The Anime TV Thread

I meant more the episode title cards. There's one that appears in the beginning that has a title in Japanese and then about halfway through the episode (where I assume a commercial break would have fallen) the title card appears again in English and it's completely different from the title card at the beginning of the episode. The titles that appear on Netflix seem to be closer to the Japanese titles that appear at the start of the episode.

Also thanks for letting me know I can just skip Death & Rebirth or Rebirth & Death or whatever that other deal is called. I would have been annoyed if I spent time watching what ultimately boiled down to a clip show.

I got like 3 episodes of NGE left plus the movie that's a redo of the last two episodes or something. Shit really picked up in the back half of this show, not that the first 15 episodes were dragging or anything but goddamn does the action start coming fast and furious. There's one thing that's been bugging me about it though and that's that anytime they have to bust an "A.T. Field" up, all I can think of is goatse.

I always recommend Samurai Champloo whenever I get a chance. It's the same team behind Cowboy Bebop and I consider it pretty much one of the really excellent series to watch if you're also into Edo-period Japanese culture or street culture here (which is waning compared to when the show came out, but still a thing). Michiko & Hachin is also great and by the same team and director. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is probably one of the best series I can really think of in that has a nice length,  a great story, great action, and also has a fulfilling ending. There's not a bad part that I can really think of.  Silver Spoon is written by the same author and also is pretty good if much more meandering by nature of the story. The anime never finished but Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan was pretty enjoyable and I consider the manga, which has ended, probably the best Shonen manga that I know of in that it manages to well-written, well-thought out, and have a satisfying ending.

For something a little more grown up, I really enjoyed both The House of Five Leaves,  Natsuyuki Rendezvous, as well as Tatami Galaxy.
For recent works, I liked One-Punch Man, Uchoten Kazoku, and Sarazanmai  (which is completely bonkers but really managed to capture the Asakusa area of Tokyo)

Despite this list, I'm not much of an anime or manga fan, although I am thinking I will make more of an effort in the next year. There's just too many buttons that I have that will get me to drop a series and too much of the same kind of stuff to sort through. 

Pretty much all of these are either single seasons shows or  ran for 2 seasons. So something in the ballpark of 12-24 episodes. The only long one is Fullmetal Alchemist which is like 56 or something like that. It's longer but its not endless and it has the advantage of being really good to boot. 

I found that Brotherhood didn't really pick up until the 4th episode so fair warning on that front.

I'm watching the original mini-series right now and in two episodes DRC's assessment seems pretty accurate. The main characters are the b-team of giant robot cops and are generally given the non-glamorous giant robot jobs. When they do have to do "cool" giant robot shit they aren't great at it (the first episode returns with their two robots returning to base with one missing an arm and the other missing its head).

Did you just start the list? I figured you would have a lot more.

If you don't think this is an all-timer... kindly Fuck Off

If you liked Bebop, check out Space Dandy.  It's about a dandy guy - IN SPACE!  It's by the same guy who did Bebop, but has different animators and directors for each episode.  I loved it from literally the first scene - the dialog was tailored towards 80s anime geeks, but give it a few episodes to see if you dig it.

Nah - only 26 half hours.  With all the different directors, and weird continuity, it's a bit like Into the Spiderverse - the animation quality is consistently good and occasionally amazing, and they seem to have a lot of fun with the possibilities. Like, they do an actual 2D episode, and it mostly works. And, all the weirdness actually pays off in the end. 

For some reason, Funimation only has the subs, but there's a convention Q&A video with the US voice actor for Dandy floating around on YouTube that is so heartwarming that I'd like to find the dubs.  It's kinda spoilery, though, so while I recommend it highly, you should probably wait until after you've seen the series to watch it.

Also, the end theme is pretty catchy.

My TV viewing is basically entirely anime at this point - I've reached the endgame in my queer evolution - and of late, what we've been watching is:

Zombie Land Saga - I'm far from the first to praise this series, but let me do it anyway and say that this show is fantastic. It's ludicrous, extremely funny, and heartfelt, frequently all in the same scene. Any one of the members of Franchouchou might have been my fav in another series, I just love them all. Each is distinct and gets their own growth and development and relationships with each other. And this is before you get to the majesty that is Kotaro Tatsumi, the manager. And of course, there's the dub, which is unhinged and hilarious and brilliant all around. And the music slaps - "Mezame Returner" is lodged permanently in my brain. And an anime with a canon trans character in the main cast that handles her with love and kindness? God, yes, thank you!

