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


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Ignatz





PostPosted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:29 pm Reply with quote
phia_one wrote:
Finally watched Serial Experiments Lain. I was in the mood to watch something that would engage my mind. First, I didn't care for the animation. It was ugly to look at sometimes because of consistency issues.

Aside from that, the series had interesting themes: (spoilers just in case) spoiler[How some people are more interested in the internet than real life and how it can form/shape/change an individual's personality. The good and bad of technology. How a person relates to the world. I think one of the biggest themes was Connection, both in real life and virtual. ]

I couldn't help but get Matrix vibes from it, which I don't consider a bad thing. I almost feel like it could have taken place in the Matrix universe. spoiler[Lain being The One and what is reality? to name a few examples.]

Overall, I found the series interesting and enjoyable on an intellectual level. It handled the philosophy in a more manageable way than say, Ergo Proxy (which is an awesome show). By that, I mean that it didn't overload me with concepts like EP did at certain points.

Would I watch Lain again at some point? Probably not. I didn't grow to care about any of the characters. Characters are a big thing for me. It can be the only thing keeping me from dropping a series.

If you liked lain, then I highly recommend checking out Texhnolyze, which was produced by the same team (Yasuyuki Ueda, Yoshitoshi ABe, and Chiaki J. Konaka). Watching lain, I was also disappointed by how it didn't give the viewers any reason to care about the characters. However, Texhnolyze handles that aspect brilliantly, as the show is very much about the conflicting desires and ideologies of the characters.
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Yamstarch



Joined: 02 Mar 2015
Posts: 62
Location: Virginia USA
PostPosted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 6:39 pm Reply with quote
La storia della Arcana Famiglia. The premise sounds interesting. In the comments people seem to complain about "filler" in the second episode. We shall see. But, the art looks amazing and lots of colors.
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ADM20



Joined: 07 Mar 2015
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Thu Mar 12, 2015 10:01 pm Reply with quote
Now that I've finished watching the first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, I can definitely say that I enjoyed it, but I have no clue as to how much I enjoyed it. There's so much good in this show-- the animation and character designs are all absolutely gorgeous, Haruhi is an incredible character, it's a wildly clever deconstruction of anime tropes, and its influence is undeniable, but, at the same time, Haruhi is the only interesting character in the entire series. Everyone else is flat to no end, and, beyond that, it just goes nowhere with its concept, only occasionally touching on any of the philosophy it presents. I don't need everything to be a Satoshi Kon, Masaaki Yuasa style "deep" story, but, outside of a few points, the concept of an omnipotent schoolgirl is entirely squandered for a mostly shallow exploration of the idea. That said, there was so much good in the series that I think it does overwhelm that, the final episode of the season in particular being the absolute embodiment of talent in shot composition and subtlety in character interactions. Really, though, I don't see myself watching any more Haruhi Suzumiya, except maybe the infamous Endless Eight arc that sounds like it would be one of my favorite things ever.
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shamisen the great



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 658
Location: Oregon, USA
PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 6:00 am Reply with quote
I'm half way through Steins;Gate. I had been planning to see it eventually, so I figured since Zac said they would be discussing it for ANNcast, I would move it up on my watch list. I am really loving this show. I feel like lately I have been watching so much middling unexciting shows. It is so refreshing to watch a quality work like Steins;Gate.

From Zac's Twitter comments, it seems like he is finding the show boring. I suppose I could see why one might feel that way, but I have been riveted so far. There's an underlying tension throughout the story that I hope pays off.
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loveless one without love



Joined: 08 Mar 2015
Posts: 17
Location: North Carolina
PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 8:07 am Reply with quote
Quote:
I'm a bit curious as to what you mean when you say the story was slow. For the most part, the series seems fairly episodic to me, outside of some character development as it progresses-- a strong ongoing narrative wouldn't really suit it in the format it was presented in.




Sorry what I met by that is it seamed to drag on to me maybe it's just the story line I mean I felt like they could have done more with It In most of the episodes It's not even about her making friends.

In short i fell like they could have used some of the filler episodes to progress the story a bit further but this is just my opinion.

Maybe they will make a season 2 and have her open up a bit more and Tomaki could help her more like give her a makeover or take her shopping or give her advice but that doesn't really fit his character does it lol.
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Yamstarch



Joined: 02 Mar 2015
Posts: 62
Location: Virginia USA
PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 9:26 am Reply with quote
Yamstarch wrote:
La storia della Arcana Famiglia. The premise sounds interesting. In the comments people seem to complain about "filler" in the second episode. We shall see. But, the art looks amazing and lots of colors.


