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[Narag]

I'm at a really weird point in my life right now where I need to reevaluate what my goals are, and what the hell I'm supposed to do. I've cut off as many distractions as possible in order to focus.

I won't be around.

Hope you get stuff sorted out, man.

 

[Narag]

Hyouge Mono 1

Well this sure seems classy. There's something compelling in watching another's obsession being balanced against his duties.

 

[Awful Falafel]

I haven't watched any Precure, and Sailor Moon is something I haven't seen in a very long time, so I don't feel comfortable commenting on either.

Utena and CCS on the other hand are fairly recent watches for me, and I feel comfortable recommending either of them. They have their slow, not so great moments, but I think both shows are absolute requirements.

I'm not very familiar with Magical Girl as a genre, but if you're looking for thrilling action, Heartcatch is as good as it gets.
I reckon all of those are good, but for extremely different reasons.

Heartcatch is VERY girly, to the point of them using stuff like makeup and perfume to transform. If you're fine with that, go for Heartcatch Precure. Its pretty fun stuff.
Sailor Moon is classic and uses a lot of formulaic monster of the week stuff but its an icon that should be watched. At least the first season.
Utena isnt magic girl so much in the traditional sense. Its just...Utena. Its fucking bizarre and amazing and filled with sexual innuendo.
Cardcaptor Sakura is a classic mahou shoujo anime with the cuteness levels ramped up to Max and probably broke the dial to achieve an even higher level. Its refreshing in that Sakura has a different outfit in every episode and not always a monster (card) of the week. It mixes it up sometimes.

Of the four, I would say start with Sailor Moon. Its the most well known of the shows and the others have derivative parts from it. But you cant go wrong with any of these.

Utena should be mandatory viewing for every anime fan.

All those shows are pretty timeless, though.

Out of those, the best starting point is Card Captor Sakura. It's just a perfect show, and also the most traditional of the shows you listed.

Heartcatch Precure is badass, and would be the second best starting point. As a Precure series not named Smile, it has a lot more punching than the average magical girl show; the art style is pretty far out; and the team dynamic is fairly modern. But other than those, it's quite traditional as well.
Utena is 10/10 great, but only lightly / superficially magical girl. It's more hardcore.
Sailor Moon is 200 episodes long and greatly varies in quality. The third season, S, is astounding, but you have to get through the average-at-best second season, R, to get to it. It's more or less the show that brought the Super Sentai team dynamic to magical girls.

But you should watch all of those eventually, they're all top-tier. Also check out Princess Tutu, Re: Cutey Honey, and Nanoha the Movie 1st and 2nd.

-Heartcatch Precure I'm currently watching. I like it a lot, but it's very girly and frilly, if that turns you off.
-Sailor Moon I absolutely love, but it's a very long series, so you may want to keep that in mind. I still haven't finished it lol (plan to fix that sometime this summer break).
-Revolutionary Girl Utena: see avatar. It may be my favorite anime ever. But it's VERY bizarre and sexual, and makes heavy use of symbolism and abstractness. Also really isn't the same thing as the other series you've mentioned.
-Never seen CCS.

I would recommend starting with SM. If you like that and want to keep going, do that. If you like it, but don't want to watch 200 episodes and 3 movies as your only exposure, watch Heartcatch in between. If you don't like SM, then you probably won't like Heartcatch, but don't let that stop you from watching Utena.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Utena definitely seems the most intriguing and it's the shortest which is a plus but from what I'm reading it seems disingenuous to treat it as trying out a magical girl show.

So between the other 3 I'm leaning towards Heartcatch. It's the shortest and it seems silly to have a problem with a magical girl show being really girly. It's only a problem if it seems kind of insulting like Super Princess Peach where her powers are based on being extremely emotional. If anything transforming through make up actually makes a lot of sense and depending how it's handled it could probably avoid the issues of what that implies. I'll probably watch CCS afterwards simply because SM seems like a huge commitment and I hate coming back to shows after an extended break from it.

 

[Articalys]

Ah yes that.
Well, was it in the OT thread? Because stay the hell out of that thread until you have caught up with the show. Same goes for any OT anime thread.

