The Anime Thread

[GoGo Yubari]

The Avatar Finale in summary:

Spoiler: Click here to view

Basically really really awesome except for how badly they screw over both Azula and Ty Lee. Damn it, Avatar.

GOD DAMN IT GOGO YOU LIIIIIIEEEEDDDD TO ME.

That was amazing. ASIDOUGrnszihufbhvndifb

... so yeah, Avatar Finale was all I could have wanted it to be. Very happy. Can't really formulate good sentences or sentence structure right now so yeah, I'll go more in depth with thoughts and whatnot later but, GoGo...

Spoiler: Click here to view

They did NOT screw over Ty Lee! Come on, where else would the character have gone? With the warriors, it gives her an actual story to follow and a purpose, they actually gave her some great closure because she was taken away from her "family" in the circus by Azula, and now she has a new family to follow. It brings her back around full circle, without having her be concerned about what's going on around her which, well... yeah, Azula kinda forced her to be.

Plus imagine the Kiyoshi Warriors learning how to block bending from her. Just all kinds of possibilities for their little group now

As far as Azula... well, honestly, I loved her degeneration into madness, I thought it was really well done and damn chilling for a kids show to watch happen. She just went completely off the wall batshit insane and I loved it. However, they pretty much didn't follow much after she was chained up except give the obvious notion that she was in prison, probably staying there for just as long as her father does >_>

And now, let us take a moment to remember our friends, boomerang and space sword.

Okay, so maybe I could formulate something through my excitement. Still, I could go on about this for ages so let me stop myself before I take this beyond the realms of a "long Norro post" and into something far more frightening.

Sigh. Unlike you I'm completely willing to essay, because these were my two favorite characters in the series (well, definitely in the top tier along with Sokka, Toph, and Iroh) and the execution on both was sorely lacking in a lot of areas.

Spoiler: Click here to view

That was a completely poorly written, poorly executed ending for Ty Lee, especially since that rationale kind of simplifies the Ty Lee/Azula relationship to a much greater extent than it was; Azula dragged Ty Lee away from her calling yes, but she was never visibly angry about it or mad at Azula and there's absolutely no canon to support that assertion; obviously she wasn't happy with it If anything, she was the closest thing Azula had to a legitimate human relationship with another person. Is it a healthy relationship? Hell no, but obviously there was something there because it was Ty Lee's turning on Azula to save Mai that is the catalyst for Azula going insane, and Ty Lee is the only person in the entire series we actually see Azula be seemingly legitimately considerate to in "The Beach" (of course, she's also callous to her in the very same episode, but eh).

As for "new family" well um. Considering Ty Lee's stated fear of spending the rest of her life in a matched set, joining a group where everyone looks exactly alike is kind of a bizarre 360 on those sentiments. Ty Lee in the circus made perfect sense; she was the center of attention in the circus, performing for packed crowds and having her own distinct identity. Whereas Ty Lee in the Kyoshi Warriors basically just makes her one of a group, a group that honestly from all we've seen of them doesn't exactly come off as the sort of thing she'd have any interest in. If Ty Lee was just like "I'm going back to the circus guys" I wouldn't have had much of a complaint, because it makes perfect sense she'd go back there. But "oh well time to get replacement friends bye forever" is really really lazy writing that regresses her back to the two-dimensional character she was in book two), especially since they never bothered to give Ty Lee a stated motivation that was deeper than that (and it would have been easy to. She was forced into a situation where she had to turn on one best friend to save another, causing the former best friend to completely lose her mind and become an emotional wreck. It's completely understandable that she would want to get away from the Fire Nation and try to find herself again, and maybe joining a group like the Kyoshi Warriors for a while would be a start).

Honestly, I'm not even asking for a Ty Lee resolution scene with Azula, though I would have killed for one, but not even a final scene with Mai? It felt like a huge waste of her character development in the, well, two episodes in Book Three they bothered to have her appear in and basically threw everything I loved about her character away so she could join an incredibly bland group of minor characters. Really, if you're going to go that route have her join the nomads from "Cave of Two Lovers;" at least that would have been hilarious and fitting instead of counterproductive.

As for Azula, the problem I have with how they handled her was, well.

