What Are You Watching?

[Avaitor]

The english dub for Beck is much better than the original, imo, so unless you are dying to hear really crappy engrish (all the songs they sing are in english), I wouldn't bother. Do read the manga once you are done with the show, though, since it covers only a third of the overall story.

Yeah, I have to admit that I figured Beck's dub would be the superior take, but I held some curiosity towards the sub, anyway. I'm definitely planning to get to the manga, though. I haven't forgotten your list, after all.

Oh, speaking of Parasye and Bahamut, I got to watch the first 2 episodes of both over the past couple of days. Bahamut was probably a little more fun to watch for me, as it feels like a best-of compilation of Jojo's varied awesomeness, but Parasyte has me intrigued to see where it goes. I have enough on my plate right now to where I don't mind waiting for CR and Funi's site to legally put up their subs, however. But I'm still happy to keep up with both.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Those are both my favorite shows of the season so far, TBH. Bahamut is admittedly the most shallow, but that doesn't mean that it's without merit, and as a general crowd pleaser, it's a shit-ton of fun, and sometimes that's all that I really want.

Parasyte clearly isn't for everyone, but it reminds me of a good horror/suspense movie, and I like the characters quite a bit, so it's definitely worth my time.

Fate is of course great, but has the problem of taking more time to get its characters set up and it's plot really going, though it may surpass either of the other 2 shows with ease as the story progresses and new developments begin to unfold.

As for Amagi Brilliant Park.....well, I AM warming up to it with each new episode being better than the previous one, so far, but just like with Space Dandy, I don't think that I'll ever be quite as much of a fan of it as other people on this board. It's just that as a comedy, it's not really my brand of humor, and as a Slice of Life drama, it's getting better, but it's nowhere near Kids on the Slope levels of quality, IMO. That said, clearly I'm the odd one out on this opinion, so there must be something good about the show that makes it so highly appealing to everyone else, whereas I just merely like it.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Mushi-shi is by default my favorite anime of the season, and Parasyte is my close second, and Gundam Build Fighters Try is my third. I have to say, with Parasyte, it's interesting for me to see what other people who are completely new to the series think about right now, as someone who has read and is a fan of the original manga and knows where it's going and what it's about. It isn't for everyone, I'm sure (nothing is though), but how people's opinions on it will change as it goes on is something that I'm curious to see develop. As far as the other two big shows of the season everyone on here is watching, F/SN and Bahamut, I'm enjoying both quite a bit. I'm not sure if they will surpass Parasyte for me, but they could surprise me.

As for Amagi Brilliant Park, I am enjoying it, but I'm not sure I'll ever be in love with it as much as other people seem to be. I haven't seen even close to every anime/manga comedy out there or anything, but I've seen the spectrum of stuff and what I feel and is some of the best there's ever been, and I just feel like I've seen this kind of concept, these kind of characters, and this kind of humor many times in other series before, and there isn't anything I can find to connect to yet that would help me forget all that, like what Zvezda Plot from earlier in this year was able to do. For these first four episodes I've just kept having this sense of deja vu, and could honestly predict so many of the jokes and how scenes would play out. It's done well, and I find it all likable, but I'm just not seeing what makes this series "special" the same way other people seem to find it. Obviously, it's only four episodes in, but it's only a thirteen episode series, and other similar one-cour comedies have hooked me by this point before. I'll see how I feel about it by the end of it's run, but as of right now, it doesn't do as much for me as other series, and is not one of my most favorite new anime I've seen come out this season, let alone this year.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As far as comedy goes, I like stuff that's either played straight for the most part but has genuinely good laughs like Great Teacher Onizuka or Ouran High School Host Club, ones that just indulge in silliness but still have some semblance of logic to them like Full Metal Panic! Fumoffu (based on short stories from the same author of Amagi Brilliant Park), or goes completely bonkers without any sense of logic but has so much wit packed into it that you just can't help but laugh, like Dr. Slump and many parts of the early Dragon Ball arcs.

[LumRanmaYasha]

As for myself, I like most forms of anime/manga comedy provided they are written well, in a way that doesn't insult my intelligence or feel overly obnoxious, and have a good concept and characters behind them. My issue with Amagi is not that it's a kind of humor I can't get into, but that there's nothing in it that I feel I haven't seen done in other series before, and nothing about the characters or concept that I feel very intrigued by or invested in, and as such it's not clicking as well with me on a personal, emotional level as much as it seems to with other people. There are many series that I do like where I feel like this, but as such, I can only say I like them, and not a "fan" of them, and that holds true of Amagi for me right now as well.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel about it. I haven't even seen nearly as many manga/anime as you, but even I feel like the story is rather predictable. I mean, the premise is fine, but the anime has yet to do anything that creative or unexpected with it. Of course, even that would be fine if it was just really good at executing this type of story, but aside from episode 4 which I felt was above average, the rest so far has just been....adequate. Like, nothing about it is bad, but hardly anything stands out, either. I've managed to predict pretty much every major story turn so far, and even most of the comedy either feels rehashed, or lacks a decent punch line.

[Avaitor]

Today we watched the first 2 episodes of Ouran with a few of her friends, which is about as much of the dub as I heard before.

Not too much at all, but I still enjoy the show about as much as ever. Now I want to watch it all again, heh.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, Ouran also became one of my favorite anime comedies after you introduce me to it.

I really should check out the manga, eventually, though with my backlog I won't get to it for a long time, anyways.

[Avaitor]

I've been meaning to read the manga for a long time, but I always forget about it. I was also hoping that they'd make a sequel series now that it's over, and I'm surprised that it still hasn't happened, since the show was a hit.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Heh, I've always loved the dub for Ouran, myself. I always rewatch it dubbed. That goes with most of the anime/manga comedies I like, actually, barring the ones that don't have a good dub or the dub is too radically different from the original.

I've read the first few volumes of the Ouran manga. While still quite enjoyable, I honestly prefer the anime to it as an adaption for the parts that it covers. As for the parts of the series the anime doesn't adapt, I never got to that, but I've heard mostly good things about it, though some people criticize it for ultimately playing it safe with it's ending. It's one of many, many manga I started long ago and should just get around to finishing at some point, but at the same time it's not much of a priority for me right now, even among the shojo titles I've got on my queue.

I'm not surprised that it never got a second season, because generally it doesn't seem like shojo series get multiple seasons, even the big ones, especially the long ones. At least it got a live-action tv series and a live-action movie, which is more than, say, Fruits Basket ever got.   

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Heh, I've always loved the dub for Ouran, myself. I always rewatch it dubbed. That goes with most of the anime/manga comedies I like, actually, barring the ones that don't have a good dub or the dub is too radically different from the original.

It's the same for me. I love the dubs for Ouran, Fumoffu, and GTO (though admittedly I still prefer the sub for that one). I've also been watching School Rumble dubbed, which I like.

[Avaitor]

I really do like the dub, but I just never felt like watching it all in full again for whatever reason. Maybe I'll borrow her DVDs and do so, but first I want to borrow her Trigun set.

I'm not a fan of the English version of "Sakura Kiss", though. I don't think it was translated that well.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, the opening and ending themes don't translate well into English, but I was never a huge fan of the original versions, to begin with. They sounded like standard J-Poppy songs to me.

The actual character dubbing is excellent, though.

[LumRanmaYasha]

"Sakura Kiss" is definitely not one of FUNi's better dubbed openings, but to be honest, I don't really care for it in either version, so I usually skipped it anyways. 

[Avaitor]

"Sakura Kiss" is more of a guilty pleasure bubblegum J-Pop track for me, but I can easily admit that it's not one of the best.