General anime discussion thread
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Should finish soon, no? I may pick it up, then, some time.
Spring season is approaching. Looking forward to anything?
I'm clearly going to watch season 2s of Fate/Zero, Kimi to Boku and Kore Zombie.
Other than that:
Sekamichi no Appollon: Jazz in the 60ies; Watanabe & Kanno. Will look and sound gorgous and may provide an interesting setting.
Medaka Box: Lots of manga readers recommend it. I'm curious.
Mystery Girlfriend X: Guy accidently drinks girls saliva and becomes addicted. Huh? Looks a tad retro. It's certainly going to have its own feel, so I can't possibly pass it up. Whether I'll like it? Hm...
I thought we weren't allowed to hotlink.
What anime is it referring to?
I remember enjoying MGX as a manga, I should finish reading it sometime.
What anime is it referring to?
I echo Medaka Box as a good series (at least as a a manga).
I remember enjoying MGX as a manga, I should finish reading it sometime.
As mentioned, it's okay if it's a site that explicitly allows it, such as a hosting service like Dropbox, Flickr, Photobucket, etc.
I agree, but still. Episode 8 was FUCKING EPIC.
I've started reading Saki, manga like that and Hokaru no Go actually make me want to play the games they focus on.
I've played Mah Jong; it's fun. Haven't played Go yet, but I'm sure it would be fun.
Saki is a fun anime (I don't often read manga). There's a spin-off series airing in spring, which I think should be fun.
Btw, much as I liked Chihayafuru, I never once thought I wanted to play that game. None of the skills needed seem to be mine.
I don't have any way of playing it physically, but I found a place called Tenhou where they apparently play online. It's all in Japanese, but I found some English documentation for it, so hopefully I can slog my way through.
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It's basic plot structure is a harem show: one guy + many girls. Guy solves girls' problems. But here the problems take the form of "oddities" (possession by supernatural creatures/curses). So, basically, you have a cross between an exorcism and a harem show. But that's not really what it's about.
There's a theme running through each show, which guides both the fanservice (of which there is lots) and dialogue. In Bakemonogatari (~ Monsterstories) it's how how far can you go accepting their dark sides (all expressed through the supernatural). In Nisemonogatari (~Fake/Imposterstories), the question is how much do you need to know about the people around you?
The series makes cliché anime fanservice and over-the-top violence a semiotic puzzle. People tend to either hate or love the series. I neither hate nor love it. I think it's nice (and parts of Bakemonogatari [and to a lesser extent Nisemonogatari] are brilliant).
Kuwisdelu likes it better than I do.
A possible plus for Bakemonogatari is the witty dialogue, if you like that. E.g. In one episode they just hang around at a playground, talking through the entire episode. The art is very stylish, reminding of Madoka Magica. Since the story arcs are short, the plot doesn't get deep, but there's usually a nice little twist at the end of the arcs. You should definitely check this series out.
It's about a former vampire (he's mostly better now) and his interactions with various girls assaulted by various supernatural problems that basically all relate back to various psychological problems and personality issues.
The series makes cliché anime fanservice and over-the-top violence a semiotic puzzle. People tend to either hate or love the series. I neither hate nor love it. I think it's nice (and parts of Bakemonogatari [and to a lesser extent Nisemonogatari] are brilliant).
Kuwisdelu likes it better than I do.
Yes, it's basically utterly brilliant fanservice anime. And keep in mind that fanservice isn't always sexual, but also can refer to references and "database"-allusions that fans enjoy. For example, references to other anime or pop culture. But also lots of ero-kawaii.
It's not a show you watch for the plot, but for the character interactions, and I don't mean that in a bad way.
It is trashy anime done really, really well.
It's almost very Zen pornography.
Of course the art is about style. It's Shaft.
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Have watched the first two episodes (double episode?) of Accel World. Looks like standard shounen fair, but the outsider angle of the protagonist seems a bit better handled than usual. Wait and see. (It's probably the first time I've seen a small, overweight protagonist - whose sleek virtual avatar - strangely enough - comes from a nightmare, while his not-so-sleek usual avatar is a piglet. Hm...) I don't expect a worldshattering experience, but this should be interesting enough to watch.
Is it just the Bleach anime that's ending, or is the Bleach manga getting cut short as well?
I've been hearing conflicting stories on the event.
I've been hearing conflicting stories on the event.
Ore Imo gets a second season!
Woohoo! I get me some more Kuroneko. HNNNNNNNNNG.
Also, a real Miss Macross contest!
Woohoo! I get me some more Kuroneko. HNNNNNNNNNG.
Also, a real Miss Macross contest!
Talking about Macross, where do you recommend me to begin if I feel like immersing myself in that world?
Either Super Dimension Fortress Macross if you're okay with an '80s anime, or Macross Frontier if you want something recent. Although it makes a lot of references to it, you can watch the latter without having seen the former. It was designed to appeal to new fans while also rewarding the old ones.
Can you be more specific?
I haven't seen the anime you mentioned, so it's hard to comment without a particular relationship in mind.
What the... Go watch Sankarea. Now.
If I'm right this is going to be a story about loneliness and suppressed emotion under the guise of a tender mock(?)-necrophiliac love story. I'm not kidding. The concept is so out there; yet the tone is one of tender melancholy. I suspect future episodes to slip into depravity, and I'm not talking about the necrophilia (which is possibly only the governing trope, although anything is possible...)
