Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6613 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I had much the same feeling as you did, although I marked the 2 TV series one grade higher. I kept asking myself, 1) when are they going to play some actual music and 2) what was all the fuss about? The thing I remember the most is the tea set changing every time they had a cuppa (which was at least once an episode). The movie is better - at least going to London gives it a bit of purpose. It pales into comparison with Bocchi the Rock! |
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Cam0
 Posts: 4939 |
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Funnily enough I thought Bocchi the Rock didn't really live up to the hype. I thought that show treated social anxiety as a cutesy character quirk. I felt like its cutesy and light tone sucked all the tension out of its narrative making the narrative feel unimportant and making the cute-girls-doing-cute-things be the focus. It had interesting direction though and much more effective comedy than K-ON! so I would agree that it was better.
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Beltane70
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I’m currently watching Aura Battler Dunbine for the third time, but on the new remastered bluray set released by Sentai. The video quality looks absolutely fantastic, especially when compared to ADV’s DVD release from about 20 years ago.
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Ggultra2764
 Subscriber Posts: 3992 Location: New York state. |
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Been watching Waccha Primagi the past couple weeks. Has a bit more meat to it than what I'd expect out of a magical girl/ pop idol mix aimed toward young girls with the focus on much of the girls' developments and the seedy corporation funding the Primagi competition. But thoughts on it are still mixed between the music performances with the characters being very repetitive with the same songs and performance styles, and Matsuri, despite being the show's main character, not having much to her beyond serving as a sort of audience surrogate character. As of this post, up to episode 31 of the series. Don't think it's a keeper given this feels too aimed for its demographic, but at least still engaged enough to it where I'd want to at least finish the series up.
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Cam0
Posts: 4939 |
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I've been watching a pretty cool and what seems to be perhaps a bit underappreciated show from this year: YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master. It's an anime with a unique and rich fantasy world filled with political intrigue and multi-layered mysteries. It definitely needs a bit of commitment from the viewer to get into because it just immediately drops you off into a large world with tons of characters. I still have trouble keeping up who is part of which house and all that. But it's very interesting with some strong world-building.
I think its mysteries are too predictably multi-layered. It's too obvious that the early answers are never the right ones. And at least early on there has been a bit of too much kind of "wax on, wax off" type stuff that's been too predictable. Anyway, it's good and more people should watch it. Probably. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
Posts: 6613 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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I've been away a few days at the rels for Christmas.
Made in Abyss 2: The Golden City of the Scorching Sun. After the movie I'd become more sceptical of the franchise's penchant for cruelty as entertainment, but this second season won me over. It's something of a side trip - there's isn't much journeying deeper into the abyss - but the characters, art work, animation and music are all terrific. Rating: excellent. Acro Trip: Quite the disappointment. My magical girl choice for the season just finishing turned out to be a half-hearted parody of the genre. The concepts and situations were mildly amusing but the execution was dull. The non sequitur last episode was typical of the series - the subverting of expectations was suitably parodic but ho-hum as entertainment. Rating: not really good. Dan Da Dan: Razzle dazzle triumphs over substance in this beautifully animated adventure of nerdy Okarun trying to recover his family jewels. It took me a while to warm to the show but the mid episodes added the emotional heft I was looking for, culminating in the wonderful sequence with Acrobatic Silky. It fell away after that but love interest Momo was always good value. Rating: (a probably harsh) good. Perhaps the sheer fearlessness of the presentation should raise it a bit. The Apothecary Diaries: An unexpected highlight chosen at the last minute. Maomao has quickly become one of my favourite anime characters - she has her quirks and shortcomings but she's nobody's fool. The multiple mysteries she confronts in the Chinese court steadily coalesce into a moving spoiler[rapprochement between her parents]. Her developing relationships with all the characters, especially the court official, Jinshi, is a feature of the series. I loved it from start to finish. Rating: masterpiece. 
A typically unconvinced Maomao with Jinshi. |
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Cam0
Posts: 4939 |
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Style over substance is also how I'd describe Dan Da Dan. I gave it the same rating. I enjoyed the mundane moments far more than the action in that show. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 24581 |
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And I'm delighted (although not surprised) that Errinundra enjoyed The Apothecary Diaries so much. Very much looking forward to the sequel that is starting soon.
