New and current FS anime Topic

[Zapp$ter]

I think so. I agree with Tobal anyway. It certainly is up there with the best of this year's stuff and I probably even make a case for it being the best but I have to watch a few more shows before I can make that judgement (namely Denno Coil, Seirei No Moribito and Darker Than Black).

That said, if you don't like super robot shows you may find it hard to get on with. For example, the few people I know that do dislike/hate it aren't particularly big fans of super robot stuff either. My recommendation is to watch the first 3-4 episodes, just going with the flow and trying to enjoy it/trying not to be too critical of it(something you seem to do a fair bit, no offense like) and if it doesn't tickle your fancy maybe move on. After that point the show gets more and more epic but still remains quite firmly rooted in super robot territory. Although there are a couple of episodes where the feel of the show changes quite dramatically. It has some lovely animation as well in some of the set pieces they have.

[kryss]

The manga is pretty good too.

[Tobal]

Is Gurren-Lagann really *that* good? Given the lack of anything decent this season apart from Genshiken S2, maybe I should check it out. Problem: I usually dislike super robot shows.

Not watching Clannad or Minami-ke? regardless of genre the HQ of both them puts way out in front this season, as for Genshiken most the episodes are quite hit and miss and i've found at least half of the 9/10 eps out i've bearly let out a laugh... maybe cos of it focusing less on the older students and more on the new, which results in less Mada and Saki(for me). I hope they resolve this Ogiue*Sasa soon as it been carrying on forever.

[Mr.Jeff]

Not watching Clannad or Minami-ke? regardless of genre the HQ of both them puts way out in front this season, as for Genshiken most the episodes are quite hit and miss and i've found at least half of the 9/10 eps out i've bearly let out a laugh... maybe cos of it focusing less on the older students and more on the new, which results in less Mada and Saki(for me). I hope they resolve this Ogiue*Sasa soon as it been carrying on forever.

Genshiken's been saved from being boring for me by Kuchiki and his antics. All the way through, he's been basically carrying on the humor of the series. Still, 2 eps left of the series to wrap it all up.

[Vince]

I think i must have quite different taste as i am really enjoying Genshiken, its probably the series i like most at the moment. I do also really enjoy Clannad though, and i've been liking Bamboo Blade a lot more than i probably should do. I really couldn't get on with Minami Ke though, i watched the first few episodes and thought it was painfully bad.

[Tobal]

genshiken ep10 - finally a full episode of laughs with equal embrassment, i can't believe they showed the otaku americans to look like that(and there actions) but the bits with Sue*Mada(go go Mada) and some half decent Ogiue*Sasa made the episode.

Ghost Hound ep1-5 - still got ep6-8 to go but im hooked, i can't believe i've left P.I.G's production this season alone for so long. Ghost adventuring with 4 kids, 3 with trumatised up backgrounds that at the moment are learning how have an 'outer body experience', the art and animation are top notch and the sound effects in 5.1(genjo .mkv subs) are unbelievable, its almost like they made the show sound to show them off, good thing the story interesting so far and the kids likable.

[Mr.Jeff]

Thought I'd do a little mini-update on here for anyone interested:

• Third Higurashi series has been reportedly announced for 2008.

• Second Series of Haruhi has been sorta of but not quite confirmed for spring 2008
• And a third series for Zero no Tsukaima has been confirmed after the release of the 13th light novel although no start date has as of yet been stated.

Just thought some of you might like to know. ^_^

[Tobal]

Not a fan of Higurashi stuff, tryied getting into K1 but couldn't and i hear K2 is more of the same.

Naurto SD ep40-41 - 1 hr special again,

->Open Spoiler<-

i was really hoping it would do the whole fight but in the end all we got was the startup (which is self was bloody cool, and the chakra wall animated when it hit Kabuto was ), looks like CG animated episode is ep42 for a full noholds barred Mini Kyuubi vs Oro,

top stuff just a shame we have to wait till 10th of jan for the raw.

