anime

[N1njaSquirrel]

actually finally watch Space Dandy since it's finishing up (or is finished?) now

 

I think there's one more episode to go. It must be over now

 

damn I really like this series. The second season is a lot better than the first. The second to last episode delved into Dandy's past, and was quite touching I thought. 

 

Watch Princess Jellyfish! Then read the manga! I think this is the problem with anime adaptions from manga, especially ongoing ones, is whether it gets an 'original anime ending' or not. I don't know how it's decided, I guess popularity of the first volume of the DVD/Blu-ray sales are their indication, and then they get either an original anime ending which crappily ties up all the loose ends (like princess jellyfish), or just ends on a cliffhanger. This is all speculation, but I really do dislike it. Especially in the case of Princess Jellyfish, as the manga goes into really interesting places that I haven't read about before. :/

 

Is anyone watching Tokyo Ghoul? I can't really make my mind up about it. I have no emotional attachment to anyone, and I don't really care about what happens. It feels pretty routine I guess. The worst thing in it is the insufferable crazy androgynous cop who's 'awesome' but 'wacky' and 'so keraaazy'. It's so fucking awful and his scenes just make me want to die. There are good examples of chaotic characters, and this one is just so fucking tropey it drives me mad. And then it tries just way too hard to make him original, but really he's doing exactly the same thing that that character trope does. I guess a good example of this kinda character is Gintoki? Or Hisoka? (Hisoka is actually one of my favourite characters in anything. Fucking hell he's an amazing bad guy.)

 

Also is anyone interested in anything in the next season? I'm really looking forward to The Seven Deadly Sins. The manga is ace, and the trails looks like this is going to be amazing. Again I just hope it's not going to get an original anime ending, coz that'd be rubbish. The manga has only revealed 4 of the cast of 7! (The Seven Deadly sins are 7 extraordinarily talented warriors who were framed(?)(It's not revealed in the manga what actually happens) for killing the king, and then disbanded, Melodias is the main protagonist, and he's the leader of the 7 deadly sins.)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqkE3x3AyVs

[Twig]

The Seven Deadly Sins is an okay manga with some bright spots, and I expect the anime to be similarly okay with some bright spots. Been reading it on CR for a while but keep falling off due to their atrocious tracking of what page/chapter I'm on. Get your shit together CR, you've had it for your anime for so long, you'd think it'd be even easier with manga. Though I already hate the way the princess sounds literally the same as every other character like that, with her high-pitched, slightly-exasperated tone of voice. Save me, Deadly Sins, save me!!! ):

 

Also, pretty sure it is actually revealed in the manga what they were framed for. But I forget what it was because a) it's been a while and who even cares.

 

I watched the first half of Space Dandy and it was way better this time around. I'd already seen half of... that first half and was less than impressed, despite expecting to love it. Guess I just wasn't in the right mood for it. It's great wacky spaceventure funtime parody. Though the best episodes are the ones that have a sort of melancholic undertone to them. Except the ramen episode, that might be my favorite so far. Though I guess the end of the episode is sort of melancholic. Looking forward to watching the second season once I've moved to start my new job. U:

 

And now I'm watching Gankutsuou in earnest, FINALLY. Wow it's really good. Like it's been a while, I think, since I've been so engrossed in an anime of this ilk. I feel sort of ashamed watching this without ever having read the original story, but also so far based on my situation, this is just really good so who cares! I went from only having watched three episodes in probably half a year up until yesterday to suddenly being in the middle of the 16th episode.

[seamus2389]

I need to decide what to watch next!

 

My options (at least insofar as I've specifically chosen to eventually watch them at some point, and these are probably at the top of my list in the mood I'm in right now):

• the entire Monogatari series (or just Bake for now and then go to something else after (already seen Bake, but I remember so little I'm going to have to rewatch it anyway)),

 

 

The first season of that show is good. From season 2 onwards it is a swift descent into some of the most messed up fan service i have ever seen, mostly in gif form a friend  linked me to after hearing I was going to watch the second season as a warning.

[Gormongous]

The first season of that show is good. From season 2 onwards it is a swift descent into some of the most messed up fan service i have ever seen, mostly in gif form a friend  linked me to after hearing I was going to watch the second season as a warning.

 

Man, you don't get to say that and not post it.

[Twig]

Agreed. POST IT!

