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


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CrowLia



Joined: 24 Feb 2012
Posts: 5500
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 2:32 am Reply with quote
Finished both San and Shi of Natsume Yuujinchou, which means I finally finished the whole of the series. Since I can't say any of the four seasons was inferior to the others I rated them all Masterpiece and got done with it. This show is damn beautiful in so many aspects. Visually it's soft and pleasing to the eye, the characters are charming and the stories are touching. More than a handful of episodes had me all teary-eyed, especially the last ones of S4 spoiler[with Natsume visiting his childhood home and crying for the lost memories of his father]. Even though the supposed main plot "Natsume giving the names back" gets thinner by every passing season; the stories, and Natsume's growing relationships with the people around him -notably with Natori and Tanuma- and his constant realization of how he has found a place where he is loved and can be happy are very fulfilling to watch. I enjoyed every minute of it.

I've also finally started watching Kuroko no Basuke. I'd caught up with the manga since December and I wanted to watch the anime's first season before S2 airs in Fall. I think animation is the best that could have happened to this story. Not only are the games incredibly exciting -I just finished the first major game of spoiler[Seirin vs Kaijo]- but the voices and screaming make wonders for it. Kuroko's seiyuu is particularly perfect, he's got the deadpanned tone completely nailed and has me constantly laughing at the most silly of jokes. I'm looking forward to all upcoming matches and the excitement that comes with them. Also, my fujoshi senses are tingling so hard I fear they might break.

Did I mention I love this series?
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Tris8



Joined: 30 Oct 2009
Posts: 2114
Location: Where the rain is.
PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 1:25 pm Reply with quote
Finished my first rewatch of Angel Beats! and upgraded its rating to excellent. I really liked it the first time around but loved it the second time around. The biggest difference is that during my first watch-through, I found the whole last episode over-the-top with the crying and drama. It was sad but I couldn't help rolling my eyes. This second watch-through I had a much deeper connection with the characters and the last episode really hit me. In fact, now I don't know why I was holding such a grudge against the last episode. Sure, the spoiler[singing of the school song and the whole graduation ceremony was a bit much], but they had been through so much it makes sense they wanted a bit of normalcy. Maybe watching it in dub instead of sub helped make the difference for me.

IIRC this is only my 2nd time ever upgrading a series' rating after rewatching.
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Chagen46



Joined: 27 Jun 2010
Posts: 4377
PostPosted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 9:55 pm Reply with quote
Senki Zesshou Symphogear episode 1 down!

I'm probably the only person on this forum who would think Hibiki Lunar Exalted at the end there, but she totally did. It looked like a Solar but it fits a Lunar much better.

EDIT: Christ Almighty this show is like an anime musical and I LOVE EVERY SECOND OF IT. Please tell me the whole "singing while doing awesome shit" stays throughout the whole show.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15433
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Wed Jul 03, 2013 12:01 am Reply with quote
Chagen46 wrote:
Senki Zesshou Symphogear episode 1 down!

I'm probably the only person on this forum who would think Hibiki Lunar Exalted at the end there, but she totally did. It looked like a Solar but it fits a Lunar much better.

EDIT: Christ Almighty this show is like an anime musical and I LOVE EVERY SECOND OF IT. Please tell me the whole "singing while doing awesome shit" stays throughout the whole show.

Indeed it does, the whole idea of fighting and stuff while singing seemed ridiculous until I saw that series and AKB0048, but it can really work. There are some good songs in there too.
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Mr Adventure



Joined: 14 Jul 2008
Posts: 1598
PostPosted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 1:43 am Reply with quote
Spontaneously started watching Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector on Crunchyroll, after reading a news item about a new SRW game coming out and doing a bunch of research.

The show is dumb, and fan-servicey.

But something about it is just... fun. I think it has to do with watching to see how many mecha franchises they are referencing with their 'Original Designs'.

Reading the comments on Crunchyroll a lot of viewers seems to complain about not understanding the plot. They must have never watched a Mecha anime before in their lives. Personally I'm feeling rewarded due to all the mashing up going on, and playing 'spot the homage'.

That all being said... apparently this is a sequel series. To Super Robot Wars OG: Divine Wars, which I have not seen. And while I'm really good at picking up on story bits, and filling in blanks. I wonder if maybe I should watch that first. Apparently Media Blasters is putting out a box set this month? That's a bit of a coincidence. Although The Inspector seems to dish out any relevant information I need to know, when I need to know it. So its not so bad.

