What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2014

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

I liked it and you two obviously didn't. Surely there is a talking point to be had in here somewhere. (Although, let's not have the "shit taste" argument-- such things are subjective, after all.)

[Fireball]

https://forum.evageeks.org/post/694622/ ... 13/#694622

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

Ah, well. To each their own. I thought it was a pretty fun ride, myself-- sure, not the greatest of shows, but a fun ride nonetheless. I kind of felt the same way about Lucy when I went to see it over the summer.

[EvangelionGodMode]

My heart bleeds for you.

That aside, I'm surprised that you didn't like it. Could you go into any more detail?

The pacing in the show was really bad, the other diary users were thrown at you and there character development was rather uncreative in a sense that the director try to make most of the diary users relatable and have messed up past, but they feel rushed and undereveloped and they are mudered before they become any important part of the story. I usually feel for the main protagionist but yuki was like a poor man's Shinji ikari. He bitches a lot and treats yuno like she is a tool the whole time, when all she wants to do is to help him, so i didn't grow to relate to him or like him. Akise is probably the worst character of the whole show, he was such a rip off of kaworu that i couldn't even take him serious.

SPOILER: Show

Yuno on the other hand is abused by her parents and kills them after she is done with there shit. She tries really hard to make yuki like her, and even though he rejects her most of the time, she still keeps coming back bc she believes in him.

As for the ending i thought it was pretty good and i mean just the ending, not all the other stuff happening during the ending not involving yuno and yuki. I know people think yuno is just a typical, cliche, anime, obsessive ,psycho bitch but i think she was the best part of the show. She is a tragic character and i found she was unique and enjoyable to watch, surprisingly for me the romance parts of the show were the best to me.

[robersora]

^
It's just sad, because Mirai Nikki would have had all the pieces for a thrilling, interesting ride. But sadly, they prioritised shock-value over everything else. So they piled one twist on another to a point, where it became so over the top, that the whole story-line didn't make any sense whatsoever. And thus I only watched in horror, how this series crashed even worse than Zankyou no Terror.

But once again, if you're in for some insane stuff, Mirai Nikki won't disappoint.

And yes, Yuno is best girl, sadly she was the only one of the characters whose potential was used even remotely.

[Eleven]

It's just sad, because Mirai Nikki would have had all the pieces for a thrilling, interesting ride. But sadly, they prioritised shock-value over everything else. So they piled one twist on another to a point, where it became so over the top, that the whole story-line didn't make any sense whatsoever.

I agree to that. I picked the show at random, just wanted something labeled as "light horror" or something like that. I had fun watching it, because I started with absolutely no expectations. But now, maybe only 1-2 years later, I almost forgot about the whole thing... Left no impression, but delivered not too deep entertainment.

[Alaska Slim]

Aldnoah Zero: Watched the first three episodes, but I think that's as far as I'll go, since, other than the solid animation and soundtrack, there's not much going for it. Story and characters are as stereotypical as mecha gets, filled with some of the worst cliches of the genre. It's like the bastard child of Code Geass and Gundam SEED. Really disappointing that this was written by Gen Urobuchi, since everything is so boringly black and white, when his works usually gravitate towards moral ambiguity.

The orbital knight who orchestrated the assassination towards the last few episodes is given dimensions, to an extent I'm not enterily sure which are really there or if I'm reading them in.

He says he's out for revenge, that I believe, he exclaims he out to "break the cycle" the two sides are trapped in, that I'm not sure of, and I think he expressed some revulsion at the waste of life, which I'm perplexed by given the people he's killed on his own side as a matter of course.

Either he's a character with cognitive dissonance, or the writers weren't aware of the contradiction. By the end of the 1st cour, I still couldn't decide which this was.

