What anime are you watching?

[the_wolfs_howl]

Monster episode 16

FMA: Brotherhood episodes 15-18. Yes, much better quality now ^_^ I'd forgotten how funny Ling is when he first comes in. And soon it'll be one of my favorite parts, with Mustang, Hawkeye, and Lust

[Blitzkrieg1701]

I tore through all of Puella Magi Madoka Magica last night... DANG, man.

[Agloval]

I watched the Yes Precure 5 side story special/movie/thing tonight. It had a world on the other side of mirrors, which I thought was fun. It also pitted the Cures against dark mirror versions of themselves, which I thought was a bit of a gimmick... but I also thought it was very cool.

The action delivered. People left satisfyingly large craters when thrown into walls and floors, Dark Lemonade's voice bent out a load of bridge supports and Cure Aqua produced a lightsabre (see current avatar).

If ANN's page is to be trusted, this had some staff who didn't work on the main Yes Precure TV series. Notably the director, who went on to direct Heartcatch, and the animation director whose page seems to be about 80% magical girl projects.

[Atria35]

Re-watched Only Yesterday, since that's one of the anime on my blog that got a vote for a review. It's the third time I've watched it, and I like it more each time.

[Kerusso]

As of now, Death Note, Sherlock Hound, and My Ordinary Life

[Narnian]

I just started watching two new anime today. Scrapped Princess which is very interesting. I'm about halfway through all ready. ^_^ Kimi ni Todoke is the other which is rather funny and surprisingly relatable so far, but I'm only on the 6th or 7th episode.

[Ryn]

Currently watching Shugo Chara, Aria, and Cardcaptor Sakura ^_^

I've been dragging out watching Shugo Chara, I started it almost a year ago, but I like it so much that I don't want it to end! But I've been getting pretty frustrated with all the filler episodes with stuff that didn't happen in the manga. It seems like they were trying too hard to make it a long series =/ It gets so repetitive after a while.

[Radical Dreamer]

A few months ago, I watched the first four episodes of Madoka Magica.

A few days ago, I watched the last eight episodes. In one night.

It was intense. XD I was impressed. XD

[AnimeGirl]

Just finished watching the first episode of Time Of Eve. The animation is beautiful and has an interesting story. And Jun Fukuyama is in it! He does an excellent job with his character, I recognized his voice right off! (Yay, I'm starting to be able to recognize seiyuu!). I shall continue on with this series and also check out what other undubbed anime is at CrunchyRoll.

[Darth_Kirby]

K-ON, Bakuman, and Naruto. At least those are the ones in progress that I'm watching.

[Cadence]

I watched Tales of Earthsea last night...I thought people might have been exaggerating when they said how bad it was, but they were not. Poor Miyazaki Goro. =(

[AnimeGirl]

Watched episodes 2 and 3 of Time Of Eve. For such a simple premise, it's very well executed!

[ABlipinTime]

Watched episodes 2 and 3 of Time Of Eve. For such a simple premise, it's very well executed!

Where or how are you watching it?

[Atria35]

Where or how are you watching it?

You can watch it on Crunchyroll.

[Ally-Ann]

I'm waiting for the next stinkin' episode of Hetalia: World Series. Either this season is over, or it's been delayed for a long time because of the disasters in Japan. But man, if it's the first one, it better not be the last episode entirely! They just can't end it all of a sudden with the Nordics! D'=

[Mouse2010]

Just watched a few more episodes of Casshern Sins. I started this one awhile ago, then kind of put it on hold. It's . . . absolutely beautiful in terms of the artwork, but sometimes melodramatic. I have to admit that my husband and I started pausing it to make fun of the dialogue, beginning in about episode 4. That's never a good sign!

I'm still watching Escaflowne bit by bit, and enjoying it. Just finished episode 14, I think, so I'm just past the halfway mark.

[UniqueAngelStar]

I watched the mini cute Haruhi Suyuima spinoff series few days ago!
They are soo adorable!

[aliveinHim]

@UniqueAngelStar, do you mind posting the link for that? I wanna see.

I'm watching Bleach, Shugo Chara!, Hayate no Gotoku, and many others. Bleach is sooooo long though.

[R86]

I too am hoping to get caught up on Bleach before I die, or at least before I can no longer stream it legally. Same with Naruto / Shippuuden, though I'll catch up on that one well before I catch up on Bleach.

Besides these and the current series Tiger and Bunny and C, I'm watching Kin'iro no Corda. While the hook for me is the classical music theme, there's no doubt it's really a male harem show. Yet there is surprisingly little fanservice so far (I say "so far" since I still think we will go to the onsen before this thing is over), and there are also some well known voice actors.

Once I finish Kin'iro no Corda, I will finally get around to watching Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica. This type of show is also not usually my thing, but should at least make an interesting contrast to Kin'iro no Corda.

[blkmage]

If you want to watch something that's actually good and about classical music, there's Nodame Cantabile.

