Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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louis6578
 Posts: 1862 |
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Last I check, no one but spoiler[Erwin] dies that I'd care about. Certain people turn out to be the Armored and Colossal Titans, but... meh. |
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Zin5ki
 Posts: 6680 Location: London, UK |
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You have been fooled! I have no such favourite characters. Such is the best of strategies to adopt when approaching anything highly injurious to its characters' health. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15483 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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Watched episode 12 and finished Schoolgirl Strikers Animation Channel. You know, it is not a very good anime, the animation despite being fairly descent offers little surprises and thus not very engaging in fights, the story is pretty weak sauce and I am kind of confused on certain elements that must have been part way through that I can't recall how they were done, and I think the seams are kind of hard to ignore. The characters are the collection of anime girl tropes, and especially the cutesy one who adds the suffix "-chin" to people's names can be kind of grating for feeling fake. But despite all of that I cannot dislike the show, I feel like I kind of revelled in some of its bad parts, and there was this odd feeling of fun, despite failing on intended bits.
If I had to be honest, my favourite part of this show was the ED, which sounds like a red flag, but I want to explain how I felt from it. It was sung Rina Hikada and Yui Ogura, who voiced the super cutesy girl and the quirky straight faced girl, two of the kind of faker character types, but I would say for me it was the embracing of these character tropes fully that added some fun. And embracing what it is to the point of fun is what the ED does great. The visuals do away with any semblance of being sophisticated and hot and instead show all the girls as blobs in visual parodies of old school video games, and I still think it was fantastic in a way of saying "yeah, we are not good, but we sure as hell are going to have fun with it. And I also think the song is super catchy, no doubt carried by the vocals of the singers. And to fault the show, I think something the show failed in full was seeing that by embracing the silliness as shown above more in the show was to its detriment. There is like fairly large swaths of largely uninteresting parts, but I think to one part where the girls in the snow decide to go yeti hunting, something pointless and stupid, was actually entertaining because it felt like this show, the characters, and even the people behind the characters were actually having fun. I do kind of look at my opinions to this and Marginal #4 and think that chances are that I am being hypocritical, but it is my feeling that I was more receptive to Schoolgirl Strikers that it felt more fun every so often. Like one aspect was even a "villain they put in that was simultaneously really strong, but also hilariously incompetent, and everything about her kind of scream awareness, and was actually kind of surprisingly attached to some emotions. I give Schoolgirl Strikers a rating of Decent (6/10), I don't think I wasted my time watching it, there is a bit of a niche here, and while it did fairly good for the niche I do think that there ways it could have made itself overall better by more often embracing it. And for the record I am watching Kemono Friends, half way through and it is actually surprisingly good, one of those surprises. I should get the rest of it watched soon. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15483 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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And now watched all 12 episodes of Kemono Friends, and it certainly is the surprise of the season. A good representative of what is often said about the 3 episode rule that I'm first episode I thought it was not very good, when I final got to the second it was somewhat entertaining, and by the 3rd I had gotten into full swing with it and was having fun. There is this sort of innocent fun to it that makes it surprisingly easy to watch, that you end up forgiving its more childish side, and even the various personality traits boiled down to each girl because you kind of feel like it is a nice and interesting representation of the animal. To pick from all the Friends, I think that my favourite was Ibis.
And that does not even get into that despite the kid friendly appeal, there was the undercurrent of plot largely on display through environment. I mean the environment alone felt kind of nice that I could enjoy it for what it was, and then there was all the post apocalyptic like. There is a really weird element that character in general can sound amateurish, and the models looks it, but somehow it creates a charm. Learning about animals was fun, but there was also just as much focus on things that make humans kind of great, and how animals can kind of not too different. To give it a rating, I am going with Very Good (8/10). I can't even be sure I can break down why, other than it felt fun and easy to watch. I started watching late yesterday and made an aware choice to stop half way through the series when it was approaching 1 am. Maybe give into the hype if you were apprehensive. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11379 |
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Yay, I knew you'd like it.
 I think one of the things I particularly liked was that Kaban-chan used her head to solve problems without being obnoxious about it or making the other girls look stupid, or resorting to false modesty. Everybody had their talents to contribute, and intelligence just happened to be hers, without making her better than the rest. That's a nice balancing act.