Also, Tokyo Ghoul is quite boring and takes itself far too seriously except for those too-few moments when it actually gives me what I want, which is crazy superpowered ghouls fighting each other. I feel like what happened in the span of one season should've been pared down to a few episodes as an OVA or something. Maybe just a single movie? The core conceit is rather silly and yet typical: there are ghouls living alongside humans who also eat humans. Some of the ghouls only eat already-dead humans though so it's okay. But all humans hate ghouls. Except the girl that doesn't because they're in love and she lets the guy who needs a meal take a bite out of her. Anyway the main character gets attacked by a ghoul, who accidentally dies. The doctor uses her organs to save the guy. Now he's part ghoul, part human. And then the anime spends 10 episodes going on and on about how ghouls are just like humans why can't we all get along (GEE I WONDER WHY???)

before the main character finally goes beast mode and gets badass. And then that's the last episode.

(last ep spoilers, though tbh who cares just read it)

 

Besides that, I've watched all of Terror in Resonance except for the last episode, which I won't be able to watch until this weekend. It's good?(??) I dunno. Watanabe continues to not deliver the things I really want him to deliver: more stuff like Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo. I did eventually grow to like the main girl character, though. Mostly. Maybe. Stockholm???????? I think I like it. Someone tell me if I like it.

I also watched a bunch of Tokyo ESP, which featured a few-minutes-long Ghostbusters gag at one point and a very brief Wolverine gag that you'd probably miss if you looked in a different area of the screen. It's goofy and serious at the same time and I mostly enjoy it on a surface level.

 

Oh yeah I finished Gankutsuou which I definitely loved. I only remember one thing that bothered me

when Eugenie is apparently raped and then it's never really addressed beyond the brief follow-up confrontation, and she shows no signs of trauma and whateverrrr,

though I don't know if that's an element from the original story or just poorly translated, or what.

 

EDIT: OH SHIT LOG HORIZON CONTINUES NEXT SEASON AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[N1njaSquirrel]

Isn't it the (in)famous toothbrushing scene? A quick google also shows a lot of his sister in various states of undress.

 

 

I agree with you about Tokyo Ghoul. The pacing is all over the shop. The last episode, however, was fantastic. I really liked

the reasons why he changes. Not because of the normal shonen 'oh I must be stronger' but because he has to stop becoming a push-over, or he's going to die. I did think the torture scene was OTT, but then again what would you expect from a torture scene? Still, this could have so easily been a thing done at like episode 6, and then had 6 more episodes of him being bad-ass. Hopefully there's a season 2.

 

On another pacing note, I really enjoyed Terraforma's first episode. It was like 'oh there's a guy - TO MARS PEOPLE!'. Was totally expecting a training montage or something. Also the way that rocket lifted off at the end (and my bear minimum knowledge of Kerbal Space Program) there is no way that rocket got enough delta v to get out of the atmosphere. And to start curving that quickly is insane! They'd lose so much momentum doing that. And then they remove two thrusters in two different staging - at the same time? Why waste all that fuel on dead weight? They should have released it earlier! what the fuck anime?

 

EDIT: O hai new page. Awkward gif to start with...

 

Edit 2: shoved that gif in a spoiler tag.

[Ozzie]

I just finished watching Steins;Gate.

Its story makes close to zero sense, but somehow I didn't care. It's clearly aimed at adolescents since the story is fueled all by emotion and moodyness and close to zero reason. The Butterfly Effect is quite similar in that regard and in many others as well. The thing that bugs me about The Butterfly Effect is that it states at the very beginning that changing the past has unforeseeable consequences for the future, yet in the movie the main character changes things with quite foreseeable outcomes. It's no different in Steins;Gate.

You would think the smartest way to cancel out those D-Mails would be to make sure that they never arrive, instead of sending other ones that instead might introduce other unforeseeable consequences (which they don't, of course, besides changing nothing).

The characters in Steins;Gate all behave based on intuition, and damn do they make stupid choices at times that seem really smart to them and are often confirmed by the results to have been the right ones

(see the way they change the sex of one of the characters)

.

It's clear that the anime is based on a harem Visual Novel. I played the beginning of it a bit, but the unfocused storytelling that gets constantly distracted with side attractions that don't further the main plot and let the story lose steam, made me stop playing it. The anime is better I think. It seems to stick pretty close to the Visual Novel, it even uses some of the same music.

Annoying in both VN and anime, but less so in the latter, is that you as a viewer will figure out certain things a long time before any of the characters do. How long it took the characters in the VN to figure out that they built a time machine was embarrassing. I played it with a friend and we constantly sat there wondering "will they figure it out now", only to be disappointed yet again.

