Rate the last anime you watched out of 10

ilmaestro said:
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.

You may have a point, given that the first thing that you notice about 2.0 is that the scrolly green opening credits text is gone, that which was heavily homaged by the Matrix!
 
Toradora - 9/10

Much more than your typical high school romantic comedy. For one thing it has a cast of complex and memorable characters who, despite their many mistakes and struggles and faults, are easy to like. Well, perhaps not Taiga, at least not to begin with.

Because there are so many subtleties that may not be picked up first time around, Toradora is a series that rewards repeat viewings. After watching the final episode I sought out some discussion threads for thoughts on the series as a whole and was surprised at how much I missed.

As the series progresses it becomes increasingly dramatic. Usually I find that comedy and drama make uneasy bedfellows, but Toradora is different. It's the characters themselves who drive the drama, much of which is intense and uncomfortable, and therefore it never feels forced.

It doesn't hurt that Toradora is aesthetically pleasing. Character designs are strong and distinct and stay on model, colour is bold but not garish, and there are some really well animated sequences. Music is used sparingly but to good effect, and I love all the OPs and EDs.

Toradora is a great example of a show where preconceptions can be horribly wrong.
 
Mine's on the way from Right Stuf. I cheated and watched fansubs of the final 12 episodes because Aion had started the show and I didn't want him spoiling anything. (My fears were unfounded, however, as he wasn't too impressed, calling the characters "on the shallow side". Madman.)
 
At 20/25, I still think we've watched totally different shows. Taiga has shown some considerate thinking near the end (towards her bestest fwiend), yes, but for the majority of the show she's acted like a child mentally and will never grow boobs. There hasn't been any chemistry between the leads outside of Takasu willingly playing the role of loyal slave to a brat who attempted to kill him with a wooden sword.

As for the other member of his harem - the nutty chick - she had a few scenes with the lead where she used ghost metaphors, turned simple lines about Ami being cruel out of affection confusing via rambling, and then - out of nowhere - she's madly in love with the lead moron; like everyone is, for no real reason. She's worthless as a character and her existence annoys me. At least chicken girl in True Tears gave me something somewhat amusing to bitch about...

Ami's the ONLY member of Takasu's ****** harem with any worth - her split personality (in front of certain people) issues intriguing me. But she's been relegated to the role of advice giver as the series has progressed, and it irritates me that the lead has all but refused/somehow failed to notice her advances when she's the best looking, most mature, and is the closest to his personality type - as she herself has pointed out, numerous times. Hot, playful, flirty, smart, looks like the also troubled NHK chick... if the lead was always going to pick a troublesome woman, why not go with the one with the boobs? His loli fetish scares me.

There's nothing about the characters remarkable enough to make me remember them, and I've seen their types before. And, yes: the characterization has been shallow, with no issues getting looked at in any real depth. I liked, in particular, how Taiga's father issues were there one minute and out of the picture the next; making that subplot pointless.

Going from MI to Toradora has made me end up not very impressed. I might as well have watched the introduction episodes (first six?), then skipped to the last five or so, 'cause very little has advanced or been added in-between. Four-eyes is a bigger waste of space than the ghost fetish chick, and the melodramatic duel to the death - with swords - over him between the loli and the presi-bitch was facepalm worthy.

I'm sure everything will change when the confessions and **** occur, right before the ending, but I doubt I'll be moved. As of yet, aside from the period where I was into it before the love pentagon formed, I've yet to be moved one or the other. And, so, I moan.

This high school romance business, unless it's as entertaining as Peach Girl and all its ridiculous plot twists or has Katsura-esque art, isn't for me. I miss Kyoko already, and I want to cry over her again...
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Mine's on the way from Right Stuf. I cheated and watched fansubs of the final 12 episodes because Aion had started the show and I didn't want him spoiling anything. (My fears were unfounded, however, as he wasn't too impressed, calling the characters "on the shallow side". Madman.)
Ah right, fair enough. I still "refuse" to order from trsi. Maybe one day. I assume they must mark things down below customs limits for you to be ordering this from them?
 
ilmaestro said:
Ah right, fair enough. I still "refuse" to order from trsi. Maybe one day. I assume they must mark things down below customs limits for you to be ordering this from them?

