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Hellsing Ultimate 2

This dropped through my letterbox this morning. Since the episodes are short and straightforward, I put the disc straight in my player and switched off my brain.

And it was awesome. My only problems with the first episode were the inconsistent animation and poorly integrated CG, both of which are much less of an issue with the second. The entire episode is more or less one extended action scene and at times the sheer carnage is incredible. By the end it became apparent that those dastardly, nefarious National Socialists are causing all the trouble, so it could all go south in the next episode. But at least I'm looking forward to finding out.
 
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School Rumble Second Semester Part 2. Whilst I still really enjoy this show like many comedy shows there seem to be less truly funny episodes with each new season. There are some nice more serious moments in the season, although not all of the characters seem to have been used to their fullest.
 
I posted the folowing first on Fabio's MAL profile. As I'm far too lazy to re-type the text, I'm going to do the smart thing and C&P.

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Shana (S1) - 18/24

The Shana creator/anime team used this formula:

An interesting, deep seeming concept + A standard plain and uninspiring harem lead (with a MILF) + A loli tsundere + School slice of life stuff + A school girl with a sword + People with supernatural powers + Random baddies with no backstory + A big-boobed 'good' female character to compensate for loli Shana + Some girl-on-girl fighting over the plain main character = Win

They forgot to keep the story dark, create believable characters and not make the 'story' move at snails pace somewhere along the way. In other words, the creators took the easy way out - much like the Code Geass staff did with its pathetic second sesson.

It really is a shame when the first two episodes were great. The first got the basics of the plot out of the way and was still able to be thrilling, with casual murdering keeping the story dark. The second episode kept up the same quality by showing what happened to torches as Yuji had to come to terms with the fact he'd suffer the same fate...but the story then started to go downhill once the school setting came into it and Shana become a student/killer with emotional issues. The downhill slope worsened when, shockingly, it was revealed Yuji wouldn't vanish, which made the only interesting aspect of his character worthless. After that, the series became an easy to forget, light-hearted shounen series, with none of the depth the first couple of episodes had and plenty of pointless fighting.

The dialogue is on the annoying side, too. I've lost count how many times Shana has said "Flame Haze" in quick succession - I swear she was doing it to annoy me. I like chatter my simple mind can follow (stay the **** away from me S&W economics!!!) but the conversations in Shana are all simplistic, lacking any of the intelligence of chats in other series (think of Horo).

...still, I do, believe it or not, kinda like Shana. At its worst it's a 7/10 series in my mind due to it being watchable enough. I can fully understand why you rated it 4/10, and I do think it's very over-rated with a score of 8.11/21,000 votes, but I do like shounen series. If you want to see a truly bad shounen then look no further than the Samurai Deeper Kyo anime - I'd LOVE to hear your thoughts about that!!!
 
Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid 1-13 + OVA

Now that's more like it. While I love Fumoffu, I was never able to get into the first Full Metal Panic series. I've always regarded it as a disjointed mess, which I suppose is what happens when 3 light novels are crammed into 24 episodes. TSR is a much better showcase of FMP's serious side and does justice to the premise and characters.

The action and comedy actually compliment each other rather than stand uncomfortably side-by-side; the pacing of the story is just about perfect; Sosuke, Kaname, and Tessa all have genuinely fantastic moments and actually become interesting, well-rounded characters, whereas previously they came across as being too lightweight for serious drama; and Kyoto Animation's did a great job with the visuals, particularly the spectacular action scenes.

The OVA was amusing, but would have been worthwhile for Tessa's bare arse alone. More please.
 
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got through my To Heart boxset from right stuf. I got it through ebay (no worries its legit^-^) for about £20 or so.

I must admit even though it took for ages for the guys to get it on the shelf for when they licensed it, it looks stunning what they where able to accomplish buy restoring it. specially since the original master where badly damaged through splicing and such.

Now just watching the second season 'remember my memories' subbed on crunchyroll. It doesn't follow on exactly from the first series =C, which isn't a surprise since it was made 5 years after . though nonetheless a wonderful piece.

and considering FUNimation have Shuffle! uploaded for people to watch im going through that too. Though it's wired how they pronounce Rin's name.
 
Ghost in the Shell 2.0 ~ As far as remakes go, it isn't half bad. Mainly because most of it wasn't remade. The quality is nicer. The soundtrack is still great. The CGI looks...out of place. But I didn't think it the CGI was terrible. It was nice to see the little updates on the graphics here and there (and there aren't too many appearences of it). It reminded me why I love the film so much. Maybe a slight improvement over the original because of the renewed soundtrack and 'remastered' image but there isn't much difference, that I could notice from the last time I watch GitS.

