Anime recommendations: Part 2

[Xard]

Is the Gunslinger Girl the blonde-who-stores-the-bullets-in-her-cleavage?

 

So, I finally decided to check out Death Note. With the exception of Haruhi definetly biggest thing that has come out these last years. Felt it was duty or something

 

Watched first ep and oh god I was annoyed. Pacing was outright horrible (or maybe I've been spoiled by Hideaki Anno when it comes to this :D ), it overused (and most of the time not so well) some cinematic techniques worse than CSI does. Especially the "quick camera zoom" effect. GAHH! Now it can't be good sign if I get annoyed by bad use of the some of show's narrative techniques in the very first episode. I guess I'll get back to it, but still...

 

Though the part where Light goes all mad with his power and starts writing-killing-montage was done rather nicely, nice cutting there. And show has superb animation.

 

Manga however has been different beast entirely so far. Storytelling, picture composition and drawings themselves have been top notch. Not best thing ever, but damn good. And the most important aspect, the writing, has been awesome. One of the best thrillers/whatever that I've read in a while!

 

I've now progressed little bit over the halfway. Beginning was absolutely awesome, later parts dragged a bit after battle of wits between L and Light went out of the focus but it starts to get better again. I've been reading this non-stop nearly whole day so it has to be very good.

 

Only one thing bothers immersion: Misa who has to be one of the most annoying characters ever. Her whole character just feels increasingly unrealistic chapter after chapter. And. Is. Annoying. Quite exception in otherwise well made cast. L is my favourite with his weird manners and creepy eyes. Great character.

 

 

Anime: Clearly better than average, director needs some serious beating or atleast some schooling over directing. Inferior to manga.

Manga: Awesome.

Edited February 3, 2008 by Xard

[Calax]

Is the Gunslinger Girl the blonde-who-stores-the-bullets-in-her-cleavage?

 

So, I finally decided to check out Death Note. With the exception of Haruhi definetly biggest thing that has come out these last years. Felt it was duty or something

 

Watched first ep and oh god I was annoyed. Pacing was outright horrible (or maybe I've been spoiled by Hideaki Anno when it comes to this :D ), it overused (and most of the time not so well) some cinematic techniques worse than CSI does. Especially the "quick camera zoom" effect. GAHH! Now it can't be good sign if I get annoyed by bad use of the some of show's narrative techniques in the very first episode. I guess I'll get back to it, but still...

 

Though the part where Light goes all mad with his power and starts writing-killing-montage was done rather nicely, nice cutting there. And show has superb animation.

 

Manga however has been different beast entirely so far. Storytelling, picture composition and drawings themselves have been top notch. Not best thing ever, but damn good. And the most important aspect, the writing, has been awesome. One of the best thrillers/whatever that I've read in a while!

 

I've now progressed little bit over the halfway. Beginning was absolutely awesome, later parts dragged a bit after battle of wits between L and Light went out of the focus but it starts to get better again. I've been reading this non-stop nearly whole day so it has to be very good.

 

Only one thing bothers immersion: Misa who has to be one of the most annoying characters ever. Her whole character just feels increasingly unrealistic chapter after chapter. And. Is. Annoying. Quite exception in otherwise well made cast. L is my favourite with his weird manners and creepy eyes. Great character.

 

 

Anime: Clearly better than average, director needs some serious beating or atleast some schooling over directing. Inferior to manga.

Manga: Awesome.

actually gunslinger girl is about a group of assasins who employ teams of an adult and a little girl (in the main characters case an 8 y/o). It's fun and bloody.

[Tale]

I bought the first season of Gunslinger Girl a while back. Nothing really happened.

[Musopticon?]

I think I watched a trailer and found myself bored to tears.

 

 

Ugh, I stopped watching El Cazador because it wasn't going anywhere and I could find better ways to kill time. After Noir, I guess I was too hyped for Bee Train. Damned shame anyway, since I was just looking for a decent story. Instead it was just an endless road trip with an uncharismatic cast(I mean, even Texhnolyze - the grayest and most brooding anime ever - had more interesting characters) and a plot that didn't really know where it was going. Noir was enchanting because it used new visual techniques and a plot that paced itself extremely well, but El Cazador was just a bore.

