Let's talk anime.

The King's Avatar is honestly pretty great. I was watching it earlier and it sort of dropped from my radar for a bit. Noticed it finished and decided to watch the rest of the series. Flashy fights with surprisingly solid characters and personality. The animation can be really good although somethings are noticeable reused. The story and characters just click for me though. Loved it.

So I finished the first season of Blood Blockade Battlefront last night, which I've been working on for what, three months now? That probably doesn't help alleviate some of my confusion, but as much as I enjoyed the show I never felt like I really understood what was going on. The last episode is 45 minutes, so a "hour-long special" on TV kind of a deal, but while I got the general gist of what happened I'm still uncertain as to the logical connective tissue of it all.

I'm going to keep watching into the second season because, quite frankly, this series is nothing if not unique, and episodes five and ten (especially ten) were absolutely delightful. But it certainly has me wondering if the manga makes more sense or if this is just one of those things that you got to read a wiki to fully comprehend.

Taharka wrote:
slazev wrote:

Watched the first season of My Hero Academia.
Pretty cool shounen, but nothing special. Hope it improves for the second season.
Reminded me of One Punch Man mixed with Soul Eater. Man, oh man, now I wish Soul Eater was remade. That ending was no good.

How was the ending no good? Did it pull that thing where it didn't follow the manga?

Yes. They just ended the anime with a punch. It works for One Punch Man, but not quite for Soul Eater.
I was so distressed I had no choice but to read the manga, which is fantastic and has a satisfying ending.

I want this.
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/jwXwOSR.jpg)

Mantid wrote:
bnpederson wrote:

Regarding After the Rain, I've been avoiding that generally since reading Anime Feminist's take on it, which is basically that it's a male fantasy featuring a manic pixie dream girl. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on those, if you care to share.

That's my two cents. Do I get any change?

Eh, as long as that was, I probably owe more, don't I? :P

I should have waited an episode. I'm not going to bother defending it after episode 7, not unless the last five episodes really turn things around...

Watched the first few episodes of bakemonogatari.
It's definitely different, but I doubt I'll keep watching it.

This was in my recommended feed and I have to agree with it. I have eaten more the a few types of food just because of how delicious it looked in an anime. One piece can be pretty good at that and it's not even a cooking show.

I watched Devil is a part timer yesterday and I liked it.

I showed my niece the first five episodes of Escaflowne on Saturday and she's now interested enough she wants to just keep watching on her mother's DVD collection of the series.

This has simultaneously convinced me to go back and rewatch the show, a most rewarding experience as ...I mean, to sound like an old curmudgeon, "they just don't make 'em like this anymore". There's so many memorable set pieces/moments, character motivations are clear and push the plot forward, there's consequences to actions, characters are visibly growing as they encounter these challenges and obstacles, and anyone that starts out as a trope is quickly developed into something deeper. The most shallow character so far is the cat-girl Merle, and even she is refreshing in light of the modern trope of cat-people in anime being all "moe" or "kawaii". She has cat-like behaviors, but they're simultaneously intended to make her an irritation to Hitomi (and by extension possibly the viewer) as well as ...well, I guess be endearing for people that like cats? I appreciated a joke where she was sleeping on Hitomi because I've known enough cat owners over the past few years to understand that's just the sort of thing they do.

My brother and I had an interesting conversation where we began to wonder if Escaflowne would have developed a much larger following had it been on Toonami rather than its short, butchered run on Fox Kids. Even today I'm flabbergasted that ever happened, and feel that, while the show managed to get some following in the States, it's nothing compared to what would be hugely influential anime such as Gundam Wing, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star (which, having already been accustomed to anime, I never really got into myself and couldn't grasp the response to), FLCL, etc.

Just food for thought, really.

Otherwise, still watching Blood Blockade Battlefront (& Beyond!) and it's still interesting, but I'm still wondering if the manga might make more sense.

Watching Black Lagoon at the moment. The only thing I knew about this show was that it had lady killing machine in it.

One of the main characters is a black guy which shocked me . Almost never see any black characters in anime. He kind of reminds me of Jet from Cowboy Bebop.

I can see why the lady is the main promotional force behind the show. Male fantasy woman in daisy dukes and a tight shirt sporting twin tomb raider like guns. Interesting character that is played like a person who is bipolar. She is kill crazy happy one moment and melancholy serious the next.

Rock is the new guy. He plays the normal dude put in the crazy situation. Then there is a tech guy that has no personality yet. I'm only a few episode in though.

So far the group has done a couple of jobs and killed off a nazi group. I'm not sure where the show is going.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Watching Black Lagoon at the moment. The only thing I knew about this show was that it had lady killing machine in it.

