow on from it directly will fall short. I'm particularly worried that something trying to do today what it did then would just be an unwatchable riot of unrestrained self-indulgence, as I found Kill la Kill to be (in, admittedly, the one episode I watched). On the other hand, we did get Kyousougiga not so long ago and that in many ways felt like it was occupying the same niche... but it had the advantage that it wasn't trying to directly compare itself.

In summary, just give us L&BH already damn it.

Rodin

2016-03-26, 04:39 AM

Wasn't part of the joy of FLCL the fact that the crew making it were coming off of End of Evangelion and were thus going balls-to-the-wall to blow off steam? I don't think they can replicate that without locking the production crew up with a rabid badger for 6 weeks first.

ryuplaneswalker

2016-03-26, 06:53 PM

So, I watch Yugioh Arc V cause..as a Magic the Gathering player it amuses me.

so give me one moment while I turn into a rabid fanboy

OMG OMG OMG OMG JACK ATLAS INVOKED THE CRIMSON DRAGON AND DOUBLE TUNED IN THE LATEST EPISODE

okay I am done.

Morph Bark

2016-03-27, 07:35 AM

Kato

2016-03-27, 03:28 PM

Been watching Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) lately. I'm loving it, the tone is great and the characters work really well. Just wish the main guy wasn't a classic moron sometimes, but he's got a lot of really good moments of cleverness.

Mirai Nikki does have some really strong parts about it. It's been a while and I can't remember too many details but e.g. the different phone powers worked really well, and Yuno is just fun to watch. It also has a few weaker parts but overall I agree, it's very enjoyable.

Also, since season one ended... opinions on Tekkadan's first mission?

I did mostly enjoy the show, really. Many fights were nice, and while not every character left an impression - somewhat hard with the giant cast that is Tekkadan's whole - there were enough to keep me interested. Ironically, not Mika. Well, kind of. His whole demeanor is weird, intentionally, I think, and somewhat understandable from his background but the most interesting part about him... the story actively sets him up to have a mini-harem. And he couldn't care less. (Atra is adorable)
Orga is... kind of interesting, at times. But the whole Tekkadan mentality is.. well, fine for a group of mercenary kids but I somehow expected them to learn a lesson about, you know, the value of life and stuff. (And not just the life of that one guy among you who was the loveable teddy bear)
Kudelia... served her narrative purpose. Not too much else to say. She did fine, but not exceedingly well, I think.
But the villains... my gosh. I really liked McGillis and kind of still do but wow is he a Kira level sociopath. A truly evil char who claims to have some greater good agenda. Heck, if I didn't know better I'd expect him to dramatically eat potato chips.
I expected Gaelio to be some despicable snotty guy and then he turned into maybe the most likeable among the really main characters. And then he gets killed off like that. And Ein had a wonderful arc, that ended a bit disappointingly but oh well. I guess better dead than a walking weapon. Which basically is what Mika is. Ah, I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

The politics and lore were a bit poorly conveyed at times, or I did miss some stuff but it was okay. The small bits of the story were done really well most of the time, even if the overall arc had some failures. And the Gundams this time seemed to hardly play a role, surprisingly. Maybe that'll change next season but I don't think it needs to. They can be just that, somewhat fancy mobile suits to be used by the important bits, the characters.

So, yeah, pretty good first season in my opinion, looking forward to the next.

Duck999

2016-03-27, 05:49 PM

Been watching Future Diary (Mirai Nikki) lately. I'm loving it, the tone is great and the characters work really well. Just wish the main guy wasn't a classic moron sometimes, but he's got a lot of really good moments of cleverness.

It is a great anime. I recently got one of my friends to start watching it at a convention and he loved it. His one complaint is that Yuki has to cry before, during, and after doing anything remotely violent. I'm with Kato though, Yuno is a great character to watch, though my favorite characters are probably Murmur and Minene.

I was talking about this with some friends:
Who do you not feel bad for in Mirai Nikki? Third, though we don't know his story. Tenth and Eleventh. But just about everyone else you have to feel bad for.

Why is Mirai Nikki Thirteenth a google search? Did I forget something, miss something, or is it from another thing related to the show?

Lethologica

2016-03-27, 06:15 PM

I was talking about this with some friends:
Who do you not feel bad for in Mirai Nikki? Third, though we don't know his story. Tenth and Eleventh. But just about everyone else you have to feel bad for.
I didn't feel bad for most anyone in Mirai Nikki after reading the manga, tbh. But my memory's a little hazy, so I'm sure I've forgotten someone.

tensai_oni

2016-03-27, 06:41 PM

Also, since season one ended... opinions on Tekkadan's first mission?

IBO is a show that built up a lot of goodwill with its first three, good episodes and then proceeded to spend the rest of the season squandering it.

I'll be honest, I didn't watch it fully, I dropped it halfway. But from reading what happens later I'm glad I did. It's not bad in an amusing way. It's not even bad in a "holy crap I can't believe they did it" way (Cross Ange). It's bad in a boring, predictable way.

Winthur

2016-03-27, 06:44 PM

I finished Kono Subarashii and my life is lonely now. Hit me with something really fun to watch. Maybe something like Black Lagoon in format. With like, action and stuff. I don't think anyone in our little watching group has enough brains to stomach another episode of Kamen Rider W.

Duck999

2016-03-27, 06:49 PM

I didn't feel bad for most anyone in Mirai Nikki after reading the manga, tbh. But my memory's a little hazy, so I'm sure I've forgotten someone.

I didn't read it, but in the anime, there is a reason to feel bad for most characters.

Yuki is dragged in while he just wants to be an observer. His parents divorced and his only dream for the future is to go see the stars with his mom and dad.

Yuno is more complicated, but she has issues beyond her control. She certainly can't control that she loves Yuki, and she is right about most of what she says to him, and he never listens. She really does just want to protect Yuki, but she takes it a little far.

Third is a serial killer, not feeling bad there.

Fourth doesn't want to be god. He just wants to protect people and stop the murderers. He has to die because of this competition.

Fifth is just a child. An evil one. However, his cruelty appears to be caused by bad parenting.

Sixth has her whole backstory in which she was used by her parents, though she was okay with it. Then they died and she was used and abused. She then lost her only memory of her mom, only to find it again right before dying.

Seventh(s) primarily wit to keep both of them alive.

Eighth wants to protect her children, and she knows her death will likely mean theirs.

Ninth has her whole sad backstory which I don't remember perfectly. It was sad though, and it explained why she became a terrorist.

Tenth is just kind of there.

Eleventh is fairly evil. Power hungry. Don't feel bad for him either.

Twelfth actually was fighting for justice. He was blind, but willing to do whatever it took to keep god powers out of the hands of the unrighteous.

@Winthur:
I'm not sure what you've watched, but Baccano and Durarara are both action-packed and fun. So is Gurren Lagann. It also depends on what you mean by fun...

