T3h Animes: stuff I've watched

[tacticslion]

So! Recently on Crunchy Roll, and the first time I've had an easy time getting it to work. No, I don't know why, and I'm really sick, so...

- Madoka Magica: I finally watched this to see what all the fuss is about. And... it was good. Very good. Second most difficult and harsh Magical Girl genre thing I've ever been through, but the shock-value was relatively tame, as I went in knowing it was there and all the shock-value and uber-depression for the Magical Girl genre was already stolen by Sailor Nothing (see the bottom of every Krylo post ever, if you're curious: it's... really good, but exceedingly harsh). It was a solid examination of the genre, it's flaws, and potentially depressing elements, while still, in the very end, being ultimately uplifting and hopeful, despite it's own dark premise and bitter moments throughout.

- Occult Academy: a kind of surprisingly funny show about a girl searching for her father's murderer, and a time-traveler seeking to change the future. The final battle/moments had me absolutely certain that either the Tick was coming, or I was watching his origins. The love quadrangle angle was... strange, to say the least, as the male lead (though he wasn't the protagonist) held no definable qualities to make me think that he'd be such a desired commodity. That said, at least one of the attractions was explained at the end, and one could be sort of explained by the... impression... he made upon arrival. Still, it felt a little "male gaze"-y to me. That said, it was a fun ride, that didn't go where you expected, and had fun times throughout, and I generally liked the characters, despite the surprisingly slapstick violence.

- Kill la Kill: the finest piece of nonsense I've ever been privileged to watch. (I am, in fact, planning on watching Guerren Lagan soon enough, however, so that will likely displace it based on my understanding, but haven't gotten to it yet.) It... it... it's kind of poetic in the way it just... doesn't... care. I mean, it embraces the nonsense to a ridiculous degree. Another story ostensibly about a girl finding out who murdered her father (weird that I ran across two of those so close together?), it's filled with ludicrous (and highly-acknowledge) fan-service... but I enjoyed it nonetheless, and that daggum hero theme became incredibly effective by the end. Dang it. "Where the fanservice is plot, and style is the substance" indeed, internet. Indeed.

- Ozuma: it was... okay. It certainly had all the elements for a great and engaging story, and the art was exceedingly impressive: every character was thoroughly unique, and well animated. Additionally, the entire thing was tightly plotted with several "reveals" (though I saw a couple coming a mile away). But... I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I should be enjoying it. I found myself bored or distracted during the show, and didn't really get as invested as I thought I should. Because it was predictable? Maybe. Still, if you're up to it, give it a try.

- The Princess and the Pilot: excellent. It's a slower film (movie, not series), that follows a young pilot mercenary who is part of a country with a deeply ingrained caste system who is of low birth. His country and another are both at war with a third... who is kind of winning. Due to his extreme skill, despite his detractors, he is given the enviable position of flying a princess across the ocean (and through enemy lines) to bring her safely to her prince in another country. It hits every cliche you'd expect, but it had me loving the characters and their interaction the whole way, so much so that I didn't really care. Well written, well animated, simply lovely. Looks a lot like Studio Ghibli production, though I don't believe it was.

- I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying: it's... well, it's purposefully excessively silly, but also really touching in it's own way. The plot is a slice-of-life about a perverted nerd without a job and his newly married (much more "normal") wife. By the end, you can buy that they ended up together, why, and how, and why she chose to marry him even though she shares no direct interests, and he's rather weird. They deal with really, really weird family (many of whom disapprove), and normal life troubles as well, and run into problems understanding where they other is coming from often enough. And the thing is: they make the marriage work, and it's really beautiful. Good series, exceedingly sweet, despite it's supposedly absurd premise. Relies a lot on Japanese culture and understanding, however, to get many of the jokes or implications (which often flew over my head until I read comments). In 13 episodes of three minutes each, it's a total of 39 minutes, and it's... nice.

... aaaaand that's about it.

What about you all? Anything interesting?

EDIT: changed tags!

[greed]

I've been watch Jojo's Bizarre Adventure lately and recommend that to.... well everyone. I'm waiting for Durarara s2 to get licenced here as the first season was rad as hell.


That's about it on the anime front for me. Though I also just finished Korra s3.

Edit: Oh wait on the manga side I've been following and loving the hell out of The Truth is I'm.../Truthism/Jitsu wa watashi wa. It's about a honest guy who's comically bad at lying finding out his crush is a vampire. On the surface it seems like it'll be another dumb supernatural harem comedy.

It's not. It's a pure comedy. And really fucking funny. It's just stupid absurdist humour all the way down and it's still getting better as of chapter 60. It's also getting an anime this year whihc I'm hoping is done well but am not too excited for as a lot of what makes it good is the artist's skill with facial expressions which may not transfer well.

