Rate the last anime you watched out of 10

Love, Chunibyo and other delusions heart throb - Ouch this hurt like really hurt in one word pointless really really pointless nothing really happens or changes everyone becomes cliches and worst versions of themselves and worst thing has put me off watching TOM. 4/10
 
Neil.T said:
Wow, yeah. I couldn't agree more with that. 👍

That was a really excellent post, dude; very in-depth. I read it over a few times to absorb it properly. It was interesting to hear that you actually got Eva on TV! 😯
Out of curiosity, what was your take on the TV ending versus EoE? 🙂

And yeah, Evageeks is a pretty useful resource, especially the encyclopedia section. I dipped into that quite a lot during the simulwatch here last summer.

(Apologies for my slow reply to your post, btw.)
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Small correction to my post, when I talked about episode 1's production values, I was including the full fight, which happens chronologically during episode 1, but we only get to watch in episode 2, actually, sorry!

I've been watching a lot of stuff lately but I didn't really feel like doing write-ups. In the case of Eva, however, it actually felt good to write all of that. As for the depth, it could be much better but it's not my style, I suppose 🤷‍♂️

Yeah, during the kids slot, too! Shocking, but I'm thankful.

End of TV vs End of Eva... Quite easy, I think it's interesting to see how instrumentality is perceived from the characters' point of view but the movie is the real ending, where every character reaches the conclusion to their arcs. I'm not sure if the movie was always in the plans or if it came after the success of the TV series, but it's for sure the actual ending of the series. Ah, what a delight. I actually feel like rewatching the series, but I should really get to working in my backlog...

Anywho, how about you? What do you think about Eva? Feel free to copy paste a previous post of yours if you've already posted your thoughts on it. I never got the feeling you're a mecha kind of guy, so it should be an interesting read!

Also, got around to watching the Rebuild movies. Got some loose thoughts on them, but mostly superficial stuff. I'm happy they made them more about Shinji. I'm not sure the animation is as good as the series in its peak (surely not EoE). I feel like it's building up to another triumphant return for Shinji, seeing as how everything feels more related to him. I'm mostly curious about how Anno will end all of this.

I definitely prefer the series.
 
Re-Watch Shiki. 8/10.

OST is still phenomenal that alone makes up half the points! But the writing was certainly more than great however the end threatened to bring it all down but just decided to dock 2 points from what otherwise was gonna be a flawless 10. More specifics below.

So when Seishin saved Sunoko and then at that moment Sunoko decided that she actually deserved to die and wanted to die that would have been a perfect ending! But instead plot armour and Seishin became a jinrou and convinced her to run away....

That would have made the next scenes with Ozaki more impactful because he didn't know they were still alive and assumed they died when he made the commet about really winning seeing the village destroyed.

But I must give props for them making me go from hating the Shiki to actually somewhat feeling sorry for them.
 
I watched Shomin Sample (plus the specials) and really enjoyed it.

Considering I've got stuff I bought on DVD in about 2008 and still haven't watched, I probably shouldn't have watched SS yet (I only got it in the AL Christmas sale), but I'm glad I did. I've been watching/rewatching a few more serious series (Hellsing, Gundam Wing, Arslan) recently, so it was a welcome change of tone.

It's got a nice varied collection of characters, some really funny/quirky stuff and a gentle style. Mostly, everyone gets along with just some minor teasing and very little violence. There isn't too much fanservice (and it's mostly tame - it seems to focus on legs, which is something different, I suppose).

Overall, it's a cute and happy series - 8/10
 
The World God Only Knows seasons 1-3 and OVAs

Season 1 and 2 were a rewatch on blu ray this time. Love this show. It's kinda stupid but fun and the cast is great and Chris Patton and Luci Christian make an incredible double act. The OVAs and season 3 were new to me and glad I could finally watch them. The OVAs did a good job of being little asides with some setting up before the final season.

The final season was excellent. Completely different to what i expected, expanding the lore of the world, adding some action and actually delving more into the theme and consequences of what's going on. It's more serious but it works. The only real shame is that Elsie is largely sidelined in this season because of that.

It's also interesting that season 3 makes you reassess what's happened in the first 2 seasons, and looks much more at the morality of the conquests and how they are done. Chihiro especially is seen in a new light and really elevates the show.

8/10
 
Ghost in the Shell: Innocence

Oshii films are something I need to be in a particular frame of mind to appreciate - I've certainly had Innocence in my 'to watch' pile for a very long time - but I kind of knew what to expect from this, I went into it when I felt I wanted to watch an Oshii film, and I greatly enjoyed it.

