Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

The past couple of weeks I watched the first three OVAs of Hellsing: Ultimate and also did some catching up on my mainstays of Bleach and One Piece. Bottom line: Hellsing: Ultimate is better than the original series. Better sound work, better animation, still spectacularly violent and loaded with badassery. I'm definitely looking forward to the fourth episode.

And as for Bleach and One Piece, each of them had a pretty good month. Bleach is just entering the current manga story arc, and One Piece just finished a long round of exposition, with fillers probably on the horizon. It's been a good September.

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Due to being a bit sick, I've recently watched two series in the past two days:
One was Mahoromatic, which I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone (Although the end of it sucks big time). It's the story of a combat android that is nearing the end of her life (As mentioned by her commander, if she stayed ion combat mode she'd live only about 37 days) and is relieved of her war duties and free to live the remaining 390-ish days of her life as she wishes. And she wishes to become a maid.

The other series I watched was 2*2=Shinobuden (distributed in the US as "Ninja Nonsense" IIRC). It's an absurdist comedy about a ninja girl. It's twelve episodes of very hard laughter.

--------------------

"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN

I finally found the Fullmetal Alchemist movie and watched it the other day. Man, that series is no less than hilarious. The movie itself was really cool, but I still don't agree with how they ended the series. I'm hoping the manga will end better.

--------------------

Why, hello guys! Haven't been around here in a loooong time!
http://dragcave.net/user/LadyTwi
http://www.backloggery.com/ladytwi

I was slow getting on the Bleach bandwagon, but I've really enjoyed it.
Access to it opened at the same time as The Melancholy Of Suzumiya
Haruhi, so haruism outshone it by far for me. Returning to the series,
though, I'm really impressed with the combination of thematic settings,
characterization, and humor. Quite enjoyable.

--------------------

Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

I watched the new One Piece dub on Youtube yesterday evening, and the sound work was pretty good. Not as great like the original audio but thankfully not awful like the 4kids. Overall, I'm very satisfied with it, and the intro/OP *totally* surpassed my expectations with how good it was.

Here's the aforementioned OP (this is legal, as it's just an opening, but the individual episodes themselves are quite illegal on youtube)

This post has been edited by laszlow on 5th October 2007 16:42

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

I've watched another two series, that I want to heartily recommend:

DNA^2 is probably at least a bit known already, since it's not the newest series out there. The story starts with Momonari Junta and his terrible problem: the Lady Allergy - anything that would arouse the normal man will make Junta sick and eventually: throw up. One day he's approached out the blue by Aoi Karin, a "DNA operator" from the future who's mission is to stop Junta from becoming the so-called "Mega Playboy" and who shoots him with a DNA altering bullet. As the Terminator Principle would have it, Karin used the wrong bullet and instead of keeping him from becoming the Mega Playboy, she turned Junta into him.
The series is fun, although I find the ending(s) lacking, but the wonderful opening song more than makes up for it to me.

Next up is new series: "Darker than Black". The world has been shaken by emergence of two phenomena altering rules of known physics, called the Gates: Heaven's Gate somewhere in South America and Hell's Gate in Tokyo. Along with the appearance of the Gates some people in the world changed dramatically. Some became "contractors", people who posses a unique supernatural ability each (antigravity, pyrokinesis, teleportation) and a unique price to pay for it (singing, smoking, bleeding, breaking their own bones...) and a strictly rational mindset, making them able to act regardless of their emotions. Others have become known as Dolls - soulless, programmed beings able to contact spirits and scry through them. Authorities do their best to keep the public from know of the existence of both Contractors and Dolls.
The story follows Hei, a mercenary working for the mysterious Syndicate. His partners include a shady informer called Huang, a talking cat by the name of Mao and Yin, the water-medium Doll.
Darker than Black mixes lighthearted and serious in a way that appeals to me very much. For the most part it has two-episode story arcs, although the nearer the ending, the more blurred the boundary between the arcs is.
Also, I am really fond of several secondary and episodic characters stating how the protagonist is going to be insanely fat by the time he's thirty xD

--------------------

"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN

Over the past several weeks I watched the Devil May Cry anime and also My-HiME.

