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Post by Deleted on May 4, 2014 20:40:15 GMT -5
Damn it. DAMN it. I'm going to have to watch this. My inner 12 year old would be pissed off if I don't. I managed to watch through the series via illegal streaming sources when I was 19, purely out of curiosity because I knew that the chopped up American series differed from the original series. It was cute, but nothing totes amazing. We'll see if the reboot is any better. The only way to watch Sailor Moon is through the dub, because come on, they changed the lesbians into cousins! So horrible yet I can't look away. Though I haven't watched the show since I was like 11 or 12, I wonder how a rewatch of the dub would be now......
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Post by Arthur Dent on May 10, 2014 22:23:12 GMT -5
I'm now six episodes in on both Welcome to the NHK and Attack on Titan. I like Welcome considerably more, but after almost being ready to stop watching AoT, that Mikasa flashback episode (and with the great sequence for Armin at the beginning) pulled me right back in, for now at least.
I'm sorry for how behind on Mushishi I am.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on May 11, 2014 9:19:42 GMT -5
Arthur Dent Yeah Welcome to the NHK! is one of my favourite anime period and Attack on Titan is basically just a fun shonen dark fantasy action series. I enjoyed both but I wouldn't compare them much. It's a lot easier to watch Attack on Titan now then it was when it was on, though - not just because the show was addictive, but it had serious pacing issues in the later arcs, which were very frustrating but that should be lessened by bingewatching. In other news, Ping Pong: The Animation improved their opening animation a couple of episodes back, so I'm updating what I posted above by posting it here: It remains a pretty good show but beyond the fantastic, jagged Yuasa animation you really have to have a taste for sports tournament anime to enjoy it, I'd figure (though I do like it when it goes over the top, like the ridiculously advanced facilities Serious About Ping Pong High School Kaio Academy has - they're bad guys, obviously - or short vignettes like a character we'd never seen before getting a pep talk from his girlfriend and then a smash cut to him being obliterated in a competition. Good times?) Mushishi remains my pick for best show of the season and the other shows I've been watching have cratered rather dramatically in different ways so eh. I probably should look around the net to see what people are saying about other shows, if there's anything good (I am politely waiting for Netflix to put up Knights of Sidonia before I watch that.) However, let us cast our eye ahead to later in the anime year and I'll point out potentially interesting titles coming this Summer, i.e. July (which is the month Netflix will probably put up Knights of Sidonia): Space Dandy is not the only anime series Shinchiro Watanabe is directing this year! He's re-teaming up with composer Yoko Kanno (they both did this thing called Cowboy Bebop perhaps you've heard of it) for a series called Terror of Resonance, which looks absolutely nothing like his Bebop work (it's a bit closer to his short Baby Blue or his series Kids on the Slope, aka the stuff Watanabe isn't as well known for in the West.) This TV series is about the aftermath of a terrorist attack on Tokyo, and this early promo looks suitably intriguing: Of course, objectively the most important thing to happen in July is Girls und Panzer: This Is The Real Anzio Battle! an OVA which will finally tell the story the TV series glossed over - the battle against the Italian-themed Anzio High School.
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Post by sarapen on May 12, 2014 21:20:19 GMT -5
Extra, Extra! Gene Simmons discovers anime!Specifically, he discovered LoveLive!, which seems to be about high school girls forming a pop group to save their school from dissolution. The particular screenshot which piqued Monsieur Simmons' curiosity was of the characters dressed up as KISS. Of the anime I have nothing to say, as I've never seen it and I'm getting moe* vibes from the summary. I do find it hilarious that when Simmons asked Twitter where a screenshot of the anime was from, one smartass gave him the name of a pornographic direct to video series about underage male crossdressers. Anyway, you may now return to distracting yourselves from your inevitable and creeping deaths. *Moe: slang term for a subgenre of anime and manga. I would define it as the fetishization of female helplessness, which is exactly as off-putting as it sounds.
