Dagger

This basically covers the same ground as our countless "Which anime character would you date?" threads, most of which have by now been consolidated into a single current [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=34488&page=14&pp=15][u]topic[/u][/url]. Please post there if you'd like to pursue the subject further; just be sure to give solid reasons for your choices. Thanks. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

Now that you've seen those two episodes (and I'm glad you enjoyed them! Your analysis is pretty much spot on), you're free to watch the new "AIR in Summer" two-part special. It basically fills in the events of Kanna, Ryuuya & Uraha's journey. I've only seen the first part, but the preview makes it seem as though the second half will tell us a bit about Ryuuya's past, which I find really exciting for some reason. The purpose of the summer special was to add in all of the comedic moments that had to be cut out of the regular show due to time constraints, but it's not completely humorous. There are serious parts as well, and it's just as beautifully visually as the rest of the show. Definitely recommended. I think that once I get the summer special DVD, I'll try watching episode 8, then the both parts of the special, then episode 9. It won't flow perfectly, but that's the best fit I can think of in terms of getting the events to go more or less sequentially. Also, the summer special has a changed OP and a (slightly) changed ED. ~Dagger~

If that's the case, I hope they at least dub in some of the Engrish... the excessive Engrish-ness turned me off the show almost immediately when I first gave it a look. This is probably the one time I would want a dub (half-dub?) script toned down; in the part I saw, some characters were dropping the f-bomb all over the place and it was painfully obvious that the scriptwriters had no clue about the word's real impact. :animesigh ~Dagger~

Mm... I'm enthusiastic about it personally, but I can't imagine your average AS viewer being too thrilled about having to read subs. I just hope they know what they're doing, because it's been said time and again that subs would totally kill the already poor anime ratings, haha. But still--how exciting! :animesmil ~Dagger~

If this is true, I am going to be [i]shocked[/i]. I mean, totally blown away. The most realistic thing I can think of is that perhaps they'll be airing uncut, subbed Naruto while Toonami goes with the sliced-and-diced version... but even that seems like a rather big stretch. It would certainly be an excellent litmus test of whether casual viewers are willing to put up with subtitles, at any rate. Assuming it's true, there are a couple of possibilities, mainly: 1) a series that has been brought over already and does have a dub, but the network deemed the subtitled version better (for whatever reason), and 2) a new or previously unlicensed series that's being rushed straight to TV without time for dubbing, or because it's judged interesting enough to attract mainstream viewers even without a dub. Bleach, maybe? Rumors like this just make me quiver with anticipation. :animesmil As a side note, Magical DoReMi and Naruto are featured on the cover of the most recent TV Week. They say DoReMi's target audience is 3 to 7-year-olds; Naruto's target audience is apparently 9 to 14. EDIT: Oh, it could be Beck. That would make a lot of sense, although I'm not sure if it's Adult Swim's type of show. ~Dagger~

