The Anime Thread

[IAceI]

I've got a few of those set as plan to watch on MAL, I'll add a few of the others too when I get a chance to look at their synopsis'. I've known about Elfen Lied for years but I've never brought myself to watch it, even knowing about the puppy section makes me scared to watch.

[IAceI]

New Accel World is out for those of you watching. Not going to type my thoughts up massively right now as it's 00:15 my time and I fancy another episode of Azumanga Daioh before I go to sleep (EDIT: or not as Fate/Zero appears to be out too!) but in short it's one of those that doesn't seem to go anywhere or do anything much for 20 minutes and then ends with my really wanting to watch the next episode. Darn cliffhangers.

Edited June 16, 2012 by IAceI

[Mick]

New Accel World is out for those of you watching. Not going to type my thoughts up massively right now as it's 00:15 my time and I fancy another episode of Azumanga Daioh before I go to sleep (EDIT: or not as Fate/Zero appears to be out too!) but in short it's one of those that doesn't seem to go anywhere or do anything much for 20 minutes and then ends with my really wanting to watch the next episode. Darn cliffhangers.

Have you watched Nichijou? If you like Azumanga Daioh, you'll love Nichijou.

[IAceI]

I'll add it to my plan to watch list, there's plenty of it.

Fate/Zero

Awesomness. I'll come back tomorrow with my full thoughts tomorrow after some rest. I'll need the 'dream' scene explained to me though I imagine, I never really understood it in the novel and the anime didn't make it much clearer.

Was it just basically.. the Grail speaking to him? I liked the whole conflict of morality in the decisions he 'made', but I don't think I truly understood it.

Finale next week. What a fun ride.

[Mick]

I'll add it to my plan to watch list, there's plenty of it.

Fate/Zero

Awesomness. I'll come back tomorrow with my full thoughts tomorrow after some rest. I'll need the 'dream' scene explained to me though I imagine, I never really understood it in the novel and the anime didn't make it much clearer.

Was it just basically.. the Grail speaking to him? I liked the whole conflict of morality in the decisions he 'made', but I don't think I truly understood it.

Finale next week. What a fun ride.

Ok, on the Dream Scene:

First a bit about the history of Fate. The Einzberg family decided to cheat during the Third Holy Grail War, so they summoned an eighth Servant, Avenger. Avenger was not a person per se, it was the embodiment of all the world's evil in the body of a boy, and was a fairly incompetent Servant, dying early in the war, aka the Angra Maiyu. Since a Servant has to go back to the Grail when it's destroyed, the purity of the Grail was tainted, which nobody knew about until this episode. As a result, any wish the Grail grants will be an evil perversion of the wish. Kiritsugu basically realized that it was impossible to save everybody, and the only thing to do to prevent even more shit from hitting the fan was to order Saber to destroy the Grail.

Possible Spoilers on the Finale and Fate/Stay Night (Read if you've seen Fate/Stay Night, since you know what happens)

Oddly, this leads to the whole cycle repeating itself. Saber's destruction of the Grail leads to a huge fire which kills a shitload of people, of which there's only one survivor, a young boy that Kiritsugu decides to adopt: Emiya Shirou. Shirou wants to save the world. Kiritsugu (before his death) has the response of "yeah, good luck with that", for obvious reasons. It's impossible. This leads through Fate/Stay Night and Shirou's problem with not wanting to kill anyone, by avoiding the truth: You cannot save everyone. Both of the Emiya's have the problem of wanting to make an omelet without breaking an egg; it can't be done. Any cook will tell you that. (But look what happened to The Cook! )

So, yeah. The Grail, and by extension the Angra Mainyu, was trying to goad Kiritsugu into making his wish, one that would be corrupted beyond what he wants. The Grail will grant your wish in the most destructive way possible. Kiritsugu's desire for world peace would end with just him, Irisviel and Ilya, nobody left to fight, just three people at the cost of six billion lives.

You want to be rich? Well, the world goes boom, leaving you with control of all the money. And so on.

....If I'm ever in this thing, I'm asking for a Coke if a win.

Hope that explains it. And boy, was that one hell of an episode of Fate/Zero.

