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Trashy_Rambo
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 2:32 pm 
 

One-Punch man is pretty damned entertaining, and you guys should watch it.
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ratedgdr
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Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:03 pm
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Location: Northeast Wisconsin
PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 11:00 pm 
 

Really upset that Ghost In The Shell: Arise doesn't have the first few episodes on DVD at Family Video. Saw a promo for the recent releases of vols. 3 and 4 and damn, I want to see the whole Arise saga from the beginning now.

Damn my lack of a Blu-Ray!

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maidenpriestmanic
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Joined: Sun Jan 27, 2013 11:33 pm
Posts: 591
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 2:17 am 
 

Trashy_Rambo wrote:
One-Punch man is pretty damned entertaining, and you guys should watch it.


My best friend showed me the first episode the week it came out, definitely going to keep watching.

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Dudemanguy
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Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:19 pm
Posts: 2449
PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:49 am 
 

ratedgdr wrote:
Really upset that Ghost In The Shell: Arise doesn't have the first few episodes on DVD at Family Video. Saw a promo for the recent releases of vols. 3 and 4 and damn, I want to see the whole Arise saga from the beginning now.

Damn my lack of a Blu-Ray!

I thought Arise was pretty bad overall; it's written by the same guy who was responsible for that disaster that was Psycho Pass's second season. Well, I haven't seen episode 5 or the latest movie yet, so maybe those will be good (doubtful), but the first 4 OVAs were just ugh. There's way too much "Oh shit, X is getting hacked!!" and the plot was too much of a mess. Some of the action is decent I guess, but it's nowhere near as exciting as SAC or the first movie.

Oh yeah, I forgot the Alternative Architecture TV series exists. Dunno if that was any good. It's made by all the same people as Arise though.

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~Guest 334273
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Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:19 am
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 11:59 am 
 

Hi all! Can i ask here for an anime reccomandation?
I'm pretty new to the genre.. i was wondering: anybody here knows a good and twisted "psychological horror" anime that remains creepy from the beginning to the end?

i've recently watched Higurashi no naku koro ni and Umineko no naku koro ni and i was really caught by the fist few very dark and creepy episodes of those two anime(s) but i disliked a bit the remaining episodes of the seasons, because they lost nearly all of the darkness found in the beginning

feel free to post obvious reccomandations, i've only seen very few series (of any genre) so far! namely:
Psycho pass, Shinsekai yori, Here and there, now and then, Madoka magica (all wich i really liked)
Another, Chaos head, Baccano! and Elfen lied (liked only very few bits and ideas)
blood + and Angel beats (wich i disliked)

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Dudemanguy
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Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:19 pm
Posts: 2449
PostPosted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 12:44 pm 
 

For psychological horror, you're probably better off with manga. I find Junji Ito's stuff to be pretty creepy. Try reading Uzumaki; that one freaked me out for a bit.

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~Guest 334273
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 11:39 am 
 

uh.. you have taken me very literally when i said Twisted! :)
thanks a lot! it seems really disturbing!

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Dudemanguy
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Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:19 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 12:46 pm 
 

Haha, I didn't even realize you said "twisted." I was working as a dishwasher while I was reading that one, and let's just say the water spiraling down the drain freaked me out for a while. As a fair warning, the last part has a notable tone shift, and I found the ending to be kind of weak. The middle bit was was the creepiest part to me by far; it lets up a lot afterwards. Still a great read overall though.

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Kveldulfr
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 9:50 am 
 

About to end Hunter x Hunter 2011 and I can safely say it's really good. Starting with the Yorknew city arc, the blood is back and the plot gets way better. The Chimera Ants arc is excellent. Very few fight-based anime/manga get the growth of their characters done right when you can clearly trace and grasp their evolution without getting ridiculously strong for whatever reason (like DBZ). Watch it!
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Trashy_Rambo
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Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 12:12 pm 
 

The way they ended the Ant-arc was really phenomenal.
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Dudemanguy
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PostPosted: Tue Oct 27, 2015 3:03 pm 
 

I should reader Hunter x Hunter one of these days. Always heard good things about it.

So anyone else watching the latest Gundam, Iron-Blooded Orphans? Nothing groundbreaking so far, I'm enjoying it and the setting has a lot of potential for a good political story. Unfortunately, Mari Okada is writing it which means I'm bracing myself for the huge melodrama bomb to drop at some point. She did write Nagi no Asukara, and I actually liked that one so maybe there's hope. We'll see how it goes as it airs. It's also only 25 episodes which seems too short for what I'm perceiving to be the scale of the conflict.

