Anime recommendations

[Fabricated]

It's not just Mina that's creepy. Did they cover the arc with the woman who lusts after the pre-pubescent boy and gets blackmailed into fighting Mina/Akira/etc? Complete with the "happily ever after" ending where she gets to abscond with the boy and tears his clothes off making out with him?

[Ratman_tf]

It's not just Mina that's creepy. Did they cover the arc with the woman who lusts after the pre-pubescent boy and gets blackmailed into fighting Mina/Akira/etc? Complete with the "happily ever after" ending where she gets to abscond with the boy and tears his clothes off making out with him?

They did. I... don't believe she tore his clothes off and made out with him in the anime.
There were undertones, but it came across a little more like she had an attachment to the kid, and her vamprisim turned it into something more creepy.
 I'd have to rewatch to make sure though. I may be filtering it because I have to filter 99% of all dub dialogue because of the aforementioned YAKKETY YAKKETY YAKKETY effect.

[Bzalthek]

Ewww, Dub?  That's worse than watching soft pedo!

[Ratman_tf]

Ewww, Dub?  That's worse than watching soft pedo!

I can't stand subs. I wind up reading the text instead of watching the animation, which defeats the purpose of it being a visual medium, IMO.




Man, I feel like I've been dragged into a debate with Fabricated over the subject matter, and not the storytelling itself. I knew from the "cover" (I watched it on netflix) that it was gonna be an anime about vampires and a young girl and I just thought "I've seen Legend of the Overfiend. Bring it on, fucker!"

*Edit, fucked up and retyped shit. Bargle*

[Fabricated]

I'm not saying it's not a cool idea. I could see getting drawn into it since the main plot concept is one of the only original turns on the whole vampire thing I've seen in forever (Vampires kinda get tired of hiding out and doing the Vampire: The Masquerade type of thing, and literally pay off Japan's national debt to get a country of their own), but I thought it weird you didn't point out all the weirdo shit in it.

Then after I started asking I realized you started with the anime (which would have to be toned town) compared to the manga which is what I saw first (and is why I didn't watch the anime).

To be fair, I check out "The Black Butler" (fuck remembering the Japanese name) off and on and it's painfully obvious fujoshi bait. Far less explicit than Dance in the Vampire Bund but still, yeah.

[Fordel]

Dubs and Subs are both utterly dependent on the quality. When subs start giving me the dictionary definition of a Bastard, instead of just you know, using the word Bastard, fuck em!

[Fabricated]

Dubs and Subs are both utterly dependent on the quality. When subs start giving me the dictionary definition of a Bastard, instead of just you know, using the word Bastard, fuck em!

Then there's fansubs.

[satael]

Dubs and Subs are both utterly dependent on the quality. When subs start giving me the dictionary definition of a Bastard, instead of just you know, using the word Bastard, fuck em!

Then there's fansubs.

Sometimes gems like that are for a reason (like the word "keikaku" meaning something else also and so making the phrase a play on words) but I can't think of a meaning in this case that would make any sense (and usually the explanations are in the translator notes at the start/end of the episode. That said I'm firmly in the sub camp when it comes to anime and that's mostly due to some really horrible dubs  in the 90s.

[Fordel]

That picture made me laugh more then it should have. 


That's why translating for INTENT is way way more important then any literalness. Understand who you're talking too and how they talk. Shit be hard though, which is why so many subs and dubs are just awful.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I tend to prefer dubs because that's how I started watching anime (on Adult Swim) so subs can be annoying when I'm trying to read and there's a bunch of action going on.  Oddly enough though, reading subtitles doesn't bother me when it's a movie.

My biggest gripe about the subs v. dubs debate are the people who insist that it's better in Japanese because the VAs show more emotion in their voices or are better at voice acting than English VAs, which makes no damn sense to me.  If you can't understand what they are saying (and most Westerners can't) and are relying on subtitles and visual clues, then how can you tell they are any good?  Maybe I've just been a lucky dub watcher because I haven't seen a badly done series yet.

[Fabricated]

I tend to prefer dubs because that's how I started watching anime (on Adult Swim) so subs can be annoying when I'm trying to read and there's a bunch of action going on.  Oddly enough though, reading subtitles doesn't bother me when it's a movie.

My biggest gripe about the subs v. dubs debate are the people who insist that it's better in Japanese because the VAs show more emotion in their voices or are better at voice acting than English VAs, which makes no damn sense to me.  If you can't understand what they are saying (and most Westerners can't) and are relying on subtitles and visual clues, then how can you tell they are any good?  Maybe I've just been a lucky dub watcher because I haven't seen a badly done series yet.

