Support NeoGAF

[Swag]

Am I tht ice creeeeM? I bet I ws chico flavor A!

 

[Solune]

It's better without an ending!

You can't fool a fool

The pain and suffering is a good community-building exercise.

Perhaps if I hung around anime-GAF during last season, but last season was terrible. This season my excuse is theres many good shows and I can hold out to watch it!

 

[iavi]

I know the moe phenomenon and pedophilia fear have some people scared, but I don't see why a story about young girls is something inherently off-limits for anyone who isn't one.

It's not at all. I do, however, believe that there needs to be a point to it. Otherwise I, as 21 year old dude don't feel the need to see little people frolick around. Why is He--though usually she-- a child on-screen? Is it a flashback. Are we going to see his/her character mature into something more? Otherwise, a 12->16-17 year old character wouldn't normally even have a narrative to presents that interest me.

A pure comedy can actually subvert all of those expectations, which seems to be why it's used as the basis for a majority of moe. It can get away with it's pandering without actually having to fill larger shoes. Though, if you don't find the comedy funny, the pandering is all that's left. In my case, K-ON. On the other hand, I found Lucky Star to be pretty funny.

It seems you're unnecessarily annoyed by certain shows selling well.

Lets look at all the 'moe' shows that come out every season. How many of them outsell K-On? If K-On is selling at a high level it seems to suggest that it's better than others shows of the same type. It's the kind of the 'moe' mountain so you'd expect it to do well.

A better question would be: why is IS selling so well? It's not the king of any particular genre or style. It's just bad.

No certain show. The styling itself. I know nothing about IS, so I can't say much on that one.

EDIT: it's a fucking harem with young looking females, fits right into my complaints.

Project-able male lead+females 4 days=money. Bakemonogatari was another major seller that falls under this umbrella.

 

[Steroyd]

I am still curious as to why Suzuka's rage-worthy. I think I heard some things about some NTR stuff (basically cheating for the uninformed), but I never really looked into it.

Basically your watching an immovable object - Suzuka the tsundere.

And the unstoppable force - retarded guy trying to get her attention in retarded ways.

GO ROUND IN CIRCLES.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

You can't fool a fool

Perhaps if I hung around anime-GAF during last season, but last season was terrible. This season my excuse is theres many good shows and I can hold out to watch it!

You're not the only one who thinks last season was terrible. So far this season has already beaten last season for me, and we are only beginning!

Basically your watching an immovable object - Suzuka the tsundere.

And the unstoppable force - retarded guy trying to get her attention in retarded ways.

GO ROUND IN CIRCLES.

And a douche. Poor Honoka.

 

[Haly]

I am very glad Gonzo went under before they could get their hands on the Alive: The Final Evolution adaptation.

 

[Jex]

A pure comedy can actually subvert all of those expectations, which seems to be why it's used as the basis for a majority of moe. It can get away with it's pandering without actually having to fill larger shoes. Though, if you don't find the comedy funny, the pandering is all that's left. In my case, K-ON. On the other hand, I found Lucky Star to be pretty funny.

youarealreadydead.jpg

 

[Hellsing321]

You can't fool a fool

Perhaps if I hung around anime-GAF during last season, but last season was terrible. This season my excuse is theres many good shows and I can hold out to watch it!

I think its a bit unfair to say it was terrible when whats likely to be the best show of the year was released last season (Wandering Son).

 

[mAcOdIn]

I think he needs to be working with the right material.

*hand on heart*

"Do you know what happened to Rei? She waited here for you!"

*cut to Miya standing with arms crossed*

"Oh, I heard it rained yesterday"

*cue flock of birds flying past*

"How could you do such a thing? You know how Rei feels about you?"

