Omni's Daily Dose of Anime

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You can find my non-anime reviews in my Random Video Noise thread.

★ = Favorites | Italics = TV Series

[1] Blood: The Last Vampire, [2] Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners: Overlooking View, Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners: Murder Speculation (First Half), [3] Vampire Knight, Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners: Remaining Sense of Pain, [4] Kimi ni Todoke/From Me to You, [5] Dirty Pair: Project Eden, Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners: The Hollow Shrine, Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners: Paradox Spiral, Dirty Pair: Affair on Nolandia, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, [6] Dirty Pair: Flight 005 Conspiracy, Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners: Oblivion Recording, Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners: Murder Speculation (Second Half), Genshiken, Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners Remix: Gate of Seventh Heaven, Perfect Blue, [7] Genshiken OVA, Yu Yu Hakusho, Paprika, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, [8] Appleseed, Broken Blade: Time of Awakening, Appleseed: Ex Machina, Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions, Appleseed: Alpha, [9] Genshiken 2, One-Punch Man, Parasite Dolls, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Ghost in the Shell, [10] Death Parade, Yu Yu Hakusho: The Golden Seal, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex/The Laughing Man, Little Witch Academia: Enchanted Parade, Higurashi: When The Cry, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, [11] Sword of the Stranger, Redline, Digimon Adventure: Children's War Game, Hells Angels, [12] Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, Neo Tokyo, Dimension Bomb, Patlabor: The Movie, Mardock Scramble: The First Compression, Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie, Angel's Egg, A Silent Voice, The Garden of Words, Colorful, [12] King of Thorn,

[Friggen' Awesome][Pretty Good][Meh...][Just... Bad][Irredeemably Awful]
showthread.php?t=44485&page=X


CROSSOVER REVIEWS:
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (with Guaporense)

FORFEITED SERIES (Episodes):
Appleseed: XIII (1), Black Bullet (1), Black Cat (2), C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (2), Claymore (4), Darker Than Black (4), Deserk Punk (1), Devil Summoner 2: The Animation (2), Dirty Pair (3), Dirty Pair 2 (3), Dirty Pair: Flash (1), God Eater (3), Gonna be the Twin-Tail!! (1), Flowers of Evil (3), Hanamaru Kindergarten (1), Higurashi: When They Cry Kai (8), Inuyasha (12), Joshiraku (5), Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions: Heart Throb (2), Minami-ke: Taidama (1), Puchimas! (18), The Qwaser of Stigmata (1), Revolutionary Girl Utena (2), Saiyuki (1), Sunday Without God (2), The Vision of Esca Flowne (3), World Trigger (9), You & Me (1), Zoids: New Century (3), Zoids: Genesis (1),

New Trope Lexicon:
Monogamy Syndrome: When the idea of polygamy triggers a possessive character to behave irrationally, often derailing the plot.
Overnight Romance: When characters spend less time developing a romantic relationship in-universe than the actual runtime of the movie.
Sad Chekov: When Chekhov's Gun is implied, but neglected.
Schindler's Twist: When a Bad Guy performs a plot-critical Heel-Face Turn without any warning or apparent provocation.




Wanna Date? Got Any Money?
Darker Than Black was okay at first, I liked the idea of Heaven and Hell Gates and the contractors having special powers dictated by false stars. But the character development was a touch lackluster for me, and the pacing was too slow to keep my interest.

Nowadays I watch a lot of feudal/medieval/fantasy/horror type stuff, but enjoy the occasional slice of life. But when I was younger I was really into mech and bio mech. The last few series that I've actually finished from start to finish are

Hellsing Ultimate (Really ten OVA's that tie in to form a story)
Black Lagoon
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040
Broken Blade
Blue Exorcist
Welcome to the NHK
Witch Hunter Robin.

I watch both dubbed and subbed, often depending on what I'm doing. If I'm intently watching it I find subs the way to go, but if I'm playing games or writing or whatever, I usually watch dubbed, so I can still hear whats happening even if my attention wanes.
__________________
Buy a bag, go home in a box.



Darker Than Black was okay at first, I liked the idea of Heaven and Hell Gates and the contractors having special powers dictated by false stars. But the character development was a touch lackluster for me, and the pacing was too slow to keep my interest.
It's kind of hard for me to judge pacing at this point since I'm not really sure if anything significant has even happened yet. Immediately relevant dialog and action sequences are usually present, so it's not like it isn't keeping my attention at the very least.

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Nowadays I watch a lot of feudal/medieval/fantasy/horror type stuff, but enjoy the occasional slice of life. But when I was younger I was really into mech and bio mech. The last few series that I've actually finished from start to finish are

Hellsing Ultimate (Really ten OVA's that tie in to form a story)
I saw Hellsing all the way through and skimmed through Hellsing Ultimate's first episode when it seemed to completely derail within the first few minutes. I think a combination of the the direct-from-the-manga "are you a virgin" line which compromises Seras's character right out of the gate, the referring to vampires with bizarre terms like "Draculina", and the lack of unintentionally hilarious editing made Hellsing Ultimate 1 way less memorable right out of the gate.

Also, it's opening felt way more generic than the original.


Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Black Lagoon
I watched very little and remember very little. I'll probably have to revisit it at some point.

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040
Broken Blade
Witch Hunter Robin
Haven't seen either of these yet, although Broken Blade is in my queue.

