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I'm looking for real spooky anime, guys I finished Higurashi, and it was pretty good. Looked like garbage, but I was genuinely interested in the story, and I loved all those scenes where everyone is loving crazy and everything goes wrong in the worst way possible. Also - I'm not even sure if this needs to be spoilered, but oh well - I'm a total sucker for time loops. I actually started cheering when they started remembering earlier loops towards the end of the first season, and they just kept topping that in the second. I'm really glad this show wasn't afraid of throwing completely bewildering poo poo at you all the time, only to go back and explain every little thing. Felt very... tidy, almost. This show had that satisfying feeling of completing a puzzle, piece by piece. (It was a loving marker, not a syringe  ) I'm a little disappointed it wasn't as amazingly vile in the end as it was for most of the story - but I guess it's more upbeat after all.Also watched some of Shiki, and by gawd, do these people have ridiculous anime hair. Feels very much in the same vein as Higurashi, though, and I'm strangely enjoying having dozens of characters introduced at once, only to desperately try to keep track of them while they bounce off of each other and poo poo goes wrong in the worst way possible very fast. So now I need more horror anime. Looking especially for the sort that gets really mean-spirited towards it characters, and only gets more intense towards it conclusions. Big fan of mystery / puzzle plots, too. The shorter, the better! I'd like to think I'm desensitised towards bad animation, now that I've gone successfully through two seasons of Higurashi and most of Shiki, but, uuuuuuh... not too low-budget would be nice, too. Spooky animes, please 
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Sep 16, 2015 19:09
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The Devil Tesla posted:It might not be exactly what you're looking for since it's long form, with every story taking multiple episodes to finish, but this sentence describes Mononoke perfectly. It's a little bit of an investment, and the first episode is much slower than the rest of the show so it takes a bit to get into, but it's completely fantastic. Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales is also pretty great. Okay, this is great. I like the look of Mononoke a lot, and while it doesn't look very gory, there's definitely a lot of hosed-up stuff and incomprehensible mystery going on. Watching this! Brainamp posted:Ghost Stories I'm sorry, too spooky for me
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Sep 16, 2015 21:37
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Brutakas posted:Kikoushi Enma, it's pretty dark and spooky. ...hm. I checked out the first episode, and I gotta say, I'm quite underwhelmed. The central mystery was set up nicely, but the conclusion felt very weak, the way they explained it directly afterwards. Action looked awkward and slow. And worst of all... It wasn't even that terribly spooky, OR gory. The incredibly stupid-looking protagonists might've contributed to that. The episode left me with the feeling that I do not care what this detective agency does, and they're dull, unpleasant people in stupid clothes. This might sound harsher than I intend - in the end, I was just bored, I guess... For the first episode, I rate this a bored two spooks out of five! a kitten posted:it's very scary Actually, after watching the first episode of Kikoushi Enma, this looks legitimately better ...perhaps not spookier, though  a kitten posted:As an actual rec for Torquemadras: watch Shinsekai Yori (find UTW's subs, i didn't like the official ones) Tried that one earlier - had it recommended to me in the last thread! Started interesting enough, but I got very bored during the episodes with Exposition Slug, and the whole molerat introduction is so low-budget it hurts my eyes... Maybe I'll power through those episodes someday, in the hopes the quality goes up? Meh. In any case, I know watched a lot of Mononoke, and it's pretty great. Looks crazy, has some very disturbing things going on, and I enjoy all the little character stories in the overarching mystery. It feels more like mystery than horror to me, but that's cool. I rate it a cool four spooks out of five!
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Sep 19, 2015 19:27
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Sakurazuka posted:Boogiepop Phantom or Lain might be an idea, neither of are scary exactly but I can't think of anything else that goes weird and unsettling better. I tried to get into Boogiepop Phantom, but... meh... It was definitely unsettling, but at first I thought I watched a really, really bad version - NOPE, that's how it looks all the time. I dig how mean-spirited it seems and how it explains nothing ever so far, but it's unintentionally hilarious. Got a good chuckle out of the most recent episode I watched: Girl goes "I love the world!", dude pretty much goes "Nope", girl freaks the gently caress out Maybe I'll give this another go. VostokProgram posted:It isn't I don't know a lot about Monster, but I think it's by the dude who made 20th Century Boys? (Controversial statement incoming: I liked some aspects of 20th Century Boys, but ultimately I think it's not as smart as it seems to think, and it has some rather silly and contrived plot devices...) I heard good things about it, but given it's high episode count and that it seems rather slow-paced is kind of discouraging to me... In any case, good news regarding Mononoke - I finished it and it's really, really good. My favorite is probably the last one: that one felt the most like an intricate mystery puzzle! I actually watched it before Ayakashi, I have to check that one out as well, at least the Mononoke segment. On entirely unrelated matters: can anybody explain to me what the gently caress is going on with the Monogatari series? I decided to check out the first two episodes, since it's by the Madoka director, and holy poo poo is this gorgeous. And tits. Those are good. (Re: Cutie Honey is cool and good) So far, it seems to be cool dialogue in super-stylish environments + fanservice overload. I might watch it for the style alone, but to be honest, I'm not confident where this show might go, since I usually have a strong dislike for harem tropes and a NOPEI'MTHEFUCKOUTOFHERE reaction to things bordering/consisting of pedo stuff. I'd ask in the Monogatari thread, but it looks like every single poster there has a Monogatari avatar, which does not convince me of their impartial advice This thread is very informative, so any opinions on this? (Note: I will judge you by your avatar)
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Sep 21, 2015 11:30
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Davincie posted:a dude who can't handle fanservice isn't going to make it through nise ...oh no I... I had a bad feeling when it turned out the main char has not one, but two younger sisters And there was a mysterious small girl in the corner of the room 
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Sep 21, 2015 19:13
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littleorv posted:But fan service owns It does Which is why I have such a good impression from the first two episodes Davincie posted:well fwiw, nise has the most fanservice by far. see for yourself though if you want to trust this untrustworthy goyim It's worth a try!
