Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Toucanbird
Posts: 126 Location: Winona, Minnesota |
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I'm also watching Spice + Wolf and I'm almost finished with the first season. Truth be told, I felt the same way after the first two episodes but I feel like it really picked up after the 3rd episode. It really isn't the sort of anime to watch if you want blood, gore and clashing swords but it really is worth watching just to see the relationship Lawrence and Horo find. I'm with you, I felt like the both of them were sort of cold and distant but keep watching...you start to get a feel for the characters and see how the characters grow more closely to each other. In all honesty, it reminds me of many of the friendships and relationships I've had. I rarely make friends right out of the gate, but the more I hang around people and the more I get to know them, the closer bond I feel to that person. I know that might sound like an obvious statement to make but that's also how Spice + Wolf works. They start out cold and distant but they end up building a very neat relationship. |
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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It's not that. I dont mind slower anime, and I certainly do not expect action and gore in what I watch. For me the series picked up the pace in episode 10, which is quite late for such a short series (I am aware of season two, but I suppose it will be a different stroy). Its not about the pace though, because I really like it and I find it quite important to see all the background details. The series would not be the same without all the merchand-talk etc. When I spoke about characters, I meant that I am not that fond of them. Horo sometimes like a medieval tsundere, and Lawrence is... well, is just there, does not stand out. The interaction between them does not change much- they get along, then they have their silent moments, but they end up getting along before more silent moments, etc. The dialogue felt a bit repetitive as well. The bond itself is quite interesting, but just did not strike me as particularly original. I dont complain too much, it's a good series and has its great moments, but it's not gonna be my favourite. Last edited by Unicorn_Blade on Sat Apr 30, 2011 11:18 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Spastic Minnow
 Bargain HunterExempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Well, if you continue you have to find the the extra episode from season 2. Episode 0 or something, in which Holo gets sick and is taken care of by Lawrence. Season two is slower than season 1 if you you're looking for action but really amps up the relationship. It also clarifies why Lawrence is reticent about expressing feelings for Holo.
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OldCharlieStoletheHandle
 Posts: 1288 Location: Mastic Beach, NY |
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I've had a pretty good run with what I've been watching since the last time I posted.
Porco Rosso. Why? Because I felt like watching a movie and I wanted one that was fairly short. In addition, it's been in my collection a long while. I wasn't sure what to expect based on the plot synopsis, but what I got was an excellent film, perhaps the most pure fun of any of Miyazaki's films. The director's love of flying is clearly on display here, along with memorable characters, grand storytelling, and some of the most laugh-out-loud funny moments I've seen in a Miyazaki film. Basilisk. Why? Because when a show has been sitting there for 3 years (yes, my backlog is horrendous) it's about time to watch it. This was a blind buy so I had no idea what to expect. It's usually described as "Romeo and Juliet" ninja-style, though that's a bit simplistic. Two ninja "families", the Iga and the Kouga, have hated each other for centuries; unfortunately for those who only wish to slaugher each other, they have been forced to adhere to a truce. Now, the heirs to the top spot in each family are engaged (and unlike in most arranged marriages, they actually do love each other) in the hope their marriage will bring a lasting peace. spoiler[(We later find out this has been tried before unsuccessfully.) ]Unfortunately, the retired shogun has a different idea. Seems he has two sons who won't stop fighting over who gets to be the next shogun, so he gets the grand idea to annul the peace treaty so the Iga and Kouga can get back to killing each other. Each leader must submit the names of 10 elite members who will fight to the death. Each is fighting on behalf of one of the brothers, so the last one standing will determine who gets to be shogun. Needless to say, our star-crossed lovers are on the list, so this probably isn't going to end well. What ensues, however, is something so ridiculously nutty that I was waiting for Nobunaga Oda to show up with a fleet of space ships like in Black Lion. Things don't go that far spoiler[(although Oda does show up in flashbacks)], but there is, for example, a ninja who looks like a refugee from the bar in Star Wars and can stretch his body like taffy, as well as a fat ninja who can inflate himself so he can fly. Through the early episodes I was mainly watching just to see what new