Love Live! School Idol Project - In non-zombie idol news, we're working our way through the entirety of the Love Live! anime universe, starting at the beginning. Because Love Live! also exists as things like mobile gacha rhythm games, I guess my expectations for the series were pretty low, but...it's great? It's sweet and fun and the songs are top notch and also has a much stronger undercurrent of weirdos in the cast than I expected. I like any show that lets girls be total little gremlin raccoons so I'm so thankful someone like Nico exists. The anime is beautifully made, with Sunrise putting some honest-to-goodness money and effort in with great results - it has a knack for facial expressions and reactions that delights me. And I also now understand how the show started out thinking it would be targeted at boys but became widely loved by queer girls because even here in the beginning the subtext is clear. When you've got characters like Eli and Nozomi acting like the group's wise lesbian den mothers and the inseparable polycule that is Rin, Hanayo, and Maki, the gayness is baked right in. I love it!

Bodacious Space Pirates - after my initial misfire at watching the dub (so many talented people involved but it just did not work for me at all), restarting with the sub made this show click into place. I adore it. It's not what its (frankly kinda awful) title would imply. There's next to no fan service and it's got a hard sci-fi heart, the worldbuilding is legit great and the show's sometimes leisurely pace gets across how it's not a jokey parody, but a serious little sci-fi series with some lovely characters at its heart that it wants to explore and grow. I just love the protagonist, Marika. Watching her grow from a high schooler thrown into the deep end of a whole world she never expected into a hypercompetent lesbian space pirate without losing her distinct personality is a delight. Oh yeah, and despite not being marketed as a yuri anime series, this show is gay as hell? Marika and her blatant crush Chiaki are a delight to watch play off each other as their personalities crash into each other resulting in much flirting and blushing, and the show just, like, also has an outright lesbian couple besides them? Who are great? I don't know how it got made this gay, but I'm so glad it did.

Nichijou - I am a total fangirl for Kyoto Animation. Despite their queerbaiting misstep with Sound! Euphonium, I adore the studio otherwise. The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya was one of the first anime I watched in my conversion to total otaku status last year, and while I have Problems with that series it definitely set me on a path. The studio's Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions is my favorite anime full stop, Hyouka is right up there with it, and K-On! has a deep place in my heart as a girl who's also in a rock band. Nichijou was up next on my list, and for whatever reason I just expected it to be a pleasant little slice of life show, so imagine my surprise to discover that Nichijou is a completely unhinged blast of surreal weirdness balanced by some of KyoAni's most inventive animation. It's a Tumblr shitpost filtered through the intricate artistry of one of the finest teams of animators on earth, vignettes veering through all sorts of over-the-top gags, rug-pulling antihumor, and then a quick little throat punch of sincerity. That in and of itself would delight me, but it's the animation that pushes it over the top. Something like Hyouka showcases KyoAni's artistry through achingly beautiful backdrops, physical environments, and subtle character interactions. Nichijou by contrast is all about movement and big spectacle and fluidity. I've often just sat staring at sequences in this show, marveling at how much work was put into animating these weird gags. It's top animators showing off and flexing their skills, which is one of my favorite things ever.

Laid-Back Camp - never has a show's title been so accurate. Laid-Back Camp is our chillout show. It's never in a hurry to ever tell any actual story - the show's all about the vibe, the mood, little moments of life, and letting the characters play off each other. The girls of the Outdoor Activities Club are all delights, and in particular the way the show is growing the relationship between solo camping loner Rin and wide-eyed sugar rush steamroller Nadeshiko is beautiful to watch, with Nadeshiko learning to respect Rin's boundaries and the two falling into a sweet relationship that lets their distinctly different personalities evolve together. This show is a quiet, soft little gem.

I liked this show as well, especially the expository bits at the beginning of each episode where back story and sci-fi gibberish are mixed with Intro to Philosophy musings. I think there was also a movie which I keep meaning to get to.