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Blue Exorcist
I thought the first few episodes of this were great! Give us a punk character who sticks up for the small guy, give him, of all things, the powers of the devil, and then pull the rug out from under his feet and reveal that his brother has always secretly hated him for it.

It really sucked me in.

And then they made up, and it turned into a highschool anime. I might have been able to look forward to the fight scenes, but every single one of them ends as soon as the main character can pull his sword out. There's no tension at all and we don't even get any sort of cool battle scenario like you might get in Soul Eater.

I don't remember where I stopped watching.

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Welcome to the NHK
I don't recall why I stopped watching this one. I thought it was interesting for what it was. Surprisingly DARK, that's for sure. Probably have to revisit that one too.

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
I watch both dubbed and subbed, often depending on what I'm doing. If I'm intently watching it I find subs the way to go, but if I'm playing games or writing or whatever, I usually watch dubbed, so I can still hear whats happening even if my attention wanes.
I prefer to give everything I watch my undue attention unless I've already seen it before. Since subtitles can distract me from what being shown on-screen I prefer to watch dubbed unless the voice over is atrocious. Coincidentally, most of what I watch is subbed since it hasn't all been localized.



Yu Yu Hakusho (Dub) Status: INTERESTED
Episodes:
44-46

Episode 44 is pretty much just an interim episode after the end of the last Dark Tournament round. Hiei finally gets into the ring after being screwed out of matches and of course it's like unleashing a demon... which it literally is, and Hiei stabs his first opponent through the face. Probably one of the fastest matches in the Dark Tournament yet. Meanwhile Genkai tells Urameshi to kill her as part of his final test.

Uhhh... okay. Of course he says no, and DUH, that passes the test and Genkai says he qualifies for the TRUE test! Basically she says she can't teach Urameshi anything more and the only way to gain enough power in time to tackle Toguro is to use hers. Apparently Genkai's been squirreling away spirit power into an orb which Urameshi has to absorb, but if he's not meant to have it, it'll kill him from the inside out in a trial that could take days.

Obviously he's THE CHOSEN ONE, but Episode 45 doesn't waste any time showing us Urameshi screaming away in a cave. At least he's still Urameshi and tries to distract himself from the pain by punching stuff. Genkai evens surprisingly backs out at one point and takes the orb back, but of course, Urameshi curses at her and takes it back.

Meanwhile Hiei gets into a real match against a guy who has a really simple strategy at first: if he endures one attack, he becomes further immune to all future attacks of that type. Straightforward enough, but then he can only exercise it by taking a ball, crushing it, inhaling fumes, and turning into a random demon reject.

I'd get it if he had to do that each time we wanted to start absorbing a new kind of attack, but it doesn't seem to work that way and before we can see all of his forms, in Episode 46 he idiotically gets close enough for Hiei to pull off a super at point blank range, killing him.

If your main power is being able to become immune to the last attack that hit you, I would THINK you would try not to get KILLED when it hits you! It's an interesting initial concept, but a pretty stupid fight that leaves Hiei in pretty bad shape.

Once again, Hakusho manages to surprise by offering both Hiei another fight which he wants, Kuwabara a fight which he doesn't want, and instead of satisfying demand or playing up irony, Kurama gets called up. Well played...

Kurama starts a fight off against some whip guy who's supposed to be "the perfect match for Kurama", but he starts telepathically pleading with Kurama to kill him for the sake of his family. This is totally different from anything we've seen in the Dark Tournament so far, so I think, cool, you know, they deserve an easy win.

But no, Hiei already got the easy win, and just as Kurama goes to feign the other guy's death, PSYCHE! Kurama gets trapped in the arena by a field of cords and apparently forced to inhale a toxin that will revert his age to a child. Apparently that's this guy's whole strategy:
trap,
turn into babies,
????,
profit!

But inexplicably Kurama regresses into... a fox demon!? This stuff's only been mentioned in passing prior to this and since Kurama's easily the least developed of the main four, it's well past due we saw Kurama do something badass. Once again lookin' forward to the next episode.

Episodes:
47-49

So apparently, back in the day, Kurama was a legendary bishie demon with far fewer morals before he was sealed /reborn/whatever as a human child (doesn't that make Kurama a human? Or a half-demon? Or Naruto?).

The best part about this, I think, is that it means Kurama who was easily the weakest if not second to weakest on the team, is potentially the most powerful of all of them (save Urameshi of course). But that's about all it does.

The round ends with a teamkill by the other side before the guy says something he shouldn't and Urameshi team for the first time get into an argument over who fights first which Kuwabara wins through rock paper scissors. I like how Hiei doesn't know what the game is until it's explained and then complains that Kuwabara reacts a fraction slower than everybody else so he could win.

Meanwhile, Urameshi's killing himself and just when he's about to give up, Puu comes along and tries to feed him water despite suffering surrogate pain. For some random reason a boulder's about to fall on him and the most f'd up Urameshi we've seen yet needs to stand up and save his little blue ass. It's dramatic, a little overly sweet, but it's a decent conclusion to this sideplot. He succeeds, collapses, and it's a sure sign that he's going to be out of rotation for several episodes again.

Episode 48 begins and without any real indication it seems as if the animation has improved. A lot more frames are given to animating even mundane actions. It's strange, but I'm not complainin'.