This thread. I just had enough (anti)luck to refresh the page right when one post was in-between a spoiler accidentally having been bolded instead of properly marked, and that post being fixed.

Anyway, there's really nothing that can be done about it anymore. I'll just be extra cautious in the future.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

Henneko 1

Yay, another Spring show on my watch list! This is really good. Well animated (JC Staff, so of course it is) and great comedic timing.

This season just never stops being awesome.

 

[dakkumauji]

Ikeike! Momon-chan 09-10

This mall doesn't seem to be safe for those peach wearing AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA moes.

 

[RurouniZel]

I'm at a really weird point in my life right now where I need to reevaluate what my goals are, and what the hell I'm supposed to do. I've cut off as many distractions as possible in order to focus.

I won't be around.

Good luck buddy. We'll be here for you.

 

[zeroshiki]

Henneko 1

Yay, another Spring show on my watch list! This is really good. Well animated (JC Staff, so of course it is) and great comedic timing.

This season just never stops being awesome.

I can say a lot of things about JC Staff works (generic, boring, unimaginative) and well-animated isn't really one of them. Well, it depends I guess but JC Staff doesn't really have a track record of consistent quality.

 

[Regulus Tera]

I'm at a really weird point in my life right now where I need to reevaluate what my goals are, and what the hell I'm supposed to do. I've cut off as many distractions as possible in order to focus.

I won't be around.

Good luck, mate. Hope it pays off.

 

[Busaiku]

Nyarko W 2
Why in the world is Kuuko all over Mahiro now, over Nyarko even?
This is making me really angry.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

I can say a lot of things about JC Staff works (generic, boring, unimaginative) and well-animated isn't really one of them. Well, it depends I guess but JC Staff doesn't really have a track record of consistent quality.

I dunno, maybe not. I just know that two of my favorite anime have come from them (Toradora! and Joshiraku), so I quite like them. And Henneko looks nice as well. Maybe they aren't the best, but I've always liked their work.

 

[JCG]

Majestic Prince - 2

Can't say I laughed a lot at the most obvious jokes myself, but the atmosphere was still enjoyable enough. Honestly, the funniest part of the episode for me was probably when the mysterious lady said that she hopes the MJP kids will at least get to fight majestically. Some of the reactions from the side characters were also worth a small chuckle.

That said...a few comments from the military personnel, the unexpected encounter during the mission and even the tone of the OP sequence suggest that things will heat up for our heroes sooner or later. Not entirely unexpected but it's good to get some confirmation. Hopefully that works out alright. Other than that, it was interesting to see public opinion will play a bit of a role in this story.

Thus, for another week...the show continues to be a good little way to spend some time.

 

[Jintor]

I wouldn't call JC Staff work well animated.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

I have terribly low standards, then.

Spoiler

This is no surprise.

 

[Dresden]

I can say a lot of things about JC Staff works (generic, boring, unimaginative) and well-animated isn't really one of them. Well, it depends I guess but JC Staff doesn't really have a track record of consistent quality.

I wouldn't call JC Staff work well animated.

You guys need to pay more attention. Last year alone, we had Joshiraku, Ano Natsu, Milky Holmes, and occasionally, Sakurasou.

 

[zeroshiki]

I dunno, maybe not. I just know that two of my favorite anime have come from them (Toradora! and Joshiraku), so I quite like them. And Henneko looks nice as well. Maybe they aren't the best, but I've always liked their work.

Sorry I didn't mean to sound like I'm trying to demean your tastes (I only do that to firehawk) but I don't think Toradora is well animated either! Its a good show for the other things but not really because it had great visuals.

 

[Pooya]

Sakurasou wasn't bad, mostly good I'd say. It looked very consistent through out, compared with something like Psycho Pass, was far better.

 

[Jintor]

Let me rephrase that. I don't think JC Staff shows are exceptionally animated. They're... satisfyingly animated, I guess you might say. I don't notice severe flaws and if I think about it I get a vague sense of enjoyment, but it doesn't stand out to me.

