Rate the last anime you watched out of 10

Dai said:
Elfen Lied feels like a very meta title to me these days. It's a siren song that lures you in with that beautiful opening, the gorgeous artwork, and the non-stop oppai, and only then starts to beat you over the head with all the scenes of women being abused and sliced to pieces. It's one of only two anime I've seen that thought we needed to be shown a child's intestines (the other being Genocyber). The writers of both need to sit the corner and reassess their lives.
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Even though it’s been a while since I watched Elfen Lied, I had heard a lot of strongly conflicting opinions about it (even here, though I don’t thinks its biggest detractors or defenders are around any more) before I did, and I can’t deny that’s partly what attracted me to it. I ended up appreciating it a whole lot, since “enjoying” is probably not the right word.

I think some of the criticisms I hear are a bit wrong-headed, particularly accusations of it being a harem (not only is that a bit of a horrible thought due to Mayu’s presence) but I think it becomes more obvious that what Kouta is really doing is desperately trying to recreate a family who he wants to feel happy and safe (for reasons which become obvious). I can perhaps see it playing more like a harem to people who are into (or critics of) that whole moe protectiveness thing, but I would have imagined moe fans would be rather put off by all the horror and suffering. I never felt particularly titillated at any point during Elfen Lied, not even by Lucy (Psycho Killer Ver.) because the characters were so screwed up and abused it would have seemed a bit wrong.

As for the violence and gore, I admit to being pretty desensitised to such stuff, so it doesn’t particularly bother me. Rarely does anything live up to my expectations when its sold as “dark” or otherwise “effed up” but Elfen Lied at least gave it a good go. I see it more as “childhood trauma: the anime” and on that front I thought it did a pretty decent job. I felt for the characters and I wanted them to find their happiness even against all the odds of their pasts and the forces acting against them, which all amounted to the same thing: abuse at the hands of people more powerful than them. I certainly never thought it glorified any of that abuse (except perhaps when Lucy was dishing it out, which was by turns a sad result of her own experiences and a kind of cathartic payback) so while I can’t speak for Brynhildr (having not seen it) I’d reject any accusations of misogyny on that particular show’s part.
 
Lol, I happen to really like Brynhildr (except for the fanservice), it's probably one of my top ten favorite Sentai titles, and I think I actually liked the series more than Elfen Lied. Brynhildr is currently in my short list of anime I had planned to show to the neigbors sometime this year - maybe as an October Halloween anime, heheh... 😏
 
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Ah an interesting one Elfen Lied, one I quite like, exactly for the reasons @ayase mentioned, and like for @Lordhippos was one that recently properly got me back into anime (the others being FMA: Brotherhood & Devilman Crybaby). I also see it very much in the vein of:
ayase said:
“childhood trauma: the anime”
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having taken an extreme example of the prejudice some poor souls suffer from early childhood, and it could have been accused of being exploitative if that sadly weren't the sad reality for some. It is certainly gruesome but Lucy dishes out a significant amount of carnage to all, so also didn't think misogyny. Except maybe with the Bandoh character happily smacking around a defenseless girl, though he came across as the belligerent sort who would smack anyone or anything for that matter, including a sick puppy (oh wait, did he actually do that in the anime?...).

I do see @Dai's point regarding the discordance between the dark and comedic aspects and felt when first watching, that it would have been much better without the comedy & fan service, which almost seemed like they were transplanted in from a fan-fiction of the characters. But yeah that was very much from the source manga. Still the dark aspects and exploration of the effects of childhood abuse I thought were done well and not to such weird levels as say, Happy Sugar Life. Still, it did make me wonder about the mangaka heh.

I got Brynhildr recently from Hive as it was six quid (alongside Humanity Has Declined at the same price) as blind buys but a bit of a shame to hear it's more or less Elfen Lied version2 or Elfen Lied lite? May bump it up the watchlist to compare now.
 
Flip Flappers

This show reminded me a lot of Space Dandy, kind of whacky/surreal at time, both looked fantastic, and both had a kind of "setting per episode" style with environment of the week. Unfortunately I wasn't hugely into Space Dandy, or this, I don't really gel with surrealism as a concept.

