Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
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Hi, everybody! I just posted my analysis of Griffith from Berserk, so, um, please read it! m(_ _)m
Anyway, I finished Black Butler a while ago. I have to say, I thought the ending was perfect for the story it was telling. It may have been a bit sad, but I felt it was fitting. Also, spoiler[am I the only one who thinks the Angel was an underrated villain? Just me? Okay.] So, yeah, I liked it. I don't lurv the show, but it was a fun waste of time. I am also currently on Episode Three of Tokyo Ghoul. Can I just say right now that I have never related more to a character than I do to Ken Kaneki? Now, some of you may have filed him away under "whiny little b***h who doesn't just deal with it" (like Touka did), but I don't. Why? Kaneki has legitimate things to angst about, such as the fact that he has turned into a man-eating monster who might possibly lose his only friend due to the risk of going insane with hunger and killing him. Likewise, I feel that we have similar personalities in that we are both a bit unconfident and like to read. I even have a friend who's like a more down-to-earth Hide. Also, there's a scene in the third episode where Kaneki teaches Hinami kanji. By god, it is the cutest thing in the world. I couldn't stop daaaawing at it. 
So, that's all for today. I think I'm going to start Monster after I complete Death Note this month. I can't wait! |
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A Mystery
 Posts: 1888 Location: Netherlands |
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@DuelGundam: I think anyone would agree with you that the animation of Nodame Cantabile is quite bad.
However, I doubt that you'd hate the series just for the animation. There's nothing else grabbing you apparently. Nodame Cantabile isn't only a romance series, it relies heavily on how much you like its brand of humor and related to that, its main female character. The music and Nodame's interactions with other characters, combined with the humor was enough for me to get hooked. The main conflict of this show, in my opinion, is of the main characters struggling with themselves really. I got quite attached to both of the main characters and many other side characters who are both fun (to me) and all flawed in some way. Especially the main guy - he might be hot to their perspective but is quite arrogant. His interaction with Nodame however, causes him to change. I thought both Nodame and Chiaki's troubles with how they approach their future was done well, with an occasional drop of drama, but never too dark. Streseman, the composer you speak of in your review, is there precisely because he can teach Chiaki other ways of handling things, so Chiaki will be able to use his talent. At the start of the show, Chiaki caught himself in a corner where he cannot achieve his dreams, partly because of his fear of flying (which might only be a metaphor of fear in general, but I'm not good at thinking too deeply of things). The romance doesn't kick in until later, when it's really appropriate. Both characters are quite awkward and partly childish in that regard, so they needed to grow first. |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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Their interactions, which are the most important part of any romance, are done well. Nodame can be with Chiaki, because she is immune to his arrogance. Chiaki is clearly interested in Nodame’s potential, at least at the beginning. That they are together is believable. Secondly, their characterization is also good. They have their dreams, problems, bad sides, plans for future, etc. They are both well-written and fully developed characters. Their relationship evolves naturally. Something that is a problem in many romances where the heroine doesn’t realize her feelings for the main guy for no good reason. Take Akatsuki no Yona as an example. It is a good plot-driven shoujo with a mediocre romance. The romance in Nodame takes a long time, because the show focuses on the main character's struggles to become musicians, but it's a very good mix of slice of life and romance. |
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louis6578
 Posts: 1872 |
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Oh, you should enjoy Monster quite a bit. While both audio tracks are superb, I feel like this is one of Liam O'Brian's greatest performances, so just keep that in mind when deciding. I don't think there's much I can say that you haven't heard already (grey morality, villains portrayed as human beings rather than evil evilness, the amazing conflict of Tenma choosing to abandon or preserve his humanity, Johan being the best villain in fiction, etc.) so just see for yourself. On a side note, I'm surprised that you haven't seen Death Note yet. |
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Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
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^ Actually, I am. I'm almost done, actually. Like, just six or seven more episodes and I'm done with the series. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.
Also, I am a huge Liam O'Brien fangirl myself. He did a really great job on both Fate/Zero and Sailor Moon, and he has a great range! (If you watched both shows back to back, you'd hardly be able to tell the difference between his Kariya voice and his Nephrite voice). I also enjoyed his work on Paranoia Agent and Code Geass, personally.
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DuelGundam2099
 Posts: 533 |
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So after reading posts from A Mystery, Aylinn, and the first half of that topic nobahn posted, Nodame Cantabile is liked because: Humor clicks with people, interactions are good, the lack of on going plots, being super slow with its romance, and people relating to realistic goals? As for the high position it has it seems like it's because it is for the "it isn't typical" category. If I'm wrong here don't be afraid to point it out. I noticed both of you bring up Chiaki as arrogant, yet I just see a neat freak; I also didn't know he's an acrophobe although that would explain the weird airplane scene in the first episode's beginning. After just seeing episode 11 I tried to see what you guys saw and.... Well I guess it would help if I remembered the names of anyone beyond the main three.
