Anime Thread 2.0

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Magus_Melchior
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Post by Magus_Melchior »

I must have watched the same recording of Summer Wars as Kimiko, but then I didn't want a big honkin' file on my increasingly crowded disk. Good stuff, and I can't wait for it to be licensed.

New season. Reviews, previews. Let's go.
(Still watching: Railgun, Kimi ni Todoke, Tegami-bachi, InuYasha, Kobato)

Nogizaka Haruka season 2: Well, it was one of the better "B" animes out there, but to be honest, the odd gags were the only redeeming quality of the show this season. Please, no season 3, there's no way they'll weasel their way out of a relationship now...

Nyankoi!: Argh, too short, and they didn't work the "helping 100 cats when you're allergic to them" angle enough. I'm sure they had enough material for 24-26 episodes, but they crammed an entire year (anime time) into 13 episodes. The premise of the show is gone, so unless they think of an excuse to keep going, this will remain a show that could have been a lot more.
At least the theme songs are good...

Blacksmith: See Nyankoi!. Of course, they're screaming "WE'RE GONNA DO A SECOND SEASON!!1!" with that ending.

Sasameki koto: I have to say, even though this production couldn't decide whether to be angst or comedy (it was more of the latter), I found myself enjoying it. Must be the insane-in-the-membrane personalities of the characters.
I should also mention that this isn't just yuri, it's yuri to the extreme, or as the Japanese call it, "gachi-yuri". The sole recurring male student has to cross-dress to get any meaningful attention in the show, which gives you some idea of how yuri it is.

Kampfer: The sole point of the show is to try to bring back the "tortured stuffed animal" toys that were sold at one point in Japan, but failed.
I'm dead serious.
The gags were funny the first time around, but they got recycled again and again as the show progressed. By the time I watched the final episode, I found myself skipping scenes because the plot was so badly conceived (hey, Eva called, it wants its betrayal theme back).

Asura Cryin' 2: I gave up after 3 episodes of fluff. There are a few similarities with Kannazuki no Miko and Kyoshiro to Towa no Sora (aka Shattered Angels)-- apocalyptic themes, giant robots emerging from hammerspace, love triangles, etc.-- but this series lacks the dramatic punch of the former and the angst of the latter (which shouldn't be surprising, as Kaishaku had nothing to do with Asura).

White Album: You know that stereotypical European (usually French) film creator? The kind that tries to take an absurd philosophical perspective in his work just because he can ("Zis is ze French Whose Line is it Anyway?, where nothing matters!")? That's what this reminds me of-- overly artistic, trying to be creative at the expense of realism or what would usually be considered common sense. I will concede that this is a good melodrama, but that doesn't make this a good anime. Besides, if I wanted melodrama taken to the extreme, I would watch School Days. *shudder*
In fact, the show tries so hard to be melodramatic, that it neglects too many of the fundamentals that make a good story great. As a result of all the plot twists and politicking, the ending leaves one unsatisfied.
Oh, well. At least Nana Mizuki got to sing the first theme song at the annual NHK Music Festival.

Sora no Otoshimono: If you like over-the-top fanservice (no explicit nudity like in Queens Blade), if you like over-the-top sexual gags (though not as extreme as Oruchuban Ebichu), and if you want to see a pure-hearted battle angel kick serious ass (though only for one episode), this is the show for you.
The plot and characters (aside from Icarus and Nymph) are pretty much pointless, so I'd watch the last episode and maybe the first 4 episodes. Yeah, the "flying panties" meme is crude, but the main character gets his just desserts for trying to exploit it.

Seito-kai no Ichizon: Every character in the student council has a "fetish" of one form or another, and aside from that (gaping) flaw, each one is otherwise normal. The focus is on the sole male character in the council, whose dream is to turn the council into a "harem".
As the story progresses to the concluding episodes, however, one begins to realize, along with the 4 girls of the student council, that he doesn't mean "harem" in the sense of a sultan's personal cadre of, ah, concubines.
The jokes are fantastic if fast-paced (thankfully not the methamphetamine pace of early GA episodes), and the story concludes on a heartwarming note.
But the guy's chances of getting a girlfriend are still zilch.

Finally, Natsu no Arashi! season 2. Between this and the final episodes of Bakemonogatari, SHAFT is really overextended, I think-- and it shows with the first episode of Hidamari Sketch season 3 (which I'll talk about in the preview). They need to hire animators, and they needed to do it 2 months ago; the last episode of Nadeko Snake was full of filler frames because they couldn't finish the fight sequence in time.
Although I like the show and characters, the plot barely moved at all, and some of the gags were recycled.


