General Anime Discussion: Area 11

[Terraoblivion]

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I find it amusing how seemingly arbitrary the success or failure in life of the girls are. Also so many things triggering yuri goggles, apart from the obvious Misora and Kokone as well as Yue and Nodoka seemed to trigger them. Asakura and Sayo too and probably more that I forgot about. Also, Chisame is the best dressed hikkikomori ever, she even seems to get her hair done regularly.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Negima:

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Huh? Isn't there a rule in entertainment, "show don't tell"? We basically got handed the writer's notes for the manga's plot and waved goodbye. It feels like it's not enough. It's nice that things with the lifemaker, Nagi, the petrified villagers, and some of the relationships got wrapped up but to be simply mentioned in passing is kinda disappointing. I think I need some time to process this.

[NeonBlack]

Negima indeed:

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Welp, won't say I'm disappointed because I didn't expect much better at this point, but still. Getting the whole potential "final arc" summarized in one panel kind of sucks, but it was either this or leaving the ending open. I'd have gone for the second option, personally, but I guess getting some kind of closure ain't bad either, even if it's as rushed and clumsy as this.

Best thing: KonoSetsu, yay. Also Natsumi and Kotarou, which went exactly as I would expect from those two . Biggest surprise: the twins. Biggest mind screw: Makie constantly calling Nagi "father". Hah. And we got no definite answer to The One Question, and in fact the most likely answer given the girls' future life summaries would be either "no one" or (gasp) Ayaka. Eh, not sure how I feel about that.

Also, Arika? Where are you? Is there some hope for Eva after all?

Also also, Anya didn't appear at all, which given everything else could make her the leading candidate to become the "winner". Eh.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I read spoilers!

Negima:

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Huh? Isn't there a rule in entertainment, "show don't tell"? We basically got handed the writer's notes for the manga's plot and waved goodbye. It feels like it's not enough. It's nice that things with the lifemaker, Nagi, the petrified villagers, and some of the relationships got wrapped up but to be simply mentioned in passing is kinda disappointing. I think I need some time to process this.

Show, don't tell doesn't necessarily apply to epilogues - a narrative wrap-up is quite common there. Now, whether or not all this information should have been the epilogue or its own storyline seems to be the thing in question, but whatever, I don't read Negima.

Speaking of which, what the hell is this thread going to talk about now?

[Terraoblivion]

Speaking of which, what the hell is this thread going to talk about now?

I guess we can always give recommendations to people who drop in and want recommendations for a show while giving us barely any information about their taste.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

I guess we can always give recommendations to people who drop in and want recommendations for a show while giving us barely any information about their taste.

Okay, I'll bite. Any good science fiction anime which doesn't involve war?

[tensai_oni]

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Also also, Anya didn't appear at all, which given everything else could make her the leading candidate to become the "winner". Eh.

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I sure hope not. Anya was the most annoying, one-dimensional, unnecessary character in the whole series. Her absence from the epilogue probably just shows that even Akamatsu realizes that and decided to sweep her under the carpet.

[Fri]

Planetes. It's a realistic story about garbagemen in space, and one of the best realistic sci-fi out there anime or not. It's about future space debris collector, where space debris is a big problem. Look at this awesome opening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-OyT4ivkM

Patlabor, which is basically police procedural WITH MECH! This is really mostly a police procedural, so it focuses more to the human factor, and the patlabor's mechs are mostly glorified humanoid tractor too. There are mecha fights, but really not the point of the show, and they're actually pretty rare too. And polices apprehending drunk mecha driver is definitely not war! Here's its opening, which I also really liked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZXtuzizxxA

There. My monthly 'reminder to watch patlabor and planetes' is done! Thanks for reminding me to do that!

[Kato]

Okay, I'll bite. Any good science fiction anime which doesn't involve war?

War or any kind of violent conflict?

[Terraoblivion]

Okay, I'll bite. Any good science fiction anime which doesn't involve war?

I was joking, you know, because it was the only other thing we had been doing here for ages. In any case, Planetes seems to fit the bill as it is about space garbagemen rather than anything militaristic. I don't really know much about it, though. I know my friend who pointed me back here wanted me to say Mouretsu Pirates, or Bodacious Space Pirates if you really want to, but that show seems to be on the verge of civil war by now. Still, so far there is peace and it is a really good show with some great characters.

[NeonBlack]

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I sure hope not. Anya was the most annoying, one-dimensional, unnecessary character in the whole series. Her absence from the epilogue probably just shows that even Akamatsu realizes that and decided to sweep her under the carpet.

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Yep, agreed on all counts. Hence the "eh". Then again, it's extremely likely we'll never know for sure, so whatever. Everyone I rooted for (Nodoka, Yue and Chisame, in that order) seem to be out, so I don't really care either way.

