What anime are you watching?

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Postby Atria35 » Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:31 pm

to start of my Spring Break Anime Bonanza, I went ahead with watching The Place Promised in Our Early Days. Beautiful movie in many, many ways, with an amazing dub. The only thing that brings my score down from a 10 is that the relationships feel ever-so-slightly underdeveloped.

EDIT: Also watched Air (movie version)- Decent. Not excelent- the choices for camera work and all that could have been a lot better (yes, I recognize it's by the same director as the guy who did the Clannad movie. I thought the camera work was bad in that, too.). Story? Overall, not too shabby. I think that overall, I liked it just a little less than TPPIOED. Which is still a good score.
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Postby Nozomi » Fri Mar 11, 2011 7:31 pm

Thanks Doc. I'll keep looking.

EDIT: FOUND IT! Heh, that was a lot easier than last night... just needed the right keyword combo.
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Postby the_wolfs_howl » Sat Mar 12, 2011 7:22 am

FMA: Brotherhood (English dub) episodes 4-5. Heeee, I'm loving Travis Willingham's work on this! And Maxey Whitehead definitely sounds like a girl when Al's screaming, but mostly she's absolutely perfect and awesome.

Haibane Renmei (with my sisters) episodes 10-13. :waah!: I love this ending so much....
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Postby ich1990 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:22 am

Finally watched Summer Wars.

I have to say, after all of the hype I was pretty disappointed. It was a very good movie, no doubt, but it wasn't that good. As TSD said, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was better (and so was FMA:B for that matter).

I think the main problem I had with it was suspension of disbelief. After working in an IT department for a while, I just couldn't make myself believe that computers could do all the things they were supposed to be doing in OZ. I mean, yeah, it is an alternate reality so anything is possible, and I suppose games like Second Life are getting so that they take over a large portion of real life, but for all the furious and random pounding of keyboards I was just having a hard time getting sucked in.

This was not helped by characters having gigantic "comedic" nosebleeds and the magical girl transformation at the end. It was like the director said "hey, lets remind everyone that we are watching anime!". At least with The Girl Who Leapt Through Time you could almost imagine the movie's events occurring in reality.

It was a pretty movie, though, and the family's antic certainly were believable (I think it is hard for anyone who has grown up in a big family to not recognize their own in that one), so I still recommend it. I mean, it is a good movie (especially compared to most anime). I just think I would have liked it more if it hadn't been talked up so much. 7/10 (9/10 maybe after I get over my disappointment)
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Postby TheSubtleDoctor » Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:31 am

Heeey, someone agrees with me.

Those are interesting criticisms of the film. I'm pretty sure Gerald Rathkolb has that same IT gripe about it.

My own opinions about the two Hosoda films are based purely on how they made me feel. TGWLTT just felt like a better movie, and it impacted me emotionally in a much greater way than SW. I will have to watch both films again (take my money Hosoda) to give a more nuanced view of why I like one more than the other.

And. yeah, Brotherhood was better than both. *remembered the turnament with sadness*

Also. HYPE: making the great into the good, one show at a time.
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Postby blkmage » Sat Mar 12, 2011 9:52 am

1. On suspension of disbelief: as someone who studies the theory of computation, I have an extremely low, low bar for realistic depictions of computers. Otherwise, pretty much any work in existence that features computers in a non-trivial way would be instantly ruined for me. If we want to get into it, there are much, much bigger problems with Summer Wars' presentation than the plausibility of a system that does what OZ does (which, functionally, actually isn't that far off). Personally, the thing that bugged me the most was related to cryptography, which I could get into if anyone cares.

2. I don't know why being like an anime is necessarily a bad thing for an anime, especially since it's not like one of the things that is so great about Summer Wars is that it isn't anime. Unless, of course, there's some sort of implicit connotation that anime is bad.

3. I've found the split for preference between TokiKake and Summer Wars to be pretty even. Personally, I went with Summer Wars because what it was trying to say resonated with me way more than TokiKake did. But I still liked them both more and thought they were better than FMA.
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Postby Mouse2010 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:10 am

I'm still working my way through Clannad After Story; just finished episode 22. Good, but oh so emotionally draining. (Isn't it a little sadistic of the people who produced it to WANT to make us cry that much?)