Finally finished the last two eps of Minami Kamakura Biker Girls or whatever. I had to ffwd through it to make it, and it was still an uphill slog, which in a way is appropriate. I dunno, I thought there might be something in this, but it just kept getting stupider and stupider until the addition of Sandy, which was like riding a bike with an annoying squeak you can't find the source of no matter how much you oil everything. Could we please get a Yowapeda for girls where they're not all super-genki airheads? I guess that's a no. |
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DuskyPredator
Posts: 15483 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I do think that was part of it, a strange balance of appreciating each other getting and giving praise, not really making anyone feel small. Like the prairie dog and beaver episode, an appreciation for others being different was great. And I too thought that the girl bike anime was pretty awful, a slog to get through without really anything really interesting. I actually thought that Long Riders was somewhat educational in comparison. |
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Chiibi
 Posts: 4829 |
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Finished Unlimited Blade Works
Everyone and their mom: SEE, HOW IT'S WAY BETTER THAN FATE 2006!? Chiibi: Well......from a technical aspect, yes.....but what else can you expect from an eight year gap? 
*The animation, music, direction, and character development are all pretty stellar. (oh the CGI could use some work but I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to that lol) Brave Shine is a great OP. I do remember people ranting and raving about it two years ago....and I can see why. The composition kinda reminds me of Witch Hunter Robin's OP (yeeeah, remember that? ) And I usually prefer faster openings compared to slower ones. All of the Kalafina songs are good too. You can bet everything vocal from this franchise will find its way onto my playlist in the very near future.
*Lancer. Just...........Lancer.  Lancer gets the greatest quotes. He's simply fantastic. His dub actor is also fantastic. In fact, I daresay his dub actor is more fantastic than his original seiyuu. I DON'T SAY THAT VERY OFTEN.
*Archer. Archer is great and we get a WHOLE lotta Archer this time. I do feel the show downplayed spoiler[the reveal of his identity] a bit though. Except for Saber....I'm pretty sure I had the same "HOLY SH-" look on my face as her because we both figured it out at the same time. But Shirou.....he's all "Yeah, I think I've known all along". WHAT. COME ON. Get more freaked out!!! You had one job!!!
Speaking of Shirou, he does come off as less stupid and less sexist. So that is a plus. But I do kinda have a problem with the whole spoiler[Shirou/Archer dynamic]. And I'm pretty sure it's just me. Maybe this stuff is too complicated for me to understand..... spoiler[ It's revealed that Shirou in the future becomes Archer and he is betrayed by his own ideals to be a hero of justice. But.....I don't quite gather how that goes so wrong. Unless it's just similar to how the story of Jesus Christ went; of how humans fear something they don't understand, of how they fear power, no matter if this power is used for good; they want to put an end to it because it's still a "threat".] Or something like that? On that note, I find Gilgamesh's words "Humans are prisoners of their flesh so they can never be satisfied" very interesting. That's like something lifted directly from the Bible. I can't forgive this guy however. spoiler[YOU KILLED ILLIYA. WTF. YOU DO NOT KILL THE LOLI. THE LOLI DOES NOT BE KILLED. HOW. WRY. THAT ISN'T OKAY.] On top of that.....spoiler[ Shinji is made to be the vessel. Now I get how it isn't Illiya this time because they want to make this route as different asap which they did, sure. But here's the problem: Shinji's a little sh*t. He's completely unlikable in this route. He's an asshat, a coward, an idiot, power-hungry, and HE TRIED TO RAPE RIN. Why should I give a damn about him going all "Akira" to be the vessel? Why should Shirou give a damn about him? Why should RIN!? Why does he get to surivive!? He doesn't deserve to. It's absolutely unforgivable that Shinji gets to live and Illiya is murdered in cold blood. Type-Moon, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?] One other thing..... spoiler[Archer's reappearance in episode 24 really feels like a complete ass-pull. Especially since we're given no explanation for it at all. I'm not really angry about it though; on the contrary, I was pretty delighted to see this lovable smartass again. And I am used to ass-pulls. But for a show like this that seems carefully crafted, you'd think they'd come up with SOMETHING to explain it. *sigh* Lol whatevs. Rin's final moment with him was very heartfelt and sweet. I ship it hard. I still prefer my ships of SaberxShirou and RinxArcher. Because even if they are the same, I see Shirou and Archer as two completely different guys. I bet I'm not the only one.] Overall, UBW was an exciting and enjoyable experience, save a couple of writing choices. There are things I prefer in this version....and things I prefer in Saber's route. But that's fine; we'll always have both to enjoy over again. Looking forward to continuing this franchise and everything related to it. |
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Cam0
 Posts: 4888 |
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I started watching Masamune-kun's Revenge. It's good so far. I'm 4 episodes in. For whatever reason I wish Makabe was voiced by Matsuoka Yoshitsugu (Kirito). Makabe is a pretty fun character himself. He tries hard to be some kind of womanizer, but he is kind of clumsy at it. Does seem to work on every girl other than Aki though. And I love Aki already. She can be nasty but cats can be nasty too, they are still adorable though. Yoshino is kind of interesting. She is a bit more than she appears at first, I like that.
