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Myth's Anime Thread

Mythopoet

Auror
Let's see...

Since I last updated, I've watched a short series called Code Breakers. It was ok, but not great.

Finished the first series of xxxholic which I enjoyed a lot more than I expected. The one downside to me was that the English voice acting for Watanuki was irritating. But then the English voice acting for Yuko was superb so it balanced out. Yuko is an absolutely fascinating character. I'll have to do a character study on her once we're finished with the other series and OVAs.

Watched another short series, Black Bullet, which was pretty good. It's strength was in its characters, I think, because the premise of the series was a little too much like Attack on Titan set in modern Tokyo.

Started watching Wolf's Rain with my daughter who likes wolves and she loves it. I'm not sure what I think. I probably won't know what I think until it's finished. It's definitely a unique story.

We've started a few other series. Rails Wars!, Tegami Bachi and Little Busters. They all seem promising. Little Busters had us laughing more than anything since maybe Is This a Zombie?
 
The only thing I really don't like about anime is that the girls typically have huge boobs. and there are anime that revolve around the female characters' sex appeal. there's one that on the cover has a picture of a girl with huge cleavage and a revealing shirt sitting on top of a pile of naked bodies. I'm sitting here thinking, "Wtf. Why?" of course I haven't seen this anime but I know people that have. I haven't talked to anyone about it. I really don't know what it is about, however the cover alone makes me think that it is probably an ecchi or hentai, which I do not approve of. *sigh* glad I got that of of my chest.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I'm not usually bothered by fanservice unless it's really overboard. It's those shows where the entire premise and plot seems to be dedicated to fanservice that I don't like. Other than that, I've learned to live with it. (And I am a woman, btw.) Those there are some where even when the premise isn't all about fan service, the existing fan service manages to make it too ridiculous for me to take seriously. Kill la Kill is one of those. I mean, WTF is up with that so-called "armor"?
 

Gryphos

Auror
I don't know if someone's mentioned this one yet, but I thoroughly enjoyed Fate Zero. It's full of great strategy and sick action sequences. And it's not very often you see King Arthur, Alexander the Great and Diarmuid ua dwibn team up to take down Gille de Rais in the form of a giant octopus while Gilgamesh and Sir Lancelot have a dogfight in the skies above.
 
See I don't mind fan service every so often but too much is too much. I liked The melancholy of suzumiya haruhi because the fanservices were funny and most of them had to do with haruhi trying to bribe somebody or get her way somehow. but when they're like some guy peeking in on a girl or the short skirts are too short so you see the white underwear like all of the time that is annoying to me.
 

Ankari

Hero Breaker
Moderator
I've recently jumped on the anime band wagon. I've watched Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online I and Broken Blade. I'm currently watching Log Horizon and Sword Art Online II.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I am absolutely loving this season of Sword Art Online. I watched the first season in a binge session so now it's torture having to wait a week between episodes, but worth it. Sinon is a great new character and the conflict with Death Gun is really good. I love how the conflict is so closely linked to characterization and character growth in this show. And every time Yui is on screen I can't help grinning. She's so cute! I want one!

I know some people complain about Kirito always being so great at everything, but I actually really enjoy it. I enjoy how casually he excels in games, how it never goes to his head. As an MMO gamer, it's so different from most of the people you encounter in games who are good players. They tend to brag and look down on those less skilled and want everyone to acknowledge their leet skills. I love that Kirito is awesome, but humble. It's so refreshing.

Log Horizon was great. I almost didn't watch it because I found it so soon after watching SAO and it sounded like it was exactly the same thing. But despite the similar premise, it took a very different approach and I really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to season 2 this fall. Hopefully we will learn more about the nature of the world they are in and how they came to be stuck there.

Attack on Titan really is an amazing show. There hasn't been a story I've been so interested in speculating about since Harry Potter. I even started reading the manga because I just couldn't wait for more. I need the second season now!
 

