Recommended Anime/Manga?

[KAI]

It's good, but Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo was much better.

[Raytrace]

watching Tiger & Bunny - I quite like it apart from a bit too much CG for my tastes and definitely too much sponsorship even if it is all appropriately 'in universe' - and I can't STAND Pepsi grrrrrr.

[Randorama]

I spent some time to catch up with the bad titan guys series. I can't make up my mind on whether it's ok or "so bad it is actually good", also because of the obvious spoilers left everywhere. Say, I knew who the other transforming titans were the moment they appeared on screen. So, people, what is your opinion on Shingeki no Kyoshin?? One thing that left me perplexed is that the first 13 episodes or so looked badly animated, thanks to flash player or something to that effect.

[Raytrace]

I completely unironically think Attack On Titan is fucking ace,
I also have not worked out any of the 'obvious spoilers'.

[nasty_wolverine]

I spent some time to catch up with the bad titan guys series. I can't make up my mind on whether it's ok or "so bad it is actually good", also because of the obvious spoilers left everywhere. Say, I knew who the other transforming titans were the moment they appeared on screen. So, people, what is your opinion on Shingeki no Kyoshin?? One thing that left me perplexed is that the first 13 episodes or so looked badly animated, thanks to flash player or something to that effect.

I dont know how the anime is, but i read the manga, it really keeps you on your toes, really well written, the art gets better too. Agree with raytrace, its fucking ace. last time i read something like this was gantz and berserk.

btw, does anyone know what happened to berserk, there hasnt been a new chapter all year, also is hunter x hunter ever gonna restart?

[Randorama]

I started reading the Manga and it is quite well-written, a quality that somehow translates only in part to the anime. Spoiler-wise, one problem is that I figured out who the shapeshifting titans were, as soon as they appeared. Another aspect I figured out very soon is the true nature of the wall, which was confirmed the moment the wallists appeared (the religious cult worshipping the wall). I am fairly sure that my guess about how the will unfold is correct, too.

I agree that the author is extremely skilled in building up the sense of despair that belongs to a story that, to an extent, is a modern version of middle ages recounts of mass tragedies (e.g. the outbreak of black death). Also, unlike the typical militaristic, reactionary non-sense manga (say, Gantz), kyojin constantly shows how terrified humans are, when they are at war. The flash animation quality of the first 13 episodes is worrysome, though.

[nasty_wolverine]

tbh, after i started reading manga's, i prefer them over anime's because so much of the authors original thoughts and effects are just lost.
I guessed about the wall too, and the normal titans, but knew there were other shapeshifters but not their identity. and i think i know what happened to eren's father. what i like about it is how it shows religion, politics and normal people intersect. and how some will risk all for very little.

[Raytrace]

I actually like the animation, well not the 'animation' so much, more the chara facial art, which is quite gritty and really shows their sense of utter despair well.

I also like how it doesn't really have any of the modern cookie cutter anime archetypes, and especially I like how non-whingey it is, well what I mean is, if there is whingeing it's for genuinely terrible events, and in fact even then there is usually straight away someone forcing the whinger to snap out of it and man up for the next dreadful massacre they're going to go through :p.

[Randorama]

Well...

Eren=Asuka
Mikasa=Rei
Armin=Shinji

And so on. The characters themselves are fairly standard, and the way the author handles the spoilers is also very standard. The main characters might not be whingeing all the time (everyone shits in their pants, though: so much for "manlyness"), but still the basic choices for plot and characters are not so original, although not in line with current trends. To an extent this looks like Evangelion with zombies, in the Middle Ages.

What I realized to be actually very good and well-thought is the background story and overarching plot: it seems that the author read a lot of material on European Middle Age and Japanese isolation period. The constant sense of dread and alienation that humans seem to fear the moment they go beyond the walls, in fear of the "monsters", captures this fact well. I also think that there will be a later plot twist which is really cliché, but would still be perfect within the context of the story (as Irwin said: "what/who is the enemy?").

