Skyline's Anime Blog

[skyline99]

So I did this in a previous forum, refer to the PS for details onto that, and while not a whole lot of people posted, as I was basically ranting on and on about how this anime was "Moe to the max!", while this one was "Full of Ridiculous Fan Service...", etc.. etc..., I kept on doing it because people kept on viewing it. So, why not?

 

There's probably a good chance there's only a dozen people, including me, on the Nexus that are familiar with anime, but hey, I want to be surprised to see more.

 

-------------------

 

I'm going to only list animes that I'm currently watching and animes that I finished recently / last season. If I were to list everything.. this would be one heck of a long post.

 

Wiki links are provided for those who are interested.

 

Currently Watching:

 

Spring 2011:

 

• A Channel
  
• Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai. - Yes this is a title, and a sentence in fact.
  
• Ao No Exorcist
  
• C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
  
• Deadman Wonderland
  
• Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
  
• Hanasaku Iroha
  
• Hidan no Aria
  
• Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi
  
• Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai - 2nd Season
  
• Nichijou
  
• Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai
  
• Softenni
  
• Steins;Gate
  

 

Carrying over from Winter 2011:

 

• Beelzebub
  
• Gosick
  

 

Completed

 

Winter 2011:

 

• Bakuman
  
• Fractale
  
• Hourou Musuko
  
• Infinite Stratos - "I am wondering how I finished this..."
  
• Kimi ni Todoke - 2nd Season
  
• Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne - Another Title that is a Sentence.
  
• Puella Magi Madoka Magica
  
• Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto
  
• Toaru Majutsu no Index - 2nd Season
  
• Yumekui Merry
  

 

Recently (I would say 3 weeks ago or less) (Also known as "I never got around to watching until just now"):

 

• B Gata H Kei
  
• Mitsudomoe Zenryouchuu!
  
• Rental Magica
  
• To LOVE-Ru - "Again, wondering how I finished this..."
  

 

So, as you can probably tell, based off of titles alone, I don't entirely just stick with one genre. There's a lot of great gems in each genre, just waiting to be watched. I'm here to embrace their glory and endure through bad ones. :pinch: Sometimes, you just need to watch some bad ones in order to realize how great another one is though.

 

During the life of this thread, I will be posting reviews on animes I've completed watching, whether they are on this list or not. Episode completions will also be noted but only with an accompanying anime review. As such, I'll probably be saying "Up to Episode xx", just so people don't get confused. These reviews will contain incredibly bias opinions, ranting, and/or flaming of animation studios for screwing up - with some reason as to why I believe that. Oh, and some kind of rating score out of 10.

 

If anyone is interested what I think about the animes I've listed above before they start watching, just ask, and I'll probably give ya a good idea as to what to expect.

 

There is this one link that would basically remove 90% of this post and that would be my MyAnimeList watch list. However, I haven't updated it in, well.. forever. If I get around to it, I'll condense this post to its proper length.

 

Lastly, if anyone out there, and I seriously mean this, has anime they would like to suggest for me to watch, go for it. I take all suggestions and will eventually get around to watching them.

 

For now, excuse me while I go back to watching. :happy:

 

Can't believe I forgot this:

 

P.S. I'm this guy on that forum. Apparently, people have apparently already caught onto this so I'll just let it right out into the open now.

Edited May 3, 2011 by skyline99

[Lutine]

Only thing that stands out to me is Steins;Gate. How is it?

[skyline99]

Only thing that stands out to me is Steins;Gate. How is it?

 

If I had to pick a concept for Steins;Gate it would probably be this: Delusional Mad Scientist that actually gets a reason to be mad.

 

The semi-longer version of what I just said is that it's rather interesting in terms of the plot-line. The whole premise of the story itself, just screams what geeks, and paranoid people have brought up over the years in terms of human history: Conspiracy theories. It's something that is a bit new to me in terms of anime watching. I've always been interested in these theories myself, JFK and all, so I felt right at home just watching it unfold up to this point. The development of the story is going through at a pace that is makes it productive, since this is going to be 12 episodes, but at the same time, you aren't dragged along the curb, figuring what the heck is going on. That was the main flaw in something like Yumekui Merry, where it could of definitely been a solid 24 episode series but just slated for 12, and thus given some incredibly vague ending that just made me feel like this: :mellow: ; half empty. But anyways, moving on:

 

The other draw of Steins;Gate its references or parodies based on either geek or Japanese culture. I unfortunately don't get most of these myself, I must be too pure to watch this :sleep:, but it adds a certain depth to the anime, giving it the impression that this may or may not be true in real life. Stuff like that. The only issue with that, of course, is that it garners an incredibly niche audience. Depending on whether or not you are like me, and can just shrug things off you don't know about, or try to understand what they mean, you may or may not enjoy watching it.

