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Topic: Anime recommendations (Read 649003 times)
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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I liked Scrapped Princess, but in the way I like Chrno Crusade, Vandread and Mai Hime. Its not art by any stretch and its not going to wow you with intelligent dialogue but it does entertain, quite well in fact.
The whole technology versus religion/magic was an interesting twist on the otherwise vanilla fantasy world.
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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Kageru
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4549
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No, it's not technically a Ghibli film (as I understand it), but since Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki are the co-founders of Ghibli, their films pre-Ghibli often get lumped into the Ghibli category. Many of the Ghibli films are actually Takahata, not Miyazaki, even though people often think Miyazaki does all of them.
BTW, whatever you do, stay away from the supposed sequel to "Whisper of the Heart," it' a warmed-over version of "Catnapped" and captures none of the charm of the original.
I assume you mean "The cat returns"? I certainly agree that film was disappointing both in itself and as a possible sequel. I must admit I consider grave of the fireflies to be a Ghibli film regardless of how the financing resulted in the rights being assigned. It certainly isn't pre-Ghibli, since it's 4 years after Nausicaa, their first film. Pre-Ghibli would be something like Castle of Cagliostro. My review of Scrapped Princess if it helps, though I often wonder if I was too generous. Oh my Goddess, especially the recent movie, also has a really nice underlying technology. Turns out reality actually depends on support from the heavenly computers and bug hunting is an important part of a gods job.
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Is a man not entitled to the hurf of his durf? - Simond
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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Thank you both. I will give it a go when I have some free time.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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Sorry to bump this one...
But I wanted to say that after seeing a few scattered eps of Full Metal Alchemist on AS I didn't think it was worth watching, but I have completely changed my tune. It was a quite enjoyable and at times almost poignant adventure versus adversity show. Not too dumbed down for the kiddies at all, not for everyone but any anime fans who are avoiding it due to its popularity (that was my reasoning really, I hated NGE and think Naruto is ass) might want to give it a shot.
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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Fabricated
Moderator
Posts: 8978
~Living the Dream~
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Sorry to bump this one...
But I wanted to say that after seeing a few scattered eps of Full Metal Alchemist on AS I didn't think it was worth watching, but I have completely changed my tune. It was a quite enjoyable and at times almost poignant adventure versus adversity show. Not too dumbed down for the kiddies at all, not for everyone but any anime fans who are avoiding it due to its popularity (that was my reasoning really, I hated NGE and think Naruto is ass) might want to give it a shot.
Note: I never really read mangas, but it's worth nothing that the manga apparently has a totally different ending.
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"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist." - George Bernard Shaw
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Stormwaltz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2918
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I've watched the first three volumes of FMA, and... it baffles me. There can be a run of 3-4 episodes that are 4-star worthy, even reaching toward 5 stars. And then they'll throw in 2-3 episodes of trite, predictable crap that I'm charitable to rate at 2 stars.
The only anime I've seen that was more uneven was Real Bout High School.
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Nothing in this post represents the views of my current or previous employers.
"Isn't that just like an elf? Brings a spell to a gun fight."
"Sci-Fi writers don't invent the future, they market it." - Henry Cobb
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Naruto is really goddamn uneven. Hunter X Hunter is uneven. Yakitate Japan is uneven. Any show that gets more than the regular 21-26 episode run is uneven crap. There's nothing worth watching for it's entire run. NOTHING.
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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I thought KOR was. Having to reach back to a series made in 1987 does kind of emphasize your point though.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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Fabricated
Moderator
Posts: 8978
~Living the Dream~
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I've watched the first three volumes of FMA, and... it baffles me. There can be a run of 3-4 episodes that are 4-star worthy, even reaching toward 5 stars. And then they'll throw in 2-3 episodes of trite, predictable crap that I'm charitable to rate at 2 stars.
The only anime I've seen that was more uneven was Real Bout High School.
Pretty much. The latter half of the series is filler/drama/filler/drama/filler. A good 4-5 episodes didn't need to be in the last half of the series. Some of the episodes just tear your heart out though. Episodes 7, 8, 14, 15, and 25 in particular.
