Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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Unicorn_Blade
 Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Started Gunslinger GiIrl as well. Why? No idea. I never really wanted to watch it in first place, but it is in the best rivals tournament, so I though I would watch something from it to lessen the amount of series I have never seen. So far, so good. Not that I enjoy it a lot, but it's decent and I have heard it only gets better, so Ill stick to it.
Finished Fafner. OMG, they are making a sequel to it, as if the first series was not bad enough. I hope that whoever does the animation, will put more effort in character design so that the characters actually look differently. And that they fire whoever was responsible for the dialogues. Well, anyways, it had a few god eps here and there, but the rest was a sea of boredom and bad writing- the last episodes looked as if they were heavily edited with some important parts cut out. Luckily I watched dub, so I managed to do all my weekly cleaning/ironing as well as occasional hair straightening while watching not to waste time. |
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jaredb
Posts: 7 |
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Going to start gunslinger girl myself, haven't watched a good old shoot em up anime in a while.............been trying to watch Casshern Sins but keep falling asleep coz its so boring. Dont get me wrong the animations beautiful but its the most dull as dish water anime I've seen in years...........as far as i'm concerned the 'ruin' wasnt happening fast enough to shut them all up.
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Napsack
Posts: 31 |
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I'm currently re-watching all of Haruhi in chronological order. Did it once with the first series but never with both series and the film. I'm even going to try and stomach the full endless eight though my patience might be tested when the skip button is only a click away.
The question I really want to attach to this post is this... where does the Haruhi film take place in the series timeline. I'm uncertain and even the Internet isn't completely clear. I think it takes place round about the time of the cultural festival so I've got it as this. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 1 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 2 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 3 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 4 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 5 The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 6 The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody Mystérique Sign Remote Island Syndrome Part 1 Remote Island Syndrome Part 2 Endless Eight The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 1 The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 2 Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki II The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 3 Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki III The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 4 Suzumiya Haruhi no Tameiki IV The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya Part 5 The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00 Live Alive The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya The Day of Sagittarius Someday in the Rain Is this about right? Also this next question is more for the slightly die hard fans but if I don't watch all of endless eight could someone recommend me which three are the most important to see. The first and last are a given but which episode in between the madness is the best. I would like to see the one which includes the shot of Nagato looking REALLY tired but can't remember which one this is. Any help would be wicked thanks. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Finished Clannad After Story, rated it as Very Good.
Please note I'll be avoiding spoilers as much as possible, so things may be written rather obtusely at times. Darn, they got me. AGAIN. Except, then when it came to the end they thought they'd be clowns and almost ruined everything. Also, upping the drama meant adding ever more ludicrous contrivances. Hmm, real Jekyll and Hyde here. In many ways, Clannad After Story is a misleading title. One of the bonus episodes (aired at the end) is actually a prequel. The first eight episodes of the season are still set at the high school and little has changed. The stories are the same old "male lead helps girl in need", with very little one-on-one interaction - let alone romance - between Tomoya and his beloved. In fact, they barely hold hands, and although they share many emotionally tender moments they are never physically intimate with one another on screen. That's even after they finish up with high school and move in with one another. However, it is this event which is where the show finally finds its feet. The writing - or at least the execution of the writing - goes up several notches from serviceable and/or good to exceptional. At the same time, we the audience get a very stark reminder that the phrase "happily ever after" is a misnomer. So there isn't really an "after story" per se, as being a child, attending high school and falling in love are but the first few chapters in what for most people is a pretty long book. But full credit to Key and Kyoto Animation, they went to a place where few high-school Romance titles dare to tread. And did it with incredibly moving scenes packing amazingly powerful emotional punches. Many episodes are real tear jerkers to be sure, but even the more mundane scenes of daily living and working are well handled. There are strong and identifiable themes about the importance of family, about self-sacrifice, about meeting your responsibilities, about enjoying the simple things in life, about being there when it matters. Unfortunately, although the execution was great the writing itself had two gaping but interlinked problems. First of all it was too emotionally manipulative. Now you may protest and make the point that all series try to elicit emotions from us at varying times, and that is true, but no-one does it more