Recommended Anime/Manga?

[cicada88]

I am looking to buy some animé recently and was wondering where to generally get the best prices for Japanese imports (US Buyer)?

Specifically I was looking to start with the Space Battle Ship Yamato 2199 on Blu-Ray and they seem to be around $80 a pot for 2-3 episodes.

[Raytrace]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mad ... lu-ray-set

[GaijinPunch]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mad ... lu-ray-set

I saw that -- definitely one I've got my eyes on.

Specifically I was looking to start with the Space Battle Ship Yamato 2199 on Blu-Ray and they seem to be around $80 a pot for 2-3 episodes.

Yeah, you're never going to get good prices on anime published in Japan. Looking at Amazon JP, w/ their discount they're 5000 - 6000 yen a pop, for 2 episodes. Seems about par for the course. If you bought 2-3 at once, it probably wouldn't be quite as bad, but with international shipping you'd probably only save a few bucks.

This is assuming you go through a 3rd party that locates things for members.

[HenAi]

Diabolik Lovers: This has great comedic value. It's like a generic harem series. Except all of the girls are total assholes. And rapist vampires.
Then you gender-swap everybody and remove any attempts at making jokes.
Episodes are only like 10 minutes long. If you happen to actually belong to the target audience and want to watch it because you're into that stuff, I don't think I could really recommend it, though.

Non Non Biyori: Pedo-pandering with surprisingly rather good comedy. No pantyshots or anything so I guess it's watchable even if you don't like the "they're all little girls" part. But then there's not enough comedy to carry the show on it's own, so I dunno.

Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san: Best comedy I've seen all year. Boy goes fishing, meets mermaid. Mermaid falls in love with boy, boy is like "leave me the fuck alone".
If you like zany comedy, really give this a watch. It's only like 12 minutes per episode.


For manga,
Blue Heaven: Guy gets rescued by a cruise ship on open sea, starts murdering people on board. Clocks in at just 3 volumes, so it's a pretty quick read.

Tokyo Ghoul: It's about man-eating monsters. And the protagonist happens to get turned into one. Don't expect this to be like Claymore or Hellsing, though.

[manatworks]

Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san: Best comedy I've seen all year. Boy goes fishing, meets mermaid. Mermaid falls in love with boy, boy is like "leave me the fuck alone".
If you like zany comedy, really give this a watch. It's only like 12 minutes per episode.

also included best op song evar.

[Raytrace]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mad ... lu-ray-set

I saw that -- definitely one I've got my eyes on.

apparently they are open to including other things too - people are saying AD Police Files - ok I 'enjoyed' it, but I don't think it should be there with the
OVAs

I think Metal Skin Panic Madox 01 would be great if it were included, and artistically it is VERY similar.

[HenAi]

Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san: Best comedy I've seen all year. Boy goes fishing, meets mermaid. Mermaid falls in love with boy, boy is like "leave me the fuck alone".
If you like zany comedy, really give this a watch. It's only like 12 minutes per episode.

also included best op song evar.

It's not every day you get to hear growls in an anime op, true.

[GaijinPunch]

I think Metal Skin Panic Madox 01 would be great if it were included, and artistically it is VERY similar.

I've yet to watch AD Police. And I can't even remember Bubblegum Crash. I did just watch these quite recently though. I've always hated the music, but I liked the premise and the show. As I stated in the Awesome Shit thread, Cyber Punk >>>>>> Steam Punk

[Raytrace]

I think Metal Skin Panic Madox 01 would be great if it were included, and artistically it is VERY similar.

I've yet to watch AD Police. And I can't even remember Bubblegum Crash. I did just watch these quite recently though. I've always hated the music, but I liked the premise and the show. As I stated in the Awesome Shit thread, Cyber Punk >>>>>> Steam Punk

AD Police is good I think, I think it get's too much bad press because of the shadow it lives in.

