Anime?

[Oversleep]

@Quiver
On the topic of Bleach...  You stopped at Ichigo vs. Ulquiorra, right? You could finish the Hueco Mundo arc (not much left, really).

You could skip almost all of the next arc (Defending Karakura) since it's pretty much filling the space with cool fights. Then read the end of it and after that the next arc (Fullbring), which was quite interesting, and after that the last one (Vandenreich), which is interesting. At least for Bleach standards.

Edited June 2, 2016 by Oversleep

[nicocoberru]

Is anyone watching Koutetsujou no Kabaneri? It's basically set in samurai meets steampunk world with ironman zombies and vampire zombies. That is one of the weirdest sentences I've ever written but man, it works. The MC can be a bit annoying (think Eren from SnK. I wanna slap him several times) but the other characters are great. Mumei, Yukina and Ayame especially. Mumei's my precious daughter and Yukina and Ayame's my wives. Plus the soundtrack is super nice.

 

Also Boku no Hero Academia!! The anime is staying with the manga so I'm really happy. Plus AllMight is such a big ham XD

 

Also watching Bungou Stray Dogs. It's okay, I guess.

Edited June 7, 2016 by nicocoberru

[ChocolateRob]

Is anyone watching Re:ZERO Starting life in another world?

Holy Crem! That show can be intense. It starts out ordinarily enough; a teen is out getting groceries when he suddenly finds himself in an alternate fantasy world, you know, the usual stuff. At first he acts like he's in a videogame/anime and tries to find out what his superpower must be and where the beautiful girl that must have summoned him may be, he quickly gets himself in trouble. However it turns out he does have a power which (as Firefight would agree) really sucks despite its advantages. Whenever he gets killed he mentally time travels back to a previous checkpoint. He has no power over where and when he returns to, he experiences the full agony of his death, everyone forgets everything about him as he keeps meeting people for the first time over and over again and he is literally unable to tell anyone what he can do. His inherent goofiness is played off against an increasingly brutal world and the story pulls no punches as to his mental state as he works through his ordeals. He's died some hideously brutal deaths and seen his friends go through the same (eg his first few deaths are because of a character known as The Bowel Hunter).

One of the best Anime's I've seen in ages, real nail-biting stuff at times (some comedy too).

[Retsam]

I really feel like I should be enjoying Re:ZERO a lot more than I am.  

Mostly, I've just never cared for (or cared about) the main character.  His background is generic and handwavey ("Good thing I lifted enough weights as a shut-in to be able to wield this giant club!"); no one seemed to react appropriately to his occasionally ridiculous behavior, and his main character motivation revolvs around a relationship/crush that's both abruptly started, and oddly possessive and once again, goes back to the "nobody reacts appropriately to his ridiculous behavior" thing; Emilia should be way more weirded out by this guys who, from her perspective, she just met, declaring his undying love for her.  

Recent episodes have started to call him out for his behavior, which I've appreciated... but then recent episodes have been essentially a nonstop procession of Subaru, in my view, behaving like an idiot (and occasionally, like a child), which hasn't been the most enjoyable thing to watch, either.

[ChocolateRob]

12 hours ago, Retsam said:

I really feel like I should be enjoying Re:ZERO a lot more than I am.  

Mostly, I've just never cared for (or cared about) the main character.  His background is generic and handwavey ("Good thing I lifted enough weights as a shut-in to be able to wield this giant club!"); no one seemed to react appropriately to his occasionally ridiculous behavior, and his main character motivation revolvs around a relationship/crush that's both abruptly started, and oddly possessive and once again, goes back to the "nobody reacts appropriately to his ridiculous behavior" thing; Emilia should be way more weirded out by this guys who, from her perspective, she just met, declaring his undying love for her.  

Recent episodes have started to call him out for his behavior, which I've appreciated... but then recent episodes have been essentially a nonstop procession of Subaru, in my view, behaving like an idiot (and occasionally, like a child), which hasn't been the most enjoyable thing to watch, either.

What I appreciate is that he believes he is in One Piece (or the like) but he's found himself in the Game of Thrones. He is woefully unprepared for everything he faces and it is taking a very realistic toll on his sanity. While I'm also getting annoyed by his attitude I find it very realistic of someone whose mind is hanging from a thread. He's denying to himself and the world how out of his depth he is, he has a very heavily overpowered advantage but it has an equally overpowered price. The things that he has endured and seen could break any person, he is literally unable to speak with anyone about what is happening and he doesn't even have the option of suicide to escape. His handwavey grip strength isn't really anything, it was mostly surprise that gave him a brief advantage over the three thugs and lifting the club barely did anything either, all the real threats his faces are well over his threshold. Recently Emilia has been questioning who he is and what is going on but he's unable to tell her and so she is suspicious of the situation

I can ignore a lot of the generic traits that are found in anime, I just expect to see them there, it would be nice without them but nothing is perfect.

