Anime Thread 2.0

[Tsurayu]

Well I finished all of the Aria's as well as Arietta and the bonus "Episode 5.5." of Origination. I'm not sure if I'm going to pick up the picture dramas or not, I might down the road. As much as I loved Aria, watching all three seasons and the two OVAs all in a row has made me pretty sick of Aria.

I'm still on Princess Lover! and Umineko no Naku Koro ni. I'm considering dropping Princess Lover! though. I've only seen three episodes so far as Hitode is very slow to sub, but I am so absolutely not impressed, and it feels like it is going to fall short, what with only being fourteen episodes. Umineko, on the other hand, is getting better with each episode. Feels like a cross between what you'd expect from a sister game/series of Higurashi, but with a kind of Cluedo-esque feel to it. Love it so far. I just hope the whole supernatural elements don't completely overwhelm everything, but I have a feeling they probably will. I will say it is making me tempted to download and play the VN.

I did decide to drop The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 2. I was never a huge fan of the first series despite most other people seeming to be as such. Couple that with the HORRIBLE execution of The Endless Eight and I had enough. I don't care if it turns to gold after that finishes, it was just inexcusable. You have to be a die-hard Haruhi fanboy/fangirl to still be watching Haruhi Suzumiya 2 because right now it is just total garbage.

I decided to pick up Monster after a few of my friends telling me I'd love it because I enjoyed Death Note and I love the When They Cry series. I'm kinda hesitant though because of it being seventy-four episodes. I've never found an anime that lasted more than fifty or so episodes as being good, but I'd love for it to be the first. I've only watched one episode so far, but it was pretty intriguing.

Manga wise I'm still working on Suzuka. I'm only reading about a volume a day (just finished volume ten) and there are eighteen volumes, so I'll still be at it for a while. I've got a list of several other mangas to read after that, so I'll be busy reading manga for a A LONG time to come.

[Kimiko]

Recently finished:
Haibane Renmei - Ooh, it's pretty And very slice-of-life too. Another Aria is probably too much to hope for, but maybe this'll be close.
Well, for its length it was very good, and beautiful. I'd like it to have lasted longer though.

Key The Metal Idol - Hmm, early 90s art and animation. Modern anime has fewer slow pans and more dialogue I think. The introduction leaves a lot of detail for the viewer to infer. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it takes a while to get into an anime this way. Key's motivation in particular isn't made clear at all. Maybe the subtitles were copied from the dub again. They don't always match what is said. In particular, Key referring to herself in third person sounds a little contrived in English.
Well, that was my first impression. After watching all of it and reading the Wikipedia article, I understand why the quality was rather low in the first 13 eps. and the last two eps. were suddenly much longer. The unusual release tactic does not excuse the extremely bad writing though. Seriously, if this was a novel, you could teach a whole semester worth of 'how to write a novel' using only this anime for bad examples. The first 13 eps. explain almost nothing of the characters' motivation, just walking around in place, telling a story that doesn't go anywhere, with characters that mostly don't develop. Then ep. 14 is one and a half hour of exposition. Some of it is shown, some of it is just talking heads, but it is all one big plot dump. Ep. 15 is the only decent one because then you actually know what is going on. Unfortunately it kills off the most sympathetic main character and brings back several irrelevant characters, then ends in a predictable and not very satisfying way. Yep, this is one anime that didn't live up to its hype at all.

Sketchbook ~Full Colors~ - I hope it'll be as good as Hidamari Sketch.
Yes, it is It's perfect, like Hidamari, with a bit of Pani Poni Dash, and some AzuDai. I totally love it

Ichigo Mashimaro Encore (OVA) - Someone reminded me that I hadn't seen this OVA yet. The art seems a tiny bit different from what I recall. Otherwise it's just more Ichigo Mashimaro. I dunno, watching this anime makes me wonder exactly what audience it is aimed at. I'm not sure would like to meet them.

Grenadier - Kinda like Koihime Musou with guns, only much more ridiculous, and with more men. The only good thing so far is that it will only last 12 eps.
Well, it never really got any better. It's a so-so story drowned in silly fanservice.

