General Anime Thread

[Kuja9001]

Dat ass shot thumbnail.

 

[Splintered]

I feel as of late, even with SA: O II out, SAO has been getting a lot of flack. Which is good, because I don't care about SAO and all the shit it's getting is pretty entertaining.

 

[Hisako]

SAO was an incredibly entertaining premise stretched out over a vapid, vacuous protagonist author-insert self-masturbatory fantasy and I'm not sad to see the series continue to receive the audience spanking it deserves

 

[Splintered]

I don't remember much of SA but from what I recall (very little) and what I heard, it feels like a weak, by the numbers A1 series. And I blame it for the vapid number of "guy wakes up in a game" genre that permeates the industry like the comedy-ecchi-harem phase.

That said, I thought I hated the genre, but looking back I actually do like some of the things. Log Horizon was something I came back to after I played FFXIV:ARR and found myself loving a lot (and the second season incredibly less so). Like, it feels like a love letter from someone who loves MMOs.

And Overlord has tons of problems but I found myself enjoying despite myself, maybe because the main character is a gross ass skeleton villain which amused me, despite the plot being weak.

I watched an episode of No Game No Life and Hai to Gensou no Grimgar look really good. But I bounced because NGNL smelled like some weird as incest bait (even though I was assured it wasn't) and Grimgar was great because I like shows that are a slow burn but with great atmosphere, but I heard rumors of a harem coming soon, and that bores me.

I wonder how much life the "trapped in a game" craze is going to have, but it doesn't seem to be dying soon, but with all the crap there's always that one imperfect but interesting show so who knows.

 

[Hisako]

It's funny because A1 Productions is capable of so much more

Their adaptation for Magi (at least up until the point where I was watching it) is so on-point, and has that genuine sense of unfettered, almost naïve shonen adventure that's been disappearing from the medium

I think it just depends on the quality of the source material tbh

NGNL has some interesting premises and is super cool when it heads off into deconstructing its own mind games, but I'll agree with you when it could have started off a little classier by not shoving underage cameltoe in the audience's face

 

[aszach01]

2016 is a great year for anime at least for me. I mean a new Berserk anime coming up and the return of Togashi's HxH (manga). How can someone top that?

 

[Unit-01]

SAO could've been a lot better. It is what first got me into anime and I loved it. Then I watched better shows notably Neon Genesis Evangelion and I realized how crappy it was.

I don't believe SAO is going to be getting a third season.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

It's funny because A1 Productions is capable of so much more

Their adaptation for Magi (at least up until the point where I was watching it) is so on-point, and has that genuine sense of unfettered, almost naïve shonen adventure that's been disappearing from the medium

The Magi manga definitely deserves the credit. The themes and topics that it deals with are pretty mature for the shonen genre (slavery, cultural conflict, different forms of government, peace at what price, freedom, trade, etc.). I mean, the current arc is shaping up to be about how trade is really a form of economic war and how the countries that relied on conventional war are really disadvantaged because of it and that that's probably exactly what the countries that are good at trade wanted to happen. And that's before the magic system even comes into play...

Oh yeah, Magi is definitely one of the better shonen series out there right now.

 

[Splintered]

A1 is in general, really good with animation. Their shounens are gorgeous, because their fight scenes are great. Magi was really good minus the second half of the first season, but season II blew me out of the water. And I like their dumb ones like Nanatsu no Taizai, which was just a bunch of fun.

But even their non shounens, I think From the New World is a work of art, and Your Lie in April and AnoHana are some of the most beautifuly animates scenes in general.

I've been hearing some grumblings though, I've heard it argued that machine crank their animes out, and I guess I can see that because they produce a lot of stuff, like an actually high production Toei or something. They can do some stupid shit like Asterik War, but every company needs some useless pandering, by the number ecchi harem magical school if they want to make that money.

In general though, I think A1 is one of the better companies. I like them, they make consistently good shows with something really fantastic once in awhile.

 

[Kuja9001]

You'd think with all this MMO anime craze they'd bring back .Hack the MMO anime that is actually good.

 

[JechtShotMK9]

I just binged FMA Brotherhood and ohmyGod it was fantastic. I immediately went and bought the manga box. $130 for all 27 volumes, a sexy box, a poster, and a novel. It was a steal.

Watched the 2003 anime after, and, while pretty good, it didn't match up to Brotherhood.

 

[ForceStealer]

There are elements to the original that I like better. For instance, I don't really like how everyone and their mother gains the ability to clap-transmute in Brotherhood, it takes away some of Ed's unique-ness.

But Brotherhood was still mostly better overall. Especially the ending.

 

[JechtShotMK9]

There are elements to the original that I like better. For instance, I don't really like how everyone and their mother gains the ability to clap-transmute in Brotherhood, it takes away some of Ed's unique-ness.

But Brotherhood was still mostly better overall. Especially the ending.

