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[trejo]

Hidan no Aria 5

This is so wonderfully terribad I couldn't even begin to describe it. Some masterful trolling just adds to the experience.

Apparently, there's much more to look forward to. I can't wait.

 

[Izayoi]

Ano Hana 5. Poppo is such a bro. Poor guy. ;_; Why can't everyone in the show be like him? Instead of all this stupid wangst and shit.

 

[jman2050]

This is all you need to know about Hidan no Aria 5

 

[firehawk12]

Ano Hana 5. Poppo is such a bro. Poor guy. ;_; Why can't everyone in the show be like him? Instead of all this stupid wangst and shit.

Then it'd be boring!

You are Umasou
it was good, but you guys overhyped it to hell
dun bluths movie is still far superior even now

Good for animu, surely!

 

[Unknown One]

Defeats the point of being a melodrama anime if everybody was like Poppo and we don't even know if he's damaged like the rest yet, same with Tsuruko.

 

[A Black Falcon]

Angel Cop 4-6 - Better than the first three episodes for sure, but still this series was seriously flawed. So much pointless, poorly thought through exposition, everyone has to do long speeches before they do anything. The action is reasonably decently done, but it could have been a lot better than this.

Also, the plot's really messed up. By the end almost everyone turns out to be evil --

Spoiler

Communists, Terrorists, Americans, the Japanese government, and regular police/army, the American government, Capitalism, and in the original Japanese version Jews too (Jews obeying American orders that is, which is angry at Japan for its great economic success -- Japan must be stopped, its economic power is too strong!). The main villains, ultimately, are the capitalists and politicians, who were using both the other Americans and Japanese for their own money-grubbing ends. By the end almost everyone else except for Angel and Asura (if that was his name) is evil. The villains are all killed, but so are most of the (few) good guys, too; there aren't many left at the end. Combine that with all of the badly thought through speeches and yeah, what a nice ending.

Also, Angel's character change -- she goes from completely uncaring and tough in ep. 1 to weak and barely able to shoot in the end of ep. 6 -- wasn't good. She was made way, way too weak. But that seems to have been something changed from the original manga; several major plot elements were changed, in fact.

Spoiler

Apparently in the manga, Freya and Asura never switch sides, they stay evil. Raiden doesn't become a cyborg, Angel does instead. And Angel kills Freya, Asura, and Lucifer, instead of Freya and Asura switching sides and Lucifer killing Freya, and then cyborg-Raiden and Angel together killing Lucifer.

As it is the anime version works, I do like the change to make Freya and Asura good -- unless there are characters not in the anime, Asura's nice to have around at the end as he's pretty much the only other living goodguy -- but I do wish they'd kept a somewhat better Angel in, the series is named after her after all. Oh well.

Hidan no Aria 05 - This show is so, so bad... how in the world was he able to land a plane like that? Someone who's never controlled a plane before, able to land it decently well enough, and with no help from a tower (because the government had given up on the plane and was trying to either get it to ditch in the sea or was going to blow it up with missiles; wait, wasn't this a charter with rich people on board? Wouldn't the government care about protecting such people? Um, that's kind of hard to explain...)? Yeah, that's likely.

Overall, evil girl is by far the best of the three female characters. She's the only one who isn't very annoying a lot of the time. Aria does have some good moments -- the parts about her mother and sad backstory show her sympathetic side -- but she's so annoying the rest of the time that it more than cancels out. And the third girl is somewhat yandere.

It probably does have better action scenes, but overall no way is this any competition for IS. That show's just so much more fun than this, Aria's just bad.

Sorcerer Hunters OVA 1-3 (all) - So much fanservice, particularly in episode 1... this knew why it exists, for sure. Overall, it was fun enough. There were some pretty funny moments, I enjoyed it most of the time.

Oh, yeah, there's that too. I kinda meant more substantial changes than "oh, it's in color now."

Substantial plot-wise, I mean. I guess.

