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MSG 0080: War in the Pocket

I love this one more than Zeta or CCA, perhaps even more than 0079. It's also refreshing to not have fights every episode, and it's not like that was ever necessary in the first place. Sometimes build-up can help the story feel fresh. I also loved how for once we get to see child characters who are actually well written and do not behave like mascot characters screwing about on a battleship, instead they behave like most children would during a period of war.

I think the characters in 0080 are more 'human' than most characters in Tomino-directed Gundam series. Personally I feel that Tomino does write decent human characters with flaws and character development, but the majority of said characters are often complex and not always relateable to. Having complex characters isn't always a bad thing, but you want to balance the cast out a bit with simpler characters and make them feel more than one emotion. Whenever I think of Zeta, I imagine most characters having a permanent frown on their face.

0080 does a great job of dealing with the theme of war. It doesn't present the situation as black and white, nor does it dehumanize soldiers. It doesn't rub the anti-war message all in your face, instead it just shows you what happened and how people deal with it. You also get a feeling of how Alfred's view on the world changes after everything he's been through once everyone tries to comfort him at the end saying how the next war will be cooler and flashier. The ending is great, and it wraps up everything nicely.

It's a great OVA, with just some minor reality problems such as blue sky in a colony and no direct evacuation happening at school when a fight breaks out. Definitely a must watch to see Gundam doesn't have to be just about fighting to get its point across.

Planning on watching 0083 next. Should I watch the remake? I heard that the remake doesn't really change anything.

There's a remake of 0083? Didn't know about it...
Main characters (read love triangle) are a bit ridiculous, but animation and MS's design are great. Music as well.

Suehiro Maruo's mangas and Vagabound! kind of weird stuff


As for animes, I would recommend Leiji Matsumoto's stuff or SLAYERS to anyone.

Quick question, what's currently the best way to watch Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Is it a fansub, some old DVD, or is there perhaps a western blu-ray release on the horizon?

I've been avoiding this one for so long, but I think I'm getting ready to make the plunge (and I plan to bring a friend along for the ride)

Good call.
"Renewal of Evangelion" for the original series.
The new Rebuild of Evangelion movies are out there on Blu ray, but it its a whole other thing (not as good as the classic)

I don't have first hand experience with any Eva dvd or blu-ray, but from what I learned through my researches (maybe someone can chime in?) :

As far as official releases go :

If you don't wanna shell out $200 US for the japanese only blu-ray set, the way to go is the Platinum dvd boxset apparently

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511FJN7KBCL.jpg

The earlier dvd release (Perfect Collection) supposedly has quite inferior picture quality than Platinum. Plus, platinum has the uncut 2 episodes or something? I don't know, I haven't finished it so I don't know the details around the last episodes being edited and stuff.

The platinum set is still some money though. The cheapest I've seen it new is $100 US. Might be worth it if you love the show

People in the Eva forum also suggest to get the movie End Of Evangelion in addition to the platinum dvd set.




As for the show itself : I quite like it so far I'll wait until I finish it to say just how good it was to me. But I can say that every aspect is solid IMO. I think it's great

I too have been avoiding it until now. When a series is hyped beyond belief it makes me wanna avoid it generally.
It still very classic stuff at it's core (teens using mechas to battle aliens, can't go wrong with that! lol) and that pleases me, as I prefer mid/late 80's stuff generally.
I love the artstyle in Eva, it still uses pasteley colors of the era I mentioned above, but with designs a bit more modern-ish (but still charming as hell)

$100 for some DVDs + shipping + possible import taxation (likely)....that's a bit of dough.

Really wish a western blu-ray with a more "sane" price would appear soon.

Thanks for the input, I will be sure to look around and value my options


The visuals is my main motivation for wanting to watch it, as it looks simply delicious. I love Sadamoto's drawing style and his character designs and I know there's lots of audiovisual goodies waiting for me in there. I just have to be brave and sit through all the drama and angst - which might just as well be my kryptonite - to get to the parts I really want.

I've read a bit of the manga so I know what to expect. I don't doubt for a second that it is a quality work and that the story is a good one, it's just full of things I have trouble with, hence why I haven't gotten to it yet...

Edit: Of course, having seen GAINAX's magnum opus is just one of those things it feels you just have to do. Like playing Half-Life.

I believe the Gundam way of "mecha genre" is hardware designs generally easy to pattern mass-produced toys upon. Eva designs don't share this trait, so it seems "post-classic" in this regard to me.
The show did with anime what Twin Peaks did with TV, I think (having watched both for the first time years after they were new, myself).

