New and current FS anime Topic

[Mr.Jeff]

Kuro****suji 2+3: I'm enjoying this series far more than I thought I would since it seemed a bit too 'fabulous' for me. Not that it doesn't have those moments but they're bearable in the same way that Ouran was. It switches nicely between the sillyness and the more grim aspects too. I liked the

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car on the cliff moment and the suicidal butler in the dress.

They got the VA for Sebastian spot on.

Kemeko 4: The fanservice of a semi-beach episode was balanced quite well by the humour of the dialogue and events. I think having such an ugly object such as Kemeko appearing most of the time helps to keep it grounding from being too smutty. The epic unravelling at the end of the episode was brilliant though.

[abigsmurf]

Haven't seen ep 4 but kemeko dx has been surprisingly tame despite the character designs. I got a mini kemeko dx calendar with this months dengenki daioh which has some great art. it's just a shame it's not bigger. I'm enjoying the series so far, FLCL meets Guu.

Kannagi is fairly formulaic but it's fairly lovingly animated. A bit of character in the animation can spice up almost any show.

Clannad has suffered from a bit of a weak opening arc that seems to be cashing in on the adorabililty of the little sister in it but it's mostly enjoyable.

[teddymeow]

Finally got roudn to watching some more stuff.

Lucky Star OVA - Quality episode Enjoyed the live action bit, the "SHE'S AFK!" and the trippy part...I just enjoyed the whole thing.

Man i've got a lot more to watch

How many episodes is the OVA? I've been out of touch fo the longest time. Got so much backlog to clear through (which I had planned to do this week being of work but Ive ended up having to go in a couple of days which has messed up my plans).

Just getting through Minami-ke Okawari (yep, that far behind the rest of yoos. Not enjoying it as much as the first series. That's not to say it is bad but something seems to be missing. Also, I find the new character design slightly too hard (if that makes sense).

[buster_broon]

been catching up on the stuff i'm watching and recently i've watched:

Blade of the immortal - still pretty decent stuff
Gundam 00 s2 - I love gundam so it can do no wrong
Rosario and Vampire capu - i loved the first series and this is just as good
Detroit metal city - the latest episode was the funniest, decapitated head and glowing faces had me in stitches

[Mr.Jeff]

How many episodes is the OVA? I've been out of touch fo the longest time.

Only 1 episode for the OVA.

Hyakko 3+4: Well I stuck with it and it got a little better. Still hating Aya but they've added some more characters which makes a bit more interesting. Andou has to be my favourite though. The whole

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over-sexed Bi thing had me in stitches. Better than some of the other attempts at "old geezer" behaviour I've seen like in Zettai Karen Children.

More bearable than I thought. There's still a few too many seeming ly wasted or overlong scenes though.


Edit: Also while I'm pleased so many groups are using the higher quality video files for subs, my hard drive is secretly weeping at downloading so many shows a week weighing in at 350-ish MB each.

[buster_broon]

starting to get a little annoyed with Capu2

now i dont want to sound like a dirty old man, but why cover up stuff with bats and teddy bears faces

i would personally prefer if they just drew a longer skirt or trousers </dirty old man>

[teddymeow]

Just fired up the first episode of Kuro****suji Anime in hi-def looks fantastic!!

[Zapp$ter]

*me enters the thread at the mention of backlogs*

At least this time I was occupied with something in the same area of interest: manga. I've only really kept up with gundam so far so I've got a lot of catching up to do. I still haven't seen some shows yet like Yozakura and Kemeko. I blame the piling up of work and the addiction to the Gintama manga. The latter is quite surprising since I didn't get on with the anime that much. Although to put that into context it was way before Shinsen picked it up to sub the first 24 or so episodes. As I recall there were only 4 eps out subbed or something as this was when it first started airing and I was pretty hyped for it expecting it to be the next big Shounen Jump property. I'll be going back to it for sure now though because even the first couple of chapters of the manga weren't brilliant. I got more into it when pretty much all the characters were introduced and they started exploring their quirks e.g. I don't remember seeing

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Kondo stalking Otae-san in the anime (obviously didn't get that far) but that sort of stuff got some laughs from me while reading the manga.

