What are you watching/or completed? (Anime)

[Dr Kain]

I watched episodes 63-81 of Yu-Gi-Oh! today. I really love the filler episode with Bakura dueling Ghost, but they really dragged out the duels between Yugi/Kaiba/Light Mask/Dark Mask and the Yugi/Jounouchi one. Between the anime and manga, I also prefer Kaiba just dropping Jounouchi's key into the water instead of Shizuka jumping in to rescue him. Of course, that really isn't fair to compare since the manga is pretty much superior to the anime in almost everything. The episode with Claude Van Magnum is down right terrible though. With that said, I am finally at the Battle Ship portion of Battle City, so I cannot wait to start watching those episodes again.

[sentaison]

I finished the first season of Attack on Titan and enjoyed it enough to want to see the second. I'm currently working on Tiger and Bunny which I'm really enjoying and Black Butler, which has kept my interest so far but hasn't hooked me.

[Dr Kain]

[Destroysall]

Watching Nisekoi and the second season of Chunibuyo as of recent.

[sentaison]

[Dr Kain]

I watched the Battle Ship episodes of Yu-Gi-Oh! today (episodes 82-97) and they are great, but compared to the manga, they are a mixed bag. I kind of prefer the Bakura duel in the anime since I just love the deck Bakura uses, but the Mai/Malik duel is pretty bad. It isn't bad because it is a terrible duel, but it is so dumbed down compared to the manga. And I mean really dumbed down. I don't even get some of the things altered between the manga and the anime as there was nothing wrong with the way it was done in the manga. The Jonouchi/Rishid duel drags on a little too long in the anime, but I love how Jonouchi claims the duel will be over in 11 turns and it really is in both versions. Another thing I like better in the anime is Malik's transformation into Yami Malik. The music and audio really help make it seem as creepy as it showed be. My favorite duel between the lot though is the one between Kaiba and Isis, which is great in both versions. Unfortunately, the anime stretches out the duel between Malik and Bakura, and while there is nothing inherently wrong with it, some of the things that occur in the duel are pretty pointless. There was no reason to have Bakura get Ra and summon him just for him to die in the anime. It was better with none of that happening as in the manga.

Well, now my read and viewings are going to get massively spread apart as I'm currently in the Jounouchi/Malik duel of the semi-finals for the manga while I am a few episodes into the Noa arc. As such, there is no way in the Dark Realm I am going to be anywhere close to the Pharaoh's Memories arc in the anime when I am reading the manga, even if I read R first.

[Dr Kain]

So I watched all of the Battle City Finals episodes over the last few days and while they are over all amazing, once again the anime needlessly drags them out. First off, there was no reason the Battle Royal episodes needed to be three episodes in length. The whole thing is like three chapters long so that is one episode per chapter. Nevertheless, they do a nice job of following the manga quite here so I have very little to complain about outside of its length.

The same goes for the Jounouchi vs Malik duel. Although, I really feel like the writers dumbing Mai's punishment for losing against Malik really takes away from how dire it is that Jounouchi wins. Now this duel could have been down in two episodes, but it is fine the way it is.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the Yugi/Kaiba duel. The duel itself is the second best duel in the entire series, but for some reason the writers felt it was stretch these episodes out to six episodes. There simply no reason for it. We did not need this pointless Jounouchi subplot of him dreaming about being at the tournament from before Duelist Kingdom as it is unneeded exposition. It serves nothing to the plot of the arc and just distracts the viewer from the fated duel. They also seemed to kind of make Priest Seto during the flashback scene seem more of a dbag than the manga does, which kind of sucks since Priest Seto is one of my favorite characters in the series. That aside, this duel should have been four episodes at the most with all of the bland fluff taken out. I love how much these guys are able to out do one another on a constant basis. It really makes it feel like such an epic duel.

Of course, nothing is as annoying as the pointless Jounouchi/Kaiba duel. Hell, even Kaiba admits that this whole duel was a waste of time, which is exactly what it was. Even with it not being in the manga you know Kaiba is not going to lose to Jounouchi and there is hardly anything to get excited about. Not to mention it makes no sense having Malik take over Anzu's body to confront Yami Malik when they still have Yami Malik amazed that Malik's soul is still in Anzu during his duel against Yugi. None of this battle makes any sense, especially when they start the duel at the top of the tower and then are suddenly down on the ground in the rubble. Ooooooooooooooooookay.

Finally, I give the writers props for the Malik/Yugi duel as they did an excellent job on animating this one. It is the third best duel in the series and an epic one at that as we finally get to see the villain of the arc duel Yugi. The anime does a great job with it and even though the flashbacks are a little much, they don't feel like they are there to waste the running time. I also have to say that I kind of prefer the way the anime has Yugi summon all of his monsters as opposed to just using Black Magician and Black Magician Girl in the manga.

Unfortunately, the last two episodes are dragged in flashback hell as we have to see all of the highlights from the duels throughout the arc just to end the thing. I do like the farewell sequence though with Otogi and Mai in the anime. I am glad to see that they did not feel the need to actually show the duel between Yugi and Jounouchi as I feel it would take away from the mystery of how the battle actually transpired. Did Jounouchi win? How quickly did Yugi defeat him? The world will never know.