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oneyoudontknow
Cum insantientibus furere necesse est.

Joined: Sun May 21, 2006 6:25 pm
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Location: Germany
PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 3:57 pm 
 

Death Parade is interesting ... I wish for a bit more depth and philosophy should a second series surface at some point.
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Dudemanguy
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 5:09 pm 
 

I only watched the original OVA and thought it was just okay. I never though it was material that warranted a full series, but they did it anyway. Was it any good?

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oneyoudontknow
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 5:50 pm 
 

I find it different, but the short length of the episodes makes it all feel a bit rushed and unnecessarily compressed. The setting is interesting, as are the characters with their slow pace of narrating things and with progressing of the story. Actually, I see a lot of potential in this series and this setting, because it gives you the opportunity to deal with some essential questions in an interesting kind of way. It really feels distant and otherworldly this bar and that is why it is fascinating.

Does stress bring things to hide that are otherwise hidden behind the layer of self-control? I think there are other facets of the human mind that play a role here as well and are a contributing factor.

The series fails as many other do in our time ... it is just the act that is being analyzed and not what had led to it. It is the deed that counts and what might have led a person to behave and act under a certain situation in a certain manner. Of course such aspects have to be restricted in order to control the complexity of the series, nevertheless it would be nice to see more complex characters being dealt with. The portrayal of humans is a bit too much like a template.
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Kveldulfr
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 8:01 pm 
 

Watched GITS: The New Movie (yeah, that's the title). It's a sort of bridge of the whole Arise universe with the first movie. The designs and animation are Arise-like; the story was quite good and the action was boss. It's a quite worthy addition to the GITS universe IMO.
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Zelkiiro
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 9:22 pm 
 

Urrrrggghhhhh...watching Stand Alone Complex is such a chore. Someone help me out here, I'm going to die of apathy.
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hey
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 10:12 pm 
 

So, thoughts on this season so far? Other than some typical slice of life stuffs, there really wasn't very much I was looking forward too, but One Punch Man is pretty great. The manga's been pretty great, but it's definitely a bit more enjoyable when animated imo.

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Dudemanguy
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Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:19 pm
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:51 am 
 

Zelkiiro wrote:
Urrrrggghhhhh...watching Stand Alone Complex is such a chore. Someone help me out here, I'm going to die of apathy.

I didn't know it was even possible to find Stand Alone Complex boring.

hey wrote:
So, thoughts on this season so far? Other than some typical slice of life stuffs, there really wasn't very much I was looking forward too, but One Punch Man is pretty great. The manga's been pretty great, but it's definitely a bit more enjoyable when animated imo.

I know that like 70% of my posts in this thread mention Gundam, but I'm actually quite happy with Iron Blooded Orphans so far. Given that Okada is writing, I'm still expecting some cheap melodrama to happen that may severely sour things, but so far it's been a pretty interesting show. Orga's and Mika's ridiculously unhealthy codependency has a lot of room for development.

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Kveldulfr
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PostPosted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:00 pm 
 

Zelkiiro wrote:
Urrrrggghhhhh...watching Stand Alone Complex is such a chore. Someone help me out here, I'm going to die of apathy.


Are you the kind of 'first movie trve' fan? Cause the first movie was indeed incredible, but SAC was - to me - closer to what the overall original manga was about. The first movie and Innocence, while excellent, were a bit too vague in the plot development due the 'overdose' of philosophical material, whereas the manga was a more consistent in the action - while still bringing a lot of stuff to think and even more, but again, the results were still more balanced.

What do you hate about SAC?
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metroplex
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Joined: Mon Oct 30, 2006 1:28 am
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Location: Peru
PostPosted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 12:13 am 
 

I want to recommend my absolute favorite manga that i read at least once a year: 20th Century Boys

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Dudemanguy
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Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:19 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 12:17 am 
 

Kveldulfr wrote:
Are you the kind of 'first movie trve' fan? Cause the first movie was indeed incredible, but SAC was - to me - closer to what the overall original manga was about. The first movie and Innocence, while excellent, were a bit too vague in the plot development due the 'overdose' of philosophical material, whereas the manga was a more consistent in the action - while still bringing a lot of stuff to think and even more, but again, the results were still more balanced.

What do you hate about SAC?

