InstrumentalityOne wrote:Just watched the new Makoto Shinkai film Koto no Ha no Niwa/Garden of Words

Oh god I did not expect these feels

Me too. And yes.

I just wish there were English subtitles for the short scene after the credits rolled. I think I got the gist of it through the images though.

10/10 will buy it on Blu-Ray.

CJD wrote:I was expecting a lot but the amount on that list still blew my mind.

Also finishing the 1st season of Tamayura to prepare for the 2nd season coming the next season. And checked the latest OVA of Seitokai Yakuin-Domo and OAD of Highschool DxD.

Saw Koto no Ha no Niwa too. The scenery reminds me soooo much of the days I lived in Tokyo. The way the Shinjuku Gyo'en park that is so central in this anime looks so dreamily beautiful in morning rain. The pair of Tanka from Manyoushu (chapter 11) are just beautiful:

The lady to the man:
なるかみの すこしとよみて さしくもり あめもふらぬか きみをとどめむ
The thunder strikes softly. Can't the sky get a bit cloudy and rain falls a little. To keep you around. (my bad translation)

And the man answers:
なるかみの　すこしとよみて　ふらずとも　わはとどまらむ,　いもしとどめば
Even if there is no thunder or rain, I shall stay here, if it is your desire to keep me around. (my bad translation again)

Much better in mood and fits the dreamily beautiful scenery than the J-Pop song at the end.

^
Yeah, enjoyed this much more than 5cm/s
Backgrounds were pretty cool as usual the real highlight this time was the character animation.
It felt so organic, so real.

It's like these moving drawings were really people and beyond.

By the way, did you watch Chouyaku Hyakunin Isshu Utakoi, symbv?
It's pretty cool.

InstrumentalityOne wrote:Backgrounds were pretty cool as usual the real highlight this time was the character animation.
It felt so organic, so real.

You know, when I was watching it I could not help thinking what if Aku no Hana, another anime which aspires to use background and character animation that looks real, has this kind of art quality. I know if it is not possible for a TV series but I cannot help thinking how the reception could be different if the art is a bit more like Koto no Ha no Niwa.

InstrumentalityOne wrote:By the way, did you watch Chouyaku Hyakunin Isshu Utakoi, symbv?
It's pretty cool.

No, somehow it is not in the 25 or so shows I watched that season. To be honest, I have not even finished Chihayafuru 1st season. I guess for a Hyakunin Isshu anime, I would need to get on with Chihayafuru and finish it first.

CJD wrote:The latter. From what I gathered from your post he likes to convey similar themes throughout his stuff. Early Anno sounds aight though, which is good because Gunbuster's on my incredibly long backlog too.

oh boy, if I managed to give impression Kare Kano is some sort of angst fest I fucked up really bad. It's anything but and whatever angst is present comes from the original manga (as said Anno was interested in the comedy at expense of romance drama which was the cause of conflict with mangaka in the first place), not from Anno. Most of the drama and darker parts are notably in tune with many of Eva's points of concern but fundamentally they remain the kind of elements common to shoujo romance. They're not any "harsher" than that. The closest exception would be Arima's backstory that's pretty Eva as is but romance shows are romance shows and KK's bent is overwhelmingly positive with Yukino and Arima discovering their true selves through the relationship, Yukino gaining friends for first time in her life etc.

The finale too is positively life affirming - and I don't mean in the EoE oh-god-my-mind-is-full-of-fuck-but-this-was-not-bad-end-I-guess way but more in the omedetou way.

I mean, the show more often than not looks like this:



I don't really see Kare Kano triggering any existential crisis. Sure, Anno certainly has his pet themes and ideas he's been working on since Gunbuster (and in another gear in whole NGE and post-eva period, Shiki Jitsu is closest thing to sequel to Eva we can get...and it has notably "happy" ending to boot) but I don't think any of that is truly troubling. Or if I want to play safe I might put Love & Pop and Shiki Jitsu offlimits but Kare Kano is as harmless as Anno's Cutey Honey live action feature.

I ended up discussing Kare Kano's final stretch so much because that was genuinely revelatory experience this time around. In general it is really bad thing for series to leave story points or character arcs unfinished - unless this is explicitly the point. Which is, ultimately, the point in Kare Kano's final act. It was very interesting experience and showed Anno pulling one over the mangaka in the end regardless. Even if he couldn't do his original ending he presented the manga material in such a way it might as well end there.