batsh*t "power" the writers would pull out of their asses next. With all the fighting and killing there's no time for character development. I also initially found the female lead, Oboro, to be rather pathetic. She has absolutely no skill or ability as a ninja and spends much of her time crying or apologizing (if you try taking a drink every time she apologizes you'll be sh*tfaced by the end of episode 2); but she does have this special power that when she looks at a ninja she can negate any ninja skill. This is such an overused trope that I was wondering if I should just drop this show. Fortunately, I did not because starting about disc 3 it slows down and gets a lot more interesting, and Oboro also improves as well-after all, sometimes it takes as much courage not to fight. It's a good-looking show, and the character designs are interesting, with some characters who actually look Japanese. I like the opening and ending themes, and the music within the show is mostly fitting. Be aware, this is an extremely violent anime and there are sexual situations as well so this is definitely not for the kiddies. All in all, rather than Shakespeare, this is really much like a classic Greek tragedy spoiler[where you know right from the start that this will not end well, and it doesn't.] I rated this anime as Very Good. Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon. Why? I'm not sure, maybe I just wanted to thumb my nose at my huge backlog and watch something I just got. Mike Toole's ANN column "Ghibli Before Ghibli" and the same-named panel he did at I-Con got me interested in some old stuff, so while taking a break from Basilisk I watched this. It's hard to tell which was nuttier, though this was certainly more suitable for the kids. A homeless boy named (here) Ricky gets hit by a truck, after which he meets a talking dog and a talking toy soldier. After some adventures at an amusement park they find the home of Dr. Gulliver (who still dresses like a character from the revolutionary war). The doc shows them his spaceship, but he's given up hope of ever taking off. After Ricky and friends buck him up, they do take off and Adventures Ensue. Unfortunately I could only get the English version. Not that the dub is a bad one; based on the visuals it seems fairly accurate and I have no problem with the performances (though I wonder why the dog needed a silly "New Yawk" accent). However, this is from the days when English producers routinely changed the names (needlessly here) and, most tragically, the soundtrack. Instead of the music of Isao Tomita we get the "wonderful" music of one Milton DeLugg, the man who gave us the music for that all-time classic of the silver screen, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (as I hear the strains of "Hooray for Santy Claus in my head I try desperately not to throw up in my mouth-curse you MST3K). To be fair, the music here is not as insipid as SCCtM, and I realize this was felt to be necessary to make the film "suitable" for American kids. As for the movie itself, the animators (including a young Hayao Miyazaki) let their imaginations run wild resulting in a crazy-and very amusing-film. With a screenplay by kaiju eiga veteran Shinichi Sekizawa it's no surprise there are some subtle political messages that come through (such as the evil of over-reliance on technology) but there's nothing bothersome. What is bothersome is the (lack of) quality of the print. Unfotunately I bought the burn-on-demand version, for which I'm kicking myself around the moon since Amazon also has a DVD which not only includes this but also has the 1939 Dave Fleischer classic Gulliver's Travels with a batch of extras for $5 more. How bad is this print? How about having the words "video calibration" showing on screen for a minute or two. Any scene heavy in red (like the beginning or the factory scene toward the end) is almost unwatchable. It does seem to improve as it goes along though, but I hope to one day find a better copy (not to mention I would love to see the Japanese original). |
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Toucanbird
Posts: 126 Location: Winona, Minnesota |
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I just started watching Deadman Wonderland...what the hell did I get myself into.
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Surrender Artist
 Posts: 3264 Location: Pennsylvania, USA |
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I've recently begun buying and watching anime again after a sort of roughly seven-year sabbatical. That's not to say that I rejected or repudiated anime for that period, in fact I watched several series that happened to be aired on American television during it, I simply added nothing to my collection and paid scarce attention to anime news, save for a few very important stories, such as the fall of ADV and the death of Satoshi Kon. Then in February I watched on a whim all of Claymore on Hulu and my interest was revived. For the past few weeks I have been reviewing my collection, in approximately chronological order of purchase, most of which I haven't watched at all since I bought it between seven and ten years ago, as well as adding a few things to it. I've been reliving the past and slowly picking the corpse of the boom, so to speak.
