Anime and Manga - ゴゴゴゴ

[InsaneCommander]

7 hours ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

The last episode drops this Sunday I think. I'm caught up until there.

Anyways, I'm at the last four episodes of Ergo Proxy. What a god damn ride this has been.

The next one is the last episode? "The Dawn of Humanity"? Wow, I had no idea. Or is Crunchyroll delayed in Brazil?

Btw, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to/where is

Spoiler

Zeke.

 

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

22 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

The next one is the last episode? "The Dawn of Humanity"? Wow, I had no idea. Or is Crunchyroll delayed in Brazil?

Btw, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to/where is

  Reveal hidden contents

Zeke.

 

Yeah, though I've heard speculation that there may be a movie as the real finale.

I think DIOZeke died.

[Bartimaeus]

i know this was from a dream sequence, but it still sent me to the moon

Spoiler

This show is shockingly good. It's hard for me to pinpoint all the particulars of why everything works as well as it does, though...but it just does. The best way I can describe the feeling of the show is as if they took a fantasy action adventure shonen and were somehow able infuse it with the essence of shoujo. Yeah, it's still mostly all the same elements, but...they somehow just feel like they're executed very differently from other shonen shows, and with a lot more love and care.

P.S. Merle is great, Allen's basically the actually good version of Touga from Utena, and even Van's starting to grow on me.

 

[HoonDing]

I like that IIRC Kanzaki has zero special powers or talents and isn't particularly attractive either. As the Japanese say, "busaiku".

In hindsight, how the hell did they drag 26 episodes out of that.

[Bartimaeus]

18 minutes ago, HoonDing said:

I like that IIRC Kanzaki has zero special powers or talents and isn't particularly attractive either. As the Japanese say, "busaiku".

The evidence speaks for itself, Prime Minister. At least you're doing your country proud!

Edited April 1, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Gorth]

Finished season 1 of Gleipnir. I guess it was something just up my alley, I really enjoyed it. No accounting for taste of course, I might be the only liking it

 

The relatively peaceful collector group runs into a gang of no nonsense violent people, who will kill them for reasons of their own... sort of like because they can (they are the downtrodden of society suddenly tasting brotherhood and power). Things ends violently with mass poisoning and forest fires.... but voyeur guy tries to rat them out triggers a fail safe which pops off his head. The leader of the group decides to hand over Claire and Shuichi to Elena (Claire's sister) and her people.

 

More backstory and introduction of characters that existed before the "current time", explaining some hows and whys and who know who in what way. Turns out there is a main antagonist (Kaito) too, even if introduced very late in the anime. All of the protagonists (Claire and Shuichi) as well as Claire's sister Elena and Kaito knew each other when younger. A bit of a plot point is a missing girl, Honoka... turns out she found one of the coins and her wish was to be someone else. A friend of the group, Aiko seemed to have everything, but committed suicide (not properly explained why in the anime imho) and Honoka wished to be her. Everyone seems to suspect something is odd with the new Aiko, but the guys agree to just pretend everything is normal... except for Kaito that is. He confronts "Aiko" at what he suspects is the grave of the real Aiko and strangles the Honoka/"Aiko", just to find out afterwards Honoka was innocent, only thing she did was assuming her identity.

Elena not only murdered hers and Claire's parents, but it seems she also murdered Shuichi (the protagonist whose name I couldn't remember in previous posts) parents and tampered with his memory.

Kaito apparently managed to collect 100 coins and is now almost omnipotent and Elena seems to be working for him. He also has a guardian angel, which eviscerates people and then there was the wayward ghost that shreds people who don't know her real name (looking like Honoka/Aiko). Sort of ends in a cliffhanger with Shuichi and Claire declaring themselves as one in more ways than one I guess (no, not sex, but more than just her climbing inside him through his zipper) and intend to put up a fight to end this deadly game...

 

[Amentep]

This may have been clear in the Anime, but I've seen people asking about it online. In the Glepnir manga, regarding Aiko, Honoka and Kaito...