Keeping an eye on the Negima section on Fanfiction.net for the following months is going to be Fun (in the Dwarf Fortress meaning of the word, of course).

I was joking, you know, because it was the only other thing we had been doing here for ages.

Hey, we also had lots of fun speculating about Madoka!

...about one year ago . We need something new that everyone and his dog is watching and that leads itself to speculation and discussion, and that seems to be a rare thing.

Oh, and for the not-war sci-fi thing: Time of Eve.

[Tengu_temp]

Speaking of which, what the hell is this thread going to talk about now?

So, which female Naruto are you?

[Soras Teva Gee]

Negima, as expected I would have liked the ending if I had 100 or so chapters to establish the results and tie up all the other plot threads. And I never expected Negi to pick one, always understood from early it would never happen, and so forth. Yeah its really a shame this series is over but ah well.

My one nitpick will be: screw magic its stupid to build an orbital elevator anywhere but at the equator :P

[Dispozition]

Planetes. It's a realistic story about garbagemen in space, and one of the best realistic sci-fi out there anime or not. It's about future space debris collector, where space debris is a big problem. Look at this awesome opening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-OyT4ivkM

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. That is all.

Also Negima

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I suppose that's about as good an ending as we can hope for given how little space it had to end...I'm still annoyed because it could have gone a solid 100 or so more chapters and wrapped it all up a lot more nicely. Oh well...I guess I should start rereading it now :D

[mallorean_thug]

SciFi anime that don't directly involve war:

Planetes
Dennou Coil
Time of Eve
Steins;Gate
Cowboy Bebop
Moretsu Pirates
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex
Trigun
Outlaw Star

Those are the ones that immediately come to mind. I'm sure I could come up with a few more if I specifically looked into it.


We could always discuss the currently airing shows that we're all watching. Or go back to arguing over the merits of the second season of Code Geass. Or go back to making a VN based on somebody's weird dream.

So how 'bout that Guilty Crown/BRS/Nisemonogatari/Moretsu Pirates/Mirai Nikki/Rinne no Lagrange/Ano Natsu de Matteru/Another/Chihayafuru/Daily Lives of High School Boys? (Because I have no idea what you guys are even watching anymore.)

[AlterForm]

From the shadows, I strike! (Purple indicates comments on stuff I haven't personally watched)

So how 'bout that Guilty Crown

The main character becomes Hitler with superpowers, if my friend is to be believed. It's NoitaminA, though, so I might go back and watch it someday.

BRS

Oh man, BRS. Episode 6 and things have only just started making sense. Looking forward to the last two eps.

Nisemonogatari

Dat Toothbrush. That is all. SHAAAAAAAAAAFT

Moretsu Pirates

Not at all what my friends and I were expecting when we started it, but surprisingly decent. We were a bit put off by how long it took Marika to put on her pirate outfit, and the constant lack of Ship-Piercing Space Swords. (The Tytania OP having become a meme in our local anime group last semester)

Mirai Nikki

I should really go back and finish this; I wound up lapsing on watching it around episode 5 or 6.

Rinne no Lagrange

I haven't watched it, and I haven't heard anything about in my anime group. We're gonna watch it in a couple weeks at my anime club in a couple weeks, though.

Ano Natsu de Matteru

Judging only by the first three episodes (which is all my anime club watched), it looked like a joyously generic Anime Romance With A Twist. A bit unfair an evaluation, perhaps, but that's what I took away from it.

Another

Showing at my club only went to episode 3 (it's how we do things), so we ended with the Umbrella Scene (you know the one if you've seen it). According to my friend who has watched it, though, it lays the horror atmosphere on a little thick, becoming almost farcical.

Chihayafuru

Surprise hit at my anime club. Who would have expected a show about Children's Card Games would be rather well put together? Granted, it's probably because the show is less about the Card Games and more about the Children (who are actually high schoolers). It's on my list of things to watch (eventually).

Daily Lives of High School Boys

Love this show. So much. Incredible sendup of the 4-girl HS Sketch Comedy that also manages to be funny on its own. Heartily recommended to everyone. Especially anyone who is, or ever was, a high school boy.

[Terraoblivion]

I keep getting more impressed with Mouretsu Pirates to be honest. In general I've been impressed with the characterization and how much all the payoff helps the scenes where tension is released. Even more specifically, I love Jenny. I mean who can't love an incredibly confident girl who seems to be using family connections and her hacker girlfriend to build a seemingly benign criminal syndicate from a high school? Between her confidence, her competence and the flashes of her specific brand of humor she's already becoming one of my favorite characters.

[NeonBlack]

Showing at my club only went to episode 3 (it's how we do things), so we ended with the Umbrella Scene (you know the one if you've seen it). According to my friend who has watched it, though, it lays the horror atmosphere on a little thick, becoming almost farcical.