Space Dandy

More or less what I expected from reports. It's zany, it's crass, it's... frankly, not all that funny. It's not stream-of-conscioussness humor to the same extent as BoBobo-Bo Bo-Bobo, yet most of its plots aren't solid nor satirical enough to bring it all together (there are exceptions). Whether I did laugh generally came down to if a given gag was funny on its own merits, which was rare. One I recall is a lady on the dead planet with the cat sticking of her abdomen exclaiming "I am not here yet everywhere!", as I took it as a second schrodinger reference that actually didn't come off as forced.

I liked the appearance of the CB fridge, it was a nice touch, as was the surf sequence at the end of that episode. I liked the episode about the alien kid, and the one about him "dating" scarlet, as cliche as they were, the episode of meow going home was alright.

I didn't like the refrain of endings where Dandy is put into a situation where he's either dead or out of reach. Not sure why, given there isn't much of a climax or point to the story, it just bothers me.

[robersora]

Space Dandy

More or less what I expected from reports. It's zany, it's crass, it's... frankly, not all that funny.

Yeah, Space Dandy is either love or hate, I myself loved it, but I get why people might hate it.
Doesn't change the fact, that everyone ought to watch the masterpiece that is Episode 21. It has almost no Dandyisms in it, so it's safe for everyone.

So, I’ve watched the Lupin - Conan special with some friends. Had a good time, the perfect movie to enjoy with friends :) For everybody who likes both franchises, there is definitely a worse way to spend your time.

Also, 4 Episodes in I'm still in love with G Reco, despite it seems to get some flack.
Psycho Pass 2 on the other hand hasn't fully bought me yet. They really try hard to catch that lightning in the bootle again, but so far, they aren’t quite there yet. Interestingly, the overall animation-quality seems to be not as good as it was in season one. It’s not bad, but somehow it looks a little bit more rushed. But maybe that’s just me. I still enjoy it, but I hope, we’ll reach the quality of S01 once again! Parasite stays awesome. That animation is really something else. I really like the contrast of the grotesque and the mundane, reminds me of the first Episodes of Evangelion...
Can't say the same for Sailor Moon Crystal, though. Slowly my patience ends, the characters seem to have lost all their personality... And there's just no charm to it. Or that's maybe just me being robbed of nostalgia. I'll still be watching it, though... Maybe the second arc will fare better.
Oh, and finally, Mushi-shi is back. And what a glorious return it had! Once again, a great story, great directing, and great animation come together to form one of the most thickest atmospheres I’ve had the pleasure to experience.

[mechashiva]

Ugh, so many. I need to actually finish a series before I start one up but I'm a terrible procrastinator and I have been in a certain mood to watch a certain show so I put it off.

The most recent shows:
-I have a VHS tape I got from Goodwill of the American localization of Space Battleship Yamato called Star Blazers and while I had the house to myself, I watched it while laughing at the hilarious Texan accents they dubbed in. Its only a tape of the first two episodes.

-Turn A Gundam, about episode 24 and Gundam Wing episode 7
-SDF Macross I know I'm in deep because the theme song is stuck in my head XD
-Outlaw Star Just to finish. I started it because I had just finished Trigun and I was jonesing bad for more space western anime. My brother reminded of it because it was on about the same time we were most actively watching Adult Swim's anime block and I honestly didn't remember a lot about it from that time. Its a very poor substitute for Trigun imo but that could just be because I miss Vash.

[Alaska Slim]

Desert Punk

It's a Gonzo ending afterall...

Put this on my backlog expecting a Trigun proxy, and I suppose I got that to a degree, but two things kept the series at arms length.

One was Kanta's actions always fell slightly on the uncomfortable side for me. He's an asshat, perverted, and venal to the max, but I swear sometimes even this is flanderdized just to make a point I didn't feel the series had to make. And I'm not even including the ending when I say that.

The second, and this surprised me, is that this show is more kill shy than Trigun is, the latter having the very bleeding heart protagonist that Kanta would (try to) beat the sh*t out of.