One of the main characters is a black guy which shocked me . Almost never see any black characters in anime. He kind of reminds me of Jet from Cowboy Bebop.

I can see why the lady is the main promotional force behind the show. Male fantasy woman in daisy dukes and a tight shirt sporting twin tomb raider like guns. Interesting character that is played like a person who is bipolar. She is kill crazy happy one moment and melancholy serious the next.

Rock is the new guy. He plays the normal dude put in the crazy situation. Then there is a tech guy that has no personality yet. I'm only a few episode in though.

So far the group has done a couple of jobs and killed off a nazi group. I'm not sure where the show is going.

When you said lady killing machine, I thought you were referring to the maid. Maria? It's been a while since I've watched the show.

Taharka wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Watching Black Lagoon at the moment. The only thing I knew about this show was that it had lady killing machine in it.

One of the main characters is a black guy which shocked me . Almost never see any black characters in anime. He kind of reminds me of Jet from Cowboy Bebop.

I can see why the lady is the main promotional force behind the show. Male fantasy woman in daisy dukes and a tight shirt sporting twin tomb raider like guns. Interesting character that is played like a person who is bipolar. She is kill crazy happy one moment and melancholy serious the next.

Rock is the new guy. He plays the normal dude put in the crazy situation. Then there is a tech guy that has no personality yet. I'm only a few episode in though.

So far the group has done a couple of jobs and killed off a nazi group. I'm not sure where the show is going.

When you said lady killing machine, I thought you were referring to the maid. Maria? It's been a while since I've watched the show.

Nope, I'm bad with names. I mean the main lady in team Black Lagoon. I guess I have another killing machine to look forward to.

Baron Of Hell wrote:
Taharka wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Watching Black Lagoon at the moment. The only thing I knew about this show was that it had lady killing machine in it.

One of the main characters is a black guy which shocked me . Almost never see any black characters in anime. He kind of reminds me of Jet from Cowboy Bebop.

I can see why the lady is the main promotional force behind the show. Male fantasy woman in daisy dukes and a tight shirt sporting twin tomb raider like guns. Interesting character that is played like a person who is bipolar. She is kill crazy happy one moment and melancholy serious the next.

Rock is the new guy. He plays the normal dude put in the crazy situation. Then there is a tech guy that has no personality yet. I'm only a few episode in though.

So far the group has done a couple of jobs and killed off a nazi group. I'm not sure where the show is going.

When you said lady killing machine, I thought you were referring to the maid. Maria? It's been a while since I've watched the show.

Nope, I'm bad with names. I mean the main lady in team Black Lagoon. I guess I have another killing machine to look forward to.

I'm also bad with names. The lady I'm thinking of is Rosarita/Roberta.

Revy/Remy (I forget the proper pronunciation) is the main purple-haired girl you're thinking of. Honestly, I never was able to 100% buy into her because of that bipolar nature. She's fun when she's being a loose cannon but in those moments she has those mopey monologues just feel so... artificial.

Black Lagoon is great, but some of it gets screwed up. However, that's also part of the point. The "twins" arc is one where I love it despite how weird it is because... well, the show is really at its best at that point.

Still feel empty with the ending.

I've always felt like Black Lagoon was made by people with an overly fond obsession with 80's action flicks but a better sense of how to modernize it than The Expendables.

ccesarano wrote:

Black Lagoon is great, but some of it gets screwed up. However, that's also part of the point. The "twins" arc is one where I love it despite how weird it is because... well, the show is really at its best at that point.

Still feel empty with the ending.

I have to wonder if that's intentional, and part of why I've never really gone back to it, or the tonally similar Gangsta for that matter.

Is Gurren Lagaan any good? I have watched the first two episodes and the fan service is off putting. Is there something good here that makes looking past the fan service worthwhile?

Wembley wrote:

Is Gurren Lagaan any good? I have watched the first two episodes and the fan service is off putting. Is there something good here that makes looking past the fan service worthwhile?

Yeah, that one takes quite awhile to click (5 episodes maybe?). It gets really, really good. It doesn't wrap things up great with season 2, but it's not bad and ultimately does get wrapped up in a fairly interesting way.

That's one of those shows where you can hopefully just ignore the light boob fanservice. It doesn't get much worse than that IIRC, but yeah, it feels out of place.

Wembley wrote:

Is Gurren Lagaan any good? I have watched the first two episodes and the fan service is off putting. Is there something good here that makes looking past the fan service worthwhile?

The first half is a pretty standard super robot show. It escalates very nicely, after a few missteps in the first 3 or 4 episodes.

The second half is complete insanity.

If you don't like fan service, definitely don't watch Kill la Kill.

ccesarano wrote:

I showed my niece the first five episodes of Escaflowne on Saturday and she's now interested enough she wants to just keep watching on her mother's DVD collection of the series.

