General Anime Discussion: Area 11

[Felyndiira]

i know, thats such a general ask for suggestions, but really just make a small list of things worth watching that will generate some interesting conversation and we will atleast check it out to see if we want to watch that one, cus we are stumped

Try Usagi Drop (it's on CrunchyRoll now). It's one of the more recent noitaminA shows, and IMO is a really good slice of life series if you're into it.

I heard good things about Mawaru Penguindrum as well, but since I'm just catching up with the series, I can't say anything more until I actually watch the series.

[mallorean_thug]

Penguindrum was the best show to air during 2011 IMO.

Also, I'll be following a very large collection of this spring's shows and will probably post a wall of text going into depth on those later, but for now I'd like to register my shock and amazement that nobody has mentioned the new Lupin III since it started airing. Its definitely the most stylistic show airing right now, and if it continues at the pace of the first two episodes, will easily be able to compete with likes of Space Bros, Tsuritama, and Sakamachi no Apollon for best new spring show.

[AlterForm]

Here we go, more first impressions!

Nyarlko-San
Premise: Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos has descended upon Earth. Cower in fear, mortals, lest she drive you mad with ... um ... her strange obsession with manga, doujin, and eroge? Her (anime-required) inappropriate infatuation with the main character? Arcane Mythos references?
Opinion: Worth watching at least the first episode, especially if you're familiar with the Cthluhu Mythos (watch for the Yellow Sign cameo in the OP!) or Call of Cthulhu (roll for SAN!). I think I'd be liking it a good bit more if the "romance" weren't so anime-cliche: she's into him, he's (rightly, IMO) weirded out by her advances, and at every turn she's trying to weasel her way into her heart (the usual bento and bath scenes were played completley straight). I certainly don't feel bad about giving this another 2 eps to shape up (it's a show about having fun with the source material, and it knows it), but I don't have my hopes set much higher than "okayness."

Naruto SD: Rock Lee
Premise: Basically an extended, Rock Lee-centric omake of Naruto Shippuden.
Opinion: Basically as entertaining as any regular omake, but stretched out to 12 minutes (2 plots per episode). If you really enjoyed Shippuden, you might enjoy this, otherwise, probably not worth watching.

Tsuritama
Premise: I don't even know. There's a blond kid, who can telepathically communicate with fish, a flaming redhead who summons/imagines water when he panics, an Indian VIP guy who takes his pet goose everywhere, and a stoic guy (kuudere in the making?). And fishing. And saving the world?
Opinion: noitaminA, once again you have brought me a show so unusual I can't help but want to watch it. Tsuritama is just plain strange, in the best of all possible ways. The colors are vibrant, with a palette not often seen onscreen, the pacing is breakneck from scene to scene, and everyone of any importance seems to have some sort of quirk about them. My favorite part, though, was the visual contrast between Sanada's old school and the new one in Enoshima. Well worth a watch; I'm hoping it doesn't drop the ball in the next few episodes since I want to want to follow it.



Now I'm looking at my "to watch" folder grow out of control -- there's at least 2 dozen episodes in there right now. I'm drowning in a sea of anime. The things I do for Club.

[Kato]

And now the question is there anything that looks too modern to you?

Well, I still feel like it mostly could be happening today or whatever except not everybody and their mom is using a smart phone... that was up to the point when they got this 90s mobile phone. Now I'm buying it

Penguindrum was the best show to air during 2011 IMO.

What? It was okay and some episodes even great but personal favourites aside it is so far behind Steins;Gate it can't even see its scientific plotholes anymore. Maybe that's just me but MP lost itself in artistic metaphors and weird plot twists.

Also, I'll be following a very large collection of this spring's shows and will probably post a wall of text going into depth on those later, but for now I'd like to register my shock and amazement that nobody has mentioned the new Lupin III since it started airing. Its definitely the most stylistic show airing right now, and if it continues at the pace of the first two episodes, will easily be able to compete with likes of Space Bros, Tsuritama, and Sakamachi no Apollon for best new spring show.

I saw the first episode and it was quite entertaining. I almost forgot about watching out for the second episode, though.

[nyarlathotep]

Here we go, more first impressions!