Kuwabara faces some guy with double ahoges and IMMEDIATELY gets teleported out of the stadium, losing by default, where he meets up with all the useless female characters who are just lost and literally looking for the plot. It reminds me that Botan used to be important and continues to forget THAT SHE CAN ****ING FLY which marks the second time in this series where she isn't present for events because of reasons. There seriously isn't any good reason why they're lost. Botan can just fly up into the sky, see which direction they have to go, fly back down, and escort them that way. Why is SHE the one getting them all lost?

It's a dumb plothole, but fortunately there are very few of them throughout the series, so I can overlook it.

While Hiei and Kurama decide who goes next, Genkai shows up and Hiei displays some refreshing skepticism that's she's even the real Genkai, since it would not be at all unusual for a saboteur to take their place and intentionally lose for them.

For reasons that are never explained, Double-Ahoge decides not to use his teleporting scarf thing and just fight her with his demon sword. It's revealed that Genkai is once again old which suggests Urameshi team is trying to cheat, to which Toguro interrupts (pleasantly quieting the crowd), and confirms it's the same fighter.

It's weird and even unnerving for Genkai to be in a fight at all I think. After saying her training with Urameshi is done, she says she can die now which implies she doesn't care if she loses, but the episode ends with her saying she must win just so she can face Toguro again. She fought Toguro before? *GASP!* Was Toguro one of her students????

Kuwabara and the girls find Urameshi (THANK YOU), and they decide to leave Keiko with him as Kuwabara and the others run off to the stadium. A not UNSUBTLE suggestion is left for Keiko to molest him while he's unconscious... Oookay.

Genkai gives Double-Ahoge the "oh no I have so little power, I can't keep dodging this forever" bit and then catches his sword, steals his energy making her young again, and trounces him like nobodies business. The ref comes over to comment on "girl power" and how nice it is that a young girl in a male-dominated tournament actually manages to accomplish so much, but she bites her tongue when she notices Genkai's aged again.

It's at this point that I realize that despite all of the thoroughly useless female characters on the side who so far have only had very small roles throughout the series, the strongest female character, both literally and... literaturally...is obviously Genkai. Similar to Hiei, she demonstrates a moral code that shifts as the series goes on, she's no push-over when it comes to other characters getting in her way, and she has a significant impact on how everything in the series unfolds, both as Urameshi's mentor and otherwise.

It's a shame that she's the only female protagonist treated this way. Kuwabara's sister's neither a maiden like Keiko and Hiei's sister, nor a genki girl like Botan, but she could be cut out of the story and it wouldn't affect anything. I don't even remember her name.

The episode ends with Kuwabara swaggering back into the ring and hopefully into a redeeming win to finish the semi-finals.


Kimi ni Todoke (Sub) Status: INTERESTED
Episodes: 8-9

I accidentally watched episode 10 through 14. I thought the anime must have glossed over some parts, but NOPE, just totally watched them out of order, whoops. Anyway, Sawako finally meets and becomes friends with Kurumi who I already know will become a total bitch. Since episode 14 has them make up and become REAL friends... maybe? Sorta? Perhaps Kurumi will get some redeeming qualities.

I don't know, but considering her good points apparently end at: competes with other girls for Kazehaya's affection, I'd really rather not see her again. Of course, that plotline takes so much time, it has to be resolved and contribute to Sawako's overall development in some way beyond finally opening up to Kazehaya, so it remains to be seen what will be done with her.

Episodes:
15

Kurumi finally confesses her love to Kazehaya to which Kazehaya apologizes and says he's interested in someone else. This is unfortunately getting to that annoying dating phase of romance stories where we start introducing "RULES", the first unspoken one obviously being monogamy. If Kazehaya says he loves someone else, all that implies is that he can't love her back because by default he can only love one person. It would make a hell of a lot more sense if he simply said he didn't share her feelings. It's obvious that this is that case which is why it doesn't bother me too much, but it's still that vague implication of structure of "this is how society says your relationships should work" ******** that always gets to me.

There isn't even any mention of, "well can we still be friends?", because Kurumi goes straight into casually insulting him for his choice of women. It seems as if she at least got a lot off her chest, but she's still a bitch. I guess the progress here is she's a bitch that's out of the way?

Later she goes to see Sawako, babbles at her, and when Sawako pulls the, "well can we still be friends?" line, Kurumi says that they're rivals. With a smile, so they're happy rivals?

I'm not getting that sort of rivalry here at all. ...like, at all. They define rivalry at the end of the episode as a "a worthy opponent", but all that really translates to here is: Sawako's already won Kazehaya's affection, and Kurumi's going to get in the way of that.

I feel like Kurumi just turned into the Pokemon equivalent of Gary.


She's presented like someone who's enjoyable to compete against, but all she is is a trash-talking loser.

My biggest question now is how the series can continue for another 9 or so episodes. We tackled rumors, bullying, competing love interests, so what's left? They've basically confessed to each other, are they going to start dating now? I'm not looking forward to that. I'm even less looking forward to Kurumi using her "rivalry" as an excuse to cause more trouble.


