Anime General Thread (Official)

[Terminus]

Chaika manages to do generic shonen rather well, I'd say it's worth checking out.

 

I may check out Rage of Bahamut, I was incredibly skeptical of earlier it due to being based off a smartphone card game, but I've heard pretty much nothing but good things about it.

 

One of Crystal's biggest draws is probably the fact that there's zero filler (after 9 episodes, Crystal is at the original's episode 35), and as far as the story itself goes, it's pretty faithful to the manga (as far as I can remember). The awful animation has even gotten ever so slightly better (although I'm almost positive it's only the fact that there weren't any CG transformation sequences in the newest episode), although that may just be that Toei decided to shift the entirety of World Trigger's budget over to Crystal.

 

And another episode of Jinsei came out today. Glad we didn't have to wait another month, now only the last episode is left...

[LockmanCapulet]

Not one but TWO Jinsei episodes fansubbed the past few days. This is amazing. Can't wait for the finale next decade!

Amagi Brilliant Park continues its streak of greatness. No surprise, given it shares its creator with Full Metal Panic. Also the OP is easily my favorite of the season.

 

Aha! Celestial Method is FINALLY getting somewhere! It's spent the last four episodes building up this "mystery" and refusing to give us insight or any hints whatsoever, but we finally got something of an explanation today. Plus it looks like Yuzuki will FINALLY stop being a jerkwad to everyone and their mother! And with that little hint into the nature of the saucer, maybe we can finally move the plot along.

[Ektris]

And of course this week's episode of Naruto was mostly useless, obnoxiously repetitive-because-seriously-they-show-the-same-flashback-for-a-character-being-featured-literally-ever-other-week-UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH filler.

 

Yeah, the excuse for it is obviously money... Doesn't mean I'll be enjoying it... But one can only hope it doesn't go the way of the Bleach anime where they dragged things out so much and introduced so much contradictory, intrusive filler that led to poor ratings and cancellation.

 

~|ET|~

[Terminus]

wut

 

Naruto is STILL doing filler?

 

Well, if they're planning on adapting next year's sequel without stopping for a season, I guess it makes sense.

 

This is why manga adaptations should only be done by the season or when a series is done or almost done.

[LockmanCapulet]

Today's episode of Sword Art Online 2 was fantastic. It brought back exactly what made the original so great:

the partnership, romantic and strategic, between Kirito and Asuna. It was awesome seeing their tag-team formation again on that boss fight, and I loved that the rest of the crew was happy for them rather than jealous when they repurchased their cabin, especially after the harem direction a lot of the gags during the Calibur arc seemed to take. The perfect balance of gripping action and fun character interaction.

I also liked how they handled exposition here. Just like the first Caliber episode, there was a lot of dialogue, but they made itintersting by turning it into a casual conversation between a group of characters we know and love. And they showed the clips of people fighting Zekkan or whatever he's called. I liked the detail in those bits- Klein could be seen in one of the crowds, and there was that hilarious shot of Lizbeth getting pwned.

This week's Chaika episode was exciting too-- to quote ANN, it was "more fun than a barrel of Chaikas!"

I am also enjoying watching the collective Naruto fandom tear itself apart over the ending. >

_{also I shall never ever get tired of the Amagi Brilliant Park opening}

[toa grimlock]

I'm surprised for the first time in quite a while Sword Art Online II wasn't boring.

 

also I started watching Mobile Suit Gundam, after only four episodes it's become my 3rd favorite mecha series. Though it has it's flaws it's got great story and awesome fight scenes.

[Terminus]

I was surprised that SAO had a decent character-focused episode, then I remembered we aren't still in the unbalanced GGO episodes and this isn't a side story jammed into the middle of an arc.

 

Still needs more Klein though. Klein best girl random member of Kirito's harem.

 

Anyways, just read the final chapters of Naruto in Jump. 699 would have been a good end, IMO, but 700 was necessary because

Naruto became Hokage, plus it introduced the kids for the upcoming movie and (I'd assume) the sequel manga.