Factions are at war on Earth, Aliens have attacked Earth, Aliens were repelled, Factions are at odds on trying to figure out how to best deal with the alien threat.

Not that complex really. Do hope the series climaxes with a massive team-up. Also would like to see pink boob wing mecha actually do something, it hasn't really done anything since being introduced in Episode 1. And now I'm on Episode 4.
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gingerninja666



Joined: 04 Jul 2013
Posts: 30
PostPosted: Thu Jul 04, 2013 5:49 pm Reply with quote
Rewatching Gurren Lagann with my friend.

Because he hates me. 0______0
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TheBeatlesPkmnFan42



Joined: 05 Jul 2013
Posts: 115
Location: Washington
PostPosted: Fri Jul 05, 2013 7:09 pm Reply with quote
I'm re-watching the entire Di Gi Charat franchise (all 5 series). As for why, I run a Di Gi Charat fansite over on Weebly, and I decided to type up reviews of the episodes, so I need to re-watch them to freshen up my memory to write the reviews.
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Errinundra
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Joined: 14 Jun 2008
Posts: 6516
Location: Melbourne, Oz
PostPosted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 12:51 am Reply with quote
The Garden of Sinners

Reason for watching: Because it is so highly regarded by so many and this:


Shiki standing proudly atop my anime collection.
As was the case with Sabre Lily and Fate / Stay Night,
I watched the series because I loved the figurine.


Synopsis: Although highschool girl Shiki has two complementary personalities residing within her body, her essential core is complete emptiness. This not only gives her a murderous disposition but also attracts the attention of various sorcerers and psycopaths who want to use her to their own ends. Happily, Shiki meets a schoolboy, Kokutou, who offers her unbounded, unqualified love, whatever her true self might be. Events leave her in a coma for years and when she awakens she discovers that one personality has died, which means that she has experienced death even though she still lives. This gives her the unique ability called (it's hard to keep a straight face while I type this) the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, enabling her to cut the lines of existence binding any living or inanimate thing. When a series of murders grips the city, Shiki's acquaintances begin to wonder if she is responsible.


Kokutou and his pre-coma Shiki harem of two. Or is it three?

Review: An achingly sad soundtrack from Yuki Kajiura and beautiful artwork - with many haunting images - elevate a typically densely themed but ridiculous Kinoku Nasu story from disposable to spellbinding. Indeed, one may have to go right back to Yoko Kanno's (another notable female anime composer) soundtrack to Cowboy Bebop to find an anime where music is so central to its success. The imagery also plays its part with the characteristic ufotable technique of monochrome scenes with contrasting highlights being used throughout. The animation itself isn't anything special but there isn't a lot of action so it doesn't really matter.

If you stop to ponder the details of any Nasuverse tale you should quickly find them absurd and confounding. The apparent indifference of the in-universe public to the supernatural mayhem taking place in their city needs to be ignored if the viewer wishes to suspend disbelief. Example: eight young women, in quick succession, throw themselves from a derelict high-rise apartment builiding. You'd think the police would post a patrol in the building after the first two or three. Or at least get the owners to switch off the lifts. But that's the Nasuverse for you: never let any detail get in the way of the plot requirements.

Another notable aspect of Garden of Sinners is the characterization, for both good and bad. It takes some time to warm to the central duo of the severe Shiki and tolerant Kokutou, but their story is complex and their journey difficult so, by the end of the series, I had become quite fond of them. And, besides, I'm a sucker for icy, violent women. Having said that, the central point of their relationship raises its own issues. Shiki's core is emptiness and it is Kokutou's boundless love for her that enables her to recreate a new personality. It may sound like love overcoming violence but, on another level, it's an example of the male desire to possess a woman according to his own imagination. Shiki isn't so much redeemed as created by Kokutou. My favourite anime redemption is Mireille Bouquet's in Noir (with its own marvellous Yuki Kajiura soundtrack) who, independent of any male, redeems herself and her female companion, Kirika, through her courageous pursuit of the truth. Not so with Garden of Sinners. You can add to the posistive side of the ledger Shiki and Kokutou's savvy boss (both as sorcerer and as private detective), Tokou, whose own scheming puts her at odds with the villains.


I love Shiki's many deadpan expressions.