 

[zeroshiki]

I think JC Staff manages to stay above outright crud like DEEN but its not really a studio brave and/or ambitious enough to pour resources into a work like KyoAni, (sometimes) A-1 and P.IG.

 

[cajunator]

Henneko 1

Yay, another Spring show on my watch list! This is really good. Well animated (JC Staff, so of course it is) and great comedic timing.

This season just never stops being awesome.

I'm not too sold on this show in particular, but did you see the figurine I posted last page? SO CUTE OMG.
I might have to get it.

 

[Jintor]

If Toradora had more fight scenes though I could possibly be pursuaded

 

[Dresden]

I think JC Staff manages to stay above outright crud like DEEN but its not really a studio brave and/or ambitious enough to pour resources into a work like KyoAni, (sometimes) A-1 and P.IG.

If this was in the mid-00's, sure, but they had a damn good output last year. Certainly better than IG.

 

[gashikunFLCL]

According to rumors among the informed, Dennou Coil is a good anime.

 

[zeroshiki]

If this was in the mid-00's, sure, but they had a damn good output last year. Certainly better than IG.

How about 2011? I don't know, I didn't get to watch very many JC Staff shows last year and maybe they have changed and that's great. Of those I did get to watch in 2012, I didn't find Ano Natsu to be particularly impressive.

The original discussion was whether JC Staff = good animation though and I think their overall body of work speaks to it not being particularly true. Maybe after Railgun S2 I'll change my mind.

 

[RyougaSaotome]

JC is just sort of adequate. There's been some great work done in Index and Railgun, but on the whole they just kind of coast by.

That being said, I find them to be fairly consistent.

 

[Jarmel]

JC is just sort of adequate. There's been some great work done in Index and Railgun, but on the whole they just kind of coast by.

That being said, I find them to be fairly consistent.

That's a fairly accurate analysis. I certainly wouldn't put them in the top tier.

 

[zeroshiki]

JC Staff used to be the Kugiloli factory. They rode that thing into the ground.

 

[Shergal]

The quality of the animation in JC Staff shows seems to be largely dependant on the director at charge. Both Nagai and Mizushima are directors who always make sure to have decent amounts of movement and expressiveness in their shows. It makes sense that Joshiraku and Toradora (all NagaixJC Staff shows really) look good.

 

[Tomat]

I'm at a really weird point in my life right now where I need to reevaluate what my goals are, and what the hell I'm supposed to do. I've cut off as many distractions as possible in order to focus.

I won't be around.

Best of luck to you.

 

[BriseFlots]

Oh god.

Now I want this figurine.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10223569

Hmmm... What is the cat looking at?

Also: I can't wait to see Date A live figurines appear in Game-center.

 

[Dresden]

The original discussion was whether JC Staff = good animation though and I think their overall body of work speaks to it not being particularly true. Maybe after Railgun S2 I'll change my mind.

And the shows I cited all pertain to that discussion. I'm not even a big fan of Ano Natsu, but it was certainly well-animated. They have the resources to do so if the director is able to take advantage of them, and 2012 was a good run. But even going back, they've had their moments, and so statements like the ones I quoted originally bothered me. Because, you know. The internet.

JC is just sort of adequate. There's been some great work done in Index and Railgun, but on the whole they just kind of coast by.

That being said, I find them to be fairly consistent.

Their work on Index is horrible. Railgun is on a different tier, production-wise.

 

[RyougaSaotome]

Their work on Index is horrible. Railgun is on a different tier, production-wise.

I dunno, I thought it had its moments. You're totally right about Railgun being on a different tier though.

 

[zeroshiki]

And the shows I cited all pertain to that discussion. I'm not even a big fan of Ano Natsu, but it was certainly well-animated. They have the resources to do so if the director is able to take advantage of them, and 2012 was a good run. But even going back, they've had their moments, and so statements like the ones I quoted originally bothered me. Because, you know. The internet.

I'm probably in over my head with this since I didn't watch many shows last year BUT the original quote that bothered you was basically "JC Staff is not known for its consistent quality" which is true! JC Staff has been mediocre for a while and while I might grant you 2012 might have been a good year for them, its not like they're suddenly a great studio.