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"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist." - George Bernard Shaw
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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I didn't give it a ringing endorsement by any stretch:
"not for everyone but any anime fans who are avoiding it due to its popularity (that was my reasoning really, I hated NGE and think Naruto is ass) might want to give it a shot."
But yeah I think that it hits allot harder then many anime are willing to. Which is something that pisses me off. I also agree with Schild's thoughts on over 26 ep shows, but at least they aren't reusing animation (fuck you gundam).
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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Fabricated
Moderator
Posts: 8978
~Living the Dream~
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Oh yeah, I guess Jungle wa Itsumo Hare nochi Guu has finally been localized. I saw it at Best Buy a week ago.
I'm waiting for SChild to buy it and have a stroke over the dubbing. I haven't watched it since I don't like it, but I've heard the dub isn't half bad.
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« Last Edit: March 08, 2006, 06:44:23 PM by Fabricated »
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"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist." - George Bernard Shaw
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Bought it the day it was released. The dub isn't that bad. Like I said, there's been a few things with reasonable dubbing. There's a couple annoying characters. People from the "south" or Osaka or "southern wherever" shouldn't be dubbed like their from Alabama. But it's not a bad dub. The lead characters are as reasonable as I could have asked. Also, I got an afro wig with the box.
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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People from the "south" or Osaka or "southern wherever" shouldn't be dubbed like their from Alabama.
They did that in Abenobashi too didn't they? That really did throw me off terribly when I saw a few eps of the dub on TV.
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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People from the "south" or Osaka or "southern wherever" shouldn't be dubbed like their from Alabama.
They did that in Abenobashi too didn't they? That really did throw me off terribly when I saw a few eps of the dub on TV. Yea, they did. That's one of the ones that really set me off. Dubs would be fine if the people making the dubs knew even the tiniest bit about japanese culture. And every time I think they've gotten it right, they throw in a voice like Chiyo (Azumanga Daioh) and fuck it ALL up).
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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Bought it the day it was released. The dub isn't that bad. Like I said, there's been a few things with reasonable dubbing. There's a couple annoying characters. People from the "south" or Osaka or "southern wherever" shouldn't be dubbed like their from Alabama. But it's not a bad dub. The lead characters are as reasonable as I could have asked. Also, I got an afro wig with the box.
That is not a wig, it is a chest piece... Also Howl's Moving Castle, Whispers of the Heart, and the Totoro re-release came out yesterday. Much happiness.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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Llava
Contributor
Posts: 4602
Rrava roves you rong time
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I really enjoy Full Metal Alchemist. It's fantastic. The only thing that irritates me is the voice acting they chose for little girl characters. Nina especially. I hated that girl. The later events involving her would've hit much harder if I didn't want to kill her the second time she said "wittow big bwuddew?"
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That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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Bought it the day it was released. The dub isn't that bad. Like I said, there's been a few things with reasonable dubbing. There's a couple annoying characters. People from the "south" or Osaka or "southern wherever" shouldn't be dubbed like their from Alabama. But it's not a bad dub. The lead characters are as reasonable as I could have asked. Also, I got an afro wig with the box.
Correct me if im wrong, but arent people from Osaka (southern wherever) SUPPOSED so have an accent? I mean, yes, dubbing them like rednecks would be bad, but how exactly do you convey something cultural, like an accent that would stand out to a japanese native as much as a heavy New York or Alabama accent would to an american without coming off a tad bit odd. I mean, heck, thats one of the things I always thought was interesting about the whole sub / dub debate. Sure, I much prefer subs, but when watching an anime in japanese, how do you know the origional voice actors dont just plain suck? It is glairingly obvious when an english dub actor sucks, because english is (or may be) our native tongue. For all we know, people in japan may find some shows to have terrible "japanese" voice acting, when we in north america dont notice anything wrong at all.
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Japanse works for me because I don't understand it. But I can hear Osaka and I can hear Tokyo. I've watched enough live action japanese stuff to pick that sort of thing out. But seriously, english just doesn't sound right coming out of an anime characters mouth. Just like Japanese would sound stupid coming out of the mouths of Ducktales characters or Hanna Barbara or whatever.
