Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Errinundra
Moderator
 Posts: 6528 Location: Melbourne, Oz |
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Imported from Japan? Siren Visual's release isn't until February. |
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Painetha
 Posts: 2 Location: Morrow |
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I'm watching Fruits Basket right now. it just seems liek i can't get enough of this show/ I love it1
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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If you haven't already, read the manga. It's far superior. The anime tells only a fraction of the story and misses some major plot points out. |
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kilaria
 Posts: 135 Location: Dallas, TX |
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After months of sitting up on my shelf collecting dust, I finally got around to watching Chrono Crusade. Overall, I really did like the series. But an ending to a series can make or break an anime for me. In this case, I was extremely disappointed. spoiler[ It's not the death of Rosette and Chrono that bothered me. it's that their sacrifice was all for nothing. There was no resolution for the most part. You think the bad guy was defeated but learn an episode later that wasn't the case. The characters went through all they went through, and for what? Their struggles and the deaths were for nothing. ] That's what ruined it for me.
It's a shame too because I really liked it for the most part. I finished the entire season within a work week because it kept my interest and I was always wondering what was going to happen next. I liked the characters as well which is always very important to me in an anime. Guess it goes back up on the shelf and I may or may not watch it again someday. The other anime I watched was RideBack. This anime made me wish for my motorcycle back again. Sure, the series wasn't anything spectacular but it was entertaining. I felt it could have easily been twice as long, but sometimes it's good to find something short and sweet. Nothing I'd consider excellent or a masterpeice but definitely worth watching. I've always been set on watching subtitled anime, but since getting a subscription to netflix and watching many of the new shows dubbed, I'm gaining a big respect for english dubs now. The voice acting is better than it has ever been, and most of these dubs are just as good as the original japanese language tracks. Hope the studio's keep this up. 
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SoloDolo
 Posts: 10 Location: Nebraska |
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I agree, i didn't start reading the manga till after the show, and im quietly growing to love the manga more with each volume I like it better than the anime as of now.
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An1fr3ak
 Posts: 235 Location: Australia |
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Lately i've had a craving for anything to do with High School, Romance, Comedy, Slice of Life etc etc... But mostly Romantic High School Comedies. It's driving me insane because I'm not sure what brought this about. So I went on a rampage and watched something like 35-45 different titles in the last six weeks (lost count). I'm not going to mention all them, just a few stand outs in my opinion.
The first and foremost are Elfen Lied and GTO. These are obviously re-visited because who hasn't watched these yet??  ... The dark psychological yet 'oh-so-romantic' aspects of Elfen Lied were a real treat to go back to after so long. I even got three of my friends to watch it and they were tripping out  ... I can honestly say that I really like spoiler[both sides of Lucy/Nyuu as she switches between the two throughout the anime]. I'll leave it at that, othewise I won't stop... Now on to GTO. Its been a while since I last re-visited this one as well... I'm about half way through at the moment and loving every bit of it. Those facial expressions are an absolute blast. LONG LIVE ONIZUKA!!!
I also re-watched Clannad season one. I was trying to compare this to Lovely Complex which I also re-watched about six weeks ago. Two very different styles of the high school/romance/comedy genres, but nonetheless, both stand-out tiltes in recent times. Lovely Complex focus' a lot more on the comedy aspect while Clannad goes down the drama/ slice of life route. Overall Lovely Complex seems a lot more fluffy and fun at the end of the day with more lovable characters but Clannad draws you, as the viewer, into its world more easily and I believe gets you more emotionally attached to the characters. Either way, in the end I couldn't really separate the two. Both awesome anime
That brings me to Maria Holic and the Ef series. I think I'll start with Maria Holic... It was one hell of a ride. I have watched quite a few anime in recent years and I believe it imitates two anime in particular. So it is a used concept, but the storyline and execution are definately new and improved. Brillantly so, I might add. I don't even want to use spoilers for this, but I'll just say that if you're the type to laugh at others misfortune when appropriate or loves to mess with people for your own entertainment... look no further. Now for Ef. I watched both seasons and I, by no small measure, preferred the first season. Season two was spoiler[too dark, twisted and psychological ]compared to the first one. I feel that the Ef - A tale of Memories got the mix right and set tone and standard and Ef - A Tale of Melodies deviates a bit too much from the original path. That being said... each is a very good anime, only Memories pulls it off perfectly in my view. Hiro Hirono/Miyako Miyamura storyline was more intriguing from my point of view spoiler[(especially with the love triangle and the battle for Hiro that ensues)] but the Renji Asō/Chihiro Shindō storyline was also excellent. spoiler[What really made the anime into a masterpiece at the end of the day for me was the use of different colour tones, black and white portraits and the occasional 'colour splash' over these potraits. It really sets up the mood and gets you into the frame of mind of the character.] Simply amazing. I really can't be bothered at this point, so I'll give an honourary mention to Amagami SS (can't wait for season two next year  ). Get on it people... Only anime of its kind at the moment (in terms of presentation - you will see why if you know your stuff).
