Dagger

Haha, it's a lose-lose choice for me. But I bailed out on Inuyasha right when it was starting to get really wearisome, so what I ended up seeing was essentially the best chunk of the series, when everything was new and fresh--before it became clear that they would pretty much never reach their goal. That's not to say I feel significantly more positive about Inuyasha, but I appreciate the [i]idea[/i] of the journey and of the mixing-up of past (Kikyo) and present (Kagome) lives, if not always the way it plays out. It's an interesting and slightly unusual set-up for a series of this type. I've tried Naruto a few times but it never grabbed me. I don't like how it looks visually, I don't like the whole ninja thing or the techniques, I don't like the characters, I dislike knowing that if I did choose to follow it, I'd run into more than my fair share of filler, etc. I feel no need to start it up again, waiting to reach what people call the really good parts, when Yu Yu Hakusho had me at one episode and Hunter x Hunter had me at one and a half. That's just the way my tastes run, I guess. *goes back to watching Chapter Black* ~Dagger~

I hate to give a cop-out answer like this, but I think it really depends on what you look for in a series. An epic shounen action anime can't be packed into 15 episodes--but AIR TV would have felt bloated if it ran any longer. Speaking for myself, though, close to half of the series that usually find a place in my top ten favorites are over 50 episodes. The rest are at least 26 (except for AIR, which has 15, and Boogiepop Phantom, which has 13 but kind of drops in and out of the lower portion of my list). I don't prefer long series because they're long, but I do tend to like stuff with sweeping plot arcs and very well-established characters. Yu Yu Hakusho has 112 episodes, but at the same time it's a very lean show, with absolutely no filler I can think of. Full Moon wo Sagashite, with 52 episodes, also makes (surprisingly) good use of its length. If anything, Hikaru no Go (75 episodes) needs to be longer. 39 episodes was just the right length for Utena. And so forth. I have to admit I don't really take well to movie-length stuff, either live-action or animated. Movies tend to be long enough to bore or tire me if I'm watching them all in one sitting, but at the same time too short to completely draw me in. OVAs I feel better about, for some reason, even when they end up being about the same length as a real movie--maybe I've just become dependent on the half-hour episode format or something. ~Dagger~

[quote name='dark desires']...and also is Loveless, Our Kingdom, Jazz, Desire, and Yellow a good read? Yeah i know theires a big list :animeswea[/quote] Loveless - Excellent. It has beautiful artwork and an exciting, well-developed story. The only way I can see a BL fan not liking this is if you loathe angst or want a plot that focuses solely on romance. Loveless certainly qualifies as BL, but it also has elements of action, suspense, mystery, etc. The anime based on it is wonderful as well. Our Kingdom - Fluffy but pretty entertaining; it's generic but fun. If you enjoy relatively light schoolboy stuff, you may as well give this a shot. I haven't read Jazz, Desire or Yellow. However, Desire has artwork by Yukine Honami, when means that it's guaranteed to be visually gorgeous. So if you value artwork highly, I'd recommend it on the strength of her involvement alone, even without having seen it myself. ~Dagger~

YES~! My Chapter Black box set arrived today, just a little ahead of the street date. Seven DVDs of YYH goodness? Hell yeah... I see a marathon in my future. The artbox has a rather plain design, mirroring its predecessors, but at least it's pretty sturdy. I absolutely can't wait to start catching up with this series. It's been way too long. :animesmil ~Dagger~

"Even the Fullmetal Alchemist was no match for Man-Faye." (My compliments on your winning entry, r2vq. Like Des, I would've been awfully let down if it didn't receive some kind of recognition.) ~Dagger~

The sequel to / alternate universe version of / parody of [url=http://www.sunrise-inc.co.jp/my-hime/web/index.html][u]My-HiME[/u][/url] has started airing in Japan. And by all appearances, it's going to be pretty entertaining. My-HiME was essentially a riff on the concept of monster-battling schoolgirls. It had plenty of silly moments, of course, but overall I think it really surpassed people's general expectations. [url=http://www.my-zhime.net/][u]My-Otome[/u][/url] (sometimes called My-ZHiME because of the way its logo is designed) takes many of the same cast members and plunks them down in a totally new setting, in which most girls aspire to become an Otome, a sort of... er, extremely powerful maid. Natsuki is now the school headmistress, Mashiro's personality has become pleasantly bratty, Mikoto is a cat, Mai is nowhere to be seen [spoiler]except in the OP sequence,[/spoiler] and so forth. You get the idea. Essentially the premise appears to be an excuse to put the bishoujo cast in maid-esque costumes, since their duties have more to do with battling mechanical monsters than washing things. Personally, though, I think My-Otome is going to be better than its predecessor. The world is much more unusual--a mixture of medieval and science-fiction trappings--and many of the carried-over characters have been placed in more mature or advanced roles. This show [i]should[/i] have been a fan-trap. The idea of fighting maids or whatever certainly seemed to have a lot of people rolling their eyes. But darn it, I like it--or what I've seen of it, anyway. Is anyone else going to watch this? ~Dagger~