[url=http://www.mahousyoujo.com/][u]Official Site [Japanese][/u][/url] Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo (Madame is a Magical Girl) is the latest series from Hiroshi Nishikiori, one of my favorite directors. His other works include Angelic Layer, Azumanga Daioh and Melody of Oblivion. The character designs were created by Shinya Hasegawa, whose art can seen in Melody of Oblivion as well as Revolutionary Girl Utena. The vocal cast (including Ai Shimizu as Sayaka and Kikuko Inoue as Ureshiko) is excellent, too; Kikuko Inoue even sings the beautiful ED. Suffice it to say that (so far at least) I really like this show. Apparently inspired by Bewitched, it features Ureshiko/Agnes, a twenty-six year old "magical girl" whose job is to protect a certain town. Because she loves the place and doesn't want to see it change, she's reluctant to pass on the role to her successor, a blue-haired kid who delights in taunting her about her age. Add in Ureshiko's estranged husband, a younger man who becomes enchanted with her almost instantly, and the fact that kissing someone could make her lose her magical powers, and you can sort of see where all this is heading. I don't know why it is, but I tend to love Nishikiori's work even when it's loaded with fanservice. For some reason, the way he incorporates it just works really well within the context of his shows. In Melody of Oblivion, the sexual innuendo added an extra element of humor, surrealism and creepiness. In Okusama wa Mahou Shoujo, it's good-natured and funny. I don't think the fanservice here is especially overwhelming, although some might have problems with the transformation sequences. The animation is great (some of the flying segments in the first episode are just astonishingly beautiful). The OP & ED are fun to watch. Even early on in the series, a lot of amusing quirks start to emerge, and the relationships unfold interestingly. This certainly won't be everyone's thing, but it's still quite enjoyable. Anyone else interested? ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=Maiya Asuka][color=#cc0000][size=2][font=Times New Roman]Question: what is "BL"? ^^; And, thanks for your opinion on things as well. They're dually noted.[/size][/color][/font][/QUOTE] Boys' Love. It's a catch-all term for yaoi, shounen-ai and everything in between. ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=Maiya Asuka][color=#cc0000][font=Times New Roman][size=2] I also want to see [i]Fake[/i], [i]Only the Ring Finger Knows[/i], [i]La Esperanca[/i], [i]Beyond my Touch[/i], [i]Eerie Queerie[/i], and [i]Yami no Matsuei[/i]. (Unfortunately I'm not made of money whatsoever.)[/size][/font][/color][/QUOTE] [b]Only the Ring Finger Knows[/b] is an excellent one-shot (and therefore costs less overall, since it consists of only a single volume). The story is satisfying and complete, and the artwork is just lovely. I do not recommend buying the English (Viz) edition of the [b]Yami no Matsuei[/b] manga. Certain scenes have been edited, and you may not want to support that kind of practice. For example--if I remember rightly--there is a page in volume 4 which strongly implies that [spoiler]one male character is performing oral sex on another. Nothing is actually shown, but in the original version one could see the first character's head, the second character's nude back, etc. Basically, Viz erased the character's head from the panel entirely, leaving the other guy sitting pointlessly naked by himself.[/spoiler] [b]Eerie Queerie[/b] is a fun diversion, but [b]Hands Off[/b], which tackles similar material in a somewhat angstier fashion, is generally superior. My main caveat is that Hands Off is not outright BL--i.e., the main character has a girlfriend, although she's not an especially prominent character. But the emotional bond between him and one of the other male leads is rather exceptional, transcending friendship and quasi-romantic love to the extent that the rest of the cast members seem to constantly comment on it. It's not that I didn't feel I was getting my money's worth with Eerie Queerie, but... at times I felt as if I were buying it simply due to the general dearth of English-translated BL. Now that DMP has licensed more and more titles, I don't have the same compulsion to buy every single BL manga on the market. Given the chance, and with that in mind, I doubt I'd choose to re-buy Eerie Queerie. Obligatory plug: if you like Cold War style espionage and heaps of UST, [b]From Eroica With Love[/b] is an absolute must. :catgirl: ~Dagger~

This manga is in a rather unique position. Of the three eccentric male leads, two are straight and one is gay. As a result, the series has a fair amount of BL humor & content; however, it isn't officially categorized as a BL manga. But before discussing that, it's important to note that (if the first volume is anything to go by), Antique Bakery is a great series in its own right. The slice-of-life comedy reminds me of Here is Greenwood, only the cast is made up primarily of adults, and Antique Bakery's gags hit the target more frequently. It's funny, smart & mature--without being unnecessarily risque. I think it's worth checking out for BL fans, if only because it offers such a different take from most "real" BL series. It isn't at all a romance series, although I'm guessing there will probably be incidental romances for all of the main characters. It's just refreshing to read something with a more laid-back atmosphere. I would also recommend Antique Bakery to those who feel neutral about BL, because that's not what it's about (it just so happens that one of the characters is gay), and because it has so much going for it in general. It's one of the more sophisticated slice-of-life manga I've come across, and anyone who enjoys sweets is going to get a chuckle out of all the lavish descriptions of the bakery's goods. Plus, volume 1 comes with a strawberry scratch & sniff cover. :catgirl: ~Dagger~