Overall, the anime does a great job translating the duels from comic to animation but does a poor job on the pacing of the episodes themselves. Instead of getting duels that flow nicely together, we get duels that are interrupted by needless pandering. I love watching the duels take place, but there is just too much other stuff going on in between them that makes them take longer to finish. It also does not help that the next episode, which is the true finale to Battle City in the anime is just a god damned clip show. UGH!!!!

Oh, is it just me, or does it seem like the animation took to a dip in quality during this arc?

[Dr Kain]

And thus brings an end to my non-filler Yu-Gi-Oh! viewing. Yes, I decided to set DOMA and Kaiba Grand Prix aside so I could watch the Memories arc since I had just finished the manga last week and wanted to compare them with a fresh mind. In fact, this is the first time I have rewatched the memories arc since reading the manga version and my god, to say it was accurate is like comparing Pepsi to Mountain Dew. It just doesn't work.

As an adaptation, the memories arc in anime form is terrible. The Diadhanks are some of the dumbest things ever (and I have no idea why they felt they needed to have them), but the inclusion of Kaiba is even worse. Kaiba's story was pretty much over when he destroyed the Duel Tower on Alcatraz Island, so there was no need for him to be here, especially since he wanted nothing to do with the past. Secondly, I really do not like the changes they made such as turning Bobasa into pointless filler. He somewhat had a purpose in the manga even if it was confusing. Here, he was around to waste time since he has no connection to being Hasan at all.

I also do not care for how the Dark RPG suddenly effects the real world and the new stuff they added in before Zorc is actually resurrected. It just dragged the stuff out needlessly. Now one think I did like done better in the anime was Atem having the gods have a nice fight with Zorc. That was pretty cool and made sense. Of course, the design of Zorc just looks down right ridiculous in anime form. IN the manga, you never really saw him all that well whereas in the anime, he is just an overly excited demon and it really makes him look dumb.

The inclusion of the Ring Wraiths make no sense either, nor does having Yami Bakura taking over Thief Bakura. They also seemed to turn Akhenaden into lacky with the way Thief Bakura just comes back and takes the spotlight away from him.

Now another thing that does make a little more sense is having the duel between Seto and Atem before the big battle with Zorc just from a time frame manner. Granted, it just feels more epic being the final battle of the arc, which is why Takahashi probably did it that way.

And then we come to the Ceremonial duel. I still think Kaiba was unneeded here, but at least he is there the entire time instead of just standing out in the desert out the blue when everyone emerges from the tomb at the end. The duel itself is incredible to watch, but like the duels of Battle City, it could have been an episode shorter. They took the last seven chapters of the manga and made them into five episodes, which is way too many. At least the duel feels as epic as it should even if drawn out.

Once again though, there is one thing I like better that the anime does, and that is the epilogue during the end credits. It makes the ending feel a little less rushed than it did in the manga, but I still would have rather had like maybe a One Year Later epilogue or something.

The only part of memory arc that feels off to me is the duel between Jounouchi and Bakura that seems to just stop and then is only mentioned again later when Bakura says they were interrupted.

Outside of that, it is my favorite arc even though I'm quite sure Takahashi could have developed Mana and Kisara a little bit more. Nevertheless, I am actually quite glad it is a short arc since Battle City was such a huge one.

As for the anime version, I really just do not understand why they felt the need to change so much compared to the manga either. Sure, Duelist Kingdom and Battle City were altered, but not to the extent of Memory World.

Oh, and the animation got really sloppy, but it seemed to be heading that way at the tail end of Battle City and continued throughout DOMA. I remember scenes when Yugi's head was almost as wide as his shoulders.

I would really love for them to one day go back and "Brotherhood/Ultimate" this series again with a straight up adaptation from the manga. They could easily start it off with two stories per episode for the earlier stuff (or one full episode for multipart stories) and then start going into full 20 minute stories once they reach Death T and Monster World. THere would be no need for multi-part duels either, as most of them outside of like the big ones could be done in a single episode, so the series could easily be done in probably around 100 episodes give or take a few.

With that said, I have to say, overall, I did not enjoy the series as much as I used to and I really think it has to do with both the animation and reading the manga now. In fact, this was my first time rewatching the entire series after reading the entire manga as the last time I rewatched the whole series, Shonen Jump was publishing the pre-Duelist Kingdom stuff. As a whole, I give the anime a 6/10 when I compare it to the manga and an 8/10 if I ignore it. Of course, now that I have read the manga in full and in order it is going to be hard to do that, sadly.

[The Shadow]

The Anime Network started running Log Horizon a few weeks ago. It follows a party of characters that initially began as players of an MMORPG called Elder Tale, but after an update suddenly find themselves (and thousands of other players around the world) trapped within the game. They're just a few episodes in but so far it's been interesting. The world of Elder Tale is a half size version of Earth sometime after the planet suffered a catastrophe and players can take on the usual sort of job classes you find in fantasy type RPGs.