I preferred the first half of the show to be honest, the ending felt rushed to me. I don't think having more episodes would have changed my opinion hugely though. To me this show was at it's best when it wasn't trying to tell a deeper story than escapism.

Recommend trying if you liked Space Dandy.

6/10
 
Myriad Colours Phantom World

This is your standard high school monster-hunting club setup, but infused with that signature KyoAni charm and gorgeous artwork. The phantoms of the title feel much like yokai, with everything from limbo-dancing telephone poles to hot spring dwelling monkeys, and of course some cute girls. Its monster-of-the-week format works well, with each episode presenting the club with a distinctly different challenge. There's plenty of humour, which usually lands well, and enough jiggle to make Gainax blush (the aforementioned limbo-dancing scene has to be seen to be believed).

There's a decent climax in the final couple of episodes, but don't expect much in the way of answers to a lot of the series' mysteries. That's not much of a negative though, since the show's main strength is its inventive individual episodes. If you're looking for a supernatural action show with a light tone and great animation, look no further.

7/10
 
If My Favourite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die

I'm generally not a fan of pop idol anime, but this one did a few things I liked. First, it focuses on the only fan of the least popular idol in a fairly unpopular group. I find it more interesting that they're stuggling on the lower rungs rather than smoothly progressing up the ladder. It makes being a pop idol come across more as the job it is, and was what I enjoyed about the ultimate grass-roots idol anime, Locodol. It reminded me of something an author (I can't remember who, unfortunately) said in an interview when asked how to get more readers: you gain them one at a time.

Second, while there aren't many dance routines, they're almost totally hand-drawn. It looks like they used every trick in the book here: figure-drawing from scratch, rotoscoping over live footage, rotoscoping over CG, possibly some raw CG in long-shots, and maybe even some instances of sliding static picture elements around South Park-style. Only the latter looks janky, with most of the dance shots looking surprisingly good for what is clearly quite a low budget show.

Last, but not least, it's really funny. I bumped into this show while browsing through the comedy list on Funimation. It's frustrating how they slap that tag on almost every show, even ones that don't attempt a speck of humour, but this one is funny throughout. The only gag that wears a bit thin is how heavily it leans on misunderstandings caused by the idol being too shy to say what she's feeling. It's one of those scenarios where so many of the series' long-running conflicts could be resolved in ten seconds if the characters would just talk to each other properly.

Aside from that, the only downside is the ubiquitous one for a one-cour anime: it doesn't go anywhere. The idol group has seven members, and with individual episodes spotlighting almost each one (and their fans) in turn, you get some idea of how little ground it covers in 12 episodes. Funnily enough, it almost works to the show's advantage, since so much of the story is about spending their career stuck on the starting blocks. I would have preferred to see the show focus more squarely on the main character and her favourite idol though.

7/10
 
Dai said:
Second, while there aren't many dance routines, they're almost totally hand-drawn. It looks like they used every trick in the book here: figure-drawing from scratch, rotoscoping over live footage, rotoscoping over CG, possibly some raw CG in long-shots, and maybe even some instances of sliding static picture elements around South Park-style. Only the latter looks janky, with most of the dance shots looking surprisingly good for what is clearly quite a low budget show.
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I think a lot of talk about budgets falls into the area off misconception these days. While Budokan was certainly a more conservative show with its visuals, that reflects more on the state of the production rather than the actual cost. Techniques like rotoscoping, CG animation and simple panning shots are used to ease pressure on the production.

A more famous example these days would be studio ufotable. While they are often subject to the old unlimited budget jokes their budgets aren't actually too different from your average production. They benefit from healthier schedules, a dedicated digital team and better communication between departments.

Sorry for the ramble but I find it quite important to point out that a show's quality is more reflective of the circumstances and the people behind it rather than how much money 10 companies threw at it.
 
Black Lagoon

I'm not going to spend a long time writing this, so I'll keep it fairly short.

Liked:
Animation pretty good for it's age.
Not set in a school, makes a nice change of pace!
A good mix of characters.
Revy was basically Lara Croft with an attitude problem.

Disliked:
Episodic nature rather than overarching story.
People have really bad aim so full auto gun-fights from close range often result in no one being hit.
Some arcs more interesting than others.
Quite a lot of characters and some didn't really get much screen time.

