The Anime Thread

[stokeriño]

I know plenty of animators who I'd mention before you. They have degrees and everything.

[mystikz]

so I'll add my geass r2 spoilers

Spoiler: Click here to view

so is suzaku a douche or what? if I was the emperor I sure wouldn't trust him, he already sold out his father and his "best friend". something just doesn't seem right about him though, he claims this is all to "change things from within", I think more is going on with him than it seems. what happened to him caring about nunnaly?

as always we get more questions than answers with this show. if Cornelia is laying low maybe deep down she wants to reach Lelouch in a way. what's with the europeans anyway? surely they have something better than that ? or the emperor had taken them a while ago.

zero sure is in quite the predicament, can't wait to see how he pulls it off.

[stokeriño]

In regards to the Europeans: they're clearly one of the three Great Powers with Brittania and the Chinese Federation, though perhaps not so militaristic as Britannia and therefore they can get twatted when Knights of the Round show up (their technology might be on a par for the vast majority of the army, for instance - just not the 'special' prototype knightmares).

They've supposedly been in an extended war with Britannia though (I'm sure it was mentioned in season 1, when they were wanting to ensure that the Chinese remained neutral), so they've got to be pretty good at least. Except for the Italians.

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

Goddamn cartoon network. Bad enough they got me staying up 'til 1:30 to see Deathnote, now I gotta stay up 'til 2 for Code Geass.

[MalaCloudy Black]

Makes me glad to be in CST.

[The Mask of Norro]

Negima.

Lorina and I go to this Anime Club out of sympathy for a friend of hers, because the girl's the only chick there, she runs the club, and most of the guys that go are the typical male American otakus along with a large group of Magic: The Gathering card players there too. Now, thankfully, not many of them fit the mold of a stereotype, but there are still those that do.

So one of them brings in Negima. I'd heard things about it, briefly seen some clips, and figured, between that and Cowboy Bebop, which I've already seen and loved... why not introduce us to something new? So we agree on watching Negima.

Story seems intriguing, but... ugh. Just, just... ugh. This is not an anime you watch with hotblooded American otakus who will freak out over every scene with some random chick half-exposing herself. There were elements of semi-decent comedy, and I liked some of the angles the story took, but other then the crowd that we were unfortunately forced to watch the anime in, I found one other problem:

The show itself.

Honestly, this is an anime that just caters to so many stereotypes it's not even funny. And it's not the kind-of anime that's trying to point out the stereotypes, or maybe poke a little fun at them here or there... no, this is one that embraces them unashamedly. Okay. That's fine. I can sometimes get into some shows like that if they're entertaining enough.

... this show is EMBARRASSING to watch. Moreover, I couldn't help but find myself looking away during multiple occasions not actually out of embarrassment, but rather, out of boredom. It simply could not keep my interest, and this surprised me, because looking at the show description... I honestly though I'd be entertained.

The main chick is the typical "rough edged quick-tempered over dramatic chick" character. Her rival is the typical "semi-intelligent preppy snubster schoolgirl" character. Honestly, the list just goes on. And then, there's the episodes, and all the countless, tiresome, typical, completely and utterly expectable scenes that come with them.

I mean, like, the bathhouse scene. Okay. That's a good example... WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THE COLLEGE PROPORTIONED MIDDLE SCHOOL CHICKS? I... I... okay. I realize, it's an anime. It's Japan. They do this. But I have yet to see an anime that has placed such blatant disregard to that age bracket as a whole. They're not middle schoolers, they could maybe pass as well-developed high schoolers. This is moreso then any other ones I've seen, and, as you all know, I've read the Battle Royale manga, which had rock-hard chiseled and well-featured, well-defined, highly sophisticated, matured-to-the-point-of-seeming-young-adult middle schoolers.

... okay, so maybe BR did it worse. This was a bad point to pick at. BUT STILL, WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THIS TREND?

... and then they have a breast size competition! I mean really. It's like every episode had to cater to the otakus watching the damned thing. It bogs down what would have otherwise been a fairly entertaining story. The whole angle with the main guy and the shy girl? That was actually going somewhere decent! And it kept getting ripped to shreds by all the other garbage going around it.

I don't know, maybe this is one of those animes you go into NOT expecting to get a decent story out of. Maybe it's just mindless fun, I can see it for that, but... even as mindless fun, I just couldn't get into it. It's too typical. It's too... I dunno, I really don't know how else to describe it from what I've already said.

