Recommended Anime/Manga?

[Durandal]

Durandal, have you watched this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_StZDxiUIWE
Violence in Zeta Gundam.

I hadn't seen that video yet
Getting Brightslapped once was already enough of a shocker, getting slapped in Zeta all the time had me wondering about Tomino's parenting.
Thankfully Kamille stopped getting in fits of rage later on.

Now you are ready for Char's Counterattack (aka Gundam WTF!!!).

Wait, what about ZZ Gundam?

[soprano1]

You don't need to watch ZZ for Char's Counterattack.

[S_Fang]

Durandal, have you watched this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_StZDxiUIWE
Violence in Zeta Gundam.

Is that the Anime equivalent of Jerry Springer Show? Everyone beats each other, is stupid (in a cringy way).

[Xyga]

Seems to lack the pretty offensive "I came here to laugh at you" line.

[Lord Satori]

You don't need to watch ZZ.

Fixed.

[Durandal]

You don't need to watch ZZ.

Fixed.

Yea... I'm starting to regret watching it now.

[soprano1]

First half is Sunday cartoon style, the rest of the episodes are more serious.

[Bloodreign]

Almost through Cardcaptor Sakura, seems pretty harmless, but good. Does move a bit slow in the last 20 or so episodes though.

[FinalBaton]

Off a friend's recommendation, I'm thinking of giving the Bastard!! manga a try. I like some of the art I've seen, and I have a soft spot for anything that's simultaneously over the top in machismo yet far from serious. + heavy metal and D&D references are always welcome.

Any good?

I read a couple of tomes from the manga a while back (like 10 years ago maybe?) and I liked it.

As you said, it's over the top and campy and all of badass, sexy and goofy at the same time. Definitely doesn't take itself very seriously most of the time

But there is still some pretty violent stuff and the bosses (dudes who the main protagonist, Dark Schneider, faces) have cool abilities and it makes up for good fights (aka the way he defeats them, by finding their weaknesses, is entertaining).

Also the bosses designs are amazing. very creative armors/weapons/characters designs. Included in the manga are sketches of boss designs, and those are definitly part of the fun.

Also, Dark Schneider constantly trying to convince Tia to bang (and being not only shut down, but also severely beaten up in the process by Tia) is obviously fun

[Obiwanshinobi]

I liked the 1992-'93 Bastard!! OAV, although I'm pretty certain the sort of panties it depicts on the ladies wasn't a thing in times and lands it derives the style of hardware from.

[lilmanjs]

Still going through Tokyo Majin and enjoying it. Bought Ergo Proxy for $2usd at the local library sale. Is that a steal or about what the show is worth? Sounded interesting.

[chempop]

Dude Ergo Proxy is AAA+++
You got the whole series boxset? I bought each disc when they were released individually, one of my favorites for sure.

[Xyga]

Progressed further into I Am A Hero, it gets pretty fucked up weird.

Enjoying it despite being usually bored with the 'zombie apocalypse adventure' genre.

Recommended. Oh and it's quite long (ongoing too).

[FinalBaton]

just finished Dangaioh (3episodes) and Gunbuster: Aim for the top! (6 episodes), two mecha anime

Both are good fun, I recommend giving them a shot

In Dangaioh, the mecha battles take a backseat and allow the drama to be (way) at the forefront, wich is the way I like it.
*TIP : For Dangaioh, don't get the dvd, as it's missing the first episode entirely. Either watch it online or get a VHS copy or a Laserdsic one*

In Gunbuster there are more mecha battles, but they managed to make them very interesting, with each and every one either: introducing a new development regarding one of the main character's psyche (like them finally being able to overcome a fear for the first time, etc), or revealing to us, the audience, an aspect of the character's personality or background we previously didn't know about.
The last episode of Gunbuster is a bit tedious though. But the first 5 are nice so I still recommend to watch those (the 4th and 5th episodes both have a big finale, so you won't feel like you're left hanging if you stop after the 5th one).

Also I am halfway thru the Vampire Princess Miyu OVAs. And despite not having seen the ending (I don't have it), I give a glowing recommendation to what I've seen so far.
It's a horror/drama show set in contemporary times with a heavy dose of supernatural, and a great atmosphere.
Really impressed with this one. The pacing is masterful : each and every shot is CRUCIAL to making the story advance. Screenplay-wise, all the fat is trimmed, there is only extra-lean meat here. Yet everything feels so graceful, airy. Like the dancing of a ballerina. Scenes transition from one into another effortlessly. extremely fluid yet focused. and a bit dream-like in tone

This one gets a serious recommendation from me ^_^ b
It's friggin awesome, you gotta watch it!

[lilmanjs]

Dude Ergo Proxy is AAA+++
You got the whole series boxset? I bought each disc when they were released individually, one of my favorites for sure.