Nyarlko-San
Premise: Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos has descended upon Earth. Cower in fear, mortals, lest she drive you mad with ... um ... her strange obsession with manga, doujin, and eroge? Her (anime-required) inappropriate infatuation with the main character? Arcane Mythos references?
Opinion: Worth watching at least the first episode, especially if you're familiar with the Cthluhu Mythos (watch for the Yellow Sign cameo in the OP!) or Call of Cthulhu (roll for SAN!). I think I'd be liking it a good bit more if the "romance" weren't so anime-cliche: she's into him, he's (rightly, IMO) weirded out by her advances, and at every turn she's trying to weasel her way into her heart (the usual bento and bath scenes were played completley straight). I certainly don't feel bad about giving this another 2 eps to shape up (it's a show about having fun with the source material, and it knows it), but I don't have my hopes set much higher than "okayness."

Anyone else think this show could have been a lot better if Nyarlathotep was a hyper-competent butler to a really stupid Azathoth who is obsessed with earth for some reason.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Anyone else think this show could have been a lot better if Nyarlathotep was a hyper-competent butler to a really stupid Azathoth who is obsessed with earth for some reason.

Then it would just be the CoC RPG.

That said, playing that as a comedy villain duo has potential...

[Tengu_temp]

"Hey Nyarl! What are we gonna do today?"
"The same thing we do every day, Azzie. Try to conquer Earth!"

[AlterForm]

"Hey Nyarl! What are we gonna do today?"
"The same thing we do every day, Azzie. Try to conquer Earth!"

"They're Azzie and Nyarl,
Yes, Azzie and Nyarl!

One is a genius,
They both drive you insane!"

[NNescio]

What I really, really want to see in Haiyore Nyarlko-san:

Spoiler

Show

Roll 2d12 for SAN loss.

[Arbitrarity]

In a nicely symmetrical move with the announcement of Little Busters! anime, there's apparently an official Angel Beats! Visual Novel in production. Not precisely anime, but closely related.
Yes, Maeda is making it. Yes, it's probable it won't come out for about 3 years, and won't be translated for another 2.
But, in time, those characters will be properly fleshed out.

[Seraph]

oh man, have you guys been watching Eureka Seven AO? It's glorious.

[Nerd-o-rama]

All I know is that /m/ is seriously confused about just when it is supposed to be taking place relative to the first series. I guess I should pick it up...if it's anything like the first series watching it weekly would be much less tedious than (trying to) marathon it.

[Seraph]

All I know is that /m/ is seriously confused about just when it is supposed to be taking place relative to the first series. I guess I should pick it up...if it's anything like the first series watching it weekly would be much less tedious than (trying to) marathon it.

there are some very obvious links to the first series but also significant hints that something has gone very very wrong with history.

Also, Ao is awesome. Renton's late-series badassness in Eureka Seven appears to have been a case of repressed genetics finally bursting free, as Ao gets in touch with his inner Shiro Amada in the second episode and his response to falling into a giant robot is, essentially, "let's DO this ****!"

also, glorious animation and a fantastic soundtrack so far.

[Fri]

The new lupin series is... huh. Definitely not what I expected. Totally not what I expected. 70s art style and trippy visual worthy of a shaft show and unexpected nudity...

I think I'm going to follow this. What can I say, I'm a sucker for style.


And Ozma. The premise is somewhat typical so far (but man, desert ship pirate, how can you say no to this?), the visual quality and art style are great, and all are totally in my taste. I'm also going to follow this.

[Lord Raziere]

On Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Episode 12:

Spoiler

Show

Well, seeing as how as soon as I heard about time travel, one of my thoughts was "go back and destroy all witches across time"…

I have only two words to say about the ending to this anime:

Called it.

[Fri]

Ozma turned out to be rather milquetoast and the visual is also turning bland. But Lupin is still not disappointing. It's like a series where the whole episodes are drawn in madoka's magic world style. And boobs.

[Fri]

So... no one is watching anime anymore around here?

Anyway, updates on what I'm enjoying right now.

I just found out that Ozma is only six episodes. Huh, that surprised me. I guess I'll pick that up and watch it to the end.

Lupin is still entertaining and full of boobs, though it became less trippy after a while. What a shame.

And I'm starting to watch Nerima Daikon Brothers. Why I never watched this from a long time ago I never know. The episode premises are kinda repetitive, but it's a frickin anime musical by nabeshin where they break into song every odd minutes and have the afro director lending them weapons at every episodes.

The Drifter manga is also awesome, and I also wonder why I never read it from a long time ago.

