Dagger

[quote name='EVA Unit 100]Personally, I never understood the appeal of the genre. From what I can gather major appeal is fanservice, but ultimately I don't think I could enjoy any show for fanservice alone. I don't have anything against shows with some shonen-ai/shojo-ai elements in them as long as they have more to back it up. I enjoy Gravitation, and I actually shed a tear at [SPOILER]Shinji's final confrontation with Karou[/SPOILER'] in Evangelion. However, most of the shonen-ai/shojo-ai I've seen/read bits of seems to be mostly just fanservice with very shallow, angsty plots. For anyone who is a fan of the genre, why do you enjoy it?[/quote] Forgive me for merging your thread; this one had only dropped to the second page, so I figured it would make things a little neater to combine them. People have come up with all sorts of complicated psychological theories that attempt to explain why women like yaoi; in the process, they often miraculously forget the main reason that men like anything to do with lesbians--because it's attractive. So obviously there's both a sexual and an aesthetic element to it. Beyond that... I dunno, I just find it appealing. To me both yaoi and yuri (when done well) feel "different" because, as is probably the case for most of us, I grew up on heterosexual love stories. I suspect a lot of females enjoy the fact that having the characters involved be members of the same gender creates more obstacles for them to overcome--which is often construed or presented in such as way as to be/seem romantic. I guess that's where the angst factor usually kicks in. I feel like I said this somewhere else, but there really aren't very many yaoi/yuri anime out there. Manga is a different story, although most of the better yaoi manga are still unlicensed, and it's virtually impossible to find English-language yuri manga. Despite this, there's a much wider variety of yaoi/yuri stories available in print. As far as anime go, there are only a couple shows/OVAs that I think are good compared to anime in general as well as to the rest of the genre. People cite appreciating the aesthetic element of yaoi/yuri as evidence of shallowness, but that's an unfair accusation, in my opinion... it's no more shallow than becoming interested in mecha anime because giant robots kick ***, or deciding to check out a slice-of-life series because its trailer has really awesome music & animation. For me, at least, the inclusion of yaoi/yuri hints/relationships/whatever is simply a hook... for the anime in question to truly grab me, it has to actually be decent, just like anything else. Now, if you're referring to the slash fandom (which comprises all those fanfics based on pairings that are very obviously not canon), that's a somewhat different situation. But it appeared as though you were referring to canon yaoi/yuri. ~Dagger~

Okay, I just finished watching this show. And as much as people love classifying Kare Kano as a typical Gainax anime with a typically "bad" ending, I really don't see where they're coming from. It's not exactly packed with closure, but I certainly didn't get the feeling that the staff simply stopped caring or something toward the end. If anything, the show sagged a little in the middle and then got much more interesting during the final arc. After all the terrible things I'd heard about the ending of Kare Kano, I came away from it quite impressed. It was a lot more consistent than I had expected, and I thought the creators did an excellent job of working around what was obviously a small budget. While it did stop in the middle of a story arc, things sort of came full circle, and I'm satisfied. Plus, it has one of the best English dubs I have ever heard. Sticking with the series was well worth it, if only to hear Liam O'Brien as the inimitable Hideaki Asaba (who was, incidentally, my favorite character). :animesmil ~Dagger~

