Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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ArisaRimi
 Posts: 2 Location: New York City |
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The Badminton play of Ayano Hanesaki, Banana Fish, Asobi Asobase, Chio's School Road and the new season of Shingeki no Kyojin I choose for myself in summer season. There are different genres, so I can switch between comedy, action and drama.
I also want start to rewatch Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei and Toradora as it's my favorite anime. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16935 |
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My brother saw this fun video on youtube. It was basically a Redline AMV. Well, now we're going to watch Redline. Went through the movie collection and we also decided we're in the mood for Sword of the Stranger & Expelled from Paradise.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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Mo Dao Zu Shi
From MAL: "As the grandmaster who founded the Demonic Sect, Wei Wuxian roamed the world in his wanton ways, hated by millions for the chaos he created. In the end, he was backstabbed by his dearest shidi and killed by powerful clans that combined to overpower him. He incarnates into the body of a lunatic who was abandoned by his clan and is later, unwillingly, taken away by a famous cultivator among the clans—Lan Wangji, his archenemy. This marks the start of a thrilling yet hilarious journey of attacking monsters, solving mysteries, and raising children. From the mutual flirtation along the way, Wei Wuxian slowly realizes that Lan Wangji, a seemingly haughty and indifferent poker-face, holds more feelings for Wei Wuxian than he is letting on." This is a Chinese joint, but it's actually really good in all respects. The backgrounds are breathtaking, and CGI aside (which doesn't bother me at all, but might turn off those finicky about such things), the battles are amazing. The above description is a decent starting point, but the lunatic angle is dispensed with after the first episode, and while it does begin with liberal amounts of humor (including a donkey I wish was a main character), it turns quite dark later on. The latest (11, hopefully not last) episode was epic, releasing the tension building from the previous 3-4 episodes with a full-throated roar, while redeeming a character I thought was mostly irredeemable. I was shocked by how far the series was willing to go to upend its plot. The MAL synopsis implies this is BL, but so far there have only been vague hints of that. I also can't recall any raising children, so I'm not sure if that came from the novel or what. That might also be a future development. It's not perfect (a couple of plot threads they spent a lot of time on seem to have been forgotten, but may still become important later), but if this is the state of the art of Chinese animation, they'll be giving the Japanese a real run for their money sooner than we think. My main beef is that they've letterboxed it, despite it already being in widescreen format. This isn't the first time, but I wish they'd cut it out. I just hope Japan licenses this for airing as they have done for titles like Spirit Pact, since I'd rather listen to Japanese than Chinese. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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My Sweet Tyrant is finally finished off with its 25th episode, I talked about it a dozen or so weeks back, but I will do so again. Little shows a dislike for tsundere stuff, than this show, it becomes frustrating and more. To repeat what I said last time, the tsundere in this show is not cute, it comes across as straight up verbal abuse on the part of the male character, and the very fact it tries to make what he says as cute, is really troublesome. It is pretty much saying that it is totally okay to things like call your girlfriend uggo and tell her to shut up, and for the girl it is okay to stay with such a person because they totally love you. Later on in the series we actually learned that apparently the basis for them going out is something he said in delirium while sick, not any actual kindness he has shown.
In addition to the tsundere antics of the teens, that gets very old, including a guy that totally should pursue a younger girl despite how often she shows disgust, there was another pair that was introduced in the second half. A student/teacher pair, that just adds onto bad romance in this anime. I guess we were meant to enjoy watching the high school girl harass the teacher to go out with her, up to the last episode having the teacher say that he did not reject her, and everyone laugh at her saying that they are going to get married. Would school admin have anything to say about that? I can be a sappy romantic with things, but even I feel like that this girl really needs to experience more. I think they gave a reason why she grew attached to him, but it really was not a good enough reason. Anyway, I finished it, and I give it a rating of Weak (3/10). Despite not looking or sounding too bad, there is too much wrong with the story that it just tries to pass off as cute, that makes this couple minutes at a time anime, really not worth it. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Sometimes I wish that anime were more clear in whether it is the last episode or not. I have been watching Major 2nd, and I think it has finished at episode 25, at least the season. Hard to find what the episode count should be, since the episode itself seemed more pointing to a new time for the characters, with nothing specific on whether this run is ending here. Relied on Wikipedia that gives an episode count with a running date ending at the 22nd.
