Recommended Anime/Manga?

[lilmanjs]

Samurai 7 has been added to my collection today. Watched the first 2 episodes and really enjoyed the heck out of it. Seems that it gets better from the reviews I've been reading. Good choice to spend the money on the blu-ray?

If you like it, be sure to watch the Kurosawa movie the series is based on.

Already seen the movie, but its been a long time. Best to revisit it then!

[rapoon]

For Berserk fans: the new PS4/PS3/Vita game has Wyald as a playable character.

Got real excited when I read that, then looked down and realized I was wearing my Wyald t-shirt and felt the shame of being a giant nerd.

Still excited, though.

nice. the roster i've seen so far is: Guts, Griffith, Casca, Judeau, Schierke, Serpico, Zodd, and now Wyald. with the game ending at the Millennium Falcon arc, I presume they'll take the same route as they did with HNK and make 2 games. I'll be disappointed if Skull Knight isn't a playable character, particularly since Wyald is confirmed.

edit: Schierke Gameplay

[Bitter Almonds]

Does anyone know around when did Japan disallow showing nudity and replacing it with shitty "fan service"? A show like Ranma 1/2 would probably never air uncensored nowadays...

[WelshMegalodon]

I'm inclined to say it was Evangelion that caused the change, though I'm not certain.

[Bitter Almonds]

I had a feelin' Evangina ruined anime in a lot of ways.

[BryanM]

Eh wot, Pantsu to Vampire mandated that every show had to have boobies to be commercially viable.

All Misato did was insist they had to be in every single episode. Misato did nothing wrong!

[Bitter Almonds]

Those chara designs are hideous.

[soprano1]

Those chara designs are hideous.

From where? Evangelion?

[Bitter Almonds]

Yes. Not since Masayuki's horrible chara designs for Macross Plus have I seen something so unappealingly bad.

[soprano1]

Yes. Not since Masayuki's horrible chara designs for Macross Plus have I seen something so unappealingly bad.

Ever heard of Hisashi Hirai, also known as Sameface Hirai?

[EmperorIng]

Yes. Not since Masayuki's horrible chara designs for Macross Plus have I seen something so unappealingly bad.

Ha ha, that's harsh. Eva's character designs are almost stock 90s Gainax (see: Nadia), but they are nonetheless distinct from other studios; its mech/monster designs likewise have remained unique for that period and in general. I haven't watched Eva since I was in high school, but its style in my mind has remained pretty iconic.

[Square_Air]

Yes. Not since Masayuki's horrible chara designs for Macross Plus have I seen something so unappealingly bad.

I think the EVA character designs are fine. There's so much else to focus on visually in that series that something like character designs are pretty minuscule in comparison. At least they're not the wide eyed plastic final fantasy characters that populate the majority of modern anime today where the only way you can tell them apart is based on their hair colour.

Also, I know this is a little controversial, but I really like the character designs from Ping Pong. I certainly wouldn't want that particular style in every anime, but It's a nice change of pace from the homogenized trash that is the majority of moe and seasonal anime.

[BryanM]

Plastic Memories finally solidified the whole "moe" thing to me. Was still fuzzy on what that was exactly.

As they say, moe isn't an art style or a middle-schooler with giant tits - it's a small clumsy doomed girl without any discernible meaningful hobbies or desires. She's just there to be helpless and (allegedly) cute.

The modern consolidated soft fluffy pastel art style isn't moe.

Talking about art styles, can some wizard out there explain to me how Dead Dead Demon's Dededestruction works? The protagonists are all drawn like elementary kids. But they start the series off in high school. Then move on to college. Other characters look their age. Is this some weird abstract subjective reality stylistic choice, or is there some in-story explanation like radon gas from the aliens putting a halt to aging? This has been bothering the hell out of me for years. Thanks in advance.

[Bitter Almonds]

Considering it's a visual medium, chara designs are pretty important. Evangina looks bloody awful.

[BryanM]

Dead Dead Demon's Dededestruction

Kind of get the vibe no one here knows what this is.



^ This is what that is.

[KAI]

I liked DEDDEDEDEDEDE (I've read every Inio manga translated), but it's getting more and more stupid with each passing page, dropped it a few chaps ago.

Anyone else following the recent Nagai scanlation boom? there're groups scanlating God Mazinger, Devilman Saga, Shin Maoh Dante, Devilman Lady vs Cutei Honey and some new chapters from Violence Jack.

A spanish group is about to finish the last volumes of VJ (and it's also translating Mazinsaga and Z Mazinger), hope you guy can read this in the future cause it's the manliest shit ever.

[soprano1]

KAI, don't forget Shin Mazinger Zero.

Spoiler

Cutie Honey, Kekko Kamen, Maboroshi Panty and even the motherfucking Kamen Rider show up to fight Dr. Hell's army.

[Square_Air]

Considering it's a visual medium, chara designs are pretty important. Evangina looks bloody awful.

Missing the forest for the trees my friend. While I won't actively defend the designs, I will attest to them being above average and functional. As for the rest of the series, the framing and composition is pretty superb. I find it odd though that you don't address the real flaws such as the messy plot, budget constraints, or meandering midpoint of the series. The End Of Evangelion is fantastic though even with Shinji showing everyone how to make the banana cry at the beginning . If I were to venture I wild guess I would assume your one of those people that religiously despises Evangelion (and I've dealt with that attitude all too often), so I might just choose to sit out this potential debate, or at the very least keep it brief.