I've mainly been following the licensed releases though so I still have a ways to go before I catch up on scanlations (I think) currently nearing the end of Volume 7 which had that great amnesia arc at the beginning. I've also been reading Dr Slump, Ichigo Mashimaro (good stuff although the anime changed things up I think by introducing Ana much earlier than she appears in the manga. IIRC in the anime she's there when they go to the beach which doesn't happen in the manga at least not in volume 1). Oh and for a bit of variety I've also been reading some Blade of the immortal and Claymore (which is a lot better than the anime). Need to get back into the groove of watching some anime now...

[Mr.Jeff]

I was the same as you with Gintama if it helps Zapp although I'd read the manga previously before going into the series so maybe that was what threw me. I couldn't make it past the first episode because it just seemed to drag things out and I previously couldn't imagine Sugita doing Gin the way he does. Like you say, once you get into the flow of it, it just all suddenly clicks. There's moments where it's a bit too "moral of the story" type events but there's some brilliant laughs.

If you're still unconvinced, give episode 25 a try (chapter 100 in the manga). From all the people I've converted to it (orca converted me), everyone's rated that episode as the funniest one. It sums up the entire group perfectly and is just all in all amazing.

Time to watch the last ever Aria related animation. Still, Amano's new manga series starts at the end of November so that'll be something to look out for. \o/

[Also, any suggestions for lesser known manga would be much appreciated. I've gone through most of the mainstream stuff and have a craving for something new to read. Edit: May as well plug Akumetsu, The World God Only Knows and Mysterious Girlfriend X as worthy reads to anyone bored. ]

[Orka]

what a coincidence ive just been watching gintama (eps 85/6/7), ive not read the manga, despite meaning to for ages, but the anime is brilliant, ep25 was nabe shogun wasnt it? if so yeah it prolly is the best ep ive seen so far. Still bar a few of the serrious arcs every ep manages to get at least 1 or 2 decent laughs in.

Anyways im also in the backlouge club atm too, between doing more hours at work recently coupled with being addicted to fable for the vast majority of last week, and Red Alert 3 this week (Empire of the Rising Sun FTW! , also awesome soundtrack), not had a chance to keep up to date with everything, just about managing to keep up to date with my main stuff like gundam / clannad etc.

As for manga, theres a Blame!2 1 shot that was scantalated fairly recently that youl prolly wanna check out if you havnt already. Talking of Blame! anyone heard anything more about the Blame! movie thats supposed to have been in production since forever? Theres also the pretty epic new Nanoha manga BetrayerS, set after Strikers, not sure if its gonna be a full run manga or what, ive only got a couple of translated chapters so far.

Apart from those not really read much manga the past couple months bar my monthly Yen Plus subscription.

[Mr.Jeff]

Ta for that. Hadn't realised about the Blame oneshot and shall immediately seek it out. Totally forgot about Betrayers though, need to grab that as well.

Nodame 2-4: Still with the good stuff but it's a bit lacking from the music side. there's been no noticably long music scenes as there were with the first season which is a bit disappointing. Wonder if it's down to J.C Staff not having the time/funds to do it with 2 other shows going this season. They even cut out

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Chiaki's final performance in the concour

.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki Final: Subbed at last and it was a really nice end to the series. Overall it's been quite an enjoyable ride. Nothing of outstanding proportions but a throughly solid series. Would quite like to see more if they get enough sales for it.

The late night/early morning backlog watching fest continues!

[Tobal]

Tytania ep4 - getting better, as there explaining the character personalities but i can see a serious lack of epic battles for the next 4/5 eps

Gundam 00 ep5 -

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good ole Saji, wasn't long before his world crashes down again, it only been 4 eps since the last crash . And Ali's back being a magnificent bastard, and booooo on the soma/bear deal being about adoption.

Linebarrals ep4/5 - Noooooo why did you have go do that! we get a long over due bitch slap to wake him up and then go treat the cause so god damn lightly with a bit of comedy the next episode it loses any impact it should have, not to mention that stupid linebarral bitch contradicting her self every time she opens her mouth, if you gonna play bad cop ****ing stick to it, don't turn around the next scene and say we need you to kick arse. And the music with the high pitch alien whining noise really kills any serious tension the show supose to build.

don't know why im still watching this...

[Zapp$ter]

I was the same as you with Gintama if it helps Zapp although I'd read the manga previously before going into the series so maybe that was what threw me. I couldn't make it past the first episode because it just seemed to drag things out and I previously couldn't imagine Sugita doing Gin the way he does. Like you say, once you get into the flow of it, it just all suddenly clicks. There's moments where it's a bit too "moral of the story" type events but there's some brilliant laughs.

