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Summer 2014 Anime |OT2| Or, where Jexhius finally watches more Doremi for Hito.

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Caesnd

Member
[Terror in Tokyo] - 4

As good as the show has ever been, which is frankly pretty great. You'll have no complaints from me on this one. A solid genre exercise and easily one of the best looking (and sounding) shows of the season.

I've said it before (with relation to Ikuhara and Penguin Drum) but when you have a series director who is as talented in creating the visuals of the show as he at understanding how to use music effectively, you're work becomes far richer and more powerful. In all honesty, most of the time I forget about the music when I'm watching an anime series (unless it's scored by Sawano) but when you have someone like Watanabe at the helm you remember that the music for the show can not simply compliment the visuals but elevate them to new heights. It truly allows the work the transport the viewer into the action.

It's the essence of anime production to me actually, when all the different elements of a work just coalesce in such a perfect manner that it just makes you silent and go along with the flow.

It is still different from things like game production, in that while both game and anime studios house many different talents, anime tends to be a much more focused product. There is just one end target to go for, and if the chemistry within the staff and the feelings are there from the beginning to see things through, some incredible things can happen.
 

Jex

Member
I know it's going to be quite the shock, but I'm actually going to talk about Doremi!

sharp133dlfez.jpg


Doremi Sharp]- 13

So this is a fairly typical Doremi story. The girls go out on tour during Golden Week, somehow they end up singing on stage as a band, Doremi receives a marriage proposal and the exact amount of steaks you can take from a single cow are discussed. There's nothing particularly exciting here in terms of new character development but it was all pretty fun stuff, as usual.

Some highlights include the masters of disguise dressing up in their witching outfits in front of an audience???:

sharp131ozigx.jpg


and, of course, the merits of marrying into wealth and cattle:

sharp132yocuc.jpg
 

cajunator

Banned
Why does Yuushibu have to be DVD only >_<
Another show to put on my backlog of purschases until a bluray comes out. Stupid companies.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
for me terror in resonance has become the first must-see show this summer and the first must see show since the end of winter cour.
 

Clov

Member
Why does Yuushibu have to be DVD only >_<
Another show to put on my backlog of purschases until a bluray comes out. Stupid companies.

That's something Sentai has, isn't it? It'll likely get a BD in a few months.

You know what I'd really like them to re-release on BD though? Cosette! I have the DVD of it, but there wasn't a BD at the time it came out. Now that there is, I wouldn't mind if they released it. Of course, it may depend on whether they got the rights to a future BD version of it when they picked it up. If not, it'll depend on how Aniplex is feeling, I guess.
 

cajunator

Banned
That's something Sentai has, isn't it? It'll likely get a BD in a few months.

You know what I'd really like them to re-release on BD though? Cosette! I have the DVD of it, but there wasn't a BD at the time it came out. Now that there is, I wouldn't mind if they released it. Of course, it may depend on whether they got the rights to a future BD version of it when they picked it up. If not, it'll depend on how Aniplex is feeling, I guess.

Man. I want it on bluray soooo badly
http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/A1AxtmvKvMANeCr3hd/browse/item/103035/4/0/0
 

Clov

Member
Ping Pong The Animation was the must see show if the Spring.

It definitely was! We shouldn't forget about the second season of Mushishi though, which aired in the same season. Another fantastic show. Can't wait for the TV special this month, and for the show proper to start again in the fall.


It'll definitely get one! Sentai seems to be having lots of success with sub-only BDs. It's likely that the company they licensed it from has a holdback period for the BD release; they have to wait a certain amount of time after the Japanese BDs come out.
 

Branduil

Member
for me terror in resonance has become the first must-see show this summer and the first must see show since the end of winter cour.

Ping Pong The Animation was the must see show if the Spring.

It definitely was! We shouldn't forget about the second season of Mushishi though, which aired in the same season. Another fantastic show. Can't wait for the TV special this month, and for the show proper to start again in the fall.



It'll definitely get one! Sentai seems to be having lots of success with sub-only BDs. It's likely that the company they licensed it from has a holdback period for the BD release; they have to wait a certain amount of time after the Japanese BDs come out.

You know, this has actually been a pretty great year for anime so far.
 

