The all things Anime related thread.
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Soldato
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I have seen the first season of Higurashi .... hmmmm .... not really my thing but quite good in it's own way. I actually preferred Elfen Lied to it.
Currently watching Mobile Suit Gundam 00 ... saw the first 7 episodes last night which were quite good (although as it's the first Gundam I've seen I'll have to reserve judgement on the series as a whole).
Currently watching Mobile Suit Gundam 00 ... saw the first 7 episodes last night which were quite good (although as it's the first Gundam I've seen I'll have to reserve judgement on the series as a whole).
Soldato
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LOL in terms of animation quality as Gundam 00 is in glorious HD, that will probably spoil you if you ever get to watch the older Gundam series.
Soldato
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Yeah I know .... if I like it from a story point of view then I may pick up the cheap Gundam Seed sets which are due out next month and give them a go too.
Just finished reading Kimi ni Todoke vol #1 (manga) as the anime has been quite good so far. Haven't noticed much in the way of deviation between the two.
Its the same with watching Macross Frontier/Zero and then watching one of the earlier installments.
I'd be quite interested in a new hd super dimensional fortress macross.
Oh dear I just watched my first anime series (woo anime virgin)- Elfen Lied. This is going to sound weird but amongst all that violence parts actually made me cry.
Is there actually an anime that can top this for me???
Ok plays on emotions and is a good series.....
Rozen Maidens
Fate Stay Night
Claymore
Chronicles of Tsubasa
Elemental Gelade
As to Gundam 00. I think the series as a whole is pretty good, probably the best mecha anime of the last 5 years or so in my opinion. The first series is better than the second and there are some serious 'gurren lagann' type issues in regards to graham and his mecha (you'll see as it goes on) but as long as you don't think too hard about it it's fine
Soldato
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I could never watch that series again... I almost tore my ears off after 26 episodes of the boy saying the name "Clare" over and over again. Over rated anyway in my opinion, apart from the fact they are women there are many similar and better series. Last fight sequence I seem to remember being pretty cool though, was a while ago I watched it.
Stuff I've finished watching recently:
Afro Samurai - well... good animation I guess, a good premise also but the actual execution/story seemed disappointing, but those voices... my God! Can we get some Japanese dubbing please?
Black Lagoon - good series, very pleased to have watched it.
Darker Than Black Gemini Of The Meteor - I didn't realise this was only going to be 12 eps, I felt a bit robbed after I watched the last one, oh well, it was good while it lasted, although I didn't like the ending.
Gantz - Awesome! I don't need to say more. Watched the first ep while high and I was like "this is the best potential set up for an anime I've ever seen".
Kurokami - a bit average, worth watching but totally run of the mill and predictable. I also hate the way they say the name of the move they are pulling off, it just doesn't work here.
School Rumble - lol, very lol.
Karas the Prophecy - erm, a nice change of pace with the animation style and the long fight scenes, but over all I thought it was a waste of time and won't be getting the second part.
Howl's Moving Castle
Spirited Away - I don't know why it's taken me so long to get round to watching these two, Spirited Away was really, really good, Howl's Moving Castle less so, but still pretty magical.
Stuff I've started watching:
07 Ghost - no idea if I'll stay with it yet, probably not.
Dance in the Vampire Bund - I've got no idea what this is, I think it's complete carp but I can't tell, bright colours keep moving and confusing me!
Kenichi - As a fan of Hajime No Ippo this series appealed to me a lot, but sadly after watching some it's nowhere near as good, not bad though and I will probably keep going with it till the end.
Durarara! - To early to tell if I like it or not, but a lot of this winters crop of new series seem to be pretty meh... although this one has more potential than the rest, I will keep watching.
Katanagatari - Only 1 episode aired so far, and it looks really good, I will definitely be sticking with this one.
Ookamikakushi - I've only watched one episode of this as well so far, didn't like it much.
I think I'm going to have another try at 12 Kingdoms, the first time I couldn't make heads or tails of it even after about 15 eps, I found it very confusing/slow to take off. That was about a year ago though so maybe another shot will be worth it.
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Soldato
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In regards to Claymore, it gets good up to around episode 20 or so, but then afterwards it totally deviates from the original Manga and that is where it goes completely downhill. The final was still pretty cool though. The Manga which is still ongoing is so much better as you start to understand the world and how much things are changing with regards to the characters and the dodgy organization they are associated with. And yeah Raki is extremely annoying, but he will mature into one hell of an awesome character as the Manga shows.