Oh, I guess I'll talk about Full Metal Panic. I have a bunch of friends who really like this, so I figured I'd eventually give it a shot. The opening episodes were interesting and entertaining enough. This is probably the best iteration of mecha and high school shenanigans because it plays on the absurdity of that entire concept. I also found it amusing to find proto-Setsuna F. Seiei and proto-Ali Al-Saachez here. As a standalone show, I don't think FMP had quite enough progression, or rather, it wasn't a great place to leave off at the end of the season. Luckily, there's more, so I'll have to wait until I get through Fumoffu and TSR before I judge the entire series.

[Agloval]

I've taken leave of my senses and begun watching Brain Powerd. In the circles I move in it's infamous for (a) its nudity-filled OP and (b) its incoherency-filled (but generally clean) rest-of-show. I usually hear it held up as an example of execrably bad anime -- execrably bad because it never strays near the so-bad-it's-good territory of loveably bad titles. So I'm not optimistic.

I also watched two more bits of VOTOMS: The Shining Heresy and Alone Again. They were both okay, I suppose, but they felt a bit tacked-on in parts. Poor Chirico's had enough trouble in life already.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

Oh, I guess I'll talk about Full Metal Panic. I have a bunch of friends who really like this, so I figured I'd eventually give it a shot. The opening episodes were interesting and entertaining enough. This is probably the best iteration of mecha and high school shenanigans because it plays on the absurdity of that entire concept. I also found it amusing to find proto-Setsuna F. Seiei and proto-Ali Al-Saachez here. As a standalone show, I don't think FMP had quite enough progression, or rather, it wasn't a great place to leave off at the end of the season. Luckily, there's more, so I'll have to wait until I get through Fumoffu and TSR before I judge the entire series.

I never saw Fumoffu but TSR is so worth it.

[R86]

Since everyone's mentioning mecha shows, I might bring up Viper's Creed, one I saw about a year ago when I went through a brief but interesting mecha phase. (I also saw Bokurano at that point, along with Reideen in its more recent iteration.) I am not sure why I liked Viper's Creed, but I did, in spite of at least one really awkward plot device near the end, of which I will say no more so as not to spoil it. I also know I saw at least some of FMP a long time ago, and remember thinking it was funny.

Good point on Nodame Cantabile, in fact I think I watched a few episodes of that a while ago too. I should really chase that one down.

I am also always up for suggestions on rock music anime as well as classical music anime. I have seen Macross Frontier, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, and Kaikan Phrase, the last of which is hard to recommend due to the horrible animation and video quality (among other issues). Beck is fine as long as one understands that it is to the F-bomb as Gantz is to gore. I tried watching K-ON! but that style isn't my thing, and I have Macross 7 in my collection but found the first episode mediocre, and it seems my judgement is more lenient than that of a lot of other people.

Mostly reading this thread gives me ideas as to things to watch, since I realize that my tastes need to be broadened, that is if it's not too late for me to broaden them.

ETA: I've since finished Kin'iro no Corda, and for the record (and much to my very pleasant surprise), we never did go to the onsen.

[AnimeGirl]

Finished watching Time Of Eve yesterday. Lovely serious, despite being only 6 episodes in length. I hope they'll create more someday. I really loved the story, the characters, and the animation and I'm wondering what's up with that Robot Ethics Committee thing.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

WALL O' TEXT!

Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Well, it's pretty hard to talk about this show without (a) sounding hyperbolic or (b) saying something that has already been said. So, people that have already seen the show will likely ignore this and be unimpressed, and people who haven't seen it (poor, poor people) will tune me out and assume I'm a spazzing fanboy. Since there aren't existing human beings outside of the seen it/hasn't seen it dichotomy, I will proceed to write to nobody =).

No one will ever create another show like LoGH. Think about it: 110 episode OVA, dialogue-heavy space opera, basically bereft of fanservice or wacky hijinks, overflowing with political philosophy and military tactics talk. I know, right? Those crazy 80s.

LoGH feels like a series of novels. Its source material is, in fact, a series of fourteen novels, but, unlike other anime adaptations of books, this show feels like you're reading books. What I mean by that is that the characters, the world and the ideas of the series are so fleshed out, three dimensional and well-developed. The kind of detail, history and depth provided by the series for all of the above are usually the kind I find in good novels. Therefore, the kind of emotional investment I (involuntarily) had in these people, this universe, was like that of my favorite literature, which is typically a greater kind of investment than I have for visual media.

This show is the most well-written thing I've seen on a screen, animated or live action. By that I don't mean it's "smart" (like The Office smart) or snappy; rather, it is very intelligently written by erudite and astute people. The characters are wonderful and, over this long series, have a chance to unfold and grow in an organic way. For some characters this development is out there for all to see, and for some it is subtle but never esoteric. Characters are unpredictable in a way that rings true without ever being inconsistent to their "character."

