Watching any anime?

[Niu]

Shiki- Anime ends. Toru goes down the Ritsuko end like novel. Megumi also end like the novel. Stupid loli and monk as get the novel end. So... can I expect the opposite from the manga?? On the other hand, the siblings made out alright, does that mean they have fate worse than the novel waiting for them in the manga?

[Bardiche]

Gundam SEED Destiny Special Edition. H'okay, so it improved the original a bit. One thing I was happy to note is that Meer's note now contains correct English, and the ending was expanded on to show more than just Shinn and Lunamaria on the Moon's surface. Athrun picking them up, visiting a memorial, etcetera.

Still not a fantastic story but uh, well, it's better than I remembered it to be. Can't find SEED Special Edition properly Seeded (or at least dubbed) (doh-hoh what i did thar) so putting that on hold for now. Supposedly that's been improved a lot, too, so I wanna watch it.

Apparently they also have a theatrical film in production but due to the writer being ill it's on indefinite hiatus. But I want more Lunamaria.

[Twilkitri]

Gun X Sword -

I was pretty happy with it.

I could see people following a man who seems to definitely have the capability of changing the world for the better despite the fact he keeps killing people (accidentally, supposedly), but when this capability consists of imprinting HIMSELF (who keeps killing people, remember) on everyone why doesn't anyone see the obvious problem with this.


Gun X Sword-San -

Amusing enough for what it was. Don't know if I would have cared for there to have been much more of it though.


Gundam 00S2 V4 -

Aside from dealing with the current crisis, which didn't take all that long, this volume was mostly background information and setup for the next crisis. There was not even any Bad Times For Saji (that he was aware of anyway). Not much to say.

[Pyro]

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya: Great movie for fans of the show (or former fans of the show, if E8/the long hiatus through you off).

The animation and artwork are fantastic. This movie is visual crack in pretty much every scene. The soundtrack is used very well, although silence is the norm (it works given the fairly serious nature of the discussions/scenes).

The plot and characters are given an obvious spoilery twist, but fans of the original show should enjoy it. The core of the movie's plot and character work revolves around a fairly major introspection by Kyon, and the resulting decision brings about a fairly major change in his character.

Asakura's showing is absolutely great. You start to like/trust the 'rebooted' her to some degree as a genuine friend of Yuki's, and then of course out comes the knife. The wonderful part is that it was absolutely justified: Kyon was pointing a weapon at her best friend and fully intended to use it. Not that this makes her any less CRAZY. The resulting scene is equal parts horrifying and mesmerizing. Just fantastic and fun.

I had pretty much given up on this series after waiting years just to be EPIC TROLLED by Kyoto Animation. I can safely say I'm still a fan of the series after watching this, though. I can't recommend it to newcomers due to the requirement that you be familiar with the characters/plot to appreciate it, but to those who watched and enjoyed Haruhi S1: Watch this movie. Preferably now.

[hinode]

I'll add that you should absolutely watch the episode Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody before Dissappearance. THe other S2 episodes aren't all that important for Disappearance's plot, but you really do need to see BLR at least.

[Idun]

Just finished Claymore.

Watched the first episode of Aquarion, and it seems a tad bit too horny for me. I've finished Blassreiter and was unsatisfied with the ending, though I feel many would be anyway.

I must av someone from Claymore now. I feel like Clare would be appropriate, though  . .  the one who voiced Min Mei had pretty hair. Or she sounded like she voiced Min Mei anyway.

[Bardiche]

FMP: Hyped so much, but uh, the Chidori SOSUKE TAKE ME YOU SEXY BEAST feels a bit too fast? She falls for him at first sight apparently because he acts COMPLETELY WEIRD. Uh, what, this better get explained later! Anyway hijinks and stuff. It's a little amusing but I really don't get the hype for it, it's not that good.

[Shale]

Most hype is based on either Sousuke himself or the utter insanity that is Fumoffu, the second season.

[Hunter Sopko]

FMP: Hyped so much, but uh, the Chidori SOSUKE TAKE ME YOU SEXY BEAST feels a bit too fast? She falls for him at first sight apparently because he acts COMPLETELY WEIRD. Uh, what, this better get explained later! Anyway hijinks and stuff. It's a little amusing but I really don't get the hype for it, it's not that good.