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Post by flowsthead on May 13, 2014 14:39:09 GMT -5
Space Dandy is not the only anime series Shinchiro Watanabe is directing this year! He's re-teaming up with composer Yoko Kanno (they both did this thing called Cowboy Bebop perhaps you've heard of it) for a series called Terror of Resonance, which looks absolutely nothing like his Bebop work (it's a bit closer to his short Baby Blue or his series Kids on the Slope, aka the stuff Watanabe isn't as well known for in the West.) Yoko Kanno and Shinchiro Watanabe are teaming up again?! The only way I could be more excited would be if you told me that Satoshi Kon was back from the dead and teamed up with Yoko Kanno. This is the most exciting thing I've heard about this month.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on May 16, 2014 7:20:08 GMT -5
So I will now soapbox a bit about my favourite anime of recent years. Here's a trailer, featuring some of its striking images and one of the best parts of the show's soundtrack: Based on a novel, From The New World is a bildungsroman about growing up in a fantasy-esque world of dangerous magic powers, subhuman rat people, and a rigid society deathly afraid of the dangers lurking in its margins. Its often gorgeous colour palette can suggest the surreal beauty of semi-imaginary things one dare not hold and let the show drift effortlessly into the liberating beauty of the forest or the raw horror of its darker episodes. Somewhere in there too is an Orwellian selectiveness of memory, the loves and losses of youth, teenage sexuality in a non-heternormative society, the comforting flaws of a colonialist mindset, and the maturation of Saki; our heroine who narrates the series as a much older woman right from the beginning, her retrospectives tinging our expectation of what is to come. And it finds its most tragic character in a very unexpected place. The short version is when FTNW was on I wrote three or four paragraphs about every episode, because it was the kind of show that deserved that level of pretentious waffling on. I enjoyed the heck out of it and cannot be more high in my recommendation. Oh and as bonus I scoured the internet and went and found what I wrote right after the show finished its original run. There are no spoilers, but there is a pretty conceited passion.
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Post by Cerusee on May 16, 2014 15:10:14 GMT -5
DRC, that looks fantastic. I must remember to hunt it down.
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Post by ComradePig on May 16, 2014 20:19:11 GMT -5
So I will now soapbox a bit about my favourite anime of recent years. Here's a trailer, featuring some of its striking images and one of the best parts of the show's soundtrack: Based on a novel, From The New World is a bildungsroman about growing up in a fantasy-esque world of dangerous magic powers, subhuman rat people, and a rigid society deathly afraid of the dangers lurking in its margins. Its often gorgeous colour palette can suggest the surreal beauty of semi-imaginary things one dare not hold and let the show drift effortlessly into the liberating beauty of the forest or the raw horror of its darker episodes. Somewhere in there too is an Orwellian selectiveness of memory, the loves and losses of youth, teenage sexuality in a non-heternormative society, the comforting flaws of a colonialist mindset, and the maturation of Saki; our heroine who narrates the series as a much older woman right from the beginning, her retrospectives tinging our expectation of what is to come. And it finds its most tragic character in a very unexpected place. The short version is when FTNW was on I wrote three or four paragraphs about every episode, because it was the kind of show that deserved that level of pretentious waffling on. I enjoyed the heck out of it and cannot be more high in my recommendation. Had meant to start watching this a little while back but got distracted by other things and forgot, given that I'm in a inter-show lull perhaps I'll finally do so this weekend.
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Post by 🐍 huss 🐍 on May 17, 2014 17:47:09 GMT -5
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Post by sarapen on May 17, 2014 19:07:32 GMT -5
Douay-Rheims-Challoner Aaargh goddammit you knew From the New World was on my list. I was trying to get some of the shorter shows on my queue finished before I started a new series. Why did you have to make it sound so good?
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Post by sarapen on May 20, 2014 23:04:02 GMT -5
I tried out a couple of episodes of Brynhildr in the Darkness. I thought the manga was okay so I hoped the anime adaptation would at least be on the same level. I can say that it is, but like most manga to anime adaptations, I prefer the version with the moving pictures. The creator also made Elfen Lied, if that means anything to you out there.
So then, briefly, the show is about an ordinary boy who's fallen in with teenage girls with psychic powers on the run from the sinister organization that created them. Also, one of the girls may be the boy's childhood friend who he thought had died years ago but who seems not to remember him.
