Anime?

[PeterAhlstrom]

We hit the end of the first arc of Sword Art Online last night, and it was a real shocker (though I knew something was going on with that dude). Karen said, "There's no way I'll be able to sleep if we don't watch the next episode." So we did. The new antagonist was unnecessarily creepy and obviously evil, I feel. It would have made for better drama if he was a nice guy.

[Kurkistan]

Yeah... As people have said, the second arc is underwhelming.

[Teccam]

Yeah, and the villain for the second arc is just a bit too ridiculous. I still liked it though. There's some good stuff going on though, and it's interesting to get the little glimpses of the real world between the scenes that take place inside Alfheim.

 

I've been keeping up with Accel World these last couple of days. I think I'm on episode eight or so. Definitely going to stick with it at least until the end of the first arc. Still not sure what will be next on the list though. Thinking either Steins;Gate or Log Horizon. Maybe Hunter x Hunter....

 

EDIT - I just met a new character in Accel World, who I assume will be the villain for the second arc.... If so, I can see why people don't like it as much. I got over that character within the first episode. :\

 

Also, did anyone see this announcement? New anime coming in July, directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, with music by Yoko Kanno and characters designed by Kazuto Nakazawa. Premise sounds interesting too.... Something to keep on your radars.

Edited March 21, 2014 by Teccam

[Laryna]

Oh! I forgot to mention Prince of Tennis. I like New prince of tennis better, but both parts are a must for sports anime lovers. Even Slam Dunk is good (though it doesn't have superpowers like in Kuroko no Basuke).

 I definitely would love to find a show as appealing as FMA:B. We don't have a shounen action show we're watching right now other than HxH, unless SAO and Log Horizon count (I guess they do count).

Very few animes are as good as FMAB, but I would definitely recommend SKET Dance. It's a completely different genre, but I found it very enjoyable. And most episodes are absolutely hilarious.

For some reason, I found K much better than SAO. The animation's really good, but they haven't really explained all the powers yet (still waiting for season 2

Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan is also worth watching. And One Piece is entertaining too, but it's 'slightly' long

[Cracknut]

Didn't like K much even though I watched it in a single night. Not my stuff...

GTO anyone?

[EHyde]

I haven't watched a whole lot of anime, though since I moved here I've been doing a weekly anime night with my friends so I'm watching more than I used to. We watched Night Raid 1931 which is about a group of Japanese agents in 1930s Shanghai who have superpowers (but don't hear "superpowers" and think it's gonna be all actiony, it's much more of a political drama. I liked it a lot). We watched Chihayafuru at the same time, very much a change of pace. Now we're watching Eden of the East which is I guess a techno-thriller, sort of? And just started Beyond the Boundary so I can't say much about it yet but so far it feels kind of Buffy-ish. 

[PeterAhlstrom]

We finished Sword Art Online though we haven't seen the "Extra" movie (which I understand is mostly recap, with some new material) yet. The second arc did some interesting things, but it was rather different. I think a main reason for this is the different in time scales. The first arc happens over two years, and the second arc takes less than a week. Anyway, when the new season comes we'll watch it. It's fine if the story is totally different.

 

Log Horizon also reached the end of its first season, and will return in about 6 months or so. It has a more coherent story arc than SAO and the main character is less of a Mary Sue. It's also way less dark.

 

We're not caught up on Space Brothers, but after watching SAO each episode of Space Brothers seems really short, like hardly anything happens. Its pace is very different. It has a very different mood.

 

So anyway, now the only shows we're looking forward to each week are HxH and Silver Spoon. We need to try more shows.

[Appreauntis]

I know its not anime, but...

 

Is anyone familiar with Samurai Jack?

 

It's like, my favorite show ever.

[Ryan]

One show that has surprised me quite a lot is Yowamushi Pedal, or Yowapeda for short. It is, on the surface, a show about riding bikes. Really, it's mostly a show about riding bikes. So it ought to be boring, right?

