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What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0


wolfx

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I agree that Valvrave is not the worst show. Somewhat related, albeit a little odd in context, I couldn't get into Code Geass and never saw R2. Valvrave started off with a nice dramatic twist:

The idea that someone had to give up their humanity to pilot a giant robot was unique.

Unfortunately, the complete series muddled the whole idea with too much misdirection. Also, I was disappointed that pillots-as-monsters was abandoned for everyone but Haruto Tokishima. And that made the rape sequence completely unnecessary, violent, and gruesome. Shock for shock value is just bad writing.

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I agree that Valvrave is not the worst show. Somewhat related, albeit a little odd in context, I couldn't get into Code Geass and never saw R2. Valvrave started off with a nice dramatic twist:

The idea that someone had to give up their humanity to pilot a giant robot was unique.

Unfortunately, the complete series muddled the whole idea with too much misdirection. Also, I was disappointed that pillots-as-monsters was abandoned for everyone but Haruto Tokishima. And that made the rape sequence completely unnecessary, violent, and gruesome. Shock for shock value is just bad writing.

Contextually, that may have been what tripped up the series

The near rape, and I say near since it wound up being consentual, implied that the pilots were somehow dependant on sex, as whatshis name went back to normal after, and there was no implication of stealing "runes." Possibly out of fear of following that route, the whole memory loss mechanic was tossed in to season 2, and everything went to pot. Vampires that sustain themselves on peoples. Memories, but can switch bodies, and power mecha is just too damned convoluted. Hoe the hell did Cain sustain himself with all the power he tossed around.

I'd have honestly preferred mecha piloting vampires that sustain on sex and blood. And what the hepl happened to the Hari-kiri blade? That mechanic went from near death super attack, to being completely replaced with the overheat/shutdown problem. I haven' t seen this big of a story jumble since Casshern Sins.

Valvrave suffered what looks like a writer change, or forced story change. But to hell with it, where is Gargantia?

Edited by Keith
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Not sure if serious or sarcasm, but no problem technoblue! Be warned, Tekkaman Blade has ludicrously stupid clip shows. If you watch it and VVV's second half side by side you'll notice similarities in foreshadowing. Also don't expect much to happen plot wise until episode 30. Cameos from the original Tekkaman's (human) cast occur near the end of the series, but unless you've seen the original series you wouldn't notice. Oh and lots of famous voice actors are in the cast.

Zegapain on the other hand.... Well I think you guys know my views on that already.

Anyway, up to episode 11 in Claymore. So flippin' awesome it is ridonkulous.

Edited by DuelGundam2099
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I just finished Claymore which I can safely say has made my top ten anime of all time. I mean WOW. Yeah the ending was only decent with obvious sequel fuel (that will probably never happen), yeah the side characters were not that interesting, and regeneration seems to be in-consistent at times, but that is REALLY scrapping it for criticism. There was nothing I did not enjoy from this, you guys should watch it. B))

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Claymore has an excellent story. Teresa the Faint Smile was my favorite and coolest character in the series. Without her, Clare would not have made it.

Finished watching Unlimited Blade Works. I enjoyed this as much as Fate Stay Night. It goes in a different arc than the FSN version but the outcome is similar. We at least know more about who Archer really is in the movie version.

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If you guys liked Claymore, make sure to check out the manga. Not only does the anime only cover the first third of the series or so, but the manga really fleshes out the characters much more. It's a pretty good read. And yeah Teresa of the Faint Smile is a great character. But I really like God Eye Galathea too!

I'm checking out Gatchaman Crowds before the new winter series start kicking in on CR. After the initial shock of the colour and designs (and the fact that it seems to have very little if not nothing in common with the Gatchaman of my childhood) wore off, I've discovered that its actually a pretty thoughtful series that's asking some very relevant questions. And it has a killer soundtrack that just doesn't leave your brain.

Anyone checked out Space Dandy yet?

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Samurai Flamenco has officially "jumped the shark" as they say in the US. Unless there's big plot twist soon, I think I might drop it.

Sorry for the late reply... but I thought this series was supposed to be a big joke about Sentai shows... I guess the show is a joke on me because it seems to have become a sentai show... albeit still a bit of a satire

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Sorry for the late reply... but I thought this series was supposed to be a big joke about Sentai shows... I guess the show is a joke on me because it seems to have become a sentai show... albeit still a bit of a satire

The strange thing is that at some points it becomes kind of serious and you're left wondering if they really mean the satire bit. I mean the whole bit with

Mari getting the crap beaten out her by King Torture felt like it belonged in another show too

Speaking of serious, anyone else seen Nobunaga the Fool yet? I'm so glad that Kawamori reserves some of his more zany ideas for series like this or Aquarion. I'm not so sure how I'd feel with a Macross with historical figures running around.