Winthur

2016-03-27, 06:55 PM

@Winthur:
I'm not sure what you've watched, but Baccano and Durarara are both action-packed and fun. So is Gurren Lagann. It also depends on what you mean by fun...

Okay, first of all, sorry for writing a bleak post with no content, because yeah, I know those and I liked them. Second of all, I tend to watch animes with two friends and one of them is especially hellbent on animes with an actual, continuing story. Like, the kinda type that wouldn't watch Toradora! or Ouran High and can't get into Samurai Champloo's "a story an episode" format because he's a sad bastard. But we both consider Valvrave the Vibrator to be the greatest anime of our age.

We liked Parasyte (a lot), KonoSuba, Gundam 00, JoJo, Black Lagoon, Space Dandy and GitS, off the top of my head. And we all like the obvious classics like Bebop, Hellsing and such.

I dunno, guns, mechs, swords, pacing, story, intrigue, fun, plot. In any order. We watched Ping Pong and kinda forced ourselves to see its ending, for example.

Sallera

2016-03-27, 07:17 PM

Hm, have you watched Zetsuen no Tempest yet? Seems like a pretty good match.

Winthur

2016-03-27, 07:21 PM

Hm, have you watched Zetsuen no Tempest yet? Seems like a pretty good match.

Done'n'done, sadly. :smallsigh:

DoctorFaust

2016-03-27, 07:30 PM

Okay, first of all, sorry for writing a bleak post with no content, because yeah, I know those and I liked them. Second of all, I tend to watch animes with two friends and one of them is especially hellbent on animes with an actual, continuing story. Like, the kinda type that wouldn't watch Toradora! or Ouran High and can't get into Samurai Champloo's "a story an episode" format because he's a sad bastard. But we both consider Valvrave the Vibrator to be the greatest anime of our age.

We liked Parasyte (a lot), KonoSuba, Gundam 00, JoJo, Black Lagoon, Space Dandy and GitS, off the top of my head. And we all like the obvious classics like Bebop, Hellsing and such.

I dunno, guns, mechs, swords, pacing, story, intrigue, fun, plot. In any order. We watched Ping Pong and kinda forced ourselves to see its ending, for example.

Definitely seconding the recommendations for Gurren Lagann and Baccano!, then. Also potentially Kill la Kill, Mobile Suit Gundam:08th MS Team, or the Monogatari series(dependant on your tolerance for fanservice). Oh, and Sword of the Stranger, which is a samurai movie that has what is, in my opinion, one of the best sword fights in all of anime.

Sallera

2016-03-27, 07:31 PM

Times like this are when I wish I'd kept a list of stuff I've watched. Doesn't help that that genre is the sort I tend to binge-watch and thus can't easily recall off the top of my head. I know I should be able to come up with more along those lines...

Um... well, there's K. Which I can't in good conscience recommend, per se, as it was collaboratively written by several light novel authors and it really shows. But it has a lot of the things you mentioned, and it is very pretty (to the point you need to be careful about your source, as a low-quality encode ruins it). It's just sort of a matter of your taste and/or tolerance for LN plots.

Duck999

2016-03-27, 08:19 PM

And I second Kill la Kill. :smallbiggrin:
Let's see what else I have:
Akame ga Kill and Code Geass are two of my favorites (after Durarara). Mirai Nikki has great story (I think). Fate/Stay Night (Unlimited Blade Works), Fate/Zero, and Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World) are fairly good, with the first two having plenty of action. Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun lacks the action, guns and mechs, but has plenty of fun. As soon as Space Patrol Luluco comes out, I'd recommend it. It, from the one episode I got to see early (:smallamused:), seems to have plenty of fun, some middle-school love, and maybe some action. It is going to be a series of shorts (about 5 minutes).

Mx.Silver

2016-03-27, 08:33 PM

Times like this are when I wish I'd kept a list of stuff I've watched.

That's pretty much the only thing I use MyAnimeList for, and it actually works reasonably well for that.

Duck999

2016-03-27, 08:35 PM

That's pretty much the only thing I use MyAnimeList for, and it actually works reasonably well for that.

I personally use Anime Planet. But yeah, those websites are nice. Especially when you are watching 3+ animes at once and need to keep track of episodes.

Lethologica

2016-03-27, 08:39 PM

Yeah, I use Hummingbird for the same thing. A friend got me to sign up there and I haven't switched to MAL/AniDB/whatever because of inertia.

Okay, first of all, sorry for writing a bleak post with no content, because yeah, I know those and I liked them. Second of all, I tend to watch animes with two friends and one of them is especially hellbent on animes with an actual, continuing story. Like, the kinda type that wouldn't watch Toradora! or Ouran High and can't get into Samurai Champloo's "a story an episode" format because he's a sad bastard. But we both consider Valvrave the Vibrator to be the greatest anime of our age.

We liked Parasyte (a lot), KonoSuba, Gundam 00, JoJo, Black Lagoon, Space Dandy and GitS, off the top of my head. And we all like the obvious classics like Bebop, Hellsing and such.

I dunno, guns, mechs, swords, pacing, story, intrigue, fun, plot. In any order. We watched Ping Pong and kinda forced ourselves to see its ending, for example.
Hm. Anything I've seen you've probably seen, so honestly I'm just going to pick some things off my plan-to-watch list that might fit your tastes and hope you haven't seen them. Check 'em out, see what catches your eye.
Escaflowne
Dennou Coil
Great Teacher Onizuka
Kaiba
Scrapped Princess
Kyousougiga (2013)
Boogiepop Phantom

Mx.Silver

2016-03-27, 08:47 PM

Yeah, I use Hummingbird for the same thing. A friend got me to sign up there and I haven't switched to MAL/AniDB/whatever because of inertia.

I'm not really sure if there's much to be gained by switching from one to the other, tbh, if that's all you're using it for. Which it probably should be, since lord knows you don't want to be using it for reviews (aggregate or otherwise).

Lethologica

2016-03-27, 08:51 PM

I'm not really sure if there's much to be gained by switching from one to the other, tbh, if that's all you're using it for. Which it probably should be, since lord knows you don't want to be using it for reviews (aggregate or otherwise).
You mean there's no free aggregator out there whose opinion isn't ****? You're killing me, man. :smalltongue:

Mx.Silver

2016-03-27, 09:14 PM

You mean there's no free aggregator out there whose opinion isn't ****? You're killing me, man. :smalltongue:

Well, aggregate reviews in general are only to be of very limited use at best* - and that's assuming they're drawing on reviews written by people who are at least reasonably decent at criticism(although since all they're taking from is some arbitrary numerical value pretty much everything of worth about the individual reviews is lost anyway). Which if you've ever made the mistake of browsing a page of user reviews you will know is not an accurate assumption in the slightest :smalltongue:

Hard to believe, I know, but there it is.

*and even then, mostly just to the unbearable nerds whose main desire from this process is higher number on the thing they like than can be slapped on a thing they don't like

Eldariel

2016-03-28, 10:34 AM

HMS Invincible

2016-03-28, 10:49 AM

It gets into racial superiority at points, but if you like world building, is not bad. They were discussing how to do fusion reactors at some point as an application of magic.

cobaltstarfire

2016-03-28, 11:14 AM

We're into the third Chapter of Durarara X2.

