Recommended Anime/Manga?

[Raytrace]

I've just watched approximately 6 minutes of Fooly Cooly and already all I can say is properly '|WTF?'

The writers clearly follow the "push them into the river and hopefully they'll learn to swim" school of explanation. But don't worry, after the overloaded beginning there's more development and less throwing in outrageous new elements, and the show becomes clearly about the kid's sexual life.

oh I c haha Im not sure that I'm really 'into' that theme :p - but the art and music is SO outstanding that no doubt I'll enjoy it till the end

[Nico87]

Thanks for the thorough rec! Will definitely check it out. I just bought the first two volumes of the Rurouni Kenshin VIZBig editions (3 volumes in 1) though, so gonna read through Kenshin first!

[Eaglet]

Redline was awesome!
It's fuckin' Batrider The Movie.

Welcome to Violent Racing.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I've seen many bad Japanese character designs, but the Redline dude looks about as repulsive as the Cowboy Bebop dude, which is quite a feat.

Welcome to the greasy hairdo.

[Eaglet]

I've seen many bad Japanese character designs, but the Redline dude looks about as repulsive as the Cowboy Bebop dude, which is quite a feat.

I kind of like that.
Repulsive and awesome.

[xbl0x180]

I've seen many bad Japanese character designs, but the Redline dude looks about as repulsive as the Cowboy Bebop dude, which is quite a feat.

I kind of like that.
Repulsive and awesome.

The designs for Redline are totally awersome - and so are the ones for Cowboy Bebop. You need to tell him Redline's designs are so awersome, that they're better than "freakin' MOE<3 "

[Eaglet]

No need.
You just did.

[Raytrace]

Redline was awesome!
It's fuckin' Batrider The Movie.

Welcome to Violent Racing.

yep it does look very distinctive - though usually I dont really like gradient fills - but in Redline they look cool...

[Estebang]

Redline was awesome!
It's fuckin' F-Zero The Movie.

Fixed.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

The final two episodes of Star Driver were released today on Crackle's site. The 25th & final episode has plently of jaw-dropping revalations. The mecha suit battles are over-the-top. It's nice to have watched the entire SD series in 1080p format via streaming.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Oops, double post there.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Eaglet]

Fixed.

Hmm... naaah.
I would say the over-the-top awesomeness is more Batrider than F-Zero.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I kind of like that.

Would you like a film about Terry Pratchett and his hat as well?

[Eaglet]

Would you like a film about Terry Pratchett and his hat as well?

Depends on the hat.

[Raytrace]

finished Fooly Cooly - I really liked it and it was surprised it had some sort of ending...

[xbl0x180]

Just finished watching a few episodes of Fancy Lala. I still don't have a final judgment on it. In some parts, I think it's good, esp. in the chara designs. The main character, Miho, is drawn the way a 9-year old would look. This is one of the main reasons modern anime blows - characters don't look anywhere near their respective ages.



The voice acting sounds a bit... "off." I can't tell the difference between Japanese accents, but some of the speech patterns/diction in the voice acting for this show sounded "fast" to me. Additionally, the transformation sequence is so-so. In the world of "magical girl" anime, great care should be taken in making some elaborate and fluid transformation sequence - and this show doesn't have it; it sort of looked stilted and flat. The series is from 1998, so the animation itself is choppy in some parts. I don't think new viewers would be as receptive to see this when there's junk such as Uta~Kata, which has better animation, better voice acting, and better music. I hope the story is more compelling, seeing as to how this was a 26-episode series

[xbl0x180]

Just bought Watase Yuu's Ayashi No Ceres. It came after the megahit, Fushigi Yuugi, but I didn't know anything about this anime series since it debuted in the early 2000s (I was aware of the manga because of Fushigi Yuugi). I expect it'll have good chara designs, probably some catchy/memorable music, and some decent voice acting (judging by the other series). In short, I expect a sleeper, semi-modern anime hit