Oh, definitely. And some of the characters were done better, especially a few of the Homunculi. Lust and Sloth in particular.

Still, the show didn't have anything as powerful as say, Mustang's torturing Envy, or the awesome fight at the end, when you had even the redshirts contributing in the fight against God.

Bradley killing Selim comes close though. That was rough.

 

[Cthulhu]

In other news, Death Note is on Netflicks and I've been watching it for a while now. There was much hype around it a few years ago, and L the forum d00d got his name from there.

IDK though, I was expecting moar. It's more like a er, psychological thriller (but not that great because of all the talking-to-oneself-in-dramatic-poses shit). But so far (about 8-9 episodes in), nothing remarkable.

 

[ForceStealer]

People have always raved about it to me, it never looked super appealing to me.

Of course, Yop is lukewarm on everything, so maybe that's glowing praise.

 

[Cthulhu]

Well I haven't stopped watching, so er, yeah I guess that's positive

 

[Splintered]

I've only read the manga, but from what I remember, Death Note was really good. It kinda sinks you in and keeps you enthralled. A lot of people think it's the best manga evar or whatever, and it's not of course, but even as someone who is not a tremendous fan it's definitely upper tier. Can't even tell it's a shounen, a pretty decent thriller.

 

[Claymore]

Seen the anime after everyone raved about it back in the day, and yeah, it's definitely more a psychological thriller / detective drama mesh. It's pretty decent overall, but definitely loses something mid-way through. You'll know what I mean when you reach that point.

 

[Cthulhu]

I would've expected things to have escalated by now (like idk, god-tier shit), but I don't think that's going to happen by now. Oh well.

 

[Kuja9001]

I highly recommend that everyone watch My Hero Academia if you love super heroes.

I've been reading the manga since like chapter 10(back in mid-late 2014) and we're on 85 now.

 

[Roger]

I've only read the manga, but from what I remember, Death Note was really good. It kinda sinks you in and keeps you enthralled. A lot of people think it's the best manga evar or whatever, and it's not of course, but even as someone who is not a tremendous fan it's definitely upper tier. Can't even tell it's a shounen, a pretty decent thriller.

It's enhanced a lot by the anime soundtrack.

 

[Mayo Master]

I've begun to watch Erased (Boku Dake ga Inai Machi), and so far (watched the first 4 episode) it's been awesome. I seems it's the kind of story which will be entirely framed in a 12-episodes run.

Spoiler: the pitch (spoiling the first 5 minutes of the anime)

The story follows a jaded, 29 y.o. struggling manga artist who has a strange ability that he dubbed "revival": whenever someone near him is likely to get caught in a life-threatening incident, everything around him rewinds back in time (usually for a few minutes) to give him enough time to prevent the incident from happening.

Spoiler: And then... (spoiler for the end of the 1st episode)

After finding the dead body of his mother, murdered by a serial killer on the lose, his revival ability goes haywire and sends him 18 year back in time, in his 10-ish year old self.

 

[Animexcel]

I've begun to watch Erased (Boku Dake ga Inai Machi), and so far (watched the first 4 episode) it's been awesome. I seems it's the kind of story which will be entirely framed in a 12-episodes run.

Spoiler: the pitch (spoiling the first 5 minutes of the anime)

The story follows a jaded, 29 y.o. struggling manga artist who has a strange ability that he dubbed "revival": whenever someone near him is likely to get caught in a life-threatening incident, everything around him rewinds back in time (usually for a few minutes) to give him enough time to prevent the incident from happening.

Spoiler: And then... (spoiler for the end of the 1st episode)

After finding the dead body of his mother, murdered by a serial killer on the lose, his revival ability goes haywire and sends him 18 year back in time, in his 10-ish year old self.

I saw all of Erased earlier this month and really enjoyed it. Pretty cool time travel aspect too; kinda reminds me of the movie Frequency in a way trying to prevent a tragedy from happening.

 

[Lex]

People have always raved about it to me, it never looked super appealing to me.

Of course, Yop is lukewarm on everything, so maybe that's glowing praise.

Well I haven't stopped watching, so er, yeah I guess that's positive

I honestly don't know why I started watching it, but I'm on episode 31. I feel like I'm just continuing to watch it because I don't like leaving things unfinished. I like the angle of basically seeing it from kind of a villain's perspective in a sense, but me violently hating the main character is becoming a very annoying trend in all the most recent anime I've seen. This, Attack on Titan, Sword Art Online. All of them have absolutely detestable main characters that impact my enjoyment of the show.

The psychological aspect is certainly the most interesting part of it though. It's just a bit cheesy with all the "god" crap.

Oh I watched Twelve Kingdoms too; that was pretty excellent, if a little disjointed in the later eps.

 

[Hisako]

A little bit perturbed that none of yall muhfuckas picked up on Production I.G. bankrolling two sequel seasons for FLCL (with extra dollars from Adult Swim/Toonami)