What anime are you watching right now? Feb-Dec 2010

[AchtungAffen]

There's a big big flaw in both Tokikake and Summer Wars: the voice actress chosen for the "heorine". In both movies they chose an inexperienced actress (as in never did any animu role ever), but probably chose them because of their "idol" status. Both actress do a mediocre to bad job, specially Sakuraba Nanami who has big tone "flukes" throughout the movie, but specially during those "koi koi" times.

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

I basically said "screw it" and decided to watch the last four episodes of Shin Mazinger Z since I couldn't find the second half of ep 22.







WHOO! WHAT AN EPIC FINALE! It had so many twists and turns, it used so much of it's fantastical music score, it managed to keep very well done pacing and had so much freaking action, it paid homages to older Go Nagai series, and the final twist where it turns out that Baron Ashura's death would signal the coming of the Mikene Empire (which Dr. Hell was trying to fight with his gigantic army and why he tried to steal Photon Energy), ALL OF IT WAS EPIC! I love this series more than Escaflowne, I love this series more than Victory Gundam, I love this series more than Neon Genesis Evangelion, I love this series more than Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, I love this series more than Gravion Zwei, I love this series more than Gundam SEED Destiny, I even love this series more than Genesis of Aquarion! In other words:

BEST ANIME EVER MADE!

Yes, the cliffhanger ending was a bit of a let down, but we're getting Mazinkaiser SKL! So for now I won't see it as a bad thing. Perfect score, if you have ANY interest in Go Nagai, mecha, fighting, suspense, plot twist, thrills, Sci-Fi, or if you're looking for something entertaining DO NOT PASS THIS UP! THIS IS LITERALLY AS CLOSE TO PERFECT AS I HAVE SEEN IN *ANY* ANIME GET.

[alabaster]

Monster the sub version........episode 18 is just starting.

[Natsuka_Chie]

Started the second season of Darker than Black. Very good, in my opinion.

[Eva 02]

About half-way through Deathnote. I'm on episode 4 of K-ON!! and I'm a little surprised - it was listed as top 3 funniest animes of all time in most of the lists I visited - its silly as hell. I'm having trouble getting into the rythm. I do chuckle from time to time, and they make references to Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and the old Yardbirds via Jeff Beck. All pretty popular in Japan I'm suprised Pantera hasn't been mentioned yet as some of their biggest shows are from Japan. I get the school-girl humor as the basis of my indifference, but does it get better as episodes pass? Is season 2 any good?

On my waiting list:

Dead Leaves (an old favorite I saw in an indy theatre in LA a few years back)
Perfect Blue (trying to make my gf watch it. She loves eva by not bebop as much, so I figure she likes the psychological thrillers)
Barefoot Gen (alright, guilty. I just finished it a few weeks ago, but I want my gf to watch it as well. Grave of the Fireflies really put the american bombings into perspective for her, and BG is wayyyy sadder and GotF IMO)

[Natsuka_Chie]

I like the second season of K-ON more than the first. At least I think it's funnier and has more character development.

[EvangelionFan]

I'm currently watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya in broadcast order. Goddamn the songs are catchy.

[Merridian]

Finished both Railgun and Index while I was gone. I liked Railgun more, I must admit, however Index had some great writing and awesome action as well. The monologues sometimes were blown out of proportion, but I liked Touma enough to disregard how over the top it was. Both shows are well-balanced solid programs, faulty only in the sense that they continue to play off of the anime standard of school girls doing impossible shit. If you don’t mind that trope, then I highly recommend both of these.

Also watched some inconsequential OVAs, but of the group, Alien 9 (finally got around to it) was excellent mindfuckery in awesome Anno-esque style. Little girls capturing aliens around a school somehow turns into an intricate web of psychological complexes and intensely terrifying encounters with despair, loneliness, and abuse. The directing owes a LOT to Anno and NGE in particular, with the depictions of the more psychotic aspects made all the more harrowing by a perfect sense of editing rhythm and a combination of sparsely minimal and outrageously busy shot compositions. Great OVA. Weird OVA. Highly recommended to anyone looking for something insane.

And lastly, started Masaaki Yuasa’s Kaiba today. Two episodes in and it is even better than I expected.