I have found that, curiously, I don't own many of my favorite series, such as Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, likely because in the way back when, other people who would happily lend them had those and they were readily available on television. That said, on with what I've seen... Assemble Insert: This was probably the first anime disc that I ever bought. I don't remember why I chose it, but I'm ever gladder that I did. It's a wisely concise, entertaining and amusing light parody. I'm happy to watch it every now and again. Armitage III: Polymatrix, Armitage III and Armitage III: Dual Matrix: I watched Armitage III: Polymatrix many times on The Sci-Fi Channel's late, lamented Saturday Anime block. It was among my favorites then. I have come to prefer the original episodes whence the film was cut, but I can't repudiate it; the memories of those halcyon Saturday mornings are too sweet. I still wonder how such an odd creature came to be made. Cutting more than half of an hour of content out of an original video animation, making seven new minutes of animation, stitching it together, hiring two lesser Hollywood celebrities to give the leads voices, then releasing it in English in Japan is an awfully strange lot of trouble to go to. They must have had Michael Reynolds record Lieutenant Ross's voice for the scenes from the first two episodes too, since in the original episodes he was portrayed by Ed Mannix, with Michael Reynolds replacing him, presumably after Mister Mannix died, in the latter two episodes. I really like the story. It's an ably done crime story and nicely rendered in that older, rougher style that I so well love. I appreciate that it tries to have deeper ideas and meaning, although those efforts are rather cryptic. In the end, I'm always left wondering of the parts that seemed not to make sense or merely impenetrably confusing are puzzles to solve or just disconnected nonsense meant to offer illusory depth. Perhaps the supplementary false newspaper reports and other media that once read accompanied the series in Japan might have helped that. The last episode hurls a lot of new elements into the story and always leaves me confused. I really enjoy watching this, but do so sometimes in spite of itself and the ideas that it holds on gender, besides the title characters absurd, if distinctive, clothing, might be rather uncomfortable, if not subtly repellent, depending upon one's interpretation. Armitage III: Dual Matrix isn't nearly as interesting, the possibly vacuity of that appearance of being interesting notwithstanding, as its predecessor, although how it came to be made puzzles me almost as badly as how Armitage III: Polymatrix came into being. I somehow doubt that the first film was so enduringly popular that releasing a sequel six year later seemed like a good idea. It feels like a very small story, but I did enjoy it. It's at least more coherent than its successor. The vigor that was applied to advertising Julianne Moore's giving a voice to Naomi Armitage seems silly; she does a respectable job of it, but I don't think that she was remarkably enough or a great enough draw to justify it. Still, all told, I remain fond of all of it, and not all just because of nostalgic affection. Moldiver: This was, inexplicably, the second anime that I ever bought. I have no idea how I chose this either, but I don't mind that I did. It isn't a story that rewards much thought as much of it would fall down under even the lightest probing by the mind, but it was entertaining enough and nicely animated. It even has a good English language version, which is remarkable for its vintage. There are some incongruously dark events in the penultimate episode, which inspired a grim laugh out of me. How could I not have been amused by the idea of a series that had an episode about rescuing an idol singer who had been tied to a space shuttle suddenly showing me gynoids being melted to death in a volcano and another being cut in half, then dragging her somehow bleeding upper half along the ground to complete her mission? Saber Marionette J, Saber Marionette J Again and Saber Marionette J to X: I own the ultimate collection of these and feel ever more unhappy about that. I am not quite sure why I went to the relatively great expense of buying this eight years ago, but certainly wouldn't do it now, unless I could do so very, very cheaply. I have a little affection left for the first series, which does look nice sometimes, especially given my fondness for a slightly rough, hand-made look, is emotionally effective at time, has many characters who really change and grow over time and has an English language version with more than a few faults, but some voices that I really like, especially Maggie Blue O'Hara as Lime and Venus Terzo as Tiger. It's even funny a few times. It suffers from a lot of useless episodes and some very stupid story contrivances, especially mice and urine, that I found wearying to watch. I also found myself slightly unwilling to suspend my disbelief about it being impossible to create female clones, but possible to create a large population of genetically diverse male clones. It just seems thoughtless about so many things. It largely assumes all of the standard, traditional things about gender, never, so far as I could tell, looking even a little bit critically at the subject. It seems very dissatisfying that what Lime, Cherry and Bloodberry were aiming to evolve toward had little to do with their becoming more independent and finding their meanings in life beyond their master. At least its far more innocent than prurient about Otaru's 'harem' and he in