What Are You Watching?

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've been watching Space Brothers and Ashita no Joe, lately.

With Space Brothers, I'm up to the part where Mutta has passed the third exam and has just arrived in Houston, Texas for his interview at NASA. The anime has still managed to keep my interest without slowing down its pace, so I'll likely be catching up to this series before too long.

As for ANJ, I've just been watching the first anime in order to see its differences from the manga (of which their are a number) as well as to pass time by until new scans of the manga are released so I can continue with the story. I really have to say that this anime shows its age in terms of animation quality, as the dirt-cheap budget that this show obviously had to work with leads to some really clumsy looking motions for the characters. At the same time, the shoddy look of this series kind of fits with its tone of depicting lower-class Japan of that era, so in a weird way it has a sort of indescribable charm to it. The minimal use of instruments for the music also kind of gives this anime a distinct vibe, and it also got me to realize how much modern anime can over-use "big" musical scores as a cheap way to increase dramatic effect, whereas this series has to try and work around that stuff as much as possible. One really noticeable thing is that rather than having an official instrumental version of the main theme, each episode that I've seen so far plays it in a different way, which I find to be incredibly creative. In the first episode, for example, you see Joe whistling it; and how bad-ass (and incredibly meta) is it for the main character to be able to whistle their own theme-song? In another episode you hear it in the form of a piano, and in another it might be by guitar. I think that's a pretty cool way to make the limited amount of soundtracks that this show has to work with feel fresh and new each time, so that you don't feel like you've been listening to the same damn music a thousand times after just a few episodes.

Overall the anime has quite a few flaws, but for a relatively early anime-adaptation, it's certainly got some merit to it, and is just different enough from the manga to warrant checking out both versions (though the manga is still the better, more concise version of the story, of course).

As for other anime, I'm still in the middle of the Balbadd arc of Magi, and it's....OK, I guess. I mean, it's good stuff compared to a majority of the crap in shounen series these days, but I'm just not getting that "feeling" you get when you like a series so much that it compels you to keep watching or reading it until you finally catch up with it. I mean to say that while it's good, it's not quite the series that I would lose sleep over. For a reference point, something like the aforementioned Space Brothers or Ashita no Joe (manga only) are the types of series that can get me so hooked that I'd stay up late into the night watching them if I were stuck in the middle of a story-arc, until I actually got to some point of resolution. For what it is, though, it's still a fun shounen series that I watch at an even pace (about one episode every other day, at this point).

I've also been keeping up with Hunter X Hunter (obviously), Kill La Kill, Samurai Flamenco (I'll comment about my thoughts on the current status of this series after I see next week's episode), Hajime no Ippo: Rising, Kuroko no Basket 2, and Ace of Diamond. Of those series, I'm finally dropping Ace of Diamond. Out of all of the shounen sports manga/anime that I've seen so far, this is by far the weakest one. Really, it's just a steaming pile of mediocrity in the form of tons of genre tropes and boring, completely conventional characters. It also doesn't help that I find Baseball to be a painfully boring sport, and this series, unlike much better series in the shounen sports genre, doesn't do anything to convince me otherwise.

[Foggle]

Finals are over, so I just marathoned episodes 3-10 of Hunter x Hunter (the original). I'm really starting to get into this show now.

[gunswordfist]

Good man! I'll be watching the original once I get a good computer.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Finals are over, so I just marathoned episodes 3-10 of Hunter x Hunter (the original). I'm really starting to get into this show now.