[cyharding]

I'm in the middle fo Soku no Strain at the moment. I really like the mecha designs. They're really unique compared to other mecha anime that I have seen, at least to my eyes. The only downside for me is that the fanservice they have in some episodes is a bit excessive for my tastes. But despite that, I am enjoying it so far.

[drinian]

Angel Beats!

Finally finished the series. Absolutely needed 26 episodes to be properly executed, but it still got me. It was good to see Jun Maeda branch out from some of his previous works, and write a story less obviously modeled on the structure of a dating-sim scenario. I'm looking forward to a longer remake in five years or so...

[Mr. Tines]

I'm in the middle of Soku no Strain

Did you realise that this is the anime version of "The Little Princess" -- albeit with added mecha and "this episode, everybody dies!" (except for Dead-tan herself)?

[Radi]

I finished NGE & EoE.
I was scared out of my mind yesterday night.
The end.


I posted more in Eva chit-chat under 'What would you do about this?'

Anyway...I picked up Aeon Flux, Tekkonkinkreet, and Appleseed (Collector's edition) for $26.00 all together today!

I don't know when I'll get around to Aeon Flux though...It's short, but I really want to watch Darker Than Black.

[Eva 02]

^ Told you.

Congrats on finishing the greatest thing ever. (If you didn't watch the subtitled version, you didn't really see it, though. Its only truly Eva and truly effective in its original, intended form. Americas fuxxed it all up.)

[InstrumentalityOne]

Recently watched/watching ongoing anime and a little review:

Angel Beats!

Felt too rushed, I still don´t know what on earth Kanade is supposed to be.

Toradora!

AWESOME.
I´s like Neon Genesis Evangelion without robots.
RECOMMENDABLE

Rozen Maiden

Eh.

K-On!!

I´m glad that it´s coming to an end.
I´m not saying that it´s bad, but it´s pretty repetitive.

High School Of The Dead

Tits. Zombies. Gore. Tits.
Not bad.
Saw the manga adaption in a store today, sh- was so cash.

Amagami SS

Watched till episode 4.
Dropped for now.


Mitsudomoe

Funny, repeating jokes.
Still hilarious.

Gundam 00

First and last Gundam.
Dropped.

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

Gundam 00

First and last Gundam.
Dropped.

How far into that series did you get?

[Radi]

^ Told you.

Congrats on finishing the greatest thing ever. (If you didn't watch the subtitled version, you didn't really see it, though. Its only truly Eva and truly effective in its original, intended form. Americas fuxxed it all up.)

Haha. I watched it subbed. I accidently started like 20 seconds of a dubbed episode and almost cried because of the english actors.

Anyway, yeah, subbed it was.

Good stuff...I want to rewatch EoE tonight, and figure some things out though.

[NatTheWriter]

Finished both seasons of Gundam 00. Way too much wasted potential, too little characterization, and too many one-sided battles. x_x I've moved on to Gundam SEED. The first episode didn't come across as anything amazing, but it interested me far more than the bulk of 00.

The only concrete qualm I have this early on is that the character artwork is really sloppy. At least 00 had clean character designs going for it. :/ Along with Lockon Stratos, Team Patrick, and Soma Peries.

SPOILER: Show

Then Soma Peries went -POOF- and reverted to the significantly less interesting Marie Parfacy. Darned split personalities.

First and last Gundam.

Not all the Gundam series are the same, though there's a Char Clone in every last one of them. You don't need to, but you might want to take a look at a few of the other installments. ^^ Try the UC timeline, maybe? I've heard that one's pretty good, though the animation/artwork in the original Mobile Suit Gundam is...not so great. Actually really awful at times.

[cyharding]

Did you realise that this is the anime version of "The Little Princess" -- albeit with added mecha and "this episode, everybody dies!" (except for Dead-tan herself)?

I remember reading somewhere that the show took concepts from a children's book, but I couldn't recall what the book's title was. I have now read the wikipedia article on it, so I see what they took from the novel.

[Merridian]

though the animation/artwork in the original Mobile Suit Gundam is...not so great. Actually really awful at times.

( It was 1978; Tomino was still heavily playing around with super robot formulas. I didn't mind the artwork, but I guess it hasn't exactly aged well, either.

[Joseph the PRPD]

Going to watch School Rumble again through FUNi's YT channel.