[Zapp$ter]

Been catching up on Dennou Coil recently, something I should have done a long time ago, and it's been brilliant. I think the beard wars in episode 12 ranks as one of my favourite episodes of any anime show I've seen this year, if not my most favourite. Some proper laugh out loud moments in it too which is unusual for me when talking recent anime, even some of the recent "funny" ones which I keep going on about so I won't bother saying any more. If the show keeps going at this rate it'll be my number 1 for the year. Hopefully I'll catch up to the recently subbed eps soon and they'll finish subbing it shortly thereafter.

[Wild_Cat]

My recommendation is to watch the first 3-4 episodes, just going with the flow and trying to enjoy it/trying not to be too critical of it(something you seem to do a fair bit, no offense like) and if it doesn't tickle your fancy maybe move on.

Don't worry, none taken -- I am quite aware that I often come off as an elitist prick . It's just that I hate having to settle for mediocrity, and absolutely despise anything that's formulaic (be it an anime, a TV series, a movie or a video game, for that matter).

I want to watch shows to give me something smart, something new, something unexpected, something I can't predict 5 episodes in advance. A show that is all that at once, I'll praise endlessly (latest example: Haruhi). A show that fails utterly at all these points (especially the last one), well... You've seen the result.


I've started downloading Gurren-Lagann, crossing my fingers in hopes I'll find it as refreshing as you guys obviously did. As far as super robot shows are concerned, I figure it can't be worse than Aquarion anyway.

In other news, I've just watched the last 5 eps of Dennou Coil. If you still have half the series to watch, Zapp$ter, rest assured that you're in for quite a treat. Even though nothing in my opinion manages to top the mix of sheer fun and sadness that is the "beard wars" episode, the mystery unfolds quite nicely, with its fair share of unexpected twists. It had me on the edge of my seat, and even kept sneaking in references to the philosophical issues I talked about in my very first post regarding the show. Namely: what makes something real? When computer programs approach the complexity of living organisms, can you consider them to be alive?


I also caught up with Genshiken 2, and while it is less immediately laugh-out-loud funny as the first season (where Saki and Madarame literally stole the screen), it makes up for it with lots of additional character development. I like it, really -- there's a brilliant writer behind this. And unlike a lot of you guys, the Sasahara X Madarame (well, more like Everyone X Madarame ) fantasy episode had me in stitches. Like it or not, cheesy yaoi slashfiction is a big part of anime fandom, and the way they changed the graphic style and redid all the character designs for Ogiue's really did it for me.

This episode, much like a lot of Genshiken 2, was equal parts entertaining and disturbing. Most of the disturbing side comes from how "real" it feels. It's less outrageous and therefore much more believable than the first season: just *no one* can be as ridiculous as Madarame when he proudly proclaims that *all* his porn is anime in S1. Ogiue's self-loathing regarding her hobbies and fantasies, however, hits a lot closer. Even Kuchiki, over-the-top though he may be, certainly reminds each of us of someone in our circle of friends, the one guy who's hopelessly trying to blend in and attract attention, only for it to fail miserably and him to come off as just creepy. We all know someone like this.

The opening sequence is one of the finest I've seen, too -- having re-watched Gundam Seed not so long ago, I can't help but be impressed by the attention to detail in this thing.



Okay, my eyes are going to start bleeding soon (good thing I can type without seeing) so I'll leave you with this great piece of news: I just learned that a new Macross series was planned for 2008. It's called Macross Frontier, and according to Wikipedia, Yoko Kanno is in charge of the soundtrack. I am a happy man.

[Tobal]

I want to watch shows to give me something smart, something new, something unexpected, something I can't predict 5 episodes in advance. A show that is all that at once, I'll praise endlessly (latest example: Haruhi). A show that fails utterly at all these points (especially the last one), well... You've seen the result.


I've started downloading Gurren-Lagann, crossing my fingers in hopes I'll find it as refreshing as you guys obviously did. As far as super robot shows are concerned, I figure it can't be worse than Aquarion anyway.