What the...? This thread confuses the heck out of me. How is it possible to compare a franchise that has spawned a needlessly complicated timeline of prequels & sequels (not to mention countless AU series) with a [i]single[/i] show? I mean, Gundam SEED is totally different from Turn A Gundam, which in turn is quite unlike Gundam Wing, which in turn is totally different from Zeta Gundam, which in turn is (surprisingly) different from ZZ Gundam. And let's not forget about the really far-out Gundam anime, like G-Gundam and SD Gundam. I can understand comparing individual series, at least to a certain extent, but "Gundam or Gad Guard" just doesn't make sense. That having been said, I'll take Gad Guard over pretty much every Gundam show except Turn A. It's a good example of a "style over substance" anime done right--the artwork is to die for, and the animation is at times ravishing. The characters play their various roles well and manage not to be annoying. I absolutely love the slightly retro-looking mecha designs. Plus, Katana is glorious. :animesmil But getting back to what I said earlier, it'd be nice if the original poster elaborated on his intentions--or at least answered his own question. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Jamvis]Oh man, FMA is SO addictive man x.x I literally live just for saturdays now. problem is it's how long? 45 eppies? or is it 50 something? I can't remember. But if they're only airing one eppy per week, it'll take a WHOLE year. even though they show the same eppy four times in a week, it's like... if you still manage to miss that one episode, you're SCREWED for the rest of the year lol! but anyone else here wanna get on the [AS'] forums and try to talk them into making it a nightly thing?[/quote] Well... that's how it ran in Japan, so what's your point? :animeswea Plus, Adult Swim does weeknight re-runs (as I believe you implied), which most definitely did not happen in Japan. So I'd say I'm quite happy with the current schedule. There's no way I could keep up with the show if a new episode aired every night. FMA is fifty-two episodes (well, either that or 51... 52 is a much more common number, but I can't remember if FMA is an exception or not) for a reason; it was designed to last a full year when it debuted in Japan. ~Dagger~

Welcome to OtakuBoards, Kedraa. :) Introduction topics are against the rules here, because we want new members to feel as though they can immediately begin participating in the discussion(s) of their choice. On that note, we already have threads intended specifically for talking about Shaman King and Rave Master (aka Groove Adventure Rave). You can find them by checking the links in this forum's "Directory" sticky thread. If you have any questions, feel free to private message me or one of the other staff members. Thanks! Thread closed. ~Dagger~

Please watch your post quality, Musashi189; any additional posts like this will be deleted as spam. And next time, be sure to check the "Directory" sticky thread (which is located near the top of this forum) before starting a new series-specific topic. Also, bear in mind that we have separate forums for discussing anime and manga. If you want to talk about the Tenchi Muyo manga, feel free to head over to the Manga Workshop. ~Dagger~

As it happens, I just watched episode 43 yesterday (it's hard to believe that the show is well past the halfway point!). Some of the recent plot twists have just been incredible. I wouldn't worry too much about annoying characters (well, unless the one annoying you is Tenma himself). Monster has such a huge cast that the more irritating characters are nicely balanced out by the cool ones. Personally, I was very surprised at how my opinion changed regarding certain members of the supporting cast. For example, Eva is now my favorite Monster girl. :animesmil ~Dagger~

Your post quality leaves a lot to be desired, egutsu. Please remember that it's important to make your posts as clear as possible, which is most easily accomplished by using proper capitalization, punctuation, etc. A wee bit of proof-reading definitely wouldn't hurt. :) Lately I've discovered that [b]Soukyuu no Fafner[/b] has quite a bit of re-play value. The relationships are at times almost frustratingly complex (I had to read a translation of the drama tracks included on the Japanese OSTs before I could even begin to figure out certain things!). But as is the case with Utena, that's a big part of what makes it so fun. It helps that the show's powerful emotional impact lingers even during a second or third viewing. ~Dagger~

Some may have the occasional illustration (I'd guess that they probably appear at the same frequency as the illustrations in Susanna Clarke's [i]Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell[/i], although that remains to be seen). All in all, though, they are indeed ordinary books. It seems like more and more anime nowadays are being based on novels rather than manga, which is really pretty cool. Of course, that's not to say it hasn't happened in the past. There are so many series I'd love to read in English... I hope that the companies translating these are able to find a way to successfully cross-market them, assuming there's already a licensed manga/anime out there for them to use in blurbs and stuff. ~Dagger~

