What Are You Watching?

[Foggle]

This is a pretty good English fandub of Sakura Kiss. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1KHXrc9PYo

[goody2shoes]

I'll come out and say it, I love Excel Saga's dub. All of ACROSS were perfectly voiced IMO, in fact I tried to watch the original and had to drop it. When I read the manga I hear many of the dub voices.

I thought Jessica Calvello and Larissa Wolcott both captured Excel's energy so much better than the original seiyuu. Sure, they could be grating to listen to for too long, but I thought that was more a problem with the script than anything. They ramped up Excel's hyperactivity a lot in the anime.

As for Ouran, it's a show I really wanted to like. I dropped it at episode 11 because the characters and comedy fell totally flat for me. The worst part was Haruhi, an MC who can't stop being uptight and pointing out the jokes. Boke-tsukkomi at its worst.

[Speedy]

I'll come out and say it, I love Excel Saga's dub. All of ACROSS were perfectly voiced IMO, in fact I tried to watch the original and had to drop it. When I read the manga I hear many of the dub voices.

I thought Jessica Calvello and Larissa Wolcott both captured Excel's energy so much better than the original seiyuu. Sure, they could be grating to listen to for too long, but I thought that was more a problem with the script than anything. They ramped up Excel's hyperactivity a lot in the anime.

I agree, the dub's still one of my favorites.  Some of the lines are funny just from how the VAs deliver them, and the dub writers tread that fine line of staying true to the original script while re-working dialogue and references to make comedic sense in English.

As for Ouran, it's a show I really wanted to like. I dropped it at episode 11 because the characters and comedy fell totally flat for me. The worst part was Haruhi, an MC who can't stop being uptight and pointing out the jokes. Boke-tsukkomi at its worst.

That's unfortunate, some of the best episodes are in the second half.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

As for Ouran, it's a show I really wanted to like. I dropped it at episode 11 because the characters and comedy fell totally flat for me. The worst part was Haruhi, an MC who can't stop being uptight and pointing out the jokes. Boke-tsukkomi at its worst.

Eh, I completely disagree, but chalk it up to a difference in comedic taste, I suppose.

I never noticed too much of what you mentioned, especially the pointing out the jokes thing which I think I would notice if it was overabundant since I hate so many manga/anime that end up doing that with there humor (with a lot of battle shounen being the worst offenders of this).

I also wouldn't call any of the characters flat, myself. They all have distinct personalities that they stick with throughout the series, yes, but they also have a bit more to them that subtly comes out in earlier episodes and you usually see more about who they are revealed in the later half of the series. It's surprisingly genuine about its characters for something that's mostly comedic.

[goody2shoes]

Well, Haruhi tended to point out the absurdity of situations/characters, which can be fine, but she didn't really add much else as a character. Stiff and boring might sum her up? When I say they fell flat I don't mean 2 dimensional, just that the characters didn't work for me. Blondie and the twins were especially obnoxious.

The humor felt a bit low brow, since it relied so much on referencing tropes without doing anything witty with them. It got some chuckles out of me, sure, but being intentionally stereotypical doesn't make something automatically funny to me.

That's unfortunate, some of the best episodes are in the second half.

Maybe I'll pick it up again some time when I'm in the mood. I might be blind to its genius now, but tastes change. And then I have the better part to look forward to.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I wouldn't really call. The humor low brow. It does reference a lot of tropes, but it also flat-out parodies most of the , so I wouldn't say that it's doing nothing with them.  I do Bree that the twins are kind of obnoxious, though, but I always saw that as the point, and kind of a slam against more obnoxious characters that you see in these types of series, anyways. Granted that, I could be off the mark, as I admittedly don't read or watch much shoji, but the way the characters were written felt like it was purposeful to both mock and celebrate that specific archetype, which is probably why I enjoyed them so much. That's just my interpretation, though.

[goody2shoes]

So I just finished Bakemonogatari and boy, did I enjoy it!

I've stayed away from this series for a long time because of its harem/fanservice elements and artsyness. But wow, this thing is so well written. Characters, story and dialogue, I enjoyed it all. While I haven't read the VN I can tell Shinbo was the perfect choice for director. The quirky style has won me over, it's really charming.