Minor quibble: Both Inuyasha and Naruto are shounen (Naruto runs in Shounen Jump, while Inuyasha runs in Shounen Sunday). I can see where you would get the impression that Inuyasha is aimed at girls, but its primary target audience is--much like Naruto's--male. Plenty of shounen anime deal with relationships, romantic love, etc. :) As for the original poster's question... I'd take a Togashi series (or maybe even Bleach, depending on how it goes in the future) over both of them. Between the two, I suppose I like Inuyasha a little better, but I've also seen more of it. ~Dagger~

KKM stands for Kyo Kara Maoh, which is actually about a dude who gets sucked into a different world and becomes the demon [i]king[/i]. So, yeah, it's a little different from your standard demon-battling plot. ;) The first season of the anime is already being released in North America. There's also a series of novels and a manga, as confirmed by Sage Kaley. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Generic NPC #3']Oh, I was under the impression that we'd get a new category since essentially we have had like three weeks at least to do it lol. Guess not. What is our due date then?[/quote] Does Tuesday sound okay? And I can't say the thought crossed my mind before, haha, but I may as well change the category while I'm at it. I'll go edit the necessary stuff now. EDIT: Alright, it's Tuesday the 11th (unless that's problematic) and "futurism." ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=Generic NPC #3]I PMed you about this about a week ago, I think and I've not heard anything back. Originally this week was fine for Azure and I, but that didn't work out I guess. I suppose starting us up at any time is fine by me... but if you could possibly PM me about it, that would be wonderful.[/QUOTE] Oh! My bad; I assumed you guys were going to use the [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=49424][u]old thread[/u][/url], heh, so I figured you would post whenever you were ready (I still need to update the dates, but I think everything else should hold). Sorry about that. EDIT: So basically, feel free to start whenever, as the thread's already there. I'll edit the title and stuff once someone's replied to it. ~Dagger~

T.C. I wonder what that one means? :) More seriously, the Otaku Lounge has always had its share of silly fun, but I just can't see this thread really going anywhere. You can think of random words starting with the letters F, E and O until the cows come home, and it still won't lead to anything resembling an actual discussion. If you have any questions, feel free to private message me or one of the other staff members. Thanks. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

It really irritates me when people dismiss the difference between shounen and shoujo (or, in an attempt to sound knowledgeable, get them completely mixed up). I can forgive ignorance--you don't have to be aware of Japanese genre distinctions to enjoy anime/manga, after all. But the genre distinctions are nevertheless important, and they have absolutely nothing to do with sexism or whatever. Moreover, it's a really simple and easy concept to understand. I just want to go bang my head on a wall when I read articles which refer to series like Love Hina or Chobits as shoujo. Good grief... As a general principle, I dislike staunch liberals and staunch conservatives. Both groups are equally annoying and shrill. Perhaps because I'm surrounded by apparently hardcore liberals (both online and in real life), I tend to get a little more irked at them--but it's not like I care much for conservative ideals either. Ugh. ~Dagger~

Yeah, another great thing about Kyo Kara Maoh is that it just keeps on going and going. Certainly one of the longest BL-ish series I can think of (unless you count all of Saiyuki's sequels, I suppose). [strike]I wonder if the Shinobu Kokoro/KKM novel artist also does the KKM manga...[/strike] EDIT: Jeez, I need to read posts when I'm not dog-tired. Thanks for answering my question before I asked it, heh. :animeswea Speaking of BLU, Anime on DVD found some release dates--and they're soon! The first volumes of Earthian, Love Mode and Shinobu Kokoro are all coming out on October 30th. Wild Rock will be released on December 20th. I'm kind of sad that the one title I was super excited about got bumped back, haha, but it's nice that we can take a peek at these other series in less than a month. ~Dagger~

Welcome to OtakuBoards! We don't really allow introduction threads, but you should feel free to jump right in and start discussing whatever interests you most. The best way to get to know others is by posting. Of course, it does help to have good post quality (adequate grammar, spelling and so forth). I hope you enjoy your time here. You're welcome to private message me or one of the other staff members if you have any questions or concerns. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

