Forum - View topicWhat are you watching right now? Why? (please read 1st post)
|
Goto page Previous Next |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
EricJ
 Posts: 876 |
|
||
|
Currently going through my second "Sampler" week of first episodes on a free month of Hulu Plus, and some of the series look good enough that I might extend it to a free month of Crunchyroll.
(Still, I'll miss the fact that Hulu Plus has the first three seasons of The Bob Newhart Show, Lost in Space, current Daily Show updates and the complete ALFTales series.  )
Continuing on with other first impressions: - Stein's Gate - So, I missed the thread, what was everyone getting into the big fan-hissy about? Yes, it's bludgeoning us a bit with "artsiness", but the mix of the main character and the mindbending plot seems to come off as "What if Welcome to the NHK really had been about a geeky (self-)delusional paranoid who might be right, before it turned snotty?" Which is what I'd hoped to see the first time. - Is This a Zombie? - I admit, I cringed and was about to bail on the series after Cute Chainsaw Girl showed up: I'd just sampled Shakugan no Shana, and wondered whether the Japanese male teen mix of chainsaws, self-frustration and gynophobia had led to an overabundant subgenre surplus of what I refer to as "I Owe My Soul to the Company Store" series--Where Geeky Teen Meets Badass Demon-Hunter Girl, dies, and finds himself stuck on a short dog-leash of life-support contract...Eh, Princess Resurrection still retired the jersey  But then, by the time we get a slightly silly monster and magical-girl parodies in the second half battle, I began to suspect this show might not be taking itself all that seriously.  Might stick around to see what happens.
- From the New World - Because Hulu puts the most current episode up first, I accidentally started watching the first half of the last episode by mistake, and had no idea what was going on. Realizing my mistake, I went back and watched the first episode from the beginning. And had no idea what was going on. - A Certain Magical Index - I can take the overwritten plot, I can take the "loser" hero who's even more of a sad-sack than UY's first-season Ataru, and I can take the cringing attempts to mix magic with Japanese unawareness of Catholic icons...But spare me the cute, fang-toothed bottomless-stomach Psycho Pet-Girl who keeps losing her clothes. Either it's cute or it's epically overwritten, pick one. - Kokoro Connect - I liked the idea that it was going to take an overused idea (they even say "We switched bodies, like in the manga!"), and do a laid-back, slice-of-life character-oriented take on it. Although when it happens in one scene, the supporting lesbian-gag-character girl immediately comes in, and the scene immediately switches to Panicky Farce, it seems to stick out from the episode like a sore thumb. Hopefully that was just an accident that got away. |
|||
|
|||
supercreep
 Posts: 526 |
|
||
|
Jin-Roh
A stunning piece of work. I sat on this for so long, and finally picked up the low-priced JP blu-ray release not too long ago. As far as I'm concerned, it should be considered required viewing for any serious anime fan. Without getting into a serious, thread-derailing discussion, I 'll simply rate it. Excellent. From the New World I honestly don't know to rate this. For me to consider something to be a masterpiece, it has to be re-watchable, hit several emotional highs, resonate with me in a meaningful way, and make me want to share it with everyone. While this one is probably too dark for the last point, it easily hits all of the others. I hesitate to rate it as a masterpiece simply because I dislike rating something so high on first viewing. For me, it was the strongest thing this season, and easily a top-tier series for me overall. A cream of the crop situation. For now, I can simply say that I totally enthralled. |
|||
|
|||
zawa113
 Posts: 7358 |
|
||
|
Ugh, I think I'm just going to have to drop Intrigue in the Bakumatsu, making it the second Ryosuke Takahashi series I've dropped and I normally adore the guy (Panzer World Galient was just the perfect definition of "boring" because Hilmuka wasn't the main. Seriously, the show had centaur mecha and was still boring, you have to try really hard to accomplish that). I find Bakumatsu incredibly difficult to follow though. See, I am not familiar with history, and the series' tendency to info dump on war information when I don't know what side to be rooting for, or even which side I'm looking at, is a major issue. The other, main plot is Akizuki following some evil skull or something that makes his eyes glow blue, but that's just not well developed enough for it to hold my interest over war stuff that I don't understand. I really do think that Ryosuke Takahashi needs to have mechs in things and make scifi series and never try to make another samurai show again. Speaking of which, since I'm also watching Fang of the Sun Dougram and it's several thousand times better, it's even harder to go back to Bakumatsu. Dougram involves lots of war and politic things too, but because it's all fantasy, sides and stuff are much better explained while I feel like Bakumatsu is expecting me to know a lot of this stuff and I just don't, I suck at Japanese history any time before WW2 so I don't tend to like series that expect me to know any major history (Basilisk merely used it as a backdrop/stupid way to explain why everyone was a super powered ninja and didn't want me to know much other than "new shogun needs to be decided", so it was fine). So yeah, I think I'm going to drop this, which is a shame because I bought it on the basis that it's Ryosuke Takahashi, but if anyone is interested in my barely used DVD sets, drop me a pm!
