What anime are you watching right now? 2H15 to 1H16

[TehDonutKing]

Don't even get me started on how much i loathe Elfen Lied and the disgusting morals it portrays.

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

I remember Elfen Lied! It was one of the first anime I watched, come to think of it. It's not one of my favorites, and I don't know how much rewatch value it holds for me (having already watched it twice, the second time just to make sure I didn't miss anything) but I'd watch it again with friends.

[Kazuki_Fuse]

Still love Elfen Lied. Still don't give a fuck. 10/10 series in my opinion.

[Compiling_Autumn]

Don't even get me started on how much i loathe Elfen Lied and the disgusting morals it portrays.

do you mean the way it exculpates certain characters for being cute victims? Or are you talking about the relaxed attitudes towards cousin love?

[TehDonutKing]

It glorifies revenge by proxy; diclonius who is wronged by some humans takes it out on all humans. This is portrayed as sympathetic. In the real world, this is the kind of mentality that creates prejudices and hate groups (i.e., a Czeckoslovakian bullied me, now i hate all Czeckoslovakians and will create an organization bent on wiping them out). That's my major issue, especially given its target audience seemingly being around 15-18, and the story's glorification of events eerily similar to school massacres. In addition, there are smaller gripes, such as the stories accidental racist implications due to shitty writing (diclonii are victims of racism, yet every single diclonius ever shown in the series is an irredeemable monster. Replace diclonii with any other minority group), and its creepy romantic portrayal of lust and pedophilia (Main guy being in love with Nyuu, who is practically a sexualized infant). Not to mention, it's incredibly hackneyed, with the mc feeling like a generic harem protagonist, tits and gore that serve no purpose whatsoever, and pseudo-intellectual philosophy 101-tier faux-nihilism everywhere in the dialogue.

Also, if a bitch kills your family, and you still love her, you deserve to die for being that idiotic.

[unz]

do you mean the way it exculpates certain characters for being cute victims? Or are you talking about the relaxed attitudes towards cousin love?

I'm taking "morals" as bullshit argument but if the show and mangas had things to justify abusing and killing discloniuses that'd be a problem, don't know why you'd expect authors to be good people to worship through their works or something, instead I remember the show arguing traumas pushed the girl into killing.
Like evangelion and gits you have girls looking for a role in society but it's played as a race thing between humans and dicloniouses, like in gits you have Lucy taking part of an origin story of a new being (at least in the manga).
I am making a bigger deal of the show than it is. It's like they made fanfic of lots of works and buried it all with whatever juvanile anime thing that was trendy so for example instead of dealing with things like Rei and Asuka you have a split: lucy initially plays the 2d naked anime fantasy girl with one word dictionary and the other girl has some blood bond making her love impossible or something, lucy is supposed to evolve into a person because of her amnesia but does she? And does the male main char become less of a super dense wimp? Who cares?

[Bagheera]

It glorifies revenge by proxy;

No it doesn't. There's a reason Lucy's put down like a rabid dog in the end.

[A.T. Fish]

I watched Elfen Lied twice, once when I was fifteen and going through the typical post-Eva "psychological anime" pursuit and again at twenty something, when I was a little more familiar with anime. The first time around I liked it, don't really remember why but I'm sure the gore and nudity had a lot to do with it. The second time around it was easier to identify the show's mediocrity without my hormones getting in the way. I still don't remember much, but I recall a good amount of pointless fanservice, an annoyingly passive cousin character, lots of repetitive searches for missing people and a "humans are the true monsters" type of message.

[unz]

"humans are the true monsters" type of message.

I don't think it really mattered whether they were humans or not but maybe you can see a bit of shortcomings here, eva and gits are societies of control in which reproduction can be artificial to question a woman's role but what about elfen lied? I remember discloniuses being females for whatever reason (race?) and characters doing things against them for the evuls, maybe the manga gives them some psychological background but never did much out of it I guess.
Like wingnuts being crazy and oppressive and background to character deaths all the time while both eva and gits worlds actually feel oppressive and lonely. Even though eva is pretty bonkers and wish animes dropped the being formulaic thing about it, didn't Anno go for karekano after eva damnit?

[Alaska Slim]

didn't Anno go for karekano after eva damnit?

Except Karekano was pretty innovative in its own right, diving into the psyches of its character much the way Eva did, and allowing animation to say things on its own.

[unz]

It's kinda what I'm saying, he went for a love story (before or after ending eoe like a love story?) instead of more evangelion stuff. You can still make parallels with Asuka and Shinji but it's just that and Idk how much of that is new to the manga, actually it may be the other way around with Anno being given someone's story he liked or was comfortable with after fleshing out Asuka and Shinji for ages.

