Anime What are You Watching/Reading Now?

[Kaze]

Currently watching ~

Revolutionary Girl Utena (why have I never watched this crap? Old shoujo is so beastly...). It's one of those freaky looking old anime, with the complicated characters and plot that I never bothered to look into, until recently. Cross dressing? Girls that turn into cows? Swordfights with semi lesbian car racing interspersed in between? I'm glad I decided to watch.

Haruhi (2009) - took a break at Endless Eight (....), intend to continue whenever. Though I love Haruhi. I even have the first novel (waiting on second novel to come out in hardcover). I even watched two episodes of Endless Eight, knowing full well that I was stupid.

Now and Then, Here and There - I'm really getting into these older shows again. Though '99/2000 isn't too old, comparatively... Boy is spirited away to alternate universe of some sort after meeting freaky looking girl, and this new world he finds himself in has a massive shortage. Said world is at war because of said water shortage.

I was really surprised at how relentless this anime is randomly. Good story, and I was more impressed because there was no previously existing manga for it to draw from. Looking forward to not being too lazy to finish watching.

Blue Drop - Girl is shipped off to fancy all-girls school in Nowhere-ville, hates it, makes enemies with the most popular girl ever, and suddenly weirder things begin happening at an alarming rate. I liked how it started, and then said-weird things occur, and I kinda quit watching it.

[Spoiler]The moment she meets miss-perfect, it seems like a beautiful friendship in the making, and once the girls shake hands; miss-perfect has a vision and starts choking her....lol what. Then our heroine tries telling people she was assaulted and everyone basically goes "nonsense, playa." And then the alien crap starts happening. Lesbian aliens!"[/spoiler] I'd like to finish watching it soon, just had to take a break because I was caught off guard.

There's more, but my linux keeps crashing on me so I need to fight my laptop and not post for another year.

[sbsp13668]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][COLOR="Red"]I'm currently reading Homer's [I]The Iliad[/I], and I'm going to watch [I]Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig[/I] and [I]Higurashi no Naku Koro ni/When They Cry[/I] (the first season) soon. [/COLOR][/FONT]

[Vigilance]

I am currently watching Karin, so far its good. Its funny and it has some kind of romance in it. I'm just watching Karin until I watch more One Piece episode.

[Windfang]

Just got done with the Code Geass set. Great stuff love the Mecha loved the Characters. Currently reading Naruto. Just started Vampire Knight and am now wathcing Tsubasa season 1. I am playing Pokemon Plat and Knights in the Nightmare.

[Nony]

I haven't been watching much anime lately, but I finally got around to finishing Code Geass R2 today. Plowed through the last ten episodes, and man I actually cried a bit at the end. I was [i]not[/i] expecting that. o_O
But, thanks to that, it ended up getting a higher rating in my book. Anything that can make me cry must be pretty good. lol

[SunfallE]

[FONT="Lucida Sans Unicode"][COLOR="RoyalBlue"]I'm watching [B]Ghost Hunt[/B] over at FUNimation's website for it.

Adam came into chat looking for screens from that show the other night. I got curious about it and took a look and ended up continuing to watch it, even though I am not a fan of ghost stories, at all. I don't believe in that kind of stuff so I tend to find it rather boring.

So what got me to watch six episodes in a row and has me planning on watching even more? This right here:
[YOUTUBE="Ghost Hunt OP"]eHaxcnHRJoc[/YOUTUBE]
That's right, the music. o_O I got sucked in by the Opening and the Ending is really pretty too. And to make it worse, I think the way the music is done throughout the show, supports it really well too.

It also helps that I like the main character, Kazuya Shibuya, quite a bit. Mainly because so far they have his character being the type to completely research a potential 'haunting' and combining it with actual science in addition to all of those 'mythos' about ghosts that I don't believe in. Some of the 'science' isn't real either, I just like the more intellectual approach to dealing with ghosts. It makes it fun to watch.

There are some downsides of course, there is one 'Aussie' accent that I don't care for, even though I don't mind the character and I still cringe at some of the obvious ghost stuff and rituals to get rid of them parts. But so far it's at a ratio of 80% like on account of characters and the scientific angle and 20% don't like for ghost stuff and annoying accents.