Previews for winter season 2010 (Akeome~!)
Chu-Bra: Hot on the heels of Otoshimono comes another show about lingerie... but despite the inevitably embarrassing positions the characters are placed into, this one's about a girl who obsesses over undergarments for girls and women.
Yeah, I know. Japan is nuts.

Hidamari Sketch mittsu-boshi ("3 stars"): New season, 2 new students, so 2 of each school year. Ume-sensei's humor is still fresh and creative. Now if SHAFT could finish those opening and ending animations...

Ohkami-kakushi (Amalgam of "wolf" and "mythological fantasy"): Peach-Pit of Rozen Maiden fame did the character designs, so when I saw the preview, I thought Kyoto Animation was involved-- their art styles are somewhat similar. This one combines school anime with horror/supernatural, and to be honest, the non-horror elements are lacking.
Along a similar vein, Omamori Himari, a comedy about a cursed boy and a cat-eared girl who fights off demons who are out to get him. And in a Nyankoi! twist, he's allergic to cats, too.

Dyurarara!! (onomatopoeia of a motorcycle?): This one's about a modern-day Sleepy Hollow, but in Tokyo-- a headless motorcycle rider. Might be worth it.

Lady x Butler: My-Otome meets Hayate no Gotoku and every bishojo game out there.

Sora no Oto (Sound of the Sky): Valkyria Chronicles or Pumpkin Scissors meets K-On!.
I'm sure the creators of the originals aren't copying from other people, but the timing is starting to get a bit ridiculous...

Nodame Cantabile: Finale: I don't know if Noitamina forces NA licensees to pay huge sums, but there's no NA release of this anime's first season yet-- come to think of it, another Noitamina anime, Honey and Clover was licensed 6 years after the original work aired.
Are they deliberately keeping their legit audience small?
Anyways, seasons 1 and 2 were solid productions with accurate animations of the musicians (seriously, watch any other anime where someone's playing a violin, like Corda d'Oro, and watch a recording of an actual violinist-- practically none of them know how actual musicians hold and play instruments), so I have high hopes for the final season.


Almost forgot: Smack on the front page of its official website, K-On! announced a second season. Groovy.
Last edited by Magus_Melchior on Fri Jan 08, 2010 10:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Tekka
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Post by Tekka »

Speaking of unsatisfying endings, the second season of Darker than Black was a complete disaster.

Very few of the important plot points received an explanation.
The new main character's contractor power was ridiculous.
Hei losing his fight against Hazuki was completely anti-climactic and utterly disappointing.
Misaki did absolutely nothing but consistently run from point A to point B.
The merciless killing (cleaning up?) of characters from the first season was so bitter.
And to top it all off there was no explanation as to why the big bad plot device we spent the whole season trying to stop was big and bad, because it just fizzled out before anything happened at all. Ridiculous.

On the bright side, the new season did give us August 7, who was probably the coolest of the new characters, my new favourite as well. It's a pity we saw so little of him, and again... no explanation was given for him miraculously coming back to life. Though I assume it has something to do with his being able to store objects in folded space. If there is a third season I hope he makes a return and doesn't die in the first episode like April did.

Overall, very disappointing.
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Kimiko
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Post by Kimiko »

I should get back into anime, but Dofus has been sucking up all my time, as I feared it would. So Sasameki Koto is finished? Good, then I can download it. Looking forward to Hidamari Sketch × ☆☆☆ too :)
Magus_Melchior
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Post by Magus_Melchior »

Somewhat out of boredom, I downloaded and watched Eureka Seven: Pocketful of Rainbows (or if you like, "Good Night, Sleep Tight, Young Lovers"-- which is a bit of a spoiler to the film's theme, but oh well). This uses many of the same characters as the television show, only the plot and background is quite different.

There are echoes of the television show scattered throughout the film, and unfortunately, a lot of recycled animation even though this is a completely new story. Most of the recycled sequences are from combat scenes, with a minimum of modification done to fit the film. But despite the recycled animation, Bones' animation teams have delivered stunning visuals, particularly in the fight sequences with new animation.

Except for one track ("Battle Zone"), the soundtrack is an entirely new score by Naoki Sato-- pity, since some of the OST2 tracks were the best of the TV series. Still, he is a fine composer, and the soundtrack has the characteristics of the early 20th-century French and Russian classical greats. Of course, this means that some of his signature techno/dance beats didn't appear in the soundtrack.