[gunnar hendershow]

Okay, 5 episodes deep. Time for some thoughts on Future Diary.

I hope Fourth and Ninth aren't going to quickly be disposed of, I like both of their characters and hope that they can grow before we see someone in this game kill them. Twelfth was hilarious, cracked me up, sad to see him go but that scene had me in hysterics. I really liked the character of Sixth, but she had to go by the end of episode five given the way the entire conflict with her was presented. I can't wait to see the Yukki and Yuno relationship come to a head and what will happen from there. I have a feeling it's coming sooner rather than later and that will lead to some frantic last few episodes.

[IAceI]

Ah, now that solves a lot of problems with the Holy Grail that I wasn't so sure on originally - so cheers, certainly clears it all up a lot.

Fate/Zero S2 E11

Fight between Kiritsugu and Kirei is awesome. Doesn't seem like Kirei was at all prepared for The Origin Bullet from The Contender and he suffered for it. I love those Black Keys though. As I said previously I like the way it almost blurs the lines between who is good and who is bad and what is right and what is wrong. It makes for a much more unpredictable and enjoyable show when you have just a protagonist, an antagonist and so on. There are times when Kirei seemed - in the early parts - almost good before coming seemingly pure evil, and times when Kiritsugu seemed evil before becoming good, or at least a reason for doing what he wants.

Saber is still a stubborn bint it seems, Archer still barely seems to care or even move a great deal, and I don't believe Kariya is quite dead yet but seemed to contribute to the death of Berserker/Lancelot. His story is rather tragic, if not quite obvious from the outset. What a tortured soul he turned out to be.

Accel World E10

Like I posted above there isn't a great deal that happens in the majority of the show until the ending. The characters just seem to plod along doing a bit of explaining of things and the relationship between all 5 of them (if you include Chiyuri) is explored. It's a bit cutsie and at times a little tedious with the triangle of Kuroyukihime/Haru/Yuniko but at the same time I find the way it balances the episode and relationships between them two, and Taku and Chiyuri quite interesting. It must be hard to try and get 5 characters who are all interlinked saved for perhaps Chiyuri and Yuniko to work cohesively, but it seems to manage. The episode ends with the introduction of seemingly the 'first bad guys' in the Yellow Legion, led by seemingly a clown/jester type character, so lets see how that begins.

Will this be two series do you think, if not more? 10 episodes in and we're only really at the first enemy legion as the Red seem to be relatively good, or will it centre on Chrome Disaster? I ask simply as their seems to be tonnes of series in the light novel department so it probably had legs to run and run. Hopefully the well doesn't dry up.

Uchuu Kyoudai/Space Brothers E12

I love this program, I really do. I was worried that they'd maybe veered off into an almost ridiculous Big Brother style situation but I did a bit of looking and it turns out that JAXA really do these tasks when selecting astronauts. The interplay between Mutta and Serika is interesting and how they're not only keeping Kenji in the loop despite being in a different group but starting to push forward new characters as possible friends/rivals. Considering only 6 of them can be chosen, 2 from each group, it'll be enjoyable to watch all of them interact for what I assume will be about a 24-26 episode series now.

Edited June 17, 2012 by IAceI

[Ruki]

Such a good episode of Fate/Zero!

[IAceI]

That has to rank as one of the best fight scenes I have seen in an anime whatsoever to be honest.

When Kirei is just using one arm to block Kiritsugu's attacks, amazing.

[StevenRichardsRules]

I've been really enjoying Tasogare Otome X Amnesia lately. It started out mostly romantic comedy but it has definitely taken a darker turn. And the art direction is lovely. I love how so much is said with the simplest effects, like the way something is framed on-screen.

Shaping up to be my second favourite anime with a ghost protagonist.

[=BK=]

I never watched these before because I thought they'd be stupid but on my god I was wrong.

[Ruki]

Have you watched the Yu Gi Oh or DBZ Abridged series? All wonderful.

[StevenRichardsRules]

Yeah, Team Four Star and Little Kuriboh's abridged series' are probably the best made of the bunch, though there are other quality ones to be found. And the two-shot Hellsing Abridged (also TFS) is fantastic.

