What did you watch last?

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:00 pm

Baakay wrote:there was a sequence that looked as though someone from Cartoon Network had been hired to draw Ichigo. (WTF, Over? He doesn't look like THAT..)

So the animation is going downhill as well? I wonder how the ratings are holding up in Japan.

vapalla wrote:I just had to check out Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsu 1 after your description Keropi, because even though it wasn't your kind of series, I suspected it might be something we would like here. Man, it was WHACKED!

Yes. It's definitely different. It looks like it's going to have very open ended stories based on her abilities.

It was a fun week, but there's too much anime coming out at the same time to keep track of them all.

Fate/stay night 14 (fairly good - 6.4):
I thought this was a pretty cool episode. Things are finally getting rolling.

The preview for next week makes me wonder how they are going to handle the game's story.

Zegapain 1 (okay - 5.4):
http://www.zegapain.net/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6145
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3612 ... apain.html
I liked this first episode even though there wasn't a BIG quality reason for me to do so. My reasons for liking it are the following:

1. The video I seen was of such high quality. The animation was crystal clear and it made the mecha and the action scenes look nice.

2. I enjoyed the voice acting.
3. I found the main character to be a somewhat likeable nut. He was neither arrogant/mean or wimpy/whiney/annoying.
4. There was a "sympathetic" osananajimi classmate character in there.

5. Shizuno was interesting too (esp. considering who her seiyuu was).

Conclusion: I will watch this for now. I don't know if the story is any good, but I find the characters somewhat likeable.

Ohran High School Host Club 1 (okay - 5.4):
http://www.ntv.co.jp/host/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3586 ... _host.html
For me at least, this was by far the funniest new anime out of the twenty two that I've seen so far. It was quite enjoyable. The animation quality was decent too. But I was bit suprised at the definitions given in the fansub for "Shouta" and "Ore". They didn't seem very accurate/informative.

Nishi No Yoki Majo Astrea Testament 1 (fair - 5.1):
http://www.project-westwitch.net/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6175
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3605 ... oki_m.html
This surprisingly was based off a seinen (young men's) novel. Situations like the "court drama" make it feel very shoujo/josei. This is not quite my cup of tea storywise. Also...since so much is being crammed into a short length anime, it feels rushed. The dramatic stuff is happening before I've had a chance to grow to like the characters. I think I'll have to pass on this series.

Black Lagoon 1 (okay - 5.3):
http://www.blacklagoon.jp/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1822 ... agoon.html
This seems to center around a mercenary group. I was all set to dismiss it as a genre I wasn't too interested in seeing, but then the animation and the action scenes looked so good there was no way I could dismiss it outright. I'll have to watch another episode just to see what happens. It looks to be a wild ride.

Yume Tsukai 1 (okay/fair - 5.1):
http://www.yumetsukai.com/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6199
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3607 ... sukai.html
This anime reminds me in some ways of Shinigami no Ballad and that anime where the boy could see the dead and used his ability to help the living. Different people in each episode need help with their problems and they get it from the main characters of the anime. I can see why this is described as a "slice-of-life" anime. It's somewhat of a slice-of-life up until it turns "action anime" where the girls have to use their shamanic powers to help out. However it's a lot less slice-of-life than the two anime I mentioned earlier. I guess this anime is mainly going to center around these two girls helping people whose dreams go bad and affect other people.

I thought it was alright, but it didn't grab me enough to make me want to watch more of it.

I'm not going to be watching Gakuen Heaven, Fushigi-boshi no Futago-hime Gyu!, Fighting Beauty Wulong REBIRTH, Kiba, Onegai my Melody ~Kuru Kuru Shuffle!~, ARIA The NATURAL, NANA or Ring ni Kakero - Nichibei Kessen Hen.

So that's thirty two anime down and only twenty two to go (I think).

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 6:02 pm

Interesting explanation. Aha. I think you get used to it after a while.

redwolf · Post by **redwolf** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:34 am

School Rumble 2 #1: A slower start than the first season, but I'm sure the crazyness will be abundant again. I miss the first season opening and ending, but--Banana da!!! I've missed Tenma even more.

Fate/Stay Night #14: This episode was already great to me before I spoiled myself concerning Archer, afterwards, it seemed even better Though, I probably should have waited or tried to figure it out on my own. Plenty of well done action, and I've come to appreciate Archer a great deal more.

One Piece #182: Beautiful. Exactly why I love this show. Even the minor characters can move me, and the main character gets to kick a butt that really needed some kicking.

Nana #1:
http://www.ntv.co.jp/nana/index.html
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6115 (has a short summary)
I've read some of the manga, but it's been a while, so this was virtually a new experience. It seemed pretty perfect to me, good flow, nice humor, and well done character emotion. Nice choices for voice actresses (Paku Romi!)--emphasizes their differences even more. From what I recall, I think they captured the mangaka's style fairly well. I hope the rest of the show is up to par.