The characters are shaped by a few basic premises: Renton and Eureka were close friends as children, with an older Dominic as their tutor (about 15 years their senior); Nirvash is not a mute living mech, but an interesting life form that would evolve into the basis for the familiar giant robot. Renton and Eureka are separated when the government kidnaps her for research, and in his first mission with the military 8 years later, he discovers her in a secret facility.

The Gekko crew are in reality much younger than they seem, as a cruel experiment involving them, Dominic, and Anemone has caused them to age far more rapidly than other humans. Here there are overlaps with the TV series' Adrock Thurston narrative and Norb/Sakuya. This motivates Holland to use Renton and Eureka to open the way to a "Never-land", where he and his fellow victims would never age again. All of this has an effect on the characters' personalities, and to the credit of the cast and director, the vocal performance is convincing.

I won't spoil the plot further, but I will raise a bit of a quibble: the conflict will tend to confuse the audience as much as it confused Renton, and the film resorts to quiet scenes with a government official investigating the Gekko crew involving a great deal of expository dialogue to try and clear up the confusion. This isn't anything new with the Eureka Seven series (given the mountains of background information the writers need the audience to know), but there's a reason why great movies don't have the cast read the plot to the audience. There's also a few details in the final scene that don't quite make sense, but I'll chalk that up to the writers following the "dream" theme.

In closing, this does a fine job at presenting yet another new scenario in the love story of Renton and Eureka; the characters and soundtrack are well executed, but the visuals re-use some animation from the television series, and the plot exposition is a little weak. Still, this would make a fine addition to those who enjoyed the television series, and yet can be enjoyed by those who haven't yet seen the television series.
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Deques
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by Deques »

Isn't there any new animes this spring that's worth watching?
kirby
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by kirby »

Deques wrote:Isn't there any new animes this spring that's worth watching?
I would not know because i own quite a collection but I never pay attention to when they were made. So I do not know any info that would help here. I posted this so that you would not ask me a question on it later.
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Ailise
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by Ailise »

I hear K-On! will be back, kinda curious what it will be about this time. I don't know if you watched the first season deq. :P
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Kimiko
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by Kimiko »

I expect it will continue where season one left off. After all, they still have that goal of playing a live concert at [big important place], right?
Mezclas_Quimicas
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by Mezclas_Quimicas »

Winter season is all but over, so I'll keep this post short.

Definitely watch Kimi ni Todoke if you're not already; some scenes are cavity-inducingly sweet, others are gut-wrenchingly dramatic, but it's generally a hilarious comedy. Others from fall/winter I would recommend include Tegami-bachi, Hidamari Sketch x☆☆☆, Sora no Oto, and Nodame Cantabile Finale (though the ending was anemic-- but apparently that's because the manga ended abruptly). Railgun and Kobato are okay, but they tend to wander off from their central stories.

Of the new season, I've seen early episode 1 releases of Working!! and kiss×sis. Working!! is yet another 4-koma manga converted to an anime, and yet another production where every character is a participant in the "Weird Newscasters" or "Party Quirks" games of Whose Line?-- everyone's nuts in one form or another. kiss×sis is, quite simply, a guy living with 2 extremely clingy sisters.

Next season (re)opens some sports anime-- Giant Killing is one about soccer, and another season of Ookiku Furikabutte (baseball).

Arakawa Under the Bridge might be up my alley... B-gata H-kei (Blood type B, Perverted-- obvious comedy is obvious), Mayoi-neko Overrun and The Student Council President is a Maid! are this season's "B" anime. Come to think of it, the selection is a bit slim this year; the other releases include stuff I'd prefer to see live-action (samurai drama or jidai-geki), art style I'm not very fond of in the first place (hardcore shonen), or Japanese versions of foreign IP like Star Wars: Clone Wars. It's possible, though, that most of the big studios have something lined up and are staying mum until the last possible hour.

And yes, K-On!! starts next month. The band hasn't played at the Budokan concert hall yet (and IMO it won't happen unless there's an amateur band competition or something), but the final "bonus" episode was about their first public concert.
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Nedliv
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by Nedliv »

i'm currently reading tegami bachi, the manga. it's kind of fantastic, but i like the character design of hiroyuki asada anyway. Because of his illustrations of "pez and hot strawberry" in the robot-comics i got to tegami bachi :D

um, one question; till which volume of ultimate hellsing ova the series is released at your countries?
i'm interested in 'cause in germany they're delaying the release date of the fifth dvd for 2 years now!!!
T-T and i think it will never be here...
Mezclas_Quimicas
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by Mezclas_Quimicas »

Looks like the 4th volume is the latest (and the last?) for Hellsing Ultimate. Satelight/Geneon production, so it should be pretty good visually.

