Anime General Thread (Official)

[DYLAN the SINKING STAR]

I actually enjoyed Scientific Railgun more than Magical Index because I thought the story and pacing was more consistent and I liked Mikoto as a character more. In general, I preferred the adventures of Mikoto and company rather than the magical side that Magical Index had. I honestly didn't really care for Touma or Index's character, either. Magical Index still had plenty of entertainment, but I love what Scientific Railgun brought to the table.

 

So yeah, I'm definitely excited for Railgun S and I hope that they make a third season of Magical Index sometime soon. Also, It'd be nice if Funimation could get the license of the second season and secure any further installments (I heard they're negotiating for the second season right now). Being able to see the Magical Index movie that just came out would be cool, too.

[dotcom]

The thing about Index that I really like is that it has a lot of variety. Being adapted from novels (even if light ones) means that they have to condense things a lot. Although this does make the pacing a bit wonky, I think it works. It brings a lot of variety from both sides of the magic/science side shebang. I thought that Railgun had a lot of setup for its stories but not really a lot of payoff. (There were Chekov's guns through some ten episodes and then bam resolved in 2 or 3 or what have you). It was good, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I did Index. Also, Index has the Sisters, Tsuchimikado and Accelerator.

 

One thing Railgun did have over Index is the openings. The openings for Railgun were just top-notch. I actually got into Index so I could get into Railgun for Only My Railgun (I will watch anythin with good openings. I am like that) The second opening of Railgun is one of my favorites of anything ever. In the Toaru series so far, the only one that tops it is See visionS.

 

And Sister's Noise, from what we have heard, also sounds really great.

 

In either case, Railgun S should be more interesting than the first season.

[DYLAN the SINKING STAR]

Yeah, Index definitely had a lot of elements that I liked that Railgun didn't have. I also know that Index suffered from being a light novel adaptation so I can forgive it for the pacing issues, but Railgun seemed to have a more centralized story, even if it wasn't always perfect. I still prefer the espers over the magicians, though. Even in Index, my favorite story arcs were the ones involving espers and the science side. You can never go wrong with variety, however, that is true! Index did have some cool characters missing from Railgun, I'll agree. I especially liked the character development of Accelerator, and his relationship with Last Order was amusing, as well. I was kind of disappointed Railgun didn't have the Sisters, but I guess that's what Railgun S is for.

 

I think what slightly won Railgun over for me was that it focused on a small group of characters that I liked. Kuroko and Mikoto were great and always made me laugh. I also believe that a spin-off series like Railgun can be so good and only focus on a small portion of the main story proves that the Toaru series was really well-done, overall.

 

I actually started watching Index because of the opening of Railgun, too. =P I'm very similar, a good opening actually makes me enjoy an anime more than if it had a lackluster one. I even have a playlist of songs from anime openings that I update and listen to regularly. The second opening for Index II was great, and I ended up liking the second half of Index II a lot more. Oh, and the opening for the Railgun OVA was great, too.

[Terminus]

 

 

I've also gotten recommendations for Elfen Lied for a while now, and I was wondering about the violence. I'm not really super into gore, so I'd like to ask, exactly how much is there? Is it like, FMAB? Two FMABs? One and a half? I could deal with one and a half.

EL is one of those series that is just extremely violent, I remember it was one of the top 5 or so bloodiest anime series ever. Here's an example, from the first episode:

The series opened with a shot of a disembodied arm, lying in a pool of bloosd. The screen than shifts to the person who lost his arm, he is holding what is left and appears to be in pain until his head explodes into a fountain of blood. The next few minutes are basically of the killer, who escaped confinement, cutting people in half, blowing their heads up, and basically turning everyone into pools of blood. This goes on for a while (5 or so minutes), until she is about to escape, when she is temporarily stopped by a bunch of guards. Suddenly, a secretary who is passing by trips and falls, then her head is ripped off and her body is used as a shield, and the killer gets past the guards and escapes.

Yeah, so basically, it's loaded with dismemberment, blowing up heads, slicing people in half, and generally turning people into fountains of blood. The extreme violence lightens up a tiny bit after the first episode, but then it comes back towards the end of the series, once the flashback episodes hit.

Hmm, yeah, that sounds like a lot of what I have read in other places. I don't think I mind the blood specifically or even the violence that much. I think I'm mostly wondering how graphic the violence is? I mean, exploding heads in an undetailed and spontaneous manner or really graphic? I don't know. I've never been desensitized to extreme violence, so although this anime interests me I'm also really wary.