I'm having trouble finding faults, except for the obvious ones I mentioned. And even then, the series is unusually self-aware. I'm really glad I gave it a chance, right now it's a top 3 favorite.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Just watched the 4th episode of Parasyte. I nearly died laughing at that "spanking the monkey" line.

Other than that, I do like how this episode placed some importance on Shinichi's parents. In general, a lot of anime and manga usually neglect to characterize the parents that much, sorts refreshing whenever one of them does delve into those relationships.

[goody2shoes]

Yeah, it was another good episode. I'm just a bit bothered by the sloppy linework on the characters sometimes. It might be intentional, but it's pretty jarring to see gaps in the contour lines. It's something I might be okay with in a b/w manga, but not in an anime. Same goes for mouths, I simply hate when those aren't drawn completely.

I finished S1 of Mushishi yesterday. I love this show. I tend to watch it at most once a day (before bed), and I thought I'd take a minor break at this point, but I couldn't stop myself from watching the Hihamukage special.


It was an uncanny experience. Watching this 9 years newer episode by the same team got me excited and worried at the same time. With S1 fresh in my mind, you notice the differences however subtle they may be.
Positives:

• The animation quality was the most obvious upgrade. Seeing Mushishi in native 720p, with its highest budget so far, really makes me smile. The characters and their expressions seem more detailed and lifelike, and the mushi gathering was quite a spectacle to watch. The environments also looked better than ever, and we got a few interesting camera techniques I've never seen in Mushishi before.
• Music was great as always, didn't pay too much attention to it though.
• Tiebacks to recurring/earlier characters were nice to see.

Negatives:

• The narrative felt very disjointed and unfocused, and plot holes were abound. Are mushishi unable to see mushi during the eclipse, or what?
• Too much exposition. Characters thinking out loud, outright stating the messages of the episode, and so on.
• The little girls didn't impress me as characters, and the story tied itself up a little too nicely.

So yes, I'm cautiously optimistic for season 2. Maybe they get more into their groove with 22 minute episodes.

Anyone else watching Mushishi here?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Mushi-shi is one of my favorite anime. I think the second season is just as strong as the first one, at times better. As such, it's by default my favorite anime of the year, after Kill la Kill.

[goody2shoes]

That's good to hear. I really hope the new stuff gets dubbed at some point, because that's how I watched season 1. It's a great dub, Travis Willingham especially did a great Ginko. The franchise has switched licensors since then though, so who knows if it's even possible for the actors to return.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I kind of doubt Aniplex is going to dub it, but if they did, I'd love it if they got Willingham to reprise his role as Ginko, since his portrayal of him was excellent.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

My rankings for this week:

1. Rage of Bahamut- Still by far the best show of the season, IMO. Perhaps I'm alone on that opinion, but I just love the adventure elements of this show. It's the kind of thing that I would expect some of your standard shounen to have, which is what I through stuff like One Piece and Magi would be more like before I got into them,  up those are more battle-oriented than anything else. This show really is dedicated to building up an interesting fantasy world and developing good characters, even if they are lacking in depth and nuance, which you do t always need for a show to be good. More than anything, though, this show just as so much heart and passion behind it, and you can tell. While I like the other shows, something like Fate or other great series are well-written and interesting, but there is also a sort of cold attitude to them that doesn't make them as relatable or "fun" as some of my favorite series, which is clearly the intent, but I'm just saying that my most favorite kind of series are the ones where you can tell that there's a lot of passion that goes into every character and that the series just wants to be a great positive experience for anyone who watches it, which I think that this series does so well, up to this point.

2. Parasyte- more interesting plot developments, and both Shinichi and Migi also get further character development, which is always interesting. More than that, though, I really like how Shinichi's parents were shown to have some importance and not just flat-out ignored like most other manga and anime tend to do.

3. Fate/Stay Night- This was much more entertaining than last week's episode, even though it was mostly just action and not too much plot. That said, the action that was there was glorious.

4. Amagi Brilliant Park- Another just OK episode, IMO. So far episode 4 is the only one where I really got invested for a bit. The rest of the series is decent enough, but I just don't get what everyone else sees in it that makes them praise it so highly.

[gunswordfist]

i watched 21, i believe, of jojo. lisa lisa is pretty cool.

[goody2shoes]

Parasyte. Parasyte, Parasyte, Parasyte. God damn.