Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
|
Goto page Previous Next |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
HoshiNoMiko
 Posts: 27 Location: Canada |
|
|||
|
Just finished Hellsing Ultimate and the original Hellsing TV series this past week. Sweet Jesus Hellsing Ultimate was a blast! I mean, I've seen complaints that the pacing is a little off, and that they don't delve as much into the characters as they do in the TV series(and I can sort of get that), but for the sheer action packed fun of it all? Yes, please! I am really disappointed I hadn't heard of Ultimate sooner. There have also been reviews that the animation in Hellsing Ultimate was lazy, and perhaps I just don't pay enough attention to animation at times, but I really didn't see it, and I've certainly seen other anime that were way worse. I will confess it would have been nice to see a little more back story on Integra and her relationship with her father(episode 10 or 11 of the original series was great for that), because it does pop up in the manga a little more, but it's not the end all be all. For the most part I was grinning like an idiot the whole way through, damn those fight scenes were wicked!
|
||||
|
||||
DuelGundam2099
 Posts: 533 |
|
|||
|
Yesterday I finally watched Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade. You know that one crowd funded one by Trigger. Didn't like it, the cast was obnoxious, the animation was very inconsistent, and the music was kind of stock and generic. Some good parts? The pacing was okay, specifically it wasn't too slow, and I sort of liked the humanoid elk giant at the end that was made of dirt and metal. If you've seen American college movies like Animal House you have a good idea of what the plot is about, misfits will get kicked out of school unless they do some razzmatazz project (in this case a parade). The first one at least felt sort of original (even if it felt too much like Harry Potter), here I cannot say the same; I'll give it some credit though, as much as I don't care for the cast I found them a lot less obnoxious here, mainly because the new characters don't yell as much or murder mythical creatures. I kind of knew what I was getting into and sadly I am a chronic completionist.
I'm going to compare this to a nice short I watched over the weekend called Over The Edge. It came out three years ago, it was over the top, and made with little money (just like LWA 1 and 2!). It is basically a horror story involving a fictional historical Japanese military in surreal looking old cities with a very enriching atmosphere, fitting music, consistent animation, and the cast was well rounded. All that in the course of ten minutes. In fact I dare say this is one of the best shorts I have ever seen and you can even find it through Google! In fact here's the MAL profile for those curious: http://myanimelist.net/anime.php?id=24127 So, those three series I've been watching, and all of them are at episode 9. Ghost Hunt has remained pretty much the same, but I am starting to notice that the animation quality is not what you call "stable" and admittedly the cast is kind of boring even if I like everything else going on. Still, this is probably one of the best ways to make an anime mostly in dialogue and make it work. Scrapped Princess is kind of more tolerable and I'm noticing similarities to Cross Ange which I'll withhold until this supposed twist around the end of the second third (I think nobahn or willag said it a while back); I will say that moments made for world building or action are given a back seat. Then there is Samurai Champloo.................................. I. REALLY. Want to rant about Mugann, really badly. However, I have been informed that people here do not want to read my rants or long paragraphs; with that said I am attempting to cut down on them. What I am going to say is if you're going to make someone this unlikeably dickish either make it clear they are a villain or establish the people they fight are bad people BEFORE hand. Also, not mugging random strangers or kicking people just for jogging would be very nice. He also freely admits he murders out of boredom. 
For the rest of the series I have two major problems with it. The first one is the actual plot which consists of "Help me find this samurai that smells like sunflowers". Two basic questions pop into my head: Why are Mugann and Jin agreeing and why is Fu looking for such a guy? The first question can at least be answered with the "well they have nothing else to do because they're nomads" idea; I thought it was because they wanted to kill each other, but after episode 4 they do not commit to that at all. For the second question there is no answer yet. Nine episodes and we don't even have character motivation. I had to have missed something. The other problem is the inconsistency in animation, anything that isn't a close up shot has people in faces resembling primitive emoticons. Constantly. Sometimes anatomy can be questioned on top of that and since action scenes have gotten shorter over time telltale signs point to "we ran out of money". I would say it sounds like Manglobe had questionable financing practices except I know nothing about that beyond them filing for bankruptcy earlier this year and that Ergo Proxy and Samurai Flamenco didn't seem to suffer. |
||||
|
||||
Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
|
|||
|
Continuing (possibly concluding) my month of obsessive Mitsuru Adachi reading/watching, currently on Hiatari Ryōkō!. Unfortunately I could only find half of the episodes translated so I'll be stuck at 24/48 until the team finishes the project.
