Ahem.



Edit: I've watched tons of anime since I watched Toradora. I had the good fortune of it being one of the first anime of it's genre that I saw.

When compared to everything else, opinions of it get even better. Dramatic moments are carefully chosen and placed, and played in such a way that they actually have weight, as opposed to classic anime tearjerker moments. Toradora's music is top-notch, and easily facilitates this.

 

Toradora basically implements all the common anime love/comedy tropes to a really high standard. Yes, all the plot devices are as standard and cliched as you can get in any random seasonal anime in that genre, but it just does it a hellova lot better and to a near perfect balance of the various elements - comedy, drama, side characters vs mains, etc.

Mirroring Republic, being one of the earlier anime I saw, it was absolutely amazing for me when I saw it. Since then, there have been some fantastic modern drama that do different things from those cliches - Ano Hana, Kokoro Connect, Ore ga Iru, etc - and I think that could diminish Toradora a tad. But I'd still say I could probably enjoy it on rewatch.

 

Rather the opposite for me, I think. Watching a variety of different anime made me appreciate Toradora's quality all the more by comparison.

 

I think that means I just need to rewatch it and give it another go then. I can certainly believe you on that.

I find older anime had a magic to them that most modern anime seem to lack. I think back to a lot of the anime I enjoyed 10 years ago which seem really average when I either think about their plot critically or even go watch individual scenes. But even on rewatch, they have more distinctive atmospheres and settings that draw you in, in a way most modern anime don't.

For modern anime it's like the B-grade, average stuff has become all harem/moe-shit that doesn't even try, or really high quality stuff that loses a bit of that magic in taking itself very seriously (or tries too hard) without anything in between.

I'm thinking shows like Get Backers, Trinity Blood, Scrapped Princess, Claymore, Chrno Crusade, Black Cat, Peace Maker Kurogane - stuff that really probably can't be called high quality, but nonetheless had their own unique draw to them.

Of course, this could all just be pure nostalgia talking too.

 

Just binged No Game No Life and my god, I've never seen a better execution of a concept I couldn't care less about. I actively dislike the NEET glorification genre, but the art style and the music are just so good. Everything is tinged faintly red and the art itself is punchy and fun to look at and makes the ridiculous "games" they play more intense than they probably should be. The not so subtle references to all the other things I like are nice too, though some are hit or miss. The King Crimson one fuckin' killed me.

Really hope it gets a second season. Reeeally hope.

 

So, someone recently recommended Hidan no Aria AA to me. Despite its summary, it's genred as action and adventure. I don't know much about it. Anyone else who watched it care to chime in with an opinion? Is it worth watching?

Reviews are ... not encouraging.

 

Watched a lot of OVA recently, most of which were cyberpunk or inspired by it. Most were also very drenched in what I can only describe as a very 90's feel.

First up was the UK dub of Cyber City Oedo 808. Centers around a team of three criminals (offenses never specified), called Sengoku, Gogl, and Benten. Each has an episode centered around them. Takes place in the titular city, which is of course a cybernetic shithole with a tyrannical government.
This is the best one out of the lot - or, at least, the one I liked most. It's three episodes showcasing typical cyberpunk, but it does it pretty damn well, with relatable characters, well-portrayed action, and great art.
A little extra note to be made here: I usually don't watch dubs, having grown up with subs. I watched this one dubbed for two reasons, though: the soundtrack was better, and the characters are a lot more hilariously vulgar.
For instance, a line about how vampires are pitiable in the original Japanese somehow turned into "You wouldn't know a goddamn vampire if it jumped up and bit you on the end of your fucking dick" in the dub. I probably shouldn't find that as funny as I do, but whatever.

Second is the US dub of Goku, Midnight Eye. Our male lead, Goku, dressed as a male stripper, investigates two cases that get incredibly fucking weird. There's a scene where the main villain of the first part sells a plan to a dictator that involves infecting swan dicks with a virus to wipe out opposing nations. I'm not even kidding. Shit is weird. The video is a lot less quality, dub is pretty bad with its lipsyncing and its quips are less good.
Still probably worth a watch if you've got nothing better to do.