DMC was... not that good. Dante's portrayed decently, but most of the new enemies, supporting characters, and plot situations are pretty lame and the entire thing lacked an entertaining arc - the only new character I enjoyed watching in action was Sid.

My-HiME is 25 terrific episodes and a terrible 26th episode. The action's great, the humor's funny, the characters are entertaining, and the ridiculous excess of schoolgirl fanservice is... well... you know what it is. But the ending sucked. Almost completely ruined the entire point of the whole series.

This post has been edited by laszlow on 26th December 2007 19:16

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Oh noes! I had heard good things about MyHIME, too! It's too bad there
isn't a Netflix for anime—given the expensive nature of the habit and the
growing demographic of twentysomething and thirtysomething fans, it
seems this would be a nice niche market. As it is, I miss everything on
AdultSwim now; too little time! I just caught up with NBC's Heroes!

I have been watching Avatar, though, after hearing JamesCameron will
be directing the movie adaptation of the series. Fantastic! It's a world so
rich in detail and innate history, it feels like an rpg setting.

--------------------

Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

Some very good series have been mentioned. The Slayers, Neon Genesis Evangellion, Chrono Crusade, Azumanga Daioh and Escaflowne namely, amongst others of some note. However I'm kinda surprised at the limited scope as despite what R51 said, the majority of this topic has been mostly about shows that've aired on the Cartoon Network, with some but little exception. I may be wrong but perhaps a little title injection might help stir things up a bit.

First off, I'd like to say something about Ichigo Mashimaro. It's a very sweet, cute and endearing show, with somewhat subtle yet somewhat overt sense of humor. It follows the daily after school life of some grade school girls, Chika, Miu, Ana and Matsuri, as well as Chika's teenaged sister Nobue who frequently hangs out with them. There is no overarching plot per se but a show of this sort doesn't really need one in my opinion, as it focuses more on personalities and character interactions then story. A very good show in my opinion.

Fate Stay/Night is another I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned. It's a very dark show with a highlander duo plot and very detailed artwork. The character designs look very cool and the overall feeling the show leaves me with is more or less "impressive". Especially the fights, which are simply awesome.

Oh, and recently I've rediscovered something I saw from years past. Sakura Wars! All female theater troupe by day, secret government controlled demon hunting mecha-pilot taskforce by night! While I don't remember all too much about it, I have the feeling that I'm going to really going to enjoy rewatching this...

And finaallllllllyyy... Pokemon! Because somebody had to mention it... =P

This post has been edited by Tonepoet on 6th January 2008 20:51

--------------------

Role reversal at its finest.

Quote (Tonepoet @ 6th January 2008 15:50)

However I'm kinda surprised at the limited scope as despite what R51 said, the majority of this topic has been mostly about shows that've aired on the Cartoon Network, with some but little exception.

For what it's worth, I did say that four and a half years ago.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Cowboy Bebop is the best anime I've ever seen. Spike Spiegel must be the coolest character ever!

--------------------

The end has no end.

I only watch one...Rurouni Kenshin....

I'm not all that bign into animes.... Just like it for some reason.

Quote (A11smart @ 27th December 2007 15:03)

I have been watching Avatar, though, after hearing JamesCameron will
be directing the movie adaptation of the series.

...whew...when you learn the truth, you gonna be mad...

I haven't really hit the anime for...ever. But I've been hearing some cool things about a show called Beck Mongolian Chop Squad I believe it's called, about a guy starting a rock band. If it weren't for the good word o mouth, I'd hate it on principle. Don't care if this sounds racist, but I aint heard any form of music from Japan that 'rocked' (FLCL the one exception and even there, it's only good as it is in context). I figure I might give it a shot any way and see if it's all that...or a bag of sh*t...

--------------------

Arts

Farts

Twarts

Narratorway, you have ruined Christmas! Nothing is worse than hearing
M Night Shyamalan could be lurking around to destroy this beautiful idea
of Avatar's rich world! I am burdened by the truth!

I just started watching Firefly, the original tv series. Did it leave anyone
else feeling vaguely like elements shadow CowboyBebop and Outlaw
Star? I've only seen two episodes on the boxset so far, but I know I'll
love it—intentional or not, the similiarites to the Space Wild West are
just too good not to watch. And, with so many years between when I last
saw OutlawStar and now, I can blur away its lesser parts and remember
its weird, intriguing ending.

