Recommended Anime/Manga?

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Raytrace
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Raytrace »

rewatchin 0079 - loving every second of it
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Raytrace »

watchin Dirty Pair OVAs, currently on the kids takin over the energy plant one. The mood/atmosphere of Dirty Pair I like so much, it's so happy in feeling I think, and really funny at times.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

Okay. So, I decided I haven't been weaboo enough this past decade, and decided to watch a surplus of children's cartoons. The rule was: If I start it, and I can stand watching it, I finish it. Also: attempt crop rotation to keep my brain from turning to sludge.

Here are my reviews:

Highschool of the Dead
This is the kind of thing made for 13 year old boys. I'm a 13 year old boy. Therefore, I was okay with it.

Nothing to write home about; the infamous "boobs dance around a bullet" scene is probably all you really need to know about it.

Rosario and the Vampire

I had actually never watched a harem animu before, unless you count Highschool of the Dead. The psychological loneliness you have to be feeling to make this be fantastic for you, has to be pretty severe. Honestly it bothers me more that we live in a world where this is a crucial product for many, than that stuff like this stuff exists.

It's cute, there are boobs, women throw themselves at the hero even though he sucks at everything, fight scenes are usually brief, there's a lovable pervert, the angry vampire girl had a funny moment, it comes full circle for what it is.

Most memorable moment: when the main character's sister calls out the hero, saying he's only being nice to her so she'll fall in love with him and be trapped as another pitiful love slave. Bone chilling in its unusual honesty.

Darker Than Black

I expected this to be some kind of gorny seinen, was alright with it being an awesomely boring noir instead. It does a decent job of the "you can be a cunning sexy badass and everyone will still die anyway" trope that's the genre's bread and butter.

The "myth arc" episodes are definitely the worst ones, and I quickly grew weary of all these animus that ended on a stupid raid battle or something pretentious. DTB uses the same damn ending from Cowboy Behop. The goddamn falling stars, the goddamn horribly ugly old person who doesn't look like a human being staring into the camera blabbering nonsensical nonsense for several minutes... and the stupid "that does not make sense" kind of thing that makes that "Allen's worst enemy is actually his sister!" twist look cuddly.

I liked a lot of the front end of this series, but the Ramp-to-the-ending ones at the end left a lot to be desired.

Kaze no Stigma

I liked the very earliest episodes when the hero was a black sheep, then it kind of converted over to a "two people are on a date, and sometimes kill monsters, and are sometimes accompanied by his little brother that no one gives a shit about" kind of thing.

The ending arc wasn't good, but it didn't go on for forever and didn't ruin everything forever. Which is commendable.

I am still somewhat confused about the male character that seems to be in love with Useless Little Bro. The contrast in character designs makes him look like a pedo.

Baka and Test

Probably my favorite in this pile of terrible things. I love the cunning plans that always end up as a pathetic shaggy dog story. And it is occasionally amusing.

It won me over when the Wise Older Brother figure (whose advice is consistently awful or useless) talks about how his date with his psychotic girlfriend went. After being electrocuted and kidnapped to watch Apocalypse Now, he wakes up during the scene where they're slaughtering the ox. Which is like symbolic and stuff.

Elfen Lied

I was waiting for some Hope Spot or something to come up. There was only one: when the hero makes out with his cousin. That was a sweet uplifting moment.

The rest of it, not so much. I recommend only watching this one only if you have a surplus of too much happiness and need a bucket of dead puppies to help you get rid of it. I was seriously depressed for the entire next day after watching this thing.

Recommendation: Watch the opening sequence where the nice naked lady decapitates everyone. You'll pretty much have the more upbeat parts of this thing absorbed, and can stop watching it immediately after it.

Gunslinger Girl

Trying to purge Elfen Lied from my brain, Wikipedia suggested this as being in the same genre.

It is much, much, much more upbeat in comparison. All the horrible things happened to the kids in the past, and being a robossassin is a step up in life for them.

The cartoon ends before the Everybody Dies happens, which is merciful in my opinion. Perhaps the only time I've been glad that a thing ends so early.

The second season is extra craptacular, as a lot of episodes are from the villain's POV, whom we don't give a shit about. They're not sad little robot girls.

This is about the point where I begin to believe that Anime should never have arcs. Just don't do it. You'll fuck it up guys.