[Quiver]

Anyone seen Kill la Kill?

I'm in the middle of watching it at the moment. Sometimes, I really like it; I actually thought it would be cool to have clothing-as-superpowers a few years ago, the fights are cool, and the animation is nice. The story, so far, isn't the most original in the world, but I'm enjoying the characters...

But jeez, the fanservice. I haven't decided yet whether it is cheap and exploitative, subversively brilliant, or just a typical anime trope.

[Zathoth]

4 hours ago, Quiver said:

Anyone seen Kill la Kill?

I'm in the middle of watching it at the moment. Sometimes, I really like it; I actually thought it would be cool to have clothing-as-superpowers a few years ago, the fights are cool, and the animation is nice. The story, so far, isn't the most original in the world, but I'm enjoying the characters...

But jeez, the fanservice. I haven't decided yet whether it is cheap and exploitative, subversively brilliant, or just a typical anime trope.

I really like it. It is pure anime madness.

About the fanservice I think it is meant as a parody, it is so over the top, just like the rest of the series that it just shouldnt be taken seriously.

So option number 2, if you ask me.

[ParadoxicalZen]

I like parodies and lampooning tropes, just when it's actually funny. I tried Kill la Kill but I couldn't make it past the first ep, which is odd as it seemed like it would interest me a lot. I'm watching Fate Stay Night (just finished Fate Zero) not my usual series but it is kinda interesting

[Quiver]

On 8/9/2016 at 8:31 PM, Morzathoth said:

I really like it. It is pure anime madness.

About the fanservice I think it is meant as a parody, it is so over the top, just like the rest of the series that it just shouldnt be taken seriously.

So option number 2, if you ask me.

Well, I finished Kill la Kill, and...

I admit, I'm not sure what my thoughts were for it. Upon reflection, aside from the transformation sequances, I don't think there actually is a lot of fanservice.

There are a lot of traditional fanservice stuff involving women... but the contexts surrounding all of it are enough that it turns it into the opposite of fanservice.

(Fanrepellant? I dunno.)

I have thoughts on some of the stuff the series presented... I'm just not sure if the open forum is the best place to talk about them, the same way I'm hesitant to talk about Utena's themes and imagery. Not sure if it falls under "appropriate" or not. 

But the series itself... I think, overall, I liked it. It could have been better; the villain is sort of generic, for instance, but overall, I don't feel like I wasted my time or anything.

(And, honestly, I kind of want to write a Kill la Kill/MLP crossover fic now, so... missions accomplished?)

On 8/9/2016 at 8:59 PM, AnanasSpren said:

I like parodies and lampooning tropes, just when it's actually funny. I tried Kill la Kill but I couldn't make it past the first ep, which is odd as it seemed like it would interest me a lot. I'm watching Fate Stay Night (just finished Fate Zero) not my usual series but it is kinda interesting

Well, I think Kill la Kill is definitely lampooning the genre, just not really in a way that is played for comedy. Virtually the entire back half of the series reminds me of Neon Genesis Evangelion, for instance, but the context surrounding it is so absurd that I feel Trigger is just trying to highlight how ridiculous everything about the former show is.

(And considering how big a deal Evangelion is, lampooning it is significant.)

Out of interest, which Fate/Stay Night series are you watching? I've been meaning to watch or read Fate/Zero for a while now, but I know there are a few versions of Fate/Stay Night in anime form. I saw the original a while back, and thought it was alright; haven't seen the new series, though. 

[ParadoxicalZen]

@Quiver the one at present on Aussie Netflix, Unlimited Blade Works, 2 seasons

[Patar]

Watched the first two episodes of Wolf's Rain, and am really liking it so far!

[Quiver]

...Well.

I've started watching Dragonball Super.

Just the most recent episodes; gonna try and pick up the back episodes as I go forward, but...

Yeah. Dragonball Super; anyone else watching it?

Super Saiyan Blue Vegito absolutely ridiculous. The concept is nothing but straight-up fan service.

... But, damnation, Dragonball Z was one of the first anime I ever saw, and Vegito was one of those really cool things from that show. So, the fan service of super saiyan blue Vegito was fun.