@Ji

I'm at episode 8 and so far, there's not much heavy drama . It's mostly action and then light-hearted characters interactions, wich is surprising me quite a bit : I was anticipating heavy drama to make for a large chunk of the show but it's not the case (so far).

Sure there's a bit of Shinji being conflicted and stuff. But there's not much of it to be honest.

Definitly watch it

If it were a miserable slog, it wouldn't be possible for it to have become as popular as it has. Shinji and his dad repairing their relationship is so much fun.

The only product they released in the franchise that really sits in the mud of drudge are the final no-$ episodes of the series and the third rebuild movie.

Anyone in on Voltron yet?

Eva did with mechs what Watchmen did with superheroes, or Utena with shoujos.
(Ive watched Twin Peaks for the first time I think just two or three years ago, and already seen the whole series twice)

I don't think Watchmen (as comic books) reached demographic remotely as large as Eva - simply due to the latter being originally on the TV, then pirated rampantly. Twin Peaks, being American, thus exported/imported worldwide, was also way more of a generational experience than Watchmen. Comic books markets are more secluded than anything on TV, so Watchmen was like inside a bubble within a bubble.

Definitely watch End of Evangelion after finishing the TV series. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen.

Hopefully Anno gets back to work on the final Rebuild movie once he's done with Godzilla, and hopefully it's as good as 2.22 (or EoE). The series was originally supposed to be finished in, like, 2008.

Agree, of course.

But I meant that, like Watchmen, Twin Peaks or Utena, Evangelion ended up being like a strange twist on it's originally innocent genre until reaches another proposal. Like if the soap opera, mechs and superheroes were a surface to talk about the true plot of each.
Maybe it's just me, but i see similarities in these 4 series. I wont talk more to avoid spoilers

I'm not a big fan of Shinji, but there's no denying that he is a great foil to Misato and (especially)to Asuka.
He makes Asuka's personality pop like crazy, lol.

Just watched the original Berserk. It's really cool (and also very adult), but the last few episodes go off the deep end.

It ends quite suddenly for no reason at all, and doesn't resolve the framing device they used for Episode 1.

So I had to go and watch the last 20 minutes of the third movie (which are just HD versions of the series). There are STILL unanswered questions, but at least it's better than the original ending, and it also shows an additional survivor than I was expecting.

I heard the manga is still going, but at an abysmally slow pace, so I'm not even going to bother.

I might resume a different more light hearted anime I quit watching in order to watch this.

The collective consensus is that the comic finished sometime before the scooby doo ghost pirate arc, so you can consider it canonically discontinued indefinitely.

Like you said, the manga still going, so the anime had to make its own ending when surpassed the manga.
This problem happens a lot, like with the first Full Metal Alchemist, X 1999 and many others.

I thought "Cross Ange: Rondo of Angels and Dragons" was going to be complete and total irredeemable garbage while I was in the first episode, but it pretty quickly brought some things to the table. I really appreciate that it never stays in one place, stagnating into a total yawn fest.

Giving up on any illusion that Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is ever going to be localized into my barbarian tongue, so entering that world now. Any dark comedies I should know about besides Welcome to the NHK?



Now, I only saw the original animoo in the Berserk Abridged edition format, where they made a hilarious joke hilighting the complete and total absence of the Skull Knight. Isn't he like... not in the original animoo at all?

Note that we got like six issues of Berserk last year, which is comparable to how much one punch man we get on average. With an issue a week away! Living the high life.

Actually, i havent watched Beserk yet,
and probably will prefer reading the manga as it is said to be much better overall

Three seasons in, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal is still a poorly handled attempt at adapting the manga. I never understood complaints from fans of the '90s anime about the lack of humor until I realized how much of the missing humor was was actually in the source material. You can't cut that much character development from a 10~13-chapter story arc and expect the end product to remain faithful.

I would be willing to overlook it if not for this:

http://crystalvsmanga.tumblr.com/post/1 ... rystal-010

Manga:

Crystal:


Take it from someone who can't stand the '90s anime, the musicals, the live action series, or any of that other stuff. Crystal is not worth your time.

One more time for good measure:

Finishing up Initial D 4th Stage(finally, watched most of the series straight through), and while I like the Project D arc more than I expected(some absolutely intense races), I kind of miss the balance of drama in 1st and 2nd Stage. I knew it was going to be mostly about racing, though, so it worked out.

Still wish Project D had included more team members. Why not have a specialist from each district? I guess he wanted something more focused, though.

