What anime are you watching right now? May07-Feb10

[Shiro]

Finished Noein.

This series was a real mixed bag. There were things I loved about it...things I didn't love about it...and things that were whole-heartedly "meh." Without too many spoilers:

Atori bugged me. I didn't know why he was around after a certain point. And his continuing existence called up the worst cliche plot device ever. In fact, all of the Dragon Knights besides Karasu were remarkably uninteresting. In fact, pretty much all of Lacrima wasn't that interesting once the initial shock wore off.

I really liked Yuu, which surprised me a ton. Finally, a depressed character voiced by Yuri Lowenthal who actually goes through real character growth. The other children were alright. None of them bugged me too much, and Haruka was a decent, mildly likable, yet in the end remarkably bland lead.

The main villain was a lot more interesting than I expected, and he was handled rather well in the end. However, a certain reveal towards the end concerning his identity was given away far too early, robbing it of the intended shock. And they still don't explain how the **** he somehow is in control of Shangri-La and all of everything.

lolQuantumPhysics. Half of what they said was firmly rooted in the Many Worlds hypothesis, which I respect. The other half was technobabble intended to impress people who aren't paying much attention mixed with anime mechanics needed for plot advancement. They did stick to their rules rather well, and did a good job avoiding asspulls. Most of the mechanics that took place were discussed early on.

The ending had a surprising amount of closure. I was happy with that.

The pacing, meanwhile, felt kinda off. The entire anime felt kinda sloppy at times, and the animation reflects this. At times it's awesome...and at times it sucks.

All in all, it gets a solid B. Things I liked, things I didn't...terrible animation...meh, I can't wait for my next NHK DVD to get here though, because that's a truly awesome anime.

EDIT: (lol, a cliche word for depressed teens is censored to "bosnian?")

[Great Genius Shinji-Sama]

Maburaho right now.

[Hunter21]

Maburaho right now.

Make sure you don't hurt your eyes when you roll them at the nonsensical ending.

[Merridian]

Finished Speed Grapher. Overall, I'd give it a 6.5/10. The plot lapsed into predictable clichés numerous times, but it retained a neo-noir atmosphere that kept it going relatively strong. The dialogue was pretty great, so long as you find cheesy one-liners and OTT hardboiled pessimism to be amusing. I only watched in the dub, so I don't know how the sub works out--and anyway, the English dub was fairly well done; Sabat's voice grated on me for a little while but I think he relaxed as he grew into the character more. Monica Rial playing a 15/16 year old felt weird but strangely fit, even if her character was the angst-kitten suffering from perpetual damsel-in-distress syndrome.

The bondage girl-cop was just bizarre, but once I finally realized what the series was actually doing, I think she was invaluable as a device. I think the best characters were the three guys that followed around Suitengu; they provided some great comic relief to offset the half-assed melodrama and reasonably average neo-noir aesthetic.

The animation sucked. The direction was pretty lame also, but the animation just felt bland and uninteresting. For a series that impressed me with the absurdity of its content, I kind of wish more cash was poured into making it look good as well. Too bad.

I think the best thing it brought to the table was just the nostalgia factor. Watching this felt like watching the late-80's/early-90's OVAs & movies, where everything was a monster, everyone was depraved, and nobody really knew what the hell was going on. The level of violence and general depravity was strongest in the first few episodes, but once the crew decided on a direction for the series, a lot of those elements were toned down. Not sure if that was a good thing, since they kind of exchanged insanity with piss-poor generic melodrama, but it sustained itself enough to keep me watching so it couldn't have been all bad.

In general, it was OK. Worth what I paid for it, so I'm happy.

[backseatjesus]

Don't know where to ask this, but how is the dub for The Big O? It has Steve Blum and Wendee Lee on it, so I'm almost sold on it. I of course will watch the english sub version eventually.

[Joseph the PRPD]

If it has Steven Blum in it I say watch it. Steven Blum is awesome!

[Rabid-Sachiel]

Stevie B. is pretty good.

