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Winter Anime 2016 |OT| Celebrating the New Year and PSO2's release in the west!

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TUSR

Banned
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KyoAni
 

Quasar

Member
I like Black Hanekawa so I liked Neko. Probably the weakest entry along with Nise though.

Given my love of Hanekawa its certainly not for me. I find much of the latter OVAs far weaker. Its harder to compare the longer series though as they combine multiple stories and so my enjoyment of those is variable.
 

Chindogg

Member
To LOVE-Ru Darkness 2nd OVA - Episode 1

Trashy as hell with no real redeeming value unless you find sex hilarious.

Man I missed this series.
 

T-Rex.

Banned
Nise was a low point but it had its moments.
I enjoyed the final 2 episodes and did like his relationship with his sisters at the start before the weirdness happened. The new characters are quite interesting also. The rest of it felt kind of like a parody at times. I already knew what to expect going in though so eh, it weren't too bad.

Neko is meh. But soon you can enjoy the good second season stuff.
Yeah, I can't wait for that.
 

phaze

Member
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Uh...

it runs into major production issues and end in the middle of nowhere and far from the manga's completion. Because the Mangaka was not happy with the direction the anime was taking (too much comedy for her apparently) she didn't want any further seasons and production just kind of fell apart with Anno leaving prematurely or something like that. I've yet to read the manga myself actually.

Thing is, even given that, it has more relationship progression than just about every other romance anime and it's damn good at it to boot.

Toradora already superior then. ;p

Yes.

Ash went farther than Gary did in the Indigo Plateau. In the Silver Conference he beat him.

Also Misty became a gym leader. Hasn't appeared in the show since 2005. Probably won't ever appear again.

Ash siphoned off all the life energy he could get from her.
I believe he won against him during the Johto league.

Wow I may need to check it out for old times sake. The last thing I remember was the beginnings of some tropical islands league I think.


If you're talking about Adult Gon, then he never felt "out of control". He didn't attack his comrades nor was he running around screaming like an idiot. He really wanted to kill one specific person, so he willingly sacrificed his entire future to do so. Plus while in that powered up form, he was was silent and collected. That isn't a "I have so much power, I can't control it, DARK *insert character name* RISING" circumstance that I feel Naruto and Bleach made popular within the last decade or so. It was more of an equivalent exchange (that reminds me, FMA doesn't fall for this trope either).
HxH ep 131 spoilers.
If repeatedly pummeling Pitou's nonexistent head, being happy that you lost an arm or making a giant ass blast that could have hurt Killua counts as being calm and collected than Hollow Ichigo from Ulquiorra fight was the epitome of that.

Perfect Insider 11

Pretty awesome show in the end. I'm amazed (and quite thankful) the last two eps were basically characters sitting and talking, letting them interact with one another without a bunch of bullshit obscuring it. Surprised it's as polarizing as it apparently is too.

huh, I might give it a try then.

Wait, who the hell are you ?

The Vision of Escaflowne - 2
The Escaflowne has probably the most unique interior design I've seen in a mecha in a long time, and it totally fits in well with the fantasy setting.

Other than that, things sure escalated quickly here! I'm super interested in seeing where this all ends up, as I hear this show really goes places.

I hope you like catgirls.

And
love pentagons.

Cause oh boy, you're about to get some.
 

blurr

Member
I've rewatched the entrance scene of Ononoki in Nise and I've noticed she seemed a lot more stiff in it. Definitely not the same person as she was in second season.

Second season brought out her charm making use of different postures(let's face it, yeah peace peace >> I said with a posed look) and perspectives during dialogues. She's still the same stoic girl.
 

Qurupeke

Member
Peace, peace.

Also, I've been playing the Love Live game lately and I can certainly say that Maki is the best girl. Nico is the second best.
 

BGBW

Maturity, bitches.
The iDOLM@STER - the standard for idol anime and a good starting point. It's very episodic in nature, though there is an overarching storyline.

--> Puchimas - A spinoff of iM@S. Each episode is a few minutes long and it's a more comical take of the characters as it's pushing their character traits to the limits. Also home to the best Producer.

--> Xenoglossia - The original iM@S anime. The best of the bunch and for true connoisseurs of anime so you should only tackle it once you feel your tastebuds are refined enough.

The iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls - Completely separate from the above. At most you'll see some characters from the original show on some posters in the background. This has more of a focus on the industry side than the original so in some ways it's the story about the Producer as well as the girls. I think it got a bit muddled in what it wanted to do due to 1. having such a large cast to deal with (the game it is based on has 100s of idols) and trying to appeal to as many fans as possible 2. trying to be different from the original. But still worth a go, but I'd recommend watching the original first.

Love Live - the other popular idol show. Since they are a highschool idol group it has lots of school based elements that you can expect and doesn't really focus on the industry at all. So while it has idol elements, it's more of a character piece telling the story of a group of friends.

--> Love Live Sunshine - This is an upcoming show with a completely new story. Just thought I'd mention it since this could be the next idol show to infest these threads.

Wake Up, Girls! - This is meant to be a more down to earth portrayal of the idol industry showing the more seedy side to it. Starts off strong but gets a little to happy ever after towards the end. However it is unique.

--> Wake Up, Girl Zoo! - THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH!

Locodol - It's kind of cute and a serviceable show but nothing that makes it stick out amongst the crowd. Well unless you really want a show that shoves YURI [teasing] in your face at all times.

AKB0048 - Some may say once you've hit the point of watching this you are in too deep. They have no idea what they are talking about as this is entertainment.

Wanna be the strongest in the world - A real man's idol show.
 

DiGiKerot

Member
suggestions

polarizing as ever

don't worry, I'm gonna keep it in my plan to list

Pretty much all the idol cartoons have a pretty different approach, honestly, so preference tends to vary wildly depending on what folks enjoy in anime and what they are looking to get out of it. If you just ask "what idol cartoon should I start with", you are basically just going to get folks recommending either one of the big otaku shows (iM@S or Love Live) or their particular favourite niche (Aikatsu isn't really a niche because it's huge in Japan (ditto PriPara, which is also great, but availability is kinda limited in English), but stuff like that, WUG, Shonen Hollywood, Locodol or what have you).

Love Live or iM@S are both good starting points, though. It's difficult for me to not be biased towards iM@S, because I have a history with that franchise going way prior to the cartoon, but it's a fun show made that managed to rope a lot of talented folks into working on it. It's sometimes a little hard to nail down as it's pretty free-wheeling with its genre at times - it goes from poignant drama to weird 90s Hong Kong movies pastiches and a bunch of stuff inbetween - but it's pretty solid at doing all of them. Cinderella Girls is more straightforward, but has a lot of interesting things to say about things like identity issues amongst idols and the like.

Love Live, on the other hand, is a pretty broad comedy with a snappy, music-video like sense of pacing and editing. It has a habit of getting a little too sentimental, particularly in its second series, but overt earnesty is kind of it's defining trait, and it's generally pretty genuinely funny.

WUG is kind of the opposite, in that it's defined by a certain level of cynicism that is pretty weird given its the show which is promoting an actual idol group (there a big emphasis on the fact that idol fans are kinda shitty through parts of the show). WUGZoo is a gag spinoff that pokes fun at WUGs occasionally wonky production amongst other things, and is generally pretty real.

Aikatsu is great, though it's very much a kids show. It's poppy and bright and fun and rarely that heavy, but there's a certain satisfaction that can only come from a long running show like that - there's a genuine continuity and a real sense of character development - and the show hits at a pretty high level surprisingly consistently for such a long running series. More-so than most Precure instalments, anyway.

Locodol is a pretty mellow sitcom - not quite the old Slice of Life, but near enough. I like it, but it's the kind of something you watch in small chunks when you want something relaxing to watch.
 

Diodiablo

Banned
Wanna be the strongest in the world - A real man's idol show.

Dude, that show! It was the last time I genuinely wished anime was real.

Just imagine the possibilities!

How wonderful would it be if real life singers/stars were put into a ring against professional wrestlers, jut from the top of my head

Miley Cirus vs. Sable

Justin Bibier vs. John Cena

The Jonas Brothers vs. the Legion of Doom (RIP)

Could be even better with MMA

Just imagine Adele fighting Ronda Rousey

Ah the dream...
 

blurr

Member
Kyoukai no Kanata #6 is clearly the best 20 minutes of idol material in all anime. Watch that and don't bother with the rest.

I saw it. It was a "I don't know what to say" moment.

