General anime discussion thread

Morri said:

I am not happy to hear that. I would mind it less if from now on they released each season regularly within a reasonable amount of time. AOT was a huge hit when it first came out, and it doesn't make sense to me that they would wait so long if they had the material.

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Yeah, it doesn't make sense at all to us viewers, but I guess AOT will serve as a steady income for them for the next few years to come...

I hope it turns out to be split cour, but yeah, with Ancient Magus' Bride in the Fall and that being slated for two cours (if I heard right), I highly doubt AOT will return in the Fall. It also seems like they will be busy with a couple of movies, so I guess at most, we will have AOT again next year. ATM we only have the number of episodes (12) in the BluRays to go on it's one cour this year anyway, and that seems to be a confirmation. It seems to have a recap episode (making it 13 total), but I've honestly no idea why we'd need one for 12 episodes.

First episode was great! They did well making the death scene more horrifying than in the manga, I think. The ED was also something in itself... I kind of like the lyrics of it. As for Eren, I don't mind him either. Not my favorite character, but his tatakae has some sort of charm to me, as clichéd as it was.

When Eren's on screen I'm cheering for the Titans. Seriously. I dislike that sort of sound and fury.

I'm actually quite okay with Wit's marketing strategy, considering what Shuka is doing with its Brains Base left overs. I mean, I enjoy both Durarara and, especially, Natsume Yuujinchou, but apart from 91 Days, have they done anything else? It's other sort of extreme.

Personally, I don't care much how long Titan is. When it's there, fine. When not, fine, too. This is my personal Wit hierarchy (of the shows I've seen and remember right now):

Hoozuki no Reitetsu > Rolling Girls > Attack on Titan > Owari no Seraph > Kabaneri

Judging by the first OAV (I haven't seen the second yet), Ancient Magus' Bride will slot in behind Rolling Girls and before AoT. Given this taste, I'm not, personally, that sad about having only one AoT season.

Dawnstorm said:

I'm actually quite okay with Wit's marketing strategy, considering what Shuka is doing with its Brains Base left overs. I mean, I enjoy both Durarara and, especially, Natsume Yuujinchou, but apart from 91 Days, have they done anything else? It's other sort of extreme.

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Can I hug you for Durarara? I love this anime. I am writing a horror fic series with Hetalia, Durarara, and D.Gray-Man.

I have a question: Does Masa from House of Five Leaves have social anxiety disorder?

Dawnstorm said:

When Eren's on screen I'm cheering for the Titans. Seriously. I dislike that sort of sound and fury.

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If not for him getting called out for the way he is (like Mikasa smacking him in the first episode, his first squad dying, Levi kicking him in the court scene, and Levi's squad's demise), I wouldn't have been able to get behind his character too.

And yes, the marketing strategy certainly makes sense for the studio.

So. I saw the Hollywood Ghost in the Shell. I didn't totally hate it. I guess. Maybe.

Dysnomia said:

If not for him getting called out for the way he is (like Mikasa smacking him in the first episode, his first squad dying, Levi kicking him in the court scene, and Levi's squad's demise), I wouldn't have been able to get behind his character too.

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Oh, the story definitely doesn't reward him for it. I can, abstractly, accept Eren in the story. On screen, though...

***

My favourite premiers this season so far:

Tsuki ga Kirei: Awkward middle-school love story. Really cute.

Alice to Zoroku: Girl with superpowers runs away from lab and meets grumpy old man. Double episode: Horrid production values; awful CGI, dull backgrounds, character designs look wonky at times. And despite all that the episode just flew by.

Renai Boukun: An ecchi rom-com inspired by Death Note? Breakneck comedic pacing doesn't leave you time to think or even be annoyed, which is probably why it works. That or the female protagonist used her solve-it-skillfully shark on me. (It won't make much more sense if you watch the show, either.)

Noizchild said:

I have a question: Does Masa from House of Five Leaves have social anxiety disorder?