Darker Than Black [Dub] Status: LOSING INTEREST
Episodes: 2

Ehhhh... I don't know. I don't know a LOT of things. Is the main character a good guy? Am I supposed to be empathizing with him? He makes a point of admitting he uses other people, but then doesn't like it when people speak ill of would-be sentient dolls? Whatever dolls are supposed to be? Robots? See, I don't even know. Honestly, the whole plot arc that began in the first episode has already turned inside out by this one and it's pretty much as if the entire story OF THE ANIME has been resolved.

I don't mind if they have brief plot arcs, but I don't get the sense that this series is designed to be episodic adventures, and if they're not there doesn't seem to be any indication that it did absolutely ANYTHING for the overaching story other than vaguely hint at who's working with our hero. Is he even a hero?

I'm giving it until episode 3 to decide.

Episodes:
3

I still don't know what's going on. As I figured the last two episodes contribute virtually nothing to the third and now the main character (whatever his name is) is now floating around this girl who I guess is implied to be a contractor? Or someone becoming a contractor? Does the glowy thing in her wrist indicate she is a contractor? Or does it mean that she'll become a contractor?

I actually just realized that the anime never explicitly explains the "pay-the-price" mechanic to each contractor's powers, this was explained to me by someone. They only briefly mention that one character has to organize small pebbles in a certain grid to regain their powers, but it's very briefly mentioned and probably easy to miss.

Other characters seem to have to do things like fold over the corners of every page in a book or eat a ton of food, but if you're watching this anime and you didn't pick up the purpose of these actions, the emphasis on them will probably confuse you.

I legitimately like the powers, their diversity, and the costs they come with, they're very interesting, like the girl who can sense the surroundings of water while she's in contact with it, whatever her name is, or the guy who can replace matter he's in contact with and in eyesight of, whatever his name is.

...what's even the main character's power though? I've already spent the average length of a movie on this damn show and I still don't even know the limits of the main character's abilities. My best guess is that he uses electricity? It would explain how he can causes seizures to people he's hit with his cord, and how he can light up a theme park at will, but you know that's another thing, why in the hell would a girl, who's well aware she's being stalked by a stranger, allow herself to be lead into a closed theme park and then without argument, close her eyes when he tells her to without offering any reason to do so?

That's some seriously sceevy ****.

I mainly watched this series because I'd heard good things about it and knew that Studio Bones was animating it, but the action sequences are pretty lackluster compared to Bones' other works.

I GUESS I'll give it one more episode since it seems like we're right on the verge of something, but it better start explaining what the hell is going on, or I'm done.


Zoids: New Century (Dub) Status: LOST INTEREST
Episodes: 1-3

Screw this. The main character, Bit, is a thief, gets handed a spot on a Zoid battling team for no reason other than he can pilot the super-extra-special Zoid they're not using, AAAAAAAAAND that's all you need to know about him.

They do some piss poor exposition about him wanting to create the ultimate zoid, but selfish aspirations don't compensate for selfish faults. The Zoid battles are slightly better than Chaotic Century so far. The models have more dynamic animations (as they should) and more emphasis seems to be put how these robots would logically work, but if you give even the slightest crap about "realistic Zoid behavior", you'd account for a really jarring inconsistency with them:

They're robots. When the plot calls for it.

At any given moment a Zoid will stand stock still and not respond to anything, but then as soon as the plot calls for it, they'll make growly noises and move around. What provokes them to alternate between "motionless vehicle" and "sentient robot"? There doesn't seem to be any logic to it whatsoever.

Episode 3 really kicks the already crap characters in the ribs by suggesting that the old leader of the Zoid team is SO confident that Bit's a capable member that he's going to retire (and hopefully cure that dreadful case of bedhead) at the same time that his whole team gets worthlessly team-killed by the one girl on the team that won't stop bitching at Bit and simultaneously wants him to fight for her honor because she's deluded herself into believing he cares in the slightest.

Both of her teammates defeat their targets and she just AoEs everybody, literally killstealing, causing expensive damage to her whole team, and then pulling a Noblewoman Laugh. Heeeeeeeeell no.


Saiyuki (Dub) Status: LOST INTEREST
Episodes: 1

This is just... weird. In a bad way.

The character's faces look messed up, the editing is crap, the action is WAYYY underbudget (I'm talkin' slideshow fistfights here), and what little story or characterization we have seems like a rejected script from a JRPG.

I might talk about how there are four main characters, one's a human priest and the other three are demons, or how the demons have repressed their power so they're MORE powerful than regular demons, which decided to stop co-existing with humanity because of watch-the-next-episode, BUT HONESTLY, I just don't think I could get over the fact that there's a dragon that turns into a jeep.

Like, it's not even treated as a joke. It's just a thing that happens.

The sky is blue.
Toasters make toast.
Dragons turn into jeeps.

And then back into dragons.

And then back into jeeps.

I guess it's fuel efficient and you get an free on-board talking GPS, but they don't even comment on it at all!

I seriously feel like I missed a whole anime series that takes place before this. I guess there are two OVAs which I didn't watch, but after this I don't even have the slightest interest in seeing 'em.

Apparently Saiyuki's supposed to be a Journey to the West adaption, but I was way more engaged in the story of Enslaved: Odyssey the the West than this, and I don't even care for it as a game.

In fact, after searching for this I found Saiyuki: Journey West which actually looks like decent tactics game for once. I think I'll try that instead.



