General anime discussion thread

I've been watching an anime called Highschool DxD.
I'm not entirely sure what to make of it.
I think it's a dramatic comedy that's actually working to some extent. Not brilliantly or perfectly, but it's working.
I don't see that too often--understand, this isn't drama with comedic moments interspersed or comedy with a few dramatic moments here and there, it's trying to pull off an equal fusion (IMO).
At first I thought it was going to be a basic comedic ecchi, but every once in awhile (most episodes) we get moments of surprising maturity, not just in the characters but in the entire mood of the show that swings it undeniably towards drama.
Episode 8 is a good example, semi-SPOILERS FOLLOW:


The episode opens with a bit of drama and mystery of the overall plot.
The next bit is devoted to comedic ecchi, and a prime example of this series blatant self-awareness. One of the things this series does is aim camera shots for ecchi in a unusual way at times, like so:
We have the vice-president speaking to the president of a club (both female), and the camera is looking at the girls face from a kind of diagonal-looking-down as she's sitting on the couch. Then the girl stands up and bows to leave the room.
But the camera doesn't move to follow her face and she has a rather short skirt. The series knows what the audience came for, yet we have instances of drama as well where the acchie is still there, but the drama takes an equal amount if not majority of the focus.
Two cases in point from ep.8:
Guy stumbles on girl in bathroom.
Guy stammers and proceeds to leave.
Girl stops guy and asks him to stay and bathe with her (because she's "heard that's a Japanese custom") so they can deepen their relationship. She is straight-up serious, she wants to become closer emotionally to this guy, and she'll take the naked bathing route if it'll work.
The next scene with said guy, another girl appears and, in a very serious fashion, asks him to take her virginity. Her lines are awesome, I quote:
Girl: "Is this your first?"
Guy: "Uh, yeah."
Girl: "Then I'm sure this will be awkward for both of us. Let's just try to work through it."

There was a little more after that, but unlike in most ecchis where this kind of thing occurs, I seriously could have seen a sex scene following this. I knew it wasn't going to happen because it's not a hentai, but I could see it happening--it seemed plausible where so many other series don't when trying to employ a similar situation.

I can't decide if it's actually a good fusion or just really muddled. I enjoy it certainly, but I'm not sure if it's actually well-done.
At times it almost seems that the series should be split in two: one series for the comedic side, and the other for the mature side of it, because the mature sides we get in the dramatic portions are such that they seem out of place in the high-school setting this series uses.
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I'm tired, so if this ramble confuses anyone, that may be why.

I watched Utena as a kid, and even though I could recognize it as being of superior quality, I was lost on a lot of things now that I look back at it.
I should watch it again some day.

Dawnstorm said:

Here's something odd. I've seen half of the first episode of Highschool DxD and was terribly turned off by the ecchi. Nothing you say surprises me, though. I can see that. Also, it doesn't strike me as terribly unusual. (Not the norm, mind you, but not that rare.) However, when I try to think of examples, I come up empty.

Huh?

Click to expand...

I know what you mean, it seems like dramatic comedies should be fairly common in anime . . .

I've been watching Cowboy Bebop reruns on Adult Swim for so long now that I just can't bring myself to care anymore.
It's a great series, but would it kill them to air something else? Surely there must be some other series worth constant reruns over a period of years?