This pretty much.

To be fair though the Japanese VAs usually do awesome/evil laughs better. See: Death Note.

[rk47]

That picture made me laugh more then it should have. 


That's why translating for INTENT is way way more important then any literalness. Understand who you're talking too and how they talk. Shit be hard though, which is why so many subs and dubs are just awful.

[Fordel]

Exactly.

[Rendakor]

As a counter-arguement: "Believe it!"

[SurfD]

My biggest gripe about the subs v. dubs debate are the people who insist that it's better in Japanese because the VAs show more emotion in their voices or are better at voice acting than English VAs, which makes no damn sense to me.  If you can't understand what they are saying (and most Westerners can't) and are relying on subtitles and visual clues, then how can you tell they are any good?  Maybe I've just been a lucky dub watcher because I haven't seen a badly done series yet.

Ehm as a counterpoint to that, the reason I generally prefer Subs over Dubs is actually the opposite.  As a native English speaker, who does not understand Japanese beyond what I have picked up from watching years of anime, I can't generally tell when a Japanese voice actor is bad.  They all just sound like my mind imagines a "properly Japanese" person should sound, if that makes sense.  I can pick up on some things, like when someone is speaking with some of the deliberate japanese dialect accents (english equivilent of someone with a Heavy New York or Texas accent for example), but overall, it just registers as "foreign language I only extrememly vaguely understand".

However, as a native English speaker, it is instantly appearant when someone in an english dub is doing an even medeocre job, let alone a terrible one, which pretty much completely ruins the whole experience of watching the show.

Essentialy, it isn't that the Japanese VA's may be better then the English ones, rather that it is much harder to tell when they are doing a bad job of it.

[Bzalthek]

Without going too far into it, I've been burned by dubs where the original badass chick has a voice actor who can deliver an attitude just through tone, and then the dub is some bubbly high pitched american chick thinking all cartoon girl are airheads or some such shit.

There are good dubs out there, despite my hyperbole, and there is some definite bad subs out there, but you learn to recognize the sub teams who do quality work, and given most dubs are horrible, the odds are not worth putting up with.

Plus it takes forever for dubs!

[Ratman_tf]

Without going too far into it, I've been burned by dubs where the original badass chick has a voice actor who can deliver an attitude just through tone, and then the dub is some bubbly high pitched american chick thinking all cartoon girl are airheads or some such shit.

There are good dubs out there, despite my hyperbole, and there is some definite bad subs out there, but you learn to recognize the sub teams who do quality work, and given most dubs are horrible, the odds are not worth putting up with.

Plus it takes forever for dubs!

Cowboy Bebop, I thought, was about as good a dub as one could ask for.

[Bzalthek]

Cowboy Bebop was a really impressive dub.

[rk47]

Binary domain has best dubz

[Ratman_tf]

So, anybody watching on Netflix got any reccomendations? I've put a ton on my instant queue, but I'd appreciate any thoughts on what's good and what's not so good.

[Stormwaltz]

Agreed with SurfD, and:

Cowboy Bebop was a really impressive dub.

English Ed is the only example I can think of where a dub actor did a measurably superior job than the original VA.

I remember Trigun and Outlaw Star as being pretty good too.

[Bzalthek]

So, anybody watching on Netflix got any reccomendations? I've put a ton on my instant queue, but I'd appreciate any thoughts on what's good and what's not so good.

Netflix doesn't have a whole hell of a lot but looking at the list now, I'd watch Trigun, Samurai Champloo, Darker than Black, Elfen LIef, Mushishi, Blood+, Desert Punk, Trinity Blood, Gunslinger Girl, Samurai 7, Canaan, XXXHolic, CHrome Shelled Regios, Basilisk, Speed Grapher, Clannad.   

If you want some good storytelling, go for mushishi or XXXHolic, if you want a tear jerkers I think Clannad is the way to go.  The rest is pretty good actiony stuff where I place Samurai 7 as the best on the list.

That's just what I remember enjoying off the top of my head I see in the Netflix lineup.  There are others I'm fuzzy on like Xam'd, Aquarion, Blassreiter which I think I liked.  A few I don't think I've seen yet, will have to check it out. 

On the other hand if you have a Hulu+ account, they seem to have a metric fuck ton of anime.

[Ratman_tf]

So, anybody watching on Netflix got any reccomendations? I've put a ton on my instant queue, but I'd appreciate any thoughts on what's good and what's not so good.