Steins;Gate the anime is very enjoyable, as long as you don't hope for a time travel story with a consistent rule set.

Edit: The anime also reminds me of Final Destination and the ending of the The Wedding of River Song episode of Doctor Who.

[Twig]

I have internet again! Time to watch the last episode of like five different things,

 

I finished Terror in Resonance. The ending was good but also completely predictable.

 

I finished Rowdy Sumo Wrestler Matsutaro. The ending was all right but also felt sorta empty and unrewarding.

 

I am finished Tokyo ESP. I am like forty five seconds in and it's paused on this shirtless disproportionately-muscled dude with a samurai helmet on and he's the one with the power causing a big government building in the air as an act of terrorism. I mean listen this anime is not good. I will not apologize. EDIT: I should apologize to myself, though. What a horrible non-ending. Based on a still-running (?) manga though so of course it wouldn't have a real/good ending after one season.

 

But then I have the last episode of Space Dandy and Barakamon left! The former of which I've gradually just completely fallen in love with, and the latter of which is probably my favorite anime from this season.

 

I've also been watching some Red Jacket Lupin III and it's like... not very good. I don't know why I've even watched 20-something episodes in. There are 155 episodes. Whyyyyyy. I remember Green Jacket being so much better. Also Castle of Cagliostro is of course good. But I wonder how Pink Jacket is! So I have to keep watching???

[N1njaSquirrel]

I finished Terror in Resonance. The ending was good but also completely predictable.

 

Yeah, I felt the ending made up for the rest of the show, which wasn't all that. I also had no attachment to anyone, and 5's English was terrible, although the blonde guy's English was actually pretty good. Made me think it was actually filled by a native English speaker, which is rare.

 

The last episode of Barakamon was ace. I have yet to watch the last episode of Space Dandy, but the second to last one was really good. Part of me thinks Dandy's matured a lot since the beginning of the season, and seeing his past was more interesting than I thought. I'm going to guess the last episode is as random as the rest, but it'd be nice if there was some closure.

[Twig]

Oh! Yes, the endings to both Space Dandy and Barakamon were great! Those two and Haikyu!! are my top three for the past two seasons. I won't apologize!

 

I don't know if I'd say Dandy has matured, per se, but there's definitely been a lot of character development that makes him a much more sympathetic character. Which really surprised me, like a lot. I totes recommend that anime (provided you can get over the egregious T&A, which was definitely the number one factor that put me off originally).

 

I wish every season had an anime as genuinely funny and heartwarming as Barakamon. It made me so happy every time I watched it. )':

 

Haven't really looked into this upcoming season's New Shit, yet, beyond a cursory glance. Or has it already started? Who knows!!!!

 

The blonde haired guy was definitely a native English speaker. Also non-American VA, even though the character was allegedly American. And yes, once again, Terror in Resonance goes to show that Japanese VAs can't do English. I mean, that's not a knock on 'em, but man it just rips me right out every time they try to pass it off as legitimate.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Ugh Haikyuu was good too! Although Yowamushi Pedal's second season started yesterday! It's so good! I forgot how great the characters are and how much I love this show. It's so darn good. It's nice to see characters that feel genuinely weird and different, and Yowapeda does that really nicely with Midousuji. 

 

As for the rest of the new season, Terra Formers starts out good, I also watched Denki-gai, which was ok. felt a lot like a poor man's Working! (Which should have a third season. That show was ace.) I also watched a really funny short called I don't understand my husband at all or something like that. It made me laugh more times in 5 minuets than Denki-gai did in 25.

[Twig]

As an aside: the amount of fidelity in that weirdo toothbrush-girl's eyes at the top of this page is COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY AND WEIRD.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Yeah it's kinda gross, and why I'm not watching nisemonogatari yet. Wrapped it in spoiler tags for ya. 

[Codicier]

Yeah it's kinda gross, and why I'm not watching nisemonogatari yet. Wrapped it in spoiler tags for ya. 

 

It's a SHAFT animation, it would be more of a spoiler if it didn't contain at least one of scene that implying something weirdly sexual (but is all the same impeccably animated).

[Twig]

I was actually just referring to the way her pupils egregiously dilate, but, yes, it is weird for other reasons, too. Out of context, though, I have no idea what is actually happening.

