Recommended Anime/Manga?

[Raytrace]

Yep, the truth is revealed in the second season.
You are gonna hate Refrain, I promise you, it's even more braindead than the 1st season.

Finished JJBA: Stone Ocean! Weirdest shit ever. Loved Jolyne and the Prison setting, but dat ending..........................................

I am currently reading Diamond Is Unbreakable and loving it, I thought at the end of Stardust Crusaders that he was surely going to start running out of interesting stuff, but no, it's amazing - the 'heavy padlock' stands metaphorical meaning was fvkin amaze.

[Raytrace]

Watched an episode of Sabu and Ichi's Detective Tales.



Someone here commented a bit back that it's like "moving manga," and that description is a perfect fit. It's honestly just barely animated enough for me to call it animation, really. To make up for it, it's damn stylish -- enough so that I'm not sure if the animation was for stylistic or budgetary reasons [probably both, as is the case with things]. Great use of grayscale contrast.

It is very a cool anime, I'm going to hold out a bit longer for HnG to have a good lot done then watch em all in a big marathon .

[soprano1]

Looking for another opinion, this time Durarara. From what i remember, general opinion was "not as good as Baccano", but that's hard to top, imo. Worth a watch?

[drauch]

I'm also trying to watch Southern Cross (drauch is also watching atm I think) - I dunno about it, I can't get half as into it as I did with SDF Macross and Orguss, which I both loved.

Maybe it'll pick up in the last quarter, it just kindof feels boring atm .

Yeah, I'm giving it a shot right now. Only about seven episodes in at the moment I believe. Yeah, at first I wasn't feeling it so much; a bit too much "oooh, look at this high maintenance girl that pilots a mech." Now that the main alien plot is starting to unfold I'm becoming a bit more intrigued, but we'll see.

[drauch]

ok so even the original 1996 TV series is bad - or just the 2000s ones?

Both
The tv-series does introduce some characters that shows up in the movie, but that's it. Well, the soundtrack's pretty good too.

Yeah, I was really bummed after watching the four part OVA, then directly moving on to the 90s series. Biiiiiiiig change in pace. Just endless stupid joke after another. Bought the entire goddamn thing when the license ran out a year or so back and kinda regret it.

Dirty Pair-spotting might be a fun game to play, I'm sure there must be more cameo appearances out there.
(And who's the guy on the right with the green hair?)

Man, I know there's one more that I can't place on the tip o' the brain. I'll post when I think about it. Not so much a cameo themselves, but there's a clear shot of a DP poster in Eric Tsang's HK action film Fatal Vacation.

Just got my hands on these brilliant volumes*:

I saw the anime ages ago, but having recently read the amazing Goku: Midnight Eye (which is infinitely better than the anime) I had to get the manga.

Any other Buichi Terasawa fans here?

Yep! Got those as well. Comics One! was such an awesome publisher, despite the English format. Really bizarre all the wacky shit they released, which is probably why they went under. I think it's the Wikipedia page about them that talks how they just "mysteriously disappeared." Think they owed a bunch of money, then just packed up and left, and nobody knows what happened! Haven't read too deep into that, but I like the air of mystery.

I finally finished the 109 episodes of Hokuto No Ken I loved it all the way through (well except maybe the very final compilation episode) -

What of the massive amount of gaidens, movies and stuff should I watch now? Or should I read the manga now? Or should I just go straight to Hokuto No Ken 2 series?

Yeah, pretty much what Dane said. I haven't even checked out any of the gaidens, because I've found it hard to even look at the art in most of them. Most of the times I usually avoid this sort of thing unless it was made around the same time period, but that's just me.

anyone know what happened to drauch? I haven't seen a post of his in weeks.
All the recent talk of City Hunter, Dirty Pair, and Hokuto no Ken. Normally he'd be all over this sorta shit.

that is a very good point - I shall check if he has been on the Old School Anime club on mal.net

Yeah, wound up working a bunch and was constantly busy and just got sort of burned out, so I took a short break. Back now though, by golly.

[CIT]

Just got my hands on these brilliant volumes*:

I saw the anime ages ago, but having recently read the amazing Goku: Midnight Eye (which is infinitely better than the anime) I had to get the manga.

Any other Buichi Terasawa fans here?

Yep! Got those as well. Comics One! was such an awesome publisher, despite the English format. Really bizarre all the wacky shit they released, which is probably why they went under. I think it's the Wikipedia page about them that talks how they just "mysteriously disappeared." Think they owed a bunch of money, then just packed up and left, and nobody knows what happened! Haven't read too deep into that, but I like the air of mystery.