Well his review gave the first movie a 7/10 and at the same time called it a classic...

I'm pretty sure that the common opinion is that both the first movie and SAC are excellent. Innocence draws a lot more criticism, and then Arise happened.

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Kveldulfr
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PostPosted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 6:26 am 
 

I thought he was confused with Solid State Society, which is less good than SAC IMO. Innocence is too meandering, although I still like it.

I don't hate Arise btw. The designs are the only thing I dislike about it, but the story is around the same quality than SAC (especially if you got the 10 ep rebuild, not just the 4 OVA's). The new movie is also better than Arise and links to the first movie in a way you will say 'HOLY SHIT'. Watch it.

BTW, I've got SAC in Bly-ray and it's glorious.
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Karlabos
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Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2013 5:07 pm
Posts: 430
Location: Brazil
PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 8:56 am 
 

Hey guys,

I'm looking for some harem/ecchi stuff but without comedy on it, well a bit of non-forced comedy here and there is ok, but it shouldn't be centered on it. You know, stuf like Monogatari series or Oregairu...
Any animes on that line?

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Kveldulfr
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 9:39 am 
 

Karlabos wrote:
Hey guys,

I'm looking for some harem/ecchi stuff but without comedy on it, well a bit of non-forced comedy here and there is ok, but it shouldn't be centered on it. You know, stuf like Monogatari series or Oregairu...
Any animes on that line?


Serious ecchi sounds like soft hentai. Anyway:

School Days, Aki-Sora, maybe Kaze No Stigma are in that vein

Non 'ecchi' but has some sex scenes and it's pretty dark: Perfect Blue.

No explicit nudity but plenty of sex references, dark and depressive: NANA.

Then you can just jump towards the more explicit stuff and see Urotsukidoji and Bible Black.
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Dudemanguy
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Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:19 pm
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 7:29 pm 
 

Kveldulfr wrote:
I thought he was confused with Solid State Society, which is less good than SAC IMO. Innocence is too meandering, although I still like it.

I don't hate Arise btw. The designs are the only thing I dislike about it, but the story is around the same quality than SAC (especially if you got the 10 ep rebuild, not just the 4 OVA's). The new movie is also better than Arise and links to the first movie in a way you will say 'HOLY SHIT'. Watch it.

BTW, I've got SAC in Bly-ray and it's glorious.

Hmm yeah I've only watched the 4 OVAs, and ended up pretty disappointed overall. It started off okay, but the same plot elements kept getting reused (X is getting hacked!) and the episodes weren't particularly good self-contained or together imo. I guess I should watch the whole series and the movie one of these days.

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ratedgdr
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 10:03 pm
Posts: 324
Location: Northeast Wisconsin
PostPosted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 11:36 pm 
 

Kveldulfr wrote:
Karlabos wrote:
Hey guys,

I'm looking for some harem/ecchi stuff but without comedy on it, well a bit of non-forced comedy here and there is ok, but it shouldn't be centered on it. You know, stuf like Monogatari series or Oregairu...
Any animes on that line?


Serious ecchi sounds like soft hentai. Anyway:

School Days, Aki-Sora, maybe Kaze No Stigma are in that vein

Non 'ecchi' but has some sex scenes and it's pretty dark: Perfect Blue.

No explicit nudity but plenty of sex references, dark and depressive: NANA.

Then you can just jump towards the more explicit stuff and see Urotsukidoji and Bible Black.


I would just like to state here that Perfect Blue is fucking amazing. May be the best thriller of any sort I've ever seen.

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Zelkiiro
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PostPosted: Tue Nov 24, 2015 10:01 pm 
 

Perfect Blue isn't my favorite of Satoshi Kon's films, but it's still damn good. I wrote a review of it, because of course I did.
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Kveldulfr
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 9:04 am 
 

Dudemanguy wrote:
Kveldulfr wrote:
I thought he was confused with Solid State Society, which is less good than SAC IMO. Innocence is too meandering, although I still like it.

I don't hate Arise btw. The designs are the only thing I dislike about it, but the story is around the same quality than SAC (especially if you got the 10 ep rebuild, not just the 4 OVA's). The new movie is also better than Arise and links to the first movie in a way you will say 'HOLY SHIT'. Watch it.

BTW, I've got SAC in Bly-ray and it's glorious.

Hmm yeah I've only watched the 4 OVAs, and ended up pretty disappointed overall. It started off okay, but the same plot elements kept getting reused (X is getting hacked!) and the episodes weren't particularly good self-contained or together imo. I guess I should watch the whole series and the movie one of these days.


