Anime?

[Zathoth]

3 hours ago, LeftVash said:

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. 

*Mumbles something about Jojo's Bizarre Adventure*

[C. M. Hayden]

On 12/29/2016 at 8:37 AM, Quiver said:

Never saw Yu Yu Hakusho, but I did read the manga. It is pretty underrated

The show is excellent (even the dub's not bad), but the last season gets really silly.

[PlanetReelo]

5 hours ago, CalypsoDreaming said:

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...

Wow thanks for such a comprehensive reply! You've absolutely sold that to me now, so Yuri on Ice will definitely be the next show I watch Especially from the fact that you've become a fan of figure skating as a result of the show, that gives me a bit more confidence too. I'll definitely let you know how I find it. I'm sort of in the same situation with not having that many anime-obsessed friends!

[StormyQueen]

6 hours ago, PlanetReelo said:

Wow thanks for such a comprehensive reply! You've absolutely sold that to me now, so Yuri on Ice will definitely be the next show I watch Especially from the fact that you've become a fan of figure skating as a result of the show, that gives me a bit more confidence too. I'll definitely let you know how I find it. I'm sort of in the same situation with not having that many anime-obsessed friends!

Yeah, all my friends call me a weeaboo, mainly because I watch anime, read manga and learn Japanese. But, in my defence, I can read manga (in Japanese) and watch subbed anime (Spanish subtitles so I can't read the English) as practice for Japanese, so, it's a win-win situation really.

[Erandeni]

I am not the kind of person who usually watch anime, I only watch one which catch my atention from time to time.

But lastly I am following 3 animes: Digimon Universe, the second season of Konosuba and the second season of Ao no Exorcist, also the film´s series of Digimon Adventure Tri.

Before that I watched Orange and Re:zero.

[Quiver]

Okay, so. I started watching Dragonball Super at the end of the Future Trunks arc, where it grabbed attention with the whole Super Saiyan Blue fight at the end.

Since then, it's run a bunch of... I suppose slice of life episodes would be the best way to describe them. The Z Fighters playing baseball is a thing I didn't realise I wanted until I had it.

And they followed that up with Great Saiyaman Gohan yes. I was already kind of getting back into Dragonball Z thanks to Team Fourstar, but now I am all in and hyped for the Universe Survival arc.

[traceria]

Okay, so I haven't been around in awhile... Don't discount my anime recommendations just for that fact.

I LOVE Iron Blooded Orphans.  I'm an old Gundam fan anyway.  Like Quiver, Gundam Wing had a major effect on me - it and DBZ turned me into an anime fan back in the late 90's.  Iron Blooded Orphans does have some of the same Gundam troupes, but these guys have guts, man.  My husband is a pretty picky anime watcher, but he is totally hooked on it, too.  It's gritty, political, has really interesting characters and, of course, cool battles.  There's not much to dislike.  Maybe Kordelia's impossible hair?  Nah, I wish I could have her hair!

I've got this huge queue of shows in Crunchyroll and plan to at least give them all a shot.  Konosuba is funny, but I'm only in the first season.  I think things like fighting cabbages are only funny on certain days.  I've watched a bit of A Certain Magical Index and like it well enough, but I keep waiting for something more in the main plot to happen. Naruto Shippuden is always on my to-watch list.  After finishing Iron Blooded Orphans, we plan to watch season two of Bungo Stray Dogs.  I miss that show and can't wait!

 

[Quiver]

@traceria I'll add this as another voice for Iron Blooded Orphans though.

Also, I can confirm: Konosuba is pretty good. I got up to date on the series yesterday, which...unfortunately means I have to wait for new episodes.

(Also, I have opinions on how that show handles some stuff and blah. Soap boxing  Point is, I enjoyed that show)

On the other hand, I dropped the Naruto manga pretty hard after some of its plot developments. I've started watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure to try and fill that shonen space, but that series is long enough that I don't mind having it as a slow burn series while I marathon other stuff.

Other new shows... I caught the first episode of BanG Dream. The poster made me think it would be more rock than the first episode implied, but hey: music can be fine, so...gonna give it a few episodes to win me over.