Seems a lot of publishers of awesome stuff went that way. Definitely was the same kind of story with the publisher of the Hino Horror volumes, iirc.

[Raytrace]

I'm also trying to watch Southern Cross (drauch is also watching atm I think) - I dunno about it, I can't get half as into it as I did with SDF Macross and Orguss, which I both loved.

Maybe it'll pick up in the last quarter, it just kindof feels boring atm .

Yeah, I'm giving it a shot right now. Only about seven episodes in at the moment I believe. Yeah, at first I wasn't feeling it so much; a bit too much "oooh, look at this high maintenance girl that pilots a mech." Now that the main alien plot is starting to unfold I'm becoming a bit more intrigued, but we'll see.

I don't want to depress but I just finished and IMO it doesn't get any better in fact if anything the first 5 or so episodes felt best to me because I felt I was getting that 70s ish magic cartoon feeling off it, but then it just wore off .

[Raytrace]

Yeah, wound up working a bunch and was constantly busy and just got sort of burned out, so I took a short break. Back now though, by golly.

'Welcome aboard old friend!'

[KAI]

Looking for another opinion, this time Durarara. From what i remember, general opinion was "not as good as Baccano", but that's hard to top, imo. Worth a watch?

Yes, watch it. DRRR is a must watch if you liked Baccano's storytelling.


Watching Mahouka... Onisama a shit.

[soprano1]

Thanks KAI, i'll watch it next weekend or so.

[BryanM]

Watched the first couple episodes of Claaaaannad since I've been going through the toprated list on MAL. If I was still doing the "watch anything" experiment I would have pressed on, but unless someone wants to vouch for it I'm done with it.

Somewhat digging Great Teacher Onizuka. Guess I'm a typical 80's guy.

I have to say I really quite enjoyed DxD.

You're not the only one. According to the internet, the average viewer watches it on average a average of 93 times, averaged.

[Formless God]

Nnnnope, don't bother. Clannad gets better in the 2nd half, but you need to have lived through the shitty first 24 episodes to even feel anything.

Re:DRRR, if at any point during Baccano you thought "when will they shut the fuck up", you'll enjoy DRRR.

[Pretas]

Yes, watch it. DRRR is a must watch if you liked Baccano's storytelling.

Counter-recommendation. It lacks almost all of Baccano's madcap creativity, absurdity and ultraviolence; it's much more youth culture-oriented, it's glorified fujoshi bait and it's boring as hell.

[soprano1]

It's glorified fujoshi bait

Pretty boys staring at each other with starry eyes is not my cup of tea...

[KAI]

Pretty boys staring at each other with starry eyes is not my cup of tea...

It doesn't have that kind of fujoshi bait tho, it's just that the rivalry between 2 of the main chars is kinda gay sometimes.
DRRR is youth-oriented and boring, but if you liked Baccano's story structure, I think you may like it.


Mushishi Zoku Shou Season 2! The fucking final season!! It's happening!!!

[Ruldra]

Watched the first couple episodes of Claaaaannad since I've been going through the toprated list on MAL. If I was still doing the "watch anything" experiment I would have pressed on, but unless someone wants to vouch for it I'm done with it.

Some months ago I was checking out a bunch of VNs and decided to give Clannad a try, since it's rated so highly. The pacing was awfully slow so I decided to watch the anime instead, as people said it's a good adaptation.

I forced myself to watch about 12 episodes until I finally gave up. The comedy, the drama and the characters are all bad. Everyone feels like they're retarded. Nagisa, her parents, Kotomi, Ryou...they all behave like children. It doesn't help that Nagisa is exactly the type of character I hate the most in anime: innocent, dumb and emotionally weak.

Another work from Key I checked out in the past was the Planetarian visual novel and the "heroine" is exactly like Nagisa. Looks like they love this kind of character so I'm probably not reading/watching anything from them again.

PS: For a more detailed writing about Clannad, go here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=10305

[Ji-L87]

As far as Key-adaptions goes I kinda liked KyoAni's take on Kanon. It was an awfully long time since I watched that though, and I'm not sure I could make it through it again, as I'm really bad with drama shows And thus doesn't get much "enjoyment" out of those, but I remember that it looked very good and it had quite a few funny moments in between all the sad girls in snow-stuff.

