Anime General Thread (Official)

[Ektris]

Watched the last two Digimon movies I'd not seen before: Island of Lost Digimon and ... whatever the Savers one.

 

For as much as I really, really, really dislike Frontier, Island of Lost Digimon/Revival of the Ancient Digimon was actually pretty decent. It was probably my low expectations, but it was probably my favorite I watched during that marathon.

 

The Savers movie was just bad. I loved Savers, I wanted to see those characters again, but they were hardly there and the plot just nonsense.

 

My biggest takeaway is questioning how these things can be called movies when they're so short. Especially Savers, not even being the full run of an episode. It's a shame, really, because it resulted in a lot of rushing and missing explanations.

 

Also decided to watch a One Piece movie - Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island. Wow. That was much darker than typical One Piece and not what I expected. But it was a good cap to my anime movie binge, because it was still good despite that.

 

~|ET|~

[LockmanCapulet]

This week's Saekano felt kinda dragged out (though a lot of it was funny), but it was necessary plot material. They probably could have trimmed a bit of this episode and then merged the first three eps into two. At least it's pretty clear we'll really be going places next week.

 

Your Lie In April continues to bring on the feels. gah my heart

 

Also will the Fairy Tail filler arc please just end we all want the special episodes and Tartaros not this Eclipse

[MrSciFiGuy]

Was on a business trip, and that let me go ahead and catch up on some animes. Finally started Log Horizon 2, and picked up Cross Ange. Waiting for Your Lie in April to end because I dont want to live week to week on feels.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Every week of Parasyte makes me crave more. The journey is ending soon too. ;_;

 

My parents finished Death Note, up next showing them Mirai Nikki.

[LockmanCapulet]

I am still really impressed you got your parents into anime. My mom and dad would have absolutely none of it, I won't even try. (My dad seems to have a disdain for most, if not all, animation)

[Toa Of Virtues]

My dad is actually really interested in Psycho-Pass, he's watched a bit of Death Note, and is familiar with "that titan show" (AoT). My mom, however, is completely uninterested.

[dotcom]

Finished Nisekoi.

For once in my life, I actually wish an anime was worse than it actually is.

If this was just another stupid harem, with one-dimensional, bland, undeveloped characters, and boring writing and humor? I could handle that.

But having such a funny, charming show, with a whole lot of viable, strong characters vying for the role of heroine?

It's sort of emotionally exhausting. Like. A lot. Wow.

I doubt I'll ever stop favoring Onodera, but still...the stuff going on with Chitoge and Raku is like a more entertaining version of Toradora!, and it's all really good. The story just has those two going on and on and on and it's just...wow. It's almost infuriating how much I want both of these girls to win. This be a complicated one.

I'm just lucky I don't care for Marika and Seishirou wasn't focused on as much. It was draining enough having to deal with just Onodera and Chitoge...

If only it wasn't a harem, and in Shounen Jump at that...this is never going to end satisfactorily.

 

(that pier scene was just the best/worst thing i've ever witnessed)

 

I've still got the OVA to watch, which should be fun. At least I was able to finish this one before the second season starts. I'm honestly not sure how to feel about the second season. I enjoyed Nisekoi a lot, but as I understand it any real progress comes to a halt around this point and the cast just explodes in size (primarily with new harem members that, from what i have read, just seem really unnecessary). In any case, I hope it's entertaining, but...yeah.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

I am still really impressed you got your parents into anime. My mom and dad would have absolutely none of it, I won't even try. (My dad seems to have a disdain for most, if not all, animation)

We've watched a ton of shows together over the years, so they gave me the benefit of a doubt when I told them they might enjoy anime. They were skeptical but they embraced it after 1 episode of Akame ga Kill! They're not too big on animation, but they softened up to it in recent years thanks to shows like Wander Over Yonder and Gravity Falls, as well as Pixar movies and now anime.

[LockmanCapulet]

Finally finished this weekend's fare. (All the shows I follow air on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.)

 

Aldnoah.Zero had another good episode. This series is going much better than I anticipated from the first season finale. I was reminded of why I enjoyed the first one so much- Aldnoah's real strength comes from its great large cast. (Okay, its awesome battles too.)

 

Absolutely loved this week's Assassination Classroom. The new character (who I'll call B-sensei) seems like a lot of fun, and they did a great job of exemplifying exactly why I love this series so much-- Not only is Koro-sensei the target, but he's a great teacher to boot. I love that dynamic, and I look forward to seeing how B-sensei contributes to that.

 

Death Parade had another good episode. It's cool to see some more of how the arbiter system works. And the (unfortunately) brief fight between Decim and Ginti was awesome.