 

In a nutshell, after El Cazador, watching Vision of Escaflowne feels like the birth of a renaissance in the medium.

[Calax]

mmmmm Zone of the Enders Dolores.

 

worst intro in the world but a funny giant mecha anime.

[samm]

Fruits Basket. Girlish and stuff, but quite fun, and cute, and some awsome voice artists. The anime is not as good as the manga though.

Edited February 5, 2008 by samm

[Calax]

watching a sentient mech try to waltz is frightening.

[Zoma]

For all anime mecha lovers.

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=CC2me9BI0lY

[Calax]

... /want

[Calax]

boy bleach is starting to suffer Dragon Ball Syndrome ( not much plot movement per episode, and only one character has any real power increase that is above and beyond the norm apparently.)

[Tale]

boy bleach is starting to suffer Dragon Ball Syndrome ( not much plot movement per episode, and only one character has any real power increase that is above and beyond the norm apparently.)

It's not nearly as bad as Dragon Ball. They get some development in. Dragon Ball just spent 3 or 4 episodes yelling and glowing yellow sometimes.

 

Bleach is following a Manga, so they can't get ahead and have to pace themselves. It's either this or filler.

[Musopticon?]

boy bleach is starting to suffer Dragon Ball Syndrome ( not much plot movement per episode, and only one character has any real power increase that is above and beyond the norm apparently.)

It's not nearly as bad as Dragon Ball. They get some development in. Dragon Ball just spent 3 or 4 episodes yelling and glowing yellow sometimes.

 

Yeah, Bleach is pretty slow and probably will continue to be so. The movie that'll be translated in a couple of months might satisfy anyone who is annoyed with the long stares and endless blather. Of course it won't be manga canon, but the previous movie was pretty great considering the awful fillers after it, so I have my hopes up. Even though I don't exactly like Toushiro, he's overfeatured in the fillers as it is. Yeah, big freaking ice dragon, a kid trying to fill the shoes of an adult, we get it already, now bring on Kira and Soifong kthx!

Edited February 7, 2008 by Musopticon?

[Zoma]

For all Otakus, if you haven't watch this TV series, you better watch it now

 

http://youtube.com/watch?v=D5_jO9VM0Js

[Atreides]

Anybody tried Spice and Wolf yet?

 

I'm catching up on Hayate and Rental Magica for the weekend.

[Xard]

Finished Death Note. It was really great, although

L dying was horrible thing. Series never got to same level when game between L and Light was going at its hardest.

That was brave deed by author however so I have to give him props for it.

 

At weakest Death Note (nothing interesting happening, everyone just going bla bla bla without any awesomeness) was

after Light lost his memory & had to deal with "Yotsuba Kira" and sometime after L died.

but otherwise it was great manga, ending rocked. I really hated

that egomaniacal bastard

so all the better.

 

I have no idea when was the last time I hated some character as much as Misa. Not only because she was annoying, she was unrealistic too. Goddamnit that stupid ****. And the anime voice? Ughhh.... I've never wanted to punch a girl, even a imaginary one, before but Light really should've done it. Just look at that dumb bitch

 

Only thing I hate more about Death Note are its fangurl armies that plague Youtube.

 

L however was awesomeness incarnated.

 

I also checked out Episode 25 of anime because I thought it deserves another chance (plus I wanted to see that one new scene in that particular episode that didn't exist in manga) and what happened, did they change director or something? That was superb piece of work no matter how you look at it, huge difference to Episode 1. And what the **** is this ear raping that goes with the name of "OP" in second season? Gahh, horrible horrible horrible!

 

Overall I recommend it, story was awesome and art great.

Edited February 7, 2008 by Xard

[Tale]

Kira was awesome, you bastard. And so was Misa! I will cut you.

[Xard]

Kira was egomaniacal hypocrite, genius with psychopathic (in fact he is even more psychopath than sociopath) tendencies if not outright psychopath. Believing what you're doing is purely done for others is easy way of living to recite certain show. Add that with being megalomaniac you have first class hypocrite right there.

