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General Anime Discussion

Figured we could need such a thread so we don't have to open thousands of threads to discuss more minor things like releases or recommendations.

To start off, I've been watching Angel Beats! lately, which is a quite recent anime that builds on the genres action, comedy and supernatural. Here's a short summary taken from myanimelist.net:

Quote
In a world after death, angels fight for their fate and their future. Yuri, the leader of the Shinda Sekai Sensen, rebels against the god who destined her to have an unreasonable life. On the other hand, Tenshi, the chairperson of the student council for the world after death, battles against the SSS members. SSS members utilize armed weaponry to battle it out against the angels harnessing supernatural powers.

It hasn't finished airing yet but most episodes have already been subbed by various groups.

Personal recommendation. Go check it out if you haven't yet.
Yeah Angel Beats! is pretty awesome. The comedy style reminds me of Clannad's. Everyone should get chance and luck and take a look at it.

Well, I just recently watched an anime called "Dai Mahou Touge" and it was pretty hilarious. It's short too, with eight episodes at about twelve minutes for each. It's good for if you just want something short and funny to watch. That and Paya is a fucking bad-ass.

Also I've just started watching Air since Mue wouldn't stop bitching at me. He refuses to believe that Ef is more depressing than it.

|B|
This idea seems to have already been tried. However, given this type of forum, I suppose it won't hurt to try it again. (On that note, I think certain threads in here ought to be bumpable...)

As for anime itself, I think the last time I watched anything of the sort was when SMWC's ad was for Blood Knight or something. I watched it for like 20 minutes, being easily distracted. Still haven't exactly had the free time to watch any though, nor have I really started on my anime list I made almost a year ago....

World Community Grid: Thread | Team
 
Hmm.. you're right. I must have missed that thread. :/

Ah well, maybe this time it'll work. Though it's a shame that there aren't many people here who are into anime.

On an unrelated note, I have lots of anime sitting here I didn't even start watching yet. Whenever I find something interesting, I just have to download all episodes so I can watch them later or in case they'd be taken down by the time I want to watch them.

My current folder consists of 117 GB worth of anime and I'm sure I watched only half of it. It's starting to get out of hand, I can't catch up with all the stuff I download each day. XD

And I still have 500 Detective Conan episodes ahead of me... .-.
Well, if I may plug something here...

People, watch Shakugan no Shana!

Seriously, it is the absolute most engaging anime I have ever watched. (I have watched every episode that exists thus far.) Something about it really struck a chord with me that no other show has ever done. The show involves a highschool freshman boy being dragged into a sort of interdimensional conflict - on one side are the "Tomogara", who come from an alternate world called "Guze" and essentially devour one's life forces and all memory of their existence, to fuel their magical powers. (it's more complicated than that but this way is easier to explain) On the other side are the Flame Hazes, who are ordinary humans that have gained power to fight the Tomogara by contracting themselves to various gods of sorts from Guze that work to maintain the balance between the worlds.

The plot is really complex and deep, and my synopsis I typed up in ~3 minutes' time simply does not do it justice. Watch this show! You will not be disappointed. It takes awhile for things to get setup over the first couple episodes, but once it gets going it's an utterly amazing experience.
Originally posted by Captain Pissweak

Also I've just started watching Air since Mue wouldn't stop bitching at me. He refuses to believe that Ef is more depressing than it.

|B|


I haven't even watched Ef so I don't know if its more depressing than Air. You baka!

Anyways, if you have seen my post in the B&G, you'll know that I finished watching Air. Oh god it made me cry, the ending was just very sad. I've never cried to an anime before... until now.

I definetly reccomend Air.
Yesterday, I finished watching Dai Mahou Touge and it's the most hilarious anime I have ever seen.

In a nutshell, it revolves around a girl called Tanaka Punie from the Magical Land who must spend some time on Earth to earn the place as queen from Magical Land which her mother is currenty claiming.

In the beginning, it might seem like another cutie anime but after the first couple minutes, you'll notice that it's much more than that. Whenever someone angers her, she either packs out her magic rod to summon vegetables which in turn attack her opponents or goes on a fist-to-fist fight where she uses her martial arts to break other people's joints.

