Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Jin Roh! It's a fantastic film, I might actually rewatch it. Vampire Princess Miyu is also good, I have seen it ages ago. The animation is the way it is, at the time it did not bother me as I liked the story, but it's possible it looks even more dated now 
Decided to pick up Fantastic Children I dropped... a year ago? I did not even remember which episode I was on, so ended up rewatching two I have already seen. Is it silly to get bothered by a character's nose? Like those guys. And there are a few others with the exact same feature, not the best look. 
Can't remember a nose bother me so much since Visions of Escaflowne. Anyway, this is one of the series that has got a pretty boring and confusing beginning to me, but round episode 8/10 it gets quite good, and now I am getting into it, so noses aside, hopefully will finish by the end of next week. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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Parts of Banner of the Stars was sadly a bore, despite the strengths in characterisation that it inherited from its predecessor. The indulgence and sheltered collectedness of many of the Ahbian aristocrats involved in the assorted battles made them all but impossible to sympathise with as allies of the protagonists, but lukewarm as potential villains. Crest of the Stars had such a beguiling central couple to it, and indeed I wanted nothing more than to see their relationship develop. It was as if some of Banner's supporting cast acted not to enhance the franchise's greatest asset, but instead to dilute it. |
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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Watching Space Patrol Luluco because I enjoy Kill la Kill and wanted to see what new anime that Trigger has made. Three episodes in so far and it's not too bad. It has give me some good laughs so far.
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louis6578
 Posts: 1861 |
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I watched Jin-Roh on the plane ride home from my cruise. Great movie. I can't say much without spoiling something about the story, but it's easy to follow despite being a very deep story with a complex protagonist who may or may not be a villain in his own right. Great moral struggles here. Easily gets an Excellent bordering on Masterpiece.
And aside from that, I'm practically finished Boogiepop Phantom. 9 episodes in one sitting. Great episodic narrative. The Otaku in episode 4 is a little too genuinely disturbing for my tastes though. He makes Satou from NHK look well-adjusted (yet he has a job and Satou doesn't). Aside from an "eh" dub (It was Central Park Media if I recall), the show has done nothing wrong. Well, episode 1 was a little dull to me. Ugh... episodic narratives are usually difficult for me to get into, but this one felt welcoming. |
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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↑
Completely agree with you about Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. It is all about the presentation of moral ambiguity. |
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louis6578
Posts: 1861 |
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^
I really wish I could go into more detail about it, but it's true! Glad to see I'm not the only one who appreciates it. Another plus is every superficial thing about it. It was made in the 90s but you might not even know that by looking. The music didn't stand out but that's a good thing because this movie needs restraint and subtlety. The dub, which I personally watched, seemed to fit everything as well, but the main female lead had some hiccups. This is an Akira-like dub where, no matter how good it is, the animators made characters' lips only fit the Japanese dialogue, and it showed a lot in her scenes. I feel like this film did what some of the Kara no Kyoukai films tried to do, but did it better. It was entertaining and interesting throughout. The nonaction scenes gave some insight to these characters without revealing any major twists, which is amazing considering how involved they were. Boogiepop Phantom is great so far. The dub has hiccups there too, but each episode is interesting in its own way. My only complaint is that the titular phantom is really just a side element until the end. Not even like Lil' Slugger/Shounen Bat from Paranoia Agent, in that every character is fixated on him, but instead she's more like The Rail Tracer from Baccano. Yeah, she's important, but not as important as any other character. She's in every story, but she's never the main focus in them. Aside from that, the quality of each story is inconsistent. Some are amazing, others are alright. Thankfully, it doesn't sink below that. My only major complaint is that these characters are often in situations so dark that it often feels the writer is too cynical. Don't get me wrong, Gen Urobuchi is one of my favorite storywriters ever, but there's a fine line between a realistic, yet dark story like Psycho Pass, and a story that's trying too hard to be edgy like Akame Ga Kill or Future Diary. Boogiepop Phantom is walking on that atom-thin line by its freaking toes! Also, I just started the first disc of ZZ Gundam's second half by Rightstuf. This is... pretty dull. It's not BAD per say, but the