 

So happy Fairy Tail's out of the filler arc. This week's episode was an adaptation of one of my favorite special chapters, and done well to boot.

 

Magic Kaito had another great episode- one of my favorite heists from the manga. Next week's is from what is probably my favorite overall manga arc!

 

Saekano gets bonus points for being a harem with a male protagonist who does not get flustered at the various girls' antics. On top of that, Tomoya's attempts to introduce Megumi to the world of otaku are hilarious, especially with her straightforward attitude and blunt answers to everything.

 

Your Lie in April... the feels...

[Terminus]

I'm in the midst of catching up from last week (only seen Shirobako and DRRR!! so far) since I got the second Sailor Moon Blu-Ray set last week and have been watching that over most of my free time. It's slowly making me forget Crystal exists, which is a good thing.

 

Anyways, Nisekoi is in the midst of some major plot right now,

Raku and Chitoge's relationship has been called off, and Chitoge is moving back to America (which I'm seriously doubting will happen).

 

Still waiting on anything related to the pendant, but otherwise, some interesting kinda-advancement in the main plot may be happening soon.

[LockmanCapulet]

Yall keep saying good things about Nisekoi. I'll have to check it out sometime.

 

(Also the Assassination Classroom ED is pure rich molasses)

[dotcom]

I started watching Kaiba recently. It's one of the most bizarre things I've watched (which is saying something) but it's also one of the most captivating. Between the unique art style, the music, and the really just...powerful storytelling so far, it's really something very special. I'm only 4 episodes in, but it's already just...wow, really.

 

Also started watching No Game No Life like last week or something? I'm not in love with all of it, but it's very colorful and it's got some fairly funny moments and of course the op is fantastic. Also, Steph is great. It's fun.

 

(the Kirito-voiced protag was off-putting at first, because screw that guy, but I got over it)

 

Anyway...Parasyte really is just the dang greatest thing. The latest episode was really something fantastic...

 

oh yeah also I read some manga? Finally read Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, which was fantastic. As expected. Blows the movie out of the water, and I love the movie.

Also I read this Centaur no Nayami manga, and it quickly became one of my favorites. It starts out odd, and the art is sometimes sub-par. But man, the worldbuilding is beyond amazing. It's really well done. I found it fascinating.

[Jobber]

(First time posting on this topic, lol. Might as well since I started watching anime again.)

Just got finished with a Naruto/Naruto Shippuden binge--stopped at Ep. 142, and I'm exhausted. Now I'm searching Kissanime.com trying to find another good combat show. I've still got to finish Kill La Kill, but not in the mood for lewd stuff atm.

The Guts series sounds pretty good right about now. 

[LockmanCapulet]

Looking for a good combat show? Try Nobunagun. Awesome action, great character humor. It's like Pacific Rim but with historical figures instead of giant robots. One of the best action series I've ever seen.

 

Will Your Lie in April ever stop destroying my feels? the world may never know

[Terminus]

Finally finished the first season of Sailor Moon last night. It was never really a great show, but still pretty fun nonetheless. The fact that changing your outfit makes you completely unrecognizable to anyone (even when you have a pretty unique hairstyle) is one of the things Sailor Moon reminded me about the Magical Girl genre that I absolutely hate, and I was also pretty surprised at how different this arc ended form the manga (since it effectively retconned the entire first season here).

 

Still better than Crystal, though.

 

Anyways, now to finally get back on to my simulcast watching... Can't believe I've skipped Parasyte two weeks in a row...

[Jobber]

Looking for a good combat show? Try Nobunagun. Awesome action, great character humor. It's like Pacific Rim but with historical figures instead of giant robots. One of the best action series I've ever seen.

 

Will Your Lie in April ever stop destroying my feels? the world may never know

Eh...Sounds like a Mechime to me. But I'll just it out nonetheless. 

[Ektris]

Started Chuunibyou. Not as immediately cringe-inducing as I expected, which is kind of a good thing I guess lol.

 

~|ET|~

[LockmanCapulet]

Oh yeah, Chuunibyou is great! One of my favorites. I remember when I binged the first season just before the sequel started airing.

 

Today's Death Parade was brilliant. A new spin on the show's main premise and a hilarious pair for the death game. Plus, that post-credits scene.

 

Another great Assassination Classroom. This is really such a fun series! It looks like we'll be getting some good plot material soon too.

 

Fairy Tail this week: Gotta love canon shipping fluff!!

Edited February 14, 2015 by LockmanCapulet

[Vezon's Bodyguard]

Oh cool, I find BZP again (with my old account too) and there's an anime thread.

