New and current FS anime Topic

[Vince]

On the topic of slice of life awesomeness, watch out for Sketchbook ~full colours~ It's basically the same team as the one behind Aria and from what someone tells me is just as enjoyable.

I've been looking for this but can't seem to find a fansub yet. So far i have watched:

Gundam 00 ep1 - This was ok, i like the animation and it does have potential but i get the impression it will just be another series which pales in comparison to the UC series.

CLANNAD ep1 - I liked this, although i'm a little worried it might be a bit too similar to Kannon.

You're Under Arrest Full Throttle - This was entertaining enough, nothing special but i've been watching Under Arrest for years now so i enjoyed it.

[Mr.Jeff]

Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun: Jeeeeez. Fan service plain and simple. Cute girl has fear of guys but has the power to attract them unconciously aside from the main male lead. Average stuff really.

Night Wizard: It's got a very RPG-ish style to the storyline and the fight sequences. It'd probably work fairly well in a game setting but it doesn't really transfer over well to animation I think. I'll give it a few more episodes to see how it goes.

[Zapp$ter]

I've been looking for this but can't seem to find a fansub yet.

Yeah. No sub yet. Shouldn't be too much longer I would hope.

[Taka]

Agree with Tobal about Gundam 00. Loving the action and the fact that all the Gundams have been introduced already but it does feel very much like a Wing clone; we have a transforming-ranged Gundam (Wing), a sniper Gundam (Deathscythe), a heavy artillery Gundam (Heavyarms), and one specialising in melee (Sandrock). I'm not sure about the overly large cast so early on, could get very confusing quickly if they don't watch it.

[Mr.Jeff]

Yay! Just found out a second series of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is planned for next year. Awesome news.

Another couple of new series eps released as well so I'll write something unhelpful about them:

Kmikiss Pure Rouge: Uh group dating seems to be the first thing that comes to mind. Rather than 1 guy/many girls or vice versa, it seems to be even numbers of each with each of them matching up right from the start. There'll probably be more drama to follow though.

Rental Magica: Hmm. Granted it's a first episode and they're trying to get people used to the format but it really did seem to string out the episode for ages. The fight sequences in particular. Not to keen on a couple of the charcaters either.

[Wild_Cat]

...And the "Dreadfully average urban fantasy show" award for the upcoming season goes to Rental Magica. Rushed character introductions, rushed but terribly predictable storyline, dragged out and unimpressive fights (although the broomstick stunts were quite cool, and I kinda like that little witch anyway), and an anticlimactic, lame, clichéd superpower for the main character.

I mean, that the weak, useless dude has the power that trumps all others, fine by me (although it's such an overused plot device in anime it's not even funny anymore). That said power is to make other characters instantly understand spatial geometry ( ), I can live with. But come on, can't they find something other than Ye Olde Eyepatch to conceal it, *for once*? The sad state of affairs is such that while watching Bakumatsu Whatever last month, I was actually *surprised* by the revelation that the one-eyed gunman was indeed one-eyed.

At the very least, though, there seems to be some sort of comedy element, so we can hope it won't be as boring as Witch Hunter Robin.

Kudos to Shinsen-subs, however, for the *ten* bleeding minutes of post-episode translation notes o.O . Although I'd have preferred less information, but in-context information (say, 1 line + Wikipedia link for each "new" word), instead of 26 minutes of untranslated Japanese name-dropping followed by screenfuls of "oh, by the way, here's what happened". The series' rhythm is already sketchy enough as is.

[Mr.Jeff]

I wouldn't necessarily mind the whole eye-patch power thing but the way they set it up, it's like every week the guy's going to go "I didn't really want to use this but you've forced me" and use his funky power rather than just using it straight off the bat in the first place. Then there'll be the standard episode of a major event where he's unable or prevented from using his special power. It's just far too generic really.

[Wild_Cat]

Aye. IMO, the only series to ever pull the "don't force me to use this" trick successfully was Chrono Crusade.

Anyway, I've just watched the 1st ep of Dragonaut. The premise looks interesting (albeit angst-ridden), and it's obviously a high-budget show... But $deity, that's no character design, it's caricature design! I've seen chicks with smaller boobs in Russ Meyer flicks, for crying out loud!

However, the soundtrack deserves props for 1. Use of the Amen break in the theme song; and 2. Bitchin' electric guitar shred solo fight sequence tune!

[Tobal]

So far this season quite far behind last season's quality, which had it in spades across the board.. we had Toward the Terra, Dennou Coil, Heroic Age, Darker than black, lucky star, claymore, baccano, kaze no Stigma, lovely Complex, Hayate, nanaha-S(just me ), Seirei no Moribito, Zero no Tsukaima 2 and the great Gurran Lagann. So far only Clannad, DC2, shana2 and Gundam00(just) look above average.

anyway watched...

