Official Anime/Manga Thread

[Kuzu]

I do admit One Piece` fights aren't very tactful, and do get very formulaic(Ok Oda we get it, the Monster Trio are the best of the Strawhats do they need to get a fight in every arc?), but they're at least crazy and over the top enough to keep you interested.

I'll admit Naruto does tend to have better fight scenes, the characters make use of their different abilities and do so with actual tact and thinking as opposed to Bleach where it's just swing your sword until someone dies, or whoever has the latest power up or DBZ where there's more screaming and repeated animations.

[Salamander]

Oh yeah, Gosick was lovely. I'll admit I felt the series lost steam a bit in the second half, personally. I kind of preferred the more self-contained by-the-numbers murder mysteries of the early episodes.

I kind of disagree. I think that the actual mysteries in Gosick were terrible and illogical (did they ever explain why the biker in Episode 4 was murdered?) and it was only the love story between the two protagonists that carried it. In so many other animes the romance angle is just hint hint hint hint hint and no actual movement from the protagonists, whereas in Gosick I could actually tell that they cared. Also, as a fan of 1790s gothic, I really enjoyed the gothic aspect, even if it was strangely misplaced in a 1920s context.

The latest episode of Sword Art Online is fucking brilliant. I've been waiting for the story and action to finally step up a bit.

I get the impression that Sword Art Online is popular, and I've been watching it and... I totally don't understand why! Admittedly, every problem I have with the anime could be solely a problem with the anime and not with the original light novels, since I understand they're skipping a lot of material from the novels. But...

Okay. There's the part where nearly every episode is just a random "tale from Sword Art Online" about another girl falling in love with our incredibly vanilla hero. And I find the epic or noble presentation of the hero's adventures, especially in the most recent episode, to be incredibly bathetic and pompous given the whole "video game" aspect. Oh wow the hero used his sugoi gaming power to beat the boss with only 1HP left thanks to his unexplained unique video game skill! I cannot take that seriously.

And the reason I can't take it seriously is because there is no sense of... they're really bad at creating a sense of significance and importance to anything that happens. And this is partly because they are awful at making us comprehend the passing of time or the sense of achievement in Sword Art Online. It takes two episodes for them to beat Level 1. Great, there's a sense of difficult progress and co-operation and we really get a sense of how this is affecting the protagonists' lives. Episode 3, suddenly we're on Level 50. And then they start jumping levels and months and years without ever showing any of the progress through those levels or how that time is changing people, it just jumps from A to B to C without ever showing us the journey between them.

There's also the fact that the video game aspect is completely underutilised. It is basically just irrelevant flavouring because they never discuss any of the issues associated with the whole premise of the anime. The loss of their lives from the real world, the way their lack of aging creates a sense of disconnect from real time, the fact that Sword Art Online is a kind of new frontier for a disaffected youth with nothing left to discover and how it might seem to many people like a better home than reality. They never discuss anything like this. It's like the author wanted an epic fantasy story but also wanted a way to give it a super-linear progression, and the video game angle is just a means to that end.

[The Kid]

I kind of disagree. I think that the actual mysteries in Gosick were terrible and illogical (did they ever explain why the biker in Episode 4 was murdered?) and it was only the love story between the two protagonists that carried it. In so many other animes the romance angle is just hint hint hint hint hint and no actual movement from the protagonists, whereas in Gosick I could actually tell that they cared. Also, as a fan of 1790s gothic, I really enjoyed the gothic aspect, even if it was strangely misplaced in a 1920s context.

I get the impression that Sword Art Online is popular, and I've been watching it and... I totally don't understand why! Admittedly, every problem I have with the anime could be solely a problem with the anime and not with the original light novels, since I understand they're skipping a lot of material from the novels. But...

Okay. There's the part where nearly every episode is just a random "tale from Sword Art Online" about another girl falling in love with our incredibly vanilla hero. And I find the epic or noble presentation of the hero's adventures, especially in the most recent episode, to be incredibly bathetic and pompous given the whole "video game" aspect. Oh wow the hero used his sugoi gaming power to beat the boss with only 1HP left thanks to his unexplained unique video game skill! I cannot take that seriously.

And the reason I can't take it seriously is because there is no sense of... they're really bad at creating a sense of significance and importance to anything that happens. And this is partly because they are awful at making us comprehend the passing of time or the sense of achievement in Sword Art Online. It takes two episodes for them to beat Level 1. Great, there's a sense of difficult progress and co-operation and we really get a sense of how this is affecting the protagonists' lives. Episode 3, suddenly we're on Level 50. And then they start jumping levels and months and years without ever showing any of the progress through those levels or how that time is changing people, it just jumps from A to B to C without ever showing us the journey between them.