 

Anyway now I'm home it's time to look at the anime coming up this season to see if I care! This is fun times. U:

[Twig]

SO I LIKE DENKI-GAI I GUESS. Also Yowapeda continues to be Yowapeda. Thumbs UP. Also realized I forgot all about the between-seasons Mushishi special. Gotta watch that before it starts up again! I'm afraid to start Log Horizon again because what if I don't like the new season after the first one was basically my favorite thing. X: Also I just watched the first episode of When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace because Trigger is doing it and it's pretty much boring. Had a couple Kill la Kill references, though. Also it's harem, pretty sure. ):

 

Terraformars. What. Is that bear eating that dude's nuts. PS the title is fucking dumb.

 

EDIT: OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE I'm so sick of that enormous black censor bar. Tokyo Ghoul did it last season, EXCESSIVELY, Jojo's been doing it since the beginning. Ugh.

 

EDIT EDIT: Huh, Terraformars sort of saved itself at the very last moment in the first episode by actually legitimately explaining

why the aliens on Mars are cockroaches. Wasn't expecting that. But to suggest they'd evolve into humanoid life forms in just a little over 600 years, even with completely free reign, seems patently absurd... Maybe they'll explain that away with magic space bacteria or some shit in episode two.

 

Also: 36% chance of survival, and all of the introduced characters survive the surgery, why even bother with that awkward lore if you're just going to do that.

 

these characters suck and are boring

 

I spoilered it even though nobody in their right mind would even remotely care about spoilers in this anime as it has so far proceeded...

 

First episode was shit, but I'm still interested in seeing how the humans vs humanoid cockroaches battle goes also are these people half cockroach. I am really confused. .....nevermind the second episode is jsut starting out so awful and unbearably tropey i can't deal with this i think... i think i'm out... ALL RIGHT THERE IT IS WE'RE NOW FIGHTING THE COCKROACHES this is what i wanted, it is a crazy overwhelming doesn't give a fuck monster just ripping everyone to shreds, yes, yes

 

BLACK CENSOR BARS FUCK ME GODDAMNIT wow that one literally covered over two thirds of the screen

 

...why are they so incredibly humanoid, though, like they have abdominal muscles and human feet and shit it's weird and i'm sorta dreading whenever these humans figure out their weirdo superpowers because i think that's going to ruin it for me

 

also wow i just keep going and going i apologize to anyone who actually reads all this bullshit i'm going to edit it down so it doesn't take up as much vert space at least...

[N1njaSquirrel]

Also: 36% chance of survival, and all of the introduced characters survive the surgery, why even bother with that awkward lore if you're just going to do that.

 

I thought that too, although it did look like one of the three guys at the beginning didn't survive, but I can't remember. I haven't watched the second episode yet.

 

As for the black bars, the most ridiculous one was this for me:

 

 

Japans censorship laws are weird. I hated it in Tokyo Ghoul as well. Part of me wonders if they over-censor it to sell more Blu-rays. It makes sense for fan-service anime, but for gore? I'm not so sure. Apparently they are going to air the uncensored version of Terraformar's first ep in some con in america somewhere, which is cool.

 

Watched The Seven Deadly Sins the other night. It was exactly what I hoped it'd be. 

 

What's weirder about that show is that neither Crunchyroll nor Funimation have picked up the license for this show. Rumours are that Netflix, of all companies, has got the license and will be streaming it six months later. Which is fucking ridiculous.

 

This means is that to watch it now, you have to revert to watching fan subs, of which there is only one. And it's really bad. This is something that I haven't done in ages, as both funi and CR seem to own the licences to all the anime in a season that I'm interested in, at least. The fact that the sub of a (presumably) really popular anime is interesting, as it makes me wonder if the fan subbing community has died down considerably over the last year or two. 

 

Here's hoping that CR gets the license to it mid-season somehow, just like they did with Love Lab.

[Twig]

Yeah I was looking up where the license for The Seven Deadly Sins had gone last night and really confused nobody had grabbed it. Netflix, huh? That sucks. Rather Hulu, since they at least do simulcasting. Though Funi stuff usually goes there, right? Ah well.

 

Also I did end up watching the first episode of Log Horizon 2 last night. YES. YES. IT'S BACK. HURRAY.

[tegan]

Wait, there's an anime version of Terraformars?

 

Are the cockroach monsters still very obviously horrific racist caricatures that the anime community refuses to acknowledge as such?

[Twig]

Are they racist caricatures?

