What anime are you watching?

[Atria35]

Right now, I'm watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I hate it. There are so many things in this series I can't stand, but the worst of them is Haruhi herself. I've heard a lot of good things about it and it looks like it has potential, so I'll watch for a few more episodes, at least, but if it doesn't have a major turnaround very soon, I'm dropping it.

I watched this series for everything except Haruhi. I hate Haruhi. If this had been my intro series, I would have never picked up anime.

But aside from Haruhi and the fanservice, it has a whole lot of interesting ideas. And if you're watching broadcast order, sticking through until the end might clarify a lot.

[skreyola]

Last night and tonight, I watched an episode of Cross Game.

[AndrewinIce]

I have watched the first two episodes of Full Metal Alchemist; Brotherhood. So far, it's very good, and from what I here, I'm pretty psyched.

[Neane]

I recently finished Heartcatch Precure!

Magical girls punching things in the face really hard, the final 6 or so episodes are some of the best I've seen in anime as a whole.

I also saw Heartcatch Precure! Hana no Miyako de Fashion Show... Desu ka!? and this movie was the epitome of manliness. Literally bursting with testosterone. Fist of the North Star ain't got NOTHIN' on Precure.

[skreyola]

Tonight, I finished Cross Game, so I'll stop talking about it for a while. I wish I could get it on DVD.

[Neane]

I just watched Getter Robo Armageddon and loved it. It's a butt-kicking, kill-first-ask-never, gar-filled, action-packed mecha OVA.

The thing with Armageddon is that it kinda has a messy plot and hard to follow because it merges a lot of the different parts of the manga together and switched directors 3 episodes in, but the ending is just perfect and I really love the way they adapt the art for it. Also,

STOOOOOOOOOONER SUNSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!

I wish more people would at least watch Shin Getter Robo and Getter Robo Armageddon, let alone read the manga

[skreyola]

Tonight, I watched an episode of ...Cazador....

[Neane]

NieA Under 7




NieA 7 is comedy series based on ABe's ideas and characters a la Haibane Renmei. It tells a "story" of everyday life of dirt poor ronin Mayuko Chigasaki who shares her apartment with lazy, bratty alien - the titular Niea of the series. Latter makes former's life living hell in various ways - including building ufos from junk in their room and blowing the rooftop off with it. Mayuko and Niea live in rundown, financially struggling bathhouse (sup Hanasaku Iroha) and stories of many episodes revolve around this or that scheme to resurrect their fortunes. Other focal points are Mayuko's UFO crazy friend from entrance exams cram school and other wacky aliens living in the area.

Oh right, aliens. The strange thing about NieA Under 7 is its combination of grey, vaguely depressing realism and utter zanyness that invites for most part deadpan reactions. Basically UFOs crashlanded in Japan 20 or so years ago and now they live in country just like any other immigrants.

The thing about NieA 7 is that while it's amusing to a degree and has its overblown hyper parts (I should also mention bizarre use of sound effects in comedic bits that tends to be rather hit and miss) for most part it's very down to Earth slice of life series of most depressing variety. It's not really a show that is out to make statements but feelings of social malaise, discrimination, unemployment etc. do make themselves known in the background forcefully enough to make sure it won't become Aria on Earth.

I enjoyed the series a lot and most of all the serious and depressing parts - and oh boy were there plenty of those, mainly due to Mayuko's natural hard trying loser moeness. Mayuko was a great female lead (After all, ABe girls are some of the best). Niea on the other hand was rather annoying most of the time with her rather grating voice but by the time show ended I found myself mysteriously attached to her too.

Speaking of her voice, I was pretty flabbergasted by casting of Miyamura in main role here. It's a terrific performance from her, probably her best after Asuka, but this was made after the porn vids made in her uni days surfaced and killed her career in one swift strike.


pppffffffft anime get out from my head

ps. this anime had the most random next episode previews I've ever seen what the actual...

8/10

It's not as good as the other Yoshitoshi ABe anime out there (Serial Experiments Lain, Texhnolyze, Haibane Renmei) which I all rated glorious based 10/10s...but it's still a pretty good show.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Clannad episodes 7-8

Hilarious as ever, and also horribly unsettling! I don't know what on earth I would do in this situation.... :S

[Mouse2010]

We watched Whisper of the Heart for Valentine's day. I'd never seen it before, and didn't actually know what it was about other than a vague idea that it was romantic. Well, I was right about that. I thought it was a sweet story. Sometimes it seemed predictable(I knew who Seiji Amasawa would be as soon as he showed up on the screen!), but sometimes it genuinely surprised me.

