What are you watching/or completed? (Anime)

[EricDent]

Borrowed these from the library & watched them.

The Wind Rises: as with all of Studio Ghibli stuff, it looks great, had a good story, and good characters.
I heard there is a plane being restored in Hawaii that might be similar to the ones the guy in the story did.
The dub was decent, not sure if I had the right options on, but it never shows subtitles when they are speaking German.

Listen To Me Girls I'm Your Father: this had a college student take on 3 young girls & act like there dad after a tragic accident. Of course the girls were cute, he had $ problems, and was trying to go to school while having a bunch of part-time jobs.
Overall it was a fun show with a hint of sadness.
They seemed to really like the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star song.
Which they sang in "English" (it was more like Tinkle Tinkle Rittle Sta).
It does have a happy ending.
It's sub-only (just in case).

[Dr Kain]

We watched disc 5 this morning and this was full of another really good batch of episodes. We got some really great development between Ennil and Toniya, which makes me sad they can't be bothered to develop Tiffa or the lady in the business suit in this manner. Episode 20 is right up there with episode 15 of the series. The remainder of the disc was enjoyable but it seems like we just got an upgrade for the X and now we have the Double X already? Garrod has grown up quite a bit, which is nice to see. Oh, but the blatant exposition continues to be annoying and pointless. Anyway, only 15 episode to go!

EDIT: Oh yeah, we also watched the second and third episodes to IBO today. That is a strange Gundam design. Shouldn't it be called Gundam Anorexia? Nothing too much to say about them other than they were good. The pilot kid is freaking cold blooded too. He just outright killed the guy before he could finish talking.

[O.Supreme]

Finally finished Dai Guard. The ending was pretty cool to see Kokoboga (sp?) and Dai Guard take on the final monster together. It is odd because the series didn't really end, you know there's more in the story to tell, but the framework of how the story was presented made you feel like you dont need to see anymore, which is an odd twist, but cool in its own way. Like yu get to see a single chapter of these characters' lives, the conflict will go on, but you aren't compelled to need to see anymore. Like I said, its not what I am used to in a Super Robot Genre, but it was still entertaining. Now i have to go back and try to finish Giant Gorg. I got bored with it, but I may try to power through it, hoping it gets better...

[Dr Kain]

X's sixth disc was Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh sorry, I feel asleep there. Yes, the sixth disc was nothing more than a snooze fest. Oh my god these episodes dragged on forever! FOR-EV-ER!! The first episode wasn't too bad, but then the stuff in that Asian nation just kept on going. Plus, the Shuffle Alliance dudes that the Frost Brothers kept sending out had absolutely no development and they really were there just to die. It's like the writers have run out of ideas to have mobile suit battles, so now they are just throwing in random characters that are there solely to die just to keep the battles going. The animation also seems to have taken a dip in quality (not that there was any to begin with) during these episodes too. I do like how the Airmaster went from a Starscream to a Thundercracker though and I'm curious to see the upgrade the Leopard is going to be getting, but this show is starting to lose me. I think I'm also tired of watching them travel across the Earth because there is nothing interesting going on as far as cities and landmarks are concerned. It's all rocks and dirt. Even Turn A, which had a much more interesting environment, got tiresome after 30 episodes. As for the characters themselves, Tiffa and Sara are still the most one dimensional people in the main group. Even the damn President had more development in his four episodes than either of them.

[Dr Kain]

We spent the night running through the last two discs and they were... well honestly, I'm not sure how to feel about them. They were rushed, enjoyable, and yet, full of utter bullshit. Clearly they were told the show was getting canned during these episodes because the stuff that dealt with the Satellite people was utterly pointless. In fact, this whole little bit on outer space was done in like 3 episodes, making it all pointless to have even happened. Also, the big war between the two factions just kind of started without any real build up and then the whole thing with DOME just comes out of the blue. Hell, it made no sense to have one minute Tiffa and Garrod making out and then 3 seconds later she is in a coma. That was paced extremely poorly. Also the whole conversation with DOME in the final episode was full of nonsensible bullshit. He gave absolutely no answers that held any meaning and it sounds like the writers just tried to make up random crap to make it sound like it was sophisticated. Instead it came out half assed and dumb.

