What anime are you watching right now? May07-Feb10

[Joseph the PRPD]

Watching the Digimon Tamers series and the Runaway Locomon movie.
Ah that nostalgic feeling.

[Merridian]

Marathoned the first 20eps of Nadia on Wed due to sickness. I like it a lot; Anno does well with the pacing, laying on the intensity pretty thick but easing off just enough so as to allow the audience to get used to it. Very 'old skool' storytelling, though--I can definitely see e.g. Captain Harlock influence in what the plot is centered around (never mind the character analogues ). So far I'm really diggin it.

Speaking of Harlock, I'm about a quarter of the way through now. I might pick up Endless Odyssey tomorrow or next week; I think I saw most/all of it on the shelf at FYE last time I was in. :)

Also picked up the Toward the Terra anime today for $34 bucks.

[Tokpile Quohog]

Started rewatching all You're Under Arrest stuff.

[Gamer_2k4]

Working through Ghost in the Shell and RahXephon right now. GitS feels like reading a freaking book (though the subject matter is interesting), but I really enjoy the feel of RahXephon. It feels unorthodox, yet isn't completely out there. I especially enjoy the focus on music, even to the point of the episodes being named "Movements".

[schismatics]

Watched Paprika this afternoon. Really solid story, excellent visuals and just a tad of mindfuckery. Music reminded me a lot of Paranoia Agent, that's pretty much my only complaint. I also really liked the bit in the theatre where the guy with the moustache (sorry I can't remember his name) is talking to Paprika about differenty types of filming techniques.

9/10

[drinian]

Speaking of Harlock,

If you haven't before, you absolutely need to see some of the clips from the original English dub of Harlock. Corn Pone Flicks' Bad American Dubbing series is probably the easiest way.

[Merridian]

^ Worse than just how generally shitty & miscast the voices are, they took away the totally kickass epic western music in favor of DISCO. WTF. And Harlock… jezus… they turned him into a geekish superhero.

Star Blazers’ dub job wasn’t nearly as bad as some of the others, to its credit. It was just overly (and perhaps understandably) Hanna-Barbara in approach to voice acting Poor Space Battleship Yamato…

GitS feels like reading a freaking book (though the subject matter is interesting), but I really enjoy the feel of RahXephon.

RahXephon was hilarious, but I thought GitS was great. Pick up 2nd Gig when you're finished with the first season of GitS; it really picks up, the animation improves, and the quality of the writing goes through the roof.

[Ironfoot]

Finished Macross 7. Despite what people say, I thought it was really badass. I mean, Fire Bomber uses guitars and drums to control their valkyries and from the power of rock, they manipulate the space-time continuum to win the enemy over. That's pretty awesome. Oh, I also watched Macross 7: The Galaxy is Calling Me. It was pretty hilarious seeing Mylene's older sis Emilia and Basara rocking it out, having mountains crumble all around them and creating massive tornados.

[Xard]

Funnily enough I yesterday watched whole Macross Zero from start to finish

shit was cash, to say the least. Visuals - especially background art - were gorgeous and fights incredible. Great stuff. Characters & plot aren't as strong as in "the other OVA series" Macross Plus but very interesting nonetheless.

Great stuff. Definetly recommended

[alabaster]

I'm almost done 'Berserk' now and I love it. I've come to love the whole style and look of it too. I'll be sad when it's over.

[Xeroko]

Finished ghost in the shell 2nd gig, amazing show, now I'm working on finishing witchblade (which seems to take me forever).

[Merridian]

Holy shit, Go Nagai is a genius. I just watched Black Lion for the first time. Animation quality was dismal, but it was so absurd that it didn't matter. A cybernetic samurai terminator resurrected from death by aliens and placed under the control of Oda Nobunaga in order to combat ninjas aided by a mad scientist person with access to a time travelling lab of miracles. This is the essence of Black Lion, and it is good. 100% Grade-A Awesome.

[Joseph the PRPD]

Just finished Digimon Tamers. It is my favorite Digimon season.
I like how dark it would get, how a lot of the other characters would get so involved, all the emotional, and of course funny moments.

Now I'm going to go see Revenge of Diaboromon.

[Ironfoot]

Characters & plot aren't as strong as in "the other OVA series" Macross Plus but very interesting nonetheless.

Yeah, a lot of the characters in Macross Zero lacked the depth normally seen in a Macross series. Some exceptions can be given to ol' Focker as his backstory was extensive here and Mao Nome simply because she's cute, but the focus was more of the mystery surrounding the Protoculture anyways.

And Dyson is one of the better protagonists in the Macross series, he helps makes Macross Plus as strong as it is. It's a little hard comparing others to his badassery and assinine antics. The only one I can think of who could match him in badassery is Basara.

Anyway, I completed Macross 7 Plus which was a painstaking thing to do. I ended up having to search extensively for them as finding them in a torrent was impossible. They're basically 12 short 2-minute shorts originally included on the VHS release. They were interesting. Useful if one wants to know the back story of some of the characters in the series.