 

All in all, a pretty good ending for Naruto.

[Ektris]

*sigh* More filler. Why Naruto, why?

 

Speaking of filler, looks like I'm not watching One Piece for a few weeks on Toonami. 100% compilation episodes? That never could have been a great idea. Oh well, at least the sub's still interesting and miraculously still in Dressrosa.

 

Psycho-Pass continues to ramp up and get me interested, which is good. Likewise with Log Horizon. Interesting things happening in both, to put it simply and spoiler-free heh.

 

Totally didn't realize how fast Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works was going to advance in terms of introducing all of the characters. It's incredibly fast compared to the Fate route. But I don't feel that's a bad thing. Now we don't have to sit around and wait for the next servant to show up. Everyone's around and clearly active and so it really feels like there's conflict. I'm still enjoying it.

 

SAO has entered Mother's Rosario proper now and I love it already. Here's your character development on Asuna, people! I'm totally not prepared for the feels that will be happening soon though...

 

I also finished FLCL... Wut.

 

~|ET|~

Edited November 17, 2014 by Electric Turahk

[LockmanCapulet]

Some great episodes this past week.

 

Very VERY good SAOII ep. Nice character development with Asuna, nice battle scene. Possibly the best episode since the first series.

 

Cross Ange is FINALLY getting its act together. We had *gasp* Ange not being an unbearable crapsack and *gasp* subplot development!

 

Terra Formars had some nice backstory. The action wasn't quite as good as that of the past few episodes, but still nice.

 

Lord Marksman and Vanadis is really rushing things... I feel like this episode and the previous should have been spread over two (maybe even three) episodes each.

 

Magic Kaito's last episode was a PERFECT adaptation of my favorite manga chapter. Loved it.
 

 

I really should get on to Baccano soon so I can watch Durarara so I can watch the second season as it airs.

[dotcom]

Man this season is rough.

I'm more or less caught up with everything I'm watching and a lot of it is not great. My aversion to not finishing things will keep me watching the weaker stuff, but man is there a lot of mediocrity here.

How I'd rank them so far:

 

1-Parasyte

2-Inou-Battle

3-Terra Formars

4-I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying

4-Orenchi no Furo Jijou

4-World Trigger

7-Sword Art Online II

8-Ore, Twintails ni Narimasu

 

Parasyte is pretty darn fantastic. It's like, Tokyo Ghoul and Kill la Kill and Spider-Man wrapped in  a gross tortilla. It has awesome music, awesome animation, design, characters, voice actng, the music is seriously fantastic....It's got all the makings of a great, great show, and I love it. The body horror I'm even growing used to!

Inou-Battle is also pretty great, at least as far as it goes perfectly with my honestly peculiar tastes. It's got good art and a lot of good humor and a very fun, delusional, sensible, caring protagonist. Those are always fun. 

After that...egh. I put the next 3 as tied because they sure are there and they're really not bad or anything but they're also not particularly amazing. They're entertaining enough but that's about it.

SAOII has gotten better since the GGO arc ended (not a very high bar to reach all things considered) but it's still pretty. Annoying. I don't much like it. Great op, though.

Twintails! The first show I've ever ranked lower than SAO. That means it's serious. And it is terrible. I picked it up because it looked incredibly stupid, and, well...it is incredibly stupid, but not in the way I wanted at all. I wanted something stupid in the ways Kill la Kill or Panty & Stocking are stupid--self aware, over the top, and nigh impossible to take seriously while at the same time being highly entertaining. But this stupid show is just...bad. It's not over the top enough, not self-aware enough, takes itself stupidly seriously (even if it kind of tries to be self-aware) and really not funny or interesting in any way. It's half-hearted rehashes of a lot of ideas that were generic to begin with and wow it is just awful.

 

2 great shows out of 8. Egggghh.

