Recommended Anime/Manga?

[BryanM]

A reminder for those who missed my reminder, there are some Steins;Gate shorts done with IBM to promote cognitive computing for those who need more Steins;Gate in their veins before Zero comes out. It's on the youtubes.

The science adventure series is weird. I have no idea what's going on with Occultic;Nine and Anonymous;Code, guess they're never getting an animoo. They even say Occultic;Nine isn't even a part of the series and the guy just has a fetish for sexy;semicolons. Strange.

[Square_Air]

I have a fanmade 'Anno edition' which compresses the whole island crap into 1 episode or so - I recently used it during a rewatch and it makes a massive difference - the whole thing finally feels as brilliant and cohesive as it should be.

If I were to re-watch it, this is definitely what I would do. I still don't feel like fan-series lives up to the momentum of the first 8ish episodes (besides the wonderful 16th and 22nd episodes) and there are still a few filler episodes inside the good part of the series, but it definitely moves it from painfully mediocre to actually pretty good. If I were to watch it with a friend, I would almost want them to watch the whole thing just so they could share the suffering I went through. Those desert island episodes are some of the worst I have ever seen in any animated series, it's baffling how gross they are.

[Ji-L87]

Question:
Is the original Armored Trooper Votoms required viewing if I'm interested in checking out Armored Hunter Mellowlink? Or can I easily just sit down with it anyway?

yeah there really is no unexplained parts in it - I would highly recommend all VOTOMs anything though

I've heard VOTOMS to be really good, but I know I occasionally have trouble sticking with longer shows, and I've been wanting to see Mellowlink but never get around to it.
One of the obstacles was the connection with Votoms and now when that's been cleared I'll probably get to it very soon. Hopefully.

And if I like it, there's a fair chance I'll pick up Votoms along the way...

I have a fanmade 'Anno edition' which compresses the whole island crap into 1 episode or so - I recently used it during a rewatch and it makes a massive difference - the whole thing finally feels as brilliant and cohesive as it should be.

That sounds amazing actually. I finally sat down and went through all of Nadia last year (after dropping it midway on my first run) and those island episodes are easily bad enough to drag the rest of it with it. Is this "fan edition" something you've found on the web or something you've made? I'm interested anyway.

[Square_Air]

That sounds amazing actually. I finally sat down and went through all of Nadia last year (after dropping it midway on my first run) and those island episodes are easily bad enough to drag the rest of it with it. Is this "fan edition" something you've found on the web or something you've made? I'm interested anyway.

It's just a suggestion that people made on the web a while back when people were getting into torrenting entire series. It goes a little something like this:

-watch 1-22
-skip 23-29
-watch 30 & 31 (some people remove 30)
-skip 32 and 33
-save episode 34 in a safe place to torture your enemies
-watch 35-39

EDIT: I went to look this up again, and apparently there isn't just a fan suggestion, there's actually a complete recut of the series on laserdisc! This is a pretty interesting quote from the Evageeks forum i'll leave here for your convenience.

Part One: Who Directed What and the “Nautilus Cut”


When it is said that Anno “directed”, Nadia, this should be seen as a fundamentally nebulous term. Anno was indeed credited as “General Director” and is credited for personally directing twenty seven episodes, and writing twenty-nine. Nadia itself is thirty-nine episodes in length. The main question to be answered in this section is, of course, where do these other twelve episodes fall in terms of direction?

Shinji Suzuki receives credit as Second Unit Director.2 Supervision of the second unit is credited to Shinji Higuchi, especially as series progresses. While the second unit is nominally just a reserve team that works on what are generally considered unimportant scenes, it is commonly held that the second unit was itself in charge of Nadia’s “Island Arc” and “Africa Arc” -- episodes 24-34 of the series. These episodes, essentially demanded by NHK to increase the overall running time of the series, are generally deemed of poor quality by fans and by GAINAX alike. Most of these episodes were animated in Korean studios and peripherally managed by the second unit. Anno himself neither had nor wanted anything to do with the episodes, and effectively ignored them when he took the helm of the series back on Episode 35, creating even more confusion.