In other news, I've just watched the last 5 eps of Dennou Coil. If you still have half the series to watch, Zapp$ter, rest assured that you're in for quite a treat. Even though nothing in my opinion manages to top the mix of sheer fun and sadness that is the "beard wars" episode, the mystery unfolds quite nicely, with its fair share of unexpected twists. It had me on the edge of my seat, and even kept sneaking in references to the philosophical issues I talked about in my very first post regarding the show. Namely: what makes something real? When computer programs approach the complexity of living organisms, can you consider them to be alive?

Okay, my eyes are going to start bleeding soon (good thing I can type without seeing) so I'll leave you with this great piece of news: I just learned that a new Macross series was planned for 2008. It's called Macross Frontier, and according to Wikipedia, Yoko Kanno is in charge of the soundtrack. I am a happy man.

TTLG is the king of unexpected, some of the stuff that goes on and the characters that come and go through the main guy(simon) lifetime really helps make the show as memorable as something like Gun-Buster(1/2), the shows basically comes in 4 parts and it's a different ride for each arc.

And as wild says zap, DC just gets better and better as the story main plot is uncovered, still have ep25/26 to watch(out today).

is the new macross stuff related to SDF(macross1/0) or totally new?

[Mr.Jeff]

Just finished Dennou Coil. What a great series. Pretty much a proper ending too which is always a good thing when you have a good series like this.

Edit: Probably just for Zapp and Tobal's interest but there's going to be a fourth series of Da Capo next year.

[Wild_Cat]

Okay, looks like I was wrong. Macross Frontier isn't scheduled to begin sometime in 2008.

It's out now! Shinsen released ep. 1 yesterday, and so far it looks lovely. I'm waiting to see where the story is going and what the overall tone is going to be (the green-haired girl is subject to the laws of cartoon physics, the pilot wannabes are aiming for a serious plotline but could degenerate into emo or yaoi at any time), but there's obviously been some heavy cross-pollination between Macross and Gundam lately.

Either way, the varitech fights are lush (they're using the same CGI animation techniques as in Zero, although the choregraphies aren't as cool yet IMO), the VF-25 looks really good once stripped of its big-ass addon module, and seeing our old friend the Ghost from Macross Plus come back, albeit in a trimmed-down version, made me smile.

The cast is all-new, with no relation to any known characters as far as I can see, but it's still the tried-and-true Macross setting, 10 years or so after Plus.

Fingers crossed, but it looks like we may have a winner.


In other news, I watched the last 15 eps of Darker Than Black. A very good show overall, and the buildup in eps. ~20 -> 23 was excellent, but I found the ending to be underwhelming and just plain rushed. A lot of unused ideas and characters (April, Kurasawa & Kiko), many of those who are there are just about useless (Kirihara and her cop pals -- a shame, I like that girl) and it really looks like they just didn't know what to do with Mao so he got brushed under the carpet in the last 30 seconds or so of ep. 24 (I inferred, from my memory of previous episodes, that he got cut off from the syndicate server he needed to retain his human sentience and therefore turned back into a regular cat, but he really did deserve a proper exit).

That final storyline could have used at least a couple extra episodes, really.

[MoFo2]

Hope it's ok for me to ask for a bit of advice about what manga I should read next? I subscribe to the UK magazine "Neo" and made myself of list of new manga series I should collect. So far, I'm interested in "Welcome to the NHK", "Death Note" and "Azumanga Daioh". Which one of these would you recommend - or perhaps all of them? My taste is with the genres of comedy, drama and action (and perhaps some romance?) as I already got Akira, Eagle, Tuxedo Gin, GTO, Black & White++. I'm not particularly interested in fantasy, elfs and magic spells

[SuperBeatBoy]

Macross Frontier = A return to form also HOLy CraP

I love the little reference the little hand flying thing that Isamu did in Macross Plus.

I thought that macross zero was a load of ****e, so its nice to see something decent.

Is this a full new series or an OVA? As it has some nice expensive looking shots in it.