1. It reeked of "oh shit we made her too competent and Ozai's supposed to be the main villain, shit what do we do." Not that driving her insane wasn't a decent way to give an out for her finally losing, and Boiling Rock was excellently written in that regard because losing Mai and Ty Lee as the catalyst for Azula falling apart was clever and plausible, but once it got to the point where she was threatening her own hair and getting punked out as easily as she did in the end (after a really, really gorgeous battle with Zuko), it turned into plot-induced stupidity.

2. Katara? Katara? Azula losing to Zuko would have made sense for the series' arc. Instead she gets punked out by a character she had no real history with whatsoever. And honestly, if they wanted to use Katara for it they could have at least have her use bloodbending (instead of wasting the entire bloodbending plot point in the Katara Is Kind of a Crazy Bitch Sometimes episode) instead of Azula of all people being beaten by... her arms being tied up.

3. They honestly either needed to kill her (by which I mean "accidentally have her kill herself" a la Zhao) or show that she had some vague shot at becoming a functional human being someday, because the way they ended it was honestly just cruel, even if Azula was a vicious fucked-up sociopath. It's pretty much a fate worse than death, and not even in the fun cathartic "ha ha ha fuck you" way Ozai got. It became legitimately uncomfortable to watch by the end, and that's never how you should feel about seeing a villain, especially one who was such a focus of the show, getting their comeuppance.

Also, Ozai was a horrible main villain. His fight with Aang was great and I finally started buying him as a worthy foe there, but I continually rolled my eyes at the "oh shit it's the Fire Lord he's really scary guys" stuff. We only saw him in anything resembling combat in a non-flashback setting (and in that flashback he was fighting a child), and in that instance he got owned by Zuko. They honestly needed to spend more time on giving legitimate reasons to fear Ozai instead of just continually insisting that he was really dangerous without actually showing why.

Sokka, Toph, and Bumi were all amazing in the episode, though. Especially Toph lampshading the Field Trip With Zuko episodes and becoming Iron Man. I was massively disappointed that we never got to see Iroh going all-out, though.

EDIT: And for the record I will repeat that I mostly really loved the finale. I would not be this passionate and argumentative over a show that I didn't seriously love from the bottom of my heart, and I wholeheartedly endorse Avatar as pretty much being the best Western animation program this decade, especially if you focus solely on action programs. The only other cartoon that holds up is Justice League Unlimited.

Edited July 21, 2008 by GoGo Yubari

[Momo]

Actually, one other thing that annoyed me.

Spoiler: Click here to view

Suki was fucking useless. USELESS! GET OFF MY TV SCREEN, BITCH! YOU WEREN'T NEEDED, YOU SHOULD HAVE FUCKED OFF WITH EVERYONE ELSE IN THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS. USELESS!

Aside from that.

[GoGo Yubari]

Actually, one other thing that annoyed me.

Spoiler: Click here to view

Suki was fucking useless. USELESS! GET OFF MY TV SCREEN, BITCH! YOU WEREN'T NEEDED, YOU SHOULD HAVE FUCKED OFF WITH EVERYONE ELSE IN THE SOUTHERN RAIDERS. USELESS!

Aside from that.

Spoiler: Click here to view

I was fine with Suki, I dunno. She needed to be there because Sokka and Toph couldn't have done their thing alone (I don't think I could have bought Sokka flying the plane AND doing the strategy shit); it was unfortunate that she didn't get a huge moment of badass like she got in Boiling Rock, but it wasn't really a big point of contention for me.

[The Mask of Norro]

Spoiler: Click here to view

She saved their lives for God's sake (assuming she was the reason the airship she was on crashed into the one Sokka and Toph got cornered on, which is what they were hinting at), what more do you want from the woman?

[IAceI]

Geass Episode 15

No spoilers because I honestly can't comprehend what happened and haven't been able to for about a month now. The endings just confused me even more.

VV needs a bigger part.

EV-ERY-THING IS HEART

[GoGo Yubari]

Geass 15

Spoiler: Click here to view

And now we get to the obligatory vague, confusing mystical elements that always make anime series' so baffling. The C.C. stuff is curious and I'm assuming hilarity's going to ensue over the fact that she's somehow apparently undergone a complete personality overhaul back to what I'm assuming was her before she got Geass? And dammit, Viletta and Ougi better not die. Those are basically my only thoughts beyond "damn it Schniezel, what the fuck are you up to."