 

It's not boring, at least not to me. It's really a lot of tun. And, as often happens in anime, it's the characters that sell it. The protagonist, Onoda, starts as a shy, introverted otaku with no friends. As the show progresses, he gains more friends and starts to open up. So, not really an original plot, or even a very subtle one, but very satisfying in its execution. Onoda has this charming naiveté, and the supporting cast is all unique and entertaining. And it's almost always funny, which never hurts.

 

The show is currently in the midst of its first major bike race, and I'm not sure I like the way they're handling it. It has the feel of a shounen action show, complete with posturing and "I didn't want to reveal my ability just yet, but..." moments. I'm not sure I like it, but the earlier episodes have earned enough credit with me to keep me watching.

[Laryna]

I know its not anime, but... Is anyone familiar with Samurai Jack? It's like, my favorite show ever.

I loved it too! Though I watched it really long ago...

[PeterAhlstrom]

And now Silver Spoon has ended again, and just as I said (about halfway through the episode) "I love this show so much!" From Wikipedia, it looks like there is enough manga material for one more season.

 

Space Brothers has also ended, but we're 20 episodes behind.

 

Stein's;Gate had its dubbed episodes pulled from Hulu. Normally we watch subs but the dub on that was great. Looks like we won't be finishing it anytime soon.

 

EDIT:

 

Wow, it's really hard to find a new show. Ugh. I've watched various episodes and am having real problems.

 

Needless (on Hulu): Didn't make it through a whole episode. Dumb, and ugh those character designs and costume designs.

Kill La Kill: 1 episode. This was actually quite good but the outfits won't fly in our house.

Magi: Most of an episode. Dumb.

Golden Time: 1 episode. Shows some potential but I know this would bore Karen.

Hamatora: 1 episode. Could be good, but too much sex. Can anyone tell me if there's sex and nudity in the other episodes?

Clannad (Amazon Prime, we have a 1-month trial): 1 episode. Good enough for me, but bored Karen. She's OK with slice-of-life/relationships as long as something exciting is also happening, at least as exciting as Chihayafuru.

Skip Beat: 4 episodes. Karen is not interested at all in the central plot and conflict, even though some of the character actions are funny. I could possibly watch more of this, but the setup of her earning points in the agency for being obsequious also sounds unappealing to me.

 

Also last night Crunchyroll was freaking out on us and saying an episode was over after we had watched only a few minutes or seconds. Tried Saint Seiya something cloth and Gintama, but Crunchyroll wasn't cooperating enough to actually watch.

 

Instead we went to Netflix and watched David Attenborough talk about polar bears.

Edited April 3, 2014 by PeterAhlstrom

[Kurkistan]

I feel your pain, Peter. Polar bears...

 

Do you want some more suggestions?

 

A few people have mentioned Baccano!, and that's pretty good. Fair warning that it takes literally half its run to start making any sense whatsoever, since there's a lot of time-jumpery. The dub is also the best way to watch it, since they got the accents down.

 

I am shocked and appalled that no one has mentioned Spice and Wolf. I've only seen the dub (it's on Hulu, I believe), but I liked it a lot. Come for the wolf-god-magic, stay for the surprisingly in-depth medieval economics.

-Another fair warning: The first episode has an oddly high level of nudity, but the show gets a hold of itself afterwards and mostly refrains.

EDIT: Looking at my notes (yes, I keep (very brief) notes on shows I've watched so that I can recommend them properly), I actually wrote down "Fanservice much less prevalent than it would first seem."

 

And now it looks like I only ever watch dubs. Honestly I lean more towards subs, but both those shows were recommended as better viewing experiences on the dub. The VA for the female lead in Spice and Wolf in particular is supposed to be more character-appropriate in the dub.

Edited April 6, 2014 by Kurkistan

[Grayv]

I am not good at explaining my reasons for recommendations, but I would recommend continuing Skip Beats. After a while, the whole "gaining points" thing moves to the background.

