Misc Anime and Manga (and Shows and Books)

Psycho Pass is very good.

That is all.

I've been wanting to watch it. Yet another thing on my summer list. :3

I just finished the series and instantly rewatched the first episode to better appreciate it. I may rewatch the whole series

...but Madoka Magica.

Watched the first four epis. The hook is set deep.

Ok, so I'm five episodes in now... and as TSM said, the hook is set deep.

For the first two episodes I was kind of wondering what all the fuss was about... and some moments were that hammy and overly dramatic (whole opening sequence, the "I can't die here" speech, to name a few) that I honestly thought the show/character was taking the piss.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go binge watch a few more episodes.

Also, is it just me or do the Enforcer unmarked cars in this look suspicously like slightly tarted up and de-badged Alfa 159s?





That, and a few other small details, are starting to make me wonder if someone in the production team wasn't a GsG fan... or I might just be over-speculating.

Of all the ilegal (at least in the sense of the story) guns that guy chose an under over break shot gun.
Good

Well, that was excellent.

Spoiler:

Yayyyyy!

Okay, I'm currently binging on Legend of the Galactic Heroes.  It's an amazing space opera - cerebral, thought-provoking, and insightful.  

It's SLOW, be warned.  It's very talky.  However, if you're into the *why* of strife and violence instead of just the *how*, it will likely be engaging.

All the episodes are subbed and can be found on Veoh.com.  Or, I've started burning them to DVD (as MP4, so there's only two discs) in case anyone wants to try them offline.

I am currently watching Madoka Magica for the 4th time. (I'm on the second episode.) Mami!! <333 Sayaka!! <3 ^___^

I may be lynched for this, but:

Madoka Magica was pulled off better than the GsG Anime. That is all.

El Conservatore wrote:I may be lynched for this, but:

Madoka Magica was pulled off better than the GsG Anime. That is all.

 I hope you're only talking about the second season... 

not sure if this the right thread for this as it is a series of teen aimed at books

amazon wrote:Cybernetically-enhanced, bionic crime fighter Jordan Stryker is going to have the criminals running for the shadows in the first of this gripping new action-adventure series for the Twenty-First Century. Twelve-year-old Ben Smith's life is changed forever when a chain-reaction of explosions rips through his home, killing his mother and blowing off Ben's right arm. But where Ben Smith dies, Jordan Stryker is born - a technologically-enhanced, bionic boy built to fight crime. Now, acting as an undercover agent for secret police force Unit Red; his rebuilt arm can punch through steel; his brain links directly to the internet; his hearing is super-sensitive, and he can spot hidden weapons thanks to his terahertz vision - which definitely has other 'perks'. On his first mission for Unit Red, Jordan is plunged into an underground world of dangerous gangs and extreme activists in the hunt for the criminals responsible for the explosion that killed his mother. But as Jordan struggles to come to terms with the loss of his family, remnants of Ben's old life are around every corner, especially when it reunites him with Amy - Ben's best friend, and daughter of one of London's biggest gangland bosses. This work offers a fast-paced, thrill ride with Britain's newest, bravest, most up-to-date action hero, from the best-selling author of 'Kiss of Death'.

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Awinnell wrote:Not sure if this the right thread for this as it is a series of teen aimed at books.

It is now.  =)

I just changed the topic to be more encompassing.  

As for me, I started reading Sanctuary manga by the artist from Crying Freeman and the author of Fist of the North Star.  Rather misogynistic, but incredible artwork and very self-possessed characters.

Triela wrote:

El Conservatore wrote:I may be lynched for this, but:

Madoka Magica was pulled off better than the GsG Anime. That is all.

 I hope you're only talking about the second season... 

Well yes. The "first season" is really a separate anime that's named "Gunslinger Girl" but should really be considered something of a spinoff in my opinion. Only Il Teatrino is close enough to the original manga to really be called the "GsG Anime" and it legitimately does not match up to Madoka Magica's excellence in character establishment or plot development.

..... Dude, are you TRYING to start a fight in here? *grins*

Hey, in my defense, I've yet to read a manga (or story in general that's not written by Ernest Hemingway or F. Scott Fitzgerald) that does even half as well as the Gunslinger Girl Manga.

Gatchaman Crowds is an interesting show.  I can see good reasons for people loathing it - it's really a deconstruction of the original Gatchaman concept.  The wrong things are played for laughs (laughs?  In a Gatchaman series?) and the wrong things are played for thought-fodder.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the original shows, save they used the character of Berg Katsse (Zoltar in Battle of the Planets), and even then it was just the namesake and likeness at best.

However, like all deconstructionist works, it is at its heart an offshoot of the classic 'five-team' (though there are six of them, even if at most only five are on the field.  Long story...)  If you're not familiar with the classic Japanese superhero five-teams (or even the Power Rangers), then a lot of what they do will be lost.

With all that taken into account, it has some very strong character dynamics going on.  We have a Pinky-Pie level ditz suddenly inducted into a dysfunctional five-team.  Everyone is either demoralized, locked into their idea of their role, or hiding some crippling fear.

