Anime What are You Watching/Reading Now?

[Shinichi Kudou]

Omg.. I'm not even name manga, it's too many. Some of them are the same as some of the anime, though.

Still gonna finish up Ouran Highschool Host Club sometime.. ==; Sad really, since I started watching it in 2006. Dunno why I haven't finished it. Side-tracked, I suppose.

Other than that one.. Wagaya no Oinari-Sama, Detective Conan, Pokemon ( I was D/P occasionally..), Shugo Chara, Saiunkoku Monogatari, Eye Shield 21, Vampire Knight, Hana Kimi, Candy Boy ONA, Tokimeki Memorial, Ginga Densetsu Weed, Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora.. and there's probably some others, that I can't think of right now. >_>; I'm also watching some Drama's.

[Kamishu]

[CENTER][COLOR="red"]I am currently reading Bleach, and watching, Bleach, Death Note, Naruto, and Inuyasha lol.[/COLOR][/CENTER]

[The Spectacular Professor]

Got me mah new FUNi One Piece DVD's.

I love this show. It's even better now that I have a decent dub of it. No hammer guns, emotion in voices, blood retained, minor swearing. It's great! Too bad it ends halfway through the Kuro arc, though. Ah, well. I'll just wait for Second Voyage. Hope it doesn't take too long.

[Sabrina]

[FONT="Tahoma"]I finished DNAngel so now I'm watching Lovely Complex. Oh do I love how Risa and Ootani argue all the time. XD I really like the intro song to this too.

For reading, now that I finished watching DNAngel, I'm reading the manga. I'm not that far into it so we'll see how it goes.[/FONT]

[Decay]

Right now I'm reading and watching Death Note. The reading is much further along ([spoiler]Light's father has already died[/spoiler]) but I'm content watching the drama repeated through the anime.

[Magus]

[COLOR="DarkRed"][SIZE="1"]I haven't really been watching too much of anything lately. I'm fresh out of anime to watch except for those on AS. I've practically given up all hope on [b]Death Note[/b] due to the excessive amount of info from the manga that's been removed. [b]Bleach[/b] is on it's filler run, so I've been skipping those. And then there's [b]Code Geass[/b].

It's slowly growing onto me, but at the same time I really don't care for it due to the whole school setting. As far as I know, anime with those type of settings generally has an excessive amount of fanservice, and I just don't care for it one bit. Not saying that CG has it, it just seem like it does. And it just makes me skeptical. (I've also been skipping episodes, so I don't what's been happening either.) Outside of that, everything else has been interesting.

Now as far as reading goes, I've been reading [b]Bleach[/b] and [b]Naruto[/b] as usual. I just got done reading the first chapter of [b]Basilisk[/b]. Is there any specific reason why the characters in the anime look better than the manga?

I've also been thinking about reading Claymore, but I don't have the desire to do so at the moment. And then I've also been getting a bit curious about Darker Than Black manga (again, no desire to actually start reading it.)

Both anime and manga has been on a downward spiral as of late. Don't what what to look into and whatnot. (Me being picky and whatnot lol.)[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]I just got done catching up to Naruto. While it's not quite as bad as some people make it out to be, [spoiler]Itachi being a good guy in the end kind of ruined his character for me. Also, I miss Jiraya.[/spoiler]

My mom just got Netflix, so I may pop a few Miyazaki movies into our queue.[/FONT]

[Guest spacechick]

Ive been reading death note, naruto, inuyasha, you know the usual. But i have also discovered some new series. They may not be known everywhere because some of them are american manga. There are some like: Mars, Crimson Hero.I dont know if they are american or not so please bear with me.Im also reading trigun, the ouran high school host club, absolute boyfriend, ranma 1/2. These are the ones i can think of right now. Oh i almost forgot bleach.

[ledzepplinrules]

I'm reading Bleach and I am watching the Dragonball Movie set I recently bought.

[Antediluvian]

[font=arial narrow]For me, I'm currently reading all of Yuki Kaori's manga. I seem to find more with each passing week; and I'm ecstatic at the fact. I'm also reading Get Backers and Vagabond, as well as the usual weekly/monthly Shounen/Shoujo manga.[/font]

[Aaryanna]

[COLOR="DarkGreen"][FONT="Book Antiqua"]After reading the thread Gankutsuou and hearing Indi talk about it at her theO page... I decided to start watching it. I also got my hands on the OVA Banner of the Stars III after reading about that in the Crest of the Stars thread.