 

Went and looked at 'em again. Huh, guess they are? I never would've made that connection. They just looked like horrifically inhuman human-shaped monsters with gross bug skin to me. Thanks for ruining the only good part of the anime for me, jerk!

[Codicier]

Wait, there's an anime version of Terraformars?

 

Are the cockroach monsters still very obviously horrific racist caricatures that the anime community refuses to acknowledge as such?

 

Jesus wept, I Googled this and all i can think is how in gods name does such a thing exist. 

 

Yeah I was looking up where the license for The Seven Deadly Sins had gone last night and really confused nobody had grabbed it. Netflix, huh? That sucks. Rather Hulu, since they at least do simulcasting. Though Funi stuff usually goes there, right? Ah well.

 

Also I did end up watching the first episode of Log Horizon 2 last night. YES. YES. IT'S BACK. HURRAY.

 

I sincerely hope they don't mess up Log Horizon part of its charm early on was that it didn't do anything to overtly flashy. My worry now is that if it was successful enough to get a second season that means increased budget & ever escalating stakes

[Twig]

Well the first episode seemed pretty par for the course (although with a very light touch of that dumb "love triangle" thing, which is still my only real complaint about the series).

[Codicier]

Well the first episode seemed pretty par for the course (although with a very light touch of that dumb "love triangle" thing, which is still my only real complaint about the series).

 

So i just watched the 1st episode of Log Horizon S2 and so far any fears seem unfounded. In fact if anything i'd say in a few ways they have made a couple of really interesting steps forward.

 

Firstly i loved the way the quick cut's to the memories of the "real world" were done in a more high fidelity art style than the rest of the episode (i just hope they don't overuse it). I really appreciated that they were reinforcing the idea that the "generic fantasy" look of the log horizon world is a aesthetic choice not a budgetary constraint, it's sort of like when i video game does the whole Low Poly, or Pixel art thing. 

That said although the style is the same, the animation has been refined in nice subtle ways with what like slightly less flat colour on the characters, and smoother movement (that said it's quality does vary hugely and it's background characters remain adorably wonky).

 

 

Also I just watched the first episode of When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace because Trigger is doing it and it's pretty much boring. Had a couple Kill la Kill references, though. Also it's harem, pretty sure. ):

 

Yeah...

You could say many things about Kill La Kill but boring was rarely one of them

It feels like Trigger are on autopilot for this one. The fact they didn't even use their own Logo but just a generic version of their name in both title and end credits felt like a deliberate choice to separate this from a true trigger production.

I sort of wonder if they are doing a Edward Norton style thing of doing one project for themselves followed by one for the back account, but considering how outrageously successful Kill La Kill felt I'm not sure why their coffers aren't overflowing atm, and even then I'm not sure why they would choose to do this over trying to find a more original premise than this.

[Twig]

Yeah I was going to bring up the Real Life flashbacks. I sort of like them, but I worry about the implications there. I don't want this anime to suddenly turn into "now we've gotta get back to the real world!" because they've done such a good job of showing everyone Taking Control of the situation. I feel like abandoning this new world of theirs would just make everything up to now seem utterly pointless.

 

Even worse if it pulls a "but it was all a (collective) dream!" bullshit, but I have more faith in them than to expect THAT, at least!

 

Anyway, that's my number one concern. Hopefully they handle it well.

 

---

 

Re: Trigger: They must be bigger than I believed, because I thought for sure they were working full-bore on Little Witch Academia 2 by now. Could've sworn they said on Kickstarter that they'd do so once they finished Kill la Kill. I was sorta blindsided by this new thing because I wasn't expecting it at all.

 

At any rate, unless the second episode picks up hard, I think I'll just end up completely dropping it and never coming back unless someone tells me it gets Real Good.

 

The one thing I did like about it, though, was the main dude's power.

[Codicier]

Yeah I was going to bring up the Real Life flashbacks. I sort of like them, but I worry about the implications there. I don't want this anime to suddenly turn into "now we've gotta get back to the real world!" because they've done such a good job of showing everyone Taking Control of the situation. I feel like abandoning this new world of theirs would just make everything up to now seem utterly pointless.

 

Even worse if it pulls a "but it was all a (collective) dream!" bullshit, but I have more faith in them than to expect THAT, at least!

 

Anyway, that's my number one concern. Hopefully they handle it well.

The implication I'm getting, partly from the way the world's developed, and partly from (the often notoriously misleading)credits is actually a bit different (Speculation below)

That the 'in game' characters exist at least to some extent (maybe even completely) independantly of their human owners