New and current FS anime Topic

[Mr.Jeff]

Finally saw geass ep 9. That was great apart from the return of

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Nina. I think she's the character I dislike most in this series. I did chuckle quite heartily at the end when Zero did his maniacal laugh. Also felt sorry for the chinese empress at the end.

I don't get her.

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The thing with Nina is she just doesn't seem to know what she wants and is just generally irritating for her complete insanity like with her Euphie fixation and her Eleven and Zero hatred. There was one line by Schneizel in that episode where he says something like "That's not how Euphie walks" that gives me a creepy feeling she might try and become Euphie.

I agree with Orka about the new shana-tan episode. Great stuff. I like how they can manage to take the fun out of all the characters. It's possibly the only bit where I like Yoshida's character.

[Wild_Cat]

So, Macross Frontier episodes 9 and 10.

For a change, let's talk about the good things first. Tying in Macross Zero looks like an interesting premise, and the idea of "Professor Mao" sounds good to me (although if she's still alive, chances are she's beyond old, seeing that Claudia was about 5 years old in Zero). Maybe we'll even learn what happened to Shin and Sara? Some good character development regarding Alto (I want a kabuki scene!), Ranka and Sheryl, and harmonica-boy turns out to be a cyborg... Not sure how I feel about it (no matter how you look at it, nobody can do the "dark, brooding wih a harmonica" thing better than Charles Bronson anyway), but the good news is that his annoying cute little animal isn't there this time.

Also, the (non-CG!) animation during the (admittedly short) fight scene was excellent. The style reminded me of the heavy action scenes in the Tekkon Kinkreet movie (and the Gurren-Lagann episode directed by the guy who did said movie), which is good because it has a distinctive, non-standard look, and what Frontier lacks so far is identity -- a willingness to distance itself from the standards, conventions and formulae established by previous installments of the franchise. It does everything the others did (Love triangle? Check. Songs with "power"? Check. Miss Macross contest? Check. Film within the film? Check.), and while it does it competently, I find it innerving that it doesn't try to do anything else. Maybe this is the beginning of a change in the right direction. Fingers crossed. Ep. 10 is one of the best so far, after a completely dire ep. 8 and average 9.

Speaking of "average 9"... I'm extremely disappointed. Come on, guys. Before you pick a name for your smart, stylish, womanizing French character, ask an actual Frenchman. Or run a Wikipedia search. Or at the very least Google the bloody name!

Michel Blanc. I still can't believe it. The name is probably unknown out of this country, so... This is Michel Blanc:


A good, famous French actor (and director), but a fat, bald, sometimes-mustachioed, comical actor specialized in playing the roles of cowardly, petty, small-time losers with all the style, sex-appeal and mystery of an old camembert.

It's kinda hard to describe the complete ridicule this name brings to his Macross Frontier homonym, but I'll try anyway. Imagine he was a mysterious Brit going by the name of Benny, and that after 9 episodes it did turn out that his last name was Hill. That was my (and presumably every Frenchman's) reaction.

[Mr.Jeff]

Still continuing on my backlog clearance, I've finished off a few series; some quite good, some of the others leaving me wondering why I bothered. Some thoughts on a number of them:

Nanoha Strikers - Finally got round to this one after waiting for the dvd version after being told of the original being a bit high on the "quality" factor with the animation. Overall, I kinda liked it and I kind of didn't. the main plot was quite good but I didn't really like the new team members. I felt they were lacking a bit in character depth compared to Nanoha or Fate. Must admit though I bawwwed a bit near the end with

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the reuniting of Vivio and Nanoha.

I'm a sap like that.

Gigantic Formula - Okay so it's not finished yet but up till the point it's been released it's definitely got a lot more interesting. For a giant robot series, it goes quite a bit into the characters of the pilots themselves which gives a bit more depth than just "enemy pilots".

Umisho - Cheeky fan service but I liked how it wasn't just limited to female orientated nakedness jokes; a number of great laughs were had by the Captains obssesion with stripping off and shaving people. Wouldn't mind another series.

Only another 44 series to go before I'm caught up!

[Tobal]

How could you not like Subaru and Teana!! as far as over all package A's is the best but Strikers has it moments and the better fights.

