What Are You Watching?

[gunswordfist]

i was going to ask about origins. tvtropes made it sound interesting.

[goody2shoes]

i was going to ask about origins. tvtropes made it sound interesting.

It's not that good, there's one interesting scene in it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adFPJOLB-fc

[LumRanmaYasha]

I honestly feel people overblow that scene. It's not that dark.

I quite enjoyed Origins, myself. It's well-animated, a lot of fun, and rekindles fond memories of playing the original games and has a lot of appreciable in-jokes for longtime fans of the franchise like myself. It also has what is by far the best dub any anime Pokemon-related has ever gotten, easily. I really do think it's worth checking out if you are or had ever been a fan of the franchise.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I'm honestly going to have to respectfully disagree with goody2shoes on this one. I quite enjoyed the special, and to me it's one of the better things to come out of the Pokemon anime adaptations. I will say that a lot of the enjoyment for it depends on how big of a fan of the original Red/Blue you were, but as a general stand-alone piece, it's still pretty fun, and as a nostalgia-trip down memory-lane, it's glorious, IMO.

[gunswordfist]

yeah, i was a huge red/blue fan and tvtropes saying how red reacts to parts of the story like gamers did back then caught my interest.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, overall, my thoughts on the season shows that I'm following have remained the same. Bahamut is shallow, yes, but it's a shit-ton of fun and I adore a good adventure story, which I have found severely lacking in most manga and anime that I check out. It's actually surprising how "un-anime" this series really feels at times. It doesn't dwell on powers and battles, and is really more about the journey than anything else. That said, I do find all of the main characters to be likable, and I haven't seen a boring episode yet. Every single one brings something fresh, and I legitimately like the world-building of this series. I would love to see more shows that explore the make-up of this world, and introduces new key characters and stories. If any new anime this season has long-lasting franchise potential, it's this one.

Now, my love for Bahamut is due largely in part to my own bias. Were I to be a bit more objective, I'd say that Parasyte is probably the best anime of the season by far. And, indeed, it also has everything that's up my alley. Normally it's be my favorite, easily, but like I said, I'm just a sucker for adventure. Still, I eagerly await each new episode with much anticipation, and I'm never disappointed in what I see. Shinichi's character arc is fantastic, the designs and general concept of the Parasytes are ingenious, and the nuance to both the plot and characters is almost unrivaled from other shows that I've seen this season. I also love the themes that it explores. It's definitely one of (if not the) best anime of the year, in my book. Also, while the music personally doesn't bother me, (aside from the shitty opening by that shitty J-Rock band that is somehow inexplicably popular) I know that CX and a few others didn't care for the tracks in the early episodes, but if you've been paying attention, the show has been using less and less of that as the story progresses, and has been subtly changing the music to that of a darker tone over time, much like the dark turns that the story takes. I mean, there are still some of those former tracks, but they come much less frequently now. If this was done intentionally, then I find that to be pretty clever directing.

Then there's Fate/Stay Night UBW. The show is just as good as Fate/Zero, with all of its strengths and flaws, IMO. The production values are high, the action is superb, the characters are interesting, and I really do enjoy the mythos of the series. My only real gripes are that it's a bit too slow-paced at times and very monologue-heavy, granted that several of my favorite series are like that as well, however I do kind of find it to be a bit much when the monologuing too often amounts to "my ideals are right and yours are wrong," as I'm not a fan of idealism disputes in shows. Overall, though, it's not a huge complaint, and doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the show. It's definitely another one of my favorites from this year.

Finalky we have Amagi Brilliant Park, which a lot of people seem to love. On the one hand, I'm glad that it's getting such good reception, just because I believe that Shouji Gatoh deserves to have a hit on his hands. On the other hand, I'm trying my best to love this series like everyone else seems to, but it has seldom ever stepped over the boundary of "pretty decent" to being downright great, for me. Is it good enough to keep me watching? Sure. But, I just don't think that it's something that I'd ever come back to once it's done.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I'm behind on all the shows this season except Mushi-shi because I've had a lot to do these past few weeks. I'll probably have to wait until my winter break until I can catch up on anything.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Scamp's poll results for best anime this year are already showing, and some people here might be happy with the results.

[Foggle]

Excellent that my beloved Space Dandy and Kill la Kill are so high! But Samurai Flamenco above Terror in Resonance and Amagi Brilliant Park...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I feel like Magi should be higher than it is, especially since the Magnostadt arc is so well-written.

