What anime are you watching?

[Atria35]

12 Kingdoms episodes 16 - 23
I'm actually starting to become interested in this, finally. I don't know why, but I had a hard time getting into it.

8/10.

I can definitely get why - a lot of anime are very plot-driven. 12 Kingdoms... isn't. It really is a story made off of it's characters. Not much really happens to them, and that can really throw people off. It at first seems to be an incredibly average sword-and-sorcery story, but then switches the game a few episodes in. That actually got me, and I had to push through in the initial plot-slump after the beginning. It wasn't until about episode 10 that I really got it and started enjoying it as much as I ended up enjoying it, but I already knew I had a fondness for those kinds of stories and was able to deal.

I can totally get why it would take others longer, though, and am glad you stuck with it as long as you have.

[AngelicTotoro]

My brother watched it and loves it to pieces, so he kept telling me it gets better. Thankfully it did or else I don't think I would listen to his opinion on anime anymore. xD

[Xeno]

I've started doing Friday night viewings of Gundam X with some old online friends of mine.

[Lynna]

I finished watching Air a few days ago. I loved the anime as a whole, but I didn't like the ending. It didn't seem to me to bring much closure, and while a happy ending could be inferred, it didn't feel very happy. It didn't even feel bittersweet. It just felt...meh. Still, I liked the anime as a whole.

Now, though, I'm watching Princess Jellyfish! I adore it.

[Agloval]

So Taiyou no Kiba Dagram. The politics is being crafted pretty well , and the mecha feels more like tanks in terms of functionality than most normal mecha units, and I think it might have enough episodes to develop the whole thing well enough.

If anything I think the show's problem is that it was extended and had more than enough episodes -- it kind of suffers from extension as a kind of contrast to the way the original Gundam suffered from being cut short. But it'll be interesting to hear what you think.

[Maokun]

I've been marathoning FMA: Brotherhood and loving it! What a group of amazing characters! Only ten episodes left! And one of the greatest lines ever uttered in anime:

"Conveniently awaken, telepathic powers of mine!"

[Vii]

@Vii, I didn't even bother trying to understand the ending and I enjoyed Rahxephon over all.
The great cast of characters, art and music override the stupid/weird/mindf**k ending.

Definitely, I already liked it even before the ending. I get the feeling that if I rewatch the whole anime over again it'll make more sense.

[Cadence]

I've been keeping up with the new Hunter X Hunter anime since it began and generally enjoying it. I've never seen the original anime adaption, though I do read the manga, so I haven't had any of the problems with it that the fans of the older one do. I really love the look of it - the character designs, the bright colors, the motion, etc., and I really like the music and voice acting as well (Sawashiro Miyuki!). It is typically one of the shows I look forward to most each week.

I admit though, that I've never been a fan of the Heaven's Arena arc (shounen fighting tournament, whoo-hoo), and I've found it almost becoming a chore to get through the latest episodes. But finally, we're nearing the end of Heaven's Arena and the latest episode - 35 - took me totally by surprise - it was really, really impressive. Generally the way the tournament fights have been animated so far are pretty boring, as they've been weighed down and dragged out by excessive explanation of everyone's Nen powers and the exact mechanics of how they're doing every single move in true shounen fashion. But the Gon vs. Hisoka fight at the end of episode 35 was honestly one of the most impressive animated fight sequences I've seen in a really long time - especially for a long running shounen show. I've already gone back and watched it several more times, and it keeps getting better. Hisoka is every bit as creepy as he was in the manga. I guess we'll see if they can keep it up into the next episode, though it will be hard to top that.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how they will handle Yorknew City and SPIDERS in the upcoming weeks.

[Crossfire]

Continuing with my rewatch of Cowboy Bebop. I'm tempted to start Gundam Seed as well, but I'm not sure if it's worth it...