some ways reciprocates the marionettes' sense of duty and obligation to him. I suppose that it's silly of me to have any greater hopes or expectations of it, but Saber Marionette J could have been a much smarter, more interesting series, even with the burdens of its dubious setting. I can't see much worth saying about the sequels. Saber Marionette J Again seemed to ignore more than a little of the development of the characters, wasn't very interesting and has ugly, annoying digital animation. Saber Marionette J to X is better than Saber Marionette J Again, but inferior to the first series, having decayed character designs, a lot of useless episodes that I found nigh painful to watch and a story that wanted to be as effective as the original, but isn't, which is especially bad as the original seemed to me to be only slightly north of mediocre. I will keep a little torch alight for Saber Marionette J as a guilty, nostalgic pleasure, but I won't extent that to its successors and probably will never watch any of them at any length ever again. Excel Saga: This was a favorite of mine in the way back when and the first series that I collected as it was released. I had bought the original releases of Saber Marionette J first, but some time after the release has been completed. Excel Saga was the first series that allowed me the old-fashioned thrill of excitedly visiting the local Suncoast Video at the appointed intervals to seek the newest volumes out on the new release shelves so that I could buy them for a slight discount from the minimum recommended sales price! Ah, those were the days. I was actually very apprehensive about this series. I dreaded finding that I now had little love for it as has happened with the Saber Marionette series, but to my great relief, quite the opposite was true. I still really like Excel Saga. It can be slightly repetitive and wears some ways thin by somewhere around the fifteenth or sixteenth episode, but I still laughed at some of it and my face was seldom without a satisfied grin. I still love the English cast, who all do exceptionally well with quite adeptly written script. Jessica Calvello will always be Excel Excel to me, though perhaps merely because she was first, but Larissa Wolcott played the party very well. Among my chief criteria for judging a series favorably is whether I have, irrational as it probably is, some feeling that I wish that there was more, even if I know that it wouldn't be a good idea. Excel Saga certainly achieved that. In a sense there is more, but Puni Puni Poemi has a less sterling reputation, but I almost surely will see it one of these days, although I would prefer to buy it alone rather than together with Kekko Kamen, which might take a while to hunt down. Voices of a Distant Star: I barely remembered watching this when I first bought it. I still really liked it. The animation seems sparse, which I think might be a consequences of the limitations of the director's resources, but it suits the story. It is a gently paced, subdued story, which I something that I really enjoy. I'm slightly unhappy that I have so little to say about it. Dragon Half: I find this as funny now as I did when I was a college freshman, but it was still a lively, energetic silly story that I enjoyed watching. I really like the English version, which is almost like a test for Excel Saga as a few of that series' cast played parts in this. Even though I wasn't as enthusiastic about it as I had hoped that I would be, I still like a lot of the characters and half wish that there was more of it. There less than an hour of this, which is short enough that more likely wouldn't be unwelcome, but with comedies like this, brevity is admirable. SaiKano: I was very enthusiastic about this series from the moment that I read the preview that Zac Bertschy wrote nine years ago. It is strange then that I only bought the first two volumes back then. I don't know why I didn't finish it then, but I ameliorated that in March when I bought the remaining two volumes and the original video animation from Amazon.com for prices so low that I half expected them to be on fire when they were delivered. I had very high, but uncertain expectations for this series. I really enjoyed the way that despite the overt melodrama of its emotional struggles, the war itself was portrayed as almost an malevolent alien force, divorced from purpose or patriotism and how its consequences were often portrayed indirectly through references to declines in quality of life and vague statements about miseries elsewhere. I was also very struck by the changes and torments that grew and erupted in Chise. The times when she abruptly behaved and spoke, clearly under the influence of her aspect as a weapon, in ways profoundly different from what she had been shown to be like were very effectively disconcerting to me. For the first eight episodes I found it to be a very distinctive, compelling series, but then episode nine happened and I needed a hug. Episode nine of SaiKano is twenty odd minutes of unremitting tragedy and sadness that made me need to stop watching the series and take a walk for a while. It, along with the episodes after it, is also why I am almost sure that this series will reside in my memory as a favorite. The story seldom flinches from misery and culminates in a tragic, strangely bittersweet way. This series won't leave my memory any time soon, which is good, because I don't think that I will want to watch it again for quite a while. Strangely, I never cried whilst watching it. I am not averse to letting my eyes flow out water when watching something sad; I still tend to weep a little