Rate the last anime you watched out of 10

CDAdair said:
YAY!
Although I still get the impression that the writers like not cementing romantic relationships with their characters in a lot of anime stuff. maybe they're just waiting until they know the series over?
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It pisses off fans to the point it will lose them money, you cannot continue the series after (if it was harem). You'll lose any longterm fans that shipped anything else, more a problem for series aimed at fujoshi.

Basicaly it's financialy stupid to resolve relationships in fanservice/harem shows. Or it serves to conclude the story, and have a "hapily ever after" type end.

Seinen and jousei don't have this problem so much, if at all.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Strike Witches - 7/10

*BOOOOOM* - the sound of what remains of my credibility going up in flames.

As much as I wanted to, or believed I should, I just couldn’t dislike this show. That each of the characters are (loosely) based on actual WWII pilots; that the story is half decent; and that it has relatively high quality visuals all elevate it above the usual fan service fluff.

Ah, yes, the fan service. While I didn’t find the many close-up shots of loli crotch particularly arousing, I do have an appreciation for shows that push the boundaries of good taste, and Strike Witches often does. Much like Aika and Najica, there’s a humour and playfulness about the crotch and hindquarters fixation that somehow prevents it from being creepy. Not to mention that several characters are more, um, developed than others...

Being a graphics whore, good visuals can help me overlook deficiencies elsewhere. Not only does Strike Witches have one of the best art directors in anime (Hiromasa Ogura), its flight scenes are brilliantly staged and animated, and that’s what had me watching past the first episode. Also on display is some of Gonzo’s best CG work.

What kept me watching was a combination of that and an entertaining bunch of characters. Early on the episodes played out in predictable fashion; one of the witches had some kind of personal issue that would be resolved, with the help of rookie Yoshika, within the episode itself. Not exactly deep stuff, but entertaining and often quite endearing. That I didn’t find any of the characters annoying was a pleasant surprise.

The story concerning the appearance of mysterious life forms known as Neuroi and a shady military conspiracy is probably the show's weakest aspect. It's serviceable but there wasn't enough time to fully explore everything, and it comes to a fairly abrupt conclusion in the last couple of episodes.
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Tell me about it. I normally hate fan-service shows like Strike Witches, but all the elements that you talked about are what drew me to it.
 
Wolfs Rain-9/10

Finally finished watching it, and I have to say I loved it from start to finish. It's one of those anime that you can't really compare to any other because it's so unique.

The series is strong is pretty much all areas, good animation overall,interesting characters, intriguing overall story and of course probably the best score I've ever heard in an anime to date, Yoko Kanno really outdid herself with this one even if at times I thought Steve Conte's vocals were a bit cheesy sounding.

It's a dark, well told story with a well fleshed out world that is filled with mostly believeable characters. Despite it being melodramatic at times there were many touching moments throughout that honestly made my eyes well up(yeah Im a bit of a softee).

Hands down the best series Bones has ever made to date, i highly recommend the few who have not seen it to do so.

The only slight downside is that at the end I was left with a few unanswered questions, such as:Pretty much everything to do with Darcia, I mean his motivations for wanting to open up a world of darkness(if he even wanted to?)were never really revealed, and more importantly what was his part in the burning of Quinns village? And how did he get that Wolfs eye and stone thingy? We really could have done with more info about him.

Lastly about the ending, what I seemed to gather was that there really was no special paradise just for Wolves, and that all Chesa and Kiba could do was create a paradise on earth, which was then tainted by Darcia's eye. Would this seem about right, or was there really a paradise that Kiba just never got to?

Anyway still an amazing series.
 
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Bleach series 4 part 3
6/10
an avergae bleach DVD yet again.

Bleach series 4 (all together)
5/10
a VERY average series. compared to the 3rd series its crap.
When is bleach gonna get good? Its so slow and ichigo is such a lame character!
 
sanji no 1 said:
Bleach series 4 part 3
6/10
an avergae bleach DVD yet again.

Bleach series 4 (all together)
5/10
a VERY average series. compared to the 3rd series its crap.
When is bleach gonna get good? Its so slow and ichigo is such a lame character!
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Apparently this week's was good, that's ep 289. I hear bad things about it going down hill after the first few plot arcs. Similarly the manga loses direction over time.
"Series" devisons are made up by Manga/Viz (it's still Bleach, not Bleach Kai, Bleach ~Another Days~, Bleach SEED Destiny etc.), it's just which boxset number it is. Just use the ep numbers, otherwise it's inconsistent. Prefered the old DBZ system of just labeling them by plot arc.
 
Kino's Journey 7/10

I worked my way through this series over the last week. Generally I am not much a fan of 'monster of the week' series which are unconnected from one episode to the next, but in this case I found myself rather surprised in places. Kino is a very likable character, and the background to her is very touching. Indeed that is a word to describe the whole series, it touches a nerve. It has an almost dreamy atmosphere with it, and even in the more violent episodes, it still seems almost 'slice of life' it is hard to explain really.