Funny that this thread popped up, because I am sorta in the midst of an anime resurgence myself. As you can tell by my avatar, I bought the first season of Tokyo Ghoul about a month ago and now I'm a big fan!

I'm definitely not the biggest fan of anime, there are a lot of them that I see that I think are just flat-out weird and/or creepy. The ones I do get into I tend to like a lot though. And I suppose I do have a lifelong connection to it since I've been watching it since I was a little kid, starting with stuff like Dragonball Z, Pokemon, and Digimon.

Then when I was like 11 that's when I first discovered Adult Swim on CN and found Yu Yu Hakusho, which is probably my favorite anime ever (great reviews on it btw!) Ironically though I've never finished the series, it's just so long! I'm hoping to finally finish sometime soon.

When I got to like 12 or so is when I started watching the more "mature" animes. Hellsing (not Ultimate but the first anime series) was a big one. One of the best random buys I ever did was when I first bought Berserk, which is—along with Yu Yu—one of the best animes I've ever watched. Guts is one of the most badass characters ever imo!

Other ones, off the top of my head, that I watched through the years and really liked were Desert Punk (funny as hell!) Claymore, Elfen Lied, Higurashi no naku Koro Ni, Death Note and Naruto.

Over the past few years though I barely watched any, with the exception of Attack on Titan, which was good. One night though I randomly decided to check out adult swim again and checked out both Akame ga Kill! and Parasyte-the-Maxim and I really got into both of them, admittedly they're kinda cliche in anime terms, but they do it really well I think! Then after watching them got me in the mood to get Tokyo Ghoul, and then I decided to finally get the second part of Attack on Titan. On top of all that I also bought both seasons of Black Butler, which was one I was pretty interested in checking out for a while but was never too motivated to do so til now.

Alright I'm done rambling, sorry bout that! Good luck on your thread!



Wanna Date? Got Any Money?
Desert Punk is FANTASTIC, and Claymore is one of my all time favourites.

Welcome to the NHK was one of the only things I have ever seen where I not only enjoyed the romance in it, but actually found myself rooting for the characters in that regard. Each episode follows the story arc of the season, but the sub-plots and everything were just different and quite funny. I usually never watch shows like this, but the characters are awesome.

Started watching Trigun again last night, forgot how much of a badass Vash is.



Funny that this thread popped up, because I am sorta in the midst of an anime resurgence myself. As you can tell by my avatar, I bought the first season of Tokyo Ghoul about a month ago and now I'm a big fan!
Tokyo Ghoul seems very well made from what little I've seen of it, and honestly my favorite part of it was simply showing the effects of no longer being able to eat regular food.

I gave it up pretty quick though when it seemed to succumb to 'vampire syndrome'. Basically I'm referring to any time a story presents us with any sort of protagonist that's forced to live as a parasite, most commonly vampirism, in which case they have to drink others' blood to survive.

The problem arises when they're not given adequate escape from their restrictions and end up just turning into scumbags "because they have to".

Hellsing is a great example of how well this kind of character can be done in the form of Seras Victoria. She lives off of blood bags, and while their origin is morally questionable, it stands to reason that the Hellsing organization wouldn't "do what the vampires do" and collect it without consent. We're shown her struggle between loathing the idea of drinking it, but also her impulse to do so. It's reflected in the opening I posted above, in fact.

A D&D spinoff novel by the name of Spelljammer: Into The Void is another perfect example of this kind of character. Estriss is a mindflayer which, if you don't know, are psychic creatures which sustain themselves on brains (and by extension their tasty thoughts), but Estriss unlike most of his species is portrayed as a rare "good mindflayer".

There's some extensive dialog in which he very politely explains to the main character that because of his nature, he can't survive without causing undue harm to others, and so he makes a point of only eating evil people, and evil people in D&D's Spelljammer world are in great abundance, since it's the kind of world where any day of the week you could be attacked by space pirates who nothing more than to kill you and steal your ship. It's a lot more respectable to kill someone because otherwise they'll kill you than kill someone because otherwise you'll die.

Tokyo Ghoul managed to turn me off because it successfully managed to take the protagonist and drill them into the ground (which I generally like) and then have that protagonist resolve to act on it (which I generally interpret as big "NO GET OUT NOW" kind of red flag).

I like seeing characters get unfairly screwed over and then struggle to fight back. Maybe I didn't watch far enough in, but I didn't get that from Tokyo Ghoul, and that it was over the main character I'm supposed to be empathizing with, EATING people? It honestly just made me feel terrible.

What's the rest of the series like?

Originally Posted by False Writer
I'm definitely not the biggest fan of anime, there are a lot of them that I see that I think are just flat-out weird and/or creepy.
Like Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan weird/creepy?

There's a lot a that.

Originally Posted by False Writer
The ones I do get into I tend to like a lot though. And I suppose I do have a lifelong connection to it since I've been watching it since I was a little kid, starting with stuff like Dragonball Z, Pokemon, and Digimon.
Seen a lot of DBZ and Digimon, mostly played Pokemon.

Originally Posted by False Writer
Then when I was like 11 that's when I first discovered Adult Swim on CN and found Yu Yu Hakusho, which is probably my favorite anime ever (great reviews on it btw!)
Thank you!

Originally Posted by False Writer
Ironically though I've never finished the series, it's just so long! I'm hoping to finally finish sometime soon.
Hopefully I don't spoil anything for you.

