General Anime/Manga Discussion 14: Second Cour

[HMS Invincible]

Yea, we should probably move on, the mods are touchy about stuff like this.

The School living club anime continues to delight, which is unexpected considering it's a slice of life comedy bolted on top of apocalypse.

[Closet_Skeleton]

I would go with the wikipedia definition or one from a dictionary, I don't think Closet_Skeleton description captures it very well. Yes that level of devotion could be from chauvinism but dying for your nation or ideas could also just be bravery.

If dying for your nation is normal in your value system maybe. The idea that dying is always the brave option is in itself kind of Chauvinistic. Sometimes people die because they are too cowardly to question orders they knew shouldn't be followed. There's a level of prima donna about the Chauvinist in that they'll always choose the most dramatic way to express their beliefs and will therefore deliberately choose dangerous options.

I don't think anything ever comes down to 'just bravery'. The whole point of bravery is that you're resisting one impulse (fear) by following another one, that makes any situation that calls for bravery inherently complicated even when the simplest moral questions are in play. If a man fights because he is more scared of looking like a coward than of the enemy then is he brave or not?

I was trying to keep it simple so yes, all nuance is lost.

[cobaltstarfire]

We are on the second season of K-on (where most of the girls are seniors).

It is cute, we are really enjoying its sillyness. A few episodes even got us to laugh almost as much and as loudly as Monthly Girls Nozaki-kun (which holds the record for most amusing and consistently so for the two of us).

[endoperez]

It looks like Overlord isn't just borrowing RPG clichés, it's pretty much using D&D's magic system pretty much as-is INCLUDING the optimization, at least to a point.

Advanced scrying to get a jump on the enemy (using counters that protect against anti-scrying magic! the follow-up teleportation is optional), and metamagic using very familiar terminology:

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"Twin Maximize Magic-ku, Electrosphere"
That's Twin Spell and Maximize, but I wonder if that is a 'Lightning Ball', or Energy-Admixed (Lightning) Fireball?

I had noticed the magic levels went from 1 to (at least) 9, and other similar stuff, but I thought it was just a coincidence and didn't connect it to D&D rules before now.

[Prime32]

Some of the spell names are also taken directly from D&D, and its undead are harmed by healing magic. And then there was the

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The LNs go into further detail about how all the Floor Guardians have ridiculously cheesy builds designed to cover their weaknesses or confuse invaders into using the wrong tactics.

It's not even the first anime I've seen do it, though. Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? (a show that is much better than it first looks) had one character who could apparently apply D&D metamagic feats to their spells.

[DoctorFaust]

I watched Sword of the Stranger yesterday, and after having calmed down from my my initial knee-jerk reaction of "oh my god, this is the best anime action movie I've ever seen", I would still say that it's among the best anime movies I've seen, and probably in my top 5 action anime in general.

It's just a beautifully done movie, with superb animation, fantastic camerawork and choreography, interesting and for the most part easily differentiable characters, an admittedly cliched plot that is still very well executed, and an OST that is simply phenomenal. Obviously, not without flaws, like the section immediately after the two main characters leave the village they're staying in which seemed to drag on for some time, but I think what happened during it was necessary for the viewers to care about the characters. And honestly, most of the things I think the movie didn't do so well were things that I only really realized when I was thinking back on it afterwards, rather than while I was watching it, which I consider to be the hallmark of a good movie.

With one exception.

The ending.

Spoiler: Spoilers for the ending.

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I mean, I understand wanting to keep some ambiguity. That's not exactly an uncommon thing to do. The protagonist, riding off towards the sunset, battered but triumphant, only for some last-second thing to make us start second-guessing his fate is a common enough trope, and I can think of a few instances where that kind of ambiguity has been used to good effect. Personally, I think Nanashi lived, but for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on, the ending rubbed me the wrong way and left me feeling... unfulfilled, for lack of a better word. And not in a good way. YMMV, obviously, but that's my own two cents worth.

Oh, and while I'm already in a spoiler box about the end, I would also like to add that, as of writing this, the fight between Nanashi and Rarou/Luo-Lang is a serious contender for the best sword fight I have ever seen in anime.

I know that I have a tendency to exaggerate when I'm talking about shows I like, but seriously, if you like action or samurai, watch this movie. It is very, very good.

[HMS Invincible]

Some of the spell names are also taken directly from D&D, and its undead are harmed by healing magic. And then there was the

Spoiler

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The LNs go into further detail about how all the Floor Guardians have ridiculously cheesy builds designed to cover their weaknesses or confuse invaders into using the wrong tactics.

It's not even the first anime I've seen do it, though. Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? (a show that is much better than it first looks) had one character who could apparently apply D&D metamagic feats to their spells.