How graphic is EL? Hmm... Well:1. Since the anti-heroine possesses powers that are best described as telekinetic, the violence level is basically mostly just limbs flying everywhere, and people turning into fountains of blood.2. There isn't really any guts in the show, since everyone in the show is only made of blood, skin, and bones. So blood will be everywhere, but you won't see a lung or heart somewhere.3. A good amount of kids get ripped up/explode into pools of blood, mostly in the second half. That's probably the most disturbing part of the whol series.Anyways, the best way, IMO, to see if Elfen Lied is for you is to just watch the first scene in episode 1. That's probably about as graphic as the series gets, and you can make a judgement from there.Also saw Devil Survivor 2: The Animation earlier, it's fantastic. Of course, I'm biased since I love SMT and DeSu2, but I think this could be one of the best anime series this year. Glad it had some significant and insignificant differences from the game (Hibiki doesn't summon his first demon until the battle with Dubhe, instead of Daichi jumping out of the truck when attacking Dubhe and hanging on the bridge, Io summons Pixie and it rescues Daichi from the truck), which really helps make it worth watching, and I feel that Devil Survivor 2 might be a bit more different from the game than Persona 4 was (there will probably be a few elements from Break Code put in) considering the start, which would definitely good.

[dotcom]

@Terminus: I see, thank you. I guess trying out the beginning would be the easiest way. Thanks for bearing with my questions and being so detailed.

 

@Dylan: Yeah, the OVA was pretty great as well.

 

I think one thing that bothered me about Railgun was that the main plots weren't as interesting as certain subplots. Namely the Big Spider bit. That ended way, way too quickly. I would have much preferred that being the bulk of the second half rather than what did happen. But oh well. Railgun S will be good in any case.

[HAZMAT]

Just preorderd Revoltech Eva 13 and Tamashii Unicorn Gundam Destroy Mode. SO PSYCHED

 

Any of you guys buy figs? I think I'm addicted.

[Kothra]

Figures? I have a GN-000 0 Gundam, a GN-004 Gundam Nadleh, some old Eva 00 Prototype figure, and a MISAKA 10032 figure.

 

Of course the first three are basically model kits, but I'm still counting them because they aren't really that different.

 

 

 

And now I see your signature and feel the need to mention that I'm only four episodes from finishing the original Mobile Suit Gundam series.

Edited April 5, 2013 by Kothra

[Terminus]

Well, for figures I have:Figma Mami TomoeFigma Madoka Kaname Uniform ver. (included with the the Madoka Magica Portable Special Box PSP game)Play Arts Cloud (Kingdom Hearts version)Nendoroid Petit Mami TomoeThere are also a few figures I'd like to get once I can afford them (which'll be at least next month, I've already got all my spending planned out for this month), mainly the Lynette Bishop and Mari Makinami figmas and the Saber Chogokin figure.Also, I found out that Devil Survivor 2 will only run 13 episodes, which explains the super-fast pacing of the first episode. So the remaining 6 days will be distributed over 12 episodes, which actually works out well, since the story content of each day is pretty much under 40 minutes long, and about 90% of the 30-Hour RPG is grinding/story battles, and I'm pretty sure you can play the entire game in New Game + mode in well under 10 hours, and probably at least half, if not more, of that is battles, so yeah, you can easily fit the entire story of the game into an anime series with a total runtime of about 5 hours. I'm really hoping that the fast pacing was just for the first episode, though.

[dotcom]

I only have a D-Arts Dukemon. I'd like to buy more, but they're just so so expensive. :/

[-Golden Knight-]

I just finished watching Attack on Titan's first episode. I enjoyed it, the animation was top notch and very fluid. This looks like it's going to the grimmest and bleakest anime of the season. What confuses me is that the manga is apparently shounen.

[HAZMAT]

Figures? I have a GN-000 0 Gundam, a GN-004 Gundam Nadleh, some old Eva 00 Prototype figure, and a MISAKA 10032 figure.

 

Of course the first three are basically model kits, but I'm still counting them because they aren't really that different.

 

 

 

And now I see your signature and feel the need to mention that I'm only four episodes from finishing the original Mobile Suit Gundam series.

I kidna want to try out some Gunpla, but I'm afraid I won't have the patience for it. :S

 

also I'm only on episode 17, I legitimately lol'd when Ramba cut off the Gundam's foot when Sayla piloted it.

