Anime What are You Watching/Reading Now?

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Ah, see, mind you I watched Uta Kata all at once after getting my hopes up by reading a bunch of reviews that said how dark it was, and I was all hyped for it from all that. So maybe the fact that it was disappointing for me had an even greater negative impact. I still need to hurry and finish that review...[/COLOR]

[Dagger]

[B]Chevalier[/B] volume 5 is one of the single most epic anime discs I've seen. Amazing visuals (this show has the best Western-style sword fights in any anime except maybe the Utena movie, which doesn't totally count) and so many plot twists that it felt more like watching twenty episodes than just four.

And it's not even the end!

Le Chevalier d'Eon falls into the same category as shows like Fantastic Children, Seirei no Moribito, Noein and so forth... really well produced & has a compelling premise, but kind of makes you work to sit through it, especially at the beginning. (Then pummels you with pay-off after pay-off as things develop.) I guess anime with this much money & directorial confidence behind them don't need to win viewers with cheap thrills in early episodes.

I am also [strike]very embarrassed to admit that I'm[/strike] watching [size=1]Koutetsu Sangokushi[/size]. I'd say that it's a bastardization of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but nothing can have the same sacrilege shock value as Ikkitousen. Goes heavy on the tragic!BL undertones. Mamoru Miyano voices the main character & sings the ED song.

At this point I'm mainly looking forward to the epic lulz that will no doubt ensue when he discovers that his teacher (played, of course, by Takehito Koyasu on autopilot) is pure evil & was destined to be the final boss from practically the first frame...

~Dagger~

[Rachmaninoff]

As far as reading goes... nothing. Or rather nothing that is anime based. I am currently reading a very dry almost boring book called An Insider's View of Mormon Origins. I say boring since I've never been a big fan of history but this is showing just how twisted and inaccurate 'accepted' Mormon history really is so that aspect of it is keeping me interested. In small doses of course. XP

Now as for what I am watching, I went back to Le Chevalier D'Eon since I kind of forgot about it for a while, long enough that I'm starting over since I don't remember most of what happened since the first episode. I'm almost up to where I left off before and I'm eagerly looking forward to watching the rest. Though I'll have to pick up the last two DVD's in order to do that since I only have the first four.

[Panache]

[B]The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ep 13[/B]
Slice of life ending to a sci fi? What?Well overall it was good. So I have no complaints. not worth the hype in my opinion though.

[B]With Hunter Robin 5-6[/B]
These little mini plots are interesting but I am hoping they connect soon.

[Dagger]

Ah, so you watched Haruhi in chronological order...

For the record, episode 6 is the ending in broadcast order.

~Dagger~

[Panache]

[quote name='Dagger']Ah, so you watched Haruhi in chronological order...

For the record, episode 6 is the ending in broadcast order.

~Dagger~[/QUOTE]

Yea I figured that out when it was over. I thought the series was fine in the order it was in. It went from like intense sci fi to cool slice of life almost seamlessly.

When the Lucky Star dvds hit the U.S. I should pick em up.

[Dagger]

Today I finished [b]Chevalier[/b] and [b]ef - a tale of memories[/b], which have turned out to be two of my favorite shows in recent years.

Re: Chevalier... [url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=54381][u]Tow Ubukata[/u][/url] is my goddamn hero. I can only pray that he & Production IG join forces once more (as much as I love his Xebec mecha shows, this is a cut above just about, well, everything). He's so good at managing large casts and making each character come into his/her own at climactic moments.

Re: ef, I already posted some impressions in the ef thread, but I will say that I almost can't believe how up & down and hot & cold I felt about the series in the beginning episodes. Surveyed as a whole, I personally think it's the best eroge --> anime adaptation ever made. Not necessarily the best eroge-based show or anything like that, but as an [i]adaptation[/i], it succeeds by casting new light on the pre-existing material without losing its spirit.

It's not a line-for-line animated version or anything... it feels much more valuable than that--necessary, even, because of the unique qualities it brings that could only be present in a TV animation rather than in a visual novel. (In cases like this it's usually the other way around--you get a sense of loss, not gain, in the transition from one form to another.)

~Dagger~

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Rewatching Haruhi almost exactly a year after I finished it was an enriching experience. The show is just as amazing as I remember, which also means that it doesn't hold up to my overblown love for it a year ago, lol, however I'd say the show is pretty timeless since it never gets old (I am a person who cannot STAND to rewatch things unless I absolutely love them, this being the second time I did so for part in addition to reading the first novel.)

