Can't decide - any good?

[Miaka-chan]

I'm contemplating the following series, can anyone tell me whether they're worth the bother? (No fan boy/girl ravings, please be as objective as possible ^__^):

Kiddy Grade
Last Exile
Scrapped Princess
Samurai 7
Genshiken
The Big O
Gun x Sword

Thanks ^__^

 

[Ryo Chan]

kiddy grades not bad sept the ending is a bit rushed


thankfully they just announced a new 2nd series

 

[Sy]

Last Exile is a good solid series. I wouldn't put it in my top 10 but it has beautiful artwork, good character designs, a decent enough dub and good story.

I admit the ending was a bit of a letdown. Though not so much to make me dislike the series.

 

[Ark]

Genshiken-pretty cool, slice of otaku life

Big O-Great plot and characters, Blade Runner meets RahXephon

Last Exile-Good animation, weak plot and characters,battles in the sky.

I'd go with Big O.

 

[McIcy]

Genshiken is amazing one of my all time favourite animes and mangas

Gun x Sword is a good anime too with Mechs and a story of revenge, the main character is dark and strange.

I tried Samurai 7 but couldn't get past the first ep, I'm more or a Samurai Champloo kinda guy.

Can't vote on the others as I haven't seen them yet

 

[Sy]

I tried Samurai 7 but couldn't get past the first ep, I'm more or a Samurai Champloo kinda guy.

Is it the same kinda thing as Champloo except without annoying hip hop music?

 

[Paul]

Stay the hell away from Kiddy Grade.

Samurai 7 was horribly generic and boring.

Gun x Sword is like a mix of Trigun and Cowboy Bebop - it's too geared towards appealing to a Western audience and sadly falls well short; again, it's mediocre action / comedy with "crazy wild west antics" and fan service. A shame too, since the director Goro Taniguchi is one of my all time favourites, being the man behind Planetes, Infinite Ryvius and even s-CRY-ed. Gun x Sword was his first (and hopefully last) real mis-step.

Last Exile is a brilliant fantasy adventure with wonderful animation and a whimsical atmosphere echoing a rich world full of bizarre technologies, lush landscapes and classic rivalries. By far and away amongst the finest series produced during the 2000 decade. Knowing your tastes, I suspect you'd also enjoy Gankutsuou - a decidely bishounen filled romantic thriller based on the Count of Monte Cristo, also considered a modern classic.

Genshiken is a low key but lovable otaku drama covering such healthy passions as cosplaying and model building. It's got comedy, but on more of a personal level than say Excel Saga. Commendably its not a case of laughing at the otaku, but with them. I'd buy this along with something else more epic and escapist (ala Last Exile).

 

[Tessai]

Kiddy Grade: one of the few animes I own all of but could never be bothered to finish watching.

Last Exile: Good for the best part but the ending is rushed.

Samurai 7: havent seen the whole thing but I've enjoyed what I have seen

Big O: I really enjoyed this. its pretty cheasy in places but I would love to get this on DVD (along with Outlaw Star)

haven't seen the rest so can't really comment

 

[Mangaminx]

Kiddy Grade:- It can be fairly entertaining at times, but kinda abandons most of its potential for a dire ending.

Last Exile:- This was a good fantasy anime throughout with a decent cast and some great episodes. Main problem for me was the ending was once again bad.

Genshiken:- Probably the best series on your list there, its funny, and well written with great characters.

Big O:- Never seen

Samuri 7:- This bored me after just one episode

Gun X Sword:- Never seen

 

[butch-cassidy]

I'll keep my feeling nice and simple.

Kiddy Grade [Hated]
Last Exile [Overrated]
Scrapped Princess [Good]
Samurai 7 [Average]
Genshiken [Excellent!]
The Big O [Never seen]
Gun x Sword [Never seen]

 

[Miaka-chan]

Thanks for the tips!
I'm not trying to choose one of the titles, I'm thinking of getting them all ^__^ but there are so many varied opinions on them all (except Genshiken by the looks of it!!) that I'm still not sure

I know a lot of you know the kind of anime I like (and don't think magical girl or romance!), so based on the kinds of anime I like to watch, which ones do you think I would definitely enjoy, rather than you personally enjoy?!

P.S. What's so bad about Samurai 7 that everyone seems to dislike it? and if really is that bad, can you think of some good Samurai stuff I could check out that I might have missed?

Seen:
Kenshin
Otogi Zoshi
Samurai Champloo
Tsukikage Ran
Samurai Deeper Kyo
Seen some Basilisk but it was really ugly, is it worth trying again?
(Can't think of anymore!).

Thanks ^__^

 

[Laughing Manji]

I'm contemplating the following series, can anyone tell me whether they're worth the bother? (No fan boy/girl ravings, please be as objective as possible ^__^):

Will do my best. Some I have personally seen, others I just know from fan opinion and friends opinion.

Kiddy Grade

My mate watched this on the back of the fan-hype. His words: 'Highly Overrated' I would trust his opinion on this, he has little patience for fluff or fanservicey stuff.