There are more than a few Japanese series that I'm interested in reading (Kino's Journey, Twelve Kingdoms, Mirage of Blaze, etc.), so I was very excited to find out that some companies have started translating anime/manga-related novels for the North American market. Now, this isn't totally new; Tokyopop has been releasing the Slayers novels and the CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators novels for at least several months. Additionally, I believe an Onegai Teacher novel has been available for a while. However, a lot these are either a) really short, b) poorly written, or c) obviously aimed at a younger audience. So I can't say any of them interested me much (although I might go for Slayers if I can pick it up on the cheap--the first-person narration is actually quite amusing). But once I found out that Dark Horse is planning to release the [b]Vampire Hunter D[/b] novels and that some other company (heh) will be releasing the [b]RahXephon[/b] novels, my interest was re-ignited. The first volume of each series is already listed at Amazon, by the way. Both have gorgeous covers--I wish more fantasy/sci-fi books looked that good. VHD's cover artwork, along with some internal black-and-white illustrations, was done by Yoshitaka Amano. I've seen people say that Vampire Hunter D has very elegant writing, so I hope the translation is nice (and plus, it inspired the movies--not the other way around--which is a big point in its favor). As for RahXephon, if it's anything like the anime, it has to be pretty sophisticated. I'm hoping that bookstores will shelve these alongside real books, rather than tossing them in the manga section, which would probably just hurt sales. So, does anyone else plan to read these? :catgirl: ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=r2vq]And Dagger-dono, I thought you didn't like Naruto... o.o Something about no matter how much purple eye shadow Orochimaru has... -ArV[/QUOTE] The episodes I've seen (which were, admittedly, pretty random) didn't exactly excite me. But then, I'll probably end up watching it on American TV if the dub is good and ShoPro doesn't do anything too awful... like giving it the Zatch Bell treatment. Of course I'm watching Zatch Bell despite that, so there you have it, I guess. :animeswea Also, Itachi looks like my kind of character. :animesmil I became more interested in Naruto after it was licensed, because it could do great things for the North American anime industry--if it's treated properly. And although I've been the one saying that it would take incredible idiocy to screw this up, the way ShoPro has been handling Zatch Bell is extremely discouraging. As far as I can tell, Zatch Bell is edited much, much more heavily than any other other series in its time block (can anyone confirm this?). I find it hard to believe that such cuts were performed at Cartoon Network's request--they're almost akin to the kind of thing one would see in a 4Kids production. And the name changes are not just limited to the titular character becoming Zatch instead of Gash. Considering that Zatch Bell appears to be markedly less violent than Naruto (and that even this level of violence has been tweaked to make it appear less threatening), I'm starting to get a little concerned. :animedepr [b]The Drizzle[/b], thank you for whiting out those spoilers. For future reference, you can create spoiler tags by typing [*spoiler]text[/spoiler], minus the asterisk. I'll edit them into your post. ~Dagger~

Alright, I'll put together a spoiler-tag sticky thread for the Anime Lounge; Solo has more than enough work & spammish-ness to deal with as it is, and I can probably get it posted sometime today. It's very encouraging to learn that this type of sticky has had a noticeable effect in Play It. So much for deciding that I'd avoid spoiling myself for FMA. While tagging posts in the now-notorious "What Made You Cry?" topic, I found out what happens in episode 25. Having that sort of plot twist prematurely ruined is what makes [i]me[/i] want to cry. :animesigh Anyway, I'll also start keeping an eye on members who regularly dribble unmarked spoilers all over the place. ~Dagger~

I performed a thread split on the "Television line-ups" topic, since all of the last few posts in it dealt specifically with Naruto. With that having been said... [quote name='Twilight_Kioku']i dont know much about naruto, but isnt he supposed to be a kid? so why get someone like vash the stampede to voice him? wont that make him seem...older? im not going to claim divine knowledge of dubbing, but wouldnt someone like Yahiko from kenshin be a better pick? from what little i read of naruto, the personality seems to be a better match.[/quote] Johnny Yong Bosch is an extremely versatile actor. He has played teenagers and young kids in the past, including Claus Valca in Last Exile and Eriol in the second Cardcaptor Sakura movie. He's also taken on similar roles using an alias, as voice actors are wont to do. So I really wouldn't worry about whether or not he's capable of sounding young. As for gender changes... I think that's very unlikely, unless the show actually features a full-blown homosexual relationship (which, as far as I know, is not the case). ~Dagger~

