Rate the Last Anime You Watched Out of 10

Prison School

It's a funny one to really try and evaluate, this. It's a perfectly effective adaptation of the manga that's probably about as good as it could have been on a TV budget, but it sticks so unwaveringly close to its source material in both art and story that, having read a fair chunk of the manga not long beforehand, I found it all rather mechanical. It still delivers its cringe-heavy comedy and increasingly bizarre situations equally as well as the manga (the art doesn't fair just quite as well), but about the only thing that I think it really gains in anime form is the Chairman's vocal delivery.

It probably wouldn't have gone down well with the established fans, given the praise generally heaped upon the manga's artwork, but I'd be curious to know what the likes of Shaft, in full-on absurdist mode, would have made of the show.
 
The wings of rean......

Who here saw the amazing Spiderman with Electra nigma.... well if you thought his appearance was fast... this series was omega fast that I didn't caught what the hell was going on rushed rushed rushed.

5/10
 
Wow just finished Texholyze. Pretty awesome shows but obviously really depressing, especially with the fact that there is no light at the end of the tunnel whatsoever. Nihilism to it's core but the human race has to end someday. Texholyze emphasizes this bleakness through it's visuals. 9/10.
 
Been meaning to watch Texhnolyze for a long time now, but I never seem to get around to it. If it's as bleak as all that though, I'd need to really be in the mood for it first.
 
Texhnolyze is a great show. Put it this way, the first episode has maybe a line of dialogue at best, it's a very slow show, a quiet one. A show that hopefully grabs you and pulls you into its world within the first few minutes. Its been a long time since I watched it but I remember loving it a whole lot. It's a show that was 100% made as a means to tell a story, never pandering or trying to be marketable, it instead vehemently sticks to its course.

Keishi Urata’s work on the Texhnolyze soundtrack is also as striking as the visuals itself and works in harmony in order to conjure up an atmosphere that is unlike any other, relying heavily on the synthesizer, juxtaposing it with the sounds of drums and guitar riffs. Like the show itself, the soundtrack is haunting and yet energetic. The other half of the soundtrack comes from a man named Hajime Mizoguchi (Escaflowne, Jin-Roh) and unlike his counterpart, Mizoguchi goes for a sound pallet that is much more somber and emotional which helps complete the package.

Texhnolyze is unrelenting, never pulling its punches. Emotional and diverse are words that describe Texhnolyze, both fast paced and relaxed. It'll get your blood pumping one minute and will have you lost in your sorrows the very next.
 
MVM released it on DVD not too long ago, its also available on Hulu as well as on YouTube officially via Funimation. The playlist seems to have episodes out of order so keep that in mind.
 
Nichijou-My Ordinary Life

Never before has the title of an Anime been as incorrect as the title of Nichijou. This show is far, far from Ordinary, even as far as anime goes. This show is a zany, off the wall comedy and it is easily one of the best comedies I have seen. The show is essentially split into 3 distinct sections, classroom based antics with Yukko, Mio and Mai, Sakamoto, Nano and The Professor at the Lab and Miscellaneous adventures with the side characters. Generally, the funniest parts are the stuff with Yukko, Mio and Mai but all 3 parts have their moments. The comedy might not be for everyone, the humour mostly comes from the absurdity of the situations and how hyperbolic they are and physical comedy, rather than actual written jokes (although it has that too) so your milage will vary. Personally, I found it to be very funny for the most part. Not every joke hits but almost every episode has at least one laugh out loud moment. When the show isn't being funny, it can be downright adorable and really heartfelt, which really adds to the show, making up for when the comedy occasionally falls flat. The characters aren't particularly deep or developed but are very memorable and lovable. The Professor in particular is a character who I quickly became attached to and is just a joy to watch whenever she is on screen. The show also looks really good too. The art style is fairly simple but it works well for the kind of show it is and it dabbles in a few different art styles throughout the show which I alway like to see. Not really much to do with the show but this show also has 2 absolutely amazing openings which perfectly represent the show and the 2 songs are massively catchy. Nichijou is a show that might not be for everyone but I'd advise everyone to try it. It is a show that just has amazing amounts of energy and never fails to put a smile on my face.

9/10
 
Ghost in the Shell (1995)

I guess this is another movie that I just don't get the hype around. Since I'll be diving into Stand Alone Complex very shortly I figured I needed to watch the original movie first and I am kind of hoping SAC is a bit different than this film. The first thing I'll say is that this film is gorgeous. I'm not normally a fan of how old Anime looks but this just looks incredible. The amount of detail put into the backgrounds is just phenomenal and watching it on Blu Ray in 1080p was just a visual treat. Other than that, I was actually fairly disappointed by this film. I'm more than willing to admit that it's more than likely just me but I didn't get much out of the story or characters. The story was just very confusing, full of political jargon that I just didn't understand and that left me baffled for about half the running time. I literally watched the movie about 5 minutes before writing this and I wouldn't even know where to begin describing the plot. I got the basic gist of most of it but I honestly couldn't really keep up. I found the bits of philosophy they touched on interesting and stuff like what it means to be Human but that was quite brief and only really brought up a couple of times. The characters didn't seem too fleshed out either and were also rather dull to watch to be honest. I know they're two very different movies but I can't help but compare this film to Akira in terms of popularity and status in the Anime scene. Whilst I'd also say I was a bit disappointed with Akira too considering the hype, at least Akira had spectacle. This just left me a little bored for a lot of the running time. I don't think the movie is bad, it's probably just not really for me.