[Mr. Tines]

It's not that I disliked the ED song; it was fine in itself, but for me it was completely inappropriate in that context.

Rather like the same director's later Sora no Woto -- Klimt inspired OP with Kalafina vocals; and then after an episode of post-traumatic stress or an off-screen gun-shot cliff-hanger, suddenly "I JOE, YOU JOE" bopping along.

[Bagheera]

watching Birdy

Just finished it. Birdy has become my default action girl. The 90s OVA was okay, but Decode was absolutely fantastic; the OP is amazing, the ED is solid, the next ep previews are worth watching, and the content of the show . . . holy hell, it's just a fantastic, classical space opera with an absolutely amazing protagonist. Decode 2 wasn't as good; there's just one overarching plot, and the pacing dragged at times, but the battles were amazing. OP, ED, and previews went from awesome to standard fare, though (though Decode 2's OP is a bit of an earworm). And then the final OVA, which in a delightful change of pace is actually relevant! It ties together Decode and Decode 2 pretty much flawlessly, and sews up a lot of loose ends.

The best thing about Birdy is that she's sexy without being sexualized, kind-hearted without being moe, strong without being overbearing, and competent without being perfect. She's just a really, really good character, and anyone who appreciates such would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn't check her out.

[esselfortium]

We just recently finished Birdy Decode and Decode 2 also! Really fun series. I want more of it!

I think I actually enjoyed 2 more than the original overall -- I think they each had at least one episode that was a bit draggy, like the flashback episode in Decode 2, but nothing too bad. They were both good as heck though! And Decode 2's OP is total ear candy. The OVA taking place in between seasons was a bit odd and unexpected (we watched it after the end of Decode 2) but it was a nice episode for sure.

[Gus Hanson]

Completed my viewing of Onegai Teacher recently. Both OP and ED songs are memorable in their own right, the soap opera-ish drama gets a little boring in some respects but not enough to put one to sleep, the characters are well drawn especially the females. I'll be getting Onegai Twins around Christmas time to compare differing plots eventually.

[Justacrazyguy]

Hacka Doll Episode 7: Don't want to sit through the boring parts of Shirobako? Well, this episode is for you! 7 exciting minutes of working at an anime studio showing, without a doubt, that making anime sucks.

Also, this is now what I assume Trigger looks like on the inside.

[Seele00TextOnly]

boring parts of Shirobako

I take exception to this. Shirobako was great.

So was Birdy. Lots of fun. Final episode felt like it was missing something, like, I dunno, Tsutomu getting his body back and Birdy going home or something. Or maybe this is her home now. Wish there was more Birdy, I wonder if we'll ever get it. Still have the original 4 episode OVA to watch though.

[Bagheera]

I take exception to this. Shirobako was great.

So was Birdy. Lots of fun. Final episode felt like it was missing something, like, I dunno, Tsutomu getting his body back and Birdy going home or something. Or maybe this is her home now. Wish there was more Birdy, I wonder if we'll ever get it. Still have the original 4 episode OVA to watch though.

Birdy can't go home just yet. She still has to deal with Christella Revi, who has yet to be addressed either in the original OVA or in Decode (no idea as to the manga -- haven't read it). We basically need a third season of Decode to wrap things up, but it's not clear as to whether or not that will happen.

[Stan]

Got around to watching and finishing the Rurouni Kenshin New Kyoto Arc (Remake). What a disgusting "remake" that was, filthy. The plot was not only condensed but also altered. Major events were left out, the re-imagining of certain scenes sucked, the fights were minimal and poorly executed, new voice actors didn't fit their roles, the quality of the voice acting is horrendous, character motivations are non existent, and while the animation was good - the faces looked derpy af. It was like the art style got splashed with a can of kawaii to make everyone's face look like they are from Lucky Star.

This is how you don't do a remake, an hour and a half wasted that I will never get back in my life. I must now go and quickly watch something good to put my mind at ease

[Bagheera]

Got around to watching and finishing the Rurouni Kenshin New Kyoto Arc (Remake). What a disgusting "remake" that was, filthy. The plot was not only condensed but also altered. Major events were left out, the re-imagining of certain scenes sucked, the fights were minimal and poorly executed, new voice actors didn't fit their roles, the quality of the voice acting is horrendous, character motivations are non existent, and while the animation was good - the faces looked derpy af. It was like the art style got splashed with a can of kawaii to make everyone's face look like they are from Lucky Star.

This is how you don't do a remake, an hour and a half wasted that I will never get back in my life. I must now go and quickly watch something good to put my mind at ease

Go rewatch the original arc instead!

Honestly, I can't conceive of why anyone would remake this. It's an anime classic, and deservedly so. Reinventing the wheel of an Indy 500 winner is just stupid.