Just keep in mind that the anime kind of hits a training arc around the middle that's not necessarily the most interesting thing, but everything outside of that is great, and the arc following it is the absolute best part of the series.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I've watched quite a lot of stuff this last week. No series besides the obvious stuff I'm keeping up with, but a bunch of great movies and OVAs. I don't think I can write good write-ups on them right now, but I'll leave some brief thoughts:

Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal - Pretty much what I expected. The basic story wasn't much different from the manga content-wise, aside from the climax, changing details so as to make Kenshin depressed/broken on his way to Tomoe instead of enraged, which I actually quite liked and might even prefer to the manga's depiction. Otherwise it was the Remembrance arc in all that made it so excellent already in the manga, with some small changes that I think made it even better. If I had any real complaint about it, it's that it doesn't feel like Rurouni Kenshin tonally, wheras the original manga version did, and the OVA's Kenshin almost came across as a different character in some respects. In the manga Kenshin is clearly different in the past than in the present, yet he still feels like Kenshin, but the OVA seemed to make him too serious, and maybe the removal/toning down of some of the more comedic scenes of the arc played a part in that. It's not a problem so much as an odd way to characterize him, though it does help the OVA series stand on it's own as well as compliment the main series. Overall I loved it, but I refuse to consider this anymore of a movie than something like Pokemon: Origins when it's an OVA series, but if I did consider it one I would rank it fairly high up as a favorite.

Dead Leaves - Man this movie is just so much damn fun. Classic Imaishi crazy-ness and proto-Gurren Lagann art stylings, plus a bloody and insane story that pulls no punches and keeps an eccentric ride rolling for 48 minutes straight - I couldn't help but smile the whole way through.

Pokemon: Origins - It was pretty fun, with lots of nice gags for longtime fans of the franchise and some great cuts of animation. I honestly wish this was a full anime series. Easily ten times better than the normal anime as it is. The dub especially is excellent, the best dub any Pokemon anything has ever gotten. The best part of the entire OVA series for me was hearing Jamieson Price (aka Jelly Jiggler from Bobobo) as Giovanni. This is the best part of all of Origins AND THAT IS UNDENIABLE FACT...but, uh, seriously that just made my day.  Overall Origins was probably the best crafted Pokemon anime I've seen in forever, and a real treat to watch. I don't think it was any much "darker and edgier" than the normal series or Adventures like people were claiming, but it certainly had a more mature tone to it which made it more palatable to me than the normal show usually is nowadays. I'd hope they make more specials like this in the future, or a new Pokemon anime in this vein, because  it was nice to like watching Pokemon after so many years. Or, they could just give Pokemon Adventures an anime adaption. That would be awesome.

Aside from these, I have also now watched all of the anime films directed by Mamorou Hosada, all in the course of one weekend. I did so because Summer Wars was airing on Toonami, and I've been wanting to watch some of his other work for a while anyways, so it seemed like a good as time as any to do it. I decided to watch his non-franchise films yesterday, and then watched his franchise ones today.

Digimon Adventure - First work he did and I watched this last. Heh. Anyway, this "movie" is only 20 minutes long, so it's more like a pilot episode for the anime than a real film. However, in that regard, it was a really fun pilot, and the fight between Red Greymon and the bird digimon was pretty cool and the animation really holds up. It actually makes me want to give Digimon Adventure a proper re-watch since outside of a few eps on Nicktoons here and there I last watched the series in....2004? I'm not gonna lie, I remember very little about it, so maybe I'll watch it again when I get done with Hajime no Ippo and some other stuff. I only wished that the series looked as good as this film, though.

Digimon: Our War Game - Seeing some of the influences Summer Wars takes from this movie was interesting to me. Plot-wise it didn't quite grab me (outside the small commentary on how actions online can have consequences/ global internet community and communication themes) because it as basically "a digimon is causing havoc on the interwebs, let's destroy it" and so there wasn't any character/emotional weight I really saw to invest in more than a Pokemon film. What makes this movie kick the ass of any Pokemon film (besides maybe Lucario and the Mystery of Mew) is it's visuals and animation which are pretty damn gorgeous, and the fight scenes were pretty fast and hard-htting as well. I thought it was a pretty cool film overall, but in execution I think Summer Wars does more with the idea and has more character weight to it too.