That said, I do take ayase’s point about it seeming primarily like a vehicle for Oshii to explore philosophical concepts. For anyone who’s already seen the Stand Alone Complex, I think it might be difficult to see Innocence as a self-contained feature, rather than an extended episode of a longer series such as that one. Arguably, it’s less interested in bringing something new to the table than providing an excuse to ruminate on the nature of this world through a character study of Batou, with a clever, if slightly rote for the franchise, potboiler tacked on to it. Coming from the TV version, I also found it slightly odd to see a terser, more strained version of the relationship between Batou and Togusa. This is very much Batou: The Movie, with Togusa as a hapless stooge subjected to Batou‘s extended monologues for much of the runtime, but it does make sense that relations between the team would be strained, given the lack of anyone truly able to fill Kusanagi’s shoes in her absence.

It’s undoubtedly great to look at. Oshii’s vision for GitS is harsher and darker than SAC, but there’s a kind of baroque elegance to it, with elaborate rusting towers piercing the clouds above and anachronistically deco cars sweeping through the rain soaked streets below. It also delivers the kind of characteristically precise, well choreographed bursts of action that you would expect from Oshii. Perhaps these might even be a little too expected - structurally, the film feels not unlike the first Patlabor feature - but they’re a welcome break from the conceptual gazing.

Innocence does not break ground in the way the first film did, but absolutely delivered the kind of good looking, high concept, earnestly philosophical film that I’d expected it to be.
 
Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions (including the OVA/shorts included on the BD) - what a fantastic series.

It's got a great cast of characters and it all looks so so nice. It was funny, it was cute, it was sad, it was weird. It's a lot of stuff and I really enjoyed watching it - I'll definitely watch it again in a couple of years. A few shows I've watched in recent months have started well, then taken a noticeable dip towards the end, but this kept the quality up right until the last episode, then continued it with the OVA/shorts.

The overall style and tone of the show really reminded me of Haruhi (I know both shows were from the same studio) - which is one of my all time favs and probably the series I've rewatched the most.

9/10
 
Professor Irony said:
Ghost in the Shell: Innocence
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Out of curiosity, Prof., which release of the film did you watch? I still don't know to this day whether Manga's BD has the same dreadful subtitles as their DVD. (I assume it does, because the disc contents appear to be the same, including the SAC "sneak peek".)

Aaron said:
Love, Chunibyo and Other Delusions (including the OVA/shorts included on the BD) - what a fantastic series.
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You know, I was really starting to enjoy Chuunibyo in its latter stages when it became surprisingly weighty in tone, but then they went and reset everything to get another season out of it, and that kinda spoiled it for me. 🙁

As for Haruhi, though:
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(Always a favourite.)
 
Ah, I actually watched the film on Funi Now - I do own the DVD, but I’d need to dig it out for comparison. Is it just the choice of font for the subtitles that was bad on Manga’s release, or was it their script?
 
Professor Irony said:
Is it just the choice of font for the subtitles that was bad on Manga’s release, or was it their script?
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It's the actual script. For example, the company Locus Solus is inexplicably subtitled as "Rox" for the entire first half of the film on Manga's DVD, before suddenly switching to its proper name.

The most hilarious bit, though, is... 😅

Do you remember the part where Batou visits the murder scene? The script in the dub is correct where Ishikawa tells him that one of the rookies is missing because "he got reacquainted with the tuna sandwich he had for lunch" upon seeing the state of the corpse. Manga's subs, though, have it as... "He went to meet Suna-san for lunch."

Tsuna san is Japanese shorthand for "tuna sandwich", and... their translator was presumably too cloth-eared to be able to decipher the rest. 😅
 
Millennium Actress (2001)

With this being the only one of Satoshi Kon's films I've never seen before, it was a real treat to get to the cinema showing of the new 4K print. Strangely, at the time I was originally watching Kon's work, I kind of dismissed Millennium Actress as it didn't appeal to me the way his other films did. A filmmaker and his cameraman conducting an interview with a reclusive filmstar, now in her twilight years, can't be that interesting, right?