Please [b]do not[/b] post in all-caps. Any further replies posted in that format will be deleted as spam and may result in a ban. OtakuBoards places a strong emphasis on post quality; this means we'd like you to make your posts as coherent and readable as possible. Additionally, we try to maintain one catch-all topic for each specific series, movie or OVA. Our designated Fruits Basket thread can be found by browsing the Directory sticky located toward the top of this forum. If you have any questions about our policies, feel free to private message me or one of the other staff members. Thanks. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

@EVA: It's not French, and I'm pretty sure it's not Latin. For some reason Russian came to mind when I was looking at the non-translated subtitles, but I know zilch about Russian, so I'm not really sure why I thought of it. ... Actually, looking at the booklet that came with the first OST, the parts of the lyrics that aren't in English appear to be written in Cyrillic. Maybe my guess was right after all, haha. [b]Fafner[/b] has some of the best orchestral music I've heard in any anime. I read an interesting interview with the show's composer in which he stated that he had set out to write music that wouldn't sound typically anime-esque. I think he succeeded; Fafner's background music would work equally well in an epic live-action film. Its vocal music (most of which was done by angela, an excellent J-Pop band) is also superb and very addictive. So far angela has produced no less than six songs specifically for Fafner. Here's how I would rank them: Shangri-La, Separation, Fly Me to the Sky, Dead Set, Proof, Hana no You ni. [b]Revolutionary Girl Utena[/b] features truly unique choral pieces which really suit the bizarre & surreal atmosphere of the show. Kunihiko Ikuhara (Utena's director) has said that his favorite part of making the series was getting the chance to work with J. A. Seazer, the composer of all the duel themes (and believe me, there are a ton of them). On a slightly different note, I'm in love with Toki ni Ai wa, the gorgeous J-Pop style song that plays during the dancing scene in the Utena movie. Also, mad props to all of the musicians who contributed to [b]Samurai Champloo[/b]. The enka song that plays during episode 14 is unforgettable, but excellent vocal songs can be heard during later episodes as well. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Starr112']okay. :animesmil[/quote] I'm glad you found the replies to be helpful--but here at OtakuBoards, one-word posts automatically qualify as spam. Please take a look at our [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/rules.php?][u]Rules[/u][/url] and [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/faq.php?][u]FAQ[/u][/url] before posting again. Thanks! ~Dagger~

Just watched episode 46. It was kind of frustrating that the [i]entire[/i] half-hour consisted of a Hinamori flashback, but I can live with that as long as a lot of progress is made in episode 47, haha. And it is admittedly nice that Bleach lavishes so much attention on its secondary characters. More than anything, this episode was interesting for how it hinted at the power of and relationships between some of the shinigami. [spoiler]Hitsugaya must be incredibly strong, given that he leapfrogged past a lot of the older candidates (in becoming a captain, I mean) who began training long before he ever entered school. And I really like Hisagi's character design, so it was neat to learn a little more about him.[/spoiler] I hadn't realized that [spoiler]Ichimaru[/spoiler] became a captain so recently. He definitely doesn't seem like the type to enjoy being a lieutenant (playing second fiddle, so to speak). ~Dagger~

[quote name='Bloodseeker']For long, drawn out fights? Yu Yu Hakusho completely crushes DBZ, especially in the Dark Tournament saga.[/quote] This reminds me of Bleach, which is just starting to hit its stride (it hasn't had any super epic YYH style battles yet, but I'm sure they'll be coming eventually). It's actually being made by YYH's director, which is rather cool given that Yu Yu Hakusho is pretty close to being my all-time favorite fighting series, and that Bleach has started threatening to overtake it. Some of the more memorable battles in Bleach include [spoiler]Ichigo versus Renji (both times), Ichigo versus Kenpachi and Ishida versus the captain whose name I always forget (heh).[/spoiler] Hunter x Hunter, based on a series by the manga-ka of Yu Yu Hakusho, is smaller in scale than YYH but has some breathtaking fight scenes. I actually like it better than YYH in many regards, although the production quality of the last few OVAs hasn't been so good. Any battle involving Kuroro is guaranteed to own--I especially loved seeing him take on [spoiler]Killua's father & grandfather.[/spoiler] I also have a fondness for the Celestial Tower fight between Gon and [spoiler]Hisoka.[/spoiler] ~Dagger~

