Anime What are You Watching/Reading Now?

[lamperouge98]

I'm watching Darker than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini, Heroic Age, and Kampfer, much to my dismay. It's just that i've started it and now I can't stop watching for some reason. Maybe to justify getting into it. Ugh.

[Desbreko]

[color=#4B0082]I just finished watching the first two seasons of [b]Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha[/b], which was highly entertaining. It was a lot different from all the other magical girl shows I've seen. During the first couple episodes it looked like just another standard magical girl show, but after that it completely split off from the usual formula. More than any other magical girl anime I've seen so far, it made me want to keep watching episode after episode without pause, and if not for needing sleep I could've easily marathoned each season in one sitting.

I'm going to start on the third season, StrikerS, soon. I'm hoping it will be just as good, but I'm wary of Nanoha and the others being grown up. Magical girl anime just isn't the same with older characters.[/color]

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]More mecha for me, this time with the [B]Starship Trooper OVA[/B]s which are surprisingly decent and much closer to the original material than any of the movies or the tv-show.[/SIZE]

[Cloud Strife]

I'm currently watching Godannar, and Tenjou Tenge. Loving Godannar and really enjoying the fighting and comedy in TT. Recommend them both to all. :D

[montyhar2]

Currently I am reading ?The God Delusion?. I like to read this book. This book really stretch you mind. It is wonderful and i think every one to read this book. I learn something new every time to read this book. I read all the Dawkins books but i think God Delusion is really fantastic book.

[Sangome]

[FONT="Microsoft Sans Serif"][SIZE="1"]This thread is primarily about anime/manga and not regular literature, [B]montyhar2[/B]. I'm not entirely sure where you could post what books you're currently reading, but this is more for the Japanese side of things. Why not share in that regard, if you have any? :animesmil[/SIZE][/FONT]

[Magus]

[quote name='Sangome'][FONT="Microsoft Sans Serif"][SIZE="1"]This thread is primarily about anime/manga and not regular literature, [B]montyhar2[/B]. I'm not entirely sure where you could post what books you're currently reading, but this is more for the Japanese side of things. Why not share in that regard, if you have any? :animesmil[/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

[size=1][color=navy][url=http://www.otakuboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=87][u]Anthology[/u][/url] :p

I tried checking out Vagabond yesterday, and while I like my samurai stories, I just couldn't get into it. Perhaps it's a bit too realistic for me. I like seeing people move fast, and throwing out fire from swords and stuff lol.[/size][/color]

[Shinmaru]

lol Once again it has been a while since my last post in here. Oh well.

I finished [b]Mononoke[/b] a couple of weeks back. Great show, cannot recommend it enough. I know jack **** about Japanese mythology/horror stories, and I ate the whole thing up. The art style is amazingly refreshing, and the stories are all intense and well-executed (there's even a moment in the final story that managed to legitimately creep me out, which almost never happens).

Also watched both seasons of [b]Nodame Cantabile[/b] in preparation for the final season, which will air during the winter. The first season is actually a lot better than I expected -- the romance advances in a surprisingly subtle way, and the show focuses more on a [b]Honey and Clover[/b]-esque examination of talent and what drives those who have it, and what keeps those who have it from realizing their potential. Now, it's not as [i]good[/i] as [b]Honey and Clover[/b], mind, but there's more to [b]Nodame[/b] than I expected.

The second season, [b]Paris Chapter[/b], is good but definitely a step down in quality. I do like the direction it goes in with the maturation of Chiaki and Nodame; however, everything else feels a bit weaker, whereas in the first season Chiaki and Nodame weren't the only major aspects of the show. Despite my complaints, though, I am still pumped for the final season.

Right now I'm watching [b]Red Garden[/b], which is a strange mystery-action-musical series. (No, seriously.) The story is about four women who are murdered and then resurrected so that they can kill various creatures for some mysterious woman. (Well, there has been only one type of creature so far -- suited men who act like rabid dogs -- but I assume more will pop up eventually.) And occasionally the cast will sing. It doesn't really add that much to the show, but it's different, I'll give it that.

[Magus]

[color=navy][size=1]I just finished reading [b]Rurouni Kenshin[/b] for the second time. I really do enjoy this series a lot. A couple of things I've picked up on during this read through that I didn't notice in my first read through. I was not aware that Trust and Betrayal was in manga form.

