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I revisited the romance recommendations thread recently, and as a result, watched Myself; Yourself.

Talk about a tale of two halves. spoiler[The first six episodes are just standard romcom fare. All the little setups you expect from the genre are present, the ogling of large boobs, walking in on someone after they'd tripped onto a girl, hohoho. I don't drop stuff if I've gotten halfway through so I carried on regardless, and imagine my utter surprise when the second half became a free-for-all of all the heaviest issues typically present in the genre.

Post Traumatic Stress, adultery, twincest (implied, very possible though), child abuse, spurned yuri lovers, Cancer, absentee guardians, suicide, bullying, killer grannies, murderous parents... All crammed into the second half of a show I was quickly becoming bored of. None of this stuff is particularly new for anyone familiar with VN adaptations but it was the pacing that took me by surprise most of all, I guess. None of it was ground breaking but it was just such a contrast to the first half of the series.]

There was also a notable lack of actual romance. Due to the amount of stuff packed into a small window towards the end, spoiler[the Nanako route wasn't really explored fully until the last three episodes. During the main body of the series the two leads don't really deal with their feelings for each other, since they're too busy with the skeletons in their respective closets. The flashback/flashforward scenarios seemed a little ham-fisted as well. I actually groaned when I saw 'Ten years later' on the screen.]

Was a very weird series. It felt very much like a VN in anime form, so I guess the guys responsible for trying to make it stand on its own as a story failed in that respect.

dtm42 wrote:

Just dropped DearS, rated it as Bad.
One episode.

Heh, not much really grinds my gears, but Dears is one of them.

The gist of the show is "Slavery is good, and should be accepted."
Digging deeper, that is it. Slavery. Good.
If that is your goal, go watch Fencer of Minerva.

Who thought the above would fly in America?

Heaven's lost property might challenge this for the most objectionable title.

Just started watching Kodocha. I picked up the Laugh Factory Funi bundle from TRSI just so I could get my hands on this show. I hadn't been able to sample it via any other means so I just went ahead and bought the first 2 seasons.

My initial interest in the show came about after browsing the old "VAs who nailed a role" thread and seeing Laura Bailey as Sana get mentioned a few times. I'm through 8 episodes of this show and it's been quite fun. Laura Bailey has been absolutely amazing as Sana. I'll agree with a few people in that thread and say it's the best performance I've heard in my (still) young anime viewing career. She plays an 11 year old girl who is the star of a hit tv series. Most of the show takes place in her 6th grade classroom where it's been a boys vs. girls comedy.

The show itself is sitting around a 7 or an 8 depending on how well the comedy is working. The mom's quirky hats aren't hitting for me.

Laura Bailey has the most range of any VA in the business right now. Her skills are sitting at 11 in this show. She nails the high-speed excitement that is Sana's character, yet also tones it down perfectly in the more serious or dramatic spots. Not to mention she sings as well as raps. She also doesn't suffer from type cast like, say Cherami Leigh, who I'm 100% sure is voicing Lucy in the Fairy Tail dub even though I haven't looked it up yet to make sure (just checked and yep she is). I bought Kodacha because I wanted to see just how good a VA can be and I'm not disappointed.

It also helps that LB is smokin' hot and I'd probably kill somebody if she asked me to do it in her Lust voice. Laughing

Hanasaku Iroha and Usagi Drop are the only "slice of life" types of shows I've ever been able to finish, and I finished both of them recently.
Usagi Drop was just buckets of cute and feel-good; and while I would normally try and put as much sarcasm and vitriol into that independent clause as possible, for some reason this show just "worked" on me. I know single-parent isn't a big demographic for anime, but maybe it should be.
Hanasaku Iroha is just weird, but not in the same way as shows like Lucky Star or K-On! (shows I've never attempted to hide my hate for). The show was much more calm, and much less cherubic than the aforementioned fare, taking it's time and just being...mellow...er. There are a lot of bizarre situations to be sure, and hi-jinx do ensue; but nothing falls too far outside the scope of possible-yet-highly-unlikely. I would say the most unrealistic the show gets is spoiler[concerning a group of military nuts, who probably would have been thrown out of a real inn (and possibly into a long-term care facility).]
I watched this show with a friend who thought it was slightly unrealistic how hard the girls work, which I thought was sad; I spend a lot of time around kids their age (I'm a teacher and work at a restaurant during the summer), and I've known many to work just as hard. They might not be common, but they're there all right; people, especially older ones, simply have a hard time seeing what they don't expect to see.