Originally Posted by False Writer
When I got to like 12 or so is when I started watching the more "mature" animes. Hellsing (not Ultimate but the first anime series) was a big one. One of the best random buys I ever did was when I first bought Berserk, which is—along with Yu Yu—one of the best animes I've ever watched. Guts is one of the most badass characters ever imo!
Oh... Berserk. That was just... the worst ******* cliffhanger I've ever seen from anything in my entire life.

Originally Posted by False Writer
Other ones, off the top of my head, that I watched through the years and really liked were Desert Punk (funny as hell!)
Aware of it, haven't seen it.

Originally Posted by False Writer
Claymore,
Currently watching it now.

Originally Posted by False Writer
Elfen Lied,
Seen it. Pretty interesting at parts, would probably have made a better anime movie.

Originally Posted by False Writer
Higurashi no naku Koro Ni,
SHOCKINGLY good. The worst part is the anticlimax, but I've got the second series in my queue and it's literally the only one I've been procrastinating on because I have such high expectations for it.

Originally Posted by False Writer
Death Note
Not a bad anime adaption, but it's much better as a manga. And as a manga, it's easily my favorite.

Originally Posted by False Writer
Naruto.
Naruto's tough. It's good, no question, but it goes on for so long that for time's sake you're probably inclined to pick just the anime or the manga. The manga is much better paced and perhaps it's best incarnation as a whole, but while the Naruto anime suffers from severe inconsistency in animation quality, worthless filler episodes, and "Believe It!", it's hard to put it down when it kicks it up for some of the most spectacular fight sequences I've ever seen. Lee vs. Gaara and Naruto vs. Sasuke are some of the greatest fight sequences I've ever seen hands-down.

Over the past few years though I barely watched any, with the exception of Attack on Titan, which was good.
It was good. It has undeniable issues which rather poison my whole experience with the series, but if I ignore them, it's by far one of the best animes I've ever seen.

I cannot say I would have ever thought you could make two giant naked people fistfighting in the woods be epic, BUT THEY DID.

Originally Posted by False Writer
One night though I randomly decided to check out adult swim again and checked out both Akame ga Kill!
Was just watching that recently. It gets surprisingly dark, but unlike something like Higurashi, it utterly fails to maintain it's dark tone and just pleasantly bounces back to it's painfully-plain-as-day slice-of-life harem scenario too frequently.

I like the gay guy though, that's a switch. You don't usually get those in "Dating Sim" plots.

Originally Posted by False Writer
and Parasyte-the-Maxim and I really got into both of them, admittedly they're kinda cliche in anime terms, but they do it really well I think!
I have not seen that, nor am I entirely sure of what it is.

Originally Posted by False Writer
Then after watching them got me in the mood to get Tokyo Ghoul, and then I decided to finally get the second part of Attack on Titan. On top of all that I also bought both seasons of Black Butler, which was one I was pretty interested in checking out for a while but was never too motivated to do so til now.
It's one hell of an anime.

And that will pretty much conclude my reasons for dropping it as well.

Originally Posted by False Writer
Alright I'm done rambling, sorry bout that! Good luck on your thread!
Thank you, hopefully I didn't irk you with my criticisms, just my thoughts.



Desert Punk is FANTASTIC,
You too? Alright, it's in my queue.

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Welcome to the NHK was one of the only things I have ever seen where I not only enjoyed the romance in it, but actually found myself rooting for the characters in that regard. Each episode follows the story arc of the season, but the sub-plots and everything were just different and quite funny. I usually never watch shows like this, but the characters are awesome.
That's in my queue too.

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Started watching Trigun again last night, forgot how much of a badass Vash is.
Just recently finished the first season of Trigun. I liked it enough to see it through that far, but at the very end we're still making vague hints towards Vash's past which reinforces the fact that we still haven't learned a damn thing about this guy since the first episode.

I thought Trigun worked best when the insurance girls were still after him, but didn't know it was him. I was disappointed when they figured it out.

Also, why's it called Trigun? I don't think that's ever explained. Certainly not in the first season.



Wanna Date? Got Any Money?
There is as far as I know only one season of Trigun, and I know it's been done for a long time, because the first time I saw this show was on VHS and I think that was damn near 15 years ago. Badlands Rumble the OVA is the only Trigun to come out since then as far as I know. Vash is basically like a powerplant android thing created by humans, same with Millions. That's why he's the humanoid typhoon and can literally vaporize whole cities with the energy inside him. Remember seeing when his arm goes all laser cannon action?. I've read some of the manga, and it helps fill in the blanks. I sort of thought it was trigun for the three guns of Vash, Wolfwood and Millions Knives. But that's just a dumb theory.





Blood: The Last Vampire

Action Horror / 2000

WHY'D I WATCH IT?
n/a

WHAT'D I THINK?
Blood: The Last Vampire is an excellent example of "good, but not great". It's very difficult to challenge any individual aspect of the movie and say it ruins the experience, it's just so well made.

The opening sequence is nothing if not a perfect illustration of this. We witness an underground train car as it empties of people and progresses down a tunnel, during which the lights go out and a girl, one of the two remaining occupants, instantly rushes the other and cuts him down with a hidden katana.

