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You know I really hope next Season has some really straight/sincere non-trope stuff, because by the time Kill La Kill & Space Dandy are over I think we are going to be burned out trying to decide when they hit or miss with their various trope deconstructions.

Haha no kidding. SHIT'S EXHAUSTING, YO!

 

I'm super pumped for: JoJo, which just embraces its ridiculous over the top action to the nth degree and I don't have to worry AND Mushishi (OBVS) because it's my favorite anime!

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read the manga of flowers of evil. Don't watch the anime. It's awful.

 

As for more slice of life stuff, check out Clannad, then Clannad After story. Bring tissues.

 

Also Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Appolon) is very good. I also really liked Natsuyuki Rendezvous for a more adult slice of life with drama plot. It's about a budding romance between a flower shop owner and a guy who can see the ghost of her dead husband. Sound contrived and rubbish, but it's pretty touching and sweet. 

 

Also check out Princess Jellyfish (Kuragehime). It's about a house of neets who are into different otaku subcultures who are all girls, called the 'amars'. One lass is really into Jellyfish, tries to save a jellyfish that has been incorrectly treated in a pet shop and runs into a cross dresser and love triangles ensue. It's really good. 

 

Oh and Also Space Brothers is neato, but long running. It's about brothers trying to be astronauts. It's funded by JAXA and everything, which is pretty cool. I kinda stopped watching it, but it's really good. Very slice of life, but it's about a really interesting career path.

 

Idk if any of them appeal to you.

  

I'll vouch for both of these and I'm ridiculously picky about my animus.

 

If you haven't seen it already and judging by the fact you like Evangelion and NHK you might want to get on Kare Kano (His & Her Circumstances) too. It's based on an okay romance manga only for some ungodly reason Hideaki Anno ended up directing it. Like, literally straight from End of Evangelion into doing what was supposed to be a fairly lighthearted love story. Suddenly these kids are DEEPLY FUCKED and desperately clinging to eachother to keep some sort of identity afloat and there are long arthouse shots of background scenery and I swear to god they introduce AT Field theory at one point. Unsurprisingly the mangaka wasn't super thrilled and Anno ended up leaving the project before it was done. Also notable for having one of the greatest intro tunes ever.

  

A few good starters directly from the same studios/directors you've mentioned would perhaps be:

-FLCL

-Samurai Champloo

On a more general note we have.

Slice of Life:

-Kids on the Slope

-Honey and Clover

Anything by the late and great Satoshi Kon, but considering what you've said you like these would be good starters:

-Tokyo Godfathers

-Paranoia Agent

-Paprika

Mamoru Hosoda's modern stuf so:

-Summer Wars

(With very minimal fantasy elements)

-Girl Who Lept through time

-Wolf Children

Action with character development:

-Michiko to Hatchin

- (thanks to SG for the correct spelling)

-Black Lagoon

Good Character development but with quite heavy SciFi/Fantasty elements:

-The Eccentric Family

-Planetes

-Mushishi

  

I want to add Tatami Galaxy to Codicier's great list. Also the movies Mind Game and Tekkon Kinkreet.

  

I haven't seen the anime based on it, but I've been reading Wandering Son and it's exactly this.

Thanks so much for all the awesome recommendations!

I looked up some of those and I found most of them to be really appealing, some really interesting plots. The ones which stood out for me were Kids on the Slope, Princess Jellyfish, Tekkon Kinkreet, Kare Kano and Wandering Son, seems to be exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for.

So many series to watch... I just wished there was some better streaming service with all those titles. Crunchyroll seems to be the best one, but it doesn't have all of them.

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Just watched the first episode of Princess Jellyfish. It's brilliant.

N1njasquirrel, about Flowers of Evil, why didn't you liked the anime? Was it because of the rotoscope animation? Because if it's only that, I don't think I'll have a problem watching it.

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of the older ones, you can get DVDs of them. Failing that, torrents do exist of all these shows.

Just watched the first episode of Princess Jellyfish. It's brilliant.

N1njasquirrel, about Flowers of Evil, why didn't you liked the anime? Was it because of the rotoscope animation? Because if it's only that, I don't think I'll have a problem watching it.

Yeah, it was the rotoscope animation, which is pretty awful, making for a choppy and disgusting visual style and animation. On top of which the acting is pretty awful too.