I think [b]Serial Experiments Lain[/b] is overrated. It's not that the show doesn't have its good parts. I like the character designs, the OP and the overall creepiness. Some scenes are pretty innovative, and it definitely strives to be different. It doesn't pander to the crowd. But honestly I just found Lain pretty unenjoyable. It has a fairly straightforward plot, yet I got the sense that the creators were really jumping through hoops to make it as obtuse as possible. The characters, including Lain herself, are pretty flat--which could have worked in a show of this type, but for me it didn't. The pace is frankly agonizing, so much so that when genuinely exciting scenes came along, I felt too sedated to care about what was happening. I liked the beginning episodes quite a bit, but as the series wore on it became more and more of a chore to watch. Some parts of the ending episode were fantastic--but it, too, dragged on too long and soured on me after a while. While I can see why some would find Lain appealing, there are much, much better series of that type out there, as far as I'm concerned. I have trouble seeing it as the work of genius that others claim it to be. ~Dagger~

[quote name='MangaKa123][COLOR=RoyalBlue]I have no idea why she was in that series in the first place. She just didn't fit.[/COLOR'] :animesigh[/quote] It's funny you should say this, considering that without Keiko, there would be no series in the first place. Think back to the beginning episodes; she's the one who [spoiler]risks everything, including her own life, to protect Yusuke's body and help bring him back. And she had to act on faith alone.[/spoiler] As far as I'm concerned, that's at least as impressive as all the crazy stunts the guys in the show pull. ~Dagger~

I'm not sure how you could have missed Syk's warning--but once again, please do not double-post. In the future (in situations when you're the last one to have posted in a thread), either edit the new content into your current post, or delete the current post and submit a new one. Thanks. ~Dagger~

Well, I have almost zero interest in hashing over politics and governmental issues, but I figured I'd be the first one to pipe up and say--hey, I love living here. I feel lucky and privileged to be an American. I admire my fellow citizens. I don't share the opinion that our government is close to being a "facist theocracy" (hyperbole much?) or that "as a whole, the American people are retarded, irrational, and unable to accept even the slightest bit of change." As far as I'm concerned, it's a sign of the country's greatness that people can get away with spewing elitist crap like that. See the problem in excusing yourself with, "Oh, I was just exaggerating, no need to get your panties in a twist"? :) ~Dagger~

They bumped it up to 11:30!? That'll teach me to rely on a VCR. Dammit... it was not my intention to tape FLCL. :animeangr Well, aside from my being all hot and bothered over missing out on [spoiler]Wrath's (?)[/spoiler] big debut, it's nice to see FMA on TV again. And re-watching the episodes I caught on TV before the long and painful break (i.e. in the fourth and fifth DVDs) is proving to be surprisingly enjoyable. Even the Psiren story wasn't particularly wearisome the second time around. ~Dagger~

Right, then. [b]Kitty[/b], you win by default and will be participating in the second round. ~Dagger~

Well, since there's no real precedent here, I'd like to open the issue up for discussion. Do y'all want to actually vote on this match, or should Kitty be the default winner? I figured I would see what voters and the other participants thought about this rather than immediately deciding how to handle it on my own. :) ~Dagger~

[CENTER]Ozymandius Jones - 7 Sun - 5 [/CENTER] Congratulations, [b]Ozy[/b]. You'll be moving on to the second round. ~Dagger~

[CENTER]Doc - 5 sakurasuka - 0[/CENTER] Congratulations, [b]Doc[/b]. You'll be moving on to the second round. ~Dagger~

[CENTER]Deucalion - 2 Doukeshi - 1[/CENTER] Congratulations, [b]Deucalion[/b]. You'll be moving on to the second round. ~Dagger~

[CENTER]Baron Samedi - 2 rokas - 2[/CENTER] No one else voted, so I guess I'll have to be the tie-breaker here. rokas, I thought the idea behind your submission was interesting, but it came out sort of jumbled. As the viewer, it's hard to know what to focus on, and the color scheme is somewhat limp. This piece would have been greatly improved by using stronger lines and bolder, starker colors. I'm not a big fan of the blurry text, either. Baron Samedi, your piece definitely nails the theme--if anything, the images you chose were a little too obvious, heh. What surprised me is that the image quality is somewhat lacking, especially in comparison to your other work. And I didn't really dig the pale blue Warhol head. Both of you (despite the above nit-picking) did quite a fine job. That said, I'm voting for [b]Baron[/b]. Congratulations; you'll be moving on to the second round. If anyone has suggestions or concerns about the tie-breaking process, please post them to the main OBGT thread. Thanks in advance. ~Dagger~