GasBandit
Staff member
I'd never heard of it until you guys started talking about it yesterday. I'm not the biggest anime nerd by far, I know, but I'm not completely uninformed.
[TV] The What Anime Are You Watching Thread!
Agree. It made me feel more uncomfortable as it progressed, but it also got funnier and more enjoyable. I can only remember pausing the show like once, FWIW.
It's a fun show. Definitely loses its pace in the following seasons but still pretty funny stuff.
I mentioned it when the show aired, but Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie In April) is a great rom-com/drama, set around a few music-focused kids and their friends. I'm bringing this up again because it just landed on Netflix this week so if you have a sub it's definitely worth a watch.
fade
Staff member
Watched Elfen Lied. This was a weird show. First, it's chock full o' incest like so many other animes. Then, we're supposed to feel bad for a character who slices people in half or pops their heads off because people make fun of her head. It's a little difficult to swallow Kohta's sympathy.
That anime makes me so nostalgic. First show I ever pirated, shitty hardsubbed divxs via eMule at the ripe age of 12-13. I even translated the opening for a Latin class assignment.
Elfen Lied seems to be kind of a distillation of the disturbing parts of anime: inappropriate naked pubescent or prepubescent girls, horrifyingly graphic violence committed on and by said girls, nonsensical plot, implied (at the least) incest, children engineered as WMDs, and improbably sympathetic protagonists.
GasBandit
Staff member
TIL GRRM wrote anime
Eh, GRRM's plots make sense, there's just a lot going on, and we're getting it from the prospective of many characters, none of whom have the complete picture.
As far as I can tell, the plot of Elfen Lied is "be absolutely nightmarish to evil pink haired girls and somehow that'll help you take over the world, even though there's like a few dozen of them and billions of regular-ass humans, and don't install any failsafes just in case, because what could fucking possibly go wrong? Oh, and they all hate each other so they can't possibly work together, and they fucking hate you most of all."
Just started "Dimension W" and in the second ep they introduced Loser...WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too early. There was, a BUNCH of stuff before him in the manga, nice and episodic. They must not have much confidence in getting a second season if they are starting THIS early with that character.
Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku Wo! might be the funniest thing I've seen since Nichijou, and I am super happy it's already been greenlit for season 2.
Dude dies, is told he will reincarnate in a new fantasy-RPG kind of world and is allowed one wish to help him defeat the Demon King. He wishes for the Goddess he's speaking to, Aqua, to come with him. This totally backfires as she turns out to be lazy, selfish and a complete idiot. Then he ends up with two more party members, a Mage who refuses to learn anything but one spell (Explosion), and a Knight that dumped all her skill points into defense and can't hit anything with her sword (and she's a huge masochist).
This scene gives you a feel for the VA work, which is some of the best in a comedy I've ever heard.
Dude dies, is told he will reincarnate in a new fantasy-RPG kind of world and is allowed one wish to help him defeat the Demon King. He wishes for the Goddess he's speaking to, Aqua, to come with him. This totally backfires as she turns out to be lazy, selfish and a complete idiot. Then he ends up with two more party members, a Mage who refuses to learn anything but one spell (Explosion), and a Knight that dumped all her skill points into defense and can't hit anything with her sword (and she's a huge masochist).
This scene gives you a feel for the VA work, which is some of the best in a comedy I've ever heard.
GasBandit
Staff member
Ok, so this last week or so, when I go to bed, I've been putting Ruroni Kenshin on. I'd seen bits and pieces of it previously but never watched the whole thing. I'm up to about episode 20 now.
Something about it doesn't rub me the right way. Sometimes I feel like I'm watching Ranma 1/2 all over again, and sometimes I feel like I'm watching Inuyasha all over again. For a series that gets such glowing reviews, it sure does seem to lean heavily on stock anime tropes sometimes. I'm not sure it's any one thing I can really pin down, but there's a lot of little things that bother me.
Is it entirely necessary to say the full "Kenshin's reverse-blade sword" every time someone refers to Kenshin's reverse-blade sword? I mean, surely once or so an episode would be more than sufficient to point out that Kenshin's sword is reverse-bladed.
Also there seems to be a bit of anachronism in the works here... the setting is 10 years after the Meiji restoration, which would put it in the late 1870s or thereabout, but I just saw a clearly early-20th century cruise liner in a harbor. Completely metal with visible rivets, in an era when even iron-clad wooden ships are cutting edge technology - and limited to rivers at that. Not only that, but soldiers seem to have semi-automatic rifles, which I guess isn't THAT bad in comparison, as the first one was invented in 1885 in Germany, though really they didn't start entering common use until the 1900s. I suppose they could have just been lazily animated bolt-action rifles.