I'm not actually reading anything, well not anime related that is. [/FONT][/COLOR]

[Rachmaninoff]

[quote name='Aaryanna'][COLOR="DarkGreen"][FONT="Book Antiqua"]I also got my hands on the OVA Banner of the Stars III after reading about that in the Crest of the Stars thread. [/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]I just did the same thing, I've watched the first episode and I plan on watching the rest later tonight. It's better than nothing, but I'm kind of disappointed that they haven't seemed to do much with the OVA so far.

[Sabrina]

[FONT="Tahoma"]Well I finished up [B]Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Crisco[/B] as well as [B]Crest of the Stars[/B]. I enjoyed both of them for very different reasons. Gankutsuou for the psychological aspect and Crest of the Stars for the developing friendship between the main characters.

I enjoyed Crest of the Stars so I am now watching the next season for that show. [B]Banner of the Stars[/B]. I'm not that far in yet, but so far I'm enjoying it. :catgirl:[/FONT]

[Guest Sanguis]

Right now I'm not watching or reading anything. However I am going to start watching Trigun very soon, I'm just going to purchase the DVDs.

[Ravenstorture]

[color=darkgreen][font=garamond]HAHA this is so incredible... all the time I have been a member of these forums I NEVER watched/read any anime/manga... and now I do! And I can post in here! And I've NEVER posted in here before!

*dances*

I have just started uni and the bookshop there has a whole wall of it... so I bought Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo2040 box set (just finished it) and then the Chobits box set, which I'm half way through. Love em' both.

I've seen a little tiny bit of Binchō-tan before and I would like to watch more.. but I think it might be a bit harder to get my hands on a legal copy. (I is not a fan of teh downloadz!) [/font][/color]

[Allamorph]

[FONT=Arial]So last night I remembered it was Ani-Monday [I]before[/I] ten (for once), and caught this really peculiar movie called [B]Black Jack[/B], for reasons I can't right now fathom—aside from it being the main character's apparent moniker. Said character is a doctor—an unlicensed mercenary surgeon, to be specific, who charges exorbitant fees to perform complex, high-risk surgeries. (Which, admittedly, I had already explained with the 'mercenary surgeon' bit, but eh. Hooray redundancy.) Dr. Black Jack is a tall man who dresses almost exclusively in a tuxedo with a stringy red bowtie and a black topcoat, though unsurprisingly (at least to me) he doesn't bother using the coat's arms. His face . . . well, his face looks like this:

[CENTER][IMG]http://bbdf21.files.wordpress.com/2007/11/blackjack1.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]
From a little research, it appears that this was an OAV to a popular manga dating back to the 1970s. The art style, which reminds me alternately of what I've seen of Astro Boy (except colored), Street Fighter and Cyborg009, confirms this, of which I have two minds. I do enjoy the attention to detail given the majority of the adult characters, and several of the stills were quite pretty (if a little unnecessary), but I am rather not fond of the tube-legs of Pinoko or the massive schnozz of one of the pretentious art dealers, but what can ya do.

The plot is a medical sci-fi thriller (or it tries to be; whichever) with a couple of propaganda themes, one of which runs underneath the surface nicely until it is thrust to the forefront because of time constraints apparently, and the other of which is shoved into the audiences face, up their nose, and into their hair like a banana creme pie after a tap on the shoulder.

Also known as: Wut.

The gist of the plot is thus: a fourteen year old girl whom Dr. Black Jack had operated successfully on two years prior for cancer has suddenly relapsed, despite the tumor's clean removal. The girl dies shortly after the doctor arrives, but the autopsy reveals that the cause of death was not relapse but instead advanced aging of every internal organ simultaneously, as if the girl were seventy-five or older. Coincidentally, the girl was a virtuosic artist, deemed another of the recently dubbed 'superhumans'; her last painting, gifted to Black Jack, received offers in excess of $1.5 million, which at that time was still a great deal of money for a private party to spend.

Through various measures, the doctor's services are next secured by the Brain Pharmaceutical company, who are currently caring for the last surviving superhumans at their private research facility. Apparently, every person who had been dubbed 'superhuman' two years prior at the Atlantis Olympics (hey, that's what I saw on the sign) has fallen under a malady similar to the one that befell the recently deceased fourteen year old girl, and Black Jack has been hired to find a cure.

