Recommended Anime/Manga?

[moozooh]

Anime has gotten better in terms of serving up smooth-as-f*** animation quality, but the chara designs are total s***.
[...]
I blame that piece of s*** animu Neon Genesis Evangina. That one was a major change in quality of anime 8)

Wha? NGE's character design wasn't much different from its contemporaries, if at all. It was the animation quality that made it stand out visually. If I want unmemorable character designs, I turn to Studio Ghibli, that one never fails to dissappoint with literally the same set of face templates for pretty much every movie.

[Raytrace]

I'm expecting a shit-blizzard of abuse for this,
but Jesus I'm loving Gurren Lagann - it's so bombastic and OTT I can't help but smile everytime I watch it...

[moozooh]

Fuck no, TTGL is awesome. Its writing does get significantly weaker after the timeskip, though.

[Raytrace]

no spoilzors - I'm just at the montage/flashback one atm (Episode 16) - yeah I can't help but get taken away by it's enthusiasm, I read that the director is a massive or writer (I'm not sure which) is a massive Super Robot era fan, was anime back then that positive?

that Dai Gurren jumping turning/roundhouse kick sequence was quite possibly the most eyebleedingly amazing thing I've ever seen

[Ebbo]

After the series make sure to check out the two movies, Gurren-hen and Lagann-hen (they retell the story with some scenes altered) and Pararell Works short films. Awesome stuff.

[Raytrace]

I shall indeed - I really really do like it so far

[xbl0x180]

I'm expecting a shit-blizzard of abuse for this,
but Jesus I'm loving Gurren Lagann - it's so bombastic and OTT I can't help but smile everytime I watch it...

Once I saw Ash Ketchum was the pilot of the robot, I lost all interest in this crap

[Raytrace]

I'm expecting a shit-blizzard of abuse for this,
but Jesus I'm loving Gurren Lagann - it's so bombastic and OTT I can't help but smile everytime I watch it...

Once I saw Ash Ketchum was the pilot of the robot, I lost all interest in this crap

ok I honestly didn't know who Ash Ketchum was, I see its some Pokemon thing, seriously I can understand how you could not like Eva and stuff and possibly blaming it for all the whingey shit in modern anime, but Gurren Lagann is the exact opposite, completely energetic, positive and utterly un-mopey...

possibly more importantly though - it's got this :p -

[xbl0x180]

Hahah. Yeah, Ash is the little boy who travels around with Pikachu in Pokemon. And a lot of series make Ash-like kids as robot pilots or soldiers. It's the same crap that made me give up watching anime altogether. I'd easily give up watching anime again if I had to sit through another series that looks that way

[Raytrace]

Hahah. Yeah, Ash is the little boy who travels around with Pikachu in Pokemon. And a lot of series make Ash-like kids as robot pilots or soldiers. It's the same crap that made me give up watching anime altogether. I'd easily give up watching anime again if I had to sit through another series that looks that way

yeah ok I suppose, I don't really like the way Simon's face is drawn that much (untill the second half)

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Checked out Submarine 707 for ol' times sake. Interesting futuristic submarine battles indeed.

Also viewed the Marvel anime 12 episodes of the X-Men on DVD today...quite epic with Mad House's spin & flavor with a bit of Afro Samurai looking side characters type of vibe going on.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Raytrace]

Finished Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann...

The amount of times I literally said 'WTF?' out loud while wathing it (in a good way) is well, a lot of times, absolutely loved it, especially the Russian doll type stuff...

As suggested by people in this here thread, I'm giving Gunbuster the respect it deserves and watching the OVAs now - great stuff so far

[Op Intensify]

Gurren Lagann was fun, but not something I have any interest in watching more than once. I don't think it's going to stand the test of time as an enduring classic like Eva.

[Raytrace]

fnished Gunbuster OVA, and yes it does definitely have to be watched in that form instead of the movie - great series, it seemed to have a real Space Runaway Ideon (which I love) feeling at some points, not just the obvious things like the 'spam' missile attack, but even at some points the music seemed to be consciously evoking parts of the Ideon soundtrack, I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that Hideaki Anno is really into Ideon so it is possible I suppose :p. Also just some of it's mood 'felt' like Ideon to me, anwyay I loved it ...

[Raytrace]

watching Gunbuster 2 - finding the character design and general moeness kinda hard to take, but I'm just going to try and think of it as 'FLCL with space bits' instead of 'Gunbuster 2', maybe that'll help.....

[xbl0x180]

GunBuster 2 is utter garbage and representative of what sucks about modern animu. We need to remain on topic

[trap15]

No idea if it's already been said, as I can't easily go back through 53 pages to check, but Lupin III is the shit. All of the Lupin III stuff; the several anime seasons and the movies are top-notch. Can't say anything about the manga, as I haven't seen any of it, but I'd imagine it's probably just as good. I've almost finished watching season 1 again

[Op Intensify]

GunBuster 2 is utter garbage and representative of what sucks about modern animu. We need to remain on topic

Why does everyone call it this? The show titles clearly say Diebuster.