The problem with Another is that the story would be good for a 90-minute movie, but its stretched way too thin in a 12-episode show. It starts slow, picks up speed after that scene for an episode or two, then slows down again and starts feeling a bit repetitive, while the characters find more and more contrived ways to keep the vital clues to the mystery out of the watcher's grasp. Not to mention the completely out of place beach episode . It's a bit frustrating, really, but I'm still watching it just to know how it ends, and because some of the characters are quite interesting. It's well done technically speaking, too, so that's a plus.

...aaand that's it for my winter watchings, really. Gotta pick Mirai Nikki and Persona 4 back up one of these days, but I doubt I'll do that before they end. Same with Daily Lives. Kill Me Baby was as repetitive as I feared and I dropped it after two not-that-funny episodes. Guilty Crown I don't know if I'll return to, since almost everything I hear about it ranges from "bad" to "terribad". And Chihayafuru is in my to-watch list, which means I'll get to it some time in 2015. Probably. In the "oldies but goodies" department, I'm currently watching Hidamari Sketch x365 and loving it immensely.

News: Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya gets an anime. That was unexpected. I like the manga quite a bit, so that's another name added to my future watch list.

[Dispozition]

News: Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya gets an anime. That was unexpected. I like the manga quite a bit, so that's another name added to my future watch list.

What's that? Best character ever getting her manga made into an anime? I approve :D

For srs, Illya is bestya.

[Eldariel]

News: Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya gets an anime. That was unexpected. I like the manga quite a bit, so that's another name added to my future watch list.

Whatever happened to the Nasuverse thread anyways? This seems relevant. Either way, this is fairly awesome and I'm definitely looking forward to the anime. I very much enjoyed the tone of Kaleid Liner as a counterbalance to the grim Zero; I have high hopes for this one.

[Soras Teva Gee]

What happened to the Nasuverse thread, same thing that happened to this one for awhile.

And yeah Ilya getting a show is pretty awesome... though I have to wonder what they are thinking on how long it will go. Because I'm catching new chapters of the manga less often then new chapters of Vivid.

Speaking of which when is Nanonha A's movie coming out.

[NeonBlack]

Speaking of which when is Nanonha A's movie coming out.

July, apparently.

And yeah, I don't know if there's enough material in the Kaleid Liner manga for a full-fledged TV series. Considering that 2wei seems to be ongoing still, they'll probably focus on the first part, which is, what, two volumes long? Too bad, since Kuro is probably the best thing to come out of the whole series .

There's no date given, though, so maybe they'll wait until 2wei is closer to the end. Otherwise, I'm hoping for an OVA series instead to prevent excessive padding via fanservice. It's not like the manga is exactly lacking on that department, either...

[Kato]

Love this show. So much. Incredible sendup of the 4-girl HS Sketch Comedy that also manages to be funny on its own. Heartily recommended to everyone. Especially anyone who is, or ever was, a high school boy.

Hm... I really liked the first episodes and the recent one is good but some were quite a let down... Still, I like the show.

[Nerd-o-rama]

News: Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya gets an anime. That was unexpected. I like the manga quite a bit, so that's another name added to my future watch list.

Yay, more little girl fanservice to explain to my wife.

[Soras Teva Gee]

One could probably make a reasonable 13 episode length series since fights can fairly simply take up more time on screen then on panel. But yeah if this is looking to franchise there isn't that much room given by the manga.

I'm kinda hoping that they do go beyond the manga though, on the faint hope they get someone with enough Nasuverse otaku love to go in that and not a generic direction... well this would be the place to do it would it not? In particular I want to see THIS (+1 party) with actual dialogue. That said if they did I may well die on the spot of sheer joy

And though I do like the manga it could be a touch improved if you ask me. I'd like Ilya was not quite so much a Butt Monkey for example. And Kuro is just a bit MS-OC-fanficish for me, though I'd imagine they'd cut before she shows unless this is planned as a franchise. So here there's at least the potential for adaptation to improve the series.

And July..... GRAAAAAAGGHHHHH.... Not. Soon. Enough.

Is it just me or does anime period to be going through some kind of slump the last few years?

Am I just imagining it or since StrikerS and TTGL era has there been a slump of good new series for me to get behind. Seriously I think in the past few years all I've added to my "Personal HeadCanon of Great Anime" is Madoka. Okay Gundam Unicorn and Fate/Zero too, but they are using existing franchises. Serious other then that the best I've found is a decent guilty pleasure series.

Somebody tell me I'm not imagining this.

[Tengu_temp]

Is it just me or does anime period to be going through some kind of slump the last few years?