Shigofumi - I was expecting a nice and sweet slice-of-life anime, but this looks to be a little darker than that. More like Hell Girl maybe. Not that that's a bad thing; just different.
Okay, it started somewhat Hell Girl-like, but it was mostly happier, and had much more of a plot. Highly recommended to fans of supernatural/drama anime.

Next up:
Moonphase, Kurau: Phantom Memory, Aquarian Age (music by Yuki Kajiura ♡), and to fill out this batch with some shorter stuff, Animation Runner Kuromi 1 and 2, Black Magic M-66, and Kite Liberator

[Duran]

As soon as I can separate the episodes (6-7 episodes are clustered into one file), I plan on watching Dragon Quest: Abel Yuusha (or simply "Dragon Warrior" in the US). Its the localized version, but its better than nothing.

Before then I was watching Scrapped Princess. Overall, I liked the fantasy aspect of the series, however once it thew in a peculiar twist, I pretty much guessed the rest of the story. I then forced myself to watch the rest of the series and the ending was pretty much what I expected.

[Quemaqua]

Negima is part adorable, part weird, and part WTF. I expected nothing less from Akamatsu, but... still. My brain has melted a little after watching a couple episodes of it. Oddly enough, my wife is watching it even though she finds it even weirder than I do. I think when our pet rat died she sort of lost it. Now I'm worried.

紛らわしいです。

[Tsurayu]

Took a break for about two weeks so everything is pretty much the same. Still watching Monster, but I'm finally starting to get into. It really does take a while to pick up (not until the late 20s did I get seriously into it,) but if someone is willing to give it some time it really is amazing. Much better than Death Note in every way.

I dropped Princess Lover! after the fifth episode. It just felt like a generic harem and a rip-off of so many different ones that it didn't have a single original style in it. Still going strong on Umineko no Naku Koro ni, just as I figured it is going really deep into the super natural elements, but I'm willing to see if it can do it effectively, but I have my doubts.

Manga-wise, I finished Suzuka a while ago, and I kinda forced myself to do that towards the end. I didn't mind it so much in the beginning, but it got so tiring after a while. It turned into nothing more than a trashy, teen-esque romance novel that didn't come close to warranting 166 chapters of romantic spew.

Now I'm reading Karin, which is a bit more my type. Still has the romance, but the quirky humor and slight ecchi material is more up my alley. Sort of reminds me of My Balls except My Balls is extreme, bordering on an h-manga.

[Kassidy]

I'm continuing with Haruhi 2009, though I see what you mean about Endless Eight, and I'm only on ep 2. The characters also don't feel as natural during this mini-arc. I'l see how it pans out.

[Quemaqua]

I'm just about to start on the first season of Haruhi, and also Pani Poni Dash. I fear for my mental stability.

[Kassidy]

Hm, if you're talking about the version released in 2007 (was it, or 2006...), you may want to go directly with the 2009 version, since the 2009 version re-releases the episodes from 2007, but re-ordered so they are chronologically ordered (the old series, they released them out of order intentionally... you can watch them either way, both ways it'll end with what feels like a season finale, but the release order is harder to follow because it jumps around the place a bit).

[Quemaqua]

Huh... I had thought the new one was a new season altogether. A friend of mine has been watching the fansubs as soon as they come out and he made no mention of anything being re-done.

[Tsurayu]

Finished Monster and just wow. Simply one of the most amazing animes I have ever seen. I fell into the category as everyone else, originally turned off by seventy-four episodes, thought it started slow, but was absolutely captivated by the end. Truly a remarkable anime. It would make a fantastic book, drama or anything for that matter. It's the kind of story a lot of people would appreciate if it wasn't limited to being in the form of Japanese animation, but I digress. Easily made my top five anime of all time though.

Now I've started Ouran High School Host Club. I meant to watch this a long time ago, but could never find a good DDL place and torrenting it always proved to be far too slow. However, finally found a place (with Lunar's subs no less YES!) Only watched the first episode so far, but it made me laugh several times so that is a good start.