fact that Rightstuf's subtitles are too fast, really bright yellow, and at the end of each episode there's an extra minute of English Localization credits, a la Sentai Filmworks. Not to mention that Gundam is a difficult thing to marathon, speaking from experience. Typically, the films and OVAs are more interesting than the shows because they're shorter and focus on characters rather than mech fights. After seeing JoJo, I realized why it's more entertaining than Gundam as a franchise. Both have a hero and his successors fighting against evil with resources that most humans don't have (scientific or supernatural), but the difference is how those battles are portrayed. JoJo has many different characters with unique skillsets and powers. Gundam? At the end of the day, you're just watching giant robots blast at each other. I'm sure this helps to sell toys, but I'd rather this show be more about the characters, like Code Geass, Full Metal Panic, or any of the other mech shows I liked. Also, Judeau is a way weaker protagonist than either Amuro or Kamille. He's surrounded by uninteresting or annoying characters, and even if you think Kamille was surrounded by such people (which I'd disagree with), Zeta had plenty of returning characters from the original 0079. This one has Haman from Zeta and Bright from 0079, and I think that's all. Frankly, the protagonists are bland, and the villains are goofy and weird until the second half. Haman is certainly an interesting character. Her only downside in terms of character writing is her "womanly emotions" toward our protagonist. Still, like Char, while she is the most interesting, she's also barely around. I know Gundam shows don't have traditional filler, but isn't there a "skip list" for it somewhere? I can tell that several of these episodes are unimportant, or only have one or two long-term important things happen in them. There are 47 episodes and I'd bet there are only 12 episodes of pure content! |
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1498 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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Initial D: Second Stage episode 1, with assorted thoughts:
I had to restart the episode on FUNi's site because Hulu crashed Firefox multiple times; I'll be using the former from now on. The digital animation looks awkward when movement results in it getting choppy. And what's the deal with Ryosuke having brown hair now? Overall, decent start to the season. I can hardly wait for Speedy Speed Boy. |
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louis6578
Posts: 1861 |
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ZZ was a complete chore to sit through with Haman going through a total shift from cool villain to "misunderstood lady who just needs a good man" and it was a terrible one. Aside from that, Judeau is the worst Gundam protagonist I've had the displeasure of watching thus far, the heroes were all boring, and the only characters who were interesting were the Neo-Zeon villains that I was supposed to dislike. The comedy wore out its welcome pretty fast, but now that it's serious, it stopped being eye rollingly annoying and started being pretentious and boring. Oh, and the show would've been better if Leina actually died.
I rewatched Char's Counterattack and I have to say... I'm torn. When I first saw this film I loved it, but now... Char's turn to a true villain feels weird to me. Not completely betraying his character, but it feels rushed. Like the Homura twist near the end of Madoka Magica: Rebellion. I can see how Homura/Char would come to make the decisions they do, but the buildup is nowhere. One theory of mine is that Kamille turning vegetable might've pushed Char a little over the edge, but it's never even hinted at. Regardless, I felt like the movie-specific characters were dull or frustrating. It should have just focused entirely on Char and Amuro. Amuro is... pretty good. Not an outstanding protagonist, but he's just defined enough to keep from feeling bland or too perfect. Hell, he's basically proto-Shinji Ikari in how flawed he can be. One thing that no one can say this movie ruined is Char's personality. He still has the same charisma that he's famous for. Aside from that though, the animation is ahead of its time and I actually enjoyed watching the mech fights toward the end (the minor skirmishes where you half-know that no one important will die are empty though). Did I like the movie? ...kinda. After seeing ZZ, anything seems good. |
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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I try to watch Pupa and give up after 5 episodes. It started off so bad it's good then it got pretty boring. Also the incest stuff was kinda gross even for someone like me (Who sit through all three uncut episodes of Violence Jack and the Japanese uncut version of Legend of the Overfiend). Incest is not my cup of tea and I was like "I think I know where this series is going. I'm done!". Pupa is like if Genocyber and Tokyo Ghoul had a very ugly baby. Not the worst anime that I've seen, but still pretty bad.
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Touma
 Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I am watching Amazing Nurse Nanako because I decided to review some of the shows that I watched long ago and do not remember well enough rate.