Some episodes are extremely good (Kino's Background episode, the last episode) others meander a bit, and the lack of any progression through the series does still grate a little, it is almost as if one is frozen in time and honestly, at the end of it, I do feel disappointed at the lack of 'movement' in narrative terms.

All the same, it was quite enjoyable in all. Certainly nothing groundbreaking, and I doubt I will be inclined to watch it again, but it was a reasonably enjoyable way to spend a few hours.
 
Reaper gI said:
sanji no 1 said:
Bleach series 4 part 3
6/10
an avergae bleach DVD yet again.

Bleach series 4 (all together)
5/10
a VERY average series. compared to the 3rd series its crap.
When is bleach gonna get good? Its so slow and ichigo is such a lame character!
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Apparently this week's was good, that's ep 289. I hear bad things about it going down hill after the first few plot arcs. Similarly the manga loses direction over time.
"Series" devisons are made up by Manga/Viz (it's still Bleach, not Bleach Kai, Bleach ~Another Days~, Bleach SEED Destiny etc.), it's just which boxset number it is. Just use the ep numbers, otherwise it's inconsistent. Prefered the old DBZ system of just labeling them by plot arc.
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First off, by the sounda things, series 4 is the bounto arc, aka filler central, so yeah, no wonder it lacks any kind of quality. It picks up again soon enough. Oh, and i'll start an enrage, Ichigo is actually pretty decent character wise. He has some flaws here and there, yes, but all characters do.

Second, Bleach has never really lost full direction, it's been heading the same way since the end of SS, so it's not a case of storyline problems at all. There is quite a few chapters though i will admit are very much mediocre at best, either because kubo thought "lets rush this chapter" or "lets drag this out to one swing of a sword per chapter for the next 5", but it keeps itself on the same storyline. The anime on the other hand, i hear otherwise, but that i'll leave for the anime watchers to discuss.

Also, Series X part X is fine. What it does, is keep to how it is in Japan(correct me if i'm wrong here ilmae), so the first 26 episodes, being a "series", is season 1, next S2, and so on. Not too hard to keep track off.
 
Yeah, it is done the same as in Japan (decided by Aniplex I believe, not Viz) where the show is divided up by story arc (not actually 26 eps at a time depending on the arc). Think Viz have gone with a couple of sub-divisions during the Heuco Mundo part to make the boxsets more managable when they do come out, but that's all.
 
Yeah, the Bount Arc isn't very good, just when you think its ending a stupid "I've been planning this all along!" reveal happens and it gets extended even further. I believe "Series 5" is the latter half of the Arc and the Arrancar Arc starts in "Series 6".

I prefer the method of release in Japan, calling the DVDs by Arc. Especially since it does it properly, correctly labeling all the Arrancar Arc discs with "Arrancar Arc" before giving a portion a subtitle, like "Arrancar Arc: Hueco Mundo Invasion" and "Arrancar Arc: Decisive Battle of Karakura". I can't stand the fan terms like "Fake Karakura Town Arc" implying it has little to no connection to the one before it. The Arrancar Arc is a long one, but there is no need to chop it up into little pieces.
 
Code Geass R2. 9/10, just like the first series. A lot of it was familiar Gundam-y ground, but then towards the end there were enough great twists and action scenes that it lifted it above just being a Gundam-y show. The ending in particular was great stuff.
 
Sparrowsabre7 said:
Would anyone recommened 2.0? I've heard mixed things about the update.
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Tim Maughan goes into some detail about it and Total Sci-Fi Online provide a video illustrating some of their points.

Basically, I've avoided it as all it seems to do is change the colour palette, add some jarring CGI sequences and make the computer interface graphics look a bit slicker. I can see no reason why I'd pay for that, as I own the original.

Black Lagoon
Well, practically everyone's seen this so I'm not going to kill myself writing an in-depth analysis, but it's very good in a cheesy action movie way. Some of the scenes where people are getting all emotional make me wince, and an over-arching plot would've been nice. Then again, I appreciate not having to think too much sometimes. The third and final volume is the best of the three, but it doesn't quite pull the whole series' rating up.

8/10 - will watch the Second Barrage at some point.
 
sic vita est said:
re: 2.0

I can see no reason why I'd pay for that, as I own the original.
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I was of basically the same opinion, but the BD release of the original is ******, and 2.0 was only about six or seven quid on BD from play.com or somewhere, so I thought "why not?".

Still haven't actually got around to watching it, mind. ^^;
 
Just Passing Through said:
I feel a little more positive about Ghost in the Shell 2.0
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You make quite a persuasive case, but those screen caps confirm they've perhaps changed everything to a warmer hue throughout the entire film? A colour shift like that is a major thing in terms of visual mood.

If it was just for consistency with GitS 2: Innocence, then that frustrates me. Just accept there's nine years between them, re-release production people!
 
Yes, I think people are generally aware of 1995 coming before 1999, somehow. :p When things come along and "borrow" from you, though, it's not entirely unreasonable to want to distance yourself from them, especially when they fall massively out of public favor as the Matrix franchise did.
 
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