I am not familiar with any of the other Major anime, yet I think I got some general ideas where the anime explains itself well enough. I do think it really fell into being towards to camps, of those who are young and may not be familiar, and those who are familiar and bank on some nostalgia. Well, I am not exactly a young child, so I think that I miss the mark of target audience a bit, plus I am not a big fan of sports in general. I will give it that this series seemed pretty aware, not wanting itself to bank on just coming off something that may be a star, and a well chance of not matching up to expectations of comparison, but be fun. I don't know if those sorts of things are coincidence Shigeno's journey under his dad's shadow, but it was not mindless. Still, it could be a bit drab in places, where it wants to be all moody, that ruins the fun aspect, kind of like a catch 22. Really explaining the experience in good detail, maybe left to others, in all honesty that although I was not entirely bored while watching it, it was something I watched before the other shows where I sort of save the best for last, although strangely better than other shows I would watch. Maybe it fits that sort of Saturday morning cartoon thing, where you watch it to take it in, but not really blow you away. I give it a rating of So-so (5/10). |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Alright, this one I am quite sure it is finished, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar, with its 12th episode. This show is bad, I do watch some pretty derivative reverse harems and the like and enjoy them, but this show is certainly steps too far. The show started off with a time skip, time skips often being really good things in shows, but it almost feels like someone had that in mind when they pitched the story, starting after the main character had earned his place, which I would say would be more interesting than the power fantasy of the rest of the show. And that power fantasy setting is weak, not saying in the sense of saying he does not have much power, and kind of good in the sense that he is not a fighter and relies on others to be the muscle. But in the sense that it is really hard to believe that the main character that is completely average, could be awesome powerful just because he happens to have a smartphone with access to the internet.
He is totally average, and thus stupid for the idea that the power to read Wikipedia articles makes him a master tactician. There could have been simple changes like saying that he already was pretty masterful of a tactician where he was really good at certain games, or already a history buff that he was quite informed in historical war strategies. But the setting really seems like he could totally be anyone with a phone, that could gain the respect of many others. Clearly the show was much more interested in playing its insert character harem setting, where the girls all refer to him as big brother, or father. Lots of kind of boring ecchi scenes, although he could not do anything because he had a girl back home, no girls getting preference, I guess until she joins him at the end and true girl ending. Already girl is kind of nice in ways, but I do feel like mentioning a troubling moment in the anime, where after his girlfriend has trusted him for all that time, he suddenly got really controlling about hearing she went to a party and he demands to know if there were any boys at the party. It would be nice if his actions there were totally not okay, where he gets all controlling after he litereally baths with other young girls, but I fear it was not such. Mother's Basement did an interesting video on the show, where he focused on a part where Yuuto comes across some slave trading in the market of the city, that he could totally have an impact on curbing. But he approached the slave trader that was selling a mother and child daughter, and paid the man for them, I guess actually supporting the practice despite how angry he was, and seemingly not stopping more from happening in the future. He own the two of them, and ones of the slaves falls in love with him, not the mother, but the child daughter. You take a comparison to How Not To Summon a Demon Lord, that I guess just played on the fantasy trope a bit, but this show came across as more uncomfortable. There are also things like this supposedly like the show saying it was all in the past, despite running alongside the current time, and no explanation for magic. Really does not feel like it took a time to give a really good explanation to things it claims. I guess part way through saying events were like Nordic myth, which was kind of cool, explaining the word in the tile, but somewhat still failed to explain what that might mean, with I guess Ragnarok often seen as a cycle or something. And the show really neither really explained what Yuuto's relationship is with his family in the modern time either I give a rating of Weak (3/10), even compared to a genre often called bottom of the barrel, isekai, this is too far down. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Next show finished is Music Girls, with its 12th episode. I think a first thing to say is that it is better than it first appears. It actually pulled a nice little twist where the girl introduced in the first episode, the girl introduced in the first episode to join the group, Hanako, is found to actually be really bad at singing, and became instead support staff for the idol group. The series actually became pretty heavy on support of the girls, that was actually pretty good in comparison to other idol anime.
But, I think it did stick the ending a bit with the last episode, in that it seemed to finish with Hanako as a part of the idols on stage, when I think it was already going on a good path that she could be an as important part of the team even if not up on stage. The show still had some interesting quirks, that although did not keep my attention all the time, in the scheme of things it did feel a little genuine and fun. I enjoyed it despite some problems. One of the girls even notes that her glasses have no lenses because they are really just part of her image, and there is something to that in being aware of such images. I would not say it does anything like become offensive, or quite boring. I give a rating of Decent (6/10), if you can get past being yet another idol anime, I think it can be worth watching, especially in how I do think it sets itself apart a bit, with a slightly different angle. In some ways I think of Wake Up Girls, but the characters are more interesting and distinct. |
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louis6578
 Posts: 1861 |
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Arlong arc is one of the BEST parts of One Piece to this very day. In fact, I wouldn't hesitate to say that it's in the top 5 best arcs of the series (along with Water 7, Enies Lobby, Alabasta, and even Marineford). Everyone whose seen or read it knows that it's the part that elevates One Piece from a fairly good shounen manga to one of the better ones (I'd say Alabasta is what elevates it to a clear top 5 in history status, and Enies Lobby is what further cements it as #1). It's the point where the audience clearly sees how far Luffy would truly go for anyone he considers to be his friend.