That's all that happens. There's literally nothing else to this whole scene, but it's presented like it's the latest triple-A movie epic. The lighting is moody, the camera angles are dramatic, and the minimal music and choice sound design ramp up the tension right up until the final moment where the animation kicks into high gear and it happens.

It's so well done, for very little.

That's pretty much the whole movie. Really all that happens is we're introduced to "the last vampire", Saya as she hunts down some sort of lesser vampire relatives called Chiroptorin (or something) as part of secret organization for a period of time. That's it. It's no high point in her career, it's neither her first or last mission, it's just... one of them.

She shows up in some small town, and here I have to admit I have no idea where were supposed to be. First off I'll give credit to the movie for using both English and Japanese voice actors to legitimize interactions. The voice acting's not fantastic, but it's appropriate, which I appreciate. This however adds to the confusion of where this whole story is supposed to take place. Supposedly Saya needs a japanese sailor fuku because NOT FANSERVICE school does that kind of thing. Okay, so it's in Japan? But it seems literally everybody except Saya and the nurse are even part Japanese. There's this strange emphasis all throughout the movie on military occupation too. What's going on?



Wikipedia says that they're IN TOKYO, so whatever I guess Japanese high school principals usually speak in fluent English to their subordinates behind closed doors? The hell do I know?

Anyway, there's a Halloween party going on (appropriate I know), and Saya drops in to kill a few of these monsters disguised as humans. The sequence in which she finds and brutally attacks them is excellently contrasted with the pleasant upbeat saxophone playing at the party.

The human nurse gets involved and a race around town ensues. There's a lot of blood, a civilian casualty, Saya's sword breaks, she steals a new one, that's a fake, the organization catches up to her, gives her a new one, kill, kill, kill, and the movie's over with us just floating around the nurse as she... just goes back to her life. Just like the audience.

Well... THAT just happened.

It's cool, and it undoubtedly kept me engaged all throughout, but honestly in terms of what it did new or even taught us about it's world or it's characters? Practically nothing.

In fact, if you went into this movie and DIDN'T know what a vampire was? You still wouldn't know after leaving.

Saya's supposed to be the last one and all we see from her is that she's slightly stronger than she probably should be, she's got an unrealistically good sense of smell, and she's maybe lived for hundreds of years (if the really crap photographic evidence at the end is to be believed). The whole blood drinking thing doesn't factor into her character at all save a brief moment in which she feeds a dying Chiroptorin some of her blood, for reasons that are never explained.

The Chiroptorins aren't really vampires either according to the movie, and what their relationship to vampires is or why Saya is the last one is never ever EVER explained.

If this movie simply served as a character introduction, like a prologue to a bigger series of movies featuring her and/or the setting she lives in, maybe it would be... not terrible, but it's just a standalone movie.

If it were ever adapted into any sort of series, there's virtually nothing to pass over other than the idea of Saya, a vampiric vampire hunter in a sailor fuku working for a covert organization out to kill rogue lesser vampires. THAT'S IT. The best parts of this movie are simply how well it was presented, so if the same story was told by a lesser animation studio or a less talented director, the whole thing would collapse.

Well... it did get adapted into Blood+, and while it isn't the triple-A movie quality we get here, it certainly manages to tell an actual story with actual characters and actual arcs. So there's that.

It also got adapted into Blood-C, but I haven't seen that yet, so I have no comment on it.


Final Verdict:
[Pretty Good]
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Wanna Date? Got Any Money?
Anyway, there's a Halloween party going on (appropriate I know), and Saya drops in to kill a few of these monsters disguised as humans. The sequence in which she finds and brutally attacks them is excellently contrasted with the pleasant upbeat saxophone playing at the party.
I LOVED that part.

The movie itself was a bit hard to get through, but I found after viewing Blood+ and Blood-C the over all story made more sense and was a bit more enjoyable. But if I remember correctly, one of the anime adaptations is another dimension or timeline or something.DO NOT WATCH THE LIVE ACTION REMAKE. I think the ending of the movie was left intentionally vague, so they could do a show expanding the idea. But this is definitely one of my least favourite releases distributed by Manga Entertainment.



Haven't gone all the way through your thread but I will just mention a few I enjoy

Hell Girl (good revenge stories)
Mushishi (wonderful story and artwork)
Darker than Black (this is about as much action as I enjoy in anime)



There is as far as I know only one season of Trigun, and I know it's been done for a long time, because the first time I saw this show was on VHS and I think that was damn near 15 years ago.
Trigun is 26 episodes which is two seasons. You can tell while you watch them, since episode 13 is a recap episode. I didn't watch past that, but I wouldn't be surprised if the opening or ending changed then too.

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Badlands Rumble the OVA is the only Trigun to come out since then as far as I know. Vash is basically like a powerplant android thing created by humans, same with Millions. That's why he's the humanoid typhoon and can literally vaporize whole cities with the energy inside him. Remember seeing when his arm goes all laser cannon action?.
That was a big friggen' twist, honestly. It went so long without discussing his arm, but low and behold Chekov's HAND CANNON!

I wouldn't have guessed he was a robot.

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
I've read some of the manga, and it helps fill in the blanks. I sort of thought it was trigun for the three guns of Vash, Wolfwood and Millions Knives. But that's just a dumb theory.
That's a real kick to a lot of these anime. Many if not most are based on manga and I'm sure a large portion of them are better as manga.

