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What are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)


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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 6:39 am Reply with quote
Watching the insanity that is Excel Saga. No doubt, I am only getting about 20% of the humour and references, but fortunately that 20% is enough to keep me entertained. I've only finished up to episode 4, but what cracked me up in it was the eroge parody. I love how in every situation, option C) was always spoiler[Put it in.] no matter how innocuous the event. Laughing
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dirkusbirkus



Joined: 10 May 2008
Posts: 699
Location: Manchester, UK
PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:06 am Reply with quote
If I could erase any anime from my memory so that I could rewatch it again and enjoy it like the first time, Excel Saga would surely be near the top of my list. Not that I want to forget it, it was just so awesome the first time round. Mm, Hyatt.

Hail, Il Palazzo! o7
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:30 pm Reply with quote
Surrender Artist wrote:
...The preposterous nature of the premise somehow made me like it better. I thought of it as a sort of grand preposterousness that opened up the possibilities of the story rather than stupid or lazy kind that renders something intolerable to any but the willfully feebleminded...


Just about all anime has a premise that requires suspension of disbelief. The problem for me is that the She, the Ultimate Weapon franchise kept drawing attention to its preposterousness with moments like this.


Chise has just made a grand entrance in front of the troops and promptly fallen on her face.
Also check out the size of the gun that has grown out of her arm.


Surrender Artist wrote:
...The series became very heartrending later on. It might be different if I were to watch it again, but, as I wrote in the storied past, episode nine really unsettled me the first time I saw it...


Akemi's episode. Yes. Yes. Definitely.

Hey, I rated this series as good. Given that I have lambasted it for its absurdities and for the rivers of tears, you can infer that I thought its other elements were pretty special.

ailblentyn wrote:
@errinundra
Awww. Reading about your opportunities to see Arrietty on the big screen makes me wish all over again that I was back home (in Sydney --- arguably Australia's capital of.. ahem... everything else Wink ). I can't wait to see that film, though it will probably be a little time till I get the chance, unfortunately.
Or till I get the chance to come home. Crying or Very sad


You sound homesick.

Despite its slightly larger population Sydney only has six cinemas showing Arrietty. I adhere to the popular theory that Sydneysiders are less enthusiastic about culture and sport than Melburnians because they have their harbour. We don't have that magnificent distraction down here.


Last edited by Errinundra on Tue Nov 07, 2017 8:20 pm; edited 1 time in total
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somgrl8



Joined: 26 Jul 2009
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 7:44 pm Reply with quote
daxomni wrote:

So, what are you watching and why?


In my childhood I had watched Appleseed and similar type anime my father brought home from his traveling job...then about 6 or 7 years ago I got into GITS: Stand Alone Complex, Witch Hunter Robin, Big O and then Death Note...oh and then Gunslinger Girls. That led to Darker than Black and similar styled in terms of the more serious tone in which the characters are animated...then recently I fell in love with Shin Chan and sadly 6Teen it's a very bland Canadian version of Shojo...I finished it and wanted something similar and then I found Ouran Host Club...I loved it so much...I think my heart broke just as much as the character's did when they ended the series. I'm watching all of these through Netflix Instant and so I tried the recommended Baka Test..and breezed through it. Now I'm engrossed in School Rumble which I see is the basis for Baka. When I can't sleep and don't want to disturb my boyfirend while he sleeps I watch Honey and Clover or Chobits because they both have subtitles.

I'm so new to the Shojo (not sure if I'm using the correct terminology) genre...I love it so much...it really fills the gap left from when I was a little girl and watched the American cartoon series Beverly Hills Teens and from my years of collecting Archie comics. But as I find to be true (IMO) Japanese attempts, for lack of better word (sick can't think), these teenage character based anime is so much better than anything any other culture has produced in the genre so far.
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dirkusbirkus



Joined: 10 May 2008
Posts: 699
Location: Manchester, UK
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 7:45 am Reply with quote
So I went with Gosick in the end for the marathon, because I'm pretty sure I need to have more than just one series of Aria at my disposal to get the most out of the franchise. So that goes firmly on the backburner once more.

Gosick was pretty good. Not amazing, but good nonetheless. I thought the pacing was quite apt, if not entirely unfamiliar. Whilst the first half of the series was dedicated to 'mystery of the week' type scenarios, this obviously serves to deepen the bond of the two leads, yadda yadda yadda... There's then a kind of 'buffer' episode that reinforces how close the two are and then Bam, on with the main arc. We've seen it before, but it works, who am I to argue? At least it was executed well here.