[Joseph the PRPD]

That reminds me, I have to watch the last six episodes of Bebop. I'll do it later today.

[Rabid-Sachiel]

Bebop is a great anime. I've watched it a couple of times.

[Joseph the PRPD]

It's pretty cool from what I've seen.

[Rabid-Sachiel]

Yes. Spike is an awesome character.

Also, I've finished watching Mobile Suit Gundam 08th MS Team and Mobile Suit Gundam War in the Pocket.

[Teague]

Finished watching Full Metal Panic...

SPOILER: Show

I couldn't help but feel Kaname's condition as a Whispered was very understated, rendering her little more than a McGuffin Girl as far as the plot was concerned...I would have preferred more displays of technomancy, but perhaps that's just me...

It feels like Gauron was defeated too easily...especially that he didn't use the Lamda drive anywhere near as much as when he previously fought Sousuke, with no explanation...

Still, apart from those two points I enjoyed it, and look forward to Second Raid which I hear is an improvement

[Ornette]

TSR is more action, less comedy. You're skipping Fumoffu?

[Teague]

Actually, I watched Fumoffu before I watched the first season...although I might watch it again for the lulz

[Xard]

I watched GitS's 1 & 2

First one is still masterpiece, second one is still clunky and something nearly even I dare to call pretentious. It's still excellent though

Now I'm back onto Higurashi and all I'm gonna say that 2nd season has been brilliant from start to finish.

[Merridian]

Watched A.D. Police yesterday and Bounty Dog today. Bounty Dog impressed me; the quality of the direction and animation were much better than I expected out of such an obscure 2-episode OVA from '94. I loved the cyberpunk atmosphere, but the plot sucked--something about the moon having humanoid personifications that were cloned into bodies and trying to destroy humanity. I liked the idea that the moon was an alien probe sent to observe the Earth, but the decision to include a good/evil aspect to coincide with the light/dark sides of the moon was a bad one IMO. Since it only consisted of two episodes, the under-developed charactarization was understandable. And above all, the opening theme song kicked ass!

The directing and atmosphere reminded me of Cowboy Bebop, actually.

A.D. Police was fun, but not anything terribly mind-blowing.

Next on my list are Venus Wars and the 1988 Appleseed OVA. Now and Then, Here and There is en route, and so is the first season of Black Lagoon.

[Great Genius Shinji-Sama]

Forgive me if this goes somehwere else, but has anyone ever thought that Shinji might have grown up to be like Rock if he didnt have to be an Eva pilot? And Merri, please ignore my post so I dont spoil nothing for you

[Merridian]

@ GGSS: Nah man, it's cool. I've seen the first episode and a half of Black Lagoon already, so I know the gist of the story. As for Rock, well, what I've seen so far has been a fairly stereotypical portrayal of the Japanese salaryman. Takashi Miike's Visitor Q offers a pretty fucked up deconstruction of this trope, if anyone's interested.

It took me a minute to realize who 'Merri' was.

[chazthesilencer]

Aojo's I've seen, so technically off-topic(!):

Code: Gearse - One of the whackiest things I've ever seen. I must have understood what was going on about 5% of this series.
Enjoyable while it lasted however.

Peach Girl - I couldn't help but laugh at all the supposedly- emotionally intense moments of this story.
Guess that truly proves me a male, or the storytelling was flawed...

Ouran Host Club - Another case of the "promising start, but failure ending" disease.

GunBuster - The two, main redeeming features of this series bounce on Noriko's chest;
an essential viewing for NGE fans regardless.

Aojo I am watching, so on topic:

High School Girls / Girls High - Among many thought provoking topics covered in this series include:
Plucking your friend's public hairs, and the proper procedure for pissing in a cup. Seriously.

[Xard]

I just loved Higurashi. It isn't perfect but that doesn't matter - I loved the cast, the plot and everything. Rovery show with its twists

2nd season was even better than first one and really made me want to watch first season again...

So, now it's Texhnolyze, rewatch of CB flick and mayhap Macross Frontier - any words on that show?