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Well Codi I guess Bahamut is good so what is this world even.

 

I know! I'm sure it would collapse under any strict scrutiny, but it's honestly one of the most pleasant surprises i've had for a long time with new shows.

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Episode six was a bit of a lore dump, but after five good episodes of basically none of that I'm willing to accept one. At least they didn't do that for the very first episode. Probably would've turned me off. But yeah what this has no right to be any good! And yet it is...

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Aaand we're back to the good shit. Would that every anime based on a free to play card game was this good!

 

Also why isn't there a CR app on Wii U. ):

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So who's watching shirobako? It's pretty great, and and assumed interesting insight into how anime is made. Also the characters in the show are based on real people, check it:

 

lN1LqJD.jpg

TfOVSg8.jpg

 

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I had heard good things about it but not watched it yet. I do plant to!

 

EDIT Oh it was you who told me to.. WEll yes!

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I finally got around to watching KILL la KILL. Holy shit, that was great. Definitely a Blu-Ray purchase for me later on.

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I finally got around to watching KILL la KILL. Holy shit, that was great. Definitely a Blu-Ray purchase for me later on.

 

Fair warning, Aniplex has the rights and they're charging sixty dollars a disc on Blu-ray, with no plans to release a lower-priced compilation. I've been chewing on a purchase, too, but I'm not relishing the thought of spending $200 minimum on this series.

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You liked it in spite of all the sexist bullshit? Why didn't that bother you?

 

I feel like, stylistically, KLK most reminded me of something like Bayonetta or -to a lesser extent- Kill Bill, where there's some very blatant pandering that kind of fades into the background very quickly and never lets itself colour the core of what the series is actually about.

 

To put it another way, I'm a lot happier with the fact that basically everyone in the series shows unquestionable respect for Ryuko than I am disappointed that she's constantly half-naked.

 

Fair warning, Aniplex has the rights and they're charging sixty dollars a disc on Blu-ray, with no plans to release a lower-priced compilation. I've been chewing on a purchase, too, but I'm not relishing the thought of spending $200 minimum on this series.

 

Augh goddamnit western anime distribution.

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Also I might just be reading into things too much, but I'm pretty sure Ryuko is supposed to be gay and that's rad.

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Also I might just be reading into things too much, but I'm pretty sure Ryuko is supposed to be gay and that's rad.

I feel fairly certain that the creators did make a active choice to depict Ryuko as gay, although they are never explicit about it.

It also feels like they deliberately left it unclear on if she has feelings towards Mako or not. My instinct is no, which is kinda nice in a weird way because there's been a bad habit in Anime to portray any gay person who is friends with someone as being automatically sexually interested in that person.

(Not that they wouldn't make the cutest couple).

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I feel like, stylistically, KLK most reminded me of something like Bayonetta or -to a lesser extent- Kill Bill, where there's some very blatant pandering that kind of fades into the background very quickly and never lets itself colour the core of what the series is actually about.

That's fair enough, I guess I would still think Kill la Kill is way more lurid and fan service filled than Bayonetta. But Kill Bill and Bayonetta both really aren't my thing and never will be, so I guess I'm good to go with abandoning all of my Imaishi crap.

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I feel fairly certain that the creators did make a active choice to depict Ryuko as gay, although they are never explicit about it.

It also feels like they deliberately left it unclear on if she has feelings towards Mako or not. My instinct is no, which is kinda nice in a weird way because there's been a bad habit in Anime to portray any gay person who is friends with someone as being automatically sexually interested in that person.

 

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Seitokai Yakuindomo remains really good for a gag comedy that's entirely based on sexual puns, but forty episodes is frankly too many for any kind of plotless humor. It was grueling with a bad anime like School Rumble, but it's also grueling with a good anime, just slightly less so. At this point, my enjoyment of Suzu (the genius tsundere with a complex about her height, but also a really great "straight man" for virtually every other character) and Hata (the bizarrely passionless editor of the school newspaper who's got this great "old lady" voice) are carrying the show. Just look at them:

 

253767-hagimura_suzu_super.png d7N87gm.gif

 

Also, I saw The Tale of Princess Kaguya and everyone in the theater cried. There were only maybe ten people in the theater, but still, not a show to miss. Breathtakingly beautiful both in art and writing.

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I would really enjoy doing a podcast, but I've done the VOIP thing before and it's... less than stellar. You can never tell when you're going to interrupt someone else. Also, nobody has good microphones except for me so it always sounds like shit.

 

 

 

I mean, I'd buy a Snowball or something if we were actually going to do it, but you're right about the "Skype" podcast. It takes someone willing to spend four hours editing the raw sound data into something cogent and listenable, which... can't be me right now. But I am excessively deferential in conversations, so it'll almost never be me talking over people!