Really slick, nice-looking fight scenes are fun while they last, but I tend to forget about them pretty quickly, haha. I guess I should mention that pretty much every battle scene from [b]Jubei-Chan 2[/b] is eye-popping in one way or another, though. Mm... you know what? I think I'm going to go with Utena versus [spoiler]Jury[/spoiler] in episode 29 of Revolutionary Girl Utena, "Azure Paler Than the Sky." Partly because it's fresh in my mind (I just finished re-watching the series) and partly because the episode as a whole is amazing, definitely one of my favorites from any series. The duel does such an amazing job of bringing the various forces built up in episodes 28 & 29 to a brilliant climax. It isn't especially well-animated, although the animation is somewhat better than what you'd see in RGU's average duel scene. But it's meaningful, well put together and [i]so[/i] painful to watch. It also may have made [spoiler]Ruka[/spoiler] become my favorite Utena character. ~Dagger~

I was under the impression that EoE was an alternate ending, not a direct continuation. That is, one [i]can[/i] view it as being related to the last two episodes, but one doesn't have to. On that note, I don't think the end of the TV series [spoiler]showed him deciding to avoid his problems. Where did you get that from... the final scene? The ending is bittersweet in some ways but very positive in others, and I liked that because I hadn't been expecting anything but tragedy and angst. I'm not sure that it's fair to try extrapolating real events (e.g. whether or not he actually remade the world to reflect his own desires, which leads into the question of whether erasing his problems constitutes running away from them) from the content of the final two episodes. If anything, what's "real" is totally irrelevant to the themes presented in those episodes--in a certain sense they do feel more like an intense examination of the human condition grafted onto the core show than something which grew organically out of the characters themselves, but at the same time they fit so well with Shinji's development in previous episodes that I can't really find the heart to complain. Specific details relating to the reality of the plot/events would have diluted the impact of those episodes; their power stems in large part from the fact that they're so general/universal. To draw a weird analogy, think of Voices of a Distant Star: the OVA barely has the time to flesh out its characters, much less tell its story. And yet it still tends to have a very strong emotional effect on people. It's done in such an open, non-specific way that it almost invites the viewer in. The same is true of Eva's final two episodes, I think. My experience was that I wasn't really cheering for Shinji per se, but rather for the general idea of a character/person in that particular situation and for what Shinji represented.[/spoiler] Anyway, what I mean to say is that [spoiler]I think looking at it from the perspective of, "We didn't see what really happened, so we can't know if his issues were truly resolved or not"[/spoiler] seems somewhat cynical to me. But then, I'm inclined to take a very optimistic interpretation of the ending, in terms of [spoiler]Shinji's mental health,[/spoiler] if not in terms of [spoiler]the actual plot events during those two episodes, which could really have been just about anything.[/spoiler] ~Dagger~

I think the OP is trying to use "controversial" as a synonym for "offensive," which makes a little more sense in the context of his post. Although personally, I'd be much more interested in discussing controversial anime than complaining about stuff I hated (not to imply that complaining doesn't have its time & place as well, haha). ~Dagger~