Nanako is a six episode OVA so it will not take long to finish it. I do not remember when I bought this but it was probably 12 to 15 years ago. I have watched two episodes and it is decent, so far. Nanako (the character) looks and acts a lot like Nuku Nuku, but I cannot find any connection between the characters. There is quite a bit of fan service, with some good examples of the Gainax bounce. I will be watching the third episode soon. I have now watched the third episode and Nanako is still decent. This episode was a bit more entertaining than the first two, so I think that the show has the potential to be good. I had been uncertain about exactly what kind of show it was trying to be, but now it definitely seems to be science fiction, leaning toward horror with spoiler[people mutating into monsters.] There is a lot of humor, but I do not think that the show is trying to be a parody. The fan service is still prominent and has even increased a bit with the addition of a second female character. I expect to finish Amazing Nurse Nanako later this evening. I have now finished Nanako and decided to rate it Good, mostly because I decided that it is a parody. If I view it as serious science fiction it is only So-so and the comedy and fan service do not help much. But thinking of it as a parody puts it well into the Decent range. Then the comedy and fan service, which are much more effective in a parody, bring it up to Good. I enjoyed it enough that I wish that I had not waited so long to watch it again. |
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louis6578
Posts: 1861 |
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Rewatching Full Metal Panic (season one). Great stuff. I'm on episode 7 with my little brother and we're enjoying it. Sousuke is the only standout aside from Gauron being an alright villain and Kaname never being TOO annoying with her tsundere personality, but honestly, Sousuke carries this show and can do it for miles.
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Paul D. Atreides
 Posts: 128 |
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Well, after months of burn-out my anime obsession is back in full swing. I've spent the last two weeks watching the three main shows of the Fate franchise:
Fate/stay night Fate/Zero Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works In total that's 75 episodes of Holy Grail Wars. I'd always been interested in this franchise but never got around to watch it and see what it's all about (until now). So what did I think of it? Whilst I did enjoy the original show it pales in comparison with Zero and UBW which are both awesome. In fact, put together they might be one of my all-time favourites. If you were to ask me in which order I think you should watch them I wish I could say that you can skip the original and go straight for Zero and UBW. The problem is that I tried to watch Zero first a while ago, and it didn't work out. It starts with a huge info-dump, and since it's a prequel it assumes that you already know most of what they're talking about. So if you haven't seen the original (or just don't know the story to Fate/stay night in the first place) chances are you'll just get confused. As for UBW, it also seems to assume that you've already seen Zero because it makes several references to it. So if you haven't seen Zero it probably won't feel as meaningful. That's how I feel at least. So I'd recommend that you just watch the shows in the order in which they were produced. It's a commitment, but it makes for a very satisfying viewing experience. And don't think that the UBW-movie is in any way a substitute for the UBW-show. I haven't seen the movie, but from what I hear the show is superior in pretty much every regard. Now I'm really looking forward to the Heaven's Feel Trilogy. Especially since Sakura is the character in most need of development at this point. |
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louis6578
Posts: 1861 |
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^
I have to say, I still think it's better to see Fate/Zero after UBW, even if it does have a spoiler about Tokiomi's eventual fate (which you can kind of guess from the Fate path anyway once you see that Tokiomi is Gilgamesh's first master). |
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Touma
Posts: 2651 Location: Colorado, USA |
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I just watched A.LI.CE as part of an effort to reduce my backlog by watching some of the shorter shows.
It seems that this might have been the first anime that was made entirely with 3D GC. I think that most of the animation looks good, unfortunately I cannot say the same for the plot. Even allowing for the difficulty of understanding a time-travel paradox the story still does not make much sense. A large part of the problem is that the story is just too involved and intricate for the time that was allotted to telling it. But, I really do not feel like spending any more time talking about it right now. I rated it So-so. |
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killjoy_the
 Posts: 2459 |
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I finished Jojo Part 3 Egypt Arc and thought it was really disappointing, so much that I'm even wondering whether I want to watch part 4 or not. I've heard it's better than part 3, but that's not too much of a bar to me now.
I only really liked about 3 of the new Stand users, the only characters I liked were Polnareff and Joestar, and Jotaro was just awful all around. That he's still hanging around on Part 4 is a real turn off for me. |
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