What anime are you watching?

[Wolf-man]

^ This

Just watched Detective Conan Movie 8: Magician of the Silver Sky last night. Fantastic movie! I feel like the Conan movies for me have been on a track record of enjoyable then to fantastic then back to just enjoyable then to fantastic again. So if it keeps going this way then the next film will be simply enjoyable but not utterly fantastic. Anyway, this movie was really good with a great combination of comedy and mystery and suspense. I love Detective Conan even if it is ridiculously long. I think this movie was the movie that the Kaitou Kid deserved. Don't get me wrong Last Wizard of the Century was a solid film and I had fun with it but it was definitely one of the less fantastic of the films. So yeah I had lots of fun with this film and it was one of the best of the franchise so far.

[Sapphire225]

Big O - Seasons 1 and 2 Complete

This is a super robot show that doesn't follow the established formula. Oh sure, the first season is a set of episodes that are more stand alone than serialized (though connecting threads are present) featuring several monsters of the week, and the second season decides to chuck in a helping of metaphysical ruminations. However, the characters feel quite fresh and atypical for a mecha show (re: gun-toting butler), and the show comes to a pretty intriguing close with the use of some staple ideas from a genre other than mecha. Surprising ending to be sure. I've ehard bad things, but I actually enjoyed the series' conclusion. Very gutsy by the creative staff.

The two high points for me are the world building and the character/robot designs. Easily the best thing about the show is the world of Paradigm City and the mysterious contained within. There's a cool kind of girtty, reto aura that the world gives off which sets the show apart. And those mysteries: Why can't anyone remember anything prior to 40 years ago? Who are Paradigm? Who exactly is Roger Smith and why can he pilot a Megadeus? Where did these Megadeuses come from? The way the show presents these and other puzzles is very nice, and they are teased out beautifully over the 26 episodes. Not every question you have is answered clearly, but the show generally does a decent job with providing resolution.

I love the character and mecha designs. I have heard the art compared to Batman TAS, but it comes off as more akin to Giant Robo to me. The mecha were pretty dang awesome. That piston punch...fantastic.

So, yeah this is a really solid show. Not the genre's best, but I totally recommend it for mecha fans or those looking for a robot show, or just an anime, that isn't so easy to pin down.

Its been a qwhile since I've seen the Big O. Good times, good times.

When I'm off campus, I usually watching Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Roger Smith is an awesome character. Anime needs more guys like him.

[spoiler]Guys who prefer the robot young girl over the flesh-and-blood woman? Anime has enough of those already XD[/spoiler]Kidding of course. Rojah Smissu is a cool dude. At times a cool customer, at times hot-blooded.

[Atria35]

Hmmm. Today, I've watched

GOSICK 8-9- nice arc Hoping to see more of this new character. He's cute

Asura Cryin' 10-14- Pleasepleaseplease let this start being good now! But there's so much going on.... And so much ecchi.....

[Fish and Chips]

Roger Smith is an awesome character. Anime needs more guys like him.

Fun Fact: Roger Smith was deliberately designed against the grain to be a "Cool Adult" character kids could look up to, as opposed to a more typical "Child Hero" they could relate with.

[Mouse2010]

Big O - Seasons 1 and 2 Complete

So, yeah this is a really solid show. Not the genre's best, but I totally recommend it for mecha fans or those looking for a robot show, or just an anime, that isn't so easy to pin down.

I've had the first season of this on my Netflix queue for awhile (it's not available for instant view, alas). Judging from all the positive responses here, maybe I should move it up on the queue! What attracted me to it was the film noir look, which seems really unusual for a mecha series.

[TWWK]

Slowly working through Witch Hunter Robin. It's very X-Files-y, which to me is a good thing.

[Lilac#18]

[color="Plum"]Watched Naruto Shippuden episode 203 just a little while ago.[/color]

[TheSubtleDoctor]

I have heard the art compared to Batman TAS, but it comes off as more akin to Giant Robo to me.

As a capper to the Roger Smith talk.

-------->>>>>>>

Family Resemblance

[ShiroiHikari]

Nice.

I've been watching History's Strongest Disciple Ken'ichi, but only because my friends asked me to watch it with them. Definitely wouldn't be watching this on my own. It's not that good, and it took almost 26 episodes to really get rolling.

I don't like most of the characters-- bad thing for a fighting series, if you ask me. Don't care one way or the other what happens to Ken'ichi. The comedy doesn't appeal to me, and the treatment of female characters irritates me.

The female lead, if you want to call her that, is a WAY better martial artist than the main protagonist, yet she only gets to fight a couple of times. No, most of the time she's on screen, people are making remarks about her huge boobies and calling her names like "dairy cow". If I were her I'd be knocking some heads together. Also she ends every sentence with "desu wa" and that irritates me :I

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

As a capper to the Roger Smith talk.