They usually mark every item as $5 in value, even for $100+ box sets/bundles, which is jolly nice. I may eat these words when my next shipment arrives any day now but I haven't been hit by customs with TRSI in years, even with my $600 order last winter.

I am laughing at the Toradora-related domestic bickering, though still no close to having ordered it myself yet. Think I'll wait for a complete collection, assuming NISA decide to do one in the distant future, and mostly because I love the excellent first OP so much rather than because I think the show itself will woo me.

On topic, finished Hell Girl/Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori. It was a bit too much of a self-parody and weaker than the first season at first (argh, Kikuri), but it recovered at the end, so I'll rate it 8/10 I think to the first season's 9/10. Looking forward to the first part of Mitsuganae arriving soon :)

R
 
ilmaestro said:
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.

Of course you could argue that the Wachowski brothers simply felt "We can just steal this because only a load of geeks will know where we stole it from" (Probably true for 1999)

As for the date, many lay people, if they watched GITS without knowing anything about the background to it, would probably say it stole from the matrix and not the other way around. Sad, but unfortunately true. :x
 
That-Bastard-Bad-Guy-Aion said:
At 20/25, I still think we've watched totally different shows.
No, here's the problem:

This high school romance business, unless it's as entertaining as Peach Girl and all its ridiculous plot twists or has Katsura-esque art, isn't for me.
Not enough rape drama/shapely arses. Although that doesn't explain your obsession with Maison Ikkoku...
 
No no no: you're wrong. The problem is, both you and Maes have a liking for children. I, being a good person, do not, and have no attraction to the heroine as a consequence.

Maison Ikkoku lured in me in with its heroine being a widow; the issues she dealt with throughout the series not being the norm (what you see in Toradora, with all its school rubbish.) Its satisfying conclusion - sex, marriage, baby (that order) - sealed the deal and made it an all-time favourite of mine; making me forgive it for its pacing. And the fact its leads weren't in high school and aged six years, over the course of the story, did good things for it.

As unrealistic as a model guy randomly falling in love with a series' villain, then attempting to kidnap/rape the heroine out of pure love for villain, is, watching over the top goodness sure beats sitting through tried & tested yawndom; mixed with yet another sodding metaphor girl.

Note: Toradora isn't bad; I'm just annoyed with myself for listening to a guy who rated True Tears 9/10... and has yet to watch THE FIRST ******* TOUCH MOVIE.

Also, why start a MI than ignore it? Cocker.
 
Warmaster said:
As for the date, many lay people, if they watched GITS without knowing anything about the background to it, would probably say it stole from the matrix and not the other way around. Sad, but unfortunately true. :x
Yep, I will agree with you on that. Maybe just all the more reason to separate away from it.

Rui said:
ilmaestro said:
Ah right, fair enough. I still "refuse" to order from trsi. Maybe one day. I assume they must mark things down below customs limits for you to be ordering this from them?

They usually mark every item as $5 in value, even for $100+ box sets/bundles, which is jolly nice. I may eat these words when my next shipment arrives any day now but I haven't been hit by customs with TRSI in years, even with my $600 order last winter.
Right. I might take a look next time they're the exclusive online distributor for some awesome title... or that might just make me hate them more all over again.
 
Watched two cat-themed ONA's today.

First up, Catman (S1: 6/10, S2: 6/10, S3: 7/10): This is the most depressing and hilarious epic you will ever see. To set the scene, its a city/world of anthropomorphized cats. Our protagonist, Catman, is quite possibly the biggest dick of them all. He's constantly drunk, giving the finger to gangsta (and gangster) cats and moaning about his complete and utter failure in his love-life. Each episode is around 3 - 6 minutes, devoted to different activities that Catman does and the attitude he gives to them. Initially his devil-may-care attitude is somewhat charming and amusing, but it eventually turns to self-loathing. Which is also fun.