There's another girl who appears in the opening and I'm pretty sure she's going to be another love interest (episode 4 spoiler[pretty much seemed to confirm that]). Something tells me that she's going to be that super kind girl love interest. Mostly, I don't like that archetype. I hope she'll end up being more than that or I might spend the rest of the show pointing an imaginary gun at her everytime she's on screen. |
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Chiibi
Posts: 4829 |
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@Cam0
I love that series. Makabe's seiyuu is so great. He really had me loling and he seems like he has a lot of fun voicing him. I strongly recommend the manga when you finish the anime. If you love the characters now, you'll love them even more by the time you catch up to all their backstories. |
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Gewürtztraminer
 Posts: 1028 Location: Texas - Its like whole other country. |
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Yeah finished this one off myself today. This was a very well animated story without a soul. I have to watch at least one Magic High School Battle show a season, and this was it this season. This should have been a slam dunk but very similar to BangDream, it just does not connect at all despite the high production values. Moving on.... |
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Cam0
Posts: 4888 |
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Already finished the show, I guess I didn't have anything better to do. In the end, I didn't like this show as much as I liked it at first. It was silly and goofy, but it wasn't particularly funny. I wish it was more serious. It was decent, worth seeing but I'm not particularly interested in finding out what happens next unless we'll get a second season. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11379 |
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Watched the first couple of episodes of the 2014 ComixWave short World Fool News, a sort of promo anime for Gunma prefecture which is apparently continuing this season. Plot summary: "Takahashi is promoted to main anchor of a late news show staffed with weirdos."
Despite its raison d'etre, it doesn't really come across as a promo. It has the dry humor you'd expect from ComixWave, is suitably bizarre, and often blazingly stupid. Even the jokes that work wouldn't be funny if I described them so I won't try. I'm not sure why, but I found the cartoony character designs somehow appealing. I'll probably watch more as time permits. Also finished up the last 4 eps of Reikenzan Eichi. I really liked this whole series. Still can't believe Haoliners/Tencent had anything to do with it. Nice story, interesting characters and plot, very nice character designs, pretty decent animation (way, waaaaay better than Trickster or Spiritpact), and pretty music. The only subs I could find toward the end were so bad I could barely follow it, but aside from that, 7/10. The montage at the end was particularly beautiful and affecting, plus the post credit tag was an unexpected bow on the package. One scene was pretty hilarious though, with Riku undergoing a trial where all the ghosts and corpses and skeletons killed for the sake of his sect confront him in a lake of blood (kind of a PG Griffith's reckoning). Creeping Dead: Grrr, moan... It's your fault! Give me back my life! It's your fault! Grrr, moan... 
Riku: Oh stop whining. Don't blame me that you couldn't hack it. I don't feel sorry for you at all! Creeping Dead:  Whaaa?? T ; T  ::all slink dejectedly back into the lake of blood::
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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I'm at Episode 3 on Tokyo Ghoul and does this show get any better? The show feels like a cliche series to me similar formula to so many others titles like Parasyte, Devilman, 3x3 Eyes and Ajin. The main character is unlikeable and the supporting cast feels weak. The show feels like it was made for edgy teens, not for grown ups. I could have easily mistaken this anime for a Shonen, not a Seinen.
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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Seeing as how Tokyo Ghoul is currently airing on Cartoon Network's Toonami block, I will be very curious as to what -- if any -- replies that that Spawn29 might get. If I recall correctly, episode #3 airs tonight. |
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Spawn29
Posts: 551 |
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I decided to watch episode 3 in advance on Funimation's website since I won't be able to stay up until 1 AM for work on Sunday. This is the first time that I'm watching the show since I only seen the first two episodes subbed when it came out and never got the chance to watch the rest of it.
People compare Ajin to Tokyo Ghoul for having similar themes, but I do like Ajin better so far because I like the characters better and I think it has a better social commentary. |
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