You're probably right about the animation too, but I wouldn't really notice little things like that since it's been months since the last episode aired.

The animation definitely was better, in addition to the added color. And I think there were some more little bits added as well.

I was never really attached to any of the characters, but it was definitely a happier ending, yeah.

Definitely, and I like the change.

Spoiler

I don't remember anything being said about a seal (Jubei's attack looked pretty fatal to me), but she says they'll be back in a few hundred years, and it's not like antagonists ever bluff about something like that, so I don't really know what else it leaves.

Spoiler

Yeah, even though it isn't explained much at all, I do think that the most likely explanation is that they were sealed away again, given what she says...

It's on my to watch list, as soon as I have more time!

Good, you should watch it (Milky Holmes).

I like Kinji because he isn't a dumb, obtuse idiot (so far at least, he can still be one and I'll hate him). The usual harem lead? I disagree. Usually harem leads are more inept than Kinji's been so far. He just seems unwilling to get involved too much with stuff, which is the way he acts with Aria too. He complains to himself, shuts her up one way or another and goes on with his life. Completely tolerable for me.

Ichika is abnormal in the sense that he is either gay or just a siscon who isn't able to see past his nose unless his sister is in front of him. He was insufferable for me because of his obtuseness, just as the whole female cast was insufferable as they kept going after a guy that didn't seem to understand the difference between men and women.

Aria isn't worse than IS (for me) simply because so far, past the ridiculousness of the plot and the silly premises, it has been funny to follow, has only shown 2 girls interested in the lead, of which 1 romantically (and for some reason I get the feeling this one is with the bad guys as well), the other just as a "partner in crime" (this will change of course, but until then, completely tolerable) and even though Aria is somewhat annoying, she's still more bearable than Ichika's childhood friend(s) thanks to the way Kinji handles her (in a way, some of his actions in regards to her remind me of Kyon, with his "not interested" behavior), even though she's voiced by goddess Rie Kugimiya, imitator of tortured cats at large.

I watched all of IS, and hated myself for it, because I found it awful AND boring, yet I've watched 4 episodes of Aria and while it's bad, it's an amusing bad. It gets me to laugh at the obviously retarded stuff (like the reveals in episode 4, of which the bloodlines are just the smallest thing, the link between Riko and Kinji's brother is even more amusing, if he really is Riko's boyfriend, because, since she didn't use the past tense, would make him alive and with the bad guys. Absurdity at every corner) while still giving some cool, doubly over the top moments (sniping from helicopter).

Aria's female cast is mostly so much worse than IS's, though... and Aria's more just awful, it doesn't have the charmingly terribly thought through stuff IS does like the broken continuity, the plot holes, the atrocious writing (okay, it has some of that, but not quite as bad), etc, etc... the action scenes aside Aria's mostly just pretty bad stuff.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

This is all you need to know about Hidan no Aria 5

I need to start watching this show. Any show where a girl's clothes transform into her parachute demands my attention!

 

[Izayoi]

This is all you need to know about Hidan no Aria 5

http://i56.tinypic.com/2s9u6c8.gif[img][/QUOTE]
I'm dying here.

[QUOTE=Crakatak187]Defeats the point of being a melodrama anime if everybody was like Poppo and we don't even know if he's damaged like the rest yet, same with Tsuruko.[/QUOTE]
4chan thinks that his "trips" around the world are actually delusions, and he's lived in that shack ever since Menma died. They think he's been rendered completely delusional by her death.

Personally, I just think he's awesome and that we need more guys like him in anime.

 

[Unknown One]

It does seems like he is escaping the harshness of reality. He can't keep it up, one day it's going to come crashing down.

 

[Branduil]

Ano Hana 5

What distractingly bad train CGI.

Anaru's friends are so, so terrible.

 

[Lain]

This is all you need to know about Hidan no Aria 5

http://i56.tinypic.com/2s9u6c8.gif

Can't wait to watch the episode!!!