[BryanM]

Another smorgasbord of terrible. Just skip this post if you don't enjoy these Dear Diary things at all.

--

Gave Toradora a shot to finish off my Oreimo-induced meander. It is neither terribly exceptional nor terribly offensive. As far as the high school romance genre goes, it's about what you'd expect.

--

Denpa Teki na Kanojo, I feel a lot more nuanced about. This one is about a delinquent and a mentally ill girl who thinks he was a king in a past life and she was his knight, who go off and solve murder mysteries together. My very favorite theory is that all the crazy things the crazy people in this show believe, are actually totally and completely true. Only that there's something suppressing that reality. I call this an "interpretation", and is one of the most important pillars of fiction.

There were three novels written in this series, and only two of them got animated. (And from what googling I remember, they skipped the middle one even.) For a total of 80 minutes of content. I don't like it super much, but it hurts my heart that Bleach got 366 episodes and 7320 minutes of "content" before it was finally put to sleep. The world would be a better place with a little more Kanojo in it.

Another thing I liked about this one was how different the protagonist is compared to most anime. Instead of being a waif, he has some muscle on him. And his special powered-up mode, instead of some crazy supernatural superpower energy shit, is simply him equipping a rolex. <3

--

I wasn't enthusiastic about Shiki to begin with. Triangle chins in the art has always been a red flag, and I've never much been impressed with the vampire theme. "Those are superficial reasons Bryan, you're being stupid. Christ you even watched an anime about sister-fucking through to the end, give this thing a shot."

But my gut had the right idea. It was worse than I thought it would be. 20 something episodes of the same thing happening over and over except with different NPCs. Ridiculously conspicuous vampires, ridiculously incredulous townsfolk. Bleugh.

It's a good example of what Ray was talking about earlier; there was just enough there to keep me watching in the hope that something interesting or awesome was going to happen. But it never did. ThoseFeels.jpg.

To ruin everything for everyone so you don't have to watch it, spoilers:

The Hero: Is super gay. The show reveals this in the first episode, but it makes it brutally clear later on.

The Doctor: Is about the worst doctor in the universe. Dozens of patients dying to anemia, and he's like "Well, I could try giving someone a blood transfusion... but I'm just too busy smokin'." The show is a little more entertaining if you pretend he's Dr.House, and then rewrite what's happening inside your head to make it more awesome.

The Priest: Is a pedobear. At least, for his sake, I hope he is.

Unfortunately I think I'm making this sound way more exciting than it actually is.

On the positive side, you have the weird YuGiOh hair to enjoy. Um, but let's be real here. There's only one reason anyone watched this show.

--

To try to normalize my emotions toward animu, I went with Highschool DxD next. This is a stupid mindless shonen plus softcore porn in one. So it's like watching two things at once. Basically maybe on the level of Fairy Tail/One Piece, minus the filler, but with added nipples. The dub has wonderfully awful ridiculous wiener references, like calling someone "captain whack-it". Because the entire thing is absurd I assume.

On a metalevel, I found Funimation's heavy, shameless, relentless advertising for this show hilarious. It's a pinnacle of shameless no-life otaku pandering. Perverted nonsense that is their bread and butter... however there are things even They will not touch. I formulated a hypothesis that explains all this. I call it: the "Yosuga Limit". Basically: Funimation will happily localize anything, up and until that thing involves incest.

Though that might need amending to "anything that has on-screen sex scenes". More research is necessary.

--

One of the big ones. Future Diary. The Battle Royale to the death with diaries that predict the future, starring a Yandere and her boyfriend (who isn't aware that he's her boyfriend yet).

Unlike Shiki, where I couldn't stop watching it because I wanted to get it over with, I kept watching these things because I wanted to see the next episode. Its appeal I guess is up to how much you like the Yandere character; it lives and dies by the Yandere.

It's not close to perfect, and it does begin to drag eventually, but I'm not really ashamed about liking it. I just wish it had better replay value - I guess there's a reason the shows that run in syndication are always comedies and never prime time thrillers.

