The all things Anime related thread.

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So after the dicussion above aboout the solicited BD release I thought I would re-watch Chobits over the last few evenings.

Overall it is an excellent series, at times emotional, at times silly. Most of the time the main male character looks like he should be an extra on Highschool of the Dead with his disheveled look and staring eyes ;). The OP and ED are things I really do not like with Chobits ... I just tend to find them really urgh.

Thinking about whether to upgrade or not ... some of the subtitle positioning doesn't seem to be that good in the version I have (partitcularly in the last episode where there is a section where the subtitles seem to bounce up and down slightly from shot to shot) but overall I'm not convinced it would be worth it. I have the R2UK MVM thinpak release of the series. Picture is clear, audio is fine, menus are pretty good and there's a reasonable amount of extras. The relatively simple animation on the series and the lack of detailed backgrounds (compared with more modern anime) does make me wonder if an upgrade is justified. It's not as if the series has the beautiful or complex backgrounds we sometimes see now which would benefit from the extra resolution. Combine that with it very probably being an upscale anyway means I can probably find other things to spend my money on.

anyway ...

Also watched the latest episodes of Ore no Imouto, (thought the latest episode was probably the weakest so far. The elements covered could have been handled in a funnier manner), and Yosuga no Sora, (ok this series just confuses me ... I have no idea what is going on most of the time and how things link together for the most part ... I keep on wondering if I have missed a couple of episodes). I am also up to date on Amagami SS which is nice.
 
While not really falling into the Animé category i got my Blu-ray+dvd version of How to train your dragon the other day .
Really high quality image i thought.Probably aimed more at the younger audience ,but fun all the way through
I did however get a copy with a smashed case :( , but an email to Amazon got me a £1 reduction(ordered a few replacement bluray cases @37p each which arrived today and all is good:D
 
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memyselfandi said:
Yosuga no Sora, (ok this series just confuses me ... I have no idea what is going on most of the time and how things link together for the most part ... I keep on wondering if I have missed a couple of episodes). I am also up to date on Amagami SS which is nice.
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If i'm following it right, it's doing a plot arc for each of the girls, in the same way Amagami SS is, only it's resetting back to episode 2 i think? after each arc is over, starting at the scene where Sora is undressed and asking Haru to measure her.

I really should pick up How to Train Your Dragon. I don't usually like most of Dreamworks stuff, (they just don't have the emotional impact and likability that the Pixar stuff has imo) but i thought it was terrfic. Maybe the fact it's based off of a series of childrens books worked in its favour. I think it was rated at something like 98% at rotten tomatoes. Looking forward to the eventual sequel.
 
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Just finished my run through of Clannad. Well 1-23 as the 24th is 'non-continuant' being an alternate arc source from the main plot of clannad and AS, and I do need some sleep even if I have a rare weekend off.

What can I say, really well done and I'm glad I watched it. In many ways it feels like its taken the flaws from Kanon and tried to fix them. The Fuuko arc in many ways felt like a more fleshed out Mikoto arc as an example, and some of the scenes like the whole tennis game were so humanly portrayed the story was very realistic in that sense, even with the more fantastic elements. In that sense I agree with the whole more balanced comment, that said I don't think its perfect.

Whilst it is more rounded, I personally felt Kanon at its best was stronger, in other words whilst Clannad averages higher, Kanon peaked higher. Whilst some parts of Clannad have that same vibe, Kanon tended to grab you by the balls after Mikotos arc and became very engrossing whereas Clannad wasn't quite so frenetic, and was paced a little more slowly.

That said I think both series are good, and watching one doesnt exclude the other. Clannads 23rd extra episode also nicely gave a little more fill in after the main arc which is something that a lot of series feel a little lacking from many as you are suddenly left to consider your protagonist's fate with minimal guidance.


I certainly look forward to After Story but going to watch something else first to change the pace a little, not sure what yet.
 
You'll like after story ;)


I've just had the Dirty Pair set 1 arrive a few minutes ago, unfortunately I won't be able to watch it for a few days.
 
Alexrose1uk said:
Hopefully, I dont doubt I will if its anything like the first part.
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One thing I would note with the Sentai release of After Story, if you are watching it from that, is that the last few episodes are in the wrong order ...

23 (extra story) -> 25 (alternate arc) -> 24 (re-cap)

These should be in the order by episode number really with the recap prior to the alternative arc story as it has no bearing on that episode.
 
Has anyone seen Black Lion? I can't say I've ever seen a worse thing be it film/cartoon/anime/book in my life. It was so awful it was hilarious.

Robot samurai killing ninjas in feudal Japan... The writer was definitely on some kind of hallucinogenic
 
Werewolf said:
You'll like after story ;)
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If you can get through the horribly sad and depressing bits.

shroomz said:
Has anyone seen Black Lion? I can't say I've ever seen a worse thing be it film/cartoon/anime/book in my life. It was so awful it was hilarious.

Robot samurai killing ninjas in feudal Japan... The writer was definitely on some kind of hallucinogenic
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Samurai 7 has a similar premise, but I think it carries it off quite well.
 
SlyReaper said:
If you can get through the horribly sad and depressing bits.
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It wouldn't be the first I've seen, so I'll probably live, and make it through; it wouldn't be the first show I've seen with a bit of a gut kick of an ending (actually I complained about that early this year...I had a bad run of luck in chosing lol)
Unfortunately, I already knew Clannad and After Story were basically Act one and two, and someone semi-spoiled AS for me elsewhere, so Im perhaps a little more prepared for moments of manly sadness (if what they said was true) than I should be. :(

One of the reasons I'm taking a break from the series so I can watch something a little more upbeat first.

