Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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DuelGundam2099
 Posts: 533 |
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Just finished the last episode of Code Geass: Akito The Exile and.... Well dang Sunrise, you almost made up for the first three eps!
>all that action >so much action >like, actual action >actiony action >side characters are relevant in a nonpretencious manner (I find that rare) >Ashley confirmed for best character in the story >that final battle >anti-geass a part of geass? Yeah, I buy it >time travel >a pretty good ending Granted it didn't need spoiler[Ash's Alexander learning teleport, how the hell did he do that?] or spoiler[the main squad and Leila end up living with gypsies for no real reason], but I'm calling it great. Could have been better, Jean had potential to be a decent character, but wasn't fleshed out enough, she could have been Kallen done right! Yes /m/, quote me on that.  On another note....
>goes to Hulu for the first time in a good year >suddenly logins are mandatory >also all that choppy loading just by moving the screen down I was seriously going to try Clannad or Angelic Layer if not for Hulu trying to be Netflix 2.0 (or am I thinking Amazon Prime?). Eh, I was planning on seeing Gundam Thunderbolt sooner or later, may as well be next. |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2261 |
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Just started Yuri Kuma Arashi. I can see why this may not appeal to everyone. I'm 3 episodes in though and really liking it. The imagery of the main character basically living in a Norman Bates style home spoiler[and hearing the voice of her dead mother] was very interesting. Some of the language used is fairly straight forward like when they ask "spoiler[Do you wish to be invisible or eat humans?]" Maybe too straight forward? I'm curious to see where it ends up, but as it stands it doesn't seem to have enough gas for more than its 12 episodes. I guess I'll just have to see.
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DuelGundam2099
Posts: 533 |
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^Prepare to ask very basic questions like "where are the men?" and get no answer. As bad as I find Utena and Penguindrum they at least made sense in their own universe which is more than I can say for lesbian bear storm.
Anyway, Gundam Thunderbolt. /m/ was right, the jazz music is kind of annoyingly unfitting and lightning in space without any scientific backdrop is kind of stupid. Other than that though this is hands down the best entry in the franchise since the 00 movie, it is almost as if someone as Sunrise or Bandai thought "maybe we should cut out the nonsense and put in only stuff that has relevance" and boy howdy did they succeed! In fact I dare say this is the best UC side story after 0083, it had enough art, pacing, action, and animation to get the job done splendidly, I declare this entry excellent. After that I watched that four part anime that aired earlier this year based on that old short She and Her Cat: Everything Flows. It was.... Okay. The music tried to hard to be sappy, but the animation and art were kind of good. Finally there is Digital Juice aka six tech demos that were kind of obnoxious and only got worse with each installment. The animation with early CGI was pretty much the only thing this had going for it, the shorts are otherwise obnoxious with their sound (provided you can hear it, who mixed this?), the pacing varies heavily, some of them too hard to act like dementia while having a plot, and what plots you do get in them makes no sense (and are technically closer to situations than plots). You know you have a problem when a generic samurai "mu-churr" anime opening with rock music is the best foot forward. I like experimental shorts, but with that said they can easily vary and these in particular were horrible. |
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One-Eye
Posts: 2261 |
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I liked Thunderbolt and wanted more, but I agree with you about the music. I found it to be a bit unsatisfying. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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Last night I watched the 1995 film of Ghost in the Shell. It was an awesome introduction into the life of Major Motoko Kusanagi and the neurological adventures of cyborgs. I was awed by how one could be prone to having their memories altered or even erased by a dubious hacker.
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fryguy81
 Posts: 29 |
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Catching up on all the Lupin I can.
Assassination Classroom: I absolutely love the premise, the mystery, the humor. Osomatsu-san: I don't normally laugh at Japanese comedy... but Osomatsu-san is point blank hilarious. The voice acting is so on point I can't help but enjoy. "OBAMA!!!" Erased: I've just started this one, but I'm already hooked. Such a good hook and who doesn't love a good mystery with Sci-Fi abilities mixed in. Genshiken: Nidaime- I love Genshiken. Absolutely have loved Genshiken since it first released back in the mid 2000's. Finally taking time to watch this final season (so far) because I've held it off for long enough. |
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DuelGundam2099
Posts: 533 |
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It is, wait until you finish it. Anyway, yesterday I took on that two part Twin Angel: Twinkle Paradise ova which I'm calling Gaiden because it is a side story/epilogue. Fun fact: Nobody subbed this so I watched it entirely raw! The heroes go to a place called the Phoenix Hotel to body guard some rich girl named Lilica (thank you eyecatch card!) and it also features an Italian smuggler (who I sincerely thought was Mexican until you find out he is smuggling noodles so weak that putting your fingers together can cut them even though they can be used for strangling). Hijink shenanigans ensue in the second episode because until the very end the first episode was basically vacation touring aka time wasting. Seriously, about sixty percent of the first half could have been scrapped. There is also some random girl named Eris (only thanks to the eyecatch card) who has magic powers, acts as an antagonist, and calls herself Dark Phoenix. 