[Terminus]

If I were the type of person to drop shows, I'd probably have dropped the bottom third of what I'm watching by now, and I'm actually pretty close to dropping World Trigger (congrats on doing a Jump adaptation I dislike more than Rosario Vampire, Toei!). Anyways, here's how I'd rate this season's stuff:

1. Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works

2. Parasyte

3. Amagi Brilliant Park

4. Shirobako

5. Your lie in April

6. Denki-gai

7. Cross Ange

8. When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace

9. I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying

10. Chaika The Coffin Princess: Avenging Battle

11. The Fruit of Grisaia

12. Sword Art Online II

13. Sailor Moon Crystal

14. Psycho-Pass 2

15. Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai

16. Trinity Seven

17. World Trigger

 

The top 7 are my favorites this season, and Sailor Moon is where the stuff I'm not really enjoying starts.

[dotcom]

I just blogged about this but yay Index.

 

Now if only a third season could get announced...

[toa grimlock]

Oh my gosh Sailor Moon Crystal is actually getting harder and harder to watch every episode. Plus trying to make things that seem pretty obvious be big shocking events, it's just annoying.

[Terminus]

Oh my gosh Sailor Moon Crystal is actually getting harder and harder to watch every episode. Plus trying to make things that seem pretty obvious be big shocking events, it's just annoying.

I'd say that's less Crystal's fault and more of an overall problem with Sailor Moon in general. I mean, legitimately every single evil thing in the entire series is "Dark (Insert Word Here)", and nobody ever freaking notices. And that's just the beginning of the really obvious stuff.

 

Anyways, I finally got around to watching my Sailor Moon Blu-Rays. Four episodes in, and my childhood disdain for the show is pretty much gone, and it really does do pretty much everything better than Crystal, even though it's over 20 years older. Also, the fact that the evil hideouts in the filler episodes don't start with dark is a huge improvement over the original.

[dotcom]

I finished reading volume 1 of Index, and man it was definitely a lot of fun. It's been too long for me to say with any certainty if I preferred the anime, but I'm almost sure I did not. The novel was great. I can only imagine that other novels will be even more interesting, considering that volume 1 was the only one that they did not condense and cut up for time. Should be fun. When it happens. Based off volume 2 and 3's release dates, it seems they're aiming for one volume every 3 months, or 4 a year. Seems like a fair number, but at the same time I am somewhat irrationally impatient. I want all the Index novels.

 

I also want a third season but. Whatever. I've said that enough.

 

Inou-Battle and Parasyte continue to be great.

[Terminus]

I'm hoping that they release the Index LNs a little faster, because at 4 volumes a year, It'd be about 9 years before we're caught up to the point Index is now. I know there are a lot more words than Manga in LNs, so it takes longer to translate, but the release schedule is far to slow for any hopes of ever getting near to catching up until long after the series ends.

 

Anyways, the first Index was definitely a good read, continuing the trend of LNs being a good deal better than the anime from what I've read. Pretty glad that Yen On seems to be doing well and more and more LNs are getting licensed now.

 

Also, I got my Mystery Box DVDs today from Crunchyroll that I ordered about a month ago for about $30, and, as I was expecting, the contents were generally meh. I got a few repeats from my last mystery box (I recieved two copies of Armitage: Dual Matrix this time around), and only about 1/6 of the DVDs actually interested me (it's mostly random old singles and movies in these boxes), but I'd say it was a pretty good deal for a few anime DVDs to watch and a whole bunch more to trade in at my local FYE for at least $30, probably more by guessing from my last box (I think I got around $70 or so for all the stuff I didn't want).

[dotcom]

I'm hoping that they release the Index LNs a little faster, because at 4 volumes a year, It'd be about 9 years before we're caught up to the point Index is now. I know there are a lot more words than Manga in LNs, so it takes longer to translate, but the release schedule is far to slow for any hopes of ever getting near to catching up until long after the series ends.

 

It's a double issue of starting way too late and having too much to translate. And I mean. Technically Index already ended, since the novels that are coming out now are the New Testament sequel. It'll definitely take a while to catch up, but I guess we'll have to bear it.

