Meteo Xavier Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I bought Funimation for a year on their Christmas sale and I'm in the anime nirvana I always dreamed about. I'm starting at the beginning (of the dubs for now) and I'm working my way through A CERTAIN SCIENTIFIC RAILGUN after going through its predecessor show. This show is considerably lighter hearted, but when it does get dramatic, hoo lordy. These plotlines are incredible, I wonder how they keep coming up with them? Also, I officially dare everyone reading this to watch "Legend of the Overfiend". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkeSword Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Railgun is way better than what I've seen of Index. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Tiger & Bunny is next on the list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
relyanCe Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 This is *not* what Gundam is. Gundam's strength is its exploration of very complicated political and social issues. The only reason G Gundam is "Gundam" is because it's in the name. you don't own Gundam, and you have absolutely no authority from which to determine what someone else's creative work is or isn't. Sunrise sure thought it was a Gundam show, and they make Gundam. Quit this kind of purist-fan pretentiousness, man, it's not good for you. I have no intention of watching G Gundam specifically because it's over-the-top and lacks any sort of complex substance to it. you're going to... not watch something because you somehow KNOW a priori that it has no substance? Can you explain how that works? Because i've said that exact same thing about a show, only to be proven hilariously wrong. You really shouldn't be so quick to judge the quality of something you haven't watched. How do you know it has no substance? If you don't think you're going to enjoy something and don't want to watch it, that's fine. everybody has to make that judgment sometimes. But this whole "it's not a REAL Gundam show" thing is just silly, dude. Fans have no authority to determine what is and isn't part of a creator's body of work. It kinda sounds to me like you want shows to make you feel smart for "getting" them, which is no way wrong, but I'd be wary of letting it keep you from quality content. Granted, I haven't even watched all of G Gundam, so I don't know if it's really good or not, but I certainly wouldn't deign to already know one way or the other, even with a partial viewing to go on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) I feel I should clarify that I have seen a good portion of it. It's not as if I've never seen it before, as I seem to have implied. However, "quality content" doesn't require you to watch all 16-17 hours to get the good parts, so I disagree that I need to see the whole thing to decide if it's any good or not. If it's "quality content", it should be consistent, and from what I've seen of it, it's a pretty typical over the top corny shounen, like DBZ. As for the "purist" bit as you call it, I'm really not into these kinds of debates, but it's a known fact that G-Gundam broke Gundam convention. It set out specifically to do so, being the first alternate universe Gundam. It was intentionally designed trying to be different, and this is not an opinion, it's fact. Yes, obviously Sunrise made it. You can't deny literal facts. That doesn't mean you can't argue against the thematic consistency of a specific work in a franchise. Just because you try something different doesn't mean it's automatically good, and I'm aware you're not saying it's good, but I am saying it's not worth watching. It offers nothing insightful; it's just typical, enjoyable old action anime (yes, Domon's final attack quote is enjoyable to recite when you're a little kid, and I did do that). Perhaps my statement that is was "garbage" was irresponsible, I tend to use strongly worded statements. It's not "bad" in that it's dysfunctional and awful, it's "bad" to me in that it's not amazing. There are a lot of amazing animes out there, and spending 16-17 hours watching G Gundam is not in my interest if I want to cover it. I'm not saying every other Gundam was amazing by comparison; the complications don't make it automatically good, of course. I've seen some "eh" stuff and some "ugh" stuff (particularly in Wing). But to say G Gundam is the most amazing Gundam, I have incredibly strong disagreement with that but am unwilling to start that debate in this thread and I would like the thread to return to its normal course. Edited January 3, 2015 by Neblix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native Jovian Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (also G Gundam is garbage from everything I have seen and read about it) You say that to my face, son. I will fight you. With violence. I have no intention of watching G Gundam specifically because it's over-the-top and lacks any sort of complex substance to it. What makes you think that it lacks substance just because it's over-the-top hotblooded awesome? Fact is, underneath the flash, G Gundam is one of the best stories in the franchise. Yes, it's presented melodramatically, but the substance is certainly there. If you dislike the shonen action-heroics in and of itself, that's one thing -- but just because it's got shonen action-heroics certainly doesn't mean that it doesn't have interesting characters, a compelling story, or "complex substance". Really, G Gundam does an amazing job of incorporating the themes from the Gundam franchise as a whole (war, communication, and conflict) into a new setting beyond the standard "teenage proto-ubermench drawn into ongoing war against his will" archetype. Of course, I'm a huge Gundam nerd, so take that as you will. As an aside, I'm curious to hear what you thought of Gundam Unicorn, having not watched any of the Universal Century stuff that leads up to it. I have my own opinions on Unicorn, but that's watching it with 30 years worth of backstory baggage in mind. Since it seems like you watched it cold, I'd be interested to hear how it stood up on its own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