One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island - This was a better than average shonen movie. The creepiness/subdued tone was nice, and overall the movie was great stuff and I'm glad it actually had a theme/idea to get out of the story, but I didn't find it to be a exceptional film either. While I'm glad I've finally watched it, it's not really something I would watch again. Same for the Digimon movies; I enjoyed them, but they didn't leave much impact on me (outside of the Digimon ones making me want to watch the show).

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - I honestly loved this movie. Mainly because Makoto was a easily likable and entertaining protagonist from the get-go, and the movie wastes no time getting the plot rolling and establishing and developing the characters, overall making the end story a highly satisfying experience for me. It's easily one of my favorite anime films, now.

Summer Wars - This movie is simply excellent. Obviously visually the movie is gorgeous and I loved that, but it's the plot/characters which wins me over. It's amazing how they introduced such a big family, yet retain each member with a specific and distinguishable personality and design, and capture the awkwardness and personality types of large families as well. Honestly, the stuff in the real world was more interesting than the stuff in the OZ for me because of the excellent characterizations and interactions. I don't agree that the movie is slow at the beginning at all. It moved fast and took the time to introduce these characters and their personalities, and while not many of the characters got massive development or anything, they were characterized effectively enough to carry the movie forward. As far as the plot goes, I liked the commentary on how interconnected all our activities are thanks to online information trafficking/socializing and the ramifications activities on the internet can have in real world consequences. Also the core idea of family sticking together through hardships was excellent and blended in with the other themes seamlessly. Overall the movie was easily one of the most well-crafted anime films I've watched. I think it's now my second favorite anime film now, after Beautiful Dreamer.

Wolf Children - Maybe I had too high expectations for it after 9 months of being hyped up to see it, but while I liked the film, I couldn't end up loving it like I expected to. I mean, yeah, the animation, music direction, and art direction was all beautiful and perfectly implemented and lived up to my hopes. Lots of amazing scenes in this movie. But the story was as effective for me. That's mostly because of the uneven perspective in the movie. What starts out as Hana's story becomes Ame and Yuki's story in the end. While that itself isn't a problem, it didn't feel like Hana reached a apex point in her character arc in the same way Ame and Yuki did in their final decisions on the path of life they wished to take. The third-person narration, while fair, prevents Hana from really being explored much as a character, and she doesn't make many mistakes nor seems to learn anything throughout the story. I mean in terms of raising the kids, since she did learn to open up to other people for help, but her troubles understanding how she should raise Ame and Yuki were her main problem for most of the narrative and this seems almost forgotten by the films end. Just some things about Hana's character arc felt a little unsatisfying to me, and this disappointed me since I have been hyped up on the movie for so long. Ame and Yuki's development and character arcs were excellent though, and the movie as a whole was full of great moments. I'm just disappointed I wasn't as enthralled with it as I wanted to be. Maybe I should re-watch it when I can get the dvd and then re-evaluate it, as I feel more mixed on the movie than I feel I should be, right now.

Overall I would rank Hosada's works:

1 - Summer Wars
2 -  The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
3 - Wolf Children
4 - One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island
5 - Digimon: Our War Game
6 - Digimon Adventure

I liked all of them, but I LOVED 1&2, have mixed feelings of like/love on Wolf Children, and think 4-6 are fun watches, but not more than that. In any case, I'm glad I finally watched these films, and now I can move on to the other anime films on my backlog like Redline, Naussica, Castle in the Sky, and Grave of the Fireflies. I should also finally get back to watching Hajime no Ippo, but my interest has been piqued on Shin Sekai Yori, which I've heard several people claim as one of the best animes of this year, and I also have yet to watch Watamote and start Gundam Build Fighters, so I might try getting through those first.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Good impressions.

Glad to see that you liked all of these movies to some degree.

I don't really agree about Wolf Children, though. I think the perspective was always mostly from Hana's side throughout the film, while each of the kids got about the same amount of screen-time between each other, and each had well-defined character arcs. I've seen this complaint come up before, but I just flat-out don't see it, myself.