If you're still unconvinced, give episode 25 a try (chapter 100 in the manga). From all the people I've converted to it (orca converted me), everyone's rated that episode as the funniest one. It sums up the entire group perfectly and is just all in all amazing.

As I said I can't really speak for the anime but I quite liked the variety they had with the stories even some of the less comedic and more moralistic/sentimental stories. In the manga at least I thought it made for a nice change of pace to switch between different styles. That said I do tend to prefer the more "out there" storylines that involve all sorts of crazy stuff happening and I'm mainly in it for the comedy but some of the sadder storylines have been nice too.

I'll keep that in mind regarding episode 25 but I doubt it'll be dropped before then anyway unless I find myself skipping through the episodes which tends to happen when I've read or am reading the manga going into the anime adaptation (not very often). I guess that's usually why I tend to watch the anime first. I'm not sure when I'll start watching it again but I don't think I want to get ahead of the manga (if I can help it).

[Also, any suggestions for lesser known manga would be much appreciated. I've gone through most of the mainstream stuff and have a craving for something new to read. Edit: May as well plug Akumetsu, The World God Only Knows and Mysterious Girlfriend X as worthy reads to anyone bored. ]

You may have already heard of it and read it but Kekkaishi is supposed to be good. I'm mainly recommending it on the basis of the anime which was one of the few recent shounen shows I've liked. I think the property as a whole is quite underappreciated. The manga is supposed to be better too.

Then there's Naoki Urasawa stuff like Monster, 20th century boys, Pluto etc.. I've only really read/watched Monster and 20th Century boys but they made me fans of his. That and watching Yawara

And one of my personal favourites is Adachi Mitsuru. A lot of his stuff has similar themes: sports based romantic comedies but I've loved most of the ones I've read e.g. Touch (I also watched the anime version of this a year or two ago and I loved it), Rough, Miyuki etc... It's all very old school though and the art style may not be to your liking. However, I love the humour he injects which is often related to breaking the fourth wall. I also guess that this is where a lot of my love for romantic comedies comes from. I'm a bit of a fanboy of his actually I don't usually mention him or his manga/anime simply because I'm always fearful of some negative opinions crushing my spirits for the day. I like to live in a bubble of positivity when it comes to most things I enjoy these days.

[abigsmurf]

[Also, any suggestions for lesser known manga would be much appreciated. I've gone through most of the mainstream stuff and have a craving for something new to read. Edit: May as well plug Akumetsu, The World God Only Knows and Mysterious Girlfriend X as worthy reads to anyone bored. ]

Not sure if it is classed as mainstream but check out Love and Collage from the guy who did Midori's days (check that out too if you haven't read). It's a harem series but it's pretty funny.

If you don't mind borderline/light hentai, check out My Balls. It's a manga about a guy who accidentally gets a demon queen sealed in his balls and has to avoid 'releasing her' for 30 days or the world will end. It's not highbrow but it's brilliant.

Nana to Kaoru is also pretty good. It's an ecchi manga about a perfect, well liked school girl who accidentally gets herself locked into bondage gear owned by an S&M fanatic. She then discovers it's a great way for her to release stress and gets the guy to give her more 'sessions'. It sounds like pure hentai but it never gets beyond ecchi and it has great artwork.

(it's hard to find unknown manga that isn't seinen, all the light stuff gets licenced)

[Mr.Jeff]

Ta very much for the suggestions. Some new ones I'd not heard before that I'll definitely be checking out.

2nd episode of Michiko and Hatchin finally got subbed as well. This is probably in my top 3 of the season with G00 and Chaos Head. The characters look awesome fun and everything about it screams enjoyable.

Edit: Just Clannad left till I'm up to date again. Huzzah.

Edit 2: Seto no Hanayome OVA 1: Amazing stuff. Some brilliantly funny stuff included in the overtop scenes. Masa-san~ I wish they got a second season rather than just an OVA.

Speaking of second seasons, I can't believe DMC's finished with 12 eps. I thought for sure they'd go for 26.

Also, not entirely conifrmed right now but looks like Minami-ke's 3rd season will be done by Okawari people. Weep for the oppurtunity lost. Edit 3: Apparently it has the same director as the first one though. Hrm.