This might be the surprise of the season.
If I'm right this is going to be a story about loneliness and suppressed emotion under the guise of a tender mock(?)-necrophiliac love story. I'm not kidding. The concept is so out there; yet the tone is one of tender melancholy. I suspect future episodes to slip into depravity, and I'm not talking about the necrophilia (which is possibly only the governing trope, although anything is possible...)
This might be the surprise of the season.
After I got home and got out of my brain fog, I decided it's probably not a question I should be asking.
But since you were kind enough to reply anyway... as another example, there were a couple of relationships in X, the animated series, that confused me (Kamui x Fuma, Subaru x Seishirō).
It's really difficult to be more specific because I don't actually understand what I'm talking about. It's like... a friend forced me to watch some romance animes, and there seems to usually be that childhood/guardian type "friend" who is constantly protecting the girl and talking about how he's so devoted and he'll lay down his life at her whim or whatever.
So you think, well, it's sort of a lineage thing--his family has always been devoted to hers, so his honor demands he uphold whatever covenant they have there... but then, it turns out that he's loved her all his life, etc., etc. And then, you don't know if the devotion is coming from a place of honor and duty or from the romantic love he feels... or from both.
Then I'll come across a male relationship that plays out almost the same way. Both guys are significant and powerful, they're both very sacrificing for each other, they'll go to the ends of the earth and battle all sorts of demons to save each other. And it's all so very, very intense... Like, if it were a guy and a girl, I'd fully expect someone to declare his or her love (usually in a secret monologue the other never hears), but they don't, not directly. The English translation of some of the dialog, though, is ambiguous to me.
I don't know if I'm seeing an actual romantic relationship, even if it's one-sided, a very intense male friendship (devoted comrade-type thing), or some kind of king-and-vassal devotion thing... or if I'm just misreading because everything is more intense in anime.
Even the heroes and the villains seem to have weirdly intense attachments of some sorts. Like... the shear emotional turmoil of the hero facing that villain is so strong that it makes me wonder about their emotional history.
(Maybe I'm just such a romantic that "in love" is my default assumption.)
Sorry. That was long and probably even less specific than my first post (for those who caught it before I retracted it). I'm not making any sense, which is why I edited out the first question.
Maybe you could point me toward an amine with a very close male relationship you have seen and I can come back and tell you what confused me about it.
The best way to view it is probably a "network of bonds" and a person's place in it. As a sort of default, you have a mutual agreement to be polite and hide your emotions, and should the other slip you'll be tactful and ignore them. You still try to guess at the other's emotions and accomodate them; the same is your due. But you don't fuss about it. The default does not apply if your bonds are personal rather than formal: these bonds can take any form of interaction, but they typically have a mutually agreed (not consciously) pattern. (There's this cliché in anime where two people annoy the hell out of each other, and a third party says wistfully, "They sure get along," and the fourth party has that sweatdrop over his/her face, "Ah, that's getting along?") They can play out the personal bond pattern only if they're alone (or among people who share similar bonds).
There are always also formal bonds, institutions: family, school, firm...
X, for example, has a formal relationship system based on fate, but personal bonds cut across that. In many, many ways. The key to understanding Kamui-Fuuma-Kotori is that they were childhood friends - and behaved as such - but that they were fated to play certain roles. These roles, though, never break the actual bonds - even if the emotions expressed within the bonds vary. Basically, the form the bond takes is independent from the bond itself. The closeness of the bond determines the emotional intensity (that you're allowed to display), while the form of the bond determines the sort of actions you're supposed to take.
Since the usual person will feel very lonely without personal bonds, the emotional intensity displayed is a sign of belonging. It's your place in the world. As long as you know who love and who you hate, you know who you are. Romance is secondary to that. It's existential.
The Western romance system tends to take this sort of intimacy as an excuse for not having to talk about sex. Which causes a lot of misunderstandings. (And I think it's one of reasons why much of the western audience doesn't get the current Kimi to Boku - a slice of life show about male bonding. [Personal peeve alert. Heh.])
Not sure how right I am about all this, since I'm very far from being an expert. Also not sure how well I came across. But that's the best I can do.
There are always also formal bonds, institutions: family, school, firm...
X, for example, has a formal relationship system based on fate, but personal bonds cut across that. In many, many ways. The key to understanding Kamui-Fuuma-Kotori is that they were childhood friends - and behaved as such - but that they were fated to play certain roles. These roles, though, never break the actual bonds - even if the emotions expressed within the bonds vary. Basically, the form the bond takes is independent from the bond itself. The closeness of the bond determines the emotional intensity (that you're allowed to display), while the form of the bond determines the sort of actions you're supposed to take.
Since the usual person will feel very lonely without personal bonds, the emotional intensity displayed is a sign of belonging. It's your place in the world. As long as you know who love and who you hate, you know who you are. Romance is secondary to that. It's existential.
The Western romance system tends to take this sort of intimacy as an excuse for not having to talk about sex. Which causes a lot of misunderstandings. (And I think it's one of reasons why much of the western audience doesn't get the current Kimi to Boku - a slice of life show about male bonding. [Personal peeve alert. Heh.])
Not sure how right I am about all this, since I'm very far from being an expert. Also not sure how well I came across. But that's the best I can do.