Spoiler

Aiko killed herself not realizing that she was the glue that kept the friends together.  Kaito in particular was in love with Aiko.  Honoka basically felt like she didn't have much to live for (her family IIRC had been disgraced and everyone hated her, making her life very hard), so when her best friend Aiko killed herself, she decided to use her wish to become Aiko and keep her alive, hiding her suicide.  Kaito became convinced that Honoka had murdered Aiko to take over her life since Honoka's life had been worthless, and ultimately murders her.  After he murders her, the friends discover that Aiko had killed herself and Honoka had taken her place because she knew her friends would miss Aiko more than her, which drives Kaito insane and he decides to use the coins to 'fix' things.  His first wish was to bring Honoka back, but as Alien can't bring back the dead, she's sort of a void of llife/death.  That's how I remember it; I don't think they've fully explained why Aiko killed herself (or if they did, I've forgotten it).

Re Shuichi and Claire's rededication

Spoiler

Shuichi recognizes that something is keeping him and Claire from merging as fully as he did with Chihiro (beast eared lady).  It is hinted in the book that...

Spoiler

Shuichi took the form for Elena, before she edited his memory knowing that she was planning on stopping Kaito, but how it was supposed to work with Elena hasn't been explained, and I'm not sure if Shuichi knew Elena had already gotten powers as I think his intent was to sacrifice his life to become a monster so Elena didn't.

To that end, he realizes that the only way they're going to stand against the enemies they're going to face is if his and Claire's will become one, which is why they dedicate themselves to becoming one.  But Shuichi is going to have to get over his regret regarding Claire's use of violence (he hates it) and Claire doesn't understand Shuichi's heart of self-sacrifice, so they can't bond as Shuichi's monster form is designed to (a taste of which we get with his bonding with Chihiro to some degree to make a more powerful monster).

At least that's my memory...going a few months between releases is killer, and I'll probably have to re-read the whole thing when it finishes...  

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Finished Ergo Proxy. I went in expecting some cyberpunk stuff, and instead got something that was surreal insanity. So pleasant surprise there. I'll try to do a writeup later.

Not sure who else has seen it here, but I'd recommend it to @Sarex, @Gorth, and @InsaneCommander for sure. @majestic will probably react the same way he does to David Lynch movies, but at this point he's taken enough mental trauma from Kurtzman Trek that he may like it now. @Bartimaeus will hate it and curse us for all eternity if they watch it, so stay away! I can't get a good read on @Amentep's taste, so I can't recommend it to them beyond generally as an interesting surreal post-apocalyptic series.

Let's see if all the @s break the post lmao

Edit: Thanks @ShadySands, this show was really my jam

Edited April 1, 2022 by KP wants Blue Velvet

[HoonDing]

Twelve Kingdoms main character is a schoolgirl with red hair. Red. Red.

At the time I didn't realize what the big deal even was.

 

[majestic]

10 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

i know this was from a dream sequence, but it still sent me to the moon

  Hide contents

This show is shockingly good. It's hard for me to pinpoint all the particulars of why everything works as well as it does, though...but it just does. The best way I can describe the feeling of the show is as if they took a fantasy action adventure shonen and were somehow able infuse it with the essence of shoujo. Yeah, it's still mostly all the same elements, but...they somehow just feel like they're executed very differently from other shonen shows, and with a lot more love and care.

P.S. Merle is great, Allen's basically the actually good version of Touga from Utena, and even Van's starting to grow on me.

If there's one thing that I didn't enjoy too much so far is the anime's tendency to introduce an element or information at the beginning of an episode and make it pay off in the same one. It did that twice in a row now, I'm hoping the next few instances will get some more time to breathe. Otherwise, your sentiments echo mine exactly, by the looks of it. There's something else, unlike with other shows I've started to watch the small preview sections at the end, and every time there's something silly (like a guy talking to a snake) I'm like "This doesn't look too good, huh?" but then it just works in the episode.

