So, Anime You Like Lately

erik · Post by **erik** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 1:09 am

TiaC wrote:23 minutes of the characters weeping and cutting themselves.

You know, I bet there is a manga of this already (and no I'm not gonna look for it). Like a rule 34 for whatever fuckeduppery you can imagine, but with manga.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:25 am

I've been watching Oreimo, and kinda just want to stop now that I know where the ending is going.

Tokyo Ghoul continues to be enjoyable, SAO2 as well. Free! is still nice light viewing.

Next on the list is Witchcraft Works.

schpeelah · Post by **schpeelah** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:59 am

Only the first two episodes are available right now, but Zankyou no Terror is looking great so far.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 4:27 am

Wow. Witchcraft Works is about the animest anime to ever anime here recently.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 12:37 pm

i'll give locodol a shot now.

ok, watched the first 3 eipsodes, probably gonna stick with locodol for a bit.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sat Jul 26, 2014 11:36 am

TOZ wrote:Wow. Witchcraft Works is about the animest anime to ever anime here recently.

Evil robot bunnies make it all worth it.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sun Jul 27, 2014 4:18 am

Aldnoah.zero is making a convincing case for being the best of this season, with stiff competition from Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma☆Illya. However, they're in totally different genres so I'm free to love them both.

Once upon a time I complained about how I hate tactically incompetent main characters in my anime. Aldnoah.zero does not have that problem. For instance,

The first Martian mech the main characters fight has a shield that utterly destroys incoming matter and electromagnetic waves. So, how can he see out? Well, actually, he can't. Instead he's got remote camera drones that radio images back to him, which our heroes blind with smoke grenades.

Now, how can he recieve the images? There are holes in the shield over the recievers, which are located by dropping a bridge out from under him and seeing where it destroys the water so they can be targeted.

Also, its behavior when raising or lowering the shield implies we can see it because it has active emitters

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Tue Aug 05, 2014 2:15 am

Third episode! They introduced Rei! And we've now had a whole episode where Rei and Usagi didn't fight or argue!

Yet to see if this holds true for any future episodes.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Tue Aug 05, 2014 6:28 am

I hear the Kirby anime is hilarious. Can anyone recommend particularly good episodes?

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:51 am

first PV of kantai collection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABZN292gvRo
has been rescheduled for 2015 though

ishy · Post by **ishy** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 6:29 pm

a nice amv:
ship happens

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:37 pm

ok, yes, that amv got some snickering out of me. good amv are few an far between nowadays sadly ._.

Akiosama · Post by **Akiosama** » Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:50 pm

Koumei wrote:So, second episode of Sailor Moon:
1. We're getting a lot less filler, similar to the manga. We already have mai waifu* Ami, and next episode we get Rei. They will probably cover the entire first season (~40 episodes) in just 12-24 episodes. Hopefully we still get all five seasons though.
2. The fights aren't 100% formulaic stock footage things. Yes, transformations are going to happen each time (possibly shortening it so there's group transformations), but there's a bit more action and non-stock stuff happening. Even Tuxedo Kamen plays a slightly more active role rather than just chucking a flower and giving a speech. And they didn't do the whole animation for Moon Tiara Boomerang this time, so attacks in general may take less time.
3. The transformations aren't great quality. The problem is the addition of CG effects, you can really tell it's different from the regular animation, so it's a bit jarring.
4. Luna has a stupid face. But then again, she's a cat, cats have stupid faces.

*Shut up, she was a year older than me when I first got into the series.

Long time lurker, first time poster...

Glad to see that there are some SMoon fans still around today.

Really glad to see that they're skipping the filler, though that makes me wonder how much they're trying to cram into the first season. The every-other-week release format is annoying, though.

Given that not much happened between episode 1 and Ami's entrance, and then subsequently Rei's entrance, I'm glad they're skipping a lot of it.

Glad they got Mitsuishi Kotono back for Usagi, though after 20+ years, I'm surprised she can still pull it off - she's been getting older parts recently, my favorite of which was Captain Ramius in Gundam SeeD. She also did all the narration for that series and its sequel SeeD Destiny.