Ergo Proxy #5: I'm hooked on the dark feel, the greyish color scheme, and...Pino! Ignorant, but the cutest thing ever. The mystery in this story could turn out very interesting, though this particular episode ended on a somewhat forced/awkward note to me.

New season: Still awaiting Ah! Megami Sama season two, Simoun, and Witchblade...as well as figuring out what else I should try.

Keropi: awesome job with the links and descriptions. I think I'm going to have to give this Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsu a try... Reminiscent of Monty Python??

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:37 am

That seems pretty well.

vapalla · Post by **vapalla** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:50 am

Well.watched Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsu twice, once myself, then I had to show it to my daughter, though she didn't really want to watch it. Both of us started out sceptical, but by the end we were really laughing! I do not know where it will go next, and this may end up the best episode of all, after which is goes into generic story mode, but I am willing to give it a try.

Kiba- Slick animation, nice art, very serious tone, obviously a Shounen series. Lots of plot hints but pretty confusing first episode. We'll watch a few more and see if it goes anywhere. Suspect a card game tie-in.

Nana- We had only read the Shoujo Beat excerpts until our subscription ran out. The story skips the early character development and starts at the beginning of the 2 Nanas' adventures in Tokyo, starting with the train ride to the city. The characters seem a little exaggerated compared to the manga, cute Nana is cuter and ditzier, rockin' Nana a little harder, but it wasn't really a problem. Animation looks good, and captures the manga style well. Don't know why they need a live host lady, also named Nana of course, at the end. The TV station clearly expects this one to be a big hit like the movie. We will be continuing to watch this one.

Ouran HS Host Club - Very cute and distinctive style. Characters are very exagerated. So far an eyecatching series, but could get bogged down if all the characters act the same way through the whole story. We plan to see what deveops on this one too.

Haven't found any masterpiece series yet, but we have more we want to try. I am also downloading Ergo Proxy, but I plan to wait until I have a lot of the series before I start watching it, as it looks like one I would prefer watching that one in big chunks. I want to see Witchblade too, but haven't found torrents for it. Haven't found Gintama yet either. If anyone knows where I can find these series or knows who is subbing them, please let me know.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 7:51 am

Who was in it?

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:59 am

redwolf wrote:Fate/Stay Night #14: This episode was already great to me before I spoiled myself

It's VERY easy to see spoilers for Fate/stay night so I've tried to stay away from anime threads discussing it. The thing about episode 14 was that even AFTER I seen it I still hadn't figured out the TWO plot points that made that episode noteworthy. I had to read a discussion in someone's blog to find out about them. That's the only discussion I read on that episode. If you aren't aware of those two points, the episode loses most of it's meaning. I hope people are able to discover those for themselves without stumbling on other spoilers while doing it.

I think those two points are probably explained and/or hinted at more blatantly in episode fifteen, but that's only a guess.

redwolf wrote:I think I'm going to have to give this Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsu a try...

I've seen it also listed as: "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" so be sure to look it up under that title too.

vapalla wrote:Kiba- Slick animation, nice art, very serious tone, obviously a Shounen series. Lots of plot hints but pretty confusing first episode. We'll watch a few more and see if it goes anywhere. Suspect a card game tie-in.

Pokemon?

vapalla wrote: If anyone knows where I can find these series or knows who is subbing them, please let me know.

Wiki lists Bakaneko as working on Gintama. Witchblade is listed as being worked on by Conclave. So at least one group is supposedly working on each anime.

vapalla · Post by **vapalla** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 12:24 pm

Keropi wrote:

Pokemon?

Well, Kiba's way too dark and there is no humor, so I'd say an older audience. It looks like chacters will have some sort of creature that accompanies them. Maybe more like Shaman King without the jokes? Hopefully it will lighten up a little. Came off as a bit grim. Nice art generally. Madhouse looks like the main studio for it.

Thanks for the info Keropi. Was there a chart somewhere like last fall that listed series and the subbers had their names added to the projects they picked? I tried wading through a lot of pages of forum without finding what I needed yet.

Also saw Gakuen Heaven. No question what this is about. The main character gets accepted to Bell Liberty School (nicknamed BL Academy, get it?) Came off as pretty silly, and there are loads of lines you can take different ways, but half way through I completely lost focus and barely bothered to finish it. If you like cute Shounen Ai boys of all ages and hair /eye colors, and a silly barely-there plot line this could be fun, but it is pretty frothy and the character design is pretty standard. I just checked it out for the fun of it, and because it was the first series from the new season I found for download.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 3:06 pm

vapalla wrote:Was there a chart somewhere like last fall that listed series and the subbers had their names added to the projects they picked?

There's the Wiki here:
http://www.andrewlb.com/fansub/pukiwiki ... ing%202006

A lot of fansub groups don't subscribe to the list, but at least it gives you an idea of what might be going on.