Overall I preferred Jormungand, and I think it's because the whole crew of arms dealers felt more close-knit than the crew of Black Lagoon, and the fire fights felt more realistic.

Personally speaking I am not a big action movie fan, so I think some of the appeal of this is lost on me.

6.5/10
 
ActionFaust said:
Techniques like rotoscoping, CG animation and simple panning shots are used to ease pressure on the production.
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I would have thought that rotoscoping would be more labour-intensive, since it leaves less scope for animation shortcuts, and translating a live performance into a stylised character is pretty difficult. Maybe it eases pressure on the key animators if it's something that can be shifted entirely to inbetweeners? Not sure.

D1tchd1gger said:
Yeah, I wanted to continue the story with the manga, but unfortunately no (official) English release yet!
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It speaks to how much western manga distribution has exploded that this surprised me. It doesn't feel like too long ago that anime endings were always dead ends for the English-speaking fan, but I've become used to at least having the option of switching to the manga or LN for the continuation (even if I rarely do...).

Lordhippos said:
Black Lagoon

I'm not going to spend a long time writing this, so I'll keep it fairly short.

Liked:
Animation pretty good for it's age.
Not set in a school, makes a nice change of pace!
A good mix of characters.
Revy was basically Lara Croft with an attitude problem.

Disliked:
Episodic nature rather than overarching story.
People have really bad aim so full auto gun-fights from close range often result in no one being hit.
Some arcs more interesting than others.
Quite a lot of characters and some didn't really get much screen time.

Overall I preferred Jormungand, and I think it's because the whole crew of arms dealers felt more close-knit than the crew of Black Lagoon, and the fire fights felt more realistic.

Personally speaking I am not a big action movie fan, so I think some of the appeal of this is lost on me.

6.5/10
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I can see how the show wouldn't have much for you if action isn't you thing. Out of curiosity, did you watch it subbed or dubbed? I prefer Black Lagoon in English, since it just seems to fit the characters better.
 
I saw the subbed version as I do basically everything these days, I could see why it would lend itself to dub being good though, it seems to be a well regarded dub release.

My main issues with dubs in general are the lip sync is often out, and the voice actors typically can sound a bit too American for me.
 
Dai said:
I would have thought that rotoscoping would be more labour-intensive, since it leaves less scope for animation shortcuts, and translating a live performance into a stylised character is pretty difficult. Maybe it eases pressure on the key animators if it's something that can be shifted entirely to inbetweeners? Not sure.
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Yeah I admit that was more of an assumption on my part. My thinking was that while rotoscoping still requires a lot of work I think it being based on existing footage is the shortcut as they don't have to figure it out the usual way. Sorry it's a bit of a hard one to explain but that's my interpretation of it.
 
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Tonikawa aka Over the Moon for You aka Fly Me to the Moon

Genre subversion has become synonymous with grimdark. When I think of stories that memorably subverted genre conventions, the obvious touchstones are Watchmen, Evangelion, and Madoka Magica, none of which I'd call laugh-a-minute fun rides. Tonikawa takes the opposite approach. Instead of tipping over the rocks of the romcom genre to reveal the horrors lurking beneath, it strips out all of the tired cliches and wheel-spinning baggage that bog down the genre (I did a double-take the first time a kiss wasn't interrupted by a phone call), and just gives us a wholesome slice-of-life look at a couple of newlyweds taking the first steps in their new life together. If you take a hard look at the nuts and bolts of what it's doing, there's nothing remotely complex about it, but it's precisely because so many anime romcoms take forever to make any sort of relationship progress that Tonikawa feels like a breath of fresh air.

So how fast does it move? The main couple are married by the end of the first episode. I'm not talking fake anime I've-randomly-decided-you're-engaged-to-me marriage either; they literally write out and submit their marriage registration. And then immediately start living together. As a couple. Who are married. It's hilarious that in mainstream romance this would be basic meat and potatoes stuff, but in anime the idea of focusing on a married couple in a loving and healthy relationship is mind-blowingly original. Sure, there's a tsundere who doesn't approve of the relationship, and other characters who wind them up, but all the associated misfortune ends up backfiring on those characters while the couple remain in their giddy little bubble of happiness.

All of this could have ended up being a bit cloying, but two things make it work. First, the main couple are really likeable. Second, the show is hilarious. Seriously, the director has weapons-grade comic timing that had me in stitches throughout, and the voice actors are great at comedy.

