Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Kelly
Posts: 868 Location: New York City |
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I especially liked the final arcs as well, including Bloodstained Labyrinth's reference to the Winchester House, which you might want to do a web search on if you aren't familiar with it. It often shows up in shows covering famous haunted sights in the U.S. Feeling that the characters weren't fully fleshed out might come from Ghost Hunt being based on a manga. We undoubtedly would have learned more had it gotten a second season (haven't completely lost hope for that as there's at least a small chance of it continuing once the manga is completed). Actually, considering that it's essentially a paranormal series I think they did pretty well. The scene where Mai and Lin finally hashed things out dealt with an issue that I haven't ever seen addressed anywhere else, and I loved Mai's relationship with Monk. Father John faded into the background slightly, apparently to make room for Yasu eventually becoming a regular, but they did make the point throughout the series without it ever being discussed that his social life didn't end just because he's restricted from dating. I think it would have been interesting for him to discuss choosing the priesthood and whether or not he thinks about a wife and children from time to time with one of his friends, since you don't usually see the priesthood from the point of view of someone who's presumably straight out of seminary. I'll probably be rewatching soon since it's October now, and I didn't rewatch in July when the Cursed House arc takes place (and from what I understand is the cultural equivalent in Japan to October here in the U.S. as far as the paranormal). |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1773 Location: South America |
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Watched recently:
Texhnolyse rated excellent. Great series, super atmospheric and very powerful. It's a bit weaker than Haibane Renmei and Lain though (though these series are almost impossible to equal). Ergo Proxy rated very good. Flawed but great post apocalyptic sci fi, it is not as artistic as Texhnolyse (very few series are) but it holds it's ground well and is a must watch for any science fiction fan. I also noticed that it's plot remembered me of the Nausicaa manga. I am also watching Black Lagoon, still haven't finished it. Very few series can be more entertaining though it is certainly not a work of art. |
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Animegomaniac
Posts: 4074 |
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An unspoiler viewer {"...a couple of interesting laughs"...}? I would love to hear updates. MaiHime was what introduced me to Kajiura's work, especially "Mezame". Garden of Words, I recently saw that one myself. Yes it's beautiful but. But what to fit in that "but"? "But what is Shinkai's problem with plotting, characterization, love and life?" Or "but why is unrequited or even unrequitable love not only a theme but a foregone conclusion with this guy?" Or even "but why is a foot fetishist becoming a cobbler? He wants to cover what he covets?" Thankfully, it's short. Yes, it's beautiful but it's short. No, "And". Maybe he should just do digital paintings... The only Shinkai work I can stomach is still "The Place Promised in our Early Days". Not because it's good but because there's a, whatyoucallit, a plot. I've started watching Great Teach Onizuka. It's good but after awhile, I have to wonder where the police are in all of this. "Call in the PTA!" No, no, try the SWAT team.. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6523 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo
I saw this at Cinema Nova in Carlton this afternoon as part of Madman's 2013 Reel Anime Festival. Synopsis: Fourteen years after the final battle depicted in Evangelion 2.0, Shinji awakens to find himself a prisoner in a gigantic aerial warship helmed by Colonel Misato Katsuragi. Her mission is to hunt down and destroy all remnants of NERV. Escaping with the aid of Rei Ayanami, Shinji returns to what remains of NERV headquarters where he and the ever cheerful Kaworu Nagisa try to restore the world to pre-third impact conditions by retrieving the two lances (Longinus and Cassius) from Lilith but, despite the best efforts of Asuka, Mari and Misato, it seems that all Shinji can do is inadvertently trigger the coming of the Human Instrumentality Project. In the background, Shinji's dad, Gendo Ikari, schemes against everybody and everything for whatever obscure reasons he ever has. 