I never got the sense that she fell for him at first sight. She softens up to him, sure, but she doesn't even really start trusting him until after the first major incident.

[Bardiche]

She takes immediate interest him from episode 1, going all blush blush and according to Kyoko taking unnatural interest in Sosuke. She goes all I TRUST YOU WITH ALL MY SOUL, WITH YOU BY MY SIDE I FEEL I CAN DO ANYTHING in episode 7.

I dunno, six episodes before she goes all OH GOD SOSUKE I WANT YOU TAKE ME YOU SEXY BEAST is a bit too fast for me but then I don't suppose this series is meant to be about romance, but Sosuke doing silly things.

Like stealing pantsu.

[Pyro]

I dunno, six episodes before she goes all OH GOD SOSUKE I WANT YOU TAKE ME YOU SEXY BEAST is a bit too fast for me but then I don't suppose this series is meant to be about romance, but Sosuke doing silly things.

What the hell are you talking about?

Sosuke IS a sexy beast!

(FMP's first season is a good mixture of badass and idiocy. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although general reaction varies quite a bit. FMP: Fumoffu is pretty much universally hyped and worshiped, however.

[Hunter Sopko]

She takes immediate interest him from episode 1, going all blush blush and according to Kyoko taking unnatural interest in Sosuke. She goes all I TRUST YOU WITH ALL MY SOUL, WITH YOU BY MY SIDE I FEEL I CAN DO ANYTHING in episode 7.

To be fair... you mean high school girls DON'T take immediate interest in unusual but good-looking men?

[hinode]

One thing that they don't explicitly state in FMP S1 (and they tap dabce around it in the anime in general) is that Kaname... doesn't have that great of a social reputation at her school. She's labelled 'prettiest girl that you wouldn't want to date' or something like that in some of promotional material for Fumoffu. Apparantly the boys in her school consider her too brash and short tempered to be good girlfriend material. Having this good looking guy sorta show interest in her is kinda intriguing even if she finds his behavior really bizarre.

I believe the novels actually state that she grew up in the US as a kid, so her behavior is supposed to play into Japanese stereotypes of Americans.

[Bardiche]

I wouldn't know, Sopko, I'm not a highschool girl. I can't really relate to it. Who says Sosuke is good-looking?

Hinode, I dunno about the Japanese but the English dub actually explicitly states that she has that reputation. When Sosuke grabs the pantsu thief, the pantsu thief says he had to steal Kaname's underwear because "no guy would want to date her anyway" so she'd be flattered if a guy had that much interest in her. Still, does that really justify it?

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I wouldn't know, Sopko, I'm not a highschool girl.

Basics of empathy and correlation. How would you feel if an unusual but good-looking girl showed interest in you?

[Grefter]

This is Bard, if an unusual good-looking girl showed interest in him then he would ask this strange man to stop hitting on him.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

In Soviet Russia, Bard hits on you.

[Bardiche]

I wouldn't know, Sopko, I'm not a highschool girl.

Basics of empathy and correlation. How would you feel if an unusual but good-looking girl showed interest in you?

I-- If she was completely eccentric in a bad way, I don't think I'd be totally into her like Chidori is in Sosuke.

... >_> I can't say I wouldn't be flattered though, but it all depends on how unusual.

[VySaika]

G Gundam

Yeah, I'm actually watching anime. One I've seen before, but still. After playing a bunch of J I kinda wanted to watch this again. Aaaand I'm kinda binging on it. 32 eps in 2 days. @_@ Wonder if I'll manage to keep this pace up and finish it tomorrow or Monday. We shall see!

[Captain K.]

Caught up on Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan on vizanime.com.   I like how it incorporates the traditional Japanese mythology.

[Twilkitri]

Chrono Crusade -

Wasted opportunity.

Tries to concentrate on drama and humour and doesn't do a very good job at meshing them, throws the humour out anyway in the leadup to the ending as you do. Would have been better to have been less humour-oriented in the first place.