The impossible has happened: Envy's English voice is even sexier than Lust's! Okay, that may be a bit of a stretch, but I was certainly impressed. Al's next episode preview narration put me in a tizzy. Now I'll be indulging in rampant (and probably totally off-base) speculation for at least the next week. The final line was [spoiler]"How could all of my memories be fake?"[/spoiler] Now, assuming it's not a teaser that misrepresents what really happens next, that one sentence reminded me very, very strongly of a certain other show, which I dare not mention for fear of spoiling those who have yet to see it. And of course I'm immediately tempted to draw parallels between it and FMA, but that will probably lead me to a number of incorrect conclusions, especially given how little I know. [spoiler]Apparently Ed's big feat (binding Al's soul to the suit of armor) wasn't too special after all, with all these bodiless armored guards running around. What immediately raised my suspicion (even before the preview) is the fact that the diagram on the inside of Al's helmet (?) is very similar, if not identical, to the diagram drawn on the helmet of the guy who was fighting Ed. Moreover, both appear to have been sketched in blood. If, in that last line, Al was talking about a real & concrete situation/revelation--i.e. not an illusion created by some enemy or whatever--I'd have to question a lot of things. Such as whether he and Ed are even true brothers to begin with (again, this theory harks back to the unnamed series I mentioned earlier), or assuming they are, how much of their shared past might be fake. Having Al be a product of the prison/lab wouldn't quite make sense (how many years ago was it shut down, anyway?), especially since he has the voice of a child and all. Either way, it's still fun to think about. I bet that a lot of this (FMA's future plot, though perhaps not the current arc) will be somehow related to Ed and Al's dad. He's scarcely been mentioned since the very beginning of the show, which actually makes me think that he'll become a super-important character (regardless of whether he's alive or dead) later on.[/spoiler] That's just a guess, however, like pretty much everything else I've written. Watch me be completely off... predicting plot twists has never been my forte. :animeswea ~Dagger~

I was surprised that [spoiler]the concept of a "penalty" (i.e. someone vanishing/dying if one of the magic books is destroyed)[/spoiler] ended up being introduced in episode 3. Things are certainly moving along nicely, if you ask me. I just want to know more about the angry-looking blonde chick; it'd be nice if this show featured a female who actually has brains. ~Dagger~

"Ever-looming" is an incredible exaggeration, in my opinion. I've noticed references to Nazis only one in recent memory, during some of the early & middle episodes of Monster. And in that case it wasn't exactly gratuitous; it was handled seriously and made perfect sense, given the context of the story. In terms of Nazism and Nazi symbols, anime ought to be the least of one's worries. Prince Harry's actions are troubling, but anime? Nah. ~Dagger~

You're not alone. Online, virtually nothing ticks me off more than being spoiled, to the point that I sometimes worry about my ability to handle it in a calm and rational manner. :animeangr Anyway, I just started going through the last few pages of the thread in question and spoiler-tagging some of the more horridly revealing posts. Unfortunately I can't comb over the entire topic at the moment. Some months ago, I thought about making a spoiler-tag sticky thread for the Anime Lounge, a la the one that can be found in Play It as well as the one in the Music, Movies & TV forum. But I never got around to discussing it with Solo. Something like that could help, although I'm not sure how much of a difference it would make; the people who write about spoilers without even offering so much as a little warning may not be people who are likely to read sticky topics. Meh. ~Dagger~