 

Overall, I would say that if you're in it for either the story, the culture references, and/or the main character's "Mad Scientist" personality (self-explanatory), I would say, give it a shot and see if you like it.

 

------

 

EDIT: I should probably list the other animes I've watched somewhere... either an article or just updating my MAL list I guess...

Edited May 3, 2011 by skyline99

[omeletted]

According to my list, I've watched over 300 animes. Would be more but these few years I've been way behind on catching up with the latest ones, what with work and all. Still do try to keep track of good ones for later, but there's usually far too many to sort through. I'm almost in despair seeing my to-watch list pile ever higher. Currently watching Fairy Tail and Deadman Wonderland. How is C:? Sounds interesting.

 

Anyway, you can count on me reading your posts at least lol.

[skyline99]

According to my list, I've watched over 300 animes. Would be more but these few years I've been way behind on catching up with the latest ones, what with work and all. Still do try to keep track of good ones for later, but there's usually far too many to sort through. I'm almost in despair seeing my to-watch list pile ever higher. Currently watching Fairy Tail and Deadman Wonderland. How is C:? Sounds interesting.

 

Anyway, you can count on me reading your posts at least lol.

 

Very nice. Despite my over-abundance of stuff on the OP, I'm fairly new to watching anime. I only started it a few years ago in fact. Doesn't seem like it, but hey, surprises are everywhere. I can probably give ya a good list of the 'best of the best', in my opinion, that most, if not all, people should love to watch that's aired in the past year or so. Now I just need to remember what aired in the past year or so.

 

Now, time to talk to ya about C: :

 

Sorry about not replying to this sooner. I kinda wanted to wait until the next episode just so my mind was refreshed without having to re-watch the previous episode. That's out of the way now so here we go.

 

If you've read the synopsis on it, via websites or season graphs, you may actually be interested in it. Reason being is that, it looks as if it'll be centered around a purely economy-based theme. Now, I'm always trying to pick different genres each season, so I was thinking, "Sweet! This may be different from the rest."

 

Bad news is:

 

It slaps you right in the face of your first initial impressions if they are like mine. What's even worse: It slaps you in the face in episode 2, not 1. I felt so teased... really, really teased. Not teased enough to drop it, I've only dropped 2 animes so far due to the sole reason of "I couldn't take this anymore," and I endured freaking 11eyes! (Don't even get me started on that.)

 

Good news is:

 

What it becomes, and how it puts it forward, is quite good... so far.

 

I'll be frank, the character trait of "undecisiveness" at the start is quite popular these days, across most genres. A lot of times, you'll probably notice it right off the bat, and go :pinch: "Not this again." I don't think it'll ever stop though, as it's one of those things that is meant to be used as "character motivation". But anyways, why I'm saying is that, it doesn't go that way.

 

It starts off as a challenge towards the main character's initial point of view, and I like that. Having already defined one's beliefs then screwing them over in an instant, is a good way to draw people's attention, like thinking how he / she would react when faced with a "black / white" (complete opposites) situation. I would have actually liked it to last a bit longer than it did, but ah well, what are you gonna do?

 

The central thing about C: , the money, is still present, despite me being slapped in the face, as previously mentioned. How it's represented is based on how you view the rest of the anime. There's two ways I see it: One way is that you see the money as an excuse for how they act, i.e. it could be replaced with something else like puppies, music, etc..; the other way is that you see it as the thing that makes C: or breaks it down into a stereotypical battle anime and makes it apply to the other way. The latter is how I feel about it. Its consistent reference to money, in its plot, its terminology, even character backgrounds, throughout most of each episode keeps you in the mindset that what is happening could only be caused by money, and not, again, like puppies or music.

 

Side note: Sometimes, I've encountered animes that try to do too much at once. Only one anime for me, Honey & Clover, has been able to do it successfully. Reason being that it was so successful is because it continually developed different themes for different characters at the same time. Most of the time, you may see it literally flip back and forth, generally between relationships and being <insert role here>. What hurts some animes even more, for me, is that they often just drag one thing along for the ride, just to remind the viewer it isn't a one-faced anime. However, I wonder if they thought that being one-faced isn't all that bad.. :happy: That's food for thought. Exceptions apply, one of which is on the opening post.

