I think I'm into anime...

Chat about stuff other than Transformers.
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Tetsuro
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Post by Tetsuro »

Hound wrote: Sadie has been watching a lot of the Gundam and other stuff with me and when I told her that I was planning to watch Dragon Ball she said, "you're watching that by yourself." She'd seen some DBZ before and assumed that the first series was just like that. I put on the first episode a few nights ago and after it was over she was all like, "Put the next one on!"
I prefer Dragonball over DBZ as well. The fights drag out less and there's more emphasis on the comedy, plus you get to see all those filler characters from DBZ actually being relevant. It does start dragging out though towards the end after Piccolo Daimao is defeated, though. Quite a few blatant filler episodes up there.

And you would be right, the reason for filler usually is that the anime and manga are made simultaneously, forcing the animation team to come up with fluff to pad the series while waiting for the next manga chapter to finish. Sometimes they just forget about waiting and you wind up with something like the Hellsing TV series or Full Metal Alchemist which take an entirely different direction from the manga after a certain point.

Fist of the North Star though...it probably bears worth mention that originally, only the first 36 episodes were released in english - and over a half of that was filler. It doesn't really pick up until episode 23.
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Hound
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Post by Hound »

I finished the Dragon Ball section of the manga yesterday and it was brilliant. I've read a fair bit into the DBZ part of the manga too and I'm liking the start.

It's all made me very anxious to keep watching the cartoon. We're about 30 episodes into it and still loving it.

I think what I saw of FotNS was the later half of it and it just wasn't for me. It was almost 20 years ago now so I really don't remember anything specific beyond there just being a lot of violence and blood and gore. I just know that when I watched it then I was totally not into it.
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Post by angloconvoy »

Just finished watching the Tiger and Bunny movie (my friend had a spare ticket) and I'm inclined to track down the series. It's a fun premise. A bunch of super heroes compete in a reality show. Each hero has F1 racing style sponsors painted on their costumes (almost all real companies at that). In their race to gain points they almost cause as much trouble as they fix. It's well worth a look and from what I gather it has had an English release.
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Hound
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Post by Hound »

I've got a huge list of anime to watch now.

I'm a more than a hundred episodes into Dragon Ball now and having finished Ideon it shouldn't take too long to finish DB, Z and GT.

Eventually I want to watch:
Ghost in the Shell SAC 2nd Gig
Escaflowne
Dunbine
L Gaim
Code Geass
Macross
Cowboy Bebop
Outlaw Star
Inuyasha
GoGaiGar
Patlabor
Space Battleship Yamato
Gurren Lagan
Blue Submarine #6
Bleach
One Piece
Full Metal Panic
Zoids

I'll probably watch Cowboy Bebop next actually. Nearly every review I've heard of it says it's one of the best anime that's ever been done.
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The Reverend
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Post by The Reverend »

I watched Mazinger Z and Space Battleship Yamato as a kid (they were in reruns on a NYC channel we could pick up from our NJ home). Recently got the Yamato live-action movie on DVD. It's a bit messy because they tried to cram so many story elements from the series into one film that you end up wondering if you would give a shit had you not seen the anime, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
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Hound
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Post by Hound »

Gotta add VOTOMS and Zambot 3 to the list too
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Post by Jaynz »

Hound wrote:The list...
* Escaflowne - A good series to get, though it has some bits that may sour you on it. There's a lot of ass-pulling in the plot, particularly near the end, and the female lead goes into 'bitch mode' for a lot of it. Very nice mecha designs, though, and some solid fun in there.

* Macross - I'm sure you've been pummeled by the awesome of this series, so I'll skip the regular discussion on it. Do yourself a favor, though, and get the new English dub. The voice work is great, the singing actually includes new numbers which actually work, etc.

* Cowboy Bebop - An excellent series but honestly a smidge overrated. Yoko Kanno delivers an amazing soundtrack, of course, and there are a lot of good characters. Ending suffers from a couple of 'sudden shifts' in character to wrap things up and leaves it a little unfufilling...

