What Are You Watching?

[VLordGTZ]

Here's what I've been keeping up with lately:
Space Dandy
Kill la Kill
Hunter x Hunter
Magi: The Kingdom of Magic
Samurai Flamenco
Gundam Build Fighters
One Piece
Detective Conan- I have only watched the episodes that Funimation has dubbed so I'll probably go back and watch the episodes I haven't seen at some point.  The series is pretty easy to understand though, so the new episodes are still quite enjoyable.

Aside from watching those series, I'm finally getting around to finishing Monster (I keep procrastinating on doing it).  I also plan to watch Lupin the 3rd (Red Jacket) and Silver Spoon pretty soon as well.

[LumRanmaYasha]

You started watching Build Fighters too? How far are you?

As for Detective Conan, where did you start in that? I think if you just want to watch more recent episodes for now, you should start at episode 646 since that's basically the beginning of the Bourbon storyline which has A LOT of great sub arcs, plus the payoff in the "Raven Train Murder Case" will be more exciting as well.

[VLordGTZ]

Yeah, I started Build Fighters last week.  I completely caught up with the show right now.  As for Detective Conan, I started with episode 710 (mainly because it had Heiji Hattori in it) and then watched up to 724. 

[LumRanmaYasha]

I see. Since you haven't read the manga though, I do think you should try and watch through the Bourbon arc of Detective Conan since it has some really great stuff in it and introduces two very important characters while building upon a third. Though, I myself wish I did a proper read/watch-through of this series from at least Ai Haibara's introduction, since I wouldn't have been spoiled on a few things from past arcs in the Bourbon arc and newer chapters. 

[gunswordfist]

Anyone who finds Secret Of Mamo boring is a monster. It's clearly better than CoC.

[Pharass]

Some thoughts about what I've been watching lately:

Ashita no Joe: The match between Rikishi and Joe definitely lived up to expectations, being a very suspenseful and intense match with both rivals being pushed (and pushing themselves) to the limit. However, the after-math of the match proved even better in terms of raw, emotional drama. I won't say anything more because I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't seen it yet, but suffice to say that episode 51 is my favorite episode so far in the series, great stuff.

I've also finally gotten around to watching Samurai Champloo. I'm ten episodes in and while it's not quite Cowboy Bebop level, I find it to be a very enjoyable show and will keep watching it. The end theme is great.

As for more recent shows, I find myself looking forward to each new episode of Kill la Kill.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Ashita no Joe: The match between Rikishi and Joe definitely lived up to expectations, being a very suspenseful and intense match with both rivals being pushed (and pushing themselves) to the limit. However, the after-math of the match proved even better in terms of raw, emotional drama. I won't say anything more because I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't seen it yet, but suffice to say that episode 51 is my favorite episode so far in the series, great stuff.

The aftermath is what sealed this as one of my favorite manga of all time. I seriously wondered if the series could maintain its high level of quality passed this heated confrontation between destined rivals, and quite frankly it flat-out surpassed my expectations. I'm glad I'm not the only person to have discovered how great this series is, and just why it's retarded as such a classic in Japan.

[gunswordfist]

I watched the first episode of A Woman Named Fujiko Mine and I liked what I saw. It has one of the better cases of a different kind of art direction. I usually find those to be annoying.

[gunswordfist]

Finished episode 114. Man was there a lot of slomo. Anyway, I think this is the most I've ever worried about any fictional characters, excluding The Walking Dead. I kind of hate feeling like this.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, the stakes have never been higher in HXH. You really get the feeling that these characters are hanging onto their lives by the thinnest of threads, and the tension still only keeps on building from here.

[gunswordfist]

  This is going to be rough on me.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I just watched episode 2 of Ashita no Joe 2, and it has me really conflicted, but in a good way. What I'm referring to is a big change from the manga in regard to the Carlos Rivera arc. In the manga, there's a whole section where Joe is off by himself for a period of time before deciding to come back and challenge Rivera. However the anime completely forgoes this section for a completely understandable reason, because it's kind of redundant of an earlier story arc, but at the same time this other section of the manga was done so well that it didn't really feel redundant for me, and felt like a natural part of Joe's character arc. Also, in excluding this section, the anime has to change the circumstances in which Joe meets Rivera, so knowing that the anime can make changes from the manga that are this big, I'm once again unsure if I want to finish the anime first since part of me wants to experience the original version of the story first.

Having said that, the change itself, despite cutting out stuff that I really like from the manga, is....still really, really, really good stuff. I mean the director of this anime clearly knows what the fuck he's doing, and the story still flows as good as ever. Also, I do still really appreciate the change. It shows careful thought and effort, and isn't like these lazy shounen anime adaptations that you see these days, which really just copied and pasted from the source material. I actually kind of wish that more anime could be like this?