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Sep 21, 2015 19:44
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Radio Spiricom posted:i think i'm the one that recommended it to you in the haruhi thread. hi. i would say at least finish bake. nise takes the stuff you're not really feeling, cranks it up to 11 and breaks the knob off. it's gratuitous and gross to the point of absurdity, where it almost comes off like an autocritique. i dunno, though. there are lots of ways to read it, i'm sure. it's probably my least favorite of all of them and it's sort of a necessary evil to get to neko/season 2 both of which are excellent Hi! Yeah, that might very well be you! It's probably your recommendation + my search for more Shinbo stuff after watching the phenomenal Madoka series. Dude is just so loving good at depicting two people (or evil bunnycats) talking to/at each other. In any case, I'm up to episode 12 now. It's actually far tamer than what I expected, which is consistent with the opinions in this thread, I guess... Some of the fanservice seems very appropriate and even stylish (pretty much anything with Senjogahara), some... not so much (oh, snake girl is the same age as Koyomi's sister? Well great, now I know where this is going ). Overall, it's a really darn cool little show. It's really entertaining to see basically nothing but a dude getting verbally owned non-stop, and helping girls with their issues by being helpful. Plus the occasional nauseating violence/mutilation out of nowhere. It doesn't even feel that much like the dreaded harem show, surprisingly - there's one "main girl" right away, most of the female characters don't even seem that much romantically interested, and there's not that much of that horrible submissive waifu poo poo. Yeah, I know it's gonna be harem as gently caress eventually, I'm not blind. But hell, I could watch these 12 episodes just fine. You could take episode 12 alone and show it completely out of context - that's some genuine funny, almost self-contained romance story in 20 minutes, right there. (Seriously, ep.12 is by far the best - poor dad  - and perhaps not coincidentally the least harem-like...)Definitely gonna finish this season, and see how long I last through Nise until I start loathing it and skip to the next one! I guess it's true, there's really drat good parts and some really, really bad ones. How lucky that I'm a discerning viewer. The Devil Tesla posted:There are many good *gataris but my favorite *gatari is Katanagatari Also, how's this show? I gave the first episode a try, and called it quits when the evil ninja jabbered on, pulled out a sword, action scene seems imminent, then puts the sword away, jabbers some more, leaves. Does it get any less talky? I mean, that looks like a drat cool action gif, but I don't want to wait half an hour for ten seconds of it...
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Sep 22, 2015 22:51
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The Devil Tesla posted:I almost turned it off at about the same moment that you did but I'm really glad I didn't, the end of the first episode hooked me and it just gets better and better from there. It's never not-talky but once the journey actually starts the conversations get better and more and more cool and meaningful stuff happens. It's one of my favorites. Well, I'll believe you. Regarding series that I dropped but continued on recommendations, the only one I got burned so far has been Steins;Gate (YEAH I MEAN IT), so I'll try. At least most of the basic plot exposition should be out of the way... I hope.Razzled posted:Yes, personally I didn't enjoy it as much as Baccano, I gave up around episode 10 You know, I really liked Baccano when I watched it the first time - it was pretty much one of the first anime shows I watched -, but I have zero desire to watch it again, and in hindsight it's not THAT phenomenally good. Still good, just not great. So when I watched the first Durarara season, I started seeing the exact same flaws cropping up everywhere. Without the ingenious time jumps between three-four separate storylines, it just... isn't that appealing, and I got tired of the characters much faster. I remember being quite annoyed how often random character XY just happens to be passing by and is suddenly involved in the current shenanigans - the setting feels both way to small and contrived. I really like shows that just drop hundreds of characters on you and then has them bounce off of each other - it's not chaos, it's just complex, and the plot doesn't give a gently caress that you can't follow along, it will all come together in the end. I felt like there was way less of that in Durarara, and way more focus on whacky/emotional characters which are rather annoying/whiny. ...also, every single character looks like a wiry deformed elf person. I'm not sure why, but I feel like Durarara has MUCH, much uglier character designs than Baccano. AlternateNu posted:The thing about the -gatari harem is that it doesn't follow most of the tropes of anime harems like Love Hina or Tenchi Muyo. All the girls are (generally) independently strong and don't actually need Koyomi, and he manages to be helpful and caring (if a creeper much of time) without being emasculated. I guess I'll see, because I'm enjoying it so far! The only "harem-like" shows I could ever stand were Higurashi and Haruhi - and I guess I don't have to tell anyone who knows both of these that they... have their own spin on it. I'm occasionally annoyed how passive Koyomi is, but it's turned around often enough. I guess creepy fanservice (besides the good one ) in this show is like a bad habit that won't go away.