Yeah, the usual easy symbolism abounds. Comments: Watching this instalment of the rebuild project reminded me of Edward Lorenz's butterfly effect: In the first movie the changes from the original series are minimal (more omissions than changes) but as the rebuild series has gone on it has diverged more and more. This, the third instalment, has no counterpart at all with anything that has been produced previously. This is an entirely new wrinkle in the fabric. There must be strange attractors at work, however, because, while it is completely different there is nothing new: Shinji is as annoying as TV Shinji at his worst; Rei is as boring as ever; Gendo is as inscrutably obnoxious as ever and, despite his best efforts, you just know Shinji's going to bring about the end of the world as we know it. The film is simultaneously both weirdly wrong and totally predictable. The film can be separated into three parts. The first and last are full-on action sequences, while the middle section has Shinji facing his demons, playing yaoi-laden piano duets with Kaworu and trying to figure out why Rei doesn't seem to know anything. In the first, Katsuragi's wondrous armada steals the greatly enhanced EVA unit 01 to power her flagship, which looks as if it has come straight out of Last Exile. This opening sequence, with Asuka fighting the EVA's defences as she re-enters earth's atmosphere, has a bewildering tempo but, after the gob-smacking 3D brilliance of 009 Re:Cyborg, comes across as comparatively ho-hum. The middle section tones everything down but brings back to the rebuild series everything that was most excruciating about the TV series and had hitherto been avoided in the films - emphasis on Shinji. And beyond him there isn't one single interesting personality or character in any iteration of the franchise. Well, that's not entirely true: Misato Katsuragi could be fun at times, especially when seiyuu Kotono Mitsuishi was at her most melifluous. Here she only opens her mouth to bellow orders. Shinji spends much of his time in characteristic foetal position while Rei spends her time perfecting her thousand yard stare. That's not to say the young female characters aren't sexy but, with most quiet time spent with Shinji and Kaworu, the camera doesn't linger upon them much. The action returns for a rip-snorting finale that had more in common with Gurren Lagann, what with all the explosions and corny stunts, than the original Neon Genesis Evangelion. There never was much philosophical substance to the franchise so if the producers wanted to up the ante I suppose the only way to go is the bigger and bigger explosions route. For all the noise and colour it was, in a word, boring. It's empty and silly and, this time, not even the action sequences could save it. 
I see Gendo has had his glasses upgraded. What next? Kamina glasses? Rating: so-so. Hey, I rated Evangelion 2.0 as good. This is a couple of notches below that. Last edited by Errinundra on Thu Nov 09, 2017 12:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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I am trying to find something that would captivate me; maybe Im too tired or my attention spam got shorter, but I have started a few series and can't finish either. Bakemonogatari just ended up being not my cup of tea, I dragged myself through the first 10 episodes without caring about anything, but will try to finish it at least.
Natsume's book of friends started slowly, it looks like a nice show, but I will watch at east the first season to see how it plays out. I am waiting for Moribito to come through as well, I have read a lot about it, and looks like something I am looking for. |
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OldCharlieStoletheHandle
 Posts: 1288 Location: Mastic Beach, NY |
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In between watching the baseball playoffs I have slipped in a few OVAs.
First was Strait Jacket, which was advertised as being a throwback to the "good old days" of super-violent OVAs. Well, it certainly is violent and bloody. Unfortunately, it's also boring and mediocre. When it isn't ripping people apart it's just a boring yakfest featuring characters that are about as interesting as wallpaper paste. It seems some people defend this anime because it's violent, but if blood is all you have, then why should I waste my time when I can just watch one of the old titles this is supposed to be inspired by. I rated this anime as "so-so". I also watched one of Sentai Filmworks' combo releases. Coffee Samurai is actually a Korean film, but this is only obvious from the credits. It's nothing special, but it does have a weird sense of humor about it. It's about a samurai who wishes for an iron body; centuries later (modern time) he gets his wish, sort of-he is reincarnated as a coffee vending machine that can sprout arms and legs. He also can take human form for short periods to fight. Other than the weird humor, this doesn't have that much to offer. I did find it somewhat enjoyable though. I rated it as "good". The other anime on the DVD, Hoshizora Kiseki, IMO really has nothing to offer. A girl decides to travel to a certain location to witness a falling star and meets a strange boy who must wear a space suit and is being used by some Men In Black to somehow communicate with the meteorite. It sounds like an interesting idea but it's not well executed. It plays like the Cliff's Notes version of a longer anime that isn't that good anyway. I rated this anime as "so-so". |
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mokporo
 Posts: 6 Location: Canada |
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Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Mainly because I am probably the only person on Earth who skipped out on this during its original run back in 2009/10. Figured I try it out and see what all the hype was/has been about.