No permanent permanent deaths are a part of the Elder Tale incident, at least not yet since what happens on losing all HP was of concern to the lead characters even with finding out that they would still revive at town cathedrals. Even so, some guilds have turned into gangs of thugs looking to "kill" any players they can for their gear & items. The incident that trapped players within the game is still a mystery, and there seems to be some unusual happenings in the NPCs compared to the script-limited versions before the incident.

[EricDent]

Not sure if I mentioned buying Akikan.
Watched disc 1 of it, seems pretty fun (with a few "serious" moments).
The girls are cute, the guys a clueless idiot, it has school stuff, and it has decent action & comedy.

Also Fry's is having the usual BOGO sale RIGHT NOW.
Buy One Get One Half Off.
As usual it's Funimation & Section 23 (and yes that includes Kraken Releasing Godzilla movies).
As usual you have to buy two of the same company to get the deal.
Runs through May 29.

So taking advantage of that (and a major price cut on Girls Und Panzer) I got these for about $45 total.

Girls Und Panzer TV Series (DVD)
Idolmaster Xenoglosia (both parts)
Polyphonica

BTW all of those were priced under $20.
Idolmaster & Polyphonica were under $15.

Not sure why we are marking these shows down that much?
Especially Girls Und Panzer since it came out in like October IIRC.

[Destroysall]

Finished all Inital D: Fourth Stage today. Man this series is so good. I need to see season 5 and prep for the new and upcoming season 6. This show has helped me get back into automobiles and I have been looking for a manual car on my own ever since.

[DannyBeane]

I may be a little late to the party, but at the ripe old age of 28, I have just started watching Dragon Ball Z and so far I like it.

[XvGojira]

[O.Supreme]

Watched Episode 7 of Gundam Unicorn. (It was more like a movie running 90 minutes). But anyway it was amazing. Simply amazing! An epic conclusion to a wonderfully told story with some of the best animation I've seen in well over a decade. In a time when many anime series seem cheap and debased to the point of product placement, this was truly a breath of fresh air and reminded me of the awesomeness that Gundam could be and why I became a fan in the first place. The only question I have, to other fans of Gundam, based on the final outcome... even though there is 27 years of U.C. chronology bewteen the end of the events of Unicorn, and the F91 movie, do you think F91 & Victory Gundam could still happen?

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

Of course they can still happen. F91 and Victory's political problems are different than the ones seen in the earlier UC stories. By F91 the Federation really had no interest in governing the rest of space and constantly gave concessions to all kinds of groups so that Earth would not get attacked again (they practically gave up all those colonies to the Crossbone Vanguard and fought them with token forces). This eventually came back to bite them on the ass by Victory where all these aristocratic powers got way too ambitious because nobody bothered to confront them seriously.

[O.Supreme]

[Shin_Edda_Robo!!!!!]

Good points on all that. I think that well... the UC gundam world is pretty cynical of well, ANYTHING! Its something Kouji Kabuto and Amuro Ray point out in the Super Robot Wars games a lot, because the writers think that lets say... alien invaders attacked the Earth the Federation and the colony movements would have their own plans on how to deal with them, rather than unite forces.

The reaction the citizens of the Federation and Zeon for that matter was a "Eh, I knew it." rather than full blown anger, mainly because so much time had passed. Let's assume JFK really was assassinated because of some insider conspiracy, and 20 years from now the news breaks out with full blown proof, but with everyone responsible for it is dead. The reaction would be pretty much the same because so much time had passed and everyone would be all "I knew it yo."

Also I think its funny how the great Zeon movement did not go out with a bang or a whimper but a "Eh, hey can we come back now?" "Yeah, okay sure."

[EricDent]

Watched the first disc of Idolmaster Xenoglosia, pretty fun so far.

Though I blasted through Girls Und Panzer, THAT was fun!
Now I will have to buy the OVA, cause I want MORE!

[EricDent]

Well I did buy the OVA of Girls Und Panzer along with Polyphinica Crimson S.

I finished Akikan, it was fun while it lasted.
Hopefully it holds up to repeat views.

I also watched that OVA of Girls Und Panzer, it was fun (though a tad short).
Still would like to see more of this in the future.

Watched disc 2 of Idolmaster Xenoglosia, still pretty good.

[Destroysall]

Just got Crunchyroll and started No Life No Game... and I must say... wow.

[lhb412]

Hmmmm.... should I buy Space Pirate Captain Harlock or Gatchaman?

I mean, I'm gonna get both, but which one do I feel like watching first?

... maybe, both?

[Destroysall]

^Gotta love Gatchaman!

On another note, I just started Pupa.....

[Psycho Soldier]

Copypasting from the "recently watched movies" thread:

Last night, I watched the third of the Berserk movies. I knew from the anime series and TV Tropes spoilers what was going to happen, but once Femto shows up... damn. Gut-wrenching stuff anyway. I'm at least glad to say that the movie has a somewhat better ending than the show did. Still nothing cheerful at all, but there is the promise of more movies.

[Destroysall]

After watching the Ghost In The Shell movie, I started S.A.C. Season 1.. I wish the animation were a bit more on par with the movie, but I guess we can't have everything we want, huh?

[Dr Kain]