Haganai episodes 10 and 11 were memorable for two distinct reasons. Episode 10 which was the beach fan service episode gave me a whole new fetish I never dreamed of in terms of Yozora using her foot to lotion Sena's bare back! As for episode 11, the final moment of the official reunion of Kodaka and Yozora with her hair cut almost made me cry.

Dr. Nick wrote:You can tell it's a fantasy series when Republicans and Democrats are getting along this well.

How did you come across Zakuro, Nick? Did you accidently click that die/dice button next to queue?

pwhodges wrote:Amazon UK simply hasn't caught up with either the pricing or the contents description

Be careful pwhodges. If I had a penny for every description error I saw on Amazon- I’d be living in a mansion right now.

Gus Hanson wrote:Haganai 11. The final moment of the official reunion of Kodaka and Yozora…

That’s probably the high point of both seasons. It’s all down-hill from here.

@topic- Quite a few things on the go for me at the moment:

Macross Delta. Into the second cour. I’m still not feeling the love “triangle”, it’s all Frejya x Hayate. I’m amazed Mikumo isn’t dead yet, everything about her screams walking corpse.

(The original) Macross. Plenty of choppy animation charm.
It’s funny how devasting some of the battles can be for the Macross with lost ships and dead personnel, yet everything continues to run smoothly.
Ep 4 was particularly interesting, I wasn’t expecting a survival-drama like that. A lot about this show has surprised me actually, 17 eps in and I’m really not sure how things will develop or end, which is impressive for such an old show.
Minmay ain’t interested, Ichijo. Leave it.

Rin-ne / Kyokai no Rinne has been pleasant, casual viewing. The animation budget is clearly limited, but the characters and their interactions make up for it.
Mamiya Sakura is a funny one. She doesn’t act the way a regular, modern cartoon character is expected; her reactions are very, very subdued, she rarely wears any other expression besides her blank stare. Fans of ~G~ should check out episode 12:


Sabato is quite the bastard. I find myself cycling between “love-to-hate” and “X-Pac heat” levels of hatred towards him. His antics can drag on a bit, but when focus shifts back to the love polygon- you quickly forget about it.

Monster. Up to ep 22 now and still sticking with it… another 50 eps to go? Lordy. Things have been feeling very episodic the last few episodes…
Episode 6 was where I lost interest on my first watch, which is just typical- because I’ll say that episode 7 is the real turning point of the show. It’s the moment Tenma decides the policemen aren’t trustworthy. That’s when the story begins proper.
Anyway, good stuff, but damn- it is quite the investment of your time.

Orange. I’m no longer watching this during exercises. This deserves special, “sit-down and watch” attention.

Rewrite. Bonkers, this show. I can only watch this whilst exercising and not give it my full attention. Too much same-face.

chazthesilencer wrote:Rin-ne / Kyokai no Rinne has been pleasant, casual viewing. The animation budget is clearly limited, but the characters and their interactions make up for it.

I considered trying Rin-ne, but then I figured that having sat through the entirety of Ranma 1/2 was enough Rumiko Takahashi-related suffering for one lifetime.

Orange. I’m no longer watching this during exercises. This deserves special, “sit-down and watch” attention.

Orange took a couple episodes to grow on me because Naho's indecision was so painful at first, but it's been a really wonderful show. (And thank goodness for Suwa.)

Rewrite. Bonkers, this show. I can only watch this whilst exercising and not give it my full attention. Too much same-face.

I had heard so much hype for this, and was so disappointed and bewildered by the first episode, that I checked out the original VN on a whim and actually really loved it. It's still an imperfect work, in part due to Romeo Tanaka being forced to work within Key's standard structure for it, and in part due to the presence of two other writers who left a couple of plotholes between them, but its high points are just exceptional and it takes some really unexpected and interesting directions, occasionally even reminding me of later parts of Eva.