I think what throws most people off is the WOW/mmorpger traits, like equiping items out of hammerspace, and levels 1-100.
Btw, what episode did they mention undead are harmed by healing magic?

[Hazzardevil]

I watched Sword of the Stranger yesterday, and after having calmed down from my my initial knee-jerk reaction of "oh my god, this is the best anime action movie I've ever seen", I would still say that it's among the best anime movies I've seen, and probably in my top 5 action anime in general.

It's just a beautifully done movie, with superb animation, fantastic camerawork and choreography, interesting and for the most part easily differentiable characters, an admittedly cliched plot that is still very well executed, and an OST that is simply phenomenal. Obviously, not without flaws, like the section immediately after the two main characters leave the village they're staying in which seemed to drag on for some time, but I think what happened during it was necessary for the viewers to care about the characters. And honestly, most of the things I think the movie didn't do so well were things that I only really realized when I was thinking back on it afterwards, rather than while I was watching it, which I consider to be the hallmark of a good movie.

With one exception.

The ending.

Spoiler: Spoilers for the ending.

Show

I mean, I understand wanting to keep some ambiguity. That's not exactly an uncommon thing to do. The protagonist, riding off towards the sunset, battered but triumphant, only for some last-second thing to make us start second-guessing his fate is a common enough trope, and I can think of a few instances where that kind of ambiguity has been used to good effect. Personally, I think Nanashi lived, but for some reason that I can't quite put my finger on, the ending rubbed me the wrong way and left me feeling... unfulfilled, for lack of a better word. And not in a good way. YMMV, obviously, but that's my own two cents worth.

Oh, and while I'm already in a spoiler box about the end, I would also like to add that, as of writing this, the fight between Nanashi and Rarou/Luo-Lang is a serious contender for the best sword fight I have ever seen in anime.

I know that I have a tendency to exaggerate when I'm talking about shows I like, but seriously, if you like action or samurai, watch this movie. It is very, very good.

I have very fond memories of this having watched it twice. I think I want to watch it again now.

[Felyndiira]

I know this article is more than one month old, though since I just found out about it and didn't see it in the discussions, I just wanted to squee about it a little:

LoGH is licensed by Sentai

[HMS Invincible]

Rokka anime continue to please, though this feels like it should be a two season show. Seems too slow to be 13 episodes.

[HamHam]

Rokka anime continue to please, though this feels like it should be a two season show. Seems too slow to be 13 episodes.

I'm getting the feeling the Demon King is not going to get defeated by the end of this show.

[Sallera]

Rokka anime continue to please, though this feels like it should be a two season show. Seems too slow to be 13 episodes.

Spoiler: Just for safety, considering the genre

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While I'm loving the show, I don't know if the way they set it up really has two seasons in it, what with the whole (supposed) requirement to kill the fake to proceed. If the barrier hadn't been in the story, figuring out the fake while proceeding with their journey might've been able to stretch to two seasons, but they're doing a good job of eliminating suspects and hypotheses without drawing it out too much; I think the pacing will work out in the end.

[Rodin]

Spoiler: Just for safety, considering the genre

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While I'm loving the show, I don't know if the way they set it up really has two seasons in it, what with the whole (supposed) requirement to kill the fake to proceed. If the barrier hadn't been in the story, figuring out the fake while proceeding with their journey might've been able to stretch to two seasons, but they're doing a good job of eliminating suspects and hypotheses without drawing it out too much; I think the pacing will work out in the end.

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I'm steadily being convinced that none of them are the fake, and that for whatever reason there are indeed seven Braves. The Braves as selected wouldn't have trusted each other - Nachetanya and Gouldov don't trust Hans and Flemie as far as they can throw them, Hans, Chamot and Flemie don't trust anyone, and Mora is ultra cautious about anyone other than Chamot. Adlet's job could well be to be the outsider who doesn't know any of these folks but is willing to trust them anyway. It's further possible that the barrier was meant to keep the Braves in until they learned to trust each other, although that's very much an outlying speculation for me right now. I think it probably is a trap, but that we're being mislead as to who set it.

The show's been one of my favorites this season, although Charlotte is quickly overtaking it. Once again I lament the lack of detail in the Crunchyroll show descriptions - I very nearly didn't watch Charlotte at all but ran out of shows to watch while I was on vacation.

[DoctorFaust]

According to both Crunchyroll and ANN, Production IG just bought the rights to FLCL from Gainax. And there is the possibility of a remake.

Honestly, I'm kinda excited about that. While I doubt they could do as well as the original, the premise of FLCL is quite interesting, and if they get some good people (and The Pillows) working on it, I could see it ending up being very good.