And Hana makes plenty of mistakes and learns a lot throughout the story. She is not portrayed idealistically in the slightest. She constantly runs into problems while trying to raise her kids and the whole point of her character is that she's a woman who "learns" how to work around those problems. When she initially forbids her children from going to school because she's scared of people realizing their secret, that's a clear mistake right there, and she eventually realizes that it's not right upon seeing how much it upsets her daughter. The whole movie is full of moments like that, so I definitely didn't see it the way that you did.

And the whole point of her character arc was in regard to raising her children, which is actually a big thing. With her daughter she has to be as supportive as possible and keep her encouraged to live out her path in life, which is a huge jump from how in the beginning of the film she was very reserved and wanted to just hide her kids from the outside world. On the other hand, her son chose to be a wolf, and she had to learn to let him go off into the wild. She had to come to grips with that just being in his nature.

Anyways, I do respect your opinion as always, but somehow I saw it almost the exact opposite as you did. Sorry if it didn't do much for you, though. I still honestly think its one of the best animated films ever, though, and easily my 2nd favorite Hosoda film.

Putting that aside, I'm really glad to see that you enjoyed Summer Wars about as much as I did. I think it's the full realization of what Hosoda clearly wanted to do with Our War Game, but couldn't because of its ties to the Digi-verse, which honestly held it back more than anything else.

I pretty much agree with you wholeheartedly on the One Piece movie. It's definitely a very interesting watch, but it's also the weakest Hosoda film as well.

As for The Girl Who Leapt Though Time, it's not a favorite of mine, but it's a very well-made film. I personally didn't find Makoto's development to have been handled as food as the characters in Summer Wars and Wolf Children, but not being compared to those 2 films, the characterization certainly was admirable.

And yeah, the Trust & Betrayal OVAs were glorious, though I do personally prefer the manga's version of the story, myself.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Thanks! They were all enjoyable movies.

On Wolf Children, I really do feel the perspective shifts from Hana to between Ame and Yuki around the middle of the film, with Hana's presence diminished until Ame leaves home for good and she chases after him. But I actually do agree with you on some of the actions she takes early on in raising the kids as mistakes and perhaps I shouldn't have said I didn't feel she learned anything about raising them because she did in the way she adapted to her children's needs. Somehow, though, I felt many of Hana's issues didn't resolve themselves organically, or were touched upon but only somewhat. I don't think Hana is an idealized mother figure to quite the degree JO or some others so, but I do feel that a lot of her mistakes are resolved fairly quickly as they are introduced or focused upon in the film, and the lack of more heated conflicts with her children, more scenes depicting her stress/confusion on how to raise the kids, etc. is a shame since I think they would have helped make her a more rounded and believable character. The shift in focus also makes her character arc feel unsatisfying to me. It just really didn't feel like her film by the end of the movie, but Ame and Yuki's, since their development reached more defined conclusions, at least for me. At the end of the day, I agree that it's a great film, but these issues I have with Hana's character arc just prevent me from liking it as much as I should, and since I was hyped for this movie for a long time that does disappoint me a little. When I re-watch the film I'll pay closer attention to her character arc to track her development through the film, and perhaps then I'll be able to see it more in the same light as you do.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

On Wolf Children, I really do feel the perspective shifts from Hana to between Ame and Yuki around the middle of the film, with Hana's presence diminished until Ame leaves home for good and she chases after him.

But you seem to be forgetting the fact that Hana was still very involved with her children I. These processes. With Ame, just who was it that was taking him to the Zoo in the first place to meet that wolf? And of course when he found a teacher, there was a whole scene where he took his mother to see him, and later they had that argument where Hana didn't want hi to spend so much time outside. As for Yumi, the mother was always in the background supporting her. For instance, when she ended up scratching that boy, Hana came to her side right away. And she was the one who pushed Yumi to make friends with hi whenever he was around. So she certainly wasn't forgotten about in the latter half of the movie. Her presence was as strong as other. The only difference is that now her kids were becoming more independent from her, which was the point. That's a natural part of growing up.