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The strange thing is that at some points it becomes kind of serious and you're left wondering if they really mean the satire bit. I mean the whole bit with

Mari getting the crap beaten out her by King Torture felt like it belonged in another show too

Speaking of serious, anyone else seen Nobunaga the Fool yet? I'm so glad that Kawamori reserves some of his more zany ideas for series like this or Aquarion. I'm not so sure how I'd feel with a Macross with historical figures running around.

Well yeah... but then the next episode has...

...everybody arguing over ranger colours, with the zinger: "That's precisely what the blue ranger would say". That had me laughing pretty hard.

So I think its trying to be both, but not doing it nearly as well as Gintama.

Edited by Noyhauser
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If you guys liked Claymore, make sure to check out the manga. Not only does the anime only cover the first third of the series or so, but the manga really fleshes out the characters much more. It's a pretty good read. And yeah Teresa of the Faint Smile is a great character. But I really like God Eye Galathea too!

I'm checking out Gatchaman Crowds before the new winter series start kicking in on CR. After the initial shock of the colour and designs (and the fact that it seems to have very little if not nothing in common with the Gatchaman of my childhood) wore off, I've discovered that its actually a pretty thoughtful series that's asking some very relevant questions. And it has a killer soundtrack that just doesn't leave your brain.

Anyone checked out Space Dandy yet?

I watched it and it was just horrible. Like, really horrible. This coming from someone that will at least try to watch most anime and I don't usually look down my nose on anything. Until I watched this. Someone would have to tell me that the 2nd episode was infinitely better for me to watch it but really, that will be impossible.

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A few days ago I finished Giant Gorg once the the last episode was subbed. Not a bad ending, but nothing particularly great about it, but the series overall was very nicely done. I also started watching Cowboy Bebop, getting four episodes in. At least the art style's good, the anime itself feels like a Braiger knockoff with high production values. Also, how was this not on Toonami? Is America basically "PG-13 content? It can only be viewed after midnight!" I really expected serious R-rated content, but like with Trigun I just get some cursing and crime. Kind of reminds me of when I first watched South Park, you expect the build up to be very hardcore content and all you get is just some censored F-Bombs, very little violence, and no nudity. This is why I like Go Nagai, when it comes to content the man delivers and hard.

Okay I went off topic. So yeah, Outlaw Rocksteady is basically a Braiger remake with a high budget while replacing robots with fighters, having character designs ripped off from Ryu Knight, and characters right out of their older stuff. No really, Spike's partner (I forget his name) is basically the captain from Giant Gorg with cybernetic parts. Faye reminds me of Sara from L.Gaim, I think it is her bad luck. No idea who Spike is supposed to be just ye- Oh wait he's Hittel from Ryu Knight! Personality wise they seem similar anyway. So Sunrise basically went "lets recycle bits from some of our mecha classics while ripping off another mecha classic and then have it with no mecha to fool people that know no better!" Well dang, no wonder America ate this up, they had nothing to compare it too.

Edited by DuelGundam2099
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I've been watching Sword Art Online. It's easy to say how my girlfriend and I relate to this one, since we both played a lot of WoW back in the day. Been enjoying it up to what appears to be a second season. We finished episode 17 last night and I have to say that I'm a little concerned about the direction the show is going, though.

The "first season" ended just fine, although I would have liked to see the reunion of Kirito and Asuna after getting out of the game. Without Asuna in her previous role, the dynamics of the show have really changed and feel like it's another "save the princess in the tower" show. I liked how she and Kirito were such a great team, defending each other when they needed it most. I hope that the new "season" fixes this problem quickly.

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Half way through Cowboy Bebop. So lets see: it did not get any better, the music, while decent, is not too great, the characters are uninteresting, the villains does not much going for him, and logic is ignored too much (guns do NOT WORK IN SPACE, you exhale not inhale while in a vacuum, rotten lobster does not turn into mutant fungus, you cannot hack advanced security with handheld/junk part computers, and how is Earth's surface "damaged" because it looked perfectly fine in episode 9). I am also starting to see the more "adult" aspects of this series, although it could have still been on prime time television (unlike say Trigun which had very little questionable content). Do western anime fans like this so much because it acknowledged gay people exist? At this point and given when this aired I would not be surprised. At least the art style has effort and Ed is basically Elpeo from ZZ Gundam done right so eh.

