What Are You Watching?

[gunswordfist]

I'll keep that in mind.

I watched episode 1 of Saint Seiya Lost Canvas. Uh yeah, I am skipping this one. It was dry and filled with typical anime tropes, including a few creepy ones. And the hero is dumb as a rock. He goes to save his friends...by punching a rock then leaves them the next day because some stranger in golden armor says he can give him a chance to save other people by being a Saint of Athena, which of course should be a completely unbelievable statement.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Damn, Maison Ikkoku got really addicting after that mini-arc with Kyoko's parents. I've been watching it copiously now, and it's easily becoming one of my favorite animes. I can see why everyone considers this to be the best of Takahashi's works, even though this is the anime adaption and not the manga; it really is quite down to earth and a truly engaging romance story, with likeable, plausibly realistic, relatable characters (Yotsuya is probably the most unbelievable character in the cast, but he's so damn funny and has a charm to him that it doesn't distract from the illusion at all). At the rate I'm going, I just might finish the series before the weekend is over! After that... I'll get back to Lain and Fate/Zero. Damn backlog...

[gunswordfist]

After two episodes of Saint Seiya Omega, I gave up on that version of Saint Seiya too. Painfully generic. I'll just trudge through Greed Island unless I can find another show to watch in between episodes of hxh.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I just watched the first Berserk: Golden Age Arc movie, The Egg of the King.

It was...eh. The use of CG in the film came across as odd and rather clunky to me, and didn't quite gel well with the traditional animation. More importantly, I didn't really feel engaged in the film. Not because of the fact I already knew how everything was gonna play out because I've read the manga, but more in the way it was executed.

I haven't finished the Golden Age arc, I'm at volume 9, but I've really enjoyed it so far, and honestly, in my opinion, this film really didn't do it much justice. In fact, if I hadn't read or seen Berserk before at all, I probably would have been rather bored, and that's criminal for something as exciting and engaging as Berserk. Geez, I'd say it was worse than One Piece: Desert Princess and the Pirates: Adventures in Alabasta; that was also a heavily abridged and meh-worthy retelling of a great arc, but at least that had some fun fight scenes and pacing once the Alubarna portion of the movie came up.

Oh well, hopefully the next two Golden Age Arc movies will be better. By the time I've seen them I should be long done with Golden Age, so I'll hope to see a more interesting adaption of the material in those films. Either way I'm going to probably watch the anime series sometime down the line, although "down the line" in my case could mean in two years or so. Damn my backlog...

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

After two episodes of Saint Seiya Omega, I gave up on that version of Saint Seiya too. Painfully generic. I'll just trudge through Greed Island unless I can find another show to watch in between episodes of hxh.

Omega doesn't get good until the 30's. Though it honestly isn't worth watching unless you want to marathon entire chunks of the show in one sitting or you really like Umakoshi's character designs.

[VLordGTZ]

I finally watched the first 13 episodes of Fate/Zero.  I'm loving it so far.   Fate/Zero is probably going to become one of my favorite anime if season 2 ends up being just as good as season 1 (if not better).

[gunswordfist]

RSW, I want to do neither. lol

[gunswordfist]

Hmmm, I might actually want to start Fate/Zero.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I just watched the first 5 episodes of Martian Successor Nadesico. So far, I quite like it. It's really quite funny, and the main characters are quite likeable, although some of the minor ones aren't quite that well characterized, at least yet. However, the series is really fast paced, and during the first episode especially things were going to fast for me to really enjoy what was happening on screen. The jump cuts were also a little jarring, but I got used to them by the third episode. The characters also have the tendency to yell every other line and talk over each other, which is sometimes a little annoying. I think this might be a dub thing, though, so maybe I should be watching the sub if that would be better.

The biggest problem I have with it, right now, is that sometimes there is mood-whiplash. Like, there is a scene that's supposed to be serious, but then immediately following it is an over the top, zany comedy scene. It's kind of hard to soak in the impact of something like Jun fighting against the Nadesico crew or Gai's (brilliantly) unceremonious death, when the scene right after involves Yurika obsessing over Akito. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on, but it sometimes it feels like the series is trying really hard ot be both funny and dramatic, and it's not managing to balance things out well quite yet. I still enjoyed watching these episodes, though, and I'm actually quite eager to watch some more, but I'd like to see some of these problems I'm having with it mitigate as I continue forward.

Anyway, I'm only 25 episodes to the end of Maison Ikkoku. That's still a lot of episodes, but that's quite a bit of progress I've made in watching it over a week. It's easily become one of my favorite animes, and might break into a top tener if the final 25 really grasp me. I should finish the series this week, so I'll be curious to see the how everything is going to end (being a Takahashi series, it could very well have a open ended ending, but I have my hopes)  .

