Anime

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I am vaguely interested in Madoka, but quite honestly, either of the two main flavors of moeblob (cute girls doing cute things just for the sake of being cute, or milquetoast male protagonist surrounded by a mostly-broken harem) hold direct negative appeal to me. My preferences on entertainment in general value good storywriting above all else, and almost to a rule, these sorts of series forgo that in favor of pandering to specific audience fetishes. Like, I know multiple people in here have praised the Key VN adaptations, and I haven't seen them myself, but I have read a decent amount about them, enough to make me feel like they generate their "feels" via overt emotional manipulation, instead of having them arise more naturally as the story progresses. There are several series I could point to that pull off this natural progression brilliantly, but it isn't something I think I'd find in most moe-centered series.

Even ignoring all of that, I just can't wrap my head around the usual art style. Girls with eyes that cover more than a third of their faces? *shudder*

I'm with you on the whole harem and cute girls doing cute girls thing (don't like the former at all, but the latter is enjoyable if I just want to relax after a long work day or something). When it comes down to it, when listing the best animes ever or recommending anime to someone, story should come first. IMO. The anime like you mentioned are almost purely fanservice, and if you're not a fan to begin with then it's obviously not going to appeal to you.

The only anime drama I've watched besides Clannad (key adaption series) at this point is Welcome to the N.H.K. (which imo was so much better). I think in comparing those two, I can see what you mean, but you should still try watching Clannad and see what you think. It's not exactly the "greatest love story ever told" or whatever people make it out to be, but it's certainly worth trying at least.

However, if you haven't watched Madoka you should do that. It's one of the more recent animes that presents themes that are easy to get behind 100%, and virtually lacks any plotholes, which I think can pretty hard to do with the plot it has. Also, has some great character development and is well paced considering it's a 12 episode series. Kind of like a long movie.

Watch a subbed version if you do though. The voice actors are great.

[orlouge82]

So i haven't watched anime in about 3 years, and I have a 3 week break from class. What are some good shows that are somewhat new? I have Break Blade, Infinite Stratos, and Sekirei laying around. Feel free to recommend anything new-ish. I feel quite out of the loop.

I happened to watch the first (and only) season of Sekirei that's on Netflix, and I didn't really know what to expect.

On one hand, I sort of find all of the huge boobs a bit over the top (though I do enjoy the jokes about these at Benitsubasa's expense), but the series is so well written and flat out entertaining that I'm hooked. I bought the Blu Ray of second season off of Amazon for $26, and I'll probably be doing that with the first pretty quickly here.

For those who know nothing about the series, it's like Pokemon except with large breasted women (with small exception) with super powers.

[Gollgagh]

Infinite Stratos is the vanilla-iest, harem-iest anime ever conceived by man

the only anime that is even more-so off that I can think of off the top of my head is Dog Days

only watch either if you somehow don't get other recommendations and are absolutely bored out of your skull

Edited August 13, 2012 by Gollgagh

[EC2151]

How about you watch some 80s-90s OVAs. 1 or 2 eps long, full of stylish hand-drawn animation, great character designs, and quick and to the point.

Some recs:

NSFW violence (seriously this is if david cronenberg directed an anime)

A lot of these have over-the-top violence (in the case of Black Lion, humorously so). However I assume you want to watch an anime that will keep you entertained instead of slow-paced meandering bullshit, so these short quick bursts from anime's golden age should be good for what ails ya.

Edited August 14, 2012 by EC2151

[Brycepops]

How about you watch some 80s-90s OVAs. 1 or 2 eps long, full of stylish hand-drawn animation, great character designs, and quick and to the point.

Some recs:

NSFW violence (seriously this is if david cronenberg directed an anime)

A lot of these have over-the-top violence (in the case of Black Lion, humorously so). However I assume you want to watch an anime that will keep you entertained instead of slow-paced meandering bullshit, so these short quick bursts from anime's golden age should be good for what ails ya.

Should probably add Violence Jack to that list.

[EC2151]

Ha ha, outside of a funny dub, and a few gem moments, I actually don't really like Violence Jack all that much!

[Top Gun]

I got to see MD Geist (and its sequel!) once.

I don't think my brain ever quite recovered.

[Dabstregous]

Dead Leaves is good for WTF am i watch but cant stop style of anime

[BooDidley7]

Dead Leaves is good for WTF am i watch but cant stop style of anime

I'll see your Dead Leaves, and raise you this:

NSFW or for the prude!

Perhaps, not true Japanese anime, but in the spirit. You'll be saying WTF, I promise. Apologies if it's old, but I only discovered it last week.

[avaris]

But in all honesty, the popular anime that I hate include Elfen Lied, Code Geass, Suzumiya Haruhi, One Piece, Evangelion, Cowboy Beebop, Eureka 7.