Couldn't get on with Umisho for some reason and gave it up, can't remember why as im watching a similar slutty dirty show in Kanokon which i just finished up ep8 and that ass licking bit gave plenty of . Pretty much up date on everything apart from SpecialA and Wagaya no Oinari, everything else as been same old(like Code Geass being ace) while i have been surprisingly enjoying Zettai Karen Childen after inthe introduction of a major bad guy.

Ikkitousen - Great Guardians - season3 ... and what we have new is Sonkon(Sun Quan) and Lu Bu(didn't you die in season1) and drawn nipples, oh don't forget the fanny licking rape in ep2

Anyone know what's happened to the Kurenai subs?

[Mr.Jeff]

How could you not like Subaru and Teana!! as far as over all package A's is the best but Strikers has it moments and the better fights.

Hehe, I've been arguing with people about this all week.

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The problem I had with them was they kinda felt unfinished. Teana had a bit of development with her whole dead brother was a shooter background but as far as her abilities and fights went, she was kind of useless in that she did the same stuff everytime. The last fight in particular, she ran around a building casting illusions and shooting rubbishly before doing a tiny bit of acrobatics to defeat 3 opponents that were stronger. Where's my big explosions?! All that training and she still doesn't learn any ultra-mega-death-divine-buster-destroy-ray?

Subaru didn't really have anything going apart from her Nanoha love before randomly with no warning, She's a robot! And despite the massive power she has, her fights consisted of her riding around and doing the same punch every time but yelling different names.

They just felt very underdeveloped for the time allocated to them in the series; all the new characters did. I think the main problem was that the cast at that point was really too large for them to do enough with them all. The pre-Strikers crew all had their own backstories from the previous series so they didn't need that much focus on them to carry their stories in Strikers.

In short, cut the cast in half and it would have been better. The final Nanoha fight was fairly epic though, I'll give you that.

As for Kurenai, no idea where subs are. I can only hope they're holding off to do a double final release.

Edit: Or perhaps not. Ep 11 is out!

[Tobal]

Kurenai ep11/12 - one the best shows this seasons come to end , and ended in a way i certaintly did not expect.

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Right up until the last episode i was expecting Murasaki to leave with Shinkuro which would have been my prefferred ending. But murasaki wanting to stay and fix the Kuhouins was story wise, is the better option. At least we got some nice fights, Shinkuro finally going nuts and the humor from the start was still present at the end when Beni was asking for ambulance(and the line about parking her car inthe inner sanctuary), would be nice if we get to see more of this world as the manga's still going i think.

[Mr.Jeff]

Kurenai: Ended in the most logical way really. Still a good ending though despite the rather "quality" scene in the last episode with

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Shinkurou using his bone arm thing on Murasaki's brother. The animation on that made me wince.

I'd be interested to see what material they'd use for a second season though.

Gigantic Formula: Lunar put out episode 25 and Your-Mom susb did a reasonable version of 26 so I can finally finish this off. Quite a good series in the end. Super cheerful end to the series though but I don't really mind that.

Edit: Forgot my entire purpose of this post even if it doesn't fit in with the topic: 2 years after it finished, the last 2 chapters of Mahoraba have finally been scanlated. Cracking little manga and a fair bit better than it's albeit it decent anime.

Edit 2: Kanokon 12 - Well it's not going to win any awards for amazing plot but I enjoyed it for being a silly little fan-service series that was a little bit more risque than the normal. I liked the very final resolution too.

[Tobal]

need to finish the last 2 eps of both Kanokon and GF. One show i did finish of was...

Druaga ep12 - just wtf was that ending Gonzo,

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Ahemy had to die for that??? a reset, followed by mysterious new bosses in shadows, i would have been mighty peeved had that been the real ending but they tagged a 2009 2nd season on the end of the credits

... still they need to sort out the idenity crisis the show has, its either a fantasy comedy or a serious fantasy alternating every episode when they needed a clear step up from comedy to seriousness like FMP does, still i was decent surprise for something i knew little about for a genre that has little in new entries in recent years.

[Orgun]

Macross 12 - I really need to find the second song that Ranka signs, its so relaxing Also didnt expect that twist at the end.