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I don't know, as I haven't seen House of Five Leaves, but I do want to watch it.

anakhouri79 said:

So. I saw the Hollywood Ghost in the Shell. I didn't totally hate it. I guess. Maybe.

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I heard it didn't do so well.

Is anyone into Tokyo Ghoul? I thought it had a fantastic first season, then the second kind of fizzled out for me. I heard it deviated from the manga and that some fans didn't like how it turned out. It doesn't look like a third season is happening anytime soon.

Another one I liked was Gangsta, but the studio went bankrupt.

Morri said:

Is anyone into Tokyo Ghoul? I thought it had a fantastic first season, then the second kind of fizzled out for me. I heard it deviated from the manga and that some fans didn't like how it turned out. It doesn't look like a third season is happening anytime soon.

Another one I liked was Gangsta, but the studio went bankrupt.

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Tokyo Ghoul was good until they killed off the little girl's parents. I heard the second season really strayed from the manga. I would suggest going for the manga instead. I applaud the concept though.

Morri said:

Is anyone into Tokyo Ghoul? I thought it had a fantastic first season, then the second kind of fizzled out for me. I heard it deviated from the manga and that some fans didn't like how it turned out. It doesn't look like a third season is happening anytime soon.

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I liked the first season a lot. I haven't yet read the manga (fiancé has and he liked it) so I know the first season does make some changes, but they are all good in terms of adaptation. Honestly, I think watching the first season and the first episode of season 2 tells a perfectly fine story.

Now the rest of season two...it wasn't so much a story as a series of events happening in sequence without logic, reason, or explanation. I'm dead serious about that, this isn't me being snarky. Sub plots appear and disappear seemingly at random. So do characters. I'm not entirely sure what the main plot was supposed to be. I'd be hard pressed to tell you how it ended, and that is after watching the ending in it's entirety. It was certainly fascinating, I'll give it that.

PyriteFool said:

I liked the first season a lot. I haven't yet read the manga (fiancé has and he liked it) so I know the first season does make some changes, but they are all good in terms of adaptation. Honestly, I think watching the first season and the first episode of season 2 tells a perfectly fine story.

Now the rest of season two...it wasn't so much a story as a series of events happening in sequence without logic, reason, or explanation. I'm dead serious about that, this isn't me being snarky. Sub plots appear and disappear seemingly at random. So do characters. I'm not entirely sure what the main plot was supposed to be. I'd be hard pressed to tell you how it ended, and that is after watching the ending in it's entirety. It was certainly fascinating, I'll give it that.

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Yeah, I don't really remember the ending either. I don't remember much of that season at all, actually. Such a shame when shows don't pan out as expected.

Season 2 of Tokyo Ghoul had a plot? Seriously, add me to the list of people who thought season 1 was pretty entertaining, but season 2 was underwhelming.

Regarding the new season just beginning, I've seen the premieres of almost everything I was even remotely interested in now (missing: Sword Oratoria, which hasn't aired yet, ID-0, which I haven't come across a copy of yet, and Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho, which I'll get to sometime this weekend), and I'm oversubscribed and have to decide what to drop to get back down to 14. Currently Clockwork Planet (which somehow reminds me of Lance'N'Masques, ugh) and Granblue Fantasy seem like the most likely to be cut.

Both Alice to Zouroku and Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasuka? Isogashii Desuka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desuka? have proven to be pleasant surprises so far, although they're more slice-of-life-y than anything I would normally be interested in. Seikaisuru Kado (government negotiator gets tangled up with an alien who wants to reform human civilization) looks like it might also turn out to be good.

I started Kotoura-san today.

Alexys said:

Currently Clockwork Planet (which somehow reminds me of Lance'N'Masques, ugh) and Granblue Fantasy seem like the most likely to be cut.

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Granblue is okay, but it had the weekest premier among the fantasy shows so far (Zero kara... was pretty good; also it has a really adorable ED animation). A lot depends on the rest of the cast (which will expand RPG style, I suppose).

I dropped Clockwork Planet very, very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that I haven't seen enough to tell whether I'd like it or not. It just didn't appeal. I haven't heard much about it that would encourage me to pick it up.

