What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[slaginpit]

So I guess this is never coming out? Did Nagano get lost in a noodle restaurant?

[GU-11]

Just caught the first episode of Persona 4, the Animation. Follows the game almost to a tee. Not sure why I bother, since I've played the game numerous times and know everything that happens. I guess it's just nice watching the characters and plot without worrying about leveling up and all.

[Archer]

Anybody have suggestions for the better anime's on Netflix? I recently got the service and found that they have anime, but the non-mecha titles didn't seem that familiar to me becides common one's like Naruto....

[IHATEYOU]

So I guess this is never coming out? Did Nagano get lost in a noodle restaurant?

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-04-02/mamoru-nagano-gothicmade-slated-for-november-1

[s001]

Just started watching Ergo Proxy. Pretty interesting but very boring as well.

What do you guys think? Is it worth watching the whole thing???

[ron5864]

Just started watching Ergo Proxy. Pretty interesting but very boring as well.

What do you guys think? Is it worth watching the whole thing???

Ergo Proxy was a bit confusing. They never really explained who or what Vincent really is and what he can do. Reeal was cold to him at first but things change a bit later on. Within this whole story, Pino was the guiding light for the group and was my favorite character in the show. But that is just my impression after watching it last year.

[JELEINEN]

Finished Rinne no Lagrange. Not bad. I like the note it ended on (much darker than the characters themselves realize. Now on to finish Symphogear.

[Renato]

Finished Rinne no Lagrange. Not bad. I like the note it ended on (much darker than the characters themselves realize. Now on to finish Symphogear.

Lagrange is due for a second series, and an OVA in a few months.

[shiroikaze]

Just caught the first episode of Persona 4, the Animation. Follows the game almost to a tee. Not sure why I bother, since I've played the game numerous times and know everything that happens. I guess it's just nice watching the characters and plot without worrying about leveling up and all.

Pretty much seems that way. But it's my first foray into Persona 4 (despite having the game) and I like what I see so far. I'd say they're doing a pretty good job presenting it to keep me interested.

It's also kinda neat to hear Orphen's voice after so long...

Anybody have suggestions for the better anime's on Netflix? I recently got the service and found that they have anime, but the non-mecha titles didn't seem that familiar to me becides common one's like Naruto....

Although it's not an anime, you should check out My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I just found out that it's on Netflix now.

Edited April 3, 2012 by shiroikaze

[Keith]

Just started watching Ergo Proxy. Pretty interesting but very boring as well.

What do you guys think? Is it worth watching the whole thing???

The ending was pretty open, but I still enjoyed the series. Some parts get episodic, ut when the sh!t hits the fan in general, things stay pretty interesting.

Although it's not an anime, you should check out My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I just found out that it's on Netflix now.

As did I, looks like I'll be checking it & the new G.I. Joe out.

[Marzan]

Checked out "First Squad" a co-production between Studio 4C and a Russian studio. The premise (a group of supernatural Soviet teenagers fighting the SS in WWII) and the animation are top notch, but I felt it was a bit short at 57 minutes. Would have greatly benefited from an extra hour to flesh out the characters and have longer action sequences. And it was a bit weird to see anime character designs speaking Russian.

[soul.assassin]

Done watching the first episode of Space Brothers... Next best thing since The Right Stuff and Space Cowboys, but with 30somethings, no service, no high school teenagers, excellent artwork and story, and realistic character designs.

[Omegablue]

Guilty Crown. Just got the first episode. Read numerous bad reviews, but I'm giving it a bash as animation wise it looks fantastic.

Just caught the first episode of Persona 4, the Animation. Follows the game almost to a tee. Not sure why I bother, since I've played the game numerous times and know everything that happens. I guess it's just nice watching the characters and plot without worrying about leveling up and all.

How is the story?

[s001]

Thanks guys. I guess I'll give it a shot.

[JELEINEN]

Lagrange is due for a second series, and an OVA in a few months.

