What Are You Watching?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Ryoko is probably the worst character in the show, I'm not kidding. She's not a good replacement for Guy, and she's just a typical tsundere character that never actually develops at all beyond hey typical traits. Even her friends get a bit more added to them as the show goes, but she gets nothing worth mentioning. Most every character in the show gets something to them in some aspect, which makes rewatches on the series more enjoyable.

Well, as long as the rest of the cast gets fleshed out more then I'll be alright, so long as Ryoko doesn't get too much screen time, that is.

I think Akito gets less "Shinji-esque" as the show goes, but in the beginning I think he has an excuse to be depressed considering what happened to his friend.

The depression (at least over Gai's death) makes sense to me and was resolved more or less in episode 8 when Akito resolved himself a reason to fight. It more other aspects of him that are too Shini-esque, namely his mannerisms, attitude towards other people, self-doubt, resistance to fighting, character design...heck, even his voice! 

Akito's personal problems aren't as sympathetic to me as Shinji's, though, and while he's a likeable protagonist, the feeling he is basically Shinji 2.0, except less depressed and having a bigger gaggle of girls who like him, doesn't make him really stand out to me yet. I just hope he becomes more of his own character as the series goes on.

(I also really dig the theme song)

Yeah, the theme song is pretty awesome! I haven't skipped it once. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

 I just got done watching episodes 11-15 of Martian Successor Nadesico and I have to say I really liked all these episodes and have little to complain. The cast at large is getting explored a little more, Nagare's in episode 11 and Ruri's in episode 12 being the most enjoyable among the minor cast, Megumi and Yurika continue to be likeable, and Akito seems to be progressing into his own sort of character beyond being Shinji-ish. The Recap episode was one of those rare ones that made me laugh, although most of that came from the Gekkigengar stuff which was a pretty hilarious parody of old-school giant robot anime (although I've only seen enough to enjoy the parody, and by that I mean Voltron  ). As for the big, big twists, the Boson-jumping issue and the Jovians being humanlike, well, I enjoyed them and this (hopefully) more serious direction the story seems to be going, and it'll be interesting to see how the next few episodes will progress. 

[Lord Dalek]

Just completed the original Eden of the East series. Now to watch the wrap-up films.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Finished GTO. Onizuka really is the Greatest Teacher the World has Ever Known.

Started Digimon Tamers a EK's recommendation.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Finished GTO. Onizuka really is the Greatest Teacher the World has Ever Known.

Yeah, its one of my favorite anime ever. When you get a chance, I definitely recommend reading the manga Shounan Junai Gumi. Before being the greatest teacher of all-time, Onizuka was the greatest delinquent of all-time. On top of that, though, you also get to learn a lot about his close friend Danma Ryuji, and their friendship is one of the strong points of the series. At its core, SJG is really the story about 2 really close friends as they grow up together in the rough and impoverished streets of Shounan, and what they go through for each other. Of course there are a ton of other great characters in the mix as well, and its a very different manga from SJG, but you can still see that Onizuka is Onizuka, and its great to see what he was like in his youth.

Started Digimon Tamers a EK's recommendation.

If you're watching the dub, give it at least 8-10 episodes to get better. The voice-acting itself is fine, but their is a lot of bad slang and puns added in the dub because the writers thought it would sound cool to the kiddies. You'll see that as the story progresses and starts getting more serious, the dialogue also starts to take itself more seriously. It takes some time to get things going, but once they do, the series becomes hard to stop watching until it ends.

[Avaitor]

What's the better way to watch Digimon, dubbed or subbed?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Probably subbed, but I just have a lot of nostalgia for the dub voice-actors, so that's the way that I usually prefer to watch it. The music is much better in the subbed versions of the show, though, and the voice-acting is far more consistent, without the terrible one-liners.

[TheEclecticDude]

Finishing up Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

Episode 10.....wow, just wow.....god that's sad....

[LumRanmaYasha]

Finished two great shows last two days, so I'll talk about 'em.

Martian Successor Nadesico really surprised me. At the beginning, I though it was going to progress as a light-hearted comedy, then later with some Evangelion-esque elements. But by the middle it became it's own thing, a great blend of comedy and drama, and a good, compelling story about idealism and war. I thought the contrast between the black and white nature of the Gekkiganger show with the realities the crew faced was a great juxtaposition used to move the story forward, and of course revelations about how the war started and who was responsible for keeping it going and preventing avenues for peace to be reached was an interesting exploration as well. Of course, the characters all became really memorable by the end and were the heart of the show, with Akito evolving out of his Shinji-esque nature by the middle of the series, and Yurika developed into more than a clueless ditz, but a capable, resourceful captain. I also enjoyed Ruri, although her role in the series was fairly small, and everyone else from Megumi to Tsukumo, were all engaging characters as well. Superfluous moments and some missteps at the beginning aside (the Admiral's apparent death and then reveal as alive was poorly done), I think the show is pretty damn good, and a new personal favorite of mine.

I also watched the Nadesico movie, The Prince of Darkness and the Gekiganger 3 OVA. The movie...was alright. It was a little too serious, I think, and it's ending unsatisfying. While the beginning of the movie was pretty fun with nice visuals and some eeriness to the mysteriousness of the situation and what the Martian Successors and the "Prince of Darkness" were after, after the focus shifts to reuniting the old crew to take down the forces of the Martian Successors the movie started to be less interesting to me. While it's certainly bold for the series to not give Akito and Yurika a "happy" ending, and while Yurika's scenes in the movie were effectively disturbing, I think that the total destruction of Akito's character into some bland, stoic-ish figure, while making sense considering he was tortured and all, made him less of a character in the movie so much as a plot device, and when he gets revenge, going against the principles he decided to abide by at the end of the series, I can't really say I felt much of anything except disappointment.