cynically than how it is done here. And sure, there were numerous scenes where this wasn't so and the emotions were so genuine and raw that they were almost palpable. But this was usually in the quieter scenes. In most of the big emotional climaxes, even those in first eight episodes, we were told what to feel (most obviously by musical cues that ended up horrendously overused) rather than the series just showing the scenes to us. This show never rested from getting its audience into the "correct" state of mind, and if it couldn't do that by prodding us then it would try beating us over the head. Quite successfully I might add. The second problem, and like I said it is interlinked with the first, is that it habitually ignored reality in its quest for the complete emotional manipulation of its audience. So what do we get? Incredibly contrived scenes. And I mean, holy crap they're bad. Tell me; who leaves their young daughter playing in a field of flowers hundreds of miles from home ALONE while they go for a walk for several hours and talk to someone on a nearby hill (which is completely out of sight and earshot of said daughter)? Who the heck runs the school the kids went to, and did they have a vendetta against the Furukawas or something? Who repeatedly hires such a quack of a doctor, and then never ever take any of the children to a first-rate hospital and get some wide-ranging tests done? Where did all the friends mysteriously go to when one of the gang basically fell into a long and deep depression? Weren't these the same friends who always insisted on keeping one another on the straight and narrow? Oh, they can travel from other cities and overseas for a single New Years party but fail to visit the poor soul once in FIVE YEARS. Oh, and of course, the ending; how could I forget the ending. To be fair, anyone who paid even the slightest attention to all of the "Hidden World' scenes and the city's legend should at least accept that it didn't come out of left field. Fuko's arc in the first season was pretty much to prepare the audience for such shenanigans. But it still was a stupid ending that invalidated everything that came before it. My favourite show uses a very similar ending, and it worked there because it made sense in context. It made sense in terms of the plot. This one had been hinted pretty much since the start of Clannad's first season, but here it manages to fail, despite the good amount of time that was spent on the build-up. Okay, it doesn't fail, the ending is what people wanted. But that's precisely my point; the writing and the show's credibility both suffer just to cater to an audience that cannot otherwise take any more suffering. But the new wave of suffering and grief is only there because of a stupid thing the plot included, and the ending only exists because of the new wave of suffering and grief. The whole mess is entirely dependent on itself to play out on. Bad plot decision means a fake and pointless tragedy which has to exist in order to give rise to the spineless ending. The ending wouldn't exist without the tragedy (there is a salient plot point which ensures this), yet the ending invalidates the tragedy. To get any more into it I would have to delve into spoilers, so I'll leave it here, but I am pissed off. So to recap, the writing basically got really contrived in order to set up the emotional punches and then stop anything like reality from interfering with the scenarios that were in play. It's all fake, the whole thing is fake. And I'm not referring to how the show is just a fictional Anime. I got really moved on more than one occasion, but it wasn't really me; it was almost an instinctive feeling that my body was experiencing, not my mind or heart. Think of it as the same involuntary reaction you get with Moe; you know that there isn't really any reason for you to feel the way you do but you feel it anyway. Your body is going daww while your brain is quite aware of every little detail that has been carely calculated and crafted in order to achieve the desired emotional response. Clannad After Story would have been better off as a one-cour show. If it had dispensed with the first eight episodes and finished after the first major tragedy had been resolved then I would have given it at least an Excellent. That's even with all of the emotional manipulation. While most Romance titles end at the kiss and/or confession, this one goes out and paints a less-than-rosy view of life after graduation. And as I have previously said, the show isn't all manipulation, it does have many genuine moments. I was a bit annoyed at how Tomoya got more screentime than his beloved in the period directly after he graduated - we never saw much of her troubles or really delved into her head - but it was all still exceptional. But the story took too long to get going and then outstayed its welcome two main episodes too long while being as cringe-inducing as a soap opera. So after all this typing in this post alone - which has so far taken me more than an hour-and-a-half - I guess I say goodbye to the Clannad franchise. (No, I'm not going to watch the movie, no real need.) It was everything negative I expected and yet showed remarkable wit and heart as well. I even began to lose my jaded view of Moe titles. However, towards the end I remembered why I had been hostile towards them in the first place. This is the best Moe show of its kind, so I've been told. It makes me very sad as everything else is down hill from here, yet it was a great ride while it lasted. I would recommend it to others, something that I didn't think I would do forty-nine episodes ago. |
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DJStarstryker
 Posts: 140 |
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Gunslinger Girl isn't a shoot em up anime. I mean, I guess the first episode is, but after that, it's not. It's more of a political drama mixed with slice of life mixed with a morality debate, in all honesty. An average episode of Sailor Moon or Cardcaptor Sakura has more fighting in it than an average episode of Gunslinger Girl. |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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I started a beast that is Monster.
