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

Finished one of the Spring season series this evening ...

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia ... now this series is not in one of the primary genres I prefer. It is a supernatural mystery series set in a school environment, but it avoids most of the usual clichés you would expect. Whilst it is set in a school don't expect it to be the usual sort of fare with comedy and short skirts ... this series a pretty dark at times. Following might contain minor spoilers ...

The main characters are the members of the paranormal investigation club and the school ghost. The ghost is the title character and has no memory of what happened to her to cause her to become a ghost. The boy from the club can communicate with her and decides he needs to find out what happened.

The series is nicely animated and has an interesting story with good characters. It also does have a conclusion (theoretically it could continue but it's doubtful).

I really enjoyed the series overall, it moved along reasonably quickly and whilst the ending can be predicted after a while it keeps you interested all the way through and makes you want to know what is going to happen next as you watching.
 
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memyselfandi said:
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Watched From Up On Poppy Hill earlier ..... from the start you can tell it's a Ghibli from the style and story wise it reminded me Ocean Waves, i.e. more slice of life rather than fantasy. The story centres around a high school girl who raises flags up a pole in front of her house each morning. She is a sensible girl who works hard at her chores. The story has two main facets ... a school based element around the club building and a family based element concerning evens in the past and what it means or the present. Overall I enjoyed the film, I can't say that the score was outstandingly good (like some other Ghibli films have been) but the animation was very nice.
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I just finished watching it myself and i quite enjoyed it overall. It's definitely more grounded than some of the other Ghibli films but thats not a bad thing.

I thought the animation was really nice and you really have to hand it to Ghibli for their attention to detail, even little actions like watching Umi go about doing her chores was done well.

The cleanup of the clubhouse actually reminded me of Spirited Away for some reason, probably because there was allot going in those scenes.

The story isn't anything thats going to blow you away but it is a nice and calm tale that is enjoyable for it's 90 minute run.

I'd rank it higher than Ghibli's last effort with Arriety, which, imo was pretty awful in the story department.

That being said it's well worth watching i think.

I've yet to watch Ocean Waves and i really would like to pick up some more Ghibli films in Blu Ray. I don't suppose anyone knows if there are any deals going on at the moment for Ghibli Blu Rays?
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I agree with likening the club house to Spirited Away ... it's certainly "busy" with lots of detail to see. .

I preferred Ocean Waves to Only Yesterday, the former being a nice, slightly dramatic, slice of life film. I'm not sure of any current offers on Ghibli BD's ... although they do vary in price quite a bit (miy latest two from the Rainforest were £15.99 which was quite a bit less than UP wanted for them).

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At last got the rest of my canvases through today. Slight issue with the largest one which I need to address before putting it up. (edit: well it looks like my fix has worked initially at least. The issue was that on the larger canvases they put a cross of bracers across the middle of the frame and one of these had broken. Looks like it broke due to a flaw in the wood rather than being damaged during shipping given where the break was and how it looked and the lack of any other damage. I could have just got the canvas replaced but after the hassle I've had getting it through a fix with some No Nails plus some tape to hold it together while it dried was an easier solution).
 
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Finished watching a couple of things this evening ....

Jormungand ... a spring '12 series. This is an action series following an anti-hero arms dealer and her associates. Quite a bit of action and violence are contained in this series. In some ways it reminded quite a bit of Black Lagoon. I thought that it was a reasonable series overall but it could do more. A second series is due in the Autumn.

Mawarun Penguindrum ... ok this was a very strange series. The series is set about 16 years after a terrorist act and the main characters have all be affected in ways due to this. But it's all very, very strange ... with possession, people coming back from the dead, and penguins ... the penguins are great - they are really like the ones in Madagascar and do things to help the three main characters but often get sidetracked into stealing food (or underwear) and looking at porn ... one learns the hard way that it's not a good idea to try and eat an entire jar of umeboshi. Overall I think this was a reasonable series but a lot of the time it was a case of ... huh?
 
Looking at other sources (slightly limited as I'm at work) it looks like it might have been announced initially that they would be being released together but then that may have changed (announcement at the beginning of this year on the official site) with the third film now due this Autumn and the fourth in 2013. (see)

I'd imagine someone will be able to clear this up :)
 
Im really tempted to buy naruto unleashed but i hear mixed reviews on the english subs. I have watched online about 10 episodes of the jap version which was great. I just become a member on crunchy roll and i watching some great anime on their. But i dont want to watch naruto shippenden yet as i barely seen many naruto episodes.