relyanCe Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 I feel I should clarify that I have seen a good portion of it. It's not as if I've never seen it before, as I seem to have implied. Oh that makes sense having an opinion on what parts of a series you enjoy over what parts you don't is totally cool, and now that I see that's where your coming from, I rescind a lot of what i said prior cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) You say that to my face, son. I will fight you. With violence. Does this burning fist of yours tell you to? What makes you think that it lacks substance just because it's over-the-top hotblooded awesome? Fact is, underneath the flash, G Gundam is one of the best stories in the franchise. Yes, it's presented melodramatically, but the substance is certainly there. If you dislike the shonen action-heroics in and of itself, that's one thing -- but just because it's got shonen action-heroics certainly doesn't mean that it doesn't have interesting characters, a compelling story, or "complex substance". Really, G Gundam does an amazing job of incorporating the themes from the Gundam franchise as a whole (war, communication, and conflict) into a new setting beyond the standard "teenage proto-ubermench drawn into ongoing war against his will" archetype. Well, if you say so. Perhaps I was too taken aback by its Shonen nature to judge it accurately. I'd love to give it a shot, honestly, but I just can't stomach old animation, or old anything really. I'm kind of uninterested in saying anything more, so I'll simply apologize for calling it bad on inappropriate grounds and leave it at that. Maybe if they retold the story with modern production value, I'd try it out. As an aside, I'm curious to hear what you thought of Gundam Unicorn, having not watched any of the Universal Century stuff that leads up to it. I have my own opinions on Unicorn, but that's watching it with 30 years worth of backstory baggage in mind. Since it seems like you watched it cold, I'd be interested to hear how it stood up on its own. I have several points for why I enjoyed Unicron, so I guess I'll try to cover it succinctly. I thought Banagher's story was pretty compelling as a standalone. I'm familiar with some of UC's history but obviously not to the extent of experiencing its characters like yourself. I understand that some "purists" (I don't think Gundam can have purists, it has too many different branches) find the Newtype business really yucky, but I think that you can "magic" effectively if it coincides with your show's thematic message. It set up a very important familiar conflict, dealing with war and peace and blah blah blah. I thought in particular, the idea of "possibility" and having the Gundam be a unicorn (something that "doesn't exist") was pretty clever and having finished it over a month ago I'm still trying to figure out exactly what that symbolism was meant for. I have a good idea, but haven't reached the point of certainty where I can really preach it. I thought the idea of "La+ box" and the "key to ending the war" resulted in a pretty clever resolution, one that brought to light the fact that nothing is ever really clear cut even if it masks itself as such. The key to ending the war being nothing but an ambiguously interpreted lost article of law really goes along with the show's central theme of "possibility". Yes, things are terrible, people are terrible and selfish, etc. "But even so!", there is this possibility, a glimmer of hope that we can turn this around, and that's all we need to keep fighting for what we think is right, shown by Banagher almost giving his life several times in the series over "possibilities". Life isn't about happy endings, it's about working towards them. But even in his heroics, Banagher is a believable person, and he sees the bad while he sees the good. He has his tears and his moments of giving up for a good while before he figures out what he's supposed to do, and I think that in general is a good thing going for a protagonist (informed optimism instead of blind optimism). For this specific reason, I draw a parallel between Banagher and Madoka. It's not the same situation, or same theme, but it's the same internal reaction, the same style of character development. Having only seen "modern Char" incarnations in the AU gundams, I didn't have too strong an opinion on Full Frontal's Char Aznable, nor do I fully claim to understand exactly what this character was in pure physical nature, but I did understand his significance and his viewpoint and he largely was an antagonist that the creator clearly respected enough