[TheEclecticDude]

So, watching Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, which I got at the FYE the other day. Episodes 1-4 make for an interesting series, essentially its a love story with a ghost girl. Nice blend of comedy, drama, and horror that don't overstep each other.

Also, the DVD collection comes with 2 OST CDs in it, so once i'm done might take a listen to these.

[Foggle]

I remember being interested in that show, but never watched it. I'll have to sometime!

[LumRanmaYasha]

Watched episodes 6-10 of Martian Successor Nadesico yesterday. I still like it, but it's not balancing it's comedy and drama as well as I like. I mean, when the Admiral sacrifices himself in episode 7 everybody makes a big deal of it, but the character barely did anything in the past 6 episodes and only became important when Akito discovered he was responsible for abandoning a bunch of innocent people when the Jovians attached the ship he used to be on, leaving them to get murdered. Same with the death of all the Mars refuges in the episode prior; it happens all too quick and doesn't leave as much of an impact as it should. It's a shame because Nadesico has a lot of neat ideas, but they get squandered by weak buildup and payoff. The love triangle stuff fairs better, although developed through standard-ish execution and ideas I've seen before in other anime (the main female leads can't cook! What a surprise! Hilarious!...not), and I have no idea how Ryoko gained a crush on Akito. I guess I must have missed something, but it seemed to come out of nowhere an episode after she was introduced and the fact she's a typical "tsundere" doesn't help my enjoyment of it.  Another thing that bothers me is that the cast at large doesn't have much development, and the few that do have the same kind that I've seen before in other anime and were done better (Akito reminds me too much of Shinji without as much to sympathize with, I gotta say), with Yurika being the only really standout character for me so far. It's still a fun show, though, but it's plot and characters could be better fleshed out and explored than they are, so hopefully the next 16 episodes will improve on them.


10 Episodes left of Maison Ikkoku. I can't wait to get to them, because I have a good feeling they'll provide great payoff and closure to a great series. After I'm done with Ikkoku I'll get right on to finishing Lain and then start off Fate/Zero, which, from what my brother's told me, is a definite must-watch series.

[VLordGTZ]

I finally finished Fate/Zero............................................IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!

[Foggle]

I finally finished Fate/Zero............................................IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!

Nice! I love the second to last episode.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Watched episodes 6-10 of Martian Successor Nadesico yesterday. I still like it, but it's not balancing it's comedy and drama as well as I like. I mean, when the Admiral sacrifices himself in episode 7 everybody makes a big deal of it, but the character barely did anything in the past 6 episodes and only became important when Akito discovered he was responsible for abandoning a bunch of innocent people when the Jovians attached the ship he used to be on, leaving them to get murdered. Same with the death of all the Mars refuges in the episode prior; it happens all too quick and doesn't leave as much of an impact as it should. It's a shame because Nadesico has a lot of neat ideas, but they get squandered by weak buildup and payoff.

There's much more pay-off later, but the early stuff is mostly for setting up tone. I think the Admiral's sacrifice was only really done to show that war isn't as simple as Akito might have thought it was. I do agree that the death doesn't really have much of an impact and could have been handled better.

The love triangle stuff fairs better, although developed through standard-ish execution and ideas I've seen before in other anime (the main female leads can't cook! What a surprise! Hilarious!...not), and I have no idea how Ryoko gained a crush on Akito. I guess I must have missed something, but it seemed to come out of nowhere an episode after she was introduced and the fact she's a typical "tsundere" doesn't help my enjoyment of it.  Another thing that bothers me is that the cast at large doesn't have much development, and the few that do have the same kind that I've seen before in other anime and were done better (Akito reminds me too much of Shinji without as much to sympathize with, I gotta say), with Yurika being the only really standout character for me so far. It's still a fun show, though, but it's plot and characters could be better fleshed out and explored than they are, so hopefully the next 16 episodes will improve on them.

Ryoko is probably the worst character in the show, I'm not kidding. She's not a good replacement for Guy, and she's just a typical tsundere character that never actually develops at all beyond hey typical traits. Even her friends get a bit more added to them as the show goes, but she gets nothing worth mentioning. Most every character in the show gets something to them in some aspect, which makes rewatches on the series more enjoyable.

I think Akito gets less "Shinji-esque" as the show goes, but in the beginning I think he has an excuse to be depressed considering what happened to his friend.

All I can say is keep watching. The show has some surprises later on. (I also really dig the theme song)