 

[cajunator]

And the shows I cited all pertain to that discussion. I'm not even a big fan of Ano Natsu, but it was certainly well-animated. They have the resources to do so if the director is able to take advantage of them, and 2012 was a good run. But even going back, they've had their moments, and so statements like the ones I quoted originally bothered me. Because, you know. The internet.



Their work on Index is horrible. Railgun is on a different tier, production-wise.

Index isnt horrible, but Railgun is way fucking better anyway.

 

[Defuser]

Index 1 was ok but Index II is a semi-trainwreck due to production problems. Anyway isn't Railgun S the first ever show for Nagai to direct a sequel?

 

[Regulus Tera]

[Dokidoki! Precure] 11

 

[madp]

Hyouge Mono 1

Well this sure seems classy. There's something compelling in watching another's obsession being balanced against his duties.

Well I see what I'm watching next (actually, I've seen the first three or four, but quit due to the then-lack of a guarantee of ever seeing the rest). It would be nice to actually have someone to discuss this with.

[Dokidoki! Precure] 11

The internet is going to have a field day with "vibrator mode".

 

[Seraphis Cain]

[Dokidoki! Precure] 11

For some reason I want dubstep to go along with this.

 

[Articalys]

At some point in the future we should have a "say one nice thing that isn't a backhanded compliment (or a stealth insult against another show) about a show you otherwise dislike" day.

 

[duckroll]

At some point in the future we should have a "say one nice thing that isn't a backhanded compliment about a show you otherwise dislike" day.

Fujiko had a nice ED.

 

[ZachDeKoromaru]

At some point in the future we should have a "say one nice thing that isn't a backhanded compliment about a show you otherwise dislike" day.

Horizon had Miyuki Sawashiro in it and had great OPs.

 

[kayos90]

At some point in the future we should have a "say one nice thing that isn't a backhanded compliment about a show you otherwise dislike" day.

Date-A-Live's Tohka's character design is sweet.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

At some point in the future we should have a "say one nice thing that isn't a backhanded compliment about a show you otherwise dislike" day.

Angel Beats has an interesting premise.

 

[jgminto]

SAO was well directed and achieved what it set out to do.

 

[Pooya]

Gargantia - 2

Spoiler

well, I felt bad for the pirates getting vaporized like that, looked a bit extreme :S

I wonder if he knew he was targeting people... everyone looked shocked lol.

I think info dump is being handled better than other recent Urobuchi works, maybe because he's not writing

 

[cajunator]

[Dokidoki! Precure] 11

WAT

At some point in the future we should have a "say one nice thing that isn't a backhanded compliment about a show you otherwise dislike" day.

At least Date A Live isn't Sword Art Online.

 

[kayos90]

Gargantia - 2

Spoiler

well, I felt bad for the pirates getting vaporized like that, looked a bit extreme :S

I wonder if he knew he was targeting people... everyone looked shocked lol.

I think info dump is being handled better than other recent Urobuchi works, maybe because he's not writing

Freaking destroyed the pattern bro. WHY!

At least Date A Live isn't Sword Art Online.

I'm glad. Cuz DAL is complete and utter shit.

 

[jgminto]

I'm glad. Cuz DAL is complete and utter shit.

Why would you be glad? Shouldn't you want it to be more like SAO? You should in fact be sad.

 

[Regulus Tera]

Dokidoki Precure - 11

- An interesting preview.

Spoiler

The new blonde lady, of course. But also the character of the week - with that name and appearance, I can't tell if you're male or female! Mana might be in danger here.

Fuck that, I want my garden to be sullied.

@DokiDoki 11

This is far from being the best Precure show, but I appreciate how "fast-paced" it is.

Spoiler

Well, it was obvious that they were going to add more "generals" due to the whole Seven Deadly Sins motif.

I feat it's gonna be so fast-paced we will end up reusing the same stock footage for the last twenty five episodes, à la Smile.

 

[dakkumauji]

At some point in the future we should have a "say one nice thing that isn't a backhanded compliment about a show you otherwise dislike" day.

OreShura had the best harem member I seen in some time.