The anime thread sequel (it's still not as good as the Manga though),

memyselfandi said:
in some ways it reminded me of Azumanga Daioh (although this is slightly less surreal).
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I miss stuff like Azumanga Daioh, the random surreal stuff is exactly the kind of thing I love about anime. It's just so rare in Western movies and tv! A few people do it but it tends to be intended to disturb rather than entertain. Azumanga Daioh is like a Lynchian dream-sequence set in My Little Pony-land! :p

saitrix said:
Nisemonogatari is also just as confusing as it is amusing, just as good as Bakemonogatari.
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Oooh a Bakemonogatari sequel? Colour me interested, must keep an eye out for that! I've also seen Katanagatari (based on novels by the same author), very different in setting and atmosphere but you can tell it's the same guy behind it. He has a really distinctive quirky sense of humour, and a talent for unexpectedly turning up the melancholy volume right at the ending. Plus the character design is excellent: highly stylised art style, reminds me a little bit of those old 90s children's anime series and a little bit of medieval Japanese art.

@Alexrose1uk nice to hear about your amp, very decent of them to charge so little! :) Most places will take that much just to look at something!
 
Aye, I think they're basically due to charge me the inspection cost (which includes the first hours work) and a few bob for repairing the dry joints and capacitor replacements.

I guess it was probably a fairly easy fault to find and quick to fix given how quickly they came back to me with the quote for the work. All going well I should be able to collect it later this afternoon. That the engineer commented the amp was in good condition bar a little dust as would be expected for a several year old unit makes me hopefully it won't need to go back in for some time.

@manveruppd
There's Nisemonogatari airing now which is the sequel (and features the sisters a lot more from what I hear rather than the original crew, although they're still around), and there's also a film called Kizumonogatari which I believe is meant to be a prequel to Bakemonogatari and is meant to focus on Shinobu's prior incarnation and how she met Araragi.

I could be wrong on that though.
 
Well, they charge about £40+VAT per hour for labour, you have to pay for the first hour as that includes the inspection, and then the rest of the quote depends on time/parts, which was why I'd worried it could be far worse, and a lot more expensive, if they'd needed to change boards or it'd take a few hours to get done.

If it'd been something a bit more complex that'd taken longer to resolve, well...ouch lol. Still we shall see when I collect the unit later, the guy reckoned the unit should be ready if I popped down end of the day, early tomorrow. I'm off today so going to pop down about half 4.

Edit:
Recollected the unit, and the service not did indeed state replaced capacitor, reflowed joints. They also did charge £48.50 :)
Rather happy as it means the beast is back in my hands; getting something with this things abilities as a replacement would not have been cheap, to get something new equivalent from Denon/Yamaha or the likes probably would still cost me a good £600+ and probably not sound as good, unless I got another unit at end of it's shelf life with a massive RRP clearance hit. It's a 4+ year old design, with 4 HDMI connections which says it all really :D
 
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Thats excellent news alex on your amp! Couldn't have wished for cheaper really.


manveruppd,
As Alex said it covers the sisters a lot more, the first 7 episodes are a single story arc whereas in Bakemonogatari they were usually 3-4 episodes. All the old crew are about so it's all good, enjoying it just as much as the first series. I agree on the Azumanga Daioh stuff, it is actually what got me into anime in the first place!
 
Ah, my R4 release of Usagi Drop came today (no customs, yay!) from Siren Video. Seems quite a nice release so far (3 episodes in ... Tuesday night is Japanese lesson night so I don't have much time to watch anything).
 
Watched the rest of Siren Visuals release of Usagi Drop this evening. Great heart warming little series. Nice characters, interesting animation style which is slightly unusual without being hard work to watch. This series was one of my favourites from last year and it happy simplicity(*) is charming to watch. (*) simplicity could give the wrong impression, the series is pretty straight forward but deals with quite complex issues regarding how to bring up a child suddenly after a death in a family.

The set from Siren Visual is really nice with a nice stiff slip cover over the standard case holding the two DVDs. As extras it has all four bonus episodes, 3 Japanese trailers for the series as well as all four OP variants and all eleven ED variants in credit-less forms.

Siren threw in a few extras in the package ...

- A sampler DVD with episode 1's of Tatami Galaxy, House of Five Leaves and Welcome to Irabu's Office.
- A Japanese advertising flyer for Usagi Drop from last summer with adverts for the anime, manga, light novel(?), Sweet Drops OP single, OST and the movie release roadshow. Unfolded it also has some info on the series (I think, it's in Japanese) and pictures of the main cast with a little about each of them.
- A Siren Visual sticker
 
I've been quietly watching School Rumble S2 this week, which I'm enjoying/getting more than I did S1, I'm not sure quite why though (it's either I'm in a more receptive mood for it, or because I know the characters now).
 
Watched a few odd things last night to keep up to date with things, (really enjoyed the latest AnoNatsu episode although the main male character needs to take better care of himself).

One thing I watched was Hotarubi no Mori e. This I found to be a very sweet short film. It's about a young girl who gets lost in a forest containing spirits and youkai near her uncles house when visiting one summer and meets and befriends a masked young man called Gin. She returns again and again each summer to visit him.

It's a short film (45mins) and looks really nice.

Then started watching Steins;Gate, which seems ok so far (after 3 episodes).
 
Re: Nisemonogatari, definitely looking forward to it! Like I said I like I enjoyed Katanagatari as well and I like that writer's gift for switching between silly/funny and serious/moving at a moment's notice, I'm sure it'll be good! :)
 
Bakemonogatari and Nisemononogatari just don't seem to agree with me. I just find them to be random nonsense tbh. I think they're a bit overrated.