Also, the manga author must have had some seirous relationship issues. Every girl in the series gets either blown off(Kyoko), is two-faced(Natsuki), or is a raving bitch(Itsuki's two attempts).

Is anything that comes after 4th Stage worth watching?

I'd recommend you watch the series until the end. Especially if



is an aspect of the series that you're curious about.

Fifth Stage plus Final Stage is just 18 episodes in total, so it's not like you have a lot left. Though my favorite races are in the 4th and 1st Stages.

What's the best looking(picture quality) retail release of the Berserk 1997 tv series ?

I saw a fantastic looking upload of episode 1 on youtube, in 720p, so I thought maybe there's a blu-ray out.
But then again: maybe that was a good dvd release that the guy on youtube upscaled before uploading it.

Also : for the life of me I can't figure out wich dvd sets and wich blu ray discs cover the tv series. They have names with "arc" in them and none of them say "tv series" in the title or subtitle. it's just so confusing... I legit can't figure it out

I want all 25 episodes of the tv series. Can someone point me to a particular retail release of this? Thanks in advance



EDIT : found out that the releases labeled "arc" are the movies. But I still haven't figure out wich releases are the 1997 TV series, least wich one looks best

Trigger saved anime again
Uchuu Patrol Luluco is damn great
also, here are some fun to read notes from the Trigger panel at AnimeNEXT http://archive.is/eQBd9

And they just announced a Little Witch Academia TV series. Yeah, Luluco and Kiznaivers were the best of this season imo, but that's because the rest of the series were boring shit (even Joker Game ).

After reading this Shimamoto and Anno interview, I started watching Akage no Ann/Ann of Green Gables. Takahata is a genius, now I get why they love this series so much.

Yea, though it is a novel adaptation (I don't know how accurate), the lack of an overarching story feels like missed potential. The separate spy stories are kind of nice, but there's only so much a WWII spy fiction anime can do in one episode

Hagane, mate, thanks for being the lighthouse of good manga taste in this thread. Every recommendation I've seen from you so far is a great read.


This is probably too late, but all of the currently available official releases have botched up colors and little to no typesetting (seamless on-screen text translation), as well as rather clunky subtitle translation. Your best bet would be a fansub release by the guy named Sephirotic who color-corrected each episode by hand over the span of multiple months, and introduced a lot of fixes to the actual subtitles. He has recently released the 1080p batch of the entire series + EoE movie, and will soon make a 720p version of the batch as well. Personally I'd be glad to rewatch the series when he's done.

As for the series I have watched over last half a year...

VERY RECOMMENDED

Mawaru Penguindrum. The spiritual successor to Utena and an extremely—nay, EXTREMELY well-directed series. Very Lynchian in its constant dabbling in mysticism and metaphysics, its quirky characters, and the whole "everything is not as simple as it seems at first" atmosphere I loved in Twin Peaks. The cinematography, sound design, dialogue writing, and budget allocation are nothing short of stellar—the attention to detail on the level of this series is seen maybe once a year. And to top it off, it's actually clever and relatively subtle in delivery of its ideas! Holy shit, am I still describing an anime series about schoolchildren and penguins? Well, on a more serious note... honestly, Penguindrum is a great show the likes of which are very rare and underappreciated because they are not digested easily nor are meant to be. It's a lot like arthouse cinema in the sense that it requires being familiar with the broad cultural and social context, so not everyone will understand everything, and most viewers likely won't understand anything at all that isn't in their face, but those who will understand the subtle things will absolutely love it. In this particular case you're pretty much required to learn about the Lost Decade, the famous 1995 sarin attacks on Tokyo subway, and the anime adaptation of Kenji Miyazawa's Night on the Galactic Railroad, which is very much a recommended watch on its own. This is the bare minimum required to make sense of what's going on in Penguindrum—both literally and between the lines. And there's a lot going on between the lines. It's not without its flaws but neither is Twin Peaks or any other series that attempts something both ambitious and unconventional at the same time. The show's dialogue is very demanding with virtually no throwaway lines, so get the best translation you can (search for Flep or Zurako release).

Katanagatari. A well-done adaptation of light novels by Nisio Isin of Monogatari fame. Quirky (but lovable) art style, excellent soundtrack, cleverly written story, deep characterization, and pleasant dialogues. It's a very deceptive series in that it initially fools you into thinking this is a cute action comedy but quickly and naturally progresses into being exactly the opposite. Not grimdark on the level of Shigurui, obviously, but there will be many instances starting as early as episode 3 that will likely leave you very unsettled, sad, or at all emotionally devastated. The ending may seem a little controversial at first, if not a 180° switch, but it remains entirely consistent and stands up to a rewatch; in fact, the series lends itself to a complete rewatch almost instantly, despite not being as cryptic as Mawaru Penguindrum. It's just that well-written. And the action parts, when they actually happen, are extremely well-animated for the most part.