Over the course of 11 episodes (the 12th one is when they get their act together), the ditz and her sickeningly unflagging optimism manages to get the team members to accept her, and accept themselves as they really are.

Those who like character studies and have a lot of tolerance for Pinkie-Pie type characters being center stage may find this thought-provoking.  I'll be honest, I don't think most people will like it.

It's available on CrunchyRoll

Found a nicely creepy show: From the New World (Shin Sekai Yori).  I'm only into episode 2 and it has some elements I love: 1000 years in the future, preteen telekinetics in an idyllic countryside village attend a school to learn to use their powers.  Those who don't make the cut aren't seen from again.  And that's just by episode 2.  Evidently, it gets a lot murkier as the series progresses.

Spoiler:

taerkitty wrote:Found a nicely creepy show: From the New World (Shin Sekai Yori)...

I quite enjoyed that one when it aired.

I'm glad to hear. You're my go-to-guru for anime, Kisk.

I read the manga and jumped ship.It traversed The Psionic Corollary to Clarke's Law: sufficiently powerful psionic ability is indistinguishable from magic.

My current binge-series is an anime with a joke-inducing title of Another. It's Japanese horror, which, per SpouseKitty differs from Western horror films thusly:

In Western horror, the main characters do something wrong: stay at a creepy hotel, have sex in the woods, something.  In Japanese horror, it just happens to you, even if you're living a normal life.  It just sucks to be you.

Here's the opening animation.  I find it a little disquieting.  You?

I found Another to be absolutely brilliant. I bought the BRDs because I know I will want to watch it again.

You did?  Okay, this one I'm watching to the end!

Back to Beyond the Boundary.  I haz me some cosplay goodness:

Oh. My. God.

Another anime's last three episodes are effectively a 90-minute movie with intermissions for the OP and EP between them. It's an amazing closing to a very effective story.

Mind you, J-horror isn't perfect. There are a lot of times where you want to scream at the characters, "Just say it already!!!" There are some instances where facts are revealed after they are relevant: "Oh, it would have been handy to know that, right?"

In short, there are times when it doesn't "play fair;" it doesn't give you all the clues ahead of time, and have the characters behave in a believable fashion, and extract a logical conclusion out of the aforementioned components.

This one also requires a slightly higher level of disbelief because the calamity (as the characters term it) is not just a physical one, but also one that clouds vision, memory, and archives. However, it rewards the viewer with some genuine gasps, and an excellent atmosphere of tension and creepiness.

If I were financially independent, I'd buy the set as well. Instead, all I am left able to do is to exhort you all to watch it.

It is that amazing.

Given the dearth of relatively compelling series this season, I started going back through my queue on Crunchyroll.

Gosick (Japanese phoneticization for 'Gothic') is very well done, though it doesn't really fit my definition of 'gothic' per se. It's more of a 'consulting detective' series, though one that thankfully doesn't feel forced to conclude each mystery in each half-hour episode.  In this case, the detective is the doll-like girl that is the cover image, Victorique, who leads a solitary life atop the school library.  Our 'everyman proxy' is a Japanese exchange student to this boarding school, tasked with bringing her something to alleviate her boredom (in this case, mysteries.)

On the subject of consulting detective anime, Hyoka is excellent.  In this one, the protags are part of the school's literary society, and they ....

Anyhow, if you like mysteries, give either of them a try.

I just finished binge-watching Muv-Luv Alternative Total Eclipse, which is listed on Crunchyroll simply as Total Eclipse.  It, like so many other shows, starts out strong.  You have an early kill-them-all-but-one episode to drive home the War is Hell trope, which adds a lot to the tension later - because of that very grim episode, we are aware that all but the MCs can die when they leave on their missions.  (GSG and LoGH are the only two instances where the MCs do bite it.)  It maintains this quality for 2/3 or 3/4 of the whole 25-episode run, but a harem sub-theme grows larger and larger until it takes over at least one episode.  The last few episodes are ... well, I watched them because I had gone this far, might as well finish it.  Not a good thing.

You start with a full on episode where they show snippets of what has gone before as summary, then waste even more time previewing the OP and ED for the final episodes.  Wut?

Then, they pull an enemy out of nowhere (yes, there were 'hints', but they weren't strong enough to indicate there was a full out enemy at the level it showed, just that Something was Coming).  There's a lot of Plots Within Plots, and either the subtitler or the viewer or the creator was too addle-minded to see the whole picture.  My guess is the latter.

All in all, it has pretty mecha, moderate-to-decent characters, a strong sense of atmosphere, and some halfway watching plotting, until it takes a serious dive, that is.  Oh, and the pilots' suits make Evangelion's plugsuits look modest, if that can be believe.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/03/22-1/log-horizon-anime-season-2-airs-this-fall

That is all.

This has me happy - http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-03-20/kinmoza/kin-iro-mosaic-schoolgirl-anime-gets-sequel

taerkitty wrote:http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/03/22-1/log-horizon-anime-season-2-airs-this-fall

That is all.

Taer, You just made my day!  