 

All in all it reminds me of when they started translating the Soul Eater manga. 5 years after it started and (originally) only 3 volumes a year. At the time it was definitely a daunting idea, to have to wait so long to be caught up. But sometime along the way I guess they saw it was selling well, so they upped the number to 4 a year. Which is. Better. Maybe if Index sells well they will go release them faster, I hope.

[Terminus]

So, there's some new images out for the second season of Aldnoah.

Nobody dies in the first seaon finale: confirmed. Not Asseylum, not the Count, and not Inaho.

 

Just... Why? This series was so promising at one point.

[dotcom]

 

That's certainly disappointing. But I don't see Inaho anywhere, though. Hope he at least stays dead....

 

[Terminus]

That one was confirmed last night:

 

Between Aldnoah and Psycho-Pass, I get the feeling that whenever Urobuchi leaves a show, it's a sign that it'll end up sucking.

 

Anyways, Inou-Battle went full harem this week, which makes me hope for a supernatural battle between all the girls (because in an anime called When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, there sure haven't been many of those). I'm hoping this gets a second season, because I'm not really sure how this could all wrap up in 3 episodes (plus, the LN is still ongoing, so there's that, too).

 

Also, It seems like Japan is getting Evangelion rereleased on BD next year (obviously because of the 20th Anniversary), really hoping that comes over here, because it seems like it has absolutely everything (Multiple versions of Death/Rebirth and EoE, plus the Broadcast and Home Video episodes) Eva that isn't Rebuild.

[Constructelf]

So, there's some new images out for the second season of Aldnoah.

Nobody dies in the first seaon finale: confirmed. Not Asseylum, not the Count, and not Inaho.

 

Just... Why? This series was so promising at one point.

 

What? Ack... Earth must have some good medics. If not even one of them has some sort of brain damage...

 

[dotcom]

Well that's stupid.

 

Aldnoah.Zero's finale finally made it pop up back to being pretty good but now I'm definitely not looking forward to the second. Sighhh.

 

edit: Oh boy that new Inou-Battle. Could it be? Will this harem avoid indefinite periods of beating around the bush and go all in so early one? I can hope. Definitely loving the character progression, that is, except for Chifuyu. Loli is no good. Though at the very least, it's Andou, so it really probably most likely won't actually go there.

 

I do hope they keep the Inou-Battling to a minimum though. The premise is basically about them having superpowers but not having anything to do with them, and I like that. I enjoy the character interaction more than I would the battling. (unless of course the battling is used seriously as a vehicle for strong character interaction, which I can certainly see happening. here comes dark and dark of the end ) I don't want this to turn into Medaka Box (as much as I love Medaka Box...) And honestly, the episode last week has to be the least interesting so far, by far. So many underwhelming answers in that episode. I'd rather the main plot stay away from that as much as possible.

 

That other guy though. If that means what I think it means this series just got crazy meta, and what a twist.

Edited December 2, 2014 by farmstink buttlass

[Terminus]

So. The new Psycho-Pass.

 

This show has become painful to watch. I can usually handle a character or two that I don't like, but when a series simply starts completely contradicting itself, I just don't want to watch anymore, and the fact that this is a sequel to a really good series just makes it worse.

[Ektris]

Ugh... As much as I was turned off by a show starring Slaine for season 2 after growing to truly despise him, making those changes to the ending of Aldnoah.Zero are just so much worse.

 

Also, Naruto. Naruto, man. I get it. You need filler to stretch things out. I even get the movie tie-ins - the last one was actually pretty funny and I enjoyed it. But this one, and being two episodes at that, was still mostly reused flashbacks. And just boring. GAH! Get on with something already please! Actually progress through the story and don't become Bleach...

 

Psycho Pass 2 has just been confusing me more than the first season. At least by the end of that I felt like I had a good grasp on everything going on. Here it still just seems like a convoluted mess and we're almost over. I'm interesting in what contradictions you're seeing exactly, Terminus. I definitely don't remember everything that they established about the world before to notice them all, but they could explain my general confusion..

