Yeah, Crystal's gonna air on July 5th. Here's the trailer:
I wanna be optimistic about it, but I was underwhelmed by the trailer and the designs still seem awkward to me. For a project that was delayed for two years you'd think they'd at least show off some more impressive animation - like transformation footage or something.
I'm super excited about the DVD release of the original series (even Stars!) though. That Viz is taking the time to do a re-dub of the whole thing is amazing (regardless of how it may turn out ), I was really just expecting them to just go with subs and be done with it.
get ready to see that same clip 500 times in the actual show
i started watching the original series and it was entertaining, although i ended up stopping
i'm all about jojo now though (staggering my watching of it with my reading of it, so i'm watching phantom blood and halfway through reading battle tendency)
but i feel like i should reread gantz because i didn't finish it (again out of stuff coming up and just losing momentum). i heard people weren't too happy about the newer books
speaking of which, i've been wanting to get into that. is it a crime anime? because everytime i see the characters in their promotional/fanart pics they always have the police tape surrounding them.
-----------
Robert, just noticed your first post. >.< i love noragami, but havent looked at the show yet. it really is great, and i would recommend it to anyone. it really is a no-disappointment to anime fans of all ages.
----------
also
i cannot wait for next month, considering
human demon forever? really???
, i absolutely did not want the anime franchise to end that way. luckily the show series will be redeemed by the sure-to-please servants' epic appearances next month.
speaking of which, i've been wanting to get into that. is it a crime anime? because everytime i see the characters in their promotional/fanart pics they always have the police tape surrounding them.
It's not a crime anime. It's more of a...uh... now that I think about it I have no idea how to classify it as an anime. There's a bit about gangs in it, but it's not a mafiaesque anime. There's a bit of supernatural, but it's not a supernatural anime either.
It's hard to describe it, there's a ton of characters, a handful of plotlines, and they all weave in and out of each other seamlessly, and it makes the setting feel very alive rather than cluttered and confusing. It's, hm, pop psychological maybe? It's not deeply introspective, but it likes to play around with concepts and has this weird attitude that's upbeat but not energetic.
I'm pretty sure none of that makes sense, but make it past the first few episodes and it's a complete trip. You should try it.
Durarara is a crime drama like The Wire. Simple as that. With sexy red heads running around and japanese politics combined with gangster life, no drugs unfortunately.
I'm really trying to get back into Hitman Reborn, because I know a lot of stuff goes down in the later arcs, and the series does have an ending. I'm dividing my time at the beginning with both the manga and anime to know everyone's backstories, as things can get very obscure if you don't understand where the powers came from. But oh my god, this first arc is such a slow bitter pill.
I'm still on 16 of 30-something episodes in season 1 and it's just really lame slice of life slapstick stuff. T_T
I wouldn't describe durarara as a crime anime, the law is not involved lol
well they sort of are, but not much. celty gets chased by the police and she expresses she's afraid of them but outside of that?
It does involve gangs though so if you consider that 'crime'. To me crime involves more detective work and the law having a heavy part in the criminal activity.
It's a bit of a psychological drama/comedy, with a tinge of supernatural aspects
Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
I tried to get into the manga, I really did. But it just didn't interest me and there are shounens out there than can hook me faster. I kept getting told to stick it out until some random time-thingy arc but meh. I just couldn't keep interest, like Psyren and Air Gear.
Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
I wouldn't describe durarara as a crime anime, the law is not involved lol
well they sort of are, but not much. celty gets chased by the police and she expresses she's afraid of them but outside of that?
It does involve gangs though so if you consider that 'crime'. To me crime involves more detective work and the law having a heavy part in the criminal activity.