Smith

Minstrel
I've lost touch with my anime-loving roots as I've aged, but a conversation in chat here a while back prompted me to revisit one of my childhood favourites: Cardcaptor Sakura. I've always been aware that the dub was butchered story and character-wise, but only now I'm an adult can I see just how bad it was in other ways, too, like the American voices being just godawful, no one sounds the right age. Thankfully, I found some great subs and got to revisit my favourite obligatory long-white-haired-pretty-anime-guy and re-fall in love with the other characters too, all of whom are endearing and much more complex than I remember from the dub, and the story is fantastic. I've never been a huge fan of CLAMP, as more of a manga-reader than an anime-watcher, but this is definitely the exception. I want to live in that world a little longer.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I tried to watch an episode of the Cardcaptor Sakura English Dub and it was truly horrible. Maybe now that Crunchyroll has added it I'll give in another try in Japanese.
 

Smith

Minstrel
Oh, god yes! I'm glad I loved it so much as a kid, but I really don't know why (okay, so, aside from Yue), the dub is so bland and so soulless and so lacking any of the nuance and sympathy of the original, and the voices are just. so. bad. That's not even touching how they edited out the network of interesting relationships and reordered or deleted episodes and destroyed backstory and tried to refocus the story more on the male character to 'broaden its appeal to boys'. I was truly amazed at how different a picture I got from the original, it was much richer and more magical that I remember, and it totally has me in the mood to watch other anime. I hope you like it when you get a chance to watch it.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
Fall certainly looks exciting. I've added a bunch of new shows to our Crunchyroll queue.

Log Horizon 2- Naturally. We loved the first season.

Wolf Girl and Black Prince- Sounds hilarious.

Fate Stay Zero- Our first foray into the Fate stuff.

Cross Ange Rondo of Angel and Dragon: A princess is disinherited because she can't use magic so instead she rides a giant mecha and hunts dragons? Yes! I love you Japan!

When Supernatural Battles Become Commonplace- Looks like another hilarious twist on the tropes a la "I Couldn't Become a Hero So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Day Job".

Akatsuki no Yona- Gorgeous looking adventure fantasy.

Gugure! Kokkuri-san- I don't even know, but it has a fox spirit.

Denki-Gai- Another fun looking comedy.

Celestial Method- A sort of coming-of-age story with sci fi elements?

Trinity Seven- Not sure what this one will be like, a bit of a harem thing mashed together with modern fantasy it seems.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
Finally got to try some of the new season.

Log Horizon season 2 first episode: Very promising. You wouldn't think that a storyline about getting enough money to pay property taxes in a virtual world would be that compelling, but Shiroe somehow manages to infect everything he does with delicious intrigue. Also, that teaser at the end!

Wolf Girl and Black Prince: First episode was hilarious. Erika is a perfect character for a comedy of errors. Even though her motivations are obviously shallow and her compulsive lying is sometimes cringe-enducing, I think we've all been in her shoes (not wanting to be alone, willing to do stupid things to have friends) enough to relate to her. Sata is delightfully mysterious. His motivations and the contradictions in his actions are just opaque enough to keep you wondering exactly how their relationship is going to progress.

Gugure! Kokkuri-san: I was delightfully surprised by the first episode of this. I didn't really have any expectations for it but the interplay between Kohina and Kokkuri is great. Very funny so far.
 
I finally went and got Blood-C. Big mistake.

Call it an object lesson, that if you want a story built out of how completely different two styles are, it's all in how they play off each other and start to change. Okay, the two styles are "innocent schoolgirl with friends" and "demonslayer by night" which sounds like every other anime ever, but the innocence and the fighting are so static all we can do is say "these have to break soon." And eventually they do, but then it's all gore and shocks and clumsiness. There's so much anime that does things like this better.

Oh well. At least having it out there means that, if you ask around first, you'll hear about the one that's as good as this is bad: Blood Plus.
 
I've been dropping these for a while, so:

Your Complete Winter 2015 Anime Guide

Some that really jump out to me:

Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!: "A group of slacker boys in the “High School Earth Defense Club” find themselves charged by a magical wombat to transform and save the world." (Magical Boys is apparently a genre now. God help us all.)

Absolute Duo: "On a quest for revenge, a boy joins a school that teaches how to use your soul as a weapon—but instead of a weapon, his soul becomes a shield."

Yatterman Night: "Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the classic anime Yatterman, this anime follows the descendants of the original series’ villains in a future where it is the Yatterman who have become corrupt and only their eternal enemies have any hope of standing against them."