Diabolik Lovers The original artwork from the otome game struck me as interesting, along with the character design. Now I see that it's just a bunch of vampires trying to entrap a human girl while she constantly questions why she was ever sent to live with them. Still going to continue watching it, nonetheless, to see what happens. Coppelion Originally wasn't going to watch this one, but that distinctive blue-green gradient similar to K Project from GoHands made me interested. Also the plot seemed decent enough. Kyoukai no Kanata Because it's KyoAni! Always enjoyed the animation from the studio regardless of story. The character design and story so far in the first episode intrigued so this will be my number one pick for this season. Strike the Blood Never heard about the manga until the series was announced and thought I'd give it a shot; also adds to my Fall 2013 watch list. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5503 Location: Mexico |
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Finished a handful of stuff in the last couple weeks:
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Rated it Excellent. It's just so much over-the-top fun I found myself rolling in the ground with laughter more often than not. Not much else to say, just that I really enjoyed it and I really hope they decide to make the next season. I find the concept of a hero that changes repeatedly very interesting, so I'd really like to see the third and following Jojos Mouryou no Hako. It was hard to rate this anime because it was so damn confusing. I watched it in one sitting and for starters, it took me half the show to realize the guy who attended the meetings with Kyogokudo and the guy who appears obsessed with the head in the box in the initial sequence were actually the same person. I don't know if that was intentional or not, but I spent a lot of time scratching my head and wondering about it. I think it had a really interesting premise for the first two minutes: A guy has a girl's head alive inside a box. Another guy sees it and becomes obsessed with it. That was great. Then the misteries start piling and getting insanely complicated (one girl disappears, other girls appear dismembered all over town, a priest is scamming people for faux exorcisms, there's a 20 minute explanation about what Mouryou are and they never truly come into play blah blah blah). Aesthetically, I think it did a lot of great things, and it managed to pull out a very interesting and striking background work and atmosphere, but it just seemed sort of wasted in a really fucked up story that doesn't make the tiniest bit of sense until the solution is literally spelled out to you. I wish I could rate it with a big question mark, because that's what I overall felt about it. Kara no Kyoukai. Rated it Decent. I liked the finale (though I believe I'm missing out on the epilogue films) and the visuals are nothing short of stunning. I understood the point of the series (I think) about Shiki accepting her true self (or multiple selfs) and figuring out what she wanted, but I'm not entirely sure if I understood why her journey had to be the way it was. Movie 6 seemed particularly disconnected from the rest of the story and seemed to have no consequence at all. I also felt it had some pacing problems -felt insanely slow at times, to the point of putting me to sleep- and I felt the gor-ish factor was exaggerated. I can't say I "enjoyed" it per sé, but the final conclusion left me satisfied and I may check out the upcoming film. I also started watching Tamako Market because I was too disturbed from Mouryou no Hako. It's actually really sweet and funny. I'm only four episodes in but it's a very simple feel-good show that at least is good enough to lighten up my mood. Today I watched the first episode of Saki. Not really sold on it. The subtle fanservice rubbed me the wrong way in that it seemed unnecessary, especially Nodoka's giant knockers and the strange way in which her uniform tightens over them. Like I said, not particularly hyped after the first episode, but will give it a few more episodes since mahjong actually interests me. |
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getchman
 Space CowboyPosts: 9120 Location: Bedford, NH |
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I got someone else that will bug you: no one appears to be wearing panties |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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Moments earlier, I finished watching both seasons of School Rumble. The show features a certain trio of students that seem to be involved in a love triangle: Tenma Tsukamoto, who is in love with silent Ōji Karasuma, who seems to be unaware of her interest in him, and Kenji Harima, an ex-troublemaker who is infatuated with Tenma, but is afraid to express his feelings toward her.