In the end, it is a middle of the road Gundam show. It's better than Wing, Reconguista of G, probably better than G, and sure as hell superior to that basement bargain bin booltlegged bull called AGE, but it still has its fair share of problems. It was a very disjointed series because there were several episodes that were great followed up by mediocre at best ones. Then another batch of well done episodes, tained but another set of terrible ones. The entire war at the end felt forced and the Frost Brothers were average villains. They got better as the show progressed, but they had very little in the way of development. I don't mind having villains who are evil for the sake of it, but it would have been nice to have had a backstory about how they joined up with the UNE in the first place. Were they part of the war from 15 years prior? Not to mention it seems pretty childish that their motivation all relied on them being passed up by a computer program. I did like Roabea and Witz, but it seemed like most of their character growth ended early on and they were pretty much just there because the writers had nothing better to do with them. Tiffa and Sara were the worst characters of the show and served no purpose other than to be there for the men they loved. Garrod did grow on me though while the best character in the show is easily Jamil. He had a lot of great moments and lived up to being a father-esque figure like Quattro and Bright. There are a lot of similarties that Turn A seemed to have from this, but that show did the post-apocalyptic world in a far more interesting manner with more fleshed out villains and scenarios.

As I said before, the animation was pretty subpar and it never really got better. In fact, it seemed like a lot of the fight scenes in the second half became more stillshots and a reuse of footage, especially those revolving about the Double X. The gundams were cool, but the Leopard's upgraded form barely did anything different from the original form. Oh, and the G Falcon seemed rather meaningless after three episodes. The music was hit or miss. The opening themes though rocked while the ending themes were way too sappy and whiney. I'm glad to have finally seen X after all of these years, but it is one of those series I may never rewatch unless I suddenly get in this mood where I need to see every Gundam show like I have right now.

Well, until Rightstuf releases Victory, this is the last "new" Gundam show for me. I still have SEED and Destiny to (re)watch, so I'm going to try to look at them with fresh eyes as I did with Wing earlier this year, but we'll see what happens. Before then, I need a to drink some Blood and Wine.

[EricDent]

Started on Angel Links (which I got for a steal from HPB).
Up through disc 3, while no where as strong as its "sister" show (Outlaw Star), it has some decent action.
Fun characters, some serious babes (especially Mai Long Li), and some cool space battles.
Plus the dub is decent.

I borrowed these from the library:

Urda The Third Reich: short CGI movie about Germany finding a spaceship from the future that could time travel.
The CGI was a bit "choppy" looking sometimes, but overall not too bad.
There was some of the usual time travel cliches involved.

Air Gear (up through disc 2, 14 episodes worth): this is pretty fun.
Not really into that sort of stuff (extreme sports), but the story is good, the characters are fun, and of course it has good fanservice.
Plus the dub is from the good old days of ADV & features the usual gang of Chris Patton, Luci Christian, Monica Rial, Hillary Haag, and Greg Ayers.
Funimation got it when ADV went kaput, and is now a SAVE.

Red Data Girl: Disc 1 (7 episodes): It's a bit slow, but kinda interesting in a way.
People with mysterious powers go to a special school.
Dub is OK, nobody really sounds familiar in the credits.

[Mexigojira]

Rewatched Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, and while i'm not very fond with the human characters, the ova was good and the animation was great.

[lhb412]

... so, what would you folks recommend as a first Mamoru Hosoda film?

[Dr Kain]

I spent the evening watching the first two discs to SEED. The show starts off a little slow but it begins to improve after Lacus Clyne shows up. In fact, she is my favorite character of the show thus far. I just love how she is so open to everyone's feelings, even the little psycho selfish ****bag who is just one white robe short Flay. God I hate that little "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!"!!! The Gundams are kind of cool even though most of them haven't done much so far, but the series really is just a remake of the original show up to this point. Kira also seems to shed tears a lot even when there is no reason to. Athrun is pretty cool though and La Cruset is a really good Char clone. Ramius is just Bright 2.0, but she is a likable character while I'm not sure what to thing about Badger. She seems to have a wodden paddle stuck up her ass. Mu La Flaga is cool to. The animation is a vast improvement over the series from the 90s and the soundtrack rocks, especially the opening and ending songs. On the other hand, do they really need to have a flashback scene in every episode?

