anime

[Twig]

Well against everyone's better judgment, I've continued watching Eureka Seven: Ao.

 

Um I don't think this anime has any idea what it's doing. The story is just all over the place. I don't know if I'd call it boring, but I'd definitely call it messy. I just finished episode sixteen. I will probably go ahead and finish it because I want to see if it manages to pull itself together against all odds. Man what.

 

(Also I wonder how much of it would make sense if I only remembered basically anything that happened in the original series.)

[tegan]

 

 

 

I'm in an anime mood lately but don't know what I want to watch.

[GraysonEvans]

 

 

 

I'm in an anime mood lately but don't know what I want to watch.

I would look at some of the more obscure ghibli stuff. Porcorosso is super cute!

[Twig]

I'm in an anime mood lately but don't know what I want to watch.

Don't watch Eureka Seven: Ao!

 

That narrows it down for you, right?

[Double H]

I'm in an anime mood lately but don't know what I want to watch.

Watch Guardian of the Sacred Spirit (Seirei no Moribito). It's one of my favorites.

[Codicier]

I'm in an anime mood lately but don't know what I want to watch.

Grayson Evans suggestion of returning to the classics is never a bad idea tbh.

Also Maybe following Twigs footsteps & try out Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi if you haven't already.

I tend to assume Tegan>All when it comes to manga & anime subculture and history reference knowledge, so maybe you'd pick up on some stuff in there which might not be as obvious to me (plus it's just generally fun & fast paced)

Of the current crop

http://www.crunchyroll.com/monthly-girls-nozaki-kun

Is certainly the easiest to dip into.

[BadHat]

Whoa, I'm following new anime for once and felt compelled to post about it!

 

I'm enjoying the heck out of Zankyou no Terror. It seems a little aimless at times, and Lisa is pretty useless as a character, but I like the show's style so much it almost doesn't bother me. Yoko Kanno's score is fucking goooooood, like damn, it'd probably carry the show by itself if it didn't have anything else going for it. Thankfully the animation is also lovely. I really, really like this show's use of colour. Everything is very vivid and "on purpose" where a lot of newer anime I've seen have very bland, samey colour palettes. Anyway, definitely a fan of this one. I grabbed Samurai Champloo just to have some more Watanabe goodness to watch in-between episodes, and I'm definitely checking out Kids on the Slope after that.

 

On the other hand, I've been watching Aldnoah.Zero because of Gen Urobuchi's involvement, but boy does this show suck. Paper thin characterization, motivations are all over the place and seldom inspire sympathy, story feels completely consequence-free despite killing off characters at the drop of a hat. The whole thing just feels completely overwrought and undeserving of how far up its own ass it is (which makes the composer of Attack on Titan a perfect fit!).

 

BUT WHY CAN'T I STOP WATCHING.

 

I swear this always happens to me. I've put down fantastic anime before because I didn't have the patience to stay with them, but whenever I start watching something that's as disposable and uninspired as this I cannot look away. I guess they have the same appeal to me as really bad, popcorn-y movies. I just thrive on watching them and mentally eviscerating every scene, or something. Ugh. I wish I could feel this way about other shows, I'm still only halfway through Mushishi after watching on and off for months, because I feel completely uninspired to watch it despite loving the shit out of it.  

[Merus]

I thought Yoko Kanno quit?! Well.

[Gormongous]

I thought Yoko Kanno quit?! Well.

 

She's one of those people that quits all the time. It used to be that she worked under pseudonyms while officially in retirement, but I think the internet enables people to figure it out too quickly now. She also claims not to speak English, presumably for several different reasons, but has sung songs in English with virtually no accent on several different albums, so...

[Twig]

I have finished Eureka Seven: Ao and can confirm once and for all that it is!!!! not good. It does NOT manage to pull itself back together. It suffers from that typical "high school kid saving the world" nonsense but is exceptionally egregious about it, so that's "rad". Anyway. It's not good. Continues to look really good throughout, though!

Now what to watch next...

 

I am thinking Trigun. Wanna watch that through again and then watch the Badlands Rumble movie.

 

Either that or catch up on all the currently-airing or aired-last-season anime that I've wanted to watch, 'cause I've sort of fallen behind.

 

Orrrr tackle the Monogatari series, which I get the impression most people here don't like but I really liked the first one, Bakemonogatari.

 

Hmmm.

[Coods]

do monogatari 

 

 

it gets good

[Codicier]

do monogatari 

 

 

it gets good

 

it then also gets super overindulgent, but then again really there is pretty no one else editing or composing a show's visuals in quite the way SHAFT do atm.

I personally do think it's anywhere near the same class as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei for instance, but there's worse ways to kill time certainly.

 

 

On the other hand, I've been watching Aldnoah.Zero because of Gen Urobuchi's involvement, but boy does this show suck. Paper thin characterization, motivations are all over the place and seldom inspire sympathy, story feels completely consequence-free despite killing off characters at the drop of a hat. The whole thing just feels completely overwrought and undeserving of how far up its own ass it is (which makes the composer of Attack on Titan a perfect fit!).

 

BUT WHY CAN'T I STOP WATCHING.

 

I swear this always happens to me. I've put down fantastic anime before because I didn't have the patience to stay with them, but whenever I start watching something that's as disposable and uninspired as this I cannot look away. I guess they have the same appeal to me as really bad, popcorn-y movies. I just thrive on watching them and mentally eviscerating every scene, or something. Ugh. I wish I could feel this way about other shows, I'm still only halfway through Mushishi after watching on and off for months, because I feel completely uninspired to watch it despite loving the shit out of it.  

