What anime are you watching right now? Apr-Sep 11

[child of Lilith]

It has some silly shounen moments ("The thing about Ganta is that he always gets back up.." ugh) but you say it like each episode focuses solely on the fights when the whole mystery about the "Deadman Wonderland" and who Shiro really is etc. gets a much greater focus.

I never said it was just about the fights. It's a fighting anime, but theres more going on then just that. The problem is none of it is all that compelling. Adding Ganta in just futher highlights the shows problems.

[InstrumentalityOne]

PLEASE DON`T SAY YOU ARE LAZY
BECAUSE I`M ACTUALLY CRAZY

[toe mash]

^ man they went so overboard with her craziness

This made me laugh from Hanasaku Iroha

HURRRRR HOW DO I ENGLISH  SPOILER: Show

And looks like Jin-tan from AnoHana has some real bad taste in anime..

SPOILER: Show

[symbv]

Well, that's why they're for the most part a crappy review site. There are a few exceptions, I guess, but yeah most harem anime get a real low score. But remember that I watch quite a bit of harem anime and I.S annoys me. I think it's a particularly retarded specimen

Good. Then would you mind telling me
- Why did you watch harem anime in the first place? As IS is not your first foray into harem anime, I bet there must be a reason for you watching harem anime beside bumping into it by accident?
- Which harem anime would you recommend to a newcomer to the genre? No Eva is harem anime crap please.

And Koreha Zombie Desuka is not really harem anime by genre definition. The male character is surrounded by girls but it is not made explicit that there are 3 girls or more who have fallen in love with the MC. (2 girls would only make a triangle, not a harem). If you think you have watched "quite a bit of harem anime" just because you happen to have watched anime that has some element that looks like there is a harem (or carries a side theme of harem), you have not really got very deep into the harem anime genre. IS has harem as its main not secondary theme, and it is a very key difference.

Cheers!

[child of Lilith]

A shocking episode of Deadmans Wonderland this week. Ganta doesn't behave like a bitch. I never thought I'd see the day. . . If he doesn't revert, he just might become someone worth rooting for.

The rest of the episode was ok, although hummingbird seriously needs to chill out.

[IrkenEvangelion]

Just finished up K-On!! The last couple episodes made me cry, 'twas sadd. I thought it ended perfectly and the show as a whole was more than I could've ever asked for.

[toe mash]

symbv  SPOILER: Show

Good. Then would you mind telling me
- Why did you watch harem anime in the first place? As IS is not your first foray into harem anime, I bet there must be a reason for you watching harem anime beside bumping into it by accident?

It was when I was new to anime and it wasn't something I've seen in any live action series.

- Which harem anime would you recommend to a newcomer to the genre? No Eva is harem anime crap please.

Man, relax with the "eva isn't harem" thing, NO ONE and I repeat NO ONE thinks this seriously, it's just a joke to annoy NGE fans. Sheesh.

To answer your question, assuming it's someone that isn't new to anime but just the genre, probably something more softcore would do, like I.S, except I could never bring myself to recommend that :P I haven't seen it myself but Love Hina being considered the father of modern harem anime would probably be a good choice. If that's too soft then Sekirei is a pretty fun title.

And Koreha Zombie Desuka is not really harem anime by genre definition. The male character is surrounded by girls but it is not made explicit that there are 3 girls or more who have fallen in love with the MC. (2 girls would only make a triangle, not a harem). If you think you have watched "quite a bit of harem anime" just because you happen to have watched anime that has some element that looks like there is a harem (or carries a side theme of harem), you have not really got very deep into the harem anime genre. IS has harem as its main not secondary theme, and it is a very key difference.

That's my point, zombie is a good harem'ish anime because it isn't it's main theme. If it was it might pass as a good harem anime but not just a "plain good" show. Still, it has one guy living with several pretty girls and more than one are falling for him, but being an actual good show it pokes fun at this harem cliche/"genre staple". And I don't mean I'm some "expert" on harem anime, AT ALL, all I'm saying is that I'm familiar with it and to make it clear that it isn't the harem plot itself that bothers me.

Of course when I think of a true harem anime zombie wouldn't come to mind. I think the misunderstanding here is that you assume I.S bothers me because of its harem elements, and I'd be a moron if that was true. The problem is that even with it's real simple plot I.S fucks up with the world building by continuously contradicting itself and giving us ridiculously absurd plot elements (Chifuyu defending Japan... from nuclear missiles... with a sword...). It wouldn't be a harem anime if there wasn't a character that was an asshole to the MC at the beginning and then joins the harem, and I.S did a spectacularly stupid job at this with Cecilia (YOU ARE WORTHLESS SCUM - he nearly defeats her, still loses though - YOUR PENIS GOES HERE, ICHIKA). Every episode we get dialog that somehow tops the last episode with it's non-sensibility. The episode where we learn why Laura hates Ichika had to be one of the worst (something along the lines of "You made Chifuyu smile you piece of shit! You deserve to die!). Which reminds me how the series plays up on stereotypes for all of the girls in the cast, it's so embarrassing it's like you asked an American to describe the typical female from random countries (The Nazi German chick, Chinese loli, Blond English girl that prepares terrible food).

Just the whole idea of a world where there are these incredible machines that humans can pilot and do things previously unimaginable yet THEY ARE GIVEN TO TEENAGERS TO PLAY WITH IN ORDER TO TRAIN FOR SPORTS. WHAT A SURPRISE WHEN THEY ARE ALSO USED AS WEAPONS, HUH?!