She does very little; because I do not read manga I don't know if she did things there or not. Also incest that was implied in the series is confirmed to be canon, oi. Top that off with some random guy being the one ending up saving the day by punching the smuggler's hair off and you get basically lackluster episodes of the main series. It is bad, but compared to all the junk I've seen over the years this doesn't even crack bottom 150, it is basically an unnecessary epilogue more than anything. After that I took on some three part OVA called Cleopatra DC and wow do all the women have pencil necks and have excessive eyelashes. I thought this would be an amusing action story, but that would imply the main heroine does jack squat, most of her actions come from luck and unprofessional (yes, destroy the space shuttle NASA must have invested billions in doing instead of doing proper detective work ahead of time and bring a suction cup dart gun to a military sting operation). The first two episodes seem consistent in ripping off James Bond movies, but then the third episode adds another twenty minutes to its length and involves an artificially created psychic girl. Nice way to be consistent in your tone! /sarcasm Add stock music, cheap animation, and slow pacing and you get this which ended up being meh. The best part of this was the main villain, Colonel Karts, as far as comical villainy goes I think he did a good job. 
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Mr. Oshawott
Posts: 6773 |
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Finished watching Angel Links today. In this show, a spin-off of Outlaw Star, Meifon Li, a 16-year-old girl, heads a security company that's devoted to protecting cargo from theft of pirates. While Meifon and Friends make pirate hunting a cinch, Meifon has a personal challenge that she has to resolve by herself: her mysterious past.
I found Angel Links to be a wonderful show of excitement, sorrow, and happiness. The ending was a beautiful and emotional one. Edit: Oh yes! 4200 posts! 
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Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
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So...I watched the first episode of Sword Art Online. It was- drumroll please...
OKAY! That's all. It was perfectly, utterly servicable. I will give credit in that both A-1 Pictures and Yuki Kajiura are giving their all. I liked a lot of these shots, and that opening music was just...Kajiura. So, those are my thoughts on the production values. What about the meat? Well, let's start with the positives. Is it weird that I actually kind of like Klein? I mean, there's just a certain charm to this guy. Maybe it's his newbieness that makes me want to follow him. I hear he's a fan favorite too, so that's good. Kirito...how do I begin? All of his dialogue can be summed up in two flavors: 1) Exposition about the world of SAO. 2) "I like video games." Maybe that's why I like Klein so much. Kirito just doesn't stand out amongst a sea of generic protagonists. I don't know anything about this kid, other than his background and his love for games. Is he smart? Is he outgoing? Is he mischievous? What's he like at school? What's he like around his family? I don't know! I can't connect with this character because they don't give me anything to go off of! And what's worse is that this is the first episode! I should know more about Kirito as a person! Steins;Gate's beginning established Rintaro Okabe as a weirdo and a bit of a jerk, but also adorkable and caring towards his friends. Tokyo Ghoul introduced Ken Kaneki as a timid bookworm who just wants a normal life after turning into a Ghoul. Kill la Kill starts off with Ryuko as a brash, world-weary delinquent with a chip on her shoulder and a desire for vengeance! And those are just the examples I could think of off the top of my head! TLDR? It's pretty and sounds good, but it's a bad sign when a side character has more personality than the hero. AAAAAAAND that's all for now! No real progress on anything else. I'm going to watch Porco Rosso as soon as I can because that movie is awesome and I'm writing a post on it this weekend. See you soon! |
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DuelGundam2099
Posts: 533 |
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Boy did I watch a load of.... Oi.