As long as the sharp increase in quality from ch. 20 or so is maintained, though the series should really be excellent. The parts before lack balance, and bordered on the silly, at times.

[nasty_wolverine]

As long as the sharp increase in quality from ch. 20 or so is maintained, though the series should really be excellent. The parts before lack balance, and bordered on the silly, at times.

Yeah, till then it just felt more or less like any other generic fantasy/monster/guro kinda series. It really kicks up from there.

[Edmond Dantes]

I honestly don't know which version I enjoy more--the anime or the manga.

The main advantage the manga has IMO is just that its faster paced. The early chapters annoyed me with their occasional bouts of out-of-order storytelling (telling about their days at boot camp AFTER we learn that one of the main characters is a shifter) but outside of those bummers, I dug it.

I sometimes feel like being animated helps this story a lot--hey, any story where the main characters swing around NEEDS to be animated, and it somehow helps bring out the Titans' creepy factor. That said, when I watched the first ten episodes and found that ten eps only equaled four volumes of the manga (and not even all of volume four, at that), I kinda started to wonder if following the anime was worth it. There's also the typical doubts I associate with still-running anime--worries about it ending too soon or else going into filler hell like Naruto did, etc.

[Raytrace]

Well...

Eren=Asuka
Mikasa=Rei
Armin=Shinji

Definitely not on the Eren one - Asuka's selfish and arrogant, completely the opposite of Eren.

I don't know how you could compare Mikasa to Rei either, as Mikasa is a completely strong character not just 'good at piloting/3d flight but totally depressed when doing anything else'.

Armin possibly is the whingeist of the lot, so maybe Shinji does fit there though :p

[Randorama]

Well...

Eren=Asuka
Mikasa=Rei
Armin=Shinji

Definitely not on the Eren one - Asuka's selfish and arrogant, completely the opposite of Eren.

I don't know how you could compare Mikasa to Rei either, as Mikasa is a completely strong character not just 'good at piloting/3d flight but totally depressed when doing anything else'.

Armin possibly is the whingeist of the lot, so maybe Shinji does fit there though :p

Eren bitches a lot and is obsessed with the revenge and winning against the enemy (as Asuka), and Mikasa has the empathy of a fish (and the same expression-less mug of Rei). Not complete identities, but they fall within the general templates of "sennin (trio) in robo anime": the noisy, action-obsessed leader, the laconic side-kick, the whingy second side-kick.

The key factor is that later in the story, the characters start changing, because of the events they partake in. This is where the original manga suddenly has a spike in quality, and the anime should get interesting as well. The next few episodes (23 onwards) should be entertaining, as I really want to see how they will handle the subtleties of the plot, on screen.


Uchotou Kazoku is also great, for those who love magical realism and tanuki.

[Raytrace]

I suppose I can see the similarities, anywayz 01:30 GMT tonight/tomorrow morning, I will no doubt be watching th enxt episode, as I love it.

[KAI]

Finally finished watching To Aru Majutsu no Index. The story was full of ups and downs but I liked it. Hoping to see a third season the next year.

Now watching Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince. Holy fuck!! Super sentai mechas! I'm liking this a lot.

[Raytrace]

Finally finished watching To Aru Majutsu no Index. The story was full of ups and downs but I liked it. Hoping to see a third season the next year.

Now watching Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince. Holy fuck!! Super sentai mechas! I'm liking this a lot.

yeah I do like it - it isn't my favourite mecha this 'season' - 'Gargantia takes that title, but it is very good, even with those really over the top emotion faces (big teardrops etc) which usually piss me right off, Majestic Prince is still great.

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, nobody bothered to tell me about Otogi Zoshi, so I checked out some scans in translation somewhere or other - it's a work in progress, so the whole thing isn't there yet, and it basically ends on a cliffhanger. I will say that it has a fair number of interesting-enough characters, but it also doesn't waste any time killing most of them off! It was over really quick for a lot of them; even Gantz lets the latest heroes of the week survive for more pages.

