Anime' - Whatcha Watchin? (Is it good?)

[Murbella]

After having watched a couple episodes of kuragehime i don't really get the love for it. In fact, if you reversed the genders of all characters and removed the cross dressing, it would be a very formulaic comedy romance. It gets points for showing the somewhat rarer reverse situation, but that is about the only thing that distinguishes it to any degree.

It is a decent enough series, but for a comedy, the comedy moments are particularly hit or miss, and most tend to fall on the miss side of things. After watching two episodes, there have been one or two funny moments each episode. Although i suppose it could be like mitsudomoe where you have to be Japanese to Get 95% of the jokes.

I also hate every single character in the series except for the two main characters. I hesitate to even call them characters as they are so overly stereotypical and extremely shallow that they barely qualify.

[Alan Dunkin]

The Macross Frontier movie (False Diva) is just seven kinds of weirdness. Usually a summary movie is essentially the series boiled down into the core plot, along with a few new wrinkles, usually stepped up designs and action sequences, etc. What you don't expect is an entirely different viewing experience.

For instance, the Macross movie echoes the series in many ways and pretty much ends roughly the same as the main plot in the series, though the way things happen may be fairly different. They're not totally jarring... in Macross, they explain away the movie(s) as a retelling of the plot done at some future time in the same universe. In other words, it's a movie made in that universe of events that happened earlier, so they can get away with changing things around from the original plot (which, in the case of the series, is the "true" history).

Anyway, Macross Frontier is jarring in many ways and the core of the plot is entirely reinvented. The Vajra are the baddies and are just that--continually bad. It's sexed up in many ways (there's a semi-naked Sheryl and she talks of being "all natural" in a world of implants), Alto already knows Ranka at the start, there are no human villains for the most part (I don't think, I might have skipped ahead of something), etc. The Vajra are defeated in a lengthy sequence--they don't really get into much behind them at all, other than "oh hey we wiped them out, let's sing!" On top of that, I didn't really like any of the new songs, and the old ones felt mis-used. They also redesigned the Vajra big ships, etc.

In any event, like I said... it just feels weird to watch this and have to basically re-learn everything all over again.

--- Alan

[MatthewF]

Ugh, thanks for the heads up. I loved Frontier, and I don't want to ruin it with a re-telling that basically sucks. Especially if they misuse the old songs and the new ones aren't any good.

[Thrawn]

Saw the Winter 2011 Anime Line-Up and can't wait for Mirai Nikki, with the lovable psychopathic yandere.
Everything else, not so much, apart from Angel Beats!, Beelzebub (Granted I never read it), Wolverine (Probably will check it out just because) and Kimi ni Todoke S2, which I still have to catch up on, manga wise. And then there's everything else.

Still waiting for the release date for Baka to Test S2.

[Murbella]

Mirai Nikki OAD
Angela Beats OAD
Black Lagoon: roberta's blood trail episode 3
Kara No Kyoukai Epilogue
Kimi ni Todoko season 2

Kimi ni todoko was beginning to get drawn out near the end trying to make the same joke funny long past the point it still worked, but we shall see.

Will be interesting see what angel beats content they could add.

I don't like the look of the anime wolverine. With ironman i didn't care since i'm only a minor fan of ironman, but i don't want to see a bastardized wolverine whom i really like. I'll probably still check it out because wolverine was my favorite x-men...

[Demon G Sides]

Grinding my way through Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, which is so much better than the original Anime. At least I think it is, I don't know if it's popular opinion. It's much more violent, which is always a plus.

Then I'll probably rewatch Gundam 00 or Code Geass for the umpteenth time because dear god are they fantastic.

[unbongwah]

Winter 2011 anime preview

I look forward to the explosion of fanboy outrage over bishounen Wolverine. Bit surprised to see a new .hack OAV on the horizon; didn't even realize the series wasn't quite dead yet. Otherwise nothing new immediately leaps out.

