Author Topic: Watching any anime?  (Read 268585 times)

Shale

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #325 on: September 15, 2008, 12:51:00 AM »
Last night I watched the Utena movie the way it was meant to be watched: at 12:30 AM in a room full of people who have never heard of it before. Now that's entertainment.
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Hunter Sopko

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #326 on: September 15, 2008, 02:03:48 AM »
Last night I watched the Utena movie the way it was meant to be watched: at 12:30 AM in a room full of people who have never heard of it before. Now that's entertainment.

Awesome....

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #327 on: September 15, 2008, 07:41:39 AM »
Started watching the World Destruction anime, which was apparently produced simultaneously with its DS game incarnation, as the anime seems to be constantly hyping its RPG roots.

As usual with video game anime, it's mediocre at best. The art is nice enough and the episodic stories are cute. The overall plot is nowhere in sight apart from a few lines here and there from the main character.

Speaking of which, the main character is ostensibly the boy Kyrie... but really, it's Morte's story. She's also the more interesting of the characters.

So far Lia is my favorite character - she's an interesting one-note tsundere-type, but she's either completely hate-able or completely adorable. Her baby crush on Kyrie is handled pretty well, which is surprising for an anime like this. I'm on episode 9, and there's no end in sight, but considering that they can end the world anytime they want, it wouldn't take much to get the anime to its conclusion.

Speaking of which, for anyone who doesn't know, the main concept is that our protagonists are a band of heroes who are dead-set on destroying the world. Well, Morte is dead-set on destroying the world and everyone else is kind of stuck with her thanks to her criminal reputation being contagious. Luckily for her, she stumbles across a boy who just so happens to be the trigger who can destroy the world and she kind of forces him to go along with her. Opposing the "World Destruction Committee" (as our heroes are called) is the World Salvation Committee, a team of beastmen who are basically hunting Morte, as sanctioned by the prevailing ruling class of this world: the beastmen. Humans are little more than slaves, being the losers of a 100-year-old war.

The main theme, in case you couldn't guess, will eventually be "why can't we all live equally?". And the more interesting aspect of world destruction looks like it's going to be thrown to the wayside.

Overall impression - looks like it'll make a decent RPG plot, but without gameplay to back it up, World Destruction's just mediocre anime.

You can definitely see the influence of the Xenogears team.

-Djinn

Niu

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #328 on: September 15, 2008, 09:51:35 AM »
BTW, anime is very different then the game.

For example. In the game, Morte does not have the Destrcuto Code, and Destructo Code was said to be a book in the game. Also unlike the anime, Morte and Agon are childhood friends in game, and Agon is Golden Lion's vice leader. Lia also acts a fourth party and is not a part of World Salvation Committee. The World Destruction Committee is also more than "just Morte". Kyrie also can fight, unlike his uselessness in anime. Also, the game scheduled to have Kyrie annihilating the world once during the midgame.

Twilkitri

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #329 on: September 15, 2008, 02:25:43 PM »
And I did get mightily perturbed with waiting on the Gundam 0079 subs, which hath been stuck at episode 39 since February despite episode 40 being coming soon since May. And I did acquire some MKVs, half of which refused to work unless relabelled AVI, of Gundam 0080, as it did appear to be the most mehish section of the UC. And I did watch upon the files and yea, they were as mehish as had been feared. And the show was deemed decent but completely unfulfilling and will likely end up with a mark similar to that of DYRL.


Macross 7: Up to episode 21. It's pretty good which is a nice return to form for the universe; I like it a fair bit. Unfortunately my brother doesn't so watching it is somewhat lagging. On the plus side, bandwidth should last longer this month as I don't acquire more than a couple episodes ahead >_>? Nice to see a Kamjin reference considering he was in DYRL for all of 20 seconds and had nowhere near the majory-ness as he did in the series, and as he was implied to have had in the past here given the context of the reference.

The question is raised: Why, considering that transformed!Macross was a Bad But Unfortunately Necessary Thing in the original (and presumably DYRL, but I guess I wouldn't put it past that to have made it by design) do they go out of their way to explicitly design their ships to have to do it afterwards -_-



I've also ordered Nadesico. Hopefully it will not turn out to be a Plus in sheep's clothing.