A very sweet vanilla taste to this one. Being a shojou title it focuses on the girl more and focuses much less on the girl's body... (although it starts with the boy and girl meeting naked in the bath). It is also, partially, another baseball story, but the focus is so slight it's kind of funny, any other Adachi baseball team would win against this school's team in a called game in the 5th inning having plated a couple dozen runs. I'm going back and forth between the manga and anime on this one and one thing I can say is that the anime does quite a good job of stretching the story out (originally only 5 volumes). There were a couple unnecessary changes early on (the stuff with the Cheer Team captain is jumbled up and changed despite there being no problem with the original scenario) but mostly it very nicely deepens the effect of the main pairs developing romance by putting them into extra situations that really enhance their story and make it more natural. Although, in a career of simple and simply ugly character designs, these are probably the ugliest (the source story is, I believe, the earliest of any of the stories I've read watched- so quite underdeveloped). Every time they turn their head to a profile shot they look a bit like those lizards with the revolving eyes on the side of their heads. There's also one weird little thing that is only my head playing tricks on me. The background music that plays throughout... reminds me of "I Can Change" from the South Park movie.... so at least once per episode, usually during a quiet romantic moment, my head is repeating "I can change, I can change. I know I been a dirty little b--tard..." ...a little distracting 
[edit in...] Interesting. I was reading the manga at the same time as watching the series. I would read up to a good stopping point and then watch what the anime did with it. What I didn't realize was how little was left in the manga when I stopped and went back to anime. I have now finished both and find... almost everything of note from the manga WAS adapted in the first 24 episodes and the second half has to be almost exclusively original! The anime skips a couple short funny chapters, a "night alone" story, and the open-ended final confession of the boy. I'm maybe even more interested in seeing the second half of the anime now (and a sequel movie). I mean, it can't be true to the original, just one long extension... but the additions they included in the first half ARE really good and, well, the manga really doesn't have a satisfying ending... Last edited by Spastic Minnow on Sun Nov 15, 2015 3:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
||||
|
||||
louis6578
 Posts: 1861 |
|
|||
|
Just started The Seven Deadly Sins on Netflix. Heard about it from a friend at college that I lent my JoJo DVDs to, but he won't watch them until he finishes this show.
So far, everything about it is... fine. The animation is decent. The music is... okay, it's pretty good. The voice acting is decent in the dub. The story is wholly generic for a shounen. This feels like Fairy Tail 2.0 so far. Something needs to happen to get me to change my mind and it needs to happen fast. I'm on episode four. |
||||
|
||||
|
DuelGundam2099
Posts: 533 |
|
|||
|
So, things I watched recently because I have no life.
-Ontama! Basically Back to The Future in anime format! No wait sentai parody- No wait love triangle shenanigans- no wait spoiler[last minute ultra tragedy WHY THE HELL DID YOU HAVE THE FATHER DIE IN A CAR ACCIDENT IN THE LAST EPISODE WITH ALL THE LIGHT HEARTED BAD SLAPSTICK!?] I don't think this series knew what it wanted to be. The emotional bits felt extremely forced. The only other things I can add is "it was less than an hour in total" and "the sentai parody cannot decide if it wants to mimic the designs of Turboranger or Jetman". Also said sentai parody helmets look more like that toku trilogy Toho made in the mid-00s (yes, the Godzilla and Akira Kurosawa movies Toho). Pretty bad, but I have seen way worse. -When They Cry: Rei. A sequel to Kai with high production values and- Oh dear lord. The first and last episodes were horrifically bad comedies that didn't fit in with the other episodes; said middle episodes had a high stakes scenario that was legitimately creepy until spoiler[it was all a dream, nice cop out!] Filler and tacked on epilogue that was not necessary? I would have to say so! Especially when you take into consider continuity issues (was Miyo's actions from the finale of Kai just ignored afterward? why?). Worst entry in the franchise by far, but that is okay! Why? -When The Cry: Outbreak: Holy smokes, an entry in the franchise that FOCUSES ON HORROR!? Granted spoiler[it had a dumb cliffhanger ending] and had sluggish pacing, but it was actually okay. It took itself seriously, had a surprising amount of action, the horror elements were set up well, and it didn't have slice of life or comedy bits to slow it down. The more I think of it this franchise is a lot like Patlabor in terms of experience: Some nice stuff here and there, but mostly bad except for the final entry that ends on the highest note it made.... which was just okay. One thing remains consistent in the whole franchise: Nobody can draw legs and feet for some reason. 