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Sep 23, 2015 09:21
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Sooo, I actually watched Nisemonogatari. I was ready to skip large chunks of it, given its reputation and, uh, ample warnings given in this thread, but I really liked most of Bakemonogatari, so I thought I'd check this out to get to the second season. I... I don't wanna go to jail  What the gently caress was going on with this? Whoever said this season takes everything bad about the series to 11 was right on the mark. Fanservice becomes scene right out of taboo porn, right down to the ultra-flimsy reasons where the most insane behaviour becomes apparently acceptable. Everybody is now from porn dimension, including (and, in fact, almost exclusively) girls under 16. Sexy dames in trouble is okay with me. But here, every once in a while (or for whole episodes), everybody acts like porn characters and it's ~pedophile time~. Not even just the obvious issues with that: it's contrived, stupid and a waste of time. Just great. On the other hand: when I wasn't frantically skipping forward, there were some nice action scenes (there's the nauseating brutality I was looking for! Yesssss), and the basic story was actually pretty cool. Oh, and a GREAT "villain". He didn't even do much, but I loved every second that Kakei was on screen. Just the sheer contrast to the other characters! And a rad theme song, too. I hope this guy gets more appearances in the future, he's a joy to behold. In general, I really like this show's approach to conflict - almost no-one "wins" by sheer strength, even the action is basically still talking that has spilled over into violence. Coupled with this show's weird-rear end mythology, it's just fun. If it weren't for the boring aimlessness of the first couple episodes plus the obvious negative of KIDDIE PORN DIMENSION, WHAT THE gently caress IS WRONG WITH THIS SHOW, it could've been good. Well, can't say I haven't been warned. If this continues, I'm out for the sake of my sanity, but I still have hope. I'm just too trusting and naive, in this dark, dark world of anime. Gonna have to watch some Fist of the North Star to forget this...
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Sep 24, 2015 19:00
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So, I've finally graduated from a lengthy stay in hospital, mostly spent immobile, to a lengthy stay at home, mostly to be spent immobile. Can even work again somewhat. So, to celebrate my glorious return to somewhat everyday life, I was being a useless piece of poo poo and watched all of Nekomonogatari + some of Katanagatari + three episodes of Monogatari 2nd season. Time well spent. First, right away: I lost interest in Katanagatari after the first episode... and I lost it again after the fourth. The banter between the characters gets better (I particularly enjoyed their lengthy chat over which catchphrase to pick  ), but I'm not very taken with the more emotional parts of the episodes. And after four episodes, I feel like the shtick of this series is subverting expectations in the most underwhelming way possible. I mean, that's nice and all, it's just... sheer disappointment, all the time. It felt less clever and more lazy. ("My thousand sword technique is unbeatable! Look at how I prepared the battlefield! ...or run away while I monologue, I guess") I suppose it's obvious by now that you don't really watch this show for the incredible action, but the rest doesn't interest me enough to make up for it. Meh.As for Nekomonogatari: well, it's no Nise! I'd say "return to form", if I wasn't so sure the creators knew perfectly well what the hell they were doing with Nisemonogatari. Very cool stuff. Some more appearances for noted cool guy Oshino, some stupid over-the-top violence, the most  plan to sacrifice your own life, and the cat apparition itself is fun as well. And what I've seen of the 2nd season so far is really, really good - Senjogahara being a dork who violently owns everyone forever in particular.I'll forgive you, Monogatari. I forgive you Cake Attack posted:Torquemadras is platinum mad gently caress. Owned again
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Sep 27, 2015 22:10
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Y Kant Ozma Diet posted:I am completely new to anime. All I've watched is FMA:B. Is anything on Netflix worth watching? I like your typical genre stuff. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror etc. Gonna re-iterate what others said: Madoka (series + third movie, the first two movies are just recaps of the series) is REALLY, REALLY GOOD, watch that. The first few episodes might tell you you're not exactly in the right target group, but trust me, do it. There'll be a point where you cannot stop watching until you run out of it. There's also Space Dandy - fun, obscenely good-looking space adventures with Space Dandy and his space crew (in space), and if you ask me, an instant classic the minute it aired. Very chill. Great Sci-Fi, too. No idea if it's on Netflix, though. Then there's Fate/Zero. It's got a very cool story and insane intrigues with fantasy wizards, so if you're into that, go watch that! But one word of warning: if you ask me, it's got horrendous direction and bad action scenes, despite its apparently ridiculous budget. I guess that one's a matter of taste.