And...caught the first few episodes of Miss Kobyashi's Dragon Maid. I'm...not overly impressed? The episodes feel more like a number of sketches than whole episodes, despite each having a throughline. Still, giving it a few episodes to win me over...

But yeah right now, Konosuba is the best anime I've seen this season.

[Edgedancer]

14 hours ago, Quiver said:

 

(Also, I have opinions on how that show handles some stuff and blah. Soap boxing  Point is, I enjoyed that show)

I demand details.

[Quiver]

On 10/02/2017 at 0:34 PM, Edgedancer said:

I demand details.

Oh whoops, I never responded here.

Basically, main problem I have with most anime; fan service. I think Konosuba is generally better than some shows out there in this regard, particularly comedy shows; it doesn't really have the usual pratfalls and excuse plots to flash some skin that other shows do.

(Plus, most of the characters tend to present themselves as fan service on their own terms. Darkness masochism is the big example of that, as was the Sucubi episode; both of those feel like parody of fan service, rather than fan service)

...of course, like with Kill la Kill, I'm left wondering how much the parody excuse covers that kind of thing. Excusing that, some of the animation -particularly for opening 1- kind of focuses on that stuff in ways that feels gratuitous.

(The introduction and use of Steal is absolutely gratuitous in the worst way of comedy series though)

...but, that's maybe nitpicking a convention ofthe genre at this point.  I don't like it, but the rest of Konosuba is pretty strong. The anime is fluid, and the characters and plots are entertaining; it's definitely a show I'd recommend.

I just feel compelled to point that it does fall down in that area from time to time.

[Briar King]

Watching The Irregular. On ep 4. Idk why Jap has such an obsession with incest but it is really strange. I like the show other then that.

[Left]

13 minutes ago, Briar King said:

Watching The Irregular. On ep 4. Idk why Jap has such an obsession with incest but it is really strange. I like the show other then that.

I don't know that it's Just japan. We have Game of Thrones and many other shows that have incest story lines. 

That being said, in anime it definitely feels like it's taken as less...disturbingly. 

 

Anyway, I'm working on finishing Cowboy Bebop, and can't wait for One Punch man season two. 

[Briar King]

1 hour ago, Left said:

I don't know that it's Just japan. We have Game of Thrones and many other shows that have incest story lines. 

That being said, in anime it definitely feels like it's taken as less...disturbingly. 

 

Anyway, I'm working on finishing Cowboy Bebop, and can't wait for One Punch man season two. 

GoT is certainly direct to it but it serves the story. there are so many anime with the incest vibes that it's just becoming strange to me. It's like male fetish/role playing/catering strangeness just for the sake of it. 

[Left]

55 minutes ago, Briar King said:

GoT is certainly direct to it but it serves the story. there are so many anime with the incest vibes that it's just becoming strange to me. It's like male fetish/role playing/catering strangeness just for the sake of it. 

I'd be willing to agree to that, and I really don't know why it is. There are some things that I love about Japanese entertainment, but there are some things that I dislike strongly, and others that I just DON'T understand. 

[Quiver]

1 hour ago, Briar King said:

GoT is certainly direct to it but it serves the story. there are so many anime with the incest vibes that it's just becoming strange to me. It's like male fetish/role playing/catering strangeness just for the sake of it. 

Yeah, I really got to agree with this sentiment. 

I've been seeing this trend pop up in a few things lately; a VN I played called Fragments Note had the main characters sister as one of the romance options...and even before thermae branched off to let you choose a romance, it featured the two kissing one another.

I've started reading No Game No Life, since the concept sounds amazing...but it's also made ridiculously clear that the main characters little sister is in love with him. I am rather hesitant to continue that book series on that account. 

Heck, I read the Love Hina manga back in my teen years, and at one point the main characters little sister starts pursuing him romantically...though his response is a repeated, firm back and firth between "No," and "God No!"

Those works are always really clear to point out that the characters aren't look relatives, just adopted  but I don't think that makes it any better. It still feels very uncomfortable.