[Ryan]

Peter, I've watched six episodes of Hamatora. The magic system is softer than I like, but still fun. As for sex, I don't actually recall any, which is odd, because I ordinarily drop shows like a hot potato for fanservice/sex/nudity. The main villain can be a bit disturbing, but only mildly so far as anime goes. And there was this one episode where a dude does lots of sit-ups with his shirt off, but that's all I recall. It's not my favorite show, but I haven't dropped it yet.

 

Gintama is a bit bipolar. It's either tremendously funny or terribly stupid, and there's no way to tell which you're going to get when you start an episode. The major story arcs are all very good, though. Definitely worth checking out

 

And yeah, Crunchyroll. They need to invest in infrastructure, technology, or both, but I doubt they have the resources. Some tricks for making it livable:

1. If the episode ends early, just reload. Hopefully they saved your playback position; if not, it can be annoying to hunt for your spot in the episode, but it's doable.
2. If playback freezes, often it means they dropped your connection. Set the playhead back a few seconds, and the connection is usually reestablished immediately.
3. Alas, sometimes you just have to watch at a lower resolution.
4. Or give up. Thursdays typically suck, because Naruto.

 

Anyway, a few more random recommendations:

 

Have you tried Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit? It's on Crunchyroll, and is (despite its low resolution) gorgeously rendered, especially in its action scenes, which, though rare, are stunning. It's also a touching and well-told story, set in a vivid fantasy world.

 

What about "Problem Children are Coming From Another World, Aren't They?" (Yes, that's the actual title.) This show is very hard to describe. The best way to see if you'd like it is to watch it. I'll put a mild fan service warning on it, mostly for the artwork at the end of each episode. So, definitely watch the credits (because they're amazing - you'll see), but stop before the art comes up.

 

Nobunaga the Fool is a fun show with a profoundly stupid premise. They basically crib their cast from all of recorded history. The characters are only superficially related to their namesakes, if at all. But there's giant mechs, and spaceships, in feudal Japan. If you've got the "giant robots and explosions!!!!" gene, give it a shot; otherwise, stay far away. Me? It puts a grin on my face.

 

Mushi-shi is starting a new series; there's one episode up on Crunchyroll. I loved the original series. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it as well. It's about a traveling sage who helps people cope with the magical creatures, called Mushi, that inhabit the world. Mushi are beautiful and dangerous and often harm the people that come into contact with them, and Gin (the sage) helps them with varying degrees of success. It's an artistic and emotionally powerful show.

[PeterAhlstrom]

We watched 3 episodes of Mushi-shi and found it incredibly boring and nonsensical. Definitely not for us.

 

We were able to watch the first episode of Gintama, and we won't be continuing. Far too random; it's trying too hard to be funny. For my humor shows I like something like Sgt. Frog. In the randomness direction I did like the couple episodes of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo that I saw a few years ago, but there's only so much of that type of thing I can take at a time.

 

It would be good to have a fun shounen to fill the void left by Bleach. Hunter X Hunter continues to be a smarter show than Bleach was, but Bleach had some better character interactions. Unfortunately Bleach also had some entirely forgettable stuff, though most of that was the filler arcs that we ultimately skipped.

 

I'll keep some of the other recommendations in mind.

[Cracknut]

We watched 3 episodes of Mushi-shi and found it incredibly boring and nonsensical. Definitely not for us.

 

We were able to watch the first episode of Gintama, and we won't be continuing. Far too random; it's trying too hard to be funny. For my humor shows I like something like Sgt. Frog. In the randomness direction I did like the couple episodes of Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo that I saw a few years ago, but there's only so much of that type of thing I can take at a time.

 

It would be good to have a fun shounen to fill the void left by Bleach. Hunter X Hunter continues to be a smarter show than Bleach was, but Bleach had some better character interactions. Unfortunately Bleach also had some entirely forgettable stuff, though most of that was the filler arcs that we ultimately skipped.

 

I'll keep some of the other recommendations in mind.

If you're looking for some long anime series then it's either Naruto(if you aren't watching this already) or One Piece. I personally wouldn't recommend Naruto but it still fits what you're looking for. Haven't seen DBZ and Toriko so don't know much about those.