It is the entire classic series boxed set. Its one of the things the library decided to get rid of in their collection.

[Squire Grooktook]

Thank's for the Bastard!! thoughts and other recommendations, FinalBaton.

[FinalBaton]

Just got done watching Appleseed and Black Magic M-66, so I'll quickly review them together since they're both based on Masamune Shirow mangas and came out around the same time.

Black Magic M-66, from my boys at AIC, is short and sweet. It grabs your attention from beginning to end. The story is constantly advancing, and the thriller aspect is well executed. Not a dull moment in this one.
The character designs are not outstanding, they're just okay, but this OVA is a great example of how storytelling is more important than the artstyle.
I recommend watching it

Appleseed, on the other hand, was disappointing. I thought it was kinda bland to be honest. I really wanted to love it, since it's part of the U.S. Renditions VHS subbed lineup (and I ADORE those) and is early Gainax, but... it didn't grab my attention at all.
I think it's probably because of the lackluster flow of it. It's very slow-paced throughout, even the action segments are. Don't like the pacing at all.
It might also be because, while the film does a bunch of things somewhat well, it doesn't do any of them masterfully. Nothing really stood out.
It's not bad or anything. It has some charm for sure. It just didn't do anything for me.

I suspect this might be a personal preference thing though. I say maybe give it a go if you're a fan of late '80s/early '90s anime? And see if you dig it. Otherwise, I can't give a solid recommendation for everyone on this one.

[BryanM]

The big turkey this season is this thing called "Endride". One of those fujoshi things that goes very lightly on its gay undertones, so as not to alienate vast swathes of people. With no real interest in anything specifically beyond that. And therefore pleases no one. Basically a better Nabari no Ou type thing.

I feel its noteworthy, because this was pointed out.



The main character. He.




Wears his pants backwards.


24 episodes
Funimation is dubbing it
They're dubbing it as its BROADCAST


A lot of people are gonna take a bath on this one. And it's not gonna be a good bath. It's gonna be a bad one. Like, a bath filled with pee.

Which would be more interesting and have more fans than Endride.

[EmperorIng]

I finally finished Two-Skip-Skadoo Man. Very fun, and Bryan is right about how the fights being relatively short (with 12 episodes, it's like EVERYTHING is super-compressed) keeps it from getting boring. That and the "throw everything and the kitchen sink" approach to the world.

Now it has me all interested in a second season to see more of Saitama and co.

Dude Ergo Proxy is AAA+++
You got the whole series boxset? I bought each disc when they were released individually, one of my favorites for sure.

It is the entire classic series boxed set. Its one of the things the library decided to get rid of in their collection.

For $2.00, I'd say you got your money's worth.

IMO, the first third is the best, and everything feels very good on a first view. Just don't ruin it for yourself watching it a second time and noticing all the plot holes and inconsistencies. Though many people give up on the series once it gets to its slooow section. You'll, uh, know it when you feel it.

[Lord Satori]

Saw Boogiepop Phantom.

I enjoyed it, and I think anyone who loved Lain Zero as much as I did will enjoy it as well. I did have a hard time telling some of the female protagonists apart, but due to the fact the each episode features someone different, that isn't as big of a problem as you might think.

I wish that they hadn't left so many questions unanswered though. The events surrounding the pillar of light that seems to be the catalyst behind many of the other events were left unexplored except for the occasional flashback. The mysterious organization doesn't get delved into any more than it does in episode 5.

The first four episodes are pretty much standalone mini-arcs, and things don't start to weave together until the aforementioned episode 5. This doesn't really detract from the overall experience though, in my opinion.

Personally, I liked Lain Zero better, but they were both really good despite their faults.

[Xyga]

Lain Zero

What is that ? Not a single result on the interwebs.
Any relation to Serial Experiments Lain ?

[Lord Satori]

Rofl. I'm not exactly sure where I got "Lain Zero" from. Maybe it was the name of a thing somewhere and it got crosswired with SEL in my brain.

Yeah, I meant SEL.

[BryanM]

I always really liked that little scene where the Sky King appears and it's all like "YOU SAW THE EARTH KING AND THE SEA KING, NOW WE'RE DEALING WITH THE SKY KING. GET IT?!" If it was Endride, it would have played it straight and talked about it for hours beforehand. OPM, just goes "yeah no, we're not doing that. Fuck that shit. Alien invasion time."

And then Madhouse faithfully reproduces the fight sequences because they both give a shit and are good.

Unlike Brynhildr in the Darkness. Where they reduced a sequence with black holes and anti-matter bombs ripping a city apart, holes getting blasted into the combatants' bodies... down to a girl flying up into the sky and disappearing in a shiny glow.

