Official Anime/Manga Thread

[Silencer226]

P&S is one of the incredibly few shows the past years that actually had style and substance, something that I can't say much about recent anime at all. That's why I enjoy it, even when it isn't funny. For the most part Gainax doesn't really act like it's supposed to be such either, it approaches humor without actually being aware of it and instead lives in a Suda51-ish mindset of insanity, unorthodoxy and unpredictability. It just does it's own thing being fun and creative, which is why I enjoyed the show all the way through. It actually has personality and identity, and it doesn't question it's place anytime as the story goes. It knows what it wants to be, and it doesn't need to explain shit. You just have to accept right off the bat that this is a crapsack world of innuendo, sex, violence and horny angels, and nothing at any point is justified or needs to be. If you're in for the ride, you're just in for the ride. Nothing above that. That enough had me sold the entire show.

To each there own, I didn't see anything in the show that put it above other average anime to be honest with you. I see the style but I don't see the substance in Panty and Stocking.

Edit: I'm not a hater of this anime at all or anything, it's just that I don't see the "amazing" part of it.

Edited February 12, 2011 by Silencer226

[Axl.EXE]

Finally finished Panty & Stocking.

...

GAIIIIIIINAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX

[Mega]

So I decided to watch the official subs of Digimon Tamers on hulu out of curiosity, as I love the Japanese version of that particular season...

What a disappointment. While I do give them credit for keeping nearly all of the Japanese names and terms (they still replaced evolve with digivolve, much to my dismay), the grammar is horrible, and they didn't even put much effort into these subs. While piracy isn't something to be proud of, I'll probably just stick to the excellent fansubs by the Wild Bunch and PositronCannon.

I just wonder why Toei doesn't at least try to get decent translators. Adventure 02's official subs were atrocious as well, not to mention inconsistent. If they really want people to support the official product, they should a) make it available to an international audience and get some decent translators.

And the 02 one has an even worse moment...

Edited February 14, 2011 by Mega

[turbojet]

The new Star Driver was pretty good. Is it weird that Takuto could have easily massacred all of the earlier bad guys with ease since it seems that he intentially holds himself back?

[Silencer226]

Santa came in the form of DHL and UPS yesterday, and my wallet says to quit removing its vital organs.

So far I've only watched Needless, which I had never seen before and bought it out of curiosity (yeah... not a good idea when shit costs $40) and enjoyed every minute of it. I thought they did a nice job on it, the dub was nice, good buy, can't wait for part 2. Then there's the CD I imported, ha ha... $40 for 4 songs, I temporarily lost my mind there, however it sounds nice. And Summer Wars $20, well worth it.

After getting Chrome Shelled Regios in the mail last week I needed something to remove the taste of boredom, it's not bad but I felt like it never got to the point, and the stopping point was really stupid.

Edit: Started reading the Needless manga, loving it like the anime, actually more because it's longer. Can't wait for the next scan of it, however, I wish I could own a physical copy of this in english...

Edited February 17, 2011 by Silencer226

[PSI Wind]

OH MY FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD

[Kevin]

>English dub of Pokemon Best Wishes

>"Who's that Pokemon!?"

I feel like a little kid again ;_;7

I couldn't believe it when I first saw it, so this really caught me by surprise. It appears the original music has been kept intact so far too, so if TPCI keeps this up, it looks to be a great dub for once!

[Gabz Girl]

Recently saw two anime by Makoto Shinkai, and I'm planning to watch two of his other movies. She and her Cat is a 5 minute anime short. It was very sweet, and I liked the cat's deep monologue. Voices of a Distant Star was...wow, incredible. It's only a half hour long but there's so much story in there! I applaud Shinkai too for animating (and voicing it!) all by himself. I had tears in my eyes at the end. Just wonderful.

[-Mark-]

Well, regarding the four shows I'm currently watching...

Naruto is out of filler and good progress is being made, yay. Yes, I've read the manga and know exactly what's going to happen, and yes, it's not my favourite arc, but it's still decent.

I thought that the initial novelty of Gosick was simply wearing off after finding the last couple of episodes less impressive than the first batch, but it was definitely back on form with the newest episode. Nice new mystery, and to put an interesting twist on things, Victorique is bedridden with a bad cold.

As for Beelzebub, despite my initial thoughts of 'it's okay, but nothing special' and that I'd probably drop it if it didn't pick up soon, it's really, really growing on me. Okay, I'll admit I'm a total sucker for male leads who are simple and punch things a lot. Oga is a bit of a jerk, but I like how they're hinting at the fact he's not really such a bad guy deep down. But moreover, he's a ridiculously overpowered guy who punches things! But yeah, the show's definitely funny and quite interesting. I just hope it doesn't take a total nosedive like Reborn! did and turn into a godawful Bleach clone. If anyone here reads the manga, can they fill me in on whether this is the case or not?