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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There have been good dubs, I typically point to RahXephon as an example of this. Also sometimes I will turn to a sub to avoid that really fucking annoying young-girl-with-super-high-pitched-voice bullshit that some anime insist on giving a character (see: Tessa in Full Metal Panic).
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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True enough Schild.
It is rather jarring on occasion to hear anime characters speak in english, and often even more so when they do it with an accent. I guess I just havent watched enough anime (or maybe just payed close enough attention to the people with accents) to easily distinguish one from another in their native tongue.
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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Fabricated
Moderator
Posts: 8978
~Living the Dream~
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In some cases it makes more sense to watch the anime in English. Trigun and Cowboy Bebop are good examples.
It's just weird to watch Trigun in Japanese, especially when a character shows vash a piece of paper with some Kanji on it and Vash says, "I can't read Japanese!" in...Japanese.
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"The world is populated in the main by people who should not exist." - George Bernard Shaw
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Llava
Contributor
Posts: 4602
Rrava roves you rong time
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I generally prefer dubs.
Don't get me wrong, if the dubs are shitty then I'll take subs any day. But dubbing done well I prefer greatly to subtitles. Generally, the animes I tend to like usually have pretty good dubbing- Cowboy Bebop, Trigun (a bit irritating at times, but very well done at other times), Full Metal Alchemist (except little girls... DIE)....
I was actually impressed with the quality of the dubbing in Naruto, with the exception of Naruto himself. And that new chick who has a crush on him, she's awful. And that little kid who calls Naruto boss, he's awful too. But Kakashi is well done, as well as Zabuza (though that particular voice actor is in like every anime ever, so he better be good at it by now).
Y'know, if they remade Naruto with about 1/4 as many episodes and didn't try to make it a kids' show, I'd watch it.
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That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
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Sairon
Terracotta Army
Posts: 866
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The little kid who calls Naruto boss is super in the jap version, gotta love that little sucker.
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Llava
Contributor
Posts: 4602
Rrava roves you rong time
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I have a hard time imagining liking that character in any language.
He is so irritating, it transcends mundane barriers such as "language" or "context".
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That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
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SurfD
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4035
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I have a hard time imagining liking that character in any language.
He is so irritating, it transcends mundane barriers such as "language" or "context".
Well, a lot of that has to do with the "character" that the actors voice conveys, as well as the typecasting that is done to the role when it is dubbed. An example would be Melvin from oldschool Sailor Moon. In the north amreican dub, Melvin was the quintissential, highpitched voiced, annoyng ass computer nerd (think Urkel, but as a computer geek). A few minutes of his voice was generally enough to drive you nuts. In the origional japanese however, his voice was much more normal (to the point where he actually sounded moderately cool). Hell, the first time I actualy heard him speak in a japanese ep of the show, I almost fell out of my chair. It completely changed the way I saw the character.
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« Last Edit: March 10, 2006, 11:43:14 PM by SurfD »
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Darwinism is the Gateway Science.
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Lantyssa
Terracotta Army
Posts: 20848
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I have to agree that the tone, even if well done, does affect the presentation of the character.
With the Japanese actors I only have to worry about the inflections in their voice while the subtitles convey the story. It makes the emotions of the actors flow more smoothly to me. (Of course I have been doing it so long I do not even recognize that I am reading while watching anymore.)
With dubs everything is conveyed by the voice. A bad or half-hearted performance really stands out to me. I cannot overlook grating voices because I have to focus on them to hear what is being said.
Now there are some decent dub actors, but they bring their own take to the character simply because their voice and inflections are different (assuming the script is not Americanized, which also bugs me), so it completely changes the flow. Because of that I almost always prefer the original language.
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Hahahaha! I'm really good at this!
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Murgos
Terracotta Army
Posts: 7474
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I have to agree that the tone, even if well done, does affect the presentation of the character.
With the Japanese actors I only have to worry about the inflections in their voice while the subtitles convey the story. It makes the emotions of the actors flow more smoothly to me. (Of course I have been doing it so long I do not even recognize that I am reading while watching anymore.)