I've seen people complain that sometimes Victorique seems to pull solutions out of thin air, and yeah, I can see where such concerns come from. Because the girl only really describes her thought processes to a certain extent, we're asked to place a lot of faith in her reconstructing of chaos. I didn't feel cheated though; often her explanations were entertaining enough for me to suspend belief and just buy into what was going on.

It was pretty entertaining overall, and whilst some plot devices were very familiar indeed (and some of the main themes preposterous), it was done well enough that I could forgive most of the stuff that would normally annoy me. The characterisation was pretty good throughout and the aforementioned bond between Kujo and Victorique is pretty heart-warming. It's well produced and there's no drop in animation quality over the two cour duration. I was beginning to think it was strange that Sawashiro Miyuki wasn't the seiyuu for Victorique, since that kind of character is totally her domain, but then up she pops as the voice of her mother instead. Good show.

Yeah, not amazing, but good nonetheless.
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Haterater



Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Posts: 1727
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:43 pm Reply with quote
Finished Magic Knight Rayearth season 1 and loved it. Although usually not a fan of spoiler[misunderstandings and not really "evil" characters to some degree in plots], I felt like it really worked well here. Felt for good and bad in the whole thing. What I really enjoyed were how the heroines were strong characters and still kind of gave off the normal teen vibe. Look forward to snatching season 2 down the line.

Small thing, but I like how they went with the Kagome(Inuyasha) route of no fan service for the heroines.
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ailblentyn



Joined: 28 Mar 2009
Posts: 1688
Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 1:50 pm Reply with quote
I really enjoyed the first series of Magic Knight Rayearth. Like you, I appreciated the lack of fan-service, really as an index that they were avoiding some of the easy, predictable solutions. I'm a fan of those narratives where the characters realise at the end that they have been misunderstanding everything about the story they were part of along the way. It's a very good kind of plot.

I'll be interested how you enjoy the second series too. (I have my own opinion, but don't want to spoil.)
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Zalis116
Moderator


Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 6864
Location: Kazune City
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:36 pm Reply with quote
naninanino wrote:
Dorcas_Aurelia wrote:
Noticed Crunchy Roll has Pretty Cure available, so I started that one up. Then I looked it up on MAL to add it to the list of shows I've seen and HOLY CRAP THERE'RE HOW MANY SERIES OF PRETTY CURE!?


Next month the 9th Precure will start. There is one every year. I hope you chose Heartcatch as it is the the most well received one.


And remember, every series except for Max Heart and Yes Pretty Cure 5 GoGo (which are sequels to the series that immediately preceded them) are standalone and can be watched in any order.
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ArsenicSteel



Joined: 12 Jan 2010
Posts: 2370
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 2:52 pm Reply with quote
I am currently watching Saikano because I like when fictional stories use fantastical and non-realistic elements that allow me to suspend my disbelief. And I have also been looking forward to checking out another dark romance.
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Haterater



Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Posts: 1727
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:02 pm Reply with quote
ailblentyn wrote:
I really enjoyed the first series of Magic Knight Rayearth. Like you, I appreciated the lack of fan-service, really as an index that they were avoiding some of the easy, predictable solutions. I'm a fan of those narratives where the characters realise at the end that they have been misunderstanding everything about the story they were part of along the way. It's a very good kind of plot.

I'll be interested how you enjoy the second series too. (I have my own opinion, but don't want to spoil.)


I also like how their upgrades naturally came about after going through certain situations like that. Find the pacing was just about right. The only thing I'm a little stumped about is random cat ears, but found it charming and its own unique thing for Hikaru.

Is the second series a little "far off" than the first? Nothing wrong if it is, but I'll brace myself.
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Tris8



Joined: 30 Oct 2009
Posts: 2114
Location: Where the rain is.
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 6:21 pm Reply with quote
The current wallpaper for ANN inspired me to start The World God Only Knows yesterday and it was a good watch. The first 4 episodes were hilarious, but after that it settled into a rut. I loved how obsessed with gaming Keima is. A few times his very life comes in danger and the first thing on his mind.... saving his progress or making sure his PFP doesn't break Anime hyper

I also watched The Legend of the Millennium Dragon. The entire time I found myself looking at their oddly-shaped heads and thinking they were too big for their bodies Confused The children were the worst. Their faces were that of ugly and weirdly drawn adults (and this isn't supposed to be anything near a psychological title). The Japanese voice acting was so-so, but what really made this title 'meh' was the passiveness and indecisiveness of the lead.
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naninanino



Joined: 18 May 2008
Posts: 680
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 7:35 pm Reply with quote
Haterater wrote:
Is the second series a little "far off" than the first? Nothing wrong if it is, but I'll brace myself.


It does reintroduce the world a bit differently, but I think it's about as good? as the first. There is some slight romance business going on and it seem to focus more on Hikaru + 2 new guys, of which I found at least one to be a very decent character.