So, yeah; I liked these shows a lot, but I don't really think they're for everyone, so that kind of lowered my rating (I gave them both very good). Still, they are both as enjoyable as anything else I've seen these last few years, and that's definitely worth something.

I´m Watching Ra-hephon. I wanted to see a mecha anime. I'm enjoying the serie. There is myterius, action, music, betrayal and war.

Since I recently watched all 3 of the Tenchi Muyo OVAs (yes I own all of them). I decided to watch Tenchi Muyo! GXP.

Just cause it seemed like a good idea.

BTW on the 3rd disc of Ryo-Ohki there is a live action segment that features the 2 voice actresses who played the "cabbits" in the GXP show. They kind of spoil quite a bit about GXP, especially if you have not seen it.

So, I finally decided to start Code Geass. I've never seen it before. In fact, all I know about it is that there is an empire that invades Japan, and apparently the empire is supposed to represent the US or something. Well, I figured it was about time for me to find out what all the fuss is about, so here goes. The very high ratings here on ANN have me intrigued, so it should be a good watch.

Trying out Magic Knight Rayearth season one, and I do enjoy it. Art is pretty good and it has that fantasy setting that I adore. I feel the comedy pop up to fit in better that FMA: Brotherhood, although the random cat ears is a bit much. Although its early for me, I feel as though its going to go places later on, so happy to have found this.

Finished Cross Game and rated it very good. At first this anime was a bit weird because every character seemed to have an attitude problem. I guess it's because of the art style. I did get somewhat used to it though. Most episodes were equally entertaining though there were a few great episodes and a few bad ones to balance it out.

Started watching Tiger & Bunny, seen 5 episodes. Seems good so far. It has a bit of a western feel to it. Like the relationship between Kotetsu and his daughter and the art style. I'm not one to judge, but I think the CGI looks awkward (or whatever you call it, I'm a complete novice when it comes down to these things). Animation will not bother me though, what bothers me is Bunny. I wonder how long he is going to be annoying...

Hey Nosferatu21, just thought you might want to know that Laura Bailey is now a happily married woman. She married the always awesome Travis Willingham in September of this year.
He is one lucky guy!

Anyhow still watching GXP.
Neju just showed up, so I guess I am about half done now.
Since this is the older single disc release I am on disk 5 of 8.

Wanted to mention that it was kind of cool to see the locations that inspired the Tenchi stuff. Some of which are almost identical to the anime locales. Such as the Demon Offering Rock, and the temple (Tenbo IIRC).

@EricDent I'm well aware that she's married. I hold Travis no ill will or anything. Laughing

That last comment was just a spiced up, more fun way to say that she's quite attractive. Wink

The message I was trying to get across was with how high of regard I hold her VA skills in this business.

Finally got around to watching Black Lagoon. I really enjoyed it. I knew it was going to be action-packed with bullets everywhere. I'd give it a 9/10. The show delivered action and that's exactly what I was looking for. Now on to season 2.

I'm currently watching Yu Yu Hakusho, because I was on tumblr and saw these random Yu Yu Hakusho gifs, and it really looked awesome. Currently on episode 30 and loving it so far, gonna be a long one, as I'm not usually a guy who watches an anime with 100+ episodes.

Watched Hellsing. Not Hellsing Ultimate, just regular Hellsing. I thought it was so-so, not as bad as I've heard it made out to be, but something about it just oddly bored me, though I wouldn't call the show outright boring, I guess it's just not for me. I kinda just kept almost falling asleep during the entire last disc for some reason, no idea why. I'd give it a 6 out of 10, but I can understand why someone would like it way more than me.

And then I ran calculations on my sudden backlog. I used to not have a backlog for more than like a month since I'd buy like 2 anime then watch them before buying anything else excluding something rare at a great price or something. But as of Xmas (I decided to include Xmas anime in this) and due to my sudden reading of manga over anime way much that lasted all summer (which now seems to be reversing a bit as anime is back in the diet), I probably don't need to buy any anime for at least the next 6 months! I have 78 discs to watch, a total of 302 episodes and 2 movies (14 series and 2 movies). How did this happen?!
See, Hellsing was in the backlog because I bought it when I bought Basilisk. I watched Basilisk pretty much right away while Hellsing sat on my shelf for quite a while, which was why finishing it made me go "uh oh, I bet the status on the backlog is just horrific!" And then Skyward Sword came out, but now that I've beaten it, I can watch more animes now!