 

Well, for figures I have:Figma Mami TomoeFigma Madoka Kaname Uniform ver. (included with the the Madoka Magica Portable Special Box PSP game)Play Arts Cloud (Kingdom Hearts version)Nendoroid Petit Mami TomoeThere are also a few figures I'd like to get once I can afford them (which'll be at least next month, I've already got all my spending planned out for this month), mainly the Lynette Bishop and Mari Makinami figmas and the Saber Chogokin figure.

Nendoroids are adorable. I hope they get the license to do DC heroes, like they have Marvel. I'd buy a Nendoroid Batman in an instant.

 

I only have a D-Arts Dukemon. I'd like to buy more, but they're just so so expensive. :/

True that, I spend way too much money on figs.

[dotcom]

So I'm 13 episodes into Eureka Seven. Enjoying it a lot so far. The pacing so far has been deliberately slow but purposeful. The characters are very interesting, as is the design. More importantly, the music is also great.

 

The names get really weird though. Really. Moondoggie?

[Hodor]

Moondoggie is truly a name to go up in the books like Shot Weapon did before it.

 

I was watching it on Toonami, but then life happened and I really need to get the DVDs before they become hard and expensive to find.

 

I recently picked up a nice haul of stuff, will take photos of when it's not absurdly late.

[Terminus]

I just remembered that the last two episodes of Girls und Panzer are now out, so I need to watch those soon. It wasn't that great, IMO, but I still found it enjoyable and good overall (except for the introduction/recap episodes. I was bored out of my mind while watching those, really don't know why I watched them.). I'm guessing that the ending will be setting up a second season, which I'll definitely watch.Also, what's Attack on Titan about? I've heard a lot of good things about it, but I don't really know anything about it.

[dotcom]

Moondoggie is truly a name to go up in the books like Shot Weapon did before it.

Death Note had Mail Jeevas and Beyond Birthday so I'm not exactly super shocked, but yes it is really weird.

 

 

 

Anyway I just started episode 14 of Eureka Seven. This new opening does not please me at all. Too much engrish.

 

edit: I was going to say it reminded me of a song used in Bleach but couldn't remember which one. Turns out it's by the same people that made the second Bleach ending. But yeah. not really a fan.

Edited April 8, 2013 by 10032

[Kothra]

The second opening of Eureka Seven was my least favourite, but the last two were the best.

[Bio D]

The second opening is my favorite (the full version has a sax solo~).

That doesn't matter though becasue the first episode of Attack on Titan is amazing and all of you should be watching it.

[Terminus]

That doesn't matter though becasue the first episode of Attack on Titan is amazing and all of you should be watching it.

That's basically the only thing I've heard about that series. I usually don't blindly jump into series without knowing anything about them, but I've been hearing so much good stuff about AoT that I've gotta watch it now.And I just got Sailor Moon 10, quite surprised that it's become one of my favorite manga series, especially considering that it (well, the English dub of the anime) was the reason I wouldn't go near Magical Girl series. Anyways, I'm excited for the new Sailor Moon anime this year, even though we haven't gotten any info on it for somewhere around half a year, which is kinda annoying...

[Kothra]

So I made one of these things.

 

[Terminus]

Well, Aniplex is releasing the Madoka movies on Blu-Ray only in July.However, they're imports, so subs only, and a Dub version will probably be released sometime in the future.

[Kothra]

They may be imports, but they're actually affordable for once.

[Terminus]

Yeah, that's the shocker, and the reason I'll be picking them up. A bit disappointed that a dubbed edition won't arrive for a while, but the Japanese extras should be interesting.

[dotcom]

My interest in Railgun S

 

Is pretty high at the moment.

 

Also Eureka Seven

 

Why are you making me so sad

 

Also the third intro is...a thing that is not exactly awful I guess.

[Kothra]

First episode of Railgun S was excellent, though I was a bit disappointed that they started with filler rather than jumping straight into the plot (or at least poking at it near the end).

Edited April 15, 2013 by Kothra

[dotcom]

They seem to like doing breather eps to start off a new season before jumping into the meatier stuff. Kind of like how Index II started with the last inconsequential bit of the Three Stories arc before going into the Orsola Aquinas arc....

 

But the intro is really really good.

[Kothra]

Yeah. I just really really wanted to see 10032.

[DYLAN the SINKING STAR]

So far Railgun S is shaping up to be everything I hoped it would be. The first episode was a great way to start the season and the opening that was showed at the end makes it look like there will be plenty more to come. And the opening is amazing, I've watched it too many times already.

