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belborges
Ohmu
Registration Date: 11.01.15
Location: Brazil
Posts: 293 |
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~ Second season of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders
~ Sakura Wars
~ Sore ga Seiyuu!
~ Cowboy Bebop
~ Tenkuu no Escaflowne
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 11.03.2015, 12:05 AM |
  
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Saddletank
Miyazaki's Best Friend
Registration Date: 09.28.06
Location: On your case
Posts: 10069 |
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Husky wrote this in another thread:
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I am interested in Beck, Hyouka, Aku no Hana, Penguindrum, Lovely Complex and Welcome to the NHK... there are more, but that is enough for now.
Beck is a very realistic slice-of-life story about a teenaged boy who meets a guy who runs a struggling indie rock band, who learns to play guitar and sing, eventually write songs and enter the music industry... but its set against a really quite gritty background of harsh school life including bullying, unsupportive teachers and his struggles with girls. There is romance in the story but it comes and goes with lumps and bumps and isn't clear where its going or who it's with.
There's a strong American link in the story with some American or half-American characters and some of the dialogue is spoken in American.
I like it for its realism, the fact the story isn't straightforward and the music scenes which are great. It was made when CGI was just starting to impact on anime and most of the instruments are CG images with the songs played being actually synched correctly to the hands and mouths of the band. For that alone its a milestone anime. The soundtrack is brilliant.
Beck is one of those series I can enjoy again and again and I've probably watched it a half-dozen times.
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Aku no Hana (The Flowers of Evil) is a very dark story indeed. It is a simply fantastic manga that goes on for many volumes - the anime only covers the first couple of volumes. I highly recommend the manga as well.
The story concerns the behaviours and relationships of teenagers in a small rural town who feel trapped, caged, stifled by a place that is dead and going nowhere - just like their lives seem to be. A boy gets involved with an obstructive, rude and destructive girl in his class and enters into a very strange and creepy relationship with her. He has a crush on the prettiest, sportiest and brightest girl in class and his twisted new acquaintance uses this against him in a series of ever spiralling and more bizarre events.
Its very dark, very moody and deals with issues like masochism and self-destructive traits.
Its brilliant.
One of the most special things about it its the art style which uses rotoscoping - the entire series was filmed in live action and then animation was computer-drawn over the top. I really like it and it gives it that dark gritty style it needs to make the story work so much better. Unfortunately the vast majority of anime fans who like moe and things like K-ON! rejected it and attacked it as being un-anime like. I think DVD sales were poor and a planned second season was cancelled. I think that was a tragedy because the anime industry needs different and fresh ideas like Aku no Hana.
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Hyouka is a high school romance with a twist. It hardly focusses on the romance at all but instead looks at the growth of one person throughout the story until he is changed by a relationship. It does this in a peculiar way by having him dealt a series of puzzles and problems to resolve with the main female protagonist urging him to resolve them by reason of her boundless curiosity. Its made by Kyoto Animation and came after their resounding successes of Haruhi, K-ON! and other series so it was bound to do well. The main female character Chitanda Eru is the most adorable creature in existence and has maybe the prettiest eyes in anime.
Easy to watch and really fun.
It also has its heart-stoppingly lovely romantic moments too.
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"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)
Post last edited by Saddletank on 11.05.2015, 02:21 PM.
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| 11.05.2015, 08:03 AM |
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Saddletank
Miyazaki's Best Friend
Registration Date: 09.28.06
Location: On your case
Posts: 10069 |
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Lovely Complex is a rom-com/slice of life story about two high school students, a very short boy and a very tall girl who make a strangely mis-matched couple. Its been years since I saw it and its a really nice story, nothing amazing, just nice.
Possibly the clarity/quality of animation is showing its age in this one.
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Penguindrum is co-written and directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara who directed Revolutionary Girl Utena and it follows similar themes. Its not a straightforward story (though it is more straightforward than Utena) and things going on are not really real but are sometimes symbols and allegories.
Visually its stunning, though I am not sure it tells its story clearly enough. It probably needs an academic to write a paper on it to explain it!
Its one I need to watch again, maybe second time around more will be clear!
We have a thread on it at the Tavern.
http://www.onlineghibli.com/tavern/threa...5&styleid=1
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Welcome to the NHK is the story of a young man who lives alone and doesn't work, study or go out - a Hikikomori. There is a sub-culture of failed students who apparently do have such lifestyles in Japan and this series is a comedic examination of the social problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomori
The male protagonist meets a young woman who tries to get him out of his recluse-like state and the anime deals with other pretty dark issues like suicide clubs and such.