The first half of the anime has mostly just been "here are some bare-minimum absolutely-required VN scenes, on fast forward and in shuffled order, plus some other crap", with a couple of out-of-context pieces tossed in from later routes (like Lucia's and Shizuru's backstories, and Kotarou's flashbacks), and a couple of new scenes that may or may not actually add up to anything. The second half of the anime is planned to go in an original direction, which might be interesting, but I'm not expecting this adaptation to magically become much less trainwrecky eight episodes in. And the kawaii moeification of the ghost girl is just why. The anime's heavy focus on fanservice has also been a pain -- while there are still a couple of out-of-place dumbass moments like that in the original VN, they're extremely few and far between compared to the anime's cringeworthy "has it already been 5 minutes without something about boobs? picture of boobs? mention of boobs? where are the boobs??"

It's also just a very difficult work to adapt, for a lot of reasons. 8bit has just been doing a miserable job of it overall, and I can only imagine what a weird watch it would be if you don't already know the story and characters. Alas. A multiple-cour adaptation from a studio like Shaft could have ruled. Maybe this'll get a remake in a few years.

What really impresses me about Orange is that it handles such a heavy issue in such a realistic way. I've never found myself rolling my eyes or just waiting for the crying to stop. Usually one of my bigger pet peeves in anime is the overabunance of crying(what did Nagi no Asukara have about two per episode?), but in this show when the characters are crying they really should be crying. I find all of the characters to be quite real, and there's nothing like a good character driven anime. I was even able to remember most of their names after the first couple eps, which usally doesn't happen to me with anime(or in real life, ha).

And I always love a good time travel story, so there's that too.

Got my new copy of Highlander The Search for Vengeance in the mail yesterday after my old one was damaged and gave it a proper viewing which hasn't happened in years since I believe the main reason my old copy got glitches was because I was mainly preoccupied with the sex scene.

Giving the story more focus I think worked better this time around since the combat is stunning to look at, the English dub did a great job with each of the characters; except for the kid character; and since it's a Kawajiri/Madhouse product, the character designs have that traditional Madhouse look to them which is exactly what I look for.

Highschool of the Dead episode 3: Takagi's emotional front isn't making me find her any more endearing and to top it off, the introduction of the scummy, sadistic teacher with the Illich Guardiola voice to complement that side well is going to make this a "delightful" ride to sit through.

Macross Delta episode 17: Walkure fanservice as well as major Immelmann family revelations make this a great reason to keep hard at it with the remaining episodes.

Gus Hanson wrote:Highschool of the Dead episode 3: Takagi's emotional front isn't making me find her any more endearing and to top it off, the introduction of the scummy, sadistic teacher with the Illich Guardiola voice to complement that side well is going to make this a "delightful" ride to sit through.

Gore and fap material should never mix. the only reason this show is even worth watching is because only zombie apocalypse anime out there.

Ray wrote:Gore and fap material should never mix.

Nah, I loved the show. Friend a' mine who introduced me to it even has a Saeko pillow, and I love the sight of it when he comes over.

Monk Ed wrote:even has a Saeko pillow, and I love the sight of it when he comes over.

PHRASING.

I'm watching Dragon Ball Super

Ray wrote:PHRASING.

<applauds>

Finished Macross. Ended on a bit of a whimper, and I was getting sick of hearing “My Boyfriend is a Pilot”, but the show has aged very well.
That whimper of an ending was remedied rather nicely by Do You Remember Love? however. Everything was harder, better, faster and stronger; exactly how a “-the movie” ought to be. Not sure if I’d recommend watching this before the series, but well worth seeing.

Started New Game!. Looks like a poor man’s Shirobako, but it involves the games industry so who knows- I might get a chuckle out of it.
The first episode did hold some truth: developers will often communicate via instant messaging to people literally sitting right beside them; we do it because instant messaging is saved and we can keep track of useful information like engine tweaks and bug details; we don’t do it because we’re all cute women who look and act like cute, shy girls however.

Episode two got my first big laugh:

Good luck finding a superior who says this, especially in Japan.