[IAceI]

"This video contains content from ABGroup, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."

I feel like I am missing out on all the fun.

In other news I'm up to about episode 18 of Azumanga Daioh now, it's phenomenally good. Weird how they can keep a show not really about anything so fresh and unrepetitive for 26 episodes. Osaka is definitely my favourite, ever since Sea Slug Team moment all the way through to even now.

[Mick]

"This video contains content from ABGroup, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds."

I feel like I am missing out on all the fun.

In other news I'm up to about episode 18 of Azumanga Daioh now, it's phenomenally good. Weird how they can keep a show not really about anything so fresh and unrepetitive for 26 episodes. Osaka is definitely my favourite, ever since Sea Slug Team moment all the way through to even now.

Dub or Sub?

[IAceI]

I'm watching the subs. That's all that's available where I'm watching it and I tend to lean towards subs over dubs, means I have to give it my attention and I can't get distracted and start doing other things.

Had a quick look over the new season anime synopsis' and it's looking like a slow season. All I've seen that really holds my attention is Muv Luv: Total Eclipse, which seems a little fan servicey, Sword Art Online which needs to really deliver as it could easily go completely and utterly down the wrong track and Tari Tari which sounds good on paper but may not be to my taste when it actually starts. They're bigging up season 2 of Rinne no Lagrange a lot and I thought the first season was pretty poor so it doesn't seem like a good season for me.

That said I have about 8-9 programs on my 'plan to watch' list so summer may provide a good chance to catch up on some essential watching.

[Mick]

I'm watching the subs. That's all that's available where I'm watching it and I tend to lean towards subs over dubs, means I have to give it my attention and I can't get distracted and start doing other things.

Had a quick look over the new season anime synopsis' and it's looking like a slow season. All I've seen that really holds my attention is Muv Luv: Total Eclipse, which seems a little fan servicey, Sword Art Online which needs to really deliver as it could easily go completely and utterly down the wrong track and Tari Tari which sounds good on paper but may not be to my taste when it actually starts. They're bigging up season 2 of Rinne no Lagrange a lot and I thought the first season was pretty poor so it doesn't seem like a good season for me.

That said I have about 8-9 programs on my 'plan to watch' list so summer may provide a good chance to catch up on some essential watching.

Ah, ok. While the dubs are decent, a lot of jokes just don't work out well with it (Namely, for some reason in the dubs, Yukari teaches Spanish, when it's supposed to be English. Osaka has a US Southern accent, as well as a few other things where it seems like it's treated more like a dubbed cartoon instead of an anime. It basically just follows the general plot of the manga, which was all four-panel.

As far as upcoming stuff, I don't know. Fate/Zero ends soon, as does Haiyore! Nyaruko-san ( Awesome show too) . At least Accel World is 24 episodes, so lots to go on that.

Regarding Fate, I wonder if they'll eventually do Fate/Hollow Artaxia. Basically, this is a more light hearted sequel to Fate/Stay Night, which pretty much ignores a lot of what happened. Some of the fun:

None of the Servants are dead, not even Gil. Remember, these are all the things from Fate/Stay Night, so you have shit like Shirou running across Caster as the two shop, Lancer tries (keyword tries) to fish, Gilgamesh takes a potion of youth, becomes a cute kid and is somewhat upset at how he turns out (he also creates the 'Gil Brigade', basically his gang of brats with hearts of gold).

It's not entirely all fun and games though. Remember how I talked about Avenger and the Angra Mainyu?

Well, we finally get to properly meet Avenger.

The real cool ting about it is we find out why Kirei has two Servants in Fate/Stay Night (Lancer and Archer). He killed Lancer's original Master, took her command seals, and then became Lancer's Master. Hollow Artaxia focuses on Lancer's original master, where she discovers she's caught in a four-day time loop (the only person who notices aside from her is Caster), and takes on Avenger as her Servant. I don't know much more than that, though.

So, yeah. Only thing waiting is a slow fan translation of the game, but eh, whatever.