There's also the fact that the video game aspect is completely underutilised. It is basically just irrelevant flavouring because they never discuss any of the issues associated with the whole premise of the anime. The loss of their lives from the real world, the way their lack of aging creates a sense of disconnect from real time, the fact that Sword Art Online is a kind of new frontier for a disaffected youth with nothing left to discover and how it might seem to many people like a better home than reality. They never discuss anything like this. It's like the author wanted an epic fantasy story but also wanted a way to give it a super-linear progression, and the video game angle is just a means to that end.

From what I can tell the tales covered are from the light novels, but the side stories in the novels. It's not like they've created tales specifically for the anime. I think the reason for the jumping is partially that none of the major events happen until around this point (Level 74 from what I've read is where things get very difficult), with the next few episodes actually going deeper into the plot. Also, depending on just how many episodes this anime has (13, 26, 52, etc.) They could be jumping ahead so that they can actually finish the plot instead of, for example, an anime like Deadman Wonderland which left the season on a huge cliffhanger that irritated audiences.

It's possible they might try to cover the other novels since the game he's currently in (Aincrad) only covers the first novel.

So yeah, they've skipped a shit ton up until now, but depending on how many episodes are planned there won't be any more time skips. I don't know what you mean about the video game aspect being underutilized. There are plenty of mentions in each episode on why something can't be done because of a certain game rule, or why a certain task like cooking is nothing because of skills developed in-game. They don't go in depth with the game strategies, such as discussing stats of each monster they encounter, but otherwise everything else is pretty much covered.

The skips certainly take the magic out of some of the events but I don't find it detracts from some of the amazing scenes, such as the boss battle where Kirito activated his second sword skill (which they were leading up to with a past episode). Say what you will about the plot, that scene was bad-ass on all sorts of levels.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Mr. H/The Kid

[Silencer226]

This weeks Fairy Tail was basically fan service, guess Mashima figured after all that tournament junk it's time to draw something lighthearted... and pervy.

[Kuzu]

This weeks Fairy Tail was basically fan service, guess Mashima figured after all that tournament junk it's time to draw something lighthearted... and pervy.

Oh please, the tournament itself was littered with fanservice. There's so much shameless fanservice in this manga that you'd think he was writing an ecchi. And now he's throw in Lesbian Lolis, mother of god.

[Silencer226]

Oh please, the tournament itself was littered with fanservice. There's so much shameless fanservice in this manga that you'd think he was writing an ecchi. And now he's throw in Lesbian Lolis, mother of god.

I feel like your just described Negima. Which I am so close to completing the official release, I just have to wait until the last two get translated, one in October and the final one in January I believe.

But yeah, I agree the tournament was basically fanservice, but... I honestly have no complaints about that.

Edited September 7, 2012 by Noel Vermillion

[Yoko/葉子]

Safe to say I have joined an anime geek dating site, in other news, I will watch some DN Angel today.

[Kuzu]

I feel like your just described Negima. Which I am so close to completing the official release, I just have to wait until the last two get translated, one in October and the final one in January I believe.

Funnily enough, I started Negima myself a few weeks ago. I dropped it before because the fanservice ticked me off, but then I remembered half of the other stuff I read, and said fuck it. I'm reading official release myself. I think I'm chapter 34.

But yeah, I agree the tournament was basically fanservice, but... I honestly have no complaints about that.

I still liked this chapter because it was hilarious, it's just that the fanservice is kind of unneeded at this point, we know the girls are hot.

[Salamander]

I don't know what you mean about the video game aspect being underutilized. There are plenty of mentions in each episode on why something can't be done because of a certain game rule, or why a certain task like cooking is nothing because of skills developed in-game. They don't go in depth with the game strategies, such as discussing stats of each monster they encounter, but otherwise everything else is pretty much covered.

It's not that it's not mentioned, it's that it's not important. The murder mystery arc was basically the only one where it really mattered that it's a game with game rules and logic; basically everything else could've been done exactly the same in a pure fantasy world. Having the characters look through menus all the time doesn't constitute to me full exploitation of the premise. The game angle to me says that there should be some tension between reality and the game, but they barely ever acknowledge that there's a non-SAO reality at all (certainly we've not seen it since the first few minutes of the first episode). And again, that'd be fine if they just dwelled on it a little - if the characters wondered what was happening in the real world, if we occasionally got glimpses of what was happening in reality and how society was responding to tens of thousands of people dropping out of the system and needing to be on life support for years. But the story doesn't use it at all, and that makes me ask why they bother with the video game aspect when it could just've been called "Sword Art Adventure" and been set in a pure fantasy world without the video game hook without it changing any aspects of the story (or what little story there is). The game angle to me just feels like flavouring, or maybe wallpaper. You see it in the background, but it sure doesn't make any difference.