In Desert Punk you rarely ever see a solid hit on another person. Even while under fire, and scrambling for a bead on their opponent, characters manage to consistently shoot the gun away from the other person, or, if the target is wearing a helmet, hit them there non-lethally. And we're not talking about a highly practiced, superhuman centenarian with a highly-tuned revolver. We see the 17-year old punk do this with a shotgun, along with his 14 year old apprentice with a submachinegun.

This isn't Gonzo's doing, I pulled up the Manga and it's the same way. The writer just decided he wanted the trappings and atmosphere of a post-apocalyptic setting, without all the true grit. Catering to a certain age group I guess?

The show has fun things about it. Kanta's tactics with the balloons and rocket winch, the cursed rock episode, the defied expectations when certain innocent-looking characters are more than they appear, etc. But it's drowned out by the unpleasantness, the series' unwillingness to commit to a tone, and of course, the ending which is just mean-spirited and leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

[caragnafog dog]

I really like what they're doing with mushi-shi. Ginko is slowly coming together as a person, which has been a long time in the making and makes his actions more interesting. Seems they're using the soundtrack less this season too.

[Monk Ed]

Ginko, a person? Now that is interesting. I enjoyed the first season (and have seen nothing else) but Ginko in that was more figure than character.

[Justacrazyguy]

Is anybody watching Selector Spread WIXOSS? I ask because it looks like they are making a battles=sex thing right now. Am I just seeing things?

SPOILER: Show

I mean, lines like:

"Doing it with me, and yet thinking of someone else... What a turn off..."

It has to be there, right? Was it there since the first season and I just didn´t notice?

Anyway... watching a ton of anime this season and it seems to have a lot more quality shows than last Summer did, but many of them can still become terrible so I shouldn´t get my hopes up too much.

[caragnafog dog]

Ginko, a person? Now that is interesting. I enjoyed the first season (and have seen nothing else) but Ginko in that was more figure than character.

Yeah. He acts kind of similarly to Kino in Kino no Tabi; they're like a lense through which the audience views the world of their respective shows. I think Kino is a better character though. While Ginko was pretty explicit about the philosophy of mushi-shi (learning to accept and respect the nature of something that operates with a totally foreign MO, rather than exploiting, killing, assimilating, rejecting it etc.), Kino is more like a bunch of moral questions and thought experiments focused around the same character, one who decides not to interfere based largely out of pragmatism rather than the kind of moral abstinence Ginko practices.

Getting more background on his childhood helps at least to understand how he came to that conclusion, that's why I liked this recent episode so much.

[Dr. Nick]

The Tale of Princess Kaguya: a fantastic fairy tale and probably the scariest alien abduction movie ever. It got a brief theatrical run here, and it was pretty cool to see Takahata traumatizing the snot out of some children.

The Pilot's Love Song: a 13-episode show set in the same LN-derived universe as The Princess and the Pilot, that incredibly frustrating pile of romance wank. The movie characters are referenced adoringly, but they never make an appearance in person. But hey, at least we finally get an explanation for that baffling mid-ocean waterfall: the franchise is a cheap Last Exile clone that takes place in a cocktail fountain. This time we have some vague Spanish flavor thrown in so that the particular setting of Isla also looks and feels a little like a cheap copy of So Ra No Wo To's Moenca.

Thematically, we're closer to Gundam Wing here, as in both are series whose politics are going to make your head hurt. The writing doesn't seem to be particularly aware of it, but we're clearly following a villain group, and towards the end of the show our protagonist Kal becomes a legit villain protagonist. Sure, it's sad that his royal parents were offed after a popular revolt, but as Axis's backstory shows, the king at least was a massive dipshit who probably deserved the guillotine. The Wind Revolution seems to have been a fairly clean revolt with no implied civilian bloodshed, and it turned the nation into a stable repuclic, so it's hard to think of the rebels as the bad guys. They're so humane that instead of purging their aggressively militaristic monarchists, they just expel them on a fancy floating island, giving them a gentle kick towards the presumed edge of the earth. When the Sky Clan appears, the dickery of Isla's exile faction becomes pretty obvious, even though the clanners are given about as much personality as the commies in Top Gun. The Islans are flat-out genocidal, and they never even consider diplomacy. They plow forward into the Clan's homeland, gunning down everything that stands in their way, and the clanners have fight them to a bloody draw before a diplomatic solution is reached (and it's the clanners who first extend the offer).