Last Exile

Superb. A superb achievement in anime. An excellent story, fully backed up by a great cast, setting and production. Some naysayers say that it had a weak ending, that it didn't explain everything. After watchign myself, I was scratching my head as to what they found wrong with it. I loved this show to bits. Bonus points for having one of the most interesting and empathic villains in anime (Dio).

Scrapped Princess

I loved this show. Avoid spoilers if you can, the exposition of the story is a pleasure in itself. There are some nitpicks, in the second quarter it can be a bit too episodic for its own good. They use a couple of sci-fi plot devices, and many characters can seem a bit overfamiliar, but I think they are just tunneling down into some core anime archetypes. The primary cast are superb, especially the Pacifica/Shannon dynamic. Production is superb, but in some ways they were too ambitious - there are sequences and fights towards the end that scream for a cinematic treatment. It has a genuinely surprising and thought-provoking ending, that qualifies it for one of the best endings of all time.

Samurai 7

Watched up to ep. 16 and I have been meaning to finish it. Excellent show. It does retain the core spirit of the original movie. Brilliant production and ideas. I especially love how each of the samurai have a very distinct fighting style. Some nitpicks - many people just don't like the anachronism, others remember the movie fondly and get that out of their heads when they see this, so the series may appear inferior (I am able to like and appreciate both, but the mecha-samurai cannot evoke the pathos of Toshiro Mifune's rendition). The show may lack the 'purity' of the original, its possible that this is due to the increased running time more than anything else.

Genshiken

You got to see this. Genuinely funny, and a wonderful send up of the otaku culture/lifestyle. Most anime fans identify with one or more of the characters in some way. What makes the show though is Saki, the 'normal' girl who starts going out with one of the Genshiken.

The Big O

THis has a huge fanbase in america. THough I have only watched one episode. The story is meant to be particularly good, enough to make american fans cry foul when it receives a typically ambiguous anime ending. Been meaning to watch it, I can't remember if some of my friends have seen it or not.

Gun x Sword

This one was ignored by nearly everyone except some particular bloggers. Most people wrote it off as some kind of Trigun rip-off. The bloggers that persisted with it seem to think that the fan reaction was premature, and that the show is worth checkign out. IIRC its fansubbing/license situation is what stopped most fans getting into it.

 

[Animated FatCat]

Gun x Sword is like a mix of Trigun and Cowboy Bebop - it's too geared towards appealing to a Western audience and sadly falls well short; again, it's mediocre action / comedy with "crazy wild west antics" and fan service. A shame too, since the director Goro Taniguchi is one of my all time favourites, being the man behind Planetes, Infinite Ryvius and even s-CRY-ed. Gun x Sword was his first (and hopefully last) real mis-step.

Hehe, I've had this convo with you before Paul on your blog. Rest assured, once you get past the opening episodes, GXS becomes really good and more serious, with character development. My first impressions were the same, but it's one of those series worth sticking with.

 

[Miaka-chan]

@ Laughing Manji: thanks ^__^ very helpful and to be honest you make them all sound like they're worth watching and as buying them would cost me quite a bit of money, I don't want to invest in crap!
I so desperately need something new to watch and the average 26 episode series lasts me 3-4 days if I'm lucky, so I need lots to keep me going for a while

 

[Laughing Manji]

Thanks for the tips!
I'm not trying to choose one of the titles, I'm thinking of getting them all ^__^ but there are so many varied opinions on them all (except Genshiken by the looks of it!!) that I'm still not sure

Get more opinions

I know a lot of you know the kind of anime I like (and don't think magical girl or romance!), so based on the kinds of anime I like to watch, which ones do you think I would definitely enjoy, rather than you personally enjoy?!

I only have a basic idea of what you are really into, based on whatever your last post was, but I do know you have little patience for mediocrity and genre convention. I can't recommend based on genre, or similarity to somethign you have already seen, but just on a kind of absolute quality level.

P.S. What's so bad about Samurai 7 that everyone seems to dislike it?

Don't just take the handful of responses here - many people just didn't get the anachronism, or just plain switched off. Many people didn't like the mecha samurai, and thought it was daft. Personally the character of Kikuchiyo is so important to the original film, that I thought making him into a wholly comic character undermined it. Perhaps Gonzo just realised that they couldn't reproduce it, and broke the mold to avoid direct comparison.

I don't think enough people gave it a chance. It takes a few episodes to get started really, but after that its a complete rollercoaster ride.

Basically get people to qualify their responses by stating how much of it they have seen.

To shortlist: Scrapped Princess, Last Exile & Genshiken are the highpoints. In fact, I have never heard a bad word said about Genshiken. Though one blogger commented that only every other episode was excellent. I marathoned the episodes, so I didn't really notice.

and if really is that bad, can you think of some good Samurai stuff I could check out that I might have missed?