Speaking of reaching episode 11, also did that with Little Goddess Karin and I remembered a massive complaint I barely touched upon last issue: Why are the bad guys so stupid? What is their objective? Why don't they fight Karin and her friends instead of giving long speeches and just showing up later to fight? It was established people without supernatural senses won't see them while they're transformed so being seen isn't an issue. In fact Karin just beats Kirio by calling him a peeping tom and he just teleports away being sad. What the HELL was that about!? WHY!? Speaking of why, why did their rings magically get stuck and unstuck? That was filler to such a degree that I almost had relapses, that is not a good thing when the adhesive keeping your brain together is pudding the racoons constant want to snack on- Wait, Firefox doesn't recognize racoons as proper spelling? 
Also I started two new anime today, officially cutting down most of my backlog to sequels, movies, and three TV series (one having long episodes, one being Monster, and the last having glacier speed subs). Also Doomed Megapolis because that isn't a movie. The first of the bunch is Ghost Story which- OH DEAR LORD, A HORROR ANIME WHERE BOTH THE OPENING AND ENDING THEMES FIT THE TONE!?  Did I die!? That almost never happens! And neither have lyrics, they're just atmospheric like horror should be! And it isn't jammed packed with obnoxious humor! And plot is being established! And there is a lot of world build up! And nobody has done anything stupid yet! And the pacing was reasonable! One episode in and I already like this!
The other series being Scrapped Princess, recommended to me way back at Macross World....  I'm still sad, they never even told me what I did wrong. Anyway.... How not to do a first episode! So basically what I can gather is that royal siblings have been on the run, the younger sister is said to bring a prophecy of doom or something and the other two act as body guards while their kingdom wants her dead. I feel like this episode should be set at a later time. The music is somewhat bad and the unfriendly villagers gives off the impression you're supposed to hate these people. What is scrappy doo going to do, summon Skarbrand The Exile? "Duel you didn't just reference that because Games-Workshop just released a Skarbrand mini along with new Tau models and a new codex for them did you?" To which I reply "Well have you seen all the other named greater daemons of chaos? None of the Great Unclean Ones or Keeper of Secrets have anything physically distinct, every Lord of Change other than Kairos is a laughable failure and even the Fateweaver seems over powered in-game, and other Bloodthirsters don't have a lot of distinction either." My point is this first episode seemed overwhelming and feels like you entered at a bad point to start, much like the people not familiar with Warhammer that just read that; one of my nerdy tangents came in handy for demonstrating my point. 
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5132 |
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^
Just FYI: Scrapped Princess has a radical plot twist ~2/3 of the way through the series. (I certainly didn't see the plot twist coming.) |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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You weren't the only one who hated the first episode of Scrapped Princess, I hated it so much, I temporarily dropped the series. Like, a year or so later, I decided to give it another chance and try to ignore the first ep sucking, and that worked out far better as it's actually a really good series, but the first episode just shows all the worst traits of the main characters (except maybe Raquel), but especially of Pacifica. It's like, I know she's a princess, but she doesn't have to act so self-entitled! Luckily, some of that calms down and she becomes more sympathetic and less of a waste of skin.
While I wouldn't blame you for wanting to stop after one of the worst first episodes either, you are missing a good series at the end of the day, I'm certainly glad I went back to it (and that rarely happens too). Oh, but that eye catch jingle? I never got used to that, it's like it's there just to break the mood, and it does it without fail every damn time. |
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Aylinn
Posts: 1684 |
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I wouldn’t say it is liked for the lack of plot. It is liked, because it depicts the struggles of young people very well and the characterization is great. Something that will appeal to people who like slice of life. It’s highly regarded, because interactions are done well. The fact that it is not typical has little to do with it. Besides, romances are often super slow, so it’s not like it’s atypical. What is different is that their relationship doesn’t seem far-fetched. Once again I will take Akatsuki no Yona as an example. In AnY the whole romance is very slow as well, but it is done by keeping Yona unaware of Hak’s feelings, even though everyone else realized that Hak likes Yona a long time ago. It makes her look as if she were dim-witted and in AnY’s case this is totally unnecessary. The author could handle the whole situation differently and have the same result, by which I mean that Yona realizes that Hak loves her, but is not with him. It would be enough if she said something like that ‘I am sorry Hak, but with my current state of mind, I don’t have any intention of getting into a romantic relationship. We may try in the future, if you are still interested.’ Her previous beloved ended up killing her father. It would be understandable how it would considerably dampen her enthusiasm for any romantic relationship for a long time, but the author went for the generic ‘she doesn’t realize he likes her’ route instead of choosing the more logical solution. This is not an issue in Nodame. The romance may be slow, but it doesn’t feel like the author has no idea what to do with it. Last edited by Aylinn on Sun Oct 18, 2015 1:41 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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Tonight I got done watching [Chibi Vampire] Karin. I can proudly say that I had a great start of October watching it. Never before have I watched a show in which a starring female has been under the unfortunate curse of being victim of frequent nosebleeds. Karin's reverse vampirism, while a bit mortifying to her in many cases, has brought about some hilarious moments, including attracting a dimwitted teenage vampire hunter that has fallen in love with her while being unaware of her inner being. They're what made this show so enjoyable, from my honest viewpoint.