Now it has me all interested in a second season to see more of Saitama and co.

At the current ratio of 2 pages of content for every 60 pages of filler, I feel very concerned that they'll ever get there. Maybe in 3 or 5 years; can't really think of anything this successful whose creator just does it as a hobby whenever the whim moves him.

Yeah, I meant SEL.

I know that one! Selector Effected Lain.

The grimdark world of cyber cardgames.

[Lord Satori]

Yeah, I meant SEL.

I know that one! Selector Effected Lain.

The grimdark world of cyber cardgames.

Nice try.

[Ji-L87]

@FinalBaton:

You've got yourself a proper smorgasbord with all these classic titles to wade through

While I haven't seen Dangaioh or Vampire Princess Miyu, I saw Gunbuster sometime last summer/fall and it probably was the best thing I saw that year, at the very least. Just amazing the way it builds up and then pays it off. But I feel it probably only works really well the first time, as I can't really see myself re-watching it too often. Just not built that way.

I think we had a pretty good discussion about what makes it tick compared to it's sequel, Diebuster, a couple of pages back but I wasn't able to dig it out at the moment. All I know is it left a huge impact on me and that I truly enjoyed the experience, perhaps especially on an audiovisual level.

As for Vampire Princes Miyu, your enthusiastic thoughts certainly do make me interested, even if the genre isn't my favorite. I do love the artwork for it however, so maybe that can be my "way in", so to speak.

Black Magic M-66 makes for yet another good case why I love the OVA-era so much. It's nothing super great, merely interesting. Interesting and exciting. Perfect little pop corn experience that don't outstay it's welcome.

With today's heavy focus on marketable TV-anime, these smaller, more of less self-contained short-stories feel so incredibly full of ideas and variety. Something like M-66 most likely wouldn't lend itself too well as anything longer or bigger than what it is, and I can't see it getting made today. The visual quality of modern TV anime has certainly gone up in a truly tangible sense, but the content sometimes feels heavily stagnated.

This turned into a rant and I sadly don't have too much to say about the M-66 itself, it was a while since I last saw it, but I too remember it as a fun, sometimes silly, ride that had me on the edge of my seat for it's duration, but ultimately didn't leave me with any long-lasting thoughts or feelings.

Which is just the way I like it

[Durandal]

Char's Counterattack

For the time being I've decided to skip ZZ to CCA, and watching CCA left me kind of WTF?
I feel like by skipping ZZ I've missed out on some major character introductions and development, yet when I look up CCA on the internet, everyone else also says Zeta and ZZ have nothing to do with CCA at all. It sure seems like Char must've forgotten all about his adventures during Zeta, since he suddenly rose from being about protecting Earth from Earthnoids who mean harm to Earth, to being impatient and just putting Earth into a permanent hibernation and forcing Earthnoids into space so mankind can free itself from the shackles of Earth. Though understandable, Char's (non-existent) transformation from eco-terrorist to Literally Worse Than Gihren is something that needs a whole lot more build-up, and is not really possible to do in one movie.

Amuro and Bright are still cool, though Hathaway and Quess come off as pointless additions who were never given enough screen time to be fleshed out properly, in addition to being annoying characters recycling old plot elements and setting up something REALLY FUCKING STUPID I won't spoil. For something that's supposed to be a conclusion to Amuro's and Char's rivalry, the ending is rather vague and feels rushed with the same Newtype powers outta nowhere from Zeta (suddenly Spirit Bomb lol). There are some pretty great scenes with Char taking the role of Supreme Leader. Some more exposition concerning the backstory would have made feel things not as sudden. The rest of the story and characters are fairly decent, I suppose.

The animation and music are great, and the fights of CCA are a great mouthwash after the tedium of Zeta. The mobile suit designs are also pleasing to look at, though I wonder what the hell was up with that one Zaku having the Gundam color scheme. VAs did a good job as usual too. Overall, I guess the movie just serves to answer the question what happened between Amuro and Char, but on its own the movie doesn't really stand out to me.

[soprano1]

Char's Counterattack

For the time being I've decided to skip ZZ to CCA, and watching CCA left me kind of WTF?
I feel like by skipping ZZ I've missed out on some major character introductions and development, yet when I look up CCA on the internet, everyone else also says Zeta and ZZ have nothing to do with CCA at all. It sure seems like Char must've forgotten all about his adventures during Zeta, since he suddenly rose from being about protecting Earth from Earthnoids who mean harm to Earth, to being impatient and just putting Earth into a permanent hibernation and forcing Earthnoids into space so mankind can free itself from the shackles of Earth. Though understandable, Char's (non-existent) transformation from eco-terrorist to Literally Worse Than Gihren is something that needs a whole lot more build-up, and is not really possible to do in one movie.

