What Are You Watching?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just finished re-watching the Hunter X Hunter TV series, and now I'm just going to finish the 8-episode OVA series that concludes the York Shin City arc. After that I'll continue watching Kino's Journey, and then move onto some other stuff after that.

I really should post more about the HXH anime in its thread, though. I mean, I liked it a lot before, but after re-watching it this time I somehow suddenly realized how little credit people give that anime adaptation. Its not the fault of the director or anyone that Togashi started taking a hiatus every single year and that they had to end the series abruptly rather than drag it out with pointless filler that would hurt its overall quality. Also, I noticed that a lot of Desensitized's complaints for the series, and some of my own as well, are fixed in the TV series, and also in a lot of cases they don't even really apply to the parts of the story that are covered by the TV series and the first OVA, but rather only come into play much later on in the manga during the Chimera arc. I still find Yu Yu Hakusho to be the better shonen anime by a considerable amount, but I can't deny that HXH is a great series on its own, though admittedly it doesn't have a very broad appeal for people, even in its genre. I'm not entirely sure other AR members would necessarily see the appeal in it, but I'm sure glad that I re-watched it, personally. The anime itself can be quite phenomenal in its later portions, and also I feel that director Furuhara really brings a lot of additional life to the series. I do like his style of direction when he's at his best, just like with the Kyoto arc for the RK anime as well as the Trust and Betrayal OVAs.

Anyways, I'll post more about that in the HXH thread later on when I have the time. Anyways, I'm going to be putting off re-watching the Greed Island OVAs for a while, since I'm in no rush to get back to those.

[gunswordfist]

Watching Gungrave, but wow, they're spending a lot of time developing the back story in volume 2.

Ah sweet, Gungrave.

[Angus]

I dunno why it's such a big deal that Kosuke Fujishima (Oh My Goddess) did the mech designs for the series, I hardly see any of that, nor is it the focus of the show, maybe it's more so in the video game since that's supposedly a third person shooter. But at least it's Yasuhiro Nightow's other major project besides Trigun.  

It's so weird that my anime watching tends to cluster in genre, like how the heck did I end up watching 3 gun-based anime (Eden of the East, El Cazador, Gungrave).  Must shift over to One Piece asap.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I somehow got snagged into watching the first 3 episodes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Episode 1 was moeshit. Episode 2 was moeshit. Episode 3 was--D8 What in the name of bleeding WhiteChapel was that?!

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm just wondering, Dr. Insomniac....Do you have a strange fetish for torturing yourself with terrible shows? Maybe its just me, but you always seem to be most attracted to checking out those kinds of titles.

As for me, I just finished re-watching Hunter X Hunter up to the end of the 1st OVA and I am perplexed as to why more shonen don't try to copy THIS series that actually got successful based off of good ideas and an actual story rather than just copying the same idea of endless battles over and over again and just hoping by chance that a bunch of kids find their series to be the next knew hit fad for a while. I find it funny how the shonen series that actually have well-crafted writing and well-directed anime adaptations seem to be the most overlooked by just about everyone.

What's probably my favorite thing about HXH is that Togashi actually humanizes quite a few of the villains. Here is a great scene in which I actually found myself rooting for the "bad guys," though if seen out of context it does seem more like meaningless violence (but, its still bad-ass....and either way its a really non-conventional scene by shonen standards). I like how Togashi ties fanatasy elements, which are typical of shonen, in with some interesting real world sort of elements like Mafias and underground crime and corruption and internal conflicts within countries and stuff like that. Meanwhile something like Hitman Reborn just recycles ideas that we've seen a billion times before yet gets a hundred times more popular because of it (it also has nothing to do with hitmen or mafia or anything like that....it just uses that title because the author probably thinks it sounded cool or something like that).

**Ahem**

Anyways, I decided to move onto Kino's Journey now. The 1st episode was slow, but I already suspected that this is meant to be a very slow-paced series. At any rate, it was still a decent episode that explored a good idea. I suspect the rest of the series will be very episodic in nature and explore different themes each time, which could definitely be interesting if most episodes are well-executed.

[Angus]

Maybe it looked good on paper with Akiyuki Shinbo (Pani Poni Dash) directing?

[Dr. Insomniac]

I'm just wondering, Dr. Insomniac....Do you have a strange fetish for torturing yourself with terrible shows? Maybe its just me, but you always seem to be most attracted to checking out those kinds of titles.

Watching shit helps expand my horizon.

And besides, it's not like I only watch horrible shows.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yes but for some reason it seems that those make up about 90% of the anime shows that you end up trying to check out.

I would like to expand my horizon, myself, but college and stuff refuses to give me time to do that until the Summer, unfortunately.

[Angus]

Crud, I had that on my Plan to Watch list too. Is it ending up like Umineko?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Crud, I had that on my Plan to Watch list too. Is it ending up like Umineko?

I haven't watched beyond the third episode yet, but I heard actually it becomes really good later on. I doubt it'll meet anywhere those expectations, but when critics and bloggers I usually agree with are praising it...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I'm currently 2 episodes into Kino's Journey. It definitely has its interesting moments, though at the same time while I was fully aware that its a slow-paced episodic show, I have to admit that its one of those shows that's more enjoyable to watch sparingly rather than all at once, since it requires some patience.

[Angus]

Just finished the second half of Eden of the East. Yikes, that's a page turner all the way through.   Must avoid Wikipedia since they have major spoilers on the Movies.

Dragonball Z Kai's moving along. 3 Discs in, and they're already on Planet Namek. Only regret is that Vegeta shouted it's over 8000 instead of 9000 in both dub and sub. Maybe in Japan it wasn't such a classic line?

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

I started actually watching Super Hero Time + Girly Bugface Power Rangers a few weeks ago when Gokaiger and Suite started, and I ended up liking Suite enough to check out the previous series, HeartCatch.

Holy shit, I can see why this series attracted so many non-fans. Getting crew members from Casshern Sins and Ojamejo Doremi to work on this was a gamble, but it totally works in its favor. A really unique art style, some hilarious characters and some well choreographed fights make this not so embarrassing to watch. Enough that I think I'll show my little sister when I go home for spring break. The only real flaw I've seen so far is how one of the fairies literally poops out a medal at the end of each episode. It always comes out of nowhere, and it never gets any less disturbing when I watch.

[Angus]

What disgusts you about it? And did you watch the movie or the TV series?

[Angus]

Vash: What are you doing?
Wolfwood: Don't ask ridiculous questions. I'm gonna save the child.
Vash: With your bare hands?
(Wolfwood frantically checks his clothes and then looks as the bus drives away.)
Wolfwood: (holding head) Oh shiiiiiit!
(Vash gives Wolfwood a knife.)
Vash: You would have gone anyway, huh.
Wolfwood: (picks up knife) Of course I would.


Wolfwood: Okay, that was fun. So, what do you want to do now?
Vash: I lost 80 billion double dollars at poker, but there's a little left.
Wolfwood: Well, a real man would lay it all on the table.
Vash: Alright, then, let's find ourselves a casino.