You could probably guess most of the story beats from that summary, and you would probably be mostly right. Still, the show is unexpectedly subdued for a series containing psychic duels and time travel and teenagers in love triangles. Well, perhaps not unexpectedly, since the manga is also not very flashy, but there's a certain type of anime one might expect from the summary. You know what I mean: repeated vows to protect one's friends, liberal use of the word "nakama" (comrade or close companion), endless battles spaced out over several episodes, heterosexual romance enacted through stubborn denials of its existence, constant flashes of tits and ass, and a theme song written and sung by an idol singer who drops English words into the lyrics to make everything sound cooler. You know, the usual.
Brynhildr isn't that type of show. Well, it's mostly not that type of show. It's ostensibly aimed at boys, making it a shounen (boy) anime. But for a shounen anime, it treats things rather a bit seriously.
This is not necessarily a good thing, because I think the subject matter deserves a little razzmatazz in the presentation. Fantastic things deserve fantastic display. Perhaps not all the time, but at least some of the time. The animation, though, can be workmanlike. It's not terrible and it tells the story like it's supposed to, but it's just kind of there. There deserves to be at least one or two sequences where I can gape at the marvels I'm witnessing, but so far I haven't seen one yet.
Other criticisms apply. The comic parts don't elicit much reaction beyond a polite chuckle. The male protagonist doesn't have much of a personality beyond having a stick up his ass. The show doesn't say anything beyond what the plot is saying. And is it perhaps a law in Japan that healthy romantic relationships cannot be depicted in anime targeted at boys?
Perhaps I sound like I hate this show, but I really don't. It's not a classic of our age, but what is? I do like the song from the opening sequence well enough.
Still, like its animation, the show is just kind of there. Somehow, I feel like something exceptional is just slightly out of reach, like the show is trying to be something and kind of has an idea of what that something is but isn't quite sure how to get there. I'll keep watching, since I have a rather high tolerance for imperfection, but this show is not something I can unreservedly recommend.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on May 21, 2014 7:07:48 GMT -5
sarapen For the record, Elfen Lied was my first real exposure to moe. I thought the series succeeded on bringing the ultraviolence (the first seven minutes are the best part of the entire series and if you want to watch any of it watch that); but built that around a mawkish melodrama that took its own ridiculousness way too seriously, and also was basically a harem show completely with nondescript male lead. It's trashy but pretentiously trashy, with its German poem referencing name and a portentous opening sequence that combines Georgian-esque Latin singing with NFSW pictures inspired by the work of Gustav Klimt: It's a memorable style choice for a series whose animation and style is largely uninspired, showing only real imagination in its gore and the shock value of doing horrific things to cute girls. 'Guilty pleasure' I think sums it up nicely. The series was once the go-to example for 'mature' anime, and like Ninja Scroll before it it only succeeded at that in the most puerile way. Hard to believe it is now ten years old...
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Post by ComradePig on May 21, 2014 20:58:42 GMT -5
10/10 show and writing of the century
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Post by Lemminkainen on May 22, 2014 1:31:30 GMT -5
I bet that's still better than Infinite Stratos 2.
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Post by signsofrain on May 28, 2014 13:20:45 GMT -5
Terror of Resonance looks amazing. Looking forward to it! I loved Bebop so I was excited about Watanabe's new jam Space Dandy but a couple of episodes of it really left me cold. I'm told it gets better later but... I guess I'm just too old and crusty to find the word BOOBIES as funny as the show seems to think it is.