But I also wonder about the process that the show was made, and whether the mangaka had any say in the rotoscoping or not. If she did - fair enough, but given the track record of mangakas being repeatedly fucked over by their respective publishing company to get their manga turned into an anime mean that they just sign the paper without any real realisation of what they're signing into, as they are already under a lot of stress and pressure to release a chapter every week/month. A great example would be the mangaka of Thermae Romae who got paid $1000 for her manga to become a live action film, which grossed over $1 billion - and didn't receive a dime of the profit. She didn't even know how well it did until she heard there was a sequel, which she only discovered when the ad came up on TV!

Also the mangaka has such a lovely and unique tyle that it baffles me as to how they could fuck over her style in favour for their own rotoscoped bullshit. For comparison:

Aku-no-Hana-Differences.jpg

I guess at the end of the day, the sales figures win, as the first volume has been delayed due to "unforseen sales". Apparantly the preorders were only in the double-digit range.

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lunchtime Kill La Kill ep17 watching done:

 

fuck yeah 

 

Ok so it was actually a pretty quiet episode, and that was not the most subtle or unexpected redemptive scene.

But truly they did it with such panache, and such a perfect sense of dramatic timing(interrupting Raygo mid self-aggrandising speech), and so pitch perfect (referring to Raygo as "director" not mother)that it's hard not to admire.

Did I cheer a bit more because of what happened last episode? If I'm honest perhaps I did.

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of the older ones, you can get DVDs of them. Failing that, torrents do exist of all these shows.

Yeah, it was the rotoscope animation, which is pretty awful, making for a choppy and disgusting visual style and animation. On top of which the acting is pretty awful too.

 

Somethings a disgusting art style is the correct choice. Producing revulsion isn't necessarily a failure if that's what the director intends.

 

Rotoscoping when done like this hits the same "human but not human" uncanny valley vibe that CG can do (but for different reasons). If you consider what the story was saying about its characters, I'd argue its actually a stronger visual style because it actually manages to make so genuinely creepy moments in a way the manga never does.

 

Now is that good for sale? Well evidently not. I'm fairly certain it would have been a easier series to watch is the original art style had been kept.

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Chiming in late on recommendations: if you're looking for something slice of life-ish but you don't want to invest a lot of time, watch Eve No Jikan. Really though just watch it. It manages to be funny and heartfelt in a fraction of the time it takes some series just to get to the point of being watchable.

 

Oh and Also Space Brothers is neato, but long running. It's about brothers trying to be astronauts. It's funded by JAXA and everything, which is pretty cool. I kinda stopped watching it, but it's really good. Very slice of life, but it's about a really interesting career path.

 

Jesus, I stopped watching it somewhere in the teens because I decided there was too much filler and it was going nowhere fast. It's up to episode 88 now? Guess I dodged a bullet on that one.

 

Still got one of the best goddamn OPs ever.

 

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Somethings a disgusting art style is the correct choice. Producing revulsion isn't necessarily a failure if that's what the director intends.

 

Rotoscoping when done like this hits the same "human but not human" uncanny valley vibe that CG can do (but for different reasons). If you consider what the story was saying about its characters, I'd argue its actually a stronger visual style because it actually manages to make so genuinely creepy moments in a way the manga never does.

 

Now is that good for sale? Well evidently not. I'm fairly certain it would have been a easier series to watch is the original art style had been kept.

I find manga (and books in general) to be a less creepy format than any animation/live action stuff. So saying that it's a stronger visual style would be hard to argue without a Flowers of evil anime adaption with the original artwork and not rotorscoped. I do think that anime does have some very good creepy shows/scenes though, like in Paranoia Agent, Monster, Paprika and Akira.

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Chiming in late on recommendations: if you're looking for something slice of life-ish but you don't want to invest a lot of time, watch Eve No Jikan. Really though just watch it. It manages to be funny and heartfelt in a fraction of the time it takes some series just to get to the point of being watchable.

Yes. This show is great.

The piano scene was particularly moving.

I'd also like to chip in Durarara! And Baccano! as being both excellent series. 

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Chiming in late on recommendations: if you're looking for something slice of life-ish but you don't want to invest a lot of time, watch Eve No Jikan. Really though just watch it. It manages to be funny and heartfelt in a fraction of the time it takes some series just to get to the point of being watchable.

 

Don't take this as an un-recommendation because it's definitely worth watching but it drove me up the wall how

Mainguy becomes aware of his robot's sentience and his first thought isn't 'holy shit this is slavery'. Like, maybe it went over my head and it was implied he knew she couldn't leave regardless of her personal feelings due to the robotics laws preventing it without direct authorization of the owner so there's this subtle tension of them both knowing the situation's fucked and they can't change it but I kept waiting for him to at least talk to her about it at some point.