I had a seriously fun time watching the show to its end. From Kenji experience very unlucky circumstances that get in the way of expressing his love to Tenma to Kyōsuke Imidori often getting pummeled by Lara Gonzalez, the show had plenty of funny moments. Season 2 made the comedy all the more enjoyable. 
Rating for Season1: 4.5/5 stars. Rating for Season2: All 5 stars. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
Posts: 6523 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Pyscho-Pass
Reason for Watching: It has adult characters, an intriguing premise, is well ranked among ANN viewers and Bamboo Dong gave it a good wrap in the Stream. I watched it via Madman's Screening Room. Synopsis: In a future Japan, where everyone is under near total surveillance, people's emotional and psychological states are monitored so they may remain happy and free of criminal tendencies. Any deviation from the norm will result in therapy, or loss of status, arrest or even elimination. The process is controlled by the Sibyl system, a secret computing process that determines everybody's path in life, from cradle to grave. Occasionally, an individual fools the system by having no emotional response to their own actions or to the emotional state of others. In other words, psychopaths get a free psycho-pass. (In Japanese "θ" - voiceless th - and "s" are phonemically equivalent, so it's a pun, ha-ha.) Freshly graduated from university, Akane Tsunemori is selected by Sibyl to join the Public Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division Unit One just as it finds itself stymied by one such character who is out to bring the system down. Teamed up with Nobuchika Ginoza who, for all his intelligence, finds himself lacking the imagination to solve the mysteries, and supported by enforcers - people who have failed their psycho-pass and do the police dirty work - led by the highly intuitive Shinya Kogami, Akane must delve deep within herself to tap capabilities she didn't know she possessed. Comments: To start appreciating this series I had to overcome some of the hurdles it placed in front of me. First off it was the opening scene introducing the viewer to the chief rivals to be, Shinya Kogami and Shougo Makishima. Two poncey looking, testosterone overloaded, bulls locking horns. Things didn't bode well. When the sullen Unit One leader Ginoza made his entrance I suspected I would have to turn a blind eye to a bunch of tiresome male characters. I remembered I had a similar response to Batou and others when I first encountered Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (of which Psycho-Pass is surely the love-child) but quickly overcame my distaste thanks to its intriguing story. Things, however, were made much, much worse by the design of the point of view character, Akane Tsunemori, particularly her weird, triangular head and oversize Yoda eyes. It seemed her uber-moe features were preparing the viewer for her breaking or even her violation. 