It's a bit of a psychological drama/comedy, with a tinge of supernatural aspects
Durarara is a crime drama like The Wire. Simple as that. With sexy red heads running around and japanese politics combined with gangster life, no drugs unfortunately.
hmmmmm...so by what you guys are saying is that it has crime in it, and it does appear, but it's not revolved around it. at least i think that's what im getting >.<
meh, haven't really been big on the crime/detective genre until i saw/read kuroshitsuji, so its fine if durarara doesnt have it since 'shitsuji is one of my favorite manga/anime anyway >
Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
(This is actually the 2nd OP, but its by far the best one imo)
In the future, science can quantify psychology, mental states, mental stability and predict social standing with pure metrics. This SCIENCE, BITCH! approach takes the form of a national database that quantifies every citizen's personality and future potential, known as a 'psycho pass'. With the adoption of this system, Japan has become a state where people's role in society is already determined when they're born. They are allowed to choose from a range of jobs that suit them best. It's supposed to be a utopia where people don't have to worry themselves about what to do or where to go in life, because the system quantifies their best fit.
Crime has also plummeted to levels far below what was present previously in the 20th century, because the system is also used to calculate citizens' potential for performing criminal acts (a 'crime coefficient') and sends out cops with giant fuck-off death cannons that blow people up into giblets - before any crime can actually be committed. Accidents with these guns are also non-existent because the triggers are locked unless they are pointed at an individual who meets those metrics, and a 'stun' setting exists for some leniency with those who are borderline but not quite there.
Enter a Public Safety Bureau noob, Tsunemori Akane, fresh out of college and minted by the system as such a squeaky-clean personality that she is guaranteed anything up to the cushiest of government jobs. In her infinite wisdom, she chooses to join the Criminal Investigation Department, the only law-enforcement branch in Japan that exists. No-one signs up for it because 1) no-one wants to handle shit that's usually dealt with before it even happens, and 2) the system doesn't need that many people - the Bureau literally consists of about 10-15 staff and everything else in the country is entirely automated.
Additionally, the majority of the human staff are Enforcers, actual would-be/should-be criminals who are monitored by a small handful of Inspectors. They're allowed a role in law-enforcement solely for the reason that in order to apprehend the craftiest of criminals they need to think like them, and so the Inspectors treat them like 'attack dogs' while avoiding raising their own crime coefficient. But who the shit would want to work alongside criminals all day, anyway?
Of course, the anime wouldn't have a point if there weren't exceptions to the rules of the system, and if there weren't serious ethical questions to ask. Day one on the job, Akane is called to assist in the apprehension of a man who the system has determined he could very well possibly commit a crime in the near future. Because of this, the man has thus flipped the fuck out, taken a woman hostage and beaten the shit out of her, raped her, etc. Hijinks ensue, and continue to do so for the rest of the series!
I would say 'Gen Urobuchi does it again', but truth be told I've never been too invested in his work in the past. He subverts genres well and in a very distinct writing style, but I've never been sucked in like I was for PSYCHO-PASS. The visual design is spectacular, the visual production by I.G (heh) is superb as always, and the soundtrack is solid. supercell (or rather, the band EGOIST originally created for the story of the fun Production I.G train wreck, Guilty Crown) returns again for both EDs (but I vastly prefer the first one). Each character has a strong, definite personality (though some are very much more fleshed out than others and are given more love to develop). It has a heavy emphasis on the police procedural genre (kinda like Ghost in the Shell S.A.C did) and old-school psychological profiling (which I absolutely love) but at the same time the pace is never boring and the plot is always going places, even if it's slow.
Tsunemori is one of the best 'rookie' archetypes I've seen in a show for quite some time. For 22 episodes she develops as a character and eventually becomes a consummate professional at what she does. Her reactions to situations are always understandable, whether it's collapsing in an emotional heap (keep an eye out for That Urobuchi Episode, the one point in a series that earns the director the fan-nickname "Urobutcher") to moments of self-doubt and uncertainty, to character-defining moments where a viewer could genuinely admire the spirit of the character. The male lead is a brooding bishie but there isn't too much shonen bullshit going on and whatever there is fits nicely within the noir-ish tone. The main villain (he isn't completely apparent until the end of the first half of the series) is alright, but I don't think he's really all that complex or deep as people said he was and I found his posturing mostly irritating rather than the loathsome/sympathetic angle I believe Urobuchi was going for. Other reviewers seem to claim him as being the real star of the show, and again, he's good, but I don't think he's any more or less convincing than any of the protagonists.