Edited November 21, 2016 by Quiver

[Retsam]

I'm not watching Dragon Ball Super (wasn't ever a huge DBZ fan); it seems like it got a lot of flak when it first started airing (due to quality issues, primarily), but it sounds like the newer episodes have been better, so starting with the new stuff sounds like a good decision.

---

I'm actually not watching anything new this season, for the first time in the couple years that it's since I started watching new anime; just nothing particularly grabbed me.  Yaoi Yuri on Ice is getting a lot of positive hype, but I've never really done sports anime.  I was disappointed enough in Iron-Blooded Orphans to skip out on the second season, unless I hear that it's significantly better than S1.  I'll watch Ajin S2 once the dub comes out on Netflix in December.  If I pick anything up it'll probably be March Comes in like a Lion but we'll see.

---

As for Re:Zero last season, I ended up being really disappointed in that.  It takes a really interesting premise, and then proceeds to not do anything interesting with it.  Early episodes suggested that they're going to avert the usual "power fantasy protagonist" tropes, but they just play them painfully straight the rest of the series.  It even does the SAO thing where it introduces an interesting female character with her own goals and motivations and problems and then just turns her into a one-dimensional cheerleader for the main character. 

---

So, since I'm not watching anything presently airing, other than catching up on some reading, I'm watching Hyouka.  It's sort of a mystery/slice-of-life anime.  

By "mystery", I don't mean the sort of story where there's a big crime that needs to be solved; it's more of a "mystery-of-the-week" and the single episode mysteries are pretty mundane things (e.g. why is this book getting checked out of the library in a particular pattern by different people), and the multi-episode arc mysteries are only slightly less mundane.  Think "Encyclopedia Brown", not "Sherlock Holmes" or "Agatha Christie" (though the latter are referenced multiple times in the show).

By "slice-of-life", I mostly just mean that sometimes there are episodes where there's no real mystery and it's just characters doing stuff and "slice-of-life" is really just my generic catchall genre label.  There's a relationship between two characters, but I think calling it a romance would be overselling it, at this point.

It's a lot better than it sounds, because, reading my own description of it, it sounds awful.  So far it's good, not great, in my book, with the caveat that this is me stepping outside my usual genre tastes a bit, since SoL isn't my favorite thing.

On the one hand, the mysteries are a bit hit-and-miss, they're all "fair" in the sense that they don't ever require information that the audience couldn't have (though a couple depend on Japanese knowledge that the non-Japanese speaker won't have), but at the same time, they usually lack the "Aha!" moment where you suddenly know you have the right answer.  Instead, it feels like the show's answer to the mystery is just one out of many.  

On the other hand, it's really cool to have an anime with these sort of bite-sized mysteries in the first place, even if the execution isn't perfect.  So, yeah, this one is probably going to go down in the "worth checking out, because there's really nothing like it" category, like Planetes did.  Unless you guys know of other good mystery anime to recommend.

[PlanetReelo]

There were times where I was totally blown away by Re:Zero, but then lots of others where I wanted to throw a shoe at my screen. I liked Subaru's mannerisms and charm in the first half of the series, but these slowly turned to annoyances. And I just couldn't get over the way he treats Rem! I really felt like he used her to an extent.

Right now I'm rewatching my favourite anime (Yona of the dawn), one episode for every day leading up to xmas.

 

[Zathoth]

Last episode of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 4! I love this show too much.

[C. M. Hayden]

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a masterpiece.

I also enjoy Yu Yu Hakusho (very underrated in my opinion), Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Ruroni Kenshin, and FLCL.

[Quiver]

On 11/22/2016 at 1:24 AM, Retsam said:

I'm actually not watching anything new this season, for the first time in the couple years that it's since I started watching new anime; just nothing particularly grabbed me.  Yaoi Yuri on Ice is getting a lot of positive hype, but I've never really done sports anime.  I was disappointed enough in Iron-Blooded Orphans to skip out on the second season, unless I hear that it's significantly better than S1.  I'll watch Ajin S2 once the dub comes out on Netflix in December.  If I pick anything up it'll probably be March Comes in like a Lion but we'll see.

I've been meaning to watch Iron Blooded Orphans. I'm kind of curious about the mecha genre, but I've never really seen much of it. Gundam Wing left a big impression on me during the 90's, but no other Gundam series really aired in the UK since then. Then saw Neon Genesis and Gurren Lagann, but... that's still a tiny sampling.