So the question arises -- what’s Anno’s in Nadia, really? Thankfully, we have an answer. There exists on laserdisc a definitive “Nautilus Story” cut designed by Anno to condense the series into what he considered it’s real presentation intent. In the Nautilus Story, Anno completely cuts episodes 23-28 -- leaving only segments of episodes 29-31 as the “island arc” where originally Jean and Nadia spend a long time stranded on the infamous “Lincoln Island”.

These episodes chronicle a budding romantic relationship between Jean and Nadia on the deserted island, but constantly undermine their narrative worth with hijinks and vaudeville that seem completely out of step with the original series. This is because of watered-down scripts sent to Korean animation studios to give the series a longer running time. Anno completely skips the infamous “Africa Arc”, in which, in a hilariously out-of-step move, Nadia, who has just admitted her feelings for Jean, attempts to win the heart of an African warlord. Contextually, these two episodes seem to ignore all attempts at character development throughout the series, and present ultra-cliched presentations of Africans that can only be seen as thinly veiled racism.

So, effectively, the Nautilus Cut keeps episodes 1-22 intact (with few questionable admissions), episode 31 completely intact, and finally episodes 35-39, the series finale. This accounts for a total of 27 episodes, which coincide with Anno’s “credit” of directing 27 total episodes, as evidenced by IMDB and many other cinema databases. Therefore, when speaking about Anno’s own creative “input” of the series, these are the episodes to keep in mind. When discussing the remainder of the episodes, the category “second unit episodes” will be favored. Anno’s feelings about these second unit episodes should by no means be discredited.

I just remembered that on one of the desert island episodes the animation is of such low quality that at one point for around 3 or 4 seconds they show a still image of a character with their mouth closed when they are clearly talking to the characters around them. It was pretty jarring and hilarious. Without scenes of utter stupidity sprinkled across that arc, I might have stopped watching entirely.

[Lord Satori]

The protagonist of Gantz is the biggest assbag I've ever seen. I feel like, from what I've seen so far, that whoever wrote this is a major pessimist about society.

Peering into everyone's thoughts in the first ep was cringeworthy enough, not to mention the fact that people were snapping pictures as two teens were beheaded by a train.

Ep 6 was the worst, though. Obviously mentally scarred girl shows up on his doorstep after everyone's been through trauma; obviously the time to try and get laid, right? Maybe I'm just rare in that I actually have some semblance of empathy, but I'm calling bullshit on that.

I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote the entire story around the idea of getting to draw uncensored tits as many times as possible.


I'm putting this one down, too. Gonna search for more psychological horror type anime.

[BryanM]

Oku is a super nihilist and his voice is a nice change of pace from all the cookie cutter stuff that doesn't really have anything to say.

As Gantz Abridged points out, the character arc of Kei Kurono is supposed to be about a cynical selfish horny teenage shithead growing into a heroic character through the love of a good woman, with normal size boobs.

The comic completely falls off the table in the final arc, and is just ridiculous with the plot armour it grants Tae-chan.

It has a very excellent Abridged series which is A+ for any edgelord 80's white american kid who got into animu for the gorn.

I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote the entire story around the idea of getting to draw uncensored tits as many times as possible.

Like a lot of artists, he had to get his start drawing pornography.

He's commented that when he showed Hen to people, the only feedback he got was on how they liked the way the breasts in motion were drawn (a style that has become incorporated as a staple pretty often since then). No comments on anything else.

As often as he comes up short, as often as he crams some awkward time filler and weak tropes into things, I do appreciate him as a thoughtful person in a world that, frankly, sometimes I wonder has any sentience out there at all.

Oku

What a weirdo. Did you see how he recycled the Giant-omnisexual-rapist-man character in Inu Yashiki? He just reuses the same characters over and over again!

/insert 20 pages of @channel laughing about some horrible carnage

[BryanM]

Oku is a super nihilist

Does it really get anymore more nihilistic than "all these sickos care about is sex and violence"? It's meta!

The secret is that all plot, at its core, is sex or violence. Without sex and or violence, all you have is a shaggy dog story.