Rewatching Outlaw Star. Crash still gives me goose bumps.
I wonder how different the characters would be if this show was made today; Melfina’s updated character design would probably look one-third of her age; Suzuka would regularly beat Gene with her wooden sword, to his masochistic pleasure; Aisha would likely look the same, except show a lot more skin and utter “nya” far more frequently…

Outlaw Star aired with Cowboy Bebop one after the other on CNX. That sentence was just an excuse to share this video, because I like it: So This is Basically Cowboy Bebop

So I was watching Love Live Sunshine (shut up I know I have low standards) and this happened:

Love Live Sunshine has been so ridiculously good I can't even believe it. The original was great fun too, but they've been nailing absolutely every aspect, including the stuff that the original series struggled with, like the serious drama elements. So much to love about this show.

edit:

esselfortium wrote:The second half of the [Rewrite] anime is planned to go in an original direction, which might be interesting, but I'm not expecting this adaptation to magically become much less trainwrecky eight episodes in.

Update: This did not happen. RIP Rewrite.

edit 2:

Rosenakahara wrote:So I was watching Love Live Sunshine (shut up I know I have low standards)

If you have low standards, watching Love Live Sunshine is definitely not indicative of them! It's one of the best things airing this season.

esselfortium wrote:Love Live Sunshine has been so ridiculously good I can't even believe it. The original was great fun too, but they've been nailing absolutely every aspect, including the stuff that the original series struggled with, like the serious drama elements. So much to love about this show.

Yea, it's been a great watch, especially since the episode in which the country bumpkins hit up Tokyo. I'm not much into the music, but that song and performance by that two piece group, Saint Snow, was pretty cool(I honestly wouldn't mind if they win the love live, haha). I like that not everything is working out perfectly for Aqours like it did for good old Muse, and I think I like the overall cast more this time around, though Niko still remains my favorite character of either series.

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Only other show I'm watching this season, Orange, just wrapped up a nice three episode sport day arc;

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Some others I've watched in the last couple weeks;
Eden of the East -- Loved the animation style and the outfits worn by the characters. Liked Takizawa and Saki well enough, but couldn't really get behind any of the other characters. The concept with the selecao system and all that was cool, but by the end of the first movie I was a bit bored with it all/didn't know what the hell was going on. Decent watch.

Your Lie in April Really beautiful animation in this one, and a nice overall story. I really couldn't get behind any of the characters though, so I was never too invested in the series. There was just something about them I didn't dig, I don't know. I didn't really care too much for the letter from Kaori being this big revelatory thing either, but that's mostly because I don't like big revelatory things coming at the end of works. Still an enjoyable watch though, and totally worth the time. Reminded me of Ping Pong, though not as up my alley.

Bokurano or, "Plot Twist: the Animation." Haha, just kidding. Luckily I was able to avoid spoilers on this one, so this one totally blew my mind. Reminded me of one of my favorite books, Battle Royale. Really loved the concept and the sheer craziness of the game, and the set up of the chairs in the cockpit was one of the cooler things I've seen in anime. The whole government and corporation side story wasn't really my thing, but the character centric moments were all pretty much enjoyable and interesting for me. I liked that it had an actual ending too, which I didn't really expect, what with all the twists. A very awesome take on the mech genre.

From what I understand the manga is pretty different, so I'm excited to check that out as well, which usually doesn't happen with me and annimay.

Well, I still follow the anime Dragon Ball Super

Episode 4 of Prison School. I will go ahead and say it: cross dressing Kiyoshi looks SO DAMN SEXY!!!

Dragon ball super

Re: Zero.. Just finish "Hundred"..

I'm watching Dragon Ball Super, in episode 58, I think Black is a copy of Goku Goku created by the Super Dragon Balls.

norival1992 wrote:Well, I still follow the anime Dragon Ball Super

norival1992 wrote:Dragon ball super

norival1992 wrote:I'm watching Dragon Ball Super, in episode 58, I think Black is a copy of Goku Goku created by the Super Dragon Balls.

I think we get the idea that you like the series. No need to over-do it.