I'm probably not as all up in the recent anime as you guys but I've been recently watching and enjoying Ping Pong the Animation, Golden Time (when my wife saw this folder on the media server she assumed it was some kind of porn), and Michiko to Hatchin. I also took some time off watching new anime to rewatch Freedom which, if you haven't seen it, is amaaaazing. It's got that cel-shaded 3d look, kind of like Jet Set Radio, and the character designs are all Katsuhiro Otomo so fans of Akira will recognize the style right away. If you've ever wanted to see a couple of kids from a U/Dys-topian moon society escape and travel by rocket to Earth where they proceed to road-trip a post-apocalyptic Route 66 in a nitro-charged moon-racing buggy than Freedom is the show for you.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on May 28, 2014 13:52:57 GMT -5
signsofrain Hooray! Someone else is watching Ping Pong. And hope you are enjoying Michiko to Hatchin. And don't worry about how much or how little anime you watch, as the posters here have varying levels of engagement and any is fine. Do tell me if I ever sound incomprehensible though. You certainly have good timing; just today Funimation confirmed they will be streaming Terror of Resonance come July 5th, this is a few days after Netflix confirming my speculation that they would stream Knights of Sidonia in July (specifically July 4th.) Since Sidonia should have finished its Japanese run by then Netflix are likely to stream the entire show at once, whereas Funimation will be following the Japanese schedule as is typical of it and Crunchyroll. I don't feel Space Dandy improved a lot, honestly, so you really aren't missing out there, but I tolerated it enough I'll probably watch the second half that is also this July. I have had half a mind to watch Freedom so you are swaying me there. Recently finished watching both parts of Fate/Zero (urban fantasy action series where mages war over control of the Holy Grail by summoning a roster of historical and mythical heroes, I overall enjoyed with some reservations but it's good fun worth a look) and Nisekoi (our long national nightmare is over in a final episode where a school production of Romeo and Juliet adds a romantic triangle with incest - yep, let us not speak of it) and currently watching a little Natsu no Arashi! for some tolerably light comedy, but not good enough to recommend.
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Post by Arthur Dent on May 28, 2014 15:40:23 GMT -5
I'm finally starting to watch NHK again. I watched three episodes last night, and I'm going to try to push through and finish it while I also wrap up The Sopranos. Loving it.
Mushishi, I guess is on the backburner for now, sorry for that. My TV load will be light enough for it soon, though, with Mad Men and Americans done, and GoT almost done.
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Paleu
AV Clubber
Confirmed for neo-liberal shill.
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Post by Paleu on May 28, 2014 16:17:24 GMT -5
So I will now soapbox a bit about my favourite anime of recent years. Here's a trailer, featuring some of its striking images and one of the best parts of the show's soundtrack: Based on a novel, From The New World is a bildungsroman about growing up in a fantasy-esque world of dangerous magic powers, subhuman rat people, and a rigid society deathly afraid of the dangers lurking in its margins. Its often gorgeous colour palette can suggest the surreal beauty of semi-imaginary things one dare not hold and let the show drift effortlessly into the liberating beauty of the forest or the raw horror of its darker episodes. Somewhere in there too is an Orwellian selectiveness of memory, the loves and losses of youth, teenage sexuality in a non-heternormative society, the comforting flaws of a colonialist mindset, and the maturation of Saki; our heroine who narrates the series as a much older woman right from the beginning, her retrospectives tinging our expectation of what is to come. And it finds its most tragic character in a very unexpected place. The short version is when FTNW was on I wrote three or four paragraphs about every episode, because it was the kind of show that deserved that level of pretentious waffling on. I enjoyed the heck out of it and cannot be more high in my recommendation. Oh and as bonus I scoured the internet and went and found what I wrote right after the show finished its original run. There are no spoilers, but there is a pretty conceited passion. It's available on Hulu! Loving the first episode so far, thanks for the rec!
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Post by sarapen on May 28, 2014 19:13:04 GMT -5
Terror of Resonance looks amazing. Looking forward to it! I loved Bebop so I was excited about Watanabe's new jam Space Dandy but a couple of episodes of it really left me cold. I'm told it gets better later but... I guess I'm just too old and crusty to find the word BOOBIES as funny as the show seems to think it is. I'm probably not as all up in the recent anime as you guys but I've been recently watching and enjoying Ping Pong the Animation, Golden Time (when my wife saw this folder on the media server she assumed it was some kind of porn), and Michiko to Hatchin. I also took some time off watching new anime to rewatch Freedom which, if you haven't seen it, is amaaaazing. It's got that cel-shaded 3d look, kind of like Jet Set Radio, and the character designs are all Katsuhiro Otomo so fans of Akira will recognize the style right away. If you've ever wanted to see a couple of kids from a U/Dys-topian moon society escape and travel by rocket to Earth where they proceed to road-trip a post-apocalyptic Route 66 in a nitro-charged moon-racing buggy than Freedom is the show for you. I just saw Akira again for the first time in forever and the art style looks interesting, so I'll give Freedom a spin. DRC will attest to my forgiving nature to shows with great visuals, so many thanks for adding a new entry to my ever growing list.