Mushishi Zoku Shou, aka the 2nd season of Mushishi. If you've watched the first season, watch this. If you haven't watched either, watch both asap. Some of the episodes (eg. the one about the tunnel mushi) are fucking mindblowing.


SLIGHTLY LESS RECOMMENDED

AnoHana. Sappy, does a lot of forced tearjerking, and generally tries so hard at making you feel sad it actually succeeds, haha. Definitely not a show of the same level as the previous three writing- or direction-wise, but is nice and still a lot better than other shows that attempt the same but fail to.

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. Slow-paced character-driven period drama with zero fanservice. Excellent characterization, voice acting and animation. The last episode feels rushed, and the pacing can feel very slow in the middle, but that's the extent of its problems. Oh, and I suppose you probably won't enjoy it if you don't like theater (Japanese theater in particular).

Parasyte. A campy version of The Thing with non-shitty plot, fun action, and some interesting takes on human morals. Generally not insulting to intelligence, which is something action anime rarely achieves.

Welcome to the NHK! Well... this is grim. I like how it presents itself as a comedy but ends up being so delightfully cynical it actually makes you uneasy a lot more than it makes you laugh. Considering I have experienced myself or have seen firsthand all of the major character prototypes and situations featured in this show, I can vouch for its overall credibility and faithfulness in depiction of the hikikomori problem.

Bakemonogatari. I've only watched the first series so far, and I indend to continue. I'm no stranger to Studio Shaft shows (I loved Madoka and enjoyed Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei), but this is probably the most eyebrow-raising of them all. Definitely not a show for everyone. That said, I loved it. The dialogue is extremely delightful (the way Senjougahara bullies Araragi is just hilarious) and the characters themselves are nice. Playing with sexual undertones, which is something that happens a lot here, can get a little overboard at times (yes, that's a pussy-covering band-aid on an underage girl), but it's mostly served in a very tasteful manner and is way more enjoyable than the copypaste ecchi fanservice in shows that can well do without it.

The Tatami Galaxy. Not my favorite Masaaki Yuasa work (I still prefer Kaiba, Ping Pong, and the masterpiece that is Mind Game), but I'd say it's a good introduction to his style, and it has some nice rapid-fire dialogue with many enjoyable sequences. And that incredibly stylish ending.

Usagi Drop. There's nothing really going on in this series story-wise, but it portrays the joys and hardships of raising a child a relationship between the two main characters in a very realistic and heartwarming way.

Psycho-Pass. This is basically Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex, just slightly less about politics and slightly more about law enforcement action, made by some of the same staff. Strong female lead, cyberpunk-themed mildly anti-utopian future, unapologetic action sequences, high production values, all that jazz. Season 2 is certainly weaker, to the point where I wouldn't recommend it unless you really liked the first season. Full length-movie you can safely skip unless you have a high resistance to spoken Engrish (although there exists a fan edit that substitutes the cringy Engrish lines with the same lines from the English dub).


DEBATABLE

Shinsekai Yori. I really wanted to enjoy this series more than I have. It's not bad, it has a solid premise, decent execution, and goes lengths to avoid the cliches and pitfalls of other anime series that attempted to tell a story of this kind. But... it's just not very enjoyable. The pacing is all over the place (it could definitely benefit from having 2-3 episodes less), character motivation seems puzzling at times, and the twist at the end is too Shyamalanian for my taste. I get that most of the praise it received was largely banked on this twist, but you've got to give other parts of the story due attention, too. In the time it took it could have developed the supporting characters a lot better, for one.

Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge. A surprisingly fresh (...ahem) protagonist that doesn't act like one; most of the other characters are pretty lovable as well and bounce well off of each other. Certainly not something I would remember years down the line though. Pacing is sloooooooooow (but fits the theme).

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu. A well-paced shounen that takes an age-old premise and plays around with harem theme but doesn't devolve into shitty ecchi (Zero no Tsukaima, looking at you here) and generally tries its best to stay engaging and non-obnoxious. Also perhaps the first such show of its kind that doesn't make the main character absurdly powerful—in fact, the only notable trait he has is that he returns to the latest "save point" when killed, a-la Groundhog Day / Edge of Tomorrow...

