The JesuOtaku Thread

[Avaitor]

Also, I know Insommy will be curious about how she'll handle her next review.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I had meant to comment on her latest review much earlier, but was too busy to get around to it.

Personally, I've never found any appeal in anything done by CLAMP. I can give them at least a little bit of respect for maybe having some genuine effort put into some of their better works, but overall I just don't find anything that they do to be that well-written or executed, with the best thing that I've seen of theirs' being Code Geass....and personally I find that series to be pretty overrated drek, but hey, that's just me.

As for Chobits, I tried watching it a few years back and it definitely wasn't for me. Granted that, I never made it past the half-way point and JO says that it gets a bit more meaningful in its last third, but even so she admitted that it doesn't really delve that deep into being great sci-fi material, and the last third would have to indeed be truly great material for me to have found it worth having put up with the first 2 acts of the series, which while certainly not horrible (at least considering how it is relative to other series in its garbage of a genre) are definitely a long stretch away from what I personally find appealing, and honestly the best of what I did see from the first half of the series just downright bored me. Yeah, to be honest, its not even a problem of being too annoying or anything like that. Just like most other CLAMP series that I have tried, I just find it hard to stay awake through, honestly.

So, yeah, this isn't my cup of tea, but I can respect JO's opinion if she enjoys this sort of anime. Still, its definitely not something that I would personally recommend to any actual fans of sci-fi.

[Avaitor]

Well I liked Cardcaptors as a kid. Never saw the actual version though, hackdub aside.

Otherwise, I can't say any of CLAMP's series are for me.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Kind of liked Cardcaptors. Thought Tsubasa and XXXHolic were mediocre at best. And with Code Geass, the show would probably gain an extra point for me if they had character designers who knew how to draw people with normal proportion sizes.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Cardcaptor Sakura is a pretty good magical girl show. Cardcaptors was what happens when you try to edit a show into something it's not, with possibly the worst OP in the history of animation.

It's probably their best work, but again, I don't think it would really appeal to any of the AR posters much.

[Avaitor]

I don't know, I always considered watching some of it again. I find Sailor Moon bearable today, and from what I can recall, CCS is more entertaining.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Hey, I'm still waiting for a Sailor Moon Kai to cut a lot of the filler. I like the canon eps of Sailor Moon even today.

But if you can get into magical girl shows, then it's easily one of the better ones.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Fun Fact: The creator of the Sailor Moon series is married to Yoshihiro Togashi. This really has nothing to do with anything but I found it fitting to mention nonetheless because....it relates to Yu Yu Hakusho in some obscure way....I don't know, but fuck it, I don't need a reason. I just take any opportunity I get to pointlessly mention YYH and Togashi.

At any rate, I have actually been thinking of reading the manga for Sailor Moon when I finally get the chance to.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Honestly, I think that's another similarity between the two, I like the anime (for the most part) more than the manga, even with the filler. It helped flesh out some characters (Nephrite is infinitely cooler in the anime) and makes the story a bit more straightforward. Though there are issues like how Toei fucked up the ending so the anime is essentially worthless after the last season we got here.

But since the series in such a dumb limbo right now, we might never get even a new version of the show, never mind a Kai treatment.

[gunswordfist]

