Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24225 |
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I'll confess right off the bat that this post is going to be off-topic. After all, this is a thread to discuss what you are watching right now, right? Well, I wanna talk about what I'm not watching, right now. I don't feel my thoughts warrant starting a new thread but since ANN has basically been my anime diary for years now, I want to record my weird anime mood these days and this thread seems to be the only place I can think of.
Without further ado here's a partial list of what I'm not watching right now: Bartender Glass of God Go! Go! Loser Ranger! KonoSuba 3 (!) Laid-Back Camp 3 Spice & Wolf reboot These are all shows I've sampled and dropped. I list them because they are all good shows. I didn't drop a single one of them because they are bad. I dropped them all because... they just weren't grabbing me. The earlier helpings of KonSuba and Laid-Back Camp were among my favourite titles of all time. But I feel like I got what I wanted from them and just not interested in seeing more of the same. It's so bizarre. Last season I could barely drop anything and rode dreck like Metallic Rouge to the bitter end. A few weeks later and I'm dropping shows left and right. Don't get me wrong, I'm still following 13 currently airing shows, but I've shelved 17 of the Spring 2024 offerings. I don't get me. |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3981 |
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That’s okay, Blood-, I don’t get you, either!
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1798 Location: South America |
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Strawberry Panic (2006)
I watched this show because it's considered a classic of the yuri genre. However, I must say I was not very impressed, but I guess its because I don't really like yuri shows. I love Simoun because its good anime, not because it has yuri elements (which could be easily removed making relationship between the characters in Simoun platonic like in PMMM). The art, direction, and animation were of average quality. The syrupy romance stories were amusing at first but after 26 episodes they got boring. It had a lot of slice of life elements as well, but I notice those tend to be boring if they are not well executed. Overall, I rated it at 6/10. Mai-HiME (2004) Now this was more of my kind of anime show. Being from 2004, it is heavily influenced by 90s anime like Evangelion. Overall I found it to be highly entertaining even though I don't think it was very valuable artistically. The characters were fun and well developed. The romance parts didn't work very well IMO, but the show was overall well made and well animated. I also read the manga of Mai-Otome which I found even more entertaining with the gender bender stuff. Apothecary Diaries (2023) I watched this show until the end, but it was not exactly my cup of tea. Still, it was very well made. High quality anime all around. But the episodic plots of Maomao solving mysteries imply that she is so much smarter than everybody else in this fantasy kingdom (which is inspired by ancient China but it has some modern things like glass and chocolate, which didn't exist in ancient China), which made it boring IMO. Overall, a well made show that was not for me, 6/10. K-On!! (2010) Continuing my project of re-watching my old favorites, I revisited the 27 episodes of KOn!! It is even better than the first season of K-On!, I rewatched this after several years and it made me remember that slice of life anime can be truly awesome if well executed, but other lesser shows demonstrate that slice of life can become boring very easily. Its very hard to do it right and K-On!! doesn't do it just right, it does it spectacularly well, to the point it looks like it almost like it came from a whole another industry than other anime shows, because it is just so much better. Well, the studio that made it, KyoAni, is not located in Tokyo afterall. Certainly one of the best anime shows ever made, it is also one of my old favorites that I liked more than almost all others. Now, K-On!! would be among my top 5 anime shows ever, alongside Simoun, PMMM, Clannad: Afterstory, and Haibane Renmei. A hard 10/10. Train to the End of the World (2024) Now this is my type of show. Reminds me of Heavenly Delusion, but its not as dark as that one. I watched the episodes that aired, they were pretty good so far. Although I am not the biggest fan of the artsyle, its not bad, but also not very good. Hope it doesn't get bad like Metallic Rouge. Last edited by Jose Cruz on Fri May 03, 2024 7:58 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1798 Location: South America |
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I first watched Simoun because I decided to watch all shows rated masterpiece in Martin's myanime's list of shows that I haven't watched before. It was the one I liked the most and now I confidently say its one of my favorites ever. I also read your review. One thing about Simoun is that it was made 18 years ago and its animation and art style has not aged as well as, for example, the stuff KyoAni made, so compared to the big shows from the latest vintages of anime it looks rather unpolished. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6590 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I miss Theron Martin's reviews. His tastes and mine cross over to some extent. Thanks to his clear writing style, I also understood where he was coming from, even if I disagreed with him. As a result, I found his reviews a good guide as to whether I'd appreciate the anime in question. I've enjoyed many an anime thanks to him.
Back to what this thread's about. I'm watching Nurse Angel Ririka SOS because 1) I want to watch as many magical girl series as I can, and 2) it has a reputation of being Puella Magi Madoka Magica's spiritual predecessor. Well, for 13 episodes I watched what seemed to be a fun Sailor Moon clone until it just had its own PMMM episode 3 moment. It doesn't have quite the same impact, nor is it as clever, but Ririka isn't the show it was making itself out to be. It's directed by Akitaro Daichi who gave us such emotionally disparate shows as Elf Princess Rane with its comic mayhem and Now and Then, Here and There with its sombre isekai tale of child soldiers. If Saint Tail - an absolute hoot of a show, and one of the most fun magical girl shows I've seen - can get a Discotek release, then perhaps Ririka can. I can only hope. 
Edit: 13 May 2024 update. The ending is rushed and savage. And I loved it. It really is PMMM's spiritual predecessor. Overall rating: the low end of very good. 
