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What are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)


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DuelGundam2099



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 533
PostPosted: Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:53 pm Reply with quote
I just finished the original Ghost in The Shell (or GitS 1.0 as I call it since there is a 2.0 and a bunch of other entries). How the HELL did I not watch this sooner!? It has so many things I like:

-action
-philosophy
-psychology
-well done art style
-fast pacing
-superb animation
-no bad music
-conspiracy theories
-cerebral-ness

I am definitely watching more of this in the future!
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Akane the Catgirl



Joined: 09 Oct 2013
Posts: 1091
Location: LA, Baby!
PostPosted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 2:45 am Reply with quote
^ Well, I'm glad you liked it. I lot of people do. It's just that...um...

I thought it was just okay.

No really, it's not a bad movie. To be honest- and I've never said this before- I really wanted to like this movie. I like the ideas and thematic content in it, and I like the world the film takes place in. It's just that the script...is kind of a mess. Now maybe this is because I watched it in English, but the script is maybe-sort-of-possibly-kinda-up-it's-own-butt. I don't mind philosophizing when it feels like it's the characters opinion, but it didn't in this case. What I'm saying is that the unnatural and, quite frankly, pretentious dialogue lowers the film from great to okay for me.

Also, I noticed you left out two very important things in your list. You forgot to include "story" and "characters". That'd be like me forgetting to include flour and sugar in a recipe for cake. You cannot have a good movie without those two very essential ingredients, in my opinion.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 11:42 pm Reply with quote
I spent all of sunset finishing up Mahoromatic. A boy named Suguru Misato was on his way home from school via bus ride when, suddenly, he found himself caught in the midst of a highway robbery. It wasn't long before a maid named Mahoro decided to confront the armed robber, in which she successfully won the battle with the help of her android powers. After Suguru shared his story with Mahoro concerning how he was orphaned, he convinced her to live with him as a maid.

I enjoyed Mahoromatic very well. The ending was particularly a pleasantly surprising twist to a somber moment in which he succumbed to depression twenty years since Mahoro's battle with Feldrance that ended with Mahoro using her deadly signature attack against him, spoiler[killing her instantly, but taking her opponent with her]. I thought the show was really heading for a tragic end.
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Hikari14



Joined: 30 Oct 2010
Posts: 1040
PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 7:08 am Reply with quote
Rokka no Yuusha, Mizuiro Jidai, Idol Densetsu Eriko. Discovering new shows is fun! Laughing
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 4:27 pm Reply with quote
Just finished Stellvia, which took me some time to obtain, but I'm glad I did. Seriously though, what was up with that tin box with the slide thing on the top? And dammit, Geneon, 8 discs? Again? I know that was sort of your thing but... I don't like it. Though I do like having the artwork preserved from all 8 singles I suppose.

Anyway, it's a shame it wasn't recused out of that big ol' Geneon heap, because it's a pretty awesome series. There's two major arcs (the first ends at ep 10 or 11 I think?), so it merges both slice of life and a "defend the Earth" plot. We have our core cast, but we mostly follow Shima Katase, an extremely gifted student in the space program at space station school. I think the character development was well done and always enjoyable to watch, though the romance towards the end just got to be a little "talk to each other, dammit! This isn't Ranma 1/2!" Though I can see the lower production values turning people off these days. The CGI was used only in space, but it was pretty obvious, though at least not jarringly hideous like I've come to expect. But the character designs were both plain and with over the top anime hair at the same time. I'd still recommend it to people who want a more slice of life space station series and I wish it weren't so out of print.

Also almost at the end of Dear Brother, which is taking a bit longer because it's a 3 cour series. But it's still as over the top melodramatic as ever, and sometimes I just have to yell at Nanako for never learning her lesson that people who want to meet you over the phone tend to lock you in rooms for several hours. I mean, seriously, Nanako, this happens way too often to you. But I'm enjoying seeing the drama ramp up and down like a roller coaster, as soon as one conflict is over, another is well in the works. I can tell it's just not going to be as good as Rose of Versailles, but that's cool.