Naturally, he does so, arriving at his singular conclusion in under a week; given his reasoning, I thought it highly convenient that no one on the blue-ribbon staff he had been placed in charge of made a similar connection. But such is media. :p

The cause of the disease appears to be human experimentation performed by the Brain corporation. Moments after the doctor learns this news, the facility is virtually overrun by a medical watchdog organization known as MSJ—which in my mind is one letter too close to MSG—and all research is shut down. The woman in charge flees, but Black Jack resourcefully tracks her down and confronts her; she readily confesses, and then reveals that the wine they had shared during the conversation (hello, red flag much, anyone?) had been laced with a concentrated version of the drug that had caused the disease, intending to forcibly coerce the doctor into helping her find a cure.

The rest of the movie revolves around what they call in the military 'hurry up and wait-for-drama', and then five minutes from the end of the movie comes the startling banana cream pie about the environment (WHAT???), Black Jack fades into obscurity, cue credits.

All that to say "hunh".

No, I was impressed by the concept. The plot was rather intriguing, and the voice-acting more often than not did the movie credit. But the presentation I felt was sorely lacking; there were too many conveniences, too many moments of overdrawn tension, or unprecedented and unresolved drama, or long-winded confessions by the villain. The ending, though well-designed, was glossed over as if by Speed Racer, and again that consarn Greenpeace-esque "save the earth" plug there at the end was pure contrivance, like Christianity in Beowulf.

I didn't think the movie a waste of my night, but I do think it would have been better as a novel.[/FONT]

[Magus]

[COLOR="Navy"]Being a comcast viewer has it's ups and downs.... Majority of it being downs though, seeing how there's close to nothing on there that interest me. (Marmalade Boy, Black Jack, Utena, Red Garden and some other shows... cheers to those that watch em.)

Anyway, one recommendation that I kept getting from people over and over popped up on demand. [b]Full Metal Panic[/b]. I didn't really watch it, I skimmed through it just to see if there would be anything I'd like. First episode, yeah, I know, not fair to judge, but much like Witch Blade, this don't really give me any reason to come back to it. I'm not really all that patient and leninent anymore to wait 4-5 episodes before something actually jumps off. As I said, I only skimmed through the first episode, but from a glimpse, everything looked heavily aimed towards comedy and little to no action. Off to a bad start with this one.[/COLOR]

[xPromise]

I'm on Chapter 36 of [B]Crimson Hero[/B]. And as for anime, I'm watching[B] Hitohira[/B], [B]Vampire Knight[/B], [B]Special A[/B], [B]Itazura na Kiss[/B], [B]Kodocha[/B], [B]Clannad[/B], and a little bit of [B]Bleach [/B]every now and then. :]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]O, Holy One, Cast thy purifying light upon this corrupt soul! Rest in peace, sinners!

Holy Bump!

So I'm watching [B]Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann[/B] and I've rarely sen anything so epically winful. I'm into the second season and it's really good.

[spoiler]Too bad about poor Kamina, though. Also, Roshio became a bit of a jerk after the timeskip.[/spoiler][/FONT]

[Sangome]

[size=1]Like Ace, I am also watching Gurren Lagann...however, I'm behind more than others, as I'm following it on SciFi's Ani-Monday. [Though at two episodes per week, we'll catch up soon enough].

Kaminaaaa. <3 ...[spoiler]KAMINAAAAA. *SOBS*[/spoiler]

Also on TV, I'm keeping track of Code Geass, which I did not like at all at first...now it's grown on me. I'm glad AS will be airing R2 right after season one, although I know most of what happens [spoiler]people die every other episode, it seems...[/spoiler].

Not on TV, I downloaded Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I had seen the first handful of episodes earlier this year and wasn't too wild about it. Now I'm watching again and I love it -- it's absolutely hilarious! It just goes to show you how much tastes can change in just a few months.[/size]

[aerithina]

[COLOR="Magenta"]~+ iam currently watching:
shakugan no shana and
yamato nadeshiko the wallflower;)[/COLOR]

[Kaze]

[font=Times New Roman]Currently watching.....[b]Mnemosyne[/b]. Story revolves around two immortal females (omg...what were their names?), running a little private investigation business. They're basically doing their own thing, solving their Scooby doo mysteries and mixing it up with the gangs that always seem to have invested interest with their clients.