[Dr Kain]

Gundam Thunderbolt - Damn. DAMN!!! That was dark, really dark. It is probably by far the darkest Gundam series ever made and that is part of what made it so good. Who is the bigger villain? The Zeons for using crippled soldiers or the Federation for using children? It doesn't matter because both sides are messed up and this movie does a fantastic job of showcasing the true horrors of war. It was very unique and original in its approach of showcasing another battle during the One Year War, which also means you don't need a ton of background on what is going on because you already know what is happening. The Gundam pilot is flat out an "OH GODZILLA! WHAT TERRIBLE LANGUAGE!" while the main Zeon soldier is easily the most likable character in the movie because they do so much to develop him through visuals instead of dialog, which is a nice change of pace. Another thing I liked is it shows how much a long standing war can break people apart as you really feel like they have been doing this for way too long. The animation is down right gorgeous and is some of the best animation in the franchise. Surprisingly, even the audio depite only being in 2.1 stereo, was better than a lot of 5.1 audio tracks. Not to mention the music is very effective and done with great finess.

My only complaint towards the BD is the didn't subtitle the god damned bonus disc documentary, making it unwatchable. That is total bullshit for a $90 set!! I'm still glad I bought this as it was refreshing to watch and is probably the best Gundam movie ever, but that just took away from some of enjoyment when I put in the disc and the PS3 is telling me no subtitle track exists. ARGH!!!

Overall, there isn't more I can really say about this movie without going into spoiler territory. If you are a fan of the franchise, this is a must watch. I give it an 8/10 stars.

[klen7]

Berserk is back. Finally moving past the Golden Age story arc!

Give me a proper Blame! series and I'll be a happy fan

[Dr Kain]

[EricDent]

[sentaison]

I've finished Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress and it was very good. It could have used a longer season to flesh out some characters and help explain the motivations of others, but it stands up well as it is. The overall animation is beautiful, the action is well done, and the lead characters are engaging. Steampunk zombie horror mashup done well.

[EricDent]

Finished Air Gear, it had a decent ending, and was pretty fun.
Might buy it one of these days.

Never got into roller blades, or skateboards, but I was OK at roller skates back in the day.

[O.Supreme]

Well I decided to dust off Gundam 0083 although it is one of my favorites I have not watched it in a long time. Still...it makes me sad. I don't know why they cant make anime of this quality anymore. I know its not fair to compare the quality of a weekly series with an OVA, but it just seems that since the industry switched from hand drawn cells to digital, the quality is not there anymore. There are a few exceptions, such as Gundam Unicorn, which was, to me at least, the first really good quality animated Gundam series since X. (Remember I'm talking about animation quality, not story quality I know that's a hole different issue). But again, Unicorn was also an OVA and had 6+ months between each installment. I know some people don't care about the quality of animation, as long as there is a compelling story and/or characters. I am the opposite. Yes great storytelling & characters are essential, but if the look is generally unappealing, I cant get past what my eyes see first, to allow my ears to hear, and my mind to absorb what's going on. That's why, even though *some* people say there may still be some *good* shows left on Cartoon Network, I cant bring myself to watch any of them, because to me, they are all just horribly animated garbage, and some anime, sadly is falling into this category. Most anime, especially from the early 90's has a certain look, a certain super-detailed appeal, and I just love it. Gundam Unicorn had flashes of this greatness, so I know it can be done, it just seems very few want to take the time/expense to make it happen.

[Dr Kain]

I thought the animation in X kind of sucked and was vastly inferior to the animation in Seed and 00. In fact, I think the animation really sucks for all of the 90s Gundam shows except Turn A.

[O.Supreme]

We must just look for different things then because I feel the complete opposite. I like added detail of the Mobile Suits in the 90's, and human characters with actual noses. Drawing humans with a single line for a nose that occurs in most of the 2000's series just bugs the crap out of me.

[Dr Kain]

I watched the fourth disc to Seed last night and some of the stuff dealing with Not-Ramba Ral was good, but other parts of it was just flat out boirng. I completely forgot how annoying Cagalli is. Other than that, there isn't much to say about the show as nothing major is happening, it's just going through the motions.

EDIT: I watched disc five to Seed and I forgot to mention how much of a joke I find Yzak to be. He gets his helmet shattered and has a big bandage over half of his face, but when he pulls it off, it's this little tiny scar running up around his his nose. WTF? The way they made it appear to be was that he was now the Gundam equivalent of Two-Face. I guess the animators didn't want to turn fangirls off from watching the show though, because heaven forbid a pretty boy gets beat with an ugly stick in a story about war. The last episode that dealt with Andrew was good and I kind of liked the episode with Athrun and Cagali on the island. However, the next episode just starts in the middle of a battle making you feel like you missed a scene between the two episodes. Oh, and Cagali just happens to be a princess from Orb, how original.

Well, that is it for now. If I remember right, the first two episodes on the next disc are clip shows, so I only need to watch the three episodes after that.