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Oct 1, 2015 16:43
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The Colonel posted:Space Dandy is awesome, but it's not really much of an optimistic space show as it was a vehicle for crazy directors to make really fun stories with little-to-no interconnection and lots of really amazing art and animation. The longer I watched Space Dandy, the more I had the impression that it's ALSO a really, really good scifi show - only, weirdly enough, without really bothering with the whole "science" thing. Several episodes play with weird as hell scifi concepts and explore them. They feel like crazed "what if" episodes thrown into space, almost like thought experiments. To me at least, good scifi always plays around with unusual concepts - the science part is really quite secondary, and on one end of the spectrum it's magic anyway. We've got stuff like literal time streams, sentient death planets, lifeforms migrating between planets, all-time classic time loops, teleportation beams, a world of undeath, that REALLY weird notebook thing, the most perfect shapechanger imaginable, world-ending music, sentient plants wishing for a simpler life, Laika's fate, an invading two-dimensional universe and, of course, Dandy's "godhood"... It's always goofy, but there's rad scifi concepts in there. I really like Space Dandy, guys
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Oct 4, 2015 22:29
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I feel like I've watched too many talky shows recently. So please recommend me animes with ridiculously awesome guns and ridiculously awesome shooting of ridiculously awesome guns None of that mecha stuff. I want hard-boiled shooting mans with ridiculous outfits. I watched Hellsing and that fulfilled all criteria, as well as having a surprisingly tidy and satisfying ending. It is what I shall measure all shooty animes by in the future. Give me violence
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Oct 6, 2015 19:21
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fezball posted:Did you watch Hellsing TV or the Hellsing Ultimate OVA? The TV series only followed the manga for its first half, and then made up its own ending which is prettty universally agreed to be vastly inferior to the manga. So if you only saw TV, Ultimate will still have plenty to offer. I watched the TV version an eternity ago and stopped because it was kinda boring, then I discovered the manga and went through the OVA at record pace! Watched Redline too, so there's that. Talking is fine if it includes badass/hardboiled/cheesy oneliners
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Oct 6, 2015 19:44
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Yo, what's this thread cool expert opinion on Gungrave? I gave Trigun a try, first episode didn't really convince me, but I might return to it... Also discovered Gungrave, though. There's "Gun" in the title. I think there's zombies. That's the total extent of my knowledge. Worth 26 episodes?
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Oct 14, 2015 23:09
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Whelp, finished episode 9 of Gungrave. Definitely not what I expected. To be honest, the action is rather lacking. I'm used to stupid gunfights in, well, pretty much any medium ever, so I'm not bothered by that aspect. But there's a lot of Empty Room Syndrome (tm) going on, where it always seems that the characters are removed from their surroundings in quite spacious (and more often than not rectangular) surroundings - not only in shootouts, mind you. Aside from the first episode, there's more short bursts of more mundane action rather than prolonged insanity versus undead abominations. That's fine too, but it's just not very good action. A little disappointed there. But, unexpectedly, I'm really digging the story so far! Betrayal, iron codes of honor, killers sinking into apathy. The characters are quite enjoyable (except that gross always-eating guy, goddamn close your mouth dude). It feels like there's a lot of build-up towards things going to hell, and now that the undead are introduced, there might be gloriously stupid violence thrown in once more. I'm really, really curious if this show can pull of the mixture of mafia intrigues and Hellsing-brand gun action. (I hope for more over the top gun action so bad)
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Oct 18, 2015 01:42
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fezball posted:Don't get your hopes up too much, Gungrave is a pretty bad action show throughout. The good news is that the character drama will stay as good as it is, but the action will always feel perfunctory and is just there to drive the character dynamics. There are a handful of episodes in the later half that are all action and a bit of a slog, but the finale is again all character-driven and really really good. That's disheartening... It's not like Gungrave is an especially ugly show, but it just looks so BORING. Eh, might as well continue, but I can't help be a little disappointed. Best bombastic gun action animes stay Hellsing OVA and Madoka (yeah, I was surprised too). Is there no more anime with ridiculously unrealistic and awesome gun battles  On the other hand, my unreasonable thirst for anime ballistics made me give Psycho-Pass another chance beyond the first episode. Maybe it's just because the clunky exposition of the first episode is finally more or less out of the way, but I'm up to ep 3 now and I like it MUCH better - even though it's definitely not the action show I was looking for originally! Now that they aren't introducing the core concept anymore, I can appreciate the characters and the VERY awesome setting much more. Already looking for the little Urobuchi hints about what will go horribly wrong. I love how the writer always has characters who claim a certain motivation/belief, only they're flatout lying/wrong/deluded. CubeTheory posted:Chihayafuru is the ultimate crying all the time anime. I tried to give this one a chance, seeing how often it's mentioned around here, but I'm not sure... Main char is fun, but dear god that is the stupidest central sports game I've ever seen. I'm kinda weirded out. I REALLY, really liked Ping Pong without giving a flying gently caress about the game, but that might also be because it was an extremely stylish show... Meh. Poem card slapping is meh.
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Oct 19, 2015 09:57
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Man, that makes you think. Is there any sports anime parody yet in the vein of taking the most ridiculous "sport" to get excited over, slapping all the beloved sports cliches on pretty much anything? Could be something. The exact same cast, all in the same roles, but each episode has an entirely different "sport" as if the universe had reset, Tatami Galaxy-style. First episode: table soccer. Second episode: competitive shadow play. Third episode: high-stakes blinking contests. Fourth episode: hotdog speed eating. Fifth episode: competitive face slapping (with slow motion replays). Bonus points if it somehow has a continuous plot line, despite giving the story a hard reset every episode. Sorry folks, Chihayafuru needs to wait. New request: sports parodies
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Oct 19, 2015 10:27
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Oh my god. Whoever wrote that Psycho-Pass has amazing villains, I can only agree. One smug sonofabitch after the other, each finding new and exciting ways to have poo poo-eating grins. I really, really hope this show delivers big in terms of karma, these villains are MADE for comeuppance... Not too happy about the (apparent?) big villain, though; so far he seems like the standard prettyboy philosophizing wannabe ubermensch. Oh well, there's still plenty of time to turn that around. I'm also quite annoyed at the frequent name-dropping that the show does - it comes off as quite pretentious -, but oh well, it makes for cool scenes, and it DOES work for the setting. I'm thoroughly hooked. And I managed to avoid spoilers, too! So I'm looking forward to any ridiculously stupid twists this show might pull. Nice show.