Then again, I've only seen like the first four or five episodes of it. Those first four or five though were VERY hard to sit through, and left me reluctant to continue on with the series. Lorina pretty much felt the same way, actually.

Now that being said, I guess I can turn this post around with an anime we saw at this place that we actually enjoyed, due to its story and character development and whatnot: Wallflower, I think the name was. A group of high school guys that are waaaaay overly effeminate and the aunt of one of them owns the mansion they stay in. The aunt sends her daughter over so they can make her into a lady or something and so she can take care of things around the house for them, and if they can make her into a lady, they can continue to have free rent.

The catch is this chick loves everything dark and has some weird weakness to "creatures of light"-- basically, attractive people. Funny thing is they portray her as some ugly chick in everyone else's minds, but when you actually see her face, she's not bad looking at all. One of the funniest parts to the character though is the fact that she's a reversal to the general trend in animes: I have YET to see any guy character get a nosebleed due to women getting partially exposed, but this girl continuously nosebleeds just by getting too close to a guy OR a girl who is attractive. And this is like, enormous quantities of nosebleed.

In any event, without spoiling too much of how everything goes... it's an entertaining series. The excessive nudity in the intro (it's strategically censored nudity, mind you, but the fact remains that the effeminate dudes are still stark bloody naked) is a bit much... but this was a series that I actually got into rather easily.

Aaaand therein lies Norro's double anime review: the ugly, and then the good.

Now I'll wait for all you Negima fans to come in here and mutilate me. Funny how that works out >_>

Though I must mention: it WAS the anime, and it WAS the English version, though honestly judging by how things went, unless this was another Cardcaptor's style switching-of-the-story, I'd still find the Japanese version pretty uninteresting. I DID hear good things about the manga, but having not read it, I can't make a judgment. Does the anime stay true to the manga? If so I'll probably not enjoy the manga either >_>

Edited April 28, 2008 by The Mask of Norro

[mystikz]

freaking english dub of geass, Lelouch with the same voice of Ichigo and Vash is just wrong. it makes it hard to watch since the lelouch and ichigo characters are so vastly different.

[Fanku Kaibutsu]

This "Negima" sounds a lot like a show called Maburaho that my girlfriend and some of her friends watched, only Maburaho didn't have the upside of a potentially decent story.

freaking english dub of geass, Lelouch with the same voice of Ichigo and Vash is just wrong. it makes it hard to watch since the lelouch and ichigo characters are so vastly different.

How is it any different than a real actor playing vastly different characters in films?

Edited April 28, 2008 by Fanku Kaibutsu

[MalaCloudy Black]

Yeah, it wasn't really bad. I didn't mind it. At first I was debating with myself over whether or not it was Bosch because it kiiinda sounded like it could've been someone else with a similar voice, so I was a little surprised (though not much) to learn that it was Jonny Bosch.

[MalaCloudy Black]

EDIT: Double Post

Edited April 28, 2008 by Ocean Doesn't Want Cloudy

[stokeriño]

Everything Norro said in regard to Negima is correct, and Fanku's comparison to Maburaho is also well founded. Just no, people. Just NO.

And no, Norro. There is no salvation to come from the manga, and the US version is no doubt virtually identical to the Japanese version. Your hopes are sadly dashed on that front.

I have a friend who likes Wallflower, but I've never been particularly inclined to show any interest in it. I'm on a sort of shounen kick at the moment.

[IAceI]

Getting Episode 4 of Geass now.

I just realised theres a Gunslinger Girl Series II out, and I didn't realise

If I'd woken up earlier I would have been able to download it and get up to speed, but I don't have long now so I will have to get them as quickly as I can between 3-5 before I go to tennis, then I get back at 9. School work I'm not doing today so I'll try and get as many as I can. Being the big Gunslinger Girl fan that I am, I didn't realise ¬_¬

[stokeriño]

Geass episodes are getting released earlier on, it seems, so I was able to watch the new one at about 10pm yesterday evening. I have to say, Lelouch's cunning plan of getting out of his predicament by

Spoiler: Click here to view

being a manipulative swine and confusing the fuck out of Rollo

was genius.

[IAceI]

Code Geass S2 E4

Spoiler: Click here to view

Well it was all going so well till the end when that tool Suzaku showed up wasn't it?

Eunuch of the Chinese Federation is dead, good, his voice went from awesome to rather annoying. Can't say I really expected it though.

Fucking Zhang Jiao reference officially makes the Chinese Federation the greatest thing ever. I want No. 6 of the Knight of Rounds to show up soon

Rollo's a bit of a tit but he's gone from being this freak, to having an awesome Geass and being basically lethal, to being Zero's little bitch all in 4 episodes.