LoGH is a show about admirals and emperors, so politics and military tactics play a feature role. Again, the show sets the high water mark for something, namely political depth. Nearly every decision has ramification with the people, or the cabinet, or the court, with friends or enemies or both. The viewer is privy to a fair bit of forethought that goes in to military and political decision-making, and it is portrayed in a fascinating manner. Along the way, the show does a delightful (to me) job of expressing various political philosophies, not in a prescriptive manner at all either. One of the many big ideas at the heart of this series is autocracy vs democracy: is it better (in various senses of the word) to be ruled or to participate in self-governance? Well, the series doesn't really come out and answer the question; rather, it presents the strengths and weaknesses of both systems and the ideals that buttress them. For any history buffs, philosophers or political theorists out there, this show is flippin' candy. A similar level of depth is given to military strategy and tactical maneuvering as well.

I cried at the end of this show. So, you know, it's not all cerebral heady stuffs. Space opera in the truest sense. Glorious achievement by the creators. If anyone likes good things and isn't intimidated by the episode count and show description, then please do yourself the favor of watching this show. Anyone who believes that anime can't match the degree of intelligence, sophistication, depth or emotional intensity of either live-action movies/TV or even literature...this show is the acid test.

Space Runaway Ideon & The Ideon: Be Invoked

So, this is also a pretty niche title: 80s Tomino, non-Gundam, robot show. Since the above is so long, I'll try to be brief. Tomino wanted to be a super robot show that broke with some of the established conventions of the genre. He was successful to a degree, but a lot of what annoys people is still present: monster of the week, stock footage, little character development, etc. What he did do was change the kind of thing the super robot is and its purpose relative to humanity.

Tomino was pretty depressed at this point in his life, so the series can be bleak. It is certainly darker than Zeta Gundam, for instance. At the beginning, the cast is entirely unlikeable, but by the final third of the series I started to warm up to a couple of them. It's obvious that SRI had a pretty big influence on Eva, especially the ending movie Be Invoked (it's obvious from the plot and imagery, and Anno and friends said as much). The structure of the episodes is quite similar to Mobile Suit Gundam TV: group of too-young-to-be-waging-war folks stays on the run from nigh-all-powerful militant group. In Gundam, I wasn't sure who the good guys were; in SRI, I'm not sure who the bad guys are due to the aforementioned jerkiness of the cast.

I enjoyed the combat in the show as well as some of the successful "convention flipping." Tomino's idea of what the Ideon fundamentally is was quite brilliant and groundbreaking. However, the series probably isn't the sort of thing that would be kind to newer/younger anime fans. In addition to the genre tropes mentioned above and its generally depressing tone, SRI is repetitive in the middle and has oodles of pacing problems. It's not a series I'd recommend to anyone other than mecha fans, or those supremely interested in how it affected Eva

[R86]

Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Wall-o-text or not, you had me at "Galactic." Either space stuff or old-school hand-drawn stuff by itself is normally enough to draw me in. I wonder why I haven't watched this one yet, in fact? I had certainly heard of it.

Another equally long series of a similar vintage, Slam Dunk, is also on my plan-to-watch list. I only wonder when I'll get around to it, seeing that one of my goals is to watch every good sports anime I can, and as many crappy ones as I can stomach besides.

[AngelicTotoro]

detective conan episodes 563-564
[spoiler]Shuu's... alive!?!? 0_o YAY![/spoiler]

[jsav777]

Just finished season 1 of kenichi and just started flcl, which is really weird but fun.

[Maokun]

I never saw Fumoffu but TSR is so worth it.

I've heard all the opposite: that TSR undoes all good that FMP! was. I watched FMP! and Fumoffu but kept clear from TSR based on what I heard.

110 episode OVA

*Mind blows* How's that even possible? That economic model shouldn't be able to be stretched not even a quarter of that length especially for a non popular-fanservicey niche series!

It's not a series I'd recommend to anyone other than mecha fans, or those supremely interested in how it affected Eva

I'm afraid I fall straight into this camp... now I must watch it.

I watched Summer Wars. It was a good movie but not near the masterpiece that The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was in my eyes. In fact it had a few jarring scenes that in hindsight make me realize there were a few very similar jarring moments in TGWLTT but I barely noticed them because busy processing all the awesome. Still, "not as good as TGWLTT" is hardly a dismal qualification and on it's own is a very good piece of entertainment. 8/10

Watched also Code Geass R2 eps 13-18 and I'm excited again as the series picks up much of the good form it had lost in the first third part of the series in comparison to season 1. Hopefully it will tie up nicely in the 7 episodes left.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

I've heard all the opposite: that TSR undoes all good that FMP! was. I watched FMP! and Fumoffu but kept clear from TSR based on what I heard.

I'm not sure where you heard that because everyone I know that watched Full Metal Panic! likes TSR better.

Lemme put it like this. The first season was a pretty fun show, but at the same time, it was Gonzo doing it and it had this disconnect between the comedy and the action. Then KyoAni got their competent hands on it and made Fumoffu pure comedy, and TSR pure action/politics. So I'm guessing whoever watched TSR and didn't like it didn't like how grim it was for most of the show, but it is certainly the finest FMP! adaptation.