There's a lot of stuff I want to watch/read too. I've started up K-On!!, which is a pretty cute show in it's own right, not quite at the level of Nichijou or Lucky Star (And I don't care WHAT you bastards say, Lucky Star is actually brilliant), but still entertaining enough.

I still have to watch:

Angel Beats

Bakemonogatari

Cromartie High School

Daily Lives of High School Boys (This one's pretty amusing)

Durarara

FMA: Brotherhood (Though, I could just finish the Manga)

Guilty Crown

Hayati the Combat Butler

Lovely Complex

Neon Genesis Evangelion (though, the dubs REALLY irked me)

Princess Lover (hey, last decent Ecchi I watched was that Demon King one)

Special A

I'm tempted to watch Dragon Ball, but just God no. Not enough time. Lasting through 101 episodes of Hajime no Ippo was enough, and I've probably covered two more seasons reading the manga alone. Dragon Ball is fucking longer (I'm being proper and combining DB and DBZ, the way it fucking should be.)

Not sure what else to throw on to the watch list

[IAceI]

I'd like to go back and watch Dragon Ball one day but I just don't think I'd have the time to do it all. I'd need a time when I'm not in work and can just spend a day watching episode after episode, but I don't think it's the sort of program that can hold your attention like that given you could spend 3 hours watching the same fight. Maybe one day I'll get round to it, but not anytime in the future.

Hopefully there will be more iterations of Fate/ in the future. Of any kind. Fate/Zero has been a really enjoyable show, an action with a solid plot behind it and not mindless violence, and no fan service either which is always a surprising addition to any anime.

Will Accel World be running in one long plot then do we assume like Mirai Nikki and they won't split it up into two parts? I figure not, and it would seem a little odd as that would mean the split would be coming up soon and the first half wouldn't really cover a great deal. I suppose that means I'll have that, Pokemon Best Wishes 2, Gundam AGE and 1-3 additional shows to watch over the coming months depending on how the summer programs take my fancy.

Also on my list to watch are, but not limited to: Death Note, Fate/Stay night, Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu, Fullmetal Alchemist, Nichijou and Samurai Champloo. I'll probably add more as I think of them and come across them, should be finished with Azumanga Daioh in the next few days and then I haven't decided what my next move will be.

I'm thinking of getting into manga as well, and Attack on Titan has just come out apparently and seems like a good story, with a lot of excitement and buzz about it, so that might be a good place for me to start my interest. It's a shame I'll have to buy online, albeit cheaper, because I quite like going to my local bookstore - it's a calming place but the manga collection is - unsurprisingly - quite limited, and the majority of it is made up of Bleach, Naruto, One Piece and Pokemon. It does have other ones in there, but seems to miss the odd volume too, and I don't know if I want to play catch up on an existing manga (let alone a long running one like the listed ones above) so this Attack on Titan seems like a good starting point.

Also, I'm not sure when it's meant to run, but I've seen a trailer for Code:Breaker, and looked into the story a little bit and it seems intriguing, so I will keep my eyes out for when that one comes to TV. Given there's a trailer about, albeit a brief one, that should mean that it's not a million miles off. (EDIT: October 2012, apparently..)

Edited June 21, 2012 by IAceI

[Mick]

Also on my list to watch are, but not limited to: Death Note, Fate/Stay night, Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu, Fullmetal Alchemist, Nichijou and Samurai Champloo.

That's really tough to say how to order, FMP should come before Fumoffu (which is an awesome series), but...hmm. Which FMA is it?

Anyway, if it were me, I'd go

Death Note

Fate

FMP

FMP? Fumoffu

Nichijou

Samurai Champloo

[Ruki]

Also on my list to watch are, but not limited to: Death Note, Fate/Stay night, Full Metal Panic!, Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu, Fullmetal Alchemist, Nichijou and Samurai Champloo.

That's really tough to say how to order, FMP should come before Fumoffu (which is an awesome series), but...hmm. Which FMA is it?

Anyway, if it were me, I'd go

Death Note

Nichijou

FMP

FMP? Fumoffu

Fate

Samurai Champloo

Fixed.

Serious, comedy, serious, comedy, serious, and then a serious/comedy!