Netflix doesn't have a whole hell of a lot but looking at the list now, I'd watch Trigun, Samurai Champloo, Darker than Black, Elfen LIef, Mushishi, Blood+, Desert Punk, Trinity Blood, Gunslinger Girl, Samurai 7, Canaan, XXXHolic, CHrome Shelled Regios, Basilisk, Speed Grapher, Clannad.   

If you want some good storytelling, go for mushishi or XXXHolic, if you want a tear jerkers I think Clannad is the way to go.  The rest is pretty good actiony stuff where I place Samurai 7 as the best on the list.

That's just what I remember enjoying off the top of my head I see in the Netflix lineup.  There are others I'm fuzzy on like Xam'd, Aquarion, Blassreiter which I think I liked.  A few I don't think I've seen yet, will have to check it out. 

I just started Blassreiter. Interesting premise.
 

On the other hand if you have a Hulu+ account, they seem to have a metric fuck ton of anime.

Hmm. Tempting.

[SurfD]

Without going too far into it, I've been burned by dubs where the original badass chick has a voice actor who can deliver an attitude just through tone, and then the dub is some bubbly high pitched american chick thinking all cartoon girl are airheads or some such shit.

There is this too, and it applies equally to pretty much any role or gender, as well as things like stereotypes.  Point in fact, one of the best examples I can relate to comes from back in my early anime days and Sailor Moon on afternoon TV.  Oddly enough, it wasnt any of the prominent female characters but the character Melvin, the "dorky computer nerd".  In the american dub, he was voiced practically like Urkel caricature, the over the top capital NERD stereotype character.  When I later got a chance to watch subs of the original japanese episodes, it was interesting to see that the Melvin character was a much less nerdy sounding guy with his native voice actor, and actually came across as being almost a cool-nerd, rather then a dork-nerd.  Which then made me wonder about how many other english dubbed shows I had watched where they had completely wrecked a character's initial personality to shoehorn him into his / her visual stereotype.

[Simond]

Dubs and Subs are both utterly dependent on the quality. When subs start giving me the dictionary definition of a Bastard, instead of just you know, using the word Bastard, fuck em!

Then there's fansubs.

( Commie Subs)

[trias_e]

Since it doesn't appear to have been mentioned here, I found Steins;Gate a good enough anime that the thread deserves a necro. It's basically Welcome to the NHK meets Back to the Future; the main character is a self-proclaimed mad scientist who's trying to invent a time machine. Has anyone else seen it?

Steins;Gate is fucking awesome.  Not what I expected, honestly left me somewhat of an emotional wreck.  Should be called Steins;Gate:Torment.

My experience with anime is basically Death Note, and Steins;Gate, and I'm afraid it will be downhill from here.

[Rendakor]

S;G really was pretty depressing in it's second half; still it's the best show I've seen in several years by a good margin.

I'm pretty ambivalent about Death Note.
On the bright side, it did introduce me to MAXIMUM THE HORMONE who are pretty epic.

If you're looking for recommendations, Code Geass is sort of the complement to Death Note since they came out around the same time and feature a protagonist obtaining a unique power and trying to take over the world with it. In CG the main character gets the ability to give anyone a command that they must obey; think the Jedi mind trick on steroids. The only downside (for some) is that it's also a bit of a mecha show.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is probably the closest to Steins;Gate I can think of. The characters are trapped in a time loop that always ends bloodily; they're all pretty young though, so if either seeing kids (aged 8-14) kill one another or light loli fanservice are dealbreakers, stay away.

The guys that made Steins;Gate also made two other shows, Chaos;Head and Robotic;Notes.

Chaos;Head is...weird; unlike Steins;Gate where Okarin was a little off, the lead here is actually crazy and frequently confuses his delusions with reality. The animation quality isn't as good either since it was their first project from back in '08, but all in all the show wasn't bad. The story is about a series of strange murders called the New Generation Madness happening in Shibuya. It's much more supernatural than S;G, but still remains sort of scientific.

I haven't finished Robotic;Notes yet; I've watched the first few episodes and it hasn't done anything to draw me in. It's set in the near future, and follows a high school club that builds robots. Other than a decent look at a near future (everyone carries PokeComs, pocket computers aka tablets, for example) it seemed pretty...mundane and slice-of-life-ish to me. The only interesting bits came in the first episode: at the beginning they showed the Steins;Gate divergence meter, then at the end a girl appeared to time travel in, then say the phrase "Sono me, dare no me?" or "Whose eyes are those?" which featured prominently in Chaos;Head. That seemed to suggest a tie-in with the other two shows, but after 3-4 more episodes that girl hasn't appeared again so I'm not sure what's going on.