--

We Without Wings did a good job of confusing the hell out of me. There was no plot, no conversations, just colors that looked like people and sounds that sounded like words. Even the completely random eroge scenes served to befuddle me.

I want to say it's bad, but I don't feel qualified to even say that much.

--

Kokoro Connect. A school club full of school chums are used by an alien as test subjects. The premise is not used as well as it could have been. It's a boring show for people who are allergic to fun or have an addiction to boredom, such as joggers.

I suppose that's faint praise. I really hate having fun.

--

Angel Beats managed to actively anger me. With Shiki I felt more like "why does this exist" but with Angel Beats it was more like "this should not exist."

It crawls, only to deliver its terrible aesop at its end. (The aesop is that we'd all be happier if we were dead by the way.)

The final episode is the worst of this. In most anime, they find it hard to fit everything into the 20 minutes allocated per episode. This episode, had three scenes in it total. The first one, going about 17 minutes long. With our heroes dicking around in an empty auditorium. Not doing anything in particular.

I'm sure the series has appeal for some people out there, but I'm not one of them. Give me Kenshiro in an auditorium punching dudes in half for a half hour instead. That's mindless porn, but at least it's not telling me that I should go kill myself.

I know I'm searching for the worst (in the most subtle of ways) anime imaginable, but I'm still constantly impressed how often a premise is under-delivered.

/slightly better than Shiki

[null1024]

God, the 4th episode of Kill la Kill is atrocious, funny but atrocious, full of flash animation. TTGL dejavu.

Watched this with DameDame subs, still a bad episode in look and content. They can't all be hits, but christ - that had me wondering if they already ran out of money.

[Ruldra]

Watching Kino's Journey at the moment and enjoying it very much. I'm fed up with mindless action anime so this is just what I needed. A slow, thought-provoking show. Loved the Land of Books episode.

Although the Coliseum episodes kind of turned me off. Kino should've never survived those battles, much less leave the country unscathed after what happens in the end.

Another smorgasbord of terrible. Just skip this post if you don't enjoy these at all.

Considering what you're watching, you'd probably enjoy School Days. Starts off as a typical high school romance then everything goes to hell. Hated the first half, loved the second.

[BryanM]

Considering what you're watching, you'd probably enjoy School Days. Starts off as a typical high school romance then everything goes to hell. Hated the first half, loved the second.

Yes! I'm saving it for a rainy day.

[Raytrace]

Yes! I'm saving it for a rainy day.

verily I admire your persistence, the biggest 'forced watch' I've ever put myself through was finishing Gundam Wing - admittedly the thought of finally being able to say 'yes I did see the whole fucking thing, and it is even more shit than I thought it was going to be!' drove me on somewhat though :p

literally the best thing about that show is the first OP, oh and MAYBE the Tallgeese looks OK.

[hecheff]

Watching Kino's Journey at the moment and enjoying it very much. I'm fed up with mindless action anime so this is just what I needed. A slow, thought-provoking show. Loved the Land of Books episode.

I read the novels in addition to the animations; one of my top recommendations.
A few of my favorites include the one when Kino saves 3 stranded merchants (and the events prior and after the encounter defines her nature greatly), and the railroad tracks episode.
All of them thought provoking, and really puts me into the mindset of travelling somewhere from my habitual workplace life.

By the way; if exploring bizarre worlds and cultures is your thing, then you're going to love the Galaxy Express 999 TV Series.

[Formless God]

dayum

---

Just got started on Seitokai Yakuindomo and it's okay so far. NNB ... ugh. Someone should just compile all the scenery stills and save me the bandwidth.

---

Also been hitting on random mangoes in the past week.

- Onepunch Man: #ModernVideoGamesProblems. Not much to say here; it's fun as hell.

