Finished Rideback and Samurai Champloo:

Liked the beginning of Rideback very much, the mood was very nicely set and the main character is rather awesome. The concept of Ridebacks is great as well and seeing Rin (the main character) use one was such a joy and one of the few times I enjoyed something racing related that is not Mario Kart.

However, I felt the whole terrorist/government plot to be really out of place and I never felt that it connected all that much with Rin and her issues.

Tbh, Rin didn't really have anything to do with the terrorists and the overlaps they had were entirely incidental. In fact, take Rin out of the story and most of it would play out as it did. It just felt unnecessary. Overall, I liked it, but it felt as if it was unclear on what it was trying to be. it tried to be two very different things at once and that just didn't work out as it intented.

As to Samurai Champloo, it too started with a very strong first half, and did quite nicely by subverting a lot of tropes but ultimately, the second half just stopped doing that and reverted back into cliché's, the animation quality dropped and it stopped being as interesting as before. The two main fighters were ridiculously overpowered until they met even more overpowered guys (two of them) and overall, just meh.

Ending was disappoining as well.

 

Interesting, I thought most people here would prefer the second half of Rideback more than the first.

I quite liked the build up from the first to second half. Yes, Rin doesn't really do anything particularly useful in regards to stopping the evil government and all that. But I liked the way it played into her personal development. Particularly, the way that she starts to realize that she actually *loves* the thrill of being shot at while riding a RideBack - and hates herself for it.

As for Champloo, I do agree the second half wasn't nearly as good as the first. First half, each story was just badass and funny, but it did start to get a bit old. There were a few good stories later on, like the one with the blind girl.

I loved the ending though.


SAO is just feeling boring now. Kokoro Connect is continuing to stay awesome, and is probably best (and most surprising) anime of the season.

 

As much as I liked her dilemma over that, I really felt that overall, the whole terrorism plot amounted to very little.



Watched the first two episodes of Kokoro Connect and am loving it so far, I hope the rest of the episodes are just as strong.

Also watched the first two episodes of Angel Beats and while it didn't wow me, it seemed good enough to continue watching it. Main female lead seems cool. Male protag seems meh, though.

 

I agree with Nemrut and Jarik. I had thought Kokoro Connect was some classic school drama, but it's, to be honest, quite awesome. I think I have a new favorite anime this season.

Edit: By the way is there any other anime like Kokoro Connect you guys can reccommend?

 

Finished Angel Beats and have to say, over all, really loved it. First three episodes were kind of meh but interesting enough but the following episodes had me either laughing extremely hard (baseball game, the glasses dude just to mention two hilarious instances) or had rather emotional downers (past of the pink haired girl).

So yeah, great series, OVA was funny as well. Can only recommend it. Not the best thing I ever saw but still very entertaining.

 

Bleach: Ichigo Kurosaki is an ordinary 15-year-old boy who happens to be able to see ghosts. His fate takes an extraordinary turn when he meets Rukia Kuchiki, a Soul Reaper who shows up at Ichigo's house on the trail of a Hollow, a malevolent lost soul. Drawn to Ichigo's high level of spiritual energy, the Hollow attacks Ichigo and his family, and Rukia steps in to help, but is injured and unable to fight. As a last resort Rukia decides to transfer a part of her Soul Reaper powers to Ichigo. Ichigo, now a full-fledged Soul Reaper, and Rukia, minus her powers, join together to face the challenges that lie ahead.

It's pretty long and has lots of filler, but it's still good.

Link: http://bleach.viz.com/

Blood+: Throughout the passage of time and the shifts in backgrounds, a particular war continues to leave its mark on history, extending its influence into the modern world. There are two major groups involved in the ensuring war. The first group consists of monsters known as Chiropterans who can change their appearances into that of human beings. They are actually immortals who feed on the blood of the living. The second group is an organisation known as the "Red Shield", formed to track down these monsters and exterminate them. Otonashi Saya is a high-school girl who lives a peaceful life with her family. The only problem is, she has no recollections of her life beyond that of the past year. However, her happy life will be destroyed by an event that will lead her to her destined fate.

Beautiful and brutal.

Link: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=5088

Darker Than Black: A new and deadly breed of covert agent walks the streets. Known as Contractors, these assassins and spies wield bizarre supernatural powers to carry out the dirty work of others. They thrive in the underworld, between rumor and reality, their loyalties always in question. One among these operatives is more mysterious than the rest – The masked killer BK201, the Black Reaper. His true identity and intentions remain unknown, but as his path weaves through the shadows and alleys of Tokyo, blood is spilled on both sides of the law. It’s a new age of confusion, and the rules of engagement have changed.

A good anime with interesting characters. And the piano's awesome.

Link: http://www.funimation.com/darker-than-black

 

I second the recommendation of Darker Then Black. Or third of fourth since I watched it based on the recc earlier in this thread. I think some referred to him as 'the electric batman.'

There's a lot of cool stuff in there that doesn't quite old up under scrutiny, world-building wise, but it is not enough to not watch it. It starts off pretty slow for the first eight episodes or so, being more about their world than an over-arching plot. Slowly, more character driven episodes are introduced and the plot does unfold. Either way, the pacing is a bit slow, but I liked it for the depth it gave the world and characters.

And, avoid the second series. Not worth it.

 

Bleach was only really good for the Soul Society Arc (first 65 eps or so), and after that really went downhill (both the anime for having bigass filler seasons, as well as the manga for just losing its direction).

I will second Blood+. I loved it. I dont know why people seem to dislike it so much. It's not one of my top anime for sure, but how often do we get a 52 episode length anime with an actual plot?