For shorter series Soul Eater and Shaman King. Love these even though they got some serious flaws. Around 50 episodes each if I'm remembering correctly. Soul Eater has as much nudity as Naruto. I don't remember any of that in SK.

If you're okay with Mecha genre then Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. It's 26(27?) episodes and is most 'shounen' anime I've seen.

Edited April 10, 2014 by Cracknut

[LinkasZelda]

Fave anime? Probably Welcome to the NHK and Hunter x Hunter.

I'm currently on and off with One Piece. A bit late to the party, but I'm really liking it. Also passively watching Kuroko's Basketball.

[Observer]

May have missed it, but I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Monster. It took a long time to truly get off the ground (Episode 3 to be exciting, a lot further in to stop feeling like The Fugitive), but was an incredible experience after it did. And to rehash what's already been said, I bless the string of contrived coincidences that showed me Death Note.

[Ryan]

I can see how Mushishi wouldn't be for everyone. I still love it anyway.

Of the shows on my list, Moribito is my favorite.

[Arachiel]

Who else likes Sket Dance? I've only seen a couple of episodes, but it's hilarious.

[Ryan]

Sket Dance is on my list of shows to watch "eventually'. I watched the first three episodes, thought "this could be pretty good", then neglected to ever watch any more. Guess that means it didn't make a strong impression.

 

Since I'm posting anyway, I may as well mention that Korra 2 is as excellent as Korra 1 was lackluster. Action-packed, stunningly rendered, more-or-less solidly plotted. And Varrick. Just writing the name brings a smile to my face.

[Briar King]

I'm not a big fan but stuff I liked was Gundam 00, Gurren Laggan, Monster, Samuri 7, The Last Exile(prob my fav), Avatar TLA & Korra(both of these shows are great), Darker then Black. That's about the extent of my knowledge. I did watch Attack on Titan and in weekly waits this is a hard show to follow I rec to marathon that one.

[Cracknut]

I'm not a big fan but stuff I liked was Gundam 00, Gurren Laggan, Monster, Samuri 7, The Last Exile(prob my fav), Avatar TLA & Korra(both of these shows are great), Darker then Black. That's about the extent of my knowledge. I did watch Attack on Titan and in weekly waits this is a hard show to follow I rec to marathon that one.

I liked Gundam 00 too. Had month of Mecha in last year other good ones I remember:

Neon Genesis Evangelion - haven't seen original but movies are very good.

Break(broken?) Blade - not as good as Evangelion but still.

Macross Frontier - stopped watching it halfway, but it had some good stuff in it too. Just not my thing.

Code Geass - mecha version of Death Note but I like it more simply because I hate second season of DN and it has more action/romance/comedy + better ending.

Spoilers about TTGL/Mistborn

Kelsier = Kamina (inspires revolution and dies in first 1/3 of story)

Vin = Simon (becomes badass after his spiritual brother's death)

The Crew = Gurren Dan (Die a lot)

TLR = Lord Genome (Saving world by oppressing it)

Elend = Nia (kinda)

Allomancy = Manliness

Please tell me that I'm not only one :D

 

[LinkasZelda]

A bit off topic, but anybody like Toku? I'm a pretty big Sentai and Kamen Rider fan as well

[Observer]

Am I the only one who couldn't stand Darker Than Black? It was cool and fun in the moment, with the crew getting through the impossible odds, but then at the end, all of the sudden it's like the writing team realized that they actually needed to end it all, and the only thing they could come up with was to

suddenly start killing off characters who have, up until that point, survived crazy odds and risks, only to die in the lamest, most anticlimactic way possible (Them coming back later is irrelevant, it doesn't change the inthemoment feels). And then there's the bonus episode at the end, which really hit home to me something I already knew but didn't notice, and wouldn't care about if not for the ending. It was a Monster of the Week plotline that barely ever went anywhere, with an overarching thing that went all Malignant Plot Tumor on the storyline and took it over in 3 episodes. No progress was ever made in each episode, unlike something like Death Note or Monster, which always felt like it was going somewhere with the story.

Am I the only one who felt that way?

/tangent