Yeah, it's the best thing to do; get the 10 ep rebuild + the movie. Now, the plot is the usual business in GITS. I liked how well was SAC built tho.

I was about to buy the 'Laughing Man' movie but it's just a copy-paste of the first SAC season. Stick to the series if you see the LM movie somewhere.

Zelkiiro wrote:
Perfect Blue isn't my favorite of Satoshi Kon's films, but it's still damn good. I wrote a review of it, because of course I did.


So which is it?

Btw, I read your GITS Review. Do you mind I address some of it here?

First, I would say that the movie was done for the manga GITS fans. To cram that immense amount of information and references into 1 movie without 'dumbing down' the source too much was not an easy task and that's why we have this 'middle of the road' movie. which is good enough for GITS fan and it's explanatory enough for the newcomers. It's also clear that the movie is an invitation to explore the original source material to get a wider perspective of the GITS universe.

As obvious as it is, the ghost is the equivalent of a soul in GITS (Man, the damn title is GHOST is the shell, which is an apt descriptor for Motoko and this new society, since she has no real body). The 'soul' in this universe is not like the religious concept per se. For a more elaborated background, read Koestler's 'The Ghost if the Machine'.

See that the artificial intelligence and prosthetic bodies are not simple accessories, but they show a new step in human evolution overall, where the very same concept of living and 'functioning' has changed. There's a point where DNA and 'data' are kinda paired and even combined to form a new form of life in a DNA-less living organism, which is just as 'alive' as any human, since this new form is a parallel to the 'ghost' (Manga read is recommended to get this clearly).

The 'philosophy' behind GITS is quite deep if you want to look at it. In the first movie, SAC and Innocence, there are a lot of references to studies, books and authors that have developed different theories which GITS is mostly based; it's not just a futuristic manga/anime for the sake of being futuristic but a more closer exploration and 'simulation' of such theories. It's more of a 'what if' scenario than a cyberpunk theme manga for the sake of novelty within the genre.

Also, I consider the implementation of the philosophical and psychological elements in GITS way more effective and coherent than Evangelion, which was/is too vague, nonsensical and a kinda self-contradictory at times. The comparison with Akira to me is a bit off since I don't consider Akira to be really that similar. They belong, at heart, to different subgenres.

The characters in GITS have 'plenty' of personality, but they are developed in the longer run. SAC explores this better, since it has the time to show the relationships of the characters and their backgrounds, besides giving us a greater scope of their experiences together.

I guess a more elaborated discussion about it it's doable but it'll take plenty of pages, so I hope you watch the movie again with a bit of more information in your mind; watch the rest of the series and then go back to it; you'll enjoy it a lot more.
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Zelkiiro
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:13 pm 
 

I figured the manga and TV series would go into more detail of the Ghost in the Shell universe, but my criticisms are aimed towards the movie purely as a movie, and the movie was frigid and distant along with being slick and cool. The movie's still good to newbies to watch, and it's a hell of a lot better than Akira, but it's basically the 90s equivalent of Kara no Kyoukai.

As far as my favorite Satoshi Kon movie goes, it's Millennium Actress. It's one of my favorite films of all time, let alone favorite anime films.
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Dudemanguy
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Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:19 pm
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 1:18 pm 
 

Kveldulfr wrote:
Yeah, it's the best thing to do; get the 10 ep rebuild + the movie. Now, the plot is the usual business in GITS. I liked how well was SAC built tho.

I was about to buy the 'Laughing Man' movie but it's just a copy-paste of the first SAC season. Stick to the series if you see the LM movie somewhere.

Oh the Laughing Man movie is just a horribly condensed version of the first SAC season. There's one for the second season called "Individual Eleven" I think. But yeah the actual series are a lot better and it's been a long time since I've watched them. I guess I can watch the Arise series and movie over the break. To be honest, I still have a very low opinion of that writer, Tow Ubukata, because of what he did to Psycho Pass.

Zelkiiro wrote:
The movie's still good to newbies to watch, and it's a hell of a lot better than Akira, but it's basically the 90s equivalent of Kara no Kyoukai.

Ghost in the Shell and Kara no Kyoukai are almost nothing alike....

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Zelkiiro
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:38 pm 
 

Dudemanguy wrote:
Zelkiiro wrote:
The movie's still good to newbies to watch, and it's a hell of a lot better than Akira, but it's basically the 90s equivalent of Kara no Kyoukai.