Darker than Black I actually thought was average, but had a lot more potential. It starts great and gives you good characters, and a good settings. Then it just never really goes anywhere, preferring to maintain that episode by episode arc format. A lot of people hated the sequel too. It had its moments, and I actually liked the new main character (unlike everyone else) but yeah, still quite average.

 

Yeah, I liked the first seasons better than the ones after them in Bleach and Darker Than Black. But I think both anime's are worth watching.

 

I just finished watching Mirrai Nikki the other day, and honestly, the anime was almost as good as the manga. One of the best anime I've ever seen, and though I felt some of the changes were unnecessary, they weren't major.

Spoiler

Murmur is reading a random manga in the epilogue, not Mirrai Nikki. Other changes are similar, and there aren't many.

 

Darker than Black had really good ideas but they stuck with the whole monster of the week thing much too long. If they'd been dropping hints and probing the Syndicate more/ had bigger action pieces I think it could've turned into something special. Then it didn't. Imo the strongest point of the first season was the Hei wasn't often the focus. It was usually someone else who his path intersected with so he retained a lot of mystery.

The second season sucked, though the action was still decent.

In other news I've been enjoying Muv Luv Alternative Total Eclipse. Wish the mechs were better looking but whatever, I can deal.

 

Sorry, only saw your edit just now - a month late.

If you liked Kokoro Connect, I think the closest to it would be Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai. Like Kokoro Connect, it has more natural characters and more complex drama compared to your typical moe high school anime, with a dose of something supernatural to spice up the character development.

On the note of Kokoro Connect, the last episode was amazing. Inaba has been my favorite character from the start. And once again, such good voice acting.

 

^
Awesome stuff, thanks mate.

Not sure weather Menma is a hallucination or an honest to god ghost but either way seems to be interesting. Though I'm leaning towards hallucination.

 

SAO is awesome but slowly being ruined for me by the terrible romance.

Kokoro Connect really didnt look like something I'd enjoy but it's actually very entertaining. The characters are superb and the premise is great.

Haven't watched Darker than Black in years but what I remember of it is very good. Definitely Chinese electric Batman. While the second series wasn't so great it's still definitely worth watching, though I do hate the new main character and everything to do with her.

Also recently watched Kids on the Slope. Cannot rec this enough. Great music by Yoko Kanno and it's directed by Shinichiro Watanabe who's done some of my favourite anime.

 

Baccano! Old, probably many of you've already watched it, but due to shitty summary I'd came by when I first saw the series, I'd given up on watching it and now realized that what a mistake I'd done.

Five episodes in yet, but the show is, in one word, awesome.

 

Baccano! is fun. I wish the alchemy was a little less homogenous - but it's still a rad series.

Anyone else still following Kokoro Connect? I did a stupid thing and watched Kids on the Slope then had trouble taking Kokoro Connect seriously again. Maybe it's the whole "oh you're 12 now thing" not jiving with me. Or maybe it's how freaking awesome Kids on the Slope was. It's up for debate.

I feel like it would have been better if they just had the person mentally transported back to that time period. Like they just space out for 5 hours or whatever. Then come back to the present but everything feels like it just happened. Ah whatever. Still something to watch I guess.

 

Kids on the Slope is the better show, and Connect's latest arc is stupid. The arc right before it ended poorly too.

 

I actually really enjoyed the ending of the previous arc, though the rest of the arc seemed fairly average when compared to the first.

The new arc is kind of retarded, but they're pulling it off - regardless of how poor the concept is. When I first saw what it was I completely facepalmed, but it has become somewhat interesting. The personal 'issue' here was completely contrived though. In every other arc, you dealt with personal trauma or some personality issue. Here, with Aoki, his entire issue WAS that he remembered his feelings of his younger self too freshly, and Yui's issue wasn't as good as in the first arc.

New ED is stuck in my head too.


I've seen first 3 episodes of Kids on the Slope, it's really well executed. Has a very non-anime like feel, which can be refreshing. The music is awesome, and as a drummer I can appreciate the effort gone into animating the drumming - it looks so smooth. Will continue and see how it goes.


Sword Art Online stays mildly interesting. The only thing it has going for it is really is Asuna and Kirito's relationship - which is only slightly refreshing since anime like this generally don't actually HAVE characters get together at all. It's really disappointing because it had so much potential.

I have no idea about the light novels, but I think they should have spent more time on the first few weeks in SAO. It would have been a lot darker, you could have focused more on people mentally breaking down and all that. Kirito finished episode 2 as the lone 'beater', and yet the episode after he's back to hanging out in a guild. Really destroyed the feel. They seem to have just turned it into a happy, lighthearted fantasy and ignored the point of it being a video game normal people got stuck in which will kill you.

A random idea my brother and I had (and could be a cool fanfic idea) would be if they gave Kirito a real reason for staying a guild-less loner. Say instead of dual wield as his unique skill, he had a Berserker skill that he discovered in the Beta. It'd explain how he can survive by himself, and also why he refuses to front line with other people.


Kuroko's Basketball finished this week, and I fucking loved it, while being a bit disappointed that it had potential for more. Mainly because all the side character are just epic, while the two main characters are very boring. That and all of Kuroko's criticisms of his old team are somewhat explainable by his *own* failures - I just hope the anime portrays it that way, instead of him being correct.

The animation is some of the best I've ever seen in a shounen sports. Especially in the later matches. As a basketball player, they not only look natural with every single movement they make - they look fucking badass. Who needs crazy special attacks and animations? Here's hoping for a season 2.

 

I've been wondering for the last while, are there any good sci-fi anime that don't revolve around giant piloted robots?

 

I'm guessing you've seen Cowboy Bebop, Outlaw Star, and Trigun. If you haven't, then you need to do so immediately and not sleep until you're finished.

On the more recent side, Planetes is pretty great. You wouldn't think that an anime about garbage men in space would be all that entertaining... but it is.