What anime are you watching right now? Nov 2013

[ChaddyManPrime]

^
This guy seems a lot like Gendo too http://evaxephon.com/ComparisonGallery/gallery8.html, role wise that is.

[Monk Ed]

I prefer going into series as blind as I can once I'm interested in them. Of course I couldn't resist at least peeking but as soon as I saw that Dolem I was like NOPE I've seen enough, I want to be wowed, even if it's just by the similarities.

[ChaddyManPrime]

Fair enough Good Sir, I hope you enjoy it

You could just look at the pages after you watch the series to see something you may have missed.

[Mr. Tines]

(I'm watching NOTHING from season as is)

That'd be because you're leaving Mushishi as a banker for later, I trust.

I also feel one of the standalone episodes halfway through goes a bit too far into laughably absurd territory even by standards of this future society (you should be able to recognize this episode when you see it) though it was pretty darn hilarious, I must admit.

The illegal-of-the-week stretch did push the limits of the concept in all sorts of directions -- it's not like the fish were exactly subtle, either.

I figured I'd especially recommend this title to someone like Mr. Tines here but not too surprisingly he has already seen it going by MAL...

As it came out. What surprises me is people who were into anime back in '07 who didn't watch it back then (but were just watching TTGL and Lucky Star).

Yeah, the Misato and Shinji expies are the most apparent expies (they even have pretty much the same roles in RahXephon as their Eva counterparts). There's also a female character who has pretty much the same role as Gendo (but thankfully doesn't look like Gendo).

As I remember it, there were an average of 2 Rah expy characters to each NGE one, somewhat like what Star Trek NG did to the original.

[Monk Ed]

illegal-of-the-week

Illegal what? Surely not "illegal immigrant of the week".

[Mr. Tines]

Illegal what? Surely not "illegal immigrant of the week".

Illegal program of the week.

[Squigsquasher]

There's also a female character who has pretty much the same role as Gendo (but thankfully doesn't look like Gendo).

"It's...Not Gendo!"

*Gendo theme plays in reverse*

*explanation of Konata's creepy otou-san*

That makes more sense. From what I'm aware he's just attracted to shorter, flatter-chested but completely legal women as opposed to actually being attracted to children. Which is just as well, because quite frankly pedophilia isn't funny.

...

Well, unless it's Kimura-sensei. He likes high-school girls goddamnit!

[Bagheera]

^
This guy seems a lot like Gendo too http://evaxephon.com/ComparisonGallery/gallery8.html, role wise that is.

Those pages are trying way too hard. I made it through the first few and was like "this just just dumb, man."

Also, re: the expies: you guys did watch the end, right? Just sayin'.

[Redtophat]

What the fuck, people here are liking Mekaku?

This has been so far the most reviled and widely shat on Shaft productions in ages. Japan downright hates it while /a/ threads are 90% bashing too.

/a/ and Japan's tastes are invalid and shouldn't be considered for anything ever.

[Squigsquasher]

/a/ and Japan's tastes are invalid and shouldn't be considered for anything ever.

and Japan's tastes

Uhh, I'm pretty sure if anyone is an authority on what is good anime, it's the Japanese, considering they invented it...

[Redtophat]

Uhh, I'm pretty sure if anyone is an authority on what is good anime, it's the Japanese, considering they invented it...

Cause Love Live S2 and Mahouka are such great titles.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

Saying that an entire nation's taste is invalid isn't in very good taste, methinks.

[Redtophat]

Saying that an entire nation's taste is invalid isn't in very good taste, methinks.

cool

[Squigsquasher]

I thought Love Live was considered to be a decent show (horrendous CG aside)? Or is it just S2 that's terrible?

[robersora]

What the fuck, people here are liking Mekaku?

This has been so far the most reviled and widely shat on Shaft productions in ages. Japan downright hates it while /a/ threads are 90% bashing too.

It's a television series. If they don't like it, they should stop watching it. I don't take people seriously who are stuck with lives so empty they have time to obsess over a cartoon so hard that they get seriously worked up about it's shortcomings.

But yes, Mekaku is deeply flawed in terms of... well, everything. Also it's a pretentious Monogatari-copycat and tries way to hard to be cool. Yet it remains pleasant, quirky entertainment albeit all it's SHAFTISMS.
And yes, me being a superficial bitch, I'm also on the pleb train of Mekaku♥.

in defense of Kanno // robersora doesn't know anything about music

Being a musician I am well aware of how shit gets down when someone's creative. Maybe I was particularly butthurt because I used to deify Kanno as a kid. But you're right. It's time to let go, she's a human after all. Shame on me.

Anyway, the important part in your reply is revealing pig disgusting plebness over Macross stuff. How mortifying. If this was 2011 and this was 4chan I would be going all greentext tfw he doesn't know Plus is the most influential and important anime soundtrack of last 20+ years and Frontier is Kanno's de facto most popular and celebrated work but it's 2014, this is EGF and I'm too bored to write that. Oh wait.

Ok, the nature of this paragraph tells me, that I shouldn't take it too seriously, because you're obviously in love with the franchise. Which is ok, but I'd still like to sprout my opinion.