Big surprise the hostages weren't killed. It's episode 4 after all. Here's to hoping the chick dies first, always doubting Zero and I can't bring myself to remember her name.

Fucking wings in the credits.

Edited April 28, 2008 by IAceI

[stokeriño]

Fucking wings in the credits.

It's CLAMP. I suggest you get over it.

I was rewatching some of Code Geass season 1 yesterday (got through the first 9 episodes), since we were showing it to a friend who'd never seen it. I love just picking up on the little flashes that make absolutely no sense at the time but do in retrospect. Like a 3 second clip of Nina working on her computer and just saying "Ah! It split!". Stay the fuck away from nuclear fission you fucking psycho girl!

Also, I miss Euphie.

[GhostMachine]

I have all 17 volumes of the Negima manga that Tokyopop has put out so far. Negima is by the same creator who did Love Hina, and its got a lot of similarities; both are more or less harem comedies, but Negima has more action to it (the main character is a sorceror and kind of a parody of Harry Potter, but not quite) and the fanservice isn't quite as blatant. (In Love Hina fanservice was used as a plot device to get Keitaro (the male lead) in trouble - for example, he'd accidentally walk in on someone in their underwear (or less) and get slapped or accused of being a pervert)

Can't comment on the anime much because I have only seen the first two episodes. (Watched them on On Demand) But I will say this: the Love Hina manga was a lot better than the anime - most episodes of the anime were original stories instead of adaptations of the manga stories, and the anime ended without any resolution, so you have to read the manga for the ending of the series. The episode of the anime with Naru trying to be a singer is pretty good, and the show had a kickin' theme (I have it on my Mp3 player), though.

*edit* Watched CG on Adult Swim, and I'm also not too thrilled Johnny Yong Bosch is doing the main character's voice. I'm a fan (he's pretty cool as the host of Anime TV and he was awesome as Vash), but kind of sick of hearing him. If he did a different voice....maybe. Hell, if I was casting the series, I'd have given the role to Crispin Freeman.

Edited April 28, 2008 by GhostMachine

[stokeriño]

The 'Love Hina Again' OVA had some resolution at least (aw, love and kiss and such). The only things the mangas have extra are (multiple) weddings. Though with that said, the Love Hina mangas have remained awesome while the anime has not dated so well.

And I cannot and will not take Negima seriously. Partially because it's about 100 times more shameless than Love Hina ever was. Partially because of the 10 year old/14 year olds factor. Partially because of the sheer cramming in of different girls to fit all potential 'moe' interests. Partially because its riding the Harry Potter wave. And finally, because the main female character Asuna looks AND acts like a cross between Naru from Love Hina (same old female leads, eh?) and Asuka from Evangelion. Yes, that's right: Asuka...Naru. ¬_¬

[Momo]

So I just finished watching Appleseed EX Machina. It's much better than the first. I couldn't find one thing about it that wasn't improved from the first.

The CG was beautiful, many times I thought that it was real (most notably in far-away shots, although the rat did fool me at first).

The Story became more easily understandable, and I think that because they didn't have to explain everything to do with new technology this time around, they were able to focus a lot more on character development, which is never a bad thing.

Every scene was pulled off really well as a whole. I especially liked the scene on the shooting range. Finally, fight scene choreography, superb. (Y)

Really good movie. I think any anime fan would be able to sit down and watch it, even if they weren't a Shirow Masamune fan.

[Ruki]

So.....I watched Akira (2001 version....ZOMG! Tai's voice from Digimon! )....t'was a good movie, and now I know where a lot of the clips from the AMV Hell series comes from. Very good movie, although the ending could have been better, but I have seen worse (I'm looking at you Evangelion!), and I'll be excited for the Live Action version of this....assuming they do it right.

[IAceI]

Started watching Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino and I'm a bit disappointed. The animators have changed, so it's not the same awesome backgrounds and stuff that it used to be. I'm sure I'll get into it, but every time I watch I'll probably look and think "it was better looking last season", like the Girls just look different.. less.. interesting now and it seems to reflect on them as characters almost because they look different.

Still, it's only one episode so I'm sure I'll enjoy it, but I doubt it will be better than the original. Unless it's really good, part of me wishes that they just left it at the 13 episodes of the original series - and keep it there, that's that. So, we'll see, I don't want my opinion of what was a brilliant first 13 episodes done by different animators to be tarnished if the next series isn't as good.