This has simultaneously convinced me to go back and rewatch the show, a most rewarding experience as ...I mean, to sound like an old curmudgeon, "they just don't make 'em like this anymore". There's so many memorable set pieces/moments, character motivations are clear and push the plot forward, there's consequences to actions, characters are visibly growing as they encounter these challenges and obstacles, and anyone that starts out as a trope is quickly developed into something deeper. The most shallow character so far is the cat-girl Merle, and even she is refreshing in light of the modern trope of cat-people in anime being all "moe" or "kawaii". She has cat-like behaviors, but they're simultaneously intended to make her an irritation to Hitomi (and by extension possibly the viewer) as well as ...well, I guess be endearing for people that like cats? I appreciated a joke where she was sleeping on Hitomi because I've known enough cat owners over the past few years to understand that's just the sort of thing they do.

My brother and I had an interesting conversation where we began to wonder if Escaflowne would have developed a much larger following had it been on Toonami rather than its short, butchered run on Fox Kids. Even today I'm flabbergasted that ever happened, and feel that, while the show managed to get some following in the States, it's nothing compared to what would be hugely influential anime such as Gundam Wing, Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star (which, having already been accustomed to anime, I never really got into myself and couldn't grasp the response to), FLCL, etc.

Just food for thought, really.

Otherwise, still watching Blood Blockade Battlefront (& Beyond!) and it's still interesting, but I'm still wondering if the manga might make more sense.

Escaflowne is still my favourite animated show.

Gurren Lagaan's front-half is intentionally juvenile boyhood wish-fulfillment, including many aspects of Yoko's character. After the halfway point she gets much stronger treatment because a lot of Gurren Lagaan is about growing up. But I've honestly spent a lot of time discussing the notion of not-quite-the-fan-service-it-seems-to-be in regards to Trigger (or pre-Trigger) shows that I'm bound to sound like a broken record.

Speaking of Kill la Kill: got 4/5 of the Blu-Ray volumes, paying exorbitant prices, and I'm missing volume 3 which is out of print. So... I'm gonna kick myself if they one day release a complete collection Blu-Ray for a fraction of the price.

In other other news, finished my rewatch of Escaflowne and man was that a good show. It does stumble a bit, but I think part of that is due to the fact the series was originally envision by Kawamori as 39 episodes and events needed to be condensed down. Finding out the original director wanted to make it a Shonen mecha show where Hitomi was a curvaceous air-head was startling, and the decision of the replacement director to make it a Shojo instead is what I think saved it and helped make it as wonderful as it is. Humorous note: that original director would go and do G-Gundam instead.

I've moved on to watching Madoka Magica and am already 8/12 episodes through. If I recall, LarryC, you said there were better magical girl anime than this? I know a lot of people call it a "deconstruction", which I don't think is accurate as there's no analysis of the genre going on. Maybe a subversion, but I don't think that's right either. It seems to me like they're taking the "power fantasy" out of the Magical Girl concept and building a story around that.

Needless to say, I'm hooked and find the show to be absolutely incredible. Like "I get paid Friday and want to immediately use some of that cash on the Blu-Ray collection" hooked... assuming it's not an arm and fifty legs. Kill la Kill broke my bank a bit. :/

Yeah. I'd say that Cardcaptor Sakura would count as a better, more standard one. Madoka Magica is concise and hard hitting and it really flips the usual scripts and relies on expectations to deliver its hardest ones. Before Madoka, a dark sinister tone to magical girl anime simply wasn't normal and you really get that because up to episode three, everything is almost completely sugar and honey. Then it drops the hammer and the roller coaster starts. Being only 12 episodes, it's strong up to the end. It's got a very strong finish that's consistent with all the foreshadowing it had done in the last 11 episodes.

Of course, there's the classic Sailor Moon, too.

LarryC wrote:

Being only 12 episodes, it's strong up to the end. It's got a very strong finish that's consistent with all the foreshadowing it had done in the last 11 episodes.

It's so consistent and well written, in fact, that when you watch it a second time, it can feel less like Madoka's story and more of Homura's. I'd certainly say it's one the best anime produced simply because it has such a tight, well thought out story.

The third movie is a decent sequel to the series (the first two movies were retellings of the TV series), although it's shorter canvas doesn't let it build the story up as incredibly.

The movies are on netflix. I believe only the last one has new stuff. The others are just recaps.

Black Lagoon was long ago on my list of things to watch, but never did get ahold of it. Now that I see it's based on a manga I think I have to watch it.

Seriously, thanks for bringing it up, gonna give it a whirl sometime.

