Jump to content

What Anime are you watching now?


Ryoji

Recommended Posts

On 17/07/2016 at 4:29 AM, Fred the Barber said:

I also watched the first two episodes of Acchi Kocchi today, because @AaronIsCrunchy's avatars were too cute so I bought it on Blu Ray, and it finally arrived today (along with my full Yona of the Dawn set, yessss, I might just go rewatch that, maybe even watch the dub, who knows, could get crazy). Anyway, Acchi Kocchi is really sweet, and yet the characters manage to feel real, rather than being predictable tropes rendered into animation; a rare combination. I'm really enjoying it, looking forward to watching more.

Edit: Just noticed I used three semicolons in this post. I may have a problem.

This makes me so happy I can't even. Changed my avatar as a result :miyako:

Yeah, not bad for an anime descended from a yonkoma! Actually feels like they put 5 minutes into characterisation, which is always nice. Hope you like the rest of the series.

And as ittaku said, semicolons are important!

On 17/07/2016 at 6:03 AM, ittaku said:

It remained cute to the end but was one of the shows I could use late at night to help me feel sleepy - which is not necessarily a bad sign but shows how little I got worked up by it.

If I remember correctly, Acchi Kocchi does fall somewhat into the iyashi-kei subgenre of slice of life, which I think roughly translates as 'healing'. I think that's half the intended effect, so I can understand that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unbelievably I've made it halfway through Maison Ikkoku which is 48/96 episodes. This is a major achievement for me since it's an anime I've been meaning to watch for over a decade and kept getting stalled whenever I started it. It's  a huge investment and the rewards are there for sure, but it's slow and very frustrating. It's so clearly headed in the direction I want a romance to go that I have no choice but to keep watching till the end. I'm so keen to see the end of the story now that I plan to marathon a dozen episodes a day now and finish it by week's end. There's so much more I want to write about this landmark series but I'll save it for when I've finished. Watch this space!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just saw the last episode of berserk (3rd one i think it is) you gotta love how they put female characters naked (in this case farnese) but they dont draw nipples, it looks terrible, if you are not going to draw them why show them in the first place? :shrug:

Spoiler

xyHeEy2.jpg

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So i just started watching Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite. I liked season 1, the sense of adventure and discovery in the anime was quick and colourful. I pretty much excused all the holes in the story and hilarious representation of politics in it cause well i wasn't going into this anime with the expectation of something 'heavy' to watch. Just something fun.

Then i began season 2, just four episodes so far and i got to say...

Spoiler

 

I'm sickened. It became difficult to watch for me. First episode and it introduces sexual slavery and a rape scene. Sexual abuse of any kind really disturbs me, i think my personal trauma and experiences probably adds to how deeply affected i get by it.  

I felt enraged and disgusted by it all. Felt so sorry for Tyuule and Noriko. Tyuule for example had everything taken away from her and she's branded as a traitor due to misinformation. All alone in a world of suffering, of course you're mind isn't going to be right after that. You'll most likely hate life itself.  Ah noriko... taken away from her home world and raped and tortured for months only to be rescued and thinking she could go back to her family, but guess what? her familys no more... 

Then we have Tuka and her psychological issues festering to a point where she can't decipher reality anymore, poor Tuka...

Honestly i didn't expect it to get this dark, this quickly. I know they're all just characters in a story, but those acts still disturb me maybe because things like this exists in reality to. I just end up getting reminded of it. This isn't the animes fault of course, this was the direction the novel was heading in i think. Well i always get like this when i get surprised by situations like that in stories. I can't help myself but empathize.

 

Okay, rant end!

Anyway i'm going to finish the anime. It still has the spirit of season 1 in it, i just need to deal with all the added baggage that came along with the story's progression. Man i hope it ends well somehow though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, DharmaFreedom said:

So i just started watching Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite. I liked season 1, the sense of adventure and discovery in the anime was quick and colourful. I pretty much excused all the holes in the story and hilarious representation of politics in it cause well i wasn't going into this anime with the expectation of something 'heavy' to watch. Just something fun.