But that being said, that makes it disappointing that they didn't get back most of the other cast members. Not that I'm sure if many of them have retired or not - I think Hisakawa Aya (Ami - and my favorite seiyuu of the original cast) is still doing anime, but the others I'm not so sure. I'd be surprised if Tomizawa Michie (Rei) is, for example, given that her debut series was Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (yes, the one that was used in Robotech), and I'm not sure if Furuya Tooru (Mamoru/TuxKamen) is either, given that he was the original Amuro Ray in MS Gundam back in '79. MS Gundam already has lost cast members due to the passage of time...

Granted, they did get a decent replacement for Furuya-sensei. It took a bit for me to recognize that it wasn't him. However, the change for Ami and Rei are a bit more apparent, but I'm a huge fan of Hisakawa-sensei (swoon) and Tomizawa-sensei I'd been watching since Bubblegum Crisis (she played the original Linna Yamazaki).

It will be curious to see how the new series goes. So far, it's done two good things, though - brought it back (though I agree the new music doesn't do the old music justice), and gotten Viz to get off their asses and market the original. Granted, Viz appears to be dipping deep into their well - at Anime Expo this year they were pushing Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2 a LOT, and I remember when Viz first released Ranma back around 1993.

As for other anime to recommend for recent stuff -

Haikyuu! (Boys HS Volleyball)
Baby Steps (HS Tennis)
Yowamushi Pedal (aka Yowapeda - Boys HS Bicycling)
Ace of Diamond (HS Baseball)
Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen (Mecha)
Nagi no Asu-kara (aka Nagi-Asu - last season's best show, IMO - slice of life romantic drama with underwater people)
Beyond the Boundary (Bleach-esque occult-action show)
SAO/Accel World/Log Horizon (MMOGame shows have been decent recently)

A few notes on the above:

Sports anime have been surprisingly good recently. I like the fact they're not ALL Dragonball-esque (one of the things that I'm not as fond of for Kuroko's Basketball, which I do like, but isn't a top anime for me), though Yowapeda has a little bit of it (and it's kinda silly at times). The others seem to limit it to 'auras' which are more a reflection of the characters than powers. Haikyuu! is the top of that list, because it's more normal, and they do an excellent job of playing up the teamwork mentality that team sports tries to extoll.

Argevollen is one I'd recommend mostly for the mecha designs. It's a typical "new mecha is not like the others, and newbie pilot is forced to pilot it" plot, but the sheer old-school design of the non-Argevollen models is really cool, to me. Then again, I like the idea of slapping a gatling gun on the arm/shoulder of a mecha, and a recoilless rifle on the shoulder, etc.

Nagi-Asu - a good slice of life with an interesting setting with an underwater town next to a shore town, and the interactions of the people living in those towns. It handles the theme of "he's different" pretty well, and the mid-season twist was something I thought worked extremely well. The romantic story was decently done and fairly believable, even if it didn't end as I would have liked.

Beyond the Boundary (Kyoukai no Kanata) - a good Bleach-esque story about a girl from a cursed family who, along with the 'hunters' already in the area, hunt youma-esque creatures. The character banter is good, and all in all, was fun from start to finish.

And the MMO-animes - they're good, though maybe they have ups and downs. SAO, for example, had a pretty weak second arc (ALfheim Online), but feels better now that they're doing Gun Gale Online in SAO2. Accel World is my favorite of the three, mostly due to the characters, and Log Horizon is one of the best translations of the social dynamics of an MMO in anime form. LH handles party role, guilds, powergaming (to a certain extent), PK, and other MMO ideas pretty well.

Just a few I'd recommend right now. Index/Railgun, Macross F, Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and a lot of the others recommended here are also good - but these are the recent ones I've been watching.

My 2 yen,

Akiosama

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sun Aug 24, 2014 9:22 pm

Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun is hilarious. The title character is a high-school Shoujo Manga artist, with the main character a girl who has a huge crush on him and winds up being one of his assistants after completely botching a love confession. Other characters include:

-The personality model for the manga's female protagonist, a guy who has a habit of busting out cheesy romance lines and then becoming horribly embarassed
-A girl who is completely socially oblivious and basically constantly offends everyone but has a great singing voice, prospective personality model for the male protagonist
-The sports guy the aformentioned girl has a crush on, who is almost as socially oblivious as she is, having not picked up on said crush despite her habit of taking him to family restaurants and buying him dinner.
-The girl called the prince of the school, whose male friend will not invite her to his wedding out of fear she'd steal the bride.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 3:00 am

