Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23845 |
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Yeah, I'm in no position - after 7 eppies - to recommend Dragonaut to anyone. Right now, I'm liking it but I suppose it could really go south later on. Plus, I recognize that someone who decided to take a more critical look at the show than I am might not find it much fun.
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Just watched two movies, From Up On Poppy Hill and Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? One was fairly good, the other most certainly not.
---------- From Up On Poppy Hill, rated it as Good. I went into this with quite a bit of trepidation, as Goro Miyazaki's previous movie was the weak Tales From Earthsea. I needn't have worried; although From Up On Poppy Hill had its faults, it was a pleasant watch. The melodrama was unwelcome (those who have seen the movie will know exactly what I'm referring to), and the story of saving the clubhouse was a bit simplistic. There was a bit of fat in here that never went anywhere, basically window dressing to the setting. Also, I found the romance to be a bit weak, especially compared to other Ghibli works. But otherwise this was a very competent movie. Natural Slice-of-Life scenes, mood-appropriate music, gorgeous scenery, realistic settings and superb attention to detail; these have always been Ghibli's strong points, and once again the studio uses them to provide an immersive experience. The movie is set in 1963 Yokohama and it is easy to imagine that we are there with the characters, so genuine are the scenes of bustling townsfolk and school kids and family chores. From Up On Poppy Hill will never be considered as one of the stronger Ghibli movies, nor will it ever be as well-known as its venerable older siblings. It is just too unassuming and simplistic compared to the likes of Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke, and lacks the powerful charm of Whisper of the Heart and Only Yesterday. But nevertheless it is a solid entry in the Ghibli catalogue, and proof that with the right guidance Goro Miyazaki can deliver the goods as a director. ---------- Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love?, rated it as Not Really Good. This is a strange movie. Incomprehensible unless you've seen the original television series, it also fails to live up to its predecessor. In terms of character relationships, plotting and even visceral excitement, this is inferior work. The final battle is actually kinda boring, and that's a death knell for a Mecha title. Yes the movie is very pretty, and yes it has good animation (but especially for its time). And yes, I greatly appreciated that spoiler[Fokker got a vastly improved death scene] and that spoiler[Lynn Kaifun] was relegated to the sidelines instead of being the sort of tumour he unfortunately was on the show. But ultimately this movie cut too much out that made the series good. You can't have a love triangle between characters who barely know one another, the bare bones of a mess of a plot, and some random battles with enemies who only make short cameos, and simply call it a day. There's no substance to the movie, and thus it feels hollow. It is hollow. On a side note it was extra disappointing after fans had hyped it beyond all rhyme and reason. For fans of a certain age this movie is an institution, a highwater mark, the Holy Grail. But looked at objectively without the nostalgia, it is just an early example of a recap movie. And like most recap movies it had to cut so much out that what we get is only the highlights, a window into a better stronger story. With the movie changing the plot and simply assuming that we've seen or somehow know the backstory of how the Macross and its crew came to be in that situation, it's even more bastardised and incomplete than most recap movies are. I absolutely would not recommend it to franchise newcomers and I would definitely hesitate to recommend it to those who have seen the series. It's just not very good. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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I haven't been watching as much anime as I'd like because this semester killed me -though, in retrospect, I kind of had it coming what with taking 8 extra hours of Japanese lessons per week-
Today I officially started my vacation and though I was exhausted I managed to watch a couple of things, but first, I finally finished Kurau Rated it on the high end of Very Good Sorry, Kurau & Christmas never clicked with me, but the rest of the show I enjoyed it a lot. Kurau herself was fantastic, but what I found most beautiful was the relationship between spoiler[Rynax!Kurau and "her" father. The way they accept each other as a family and the small reflection Human!Kurau makes on it] in the last episode made me wet in the eyes. In general, I really liked most of the characters, except for Christmas with her constantly annoying squeaky-voiced "KurauKurauKurauKurau" (repeat x 1000000). The short Yvon arc was so very tragic but greatly executed and gave more depth to the Rynax and what being "partners" meant for them. I also liked watching Ayaka slowly discover the truth about GPO and getting over her grudge by understanding the Rynax and befriending Kurau. One thing I didn't like (aside from Christmas) is that the series itself never seemed to decide what Rynax was and whether they were unfortunate victims of some misunderstanding or living creatures with individual wills akin to humans, or a single entity that manipulates a great amount of bodies and that is nocive to humanity or... well, I just don't know. I also didn't understand