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Ryan

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Ryan last won the day on December 27 2012

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About Ryan

  • Birthday 11/28/1982

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  1. Gintama is really uneven quality-wise. The plot arcs are often incredible. The filler between can be okay but is usually cringeworthy. I quit watching around episode 200-something. Might pick it up later. Probably won't. Speaking of disappointment, I'm having a hard time getting into DurararaX2. They have introduced a new cast of freshmen and villains, and I don't like any of them. Season 1's cast is still there...but the focus of the plot is off of them. The show has earned a certain amount of goodwill and trust from me with its masterful first season, so I'm willing to give it a bit of time for the plot to take shape, but still...ugh.
  2. Through various comments you've made, I know that you have a low tolerance for randomness in anime, and if I'd known that about you at the time I recommended Nichijou I never would have. It is the most random show I've ever watched. I will disagree about it being nonsensical. The only times I found it nonsensical were the times when, in order to get the joke, you would have to either speak Japanese or be intimately familiar with Japanese culture. And there's a lot of that as well, but the rest is compelling enough to me that I look past it. As for not caring what happens to anyone...I started out the same way. I remember the exact scene that changed my mind. One of the characters is a hyperactive, underachieving teenaged girl. It's easy to write her off at first, even be annoyed by her. But then there was a scene where she's trying to kill all the mosquitos in her room that are keeping her from getting to sleep, which involves a lot of smacking things. It's presented as a funny scene, and you think it's like every other little random sketch in the show. Then her mother comes in and shouts at her to stop making so much noise, and slaps her so hard that she falls on her back, hitting her head on her desk on the way down. After the mom slams the door, she is left stunned and staring, just as we, the audience, are stunned and staring. Then she realizes that the mom killed the last mosquito against her cheek when she smacked her, and she smiles. And then you understand that she's grown up with abuse and is doing the best she can with the hand she's been dealt, and that her happy, carefree attitude is actually a minor miracle. There are so many moments like that in the show. In fact, I would argue that the unifying purpose below all the randomness is to demonstrate the ways in which our ordinary, everyday lives are a series of minor miracles. I think it's almost Pratchettesque in its ability to blend the serious with the absurd, and I find it pitch perfect and entirely brilliant. That got way longer than I expected. I warned you! I can't shut up about it!
  3. Moribito is definitely aimed at a more mature audience. Most of the conflict in the show revolves around adults and adult problems. I can see how a teenager might find it boring. You may find it more engaging now.
  4. Dislike is perhaps the wrong word. To dislike something you have to have seen it, and it seems to me as though not very many people have.
  5. I needed a break from One Piece (I'm up to episode 632 now), so I decided to rewatch the first season of Durarara! so I could watch season 2 without being quite lost. And yeah, it's completely bananas, and I love it. This time through I decided to try and figure out what the show is about. It starts out making you think it will be a character-focused slice of life, about three high school freshmen who are friends. Many of the episodes focus on the background and thoughts of a particular character, reinforcing this basic structure. But carefully, the thread of a plot is introduced in the background. Gradually, the background plot weaves its way through the slice of life until it seems to consume it. Then you realize that no, it's still a slice of life, it's just that life in this fictional Ikebukuro is bonkers. In the first 24 episodes, there are three main plot arcs and several side plots, all of which feel complete, and none of which feel rushed. So yeah, the story structure is pretty complex, and kind of brilliant. But, but, but. What's it about? Well, it doesn't need to be "about" anything; that's kind of the definition of slice of life. But if you pressed me, I'd pull out a line delivered by one of the characters towards the end of the second episode: "The world isn't as bad as you think." That is the central theme. It's never again told, only shown, but when taken as a whole, season 1 strongly makes that point. On to season 2!
  6. You listed Moribito and Nichijou, the two anime that nobody else seems to like and that I can't shut up about. You and I are now friends.
  7. Kvothe Bast Chronicler Auri Denna "Master Ash" Davi Ambrose Netalia Lackless Felurian For some reason I can't remember the names of any of the university professors. What are the first 8 elements on the periodic table?
  8. Davy back is only half filler, unfortunately. There were a few non-canon fights, but the arc itself was in the manga. Or so I'm told. After I'm done with Water 7, I'd be curious to hear your reasons. I've found it to be excellent so far. And I did take back my negative comments. It's not perfect, but it's a really fun and imaginative show.
  9. I love me some Yowapeda. It's surprisingly addicting. I'm a little cold on the Inter-High arc, though, since that's where the Shounen-style battles start in earnest, and you see less of Onoda. It's still fun, though. Ah man. That was a trippy show. I didn't know it was getting another run. Something else I don't have time to watch! In other news, I continue to watch One Piece. I'm up to episode 255, which puts me right in the middle of Water 7. The writing and animation really stepped up in this arc (1080p resolution helps with the animation, of course). Even the stupid Davy Back prelude served to set the thematic stage for the rest of the story. Don't get me wrong, it still sucked, but I do appreciate it a little now from a story structure standpoint.
  10. You would probably like Baccano! (The ! is part of the title.) I watched it on Netflix, but I don't think it's on there anymore. I generally don't prefer dubbed anime, which is all that Netflix offers, but the dub of Baccano! is probably better than the original due to all the different accents. The show is set in 1930's America. There's a train heist and a gang war, a bunch of different competing factions, and a complex thread tying everything together. The whole thing is told in a non-linear fashion, so it takes about six episodes before you wrap your head around what's going on, but it's worth it. My second recommendation is "Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit". People on this thread are probably sick of me going on about it. It's about a female bodyguard charged by an emperor's second wife to protect her youngest son from his father, who wants to kill him because he believes he harbors a water demon that would bring drought and destruction on the entire empire. It's set in a very creative fantasy world, has gorgeous animation, great music, engaging characters, and a few breathtaking fight scenes rendered in a realistic style. I can't recommend it enough.
  11. I assumed you were on Shippuden. Sasuke has a bigger arc in the second series than he does in the first.
  12. IIRC that's right in the middle of Sasuke's big arc. There's some pretty epic stuff in there, mixed of course with annoyance at Sasuke.
  13. Something like a year ago, I stopped watching Naruto because I was sick of fillers. Naruto fillers are extremely hit or miss, with more miss, by and large, than hit. I let them build a nice runway so I could skip the fillers that had been coming so frequently. Turns out I stopped right where all the fillers stopped. Extend palm, apply face. And the arc I'm on is dropping the payoffs, one after another. Some of these have been around 500 episodes in the making. It's a good time to be a Naruto fan. Or, well, it *was*, a year ago. You know what I mean.
  14. Log horizon is back! First episode had a couple flash-forwards that left me confused, but other than that it was great. I give it 4 out of 5 glasses pushed up the nose.
  15. IMO the Roguetown arc is where it starts to get good. That would have been a good "in media res" place to start the show. It runs from episode 48-53. Of course, then a filler arc starts that, having skipped the first part of the show, you wouldn't enjoy, so you could skip straight to episode 62. The first 47 episodes establish the backstories of Luffy and his first four crew members. That's part of why I found it so slow. It's all just setup for the actual story, which starts more or less on episode 48. All that background is important to the story, but if you really don't have the patience for it, you could probably just read plot summaries and be just fine.
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