I would like to think I finally ended the franchise there, but MAL (and for some reason not AniDB) claims that some series named Umineko is in the same franchise. That and according to Reddit four or five of the characters that frequently appear on /a/'s anime power level chart are from this series so unfortunately I cannot ignore it forever. Kind of like when James Rolfe was reviewing Dracula vs. Frankenstein and talked about Dracula, Prisoner of Frankenstein. -Samurai Champloo: Not enough to say about Ghost Hunt aside from Naru proving he is quite the suave genius and Scrapped Princess aside from having a lot of exposition being revealed that I like. For this series though there are two eps I want to bring up. The first being 12, which is a clipshow, which flat out addressed what I mentioned above. They are aware they have no motivation or anything to gain, but continue anyway! No character motivation and we're half way through!? On top of all that, it goes to show how little plot development occurred so far. In other words the staff working on this wasted the time of its audience AND flat out knew it while rubbing it in their faces. I am impressed by the level of insulting that is. Also ep 14, last ep I watched for this and the two mentioned above. According to AniDB this ep was the entire reason this series existed was because of this episode. You know what? It could have made a decent short. Japanese pirates outside of One Piece are not very common in anime. However, the animation errors continue, like when spoiler[Mugann loses a shoe after going overboard in a naval battle and he suddenly has it on again when he washes ashore.] The less I mention the fight with Jean and Mugann's former boss the better, all I'll do is yell "HORSE MANURE!" -Nodame Cantabile: Paris Chapter: Yup, time to take this on, and I am three eps in so far. It may have most of the problems the first series had, but the first episode had a better start with the humor being slightly better and there is an actual plot this time.... Which is what I would be saying if they did not compress the entire plot into the second episode. They also decided to cut out orchestra moments that could be used in future episodes, but.... Didn't. Somehow that episode had time for filler, I am impressed. The third episode was not much better, despite graduating apparently these people are still in school for some reason and there is a three month time skip because.................. Actually nothing changes aside from Megumi's outfits. At least it is improving itself (and is half the episode count). -Spectral Force: From the same people that made Skelter+Heaven and Mars of Destruction, like those this two part ova was a very low budget commercial on one of their game franchises. Unlike those other two I could find game footage on YouTube. I heard of this on Mike Tool's worst anime article and figured to give it a watch. Poor CGI and some stilted animation aside I thought it was decent, it had monsters, fantasy, adventure, and decent action complete with well sound effects that were done well as well as decent music for the ending theme. The cliffhanger in the first episode was dumb, but oh well. I would be seeing Valanoir as well, but I cannot find the second episode anywhere. That was the best thing I finished recently, now we get to the worst and oh boy do we have something. -Eiken: Looking back through the comments of said article I realized that I should have waited until after watching Infinite Ryvius to unload my thoughts there. I also noticed this title being mentioned around, got bored, looked it up, and noticed Anime America had a short video on it (not that I trust them since they think Light Yagami is a villain, think Paranoia Agent a Halloween anime without mentioning Devilman or Demon Lord Dante, and called Cross Ange the worst anime of 2014 when it wasn't finished). I saw that video, went "what the hell?" and decided to track it down........... .............You know people did not try when they cannot animate snow or mouth movement during dialogue scenes. The animation by itself is choppy with arms going through objects they shouldn't with baffling proportions and it is CONSTANTLY RECYCLED (the banana peel slapstick being the most common). They reuse these same shots and animations over four times in both episodes and the second episode completely rehashes the last third of its plot! There is also incomprehensible moments that don't make in-universe sense like the sports challenges, the robots, the deformed bear mascot (for a school on an island?), the main rival just going off to America for the first half, the slide challenges (which are insanely unsafe), and the MC dressing in a girl's swimsuit. Then there is the fan service. Absolutely loaded with panty shots, breast bouncing, innuendos, embarrassing moments, and freaking eels "attacks" (do not ask). Lets also bring up slide challenges, they were both yogurt and and chocolate. I get that yogurt in ecchi (and doujins) are meant to resemble semen, the "fan service" makes sense there. The chocolate though? They really went with scat appeal!? SERIOUSLY!? Revolting, repulsive, anguish, vile, disgust, abhorring, and sickening describe this well. You know an ecchi anime fails hard when my ecchi hound roommate gets ED watching how ugly and forced everything is. 