I'm not actually sure what was going on in chapter two, but things seem to be settling back into a way where I'm not lost with the start of Chapter 3. So I guess chapter two is basically a bunch of background that will pay off later on in chapter three...

Drascin

2016-03-28, 11:30 AM

DoctorFaust

2016-03-28, 12:04 PM

Eldariel

2016-03-28, 12:09 PM

It gets into racial superiority at points, but if you like world building, is not bad. They were discussing how to do fusion reactors at some point as an application of magic.

Basically, you know how people sometimes complain about a recent tendency to have shows that are increasingly more blatant and shameless about having marty stu male heroes with "weaknesses" that don't impede them in the slightest and who are always right and never have to even make an effort and get all the powers and all the girls want them?

Well, Mahouka is one of the gold standards of this phenomenon (and the main reason I can't quite say it's the prime example of it is that SAO exists).

To that, add a... highly disquieting, to put it very mildly, attitude towards social dynamics and people's place in society, and straight up biting anti-Chinese racism, and you get a pretty bad package.

Sadly that was the vibe I got from the video too. I was hoping the guy getting beat up was the actual protagonist, and the PoV character was the overwhelming villain. Ah well, the world does sound intriguing but by the sound of it, there are better works to spend my time on. Thanks guys!

Alent

2016-03-28, 01:52 PM

Has anyone seen 魔法科高校の劣等性/Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Weak Student of Magic High School or something of the sort)? I saw a clip that somewhat piqued my interest, but it seems like the kind of show that can be really dull outside few good action scenes. How is it - would you recommend watching it?

I would strongly recommend reading the Light Novels, but if you have to watch the anime, watch each "book" in one sitting. The episode titles are nice about being labeled with "book title part X", so it's easy to tell where you are.

The Anime didn't cover the story fast enough, or enough of it, and made some interesting parts boring as sin by not understanding them. The first few story arcs are really world building and character development arcs for the people around Tatsuya, the anime never actually finishes enough of them to get to the real story and the powerful opponents, so he comes off as a boring, overpowered protagonist with no character development or equal.

The anime producer also didn't really seem to understand the story, so they adapted it poorly and focused way too much on some of the character relationships - specifically the otaku fetish ones. There's a really subtle social criticism of Japanese society going on in the books, hidden inside the jingoism and cultural superiority exposition, but you'll never notice it in the anime because of how much attention they gave to Miyuki and her incestuous crush on the perfect oniisama.

Fri

2016-03-29, 02:05 AM

Persona is Unbreakable in 3 days, woop woop.

And slightly unrelated, I've been following and really liking this manga for a while, Black Clover, and a comment in its forum amused me

The plot is actually advancing?! I think I'm too used to Bleach and the likes, this feels really fresh.

This manga is like a superdensely concentrated shonen beamed at several times of the speed of light

Because it's true. Here's the thing. The manga's premise is like the most basic of basic shonen premises ever.

It's a world of mages (ninjas) and the mc want to be the sorcery emperor (hokage). That's it. Also he has a rival that is a cool and silent talented genius. Oh wow.

But for me this showcase the best of how it's execution that matters, not the premise. Seriously the manga is really entertaining and never got any filler moment and all the characters are good. For example, the cold and silent rival? He's basically sasuke. Except he's actually just a nice guy that doesn't talk much. And from the beginning he hold the main character in high regard and defend him because eventhough he's considered a genius he knows that the main character have his own strength and can do things that he can't do. FROM THE VERY BEGINNING. That's like what? 20 volume worth of character evolution in more typical shonen manga?

(Also the sorcery emperor isn't like the leader of the kingdom but more like the emperor's personal bodyguard/head of military, which already makes more sense to have the strongest character be one).

Prime32

2016-03-29, 10:39 AM

Speaking of generic shonen premises...

Does anyone read Sousei no Onmyouji/Twin Star Exorcists? I find the manga pretty entertaining, and it's receiving an anime next season (though it seems like it might be a pretty loose adaptation). It's something like 70% battle shonen, 30% romantic comedy, with the main couple fighting demons as a team.

Rodin

2016-03-29, 01:56 PM

The anime producer also didn't really seem to understand the story, so they adapted it poorly and focused way too much on some of the character relationships - specifically the otaku fetish ones. There's a really subtle social criticism of Japanese society going on in the books, hidden inside the jingoism and cultural superiority exposition, but you'll never notice it in the anime because of how much attention they gave to Miyuki and her incestuous crush on the perfect oniisama.

That's what stopped me from getting past about episode two. I found the crush extremely squicky in a way that even SAO managed to avoid.

The premise looked interesting, glad I wasn't missing out on too much (at least where the anime is concerned).

HMS Invincible

2016-03-30, 09:51 AM

I would strongly recommend reading the Light Novels, but if you have to watch the anime, watch each "book" in one sitting. The episode titles are nice about being labeled with "book title part X", so it's easy to tell where you are.

The Anime didn't cover the story fast enough, or enough of it, and made some interesting parts boring as sin by not understanding them. The first few story arcs are really world building and character development arcs for the people around Tatsuya, the anime never actually finishes enough of them to get to the real story and the powerful opponents, so he comes off as a boring, overpowered protagonist with no character development or equal.

The anime producer also didn't really seem to understand the story, so they adapted it poorly and focused way too much on some of the character relationships - specifically the otaku fetish ones. There's a really subtle social criticism of Japanese society going on in the books, hidden inside the jingoism and cultural superiority exposition, but you'll never notice it in the anime because of how much attention they gave to Miyuki and her incestuous crush on the perfect oniisama.

What's the subtle criticism you're referring to?

Sith_Happens

2016-03-30, 11:31 PM

...Did I just watch a literal tsundere boss rush? Shinichi Kimura, you are a mad genius.:smallbiggrin:

Felyndiira

2016-03-31, 10:21 AM

There's a really subtle social criticism of Japanese society going on in the books, hidden inside the jingoism and cultural superiority exposition, but you'll never notice it in the anime because of how much attention they gave to Miyuki and her incestuous crush on the perfect oniisama.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? I'll admit that I'm biased against it due to its depictions of China and the heavy jingoism, but I've never really noticed any of the social criticism (though I'm also not as familiar with hot-button social issues in Japan).

Morph Bark

2016-03-31, 04:48 PM

That's pretty much the only thing I use MyAnimeList for, and it actually works reasonably well for that.

The only things I use MAL for is that, a monthly recommendations club (sorta like a book club for anime) to slowly whittle away at that To-Watch list that's got a hundred series remaining, and posting about anime-ish Let's Plays.

Between MAL, GoodReads and IMDB, I got enough lists of media to keep me going for a while yet. If only games weren't my main media squeeze, it'd be moderately realistic to have all that finished in a year or two.