Last edited by Errinundra on Tue Nov 07, 2017 8:01 pm; edited 1 time in total

Buddha: The Great Departure

I've just got home from seeing this film at the cinema. It was shown as part of the Japanese International Film Festival which has just rolled into Melbourne. I only found out about it this morning, thanks to a death nell news item at ANN AU. Arietty is showing on Sunday but I suspect it's already sold out.

Buddha: The Great Departure covers the early part Buddha's life where, as the Prince Siddhartha, he is heir to the Shakya kingdom, which is constantly at war with the more powerful Kosala kingdom. Siddhartha's father tries both to raise as him as a warrior leader and to shield him from the miseries of the world. Of course, he is successful at neither and the young Buddha eventually renounces his privileged life to seek a greater understanding of the world and its obligatory suffering.

The film is based on the manga by Osamu Tezuka and is a fictionalised account of the Buddha's life. Several of the principle characters - Migaila, Chapra, Tatta - are inventions of Tezuka's, which isn't a bad thing at all as the three have strong and memorable personalities, whereas the historical characters, including Siddhartha, are wooden by comparison. Siddhartha's wife was altogether too much one of those Tezuka cutesy Betty Boop look alikes to be taken seriously.

For a film with pretensions to grandeur it is surprisingly mundane in execution at times (possibly due to budget limitations) and some of the dramatic scenes fall flat. In one death scene the "dead" character unexpectedly lifts her head and starts talking before having the good grace to finally expire properly. It came across as quite odd. These failings are more than compensated by other dramatic scenes that work well and, thanks to the giant screen and quality sound system, some stunning vistas and sound effects. Some of the battle scenes just won't be the same on a home system no matter how good. The film didn't flinch from the presenting the cruelties of life, including those inflicted upon children and women. Nevertheless, it faithfully captures the optimism that is such an essential element of any Tezuka work.

The source material is so rich and so extraordinary that even a ham-fisted portrayal would have some merit. This version is much better than that but sometimes falls short of what it may have been. Rating: good.

Great Teacher Onizuka

This has been such a chore to get through. I perservered through 43 episodes because so many people seem to think it's brilliant and it does, admittedly, have some good moments. The problem for me is that, as happened with Neon Genesis Evangelion, I'm just too old to appreciate where it's coming from. Like its near contemporary it's intended to appeal to the teenage male psyche: from the personality of the central character to the caricatures that are the deputy principal, the nurse, the evil female students, the big-breasted dumb girl and the universally troubled students of either gender. Not a single character appealed to me and Onizuka himself is a mess of a creation. His behaviour is always subordinated to the comedy no matter how much it deviates from his normal character - he is quite the split personality. He spends most story arcs proving himself a complete idiot then - miraculously - with a few minutes to go becomes the wise teacher dispensing just the right advice or remedy to some poor student's lifelong trauma.

Probably the most interesting character is the heterochromatic Urumi Kanzaki who retains enough evil traits after Onizuka rescues her to always leave me wondering what she might do next, and who metes out some satisfying rough justice to Onizuka and other deserving characters. That she is voiced by my favourite seiyuu, Kotono Mitsuishi probably helps, even if she is closer to her Sailor Moon squawk than the gravelly voiced Jean from Claymore.

Absolute highlight of the series happens when Onizuka agrees to step in temporarily for a missing bridegroom at a wedding. The impossibly sweet bride smiles at Onizuka, revealing a shark's maw, with the entire wedding party following suit. I couldn't believe my eyes at first. Full marks for that. The young man's image of commitment, I suppose.

YIKES!

Rating: decent. Yeah, I've trashed it but GTO does have enough amusing moments to be rated this high.