 

~|ET|~

[ActivePalpitation]

Hey guys, I know this has got nothing to do with the topic at hand at the moment but,

 

 

I have recently watched and finished Cowboy Bebop. I only recently watched it because I was 0-1 year old when it came out

 

I have much to say but I'll just say a few things (ending spoiler):

 

 

 

- Great dub.

- Truly, it is a master piece.

- Ed is one of the greatest characters created for anything ever.

- The last 3 episodes are some of the most emotional and beautiful moments I have ever seen in cinematography

- The show ended with quite a...... 

 

All in all, never have I felt more invested in an anime ever.

 

Now to start the waterworks again i hear, with Trigun.

 

Edited December 6, 2014 by Turaga of Ponies

[Toa of Gallifrey]

I just caught up to Akame ga Kill! (though a new episode is airing today). I really like it, a cool shonen to watch but it's utterly heartbreaking. ;_;

[Ektris]

1. YAAAAAYYYYYY! Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo is getting an anime adaptation!

 

2. Maybe it's because I knew it was coming this time, but seeing this week's episode of SAO in animated form was not nearly as gut-wrenching as reading it was. Still found it a great moment nonetheless.

 

3. Log Horizon this week was literally one guy talking for 90% of the episode. ...Okay so that's not too different from half of last week's, but at least that one I found a little more interesting. And it wasn't the whole episode. Just feel like things really ground to a halt.

 

4. Oh man all the references in Fate/Stay Night! <3 Especially liked the Rin/Sakura stuff being so out there without being completely overt, just in case there are viewers who don't know yet (thus making the surprise better). Just wish they'd do the same with Saber/Shirou/Kiritsugu heh.

 

~|ET|~

[Terminus]

Well, with Psycho-Pass 2, completely contradicting itself was my initial impression after the newest episode, which after processing everything, was probably a bit off as an assessment. It's more like tons of little inconsistencies and other problems that all pile up into a giant mess, and while they could be explained, that would most likely just create more problems.

 

I.e., Togane being Criminally Asymptomatic, then having the highest Psycho-Pass on record (because according to the show, CA people's PP can't get clouded), Mika being clear despite clearly freaking the heck out (though I'm assuming this is just the revelation to the audience the Mika is CA), and then there's also the thing that's been bugging me for most of the season: people's Crime Coefficients seem to shoot to the Decomposer point much faster than they did in PP1.

 

 

SAO (once again) surprised me with another decent character-focused episode. Why is this arc so much better than the rest at doing this? Looking forward to next week,

because obviously Kirito is going to use his Yui camera setup thingy to bring Yuuki to school, and judging by how good the non-action episodes have been recently, that should go pretty well. Also hoping that Asuna has one more confrontation with her mom before the season ends, because I rather enjoyed that.

 

 

Also, finally got around to finishing the first Sailor Moon BD set. It's essentially the ultimate compilation of pretty much everything I hate about anime (endless filler, extremely overrecycled scenes, the really old style (which is actually starting to grow on me), and a super-formulatic "villain of the week" structure), but the character interactions (I absolutely love the relationships between Usagi, Rei, and Mamoru right now, plus the side characters getting some more time in the spotlight is a good thing) and comedy really made me actually enjoy it.

 

Anyways, the final Jinsei is out! It's a different sub group than the rest of the usual episodes, so I'm not sure on the quality yet, but I'm excited to finally get to finish it tonight.

[Ektris]

Well, with Psycho-Pass 2, completely contradicting itself was my initial impression after the newest episode, which after processing everything, was probably a bit off as an assessment. It's more like tons of little inconsistencies and other problems that all pile up into a giant mess, and while they could be explained, that would most likely just create more problems.

 

I.e., Togane being Criminally Asymptomatic, then having the highest Psycho-Pass on record (because according to the show, CA people's PP can't get clouded), Mika being clear despite clearly freaking the heck out (though I'm assuming this is just the revelation to the audience the Mika is CA), and then there's also the thing that's been bugging me for most of the season: people's Crime Coefficients seem to shoot to the Decomposer point much faster than they did in PP1.