Seems my favorite anime of 2011, Ben-to! is now available for streaming via Funimation.  Now when are they going to put it out on disc so I can buy a copy for my collection?

The plot is essentially "starving students beat the crap out of each other for the right to purchase leftover ben-to boxes when they come on sale at the end of the day."   

I'll give that a try should the next season prove as unappealing as this one.

taerkitty wrote:I'll give that a try should the next season prove as unappealing as this one.

Ben-to is a very entertaining show.  Its rather ecchi at times, especially after the main character's half Italian cousin makes an appearance (her attempts to seduce him are less creepy if you realize that cousin relationships aren't considered incest in Japan) but so's a lot of stuff these days, and at least this show makes it part of the outrageously over the top fun.

So I picked up the Monogatari series: Bakemonogatari, Nisemonogatari and Monogatari Series Second Season (because obviously you would name the third, fourth if you include the prequel series which I've not got around to yet, the Second), which was brilliantly strange and I enjoyed immensely. It's slow, it's wordy, but it handles its characters so well that I never found myself bored, and Second Season wields the emotional sledgehammer with aplomb. Yes, there is a certain amount of fanservice goes on, but it's woven into the style of the thing so that, to me at least, it never felt like out of place/out of synch with what was going on... if that makes sense.

It doesn't hurt that I'm quite fond of the madness that is SHAFT's environmental art direction...


...which suited the series as a whole to a tee. If you like character driven shows, then I would recommend giving this one a stab.

Knights of Sidonia | シドニアの騎士 -Manga Volumes 1 through 9



Season Two of the anime should be a winner.

The first season of the anime followed the first four volumes of the manga generally closely, though the character of Izana Shinatose is a fair bit different in the anime than in the manga. The anime also eliminated an initial subplot that becomes a major plot in the later volumes (I assume this subplot will be restored early in the second season to lay the foundation for the major plot). Looking forward to Volume 10 (in part because Volume 9 ended on a cliff-hangar).

The Flowers of Evil | 惡の華 -Mange Volumes 1-10



The first six volumes of Shūzō Oshimi’s story about three middle school students is one of the most disturbing things I have read. But I couldn’t put it down. The story advances three years during Volume 7 and becomes even more interesting. The 11th and final volume is on it’s way and I look forward to seeing how this story wraps up.


As an aside, The Right Stuff International is having a 33% off sale on Vertical Books products and they are the company that translated both this and the Knights of Sidonia manga. So if you think you might be interested in picking them up, now would be a good time.

wow, read the wiki on Flowers of Evil, sounds  pretty extreme all right    

I have for your entertainment, a list of cool comics some of which are done in the manga style. I like them all, but in my humble opinion, the one that ran away from the pack is HENCHGIRL!!
Here are links and pics:

http://thermohalia.com/index.php?id=2
http://blindsprings.com/comic/000
http://www.fragilestory.com/strips/chapter_01
http://www.dangerouslychloe.com/articles/strips-dc/chapter_1_-_that_damned_girl
http://www.spinnyverse.com/index.php?id=1
http://www.sandraontherocks.com/strips-sotr/start_by_running
and then, the one, the only HENCHGIRL!!!! (subtle aren't I)  
http://www.henchgirlcomic.com/?p=18

(thermohalia)







(sandra on the rocks)
(Henchgirl)
Yesssss!

Here's a few more:


http://www.joodlez.com/cut-time/000

http://blackbrickroadofoz.com/index.php?id=1

Thanks for the comics!    I'm definitely hooked on Cut Time, mainly due to the gorgeous artwork, and I find its characters and story pretty good as well so far. I will be checking out a few of the others as well.

You're welcome!  Yeah, Cut Time is cool!  

I HATE that I didn't get into Tiger and Bunny years ago. It is the best anime I've seen in a long time. I saw some pictures when it first came out and wrote it off as a mech anime. I recently got a grab box from AmiAmi and it came with a bunch of random figures. One of them was Ivan from Tiger and Bunny. (turns out Ivan is also my favorite character) I loved his design and thought, what the heck? I watched all 25 episodes in 2 days. It's full of action, it's funny, it has a different concept when it comes to super heroes fighting crime, and the animation is fantastic. (The only place it was lacking slightly was the music, but it's by no means awful) I cried 5 times for these character through the course of the show. I will defiantly go back to this one for years to come. Now to watch the movie and wait for the second one...

It made you cry? I love scenes that make the viewer cry! I'm on it!

Triela wrote:I HATE that I didn't get into Tiger and Bunny years ago.

Great show. I was late on the band wagon with it as well, but definitely worth the watch.

I wouldn't say Agatha Hetrodyne, Girl Genius is done in manga style, but it is certainly enjoyable!

New topic:  What anime series have instrumental OP or EDs?

Cowboy Bebop comes to mind.

taerkitty wrote:New topic:  What anime series have instrumental OP or EDs?

Baccano! (which was an awesome series too, by the way)?


Geneshaft?

The covers for the first two (of four) Japanese Blu-ray / DVD releases of the second season of Yama no Susume have been revealed:


Volume 01



Volume 02