Soldato
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Please watch the original FMA, not the new one. You'll enjoy it a lot more.
12 Kingdoms I would avoid.
Same with Karas, although you might like the fight scenes.
Death Note you should like.
I'd recommend Berserk, Gungrave and Cowboy Bebop - three series anyone can enjoy.
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The sad thing is I really love that series, but I will never watch it again because I just can't handle that ending again.
Soldato
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Tried watching Ergo Proxy the other weekend .... didn't really think much to what I saw (first 8 or so episodes) but I'll have another go at it eventually.
Ergo Proxy isn't really "messed up", Texhnolyze however, is.
Soldato
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Oooo new licenses from Yen Press have been announced; Haruhi-chan, K-On! and Bungako Shoujo are all probably buys for me.
(Yay K-On! manga .... hopefully someone will license the anime too ... would never surprise me if it didn't turn up in one of Sentai's sudden solicitations).
(Yay K-On! manga .... hopefully someone will license the anime too ... would never surprise me if it didn't turn up in one of Sentai's sudden solicitations).
Soldato
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Hmmm, just watched through Fate/Stay Night...what it it with Anime and sad/ambiguous endings?!
I literally just found out there was an additional 'Last Episode' made for the 'family-friendly' PS2 version of the game, and Im really not sure why they didnt make an epilogue featuring that having read/watched a translation.
From what I can understand they pulled little bits from all the other story arcs featured in the original hentai game/mangas anyway, and even if they kept the current ending, an epilogue episode mostly featuring a little of Shirou's life in passing, and tying it up like the Last Episode sub arc would have rounded out the plot a whole lot better than the 'official' ending.
I hadn't actually realised the game was only meant to cover the space off approximately 2 weeks, it seemed like it was meant to cover a longer period, but if Shirou was meant to love Saber that much, the whole '...oh I'm fine with it' ending just doesn't gel to me, I've seen far too many people who've lost love ones to know you don't 'just deal with it', but often have a sort of mental breakdown.
The whole living his life out, passing away, and then finding Saber/Arthuria in Avalon (symbolism for heaven, or another time period/magical world I dont know), to spend his life with her just seemed so much more fitting, given the way the story progressed, besides the ending suggests that thier story/adventure wasn't entirely over yet and something else was on the horizon [read: it even offered a sequel!].
I'll admit, I'm not really a massive anime guy, its kinda like a guilty pleasure to me -my brother absolutely goes through anime and manga like they're firing writers because there's too much unread material, whereas I kinda just check it out every now and then in short doses, because, despite it being stereotyped, I end up feeling feeling like its a bit childish, or I shouldnt be watching it now I'm in my twenties etc. Bit of a love/hate relationship I suppose, so perhaps thats why I dont get this anime trope?
I mean the last 3 I actually watched (Chrono Crusade, Elfen Lied and this) all have a sad ending. Am I just unlucky in a lot of the more recommended, slightly-more-mature just tend to have sad endings?
Not sure which one I'll watch next. Have heard a little about Spice and Wolf being completely different to most of them, anyone got any other recommendations for a slightly more adult anime they think I'd enjoy? [By adult I mean, not obviously childish like Pokemon/Naruto]. If they're in english without rediculously annoying voice actors that'd be good too, those last 3 series I've all watched in Japanese as the English voices felt so cliched/contrived and annoying, otherwise Im happy with subbed shows. I cant read any Japanese so no point in recommending any I wont be able to understand
One thing that kinda annoyed me though about the Fate/Stay Night DVDs are that the english voice overs are not only a bit rubbish, but the actual sound quality is worse too. At first I was swapping between them on the first show to see which I prefered, then I realised the Japanese version seemed to sound better/less muddy, thinking it was my imagination I checked out the bitrate, and it actually WAS lower. What's up with that? If you're going to release it on the UK market, surely the language track most of us can understand should be the higher quality of the two??
I literally just found out there was an additional 'Last Episode' made for the 'family-friendly' PS2 version of the game, and Im really not sure why they didnt make an epilogue featuring that having read/watched a translation.
From what I can understand they pulled little bits from all the other story arcs featured in the original hentai game/mangas anyway, and even if they kept the current ending, an epilogue episode mostly featuring a little of Shirou's life in passing, and tying it up like the Last Episode sub arc would have rounded out the plot a whole lot better than the 'official' ending.