The longest series I have ever seen was FMA- and I only started it because I did not know it was having more than 50 eps. I was putting Monster away for the reason of it being quite long, and I don't have time to commit myself to such long series. But hey, holidays are starting for me in a week, so I though I would give it a go. Specially with Gunslinger Girl not being something that is keeping me on the edge of my chair. The first episode was really good; I dont know how they want to keep up a pace for some 70 odd episodes, I'd hope they will manage to pull it off somehow. |
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jaredb
Posts: 7 |
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WTF? how the hell are the going to name it gunslinger Girl & not have lots of gunfights? seems like a con if you ask me, casherrn already tricked me with the promise of good action & all they did was talk, blah-blah-blah 'flowers blooming' 'despair at my mortality' ect i want somthing well written, animated & good gun fight action.......maybe try the new Golgo 13 series then........ |
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Unicorn_Blade
Posts: 1153 Location: UK |
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Try Gungrave if you have not seen it yet- it has a decent amount of gunfighting (and not only).
[EDIT: No excessive quoting. Either reply directly to the person above you or quote the most relevant parts of the post. -TK] |
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jaredb
Posts: 7 |
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seen it, loved & left it, thanks for the rec though.
I'm realy in the mood for watching somthing that doesnt have magic, mecha's, superpowers, aliens or monster (big ask in the anime world i know), think Golgo 13 might hit the mark, just gunfights/bloody killings and no 'wacky stuff'............just finished watching Casshern, black butler, high school of the dead & Guin Saga so need somthing a bit more grounded........ [EDIT: No excessive quoting. Either reply directly to the person above you or quote the most relevant parts of the post. -TK] |
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Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
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I'm female. 
It is like you said. New developments did nothing for me, because I didn't care for the characters to begin with. Mouryou no Hako – I watched the first episode three or two years ago. Although this series seemed fairly intriguing, I haven't finished it. I don't know and cannot remember why. Never mind. I re-watched the first episode and I enjoyed it more than the first time around. This time, I'm going to finish this series. |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23776 |
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I wouldn't be.so sure about that. This series had one of the most boring episodes I"ve ever seen. I managed to make it to the end of episode 7 and then I just couldn't take it any more. It's too bad because I understand that in the later episodes they finally start dealing with the three thousand threads they dangled at the beginning but by that time I just didn't care any more. |
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_Emi_
 Posts: 498 Location: Langjökull |
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I'm finally slowly chipping my way through my ginormous backlog. Two down, a whole hell of a lot more to go.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - Apparently, the '90s OVA is supposed to be the superior OVA. But after having watched through both, I actually prefer the '00s OVA. I've also heard complaints about releasing them in chronological order but I think it was a good thing (STA could have had more episodes per disk though). For those who haven't read the manga, the '90s OVA doesn't make much sense. It's just a bunch of beefy dudes duking it out with some other beefy dude with no explanation as to why. Without the background provided with the '00s OVA, I might not have watched past the first episode of the '90s one. And you better like big beefy dudes duking it out, because even with the background provided by the '00s OVA, I found it hard to care much for the characters themselves beyond Avdol. He's the main reason why I liked the '00s OVA better as their was more Avdol goodness and he also spoiler[doesn't die while Polnareff lives. Seriously, why the fudge doesn't Polnareff die?]