Soul Eater

A mindless, fun little shonen.

I dislike/hate the arc episodes mostly, and wish there were more stand alones.

It has not so much a filler ending as a cauterized ending, if I understand correctly. I hate when series do that - it lops off the possibility (however remote) of the series getting picked up later to finish it out. Berserk's rebooted movie series is really a rare exception.

Excel Saga

I watched the first episode out of politeness. The girl's voice was like razor blades in my brain. I couldn't take any more than that.

Demon King Daimao

Another mindless school haremu. But with magic and demons. Instead of magic and monsters.

Like so many others, it falls apart at its abrupt ending. I literally had no fucking idea what was going on. What was anybody's motivation? What, wasn't that guy dead? Why is there a war going on, apparently between four schoolgirls and the country's entire army? Eh, he was a cyborg dragon all along? Wait, what happened to those brief moments of fanservice nudity? What am I watching.

Ga-Rei Zero

Uh, two sisters love each other very much, we're teased with very very light fake incest, then everyone dies. It's a downer, but not soul crushingly so.

The Swords Are Just Better trope kind makes it suck a little more than I'd like.

Fruits Basket

I assume this is one of those harem-for-girls shows. I also assume these things skew to a younger audience still in grade school, since a harem for teenage+ females is also known as Real Life.

I was willing to give it a shot and be a cool guy like the hero in Games Center CX.

The fruit basket hero went over my moe limit with dem eyes, and terrified me. But what made me give it up was how it started off with a dead relative trope. After all that depressing shit I watched before this, I can't handle even a tiny bit more.

Persona 4: The Animu

I watched the first episode, but I was seepy (rain scene knocked me out) and getting access to the rest of the series would be a pain. But the art was nice and some monsters got chopped up by the power of Philosophy so maybe it's okay. Don't feel qualified to really give a review on this one.


CONCLUSIONS

* The epiphany that the harem genre is what life is really like for women was probably the only thing I learned for all these misspent hours. Which is obvious in retrospect - the only reason the harem genre exists and is so popular is because life is really goddamn unfair.

* I really, really don't like the "let's all be depressed always" shows. Life is a cycle of despair and delusion, and if I have to choose between something that's 100% silly bullshit versus something that reminds me 100% nonstop that everything and everyone I care about is/will be dead, I think I'd rather swallow the bullshit every time.

* I'm worried I missed one or two of them that I watched in this cycle. OCD is a terrible thing.

* Pondering if being able to complete a series meant I liked it. Or, if I've simply gone like 6 years without watching a single children's cartoon and built up an impressive tolerance.

* Abridged series off of the youtube are superior to the real thing overall. "Go watch Gantz/Helsing/Berserk/Dragonball abridged" is something I'm actually liable to say to a person, versus "watch Baka and Test, you ingrate".

* Two of the theme songs are really catchy and can't get them out of my head. Here they are for you too; master using it and you can have this:

Demon King Daimao. The hero has the Abs of Being Kind. .. I also really like the little mana gauge at the start of this sequence.

And Soul Eater. Watched this one more often than not. (While I had to skip Elfen Lied's after the first time I saw it. So my soul would not shatter from The Sads.) Really like the bit with the spinny ninja girl. (If throwing something ever ended up being the determining climax moment in a fight in, well anything, I would be shocked poopless.)
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Raytrace
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Raytrace »

was there any giant robots in what you watched? o_O
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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Currently watching Dirty Pair OVAs also. The fact that each episode is a self contained narrative makes it great for shoving on to fill a spare 25 minutes. Music is pretty good at times but no Bubblegum Crisis. The central shtick of two girls in their underwear accidentally killing thousands of people each episode is pretty appealing. I love the bit where the grubby one with pink hair punches the little boy on EP4.

I woke up hungover recently with the whole of the Persona 4 animated series on my hard drive. Watched a couple of episodes out of sheer curiosity, but given I can't even finish the game (with the voice acting turned off, naturally), I'm certainly not going to be able to finish a cartoon version of it.