Hunter Sopko

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #330 on: September 15, 2008, 09:49:20 PM »
Don't worry, Nadesico is awesome. If you like dubs, watch the dub.

mia~

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #331 on: September 15, 2008, 10:51:58 PM »
Code Geass- Schenizer.... you BIIIIIIIIIIITCH!!!!!!! Wow, I mean WOW. This is just amazing, you managed to out fail both Lulu and Suzaku 2 seasons combined in a single episode!!!!
He's still fuckin' fabulously hot. <3

Niu

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #332 on: September 15, 2008, 11:33:04 PM »
Soul Eater- Disapointed as hell. Stein didn't do the face stab to Medusa, nor did Medusa did her awsome insane dying laugh. Even the Asura vs. Shinigami sama fight is flashy, that simply doesn't make up for it. And hell, it is sad that Asura is the first person who did the insane laugh right in this show.

Amatsuki- Got up to ch.49 on the manga.... Awsome, just awsome. The plot twists in ch.48 and 49 is just.... great. Finally giving you some obvious hints on the actual chronological order of events. And yeah, Chidori's ties to the virtual world is also pretty much confirmed.  Everything just start to make sense all fo sudden after getting mislead for so long.

Sierra

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #333 on: September 16, 2008, 05:03:46 AM »
Watched a bunch of shows over the last couple months and kept forgetting to ramble about them here. So now you guys get concentrated, industrial-strength rambling instead. Lucky you.

Black Lagoon: Finally got around to seeing the second season of this by raiding TV Links (dammit, Geneon). It continues to be totally badass. Solid action, enough character work to keep me watching, tons of style...just excellent on every front. Home to some of the most endearing nutjobs around, too (SAWYER. The world needs more chainsawgirls). Also:

Balalaika. Is. Love.

Glad to hear that someone else is picking this up for American distribution in the wake of Geneon's implosion. Hope they'll keep the same english VAs.

Claymore: Yeah yeah, show of monster swordgirls, automatic Cid-bait, etc. What can I say? Well, I did enjoy it for reasons other than girls in skintight bodysuits turning into monsters and beating the crap out of other monsters (though I can't say I objected to any of that). Interesting array of powers on display, and watching Clare--nominally the least powerful member of the organization--work her way up by mixing and matching abilities seen elsewhere and generally just being inventive was always fun. I enjoy seeing the learning process at work, and Clare was relentless in improving herself.

The downside? Raki. He was harmless enough for most of the series, and Clare having motivation to be something other than a relentless killing machine is naturally a plus. And then the final plot arc comes and he fails it up hardcore. "No, you can't kill the ruthless, man-eating monster! She might have had a traumatic childhood! And if you kill her you'll be just like her! ...For some reason!"

Priscilla's a rabid dog, dude, and you're going all moon-eyed just because you had accidental-hand-on-boob with her. I mean...jesus christ, that was reprehensible. And seriously, everyone in Claymore had a traumatic childhood. Normal people don't sign up for an organization like this. The clueless, horny teenager elects himself the team's moral barometer, someone genuinely innocent dies instead, and the monster flies away. ::psyduck::, Raki. ::psyduck::

Good show apart from that stupidity, though.

Coyote Ragtime Show: Empty fluff. It's decently stylish, but the characters are largely one-note and Mister's a Marty Stu. Show totally should've been about the killer lolibot brigade. I was way more interested in them and Marciano than any of the main characters. Swordgirl android crimelord? Yes, thanks. (Though, I had to laugh at her speech to the Crime Guild leaders. "This criminal organization is corrupt!" Riiiight). I've gotta say, Angela toting around May's head for the whole series was probably the highlight of the show.

Disgaea: No, I don't know why I bothered either. Anyway, it doesn't fail as much as the Xenosaga anime and that's about as positive as I can be about it. Well, they retained a lot of the game's VA cast, so I guess that's something.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Show of Notmiki! Consistently over the top and I can't say I minded. It's not entirely my style, but I have to admire something so devoted to cramming as much cheese as possible into every episode. At the very least, it's unique. Pretty neat variety of abilities at work, too. I like seeing people thoroughly explore the limits of an invented system. The copious references to rock music are, of course, just icing. Speaking of which, down with Iced! Seriously, what an asshole. He doesn't just kick the dog, he cuts it in half, stomps on its head, and THEN kicks it across the room. Fuckwad.

Key the Metal Idol: I posted about this a while ago, but I hadn't watched the entire series. I have now finished it, and must sadly report that it's all downhill after episode thirteen. Really unfortunate, because the initial thirteen-episode run was excellent work. For reference, there are only fifteen episodes...but the last two are each an hour and a half long. Episode fourteen is ninety minutes of painful expository dialogue and the finale is just a godawful mess.