Kaoru is a lot less annoying in the manga than she is in the anime. The fighting is still top notch... My first time reading it I think I skipped the Shishio arc for the sake of seeing what the Jinchuu arc was all about.

In any case, I'll continue this in the manga thread, but this is definately my favorite manga.[/size][/color]

[Recaldy]

After recently finishing GTO (Anime) I am currently watching Claymore. It's refreshing switching from one genre to another.

[rotlung]

Claymore is a really good series. Once you get over the hump of understanding the rest of the story fills in nicely. Plus Girls with giant freaking swords is always a plus.

I'm currently watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. I'm extremely enjoying it and was pleastly surprised that the episodes are much more condenced. In the original Fullmetal, the brothers back story was 4 or 5 episodes long and in Brotherhood it was episode 2... The whole series keeps up this trend making the whole series much easier to follow.

Merry Christmas ya'll

[gonenuts]

im watching halo legends
final fantasy unlimited
full metal alchemist
fushigi yuugi
kaidan restaurant
kaze no stigma
kampfer
shonen omnyoji
shugo chara
sora no otoshimono

and im reading d.gray-man ^_^

[Shinmaru]

I just finished [b]Detroit Metal City[/b], and anyone with a dark sense of humor needs to watch that right away. Absolutely hilarious OVA about a wimpy, pop-loving guy, Souichi Negishi, who somehow becomes the lead singer/guitarist for a death metal band that is quickly rising to the top of the scene, much to Negishi's chagrin. As hilarious as Negishi's alter ego, Krauser II, is, I think my favorite character is the foul-mouthed, boozy manager of Detroit Metal City. She's ****ing hysterical.

[Magus]

[size=1][color=darkred][b]Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger[/b]

First off, I like it (at the same time I just thought it was okay), but that's where it stops. I don't think it was nearly as good as when it first started out. During New Challenger, it was like the focus completely changed directions or something. For one they could've gave Ippo some better challengers for him to defend his belt against or something. I mean where is Vorg, Saeki and I think there were a couple more. All of them could've came back for a rematch. I hate that it ended during a training session, and I hate that Ippo and Miyata didn't get to fight again.

Ippo could've, should've moved onto trying to challenge Ricardo for the world title. There's a lot of things they could've done with Ippo, but it seem like they kept him at a standstill sucking up to other characters and become more of a teacher. Takamura did end up saving this series for me though. The guy is too goofy for his own good, but at the same time he still remains to be one of the best characters in it. (I still favor Miyata and Sendo though)

The fights were great to see. Can feel the impact of each blows (some of it tend to be a little over the top at times)

Overall it's a great series (combining both together), but it turned out to be a disappointment in the end. I do hope they make another series or something because I'd definately like to see Miyata and Ippo fight again, or at the very least see Ippo go after the world title.

Edit: What the heck is with this green.. I said grey.[/size][/color]

[Shinmaru]

Time for my monthly post in here. :p

Put [b]Red Garden[/b] on hold for a while in favor of watching other series. Watched [b]Now and Then, Here and There[/b] as it aired on SyFy -- the dub kind of sucks, but the series itself is good. It's an unflinching look at war in a chaotic world; ultimately, though, the end is a bit disappointing because it feels taken from a completely different series, a more typical anime.

[b]Cromartie High School[/b] is a fun series. Like a lot of anime comedies it's up and down, but the seriousness with which it treats its absurd situations makes it worth watching. After that, I finally finished [b]Mouryou no Hako[/b], which was definitely worth the year's wait. There's a [i]ton[/i] of talking, so I don't recommend it if you absolutely need action, but even among anime, its story is pretty crazy.

And recently I finished [b]Giant Robo[/b], which is a great, influential OVA ([b]The Big O[/b], among other series, owes a massive debt to [b]Giant Robo[/b]). If you consider yourself a mecha fan, and you haven't seen [b]Giant Robo[/b], then you need to get on that right away. It's a bit like [b]Gurren Lagann[/b] in that it seems like kid's stuff at first, but it quickly becomes much more than that. Also finished [b]Planetes[/b], which I have Miss A to thank for recommending to me (many times lol). Starts off as a slice-of-life about outer space garbage collectors (no, really, and it's also a rather sharp satire of how our culture could develop in the future) and eventually develops into an intelligent story about man's role in space, the limits of ambition and the responsibilities of developed nations.