I will admit that the main romance (a triangle of sorts) is quite passable, even if melodramatically coincidence-driven, but the way it culminates and intertwines itself with the villainy aspect is questionable to say the least. Unlike the dweeb protag of TPatP, Kal unequivocally chooses the girl, and that's certainly a welcome change of pace. However, the way he chooses the girl involves starting a world war against the Sky Clan, with his militaristic groupies hoping this would give them the needed momentum to stage a counter-revolution in their home country. The show ends with a gigantic war breaking out and Kal leading the invasion and killing faceless mooks left and right, and this is treated as the crowning moment of heartwarming awesome, with the cheery opening song playing in the background. Say what you will about Gundam Wing, but at least it ended with peace achieved.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

The Tale of Princess Kaguya: a fantastic fairy tale and probably the scariest alien abduction movie ever. It got a brief theatrical run here, and it was pretty cool to see Takahata traumatizing the snot out of some children.

It's nice to hear more good things; makes me excited for when I can finally acquire it in some format.

[robersora]

This series is quite something; such a complex Monster, my words can't do justice. But I'll try. It grabs you with its claws and refuses to let you go until the very end. Doing that for 74 Episodes is nothing less than superb storytelling, backed up by awesome directing. One of it’s greatest assets is the twists and turns Monster takes, right when you get comfortable with the current arc, it throws another game changer in. But it does so while never going for pure shock value. Every new focal point slowly sheds more and more light to the backstory while slowly resolving the mystery and additionally deliberately delivering very effective emotional punches. A pleasant side effect of all those game changers is, that Monster always stays compelling and never gets stale.
I love how this series can hold together such a huge amount of characters and tell big stories as well as small ones. And the cool thing is, it all comes together in the end. There was no wasted or filler Episode. Some broke my ♥, some had me laugh, and others thrilled me so hard, I almost pissed my pants.
This series is very complex and intricate, while at the same time being very entertaining. And for me personally, that is more than enough, to let this this series sit on my personal Anime-Olymp quite comfortably.

I’ve watched this show mostly dubbed. While Tenma’s constant glooming grouching got on my nerves after a while, Johan’s English voice actor did so much for me than his Japanese counterpart. I liked Lunge’s English VA better too. All the others where all right. Overall, a good dub. You can now crucify me, but Johan’s chilling English VA kept me coming back for the English dub.
The music did go overboard sometimes, less might have been more, but overall a great, moody score for this series. The animation was overall great, with sequences and Episodes here and there which were almost movie-material in terms of quality (the shot were Anna is pointing the gun towards Johan, all of Episode 71). Scene composition and framing was sleek too, nothing to complain there. Madhouse did good.The overall look was perfect and it’s awesome, that they opted for this realistic style, even if I personally love a more blingy-blingy design, like Diebuster.


This series lives through its characters. And damn, it’s brimming with fascinating characters. Tenma, Nina, Lunge, Grimmer, Eva and of course Johan, to name just my favourites.

Johan
Johan.
Johan.
Johan is a Kaworu inverted. Both emit an alien detached nature, while being wildly different in their core. (Which is, of course due to their wildly different background). While Kaworu goes into ambiguous good territory, Johan goes into ambiguous bad.
Needless to say, I loved Johan. I loved every second, he was on screen. Such an intelligent, sleek, sexy motherfucker. He sits up there with Kaworu; both combined would make my ideal husbando.

