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


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ninjapet



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 1517
PostPosted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:28 pm Reply with quote
So after feeling down for the past two days I decided to take a crack at my backlog to cheer my self up a little.

Ended up watching Canaan, which has interested me for over a year now. Before I got in to everything Type-Moon.

Going in to the series after watching and reading F/SN, KnK and a bunch of other stuff I thought "hm well it's going to have something about eyes and POWER LEVELS" I was kinda on the mark?

Anyway I ended up going with the dub for once seeing as I was in no mood to read subs. I was really surprised I enjoyed the dub a lot. I mean I don't care much for dubs anymore but this was good. I felt like Maria and Canaan were spot on.

Story wise it was interesting, mainly because the main bio weapon in the series was something I knew about (yay for taking a whole day to learn about it in bio!). The Ebola virus, strange I never would have thought someone would make a whole story about it. Seeing as it's been 30+ years since the first outbreak of it and there hasn't been one since the 80's at this point. My only complaint had to be the fact the whole science behind some of the powers caused by the virus are just. IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT. Yes viruses change your cells to a certain point but it wouldn't cause enough change for super powers. Though it's anime so all realistic stuff aside.

Character wise, I felt like the only characters really fleshed out had been Maria and Canaan. It was to the point were I only remembered their names, the bad guy and the other girl with the main group. Not sure if that's good or not. But the relationship Maria and Canaan had was interesting. It was friendship to a borderline love at points.

The animation was wonderful, I was watching the Bluray and I was blown away by the fights and how great it was animated.

In short the best way to sum it up. It's like KnK but replace Shiki with a middle eastern white haired copy of her. That has eyes that see colors compared to death. Replace Mikiya with a girl who's interesting and instead of magic and murder it's a middle east terrorist plot.

Over all it was a fun show and if you have an afternoon to kill go watch it.
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 3:49 am Reply with quote
Jumping is an extraordinary pre-CGI six-minute 1984 film from Osamu Tezuka (part of the collection I mentioned in my previous post): a first person point of view animation of a girl jumping. Each jump is larger than the last, culminating in ocean sized leaps. The amazing thing, for its time, is that the camera moves through the landscape with the jumping girl, thus not pemitting short cuts in the animation. Each frame must be fully painted. It’s made even more complicated by the girl shifting her gaze: sometimes she’s looking down, sometimes up, sometimes straight ahead.

In one of the three commentaries accompanying the film, Anthony Lucas (the director of The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello) explains that animating the camera is about the most expensive thing you can attempt to do. But as another of the commentators (Philip Brophy, author of 100 Anime) points out, this sort of thing is impossible with live action cinema. The six-minute film took 29 months to produce and involved almost 4,000 fully painted cels. You can see that they have tried to make it as simple as they could but it’s still breathtaking to watch.

Now, you may think that this is just an esoteric, technical exercise. Believe me, it could be the most entertaining six minutes you can spend watching anime. The girl starts of by jumping up and down in a country laneway. Her first exaggerated leap is to avoid being run down by a car – immediately there’s a sense of danger, along with a sense of fun, setting the tone for the next six minutes. With each leap she lands amidst some vignette of life that we glimpse for a second or two before she continues – kids playing on a demolition site, a motorist being booked by a policeman, a would be suicide on a railway line, a naked woman sunbaking. At one stage the girl leaps a skyscraper in a single bound and, if you move the anime frame by frame, you can see events unfolding on each floor, including a cameo from R2D2 and C3PO.

This is a wonderful example of the technical merits, the structure and the narrative each reflecting each other: Osamu Tezuka’s ambitions, the jumping format and the escalating events. All aspects of the production enhance the others, adding to the overall effect. As Tezuka himself puts it in his own commentary to the film,

“You can’t keep jumping forever. But this one does and it can’t stop till it jumps into a nuclear explosion. It’s like mankind and its technology. They don’t know when to stop.”

I highly recommend Jumping. You can see it on Youtube and it's only six minutes long. (But you really should get the DVD.)