And then you go and toss in the music... which I want to get already... And I'm kind of sunk. If it continues along the same vein, I'm going to end up watching the entire thing. I've made it through 13 episodes at this point so I'm already halfway through and I only started on it a few days ago. XD[/COLOR][/FONT]

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]Tried [B]FLCL[/B] last night, while not as bad as NGE I have to admit it's style didn't appeal to me at all so I quit about five minutes into episode 3 (which if one considers it in terms of overall series length meant I got further through FLCL than NGE).[/SIZE]

[Shinmaru]

lol I fail at keeping up with threads yet again. A brief (yeah, right) overview of what I've watched since I last posted in here ...

[b]Azumanga Daioh[/b]: Good series, just as funny as I heard it was. I <3 Tomo, even though she is a total jerk.

[b]Speed Grapher[/b]: Solid, but it's just missing that certain something that would have made it a really good series. Can't put my finger on it, but it just does not feel like everything connects the way it should.

[b]Vision of Escaflowne[/b]: Good beginning, garbage middle portion (eps 15-21 are terrible) and a decent ending. Absolutely hated 99 percent of the romance in this series, and the story sometimes gets a bit [i]too[/i] insane, to the point of parody (and not in the awesome [b]Utena[/b] self-mocking way), but anything that gives me Dilandau is worth watching.

[b]Fullmetal Alchemist[/b]: Decided to finally watch the original since I am enjoying [b]Brotherhood[/b] so much. Good series -- there are parts where it measures up to [b]Brotherhood[/b] (Hughes is better in this series, the background of certain Homunculi gets fleshed out to an interesting degree, etc.) and parts where it doesn't (the main antagonist sucks). But it offers a much different experience overall than [b]Brotherhood[/b] so I enjoyed it due to that.

[b]Mobile Suit Gundam SEED[/b]: The first half is utter ****, but the second half is pretty damn good and really intense. But, my god, is it ever a slog getting to that point. The story spins its wheels for a long *** time, Kira and Athrun's rivalry is rarely interesting until the halfway point AND I ****ING HATE FLAY. As good as the second half is, I don't know if it is worth it to force one's way through the garbage in the first half.

[b]Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny[/b]: Opposite problem of [b]SEED[/b] -- good first two-thirds, and the final third is generic, stupid nonsense. I can see why this series pissed off so many people. First off, it's totally unnecessary, which puts a ton of pressure on the series from the beginning. And after delivering for a good portion of the show, the finale is disappointing on just about every level. And the recapping is worse here than it is in [b]SEED[/b]. Two recap episodes in the final nine? WTF is that.

[b]Le Chevalier D'Eon[/b]: Good series. The first half is kind of basic, and is basically carried by how well the supernatural elements combine with how the show moves through the history of the pre-French Revolution period. But around ep15 or so, the show gets [i]really[/i] good. I don't think there is a bad episode in that bunch. Really love how the theme of defending traditions vs. clearing the path for change and revolution is explored.

[Magus]

Oi, Shinmaru, you just killed any and all interest I had left to pick up where I left off with Gundam Seed Destiny. (I hate recaps. Good heads up.)

Anyway, I picked up where I left off with [b]Hajime no Ippo[/b] and this has become one of my favorite series. I'm on episode 27 and, I can certainly say that I really can't stand this Mashiba person. No matter what he's going through [spoiler]his cheap tactics against Miyata[/spoiler] pisses me off. [spoiler]I really would've like to see Miyata vs Ippo in the finals[/spoiler] but, I guess it was not meant to be. Hopefully there'll will be a time they get a rematch. If not, I'll settle for a Miyata vs Hayami (I think that's his name... Shotgun guy.)

[b]Bleach[/b]. You know it's sad when it takes filler to get me back into watching a series. This zanpakuto fighting against their owners theme has been really interesting. Some of the fighting's been good and other's have been kind of crappy.. (Ichigo... Honestly, I really don't like how Studio Perrot handles large swords in fights.)