So yeah read that.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Been watching Samurai Champloo over weekends. Its really cool. After thats done Im probably going to hit up Cowboy Bebop.

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Just waiting for each new episode of Log Horizon each week now. TBH this season hasn't been quite as good since they changed animation studios, but that's still ok because the first season was fucking awesome.

[Tev]

My wife and I caught the first episode of Black Rock Shooter last weekend. We're not sure what to make of it yet. It seems interesting enough, but sort of disjointed in a way I can appreciate, but she doesn't find as enjoyable.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Watched Red Line the other night. Felt like I melted down a unicorn high on LSD and shot it straight into my eyes.

11/10 would watch again.

[Aldurin]

Durararax2 has potential, but the show has been dampened by the introduction of Izaya's younger twin sisters (mainly incest and the fact that it's another case in media where the bisexual characters are absolutely bonkers). On the other hand, the rest of the cast expansion is interesting so far, and Celty is still one of the most surprisingly adorable characters ever.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Aldnoah.Zero season 2 is turning out to be pretty good. A few issues here and there and Inaho is still a tad bit op especially after getting his bionic eye during the time skip between Seasons 1 and 2. But pretty good non the less. Really loving the dog fights and both sides feel a bit more evenly matched now ever since the battles moved into Space. Making each battle more interesting.

[mauve]

Been watching Samurai Champloo over weekends. Its really cool. After thats done Im probably going to hit up Cowboy Bebop.
Ah, excellent! Two of my favorites-- classics, as well. I loved the art style on both of them.

The last anime I watched (a year or so ago; I haven't really been into anime lately) was House of Five Leaves, which was animated by the same studio as Bebop and Champloo. The art style includes visible elements of both Manglobe and the original manga's styles (which I read after watching the series), which means it has Champloo's beautiful colors and the manga's super expressive eyes. Everyone looks drained or soulless, like the world has beaten them down and left them half dead, leaving them to stumble through the wreckage of their lives. And that's pretty much the characters in a nutshell. The single-season series was enjoyable and the characters really grow on you, but don't go in expecting action or adventure. Even though the story is about a samurai and a gang of kidnappers, the story revolves almost exclusively around the relationships between the characters rather than combat or elaborate heists.

[tacticslion]

Both Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop are entirely worthy anime to watch, especially 'Bebop, which is amazing.

EDIT: taaaaaaaaags

[RobinStarwing]

So much win in this thread! Time to join the party.

I've seen movies and show aplenty so I think I will stick to some of my favorites working from the oldies on up.

Robot Carnival: A good collection of anime shorts regarding robotics and AI. It's old and you can smell the Heavy Metal vibe and influence but it does a good job on it's own and some of the stories are very well told.

Project A-ko: A rather nice collection of satire anime. It's worth the laughs of just how much they poke at.

Dirty Pair Flash: Sunrise did this version of the Dirty Pair story. A blast to watch.

Dominion Tank Police: Police in Tanks. Enough said.

Outlaw Star: A Sunrise produced Space Western...definitely a classic in the same vein was Cowboy Bepop but for different reasons.

Slayers: 5 series, 3 movies, an OVA collection, and light novels that started it all. The anime, OVAs, and movies are more D&D satire than the novels.

Girls und Panzer: The sleeper hit of the 2012/2013 Anime season. a 12 episode short that makes schoolgirls in tanks awesome. NO PANTY SHOTS! But at least two public bath scenes and the OVAs is where you find the fan service. Reading the manga now myself.

Lyrical Nanoha: "So I heard you like Gundams in your Magical Girls..." Hard to believe she went from this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEophK_ilbA#t=130) to this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RBghAfiW8) to...well one of the most badass Magical Girls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwch2J0329c) in the history of the genre after a decade of being around.

EDIT: It should come as no surprise to anyone if I mention this but Seven Arcs used to do Hentai, Eroge, and Visual Novels (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxp1tBgao_w) before doing the Nanoha (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWHt-NQrcwk) series.

[Kim]

Other than Lesbian Bear Storm I've been watching Kantai Collection / Kancolle and it's been fun. It's super gay and the interactions are cute and there's a lot of wackiness. There's been some sadness too tho. It's junk food, but it's pretty decent junk food and between the lesbians and the humor it keeps me entertained

[Tev]

Other than Lesbian Bear Storm
We tried watching that here, and maybe it's just that we have a crappy sub on Youtube or are just not part of the target demographic enough to get it, but my wife and I are really somewhat lost after watching the first three episodes.

Like, we want to like this show because the animation style is adorable and the subject matter is somewhat groundbreaking in terms of your average anime fare, but we are so lost. Are over half of these girls actually bears in disguise? Because there were originally two of them, but then more just started popping up from within the school's current population and the two bears we were following seemed sorta surprised as well? We're still not 100% clear on this "Invisible Storm" guy. Does he just call up random yuri couples and tell them to prove their love by getting eaten by bears?