(To some stories credit, they DO do interesting things with that trope, just as Game of Thrones uses the Lannicest to tell us something about Jaime and Cersei. In Attack on Titan, Mikasa is -for all intents and purposes- Eren's sister, but the issue of romance is a lot more ambiguous on her side, while Eren seems to wholely reject it. Revolutionary Girl Utena has...way more complicated stuff, but again, it's not presented in a positive way)

So...yeah. Anime, please stop with brother/sister incest, and I can't believe I had to type that sentence.

[Briar King]

Yep Sword Art Online has the whole adoption thing going to. Thankfully it is short lived.

[Retsam]

I finished Hyouka on Valentines Day: which is an odd coincidence as I had two episodes left, the first of which is a Valentine's Day episode, which I didn't realize.  

I enjoyed it overall, but was a bit disappointed that in the second half of the show, the focus really shifted from the mysteries (think "Encyclopedia Brown: the Anime") to being more "romance-bait slice-of-life", which just isn't particularly my cup of tea.  I can see how someone whose more into that genre would love this show: it had a great aesthetic, a memorable main cast with entertaining character interactions, and the main female lead in particular is weapons-grade moe.  

But, while I wish the mysteries were a tiny bit more conclusive in the front half, and a bit more in focus in the back-half; like I said before, there just aren't very many shows that even try to have fair mysteries, so I have to appreciate it for that, disappointments aside.  I've been recommended Gosick as another mystery anime, so perhaps I'll check that out.

---

I started Konosuba: mostly because I've got a friend that I watch anime with, and I've found its a bit "dangerous" to just pick something that I've heard about but haven't actually watched.

And it's funny, but it's also uncomfortable enough that I don't know if I'd want to watch it with someone else.  Even before stuff like the "steal" scene, or Darkness's whole schtick, there's just a ton of boob jiggles, indulgent character designs, and gratuitous butt-shots.  (Seriously, Aqua is going to have some severe lower-back issues with how much her butt sticks out whenever the camera is behind her)

But, I guess Megumin is pretty cool. 

 

Edited February 21, 2017 by Retsam

[Quiver]

16 hours ago, Retsam said:

I started Konosuba: mostly because I've got a friend that I watch anime with, and I've found its a bit "dangerous" to just pick something that I've heard about but haven't actually watched.

And it's funny, but it's also uncomfortable enough that I don't know if I'd want to watch it with someone else.  Even before stuff like the "steal" scene, or Darkness's whole schtick, there's just a ton of boob jiggles, indulgent character designs, and gratuitous butt-shots.  (Seriously, Aqua is going to have some severe lower-back issues with how much her butt sticks out whenever the camera is behind her)

But, I guess Megumin is pretty cool. 

I commented on some of this above, but yeah. I generally think that the bright palette and the cartoony style helps make things less uncomfortably over all, but the, er... jiggle physics (especially in the opening sequance) can be rather indulgent.

(I didn't really notice any shots of Aqua though. I remember one scene from the first episode, and the opening sequence, again, stood out a little in that regard... but I can't actually recall any other time when attention was drawn to that. All of Aqua's comedy that I recall comes from her water magic and bratty attitude)

But... fan service is a recurring problem for anime in general, which is definitely one of the worst aspects of the media. 

[Quiver]

I killed this topic. I'm sorry- it was unintentional! Would anime news help revive it? Because I come bearing news.

Spcifically, the fact that a trailer for season 2 of Attack on Titan has been released.

I really liked season one - it's a big part of what got me back into anime - but I've actually been reading the manga lately, so I don't know if I'll watch the series.

 

[Left]

One Punch Man is on Netflix! And it has English Dubbing for people like me
 

[Orlion Blight]

1 hour ago, Left said:

One Punch Man is on Netflix! And it has English Dubbing for people like me
 

Season 2 of that should be coming out in Japan soon!

[Quiver]

2 hours ago, Left said:

One Punch Man is on Netflix! And it has English Dubbing for people like me
 

Haven't checked UK Netflix in a while, but if it's there, I'll include that on my To-Watch list

I'm waiting for Little Witch Academia to get a UK release, which should be around June.

