New and current FS anime Topic

[MattyD]

So I'm in a cheapo book shop today buying stationary, and in amongst the boxed sets of god-awful documentaries, TV dramas and sports videos, there's a multipart anime called Salaryman Kintaro.

Now anything with the word 'salaryman' in the title is clearly not about to set your pulse racing. But is it worth a couple of hours and three of my fine English pounds? Any and all info gratefully received...

[stainboy]

I don't know if it's any good but it sounds interesting on Animenfo

Plus surely anything's worth three of your good pounds? Was this in the Works? Sounds like a place like that from your description.

[Zapp$ter]

Oh btw, I was genuinely asking as people are completely different. Some won't watch a trailer whereas some need the entire plot and what happens at the end before they'll consider watching it.

Oh right. Well I wasn't sure if it was a genuine question so I answered as honestly as I could anyway.

Your synopsis was a lot better than mine but something I'm not capable of, it's very "official review", I can only manage random spouts of opinion. I tried to say anything that wouldn't have spoilt it for me. Though after that I thought that even saying

->Open Spoiler<-

the story is retold in different segments is something I didn't know and had to discover.

I can think of a couple of first episodes of different series where if I'd known something from just the 1st episode it would have spoilt it for me but I felt safe with mentioning an open scene. I suppose the only way it could spoil it for you is if you were going into the series expecting a light hearted comedy. But then only your first couple of seconds are spoilt.

In all fairness though it took me a while to write it up as I was trying to make it as spoiler free as possible whilst still making it sound interesting. Most of the time my recommendations are something along the lines of "OMG LOLZ Awesum!11!!"... you get the idea. I usually don't have the time to do a synopsis or whatever so as you said, most stuff I post is just random spouts of opinion. If I like a show enough I'll bang on about it in the hopes someone else starts watching it too. But it's usually restricted to as I said "Awsum! Must watch! Go get it now" rather than anything like that post I made.

Anyone seen Brother, Dear Brother? It's old but still only around in fansub form (afaik). I'm only up to episode 5 but I'm already liking it's darker image of girls schools.

Good to hear. I have it lying around somewhere and will hopefully get round to watching it in the summer. We shall see...

Code Geass ep 12 -

->Open Spoiler<-

Did I just see what I thought I saw? Did she just... you know... use that table to... Another good episode all round. Definitely one of my favourite shows if not the most favourite. As Tobal said it's up there with the likes of Death Note IMO. Seems he's having second thoughts now but well sort of screwed himself over by revealing his face to that old dude, who I'm guessing has some sort of connection with Suzaku. I'm also wondering what the deal with C.C. is. Ep 11 shed a bit of light onto it with some quick flashbacks... will be interesting to find out anyway.

Hopefully I can catch up with it for real this time...

[Ajay1986]

Naruto Ep3 - Its so good to see the filler has ended, this was another nice episode. The ending had me craving the next episode, yeah Gaara is ace.

[BeyondJumpFish]

Talking of anime's whats everyones opinion of the way animation is going? Do you like the new "shiny" almost "Flash" animation (EG: Gits) or are you like me and enjoy the old school "Hand-drawn" anime (EG: Evangelion)?

[Tobal]

the CGI animation is going to the way for now, with hand drawn taking to much time to produce good results (Patlabor). I think i like Naruto's way of doing it, CGI for the major fights so we get the fluid motion, sweeping camera angles and lots of slow motion, and save the drawn stuff for rest. I think we're seeing the next advancement beyond that already with the likes of Manabi Straight and Happiness removing the 'shinyness' from the art with some colour method i don't know the name off

Code Geass will just keep getting better and better the more watch, i think depending onthe ending, for me it beats death note for best of last seasons anime.

Mai-Otome Zwei OVA 2 - release yesterday, some really good stuff and lot of Haruka's 'burning spirit'.

Dancougar Nova ep1 - new show based on an old super robot show, very er... cliche, kiddy and has none of Godannars charm. Art style is old school and the fights in CGI. The only saving grace is the commander of the base who has a wicked accent but its certainly not enough to be worth watching it for.

Kanon ep21 - the drama keeps coming as he remembers his past, and the end of the episode = omg,

->Open Spoiler<-

although it showed no gore it had to be on of the most brutal accidents i've seen animated.

[MattyD]

Plus surely anything's worth three of your good pounds? Was this in the Works? Sounds like a place like that from your description.

Yah it was The Works IIRC, or maybe the Booksale one but they're both owned by the same people and I can't remember which it was

[Tobal]

another new series

Ikkitousen DD ep1 - sequel to the fan serviced filled fighter Ikkitousen(crap but watchable fluff). Somehow they've managed to make the characters fatter and undetailed(similar to AirMaster, but doesn't get away with it) and all the women have had larger boob increases since last time... seems to centre around Lei Bei(Ryuubi) and Cao Cao(Sousou) this time instead of Sun Ce.