Manga wise, I finished Karin. I was a bit disappointed by the ending, but it was still infinitely better than Suzuka. I fail to see so much where the "ecchi" in Karin is though. There wasn't any fan service really. The anime had more than the manga. I think the most perverse scene in the manga would probably where you see Karin without a shirt on. I guess some people throw around the word "ecchi" way too much these days. Still was pretty good, it was funny, romantic, and had a pretty good underlying message as well.

Now I'm reading Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. Came very highly recommended from a friend, and ranked very high on MAL, so I took a look and saw it was a slice-of-life manga so I thought I'd give it a try. It is pretty good so far. It reminds me a lot of Kino's Journey, which I also loved. It is a lot of really short stories about an android woman name Alpha and her life experiences as time goes by. Oddly enough it has a lot of somewhat perverse innuendos in it. Nothing that would be considered fan service, but funny little innuendos that actually add a charm to it. Like the fact that for androids to share data between each other they share what appears to a human as a passionate kiss. Or a slightly more perverse example where Alpha sits on a friends new scooter and derives pleasure from the slight vibration of the scooter. You know what they meant, but they didn't imply anything by it, but as a humorous moment, which really just turned out to be cute. I guess what I'm trying to get at is they aren't afraid to have adult moments, and just play them off as normal, humorous moments as they often are in real life. Adult moments don't always have to be sexual in nature, and it is nice to see a manga that takes it that route (funny coming from an ecchi manga lover. Heh.)

Edit: Heh, found this video on MAL in the discussion board for Haruhi Suzumiya 2. I think it sums up about 80% of the fan base pretty well. XD

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSg02Ll20s[/youtube]

[Ares]

Gundam 00 For me. This is my favorite anime of all. Lucky Star was good it did had its topics of daily subjects to discuss. Theyre alot more to explain but Gundam 00 is the latest. Oh yeah the 2nd opening is beautiful.

[Tsurayu]

Well, I finished Ouran High School Host Club and I absolutely loved it. I'm going to make sure to read the manga eventually because twenty-six episodes just wasn't enough for even half of the total story, yet I have a feeling that the anime wouldn't have stayed fresh for much past the twenty-six episode mark. It was really funny though. Hilarious stereotypes were abundant, such as twincest, cute girl pretending to be a guy, handsome blond romantic type, shotacon, silent-hero type, "cool" type... It all blends into a really funny story while still being able to have a few serious moments without them being completely overshadowed.

Also finished Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou. Very enjoyable. I thought at first it would be a lot like Kino's Journey, and while it is about a girl on a scooter exploring the world, the similarities really aren't all that pronounced after all. Mostly just deals with exploring life and the world around you, but to take special care to savour everything because life will change around you before you've even taken time to notice. ... Heh, I guess that is a lot like Kino's Journey after all.

Decided to watch NANA. I was a little skeptical at first at how this could be anything better than Suzuka as a trashy teen drama and romance crapfest, but even just a handful of episodes in, it turns out to be a lot more than that. Romance is certainly the focus, but it deals with realistic situations in a compelling way without it becoming stagnant and boring.

Next up manga-wise, is Kodomo no Omocha.

[Quemaqua]

My wife and I finished up Haruhi's first season the other night. I can see why everybody loves it so much. What a strange combination of stuff... and maybe I'm rather far behind the times (no surprise), but I really loved it. No idea how I'll feel about the next season (that video made me laugh), but I'll reserve judgment until later. I never bother with fansubs and stuff, but I liked the first season so much I may cave.

[Anise]

Ouran host club (YAYYY! GO TSU! LOVES IT!))
FMa brotherhood Just watched ep 21! It went from poor graphics into splendid grapics!
Baccano! Thives, mafias and alchemist! Halarious series.

[Abdul_Moti]

Just got myself Evangelion 1.01: You are (not) Alone. It's an anime movie.
well, this last two weeks my classmates and I discussed this anime, from very first to very last and still continuing. Start from SEELE grandpas, shitous, eva units' pilots, NERV and everything related. supposed to say we're doing surgery, heheh.