Thoraxes

Member

It'll definitely get one! Sentai seems to be having lots of success with sub-only BDs. It's likely that the company they licensed it from has a holdback period for the BD release; they have to wait a certain amount of time after the Japanese BDs come out.
There is a bluray, guys!

You just weren't looking hard enough.
 

789shadow

Banned
Sabagebu! Episode 3

The narrator in this is definitely trying to steal the title of "best anime narrator" from the Space Dandy narrator.
 
Tenchi Muyo! OVA Series

Tenchi is weird. I like the first OVA. It looks decent, it has fun character interactions, and it has some legitimately good action. The first handful of episodes are the best because they keep it relatively simple, but then the plot happens. Suddenly, Light Hawk wings! Kagato! Tsunami! Random familial ties! Weird outfits! Other dimensions! It introduces so much stuff all at once, and the storytelling just sort of collapses under the weight of all these new concepts. It embodies the stereotype of anime being incomprehensible and hard to follow, barely stopping to explain any of what&#8217;s happening onscreen (which could be preferable to an exposition dump depending on who you are, but still.) The show is already tossing out spaceships powered by trees and cat/rabbit hybrids in addition to your typical magic sword and mysterious woman, and it just goes....not bad, but weird. I was still largely entertained by the proceedings, even if it was pretty much nonsense. But it was fairly clear that the show was at its best when it boiled down to &#8220;strange woman appears&#8221; and random comedy.

The second OVA is worse overall but a little better with the plot, as some of those new concepts get explained and others just sort of disappear. But the plot does remain weak, as it boils down to a lengthy dialogue exchange, and the show isn&#8217;t quite as funny. It still has its moments, of course. But it starts out with a baby episode (baby episodes almost always suck as all of them repeat the same handful of jokes, and this is no exception), and the final episode is pretty much the start of the big problems. Suddenly, we&#8217;re introduced to the parents, and they entirely reverse the show&#8217;s lack of exposition as they spout an episode&#8217;s worth of world-building stuff that doesn&#8217;t even seem to matter in the long run.

That brings us to the third OVA. Let&#8217;s look at the episode progression here:

1: Fucking nothing happens, except apparently Tenchi has a stepmother and we get a glimpse of the villain of this series, Z.
2: Tenchi suddenly has an older sister (who looks exactly like his dead mother), a grandmother, and a fiancée.
3: Tenchi gets sick and his fiancée takes over the house.
4: Tenchi&#8217;s fiancee&#8217;s mother comes to visit, one harem girl&#8217;s (Mihoshi) brother puts a plan into motion to destroy the Earth to rescue his sister.
5: Everyone sets up Mihoshi&#8217;s brother and his underling to start going out and stuff.
6: Half the Earth is destroyed by Z and Tenchi fights him and then time rewinds and goddesses and the Counter-Actor and little girl Kagato and I don&#8217;t even know.
7: Mihoshi&#8217;s brother and Underling get hitched. Tenchi&#8217;s mother, who we have never discussed before, is different from how he remembers her and attempted drama ensues.

So do you see the problem here? There&#8217;s so many characters coming and going who we&#8217;ve never met before, and then they pretty much become the focus. Tenchi&#8217;s fiancée isn&#8217;t all that bad, but Christ there&#8217;s like eight other characters here. The main plot all takes place in episode 6, which is brain-meltingly stupid and some the most incomprehensible shit I&#8217;ve ever seen. We&#8217;re supposed to care about all these new characters and this world-building and this universe-spanning plotline when the show&#8217;s strength is pretty much just the blue haired girl yelling at the purple haired girl. The show has ballooned from what&#8217;s pretty much just a teenager releasing a demon girl to something absurdly convoluted.

Side notes:

1. Tenchi&#8217;s harem consists of: a space pirate who watched him pee when he was like 4 years old, his great aunt who was gonna be married to her brother (Tenchi&#8217;s grandfather), his other great aunt who looks about 8 years old, the mother of the space pirate who watched him pee and looks about 12 years old because reasons, some random cop, a toddler that used to be a cat/rabbit and is still a cat/rabbit seemingly at random, the adopted daughter of his great aunts&#8217; grandmother. What the fuck? And it&#8217;s weird, because they don&#8217;t even really rub the weird incest in your face; it doesn&#8217;t really come across as pandering to a fetish because it&#8217;s basically irrelevant background information that only shows up once in a blue moon. It just...exists. And even then it feels like more of a love triangle between one great aunt and the space pirate rather than a group of girls who all want to jump him.