*dramatic FX + cut to Miya's eyes in close-up*

"Don't interefere in what doesn't concern you"

*dramatic wind whips up Miya's hair in a dramatic fashion*

In all fairness that really is a dick move. Whenever a show has a scene like that it just pisses me off, like, it's too much to call, you can't fucking say anything at all, you just don't go, why? Why? Ugh. My most hated type of event and amusingly one I've never been on either side of, if someone told me they'd be somewhere and I waited and they didn't show up I'd be furious and since it's something I've never done nor had done to me I must assume that it's like the most basic of courtesies so anyone guilty of doing it should probably just be written of instantly, instead I'm supposed to give two fucks about some douchebag having some realization that he made someone stay in the rain or snow or alien invasion or golden shower or whatever the fuck kind of conditions went on at the meeting place and think they can redeem themselves. Fuck them. And this fucking generation, they all have fucking cell phones now. Fucking cell phones. Damn spoiled kids. When I was a kid I'd have to go meet someone to tell them I couldn't meet up with them. That's how we fucking did it. Kids these days just have to text. Deal with it. Fucking Christ I hate no show-ers. Hope they all die. In TV. Maybe real life too.

But it's not like it's that big of a deal except for the part where I'm supposed to care somehow hope that the person gets together with the douchebag prime. Why? Can't a show just switch interests? Come on. It's like watching a train go towards a bridge that hasn't been finished yet, I know what'll fucking happen and just like that damn train's going to fucking fall into some damn abyss the girl's going to get her happy moment with the loser who can't be bothered to even meet or text and have one happy moment and then live a terrible life that if all goes well only ends up in divorce. I don't want to watch that and think that's the good end. Stop throwing such apathetic dickheads as the protagonist already.

Edit: Basically sound in linux broke me.

 

[Crash Station]

I am very glad Gonzo went under before they could get their hands on the Alive: The Final Evolution adaptation.

Eh, I'd be happy seeing any of it animated really. Not like they were doing anything more productive.

 

[Solune]

I think its a bit unfair to say it was terrible when whats likely to be the best show of the year was released last season (Wandering Son).

Winter 2010 Anime Thread: Wandering Son & All the Other Crap

 

[InfiniteNine]

Winter 2010 Anime Thread: Wandering Son & All the Other Crap

Dresden was wrong. It brought us Madoka and subsequently brought us pain at it's delayed final episodes.

 

[Geneijin]

I haven't watched it either, will watch when it has an ending. You're falling into their hands though, because you'll be waiting like these poor souls.

I have weird habits of not picking up certain shows. Like I got burnt out by Masato Hagiwara (Mahjong Legend Akagi - Akagi, One Outs - Toua) when I watched them nearly back to back, so I haven't been in the mood to start Kaiji since. For Madoka, things happened and I haven't been willing to start an episode since.

I meant to watch Madoka as it aired but things happened and I haven't started yet.

Yeah really, i see no problem in watching a show about little girls. As long as it's not sexualizing them what's the issue?

It only becomes an issue for me once certain fans are involved. The fandom scares me as a fan.

No certain show. The styling itself. I know nothing about IS, so I can't say much on that one.

People will want more K-On if IS continues its success. IS having those numbers is that much of an oddity.

 

[Hellsing321]

Winter 2010 Anime Thread: Wandering Son & All the Other Crap

Wandering Son is so good that it pulls up the class average quite a bit. And even without it, Winter was still better than Summer 2010.

 

[Dresden]

Winter 2010 Anime Thread: Wandering Son & All the Other Crap

I was wrong. I forgot about Infinite Stratos.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

It's not at all. I do, however, believe that there needs to be a point to it. Otherwise I, as 21 year old dude don't feel the need to see little people frolick around. Why is He--though usually she-- a child on-screen? Is it a flashback. Are we going to see his/her character mature into something more? Otherwise, a 12->16-17 year old character wouldn't normally even have a narrative to presents that interest me.

A pure comedy can actually subvert all of those expectations, which seems to be why it's used as the basis for a majority of moe. It can get away with it's pandering without actually having to fill larger shoes. Though, if you don't find the comedy funny, the pandering is all that's left. In my case, K-ON. On the other hand, I found Lucky Star to be pretty funny.

I haven't seen K-ON, so I can't comment on that show. But sometimes when you're looking to relax it's nice to watch a simple but well-executed show in which nothing "happens" but the characters and the things they do are enjoyable to watch. Charm can be the point. I hate sexualized pandering as much as the next sensible person, but there is room for innocent slice-of-life shows.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "mature into something more", but I think children can be the focal points of interesting narratives even if they don't later advance in age. There are a ton of examples I could list, but Grave of the Fireflies leaps immediately to mind.

 

[A Black Falcon]

IS sales - So IS vol. 1 blew away everything else? Japan obviously knows quality when they see it!