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lunchtime Kill La Kill ep17 watching done:

 

fuck yeah 

 

Ok so it was actually a pretty quiet episode, and that was not the most subtle or unexpected redemptive scene.

But truly they did it with such panache, and such a perfect sense of dramatic timing(interrupting Raygo mid self-aggrandising speech), and so pitch perfect (referring to Raygo as "director" not mother)that it's hard not to admire.

Did I cheer a bit more because of what happened last episode? If I'm honest perhaps I did.

This episode was so good. Totally fucking satisfied. I saw it coming, too, but I am so happy it happened, and so happy it happened the way it did. Fuck yeah.

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This episode was so good. Totally fucking satisfied. I saw it coming, too, but I am so happy it happened, and so happy it happened the way it did. Fuck yeah.

 

Well, I'm glad I didn't see it coming and I'm glad I didn't it would have had such an impact if I knew what was going to happen.

 

I'm guessing Satsuki stabbing her mom in the episode after she was probably molested by her mom in the bath, redeems the show in the eyes who thought it was too much?

 

I wonder if the scene was there to represent why she would turn on her mother? And I say why and not when because apparently she was going to do this from the start?

 

One thing really confused me... I assume she knew Ryuko is specially made to fight life fibers, but does she really hate Ryuko? Are they suddenly on the same side now or something? It's going to be very weird either way...

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I saw it coming long before that scene, but that scene did basically ensure that it was going to happen. And voila.

 

Also Satsuki clearly never really hated Ryuko. Never even expressed hatred for Ryuko. If anything, Satsuki's always been pushing for Ryuko to become stronger and stronger, the same as she does her elite four. Pretty blatantly, too, to the point of actually saying as much out loud on multiple occasions. The only time she ever considered actually killing Ryuko was when Ryuko lost control.

 

That doesn't mean they won't still end up fighting in the end, but it's definitely not out of any sense of malice from Satsuki.

 

Also... "probably" molested? In what world is there any question about what happened there? U:

 

Honestly, the broad story beats in Kill la Kill are pretty standard and predictable. It's what they do with those beats that consistently surprises and pleases me.

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OK, I should not have used "probably", even with the infinitesimal censoring, it's obviously what happened, even if it was a messed up ritual and Satsuki agreed to it, it's still molestation, right? :|

 

Hmm, is Kill la Kill coming close to the end? It's weird, the show has an intro like it was a new season, but it feels like it shouldn't have that many more unless the DBZ it up and make the battles last episodes, but that doesn't seem like Trigger's style. 

 

I know I said the same a few episodes before, but even if there is a full season left, I feel like it will be the final season anyway. :|

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What the..?! I just saw the episode of Space Dandy with the little girl and... it was an episode of Cowboy Bebop... Dandy has never been this nice or competent... he was badass and had a heart of gold!

 

I'm conflicted... As amazing as this episode was, it clashes SO much with the tone of the other episodes that it feels almost like another show, at least from the preview of the next episode it looks like Space Dandy will be funny again, it looks like a parody of one those shirtless Kirk battles from what I saw.

 

At least he "failed", but still, the tone shift is so awkward.

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For the record, Dandy has never struck me as incompetent. Just overconfident and apathetic.

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Really? So far: 

 

-Episode one: He dies at the end. He could handle a single alien at all.

-Episode two: Fails to capture the alien, he runs from all fights, the only time he "won" was because the alien registration lady did the fighting.

-Episode three: Fails to hit a single target, falls for the trap and only survives due his dumb luck than skill. He abandons Meow.

-Episode four: Fails to notice the very obvious signs of zombie apocalypse, when he was in helicopter with a SINGLE zombie, he fails to subdue it and is turned into one too.

-Episode five: The girl's power should leave him powerless, but he's so badass he fly and do a "homing spin attack" while in plush form.

 

Hmm, I wonder.. He was an actual competent fighter only while he was turned into plushie, maybe the power makes the powerful weak and viceversa? Still, that doesn't explain why he suddenly has a heart of gold, you yourself just called him apathetic.

 

Anyway, I saw the first episode of Wonder Momo... It's so weird that Shifty Look managed to get this turned into an anime. It's only 7 minutes long and cheesy as hell, but so was the arcade game it was based on. I haven't read the webcomic though.

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All of those things are easily attributable to overconfidence and apathy.

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Honestlty (so far at least) It's almost like his competance is inversely proportional to what it should typically be at all times.