My favorite detail is that, yeah, Nami's backstory is heartbreaking, and it's almost certain to make the audience want Arlong dead, but do you know what the truly great thing about Luffy is in this arc? He has no idea what Nami's history is. When Nojiko recites it to the crew, Luffy walks away ("I'll pass"), and Zoro falls asleep. Only Usopp and Sanji really listen in. The only thing Luffy knows about any of this is that Nami broke down crying and begging him for his help. The source of this sadness was some fish guy named Arlong. This is the extend of Luffy's knowledge on the situation, and that's all he needed to march to Arlong Park and smash Arlong's face in. He doesn't know that Arlong enslaved Nami's village, killed her mother, made her eight years of hard work completely void, then laughed at her for confronting him about it. That simplicity is what makes the Arlong Park Walk so beautiful and legendary even today. I could go on about how this arc turns Nami from a Fujiko Mine-expy femme fatale archetype to a fully realized tragic heroine, or about how Bellemere is one of the best flashback characters in One Piece, but I think that what I love most about this arc, aside from the walk, are the great moments from the fight itself. Usopp's fight against Chu is a beautiful, frankly underrated moments in his character arc. Usopp is unarguably the weakest, most cowardly member of the Straw Hat Pirate Crew. This first fight gives him the option to bow out and allow Chu to be defeated by someone else when Usopp fakes his death by way of his Ketchup Star. He very nearly decides to think up an excuse, but flashes of everyone else's bravery and pain makes his dialogue slowly crack up and fade from pride in his ingenuity to shame in it. "I just have to rub some dirt on here... make myself look beat up. I'll tell them 'Oh! That guy? He got away!' No, no. That's not convincing enough... How about, I did my best but he beat me? Yeah! That sounds better..." All the while, flashes of the crew, and even Johnny and Yosaku finally convince the cry, ashamed Usopp to stand up and shout loudly at the fishman who was walking away. "WAIT RIGHT THERE, YOU FISH BASTARD!" Usopp not only fought, but WON against one of the commanders of Arlong's crew. He resolved to enter a real fight as a pirate. If he loses, he dies. There's no running away. After all, he couldn't live with himself if he hid and ran while the rest of his crew fought bravely. This is what true courage is. It isn't a character who is never fearful and always laughs at danger. In my mind, courage is when a weak, scared person stands up to their fears and faces them. From here on out, Usopp would further develop into easily one of the most complex and interesting characters in all of One Piece, but I'll type about that when I get to rewatching those arcs. Another moment that I loved was Luffy's dialogue with Arlong after he attacks the fishman using some swords that were laying around. Arlong laughs at how inept Luffy is at wielding swords, but of course, it turns out that the swords were just a distraction so Luffy could knock Arlong to the ground. He then goes on to give one of the most true to his character speeches that the series has ever delivered. Luffy: I don't know a damn thing about swords! I can't navigate a ship! I don't know how to cook! I can't even lie! I need my friends to make it anywhere in life because without them, I couldn't accomplish anything! Arlong: SHAHAHAHAHA! Your crew must hate having a good-for-nothing captain like you! What can you even do on your own? Luffy: I can kick your ass. For once in a shounen story, the protagonist's ineptitude at anything but fighting has a thematic purpose, and the story states this aloud. Luffy might be the strongest member of his crew, but he'd die if he had to go through the story alone. Even if you gave him a ship and made him an overpowered juggernaut of a character, he's far too stupid and lacking in basic skills to make it in a normal ocean, much less the Grand Line. In a show like Dragonball, there's almost no reason to have characters besides Goku after a certain point, but in One Piece, no one ever loses relevance. Even if Nami and Usopp are among the weakest people in the crew, they have a purpose. No character's involvement feels forced or unnecessary, and that's precisely what I love most about One Piece. If not most, then second only to the sincerity of the bonds formed between characters. Finally, my favorite moment of the arc comes close to the climax of the final boss fight. Luffy and Arlong's fight moves to the top of Arlong Park. Nami's old room where she drew maps for Arlong. Arlong has his massive saw blade held to Luffy's neck as he gives a classic villain monologue, but all Luffy does is look down at the pen that Nami used to draw maps for Arlong. While Arlong babbles on and on about how humans are weak, but Nami is a weakling with a purpose to serve him, Luffy just quietly says... "This pen... it's covered in blood." We then proceed to have Luffy actually listen to the important part of Arlong's dialogue, gripping the saw blade in his rubber hand as it