Spirit of Wonder and Spirit of Wonder: Scientific Boys Club

I got on to these thanks to an quote from Calathan in the quote guessing game. Like the first two titles of this post I ended up having mixed feelings about these OAVs from 1992 and 2001, respectively. On the up side, both OAVs splendidly capture the sense of wonder promised in the title. The tales involve various eccentric characters with outlandish dreams who stick to their guns through thick and thin. The end results of their labours are unfailingly astounding and bizarre. For the most part the OAVs are a heaps of fun. The artwork and animation is never first rank but the tales are charmingly sentimental. Tying the stories together is the well endowed, muddle-headed and kind-hearted China, who owns a restaurant on the outskirts of Bristol in 1950s England. All the men take advantage of her but somehow she always overcomes her indignation and inspires them to ever greater achievements. Therein lies my greatest reservation with the OAVs - the fanservice. The middle-aged, and older, men relentlessly harass the young female characters by fondling their breasts and lifting their skirts. I think it's supposed to be part of their childish fun but it just comes across as tacky. It seriously spoils the tone of both OAVs. You would have thought people would have learnt after the first one but, no, things are just as bad, if not worse, ten years later.

Ratings: Spirit of Wonder - good; Scientific Boys Club - decent. I prefer the earlier OAV because of its more appealing visual style and the somewhat less endowed but more attractive China character design. The newer OAV more or less continues the formulae of the original.

errinundra wrote:

Onizuka himself is a mess of a creation. His behaviour is always subordinated to the comedy no matter how much it deviates from his normal character - he is quite the split personality. He spends most story arcs proving himself a complete idiot then - miraculously - with a few minutes to go becomes the wise teacher dispensing just the right advice or remedy to some poor student's lifelong trauma.

I think this is a pretty common archetype in a lot of the comedy series I tend to pick up. I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say he's a mess of a creation... The point is, he has this life experience and wisdom the whole time, but he's just a massive slacker. He's happy to let things run their course and get by doing as little as possible, but he knows where to draw the line before things get too out of hand. I think he came across as more genuine in his care for the kids because he had a lot of kid-like traits of his own. He's a teacher, but he's one of them. I'll admit the timing of his revelations always seems a bit cliché but again, that's the archetype. I can see how it might frustrate some.

We're over the midpoint of this season and a lot of the one cours shows are in full swing, so the rest of this post is long overdue, but hey ho, better late than never. Once again, I picked up far too many shows this season:

The Bakuman train rumbles on through arc after arc, and I'm still happy to be onboard. This is one of the shows I look forward to most each week, because it ticks a lot of boxes for me. I like the leads, the story is interesting, the comedy is well done and not overused and there's a romance angle as well. Sometimes it does stretch credibility a little but I very rarely demand credibility from my anime, at least not within this genre. The pacing of this second season has been a revelation also, almost completely opposite of the snail's pace set in season one.

Ben-to is the best comedy I've picked up recently. It's a daft show based on a daft premise that works for reasons it really shouldn't. It's not particularly original and you'll see the same gags you see in most comedies, but it's always given a bit of extra flavour here. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's refreshing to the genre, but it does what it does and it does it pretty well. Generic? Slightly. Funny? Definitely.

C³: Cube x Cursed x Curious started terribly. The first episode was very nearly enough for me to drop it right off the bat. It was seemingly devoid of any original ideas and I wasn't sure I had space this season for another run through the same routines. My policy of giving every show three episodes paid dividends, however. The story makes up its mind and gets on track pretty quickly after the first couple of episodes. The artwork is, for want of a better word, glorious. If you're a fan of the art and direction in things like ef: melodies/memories you'll know what to expect here. Someone in the thread commented that it's almost SHAFT-like, and I'm inclined to agree. The pacing is mildly annoying now we're past the midpoint (Lots of questions to answer in the remaining four episodes) but the seiyuu talent and eye candy visuals are enough to ensure I see it through.

Guilty Crown is a bit of a mess if you consider the kind of show it's aspiring to be. The plot seems to get tangled within itself more often than not, and a lot of patience is being asked of the viewer if it's going to tie everything up in a neat package at some point. However... As with C³, the production values here appeal to my fanboy side. It appeals to the side of me that likes overblown action scenes set to a suitably rousing score. It appeals to the side of me that likes quiet, frustrating and morose pink haired chicks. It appeals to the side of me that loves the fact you can take a ridiculous plot device and just run with it. Despite all this, I think it's pretty niche in its appeal and the hate is probably justified.