* Outlaw Star - Few bad notes in this one. Excellent characters, great soundtrack, good voice work, and - unusually - an ending which works for the series! Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

* Inuyasha - This was a mega-hit that ground itself into the dirt with an insane amount of padding and bad-guy ass-pulls. Starts off with great characters and a great premise, but by the third season, you wind up not caring anymore.

* Full Metal Panic - A must get. This mixes both high-school comedy and mecha/military action and does it beautifully with high production values. The two sequel series are split in direction, with Fumofu! going more into the school comedy, and Second Raid being a very dark second series. Yet, despite the seeming disparate tone, the whole universe winds up working well and keeps you in.

* Zoids - There have been a few "Zoids" series, but I can only really reccomend two, the Zoids Zi (Blade Liger) and Zoids Zero (Liger Zero) series. Different feels, but the action and animation on the Zoids are incredible. Zero is more 'fun' and light-hearted, and everyone will want a kitty like Liger Zero... Zoids Zi is the more serious 'canon' military story, though it handles it fairly well and keeps the action and character interactions going strong.
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Tetsuro
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Post by Tetsuro »

There was always something about the original Macross that bugged me and it took me a while to realize what it was.

It's Lynn Minmay. It isn't so much for the character but what she represents; a bubble gum pop singer. You know the type; today that particular, questionable "genre" is dominated by the likes of Justin Bieber and Jessica Black; people whose job is to basically just provide a pretty face to songs they didn't write. She's not an artist, the songs are incredibly mediocre...and she saves mankind.

I mean, Nekki Basara was a total asshole, but at least he wrote his own songs!
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Post by Jaynz »

I kinda get what you're saying here, but, Er, in character the bulk of Minmei's songs were explicitly either written by Minmei or Lynn Kyle... She does sing a couple of songs her mother taught her (pre-war classics, she says) at a couple of points, though.

Not defending Minmei TOO greatly here, as she's really just supposed to be a foil for Mise, but this is one part of the complaint that isn't quite valid.
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Tetsuro
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Post by Tetsuro »

TFVanguard wrote:I kinda get what you're saying here, but, Er, in character the bulk of Minmei's songs were explicitly either written by Minmei or Lynn Kyle... She does sing a couple of songs her mother taught her (pre-war classics, she says) at a couple of points, though.

Not defending Minmei TOO greatly here, as she's really just supposed to be a foil for Mise, but this is one part of the complaint that isn't quite valid.
Well, I'll take your word for it - it's been a while since I watched Macross, after all.

Nekki Basara, however, is definitely a douchebag. :D

Since we're on the subject of singing, I recently finished Genesis Climber Mosepeada; it wasn't quite as bad as Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, but Macross was still better, and Orguss marginally - in comparison to Orguss, Mospeada enjoys the benefit of being about ten episodes shorter. One of the characters in Mospeada is a drag queen singer(!) whose songs are even more mediocre than Minmei's - only one of them is catch and even that one sounds like he's skipping vowels; "Love Spirit" sounds like "Love Sprit" or worse, "Love Spit".

I also watched Orguss 02 which doesn't actually require you to have seen the original Orguss to figure out what's going on, but it does help understand the implications of the appearances of several characters.

I also watched Combattler V where the big bad of the first arc displays some incredible genre blindness by saying "We'll wait for them to form their giant robot before we attack", while Voltes V bad guys are genre savvy to the point of taking the series in much more serious direction than it's predecessor...but it did have at least one occasion of dumb behaviour I've noticed a lot of these super robot shows suffer.

In Getter Robo G as well, the bad guys came up with a plan that sounded perfectly good on paper and even worked in practice...except for some freak event nobody saw coming, causing it all to fall apart. What makes this stupid is that the plan itself is not only completely sound, but there appears to be no reason for them to not try it again - normally you'd think this is simply because the good guys will be expecting it the next time, but the thing that makes this so stupid is that this is not the case and the heroes actually have no idea what just happened.
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Post by Jim »

You should sign up for Crunchyroll's service - http://www.crunchyroll.com. They have a free two subscription but it's well worth signing up for a year which is just 60$. You get unlimited streaming of older and just released anime. I think they offer a lot of stuff without being a member but they are only in Standard Def and have Ads.