at the finale of "Waltz for Venus", but SaiKano didn't provoke that response. Instead I felt a strange, persistent discomfort and despair. I would watch, almost desperate for things not to go the way that I knew that they inevitably would. It was an unusual and awkwardly compelling experience that it perhaps likelier to linger long in memory than a more traditional reaction. I'm glad that I at last finished this. SaiKano: Another Love Song: Its structure makes it best to watch this after having watched the series. It would probably be best to watch this somewhere before the end of the series, but I'm not sure where. It's a good series itself, although not nearly so remarkable as SaiKano itself. It's slightly more explicit about a some facts than the original series, which is interesting and helps make some sense of things, but isn't quite as dramatically effective. Major Mizuki is an interesting, slightly sad character and I enjoyed seeing her struggle with her position and change under Chise's influence. I found the number of instances of frontal nudity slightly suspicious, but hardly damning. It's a satisfactory side-story that adds a little welcome elaboration for a great series. 8 Man After: This was bought for the sake of childhood nostalgia. It's a modestly entertaining series that has a slight film noir tint, which I always love, but it's a shame that it doesn't make more out of some of the potentially interesting ideas and characters that it introduces. Gall Force: Eternal Story: This too was bought for the sake of long-ago Saturday morning nostalgia. I recalled this somehow being a favorite of mine back then, but watching it now, I can't regard it so highly. . I like the way this film looks. The designs are quite good and the animation ranges from competent to good. The old English language version isn't especially good, but it's not so bad as to override a taste of nostalgia. The chief faults lie within the storytelling. It almost seems as though the creators wanted to make several different films, but had only the resources for one, so they breathlessly piled them together, thus giving us a film that inelegantly switches its plot every quarter hour or so. It begins as a typical space opera about grand fleet battles, then turns briefly into a story about a loose-cannon pilot who comes and goes too swiftly for us to care much about, then becomes an ostensible claustrophobic horror story about fighting a monster in the tight confines of the ship, then it leaps into what wants to be a more serious science fiction plot, which it does, to its credit, hold to for the rest of the film, even if it does so by way of becoming a jungle survival story with a surreal dream interlude along the way. Besides being unconvincing and less than coherent, this run-on plot amounts to a film that isn't terribly exciting. The characters have perfunctory personalities, but the film does little better than sometimes dashing by efforts to elaborate upon its characters on the way to the next waypoint in the plot. That plot isn't very-well thought through either. it tries to be thoughtful and novel, but the idea isn't unfamiliar and it seems to have been executed by someone who wasn't very thoughtful or creative working from the partial notes of someone who also was. "Gall Force Eternal Story" wasn't a hour and a half of nostalgia and I will probably watch it again, but it probably wouldn't be worth it if I hadn't seen it when anime seemed so wild and new as I transfixed by it for so many Saturday mornings of my childhood. That was quite a lot, but there are miles to go before I sleep. I'm watching Noir, which was the second series that I followed as it was released. I'm apprehensive about it as well, because I remember quite liking it then, but for a show that was so polarizing, I sense that I might change my mind about it. For now I do like it and it even feels less meandering than I thought it was, but I've watched only the first volume. After that will come Now and Then, Here and There, which I'm glad my schedule didn't place immediately after SaiKano, Birdy the Mighty, the Patlabor films, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie and Grave of the Fireflies. That will complete my watching of my 'original' collection. I have a few original video animations and films to watch that I bought recently that I will soon enough watch too. I'm sorry, that was rather a lot more than I had intended to write. I suppose that I had rather a lot of pent up opinions, having been away from anime for a while. All of that and I didn't even mention The Sacred Blacksmith! Oh well, I didn't like it anyhow. What a very irritating series that one. Last edited by Surrender Artist on Sun Jan 27, 2013 7:13 pm; edited 3 times in total |
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kilaria
 Posts: 135 Location: Dallas, TX |
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After what feels like forever, I finally finished Azumanga Daioh. I had troubles getting into the series at first, but found much more enjoyment later on as I grew to know the characters and realized that there would be no real 'plot' to the story and the whole purpose of the anime is to showcase the different personalities of each character and their hillarious experiences. There were plenty of moments that made me laugh out loud. For me, Azumanga was an anime best watched in small doses. I'd watch an episode or two here and there and that was perfect. I don't know if this is something I'd watch again all the way through, but I'll definitely go back through and watch a couple of memorable episodes when I need a good laugh.