Yeah, I know. I imagine that the final ending will probably be more traditional.

Checked out "First Squad" a co-production between Studio 4C and a Russian studio. The premise (a group of supernatural Soviet teenagers fighting the SS in WWII) and the animation are top notch, but I felt it was a bit short at 57 minutes. Would have greatly benefited from an extra hour to flesh out the characters and have longer action sequences. And it was a bit weird to see anime character designs speaking Russian.

It's a fun film and I like how they didn't let the supernatural agents take away from the real people who actually fought. The documentary framing device was a nice idea, but didn't really work out well. It didn't help that they had German actors playing Russians.

[Keith]

Protip: If you want to watch First Squad in Japanese, just select the short version of the film, and it gives you a Japanese language option. This is true for the bluray at least. It also cuts out those stupid live action bits.

[Marzan]

Protip: If you want to watch First Squad in Japanese, just select the short version of the film, and it gives you a Japanese language option. This is true for the bluray at least. It also cuts out those stupid live action bits.

Unfortunately my region B BD had no such option.

[JELEINEN]

Watched the Gyo OVA last night. Wasn't very good. If I'd checked on what it was before going into it, I probably would've avoided it.

[anime52k8]

Watched the Gyo OVA last night. Wasn't very good. If I'd checked on what it was before going into it, I probably would've avoided it.

There's a Gyo OVA?!? When the hell did that happen?

[Keith]

Before you hear it on the street, Aniplex just announced that they licensed Bakemonogatari. No word on whether we'll get blurays or not yet, but hopefully ti'll be a release similar to Madoka.

[GU-11]

Pretty much seems that way. But it's my first foray into Persona 4 (despite having the game) and I like what I see so far. I'd say they're doing a pretty good job presenting it to keep me interested.

It's also kinda neat to hear Orphen's voice after so long...

Yeah, almost everything is kept identical to the game, except for minute details like the omitted dialogue between Nanako and the worker at the gas station etc.

One major reason for me to watch it is that it's got Japanese voice acting; the game was in English, so it's nice to see how it sounds in Japanese, as well as some of the things that were changed [Morooka's nickname is Moroki in JP, but King Moron in EN].

I'll keep watching and see what other changes I might find.

They did change a major part of the plot in that Tales of the Abyss anime, so I wonder if Persona 4 will do the same.

How is the story?

It's very character-driven and IMHO the least dark of the Persona games, which of course carries over to the anime. People still die and stuff, but it's not quite as apocalyptic as Nocturne. The plot plays out like a mystery, and the characters form a sort of detective team to solve the mysterious deaths that have been happening in town. Just think of it as Atlus' version of Scooby Doo. It even comes with its own pet animal...sort of.

I totally recommend either watching the anime or playing the game.

If you want to know more....

[Cobalto]

Bakuman, Hunter x Hunter (2011/2 series), Uchuu Kyoudai and *cof cof* Uchuu Senkan Yamato :|

[Shaorin]

Satisfying endings, hmm:

-Gunbuster

-Gurren Lagann

-Nadia

-Megazone 23 Part 2 (note, not 3!)

-Orguss

-Eureka Seven

-Great Teacher Onizuka

-Galaxy Express 999 (movies + TV series)

-Irresponsible Captain Tylor (TV & Tylor's War, only to be ruined by the incomplete last OVA series)

-Mahoromatic

-School Rumble (ionce you come to turns with it being the only real ending that could have happened there)

-Votoms (even if it did heavily rip-off 2001, such an awesome battle leading up to the end)

-Wings of Honneamise

-Yamato 1 & 2 (especially the knock down drag out brawl with the comet empire that would shape shows like DBZ for years to come).

Note I've left out obvious things like various Macross & Gundam series.

i've really been thinking about giving MAHOROMATIC a shot one of these odd days,

and your claim that it possesses a "Satisfying" ending is encouraging.

as an aside, i had always wished someone would have made an 11' doll of Mahoro-chan♥

or, at the very least, a halfway decent 1/8 scale figure...