 

Light is very good character and believable once you get past his age. I hate him but it's not he is bad as a character unlike Misa.

[Tale]

Kira was egomaniacal hypocrite, genius with psychopathic (in fact he is even more psychopath than sociopath) tendencies if not outright psychopath. Believing what you're doing is purely done for others is easy way of living to recite certain show. Add that with being megalomaniac you have first class hypocrite right there.

 

You completely read way too much into his character. He never tried dressing it up as it being for other people. He just wanted to create his vision of a better world with him as its god. And with him as the god being the more important part of it.

[Xard]

Kira was egomaniacal hypocrite, genius with psychopathic (in fact he is even more psychopath than sociopath) tendencies if not outright psychopath. Believing what you're doing is purely done for others is easy way of living to recite certain show. Add that with being megalomaniac you have first class hypocrite right there.

 

You completely read way too much into his character. He never tried dressing it up as it being for other people. He just wanted to create his vision of a better world with him as its god. And with him as the god being the more important part of it.

 

Nope, I'm not. He did try to dress it up. There's numerous times he goes all "I knew it was wrong but I had to do it, I had to sacrifice myself for the good people being able to lead honest lifes bla bla bla", IIRC he even uses words "sacrifising himself" at least once. Selfdeception is nice, although longer the series get lesser and lesser there's that.

 

And the guy is complete psychopath. I used to think of him as a sociopath untill it became clear he wasn't really capable of loving anyone, not to mention he "elevates" himself above moral because "he has to" etc. etc.

 

 

In the end when he has lost and is dying we really see how pitiful he really was. All he ever cared about was himself and his image as God, there's nothing awesome about him. Great character, but as a human being despisable. His reasoning was also plain ignorant.

 

 

I really started to

hate him after he killed that FBI dude's girlfriend. I didn't like him even in the beginning, but that was the turning point for me.

 

 

Anime chagned the ending way too much, narrative looses its dramatic effectiveness by

making Mikami suddenly kill himself with...something and thus allowing opportunity for Light to escape. His loooong walk with flasbacks has nothing on pitiful gasping at Ryuks' feet of the manga. It also left the best part of the ending out, the Mu.

 

 

Also,

. If only anime had had those few aforementioned words of the manga in the end and no

apperance of L

it would've been perfect. "I want to see the afterlife!"

 

Not to mention this, while watching AMV Hell 4 that came out from nowhere

Edited February 7, 2008 by Xard

[Tale]

I just don't understand. Kira killed countless scores of people, subjugated and cowed the nations of the world, and even won the loyalty of countless more people while doing it. How.is.that.NOT.awesome?

 

The fact that he's a psychopath who wanted to be god only makes it MORE AWESOME!

 

Tragic characters, by contrast, aren't awesome. They're simply tragic.

Edited February 7, 2008 by Tale

[Xard]

I just don't understand. Kira killed countless scores of people, subjugated and cowed the nations of the world, and even won the loyalty of countless more people while doing it. How.is.that.NOT.awesome?

 

The fact that he's a psychopath who wanted to be god only makes it MORE AWESOME!

 

Tragic characters, by contrast, aren't awesome. They're simply tragic.

 

 

Well in that way he was awesome. In the pupper master fashion and I loved how he played everyone (except for L) around him like fools.

 

I'm not saying he wasn't badass, but his fan legions are annoying to maximum. For them his personality is awesome, his motivation was selflesh and awesome and everything related to him was awesome. You get the drift.

Edited February 7, 2008 by Xard

[Tel Aviv]

Planetes. I've not been this impressed by an anime since I first saw Cowboy Bebop. The last third is especially impressive,

what with the Von Braun's crew selection, the Space Defence Front's imminent attack and Hachimaki's existential pickle

.

[Musopticon?]

I'm about halfway through watching PlanetES with my friend. It's an awesome series.

[Atreides]

Glad you guys enjoy it

[Tale]

I've watched two episodes of the first volume of Devil May Cry that came with my DMC4 CE. It's good, but no serious hint of an arc. If that doesn't change, I will very likely not get volume 2.