What have you watched recently?

GlassMoon wrote

I don't think the story, characters, etc. are the pinnacle of KyoAni quality, but Hibike! Euphonium is definitely one of the prettiest anime I've seen... maybe ever.

I'm often the kind of person who prizes the distinctiveness, expressiveness, and cuteness of art in anime over its technical prowess, but luckily Hibike! Euphonium excels at all of those. The story isn't immediately grabbing me as hard but I'm having a great time with it regardless.

I can agree with that, I absolutely loved Hibike Euphonium to bits, it has one of the best... everything I've seen in anime so far.

I'm currently watching Youjo Senki, and I've finished Tamako Love Story and Tamako Market before it.

I enjoyed both of the Tamako anime a ton, they have such a great OST as well, I couldn't stop listening to it for the following few days.

12 days later

I watched Love Live. It was okay; I like to have something to talk about with entry-level otaku whether I feel it super deeply or not. Guess who my favorite character was?

(for more than, uh, two reasons, I swear....)

Tang wrote

old school sailor moon

I ought to give that a shot. The OP is jamming and I really dig the aesthetic.

I watched Hells, the beginning was really fun to watch. Otherwise, i've been reading manga. I feel I can read faster than a show plays

Tang wrote

old school sailor moon

Haha. That reminds me, my computers teacher in high school was obsessed with that show when she was a kid. This one time late in the year, she even showed off her old toys and part of the Sailor Scout outfit she wore on Halloween. 😃

Rewatched Mahouka for the 9000th time. Overpowered tatuya-san jesus onii-sama always pick me up. Season two never, rip.

10 days later

Just finished Hakumei to Mikochi, an adorable but surprisingly realistic animu about two titular inchlings, the adventures they find themselves in, the dishes they cook...

Image no longer available

...and all the drinks they have :o
Would recommend heartily to just about anyone

Kukuru wrote

Just finished Hakumei to Mikochi, an adorable but surprisingly realistic animu about two titular inchlings, the adventures they find themselves in, the dishes they cook...

...and all the drinks they have :o
Would recommend heartily to just about anyone

Very thirsty, that drink sold me. I'm watching this now!

Yuu wrote
Kukuru wrote

Just finished Hakumei to Mikochi, an adorable but surprisingly realistic animu about two titular inchlings, the adventures they find themselves in, the dishes they cook...

...and all the drinks they have :o
Would recommend heartily to just about anyone

Very thirsty, that drink sold me. I'm watching this now!

How are you liking it so far Yuu?

All in One wrote

There was some silly sci-fi OVA I watched recently called Nora from 1985. Not overtly bad but not good either. Kinda boring overall. I'd recommend it if it were shorter as Nora herself is quite cute and animated.

Thought I'd do a little follow up on this post as I recently watched Twinkle Nora Rock Me for the first time and rewatched the original Nora. I had more or less completely forgotten about these OVAs until a few months ago when the latter suddenly blew up in the anisphere due to its, er, interesting animation. I'd held off on watching Twinkle for another friend get together as I expected it'd be great riffing material. I ended up watching it with a friend at around 1 in the morning and it was an okay time. It's pretty bad, but not on par with Suburban Sasquatch or the works of Neil Breen. The opening sequence is really the highlight of the whole thing, outside of that it's just a run of the mill low budget animu. A fucking weird animu, though.

Since my friend had never seen the original before I put it on after watching Twinkle. Comparing the two is quite interesting as Nora is both twice as long and much better animated but is also quite grounded when compared to how off the walls bonkers Twinkle is. The experience renewed my interest in whatever the source material was. When you're given two wildly different adaptations you have to wonder what the hell the source was. At first I was worried the original manga was lost media as I could not find any trace of it besides a MAL page and the author's other works but it seems someone uploaded the raws a few weeks ago. I'm eager to give it a look.

Lucky Star. Here's the question, is "Motteke! Sailor Fuku" the most perfect song ever made for an anime? In terms of pure beauty and excellence of expression only "Zankoku na Tenshi no Teeze" is a legitimate contender I think.

15 days later

Slight addendum to my previous post: I got to the second season of Black Lagoon and I don't know exactly what it was but I just was not into it anymore. The edgy, vampire twins were something that I thought was straight out of a generic anime and I just lost all interest for the two episodes they were in. Instead of just being a bad start to the season it ended up being a bad omen as I didn't think the few episodes after it were much better. Probably the most jarring shift in my enjoyment of any anime so far.

All in One wrote

Slight addendum to my previous post: I got to the second season of Black Lagoon and I don't know exactly what it was but I just was not into it anymore. The edgy, vampire twins were something that I thought was straight out of a generic anime and I just lost all interest for the two episodes they were in. Instead of just being a bad start to the season it ended up being a bad omen as I didn't think the few episodes after it were much better. Probably the most jarring shift in my enjoyment of any anime so far.