There are a lot of things I can't remember that pissed me off, but generally every minute something idiotic would happen (when that huge I.S infiltrated the school and no one helped Ichika and Lin yet a staff of well trained teachers were just watching, and a bunch of other moronic things like the doors that couldn't be opened or something..).

You keep ignoring these kind of things, I don't know how. I couldn't care less for the mediocre/bad harem we have going on when the series keeps hitting itself on the head with the retard stick. inb4 "why do westerners care about plot" as an answer. (By the way, it isn't like westerners didn't enjoy the hell out of I.S)

At least shows like Ladies vs Butlers kept it simple. Ichiban Ushirou no Daimaou had an actual good MC, and the girls were a LOT of fun (especially the green haired troll-bot). It also didn't break its own rules all the time, although it got stupid by the end by trying to force in some grand plot. Funny that both shows have the main girl being voiced by Hikasa Yoko, both actually being quite similar when I think about it, Although Houki is as boring as possible while Junko had some balls.

TL;DR agree to disagree, opinions and tastes etc.

[symbv]

^ Actually you (and many westerners) misunderstand strict harem anime, not me. I did not misunderstand and thought you dislike IS because of its harem elements -- I knew you disliked the story and the premise of world building -- but I wanted to say that the harsh criticism and ridicule against anime like IS mainly stems from the fact that it puts harem as its main theme. When this becomes a main theme and key concept, almost always the plot and the premise becomes what you guys said "generic" "retarded" "stupid". This is not the way to enjoy harem anime. Harem anime, in its narrow definition (if you use broad definition, then you may also want to include Haruhi, Negima and Ranma 1/2 as well! ), is a small but significant subgenre of anime that caters to a specific group of anime fans -- those who may have sweet dream of living in harem. And this is how I will judge this genre of anime, and the story and the premise becomes secondary (remember I never praise the story and the premise as the reasons why I ranked IS so high), enough to carry the story to its harem situation and let me enjoy the harem moment. That's it. It is not unlike in a dream where you don't really care too much about how much of the dream makes sense but you still want a dream that is just convincing enough so that when the sweet moments came you have enough feelings built up to enjoy them. This is what you and almost all the westerners I have met failed to understand about harem anime. And thus all the reviews just miss the mark completely. There may be westerns fans around somewhere (in /a/ ?) but I doubt they really thought deep why they are enjoying this anime.

[InstrumentalityOne]

^
Maybe it´s just that westerners expected more mecha action instead of a harem comedy.

[Tarnsman]

Snip

IS has a good sized fanbase on /a/ and it has been licensed for R1 release, so someone must think it can sell to Western fans.

[toe mash]

^
Maybe it´s just that westerners expected more mecha action instead of a harem comedy.

Have you even seen it? The mecha action was rather good and it wasn't the harem comedy aspects that annoyed anyone. It was obvious I.S is first and foremost a harem anime.

[InstrumentalityOne]

Have you even seen it?

Watched till Germany, I didn´t like the mecha aspect in that show too much.

[EvangelionFan]

It was obvious I.S is first and foremost a harem anime.

At first I had the impression it would be a fine blend of mecha action and classroom comedy... until the ANN preview came out and ruined my preconceptions

[Oz]

Nichijou ep 8: DAT ELEVATOR SCENE DAT ELEVATOR SCENE

[soul.assassin]

Watched MF: The False Songstress. What a different twist to the first half of the saga. :) Will wait for the Wings of Goodbye.

[InstrumentalityOne]

Anybody else here bothered by the darkness(literally) in Deadman Wonderland?
I can´t see fucking anything.

[soul.assassin]

Anybody else here bothered by the darkness(literally) in Deadman Wonderland?
I can´t see fucking anything.

Try to jack up the brightness or the gamma settings on your player or the overlay settings for the video card.

[symbv]

Watched till Germany, I didn´t like the mecha aspect in that show too much.

The director of IS is Yasuhito Kikuchi who was also the director of Macross Frontier (with "chief director" being Kawamori). The mecha design of IS is Takeshi Takakura, who was also the mecha design for Macross Frontier (working with Junya Ishigaki) The mecha action is very well done and shows the influence from MacrossF.

I would definitely find the story came out short and lacking if it were just a mecha anime, and you were right that perhaps a lot of westerners did not have the right expectation set -- they may have thought that it was a mecha + love comedy and even if they knew it was a harem anime, most of them did not set the same expectation as the Japanese fans, and so they came out disappointed (and proceeded to wield their whip to lash out at the anime).

[InstrumentalityOne]

I would definitely find the story came out short and lacking if it were just a mecha anime, and you were right that perhaps a lot of westerners did not have the right expectation set -- they may have thought that it was a mecha + love comedy and even if they knew it was a harem anime, most of them did not set the same expectation as the Japanese fans, and so they came out disappointed (and proceeded to wield their whip to lash out at the anime).

Yeah, I think you´ve pretty much just hit the nail on the head for weeks to come.

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The new episode of Hanasaku Iroha was pretty good.
I really want to see how the next episode´s gonna play out.

Also caught up on Deadman Wonderland.
Meh.

[toe mash]

It sure is easy just saying people had the wrong expectations so any and all complaints are obsolete There's also the little thing besides the horrid plot where the girls in the series are boring as hell (with the exception of Charlotte to some degree..).