7/10
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
Ghost in the Shell (1995)

I guess this is another movie that I just don't get the hype around. Since I'll be diving into Stand Alone Complex very shortly I figured I needed to watch the original movie first and I am kind of hoping SAC is a bit different than this film. The first thing I'll say is that this film is gorgeous. I'm not normally a fan of how old Anime looks but this just looks incredible. The amount of detail put into the backgrounds is just phenomenal and watching it on Blu Ray in 1080p was just a visual treat. Other than that, I was actually fairly disappointed by this film. I'm more than willing to admit that it's more than likely just me but I didn't get much out of the story or characters. The story was just very confusing, full of political jargon that I just didn't understand and that left me baffled for about half the running time. I literally watched the movie about 5 minutes before writing this and I wouldn't even know where to begin describing the plot. I got the basic gist of most of it but I honestly couldn't really keep up. I found the bits of philosophy they touched on interesting and stuff like what it means to be Human but that was quite brief and only really brought up a couple of times. The characters didn't seem too fleshed out either and were also rather dull to watch to be honest. I know they're two very different movies but I can't help but compare this film to Akira in terms of popularity and status in the Anime scene. Whilst I'd also say I was a bit disappointed with Akira too considering the hype, at least Akira had spectacle. This just left me a little bored for a lot of the running time. I don't think the movie is bad, it's probably just not really for me.

7/10
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I just watched it with the anime club I just started. Most people had a similar reaction to you XD.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
Ghost in the Shell (1995)

I guess this is another movie that I just don't get the hype around. Since I'll be diving into Stand Alone Complex very shortly I figured I needed to watch the original movie first and I am kind of hoping SAC is a bit different than this film. The first thing I'll say is that this film is gorgeous. I'm not normally a fan of how old Anime looks but this just looks incredible. The amount of detail put into the backgrounds is just phenomenal and watching it on Blu Ray in 1080p was just a visual treat. Other than that, I was actually fairly disappointed by this film. I'm more than willing to admit that it's more than likely just me but I didn't get much out of the story or characters. The story was just very confusing, full of political jargon that I just didn't understand and that left me baffled for about half the running time. I literally watched the movie about 5 minutes before writing this and I wouldn't even know where to begin describing the plot. I got the basic gist of most of it but I honestly couldn't really keep up. I found the bits of philosophy they touched on interesting and stuff like what it means to be Human but that was quite brief and only really brought up a couple of times. The characters didn't seem too fleshed out either and were also rather dull to watch to be honest. I know they're two very different movies but I can't help but compare this film to Akira in terms of popularity and status in the Anime scene. Whilst I'd also say I was a bit disappointed with Akira too considering the hype, at least Akira had spectacle. This just left me a little bored for a lot of the running time. I don't think the movie is bad, it's probably just not really for me.

7/10
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I just watched it with the anime club I just started. Most people had a similar reaction to you XD. Standalone complex is a lot easier to follow and has less philosophy.
 
Though it's tough to compare a film and TV series, I'd say I enjoyed SAC quite a lot more than the Ghost in the Shell film. I think the series benefits greatly from having time to develop it's characters and do more than just focus on a few philosophical ideas. I do think it's worthwhile watching the film before the TV series because, although they're separate continuities, a lot of the terms are used in both and the series doesn't really hang around to explain things (not that the film does either). I suppose maybe it could work the other way, where you pick up the terms in the TV series so that you're more prepared to understand what the film is trying to say.

I'm not sure they ever exactly explain what a "Ghost" is though. I mean, I suppose it's supposed to be a kind of nebulous concept anyway similar to a "soul". It seems to essentially be "what makes you who you are", which is especially important in a world where you can essentially upload your mind to other devices and have a complete body replacement. It's also possible that I just didn't really understand it, though if that's the case it didn't hamper my enjoyment of the series.

I did wonder if being used to similar kinds of sci-fi, and thus similar concepts, makes the film and TV series easier to watch. I found that I could mostly pick things up quite well but I wasn't sure if it was because I was given the information I needed or because I was comparing it to things I'd heard before. I think the TV series might be a bit better at making sure you know what's going on but that could have been because I watched it after the film and had picked up some of the general ideas by that point.

If you had trouble with the Ghost in the Shell film, Innocence will probably be much worse. It's mostly philosophical rambling, though there's also a little bit of story and character snuck in too. It's probably better from an "artistic" point of view and it seems like you have to put a fair bit of effort in to get a lot out of it. Still, I did kind of enjoy it and thought the characters kept things interesting for the most part (when they were allowed to be characters rather than just spouting random quotes). I'd maybe suggest starting the TV series then watching Innocence after a few episodes, you could treat it as a kind of slightly surreal dream/alternate universe extended episode. It does also bring up some things that might be useful to know for the TV series, there's one concept that I don't think the series really explains at all but gets a bit of explanation in Innocence (though it's not especially important).
 
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