Other than that, it's cool to see some series that I really enjoyed so high on the list. And yes, HXH at #1 really pleases me. It's about time that a Togashi series got the recognition that it deserved. I just wish that it would get picked up for an English dub, but nobody seems interested in it as a licensed property (and yes, I still blame Viz for that).

[gunswordfist]

hxh at no. 1? so sweet.

[goody2shoes]

Not familiar with that blog, but does this mean HxH has gone mainstream? Weird...

Time to get inflammatory: I loathe that show. I'm perplexed at all the praise it gets, but then again I only watched 137 fucking episodes of it so what would I know?

All snark aside, my impression of the show would be more favorable before I watched the CA arc. It was... mindblowingly awful. I had to force myself to get through it.

CA aside though, I really just found HxH mediocre. Exception being the Yorkshin arc, which I at least found entertaining in a Death Note-light sort of way. I dunno, maybe my standards are too high from not watching long running battle shonens? I was never into that stuff.

As someone who loved Attack on Titan the first and only time I watched it, I guess I understand now what AoT haters feel. No matter who you are, some shows will rub you in all the wrong ways, and HxH certainly was that show to me.

[Spark Of Spirit]

You're not much of a fan of Yoshihiro Togashi, I take it.

So what do you specifically not like about the show/manga? I don't hear much criticism from it since most people tend to love it unconditionally or not know it exists, so I'm curious to hear from a non-fan.

[Foggle]

A lot of people hate/dislike many of my favorite anime, so I certainly understand the confusion of not getting what others are talking about when they discuss shows/films.

I haven't gotten far enough into HxH yet to form much of an opinion on it, but I can totally feel the lack of enthusiasm for long-running series, no matter how good they are. They're a huge time investment, and it can be daunting just starting when you know there's 100+ episodes ahead of you. The most I can say is that some of them will just speak to you more than others.

I actually like Titan quite a bit from what I've seen, but the newer chapters have pretty much ensured that I'll never attempt to legitimately watch or read it again.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Well, it's certainly not for everyone, so I can understand the distaste. Personally, I really like it, though I'd never call it perfect (it has a ton of flaws). I don't really see how it's "loathe-worthy," but what I enjoy about it is that it has tendency to play around with standard conventions in the genre and still just try to be an entertaining series most of the time, without the need to get too up its own ass with the usual themes that you tend to see in long-running battle shonen series. Admittedly, the exposition-heavy nature of the show gets to be a bit too much at times, but so do shows like Fate/Zero and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, and I enjoy both of those as well (although I'm still fairly early on in the latter).

I don't think you're not liking it is a case of your standards being too high, but just having a lack of enthusiasm for this specific sub-genre in general, which I can totally understand. I think that, within its own genre, it's a very well-done series. If you're not into battle shonen to begin with, though, then it's not going to do anything for you, and even for people who are, it's still a bit too much with the exposition and such for some to enjoy. Personally, though, I love it. Partly because of my Togashi bias (I pretty much grew up watching Yu Yu Hakusho), but also partly because I find it to be legitimately well-written within the context of its genre.

As for AoT, I don't hate it, but I've always found it to be a bit over praised for the things that people actually praise it for. As an entertaining world-ending apocalypse/battle for survival of the human race sort of story, I think it's suitably entertaining. When people praise it for things that it's clearly not, like having deep characters and being an actual good drama, then I find the praise to be rather undeserved, personally. It's the same for Death Note, really, and I love Death Note.

You're not much of a fan of Yoshihiro Togashi, I take it.

So what do you specifically not like about the show/manga? I don't hear much criticism from it since most people tend to love it unconditionally or not know it exists, so I'm curious to hear from a non-fan.

If you've ever listened to the Weekly Manga Recap podcasts, they do an episode for this series in which three people take a look at it, one who is a fan, one who is mostly neutral, and one who doesn't like it, and they discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the manga. It's probably the most fair and comprehensive look at the series that I've heard, thus far.

As for the fans, unfortunately, like many deluded fan-bases of various manga and anime, they believe their beloved series to be perfect and free of flaws. I've actually been flamed off of a forum once just because I criticized several things that I felt were poorly executed in the Chimera Ant arc. Such as the bad pacing issues and downright lazy use of narration to spout out needless exposition.