What are you watching/or completed? (Anime)

[O.Supreme]

Wow, so now Netflix can even get an anime that has only aired in Japan a few weeks before. Just started checking out the first couple episodes of Kuromukuro.

[Dr Kain]

I watched the first two discs to SEED Destiny and so far they're meh. Even for being a brand new series they are still showing a constant amount of flashbacks to SEED. Really? REALLY?! And now that there are 10 episodes in they have 10 episodes worth of footage to constantly show flashbacks from of this show. UGH!!!! Anyway, Cagalli seems to be way out of character from how she acted in the first series. I get that she is now a political figure, but she seems to have done a complete 180 on her personality and it doesn't even feel like she is Cagalli. The fake Lacus was clever but most of what is going on in this show is just so stupid. Oh, three gundams are stolen by the opposite team and a new ship has to chase after them. Yawn. This plot sounds awfully familiar. Oh, and what is up with "I'm so totally not Mu La Flaga even though I sound exactly like him and even have the same psychic connection to the blonde kid on the opposite team" bit? Did they really think this was clever? Thankfully the music continues to kick more ass than a colony drop, but overall, this show just feels like it is trying to remake the show they just made, but also ruin some of the characters from that show at the same time. And did Athrun seriously think changing only his name was going to make people not know it was him? At least get a new hairstyle or something!!

Oh yeah, and I'm really sick of seeing the scene when Shin has to give his sister a hand.

[mr.negativity]

[EricDent]

Finished Panyo Panyo, it's still very cute.

I picked up a used copy of Di Gi Charat Winter Garden, which features a grown up Dejiko & Puchiko.
It had a very relaxing feel, and the romance stuff wasn't bad.
Not sure if they were implying that her days as a cat-girl from a different planet were just make-believe.
Though they did have a picture of her & Puchiko in their cat costumes.
There was no hint of Gemma.
Though Rabien Rose (a long time Di Gi Charat character) does show up a few times.

Up through disc 2 of L/R, since this is the old Geneon singles (since nobody has rescued it), they love to spread out a 13 episode show into 4 discs. They do this by making disc 2-4 have three episodes each.

[mr.negativity]

[klen7]

Whhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaa!!?!?

[incoherent joyous babbling]

I could easily picture Biomega as a feature, but always imagined Blame! as more of a series (Noise or Abara would make decent features as well)

[EricDent]

That looks pretty cool!

Finished Nanaka 6/17.
It was still a fun show, though I might have to replace it soon.
Episode 10 was skipping like crazy no matter what I did to clean it.
Though all the other episodes worked fine.

Basically the message of the show is to take your time growing up.
Don't try to rush.

[Dr Kain]

I watched the next two discs of Destiny today and Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that the majority of episodes on them were boring or how many times they had some sort of flashback scene. Now I did like the episode when they had to free one of the countries from the Earth Alliance's control, but my god Shin is such an unlikable douche bag. He is so aggressive and hasn't even grown as a character one bit. It feels like they were trying to make him Kamille 2.0, but without the personality.

[O.Supreme]

[O.Supreme]

Gundam Evolve... well I didn't care for it. But I think that is more a result of it not being what I expected versus it actually being bad. My fault for that though...should have read some reviews first. I was expecting I guess some sort of Gundam Fantasia. Short stories from different continuities etc... which it did have. But it was also basically a "look what we can do with CG!" fest. which is not what I wanted. I wanted to see some older & newer series with some modern hand drawn anime. I guess nobody does that anymore? Of course the entries improved over time as each one originally was months apart. But this would have been much better received over a decade ago, instead of waiting until now. The first few have PS2 level graphics. Like I said they do get better over time, but still...as this is not what I was expecting, it did nothing for me. Oddly enough only #14 (based on the kiddie show Gundam Defender) looked liked it stepped right out of the source material. Oh well..Live and learn I guess.

[Rody]

Mob Psycho 100 is the only current show I'm watching at the moment. It's definitely fun; characterization, humor and action are of similar quality to One-Punch Man (which it ought to, since the two manga come from the same author), so if you liked OPM, you should like MP100.

Meanwhile, I'm watching some past shows:
I've been, oh so slowly, watching Lupin the IIIrd part II, but it hasn't engaged me the way I hoped. I enjoyed Part 1 well enough, but Part 2 feels a little sillier and softer, at least this early on. Lupin himself sometimes seems more clutzy than clever, which is disappointing for me. Hopefully the series (and my thoughts on it) improve down the line.
Nyaruko! Another Crawling Chaos is a show I've - hesitantly - been curious about for a while, so I went ahead and started it. This is probably my first legitimate harem show, and while the concept of the girls being Lovecraftian entities (!)(Nyaruko is Nyarlathotep) sounds fascinatingly weird, so far I'm underwhelmed. References to Lovecraftian mythos aren't lacking (and are fairly funny), but the show is actually pretty dull so far, with focus being on the love triangle-thingy developing and not nearly enough on the weirdness of the core concept. I guess I shouldn't have expected much in the first place, but ah, well.
...So, getting bored with Nyaruko!, I started Bakemonogatari. Man, if I wanted eccentric, I sure got it. It definitely has my interest, though it's too early to say I *like* it yet.