why, when aspoiler[ Rynax inside a human body overexherted its powers, it exploted and "all the Rynax came out", which led to Kurau having to "send them back to their original world", which meant absorbing them into her body.] My only conclusion is "well, that's just how things are", but my suspension of disbelief has some limits and I expected a little more explanation on this. I've started watching Hyouka. I'm only on episode three and I'm not sure if I'll be able to marathon it like I intended to. It's harmless and innocent, and at least I'm liking the characters. Chitanda is adorable and I love how her eyes sparkle when she's "interested" in something. And Oreki and his friend are funny. But there's just so much damn talking. Which works for the show, but not for a "I'm going to sit 10 hours in front of the TV until I finish this shit" plan. I think I'm going to mix it up with something more action-y less talk-y, because just watching the first three episodes in a row put me to sleep. Finally, I accidentally ended watching the Castle of Cagliostro film. I've been interested in the Lupin III franchise since I watched A woman called Fujiko Mine, and I wanted to watch this Ghibli movie about the character for a start, but hadn't gotten around to it. Funnily, my cousin is staying over at my house for a couple of days with his seven-year-old kid, and they brought the film to watch. One of the things that worried me was that I would be disappointed with Fujiko Mine. She was such an amazing character in the most recent series, that I feared older incarnations might not live up to it, but I was glad to be wrong, she was fabulous. The story is really simple and childish, but it was still funny. Due to the length of the film and the nature of the story, aside from Lupin, the princess, the villain and Zenigata, the rest of the cast has very little screen time. Fujiko does the coolest things,but Jigen and Goemon barely have any lines, and just stand around because, being Lupin III, all the gang must be present. There's this incredibly cheesy line at the end, when the princess is rescued and the gang goes back to their usual shenanigans -the back and forth tease between Fujiko and Lupin, running away etc.- in which spoiler[the princess tries to stop Zenigata from chasing Lupin because "he didn't steal anything from her" and the inspector winks and replies "Oh, but he did steal something really important. Can't you see how that man stole your heart?"] and I just rolled my eyes. But again, for a children's movie, it's really okay. It has enough humor, action, adventure, Lupin outsmarting his opponents in clever and funny ways, and a little bit of romance. I rated it Good |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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I adore the TV series myself and hated this movie too. Except for the pretty, it was very pretty. But even as a fan of the show I disliked it. Maybe there just weren't any other half decent recap movies at the time so this seemed shiny? And it was certainly animated well. But then Macross Plus also existed in the VHS market, just go for that, right? But DYRL definitely expected the viewer to go in knowing everything, and even knowing everything didn't help, it just made me want to slap it for rushing through. I could see that these love triangle characters barely knew each other when they spent so much time getting to know each other in the series, it's like they were strangers to me disguised as the characters I already knew. Yuck. I would definitely suggest avoiding this too, if you want some short and sweet Macross goodness with high production values, go for the Plus OVA I say. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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^
Thanks. In the movie the characters fell in love with one another so quickly and unnaturally their relationships just didn't carry the same weight as in the television series. And it's not just the central love triangle either. Max and Milia had no development - bam and they were in love - and Roy and Claudia had exactly one scene together and we didn't hear their backstory of how they got together. I also regretted the lack of focus on the Zentradi (both male and female). How they grappled with their confusion and fear of the miclones, and how some of them eventually accepted and loved culture while others sought to destroy it, was one of the best and most original aspects of the series. Yet the movie largely glosses over this, much to my chagrin. I have both Macross Zero and the movie edition of Macross Plus, and will be watching them in the next week or so. On a side note I found ikillchicken's rant on the movie (you'll have to scroll down) to be quite entertaining. I do think he's being a touch too harsh on the movie in terms of his rating, but I can't really hold that against him. After all, I'm probably being a touch too generous myself, his points are absolutely valid, and given DYRL's legendary reputation the movie was indeed a massive disappointment. |
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zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
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^Y'know, I've seen DYRL praised all over the place and called a good place to start Macross, and it's just not the case. I know a lot of people don't like Macross II, but maybe since I saw it after DYRL, Macross II is perfectly watchable, though prone to idiot ball passing. Its alien introduction to 80s society is rushed too, but not half as rushed as DYRL is. It's harmless enough, yet it's the one that gets booted off to be AU, not DYRL? I never understood that.