Night Wizard ep1 - hmmm, fairly interesting. It's basically Nanaha without the loli(i.e. Girls with magic weapons) vs cartoonish monsters. The main badguy's look really crap which is kind putting me off giving this a thumbs up, at the animation is good(lets hope it stays that way) and will certainlly give it a good few eps.

Rental Magica ep1 - more magic+wizards... i didn't get the shinsen release so it only gave brief notes on the types of magic. Animation is ok and the plot device is a geass/sharingan power... about the only kickass thing in the show is the cetlic witch on a rocket powered broom.

still to go.. kimikiss, Blue Drop, Dragonaut, and Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun(which from skipping through, looks quite good)

[Mr.Jeff]

Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun(which from skipping through, looks quite good)

I was originally quite dismissive of this since it's fairly fan-servicey (which doesn't bother me) but compared to some of the others I've watched recently, it's actually fairly alright.
Still there's a lot left unsubbed at the moment which still bears looking into. Hopefully the first ep of genshiken in the next day or so too since the raw's out.

[Zapp$ter]

Some of the stuff mentioned there was from the summer season which was mostly quite weak too, but yeah I agree this fall lineup is not looking as strong as it has been in previous years, and there's no comparison to the stuff we got in the spring season.

Only other new show I've seen so far was Bamboo Blade. Had a few chuckles from that first episode. Nothing spectacular but not horrible either. I liked it enough to keep up with it. Bonus points for having Kamina's VA in a not too dissimilar hotblooded/passionate role. Nowhere near as cool(yet) though.

So far I've got Da Capo2, Clannad and Bamboo Blade. I reckon I'll definitely be following Shana2 if only to see a continuation of the story and to hope they can get back to the good stuff Shana had at the very start of the first season. Gundam 00 will probably be a given too. Loads of first episodes to check out.

Genshiken 2 will no doubt save the season though. It should be awesome and I'm hoping Sketchbook turns out to be good too. Ah well, guess I shouldn't complain too much the past few spring and fall seasons had a load of interesting shows some of which I've not got round to watching yet so I suppose a lull in this season should give me time to catch up (though no doubt I'll be watching plenty this season too).

[Mr.Jeff]

At the moment as definites I've got Gundam, Clannad, Shana and Genshiken as definites with a couple of the others as potentials. But, I still have a whole host of the rest of the season to gander which I hope will be good; ef, sketchbook, prism ark, mokke, minami-ke and ghost hound all of which looked fairly alright from the promos I saw. Ghost hound especially.

Kodomo no Jikan and Shugo Chara are the only 2 on my do not watch list for sure.

Edit: Just watched the first episode of Bamboo Blade. It's great to see they've managed to keep the humour of the manga while keeping it interesting. Voices are pretty damn good too.

[stainboy]

edit: actually just came across a decent point which I thought I'd mention. The girls don't seem to say the "cute" one-line catchphrases/weird sound effects like the Kanon girls. Just from the first ep they seem to be more normal and less... can't think of the word. Anyway I remember talking about this point with stainboy which IIRC was one thing that turned him off Kanon.

I remember being annoyed with all the Kanon girls being really cute and dumb, none of them having any "balls", and also not liking the male lead. I'm going to watch Clannad now just to see if it will turn me round

Don't mind the new season getting off to a slow start, I have a lot to catch up with. I think I might ditch Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei though, I thought I'd love it but I really don't, it just bores me.

EDIT: Clannad: bloody girly rubbish I'm kidding, this one's more promising for me than Kanon and Air; it's a lot less dreamy, floaty and has some strong characters. I also thought

->Open Spoiler<-

that Nagisa would be the ghost but what about her parents? and would that be too easy since this is just the first episode? They can't have us thinking "yeah, she's the ghost" and then waiting for it to be confirmed at the end.

Am I mad or do some of the character's expressions look familiar to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni? The shows couldn't be much more different so were they done by the same people?

[Mr.Jeff]

It might be down to some of the characters having the smae voices as a couple of the Higurashi's characters. Nagisa is the same voice actress as Rena and i think the landlady is the same voice actress as Shion/Mion. Though it might be an intresting experience if one of the women in Clannad turns out to be a psychopathic axe-wielding maniac.

[Wild_Cat]

All right... I've just seen that the 2nd season of Moonlight Mile is already 5 episodes in! How come nobody's subbing it? First season was brilliant, and unless they've somehow made it into a furry hentai tentacle porn show with chibi characters, there's no reason S2 shouldn't be as well...