Really, I should have known better. Enfused with Kon's trademark lightness of touch and intensely cineliterate storytelling, the sad sounding story of a woman's bittersweet lifelong search for her lost love, becomes a breezy and life-affirming affair, as Chiyoko's incredible story merges with that of her films, and the reality of her ongoing interview. While it lacks the farcical comedy of Tokyo Godfathers and the fantasy flash of Paprika, I think this may be my new favourite of Kon's films. It's just so unlike anything else; it feels more like a hanger on from the French New Wave than an anime movie.

My only concern from watching this version was that, even to my untrained eye, it was apparent that the subtitles had a slight halo around them, but I imagine so long as the home release isn't hardsubbed for some reason, this shouldn't be an issue.
 
Beastars

Well, that was a thing. Like a more substantial version of Zootropolis, this story of the unlikely romance between a nebbishy wolf and a headstrong-yet-troubled rabbit, finds great strength in both its characterisation, and surprisingly effective use of hybrid 2D/3D animation.

Perhaps it's just a good fit for this particular art-style without any human characters, but this is easily one of the most successful sustained uses of that kind of animation I've ever seen. After the first few scenes, I was largely not aware that CGI was being used, which is exactly how I want that to work.

By and large, this is also backed up by excellent writing. All the main characters feel complex and nuanced; they boast a well realised inner-life and rarely end up being what they first seem. Unfortunately, I did think the series was less compelling in the second half, when it lapses into some familiar cliches as it tries to drive the plot forward. Admittedly, they weren't the cliches I was expecting, but I definitely enjoy it more as an oddball character study, than for some of the other places it visits along the way.
 
One Punch Man (S1) - 8/10

Lots of fun, great action and quite funny in parts aswell. Really wish Netflix would get season 2.. if thats possible as would love to watch more
 
Dan said:
One Punch Man (S1) - 8/10

Lots of fun, great action and quite funny in parts aswell. Really wish Netflix would get season 2.. if thats possible as would love to watch more
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Hopefully you ain't totally blind on the state of s2, have a look on youtube or something like that if you are . S2 is only on CR so far and it's done by JC Staff, so the animation isn't as fitting as it was for s1, but garou's development in s2 is one of the more interesting things in the season, it's also got a classic style martial arts tournament but that doesn't really mean anything because saitama joins it
 
Captaaainuniverse said:
Hopefully you ain't totally blind on the state of s2, have a look on youtube or something like that if you are . S2 is only on CR so far and it's done by JC Staff, so the animation isn't as fitting as it was for s1, but garou's development in s2 is one of the more interesting things in the season, it's also got a classic style martial arts tournament but that doesn't really mean anything because saitama joins it
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Cheers pal. I haven’t been keeping up with the anime news for quite a while. I’ve become a more casual fan so thanks for the update.
 
Darwin's Game - 6/10
There are so many death game anime/manga now that I've lost count of them. This one wasn't very original but it was still an enjoyable watch. It has some memorable moments, likeable characters and the last two episodes actually had me on the edge of my seat. I'm glad it didn't turn into another King's Game, which really was an awful trainwreck.
 
Attack on Titan
So I did a big binge over the last few days. Finished yesterday and felt so drained! This show is so unbelievably good but boy is it intense!

Seasons 1 and 2 were rewatches. The first 6-8 episodes are up there as one of the greatest show openings of all time! Expectations of what the show is actually going to be about are constantly being flipped. It makes it so exciting. And seasons 1 and 2 as a whole do a fantastic job of letting us get to know the characters whilst keeping the fundamentals of the story a mystery.

Now onto season 3 which has been my first time watching it. OMG this was so good! Possibly my favourite season yet. The way its structured it's actually 2 pretty distinct seasons. The complete genre shift in part 1 to be a political thriller is inspired and really grows the world behind the walls and we start to get answers without understanding them. The part 2 goes all in on everything this show is great at. Insane action, incredible character moments, and a pervasive sense of hopelessness. We finally start to get some answers and I cant wait to see how it will all play out.

Also I think we all need to be grateful for the one true gift this show has given us which is Erwin Smith. One of my all time favourite characters in anime. And J Michel Tatum absolutely nails it in the dub. The dub on the whole is astonishingly good.

I also find it very interesting that the two biggest break out anime hits of the last decade, AoT and MHA, basically deal with opposite sides of the same coin. AoT being about fighting against hopelessness and MHA about fighting for hope. At a glance they might seem like the same thing but I think both shows have shown that's not the case. (A part of me has always felt that the popularity of MHA is in part due to the fact we all watched s1 of AoT and needed a collective cure to its inherent cynicism.)

Anyway AoT gets 10/10 so far.
 
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