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Oct 19, 2015 23:40
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ViggyNash posted:Just curious, what episode are you on? Finished episode 9. There's plenty of eye-rolling moments, but I just HAD to watch until that particular baddie of the week got what was coming for her. I, uh, also deliberately spoiled one thing for me because it was super-late dammit and I need to know NOW Lesbian schoolgirl comes back! Yay! Man, I felt bad for her, and she felt weirdly important to have such a pointlessly depressing ending. Only... it's in Season 2? Which is apparently very bad? And everybody hates her...? Oh dear. I think I've accepted by now that this show is like Ghost in the Shell's sillier, less educated cousin. Only the characters are MUCH better, even though they're not anything special... so far. Right now, I'm watching this show for 1) the amazingly hatable villains, 2) more facets of how incredibly hosed up their society is and 3) the hope something really mean happens to the main cast - not because I dislike them, but because those were the absolute greatest scenes in Madoka and Fate/Zero
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Oct 20, 2015 08:25
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ViggyNash posted:I won't claim that Psycho-Pass is quite as mature and intelligent as GiTS (not much is), but later on it does end up carrying some pretty hefty philosophical weight with a deft hand. Never underestimate the Urobutcher. Might very well be. Up to ep 12 yet, and after that series of serial killers, it's starting to look more interesting. Believe it or not, I got bored by those - why only murder? Where are all the other crimes? It's kinda ridiculous ("Dozens of people must have died down here... No, HUNDREDS!!!". This very much feels like a tryhard GitS at points. I mean, I went in expecting dumb scifi gun action with a good helping of gently caress YEAH REVOLUTION, so it's still smarter than I thought. But it's also cool and interesting enough to make up for that, AND there's the sheer cruelty! Oh, Urobuchi, you just know who I desperately want to survive~I could do without more ridiculous serial killers, but I need to see what this show can come up with towards the end. ViggyNash posted:But yeah, season 2 was a disappointment. Not only was Shimotsuki a thoroughly unlikable character, she was just a plain bad character. And the season as a whole was very unnecesary. "Unnecessary" was the keyword I was looking for there, thanks. Skipping the gently caress out of that! I'll go watch, dunno, the new Ghost in the Shell instead or something. Did that one turn out OK? I heard pretty much nothing about it...
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Oct 20, 2015 19:34
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DamnGlitch posted:Psycho Pass is NOT gits nor remotely as actiony but the first season is very solid. The second season is basically a retread of the first with a less adroit writer. The main character is pretty fantastic though and its fun to watch her not give a poo poo about anything ever (shes sorta like a lower key hajime from gatchaman) Funny thing: I tried watching Gatchaman Crowds, and I was immediately repelled by Hajime and the CGI. I picked it up at some point later, and quickly undid my error in judgement - Hajime was actually a supremely entertaining character. She's cool. I ended up dropping the show again by episode 7 or so, mostly because I was annoyed at how unsubtle it seemed (and that fuckin panda thing. Yeah, you heard me, all you posters with the panda abomination avatar). So I've finished the first season of Psycho-Pass, and... well. My basic impression of it as a dumber, sillier, gorier and WAY crueler Ghost in the Shell hasn't changed. Nor have the things I was annoyed the most throughout - main villain felt WAY to generic, especially when he was an actually rather cool character; aside from necessary setup, the first nine episodes or so felt unneeded and mean-spirited (big surprise there); though I'm not really bothered by plotholes, the idiot ball was definitely making the rounds too much; and the violence felt like the show was trying way too hard in places. (There's some very cool, downright sadistic scenes which are really well done, like a certain hammer scene, but others are just to exaggerated and silly.) Oh, and the CGI sucked whenever it wasn't the Dominators. (That truck at the end looked ridiculous.) But it had a nice conclusion. I don't really feel like it needs any continuation - I think it's a perfectly fine ending for the series. It really DID deal a mean philosophy backhand there at the end, and the concepts it played with remained super cool all the way throughout. I also enjoyed the character of Akane - finally, some payoff! Not so much Kogami (the main enforcer dude???), he never really changed after episode 2, that was a disappointment. Oh well. He had a one-note role to play, and he did it well. Some good characters overall. Especially liked the inspector with the glasses and his d(e)ad. I'm gonna do this show a favor and ignore season 2. So, anybody's heard something of the Psycho-Pass movie? The Psycho-Pass thread fell silent just as it was coming out, and it was apparently recent enough that you can't find many impressions of the thing. I heard Urobuchi was involved more again (which might be good???), and I'm all game for some movie-budget quality. Anyone's seen the thing?
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Oct 21, 2015 13:21
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Phobophilia posted:i posted a wall of text review of the pp movie Got a link? Probably not gonna watch it, but there IS a certain morbid curiosity...
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Oct 21, 2015 15:55
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Bad Seafood posted:Durarara!! is good whenever it isn't focusing on Mikado, Anri, and Kida. I really, really, REALLY liked Durarara until episode 10 or so. Then it turned completely aimless, characters get involved by literally randomly passing by all the time, and Anri & Kida are god-tier poo poo characters and where the gently caress did all the chaotic insanity and pacing and fun of the first ten episodes go I mean gently caress Baccano isn't really the godsend of anime that I thought it was when I first watched it - I think it elevates an Okay story to greatness with absolutely incredible storytelling gimmicks -, but it's MUCH better than... whatever Durarara turned into. Would Season 2 of Durarara make me hate it less? First episode of S2 seemed to be filled with unfunny/annoying new characters, one potentially cool serial killer and not much else...