I hadn't actually realised the game was only meant to cover the space off approximately 2 weeks, it seemed like it was meant to cover a longer period, but if Shirou was meant to love Saber that much, the whole '...oh I'm fine with it' ending just doesn't gel to me, I've seen far too many people who've lost love ones to know you don't 'just deal with it', but often have a sort of mental breakdown.
The whole living his life out, passing away, and then finding Saber/Arthuria in Avalon (symbolism for heaven, or another time period/magical world I dont know), to spend his life with her just seemed so much more fitting, given the way the story progressed, besides the ending suggests that thier story/adventure wasn't entirely over yet and something else was on the horizon [read: it even offered a sequel!].
I'll admit, I'm not really a massive anime guy, its kinda like a guilty pleasure to me -my brother absolutely goes through anime and manga like they're firing writers because there's too much unread material, whereas I kinda just check it out every now and then in short doses, because, despite it being stereotyped, I end up feeling feeling like its a bit childish, or I shouldnt be watching it now I'm in my twenties etc. Bit of a love/hate relationship I suppose, so perhaps thats why I dont get this anime trope?
I mean the last 3 I actually watched (Chrono Crusade, Elfen Lied and this) all have a sad ending. Am I just unlucky in a lot of the more recommended, slightly-more-mature just tend to have sad endings?
Not sure which one I'll watch next. Have heard a little about Spice and Wolf being completely different to most of them, anyone got any other recommendations for a slightly more adult anime they think I'd enjoy? [By adult I mean, not obviously childish like Pokemon/Naruto]. If they're in english without rediculously annoying voice actors that'd be good too, those last 3 series I've all watched in Japanese as the English voices felt so cliched/contrived and annoying, otherwise Im happy with subbed shows. I cant read any Japanese so no point in recommending any I wont be able to understand
One thing that kinda annoyed me though about the Fate/Stay Night DVDs are that the english voice overs are not only a bit rubbish, but the actual sound quality is worse too. At first I was swapping between them on the first show to see which I prefered, then I realised the Japanese version seemed to sound better/less muddy, thinking it was my imagination I checked out the bitrate, and it actually WAS lower. What's up with that? If you're going to release it on the UK market, surely the language track most of us can understand should be the higher quality of the two??
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Re anime and sad endings, i'm not saying it's the norm, but a lot do in one way or another
A lot get open endings either because they're based on a longer running manga/book series, or because they hoped for a second season, or even just more episodes*, others because the creators left it open to allow the audience to make their own minds up
If you want a more mature anime with a slightly happier ending (although still ambiguous) Haibane Renmei is absolutely great, although very little in the way of real action
Re the sound, i'm sure quite why that happens, at least with stereo tracks, unless it's something to do in part with the quality of the BGM/E materials they receive from the Japanese, as there are times when the English track is not only higher bit rate, but surround whilst the Japanese might have been just Stereo (or the English might have a DTS and DD option, whilst the Japanese had just DD).
Spice and Wolf is good, I'm waiting rather impatiently for the second series to get released (and the second book, due in June).
You might like Black Lagoon (I think it's just had a box set out with both seasons), which is fairly mature, rather dark, and great fun
Oh, and if you want to avoid sad endings, do not under any circumstances get Saikano (available with the OVA side story fairly cheaply), that is even more depressing than Eva, Elfin Lied etc.
*The original Bubblegum Crisis for example got cut short at 8 episodes, and from memory they basically had one or two episodes to get it semi tied up.
A lot get open endings either because they're based on a longer running manga/book series, or because they hoped for a second season, or even just more episodes*, others because the creators left it open to allow the audience to make their own minds up
If you want a more mature anime with a slightly happier ending (although still ambiguous) Haibane Renmei is absolutely great, although very little in the way of real action
Re the sound, i'm sure quite why that happens, at least with stereo tracks, unless it's something to do in part with the quality of the BGM/E materials they receive from the Japanese, as there are times when the English track is not only higher bit rate, but surround whilst the Japanese might have been just Stereo (or the English might have a DTS and DD option, whilst the Japanese had just DD).
Spice and Wolf is good, I'm waiting rather impatiently for the second series to get released (and the second book, due in June).
You might like Black Lagoon (I think it's just had a box set out with both seasons), which is fairly mature, rather dark, and great fun
Oh, and if you want to avoid sad endings, do not under any circumstances get Saikano (available with the OVA side story fairly cheaply), that is even more depressing than Eva, Elfin Lied etc.