One other thing I will say though about the first season of Clannad vs Kanon is that Clannad was a lot more obvious/less surprisinging with the eventual romantic conclusion, which after Kanon is a bit of a shame. Not that it was done badly, the tennis game as I stated was a very well done episode, and felt very right, but it did come off a little predictable the way it ended up, you could see it coming a mile off. Kanon felt a little less predictable in that sense.

One of my other friends is actually watching After Story before me, and he's another one for getting emotionally involved with a series and characters (he also really enjoyed stuff like Kanon, Spice and Wolf and Toradora which were all character driven), so I guess I might be able to pick up from his reactions whether what I heard is true or not.


In another note, kinda made myself a bit skint, but decided to order the Veridian collection version of Spice and Wolf S1 today.
Whilst I've already got the original release, it means I'll have a backup to replace my damaged disc2 with the cracked inner rim from my original release copy when it finally goes, the casing/packing actually looks slightly nicer IMO from what I've seen, and also it should come with a free collectable S&W commemorative coin.
Apparently the guy I chat to over in the US who sent me that artbook and special edition short story I took pictures of a while back has also managed to get hold of something else he reckons I might like, which hes intending to send over in a few weeks. Unfortunately he won't tell me what it is as he wants it to be a surprise, but hes as big, if not a bigger S&W fan than me so no doubt it'll be something I can appreciate.
[I'd actually quite like one of the special edition Spice and Wolf Yunomi they released in Japan, but they're hard/expensive to get hold of :(]

Also took the opportunity to order the S.A.V.E edition of Beck, which I'm looking forward to rewatching actually. I hadn't realised, but its probably been the best part of a year since I've seen that now, and it still goes down as one of my favourite animes, and also one of my highest rated Dub audio tracks. Hopefully it'll arrive before the xmas rush kicks in.

Also noticed the release date for Novel 3 seems to have slipped a bit, Amazon still lists the release as early December, but RS have it listed as the 21st of December. Bit dissapointing really, as if thats the case its going to be hard to get hold of before Christmas. I've got a preorder lodged but I'm probably going to drop United Publications an email later in the week, to see if they've heard any more solid details on the release date, and also if they've heard anything more on the licensed release of Season II of the anime; it feels like an age now since Funi announced they'd licensed it, and I'd expected it to appear sometime this Christmas region, but still no sign of a release date :(


Still no sign of season 3 yet either, it'd be a real shame if that never happens, the series could certainly command another season or two, and the material and fanbase are there.
 
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With Spice Wolf S2 they won't have heard anything unless it's been solicited for release, i.e. announced as a product with a release date, so as we have seen the solicitations for Funimation up to, and including March, then the earliest it is likely to be released is April.
 
shroomz said:
Robot samurai killing ninjas in feudal Japan... The writer was definitely on some kind of hallucinogenic
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I like the "steampunk samurai" aesthetic. I saw Gintama yesterday and it was like that as well. The steampunky elements were pretty subtle and subdued though (apart from some massive flying sailing ships...). And they tied the advancing technology with the whole "fading of the bushido age/samurais as relics of the past" shtick, which is a strong theme in most samurai stories anyway, so it fit very well.

Of the other anime films I saw yesterday Redline was by far the best. There was something very Cowboy Bebop about it, the character design, the animation style, the plot and characters. Except faster. Imagine the 10 most intense, action-packed seconds of any Cowboy Bebop episode, extend them to a 2hr movie, and set it to a thumping soundtrack, and you have Redline :)

One Piece: Strong World was also amazing, it was visually brilliant and the character design was hillarious. Apparently it's quite big in Japan, had a manga, tv-series, and several movies before this, though I'd never heard of it before. Just to give you an idea of the inane hilarity of the character design, one of the protagonists is a rather camp violin-playing skeleton who has an afro. He gets caught in the middle of a fight between Viking fire ants and some kind of shark-headed eel/dragon. The whole thing is set on an island with genetically modified animals so every scene a new hilarious-looking monster appears! And the main villain reminded me a lot of LeChuck from the Monkey Island games :)

The Evangelion movie also impressed me, surprisingly because I never really got into any of the previous series/movies in the Evangelion canon. But it was a powerful movie, can't deny it, made me want to watch its prequel.

Mardock Scramble was the only one that was a bit of a let-down. Only an hour long as it's planned as 3 OVAs, but it had so many filler scenes in it that I'm sure they could've made a 2-hour movie out of the 3. The story was good, the cyberpunky world they made is brilliant, but it did the standard anime thing of making one of the main characters nauseatingly cute. I like that if it's a comedy but in a serious film like that it just jarred. (spoilery bit) You can't have a murdered and resurrected teenage prostitute, wielding lethal, proscribed biotech in an uncaring, high-tech, corrupt world where money rules and megacorps buy and sell lives as if they were Happy Meals and expect her to be taken seriously if her sidekick is a cute shapeshifting mouse! (spoilery bit ends)

A good day all in all though, liked Redline so much I'm thinking of rewatching it tomorrow when they're repeating them all!
 
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Glad to hear I'm looking at a good series then, sometimes they're promising but don't go anywhere, although at least with this one I have seen it mentioned it was one of the better shows from a season or two ago.

Im quite fond of the whole monsters/ghosts/fantasy regions, so it does seem made for people like me. Invokes memories of Bakemonogatari with the subject matter too which can only be a plus :)
 
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