You know what? I know it has been less than two weeks since I unleashed this, but this has the most deplorable visuals of any anime I have ever seen. 1/10 Not just 1/10, it is worse than Puni Puni Poemii, at least the insanity in that made sense in its own context. This, on the other hand, could not even justify that. If nothing else in Eiken passed the child in bondage gear grotesque imagery in P3, it was the scat slide topped with obnoxious groping. |
||||
|
||||
|
louis6578
Posts: 1861 |
|
|||
|
^
Aw, bro. I thought Puni Puni Poemy was funny. Granted, it went overboard a lot, but I still found it amusing. Not something I'd regularly rewatch or anything. |
||||
|
||||
|
Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
|
|||
No. Stop it. Right now. Please. Okay, so I know there are people out there who believe Light Yagami was justified in every little thing he did throughout the series. They are essentially saying that he was right. That every person he killed somehow deserved it. To that, I say this- NOPE. NOPE. A MILLION NOPES. NOOOOOOOOOPE. Allow me to tell you why I do not think Light Yagami is a hero at all. Because he so isn't. Anyone who declares themselves God at the end of the first episode is far from heroic. In reality, people who pull that sort of sh*t end up in asylums and mental hospitals. "Oh," you say to me. "But Light Yagami killed only criminals, so he was actually doing a good thing!" What did Raye Penber do wrong? No, seriously, what did Raye Penber do to deserve his death at Light's hands? (You know, aside from being a chauvinist pig, but Light had no way of knowing that.) All Penber did was try to stop Light from playing judge, jury, and executioner. He wasn't trying to actively kill someone. Light killed Penber because he was just doing his freaking job. Then we have the case of Lind L. Tailor. Yes, he was on death row, but once again, Light didn't know that. All he knew was that this guy was proclaiming himself to be the great detective L. When did he write down Tailor's name? When he questioned the morality behind the Kira killings. It's only after Tailor's murder that the real L reveals that the victim was scheduled to be executed. Even with the rest of the criminals we see, Light didn't know them. For all we know, those very people who were executed by Kira were on their way to rehabiliation. In at least one case, we see a reformed criminal die in front of his wife and son. Who's not to say all those people who've had their names written down in the Death Note had loved ones who would miss them? As for me, I think Matsuda put it best; he has a good understanding as to why Kira did what he did. However, that does not make everything he did okay. It doesn't matter that Light had good intentions; HE WAS STILL WRONG FOR PLAYING GOD. Why do I take this so seriously? Because I know there are people out there who would actually use the Death Note if it actually existed. That's what makes Light so terrifying; you can't convince him he is wrong. Back to the topic at hand, I finished Tokyo Ghoul Season One. Daaaaaarn that be some good horror. I actually think I'm going to do an analysis post sometime in the future. Maybe I'll write up something on Ken Kaneki, because he's now one of my favorite lead characters in all anime. Oh, and the final fight scene was beautifully animated. Next up is Noragami!  b
[Edit]: removed some personal references. Errinundra. |
||||
|
||||
|
Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6525 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
|
|||
|
@ DuelGundam2099 and Akane the Catgirl.
By all means continue to discuss Light Yagami and Death Note, but please do so without any reference to each other or to other fans. For what it's worth I think one of the strengths of the series is that it makes someone as villainous and as unpleasant as Light so compelling. (Please note how I stated my opinion without criticising other people. Try to do the same. Thanks.) |
||||
|
||||
falcon.punch
 Posts: 693 |
|
|||
|
The Cyber Formula series.
I am more of a retro animu fan and its main character's voice is Sonic seiyuu before being the Blue Blur. After watching F-Zero The Legend of Falcon, Cyber Formula is in my priority list. |
||||
|
||||
|
Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
|
|||
|
@errinundra Roger dodger, old pal. (Huh, one measly paragraph. That's a record.)
I should talk about the other shows I've been watching! Ghost In the Shell: Standalone Complex- I'm going to say it right now; I like this show more than the 1995 film, and I've only seen a single episode. I absolutely adore Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's performance as the Major, as she puts in plenty of seriousness, but a lot of likability and wit. Oh, and Yoko Kanno is Yoko Kanno, as usual. (Stamina Rose is the standout so far.) Monster- What I found most interesting is that the entire premise is based on a moral dilemma, and follows the consequences of one man's choice. Liam O'Brien as Dr. Tenma is simply pleasant, and I also enjoy the character of Nina/Anna. I love anything that plays around with morality, so let the viewings commence! Paradise Kiss- Only three episodes in, but this series has plenty of charm. Miwako is just freaking adorable without being too cutesy-wootsy. I guess part of it is that the character herself is just so sincere and nice. She's easily my favorite of the cast. Steins;Gate- Best J. Michael Tatum performance ever. Seriously, it's like he was tailor-made for the part. Also, Rukako is best girl. Yes, really. MOAR RUKAKO. Also, this anime can get pretty damn sad at times. spoiler[I failed, I failed, I failed, I failed, I failed got me pretty hard.] So, that's all for now! I'll probably catch the first episode of Noragami before the end of the week. The trailer looked really good, so I have high hopes. See you! 