I also watched the first part of Birdy the Mighty. I watched it on netflix so it was dubbed, but I felt the cast did a great job with their voice acting. I'm usually a fan of subs, but can enjoy dubs if it's done well. I really liked the story and the action. Being a girl myself, I always like finding a good anime with a strong heroine. And Birdy definitely was that. The ending of this half was pretty predictable, but that's OK. I think it was the best ending they could have come up with anyways. 
Next... I just don't know. I'll need to look up on my shelves and make a list of all the series that I own and haven't watched yet. I've been told by my huband that I am not allowed to buy more anime until I have at least caught up with all that I own already. And I'm starting to get the itch to go shopping. 
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Botan24
 Posts: 684 Location: Northern Michigan |
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I'm keeping up with Tiger and Bunny for the "spring season" of new anime. They set the bar pretty high with this one, but so far they've been able to keep it up. I'm really enjoying this show. It has everything; comedy, action, and...wait for it...an actual storyline, with characters that are well thought out. If this kind of excellence is kept up, Tiger and Bunny is going to be...I don't want to say it, because then I'll jinx everything.
I'm slugging through Heroic Age. Ugh, this show is solely based on action without much story, or even character development. Its hard to connect with a character when the writers don't care enough to flesh him or her out. On a strictly technical level the animation is fairly good, character designs are appealing, and I love the musical score. Its a full orchestra, not the usual rock band numbers (not that there is anything wrong with rock). The music is also very dramatic which matches the series quite well. But, I really don't know if I'll finish this or not....I'm leaning toward the latter. The Slayers is another one I'm taking in small doses. I do like the show, but there's so much to get through, I want to go slowly. Its more like if I get up in the morning and think, "Today I want to watch some Slayers" then I will. Otherwise, its on the back burner. I do intend to finish it someday. I'm pretty fond of 90's anime. I can't say why, because the animation is really rough for a lot of series from "back then"  But I actually like the character designs a bit better than the ones today. I love the huge, glassy eyes, the upturned noses, tiny mouths, big, wild and crazy hair styles. It just seems fitting for this type of anime.
And lastly, I just started watching Orphen. I've had this show on my Netflix queue for some time. I debated about watching it because a show about magic just didn't seem appealing. But I am glad I finally took the plunge because, so far, I've really been enjoying it. This is another 90's anime, so I was immediately attracted to it when I started viewing. Its another one were a group of people end up on a journey and they do various things along the way. This is a tried and true storytelling device (heck, its even in the Lord of the Rings trilogy). I like it though. I like watching to see what adventures the travelers will get into. And I'm going to say this: I like the dub performances. I know that in "older" anime the dubbed voice actors can suck. But in this, I've found that the VA's are doing a pretty good job of being subtle, or sad, or whatever emotion they are portraying. |
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules Posts: 4609 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Watched the Koisento OVA this week. It looks absolutely fabulous and is a ton of fun, who cares that the characters are stock types and it doesn't strictly make sense? What's up with the deer? Who exactly is she a clone of? Why is the boy chosen by the deer? (Actually- I think we're supposed to take the hint spoiler[that he's the son of the previous escaped clone]). Who cares is the answer- in 25 minutes you are treated to a wonderfully fun little ride. It makes me want to rewatch Kakurenbo (same writer/director), which I thought was alright but I had some problems with simply because I watched it on my old SD TV and it was all grainy and dark, I figure watching a better video may help my view of the story content as well.