There are 8 more short films on the DVD that I haven’t already mentioned. Most are just a few minutes long, like Jumping, but, unlike that masterpiece, are one joke wonders with eccentric visual styles. Best of those I haven’t mentioned so far include the rather longer Pictures at an Exhibition, which sets animation to Mussorgsky’s music – there’s a segment called Journalist whose hypocritical main character looks a bit like Rupert Murdoch, which must be coincidental but does give it extra resonance – and Muramasa, a tale of a samurai who finds a magical sword that deludes him into committing mass murder.

Ratings: Jumping - masterpiece; Pictures at an Exhibition – very good; Muramasa – good; the others somewhat lower. The collection is definitely worth tracking down for Jumping, Tales of the Street Corner (see my previous post) and Pictures at an Exhbition.

I’ve seen a few other anime but I’ll write about them later.
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Melanchthon



Joined: 02 Oct 2010
Posts: 550
Location: Northwest from Here
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:07 am Reply with quote
After a run of older shows, I started on some newer series I passed on earlier. The big one is Fullmetal Alchemist: The Search for More Money. Fullmetal Alchemist was the first anime I ever got into, and so I'm a bit partisan about the first series. I had actually watched the first couple dozen episodes as it was airing, then gave up on it because it was pissing me off. So I started again at episode 24, and have worked my way up to 40. It's bad. Here's why. The first TV series was set in an amoral universe, the second is pure good-vs-evil. In the first, several of the baddies were sympathetic, moral lines were blurred, and characters were flawed. The final villain was human, with understandable human logic behind her actions. The second, is humanity versus the homunculi, with unflawed characters and a straight moral line separating them. It's like the difference between Lovecraft and Derleth.

Another show I started is Otome Youkai Zakuro. Firstly, the artwork is turrible. Secondly, there's some pretty generic shoujo fluff here. But the third episode was really good, and I'm digging the awkward romance between Zakuro and Agemaki. It doesn't have much promise, but I am satisfied so far.

And then there was Squid Girl. Everyone and their mom seemed to love this show, but I just can't seem to get into it. The comedy in the first episode just didn't click with me. I'll try to make it through, but I doubt I being buying the DVDs.

The King of Harts wrote:
My original plan was to watch all of Cutie Honey in chronological order (70s TV show -> New -> Flash -> Re), but it's kind of hard to do that when the majority of it is incomplete via fansubs.

THEre iS a guy worKing At Releasing fansubs Of tHe seventies verision, bUt aNn doesn'T lIke liNkinG to fanSub lOCatIons, so i havE To use roundabout waYs of talking about them.
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kilaria



Joined: 04 Mar 2009
Posts: 135
Location: Dallas, TX
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:36 am Reply with quote
After a slow start weeks ago, I finally finished Gungrave. I bought this series not knowing too much about it. Only that, overall, it was well liked. The first episode, as those who have watched the series know, is almost a teaser. You think it's starting one way then all of a sudden it back tracks. It's an action sci-fi then an episode later... it's not. The beginning (after the first episode) was a slow starter for me. I don't know why, but I wasn't completely enthralled with it. Still it didn't take me long to understand how necessary this was, and that Gungrave isn't just some mindless action flick, but something with true substance, story, and character development.

I 'like' a lot of anime. And consider a lot of what I watch 'good' but very few are so great that it evokes so much emotion in me. So much hatred for some characters, so much love for others. And none of the characters are one dimensional. Brandon Heat was my favorite (as I'm sure is the case with most viewers) He was a good guy with a good heart... spoiler[but being a sweeper for the mafia, he definitely wasn't innocent. ]

Gungrave definitely jumps right up there to my top 10 anime I think. Watching the series was an emotional rollercoaster in the best way. This was definitely a pleasant surprise, and an anime that I recommend everyone should watch.
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The King of Harts



Joined: 05 May 2009
Posts: 6712
Location: Mount Crawford, Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 1:20 pm Reply with quote
Melanchthon wrote:
The King of Harts wrote:
My original plan was to watch all of Cutie Honey in chronological order (70s TV show -> New -> Flash -> Re), but it's kind of hard to do that when the majority of it is incomplete via fansubs.