|
||||
|
||||
|
DuelGundam2099
Posts: 533 |
|
|||
Actually I consider him an anti-hero. The main reason I don't consider him a villain is because the author stated at one point only Mellow and his mobsters were actual villains in the series and technically the creator has a say in that. Besides, the instant his pencil touched a Death Note, even before completing the name of his first victim, he was bound for Mu regardless of what he did.... And we find out in the last episode there is no afterlife so really he was just exposed to the truth of death early so he figured "might as well fix this planet".
Technically he was using a god's tool so he wasn't that off (remember that the word shinigami does translate to "death god"). You know a story like this couldn't happen in America because people of every age range die of heart attacks on a frequent basis, I'm more surprised he didn't mix it up with brain aneurysms. Plus by the end of the series world peace being close was heavily implied so technically he got part of what he wanted and technically something good came from it. |
||||
|
||||
|
Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
|
|||
Actually, in Volume 13, both creators went on record to say that Light Yagami was the villain of the story. I'll confess; I think there is a HUGE difference between a character that is a villain and a character who is downright evil. A villain is someone who does a heinous thing that the story says is bad. An evil person is someone who is aware of this status and yet keeps doing whatever because they want to. Likewise, an anti-hero (non-classic) does something that the story says is good, but through morally questionable means. Light intrigues me in that while he's very much in the wrong, I feel that all of this could have been prevented had he been nudged in the right direction. (I have a theory that if Light didn't find the Death Note, then Teru would have become Kira Prime, purely by being even more insane than Light.)
So now America is the whole world apparently. Also, I don't think it would be a coincidence if one-hundred prisoners in a country the size of California die of the same thing within one day. Also, I don't think world peace would be worth it if an insane madman turned my country into a police state where you could be killed on a whim. And you have failed to give me a good reason why Light deserves not to be called a villain when both the creators and the narrative outright say he is several times. You don't see me justifying Shogo Makishima's deeds just because he had a good reason for trying to destroy the Sibyl System. He is still wrong for killing innocent people and committing acts of terrorism. |
||||
|
||||
nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
|
|||
This reminds me of the concept of American Exceptionalism; it is a concept that I profoundly disagree with. When I consider U.S. history, I am struck by its banality of evil. (and, yes, I am quite aware of the glass 1/2 full/empty argument) It seems to me that that I am digressing too far from the subject of anime; therefore, I will not comment any further. |
||||
|
||||
Night fox
 Posts: 561 Location: Sweden |
|
|||
That's because the author is an id- misinformed. You won't achieve world peace by killing all criminals, because society will just continue to produce more criminals. What you really need to do is reduce poverty, segregation and unemployment. Give everyone a decent education and suppress racism and all forms of extremism. |
||||
|
||||
A Mystery
 Posts: 1886 Location: Netherlands |
|
|||
|
Rewatching Rurouni Kenshin.
It's weird how the first season was all happy go lucky sans a few genuine serious moments with mediocre animation and okay music. All about making us care for the characters and to set up some nostalgic moments I suppose. Funny thing is, if you didn't know that it would get so different afterwards, you'd never ever guess it. Then, the second season kicks in and gives us this heartbreaking moment in episode spoiler[31] after a few episodes of thrilling fights, uneasy feelings, better plotting, excellent music and better animation. Right from the beginning of a certain episode you know it's going down and you'll be hurting along with the cast. Even though I knew what would come, I'm still surprised at the effect while rewatching this. It's sad not all of the material was adapted and given the masterpiece treatment with flawless music, pacing, directing and animation. This title deserves a good all-in adaptation, beginning to end, with animation and music that will make it a timeless watch. Even though this second season is so compelling, I doubt new fans will come. Though I think my heart would've been broken if everything was done so well as the Trust&Betrayal OVA was 
One can only handle so much feels, whether it's about the drama or the fights that would make me too excited. --------------------------------- Also, watching Noragami Aragoto. While the first season was already good, it's weird how it's got a similarity with Rurouni Kenshin in the way it's adaptation's been handled: a good beginning with some feels, filler in the end of the first season and then BAM the drama, fighting and just everything gets better and made me teary eyed multiple times in the Bishamon arc. All that in a shorter time span with a funny dorky God though. |
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group