But which ones!? I might watch an anime I think is crap and overlook and fantastic manga because of it!



Wanna Date? Got Any Money?
Trigun is 26 episodes which is two seasons. You can tell while you watch them, since episode 13 is a recap episode. I didn't watch past that, but I wouldn't be surprised if the opening or ending changed then too.
Never paid attention to that, I had all the DVD's/VHS and each only had four episodes on them, with a title for the overall events (Angel Arms, High Noon etc). I always just thought it was a full season. Oh well, the more you know.



Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
I LOVED that part.

The movie itself was a bit hard to get through, but I found after viewing Blood+ and Blood-C the over all story made more sense and was a bit more enjoyable. But if I remember correctly, one of the anime adaptations is another dimension or timeline or something.DO NOT WATCH THE LIVE ACTION REMAKE. I think the ending of the movie was left intentionally vague, so they could do a show expanding the idea. But this is definitely one of my least favourite releases distributed by Manga Entertainment.
Blood: The Last Vampire gets talked up a lot when it comes to "greatest anime films". Glad I wasn't the only one feeling disconnected by the end of it.

Conversely the live-action adaption is condemned like it's the plague. I dunno, it could be decent. I still got a laugh out of something as stupid as Gothic & Lolita Psycho.


Originally Posted by MovieGal
Haven't gone all the way through your thread but I will just mention a few I enjoy

Hell Girl (good revenge stories)
Heard of, haven't seen.

Originally Posted by MovieGal
Mushishi (wonderful story and artwork)
Haven't heard of.

Originally Posted by MovieGal
Darker than Black (this is about as much action as I enjoy in anime)
You don't like watching more action than what's in Darker Than Black, or it's the extent of action anime you watch?



Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Have you ever checked out Shiki?
Heard of that. It's super super dark, right?

Originally Posted by AboveTheClouds
Never paid attention to that, I had all the DVD's/VHS and each only had four episodes on them, with a title for the overall events (Angel Arms, High Noon etc). I always just thought it was a full season. Oh well, the more you know.
26 episodes is somewhat uncommon. Most anime only last one season (around 12 episodes, which would extend to 24, then 36, etc...), but some are 13 long or 11 long. Actually, there's an entire animation block called "noitamina" in Japan that airs 11-episode long anime seasons almost exclusively (which I'm taking a special interest in because they're typically selected for that block for how unusual they are, Shiki happens to be one of them).



Wanna Date? Got Any Money?
Yeah, Shiki is pretty dark, one of the better supernatural/horror anime I've seen. The animation style is really nice too, I've seen two seasons of it, very much worth a watch.



Yu Yu Hakusho (Dub) Status: INTERESTED
Episodes: 50-51

So Kuwabara's finally back in the ring and he gets teleported back out AGAIN. Another default loss. Nice. Wouldn't have guessed they'd screw over Kuwabara so bad, but the series better not devolve him into a joke character, I still like him.

Anyway, Genkai takes over again against the final member of the enemy team and she reveals that HE'S IN DISGUISE!

Turns out he's a clown.

Yeah.

Apparently, he dresses up as a mundane-looking old man to hide the fact that he's actually a flamboyant colorful clown with a long-standing hatred for OLD PEOPLE.

Genkai ****s him up.
Like, OVERKILL ****s him up.
Like, we see her literally break his spine, Mortal Kombat-style.

Hokay. That's pretty much the whole episode. Another surprise twist: the team leader was actually the weakest member of the whole team. Whatever, that's fine with me.

Episode 51 teases Team Toguro's abilities against an enemy team, and unsurprisingly everyone dies immediately.

It's at this point I realize Team Toguro only appears to have 4 members. Do they have a 5th? I haven't seen one.

Kurama is the only one observing the fights for strategy. Kuwabara is with Yusuke, who's still out for the count, and Hiei's doing some dark fire ritual stuff.

Genkai goes out into the woods to face Toguro, establishing that they used to know each other. Genkai knew him while she was very young (and supposedly more powerful than she is now), while Toguro apparently hasn't aged at all, emphasizing his inhuman nature.

Heavy clues are dropped that one of them has to die and the epilogue spoils the title of the next episode: "The Death of Genkai", NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOI totally saw this coming.

Not just because there've been clues pointing towards it, but I actually read parts of Yu Yu Hakusho in Shonen Jump and remember she actually dies. But she also comes back to life later as Puu or something? I forget. WHATEVER.

The biggest question is WHY ARE THEY FIGHTING IN THE FIRST PLACE? Why did Genkai go out into the woods to go get wrecked? Why couldn't this have been a tournament battle? Why are they both in agreement on this? If she knew she was going to die, why does she bother fighting?

Maybe it'll be explained to Yusuke since he wakes up just before the episode ends and goes running out looking for her. HOPEFULLY.


Kimi ni Todoke (Sub) Status: LOSING INTEREST
Episodes: 16
Just a recap episode. That's pretty much all there is to it. We learn Pin's got a ghost in his house and his drunken hallucinations talk about the anime when he's not arou
nd. And he wasn't even there for most of it.



Heard of, haven't seen.


Haven't heard of.


You don't like watching more action than what's in Darker Than Black, or it's the extent of action anime you watch?
Not really.. Im more into drama than action when it comes to anime.