[EricDent]

Finished L/R a good spy show with good action.
Make sure to watch after the credits of the last episode.

Now watching Witch Hunter Robin which I borrowed from the library.
I only saw bits & pieces of it on Toonami/Adult Swim, so this is the first time fully watching it.
Up through disc 3 and it's pretty good.
Of course the dub is great since its Bang Zoom & features Crispin Freeman & Kari Wahlgren.
I do have to mention that for being 15, Robin is rather stacked...
Of course I do have a bit of a "thing" for goth girls.

[EricDent]

Finished Witch Hunter Robin.
Will probably buy it whenever it decides to get re-released.

[Dr Kain]

I like WHR, but I found myself having a hard time sitting through the show a third time when I owned the DVDs, so I got rid of it.

Well I just finished watching Destiny and it is without a doubt one of the poorest Gundam series thus far. Now it isn't one of the worst anime series ever made, as it does have a lot of high production values that saves it, especially when it comes to the music (sans that horrid fourth opening song) and animation, but for every one thing this show does well, it does five things wrong. One of its biggest issues is Shin. He is by far the worst character to be found in this thing. He might as well be named Shin Clinton because he is allowed to get away with any and everything he does just because the writers couldn't think of anything else to do with him. He really could have used some Bright Slaps or Wong Style Curb Stomping to get the point across to him. However, he doesn't, so he spends the entire series acting like an self entitled little **** and does not have to be held accountable for his actions one bit. Then we have Rey, who could have been one of the best characters in the show, but they don't bother to do anything with him until the last three episodes of the show. More than half of the series should have been spent on developing him as Rau's clone and what sets him apart. Instead, we are just supposed to believe he suddenly changes in the last 3 minutes of the show.

Oh, and don't get me started on the Zechs rip-off that is Neo Roanoke. WTF? Mu had a huge sacrifice in the original series and then they just pissed all over it here by adding in this predictable plot twist and they couldn't even be bothered to have actually developed Neo. In fact, none of the Alliance guys were developed. Sting just disappears after Auel and Stella are dead, not that it matters since none of them held any significance to the show to begin with.

Then we have Kira and gang, who pretty much stole the last act of the show, but there wasn't anything new about them. Everything they did or believed in was the same stuff we already had in the last series. All this show did was repeat the same message to the point where it felt like it was being drilled into your head with a corkscrew. None of them were in any mortal danger at any time, which also took away from any sort of suspense there could have been.

Lastly, none of the other characters were all that interesting. Durandel was just another villain we have already had from these shows before but done better. Sadly though, he may be the best character in the show, but the last three episodes really ruined him. Gladys was just Ramius 2.0 who then had an out of character moment in the last few minutes of the show, which makes very little sense. In fact, her sudden change is even worse than Rey's. The blue haired guy from Orb was a really terrible character and it was fun to see him get his just desserts after Cagali returns. Speaking of Cagali, if you thought she was bad in Seed, she really cranks up the stupid here. Oh my god she is such a terrible character. Oh yeah, then there are the two Zaft sisters, which were useless. The worst part is how Lunamarie doesn't even seem to care that her sister was thought to be killed by Shin after like the first 30 seconds.

Now the mobile suits, sans the Not-Psycho Gundam and Not-Hyaku Shiki, were kind of cool. I did like the three the Extendeds used even though they never really did anything beyond their premier episode. The Strike Freedom's ability to use Funnels was pretty cool and a lot more interesting than just watching Kira flail lasers around in a circle from his first machine.

Another huge issue with the show is the amount of clip shows and flashbacks. Every episode had what seemed like 2-3 minutes worth of flashbacks. If I got paid every tie they showed the scene where Shin's sister needed a hand, I would be rich. Hell, even a quarter of freaking Final Plus was full of flashbacks and that episode was made because of how lackluster the original finale was. WHAT THE ****?! This show had 4 friggin clip shows in it and that was way too much considering how rushed the last three episodes were. This show is the very definitive of laziness. Sunrise clearly wanted to cash in on Seed's success, but instead of doing something new and unique, they just ripped off Zeta and their own predecessor to bring us one of the most generic, bland, and uninspiring Gundam series ever made. As such, there is no reason to watch this show unless you must watch every Gundam series in existence. If not, skip it and watch Zeta Gundam instead. This show is just over stuffed with characters that do nothing for several episodes and when they die we are supposed to care about them, but we don't because we barely even knew them.

UGH!! Well, I have now completed every Gundam series except for Victory, which I will watch when I get the BDs. YAY!!!!!