Yeah, never really got into Macross Frontier (dropped 17 Episodes in).
Somehow the story and it's characters increasingly annoyed me, and although I was fairly entertained by it in the beginning (I love the world-building they did!), I always had a hard time to adjust to the music. To me the music presented there is, as I said not my cup of tea, but I never said it was bad, or nobody should listen to it. I just never got, why people like this streamlined, ignoring-the-last-30-years-of-pop-history-pop without any edge or catchy melodies, when at the same time you can have the gorgeous Perfume. I love Perfume, that's pop done right in my opinion. Catchy, over the top, right on the spot with a fresh feeling. But as I said, not my cup of tea, but you're still free to love it, of course.
I have never seen Plus, nor was aware of Kanno's involvement with it.
Somehow Macross does not work for me, lol. But I try getting into Do You Remember Love at least.

Dennou Coil is one of the greatest under-appreciated Anime out there. I also thought of it the positive-upbeat twin brother of Lain for some reason, lol. I need to rewatch it, along with Penguindrum.

I always liked Rahxephon for it's atmosphere, music and art. And Ichiko Hashimoto has the most mesmerizing voice in Anime. Altough the composition of the Rah's ending-song is not the best, her voice makes up for it tenfold. I squirted my pants when her voice-actress did the opening for Lupin: Minne Fujiko.

[Oz]

One does not simply drop a show when one has already watched over two thirds of it. Why would you drop Macross Frontier right before the beginning of its epic climax?

[robersora]

One does not simply drop a show when one has already watched over two thirds of it. Why would you drop Macross Frontier right before the beginning of its epic climax?

Because it dragged on too hard. I was bored and annoyed by the music, by its characters and by the general predictability of it all. In the last Episode I saw, both females threw every self-respect out of their minds, lusting for the cock of the MC for no apparent reason. And then they started fighting over him by singing more awful-sounding songs.
While I could buy it from Ranka, because she always was portrayed as a modest good-for-nothing, the sudden drop of self-esteem from Sheryl made no sense to me whatsoever. So everything about it annoyed me, only the gorgeous art was left. And when that dropped as well, I just dropped it, because there's so many more Anime out there that warrant my attention.

Sorry for the rant, but to me Macross Frontier was a very frustrating watch on every level.
But as I said, just because it didn't work for me, doesn't mean others shouldn't enjoy it. But tell me, what is so good about Frontier?

[Bagheera]

But yes, Mekaku is deeply flawed in terms of... well, everything. Also it's a pretentious Monogatari-copycat and tries way to hard to be cool. Yet it remains pleasant, quirky entertainment albeit all it's SHAFTISMS.
And yes, me being a superficial bitch, I'm also on the pleb train of Mekaku♥.

I'm really fuzzy about why people think it's so damn awful. The only reason that comes to mind is the fact that it's a blatant ripoff of Monogatari in terms of style and such, but as far as the plot and characters themselves go it seems fine.

[Oz]

@robersora: My point was more or less this: if you had managed to get that far, 7 more episodes shouldn't be much of a hassle. If it really was that painful then you were doing something wrong in the first place.

When you go about blasting the series in such a way in a place full of its fans, what kind of other reaction did you expect? Even if the fans take the harsh words with ease, they're eager to know why you felt the way you did. I personally fail to agree with any of the points you made. When you complain that one character falls in love with another "for no apparent reason", I can't help but wonder what exactly you want out of a portrayal of a romantic relationship. I personally found the characters extraordinarily well-written - with solid characterization from the get-go and proper development for many characters. I didn't remember the series dragging on at any point (well, apart from that "pantsu chase" filler episode). In overall I was pretty impressed with the writing: it does not only offer what is probably the best depiction of a love triangle I can remember watching, but its drama in general packs a lot of punches. Kawamori's direction (especially in the action sequences) is quite invigorating.

Judging from your evaluation of the soundtrack, it looks like you look down on anything that sounds like mainstream J-Pop without giving it a chance. That is a shame since Kanno's Frontier soundtrack delivers magnificent pop if you ask me. It could be that you are not exposed enough to music of its kind to appreciate the quality of Kanno's songwriting. Especially some of the songs used in the last few episodes (and the films) are unforgettable.

[robersora]

^
^

As I said, it's not my cup of tea, because of aforementioned reasons. But it never was my intend, nor do I look down on any genre of music. Hell, I played much trashier music in my life. And I listen to trashy music on a daily basis. But standard-J-pop does not work for me, I just can't stand it. That doesn't mean you don't have the right to enjoy it.
Still, a series that features a kind of music so heavily I cannot listen to, has a hard stand, because music is very important to me. I even watched .hack//Sign multiple times because the music there managed to eradicate all the other shortcomings the Anime had.
So Frontier had its art (which dropped) and its world building that were really cool going for it, and I tried to ignore the pop songs, because everybody seems to love it. But additionally I never got warm with any of the characters. The MC was just a snappy Teenager having his coming of age. I'm sorry, but his arc bored me the most. Ranka was ok, but her journey from shy girl to superstar did everything but catch my interest. Sheryl was always a spoiled bitch, which was ok, but then she fell in love and threw her entire attitude out of the the window because RABU RABU; I couldn't take her seriously any longer. And that was the point where I saw no point in watching further.
And the dragging plot... I don't want to say, that is was predictable, but it was also far from thrilling. The plot itself had such a "been-there, done-that" feeling, but I hoped that there would come more, after the brilliant introduction OVA. But it got lost in Shenanigans with characters I could not stand with music I could not stand.
But I'm sorry, it was not my intend to bash Frontier... It was just so frustrating to me, I needed to bitch a little bit about it.

@robersora:If it really was that painful then you were doing something wrong in the first place.

Sigged.
Really, I should take that advice to heart.