Seriously though, why would anyone spend that much money on a show that bad...

I forgot!
Taisho Baseball Girls!

Oh right, I should watch the rest of that show... it was pretty good, as far as I got. And yeah, that is a cute song.

To borrow a 4chan phrase (in reference to similar goings on in Sora no Woto episoe 7: It's "Post-Moe-dernism".

:lol That is a good pun...

A new idea occurred to me while watching this sequence, after Gendo (maybe) called it the "strongest rejection type" or something like that. Perhaps this means the 10th Angel symbolises (oh God symbolism in Eva? We'll never hear the end of it) or represents Shinji's anger at his father after the Unit-3 debacle. That's the point in the series where he is at his angriest, so much that he leaves NERV, so it kind of makes sense to think about the Angel as his very strong feels of rejection. It would also explain, symbolically, why no-one can stop it but himself.

This had never occured to me before, but that dialogue seems to pretty much spell it out.

That is a decent attempt at an explanation for it, actually... it doesn't make the whole thing less stupid, really, but at least it's a better explanation for it than anything I could tell, though my explanation there has got to be part of it.

I thought that's what I pretty much said in my lengthy-breakdown of how they decided to to handle her character. I never explicitly stated it though.

Yeah, but as you suggest there, I'd have explicitly said how bad ruining Asuka's character like that was, and how much it hurt the movie...

And of course I also thought that the final Shinji/10 fight was almost as bad as what was done to Asuka, visuals aside it was just so dumb.

See, it's just as I said.

What, that I pay attention to historical accuracy? Yeah, it's true.

I wish I could be as easy to please.

El Cazador's a decent to good show across the board, not something I would consider "for the easy to please" at all.

But none of these shows are any good.

Gosick's good, in my opinion. Flawed too, sure, at times, but good overall.

And most of these aren't any good except 12 Kingdoms, Ghost in the Shell and, I guess that's it. A few people talked about Speed Grapher's OP though after you posted, so people paid attention.

True, I didn't mean that nobody paid attention to all of them, I was just reminding you/myself of some of the stuff I'd watched in the past few months, some of which I, at least, certainly think was good.

That's definitely the issue, you're too easy to please.

And you're too hard to please, a lot of the time.

Why would it be the latter? I've never really defended any of Haurhi's cast, Asahina's insufferable, Haruhi's a bitch, Nagato's a lifeless robot and Kyon's just a normal dude who's alright but nothing special, I figured the fact I often have to resort to calling Tsuruya the best character said all that needed to be said concerning the regular cast.

Oh, okay. So you dislike them all.

IS

It's not that I'm a genius or the show telegraphed it but that, well, aside from genetics the only other reason why females would be the only ones normally capable of piloting one would be something like that so it was kinda a given.

I thought it'd just be a "just because" thing, done for the sake of the story and as likely as not never explained... but even if I had tried to think about why, I wouldn't have thought of that explanation.

Again, I really wouldn't nitpick that first part. I liken nakama to the word comrade which when used correctly isn't really a weak word, then again neither is friend when used correctly. I always bring up the One Piece crew when discussing nakama because I was involved in an argument where they don't think there's an English equivalent and that nakama is so powerful a word that any English translation does the word a disservice. I think that's bullshit, I think comrade fits just fine, the problem is not with the English vocabulary but the people of today, when used properly comrade has a very heavy meaning, it does place those people described as higher than friends or mere coworkers but then, depending on the person the word friend isn't exactly meaningless either. I guess it's this Myspace, Facebook generation where everyone has hundreds of friends that this generation no longer assigns any true value to a friend or comrade but they're not weak words at all.

I agree with you on that.

So the first scene made perfect sense, there was actually nothing wrong with it at all, nothing worth examining further, it worked, was as realistic as could be considering he was talking to a robot while unconscious .

As for him and Houki, again so what? It really means nothing with the way the show's written. He could probably have been written to do that with any of the girls had he been alone with them at that point, that's how weak the writing is and how useless I think it is to give a shit.

What, so because it's a bad show throughout I shouldn't complain when it does something stupidly bad? Why not mention it anyway, even if all it's doing is living up to expectations of quite low quality?

See, these set-ups are fucking garbage.

Indeed true.

Pretty sure she was telling the truth because she said so little.