I thought stuff like Haruhi and K-On was a lot more representative of modern anime's problems. Diebuster is at least wildly creative.

[drauch]

Well, the original title is Aim for the Top 2! So calling Gunbuster 2 makes sense, since it is the sequel and all.

[Raytrace]

Well, the original title is Aim for the Top 2! So calling Gunbuster 2 makes sense, since it is the sequel and all.

in Japan it was called Toppu Wo Nerea! 2, so I think it is definitely fair enough to call it 'Gunbuster 2'. I really wish it did have a totally seperate name which didn't link it to Gunbuster, I've watched 1.5 episodes so far and I might give up, I don't care if it's ironic or post modern or wotever teh f, hearing the word 'moe' 4 times within 1.5 episodes, I find pretty hard to take. So far I would put it down there with Rinne No Lagrange, which up untill now had easily been my least favourite anime I'd ever seen...

actually I'm deffo going to stop watching it, I'm going to watch Mobile Suit Gundam movies now to cleanse my eyes :p

[xbl0x180]

I just watched the first 3 episodes of the GoldenBoy OAVs and I remember seeing them back in the mid-90s. It's pervy and trashy in some places, but the protagonist is likeable. The chara designs and animation quality are good - I detect some kind of early CG or rotoscoping was used 'cause there are some really, really smooth movements and almost-real shots of bicycles and automobiles. Normally, this would make me circumspect and I'd rate it lower, but Egawa Tatsuya's chara designs look similar to other junk I like. Right now, I cannot think of who exactly his designs resemble, but they may be a cross between Katsura Masakazu and Fujishima Kosuke... maybe... or maybe it was U-Jin I used to compare him to (which is apt considering the lewd and crass themes of the manga and anime)... although I just read on wikipedia Fujishima was an assistant to Egawa (much like Yoshimoto Kinji collaborated with Urushihara Satoshi). Yeah, that makes sense 'cause the only U-Jin comparison I've made was with Adachi Mitsuru's style

Egawa and Fujishima




A lot of features are standard for most designs, so the style distinctions sometimes may be something as subtle as how they draw the eyes. In this case, I think Egawa and Fujishima seem to have similar styles because of how they draw the eyes.


U-Jin and Adachi



Their similarities look to be on the rounded outlines for the character faces and also the eyes. Adachi draws larger ears (I think) and the eyes are a little more simple.

[moozooh]

These eyes look creepy as hell. Never understood what was good about designs like that, but oh well.

Watched the new Berserk movie earlier this week. Rather disappointed with animation quality—it really seems like the worst of the two worlds, with choppy framerate typical for a budget TV series, yet with the glossy sterile 3D visuals. I'm still confused as to why they couldn't add more intra frames if they didn't have to draw them by hand anyway. Oh well, I hope the next movie will be better in this regard.

At the risk of spoiling things, I'll say they've skipped quite a bit of the character buildup and backstory from the manga: Guts's childhood is barely shown, Gambino has about ten seconds of screen time, and the movie itself starts at some point in vol. 4 (where the Golden Age starts) going through to mid-vol. 6. Not much at all actually; at three volumes per movie on average this'll take a dozen more movies just to catch up to the current point in the story, athough they'll probably skip or simplify some more subplots. For instance, Guts often reminisces about his time with Gambino in the manga, and some of his dreams and hallucinations have a strong influence on our perception of his character, so the parallels he draws between that and his present-day events are lost.

Overall I was satisfied, but it did feel like they could do it a lot better.

[xbl0x180]

These eyes look creepy as hell. Never understood what was good about designs like that, but oh well.

You mean drawing large eyes in general? Because that's about all you will see in cartoons, comics, and animation in general

[moozooh]

You mean drawing large eyes in general?

No, not large in general, I mean creepy large eyes. These two aren't creepy.

[xbl0x180]

Adachi Mitsuru doesn't add anything in particular to the simple way he draws eyes. I'd go insofar as to say Takahashi Rumiko draws eyes in that simple form. Actually, a lot of 80s and early 90s manga had eyes like those. When I saw Touch and Rough, I thought they were Cream Lemon series!

[O. Van Bruce]

You mean drawing large eyes in general?

No, not large in general, I mean creepy large eyes. These two aren't creepy.

What about "Shoujo" eyes Moozooh? Specially the eyes from reverse harem mangas. Those are THE creepy eyes.

[Sik-07]

Haruka's eyes are best eyes

[Raytrace]

Ok, although I know I really shouldn't have, I watched Gundam Unicorn 5, overall I liked it, not as much as part 4, but still good, still don't actually like the main mechas of the show at ALL though (Unicorn and Banshee) they look utterly wrong in UC universe...

[Raytrace]

am watching 2nd Macross Plus OVA atm, I like, though so far not getting the classic SDF Macross feel of it.

[xbl0x180]

am watching 2nd Macross Plus OVA atm, I like, though so far not getting the classic SDF Macross feel of it.

It's not. It's actually more like Top Gun!