Then i began season 2, just four episodes so far and i got to say...

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I'm sickened. It became difficult to watch for me. First episode and it introduces sexual slavery and a rape scene. Sexual abuse of any kind really disturbs me, i think my personal trauma and experiences probably adds to how deeply affected i get by it.  

I felt enraged and disgusted by it all. Felt so sorry for Tyuule and Noriko. Tyuule for example had everything taken away from her and she's branded as a traitor due to misinformation. All alone in a world of suffering, of course you're mind isn't going to be right after that. You'll most likely hate life itself.  Ah noriko... taken away from her home world and raped and tortured for months only to be rescued and thinking she could go back to her family, but guess what? her familys no more... 

Then we have Tuka and her psychological issues festering to a point where she can't decipher reality anymore, poor Tuka...

Honestly i didn't expect it to get this dark, this quickly. I know they're all just characters in a story, but those acts still disturb me maybe because things like this exists in reality to. I just end up getting reminded of it. This isn't the animes fault of course, this was the direction the novel was heading in i think. Well i always get like this when i get surprised by situations like that in stories. I can't help myself but empathize.

 

Okay, rant end!

Anyway i'm going to finish the anime. It still has the spirit of season 1 in it, i just need to deal with all the added baggage that came along with the story's progression. Man i hope it ends well somehow though.

Gate IS pretty light hearted at many times, but it is still a serious story about dealing with a conflict with a civilization from another World, it touches in on politics, corruption and such, also, you should read the manga, they leave out a lot less stuff, and represent the coward personality of the mc better (The light novels make him look even worse), he is always a nice person, he always does (most) of the same things, but they emphasize more on his cowardice, such as, in the beginning of the show he killed an invading soldier, in the original he doesn't do that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So this post is going to be about Maison Ikkoku which is an ancient anime 96 episodes long that I've finally finished. This is very old anime, and even if you have no interest in watching old school anime, I think it's important that anyone who's watched a romantic comedy of any sort in anime form should know about this.

ANN Link:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=376

MAL link:

http://myanimelist.net/anime/1453/Maison_Ikkoku

As you can see from the links above, this is a very high rating show, and in fact the most common rating (the mode) in ANN is 10/10 which is a spectacular rating.

This show dates back to a bygone era of anime, dating 1986-1988 and is a landmark show that pretty much defined the whole romantic comedy genre as we know it today in manga, anime and light novel form. This is the show you need to be grateful for, and curse, for everything there is you like and hate in today's romantic comedies. It inspired other classics such as Love Hina where the manga author clearly gives a nod to the show in both reproducing some of its original opening ideas, and using names from Maison Ikkoku in his works (such as Negima.) The story involves a college failure lodger falling in love with the lodge manager, 2 years his senior, who is actually a widow.

From the outset, this is a LONG show. It comes from an era where there was very little rush in telling a story, the anime series were planned way in advance and lasted for many seasons. A far cry from today's shows which may come from spectacular original sources (light novels, manga, VNs) and yet only get funding for one season, lasting 12 episodes and doing a terrible job of conveying the original source material. It takes the time to set scenes, draw backdrops, show characters simply walking and pondering in thought at times. It also spans 5 years in story line from start to finish, allowing a generous amount of character development, maturity and meaningful relationship  resolution. What this also means is that by today's sensibilities, this show is SLOW. I was 16 when this show first aired and I can tell you now, if it was available at the time I would have been religiously glued to the screen for 3 years watching this show without feeling it was slow in any way shape or form. However with what we're used to today, it is actually difficult to watch a show at this pace for this many episodes and not feel it's a waste of time. The artform has changed an awful lot. That said, it was an investment for me that I'd been meaning to do for over a decade because I knew how important it was in anime history. The animation quality is very good for its time, with bluray releases that are higher resolution than the TV broadcast and consistent right to the end. The music is decent for its era but nothing special.