Though ikillchicken is wrong about one thing is his rant, it's a 36 ep series attempted to be condensed into 2 hours, not 24 eps. Though I can understand finding the whole 80s thing lame, it can be really freakin' 80s, the Macross franchise as a whole. Someone once told me that Macross 7 is proof that the 80s didn't end in Japan until 1997, I can't wait to see if that's true! Justin's Pile of Shame column on Harbor Light Story starts off with saying that being an 80s dancer was apparently considered really cool, and boy have I seen a good number of series where being a pop idol or dancer is inexplicably awesome. While we're at making Robotech out of existing things, Megazone 23 sure does the whole dancer thing too. I personally find it charmingly hilarious, but I certainly understand that it'd annoy other people, I just find it adorably antiquates itself all on its own, so I have a soft spot for it Macross Plus as a whole seems to avoid feeling incredibly 80s, not just because it was made in 1994, but probably because omfg Shinichiro Watanabe made it. Oh but just to add insult to injury, the DYRL movie was chosen to be the canon that things like Plus come off of. Not the main series, but the DYRL movie. Seriously? But I did come up with one way to make the DYRL movie less painful. It's like when we make a WWII movie, it's based on historical events, but is clearly a dramatic reenactment, it won't cover everything, and it doesn't take 6 years to watch. DYRL is an in-universe movie made of the events of the Macross series for characters in the Macross universe to watch because they would've read it in their text books. Sadly, this movie happened to bleed out into the real world to torment us here. I seriously don't think the movie's existence makes sense any other way. Of course, when I saw Martian Successor Nadesico's Gekiganger III OVA, that was awesome! So it can be done correctly. |
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Mr. Oshawott
 Posts: 6773 |
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I'm currently watching Najica Blitz Tactics. A woman named Najica Hiiragi works as a perfumer during the day. However, at night, she's a secret agent, in which she is designated to find and capture androids called "Humaritts" with a girl named Lila as her assistant (who is also a Humaritt). I'm finding this show to be quite enjoyable, although some others might find the often-reoccurring panty shots to be...questionable. Other than that (and the plot being a bit unspecific), I think it's a show that's fun for those that enjoy seeing a female secret agent in action.
Edit: Changed the wording a bit. Last edited by Mr. Oshawott on Sun Jun 16, 2013 8:02 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Beltane70
 Posts: 3899 |
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Actually, Macross DYRL technically IS an alternate universe. In the official timeline, it's considered a movie within the Macross universe.
It's only chosen for the canon look, not the canon events. It doesn't override the events in the TV series. Both Macross 7 and Macross Frontier mix elements from DYRL and the original TV series. |
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WhiteHairGirls
 Posts: 4713 Location: New York City |
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I just finished Steins;Gate and I gave it a Masterpiece. I can't believe it took me this long to finally watch it. I watched the first episode about a year ago and I didn't like it, but I gave it another chance 4 days ago since I was bored. I liked most of the characters, espcially Ruka and Mayuri. The two I had problems with were Moeka and Faris. I found Moeka to be a boring character and I especially hated her when spoiler[she killed Mayuri multiple times.] Faris constant use of nyaa got annoying after 2 episodes. Tu tu ru!
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Watched Re-Birthday (also known as Happy Birthday - Inochi Kagayaku Toki), rated it as Very Good.