 

Just gonna wrap out on C: here:

 

Overall, I would say, watch the first 2 episodes, then decide whether or not you want to continue it. When it boils down to it, how much you like the anime will depend on how you view it. For me, due to my nearly flawless record of not dropping animes, I'll be sticking to it till the end. Good thing is, this is probably in my top 5 for what's airing right now.

 

You know what? Let me just list it:

1. Steins;Gate
   
2. Ano Hana
   
3. Nichijou
   
4. Gosick
   
5. C:
   

 

That's probably the order they are in. If you want to know more about any of them, just let me know... at this rate, I'll probably just a 13 paragraph post describing each of the airing animes for me atm.

 

Right, coming up is the 1st anime update post which will feature my first review in this thread.

[GETbacon]

This might be seen as spam but a good website for anime[dubed] (for me at lest) is place call Anime Ratio

http://www.animeratio.com/watch-english-dubbed-anime/

 

 

Now to make it OC, I've just finish watching two animes my self, Desert punk and Panty and Stocking with garterbelt, 1 and 2 respectively.

 

Both have very little in the form of contunity for the first couple of episodes, then start laying on the plot near the end.

 

Now for Desert punk it starts off as a fun romp thru desolate Tokyo (they never state that it's Tokyo in the show but you could figure it out) but it may just be introduction to characters by extended time scope but near the series run it turns into a student becoming the master kind-of thing.

 

Yes it's vague but it would be boring if I told you in detail to what happened.

 

(Panty and Stocking with garterbelt isn't on Anime ratio but can be found here:

)

 

Now unless you've been turned over the head with a brick recently or currently you'll realize it as crude as a lead pipe to the nether-regions just by name alone and if you decided to watch the link and could be best describe as the south-park of anime, (not the first one to think it ether) but if you like your humor cruder then unrfined oil then you'll laugh until you passout. But remember, there's a reason networks put south-park late at night!!!

[skyline99]

Alright, so the first update is a couple of weeks later after the topic was made... I guess I'm a bit apathetic about updating. Should really update once a week or something. At the same time though, I didn't have anything to write about until maybe a few days ago, so yeah.

 

So let's see... how it's going to work is that the first part is just going to be episodic progress on airing animes. Afterwards, I get into paragraph-length reviews. I think I have... 3 today. Hopefully I won't mess up.

 

Here we go:

 

Episodic Progress:

 

(Shorten Names for the heck of it)

 

- A Channel, Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, and Steins;Gate: up to Episode 7

- Ano Hana, Hidan no Aria, C:, Denpa Onno, Hoshizora, Hanasaku Iroha, Nichijou, and Ao no Exorcist: up to Episode 6

- Deadman Wonderland and Softenni: Up to Episode 5

- Beelzebub: up to Episode 16

- Gosick: up to Episode 17

 

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Reviews:

 

Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (3 seasons of 13 episodes each - Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is the 2nd season and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is the 3rd.)

 

This...this anime... utterly put me into despair. I was flooding so many tears out of my eyes as I watched each episode that I may of died of dehydrating if I weren't near some kind of water source. And yes, these were tears of joy after laughing wholeheartedly.

 

I'm a strict person when it comes to comedies in particular. This is mainly because that a good portion of my anime experience has been with animes in the comedy genre, starting out with my first anime, which was Lucky Star. Slice of Lifes and Comedies tend to go hand in hand in most, if not almost all, cases of one genre being present. They naturally seem to go hand in hand. In the case of SZS, I wouldn't say that's the case in particular.

 

The main reason I say of this is because the whole anime is a parody. A parody of words; a parody of reading kanji; a parody of other animes. There's probably a lot more than I realize that was a parody. Heck, even the title is a parody of something once you see the first episode. What's interesting about all of the parodies is that they are, in one form or another, actually related to the anime. Most of them are related to characters you will meet, with surprisingly deadly accuracy... and I mean deadly quite literally. But you'll get to know why as you watch it.

 

I want to go off on a semi-tangent here and talk about the animation studio, SHAFT. Now, you may thinking that animation studios and the animes they make have nothing in relation to one another, but I've really grown to love SHAFT. On most of their animes, their style of how to express adaptions, such as manga, or even their original works, Puella Magi Modoka Magica is one such case, often leaves quite a unique impact on myself and a lot of folks as far as they can tell. They excel at what they do best and that's being different. No I'm serious. This difference in approach with laying out the scenarios in episodes is something that has made me love SHAFT. Well, that and they can draw the most cutest character I have ever seen in my life, <insert SHAFT-related, perverted joke here> and did one of my favorite animes of all-freaking-time. I often have high expectations of them and their whacky productions because they success more times than not.