Alent

2016-04-01, 11:46 PM

Can you elaborate a bit more on this? I'll admit that I'm biased against it due to its depictions of China and the heavy jingoism, but I've never really noticed any of the social criticism (though I'm also not as familiar with hot-button social issues in Japan).

I'm not sure if "hot button" is the right way to put it, since some of the issues are longstanding issues, but in the LNs it seems intentional that the problems that magicians have are exaggerated metaphors of the issues that JP students aiming for a career/graduates seeking jobs have. Magicians automatically being military assets if their marks are good and traditional enough parallels Simultaneous recruiting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_recruiting_of_new_graduates), for example.

I'd go into more depth, but I had wrist surgery a few days ago and typing is not easy.

On that note, I need suggestions on how to get caught up on Macross in time for Delta. I've only seen the Frontier Movies, and want to get caught up while I'm mostly incapacitated.

Fri

2016-04-02, 01:54 AM

You don't really need to "caught up" since most of macross are stand alone. But if you want a quick watch through.

1.Do You Remember Love (The movie) is a good recap of the original and actually still stand through time. It's different story/experience with the original series (mentioned as movie within the universe, like how Platoon is a movie in our universe about vietnam war) but much faster than watching the whole 30 something episodes of the original series (and a much consistent experience as well).

2.Macross Zero is a good cgi spectacle, with great action scenes, though most people says the story leave something to be wanted. And it's 3 episodes OVA so watchable in a single watch through. It's supposed to be prequel of original macross.

3.This might be controversial for some people, but go skip Macross 7. Not just because there's no compilation movie AFAIK, it's an experience for sure, but too much filler between the good stuffs.

4. You've watched Macross Frontier movie, so I guess you caught up with it? But in my opinion the series is the most watchable recently, because it's the latest with modern (read: faster) pacing and modern visual. Not saying the others are bad, but some people do have problem with old animes on their supposed low pacing. Also it's the shortest series, "only" 25 episodes, compared to original macross 30 or 40 something episodes, and Macross 7's 50 something episodes.

kamikasei

2016-04-02, 07:06 AM

(and a much consistent experience as well).
But the wild swings in quality from episode to episode are half the appeal of the original Macross!

HMS Invincible

2016-04-02, 11:16 AM

New season, new animes. Any new gems in the rough?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Spring2016Anime

DoctorFaust

2016-04-02, 12:40 PM

New season, new animes. Any new gems in the rough?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Spring2016Anime

...A grand total of about a tenth of all the shows this season have started airing. I'm not sure how there could be gems in the rough when the rough hasn't even shown up yet. That said, I'm hoping that Boku no Hero Academia, Kiznaiver, flying witch, Joker Game, Macross ∆, and Kuromukuro will be good. Space Patrol Luluco's first episode was decent, as well.

VariSami

2016-04-02, 05:16 PM

I noticed a few recurring ones already, in the form of JoJo: Diamond is Unbreakable and Ushio and Tora's 2nd season.

Having a glance at the other available anime, I might be interested in
Koutetsujou no Kabareni: (Semi-)Steampunk is a rare treat.
Boku no Hero Academia: Despite the problems with certain long-running series, Shounen Jump series are generally a good way to kill time.
Ace Attorney: The one and only cosplay I ever did was Godot. Never played the games, sadly, but they are interesting.
Magi: Sinbad no Bouken: I have watced the OVA but this might still be an interesting retake on what seems to be the same story.
Kyoukai no Rinne, 2nd season: Eh... It kills time, I guess? Occasionally even funny.
Kagewani: Shou: I have not watched the original one but it seems like it might be worth a watch.
Concrete Revolutio, 2nd season: The original turned out more interesting than I anticipated.

There seem to be a few pretty series that might turn out to be god but of which I have not heard so they seem likely to be just our average entertainment. (Not that Kyoukai no Rinne, for example, is any better, but I am a completionist.)

Currently on episode 17 of FATE/Zero. Rider is simply the best character. I decided to give this one a chance after watching the first episodes of both Stay Night and Unlimited Blade Works and dropping them (for the time being). Definitely better than those.

Rodin

2016-04-03, 03:13 AM

The Ace Attorney one looks like it's going to just be a straight up re-telling of the first game (and possibly more, depending on how long they spend on each case).

I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Seeing the games brought to life is certainly cool. I think they did a pretty good job with how they've handled the court sequence and it seems fairly well directed.

But...the plot of the games doesn't lend itself well to TV. The first episode had incredibly obvious contradictions because it was the tutorial case, and they were beating you over the head with "this is how you play the game". And since they can't just have the crucial case evidence tucked away in a description, they have to explicitly lay it all out to make sure the audience sees it. It lent the case a somewhat ridiculous air and I'm just not sure how well it's going to translate.

It's also really weird having everybody named completely different from what I'm used to. That's hardly the fault of the anime, obviously, but it's definitely unnerving.

My preference would have been for them to cover the manga. It's got longer cases with a larger cast in each (thanks to no software limitations), and they're also less well-known so you're likelier to have people not already know the killer going in.

Still, I'm planning on sticking with it for a while at least, out of nostalgia if nothing else.

Fri

2016-04-03, 04:01 AM

New season, new animes. Any new gems in the rough?
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Spring2016Anime
What I think are interesting and might follow this season if I have time to watch anime is.

Jojo. Because of course. First episode is already good, and josuke seems to be a much more interesting protag to follow than jotaro.
Concrete Revolutio: Chojin Gensou The Last Song. Because I like the first season.
Flying Witch. Looks cute.
Kuma Miko. Because the manga is the cuteretest. Dunno what make bears so amusing to watch in anime or cartoons.
Macross Delta. See my signature?
Boku No Hero Academia. I'll check at least since I love the manga, but since I'm already following the manga, might skip after a while.
Sakamoto Desu Ga. If you ask about hidden gem that most people might skip, this is mine. I really like the absurd manga. We all could learn from Sakamoto.
Koutetsujou no Kabareni. Because steampunk.
Joker Game. Cool spies in the roaring twenties. That's like my catnip.
Big Order? Because I like mirai nikki? Honestly I don't know why this is the first time I heard about this.

Obviously I most likely won't watch all of them. But my priority watch for this season are Jojo, Macross, and Sakamoto. The rest I'll dip my toes into.

BWR

2016-04-03, 01:29 PM

So far only Macross Delta (because Macross) and Flying Witch (because I like the manga) have caught my eye.
Maybe some others will show themselves to be decent but it looks to be a pretty weak season for my taste.

Hiro Protagonest

2016-04-03, 01:30 PM

JoJo: Diamond is Unbreakable

When I saw that on Crunchyroll, I half-expected it to be an April Fools' joke. :smalltongue:

cobaltstarfire

2016-04-06, 03:03 PM

We finished Durarara X2.

It wasn't quite as enjoyable as the first Durarara, I think it suffers from too many threads demanding time, and many of them adding essentially nothing to the story. I also suspect that part of the problem is just the transition from novelization to anime?