What you get as a basic plot in this show is the classic post high school failing to get into college that falls in love with a woman, lives in a lodge shared with lots of other unique characters, ridiculous high jinx all leading to an obvious, if extremely drawn out, happy ending.

This is the show that started all the tropes we've come to love and hate. Hesitation when speaking, inconvenient interruptions, dogs jumping in at inopportune moments, trains passing to make critical words inaudible, payphones running out of money at the wrong time, people abruptly finishing a discussion before the other person gets to answer/finish what they're saying, walking in on people bathing at the wrong time, missed opportunities for sickness, failing to make appointments or meet deadlines conveniently for story purposes, love rivals, complicated love polygons, arranged marriage, beach episodes, onsen episodes, blackmail, big friendly dogs, butt monkeys, knowledgeable barkeepers, first name basis issues, fanservice, ojou-samas, high school crushes, tutors... even a zettai ryouiki and so on. You name it, almost every trope is executed in this story. The difference here is that a lot of this stuff had never actually been in a romance before and was introduced by the manga and anime that this belongs to.

Now having said that this show invented a lot of the tropes, that doesn't mean that it's perfect in its execution of them. Some jokes fall flat, the repeated tropes get irritating, and the pace of execution of them often becomes problematic for a modern day viewer. This is a show where the relationship tensions introduced by misunderstandings are innumerable. There is no end to the how often a miscommunication or misunderstanding will lead to a plot device in its own right, and if you watch it thinking you'll get relief from it at some stage, you need to be seriously patient as these don't stop happening till almost the end of the monster. They're frustrating in the extreme and get tiring after so many episodes. That said, the nice part is that the love rival is also not immune from these issues and these jokes actually work extremely well. Additionally, there is no doubt that the more frustration you feel during a story, the more satisfying the resolution to the story will be, and this is absolutely true here. At least the misunderstandings generally didn't last more than 2 episodes at most, usually less.

Primarily this is a comedy, and to be honest I didn't find myself laughing in every episode. There are long stretches where I watched, intrigued by the story, or compelled to get towards the end, and every few episodes I would have a right royal belly laugh when things were funny to me. It was never a show that made me "sleepy at night" because of the tension that would always be implied, and many episodes the whole romance component would be put aside for character building - which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Having said that, I was not really "glued" to it, finding a lot of it mundane and really not that amusing till much later on, by which time I'd fallen in love with (most of) the characters.

What is great about this show is the character development of the main characters. The protagonist actually starts out quite a loser and you feel sorry for him only at the start, but as time goes on he evolves into a much more amicable character and you can't help but root for him, hoping (knowing) he ends up with his one-sided love. The other characters too evolve in not necessarily expected ways and new characters are introduced until almost 3/4 of the way through the entire series, yet they work well since they get fleshed out and 1/4 of 96 episodes is still a heck of a lot. This, unfortunately, brings me to the lowest point of this series. Not all characters develop. There are 3 main characters that play the other tenants in Maison Ikkoku who are a major feature of the story, and, to put it bluntly, are a bunch of fucking annoying morons. They spend their entire time annoying, blackmailing, stealing, siphoning, interrupting, getting drunk and generally pissing off the main character and the audience. While this may have been funny 30 years ago when this anime first came out, it's plain shit now, and it's bad enough at the start of the series, yet it lasts right to the end of the story with virtually zero character development on their part. Sure they occasionally accidentally or otherwise help forward the story, but not enough to redeem how unrealistically annoying these lowlifes are. No sane person would put up with what they do to the protagonist. It's strange because the review at nihonreview gave character development in this series a glowing review but fails to mention these three characters in the light I saw them http://www.nihonreview.com/anime/maison-ikkoku/ (they gave it 9/10.)

An interesting point I noticed was the fanservice. One of the females in the series wears a see-through negligee through most of the series. Right from the very 1st episode you get nipple fanservice of her, which is a rarity in today's anime, especially one of this genre, though it's hardly arousing in such old school animation. This wasn't so much the interesting part as the fact that from the second season (after episode 24), her transparent negligee magically became opaque. Presumably at the time they decided it was too risqué for the target audience and toned it down (a bit late.)