And I wonder why I or nobody never linked it here before, but Crimsons is pretty awesome and everyone should give it a try.

http://mangafox.me/manga/crimsons_akai_koukaishatachi/

DO YOU LIKE FISH? DO YOU LIKE HOT BLOODED MAIN CHARACTERS? DO YOU LIKE RANDOMLY PLACED CANADIANS? THEN YOU'LL [cuss word]ING LOVE CRIMSONS[!!!]

(Brackets indicate text that was changed from original summary. Cuss word only available on original site. Colon was replaced by three exclamation points because that kind of colon isn't funny.)

On a downer note, I still haven't found a manga rental nearby my new housing (I moved town a few months back), which is really sad. I missed hundreds of published mangas that's can't be found in the internet, sigh.

[AlterForm]

Projects and finals week snuck up and ate all my time, so now I've got a 2-3 week backlog of shows. I have kept up on a few shows with my group of anime-loving friends:

Sakamichi no Apollon is living up to its Josei roots with a continuously more convoluted love-polygon/love-map. It's pretty low drama, though, so I'm enjoying it a lot. And, of course, the music is great. The way my musically-trained friends talk about it, it's even better than I think.

Mouretsu Pirates leaves us wondering why we keep watching it each week. Probably because it's cheesy and overly cheerful without devolving into utter silliness.

Fate/Zero makes less sense than it should since I didn't watch the first half of the season (back in Fall?), but is still a fun watch for the absurd production values ufotable drops into it. My friends and I did manage to spark a 600+ post thread on /a/, which was awesome.

[Terraoblivion]

I have to say this about Fate/Zero. It was better before it started treating Kiritsugu as the main character, because my god that guy is boring. Seriously, I'd rather watch any other character than him and no, the flashbacks don't make him anymore interesting. I'd much prefer more Rider and Waver or Saber and Irisviel than that paint by the numbers antihero.

[Fri]

Sakamichi no Apollon is living up to its Josei roots with a continuously more convoluted love-polygon/love-map. It's pretty low drama, though, so I'm enjoying it a lot. And, of course, the music is great. The way my musically-trained friends talk about it, it's even better than I think.

Oh man, I totally forgot about sakamichi no apollon. Dangit, have to track this one too now.

[Dispozition]

Man, I need to watch the new episode of Sakamichi no Apollon. It started awesomely then I didn't have time to watch more >.<

[Raistlin1040]

Sup Anime Bros?

I've found that watching anime is actually a great way to unwind and relax before bed, so I've taken to watching an episode or two of something most nights, but I've sort of run out of things to watch. Hopefully with Toonami returning I can get in on some good stuff, but just thinking about things to add to my queue, I have a few criteria that I thought I'd toss over to the more educated people in this thread and see if I can get some ideas.

• Good (and available) Dub is a must. I have nothing against subtitled, but the reading distracts me and I think I connect with the story if I can understand the speakers. If it's like OMG THE BEST THING EVER BUT THERE IS NO ENGLISH/THE ENGLISH IS BAD, I will tentatively try it if convinced, but I also happen to think that works with higher-quality dubs tend to have higher production values anyway.
• Good animation. Willing to work with some that is good but not particularly showy, but the highlights of things like Cowboy Bebop and NGE blew me away.
• Genre: Not sure exactly what to put here because there's a lot of overlap in anime, but I prefer my anime leaning towards drama.
• Easy availability on something like Hulu (or Crunchyroll although does Crunchyroll do dubs?), though I can usually find something for rent online or around town if it's popular enough.
• Length. I used to watch shonen anime like Bleach and Naruto, but the length was just impossible for me. The 200+ episode stories just don't interest me very much (excepting DBZ but that was like, my childhood man). I prefer the stories compact, with 26 episodes being golden but anything from 10-50 being alright if I can get into it.

I haven't watched as much anime as I would like, but the ones that I watched completely and really stood out to me were

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Cowboy Bebop
Death Note
Fullmetal Alchemist (original)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Thanks for the help guys, appreciate it.

[Dispozition]

Sup Anime Bros?

I've found that watching anime is actually a great way to unwind and relax before bed, so I've taken to watching an episode or two of something most nights, but I've sort of run out of things to watch. Hopefully with Toonami returning I can get in on some good stuff, but just thinking about things to add to my queue, I have a few criteria that I thought I'd toss over to the more educated people in this thread and see if I can get some ideas.