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Oct 30, 2015 09:51
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Hey, what's the resident anime expert opinion on Darker Than Black? I've been looking for some sci-fi-ish action shows after having watched Psycho-Pass and Cyber City Oedo (which is so goddamn awesome, had a huge grin during the entire show ), and at least the first season seems to be well-liked. The basic premise sounds like shonen standard fare, though, which I'm not too keen on. Worth a try? For the record: I dislike stupid rock-paper-scissor / Calvinball fights, and I got REALLY annoyed by the philosophical streak from Psycho-Pass... And unrelated, another action show I've heard stuff about: Giant Robo. I'm not really a fan of the mecha genre, but I LOVED TTGL and depressing-and-disturbing-Evangelion...
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Nov 7, 2015 23:51
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Whelp. I went ahead and watched me some Darker than Black and Giant Robo. It'd be kinda silly to choose, since I can watch both no problem, but of those two, Giant Robo is the CLEAR winner. Goddamn that was awesome. Only two episodes in, and there's almost nothing not to love. The main kid is kinda useless, and I'm not sure why he's even necessary, but I'm sure the show will get around to that, and it's acknowledged by other characters. Other than that, I don't know what I love more: that the default mode of piloting giant robots is apparently to cling to it while yelling, that two eps in cities are getting levelled left and right, that there's a Taoist monk heroically jumping through traffic as a horse, that Giant Robo feels properly giant, or that it's just full of ridiculously good-looking motion (often involving explosions and/or giant fists). ViggyNash posted:Darker Than Black is not very shounen, I'm not sure where you heard that. It is a pretty good show however. Not amazing, but pretty good, and well animated. Yeah, I see now that was entirely unfounded.  But I have to say, I'm... kinda disappointed by Darker than Black. I made it six episodes in. The first four had cool action, some sweet silly powers that didn't overstay their welcome, and what felt like an utterly bleak and hopeless story. But somehow, that fell apart for me with ep.5/6. It kinda... looked incredibly dull. Not sure what was different. Short action scenes that looked static and disappointing, unmoving shots all over the place, generally boring to look at. Maybe I was missing the dosis of people being mentally broken from the first four. As it stands, it's suddenly kinda unappealing. And to be honest, with that preview for ep7, I'm... not inclined to continue. Maybe it was just a budget issue for these two, but it looks like I'll have to skip to the good episodes with this one if I'm ever gonna pick it up again... Whatevs. Imma watch Giant Robo now. NUCLEAR POWER
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Nov 8, 2015 14:38
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Droyer posted:To TorqueMadras: It's worth noting that Giant Robo is very loosely based on a 50's manga of the same name by Yokoyama Mitsuteru, and the now stereotypical robot that you control from the inside was popularized by Go Nagai's 70s manga Mazinger Z I am now convinced that piloting a robot while standing/clinging to the outside is the only true way to do it. Jesus, absolutely nothing about the mecha in Giant Robo makes sense, and I love it. I can certainly see why people say this show transcends the mecha genre! ...aaaaaaand now good guys start dying in immensely manly and radical ways, haha Ha
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Nov 8, 2015 23:45
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Whelp, watched the seven episodes of Giant Robo. That's a wrap. To be honest, I kinda cooled on this show...  It never stops throwing insane random spectacle at the viewer, and I love it. It's really epic in scope. But believe it or not, I think this show would've been MUCH better if it had been more self-contained instead of the ending we got. There might've been a little TOO much crammed into the last two episodes...I never really warmed up to the main character, either. He's got a proper plot, I guess, but drat what an annoying little poo poo (what's with muttering "Father...!" all the time while being completely useless? And for that matter, muttering "Brother...!" and being completely useless? Aaaaaargh). While I loved its overabundance of ridiculously awesome action scenes, I'm not a fan of the central, rather contrived tragedy of the plot; although I guess extreme incompetence at communication with disastrous consequences is a staple of that sort of story. A little disappointed by the main action girl's lack of, well, action, too. Blue Oni wife was much cooler.  Final verdict: honestly one of the best animated shows I've ever seen, period... up to including episode 5. 6 and 7 are bombastic, but too much, and with too little conclusion. But still, I'm amazed how good-looking and epic it was throughout, which counts a lot for me. But one more "Father...!" and I would've fuckin flipped
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Nov 9, 2015 22:17
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I have decided I need more mecha anime in my life. What's a good starting point? I've seen three shows that are mecha genre - Evangelion (I loved how beastly and horrifying the "mechas" turned out to be), Giant Robo (Giant Robo feels suitably GIANT and awe-inspiring) and TTGL (liked how goofy the mechas were, but battles seemed rather arbritrary to me; totally loved the ever-increasing HELL YEAH factor towards the end & the nonsensical scifi aspects, though). Not sure what exactly I'm looking for; I guess I want shows where you feel the sheer weight and size of awesome, earth-shattering war machines, and I've always had a heart for... "pseudo-realism", I guess? I dig that whole scifi aspect where the technobabble is obviously fake, but they try to somewhat acknowledge physics, things break down and are maintained, there's elaborate safety procedures and whatnot, all kinds of stuff that ALMOST make giant mechas seem reasonable. I've heard good things about Patlabor - maybe I'll start with that series (...or the movie? Not sure how the two are related)!
