The Animes Talk v2
 

I got tired of waiting, plus the forum crash made the wait even longer.
If this thread breaks some rule or whatever, just delete it.

So I have just recently gotten caught up with Akame Ga Kill, which is really odd for me as I don't ever watch an anime that is still being released, as I hate waiting, but my brother got me into it and I'm hooked. I can't figure out why exactly I like it, I'm sure it's something totally messed up and I'll feel guilty about liking it after I find out, but for the time being it mystifies me and I love it.

The latest episode kinda messed me up though, as I imagine it did for a few people, with the death of bols, the kind arsonist.

I didn't watch any anime.

See you all next thread.

You probably watched one, but are too embarrassed to confess

I saw the third Madoka Magica movie, Rebellion, since the last thread. It lacked all of the charm and intriguing story that made the series interesting. Also it was still about magical girls.

I got a poster because it was a special screening, but I was too embarrassed to put it up on my wall so I gave it away. I'm supposed to be a grown ass man now or something.

I have a hell of a lot of complaints about the third Madoka movie. Mostly the plot which was nonsense and the overt religious symbolism which was probably the reason why.

Also I know an awful lot about dem animes and quite a bit about the production process and suchlike. I'm also the best Japanese reader on this forum (Unless Rexy decides to grace us with her presence again). What I'm saying here is AMA. I guarantee I'm a better source of information than ANN.

I'm watching the following with a friend:
Parasyte
Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis
Top wo Nerae! Gunbuster (2 episodes in)

all which are alright so far. Shingeki no Bahamut has some pretty good animation, though, and Parasyte is probably the most interesting one out of the three.

I've watched my share of anime but I wouldn't call myself an expert or anything like that. Most of the anime I've seen are the well known ones, like Cowboy Bebop, FLCL, TTGL, Eureka Seven, Trigun, etc.

The Parasyte manga is one of my favourites. Graphic violence, gorgeous art, alien perspectives and rumination on the nature of humanity?

Yes. Yes, those things.

Joe showed me a screencap of the anime. I wasn't impressed. Aparrently Mugi's voice sounds about right, though, which is something.

I really like Bahamut. It feels more like a western movie than anime and that's pretty neat. Mappa's other production this season, Garo, is the same sort of setting but feels like some kind of play. Highly recommended.

Best anime currently airing is Shirobako. It's an anime about working in the anime industry which was stealth marketed as a cute girls show. Very well informed and in depth with a lot of heart and crushes ill founded ideas about the industry (Most notably four episodes in and they haven't mentioned the word 'budget' once, It's just not important in the making of a hand-drawn animation).

As for Gunbuster stick with it. The ending is worth every second of frustration and boredom if you're not big on it. It's the perfect ending. Even people who hate the show adore it.

Not really fair to judge the quality of the visuals on a single screencap. Maybe have a look at these?

Also yes it's good. Very very good.



The opening is kind of uh hilariously bad though. I like it!

Also that thing I just linked, Sakugabooru? It's a really really good resource if you have any interest in animation at all (And not just Japanese).

I recently remembered that Haganai had a second season and started watching that, to my surprise it has a dub, which I thought only the first season had. It's very enjoyable, even if the voices are... well, bad, which is odd because a number of the voice actors have had roles in other anime that they did actually rather well.

A bad ADR director can slay a good cast. Same with a bad director with good material or a bad music director with a good composer. I'm not really well read in the dubbing scene though. Only which company to avoid in a rule of thumb (Hint: It starts with Sentai and ends with Filmworks).

The second season starts off with the skeeziest bits of the first but actually does something very interesting towards the end and I certainly enjoyed it more than the first which kind of... petered out towards the end in a big way. It's not really a favourite anyway but enjoyable enough.

Also, if we're broadening the discussion to manga as well, I've been reading Homunculus very slowly for a while and I just started Vagabond. I also follow Berserk (when it updates every several months), and uh.......Naruto. Mostly because I want to see it to the end, and also be amused over how ridiculous and stupid it's become. Because boy has it become ridiculous and stupid.

If I end up really liking the anime by the time it's over, there's a good chance I'll check out the manga to see what it's like. Also to see anything that may have been censored in the anime, like how the penis-arm is only shown for like...maybe one frame in the anime?

I'll keep Garo in mind although I'll probably push it off until I'm done watching/reading another thing, just because I can sometimes be a wuss when it comes to following multiple stories at once. It's the main reason why I said above that I've been reading Homunculus for a while now. I've taken so many breaks.

I don't have a clue about the anime industry so I'm not sure if most of the commentary it makes would go over my head. I'll check it out, though...eventually.

And yeah I'm definitely going to stick with Gunbuster. It's only six episodes so it's not like it's that big of a time commitment, and so far it hasn't made me too bored. Also now you've made me curious about the ending.

My god, yes it is. Holy shit.

The animation looks fine. It's the art I don't like. It's so flat and bland, when the original was so graphic and striking. It's not just a taste thing, either; it was elementary to the tone.