Starting off are the Attack on Titan Side Stories and the No Regrets two parter OVA; kind of cheating since the two OVA titles are inherently separate, but AniDB doesn't think that way. It was even pointed out to them and they went "not necessary". So I am merging them together myself. The first one was about a six meter titan with a large head that talks.... And doesn't eat humans right away.... And then it just ends. Nice mystery plot set up, real shame the next two episodes were about FREAKING COOKING AND RUN INS WITH THIEVES THAT CONTRIBUTE NOTHING! I thought it'd be bad because Armin was present in those (you know, the weakling that is under the delusion humans won't be humane for stopping powerful predators; next season he needs to be something's snack), but the slow pacing and lack of action for most of them did that on their own. The No Regrets specials were supposed to give Levi backstory aka the one likeable character in the franchise and swtiched the demographic from shonen to shojo because.... I don't know, it's identical in tone, nothing changes. What I REALLY got was not his back story aside from the fact he comes from a cave city (which is not developed properly), instead the MC is some red head female friend/stalker that chases him around until after they get drafted into the military because of swinging skills. Ignoring the slow pacing and animation corner cutting, for OVAs you'd expect more gore for a supposed gory series, but a few blood splats and crunch sounds a gore anime does not make (it barely counts as horror). Maybe I'd tolerate this franchise more if the character outlines weren't so thick (are these guys drawn with markers?). How meh. Speaking of gory anime that promise things and fail to deliver those or even do gore well: The Berserk movies! Yeah, those Golden Arc movies that came out a few years back. Didn't see the third movie yet, but I did see the TV series a couple years back. The animation is not as cheap as the TV version, but it still has a lot of problems I had with it: The gore is pathetic (most Go Nagai anime, Claymore, Bastard, Mad Bull 34, both MD Geist entries, Dark Myth, Dark Cat, Demon City Shinjuku, Blue Gender, both Riki-Oh entries, Apocalypse Zero, and even Cosmic Era Gundam do gore better than this), yes there is maiming and decapitations, so where are the bones and organs? No scavengers munching on the carrion? There are barely any monsters being fought in a franchise about medieval monster hunting. None of the antagonists are decent, most barely have screen time. There is too much sexual junk (in fact it is worse here since this time with fingering and pubs and really who needs that?). Everyone who isn't Guts or Griffith is uninteresting and acts like dead weight (seriously, the four stooges have nothing to contribute); they try it with Casca yet it fails hard, so hard that I am now calling her Birdhouse (bland, boring, noisy, easily overpowered, and when Griffith becomes Gatchaman.... yeah). Drop Birdhouse from the story and what do you get? Two guys and their mercenary horde fighting knights without pointless bickering, detours, or forced sex junk that is useless. So what about the movies themselves? Well, the animation is much better, but mixing the CGI and hand drawn bits is.... Really not good and distracting. I've seen worse, but I've seen better (Aquarion anybody?). The action itself is perfectly fine. The pacing was fine in the first movie, but got slower in the second. The music is stock which is especially irksome to me because the main reason I call the main series good instead of mediocre is because it has the best insert song of any anime in history.... Which I'd gladly link except YouTube in its infinite wisdom decided go on a music blocking rampage earlier this year. And.... That's it until I see the third movie. For all the flak I gave to those above I find them more of the meh and okay variety, respectively. Something that is legitimately terrible though? Honey and Honey Drops, a two part ova about school sex traffickers that own women as indicated by earrings so they can be easily abused followed by very wild basketball games. Confused? Don't worry, the setting is barely fleshed out beyond that. The MC isn't sure if her abusive boyfriend is worth being with and when she does leave him the other guy turns out to be kind of worse. Top that off with lackluster animation, poor pacing, annoying music, and the cast being consisted of general jerks and you get whatever the hell this was. Would you believe this pales in comparison to something far worse? Download: Devil's Circuit.......... I've seen bad anime. I've seen boring anime. I've seen insulting anime. I've seen overrated anime. I've seen questionable anime. I've seen reviling anime. Then there is this. -Very cheap and inconsistent animation -Poorly detailed characters and environments -Incoherent technobabble forced in -Forced romance and sex junk -Unfitting music throughout -Really stupid humor that does not quit -An unlikable cast -Pathetic world building that leads to incoherent events -Very little action -The religious and technological tones do not mesh well -Slow pacing -Even the COLORS somehow manage to be inconsistent at times! This? This OVA is not just worthy of a 1/10, it is the STANDARD. Remember when I gave Hataraki Man, The Eternal Family, Doomed Megalopolis, and Tekken: The Motion Picture 1/10? No more, I've bumped them up, at least in hindsight I can say the animation and scenery were competent in those. They especially cannot compare to whatever the hell THIS is which doesn't even clock into 50 minutes. You know you're in for an abomination when the fansubers literally go "it was us or nobody". It is like finding out one of your neighbors was Pennywise The Clown or something! This actually gave me a much higher standard to lower standards if that makes any remote sense. This is a rare breed of what is even! |
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Gewürtztraminer
 Posts: 1028 Location: Texas - Its like whole other country. |
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So I have been known to rant against Aniplex prices in the past.
