anime

[Twig]

I need a nice lighthearted anime to cool off with.

And a new episode of Haikyu!! is all that I needed. This series is... my favorite sports anime. (With the caveat that I have not yet seen Ping Pong, obviously.) SO GOOD.

[Zeusthecat]

Finished Steins;Gate. So good. I cried more than I care to admit.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Finished Steins;Gate. So good. I cried more than I care to admit.

 

I need to finish that show

 

Also, if you're interested, the Steins;Gate game that the anime was based off has been localised. It's a tad expensive, but it's meant to flesh out the characters in the anime a whole lot more, as well as different endings, and numerous other things they couldn't squeeze into the anime.

 

 

I wasn't interested enough to keep hunting down torrents.

 

This site is all you need for anime torrents: http://horriblesubs.info/ - at least those with a funi/CR sub. Which is pretty much every show nowadays.

[Twig]

Okay so I guess I wasn't very clear. I'm not interested enough. Streaming is super convenient, and unless I'm super into something, I'm not going to bother. I don't need a website recommendation. It's not hard to find things.

[Twig]

I'm finally watching Madoka at full speed. Or, well, trying to.

 

It's really slow! I like some things about it, but I find myself unable to really become fully engrossed in it and just absorb three episodes at a time without realizing what happened.

 

I just finished episode seven, and I'm struggling to see what makes it so great. I think it's because I hate the main character.

[Twig]

I finished Madoka. It was pretty good! I... I still don't know why it's so universally adored. But whatever that's life.

 

Also what Yowapeda's season ended in the middle of a fucking race. I thought it was just a delay before the next episode or something, but no, it just straight up ended in the middle of day two of the three day race. Are you shitting me.

[Gormongous]

Also what Yowapeda's season ended in the middle of a fucking race. I thought it was just a delay before the next episode or something, but no, it just straight up ended in the middle of day two of the three day race. Are you shitting me.

 

I remember Bleach started a filler arc in the middle of a fight. Like, the episode before ended with Grimmjow or somebody charging up a huge attack, saying he was going to defeat Ichigo for good, and then the next episode was like, "Anyway, we'd thought we'd tell you a bit of Hitsugaya's backstory..." I dropped the show immediately, it clearly didn't respect my time.

[Twig]

Gotta love those shonen backstories at the most inopportune moment.

 

I watched some Bleach, or read some Bleach, I don't remember. I know I didn't like it at all and read way more than I wanted to because everyone seemed to love it at the time. Ever since then it seems like everyone hates it. And yet it keeps going. Shonen is fascinating that way.

[Gormongous]

Gotta love those shonen backstories at the most inopportune moment.

 

I watched some Bleach, or read some Bleach, I don't remember. I know I didn't like it at all and read way more than I wanted to because everyone seemed to love it at the time. Ever since then it seems like everyone hates it. And yet it keeps going. Shonen is fascinating that way.

 

The entire reason to watch Bleach is the first season, which does "wacky school comedy by day, intense monster battles by night" really well. It's almost entirely due to Rukia's seiyuu, who has oddly never done anything else of note, and when she gets kidnapped in the second season so that Tate Kubo can introduce a billion new characters, the quality of the anime drops like a stone. Even when they finally get Rukia back, the plot's now about all of Ichigo's bullshit with the new peeps, so it just never gets good again. You can watch the first twenty-odd episodes and be content that you've watched the "Kyoto arc" equivalent of Bleach.

 

And yeah, shounen! At least Bleach ended finally, after three hundred and sixty-six episodes, not that I know anyone over the age of fifteen who watched them all.

[N1njaSquirrel]

I met someone on graduation day who's not only watched all of bleach, but likes it and is watching it again. Da fuk. My opinion of him lowered greatly. I think I got as far as those 3 puppets popping up, and I stopped.

 

So anyone watched any anime this season? Zankyou no Terror is great, along with Tokyo Ghoul, Barakamon, Sailor Moon Crystal, P4 and Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun.

 

 

Also what Yowapeda's season ended in the middle of a fucking race. I thought it was just a delay before the next episode or something, but no, it just straight up ended in the middle of day two of the three day race. Are you shitting me.

 

I know, it's total bullshit. There's an OVA floating around (sadly not on CR) that's pretty ace. I think the budget just ran out. But don't worry! It'll be back next season!

[Apelsin]

The "Kyoto Arc" as you call it is definitely the best part of the show, and I was bummed that it never returned to that after the Soul Society arc ended.

With that said, I still quite enjoyed that arc. The rest though were fairly shite with a few rays of sunshine in between.

[tegan]

I'm so glad I'm not the only person who only liked Bleach when it was just Scooby Doo bullshit.

[Zeusthecat]

Finished watching Mushi-shi and Baccano. Mushi-shi was very relaxing and I enjoyed the overall sense of serenity that seemed to be present throughout the show. I'm also glad to see that new episodes are airing and as of right now I'm all caught up with what is available on Hulu.

Baccano was also quite awesome and it was really cool seeing how everything ended up coming together throughout the second half of the show. Isaac and Miria might be two of my favorite characters from any show ever.

It looks like Berserk isn't available on Netflix or Hulu so I'm thinking I might go with Knights of Sidonia or FMA Brotherhood next. I'm also hoping to find another show similar to Steins;Gate because goddamn that show was good.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Glad you liked Baccano!