Well the other problem is that I simply didn't really understand a lot of what was going on in some parts, and the relationships between particular characters.

Though maybe that was the point too.

In the end it kind of reminds me of Hotline Miami in a weird way, and not just because of the Hollywood killer.

Mx.Silver

2016-04-13, 10:44 AM

Joker Game. Cool spies in the roaring twenties.
Spies in the 1930s. 1937, to be exact. The autumn of 1937, specifically.

I'm honestly morbidly curious about this one, because that choice of setting can be a bit of minefield in terms of potential controversy, and I can't help wondering about which specific mine it's going to step on (especially if events in the series reach December of 1937).

It'll also be interesting to see where the comparisons with Night Raid start appearing. Besides when the above inevitably happens, obviously.

So yeah, I may give this one a shot at some point.

Fri

2016-04-13, 10:48 AM

Yeah, it's cool, but the premise is a bit uncomfortable for obvious reason (moreso in asian countries).

I'll still continue watching it for now though.

BWR

2016-04-13, 04:09 PM

Gave Kuma Miko a shot and I'm glad I did. It's funny and sweet and all around pleasant.

So far Macross Delta is pretty meh. I just have a hard time getting the magic music and magical-girl transforming bards with dancing mech backups to jive with the rest of Macross. I know it's a natural progression of the theme of "music is awsome" but so far the music is average at best and none of the characters really appeal to me. To be fair, we haven't seem much of them. Hayate seems to have somewhat more personality than Alto and is more palatable than Basara (damning with faint praise much?) and whatserface is basically Ranka 2.0.

Marqod

2016-04-14, 05:25 PM

Going over the shows I'm watching so far this season:

Haifuri: Not sure what to thing about this one, with the kinda dramatic twist at the end of the episode.
I'll have to see how they continue from there.

Jojo: so far, a rather faithful adaptation of the manga with a simple but fitting art style and interesting use of colour.
You can see they've got a limited budget and some restrictions, but they seem to be working withing it quite well and I'm looking forward to see the rest of this part (one of my favourites) animated.

Macross Delta: Pretty much my favourite show of the season so far, especially since I dig giant robots and fighter planes.

So far Macross Delta is pretty meh. I just have a hard time getting the magic music and magical-girl transforming bards with dancing mech backups to jive with the rest of Macross. I know it's a natural progression of the theme of "music is awsome" but so far the music is average at best and none of the characters really appeal to me. To be fair, we haven't seem much of them. Hayate seems to have somewhat more personality than Alto and is more palatable than Basara (damning with faint praise much?) and whatserface is basically Ranka 2.0.

As someone who really liked the episodes of Delta so far (and is, admittedly, a pretty big fan of the franchise), I'm gonna have to speak up here.
I actually liked how pretty much all the tech seen so far has progressed logically from the stuff we've seen in earlier entries in the franchise.

The "magic music" thing (Walkure's songs halting the effects of the Var Syndrome) has already been explained as some kind of Fold wave interference, probably similar to (though less silly than) Song Energy from Macross 7.
In fact, since Var Syndrome seems to be caused by some kind of song-based Fold wave interference itself, it makes sense to use something similar to counter it.
The transforming costumes (including jet thrusters) are stuff we'd also seen in Frontier, just like the holographic stuff projected by the drones.

Liking the music and characters is, of course, also a matter of taste.
I'd say Hayate's character makes sense as the rather anti-authoritarian 17-year-old he is. I also enjoy his antics.
I actually like Freyja a lot more than Ranka so far; while there is some overlap in their character types, Freyja's actions and personality just seem to click much more for me.
She's not extremely similar either; compare her actions when stuck in the middle of a battlefield to those of Ranka's in Frontier. Freyja's a lot more pro-active and much less scared. Ranka at the start of Frontier would never even have run away from home in the first place.

Plus, the combat so far has been quite good, with some nice setup for further conflicts between Delta Squad and the Aerial Knights of Windemere.

Watching episode 3 will be interesting, since it's looking like we'll be getting some more focus for Mirage (and hopefully the other Chaos members) then.

GloatingSwine

2016-04-15, 05:38 AM

3.This might be controversial for some people, but go skip Macross 7. Not just because there's no compilation movie AFAIK, it's an experience for sure, but too much filler between the good stuffs.

The problem with 7's pace isn't strictly "too much filler", it's that the actual plot doesn't start until episode 17. If you compressed everything that happens in the first 16 episodes into maybe two and then just had the rest of the series from there the pace would be much improved, and the breather episodes after things got going would have been fine.

Basara would still be an insufferable arse goblin, but I don't think that can be helped.

Nerd-o-rama

2016-04-15, 08:05 AM

cobaltstarfire

2016-04-30, 02:59 AM

Sooo

There's going to be a sequel Card Captor Sakura manga that takes place during Sakura's first year of junior high.

I'm mentally doing grabby hands at it, but I actually haven't liked the stuff CLAMPs been up to the past I dunno 10 years ? I won't mind if I don't like it, but I hope that it turns out to be good.

Disc Lorde

2016-04-30, 04:58 PM

Boku no Hero Academia is the only anime I've seen in the new season so far that I really like. Reminds me a bit of One Punch Man or Tiger and Bunny in the epic superhero theme.

Eldariel

2016-05-01, 04:40 PM

So. Sailor Moon Crystal S3 just started and so far I'm finding it far less horrible than the last year's run. They dumped the 3D henshins and while the animation is still far from topnotch, they certainly seem to have stepped it up a bit. I rather like the art they're using. The story seems to work better thus far (well, the Super manga is fairly solid) and while we got what I'd consider definitely unnecessary reintros in the start, I rather like what they're doing with the outers. And there's already decidedly less "Moon must do everything"-stuff going on, though that's in part a trait of Super in general. Overall, I think this one has the ingredients to be decidedly non-terrible. Though it might be that my expectations were so low that it was practically impossible for this not to exceed them.

Alent

2016-05-01, 06:18 PM

It helps if you think of Basara as some elemental force of Music and not a human or, strictly speaking, the protagonist. If you focus on Mylene and Gamlin's emotional arcs, or alternatively analyze Basara's lyrics over his spoken dialog, it really helps.

I mean it'd still be BETTER if it was the Max and Milia military sitcom hour, but you can't have everything.

So, I took the plunge since I needed the down time. Macross Zero was fun, SDF Macross was wildly inconsistent and I cheered when both Kaifun AND Hikaru set Minmei aside like a sack of potatos. :smallbiggrin: DYRL was disappointing, Macross Plus was weird but cool, 7...

... 7 :smallsigh:...

Halfway through so far, my current headcanon to make the Basara parts bearable: Basara isn't real. He's a hologram projected by the AI of the VF-19 he flies, and Ray is the mad genius that keeps tweaking the VF-19's AI program to keep him from going Sharon Apple on everyone by preventing him from having character development.

I'm actually enjoying it despite Basara, somehow.