Assassination Classroom: "A high school class must kill their god-like, tentacled teacher within the year or he will destroy the earth." (The manga is legendarily weird, and I'm curious to see it adapted.()
 

Mythopoet

Auror
Well, the winter season 2015 is coming to a close. I've only been following the new anime seasons for the last few, but it's been fun and interesting.

Yona of the Dawn (Akatsuki no Yona) wrapped up its 24 episode run this season. This show... just totally blew me away. I have never been so drawn into a young woman's story since Nausicaa. Yona is an amazing female character. She starts out as a typical vain, spoiled, naive 16 year old princess, and the story is all about her idyllic life being shattered and her being forced to grow into a stronger person. Her growth is slow and gradual and realistic. She has leaps forward and temporary setbacks, but she never gives up. The story never pretends that she can do it alone, that she has to be independent or reject those who would help her to be strong. From the beginning she relies heavily on the one companion from her former life that follows her into her new existence. Hak was a general and her personal bodyguard who saved her life when her cousin Soo-Won took over the castle and killed her father for the throne. Hak stays by her side for the rest of the story, but Yona also seeks out other companions because she knows that if she and Hak remain alone, it's only a matter of time before they are killed. A priest advises her to seek out the power of the Dragons who helped the legendary King Hiryuu establish their country. The blood of the dragons has been passed down through 4 human bloodlines since ancient times awaiting the time the power of the dragons would be needed once again to aid the next King Hiryuu. As Hak and Yona travel the country seeking those with the dragon blood, it soon becomes apparent that Yona is the next Hiryuu. The anime stopped after the 4 dragons were found, but I've been keeping up with the manga as well because I needed more. This story, setting, and characters are just so good. Hopefully, they will start work on a season 2! Highly recommended, if you don't mind an unfinished story.

The Testament of Sister New Devil was a modern supernatural fantasy featuring an outcast hero fighting to protect the previous demon lord's daughter from the demons who would steal her father's power from her. The premise was good, the characters were interesting, but it was also an ecchi (basically, porn) show. It was heavily censored which was both a relief and kind of annoying. Either way, it was my first real ecchi anime and it's definitely not for me. If you like that sort of thing, you'll probably want to wait for the uncensored version.

Shirobako was a workplace slice-of-life show focused on the anime industry. (I know, totally meta.) The first half was quite enjoyable. The characters were fun and the story about an animation company trying to make a comeback with an original series by a once-up-and-coming director who ruined his reputation with one awful series was both compelling and very enlightening. The second half where the company, fresh off the success of the previous half's project, take on an adaptation of a popular manga and encounter obstacles right and left, took the show to the next level. The show features a huge cast of characters from animators to production people to voice actors and everything in between. Most characters didn't get a huge amount of screentime, but the show managed to make them seem real and unique nonetheless. At the center of the story are a group of 5 girls who were part of the animation club in high school and who make a promise to one day work together on a professional version of the club's amateur anime effort. Throughout the series the 5 of them struggle to make their way as new members of the anime industry. One is an animator, one is a CGI artist, one is going to college and hopes to be a writer, one is struggling to break into the voice acting industry, and the one who is the central POV of the whole series works at the production desk of the above mentioned animation studio. During the first half the girls are all struggling to work toward their goals, sometimes wondering if they are doing the right thing. During the second half each of them ends up contributing work to the anime adaptation of Third Aerial Girls Squad. They've got a long way to go to reach their goal, but they're clearly all on the right path. This show was SOOOOOO good. So surprisingly good. Highly recommended.

Death Parade was a series expanded from a short animation called Death Billiards. There is a mysterious place called the Quindecim bar where the bartender Decim serves as an arbiter of mankind. Human souls arrive 2 at a time and are induced to play a game "as if their lives were at stake", not knowing that they are already dead and that the purpose of the game is to facilitate the judgement of their souls. The job of Decim is to draw out the darkness in people's souls by putting them through extreme situations and based on their performance determine if they are to go to "heaven" or "hell". The original short maintained a very mysterious atmosphere and left the viewer with a thousand unanswered questions. The anime series delves deeper into the world of the arbiters (we find out Decim isn't the only one) and explores some heavy themes about the so-called judgements (is it right to judge human souls this way?) and about how human lives should be lived. The world in the show is strangely inhuman and the contrast with the passions of the humans being judged is eery. But the show delivered a very thought-provoking story full of surprise feels. Part of me wants more and part of me thinks it's perfect how it is. Highly recommended.