Idolmaster
Love Live
WUG
Aikatsu

got it, thanks guys
 
Lovely Complex - Complete


Lovely complex is high school romcom that focuses on Risa and Atsushi who are both struck by a bit bad luck concerning their height. Risa is rather large for a girl with her 170cm while Atsushi measures up to merely 156cm. So they got some height complex going on here and there and, partially because of this height difference but also their rather close, but initially platonic, friendship and banter are often called after a comedy duo of similar physique.

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Risa Koizumi and Atsushi Otani

Honestly, these two characters serve as the core of the story and fortunately they're extremely likable and have great chemistry. This height complex aspect to their characterization and relationship is simple but easy to empathize with. Also a big boon is the excellent voice acting and pretty naturally flowing dialogue. They're apparently talking in some Kansai accent and it manages to let their personality shine through it even more.

Even better, though, is the character design in this show. These character designs and the huge variety of different close up shots made a huge impression on me and this show just might be my all time favorite in that regard. I made a screencaps album of episode 1 and damn, just look at the variety in hair styles, clothing, expression and camera/face angles. And it all looks really good. All the facial features are well defined and there aren't any ugly cheeky mouths and the like. It's really helpful when the people in this kind of shoujo romance are actually pleasing to look at it when the situation asks for it.

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Ufotable, please take notice. This is how you draw noses and other facial features properly! cough UBW cough

The Writing

Nothing matters more to me than writing and as I've mentioned already, one important goal is already reached if you managed to make the characters we're supposed to care about likable. These two are simply put pretty great, fun characters. That also holds true for their 4 closer friends, even if we sadly don't get to see that much of them. Unfortunately there's also a few bad characters whose inclusion in the story was a major detriment.
Maity
and everything about him for example managed to make the show feel way less grounded in reality which hurt the serious bits.

There's a bunch of really endearing romantic or dramatic scenes but unfortunately equally as many unnecessary misunderstandings and awful timings. Often when a certain theme got touched upon by the show and would've liked for it to explore those more in depths, it simply didn't go there. For example:
Atsushi's trouble in dealing with this confession from a close friend he simply couldn't reciprocate at first. There's some great moments (Kuma Curry!) but instead of letting him ever speak his mind in detail, maybe in a nice, progressing dialogue with Risa, he accidentally kissed her before passing out due to his fever and, despite not being at fault whatsoever, the show now wastes time on this issue.

I loved the first 6 episodes. Was still quite happy til ~ep12. Then became increasingly annoyed until episode 18 where the show finally corrected course again and remained largely good, with some caveats. Ended up being a bit disappointed after the first episodes set my expectations rather high.

The soundtrack is very good and varied. Got plenty nice piano tunes and some jazz in there. Still felt like the music was used a bit heavy handed in rare occasions. Production values are solid. Backgrounds are decent and even though this is far from some sakuga heaven, the character design is, as stated, wonderful and there's a lot of nice character animation to go along with that. And yeh, voice acting is top class. Direction is quite good overall but I could've done with less flashbacks of scenes that occurred rather recently. Btw, the comedy worked quite well for me, but then that might be because I liked the (main) characters so much.

8/10, and a recommendation to everyone looking for some romance anime. Give it an episode and if you, too, think Risa and Atsushi are great characters, then I'll imagine you're going to enjoy this at least somewhat, even for the its fault.
 

blurr

Member
Oh yea, I remember Lovely Complex. I was really interested in it because of the lead characters. Totally agree about the writing.
 

DiGiKerot

Member
Aìkatsu below LL and WUG?

This is why world stilĺ having war

I understand you hesiate with the longest one.

Given that Aikatsu is, at this point, about three times the length of iM@S, LL and WUG combined (discounting CG, admittedly), it's not an insane point of view. WUG is pretty quick to hammer through, after all.
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
Owarimonogatari Episode 5:

I am beginning to understand why people have called this season a step down because even with what is no doubt the saddest of sob stories seen in Monogotari yet I find myself not giving a toss about Sodachi outside of when she is acting like a patient from Arkham Asylum.
Also not surprising that the world of Monogatari is one where Occam's Razor does not exist given that the most obvious solution to the "mystery" is that Sodachi's mother never left the room, she died, her corpse is still there and Sodachi is bug fuck insane and needs real help.
 

blurr

Member
Personally thought Episode 5 of Owari is god tier. Terrific voice over work and presentation.

I rewatched it so many times now.
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
Personally thought Episode 5 of Owari is god tier. Terrific voice over work and presentation.

I rewatched it so many times now.