Also, they kind of overestimate the deadliness of a gatling gun when used indoors against opponents spread wider than a 90 degree arc and closer than 20 yards.
Yahiko is one of the most irritating junior characters since Scrappy-Doo.
All that aside, it does very well at capturing the bitterness of a time of change, when the old ways are dying out to be replaced by new ways that aren't necessarily better, in the same way the movie The Last Samurai did.
It's fun playing spot-the-voice-actor though, as the english voice cast is comprised of the same guys that basically did ALL anime 10 or 15 years ago. Dat 90s soundtrack, doe.
Something about it doesn't rub me the right way. Sometimes I feel like I'm watching Ranma 1/2 all over again, and sometimes I feel like I'm watching Inuyasha all over again. For a series that gets such glowing reviews, it sure does seem to lean heavily on stock anime tropes sometimes. I'm not sure it's any one thing I can really pin down, but there's a lot of little things that bother me.
Is it entirely necessary to say the full "Kenshin's reverse-blade sword" every time someone refers to Kenshin's reverse-blade sword? I mean, surely once or so an episode would be more than sufficient to point out that Kenshin's sword is reverse-bladed.
Also there seems to be a bit of anachronism in the works here... the setting is 10 years after the Meiji restoration, which would put it in the late 1870s or thereabout, but I just saw a clearly early-20th century cruise liner in a harbor. Completely metal with visible rivets, in an era when even iron-clad wooden ships are cutting edge technology - and limited to rivers at that. Not only that, but soldiers seem to have semi-automatic rifles, which I guess isn't THAT bad in comparison, as the first one was invented in 1885 in Germany, though really they didn't start entering common use until the 1900s. I suppose they could have just been lazily animated bolt-action rifles.
Also, they kind of overestimate the deadliness of a gatling gun when used indoors against opponents spread wider than a 90 degree arc and closer than 20 yards.
Yahiko is one of the most irritating junior characters since Scrappy-Doo.
All that aside, it does very well at capturing the bitterness of a time of change, when the old ways are dying out to be replaced by new ways that aren't necessarily better, in the same way the movie The Last Samurai did.
It's fun playing spot-the-voice-actor though, as the english voice cast is comprised of the same guys that basically did ALL anime 10 or 15 years ago. Dat 90s soundtrack, doe.
Yeah...the anachronisms aren't the silliest thing about it. You'll know when you see them.
Why would you do such a thing to yourself?
because i wanted to be able to say i did it, i watched all 5 original seasons.
GasBandit
Staff member
Remember, Yu-Gi-Oh is art that rivals Shakespeare or Michelangelo.[1]
(1. -JCM)
I watched the Abridged series and called it done
are you also talking about the first season in which yugi punish people in shadow games before it turned into a commercial for a card game?
Had "Yokai Watch" in the background today, and it had Jibanyan's origin...holy shit that was dark and sad. And apparently the way death's victims are chosen in this universe...is by lottery. Fuck, that is one disturbingly poignant message about mortality in what's supposed to be a Pokemon knock-off.
Worth watching through, in my opinion, and it does pick up the pace. It was my favorite anime from that season, and remains in my house's 'rewatchable' list. I'm very fond of Dr. Ozaki, and my wife has cosplayed Natsuno.
Fun McDonalds ad from Japan.
All of Japan will become anime, so that future interactions with its people will be like an anime version of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
I want to go to there.
Which means their Korean wage serfs will have to learn how to draw neckbeards.
Nate and I have been watching a bit of anime recently (I've taken a LOOOONG hiatus from watching any), we started Seven Deadly Sins because everyone said it was amazing and No Game No Life.
I'm gonna pass on SDS because good god, I can't stand Elizabeth. Nate and I now shout 'Meliodas!' at each other as a running joke. Anyway. Not my cup of tea, but I'm glad lots of people seem to be enjoying it. =^^=
I'm much more interested in No Game No Life, we're only like four episodes in, but I'm liking it so far. It's so colorful! And Shiro is like an anime version of my friend Raye, which makes me laugh and just makes me want to watch more.
I'm gonna pass on SDS because good god, I can't stand Elizabeth. Nate and I now shout 'Meliodas!' at each other as a running joke. Anyway. Not my cup of tea, but I'm glad lots of people seem to be enjoying it. =^^=
I'm much more interested in No Game No Life, we're only like four episodes in, but I'm liking it so far. It's so colorful! And Shiro is like an anime version of my friend Raye, which makes me laugh and just makes me want to watch more.