DoctorFaust

2016-05-01, 08:15 PM

Goddamnit, Q'telun, you need to stop feeding my romance addiction. At least I can justify this series by doing a write-up here...

So, I read Horimiya recently. For those unaware, Horimiya is an adaptation of a 4koma webcomic centering around the relationship between Hori Kyoko and Miyamura Izumi, two high school students. I'm sure this premise sounds like a very familiar one, and it is, but it does have the twist that both of them act literally nothing like their school personas while, well, not at school. That is admittedly fairly similar to the whole "hidden lives" thing that Maid-Sama does, but Horimiya does distinguish itself in that it's not the MCs lives they're trying to keep secret, it's their real personalities. Hori Kyoko basically goes from being a bright and popular girl to an incredibly responsible housewife (figuratively) that is constantly taking care of her little brother because of her parents absence. And Miyamura goes from being a long-haired, glasses wearing, quiet, generally assumed to be bookish person to a really friendly guy with a sense of style I envy. I mean, seriously. Dat hair. Dem piercings. (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/f7/2f/34/f72f34bf0cf15dc8ebc25a47c404fce3.jpg) Dat bod. Dose tats. (https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/5c/6b/2a/5c6b2ac93875c9ea50531d67d7d387b9.jpg) As a straight man, I just want to say, yes.

:smallsigh:

Anyway, getting back on the topic of the manga and off of the third best looking male manga character I know of (Bad Doc, bad!), the plot, at least so far, is pretty standard. If you've read any other feel-good romance manga, you probably already know how the plot of the first 63 chapters will go.
Basically, the two meet, discover each others hidden sides, bond, slowly become closer and closer, eventually confess their feelings after a series of misunderstandings (I'm looking at you, "I love you...r hands"), start dating, yadda yadda yadda. However, Horimiya does offer a few, what are in my opinion interesting, takes on this formula.

First and foremost, the two actually start going out fairly early. I want to say about chapter 30 or so of the 63 that have been released so far? Secondly, it actually bothers to show how their relationship affects others. Third, and related to the second, it shows how relationships develop between the supporting characters and not just the mains. Several chapters were devoted basically solely to the love triangle between Yuki, Sakura, and Ishikawa, which was a situation that had been established long beforehand. And fourthly, the relationship between Hoyi and Miya actually develops as time goes by. It never becomes quite as physical as, say, My Lovely Ghost Kana, but it does become markedly more physical than in a lot of the romance manga I've read. More like Bonnouji, I would say. There was also a very interesting development in chapter 63 (https://theglorioblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/a85b7ca7f28950e0b59604bc28cdf705.gif?w=533&h=300).

Oh, and it turns out that Hori is a sub, despite being the more aggressive of the two. :smalltongue:

So, overall, I would call it a slightly cliched but very well executed take on a plot that I'm sure a lot of people have seen before. The art is consistently good, the writing is pretty excellent so far, I can empathise a metric ****-ton with Miyamura, Hori is a fun character, and the supporting characters are for the most part varied and enjoyable to read about. I give it...two and a half Uraraka thumbs up (http://i.imgur.com/CxXQg3f.png). Ups? Up's? Upi? Upus?:smalltongue:

mallorean_thug

2016-05-01, 11:38 PM

That sounds a lot like His and Her Circumstances, which I really enjoyed the anime adaption of. I might check it out, but for I'm really bad at actually reading manga, even though it's way less time consuming than watching anime. For example, I still haven't finished the His and Her Circumstances manga, even with the terrible ending of the anime to encourage me to do so.

endoperez

2016-05-02, 03:19 PM

Goddamnit, Q'telun, you need to stop feeding my romance addiction. At least I can justify this series by doing a write-up here...

So, overall, I would call it a slightly cliched but very well executed take on a plot that I'm sure a lot of people have seen before. The art is consistently good, the writing is pretty excellent so far, I can empathise a metric ****-ton with Miyamura, Hori is a fun character, and the supporting characters are for the most part varied and enjoyable to read about. I give it...two and a half Uraraka thumbs up (http://i.imgur.com/CxXQg3f.png). Ups? Up's? Upi? Upus?:smalltongue:

I think slightly cliched but decently executed romance is just what I want right now. Thanks, gonna check it up pronto!

Comet

2016-05-02, 04:01 PM

BWR

2016-05-02, 04:11 PM

Since I was reminded that Macross Delta was a thing I just sat down and watched three episodes.

Goddamn on the nose terrorist action on a middle-eastern planet. And girls dancing and singing and people cheering them on while buildings are crumbling and casualties are racking up all around them. And fish cats teaching you fighter jet moves.

If they keep going at this pace this might just be the most absurd Macross series ever made, which is kind of amazing. It does have all the elements to be potentially great, too, and Ikenai BORDERLINE is a really catchy song.

With the politics coming in the show is picking up but I really dislike Hayate. Messer is the only sensible character in the entire show and you just know he's going to be proven wrong about Hayate and grudgingly come to respect the rebellious, disrespectful and frankly stupid kid. Even Alto at least tried to get along in the army and do what he was told but Hayate is just mouthing off and getting away with it.

Lord Raziere

2016-05-03, 04:41 AM

I have watched Gundam: Iron Blooded Orphans up to episode 9.

and my impression of it is that Tekkadan is basically the Dai-Gurren Brigade in a realistic setting.

Mikazuki is Simon
Orga is Kamina
Atra is Nia
Kudelia has the same hairstyle as Yoko: bangs and ponytail
Eugene is Kittan

Their ship even has red plating. They are all being a family and being determined to stay together. just so many similarities

Fri

2016-05-03, 05:23 AM

Lord Raziere

2016-05-03, 05:32 AM

That actually makes sense, but shouldn't Kudelia be Nia?

well here is my reasoning:
Yoko and Nia are both ultimately supporting characters, but Yoko is taller, older and tries to fight her own battles. much like Kudelia. Atra on the other hand is shorter, younger, and was saved by Mikazuki because of what I saw in Episode 9 or 10, and helps inspire others like Nia, while Yoko and Kudelia are stronger and more focused on whatever goal they have.

so to me, Atra is Nia because she has a lot more similarities in looks, personality, relationship with Mikazuki than Kudelia. thus making Kudelia the Yoko by default.

DoctorFaust

2016-05-04, 10:37 AM

Okay, so I just had a kind of a random thought about Macross Delta. I know Shoji Kawamori for the series said he wanted to put a twist on the classic love triangle story that Macross tells a lot of the time, and Hayate's kind of been portrayed as a pretty mediocre pilot and quite the maverick. Which makes me wonder if they're going to kill him off and have Messer be the center of the triangle.