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DuelGundam2099
Posts: 533 |
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I did it, I finally finished Nodame Cantabile, marathoned twelve episodes in one day with little breakage. Oh dear. It was either this or Kakuranger and that wasn't going so well. Only characters I remember are Mine, Masumi, Eto, Eto's wife Kaoru, and Chiaki's little sister. Everyone else.... Did nothing I found worth remembering. I like how Chiaki's acrophobia is dealt with briefly in eps 18 and 19 instead of becoming an over-arching issue. Also, Megumi was apparently abused as a child which explains her psychology, but it comes out of nowhere. The last quarter seems to throw in as many concerts as possible which, to be honest, are the only points I found remotely of interest. Then there was the ending "Oh yeah I do have feelings for that slob" "BTW we're a couple now, lets head off to France to study!" I am assuming these are college students, but that doesn't explain their graduation in the middle of the series. Everything seems like random event strings with nothing of significance. This is a rare breed of dull, I get there is "taking it slow", but with the exception of the last episode I found no romantic chemistry which should classify this as "is the oven even on?" leveled. I have to give this a low score, it gave too little over a very long period of time. Even a lot anime that feel bad to me there were things to latch onto. Paris Chapter/Story/Saga/whatever the official English translation is named will be taken on very soon; I will assume and grant the benefit of the doubt that this will be like When They Cry where the first series is just set up for latter entries.
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1789 Location: South America |
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Finished watching Charlotte. Very good series with multiple cool plot twists (reminded me of Madoka) and keep me fully engaged to the end. One of the most entertaining series I watched this year.
I also began to watch Takahata's 1974 classic Heidi. Miazaki said it's Takahata's masterpiece but I am finding if boring so far: like Totoro but 20 hours long and with really poor animation. Suffers from lack of plot and the atmosphere is too weak due to technical limitatons. |
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Aylinn
Posts: 1684 |
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Well, it explains her attitude towards music and this is the point.
I am not sure what do you expect, but if you are looking for big emotions, passionate kisses or something like that, Nodame Cantabile is not going to deliver it and the romance stays secondary to their struggles.
Because their obstacles are internal obstacles, like conquering your fears, dealing with different emotions, finding out what is that you would like to do, etc. rather than external obstacles like find item X to defeat villain Y. After overcoming his fear, Chiaki is able to move on with his dream. Nodame is slowly changing her attitude towards music and starts to take music seriously. This is what matters. |
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Akane the Catgirl
Posts: 1091 Location: LA, Baby! |
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Hi everybody! I finished Death Note for the first time, and BOY was that a fun ride! There were mind bogglers, twists and turns, likable characters, and fantastic production values. It's not really smart like some people say, but that's a not problem since the story isn't even trying to be smart in the first place. It's just a really good mind game plot. I really enjoyed watching this show, and I look forward to seeing it again. (My favorite characters would probably be Light, L, Misa as Second Kira, Matsuda, and Teru "Delete-kun" Mikami, if you want to know.)
I also watched the first episode of Monster. Basically, I think I can summarize this first episode as "Kenzou Tenma learns that the medical world is kind of sucky". After being confronted with this reality through a grieving family of Turkish immigrants, he decides to screw the rules and do what's right by saving a young boy's life over that of the town mayor's. If what the blurb on TV Tropes is correct, this is going to bite him in the butt big time. So, I can't wait to watch more episodes.
Also, Tenma, dearie? YOUR FIANCE IS A PIECE OF SH*T. Seriously, Eva is just all sorts of awful. I hope her character improves in time, but my god is she a b***h. She's nowhere near as bad as Lilie from Princess Tutu (God, I hate Lilie), since Eva's deliberately unlikable. Naoki Urasawa, you did too much of a good job. |
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TRNielson
Posts: 182 |
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Just finished watching Garden of Sinners.
Honestly (and a part of me feels bad for saying this), I didn't care much for it. This was the same problem I had with Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: it's a show that, for all intents and purposes, I should have enjoyed but couldn't. I honestly don't know what it was about the series that made it a struggle for me to finish it (actually skipped the last twenty minutes and read a synopsis online). Hopefully if I come back to it in a few years, I'll find it a little more enjoyable than I did this go around. For now, I'll hold off on giving it a score. Personal favorite would have to be the third movie (love a villian I can get behind and root for 100%). Up next, it's either gonna be Soul Eater or Eden of the East. |
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