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Jan 17, 2016 00:15
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Bad Seafood posted:Patlabor is more or less a pretty realistic take on the giant robot concept, which in your case I'd say is almost but not quite exactly what you're looking for. Rather than being "About" giant robots, I'd describe it as a police procedural/slice of life series that just so happens to contain giant robots as a prominent element. People have debated the best way to get into the series but for my money the (first) movie's a pretty safe bet. That sounds cool. Patlabor it is, then! Starting with the OVA and let's see where it takes me from there. I don't know much about Big O; I think I checked the first episode at some point and thought it was kinda dumb...? Not sure. I do remember that it looked extremely stylish, though, and very different from other anime. Might give that one another chance! Davincie posted:don't watch gargantia. you're probably going to stumble upon it because of the madoka connection, but its really bad ...oh hey, something else by Gen Urobuchi. Whaddya know. To be honest, I don't think that guy is as much of a guarantee of a good show as some people might think... I loved the Madoka series, but HATE HATE HATE Fate/Zero (through almost no fault of the script, admittedly!). And I started out hopeful for, and ended up thoroughly annoyed by Psycho-Pass. Droyer posted:Oh also I forgot, you might wanna check out Daiguard. It's a comedy drama mecha show which plays realism for comedy. Nice. Will do.
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Jan 17, 2016 00:48
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Checked out the first episodes of Patlabor OVA, Daiguard and Gunbuster. I gotta say - these three show their age... But I'm not picky. Patlabor was entertaining, and I like how the big mechs were basically big tools. Characters were pretty cool ("Go get your mech yourself, then!" "OKAY" -zooms off on scooter and actually DOES IT-), so I'm definitely gonna check out some more of it. Not too enthralled by Daiguard, honestly - I don't really like the mech's look, but who knows. Might watch this later. And regarding Gunbuster... ...just finished Episode 6.  What the gently caress. That sure were some two and a half hours I meant to spent on work. Instead, I watched the deadliest football of all time, incredibly merciless and unceremonious love interest death, existentially terrifying time dilatation, an astounding amount of anime tiddies and robots doing pushups. Also, the second-best sudden shift to color in anime I've seen. One hell of a ride. Again, it does show its age, but I really didn't care.In summary:  (or rather  , I guess?)Imma watch Diebuster know ViggyNash posted:There's been a bunch of shows after Psycho-Pass that have his name attached to them because he comes up with the concept and writes the first episode, but then the job gets handed off to less competent writers and he gets the blowback. I'm sorry you didn't like Fate/Zero or Psycho-Pass but they're pretty well written shows. Urobuchi is nothing if not competent. I can't disagree with that - those two shows have good stories. And as I mentioned, it wasn't the script that sunk Fate/Zero for me (except for the ATROCIOUS Calvinball battle scenes, but I guess you can blame much of that on the weird established incomprehensible magic rules of the universe). Psycho-Pass was okay, but I got annoyed by several quirks of the story, easy as that; Fate/Zero's problems for me were... Man I could rant forever about that. I hated the first episode on first sight, but then the story was actually compelling and I really liked all the actors in that hosed up battle royale, so I stayed with it. And honestly, I was enthralled. It plain didn't outweigh everything else, though, so I called it quits after episode 17 or so (as I said, I actually liked the story...). I blame the director. Dunno.
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Jan 18, 2016 22:48
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Reds posted:I've never really got it when somebody says "this anime looks/is old" as a negative. What's wrong with old anime? The cut-off line for what is and isn't too old that some people have seems kind of arbitrary. Nah, I definitely didn't mean it as a negative in Gunbuster's case. I wasn't too terribly impressed with some climactic scenes (parts of the end of episode 5, for instance), but it's mostly a matter of taste. I suppose this is because I was exposed to newer anime first, plain and simple. For what it's worth, I consider Giant Robo one of the best-looking animations ever, so there's that I've only watched the first episode of Diebuster so far, but it already looks amazing for me - I mean, there's CGI that DOESN'T look like rear end, holy poo poo! I can see why it's something else than Gunbuster entirely already. It's cool. Let's see where it goes. Neddy Seagoon posted:Redline took something like seven years to complete, and goddamn does the effort show. It's a great insane action race movie that is also a neverending series of amazing desktop backgrounds
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Jan 19, 2016 11:15
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Okay so I watched all of Diebuster. It's good and I might actually like it more than Gunbuster. Action is sometimes a bit incomprehensible, but drat that is some good looking anime right there. Also, ridiculously awesome mechs. I don't like space that much as a setting as opposed to - I guess - ground-based mech action, but no complaints here. Also, no, I refuse to believe Nono's dead, she's out there somewhere crawling out of a singularity Last comment: littleorv posted:I suggest you watch Gunbuster and then Diebuster because Diebuster has the cutest robot in anime. You son of a bitch
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Jan 19, 2016 22:13
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Well, I tried to get into Patlabor. First the TV series, and when that didn't click for me, I tried the OVA. Yeah, and... I'm not that into it. I dig the "realistic" aspect of the mechas, and it's occasionally really drat hilarious - Episode 4 of the OVA in particular was a pitch-perfect parody of kaiju movies, holy poo poo - but I'm... just underwhelmed by the mechas. And I don't really like the cast enough. Hm. I wasn't expecting another Diebuster (which instantly shot right into my Top 10 anime because I loving love FLCL and, as I discovered, cool mechas), but I'm still underwhelmed. Oh well. So, let's try this the other way around! Any insanely hot-blooded and ridiculous mecha shows out there, in the vein of TTGL and Diebuster? (I think I ran out of comparable Gainax shows...?) Well, scratch that request for realism, now I want stupid awesome mecha action. I heard something about Code Geass being good, as well as season 2 of that being total rear end. Any suggestions for the advancement of my mecha education are greatly appreciated.