Been keeping up with some of the current stuff.

Gundam Age - I really like this tbh, the characters are very stylised and it's the same story thats been told before but it just seems to work. I think the idea of having multiple time skips and shaking things up with a new protagonaist was a great move.

Rinne no Lagrange - I'm enjoying this, it's nothing spectacular but i enjoy watching new episodes of it each week. The characters are fun to watcha and it it nice to look at.

Guilty Crown - The damage has been done with this. It's such a shame really as it had the potential to be something great, the production values are top notch. I have no idea where it's headed really as the writers just don't seem to have a clue about anything they're doing. I think it will be remembered as a failure of an anime tbh.
 
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Demoniser said:
Bakemonogatari and Nisemononogatari just don't seem to agree with me. I just find them to be random nonsense tbh. I think they're a bit overrated.
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I wouldn't quite go as far as saying Bakemonogatari was random nonsense but I did think that it was definitely overrated and didn't live up to the hype surrounding it. I haven't taken a look at Nisemononogatari yet but most of the things I've heard about it, from people who liked Bake', haven't been very good.

Rinne no Lagrange - I'm enjoying this, it's nothing spectacular but i enjoy watching new episodes of it each week. The characters are fun to watcha and it it nice to look at.
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I'm finding this series interesting ... it's not stand out good but it is interesting and I want to see where they go with it ...

Guilty Crown - The damage has been done with this. It's such a shame really as it had the potential to be something great, the production values are top notch. I have no idea where it's headed really as the writers just don't seem to have a clue about anything they're doing. I think it will be remembered as a failure of an anime tbh.
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Only seen the first three episodes of this, which were quite good, but I've heard there are issues with the way the story has developed as it's gone along. I'll reserve judgement until I get around to watching it.

This morning I watched Spirit of Wonder on Beez's DVD release. Strange little collection of OVAs about slightly mad scientists in ~1950s. First couple of episodes are about a science club of old fogies going to Mars whilst the latter deal with different scientists and a girl from the Chinese restaurant. It should also be noted that the episodes seem to be set in the Japanese idea of Bristol ... It's an interesting watch but I can't say it was outstanding in any way.

Currently watching Funi's BD release of the second season of Darker than Black.
 
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It's coming to that time again ...



(Big image is big so click it for a readable version)

Personally I'm looking at the following ...

Probable:
Upotte!
Phi Brain S2
Eureka Seven Ao
Fate/Zero S2
Hyou-ka
Acchi Kocchi
Accel World
Kore wa Zombe Desu Ka OF THE DEAD
Hiiro no Kakera
Natsuiro Kiseki
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san
Medaka Box
AKB0048
Saki: Achiga-hen episode of Side-A
Koi-ken! ~Watashi-tachi Anime ni Nacchatta!~

Possible:
Uchuu Kyoudai
Gakkatsu
Sengoku Collection
Kimi to Boku S2
Shining Hearts ~Shiawase no Pan~
Sankarea
Jormungand
Yurumates
Sakamichi no Apollon
Train Hero

(series are listed by order they appear on the table rather than order of preference).

Overall my initial impression of what's on there is not as good as what is currently airing on the Winter season. I tend to find comedies such as Yurumates a bit hit and miss so they can be dropped very quickly even if I do decide to watch them.

--

edit: Watched a couple of things this weekend ....

Darker Than Black season 2 + OVAs on Funi's BD release. It's ok, not as good as the first season, but all right overall. I, again, probably should have re-watched the first series before watching this but most of what had gone on kind of came back to me once I'd been watching for a bit. I did find that this release suffered a bit with it's BD subtitles where at times they just didn't stand out enough from the whatever was behind them making them difficult to read.

Steins;Gate ... very interesting series. Whilst there is some humour in it the series is serious science fiction and is quite shocking at times. The story can be quite complicated as it does involve time travel and things being done through this which affect the "current" time hence you need to pay attention to what is going on. The story does drag you in to watching and you do start empathising with some of the characters (although others are just annoying). I really enjoyed watching this and would happily recommend it.
 
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memyselfandi said:
I wouldn't quite go as far as saying Bakemonogatari was random nonsense but I did think that it was definitely overrated and didn't live up to the hype surrounding it. I haven't taken a look at Nisemononogatari yet but most of the things I've heard about it, from people who liked Bake', haven't been very good.
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Ironically at one of the other forums I visit, the general feedback has been very good on Nisemono...
Will wait til it finishes airing and then develop my own opinion!
 
Hmm I'm not that excited by much on that Spring list, will have to wait til nearer the time to see if there are any I want to watch.


Alexrose1uk, I really enjoy Nisemonogatari but I can see how other people would not like it. It is a very distinct style where some would find it just chopping and changing far too much.
 
Bakemonogatari was one the more annoying series I've ever sat through, so I pretty much have no interest in Nise. I find it pretty hard to understand why people rate it so highly, but I guess it's just not for me. A lot of people clearly enjoyed it.

There's not much in the spring '12 list that immediately appeals to me but I'm really looking forward to seeing how Shinichiro Watanabe's new series 'Sakamichi no Apollon' turns out, also apparently done by the same Madhouse division that were behind Dennou Coil. Plus I'm a massive jazz fan, so I have high hopes for that one.

I'm skeptical about Eureka Seven Ao based on what's known so far, but I'll be hoping I'm wrong and it proves to be as enjoyable as the original.
 
Oh btw, for anyone else interested, the new chapter of Rosario+Vampire is out...and it's a good one. Badass Tsukune is back :D
There are some buttons you really don't want to press, and then the gloves really come off.
 
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