 

Favorite anime, huh.

I guess its Cowboy Bebop, Clannad, Ano Hana, Eureka Seven, Trigun, JJBA, and Gurren Lagann. (in no particular order)

 

I also have a MAL account so you guys can see all I've watched

 

http://myanimelist.net/profile/Fr9t10

Edited February 16, 2015 by Vezon's Bodyguard

[Terminus]

So I'm caught up with most of the good stuff I'm following right now.

 

Your Lie in April is hitting so hard with the feels. And it's fantastic.

 

Parasyte had a fantastic end for a certain character, and it's great to finally see Shinichi cry again. I'm also pretty intrigued as to what's gonna happen in the next episode, after the last episode's ending.

 

Anyways, with my birthday next week, I'll probably be getting a good amount of manga then. Definitely getting the first volume of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and the second Index light novel, and I'll probably also get some of the Parasyte manga, the newest volume of Ultimo, and the last two released volumes of Rosario + Vampire.

[Ektris]

Recent recap:

 

Chuunibyou: Only up to episode 3. But there's the painful cringe I was looking for!

 

Aldnoah.Zero: Thank you obnoxiously cliche twin for giving me somebody new to hate while Slain's character slowly redeems himself!

Tokyo Ghoul: Man I do not really like how much time is being spent with the investigators. I want to know what Kaneki is thinking and how he's feeling, not glimpses of unexplained madness. And I stopped being interested in the "new young investigator is perfect in every way but is cold and hates everyone" angle really, really fast. Yet almost every non-action scene is about her...

 

One Piece: Huh. Finally hitting points where they're padding stuff out with noticable filler scenes. I am okay with this because it still seems to flow. This is a massive arc with a huge cast that the manga glossed over a lot out of necessity. So by all means, avoid catching up by expanding on all of that!

 

Naruto: Just please don't become this, One Piece anime. Because Naruto's current filler arc still doesn't interest me in the least...

 

DRRR!!x2: Might have fallen back into the season one trap of a slow burn for story progress. Eh.

 

Log Horizon: I am both confused by and really, really interested in what's going on right now. Those Odyssey Knights - man, interesting perspectives there.

 

~|ET|~

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Parasyte's last epi hit me right in the feels. Almost done showing Mirai Nikki to my parents (only 4 episodes and the OVA to go). I might show them Parasyte next if they're up for a fourth series. Finally kept watching Gurren Lagann and made it to the

timeskip episodes.

Once it's over, I'm gonna continue Soul Eater and tackle Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

[dotcom]

I finished Kaiba and No Game No Life last friday. Kaiba was great, but there was so much going on...it's definitely one of those series I'm gonna have to rewatch to really get in full.

No Game No Life was all around impressive. I never expected it to have a plot or for it to flow so well, but man, it sure did. It was a lot of fun. Then I watched the specials and...it's...yeah it's best to not talk about the NGNL specials.

 

I'm planning on starting Psycho-Pass soon. And after reading the Sailor Moon and Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction, I'm going to start Fantasista Doll and Vividred Operation...lots of random anime up in here.

[Terminus]

Watched the new Parasyte and caught up on the two action harem series I'm watching (Testament of Sister New Devil and Unlimited Fafnir) yesterday.

 

Parasyte is staying pretty good, and the latest episode really felt like it was starting to wrap things up. I'd bet that

the parasite scanner will catch Shinichi and Migi, and set the stage for a final showdown between Shinichi, the parasites, and the police.

 

 

Between Testament and Fafnir, I'm liking Testament better, Fafnir pretty much just feels like a repeat of Trinity Seven (so, not good), with a good dose of Japanese broadcasting laws to make it even worse (there are so many bright lights and flashy things going on in this show, it gets dimmed pretty often. And when it happens this often, it gets really distracting). Testament isn't that much better, but the characters and lack of screen-dimming make it relatively decent enough, and it handles action scenes well enough.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Finished Mirai Nikki with my parents.

Mom didn't really like the parallel universe twist, thinking the mystery of the third corpse would go a different way. Still, she enjoyed it more than Death Note (she felt the last arc dragged on and L died too soon) but ultimately prefers Akame ga Kill! Dad, however, loved the twist and Mirai Nikki is his new favorite.

 

 

Parasyte continues to be great and I look forward to the ever-closer conclusion.

 

Up to episode 22 of Gurren Lagann.

I wonder if Rossiu's up to something nefarious, given how he didn't look too happy when they took control of Cathedral Terra

.