 

[Crash Station]

C 5

You would think the downfall of a major pharmaceutical company would affect more than 10,000 lives.

This was a great episode. Little by little, I'm starting to get a grasp of how the Deals work. I really do hope this does well since the universe has a lot of potential and would be wasted on a one season series. A sequel with a tournament arc or a game would be awesome.

 

[firehawk12]

Angel Cop 4-6: mostly a waste of time because of the exposition. I want to believe that the translation was horrible, but oh well. :lol

Sorcerer Hunters: nothing worse than a harem that tries to take itself too seriously. It decided to get all mono no aware for some reason.

Ano Hana 5: a nice little resolution to the conflict. I guess even Japanese teens know that the only way to deal with grief and conflict is to bury it deep inside and ignore it until it festers and explodes... and even then, you just pretend it never happened and hide the same.
I guess now that the two big characters are fixed, they'll work on kuudere girl and Poppo the bro, before fixing Jintan and giving us the mono no aware happy ending.

I also suppose there's still some debate about Menma's ghostiness or ghosthood or whatever. I think they've kept it ambiguous enough that they don't want to play their hand yet, even though they're half way through. I'm more inclined to believe that they want you to think she's a ghost after the events of episode 5, but there's still enough doubt that I wouldn't be surprised if this was a subconscious hallucination and he was having a nervous breakdown or something. There are way too many times when they avoid confirming that she's a ghost and it feels like they're setting up for a big gotcha!!!! reveal at the end when they explain how she wasn't a ghost at all.

I'd be happy with that actually, if they wanted to say something about mental illness and coping strategies.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

A new avvy for me...at least until the K-ON! movie airs. Whenever that will be.

 

[kiryogi]

A new avvy for me...at least until the K-ON! movie airs. Whenever that will be.

Ohana is definitely very approved avatar material!

 

[Lafiel]

C 5
I really do hope this does well since the universe has a lot of potential and would be wasted on a one season series. A sequel with a tournament arc or a game would be awesome.

Eh even if the series did extremely well, i really doubt it would get a sequel of any kind, especially since it's likely going end in a manner that doesn't open it up for a sequel.

Which is good, give me a tight 11-episode series anyday over a story spanning multiple seasons.

Plus i rather see Nakamura work on something more interesting than this next.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Ano Hana 5

What distractingly bad train CGI.

Anaru's friends are so, so terrible.

yeah, I don't really get the concept she's so "go with the flow" as to just hang out with the worst people ever, to the point of letting her hang out with rapists.

 

[Shouta]

Sorcerer Hunters: nothing worse than a harem that tries to take itself too seriously. It decided to get all mono no aware for some reason.

You mean most Harem series?

Sorcerer Hunters, the TV series, was pretty fun. I absolutely love Episode 5, always the first one to stick out for me from it.

 

[firehawk12]

yeah, I don't really get the concept she's so "go with the flow" as to just hang out with the worst people ever, to the point of letting her hang out with rapists.

It's like when you drink shitty beer just because everyone else is drinking around you. Or maybe that's just me. :lol

You mean most Harem series?

Yeah, I suppose most harems go for the sentimental in order to humanize the protagonist and make him less of a douchebag.

I think it's going from an episode all about tits to a boring adventure episode and then a boring sentimental episode was what made the tone shift very pronounced.

 

[Angry Grimace]

It's like when you drink shitty beer just because everyone else is drinking around you. Or maybe that's just me. :lol


Yeah, I suppose most harems go for the sentimental in order to humanize the protagonist and make him less of a douchebag.

I think it's going from an episode all about tits to a boring adventure episode and then a boring sentimental episode was what made the tone shift very pronounced.

I think I'm supposed to hate Anjou more than I do. I kinda hope it works out for her and Jinta stops being such a loser.

 

[firehawk12]

I think I'm supposed to hate Anjou more than I do. I kinda hope it works out for her and Jinta stops being such a loser.