Of course those hoping to know what happens with the cast afterwards need to continue reading manga but to be frank anime ending when it did the way it did was (anime original end discounted) the best option because Kare Kano starts to go straight to Twilightesque hell of horrid drama and retardation pretty soon after the point anime ends. I never finished reading the manga but the ending seems to be true clusterfuck to boot. So in this regard too I don't really mind anime leaving things unfinished in many respects.

Giji Shinka wrote:-Deep, great and hardcore anime's. (No mainstream anime's pls. Something that are easily overlooked by the masses)

Boku no Pico and Bible Black fit the bill if you're seriously asking this unironically.

Final Messenger wrote:oh they did welp time to get rid of my commie subs for that

Well, yeah. The scene that explicates the core of Ranka's character/the depth of Frontier's Zero connection was fucked beyond belief with out of nowhere lines about "souls in everything" and non-sequitur dialogue like this:




There are other, more minor faults in Commie's translation that alternate between midly annoying and obstrusive but thankfully complete, meaning-altering fuck ups are limited to dialogue in that scene. Central Anime subs are all around the better option, too bad about shitty yellow text.

caragnafog dog wrote:space operafags: the macross viewing order is

Macross
DYRL
Macross + OVAs
?????
Frontier

Help me out.

The viewing order for Macross is


SDF Macross
SDF Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Macross Flash Back 2012

Macross Plus OVA
Macross Plus Film

Macross 7
Macross 7 encore
Macross 7: Galaxy Is Calling Me!
Macross Dynamite 7

Macross Zero

Macross Frontier
Macross Frontier: Itsuwari no Utahime
Macross Frontier: Nyan Clip Music Collection
Macross Frontier: Sayonara no Tsubasa

Macross FB7: Ore no Uta wo Kike!

SDF Macross is the original television series. DYRL is feature retelling of SDF Macross, in particular story in episodes 1-27. Macross Flash Back 2012 is a "music video collection" that animates the intended final scenes for SDFM but DYRL which were cut for time and budgetary concerns. It isn't essential per se, especially since pretty much all releases of DYRL you can hope to find today has re-edited the 2012 footage into ending credits of film, but it is a nice ride to sunset for the cast and tribute to Minmay. Plus even if half of new footage comes default with all modern releases of DYRL this is the only place to see launch of Megaroad-01. The inbetween material between the two new setpieces consists of music videos edited together from SDFM+DYRL footage in pretty creative ways so actual "storyline" is formed.


Macross Plus OVA and Film are largerly identical. Plus was scripted and budgeted as film in the first place (thus the film version is actually the "original" despite coming out later) but it was released in 4 episode OVA format for promotion purposes first. The OVA runs longer than the film (they had to add scenes etc. for OVA of course) but on the other hand the film has definitive ending scene. Largerly the differences are cosmetic and both are excellent. 'Sides, Plus is kind of anime you appreciate the best on second viewing anyway so watching both is natural way to proceed anyway.

Macross 7 encore and the Galaxy is Calling me "film" take place during the television series episode 38-42 or so so they're not really sequels to series but yet more episodic "side stories". Dynamite 7 is the sequel to Macrosos 7 tv series though its story stand alone.

Zero is standalone OVA and first entry in terms of chronology

Macross Frontier tv series forms one continuity with two-part retelling Utahime/Sayonara forming DYRL mk. II. Utahime sticks pretty close to tv series with hints of greater changes in the setup while Sayonara ends up being almost 100% original story. Nyan Clip is essentially Frontier's answer to Flash Back 2012. It's music video & fake ranka/sheryl interview collection you can check out any time after Utahime but I recommend watching it between Utahime and Sayonara. It's really inessential though, even moreso than Flash Back 2012 so you can consider it skippable omake. Not saying it isn't good (it is) but apart from Diamond Crevasse PV that gets played in Sayonara it has no direct connection to either film or series stories.


Macross FB7 is the recent Frontier-7 crossover if one wants to be generous in description. In practice it's Macross 7 compilation film with Frontier connection as commercial hook and pretty cool ending sequence. Not really essential either but if you've already seen anything else, want more and don't get physically ill by Macross 7 it may be worth a watch.

Coalgirls have their version of the Garden of Words up now, it has the epilogue subbed.

Rewatching Gurren Lagann, because, it's GURREN LAGANN, do I need another reason?

I love this show. It embodies everything that is Gainax. I need to see how I can work Yoko () into The Gainax Conjecture.

Erm, I completely missed your post Xard. Sorry about that and thanks.

Speaking of MAKUROSU: "The song is called 'My Boyfriend is a Pilot.'"

What the fuck? How dense are these two?

Finished Star Driver, pretty good show with cool fights and characters, in particular Kanako and Takuto. 8/10

It's finally hot as hell in New England, and you know what that means.