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]Just got through [B]Gundam SEED[/B] and my thoughts are pretty much identical to Shin's, well except for the fact I didn't hate Flay as much by the end as I did up until about episode 42 when her experiencing explosive decompression wouldn't have been severe enough.

Only 7 episodes into [B]SEED Destiny[/B] now, but there are a couple of things irritating me already. The amount of scene recycling (which was pretty bad in SEED) has reached epic new levels of fail whereby the same scene will be slightly recoloured and used less than 2 minutes later, this isn't even taking Shinn's launches into account. When someone insults Cagalli she just stands there gaping and looks as if she's going to breakdown, Shinn is an ******* and where did Durandal come out of ? Lord knows I know things are only going to get worse but it's still pretty annoying. SEED would probably be my fairly close second favourite Gundam if they cut out the unnecessary extensions to the plot and had better quality art.[/SIZE]

[Shinmaru]

I'll man up and admit Flay gets a bit better as the series goes along ... well, near the very end she is slightly better. ([spoiler]Great when she dies, though![/spoiler])

Watched [b]Wolf's Rain[/b] recently -- excellent series, love how the wolves' journey to Paradise unfolds, and especially how each of them grows along the way. I love Toboe. ;_;

Also watched [b]Natsume Yuujinchou[/b] and have just started its second season. Like that series a lot -- more than I expected, actually. It has the perfect pace for the stories it tells: Nice and easy, but not so slow that it will lull the viewer to sleep. And Natori is awesome. Glad he has already made another appearance only three episodes in to the second season!

[Magus]

Can't watch Hajime no Ippo anymore... :mad: (anime in general online.. Missing a flash thingy that lets me watch things in HD)

I've been reading [b]Samurai Deeper Kyo[/b] for the time being. When I see this and compare it to it's anime counterpart, it's almost like a completely different series altogether. (I didn't watch all episodes so I could be off there.) One thing I've noticed... Who the heck is that ninja guy with the cannon on his arm and where the heck is he in the manga? If he's not in the manga what was the point of including him in the anime....?

Anyway, while I don't think this is the best samurai series out there, it certainly has its entertaining points. The fighting is pretty good. The artwork is probably the best I've seen out of all the manga I've read so far... (only 5.. Let count.. Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Fairy Tail, Rurouni Kenshin, Basilisk, Death Note, Tenjou Tenge, Black Lagoon.. Ok 9) It's kind of funny how everyone is portrayed as a pretty-boy. [spoiler]Even Oda Nobunaga looks like one of them pretty-boys that'll get upset if you touch his face.[/spoiler]

I'm currently on chapter 91. I suppose my only issue with this series is Yuya. (Who didn't see that coming.) She's as typical as the next damsel. (I'm so grateful that Ghost in the Shell, Black Lagoon, Basilisk and Moribito exists.) Only good for shouting the main character's name over and over. >_> Puts me in the mind of Kaoru and Kagome. <_<

More to come when I'm completely caught up.

[Recaldy]

Reliving an old Favourite.

Ayashi No Ceres

[I, Colossus]

[quote name='Magus']Can't watch Hajime no Ippo anymore... :mad: (anime in general online.. Missing a flash thingy that lets me watch things in HD)

[/QUOTE]

Not trying to pry, but why do you not just simply get this aforementioned "flash thingy"?

[Magus]

[quote name='I, Colossus']Not trying to pry, but why do you not just simply get this aforementioned "flash thingy"?[/QUOTE]

Computer issues.. (big time) Did a system restore but, still running into the same problems so I don't want to put anything on the computer until I get it checked out.