Somehow, though, I felt many of Hana's issues didn't resolve themselves organically, or were touched upon but only somewhat.

Like which ones? If you mean to say that not everything about her character was tied up and wrapped up in a neat little bow by the end, then I think that was wholly intentional. People never stop growing and developing in terms of who they are, so that's just another part of life. That said, I do feel that she had an overall complete character arc throughout this film.

I don't think Hana is an idealized mother figure to quite the degree JO or some others so, but I do feel that a lot of her mistakes are resolved fairly quickly as they are introduced or focused upon in the film, and the lack of more heated conflicts with her children, more scenes depicting her stress/confusion on how to raise the kids, etc. is a shame since I think they would have helped make her a more rounded and believable character.

They aren't really resolved that quickly, though. It just seems that way because the movie takes place over a number of years, so you have to keep in mind that time moves by rather quickly in the solan of just a 2-hour film. Many issues that come up are implied to take months to resolve. As for having more heated conflicts with her kids, for one thing her issue with Ame wanting to leave home was VERY heated, IMO, to the point where he just up and left her and she ended up chasing him outside in the middle of a storm. And let's not forget that this movie isn't JUST about Hana. It is called "Wolf Children" after all, and the siblings also have a very heated dispute with each other. And as for wanting more conflict between the mother and kids, all I can say is that it's just not who Hana is as a character. She's not confrontational by nature, so complaining about that is like saying you'd rather have a completely different character.

The shift in focus also makes her character arc feel unsatisfying to me. It just really didn't feel like her film by the end of the movie, but Ame and Yuki's

Maybe because it's NOT supposed to be her film. It's called WOLF CHILDREN. Why am I the only one on the planet who apparently gets that?

No, but seriously, it's not just her film. And it's not a shift in focus at all. It's a spread of focus. As Ame and Yumi become independent, they start getting more individual focus. However Hana is certainly not diminished as a character. I already used my evidence to support my point, but basically my argument is that people making that complaint maybe got too used to seeing her get all of the focus in the first half of the film, that it may just be jarring to see her have to share that focus with the kids in the second half.

Anyways, different strokes I suppose, but I did at least want to defend my opinions a little bit.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

Lets see...

Kill la Kill - Arguably the best anime of the year. Trigger really knows how to blend together action, comedy, and drama, all of which are top notch, as well as playing with the the viewers expectations. Sure, I'm not as big on the humor as other people are, but this is still an amazing production. That said...

Samurai Flamenco - I think I might be enjoying this anime slightly more then KLK. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about Hazama's desire to be a hero really gets to me. Even with the recent twist, I'm interested to see where this goes.

Akira - Having always wanted to see this, but being to lazy to actually sit down and watch it, hearing it was airing on Toonami was the perfect opportunity to see the so called classic after I recorded it of course. And...yeah, it was awesome.

Summer Wars - I'll confess to not enjoying the family as much as the online portion of the film, it was still well done. One of the best anime films I've seen in a while, EK. 

JoJo Bizarre Adventure's (2012) - Just finished marathoning the Phantom Blood half of the series. I've heard the series gets better in the latter parts, but I actually really enjoyed Part 1. Jonathan and Dio are pretty one dimensional, but there still fun and entertaining. It's one of those shows thats so insane that the cliches and melodrama actually make it better, IMO. One of my new favorites. I'll get to Battle Tendency latter.

Now the real question is whether I start Legend of the Galactic Heroes or finish my first run of the Simpsons. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually don't have a problem with the twist itself in Samurai Flamenco. My issue is with how the general people seem to be reacting to that twist within their own Universe....which is to say, not at all. Considering how the series started out as something grounded in some form of believability, it just doesn't make sense to me that there wouldn't at least be a few characters raising their eyebrows or speaking out and asking WTF!? all this crazy shit starts happening all of a sudden. That said, oddly enough, I'm still compelled to keep watching the series, so obviously it's still doing something right.

