General anime discussion thread

Alexys · Apr 8, 2014

I'm, um, five premiere episodes into the new season, with maybe as many as a dozen left to go, since Nobunaga the Fool seems to be the only thing carrying over from last season. Results so far: Brynhildr in the Darkness--keep, Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii--keep, Selector Infected WIXOSS--drop, Akuma no Riddle--depends on how bad everything else is, and thankfully Fairy Tale is a continuation and not a reboot, so I'll be keeping that one too.

On my list to sample: Atelier Escha and Logy, Black Bullet, Break Blade, Captain Earth, Fuun Ishin Dai Shogun, Hitsugi no Chaika, M3, Mahou Koukou no Rettousei, Sidonia no Kishi, and possibly Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo, Ping Pong, No Game No Life, and/or Blade and Soul, depending on how many of the others turn out to be unwatchably bad and how tired I get of mecha.

Alexys · Apr 8, 2014

(And apparently I still can't remember that it's "Fairy *Tail*". Or find the edit links. Meh.)

Antonin · Apr 9, 2014

Shadow Dragon said:
The light novel series Ninja Slayer (the Japanese take on the American take of Japanese scifi and martial arts films/shows) is getting an anime adaption. And guess who's going to be a part of the production? Trigger. http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/04/06/trigger-attached-to-ninja-slayer-anime

Now all we need is the Hollywood movie and it will have all come full circle.

Been reading a crapload of manga lately, mostly shojo. Pandora Heats, Kamisama Kiss (totes adorebs btw), a more smutty one (because that's how I'm rolling lately I guess), and I'm finally going I finish off Host Club.

Alexys - yeah, I get it mixed up as "tale" as well. Been meaning to give it a try though, what should I expect?

Dawnstorm - I wonder if that's why I won't like jojo but I kinda know about the manliness going in. I hear it's one of the better fighter-to-anime shows. Probably has to do with the fact that it was a manga first

Alexys · Apr 11, 2014

Antonin said:
Alexys - yeah, I get it mixed up as "tale" as well. Been meaning to give it a try though, what should I expect?

It's clearly a shounen fighter series (with the usual over-the-top battles and discussion about how combat technique X works), but it's a *good* shounen fighter series, with solid characterization and decent plotting--if I had to compare it with something, it would probably be "Ruroni Kenshin, except with magic".

The story centers around a young magic-user named Lucy who joins the mages' guild Fairy Tail and ends up teaming up and making friends with several of its stronger members--particularly Natsu, an upbeat and quite powerful fire mage who was raised by a dragon. The series follows them through a number of adventures. That being said, if, after the first 20 or so episodes, the show isn't working for you, you're probably safe in dropping it.

In new-season news, I'm not sure what to do with Fuun Ishin Dai Shogun. I mean, the fan service isn't of the off-putting sexualizing-young-girls kind, but there is rather a lot of it and so far it doesn't appear to have anything much to do with the story. I guess this is another one that's going to end up depending on how bad everything else is.

And I enjoyed the first episode of Mahou Koukou no Rettousei more than I expected I would, despite the little sister with the brother complex. Yes, it's generic high school drama (with magic), but it seems to be pushing some of the right buttons for me. <shrug>

LOG · Apr 12, 2014

Fairytale for the Demon Lord seems interesting so far.

EMaree · Apr 12, 2014

Black Butler Season 2 is SUCH A TOSSER OH MY GOD THIS ANIME.

New opening! Actually, we changed our minds, new new opening! New characters! Old characters! Characters back from the dead! And we won't explain anything for FIVE FULL EPISODES.

I need to catch up on the Madoka movies.

kuwisdelu · Apr 12, 2014

EMaree said:
I need to catch up on the Madoka movies.

Coalgirls has the full trilogy.

Alexys · Apr 12, 2014

Problem is that, as far as I can tell, no one *other* than Coalgirls has subbed the Madoka movies, and I haven't been able to find a re-encode at a sane size. The extra quality is of no benefit to me and my old CRT, and I can't afford to waste the connection bandwidth.

kuwisdelu · Apr 12, 2014

Alexys said:
Problem is that, as far as I can tell, no one *other* than Coalgirls has subbed the Madoka movies, and I haven't been able to find a re-encode at a sane size. The extra quality is of no benefit to me and my old CRT, and I can't afford to waste the connection bandwidth.

There's some other releases on nyaa. Smallest is [OTR]'s which is 480p 10bit x264. There are several 720p versions.

Just make sure you check the release date, since some are unlabeled camrips.

Antonin · Apr 13, 2014

EMaree said:
Black Butler Season 2 is SUCH A TOSSER OH MY GOD THIS ANIME.

Does this mean what I think it means?

I need to catch up on the Madoka movies.

Click to expand...