-------->>>>>>>

Family Resemblance

-goes off to order both seasons of Big O-

[TheSubtleDoctor]

I've been watching History's Strongest Disciple Ken'ichi, but only because my friends asked me to watch it with them. Definitely wouldn't be watching this on my own. It's not that good, and it took almost 26 episodes to really get rolling.

I don't like most of the characters-- bad thing for a fighting series, if you ask me. Don't care one way or the other what happens to Ken'ichi. The comedy doesn't appeal to me, and the treatment of female characters irritates me.

The female lead, if you want to call her that, is a WAY better martial artist than the main protagonist, yet she only gets to fight a couple of times. No, most of the time she's on screen, people are making remarks about her huge boobies and calling her names like "dairy cow". If I were her I'd be knocking some heads together. Also she ends every sentence with "desu wa" and that irritates me :I

Ah man. Bummer. I was actually looking forward to watching that one, since Funi is (slowly) putting the subs up for streaming. I had heard that Kenichi is one of the most underrated shonen fighting shows out there.

-goes off to order both seasons of Big O-

lol, sweet. I hope I am not creating the false impression that the two are alike in character. Each plays a rather different role than the other in his respective story. Smith is on a journey, whereas The Chief has arrived.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

I was actually just kidding, Big O is pretty low on my current anime priorities.

[Saiya~Jin]

Finished Episode 19 of Casshern Sins last night. I'm about to watch 2O. This is a great series, and the animation/artwork is beautiful. Although the action can sometimes be hard to follow and a little repetitive.

[Mouse2010]

Just finished watching Speed Grapher. I had been watching it bit by bit for months, and I'm glad to be done with it.

For the record, it's not a series I would recommend, and I don't just mean because of the violence and sexual content -- those elements were being used to make a point about the sin of greed, and I could have overlooked the objectionable material if the rest of the series had been strong enough. But it wasn't. It had a lot of elements that should have been good, but which never clicked into a solid whole. Really, the only reason I kept watching was because I wanted to see how it all ended. And the series ended pretty well . . . it's just that I never cared enough about the characters for the ending to have the emotional punch it should have had.

In contrast, I'm actually really liking Brigadoon, despite its problems. I'm just about halfway through.

[Yamamaya]

Watched episode 1 of Last Exile

*waits for Fish and Chips to come and kill me*:sweat:

[TwilightLink21x]

I'm VERY late to the party on this one, but I'm currently watching Gurren Lagann with my brothers, and we're thinking we might have to stop watching it during lunch because we're laughing so hard! I haven't seen a lot of Mecha, but I've apparently played enough games and seen enough about them that I'm getting the whole parody of it all.

[MightiMidget]

@Mouse2010 -- yay! someone who has watched that and gives their impression! xD I've been wondering about Speed Grapher for a while now, thankie.

I watched new Fractale (ep 9) last night. If the series had started off with this mood of somber + a few lighthearted bits? I think it would have been tons better, since I was actually quite happy with the mood it landed on--and stayed consistent with--this episode. Even if

[spoiler]Phryne's running off is driving me crazy because it's like "great someone is going to die now and this all could have been avoided if you'd just listened." *twitch*[/spoiler]

Still trying to get caught up on Hourou Musuko

[Kunoichi]

Watching Nabari no Ou. Yay for netflix, it introduces me to animes lol So far only on episode 10. Seems interesting, maybe a little sad and i will warn it has some blood but overall I think its okay.

[Mouse2010]

@Mouse2010 -- yay! someone who has watched that and gives their impression! xD I've been wondering about Speed Grapher for a while now, thankie.

Well, glad if that helped! It should go without saying that other people might like it better than I did]Speed Grapher[/I] did focus on character's back stories a bit, but for some reason I never really cared about any of the major characters. In particular, the female protagonist had almost no personality. (Opinions may really vary on that point.)

I felt like the show was one of those that had a lot of potential but didn't achieve it. It had an interesting premise, I'll give it that. It had a clear main story arc that linked the individual episodes together, which is the kind of structure I tend to like (as opposed to purely episodic shows). However, I frequently found the individual episodes uninteresting in themselves, and the overarching plot wasn't interesting or suspenseful enough to carry the show by itself. Obviously, the main plot was interesting enough to keep me from giving up in the middle, but that's it.

All of that's aside from the way the show used disturbing and relatively explicit depictions of sexuality and violence to establish the decadence and corruption of the society it was depicting. There WAS a purpose behind all the "grittiness" of the show, but that grittiness means that even if the series had been likable on the whole, I could only recommend it with qualifications. As it is, I kind of think the series was a waste of my time.