Oh and a quickie, the new Discotek release of the 1975 Toei The Little Mermaid movie. The first half is similar to the Disney movie, but with a dolphin friend instead of a fish (which causes confusion to me as Marina isn't yet old enough to go explore the surface like her sisters, but her dolphin friend has never been either. Dolphins are mammals. They need air to live. So, she should've been friends with a dolphin's corpse), but then it follows the proper ending of the story (and if you don't know it, I won't spoil it). I like that the prince isn't just brainwashed and stupid either. But one thing I cannot figure out, what is up with the cat? I don't think it's the witch (who gave her a potion to turn her human, so she could do it on the surface and not almost die underwater, which was a good idea), because it has a clear history with the prince and other characters. But the damn thing talks and tries to kill Marina. Actually, why does that bird talk too? I let the sea creatures slide because fantasy sea life, and if that dolphin doesn't need air, I guess talking is ok, but like, the cat talks! To lots of people! And no one finds this to be strange! And they must've had that cat for a while, just argh! WTF! THAT CAT, WTF, MAN, WTF?! Also, for being 1975, the animation can be really damn good, like during the storm. It's overall pretty good, though Disney was much better at making the underwater parts feel actually underwater where here, they could be in the air surrounded by kelp, so that could've been improved. But if you want to show your kids a non-Disneyfied version and don't mind that the occasional nipple shows up (mer-teens do not wear clothing), though it's not used sexually at all, then I'd say go for it.
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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1857
PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 6:48 pm Reply with quote
I admit, I got to the part of Rurouni Kenshin's Kyoto Arc where spoiler[Kenshin's sensei passes on] and two things caught my praise. That moment, and Makoto Shishio's conversation about whether or not there is a hell. That was a badass speech from one of my new favorite shounen villains of all time.

Edit: Never mind. They copped out. spoiler[He's not dead.]
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TRNielson



Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Posts: 182
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 3:10 pm Reply with quote
Literally just finished Wolf Children and wanted to put my initial thoughts down...

Why the hell didn't someone tell me about this movie sooner? Everything I want and love in anime, this movie delivered for me. A cute couple? Check. Cute kids? Check. Tragedy? Check. Growing of age and finding your place in the world? Check. And, my guaranteed tearjerker: a beautiful story about a parent(s) and their children.

For those who don't know about it (as I was roughly four hours ago) Wolf Children is a sweet tale about a woman who falls in love with and marries a wolf who can transform into a human. They have kids and the story focuses on raising the kids who are also wolves who can transform into humans.

As I said above, my guaranteed tearjerker is a show that focuses heavily on the relationship between parent(s) and children. This movie winds up being an almost opposite of Usagi Drop as not everything works out as well as you'd expect, especially with two toddlers who can't stop themselves from transforming into their wolf forms whenever they get upset, get bored, or just feel like howling at the moon. Yuki's hunger tantrums and the way she would go crazy and start running all over the place was adorable. I even loved the part where Hana gets caught between a rock and hard place, unsure to take Yuki to either a hospital or a vet when she got sick.

The whole movie was just a beautiful coming of age and finding your place in the world as both kids (Yuki and Ame) try to figure out which world they want to belong in: the human world or animal world. And caught in the middle of their journey is Hana, who's absolutely a contender, if not the winner, of Best Mother in Anime award.

But where the tears really got flowing spoiler[was when Hana is knocked out trying to find Ame in the forest and she has the vision of the Father. The sweet (if imagined) reunion between those two, followed by Hana desperately shouting for Ame to not leave her, to accepting that Ame has found his place in the world; all of it had me a near mess. The tears were there but hadn't yet fallen. Then they show Yuki going to middle school and Hana sitting alone in her house, leaving the food in front of the Father's picture. I lost it at that point. It took the entire credits for me to calm down afterwards.]