From what I've found, you only need to really watch the last one. Which is AMAZING BTW.

kuwisdelu said:

Just make sure you check the release date, since some are unlabeled camrips.

Click to expand...

Nothing makes me ragequit like finding out I downloaded a camprip. Do people actually watch those pieces of garbage? The sound is awful, the picture is awful, it makes life awful.

Click to expand...

EMaree · Apr 13, 2014

Nyaa is

Is the Madoka 2 hour 11 mins "Beginnings" movie both Parts 1 and 2? It's only labelled as Part 1 but I'm having zero luck finding an upload of Part 2.

Antonin said:
EMaree said:

Black Butler Season 2 is SUCH A TOSSER OH MY GOD THIS ANIME.

Does this mean what I think it means?

Click to expand...

Probably not? I went a bit too British there. "Tosser" is just Brit slang for, erm... a wanker, a git, a prat... I'm struggling for a definition here that isn't super English.

In this context, it was a milder form of "frustrating mofo" or "TROLLING BASTARD RAAGGGHHH".

I probably should've tried to avoid a phrase so close to gay slang in a rant about a super fanservice-y anime that's almost-but-not-quite-shounen-ai.

Click to expand...

Alexys · Apr 13, 2014

EMaree said:
Is the Madoka 2 hour 11 mins "Beginnings" movie both Parts 1 and 2? It's only labelled as Part 1 but I'm having zero luck finding an upload of Part 2.

The second movie appears to be called "Eien no Monogatari" (which works out to something like "Tales of Eternity", according to my half-assed Japanese knowledge). After some poking around, I was able to find a source for the [Karoshi] 720p versions of the first two movies (about 1.5GB each). No idea what the quality's like, though.

EMaree said:
Black Butler Season 2 is SUCH A TOSSER OH MY GOD THIS ANIME.

Want to know the scariest thing about Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji? It's technically shounen--the manga runs in Monthly GFantasy, which is a shounen mag. (Pandora Hearts is also technically shounen and runs in the same magazine.)

And yeah, the second season is pretty bad.

kuwisdelu · Apr 13, 2014

Antonin said:
Nothing makes me ragequit like finding out I downloaded a camprip. Do people actually watch those pieces of garbage? The sound is awful, the picture is awful, it makes life awful.

I watch them. How else are you going to see the movie while it's still in theaters if you can't get to one?

Antonin · Apr 14, 2014

kuwisdelu said:
I watch them. How else are you going to see the movie while it's still in theaters if you can't get to one?

I wait a bit longer until someone uploads one of those DVDs that they send to the military or something.

EMaree said:
Probably not? I went a bit too British there. "Tosser" is just Brit slang for, erm... a wanker, a git, a prat... I'm struggling for a definition here that isn't super English.

In this context, it was a milder form of "frustrating mofo" or "TROLLING BASTARD RAAGGGHHH".

I probably should've tried to avoid a phrase so close to gay slang in a rant about a super fanservice-y anime that's almost-but-not-quite-shounen-ai.

Ah, okay, that's kinda what I figured. It's cool though, I like seeing other slang. Makes me feel cultured or something.

Alexys said:
Want to know the scariest thing about Black Butler/Kuroshitsuji? It's technically shounen--the manga runs in Monthly GFantasy, which is a shounen mag. (Pandora Hearts is also technically shounen and runs in the same magazine.)

And yeah, the second season is pretty bad.

I still find it hard to believe that both of those shows are shounen, but maybe that's just a sign that those definitions are completely arbitrary and really only good for marketing.

Personally I love the hell out of Pandora Hearts. Just caught up with the English translated manga. Sooooo goooood. Can't wait to cosplay Break again.

kuwisdelu · Apr 14, 2014

Antonin said:
I wait a bit longer until someone uploads one of those DVDs that they send to the military or something.

Waiting for official Blu-rays and DVDs to come out takes so long.

Antonin · Apr 14, 2014

kuwisdelu said:
Waiting for official Blu-rays and DVDs to come out takes so long.

They do, but I'm usually not in any rush to see movies so it works out for me.

kuwisdelu · Apr 14, 2014

Antonin said:
They do, but I'm usually not in any rush to see movies so it works out for me.

Depends on the movie and the hype and the level of discussion I expect on the internet.

I've only watched camrips for Haruhi, Evangelion, and Madoka.

Waiting for the camrip is actually usually worse than waiting for the actual BDrip.

Antonin · Apr 14, 2014

kuwisdelu said:
Depends on the movie and the hype and the level of discussion I expect on the internet.

That's fair. I like making a big event of getting the BluRays though. Kinda looking forward to hosting a "Let's watch all the Eva movies" party.

kuwisdelu · Apr 14, 2014

Antonin said:
That's fair. I like making a big event of getting the BluRays though. Kinda looking forward to hosting a "Let's watch all the Eva movies" party.

