anime

[N1njaSquirrel]

Oh, I don't know if that's so true...

 

[Gormongous]

Exciting news on the license front! FUNimation copped to rescuing most of the remaining all-star titles from the corpse of Bandai, including Cowboy Bebop, the entire Haruhi franchise minus Disappearance for some reason, and Lucky Star. There have already been four different versions of Cowboy Bebop announced, with two separate special editions, but since there's no concomitant remaster happening in Japan like with Lain, we can rest assured that they won't be worth the extra scratch. Anyway, they're all landing in December, the same time that Discotek's Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade Blu-ray will finally hit shelves. There are also rumors now that the delay for Evangelion 3.33 was actually an Anno-mandated redo of the dub, which is almost certainly garbage, but some of those rumors put the re-revised release date as the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, the year of the Angel invasion! A man can hope.

 

Really, the big deal for me is that FUNi grabbed the license for the first two episodes of Ghost in the Shell: Arise. Why not all four, I ask? Probably because IG wants to hold them over a barrel for the other two, like GAINAX tried to do with ADV for the End of Evangelion movie, leading to the lovely situation today where no one's entirely sure where the rights to the Platinum remaster are so everything's fucked forever. Anyway, I don't care so much about the frankly underwhelming OVA itself, but that FUNi's seen fit to cross-promote by releasing the remaster of the original Ghost in the Shell that was out in Japan sometime a while back. Not the atrocious 2.0 treatment that put a orange filter over everything to match Innocence and redid all the hand-drawn effects with bargain-bin CGI, the actual 1995 movie, for twenty-five bucks MSRP! Already in, all the way.

[Merus]

I don't know if 'FUNi licensed something' counts as exciting news. Aren't they garbage?

[tegan]

At least now I can get Cowboy Bebop on Blu-Ray.

 

...I hope it has the old dub and not some new one.

[Gormongous]

I don't know if 'FUNi licensed something' counts as exciting news. Aren't they garbage?

 

I think the rescue of what are probably Bandai's biggest licenses is a big deal, even if it's not by the best company. Worse comes to worst, the FUNimation versions drive down the price of the original Bandai releases, like they did the Geneon ones, and in the case of Ghost in the Shell, it's a big deal for someone, I'm not sure who, to walk back from his statement that 2.0 is the new and only version.

[syntheticgerbil]

I'm pretty sure Funimation is just licensing out this blu-ray set which was released over a year ago: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cowboy-Bebop-Collectors-Edition-Blu-ray/dp/B00CBTN08C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407699604&sr=8-1&keywords=cowboy+bebop+blu

 

It should just be the same as the Japanese Blu-ray release but with English subs/dubs. I think the Japanese one included the English dub.

 

I've been holding out on the UK release because Funimation's release should be cheaper, but if it doesn't include the new special features and short like the U.K. one, then i'm not gonna bite.

 

While I think Funimation would really love to redub the show with their terrible low-paid voice actors and pay less for licensing, I don't think that's going to happen because of how sacred the dub is to some. It's a shame because Funimation is so into their own dubs that they even record full commentaries among multiple episodes about how good they are (See Michiko and Hatchin Blu-ray).

[Gormongous]

I'm pretty sure Funimation is just licensing out this blu-ray set which was released over a year ago: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cowboy-Bebop-Collectors-Edition-Blu-ray/dp/B00CBTN08C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1407699604&sr=8-1&keywords=cowboy+bebop+blu

 

It should just be the same as the Japanese Blu-ray release but with English subs/dubs. I think the Japanese one included the English dub.

 

I've been holding out on the UK release because Funimation's release should be cheaper, but if it doesn't include the new special features and short like the U.K. one, then i'm not gonna bite.

 

While I think Funimation would really love to redub the show with their terrible low-paid voice actors and pay less for licensing, I don't think that's going to happen because of how sacred the dub is to some. It's a shame because Funimation is so into their own dubs that they even record full commentaries among multiple episodes about how good they are (See Michiko and Hatchin Blu-ray).

 

Yeah, I'm not so much happy that FUNimation licensed the titles, as that FUNimation licensed the titles. Given my druthers, I'd rather have NISA, Sentai, or even Discotek with their mitts on the flagship Bandai licenses, but given a chance for The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya to be cheap enough for my friends to buy again, I'll be satisfied.

 

And speaking of dubs, tell me about it! People were floating a redo of the original movie dub with the TV show cast, but FUNi shot it down right away, saying that a redub wasn't in the scope of the twenty-fifth anniversary project and, even if it were, they wouldn't hire outside actors for it. I almost like that FUNi is swinging us back from that brief period of time where dubs weren't so bad to the good old days when a small stable of talentless actors did everything in one take.