I'm hesitant to rank it right now, as I feel it needs two or three more viewings before giving an honest rank. But as far as a story taking everything I love and putting it all together in a short, two hour block, Wolf Children might get a Masterpiece in my book. Highly recommend it to anyone with two hours to kill (may need some tissues handy for the end, though).
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DuelGundam2099



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 533
PostPosted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 4:27 pm Reply with quote
Earlier today I finally finished Vampire Knight Guilty. It was better than the first series, had some nice twists and the action and final battle weren't bad. It also had improvement in pacing as it went on. However, the ending felt like it had tacked on melodrama and the villain could have been done better.spoiler[Incest? Really? They went there? Well they're vampires and royalty so I can tolerate it. Zero having a twin brother felt more like an excuse to eat up run time, but that's just me.] I also marathoned a short series called Aiura, best known as the anime that pillow throwing gif 4chan uses in its banners came from. So boring with such obnoxious music with not much else to talk about. I'd complement the art style if the people involved could draw things like leaves, food, and FRICKIN DOOR FRAMES. How the hell do you mess up a rectangle? Confused The other things I'll save for later, be warned in advanced as Maria The Virgin Witch fails at basic Judeo-Christian theology and I prepare my warp-enhanced chainsword to carve this turkey like a dark eldar (I would have went with tau except they bother wearing armor stronger than wet toilet paper).
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TRNielson



Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Posts: 182
PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 3:01 pm Reply with quote
Got my hands on When Marnie Was There today. As sad as this is to admit, this was my first Studio Ghibli movie. Thoughts are as follows:

For all the hype I heard going into this, for the most part, I was starting to feel let down. The slower pace plus the plot left me a little confused and a little feeling like there had to be more.

Then came the last twenty or so minutes and all those thoughts went out the window. All of a sudden, it comes out and just hits you like a sledgehammer and just does not let up. By the time everything was explained, I was left feeling very satisfied with how the story played out and finally felt very sympathetic for the main leads.

Of course, any great anime has to have at least one scene that left me either with tears in my eyes or just straight up crying. Of course, this movie delivered. spoiler[The final scene as Marnie is waving goodbye out the window as Anna drives away broke me in an instant. Before I even knew what the hell had happened, I was wiping away the tears. Such a powerful, beautiful, and bittersweet ending.]

As I can't compare them to any other Studio Ghibli film, I can't say anything. However, I can say that for the diehard anime fans or someone who likes their plot a little on the slower side with a great emotional payoff at the end, this is the movie for you.
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DuelGundam2099



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 533
PostPosted: Sat Oct 10, 2015 10:14 pm Reply with quote
Alright, things I complete the past few days:

-Blade of The Immortal: Mediocre pacing, some good action, dialogue should have been trimmed down, and the lack of a proper ending severely hindered it although it didn't do a lot of things wrong so I'll consider it great.

-One Off: Four episode slice of life junk without a plot that barely ties anything together, it was basically Aiura with a motorcycle theme and the people working on it could draw scenery. The background music was surprisingly decent.

-The Portrait of Little Cossette: Three episodes of psychological horror, the art style was nothing short of phenomenal, but holy fudge did it jump around too much. Let me see if I get the plot straight: spoiler[Some little girl in old timey France (Cossette) was killed by her dad who made portraits of her, said portraits formed a ghost that cursed him and all his reincarnations, some guy happened to be a reincarnation, the portrait ghost tortures him after he finds her old artifacts including turning him into a giant mummy just to maim him (for real), she goes soft on him and he finds the real Cossette and figures things out, and makes a portrait of her with his blood to beat the real one.] The pacing in this would have been much better if they dropped the side characters who do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT ENDLESSLY JIBBER. Add onto that the fact they don't bother naming the realm where the living and dead meet (is it so hard to call it the Nether World?) and this seriously could have been 1/10 territory, but those production effects were pretty enough for me to consider it just meh.

-Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge: Monsters, Halloween, fighting, close enough. The first episode was such an amazing set up that the rest of the anime fell apart after it.

>characters disappear from the story
>questionable animation
>the Darkstalkers that don't appear quickly die off in the last episode
>too much talking scenes with humans
>that poor lack of world building
>that finishing move was dumb spoiler[Donavan formed a black hole inside of Pyron HOW?]