Oh, and the whole yuri trial thing at the end of each episode? It seems like a very basic pattern of "prosecution bear-guy is pissy, defense bear-guy says something along the lines of 'bears will be bears,' and then the judge bear-guy works the word shabadoo into his speech and then lets the bear-girls do....something(?) to the girl they were targeting?" They don't always seem to die so the bears aren't eating them, except then we see some bears totally burying bodies in the woods....

Yeah, we're lost.

[Kim]

Spoilers for Tev below

Ikuhara anime are heavily metaphorical. The Invisible Storm represents exclusion. Excluding others for being different. In the case of Sumika she was targeted by the invisible storm because of her love for Kureha. It was other students cutting the flowers in the lily garden.

The Wall of Seperation between bears and humans I'm not super clear on, nor am I super clear on what the bears represent, except that the characters who are bears are the ones who are sexual. Ikuhara said in an interview because he wanted sex and death to be connected in his story, which is an idea that I think shows up in psychology as well?

The yuri trials are a test of love. Kureha THOUGHT it was a test of her love for Sumika, but Kureha isn't the one on trial. Rather it seems a test of if her love and the love of Ginko and Lulu, in the abstract, is love or simply sexual avarice or simply friendship? This is speculation on my part tho. As the show goes on, we'll get more info and it'll be easier to tell what the metaphors mean.

It's also worth noting that after Sumika disappeared, Kureha's aim was always off. there are a few ways of interpreting this. That Kureha can't really take fire for revenge, or that the loss of Sumika, and someone to give her love by extension, left her directionlessness or without purpose? We assumed at first that Ginko and Lulu wanted to just consume Kureha, but they seem interested in her beyond the way they consume other students, and that I'm not sure it was Ginko and Lulu that attack her in the first ep.

BUT when Kureha is in danger, the yuri trial happens. Ginko and Lulu drink her nectar, which I assumed was just a metaphor for cunnilingus but might actually represent them being someone for Kureha to give her love to. They don't finish the first two times, but they do the third time, giving Kureha the aim she needs to protect herself.

So yeah, a lot of it's unclear and there's a lot of guessing and speculation, but that's a lot of the fun of Ikuhara shows.

[Bum Bill Bee]

I think the most recent anime stuff I've watched was Jormungand, several months ago.

Plus I was more recently reliving my childhood with Ronin Warriors. So many damn cool armors, very highly recomended to re-watch. I also just got into reading some Knights of the Zodiac manga which have been rather...meh.

Oh yeah, and I got some Captain Harlock VHS from Goodwill, and it was pretty bleh, with some huge universe threat coming up right out of nowhere, and it was the entireity of that particular Harlock series.

[synkr0nized]

oh man
Ronin Warriors


One of my friends and I used to watch that and Ranma all the time. We still quote some of those lines.

I agree, the armor was definitely cool.

---------- Post added at 02:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:20 PM ----------

My "Stuff I've watched" lately has been re-visits of things I've already seen.

I recently queued up Last Exile for a re-watch, showed a good friend Haruhi (just the first season), and burned through Lain. I am not sure the rebuild of Eva counts as "new", despite the story and character changes, but I have been following that as it's slowly been released.

I guess the only "new" thing I've watched recently aside from those re-watches was KLK. It had me in the beginning, but I kind of got bored with it as it went on; goofy humor was good, but [as I've posted here before] I couldn't shake that I'd like it more if it wasn't so low-budget.

Wow, I have not watched a new series in a while, if that's true. Hmm.
I do have to follow through with Kim and Snake's recommendation for the bear storm.

[greed]

Just watched the Devil is a Part Timer again, pretty funny. More importantly bought Lupin the 3rd: The Woman Named Fujiko Mine, looking forward to cracking into that.

[Arhra]

Right now I'm working my way through the Giant Robo OVA. All these neat characters and they're dropping like flies! My heart!

I love how much some of the hair styles remind me of Astro Boy.

Before that, uh, I don't think I've really watched anything much since Knights of Sidonia? CGI was a bit stiff at first but they really upped their game as the season progressed. Looking forward to Season 2!

Oh right, I caught the bonus episode of Kill la Kill too. The graduation! Naturally it explained a hair cut and involved numerous things they didn't have the opportunity to use against the villain. The school's shape was significant after all! Hah!

[tacticslion]

There's a bonus episode of KLK? Huh - I didn't see that. *goes to check it out.*

Edit: oh, it's not on Crunchy Roll. Right. Weird. Uh... YouTube?

Edit 2: uh, no. Hm. Blip?