...Unless you want to hate on the REBUILD series which I think is an absolute atrocity that should be rounded up and destroyed. I'm ALL FOR smacking that piñata around.

[wgogh]

...Unless you want to hate on the REBUILD series which I think is an absolute atrocity that should be rounded up and destroyed. I'm ALL FOR smacking that piñata around.

I thought that the Rebuild series wasnt that bad, but it kept geting worse with every next film... Also, I dislike the CG scenes, but I can only say that as a personal dislike/preference as it is not particulary bad.
I guess that, when compairing the original series with the Rebuild, we can take it as the ultimate proof that budget isnt everything.

[Square_Air]

...Unless you want to hate on the REBUILD series which I think is an absolute atrocity that should be rounded up and destroyed. I'm ALL FOR smacking that piñata around.

I thought that the Rebuild series wasnt that bad, but it kept geting worse with every next film... Also, I dislike the CG scenes, but I can only say that as a personal dislike/preference as it is not particulary bad.
I guess that, when compairing the original series with the Rebuild, we can take it as the ultimate proof that budget isnt everything.

The way I see it is like this:

1.11 - Fine, but had no reason to exist. It's just the first handful of episodes with 20 some minutes cut out and some doom 3 tier CGI thrown in.
2.22 - I have never disliked any film this much. It's probably at least a 4/10 on an "objective" level, but it's like this one was designed specifically to mock me for enjoying Evangelion in the first place.
3.33 - Just too damn silly. I'll admit it's better than 2.22 as it's uniquely stupid instead of desecrating something I enjoy, and I laughed at it most of the way through unlike 2.22 where I had to pause it every 30 seconds because it made me furious. I was honestly rooting for Shinji to just destroy the world at the end along the lines of "I'm all for this Shinji, this world is so dumb, there's nothing i will miss about it".

EDIT:I suppose for the few inevitable fans of the rebuilds I will admit there are a few things I did enjoy. 1.11 added some interesting animations to Ramiel, 3.33 had more time devoted to Shinji and Kaworu's relationship, and 2.22 had... uhh... well... I guess it ate up all the original EVA plot points as fast as it could so there's no chance we have to deal with anything like it again...

[wgogh]

I laughed at it most of the way through unlike 2.22 where I had to pause it every 30 seconds because it made me furious.

Well, I laughed at it most of the way through your comment. I can see you really hate it. As for me, I just had to re-watch The End Of Evangelion to take out the bitter taste.
Still, you had seen the entire Rebuild so far, so I guess you wont miss the next, as painful as it can be.

[Square_Air]

I laughed at it most of the way through unlike 2.22 where I had to pause it every 30 seconds because it made me furious.

Well, I laughed at it most of the way through your comment. I can see you really hate it. As for me, I just had to re-watch The End Of Evangelion to take out the bitter taste.
Still, you had seen the entire Rebuild so far, so I guess you wont miss the next, as painful as it can be.

I don't really hate the first or third films, and I actually am interested in seeing 4.0 when it comes out just to see how goofy they're willing to make this series. Who knows, maybe this will be the rebuild I actually enjoy, but from the trailer showing the two Evangelions slicing stuff up after doing the Gotenks fusion dance I'm pretty sure the series is going to disappear so far up its own ass it flips inside out . It will be a sight to behold either way.

[Bitter Almonds]

I only got to episode 8 and then I gave up on it. There was very little I liked about the show... maybe the music, maybe the mecha and background designs, and that's about it. Everything else I recall about the show is representative of everything that I hate about modern anime.

[FinalBaton]

I think the characters design in Evangelion are fine. And I love the colors in that series, which are absolutely of the late 80's/early 90's aesthetic, and nothing like modern anime.

Having said that, the character designs aren't quite as appealing as those of Gunbuster (which is my fave Gainax), or of Ken'ichi Sonoda's designs, or of the classic AIC/Artmic's designs. But I don't find them offensive or anything.

Then again maybe I looking more for color palettes as I am for chara designs in my anime


EDIT : btw, I've been thinking about doing a "what's your fave anime studio" poll That'd be fun I think.
But since all anime talk seems to be confined to this thread, I'm hesitant to create a second anime thread (for my poll), as I feel it will be viewed as redundant, and deleted promptly

[Durandal]

Evangelion character design seemed like par for the course for a '90s anime, do you have a beef with '90s anime in general?

[soprano1]

Evangelion character design seemed like par for the course for a '90s anime, do you have a beef with '90s anime in general?

Don't forget this one:
https://sociorocketnewsen.files.wordpre ... .jpg?w=580

[Bitter Almonds]

Mid-90s anime and on is what killed it for me. I stopped watching it for about 15 years because of my absolute loathing of it. Not much has changed in terms of shitty shows, except now it's moeblob city.

[EmperorIng]

But Black Lagoon came out in the 00s, so it wasn't all bad.

[Bitter Almonds]

True, some good stuff came out during that time. I loved Cowboy Bebop and Outlaw Star.

[wgogh]

EDIT : btw, I've been thinking about doing a "what's your fave anime studio" poll That'd be fun I think.
But since all anime talk seems to be confined to this thread, I'm hesitant to create a second anime thread (for my poll), as I feel it will be viewed as redundant, and deleted promptly

Even if discussing anime in general in another thread would be redundant, the poll itself is not. Since many here have knowledge of japanese animation and even happens to post their collection, I believe its fair to have more than one thread about it, as the subject in this case would be the studios.
But, of course, who am I to say that you can do that?