So I am 5 episodes into this so far. I really like it so far. I am not sure why people on Crunchyroll are complaining about filler. To me it just seems like character development. Admittedly the show isn't anything like what I was expecting. I was expecting more or less a shonen type show. it seems a bit deeper than that. It almost has a Full Metal Alchemist vibe to it. I see it is only a short 12 episode run, at least that is what is on Crunchyroll. We'll see what happens.
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DuelGundam2099



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 533
PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:16 pm Reply with quote
I forgot to mention that a couple weeks back I watched some one shot 90s OVA called BB Fish. Basically it was a kind of bad ecchi anime with the only notable things being nice scenery and weird cinematography, much like Vivi Dred Operation but without the Alones. Also the main character can turn into a very fast fish for some reason, but they fail to explain that. With that out of the way I am currently up to eps 21 in When The Cry and Fruits Baskets to which I groan, but I'll cover that next time. Earlier today I saw some one shot OVA called The Curse of Kazuo Umezi, which was a pair of decent horror stories that were very short and unfortunately had lackluster animation. Shortly after that I took on the infamous Pupa and this only proves that MAL has no taste in horror as this was actually good. Yes witch woman disappears half way through, the borderline incest could have been done better (or worse), being rushed in spots, and the last episode was a random goofy flashback to a very dark anime all brought it down some, but I thought it was actually good. Hell, it's better than a lot of other garbage that came out last year. So yeah, ignore the critics and give it a watch, the uncensored versions were subbed so it isn't hard to get the full experience.
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 3:54 pm Reply with quote
Hyouge Mono - Excellent mature series I was watching it because some other users which I respect a lot rated it highly.

Samurai 7 - Very nice retelling of the plot of the movie, though the setting and aesthetics are enormously different.

Legend of Galactic Heroes: Spiral Labyrinth - Watched Heinhard's prequel series now for Yang's turn.
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Errinundra
Moderator


Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 7:11 pm Reply with quote
Jose Cruz wrote:
Hyouge Mono - Excellent mature series...


I found, especially in the early episodes, that it was hard to know which characters were significant. General Hashiba (better known to history as Toyotomi Hideyoshi) is, after Furuta Sasuke, the next most important character (along with Senno Soeki).

The overarching story is a satirical tragi-farce involving Hashiba and Senno as seen by Furuta. It's actually much, much more complicated than that but keep your eye on Hashiba and Senno.
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DuelGundam2099



Joined: 07 Dec 2014
Posts: 533
PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 1:23 pm Reply with quote
Earlier I finished When They Cry. So lets see: Alternate timelines, hated outsiders targeted by powerful families, flesh eating maggots, ancient torture chambers, identity switching, demon superstitions, and other sorts of mystery-inducing creepiness.... Real shame it was executed flimsy and had quite the slow pacing; not to mention animation got less consistent with time unfortunately. I actually liked the last arc to some degree and liked the final episode since it felt like things were getting done. Gotta give this a low ranking unfortunately.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar


Joined: 14 Aug 2006
Posts: 16935
PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 7:51 pm Reply with quote
Yamstarch wrote:
Yamstarch wrote:
La storia della Arcana Famiglia. The premise sounds interesting. In the comments people seem to complain about "filler" in the second episode. We shall see. But, the art looks amazing and lots of colors.


So I am 5 episodes into this so far. I really like it so far. I am not sure why people on Crunchyroll are complaining about filler. To me it just seems like character development. Admittedly the show isn't anything like what I was expecting. I was expecting more or less a shonen type show. it seems a bit deeper than that. It almost has a Full Metal Alchemist vibe to it. I see it is only a short 12 episode run, at least that is what is on Crunchyroll. We'll see what happens.

By the time I got to episode 7 I was starting to shake my head and sigh loudly. I felt the story itself was just...blah. The story felt like it was disjointed and just poorly put together. Like it had no idea on what it wanted to do. It had a point to make but no idea how to make it and turn the plot into something coherent. The characters were predictable and bland mostly. Or tired of cliche's. The ending was just...underwhelming to say the least. Don't want to give anything away but with the hype of the tournament the last 2 episodes were very underwhelming. That's part of what tainted the rest of the show for me in the end I think. I'm glad you're enjoying it though. At least someone is.

As for me I have been in a bit of a Samurai/Ninja mood the past 2 weeks. So I watched the Samurai X OVA's on BR, Sword of the Stranger BR, Ninja Scroll BR, and Basalisk. Ninja Scroll and Samurai X are just old favorites I never get tired of. Like an old friend you haven't seen in a long time. Poignant and bloody with geat animation for their time. Both look nice of BR too. Sword of the Stranger is a truly underrated movie I think. The story is simple true, but it's done well enough. More importantly the action scenes are amazing. As is the animation. The backgrounds add to the atmosphere and amazing fight scenes. Basalisk is just a bloody murder fest but a well done one. The story has been done many times over via animation and live action but I enjoy it none the less. I find in Basalisk the side characters are a bit more drawn out which adds to the fun. And most importantly, lots of bloody action.