My only complaints with the show is that at some points the presentation gets weak. At the end of the day, this is a show dealing with a higher-concept than something of a similar genre, like Ghost in the Shell (ie. quantifying the psychological state by numbers alone, and using them solely to definte society). When it comes to high concept fiction, it's all about suspension of disbelief and taking the concept only as far as its logical conclusion. That measure can differ in extent for viewers, but for me I felt it got broken at times.
A particularly egregious moment comes in the second half of the season where the show attempts to represent its society as completely emotionally disconnected from reality when a man publicly mauls a woman in a street, not bothering to help and going so far as to record the incident on video as mild entertainment. An argument could certainly be made that this is a phenomena that exists, and this is basically an amplified version of it to represent how dystopian society has become, but I personally felt that up to that point that the brilliance of PSYCHO-PASS was partly due to its expert subtlety and great delivery. I was really quite disappointed as to how heavy-handed and comically brutal that particular scene was. It was the show basically throwing up a hypothetical to its extreme and going to viewers, "SEE? SEE? THIS IS WHAT THE ANTAGONIST IS TRYING TO EXPRESS! THIS SYSTEM IS CLEARLY DYSFUNCTIONAL AND IS CAUSING SOCIETY TO BE ACTIVELY DYSFUNCTIONAL. NYYEEEEEEEEER. LIKE OUR ANTAGONIST. HE HAS SUCH A PRETTY FACE".
I didn't buy that message, and the message the show presents becomes at odds with the messages delivered by the protagonists, which is strange but also refreshing in a way. Each of the characters have different stances to the politics and the ethics of the system, and have different opinions on how coexistence with an automated, predetermining justice system could possibly work. There is no one right opinion to how to enforce justice - even if some of the characters espousing those opinions are annoying shitheads.
I rate this show a landfill pile of mutilated female characters (of which I think Urobuchi has a pathological enthusiasm for) out of a possible 'CAUSE I FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL...s. No, seriously, that OP.
I'm super hyped for Season 2, which is coming pretty soon this year, I think!
.....you know when i said i had a TON of anime pictures and would upload them soon? (and i seriously did, i had like 4-500)?? well my little brother was cleaning the comp and deleted EVERY SINGLE ONE. there is absolutely no way i can get it back and i am still pissed at him. so yea. i finally had a chance to use the pictures that i kept forever on the comp and now they are all gone. so no more anime pictures from me anymore >
*translation provided thanks to Jane Michaelis of FB:*
Queen Victoria : "Now, to the matter of the tickets I have enclosed. Have you heard about the travelling circus making its way to London in the coming days? The police are doing everything they can to locate them, but the whereabouts of the children are as yet unknown. It seems the children suddenly disappear in the dead of the night....almost as if...they have been taken away by the Pied Piper of Hamelin..."
Joker : "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!! BOYS AND GIRLS!!! On this fine day, we welcome ye to the Noah's Ark Circus! Let the show of the century BEGIIIINN~!!"
Sebastian Michaelis : "Of the children we have been asked to investigate, not a one has been found dead."
Ciel Phantomhive : "So you didn't know anything about this incident at all?"
Undertaker : "Not quite. I KNOW that I "do not know" about it~"
Ciel Phantomhive : "In which case...we have no other option left to us but to investigate the circus troupe directly!" "Just what do they intend to do Sebastian?!"
Undertaker : "A person has only one soul~ Take good care of yours!~"
Ciel Phantomhive : "I'm trusting you guys!"
Meirin+Bard+Finnian : "YES MY LORD!!!"
Joker : "In this circus, we have a bit of silly members."
Beast : "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU PERVERT!?!?!"
Sebastian : "Ahh~ Excuse me!"
Snake : "Entry beyond this point is forbidden..."
Joker : "So much so, I've half a mind to scout ye for our troupe here~"
Sebastian : "ARE YOU SURE?! If you are sure, I'd like to introduce you to another person as well!"
Satsu, BRIAN BLESSED, MIGHTY AND WISE Junpei Iori: Ace Detective, Maccaffrickstonson von Lichtenstafford Frabenschnaben, Polite Krogan, Robert Baratheon
), I was really just expecting them to just go with subs and be done with it.