The Seven Deadly Sins is an action-adventure fantasy shonen story very reminiscent of Fairy Tail in a good way. It's based on a popular manga series (of which it only covers part) and it seems the consensus is that the manga is better. Still, I found it pretty enjoyable. It revolves around a scattered group of totally OP knights who were accused of treason 10 years ago. However, their help is needed now when the kingdom's Holy Knights have set in motion a conspiracy to start a Holy War. The princess Elizabeth sets out to find and gather them to fight against the real traitors as it is revealed that The Seven Deadly Sins (as the group is called) never tried to overthrow the kingdom. Though is it true that they all have dark sins in their past. The characters were fun and quirky in the way only anime character in a fantasy story can be. (My 7 year old son developed a crush on the giantess Diane.) The action was well done and the story compelling enough that the hints left at the end about future story material have me hoping for a second season. Recommended.

Kamisama Kiss season 2 aired this winter. I'd never seen season 1 before, but tried it out and got completely hooked. This is a shojo fantasy romance type series. The premise is that high schooler Nanami is suddenly homeless after her good for nothing father has run off and her home is seized by the people he owes massive debts to. She meets a strange man who tells her she can go live at his house and gives her a kiss on the forehead before leaving. She goes to the place he directed her and discovers that it is a run down shrine and that the kiss bestowed on her made her the new land god of the shrine. The former god's familiar, the fox yokai Tomoe, is not pleased but through this and that they end up developing a new master/familiar relationship. Nanami faces many trials while trying to live up to being the new land god, not the least of which are her growing feelings for Tomoe. As of the end of season 2 they both have feelings for each other, but various circumstances keep them from acting on them. This is a charming series with a great cast of characters. Also Tomoe is totally the sexiest fox yokai I've seen in an anime yet (and they're not really rare). Highly recommended.

Still have to finish: Cross Ange and Parasyte. I'll post my reviews of them after I've finished.
 

Gryphos

Auror
I recently watched all of Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works and, after being so impressed by Fate Zero, I was not disappointed in the least. The animation is gorgeous, the action is thrilling, and when it needs to it manages to perfectly hit the 'holy-f*cking-shit' moment. I can't decide who my favourite servant is, Berserker or Assassin. Berserker just kicks all kinds of arse, but Assassin has that sick Swallow Reversal attack. Only thing I do know is, f*ck Gilgamesh.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I recently watched all of Fate Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works and, after being so impressed by Fate Zero, I was not disappointed in the least. The animation is gorgeous, the action is thrilling, and when it needs to it manages to perfectly hit the 'holy-f*cking-shit' moment. I can't decide who my favourite servant is, Berserker or Assassin. Berserker just kicks all kinds of arse, but Assassin has that sick Swallow Reversal attack. Only thing I do know is, f*ck Gilgamesh.

I've watched the first half and the first episode of the second half. At first I really liked it, but as I watched more and more episodes it started to get tedious for me. I sort of get that feeling I get from a story that has a great premise and tremendous potential, but I feel the execution was fumbled. I intend to finish it, eventually, but right now I've got so many good shows to watch.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
My current Watchlist of Summer Season:

Actually, I am: A really charming harem rom-com about a guy who discovers he's going to school with a vampire, an alien and a wolf-man and his principle is an ancient demon. Great comedy. Tiny alien chick who operates an "external unit" of herself is best girl.

Castle Town Dandelion: Comedy with some supernatural elements. In the small kingdom of Sakurada, the royal Sakurada family has 9 children each with a different super power. Their father, the king, has decided that the following year there will be a general election to decide which of them will succeed him on the throne. Thus the hijinks ensue as they start campaigning against each other. MC is princess Akane, an incredibly shy girl who wants to become king so she can get rid of all of the security cameras her father has installed all over the city.

Overlord: "Stuck in an MMORPG" genre. Momonga is the last guild leader of Ainz Ooal Gown, a group of non-human players which had worked together to build the massive guild fortress of Nazarick, complete with high level items and NPCs specially made by the players. However, over time, all of the other players have drifted away from the game and now the game is scheduled to be shut down. Momonga stays in game until the last minute... and is surprised to find himself still there after the shut down time. The world has changed and the NPCs have started to act as independent beings and now Momonga, a loner with no family, decides to embrace this event and take his new world for his own.