It has some of the best direction I have seen in the series though the writing does suffer a bit from the usual habit of circling around the damn point for 10 minutes but the inherent problem is I don't really give a shit about Sodachi as a character. She has some interesting traits but outside of her crazy side she is rather bland and too normal for this series at this point.
 

duckroll

Member
Garo the Animation - Episode 19

Wow I didn't expect another episode that looked great right after the last episode. Looks like there were over ten animation directors on this, but they did their job since it looks pretty great. We finally have the full story on Emma's quest, so between
18 and 19, the show is quickly tying up all loose ends before the finale I guess. Someone (the director?) must have really, really wanted to come up with some amazing excuse to have an aerial dogfight sequence in Garo, even though it's medieval fantasy. Worked really well though! Between this and the start of Fate/Zero S2, I can't really decide which one dogfight I liked more. Since this was done in 2D maybe it gets the edge? I dunno. Great storyboarding and camera work though!

Fuck yeah, Leon finally scored! I guess Emma finally managed to fulfill her promise of making him a man. Lololol.



Garo the Animation - Episode 20

I dig how the show cares enough to show the backstory for all the important characters, even if some of them are pretty simple and common. Along with the events that happen in the main story itself, it really helps to build and reinforce this sense of dread and tragedy that is an endless cycle. It makes the world feel like one with an undercurrent of true horror, which justifies the negative feelings people might have, and the lack of hope. It also shows the importance of the Makai Knights as well as the common people who hold on to hope and optimism. Having said that, it doesn't always turn out well for everyone. :(

Octavia's plan was really pretty brilliant. What I liked most about this episode was how none of the characters were stupid, which is always fun to see in shows where people are trying to outsmart each other. Alfonso already suspected Octavia, so he's not dense, but there just wasn't enough evidence. After failing with the bells, they didn't just stop either, but she was smart enough to use Laura as a cover. Even after that, we see that Emma noticed the barrier when the others didn't, and even though it was too strong for her to really detect it, she had a failsafe just in case.

Yet Octavia still managed to get out of all that not because the writing pulled some bullshit, but because they wrote her to be cunning and ruthless enough to not hesitate to turn things to her advantage even if she has to sacrifice Laura and her own leg. It was bleak, dark, and evil, but that's why I <3 Garo.
 

Qurupeke

Member
Owarimonogatari Episode 5:

I am beginning to understand why people have called this season a step down because even with what is no doubt the saddest of sob stories seen in Monogotari yet I find myself not giving a toss about Sodachi outside of when she is acting like a patient from Arkham Asylum.
Also not surprising that the world of Monogatari is one where Occam's Razor does not exist given that the most obvious solution to the "mystery" is that Sodachi's mother never left the room, she died, her corpse is still there and Sodachi is bug fuck insane and needs real help.

The Sodachi arc was kind of "out of place", as it tells a story that felt "irrelevant" to the plot and it jumped quite a few months before Second Season and Tsuki. That said, it's worth noticing how it helped understand both Ougi and Araragi better, so calling it irrelevant may not be really true though. Also, it lacked the supernatural element but Araragi's bad memory might as well be out of this world... In any case, I think it was far better than a lot of previous arcs so I can't see it as a step down. It had some amazing scenes like Senjougahara's punch, an interesting premise, some really memorable dialogues(Ougi-Hanekawa, Sodachi-Araragi-Hanekawa) and I loved the maths/riddles theme of it. Sodachi was a great addition to the cast,despite not staying for long.
 

blurr

Member
It has some of the best direction I have seen in the series though the writing does suffer a bit from the usual habit of circling around the damn point for 10 minutes but the inherent problem is I don't really give a shit about Sodachi as a character. She has some interesting traits but outside of her crazy side she is rather bland and too normal for this series at this point.

The circling point, were you referring to:
"I pray that I don't wish my mother would disappear"
scene?

I actually liked it for the repetition. My focus was more on the presentation and her voice than the actual content. I did feel sad about Sodachi's predicament but that wasn't nearly my biggest take away from the episode.

The Sodachi arc was kind of "out of place", as it tells a story that felt "irrelevant" to the plot and it jumped quite a few months before Second Season and Tsuki. That said, it's worth noticing how it helped understand both Ougi and Araragi better, so calling it irrelevant may not be really true though. Also, it lacked the supernatural element but Araragi's bad memory might as well be out of this world... In any case, I think it was far better than a lot of previous arcs so I can't see it as a step down. It had some amazing scenes like Senjougahara's punch, an interesting premise, some really memorable dialogues(Ougi-Hanekawa, Sodachi-Araragi-Hanekawa) and I loved the maths/riddles theme of it. Sodachi was a great addition to the cast,despite not staying for long.