--------------------

Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

FullMetal Alchemist, Fruits Basket XD =, Chrno Crusade aaaand, Black Cat. I LOooooooove Black Cat. =)

--------------------

*Sigh*....Times are tough

I used to watch Full Metal Alchemist and the Big O. Watched Digimon back in the day lol. I occasionally watch Inuyasha movies and I like some classics like Ghost in the Shell and Vampire Hunter-D. Good stuff. But I have to watch Inuyasha in Japanese. Something about the voices in Japanese amuses me lol

Man, good call, Painreaver. I'd forgotten about BigO, although it influenced
my tastes enough that for a gift idea, I was thrilled when my grrl got an old-
school hourglass (brass fittings, beautiful mahogany wood) as anniversary
gift. What a stylish and wild series, athough the end was a bit abrupt. Not
unlike The Matrix, really. Totally puts me in the mood to watch some!

--------------------

Putting the A's in W lm rt: A11smart, Jobclass: Retailer.

Over the weekend I re-read the Slam Dunk manga for probably the third or fourth time, but I still can't get into the anime for it. It moves too slowly and it's dated a little badly, especially since my mind's eye has much more intense the basketball action than the oldschool anime.

But I have a reason for posting this - Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk, Vagabond) is maybe my all-time favorite manga writer, and for the past year or so I've been looking for scans of his current manga Real. It's about wheelchair basketball, and I've read things like wiki articles on the subject, but I can't find any scans and I don't want to spend money on volumes until I've already read it once. Can anyone help me out?

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Yeah the Big O was great. I didn't get to watch it as much as I wanted but I still loved what I saw. I need to find a DVD or something...

This post has been edited by painreaver on 31st January 2008 22:14

I watched the first half of so of Saber Marionette J over the weekend, and it was very entertaining, if a little dated visually. I also saw some OVAs of an older series called 3x3 Eyes, and it was so good that was compelled to start reading the manga for it. But it's around 480 chapters or so, so it'll be awhile before I knock that one out.

It's weird, now that I have a roommate and several friends that are borderline otaku, I've been swamped in the stuff the past year. I've watched more in the past eight months than I ever have before.

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

I just recently started watching Bleach. i cant believe i didn't start watching it earlier. probably because of how boring it was at the start. either way, i'm catching up, but i've got a long way to go. during my very lengthy time away i started watching Samurai Deeper Kyo as well. not a bad anime, although i found it kinda hard to keep coming back to.

as for my all-time favorites, it'd have to be between Cowboy Bebop or Rurouni Kenshin. i remember the day Cartoon Network stopped showing Kenshin. i was so pissed. it was one of the few dubbed animes that didn't have completely crap VOs.

EDIT: completely forgot to mention Outlaw Star. i was kinda yound when i watched this one so if i went back and watched it, it might be complete crap. but from what i remember it was a very good one.

This post has been edited by Malevolence on 6th February 2008 17:27

--------------------

moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

I've recently stumbled upon Kaiji - Suffering Pariah/Ultimate Survivor, a series about a guy, who due to another man's debts is forced into playing big gambles sponsored by the Yakuza. Still exciting after 16 episodes and I'm eagerly waiting for more.

--------------------

"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN

there's a lot i like

GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka)
Trigun
Hellsing
Chobits is pretty good
Ranma 1/2
and some more i cant think of

Anyone else excited about the upcoming Batman OVA series? Six shorts, with a lot of the original writing staff from Batman: The Animated Series and Batman: Beyond and a veteran Japanese animation studio behind it. One of the shorts is going to be directed by Satoshi Kon, who is my second-favorite anime director (behind Hayao Miyazaki and barely ahead of Shinichiro Watanabe).

--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

I don't usually keep up with anime news, but your post had prompted me to look further into these.

I was excited to learn that the plotlines will sync up with the Batman Begins/Dark Knight plot, and yet be standalone.