 

May I suggest then Durarara!! It's written by the same author, set in the same universe (kinda) and has an awesome Isaac and Miria bonus episode! And it's on hulu! http://www.hulu.com/durarara

[Twig]

yes mushishiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

 

Baccano and Durarara!! are both great. A lot of people tend to like the latter less than the former - including me! - but I still liked both of them a lot.

 

I downloaded the first episode of Barakamon and as expected it is perfect. I'm looking forward to continuing to watch it. 

[clyde]

I haven't seen much anime but I just watched 6 episodes of Knights of Sidonia because I couldn't sleep and enjoyed them. It's like Silver Hawks and Voltron with some dating-sim mixed in. I like the details of the world like that they get naked to photosynthesize, but yet they are still bashful.

[Codicier]

oh gawd darn it,  the rumours about Studio Ghibli closing seem to have got more & more firm over the last few days.

 

Will wait until we see a formal announcement but I guess unless one of it's current crop of films is a huge international hit that's the end:(

[N1njaSquirrel]

I'm hoping that they won't. I'm pretty doubtful that they will, but you never know. Their latest films have been complete flops, but when re-releases of Totoro still manages to hold the top spot in sales, I doubt they're going anywhere fast. I think the main worry is that it looks like the studio hasn't gotten any plans to do a film after the next one. Which I'm guessing is just a lull or something? Maybe I'm being overly hopeful.

[tegan]

It feels like it's about the right time for it, to be honest. Miyazaki and Takahata are 73 and 79 now, and there's never been a whole lot of young talent coming out of that studio.

 

Alternatively, remember that Miyazaki's declared himself to be "retired" something like eight times now, so I imagine if Ghibli closes he'll just start up a new pet project studio a few months later when he gets bored of retirement again.

[Gormongous]

It feels like it's about the right time for it, to be honest. Miyazaki and Takahata are 73 and 79 now, and there's never been a whole lot of young talent coming out of that studio.

 

I agree. Every article I've read seems to express shock that studio leadership isn't being handed over to Goro Miyazaki or Hiromasa Yonebayashi, but neither of them have the chops or the experience to take over the most famous anime studio in the world, and it's not as much a given in Japan that a company, especially an artistic company, will keep going until it goes bankrupt sooner or later. Closure seems like the right decision, if Miyazaki's really setting down the... brush? Whatever.

[Christopher]

Ghibli isn't closing. They're ending their production arm which had their full time animation staff, and a lot of bad English reporting treated that like the end of the studio due to a telephone game of bad translations and clickbait headline inflation. In reality, Ghibli's full time animation staff was an anomaly among Japanese animation studios. Switching to a production model based on free lancers instead of a full time staff is more about adapting to larger economic trends than an end to Ghibli, and it mostly just reflects their shifting to standard industry practice. It's definitely the end of an era at Ghibli, but the studio isn't closing.

 

The other day, Chris Remo reacted to stories about Ghibli closing (which were incorrect, but that's not his fault) with a tweet that it was probably better to close than to become a zombie IP brand. I think he's right. But, in reality, his bad scenario that closing would avoid is exactly what is happening: Ghibli will continue as a zombie IP band, and its animation studio will follow standard Japanese animation industry practices of freelancers and outsourcing on a by project basis rather than the full time staff that made them special.

[Gormongous]

Ghibli isn't closing. They're ending their production arm which had their full time animation staff, and a lot of bad English reporting treated that like the end of the studio due to a telephone game of bad translations and clickbait headline inflation. In reality, Ghibli's full time animation staff was an anomaly among Japanese animation studios. Switching to a production model based on free lancers instead of a full time staff is more about adapting to larger economic trends than an end to Ghibli, and it mostly just reflects their shifting to standard industry practice. It's definitely the end of an era at Ghibli, but the studio isn't closing.

 

The other day, Chris Remo reacted to stories about Ghibli closing (which were incorrect, but that's not his fault) with a tweet that it was probably better to close than to become a zombie IP brand. I think he's right. But, in reality, his bad scenario that closing would avoid is exactly what is happening: Ghibli will continue as a zombie IP band, and its animation studio will follow standard Japanese animation industry practices of freelancers and outsourcing on a by project basis rather than the full time staff that made them special.

 

Yeah, thanks for coming here to post that. I'd seen the corrections just hours after making my post.

 

It really is like you say, an end to Ghibli by homogenization rather than through closure. It'll be harder and more costly to maintain Ghibli's distinctive in-house style, probably to the point of it largely disappearing, plus Miyazaki is going to stop making movies eventually, and when both of those trends combine it becomes no different than Production IG, which still makes great anime but is top-tier in a fairly generic way.

[melmer]

Under the dog kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1300298569/under-the-dog

From the people who made this

[Codicier]

That it's using so many people associated with Sword of the Stranger and promoting a different way of getting a well produced OVA/pilot episode are very strong plus points, but that it's gone for the whole "high school girls doing sexy action stuff" as it's plot is a big down point.

 

That said it did give me a excuse to watch that fight seen again, & honestly the title of that you tube video isn't far wrong, & SotS wasn't the most original premise either. So perhaps i'll keep a eye on it & might actually throw a few quid at it.

[Merus]

That character pose for the main character... no-one actually stands like that.