 

SZS, much like other SHAFT animes, excels in their vision. This is because of their approach to express the comedy. Now, you may have seen this before, but there's often just an instance of a conversation starter that goes out of proportion and leaves to something. That's normal from what I've seen. How out of proportion it gets, however, is the point that makes me laugh. You'll come across numerous instances where you'll see 180's being directed left and right at the viewer, without warning. You may be confused, but the direction is often given enough time in-between so that the viewer is following clearly. As more and more characters are folded into the situation, the more I feel as though that it may be ended up just watching a mess of things. It actually kept it together quite well, despite interacting with nearly every character during a scenario. This is, of course, after the self-introduction scenarios in the first episodes. Those, in itself, were laugh-worthy enough. Put all of the cast together and you get one of those delicious salad bowls of goodness! Spread some sauce on top and you get what amounts to be an enjoyable experience every time.

 

The last thing I want to talk about SZS is the seasons actually. What's interesting is that there's 3, and each as their own flare. The 1st season is primarily used as an introduction to the cast. While that may seem a bit boring, it is seamlessly tied into the scenarios that occur so it gives off a sense of natural progress. The 2nd and 3rd seasons actually give different comedic styles. The 2nd season, or as it was referred in the 3rd season, "The Experimental Episodes",, attempts to troll, yes I said troll, the SZS fanbase into something different. While I can't say that I approve of it, I will say that SHAFT has guts. Guts that I like. They created their own scenarios yet still attempted to tie in the comedic effect that SZS is known for. The 3rd season goes back to manga-related scenarios, but think of it as a breath of nostalgic air. That's all I can say really.

 

This isn't something I can explain clearly any further, as it gets a bit more subjective, but I can assure you that you definitely have to give this comedy a shot.

 

All three seasons get a well-earned 9/10. This is otherwise known as the bottom end of the god-tier of animes I've watched, in my opinion.

 

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Next up:

 

Colorful

 

Now first things first, it's not Colorful the series, alrighty? It's an entirely different thing as it's a movie, and it doesn't deal with perverted stuff. I have enough of that in my anime, though I don't like it at all.

 

I think this, and the last thing I'm going to review, will really hit the Nexus Anime Base a bit closer, as they're more on the higher-end of the thinking scale. You know, themes and all that.

 

So, Colorful. The first thing I want to say is that I loved this movie for basically.. well.. everything.

 

This movie is centered around the theme, in my opinion, of finding yourself. Now, I do have to generalize society for this, so I'm saying this in advance that I apologize if any of the following offends anyone. But, have you really just looked at yourself for just a moment, a second, a frame, an instance, and wondered: "What did I do to deserve this?" There's a lot of doubt in this world but possibly the greatest doubt is who you are more than anything. Being identifiable from the rest of the world is what people strive to be yet they're scared of being too different. They often get hurt because of the standards set by society. It's a lot like what girls go through, yes I'm not a girl. You may often see them changing appearances simply because this is "in", or "they have this, why can't I?" You'll get depressed comparing you to others; it's inevitable. The thing that sets one's own value from the rest is whether or not you are true to yourself. Finding your true self is sometimes an never-ending quest as you aimlessly wander. Perhaps the closest thing you'll get to it is a guide: Someone or something to lead you down a path. More often than not though, that guide will simply be yourself as you live out your life.

 

That's what the main character goes through during the movie. A process of change and reliance on others. As the world he sees reacts to him, he reacts back differently to each instance. From the start, he's quite literally given a "clean slate". A second chance at life. After all, he is just a soul with no memories. I like this type of character. Mainly because the viewer is given something that can't be bias in any such way, and is able to see the development of the character as the movie progresses. I can't give much more than that as well... then we go into super spoiler land and I love this movie too much to give it away.

 

While shorter than SZS' review, I believe, like with most things but this one in particular, that you'll form a sense of either relation to the movie or drown in tears as things happen. It's something that made me quite emotion while watching for various reasons.

 

This is pure god-tier: 9.5/10. Aren't I glad I saw this and watched it on a whim?