My first impression of reading this -> OH GOOD GOD! (shakes head in shock and dissapointment)

Second impression -> still the same

Third impression -> your opinion must be derived from that you probably extremely dislike any entertainment that can be considered tragic or overly serious/sad (which is cool that is your opinion)

Fourth impression -> still shocked someone could dislike all of those, or keep watching those types of anime without realizing they will never like anime like that

[Meteo Xavier]

It's pretty much the law in anime that you have to like Cowboy Bebop, or you will get a scarlet letter branded on your forehead for all to see.

I don't really want Cowboy Bebop anymore - it's so heavy I can only absorb it once every few years, and the general structure of each episode is like 20 minutes of buildup for 90 seconds of action. That always bothered me.

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i'm going to contribute to this popular show hate discussion to talk about how i didn't like serial experiments lain all that much.

It's so weird, too, because I'm all for the DEEP and dark psychological shows and games, but idk... lain just didn't cut it for me. i'm thinking it might just be the fact that i wasn't a big fan of the characters.. but i also thought the plot was very weird and confusing a lot of the time. maybe if i watched it a second time things would be different, but that most likely won't happen in the near future.

great idea for an anime though, and i can definitely see why others liked it. just not exactly my thing.

cowboy bebop should be on my list soon - just curious though, which is better, the sub or the dub? i heard somewhere that cowboy bebop was one of those rare shows where the dub was actually much better than the sub.. but when it comes to an old show like that a lot of people tend to prefer dubs because of their nostalgia goggles.

[Thin Crust]

My first impression of reading this -> OH GOOD GOD! (shakes head in shock and dissapointment)

Second impression -> still the same

Third impression -> your opinion must be derived from that you probably extremely dislike any entertainment that can be considered tragic or overly serious/sad (which is cool that is your opinion)

Fourth impression -> still shocked someone could dislike all of those, or keep watching those types of anime without realizing they will never like anime like that

Guess I'll comment.

Elfen Lied: The main character is an amnesiac, multipersonalitied, retard. The dub is some of the worst I've heard on the level of Star Ocean 4, there is not a single likable character, unnecessary nudity in every epidose, child porn/child rape (by father no less), plot holes I could drive a truck through, and the guy (kota I think) actually marries his cousin. You have issues Japan.

Code Geass: The black knights never win and their ranks grow despite this. The whole series is one Deus Ex Machina after another where some incredible miracle causes the black knights to fall apart. Don't get me started on Suzaku. Everyone goes extremely OOC in order to push the series in whatever direction the writers want. I just think that's bad writing.

"Hey, your boss? Yea, he's actually our brother. The prince of the nation you are fighting against. And he also has magic powers to make people obey him"

And they believe it!

Suzumiya Haruhi: I only watched season 1 and trying to find which episode to watch next to stay in order bugged the crap out of me. Yea, it was in some sort of order, but I didn't like how they did it. Let's see, Haruhi was the most eccentric person imaginable with everything from the bunny suits, to biting Asahina's ear, to the ridiculous and cringe-worthy video that she made in episode 1. And I say this like it's a bad thing because she just comes off as annoying more than anything else. Also, Kyon needs a spine rather than let himself be pushed around into all these crazy activities that he finds himself in. IT TAKES MORE THAN CUTE GIRLS TO GET ME INTERESTED!

One Piece: Can't really pass fair judgment on it seeing as I've only seen a few episodes. But Luffy was annoying, and the art style really turned me off.

Evangelion: overrated, and there really isn't a reason to go into it because most people would agree that it's a love-it-or-hate-it kind of show. I just happen to hate it.

Cowboy Beebop: Fey is evil, Edward is annoying, Spike is emotionless. The one thing that saved it for me is Steven Blum doing the voice of Spike. The world isn't interesting. But my biggest gripe is that it's supposed to be a drama, yet each episode is just a stand-alone story without regard as to what happened previously. Except for maybe 3 episodes of continuity with Vicious. Oh, and speaking about Vicious, this isn't the Roman empire. You don't get to become the emperor just because you killed the previous one.

Eureka 7: Again, didn't watch many episodes. I kind of liked the premise, except the main character is a wuss beyond belief and that the toddlers played a much bigger role than they should have. At least konohamaru disappears for 20 episodes at a time.

These are the reasons that I subjectively don't like these shows. If you do like them, more power to you. But we are all entitled to our own opinions so I respect that others have different feelings about them.

Edited August 14, 2012 by Thin Crust

[Bleck]

Your opinions are bad and you should feel bad.

[Top Gun]

cowboy bebop should be on my list soon - just curious though, which is better, the sub or the dub? i heard somewhere that cowboy bebop was one of those rare shows where the dub was actually much better than the sub.. but when it comes to an old show like that a lot of people tend to prefer dubs because of their nostalgia goggles.

It really is one of the top two or three English dubs ever made, so you're going to want to go with that.