It contains a lot of dark humor but if you don't have anything against breaking joints, blood and just utterly wrong jokes, this anime is just for you. It consists of eight episodes, one being twelve minutes long and four omakes, which are around 2 minutes each.

Also Raibys, I've heard about Shakugan no Shana before, I'll put it onto my 'to watch' list. Could take a while until I arrive there though. :P

e: aww come on we need more anime-keen people here {B|
I finished watching Dai Mahou Touge. It just made my day. I just love how Punie sometimes goes into 'evil mode' and her voice changes too. XD

Her physical combat abilities look painful. The sound effects are mostly the reason of that. In a nutshell, this anime is awesome. Too bad it ended at episode 8 already; I heard the creator of this anime got banned from making further episodes due to whatever reason.

e: shakugan no shana is pretty awesome too; I recommend it.
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Well, I just finished Air on Mue's recommendation and it was... Pretty average. He claimed it would be more depressing than Ef, which made me cry, and that it was more depressing than Clannad, and it did not deliver.

On a related note Ef is totally amazing in terms of the whole depressing anime department for its second season. It's amazing how it gets you to like a character and hate them at the same time.
Well, since I watched everything that currently exists of Shakugan no Shana, I have been forced to watch other animes in the meantime while I wait for more material to come out. :P

As a result I have since picked up watching a very strange anime indeed called "To Aru Majutsu no Index". (the name translates to "A Certain Magical Index") It's set in a futuristic world and involves psychic abilities, magical powers, a nun with an entire library in her head, and other weird stuff. The show has been a bit hard to follow, but in the later episodes, things seem to be coming together.

To me it's not as amazingly epically awesome as Shana was, but I'd still recommend watching it if you want a unique experience.
Hm...I hardly watch any anime, but Shakugan no Shana and To Aru Majutsu no Index do sound interesting. I have to ask, though: Are they entirely in Japanese, and how gory and "inappropriate" (for want of a better word) are they?

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Well, neither show is especially graphic or sexual really. Both shows once or twice contain (non explicit) nudity for very brief instances, but it's never anything major. Shana hardly has any blood in it (mostly due to the nature of the Tomogara - they dissolve when destroyed, as they are not really humans) However, To Aru Majutsu no Index contains a bit more blood and the like (but it still never really gets overly gorey)

Bottom line: in terms of "appropriateness", I'd say Shakugan no Shana would have an "E 10+" rating (unless you also count one specific character being a pottymouth as offensive as well, in which case the rating would be a "T"), and To Aru Majutsu no Index would get a "T" rating.

*shrugs*

Oh, and as for if they are in Japanese or not...well, there is a dubbed version of Shana, but from what I gather from briefly watched of one of the English episodes, the voice acting isn't as strong as it is in the Japanese version. Also, I don't know how much of the series has been dubbed. Plus, I don't know if ANY of To Aru Majutsu no Index has any dubbed versions yet. However, both series have subtitled versions on the internet, of course - I mean, it's not like I know how to speak Japanese, and yet I've watched both series' just fine.
Bump.

Mue recommended the anime "Black Lagoon" to me and tonight, I finished the first season. It's an ingenious series which is filled with action and dark humor while remaining silly and funny.

To quickly sum up what it's about, a japanese businessman gets kidnapped by a team consisting of pirates/mercenaries and later joins them due to the fact of being fed up with his old job. Together, they take up a variety of missions which include wild firefights, bloody hand-to-hand combats etc.

Personal recommendation to every action fan.
I'm stickying this thread, seeing it's going really well.
My blog. I could post stuff now and then

My Assembly for the SNES tutorial (it's actually finished now!)
Finally got ahold of good Higurashi no Naku Koro ni subs and right now, I'm up to episode 13.