This is an unusual movie. Made in 1999, it looks, sounds and feels like it stepped out from the eighties. The animation is poor and very limited, the soundtrack is loud and obvious, the voice acting is clearly amateurish (they might have even used real children to play certain roles). The budget on this was definitely pretty poor. But even stranger is the tone. Clearly a children's movie, it is also jarringly dark and serious. I mean, just look at some of the themes. Chronic and endemic bullying, the cycle of being hurt and then hurting others, parental neglect, child abuse, depression, suicide, death. Holy moly. However, the tone is ultimately very uplifting, very positive. Each negative trait is addressed, and not so much fixed as healed. There were several key messages. The first was that people can be incredibly cruel yet also have the capability to be incredibly kind as well. Secondly, that people can change themselves if they're willing to and are given support; numerous characters undergo redemptions. Thirdly, that happiness is not found in getting good grades or meeting expectations set by society and family, but rather through a person's own self-worth and in their friends. Given that this is a Japanese movie, and one that didn't have superpowers and Shounen trappings, I was astonished by this stance. I must make a note of the realistic way that the physically and/or mentally disabled children were portrayed. They weren't just suffering from a vague 'sickness' or 'illness'; all of them had afflictions that were almost certainly based on real-life syndromes and conditions. The movie did not take pity on these children, but nor did it gloss over the reality of their situation. It also didn't treat mental illness as somehow cute or Moe. No, this was a very respectful portrayal. The writing was loose and very rough, and the pace was too fast because of the short runtime; the movie needed to be ten or twenty minutes longer. The technical merits were simply lame. Yet this was a powerful and moving story with a strong voice. Had it had more time to flesh out the themes it could have been - in fact, would have been - truly wonderful. But even so, it's still an impressive screenplay and I do recommend that people watch it. Edit: this post used to give the grade as Good, but that was a mistake. It has been updated with the correct rating of Very Good. |
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mitOmega
 Posts: 3 |
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loved Steins;Gate! never got to play the visual novel sadly. i actually think this anime reminds me of welcome to the nhk! go figure.. Tu tu ru! |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16939 |
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Well after taking a bit of a Sabbatical from anime, due to work and personal life issues, I figured it was time to pick up some series I had started but never finished.
Infinite Stratos - I had watched this already once but I'm re-watching. This time with dubs and on BlueRay. I have to say this title does get a bit of an extra boost with the battles being in BlueRay. Was worth buying during one of TRSI's mega sales. Book of Bantorra - I had finished it but I sort of rushed it and was mentally distracted at the time. So re-watching this one again to give it proper attention. Patlabor - Another re-watch. This one however feels like new. It's been YEARS since I watched anything from the Patlabor universe. I got the OVA series and tv on Blue Ray thanks to a TRSI sale. I also just ordered the tv series on BluRay which will be out mid July. Like watching pieces of my anime childhood all over again. Gintama - Had been avoiding adding another long series to my list. Already watching One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach sporadically. But I finally caved in and started Gintama. Loving it so far. Nice mix of action and comedy. I figure I'll watch a block of Gintama, switch to another long series and watch a block of that, etc etc. Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse - Halfway through this one. Beyond the nice skin tight suits I am enjoying the story on this one. Reserve final judgment until the end. Attack on Titan - It seems this title is this seasons big blockbuster popular title. Was SAO last season and now AOT this time. So I approached this one like I did SAo. Wait a bit and avoid reviews and discussions. Then jump in and watch a handful of episodes and make my own judgment. I don't want to get my hopes up on titles by buying into the hype before I even start them. This one though lived up to the hype for me. Loving this show so far. Best one of the season for me. Even if I am behind everyone else lol. Once I finish Total Eclipse and get caught up on Titan I think I'll start the Samurai Girls 2nd season Samurai Bride. Gotta get in my dose of T&A every now and then heh. |
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animenendoroid
Posts: 4 |
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One Piece and Attack on Titan are only 2 action shounen anime series I watch now.
DD Hokuto no Ken (2013) is funny to watch. I don't care much about original Hokuto no Ken's storyline. |
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vanfanel
 Posts: 1246 |
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I'd actually prefer to lock most of the sequels thus far into DYRL continuity and leave the TV series alone. For this grumpy old timer, Macross II is looking better every year... I actually do like Macross 7 as its own thing, but not as a sequel to the original. It goes to such levels of goofiness it just isn't the same world anymore. |
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vanfanel
Posts: 1246 |
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Slowly catching up on Space Brothers -- now only 14 eps behind current airings. And I was loving it up until...(sigh)...my, Hibito's big arc was disappointing. And slow as molasses, and just as sticky-sweet. C'mon guys, I can appreciate savoring special moments and all, but we're easing toward Shonen Jump levels of time killing here, and you're nowhere even near catching up to the manga yet. And are these people going to the moon for any reason other than to just be there? Looks like some Mutta-centric stuff is coming up soon, though, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to that. Pretty unusual for training episodes to outshine the ones that cover the real deal.
RDG just ended, so I want to watch that from the beginning soon. |
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