I enjoyed Lain myself, but I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. Even among the SRSLY-DEEP type of anime, it comes across as extremely...abstract. It really isn't so much about character development as it is exploring a few general themes. It was also something of a trend-setter, so there were a number of series that followed it that used some of its elements in a more concrete manner.

Edited August 15, 2012 by Top Gun

[Gollgagh]

which is not to say that the original voicing was bad

[avaris]

Guess I'll comment.

Cool, thanks for your comments. Out of those Anime listed I didn't like Code Geass that much. It's plot holes were MASSIVE and I agree with your premise on the characters. Nevertheless I did watch the whole thing bc it was entertaining despite its obvious short comings.

In regards to some of the other anime maybe you just can't relate to certain aspects. I found Elfen Leid extremely thought provoking. I can relate to some of the more extreme things that happen in the show. As I or people I am close have experienced similar trauma. For example it is pretty reasonable why Spike in Cowboy Bebop could come off as "emotionless" given his personal history. Going through something traumatic and tragic will do that to a person.

Like any movie, game, anime etc... if you can't relate to the characters or find them annoying then you'll have a hard time enjoying or garnering something memorable from the experience.

[HalcyonSpirit]

Out of curiosity, would you guys be okay with me posting a purely visual novel write-up in this thread? There isn't a thread dedicated to them and I doubt there'd be enough interest to sustain one. I've written about a couple VNs in this thread, but it's always been with their anime adaptations; this one doesn't have an adaptation, so it'd just be the VN this time. I figure anime is the closest thing to a VN, what with their art style, voice acting and such, so you guys might have some interest in hearing about them.

[Native Jovian]

Cowboy Bebop is odd for an anime in that it's character-driven rather than plot-driven. Most anime boils down to "here are some stock characters, watch them do interesting things". This isn't a bad thing -- I certainly enjoy a lot of anime that fit that description -- but that's how it is. Cowboy Bebop doesn't do that, at all. It's about the characters, and how the things that happen(ed) to them affect them, rather than about the things they do. I think that's a large part of why it was so popular on this side of the Pacific (from what I recall, it did well-but-not-great in Japan), but it turns some people off.

Of the other shows that were mentioned, I never got past the premise of any of them except One Piece (whose art style I cannot stand, even before it begins to suffer horrifically from Endless Shonen Syndrome), and Eureka 7 (which I watched a few episodes of and found it to basically be Evangelion with coral instead of angels).

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Out of curiosity, would you guys be okay with me posting a purely visual novel write-up in this thread? There isn't a thread dedicated to them and I doubt there'd be enough interest to sustain one. I've written about a couple VNs in this thread, but it's always been with their anime adaptations; this one doesn't have an adaptation, so it'd just be the VN this time. I figure anime is the closest thing to a VN, what with their art style, voice acting and such, so you guys might have some interest in hearing about them.

I'm cool with it if that counts. It is video game related so it certainly does belong in community, and a thread dedicated solely to VN's probably wouldn't get that that far anyways.

[Gollgagh]

Out of curiosity, would you guys be okay with me posting a purely visual novel write-up in this thread?

(I have the feeling Darke will shoot me later, but)

do it

[Meteo Xavier]

Well I'm attached to this topic, I may as well obligate my annual question:

Does anyone have any suggestions for full-length anime features or short OVA series of space/fantasy action series from 1986-1994? I have a weird sort of spiritual fetish for this particular brand of anime and the story behind why I must seek out as much as I can is pretty difficult to explain, but its a thing I must do before I die.

I'm looking for things kinda like Iria, Garaga, the Final Fantasy V OVA series, Toward the Terra, Project A-ko, etc. I have all those, I love them, and I must have more.

And I'm not looking for the best of the era (ie, OMGMiyazakiOMG), in fact, the more obscure, cliched and standard, the better. There's just something about the underlying general style of that era that appeals to me and I want it all.

Thank you!

[Top Gun]

It's not short by any stretch of the imagination, but Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It's space opera at its absolute finest.

[EC2151]

Well I'm attached to this topic, I may as well obligate my annual question:

Does anyone have any suggestions for full-length anime features or short OVA series of space/fantasy action series from 1986-1994? I have a weird sort of spiritual fetish for this particular brand of anime and the story behind why I must seek out as much as I can is pretty difficult to explain, but its a thing I must do before I die.

I'm looking for things kinda like Iria, Garaga, the Final Fantasy V OVA series, Toward the Terra, Project A-ko, etc. I have all those, I love them, and I must have more.

Thank you!

a lot of what i listed last page would be good for you.

This is a bit lazy, but on another forum I go to we were talking about good 80s OVAs so some good recommendations cropped up.

Some good classic 80s ovas within.

[Meteo Xavier]

I love you Charlemagne. Please let me buy you a drink and let you father my children.