THEre iS a guy worKing At Releasing fansubs Of tHe seventies verision, bUt aNn doesn'T lIke liNkinG to fanSub lOCatIons, so i havE To use roundabout waYs of talking about them.

Ha, yea, I found that blog shortly after posting that. It sucks that it comes out once a month, but it's close to the end. I still need to find Flash, though.
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:20 pm Reply with quote
Panda! Go, Panda! (movie) and Panda! Go, Panda!: Rainy Day Circus (movie)

I watched these as part of my ongoing project to explore older anime milestones. The two short Panda! movies are pre-Ghibli Isao Takahata efforts aimed squarely at children but with enough wit and charm to appeal to older viewers as well. They follow the adventures of Mimiko, a small girl who lives alone in a bamboo grove. One day she meets two escapees from the zoo, Papa Panda and his son, Panny. The three set up house and try to lead normal lives. In the second film, a circus visit to the local town coincides with a flood, with ensuing high jinks. The humour relies on the old saws of incongruous characters trying to interact, and those characters attempting to behave normally in abnormal circumstances. It’s all done with a good-natured sense of optimism.

Papa Panda must surely have been a model for Totoro – the similarities are uncanny – while the trip from Mimiko’s house to the flooded town to rescue the circus animals is re-used in Ponyo, complete with its vistas of underwater roads and countryside. What Ponyo lacks is the marvellous out-of-control train ride through the flooded landscape. I suppose you can’t blame Miyazaki and Takahata from plundering their own great ideas.

Ratings: Panda! Go, Panda! – decent; Panda! Go, Panda!: Rainy Day Circus – good.

Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino (TV series and OAV)

As an admirer of the original season of Gunslinger Girl, and with the poor reputation that the second season has garnered (see the three ANN reviews), I approached these with some trepidation. For sure, something is missing but nailing down the underlying cause is interesting. On a technical level, the animation is inferior in Il Teatrino, although which has the better artwork is more questionable. Certainly, the colours are sharper and brighter in Il Teatrino. Several times, when frustrated with the newer series, I popped the original into my player and found myself equally dissatisfied with its subdued artwork.

I think the major difference is the approach the different studios and directors take to establishing and exploiting the contrast between the girls as objects of innocence and the violence of their backgrounds and their profession. In the newer series the makers are attempting to emphasise this contrast by exaggerating the apparent sweetness of the girls and by using a colour palette that embellishes this misleading view. This gives the killing scenes, through their incongruity, and the off-handed callousness of the girls, much greater impact. Well, that’s the hope, I suppose. Unfortunately, the unexciting direction undermines the intention. The original series, instead, chose to create a sense of unease, of menace, from the very beginning, discomforting the viewer and causing us to have misgivings about all the actions and relationships presented to us. That is its power.

The strengths of Il Teatrino lie in its overarching plot involving the terrorists Flanca, Franco, Pinnochio and Christiano, something that the first season entirely lacks, and in the development of those four antagonists. As Il Teatrino proceeds we learn how normal they are compared with the operatives of the Social Welfare Agency. They become more human as the girls and their handlers become more monstrous. So, in that sense, the Pinnochio arc is entirely successful.

The music is terrific. The incidental music lacks the variety of the first season but, what there is, enhances what is happening on screen. The OP theme is every bit the killer as its counterpart from the first season. The OAV is pointless, other than the, still unsatisfying, background provided for Jose and Jean in the second episode

Ratings: TV series – very good; OAV – decent.

Surrender Artist wrote:
...Have you seen Original Dirty Pair: Project Eden yet? It is, although I doubt that I need to tell you, of interest since Kōichi Mashimo directed it and I've seen it often cited as the reason that he went so often back to the 'girls-with-guns' well later on. Having myself seen it, I have to doubt that hypothesis, because paired female protagonists with firearms are nearly all that that is in common between it and the trilogy. It's very different in style and I also didn't like it nearly as well. I suppose that it might had some influence, but I can't help but feel that some oversell the connection...