to give believable motivations. His little time travel bit with Banagher raised my eyebrow a bit but the actual logistics aside, it served the more important purpose of bringing Banagher to understand the idea of cosmic insignificance, which basically was the strongest point of Char's perspective. To any normal person, I feel they would side with Char after being pummeled with an amount of despair. other characters: I thought Audrey/Mineva was kind of flat, but she showed some more color towards the end. I liked Riddhe's character development, where he fell prey to the despair of war and was placed in the dangerous position of power, but came through at the end. I liked Marida's character. She was always the enemy in a lot of fights, but she was never a bad person, it was just her circumstances that landed her on the "wrong side", at least in plot terms. Her "father" was also pretty good, not being some evil commander, but just a tired old man who's sick of war and wanting to see its quick end. Not outstanding or insightful characters on their own, but pretty good a sub characters. As far as the actual show, the animation was top notch (3D Gundams plz) and the music in particular was outstanding, being done by Sawano (AoT composer and future Xenoblade composer). The main theme in particular is incredibly well composed and orchestrated, along with the UX 0 and RX 0 themes. The fight scenes left a tiny bit to be desired, but their lack of pure dazzling action in my opinion was indicative of Banagher's hesitance and pure-hearted nature (as opposed to the fights in Gundam Build Fighters, which have amazing choreography by comparison, but it makes sense because they're playing a game). Oh that makes sensehaving an opinion on what parts of a series you enjoy over what parts you don't is totally cool, and now that I see that's where your coming from, I rescind a lot of what i said prior cheers I mean, I guess I was a little too hard and definitive on something I haven't taken seriously enough to analyze, so you're right regardless. Edited January 4, 2015 by Neblix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Native Jovian Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 Hm, that's a fair take on Unicorn, I suppose. Personally, I disliked it both as a stand-alone work and as an addition to the existing Universal Century timeline -- I could go into details, but I doubt anyone's interested in reading my ramblings. (If you are, feel free to let me know. I can ramble. Rambling is fun!) Pretty much the only stuff I've been watching recently is Gundam Build Fighters Try. It doesn't have quite the charm that the original GBF did, but I'm enjoying it none the less. I haven't watched any Reconguista in G yet, though. I haven't even heard much about it, actually -- is it any good? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted January 3, 2015 Share Posted January 3, 2015 (edited) Hm, that's a fair take on Unicorn, I suppose. Personally, I disliked it both as a stand-alone work and as an addition to the existing Universal Century timeline -- I could go into details, but I doubt anyone's interested in reading my ramblings. (If you are, feel free to let me know. I can ramble. Rambling is fun!)Pretty much the only stuff I've been watching recently is Gundam Build Fighters Try. It doesn't have quite the charm that the original GBF did, but I'm enjoying it none the less. I haven't watched any Reconguista in G yet, though. I haven't even heard much about it, actually -- is it any good? All I can say about G-Reco is that it's weird. Really weird. But the animation is beautiful and it's got that sense of "what da fack?" amid its more serious themes. A lot of the character interactions feature a lot of incidental dialogue. For instance, a conversation will be interrupted by one of the characters complementing another on how good their coffee tastes before returning to the discussion, but unlike more serious anime where they pull it back into the conversation by some crazy metaphor subject transition, it's actually just a completely incidental unrelated piece of dialogue. It's almost hyper-realistic in that sense, and is more akin to what real-world conversations are actually like. It can actually get in the way sometimes, and is an interesting way of telling a story, as sometimes it actually makes the dialogue harder to understand (perhaps exemplifying some kind of real-world difficulty in conversation that we don't really think about in idealized script-writing). Edited January 4, 2015 by Neblix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shadow24 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) Hmmm, These threads pop up occasionally and personally I like to keep track of stuff I enjoy. I'd advise some of you to create and share anime lists with one another. It helps you share your tastes with others and also lets you have a record to go by if you ever find yourself bored a year or two down the road. I'm currently watching two recent animes. One is about parasites that take over humans and the other is a feudal japanese regime betrayal / story of resilience thingy. http://www.animeseason.com/kiseijuu-sei-no-kakuritsu/ http://www.animeseason.com/akatsuki-no-yona/ See if any of this stuff suits your fancy. http://myanimelist.net/animelist/Kemarofangs Edited January 4, 2015 by shadow24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakos Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Right now I'm watching One Piece, Hunter X Hunter and Tokyo Ghoul. Thinking to rewatch Full Metal Alchemist along with Brotherhood and Slayers. I'm more a man of fantasy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firebird Posted January 6, 2015 Share Posted January 6, 2015 I LOVE~ HunterXHunter! But Jesus! Do I ever felt like punching the narrator during the entire duration of the Chimera Ant Arc. Sometimes not explaining everything makes for a better scene, ya' know? We also totally need a reboot of Slayers! Preferably done by Gainax, since they're probably the only ones that can do it justice... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakos Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 I LOVE~ HunterXHunter! But Jesus! Do I ever felt like punching the narrator during the entire duration of the Chimera Ant Arc. Sometimes not explaining everything makes for a better scene, ya' know? We also totally need a reboot of Slayers! Preferably done by Gainax, since they're probably the only ones that can do it justice... I still haven't seen that Arc, but it seems like the narrator is gonna deserve "special love" Oh yeah, a remake of Slayers by Gainax would be so so incredible! But Slayers is forgotten, no one cares about it this days... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Taucer Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 Rewatching Samurai Champloo.It's almost as good as I remember it being. That zombie episode, tho. Wtf? And that baseball episode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
relyanCe Posted January 7, 2015 Share Posted January 7, 2015 That zombie episode, tho. Wtf?And that baseball episode. the weed episode is my favorite because WHAT THE HELL WEED DOESN'T DO THAT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalcyonSpirit Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Oh yeah, a remake of Slayers by Gainax would be so so incredible! But Slayers is forgotten, no one cares about it this days... I never checked how it ended up being received in general, but when I watched Revolution/Evolution-R, it felt... I dunno. Some of the spark that made Slayers/Next/Try what it was just didn't seem to be there. But maybe I should give it another watch. My original watch was just after marathoning the rest of the series, so maybe I was just experiencing series-fatigue at that point. Anyway, yeah, I'd love to see more Slayers done properly. Railgun is way better than what I've seen of Index. Pretty much. Though Railgun doesn't have nearly as much of Touma and his PUNCHING. That's really what you watch Index for, in the end: that glorious satisfaction at the end of each arc. ---------- So with the Fall season come and gone, I may as well give my Best of Season award, because you guys totally take my opinion seriously, right? Right. So if you've spent any time in this thread, you know I like dramas. Heart-wrenching drama. Therefore, it's a given that my Best of Season for the fall season is... Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie in April)! And it isn't even over yet; it's a two-cour show that'll finish this season. It's really just that good so far that I'll have a currently unfinished show as my favorite. It's been absolutely amazing so far and it's only looking to be getting better from here! The unexpectedly great show this past season has been Shirobako (White Box), another two-cour finishing this season. It's a slice-of-life anime about people making an anime. No, seriously, it's great. I can count on one hand the number of times an episode in any series has made me truly anxious due to what's happening in it, and the season closer for Shirobako made that list. There's a charm to the show that I really quite like. There's a number of other shows this past season that have been good-to-great, and I'll be happy to expand on my opinion of any later, when it's not long past time for me to get to sleep. But for now, a list of some notables not in any particular order, including Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works, Log Horizon 2, Gugure! Kokkuri-san, Inou Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de, Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis, Kiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu, Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru, and of course Psycho-Pass 2. Really, this past season was packed with worthwhile shows. Of those, I'd definitely check out at least Unlimited Blade Works and Shingeki no Bahamut. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anorax Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 I've recently watched the anime "The Devil Is A Part-Timer!" on Netflix. It's only a season long (possibly because it was made to encourage sales of the original light novels and manga), but I enjoyed it. A part of me hopes they begin work on a second season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Starting watching Hunter X Hunter. I love the character writing. That makes my Watching list: -Gundam Build Fighters Try -Gundam Reconguista in G -Gundam Wing -Hunter X Hunter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zerothemaster Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Hey, might as well mention what I'm watching One Piece (off and on, I stopped last in the Enies Lobby arc) Ace