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11626 |
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Season 4 of Bai Yao Pu (Fairies Album). This was a bit different from previous seasons, with the first six of twelve episodes covering one long story. Tao Yao's sidekicks get even less of a role than in previous seasons - except for comic relief, they've both nearly been forgotten since the first season. Instead the brothers of the Si Mansion come into the spotlight, with the elder being teased as a romantic potential for future seasons I think. Both of them have some supernatural powers too, so they aren't dead weight.
The stories were interesting, with many twists and turns that if described would probably sound soapy, but are caused by pretty believable human foibles. The Water Guardian's story in the finale certainly brought a tear to my eye. There were also more insert songs than previously, and while they're pretty, when left untranslated were kind of boring montages. The animation is still on point, looking very like Avatar's. Hopefully there will be a fifth season, since the final seconds of the episode introduced a new character with no dialog. 
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Spastic Minnow
Bargain Hunter Exempt from Grammar Rules  Posts: 4634 Location: Gainesville, FL |
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Slightly OT, but interesting. I found an interesting strong influence for PMMM, somewhat by accident. That being Pretty Sammy, but not the Pretty Sammy we know. At one point, Gen Urobochi worked with Yōsuke Kuroda and considers him a mentor. Kuroda was still part of the Tenchi Muyo! crew at the time and he was picked to write some Pretty Sammy (Magical Project S) novels. He was given carte blanche to do what he wanted and conclude the story... but he was having some personal struggles at the time and dealing with a death in the family. The result is that the PS novels are actually very dark and depressing as he used them to work through his issues. Urobochi has said he took direct inspiration from Kuroda when writing PMMM. For some dumb reason, I watched The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule The World this week. Weak story, weak characters, poor animation and art. But easily digestible. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11626 |
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Someone in another thread mentioned the special OP for Psychic Princess (Tong Ling Fei), and while it was pretty freaky, the character designs and animation caught my eye, so I checked it out. It was pretty fun! Spunky heroine, stoic pretty-boy husband and his equally pretty bros, plus another country's lord, all falling in love with her, plus her little ghost companions and fairies and an old man ginkgo tree spirit she frees, and decent animation for its time (2018) and being a Haoliners/Tencent joint.
Plus also too, the costuming. I don't know if the clothing we see in all the period donghua was ever really worn by Chinese people, but aside from too many layers for comfort, they sure are beautiful to look at. Especially the boots. 
A funny trope going on in Vampire Dormitory is how the disguised heroine wears a wig instead of just cutting her hair, so that when her wig falls off the guys know she's a girl. In PP, while in disguise as a man, she's got the super long pony tail going on, and all that needs happen to give her away is letting her hair down. Who knew a simple pony tail was such an effective disguise! Anyway, I'm looking forward to the promised season 2 when it drops. S1 available on CR. |
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Metabee177
Posts: 13 |
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Im watching kaiju No.8 and demon slayer. Honestly i think we need more episodes from demon slayer....bc they're treating like its a cash cow or something.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24225 |
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I'm watching Bastard!! No, these aren't Edjwald's home movies (heh). Nor is this the 6 episode OVA from 1992-93 which I watched years ago... and remember absolutely nothing about. I couldn't even remember the basic premise. I have to assume this is a sign that I wasn't dazzled by it. But I've watched the first four episodes of the 24 episode Netflix reboot and I gotta say, I'm quite digging it. It's what fantasy should be: scantily clad women and lots of gore without the mind-numbing cliches and generic look that begrimes so much current day fantasy titles (especially those of the isekai ilk). Yes, the show is solidly aimed at actual 13-year-old boys and old dudes like me who never emotionally or mentally matured past that age, but it's fun!
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11626 |
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I liked it too. And I'm not even a 13 year old boy or an old dude.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24225 |
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Gina, I'm not surprised somebody with your sophisticated good taste liked it.
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Piglet the Grate
 Posts: 799 Location: North America |
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Never really been into idols, but since it gets referenced so much, a couple of weeks ago I thought I should check out Love Live! Progress has been good, with 5 series/9 cours/115 full-length weekly episodes, 2 movies, and 19 of the eventual short episodes of Nijiyon watched, so less than a half-hour to go before I am all caught up.
Don't try this at home unless you want the challenge of matching the appearances of 50+ girls with their names and characteristics. And of course now I am haunted by the question - what was the deal with "Mini-Honoka" at Otonokizaka Academy when Aquors visited? |
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Aeonian1
Posts: 1 |
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Some of the stuff I watched today:
HAL: interesting premise of a robot helper to nurse someone over grief, in a world where high tech and simple living meet, but I felt the big surprise near the end did sort of mean everything we'd seen up to that point was a lie. Looked lovely, though. Mulan live action: I have to say I prefer the Disney version (and it's not often you'd catch me saying that!). That whole nobility of personal sacrifice for the future of the country, with the stirring music and heroic deaths ... I preferred the ghosts and the midget dragon. And was it just me, or did General Weiwei look the spitting image of Bishop in Aliens? |
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Ggultra2764
 Subscriber Posts: 3979 Location: New York state. |
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Currently watching Kurokami: The Animation as I'm up to its 15th episode. Got it off Discotek's January release slate earlier this year. It has some decent world building and storytelling ideas regarding issues with the Doppeliner System that makes up the central conflicts of the series, though does feel a bit cliched as far as handling of its characters (many are shallow character types or their character developments are familiar territory from other anime titles) and battle system (the Exceeds used by human/ Tera Guardian partners largely feel like "special techniques" you'd see from a shounen action series) are concerned.
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