2. I don&#8217;t know what it is, but the third OVA is fucking ugly. The animation is stiff, the shading is weird, the character designs are pointy and bad, and it just generally looks kinda cheap.

3. Tenchi is a self-insert character. There&#8217;s no way around it. But he&#8217;s not offensively so; he just comes across like a nice guy. Not to the point where it makes all of these girls in love with him remotely believable, but hey, they have a spaceship powered by a tree. It&#8217;s not really an issue within the story, either, since the show itself seems more concerned with the girls, and they&#8217;re able to pretty much pick up the slack of carrying the show. However, it makes me wonder how big of an ego trip you have to be on as a writer to make your self-insert character become THE GOD OF ALL THINGS EVERYWHERE IN THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE AND EVERY DIMENSION.

4. I watched the dub of this because that&#8217;s how it became known in the States, and the voice acting is...eh. Tenchi kinda sounds like Kermit the frog, the lines aren&#8217;t great, and the acting often leaves something to be desired. The sub is probably better. Also pirate girl&#8217;s voice actor changes for the third OVA and it sounds like they barely tried to find someone who sounded similar. The trade-off is that she no longer sounds 40, I guess.

5. I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s any question that the third OVA should be skipped entirely unless you want your brain broken. I consider the first three episodes of the first OVA to be legitimately good, as well as the fourth episode of the second. Though you can probably just boil it down to the first episode, maybe the second.

I don&#8217;t really see anyone giving ratings around here, but I&#8217;d probably give a 7 for the first, 6 for the second, 4 for the third.
 
Kokoro Connect Episode 11

So we get Balloon Vine the second.
For this new ordeal the cast except Taichi turn into little kids from their past. We get to see their childlike and cute behaviors as kids. And as it turns out this new ordeal is gonna cause some conflicts.
 

Tenumi

Banned
I feel like I should watch some more Digimon Adventure, to commemorate the announcement.

I'm not going to, though. Not today.

Jojo's Bizzare Adventure Stardust Crusaders: 18

So ridiculously anti-climatic. Still such an enjoyable show. Makes Fridays all the better.
 

Jex

Member
Sabagebu! Episode 3

The narrator in this is definitely trying to steal the title of "best anime narrator" from the Space Dandy narrator.

The Space Dandy narrator isn't even near the top sire. That'd be the Kaiji narrator by a country mile.
 
Garzey's Wing (dub)

ihoT8tE.gif


What the hell did I just watch. Seriously. I have no words but here's some anyway.

Nothing is explained. Our hero in this story is a high school student named Chris. Chris gets sucked into some ancient world by a angelic duck or some shit where Aura Battler Dunbine is set via some earthen bells and somehow gets a holy power called Garzey's Wing. He doesn't get sucked all the way for some reason, as his body remains on Earth. I guess. They never really tell you. Garzey's Wing is important(?), as it apparently is helping the people somehow, yet it doesn't really do anything besides let you fly really badly and move kind of fast. They also need to find some stupid ass tree, also for reasons unknown.
Everyone seems to be completely cool when Earth Chris tells people the "Other Chris" is sapping all his energy. No one questions this. But the biggest question of all is WHY THE HELL DOES IT MATTER IF IT'S A LEAP YEAR
I don't know why I am trying to piece this shitshow of a story together, because you cannot. I seriously doubt they even read the script for this thing, because it's so incoherent a first grader would be able to point out the plot holes and inconsistencies.

There's nothing to say about the characters. Nobody has any logic to their actions because it's never explained what anyone is doing ever

This dub so hilariously bad. Every single line is delivered so horribly that it loops around to being enjoyable. Hearing these voice actors try their hardest to say "Yamato-takeru-nomikoto" is amazing.
The flying cloak guys voice alone almost killed me from laughing.

One thing you can say is it is easy to tell this is Tomino.
Great names like Odajyu Gabu, Fungun, Zaginis Zoa Zaguzo, Towazzan, Eufurio, Undo N'gua, and Domon? Why would they sully the name of Domon like this.
There's also such amazing terms like Gabujuju, Dragorol, the Barju Tree, and Ishubura.
I know what none of these mean.