It was also mentioned in the article I read that the studios doing this also helped make the Animatrix, which I have to say has to be one of the best anime side-story/tie-ins that I've ever seen. If these batman stories are done to that calibur, we've got a ton to look forward to.

Either way, with 6 different writers on 6 different stories, it will be interesting to see what villans will appear. With the writers of the new movie series picking such interesting beginner villans (scarecrow and Ras Al Ghoul) and adding the Joker into the mix already.

Something else interesting to note was something I noticed on IMDB under the credits for The Dark Knight: a character named Harvey Dent has a role in the movie!

For those a little less versed in Batman-ology, Harvey Dent became Two-Face

The Riddler in anime would be incredibly trippy.

Also Bane would be cool, but an entirely different thing altogether. I'd rather not have it, then have it be butchered again.

--------------------

If internal struggles were as enjoyable and glamorous as the self conflicted wars within video game characters, we would all be statues, reveling in perpetual self war. -Me

Play me on Rock Band 2, GH-WT, or any other Xbox GH!
Xbox Gamertag-MeanJerry

Quote (leilong @ 18th February 2008 19:52)

Something else interesting to note was something I noticed on IMDB under the credits for The Dark Knight: a character named Harvey Dent has a role in the movie!

A large part of TDK's ad campaign:





--------------------

this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Getting back to topic, I just discovered a new anime series called Dennou Coil: A Circle of Children (rough translation). Anyone remember that clip in the Animatrix about the kids playing around in the abandonded housing section? Same kinda theme, stretched out to twenty six eps. Basically cyberpunk as seen by Hayao Miyazaki, and that's another thing.

There's 'homage' and then there's just blatant theft! This show basically steals the character designs of ghibli and litterally just transplanted the two girls from Totoro in here as the main character and her little sister! It explains why I've fallen in love with the show so much, even if it is something I can't in good consience condone.

--------------------

Arts

Farts

Twarts

Gunslinger Girl.

while over at my friend Jeremy's house about a week ago i noticed he had quite a few anime DVDs. he had all the usual suspects: Kenshin, Cowboy Bebop, Slayers, Ninja Scroll, etc. but one caught my eye. three DVDs entitled Gunslinger Girl.

if you've never seen these, please, do yourself a favor and see them. now. the story revolves around an Italian group called the Social Welfare Agency who has started up a top secret projects that finds young girls around the age of 8 or 9 who have no family and recruits them into service as assassins. the girls are given cybernetic implants that enhance their speed, strength, agility, hearing, eyesight, and just about everything else. each girl is under the direction of a handler who gives them their name and oversees all their training and conditioning.

the show is less about the action(although there's plenty to go around) and more on the relationships between the girls and their handlers as well as between the girls themselves. the story focuses mainly on one of the girls, Henrietta, and her handler, Jose. the first few episodes are each told from the point of view of a different girl(Henrietta, Rico, Triela, Claes, and Angelica).

what really threw me for a loop was who's behind this spectacular show. none other than Funimation, the guys who completely rape just about every anime they get their hands on.

great story, phenominal character development, and superb voice acting. this one is a winner.

--------------------

moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

Naruto- Because there's so many characters I and a bunch of my friends can relate to.

Samurai Champloo- This is probably my favorite of all animes I've watched. Nothing can beat this.

Avatar The Last Airbender- This might not be anime.... But the animation looks very anime-ish. This is my second favorite after Samurai Champloo, and I believe Avatar beats the Naruto fight scenes, cause there's is much more intense and much faster, and the story is much easier to understand, and doesn't need the whole thing if your not into those long stuff.

Fooly Cooly- This one just makes me cry...

Perfect Hair Forever- Ok.. It has some Anime parodies to it, so it'll count.

Pokemon- Yes.... I know the newer episodes isn't as good or the story is too long, but I just can't wait till the day Ash becomes the Master. And no matter how much I say I hate Pokemon [For some reason], deep down inside, something will make me go back to it, and I'm sure it did to some of you in the past.

This post has been edited by Anh on 19th March 2008 20:10

One thing i noticed about Avatar, is the very good english DUB, sounds very authentic, made me cry when i saw it's currently airing on danish television with a danish DUB. /facepalm.

--------------------

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Broccoli to die.