If you sign up with them, Sword Art Online - a must watch. The opening available at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_qM6NHoxgc

As for your list of titles, yes, there are some good shows on there but mostly mainstream stuff.

Some recommendations below:

-Shakugan no Shana - or sometimes just known as Shana. I haven't seen beyond season 1 but I liked the first season. On BD/DVD Combo pack. Season 2 now available too.

-Black Butler. Starts off light then becomes a pretty dark, twisted show. There are two seasons. On BD/DVD Combo pack.

-Panty & Stocking w/Garterbelt. The Transformers episode parody was pretty darn funny. On DVD now, Blu Ray coming out in January.

-Serial Experiments Lain. Cerebral show. On BD/DVD Combo pack.

-Martian Successor Nadesico. The most recent release includes the remastered R2 Japan Video + Home Video Version + Movie and OVA series. Great set by Rightstuf.

-Heaven's Lost Property. If you want a perverted little show that is just hilarious, highly recommended - both seasons. Season 1 available on BD/DVD combo pack. Season 2 available on DVD only, BD coming in 2013.

-Level E. Just starting it, strange little show. On BD/DVD combo pack.

-Durarara!!. Great show but pricey. Available on DVD and BD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durarara!!#Plot

-Macross Plus. Captures the spirit of the original Macross series and is just awesome. The 4 part OVAs are really good but I found the movie version (which included additional footage) to be better. Available on DVD.

-Blue Gender. If you want hardcore Sci-Fi anime, this is probably the only really awesome one. Available on DVD in a cheap Anime Classics addition for the TV seres + Movie.

-Hellsing. THE OVA VERSION. Skip the TV version of Hellsing. The OVA series follows the manga to the letter and is just amazing. Vampire vs. Nazis. On DVD/BD Combo packs.

-Soul Eater. Great show, one of the few where the dubs are better to me than the original Japanese. Teams of two of a meister and a person that becomes a weapon hunting down folks that have become evil. On DVD and BD.

Gurren Lagann. Humans suppressed and live under the surface until some decide to head to the surface. Once there, encounter some real nasty dudes that wish to kill off humans. Add in some mechas and you're just starting probably one awesome series made by the staff behind Evangelion. All the episodes legally available on Youtube and DVD (for a little more time).

There are also two movie editions of Gurren Lagann if you didn't want to watch all 27 episodes of the TV series that are pretty good (that's how I started the series, though I went back to see what had to get cut).

This is a show that tried to be more epic with every battle / moment. Here is a nice AMV but it has spoilers. If that doesn't bother you, see below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjhEkJMUad0

Also, music score was top notch in GL. Sample:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GopzpFJm4LQ

Other shows worth watching that are available:

Black Lagoon S1 and S2.
Strike Witches S1 and S2.
Freezing.
Mayo Chiki!
Is This a Zombie?
The Original Bubblegum Crisis OVA series
FLCL

and on and on...

FUNimation is good about streaming their shows for free beyond Cruncyroll -

http://www.youtube.com/Funimation

Tons of shows to watch for free, complete series for most.

If you still use AIM, hit me up to talk about these.

But, anyway, SWORD ART ONLINE. Check it out!
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Tetsuro
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Post by Tetsuro »

Hound wrote:Gotta add VOTOMS and Zambot 3 to the list too
Good choices. :up:

Daitarn 3 is apparently some kind of spiritual successor to Zambot 3, but since I'm still watching the latter, it remains to be seen whether it touches upon the same themes.
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Jim
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Post by Jim »

One should also add Accel World, Attack on Titan, and Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet. Amazing little shows.
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Tetsuro
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Post by Tetsuro »

I can now tell you that whoever said Daitarn 3 is a spiritual successor to Zambot was full of feces. It's absolutely nothing like Zambot 3.
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