I haven't actually gone out and seen this myself, but I'm assuming that at least a couple of other people here have. So is it a worthy sequel to the original film? Is the style of directing markedly different, and if so, would you consider the change to be a good thing or a bad thing? Does the ending leave things open for yet another continuation? I can't even remember the last time I went to see a movie in theaters, but I enjoyed The Ring enough that I might make an exception for The Ring 2. ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=elfpirate][b]You know why? Because as the generations pass, we become less and less self-sufficient, and we become weaker as a species- especially in countries like America.[/b] [b]Yeah-- I think convenience makes us weak ...and it gradually waters down our willpower. I mean, why learn how to survive when everything you need is provided to you by the corporations of America, eh? [/b] [b]But that is an issue that belongs in another thread, so I won't get into it any more than I already have--not on this one, at any rate.[/b][/QUOTE] Well, before you wholly give up on that particular tangent, you might be interested in reading [url=http://cms.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20041112-000010.html][u]this[/u][/url] article. A nation of wimps? Perhaps... In part I think this mindset is just a function of fully maturing/growing up. When I look back on my childhood, it seems as though everything was perfect then. Of course now I know that all sorts of horrible events were taking place all over the world at that time; there isn't much more tragedy or apathy now than there was then. But one tends to regard one's own loss of innocence as the entire world's loss of innocence, I think. *shrugs* ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=DeathBug]Well, I can't comment on everything, but: Card names in Yu-Gi-Oh! aren't totally in Viz's control, because Konami/Upperdeck also have rights to them, and don't want their products "misrepresented", or whatever. Usually, what happens is that the card will be introduced by its trading card name, and then referred by its manga name for the rest of the book. It's not really Viz's fault. Similarly, there is a "Maximillion Pegasus Starter Deck", so they probably couldn't change his name either. And, from what I can tell, the humor in Shaman King is still there, or at least hasn't been blatently changed. ("They clanged Ryu's bells!) Hikaru No Go did have Tetsuo smoking a cigarette, and putting it out on a Go board. And I can't comment on the rest...[/QUOTE] Name changes are name changes, regardless of the entity behind them, and it's not something I particularly want to support. Similarly, ADV can't be blamed for the horrible audio & video quality (plus next episode preview re-arrangements, plus changed attack names and other improper proper nouns, plus missing variant openings, plus an omitted episode) in their uncut Sailor Moon sets, but people who are really put off by that kind of stuff won't buy it regardless of the source of the problem(s). Anyway, a very specific sequence was removed from Shaman King, not just that kind of comedy in general. It wasn't exactly priceless humor or anything, but if I recall correctly at least several entire pages ended up being cut (from Jump). Oh, I see where I went wrong about HikaGo. After reading up on it a bit more, I realized my memory was a little faulty--the SJ version was more or less untouched, but that character's cigarette was removed from the graphic novels. I mixed up some things in my original post; in the end it's not so much the magazine's rating they're trying to keep down, but rather the ratings of the individual manga that are serialized within it. Which doesn't have much of an effect on my original complaint--while one can keep manga magazines, they aren't exactly intended for archival purposes. Thus far more than a few SJ series have been edited either in the magazine (a la Shaman King & everything with attack/name changes) or in the graphic novels. If I liked a serialized manga enough, I'd naturally plan to go out and buy it in tankouban form. So edits in either version are bad. ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=AzureWolf][COLOR=blue]That's an interesting point, Dagger. I didn't consider Ed's way of asking shocking or horrific (although I'm not saying I was right or that you are wrong). What made it seem so? The hesitation? There has to be some element in that scene that I must have missed, as I didn't pick up on that. At this point in the game, I remember distinctly having thought of something by using my own brother-little bro relationship: [i]if I was in Ed's shoes, what would be on my mind[/i]? Again, not that it was necessarily correct, but it's just kind of interesting to note how different our speculations are/were.[/COLOR][/QUOTE] I guess I was just surprised that he flat-out refused to tell Al. I had been expecting him to continue with something like, "You know, I really didn't want to get you mixed up in this, but it's been bothering me for a long time, and..." Instead he totally clammed up. Plus, Al seemed unduly alarmed, so I figured that he himself was starting to suspect Ed of something. I can't remember if Ed stated it ouright, but either way, he also seemed incredibly scared of Al finding out what he had been about to say. That plus the show's already established dark undercurrents made me think he was hiding something pretty serious. ~Dagger~