It would help if you identified what turns you off; Fruits Basket and Ghost in the Shell (for example) have very little in common, so it's hard to tell what made you dislike them. Similarly, without elaboration, I have no idea why you enjoyed Samurai Champloo but didn't enjoy Cowboy Bebop. Love Hina is a harem anime. The broad genre under which it falls is shounen romance. Other harem-type shows you might want to consider are Tenchi Muyo (which consists of an OVA universe and two or possibly three separate TV universes, plus some random spin-offs), Ai Yori Aoshi, Mahoromatic, Hand Maid May and El-Hazard. Harem anime can be and often are ecchi, but not all ecchi titles are harem. Not all shounen romance anime are either ecchi or harem. Are you looking primarily for fanservice (ecchi content), or were there other things that attracted you to Love Hina? If it's fanservice you want, Girls Bravo and DearS are the way to go. Or you could give Colorful and Najica Blitz Tactics a look if you're into the whole panty shot thing, haha. ~Dagger~

Your description of [b]Legal Drug[/b] is very amusing. Personally I wish the series had continued, if only to see whether or not CLAMP had planned on just teasing us the entire time, haha. And that reminds me--I finally got around to finishing [b]Tokyo Babylon[/b]. Seeing X TV sort of killed my motivation to buy the final two books; not that I hadn't already known what would happen, but having seen both Subaru and Seishirou [spoiler]die,[/spoiler] I suspected that no matter where the original series ended, it would feel incomplete to me. I was pleasantly surprised by some aspects of Tokyo Babylon's conclusion, such as the fact that Subaru [spoiler]actually admitted he was in love with Seishirou[/spoiler] and even the bit of irony in the last few pages, when [spoiler]the little girl's ghost made the comment about people doing bad things because they're lonely.[/spoiler] Still, like a lot of other CLAMP titles, it left me feeling somewhat hollow. But I guess in this case the richness and depth of the art made up for that, at least as far as I'm concerned. ~Dagger~

OtakuBoards places a strong emphasis on encouraging quality discussion. Because of this, we tend to be a little leery of favorites threads (although they crop up quite frequently all the same, haha). If you must create a favorites thread, particularly one that involves any kind of numbered ranking, it's vital that you (the original poster) set a good example for everyone else by explaining your choices. You don't have to write a novel, but complete sentences would be nice. In the future, please attempt to keep this in mind. If you have any questions, feel free to private message me or one of the other moderators. Thanks. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

I have no problems with MIC (manga-influenced/inspired comics) as long as they aren't actually called manga. Since it's impossible to create a solid visual definition (at least not one that encompasses everything from Doraemon to Sailor Moon to Blame while excluding The Boondocks), nationality is really all we have to go by. What people don't understand is that not being labelled as manga doesn't make MIC inherently less worthy than manga; unfortunately, though, a lot of people seem to have some kind of weird inferiority complex about their work being called comics. Just as is the case with any other form of entertainment, most manga is terrible. Fortunately the sheer volume of it ensures that there are at least one or two titles that will appeal to you, regardless of your tastes. The same cannot be said of MIC, since right now it's a fairly amorphous categorization and there just aren't too many of them out there. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Darker Alucard']Strange i say i had a completely different idea of doujinshi i thought it was hentai/yuri/yaoi draw-fictions only. i thought you gave another name for non-adult draw-fic.[/quote] As duoikari said, doujinshi covers as many genres and levels of appropriateness as does regular manga. A safer definition for doujinshi might be "self-published manga." For example, Haibane Renmei (a highly regarded anime series) was actually based on a doujinshi by Yoshitoshi Abe. The doujin was an original work, but it wasn't published through a major company. ~Dagger~

One of the first things you need to know about OtakuBoards is that we strongly emphasize post quality. High-quality posts feature proper grammar and spelling and are composed of complete sentences; anything that strays really far from that will risk being deleted as spam. Additionally, we try to maintain one official, all-encompassing topic for each anime series, movie or OVA. Our designated Inuyasha thread can be found by checking the Directory sticky located toward the top of the Anime Lounge; next time, please post there if you wish to discuss any aspect of the show. Thanks. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