SPOILER: Show

Many people suggested, that in the end, he died. Interesting, to me that never occurred. Something confuses me though... Why was Johan so eager to chase Bonaparte down while completely ditching his mother? I thought, he aimed for the perfect suicide, which is why he wanted everyone to be dead, who knew of him. Except for Tenma, Anna and Wolf, who he wanted to make them feel what he had felt, in a twisted way to connect to those people. So in which category does his mother fall? My guess is, after the Finale, he is out to find and kill his mother.

Nina

SPOILER: Show

Nina was ultimately the stronger version of Johan. She also endured much fucked up stuff, be she always chose to go down the right path despite all the odds.

Tenma
Don’t look into the abyss for too long.

SPOILER: Show

His decision to choose to operate on the boy instead of the wealthy guy and the subsequent fallout of his decision is the most interesting and excruciating conundrum I’ve come along in Anime.
Still, I never really got why he had the feeling he had to shoulder all the responsibility alone. I mean, yeah, he was the man who saved Johan's life, but it wasn’t his fault, that Johan was a twisted person. Tenma did the right thing. As the series progresses, Tenma was so caught up in that fucked up story, that there was no turning back, but in the beginning he should just have gone to the authorities, IMHO. But then again, that plays into the whole overarching theme of guilt, mistakes and rising above it. Because in the end, he didn’t kill anybody, despite Johan’s efforts to lure him into this abyss. And that's what saved him in the end.

Eva

SPOILER: Show

She had it all, fell very deep, but managed to crawl out of her mess. But she kind of needed the reality check she inflicted upon herself. She exited her trauma as a better version of herself. And all that never felt corny or forced. Again a very well written character. I’m glad the creators let her stand alone and didn’t force a reunion with Tenma. And at the end, her arc is very well in tune with the overall theme of the series.

Grimmer

SPOILER: Show

At first, I didn’t like him, because after the phenomenal conclusion of the Düsseldorf arc, he symbolised another big curve ball in the series. But I warmed up to him very fast and now I think of him very fondly. He endured some of this series' most intense scenes (outside Johan’s), and you could see through his attitude, that he was cast in the same mould as Johan was. The secret of his very controlled, forced smiling shed a lot of light to Johan’s backstory as well. And through Grimmer one could see, who Johan could have been if he was a stronger person and/or had more emotional support.

Lunge

SPOILER: Show

What an awesome detective. His arc also was deeply rooted in rising above his past mistakes. And like Eva and Tenma we could watch him find enlightenment through the course of the series.
I also like that the false reality he constructed for himself in the first 50 Episodes (or so), which was inherently wrong, but still very clever and not too far-fetched. So his character had a chance to rise above his mistakes too, without having him portrayed as dumb.

Here's what I take from this series: There is no such thing as a Monster, only human beings who may or may not rise above their fucked up experiences. All of the cast were victims to circumstances and struggled to look their inner monster in the eye. Some managed, others don't. And people can decide by themselves if they try to break the monstrous cycle or let the monstrous cycle go on.

Verdict: I’m feeling the void/10
Also, I want that damned picture book.

[caragnafog dog]

It wasn't exactly original but the new mushishi had some pretty horrifying time hijinks. Ending was less conclusive than usual.

Actually nevermind, it's not inconclusive at all. That makes it much worse though.

UBW 03 incredible as always. I didn't expect animated berserker fight to be that good, and those archer projectiles were amazing.

[Justacrazyguy]

Actually nevermind, it's not inconclusive at all. That makes it much worse though.

I know, right. I had shivers going trough my spine most of the time. Might be my favorite Mushishi episode so far.

[caragnafog dog]

I know, right. I had shivers going trough my spine most of the time. Might be my favorite Mushishi episode so far.

It was pretty unique as far as the series goes. They usually put the problem to rest or set the audience at ease in some way when the end of the episode comes, but there was no such resolution this time. I don't think I've ever been unsettled after a mushishi episode like I was here.