|
|||
|
|||
Mister V
 Posts: 1000 |
|
||
|
I suppose a redeeming feature of being a slowpoke is that you get to swallow series whole.
I completely missed the whole Sword Art Online buzz, - well, I heard the buzz, but wasn't really interested then. Boy, am I glad I succumbed to friends' nagging and watched it. It's a pure kind of enjoyment that I haven't felt since the first days of watching anime. It's not like it's too original or anything, but it's definitely more than the sum of its parts, and most importantly it does fanservice right (proper relationship, proper ending, screw ambiguity). I may not have been dancing around the room like at the time of Steins;Gate episode 25 (that's simply unbeatable), but damn if I wasn't completely taken by this. Love the amount of work that went into Asuna, she really made it all worth it. Yes, it's unfortunate that the second part really was weaker, but as a whole, this is quality escapism, this reminds me that some anime is actually still worth watching. |
|||
|
|||
|
zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
|
||
|
I'm starting to think I'm the only person who hasn't gone gaga over Natsume's Book of Friends. I don't hate it, I'm just not wowed by it. I am in season 2 though because I bought the set, but I think I'd be ok without buying the season 3 set at this point. It is quite similar to Mushishi, but I preferred Mushishi's supernatural aspects more. Natsume also seems to want to be both drama and slice of life, but Mushishi is far better in the drama aspect for sure. Maybe I just don't like slice of life all that much actually, Aria didn't do much for me either.
Which isn't to say that I don't like episodic stuff as I also watched the first 3 episodes of Lupin the III season 1, aka the green jacket season that Discotek put out. But man, the first thing I gotta say about this is that the music is often distractingly 70s. Though nothing can beat the insert song, sung in English, that sayss "Lupin the III, he's a nice guy. He smiles. He's groovy" and it was probably cool in Japan, but oh man, it's hilariously awful for Americans and native English speakers. Other than the music (and especially the insert song and OP), I am quite enjoying it. I actually think it's better animated than the 80s season 2, oddly enough. I don't know if it's because it's been almost certainly remastered or what, but there's a lot less wiggle on the film that's common to cel animated anime. You can tell there are times when they had to conserve budget, sure, but they did it in pretty good places for the most part and when it needs to look good, it looks better than the 80s series. Yeah, by today's standards it's not super, but for the time, it's one of the better looking series I think I've seen. And so far, the stories have been interesting. I wouldn't say "fun" is the word I'm looking for (except on the first one), but interesting and enjoyable to watch? Yes. It could be that Zenigata, the butt monkey who tends to lend some fun to the 80s series, has only been in the first ep so far though. Also, Goemon has yet to make an appearance, but he shows up in the intro, so he must show up at some point, hopefully soon. I was starting to freak out that he wouldn't be in this series, but....soon. |
|||
|
|||
ailblentyn
 Posts: 1688 Location: body in Ohio, heart in Sydney |
|
||
|
I'm a third of the way through Macross, and enjoying every minute. (Though warnings about uneven animation have been vindicated. Every so often I say "Whoa! What?" as some familiar character becomes a crude felt-marker version of themself, and then switches back.)