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Jan 25, 2016 21:16
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The Colonel posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlhtVgB7QuY ...this looks all great, and I shall now watch Shin Mazinger Z! But I will NOT watch Giant Robo Bad Seafood posted:Torquemadras will watch Giant Robo and he will post about it. ...because I've already seen it The worst thing about Giant Robo is that they didn't deliver on that sequel hook.
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Jan 25, 2016 21:35
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Aaaaand now I've watched Read or Die OVA as well. Any other short action shows? I really liked Kyosougiga, and I'm a huge fan of the action in FLCL/Diebuster, as well as the more intense scenes in One Punch Man. It seems really tough to find this sort of frantic super-kinetic action 
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Feb 28, 2016 22:08
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Droyer posted:It's not there all the time, but Giant Robo has some of that. Giant Robo is also excellent in general. I did see Giant Robo, yeah - it usually goes like this: 1. Giant Robo is recommended 2. I feel tremendous sadness because I have watched all the Giant Robo that there is Knorth posted:Ever seen Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta? It's a cute show with some very good action~ I think I tried that one at some point, probably due to the second gif you posted there! Only watched the first episode - really did have nice action, but felt painfully cliched, like the most utterly generic people-with-powers thing. Not really bothered by the fanservice, just... didn't really catch my interest. Maybe I should give it another chance.
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Feb 28, 2016 22:28
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'kay, some nice stuff. Next steps: give Yozakura Quartet another chance (???), Gunsmith Cats, Macross Plus. I've never seen any Macross so far! (Apparently it has a... singing shtick? What? WHAT?)The Colonel posted:i just remembered, symphogear Speaking of singing shtick Well alright, curiosity piqued, I will watch this drunk and see if it's awesome enough to overcome the apparent shame of watching a cast of teenage popstars battle-sing at aliens!
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Feb 29, 2016 11:03
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The Colonel posted:you shouldn't feel shameful about watching fun things. do keep in mind though, the first four episodes are completely different in tone from the rest and much lighter on action of that same ridiculously fast style. the end of episode 4 is where it starts to get amazing Sure - gonna keep that in mind. That kind of attitude kept me from watching K-On and Madoka for the longest time, and oooooooh boy those were GREAT. I feel like I've been missing out on a whole lot of honestly great stuff by just suspecting shows of general creepiness, when the genuinely good stuff really isn't. Or maybe I'm a creep now too. I dunno, I've got an anime avatar. Of course, once in a while, you get a Nisemonogatari and feel a deep sense of crushing disappointment in yourself and humanity and why am I suddenly in jail Droyer posted:Have you seen Shin Mazinger Z? it's by the same director as Giant robo, and while it isn't as good it is still quite excellent Checked this out, and oh man that is totally Giant Robo right there. Somewhat generic, somewhat annoying boy protagonist? Check. Badass people having badass lines? Check. People repeatedly yelling "Father" or variations thereof? Check. Nonsensical awesome supernatural powers and complete chaos? Check. Went throughout the entire first episode. It does not gently caress around. Even if I end up not liking it all that much, I think I'll definitely check out the finale, because that much insanity crammed into one episode is a sight to behold.
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Feb 29, 2016 21:43
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esselfortium posted:I could've done without the fanservice, but most Monogatari is that way. I think the amount of distinction drawn between Nise and the other more well-regarded Monogatari seasons is kind of overstated. When I watched Bakemonogatari, I didn't really get why it had the reputation that it has - that was pretty tame, really! Lame snake girl was pretty borderline, but eh. Also cat girl was hot. There, I said it. Nise ramped that poo poo up. Holy crap. Yeah, let's have a lengthy bathing scene with the 8-year old who's actually a thousand year old vampire, seriously! And let's talk some more about how much these siblings are horny at each other! What. The series is quite rambling as usual, but that struck me as weird filler from the porn dimension. I skipped through large parts of it, until Kaiki showed up again... The story itself wasn't bad by any shot, it just focused on the two by far worst characters (sister #1 never does anything in her own story and never finds out, sister #2 so fuckin dumb that you can talk her into having a fever). Made up for it by probably the best character, who is a perfect fit for the endless talking the series is known for. The Colonel posted:all the stuff with kaiki owned and he's one of my favorite characters in the series, but i don't think it's an overstatement to say that nise spent way more time on the fanservicy aspects than any other season If that didn't tip you off: I really don't mind fanservice. It's pretty stupid most of the time, but nothing cringe-inducing by itself. It starts getting bad when there's nothing else, or when the whole story gets dragged into its service like some sort of super-gravitational porn field powered by a singularity of a turbo nerd, masturbating multidimensionally, forever. If you wanna put fanservice in your anime, it better be skillfully served! And now excuse me, I need to see how a buff man can teach a teenage idol how to sing better via Bruce Lee movies
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Feb 29, 2016 23:14
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