And that's probably more detail than you wanted!

[Wolf-man]

I just watched the first episode of Soul Eater. I liked it. It was weird but fun. My only complaint/concern was with the unnecessary fanservice in the episode. For those who have seen the whole series could tell me how much there is in the show? Is it often, rare, in-between?

[MangaRocks!]

Just watched Steamboy (sub, because apparently there's 15 or so minutes cut out of the dub for some reason {?} ). Plot-wise it was pretty basic, and it also didn't really have any character development (so the story's maybe worth a score of 6/10); but its animation was absolutely *fantastic* (easily a 10/10!). In the end, on MAL I decided to give it a 7 overall; and I'd say it's definitely worth a watch once, even if just for its amazing, Steampunk visuals alone.

Also recently watched the entire 26 ep.'s of Moribito: Guardian Of The Spirit (a.k.a. Seirei no Moribito) (sub). And for this series, I have three comments: One, while it may look like it'll be a 'fighting' series, it isn't really (though what fighting there is is certainly superbly done!); in reality, it's mostly character-based, so the pacing tends to be on the slower end of things (but the story pulls you in so well, even during the slow bits, that it doesn't matter). Two, it has excellent music. And three-- especially considering this was done on a TV budget-- the animation is gorgeous. In fact, I think there were only two little parts right near the end where the CG was a little obvious, but even that is a pretty minor nitpick compared to the quality of the visuals overall. In other words, it was all-around excellent, and easily an instant add to my list of anime faves!

[KhakiBlueSocks]

[font="Trebuchet MS"][SIZE="4"][color="RoyalBlue"]I'm currently having a marathon of "Azumanga Daioh"! Heaven knows, after a week of marathoning "Death Note", coupled with six back-to-back days of work, I could use a good pick me up![/color][/SIZE][/font]

[TheSubtleDoctor]

I just watched the first episode of Soul Eater. I liked it. It was weird but fun. My only complaint/concern was with the unnecessary fanservice in the episode. For those who have seen the whole series could tell me how much there is in the show? Is it often, rare, in-between?

It pretty much stops altogether after episode eight.

the animation is gorgeous. In fact, I think there were only two little parts right near the end where the CG was a little obvious, but even that is a pretty minor nitpick compared to the quality of the visuals overall

This is a regular feature of Production I.G.'s work and is easily the best thing about the show.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Monster episode 8. Was...was that a flashback episode?! Well, at least it advanced the plot a little. I thought the manga didn't take such a long time on that.... Oh well.

[Tamachan319]

Rewatching Fruits Basket with my sister. Also, I should be watching the Tsubasa OVAs soon.

[MightiMidget]

Well, glad if that helped! It should go without saying that other people might like it better than I did]Speed Grapher[/I] did focus on character's back stories a bit, but for some reason I never really cared about any of the major characters. In particular, the female protagonist had almost no personality. (Opinions may really vary on that point.)

I felt like the show was one of those that had a lot of potential but didn't achieve it. It had an interesting premise, I'll give it that. It had a clear main story arc that linked the individual episodes together, which is the kind of structure I tend to like (as opposed to purely episodic shows). However, I frequently found the individual episodes uninteresting in themselves, and the overarching plot wasn't interesting or suspenseful enough to carry the show by itself. Obviously, the main plot was interesting enough to keep me from giving up in the middle, but that's it.

All of that's aside from the way the show used disturbing and relatively explicit depictions of sexuality and violence to establish the decadence and corruption of the society it was depicting. There WAS a purpose behind all the "grittiness" of the show, but that grittiness means that even if the series had been likable on the whole, I could only recommend it with qualifications. As it is, I kind of think the series was a waste of my time.

And that's probably more detail than you wanted!

LOL, no, that amount of detail is perfect. =) Thanks again!!!

[Seto_Sora]

I am working my way through the .Hack saga. I've finished .Hack//Sign (and loved it so much that I actually want to watch through it a second time again very very soon) and .Hack//Liminality and am now going through .Hack//Roots (Haseo is quickly becoming my all time favorite anime hero).

SDG

[Juliannesan]

Watching Emma: A Victorian Romance. Really like it.
Also I'm almost finished re-watching the entire Rurouni Kenshin series. 15 episodes from the end, and then we'll be watching Reflection OVA. Since that's what really happened according to the manga, especially at the end.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Actually, Watsuki himself has said that the Reflection OVA is not the end of Kenshin, and that's not how Kenshin's story turns out. I've heard it's pretty bad, so I'd avoid it.