I also think that the main plot gives ground to a very decent conflict of morals and ambitions, after knowing how the world works from the first season.

Anyway, I liked it, but I don't exactly consider MKR to be that great of a series to begin with outside of its strange charm.
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Haterater



Joined: 30 Apr 2006
Posts: 1727
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 9:25 pm Reply with quote
Thanks, naninanino. Seems like they are expanding more of the world with a few spins and everything else sounds promising, so very much get for me.
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Dorcas_Aurelia



Joined: 23 Jul 2006
Posts: 5344
Location: Philly
PostPosted: Tue Jan 24, 2012 11:52 pm Reply with quote
I am no longer a Go Nagai virgin. I saw Black Lion last night. So, let me try to explain the premise:
So, an alien or time-travelling spirit or something possesses a bumbling man, who happens to be Oda Nobunaga, and this provides Nobunaga with the technology, knowledge, and, um, materials too, I guess, to build a massive army of tanks, robots, machine guns, etc. to conquer Japan. Also, he finds some guy named Ginnai who was killed (along with his family) by ninja, and Nobunaga revives him and turns him into a nigh-invincible nuclear powered ninja-killer. The main character, Shishimaru, is a ninja in part of a squad trying to hold off Nobunaga's forces, who are all killed in the opening moments of the show by Ginnai. Shishimaru is rescued by a group of Koga ninja (Shishi is an Iga), and they all spend the rest of the show trying to kill an unkillable man (although Shishimaru spends as much time arguing with the Iga as trying to fight Ginnai). spoiler[They eventually do manage to fatally damage Ginnai, at which point he starts spitting fire and announces that he's powered by atomic energy, and so will blow up everyone when he explodes. But then some aliens come and save Shishimaru, the Iga ninja leader, and the tsundere girl Iga ninja.] Because that makes sense.

Also, tons and tons of explosions and violent, gruesome dismemberment, impalement, and death. Good times.

That was the last show of the evening, though (but the most interesting, hence why I listed it first). We started off with The Samurai, which was... is there a word for the opposite of anachronistic? It's set in modern Japan, and the main character acts dresses and acts generally like a traditional samurai. A pair of female twin ninja transfer to his class (which is otherwise full of normal people), and the rest of the series is about them trying to win a family sword from him that his father won from theirs. Also, one twin is a slut spoiler[three guys start hitting on her instantly and her reaction is to strip down and offer to do them all right there], and the other gets super violent when touched by a male. It's an 80's OVA, so there's lots of gratuitous boobs, and little to no rationality. The series ends with a random giant robot operated by the ninja twins spoiler[that turns out to be too much for them to handle that crashes into where they're holding the protagonist's ladyfriend captive, and after everyone is rescued by the authorities, he decides to return the sword,] and everyone lives happily ever after, I guess?

The other show we saw was Samurai: Hunt for the Sword. It was the worst kind of crap: the boring kind. Apparently it was based off an H-game; pretty obvious, considering aside from the protagonist and the villains, pretty much the only other characters are the 6 females of varying appearance. I say appearance only because no one in the show had any personality. They weren't even stereotypes, because stereotypes at least have one dimension. Presumably there was some plot about some powerful sword, and the villains want it to overthrow the corrupt government, but it was so badly written that I repeatedly forgot their motivation while watching the show, and it's only 2 episodes long. The only note-worthy event is that one of the haremettes starts off as an enemy ninja, and the protagonist discovers she's female because he accidentally gropes her in combat, and then later it turns out she's some kind of mystic or psychic, and physical contact lets her see the other persons fate, so unintentionally grabbing her boob caused her to reconsider which side she was on. Yup, sounds like a porn game.
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bonbonsrus



Joined: 15 Oct 2003
Posts: 1537
Location: Michigan, USA
PostPosted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 12:00 am Reply with quote
Tris8 wrote:
The current wallpaper for ANN inspired me to start The World God Only Knows yesterday and it was a good watch. The first 4 episodes were hilarious, but after that it settled into a rut. I loved how obsessed with gaming Keima is. A few times his very life comes in danger and the first thing on his mind.... saving his progress or making sure his PFP doesn't break Anime hyper

You watched it all in a day? Well, I am watching this as it airs on demand and I have only seen two episodes so far. After the first minute it got better for me...the very beginning where they showed the skeleton funny face was throwing me off so much that I wasn't sure I could get into it. Thankfully it leaves that fast and lets you get hooked into the story. I am finding it pretty funny as well, I like the premise of him trying to use his gaming girl conquests tactics on real life girls. I will have to wait to see more as it comes out On Demand, but I am looking forward to it!
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