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Gina Szanboti
 Posts: 11718 |
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Thunderbolt Fantasy 4
It got off to kind of a slower start, but finished with a whole lotta wtf! twists and revelations. Such fun! Except for seeing one of my favorite characters bite the dust (or rather blow up real good). I haven't felt so sad about a character death in this franchise since Screaming Phoenix Killer bought it. Now to wait forever for the final movie. I can't help but think these two were modeled on a certain world famous couple, gender-swapped (the character on the right is a man). 
 
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Cam0
Posts: 4939 |
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I've been watching Teasing Master Takagi-san. I wasn't all that into the first season when I watched it years ago when it aired. Felt like it was too slow and repetitive. Now maybe because I knew exactly what to expect from it, and I felt like I wanted to watch something sweet and wholesome, I'm finding the show more enjoyable.
It still irks me a bit how one-sided the relationship between Takagi and Nishikata is. It always follows the same pattern. Takagi is infallible and she just feels so much more mature than Nishikata. It's almost unnatural how well she can read Nishikata. And I think I know why. Some might say it's because Nishikata is very easy to read, but that wouldn't explain Takagi's emotional maturity. No, it's because Takagi is a time traveling witch. More specifically her consciousness has traveled back in time. It's a much older Takagi's consciousness inside young Takagi's body. It's the only explanation. I'm guessing it's a story about selfish love, regret and incapability to move on. World sacrificed to spend more time with a loved one, perhaps multiple times. I solved it. It all makes sense now. ... Anyway, I enjoy watching the two leads interact despite the issues I have. Listening to Rie Takahashi's sweet voice and little giggles is soothing. Yuki Kaji does such a good job at portraying the kind, innocent and the constantly flustered Nishikata that it took me a while to remember that he also voices Eren, man filled with deeply-rooted rage and hatred. |
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Errinundra
Moderator
Posts: 6613 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Undead Girl Murder Farce. A disembodied, re-generating head in a bird cage and a part yokai / part human team up to solve murders. Wandering into the story are a bunch of famous public domain literary characters in an anime analogue of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Though not quite as lacklustre as that 2003 film, the anime is more memorable for its wordplay than its story. The gags relating to to Aya's bodyless head are blackly funny. Rating: decent.
Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction itself makes the observation that nobody watches / reads sci-fi anime / manga these days, and this is an excellent example of the genre. The series involves alien invasion - with the sweetest aliens you ever saw - timeline jumping, mecha battles and two girls who are prepared to put their friendship ahead of the rest of the human race. My principal misgiving is the timeline skipping is so arbitrary in terms of the invasion narrative that it comes across as a contrivance to provide a way to get the real story under way - Ontan's at-any-cost attempt to redeem her friend, Kadode. That said, it's still a fantastic series that I intend to re-watch in short order. I'm tempted to raise its rating but I'll give it some more thought after the re-watch. 
Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!. A fun rom-com / harem series undermined by characters who are caricatures (except, oddly, the main "self insert" character, Kazuhiko Nukumizu who proves himself to be a thoughtful, genuine person) and situations that rarely rang true. The spoiler[kiss] at the end is worth the wait, though. Rating: decent. For the summer season (here in Oz) I'll be watching The Apothecary Diaries 2 (of course!) and my second choice is Wecome to Japan, Ms Elf. I feel like an anime equivalent to a soufflé: something light, fluffy and sweet. Otherwise, I'm going to catch up with some of the unwatched anime from the 90s on my shelves. First up is Dirty Pair Flash. |
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Ggultra2764
Subscriber Posts: 3992 Location: New York state. |
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Think I have all there is that I think I'll be watching through for the Winter 2025 season. So quick thoughts on what I'll be sticking with:
Apothecary Diaries (Season 2) - Enjoyed the first season thanks to Maomao's character and the intrigue involving kingdom politics and her connections to them. First episode was a solid, light episode that dabbled into some of the ongoing things happening in the palace, including Maomao deducing the emperor's effort to encourage literacy among the servants whom she tries helping out. Given my enjoyment of the first series, this is likely my anticipated series for the season. Medalist - The premise of seeing an underachiever striving for a sport or activity is nothing new for me to see in anime. But seeing the introduction and chemistry of Inori and Tsukasa's characters gelled enough for me to want to dabble into their goal to make Inori into a professional ice skater. Sorairo Utility - Only the second golf-focused anime I've seen since seeing Birdie