[Dr Kain]

Spent the day watching discs 6-9 of Gundam Flashback. No, seriously, what is up with all of the constant flashbacks? I don't think there has been a single episode that didn't have some type of flashback scene in this entire show. And then after having two more clip shows in a row, a few episodes later we get treated to half of a clip show episode. WTF?!

Okay, that aside, the second half of the show has been really good though. I really liked the whole thing they have done with Orb, the Clyne Faction, and episode 45 is just total badassery. On the other hand, the whole Kira and Cagalli being siblings is feels forced and tacked on just to give a reason as to why Kira and Cagalli should NOT be vying for each other's affection, even though they were doing it earlier in the show. Oh, and suddenly Athrun doesn't care about his childhood engagement with Lacus and she doesn't care for him either? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. The Blue Cosmos finally make their appearance and they are kind of lame. The three speciality pilots have no character arcs or development whatsoever. Nevertheless, everything that has dealt with La Crueset has been awesome, especially when he gave us the backstory regardless of how convoluted it is. Lastly, the music continue to rocks.

Tomorrow I watch the final disc!

[Destroysall]

Finished Samurai Champloo, which was really awesome. I also got to check out Nisekoi 2, following Season 1 (which I liked), but I want the time I wasted with Season 2 back. Why did they even bother?

[Dr Kain]

Well I just finished the final disc to Gundam SEED. That was a good ending. Overall, the show made a lot of missteps and rehashed a lot of what has come before it, but it is a great place for someone entirely new to the franchise to start with. Despite its flaws with its constant flashbacks, 4.5 clip show episodes, and whiny as all hell character, it is a solid show in the long run. It does start out really slow, but it gets better as it goes along. The characters are a mixed bag though. I did like the relationship that was built between the Quattro Clone and Captain Boob Physics as it was the only love story that felt like a natural progression and was legitimate throughout the damn show. Char Clone 47 was pretty awesome too and he brought on some interesting, albeit reused, ideas towards the end. Lacus is probably my favorite character though just becasue she was one of the only people to do something of her own free will. Kira was way too whiny while Cagalli was just annoying. Not to mention the Skywalker revelation between them felt forced in as if the writers just wanted a reason to get Kira together with Lacus because reasons. Athrun was a cool character to, while the rest were just there for whatever reason be it to die or just a shoulder for someone to cry onto. The mech battles themselves were done well despite the huge amount of reused footage, but I think that was more due to the excellent soundtrack it had during them. Blue Cosmos felt pretty much just like the Titans though, only halfassed since they just kind of come out of the... well... blue. The ending was a little abrupt, which isn't anything new for a Gundam show, but it would be nice to just have a damn epilogue that lasts half an episode for a change. This isn't going to make my top 10 Gundam series list, but it isn't that bad of a show either. It's kind of like X in being a middle of the road show.

Next time... Destiny BLEGH!!

[O.Supreme]

[Dr Kain]

[EricDent]

Picked out a few things off the shelf and started watching them.

Disc 1 of L/R Licensed By Royalty: Episodes 1-4 two cool spies do various missions in a country called Ishtar that is similar to England.
They meet a young girl who maybe the missing princess...

Disc 1 of Tenchi in Tokyo: Episodes 1-4 Tenchi moves to Tokyo and of course all the girls try to visit as often as possible.
He meets a new girl named Sakuya who is very cute IMO. Yes there are some monsters & bad guys, so people called it a "monster of the week" show, but I think it's underrated.
The dub is a classic.

Discs 1-3 of Panyo Panyo Di Gi Charat: Episodes 1-10 each episode consists of 3-4 mini-episodes which share a theme.
For example there's a set dealing with ghosts (and yes they dress up like Ghostbusters).
This show is super cute, has very little objectionable material, and has a very fun dub.

Disc 1 of Nanaka 6/17: Episodes 1-4 (IIRC): A very serious girl has an accident and reverts back to the mind of a 6 year old.
Her childhood friend is responsible, so he starts acting nice (he liked getting in fights).
It was kinda weird watching this soon after Air Gear, cause the main guy looks identical to the main guy in Air Gear.
The girl that starts liking him also resembles a girl in Air Gear.
Of course it doesn't help that both of the guys were dubbed by Chris Patton.
Anyhow it's a fun show that sometimes gets serious (around the end).
Makes you think what you were like when you were 6 compared to what you were like when you were 17.
(Of course I assume most people here are above 17).