Avoiding Eva discussions until I could get the Blu-rays would be a theological impossibility for me.

Dawnstorm · Apr 14, 2014

Hm, new season:

Alexys said:
Results so far: Brynhildr in the Darkness--keep

Decent, but a bit... odd. I don't much like the character design; too static. Liked Elfen Lied better (same writer - original source).

Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii--keep

First episode was surprisingly good. Second episode, sadly, was more what I expected. Still a fun watch, for now.

Selector Infected WIXOSS--drop

Still watching it, but I'm not convinced Mari Okada should write girl-battle-drama. (Remembers Black Rock Shooter...)

Akuma no Riddle--depends on how bad everything else is

I'm probably going to finish this, but it's both silly and bland. There are some interesting elements; for instance, I want to know what the organisers of this "game" (?) are after. Sadly, I expect I won't learn this in this season's run...

Atelier Escha and Logy

I've seen three adaptions of games I've played, and of all those this is without a doubt the best one. I can trust Studio Gokumi.

The show'll be mostly based on cuteness, though. Don't expect much else. Personally, I love it.

Black Bullet

Decently entertaining. Nothing special.

Break Blade

Pretty watchable, for a mecha show (I only watch mecha shows on occasion).

Captain Earth

Haven't watched that one. I do like the character designs, so let me know how it is. (I think I shied away from it because the title reminds of "Captain Planet" *shudders*)

Fuun Ishin Dai Shogun

Annoying when it's not uninteresting. Unattractive art and lousy animation. No redeeming features for me.

Hitsugi no Chaika

Unexpectedly fun. From the writer (source material) of Scrapped Princess, which I enjoyed, too, and which it reminds of a lot. Should be a fun adventure romp.

M3

M3? What's that?

Mahou Koukou no Rettousei

Generic but entertaining.

Sidonia no Kishi

Would like to try that, but it's impossible. The opening animation gave me a headache and slight queasyness. Stupid 3D animation. Grrr!

Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo

Skipped that for now. If I hear good things...

Ping Pong

First thought: God, this is ugly. Will I be able to watch this?
Second thought: Wtf? This is the ending? I have to wait another week?

Of the shows you mentioned this is easily my favourite.

No Game No Life

And this is my second favourite of the shows you mentioned. I really love the style, and the show has the right kind of vibes. I thought it'd be something like Mondaji tachi of a couple of seasons back, but it seems a bit more serious (which could backfire). Also, I like the art style, but I'm not fond of some of the colour combinations the show's fond of (pink and teal do not go well together).

Blade and Soul

First episode was... dull. Second episode was slightly better. It might grow on me.

***

My undisputed favourites so far are the shows expected to hit the top:

Mushishi (If you've seen the first season, you know exactly what to expect)

and

Isshukan Friends: Short term memory loss and friendship, but unlike ef this show gives me more magical realist vibes. Has the sentimentality of Kimi ni Todoke, but a better gender balance. Love the art (from the art director of Hourou Musuko).

Watching some other shows, too, but can't think of them right now.

Alexys · Apr 15, 2014

Dawnstorm said:
Hm, new season:
(Akuma no Riddle)
I'm probably going to finish this, but it's both silly and bland. There are some interesting elements; for instance, I want to know what the organisers of this "game"(?) are after. Sadly, I expect I won't learn this in this season's run...

So far, I'm not sure they're after anything other than personal amusement, or at least Fidgets-With-Dice-Guy isn't.

Dawnstorm said:
(Atelier Escha and Logy)
I've seen three adaptions of games I've played, and of all those this is without a doubt the best one. I can trust Studio Gokumi.

The show'll be mostly based on cuteness, though. Don't expect much else. Personally, I love it.

I get the impression they may have followed the game a little too closely--intro quests to make windmill gears may make sense in an RPG, but they're a little silly in an anime! Still, it's better than Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan, and I made it through to the end of that.

Dawnstorm said:
(Break Blade)
Pretty watchable, for a mecha show (I only watch mecha shows on occasion).

I only got my hands on the first couple of eps this morning and haven't been able to watch them yet, but I'm not expecting more out of this than I got out of the movies or the manga--a decent story adequately delivered, without rivers of excessive angst.

Dawnstorm said:
(Captain Earth)
Haven't watched that one. I do like the character designs, so let me know how it is. (I think I shied away from it because the title reminds of "Captain Planet"*shudders*)

So far, it's more like "Star Driver does Neon Genesis Evangelion", if I had to give a capsule description.

Dawnstorm said:
(Fuun Ishin Dai Shogun)
Annoying when it's not uninteresting. Unattractive art and lousy animation. No redeeming features for me.