Why can't they do an animu adaptation of a proper megaten game, like Strange Journey? Also surprised Atlus have never done an Etrian Oddysey cartoon. The caracter designer seems to spend all his time on twitter making tentacle porn of the EO characters so I'm sure he would be free to lend a hand. Luckily the games have basically no plot so it would be a completely blank slate. Not that I would watch it, unless it really emphasised the dungeon crawling aspects like some kind of animated Knightmare.
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Raytrace
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Raytrace »

MX7 wrote:Currently watching Dirty Pair OVAs also. The fact that each episode is a self contained narrative makes it great for shoving on to fill a spare 25 minutes. Music is pretty good at times but no Bubblegum Crisis.
The music is great, but the intro music in the TV series is WAY better than 'Go Crazy Baby' IMO

Ru ru ru ru ru rush ee an!!!!!
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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BryanM wrote:Highschool of the Dead
Also finish watching this (12 episodes 1 OVA)... pretty cool animation me thinks :mrgreen:
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Skykid »

Bryanm wrote:A lot of emasculating animu
My god man, your body must be recoiling in some kind of shock. I prescribe Baoh, US dub, go forth and be reunited with your libido.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by DaneSaga »

The music is great, but the intro music in the TV series is WAY better than 'Go Crazy Baby' IMO

Ru ru ru ru ru rush ee an!!!!!
Yeah man that's the good stuff.
Gotta love the Patlabor OVA OP as well ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... MpI_bc3LrI
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Raytrace »

DaneSaga wrote:
The music is great, but the intro music in the TV series is WAY better than 'Go Crazy Baby' IMO

Ru ru ru ru ru rush ee an!!!!!
Yeah man that's the good stuff.
Gotta love the Patlabor OVA OP as well ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... MpI_bc3LrI
yeah we're futurists you and me!
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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Watched Nekomonogatari. As expected, it started out fine then turned into a steaming pile of cheese and deep moral lessons in the last part.
MX7 wrote:Why can't they do an animu adaptation of a proper megaten game, like Strange Journey?
Not enough talk talk talk and activities, fights require loads of budget because they're not powered by willpower and friendship, etc. A movie could work though.
BryanM wrote:Elfen Lied
depressed
This is not possible man
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by KAI »

Formless God wrote:Watched Nekomonogatari. As expected, it started out fine then turned into a steaming pile of cheese and deep moral lessons in the last part.
Nekomonogatari White is more interesting, it's fully translated if you are interested.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by ChainsawGuitarSP »

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Innovations in Recreational Electronic Media
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by BryanM »

Why can't they do an animu adaptation of a proper megaten game, like Strange Journey?
It'd literally be 40 minutes of a guy walking down hallways murdering the shit out of everything, with a couple NPCs that pop in two or three times for the illusion of plot.

(Resists temptation to mention the Devil Children cartoon. Fails resist check.)
Raytrace wrote:was there any giant robots in what you watched? o_O
The raid battle at the end of Soul Eater technically has one, but it's played for slapstick more than anything else. Definitely no Gundams in that pile.

I kind of completely forgot it was a genre, and didn't go out of my way to incorporate any into the cycle.
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Raytrace
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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BryanM wrote:
The raid battle at the end of Soul Eater technically has one, but it's played for slapstick more than anything else. Definitely no Gundams in that pile.

I kind of completely forgot it was a genre, and didn't go out of my way to incorporate any into the cycle.
I see, I don't think there is that much these days anyway :'( - that Valvrave trailer looks ok though
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by MX7 »

BryanM wrote:
Why can't they do an animu adaptation of a proper megaten game, like Strange Journey?
It'd literally be 40 minutes of a guy walking down hallways murdering the shit out of everything, with a couple NPCs that pop in two or three times for the illusion of plot.

(Resists temptation to mention the Devil Children cartoon. Fails resist check.)

.
I was talking more about the general ambience. Yeah, a straight adaptation would be 70 hours of walking down grey corridor. There was that Megami Tensei cartoon in the late 80s/early 90s that had a lot of grimy supernatural OVA charm. Then there was... Tokyo Revelation? from the mid-90's that took a VERY loose approach to adapting the SFC SMT. Persona 4 The Animation, with all it's shrieking invocations, boss battles and random encounters is a pretty straight adaptation: and all the more infuriating for it.

Watched the casino episode of the Dirty Pair OVAs. Pretty fun. Might even give the TV series a go after if it's of comparable quality.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Hagane »

BryanM wrote:Lots of garbage anime
Why do you do that to yourself?
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Raytrace »

MX7 wrote:
Watched the casino episode of the Dirty Pair OVAs. Pretty fun. Might even give the TV series a go after if it's of comparable quality.
The TV show is definitely on a par story wise and script etc. the OVAs, the art is supposed to be better in the OVAs but to be honest it isn't much of a difference, TV series looks great too. Have you seen Crusher Joe ?