On a different note I think that episode & to a lesser extent the series in general has alot of similaritys with Michiko to Hatchin (which shouldn't be surprising considering overlap of staff). Michiko's competence certainly fluctuates a lot and she certainly ticks the same overconfidence and apathy boxes as Dandy.

But that series always had the central quest dragging it forward. Whereas dandy has obviously purposely gone for a very purposeless hero, one who has utterly abandoned any desire to go off on the archetypal hero's journey.

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Really? So far: 

 

-Episode one: He dies at the end. He could handle a single alien at all.

-Episode two: Fails to capture the alien, he runs from all fights, the only time he "won" was because the alien registration lady did the fighting.

-Episode three: Fails to hit a single target, falls for the trap and only survives due his dumb luck than skill. He abandons Meow.

-Episode four: Fails to notice the very obvious signs of zombie apocalypse, when he was in helicopter with a SINGLE zombie, he fails to subdue it and is turned into one too.

-Episode five: The girl's power should leave him powerless, but he's so badass he fly and do a "homing spin attack" while in plush form.

 

Hmm, I wonder.. He was an actual competent fighter only while he was turned into plushie, maybe the power makes the powerful weak and viceversa? Still, that doesn't explain why he suddenly has a heart of gold, you yourself just called him apathetic.

 

Anyway, I saw the first episode of Wonder Momo... It's so weird that Shifty Look managed to get this turned into an anime. It's only 7 minutes long and cheesy as hell, but so was the arcade game it was based on. I haven't read the webcomic though.

 

About ep 5:

I was under the impression that her power did not leave him powerless, just that usually when she did it previously, the bounty hunters were so shocked at turning into a plushie that it caused them to faint. His overconfidence to capture her is what made him not faint because he didn't notice/care. It doesn't leave him powerless.

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I just watched the first episode of Michiko to Hatchin and... Her "badassery" in the first episode is off the charts, I'm curious to see how on Earth this girl could be as close to incompetent as Space Dandy.

 

I'd hate to say it, but watching the first episode was REALLY hard to watch, the adoptive parents were so ridiculously cartoonish evil that it really started to annoy me... They were constantly attacking her in the worse ways possible... 

The whole "Hey, let's force her to kill the cat and then rat her to the kids so they turn her into a pet!" just made me roll my eyes and "facepalm".

 

And all this happened in 24 hours? I know this was meant so we'd feel sympathy for Hatchin, but... was it necessary to go so far? I know her mom is a criminal, but they have to make the adoptive family so evil they make Dr. Doom look nice just so we wouldn't feel bad her mother is a criminal?

 

It was also pretty weird to finally watch an anime dubbed again, I can't remember the last time I did that.

 

I'm still going to continue to watch the show despite the very rough start. :|

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The first episode is pretty lame and not at all what the show is about.

 

That's all I got.

 

Wait, also: it's one of the best, so if you don't like it YOU'RE WRONG.

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Yeah, the second episode was MUCH better, and Michiko seems so far like a badass that can be a bit gullible, which isn't incompatible at all, and I like her dynamic with Hatchin so far too.

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Hey everyone. I just joined and thought I'd say hey. I probably won't post very often though. 

 

Also, I really like Yowapeda. 

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Hunter x Hunter is brill. I'm loving it. I've heard a lot of things about the Chimera Ant Arc being lame, but I'm really enjoying it. Although I'm feeling that it's slowed down a lot recently? This arc is certainly a lot longer than any of the previous ones. Maybe they're worried they'll catch up to the manga? Given the authors track record of writing no chapters for months at a time, it seems plausible. 

 

Greed Island was an awkward arc. I remember it being awesome when I watched it years ago. Now I've watched more shows, the concept feels less and less original. Fuck you SAO.

 

I'd say it's streaks ahead of Soul Eater in terms of quality. It's different from Dangan Ronpa though. I really enjoyed that show.

I despised the first half of the Chimera Ant arc, but these past few episodes, while extreeeeemely slooooow have also been the most intense episodes of the entire series thus far. The latest one in particular was just fuuuuck.

 

I dunno if I like it more than Soul Eater. I really enjoyed Soul Eater at the time, and remember immediately wanting more once it finished. Never read the manga to compensate for the lack of anime, though.

 

What I'm saying is I still really like Hunter x Hunter. Weakest arc was the dumb Yorknew City (dumb name too) arc. Dumb dumb. Never liked that, even when I read the manga (until the guy broke his wrist or something and basically stopped drawing it for years or however long).

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