The only sour note is that the show spends a fair bit of time teasing a secret behind the main girl's true identity, but that plotline doesn't come to fruition in these 12 episodes. On the other hand, while it's meant to be a secret from her husband, her likely identity is telegraphed heavily to the viewer in the first episode, so it doesn't feel as unresolved as you might imagine. It almost feels like an unneccessary distraction, since the show's main strength lies in the domestic scenes. Overall, I enjoyed this one a lot more than I expected.

9/10
 
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Lordhippos said:
Black Lagoon

Overall I preferred Jormungand, and I think it's because the whole crew of arms dealers felt more close-knit than the crew of Black Lagoon, and the fire fights felt more realistic.
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I can get that, the two are often lumped in together as they look like they’re going to be very similar shows, even though they really aren’t. I sometimes suspect a lot of people dismissed Jormungand simply because they went into it expecting another Black Lagoon, so seeing the opposite reaction kind of bears that up.
 
Sailor Moon Eternal (movies 1 and 2)

It's been about 20 years since I last watched Super S, and I only ever saw it in German, so I can't remember enough to compare that version to this in detail. I seem to recall the TV series focusing mainly on Chibi Usa though, which isn't really the case here. In fact, lack of focus is the main issue with the first Eternal movie. Perhaps it was inevitable, since the mandate for Crystal is to be more faithful to the manga, but the first movie ends up feeling very episodic. Each of the six inner senshi get their own little plot arc in sequence. What would have been 20-minute episodes normally, end up being 10 minutes each here. This results in plot points being introduced and then either resolved or dropped very quickly. As for the content of all those vignettes, it's all classic Sailor Moon stuff about dreams and power-ups, and plays out well enough.

The second movie fares better structurally, feeling more like an actual movie rather than a compilation of sub-plots, though almost its entire runtine is dedicated to the final sequence of battles. Both movies have lovely art, good animation, and gorgeous music, which really helps to keep the extended battle scenes interesting. A lot of it falls into the usual template of focusing on canned attack animations, but I think these are all new ones, and they're appropriately flashy. The final attack might have the longest, most convoluted power-up sequence in the franchise's history, which is both good in terms of making it feel climactic, and a little awkward in terms of how many characters are repeatedly swapping costumes and shouting power-up phrases along the way.

If I was judging each of these movies in isolation, I'd probably give them 6/10 each, but as two halves of a whole they complement each other well and form a satisfying story, so by their powers combined they get:

7/10
 
Professor Irony said:
I can get that, the two are often lumped in together as they look like they’re going to be very similar shows, even though they really aren’t. I sometimes suspect a lot of people dismissed Jormungand simply because they went into it expecting another Black Lagoon, so seeing the opposite reaction kind of bears that up.
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I definitely think both are still worth trying though, even if I preferred one over the other, I think they were both good :)

@Dai I've never actually tried Sailor Moon personally!
 
Lordhippos said:
@Dai I've never actually tried Sailor Moon personally!
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The Eternal movies assume the viewer has seen the previous TV seasons, so they're not the best starting point, but they're the only part of the franchise streaming in the UK, AFAIK. The best way to sample the franchise quickly is the Sailor Moon R movie, since it starts by reintroducing the characters and situations, and has a good stand-alone story. The US blu-ray is zone-locked, but the Australian one should be Zone B.
 
I think it would be the type of thing I may circle back to later on, same as with things like Gundam, heard of but never seen, and both presumably have quite a lot of material!

Something I recently considered but is there a thread here about anime that everyone should at least try once? I don't necessarily mean for people to list their favs, but more for discussing series that are worth trying by basically everyone who considers themselves an anime fan.
 
Lordhippos said:
Something I recently considered but is there a thread here about anime that everyone should at least try once? I don't necessarily mean for people to list their favs, but more for discussing series that are worth trying by basically everyone who considers themselves an anime fan.
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I like the idea, but I think that would be quite difficult since everyone has such different tastes. Like the only way I can see any given anime being recommended to anyone would be if it just had really good quality art and animation or something. Even then, people have preferences in art style (I know I’ve passed a few things up that come highly recommended simply because I don’t like the character designs).
 
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