 

I'm finishing up the first season of Seitokai Yakuindomo right now, which is really funny despite being only sex-pun misunderstandings. I almost typed Seitokai no Ichizon, which I watched a few years back and is also a show about a student council full of sex-pun misunderstandings. It almost constitutes a genre unto itself!

 

Use the idle thumbs mumble server. I do a podcast (manga machinations) with 2 Americans  on a mumble server and it sounds pretty good (as do the other podcasts they record on there). One of them does the editing and that is just taking out the silence from our pauses. I think the talking over people is something you get better at not doing over time. 

 

Starting an anime podcast will get you watching more anime even if it is just stuff you all agree to talk about. 

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Hahaha the last thing I need is to watch MORE anime!

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hahahhaaahhhhaaa hhhaa...hahaha HAHAHAA heh eheheh  hehehe HAHAHAHAAHAHAHA hrrshhhhahhahah...ha..heh..hrehhh...

 

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I haven't posted in this thread for a while, but I just wanted to say that William Massachusetts' speech in Log Horizon a couple episodes ago was kind of amazing. It was basically, "We are gamers, and fuck the rest of the world, because we're proud of it!" Which, in the current state of the gaming world could come off a bit... awkward, but it really nails how I've felt throughout many points of my life, even if it's a tad more extreme about it.

 

Anyway, this is pretty much how I feel: http://wrongeverytime.com/2014/12/18/12-days-of-anime-8-the-pain-and-triumph-of-william-massachusetts/ Like the speech was super melodramatic because it's an anime about a bunch of nerds whose game became real life but goddamn it was good. I won't apologize! I'm not sorry! It was good!

 

Also I'm not sure I like the direction Log Horizon's gone in. Well, it's not so much that I dislike what it's doing now, as it feels different enough that now I have a hard time saying "you'll like it even if you don't give a shit about MMOs", because it's really digging into that stuff of late. Which I like and enjoy, but... I don't know.

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I'm two episodes into Paranoia Agent and so far it's absolutely incredible. I hope that the plot continues to be segmented as character studies because so far it really takes advantage of the episodic format of TV shows, packing an amazing amount of detail and attention to the psyche of the subject through really simple, meaningful mechanics. I understand that the director, Satoshi Kon, has a reputation as a master editor and cinematographer in feature length anime films and I really look forward to seeing his work in a TV format.

Edit: Just finished it. Damn it's good. I can't really say anything intelligent about it yet cause I'm still sifting through it in my head. Has anyone else seen it?

After something as dense and thoughtful as that I needed a break so I started Lucky Star. So far it feels super inane; if the rest of the series is anything like what I've seen so far, which was the five minute dialogue about the idiosyncrasies of eating desserts, I probably won't be able to see the appeal beyond the base moe thing.

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Speaking of Kon, remember everyone, tis the season to watch Tokyo Godfathers. A film which deserves a slot in any family's Christmas schedule along with more conventional classics.

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I once saw a few episodes of Paranoia Agent and thought it was super boring. I've never felt the inclination to go back. ):

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I've finished three anime in the past month.

  • Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (or Humanity Has Declined), a show about a seemingly innocent girl living in a post-apocalyptic countryside where fairies have become the dominant species. I'm most intrigued by the tone and the characterization of this anime, which are remarkably light even for a gag anime, as well as the interesting spin given to both by an unconventional episode timeline. I'm not sure if it has hidden depths to be revealed by a repeat viewing, but I'm certainly curious.
  • Silver Spoon, a show about a stressed-out city kid who applies to an agricultural high school to get away from his parents. It's a pleasant show about generally nice characters who learn some lessons and entertain thereby. I had a good time and learned a few cool things, but I'm a bit miffed by the conspicuous absence of anything that I could argue as greatness. It's not wasted time, at least.
  • Space Dandy, a show about a dandy in space. I know this is the critical darling of the last couple years, but after the first few episodes, which I thought were fantastic and hilarious, it settled down to a solidly mid-tier show for me. There's something about shows where everyone dies at the end and the audience laughs that just keeps me from taking anything away from them, whatever in-universe explanation is given. I certainly loved the characters, especially Meow, but the show seemed way more interested in putting them in wacky situations than in giving me quality time with them, episodes like the one where Dandy meets that girl or where Meow goes home excepted. What I really learned is that I should probably rewatch Cowboy Bebop, which is lucky since the Blu-ray remaster should arrive any day now...

Oh! I also watched Steins;Gate right at the beginning of December, but the less said about that, the better... in a good way. It's basically the Japanese Primer, but with less nitpicky science and more character moments. I know Zeus went wild over it a couple months ago and I'm just saying that he was right.

 

On 12/22/2014 at 9:34 PM, Blambo said:

I'm two episodes into Paranoia Agent and so far it's absolutely incredible. I hope that the plot continues to be segmented as character studies because so far it really takes advantage of the episodic format of TV shows, packing an amazing amount of detail and attention to the psyche of the subject through really simple, meaningful mechanics. I understand that the director, Satoshi Kon, has a reputation as a master editor and cinematographer in feature length anime films and I really look forward to seeing his work in a TV format.