 

My theory on these is because this kind of storytelling by rote requires precisely Zero energy to consume, its basically the frozen food of anime.

[Twig]

I started watching some Trigun. It's still good. More comical than I remembered! It probably gets more serious near the end, like Cowboy Bebop did. It's from that era.

 

I also caught up on Re: Hamatora, the sequel (i.e., second season) to Hamatora. It continues to be palatable junk that I enjoy purely on the surface level.

 

I also caught up on Rowdy Sumo Wrestler Matsutaro. I'm not sure why I've stuck with it this long. I really disliked the main character in the beginning - because he is a huge jerk - but he's sort of grown on me. And his friend Tanaka is a swell dude.

 

I've also been keeping up with Hunter x Hunter and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. I continue to enjoy the former because it's really good and the latter because it's ridiculous.

 

And finally, I watched the first episode of Samurai Jam - Bakumatsu Rock. It features sexy shirtless dudes playing rock music in opposition to The Man's demand that only one song be played - Heaven's Song... it's a pop song. So it's rock vs pop as freedom fighters vs the government. In the shogunate era. Also the main character has a Peace Soul which means I have no idea what it means but he has one. The sheer absurdity of it continues to appeal to me, against my better judgment. Oh and one of the characters wears giant ass goggles around his neck that are like twice the size of what he'd actually need. The ending song features almost-naked dudes.

[Coods]

edit: nooooo!!!!!

[Twig]

Wrong thread Deleric!!

[Gormongous]

Wrong thread Deleric!!

 

I am embarrassed by how many words I read while still plausibly believing that it was going to turn into an anime comment at some point.

[tegan]

Giant Bomb has effectively put out a call for people to solicit Dan with anime DVDs because, let's face it, Dan would probably love a lot of anime if he knew what it was.

 

Who here is willing to step up and send him a Cowboy Bebop boxed set and a copy of Redline on my behalf?

[BadHat]

Apologies if this was already posted but you just reminded me of this, which was kind of hilarious. Not worth watching unless you have access to Madoka Magica, it's like a rifftrax thing with him talking over top of an episode, but with zero context and no audio/subs. Something like this with Dan would just be... magical. Oh man even better, Dan and his dad watch anime.

 

 

Oh and I guess there's a second one out already, for another show I haven't heard of.

 

[Twig]

Now I've caught up on Haikyu!! and it continues to be as good as sports anime gets. So feel-good.

[Twig]

And now that I've caught up again I feel obligated to reiterate every time I see a new episode that Haikyu!! is the best sports anime I've yet to see. I think it's really good even if you're not as blatantly biased toward sports anime as I am, but well how would I know, being biased. It's just really good.

 

;_;

 

Only one episode left.

 

;_;

[Codicier]

And now that I've caught up again I feel obligated to reiterate every time I see a new episode that Haikyu!! is the best sports anime I've yet to see. I think it's really good even if you're not as blatantly biased toward sports anime as I am, but well how would I know, being biased. It's just really good.

PING PONG > all.

Sidenote: does anyone know if Watanabe has ever done anything sports related?

A lot of the stuff I like about Ping Pong (the music, the framing etc) is stuff Watanabe has always been pretty good at, plus he's always had a great knack for showing characters with very fluid movements. Would be great to see him do something like perhaps football(soccer) or maybe basketball.

I know the was a baseball episode in Samurai Champloo but that doesn't count really.

[Twig]

I like Haikyu considerably more than I like Ping Pong.

[Codicier]

I like Ping Pong more than all but a few other shows (of any genre) but there we go. Stil will have to give Haikyu a go one evening, they've got it on crunchyroll right?

[Twig]

Yes.

 

Ping Pong was good, but beyond the excellent animation it didn't have much going for it. In other words, if it weren't for the animation, it wouldn't have been much to speak of. I don't think the story was all that interesting. It could've been about anything that requires dedication and hard work to excel at, and still been basically the same story.

 

...Nooooooot that the typical sports anime has anything much going for it, story-wise, either. It really is my anime junk food. Haikyu!! just wins a lot of points from me because it's so feel-good and boy do I love me some feel-goods. As do most sports anime of its ilk, but Haikyu!! is EXCEPTIONALLY so. Ping Pong didn't have any feel-goodiness to it. It was just pure adrenaline-infused animation. Which was great! But.

 

EDIT: Also no I don't think Watanabe's done any sports anime.

[Codicier]

I totally get where you're comming from but Ping Pong is one of those series I just fell head over heels for.

I mean Ping Pongs animation is superb but I wouldn't love it like I do if it didn't do such a great job for me with its character building. There's a hundred small things which just work amazingly well for me, moments after moment clicking perfectly into place.

It could be just be something about the way characters name is used, like how Smile's nickname turns out to be perfect for him, or the exact emphasis that his coach put into each word when he address him as 'Mr Tsukimoto'.

It's small things done really really well, time after time.

Equally when it comes to the big things they had the balls to never give more than a glimpse of the first game of the grand final the whole series has been building to.

Honestly I think this is one where we may have to agree to disagree, because I think the feel goodishness of the final episode was pretty much unparalleled for me (though I will admit a lot of that comes from the fact that my relationship with one of my closest best friends has a lot in common with the two leads), and throughout it pretty much every single major character got a satisfying end to their story arc (regardless of whether they were a antagonist or protagonist.

All in all it's weirdly great to think that sport anime as a sub genre must be going through a sort of mini resurgence if it can produce two shows in quick succession which people have such strong positive feelings towards