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Post by Lemminkainen on May 29, 2014 23:17:18 GMT -5
I... I literally can't bring myself to watch anything from this new season with the sole exception of Ping Pong.
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Post by ComradePig on May 30, 2014 16:19:35 GMT -5
I... I literally can't bring myself to watch anything from this new season with the sole exception of Ping Pong. For what it's worth I'm enjoying Chaika, it's pretty standard fantasy action-adventure stuff on whole but the characters are entertaining, the protagonist has a personality and some flaws rather than just being an empty vessel for audience self-insertion and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Not essential or anything, but solid fun.
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Post by Douay-Rheims-Challoner on May 30, 2014 17:42:54 GMT -5
Finished Natsu no Arashi! and of all the many visually eccentric and wordplay-y Shaft comedies this is one of them. Like Maria Holic and Arakawa Under The Bridge I felt the first season was better than the second. There's a nostalgic quality to it that elevates its vague stabs at drama (though like other Shaft comedies it has too much invested in the status quo to follow through on any of its character arcs.) Most importantly the show's opening sequences are inventively animated. I think Nisekoi's blander opening was the last straw for that show, I expect Shaft openings to be strange and inventive. (Like the first and mildly NFSW Maria Holic or just about any Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei opening but especially the also vaguely NFSW this.) ComradePig Yeah that's one of the shows I'm mulling picking up. And/or maybe One Week Friends. Lemminkainen Not a Mushishi fan then? Because while I like Ping Pong Mushishi's new season has been pretty excellent thus far. You don't have to have watched the first season (as Mushishi is very episodic) but it wouldn't win over anyone who didn't like the first season either.
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Post by sarapen on May 30, 2014 18:15:29 GMT -5
I... I literally can't bring myself to watch anything from this new season with the sole exception of Ping Pong. For what it's worth I'm enjoying Chaika, it's pretty standard fantasy action-adventure stuff on whole but the characters are fairly entertaining, the protagonist has a personality and some flaws beyond being an empty vessel for audience self-insertion and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Not essential or anything, but fun. I agree, it's just something pleasant and unchallenging to relax to. Does the guy's battle chant remind you of Dune? It also kind of sounds like the thing from Conan the Barbarian.
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Paleu
AV Clubber
Confirmed for neo-liberal shill.
Posts: 1,258
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Post by Paleu on May 30, 2014 18:52:15 GMT -5
So I will now soapbox a bit about my favourite anime of recent years. Here's a trailer, featuring some of its striking images and one of the best parts of the show's soundtrack: Based on a novel, From The New World is a bildungsroman about growing up in a fantasy-esque world of dangerous magic powers, subhuman rat people, and a rigid society deathly afraid of the dangers lurking in its margins. Its often gorgeous colour palette can suggest the surreal beauty of semi-imaginary things one dare not hold and let the show drift effortlessly into the liberating beauty of the forest or the raw horror of its darker episodes. Somewhere in there too is an Orwellian selectiveness of memory, the loves and losses of youth, teenage sexuality in a non-heternormative society, the comforting flaws of a colonialist mindset, and the maturation of Saki; our heroine who narrates the series as a much older woman right from the beginning, her retrospectives tinging our expectation of what is to come. And it finds its most tragic character in a very unexpected place. The short version is when FTNW was on I wrote three or four paragraphs about every episode, because it was the kind of show that deserved that level of pretentious waffling on. I enjoyed the heck out of it and cannot be more high in my recommendation. Oh and as bonus I scoured the internet and went and found what I wrote right after the show finished its original run. There are no spoilers, but there is a pretty conceited passion. It's available on Hulu! Loving the first episode so far, thanks for the rec! Guys, guys. This show. This fucking show. I love this show. I love the scifi themes. I love the characters. I love the voice acting. I love the animation. I love the LGBT themes that are touched on but don't overwhelm the show. I love the political themes that are also touched on and apparent but never preachy or simplistic. I love every twist and turn the narrative takes. I love the ambiguous yet optimistic ending. I love the female protagonist. I love the protagonist who is special because she can deal with shit that others can't, not that she's the most powerful PK user ever like a much lesser iteration of this show would have gone with. I love the coming of age elements. I love that this show was so good that I binged it in three days. It would be so easy to make the Ethics Committee bad guys, or the Monster Rats bad guys, or even fucking Squera the bad guy, but this show is soooooo much better than that. I love the final twist that the monster rats are actually humans without PK.