Edit 3: no. Somewhere random, though. Neat end.

[Arhra]

There's a bonus episode of KLK? Huh - I didn't see that. *goes to check it out.*

Edit: oh, it's not on Crunchy Roll. Right. Weird. Uh... YouTube?

Edit 2: uh, no. Hm. Blip?
Episode 25 is a bonus included with the DVD/Bluray release.

[tacticslion]

Episode 25 is a bonus included with the DVD/Bluray release.

Ah. I thought that the series "felt complete" without it, so I was surprised that it existed.

I think it's a fine addition, but I don't know that it's necessary. Still, not a bad thing to have present.

---------- Post added 02-05-2015 at 04:07 AM ---------- Previous post was 02-04-2015 at 08:35 AM ----------

I just finished No Game, No Life, and it was... okay, I guess?

The problems include the excessive fan service (and I do mean excessive... blech, and really creepy, by the way) and slight feeling of "Mary-Sue-ness" of the main duo... buuuuuuuuuuuuuuut the last part is actually deeply undercut by their very genuine and consistent flaws.

They are extreme geniuses, but they are flawed geniuses with deep-seated phobias, irrational urges, failings that cause them real trouble, which, amusingly, "saves" them as characters in the show and makes them interesting.

Beyond that, it's an exercise in watching them win in creative ways when faced with "impossible" situations.

The biggest problem (aside from the creepy fan service*: seriously, ew) is the ending - it's sudden and comes out of nowhere.

Everything else is top-notch and extremely well done. I just wanted the series to finish the story it started telling.

In terms of much better (not-exactly-) anime** I've seen lately, is There She Is!! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsWgrf3XLKQ), which is simply fantastic. Starts out derpy-slapstick (along the lines of Peppy LePew), goes to a little anvilicious in the "morals" department, and ends wonderfully. The set on NewGrounds has a bunch of Easter Eggs - I dunno, maybe the YouTube one does? I haven't checked it. Anyway, it's ~24 minutes you won't mind having spent, I think!

* Not all the fan service is creepy. All of it is entirely needless, but not all of it is creepy. The whole mind-control, and the whole child thing, though? Ugh.

** Yes, I know. It's Korean. Yes. I know the difference. It's still worth watching.

[tacticslion]

Partial re-post from another forum.

So, I just finished watching BAKUMATSU GIJINDEN ROMAN. It... is much better than I anticipated. Point in fact, when I first started it, I allowed it to play while doing other things, and only catching every once in a while to know the gist of what's happening. ... aaaaaaaaand then I actually sat down to watch the end of, what, episode three? And then I saw four (filler episode), and then five (character introduction), and then by six I was thoroughly hooked. Dang it.

Definitely recommended, and more than I initially would have thought. The animation is smooth and pretty, the characterizations are great, and there's even a pretty-decent in-story reason for the nutty cast of characters that has gathered around the protagonist (though it takes until episode nine to have it all spelled out).

I have mixed feelings about the villain (though from a Japanese perspective, he certainly would be), and I'm left wondering if he's supposed to be the historical figure or not - they were, I think, purposefully ambiguous, even in the way they portrayed him, and his appearance doesn't mesh with the timeline at all, even within the show; this was probably done for socially sensitive reasons. Upon re-watching the last episode, it's pretty clear he's not the same guy. Anyway: it's good, either way.

[tacticslion]

MINE IS A DRILL THAT WILL PIERCE THE HEAVENS!

[Arhra]

I take it you're tenging your toppings?

Nia's dad is a pretty cool guy. He beats up robots and clearly is having a great time doing it.

[batgirl]

I haven't watched any new stuff honestly, but I always find myself coming back to my anime loves:

Outlaw Star: Space pirates...magic...humor. What more could you want?

Read Or Die OVA/TV: Book obsessed women who are also detectives, who also can control paper. Amazing.

[tacticslion]

I take it you're tenging your toppings?

Nia's dad is a pretty cool guy. He beats up robots and clearly is having a great time doing it.

Episode 23 has recently been finished. It had an entirely worth-while teeth-gritting.

I haven't watched any new stuff honestly, but I always find myself coming back to my anime loves:

Outlaw Star: Space pirates...magic...humor. What more could you want?

Read Or Die OVA/TV: Book obsessed women who are also detectives, who also can control paper. Amazing.

Yes.

[Gregness]

I've been watching the Log Horizon dub, and people kind of went squint-eyed at pimp-voice Nyanta at first, but there's a line in one of the episodes that made it do a complete 180 to fucking brilliant for me. It's something along the lines of "Hey man, all cats are supposed to talk this way, ya dig? If you see a cat that don't I'll set 'em straight." And just, he's right. Go back and watch basically any animated western cat film (Aristocrats for just a starter) and they all talk that way.