Due to a general fatigue of watching comedy shows that dealt with the Sengoku period lords I had decided to not watch Hyouge Mono but after reading some reactions to it I decided to try it out after all. I don't think it's be a top five of the season for me but I'm glad I decided to start watching it. And it's not like the sengoku fatigue should be as bad now that I've dropped Battle Girls, and I've always liked Tono no Issho anyway and the two may even compliment each other (I know I got a big kick out of the two shows competing looks at Mitsuhide Akechi) And I waited for the end of the week to watch Moshidora- not bad. I wish I could share it with the prof I had who taught the only management class I ever took (it was actually more about the philosophy of leadership). Not that I think the management book is really helping, except in a the broadest sense. She could have looked at just any motivational work to get the tips they're learning from Drucker. Still, a pleasant show with pleasant- if not wildly original- characters. I do like the coach though, intellectual, philosophical, logical coach who needs to learn to trust and like his students, I'm glad he's not the usual cheerleader coach I've come to expect. Did a rewatch of my oddest top ten anime, Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space. I've owned a R2 DVD copy of the movie for months now and have been planning on hacking my Blu-Ray player to play DVD's Region free for all that time, but the instructions I found to do so are so complicated and obviously easy to screw up that I kept putting it off... then while looking up something else I found out what I should have known all this time VLC plays region free! (and I my computer is connected to my TV- it's how I watch almost everything) dang it, why didn't I know that? Anyway,I got to watch my copy- I still swear the version I saw at a film festival around '03 was slightly different, but I love this version too. It's the art that gets me, and the music, and the plain weirdness, and that plot hidden within... but back to the art. Absolutely beautiful pop art. Tamala's room, the city scapes and especially the Catty&Co. ads, brilliant stuff. And the choice to present so much of it in black and white goes against so much common sense but presents it all in such stunning crispness. If you've never seen it, you can check out their project page http://www.tamala2010.com/, considering that the continuation of the project is long dead I keep expecting the site to die but they still put up new stuff very occasionally. It can also be found in tiny pieces on Youtube- be warned though, for all of the love I have for it, I admit it moves very slowly. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Surrender Artist, you have made mention of two stories whose appeal is most comparable: SaiKano and Voices of a Distant Star. May I ask if you have acquired a preference for one title over the other? It would be interesting to learn whether the savage overtness of the former title affects how well it fares, in your eyes, when put in comparison with the subdued emotional performance of the latter.
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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Yesterday I watched the OVA of Fortune Arterial. And man, did it suck. You know, this franchise sucks so much (this is like the anime of Twilight) that I was so amazed they didn't rely on fanservice a lot more. The only reason I watched it was because Kuze is totally my type, but did they even spend more than 10 out of 300 minutes on her? It's gotten to the point I had to leave the bloody thing on the background until I heard her voice. Oh, and is it predictable? Think Marvel + Madhouse.
Could have been better if we had Justin Bieber singing the bloody opening. Also Amagami SS 26. Good, but not nearly as much as 25. His sister just doesn't interest me at all despite the fact that I'm perfectly fine with fictional incest. Risa, on the other hand... oh my yandere goodness. And High School of the Dead OVA. Of course I didn't expect it to be serious, what I didn't expect was spoiler[our protagonist] nearly getting raped by female zombies. Besides Honto ni Atta! - which contains crappy art but an interesting theme. And best of all, with 5 minutes (each episode) it made me laugh more than a whole episode of a few other ongoing comedy [but not purely comedy] series. Let's see if I can name 5 of them: Hyouge Stereo, Sofuteni, A Channel, Lotte's Toy, Hen Zemi (I don't think this thing pulled a single smile, besides a smile of disgust, assuming that's the correct way to word it), Enma-kun... who-who-whoa that's enough. I'll give Sket Dance a break because the first episode was quite funny and worthy. Nonetheless, A Channel became a little more entertaining once I noticed who's voicing the annoying brat. Which means I'm now up to date with this series. Not really that good, but one of the girls reminds of Mio, so... And caught up to episode 86 of Detective Conan (Case Closed), which I forgot to mention in mah update. Regardless, it's a very relaxing series with small arcs of 2 episodes (rarely 3, thus far), but mostly single episode arcs, which is just delightful. Now I understand a little better what Gosick tried to achieve. ... +-20 movies, a bunch of OVAs, and 520+ episodes to go. Almost there. Saw Oreimo 14 the other day. I'm so through with this series... just get it over with already, since you insist on not showing our sexist character. Kirino is gone and that's awesome, but neighbour girl is also gone, and we don't get to see the nerd undisguised. Kuroneko makes it quite entertaining, but she's not the protagonist, and she doesn't get as much screen time as he does. I don't enjoy watching a sandbag. It's not as if he's completely useless, no, since those punching him certainly do gain something - sadism, perhaps? There's a way to make the last episode epic, and that'd be showing everything through Kuroneko's perspective, and that includes her thoughts. But would they be smart enough to do that? Probably not... Kirino will probably come back and they'll call it a happy ending; and if that does happen, I'll just hope my TV is touch screen because I'm so stabbing it. Moshidora was a delightful surprise both in quality and episode release. 1 episode every weekday? Outstanding. We should be done with this series by Friday, right? Excellento. And guess what I'll start watching this week, or maybe even tonight? Cardcaptor Sakura yay! Banzai! Banzai! Nostalgia is such a bitch!