[Ruki]

Someone told me to watch Ikki Tousen............should I listen to their advice? I watched about 30 seconds of a clip on youtube, and in that short time seen quite a bit of fan service...

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

There is an obscene amount of fanservice. That being said I thought it had a decent story, and interesting premise. I enjoyed it enough that I'm watching season 2 currently.

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

This is how I spent my weekend. In a cardboard robot suit. Edited July 23, 2008 by Fanku Kaibutsu

[GhostMachine]

Thought some of you Gurren Lagann fans might enjoy this, which I forgot to post before. Scroll down a bit to the first picture posted:

http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_p...N=1&TPN=123

Man, I'm jealous. I think when they open up guest suggestions for next year's Adventurecon I may suggest a few manga/anime style artists.

*edit* Incidentally, there's an anime thread in the TV section of that forum, but I don't think its been posted in in a few days.

Edited July 23, 2008 by GhostMachine

[Ruki]

Soul Eater is really starting to pick up, the second half of this weeks episode I just loved. Shit is going to hit the fan!

[The Mask of Norro]

Fuck yeah it is. Seriously, that episode somehow managed to make me love Kid and Stein even more then I did before. I didn't even think that was possible this early in the series for them to do such a thing, but they pulled it off. Definitely a damn good episode.

[Ruki]

Although, I have to admit...

Spoiler: Click here to view

When Kid chased after the symmetrical sun, that kinda pissed me off

But Stein, he was all kinds of awesome in this episode. I demand more Stein/Medusa conversations!

[VinnyT]

I was getting worried around ep 11-12 (whenever it gets all Tsubaki-centralized) that things were going downhill, then with the werewolf who keeps missing his attacks for no other reason than "He's kinda dumb". But then we get the hilarious episode with major test everyone needs to take (And Patty turns her test into a giraffe, because it's like she's fucking FIVE!), then the pirate ship episode brought the awesomeness back in full force.

Spoiler: Click here to view

Yeah, it's looking like Shibusen has a huge secret that we'll see soon. And is Sid dead, or just really hurt (since he's technically already dead) and bound to return again? I can't wait for Wednesday! And it looks like Ox could be getting Excalibur, unless I'm entirely wrong and he already has a weapon that I forgot about.

[gunnar hendershow]

So the new season is about a month away. Any anime I should be looking out for?

[Ruki]

Just gonna say this, I love Patty. I loved her immitations of random animals.

[thedjt]

Just finished finding a Sutible HD Soul Eater episode 14 and I have to say It was if not one of the best I've seen. It's quite late here at Ten to in the morning and I had to force myself not to laugh outloud at Death The Kid trying to write his name then crying over the K.

[VinnyT]

Or Black Star being bloody, beaten, and tied up on the chalk board for cheating. Then when he starts writing something in blood Soul Eater thinks it's to help him beat the test, then it's really just "Black Star" written on the bored, just because he can.

[The Mask of Norro]

Or Black Star being bloody, beaten, and tied up on the chalk board for cheating. Then when he starts writing something in blood Soul Eater thinks it's to help him beat the test, then it's really just "Black Star" written on the bored, just because he can.

That part was so amazing. God I love Black Star's ego... that whole episode with the test really was one of the funniest episodes in the series thus far. Kid's crying nearly killed me.

[The Mask of Norro]

http://revver.com/video/1065454/gurren-lag...-entertainment/

New Gurren Lagann Dub trailer, WITH the voices of the main cast, released by Bandai. Lorina hates the voices and says they all sound the same. Me, I'm... satisfied with some of them. I guess I'll need to wait to watch a full episode before I decide for certain how I feel, since this IS the first trailer and all, but...

... Kamina's voice is really, really, really hard to swallow. Simon's is fine, Yoko's is... ehhhhh, and Viral's made my eyes go wide-- they REALLY could have given him a better voice actor. Still, I'll... I'll reserve judgment until I get to see a full episode.