[TheResplendent]

[FONT="Tahoma"]Just started watching [b]Glass Fleet[/b] the other day. I know nothing of the manga, just started watching because it has been a while since seeing a new space themed anime. Majority of them have nothing on Outlaw Star. Only a few episodes in right now, though the first episode did nearly nothing to suck me in. My rule with most animes is to watch the first three episodes to determine if it is worth watching, the case here does not seem all that impressive or different, but I am curious to see if a potential [spoiler]Cleo/Vetti [/spoiler] encounter in episode 4 will help out any. [/FONT]

[Magus]

[color=navy][size=1]From one samurai manga to the next, I started reading [b]Rurouni Kenshin[/b] again. I don't know why but, a lot of this stuff looks new to me. I think what I did the last time was read the Kurogasa part. Skipped the Oniwaban arc. (I don't even remember if I read the Kyoto arc or not) But I do remember reading the Jinchuu arc. (I don't even recall reading the Raijuta incident...) And here I've always said that the manga and anime weren't all that different. Lesson learned. (Read the whole thing and don't skip. XD)

Anyway, I just finished reading chapter 48 and one things for certain. [spoiler]Sanosuke definately deserved what Saitoh did to him.[/spoiler] Seriously, it's good to be cautious but, it's bad to be nosy. I think that was where I began to not really care for Sanosuke.

Reading this again reminds me why I think Rurouni Kenshin is the best shonen series out there. (Yu Yu Hakusho is as well.. One Piece is good but everything else don't really measure up to RK and YYH. At least not from what I've been checking out lately.)[/color][/size]

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]Dropped SEED Destiny after the wedding crash episode, simply lost the will to keep watching it. That said I started watching [B]Darker than Black[/B] earlier this week and I'm really enjoying it so far, the plot itself is pretty good but it's the characters which make it a hook for me, particularly Gai, the dude cracks me up whenever he's on-screen.[/SIZE]

[Shinmaru]

Loved both seasons of [b]Natsume Yuujinchou[/b] more than I thought I would. It is paced perfectly for the types of stories it tells, and I am a total Natori fanboy now. Definitely clamoring for a third season!

Finished [b]The Daughter of Twenty Faces[/b] recently. It's a good series. The tone and angle of the story changes a [i]lot[/i] throughout, which keeps it interesting, but it does run out of tricks near the end. That is a bit disappointing. Chiko is badass, though. More of Aya Hirano being a badass plz.

And I am watching [b]Rose of Versailles[/b] right now. Oscar is fabulously GAR. <3 And the visuals, oh my. Totally, totally '70s in every way, and completely melodramatic, but my god I am eating them up with a spoon.

Hope you enjoy [b]Darker than Black[/b], Gavin! The series isn't quite as good as I hoped it would be when I watched it way back when (the ending is a bit lackluster), but it is good enough for me to look forward to the second season. Plus, November 11 is badass. The most badass month of the year gets the most badass character in the series. Oh yeah.

[Rachmaninoff]

I recently started watching [B]Ghost Hunt[/B]. I'm not a huge fan of the supernatural deal and I did like how it had a bit more science mixed in. However the further it gets in, the more it falls back on relying completely on supernatural stuff. Which is fine considering the type of show it is, but I find it less interesting than the first story arch where it was a bit of both. I definitely like the music for it. Especially the OP, it has a very Outer Limits feel to it, the lack of narration makes it stand out well.

[Gavin]

[quote name='Shinmaru']Hope you enjoy [b]Darker than Black[/b], Gavin! The series isn't quite as good as I hoped it would be when I watched it way back when (the ending is a bit lackluster), but it is good enough for me to look forward to the second season. Plus, November 11 is badass. The most badass month of the year gets the most badass character in the series. Oh yeah.[/QUOTE]

[SIZE="1"]Finished out the series on the way home on the train. I didn't think the season finale was too bad [spoiler]although it did annoy me slightly they killed off so many characters[/spoiler] so I'll leave final judgement on that until I see season two proper which if the trailer has anything to do with [spoiler]doesn't have much to do with season one[/spoiler].

Added to that yes, 11 was quite the badass.[/SIZE]

[pax et agape]

Right now I have started watching Naruto via Netflix. In all the time I've watched anime I've never gotten around to it till now and I wanted to see what all the hype was about.

I just finished the second DVD today and though it's not my favorite anime at all it's pretty cool. Naruto's character kind of annoys me but most of the others I find interesting and I think the battle scenes are top notch and very creative.

I think I will stick with it at least through the first story arch.

[Kaze]

I hadn't been watching much anime recently, so the past week I've been going on a rampage playing catch-up.