[copy-paster]

Finished watching both season of Noragami.

The first one has a slow somewhat fast pace, story is a homeless God who is forgotten by humans and struggling to be remembered again, while the anime is more focusing of a deceased pre-teen boy who saved by him and later goes "shall envy the living", never figured the last three episode are from original anime.

Second one has less comedy and more action-driven, It's a good way though despite the lack of humor.

[Obiwanshinobi]

The secret is that all plot, at its core, is sex or violence. Without sex and or violence, all you have is a shaggy dog story.

There's also Curiosity™ - not only jack-of-all-trades species that is humankind displays it, but also highly specialised predators like cats and red-eared sliders do. That's where I suppose mystery stories stem from.
Then there's distinctly human desire to not so much know or understand things as to EXPLAIN them - therein the source of myth gushes...

[Xyga]

sex or violence

And violence https://youtu.be/TKhrQhdxjI8 most honest song about men ever. *tear*

I loved Gantz for the weirdness and cynism, it's true the last part is kind of meh, but it's a display of his drawing skills with many full/double pages that kind of make up for the shit plot.

Stopped reading Inu Yashiki though, it's really slow and boring. Action scenes look like still snapshots, like he completely lost the ability to draw characters in movement.

[BPzeBanshee]

A reminder for those who missed my reminder, there are some Steins;Gate shorts done with IBM to promote cognitive computing for those who need more Steins;Gate in their veins before Zero comes out. It's on the youtubes.

Seen it and apart from appreciating the show, I'm very interested that IBM seem to have taken towards using anime shows to promote their "Cognitive Computing" concept. Sword Art Online is apparently getting an official VRMMO now with their sponsorship as well as said tech.

Too long a wait for Steins;Gate Zero with no release date though.

[Obiwanshinobi]

sex or violence

And violence https://youtu.be/TKhrQhdxjI8 most honest song about men ever. *tear*

Punk's not dead!

[BryanM]

Sword Art Online is apparently getting an official VRMMO now with their sponsorship as well as said tech.

Heh heh ah yeah, the old "tv strapped to your face and motion controls" concept.

They shoulda waited until they got those neural shunts and could turn off your heart if you die in the game. That would sell like hotcakes!

[Stevens]

Not usually my thing, but while browsing Netflix my wife starting scrolling through the list, and suggested that if we could find something we agreed on we would give it a try.

We settled on The 7 Deadly Sins. Watched the first episode, and enjoyed it. Cool setting (not sure how common medival is in anime), non grating voices, and some legitimate laughs - mostly from the pig.

[Square_Air]

Sword Art Online is apparently getting an official VRMMO now with their sponsorship as well as said tech.

Heh heh ah yeah, the old "tv strapped to your face and motion controls" concept.

They shoulda waited until they got those neural shunts and could turn off your heart if you die in the game. That would sell like hotcakes!

Does it come complete with a harem of lifeless and unrealistic girls that will throw themselves at me for no logical reason so we can go on boring burger mysteries? Do I get to be better than everyone else because i'm a "1337 beater"? Does two years worth of semen make a gloping noise when it flows endlessly?

[BryanM]

I certainly hope they let everyone be a Mary Sue and there's elicit sexual activity modes. That would make it into like a spiritual successor to Furcadia.

[soprano1]

Ace Attourney anime by A-1 in April, holy shit! Also sequel to Macross Frontier, called Delta. Bakuon seems nice, moe girls on motorcycles. And the cherry on the cake, Diamond Is Unbreakable.

[NickPalmerDegica]

One of my favorite anime series is an obscure series from, I thin it was late 90s early 00s, (at least it was obscure in the west, it apparently won awards in Japan), called Infinite Ryvius. It was so obscure in the west that the DVD box set didn't even have a picture on the site of the company that published it.

Anyway. Its basically a combination of Lord of the Flies and the Hunt for Red October IIIIIN SPAAAAAAAACE. It is about a whole bunch of teen astronaut trainees in a future earth being stuck on a super advanced warship after all the instructors are killed (in an event that almost killed the students as well) and then them having to escape from all the people who are chasing them, as well as find sanctuary. It has a huge cast of characters, and most of the story has to do with the changing leadership and administrative organization of resources on the titular warship (the Ryvius), rather than combat or anything like that.