[Vii]

Finally got around to finishing Romeo x Juliet. It was a nice ending. I watched it on Youtube and I really liked this top comment:

so beautiful i was crying so much but couldn't help to notice that Francisco looks so hot with his ponytail xD

Francisco will nevaaar beat Tybalt in terms of hotness. >=3

Speaking of Youtube, they took down the dubs, and I actually preferred the dubs. =(
(I think because it's based on Shakespeare, and since Shakespeare wrote in English, it's a lot easier to hear the poeticness in the English dialogue than in the Japanese subs.)
[spoiler] This is going to sound completely stupid of me, but I honestly thought Romeo and Juliet were going to live. Not that it surprised me when they died, it being based on the book and all, but...I...*sigh*[/spoiler]

Overall, a very nice romance anime. I've actually never read Romeo and Juliet, so I can't really compare it to the book.

[MangaRocks!]

Dennou Coil (complete, sub): Wow. I'd heard this series was excellent, and it definitely was!

Loved the series' use of sci-fi (with its tech basically just being more advanced versions of the internet and virtual/augmented reality-- [spoiler]well, plus the consciousness-transferring stuff ).[/spoiler] And the characters and their relationships were all great, too.

As for the rest of the plot, it was quite intriguing, and the buildup of intensity was also quite well-done.

So, overall:

[wildpurplechild]

Watched episodes 1-4 of Black Rock Shooter: I've been meaning to watch this for a while. It's awesome so far! Dark, but interesting!

I also watched episodes 1-7 of Durarara: So far it's really interesting! [SPOILER]I knew that girl with the scar had Celty's head![/SPOILER]

[Juliannesan]

Finished Rozen Maiden, Rozen Maiden: Traumeud and Rozen Maiden: Overture.

I liked the characters a lot. Just not the storyline plot. It was very meh to me.
The best parts of the show were when the dolls were interacting on friendly terms with each other and picking on Jun. Other than that it felt like Battle Royale for dolls.

And I understood the meaning behind it all, but it still just didn't grab me.

[ABlipinTime]

Saw Pale Cocoon last night. It was ok. The view was obstructed most of the time by intentionally-added pixelation, which was really annoying.

Dennou Coil (complete, sub): Wow. I'd heard this series was excellent, and it definitely was!

How did you watch it?

[MangaRocks!]

How did you watch it?

Um... I don't think I can say.

[Neane]

Finished Kemonozume.

I liked it. The animation looked like a masterful blend of Franz Kafka, David Lynch and David Cronenberg. Yuasa is one of my favourite directors since I watched The Tatami Galaxy and especially his segment in Genius Party. He never really disappoints me, so it was high time to watch his first series as director. I have to say that Kemonozume is not Yuasa's best work, but it was definitely far from boring and it was romantic, mature and suitably humorous.

Also, I didn't like the monkey...

Yuasa Masaaki, please make more anime.
I noticed that he makes anime within every two years. 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010
Please make an anime this year.

I have to say my favorite Yuasa anime as him being a director are Mind Game (This movie never slows down, never gives you a chance to catch your breath, and would leave Einstein himself breathless and unable to function. In otherwords, it's a lot of fun.) and The Tatami Galaxy . ( I fully enjoyed every second of it. An amazing series. The whole cast was great and memorable (Personally, I think Akashi is adorable) )

Of course, he also worked on Cat Soup in the Series Composition department. Which is very great I must say.

[MangaRocks!]

Tsuritama, ep. 10.

(Thoughts on it in the dedicated thread, as usual. )

[Hugo Bernhardt]

tsuritama ep 1. I liked it

[TheBlueRose22]

Currently, it's Monster. It's been taken off Netflix, which is a nightmare! Still, this does mean that I can continue to watch the rest of the series in English.

[Atria35]

Currently, it's Monster. It's been taken off Netflix, which is a nightmare! Still, this does mean that I can continue to watch the rest of the series in English.