Edited April 7, 2012 by Shaorin

[shiroikaze]

The new Kenshin OVA... is a bit disappointing.

[Renato]

"Uchuu Kyoudai / Space Brothers" is probably my favourite show right now! Today's episode was about a guy sitting for a job interview at JAXA, Japan's equivalent of NASA. Doesn't seem particularly exciting, but it's really well done. The manga was very popular and I think later this year there is a live-action movie coming out. Didn't know that an anime had started airing until just a few days ago, though.

You don't hear this from me very often... but I RECOMMEND!

[renegadeleader1]

Finished Gunbuster 2.... there's no doubt in my mind now that its garbage. It seems like I wasn't the only that had the questions I did after watching the first 4 episodes so we a 30 second briefing claiming humanity was "tired" after the final battle from the original series, decided to dump all their advanced technology, and hide behind the buster corps for hundreds of years....

Right....

I'm pretty sure if you were facing extinction on the scale of what the space monsters represent you wouldn't squat in one place, but spread out to keep from having all the eggs in one basket so to speak. You would also keep developing new weapons and not sit back thinking "meh, good enough" I'm at the point where I know a sizzler could have had a better showing than the topless machines.

The topless are still whiny entittled brats, especially the leader who lost his powers and thinks attempted rape is ok. Apparently the rest of the world thinks its fine too as he gets an officers commision in the navy and not 5 to 10 afterwards.

Nono... what a waste.

What really bothers me right now is what is Nono's connection to Noriko? She goes on on about her but we never see them meet or hear how they are connected.

[Keith]

Pay attention to the dialogue, humanities technology advanced pretty damn far before the sol system was sealed off, and at that point it was more for its own protection than anything. The implication I got at least was that some left for parts unknown (with their dolphin pilots) while others stayed behind in the cradle Whatever went down on Titan resulted in the loss of Nono. Maybe the Uchuu Kaiju sucker punched her during that operation that sealed it there, or perhaps something else happened to her, but whatever it was resulted in Nono being frozen in a comet for 10,000 years, and the Buster Corps defense system going into safety mode (sealing the monster on the surface, and protecting Earth from black hole Exilio).

Or perhaps no one left, and the same events mentioned above took place, with no means of building a weapon of Noriko's claiber again (she may have been a last ditch trump, and hell, she did have 3 mini degenerency generators). However it happened, we know that warp was sealed, and degenerency generator technology was also lost. Since we know from the original Gunbuster that warp draws the space monsters like kids to candy, that's an understandable condition. Since we can also assume that Nono's last act before whatever caused her to wind up in that comet happened, we can assume that she's actually responsable for the solar system being sealed away.

The topless seem to be a natural human evolution, though why it's such a temporary state isn't explained. But the Topless corps may have been formed to try and break through Nono's seal, or just as a preporation in case the one on Titan broke loose. No doubt Diebuster leaves a lot of questions regarding the nature of why the space monsters hate humanity, but so did the original series. Why couldn't more degenerency generator's be made? Considering the later buster machines didn't have them, and that buster machine 3 needed to collapse an entire planet to create one (Gunbuster), it could be assumed that they were a limited commodity. Lal'c's prowess gives us an interesting clue in that the Topless power could be a natural occurence of the DG in humanity itself, perhaps that being the reason for the space monster attacks/why humanity was seen as a threat to the universe.

Something else to ponder, and it's actually a great point that you bring up. The Topless are a bunch of whiny entitled brats. That may very well be the reason that they lose their powers in the first place. Youth/innocence equating to a more powerful individual, while pompus and arorgence as one becomes older leading to the loss of that power. It may be no coincidence that Lal'c started losing her power once she believed herself to be the universes savior. Nicholi on the other hand joined the military because he finally bowed to it.