Originally posted by Wikipedia
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni takes place during June 1983, at a fictional rural village called Hinamizawa (雛見沢) (based on the village of Shirakawa, Gifu, a World Heritage Site), which has a population of approximately 2,000. The main character, Keiichi Maebara, moves to Hinamizawa and befriends his new classmates Rena Ryugu, Mion Sonozaki, Rika Furude, and Satoko Houjou. Keiichi joins their after-school club activities, which consist mostly of card and board games (and punishment games for the loser, usually him.) Hinamizawa appears to be a normal, peaceful, rural village to Keiichi. However, the tranquility abruptly ends after the annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local god, Oyashiro. Keiichi learns that every year for the past four years, one person has been murdered and another has gone missing on the day of the Watanagashi Festival. Keiichi himself soon becomes drawn into the strange events surrounding the Watanagashi Festival and Oyashiro. In each story arc, he or one of his friends become paranoid, and a crime is committed. Usually, the crime involves the murder of one of their own friends. While it seems impossible to tell their delusions apart from the mystery of Hinamizawa, slowly the truth is revealed.

The anime is divided into several arcs where each time, the story basically "replays", but with the story and perspective changed. You come to new conclusions with each arc.

So far the anime is really thrilling. Mind you, it can get brutal/gory and shocking at times. Not excessively, but close enough. :P

Thank you Blumiere for recommending this one. ;)
Originally posted by Buu
Thank you Blumiere for recommending this one. ;)

Well I always have the best anime up my sleeve. {B)

... then again, Lishy was the one who introduced me to the visual novel. I knew I would never read all of it if my life depended on it so I skipped to the anime after someone from another website had told me about it.

Also I really need to start watching that anime again. I only got up to episode 15 before stopping. Then again, I still have Ef to watch, and my friend gave me a disc of Cowboy Bebop so I intend to watch that as well.

oh yes I also need to watch neon angel evangelion runori kenshin great teacher onizuka welcome to the nhk blood + highschool of the dead ajaafdsafjsahdgod people stop recommending me stuff on the IRC
Actually finish something and we might run out of recommendations.

|B|

... Although I myself still need to get around to finishing Soul Eater and starting Great Teacher Onizuka / Read or Die / Ghost in the Shell / Full Metal Alchemist / Elfen Lied (otaku friends are making me do it) and getting back to watching Cowboy Bebop since I saw some later episodes here in Hawaii and they were pretty awesome.

Also have I mentioned how awesome it feels to watch decent anime on an actual television? It's extremely.

Also Neon *Genesis Evangelion.
So, I just finished watching Spirited Away. My final opinion of it is amazingly awesome.

It was recommended to me by the same teacher at my school who recommended Neon Genesis Evangelion, and while it wasn't as mind raping as Evangelion was, it was definitely as entertaining. A quick summary of the plot, Chihiro is moving to a new town when her father decides to take a shortcut and they end up at a shrine which is a door to the spirit world. They go through, and when her parents eat food meant for spirits, they get turned into pigs. She then has to go through various ordeals working at a bathhouse in order to return them to their human form and go back to ordinary life.

Also Kamajii and No Face are some of the most awesome characters ever. And everyone seemed to become nicer as they became smaller.

Anyway everyone should totally watch it as soon as possible.
Ooh, yeah CP, that's definitely a very good movie. I've seen it quite a few times (the first time I watched it was back in like...2002 I think? It might have been 2003, but whatever), and think it's awesome.

My personal favorite anime movie is another movie by the same people who made Spirited Away, called Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. That one's set in a future 1000 years after much of mankind had wiped itself out in a massive world war. The remaining countries, which have recovered to an extent, are faced with the growing threat of a toxic jungle that is spreading across the land, and along with it, massive insects that make their dwellings within them. However, things are a lot deeper than they initially seem...

It's an excellent and beautiful movie that hits on many themes regarding humanity.

Oh, and for yet another masterpiece by the same people as Nausicaä and Spirited Away, as well as another of my personal favorites, there is Castle in the Sky, which centers around an orphaned girl with a strange blue necklace, and her mysterious connection the floating ruins of a once-mighty civilization known as Laputa.
Spirited Away? Castle in the Sky? Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind?

...!

Well, most of my family would agree with you about those movies being great. You just hit on three of the...six or so anime movies I've actually watched. I liked them all, as well as the other movies by the same studio that I also saw. What about Howl's Moving Castle or Kiki's Delivery Service? Those were all really weird, though...that seems to be a common theme with anime.

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