*The original Bubblegum Crisis for example got cut short at 8 episodes, and from memory they basically had one or two episodes to get it semi tied up.
Soldato
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Dunno, Chrno Crusade and Fate Stay Night both have a fairly strong 'sad' element, not sure how much worse Saikano can get... I mean, is killing off half the main characters and the love interest not enough?
Its not that I mind sad endings so much, just that I only seem to be watching stuff that makes me think...oh
at the end. Not to mention got some bad family stuff right now so would rather watch slightly more cheery material!
I dont mind open stuff so much as even if its not completely closed, theres usually some closure of sorts even if you're left to think, and some series seem to benefit from leaving it open...the amount of debate on Elven Lied's I found even without looking for it must mean the producers get some interest!
With Fate Stay Night it wasnt like it was even complicated audio, both are 2.0, but the japanese is higher bitrate, not massively so but run through a home theatre it's pretty noticeable just how much more muddy the sound is in english, even from the first few minutes, it just sounds ...muffled. Bit bizarre given they must record the US/English release with DVD release in mind. From what I understand the new stuff FSN stuff they're meant to be making doesnt exactly tie on with with the old series either, so its not like they could improve the ending without OVA, or I suppose an FMA style remake, but it just struck me after that seeing that 'Last Episode' skit, they could have tied the series off so much more fullfillingly, even without harming the potential for a follow on series (or these other Arcs).
Will take a look at Black Lagoon, see if the plot interests me, and take a look into Spice and Wolf if they're indeed good
Haven't seen Eva (is that Evangalion?) so perhaps I'll avoid that now.
Its not that I mind sad endings so much, just that I only seem to be watching stuff that makes me think...oh
at the end. Not to mention got some bad family stuff right now so would rather watch slightly more cheery material!I dont mind open stuff so much as even if its not completely closed, theres usually some closure of sorts even if you're left to think, and some series seem to benefit from leaving it open...the amount of debate on Elven Lied's I found even without looking for it must mean the producers get some interest!
With Fate Stay Night it wasnt like it was even complicated audio, both are 2.0, but the japanese is higher bitrate, not massively so but run through a home theatre it's pretty noticeable just how much more muddy the sound is in english, even from the first few minutes, it just sounds ...muffled. Bit bizarre given they must record the US/English release with DVD release in mind. From what I understand the new stuff FSN stuff they're meant to be making doesnt exactly tie on with with the old series either, so its not like they could improve the ending without OVA, or I suppose an FMA style remake, but it just struck me after that seeing that 'Last Episode' skit, they could have tied the series off so much more fullfillingly, even without harming the potential for a follow on series (or these other Arcs).
Will take a look at Black Lagoon, see if the plot interests me, and take a look into Spice and Wolf if they're indeed good
Haven't seen Eva (is that Evangalion?) so perhaps I'll avoid that now.
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Soldato
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Spice and Wolf is a good series and is definitely different from the main stream.
I'd also suggest Clannad/Clannad After Story as well as a polished series which runs a full gamete of emotions.
It would be nice if we didn't just get the Japanese audio in 2.0 on most releases where as the dub is in 5.1.
edit~: Saikana is well known for being one of the most depressing series around (although Kanon is also up there too). The other series you have listed are sad but it's in a completely different league.
I'd also suggest Clannad/Clannad After Story as well as a polished series which runs a full gamete of emotions.
It would be nice if we didn't just get the Japanese audio in 2.0 on most releases where as the dub is in 5.1.
edit~: Saikana is well known for being one of the most depressing series around (although Kanon is also up there too). The other series you have listed are sad but it's in a completely different league.
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Given some series I've seen killing off half the main characters and the love interest, I dont see how much worse Saikana could really be??
Am I missing something?
To be fair, I dont mind anime in stereo, as long as the quality is fine [most 5.1 seems to underuse surround, perhaps I've just not watched the right stuff?]. Its only when it really does sound poor I notice it, none of the other series I've watched have had a real massive difference in sound quality, whereas FSN is reasonably noticeable when you flick from one to the other!
Will take a look at Clannad too.
Am I missing something?
To be fair, I dont mind anime in stereo, as long as the quality is fine [most 5.1 seems to underuse surround, perhaps I've just not watched the right stuff?]. Its only when it really does sound poor I notice it, none of the other series I've watched have had a real massive difference in sound quality, whereas FSN is reasonably noticeable when you flick from one to the other!
Will take a look at Clannad too.
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