of the Diamond (i like baseball) I Couldn't Be A Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided To Get A Job (for now. Can't decide if I want to stick with this one yet) Darker than Black: Gemini of the Meteor (I've been told this is horrid, but DtB didn't provide the closure I wanted so I'm desperate) XXXholic (just started, I like it, but the random connection to Tsubasa is weird) Tsubasa (my gf is making me ) Recently finished: Outlaw Star (It wasn't too bad. Hated jim tho) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabeel Ansari Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) I'm not enjoying Attack on Titan. It seems really exploitative of shock value and twists, but it doesn't really write the characters well enough to make me actually feel anything for them. I feel like it's trying to use death as a way to evoke emotion, but it seems childish and reckless in execution, so it's just like "oh, that person died with a lot of dramatic music and speedlines. Okay." when I didn't really get attached to or understand that character because they're really uninteresting (and have some pretty whack dialogue, seriously, this script is incredibly unnatural). It's okay to do this kind in mass destruction scenes where lots of unknowns die; it's not okay to do this when you're doing it to the protagonist's mom, which is supposed to set up the premise of the show (his hatred for Titans and journey to acquire strength to kill them). I don't empathize with him at all. Yeah, his mom was eaten, but that wasn't executed in a way where I felt really bad (because she had a few lines of generic dialogue), and I felt a disconnect from the protagonist when he went over the edge. I'm sure if they established the mother more, and gave me a emotional connection to her *before* killing her, it would have made her death more horrifying, and I would've followed the protagonist over the edge. Before ya'll call me a psychopath for not feeling bad about her dying, it's important to note that in fact it is the writer's job to create empathize-able characters, not the viewers. The fact is that we generally don't feel emotional about things that happen far away from us. Millions of people across the world being slaughtered? You say, "oh that's horrible." Your spouse died? You're crying on the floor. Attack on Titan had potential to be the latter, but it ended up being the former. You don't need to have a lot of death to be sad, in fact you can use just one death in your story and make it incredibly sad and depressing if you write the characters well enough. AoT seems like its author is really immature and values superficial tragedy more than deeper, emotional tragedy. Anyone like the characters and argue that they have more depth than I give credit? Interested to hear. Edited January 10, 2015 by Neblix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firebird Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I think my major problem with Attack on Titan is that I still have a good memory of both the Fullmetal Alchemist and Berserk manga fresh in my mind. Hard to put into words, but it's done with a mixture of both's genres mixed in with a similar frame of mind that I have in reading them, but yet not feeling nowhere as close to being as well written. I only caught the first episode of AoT mind you, but I kept up with the manga up until certain revelations were made about certain Titans that I dropped it. I just felt like re-reading Berserk up to that point, which was infinitely better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoffrey Taucer Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 My biggest complaint about AoT is the fact that there's some sort of bloom lighting effect in EVERY SINGLE FUCKING SHOT WITHOUT EXCEPTION Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anorax Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 (edited) I dare say you have a pretty good sense of depth with the AoT characters in this video (possibly contains spoilers AKA most definitely contains spoilers). Oh who am I kidding it's an "AoT Abridged" video, how deep could the characters be? please don't take me seriously with this Edited January 11, 2015 by Anorax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
relyanCe Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Attack on Titan is the Blue Gender of low-fantasy anime it's a gritty world-builder with few permanent characters and a revolving door of meat to grind the world presented is simply too dangerous for most of the characters you spend time with to actually develop on-screen; anime is a damn hard medium to handle, and most studios have to choose their storytelling battles very carefully death, in most cases (lots of exceptions), isn't there for you the viewer to react to; it's there to set up the characters remaining, and their experiences of terror, anger, fear, often hopelessness/resignation, are put on gratuitous display for your viewing pleasure ultimately I wasn't a huge fan of what's been presented so far, but I wouldn't say the twists and deaths are cheap in any sense; they drive home a serious point of the world as presented in the story, namely that mankind is nothing more than a caged animal. for all its cleverness and rage, it is pathetic and defenseless outside of the iron bars that the Walls represent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.