What anime are you watching?

[Kaori]

Space Battleship Yamato, season 1 (1974): This whole series could easily have fit within, say, 10-15 episodes without losing anything except the sense that the voyage was a long one. Also, it was extremely cheesy, its characterization was shallow, its plot had all sorts of miraculous escapes that were frankly quite unbelievable, and it frustrated me with its slow pace in the middle (many episodes were simply not all that important to the overall plot and could be skipped without any detriment).

Nevertheless, the pace picked up from about episode 22 onwards. Tons of stuff goes on in these last five episodes that can’t be talked about without spoilers, including the big reveal of the Gamilons’ motive for attacking earth, which was completely unexplained for most of the series. The tension and conflict of the plot was maintained right up until the end despite the fact that the crew’s having obtained the Cosmo Cleaner is a point at which the plot might have naturally slowed down into a relaxed denouement. Another pleasant surprise was that at one point (ep. 24), the hero comes out with an astonishingly Christian-sounding statement.

The indisputable highlight of the series is episode 22, Battle of the Rainbow Galaxy. If you only ever watch one episode of Space Battleship Yamato, watch this one (though it’ll make more sense if you’re familiar with the premise of the anime and with the history of the WWII battleship Yamato). Apparently the studio that produced this anime watched a lot of WWII footage, and it really shows. The long, intense fight scenes in this episode bear a striking resemblance to the operation during which the historical WWII battleship Yamato was sunk--not coincidentally, I’m sure. Recently the topic came up on CAA of how anime in recent years have gone to CGI for robot battles and suchlike because there aren’t enough animators who have the skills to hand-illustrate mechanical things. Obviously that was not the case in 1974, so if you're interested in grandoise hand-drawn space battles, you should probably watch this. Besides that, it's worthwhile for its strong historical resonances, I think . . . and it's also just a great episode.

[ABlipinTime]

Haibane Renmei, ep 2.
Oh no.
[spoiler]Weird guy in mask. Raven seen before. Is this going where I think it is?[/spoiler]

[AngelicTotoro]

Up to date for Eureka Seven Ao and Hyouka. Also, finally finished Sakamichi no Apollon.
The ending was pretty good, not great, not bad either. I would have liked it to be a little more like the manga ending wise. Still, I really enjoyed watching it and I liked most the characters. I'm just sad to see it end.

8/10.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

They Were 11

I often laud the work of the late Osamu Dezaki, and with good reason (I am currently watching and really enjoying Onii-sama e... [Brother, Dear Brother]), but this hidden gem of an 80s movie was directed by his brother, Satoshi. I feel like if Agatha Christie was around in the 1980s and into science fiction, she would have written this script. The premise is that our main character is among a group of ten finalists (who are unknown to one another) to enter an elite space program, from which many successful people of all professions have trained in (one of the finalists is a king of some planet). For their final exam, the ten finalists have to survive for a month in an old, used space ship (adhering to various stipulations and constraints), which is on who-knows-what course. Here's the kicker: when the ten finalists take off their space suits after disembarking onto the ship, they discover that there are actually eleven people on the ship! Who is the eleventh person (is it you?...you?...YOU?), and what is their objective? Who can you trust? Who has snuck on board claiming to be a finalist? There is a lot of intrigue here and the whole thing is executed fairly well. We could've gotten to really feel for some of the characters if this were a one season TV series, but, for what it is, it's a pretty entertaining watch.

Ghost in the Shell 2.0

Why? Why did they make Oshii do this? I love Ghost in the Shell a lot, but the "upgrades" that earn this iteration the 2.0 moniker really tarnish the package. Not only did Production I.G. add weird orange CGI to all the graphical interfaces in the film, but they redid a couple of scenes completely in CG. These scenes? My two favorite scenes. The opening action scene and the quiet scene in which Makoto is diving and slowly rises to the surface were drained of their life and energy by being made to look like the Stand Alone Complex OP.

Why can't they leave Oshii be to make stuff like Sky Crawlers?

Galaxy Drifter Vifam

OK, so I went into this show expecting it to be good, but it was absolutely amazing and totally blew me away. Sometimes mistakenly referred to as Round Vernian Vifam, Galaxy Drifter Vifam's staff has a good pedigree. Gundam's Yoshiuki Tomino did some planning, but his hand isn't readily visible in the series' execution. Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, script-writer of like a million things, is credited with the original concept and the bulk of the writing. Takeyuki Kanda is the director, and he should be well-known to mecha fans as the director of Armor Hunter Mellowlink, Dragonar, co-director of Fang of the Sun Dougram and he directed the first episodes of Gundam 08th MS Team. Sadly, he did not finish the final project because he was abruptly killed in a car accident.