progressively becomes bloodier from the sharp steel. Arlong: Her talents are far beyond you pitiful humans! Her purpose in life is to serve the future Arlong Empire and draw maps as my slave... No... -he says mockingly- As my friend. How could you POSSIBLY use her better than I can?! Luffy: -shakes while gripping Arlong's saw blade- Arlong: What the- I can't move my blade! Luffy: -shatters the blade in his bare hand and glares fiercely at Arlong- USE HER?! Augh... I think we're all big boys and girls, so I don't need to say why THAT moment is amazing and emotionally resonant. So me and my friends finished that, then Loguetown, which is a short but sweet Epilogue to the East Blue saga and Prologue to the main story in the Grand Line to come. I could talk about the Buggy Side Story arc, but I feel like I can sum it up by saying that it was an enjoyable two episode arc that made me like Buggy more without overstaying its welcome. Smoker is a cool antagonist who finally introduces the audience to the concept of genuinely upstanding marines, Zoro getting his new swords was cool, especially the way that he tested the curse against his luck, heck, even Usopp and Sanji's filler episodes weren't bad. I'm especially fond of Usopp's. But I want to focus on the highlight of this arc and one of my favorite moments in the series to date. Luffy's execution. But I'm sleepy and I'll have to type the rest of my thoughts about this rewatch later. |
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Cam0
 Posts: 4888 |
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I was thinking of watching it as I have a soft spot for generic and dumb LN adaptions that just copy what's popular in the LN market, but seeing the bad ratings on MAL and CR and now even seeing Dusky the Great pan it so hard has caused me to lose interest. I guess I'm skipping that one. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15462 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I would say to not let me get you to not watch something you like, I don't think it is unwatchable. But I do say as someone who loves SAO, and the Isekai light novel anime genre, even someone who enjoyed some parts of In Another World With My Smartphone, that a lot of the things often complained about those series, are actually problem here. Chances are some will still like it, but I really fear that it is a depth too far that I really want shows to stand above, less the pressure cause serious damage. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Dusk, as a male tsundere fanatic, I have to say I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH YOU ON THIS. I was really looking forward to liking this series; I thought I would LOVE it...but I didn't. Exactly for those reasons. I did not like Akkun. At all. There's a right way and a wrong way to do a tsundere and this show does it the wrong way. I dropped it after two episodes. |
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Cam0
Posts: 4888 |
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I have been watching Tsukigakirei which is a fairly heartwarming and inoffensive romance show. It's decently fun. My main issue is that the main dude dun goofed. spoiler[The energetic short haired track and field girl is obviously the best girl. I was sad when she got rejected.]
Yeah, I also quite liked the In Another World With My Smartphone and I'm relatively big fan of SAO. I dunno, I might still watch The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar. I have this short 2 week job thing going on right now where I sit around twiddling my thumbs for 12 hours a day. Might as well watch a couple episodes of anime when no one else is around, but watching anime with a smartphone is not a nice way to watch anime so I only wanna watch something lame and kinda bad. Angels of Death has been the show I've been watching that way now (don't tell Gina or Chiibi I said it's bad) but I only have 2 episodes left so I might have to figure out some other somewhat bad show to watch. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11354 |
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Oh noes, bad news for you - it's 16 episodes! Ha ha! 
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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@Cam0: I don't see anything objectively "bad" about AOD....but I can admit it's not for everyone with how.....very bizarre it is.....and I'm still reeling in shock over how hard I fell in love with it, myself.
(.....to be fair, I am its target demographic though) |
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Cam0
Posts: 4888 |
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I mean, I don't totally hate the show. Rachelu Gardonar is cute and I found some of her interactions with Zack earlier in the show to be kinda funny. Zack is ok. But I find pretty much everyone else to be insufferable so far. The show has a kinda dark atmosphere, but not in a way I find to be interesting but rather dull, dreary and boring.
NOOO! It seemed like it was heading towards a conclusion, but ok. |
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