Funny, I find her to be the most sympathetic character of the cast so far.

 

[zerokoolpsx]

Ano Hana 5 - Anaru's friends really are screwed up. She's hanging with the wrong crowd and hopefully ditches them next episode. Wished the dialogue on the train was longer, so we can peer more into both their characters.

 

[Lafiel]

Anne of green gables 1 - The scene where Anne is going through the "White valley of delight" felt so much like takahata's signature "magical realism" style, so awesome. I think I'm going love the series, especially if they are more breathtaking moments like that over the course of it's run, plus it's so classy in terms of atmosphere and mood.

Anne is pretty moe to~

 

[jump_button]

Ano Hana 5

geez all of them are fucked up apart from the big guy but then i have a feeling he not move on at all he still the same as he was, so he could have somthing deeper and darker then all of them

 

[Steroyd]

Ano Hana - 05

hur hur hur anal rape... Just dump those sluts already Anaru. There's going with the flow and there's that.

Seems we saw a little crack in Poppo as well.

 

[TheOddOne]

Ano Hana 5 - Anaru's friends really are screwed up. She's hanging with the wrong crowd and hopefully ditches them next episode. Wished the dialogue on the train was longer, so we can peer more into both their characters.

I think they hinted that with her buying new clothes.

 

[Jex]

Angel Cop 4 - Pain

Explosives and bullets are surprisingly ineffective against psychics. Lolis die slowly.

Also, fanservice. Everyone wins! Apart from most of the cast, who were brutally exploded.

"Fuck and piss."

Angel Cop 5

Wow. This is definetely the climax of the show, both in terms of the animation, action and general craziness. Raiden vs. everyone in a largely insane series of awesome battles.

"You've underestimated the power of Japanese technology!"


Angel Cop 6

A serious of weak combat encounters coupled with a ridiculous amount of exposition(as in, Metal Gear Solid level, but more so) and some fairly dodgy animation.

"If this is justice, then I'm a banana".

What more can I say about Angel Cop? What a truly nutty set of episodes. Sayonara, asshole.

 

[HamPster PamPster]

Finally some free time Last night the wife was asleep, the kid was asleep, the dog was asleep and I actually had some energy left!

Hulu, Crunchyroll and Netflix all right at my fingertips. So many unwatched shows to pick from!

... so I watched the first episode of Pumpkin Scissors again even though I've seen the series like twice

HOW ABOUT A SEASON 2

 

[Jex]

You are Umasou
it was good, but you guys overhyped it to hell
dun bluths movie is still far superior even now

I disagree! Rock-a-doodle and A Troll in Central Park are not superior products.

 

[trejo]

Denpa Onna 5

MILF Ami-chan is so wonderfully insane. I love pretty much every scene she's in. And hot damn does she age well.

Erio, on the other hand, is a much worse character whenever she doesn't have a futon wrapped around her. It's like they're really trying their damnedest to drive the point home that she's awkward and has trouble readjusting to society but she comes across as nothing but an obnoxiously retarded moeblob, or more of one, that is. At least her crazy antics were amusing when in the futon. Meh.

Ano Hana 5

Well that little plot point sure was taken care of in a flash. And great friends you got there Anaru, you dumbass. Tsuruko is now the best character in this show.

I want to believe in Poppo's broness but I think we saw a bit of a chink in his defenses this episode. Could be he's the worst of 'em all. Who knows?

I disagree! Rock-a-doodle and A Troll in Central Park are not superior products.

I think he's referring to Land Before Time specifically, which I have to agree is still the far superior movie, much as I like Umasou.

 

[Jex]

So, now everyone is talking on the latest AWO about how Redline is this generations Akira. I hate them all.

 

[trejo]

So, now everyone is talking on the latest AWO about how Redline is this generations Akira. I hate them all.

See, now I'm going to be disappointed when no one in the film yells "TETSUUUOOO" or when I'm able to tell characters apart by their faces. Thanks a lot for that.