Angel beats - spoiler[One anime in the first half, another anime completely in the second half]... still a good anime but spoiler[I knew they couldn't possibly keep up the pace ]of the first half of the anime which I preferred over the second half despite the good development of the storyline. Last but not least, I'm currently watching Sola for the first time. Two episodes in and so far, so good. I'm hoping they can keep it interesting. |
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An1fr3ak
Posts: 235 Location: Australia |
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I will third this motion. I also watched the anime first. Then I figured that that wasn't all there was to the story (which they subtly allude to in the anime itslef if you pay attention). So I went and bought the entire manga seires and was amazed at how awesome the manga is compared to anime ... (i rarely prefer manga to anime so this is the real deal )
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Metaflux
 Posts: 78 |
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After watching both series (the sequel just recently) I have to agree to some extent. However that isn't what concerned me as much about Ef: A tale of Melodies.
Regarding this I also agree. They use the artwork just right to really exemplify the psychological aspects in both shows. However one thing I didn't like in Ef: A tale of Melodies is how poorly the critical moments were executed/animated, they just felt to awkward forced. That said I really like both series and gave Ef: A tale of Memories a "Masterpiece" and Ef: A tale of Melodies an "Excellent". |
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dirkusbirkus
 Posts: 699 Location: Manchester, UK |
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Any ef love is alright by me. I definitely regard memories as the stronger of the two (That said, Chihiro's seiyuu ruins every scene she's in, that voice pushes all my buttons) mostly because it had more impact on me at the time. Watching it with no prior knowledge I was immediately blown away by the production values and the unorthodox plot. I saw melodies as an extension of that, but I knew what to expect this time round; despite the story taking more risks, it had a lesser impact.
Some of the scenes are just really really clever, one that sticks out vividly in my mind is thespoiler[ phone call scene towards the end of episode 10 of memories, where it keeps cutting to the amount of time she has left on the payphone, as if counting down the amount of time they have left to get themselves sorted.] Really subtle, but it always stuck with me. Of course, the art in both series is incredible and it's one of the few series where I feel the BD version is justified. I think I gave both memories and melodies a 9, True Tears is the benchmark by which I measure that particular genre and despite both being jawdroppingly gorgeous, neither came quite as close to making me feel as much as that series did.
Are you referring to thespoiler[ 'reset after each arc'] gimmick? I've never seen Amagami SS but I followed its thread whilst it was airing, I'm not sure but I think the idea of the story spoiler[resetting after each girl is dealt with] would annoy me. A similar device was used in Yosuga no Sora and it annoyed the hell out of me there. I prefer my storylines a bit more linear, truth be told. Still, there's a lot of Amagami recommendations around so maybe I should just bite the bullet. |
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The King of Harts
 Posts: 6712 Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia |
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Watched Mazinkaiser SKL. Eeeeyup.