I've never yet seen a worthwhile or vaguely realistic Type-Moon villain. It's as if they have an irresistable urge to turn all their villains into caricatures. Excess is a trademark of the Nasuverse but, due to their inability to provide nuance in the antagonists, they turn drama into theatre and, too frequently, even into melodrama. Just think of Souren Araya, Cornelius Alba and Lio Shirazumi - pathetically ridiculous creations, one and all. Thanks to those first two named villains I found film # 5 downright stupid. Garden of Sinners is always at its best when it is low key and atmospheric but their antics and their posturing just annoyed me. Things get even worse in film #6, which seems to be an attempt to bring a lighter tone to the otherwise unremittingly serious story but ends up coming across as unintended farce. Perhaps it is intended? Either way, it sits uncomfortably and unnecessarily in the sequence of films.


Spare me, please. Garden of Sinners has pretensions to be better than this.

Plotwise, Garden of Sinners is a dishonest series, with its jumbled sequence of events. The chronological order of the films is 2, 4, parts of 7, 3, 1, 5, 6, the rest of 7, and with end of episode snippets of the big bad Souren Araya that are meaningless without completing the entire series first. It doesn't play any pomo games the way the first season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya does. Nor does it provide multiple viewpoints to examine the characters the way Millenium Actress does. But, then Garden of Sinners isn't in their class. The jumbled order serves mainly to hide from the viewer crucial plot developments, that characters within the story are fully aware of, in order to enhance the apparent mystery. In other words much of the mystery is faked. It also serves to spread the most interesting developments between Shiki and Kokutou across the franchise.


Kokutou's sister in episode 6: it doesn't make any more sense when you know the context.

Rating: The upper end of Good. So why the rating, after all the canning? The music, the imagery and the character of Shiki have wormed their way into my imagination and won't go away. I'm spellbound. The main theme is constantly playing in my head (I'm not complaining - it's lovely), I'm keep playing favourite scenes (and studiously avoiding great swathes of garbage). Actually I find that the film I play the most is the first, as it'd the shortest, has the best music and some of the most memorable images, avoids many of the series shortcomings and spares us the villain until near the end.


Last edited by Errinundra on Thu Nov 09, 2017 12:11 am; edited 1 time in total
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Gewürtztraminer



Joined: 14 Nov 2007
Posts: 1028
Location: Texas - Its like whole other country.
PostPosted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:37 am Reply with quote
I am up to date on all the Nisa releases (Though, Natsume's Book of Friends Volume 4 is in transit).
Ano Hana was the final Nisa backlog for me. I had done a good job of avoiding spoilers and knowing little about the story, aside from the trailer. A very emotional series, in a good way.
A chance to properly say goodbye for all the characters involved is powerfully moving to the viewer.
I am interested in how a rewatch will work, now knowing the story, but I suspect I will enjoy it as much.

Have you ever watched something and had no clue how to rate it?
I blind bought Juden Chan, I wanted to see what Media Blasters was up to these days. Somehow I made it through the whole thing.
Normally when a female character is beaten with a baseball bat until she loses control of her bladder, and the actual wetting of the character is shown, I tend to turn the show off. For some reason, I could not look away. It kept happening over and over, and one of the characters actually started enjoying being clubbed and looking forward to it. I get that it is a cartoon, and these are beings depicted are from a different universe, but this went way over the top.
This could either be one of the most vile anime I have ever watched, or a very dark comedy. The fanservice leads me to believe it belongs in the vile trash camp.

I really need to stop blind buying things.
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zawa113



Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 7357
PostPosted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:15 pm Reply with quote
Is it spoilers to read about the history of the French Revolution? Cus I'm up to episode 15 of Rose of Versailles and certain things make me want to know more about them from an historic point. I mean, we kinda learned about the guillotine thing back in high school, and no I don't feel the need to put that in spoilers because does anyone put anything related to Pompeii in spoilers? No, we know that volcano is gonna blow. Now, I don't actually know how far the anime series will go into history here, there was a timeline in the little booklet with set 2, but I fear it may contain spoilers (because, unlike wikipedia, it will tell me more specific events that happen in the show). Speaking of that booklet, I just got set 2 in, so I now want to go on with watching it. The first disc ended nicely, I was afraid the others would not, leading me to want more now, but my set 2 came in yesterday, hooray! But yes, it's pretty damn awesome so far, I so wish I could get my hands on the manga too. I'm glad that so far, my squeals of glee upon seeing it licensed are so far warranted. But I've also heard that stuff gets heavy in set 2 and seeing how stuff is already getting pretty heavy in set 1, I simply cannot imagine. I shall hopefully finish it quite soon on the basis that it is freakin' awesome, RightStuf deserves a medal for getting this :3 Although some of the animation shortcuts they take, while noticeable, are still quite pretty, usually large collages they zoom out of. I also really like the backgrounds, they're gorgeous and put modern anime to shame if you ask me. That's one of the things I so love about cel animation, you can tell when something is a labor of love by everyone involved a lot easier than you can (or at least I can) for modern series. And then when you see something like Apocalypse Zero, you feel sorry for every one of those animators.
Anyhow, I want another disc of Patlabor TV before more Versailles methinks. Shower first though.
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Aylinn