Arch-villain Makishima and Unit One Enforcer Kogami. Happily their encounters aren't frequent. Happily, Psycho-Pass does a GitS:SAC and transcends the limitations of its male characters and its character designs, thanks to its fascinating technological vision, the equally fascinating contrast between what the villain - Makishima - is and the truth behind the Sibyl system and thanks, most of all, to the development of Akane from wet behind the ears newbie to highly principled leader. As Sibyl itself observes, Akane is the ideal citizen and its future hope despite her total antipathy to the goals and methods of the Sibyl system. While I grudgingly came to admit that Kogami wasn't as bad as I wanted, I grew to admire Akane's intelligence and doggedness. When Ginoza inevitably fails his psycho-pass, that Sibyl would choose a near clone of Akane as his replacement was one of several amusing touches in the final episode. I would also like to mention that, as an older male viewer myself, I greatly appreciated the presence of such an engaging older character as the enforcer Tomomi Masaoka, who always had some pearl of wisdom to impart to the others. That said, the eventual revelation of his close relationship to one of the other characters came across as contrived while, with the news there will be a second season, his departure and the description of Ginoza's replacement as a "minor" is ominous indeed. Structurally, Psycho-Pass is uneven. In the first half Unit One investigates a series of cruel and bloody murders with only a few hints that the culprits are being manipulated. If the plot seems to lack direction to this point it is compensated by the avatar technology on dislay and the exploration of the implications of the psycho-pass system. And, while the cruelty seems excessive at times, it wimped out when it mattered: in the portrayal of the climactic throat slitting scene in episode eleven. This is a cartoon, after all. It should have been unbearable to watch. It wasn't. The show takes off when, in order to recruit them as allies, Sibyl reveals, first to Makishima then to Akane, its true nature. The contest between the three ideals (if Makishima's motivations could be considered as such) is portrayed well even if that between Sibyl and Akane is left in an uneasy balance. Psychopath villain Makishima is ultimately disappointing. In a show about ideas he eventually becomes more or less marginalised. The race against time to stop him in the last two episodes seemed tacked on, especially when it took my attention away from the much more interesting fight against Sibyl. If Makishima disappoints as a character it isn't the fault of his seiyu, Takahiro Sakurai, who is superb. His cold, purring voice is both persuasive and chilling. Another great effort from the man who gave us Fakir from Princess Tutu and Yaichi from House of Five Leaves. He's getting better with age. Earlier I railed against the opening fight scene between Kogami and Makishima. Later in the series it re-appears in its proper sequence with its context now understood. The conclusion to the scene is also revealed. When it seems Makishima is about to kill Kogami, Akane arrives and brains Makishima with a blunt object. In the last episode it is again Akane who brings Makishima undone. Several times during the series Kogami threatens to take over from Akane as the point of view character. That Gen Urobuchi allows the seemingly uber-moe girl to prevail and grow to become an adult leader is emblematic of how Psycho-Pass ends up being better than it might have been. She has a dreadful design, all the same. 
Yayoi, Akane & Ginoza. Despite the unearthly face Akane eventually won me over. There's some amusing vignettes in the last episode coda. I've already mentioned Ginoza being replaced by an Akane doppelganger. I also got a laugh out of what the two female sex bombs of the police team - Shion Karanomori and Yayoi Kunizuka - get up to. I guess it's yet another example of one of the main themes of the series, from the avatar technology to the mastermind behind the murders, to the Sibyl deceiving masks, to Sibyl itself: things aren't what they seem. Rating: very good. It's appropriate to compare this with GitS:SAC. While Makishima isn't nearly as intriguing as the Laughing Man, the execution of Psycho-Pass is superior to the very uneven first season of GitS:SAC. It falls short of the nicely structured and constructed second season, though. I'm looking forward to its own promised second season. I hope it improves in the way its predecessor did. A Letter to Momo I saw this at Cinema Nova in Carlton this afternoon as the final instalment of Madman's 2013 Reel Anime Festival. I won't say much about it here because I saw it a year ago at the Melbourne International Film Festival where it was shown in a much larger, packed, venue on a huge screen. At the time I said I'd be harsh and rate it very good. On a second viewing, I've no doubt I was indeed too harsh so I've upped the rating to excellent. It never drags for a longish movie - 2 hours - while Momo and the goblins have grown on me even more since my first viewing. If this were a Ghibli movie, and it's better than anything from them since Spirited Away, it would have been rated by 1450 ANN viewers by now, not 145. This is a gem that seems to have flown below people's radar. It deserves to been seen by a wide audience. 