So I have no idea where they will go from there. There's still a bad guy and there's a few protagonists left but most of the people the story was invested in are totally gone. They didn't spend as much time with them as they could have - they basically fleshed out their characters and then wiped them out.

[KAI]

Kill-La-Kill new CM
This looks awesome. So hyped.

[Aleksei]

Just watched Tiger and Bunny and I liked it; a little bit predictable but very good.

[Edmond Dantes]

Well, I've read Chapters 1-45 of Attack on Titan. It's getting interesting, and I missed the "obvious spoilers" as well--most of it was genuinely a surprise to me. New chapters can't come out fast enough.

A small annoyance, I've found CBR sites to be unreliable and far too many of them link you to a free webhost that expects you to download some custom download manager. Hell no I'm not gonna put your adware on my computer, assholes. Just let me download the file or don't waste my time.

(That said, this is a manga I genuinely want to buy--and if it gets licensed for R1 DVD, I'm picking it up for sure).

[BIL]

Burnt through all 49 currently available chapters of Titan over the weekend after being attracted by the Berserk comparisons here, found it very enjoyable. Good sense of primal horror and terror, something I enjoyed from Berserk's Golden Age arc. After an impressively traumatic start I thought it may have shat the bed early on with shifting, but it didn't take away the sense of mortal danger like I thought it would (if anything it has increased). Interested to see where things go.

[Raytrace]

I've read 8 of the 10 2001 Nights manga volumes now, really really good classic thought provoking sci-fi.

[Ruldra]

Anyone here read Samurai Executioner? Looks like it's from the same people who made Lone Wolf & Cub.

[GaijinPunch]

Megazone 23

Saw this one ages ago on subtitled, Nth generation VHS tape and not seen it since. So, I gave it a whirl. I think it even got a BR release as this was pretty high res. If you want nostalgia, this has it all. Paper-thin plot line that advances way too fast to be believable; shitty pop song w/ even worse English catch phrase; robots and shit; you name it. What's worth noting here is the painstaking accuracy to recreate "Tokyo". Even before they start popping off street names (the few that have names), it's clear where many scenes are. Most land marks are still there... a handful, gone though (sniff). Also worth noting is this one of the few shows in which a character that doesn't have tentacles gets some pussy. And, he seems to get laid just from being cool. So yeah... what the fuck happened to the industry from the 90's on? Worth another thread.

I see they made an "adventure" game for the PS3, and it looks like shit. It's a shame this series takes such a nose dive. The character designs were redone in Part II by old what's his name (too lazy to look up, but he's done a lot of stuff). A more mature look than Mikimoto, which is fine, but I don't like when shit goes off on a tangent in the middle.

After reading some Wikipedia, it seems the "23" (pronounced two three) was inspired by the 23 wards of Tokyo (which makes sense actually) but was re-defined somewhere in Part III. Also, it was originally supposed to be a TV series, which explains a lot of the rushed story. Spoiler I guess: the main character literally picks up the girl in the first minutes of the show by almost running her over, befriends her after scoring her number at the Hard Rock Cafe where she works, goes on a few dates, figures out the world isn't what it seems, treats her like shit on the next date but still gets into those sweet, sweet panties [where you know he was thankful he was a cartoon so he didn't have to spend 3 minutes to get through a forcefield of pubes... something Japanese have to do in this day and age, much less the 80's], and then while he's still banging her told her they were in the Matrix.

Okay, I got a little carried away there...