The show still does plenty of things right, though, and I would recommend that people watch it. Solid writing when dealing either the mundane or the more fantastical metaplot (and there's a good balance of both). The pop songs were also excellent and Tallychu should be clubbed with them. And, probably the highlight, the cast is uniformly memorable. Like 'em or not, I don't think that can be argued. Sakura is an endearing but flawed Token Sane Person, D is frighteningly driven for a henchperson and even fairly stylish when he wants to be ("It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye"), Tsurugi is a madman but somehow makes perfect sense as an eclectic artist (who was it that said "Poor people are crazy. Rich people are eccentric"?) and Ajo...

Ajo reaches heights of insanity that rival King Hamdo at his worst. This is not an exaggeration, he's one of the creepiest dudes I've seen in anime. Watching his subordinates variously turn on one another or self-destruct was morbidly fascinating. It wouldn't be accurate to say he has no regard for human life; rather, he has no understanding of the very concept in the first place, and the clearly fetishishtic fixation on machinery only adds to the ick factor. This is someone who's never quite dwelt in the real world, and every fiber of his being is bent on dragging us into his. Truly deserved the headsplosion.

As for the title character...I was going to say that she's a decent take on the old "android trying to become human" angle, but that's not quite true, given how the ending turns out. Her social awkwardness was interesting enough to watch during the superb thirteen-episode arc, at least.

Mermaid Forest: Pretty good. Charts the course of two unwilling immortals as the figure out the modern world and try to find a remedy for their condition. This results in some of the cliffhanger situations traditional to serial fiction (Uh oh, Erk in danger!) being amusingly obsolete. I really should've counted how many times the main characters got killed. It may have exceeded the Anthy Bitchslap Count.

Also notable for having some of the craziest supporting characters ever. At first, I thought the woman with demon arm in the title episode was pretty out there, but the show easily upped the ante with the deranged mom who cut her own face off and replaced it with someone else's. I figured there wasn't anything freakier they could do after that. Boy, was I wrong. The murderous, nine-hundred-year-old shotabait tops everything just by blinking. If he doesn't sound as messed up conceptually, I can assure you that he is in execution.

The kicker? The show's not really driven by gore or traditional horror elements (despite some damned unpleasant stuff happening). It never stops being a character study centered around the mains; it just happens to have a totally bonkers procession of guest stars.

My-Otome: Disappointment. Perhaps that's not the most accurate word, since I saw all its problems coming from the trailers, but it still sucks to see all the nice little character work Hime did be forsaken for generic hijinx here. Really can't think of anything positive to say about it. Well, no: This Week's Armitage. But that's about it.

Scrapped Princess: Also posted previously when I was about...halfway through this one? It's entertaining fluff. Sticks to its chosen formula and executes it adequately. That's enough to swing something around an average score from me. My only real beef with the show was that it decided to dive into the crapper halfway through the last episode. It's like, after an all-night Dew and nacho binge spent writing the grand finale, some genius on the staff went "Oh, wait guys, we were serious for a whole five minutes there. We'd better throw in some PERVERT PERVERT PERVERT jokes to balance things out. No, it doesn't matter that Shannon just saved Pacifica's life, there's always room for pervert jokes! And then we'll have her go be needlessly cruel to Leo when he pours his feelings out to her. I mean, it's not like she learned anything or grew at all during these twenty-six episodes, right? Right. Let's just knock this sucker out and go get stoned at a karaoke bar."

Still a decent show, but god, that ending was lame.

Venus Versus Virus: Genericrap. Deserves no further comments.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2008, 05:07:10 AM by El Cideon »

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #334 on: September 16, 2008, 07:47:57 AM »
In Scrapped Princess' defense, it does 'sad' pretty well. The scene with Pacifica's mother and the scenes with that guy that Pacifica essentially marries are memorable and poignant to me even though I watched the series like... 4 years ago or something?

Too bad none of the main 3 characters ever did much for me. Leo hype.

-Djinn

Niu

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #335 on: September 16, 2008, 08:08:21 AM »
the scenes with that guy that Pacifica essentially marries are memorable and poignant to me even though I watched the series like... 4 years ago or something?

With Feuley? I'll agree on that, especially after I found out that he is not a factor carrier. Or else the entire relationship would be meaningless.

I found that Shiz's death was pretty superficial and unnecessary. Even they really have to kill her, they could have done a better job.
« Last Edit: September 16, 2008, 09:44:31 AM by Niu »

Hunter Sopko

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #336 on: September 16, 2008, 08:41:09 AM »
Furey is awesome. His exit from the series pissed me off, as he's miles ahead of Shannon. Glad Pacifica remembers him in some small way. I liked the series, at least, I wanted to. I like the twist, but argh... some really stupid choices. Raquel was also awesome, as all characters named Raquel apparantly are.