[Xyga]

Infinite Ryvius

Exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. On top of my watching list.

on to kissanime ^^

[BPzeBanshee]

heh ah yeah, the old "tv strapped to your face and motion controls" concept.

They shoulda waited until they got those neural shunts and could turn off your heart if you die in the game. That would sell like hotcakes!

Does it come complete with a harem of lifeless and unrealistic girls that will throw themselves at me for no logical reason so we can go on boring burger mysteries? Do I get to be better than everyone else because i'm a "1337 beater"? Does two years worth of semen make a gloping noise when it flows endlessly?

I share the same sentiment, especially after being pleasantly surprised watching through Overlord which essentially said "fuck it, lets make a VR plot with 200% more action and zero Mary Sue bullshit and take the piss out of "romantic fanservice" while we're at it". Curious to know what you guys make of the show.

[Square_Air]

I share the same sentiment, especially after being pleasantly surprised watching through Overlord which essentially said "fuck it, lets make a VR plot with 200% more action and zero Mary Sue bullshit and take the piss out of "romantic fanservice" while we're at it". Curious to know what you guys make of the show.

Honestly, i'm not very interested in VRMMO anime at the moment. I used to read .Hack as a kid and that's pretty mediocre in retrospect, SAO left a bad taste in my mouth and was nothing special, so now I don't have much driving me to watch Log Horizon or Overlord. Maybe one day when i've got time to kill i'll throw on the first 2 episodes to take a look though.

[BPzeBanshee]

As someone who was also dissatisfied with the romantic bullshit in SAO I highly recommend them both, although Log Horizon has a little bit of cheesy moments in the most recent season overall it's definitely better-made. Just don't watch it in dub.

[Ji-L87]

I quite liked the first season of Log Horizon (the ending theme single CD was also surprisingly good) but simply couldn't get on with the second season. Perhaps because they switched studios. Overlord too, I wasn't that fond of.

The idea was fun in itself, but I felt it was paced too slow, I didn't really enjoy the characters and overall didn't accomplish a whole lot during it's runtime - like someone stretched the content for half the show to cover all of it. Granted, it was quite a bit of fun when something actually happened but I just remembering this show making me frustrated because I wanted for to him to basically powergame the shit out of that world and really exploit all the crazy things he knew about the game and basically just be a badass all the time. Overlord also introduces a pretty big cast early on but don't really do a lot of things with them after that.

Still, better than SAO I seriously can't understand how popular it is. Whenever I see a SAO avatar I immediately questions that persons judgement.

[ryu]

SAO is alright if you don't consider its popularity. I had fun watching both seasons of it. Sure there's a lot of dumb stuff, and there's absolutely nothing great about it - but there's also shows a lot (LOT) worse out there.

[BPzeBanshee]

The idea was fun in itself, but I felt it was paced too slow, I didn't really enjoy the characters and overall didn't accomplish a whole lot during it's runtime - like someone stretched the content for half the show to cover all of it. Granted, it was quite a bit of fun when something actually happened but I just remembering this show making me frustrated because I wanted for to him to basically powergame the shit out of that world and really exploit all the crazy things he knew about the game and basically just be a badass all the time.

Not sure if you're talking about Log Horizon or Overlord here but I think this is why I consider LH a "neutral" VR show - with "pansy" being SAO and Overlord being a few steps away "utterly uncaring badassery". It wouldn't make sense for Shiroe to powergame the kingdoms with his knowledge like Plant Hwayden has done though, too many other human players savvy enough to see through that plan, but Momonga/Ains could easily do it once he nails the churchie mob to the south.

Watching Overlord through again though I can see where your points apply there - it's a slow start and not much is done with the characters over the 13 episodes (especially the demon with glasses - I was totally waiting for him to try to do a coup or at least blow some shit up), but I'm hopeful they'll get their shit together for season 2 and get straight into world-conquering now that the introductions are essentially all done.