I'm just loving the story. It's really interesting. And as a bonus the theme of Minmei spoiler[drifting away from Ichijo] is poignant and relatable. And the idea of Protoculture just has me stroking my (non-existent) beard and pondering: a "natural culture", as it were — What a necessary and problematic myth! |
|||
|
|||
|
Cativo
Posts: 15 |
|
||
Watched it on Hulu and now I want that BD! I'm not watching anything at the moment but I should finish Black Lagoon since I have the box set... |
|||
|
|||
rheiders
 Posts: 1137 Location: Colorful Colorado :) |
|
||
|
The first time I watched Princess Mononoke was several years ago, and it wasn't exactly under great conditions. I had checked out an old (read: crappy) copy from the local library to watch while I was home sick. I was barely coherent because I was sick, and I had to keep the TV way down because there was some contractor or something over to meet with my parents. I was too busy getting embarrassed at the "weird" parts and straining to hear the dialogue to really get it.
Tonight, now that I am a bit older and more environmentally conscious, I was able to watch it on a big projector screen with other students from the foreign language department. I was not sick this time and I walked in with a lot more information and insight on the movie than I had the first time around. All I can say is...wow. This movie is a true masterpiece. Though I still like Spirited Away slightly more, this will be nestled in safely as my second-favorite Ghibli film. Few fantasy works are able to create a truly epic scale, and this one does. It stays focused on just a few characters and one conflict, but it feels so huge. I think I can give the credit here to the art and music. The backgrounds are incredible; I can't believe I didn't notice that before. The three years of work (and sixteen years of planning) it took to make this movie really shows. I also love the complexity of this film--nobody is truly good or truly evil, and unlike Nausicaa, a film which I recognize as good but which leaves me very cold personally, it doesn't demonize either side. Both sides are just trying to survive, and in the end, humans aren't their own "side" anyway--they are a part of nature, no matter how much they deny it. And nature will always go on. I hated San the first time I watched this movie. I thought she was immature, impulsive, and lying to herself. I still think this about her, because it's true, but this time I understood her feelings. I don't necessarily like her, but I feel like I get her. I also disliked Moro the first time around. I don't know what my problem was there. It's angry and cynical, yeah, but it has every right to be! Moro is awesome. I thought Ashitaka was boring at first, but he's actually an incredibly complex character. He serves the important role of being an outsider to this conflict--the one person who can see the interdependence between the two factions and realizes how dangerous and pointless their war really is. The one character on whom my opinion hasn't changed is Eboshi. She remains one of my favorite female characters in anime, and my favorite Ghibli girl. I think I've gushed enough for now, so I'll end with one last little note...My favorite character is Yakul, that elk thing Ashitaka rides around on. I guess there is one thing Studio Ghibli and Disney have in common--the animals are always the best characters! xD |
|||
|
|||
Knoepfchen
 Posts: 698 |
|
||
|
Another round of Samurai Champloo ended for me yesterday. While I do think there are some inconsistencies in quality, plot and my own personal emotional engagement between individual episodes, I really enjoy this show tremendously. It is, at its high points, unbelievably funny, the action and fight sequences are a delight to look at, and when the tone shifts towards a more sentimental note every once in a while, I get those Bebop vibes that make me all melancholic inside. Which is very nice.
The anime and its characters are pretty much the definition of cool, and yet there are no problems to get me emotionally invested. The 3 episode finale especially is incredibly well paced and done, with each of the main characters spoiler[coming to terms with their pasts], without overdoing things or getting too cliché. Also: Most epic shirtless entrance ever. The fangirl inside me is most pleased. 