Mostly about stuff I would consider a "possible" rewatch in the future. Just finished up Persona 3: Falling Down (#3). Got to love imports, where you have to figure out how to turn the subtitles on. The first movie was a little sketchy art and animation wise, but the next two have been outstanding. It really is a shame that these movies will not be released affordably over here. There is very little I would pay AOA prices for, but this is one of them. The three movies so far have captured the 80+ hour game experience very well. Persona 3 is kind of depressing tale, and the three movies so far have captured that pretty well. I am so on board for the finale, I have my tissues ready. |
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DeTroyes
 Posts: 520 |
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Mekacity Actors - Busy trying to finish this one up before it disappears from Hulu.
Terror in Resonance - Watched 4 episodes so far; kind of like Death Note, but with terrorists. Death Note - Watching with my daughter. We're around episode 25 or so. A Certain Magical Index - Am somewhere around episode 26 on this series. Generally enjoyable but some of the leaps in logic the show takes can be hard to accept. Gate - Around episode 15. Enjoyable. Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress - I'm a sucker for trains. |
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DuelGundam2099
Posts: 533 |
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>sees third Berserk movie
>kind of the same as the series >suddenly this guy called Skull King >oh look an actual ending! >Birdhouse gets spoiler[amnesia afterward] If you're trying to punish a character for being bad.... Well she wasn't bad consistently enough, but oh well. A much better set up to things that SHOULD have happened yet aren't until that TV series airs later this year. Of all the ultra-violent anime this one got popular because.... Manga? Makes no sense to me. Now that this is buried for a while I came across some one shot OVA called The Chocolate Panic Picture, based on some comedy manga. Supposedly made by Gainax (it wasn't, credits clearly say TV Arashi) and supposedly racist (it isn't). How does this dementia comedy play out? Well, the animation is lazily cheap for what was supposed to be a straight to VHS release and the pacing was slow on top of very unfitting music and barely much effort into the art style. It was trying to be dementia, but grounded itself into too many slice of life-ish scenarios rather than abstract. How bad is this? 1/10? Undeniably. Worse than Serial Experiments Lain? Skull Man? The anime New Zealand outlawed? Eiken? Worse than Valvrave. Yeah, the lack of effort, inability to stick to its genre, and randomness was so strong here it actually has a spot in the gulf between VVV and Infinite Ryvius. Why review something this awful as opposed to something airing? Simple, I have no idea what anyone is watching, I know one anime is about trains, one is about mecha and oni, the rest of Ushio and Tora, Macross Delta, and one is done by Trigger yet thankfully has not infected 4chan or memebase this time. Finally I started watching Monster with one episode in. Mediocre pacing, bad music, cheap animation, tons o' blabbering, oh this can only go so well. It is highly regarded because of the "supposed" villain (I don't know, Mugan from Samurai Champloo, Tomoko from Watamote, and the cast of Infinite Ryvius set an extremely high bar for unlikable humans; the villain lists I see him in also include anti-heroes like Light from Death Note and lazy folks like Akito from Utena so I'm already dumping salt on these claims). He is so villainous that his presence is said to be in the first episode (it isn't, the hospital staff is the only thing villainous in this so far). And this series spans 74 FREAKING EPISODES. Well, maybe it'll be good and most stories in general have their first episodes as their worst. |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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Why are you watching Monster? Do you realize that this show focuses a lot on characters and not so much on action? And although there is some action, I would not say that it is the main appeal. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11348 |
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That sentence seems to be missing something. Anyway, of all the series I would never recommend to you, Monster is right up there on top. You don't believe in symbolism, and Monster is all about its symbolism, right from the opening billboard of the Revelation quote. For most people it takes about 4 episodes to really get in gear and take off. For you, it never will. Seriously, don't waste your time on it. |
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