It did have plenty of good moments, granted I did research on Darkstalkers before watching thing, but I got enjoyment out of it enough for me to consider it just okay. Makes me wish I played these games as a kid, I would have loved them. Sad
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louis6578



Joined: 31 Jul 2013
Posts: 1857
PostPosted: Mon Oct 12, 2015 8:22 pm Reply with quote
Finished rewatching Bebop. I think Brain Scratch may be my favorite standalone episode. It also feels like Ed was underused, like she could have been a little more than just comic relief. I'm glad she was there though. I liked her. She never overstayed her welcome.

Faye though... ugh. I can go from hating her to feeling alright about her, but I never once liked her. I dunno, a little too much attitude. I often questioned whether or not she really cared about the rest of the crew.

Upon rewatch, there's tons of moments I overlooked previous times. Particularly in Jupiter Jazz and The Real Folk Blues part 1. Everyone has a favorite moment, for me though, my favorite "musical moment" is the "Call Me, Call Me" sequence from Hard Luck Woman. My favorite moment overall varies. Awesome moment is probably the big finale, emotional moment is probably the end of Speak Like a Child. But my favorite moment for other reasons is definitely Spike's Tiger Striped Cat story in the last episode.

I think I'll go back around and watch Vision of Escaflowne subbed. I got through half of it dubbed but... I think around 19 I just lost the will.
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DuelGundam2099



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 533
PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 1:54 pm Reply with quote
I just finished Maria The Virgin Witch and I am so torn. By technical standards the art, fast pacing, decent music, good action, plot, character development, and consistency should grant this series a perfect score from me. A quick minor complaint is that Michael is so shiny that like with Freezing Vibration I have to move my monitor around, but that is not my main complaint. Rather the writing and philosophy done screwed up big time.

Maria is trying to stop wars from happening which interferes with the balance of life because things die (obviously). Throughout the anime this balance idea is brought up and challenged and the main defender is spoiler[a monk that goes insane, Bernard to be specific.] Laughing Oh dear, the people making this either stopped doing his research half way in, looked only at the book of Job, or set up a massive strawman fallacy. Spoilers if you never read the Bible after the Torah portion of the Old Testament! In the books of Ezekiel and Revelation (Edit: and Isiah, sorry for misquoting!), Lucifer was God's favorite angel who got prideful and lead a third of the angels to fight him and that backfired horribly (for them, good for us though). Instead of punishing them right away God granted them the Earth for a time, biblical intellectuals I knew have concluded this was likely God challenging Lucifer to see if he can do better with less and because the devil and his followers fell out of pride they accepted as well as critique God's creations (specifically mankind). The main prophets and Jesus were sent to guide the Hebrews and the rest of humanity how to avoid being temped by these angels, mainly through the five covenants (four if you're Jewish), knowing their time is almost up and the most faithful and loyal can skip the last and most brutal portion of their "we hate humans" party Satan is doing on Earth aka the Armageddon. Granted I am over simplifying this.

What does this mean for the anime in question? Simple, the "interference" in question is that the fallen angels still have their remaining time before their punishment! And since we haven't seen these witches worship the devil or anything of the sort there's a good chance they threw a fit and the forces of Heaven didn't disagree. The seven angels and seven bowls haven't heated the Earth just yet and there isn't anything humans are capable of doing other than not be persuaded by the fallen angels. What the witches, specifically Maria and her familiars, are doing is basically interfering with the coming of the end of the world. Indirectly, but they are. All this to say "this contemporary ideology clearly has superior to your religious beliefs" to the dominate religion of the planet. That shadowy colossus mentions God isn't immune to the wheel, referring to time, which is kind of insulting since God created the very concept of time and can do whatever he wants with it. In fact that is what Judgment Day essentially is: The end of time. Continuing with questionable bits on angels this anime seem to have

>"spear of heaven"
>is a sword

And why is Ezekiel disgusted with sex? Ignorant humans make sense, but by her logic the creation of life is abominable.... Despite knowing better and being older than humans and being from Heaven would theoretically be more knowledgeable and the implications here SCREAM STRAWMAN ARGUMENT/FANFICTION DRIVEL (would Maria make a Mary Stu- oh lord that makes too much sense)/GAVE UP TRYING/Hamburger ramble scramble indigo laffy taffy bacon on the Space Needle dancing on a trampoline WEN-DI-GO this is no zaku boy hello my baby hello my honey dance into the fire you give love a bad name banana slama gotta go fast- And I think I just broke my brain.