[Retsam]

I finally finished Parasyte this week; something I started probably about a year ago, got about 80% of the way through, then stalled out.  Part of that, is because it drags a bit towards the center, but a lot of it is just that I got distracted by other things and was only recently reminded to go back and finish it.

And it was a pretty solid show, overall.  I semi-jokingly describe it as "if you read The Stranger and enjoyed the philosophy, but thought there just weren't enough head-eating aliens."  It's first and foremost an action-thriller, but there's some strong philosophical elements to it.

The premise is that one night alien insects take over a small portion of the population: they burrow into people and eat their brain, replacing their head; they look normal, the alien has some access to the person's memories, and they can blend into society, but their head can suddenly unfold into a killer alien thing.  The main character is infected with one of these parasites, but stops it from getting to his head, and it only takes his right hand, leaving him in an uneasy alliance with his literal "alien hand syndrome" parasite.

This premise turns out to be pretty fertile ground for the show's philosophical musings; it's actually a twist on Kakfa's Metamorphosis: a character who goes to sleep and wakes up to find that he's no longer entirely human and his normal life is derailed.  There's a lot of discussion on what it means to be human, on environmentalism, on treatment of animals, on the value of life (human and otherwise), and it all feels like a natural extension of the premise more than being something shoehorned in.  If nothing else, the climax of this show is probably going to stick with me.

---

I also watched the Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale movie this week, and it turned out to be better than expected; I've got a bit of a love-hate relationship with SAO at times, but this was easily the best writing since Aincrad, (and possibly surpassing Aincrad in writing quality, if not in overall effect).  

It corrects for a lot of the usual SAO writing issues:

• It doesn't overly focus on either Kirito or Asuna, but balances the screen time between them, with actual focus on them as a couple rather than just continuing to add to Kirito's harem.
• It actually has decent villains with sympathetic motives and a plan that makes some sense; though they don't get quite as much development as they probably needed.
• "Kirito beats everyone with his massive OP-ness" actually works if it's the payoff to a two hour movie (that also featured other characters being awesome), rather than being something that happened about once every 30 minute television episode.

It feels like the follow-up Aincrad deserved: the idea of Augmented Reality is a really natural fit for this world and a more interesting way to go than just "another VR MMO", the plot here actually ties back to Aincrad, and the focus on Kirito and Asuna's relationship all work better than what they actually did.  (Even ignoring the trainwreck that was the Alfheim arc).

And, per usual SAO, it's got exciting, flashy action sequence that are gorgeously animated (even more so than the original series), and great music, albeit it's got a bit of an "idol" thing going on, but it's Yuki Kaijura, so I'm not going to complain too much.

Naturally, I am going to complain some, though: it's not all good.  Some of the flaws are inherited, like Leafa, Silica, and Lisbeth still being flat characters who don't do much other than remind me how annoyingly harem-y SAO was at times.  Also, the plot also goes off the rails a bit for the sake of its big climactic action sequence, and it's still a pretty high-style low-substance affair, but hey, if you enjoyed any part of SAO and are looking for a popcorn action film, you could do a lot worse than this one.  

 

---

On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I'm watching March Comes in Like a Lion, which is about a high-school prodigy Shogi (Japanese Chess) player.  His parents died in an accident years ago, and his way of coping was to devote himself to mastering Shogi, and now years later he's on the cusp of becoming a professional player, but he still struggles with depression.

It's currently airing, and I've been hearing pretty good things about it in general, and it seems like basically the closest I'll ever get to a chess anime, so I figured I needed to check it out. I'm only a few episodes into it, so I can't judge much, but I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far.

Edited March 26, 2017 by Retsam

[Erandeni]

I am watching little witch academia, is the kind of serie I began to watch because I was bored and now I can not live without it, it is really funny and the plot just began to be quite interesting.

[Quiver]

3 hours ago, Idealistic Mistborn said:

I am watching little witch academia, is the kind of serie I began to watch because I was bored and now I can not live without it, it is really funny and the plot just began to be quite interesting.

Ooh, I've been waiting for the UK release of that series! I loved the two OVA's they released, so I'm somewhat hyped for the series proper