(I've recently been watching Kuromokuro, but... nearly done season 1, and I'm still not sure what I think of it.)

On 12/27/2016 at 2:50 AM, CM Hayden said:

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is a masterpiece.

I also enjoy Yu Yu Hakusho (very underrated in my opinion), Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z, Ruroni Kenshin, and FLCL.

Never saw Yu Yu Hakusho, but I did read the manga. It is pretty underrated; I can easily imagine a timeline where it became the Shonen codifier rather than Dragonball. But, like Bleach, I think it was more interesting when it was treated as an adventure story with cases, rather than action punch-punch genre. 

[Briar King]

I rarely watch anime but I just got with SAO S1 to ep 15 of S2. I like fairyworld a lot. The GGO arc bored me to tears. I mean come on we had 3 full ep of duo sitting and talking in a cave. BORING! I generally like S1 alot

[PeterAhlstrom]

Right now we're taking a break from Crunchyroll. The only thing we're watching is Kuromukuro on Netflix, and we've finished episode 12. It's a fun show with some funny reversals, like that the kid from 400 years ago is now getting better grades in English than the girl from present-day Japan.

[The Honor Spren]

So I started watching Attack on Titan, but then it was disturbing enough to give me dreams about titans eating my family for two nights in a row, so I think I'll take a break from it. 

[PlanetReelo]

On 29/12/2016 at 10:20 PM, The Honor Spren said:

So I started watching Attack on Titan, but then it was disturbing enough to give me dreams about titans eating my family for two nights in a row, so I think I'll take a break from it. 

Awww that's a shame It's a good one for sure, with season 2 just around the corner now. Hope you manage to get back to it!

[StormyQueen]

Whelp, it looks like Yuri on Ice has dragged me back into anime...it's just so good, and it better get a second season. Plus, watching subbed anime is good Japanese language revision right? Right?

[PlanetReelo]

16 hours ago, CalypsoDreaming said:

Whelp, it looks like Yuri on Ice has dragged me back into anime...it's just so good, and it better get a second season. Plus, watching subbed anime is good Japanese language revision right? Right?

I really want to check out Yuri on Ice, but I'm not sure it'll be my cup of tea! I'm just worried because I've never been a fan of sports anime, so based on that would you recommend it? Though i've never watched/read any, I'm open minded to the Yaoi/shonen-ai elements. But I won't watch anything purely for the romance, so I hope I can find the ice skating elements enjoyable.

 

But on the whole, I feel this year was a tad sparse on the good anime front, save for a couple of titles

[Left]

I'm honestly probably not going to watch anime until the next season of one punch man comes out. Possibly when I have a very easy and reliable way of watching the d.gray-man reboot. Anime just hasn't been appealing to me for a while. 

[StormyQueen]

1 hour ago, PlanetReelo said:

I really want to check out Yuri on Ice, but I'm not sure it'll be my cup of tea! I'm just worried because I've never been a fan of sports anime, so based on that would you recommend it? Though i've never watched/read any, I'm open minded to the Yaoi/shonen-ai elements. But I won't watch anything purely for the romance, so I hope I can find the ice skating elements enjoyable.

 

But on the whole, I feel this year was a tad sparse on the good anime front, save for a couple of titles

I would definitely recommend it. I was never into sports anime either (first one I have ever watched), and I'm not really watching the genre now either, but I really enjoyed Yuri on Ice. It has really compelling characters in it, and even though you love the main three characters, the others are really great and I found I just wanted everybody to win. The characters all have their own goals and personalities, and all, at some point or another, relatable and somewhat likeable.

Also, the show has a great portrayal of mental illness and the pressures put on the characters, and is realistic in a way that I haven't seen in an anime yet (granted, I don't watch much, but it is still a great representation). 

The plot is fast moving and there aren't any filler episodes, and the show focuses primarily on the ice skating rather than the romance elements. On the ice skating itself, I, with no previous exposure to ice skating watched this anime, and am now into watching ice skating in real life, so, that was very interesting to me. Plus, heaps of professional ice skaters around the world all love the show and feel like it is an accurate representation of the ice skating world.

Also, the romance is great, and is one of the few animes I know that features a gay relationship and treats it like any other relationship. Plus, this said relationship is just adorable, and actually isn't very explicit (fluff more than anything else.

So yeah, I really enjoyed it (that came out a lot longer than I expected. I just have a lot of feelings about this show), feel free let me know if you watch it and like it, because I have no friends who are into anime...