I used to think that too some time ago, but that was just grumbling. Just from the shows I watched, other good/great stuff that came out after 2007 includes:
Spice and Wolf
Eden of the East
Durarara
Steins;Gate
Persona 4 The Animation
Rinne No Lagrange
Rebuild of Eva 2.0
Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
And I'm pretty sure I forgot about some things, and that there are cool recent shows I haven't watched yet, like Moretsu Pirates.

[Terraoblivion]

You did, after all you seemed to quite enjoy Madoka too.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Spice and Wolf is one I didn't recall the age of, but even the second season (which I must of watched closer to airing then I thought) is from '09 and I've heard nothing of the later material being animated. I've tried translated light novels and have yet to find them quite satisfying. Eva kinda goes in my folder with Gundam Unicorn for existing franchise and its also dates from '09. Sure we will get more this year (maybe) but I doubt the time between 3 and 4 will be still is in the predictions of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Those are almost case in point for me, a slump not a drop off a cliff.

The others I haven't seen. Any have reasonable action+story+characters worth tracking down in an HD format? I'm looking for something exciting and reasonably epic to get behind, I have my Slice of Life portion amply covered by Western Animation at the moment.

(I remain a total anime heretic in not having seen anything Haruhi Suzumiya. Also again existing franchise. Oh also Eden of the East is the one with the phones and the ruling the world with limited funds thing right, never quite got interested in that either)

[Tengu_temp]

Spice and Wolf is from 2008, season 2 is from 2009.

None of the shows I mentioned are really epic in their scale per se, maybe apart from Persona 4, and most of them tend to be slower-paced too. Have you seen Baccano? Durarara is its spiritual successor, and while it's slightly worse, I still enjoyed it a lot.

You did, after all you seemed to quite enjoy Madoka too.

Well derp. Soras mentioned Madoka already, so I completely forgot to mention that show as well.

[mallorean_thug]

Let me add 2011 and 2008 and shows I've seen since to my quoted post:

Generally people just forget how many good shows have aired recently. Because the last couple years definitely haven't been bad.

2011:
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai
Usagi Drop
Carnival Phantasm
Chihayafuru
Fate/Zero
Mirai Nikki
Gosick
Guilty Crown
Gundam Unicorn (cont)
Horou Musuko
Kyosougiga
Kaiji S2
Level E
Mawaru-Penguindrum
Dantalian no Shoka
Nichijou
Puella Magic Madoka Magica
Ika Masume S2
Steins;Gate
Tiger & Bunny
Un-Go
Working'!!


2010:
Angel Beats!
Arakawa Under the Bridge
B Gata H Kei
Disapearance of Haruhi Suzumiya
Durarara
Katanagatari
Gundam Unicorn
Nodame Cantabile Finale
Kuragahime
King of Thorn
The Secret World of Arietty
Shiki
Sora No Woto
Ika Masume
The Tatami Galaxy
Trigun Badlands Rumble
Welcome to the Space Show
Working'!!

2009:
Aoi Hana
Bakemonogatari
Birdy the Mighty Decode S2
Cencoroll
Clannad Afterstory
Darker than Black S2
Eden of the East
Eureka 7
Evangelion 2.0 You can (not) advance
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
Haruhi S2
Kara no Kyoukai
Redline
Zan Sayonara, Zetsubou Sensei
Spice and Wolf S2
Summer Wars
Time of Eve (cont.)
Toradora (cont.)
Kucho Buranko

2008:
Aria the Origination
Birdy the Might Decode S1
Clannad
Detroit Metal City
Genius Party
Hidamari Sketch × 365
Kaiba
Nodame Cantabile Paris-hen
Ponyo
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
The Sky Crawlers
Spice and Wolf S1
Time of Eve
Toradora


And thats just shows that I've seen and enjoyed and Wikipedia tells me are from those years. I'm sure there's plenty of good stuff that I haven't seen and plenty of stuff that I didn't like but other people here did. I mean, there's only a couple other years that can compete with the last couple for the sheer number of enjoyable shows I've seen.

Oh come on, we just had this discussion like 5 9 pages ago (EDIT: which was about 3 months ago... So I guess its been long enough to have it again) Unless you're somebody that forces yourself to wait for official non-japanese releases and thus watches anime at Funimation speed, there's been plenty of awesome stuff in the last couple years.

EDIT: @Soras Well, if you're looking for epic to get behind, my top picks from the list I just produced would be: Mawaru-Penguindrum, Katanagatari, Kaiba, Steins;Gate, Skiki, Kaiji, Kara no Kyoukai. In that order. My top picks that don't necessarily go with your request would be: The Tatami Galaxy, Nodame Cantabile, Time of Eve, Horou Musuko, Ano Hana, Working, Chihayafuru, Kuucho Buranko, Sora no Woto. In that order.