I think they have this on the Viz website in both sub and dub.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Monster episodes 40-46

Tsubasa chronicle episodes 18-23

I rewatched Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and appreciated it much more this time around. The animation is top-notch, and it's a good, solid story. But I still don't care for it very much; I find the setting depressing and boring, and don't really care for Nausicaa herself.

I also rewatched Porco Rosso, and watched Pom Poko for the first time. It was an okay movie, definitely not one of my favorites. That's probably the most blatant environmental message in any of Miyazaki's movies.

[Vii]

Hyouka 2-7 - This is...quite enjoyable. I like the simple mysteries, they're everyday things, nothing huge, but they manage to be engaging. I generally don't like mysteries, but these are so low-key that it's more like a slice-of-life with characters that like mysteries than an actual mystery.
...I just used the word mystery way too many times, didn't I? *sigh*
Also, that cello piece I keep hearing as background music sounds suspiciously similar to the cello instrumentals in Secrets by One Republic. Not exactly the same, but very close...

Tsuritama 5-9 - Hey, hey, the story actually picked up after episode seven or so. I'm glad I stuck with it a few more episodes, but the fact that I nearly dropped it because they spent half the series explaining fishing is gonna lower the score a bit.

Sakamichi no Apollon 11 - Thoughts in the topic thread, as normal.

[Neane]

Watched Trigun: Badlands Rumble.

Not bad, but not something overwhelming.

[AngelicTotoro]

Finished 12 Kingdoms. Ended up really liking it around episode 34 or so, the final characters they focused on were really interesting and I found it to be enjoyable, at last! xD Seriously, they way some of you gushed about this, I was worried something was wrong with me! Now I see what they were talking about, the show ended just when it got crazy good, too bad. D:
My favorite characters ended up being Youko, (It's shocking to me too, trust me.) Rakushun, (Love that guy, his human form is really cute too.) Suzu, (She was whiny at first, but really grew on me) King En, (I love this guy! The way he governs him kingdom is awesome.) and Rokuta. (Kappei Yamaguchi!)

The artwork was good, the backgrounds were especially good. The ost was okay, voice acting was top notch.

~8/10~

[Blacklight]

I've been watching more anime recently because of my younger sisters. This month, I watched Princess Tutu with them. (I liked it pretty well by the second season, but I probably wouldn't have said the same if it ended on the first season. One of my sisters, on the other hand, liked the first season's ending better... Or at least, didn't care much for (hated) one certain detail about the series' ending.)

One of my sisters also thought that Guin Saga looked interesting, so I watched it with her. (...Although the dub did have its "interesting" moments. (Best parts are the ones at 0:53, 5:15 and 7:18. Since those moments, it was a bit hard to take certain characters seriously.)) The dubbing aside, I felt more like I was watching the prologue, and never got to see the main story. When it really started to get interesting, it was the end. I hear that it was based on the first 16 books in a series that's over 100 volumes long, though, so it is kind of understandable...

Since they were wanting to watch new series, I went ahead and suggested Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. We've watched the first three disks so far.

And today, we finished Ouran High School Host Club.

[Neane]

Akage no Anne This is One of the most charming and delightful anime I have seen. Anne is so awesome, her melodramatic monologues always make me laugh.

[Maokun]

I finished Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

I think I, too, want a heart that is fullmetal.

[Crossfire]

Finished Cowboy Bebop, moving on to Gundam Seed.

[Vii]

Tsuritama 10 - Awesome. Thoughts in dedicated thread this time

Hyouka 8-9 - This arc should end next episode, I hope. Still fairly entertaining.

I finished Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

(＾]I think I, too, want a heart that is fullmetal.[/QUOTE]
(⌒_⌒)

[Maokun]

FMA:B May have the most satisfactory and inspiring ending of any anime ever. I'm pretty sure those closing words will remain with me forever.

I'm wondering whether there's a point to read the manga now? Is there important information or events that weren't show in Brotherhood?