[Codicier]

There are also rumors now that the delay for Evangelion 3.33 was actually an Anno-mandated redo of the dub, which is almost certainly garbage, but some of those rumors put the re-revised release date as the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, the year of the Angel invasion! A man can hope.

No matter how good the 3.3 dub is it will have to do something spectacular to redeem that film

Besides I wonder if now the excitement around 3.3 has long died down, any official release i would be devalued. The hype that existed when Eva 3.3 was released is something that You Can(not) Redo.

[syntheticgerbil]

Yeah I'm definitely glad Funimation is taking the initiative to keep a lot of different newer titles in print as well as keeping older catalogues of dead dub/sub companies in print, but their dubs are just laughably bad. I guess that to me is just a "bonus" for a release since I never watch with a dub ever, but I've found myself sitting through dubs for many shows in the last year or two because if it's a group it makes the anime easier for everyone to enjoy as well as it's better for those in attendance who don't want to read so much.

 

So then a bad dub can sort of push a new watcher into disliking the show/movie because it makes it seem cheesy or low budget even if the visuals don't necessarily show that.

 

Also this week my wife's younger (over a decade younger) sister stayed with us and put in Michiko and Hatchin and then I recalled besides the bad voiceovers, Funimation rewrote the whole script and added in a bunch of pop culture slang and an F Word every other sentence. The worst word ever said in the original subs was "shit." I don't even know why you would dub to the point where a rating needs to change.

 

I almost like that FUNi is swinging us back from that brief period of time where dubs weren't so bad to the good old days when a small stable of talentless actors did everything in one take.

Is there any other U.S. company even importing and dubbing now or is Funimation the last one?

[Gormongous]

Is there any other U.S. company even importing and dubbing now or is Funimation the last one?

 

Looking at my shelf, at least Sentai and Viz still do. I don't know Viz's deal, but Sentai's dubs are mostly passable, if often unevenly cast, and certainly aren't as homogeneously uninteresting as FUNi.

[Codicier]

We seem to be experiencing quite a slow anime season about the only comment on the current crop I've really seen was NS a few pages back

 

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.

 

 

Is this something to do with the time of year? idk if there's really is any patterns to the sort of shows that come around in any particular season, but this one seems to be if not a dud then a slow burner at the very least.

 

I've watched a bit of Zankyou no Terror and it's been improving consistently but I'm still unsure if it's just going to do anything interesting with the characters it's building or if in the end it's just going to disappointing me.

[Twig]

There's a lot from the current season I'm interested in and/or have enjoyed what little I've watched - and I'll probably comment on it all at a later point - but I'm going through a lot of older anime these days. I finished up Record of Lodoss War (definitely accurately described to me as D&D made anime - but unfortunately very poorly paced, and not all that interesting, story-wise... there's a remake, though? maybe that's better?) and Hellsing Ultimate (god if I never get to hear another ten minute monologue from a short fat Nazi major about how much he loves war and wants to see the world burn, I'll be a very sad man). I'm now in the process of watching Eden of the East (in fact, I marathoned the first 8 episodes last night, and will probably finish up and watch the movies at some point today... it's right up my alley).

 

As a side note, regarding Eden, look at this:

 

 

This girl is a college graduate. What an amazing contrast to the typical high school anime where the girls have breasts the size of their head!

 

I really love the art in this one.

 

Also the few times they have people speaking English instead of Japanese in this, it actually almost sounds like real English. Much better than when they did it in Hellsing, that's for sure.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Is this something to do with the time of year? idk if there's really is any patterns to the sort of shows that come around in any particular season, but this one seems to be if not a dud then a slow burner at the very least.

 

I've watched a bit of Zankyou no Terror and it's been improving consistently but I'm still unsure if it's just going to do anything interesting with the characters it's building or if in the end it's just going to disappointing me.

 

I really don't think this season is a dud at all. ZnT is getting better, but I do agree with you. I have also just found out that it's an original anime, and not based off a manga. Now I'm veering towards it being an interesting thing because it's not tied down to anything.

 

I do fear that Tokyo Ghoul will have a crappy anime ending. Who knows! only time will tell. Also Space Dandy season 2! It's fantastic! 