The first one dead was [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow]Clara[/url] [url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001966/]Bow[/url]. [I]Well[/I], Okita mentally amended as he surveyed the corpse, [I]'dead' is not, perhaps, the proper word for it.[/I] Bow had in her day been renowned for her beauty, and this was the corpse of the fiery-haired girl often referred to as America's first great sex symbol, not the sixty-year-old schizophrenic who had withered, tormented by shock therapy, in obscurity. Could it be a simulacrum, then? Or had some unknown character gone to the trouble of reviving her--simply to kill her? Said person would have done better to demonstrate a touch of restraint; pulling on gloves to poke and prod the limp body was really not at all the same as seeing those dark doe-like eyes, with their eternally pleading expression, in life. Not that Okita had ever had the privilege of meeting the real Clara Bow himself--he was merely extrapolating. Onscreen she had been radiant, charming as much for her underlying frailness, the winsome tilt of her mouth, as for her more conventional physical qualities. The eyes were the primary problem, actually, for the simple fact that they were no longer there. She had been found half in the river, half out, as though the killer had wished to preserve the state of her face rather than letting it all wash away with the silt. Okita slithered a gloved finger into one of the dark messy cavities; it emerged near-black with a kind of past-its-prime blood that clung to the latex in thick sloppy chunks and whose scent was peculiarly reminiscent of menstruation. Inhaling the deeper layers of that scent as a wine connoisseur would breathe in the odor of wine, he eventually touched his tongue to one of the runnier drips which had been threatening to dart down between his knuckles and over the back of his palm. The taste told him nothing, except that this corpse had once been a true human being or else a very close approximation of one, and that he had grown rather picky in the past few decades; the blood was much too old for him to appreciate. Bow had died, if he remembered correctly, in 1965. Sighing, Okita withdrew from the table and stretched, forced to suppress an errant yawn. He could not hope to remain alone in the morgue forever--simply breaking in had by itself been troublesome enough. It was time to contact the others, he supposed. Taking one last protracted look at the gouges on her belly and thighs--the water had cleaned those wounds quite thoroughly, leaving the skin around them with a strange fish-like pallor--he removed the gloves and flipped open his phone. There was no answer, as expected; it rang and rang until finally his call was picked up by an answering machine with no message other than a swift, curt beeping. "Hello. Business going well? Ah, but not too well, I hope. Try to stop by"--here he rattled off the names and primary addresses of several movie studios--"sometime in the next few nights; it has to be after darkness falls, you understand. "Apparently there's a monster on the loose. I wouldn't take too much stock in the stories; only I've just met the corpse of Clara Bow--I can count on you having seen some of her films, no?--and when things like this happen in close proximity it's almost never a coincidence... but anyway, I shan't bore you." There was no good way to talk to Persona without giving the impression that one was an absolute fool--somehow his silence made people nervous and rambly not because it was derisive, but because of its very lack of derision; its lack of anything, really--so Okita usually just ran with it. "So see if you can catch a glimpse of the beast. Or bring back its arm, or its head. Whichever works. Contact me if you encounter any difficulties. All plane fares and such will be paid for, of course." It was best, as a general principle, to let Persona take care of business according to his preferences. Echo had arrived in the Los Angeles area not shortly after Okita and was naturally more cooperative, so he would visit her in person, and then they would see who was destined to show up in the river shallows next. Yet first--he pinched the tip of an inside-out glove between his finger and thumb, idly swinging it back and forth as he thought--he would take care of his own needs first. It was unwise to strategize on an empty stomach. Stooping, he kissed Clara Bow in one of her hollow eye sockets and told her to rest peacefully... the age in the smell of it still turned his stomach, but he came away with enough blood on his mouth to set the mood...

OB does not permit asking for or providing links to illegal material, a category which encompasses fansubs regardless of the licensing status of the show in question. If you would like to [i]discuss[/i] Prince of Tennis, feel free to post in our designated PoT thread, which can be found by using the search feature or by browsing the Directory sticky. Additional questions about our policies can be directed to me (or the staff member of your choice) via private message. Thanks. Thread closed. ~Dagger~