Asatte no Houkou - ep11/12 end - Enjoyed the ending, and great little short show, best thing about the show by far was young Shōko, spunky Kotomi and the music, which some the best little tunes i've heard in a while.

[Bleeders]

Death Note -

Even as Metal fan, I'm not sure I like the new opening White Zombie-esque tune now, although has it been changed to

->Open Spoiler<-

keep in-line with the direction the series has taken with the Yotsuba Group and of course, how Light is no longer Kira?

[Paddy]

Talking of anime's whats everyones opinion of the way animation is going? Do you like the new "shiny" almost "Flash" animation (EG: Gits) or are you like me and enjoy the old school "Hand-drawn" anime (EG: Evangelion)?

Some of todays' stuff still looks good even though it is digital (everybody watch Gun X Sword) but when I go back and watch Outlaw Star/Cowboy Bebop I know they can't be beat.

Maybe it's just me but more effort was put into old shows, where as now they seem to be doing an awful lot of cheap moves (panning and shaking panels) and trying to make us be fooled by the 'oh it's digital, it's shiny, you like it' thing that seems to happen.

Like before digital anime, you just need to be selective and cut the wheat from the chaff. Plus go back and watch Outlaw Star cos it's great!

[Tobal]

Been a while seen my last post, so i'll do a round up of what i've been watching

Kanon - a good show this remake, though you can see at the end they rushed things to cram 26eps in to 24, so it seemed they skipped a few things in ep24 which left a bad taste,

->Open Spoiler<-

didn't get what was going on to get Ayu to wake up again, was she only in a coma(still) because parts of Yuichi memories of the accident being fake? Still im not sure if liked the Ayu/Yuichi pairing, sick girl or Mai gets my vote

Kiba - coming to close to the end now and it been a very good run with zed turning from totally uncaring selfish emo kid to hero(with few words), ep49 with 2 more to go if it ends on ep51. Like the way they kept the rivalry between Noa and Zed through the show, with it now coming down to one final showdown between the former friends, really enjoy ep49

->Open Spoiler<-

final moment with zed mum, not over dramatic shouting, just lots of saddeness and bitterness to how things turned out, also the final battle between Deucem and Zed was well animated especially the explosions when the fire shard blew up in Deucem back (ouch!) and he was still standing lol

Code Geass ep 17-20, good, good stuff specially ep19 with couple ace Karin moments

Hanada Shounen Shi 11-14(old show finally getting subbed), Manabi Straight 5-7, new subbed ARIA The NATURAL(at last 20-21), Nodame Cantabile providing the comedy and drama (loved Aria's Galaxy railway episode). Still need to watch ep 8 and 9 of Nodame.

[Zapp$ter]

Been a while seen my last post, so i'll do a round up of what i've been watching

Kanon - a good show this remake, though you can see at the end they rushed things to cram 26eps in to 24, so it seemed they skipped a few things in ep24 which left a bad taste,

->Open Spoiler<-

didn't get what was going on to get Ayu to wake up again, was she only in a coma(still) because parts of Yuichi memories of the accident being fake? Still im not sure if liked the Ayu/Yuichi pairing, sick girl or Mai gets my vote

I'm not quite sure what you mean. The series has always been pencilled in for 24 episodes. There were some rumours of it being 26 episodes but that's all they were. I suppose I kind of understand what you're getting at, in that they could have done with another episode to maybe flesh out some of the details rather than glazing over them.

->Open Spoiler<-

Other than that I thought the ending was pretty good as it seemed to answer most of the questions and there wasn't any bull**** stuff at the end like in say Canvas or Shuffle (God I must sound like a broken record... ).

From what I took of the ending it was that Ayu had always been in a coma since the start of the series. The older Ayu we see running around and interacting with Yuuichi throughout the series is a manifestation of either Yuuichi's or Ayu's illusions/dreams, I'll call her fake Ayu. Ayu was continually seeing that dream I think of her being on the park bench (chibi Ayu that is) waiting for Yuuichi because of the promise they made. Whilst Yuuichi had been using that fake Ayu as a way of running away from the reality that his childhood friend/girlfriend had been seriously injured in that accident. I think the trigger for her waking up was the receiving of that headband, when we see chibi Yuuichi approach chibi Ayu on the bench which I believe is taking part in coma Ayu's dream and I believe it signifies the fulfillment of his promise from all those years ago to see her again . The one which we originally think Yuuichi had already given to her but infact that was his made up memory to help him escape from the reality of the situation which was that he never got to give it to her in the past. I'd have to go back and watch it again but I believe that's the case.