[Murbella]

Wolvervine trailer. Yes, there does some to be much gnashing of teeth at wolverine apparently becoming a japanese werewolf ninja. It is quite... Japanese.

[drteeth]

Big fucking shocker, a Japanese treatment of wolverine is designed to appeal to Japanese kids instead of weaboo retards.

[unbongwah]

A week late, but: a second winter anime preview. Ironically, the Wolverine series is (still) the only thing which really interests me, mostly because it sounds like it's loosely based on the old Claremont / Miller mini-series, which I still have a soft spot for. I kinda like the premise of GOSICK - "Roaring `20s European mystery series" is certainly outside the norm - but I'm taking a wait-n-see approach for now. The rest looks like a mish-mash of light-novel adaptations, videogame spinoffs (inc. one otome series for the ladies), sequels, and moe otaku-bait. [I can probably count on one hand the number of shows not about teenagers - and two of `em are based on Western franchises. Is Japan just allergic to anyone over 17 these days, or what?]

[Murbella]

These days? You say that like it hasn't been there for a long time...

Anyway, i'm happy enough about:
-BLACK LAGOON Roberta’s Blood Trail ep 3
-Kara no Kyoukai epilogue

[Lynxara]

I'll be watching Level E for sure, I never thought that would get adapted. The anime has an extremely solid staff, too. Fractale and Moshidora also look promising.

I'm cautiously interested in Madoka Magica but afraid it'll just turn out to be a Nanoha clone. Nanoha wasn't bad but I don't particularly want more of it from different creators.

I'm very curious to see how Wolverine turns out, since there's still a lot of key staff information that just hasn't been released.

I'll probably check out Beelzebub, just because I like to keep tabs on Shounen Jump's big properties. Similarly, I'll check out Suite PreCure just to see this year's gimmicks and Mitsuishi Kotono's role. I don't expect either show to hold my attention for very long.

I expect Mazinkaiser SKL to be one of the most gloriously stupid things I've ever seen, so there's no way I'm missing that. I'll also keep following Unicorn Gundam, mainly for the character animation.

[dwolfe]

I'll be watching Level E for sure, I never thought that would get adapted.

/seconded. Although some of the humor is going to be a little more dated by now (Power Rangers spoof, for example). Curious if they're going to try to update/change anything.

[Lynxara]

/seconded. Although some of the humor is going to be a little more dated by now (Power Rangers spoof, for example).

The Japanese version of Power Rangers is about to celebrate its 35th anniversary with the 2011 series and the material hasn't really changed much in that time. Here Comes Color Ranger should still make perfect sense to modern Japanese viewers.

Basically anyone in Japan under 40 grew up watching their Power Rangers equivalent and it's still one of Japan's top ten toy lines. For American viewers it's hard to tell if the references will feel dated. It's not a big fad anymore but there's still new PR stuff on toy shelves every year.

Curious if they're going to try to update/change anything.

Probably, but I expect they'll be improvements. The Level E adaptation is being overseen by the team that adapted the Kuragehime manga. Generally, the Kuragehime anime was a stronger work with tighter pacing and better jokes, to the point where I lost all interest in finishing the manga.

Incidentally, Mazinkaiser SKL is pretty stupid but not nearly as stupid as I was expecting. It actually has a somewhat coherent plot and kind of feels like a big dumb anime version of Dexter. It's basically about a giant robot serial killer who has decided only to kill other giant robot serial killers. There's some fun to be had with spot-the-reference for Go Nagai fans, too. Not sure I'd recommend it for general consumption, though.

[Hugin]

The Japanese version of Power Rangers is about to celebrate its 35th anniversary with the 2011 series and the material hasn't really changed much in that time. Here Comes Color Ranger should still make perfect sense to modern Japanese viewers.

Basically anyone in Japan under 40 grew up watching their Power Rangers equivalent and it's still one of Japan's top ten toy lines. For American viewers it's hard to tell if the references will feel dated. It's not a big fad anymore but there's still new PR stuff on toy shelves every year.