I have heard Vifam compared to Infinite Ryvius, but this is a fundamentally erroneous comparison. On the surface, the shows share a few minor similarities: both feature young people lost in space, stranded aboard a spaceship. But, while Ryvius plays out like a Lord of the Flies remake starring angsty teens, Vifam is decidedly its own beast. The characters are 13 children, ranging from age 4 to age 16. Due to an outbreak of war, these kids somehow become stranded on a ship, and, when they attempt to get home, things go awry. I should note that, not only is this series not as dark as Ryvius (not even an attempt at LotF, that is not what is going on here) but also the kids are only on the spaceship for about half the series' 46 episode run time. Vifam has other things it wants to accomplish.

The strengths of Vifam are many: the action sequences of the second half of the show are absolutely brilliant. Lots of old robot shows struggle in this department. For me, though, the direction there is on par with anything from any era. The pacing is good, and the story seems well-planned out. The main selling point, however, is the character writing. It is phenomenal. Each one of these kids is a three-dimensional, fleshed out character. They all get adequate screen time, and they grow and change in a very organic-feeling way. All the kids' characters are well-established at the beginning and the characters they grow into are also well-established by the end. This really helps the transition from A to B and how the audience perceives it and feels about it. The characters go through what we want them to go through and are affected accordingly. It's a lot for kids to take care of themselves alone, so, while there are plenty of comedic moments, there are some genuinely emotional ones. I teared up myself at one point near the end of the show.

With 13 leading characters, it would have been so easy to leave some out, but Vifam just excels at handling the task.

For me, Vifam stands beside SDF Macross (and above Votoms and Zeta Gundam) as the other must-see mecha series from the 80s.

[MangaRocks!]

Millennium Actress movie (sub): Interesting. The way that her life's story was told mostly via her movies was very clever, though it did occasionally make it a little difficult to tell the difference between what actually happened to Chiyoko and what were just scenes from her films (and that's not a complaint, BTW-- it's a style that worked well here). Now, the story itself was [spoiler]quite a bit sadder[/spoiler] than I tend to like ; but I can't deny that the movie was good (and worth the watch anyway ).

[Neane]

Why can't they leave Oshii be to make stuff like Sky Crawlers?

There's a lot of Oshii-hatin', some people are just jealous that Oshii has a career in doing something he loves.

Galaxy Drifter Vifam

OK, so I went into this show expecting it to be good, but it was absolutely amazing and totally blew me away. Sometimes mistakenly referred to as Round Vernian Vifam, Galaxy Drifter Vifam's staff has a good pedigree. Gundam's Yoshiuki Tomino did some planning, but his hand isn't readily visible in the series' execution. Hiroyuki Hoshiyama, script-writer of like a million things, is credited with the original concept and the bulk of the writing. Takeyuki Kanda is the director, and he should be well-known to mecha fans as the director of Armor Hunter Mellowlink, Dragonar, co-director of Fang of the Sun Dougram and he directed the first episodes of Gundam 08th MS Team. Sadly, he did not finish the final project because he was abruptly killed in a car accident.

I have heard Vifam compared to Infinite Ryvius, but this is a fundamentally erroneous comparison. On the surface, the shows share a few minor similarities: both feature young people lost in space, stranded aboard a spaceship. But, while Ryvius plays out like a Lord of the Flies remake starring angsty teens, Vifam is decidedly its own beast. The characters are 13 children, ranging from age 4 to age 16. Due to an outbreak of war, these kids somehow become stranded on a ship, and, when they attempt to get home, things go awry. I should note that, not only is this series not as dark as Ryvius (not even an attempt at LotF, that is not what is going on here) but also the kids are only on the spaceship for about half the series' 46 episode run time. Vifam has other things it wants to accomplish.

The strengths of Vifam are many: the action sequences of the second half of the show are absolutely brilliant. Lots of old robot shows struggle in this department. For me, though, the direction there is on par with anything from any era. The pacing is good, and the story seems well-planned out. The main selling point, however, is the character writing. It is phenomenal. Each one of these kids is a three-dimensional, fleshed out character. They all get adequate screen time, and they grow and change in a very organic-feeling way. All the kids' characters are well-established at the beginning and the characters they grow into are also well-established by the end. This really helps the transition from A to B and how the audience perceives it and feels about it. The characters go through what we want them to go through and are affected accordingly. With 13 leading characters, it would have been so easy to leave some out, but Vifam just excels at handling the task.