Third is the Running Man, by the same guy who directed Oedo, Yoshiaki Kajiwara. This one is just shy of fifteen minutes. It's quite pretty, but I didn't like it that much. Felt a bit too drawn out, tbh.

Other things I've got queued up thanks to /m/ are Genocyber, Bubblegum Crisis, a lot of other things from Kajiwara's oeuvre, and miscellaneous cyberpunk OVAs. I'll probably make a post about those later.

 

Have you seen the main season of Aria? I would watch that first and see if you like it before watching the side story. Neither are very good shows though. I really only got through them thanks to my love affair with Rie Kugimiya's voice acting.

 

I tried Aria. Wasn't really my cup of tea, so I left it.


I've been hearing good things about Nisekoi, but it's somewhat long with 2 seasons and 3 OVAs. Anyone who watched want to say a couple words about it? Anime over manga or the opposite?

 

IMO, its an overrated harem anime sans fanservice. Total lack of anything resembling plot progression. Mildly funny though and the art is excellent. The manga is the same (i.e. 95% filler).

This redditor says it best:

 

I watched the first couple episodes, and yeah I don't see too much appeal. I'll probably watch one more (3 ep rule and all that) before stopping.

Out of curiosity,

Spoiler

who was the girl that gave him the pendant?

I could google it, but I'd rather read a DLPer's opinion than some random guy.

 

Spoiler

You never find out. Every girl they introduce becomes a possible candidate. So they won't reveal it until the very end of the manga series. And maybe not even then out of fear of infuriating fans whose waifus weren't chosen.

Honestly, Nisekoi is just a huge waste of time, and filled to bursting with bad shounen romance tropes.

 

Huh. I thought it was complete already. My mistake.

 

Yeah couldn't get into Nisekoi at all. I went in not expecting much - just hoping for some sort of simple, fun love-comedy. But it doesn't even really work for that, what with its weirdo cinematography style and strange plot pace. Tries too hard to try to be 'special/different' in execution and just ends up meh.


Anyway, here's a half recommendation (really, a frustrated rant). I say half because I really loved the attempted premise they went for, the fantastic atmosphere and technical execution, and the potential of this anime, even if it ended up flopping a bit due to some awful directions taken with the plot. It's worth watching to appreciate what could have been while remaining frustrated in what was. Season 1 was still really enjoyable, but Season 2 was a complete disappointment.

selector infected WIXOSS (and sequel selector spread WIXOSS, with a movie sequel, selector destructed WIXOSS to that due this year) is an anime that I originally thought was just a shoujo version of Yu Gi Oh - just another seasonal card game anime. Last week however, I came across a trailer and well, it speaks for itself in dispelling that assumption. Further research saw a reviewer nickname it "Madoka: The Gathering" and those two really piqued my interest.

The Madoka influences are clear in the anime. A darker take on a what is usually a childish genre, built around plot twists on taking what the characters initially see as a fun, harmless activity and building in all sorts of weird fucked up consequences of it.

The biggest positive aspect of the anime is the general feel of it, put together by a combination of fantastic visual effects, sound effects and a really cool atmospherically psychedelic OST that has a style to it that I haven't actually come across in anime before (to give you examples, tracks like this, this or this). These did a great job of giving the battles and anime an eerie surrealistic feel without going the way of Madoka and using bizarre art styles. On as side note, both the sound effects and OST have one of the biggest emphasis on big bass that I've come across in anime too - I had to turn the subwoofers on the home theater system right down because the whole house was shaking at points.

At times it feels like it tries a bit too hard to be Madoka with a lot of the plot twists feeling too much of a copy. And yet, despite this, when some of these things happened I could not help but feel the "Holy shit" moment, particular the bulk of them that occur in the last 4 episodes of season 1.

On a specific plot device, there's this really interesting subplot focused around one of the main characters. She's in love with her brother. Not all that uncommon in anime, but what is uncommon is for it to be explored in more an Amy/Victoria (for those Worm fans) way rather than just used as a piece of fan service to populate a male protagonist harem. The whole incest plot is dealt with as the fucked up tragedy that it is rather than the nonchalant comedy it usually sees, which is pretty interesting.