Probably, but I expect they'll be improvements. The Level E adaptation is being overseen by the team that adapted the Kuragehime manga. Generally, the Kuragehime anime was a stronger work with tighter pacing and better jokes, to the point where I lost all interest in finishing the manga.

Incidentally, Mazinkaiser SKL is pretty stupid but not nearly as stupid as I was expecting. It actually has a somewhat coherent plot and kind of feels like a big dumb anime version of Dexter. It's basically about a giant robot serial killer who has decided only to kill other giant robot serial killers. There's some fun to be had with spot-the-reference for Go Nagai fans, too. Not sure I'd recommend it for general consumption, though.

Giant robot serial killer?...are you saying there's sociopaths who go around killing giant robots...or sociopathic giant robots going around killing people? Or killing other giant obots?

[Lynxara]

There's two sociopaths in a giant robot who wander around killing other sociopaths who also happen to have giant robots. (All set to a buttrock soundtrack right out of the late 1980s.)

[Bob Cherub]

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya... so good.

[Morberis]

By the looks of it, Naruto Shippuden is still doing filler, current episode number 192 or something? Going on something like 20 episodes of filler here, come on!

[DragonPup]

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya... so good.

Do I need to put up with Endless Eight to enjoy the Disappearance?

[Otagan]

Do I need to put up with Endless Eight to enjoy the Disappearance?

At the very least, you absolutely need to watch the first new episode of the second season (Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody). It helps if you watch at least part of Endless Eight (I would recommend the first, fourth and eighth episodes if you're not going to watch them all), as it will put you in the right mindset for the movie.

That said, if you're extremely opposed to watching EE, you can do without.

[Bob Cherub]

At the very least, you absolutely need to watch the first new episode of the second season (Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody). It helps if you watch at least part of Endless Eight (I would recommend the first, fourth and eighth episodes if you're not going to watch them all), as it will put you in the right mindset for the movie.

That said, if you're extremely opposed to watching EE, you can do without.

Yeah, exactly.. gotta watch Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody.

The movie mostly makes me forgive them for Endless Eight.

So good.

Kyon may be one of the best anime characters ever.

[Otagan]

The movie mostly makes me forgive them for Endless Eight.

Endless Eight was one hell of an experience if you were there for it every week. The fact that nobody knew exactly how long it would be resulted in some of the most entertaining moments I've had as a member of the fandom.

Streaming episodes as they air and watching the collective wails of despair of the viewers as they realized they were doomed to another week of a time loop really captures the intended feel of the story in a way that the book was never able to. Admittedly, I'm not touting it as a brilliant move overall or claiming it to be anything other than what it was, but my main gripe about EE was that they didn't use the extra episodes on Disappearance instead. With that wiped away as a problem, I'm left with largely good memories.

That said, anyone who tries to watch it all in one sitting today is almost assuredly not going to agree with me, solely because they didn't get to experience it as part of the collective fanbase.

[Bob Cherub]

Endless Eight was one hell of an experience if you were there for it every week. The fact that nobody knew exactly how long it would be resulted in some of the most entertaining moments I've had as a member of the fandom.

Streaming episodes as they air and watching the collective wails of despair of the viewers as they realized they were doomed to another week of a time loop really captures the intended feel of the story in a way that the book was never able to. Admittedly, I'm not touting it as a brilliant move overall or claiming it to be anything other than what it was, but my main gripe about EE was that they didn't use the extra episodes on Disappearance instead. With that wiped away as a problem, I'm left with largely good memories.

That said, anyone who tries to watch it all in one sitting today is almost assuredly not going to agree with me, solely because they didn't get to experience it as part of the collective fanbase.

Hehe, I watched as it aired as well and enjoyed the "WTF IT STILL DIDNT END?" climate. And I love stories like it....in moderation. And I agree, I can look back and not totally hate it but at the time, given so little Haruhi out there, I was a little annoyed at the prospect of "wasting" 8 of 14 episodes on the same exact episode (yes I know, they are different whatever).