SAO is alright if you don't consider its popularity. I had fun watching both seasons of it. Sure there's a lot of dumb stuff, and there's absolutely nothing great about it - but there's also shows a lot (LOT) worse out there.

Popularity is one thing, adequate construction is another. SAO in a nutshell to me is a neat idea that put VR in the spotlight..... using overdone cliche tropes and plot writing that was at best decent and at worst pure crapola which the author could not consistently stick to either end. There's definitely worse out there but I think it's too poorly constructed to justify the popularity. You get some good stuff one moment and then blow 5 episodes on useless romantic love triangles that were completely unnecessary and irrelevant to the greater arc.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Ace Attourney anime by A-1 in April, holy shit! Also sequel to Macross Frontier, called Delta. Bakuon seems nice, moe girls on motorcycles. And the cherry on the cake, Diamond Is Unbreakable.

What's the 411 on this newfangled Macross Delta anime series and when will it air/be released on Blu-Ray & DVD formats? Will there be new VFs shown in it? It's about damn time that a new Macross series was released.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Bloodreign]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gkhIt-YPxQ

Have found very few episodes of this one online, Magical Taruruto-kun, and none subbed to my knowledge. There's also an OVA that isn't as hard to find, but also unsubbed. From what I've seen of the series, I like it, though I don't understand what is being said in it.

[Raytrace]

Question:
Is the original Armored Trooper Votoms required viewing if I'm interested in checking out Armored Hunter Mellowlink? Or can I easily just sit down with it anyway?

yeah there really is no unexplained parts in it - I would highly recommend all VOTOMs anything though

I've heard VOTOMS to be really good, but I know I occasionally have trouble sticking with longer shows, and I've been wanting to see Mellowlink but never get around to it.
One of the obstacles was the connection with Votoms and now when that's been cleared I'll probably get to it very soon. Hopefully.

And if I like it, there's a fair chance I'll pick up Votoms along the way...

I have a fanmade 'Anno edition' which compresses the whole island crap into 1 episode or so - I recently used it during a rewatch and it makes a massive difference - the whole thing finally feels as brilliant and cohesive as it should be.

That sounds amazing actually. I finally sat down and went through all of Nadia last year (after dropping it midway on my first run) and those island episodes are easily bad enough to drag the rest of it with it. Is this "fan edition" something you've found on the web or something you've made? I'm interested anyway.

mine is a fanmade remake of the laserdisc eps - a new 23,24 and 25 replace 23-35

I actually 'met' the person who made it through Soundcloud - I cant remember how - sound of him to give it to me though.

[Raytrace]

Ace Attourney anime by A-1 in April, holy shit! Also sequel to Macross Frontier, called Delta. Bakuon seems nice, moe girls on motorcycles. And the cherry on the cake, Diamond Is Unbreakable.

What's the 411 on this newfangled Macross Delta anime series and when will it air/be released on Blu-Ray & DVD formats? Will there be new VFs shown in it? It's about damn time that a new Macross series was released.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

dunno about formats

April 4th comin out , unfinished/PV episode 1 has already aired - I thought it was pretty good so far.

[Raytrace]

One of my favorite anime series is an obscure series from, I thin it was late 90s early 00s, (at least it was obscure in the west, it apparently won awards in Japan), called Infinite Ryvius. It was so obscure in the west that the DVD box set didn't even have a picture on the site of the company that published it.

Anyway. Its basically a combination of Lord of the Flies and the Hunt for Red October IIIIIN SPAAAAAAAACE. It is about a whole bunch of teen astronaut trainees in a future earth being stuck on a super advanced warship after all the instructors are killed (in an event that almost killed the students as well) and then them having to escape from all the people who are chasing them, as well as find sanctuary. It has a huge cast of characters, and most of the story has to do with the changing leadership and administrative organization of resources on the titular warship (the Ryvius), rather than combat or anything like that.

While I don't really like the art, I will concur that it is a great series, with a genuinely tense and stressful (also possibly depressing) feel asll the way through.