 

[Jex]

Denpa 5

It's kind of odd that this guy wants to go after his damaged cousin and not his fine aunt. Didn't think I'd ever have to write that.

This show sure is creepy.

 

[Crash Station]

Eh even if the series did extremely well, i really doubt it would get a sequel of any kind, especially since it's likely going end in a manner that doesn't open it up for a sequel.

Which is good, give me a tight 11-episode series anyday over a story spanning multiple seasons.

Plus i rather see Nakamura work on something more interesting than this next.

I understand that mindset, but this world is just begging for an expanded universe even if Nakamura has nothing to do with the subsequent products. I want mah money Yu-gi-oh game :C

 

[Jex]

Anno Hana 5

Well now that it's been confirmed that

Spoiler

Menma is a real ghost that line of discussion can be safely closed. Not that there was any real doubt.

Anaru has some good friends.

 

[Cwarrior]

Ano Hana 5

"oh yeah but what about one piece?" ...."one piece air the day after tomorrow"......dun dun dun
Stop acting dumb girl and get out of there,
Well that's what happens anaru,when your such an attention whore.

jinta might aswell relay menma message everyone already things your a crazy anyways so no reason to hold back.

Seem like everyone going take goes on saying they killed menma, have a feeling poppo going top them in crazy by ending up as the one who really killed menma.

lol on anaru for hatein on a dead girl

 

[Infinite Justice]

checked out the Koe de Oshigoto manga and LOL that mode is serious business.

will watch the OVA's later

 

[firehawk12]

Anno Hana 5

Well now that it's been confirmed that

Spoiler

Menma is a real ghost that line of discussion can be safely closed. Not that there was any real doubt.

Don't see it. I can still see some

Spoiler

Sixth Sense/Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

shit going on at the end based on how they've directed/written the scenes involving Menma.

Anne of green gables 1 - The scene where Anne is going through the "White valley of delight" felt so much like takahata's signature "magical realism" style, so awesome. I think I'm going love the series, especially if they are more breathtaking moments like that over the course of it's run, plus it's so classy in terms of atmosphere and mood.

Anne is pretty moe to~

I can only imagine how they would represent PEI. :lol
Assuming they did a straight adaptation though, you may be in for an interesting ride... but then again, I guess you've already seen a movie version.

 

[trejo]

If Menma really is a ghost then it'd be the easiest thing in the world for Jintan to prove it by asking her to grab something in front of everyone or have her tell him more things about everyone else he couldn't possibly know by himself or a bunch of other stuff. But I guess that'd just make way too much sense.

 

[firehawk12]

If Menma really is a ghost then it'd be the easiest thing in the world for Jintan to prove it by asking her to grab something in front of everyone or have her tell him more things about everyone else he couldn't possibly know by himself or a bunch of other stuff. But I guess that'd just make way too much sense.

That too. Of course, the handwavey thing to suggest is that he doesn't believe she's a ghost, so it never occurs to him to actually talk to her in front of the others.

 

[Jex]

Don't see it. I can still see some

Spoiler

Sixth Sense/Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

shit going on at the end based on how they've directed/written the scenes involving Menma.

Huh?

Spoiler

Jintan told Yuki something that only Menma would know about, the hairclip. You think Jintan just made that up on that spot? He only knows about it because Menma told him right there.

Before you could argue,

Spoiler

at a stretch, that it was ambiguous. Now you're actively reading against what the text is presenting you.

For some reason, the episode didn't do anything with that important revelation and went straight into Anaru stuff.

 

[firehawk12]

Huh?

Spoiler

Jintan told Yuki something that only Menma would know about, the hairclip. You think Jintan just made that up on that spot? He only knows about it because Menma told him right there.

Before you could argue,

Spoiler

at a stretch, that it was ambiguous. Now you're actively reading against what the text is presenting you.

For some reason, the episode didn't do anything with that important revelation and went straight into Anaru stuff.