No, I haven’t. I will probably get around to it eventually, given that I’m exploring both the Girls with Guns genre and the Koichi Mashimo oeuvre (The Irresponsible Captain Tylor is on order). With my reaction to Dirty Pair, it’s not high on my priority list.

Galaxy Express 999

Quite independently of the Mike Toole article, I watched this a couple of nights ago. Although I’m familiar with Rintaro as a director, this is my first exposure to a Leiji Matsumoto creation. It certainly won’t be my last. I won’t say much about at this point. Surrender Artist's review describes it nicely.

If you consider this film by its individual elements it shouldn’t work, yet it does beautifully. It’s definitely a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. I want to watch this again and to allow my feelings and thoughts about it to percolate a while before considering it in more detail.

Tentative rating: excellent.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 23667
PostPosted: Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:07 pm Reply with quote
Friggin' Ragnarok, man. It got me again. Earlier on in the series, it pulled out something emotionally harsh that upset me; mainly because nothing that had preceded it would make you think it would go "there" in the way that it did. Fine, whatever. This is generally a pretty crappy show with a lot of faults that I am basically liking for whatever reason. Anyway, in episode 20, they pull out the biggest, stinkiest, most blatantly manipulative piece of claptrap imaginable and to my horror, I actually fell prey to it. If I was to describe what happened, you would doubtlessly howl in laughter at the ridiculousness of it all, but they still got me and I am officially emotionally bummed out.
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Guren Alchemist4



Joined: 22 Aug 2010
Posts: 347
PostPosted: Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:31 am Reply with quote
I recently started watching Steins;Gate and so far I'm two episodes in. I'm really enjoying the storyline thus far and it doesn't hurt that I'm a sucker for sci fi themed shows. lol

I've also been following Blue Exorcist, but I'm debating whether I'll be continuing. This anime showed so much promise early on. The theme and subject matters alone had the making of something great, and yet, they seem to be struggling to keep the same intensity. To my understanding, the anime doesn't have enough material since the manga wasn't far enough ahead so they've needed to make fillers which quite frankly are just okay.

Other shows which need no explanation are One Piece (current) and Gintama (72 episodes in).
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Wed Aug 03, 2011 10:02 pm Reply with quote
[C] - The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

This was a very disappointing viewing experience. Initially it offered the promise of being a [C]ritique of how [C]apitalism plunders the future, via [C]redit, to pay for our [C]onsumption now. No such luck. Any chance of satire was quickly lost in the [C]onfusing rules of the Financial District and the peculiar and tiresome shonen battles between the entrepreneurs, complete with power-ups and near death experiences.

Equally disappointing was the dearth of character development or interesting relationships. The hero, Kimimaro, could (and should) have been far more ambiguous. Had the writers had the courage to do so, they could have presented us with a much more disturbing scenario. If the relationships were drawn so they really mattered, then the losses that occur would have been far more moving. As it was, my reaction to the victims of the dealing was cerebral rather than emotional.

Kimimaro's relationships with his alluring asset, Mashu, and his schoolfriend, Hanabi, are woefully underdeveloped. I would love to see a serious treatment in anime of a sexual relationship between a human and an alien creature. What I’ve seen so far is either comedy fodder or, when taken seriously, such as Blue Submarine No. 6, the writers shy away from any risky exploration. In short, I wish Kimimaro had slept with Mashu. The writers could, alternatively or additionally, have pushed the friendship between Kimimaro and Hanabi. Just imagine the possibilities then if his dealing caused her to vanish.

Basically, this was a story with the possibility of lots of soul, but blew it badly. Rating: so-so.
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EmbraceMe



Joined: 17 Dec 2010
Posts: 2013
Location: Growing old and jaded.
PostPosted: Thu Aug 04, 2011 9:00 pm Reply with quote
I just bought Gantz and Ghost in the Shell: SAC today so I'm planning to watch them sometime. Hopefully I'll be able to use the television at home but I can't rely on that since my grandmother uses it most of the time. If not I'll rely on my laptop or that portable DVD player my dad bought years ago. I also saw the first season of Darker Than Black Blu-ray on sale for $55, which I wanted to buy... but I felt like it was a bit expensive. Ga-Rei-Zero was also on sale, but my wallet was crying. Ah, so many series, I wanted to buy! So little cash...