Apparently it's a twenty-five episode anime, so if this is just the first game and the first novel, I guess I'll let it slide until the literal game-changer event, but to be honest, I don't get a positive impression from knowing that's the case either.

[Kuzu]

So the dub of Persona 4: The Animation is coming out, and clips have arisen:

Now you can hear Johnny Yong Bosch have a case of schizophrenia.

[#AR]

Hells. Yeah.

[Silencer226]

Hells. Yeah.

And of all times I don't preorder from Righty.

[LunarEdge]

So the dub of Persona 4: The Animation is coming out, and clips have arisen:

Now you can hear Johnny Yong Bosch have a case of schizophrenia.

They're actually showing it for the month of September on the Anime Network and I just happened to be subscribed to them It's pretty alright. Only got to watch the first episode.

PER.....SO............NA

[Kuzu]

Hells. Yeah.

Well.....fuck you.

[Silencer226]

Well.....fuck you.

Ha ha, Rightstuf strikes again.

[The Kid]

It's not that it's not mentioned, it's that it's not important. The murder mystery arc was basically the only one where it really mattered that it's a game with game rules and logic; basically everything else could've been done exactly the same in a pure fantasy world. Having the characters look through menus all the time doesn't constitute to me full exploitation of the premise. The game angle to me says that there should be some tension between reality and the game, but they barely ever acknowledge that there's a non-SAO reality at all (certainly we've not seen it since the first few minutes of the first episode). And again, that'd be fine if they just dwelled on it a little - if the characters wondered what was happening in the real world, if we occasionally got glimpses of what was happening in reality and how society was responding to tens of thousands of people dropping out of the system and needing to be on life support for years. But the story doesn't use it at all, and that makes me ask why they bother with the video game aspect when it could just've been called "Sword Art Adventure" and been set in a pure fantasy world without the video game hook without it changing any aspects of the story (or what little story there is).

I get where you're coming from, but I feel like it has been important enough for 10 episodes. One of the main reasons I say this is that the anime is trying to be a faithful adaptation of the light novels, which really jumps to the two year gap right away (with the first episode syncing up to the beginning of the book before the giant time-skip). The only reason we've gotten so many little bits along the way is that the anime chose to cover the side stories before the main plot as to remain chronological (the side stories were originally published separately from what I can tell). So it has been mostly filler up until the last two episodes. So I beg you to give the show a chance now that it has arrived at the main plot of the first novel.The change in quality is astounding when you look at it.

And since I don't specifically know how many times the "tensions between reality and game" are brought up (trying to remain semi-spoiler free) I can't comment on how much more it is mentioned in the novel (since we did have a conversation in ep. 8 between Asuna and Kirito). What I do know is that we will learn about the creator's role in the game and why he made the game. And if they do go onto other novels we will also see some characters back in reality (from what I did spoil myself with).

But the other thing is that I don't see the importance of viewing the crisis undergoing thousands of players from outside the game world. The story isn't about how the authorities are trying to hunt down the creator of the game, or how families are coping with their loved ones in a comatose state. The focus of the anime, like the novels, is Kirito. As for fully exploring the premise... well I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on that.

That being said, there is always room for exploring the tension arising from being in the game too long, or even focusing on more specific aspects of the game. Just give it time, we just finished what was basically the filler (which was a really stupid idea to put at the front).

Edited September 9, 2012 by Mr. H/The Kid

[Sami]

Tried watching the first episode of FLCL the other day and... ugh...

I want to love Gainax so much. They're animation and general style just appeals to me so much. ... Problem is, I find they're humor and abuse of fan service absolutely cringe-worthy. I really wish I could enjoy Gurren Lagann, PSG, and FLCL as much as I want to, but I just can't. I can't stomach it.

Edited September 9, 2012 by Dissident

[Yoko/葉子]

Thought I'd share where my love of Lost Universe started with Nozomi's trailer.

[Salamander]

That being said, there is always room for exploring the tension arising from being in the game too long, or even focusing on more specific aspects of the game. Just give it time, we just finished what was basically the filler (which was a really stupid idea to put at the front).

[-Mark-]

So, I've been on a bit of a Dragonball bender lately...

[Emperor Robrainiac]

Tried watching the first episode of FLCL the other day and... ugh...

I want to love Gainax so much. They're animation and general style just appeals to me so much. ... Problem is, I find they're humor and abuse of fan service absolutely cringe-worthy. I really wish I could enjoy Gurren Lagann, PSG, and FLCL as much as I want to, but I just can't. I can't stomach it.