25- Case Closed- Even putting nostalgia aside, I think its a highly entertaining series in its own right. Its something I'd invest more time in without hesitation if it weren't for its massive length.
24- Bamboo Blade- Eh, I can respect her choice and she admits that its more fitting for her personal taste than being legitimately great, but its just not for me from what I have already tried to watch of it.
23- Chobits- I'm not into CLAMP series myself, but I have to admit that I've never even given this show a try, so maybe someday I will.
22- Digimon Tamers- Alright, I can fully respect this series as being the most mature and dark of the Digimon series, and I fully acknowledge that, but unlike most people, that alone doesn't make a series good for me. Personally, I felt that Digimon Tamers, while having a lot of heart and passion put into it, was very flawed in its execution. But, for what its worth, once I finish re-watching 02 I'll get into re-watching this series, so you can't say that I'm not going to be giving it another fair chance to change my mind. Still, I get the strong feeling that people overrated this series solely because it was more mature and dark relative to the other series, rather than on its enjoyment quality or overall execution, personally.
21- Kino's Journey- This is a series that I meant to saw quite a few years ago, but just plain forgot about getting around to. I probably should get into it, now, especially since its short length is quite inviting to me.
20- Beck- I saw the first episode subbed a long time ago and admittedly it didn't interest me, but my interests change over time, so I may be able to get into it if I try the series now.
19- Rahexphon- I haven't seen either this and have barely seen any of NGE, so I currently have no opinions on either.
18- Berserk- I never bothered to check out the anime, and I only read the first few volumes of the manga, but I definitely need to continue this series.
17- Mushi-Shi- I do admit that I liked what I saw of it, which was only the first 3 episodes, but its also hard for me to keep watching the series. Its individual episodes are greatly done, but it does nothing to keep me watching, which may be its only major problem for me, personally.
16- Midori Days- I respect this entry on JO's list, but I have tried watching this series before and its personally not for me. I do like how she mentioned Fumoffu as being one of the series that she might have placed in this spot. I certainly love that series.
15. Haibane Renmei- I haven't seen this series, but she managed to make me mildly interested in checking it out, so perhaps I might try it sometime in the distant future if I remember to.
14- Welcome to the NHK- I've been meaning to check this series out, but my backlog is still too big for me to get around to it, yet.
13- Great Teacher Onizuka- You're welcome, Avaitor.
12- Vision of Esclaflowne- I honestly haven't seen it, which is surprising since it also seems like the type of series that I'd love. I just love a good fantasy with elements that I can relate to in real life, so I'm not sure why I haven't taken the opportunity to check out this show, yet, as it seems like the type of anime that I would love.
11- Revolutionary Girl Utena- Yet another show that I need to watch.
10- Yu Yu Hakusho- I'm extremely glad to see that this made her list, but I can't help but feel that she rushed through it not really going over its true merits that much. This is either because she doesn't want to say too much now in order to have more to say for her future review of it, or because she kind of admitted that it was a bit of a guilty pleasure for her to have placed it that high on the list. Either way, I'm glad that she clearly enjoys it quite a lot, as it is the best of the entire shounen genre just like she said its the only battle shounen series that she truly likes.
9- Ouran High School Host Club- Its a great comedy and since Desensitized and Foggle don't get why its so liked, JO pretty much explains why its so great: it makes fun of its own genre extremely well while also embracing the good charm about its genre as well, and that's pretty damn hard to do (also, on top of that, its just plain fun to watch).
8- Paranoia Agent- I have to admit that I only saw it on AS back when I was younger and didn't really get it, but I should really give this show a proper watch now that I'm older and would be better able to appreciate its deeper conventions.
7- Gankutsuou- I've only seen the first 3 episodes of this show, and while it was kind of slow, I loved how well it was crafting and developing the characters, and I adore this series's art-style. I definitely need to continue watching this series soon.
6- Baccano!- This is the same case as above, where I've seen the first few episodes of the series and loved it, but I need to get around to continuing it.
5- Princess Tutu- I'll give this anime a try sometime, it does seem like I'd enjoy it.
4- Wolf's Rain- This is another series that I kind of passed up when it aired on AS and that I didn't get into when I was younger. It looks like something that I'd have more appreciation for now, though.
3- Cowboy Bebop- What Avaitor said.
2- Trigun- Yeah, it is a damn fine anime and highly enjoyable, so I can't object to it being placed so highly on her list, though it isn't really a top 3 for me, personally, but its still awesome, so who really cares where its placed as long as its in the top 10?
1- Full Metal Alchemist- I do like and respect this show, and should re-watch it someday, but I respectfully have to disagree with JO's opinions on Brotherhood. Its a faithful adaptation of the manga, and really enjoyable. Admittedly the original story itself is neither as deep nor as complex as the first anime series, but in this case I find that it works in its favor, because to be honest even though I've always liked FMA, the more complex parts of the first anime also hurt it a little bit for me by making it feel far more slow-paced than it should have, mostly by the 2nd half of the series, though. The manga and Brotherhood still cover the same themes, but also have good pacing and additional likable characters to boost its enjoyment. Now, I'm not saying that I don't prefer a series that takes more risks and looks deeper into the characters, and at this particular aspect the first anime was undoubtedly done better, and was even more willing to kill off important characters than the manga was (as the manga let too many of the good guys get off the hook of dying way too conveniently), but it also had quite a few characters that I just downright didn't like, and it made a number of its own changes, some of which really helped make the series feel better, but also some of which helped hurt the quality of the series for me, as well. Still, its a great anime so I can respect its high placement on her list, and it probably deserves it.