[dotcom]

Dang, the new season of Aldnoah started out so bad....but christ, it's gotten so good. All these moving parts everywhere....this isn't going to end well for Slaine, for certain, but the journey is going to be crazy. It already is.

 

I started watching Psycho-Pass a couple of days ago. 6 episode in. Interesting so far.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Finished TTGL. Felt the feels. ;_; Now to find time to continue with Soul Eater...

[LockmanCapulet]

Aldnoah.Zero is getting SO, SO GOOD. This is exactly why I liked the first season so much. I particularly applaud them for not falling back into the "superbot of the week" format.

 

Assassination Classroom finally has a villain! This should be interesting.

 

Lots of lore on Death Parade this week. Also hilarious to see that 

the fangirl from last episode is still around

.

 

 

[dotcom]

For whatever silly reason Barnes & Noble had volume 2 of Index at 50% off, just today, the day before it comes out. So snatched that up with a side of Railgun 3 and the first volume of Centaur no Nayami. Was regretting not preordering it sooner but I guess it worked out for the better!

 

Yuri Kuma Arashi is such a thing. What a thing it is. I wish I knew how I feel about it. I don't, though. what a weird series.

 

Got through episode 8 of Psycho-Pass. Jeez that turned gnarly real quick. Getting really interesting though.

 

Started Vividred Operation. With the exception of the just, wow, ridiculously uncomfortable if brief fanservice, it actually had a remarkably good first episode? At least I enjoyed it a lot. I'm sure it'll deteriorate very quickly though.

 

I'm about 2/3rds of the way through the Sailor Moon manga, and it's...it's pretty alright. Awful pacing aside.

Read a brilliant little manga called Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction. Came for the title, stayed for the art, atmosphere, humor, and characters. Shame that it went on hiatus after such a short time.

[LockmanCapulet]

I've been meaning to read the Certain series. Should I start with the LNs or the anime? I tend to do anime first for most series because there's usually so much less of the story covered, but there's a lot of Certain anime...

[dotcom]

I'd recommend starting with the anime, precisely because there's more of it currently available (outside of fan translations, that is). It condenses a lot of stuff, but it's a fun series. The books seem to be better, but they're coming out pretty slowly, and since they're better it might be best to check out the anime first so that it doesn't have to live up to the books, I guess?

[Terminus]

As long as the end to this season of Aldnoah is much, much better than the end of the first season, I'd think it'll end up being an overall pretty good series. It's getting better every week, and I'm really looking forward to more

Asseylum

screentime and seeing how it'll affect Slaine.

 

Vividred... I had high hopes for that series since I'm a big Strike Witches fan, but it didn't really turn out to be anything all that great. The fact that it spent about half of the series introducing the characters was probably my biggest problem, but I can't really say things get much better in the second half.

 

Anyways, I'd also recommend watching the Raildex anime first, in all there are around 100 episodes plus a movie, and it's some pretty good stuff. The first novel was a good deal better than the first few episodes, but the two novels out now cover less than half of the first season of Index, and it'll be a while before the translations cover anything anywhere near the second season. Think the translated Railgun manga covers a lot more, though.

[dotcom]

I've been enjoying Vividred well enough so far (on episode 4). The plot and characters are nothing too special and the fanservice is evil, but the series has some really good design sense and animation. Vivid Green is a fantastic design.

 

Also I finished Sailor Moon, and wow. The first 40 or so chapters really didn't wow me, but those last two arcs were pretty dang good. Almost insanely so. I hadn't been able to really get into the series but those last 20 or so chapters...that really was something.

 

I'm nearing the halfway point of the Cardcaptor Sakura anime, and it's really begun to get good. Took longer than I would have wanted to really get going, but it's been getting better and better. Enjoying it a lot.

 

edit: oh also. The Railgun manga is really dang bare-bones. Like, yeah, it's the same basic plot as the anime, but honestly I never would have guessed how much more fleshed out the anime was in comparison...I only have the first couple of volumes, but compared to the anime they're just...kind of underdeveloped? The Railgun anime is far from perfect (well, the first season anyway. Railgun S is almost perfect, before the filler hits...) but I do think it's better than the manga...

Edited February 25, 2015 by farmstink buttlass

[Terminus]

If you haven't read it already, I'd recommend Codename: Sailor V. It's a pretty good, short prequel to Sailor Moon (16 chapters long) featuring Minako and what she did before the Usagi and everyone else showed up.