Perhaps, it'll have to continue for us to know... but given how well the DVDs are selling, if that keeps up I'm betting on their being a season two, somewhat unfortunately.

Frankly though, since the show is done I think I'm done, no real sense in trying to figure out the world when it's over and not going to be revealed and neither, well I believe neither, of us are going to check up on the novels. I sure as fuck aren't.

You're right, I won't be looking up the novels either. But with those DVD sales...

Last Exile

Lol, since when is plot, character motivations, story and their execution unimportant?

They are important, and Last Exile does those things well. Though I liked the great visuals and style as well, I doubt I'd have liked it if I hadn't found the characters and story interesting as well. I did.

Well I did mention "the world" but seriously, you're not really selling why it deserves to be a show instead of an artbook from an artists.

Artbooks don't move, for one... the ship designs, the flying, the races, the fights, I liked all of those things. And the characters were varied (I liked the cast for sure, some of the characters are weird but it works) and the story interesting, too.

No, the motivation for the war between those two sides is fine, it's everything else.

What do you mean? Everything else happens because of the war, and the Guild. I thought it all fit together fairly well, confusion aside.

No, it's not. How do they fight? Hmm... How? Granted the other side had better routes to attack but you can't tell me that there was no other way. For starters they sent the treaty over on their equivalent of a bicycle. Absurd.

Further, by the end of the show they had a shitload of ships that were doing just fine up there, how many years now have thy had ships that could cross the stream? Who knows but I can tell you they never again tried to deliver the message. Of course you could say that that was because of new leadership on their part that didn't want peace, but, fuck it.
It's actually not really a big issue just standard Gonzo fucking around.

But the new leaderships on both sides didn't want peace, yes? If they'd wanted to try for peace again, sure, perhaps they'd have tried. Why didn't they? In part because of what I said about their motivations for war, in part so that there'd be a story. Stories often have more action than real life, after all, but they did a good enough job of explaining why it was happening, while also keeping up the fast pace of the events, that in my opinion it worked. It was just a good series, not the best anime ever certainly but good. The world probably is the best thing about it, but the rest of it's mostly good too.

But did he know about Guild before that part? I think not. His whole motivation was silly.

He knew more about the Guild than most people, he did have that Guild escapee guy on his ship (in the engine room) for example...

The ending was garbage man. Garbage.

No, it was quite confusing, but satisfying once you understand it and a fitting end for the series that fit perfectly with the plot. I was confused, sure, but even so thought the ending was at least decent.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

I can't wait to watch Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer, though, because I have a feeling that's where Oshii got awesome. I mean, Angel's Egg and Twilight Q came right after it. So I hope for lots of weird symbolism. Preferably related to giant flying carp.

I can't recall any flying carp, but you definitely have lots of weird symbolism to look forward to.

 

[Geneijin]

IS sales - So IS vol. 1 blew away everything else? Japan obviously knows quality when they see it!

Seriously though, why would anyone spend that much money on a show that bad...

Must have been the mecha musume fans.

 

[Risette]

Winter 2010/11 was pretty bad in terms of quantity but it wasn't a bad season. Wandering Son was fucking excellent and I thought Level E was pretty good too.

Now Summer 2010, that was shitty.

 

[iavi]

I haven't seen K-ON, so I can't comment on that show. But sometimes when you're looking to relax it's nice to watch a simple but well-executed show in which nothing "happens" but the characters and the things they do are enjoyable to watch. Charm can be the point. I hate sexualized pandering as much as the next sensible person, but there is room for innocent slice-of-life shows.

Eh, it's not a narrative that interests me. I'd much rather watch a mature slice-of-life like "Ristorante Paradiso."

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "mature into something more", but I think children can be the focal points of interesting narratives even if they don't later advance in age. There are a ton of examples I could list, but Grave of the Fireflies leaps immediately to mind.

"Enders Game" is my third favorite book of all time, and it's nothing but kids, but they're kids for a reason. Madoka, funnily enough, actually covers it's ass in that regard with kyubei's explanation.

 

[Uchip]

Eh, it's not a narrative that interests me. I'd much rather watch a mature slice-of-life like "Ristorante Paradiso."