Finally, Digimon Xros Wars. As much as I love Digimon, this series has been fairly unimpressive so far. I love it solely for the fact that it's Digimon, but as Digimon goes (and as I've said before), it's one of the weaker series. At least some big plot developments seem to finally be coming into motion, so hopefully things will pick up from here.

Also, less than a month until the GinTama anime resumes. HELL YES. Absolutely can't wait.

EDIT: Also just ordered the fourth GinTama (US Region 1) DVD set. It's a bit annoying that, since I don't have a region-free DVD player any more, I need to make region-free copies of them to play. At least I keep them in the same case along with the originals!

I've already seen the episodes (and can do again at any time) legally on Crunchyroll, I'm basically buying the DVDs solely to support the series.

Edited March 6, 2011 by -Mark-

[Marcello]

Beelzebub is still hilarious.

[-Mark-]

Whew. I worried a bit when I just found out it starts turning into a battle manga later on. D:

[Tornado]

I've watched a couple episodes of Black and White, and I come away with two main ideas:

1. That FUCKING PIPLUP is finally gone
   
2. HolyShitAshTurnsHisHatAroundAgain!!!!!1!

Its actually pretty cool. Lots of shoutouts and glimpses and easter eggs and awesomeness. I'm curious as to what they are going to do with the plot, because some of the shit in D/P was just painful to watch. It seems like they are putting a lot more effort into things, but I'm still only cautiously optimistic.

Well, anyways, I spent most of yesterday reading Super-Dreadnought Girl 4946 at the suggestion of a friend. Now, because I knew nothing about it until I picked up the first issue I'm pretty sure he suggested it just to be an asshole (long story), but what I've read so far is actually pretty nice. Good story. Characters are occasionally kinda flat (they act pretty Shonen-y at times), but its pretty well-written for the most part, and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Pokes fun at certain tropes that it uses (though with a lot of respect for them), and it has a character whose existence is basically there to go all FLCL on the story and explicitly point out how some of the aspects of the story are manga tropes. Despite how stupidly fetishistic that they could make the whole thing, they do nothing of the sort, and all the characters are treated with plenty of respect. Pretty refreshing, actually. I bought up all of the issues I could find on the interwebs, and I'm only about halfway through it so far.

Overall it is a sweet, fun and pretty-interesting story with a bunch of laughs squirreled away every couple of pages. I suggest giving it a read no matter what looks you get from the people who see you with it.

Edited March 9, 2011 by Tornado

[Sean]

I'll probably look into that. I've been reading nothing but Ippo these past few months so I'm kind of starved for another halfway decent manga to read alongside it.

[Tornado]

Lololololololol. I spoke a little too soon. Chapter 19 was the Beach Episode. Still, it was much better (and a hell of a lot funnier) than I thought it would be.

[Gabz Girl]

I've watched a couple episodes of Black and White, and I come away with two main ideas:

1. That FUCKING PIPLUP is finally gone
   
2. HolyShitAshTurnsHisHatAroundAgain!!!!!1!

Its actually pretty cool. Lots of shoutouts and glimpses and easter eggs and awesomeness. I'm curious as to what they are going to do with the plot, because some of the shit in D/P was just painful to watch. It seems like they are putting a lot more effort into things, but I'm still only cautiously optimistic.

Wait till you see episode 10. You will not be amused. =P

[Kevin]

Recently saw two anime by Makoto Shinkai, and I'm planning to watch two of his other movies. She and her Cat is a 5 minute anime short. It was very sweet, and I liked the cat's deep monologue. Voices of a Distant Star was...wow, incredible. It's only a half hour long but there's so much story in there! I applaud Shinkai too for animating (and voicing it!) all by himself. I had tears in my eyes at the end. Just wonderful.

I just got finished watching both movies you've mentioned, and I have to give Shinkai a lot of credit for animating and voicing in both of them. The animation itself was very good too, and I agree about the cat's deep monologue.

I looked up some info about him and he also did 5 Centimeters Per Second (great movie by the way, so for those who've never seen it, I suggest you do so), so I can see why these other movies were just as good.

Edited March 10, 2011 by Kevin

[Silencer226]

Well I watched episode 10 of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It was dedicated to the character Akemi Homura's past, and usually I don't like episodes like this but this was pulled off very well. For 9 episodes straight this character was a complete mystery and then episode 10 gives viewers the info dump they've been waiting for. Unfortunately her past is pretty fucked up, no matter how many times she tried to fix her past, something goes wrong, and everyone around her ends up dead. With only two episodes left, I hope that it wraps up nicely. The final enemy pretty much destroys everything, and then the title character dies and in another case turns into a witch and destroys the planet, and the little familiar creature is like "Not my problem... see ya".