 

Anyways, I got JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 1, Index 2, and Kill la Kill 4 yesterday. Read the entire JoJo volume, it was good, although I get the feeling things are just getting started and it's gonna get better. I've gotten through the first chapter of Index, and it's still a fun read. There's definitely a better look at post-amnesia Touma here than in the anime, which is nice, although it still feels weird being reminded every so often that Stiyl is 14. And I haven't watched any of the latest KLK yet (and I probably won't for a while) but I'm planning on watching the Making-Of DVD soon. I really liked the last one, and that's te main reason I've really been looking forward to this volume.

 

And Parasyte managed to have another great episode this week, even with extremely little Shinichi/Migi screentime. Seeing the humans taking down the parasites for a change was pretty great, and the ending really left me wondering what'll happen next episode.

[LockmanCapulet]

Question for yall: I've been interested in One Piece for a while and plan on starting it soon, but should I go with the anime or manga? Is the anime as fillery as that of Naruto or Bleach? And is the fanservice bad?

 

Alright, this weekend's episodes.

 

It is about to go down on Aldnoah. And it was nice to have a battle that didn't end with

Inaho magically saving the day

.

 

The newest Assassination Classroom episode (and presumably the next one) cover the same story arc (if it can be called that) as the OVA from a couple years back, so I've seen this material, but it was still enjoyable. Heck, even more so now that it's in context of the whole series. I love the subtle humor, like

three kids taking turns swinging knives at a motion-sick Koro-sensei

, especially because no one points out how absurd it is- everyone taking it in stride makes it all the funnier.

 

It felt a bit dragged out, but this might be my new second-favorite of the judged pairs on Death Parade (behind the pop star and fangirl). I guess we'll know next week if making it two episodes was necessary.

 

what even is Fairy Tail anymore

 

Interesting new developments on Saekano. It's cool that

we finally have a real antagonist

, but it concerns me that we're just getting the overall plot really moving and there's only going to be four more episodes. Still loving the OP and ED.

 

Your lie in April wrapped up Takeshi's character arc nicely. It was a good tail-end to Nagi's arc. Now we can spend the rest of the series focusing on Kosei, Kaori, and Tsubaki (sorry, Watari, you seemed to stop mattering several episodes ago).

 

Started working through Yona of the Dawn recently. I'm up to episode six. Really nice balance of drama and humor (granted there's more drama and less humor), and some of the best fantasy action I've seen in a while.

[Ektris]

The filler in One Piece is not nearly as bad as Naruto and Bleach.

 

Quick check of a list on the wikia kind of makes it look like a lot, but most of those are one or two episodes in a row. Not the dozens Bleach would do. It doesn't also account for "filler" added in to canon arcs, particularly notable during one arc in the early 200s (in my opinion... it's the absolute weakest arc of all and the excessive padding in the anime makes it pretty painful). Most of that's not too bad or noticeable anyways. But it should give a good snapshot view of the filler.

 

Either way, manga or anime, it will be an incredible undertaking. As my favorite, I absolutely recommend either, but which just comes down to whether you like reading or watching your media more heh. Watching will probably be a lot slower though.

 

~|ET|~

[dotcom]

I started watching Fantasista Doll. It is so boring it makes me want to cry.

 

I'm pretty close to finishing Psycho-Pass (I'm on episode 17). It's really good. I was shocked to see the tower scene happen so early on, though...felt for sure that'd be finale material, but of course not all is as it seems.

 

Rolling Girls' last episode was really great, as was Death Parade. The latter is getting pretty interesting.

 

And. My books got here. The cover of Index 2 had one corner all bent and crumbled. And volume 3 of Railgun had the front cover bent halfway. Even the spine has a crease mark and I don't even know how that is possible. I am just. So done having feelings about Barnes and Noble sending me damaged books.

[LockmanCapulet]

Oof, that sounds awful. Remind me never to order from B&N.

 

Thanks for the advice Ektris! I'll use that listing for sure.

[Terminus]

A bookstore can't properly ship books? The irony.

 

I've gotten most of my manga from Amazon, and never really anything that bad. Maybe 1 out of every 20 or so will have a slightly bent corner or something, but nothing that won't be pretty much unnoticeable after sitting under a pile of books for a little while.

 

Anyways, Parasyte had another really good episode, pretty surprised that

the mayor turned out to be human

and the parasite hunt ended the way I was expecting-

with all the police dead.

 

I also wasn't expecting the last scene, even though the title of the episode made it pretty obvious what was going to happen.

[dotcom]

I'm probably making the damage sound worse than it is, though it's still pretty bad. To be fair I don't know whether that's how the books are shipped or if they got damaged on transit...the boxes are kinda loose. so maybe the bouncing around is what causes the issues? This never happened when I used to order single volumes, and those came in the tightest tiniest flattest boxes, so maybe that plays a part...