Last edited by DuelGundam2099 on Mon May 02, 2016 5:04 pm; edited 1 time in total
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TRNielson



Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Posts: 182
PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 6:49 pm Reply with quote
Sitting at work, rewatching The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya because I can find it on YouTube. It happens to be a great movie, too, but mainly watching it just cause I found it on YouTube and need to kill five more hours.
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DuelGundam2099



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 533
PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 9:55 pm Reply with quote
>my gravestone pic is gone

I thought I had a good joke in that. Sad Anyway, now that my brain has been repaired by scotch tape, an office stapler, and what I assume is lemon pudding, time to update on what I've been watching, both being at episode 10. Lets start with Little/Chibi Goddess Karin. After getting past the introductory bits and the awful music I found this somewhat decent like Cardcaptor Sakura. Yeah, the animation is subpar, there could be more action, and it distracts itself a lot with fluff; a nice example being episode 10 having everyone relax at a hot spring and the bad guy (oh I'm sorry, "Kirio") deciding not wanting to attack off the bat and fight later was dumbfounding and out of nowhere. It was almost worth the cross dressing hijinks. As for the actual plot what little has developed is that time shenanigans are occurring and there is some small boy in a rabbit outfit running around. I feel like I'm being too hard for something trying to be cutesy and a straight forward kids series. I think it mind end up being okay. A pity then I cannot say the same for Nodame Cantible. Some composer got POed after his harem went for the male lead one night and that starts a competition between them and that is the main conflict of the series. Also in episode 8 said compose is briefly deported before hijacking his plane offscreen. The animation is lackluster aside from some CGI use with instrument playing and.... That's it. There is nothing to grasp at. There is not much else to even critique, everything is just.... Bland. I even ask myself "how do I review this?" It hasn't done anything particularly wrong at this point, but nothing right either. My question is why is this considered one of the best anime romances ever? Serious question. Out of all the romance anime listed on Wikipedia, here, MAL, AniDB, stream sites, etc. this is one is among the best? Is it because it is good for entry level anime fans? Does the good stuff happen later? Are most anime critics music enthusiasts and I'm in the minority? Is there a running joke on /a/ about this and they decided to archive it on their recommendation charts? It got popular enough to get a live action series, I know that much.

And no I'm not questioning people liking it, what I'm asking is why give this the pedestal. Where's the beef? Laughing Might as well talk about things airing I am watching.

-Ushio and Tora: Nice art, monsters, and fights, but the music is mediocre and this series does not have much suspense wise.

-Fafner Exodus Season 2: Nice and actiony with plenty of plot bits and the festum still being among the best anime monsters of the week ever, splitting this up screams unnecessary.

-Aquarion Logos: No complaints and it's Aquarion, the real question is where will it go from here after such an epic mid-season fight.

-Gundam: Iron Blood Orphans: Even as Gundam fan this isn't clicking with me. Like 00 it feels like a completely different real robot series with a gundam thrown in. The music is.... Eh. Any scene that isn't action or has world building comes across as very slow paced and to some degree even filler. I have nothing. Part of me thinks this is a Dougram remake, but more.... I want to say fluid? Only other Gundam series not to draw me in right away were ZZ and Turn A and the former turned out fine while the latter was mostly problems yet still managed to be good. Then again Age had a fine first third so it isn't too late for nose diving just yet. Laughing
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nobahn
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Joined: 14 Dec 2006
Posts: 5120
PostPosted: Fri Oct 16, 2015 10:15 pm Reply with quote
^
You should post your reasons for disliking Nodame Contabile here. I'm not being facetious.
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