Edited by DuelGundam2099
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Half way through Cowboy Bebop. So lets see: it did not get any better, the music, while decent, is not too great, the characters are uninteresting, the villains does not much going for him, and logic is ignored too much (guns do NOT WORK IN SPACE, you exhale not inhale while in a vacuum, rotten lobster does not turn into mutant fungus, you cannot hack advanced security with handheld/junk part computers, and how is Earth's surface "damaged" because it looked perfectly fine in episode 9). I am also starting to see the more "adult" aspects of this series, although it could have still been on prime time television (unlike say Trigun which had very little questionable content). Do western anime fans like this so much because it acknowledged gay people exist? At this point and given when this aired I would not be surprised. At least the art style has effort and Ed is basically Elpeo from ZZ Gundam done right so eh.

About the ignored logic of Cowboy Bebop, disregarding the fact that the show is sci-fy and no worse than anything else in the genre:

  • Self-contained cartriges do work in space (vaccum). The combustion of the charge does not depend on external oxygen; see here
  • Inhaling, exhaling in space. This is something most sci-fy gets wrong. SG1 got it right: you first inhale to pack your lungs and over-oxygenate your blood, then you exhale all the air out so that your lungs don't pop.
  • A terrestrial lobster wouldn't but the lobster in episode 11 was not a lobster, it was a Ganymede Rock Lobster. This organizim's metamorphosis is perfectly consistent with sci-fy tropes.
  • Hacking into secured systems with handheld/junk would depend on the quality of the so-called "junk", and one has to take into account the technology portrayed in the show and the time in which it was created; given that, I don't really see any incongruities.
  • Not all portions of the Earth were damaged to the same extent; it was all rather random.

Methinks you're just fishing for things to dislike. Some of your criticisms are valid, others... not so much.

The second episode of Space Dandy wasn't as bad as the first and it's starting to grow on me.

Agreed. While not good, it was far more enjoyable than the train wreck that was the first.

Edited by mechaninac
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Just caught up with Space Dandy, and I'm not sure where some of this hate is coming from. It's exactly what i expected it to be, a modern take on an 80's styled action comedy sci-fi series, ala Dirty Pair. Or to put it another way, if you enjoyed Redline, then there's nothing not to like here.

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Still enjoying Log Horizon, which is surprising because its a little slow paced, and yet somehow each episode is packed with info and goes quite fast. Lot's of fun.

Strike the Blood is Ok when it stops trying to be a Harem show. Not blowing me away, but a cool show.

New stuff I tried on Crunchyroll:
Hamatora - First ep was OK, I'll keep going for now. Quirky characters and powers can work if explained properly. We'll see.

Z/X Ignition - Has one more episode to get better but for now... Oof, not a great start.

The Pilots Love Song - i actually really liked this one, Im really excited for Episode 2. Cant put my finger on what clicked, but it just did for me.

Next: Wizard barristas

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Half way through Cowboy Bebop. So lets see: it did not get any better, the music, while decent, is not too great, the characters are uninteresting, the villains does not much going for him, and logic is ignored too much (guns do NOT WORK IN SPACE, you exhale not inhale while in a vacuum, rotten lobster does not turn into mutant fungus, you cannot hack advanced security with handheld/junk part computers, and how is Earth's surface "damaged" because it looked perfectly fine in episode 9). I am also starting to see the more "adult" aspects of this series, although it could have still been on prime time television (unlike say Trigun which had very little questionable content). Do western anime fans like this so much because it acknowledged gay people exist? At this point and given when this aired I would not be surprised. At least the art style has effort and Ed is basically Elpeo from ZZ Gundam done right so eh.

tumblr_msm0wuCUbc1s9f3k1o1_500.gif

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Anyone watch Strange+ The description was longer tgan the ep, and yet, it was strangely entertaining...

It had a whole lot of WTF moments for a 4 minute show for sure!

I thought the second episode of Space Dandy was ok. It reminds me a lot of Outlaw Star meets Redline with a touch of Johnny Bravo. I think it's going to be more of a hit with mainstream audiences than with hardcore anime fans.

Nisekoi looks like your standard high school romcom story, but SHAFT gives it a style and feel that will probably make me stay with it.

So far I have to say that the winter season is not really as good as the autumn one.

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