Ghost in the Shell and Kara no Kyoukai are almost nothing alike....

They've got more in common than you'd think: They're both big-budget animation showcases centered around existential philosophy with a cold, unfeeling superhuman female protagonist fighting against the rogue elements of their respective societies.
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Dudemanguy
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:44 pm 
 

That's just superficial stuff. Movie Motoko and Shiki Ryougi have way different personalities (neither are really cold and unfeeling). The philosophical themes are different, and both of their roles in society are different. Yeah, I get what you're trying to compare, but it's a huge stretch. For instance, Batou and Motoko's relationship is nothing at all like Ryougi and Mikiya.

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Kveldulfr
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 3:10 pm 
 

Dudemanguy wrote:
That's just superficial stuff. Movie Motoko and Shiki Ryougi have way different personalities (neither are really cold and unfeeling). The philosophical themes are different, and both of their roles in society are different. Yeah, I get what you're trying to compare, but it's a huge stretch. For instance, Batou and Motoko's relationship is nothing at all like Ryougi and Mikiya.


Absolutely. The Akira comparison was also based only in really superficial elements, it's like saying that Evangelion, Transformers' Masterforce and Kotetsu Jeeg are similar because all of them describe a futuristic panorama with mechas and teens as pilots, fighting 'alien-like' monsters as villains.

Back on topic, I've got Devil May Cry - anime in Bly-Ray as well. It's short but quite sweet and it tries a bit less hard to be so-cool than Hellsing Ultimate (just comparing how cool the anime try to portray the main characters). Man, don't you get on your nerves each time they say the full fucking name of Integra?
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Dudemanguy
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 6:10 pm 
 

Alright, so I'm reviving this thread because I have to bitch about a couple of things. Watch out for my wall of text and hot opinions. :P

Iron-Blooded Orphans
So in the past, I've said that I was liking Iron-Blooded Orphans (the currently airing gundam) and was pretty optimistic about it. Well forget it. The show has been slowly pissing away its potential, and I really just have to admit that it's dull. It's been 13 episodes and what's happened so far is not much. I don't have anything against slower moving shows. For example, Turn A is quite slow, but it's one of my favorite shows ever because it worldbuilds so effectively and develops its characters very well. Or another is Legend of the Galactic Heroes which is literally mostly just people talking to each other, but the dialogue is absolutely excellent, the characters are compelling, and the grand scale with political themes makes it amazing. IBO has virtually none of this.

One of the more frustrating things is that the setting is great. The backstory is basically about kids used as soldiers on the backwoods of Mars that finally decide to take their lives in their own hands and "overthrow" their masters and win the freedom. In the process, they secure the funds of Kudelia who is a young aristocrat with serious connections that has advocated for the autonomy of Mars. The organization, Gjallarhorn, has de-facto control over most of space and exerts heavy influence over the governance of Mars. HIgher ups convince Kudelia's dad to try and kill her (he's a wimpy pushover in character basically). Of course, the plan fails and she ends up on stranded on Mars. She wants to find her way back to earth to meet with the leaders of the various spheres that control the territories to try and grant autonomy to Mars, so the Tekkedan (the group of kid soldiers) decide to take her on as the first job.

This sounds like a great setup so far for a good war/political drama right? Well forget it because none of that happens in the story. Seriously, there's like zero politics here. 13 episodes in and Gjallarhorn has been barely explored. The show introduces some group called "Teiwaz" which are like some weird space Yakuza with strong emphasis on family. I'm okay with that, but they're mostly pretty dull. The characters are barely, barely explored. For example, Mika and Orga are two of the main characters and essentially introduced as the bestest of bros to each other to the point of codepedence. How has their relationship changed as Orga steps up to the plate as the leader of the group, and Mika becomes the cold-blooded, piloting ace? It's literally exactly the same as it was in the first episode. Or for another example take Kudelia. Surely as a prominent leader (or at least figurehead) that promotes the independence of Mars; they can explore how a sheltered child copes with the harder life of the Tekkedan crew? Admiittedly, it's touched on a little bit in the beginning, but no real development happens. Hell, Kudelia has even repeated the same character arc ("I'm so useless, but there's something only I can do!") so many times that I've lost count. Man, I haven't even talked about the really poorly written romance between Mika and Kudelia. LIke 90% of it is based on the two randomly walking into each other; it's bad.