Just finished [b]Now and Then, Here and There[/b] - Totally did not expect the level of harshness that was in this anime, I was sucked into the story throughout. Wish it were more than thirteen episodes.

Finished [b]Shoujo Kakumei Utena[/b] - Probably my favorite shoujo anime now. Just because of the state of startled bewilderment I was left in, after watching the show, and the movie (should not have watched the movie immediately after....).

Watched [b]Black Lagoon: Second Barrage[/b] - It'd been a little while since I watched the first half of [b]Black Lagoon[/b], so watching [b]Second Barrage[/b] totally reaffirmed my love for this series, and blew me away. I am in love with these characters.

Watched [b]The Sky Crawlers[/b] - Not much to say, movie is gorgeous, and I enjoyed the story. Want it to come to the U.S. soon, so I can watch it in theaters, and buy the DVD post-haste.

Started watching [b]Mamono Hunter Yohko[/b], [b]Moihime Musou[/b], [b]Slayers Revolution[/b], and still need to finish [b]Blue Drop[/b].

[Magus]

[size=1][i]Watching[/i]

[color=navy][b]Gungrave (ep 9)[/b] - I've seen Gungrave before, I just don't recall any of the events. I also remember stating that Gungrave was the best when it came to characterization. Even after coming across One Piece (where I find every character in that series is enjoyable to see), Gungrave's characters still hold up strong. I won't say much more since I plan to revive the thread and I have more to say :)

[b]Bleach (241)[/b] - It's sad when filler is doing better than its cannon half... This episode was probably the best I've seen. Although, [spoiler]I still think Byakuya's the best character in Bleach, it's just becoming a tad bit nerve wrecking how they got him going on and on about his pride[/spoiler], like they're trying to turn him into another Vegeta or something. [spoiler]The way he took out Sode no Shirayuki was priceless though.[/spoiler] The fights and animation in this episode was also great. Shocking too, because, out of all the cannon episodes I've seen the only episode that I found great was the episode where Hisagi was fighting Findor..... Sad indeed.

I'm just going to copy and paste the other 2 from the Fall 2009 season thread.[/color][/size]

[quote=Me][color=navy][size=1][b]Inuyasha: Final Act[/b] - With my history of dogging Inuyasha I probably wouldn't even consider watching this back then because I couldn't get into the characters outside of Sesshoumaru, and that was the only reason I'd even consider watching it. Time went on, and I've lightened up on it quite a bit. They started off right where it last left off, however I'm a bit lost since I don't recall those events at all. Slow pacing can be cast aside now since the events are going by pretty quickly.. It's only been 2 episodes and [spoiler]both Hakudoshi and Kagura already died.[/spoiler] I don't know how this is compared to the manga since I've never read it, but people are saying that it's been covering at least 12 volumes / chapters per episode... (Might be a misread there.) Anyway, it's been pretty decent so far. This episode coming up looks like it'll be its first snag... I hate Shippo.

[b]Fairy Tail[/b] - I just finished watching ep. 1 of this a little while ago. I wasn't going into this with high expectations at all considering my lack of interest in the manga now. But this was a pretty decent episode. I didn't expect much in terms of fighting, or action but, what was shown was better than I thought it'd be. My main concern here is the fan service. Hopefully it'll be toned down considering the manga is full of it. It's nothing extreme like Ikki Tousen but, to me it's like a lighter version of Tenjho Tenge. Like I said, I hope they lighten up on it because it's a turn off for me.. (One of the reasons why I don't read keep up with the manga anymore.) Other than that I'm fairly interested in seeing the next episode.[/size][/color][/quote]

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"]Just finished [B]Basilisk [/B]a couple of minutes ago, I'd been meaning to watch it for a year or two but just never seemed to get around to it. Overall an OK series with plenty of decent characters on both sides (although the Kouga are generally portrayed as the more sympathetic side from what I could see), Muroga Hyouma has become one of my favourite anime characters for his ridiculous zen-badassness. Ending was a tad predictable, I'm not sure if Basilisk just drew inspiration from Romeo and Juliet or if it was a Japanese-style remake but there was plenty of similarity. [/SIZE]