My one disappointment:

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: I seriously expected the Baroness statue to show up. I was CERTAIN that someone would turn out to have gotten the statue from Louise . . . or maybe Louise herself would show up and be reunited with the old man, while also reuniting the two statues. But no. That was just a sad story that added a bittersweet background to the happy main plot. It was realistic, and beautiful in its own way, but I admit I was initially surprised that there was no happy resolution for that part of the story.

My random afterthought: today I realized that if Shizuku were a real person, she'd be the same age as me! What a weird thought.

[skreyola]

Tonight, I watched Robotics;Notes... Um... Nice Job Breaking It, Hero? SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Not five minutes earlier, I was thinking this was getting a little sappy for being by the same group as Steins;Gate, but that twist was epic.

[Neane]

Gundam 00 the movie: The Attack of the Killer Trucks


Oh boy, I heard some stories about this one and sadly it lived up to it. Contentual there is not much wrong with it. As aggravating as it is to a death and tragic loving UCfan like me, I don't even mind the space flower hippieness as long as it's coherent with it. In this case the movie brings 00's story to its logical conclusion: Unified, we can understand each other one day.

However, everything that leads up to it is basically a 2 hour galore of PEWPEWPEW and not even of the CCA good one because the choreography is all over the place. This movie feels like the antithesis to F91. While Tomino's work tries to press content of an entire season into 2 hours and inevitably fails, this movie does not know what to do with the time at all and tries to fill it with a superficial conflict that lacks any kind of dramaturgy. It doesn't help that the ELS look like a hive mind of killer funnels. If there is no face to your enemy, how are you supposed to care about understanding them at all?

The thing that made me mad of the most was the epilog though. It just ends like that. I mean, what the heck?? You waste so much time with beamspam, how can you not have at least the decency to take a few seconds and give the characters any kind of closure? It makes no sense. Speaking of making no sense, what was up with that Descartes character (these Gundam names man, I'll miss them)? I expected the aliens to assimilate him and turn him into the villain or something but nada. Just another vapid pointlessness of a character. And why, WHY did they feel the need to romance Feldt with Setsuna. They barely even talked a word, and surprise, surprise, nothing comes out of it. It makes no sense...
Silver Surfer Setsuna and Marina's long awaited meeting had a nice touch though.


The only good part about this movie is that Andrei got what he deserved and Graham going full FLAG FIGHTA.



Also, Good bye Mr. Samurai, you were the only somewhat-ish decent-ish character 00 had.

[MangaRocks!]

Dropped Planetes (sub). I had put this on hold quite a while ago after watching the first episode, but I finally just decided to go ahead and drop it, for several reasons. The first and most important reason was that I didn't like the characters (...at all, really)-- neither the main pair nor most of the minor ones. Secondly, I also didn't enjoy the tone of the character interactions (especially the main pair's). I mean, I get the dynamic that they were trying to go for, but it just didn't click with me at all (in fact it was kinda annoying ). After that I finally just went and purposefully looked up some spoilers about it to see if it got any better, and SPOILER: Highlight text to read: while at least in terms of the characters the proposal sounds pretty awesome, the whole thing afterwards about her having a kid but then he just goes off and leaves them for 7 years (?!) was another turn-off again. Now, I'd heard that this was a good sci-fi, and since I tend to love the genre, I was fully expecting to at least like this; but even though the sci-fi was indeed interesting, the fact that I actively disliked the characters (plus the kinda meh ending) more than canceled out the interest I had in its genre and setting-- to the point where I didn't even feel like giving it a normal 'multiple-episode test.' (There's just too much other stuff that I actually *want* to watch right now for me to bother. ) All that said, though, I'm very much aware that the source material for adaptations is almost always better (and I've heard that also holds true here), so I might eventually check out the original manga at some point; but I won't be continuing the anime. (Oh well. )

[Atria35]

Dropped Planetes (sub). ). After that I finally just went and purposefully looked up some spoilers about it to see if it got any better, and SPOILER: Highlight text to read: while at least in terms of the characters the proposal sounds pretty awesome, the whole thing afterwards about her having a kid but then he just goes off and leaves them for 7 years (?!) was another turn-off again. )

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: She had to give up space because she is crippled in an attack on the moon base (so couldn't go anyway) and going to Jupiter is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - he was recruited to literally the first space team to travel there ever. So while it seems stupid - and spoilers never really give the whole story - it makes sense in context of the story. But I started off not liking them, either. They got better.