 

I mentioned it briefly, but Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun is fantastic. It turns all the shojo tropes and turns it on it's head. It's flippin hilarious story about a girl falling for a guy, who happens to write manga for a shojo magazine. It's about their developing relationship and getting inspiration and ideas for his manga. It also has a fantastic opening song:

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm1VLvOSmRc

 

I have also heard good things about Akame ga Kill! But I haven't gotten round to watching it yet.

 

This girl is a college graduate. What an amazing contrast to the typical high school anime where the girls have breasts the size of their head!

 

I thought the same thing about Haikyuu! too, which was doubly refreshing as it's a shonen manga.

If you liked Eden, check out Eve no Jikan. It's by the same studio/artist and it's really lovely. Also very short, but will make you cry. I need to watch Eden of the East.

[Twig]

Yeah Haikyu!! does have that going for it!

 

I've already seen Eve no Jikan and I liked it. It didn't make me cry, though!

[Codicier]

 

I really don't think this season is a dud at all. ZnT is getting better, but I do agree with you. I have also just found out that it's an original anime, and not based off a manga. Now I'm veering towards it being an interesting thing because it's not tied down to anything.

 

I do fear that Tokyo Ghoul will have a crappy anime ending. Who knows! only time will tell. Also Space Dandy season 2! It's fantastic! 

 

I mentioned it briefly, but Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun is fantastic. It turns all the shojo tropes and turns it on it's head. It's flippin hilarious story about a girl falling for a guy, who happens to write manga for a shojo magazine. It's about their developing relationship and getting inspiration and ideas for his manga. It also has a fantastic opening song:

 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm1VLvOSmRc

 

I have also heard good things about Akame ga Kill! But I haven't gotten round to watching it yet.

 

 

I thought the same thing about Haikyuu! too, which was doubly refreshing as it's a shonen manga.

If you liked Eden, check out Eve no Jikan. It's by the same studio/artist and it's really lovely. Also very short, but will make you cry. I need to watch Eden of the East.

 

I didn't actually realise Eden & Eve were from the same studio, guess the title should have clued me in >_<, honestly the art style of Eden always looked more like Honey & Clover to me. (A series which being a ex art student I absolutely love).

 

I've watched a few episodes of Dandy this season & annoyingly it seems to be going the same way as least season for me, moments i absolutely love but actually bored by the majority of it. I feel it tries so hard to be funny sometimes it ends up collapsing under its own weight.

 

I was actually tempted to watch a bit of MGNK, if only because I'm such a sucker for a lightweight comedies.

 

I've also watched a few episodes of Aldnoah Zero which is basically a high budget impressively put together but so far pretty unoriginal series. It sorta like eating a good frozen pizza, you know its mass produced junk but you find yourself reaching for another slice all the same.

[TheLastBaron]

So I decided to watch FMA Brotherhood. I watched the first series when it came out and thought it was alright but never watched Brotherhood when it came out. I finally decided to check it out after having it on my Netflix list for a while and after watching the first season I'm out. It's just way to tonally inconsistent. It'll be in the middle of some overly dark and brooding conversation trying to be super serious and then next thing I know everyone is chibi style and it's all goofy. I just can't take it seriously. Also this is totally just preference, but the animation/art style seems worse than the original show, though it's been many years since I watched that.

[Gormongous]

So I decided to watch FMA Brotherhood. I watched the first series when it came out and thought it was alright but never watched Brotherhood when it came out. I finally decided to check it out after having it on my Netflix list for a while and after watching the first season I'm out. It's just way to tonally inconsistent. It'll be in the middle of some overly dark and brooding conversation trying to be super serious and then next thing I know everyone is chibi style and it's all goofy. I just can't take it seriously. Also this is totally just preference, but the animation/art style seems worse than the original show, though it's been many years since I watched that.

The tonal dissonance (and the animation choices that support it) is even greater in the original show and lasts longer, nearly until the final act. It makes Fullmetal Alchemist a weird series to recommend, because a lot of people specifically enjoy the emotional range it has, but even fifty or sixty-dd episodes isn't enough to keep some of the shifts from being jarring.

[Ucantalas]

So in about 3 days I marathoned my way through Death Note, after discovering it was on Netflix.

I had started reading the manga a couple of years ago, but stopped when I got really busy with school. I didn't go back because I couldn't remember where I had left off, so I just left it, until a few days ago.

I really enjoyed it.

I wasn't as fond of the stuff that happened after L's death, until the very end, when it felt like the slow burn of the 2nd half was finally paying off.

Also, I heard about a lot of hate for Near from fans, but he really grew on me over the course of the series.