- Nickelodeon: Just a collection of small spooky shorts. Abstract, supernatural stuff. It was surprisingly enjoyable. Some might consider it hipster 2deep4u shit though.
- Out of curiosity I checked out The Voynich Hotel from the same artist. It was nice as well. There's something about this person's art and dialogues that I really like.

- Kodomo no PTSD: I kept hearing about this for the past 3 years but never got around to see what the hell it's about. At first glance I was just expecting another Hidamari Sketch, so I didn't see all that fanservice and an actual story coming (well, the faces were certainly wider than my HDTV though.) It's actually enjoyable and adorable when it isn't going overboard with the b8 (didn't need any of the explicit shit, really.) I ended up breezing through the whole thing in one day.

Shiki

Ha, tried watching this at 2x. I even outright skipped a couple episodes but no dice. This was pretty much the only positive thing to have come out of it.

still a bad episode in look and content. They can't all be hits, but christ - that had me wondering if they already ran out of money.

I have a feeling they did that on purpose

[Raytrace]

By the way; if exploring bizarre worlds and cultures is your thing, then you're going to love the Galaxy Express 999 TV Series.

it is indeed brilliant

[cicada88]

Should I watch a Gundam series for the first time? I've already seen My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.

[hecheff]

Should I watch a Gundam series for the first time? I've already seen My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.

That depends; if you're looking for some good drama I would go for the Universal Century entries such as 08th MS Team or War in the Pocket (my personal favorite).

[GaijinPunch]

War in the Pocket: Best awful anime song evar! It is 80's cheese perfected.

[Raytrace]

Should I watch a Gundam series for the first time? I've already seen My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.

I shall of course say yes - I would recommend watching the 3 _0079_ movies first though before the other 2 wonderful OVAs which have been mentioned.

[Raytrace]

War in the Pocket: Best awful anime song evar! It is 80's cheese perfected.

'CAAAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU ARE SWEET OH LET ME LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO!!!'

can't help it - I love everything about that OVA, including the OST ;p.

[hecheff]

War in the Pocket: Best awful anime song evar! It is 80's cheese perfected.

'CAAAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU ARE SWEET OH LET ME LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO!!!'

Those words become so much harsher after watching the series...

[GaijinPunch]

War in the Pocket: Best awful anime song evar! It is 80's cheese perfected.

'CAAAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU ARE SWEET OH LET ME LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO!!!'

can't help it - I love everything about that OVA, including the OST ;p.

Did you notice in the eye catch the kid had a rocket in his pocket?

Badump Tsssh!

I'm here all week folks...

[GaijinPunch]

I never give up forever.

Good lordy... I can't believe I dedicated my life to living in a cuntry that came up w/ that lyric.

[KAI]

Don't forget I wanna have a pure time

Finished Uchoten Kazoku. Enjoyed it a lot. Watch it if you liked Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei /The Tatami Galaxy.

[Raytrace]

War in the Pocket: Best awful anime song evar! It is 80's cheese perfected.

'CAAAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU ARE SWEET OH LET ME LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO!!!'

can't help it - I love everything about that OVA, including the OST ;p.

Did you notice in the eye catch the kid had a rocket in his pocket?

Badump Tsssh!

I'm here all week folks...

haha :p

seriously I think we should do one of em simulwatch/streamy thingies this christmas (the things with a chatroom beside the video window) so I could share my intense blub blub ;p (I'm talkin of 0080 of course :p)

[Ruldra]

BryanM inspired me to do my own "smorgasbord of terrible" post. Huge wall of text incoming. TLDR at the bottom.

So, over the past 3 months, I've been reading romance manga. Not really sure why, I wanted something different to read and I've never checked out this genre before, so on a whim I decided to do it. I got some suggestions from here (thanks KAI) and from Reddit and checked out a number of series.

My point was to check out realistic romances and generally what is regarded as the best stuff. I have little tolerance for silliness, bullshit or childish behavior, and had no problems dropping a series If I spotted any of the above.