Doesn't cop out in the ending, which is always a good thing, but proceeds to not really do anything with what it has. Not really sure how to put that into words, but the way in which things are set up result in there being almost no power in the scene at all - I feel it would have been more impactful for things to have occurred at the scene of the apex, rather thanhaving them disappear and later on the show being all 'So they spent 6-odd months together which we're not going to show you and now they're dead'. Actually, that could even have worked better if the death scene wasn't included - it didn't really add anything except for maybe revealing that Rosette's earlier blaséness about the idea was a lie, and considering how things ended up turning out it isn't out of the question that her view on that had merely changed. In either case, it doesn't cause any of her earlier scenes to be thrown into a new light, and she doesn't exactly have any later scenes for it to play into.

[Grefter]

Biggest problem there is really that they don't capitalise on the impact of someone willingly sacrificing themselves for the good of the world.

Really the whole series is pretty much cheap pay offs for what could have been interesting ideas.  Wasted opportunity is spot on.

[NotMiki]

Just finished reading the Pluto manga.  It was fucking fantastic.

[Twilkitri]

Victory Gundam -

I thought this series was supposed to be all bleakdepressing but it really wasn't much worse, if worse at all, than lows already set in the metaseries?

Shrike deaths are meaningless considering the majority of the good-aligned cast excluding them are children, almost none of which die (and they (discounting Usso for obvious reasons) may well see more in-battle screentime than the Shrikes). To be fair, as far as I have read, they were killed off specifically to decrease the value of the show, not for the purposes of Anyone Can Die-ness... can't really say how well that succeeded in my opinion if true since I am not really of the demographic where the Shrikes form a major draw for the show.

Too much newtype lamery, particularly everything related to the Angel Halo. Also the newtype ghosts. At least they weren't soul eaten.

I don't understand the motives of Katejina or Lupé at all. I don't really understand the goals of Zanscare in and of themselves. Fonse wants to use motherly love to give everyone on Earth the proportional strength and mental capacity of babies for unspecified reasons - don't believe we ever really find out what he actually wants to do after that. Maria wants to use motherly love to stop all warfare but has seemingly no problem with the implementation where opposing pilots are rendered unable to fight by this and then slaughtered by Zanscare's forces. And it's not really explained why the war with Earth was started in the first place. The Angel Halo had been planned for ages considering it had to be shipped in from Jupiter so why didn't they just finish building that and then use it rather than causing opposing forces to spring up in the meantime.

Chronicle pulls a semi-Jerid and it is disheartening. Not as bad as someone else at least.

All up, there was nowhere near enough motorad fleet.

[Veryslightlymad]

I've been on an absolute anime tear lately.

The disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya:
Finally got around to watching this. GREAT movie. Very Haruhi. I miss this show so badly, and I hope that the E8 thing doesn't destroy the good faith needed to make a third season, whenever that may be. Secondly, I actually LIKED Endless Eight. I imagine watching it live would be a disaster, but I watched all eight in a row (four hours!) and it was so fucking surreal and unheard of that I ate it up. I am a horrible art fag.

Star Driver:
A lot of people on SA are starting to really hate on this, because the hero wins every fight. Which seems like about the silliest reason you can hate a cartoon series, because, well, that's just what's going to happen. Also, if the hero loses, that's pretty much the end of it. He has a giant robot that he cannot repair. So if he loses, even once, there's no more show. The bad guys have nothing stopping them from breaking the seals and fleeing the island. The animation and the fights are great, and some of the characters (Sugata! Head!) are awesome. My only real beef is that the second maiden was just.... eh. Kind of bland, and her arc took too long for my tastes. Oh well.

Madoka Magica:
Gave this a second chance on the recommendation of Stel, and I'm glad I did, because it made one of those sudden tonal shifts that I really like, assuming it doesn't get TOO horrifically graphic, which so far it hasn't. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Level E:
I've heard essentially no hype for this, which I think is a shame, because this is really the sleeper show of the season. It's funny, well paced, and the characters are really defined. Also, the opening for this is just plan rad, and if you don't enjoy it, then you're simply NOT A COOL DUDE. So watch Level E