"Tired" is the keyword here, and as their ordeals drag on, the characters get wearier, less human. The art ties into this. In contrast to the slick vectors and soft shading of most of the field, the weight of ink here feels heavy. It's like every scene has bags under its eyes.

That said, I can see how it would be really fucking hard to animate. Your average studio probably wouldn't want to stump up that kind of cash for a style that would probably scare off half the audience.

Moral of the story is, as ever, read the X before you watch the Y.

EDIT: Skimming an episode. Needs more of this.



Noted.

That "scene" (it's just one panel in the manga, too) is so hilariously out of tone with the rest of the story that I'm surprised they even included it in the adaptation.

While I'm here, here's an out-of-context page from the manga that I definitely didn't spend the last forty minutes trying to find.

http://z.mfcdn.net/store/manga/588/0...d/ki38_035.jpg

That explains it very well. I watched it with my brother during his first all-nighter, start to end, we didn't even know there was a dub at the time.

I watched some Nichijou, was pretty good

Might watch A:LoA from the beginning too since I never watched it in order or finished it when it was on TV.

I... don't know what that is?

Avatar: Legend of Aang.

It's this neato show about a boy with an arrow on his head.

Oh. Do we subtitle it Legend of Aang nowadays?

It's pretty damn good. S2 best S.

I've just been made brutally aware that it is more frequently (pretty much always) referred to as Avatar: The Last Airbender. So now I feel a bit stupid for the smart arse comment.

e: Although I do remember the Nickelodeon voice over presenter dude introducing it as Legend of Aang, so now I'm legitimately confused.

I'm quite a way into SAO. I don't know what everyone's problem with it is, I don't think it's amazing but it's certainly not terrible by any means.

Most people are not talking about season 1, which I enjoyed quite a lot. Season 2 is aweful though and feels like a bad fanfiction.

I actually quite liked SAO but it's completely incompetent at just about everything it wants to be. The first half of the first season in particular is horrendously disjointed and the climax is total nonsense.

If you want a good 'Trapped in an MMO' anime then try Log Horizon. It's really really really good. Give it five or six episodes though. It starts off very weak and gets better every episode compared to SAO which starts with a flashbang and fizzles out.

Also Lisbeth best girl, followed by Imoutits.

Yeah SAO has just gotten less and less interesting. All these episodic plots are completely inane and exist only to drag out the season. Also dem rushed/forced romances.

Have you gotten to the daughteru simulator arc yet? That's where most people realize SAO is never actually going to be good.

And then there's the second half which... I actually didn't hate because there's a continuous driving story and the setting looks nicer and stuff. Also it introduces Imoutits who is far far more interesting than Asuna.

Just started (actually, about halfway through in one night) Kill la Kill. I was at a sleep over last night and we were trying to decide an anime to watch and someone there compulsively clicked Kill La Kill and no one objected. Everyone there, but me, had seen it before, so it was more of people watching my reactions. This anime has so many "what" moments in it, but doesn't give you time to actually ask "what".

Worry not, this breakneck pace is the trademark of Kill La Kill.

Iiiit's all action no motion. Exactly the sort of trick that Attack on Titan and Death Note used. It seems like a lot is happening but nothing really is.

So the Naruto manga concluded last week. I haven't kept up with it for about ten years but I decided to read the whole darn thing start to finish. It's shonen and I have no delusions that it's something greater, but it was really nice to finish the story, finally. The last 200 issues (if not more) are one continuous battle that keeps escalating more and more, it goes well beyond the insipid ridiculousness that the series explained away with 'Ninja Magic' before, but it was engaging and entertaining as fuck.

Unfortunately I had a lot of shit spoiled ahead of time because the other people who like Naruto are fucktards with really, really terrible senses of humor and bookend scans with their nauseating fanart. The final issue did that Epilogue bullshit where everyone follows their dreams and got married, blah blah blah.

Now I'm going to try to catch up to One Piece, which if I remember correctly is about 5 Million chapters long, and ongoing. Anyway if anyone has some super-gory shonen to recommend me I'd be into it. On the level of grotesque as Gantz but not as pretentious please, thanks.

Anyway, I smell like the kind of person who has read the entirety of Naruto so I'm going to go do something about that.

Well, we all just spend a few million paragraphs talking about Parasyte. I guess it's not really shonen, but it does intersperse escalating violence with black humour and obligatory "There's no way I'm strong enough to win this next battle" monologue. Except when this guy talks to his shaking hand, it actually talks back.

Also Berserk, which I haven't read but I do like the art of and Joe just adores generally.

To be honest, the only shonen I've ever stuck with that wasn't also a ridiculous romcom is +Anima, and the violence in that is pretty bloodless. It's basically just Animorphs in ye olden days.

I'm getting pretty good mileage out of these twelve manga I've read, huh.

People seem to like Tokyo ghoul a lot.

Also HxH is surprisingly violent and mature without being pretentious. It's pretty much the greatest shonen ever.

I started watching Nana, 9 episodes in right now. I really enjoy this anime, but the preppy Nana of the show just has this face on her that... well...
http://i.imgur.com/Jq3Fi6l.png

this isn't reall the best example, but it's what I could find. She has the most soul stealing stare.