For me, Vifam stands beside SDF Macross (and above Votoms and Zeta Gundam) as the other must-see mecha series from the 80s.

Added to my list of anime to watch. Thank you very much as always.

[Vii]

Code Geass 14-24 (I must have an addiction or something...)
Why do people not like Suzaku? I think he's pretty cool.
And episodes 22-23 left me in a daze for about an hour. Good gravy...

Hyouka 13 - Love the new OP. Very original.
Oreki, you know you want copies of those pictures. >:3

[Neane]

Someone has actually subbed Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 (OVA)....



Welcome back captain (⌐■_■)7











.



I have no complaints. This is excellent modernization that is very loyal to the original series. And it improves on the original series in many ways.

It's a collection of little things but the way how scenes are sequences and flow together is far more natural and multifaceted than in original, for example. Good example was how the recovering and reveal of Starsha's mesasge was handled in episode 1 of original Yamato versus this: this retake brings far more tension and buildup to the mystery surrounding the capsule, it isn't instantly revealed etc.

Another sign is how skillfully the narration was woven in middle of episode 1 to explain the necessary facts about the setting in contrast to bluntness of original.



I don't know what the publishing schedule for this OVA is but I recommend checking it out regardless of if you've seen original Yamato or not. This title really deserves more attention than it has got so far.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

^I really want to see this, but I believe I heard that there will be like a year's wait for more of it? Could be (and hopefully am) wrong about this, though. It looks spectacular. Hope it can bring the landmark Matsumoto/Nishizaki/Ishiguro project some more love. I can't believe two of those three visionaries have left us.

There's a lot of Oshii-hatin', some people are just jealous that Oshii has a career in doing something he loves.

This is so weird to me. He is such an amazing director and so highly regarded both in America and Japan. I suppose as long as 2.0 made enough money such that Production I.G. allowed Oshii to make his other things, then I am OK with it existing. I will never watch it again, however.

[Vifam]Added to my list of anime to watch. Thank you very much as always.

Alright! Always happy to talk about anime and am glad people read. If I can get the small handful of people here who I think will be interested and would be willing to give this show a chance to actually watch it, I will be over the moon.

[Neane]

I really want to see this, but I believe I heard that there will be like a year's wait for more of it? Could be (and hopefully am) wrong about this, though.

It is not the first time I have had to wait for a long time for something to be subbed.

[LastLfan]

Currently watching death note episode 31, I have the first 12 episodes of robotech macross saga lying around and a pile of old yu-gi-oh VHS tapes I need to watch soon.

[Banana Lobster]

Usagi Drop, AKA, Bunny Drop! It's so cuuuuuuute! <3

[Maokun]

Because everyone loves Lelouch and Suzaku throws a wrench in Lelouch's plans quite often, and they don't like that (and neither does Lelouch). I actually found Lelouch and Suzaku to be quite similar, especially later on in the series, and I pitied them both. I think once you watch R2, you'll see why many people dislike Suzaku.

Actually the problem with Suzaku is no that he's unpopular because being a foil to Lelouch; that's actually a good thing. He's unpopular because he's stubborn to the point of stupidity. He's one of those "lawful-good" characters that will disregard common sense and the importance of shades of gray for adhering to artificial sets of values and norms. However, I think that's the way he and Lelouch were written: Lelouch the super-charismatic and ultimately good character that lets his rancor, ambition and newfound power led him through a path of evil. Suzaku, the bland but skilled goodie-two-shoes that can be an insufferable jerk when he allows his blind beliefs, self-righteousness and strength to cloud his good judgement. They complement each other perfectly and keep their interaction dynamic from falling into the "me good, you evil" that similar series do.

[MangaRocks!]

Ocean Waves, a.k.a. Umi ga Kikoeru (I Can Hear The Sea) movie (sub):

This was quite good! SPOILER: Highlight text to read: I mean, I suppose it could have been just the slightest bit more conclusive ... but, really, between those last comments that Rikako made about Taku and then his closing line, plus some of those drawings during the credits, I think I can be satisfied. (And I'm really glad that Taku and Yutaka made up and were friends again in the end, too! )

Also, on an animation note, I once read some review that noted this movie's clever little use of the 'camera'-- at first making it 'invisible', so to speak, with no 'camera' movement at all... until that final scene-- and I agree, that was the perfect touch. So, yeah, well worth the watch!

[Davidizer13]

Finished Giant Robo again, this time with the newer dub. It's a lot more consistent all-around, but the older dub had a lot more ham and dramatic vocal gesturing in it, which I thought fit the show's tone better, like Vogler's silly German mad-scientist accent and Chuujo's voice, which was pretty understated in the new one. Still a great show, though.