Seen:
Kenshin
Otogi Zoshi
Samurai Champloo
Tsukikage Ran
Samurai Deeper Kyo
Seen some Basilisk but it was really ugly, is it worth trying again?
(Can't think of anymore!).
Thanks ^__^

I can't even think of many more either, and we have already stretched the Samurai genre by including Kenshin and Basilisk. There are a few others that you might want to consider:

The Hakkenden (old now)
Peacemaker Kurogane
Jubei-chan
And theres one title from about 2003-04 that gets heavily compared to Kenshin. I can't recall its name though (its about a character that restricts himself to hand to hand combat, even though he is up against armed opponents). Blast thats frustrating.

A friend of mine really loved Basilisk, but many people get put off by the particularly f+ugly character designs (Gonad-chins is a term I keep hearing). In fact a common criticism is that the various outlandish f+ugly designs put people off what appears to be a really good story.

 

[desert_skunk]

Hi,
Scrapped Princess ( like Manji I too found this an excellent series)
Samurai 7 ( This was almost one of my favourite shows but i just thought that the last episode was a little flat, It's not a bad ending i just felt that it could have been so much better, I'ts still a very good series that I'd recomend.)
Kiddy Grade (I found it a good show not great just good and entertaining)

Miaka-chan, I don't know if you've seen any of the following , if not you may want to give these shows a go.
Kaleido Star / Kaleido Star New Wings. (I didn't think I'd enjoy this but the characters and their stories had me hooked)
Comic Party (not as good as the great Genshiken this one is more comedy based about a boy who ends up becoming a manga artist and his girlfriend who dosen't like the whole otaku thing etc, etc.)
Gunslinger Girl. (excellent series even if the ending left me tearfilled, A group of young girls who after meeting a near or fatel ending are robotised/alterted and given a second chance to work for an assassination agency.)

 

[Animated FatCat]

Strange about Basilisk. I saw the characters and thought the design was unique, different and quite expressive, not ugly.

 

[McIcy]

Comic Party is a great comedy and the second series Comic Party Revolution is just as good, I love the way the main character is continually tricked into participating in events while his partner disappears.

 

[Miaka-chan]

I can't even think of many more either, and we have already stretched the Samurai genre by including Kenshin and Basilisk. There are a few others that you might want to consider:

The Hakkenden (old now)
Peacemaker Kurogane
Jubei-chan


A friend of mine really loved Basilisk, but many people get put off by the particularly f+ugly character designs (Gonad-chins is a term I keep hearing). In fact a common criticism is that the various outlandish f+ugly designs put people off what appears to be a really good story.

I've just invested in Peacemaker Kurogane ^__^ Saw Hakkenden about 8 years ago and loved Jubei-chan - hilarious.
Thanks for your help again.
Maybe I need to try and overlook the fmugly characters in Basilisk, as I would like to know if it turns into something worthwhile!!

Hi,
Scrapped Princess ( like Manji I too found this an excellent series)
Samurai 7 ( This was almost one of my favourite shows but i just thought that the last episode was a little flat, It's not a bad ending i just felt that it could have been so much better, I'ts still a very good series that I'd recomend.)
Kiddy Grade (I found it a good show not great just good and entertaining)

Miaka-chan, I don't know if you've seen any of the following , if not you may want to give these shows a go.
Kaleido Star / Kaleido Star New Wings. (I didn't think I'd enjoy this but the characters and their stories had me hooked)
Comic Party (not as good as the great Genshiken this one is more comedy based about a boy who ends up becoming a manga artist and his girlfriend who dosen't like the whole otaku thing etc, etc.)
Gunslinger Girl. (excellent series even if the ending left me tearfilled, A group of young girls who after meeting a near or fatel ending are robotised/alterted and given a second chance to work for an assassination agency.)

Thanks ^__^ It always helps to get some more impressions, as we're talking money here :wink:

I've seen all of Kaleido Star and Comic Party, but Gunslinger Girl is something I can't decide on. Is it all Girls With Guns? or is there something to interest a female viewer?!

 

[Laughing Manji]

I've just invested in Peacemaker Kurogane ^__^

Maybe I need to try and overlook the fmugly characters in Basilisk, as I would like to know if it turns into something worthwhile!!

PK didn't exactly blow my skirt up. I don't think it was amazingly successful on fansub either, though it might have pulled in a few fans from its DVD release.

As for Basilisk, my mate has been urging me to get into it, his taste is good. I get the feeling that your ability to like this show is dependent on your ability to accept the outlandish characters.

I've seen all of Kaleido Star and Comic Party, but Gunslinger Girl is something I can't decide on. Is it all Girls With Guns? or is there something to interest a female viewer?!

The first thing about Gunslinger Girl is that it is a very dry affair, there is very little humour here. The main dynamic in the series is that the girls, post modification need to be partnered with an adult handler as a control element. There are six girls depicted, so the stories mainly reflect the difference in the relationships between the girls and their controllers. The girls are conditioned & brainwashed and they know it. A big part of the show is how the handlers deal with it, many of them distance themselves emotionally or become abusive (possibly to protect themselves). Another major part of the show is that the girls themselves are really very f*cked up, and that the whole experiment is really not very successful (they don't get much mileage out of them).

Its well worth watching, and opens very well - for a very long time it was the gun-fetishists anime of choice. However it only scratches the manga (2 volumes) so as a series it doesn't go far.