What Are You Watching?

[Rynnec]

Girl's Frontline - I've been yearning for the OVA format to return as time goes on and this adaptation only increases that desire. I like the characters and designs well enough, but the production values leave a lot to be desired, especially where action scenes are concerned. It just reminds me of how fucked the anime industry is when an adaptation of a fairly popular mobile game with a female MC can't get a good adaptation while crappy dime-a dozen isekai get entire studios dedicated to them, and the fact that the OP is so cool and stylish just makes the actual show look worse.

I think an anime like this would shine with a series of OVA's done in the style of the OP, and the same could be said for most mobage adaptations tbqh.


Miss Kuroitsu from the Monster Development Department is pretty good though and works as a funny parody of Tokusatsu.

[Markness]

Rynnec, where is your sig from?

I've been watching both One Piece and Orient. I am up to the Baroque Works arc in the former and two episodes have aired so far for the latter!

[Dr. Insomniac]

All the hype for the last season of Attack on Titan convinced me to catch up to the latest episode and read the ending, and I'm left with numerous questions like "Eren did what to his mom?" and "Why did Ymir love King Fritz?" And now I'm left wondering why the anime-only fans are hyped for an ending I've seen most of the manga fans despise.

[Daxdiv]

All the hype for the last season of Attack on Titan convinced me to catch up to the latest episode and read the ending, and I'm left with numerous questions like "Eren did what to his mom?" and "Why did Ymir love King Fritz?" And now I'm left wondering why the anime-only fans are hyped for an ending I've seen most of the manga fans despise.

Thinking that anime-only fans read the manga.... Well, that's your problem right there. Most people don't like reading manga for some reason.

[Dr. Insomniac]

But even without reading the manga, the ending's still there for anyone who wants to google it. Just like when after Naruto ended, even people who hadn't read or watched the series for years went "Wait, Orochimaru got away with everything? What the fuck?" Or maybe getting the same ending Code Geass had appeals to anime fans more than manga fans.

[Mustang]

Tried watching Rurouni Kenshin on Hulu. Was there a recast or something that happened that overruled the original voices? These voices sound terrible. Lots of unneeded grunts. I was having one of those nostalgic moments and wanted to watch Kenshin vs Saitoh and I hear this. I'm SOL if they ever decide to put this on Blu-Ray.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I think that's the Samurai X dub.

[Mustang]

Wow. Really? Samurai X voices in the series. Ew, and I loved Trust and Betrayal. Dub voices and all. But here? In my series? Nooooooo!!!

Over exaggeration aside, right now, no I cannot watch the series, but if I ever get in the mood to give it a shot I'll watch from the beginning just to see if I can warm up to these voices. If not, I'll pull up the good ol Dvd's.

[Daikun]

Tried watching Rurouni Kenshin on Hulu. Was there a recast or something that happened that overruled the original voices? These voices sound terrible. Lots of unneeded grunts. I was having one of those nostalgic moments and wanted to watch Kenshin vs Saitoh and I hear this. I'm SOL if they ever decide to put this on Blu-Ray.

Rurouni Kenshin was given two dubs--one from Media Blasters (the Toonami version everyone remembers) and a lesser-known dub from Sony.

[Mustang]

Wow, Sony eh.

To update though I did manage to find the original voices on HBO Max. I'm overjoyed now.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Maybe I'm turning into one of those "New seasonal anime bad! Old anime from my teenage years good!" curmudgeons, but I rewatched a little of some shows I grew up with like Slayers, Tenchi, and Fushigi Yuugi and had a good time. And it's not like they're better than recent shows. Fushigi Yuugi in particular is cheesy and melodramatic as shit, but there's just a sense of charm there I don't get from the anime that just came out a few months ago.

[Mustang]

It's not just you. As I said, re-watched the Kenshin vs Saitoh fight had me thinking along the same lines. Knowing that there are modern anime out there for me. I'm just not putting in the time looking for them or giving some of these newer shows a chance yet.

[Dr. Insomniac]

On that note, I did watch the first episodes of Ya Boy Kongming and Shokei Shojo no Virgin Road and they were great.

[Avaitor]

I recently caught up with Ranking of Kings, and I'll admit that it took me a couple of episodes to click. Bojji's communication style initially comes off as annoying (has he ever even used sign language?), and while I like the Tezuka influence in the art design, I can see why others would dismiss the show as kiddie between it and the earlier tone. But around the time he started traveling and honing his craft, I got the hype. He really is best boy.

[Avaitor]

A few years ago, I did a rewatch of Digimon Adventure and had a good time. I didn't get around to watching some of the other series until recently, when I got around to watching Adventure 2 again.

It's not bad, but I do think that it's a step down from the first one. Part of that may have been due to me sticking exclusively to the dub, when I had a good time alternating between the dub and sub with the first series. I probably should have done that here, because I forget how bad a lot of the dub's jokes are. They're probably even worse here than they were in the first Adventure's dub, as is the voice directing. Alotoftimesthecharactersspeeduptheirdialoguelikethistofittheirmouthmovementsratherthanwritingsuitableshorterdialogueandit'sannoying.

I also don't think that the Digidestineds are as likable as the first batch's. I actually remember Davis being a favorite back in the day, to the point that I had a Veemon pillow. But I don't think his cocky and demanding demeanor endures like it would have when I was younger. Yolei is also pretty brash, while Ken is boring when he drops the Digimon Emperor act, as are even TK and Kari. Cody is probably my favorite, if only for having a moral code, but he's also kind of flat. The show is more interesting when the other Digidestineds show up.

But I still like how Digimon differentiates itself from Pokemon by making it about the human's bond with their Digimon. Each of the Digidestineds get some good moments with their Digimon that explores why they both need each other, and those tend to be my favorite moments. And as much of a bastardization as it is, I do like the music made for the dub.

I'm somewhat interested in Tri, even though I've heard mixed things about the movies. Apparently the Blu-Rays are available at Dollar Tree now, so why not? But I'll probably get to Tamers first, but not right now. I don't remember liking that as much as the Adventure series, but it's conventionally seen as the best series today, so I'd like to be proven wrong. And while I remember watching and enjoying some of Frontier, I don't think that I'll get to that or any of the other series.