What Are You Watching?

[Lord Dalek]

Brothers Conflict makes me wanna cut myself.

[Jay L. Corbell]

Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei - The Animation makes me want to cut myself harder.

[Lord Dalek]

Danganronpa: Kibou no Gakuen to Zetsubou no Koukousei - The Animation makes me want to cut myself harder.

Oh come on, its not as horribad as Brothers Conflict and C Cubed.

[Lord Dalek]

Day Break Illusion makes me wanna rip my intestines out more than the aforementioned series.

[TheEclecticDude]

Current watching Crest of the Stars 

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Full Metal Panic is okay, though pretty entertaining, particularity Sousuke's comedic seriousness. From all the good things said about the 2nd Raid around here, I mostly just waiting to get to that.

[Foggle]

I really like the first season and Fumoffu, but I love TSR and the books.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Full Metal Panic is okay, though pretty entertaining, particularity Sousuke's comedic seriousness. From all the good things said about the 2nd Raid around here, I mostly just waiting to get to that.

While I do really enjoy the 1st season, I'm in the minority on that. I can totally understand your opinion on the series, and you're actually in the majority. Actually, most people find season 1 to be dull and boring, and looking at it more objectively, I can admit that its not that great (aside from Gauron, who I think is fucking awesome, but maybe that's just me).

Fumoffu, the 2nd season, is just a spin-off series that completely revolves around the comedic aspect of Sousuke's high school life. I really do enjoy that as well, but its not for everyone since comedy is a subjective thing, so I only recommend if you like the over-the-top shenanigans of the high school bits from the first season. Other than that, the season can completely be skipped if you want to, since it has absolutely no baring on the main plot or story whatsoever.

Now, The Second Raid is a fucking masterpiece, IMO. They actually got the original author of the light novels to co-write a lot of the episode scripts, and he had a lot more input on the adaptation in general. Its clear that this was more of a passion project than a cheap cash-in for what was, at the time, a popular light-novel series. It should also be noted that the 1st season was done by Gonzo, an anime studio (which I think went bankrupt a few years ago, if I'm not mistaken), which has a pretty bad reputation among anime fans for cheap budget anime and mostly mediocre shows, with maybe just a few stand-out exceptions. Fumoffu and TSR were done by Kyoto Animation, and while they are pretty much a moe-centric studio these days, they have always been known for putting a lot of passion and effort into whatever they do, and their FMP adaptations are no exception, so in turn its one of the few things that I actually enjoy from that company. Everything from the directing to the pacing to the writing to the animation is top-notch, and even the English voice-acting is vastly improved. Its all the same English voice-cast as in the 1st season, but you can tell that the voice-actors had much better direction with the English dub of this season in particular, and it really shows how much they had improved at portraying their respective characters since dubbing the 1st season.

Its like I said before: I kind of consider TSR to be The Wrath of Khan of the FMP anime series. I make the comparison more on a level of quality than on any themes or anything like that. Season 1 is like The Motion Picture, in which most people find both of those things to be boring. TSR is like WoK, in that most people find both of those things to be awesome, and completely forget about the forgettable first installments after watching them. So, yeah, I think its worth sticking around to watch TSR.

[Foggle]

Gonzo's still around, but they're worse than ever.

I don't think season 1 is dull at all aside from a couple of moments in the Behemoth arc.

I've actually seen some people who prefer S1 to TSR, if you can believe that.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Gonzo's still around, but they're worse than ever.

I don't think season 1 is dull at all aside from a couple of moments in the Behemoth arc.

I don't think its dull, either. I was just acknowledging that I was in the minority opinion in really liking it. And to be honest, that mostly has to do with the dub, as I LOVE the voice-cast they got for that series.

I actually think that season 1 is a bit better on a re-watch than it is the first time through, for some reason. Particularly AFTER finishing TSR, and even the light-novels. You can actually see that even in this sloppy adaptation (which has its fair share of inaccuracies and liberties taken from the original books), there are some key elements that clearly show how later elements of the story were cleverly planned out, and even manage to come back toward the end of the series in the novels. I think that makes the series surprisingly a little bit more valuable of an experience when you go back to it knowing about the rest of the story.

I've actually seen some people who prefer S1 to TSR, if you can believe that.

I can sort of believe that. Season 1 did have one unique thing going for it, and that was in how it balanced both the serious and comedic aspects of the show, which made for an interesting mix. Fumoffu was ALL comedy, and TSR was MOSTLY serious with only 1 somewhat comedic episode in the entire season. On that end, I can get how some people prefer season 1's balance, but TSR ultimately wins for me due to its great character arcs, smart story-telling, and extremely tight-pacing thanks to having absolutely no filler thrown into the mix.

[Foggle]

Yeah, Gatoh is a fantastic writer. The earlier books/anime have a lot of really well-done foreshadowing.

You're right, there isn't much humor in TSR except for the second episode and the scenes with Mr. Gates (which are much darker than any of the comedy in S1 or Fumoffu). On a related note, I personally see Fumoffu as a very valuable addition to the series. While it really is little more than a silly sitcom, it serves to make the characters a lot more likable in preparation for the seriousness of TSR and the subsequent novels.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Its worth mentioning that Fumoffu is one of the rare, few anime in existence that actually has an obligatory "hot springs" episode that I not only like, but even find to be legitimately, genuinely funny the entire way through. It also makes me wonder why that was the only episode in which Kurz and Mao were incorporated into with Fumoffu. They were such gold in that series. But, I suppose that being the only episode they appeared in with that season was what made it so special in the first place. The heart of that part of the series was mainly supposed to be around Sousuke's antics as he tries to fit into his high-school life while trying to balance it out with his military duty of protecting Kaname.

[Foggle]

I think you'll like the hot springs chapters in the Excel Saga manga a lot.

When I think about it, Kurz and Mao are actually some of my favorite FMP characters. Then again, I love nearly every character. Even the villains (especially the villains?).

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

You know which FMP character makes the most "bad-ass" villain?

Spoiler

Kalinin

[close]

He's not my favorite villain. Gauron's my favorite, mainly for how bat-shit insane that motherfucker is, but the specific character who I mentioned is incredibly bad-ass in the final 2 novels.

[Mr. Big]

Yesterday I received a bunch of black and white anime from the 1960s on DVD. They're pretty interesting.

Here's one I like: Hustle Punch from 1965. Hayao Miyazaki worked on this show as an animator, one of his first jobs in the field. I added English captions (turn annotation on) so that you can understand it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2WFfdJjQ6E