Speaking of cases, this is the most careless protagonist I've ever seen. She's like ergh I'm immortal! Guess I'd better just prove it by taking every bullet I can manage for absolutely no reason, though I totally have these badass fighting skills with my throwing knives, gotta keep my exp low so I don't level up. And she also has random lesbian moments with her partner who is immortal, but looks twelve.

[Spoiler]And apparently the arch-nemesis of the immortal types (who can only be female) are creatures called Angels (all males). Immortal women are inexplicably drawn sexually to Angels, who are kinda like "heh heh heh" as they rub their hands together and reel them in. THEN EAT THEM. That last sentence wasn't meant to be in caps. But why backspace?[/spoiler] I definitely don't have a very solid view on what's transpiring, since I only watched two episodes. I'm taking my time, what with this being such a short anime.

Currently reading.....[b]Crest of the Stars: Return to a Strange World[/b]. Third installment of a three part novel series by Mr. Hiroyuki Morioka. This series of novels spawned a manga ([b]Banner of the Stars[/b]) and anime ([b]Banner of the Stars[/b]). I haven't read the manga, and only saw like the first three episodes of the anime. However, that is because I'm awesome and decided to start with the books.

And these are like BOOKLETS man. Each one is no longer than a manga (192-200). But they're very entertaining reads. The back and forth between the protagonists Jinto and Lafiel is awesomely funny to me. Also, the creator put an amazing amount of work and detail into the structure of the language that was constructed for this world.

Also reading.....[b]Ressentiment[/b]. Going into this manga. I was kind of terrified. Feeling that trepidation 'cause the art was too raw and unrelentingly harsh. I'm almost done with this sucker now, and I'm not quite sure what to think of it yet. But it's without hesitation the harshest suckerpunch look at fandom I've seen, very amusing indeed. I don't have a lot to say on this anyhow, because I don't really want to talk about such a vastly terrifying work.

Just finished - [b]Hatenko Yugi[/b] (ballin'), [b]Hajime no Ippo[/b] (eagerly anticipating continuation), [b]H2O: Footprints in the Sand[/b] (still going WTF), [b]Shigofumi: Letters from the Departed[/b] (quality story)

Still working on - [b]Revolutionary Girl Utena[/b] (halfway done! Episode 21), [b]Mai-HiME[/b] (just started, might finish?), [b]Boogiepop Never Laughs[/b], [b]ToHeart[/b] (I love shoujo)

Starting to read - [b]Tenjho Tenge[/b] (watched all of the anime, just started manga where it leaves off), NANA (when I buy more...doin' this legit)

Sorry for typos, not really paying attention to typing.[/font]

[Gavin]

[SIZE="1"][CENTER][IMG]http://vizer.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/intro.jpg[/IMG][/CENTER]

OK, so technically that should be "still watching now" because I've not been able to go a day without a few minutes of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann epicness since I started the series two weeks ago. This series really just blew me away, and really not since I started watching anime with DBZ eight years ago have I been as hooked.[/SIZE]

[roymund]

Eh... Still gonna go with a nice simple answer....

"Kemonozume"

The art only gets a 3/10 (and thats being generious) seeing as "Scooby Doo" had better animation.

The story however and the subjec matter make it narly on par (for me) with other greats like 'Claymore' and 'Gantz'

Also loving the 'School Days' anime I recently picked up... Very fun, although it makes me fell pretty damn old to watch it, seeing as the concept and writing really bring home the feeling of high-school love and sex...

[sakurasuka]

[quote name='roymund']

The story however and the subjec matter make it narly on par (for me) with other greats like 'Claymore' and [B]'Gantz'[/B]

[/QUOTE]

[FONT="Arial"][SIZE="1"]
Thumbs-up, I actually just watched (Re-watched, rather, I've seen the series in its entirety quite a few times) episode 5 about half an hour ago. Now, I've been told the manga is pretty hella awesome. I think that may be the next series I tackle.

School days, by the way, is on the edge of interesting and insane. I guess I won't say much more about it, either you'll love it or hate it.

Death Note Is my favorite manga by far, but as for what I'm reading right now, it's Juvenile Orion. So amazing, brings me back to my Card Captor Sakura days. Speaking of which, I haven't pulled those out in a while.

[/SIZE][/FONT]