Edit: I just checked the product details it says its got english and jap voiceovers?
 
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I can't say that Naruto is really my thing but I have seen the first couple of series on the UK release and I can't remember having any major issues with the subtitles on them.

edit: Yes, they have Japanese audio with English subtitles and alternatively an English dub track as well.

Anyway, finished another Spring '12 series earlier ... Kids on the Slope. This series is set in the mid-1960's and is principally about two high school boys who play jazz music (one piano and one drums). Of course one of them is a bit nerdy whilst the other is a lovable rogue. The series is about friendship, love and music and overall I found it to be pretty good. The characters were mostly reasonable and the music was pretty good.

Had a bit of fun hanging a few things earlier ...

[stairs] [landing] [office]

edit2: Watched Howl's Moving Castle on BD this afternoon. Not one of my favourite Ghibli films (particularly the ending) but it does look very good on blu-ray.

edit3: ... and some more series finishing ...

Kimi ni Todoke Season 2 ... on NISA's BD release. Another nice boxset from NISA covering the second series of Kimi ni Todoke. Unlike season 1, season 2 is just the single cour and feels more like just an extension to the first series rather than a whole separate series. I like Kimi ni Todoke and have been getting the English manga release as well as picking up the anime, (I also have the Japanese BD of the movie as well as there hasn't been a western release for that). The series follows a high school girl called Sadako (sic) who is rumoured to be scary, curse people, see ghosts ... but that isn't actually the case. It follows her making friends and becoming an normal, integrated, member of the class. It's basically a romantic comedy. It's a nicely presented release in NISA's normal premium style with both DVDs and BDs ... the only thing I'd say against it was that the subtitles of this release were a bit over-localised at times, and seemed a tad childish at times, ... not far enough to be unacceptable but enough to feel slightly off at times.

Sankarea ... another Spring '12 series. It's your usual boy meets girl story except with a zombie. If I had to grade this series I'd have to say it was inconsistent. At times it was very good, at others it was pretty weak ... and the ending was generally poor (to the extent that it seemed that they had almost suddenly found out that they could get a second series so instead of finishing things off they just went .. urm ... errr ... we don't know what to do ...

Bodacious Space Pirates ... a 2-cour Winter '12 show. It's your typical tale of a normal high school girl who inherits a pirate spaceship, complete with crew, and the paper work means that she has to do things with it on at least a monthly basis. It's a comedy sci-fi series which I found to be pretty good with a reasonable level of sci-fi which can sometimes be missing from this sort of series. The series looked and sounded very good and had a nice selection of characters. The various stories were interesting and funny at time but also had quite a few good sci-fi action sequences. Of course there were silly points to like doing pirating in cosplay! The series came to a conclusion at the end of a plot arc but leaves things open for further things in the future (I believe ANN are reporting that there is a film in the works). I really liked this series ... they could have overdone the fanservice with it very easily but they didn't take that easy way out and were left with what was a very good series. I suspect that I will rewatch this through relatively soon.
 
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OK, is it just me or did anyone else immediately think "Gantz! when they saw the Google Nexus Q?

Sorry for the OT, but I literally couldn't think of anywhere else where people would get what I'm talking about! :p
 
And today a few more ...

Fractale ... on Funi's BD release. Interesting series about a world where there is an all pervading computer system which you have an internal terminal allowing you to access data and have an avatar (doppal) in a form of augmented reality sort of way. Trouble is people rely on this to live but the system is now failing but not everyone wants it fixed ... This is quite a short series and is quite interesting but it does leave you feeling that it could have been better if it was longer and it is not without its plot holes ... I quite like it but I wouldn't say it was great.

Hidamari Sketch X SP ... on Sentai's DVD release. Very short DVD with just a couple of normal episode length specials for Hidamari Sketch. They were reasonable funny and along the same lines as normal episodes for the series'. For those that don't know the title is about a group of high school art students who live together at a small apartment complex opposite the school. The series is generally them doing normal (mostly art related things). The specials were fairly good if you like the series but i do find it an acquired taste on the whole due to the animation styles and lack of plot most of the time.