Seven more anime debut next week (California date). There's a lot of new anime I skipped and second episodes are coming out now. How does one keep track of all these anime?

vapalla · Post by **vapalla** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:20 pm

Thanks Keropi! Its nice to have at least something to work from. With this many series, there are bound to be some that will be skipped. Since this list is likely incomplete, I'll continue to look for stuff I think might be interesting for a little while, even if it's not clear if they are covered.

sailorsv13 · Post by **sailorsv13** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 10:50 pm

And yet another post for this thread ^.^ My most recent anime viewing was Nausicaa!!!! Watched it for the first time...3 times!!! Hardly wanted to return the DVD to the rental place...now I'm looking to buy it ^.^ Miyazaki has not yet lead me astray!

~ Bri ~

Masako · Post by **Masako** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:31 am

Princess Princess.

Being the shounen-ai and gothic lolita fangirl that I am, this series will probably be the highlight of my season.

The SD shots, blushing and "pika-pika" eyes are top-notch... seiyuu are smexay... bishies are already crossdressing... what more could I want?

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:32 am

That's a good question. You want more?

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:44 pm

sailorsv13 wrote:My most recent anime viewing was Nausicaa!!!! Watched it for the first time...3 times!!! Hardly wanted to return the DVD to the rental place...now I'm looking to buy it ^.^ Miyazaki has not yet lead me astray!

Nausicaa's great! It's one of my favorite movies. It had such an epic legendary scope to it.

Masako wrote:The SD shots, blushing and "pika-pika" eyes are top-notch...

Pika-pika? I don't recall ever hearing that term before. ?^_^?

Yoshinaga-san chi no Gargoyle 2 (fair - 5.1):
I didn't like this episode as much as the first. The first episode I liked primarily because of the humor (the other reason was because of the drama concerning the family dog). This episode was much more serious. I'll probably give this series one more chance before dropping it.

I skimmed through Air Gear 1 and it didn't interest me at all.

I skimmed through Youkai Ningen Bem 1:
http://www.bem-tv.com/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3681 ... en_be.html
...and I didn't find it very interesting. Just like the description says, Demon boy Bem helps protects humans from demonic creatures. He finds a friend in a human girl. Since this was apparently based off a ?1960's anime/manga, the character designs and story are extremely old school. Maybe I might have liked this back when I was a kid when I was watching Speed Racer/Gingantor and stuff like that, but I'll have to pass on this now.

Himawari 1 (okay - 5.3):
http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/himawari/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6160
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3608 ... wari_.html
I was listening to Hayato's voice wondering where I had heard him before when it struck me. He has the same seiyuu as the guy who voiced Tsuyoshi in the Kakyuusei TV series!! Wow, he's still going that's cool. Hayato even acts a bit like Tsuyoshi. This anime reminds me of Ninja Mono where the main ninja girl is not very skilled, but there's an apparent reason behind it. I thought a couple of the seiyuu were not voiced as well as I might have liked (maybe they're new). But I liked this enough to watch more of it. Maybe I'm just sympathetic to the underdog and want to see how it all works out.

Shoujo Changumu no Yume 1 (okay/fair - 5.2):
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/anime/yume/
I liked this more than I thought I would. I'm pretty sure this is a "family-watch" kind of anime. It's an animated show I might have expected to be shown on Public Televsion (if it were dubbed into English of course). The anime centers around a girl named Changumu. It reminded me a little of "Cooking Master Boy" at times. There was also some action in it involving a huge wild boar and some assassins.

What do they call ninja-type assassins in Korea?

Musashi 1 (I've seen it listed as "Gun Musashi" also)( mediocre - 4.4):
http://www.animenfo.com/search.php?quer ... n=keywords
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6452
This is set back when they're still carrying swords in Japan (mid-1800's?). It has the type of hero you'd expect from Monkey Punch. He's a slick jokester and he frequently fights with two handguns instead of the usual long sword of his opponents. It's animated in a bit of a strange way. The backgrounds look like they're based off real-life pictures. The animated characters are then animated over those pics. The backgrounds are toned down by computer so they don't stand out as much, but they still stuck out to me. This anime didn't interest me very much.

I seen Lucky Number Slevin yesterday and enjoyed it. I was disappointed by the first two thirds of it, but the ending redeemed itself I thought. I know I can't expect snappy Quentin Tarantino-like dialog in everything I see, but if the dialog were a little more clever and well-written I would liked the movie more.

Masako · Post by **Masako** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 10:52 pm

Keropi wrote:
Masako wrote:The SD shots, blushing and "pika-pika" eyes are top-notch...
Pika-pika? I don't recall ever hearing that term before. ?^_^?

It's where the eyes get all big and watery... shiny-like, so therefore "pika-pika".