. I liked his calm, collected personality and that he is a talented Stand user but not so much that his fights are a forgone conclusion which is one of Jotoro's problems. Even when he has no clue what this Stand power is, he is so powerful and talented, that it takes some of the interest out of the fights. They don't have anything to replace it with as Jotaro is too much of the stoic to connect with his personal reasons for fighting and Holly isn't developed enough to root for Jo for her sake. I do think he's hot though. Mr. Joestar doesn't do much beyond being Mr. Exposition. Kakyoin is severely underutilized. He gets the one fight at his intro but after that he's just kind of there. In the '90s OVA, he's taken out of commission in the first episode and doesn't reappear until the Dio fight. But what an entrance that was. It was just awesome and he actually manages to figure out Dio's Stand's power. It's too bad Kakyoin doesn't do more as his personality is similar to Avdol's. I liked Polnareff in his introduction but his personality just degenerates from there which is another reason why I prefer the '00s OVA as it has a whole episode that doesn't make me want to punch Polnareff. It didn't stop me from liking his contribution to the Dio fight though. And speaking of Polnareff's intro, I'm disappointed we didn't get more with the Strength stand user spoiler[(I mean, he was orangutan! With a pipe! How cool is that?!)]. Thankfully, I do like big beefy men duking it, so the show's characterization failures don't harm it in the end. And what fights they are! Characters win because they out think their opponents, not due to constant one up-man ship of power. The "fight" with D'Arby doesn't even involve physical combat and the stakes are more dire then just death. This make Jotaro's defeat of Dio disappointing. He doesn't defeat him because of wits but because Jo develops a new power within a short amount of time with no training whatsoever. spoiler[And they find a way to bring back Mr. Joestar but not Avdol.] The '90s OVA needs a restoration. At times it would look fine: not too grainy, coloring looked decent. At other times it wouldn't: grainy, faded, and/or washed out looking. Their was even a couple of times where the characters would have this outline around them making it look like they were using cheap green screen effects. I'd give the animation edge to '00s as crowd scenes showed a little more animation then '90s. I liked that STA included tarot cards for most of the stands that show up in the show (no cards for D'Arby or Vanilla Ice). And speaking of Vanilla Ice, if they had to give him another name, couldn't they have come up with a better one then Iced? Overall, I found the OVAs an enjoyable way to waste a few hours of my day due too the execution of the fights (for the most part) and Avdol's character but nothing really beyond that. The second show was Utawarerumono but I'll write about that later. Possibly. Last edited by _Emi_ on Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:54 am; edited 1 time in total |
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kilaria
 Posts: 135 Location: Dallas, TX |
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Since I am a huge fan of Utena, and many people recommended Princess Tutu to Utena fans I decided to give it a try. I'm three episodes in and I'm not sure what I think. This show is very very strange. LOL As of yet, I'm not even sure I like it or not... but I'll continue to plow through and hopefully it will start to grow on me.
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devilferret
Posts: 3 |
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the only "new" series I am watching is Usagi Drop because I liked the manga
I looked at several of the other new series for the summer ... and for various reasons wrote all of them off ... and from comments I have seen on another site I am a member of ... I wasnt the only person who wrote off a lot of the new series |
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Aylinn
Posts: 1684 |
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Thanks. It's good to know such things in advance. I'll pay attention to what is going on. I don't mind a lot of loose threads at the beginning, because I like complicated mysteries. I'm usually annoyed when a mystery is too easy to solve and I know what is going on long before the ending of the film/book/manga/etc. If Mouryou no Hako is not one of them, I'll, in all probability, like it. |
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