[Magus]

[size=1][color=darkred]I have a lot of anime in my sig, but I haven't gotten around to watching most of that stuff. I've only been watching [b]Fullmetal Alchemist[/b] (2003 series) which I have on tape, and [b]Code Geass[/b] which I've taken a break from for about 2 weeks.

Despite me hating Ed and Al this series still does a lot to entertain me. The secondary characters and villains are nicely done. Mustang still remains to be my favorite out of the bunch while Lust (Laura Bailey has a seductive voice when she does this role), Izumi and Hawkeye are my favorite females in the series. (I completely forgot about Izumi being in this series)

I don't know if anyone knew, but I just found out that a lot of those voice actors are reprising their roles in Brotherhood. That's good because I liked the voice work that went into FMA.

I need to represent Mustang some day lol[/size][/color]

[Ikillion]

[FONT="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="1"][COLOR="Black"]So I totally didn't think that Gainax would be able to make anything over the top after the end of Gurren-Lagann.

Then I saw Lagann-hen.

I was wrong, very, very, very, wrong. Its like I was watching Needless and GL at the same time! Only [B][U]HUGE.[/U][/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[The Spectacular Professor]

[quote name='Ikillion'][FONT="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="1"][COLOR="Black"]So I totally didn't think that Gainax would be able to make anything over the top after the end of Gurren-Lagann.

Then I saw Lagann-hen.

I was wrong, very, very, very, wrong. Its like I was watching Needless and GL at the same time! Only [B][U]HUGE.[/U][/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

[spoiler]Between Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann being a giant green-blue Kamina made of fire and that epic fist brawl with Anti-Spiral, I was afraid that Gainax had themselves initiated the Spiral Nemesis by making something too awesome for the Universe to contain.[/spoiler][/FONT]

[chibi-master]

I recently began watching Excel Saga due to Ace's suggestion. I'm actually pretty happy with it! It's an anime that carries itself like an abridged series, so that's a plus! Although, I'm not so interested in some of the side stories presented... I freaking hate Pedro.

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]You dislike Pedro?

VERY NOOOOOO!!!![/FONT]

[chibi-master]

[quote name='Ace'][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]You dislike Pedro?

VERY NOOOOOO!!!![/FONT][/QUOTE]

And his backstabbing, sexy wife, too.

[Gavin]

[SIZE=1]Just finished Lagann-hen, and I'm sure I'll sound like a pariah here among my fellow Gurren Lagann fans but I preferred the original. It's certainly a visual treat, and the STTGL was very awesome, but I disliked Simon's incessant need to growl everything, it lost some of the impact to me, ironically it made him seem less manly than before (after all Kamina never growled, nor did Kittan nor Lord Genome).

Quite like the Gundam movies for me, decent retellings of the story but not as good as the originals.
[/SIZE]

[HopefulOTaKu]

I am in the middle of watching several anime xD right now I'm focused on Dragon Ball and Code Geass

[The Spectacular Professor]

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"]I'm watching some of my favorite One Piece moments on Hulu now thanks to FUNimation's dub uploads. I'd never seen some of them in anime form before, and I gotta say, it's kind of impressive. You can tell the voice actors really put their hearts into the dub, and the final product is really impressive. Somehow, hearing the lines out loud just seems to make them carry more weight.

I still hate fillers, though.[/FONT]

[Magus]

[quote name='Ace'][FONT="Comic Sans MS"]I'm watching some of my favorite One Piece moments on Hulu now thanks to FUNimation's dub uploads. I'd never seen some of them in anime form before, and I gotta say, it's kind of impressive. You can tell the voice actors really put their hearts into the dub, and the final product is really impressive. Somehow, hearing the lines out loud just seems to make them carry more weight.

I still hate fillers, though.[/FONT][/QUOTE]

[size=1][color=darkred]What episodes were you watching because I tried watching some of the earlier episodes and found the FUNi dub, well, it wasn't bad, but it was just dull. I don't look for voice actors to fit the original voices. I look for them to fit their characters, and I got that from nobody, which ultimately caused me to stop watching the series. (I still read it for sure though) Of course that's not the only reason I dropped it though. But yeah, most, if not all the voices I heard sounded as if they were trying to force everything. In terms of dubs I pretty much have the same problem with this as I do with Naruto and Bleach dubs. (I skipped a lot of episodes though. Out of all the episodes that're out I might've seen about maybe 5 of them. And the last one I saw was Luffy in Logue town on the execution platform) [/size][/color]