"Enders Game" is my third favorite book of all time, and it's nothing but kids, but they're kids for a reason. Madoka, funnily enough, actually covers it's ass in that regard with kyubei's explanation.

hes right though
girls that age are emotional as fuck

 

[Branduil]

Dororon Enma-kun 01

Very well produced, as expected of Brains Base. Not sure I'll keep watching though, the story itself doesn't seem too interesting.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Winter 2010 Anime Thread: Wandering Son & All the Other Crap

But it also had Madoka and Level E. Most of the rest wasn't worth talking about, but the season was pretty good overall for giving us those shows. It just looks like this season is going to massively eclipse it.

 

[firehawk12]

Oh right, I should watch the rest of that show... it was pretty good, as far as I got. And yeah, that is a cute song.

Might as well watch the ending anyway!

---

Maria Holic Alive. This is probably the worst Shaft show I've seen. Bad OP, boring direction, horrible story. Wow. I feel like I bought a set of "awesome" speakers from a guy in a parking lot and just found out I got scammed.

Maybe their animators are still working on Madoka, so they didn't try... and maybe this show will at least look better next week!

 

[Jex]

Winter 2010/11 was pretty bad in terms of quantity but it wasn't a bad season. Wandering Son was fucking excellent and I thought Level E was pretty good too.

Now Summer 2010, that was shitty.

That's was a real bad season.

 

[Branduil]

Was there a single good show in Summer 2010?

 

[Dresden]

Yeah, definitely the best season since '07.

And if Ano Hana and [C] are good, I dunno, things might get a little crazy.

Was there a single good show in Summer 2010?

senba2

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I gotta get caught up with Steins;Gate. When does EKKSU-MEN air? And when will Moshidora start?

 

[firehawk12]

Was there a single good show in Summer 2010?

I'm still curious about Osaka Hamlet, simply because I know nothing about it.

Also, Spring 2010 was awesome:

OoFuri S2, Giant Killing, K-On!!, Arakawa 1, Working!!, Mayoi Neko Overrun and for you crazies, Tatami Galaxy.

 

[dimb]

Maria Holic Alive. This is probably the worst Shaft show I've seen. Bad OP, boring direction, horrible story. Wow. I feel like I bought a set of "awesome" speakers from a guy in a parking lot and just found out I got scammed.

Maybe their animators are still working on Madoka, so they didn't try... and maybe this show will at least look better next week!

I think it was a first episode only OP to hopelessly acclimate newcomers.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Was there a single good show in Summer 2010?

Digimon Xros Wars. Although it didn't really become good/great until the fall/winter seasons were in swing, so I'm not sure if that counts.

 

[Lafiel]

As far as this decade goes for anime it's actually off to a pretty good start, if you consider the fact that 2000 and 2001 (apart from the films) weren't very good years for anime at all.

2010 at least has tatami galaxy, panty & stocking, kuragehime, soredemo, house of five leaves which is more quality anime television series than what 2001 had.

Was there a single good show in Summer 2010?

Shiki? but it supposedly didn't get good until the season ended.

 

[iavi]

and for you crazies, Tatami Galaxy.

Crazy cool people. Tatami Galaxy was the best show that I had seen in a long ass time. It even had a rewarding ending to boot!

 

[Articalys]

For everyone who watched Spice and Wolf, how's the dub? I'd rather watch it in HD through Netflix but if the sub's better I'll settle for the version on Funi's Youtube channel.

In other news S&P2 was fun, but crazy hard, even on Normal. You don't just throw someone into a danmaku setting without a clear idea of where the hitbox is!

 

[Jex]

Was there a single good show in Summer 2010?

Shiki. But there wasn't even another show I'd consider good.

I didn't even bother watching Shiki during that summer, because I didn't like the opening episodes (very slow), so at the time there were zero shows that I was keeping up with.

 

[firehawk12]

I think it was a first episode only OP to hopelessly acclimate newcomers.

The song was fine. I even liked it. But for a Shaft OP? That was a fucking Power Point slide show.

And heck, the episode itself was rather bland as well.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

Eh, it's not a narrative that interests me. I'd much rather watch a mature slice-of-life like "Ristorante Paradiso."

"Enders Game" is my third favorite book of all time, and it's nothing but kids, but they're kids for a reason. Madoka, funnily enough, actually covers it's ass in that regard with kyubei's explanation.