This. The reason why I never like Gainax as much as everyone else does, is because of their fetish with bouncing tits and constant panty shots, not to mention their sense of humor often relies on Innuendos. I agree, their style is very creative, but their perverse nature always turns me off.

I really hate sexual humor... I blame my middle school years for that, really.

[-Mark-]

Whilst fanservice puts me off things a bit, it's certainly not enough to lower my overall opinion of a show.

I just found Gurren-Lagann 'meh' because I didn't think the plot was all that good. Also giant robots generally bore me. Something feels so... detaching, about giant robots. Fighting strength should equate to how strong your body is and how well you can fight, not how well you can pilot a robot. It kind of defeats the purpose of a fight being a show of physical strength, and feels a bit wussy and round-about, relying on big robots. It just feels so uncool.

Although maybe that's part of growing up with Sonic, where giant robots tend to be the bad guys. Think how uncool it would be if Sonic fought against Eggman by having Tails build him his own giant robot for some mech vs. mech 'action'. No, Sonic is cool because he smashes up giant robots completely unassisted in terms of weaponry or vehicles. It's infinitely more satisfying and impressive to see someone small take down an enemy many times bigger than themselves than it is to see two big robots fighting each other.

Makes me think of the Milhouse quote "I'll kick your butt!!... at Nintendo." Long story short? Real men don't need giant robots. Or weapons. Or anything other than their bare fists.

So yeah, just my piece on why mecha anime and giant robots in general don't really appeal to me at all.

Edited September 9, 2012 by -Mark-

[Snatcher2047]

I found the first half of Gurren Lagann highly enjoyable for the most part. But once the time jump happened, it just went downhill from there with yet another disappointing Gainax ending. The two movies heightened my opinion on this even farther, with the first being enjoyable (with the awesome new "final" battle scene), the second... not so much.

[Remy]

I just found Gurren-Lagann 'meh' because I didn't think the plot was all that good. Also giant robots generally bore me. Something feels so... detaching, about giant robots. Fighting strength should equate to how strong your body is and how well you can fight, not how well you can pilot a robot. It kind of defeats the purpose of a fight being a show of physical strength, and feels a bit wussy and round-about, relying on big robots. It just feels so uncool.

Why is why the giant robots in gurrent lagann "talk" while the pilots are talking/have directly proportional strength to the person piloting them. The robots in GL are not so much traditional mechs like something like Gundam but just extensions of the person piloting them. More like super cool giants suits of armor.

I imagine someone at Gainax thought the same thing you did, ("fighting strength should equate to how strong you are, not how cool your robot is") which is probably where the "fighting spirit/spiral power" thing came from. The machines aren't limited by anything other than the person running it.

Evangelion is kind of like this too, (notice a running theme in Gainax works?) but in that it's more about mental strength rather than physical.

Makes me think of the Milhouse quote "I'll kick your butt!!... at Nintendo." Long story short? Real men don't need giant robots. Or weapons. Or anything other than their bare fists.

Also funny you say this, considering TTGL ends in

a fist fight

Tried watching the first episode of FLCL the other day and... ugh...

I want to love Gainax so much. They're animation and general style just appeals to me so much. ... Problem is, I find they're humor and abuse of fan service absolutely cringe-worthy. I really wish I could enjoy Gurren Lagann, PSG, and FLCL as much as I want to, but I just can't. I can't stomach it.

FLCL was a very time and place kind of show, born at the turnaround from traditional cel animation into digital anime. A completely off the world mental piece of work that was basically Gainax flexing their nutty creative muscle.

I'm kind of amazed the first ep put you off. Fanservice-wise, I don't even remember anything seriously fanservice-y happening until like episode four... and the stuff in that ep still makes me slightly uncomfortable and I've seen it like 100 times. But even then there's nothing as offensive as say, High School Of The Dead in the whole series.

It should also be known that a lot of the sex related stuff in FLCL does actually serve a purpose- it's a coming of age story about Naota heading through puberty, so a lot of the weird close ups on lips, legs, breasts etc serve a purpose, coming to terms with your awkward sexuality is a big part of growing up.

It's one of my favourite shows, and one that definitely grows on you when you rewatched. Try and give it a try.

I really hate sexual humor... I blame my middle school years for that, really.

Well what a coincidence! a big part of FLCL is about awkward middle school sexual experiences!

edit: sorry if this post is a bit mangled, I'm typing it out during a lecture

[Sami]

I'm kind of amazed the first ep put you off. Fanservice-wise, I don't even remember anything seriously fanservice-y happening until like episode four... and the stuff in that ep still makes me slightly uncomfortable and I've seen it like 100 times. But even then there's nothing as offensive as say, High School Of The Dead in the whole series.