The animation is basically flash. It's pretty and does the job, but some movements are a bit awkward. The backgrounds are photos of places and have possibly been edited to suit the situation (i.e. putting cats in place of humans). The sound effects do the job, but notably, there is no vocalised speech. Cats don't speak, so I don't know why these should either. To make up for the lack of speech, though, is music by a band called "The Planet Smashers" who are, after wiki'ing them, a Canadian ska band. It's The Madness, but a bit less annoying and suits the show on some level.

I enjoyed watching Catman, overall. There were a couple of dud episodes, but it doesn't matter when they are so short. He lives in an interesting world, where gangsters force people to buy cheese and everyone can do a decent amount of parkour and it has humour through it all, even though you are laughing at Catman rather than with him.

Next is Dark Side Cat (7/10). This is much shorter, six episodes of around 5 minutes each. This cat is also a prick and is visually much more like a normal flash cartoon than Catman. Very stylized and interesting though. Even though Dark Side Cat is set in our world, and the majority of cats featured are... you know, cats, Dark Side Cat himself is a bit bigger. He's like The Batman of cats. (Picture.) Dark Side Cat is something of an interesting character as well, the beginnings of one anyway. He has some sort of moral-code so although he is mostly a complete and utter dick to all humans, he does care about them, or some of them, kids, I think. The arc running through the series is that the city is over-run with stray cats and there was a ban against them and Dark Side Cat doesn't like that very much and wants to sort it out. He wants respect. Or something.

Musically, there's one theme song that runs throughout. It's the one-minute opener to the show, but it also starts playing whenever Dark Side Cat does something - like moves. I enjoyed it, like the show itself, it's short, snappy and pretty damn fun.


Er... morally ambiguous cats FTW.
 
Rui said:
I am laughing at the Toradora-related domestic bickering, though still no close to having ordered it myself yet. Think I'll wait for a complete collection, assuming NISA decide to do one in the distant future, and mostly because I love the excellent first OP so much rather than because I think the show itself will woo me.
Word is that the current release is all there'll ever be, but you never know. You're free to have my old first set discs (episodes 1-13) if you like.

You don't even have to be a particularly big fan of high school romantic comedy to enjoy Toradora. Generally speaking I don't care for the genre. And when a show like Toradora impresses ANN's harshest critic, you know it's something a bit special.
 
Hahahaha, too true.

And, somewhat boldly of me I must admit, here is an actual contribution to the thread topic:

Asobi ni Iku yo!

It really feels like overkill stating this for the third or fourth time across various posts, but asoiku genuinely was this season's Kampfer!

Based on a LN series that is far too long to be shoehorned into a 12 ep series, but with nothing even resembling enough backbone to warrant a 26 ep run, you just kind of had to go with the flow and enjoy it for what it was, rather than what it could have been. And what it could have been was total crap, to be fair.

Any attempt at Serious Drama (or, indeed, romantic comedy) as far as the central love triangle went was the bad kind of bad. Pretty much all the other stuff, though, was the good kind of bad. The outright parody of girls-with-guns was way more fun than it had any right to be, and the somewhat overblown twists and incidents in the last couple of episodes were farcical to the point of genuine entertainment. The one (ish) episode that went for a higher-brow approach to its drama was fine, all things considered... but not exactly the sort of thing that would have brought you back to watch more had they had too much of it.

Outrageous (relatively speaking) production values also helped, along with some nice design touches for the Assistroids and especially the Muttley (as in Dick Dastardly and) homage that was the sniggering dog... actually called Muttley. Not the only great reference to other works, either, most notably in the openings to a lot of the episodes.

Didn't hurt that the girls were smokin', either. ^^;

I would probably watch the series again some time if I was super bored, which is a bigger recommendation that it sounds.

6/10

But the good 6/10. Where you have to sit through some occasionally hilarious 1/10 stuff to see some genuinely entertaining and clever 9/10 stuff, rather than just be bored the whole time.
 
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