I also love how, like in the manga, there are so many little touches in this anime that just add to the substance and personality of it all. Like when Joe is talking to Rivera's manager to get him to agree to a sparring match with him, all the while testing Rivera's temper by flicking popcorn at him very casually, and Rivera just trying to ignore it with a slight smirk on his face showing a bit of amusement at Joe's shenanigans. It adds a bit of levity to the scene without going overboard with humor (which is what most shounen anime these days would do), and nobody ever explicitly says anything about it, but you can see their reaction to stuff like that in just their facial animations alone. I know it seems like such a small and petty thing to praise, but the manga and anime are FULL of scenes like that, and it all really just adds up to make it feel like something with a very human personality to it. It's the type of stuff that you would see and appreciate in an anime like Cowboy Bebop too, which is why that series felt like it had so much personality as well.

Anyways, this is on the fast-track to becoming one of my favorite anime of all-time (I'm talking top 3 material here), and of course the manga is already a favorite. Really, I find this series to be one of those rare entities that I would personally like every member on this board to experience. It's like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Monster, or Legend of the Galactic Heroes (which admittedly I still need to watch), in that I think most anime fans should at least give it a shot. Having said that, the only reason I don't pester people about it more is because the full manga is not available in English, and while both parts of the anime are great, part 1 might be a tad bit too slow for some people, while part 2 won't be nearly as great of an experience unless you've either read or watched part 1 of the manga or anime. So, it puts me in kind of a shitty situation when it comes to recommending this series, but if it ever does get finished, you can all bet your asses that I'm going to send out AnJ awareness PMs.

[LumRanmaYasha]

I just watched episode 2 of Ashita no Joe 2, and it has me really conflicted, but in a good way. What I'm referring to is a big change from the manga in regard to the Carlos Rivera arc. In the manga, there's a whole section where Joe is off by himself for a period of time before deciding to come back and challenge Rivera. However the anime completely forgoes this section for a completely understandable reason, because it's kind of redundant of an earlier story arc, but at the same time this other section of the manga was done so well that it didn't really feel redundant for me, and felt like a natural part of Joe's character arc. Also, in excluding this section, the anime has to change the circumstances in which Joe meets Rivera, so knowing that the anime can make changes from the manga that are this big, I'm once again unsure if I want to finish the anime first since part of me wants to experience the original version of the story first.

Actually, that part of the manga IS adapted in the anime. One of them, anyway. After I finished the scans yesterday (my thoughts on which I will post later), I became curious about the anime. Pharass said that the aftermath of Joe and Rikishi's fight was handled in episode 51. The aftermath, of course, was the conclusion of part 1 of the series. The first anime is 79 episodes long though, so I figured they must have adapted some of part 2 as well. I decided to check out the most recent subbed episode of the first series (episode 71, which means the fan-subbers still have 8 episodes to go until they finish...), to confirm my suspicions. And indeed, those suspicions were validated, as episode 71 shows Joe watching Carlos' fight with Nangou as he did in the manga during the time he was with the underground boxers. That said, there were several notable changes as well, some of them rather surprising.

Of course, that got me curious as to seeing what changes to the story you were referring to in regard to Joe 2. After checking out the 7th episode (which I assumed you meant instead of episode 2, which you had already posted about watching before), I see that Joe 2 actually restarts back to the beginning of part 2, just going through it faster than the parts adapted in the first anime. That makes perfect sense, considering there is 9 year gap between the end of the first Ashita no Joe anime and the second. The difference in the style of adaption can be attributed to the fact both series have different directors too.

Regardless of the crossover of content or redundancies, though,  I'll be going through both anime. And after seeing those episodes, I'm quite excited to see how both anime take this fantastic series and possibly make it even greater.

In other news, I dropped Nobunagun and Nisekoi, am putting Noragami, new One Piece, and Gundam Build Fighters on the backburner until I have more time, and have started watching Pokemon XY (subbed of course) after being pleasantly surprised by a few episodes. Aside from Ashita no Joe, I plan to finish Mushi-shi and Psycho-Pass before their new seasons start in Spring. And, as always, I'm still trying to get through Hajime no Ippo, though I've made little progress and will probably not make much more until summer at this point, especially since I'll probably focus all my (increasingly small) free-time on Joe. 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I actually found that out about a day or so after I posted that when I realized that the first anime covered a significant portion of part 2 before it ended. Anyways, I'm loving both series, so I'll be sure to continue them.

I can't wait to see you post your thoughts on the rest of the scans now that you've finally caught up to them.

[The Shadow Gentleman]

I finished the Battle Tendency portion of the 2012 JoJo's Bizarre Adventures anime a few days ago. It's defiantly an improvement over the first part (and I like the first part more then most people as it is). Joseph is one of the best shounen protagonists I've seen in a while. I seriously love the way he can be an idiot half the time and then pull off great strategies the other half. And the Pillar Men have the best villain names ever.

I'm going to try and read through part 3 of the manga in preparation for the new anime.