Momo and goblins. The guy on the right is about to display an explosive talent when dealing with wild boars. While seeing it in a smaller theatre added to the intimacy, the smaller images reduced the physicality of the goblins as well as Momo's body and movements. And, even though I knew what was coming, I had a reprise of tear drops plopping onto my cheeks at the big reveal, though not with the previous perfect symmetry. *** Overall ranking of the Reel Anime films: 1. A Letter to Momo 2. The Garden of Words 3. 009 Re:Cyborg Disposable: Ghost in the Shell: Arise - Border 01: Ghost Pain and Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo Last edited by Errinundra on Thu Nov 09, 2017 12:55 am; edited 7 times in total |
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Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
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Just finished watching the English dub of Princess Mononoke. This was my first time watching it, and I thought it was fantastic. The voice acting was stellar, the animation's held up very well, and the music is...well, it's Joe Hisaishi, so it's bound to be very well composed. Definitely one of Hayao Miyazaki's best films.
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danilo07
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I think people are very wrong when they make comparisons between Pyscho-Pass and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.Frankly I am not sure that Urobuchi even saw Ghost in the Shell,this show wears its influences on its sleeves and not once have they referenced GitS,not to mention that on official webpage GitS isnt mentioned at all while William Gibson and Philip K. Dick are.They are just influenced by same material,which is where all similarities come from.Psycho Pass is also much more perceptive and relevant to the real world than GitS ever is .This doesnt mean I think that GitS is worse than PP,quite the reverse I like it more than I like PP.However it is also a fact that GitS discusses ideas that are completely bananas and that cant be applied to reality in any shape or form.Psycho Pass offers a very good look at modern day politics,its views are very practical and like I said earlier relevant and true.
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Errinundra
Moderator
Posts: 6523 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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@danilo07,
I think people are very right if they draw comparisons between the two. If you use the ANN encyclopaedia's neat compare function for GitS:SAC and P-P you will see an extensive overlap in both staff and the companies involved. Having said that, I didn't suggest, nor do I believe, that the newer anime is an illegitimate copy. It is different enough to be judged on its own merits. It's interesting where they overlap. I agree with you that the Stand Alone Complex is a non-sensical idea, but the cyborg bodies and hackable brains aren't. For its part Psycho-Pass also has non-sensical elements: no explanation is ever given for how the avatar images are projected nor how human eyes can see them (at least in GitS:SAC human eyes can be hacked); or Sibyl being constructed from the spoiler[cannibalised brains of psychopaths]. Psycho-Pass can be sloppy, too. At the agricultural facility at the end, Akane turns off the main power and the back-up power to the entire facility, but that doesn't stop them from using its computer. Like you, I appreciated the political questions being posed by Psycho-Pass: how safety and happiness may be incompatible with justice and freedom. I particularly liked how Sibyl ironically concluded that control of the many depended on the existence of dissent from a few. Character designs apart, and GitS:SAC's aren't brilliant either, Psycho-Pass is better to look at. |
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danilo07
Posts: 1580 |
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[quote]I think people are very right if they draw comparisons between the two. If you use the ANN encyclopaedia's neat compare function for GitS:SAC and P-P you will see an extensive overlap in both staff and the companies involved.[/quote
Well I am idiot so I dont know how to use compare function,however anyone really essential to the creation of P-P wasn't deeply involved in a creation GitS.They are made by the same studio which explains why there is a big overlap in staff members,but that means that there is probably a big overlap of staff members in GitS:SAC and Kuroko's Basketball .
I wasn't talking about how non-sensical technology in GitS:SAC is,but how general ideas are.For example in season 2 Ghost in the Shell ,the main antagonist wants to deal with immigration issue by putting consciousness of immigrants into a cyberspace,yeah and the entire show takes this idea very seriously.On the other hand P-P is talking about how to change a system that doesn't function.Its answer is that there needs to a gradual change over time,trying to change a system through a sudden and fast revolution(the way Makishima wants it) will not be possible.When you look at today's world this message rings true,coincidentally couple of months ago I was reading a blog post by Stephen Walt who basically said the same thing when talking about the revolution in Egypt.
Episode 18,that is all I am going to say. |
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