The pace of this show is problematic by today's standards. Modern shows have 300-400 lines if dialogue. This has more like 200-250, which doesn't sound like much less, but it is when you've gotten used to high pace shows and for example something like No Game No Life wouldn't have lasted 12 episodes in this sort of series, but more like 50. I didn't mind it that much, but I have to admit I found a little workaround. Since I playback my videos with mpv (on linux) which can speed up playback without pitch change, I sped it up 10% to 1.1 speed and suddenly found it much more in tune with what I'd expect.

So there is one thing I have to mention on its own, and that's the ending. I freely admit to the fact I started watching this show because I knew it had a very happy ending. One thing about a 96 episode series that spans 5 years, unlike a modern romance anime of 12 episodes that spans maybe 3 months and ends with a confession 30 seconds before the final credits is that they had time to conclude this story slowly and completely. It's fair to say that the ending spans more than one episode (I won't say how many in the unlikely event someone watches this) and leaves absolutely no loose end. It completes every single storyline of every character we meet, and has the most satisfying and touching endings ever. I spent the last half of the last episode in tears and moments in previous episodes similarly. The ending was truly beautiful and I did not feel disappointed after having sat through 96 episodes. This show has THE absolute reference for happy endings.

Rating this show for me is hard because of its inconsistencies by today's standards. If I'd watched it 30 years ago I'd have given it a 10/10. But with the slow parts hovering around a 6/10, the good parts an 8/10 and the ending an absolutely solid 10/10, I have to balance things out and say it's an 8/10. If you're patient, up for a very old school anime, and have plenty of time and love romance and want to see how the current artform came to be I'd highly recommend it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just marathoned ReLife and that ending was bull shit. The show had such a charm to it that so many new shows lack for me. I've never watched anything like it. A 27 year old man sent back in High School to change himself for the better? Sure it's wierd but it made me think a lot about the things that are happening to me right now (not 27 btw :makina:). Not to mention the character development was more or less spot on for the amount of episodes, though it needs a season two. 

That reason only is why the ending was bull shit, for some reason Chihayafuru's ending was fine with me, but I can't stand for this. I hope someone else has shared this rage in their hearts as well. Like hell even one or two more episodes would have been able to clear it up :conspiracy: fuuuuuuu

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, LiquidShu said:

I just marathoned ReLife and that ending was bull shit. The show had such a charm to it that so many new shows lack for me. I've never watched anything like it. A 27 year old man sent back in High School to change himself for the better? Sure it's wierd but it made me think a lot about the things that are happening to me right now (not 27 btw :makina:). Not to mention the character development was more or less spot on for the amount of episodes, though it needs a season two. 

That reason only is why the ending was bull shit, for some reason Chihayafuru's ending was fine with me, but I can't stand for this. I hope someone else has shared this rage in their hearts as well. Like hell even one or two more episodes would have been able to clear it up :conspiracy: fuuuuuuu

Probably because the next Arc is still on going in the webtoon :sachi:

For me so far I'm liking Love Live Sunshine!.

Though because of Gintama every time Hanamaru said 'Zura'  all i can think of is 'Zura Janai, Katsura da!' :vinty:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, LiquidShu said:

I just marathoned ReLife and that ending was bull shit. The show had such a charm to it that so many new shows lack for me. I've never watched anything like it. A 27 year old man sent back in High School to change himself for the better? Sure it's wierd but it made me think a lot about the things that are happening to me right now (not 27 btw :makina:). Not to mention the character development was more or less spot on for the amount of episodes, though it needs a season two. 