Daamn. That bad, huh? Kinda reminds me of how I ended up haaating Accel World for how contrived the second act turned out. They literally upped the stakes from "Main Dude beats his Bully in a VR game" to "said Bully tries running over the Main Dude with a car, leaving Girl A in critical condition". And it just goes downhill when Girl B is introduced.

Backlash wrote
All in One wrote

Slight addendum to my previous post: I got to the second season of Black Lagoon and I don't know exactly what it was but I just was not into it anymore. The edgy, vampire twins were something that I thought was straight out of a generic anime and I just lost all interest for the two episodes they were in. Instead of just being a bad start to the season it ended up being a bad omen as I didn't think the few episodes after it were much better. Probably the most jarring shift in my enjoyment of any anime so far.

Daamn. That bad, huh? Kinda reminds me of how I ended up haaating Accel World for how contrived the second act turned out. They literally upped the stakes from "Main Dude beats his Bully in a VR game" to "said Bully tries running over the Main Dude with a car, leaving Girl A in critical condition". And it just goes downhill when Girl B is introduced.

Something shifted with the writing and I suspect that this holds true for the manga as well. The only clear criticism I can formulate of it is they tried to go for a Jojo's rogue's gallery lineup of characters in the money counterfeiting arc but unlike JJBA none of them had any time to be fleshed out properly. As a result the only ones I can remember are Hank Hill and hot topic lolita!Jason Voorhees.

On another note, I powered through all of Detriot Metal City today and it's possibly the funniest anime I've ever watched. Do give it a watch if you haven't already.

6 days later

School Days, and while I still think it's a brilliant series in its own right, I can't help but wonder what could've happened if Sekai just pursued Makoto from the get-go. The anime gives her with a playful wit and charm that's rather lacking in her VN counterpart, and she enjoys some genuinely hilarious moments with him throughout the first few episodes.

All in One wrote
Backlash wrote
All in One wrote

Slight addendum to my previous post: I got to the second season of Black Lagoon and I don't know exactly what it was but I just was not into it anymore. The edgy, vampire twins were something that I thought was straight out of a generic anime and I just lost all interest for the two episodes they were in. Instead of just being a bad start to the season it ended up being a bad omen as I didn't think the few episodes after it were much better. Probably the most jarring shift in my enjoyment of any anime so far.

Daamn. That bad, huh? Kinda reminds me of how I ended up haaating Accel World for how contrived the second act turned out. They literally upped the stakes from "Main Dude beats his Bully in a VR game" to "said Bully tries running over the Main Dude with a car, leaving Girl A in critical condition". And it just goes downhill when Girl B is introduced.

On another note, I powered through all of Detriot Metal City today and it's possibly the funniest anime I've ever watched. Do give it a watch if you haven't already.

Tangentially-related, but my favorite light novel's author is a huge fan of DMC. The anime adaptation even has a shot of the heroine reading an ersatz version of it towards the end of the first season.

Finished Cowboy Bebop. I'll likely hvae to watch it a few more times to fully appreciate it but I can already confirm that it lives up to its lofty reputation. Going to watch Knockin' On Heaven's Door tomorrow, really curious to see what it's like.

Backlash wrote
All in One wrote
Backlash wrote
All in One wrote

Slight addendum to my previous post: I got to the second season of Black Lagoon and I don't know exactly what it was but I just was not into it anymore. The edgy, vampire twins were something that I thought was straight out of a generic anime and I just lost all interest for the two episodes they were in. Instead of just being a bad start to the season it ended up being a bad omen as I didn't think the few episodes after it were much better. Probably the most jarring shift in my enjoyment of any anime so far.

Daamn. That bad, huh? Kinda reminds me of how I ended up haaating Accel World for how contrived the second act turned out. They literally upped the stakes from "Main Dude beats his Bully in a VR game" to "said Bully tries running over the Main Dude with a car, leaving Girl A in critical condition". And it just goes downhill when Girl B is introduced.

On another note, I powered through all of Detriot Metal City today and it's possibly the funniest anime I've ever watched. Do give it a watch if you haven't already.

Tangentially-related, but my favorite light novel's author is a huge fan of DMC. The anime adaptation even has a shot of the heroine reading an ersatz version of it towards the end of the first season.

Oh, that's a pretty cool reference. I like it when anime do that, such as that Death Note cameo in Death Parade.

Started watching Ghost Stories recently. For those that don't know the series, it completely flopped in Japan and thus, for the English dub, it was decided to throw the original script out of the window and replace it with highly entertaining, comedic dialogue resulting in Garzeys Wing-level hilarity. Definitely belongs into the anime-so-bad-that-it-is-good camp.