MoHS is in my top 5 anime of all time so even as annoying as it was to me, I still appreciate it.

[Gendal]

Finally started watching Nodame Cantabile, was hooked after the first episode. The first two episodes are pretty heavy on the laughs but I couldn't stop watching it till the final episode.

Short of Twelve Kingdoms and Mushishi it's pretty much as good as anime gets for me. If it wasn't for these three gems I would have given up on anime on a long time ago.

[The Bitter Cynic]

Good lord, I got Netflix instant watch for my Wii.

I have watch so much anime in the last couple weeks.

From "Devil May Cry" to "Jyo-Oh-Sei. I am having an anime overload, but I like it.

Soul Eater I rather enjoyed.

[TurinTur]

The Level E anime is a competent, well drawn, well animated faithful adpatation of a great manga. So it's being great! :)

[Miramon]

I finally got around to watching Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R, which are really linked to form a single large story. Not bad. Slightly redefines the magic system, but everything is still generally consistent. Looks like the original animators could have just continued the series last decade instead of taking however many years off it was, as the design and animation seem perfectly consistent with the older series.

Typical Slayers mix of random ludicrous joke episodes with a slow dramatic arc buildup that ends in a climax that is always remarkably affecting considering the general silliness and caricatured character style.

Anyhow, I've always liked Slayers for some reason, so it was fun to see some new episodes. I particularly like how utterly evil Lina's incantations can be, especially Dragon Slave and Giga Slave.

Darkness beyond twilight, crimson beyond the blood that flows. Buried in the stream of time is where your power grows. In Thy great name, I pledge myself to darkness! Those who oppose us shall be destroyed by the power you and I possess! DRAGON SLAVE!

Of course she's pledging herself to the most destructive and powerful entity in all of creation every time she casts her favorite spell....

[Narration]

Kore wa Zombie desu ka? is fucking fantastic in every way. Level E has very stylish animation, and it didn't exactly bore me, but I think I need to warm to it some more before I make any judgment.

[Alstein]

I finally got around to watching Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R, which are really linked to form a single large story. Not bad. Slightly redefines the magic system, but everything is still generally consistent. Looks like the original animators could have just continued the series last decade instead of taking however many years off it was, as the design and animation seem perfectly consistent with the older series.

Typical Slayers mix of random ludicrous joke episodes with a slow dramatic arc buildup that ends in a climax that is always remarkably affecting considering the general silliness and caricatured character style.

Anyhow, I've always liked Slayers for some reason, so it was fun to see some new episodes. I particularly like how utterly evil Lina's incantations can be, especially Dragon Slave and Giga Slave.


Of course she's pledging herself to the most destructive and powerful entity in all of creation every time she casts her favorite spell....

I love Slayers, but it peaked with Next. Try was still good, but the OVAs and Revolution were disappointing by Slayers standards. I'd say Slayers was probably one of the most influential shows in what I ended up liking, alongside Kenshin and Urusei Yatsura.

The funny thing was how popular shoujo was among the arcade rats I used to hang out with back in the 90s though, such as Cha Cha and Maramalade Boy.

[Lynxara]

Looks like the original animators could have just continued the series last decade instead of taking however many years off it was, as the design and animation seem perfectly consistent with the older series.

So apparently the reason why we stopped getting Slayers back in the day is that the production team back then decided they'd taken Slayers as far as they could with Try. Someone had the bright idea to try and keep the franchise going in the same time slot, so to speak, by making shows set in the other "pillars" of the Lord of Nightmares's world.

Each of the four pillars was supposed to be happening in a different genre, causing the physics and characters to be different. So they produced Lost Universe, set in the sci-fi pillar, which turned into a complete disaster due to the Budget Crash and a studio fire. After Lost Universe finished, the production team simply dissolved.

The current TV productions spun out of renewed interest in the property brought about when the light novel series finally published its last volume in 2008. The original production team got back together and decided to just pick up where they'd initially left off. Right now there's a bunch of manga running in Japan and more anime might even be possible.