Speaking of convoluted plots... Step forward Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon. I honestly could not tell you why I watch this every week, yet every week, there I am, watching the damned thing. I've seen people in the thread be all like 'Oh guys, what're you talking about, this is pretty straightforward to follow'. These people are big, fat liars Laughing

. The key to figuring it all out is being in possession of background info to go with the series, since the actual anime ain't gonna give an inch. There was a mini bite-sized recap at the end of episode one (OH GOD EPISODE ONE) but beyond that, not much explanation as to why there are over 9000 characters or why all these people are trying to blow each other up or why the entirety of episode 08 was dedicated to a shounen-style DEBATE BATTLE. It can't juggle drama and comedy to any great effect and it often drops the ball on both counts. Yet here I am, watching it every damned week. I'm morbidly fascinated, I don't know what to tell you guys. Trainwreck anime has never been such compulsive viewing.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is my solid '7' of the season. It's funny when it needs to be, drops the serious bombs when it needs to, and plods along at a pedestrian pace. It does the bare minimum it needs to do in order to hold my interest but it's not something I'd recommend to someone looking for a good comedy. The character designs are appealing but I think that's more down to the fact they look like extras from Denpa Onna, a series I enjoyed greatly (I believe they have the same designer, whodathunkit). Good seiyuu cast but then again, it's not the most challenging of material. I'll watch it, mildly enjoy it and then never watch it again.

Last Exile 2 is pretty much meeting all expectations I had of it, and I had pretty high expectations. Comparisons to the original are inevitable, and since the original is widely regarded as something of a masterpiece, the watermark is set very high here. As such, disappointment with some aspects is perhaps unavoidable, and I have tiny issues with the plot. I'm not sure if it's pacing or padding that's niggling away at me, but something's not as it should be. The production values are, as expected, pretty jaw dropping, and I think I expect the plot to be as epic as the airship battles. Maybe I'm being too harsh; judging it as a standalone I'd probably run out of superlatives here. But again, back to the original, something that made it such a great anime was the immersive story set alongside the amazing visuals. Maybe I feel that the synergy with Claus and Lavie is superior to what we're seeing here with Fam and Gisey (Though I love Gisey to death), or should that be Fam and Millia? The relationship between those three is probably going to be the catalyst for all that follows, so I'll reserve full judgement til we see how it pans out.

Mashiroiro Symphony is my guilty pleasure anime. It's generic in every way. It's a cookie cutter VN adaptation and to anyone familiar with the genre this show is like slipping on an old pair of battered trainers. No surprises, no suspense, just cozy, predictable harem romance. It's not really exceptional in any way (Though having a male lead who is neither whiny nor stupid is always a breath of fresh air) but it'll probably have one of your favourite types of anime girl in its cast (Scratch that, megane lovers are out of luck here). Inoffensive fluff.

Mirai Nikki was the show I was looking forward to most this season, the PV having caught my eye when it was released. I love yandere chicks, and it promised to scratch my psychological thriller itch. The actual series is not all I'd hoped. I can't stand the male lead, the female lead (Despite being FULLY AWESOME) has a really annoying voice and the monster-of-the-fortnight format is a turn-off for me. I'm being nit-picky but I really had high hopes for it. The animation is less than spectacular also, there are a lot of good looking shows this season and the colours here look flat alongside those. The psychological aspect is holding up its end of the bargain though, you'll find some pretty messed up individuals within. I just feel like it could be a bit better, y'know?

UN-GO thought it'd be pretty fun to try its own psychological angle this week. I've been close to dropping this show on more than one occasion, I think episode four or five granted a temporary reprieve and I found myself at episode seven feeling neither enthusiasm nor dislike of the show. I was at a complete 'meh' with the series and then it flipped everything on its head this past episode. It was seriously like watching a David Lynch directed anime, all alternate realities and everyone being a metaphor or representative of something else. Make no mistake, I HAVE to watch the next episode and see what the hell is going on, credit to the writers for chucking that little kidney shot in there. It's a one cours as far as I know, so if it continues something of a main arc and drops its weekly mystery shenanigans then it might have potential. As it stands, it's one gigantic question mark.

I'm also watching Working!! season two, but it's just an extension of season one really. If you liked season one you'll like this, if you didn't then you won't. If you've never seen season one then I recommend watching that and making your mind up based on that.

tl;dr version: This season, I am mostly enjoying the pretty looking shows.

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