What Are You Watching?

[LumRanmaYasha]

Saw the new Ghost in the Shell movie earlier tonight. I really loved it! While admittedly not as philosophically intriguing or visually gorgeous as other GITS movies, the characterization, character development, concepts, and story were all top notch, and was both a great closer to the Arise series as well as

Spoiler

serving as additive prequel to the original movie.

[close]

The only caveat to the movie is that you really do need to have watched Arise in order to really appreciate the way the characters in the movie are presented and how the story plays out. You probably won't get as much out of it unless you at least see the first two OVAs at bare minimum. But still, really good movie, and I had a great time watching it. Now I want to go on a GITS anime binge. Probably will finally watch Innocence and Solid State Society, as well as fill my gaps on the parts of 2nd gig and Arise that I still haven't seen.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I was on a treadmill when watching the end of the Chimera Ant arc, so I can't tell if it's sweat or tears on my face.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Despite my issues with some aspects of the arc, I've always loved the ending. I've heard people criticize HXH for having anticlimactic endings to its arcs, but I tend to feel that's missing the point. Like with York New City, rather than ending things with a big epic battle, Togashi instead chooses to close out the story by tying things back into the theme of the arc, and so specifically chooses to find a suitable resolution for each major character in the story.

What's most impressive to me is how our main protagonist, Gon, and main antagonist, Meruem, never meet throughout this entire story (the closest they come is Gon spotting him in the distance). But there is a dual sense of Yin-and-Yang between them and their progression. Look at where Gon starts out in this arc and where he ends up compared to Meruem. We have an arc where the villain finds his humanity and salvation by the end, while our hero descends and nearly loses his. Personally I find it brilliant, and if that's not enough, Togashi gives you a much closer to home example with Killua's character arc in relation to Gon's. Not too shabby for a battle shonen, IMO.

[gunswordfist]

That part gets to me more than any other in the show.

[Foggle]

Saw the first episode of One Punch Man and it was great! Gotta' catch up now.

[gunswordfist]

Sweet, welcome to the club.

[Spark Of Spirit]

ANN has a vote for Best anime of 2015 if you feel like voting.

I already know my votes!

1. Blood Blockade Battlefront
2. Ushio & Tora
3. One Punch Man
4. My Love Story!!
5. Haikyuu! Second Season

[gunswordfist]

1. JoJo
2. Ushio & Tora
3. One Punch Man

[VLordGTZ]

Mine would be:
1. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Egypt Arc
2. Blood Blockade Battlefront
3. One Punch Man
4. Assassination Classroom
5. Ushio & Tora

I would expect Lupin III Part IV to be in my top 5, but I haven't watched past the first few eps yet. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been playing a shit-ton of catch up this month since my limited Internet access made it harder for me to keep up with shows and anime.

I recently finished F/SN UBW, and am trying to catch up with U&T. I still need to finish Parasyte, and also have to watch BBB, and way too much other stuff.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Dang, that's a lot of stuff! Good luck parsing through it, but at least its all good stuff. 

[Avaitor]

I still need to finish F/SN UBW, since I paused on episode 7.

How does it turn out on the whole? Is it as good as F/Z?

[gunswordfist]

Still need to watch Lupin and BBB.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I still need to finish F/SN UBW, since I paused on episode 7.

How does it turn out on the whole? Is it as good as F/Z?

UBW is decent. I was invested enough in the main characters to see the entire series through to the end. It does feel like the writing gets a bit more contrived in the second season, though.

It's definitely nowhere close to as great as Zero, though. That series just had far more well-developed, interesting, and nuanced characters on the whole.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I was not a fan of the second half of UBW. Really not. A lot of the characters and plot threads felt wasted, and Shirou and Archer's fight and discussion lasted two episodes too long (and Shirou's rebuttal to Archer's point was nonsense, imo), and a lot of beats in the story came across as convenient, contrived, or a waste of time. I like the characters and world a lot, so I'm hoping the Heaven's Feel film/s will be more what I'm looking for, but the series far from Zero's level of quality for me, personally.