I think we had the opposite opinion here. I fell asleep on my first try (well, this happens often), and the CGI felt rather cheap and I really disliked the theme, buddhism. Don't get me wrong, I dislike buddhism as much as I dislike any other religion, so no discrimination involved. Although I don't generally dislike it if it's used like in Gantz or Saint Seiya (former for horror, and the latter for terror). There's one thing I liked and which kept me watching though, and that was the sweet romantic ending which I confidently waited for (it's not everyday I get to see a sweet romantic ending without going through 24 episodes of pure crap). So, deer and theme aside, it was pretty generic, but not deadly generic, but then again, does criticism based on genericism even work for anime anymore? Is this sort of CGI cheaper than usual animation? I can't possibly understand why else they'd use it. |
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Gewürtztraminer
 Posts: 1028 Location: Texas - Its like whole other country. |
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A watch of the second season of Mahoromatic with no mention of the last episode.... kinda rare. I personally loved the last episode. I consider it brilliant and reasoned storytelling, but some claim it is the worst end to any series in anime history ever. The Ova is enjoyable fluff. |
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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If you've only seen the first half of Birdy the Mighty Decode then I really recommend the second half, the general consensus is that it's even better. I thought the first half was alright but not amazing and then utterly loved the second part, watch it! And I just finished my Last Exile rewatch and, even though I've dug up a number of spoilers/explanations between 2009 when I first watched it and now, boy is that a confusing last episode. They really needed to take the first half of episode 26, stick it in 25 instead (since 25 is a breather episode they could've condensed it) and then used that extra time to explain just what the heck was going on at parts. |
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Melanchthon
 Posts: 550 Location: Northwest from Here |
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Right now I'm watching my Tigers drop another game to the goddam Yankees. Why? I wish knew. Anime-wise I've been watching a lot of the Claymore Blue-Ray I just bought last week. The animation quality really isn't deserving of the Blue-Ray treatment, but it's a hell of a lot better than the crappy fansubs I watched on before. The funny thing about Claymore the first time I watched it, I thought it was a good technical performance, but I didn't enjoy the story that much. On this rewatch, this time I'm getting really drawn into the storyline. I like to compare Claymore to Seirei no Moribito. Both are solid shows that do nothing really wrong, but don't really stand out. They have a job, they perform it well, but in the end, they are kind of forgettable. But I might have to change my option of Claymore after this time through.
I've also been slogging my way through Cardcaptor Sakura. It's a very good show, and Sakura is criminally cute, but it's hard to get motivated over a series that is as long as this one. I'm 22 episodes in, and the end is still far off. And of the spring season, I've been watching a few shows, but the only one I'm saying on top of is Enma-kun, mostly for all the Yuki-chan fanservice. The glorious, glorious fanservice. |
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Sakura-Alchemist
 Posts: 489 |
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/flips over table/ I'm watching The Starry Sky Anime and frankly it's pissing me. :I On episode 4. Basically I'm not liking the format of 2 episode per guy, with the focus being that guy and his un-ending monologues. It's Annoying, they had so much content from the visual novels they could have used to tell a story and this is what they give us? :I and even more annoying is that they have different voice actors for the young versions of the characters and it sounds really off the voice aren't similar at all.
Well it's less annoying when it's about a character i like but still I don't understand why they made all these child hood flash backs for the anime <__> they didn't happen at all in the visual novels, and the children voices are annoying i want to here the original voice actors. i don't understand why they are doing it the way they did. They could have made it a really funny entertaining slice of life anime! why didn't they! |
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