Besides him, the other characters from the show aside from really Ryoko, Minato, and of course Ruri don't really do much and basically amount to glorified cameos, while the new characters, while likeable and interesting, also don't end up getting rounded development due to time spent focusing on the old ones. Pacing-wise the middle focusing on getting the crew together moves too slow and doesn't build up to anything that comes into play in the climax, and the resolution feels really, really quick. Too much so, and moving the focus to Akito taking revenge doesn't help things much either in that regard. I wouldn't say the movie was bad, but it was rather unsatisfying, and while there were a lot of good ideas in it I think it could have been executed much better as maybe a thirteen episode season rather than a short movie.

The Gekiganger 3 OVA was alright. It was basically a parody of old 80's robot show movies, and even a lot of modern movies based on shonen tv shows or manga. In that regard it was predictable, but I wouldn't lie and say I didn't enjoy it on the "fluff fun" level. If Gekiganger was an actual anime I probably would like elements of it, although the repetitive episodic structure of those kind of shows usually don't quite gel with me much. Still, a fun little OVA.

Now, the other show I finished was Maison Ikkoku, which is easily a top 5 anime and top 10 favorite tv series in general show for me, now. It's hard to describe just why I really got into the series. I usually don't find myself favoring a lot of romance-focused stories, but Maison Ikkoku not only got me into to it's relationship struggles, but even got me to cry at parts. And I NEVER cry at this stuff!

A lot of it has to do with it's characters, specifically it's main ones. Godai is just one of the most relatable protagonists I've ever seen. His struggles with education, work, people, and his usual shyness and incapability to express himself properly reflects situations I've had in life myself and how I act in a lot of situation as well. Godai is just a really honest, well-meaning guy, but he makes mistakes, gets into trouble due to bad circumstances or his own faults, and has to deal with his doubts and grievances daily. But he never blames other people, he just moves on and tries to work harder, whether that works out or not, and makes the best of whatever situation he finds himself in. In a way, his struggle through life is rather inspiring, and the moments where he manages to find genuine happiness always brought a smile to my face. Kyoko is also a really interesting character. She could have just been one of those perfect, always in the right kind of love interests, but she has her own problems, inadequacies, and doubts to deal with, and can be just as irresponsible, jealous, and overreactve just as Godai. And so the relationship between these two progresses from both Godai's AND Kyoko's perspectives, and all the good times, the heartbreak, and the eventual closure ends up being one of the most intense, fulfilling, wonderful romantic journeys I have seen so far in my experiences with works of fiction.

I could go on and on about these two, plus Mitaka, Asuna, Yagami, Yotsuya, Akemi, Ichinose, Yukari, and Lioka all day, but I don't have the time to write that much on how great these characters are, at least not right now, but trust me when I say they make the show the great experience it ends up being. Even though the series is 96 episodes long plus an OVA and a pretty damn great, albeit untraditional, movie, the pacing only feels slow between episode 16-22, and everything before and after moves at a brisk, realistic, and engaging pace with loads of memorable moments to behold. While I'm not sure I would call this my favorite of Takahashi's works, since I LOVE Urusei Yatsura also (though I have yet to watch more of it's anime adaption) it is easily my favorite romance story and one of my favorite shows ever, and as Jason Thompson so aptly put it, it's hard to think of a better anime or manga about love.

Sad to finish both shows, but I've got plenty to look forward to. I plan to get through both Serial Experiments Lain and Fate/Zero next week, and I can already tell both will be great rides. This is going to be fun. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just watched episode 2 of Fate/Zero.

I'm also still in the process of re-watching the 1st season of FMP.

[Foggle]

The Nadesico movie is actually three films condensed into one (the replacement for a canned trilogy) and is also a direct sequel to an untranslated visual novel, which was a direct sequel to the TV series, so that's probably why it's generally considered unsatisfying.

I'm re-watching Black Lagoon so I can better enjoy Roberta's Blood Trail now that the dub is out. I know I'm in the minority, but I never really cared for the Roberta arc in the original series. I think the first two-thirds are really good, but I feel it loses all momentum in the third act and just ends up being kind of dull.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Yeah, the Nadesico movie is pretty disappointing considering the series was so good, and it being so undercooked in comparison doesn't help. I find it easier to just stick with the series.

Glad you enjoyed it, though!

EDIT: I forget words a lot, it seems.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I watched episode 3 of Fate/Zero. So far Waver is my favorite master since I just have a thing for the obvious underdog characters. My least favorite character is the psycho-dude, since he seems too much like a "gimmick" character, and the perverse psychopath is an anime cliche which I've never been fond of, and this is no exception. Hopefully he and/or his servant get killed off relatively quickly.

[Foggle]

I enjoy perverse psychopaths as long as they're played for comedy (like Mr. Gates from FMP) or are actually interesting characters under it all (like Kakihara from Ichi the Killer). Uryu's decent in my book - not the best of his kind, but certainly not the worst. As an aside, if you just hate them in general, you might dislike one of the books I'm writing.

That said, you won't be seeing much of Ryunosuke. He, Tokiomi, and Kariya don't get as much focus as the other four. Which is good, because they're the least interesting characters to begin with. My favorite Master is Kiritsugu and my favorite Servant is Rider.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, Rider has a pretty fun personality, and I really like how much he contrasts Waver.