Other Japan youth issues like cosplay events, eroge game addiction and so on are examined as well.
Its a pretty complex story and there's a lot of humour added in which I think the story would have been stronger without, though perhaps that would have made it too depressing.
We have a thread on this one at the Tavern as well.
http://www.onlineghibli.com/tavern/threa...5&styleid=1
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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info
"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)
Post last edited by Saddletank on 11.05.2015, 02:25 PM.
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| 11.05.2015, 08:33 AM |
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husky51
The Old Guy
Registration Date: 03.17.08
Location: Southern California
Posts: 12789 |
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| 11.05.2015, 12:55 PM |
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Saddletank
Miyazaki's Best Friend
Registration Date: 09.28.06
Location: On your case
Posts: 10069 |
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Nah. I'm just an enthusiast who enthuses over the things I'm enthusiastic about! Other anime genres I care nothing about I couldn't possibly write a useful review for 
As you can see apart from cute light-hearted things to relax with now and then I do tend to go for the darker, grittier more realistic 'social issues' animes as well as those involving weird plots that take a lot of untangling.
Things involving magical girls, priests wielding katanas, ninjas and giant robots hold no interest for me.
I'll watch some other genres if the art is especially good or ground breaking. I would never usually watch a film like "Sword of the Stranger" but the beautiful artwork engrossed me completely. It reminded me in places of Princess Mononoke with that same epic feudal Japan feel.
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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info
"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)
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| 11.05.2015, 02:31 PM |
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husky51
The Old Guy
Registration Date: 03.17.08
Location: Southern California
Posts: 12789 |
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| 11.05.2015, 07:45 PM |
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FlareNetworkC
Totoro
Registration Date: 07.02.14
Location: Anywhere and Everywhere
Posts: 781 |
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It really depends on what mood I'm in. When I'm just lying around, I prefer to relax with an episode of Azu-Daioh or the dub of Ghost Stories. However, all of my favorites tend to be darker, more psychologically intruiging shows like my favorite anime of all-time, Steins;Gate. Really, I'll watch almost anything so long as it's good, though I'm slightly biased against historical fiction.
Oddly enough, I realized that I'm more likely to watch an anime if I can find an english show or movie to compare it to. Shirobako to The Office, Kara no Kyoukai to Supernatural, Fate/Zero to Game of Thrones, etc.
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| 11.05.2015, 10:07 PM |
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arren18
Administrator
Registration Date: 08.15.06
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 10662 |
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quote:
Originally posted by husky51
I personally go for the light, funny, slice of life romance sort of topic. Like Love Hime or Azumanga Daioh, etc. I do watch some of the darker ones if they are made well enough.
I think you might enjoy Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. It helps if you're pretty familiar with shoujo manga tropes (it makes a lot of jokes about them) but I think you'd still enjoy it as a rom-com. You could also try Tonari no Seki-kun, and Nichijou if you haven't seen it. And Hibike! Euphonium is a very good slice-of-life series too, though it does at times lean more towards drama than comedy.
Flare - have you seen Darker than Black? It's one of my favourite serious anime shows and I think it might be up your street. On the heavy psychological side, I'd also recommend Lupin III: Mine Fujiko to iu onna. It doesn't really depend on knowing Lupin that well, as it's meant as a prequel, so if you like dark and kinda confusing series, you'd probably like this - but I should also mention that it's particularly adult in nature.
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| 11.06.2015, 08:10 AM |
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FlareNetworkC
Totoro
Registration Date: 07.02.14
Location: Anywhere and Everywhere
Posts: 781 |
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Arren- I have not seen Darker than Black, but I do LOOOVVVVEEE the first opening for it. We should have a thread for our favorite openings and endings. Do we?
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| 11.06.2015, 05:35 PM |
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arren18
Administrator
Registration Date: 08.15.06
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 10662 |
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I'm sure I remember there being one for soundtracks here somewhere...
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| 11.06.2015, 06:21 PM |
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jusomekid
Ohmu
Registration Date: 06.21.10
Location:
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Currently watching One Punch Man, Kekkai Sensen, and Guilty Crown.
One punch man is soooo good! funny. possibly my new favorite.
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 Badtz Maru Rules!
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| 11.09.2015, 12:02 PM |
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Saddletank
Miyazaki's Best Friend
Registration Date: 09.28.06
Location: On your case
Posts: 10069 |
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I was looking for the subs vs dubs thread we had recently but can't find it. I mention this because a friend of mine came over last weekend and we watched Highschool of the Dead from start to finish (hence why I'm posting in the "what are you watching now" thread) but the copy I happened to have was a dubbed version.