Did anyone else follow this anime besides me? It's my favorite of the season.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Silencer226

[Candescence]

Digimon Xros Wars has not failed to disappoint so far, however... Episode 30. Effectively the start of the second 'season' of Xros Wars. I shit bricks.

SHOUTMON DIGIVOLVED.

Once you watch this anime for a while, you end up getting used to the absence of Digivolution... And then THEY BRING IT BACK. I never thought I'd see digivolution coming completely out of left field in freaking Digimon.

Oh, yeah, and Shoutmon uses a mini GIGA DRILL BREAKER on TACTICMON.

I freaking love Xros Wars.

[Phos]

I continue my trend of only watching animes no less than five years old by watching "Cyber Formula GSX", or whatever the real title is. It's a show centered around a futuristic racing competition, one that obviously isn't regulated by the FIA because they actually allow for progress to happen in terms of how the cars can/can't be designed and built. Little tirade about F1, the FIA has for a long time basically been turning F1 cars into what basically amount to spec racers and is now implementing a goofy push-to-pass system and whatnot, and maybe that's a lot of the reason why I keep watching this show. While the designs of the cars tend to be a bit goofy in the first series, it is a bit tantalizing of a concept, the creators of the show seem to have a slightly strange understanding of racing at times.

Anyway, around here, the show would probably be most notable for the main character charing the same Japanese voice actor with Sonic, who is starting to remind me of Frankie Munez in that all the characters he plays are like half his age.

[-Mark-]

This week's episode of Gosick (and most other anime, it seems) has been put on hold due to the natural disasters in Japan. Perfectly understandable of course, and we can hardly complain. Frankly we should consider ourselves lucky that the worst we're getting out of this are delays in a few TV shows.

My thoughts go out to anyone in the affected areas, and anyone with family or friends there.

Also;

Digimon Xros Wars has not failed to disappoint so far, however... Episode 30. Effectively the start of the second 'season' of Xros Wars. I shit bricks.

SHOUTMON DIGIVOLVED.

Once you watch this anime for a while, you end up getting used to the absence of Digivolution... And then THEY BRING IT BACK. I never thought I'd see digivolution coming completely out of left field in freaking Digimon.

Oh, yeah, and Shoutmon uses a mini GIGA DRILL BREAKER on TACTICMON.

I freaking love Xros Wars.

CRAAAAAAP, why did I read that spoiler when I'd not seen the episode yet?! *headdesks violently*

Even worse is that I'd personally been finding Xros Wars kinda 'eh' so far personally, so that sould have totally shaken things up even more if I didn't know it was coming.

WHYYYYY?! D8

Edited March 11, 2011 by -Mark-

[Random Rhyme]

I know Im late but I finally decided to check out School Rumble.

It started off slow but then gets good. Its been awhile since Ive seen an anime this good.

[-Mark-]

So, saw Xros Wars 30. I really hate having to resort to OD's releases, since the way they encode them at 720P lags on my laptop whenever a song kicks in (absolute fail graphics card and can't be upgraded), whereas Ryuu-Rogue's releases run fine on it, even at 720P. Shame Ryuu-Rogue seem quite a bit slower.

So... yeah. Interesting plot developments I guess, but I hope they make good on them and actually go somewhere with the series, compared to the relatively uneventful first half.

I did find it quite amusing that, whilst there are always a few useless sideline characters who are dead weight in a Digimon series, this is the first time they've ever actually gone to the extent of

writing them out of the plot (even if only temporarily) just to get them out of the way.

Also, in the next episode preview, I actually did a double-take, went back and checked, because Kiriha didn't even look like the same person anymore.

This does make me wonder how long the series is going to be, though. When it returns in April,. is it going to be an actual 'new' second series, or just a second half? Will it be as long as the first half, or is it just going to wrap up in July after a year? They've been skipping chunks here and there (no new episodes throughout September 2010, skipping most of this month with no episode until April 3rd, moving to a Sunday etc), and it's generally been handled so differently from previous Digimon series (which basically ran weekly for a year, end of) that I have no idea what to make of it anymore.

I wonder how well the series is doing in Japan, actually.

[Silencer226]

I know Im late but I finally decided to check out School Rumble.

It started off slow but then gets good. Its been awhile since Ive seen an anime this good.

Yeah, I managed to snag the season 1/2/OVA boxset for just $25 on Amazon when it had a big anime sale last year, well worth it. It's one of the funniest shows I've seen in a while, other shows try and miss their mark but this one worked for me. *Sigh* I wish I could find a decent comedy anime to watch, most of the ones I find are stupid and don't even come close to funny...

[turbojet]

High School of the Dead recieved an english dub. In the words of Takashi, "WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?"

[Velotix von Skruviktorrius]

You mean High School Porno + Some Zombies?

That's interesting.