I see your points here, and much of it comes down to different strokes for different people. I think the special innocence of childhood is something that can make youth slice-of-life shows worth watching as opposed to adult ones, though I like those as well. I think your second point does touch on a valid point, though it's not exclusive to children: a good narrative must have a thoughtfully chosen protagonist. A bad show will put a 14-year old in a situation more appropriate for a 24-year old to pander to its audience's tastes; a good show, such as, as you point out, Madoka, will put a 14-year old in a appropriate situation and take into account how someone of that age will react.

 

[Lafiel]

For everyone who watched Spice and Wolf, how's the dub? I'd rather watch it in HD through Netflix but if the sub's better I'll settle for the version on Funi's Youtube channel.

I haven't watched the dub, but as people have said before the VA of the original voice track is SO DAMN GOOD (for the two leads at least) that i somehow doubt any dub could match it.

 

[Jex]

The song was fine. I even liked it. But for a Shaft OP? That was a fucking Power Point slide show.

And heck, the episode itself was rather bland as well.

Sounds like SHAFT all right.

 

[Crash Station]

Mai-Hime 10

Yay, cake episode! Totally knew that dude was a chick.

 

[firehawk12]

Crazy cool people. Tatami Galaxy was the best show that I had seen in a long ass time. It even had a rewarding ending to boot!

I see Tatami Galaxy as being similar to Madoka, insomuch as it is perfect panderbait for the "monocle nerds".

I enjoyed it, but it definitely didn't live up to the hype.

Sounds like SHAFT all right.

You wound me good sir.

I suppose it "hurts" more since this is the first time I've been actively disappointed with a Shaft show.

 

[mAcOdIn]

What, that I pay attention to historical accuracy? Yeah, it's true.

Lol, I think these things lose their purpose weeks later. I was saying that while I'd make fun of some lame panty fan service that I'd get a reply back stating how it's perfectly valid fan service because underwear has a special meaning and you'd take the explanation all the way back to the Edo period, as you're wont to do. It was a joke.

True, I didn't mean that nobody paid attention to all of them, I was just reminding you/myself of some of the stuff I'd watched in the past few months, some of which I, at least, certainly think was good.

One day I'm going to fix your tastes, I swear this to you, I will fix you somehow, someway.

And you're too hard to please, a lot of the time.

It's like I'm being nagged, lol.

Oh, okay. So you dislike them all.

Pretty much, I actually like Kyon but he can't carry a series by himself so I was hoping that there'd be some character growth among the cast to make the series more enjoyable, aside from Nagato ditching the glasses and wanting to fuck with some computers every once in a while and Haruhi throwing a blanket over Kyon there was none so I wrote the series off.
IS

I thought it'd just be a "just because" thing, done for the sake of the story and as likely as not never explained... but even if I had tried to think about why, I wouldn't have thought of that explanation.

It was either genetics, some type of magic/soul shit or the carrot girl designed the "bottom" part of the robot that goes near the crotch in such a manner it crushes a guy's balls, I can see the last thing not being a problem for Ichika though.

What, so because it's a bad show throughout I shouldn't complain when it does something stupidly bad? Why not mention it anyway, even if all it's doing is living up to expectations of quite low quality?

What I mean is it was always inconsistent with the characters so to pick a single instance of it happening is kinda missing the point.

Perhaps, it'll have to continue for us to know... but given how well the DVDs are selling, if that keeps up I'm betting on their being a season two, somewhat unfortunately.

I know you're actually anxiously awaiting it.
Last Exile

They are important, and Last Exile does those things well. Though I liked the great visuals and style as well, I doubt I'd have liked it if I hadn't found the characters and story interesting as well. I did.

I just have to disagree with that.

What do you mean? Everything else happens because of the war, and the Guild. I thought it all fit together fairly well, confusion aside.

Everything in the present, the present almost made sense it's the past that makes no sense and since the past makes no sense in a way neither does their present.

But the new leaderships on both sides didn't want peace, yes? If they'd wanted to try for peace again, sure, perhaps they'd have tried. Why didn't they? In part because of what I said about their motivations for war, in part so that there'd be a story. Stories often have more action than real life, after all, but they did a good enough job of explaining why it was happening, while also keeping up the fast pace of the events, that in my opinion it worked. It was just a good series, not the best anime ever certainly but good. The world probably is the best thing about it, but the rest of it's mostly good too.