I just started watching Brigadoon: Marin and Melan. It's too early to tell what I think about it. It's got 90s' style animation of a type I don't find appealing, but the premise is interesting, and Melan Blue is really, really cool.
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Postby TheSubtleDoctor » Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:21 am

Mouse2010 (post: 1464867) wrote:I just started watching Brigadoon: Marin and Melan. It's too early to tell what I think about it. It's got 90s' style animation of a type I don't find appealing, but the premise is interesting, and Melan Blue is really, really cool.
Brigadoon...I really wanted to like that show. The premise was interesting, but, for me, there was just TOO MUCH nudity/fan service involving the underage lead character. If you make it through, let us know how the story plays out. I hear it's good.
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Postby ShiroiHikari » Sat Mar 12, 2011 10:43 am

I started Revolutionary Girl Utena last night. It's one of my husband's favorites. So far, all I can say about it is MOAR PLZ!
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Postby Mouse2010 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:02 pm

TheSubtleDoctor (post: 1464868) wrote:Brigadoon...I really wanted to like that show. The premise was interesting, but, for me, there was just TOO MUCH nudity/fan service involving the underage lead character.


Yeah, that was one of my reservations about it. I read some really good reviews about the series, but I did read that it included a lot of fanservice involving Marin-- and there were plenty of panty shots even in the first couple of episodes to bear that out. I really hate that: you'd think they could write a story like this (vulnerable young girl, chivalrous older protector) without having to sexualize the female lead so much.*

* I think it has the same main scriptwriter as Gun X Sword, which I really really liked, but I had similar objections to the way Wendy was occasionally presented in a fan service-y way. It sounds like Brigadoon might be even worse in that regard. So, I'll have to see whether Brigadoon is good enough in other areas for me to overlook that, or not.
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Postby ich1990 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:02 pm

1. On suspension of disbelief: as someone who studies the theory of computation, I have an extremely low, low bar for realistic depictions of computers. Otherwise, pretty much any work in existence that features computers in a non-trivial way would be instantly ruined for me.
Yeah, I usually do too. In this case, however, when the entire plot of the movie was based upon computers and virtual worlds and the like, I found it difficult.

blkmage (post: 1464865) wrote:2. I don't know why being like an anime is necessarily a bad thing for an anime, especially since it's not like one of the things that is so great about Summer Wars is that it isn't anime. Unless, of course, there's some sort of implicit connotation that anime is bad.


That was in reference to suspension of disbelief. It is like watching a fantasy movie and realizing part way through that you are watching a movie. No, there is no implicit connotation that movies are bad, you just wanted to forget that you weren't in the story for a while and the movie wouldn't let you. Same with Summer Wars. It wouldn't let me forget I was watching something, as opposed to experiencing something or being a part of it.
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Postby Atria35 » Sat Mar 12, 2011 1:01 pm

Finally- FINALLY- managed to sit through all of Castle in the Sky. I don't know why, but this has been the hardest Ghibli movie for me to sit through to date. I'd really have to think about why that it- I think I just don't care for Pazu all that much- but I'm glad to have this checked off my list. It was still a great movie. But it was getting to the parts where I could stand it that has taken me the longest time.

Which is really bad, considering I've owned it for over half a year.
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Postby ShiroiHikari » Sun Mar 13, 2011 12:30 pm

I own Castle in the Sky. I fell asleep watching it once and haven't yet attempted to watch it again.

More Utena last night. This show is...getting weird(er). Also the characters kind of annoy me so far, except maybe Utena herself, and Miki. Red-haired guy (I forgot his name) creeps me out a little bit; his sister Nanami is dumb and irritating, and there are a lot of "KYAAA KYAAA [insert name of male character here]" background fangirl characters and I have always hated that in every show I've seen it in, except Ouran, in which they were making fun of it so it was okay.
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Postby Mr. Hat'n'Clogs » Sun Mar 13, 2011 1:32 pm

I just saw The Place Promised In Our Early Days, and, well, I was kind of disappointed. I guess part of the reason I didn't find it to be all that great might be because I'm sick, but I still, I dunno. Like, this movie definitely went the same way as 5 Centimeters per Second, but while 5 cm/s sucked me in and only let me out once it was thoroughly done screwing with my emotions, this didn't quite have that same pull. There were good parts to the movie, but it didn't have the impact on me that it was going for, and it kind of fell short the whole time.

On the other hand, the phenomenal jump in quality between this and 5 cm/s makes me even more excited for Shinkai's next film.
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Postby aliveinHim » Sun Mar 13, 2011 2:04 pm

Right as we speak I am watching Bleach.
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Postby jsav777 » Sun Mar 13, 2011 5:13 pm

I'm definitely watching too much at one time. Just watched Summer Wars, started FMA: Brotherhood, halfway through vandread, about 5 episodes into Darker Than Black and about 8 episodes into Ghost Hound.

My mind is so confused!!!! :dizzy::dizzy::dizzy::dizzy:
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Postby mouse » Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:58 am

Catching up on my anime, so I have several series in queue. But right now I'm more drawn to Bakuman and Ergo Proxy.
[SIZE="1"][color="SlateGray"]Anime series I'm following right now[/color][/SIZE]
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Postby TheSubtleDoctor » Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:14 am

I have an new all-time favorite anime, and it is Cross Game. I don't have any words atm, and my eyes and insides feel warm.