Both Alice to Zouroku and Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasuka? Isogashii Desuka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desuka? have proven to be pleasant surprises so far, although they're more slice-of-life-y than anything I would normally be interested in.

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Pretty much. Alice is my second favourite non-sequal show (after Tsuki ga Kirei), and the show with the long title was pretty good, too. (Very solid and unobtrusive world-building, and an excellent version of "Scarborough Fair".)

Seikaisuru Kado (government negotiator gets tangled up with an alien who wants to reform human civilization) looks like it might also turn out to be good.

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I'm curious about that one, but I'm not sure I like it enough to beat my aversion of CGI. At least it's the good sort of CGI. (I watched last season's Kemono Friends, which had the bad sort.) ID-0 is also CGI, which lowers my motivation quite a lot.

***

Kotoura-san has a great first episode, and never ever reaches that level again. It's still mostly entertaining, though.

Dawnstorm said:

Granblue is okay, but it had the weekest premier among the fantasy shows so far. A lot depends on the rest of the cast (which will expand RPG style, I suppose)..

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Its main problem is that its male and female leads appear to be Generic Fantasy JRPG Protagonists. Oh, well, at least they're not Generic Japanese High School Students. We'll see.

Dawnstorm said:

(Zero kara... was pretty good; also it has a really adorable ED animation).

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That end-credit sequence seems designed to reverse just about every cliche there is about feline-human relations. And the tiger-man amuses me. Keeping this one for sure.

Dawnstorm said:

(Seikaisuru Kado)
I'm curious about that one, but I'm not sure I like it enough to beat my aversion of CGI. At least it's the good sort of CGI.

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The CGI was so unobtrusive that I didn't twig to the fact they were using it until nearly the end of the prologue episode, and even then it was something subtle about a character's head movement that I noticed. Other than that (and the alien cube, which I suspect is the main reason why they didn't want to go 2D) they've done a pretty good imitation of traditional animation.

has anyone else seen San Whale and Me?

"Monster"? I found it to be very psychological

Frankie007 said:

has anyone else seen San Whale and Me?

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Yeah, just finished it today. What the hell was going on?

Me: "Look! There's a new book of five Ghost in the Shell short stories by Japanese SF authors!"

Husband: "They should have just hired you to write it."

I'm about to start on Sailor Moon and Blood+.

Noizchild said:

I'm about to start on Sailor Moon and Blood+.

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I look forward to your review of Blood+

Markiemoo said:

"Monster"? I found it to be very psychological

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Loved the first twentyish episodes of it. Afterwards I found things got a little too repetitive for my liking. Also wanted to see more of Johan's manipulation in action--most of it's not shown, which I wish wasn't the case. Still like it as a whole anyway

Frankie007 said:

I look forward to your review of Blood+

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I've seen the movie.

I'm currently playing the Steins;Gate game. It's a completely different experience from the anime. The key differences:

- First person perspective from Okabe Rintaro Hououin Kyouma. This makes the nuttiness a part of the entire game's outlook rather than localising it in the character. This creates a very unique effect: even if you know it's coming, you can't believe it's real.

- More emphasis on science: they explain a lot more. The science is no more plausible, but you understand the reasoning better. This is helped by the inclusion of an extensive glossary (called "tips"); you can read up on explations of string theory etc. should you need it.

- The otaku references come across much more tongue in cheek and at times almost create a meta-level (through stylistic choices). The glossary helps here, too.

The story is pretty much the same, and feels the same, too. I can already tell that this was one excellent anime adaption. They understood the differences in media very well, I thought. (Though I still think the route-repetitiveness near the middle stood out in the anime; I'm not there yet, but I wager it won't stand out in the game, since I'll probably take it as gameplay).

Anyway, the game's well worth playing, even if you've already seen the anime. Thumbs up.

I'm watching Future Diary right now and I'm loving it. Also watching Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. Berserk is my favorite manga/anime of all time though with Rurouni Kenshin a close second.