Edit: Just finished it. Damn it's good. I can't really say anything intelligent about it yet cause I'm still sifting through it in my head. Has anyone else seen it?

 

 

Honestly, I liked the first four episodes enough that the rest were bound to disappoint me. I like the basic groundwork of the show, which was created entirely as a melting pot for the leftovers from Kon's movies, but by the time I saw Paranoia Agent, I'd already seen other shows that devoted more time and energy to the best ideas that had been built upon that groundwork. Boogiepop Phantom (and to a lesser extent, Serial Experiments Lain) did rumor-fueled serial crime better, Ghost in the Shell: SAC did crime-as-meme and questions of responsibility for ideas better, End of Evangelion did all-consuming-entity built from a fucked-up psyche better... It was cool to see them all filtered through Kon's unique directorial talent, but I have such trouble thinking of it as groundbreaking. As I've written before, I know a lot of that is because of circumstance, and sometimes I wish it otherwise, but there you go.

 

"Shounen Bat" is an awesome concept, though, and one that's completely singular for Paranoia Agent.

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Nice you watched three anime that I really enjoyed.

Weird that you had the exact opposite reaction to Space Dandy, where I found it actively offputting for the first few episodes and then grew to love it from there.

I say I really enjoyed Silver Spoon, but also still wouldn't call it great. It's a nice heartwarming thing to watch though if that's what you're in the mood for.

I really enjoyed realizing that Humanity Has Declined

rubs its episodes in reverse chronological order. I think I read that the manga doesn't do that but whatever. It worked for me, even if it took a while for me to catch on

. Best thing about it was that it's post apocalyptic, but with overwhelming whimsy with a touch of melancholy, rather than oppressive and omnipresent depression. I like my post apocalyptic nonsense, and it's cool to see such a weirdly unique take on it.

...I'm ever so slowly watching Chihayafuru, and still keeping up with Parasyte and Log Horizon. Sorta let the rest fall to the wayside as I've been playing the Dragon Age series, but whatever.

Good lord why do I type long posts on my phone it always ends in disaster.

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Oh! I also watched Steins;Gate right at the beginning of December, but the less said about that, the better... in a good way. It's basically the Japanese Primer, but with less nitpicky science and more character moments. I know Zeus went wild over it a couple months ago and I'm just saying that he was right.

 

Good timing. I just finished re-watching this with my wife a couple weeks ago (ended up buying it on blu ray) and came to discover that there was a 25th episode that wasn't available on Hulu when I originally watched it. So much more closure than I originally got having only watched through episode 24!

 

That last scene by the car on the side of the highway was very powerful and just put a nice bow on everything. I also really like the humor in this episode revolving around American culture. Very spot on. It was hilarious and great to see Okabe more or less back to his normal self after his horrific ordeal. And Jesus Christ the character development in this show is superb, I just can't get over how well this story was told and how much impact it had emotionally. My wife loved it too! She still has her anime defenses up and is very resistant to admitting that she likes any of these shows but she ended up getting sucked in and loved it. Our tastes are quite different so I think it speaks volumes about how good Steins;Gate is.

 

I plan to watch it again at some point with the English dubs just to see what that experience is like. I expect it to suck balls and don't see how they are going to translate the scenes where Okabe tries to say something in English but whatever.

 

I also watched a some other anime over the last several months and just never managed to come back in here and update.

 

Knights of Sidonia - This was a pretty interesting show and I liked it well enough. I especially liked the effort that went into making this show a little more realistic as far as how physics works. And the talking bear was cool. It wasn't a great show but I'm definitely curious to see where it goes from here.

 

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood - This show never really clicked with me for some reason. It feels like it should have been a more serious show with epic moments but it just kept devolving into juvenile silliness and everyone always survives everything so shit just kind of happens with little feeling of consequence. I would say it left a positive impression overall but it did not resonate with me the way it seems to have resonated with a lot of other people.

 

Death Note - I started out really liking this show. Like REALLY liking this show. Then, about halfway through it started to go a little overboard with the plot and certain other characters. Then, about 2/3rds of the way through the show it completely lost me and I just kind of started actively despising every character in the show. I would be curious to know what others around here thought of this show but for me

all of the police and other characters becoming fully aware of what was going on and where Kira(s) got his(their) powers from ruined the show. From that point on it was just people making insane logical leaps to "solve" all of the shit that is going on and all the death notes switching hands giving different people Kira powers and so on. It just became silly. But the stuff in the first half or so was very strong and the Kira/L dynamic was super entertaining. Whoever the other douchebag mystery detectives were (can't remember their names) after L sucked and were not interesting at all.

 

I might have watched one or two others but I can't remember right now.

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