To make matters worse, the plot itself has barely gone anywhere. I have no idea why they are going so slow as the show is billed for only 25 episodes, but this is too slow even for 50. It honestly seems like they are going to end the show when the ship arrives on earth (yes, they've been in space for like 10 episodes; it's stupid) while wasting time doing dumb sideplots like Akihiro's brother (atrocious writing all around). Overall, it's not nearly as bad as say AGE or SEED Destiny, but this looks like one it'll be another terrible gundam. What a shame too, the setup was really good and full of potential, but most of the time is spent just meandering in space. If you want to watch gundam, please don't watch this trash. Go watch 0079 and the rest of classic early UC or if you really are just that allergic to old animation (cel animation is great you silly people), then maybe try 00 if you want a more modern style Gundam that's not awful.

Macross Delta
The other thing on the list to whine about is Macross Delta. I love classic macross and everyone browsing this thread should watch SDF Macross, Do You Remember Love, and Plus (if you haven't already) for sure. I like 7 too, but admittedly that one is more controversial. Frontier and Zero are more eh, but I thought Frontier was pretty enjoyable for what it was (modern-esque take on SDF Macross). So Macross Delta is going to air this spring, and there's a pilot episode/special out and I took the time to watch it. Unfortunately, I was pretty much disgusted.

I wasn't expecting much anyway since Kawamori has put out a lot of crap lately (Nobunaga the Fool was something I actually watched all of it for some reason and it was awful), but it's sad to see Macross sink this low. Okay, it's not technically done so the terrible CGI might be fixed and maybe the wonky pacing will be fixed, but there's so many huge red flags here. For one, it's, horribly, horribly cliched. Literally every character falls neatly into some archetype (lazy but brilliant guy, genki girl, cool, mature type, the hardworking genius, etc.). Sure it's possible that they'll be developed into something interesting, but I'm not going to hold my breath here. None of the past Macross shows start off this cliche; not even Frontier. Everything just seems ridiculously shallow.

Another thing I'm not sold on fully is the idols being a part of some special taskforce. Yes, yes, I know 7 exists, but Basara was a skilled pilot in a Valkyrie that constantly had to avoid crazy missiles and shit. And no I'm not stupid enough to be complaining about the presence of idols in Macross. That's fine. What I don't like is that they are literally right in the middle of combat, and I don't really see why. Yeah the Firebomber flew in combat situations all the time, but if you've watched the show you know there was actually a very, very good reason for it. Obviously, the scenes are made to cater to idol fans with the magical girl-esque transformations and dancing, but I just can't see any strong in-universe for why they would do that. They aren't flying any Valkyries. They don't seem to be wearing any sort of power armor. Their role is basically to sing in universe and stop the Var infections. That's fine; previous Macross shows have done similar things. What I don't like is that they are in the middle of combat and seemingly give a performance as if they were at a concert while occasionally deploying some drones that shield people. This just doesn't make much sense. Why not deploy drones from a safe distance? Why not broadcast the songs through the radio like past Macross shows? In SDF, Minmay sang through speakers that was broadcasted through the whole fleet. For Frontier, Ranka and Sheryl did something similar. The Firebomber was active in combat in 7, but there is a very strong in-universe reason for it. I know this seems pretty nitpicky especially for anime, but the past Macross series were pretty consistent for the most part (even 7). Delta just reeks of shallow pandering in comparison.

It's also kind of lame that they are just rehashing idol pop for the music again. I'm not surprised, but I wish they were a little more creative. Yeah, SDF was also idol pop, but it was distinctly very 80s and differently stylistically. Macross 7 was about a rock band. Frontier went back to idol pop, but in a modern sense and Delta pretty much just rehashes that again. Lame, but it's what sells I guess. And really let's just go back to why SDF Macross is great. The love triangle is actually well-done and incorporated into the story. The setting is pretty compelling. The characters are unique and fleshed out pretty well. And of course, the action was great.

So far, Delta feels like they just put in the obligatory Macross elements (the main character meets two girls in the first episodes, there's idols, and aliens attacking people), but with little regard to any sort of good writing. The action is mostly okay (the really bad CGI doesn't help, but again it's possible that they'll fix it) although there is one Itano circus in here and it's pretty good. All of the characters seem generic. And the aliens this time (whatever causes the Var syndrome) seem okay. If this was just some other show, I wouldn't hate it so much, but this has the freaking Macross name on it and it really reeks of a cashgrab. Maybe I'll be wrong and this will be a solid show. It's too early to give a final judgment, but there's so many warning signs that I'm pretty sure this will be awful. If you want Macross, do yourself a favor and go watch SDF Macross. The character development and drama placed in a high-stakes sci-fi war between different species is what makes Macross great. Not idols.