Amuro and Bright are still cool, though Hathaway and Quess come off as pointless additions who were never given enough screen time to be fleshed out properly, in addition to being annoying characters recycling old plot elements and setting up something REALLY FUCKING STUPID I won't spoil. For something that's supposed to be a conclusion to Amuro's and Char's rivalry, the ending is rather vague and feels rushed with the same Newtype powers outta nowhere from Zeta (suddenly Spirit Bomb lol). There are some pretty great scenes with Char taking the role of Supreme Leader. Some more exposition concerning the backstory would have made feel things not as sudden. The rest of the story and characters are fairly decent, I suppose.

The animation and music are great, and the fights of CCA are a great mouthwash after the tedium of Zeta. The mobile suit designs are also pleasing to look at, though I wonder what the hell was up with that one Zaku having the Gundam color scheme. VAs did a good job as usual too. Overall, I guess the movie just serves to answer the question what happened between Amuro and Char, but on its own the movie doesn't really stand out to me.

If you want, go check out Beltorchika's Children, a novel adapted from the script Tomino wanted Char's Counterattack to be, but the bigwigs said NOPE!
The novel is being adapted into a manga, there are 3 volumes out.

[FinalBaton]

@FinalBaton:

You've got yourself a proper smorgasbord with all these classic titles to wade through

that's exactly it! haha I am feasting on vast amounts of succulent classic titles right now, hehe

While I haven't seen Dangaioh or Vampire Princess Miyu, I saw Gunbuster sometime last summer/fall and it probably was the best thing I saw that year, at the very least. Just amazing the way it builds up and then pays it off. But I feel it probably only works really well the first time, as I can't really see myself re-watching it too often. Just not built that way.

I think we had a pretty good discussion about what makes it tick compared to it's sequel, Diebuster, a couple of pages back but I wasn't able to dig it out at the moment. All I know is it left a huge impact on me and that I truly enjoyed the experience, perhaps especially on an audiovisual level.

Happy to see that you liked Gunbuster too! It's really cool. The story (and the rythm at wich the story progresses) are good and quite epic, and the characters are very endearing. And of course the artstyle is gorgeous. I just love the 3 main girls design so, so much. It's a real treat, I could watch them all day. I like Coach (or should I say : "Coachee!" ) a lot too. He's a very interesting character.

As for Vampire Princes Miyu, your enthusiastic thoughts certainly do make me interested, even if the genre isn't my favorite. I do love the artwork for it however, so maybe that can be my "way in", so to speak.

Yes! check out the first episode of the OVA. This will be enough to help you decide whether you dig it or not, I guarantee it *thumbs up* Plus it's not a big commitment, only a half hour

Black Magic M-66 makes for yet another good case why I love the OVA-era so much. It's nothing super great, merely interesting. Interesting and exciting. Perfect little pop corn experience that don't outstay it's welcome.

With today's heavy focus on marketable TV-anime, these smaller, more of less self-contained short-stories feel so incredibly full of ideas and variety. Something like M-66 most likely wouldn't lend itself too well as anything longer or bigger than what it is, and I can't see it getting made today. The visual quality of modern TV anime has certainly gone up in a truly tangible sense, but the content sometimes feels heavily stagnated.

This turned into a rant and I sadly don't have too much to say about the M-66 itself, it was a while since I last saw it, but I too remember it as a fun, sometimes silly, ride that had me on the edge of my seat for it's duration, but ultimately didn't leave me with any long-lasting thoughts or feelings.

Which is just the way I like it

This is extremely well said. You've explained M-66's qualities better than I did! It is indeed very dense, no dull moments whatsoever. I like that they kept it short. As you said : perfect little pop corn experience that don't outstay it's welcome.

Also agreed regarding the old OVA format : when you're not commited to a long tv series season, you can make your product as short as you want. Whether it's a 40 minutes flick like M-66, or a 4 episode x 30 minutes story like the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA, etc. Both are jam packed with ideas and interesting storytelling. They didn't have to space the main story points(and filling out the gaps with less important, story-wise, stuff) further appart to lenghten the product and deliver a 26 episodes series.

[KAI]

Though understandable, Char's (non-existent) transformation from eco-terrorist to Literally Worse Than Gihren is something that needs a whole lot more build-up, and is not really possible to do in one movie.

Here's you transformation

Spoiler

btw, never ever ask anyone about the meaning of the last scenes of that movie, never!.
Now go watch Unicorn.

*shit, I forgot you need to watch ZZ to fully understand Unicorn

[S_Fang]

Spoiler

btw, never ever ask anyone about the meaning of the last scenes of that movie, never!.

I don't need to ask question, I already found my answer: this is stupid.