It's hard to say why. It just does, and every now and then, every now and then an episode has these perfectly brilliant moments in addition to being baseline really good, like Hitomi and Van talking about their respective families.

Spoiler

Hitomi complaining to Van how her mother says she's always supposed to be the sensible one when her little brother annoys her only the realize that she didn't really have time to process being away from Earth was just fantastic. Bonus points for Van saying "We'll find a way to get you home." instead of something silly like "don't cry" or whatever else shouneny nonsense someone could think up for a scene like this.

Episode 11:

Spoiler

Prettty sure Prince Shido is Allen's kid, not the king's. The last scene of the episode with Hitomi's inner monologue all but confirms that, but I immediately thought of the possibility when I saw the little guy having blonde hair, and nobody else in the kingdom is blonde. Yeah, his mother was, sure, but hey...

It also has a knack on ending the episode at pretty good cliffhanger moments. I could see myself making sure to tune in every week. Even if it falls apart later, and for now it doesn't look like it will, at least - it's pretty meticulously crafted.

2 hours ago, HoonDing said:

Twelve Kingdoms main character is a schoolgirl with red hair. Red. Red.

At the time I didn't realize what the big deal even was.

何？

[HoonDing]

I found out later Japanese schoolgirls must conform and have black hair. Even with brown hair schools will force them to dye their hair black.

There have been lawsuits about this.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/27/japanese-student-sues-over-schools-order-to-dye-hair-black

In the anime, for reasons the main character has naturally red hair even though her parents have dark hair. She's an oddity to say the least yet still managed to become class president

[Bartimaeus]

6 hours ago, HoonDing said:

Twelve Kingdoms main character is a schoolgirl with red hair. Red. Red.

At the time I didn't realize what the big deal even was.

I still don't know what the big deal is. Although...

1 hour ago, HoonDing said:

I found out later Japanese schoolgirls must conform and have black hair. Even with brown hair schools will force them to dye their hair black.

There have been lawsuits about this.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/27/japanese-student-sues-over-schools-order-to-dye-hair-black

In the anime, for reasons the main character has naturally red hair even though her parents have dark hair. She's an oddity to say the least yet still managed to become class president

Well, okay, that is pretty screwed up, but it's hardly reflected in anime, considering ridiculously-colored hair has been around in anime since...basically forever, . Heck, maybe that's exactly why insane hair colors are so common - artist expression defying cultural norms.

9 hours ago, KP wants Blue Velvet said:

David Lynch

Considering that I disliked both Eraserhead and Blue Velvet, I think that means no for me as well. That and you think I wouldn't like it anyways...and the fact that I already tried it and didn't care for it.

3 hours ago, majestic said:

There's something else, unlike with other shows I've started to watch the small preview sections at the end, and every time there's something silly (like a guy talking to a snake) I'm like "This doesn't look too good, huh?" but then it just works in the episode.

I had a big "hoo boy" reaction to that guy when he appeared. Then his snake got brutally decapitated and he fell off a ledge and appeared to have died from hitting his head on a small rock. With that wacky character design, thought for sure he was gonna be around for a few episodes, not a few minutes, but okay, fine by me, .

Edited April 1, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

33 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Considering that I disliked both Eraserhead and Blue Velvet, I think that means no for me as well. That and you think I wouldn't like it anyways...and the fact that I already tried it and didn't care for it.

I wouldn't say that it's quite like a Lynch movie, but several episodes go into surreal dream(like) territory that probably evokes a similar response. I liked it because I am a ****ing weird guy who digs **** like that, but it definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Besides, it's post-90s which you have consistently disliked besides Samurai Champloo. I dunno, I think Berserk (90s) is the only thing I'd recommend to you, with the caveat it has a lot of violent and sexual stuff, much of the sexual stuff being violent to boot. The manga is even more extreme in that regard, and while very good is some heavy ****.

[majestic]

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

I had a big "hoo boy" reaction to that guy when he appeared. Then his snake got brutally decapitated and he fell off a ledge and appeared to have died from hitting his head on a small rock. With that wacky character design, thought for sure he was gonna be around for a few episodes, not a few minutes, but okay, fine by me, .

