Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
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supercreep
 Posts: 526 |
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I'm aware of the kind of shenanigans the manga unfortunately gets up to. No, I agree that Rin's arc wraps up nicely. However, spoiler[her biological mother, goes nowhere.] So much so that it bothers me that she was in it at all. I'm not saying that I would have liked soap-opera style drama, but she was used too often for what amounted to nothing. The relationship between Daikichi and the mother, whose name I can't recall, also went nowhere.
I found the series moving, and I enjoyed the characters. You could easily argue that those other characters don't matter as much, and they don't. As I originally stated, I was unsure of how to critique this show. If it were a live-action film (I know one now exists) I wouldn't have bothered with it. For me, it exists in a unique space because it's animated. If it were in any other medium, I would not have watched it. Pretending for the moment that the manga does not exist, I think the series would have benefited from more episodes that weren't so sticky sweet. By all intents and purposes, Rin is the perfect child. It presents a unique and realistic situation in an idealized way, and I feel that robes it of some of its power. I was certainly affected by it, and I found that it was a pleasurable way to pass the time. Edit: I did think that some relationships were handled deftly, with the appropriate amount of maturity, such as the situation with spoiler[Daikichi's cousin.] Daikichi and Rin make a great pair, but I expected more. Perhaps my own fault. |
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zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
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Man, I hate it when things were going so well then the ending disappoints big time. Actually, the entire second half of Blassreiter was less interesting than the first half, which had me quite absorbed. It went with a more generic route than the first half and just wasn't as interesting. Then the ending was rushed and bs imo, so yeah, I ended up overall disappointed, though I think the first half was well worth my time. It's just a shame the whole show wasn't like the first half. I can see why it's a SAVE title, I wouldn't be willing to pay full price.
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
 Posts: 1393 |
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The past few months have basically been me finally watching really praised works that I've never gotten around to seeing. Right now I'm alternating between Spice & Wolf and Gankutsuou. Right now i'm 5 episodes into S&W, and liking it more with each episode. Gankutsuou, I'm still not sure about, but I've heard such great things about it that I'm willing to give it a chance.
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supercreep
Posts: 526 |
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Gankutsou is great, but the ending is inane. Spice and Wolf has become one of my favorites. |
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RGaspar
 Posts: 236 |
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Did you see Neon Genesis Evangelion? You're going to hate that one for sure 
Don't know about Gankutsuou, but S&W is really something. It happened to me that, while I liked the show when I saw it, it didn't strike me as something that good. But, after a few months down the road I started to like it more and more, I should rewatch it sometime soon. It has some unique qualities, like for example, restraining the fan-service a lot and having one of the most mature anime couples I have seen so far. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5505 Location: Mexico |
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Finished Saikano. Rated it Masterpiece.
I was completely taken aback by the straightforwardness of it all. The show has two basic premises that have no explanation at all and you're just supposed to swallow them whole: spoiler[that Japan is in war and that Chise is the ultimate weapon to fight in it]. None of them are ever explained, and I was completely fine with that. Moreover, I thought it gave the show a special mood, like a testament on the irrationalit of war and life itself, and that explaining it would have ruined it. The other thing I found incredibly compelling in this show was all the raw emotion in it. The deep and intense feelings shown by all the characters, their profound devotion towards each other. There are many examples of these because all the main characters display this sort of emotion: spoiler[Atsushi, going to war to feel like he's doing something for the girl he loves, Akemi dying in Shuji's arms while confessing her love, Tetsu agonizing while longing for his wife] Of course Shuuji and Chise take the cake, both to show the irrationality of war -spoiler[in the form of Chise's weaponization]- and the strength of human emotions and will. The last minutes,spoiler[ with Chise fighting off the invaders and the world coming to its final destruction while Shuuji screamed his lungs off to show his determination to live] were undescribably beautiful. Then I watched the Saikano OVA: Another Love Song. I approached it with caution, since I thought the series was already perfect and complete, and had no idea of what these OVA could bring to it. Tbh, I don't even know what the point of these OVA is. It seems like a pitiful attempt to milk more money off the franchise. They appeared to be trying to explain the war and Chise's condition, which imho, doesn't add to the series, but deters from it. When I watched the series, I felt like not explaining the war and just shoving the spoiler["Chise is the ultimate weapon, deal with it" in our faces, was a move to speak of how there is no reason or logic in war, shit just happens -this was emphasized by that guy who kept repeating "It couldn't be helped. It was nobody's fault"-]. Giving it a background and introducing the prototype weapon made no sense at all. Also, her "relationship" with spoiler[Tetsu and how the scene of his death is modified so as to have him use the lighter she returned to him, spoils the original scene in which he goes away crying, begging for the pain to end, wishing for nothing but his wife's warmth. I don't know if I can describe it appropriately, but I just felt like the tragic and horrible beauty of his dead was spoilt for the sake of forcing another love story into these OVA] Ultimately, it didn't feel like there was any point to them. Mspoiler[izuki's existence is made to be the one that motivates Chise's finally returning to Shuuji, when it was Tetsu's death that triggered it.] I felt like they pissed on Tetsu for the sake of giving some sort of role to the new character |
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clawfinger
 Posts: 38 Location: Illinois |
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Just finished Zegapain which was a pain to watch for the most part. Next up is some movies including Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Kikis Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke.
Reason for all three is that they are generally regarded to be very good. |
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Scytalle
 SubscriberPosts: 53 |
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Just finished Asobi ni Ikuyo or Cat Planet Cuties. Wasn't a huge fan of the show, which is surprising considering I have a weak spot for catgirls. I'm fairly certain the male lead ruined any potential the show had for me, but I wasn't particularly taken with the harem cast either.