My oldest and I watched the FMA live action movie on Netflix over the weekend, and he loved it so much he decided to do something he's avoided for years: Dig into FMA: Brotherhood. He watched the original FMA series and avoided Brotherhood altogether (saying it's darker and has more violence) for the longest time, even though he knew from others that it followed the real manga storyline and had better production values.

Meanwhile I've wanted to watch Brotherhood all along but wanted to share the experience... so hey, win-win. We're both enjoying it.

Saying that Brotherhood is darker and has more violence is not inaccurate. Overall it's a more poignant experience which might throw someone looking for a straight shounen action show.

Gaine wrote:

Saying that Brotherhood is darker and has more violence is not inaccurate. Overall it's a more poignant experience which might throw someone looking for a straight shounen action show.

Oh yeah. He avoided it for those real reasons. After the movie he can't resist, though.

As an aside, we missed Alex Louis Armstrong in the movie. A lot (including him) had to go to cram the story in there. Now we get to see more glorious Strongarm Alchemist anyway.

LarryC wrote:

Yeah. I'd say that Cardcaptor Sakura would count as a better, more standard one. Madoka Magica is concise and hard hitting and it really flips the usual scripts and relies on expectations to deliver its hardest ones. Before Madoka, a dark sinister tone to magical girl anime simply wasn't normal and you really get that because up to episode three, everything is almost completely sugar and honey. Then it drops the hammer and the roller coaster starts. Being only 12 episodes, it's strong up to the end. It's got a very strong finish that's consistent with all the foreshadowing it had done in the last 11 episodes.

Of course, there's the classic Sailor Moon, too.

Ahh, I might of misunderstood you from some time ago then. I don't really consider Madoka Magica a Magical Girl anime after having watched it. I guess technically it is, but that's not really the type of story it's telling, just the vehicle for it. I still don't think it's a "deconstruction" of the genre like many claim, nor would I call it subverting. I double-down on the idea that it removes the power fantasy from the genre.

Also: speaking with my brother, it's also clearly a very Buddhist show, at least based on what little he was able to inform me about based on his own readings.

I agree, though, it's very well done. The only thing I take issue with...

Spoiler:

I don't feel like Kyubey was... I dunno. I went in knowing that Magical Girls become Witches and Homura has traveled back in time repeatedly and that Kyubey isn't trustworthy, so I knew some major plot spoilers ahead of time. While in some ways this robbed me of some of the shock value, it did add to a lot of reading between the lines. As soon as he said "If Magical Girls are born from wishes, then Witches are born from curses", I knew his dialogue was going to be chosen very carefully. Sure enough, Kyubey never lies, but he certainly manipulates.

But his motivations and actions feel wonky. The problem with writing a character that cannot comprehend human emotion is that you need to establish a basis of ethics. Of course, we know we can't trust what Kyubey says, so how much of what he is saying is true? He tells Madoka that humans are the only race capable of counter-acting universal entropy, and tries to persuade her by saying their race could one day join the others in the stars. But he doesn't really care because, in the flashback where Madoka becomes a Witch, he says "We've met our quota, Earth will be destroyed in 10 days, that's your guys' problem."

So his ethics seem purely in the self-interest of his race's own existence, but he doesn't care about the preservation of humanity despite speaking as if he desires to preserve all races in the galaxy. Or is that perhaps Kyubey trying to appeal to her?

Bleh. Maybe it's not really important where Kyubey's true loyalties or motivations lie. That you can never trust him is enough of a switch from the Luna and Artemis type of guardian familiar.

Are there other anime that are sort of "Magical Girl but violent/mature/grown up" in nature?

I'm not sure if I'm down to go back to watching regular magical girl shows – I have a nostalgia for Sailor Moon, but like Dragon Ball Z it may better be a nostalgia left buried in the past.

Regardless, Madoka Magica was really good, and I'll be trying to watch the movie with my niece and brother.

ccesarano wrote:

Are there other anime that are sort of "Magical Girl but violent/mature/grown up" in nature?

I'm not sure if I'm down to go back to watching regular magical girl shows – I have a nostalgia for Sailor Moon, but like Dragon Ball Z it may better be a nostalgia left buried in the past.

Regardless, Madoka Magica was really good, and I'll be trying to watch the movie with my niece and brother.

My fiancee recommends:
Yuki Yuna is a Hero
Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya
Tsubasa, and tangentially XXXHolic

Sailor Moon Crystal is totally worth it if you want the nostalgia without the filler. It stands on its own, too.

ccesarano wrote:

Are there other anime that are sort of "Magical Girl but violent/mature/grown up" in nature?

Magical Girl Raising Project. Watch the first episode, it will give you enough to tell you if it fits what you are looking for without out making the series predictable.