What struck me most prominently is how much I can completely relate to Haruhi, which is funny because her unrelatability is what turns a lot of people from the show. However, watching her actions really touched me - it has that overbearing, well, melancholy all the way through. It definitely gets points for touching me on an emotional level.

Episodes 12 and 14 still give me ****ing chills. The God Knows performance never ceases to amaze, and I swear to god I have never listene dto that song without getting that feeling, and I do listen to it frequently. The last episode (yes, in broadcast order you **** (EDIT: We can't say **** on OB?!)) has to be one of the best last episodes ever, probaby resting in my top 5-10.

Getting back to how I relate to Haruhi, it's especially interesting to look at it from the perspective of the past year. Back when I first watched this show, I'd say that where I was is the same as where Haruhi was when she first 'created the world' in sixth grade. I had begun to recognize my place in the world, and everything seemed very bleak and melancholy to me, and it was around then that I first decided to start changing my atitude. At the time, that scene where Haruhi explains her past was most important to me because I saw it as what I was going through.

When I watch the show now, it feels as though I have fully adopted Haruhi's persona. I'm energetic, spastic, always dragging people into my ideas, stubborn, self-centered, and don't understand my emotion well but tend to show them without realizing it. The only thing that seperates me from Haruhi is my wariness of all these aspects of myself, including the most important aspect in that I am actually aware that the entire universe revolves around me and that my wishes are granted by it. However, I wouldn't be honestly surprised if Haruhi actualy did know about these aspect of herself in some way.

But as for my godliness, I am also like Haruhi in that I have a conflict of emotions toward the world. There are times when I find it boring, dull, and lacking in any reason to go on, and I epress my desire to kill everyone at once. However, there is also a side to me who has great hope for the world and has fun in his life, which might be what's stopping me from destroying the world like Haruhi has a tendency to do. However, I can't help but wonder if falling into complete dispair would cause me to eradicate the universe, and I actually know, for a fact, that I have the ability to do just that.

In some ways, I almost feel like I created this show to help me understand myself and help me understand the world even more through the reactions of others toward this show. Oddly enough, the first time I watched this show, I didn't care for haruhi as a character much, especially favoring Kyon and, of the girls, Yuki (who I still think is the cutest) howevevr now I see Haruhi as one of my favorite characters ever if only because she is the one I identify with the most. [/COLOR]

[Sojiro47]

[FONT="Book Antiqua"]Deer god, 2008DB, you font color kills my eyes...:animestun

As for me, I've just recently started watching PeaceMaker Kurogane, and now I'm hooked. If you don't know already, it's another anime about Revolutionary japan, but this time it's centered around the Shinsengumi. It an ok anime that sates your thirst for action around the end of the series, but leaves a little to be desired. But if you liked the Shishio arc of Rurouni Kenshin, you will love PeaceMaker Kurogane[/FONT]

[Dagger]

I guess you guys inspired me; I marathoned the rest of [B]Kamichu[/B]. Ultimately it's a show I enjoyed more for how well made it was than because I felt a strong connection to it. (Yurie in her "get me ice cream" or "not gonna leave the kotatsu" mode reminds me far too much of myself for me to like her very much, haha.)

Episode 15 soars as an ending, pun intended. Nothing particularly wrong with episode 16, but I'd have been happier if it focused on the side characters (for Mitsue, we could have gotten more about her cousin, and I found the Yashima/Miko/Matsuri/Shokichi subplot to be way more interesting than a lot of the rest of the show).

Favorite episodes--besides the beginning--were 15, the Miko & Shokichi episode, and the cat fight.

Next up is [B]Noein[/B], now that I own the last DVD. I can't remember where I left off last time, so I figure I'll probably just start over from the first episode...

~Dagger~

[Panache]

[B]Escaflowne 1-4[/B]

Hmm...wtf? This anime gets good and almost has me interested then someone does something extremely stupid. Like[spoiler]...the girl has a vision she foresees the obvious attack...then they write it off as nonsense[/spoiler]...but they have no problem believing the she came from another planet story. WHAT THE HELL!!! This better get better...and damn soon.

[QUOTE]Ultimately it's a show I enjoyed more for how well made it was than because I felt a strong connection to it.[/QUOTE]
What do you mean by that? You like couldn't understand where the kids were coming from? I guess you were a really hard worker in school...