I think my only complaint(s) are with the U.S. release by Viz Video. One, they were put out in 7 volumes, with as little episodes into each DVD as possible. Two, the price for each was 30 bucks and, while you can buy some DVDs for cents on the dollar right now, you're dealing in the secondary/used market mostly since... three, Viz doesn't do big print runs of smaller titles (unlike Bleach or Naruto). Even then, to own a copy of the complete series [going by used DVDs alone] will be at least 50 to 60 bucks, so you can f****** forget about attempting to get some of their older and smaller titles (which were unfortunately tied to Pioneer/Geneon)

[drauch]

God...Viz is the worst with shit like that. I will never complete Maison Ikkoku

[xbl0x180]

Aye, you will never complete Maison Ikkoku the way they're priced now. I managed to get the whole set, but there was one volume I paid about 80 bucks Thankfully, most of the volumes were reasonably-priced. It's a series that, as an anime collectro, I couldn't forego and just download.

Some a***h*** Amazon and Ebay vendors have them at such cutthroat prices that I can only endorse downloading them for free or buying the cheepest bootlegs you can find, esp. when it comes to Viz limited print-runs and outta print Geneon/Pioneer videos. Yeah, try getting that last volumes of DearS or ShaNa. I don't know why sellers chose those series specifically to jack up the prices. I didn't think they would be any good. However, they f***** everyone over when they jacked up the price for Black Lagoon



I'm serious and not saying this tongue-in-cheek, but this animu s*** is straight-up FREAKIN' MOE!




Once this Geneon thing is settled in the courts, Black Lagoon will be the first thing to get. MANLY ANIME!

[drauch]

Yeah, it's so cruel. I agree, it's one as an anime collector I must own legitimately...but 250 bucks for 12 episodes??? Same thing goes for volume 4 of the re-release of Armored Trooper Votoms...150 bucks!? Thankfully the old DVD is cheap as hell. OOP and low print run is my biggest grievance with life.

[xbl0x180]

Just ordered Serial Experiments - Lain. I dunno. When it was on the shelves years ago, I thought it was another cartoon about little girls doing cute things, but now I'm intrigued. It sucks this was a Geneon/Pioneer release, which means 3 episodes per DVD for a total of 4 DVDs with 13 episodes total. No wonder these a***h**** went outta biz

[iconoclast]

Black Lagoon is great. I really wish they would make a proper season 3, but I still haven't seen Roberta's OVA series so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.

[O. Van Bruce]

Thermae Romae

Wow... just wow...

There is a live action on production of this manga/anime BTW...

Also... dat music for the anime...

[Sik-07]

Thermae Romae's great too bad it's only 5eps

[Raytrace]

I'll tell you one thing I definitely won't recommend...

Gravion

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Yeah, I have both seasons 1 & 2 of Gravion on DVD, the ADV boxed set versions from 2006. Cool T&A fan service with the blond busty chick -- was released as a non-posable figurine a little while back but so pricey to acquire.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[xbl0x180]

I'm starting to see Ai Yori Aoshi and Shakugan No Shana arriving in the mail. Good lord, it must've really, really sucked to be a collectro in the early-to-mid 2000s. Most of this junk only has three measly episodes per DVD! F***!

Funimation and ADV really changed the modern otaku's expectations (Nozomi, Media Blasters, and Anime Works, to some extent) by just selling seasons of shows at once. I think the downside is that OAVs don't get licensed since it makes no sense nowadays to sell a one-shot anime 30-minute DVD (I did get Madonna and Cleopatra DC a few months back)

[drauch]

I've got Madonna myself and I've been meaning to order Cleopatra. Watched any of them yet??? Madonna's animation looks lisgh (slightly) lacking and Cleopatra looks hawt. God iiiiiiiiiii am drunk.............i will move to an appropriate thread.

[xbl0x180]

Both were surprisingly good, with Madonna having the better story and Cleopatra having better animation quality and chara designs. I think if you're into school sports stories/movies such as Hoosiers, Breaking Away, The Bad News Bears, and such, then Madonna is a shoe-in for likeability; it's a bona fide, earnest, little OAV

[Gus]

I'm starting to see Ai Yori Aoshi and Shakugan No Shana arriving in the mail. Good lord, it must've really, really sucked to be a collectro in the early-to-mid 2000s. Most of this junk only has three measly episodes per DVD! F***!

Be glad you don't live in Japan, dude. Average pricing over there is something like $80 for 2 episodes.