The biggest example of the wasted potential was the main character. The way she's described by others forms this really interesting image - an apathetic girl with a pretty shitty family history who has finally found she feels alive through WIXOSS battles and craves more, despite realizing all the fucked up consequences surrounding them. That's one of the character tropes I really love. Except...that's not how she's shown to act at all. That's how everyone else tells her she is, but really she's more like this Madoka character who wants everyone to be happy. There's only a single scene where this battle-lust seems to actually manifest, and every other battle she goes into reluctantly.

Which leads me onto the next point - the battles themselves. The anime seems to have gone too far in attempting to distance itself from being a shounen anime. You don't ever really learn about the mechanics of the game, how it works, and so on. Everyone keeps talking about the main character as if she's a prodigy, but you never understand why because you don't understand how the game is actually played, or even what traits classify as 'skill' - that and you barely see her get in many fights to start with. The anime needed a few more episodes exploring the actual game, have the main characters engage in a lot more battles towards the start (of which there were barely any) and showing Ruuko build up her obsession with the game before engaging the Madoka-esque plot twists.

Despite the issues (more in the spoiler tags below), I came out of Season 1 absolutely adoring it and super hyped with the cliff hanger it left on, which is why this remains as a half recommendation.

Unfortunately, Season 2 was a complete disappointment. Some of the mistakes the anime made in Season 1 made it hard for certain aspects to be explored properly in Season 2. In general, it almost felt like Season 2 took a different direction - one that was more in line with a standard anime of this type. Complete with the Power of Friendship Compells You and a main character who's selling point is her purity of heart and absolute compassion. The explanation to the universe was a bit meh too.

On more specific, spoiler rants for those who have seen it:

Spoiler

Apart from not spending a lot more time on the battles themselves in the early stages of the anime, I think there were two other major mistakes in season 1 that set up Season 2 for failure. Those were Hitoe and Yuzuki joining back up with Ruuko.

Hitoe was a fantastic tragedy case. Boy, what happened to her was absolutely brutal, and being the sort of character she was made it hit you like a fucking aeroplane.

And then they brought her back as a character and completely diminished all the feels her role played. It'd be like if in Madoka, they managed reverse the process of Sayaka becoming a Witch and turn her human again. Furthermore, in Season 2 she made for an annoying sidekick character who, along with Yuzuki, seemed to keep Ruuko too much from doing anything interesting.

Imagine Hitoe never regained her memories. Imagine instead of going to Hitoe, Yuzuki came back as say, that crazy bitch Akira's LRIG instead. Maintains that level of epic suckiness for them and keeps that level of despair prevalent in Season 2.

More importantly, it'd see Ruuko go into Season 2 with Iona her only companion. I loved the twist of Iona becoming her LRIG at the end of the first season, but that wasn't properly explored in second because Hitoe and Yuzuki basically served to prevent Iona from influences her at all (I mean, it's not like they really did anything apart from that did they?).

So I think Season 2 could have been a whole lot more interesting if it saw a Ruuko join Iona in a cacophony of guilt ridden battle lust before finally coming across Yuzuki later, snapping her out of it. You could explore that inner conflict within her a lot better than just having other people comment on it.

The incest plotline fell flat too. I mean, initially it's portrayed as this beautiful tragedy. I mean you have Kazuki's freaking out at suddenly having incestuous feelings appear from nowhere (via magic cards) and he's really going mad because of it. There's the complete social downfall of the two. And then, you've got the twist that the girl he's having these feelings for is actually someone else entirely (Hanayo). This all seemed to be building up for a rather tragic ending only for Season 2 to write it off as almost something of a happy ending for all involved.

But yeah, overall I think it was still pretty interesting and a bit different, making it worth checking out. Even if you end up pretty frustrated in the end.

 

Anime-related request.

Can anyone tell me which anime this chick is from?

 

@Xandrel
Some redditer says Iori Minase from Idol Master.

 

Thanks man! I heard about Idolmaster before but didn't pay attention.

Hm, maybe I should check it out.

 

I dunno if it has been recommended yet, but I am a huge fan of Gundam Unicorn. A really beautiful anime that scratches that mecha itch....

 

Its Moe. Always be wary of moe, it degrades your brain.