And as for Clannad, I dropped that a bit in it as well. I enjoyed it at first but when the drama started to hit I backed out, in general it seems that I fail to see the appeal of Key and their crying games...

[lilmanjs]

Canaan, ohh why did I rent this junk? good action, bad plot!

[Ji-L87]

Canaan, ohh why did I rent this junk? good action, bad plot!

And that's exactly why it's a good thing you rented it, and didn't buy it

Canaan had some cool character design going for it as well....oh well.

[Pretas]

Finally finished Zankyou no Terror. I was glad that Five got what she deserved, both as the villain and the series' most insufferable and cliche character.

It would have been a great ending if it had abruptly finished with

Spoiler

Nine pressing the detonator button after Twelve was shot by American snipers, with the result left unseen. Such a grim punchline would have driven home the consequences of corruption and foolhardy action in tense situations, as well as ensuring that neither the American nor the Japanese government would be able to escape blame for the Sphinx incident. Instead, we got a typical, flaccidly optimistic "happy" ending with nothing meaningful to say. They also severely downplayed the tremendous panic and chaos that would have inevitably resulted from the nationwide destruction of the power grid and all nonshielded electronics, not to mention the total forced evacuation of Tokyo.

A decent 11-episode series, but it could have been considerably better had the writers taken a few more risks and maintained the initial tone.

[BryanM]

For a more detailed writing about Clannad, go here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.ph ... ount=10305

Hurm, "fix these broken girls" and coercive framing is still content.

It can't possibly be near as bad as Nabari No Ou. Nabari No Ou is what true horror is. You'd rather be one of those ooze monsters that gets devoured horribly in Saya no Uta than have to watch all 26 episodes of Nabari No Ou.

NABARI NO OuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuUuuuuuuu.

A decent 11-episode series, but it could have been considerably better had the writers taken a few more risks and maintained the initial tone.

That's such a typical cliche in the medium - so often something starts with an interesting hook, but then they have no idea where to go with it so they decide to go no where at all.

[Raytrace]

Finally finished Zankyou no Terror. I was glad that Five got what she deserved, both as the villain and the series' most insufferable and cliche character.
A decent 11-episode series, but it could have been considerably better had the writers taken a few more risks and maintained the initial tone.

yeah shes beyond a bitch - they sorta never really explained what her motive was and at the VERY end they seemed to be implying that she liked Nine or something.

Overall I did really enjoy it, I thought the backgrounds were incredible and the first person snowmobile sequence was some of the best CG integration ever. Five and that REALLY annoying chess bit in the airport were the only things that let it down IMO.

[Raytrace]

That's such a typical cliche in the medium - so often something starts with an interesting hook, but then they have no idea where to go with it so they decide to go no where at all.

Well I think in Zankyou No Terror it's more that it dipped in the middle then came good again towards the end, though admittedly not as good as it's first few episodes.

[KAI]

AW GOD!!!!! Finished the 5th ep of G-Reco. That animation quality, those special effects, that level of detail.
This is AotY material, even if most of the anime fanbase think it's nonsensical shit for kids.
Dat Tomino trolling the haters <3

[Raytrace]

where are HS getting it from? It's not on AllTheAnime's Vimeo On Demand yet?

[Raytrace]

btw Kai - you might enjoy this/find useful:

http://mechareporter.com/reconguista-context/

[Raytrace]

AW GOD!!!!! Finished the 5th ep of G-Reco. That animation quality, those special effects, that level of detail.
This is AotY material, even if most of the anime fanbase think it's nonsensical shit for kids.
Dat Tomino trolling the haters <3

I really like it so far, and I'm also rewatching Turn A as they're similar in feel I think, and of course timeline wise this is the closest to Turn A yet. I'm really hoping that the pirates have something to do with some bizzare Crossbone remnants or something too :p.

The art in G-Reco is brilliant I think, I really like how hand filled the colours look.

[Raytrace]

OK that was the best episode yet, one thing Tomino is definitely brilliant at are the 'launch/escape from Earth' or 're-entry' episodes (the re-entry one in Zeta is one of my favourite of all UC Gundam episodes).

[Raytrace]

Space Dandy Season 1 is on Netflix now btw.

[KAI]

where are HS getting it from? It's not on AllTheAnime's Vimeo On Demand yet?

I have no idea. Can't even find raws of this ep.

(the re-entry one in Zeta is one of my favourite of all UC Gundam episodes).

Same here. Can't wait to see the earth escape sequence and the space fights on the next episode.