You've got quite a pace there by the way, which episode are you at now? Anyway, do you also get a nagging feeling that you've heard Dilandau's voice before, then you go look at Minami Takayama's list of works and find out that, nope, you haven't? Because I can't shake the feeling that I've heard that yelling inside a mech before, but I just didn't. The amount of shows with mechs I've seen is fairly limited too, so that can't possibly be it.

Spoiler

I was surprised the snake and the guy were dealt with this quickly too. The preview made it look like this is going to be a bit of a sub-plot with the guy capturing Hitomi and a dragged out rescue attempt, but no, Van uses the distraction of Amano trying to contact Hitomi and just kills both. I also appreciate how the action in this is usually quick and to the point, except when it matters that it isn't, like when Van and Dilandau's duel ends up setting Pallas on fire and Van decides to just take off to save people.

 

[Bartimaeus]

No further progress - I am a fickle god. I did watch another episode of Princess Tutu, though. I still don't have concrete feelings about it...hopefully I will by the end of the first 13 episodes.

As for Dilandau, stuff I have at least tried that I might recognize her from: major Ranma 1/2 character (Nabiki Tendo), the protagonist of Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, and the protagonist of Kiki's Delivery Service. She's also apparently Nataku and Kasumizuki from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, whomever they are. And yes, I am glad that the show doesn't do the whole DBZ or Naruto or Yu Yu Hakusho or other shonen thing with pointlessly wasting our time with silly non-essential and time-wasty fighting.

@KP wants Blue Velvet Yeah, I am very particular about the kind of surrealism that I like. Well, I am very particular about the [everything] that I like, but yes. I have a pretty ridiculous list of shows that I am supposed to watch as it is, anyways, so I don't really need to use time on something that almost definitely did not seem to be for me.

(e): Okay, I lied, I've watched up to 10 now.

Spoiler

I didn't read your previous spoiler until just now, but yes, Chid is 100% Allen's kid. Hitomi all but said it at the end of episode 10, . And yeah, episode 9 was probably the weakest episode so far (besides maybe 2?), but that is to say it was just solid...and 10 got us right back on track. I said I would try not to compare this show to Evangelion...and I won't, because that's stupid since they're completely different kinds of shows, but when your worst episodes are still solid, you know it's a danged good show.

Edited April 2, 2022 by Bartimaeus

[Chilloutman]

ok I will put it here and slooowlly move away:

 

 

[majestic]

11 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

No further progress - I am a fickle god. I did watch another episode of Princess Tutu, though. I still don't have concrete feelings about it...hopefully I will by the end of the first 13 episodes.

The ending of the first "season" of Princess Tutu was the strongest part of the anime for me. The second season has a rather dull middle part, a series of three or four episodes that aren't bad, but don't do anything and feel like silly padding at a point where there no longer should be padding, and then it gets pretty creepy. I still am, and most likely will remain forevermore, unable to ascertain what to make of it as a whole. That's an achievement all of its own - It's Schrödinger's anime for me. I laughed at Ahiru's hijinks, I got emotionally invested in Rue's story, and I really ended up liking Edel even though that probably barely seems possible from where you're standing at the moment.

The anime generates an absolutely fantastic, dreamlike fairy tale atmosphere. All of that was good, but if you'd ask me if it was time well spent watching, then I have only two answers. Yes, and no. Everything was both meaningful and pointless, a story about storytelling and a story told, a fantastic piece of art and the lowest folk tale. Well, the most flowery nonsense to post won't change that I can't really put into words what Princess Tutu is.

I fond every single part of Princess Tutu good, sometimes even great. It's the sum total of everything that exists in this state of being filled with meaning while being completely pointless at the same time. I think that's enough, I wonder if you'll end up watching it all and will have a different opinion. Time will tell.