How's the new Pokemon anime doing? I could never get into the series, even when I was in the target demographics, but the current animation looks much better than it used to be. I also like the idea of a Pokemon season more focused on the individual Pokemon than the humans.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Sep 10, 2014 3:04 am

The animation quality has been pretty good for a while now. Say what you like about the show, battles between pokemon actually look good, with smooth animations, special effects for attacks and terrain and so on.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sun Sep 14, 2014 3:59 am

There's apparently going to be a new Ikkitousen one-off. No word on where the story is going, if there will be any more actual series after this, or how fan-servicey it will be (the actual seasons tended to tone that back so as to not distract people from the actual plot that was there, whereas the other one-off went back up to moderate levels, with actual nipples).

Not that it's likely to change the fact that we're witnessing the death of fan-service anime in its previous/current state.

In better news, I finally saw episode 5 of Sailor Moon Crystal, and now we have Jupiter! She's strong even before transforming, but I am very disappointed that she no longer throws the nWo Wolfpack handsign when unleashing lightning attacks. Still, they explain her uniform (the anime previously didn't mention that, leaving it to the manga: she wears the uniform of her old school because the current one has nothing in her size, what with her having big boobs and being nine feet tall).

And although it's only one episode in, Ami/Makoto hasn't shown signs of being a thing. On the other hand, Usagi is practically drooling over the whole team. And she gets to be the leader.

Leress · Post by **Leress** » Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:59 am

Right now I am watching Jojo's bizarre adventure.

I was watching Pupa, and wow it was bad, not the worst but bad.

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Wed Sep 17, 2014 2:34 am

So, I just watched the first episode of Guilty Crown on a whim and it fucking sucked. The scene in which the MC meets Tropical Fish Dress Lady is painful. There is no other word for it. That dialogue was not written by someone who knows what it is like to talk to another human being. I get that Tropical Fish Dress Lady is supposed to be a Rei-clone or something, but the MC isn't and absolutely no part of either of what they are doing is the least bit believable or relatable or even fucking comprehensible.

Is this what the rest of the show is like? Because I have heard good things about it, and I do not understand how. That first episode is a solid 4/10.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:04 pm

Aldnoah Zero has just finished its first season.

That, uh, was a hell of a thing.

Mistborn · Post by **Mistborn** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:26 pm

name_here wrote:Aldnoah Zero has just finished its first season.

That, uh, was a hell of a thing.

Honestly I'm irritated that the left things of on that kind of cliffhanger.

either the characters we actually care about are dead and they've squandered the audiences goodwill for a cheep gut punch, which is super unlikely. Or protagonists aren't dead and they're just yanking our chain. Either way it's a black mark on what was otherwise a series that I had a lot of good will towards

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:28 pm

Lord Mistborn wrote:
name_here wrote:Aldnoah Zero has just finished its first season.

That, uh, was a hell of a thing.
Honestly I'm irritated that the left things of on that kind of cliffhanger.

either the characters we actually care about are dead and they've squandered the audiences goodwill for a cheep gut punch, which is super unlikely. Or protagonists aren't dead and they're just yanking our chain. Either way it's a black mark on what was otherwise a series that I had a lot of good will towards

I'm betting Inaho's dead, Asseylum is alive, because one of them is a magical space princess and the other is not. Also her corpse is missing, though that might be because Slaine retrieved it for burial.

Also, she has a mystery amulet from Professor Science that's supposedly a protective charm. I feel like it might do something.

Mistborn · Post by **Mistborn** » Sat Sep 20, 2014 9:40 pm

name_here wrote:

I'm betting Inaho's dead, Asseylum is alive, because one of them is a magical space princess and the other is not

The princess is definitely not dead, the first two times it didn't stick and I don't see this time being any different. Seriously that chick is part cockroach.

Honestly I find it unlikely that even MC-kun is down for the count. There aren't any Terrans who can replace him as protagonist. Seriously if the series so far has taught us anything it's that noone on earth except him can tie their own shoelaces, let alone repel a genocidal invasion.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Wed Oct 01, 2014 10:35 pm

Just finished The Irregular at Magic High School. Time to watch something with actual tension.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Thu Oct 02, 2014 12:31 am

Such as?

The Gaming Den

So, Anime You Like Lately

Sailor Moon Crystal thoughts and anime recommendations