This is the one I'm closest to dropping.

Dawnstorm said:
(Hitsugi no Chaika)
Unexpectedly fun. From the writer (source material) of Scrapped Princess, which I enjoyed, too, and which it reminds of a lot. Should be a fun adventure romp.

Best of season to date, for me, but I still have several more to check out.

Dawnstorm said:
M3? What's that?

More mecha. It's getting a late start (premiere next week).

Dawnstorm said:
(Sidonia no Kishi)
Would like to try that, but it's impossible. The opening animation gave me a headache and slight queasyness. Stupid 3D animation. Grrr!

The first ep wasn't very good--a lot of infodump, little plot or action, and the characters were all cardboard cutouts. I'll stick with it for a couple more eps and see if it improves.

I seem to be seeing a lot of unexpectedly positive reviews of both Ping-Pong and No Game No Life, based on which I grabbed the first episodes of each. We'll see.

Dawnstorm · Apr 15, 2014

@Escha to Logy:

Alexys said:
I get the impression they may have followed the game a little too closely--intro quests to make windmill gears may make sense in an RPG, but they're a little silly in an anime! Still, it's better than Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan, and I made it through to the end of that.

They know exactly what they do. Quests like these make the core they're job. There's a story in the background, but that wouldn't work so well if they didn't make windmill parts. (You can finish the game without ever fighting even the mid-boss; the game will end prematurely, and it'll probably be the "bad end" - I haven't seen it. But it's possible to finish the game without any boss fights.)

In fact, there's a lot of anime-original material in the first episode. Gokumi is really good at adaptions because they always work from a master concept and stick to it.

You made it through the Bread of Happiness? Oh dear. I've only seen the first episode, but...

The general feel of that first episode seems similar, though. I have to grudgingly admit this.

***

@Break Blade:

I only got my hands on the first couple of eps this morning and haven't been able to watch them yet, but I'm not expecting more out of this than I got out of the movies or the manga--a decent story adequately delivered, without rivers of excessive angst.

This is my first contact with the franchise. I didn't even know it was a mecha show before I clicked it.

@Captain Earth:

So far, it's more like "Star Driver does Neon Genesis Evangelion", if I had to give a capsule description.

That'd be going in the right direction, for me. Maybe I'll check it out on a slow day.

Incidently, I did try episode one of Daimidaler. It's actually hilariously over the top, but there's just no way I can make it through a show that's based on superpowers that stem from... groping.

***

@Chaika:

Best of season to date, for me, but I still have several more to check out.

If you like Chaika, you might also like Scrapped Princess (if you haven't seen it already). They seem pretty similar. (Don't watch them parallel, though.)

@M3:

More mecha. It's getting a late start (premiere next week).

Thanks. I probably just ignored it in the previews.

The first ep wasn't very good--a lot of infodump, little plot or action, and the characters were all cardboard cutouts. I'll stick with it for a couple more eps and see if it improves.

Hm, seems like I'm not missing out on much, so far. There's just no way I'm going to watch this CGI monstrosity.

I seem to be seeing a lot of unexpectedly positive reviews of both Ping-Pong and No Game No Life, based on which I grabbed the first episodes of each. We'll see.

I expected a lot from Ping Pong (I mentioned it in my anticipated shows), though I wasn't sure if I could take the art. Turns out I forgot about that while watching. Better than expected.

No Game No Life came out of nowhere. It's a style fest and promises to be good fun. I really didn't expect to like the first episode this much.

(I'm also watching Haikyuu for now; it's a standard sports anime, but even the bit players are plausible characters, so they're doing something right.)

Antonin · Apr 15, 2014

I think this is on topic but OMG

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-ne...open-for-lady-gagas-artpop-ball-tour-this-may

Re: Escha to Logy - Hell, the damn game is based on cuteness and item synthesis. I went about a year in game before the "story" actually happened. I was kinda expecting a slice-of-life kinda anime about it. Which reminds me, I gotta go find a fan subber for this one. Any suggestions?

Dawnstorm · Apr 15, 2014

Antonin said:
I think this is on topic but OMG

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-ne...open-for-lady-gagas-artpop-ball-tour-this-may

A match made in the twighlight zone.

Re: Escha to Logy - Hell, the damn game is based on cuteness and item synthesis. I went about a year in game before the "story" actually happened. I was kinda expecting a slice-of-life kinda anime about it. Which reminds me, I gotta go find a fan subber for this one. Any suggestions?

They're going for the story. It's obvious once you see the show.

As for fansubbers: doki? As far as I can tell you have no choice... (I watched the raw first since the sub was too slow to come out, and I was curious.)

Shadow Dragon · Apr 16, 2014

Jojo's opening animation with Kill La Kill's second theme apparently go together very well: http://dai.ly/x1o4wrw

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