[Raytrace]

Megazone 23

Saw this one ages ago on subtitled, Nth generation VHS tape and not seen it since. So, I gave it a whirl. I think it even got a BR release as this was pretty high res. If you want nostalgia, this has it all. Paper-thin plot line that advances way too fast to be believable; shitty pop song w/ even worse English catch phrase; robots and shit; you name it. What's worth noting here is the painstaking accuracy to recreate "Tokyo". Even before they start popping off street names (the few that have names), it's clear where many scenes are. Most land marks are still there... a handful, gone though (sniff). Also worth noting is this one of the few shows in which a character that doesn't have tentacles gets some pussy. And, he seems to get laid just from being cool. So yeah... what the fuck happened to the industry from the 90's on? Worth another thread.

I see they made an "adventure" game for the PS3, and it looks like shit. It's a shame this series takes such a nose dive. The character designs were redone in Part II by old what's his name (too lazy to look up, but he's done a lot of stuff). A more mature look than Mikimoto, which is fine, but I don't like when shit goes off on a tangent in the middle.

After reading some Wikipedia, it seems the "23" (pronounced two three) was inspired by the 23 wards of Tokyo (which makes sense actually) but was re-defined somewhere in Part III. Also, it was originally supposed to be a TV series, which explains a lot of the rushed story. Spoiler I guess: the main character literally picks up the girl in the first minutes of the show by almost running her over, befriends her after scoring her number at the Hard Rock Cafe where she works, goes on a few dates, figures out the world isn't what it seems, treats her like shit on the next date but still gets into those sweet, sweet panties [where you know he was thankful he was a cartoon so he didn't have to spend 3 minutes to get through a forcefield of pubes... something Japanese have to do in this day and age, much less the 80's], and then while he's still banging her told her they were in the Matrix.

Okay, I got a little carried away there...

hahah

yeh the first part is amazing, having said that I still 100% enjoyed the other two even if they weren't as good.





'Top speed of 320km per hour. It collided with a BMW and didn't even get a scratch.'

[GaijinPunch]

Don't forget the meme-worthy:

Stumbles upon top-secret, ground breaking military weapon/vehicle...

Drives it around on the street in broad daylight.

[Raytrace]

Don't forget the meme-worthy:

Stumbles upon top-secret, ground breaking military weapon/vehicle...

Drives it around on the street in broad daylight.

and taunts people on the news with it hahahah

I know it's probably an old debate, but IMO there can be no doubt it's influence on Dark City and/or The Matrix. I think it at least as much as GITS.

[Randorama]

The Wachowski brothers stated that they did not know Megazone 23, though (the title was really obscure outside Japan). For what it is worth, their main inspirations were The Invisibles by Grant Morrison, Plato and Baudrillard. Shirow took inspiration from these two philosophers as well (bloody nerds!).

Also: I recall that the series clearly shows how they suddenly had to switch to the OVA format. Do the plot holes suddenly appear in the last part(s)?

[KAI]

Watching Little Busters right now. It's super moetard, but for some reason I stop watching it.


BTW, the new anime season is just around the corner (again). Your picks?

I'm so hyped about Kill La Kill.
Gainax and Kyoani seems to be doing something decent this season.


Gundam Built fighters... What happened to you Sunrise? You used to be so cool.

[Raytrace]

The Wachowski brothers stated that they did not know Megazone 23, though (the title was really obscure outside Japan). For what it is worth, their main inspirations were The Invisibles by Grant Morrison, Plato and Baudrillard. Shirow took inspiration from these two philosophers as well (bloody nerds!).

Also: I recall that the series clearly shows how they suddenly had to switch to the OVA format. Do the plot holes suddenly appear in the last part(s)?

maybe MZ23 was slight influence on GITS?

either way it doesn't matter, imo Megazone 23 should be way better known than it is. the 'general public' (sorry I'm trying to say it in least snobby sounding way I can) think anime = this:

Naruto
Bleach
Moé
Pervy Shit

slightly more detailed knowledge might go to this:

Miyazaki/Ghibli - (I am sick of to death of people implying or straight out saying that Ghibli stuff is the only anime that matters or is any good
etc.)

and MAYBE

AKIRA