Next up: Either 08th MS Team or Flag. Or Shin Mazinger. Or...um, gimme a minute.

[LastLfan]

I haven't seen code geass yet but I am looking forward to, I'm a little confused about the relation you guys are talking about, in my little anime analogy is it comparable to the relation between L and Light in death note where the lines of which is good and which is bad is debated

[Neane]

Galaxy Express 999 (The TV Series), it's a beautiful series that really demonstrates what animation (no matter how simple and technically basic it may be) is capable of as a story-telling medium.

[LastLfan]

Looking forward to watching code geass but confused, is the relation between all ouch and sazuka(sorry for misspellings) is it kinda like the relation between L and light in death note ( sorry if this is a repost

[SilverToast]

[quote="Neane (post: 1577809)"]Galaxy Express 999 (The TV Series), it's a beautiful series that really demonstrates what animation (no matter how simple and technically basic it may be) is capable of as a story-telling medium.[/QUOTEI]

Yes! I know what you mean. It really is creative and deep.

The story makes the characters and their world so believable in an odd sense in that it makes you believe that you know there would be so much violence, danger, discrimination and poverty in the harsh conditions of space in the future after being settled there for centuries.

I hope that makes sense.

[MangaRocks!]

Haibane Renmei ep.'s 1-13 (complete, sub): Holy crap, why didn't I watch this sooner? That was amazing! SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Favorite part: The finale, where it illustrates that you can only be saved if you ask to be. Wow. And the usage of symbolism was perfect, too. (Can't think of a single flaw, actually.) 10/10 and fave!

[the_wolfs_howl]

Finished Monster! A solid anime, even though I still don't agree with some of the minutiae (and those ending songs were absolutely atrocious!). The manga's ever so slightly better, but it was fun to watch it all play out again.

Tsubasa Chronicle episodes 42-48 - Fillerish episodes, bleh

[LastLfan]

Thank you for explaining that:)

[Xeno]

Finally started Macross Frontier tonight. It's...interesting.

[Neane]

So Fantastic Children reminds me of Planescape:Torment...which is a good thing.

And the TV Series of Hen Zemi is better than I thought it would be.

[SierraLea]

I've been watching my favorite episodes of Princess Tutu and Fruits Basket. Torhu and Duck have a lot in common, like the way they are both very accepting.

[Neane]

Thanks to Crunchyroll, I just finished the second season of Chii, "Chii's new Address". Watched "Chii's Sweet Home" on Hulu but it was not so quick to stream the second season and therefore I kinda sort forgot and/or lost interest, especially with it being 3 minutes long per episode... wow, what an ending...great way to end it.


All hail, Chi, the best anime cat ever!!

*Insert LOLCat joke about awesomeness*

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Galaxy Drifter Vifam: Memory of Ms. Kate

I think that this OAV is one of the great missed opportunities in anime. Memory of Ms. Kate fancies itself an epilogue to the main series, Galaxy Drifter Vifam, but it only manages to function as a kind of fan fiction-ish alternate universe sort of thing. I can't exactly go into detail in justifying my claim here, due to the spoilers that would need to be mentioned; however, I will say that MoMK casually undoes certain pivotal plot points in order to write this story. Really crucial events that shaped the cast of Vifam are kind of magically blotted out by happy ink. Instead of fiddling with the story that came before, while simultaneously refusing to move the characters forward beyond where they were as people at the end of the series, the team behind MoMK could have explored the political ramifications of the end of the main story or even focused on a small number of the cast and their personal/relational developments.

Beyond this argh-inducing gaff, MoMK plays like an average-in-quality, longer-than-average-in-run-time episode of Vifam. There isn't a noticeable bump in production values, though the song they chose as the musical motif was really good. The narrative is character-driven, so there isn't much in the way of robot fightin', which is fine. Even when they're treading water in terms of growth, the characters are still excellent to watch. In spite of my gripe with the conceptual underpinnings of MoMK, when it comes down to it, I want to see more of the "Forever 13" interacting with each other, and this OAV gives me that.

Goshogun: The Time Etranger

This is a weird movie in so many ways. Let's start on the production side of things: Goshogun was this by-the-numbers 1980s mecha show for kids that seems to owe a debt to Voltes V (just speculating here b/c I've never seen the TV series). It began and ended in 1981. Four years later, Kunihiko Yuyama makes this trippy, mature sequel film that, oh by the way, features exactly zero percent giant robots! This seems like a super gutsy move when your franchise is a kids' show about giant robots, especially in the 80s when the mecha genre was riding high. Also, the only thing Yuyama has done for the last 20 years is direct Pokemon. And yet, he made this.