I should say I have no idea how they would pull it off (Maybe have Hayate ask Freyja or Mirage to make him pineapple cake?), but if that did happen I could totally see them having Messer develop as a character by having to help Frejya and Mirage through their grief, thereby pulling the stick out of his ass.

ellindsey

2016-05-04, 12:42 PM

So far I've watched the first four episodes of Macross Delta, and I'm going to have to agree with 'meh'. It's not bad, but it doesn't strike me as being all that good either. Hayate is doing nothing for me as a protagonist. Freyja's glowing prehensile hair-tentacle-thing still weirds me out. Mirage is an interesting character, but I fear she's going to continuously be shown up so that Hayate can be the hero, and will probably end up as the endgame love interest anyway. And I've been able to predict every plot development so far. I'll keep watching, maybe it'll surprise me, but I'm not looking forward to each new episode coming out like I did with Frontier.

I do like the music on this one. And if they do something unexpected like not have the predictable outcome to the love triangle it still might win me over.

ETA: The whole magical girl/singing idol aspect doesn't bother me at all. It actually makes sense - the military have come to grips with the fact that they live in an absurd universe where putting idol singers on the front line actually wins battles, and have gone ahead and weaponized the concept. It's more the plot and characters that are failing to grip me.

BWR

2016-05-04, 12:51 PM

Hayate's kind of been portrayed as a pretty mediocre pilot and quite the maverick. Which makes me wonder if they're going to kill him off and have Messer be the center of the triangle.

I would love for that to happen but we all know it won't.
Hayate is too shounen protagonisty to fail.

GloatingSwine

2016-05-04, 12:53 PM

I do like the music on this one. And if they do something unexpected like not have the predictable outcome to the love triangle it still might win me over.

It's a Macross series, the only predictable outcome to the love triangle is "unresolved".

ellindsey

2016-05-04, 01:01 PM

I would love for that to happen but we all know it won't.
Hayate is too shounen protagonisty to fail.

I'm actually thinking they may kill off Mikumo, as she's the cooler older mentor character with the mysterious past. I'm hoping they don't, I actually like her character.

kamikasei

2016-05-04, 01:56 PM

Mirage is an interesting character, but I fear she's going to continuously be shown up so that Hayate can be the hero, and will probably end up as the endgame love interest anyway.
This is my main concern. I don't have much interest in a story where a cocky, untrained jackass shows up the professional who actually works hard, just so she can fall for him. (I feel like my tolerance for people succeeding without effort in fiction is steadily, or rapidly, declining.)

I'm also still annoyed that it's not actually about a group of mech-piloting idol singers and their mech-piloting boyband rivals.

Alent

2016-05-04, 03:26 PM

I'm also still annoyed that it's not actually about a group of mech-piloting idol singers and their mech-piloting boyband rivals.

The last thing the Macross universe needs is another Jamming Birds unit. Sound Force was bad enough.

I also wouldn't call Hayate an untrained jackass yet- I'm expecting a training montage soon. Every time Messer's ticked him off so far, Hayate gets serious about something, which fits with his character. They've given him quite a bit of room to grow.

Maybe I'm just blinded by the fact that I just finished Macross 7 and still want to see Basara die horribly.

GloatingSwine

2016-05-04, 04:11 PM

cobaltstarfire

2016-05-05, 01:37 AM

We've started watching Full Metal Alchemist on netflix.

It's bugging me a little how constantly many of the characters are off model, this is compounded slightly by not much liking the style it's done in. But it's not enough of a problem to make me stop watching it. But enough to make me want to bellyache about it. :smallbiggrin:

It's interesting to me to watch older anime, because many of them show their age in how emoting/visual shorthands are handled. I'm not sure what it is exactly though.

I have to be honest, so far it isn't grabbing my interest, but it's very early and my feeling on it could change. I think part of the problem is that I feel like I'm being bludgeoned over the head with allegories or something.

BWR

2016-05-05, 04:37 AM

The last thing the Macross universe needs is another Jamming Birds unit. Sound Force was bad enough.

I also wouldn't call Hayate an untrained jackass yet- I'm expecting a training montage soon. Every time Messer's ticked him off so far, Hayate gets serious about something, which fits with his character. They've given him quite a bit of room to grow.

Maybe I'm just blinded by the fact that I just finished Macross 7 and still want to see Basara die horribly.

Almost anyone will seem likeable compared to Basara.

ryuplaneswalker

2016-05-05, 07:16 AM

So Toriko..

God is The Gitrog Monster (http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=The+Gitrog+Monster)

Zalabim

2016-05-06, 02:07 AM

My guilty pleasure lately has been World Trigger. I've watched about 40 episodes in the last week or two, right up to the first episode of what I'm told is definitely a filler arc. It's a familiar feeling. I should have known it was coming up soon, since the episode guide had told me there was an episode a week for a few years straight, but I just wasn't thinking about it at the time. Not sure if I should power through, skip it, or just call it done now.

Doorhandle

2016-05-06, 03:28 AM

Somehow forgot this thread was here! Let's see now:

On the manga front we have Kurohime: Having read it from start to finish, I have to say it's a fascinating tale of revenge, love and redemption....And has more than enough over-the-top action to keep people who don't care about that interested.

I mean, the main problem-solving in-series is to use guns that can shoot dragon-golems out of them. (http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/powerlisting/images/3/31/Kurohime_Genbu.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131109180502)

Also: Dungeon Menshi. So hype about the upcoming dragon fight! Although conceding I've gotten past a certain boss-fight in dark souls 3, this conversation here just made me laugh. (http://z.mfcdn.net/store/manga/15514/02-023.0/compressed/l010.jpg)

On the anime front I've been watching Nanatsu no Taizai (this one, (http://mangafox.me/manga/nanatsu_no_taizai/v01/c001/1.html) there's apparently a few) in preperation for the second season that's coming out soonish. Have to say, Ban 's entrance in episode 4 was pretty hilarious, but I still need to see more of the show to determine whether it's a favorite or not.

In between the various fronts, we have Tokyo Ghoul: One of my new favorite series for breathing new life into the whole "World-of-darkness urban-fantasy supernatural-being-eat-people-and-angst-alot" subgenre, and making many of the outright cannibals in it's cast come off as sympathetic. It's nice there's like 5 more series of it as well, so I have something to look at later when my backlog is a bit more empty.

ryuplaneswalker

2016-05-06, 06:15 AM

HMS Invincible

2016-05-06, 02:47 PM

Eh it can't be worse than the first set of episodes, the series gets good when we start seeing more of Border but holy crud was the early part of the series DUUULLL

Agreed, the best parts are the invasion and ranking wars.

Lord Raziere

2016-05-06, 08:13 PM

Wow. This series is full of betrayal. and siblings who are jerks.

also, hey look at these ugly people I'm sure they will last a LONG time, no wait they died what a surprise. Not.

also, the manufacturing useless weaponry and mecha is the part I find the most unrealistic, because this series is real big on realism it seems, and why would people manufacture all that just to trick a bunch of people into rebelling and causing trouble to get killed, its stupid, because yes I know its supposed to make the rebels look bad, easily defeated and reinforce Gjallarhorn power, but if you have the money and power to do that as well as control the media and so on, you probably have the power to provide social safety nets to just make sure this doesn't happen and nobody has to die, but I guess thats why Gjallarhorn is corrupt and needs reforming. realistically, no one is going to spend so much money on weaponry that won't do anything. I guess they could've just taken weapons that did work then purposefully sabotaged them so....not entirely implausible, but its still the kind of plan that seems completely unnecessary and unwanted.