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

As for Dilandau, stuff I have at least tried that I might recognize her from: major Ranma 1/2 character (Nabiki Tendo), the protagonist of Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko, and the protagonist of Kiki's Delivery Service. She's also apparently Nataku and Kasumizuki from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, whomever they are. And yes, I am glad that the show doesn't do the whole DBZ or Naruto or Yu Yu Hakusho or other shonen thing with pointlessly wasting our time with silly non-essential and time-wasty fighting.

I went over her list of credits twice, there's nothing on it that I've seen in the original except her being Envy in FMA: Brotherhood, but that's definitely not what I'm thinking about. Whatever it is, it's just a nagging feeling that I've heard her before, when I simply didn't.

12 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

(e): Okay, I lied, I've watched up to 10 now.

  Hide contents

I didn't read your previous spoiler until just now, but yes, Chid is 100% Allen's kid. Hitomi all but said it at the end of episode 10, . And yeah, episode 9 was probably the weakest episode so far (besides maybe 2?), but that is to say it was just solid...and 10 got us right back on track. I said I would try not to compare this show to Evangelion...and I won't, because that's stupid since they're completely different kinds of shows, but when your worst episodes are still solid, you know it's a danged good show.

First, I have no idea how I got the episode numbers wrong, I now watched 11 and 12 - the suspicion is confirmed, not that it was much of one.

Mild spoilers:

Spoiler

Hitomi has a bit of a breakdown after having visions of death and destruction all the time and refuses to help when Van asks if she can find out where Zaibach will launch their attack from. As it turns out, it'll be from everywhere at once, so it would not have made any difference, and it's very understandable. She then tries to cheer up Shido and reads the cards for him and ends up finding out who his real father is. Milena meanwhile does the same, by finding her sister's secret diary.

A bit more spoilery:

Spoiler

Considering the force that Zaibach deployed at the end of episode 12, it's going to be another wholesale slaughter. They're not playing around. Whatever there is in Fraid they want, they sure want it badly.

Since the show has hinted at there being at least one more person from Earth somewhere with Hitomi finding a music CD at a market, I've been thinking about who that could be and if that will actually matter. I can't really come up with any good ideas so far, and none of the characters introduced so far could be it. No one except the Emperor of Zaibach, at least, because he just appears on a viewscreen and could look like anyone.

It's also of course possible that the disc was just transported to Gaia in some fashion, without anyone else. Gotta say I'll be disappointed if that doesn't come up again.

[Sarex]

Ergo Proxy 1-4. I think I watched this a long time ago. As the episodes progress, I kind of remember whats going to happen, but not really.

 

@KP wants Blue Velvet

Spoiler

Do they end up outside in the end? The city ends up being destroyed, or something like that.

 

Either way, so far so good.

 

edit: nvm...

edit2: @HoonDing That was a lie.

edit3: reading through that old thread reminded me how much more anime I used to watch.

edit4: @majestic

That didn't end well that much I remember.

Edited April 3, 2022 by Sarex

[majestic]

20 minutes ago, Sarex said:

That didn't end well that much I remember.

You're in good company, I think you might find someone else in this thread for whom it didn't end well...

[Bartimaeus]

it was the worst three hours of not just my life, but also the person that I watched it with's life

ok not really but it was pretty close

Princess Tutu: I don't think I'll have nearly as positive feelings towards it as you did, considering my current state of soft ambivalence towards it, but I'm hoping I'll eventually be won over at least a little. It's currently a very weird state of near perfect neutrality, which isn't really something I experience basically ever.

Escaflowne: The CD being at the market was definitely weird, but could be used for multiple thematic purposes, I guess. Have to wait and see, .

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

27 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

it was the worst three hours of not just my life, but also the person that I watched it with's life

The worst three hours of your life so far.

[InsaneCommander]

Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 will finally finish the anime series in 2023

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

2 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Attack on Titan Final Season Part 3 will finally finish the anime series in 2023

God damn it.

[Sarex]

Maybe they go for a different ending.

[Lexx]

I thought part 2 is the final ... now there is a 3rd final final season? Jeez.