Lightwing, you started a [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=45866][u]thread[/u][/url] about the exact same thing slightly over two weeks ago, and the original thread was still on the first page of the forum when you created this one. Next time please try to avoid making redundant topics. It will help greatly if you use the search function (or look in the Directory sticky) when you want to talk about a specific anime, as it may already have been discussed in pre-existing threads. Thanks. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Xander Harris']So this thread doesn't get locked, let's start explaining WHY we like said characters, as well as just listing them and adding pics...[/quote] What he said. I'm not quite sure how this is supposed to work, but I wouldn't mind letting it stay open if we actually talk about the cute girls rather than simply listing them. Of course the final decision should rest with this forum's moderators. Anyway... only three? This is going to be tough. [b]Misuzu Kamio[/b] from [i]AIR TV[/i]: A beautiful girl with a tragic story. Misuzu is the kind of character whose moments of emotion really stick with you, and personally I think it's impossible not to root for her. Of course it helps that she's lovingly animated and has an absolutely stunning character design. Look at those huge blue eyes... they're mesmerizing. [IMG]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22832&stc=1[/IMG] [b]Anthy Himemiya[/b] from [i]Revolutionary Girl Utena[/i]: Anthy is probably one of the most complex characters I've ever come across. The first time I watched the show, I liked her well enough. The second time I watched it, I fell in love. I mean, who could possibly resist that [spoiler]evil[/spoiler] smile? [IMG]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22830&stc=1[/IMG] [b]Nana[/b] from [i]Elfen Lied[/i]: Lucy will undoubtably snap up the Elfen Lied vote, but that won't stop me from trying, haha. I must admit that I have something of a Nana-chan fetish. Yet aside from being ridiculously cute (not to mention insanely resilient--early on in the show, she lost [spoiler]both arms and legs,[/spoiler] but that certainly didn't stop her from kicking ***), Nana is also a very loveable and admirable girl. She's sweet, determined, brave and immensely forgiving. [img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=22834&stc=1[/img] Honorable mentions: Meroko from Full Moon wo Sagashite, Canon Memphis, Maya Toomi & Tsubaki Minashiro from Fafner, Layla Hamilton & Sora Naegino from Kaleido Star, Mariko from Elfen Lied, Claes & Triela from Gunslinger Girl, Grandis from Nadia, Sei Satou from Maria-sama ga Miteru, and the list goes on... ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=DeathBug]I haven't noticed much editing in the SJ manga, mostly because they've obviously selected manga that correspond to the teen age-group. Let's see...there's death, violence, profanity, drug/alcohol use and sexual scenes; where's the editing? No, really, I'm curious. Anyway, if you're interested in Naruto alone, just buy the graphic novels. I subscribe to SJ, and buy the novels of my favorite manga in there. (Hikaru No Go, Naruto, Shaman King, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Bleach).[/QUOTE] I can't provide you with a comprehensive list or anything, heh. But going just from memory, several card names were changed in Yu-Gi-Oh. Crawford's name was also changed to match the 4Kids dub. Similarly, more than a few of the attack names in Naruto were altered (often in bizarre and nonsensical ways). Some rather crude humor involving testicles and the like was cut out of Shaman King. In Hikaru no Go, cigarettes were changed to gum. If I recall correctly, there were some nudity edits in the early volumes of Dragon Ball. I've also heard talk about both blatantly and subtly changed dialogue, but I don't know which specific series this corresponds to. ~Dagger~

1. Some people feel that the moderation is too strict; others will tell you it's just right. Honestly, this is simply going to depend on what you look for in a forum. I wouldn't say that we go locking threads left and right; we try to place an emphasis on good post quality, but it's much preferable to salvage a bad thread than to lock it outright. I mean, as long as you adhere to the rules and your posts are relatively coherent (and in that regard, what I've seen of your writing is more than adequate), chances are that you won't have to worry about this sort of thing. Take the Anime Lounge, for example. Favorites threads and versus threads are not forbidden, but at the same time we ask that they at least do something to generate discussion--i.e. explain your choices. See [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=46120][u]this[/u][/url] thread for an example of the type of complaint we occasionally get in regards to moderation. 2. Fanservice is fine. Nudity is more dodgy, because it's possible for an image to technically be nude without actually showing anything inappropriate (as an example, one of the banners I had a few months ago showed a character whose arms were hiding her breasts; the overall effect was in some ways more chaste than if she had been wearing, say, a skimpy bikini). Basically, if you're going to share nude sketches or, say, wallpapers featuring nude characters, please censor the crotch and nipples and all that. At least initially, it might be better for you to err on the side of caution until you get a feel for what's considered acceptable and what's pushing things a bit too much. We trust the judgment of our membership, so we try not to lay down lots of detailed rules about this sort of thing. Just be aware that there are some young teenagers/children who visit these boards, which is one of the big reasons that the general rule about adult material is in place. 3. No. I hope that helped. If you have any further questions, you can of course post them here, but you should also feel free to private message me or one of the other staff members. ~Dagger~