[MangaRocks!]

SPOILER: Highlight text to read: She had to give up space because she is crippled in an attack on the moon base (so couldn't go anyway) and going to Jupiter is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - he was recruited to literally the first space team to travel there ever. So while it seems stupid - and spoilers never really give the whole story - it makes sense in context of the story. But I started off not liking them, either. They got better.

^ Ah, okay. I probably will check out the manga sometime then.

[Atria35]

^ Then standard disclaimer: The manga and and anime are really two different stories. I like them both, but their storylines are two different things.]

Yawara! 1-7- This is really pretty awesome and funny and I am so glad I picked it up on sale.

[Vii]

Star Driver Ep 1-7: IT'S A PIIIINCH!

[KazeShiki]

I just started Escaflowne and I'm like wait...I've 100% seen these starting eps before but I definitely never finished the show. Hmm wonder why I dropped it however many years ago that was because I do not recall attempting it at all.

[blkmage]

I remember watching Escaflowne in English on TV, which got cancelled halfway, but that would've been like thirteen years ago.

[AnimeGirl]

Watched some more episodes of NGE (up to episode 13 I believe). Really getting intense, I love it! Also rewatched several of the beginning episodes to show my Mom. She seems to be liking it.

Also watched episodes 1-3 of Chance Pop Session. I am definitely gonna like this series!

Rewatching Steins;Gate, but in English. The dub seems to get better as it progresses, but I still prefer the Japanese. However, J. Michael Tatum as Okarin ALONE makes the dub worth watching AT LEAST ONCE! <333

[skreyola]

Also watched episodes 1-3 of Chance Pop Session. I am definitely gonna like this series!

It really is a fun series. A little short on songs, but very sweet.

Tonight, I watched the first two episodes of Ouran Host Club (Yes, I finally started watching it after resisting for a long time.. I think the first time I tried to watch it, I tried the dub and didn't get past the first few minutes).

[rocklobster]

started Wolf's Rain.

[MangaRocks!]

Natsume's Book Of Friends ep.'s 1-52 (complete, sub):

As mentioned in the Recommendations thread a little while ago , I was craving some Natsume but the next manga volume's months away, so I decided to watch the anime... and wow-- it was indeed a fantastic adaptation! This was more than well worth the watch-- something I'd recommend regardless of whether or not you've already read the manga-- and yet another beautiful affirmation of just what a gem this series truly is.

[FourFourSeven]

I'm freakishly behind on everything. Like a child in a huge candy store with $500 in hand, I just....don't know where to start.

[Vii]

Finished Star Driver. I had no idea what the series was ultimately leading to, but the finale was incredible nonetheless.

[KazeShiki]

Finished Escaflowne faster than intended. Pretty solid show. Yoko Kanno music amazing as always. Next on the list is learning about the true power of COURAGE. GAO! GAI! GAR! Though, since it came up with some friends, I might re-watch OreTsuba since it's so good.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Next on the list is learning about the true power of COURAGE. GAO! GAI! GAR!

You. Are. My. Hero.

[AnimeGirl]

Watched a whole lot more of Steins;Gate in the dub. I like this a lot better than I initially thought, but Mayushii's voice still doesn't cut it for me. Other than that, J. Michael Tatum is THE PERFECT Okarin and pulls off every aspect about him so perfectly. His performance, especially in the second half of the series, is nothing short of breath-taking! The whole reason one should experience the dub at least once. Though I still plan to rewatch the series in Japanese again 'cause I still like it a little better overall, but the dub seems to be more and more appealing as the episodes go on.

[skreyola]

Robotics;Notes... I'm not happy with the producers, right now. I'm figuring that either SPOILER: Highlight text to read: this is the continuation of an absolute bloodbath, or (more likely) she'll dodge the bullet, and, who knows? Maybe she'll start a bloodbath. Either way, not happy with the way they're doing the story.

[Crossfire]

Paused Gumdam Seed for a bit (flayiswearimgonnakillyou), so I decided to pick up Uchyuu Kyoudai. Fun series so far, saw advertisements for it while I was in Japan last year.