Also completed Macross 7 Encore. Just like any good Macross series, it fuels the classic love triangle and leaves the viewers with the decision in their minds. At least in the original Macross, Hikaru made up his mind between Minmay and Misa.

Then I completed Macross Dynamite 7. This was a nice treat, but only if you're a Macross 7 fan. None of the main characters or plot get reintroduced, it's assumed you know them already. This takes place less than a year after the TV series. It was good, definitely something different for Basara. Elma was cool, I like how

SPOILER: Show

both she and Basara hopped into the hot springs and neither really cared, even though her Dad, a giant 30 ft Zentradi, was under the waterfall the whole time. That was badass.

[Guyver Spawn]

I was planning to watch Devilman next? Which one should I start off at?

[Hexon.Arq]

I'm watching the original Dragonball series. Boy, you clip the Z off the title and you've got a silly good time!

[Evangelion__x]

Saw Whisper of the Heart earlier today -- another Ghibli gem; really does capture that warm feeling and is highly recommendable.

[Oz]

Saw Whisper of the Heart earlier today -- another Ghibli gem; really does capture that warm feeling and is highly recommendable.

I couldn't agree more. Whisper of the Heart is magnificent. The cover of Take Me Home Country Roads during the ending credits is unforgettable.

[Xard]

Marathoned the first 20eps of Nadia on Wed due to sickness. I like it a lot; Anno does well with the pacing, laying on the intensity pretty thick but easing off just enough so as to allow the audience to get used to it. Very 'old skool' storytelling, though--I can definitely see e.g. Captain Harlock influence in what the plot is centered around (never mind the character analogues ). So far I'm really diggin it.

(speaking of Anno's pre-NGE works, I guess I could - since so much time has passed - take the Gunbuster "issue" to pm's?)

Nadia is great and as GAINAX's kind of tribute to old school scifi and anime it does have that feel :)

I really dig certain formal elements Anno brings to table in Nadia - the ep 16 b&w "rhymings" makes their first visit ever, for example (and we know how much those characterize eva...)

One warning though: After WTFAWESOME ep 22 skip straight to eps 30 & 31, then to 35

I'm sure I don't have to tell you about the horrors of "Island Arc" (which Anno didn't even direct)... trust me: you do huge favour to yourself by skipping that "arc"

Watched Paprika this afternoon. Really solid story, excellent visuals and just a tad of mindfuckery. Music reminded me a lot of Paranoia Agent, that's pretty much my only complaint.

Susumu Hirasawa has done music to all Kon productions.

Personally I think they're all awesome

Characters & plot aren't as strong as in "the other OVA series" Macross Plus but very interesting nonetheless.

Yeah, a lot of the characters in Macross Zero lacked the depth normally seen in a Macross series. Some exceptions can be given to ol' Focker as his backstory was extensive here and Mao Nome simply because she's cute, but the focus was more of the mystery surrounding the Protoculture anyways.

Speaking of Mao, wikipedia mindfucked me by claiming

SPOILER: Show

she was 11....wtf???? pedo much?

But yeah, I agree. It was a lot more "mythology focused" than character focused (not that characters weren't good. They were). Also: Focker was totally awesome in here. I enjoyed his character dynamics a lot. Especially since they tended to include sweet, sweet, sexy as hell aerial dynamics. Nomnomnom

I compared Zero to Plus specifically because they're about the same lenght: I didn't think it would be fair to compare its characterisation to that of original one or Frontier...

And Dyson is one of the better protagonists in the Macross series, he helps makes Macross Plus as strong as it is. It's a little hard comparing others to his badassery and assinine antics. The only one I can think of who could match him in badassery is Basara.

Man, I hated Dyson for ages but

SPOILER: Show

following wtf killertwist etc. that shed entirely new light on him he turned into pretty damn awesome dude. I think I still like Bowman more though. Meh, they're all awesome

I've only heard bad things about Macross 7 (plus I'm not really much fan of the "cock rock" I've heard, apart from couple of tracks such as the one played extensively in MF ep 17) but I might eventually check it out too...

Saw Whisper of the Heart earlier today -- another Ghibli gem; really does capture that warm feeling and is highly recommendable.

I couldn't agree more. Whisper of the Heart is magnificent. The cover of Take Me Home Country Roads during the ending credits is unforgettable.

yeah unforgettable because it is so horrible HAHA ZING

... anyway, Whisper of the Heart is real gem

I just got the DVD in fact :)

[Ironfoot]

Speaking of Mao, wikipedia mindfucked me by claiming

SPOILER: Show

she was 11....wtf???? pedo much?

Dammit!

SPOILER: Show

And Yoko from Gurren Lagann is only 14. Silly Japanese and their young girls.

I've only heard bad things about Macross 7 (plus I'm not really much fan of the "cock rock" I've heard, apart from couple of tracks such as the one played extensively in MF ep 17) but I might eventually check it out too...

So people don't like the music, thus they hate the series? I think that the characters, plot development and pacing are far more important, but to each their own.

I'm watching Macross Frontier right now. It's interesting, but I think I'll hold my opinion until I'm done.