|
|||
|
|||
Aylinn
 Posts: 1684 |
|
||
I think it is best not to compare these two while watching. As you said, they have both supernatural aspects, but if you think about it, they are also quite different. That's probably because they are aimed towards different audiences. Mushishi was published in a seinen magazine and Natsume's Book of Friends is published in a shoujo magazine, so it focuses more on the main character’s feelings and his development: opening up, gaining self-confidence, etc. When I was watching it, I approached it as an unconventional shoujo. |
|||
|
|||
|
zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
|
||
|
@Aylinn
I'm not trying to compare it as I watch it, but it just keeps coming up due to the setting. But my main problem with Natsume is that I'm not finding much to engage me. It's not really challenging me enough when I think it's trying to, when I was done an ep of Mushishi, it left me thinking "Wow", but I'm not really getting that here. And for an episodic series like this, I think it should be. I'm not really digging the characters either, I don't dislike them, they just aren't growing on me well enough. It's leaving me overall feeling average, not a waste of time, but for me, nothing special. As for the unconventional shojo aspect, well most of my favorite shojo are unconventional shojo. Banana Fish reads more like a seinen than a shojo. But also Princess Tutu, Basara, Please Save My Earth, I love unique shojo, but this feels more like a watered down seinen than a shojo to me is my other problem. Banana Fish felt full on seinen is the difference there. Again, I don't hate it, it's just nothing special for me. I'll totally hang on to my premium edition until it's OOP and then sell it, hehehe! |
|||
|
|||
|
rheiders
Posts: 1137 Location: Colorful Colorado :) |
|
||
|
@classicalzawa
I'm also in the Natsume-loving camp, but I think you'll find a kindred spirit in Justin. He talked about it briefly on an ANNcast a while ago and it sounded like his reaction was largely, "Eh." You say it's not challenging you when it's trying to, but I don't think it's trying to *challenge* anyone. It's a very gentle, sweet story about friendship and overcoming loneliness and I don't think it ever tries to be more ambitious than that. It's a very subdued approach and certainly won't work for everyone. The reasons I attached to it so hard are the art style, which I love, and the fact that I relate to Natsume quite a bit. The gently nostalgic, wistful mood Midorikawa-sensei creates is nice too. ("Nice" may be the best word to describe this show, actually xD) Beyond that, it's a well-made show with a lot of sincerity behind it so it makes sense why it's popular (well...there's another reason it's popular, but let's not get into that >.>), but I don't think it's for everyone. As a side note, I wouldn't compare it to Mushishi (another favorite of mine) at all, since it is a kids' series. And it feels like pure shoujo to me xD A bit different from the norm, perhaps, because of its male protagonist and lack of romance, but still pretty shoujo, for better or for worse. |
|||
|
|||
|
zawa113
Posts: 7358 |
|
||
|
Well, by "challenge", I didn't mean in a Serial Experiments Lain sort of "try to follow the plot" sense or an Utena "decipher these piles of symbolism" sense. I more meant here's a story about something, you should reflect on it sense. I just didn't find the stories as sincere or thought provoking as something like Mushishi when I find it's asking to elicit that from me is my main issue. For example, I watched the 45 minute short Hotarubi no Mori e, which left us with spoiler[the half spirit boy accidentally touching a human child and disappearing], and I think that tugged at my heart strings more than any Natsume story has thus far. Seeing as how they're the same mangaka, I wish that Natsume made me feel like Hotarubi a little more often. Or maybe, if you're a Doctor Who fan, the series 1 two party "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances" ending where spoiler[for once, "everybody lives" and the nanomachines repair people correctly] and the look on Eccleston's face in that finale, especially after so many bittersweet at best, depressing at worse previous episodes, so it doesn't need to be a sad ending necessarily, I just wanted Natsume to challenge me with eliciting that sort of emotional response, be it happy or sad. I might indeed be asking the series to do something it wasn't meant to, but it keeps hinting to me anyway that that's what it wants from me, but I've just seen it done better is all. With Aria, I got the sense more often that I'm simply to sit and enjoy the ride, but I'm finding Natsume a bit foggier on that request.
|
|||
|
|||
|
Aylinn
Posts: 1684 |
|
||
|
@classicalzawa
I see I thought that looking at the show from a different perspective may help, but it seems that our tastes are different, since I enjoyed Hotarubi no Mori e, Mushishi and the two episodes story from Doctor Who as much as Ntasume and I find the way the show tries to elicit emotions well-done and the emotions themselves genuine, but as rheiders said, Natsume's Book of Friends's approach is very subdued and won't work for everyone. |
|||
|
|||
|
Knoepfchen
Posts: 698 |
|
||
|
Just saw Children who chase lost Voices and thought it was a fantastic movie. The pacing was fantastic, I was 100% emotionally engaged from minute one to curtain call, it was absolutely beautifully animated, and I will certainly buy the blu ray. What a great movie. Still drying my tears.
|
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group