And no, Nono never knew Nono, but its clear she was created at a time when Nono's story was still very well known, and she simply idolized her. I thought that bit was pretty well explained.

But hey, sorry it wasn't your cup of tea, but personally I loved it as a follow up. Just curious, what did you think of Gurren Lagann aka Gunbuster on max testosterone.

[Marzan]

Before you hear it on the street, Aniplex just announced that they licensed Bakemonogatari. No word on whether we'll get blurays or not yet, but hopefully ti'll be a release similar to Madoka.

Yey! Now that's a great piece of news. I'd love to own Bakemonogatari. Having said that, I would have prefered if Funimation had licensed it. Aniplex's releases are exorbitantly expensive for the most part, and I guess Bake will be no different.

I've also read that apparently Shaft has greenlit anime for all of NisiOisin's Monogatari novels. I hope they're better than Nisemonogatari.

[renegadeleader1]

But hey, sorry it wasn't your cup of tea, but personally I loved it as a follow up. Just curious, what did you think of Gurren Lagann aka Gunbuster on max testosterone.

I liked Gurran Lagann, but its hard to take it seriously. This isn't just on max testosterone its anabolic steroids with HGH thrown in!

[renegadeleader1]

Rewatching the first galaxy express movie for the first time in almost 15 years. Man I just did not appreciate how good this was way back when I first saw it on the sci-fi channel. I picked it up along with Adeu Galaxy Express 999 from the Discotek boot at anime boston.

On a side note this convention was the first time ever that I've run into someone from this forum in real life. Sup Veef, I caught your panel on anime robot evolution you hosted with David White(definatly needed more time to go in depth). I would have stopped to say hi, but but you looked busy and about in as much hurry as I was.

I got a question about that reference guide for robots, what's the actual title and is there a newer version than the one you had? That was from I think 98 you said?

[Keith]

I just wish Discotek had gotten the bluray rights, as I can't find the Korean one's anywhere but ebay, and I don't feel like playin' that game. 999 definately holds up incredible well over the yeras though. I can't wait for the series release, and Harlock TV for that matter.

[Bri]

I've started on Medaka Box, which has a Haruhi-like vibe to it. Since It's a Gainax show I decided to finally see Top o Nerae 2 as well. I've had the DVD's lying around for years but to my shame never got round to them.

Must admit Diebuster is very impressive. Gainax knows how to make a limited budget work and this anime packs some visual punch. Lots of proto moe, way ahead of it's time. Nono is adorable, a character like that could pop up in a modern show without falling out of tune. Some influence in there from Azumanga Daoh as well I think. Super robot extravaganza at it's finest.

[Marzan]

Got my Utena box sets a couple of days ago. Righ Stuff/Nozomi did a beautiful job with this release. Nice box, art, booklets and packed with extras. IMO, if you're expecting people to pay big bucks for an anime, this is the way to go about it.

Since I'd never seen the movie "Adolescence of Utena" and its included with the release, I got around to watch it last night. Beautiful and original stuff. If Dali had ever made an anime it would have looked something like this.

[JELEINEN]

The new season looks like it's going to be hard to keep up with. So far, I'm planning on watching Lupin III Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna, Jormungand, Haiyore! Naruko-san, Sakamichi no Apollon, Accel World, Nazo Kanojo X, Sanka Rea, Tasogare Otome x Amnesia, and Uchuu Kyoudai as well as continue with Mouetsu Pirates.

[Keith]

I'm only about 11 or 12 episodes into MLP:FiM, but I can see the appeal of the show, probably the closest the U.S. will ever come to its own genuine Magical Girl series. But that's not why I'm posting. I just ran across this video, not sure how old it is, but it's hilarious.

As for actual anime, I just watched the first series of Maria Holic (hilarious), and the second volume of Madoka Magica. I think Madoka is the most brilliantly depressing thing I've seen in a while, can't wait for the last 4 episodes.