Space Patrol Luluco. Inferno Cop meets FLCL meets Gurren Lagann meets Kill la Kill meets Little Witch Academia meets Sex and Violence with Machspeed... well, you probably get the idea. It's a wild hodgepodge of top-grade silliness taking place all over studio Trigger's directors' portfolio as well as some leftover Gainax legacy. Occasionally great (roughly once per 3 episodes), otherwise okay; short enough to not be boring. Excellent stylish ending (this will probably be deleted from YT soon).

Kiznaiver. A show that takes 75% of its length before you can make any sense of it, which is a pretty audacious move for something that sets the bar only slightly above mediocre in the first couple episodes. Not sure yet how it will end; the only thing I can say it does become interesting and feels considerably less generic starting around episode 9 or so. Out of 12 episodes in total.

Joker Game. It looks and feels reasonably clever, and is clearly aimed at an adult audience, but it's just not very engaging overall. I blame the episodic format where every episode after the first two is a separate self-contained story.

Bungou Stray Dogs. It's... decent-ish? An interesting take on superpowers, referencing most of the pantheon of famous Japanese fiction writers in some pretty roundabout ways. Occasionally entertaining and doesn't contain any moe shit.

Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin. Very original premise. Starts off on a high note, but eventually succumbs to multiple cliches. Up to and including being sad and violent for the sake of being sad and violent.

Durarara x2 Shou/Ten/Ketsu. A once-excellent series that has overstayed its welcome. Never gets to the level of the first half of season 1 but stays consistently non-shitty if you can keep all the characters in memory. Unfortunately, it doesn't get too far past the "non-shitty" starting with Ten, and doesn't recover much in Ketsu. It's not mediocre, but it attempts to do a lot of different things and introduces more colorful characters to the point where you neither understand what's going on nor care about it, and just want to see how it ends. And I'm not very satisfied with how it ends.


WHATEVER

My Hero Academia, Dagashi Kashi, Kuma Miko, Dimension W. Watch these if you're a bored omnivore unafraid of blatantly mediocre writing and generic fanservice. Don't watch these if you value your time.


NOT RECOMMENDED

Kotetsujou no Kabaneri. Disappointment of the season, anyone? Started watching it because the first episode promised an entertaining mix of Shingeki no Kyojin and Snowpiercer (the recent-ish action movie with Chris Evans). It went pretty great for the first 2.5 episodes and then demonstrated complete and utter creative bankruptcy (the amount of shameless copying and riding on popular cliche is astounding)... as well as actual bankruptcy—with lots of padding, static scenes, actual panned static frames instead of animated action, and other kinds of garbage that suggest the entire show's budget was spent on the first three episodes. In the end it's neither as well-written and internally consistent as SnK nor as fun and unrelenting as Snowpiercer. I'm going to finish this, but if you ever see somebody ragging on this show, be sure that it deserves every last word of criticism. This is bad, and the writers should be ashamed about creating something so bad.

Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta?. Starts off self-aware and at least somewhat promising, devolves into 100% generic unfun predictable fanservice-driven garbage.

Tokyo Ghoul. Inconsistent, annoying, predictable, and... well, what exactly is good about it? I mean you had cat ears in Elfen Lied, what do you have here except obnoxious emo kids and equally obnoxious psychopaths duking it out in vain attempts to elicit emotional response out of the viewer? Meh.

Mayoiga. Dropped this after episode 5, never looked back.

Bubuki Buranki. Not a single redeeming thing. I lasted up to episode 4.

Boku dake ga Inai Machi. Disappointment of the previous season. The first 4 or so episodes were pretty much flawless. Then it started to drag, and finally culminated in a contrived ending that didn't explain anything it should have. I read the manga to see if it was due to bad adaptation, but in fact the manga was much, much worse (seriously, it's laughably bad). It's like the author got a good idea from somebody but was too bad to execute it in any kind of a satisfactory manner.

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar. Beautifully drawn (such a waste!) but generic as fuck and unbearably slow. An animated equivalent of a double dosage of Valium.

Finished with Ranma and Anne Happy, now on to Urusei Yatsura, and from what I've seen so far from it, I am going to like it. Much like Ranma though, the loose ends I hear aren't tied up (with Ranma, the whole Ranma/Akane relationship, and being normal again never happens in the manga. The lady who did it should maybe try to have one more special to wrap it up).

It's nice to watch a 35 year old anime like Urusei Yatsura, and not feel like it's out of date at all. Lum even did a cameo at the start of the Ranma 1/2 special episode done in 2008, along with Inuyasha. They did a short skit before the opening credits with all 3 interacting with each other.