[Aaryanna]

[COLOR="goldenrod"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Currently I'm watching the Case Closed movie The Fourteenth Target since Beth loaned me her copy that she got for Christmas. I'm almost done watching it in English and I'm debating whether or not to rewatch it with subtitles or not. After that I'm going to watch Chevalier, again, borrowed from Beth. XP I really need a job so I can buy my own anime to watch. lol

Oh and though I haven't started it yet, I plan on rereading the DNAngel Manga since it's been a while. I just wish they'd get around to finishing it since it's sucks that it's left on a bit of a cliff hanger. >_>[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Dagger]

[quote name='Panache']
What do you mean by that? You like couldn't understand where the kids were coming from? I guess you were a really hard worker in school...[/QUOTE]
:confused: Not sure what that has to do with anything. I've never been one to demand that characters share my perspective or background (if anything, it's closer to the opposite).

It's just a question of writing and personal preference... to draw a few semi-random comparisons, I also felt distant from the characters in Strawberry Marshmallow (except Miu) and Azumanga Daioh, but I fell in love with every single character in Aria and Cardcaptor Sakura.

I can't attribute that to a distinct difference in quality; I suppose I could isolate traits that make the Aria characters appeal more to me than the characters in other slice-of-life shows and so forth, but that would hardly guarantee that I would feel the same thing about characters meeting those descriptions in a different anime. It really comes down to an indefinable chemistry (or lack thereof) between the viewer and the series itself--not altogether separate, I suppose, from human relationships. You can like one boisterous person and be put off by another without ever being able to explain why satisfactorily.

In other words, because I didn't click much with the main characters of Kamichu, I watched it for reasons other than being invested in them (the peaceful atmosphere; the clever animation; the supporting cast; the beautifully adapted character designs).

[quote name='Aaryanna'][COLOR="goldenrod"][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Currently I'm watching the Case Closed movie The Fourteenth Target since Beth loaned me her copy that she got for Christmas.[/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]
It's out!? I've got to order this.

~Dagger~

[2010DigitalBoy]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Copypasta from another forum, just to explain the accusatory opening statement, as well as deleted segments lol.

Anime community, I have a very urgent question for you, and I'm sure there's some people here who are exept from this but anyway: What the ****?! Why the **** haven't you seen Black Heaven?! Why the **** isnt' it in your top 20, why isn't it lised as a classic in yuor books, and what the **** are you waiting for?

I just got done with my marathon of Black Heaven, which is kind of like what happens when you take the pitch black comedy and depressing reality of Welcome to the NHK, cross-breed it with Pink Floyd's the Wall and then inject it with a few doses of crazy sci-fi. If that combination doesn't sound awesome to you, go ****ing die, now.

This show was absolutely incredible. The story was beautiful, it draws you into every character and from around the half-point onward it's nonstop epic. Not to mention one of THE GREATEST endings OF ALL TIME that was incredibly moving and full of epic, GAR, and pure WIN that will bring the manliest of men to tears.

If you still decide not to watch this, I ****ing feel sorry for you. I will now proceed to listen to nothing but Floyd for the rest of the night.[/COLOR]

[Panache]

...Wow that is uhhh a lot of praise for that show. I thought it was pretty good. The soundtrack was pretty good and the characters and ideas behind the whole story was good. It did get cheesy at times though...with the three subordinates of that one blonde lady. Classic Geneon goodness.

[Dagger]

Finished my leisurely reading of [B]Seirei no Moribito[/B]. Wonderful ending, and I hope the translation turns out well. Because this is being published by Scholastic, I'm assuming that it will be one of the first adapted-into-anime novels* to be shelved with regular books (in this case, children's/middle grade) instead of with graphic novels, which is a step forward as far as I'm concerned.

Amused that they [url=http://www.amazon.com/Guardian-Spirit-Moribito-Nahoko-Uehashi/dp/0545005426/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199116634&sr=8-1][u]changed the cover[/u][/url] to make it more Japanese-looking.

*An awkward way of putting it, but since it's not a light novel like most of what's coming out...

Am planning to wrap up the anime (someone had better license-rescue it) shortly. Given that the anime includes not only several original characters, but also adds to some characters' motivations/personalities, I'm curious about how much input the author had on the changes to the storyline.

~Dagger~

[2010DigitalBoy]

[quote name='Panache'][B]Escaflowne 1-4[/B]

Hmm...wtf? This anime gets good and almost has me interested then someone does something extremely stupid. Like[spoiler]...the girl has a vision she foresees the obvious attack...then they write it off as nonsense[/spoiler]...but they have no problem believing the she came from another planet story. WHAT THE HELL!!! This better get better...and damn soon.[/QUOTE]

[COLOR="DarkOrange"]Wait what the ****? How are you complaining about that?! Okay, you get random chick A and you're supposed to think she just knows these things? It's not like she said 'I can see the future ZOMG!' she just said these things out of nowhere, and besides shed' just been through a lot of trauma. Unless they really ****** it up in the dub (I wouldn't be surprise, the dub is old and I believe it aired on TV, so it' sprobably like watchig dbbed Utena or something) that stuff was all perfectly fine.