[satael]

If you're looking for recommendations, Code Geass is sort of the complement to Death Note since they came out around the same time and feature a protagonist obtaining a unique power and trying to take over the world with it. In CG the main character gets the ability to give anyone a command that they must obey; think the Jedi mind trick on steroids. The only downside (for some) is that it's also a bit of a mecha show.

The ending of Code Geass is really great and raises the series from mediocre to great in my opinion. I'd recommend Baccano, Durarara and Monster as some great animes to check out if you happen upon them.

[Bzalthek]

Monster is one of the best "long" series IMO.  Usually I'm tired of a series if it stretches out for 4 seasons (52 episodes ish ) but Monster kept me watching all the way through 74 episodes and kinda sorry it was over.  Very decent watch.  I'm still trying to find the whole series for a decent price,

[Fabricated]

Death Note becomes immediately 100 times better if you pretend it ends with the end of the first "season" and watch the unused ending.

[trias_e]

Death Note becomes immediately 100 times better if you pretend it ends with the end of the first "season" and watch the unused ending.

Wait, the unused ending?  Gotta look that up.

And yeah, I tell everyone who I recommend it to to stop watching at the end of episode 19 (I believe it's 19, at least).  The rest of it is totally unnecessary.

One anime that has the 'brilliant strategist protagonist always two steps ahead' thing going on ala Death Note is 'One Outs', a 25 episode baseball series.  It's good if you like that sort of thing, but One Outs is totally one dimensional in comparison to Death Note.  Also, without a knowledge of baseball, I'm not sure it would work well at all.

Starting up Monster next.  I have this bad habit of spending 100% of my free time (and sleeping time) watching series when I get into them, so the 75 episodes of Monster could be problematic.

S;G really was pretty depressing in it's second half; still it's the best show I've seen in several years by a good margin.

I'm pretty ambivalent about Death Note.
On the bright side, it did introduce me to MAXIMUM THE HORMONE who are pretty epic.

If you're looking for recommendations, Code Geass is sort of the complement to Death Note since they came out around the same time and feature a protagonist obtaining a unique power and trying to take over the world with it. In CG the main character gets the ability to give anyone a command that they must obey; think the Jedi mind trick on steroids. The only downside (for some) is that it's also a bit of a mecha show.

After Monster are Code Geass and Cowboy Bebop.  I think this (along with Death Note and Steins;Gate) will be a pretty good selection for first 5 anime series finished.  I've heard Chaos;Head was a travesty compared to the original VN.  Since I'm probably not going to play the VN, I'll just avoid it for now.  As far as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni....goddamn, I am really trying to avoid the ANIME part of anime, but if it's good enough I'll be willing to breach that threshold.

[Bzalthek]

Higurashi is creepy as fuck anime.  I love it. 

I'm not completely sure if it's up your alley, but Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is always a treat in awesomeness and for a darker bent Black Lagoon is pretty damn awesome.

[Lantyssa]

My biggest gripe about the subs v. dubs debate are the people who insist that it's better in Japanese because the VAs show more emotion in their voices or are better at voice acting than English VAs, which makes no damn sense to me.  If you can't understand what they are saying (and most Westerners can't) and are relying on subtitles and visual clues, then how can you tell they are any good?  Maybe I've just been a lucky dub watcher because I haven't seen a badly done series yet.

Mostly it's about tone and voice quality (and watching waaaaay too much anime back in college).  Partly it's what SurfD said.

The good Japanese voice actors are like our good North American ones.  The problem with the Anime dub industry, at least early on, was they weren't trained voice actors.  They were friends of the translators, and often doing their own thing rather than trying to be true to the character as originally envisioned.  In those situations it was brutally obvious, especially if you had the sub and the dub to compare.

I can't speak to more modern dubs, but it seems like real voice actors are used much more regularly, in which case my complaints go away.  (To be replaced with new ones, like "Why do they only have one voice?" or "Why doesn't the casting director let Jennifer Hale do something OTHER than Commander Shepard?")

[Fordel]

Look, there are only so many women who can actually pull off that character type!

[Fabricated]

Wait, the unused ending?  Gotta look that up.

Well, technically you could've continued to the rest of the series from this but the way it's edited IMO kinda implied this as an ending unto itself since it was cut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX1_K-mUH94

Perfect IMO.