[ex cathedra]

i don't understand why one would remake something that's both very accessible and very nearly flawless.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

The show's been one of my favorites this season, although Charlotte is quickly overtaking it. Once again I lament the lack of detail in the Crunchyroll show descriptions - I very nearly didn't watch Charlotte at all but ran out of shows to watch while I was on vacation.

Hmm, I'm reminded of the fact that I'm planning on starting Charlotte once I knock another show or two off. Once I learned that Jun Maeda was involved, well. I can't wait to see what's in store.

[DoctorFaust]

i don't understand why one would remake something that's both very accessible and very nearly flawless.

Money? As long as it isn't completely panned, I imagine that at least some people will watch and buy, based on the strength of the name alone. And I mean, as long as they don't get rid of the stuff that really made FLCL good, I can't imagine it being much worse than mediocre. Production IG has some very, very good series to its name, including the first two of the Evangelion movies, the entire Ghost in the Shell franchise, Le Chevalier D'Eon, Psycho-pass, Eden of the East, and they did work on FLCL. Actually, I think they may have co-created it alongside Gainax, but I would have to check to be sure.

[Lethologica]

Actually, I think they may have co-created it alongside Gainax, but I would have to check to be sure.

You would be correct. (Incidentally, I love this line from the Wiki page: Director Kazuya Tsuramaki responded to criticism of FLCL, stating "comprehension should not be an important factor in FLCL.")

Still...I'm struggling to see just what the creative goal is here. Somebody had one or they wouldn't be doing it for FLCL of all things, but what fresh take would they even be going for with that show?

[Ibrinar]

Prison School

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The part of it counting as an outbreak because he wasn't inside the boundaries although he was back in time was just a bit too contrived for me, I know the whole setting is ridiculous so I guess such things shouldn't annoy me in this anime. But if they are willing to be that ridiculous they might as well just arbitrarily decide "Forget the prison setup we will just kick you out now."

Otherwise the ridiculousness remains entertaining.

Has anyone read/watched Naruto? since it's finished now I wanted to give it a try again so I was wondering, manga or anime?

[Lethologica]

Has anyone read/watched Naruto? since it's finished now

Boy, have we got news for you.

[Rodin]

The anime for Naruto is still ongoing, although I think it's getting close to the end itself. Haven't read the manga so I can't say for sure, but things certainly seem to be moving that direction.

I'm hoping that now the manga's finished they'll just go straight for the finish with a minimum of filler, but I'm kinda doubting that will happen. Cash cows and all that.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Manga-wise: late to the party, but I read the manga of All You Need is Kill (haven't read the light novel nor seen the Tom Cruise version). Really good stuff. In some ways it's a pretty tight, intimate story with a powerful ending. Also, awesome Haloey battlesuits. And Rita's battleaxe.

I bought it this morning and have used my commute to read it twice so far. It comes together better on the second read, with some cool little details I missed the first time.

[Kato]

Well, we do have a Naruto thread (still) but that one is full of spoiler, so, in short:
I'd recommend the manga, unless you find a good source for filtering out the anime filler. Because there is a lot of it and it really drags. Maybe go to the anime to watch the fight scenes, if you care much for that.
In terms of story quality Naruto is rather up and down, but of course it depends a lot on personal preference. Kishimoto can write really well and really bad in my opinion, though. Some things might really break your heart and some may make you break a wall with your head. I often hear the first arc or two or up to the time skip (spoiler, there will be a time skip, but it's a Shounen, so... :smalltongue) are the best parts. Which is... kind of true. At least it predates some of the bad things. Opinions differ on how bad it gets how often...
I'm not gonna say I regret reading/watching (what I watched) but I'm not sure I'd get into it again. Maybe just try the first longer Arc (like... the first twenty episodes or about the same number of chapters, iirc.

[Rodin]

Main issues with Nartuo are the standard fighting-focused powercreep overriding actual tactics and secondary character usefulness, and the way Kishimoto retcons stuff like crazy. Seriously, the show makes NO sense if you watch it with the future knowledge of what's going to happen later, because those characters didn't HAVE those motivations at the time the story was told and thus didn't act in accordance with how we're later told they acted. I watch it with tongue-firmly-in-cheek.

As to the filler, it's pretty easy to filter out for the most part. There's one section near the beginning of Shippuden where they slow the story down rather than do filler, and those episodes are pretty painful. There's another section much later into Shippuden where they sort of weave filler episodes into the main story, which makes telling them apart...difficult. On the plus side, most of those are relatively decent, as filler go.

For me the show's decline didn't really kick off until after the 3rd arc in Shippuden. Even after that, there are a good few fights that are worth watching, but that's the point where the story lost me. By the point we're at now, I'm basically watching so I can get the plot's resolution. Can't do the manga, since I don't like reading fights (tried it with Bleach once the anime ended, only got through the first volume of post-anime stuff) and I'm not prepared to shell out the cash needed when I can watch the anime for free. Well, for a subscription to Crunchyroll, but the cost of that is covered by all the other shows I watch there.