Other than the series mentioned above... I've been slacking on simulcasts which I need to pick up on. I've watched several hentai series which all made me laugh for some reason. I'm planning to buy the Evangelion series and movies so I won't be behind the human race in watching the series. I'm getting a huge backlog of anime to watch at the pace I'm watching them. Too much free time but not used properly.

I don't think I've even been watching anything other than simulcasts...
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Animaniac007



Joined: 03 Aug 2011
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 1:04 am Reply with quote
simmeh wrote:
I just blew through the first 64 episodes of Bleach over the past two weeks, and I have to ask: when exactly does the decline in quality start to really become noticeable? I've heard from a lot of people that the show just becomes pretty bad at a certain point, so I'd kind of like to know when a good stopping point is - preferably one that has a some sort of closure. I don't really plan on slogging all the way through to the most current episode, so if there's a good place to just stop watching and feel like I'm not really missing anything, I'd love to hear it.

As for the series itself, it's not too bad. I feel like it kinda went overboard on the characters once the real meat of the Soul Society arc started, and the filler/flashback episodes were kind of annoying when all I wanted to know was what happened next, but it wasn't awful. I guess the first episode wasn't a really great indication of what was to come.

Other than that, I'm still picking at Kimagure Orange Road. At episode 23 now, but it's still slow going. It's beginning to feel formulaic, and the sub I'm watching is pretty bad - sometimes three or four lines in a row will be untranslated. I'll finish it eventually, but I keep getting distracted by flashy action anime.


In reference to Bleach, I just kind of skipped over the fillers (just go to wikipedia and you'll see where the fillers start). The series isn't bad, the fight scenes are animated pretty well and the story does pick up. Seasons 4, 9 and 13 are all fillers (I'm pretty sure) so feel free to skim through those.
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Animaniac007



Joined: 03 Aug 2011
Posts: 13
PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 1:08 am Reply with quote
I'm currently watching One Piece, Bleach, & Naruto Shippuden. I just finished Code Geass (both seasons), FMA Brotherhood (rewatch). I was considering Requiem from the Darkness but I saw the trailer and I was like, "HELL NO, this looks way too scary." I dropped Fairy Tail but I think I'll give it a second go. Someone compared it to Soul Eater and I am a huge Soul Eater fan so, I'll give it a shot.
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BoredGeek



Joined: 04 Aug 2011
Posts: 2
PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 3:40 am Reply with quote
I'm watching Usagi Drop at the moment. Its very simple and sweet, I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm also really liking Kamisama no Memochou. It kind of filled in the spot left by Gosick when that finished. Both shows have a similar premise but they are different enough that I still find Kamisama no Memochou interesting.

Besides those my main favourite show at the moment is Urusei Yatsura. I'm trying to go back and check out some of the retro classics that I missed, and I'm really enjoying the old school art style and its interesting to watch a show that helped establish so many of the tropes used in more modern anime. Might write something about it on my blog at some point.

The only other show I'm really into at the moment is Blue Exorcist. I'm not normally a fan of that type of Shonen anime, but the show has me hooked. Its just kinda... Cool for lack of a better term.
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DieHardBleachFan



Joined: 05 Oct 2007
Posts: 277
PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 1:41 pm Reply with quote
Haven't been able to watch a lot lately, but the final installment of FMA: Brotherhood arrived yesterday, so I was able to finish that off.

All I can say is: Wow. So good and such a satisfying ending! I loved every minute of it from beginning to end. I'm a huge fan of the original FMA and have it rated as Excellent on my list, but Brotherhood completely exceeded my expectations and I'll most likely give it a rating of Masterpiece.
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egoist



Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 7762
PostPosted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 4:28 pm Reply with quote
Broken Blade 6 re-watch.

God, I just noticed it now, but is this really meant to be the ending? I haven't been disappoint for a while. Argh. ARGH.
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