Overall, I thought it was a good and well-constructed list, but I'm disappointed that Monster didn't make the list, but maybe that's only because its a carbon-copy of the manga. At any rate, the only other anime I kind of wished would have made the list was FMP! TSR, but I'm not surprised that it didn't because she's clearly not very passionate about that series, even though she did clearly indicate that she at least generally likes it from her review of the 1st season.

I feel the exact opposite about the two FMA series. I haven't seen all of the Brotherhood episodes yet but they go much deeper with the characters. In the original series, pretty much only Al and Ed have backstories and everyone else seems like background characters, while in Brotherhood, all the main characters are giving much bigger parts.

[Angus]

Ah yes, Cardcaptor Sakura must be watched in its original dub, not the Americanized one which made me rather sad they changed the names and cut all the quirky side relationships. Sakura Tange makes the perfect Sakura voice, and Aya Hisakawa makes a pretty good Kero. It's a totally biased perfect 10 for me, even if I'm the only one in AR to think so, although it's SLOW AS A SNAIL and episodic in comparison to the manga. It's best to read the manga and without any spoilers. Only 12 volumes, easily obtainable at the library, instead of having to bear through the 70 episodes, unless you like episodic cute magical girl shows then the more the merrier. A lot of the typical school rom-com situations are utilized as well.

xxxHolic was alright and probably made more fun than it should be because of Todd Haberkorn in the Funimation dub. The manga seems to go on and on. Maybe someday I'll read it.

I tried getting into Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle anime, since it does have the Cardcaptor Sakura characters as its base, but agree it's fairly mediocre to boring for an action series, and they don't have Sakura Tange voicing. Sakura's also so deadpan (intentionally because she lost her memories) so her cuteness is not as vibrant as with CCS. So I'm reading/watching other stuff instead of that.  Same with putting Inuyasha on the back burner.

I will say that if I had a top 10 personal favorite anime episodes of all time, Chobits would have maybe 3 episodes on the list. It's an early rom-com for me as with CCS so they stay rather high.

[Avaitor]

Summer Wars is up.

Is this on DVD yet? I want to add it to the top of my Netflix queue if it is.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Summer Wars is up.

Is this on DVD yet? I want to add it to the top of my Netflix queue if it is.

Yeah, I think it's been out at least a week ago.

Also, kind of refreshing to see her review movies instead of series.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I've really been wanting to watch Summer Wars ever since I saw Our War Game in Japanese. While Our War Game was a great concept applied to a Digimon movie (actually its more of a short feature rather than a full-fledged feature-length film), I had always wanted to see it explored with much more depth and an actual grander story-line and more developed characters to encompass it. Summer Wars basically seems to be just that based on JO's review of it, but even before she reviewed it I was already sold on wanting to watch it.

[Avaitor]

Summer Wars is up.

Is this on DVD yet? I want to add it to the top of my Netflix queue if it is.

Yeah, I think it's been out at least a week ago.

Also, kind of refreshing to see her review movies instead of series.

It's now second to The Killer Inside Me on my queue.

Same thing EK said.