[Fri]

Manga-wise: late to the party, but I read the manga of All You Need is Kill (haven't read the light novel nor seen the Tom Cruise version). Really good stuff. In some ways it's a pretty tight, intimate story with a powerful ending. Also, awesome Haloey battlesuits. And Rita's battleaxe.

I bought it this morning and have used my commute to read it twice so far. It comes together better on the second read, with some cool little details I missed the first time.

I've watched the movie and read the light novel, and both are surprisingly good. I wonder how the manga differs with them, because the light novel and the movie are similar enough that you can see that it's not simply tacking a title to an original script, but different enough that they're definitely a separate thing. They also got different theme and endings and such. If you're interested and doesn't care about spoilers, I can tell you about the difference between the different versions.

Still, there're three things that bugs me from the movie version. One is that the powered armor, eventhough cool, is not very armored at all and more of barebone exoskeleton. There's variant of the powered armor on screen, like the "Tank" that I think would work better as the "main" exoskeleton.

They got a point on all of the powered armor being a real prop that everyone actually wear in RL, instead of CGI. that's really awesome.

Second thing is that the alien just look stupid, really. The "frog-starfish" thing in the novel will also look stupid in screen, to be fair. I wish they designed a better alien.

Third is, for the best soldier of the human army, Rita has... pretty weak first impression. She's awesome later, but in his first appearance before the first time loop (spoiler) in the movie she just killed one or two aliens then got skewered by another one.

Still good.

Also, naruto peaks at the first battle of konoha that end with the third hokago dies. Just stop reading there.

(On unrelated note, Bleach peaks straight before the first shinigami-realm excursion, which is a really short time in the anime and slightly longer in the manga. Bleach simply works better as hip urban-fantasy story, really.)

[Ibrinar]

Bleach… I quite liked it when it began and still was in the normal world, but then

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Aizen happened. And then Aizen turned out to be a caterpillar that turned into a pretty butterfly, or something.

Also everything became endless battles, which is normal for long running shounens of course but I just prefer a different action-plot balance. For me fights are there to punctate the plot and resolve some conflicts. And provide some entertainment too. but if most of it is fighting you either have to work on the plot during the fights or the plot just comes too short and the exploration of the setting and the characters too.

[Closet_Skeleton]

(On unrelated note, Bleach peaks straight before the first shinigami-realm excursion, which is a really short time in the anime and slightly longer in the manga. Bleach simply works better as hip urban-fantasy story, really.)

I agree, but might go as far as to say that what it turned into just isn't inherently interesting on any level.

I like bits of the rescue Rukia ark, but its at best entertaining rubbish with any real character moments being rare and undeveloped.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I've watched the movie and read the light novel, and both are surprisingly good. I wonder how the manga differs with them, because the light novel and the movie are similar enough that you can see that it's not simply tacking a title to an original script, but different enough that they're definitely a separate thing. They also got different theme and endings and such. If you're interested and doesn't care about spoilers, I can tell you about the difference between the different versions.

I think I'm actually curious enough that I might just check out the other two versions. From what I hear, the manga is a bit more compressed (and changes some of the outcomes of secondary characters).

Still, there're three things that bugs me from the movie version. One is that the powered armor, eventhough cool, is not very armored at all and more of barebone exoskeleton. There's variant of the powered armor on screen, like the "Tank" that I think would work better as the "main" exoskeleton.

From what I remember of the trailer, the manga does a better job of making it cooler. Reminds me a bit of the Spartan Armor.

Second thing is that the alien just look stupid, really. The "frog-starfish" thing in the novel will also look stupid in screen, to be fair. I wish they designed a better alien.

Huh. That sounds quite a bit different. The manga Mimics are more like...eldritch Sputniks? I liked 'em, a nice dose of creepy, weird, and deadly.

Third is, for the best soldier of the human army, Rita has... pretty weak first impression. She's awesome later, but in his first appearance before the first time loop (spoiler) in the movie she just killed one or two aliens then got skewered by another one.

Still good.

Aw, that's a bummer. Rita's great.

[Rodin]

I think Rita getting skewered so early in the movie was a deliberate artistic choice. They spend all this time building her up as this badass super-soldier, and then Cruise sees her on the field and is awestruck...and then she gets blown away right in front of him, and the look on his face is priceless.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

I think Rita getting skewered so early in the movie was a deliberate artistic choice. They spend all this time building her up as this badass super-soldier, and then Cruise sees her on the field and is awestruck...and then she gets blown away right in front of him, and the look on his face is priceless.

Huh. Well, that sounds like interesting-different, not necessarily bad-different.