My gf and I are watching 2 shows together right now as well. We started Antique Bakery last weekend. It's a cute slice of life show with a nice premise. The characters are nice as well. I just was expecting more baking and day to day activities of a cake shop. So far it seems to really be pushing the yaoi elements that came out of nowhere. I mean right from episode 1 BAM! Not that I mind yaoi, but the description and synopsis in no way mention it or suggest there will be any. I figured with 4 guys running a cake shop there would be a lot of Shoujo elements but it went right past that into yaoi land at warp 8. Maybe the second half of the series will have more on the actual cake shop and baking etc.

The second show we started is Kill la Kill. I've seen most myself but my gf wanted to watch it. So I'm watching it from the start with her. I was surprised she wanted to watch it given the blatant amount of fanservice and T&A everywhere. But who am I to complain lol? She's still not interested in Freezing or Queens Blade though heh.
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phia_one



Joined: 15 Jan 2012
Posts: 1654
Location: Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 9:05 pm Reply with quote
Ignatz wrote:
If you liked lain, then I highly recommend checking out Texhnolyze, which was produced by the same team (Yasuyuki Ueda, Yoshitoshi ABe, and Chiaki J. Konaka). Watching lain, I was also disappointed by how it didn't give the viewers any reason to care about the characters. However, Texhnolyze handles that aspect brilliantly, as the show is very much about the conflicting desires and ideologies of the characters.


Texhnolyze is also on my list. It's good to know that it does some actual character development.
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 10:01 pm Reply with quote
Tonight, after 14 days of being out of commission, I finished watching Love, Chūnibyō & Other Delusions. Yūta Togashi is a middle schooler that has undergone "chūnibyō" in the belief of possessing supernatural traits and identifying himself as "The Dark Flame Master." Thinking that his past was an embarrassment, he decided to appear at an high school where no one knows him...only to find out that a high school girl named Rikka Takanashi, who is currently undergoing her own phase of chūnibyō, has learned of his past; thus, she becomes interested in him. As a result, Yūta has a hard time trying to separate himself from his past of make-believe.

I had a fun time watching Chūnibyō. The show did great showing Rikka and Sanae's perspective of how their "battles" were carried out, making the story appear more epic. After having watched it, I now have a greater appreciation of having a vivid imagination. Anime smile


Last edited by Mr. Oshawott on Sun Mar 15, 2015 7:33 am; edited 1 time in total
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Jose Cruz



Joined: 20 Nov 2012
Posts: 1767
Location: South America
PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 1:26 am Reply with quote
errinundra wrote:
Jose Cruz wrote:
Hyouge Mono - Excellent mature series...


I found, especially in the early episodes, that it was hard to know which characters were significant. General Hashiba (better known to history as Toyotomi Hideyoshi) is, after Furuta Sasuke, the next most important character (along with Senno Soeki).


Yes, in spoiler[the beginning is mostly Furuta following Nobunaga then after he dies] that we get to the meat of it.

Quote:
The overarching story is a satirical tragi-farce involving Hashiba and Senno as seen by Furuta. It's actually much, much more complicated than that but keep your eye on Hashiba and Senno.


I am. I love the faces Futura makes as well.

phia_one wrote:
Ignatz wrote:
If you liked lain, then I highly recommend checking out Texhnolyze, which was produced by the same team (Yasuyuki Ueda, Yoshitoshi ABe, and Chiaki J. Konaka). Watching lain, I was also disappointed by how it didn't give the viewers any reason to care about the characters. However, Texhnolyze handles that aspect brilliantly, as the show is very much about the conflicting desires and ideologies of the characters.


Texhnolyze is also on my list. It's good to know that it does some actual character development.


Texhnolyze is a masterpiece. It's far longer than Lain as well, but I think that Lain might be considered superior in some respects (at least it managed to scare me deeply).

ADM20 wrote:
Really, though, I don't see myself watching any more Haruhi Suzumiya, except maybe the infamous Endless Eight arc that sounds like it would be one of my favorite things ever.


I found that horrible to watch though. Really boring.

[Edit]: combined your consecutive posts. Errinundra.
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ADM20



Joined: 07 Mar 2015
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Sun Mar 15, 2015 2:16 pm Reply with quote
Jose Cruz wrote:
I found that horrible to watch though. Really boring.


Well, I suppose that's what makes it sound so appealing. I love something with a nice slow pace.
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