 

Also, I'm thinking about watching Devil Survivor 2 The Animation because I've heard it's good. However, I haven't played any of the games so I'm wondering if it's still a good idea to check it out, or if I might be confused because I know nothing about the series. The opening song is addictive, too.

Edited April 16, 2013 by DYLAN the SINKING STAR

[dotcom]

So apparently every single opening for Railgun so far has been made by the same people.

 

That

explains everything.

[HAZMAT]

Any of you dudes watching Valvrave? I don't usually follow currently airing series because my backlog is big enough to hold me over, but once I saw the RAD mecha designs I couldn't keep away.

Only one episode's out so far, it seems promising.

[Kothra]

The songs you mean? Yeah, fripSide. They're great.

 

 

I know some people were complaining quite a bit about how similar the setting and first episode of Valvrave was to that of Gundam SEED, but I don't really know what to think about it.

[Terminus]

Also, I'm thinking about watching Devil Survivor 2 The Animation because I've heard it's good. However, I haven't played any of the games so I'm wondering if it's still a good idea to check it out, or if I might be confused because I know nothing about the series. The opening song is addictive, too.

Devil Survivor 2 is really only a sequel to the first game in that it has nearly the exact same game mechanics- no prior knowledge of anything in the Shin Megami Tensei universe is required to enjoy the story. So you really don't need to play the game to enjoy the anime.Anyways, I think I'm gonna have some issues with the pacing on this one. Episode 1 covered the first day, and the second day might not finish up until episode 4. There are 13 total episodes, and 8 total days. Might work out, though, since there are some days I flew through in under a half hour (including multiple battles), so yeah. I'm just gonna have to wait and see.

 

Anyways, just saw the latest episode of DeSu2. It was really good, and I actually found it really suspenseful, even though I've completed the game. I was kinda wondering what would happen with the Death Clips (since there are tons of ways you can get through the game, with tons of combinations of Party Members both surviving and dying), and I was especially wondering if any of the main characters would die. Well,

I was really glad with how they did it, because they killed off my absolute least favorite character, Keita. I hated him for pretty much the entire game, mainly because he was just such a total jerk.

Also, I'm kinda hoping Joe shows up soon, he's one of my favorites because he's just so goofy, I'm expecting to see him in an episode or two once the team goes to Nagoya.

 

Oh, and Sentai licensed DeSu2 for a Home Video release this year. Really excited for that, but I wish Funimation had the same speed as Sentai. They have two-year-old shows that they still need to release, and this just began in Japan and Sentai's already got a release planned.

Edited April 18, 2013 by Terminus24

[dotcom]

So I just finished Eureka Seven. It was truly really great, although I don't think I truly understood the ending.

 

Any thoughts on AO? Is that worth watching?

[Hodor]

EXCLUSIVE: HBO and Guillermo del Toro are teaming on Monster, developing a potential series culled from a series of 18 volumes of Japanese Manga by author Naoki Urasawa published by Shogakukan Inc. Del Toro will co-write the story with Steven Thompson, best known for his work on Dr. Who and Sherlock. Thompson will write the pilot, which del Toro intends to direct. The thriller is about the worldwide search by a young doctor for the most evil sociopath that has ever lived. He is a 12-year-old boy, and the doctor’s decision to save his life has unwittingly unleashed a Pandora’s Box that leaves the doc battling to stop a plot of mass genocide. This is certainly a departure for HBO, entering the Manga game, but for del Toro and Thompson, it allows them an incredible sandbox to play in. Del Toro will be executive producer and Thompson co-executive producer, with Angry Films’ partners Don Murphy and Susan Montford executive producing with Exile’s Gary Ungar. Shogakukan will be consulting producer.This project was originally set at New Line, but proved too sprawling to confined to a feature film. It took del Toro a long time to woo creator Urasawa into being comfortable with Hollywood again, which sounds a lot like the process that D.B. Weiss and David Benioff went through with George R.R. Martin before they could get Game Of Thrones off the ground at HBO.

guysguysthis is amazing

[Terminus]

Well, just finished Evangelion 3.33. And I was really surprised at how much I liked it, considering what I've heard of it beforehand.