Picked up both collections for Clannad season 2.

The spring season is... rather subdued, which is interesting since the Japanese broadcast cycle generally starts at the end of March-- one might expect the studios to haul out the big projects right around now, though to be fair, they did come out with some good titles last fall.

K-On!! is pretty good, and though there was a nice gag over turning the map symbol for a hot spring into the band's logo, they haven't bothered to display it at all in season 2. Not to mention, zero concerts. The humor and storytelling is right where one would expect from KyoAni, and I hope that this doesn't become as tedious as Haruhi "season" 2. I'm sure they're going to have at least 1 concert with this band, but I'd rather see a number of concerts like in season 1, even if we only get clips. Hell, I'd love to see them write a song and develop it as the show progresses. But ultimately the manga (and hence the anime) is all about the band members, not the music. Eh.

Arakawa Under the Bridge is SHAFT's latest creation, and they bring in Hiroshi Kamiya (who played Koyomi Araragi in another SHAFT production, Bakemonogatari-- yo SHAFT, when are you going to finish that???) for yet another gig. Rich guy gets involved with a girl who thinks she's a Venusian, and thus gets stuck with living under a bridge over a river flowing to Tokyo Bay... and that's just the start of how messed up the story is. Best to treat it more as classic Monty Python-style sketch comedy than even the craziest 4-koma.

B-gata H-kei is hilarious, as long as you get used to the idea of the main character, Yamada, being a self-styled nymphomaniac. I say "self-styled" because she's a virgin-- all of her "experience" is doubtless pornography and/or sex advice columns in women's magazines (and no, this isn't Queens Blade, Qwaser, or Juuden-chan-- no fully exposed naughty bits). There are two primary comedic elements: (1) Yamada talking about sex with her best friend Takeshita, with the latter constantly having to pull her friend towards more mainstream topics in the classic back-and-forth the Japanese call "manzai", with Takeshita playing the "straight man" or "tsukkomi" (here the casting is perfect, but then Tamura and Horie have played just about every role imaginable). (2) Yamada inadvertently confusing and/or arousing her first "sex friend" target, Kosuda, while predictably never being fully aware of how she's affecting him, or that she is slowly falling for him. The theme and content are provocative, but through the endless stream of gags and disturbed characters, the manga artist is exploring love and relationships through a lens of sexuality in Japanese society-- something few mainstream works have even tried to do in Japan.

Mayoi-neko Overrun is, unfortunately, rather uninspiring. The premise is promising-- a gang of orphans who work at a cafe-- but the plot recycles other anime plot memes, and in such a way as to seem deliberately contrived and artificial, as though a committee of Democrats wrote the story and handed it to a committee of Republicans for editing (Kassidy: You can replace Labour and Tory where appropriate).

The Student Council President is a Maid! is (trying to be) a comedy about a student council president who secretly works at a maid cafe to make ends meet (surprise). There are a few gags in the show, but it's drifting towards a romantic drama between her and a fellow student who is the first to learn her secret. The show is milking the dramatic tension of the president stressing over whether this student (who likes her) would reveal her secret to the school for all it's worth, but the gags could use some work. Of course, KimiTodo is a very hard act to follow (the anime, not the announcer with the creepy hat).
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Kassidy
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by Kassidy »

Labour handing a plot to the Conservatives? Ouch. That concept makes my brain hurt, especially with the hung parliament we have right now. ;)
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Duran
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by Duran »

Currently starting on Kara no Kyoukai. It's a little old, but I love TYPE-MOON and this is the only anime adaptation I haven't seen.
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Kassidy
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by Kassidy »

Kinda random, but I stumbled upon this.

Image
IMissSqrSoft
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Re: Anime Thread 2.0

Post by IMissSqrSoft »

has anyone watched inukami!? is it any good? it seems like a lighthearted, funny anime am i right?
how about baka to test to shokanju/baka and test summon? It seems childish which kills my interest, but its short and has an interesting concept. Is it any good?

Im looking for a good funny anime, which of the two would you recommend?

also, i never watched cowboy bebop but I heard it was really great. It seems like theres some fans of the series on this board as well. Is it really as good as everyone says?
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