Oh, and I also watched Voices From a Distant Star. Better than Place Promised. The sci-fi actually meant something to the story. Not as good as 5 C/S though.
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Postby Edward » Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:09 pm

jsav777 (post: 1465115) wrote:I'm definitely watching too much at one time. Just watched Summer Wars, started FMA: Brotherhood, halfway through vandread, about 5 episodes into Darker Than Black and about 8 episodes into Ghost Hound.

My mind is so confused!!!! :dizzy::dizzy::dizzy::dizzy:


I hope you like Darker Than Black, it's one of my favorites. I just started watching Soul Eater this weekend.
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Postby Atria35 » Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:59 pm

Re-watching Eden of the East- on the third episode, should finish the series today (it's only 11 episodes!).
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Postby That Dude » Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:18 pm

TheSubtleDoctor (post: 1465195) wrote:I have an new all-time favorite anime, and it is Cross Game. I don't have any words atm, and my eyes and insides feel warm.


I've read the complete manga and it was really good.

Also I finished Banner Of The Stars, now I'm on to Banner II.
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Postby Lilac#18 » Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:38 pm

[color="Plum"]Watched Suite PreCure episode 5 just a little while ago.

Watched Naruto Shippuden episode 202 on Friday.[/color]
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Postby jsav777 » Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:24 pm

Edward (post: 1465233) wrote:I hope you like Darker Than Black, it's one of my favorites. I just started watching Soul Eater this weekend.


Thanks. I hope you enjoy Soul Eater, it's really good
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Postby Mr. Hat'n'Clogs » Tue Mar 15, 2011 3:21 pm

Macross Frontier episode twenty-two has just been completed.

Sorry, kid, I'm not an adult.[spoiler]I'm a MAN![/spoiler]
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Postby ShiroiHikari » Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:41 pm

Well, Utena is on hold for a while...

Today I started watching the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure OAV with a friend. It's pretty interesting stuff. Fish will be pleased to know that this makes me want to read the manga. Gonna go watch the last three episodes later this evening.
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Postby Atria35 » Tue Mar 15, 2011 8:47 pm

Gosick 4-7- Yay! Interesting stuff.
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Postby Nozomi » Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:15 pm

1. Started Valkyria Chronicles. Character interaction is a little bit awkward, but its starting to smooth out. Also, tanks. LOTS OF 'EM. I dig this series already...

2. Hit on Lucy's background arc in the 20s range of episodes in Fairy Tail, and liked it so much that I'm watching way ahead of my normal schedule now... I might catch up to Fairy Tail's updates sooner than I thought, maybe even enough to make room for a small series (like Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, which is only 11 eps... and relevant to current news, somewhat... eheh).
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Postby Mr. Hat'n'Clogs » Wed Mar 16, 2011 11:16 am

Song is Culture, and Culture is Love.

Macross Frontier has been completed and earned it's way onto the top ten. You all should see it if you don't have a problem with fansubs.
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Postby TheSubtleDoctor » Wed Mar 16, 2011 1:11 pm

Big O - Seasons 1 and 2 Complete

This is a super robot show that doesn't follow the established formula. Oh sure, the first season is a set of episodes that are more stand alone than serialized (though connecting threads are present) featuring several monsters of the week, and the second season decides to chuck in a helping of metaphysical ruminations. However, the characters feel quite fresh and atypical for a mecha show (re: gun-toting butler), and the show comes to a pretty intriguing close with the use of some staple ideas from a genre other than mecha. Surprising ending to be sure. I've ehard bad things, but I actually enjoyed the series' conclusion. Very gutsy by the creative staff.

The two high points for me are the world building and the character/robot designs. Easily the best thing about the show is the world of Paradigm City and the mysterious contained within. There's a cool kind of girtty, reto aura that the world gives off which sets the show apart. And those mysteries: Why can't anyone remember anything prior to 40 years ago? Who are Paradigm? Who exactly is Roger Smith and why can he pilot a Megadeus? Where did these Megadeuses come from? The way the show presents these and other puzzles is very nice, and they are teased out beautifully over the 26 episodes. Not every question you have is answered clearly, but the show generally does a decent job with providing resolution.

I love the character and mecha designs. I have heard the art compared to Batman TAS, but it comes off as more akin to Giant Robo to me. The mecha were pretty dang awesome. That piston punch...fantastic.

So, yeah this is a really solid show. Not the genre's best, but I totally recommend it for mecha fans or those looking for a robot show, or just an anime, that isn't so easy to pin down.
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Postby ShiroiHikari » Wed Mar 16, 2011 1:36 pm

Roger Smith is an awesome character. Anime needs more guys like him.
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