I think I need to lie down for a while.
 

Clov

Member
The Space Dandy narrator isn't even near the top sire. That'd be the Kaiji narrator by a country mile.

The narrator in Kaiji is pretty amazing, but personally I love the narrator for the first two seasons of Hayate the Combat Butler. Wakamoto is great.
 

Branduil

Member
Garzey's Wing (dub)

ihoT8tE.gif


What the hell did I just watch. Seriously. I have no words but here's some anyway.

Nothing is explained. Our hero in this story is a high school student named Chris. Chris gets sucked into some ancient world by a angelic duck or some shit where Aura Battler Dunbine is set via some earthen bells and somehow gets a holy power called Garzey's Wing. He doesn't get sucked all the way for some reason, as his body remains on Earth. I guess. They never really tell you. Garzey's Wing is important(?), as it apparently is helping the people somehow, yet it doesn't really do anything besides let you fly really badly and move kind of fast. They also need to find some stupid ass tree, also for reasons unknown.
Everyone seems to be completely cool when Earth Chris tells people the "Other Chris" is sapping all his energy. No one questions this. But the biggest question of all is WHY THE HELL DOES IT MATTER IF IT'S A LEAP YEAR
I don't know why I am trying to piece this shitshow of a story together, because you cannot. I seriously doubt they even read the script for this thing, because it's so incoherent a first grader would be able to point out the plot holes and inconsistencies.

There's nothing to say about the characters. Nobody has any logic to their actions because it's never explained what anyone is doing ever

This dub so hilariously bad. Every single line is delivered so horribly that it loops around to being enjoyable. Hearing these voice actors try their hardest to say "Yamato-takeru-nomikoto" is amazing.
The flying cloak guys voice alone almost killed me from laughing.

One thing you can say is it is easy to tell this is Tomino.
Great names like Odajyu Gabu, Fungun, Zaginis Zoa Zaguzo, Towazzan, Eufurio, Undo N'gua, and Domon? Why would they sully the name of Domon like this.
There's also such amazing terms like Gabujuju, Dragorol, the Barju Tree, and Ishubura.
I know what none of these mean.

I think I need to lie down for a while.

Wiiiiiiings of my heart...
 

mankoto

Member
Fate/Illya S2 3
I like how Kuro deemed it too early to state the complete obvious saying it's a spoiler and what not. Although, at this point I guess calling Kuro a manifestation of her hidden potential is a bit of an understatement as it seems to be an unfiltered version so-to-speak considering how close she was to Shirou. And Illya only dreams of being that close with him (or at least going in for a kiss).
 
Garzey's Wing (dub)

I don't know why I am trying to piece this shitshow of a story together, because you cannot. I seriously doubt they even read the script for this thing, because it's so incoherent a first grader would be able to point out the plot holes and inconsistencies.

Don't even try to understand, it will only lead to madness.
 
Stardust Crusaders - 18

Some decent comic relief, some tension, and more comic relief as a twist. Not bad. It could have been done a bit shorter.
 

cajunator

Banned
Garzey's Wing (dub)

ihoT8tE.gif


What the hell did I just watch. Seriously. I have no words but here's some anyway.

Nothing is explained. Our hero in this story is a high school student named Chris. Chris gets sucked into some ancient world by a angelic duck or some shit where Aura Battler Dunbine is set via some earthen bells and somehow gets a holy power called Garzey's Wing. He doesn't get sucked all the way for some reason, as his body remains on Earth. I guess. They never really tell you. Garzey's Wing is important(?), as it apparently is helping the people somehow, yet it doesn't really do anything besides let you fly really badly and move kind of fast. They also need to find some stupid ass tree, also for reasons unknown.
Everyone seems to be completely cool when Earth Chris tells people the "Other Chris" is sapping all his energy. No one questions this. But the biggest question of all is WHY THE HELL DOES IT MATTER IF IT'S A LEAP YEAR
I don't know why I am trying to piece this shitshow of a story together, because you cannot. I seriously doubt they even read the script for this thing, because it's so incoherent a first grader would be able to point out the plot holes and inconsistencies.