Man, all I care about these days are old franchises. I should just binge watch 80s mecha over and over.

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Marag
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:18 pm 
 

I'm on ep 8 of IBO and all I can say so far is that it's not at least as boring as Reconguista. Also the opening song is really cool. So uuuhh, I guess that's it,

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Dudemanguy
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:35 pm 
 

I have another controversial opinion on Reconguista. I think it's actually great (best gundam since Turn A) even though Tomino himself has shit-talked it.

The dialogue is kind of weird at times (full of "tominospeak"), and the plot seems scatterbrained on the surface. But if you think it through, most of it actually comes together quite well. I appreciate that it tries something different and avoids a lot of the usual cliches (both gundam and otherwise) and has an identity of its own. It's very, very "show don't tell." I think it has tons more merit than IBO. The characters have so much more personality in G-Reco, and a lot of the silly upbeat scenes are fun to watch. And there's a lot of nice touches like the rest of the crew acknowledging how useless Aida is on the battlefield or Belliri accidentally hitting people with warning shots.

And when it comes to battles, G-Reco blows IBO out of the water. I like mecha; I want to see cool giant robots beating up stuff. I didn't touch on it in my rant earlier, but IBO also had the potential for great barebones battling. There's surprisingly no beam weapons in the universe and loads of potential for nice close quarter combat. Unfortunately, the animation is pretty much horrible and lazy. Almost everything is just still frames with speed lines. As an added insult, the Barbatos has a great design and the Grazes look nice On the flipside, G-Reco is actually one of the best TV animated shows in years. You can tell the crew worked their asses off on that one. The battles are fluid and have really nice choreography. Like the scene where they use the toilet water ball in combat is brilliant. There's a lot of little touches like that and I appreciate it. My biggest problem with G-Reco was the ending being rushed, but eh it mostly worked.


Last edited by Dudemanguy on Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Zelkiiro
Pounding the world with a fish of steel

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:36 pm 
 

I've never been a Macross fan anyway, but I've given up all hope for Gundam ever since SEED was a thing, back in...what was it, 2003?
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Dudemanguy
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:46 pm 
 

Old Macross is brilliant. Even Macross 7's ridiculousness somehow works, and it pays off big time in the end despite the really slow setup.

Gundam has been pretty hit and miss since the 90s really (earlier if you dislike ZZ). I actually like 00 overall. The second season does do some dumb things and go more generic, but it's really not as bad as a lot of people make it out. I actually really like the movie, and thought the overarching theme was well-executed. SEED Destiny is written very poorly, but honestly it is kind of entertaining, so I'll give it some credit there. The biggest screwup is the abomination that was AGE. The last arc, in particular, is infuriating and nonsensical.

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Marag
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:51 pm 
 

Yes, Reco is very "show, don't tell". Alternatively, it's also full of "Tomino is tripping balls/Tomino has no idea of what he's doing". I don't hate it, and I think it's a decent show for what it tried to do, but it's underwhelming. Granted, I never really finished it, so my opinion might be very well worthless.

And on a personal note, I've been itching for an "edgier" show and IBO at least delivers that part.

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Dudemanguy
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 10:08 pm 
 

Marag wrote:
Yes, Reco is very "show, don't tell". Alternatively, it's also full of "Tomino is tripping balls/Tomino has no idea of what he's doing". I don't hate it, and I think it's a decent show for what it tried to do, but it's underwhelming. Granted, I never really finished it, so my opinion might be very well worthless.

And on a personal note, I've been itching for an "edgier" show and IBO at least delivers that part.

No I totally understand why people would hate it. I don't agree that it's nonsensical or anything (it's crafted with much more care than most anime), but it's definitely a Tomino™ anime.

IBO's mood is really weird. It's certainly darker at times with the backstory and all that, but a lot of it is surprisingly pretty upbeat (especially with the whole family theme). That's fine, but a lot of the same character arcs/conflicts keep getting repeated (human debris angst, Kudelia "making a decision," Orga taking care of the crew, etc.) and it sort of goes through mood whiplash while being repetitive.

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