I was very surprised at the bad language used in the American-spoken version. The F-word was used at least once per episode and in some eps several times, with M----- F----s being used a couple of times.
The original IIRC had only a few "baka" / "urusai" / "kuso" in it and nothing as bad as the American version.
Who was it who said dubs didn't change the meaning much and made anime more accessible?
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Isakaya High School Roleplaying Info
"An old man like me stands no chance fighting against a high school girl in her underwear" - Oshino Meme, Nekomonogatari (Kuro)
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| 01.04.2016, 11:48 AM |
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FlareNetworkC
Totoro
Registration Date: 07.02.14
Location: Anywhere and Everywhere
Posts: 781 |
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Dubs can change a lot of things for the better (i.e. Ghost Stories) but also a lot of things for the worse (i.e. Original Sailor Moon).
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3,2,1, Let's jam.
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| 01.04.2016, 05:41 PM |
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arren18
Administrator
Registration Date: 08.15.06
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 10662 |
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One thing is that unless it's literal, Japanese doesn't have direct equivalents of words like that, so sometimes words like "kuso", etc are actually the closest to them, so I don't think it's totally inappropriate to translate it that way. [i]However[i], what you're describing sounds a lot like the trend in a lot of dubs when anime was starting to become popular in America and Europe, when the appeal for many people was how adult and "edgy" it was supposed to be. So maybe the gratuitous swearing in this dub is related to the fact that HOTD is also known for being violent and uh, sexy.
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| 01.04.2016, 06:47 PM |
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arren18
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Registration Date: 08.15.06
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 10662 |
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New season, new shows! I've already started Dagashi Kashi and Boku dake ga Inai Machi. The first is a silly SOL comedy with quite a distinctive art style, and the second is a time-travel murder mystery - I expected something a bit like Steins;Gate and so far that seems about right, except that it's quite serious from the very beginning.
I'm also going to check out the final part of DRRR!!x2 and Koyomimonogatari if I get hold of it (it's released via smartphone app so I'm not sure how easily fansubs can be made). I was thinking of trying the new Kyoto Animation show but it doesn't sound like it's started well...
For people who don't know what's on this season, here's a rundown: http://randomc.net/2015/12/23/winter-2016-preview/
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| 01.09.2016, 09:31 AM |
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FlareNetworkC
Totoro
Registration Date: 07.02.14
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Ohhh.... I may have to get around to that, then.
Finished Shirobako, it was amazing and I now think of it as one of my five anime that every anime fan should watch.
Damn, still have to finish Psycho-Pass.
And Black Lagoon.
And whatever else I threw myself into.
Darn it.
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| 01.09.2016, 09:58 AM |
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arren18
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Registration Date: 08.15.06
Location: Edinburgh
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I've been meaning to watch Shirobako. At the time I wasn't that into the premise, so I didn't bother, but since then I've heard a lot about how good it is. So it's definitely on my list for ones to watch soon!
And yeah, since you like Steins;Gate and Psycho-Pass and that kind of thing, Boku dake ga Inai Machi is probably up your street.
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| 01.09.2016, 10:27 AM |
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Kazegami
Miyazaki's Best Friend
Registration Date: 08.19.07
Location: a world of pure imagination
Posts: 7025 |
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I finally started watching Tokyo Ghoul! I'm enjoying it. Six episodes in at the moment.
Tsukiyama's a really... interesting character. I don't know what to feel about him, whether I like him or not. He's kind of charming at times but he's also repulsive, creepy, and ridiculous.
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My Anime List
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| 01.09.2016, 10:49 AM |
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belborges
Ohmu
Registration Date: 11.01.15
Location: Brazil
Posts: 293 |
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I'm watching the previous KyoAni series Hibike! Euphonium and I'm enjoying it so far. I really like the theme of the show and it has an interesting plot, I suppose it will become one of my favorite anime at the end.
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| 01.10.2016, 12:20 AM |
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arren18
Administrator
Registration Date: 08.15.06
Location: Edinburgh
Posts: 10662 |
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So far so good with this season's shows. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (apparently also called Erased) has been great so far, and Dagashi Kashi is no masterpiece but it's pretty fun. DRRR!! is complicated as usual but I think it'll hit its stride soon enough. Koyomimonogatari is decent too, and I also started watching Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, which is a rather grown-up, realistic show about rakugo performers, and it's very different from everything else I'm watching.
I decided against the KyoAni series because it ended up sounding terrible. It's a shame because they're otherwise pretty consistent.
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| 01.23.2016, 01:49 PM |
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