 

 

 

So, there are pretty much two battles in the entire movie, one at the very beginning and one at the end, but both of them are pretty long, they total about 50 minutes (30 for the first one and 20 for the last one). The entire middle was basically just Shinji and Kaworu, with a little bit of Rei, Gendo and Fuyutsuki thrown in for good measure, and I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did, since I'm really not a fan of Kaworu. Might've been better if the Wille people got more screentime, kinda felt a bit odd seing Misato for only ten minutes of the film since she's such a big character in pretty much everything else Eva, but I'm getting the feeling that there will be a lot more Wille in 4.0, probably because I'm expecting Shinji to join them.

 

Oh, and JUST THIS ONCE, can there actually be an actual ending? Both the anime and EoE really didn't really cut it for me, so I'm kinda having high hopes for the next one. Anyways, I'm kinda hoping things go Shinji's way, restoring the world to it's pre-Third Impact state.

 

 

[HAZMAT]

Finally got to watch it myself. I haven't decided yet if I loved it or hated it yet.

I really don't like how little explanation they gave about everything. They just jumped 14 years ahead and threw all this new stuff at you, and all we really get is Kaworu telling Shinji "lol third impact dude." I want to know more specifics about it, I want to know when and how Wille formed, and HOW THE HECK DID NERV BUILD 2 NEW EVAS WHEN ITS PRACTICALLY DESTROYED (unless they were already built before?????). I think having a whole movie about those 14 years would've been neat, bumping Rebuild up to 5 movies total. I just don't like having so much unknown.Also Ritsuko's haircut was lame.

I'm definitely gonna rewatch it soon, hopefully I'll pick up some info i might've missed.

[gunconvoy]

Currently watching Toradora. Its pretty fun.I actually recomend watching Macross and Binbogami Ga!

 

[Terminus]

Yeah, on it's own I thought 3.33 was really good, but it definitely made me wonder how 4.44 will adequately end Rebuild.

My main thing with 3.33 was that it's all about Shinji's relationship with Kaworu. It was essentially a mecha bromance film, and a pretty darn good one, at that. It made me, for the first time in my life, actually like Kaworu. Unfortunately, the entire movie was just a setup for Shinji to fall into uber-depression, and sadly, nothing else in the movie really mattered beyond that. Wille is pretty cool, why didn't the story ever transition between Shinji/Wille? Not only could that have added in more info about what happened between 2.22 and 3.33 other than Third Impact, but it would make them actually seem like they actually somewhat matter. Good thing is, Shinji, Asuka, and possibly Rei are going back to Wille, and we'll most likely get answers in 4.44.Anyways, here are my hopes for 4.44:It should be about Wille, with Asuka, Mari, and Misato being the main characters, with Shinji taking a backseat because he's wallowing in an abyss of depression for 90% of the movie, and when he pilots again at the end of the movie he restores the world.No Third Impact. That's getting old.Mari gets a good amount of development, so she becomes more than just a pretty girl with glasses.If it goes deep into Shinji's psychological breakdowns, it should total under five minutes in the whole movie.Once the world is restored to Pre-Third Impact, The Shinji Ikari Raising Project is revealed to actually be the sequel to rebuild, an an anime adaptation of the manga will be arriving next season.

Anyways, I'm hoping that 3.33 figures come out soon. Really like the new stuff.

[HAZMAT]

 

I agree that the entire plot felt pretty much pointless. The entire plot essentially boiled down to an hour and a half of setting up 4th Impact. None of the new stuff introduced -Wille, Near-3rd Impact, New Rei, Robo Seele????- had any sort of explanation or closure in the film. It all felt like building up to Final. It's a bit frustrating having to wait years for any of this to (hopefully) pan out. I think they could have easily cut down on some sequences, especially that piano, in order to add more ACTUAL STORY.At least it has plenty of cryptic stuff to keep people busy until we get the last movie.

I haven't heard anything about 3.33 figures other than Revoltech will be doing 1 new Eva a month until October starting next month with 08alpha.needless to say I'll be buying them all

[Terminus]

 

The best new thing was probably the reveal that Yui's maiden name was Ayanami, as that was the only thing that didn't need explaination.Anyways, the movie kinda felt like someone decided to combine Episode 24 of NGE and EOE, and toss in elements of the Antispiral War arc of Gurren Lagann (mainly the giant flying ship and timeskip), and while it turned out decent, it just ended up feeling like filler until we get to the REALLY new stuff in the next movie.

 

 

Anyways, might pick up one of the Evas (most likely 13), but I'm hoping for a figure of Asuka with her new plugsuit. That's probably my favorite among the new plugsuits.

[HAZMAT]

13's coming out in July and is already available for preorder.