Ore Monogatari: A wonderful shojo rom com about a giant, awkward guy who has never had any luck with girls. They always prefer his good looking friend. But then one day he saves a girl on the train from a groper and their romance begins.

Rinne: A supernatural comedy with dashes of romance about a guy whose grandmother was a shinigami (spirit who escorts the dead onto the wheel of reincarnation) and so also has shinigami powers. For one reason and another he has a massive debt in the spirit world and so has to work as a shinigami to pay it off. He meets a girl at school who can also see things from the spirit world and starts to help him out with some of his problems.

School-Live!: This.... freaking.... show. The formula is basically cute girls + zombie apocalypse, neither genre being my personal cup of tea. But where this show succeeds (and blows your mind) is HOW it puts them together, plays them off each other and dashes your expectations against the wall to pick up the pieces and put them back together according to its own design. It's freaking brilliant.

GATE: Portal fantasy. After a portal suddenly opens in Tokyo, unleashing a fantasy army complete with dragons and orcs on the unsuspecting Japanese people, the Japanese special defense force is sent through the portal the other way, to secure it and find out more about this strange world Japan has suddenly been connected to.

Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma: A high schooler who has been trained to cook in his family diner since childhood is suddenly enrolled in an incredibly elite Japanese cooking school where he will have to compete with the best of the best and use his unique creativity to overcome food preparation obstacles he's never imagined.

Fairy Tail: The ongoing Shonen action fantasy series has reached the manga's well received Tartaros Arc. The new threat is the dark guild Tartaros, which it is revealed is full of demons in service to the famous evil wizard Zeref.

Ushio and Tora: An adaptation of an older supernatural shonen action manga. Ushio is the son of a temple priest and a powerful shaman. One day he discovers that underneath his home's storehouse there is a powerful youkai that has been kept imprisoned for hundreds of years. Having accidentally unleashed the beast's evil aura, he must team up with the tiger-like youkai to defeat the many low level demons it has attracted, even though the beast assures Ushio that he will eat him at the earliest possible opportunity.

Prison School: Ecchi HS comedy. A group of 5 boys are the only male students at their school which has just now been made co-ed. Unfortunately for them, there's a powerful group of female students, the underground student council, who had boys and all their perverted ways and are determined to make them suffer. At the first offense (trying to peek into the girl's bath) all 5 are sentenced to a month in the school's own prison compound, and the underground student council president is determined to get them kicked out of the school forever.

Working!! (Wagnaria!!): Third season of the hilariously funny restaurant workplace rom-com. Plot lines are being wrapped up this season, running gags are coming to an end and love is in the air.

Charlotte: Supernatural/HS drama. Sometimes adolescents mysteriously gain strange super powers that just as mysteriously vanish after they grow up. Sometimes they are found by unscrupulous scientists who use them as guinea pigs until they are broken. But at a certain school there's a special girl who seeks them out to warn them and if possible bring them into the protection of the school. Still, sometimes things don't work out the way you plan.

Rokka no Yuusha: Fantasy. 6 heroes are called together by the goddess of fate to fight the Demon King every time he awakens from his ancient seal in the Land of Howling Demons. There are always 6. Except this time. When the heroes gather, they find there are 7. So one of them must be a fake and an enemy, but which one?

The Heroic Legend of Arslan: Historical fantasy. Arslan is a prince of Pars when his father's so-called invincible army is defeated and his city captured by foreign fanatics. Gathering a few loyal companions, he plans to retake his kingdom, but along the way secrets are brought to light which may change everything.

Gangsta.: Action drama series set in the imaginary town of Ergastulum, a town ruled by mafia. Worick and Nic are a couple of Handymen trying to get by taking jobs from mob bosses and dirty policemen, but there's more to them than meets the eyes. Nic is a "Twilight", a trained soldier who gains superhuman abilities from a special drug.
 
I can't watch shounen anime anymore. It's just constant Deja Vu.

Fist of the North Star, YuYu Hakusho and DBZ were enough.

Still waiting for the next Vampire Hunter D movie. Probably will be waiting forever.
 
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