[Mr.Jeff]

Interesting new information: ef is getting a second season. Same setting as before but featuring new people.

Should be quite good if they manage to pull it off as well as the first season.

Edit: Orgun, if you mean the track she sang a lot in episode 10 with the movie, the you're after Aimo on the Macross soundtrack that's floating on 'tosho.

[Orgun]

Aimo

That's it, forgot it was one of the ending themes Can't find it on Tosho though Only the Seikan Hikou

Although I did find a nice piano version here

edit: Just bought the OST off a friend after downloading it to see if its worth it, obviously I thought it was

[Tobal]

Macross F ep12 - wow, good episode..

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specially the ending never expected to the SDF01 to show up, i thought for sure it was Zero's "birdman" related.

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Kanokon ep11/12- another finished show, as jeff say's it a very silly fan service show that for some reason started some sort of plot involving main guy but never went anywhere, if it gets a second season i hope they do a bit more fighting . Still i like Chiz's brother hooking up at the end and i'm a fan of the poor twin ninja girls so i hope we get to see more if only for more "its like cake" scenes .

blast from the past

Beet the Vandel Buster 2nd season, got up the ep8 years ago but finally found a torrent with all 25eps on itand i wanted to finish it. Anyway as per normal for Beet an average shounen that heats up alot when the Big Boss fights happens(in animation and brutality) and the valus fight was pretty good but i was strangely routing for Valus to win due to them plot twisting with shaggy(the rabbit guy) at the end and i was all for him beating the crap of the vandel hotel and beet , instead he gets a sad warriors death.

[Zapp$ter]

Been taking a break from anime (when I should have been clearing my backlog) but now that the footie's over with I'll probably get on it.

Geass ep 12 - One of those "comedy" episodes they like to throw in every now and then but it wasn't completely wasted with some interesting revelations near the end

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Potential fireworks to ensue with Shirley remembering everything and Jeremiah back with the geass-canceler.

Macross 10 - 12 enjoyable episodes if not particularly great (well ep 12 was).

Telepathy Shoujo Ran (aka Telepathy Girl Ran) ep 1 - a new show and one that I really liked the first episode of. Certainly enough in there to keep me intrigued and without turning me off. This is apparently on the same channel that Denno Coil et al was airing on. So it might contain the same mix of kiddy-oriented stuff with some slightly deeper themes in the background. I like it enough to carry on anyway.

Now to finish off Kurenai and some of the newer shows before moving on to the old stuff.

[Tobal]

Code Geass ep12 - ok'ish comedy ep followed up by a decent end,

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the Geass Canceller could royally miss up Lulu plans and i wonder what Charles, V.V and Orange-kun have planned for the world as it's clear they're working differently from the Knights and the rest of the Royal Family, im guessing a Seed'esk them vs Knights/chinese/BK's ending

Gigantic Formula ep25/26 - finally finished it off, the last fight wasn't up to much being it was just a show of one'up'manship till Susu won, nice happy end and Shingo gets him a Kanokon ending , decent show but nothing compared to other super robot shows.

[Orka]

yeah Geass R2 ep12 wasnt up to much bar the ending which could end up going a couple of ways in my eyes:

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theres the **** up lulu's plans option, and prolly through Shirley doing something he'll get chased out the academy or something and pick up Zero full time

or theres the orange-kun fails once again, lulu obtains cancellor and it becomes some tool against Charles. if he does obtain it aslong as the geass was only a temporary / 1 time order he could theoretically geass some one an infinite amount of times.

if theres one thing that comes out of the cancellor please let it be the removal of Suzaku's hax, lancelot is blates gonna get an upgrade now Lloyd has the Gurren, putting Suzaku back into untouchable hax mode, just when the OOTBK frames were beginning to pull even.

also cornelia's apearance was abit of a suprise, seems like she's in the process of uncovering what Charles is really up to, and for some reason i think she may end up joining up with lulu once she knows the "truth" or whatever

also watching Telepathy Girl Ran, was a decent first couple of episodes, like zapp said theres some nice intriguing parts that could develop into a good show.

also surprised as how little of the new season theres been released so far, thought id have seen more than just TGR and Chocolate Underground(which i picked up not realising its cut down to 5min eps) by now