Joined: 18 Nov 2006
Posts: 1684
PostPosted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 2:11 am Reply with quote
classicalzawa wrote:
Is it spoilers to read about the history of the French Revolution? Cus I'm up to episode 15 of Rose of Versailles and certain things make me want to know more about them from an historic point.

I recomend reading Stefan Zweig's biography of Marie Antoinette. This is the book that inspierd Ikeda. Smile
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Kelly



Joined: 17 Nov 2003
Posts: 868
Location: New York City
PostPosted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 5:37 am Reply with quote
classicalzawa wrote:
Is it spoilers to read about the history of the French Revolution? Cus I'm up to episode 15 of Rose of Versailles and certain things make me want to know more about them from an historic point.


Definitely not a spoiler as far as the historical characters go. I think the average person with basic knowledge of European history knows that things aren't going to end well for most of them and, in particular, that Oscar is going to ultimately fail in her mission. Since Part 1 is already laying out the perfect storm of the country's financial situation, the presence of people (in the form of Robespierre) opposed to the monarchy who know how to work up a crowd, and aspects of Louis and Antoinette's own personalities which led to disaster for them; I think it's safe to say that Part 2 is going to "go there".

The big question is going to be Oscar's fate - and to a lesser extent the handful of other fictional characters like Andre. The majority of the cast were real people who can easily be searched on the web if you want to know more about them. So while the French Revolution is not an obscure event and the fates of the major participants are widely known, I think you can safely discuss that without tagging but would, however, worry about spoiler tagging anything regarding Oscar and Andre's fates.

I'll be interested to see discussions once more of us see Part 2 in the coming weeks as we get our copies.
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Chiibi



Joined: 19 Dec 2011
Posts: 4828
PostPosted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:10 am Reply with quote
Starting Inuyasha season 5 because I can't stop now lol.
And started Toradora as it's been on my to-watch list for quite some time.
...........I can see why people love it. :>
Brand-new anime I'm following: Kamisama Inai Nichiyoubi, Blood Lad, InuxHasami and Rozen Maiden 2013.
These are all keepers so far....particularly the first two!!
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Mr. Oshawott



Joined: 12 Mar 2012
Posts: 6773
PostPosted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:46 pm Reply with quote
Started watching Ikkitousen not too long ago. Students from seven different schools are at war nonstop, fighting against one another to sharpen their martial arts. They carry earrings that contain the souls and fates of warriors from another era. A girl named Hakufu Sonsaku is destined to unite the seven schools, just as her counterpart united seven warring countries ages earlier. However, hidden within this destiny is an ominous prospect...

The first two episodes of this show went off to a slow start with some parts of fanservice, but the latter parts of them featured some seriously intense moments of battling. I think I'll grow to enjoy Ikkitousen as I go deeper into it. Cool Plus, the opening song from M.O.V.E. made the show all the more interesting to watch.
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TsunaReborn!



Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Posts: 4713
Location: Cheltenham UK
PostPosted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 2:06 pm Reply with quote
I am currently watching Waiting in the Summer which I brought on a bit of a whim. I went into the series not knowing anything about it other than them wanting to make a film. At first I though what the hell have I got myself into when it became known that Takatsuki spoiler[is an alien] but it has worked fairly well so far (3 1/2 episodes through).

This series has made me laugh out load a surprising amount and I am really enjoying the misunderstanding between all the characters which I normally find immensely irritating.

We will see how this pans out as it does have a potential to fall into a few traps of its genre. I also hope the characters don't start becoming too unnecessary because I enjoy how they all work together as of the point I am at.
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