 

 

1. Yeah that's one of the things that's been confusing me too.. But since his relationship with Sibyl is so odd, it might have been faked to get him into that position. In fact, his purpose and his mother (who is a part of Sibyl now... yet appears to be dominating or acting independently??) just seem like a huge convoluted mess.

 

2. Her being asymptomatic is the conclusion I drew from that scene. It's really the only explanation because she is most definitely not alright after learning the truth.

 

3. This is true. Everyone's just dying instead of being stunned and I get the intent, but it does seem odd.

 

 

---

 

I started Watamote. This might be one of the most uncomfortable things I've watched in a while. Yet I want to keep watching...

 

~|ET|~

[dotcom]

 

I started Watamote. This might be one of the most uncomfortable things I've watched in a while. Yet I want to keep watching...

 

~|ET|~

 

It gets so so so much more uncomfortable, and it is beautiful.

[Ektris]

 

 

I started Watamote. This might be one of the most uncomfortable things I've watched in a while. Yet I want to keep watching...

 

~|ET|~

 

It gets so so so much more uncomfortable, and it is beautiful.

 

I didn't think it could get much worse than the three episodes I had watched earlier, but I just watched episode four...

 

Criiiiiiinge...

 

~|ET|~

[Hodor]

the really old style (which is actually starting to grow on me)\

I never really understood why so many anime fans nowadays can't stand cel animation. Always liked the look and detail in a well-done cel series.

[Terminus]

For me, it's less about the cel animation and more about the fact that I'm generally not a big fan of anime character designs from the late 80s-early 90s.

Edited December 11, 2014 by Terminus

[Hodor]

^ Ahhh, okay. That makes sense.

 

 

So Gargantia is in the new SRW.

[dotcom]

SAOII is finally over.

Thank god.

 

The Mother's Rosario arc was actually good, though. I'd like to give it higher praise, because it really wasn't bad, but there were still all these dumb SAO things hanging on it was just. Well. It's as good as I could reasonably expect SAO to get. The overall lack of Kirito helped, I guess.

[Hodor]

Done with semester's finals and out for break. Been trying to catch up with the series I started- so far GARO's been absolutely stellar.

[Terminus]

Well, I got caught up up on a lot of the shows I've been following over the weekend, and things are finally starting to wind down.

 

I'm really glad about the fact that Psycho-Pass 2 is finally over, I kinda just stopped thinking (which I never would have done in the first season) and enjoyed the ride. Or whatever the closest to "enjoyment" is that I could get out of this season. I'm still (hesitantly) excited for the movie, though.

 

Denki-Gai had a fun "final" episode last week, although apparently another episode is airing this week. Extra comedy is always fun.

 

Haven't yet watched the last two episodes of SAO, although I'm almost positive I know how they'll play out. Might get to them tonight.

 

Inou-Battle's non-ending didn't really surprise me at all. Really hoping we get another season of that one (because it really needs continuation), or at the very least, get the Light Novels translated.

 

And speaking of light novels, I recently got the third SAO novel and the first volume of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (henceforth IIWtTtPOGiaD?). I'm currently reading SAO, which is pretty much excactly what I expect from the novels so far, and I read IIWtTtPOGiaD? last week, and I really didn't enjoy it all that much. It wasn't the stupid harem rom-com parts that nearly made me put the book down, but rather the fact that half of it reads pretty much just like a transcript of someone soloing an MMO. And that's not really much of a fun read at all.

 

Also, this is coming out of Japan. Which I never, ever, ever would have really expected, mainly because it seems like a copyright nightmare from every angle.

 

 

Edited December 22, 2014 by Terminus

[Infamousevil]

Hellsing Ultimate, TTGL, Attack On Titan, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (will Polnaref ever be able to use the toilet without being attacked?).

Do abridged series count? Cause if so Hellsing Ultimate Abridged, JoJo Abridged, and Mirai Nikki Abridged.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

I was also watching Mirai Nikki abridged. I really hope YunoInbox continues it.

[Infamousevil]

@Toa of Galifrery I know right! I want more "Having X is... good." and more of Dave and Garry.