Mikazuki doesn't seem like an actual protagonist. Its more like everyone else is the protagonist and he is just the ace pilot plot device. weird.

Her name is Colonel "Issue". I am detecting someone who is about to die. wait did Issue make her salute-guard entirely out of blondes because she has the hots for Char Clone The Chocolate Man?

the moon looks weird. did it get damaged or something?

and wow, humanity is really anti-cyborg in this future. I'm curious as to what people with prosthetics would think if they were watching this, whether they'd see it as an accurate representation of attitudes towards them or not. through from a different perspective, the Ayana-Vijnana system is a meta-commentary: its an examination of what would happen if Celestial Being from Gundam 00 actually succeeded in uniting the world and how that would play out 300 years later: the non-national peacekeeping force is corrupt, the system given to the superheroes is now seen as a terrible unfit relic, and the heroes now are the people that Celestial Being would've fought against.

"time show our true worth!"-Issue, so none at all then? face it, your the kind of character that doesn't make it past five episodes if that. you and two other mecha are gonna die.

*as people die*: and another one gone....and another one gone.....another one bites the dust....

and um....yeah the guy who avenge Crank (I forgot his own name yet can remember the guy he wants to avenge, weird) has gone crazy. Will Tekkadan go similarly crazy with revenge someday?

I like how Gundam knows that dying is pretty much expected in its show, so now its doing this opposite thing where someone unexpectedly LIVES just to keep you off balance.

I like how Kudelia is actually more important to everything than the actual protagonists and their mecha. like, she is the one who has an actual effect on the world because of her own words and will.

so thats the first season eh. I look forward to season 2, where they will undoubtedly tragically all die, having lost themselves in revenge or something while some big war breaks out, because man does Tekkadan seem to be setting themselves up to become revenge-crazy monsters who end up burning out in recklessness or something.

Mikazuki seems to be similar to Setsuna, and I don't get either of their minds. I guess they are supposed to be child soldiers so shell-shocked by war that they've turned completely into weapons, and are thus completely suppressing all emotion to focus on battle, but really that just makes them boring creepy characters that don't seem to interact with the rest of the cast in any meaningful way, so they just end up being that emotionless guy who fights something cool while all the interesting characters with emotions actually get things done and are thus actually awesome because of the things they accomplish.

so yeah, thats my thoughts on Iron-Blooded Orphans.

Brother Oni

2016-05-11, 05:29 AM

Guilty pleasures: watching Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge with the wife. It's basically your standard Japanese comedian comedy sketch except of having a comedian and a straight guy, you have a straight guy and a straight-er guy (at least if Tanaka could be bothered to do anything).

Sakamoto desu ga?: A CLAMP bishonen character decides to go to school in the real world. Another very silly series.

Kuma Miko: a slice of life comedy featuring a teenaged shrine priestess and her talking bear companion in a very rural village.

There's another one that I've forgotten the name of, but it's an update of an old Showa (~1930s) anime featuring sextuplet brothers. At least until it starts going all meta on the anime industry and Japanese life like Gintama.

We've started watching Full Metal Alchemist on netflix.

Are you watching Full Metal Alchemist or Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood? I recommend the latter over the former as it extends the story and is more coherent as a whole, but turns down the violence and psychological impact of particular scenes of the first.

DoctorFaust

2016-05-11, 09:12 AM

There's another one that I've forgotten the name of, but it's an update of an old Showa (~1930s) anime featuring sextuplet brothers. At least until it starts going all meta on the anime industry and Japanese life like Gintama.

I want to say that's Osomatsu-san. At least, the way you describe it makes it sound similar to the premise of Osomatsu-san.

Also, goddamnit Freyja, don't make the exact same mistakes Ranka Lee did.

cobaltstarfire

2016-05-11, 12:04 PM

Are you watching Full Metal Alchemist or Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood? I recommend the latter over the former as it extends the story and is more coherent as a whole, but turns down the violence and psychological impact of particular scenes of the first.

We're watching the original cause that's what everyone said would be less complicated to watch. Whenever Brotherhood came up it got bogged down with discussion about how to watch and such, which sounded like a real pain.

Though both are available on netflix so we could probably try both eventually.

We've just watched the episode with the serial killer a few days ago. It certainly likes its mood whiplash this one.

Fri

2016-05-11, 02:31 PM

Really? I don't remember ever hearing that here at least. IIRC the board's collective answer when asked whether to watch original or Brotherhood is mostly Brotherhood.

Lethologica

2016-05-11, 02:35 PM

I think it's about 30% Brotherhood, 20% '03, and 50% "Augh not this again," so. :smalltongue:

cobaltstarfire

2016-05-11, 03:01 PM

See last time I got a response on the whole original vs brotherhood thing was that the original would be the easier one, cause I couldn't remember which one was settled on as the easier one to watch and had to ask after it.

So who knows. About the only thing I know about brotherhood for sure is that it has just as much of a problem with drawing its characters on model as the original does.:smalltongue:

If there is enough of a difference between each series it might not even bother me to eventually watch both, might even be interesting to figure out where I fall in terms of the apparent schism that exists in regards to it!

Lethologica

2016-05-11, 03:45 PM

If there is enough of a difference between each series it might not even bother me to eventually watch both, might even be interesting to figure out where I fall in terms of the apparent schism that exists in regards to it!
There is. The latter half of FMA '03 is completely different from the latter...uh, 80% of Brotherhood.

Rodin

2016-05-11, 03:46 PM

One big argument for watching the original first is that Brotherhood hurries over the early part of the manga because they assume that most of the fans had already watched the original.

tensai_oni

2016-05-11, 08:28 PM

One big argument for watching the original first is that Brotherhood hurries over the early part of the manga because they assume that most of the fans had already watched the original.

Basically this. You can tell from watching Brotherhood that the staff is eager to rush into parts that weren't animated by the 2003 series yet.

BWR

2016-05-12, 12:29 AM

Brother Oni

2016-05-12, 05:34 AM

I want to say that's Osomatsu-san. At least, the way you describe it makes it sound similar to the premise of Osomatsu-san.

That's the one. I've only watched up to the second episode, while my wife has watched on - apparently it gets 'worse' (her way of saying it goes completely meta), bad enough not to watch it in front of our children.

I can't wait. :smallbiggrin:

Though both are available on netflix so we could probably try both eventually.

This would have been my actual suggestion, but I hesitate to recommend essentially watching the same series twice for people new to anime.

We gave Sakamoto desu ga? a shot since I like the other two you mentioned, and we were instant converts. Thanks for the suggestion.

No problem. :smallbiggrin:

Can I ask whether you've seen Jungle Wa Hale, Itsumo Nochi Guu? Since you're apparently not put off by Japanese oddity, you may enjoy this one as well.