Time to get an ice cream cone and watch Boku no Pico.

also, finished LOGH:

caragnafog dog wrote: Oberstein

No mention of Our Lord Wakamoto? I'm surprised.

I still think nothing has topped it since.

I thought the voice acting was sterile as a rule, and I heard nothing outstanding in Reuental, though I liked him as a character. The only VA I loved was Ryo Horikawa as Reinhard.

It was an experience and a very interesting story, but I don't think I'd ever want to do it again. However,

Moe SoL spinoff with shota Kircheis and Reinhard when?

Yet another addendum: I thought it bears mentioning how much I'm enjoying Yahari. Very refreshing take on outcasts with someone who fits the role without bearing any delusions or grimdark edginess. He has a code to live by which is realistic and unselfish, and he displays a certain amount of surprising, yet believable intelligence that makes me sympathize with him. 8man for president.

Finished TTGL for the third time. Got to hear one of my favourite lines in any anime, ever.

Nia: "Even when trapped by Karma's cycle..."
Yoko: "The dreams we left behind will open the door..."
Leeron: "Even if the universe stands in our way..."
Viral: "Our seething blood will determine what will be..."
Simon: "We'll break through time and space..."
All in Unison: "And defy all who would stop us, to grab hold of our path!"
Simon: "TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN"
All in Unison: "Just who the hell do you think we are!?"

Commence the lobbing of galaxies.

The story is so deliciously bad and takes itself way too fucking seriously that it makes it so amazingly good. You know shit is about to go down when Sorairo Days starts playing.

Catamari wrote:Finished TTGL for the third time. Got to hear one of my favourite lines in any anime, ever.

Nia: "Even when trapped by Karma's cycle..."
Yoko: "The dreams we left behind will open the door..."
Leeron: "Even if the universe stands in our way..."
Viral: "Our seething blood will determine what will be..."
Simon: "We'll break through time and space..."
All in Unison: "And defy all who would stop us, to grab hold of our path!"
Simon: "TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN"
All in Unison: "Just who the hell do you think we are!?"

Commence the lobbing of galaxies.

The story is so deliciously bad and takes itself way too fucking seriously that it makes it so amazingly good. You know shit is about to go down when Sorairo Days starts playing.

Fuck you m8, now I need to watch this. I never watched it past Kamina's death cause fuck, I couldn't handle that shit. It was just.. man.

That shit was Red Wedding tier of trolling.

AlexanderSoryuu wrote:I never watched it past Kamina's death cause fuck, I couldn't handle that shit.

Nor could Simon; but then he did. And he remembers - visiting Kamina's grave at crucial moments.

Catamari wrote:The story is so deliciously bad and takes itself way too fucking seriously

I'd say the opposite is true. TTGL doesn't take itself too seriously, it knows exactly what it is and that's exactly what it wanted to be. It embraces it and achieves greatness because it doesn't try to be something that it isn't.

It has both; a perfect blend of genuine seriousness (the grave visits illustrate that, and the final post-credits scene) with joyously over-the-top silliness and improbability. Not "deep" like Eva (whatever that really means), but one can only take so much of that!

Mind you, I have doubts about one of the messages of the series, which seems to say "Fuck ecology - we'll be able to sort out the mess somehow", which I really don't think is a good way to go. But a middle line between the anti-spiral's repression and humanity's gung-ho "we'll use all the spiral power we like and deal with any bad consequences later" would be hard to fit into such a show!

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I've now watched 8/12 episodes of Chu-2, and am still enjoying it to an improbable extent. Around ep3 I started seeing Yuuta as Kyon (without the snark) to Rikka's Haruhi, and loving him for it. Rikka is, as intended I suppose, really irritating; but the beginnings of a romantic attachment between her and Yuuta is being very well handled, the slowness and uncertainty adding realism to what could just be something conventional. Is it as good as I think, or am I just inexperienced in judging this particular genre?

Catamari wrote:The story is so deliciously bad and takes itself way too fucking seriously that it makes it so amazingly good.

What the fuck, TTGL had a great plot and moral conflicts

Best part of TTGL is when the mechs are the size of galaxies and you can see them fighting from Earth. Either that or the part where the final transformation is made and the kanji for its name is manifested on the screen like it's some historical movie or something.

AlexanderSoryuu wrote:Fuck you m8, now I need to watch this. I never watched it past Kamina's death cause fuck, I couldn't handle that shit. It was just.. man.

That shit was Red Wedding tier of trolling.

I couldn't stand Kamina, I know his purpose was to make Simon into a man, but the dude was so fucking obnoxious that I didn't really feel for him when he got wasted.