And I think I know why the catgirls didn't do it for me Who thought that was a good idea? Ever since I noticed that they have two sets of ears, I couldn't stop thinking about it. |
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zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
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I don't normally fall asleep right after watching something. Or use it as an aid to fall asleep. I'm sure most of us do not, but damn was Amon Saga boring. I was expecting something terrible, like Garzey's Wing style of incompetence, but sadly, it's not bad enough to be funny, which is a shame as that was my goal in watching this. Now, it's certainly incompetent, no plot points are really explained, stuff happens for no reason, and although there are plenty of scenes of incompetent animation, it's usually not to the degree that it's hilarious. And sadly, most of the voice acting is....somewhat competent, there is the king guy who talks in hilarious fragments, but everyone else is serviceable. Inexplicably, Lt Yamamoto's English VA has a role (that of course sounds like Yamamoto), so he's fine (if rather miscast imo)
But yeah, I'm disappointed, I wanted something hilariously awful, I just got something awful. Not to way to go for so bad it's good by a long shot. Though I am always fascinated to see old Manga Ent. advertising that their older DVDs tend to have (back when DVDs were shiny and new, so they copy and pasted their VHS ads onto the DVD), I find those are cool in a retro sorta way. And it also makes me look at what people could buy back then and go "well Giant Robo, Macross Plus, a few others, but my, it's mostly piles of garbage, did those poor people really buy some of these and convince themselves it wasn't bad for lack of other anime?" yeah, the VHS era of anime actually fascinates me. Oh I should mention that the DVD transfer was hilariously bad. Not even on early anime DVDs do I normally see transfers that bad, this was kinda special in that way. And there was this "character and cast" thing at the end where it showed a small clip and said who played them, I found that funny and strange. Because clearly that was something I was dying to know at the end, right? And I've never seen one of those on an anime before. Glad I merely fast forwarded through the credits and didn't just go back to the menu and fall asleep. |
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ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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Since there's been a bit of flurry of discussion of Fantastic Children on the Retail thread (and it's been strongly recommended by classicalzawa) I decided to make that the next choice from my significant physical backlog (each title of which I'm really excited about, which makes it both hard and easy to choose!).
What a great show. I'm six episodes in now, and there's so much to enjoy here. The pacing is deliberate, but in a good way. I feel as if I'm steeping in the world of the story in a way that reminds me of old adventure classics like Nadia and Conan Future Boy. (I hope it's not just that the action so far is set on a tropical island. I hope I'm not that shallow. But maybe!) I'm also finding it quite intriguing, and there's an effectively creepy moment every episode or two. |
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zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
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^I've got a pretty big physical backlog too, suuucks! I often use a random number generator to pick one out if I'm being wishy washy.
As for Fantastic Children, most people (me included) find the first half rather slow (at least on the first watch, the second watch I was noticing little things here and there everywhere though), but then the second half (after a skippable recap that starts with a few minutes of new footage) is much faster paced, which is when it turns officially awesome. Also, if I have to pick a series it's most similar to, it's Please Save My Earth, which only ever got a 6 ep OVA. Anyway, since I was not being wishy washy with my ptw physical backlog, I started S-CRY-ed, a series name which I still don't understand after disc 1. So far I'm enjoying it well enough, and the one guy, whose name is Straight Cougar (I love it when Japanese people try to give characters interesting names using random English words) is quite hilariously awesome so far (which I hope continues). I do like how the powers are pretty random so far, I see why TVTropes compared it to X-Men in a way. Also, soooo many Digimon voices are here in the dub cast, and that makes me so damn happy! It's like I'm hearing Ken and Kari for sure, and I looked online, plenty of other voices I'm not detecting (or haven't appeared yet) and omg, Joe's VA is in this! So yeah, I do look forward to putting disc 2 in. |
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Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
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ailblentyn
Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
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@ classicalzawa
If FC gets better, all the greater! As I said I'm actually enjoying the pacing so far. And now I'm acclimatised to the world, I'll be ready for some action and answers in a few episodes' time. Similarities to PSME, eh?! Apart from the reincarnation/eternal-recurrence theme, it seems so different. I'll be interested to see how that plays out. Fantastic. I love watching something really good. (And I deserve it after suffering through Shikabane Hime and the first half of Our Home's Fox Deity...) |
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OldPilot
 Posts: 16 |
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I'm watching "Hajime No Ippo - New Challenger". I am getting back into anime after a little break. I was only watching what I could find on Netflix.. I saw this suggested to somebody else and found it.
It is decent so far. I enjoy North American boxing movies so an anime about boxing could work right?! Being an anime the fights are over the top and filled with special techniques. Though some of these special moves(shoryuken!) are a little absurd. I have heard some people talk about Mike Tyson using the "Jail-House Rock" though. The faces of the female characters in this anime can be a little ugly. Aoki's girlfiend is a troll.. I think I am around episode 15. I'll finish it. |
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Thatguy3331
 Posts: 1790 |
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Recently saw the first few episodes of Black Lagoon! My impression? JUST AS BADASS AS THEY WERE SAYING!! I rented the first disk but now I'm gonna be out on a manhunt to buy the whole series for my collection, its DEFINETLY worth the money to me (which as far as I'm concerned, thats the best rating I give to any series I watch)
And so I take a break from guns and missles to the face to rent out... spoiler[Madagascar 3...cause I never saw it and acctually heard some decent things from it...] After that however... spoiler[Girl who leapt through time!] |
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