Personally I wasn't too bothered with the pairing as I think they are pretty decent together and plus they were pretty close all those years ago and really it did seem like the whole promise thing was central to the story. My personal favourite was probably Shiori or Mai, leaning towards Mai. Nevertheless I think it was fairly obvious who he was going to end up with before the final episode and I'm just glad they didn't try to pull a canvas2 ending even if that would have meant my favoured choice being part of the pairing. Besides I don't think the whole who does he end up with was as important to the storyline. Some nice touches in the end like that Fox/Makoto showing up on the hill in the final scenes

I think my main complaints with the series would be that at certain times when I was (I assume anyway) supposed to be emotional about the characters I really wasn't. I don't think I was that attached to some of the characters as I have been in past shows. Perhaps that's just a fault with me and maybe some of you did feel that personal attachment. It wasn't really there for me.

I also think some of the direction could have done with some work and I don't usually comment on this type of stuff but there was quite a lot of erratic scene changes and lots of rough transitions from one point in the story to another (I guess that's what Tobal meant by ep 24 ) with not as much explanation.

My overall impression would be it's a good show but not one of the greats for me. Don't get me wrong it was still very enjoyable to watch but I wouldn't put it in quite the same category as some of my personal favourites. I'm also not sure I'd recommend it to people who aren't fans of the genre. I guess I'd give it a 7/10. That said I'm also looking forward to that new series that was advertised at the end of the final ep of Kanon called CLANNAD. Again based on a game by the people behind the Kanon game and it will be by Kyoto Animation again which was a pretty decent combo for Kanon 2006 so I'll be checking it out whenever it does air.

One last thing, has anyone been watching shuffle memories? I see it being fansubbed but I've not really followed it. I was wondering if they had added anything significant to make it worthwhile watching.

[Tobal]

Shuffle Memories is just 12 episodes of rehashed flashbaks to last season. From the first 2 ep's i downloaded(and deleted) it offered nothing new other than commentary from the main guy.

Ichigo Mashimaro OVA - pure brilliance, Miu being total class through out the episode, i think my fav moment was Nobue's job interveiw CV which Miu had defaced and subsequent payback. If you never watched the original series go pick this one off episode up an dyou'll enjoy it (for some reason the link on Baka-updates for it is a HTML download)

Kanon -

->Open Spoiler<-

I always thought Ayu coma'd state was producing the Fake Ayu so she could interact with Yuicihi as one of the many miracles that happened through out the show. Also felt the same about getting attached to the characters, about the only people i did care about where Makoto(and Mai in parts). I wonder if Makoto had been still been alive as Human Makoto would Ayu still had a look in

[Zapp$ter]

Shuffle Memories is just 12 episodes of rehashed flashbaks to last season. From the first 2 ep's i downloaded(and deleted) it offered nothing new other than commentary from the main guy.

Ah cool. I'm not missing much then . On the one hand it's one less series to watch but on the other there isn't a director's cut to fix some of the problems I had with the original. Ah well.

Kanon -

->Open Spoiler<-

I always thought Ayu coma'd state was producing the Fake Ayu so she could interact with Yuicihi as one of the many miracles that happened through out the show. Also felt the same about getting attached to the characters, about the only people i did care about where Makoto(and Mai in parts). I wonder if Makoto had been still been alive as Human Makoto would Ayu still had a look in

->Open Spoiler<-

You might be right. I'm not saying my interpretation is correct but yours certainly does make sense too. I guess it could be both Yuuichi and Ayu doing the creating. I suppose it's one of those things that's left intentionally openended so that people can fill in their own blanks. As for the Makoto thing, I have to admit she was on the end of some hilarious jokes by Yuuichi. Still smiling when I think about the porn mag incident . Personally I think it was more of a brother-sister type relationship with Makoto and I'm not sure it would have been much different had she been around longer. Although he did have a crush on a girl by the name of Makoto he didn't really have as much history with her, especially the fox-Makoto, as he did with some of the others e.g. Mai and Nayuki.

[stainboy]

Death Note -

Even as Metal fan, I'm not sure I like the new opening White Zombie-esque tune now, although has it been changed to

->Open Spoiler<-

keep in-line with the direction the series has taken with the Yotsuba Group and of course, how Light is no longer Kira?

I like the song but it doesn't fit the show for me, it makes the OP just appear like a fan's music video.

->Open Spoiler<-

I've been confused during this new arc, I'm sure we're not meant to know what Light's plan is but I still feel like I missed that day in class. Watched

episode 21

->Open Spoiler<-

last night, I thought that Misa might remember everything once she touched a bit of the book, you must have to own one. Are we supposed to know what happened to Light's original book? I do like how he suspects himself of being Kira, that must be a nasty feeling in the back of your mind.

Now for episode 22...