[Dr Kain]

So I just watched the BD and I don't know if it was thanks to the fixed subtitles or the better picture quality, but this is hands the first time I have really enjoyed this movie a lot. It still has its pacing issues thanks to Quess, but I really enjoyed this viewing quite a bit. As for the subs, there's still a few grammatical mistakes like "He braked the backend of Axis," and "She charm enticed Amuro," or something like that, but the vast majority of them are fixed. Even the translations during Char's speech makes so much more sense now as instead of "the Haman," it talks about the Titans and Haman as two seperate entities.

[O.Supreme]

^ Its been so long since I watched the sub (I have the Bandai USA DVD special edition from 2001). But I believe the dub was pretty accurate. Except that Char's VA's pronounced Titans as "Tetons" (like the mountain range in Wyoming) it only occurred once, but I always thought it was odd...

[Dr Kain]

[EricDent]

Borrowed the first half of Pandora Hearts from the library.
It's a mix of dark & comedy, with lots of Alice in Wonderland references.
It's sub-only from NISA.
I went back to see if they had the 2nd half, but somebody else was borrowing it.

So I watched the 2nd disc of Tenchi in Tokyo (Geneon Complete Collection).
Still say that Tenchi should finally chose somebody, and Sakuya is probably the safest choice.

BTW they are apparently making a 4th OVA series of Tenchi.
Hopefully more people like it than the last one.
Kinda wonder if anybody is gonna license the Ai Tenchi Muyo show from a few years ago.
Of course if they do that, it might be a good idea to combine several of the 5 minute episodes into one.

Finally (just in case): Toho has registered the domain name of Godzilla-Anime.com.
There's nothing there (yet), but if it's an actual Godzilla anime, you know I will purchase it ASAP when it comes to the USA.

[EricDent]

In sort of related news (if you like going to actual stores to buy anime).
Hastings declared bankruptcy recently, and are now closing all of their stores.
Not sure how long it will take, but apparently all of them are gonna be gone by Oct. 31.

The last time one of their stores closed down, I got quite a few things really cheap.

Will have to check out the 2 stores "nearby" (both are about an hour's drive at least).
My parents are going out of town and need somebody to drive their car back from the airport.
So I volunteered (they said they would pay me), so might check those out then (at the end of the month).

[Dr Kain]

Yeah, our Trade Smart is owned by Hasting and they started discounting their stuff, but depending on what it is depends on what is on sale. All graphic novels are 40% off, but everything I would have bought is already gone. Their figures are only 20% off and their movies are only 10% off, so still not even close to Amazon's discounts.

[O.Supreme]

[EricDent]

Well hopefully Fry's won't be that dumb to get rid of DVDs/Blu-Rays.
Since I now work in the Software department which is where they have those.
Heck we just got in a ton of really cheap Blu-Rays/DVDs.

I could care less about Best Buy, since their anime section is a joke.
It's kinda sad to think that when I first moved to Texas both Best Buys in the area had at least an entire aisle of anime.
Now they have maybe an 8' section with mostly Funimation & Ghibli stuff.

[O.Supreme]

Eric, I knew you worked at Fry's in the past...didn't know if you were still there or not. Frys used to be my go-to after Suncoast started to get way too expensive. Sadly there are 2 Frys in my area, but I never go to the one on the Northwest end of the county, I stay closer to my end. I have seen its DVD section shrink from like 10 aisles down to 3. There are still occasional good deals, but I don't go often enough, and I haven't seen any anime there in quite a while that is on my wish list. I want a lot of the newer Gundam stuff that Sunrise has been releasing (I have it all on my wish list yes...) but all I ever see is Seed/Seed Destiny DVD's that having been sitting around forever. If I saw Discoteks Gaiking set at Fry's I'd definitely pick that up. I know its odd, but there seems just to be something more satisfying about finding something in a store than just having it mailed to you, in spite of the convenience.

[Dr Kain]

When I worked at Best Buy we have 5 full columns/sections of anime and I was able to face more than half of the titles. After 2009, Best Buy downsized their anime section and they only let me have two sections for anime, which meant everything had to be spined. The last time I walked into that Best Buy store they had two measly shelves of anime, which were covered in Sailor Moon, Dragonball, Tiger & Bunny, and Ghibli movies with a few random titles here or there.

It's sad to see retail stores do this. Hell, Target stores used to have an anime section.

[EricDent]

Our Fry's has 2 aisles of DVDs/Blu-Rays (though they are pretty long & both sides of the aisles have stuff).
DVD anime & Blu-Ray anime each have a seperate section.
Each one is about 4' but they are pretty full.

If you're in the Austin area, we sell the newer Gundam titles.
Plus we have some older ADV titles, a few Right Stuf things, and of course a ton of Funimation/Sentai.
With a sprinkling of Ghibli & Viz.

BTW the Hastings in Killeen used to be near one of the last Suncoast Video stores.
They went away about 3-4 years ago (Killeen is near Fort Hood).
There's also a Toys R Us there that's almost like going into a time warp to the '80s/'90s.

It still has the really tall aisles set up like a supermarket, those tickets you take up to get games/bikes.
Though it has an Imaginarium part as well (where the LEGO stuff is).
What would make it really cool is if somehow they still had toys from those time periods...especially Transformers.