There's nothing to say about the characters. Nobody has any logic to their actions because it's never explained what anyone is doing ever

This dub so hilariously bad. Every single line is delivered so horribly that it loops around to being enjoyable. Hearing these voice actors try their hardest to say "Yamato-takeru-nomikoto" is amazing.
The flying cloak guys voice alone almost killed me from laughing.

One thing you can say is it is easy to tell this is Tomino.
Great names like Odajyu Gabu, Fungun, Zaginis Zoa Zaguzo, Towazzan, Eufurio, Undo N'gua, and Domon? Why would they sully the name of Domon like this.
There's also such amazing terms like Gabujuju, Dragorol, the Barju Tree, and Ishubura.
I know what none of these mean.

I think I need to lie down for a while.

You've just borne witness to legend.
Garzeys Wing is so incredibly awful that any attempt to improve it would actually ruin it. Its absolutely perfect in its terrible ways. People will FIGHT YOU if you call Garzeys Wing unwatchable lol.
 
Flowers of Evil 04


Uh-huh. This won't end well...

Kasuga manages to get a date with Saeki. Too bad he still have to deal with Nakamura.

Why are you still keeping those clothes? It's just gonna come back and bite you in the ass... Aaaaand there it is. Good luck enjoying your date now.
 

mankoto

Member
Fate/Illya S2 4

I figured the nurse was just sort of careless in a creepy sort of way, but now it's obvious she's either really smart or she knows something she shouldn't or maybe both. Meanwhile Miyu and Kuro are jealous of Illya's and Shirou's relationship.
 

Clov

Member
What are everyone's opinion on Level E (for Vic Mignogna's English dub performance) and Okami-san (for Satomi Arai as the Japanese dub narrator)? As FUNimation quietly lowered the SRP for these titles, I want to get these sets before the probable DVD-only S.A.V.E. editions come out.

I remember finding Level-E to be pretty funny! An enjoyable little series. At that price I might end up picking it up.

Okami-san was okay. It had its moments. Satomi Arai as the narrator was the best part, really.
 

Theonik

Member
Why do you think he left?
Hi.

Narag have you seen this Mazinger Z vertical shooter from 1994?

I just relate everything to Robot Girls Z since I haven't seen any of the shows. The mid-boss in the first level is then more "that's the robot representing the girl in the black leotard and vest. The other one is the girl with the cute snake hand sock puppet things she uses to talk with.",haha.

The boss of the second level is a robot disguised as a flying statue of liberty,haha. Does that happen in the show or is it just something they put into the game for some reason?
It's kinda cool, though as far as Banpresto arcade tie-ins are concerned, I like the Macross Plus shmup. They are mostly clones of other games though. I found this solid enough as a fanservice endeavor. The music renditions of the in-series vocal tracks were a nice touch as was the fact they used a variety of the attacks from both Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and UFO Robot Grendaizer. Could be a lot worse!

So it really is already done? That makes it even more frustrating. Hurry up and put this out, Anno!

Also, I'm kind of surprised Eva was done on 35mm. For some reason I thought it was done on 16mm, like Nadia.
At this point I would guess the situation surrounding Eva's release is pretty complicted between rebuild, Anno bailing Gainax and some other things.

RE:35mm, a lot of later 90s shows were done in this format, including Escaflowne, the Lodoss OVA as off-hand examples. It just reached a point where production values and availability of 35mm equipment became cost effective to capture content on as well as a general higher quality expectation I reckon. Of course soon after film was abandoned altogether in favour of digital composition techniques.

Same director.
Not quite. SatoJun was involved in both shows but he didn't direct that many episodes in Doremi and since the second season his actual involvement is toned down further. What should be noted though is that his influence is present in the show regardless and on people he worked on, which is an interesting topic on its own. (Ah the good old days of 7th vs Hito Doremi shit-flinging)

I have no idea what this even means.

First they make us suffer through an already lengthy adaptation, now this? Yikes.
Maybe it's because they are giving Dio's world some actual effort like some of the early episodes in this had! #Believe.

lol, it's quite expensive though
Not for Japan!

Could never get into the Digimon designs.

But 55k is sure an insanly high price.
55k for that number of episodes isn't bad. It's cheaper than most of the Gundam remaster sets in fact.

The Rail Wars OP song is way more badass than it should be.
And yet, it still is made better with Russian tracks.

Wiiiiiiings of my heart...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSzsvk4pdfo
 
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