Couldn't get through more than 8 eps of Claymore before I had to drop it. Ugh.

Sierra

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #337 on: September 16, 2008, 01:27:09 PM »
In Scrapped Princess' defense, it does 'sad' pretty well. The scene with Pacifica's mother and the scenes with that guy that Pacifica essentially marries are memorable and poignant to me even though I watched the series like... 4 years ago or something?

I agree, actually. (Especially about the "alternate Pacifica" sequence you mentioned. Holy shit, an amnesia arc that actually adds something to a show). It's partly why the last episode's instant one-eighty into Perfect Shiny Happy land was so jarring.

Grefter

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #338 on: September 17, 2008, 08:45:16 AM »
Samurai Champloo - Cheesed the ending, but whatever.  Baseball episode was awesome.  Really need not have bothered with a central plot really.
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Niu

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #339 on: September 21, 2008, 11:08:44 AM »
Looked up that BoF4 manga.... *stare at the art
...Samu? Wait, are you telling me she stop drawing yaoi doujin and close down her site just to draw this???
Ughhhh, what a horrible trade. At least pick on some other game that allows more yaoi fanservice!!!

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #340 on: September 21, 2008, 02:18:58 PM »
We may be missing out on some good yaoi manga, but really, BoF4 never looked so good.

Besides, I'm sure the artist is appreciative of the money that licensed mangaka receive.

-Djinn

mia~

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #341 on: September 21, 2008, 02:33:20 PM »
I am laughing, raging, and ???'ing at Code Geass R2 right now all at fucking once. I got trolled so bad by R2 23. I should've just believed Animedia ALL ALONG. Fuuuuck.

Niu

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #342 on: September 22, 2008, 01:29:50 AM »
We may be missing out on some good yaoi manga, but really, BoF4 never looked so good.

Besides, I'm sure the artist is appreciative of the money that licensed mangaka receive.

-Djinn

Yes, it is all true and that. But we really don't need any less KH doujin drawers, consider we barely have any of them in the first place....

hinode

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #343 on: September 22, 2008, 01:39:47 AM »
Got sucked into the Negima manga recently due to the TV Tropes character entries on Setsuna and Konoka.  Badass swordswoman with pretty wings and a lesbian bodyguard crush was too much to resist.  (What? <_<)

The endless fanservice gets annoying real fast, but the plot is actually good when it kicks in and the haremesque bullshit stops, and the main characters tend to be pretty likable. And the Cinema Village episode was every bit as epic as advertised.

Sierra

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #344 on: September 22, 2008, 02:27:56 AM »
So, yet another series that would be improved by ditching the useless male lead?

Hunter Sopko

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #345 on: September 22, 2008, 02:38:43 AM »
No, Negi kinda bucks that trend wholeheartedly.

hinode

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #346 on: September 22, 2008, 02:46:05 AM »
Negi's pretty cool after the series gets serious and Akamatsu drops the incredibly lame "sneezing=girl's clothing destroyed!" gag.  It's not his fault that half the damned classroom seems to consist of shoutacons.

Niu

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #347 on: September 22, 2008, 03:06:53 AM »
That manga's biggest fault would be starting it as a fanservience manga. As now all the fanserviceness it has are looking really stupid after the style transition.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2008, 11:21:11 PM by Niu »

DjinnAndTonic

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #348 on: September 24, 2008, 05:00:33 PM »
Started Sayounara Zetsubou Sensei. I forget who hyped it to me here, but I remember -someone- had. Anyway, it's quite possibly more amazing than it was hyped to be. A refreshing change from the normal anime fair. Especially considering that the last anime I watched before this was... the incredibly generic video-game-based World Destruction anime?

Since I'm assuming everyone here has seen SZS, I don't feel the need to go into the specifics.

-Djinn

Grefter

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Re: Watching any anime?
« Reply #349 on: September 26, 2008, 02:19:00 PM »
Paranoia Agent - 2/4 discs down in one sitting.  Wow.  I know Satoshi Kon is great and suprises me every time I watch his stuff.  But just fucking wow.  This is like a whole new level.
NO MORE POKEMON - Meeplelard.
The king perfect of the DL is and always will be Excal. - Superaielman
Don't worry, just jam it in anyway. - SirAlex
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