[gunswordfist]

Watched episode 109 of HXH today. The tension is killing me.

[Grave]

Been a while since I've seen any anime and posted in this thread.

DBZ: Abridged
It's probably sad that this is the only way I can actually watch this series now considering this is what I grew up on, and for 2 different reasons at that. Growing up, I was watching DBZ only for the fights and nothing more. Over time I've come to like other elements in anime other than fighting (although that still remains to be my #1 priority) and that's when I started to grow out of DBZ, and then I finally got to see Cowboy Bebop, and a couple years later Ghost in the Shell: SAC and then for me I grew out of DBZ altogether, although, I must admit that I'm fairly bias when it comes to GitS (and will even admit that it can be a little bit unfair to even compare a lot of series to it). Eventually I tried to get back into it before coming across hardcore fans of the series which was pretty much the final nail in the coffin.

Anyway, fast forward to now with watching Abridged (my sister got me into it) which I don't watch for the fights but because I find it funny. Another thing to consider is that I don't particularly care for is parodies or comedies, but I find this pretty funny, and that's mainly because of Vegeta and Piccolo. The things they say are off the wall. Right now if I had to say what my favorite episode is, it'd probably be episode(s)10-12 (I think those're the ones where Goku fights Vegeta). Krillin (I swear I hate him in DBZ) has some very funny moments along with Frieza.

I'm thinking about checking out Team 4 Stars version of Hellsing as well, but I'll wait until I actually watch the rest of Ultimate

[LumRanmaYasha]

We should make a separate thread for Abridged series, since they aren't "legitimate" shows, being fan-based parody series. But yeah, DBZ Abridged is seriously one of the funniest things ever. They make the effort, in terms of writing, editing, acting, visuals, etc. to make the series feel wholly unique and quality entertainment. The professionalism in the series is amazing, so much so that after watching it it's hard togo back to the original, even in Kai form.   I seriously think LittleKuriboh's Freeza trumps any other version of the character. It's just that great, and hilarious, a performance. Piccolo and Vegeta are similarly great, but of course, what they did with Nappa was legendary. 

But while DBZ abridged is my favorite abridged series, Yugioh abridged is the first, the original, and still at least the second best. I can go back to DBZ (in manga and Kai form) after DBZ abridged. I can't say the same thing for Yugioh. LK really has made those characters his own,  completely, and gave them stronger personalities than the original ever did. His Bakura and Marik in particular far outstrip the original characters, in the same way Space Ghost: Coast to Coast's Space Ghost, Zorak, Moltar, and Brak are far more interesting and memorable characters than their originals as well. Though, that's no surprise, since SG:CtC is essentially the original abridged series. 

Y'know what, lemme go and make a thread for Abridged series right now...

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

After the fad of abridging series died down, and I look back at it all, I can safely say that the only 2 that hold up for me are DBZ and YGO abridged. And even with those series, the early episodes were very amateur and not all that great. DBZ only started being legit funny once they got around to the Namek arc, and with YGO it was toward the finals in the first arc.

But, yes, LK and Team 4 Star (who also work together on DBZ abridged) have gotten really professional about it at this point.

[Pharass]

Just finished Ashita no Nadja. Liked it a lot, I'm thinking of reviewing it for the site. I've also resumed watching Ashita no Joe, I put it on-hold for awhile since other shows more strongly demanded my attention, but recently I got in the mood of catching up on it. I'm glad I did, the story-arc I'm currently on (focusing on Rikiishi starving himself so that he and Joe end up in the same weight class) have been excellent, so far.

There are other shows I'm currently watching (such as Kill la Kill, which is highly entertaining) but I can't think of anything to write about them at the moment.