That reason only is why the ending was bull shit, for some reason Chihayafuru's ending was fine with me, but I can't stand for this. I hope someone else has shared this rage in their hearts as well. Like hell even one or two more episodes would have been able to clear it up :conspiracy: fuuuuuuu

Well that's because the webcomic is still ongoing, so there really wasn't much they could do besides attempt to make it feel like a conclusion. If they had continued it after that point, there really wasn't any good point to end it on I feel like.

I suggest you check out the webcomic if you're that upset :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Nosebleed said:

Well that's because the webcomic is still ongoing, so there really wasn't much they could do besides attempt to make it feel like a conclusion. If they had continued it after that point, there really wasn't any good point to end it on I feel like.

I suggest you check out the webcomic if you're that upset :P

Well then it seems like that would be the thing to do wouldn't it :rimu: 

Anyone know where the anime ends in the web comic? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finished Itazura na Kiss (as mentioned elsewhere). It was good simple romcom fun.

Finished Dragonar Academy. When it took itself seriously it wasn't that great but luckily it didn't really do that that much. It was fun when it was light hearted and not taking itself seriously (like most of the time) and had tons of nipple fanservice, especially for those in for loli action.  It also had a very satisfying ending.

Watching Karin next.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, LiquidShu said:

Well then it seems like that would be the thing to do wouldn't it :rimu: 

Anyone know where the anime ends in the web comic? 

Around chapter 106 a bit after that i think.

Chapter 105 is Ohga confessing to Kariu

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Whatched twin spica last week, a interesting series but the constant flashbacks really got on my nerves.
Wanted to check out the manga unfortunately it is not fully translated.

Now watching Rin daughters of Mnemosyne, only about half way through the first episode but it seems like i am going to really like the series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm at episode 10 of Trigun right now. Not really liking it as much as I thought I would, but it's been mildly enjoyable so far. A friend of mine told me it picks up eventually, so I think I'll stick with it till the end. The action feels kind of lacking due to Vash being able to just randomly dodge bullets all the time while being an ace shot. That said, he has an exuberant personality and a seemingly mysterious past. Vash will keep me from getting bored at least. :sachi:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, Kenshin_sama said:

I'm at episode 10 of Trigun right now. Not really liking it as much as I thought I would, but it's been mildly enjoyable so far. A friend of mine told me it picks up eventually, so I think I'll stick with it till the end. The action feels kind of lacking due to Vash being able to just randomly dodge bullets all the time while being an ace shot. That said, he has an exuberant personality and a seemingly mysterious past. Vash will keep me from getting bored at least. :sachi:

It definitely does change pace quite a bit. I'm a big fan - hope you enjoy where it goes.

After finishing my Angel Beats! binge, I'm back to Acchi Kocchi. Still cute. Still probably going to annoy me in the end by not resolving anything, but oh well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

I'm back to Acchi Kocchi. Still cute. Still probably going to annoy me in the end by not resolving anything, but oh well.

Acchi Kocchi remained cute to the end and was very good at narcotising me if I watched it late at night, making it easy for me to go to bed. The lack of any sort of character development or romantic progression is annoying enough to make me glad it was only 12 episodes long.

Just finished watching "Karin" as a romcom. It was decent enough and had a very satisfying ending making me add it to my ultimately satisfying ending list. I didn't find it hilarious or anything but at least the situation comedy almost never relied on standard romantic tropes.

Now going to try and watch Welcome to the NHK followed by Kimi ni Todoke.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 hours ago, Fred the Barber said:

It definitely does change pace quite a bit. I'm a big fan - hope you enjoy where it goes.

You're right. The later parts of the series were a lot more engaging and the atmosphere did eventually get pretty serious. Trigun bares a striking resemblance to Rurouni Kenshin in regards to pacifism, except that in Trigun there's more pressure on the protagonist to not kill. It was awfully interesting. That being said, I felt like there were certain parts of the series that didn't play out very well to me. For the most part, it involved the emotions being expressed by the characters which I didn't feel like I could personally connect to. But that probably has more to due with my preferences in direction than the quality of the show. I still don't like the action that much either. :P

Personal gripes aside, it was a fun watch!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...