Natsuiro Kiseki ... another Spring '12 series. Ok, this is a simple series about a group of four girls who find out that they can wish for things and they'll come true ... hijinks ensue (of a very innocent form). The characters are voiced by the four girls of the pop group Sphere who also do the OP and ED for the series. The series does have some obvious product placements where real companies are used instead of the usual slightly altered ones, the obvious one is Lawsons but there are others too such as McDonalds, Hertz and Toyota. It could also be said that they are working for the Sky Tree publicity department as it pops up a few times :). The series isn't big and clever but I enjoyed it (I am a fan of Sphere though).

Mysterious Girlfriend X ... another Spring '12 series. Ok this is odd series in that the character animation style is a bit different and also because it revolves around the swapping of bodily fluids. It's a bit gross at times (ok it's very gross) but it was an all right watch over all. It's generally a romantic comedy about a single couple but it is a bit of a one trick series and it missed several chances to do other things (for instance there were some interesting dream sequences which it would have been good if they had done more with). Overall I would say it was an ok series but not one that was outstanding in any way (and it does have the gross'ness to contend with).

Upotte! ... Spring '12 again. A series not about girls with guns ... the girls are guns. Lots of shooting, information on guns and girls trying to be cute but the series felt rather weak to me other than the last couple of episodes which were quite decent. Overall it had some interesting concepts but it didn't really do that much with it which meant that it just wasn't that interesting.

edit: I would also add based on posts further up the page that ANN are listing that a trailer for the third Evangelion film has been released. the film is apparently due for cinema release in Japan on 17th November.
 
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Watched the first episode of Tari Tari the other evening. Early days but seems quite interesting so far. Set in a school with a focus on music we so far have a collection of misfits; a transfer student returning to Japan, the girl who has dropped music, the girl who wants to do music but isn't allowed, the mean teacher, the horse riding girl and the boy who plays badminton with himself. We also already see the main drive for the series. Visually, it's by PA Works and the visuals are up there with last years Hanasaku Iroha.
 
Bought myself naruto Unleashed season 1 and one of the movies (forgot the name) and also made myself a member on crunchroll. Started watching Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, it seems really good so far. The story is quite complex and lots of backstabbing and whos the real enemy type story. The action is really good aswell along with the sound track.
 
I've started on Angel Beats, which so far is very enjoyable and I couldn't quite place the style until I spotted the Key/Visual name in the credits ;)(blind buy because someone suggested it).

I also managed to watch Welcome to the Space Show which was fun, it sort of reminded me of Summer Wars meets Ghibli (I also spotted a little R2D2 in the creche scene:p).
 
I just finished watching Fate/Zero through Crunchyroll.

Well what can i say, fantasitc sttuff. This is definitely one of the better series to have been released in recent years.

Charactes, story, animation, it was all excellent imo. The story was nice and simple with a simple backdrop of 7 Master/Servant pairs fighting it out for the prize of the Holy Grail. Nice, simple, focused and effective.

I thought where Fate/Zero shined was the characters. Each of the Master/Servant pairs had their own personalities, goals and weaknesses which really helped you get attached to them. I prefer characters that fall into that grey area where they aren't all good or evil and they aren't perfect. It makes them human, and they're easier to get behind imo.

I was saddened and happy in equal measure when certin characters exited the story for one reason or another. This is proof of good characterisation imo, when you get attached to characters, you know something has been done right. There were some truely touching moments i thoughout and even some of the bad guys were likeable from time to time.

the visuals were lovely and there was a nice blend of 2D animation with the more modern 3D stuff. It never felt out of place and complimented the 2D stuff rather nicely. The fights were action pacjked and fluid and never boring to watch.

I'd give this series 4 and a half out of 5 if i were to give it a verdict. It loses half a point because some of the side characters never really got a chance to shine.
 
memyselfandi said:
Watched the first episode of Tari Tari the other evening. Early days but seems quite interesting so far. Set in a school with a focus on music we so far have a collection of misfits; a transfer student returning to Japan, the girl who has dropped music, the girl who wants to do music but isn't allowed, the mean teacher, the horse riding girl and the boy who plays badminton with himself. We also already see the main drive for the series. Visually, it's by PA Works and the visuals are up there with last years Hanasaku Iroha.
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I enjoyed it, will carry on watching for sure.

Yuru Yuri was just as good as the first season too, always an entertaining watch. :p
 
manveruppd said:
OK, is it just me or did anyone else immediately think "Gantz! when they saw the Google Nexus Q?

Sorry for the OT, but I literally couldn't think of anywhere else where people would get what I'm talking about! :p
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if there's a naked guy inside there then I would SO buy it!
 
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