Now, as far as the movie itself, it's kinda trippy. It's about the lead female character in the TV series, Remy, and it jumps between three time periods: the present day, when she is 70 years old, decades ago when she was in her twenties, and her childhood. We get a view of two of these timelines from inside of Remy's head, rather than from some omniscient, disinterested perspective, so things get crazy. For instance: a particularly deadly virus is represented as a giant, immortal panther, while its copies are personified by a relentless army of Muslims. Yes, Muslims...metaphorical representatives of a virus. Twenty-seven years ago, I'm sure this seemed even more bizarre because radical terrorism wasn't quite as much in the global consciousness as it is today.

Just to be clear, though, this is a good movie. It has a strong, memorable female lead character and shows her fighting through some pretty difficult adversity. There are some really great visuals (the shot of her stumbling into the graveyard was awesome) and, as alluded to earlier, the storytelling is unique. Tim Eldrid calls this movie a "deconstruction" (in a literal sense) of the super robot mythos. Whether this is true or not, it is really, really interesting that this film is so drastically different in tone, style and content from its source material.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

Like crying? You'll love Tokyo Magnitude 8.0!

This is the 2009 Studio Bones show about what it would be like if an earthquake with an 8.0 magnitude would hit Tokyo that would sadly play itself out in real life not even two years later. TM8 is a quality production, with great animation, likeable characters and attention to detail that seems rare nowadays. And, as I was joking above, this show doesn't just tug at your heartstrings, it actively tries to break your heart. By the last episode, it succeeded with me. Both the country-wide and personal devastation and pain that the cast endures is an amount I haven't seen since Now and Then, Here and There.

That brings me to my main point about the show. I think it matters a while lot when you watched it. If anyone watched it when it was airing or before March 2011, I can understand if you're not as high on it as I am. It would be easy to feel manipulated, like the show is wallowing in its fictional tragedy and is as concerned with making you cry as much as with telling a story. But, if you see this series for the first time now or saw it after March 2011, then you will likely feel quite differently about it. You will feel differently about it because it came true, except it was even worse. This happened to people. For me, that gave this show an added layer of emotional depth and impact. But, not only does TM8 show what eventually happened to people, it demonstrates how it happened. I mentioned the attention to detail in the show, and I was referring to the realistic nature of how such an earthquake would affect the architecture of Tokyo. The scene in which the quake hits shows a huge bridge twisting under the pressure, and it just feels so real...it makes you a bit sick, actually.

The show may be emotional (it's not always sadness and gloom), but it is an important one in many ways.

[Crossfire]

Finished Zeta Gundam. Couldn't find a subbed version of the Stardust Memory OVA, so I moved on to Double Zeta. I kind of regret it. The sudden change in tone was a little too much for my tastes... [SIZE="1"]Then again, maybe the crew is just going insane after that last battle...[/SIZE]

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Finished Zeta Gundam. Couldn't find a subbed version of the Stardust Memory OVA, so I moved on to Double Zeta. I kind of regret it. The sudden change in tone was a little too much for my tastes...

Yeah, I haven't made that leap myself yet. Maybe one day....maybe....

Dude. I'm curious to know your thoughts on Zeta Gundam. Looking forward to perhaps a post in the Gundam thread.

[Vii]

Finished Code Geass R2 - I admit, I got a bit lost/disinterested in the penultimate arc,
[spoiler] but that finale, wow. I'm torn between loving it for being a fitting and shocking end to the series, and hating it for not being what I personally wanted. [/spoiler]

Code Geass 1-14 - Rewatching (It's official, I'm addicted). This time in English Dub. The guys voices are quite good overall, but the girls...eh. They're not the greatest out there. Cornelia and C.C.'s voices are very good, Shirley's is good, but Nunally's is just plain grating. Ugh. And then Cecile sounds like a robot, and Kallen's is a little too high and nasally.

Sword Art Online 1-2 - I like this quite a bit. I rarely play MMORPG's, but I guess I've picked up plenty of things while my brothers play and yell stuff on their games, since most of the concepts I've heard before (Then again, it's probably just basic gaming stuff anyway.)
Meh, I'll follow it.

Hyouka 14 - [spoiler] Oreki seemed quite different when he actually got off his butt and yelled for Satoshi to come get the flour he'd traded. Like, really, he should get less lazy, I like it when he actually does something.
And the cooking was awesome.[/spoiler]