But that's the thing, their new leadership didn't want peace. Did the old king die the day after the treaty failed to make it across? It's just silly. Because of how screwed up the past was the present became silly. For instance they were pretty much always against Guild from the start yet Guild didn't really become the bad guys until the two sides made peace and tried to work together but since that happens so late in the series the conflict is pretty much because Alex was mad and wanted revenge because the Queen was a bitch. They also did a poor job with the other side, who seemingly never pushed for peace and during the first battle we were shown basically cheated but by the end they're trying to paint them as equals but when it comes to the Guild they basically are ready to commit genocide. And I know it's partly because it's an anime but it really gets silly when they basically shoehorn ways to let the kid handle super important tasks into the story just so it can also be some coming of age story like that stupid ending where they're basically doing a relay.

He knew more about the Guild than most people, he did have that Guild escapee guy on his ship (in the engine room) for example...

So he did.

No, it was quite confusing, but satisfying once you understand it and a fitting end for the series that fit perfectly with the plot. I was confused, sure, but even so thought the ending was at least decent.

No, it wasn't confusing it was convoluted garbage that you can't 100% understand without some kind of wiki. You can get the gist, who lives, who dies and you get a sense of the political structure at the end along with who goes with who but it was typical Gonzo nonsense. Characters that are last seen doing something that should have resulted in their deaths show up alive at the end, cough

Spoiler

the musketeer and Dio

, lots of flashy unexplained shit and then the little wrap up that I'm supposed to pretend was done competently.

mac, you sound like you need a hug or something.

I just asked my Windows 7 partition to take me back, she did and I have sound, I'll never stray again.

For everyone who watched Spice and Wolf, how's the dub? I'd rather watch it in HD through Netflix but if the sub's better I'll settle for the version on Funi's Youtube channel.

I personally don't like Holo's voice but that's a hard thing to be impartial about since you're usually going to associate a characters voice with the first one you hear. But I would say the sub is best.

 

[dimb]

The song was fine. I even liked it. But for a Shaft OP? That was a fucking Power Point slide show.

And heck, the episode itself was rather bland as well.

It's not going to be the same song or animation for the actual OP. I think (read:hope). They've released the OP song, and it's decent but doesn't stand up to the original.

 

[Hellsing321]

Dororon Enma-Kun
Loved it! The boob spinning monster was terrifying.

 

[Jex]

I see Tatami Galaxy as being similar to Madoka, insomuch as it is perfect panderbait for the "monocle nerds".

I enjoyed it, but it definitely didn't live up to the hype.

You're right, it certainly wasn't an Endless Eight.

 

[Lafiel]

I enjoyed it, but it definitely didn't live up to the hype.

I could say something to this but it would repeating yet a another point of discussion.... oh i see jexhius has beat me to that.

That said tatami galaxy was the show that really restored my faith in anime as a medium, as i was finding myself bored as hell with anime during the time tatami galaxy was airing.:lol

Plus it is a generally excellent show with a solid ending.

 

[firehawk12]

It's not going to be the same song or animation for the actual OP. I think (read:hope). They've released the OP song, and it's decent but doesn't stand up to the original.

Oh, I know, the song has the glorious and angelic voice of Yuu Kobayashi. But if the show itself is blah, it's all wasted.

Maybe if the show was completely about Mariya, I could at least trick myself into liking it unconditionally...

You're right, it certainly wasn't an Endless Eight.

I still think you guys are all hypocrites on that issue, but whatever. :lol

 

[Uchip]

I didnt know much about madoka and it looked retarded from the pics and trailer
maybe thats why I enjoyed it so much

 

[iavi]

I see your points here, and much of it comes down to different strokes for different people. I think the special innocence of childhood is something that can make youth slice-of-life shows worth watching as opposed to adult ones, though I like those as well.

That's true. And no judging here, but I don't care for it, and will admit that it irritates me to see it leading the charts, regardless of quality.

I see Tatami Galaxy as being similar to Madoka, insomuch as it is perfect panderbait for the "monocle nerds".

I enjoyed it, but it definitely didn't live up to the hype.

I knew nothing about it going in. That probably helped in my case, def.