• Good (and available) Dub is a must. I have nothing against subtitled, but the reading distracts me and I think I connect with the story if I can understand the speakers. If it's like OMG THE BEST THING EVER BUT THERE IS NO ENGLISH/THE ENGLISH IS BAD, I will tentatively try it if convinced, but I also happen to think that works with higher-quality dubs tend to have higher production values anyway.
• Good animation. Willing to work with some that is good but not particularly showy, but the highlights of things like Cowboy Bebop and NGE blew me away.
• Genre: Not sure exactly what to put here because there's a lot of overlap in anime, but I prefer my anime leaning towards drama.
• Easy availability on something like Hulu (or Crunchyroll although does Crunchyroll do dubs?), though I can usually find something for rent online or around town if it's popular enough.
• Length. I used to watch shonen anime like Bleach and Naruto, but the length was just impossible for me. The 200+ episode stories just don't interest me very much (excepting DBZ but that was like, my childhood man). I prefer the stories compact, with 26 episodes being golden but anything from 10-50 being alright if I can get into it.

I haven't watched as much anime as I would like, but the ones that I watched completely and really stood out to me were

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Cowboy Bebop
Death Note
Fullmetal Alchemist (original)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Thanks for the help guys, appreciate it.

Ghost in the Shell. Both movies, both series. One of the best dubs around. Also Samurai Champloo. Both have amazing everything. Plot, visuals, music...All that.

FLCL is good for a quick 6 episode dealio, the dub is decent, the animation is awesome, the plot is absurd.

Can't think of anything else off the top of my head but I'll post some more when I get to my collection of animez.

[Terraoblivion]

Hmmm, anything that stood out that you didn't like?

Also, I'm not sure how much I can help as I don't pay attention to dubs. Danish movies tend to be awful and Danish dubbing even worse and only used for children's movies, so I've gotten so used to subtitles that having to listen to the exact words the characters are saying rather than the emotion or intonation is actually distracting for me.

That said, I believe Read or Die is known for having a good dub and it's honestly a really great show. No idea if it is easily available, I just get a message that it's only for Americans when I visit Hulu or similar services. I know that the blu-ray set is ridiculously expensive, though.

Not sure if there's anything else you haven't seen that I know about dub quality for. I believe Madoka's dub is only "okay", which is a shame since it is one of those must watch shows.

[Raistlin1040]

Thanks guys. Keep the suggestions coming. I think I'm going to go through FLCL because it's short and I've heard both awesome and awful things about it, so it will at least be interesting. Ghost in the Shell has always been something I wanted to watch but I kept forgetting, I'll write that down. Is there an order for watching it in movies and anime?

[Dispozition]

Ghost in the Shell has always been something I wanted to watch but I kept forgetting, I'll write that down. Is there an order for watching it in movies and anime?

Technically Ghost in The Shell (movie), and Ghost in the Shell: Innocence (Movie 2) are stand alone to the series.

I find the order GitS (1st movie), Stand Alone Complex (first series), 2nd GiG (second series), Innocence (2nd movie), Solid State Society (sequel movie to 2nd gig) works best. You may also want to swap the last two movies around, depends. I just prefer it like this because it gives a sense of a continual story line in most respects bar one...quite large hole in it, but whatever. Viewing the series first may also be an option...

I'd let a few others weigh in first, since this is just my preference for viewing.

[Fri]

You know what I'm going to recommend right? Of course you do.

Planetes

I know that it's dubbed in english, but I don't know how good it is hor how easy it would be to get. It's 26 episodes.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

I haven't watched as much anime as I would like, but the ones that I watched completely and really stood out to me were

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Cowboy Bebop
Death Note
Fullmetal Alchemist (original)
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya

Thanks for the help guys, appreciate it.

Go watch Samurai Champloo right now. Planetes is also a great series. Mushishi is another excellent anime, with brilliant visuals and music, and a very reposed, meandering quality to the story. I'm uncerttain if it's been dubbed though. All three series are 26 episodes or so.

[Dispozition]

You know what I'm going to recommend right? Of course you do.

Planetes

I know that it's dubbed in english, but I don't know how good it is hor how easy it would be to get. It's 26 episodes.

The dub is...Pretty good. It's not amazing, but it does well enough.

[horngeek]

Random discussion! Crossover of Madoka and Type-MOON.

Witches have Reality Marbles, of course, but I'm not sure if anything else fits.