My only "problem" is more of a confusion; was it ever really explained why a human couldn't just use power to kill an ogre and die the death of shame? I mean, I get that people don't want to die, but doesn't it make more sense to just sacrifice your life for the good of the community, especially since they're already prepared to do that in the first place? That's just nitpicking though. Have I convinced you to watch this yet? 'Cause it's definitely worth your time. Thanks for the rec, Douay-Rheims-Challoner!
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Post by ComradePig on May 30, 2014 18:56:46 GMT -5
It's available on Hulu! Loving the first episode so far, thanks for the rec! Guys, guys. This show. This fucking show. [Snip] Have I convinced you to watch this yet? 'Cause it's definitely worth your time. Thanks for the rec, Douay-Rheims-Challoner! I also recently finished said show myself (having been reminded of it by this thread/DRC as well) and completely agree with everything you wrote here, great encapsulation of all the ways the show manages to tell a really involving, nuanced story and buck a lot of cliches and audience expectations in the process.
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Post by Lemminkainen on May 31, 2014 1:22:13 GMT -5
I... I literally can't bring myself to watch anything from this new season with the sole exception of Ping Pong. For what it's worth I'm enjoying Chaika, it's pretty standard fantasy action-adventure stuff on whole but the characters are entertaining, the protagonist has a personality and some flaws rather than just being an empty vessel for audience self-insertion and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Not essential or anything, but solid fun. I watched a couple episodes and put it on hold, but now I'm debating restarting that now that I've heard that it's getting a season 2. Re: Mushishi - It sounds up my alley, but I haven't seen season 1 yet.
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Paleu
AV Clubber
Confirmed for neo-liberal shill.
Posts: 1,258
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Post by Paleu on Jun 3, 2014 19:18:54 GMT -5
From the New World spoiled me, because I just finished Attack on Titan and...it wasn't that good. It was entertaining, sure, but it has this annoying LOST-like habit to keep bringing up mysteries and then just not solving them. I honestly don't mind the fact that the central conflict is so simple, it's just the show seems to think I want much more to the conflict than just humans v. Titans. It's also obvious that the guy who made this also made Death Note, the thing is just so freaking melodramatic. I'll probably catch season 2 at some point, but at this point I'm not really looking forward to it.
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Post by signsofrain on Jun 3, 2014 21:27:06 GMT -5
Just wanted to add to this thread that I started watching The Comic Artist and his Assistants on Crunchyroll today and have been enjoying it immensely! It's a sweet little comedy with likeable characters.
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Post by sarapen on Jun 4, 2014 15:49:38 GMT -5
Gawd, having no Internet is hellish. I have to do all my surfing at work like some kind of Neanderthal. Anyway, this news feels like it's from a lifetime ago but apparently the last two episodes of the Hellsing Ultimate dub is coming out "Fall 2014". I've been stubbornly waiting for the dub so I guess I'll finally see Dracula fighting Nazis later this year.
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Post by ComradePig on Jun 6, 2014 16:41:18 GMT -5
I started watching this recently and have been really digging it. Particularly for the medium it's a refreshingly non-idealized/more frank and modern depiction of people's lives in their 20s and all of the problems that entails with careers, relationships and sex etc. It's certainly got its spells of melodrama but on whole, good stuff so far.
Edit: Also, a whole bunch of my 40+ year old coworkers were discussing AoT at work today. Granted, it's the sort of work place where it's not too surprising that people would be into/familiar with it, but it's definitely gotten pretty big into the mainstream nevertheless among non-anime fans.
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