Just as an aside, it's kind of interesting that emotional content of a dialogue is pretty much spot on even from an entirely different culture you have no experience with and in a language you don't know (visual clues in the anime I am sure help a lot).
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"You have all recieved youre last warning. I am in the process of currently tracking all of youre ips and pinging your home adressess. you should not have commencemed a war with me" - Aaron Rayburn
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Llava
Contributor
Posts: 4602
Rrava roves you rong time
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OMGWTFFULLMETALALCHEMISTTOTALLYBLEWMYMINDJESUSCHRIST
I'm making a habit of yelling "Aww!!!" at the end of each episode now. I have been completely sucked in.
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That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and the grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. -Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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Yeah the beginning is the best part though, its a good show any way you slice it but there are some later arcs where they add in more characters then they can handle effectively and things bog down a bit.
I watched Crest/Banner of the Stars, no idea why but that is one of the most capitvating shows I've seen.
Watching Fafner in the Azure: Dead Aggressor, starts off really slow, typical mecha but I wouldn't recommend it. Go watch RahXephon instead.
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Crest/Banner of the stars is a guilty pleasure for a lot of people. I couldn't make it through 3 episodes.
As for the RahXephon recommendation. That's rough one. I know too many people that disliked it. I know too many people that pretended to like it. I don't know anyone that genuinely liked it. Much like the game Xenosaga, everyone's lying about it. :P
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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I'm not pretending to like it at all, I genuinely feel it is the only 'mecha genre show I can recommend (outside of Full Metal Panic, which hardly counts) to others. I'll watch just about anything with giant robots but I sure as shit will not tell other people to watch it.
RahXephon was a very nice portrayal of characters, by any genre's standards. Toss in the fact that it is a semi-engaging mystery for the first half or so and turns into a very touching love story. I could keep going but suffice to say I think it is worth watching, not everyone will like it but that is true of all things.
Finished Fafner, nothing to add to previous assessment.
Moved on to a show called Saikano, I dont think anyone has mentioned this but really it is pretty interesting after two episodes. Basically this guy starts dating this shy, clumsy girl for no reason then finds out she is the military's ultimate weapon. Now throw away every notion of how that storyline will work out, because its not what your thinking. She's not super hot, she's not even kind of a badass, even when she is in weapon form it doesn't seem. I need to watch more obviously, but I'm tentatively thinking that some people around here might get a kick out of this.
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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Stormwaltz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2918
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Given discussion of RahXephon and SaiKano, I'd like to again suggest the underappreciated Infinite Ryvius. Short form: Lord of the Flies on a space battleship.
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Nothing in this post represents the views of my current or previous employers.
"Isn't that just like an elf? Brings a spell to a gun fight."
"Sci-Fi writers don't invent the future, they market it." - Henry Cobb
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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Saikano.
My girlfriend is the ultimate weapon
How can we stretch that out?
I don't know what it is, but we're really touching on a handful of series that I had an acute dislike for. Though, out of Ryvius, Raxhxephon and Saikano, I'd take the latter any day of the week. Saikano had a premise I really dug. I also liked the manga. But the show, ugh. I really just couldn't get into it.
In other news, Ryvius isn't underappreciated. It's just not very good. It's easy to dig up positives in any anime. Ryvius just hit us with boring characters, stale music and poor dialogue all at once.
If we're on a sci-fi streak here, I'd tell people to watch Kiddy Grade before any of the recently mentioned things. I don't even like Kiddy Grade. :P
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Hoax
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8110
l33t kiddie
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Now you've gone off the fucking deep end, I saw two eps of Kiddy Grade and promptly tried to remove the part of my brain that was infected by that crap with a sewing needle up the nose.
As for Saikano, I've only seen two eps and let me say the character art style doesn't work for me at all. But so far it has been very different from what you would expect from the premise in an enjoyable way.
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A nation consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual's morals are situational, then that individual is without morals. If a nation's laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn't a nation. -William Gibson
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60345
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The point of mentioning Kiddy Grade is that it was as bad as you say and I'd still recommend it to people over the other stuff. It seems, zee point, was lost somewhere.
Possibly at the part where I said: "I don't even like Kiddy Grade. :P"
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