And yeah, I'm watching Escaflowne ATM, having just gotten through episode 10 and it's absolutely awesome, I can't believe I put it off for so long. but theen I guess it's also nothing like I expected, heh. Man, that movie really ****** it up.

Also, Panache, I wish you wouldn't make it seem like Geneon made the shows themselves or something >_>[/COLOR]

[Panache]

[QUOTE]Also, Panache, I wish you wouldn't make it seem like Geneon made the shows themselves or something >_>[/QUOTE] They do know how to pick winners though. I don't think I have been disappointed by a show picked up by them yet.

Anyway [B]Escaflowne up to 14[/B]

This show is fricken great. The only problem is the long noses and the dub. Actually it's not even the dub it's this one girls voice and her dialogue thats all ****** up. Besides that the anime is 10/10.


Edit:

[spoiler]ight after I posted this cat girl stops a whole just by saying "I won't let you kill Van"...I hate how they suddenly pop in with random nonsensical event...I mean sure she stopped two cat people who probably pitied her or soemthign but come on...[/spoiler]

[Dagger]

Very interested to see what you guys will think of the ending (last third/fourth or so, I guess) of Esca. I thought it was damn near perfect in every quarter for most of its run, but then... well, that's a discussion for later (or for the Escaflowne thread).

~Dagger~

[ZachIsAPanda]

Well, I've been watching Neon Genesis Evangelion and School Days.
And reading D.Gray-Man, but can't find the 4th manga anywhere!

[Panache]

[B]Escaflowne complete[/B]

Hmmm. Well just before it end it got kinda...well not as good as up to that point. But I think in the end it wrapped up well. It was a shocker when [spoiler]Allens sister[/spoiler] came back. It was also a shocker when [spoiler]Vans brother died[/spoiler]

Overall I think this was a great anime. Probably the best ending I have seen in any mecha(although all I have to compare it to is Eva and Z.O.E Delores/Idolo).

Rahxephon is next. I am hoping it is as good as Escaflowne...

One final Esca thought. Good well developed(personality wise...) cat girls characters wtf?:o

[Dagger]

[quote name='Panache']
One final Esca thought. Good well developed(personality wise...) cat girls characters wtf?:o[/QUOTE]
Haha! Just goes to prove that it can happen. :catgirl:

Watched the last eight episodes of [B]Seirei no Moribito[/B] in one sitting. As a whole, the show just looks and feels a lot more like a looooong feature film than a regular TV series.

And despite the existence of plenty of other fantasy anime with trappings like dragons and elves and dwarves, Moribito--which draws from a completely different type of mythology--is in my mind the closest show out there to an anime Lord of the Rings. (Although I suppose The Hobbit would be a better comparison in terms of scale.) Its focus on world-building and anthropology is very Tolkien-esque.

I teared up at the end of both the book and the anime. As a complete product, I think the novel has more to recommend it; it's so tightly written. The anime sacrifices that sense of leanness (as well as the satisfaction of deductive revelations), but in terms of sheer beauty and spectacle, it doesn't leave anything wanting.

~Dagger~

[Panache]

[QUOTE]Haha! Just goes to prove that it can happen. [/QUOTE] It was crazy...

Oh yea one thought I forgot to mention. That anime had the most epic line ever.
[spoiler]But I can't seem to remember what it is...It was when the merchant guy left his wife. God dang it what did he say!?[/spoiler]

[Rachmaninoff]

Lets see, right now I'm reading the Fruits Basket Manga since The first twelve volumes were loaned to me. I've only just started but it's fun since I have the series on DVD and I'm loving all the little tidbits that were left out of the anime.

I watched the Case Closed movie The Fourteenth Target earlier today, which I enjoyed quite a bit. I'll probably go back and watch it with subtitles the next time through. I've also gotten back into Yu Yu Hakusho again, so I'm picking up where it's about to enter the Dark Tournament since I left off shortly before that if I remember correctly.

[Panache]

[QUOTE]Lets see, right now I'm reading the Fruits Basket Manga since The first twelve volumes were loaned to me. I've only just started but it's fun since I have the series on DVD and I'm loving all the little tidbits that were left out of the anime. [/QUOTE]

People tell me it's a whole lot better than the anime. Would you say so?(the anime was damn good)