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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Khan »

I watched Angel beats, it took a few hours but I will say I really enjoyed it, I dont know what it was but I cried about 5 times :oops: during the series it had its moments where it made me pee myself from laughter then there was times I just started sobbing like a baby xD

Great anime with an amazing story and cast the only issue i had was that they didnt do in depth explanations of the other characters I wanted to know more about TK (whatever happened to him he was my favourite Terry Bogard impressionist xD) and also Tenshi (Shes so cute T_T) besides the last part theres nothing about her past mentioned :(


As always watch the Japanese audio version with english subs you guys wont regret it! :mrgreen:
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Raytrace »

on episode 12 of Rose Of Versailles - man I love all these constant 70's trippy effects and scenes (I mean all the 'dreamy' bits etc.)
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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Khan, buy a some tissue boxes and watch Anohana and Clannad.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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Raytrace wrote:on episode 12 of Rose Of Versailles - man I love all these constant 70's trippy effects and scenes (I mean all the 'dreamy' bits etc.)
Raytrace, check out Dagger of Kamui for some lovely 70’s-esque trippy visuals and styling. It’s like a proto Ninja Scroll/ Juubee Ninpuuchou but possibly even better imo. Well at least the first half anyway, towards the end it sort of starts to descend into mediocrity, but the first hour or so is pure brilliance.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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DaneSaga wrote:
Raytrace wrote:on episode 12 of Rose Of Versailles - man I love all these constant 70's trippy effects and scenes (I mean all the 'dreamy' bits etc.)
Raytrace, check out Dagger of Kamui for some lovely 70’s-esque trippy visuals and styling. It’s like a proto Ninja Scroll/ Juubee Ninpuuchou but possibly even better imo. Well at least the first half anyway, towards the end it sort of starts to descend into mediocrity, but the first hour or so is pure brilliance.
Imma check it does it have the obligatory warm disco string type sound? :)
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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KAI wrote:Nekomonogatari White is more interesting, it's fully translated if you are interested.
Thanks!
Khan, buy a some tissue boxes and watch Anohana and Clannad.
Anohana is pretty desperate and obvious in its attempts to extract your tears, so if you're able to see through its tricks you are not gonna cry. Clannad AS is good, though. Save for that last episode.
RegalSin wrote:Then again sex is no diffrent then sticking a stick down some hole to make a female womenly or girl scream or make noise.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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Raytrace wrote:
DaneSaga wrote:
Raytrace wrote:on episode 12 of Rose Of Versailles - man I love all these constant 70's trippy effects and scenes (I mean all the 'dreamy' bits etc.)
Raytrace, check out Dagger of Kamui for some lovely 70’s-esque trippy visuals and styling. It’s like a proto Ninja Scroll/ Juubee Ninpuuchou but possibly even better imo. Well at least the first half anyway, towards the end it sort of starts to descend into mediocrity, but the first hour or so is pure brilliance.
Imma check it does it have the obligatory warm disco string type sound? :)
no disco strings unfortunately. :(
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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A new Anime season has started, your picks? I'll go for Shaft and Kyaoni as usual.

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No more Monogatari anime till July...

I fucking hate those series with "Ore no", "Onii-chan" and "Imoto" on their titles! Most stupid trend on the industry ever!
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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Raytrace wrote: Have you seen Crusher Joe ?
Watched it recently... well, a year ago? 80's goodness.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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KAI wrote:I fucking hate those series with "Ore no", "Onii-chan" and "Imoto" on their titles! Most stupid trend on the industry ever!
Saint onii-san being the exception of course.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

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I'll check out Crucified Market and Salami-san as well. I'm having doubts for the latter after reading its LN, though. The last half of the arc was a complete clusterfuck even for somebody with an ungodly amount of patience such as myself.
RegalSin wrote:Then again sex is no diffrent then sticking a stick down some hole to make a female womenly or girl scream or make noise.
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Re: Recommended Anime/Manga?

Post by Skykid »

Raytrace wrote: Image

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Wow, when anime girls were GALS!

So much awesome in those gifs.
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