 

------------

 

The last thing I want to talk about in this post is:

 

Bangaku Shoujo (Movie and all 4 OVA's)

 

This is probably in the middle of the other two reviews. It shares commonalities with both of them yet still has its own flare.

 

So now.. which to talk about... story, theme or characters first... I'm gonna pick...

 

Story:

 

The story of this starts out, oddly enough, like 90% of all romance-based animes: A destined meet between the two main characters. Now I'm going to troll all of you that are reading, and rewind this entire thing because that's the start of the movie. The OVA's are prequels to the movie so it's only fitting that I start with that first. Well that and I'm screwing the approach of story, theme, and characters setup.

 

The prequels are designed to give a background as to the events that lead up the beginning to the movie. They consist of 3 character OVA's, and oddly enough, just a short that is fast-forwarded through in the movie. It's highly recommended that you watch the OVA's first. Now, the prequels revolve around the three heroines in the movie:Tohko Amano, Kotobuki Nanase, and Asakura Miu. What's interesting is that they aren't really separate at all. They are inter-connected as the events in the 1st OVA affect what happens in the 2nd OVA and so on. This type of OVA structure, different from just centering around one specific character, grabs my interest a lot. This is because I understand the background of the characters more and this allows for events that happen in the movie to be more detailed, robust, and less rushed.

 

That is is one of the key faults in most movies that are adaptions of well.. anything. They often spend a good amount of time attempting to introduce the main characters and the initial event, only to rush through the rest of the events. This is coming from a good amount of experience watching these things, even a Japanese Live-Action Movie adaption succumbs to this as well. While I can understand the need for compressing events, I still think that measures taken, such as the character specific OVA's before the movie releases, can be taken to prevent such a thing from happening. It often degrades the quality and potential the movie adaptation can have.

 

As a result of the OVAs, I found myself to understand the mindset of each of the heroines more clearly than I would without them. This made the movie itself more enjoyable.

 

For the movie itself, I quite enjoyed it for a number of reasons.

 

A certain weakness of mine is to always love the first female lead character that shows up. This applies to nearly every single anime I've watched, with possibly the only exception being Ayu in Kanon or Fuuko in Clannad (FUUKO!!!!! <3). In the case of Bangaku Shoujo, that would be Tohko Amano. A girl I can relate to to some extent. I mean sure, I don't eat books for a living but I'm quite interesting in how people write differently from others. It's one of things as an on-looker of the world that you naturally develop. When experienced, it often gives you a sense of enlightenment and a new dimension to your ever-expanding perspective of the world. You can tell this is her based off of the OVA. At the same time, she serves as a foil for the other heroines. Think of her as the purest heroine when watching this. You'll understand what I mean.

 

Production I.G. is known to me as the studio that made the super-duper god-tier anime of Kimi ni Todoke, a high-school drama of sorts. I say super-duper god-tier, because it is super-duper god-tier. I'm almost certain that some of the staff from it worked on Bangaku Shoujo. Reason being is that the story draws me in quite nicely. Throughout the movie and OVAs, the progression of what occurs in each of them touches close to my heart. The scenarios bring out a variety of emotions for viewers: From joy to sorrow; laughter to mystery and everything in-between. Production I.G. balances the varying emotions really well, and does a great job to either allow a flowing progress from one emotion to the next, or allow for them to play off of one another, like in the movie a few times. You'll be in for a good ride if you decide to watch this.

 

Now, the last thing, would be the motif of the whole thing. What occurs quite often is this statement: "One event leads to another." The OVAs are actually structured like this to reflect this statement. And throughout the movie, this is referenced numerous times. Think of it this way: What makes an author write a book the way he or she does it? A motivation or purpose. Yet, where does this purpose come from? Does it come from an emotion, an experience? What happens then reflects the writing that is present now. Tohko represents this motif as she thinks about the stories that she reads / eats and why they are so breath-taking to her. While it may seem silly to believe, once you finish the movie, you'll come to understand that things happen because of the past. When the past is changed, so is now. However, the past is meant to be just that: the past. It can't be held on for too long or you may lose what is close to you now. One of the other heroines represents this but I'm not going to say. Too many spoilers already.

 

So in summary, this was an excellent movie like Colorful.

 

God-tier? I wouldn't say so. I mean, it still has similarities to many other romances out there but it has a flavour of its own that I enjoy. I would say that it deserves a 8.5/10. 8.5 is what I call the "Tier of Excellence."

 

And that's it. There's actually one more anime I can review but I'll leave it for next time.