I was talking to Geneijin about this yesterday on IRC and

Spoiler

I noted how they went out of their way to avoid clearly showing Menma telling Jintan what to say. You don't hear her whisper and it's mostly implied that she relayed information to him.

My argument is that it's possible that at some point in the past, he could have had that memory in his subconscious and pulled it out at the right moment.

They're trying their best not to be definitive, which means they're being coy for a reason. That said, it's possible that they're trying to troll the speculah guys and the Occam's Razor solution is the right one after all.

 

[Steroyd]

I was talking to Geneijin about this yesterday on IRC and

Spoiler

I noted how they went out of their way to avoid clearly showing Menma telling Jintan what to say. You don't hear her whisper and it's mostly implied that she relayed information to him.

My argument is that it's possible that at some point in the past, he could have had that memory in his subconscious and pulled it out at the right moment.

They're trying their best not to be definitive, which means they're being coy for a reason. That said, it's possible that they're trying to troll the speculah guys and the Occam's Razor solution is the right one after all.

At what point would Jintan have such a memory though, Menma was chasing after him, and it's to be believed that they all splitted up after menma's death so that type of information wouldn't have got to Jinta.

 

[firehawk12]

At what point would Jintan have such a memory though, Menma was chasing after him, and it's to be believed that they all splitted up after menma's death so that type of information wouldn't have got to Jinta.

We don't know. Hell, it could have come up at the funeral and they're working their way up to a flashback reveal.

 

[Jex]

I was talking to Geneijin about this yesterday on IRC and

Spoiler

I noted how they went out of their way to avoid clearly showing Menma telling Jintan what to say. You don't hear her whisper and it's mostly implied that she relayed information to him.

My argument is that it's possible that at some point in the past, he could have had that memory in his subconscious and pulled it out at the right moment.

It seems like they largely did that because it kept the pacing in that scene moving, which was important for the mood. Especially if she's going to say something and he's going to repeat it, it's just a waste of time for them to show it twice. These things are only 22 minutes long, after all.

Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be any way that Jintan knew about this particular event, for reasons to do with chronology, i.e. he was going in the other direction. If we assume that only Yuki and Tsukiwhatever knew about this item, it seems odd that Jintan would find out about it as well, then forget where he learnt it so that he could spontaneously recall it in a tough spot without knowing why he knew it. That just sounds ridiculous.

You really do have to bend over backwards to get to that conclusion and infer lots of other stuff in direct opposition to what we've been told.

 

[firehawk12]

How is a ghost any less ridiculous though? Unless we assume that ghosts are real?

I don't know, I'm not married to the hallucination idea, I just see how they've directed and written the scenes in a way that purposefully leaves it ambiguous. Either Menma is trolling or Jintan is trolling and even at the end of the fifth episode, they've chosen to keep it ambiguous.

 

[Instro]

Ano Hana ep.5

The hairclip bit was pretty interesting, perhaps thats the way Jintan will be able to convince everyone about Menma, by telling them things only Menma would know.

Anaru has to ditch her shitty friends.

C ep.5

Another solid episode, although I'm confused as to how he managed to bring some ramen to the financial district.

 

[Jex]

I believe it was ambiguous up until this episode, where they decided to make it fairly clear what was going on through use of 'privileged information' (we might call this the first argument, because it's the strongest). I don't feel that the scene was executed in a particularly ambitious manner either.

I might also argue that this event is part of a long chain of events which have hinted at Menma being a ghost. However, it doesn't take long to see why this secondary argument holds no water.

Finally, I don't find it to be particularly odd to have a ghost in a Japanese story.

 

[Hellsing321]

That too. Of course, the handwavey thing to suggest is that he doesn't believe she's a ghost, so it never occurs to him to actually talk to her in front of the others.

He still talks about her as a "summer beast" so he still seems to think its just a hallucination of his.

 

[Instro]

I dont see how she couldn't be a ghost, if she were a delusion then she wouldn't be able to travel around town without Jintan around.