With that in mind, general impressions from what I've read below:


Mathematical Girls

Math teacher has discussions with genius girl about math while also tutors the subject to another girl. While this is regarded as romance, this is really about math. Cue several pages of discussion about different math topics. There's some romance on the sidelines but really, if you don't like math don't bother with this.

*guigui is a math teacher. If he reads manga this is right up his alley.


Udon no Onna

University art student falls for an older woman (read: 35 years old) who serves udon at the cafeteria. The interactions are believable and something you'd see happening in real life. Guy is kind of shy and passive, and even the woman is frustrated at his inability to make a move. They end up together in the end, but from the looks of it she will probably get bored of him really quick and dump him.

Worth reading? Not really.


Girlfriend

Several stories about different couples who meet and have sex shortly after. Nothing to see here.


Sekitou Elergy

Shy, loser guy instantly falls in love with trashy girl. She's rude, swears often and picks fights. Very troublesome girl. But poor guy is in love and becomes a complete doormat to earn her affections. He even go as far as offering his own hard-earned money to pay for her family's debt to the Yakuza. At this point I lost all respect for the guy. It's none of your business you fool.

He's essentially begging to be taken advantage of - and if the manga has any similarity with real life, he will. I have seen this happening way too many times in real life and it's painful to watch. I can't keep going.


Nodame Cantabile

Very talented musical student wants to go to Europe to continues his studies, but because of his fear of planes - and boats - he's stuck in Japan, in an university filled with bad students. He's very bitter about it and lashes out his anger at his classmates. Your problems are not an excuse to treat others like shit.

Ironically, right in the beginning he's taking lessons from a very strict teacher, who slaps him with a paper fan whenever he makes a mistake and is always putting him down. Protagonist couldn't stand him, but that's the exact way he treats his classmates.

Of course, protagonist could just go to a therapist to cure his fears and go to Europe. But because this would ruin the whole story, nobody mentions it.

Then you have Nodame, a 20 year old girl who behaves half her age. I've met 12 year olds who are more mature than her. Her childishness really puts me off.

And THEN you have a respected teacher from Europe who comes to protagonist's university, but the way this man behaves would quickly put him behind bars for sexual harassment. Only in Japan groping students is regarded as humor. Jesus.

People say good stuff about this series but I couldn't keep going because of the above.


Living Game

Now this one was interesting. 25 year old salaryman ends up with his entire office moving to his place. Very implausible scenario but ends up working somehow.

This is actually a slice of life manga that deals with different themes. Parent abandonment, high prices of land in Tokyo, romance, marriage, and other stuff. Sometimes it's silly, other times it gets more serious. Not a bad manga at all. I didn't read too far but this is something I could re-visit in the future.


Bitter Virgin

This guy is popular among the girls in high school and is a womanizer. He meets this very shy girl, who is terrified of even be touched by a man. She has a secret, and protagonist accidentally hears it.

No, her secret is not that she's a virgin. Her secret is...bad, very bad. Disturbing. Read the end of the first chapter and you'll see what you're getting into.

All I'll say is that this manga highlights issues that women have to deal with and men are oblivious about. Very eye-opening.

Worth reading? Oh yes, very. All the sifting I did was worth it to reach this gem. Much recommended.


Itazura na Kiss, Kare Kano, Nana

Dropped these too quickly to write anything worthwhile about them. "Didn't like them" will suffice.

--

Final words: Reading all of the above was a nice experience, but in the end I guess the genre isn't for me. There are probably some other gems out there but I think I'm done here. Back to the usual stuff. Or maybe I should drop manga altogether and read a real book.

TLDR: Read Bitter Virgin.

[Formless God]

realistic romances

Does not exist regardless of medium.

[drauch]

What do you expect?

8 hours of couples working, eating, watching netflix, taking a walk, sleeping? Maybe on the weekend going out and doing something.