[N1njaSquirrel]

See, my view on the whole second half was that

if they ended it at L's death, then it'd mean the bad guy won. As the manga was serialised in a shonen magazine, aimed at young boys, they couldn't let the bad guys win when their 3 themes are 'bravery, friendship, honor' (or something like that). The mangaka wanted it to end at L's death, but then were forced to continue it so that Light dies and the good guys ultimately win. I have nothing to back this up, apart from the ending of Bakuman and maybe hearing that there was a huge dispute between the mangakas and the publishers halfway through the serialization of the manga.

 

I don't remember Near much, but he was annoying. but so was everything after the second half. I also didn't watch the anime, so it might be different. For what it's worth, the live action movies (well, the first 2) are actually quite good, and end before the second half in a really satisfying and logical way. I kinda wished the manga would have done the same.

[Tanukitsune]

I don't really know if this belongs in this thread, but I watched the live action Sailor Moon show, even the movie special and... boy is it different!

 

It's closer to a "Power Rangers/Zentai(?)" style show with lots of explosions, decent fight choreography and by the end they show even has low level "putties/cronies". It mixes well the drama and the comedy, except when the drama goes on overdrive and it's hilarious?

 

The plot changes drastically from both the manga and the anime, some characters act different, some look VERY different but I still enjoyed it a lot.

 

I also started to watch Silver Spoon, which is a pretty charming and funny show so far?

[Twig]

Silver Spoon is good!

 

Also I finally watched Ping Pong. That shit was real good. Daaaaaaaaang. Thank you based Yuuasa or whatever.

 

Also I watched Fullmetal Alchemist: The Star of Milos, which I THOUGHT was going to be another movie in the original series' timeline. Don't know why I thought that. It was way off. It's basically filler between episodes 20 and 21 of Brotherhood. It was fun enough, but dragged on a bit too long. Had a super rad alchemy-infused chase scene that started on a train, so that was a lot of fun.

 

Also now I'm watching The Daily Lives of High School Boys on Ninjasquirrel's recommendation. Goddamnit it's hilarious. Apparently it came out not long after Nichijou, and it's much in the same vein as Nichijou (and Azumanga Daioh before that), except from the perspective of, you'll never guess, boys?! anyway it's great.

[Twig]

I finished The Daily Lives of High School Girls and it was great. Highly recommended if you like the Nichijou style anime.

 

Now I'm watching Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi on a not-quite-recommendation from a friend, mostly because he said it was weird, not because he said it was good. Well. It is weird. I don't know what to make of it. Someone tell me what I should think. These two kids who are good friends start out in a typical Japanese town setting and then now they keep getting transported into different but familiar worlds. First it was fantasy, now it's sci-fi. I'm only on episode three out of thirteen. It's weird.

 

Wtf now there's Frieza from DBZ except with the Grey Alien type of eyes. Oh but it was just a cameo I guess. This is weird. It sorta reminds me of Excel Saga. Or at least what little I remember of Excel Saga.

[Gormongous]

I'm having an odd moment. A friend's girlfriend was in the same room when we watched the Berserk movies and she absolutely adored them, so she wanted to watch the anime. Since she's moving across the country on Friday, I can't lend her my copy, and DVD sets of the series run well over seventy bucks for even a copy in poor condition. If you want the remastered version that Media Blasters briefly printed before it collapsed, get ready to pay three figures.

 

So I thought I'd download a fansub and burn it to DVD, with the understanding that she'd buy the series later. Well, apparently Media Blasters (and FUNimation, who own the rights to the movies) worked very hard to have almost all copies of the anime taken down. I finally found an old FTP in the UK with a complete listing, but now I'm wondering about memory, archiving, and the internet. It used to be that things stuck around forever, but now we have multiple instances of companies driving off all the fansubs online because they have the license, then folding or losing the license, so that it's extremely difficult to acquire a copy either legally or illegally. I don't have a point, it just frustrates me in a weird way.

 

I finished The Daily Lives of High School Girls and it was great. Highly recommended if you like the Nichijou style anime.

 

I watched the first episode about two years ago and loved it, then immediately chose to watch something else I enjoyed less instead because I wanted to have a good show in my back pocket. It's stupid, I should get on it.

[Twig]

I just realized that I typed Girls instead of Boys. And that you didn't correct me!

 

Welp.

 

Daily Lives of High School Boys

 

I did it! I'm so proud of me.

 

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi continues to be fucking bonkers and is definitely an insane parody anime.

[tegan]

What are the Idle Forums' thoughts on AMVs?

I think they're usually terrible, but I have a soft spot for a few hilarious/really good ones.

 

ie: