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Myth's Anime Thread

I'm a huge fan of anime, although I find that lately I don't have as much time for it. I go through manic periods wrt anime, where I'll watch it for a week or two or three and then I'm burned out by it and have to go a couple months or so avoiding anime. One problem: I always feel a commitment to finishing a series once I start it, and some are long.

Last anime I started watching: One Piece. On this one, I pretty much watched almost every day for a couple months or so, made it through about 600 episodes—I absolutely love it—but whoa got burned out.

Previous to that I had watched every episode of Hunter X Hunter, and loved it. I think I read somewhere that the creator had stated there would be no more episodes, which is too bad if so. The last story arc had seemed rushed, however, and not as good as the first three story arcs.

I'm a big fan of FullMetal Alchemist, although years have passed since I watched it and I wonder whether it would interest me now as it did then.

Death Note was an absolute shocker: so good. Casting for the American live action movie is proceeding, with news just yesterday of a female lead cast. But I'm skeptical that an American treatment will reach the greatness that is the anime series.

Kyo Kara Maoh! was a quirky, fun anime series. I bought almost all the DVDs for it, years ago. But then when I later bought a few of the later DVDs, for whatever reason I just never opened a couple.

Gravitation holds a special place in my heart.

Both Grave of the Fireflies and Now and Then, Here and There are probably the most emotionally charged animes I've ever watched.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I refuse to watch Grave of the Fireflies because I know it would make me an emotional wreck for like a straight week and every single time I thought about it for the rest of my life. Wolf Children was bad enough. My motherly heart just can't take it.

Despite being a 33 year old woman I actually love a lot of shonen anime. I don't watch One Piece (tried it out for about 25 episodes, it was ok, but not my cup of tea) or Naruto Shippuden (I did watch most of Naruto, skipped the filler, because it's my daughter's favorite and she likes to talk about it A LOT so I figured I'd get to know it a bit) but I do keep up with Fairy Tail which, yes, gets repetitive but I just love the characters and the philosophy of the show. I just skipped the most recent filler arc and picked it back up when it went back to the source material. I've also watched most of Bleach (stopped watching after the defeat of Aizen, but I'll pick it up again in a heart beat if the anime is picked up again) and loved it. As far as the most recent "BIG" ones go, that's the extent of my experience. Never seen any Dragonball series and it hasn't hampered me. But there's A LOT out there beyond the BIG shonen titles.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is probably the most consistently highly rated series. (I've you haven't seen Brotherhood, even if you've seen the first series, you should watch Brotherhood, because it's sooooo much better.) And it's easily one of my favorites.

Soul Eater is one I finished recently that has a crazy unique art style and features some of the better villains I've seen.

Attack on Titan gets a lot of hype which makes people suspicious but, in my opinion, it totally lives up to the hype. It's a brilliant, thrilling, heart-wrenching series, but also quite dark at times.

Blood Blockade Battlefront is, in my opinion, in the top 5 best new shows of the year. It's got great action and tons of style.

Durarara!! is another uniquely brilliant series with a large cast of fascinating characters including a Dullahan who is searching for her head.

Food Wars!! was a fantastic series this year as well. It is very much shonen-actiony in style, but its battles are all between students in a extremely competitive culinary school.

Going back to the classics, if you haven't seen Inuyasha then you've missed one of the great series combining all the action and comedy and drama and romance of both shonen and shojo stories.

Black Butler is also a shonen series that takes an unexpected format with a story set in Victorian England staring a young lord who has made a pact with a demon.

Magi is a series with amazing worldbuilding and storytelling inspired by the Arabian Nights and much more.

I could go on and on. Basically, shonen is HUGE and extremely diverse. Don't write it off so easily.
 
If you think that is the extent of shonen anime then you are truly missing out. :p

I guess I should say shounen battle/powerup anime. Basically all the clones of the shows I listed.

Toriko is the only exception because it's just such a ridiculous premise. :D

And no offense but Inuyasha is for chicks. ;)
 
I watched most of Attack on Titan and liked it, but became distracted and never finished it.

Same with Bleach and Fairy Tail. I began watching the former when it first appeared on Netflix, years ago, but I think not every season was on it, some episodes were skipped, and I ended up simply giving up on it.

I watched a few episodes of Black Butler and Magi, but never really got into them, for whatever reason. A host of other series fall into this category for me. I have all of Cowboy Bebop on DVD but only got through a few episodes; I'll restart it sometime I think. So many others I've watched and don't remember well.

I don't know much about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, but my impression was that it was a remake of the original? That's the reason I never bothered with it, since I'd watched the complete original (and have all those on DVD.) I didn't really want to rehash the original, but if that's not what it is, I might give it a go.

I've never watched DBZ or Naruto Shippuden

I tend away from mecha anime, more toward straight-up fantasy or contemporary fantasy. I subscribe to Crunchyroll and have access to so many titles–but as I said, I've not enough time to explore everything. I'm waiting for a new manic anime mood to strike me.

If you haven't watched Hunter X Hunter, I'd recommend it. The first three story arcs are excellent, and the third, which is by far the longest, was a shocker due to its depth and quality from a world-building fantasy and storytelling perspective.
 

teacup

Auror
I don't know much about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, but my impression was that it was a remake of the original? That's the reason I never bothered with it, since I'd watched the complete original (and have all those on DVD.) I didn't really want to rehash the original, but if that's not what it is, I might give it a go.

Not at all. FMA:B is the original, really. It follows the manga, whereas FMA was its own story with the same world and characters. Both are great but I think B is much better. The first 12 eps (I think it's that many) might just seem like FMA but rushed more because it covers stuff that happens up to like halways through FMA in just those 12 eps, but after that the story splits off and is waaayy different to FMA.
It's definitely worth watching it all.
 
Not at all. FMA:B is the original, really. It follows the manga, whereas FMA was its own story with the same world and characters. Both are great but I think B is much better. The first 12 eps (I think it's that many) might just seem like FMA but rushed more because it covers stuff that happens up to like halways through FMA in just those 12 eps, but after that the story splits off and is waaayy different to FMA.
It's definitely worth watching it all.

Ah, ok. I'll check it out then! I don't much like rehashing the original—meaning, the first to appear—but now I'm curious. Thanks.
 
Another issue I have with shounen is I just see the same types of characters and relationships over and over. Part of this is due to the culture that spawned this type of art/entertainment, but I can't get into characters that are just re-hashes.

I mean how many spiky-haired, teenage, chosen one, potentially more powerful than anyone in that universe, protagonists?

I'm not a fan of the every man, initially ordinary teenager, with the same underlying code of honor, sense of justice, always willing to fight to the death for his friends, gets more powerful when his loved ones are hurt, blah blah blah.
 
I watched most of Attack on Titan and liked it, but became distracted and never finished it.

Same with Bleach and Fairy Tail. I began watching the former when it first appeared on Netflix, years ago, but I think not every season was on it, some episodes were skipped, and I ended up simply giving up on it.

I watched a few episodes of Black Butler and Magi, but never really got into them, for whatever reason. A host of other series fall into this category for me. I have all of Cowboy Bebop on DVD but only got through a few episodes; I'll restart it sometime I think. So many others I've watched and don't remember well.

I don't know much about Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, but my impression was that it was a remake of the original? That's the reason I never bothered with it, since I'd watched the complete original (and have all those on DVD.) I didn't really want to rehash the original, but if that's not what it is, I might give it a go.

I've never watched DBZ or Naruto Shippuden

I tend away from mecha anime, more toward straight-up fantasy or contemporary fantasy. I subscribe to Crunchyroll and have access to so many titles—but as I said, I've not enough time to explore everything. I'm waiting for a new manic anime mood to strike me.

If you haven't watched Hunter X Hunter, I'd recommend it. The first three story arcs are excellent, and the third, which is by far the longest, was a shocker due to its depth and quality from a world-building fantasy and storytelling perspective.

DBZ is basically epic battles involving characters that rival some of the most powerful western comic book heroes (the Goku vs Superman argument will go on forever), with way too much dialog between the action. It's popcorn entertainment that you don't have to pay all that close attention to in order to keep up with the plot.

I'd recommend Toriko instead. It's like DBZ but they combined it with Iron Chef. It's literally about a world where cooking and eating gourmet foods is the most important thing, and chefs are rockstars. The powerful characters are the ones that gather the rare ingredients from incredibly powerful monsters for the chefs to cook, which are like all these weird hybrid combinations of real animals.

Just the absurdity and uniqueness of the world it takes place in should keep you entertained for awhile. I mean Toriko's super moves are all based on kitchen utensils! :D

It's over the top and hilarious at the same time.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
And no offense but Inuyasha is for chicks. ;)

Um, no, no it's not. As evidenced by the fact that Inuyasha originally gained popularity by being published in a major shonen magazine.

About Fullmetal Alchemist... The first anime was created while the manga was still being published. That gave them a few options, they could adapt up to the point the manga had reached and then wait for more material, they could create filler material until they had more source material, or they could create an anime original ending. I read somewhere that the manga author encouraged them to create their own ending because she was curious to see what they would do. Well, the anime original ending was not very good at all. (You can tell right where it went of the rails, as soon as Dante, an anime original character, was introduced.) And the manga was absolutely amazing. So after the manga was finished a second anime was made that followed the manga story to the end, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Brotherhood is a very highly regarded classic and one of the most often recommended anime by discerning viewers. It's the anime that convinced me anime could reach the same storytelling heights as a great novel.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I stand by my opinion of Inuyasha. He's about as likable a protagonist as Yusuke in YuYu Hakusho.

Well, I don't know what the hell kind of standards you have cause both Inuyasha and Yusuke are great MCs in my opinion. I haven't finished Yu Yu Hakusho (though I enjoyed what I watched quite a bit, 66 episodes, I just have so much anime to watch) but Inuyasha is one of my favorite series and I have the whole thing on dvd. In my opinion, Inuyasha is extremely likeable because even though he's a jerk at the beginning (understandably so once you know his history) he also shows the ability to change for the better quite early on. In fact, I would say that Inuyasha is full of brilliant character development and if that sort of thing is for girls then I guess my husband has something he needs to tell me. After all, he's the one that got me hooked on it.
 
Personal update: I started watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood last night. I'm still early in it so the stories are what I remember from the first FMA.

Inuyasha is a title I've encountered many times, almost always in a positive way, and I've always been curious about it. I know the warning to not judge a book by its cover...but when I see the art for this anime while browsing for anime to watch, it turns me away. I imagine I'll get over that hangup eventually and give it a whirl.
 

Mythopoet

Auror
Really? I mean, it is an older show now, but I still think the art holds up quite well. What is it that turns you off about it?

Anyway, I've started mostly watching new seasonal anime. Here's what I'm watching atm for the fall season:

Attack on Titan Junior High- It's a parody where all the AoT characters are chibified and put in a high school setting. Pretty funny so far. (streams on funimation)

Beautiful Bones- mystery series staring a holmes-esque woman who has an obsession with bones. The mysteries are more about emotional drama than thrills from violence. Loving it so far. (streams on crunchyroll)

STARMYU- musical show about a group of high school boys trying to improve their skills enough to survive in a prestigious music school's musical performance division. Good songs. (streams on funimation)

K: Return of Kings- sequel to K project anime of a few years ago. Set in an alternate history of Japan where a powerful artifact grants power to individuals called kings. Mostly revolves around the rivalries and conflicts between the various kings and their clans. I loved season 1 a lot so I'm happy to have it back. (streams on hulu)

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron Blodded Orphans- my first foray into the Gundam franchise. Focuses on a group of unwanted youths and their struggle to survive in a dangerous political climate between Earth and Mars. It's a standalone series not connected to the main franchise timeline so it's a good introductory show. (streams on daisuki, funimation and crunchyroll)

Noragami Aragoto- season 2 of series about a minor japanese god with no shrine and no worshipers struggling to be remembered in the modern world. Full of interesting interactions between various gods of the japanese pantheon and the various supernatural beings that support them and defy them. This season has outdone season 1. It's tremendous so far. (streams on crunchyroll)

One Punch Man- adaptation of a web comic turned manga about a man living in a fictional Japan facing the constant threat of monsters and villains who trains to become a hero for fun. He trains so hard he loses his hair and becomes so powerful he can defeat any enemy with one punch, which he finds boring. He meets a cyborg who begs to become his student, even though he has no idea how he became so powerful and so has nothing to teach. Superb humor and action. Outstanding animation. Anime of the season, easily. (streams on daisuki)

Osomatsu-san- a revival of a really old anime based on an even older manga about a group of brothers who are sextuplets with terrible personalities. mostly gags and comedy. quite a fun, though sometimes crude, show. (streams on crunchyroll)

The Perfect Insider- a psychological mystery series about the death of a mysterious genius scientist who was locked away in a secluded lab because as a teenager she murdered her parents. Really fascinating, slow burning show. (streams on crunchyroll)

Utawarerumono- The False Faces- sequel of sorts to an anime (Utawarerumono) based on a visual novel. Focuses on a man who awakens with amnesia in a world inhabited by people with anime ears and tails and the various people he meets. So far, this has been nothing but fluff and lots of bathing scenes which is a little disappointing considering how event packed the original was. However, I can't manage to dislike it. Hopefully it picks up the pace soon. (streaming on crunchyroll)
 
Really? I mean, it is an older show now, but I still think the art holds up quite well. What is it that turns you off about it?

Well first, it's only the few promo images I've seen. And it's not bad, just looked a little cartoonish, less realism. But as I said, I know I shouldn't judge it by that. I'll probably give it a try when I finish with FMA:Brotherhood—which, by the way, I'm greatly enjoying!
 

Mythopoet

Auror
I just finished rewatching Black Butler season 1. It had been one of the earliest anime I tried and I was still very skeptical about this anime thing at that point so I was able to enjoy it more this time. Though now that I know more about it the anime original arcs really stood out in a negative way. I was considering watching season 2 as well, which is entirely anime original, but now I don't think I will. I'm just going to skip over to the "season 3" material which goes back to adapting the manga arcs. I think at some point I'll have to start reading the manga as well, because the manga material is really enjoyable. Anyone who has watched season 1 and didn't like it should consider whether it was the anime only material that caused it. (All the stuff with Angela and Ashe and the creepy version of the Queen, for instance, is not at all in the manga.) If so, like me you might enjoy moving on to the Book of Circus and Book of Murder arcs.
 
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