Wing's first season a while back. Looks like this one's going for more on the slice-of-life end given its mundane mood and setting, with Minami serving as the newcomer to the sport and Akane being the experienced player helping her out. Nothing too major to have impact here, but the mundane mood has me craving for a slice-of-life series to dabble into for the season and can't think of too many other sports-themed anime that dabble into golf. Flower and Asura - Looks like this was one of the anticipated titles for the season from what I gather. For first impressions, the premise of seeing a fresh high schooler find meaning for themselves and having hidden talent for an activity of interest that an upperclassman pushes them into is nothing new in anime for me as well with the chemistry I seen between Hana and Mizuki thus far. The focus on a broadcast club for a high school activity has some interesting storytelling potential. Only thing that did irk me at points with the first episode was Mizuki's rather invasive persistence at getting Hana to join her club. The episode tries spinning this in a positive light given whatever potential Mizuki sees in Hana, but in agreement with one ANN reviewer that said persistence crossed into uncomfortable territory at points given it gets to a point where Mizuki spends the night at Hana's house when the two barely know one another. Gripe aside, will give this a few episodes to see it can maintain my interest. |
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Jose Cruz
 Posts: 1810 Location: South America |
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The stuff I started 2025 with:
Suzume (2022) Another Makoto Shinkai movie. A friend of mine said he watched it and found it really mediocre. But since I am a fan of Shinkai I had to watch it anyway, and I found it quite good in fact. I found it slightly better than Weathering with You and about the level of Your Name. My rating is "good" or 7/10. Uma Musume: Pretty Derby - ROAD TO THE TOP (2023) This is just a quite average sports anime ONA. Just that the athletes are reincarnated racing horses as horse-animegirls. But the style of dramatic writing and execution is very much like any other sports anime, but now they compete as racing horses dressed in what looks like magical girl costumes. Decent but not really special: 6/10. Highschool Fleet: The Movie (2020) 
This is in the tradition of the military moe shows like Girls und Panzer and Strike Witches, however, this movie was weaker than the TV show which was already below average. Overall, it feels like an extremely generic anime movie, it will only appeal to military otakus, despite having good art and animation (since its a movie). My rating is 5/10 Noir (2001) I watched this for the first time about 10 years ago. At the time I judged it to be good, I rated it 8/10, but not a really special show. After noticing it on Errinundra's top 10, I decided to re-watch it and OMG, how I underrated it. This is exactly what "peak anime" looks like: the drama, intensity, atmosphere, mystery, the way the plot unfolds as the mysteries are revealed. Everything works, and works with an intensity that is rare in fiction. While Kirika reminds me of Lain and Rakka, while Mireille is a quite interesting kind of anime character: an adult woman who is not infantilized but still feminine, she feels like a real person indeed. Its interesting that if you look at the plot and characters of Noir described in simple words it would be those of a Hollywood B-movie. But, execution is everything and the quality of execution here is superb. My rating is 10/10. A masterpiece indeed: its one of the best anime shows I know, in fact the best anime I "discovered" in the past few years (since when I watched it a decade ago I didn't focus well and didn't "get it", so it felt like I was watching it for the first time now). |
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Jose Cruz
Posts: 1810 Location: South America |
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I though Bocchi the Rock was excellent show, I rated it as 9/10. It can be seem basically as a show that makes Bocchi's social anxiety disorder a cute character trait. Now, in regards to K-On!, I consider it one of my top 10 anime ever. However, it certainly is a show that people tend to not often like and to think its vacuous. K-On! is an abstract piece of anime art, in fact, it is the show that synthesizes circa early 21st century anime at its purest form, removing all sorts of contrivances like plot, character development, drama, action, and comedy out of the way, leaving only a show by itself that dialogues with the viewer in its pure naked form. So, to me K-On! is not an intellectual experience where you have to "understand" things like plot and the characters, instead, you just get in the zone when watching it, its like a drug. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 24581 |
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@ Jose Cruz: re: Suzume. I too am a Shinkai fan and watch everything he does. Overall, Suzume was okay for me, but nothing special... except for one scene that will stay with me for as long as I have the faculty of memory. It's an extremely simple scene but the emotion that it conveys pounded my heart. You probably know which scene I'm talking about, but I won't be specific because I'd love anybody who hasn't seen the film yet to experience it the way I did. Damn, I tear up just thinking about it...
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