I thought the entire classroom scene had good presentation and voice over work but then episode 5 happened.
 

Jintor

Member
Utena 8

Freaky Friday? In my Utena? This is the most sitcom plot imaginable.

oh my god nanami getting rekt by elephants every second of the day. amazing

cute utena is kinda weirding me out

oh god saiyonji's shitty drawings



...pretty amazing episode all around.

/edit oh, I see it was a break episode before they go full insane next ep
 

Qurupeke

Member
Gintama 306

Is it bad that the most enjoyable moment in the episode was the Ginpachi-sensei bit? Just hilarious.

Anyway, it seems the arc reached its conclusion. Kamui best bro. Also, was the animation really bad on this episode? Even though the scene with
Takasugi taking Oboro's eye
was awesome, it looked kinda bad. Other scenes too, nothing like the last couple of episodes.
 

kewlmyc

Member
HxH ep 131 spoilers.
If repeatedly pummeling Pitou's nonexistent head, being happy that you lost an arm or making a giant ass blast that could have hurt Killua counts as being calm and collected than Hollow Ichigo from Ulquiorra fight was the epitome of that.

Calm and collected was probably the wrong words to use. Expressionless would have been a better choice.
Main point I was trying to make is that Gon, while mentally out of it, was in control of that power the entire time, which I can't say about Hollow Ichigo, 4-tailed Naruto, Demon Rin, whatever that thing was in Mushibugyo, etc. He willingly knew the risks and what would happen to him, and did it anyway. He didn't deliberately attack his comrades who tried to stop him.
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
Owarimonogatari Episode 6:

Yea, called that, called that, in fact, Ougi has moved up a couple of notches for calling out how easy the solution to the mystery was and yea this is been a major problem with these arcs, it basically required Araragi to hold the idiot ball the entire time. Some of it was a side repercussion of the seams of retconning because this story did not flow naturally into the bigger narrative to the point where it actually changed Araragi as a character. Marvel would be impressed by this. Anyway the highlight of this episode and indeed the all of these arcs is the interplay between Hinekawa, Araragi and Ougi and some of the revelations that have come out of this.
Yes, this is where Ougi's grand chess game against both the Araragi Faction and the Specialist Faction began and she took a loss because she underestimated the convictions of Araragi which are powerful enough to break the mind manipulation. Yes, that would explain a few things but the overall goals and motives are still obscure outside of fighting for balance and punishing liars.
 
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Episode 37
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That line, I hope people used it IRL.

The actual physical fighting made it much better than when it was Misawa dueling.

Also the OP song is great 99% by BOWL, too bad it seems they didnt do much more music.
 
Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note Episode 15
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Best otome anime ever. Yuki Kaji, I mean Sunahara saying all these lines is really sweet and moving. Sunahara is just the perfect one of the whole cast and he just keeps ending up in all these circumstances its very unfair. If only he was in a better family situation and with better people. Rotten adults and rotten people in their twenties keeps ruining it. Its not right :(
 
Lovely Complex - Complete

Even better, though, is the character design in this show. These character designs and the huge variety of different close up shots made a huge impression on me and this show just might be my all time favorite in that regard.

Really? I like Lovely Complex (and its director, Uda), but its production values are fairly low. Not so low as to be offensively ugly, as something like Bokura ga Ita is, but not high enough to be pleasant on the eyes, as something like Snow White with the Red Hair is. The character designs themselves are fine, but I can't fathom someone considering them their favorite designs in all of anime.
 

e_i

Member
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Rin really is best girl.

UR2jieJ.gif

This song...I can't get out of my head. It's the best song in the whole movie IMO.
 
Show White Episode 5
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Yo, I actually really like these characters.

The main romance in Snow White is the type of romance that makes for easy watching. Zen and Shirayuki rarely misunderstand each other so much as they do themselves.
The episode acted as an enjoyable mystery, with a decent fight scene at the end. Fun episode.

Also Obi's romance with Shirayuki hasn't even really begun, and he already lost.
He should shack up with the lovely head pharmacist.
300

Who should really get more focus.
 
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