Um...the fights were cool and I liked the three main characters and how they interacted with each other, but that's it. The story and setting were lame and nonsensical. I don't quite get how the Earth works here. The way I see it, there's a crazy war torn part of Earth filled with these insane thugs and hot Greek Goddess looking women, and there's another part of Earth where there's a bunch of normal, Go Nagi-looking people who have no idea there's the other part. Except for the Government. They know about both parts of Earth. And I don't get how spoiler[the Skull Riders died an ending similar to Gunbuster, but then came back riding a mech horse like Master Asia from G-Gundam.] Just doesn't make sense, though I'm not sure it's supposed to. It's not because I've never seen any other Mazinger, because I looked it up, and this just sits in the whole Go Nagai on it's on star, not tied to anything else; it's confusing because the story came third after hot women and cool fights. I guess I just don't have that crazy Super Robot Fan gene I thought I might have since I love Gurren Lagann and G-Gundam and really liked Gunbuster. EDIT: Oh yea, the dub's awful. I got, like, four lines in before I cut that shit off. The next show I watch needs a good one, or else I fear I could become a dub curmudgeon. |
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PetrifiedJello
Posts: 3782 |
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I'm rewatching Gosick, but only during meals and downtime to give my eyes a rest. The 360 has literally monopolized my time. Anime has taken a back seat, especially new stuff. The last "new" title I watched was the Koihimie trilogy.
I don't suspect I'll be checking anything new out in a while, either. Call it quasi-burnout, or just lack of interest, but the unseen stuff in my online queues, as well as a few backlog titles, can not pull me away from the Assassin's Creed, Oblivion, and even the HP Lego games. For now. Once the newness of this wears off, I'll be back to my beauties.
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Cam0
 Posts: 4888 |
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Watching Rainbow - Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin and seen 7 episodes so far. Seems pretty good and it has a lot potential. Manly friendship and guitar solos always go together well. I fear there's going to be a plot twist which spoiler[involves the death of Sakuragi], I do hope that's not the case. I also find the tiny dudes (the guy with Edward Elrics voice) hair a bit aggravating. I mean what's up with the holes? It just looks like someone dropped acid on his head. I guess nukes do that to you.
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the Rancorous
 Posts: 2248 Location: Hunting the Dragon in Gransys |
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Speaking as someone who got a lot of ironic entertainment out of Yosuga no Sora, I have to say Amagami SS sent me crawling up the wall. I only watched the first story arc (4 episodes) and that was more than enough. I've seen many people on these boards complain about male leads who are push-overs or wimps, well the male lead here was a total putz. No self-respecting male would have put up with the crap that first girl put him through. Most specifically the whole spoiler[back-of-knee kissing.] What makes it worse than the usual tsundere-smack stuff is that it wasn't played out like a comedy, it was played straight. And seriously, I don't know what they're going to do with a 2nd season; I mean, they covered all of the girls' stories with the first. What's left? |
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An1fr3ak
Posts: 235 Location: Australia |
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What I found with Ef, especially Memories, is that each time there is a critical scene, a love scene or a psychological insight into a character spoiler[they use the artwork techniques I mentioned in my above post right on cue. And somehow, the colours they use also feel right for the scene.] I lost count of how many snap shots I took during the second viewing of Memories
In response to Ef first... my favourite scene happens to be the one when spoiler[Hiro doesn't turn up to their date because the other girl gets injured. When Miyako starts leaving voice messages on his phone and the screen goes black and white and just writes what she says on screen. And how with each call she gets more and more desperate like as if she is about to have a mental break down].... I'm honestly getting chills just typing about it. In my opinion, Ef - A Tale of Memories is actually the best romance anime I've watched to date.
As for Amagami SS, yes, I am referreing to that gimmick. I just finished watching Yosuga no Sora two days ago actually (it only took two to watch anyway ) and I can honestly say that Amagami SS does it differently spoiler[because it is a complete reset for each arc]. In Yosuga spoiler[there are common elements for the first two girls and the last two girls] but this is not the case for Amagami... You just have to watch it to fully understand.
P.S. - I'm generous with my use of the spoiler tags... hope I didn't annoy y'all to much ^^" |
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Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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That scene. Just thinking about it makes me cry. Saw a couple episodes of Solty Rei. It seems to be about equal parts "D'aaaaaaaaaaaaaww!" and "OH SHI-!" The pool episode felt a bit unique. A little contrived in that it had three different groups of main characters in one place at the same time for the event of the episode, although it seems like having all the girls be in swimsuits was like the opposite of an afterthought? Like they wanted to do a pool episode and then after they came up with the plot it was mostly superfluous? Still, surprisingly fun, as something like half the cast were trying to avoid the commotion being caused rather than getting sucked into it. Also, the CG for cars in the show has aged quite poorly. Otherwise, decent, I guess, but I don't think I'm in a rush to watch more. |
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