Patlabor OVA episode 1 ~ After Ayase recommended it ages ago, I finally started it. And it's brilliant. The story is interesting, the action is great, the characters are awesome and most of all it was funny. Often action series try to put in comedy and although I don't mind it, it never usually makes me laugh; but Patlabor did.

Dragonball Z episode 28 & 29 ~ Watched some more for nostalga's sake. It reminded me of how much they drag it out, hahah. Flawed but awesome nevertheless.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid 1-13 + OVA

Now that's more like it. While I love Fumoffu, I was never able to get into the first Full Metal Panic series. I've always regarded it as a disjointed mess, which I suppose is what happens when 3 light novels are crammed into 24 episodes. TSR is a much better showcase of FMP's serious side and does justice to the premise and characters.

The action and comedy actually compliment each other rather than stand uncomfortably side-by-side; the pacing of the story is just about perfect; Sosuke, Kaname, and Tessa all have genuinely fantastic moments and actually become interesting, well-rounded characters, whereas previously they came across as being too lightweight for serious drama; and Kyoto Animation's did a great job with the visuals, particularly the spectacular action scenes.

The OVA was amusing, but would have been worthwhile for Tessa's bare arse alone. More please.
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We have to wait a while, at least till the Novels finish next year before a new series =/ The assassin's in that though where my only problem, but thats only cause i've read the novels, and know thatThey should have been men, instead KyoAni added some extra fanservice

On topic, i've not watched too much as of late, but i've got through 6 episodes of Genshiken season 2, its still great, but the only problem, albeit a minor one i have with it is that they did put some of the bits not told in season one in this one, and made it a little filleresk, but it was still enjoyable.

Also got planned over tonight and tomorrow, though i'd go through a couple of batches so going to try to watch Xam'd 15-20 and Gundam 00 episodes 17-20
 
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I've got more to add already!

Dragonball Z ~ Watched another episode for some powering up lulz.

Glassy Ocean ~ One word: WUT?

5CM Per Second [7th rewatch] ~ I still stand by this being the my favourite film ever. The combination of story, sound and visuals is just astonishly beautiful.
 
@Aion

Despite Shana being one of my favourite series. I found myself agreeing with you, especially the interesting concept of torches and the balance being hampered down by a school environment and AN ANNOYING LOVE TRIANGLE. Seriously I hated that, especially when Yoshida is involved as she is a whiny, suck-up cow who I really hate.

But trust me, Aion. Second Season is worse than the First Season. It repeats everything the first season did with no style and has no progression except for the explanation of the Reiji Maigo.

But I'm interested in the Third Season... because I spoil myself with the light novels and from the sound of it, the school environment seemed to be reduced down a lot. And a interesting dark twist.

Also...

I'm watching nieA_7 and I like it so far. It has a female geek <<3 which you don't see a lot of them. And I like Niea as well <<3
 
Maltos said:
5CM Per Second [7th rewatch] ~ I still stand by this being the my favourite film ever. The combination of story, sound and visuals is just astonishly beautiful.
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That's some serious dedication.

Anyway...

Finished Crest of the Stars - I really enjoyed it I don't have much experience with series like this, is this one of them Space Operas? Ending felt a little rushed along but it has a sequal so I'll be looking forward to that. (There's no UK release though I don't think, wut?) I was a bit worried about the dub but it worked out fine.

Kurozuka - Watched the last four episodes of this and I was initially displeased with the direction it went it changed slightly it lacked the epic DBZ battles with swords and those Shounen kids. So Kuro raids the Red Emperor's fortress but in a different approach and everyone pretty much dies, even that blonde haired bitch.

Here's a snippet from an MSN conversation about how predictable it was:

Proro. says:
Watching episode 11 and I was like "I bet that next episode Kuro starts chopping fuckers up"
Proro. says:
And he did, he started owning all these monks and ****
Proro. says:
And I was like "I knew it!"

Casshern SINS is moving along nicely as well, no new episode for an entire week though... at least it gives me time to catch up. Episode 12 was another tragic story which ended on a positive note I suppose and episode 13 confirmed pretty much everything, past the half way point now and the series only keeps on getting better. I'm really hoping it will end tragically though something like Wolf's Rain would be nice.

Michiko to Hatchin - More Cowboy Bebop in Southern America, They've both gone their seperate ways for now it seems and although Michiko's side is a lot more serious (and hilarious especially with those African guys in episode 8, dayum.) I prefer Hatchin's little story more with that black girl who's in the circus. So yeah, lately it hasn't struck me as it first did but it'll work out. I hope.

New series since I've finished two:

Noein -Enter Japanese nonsense here-

After watching 5 episodes of Noein I can only simply sum up the experience so far with this image:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y167/L ... 108224.jpg

Also, I've downloaded the OST already, this is definately a good sign.

...

HOLYSHIT, I've wrote a near-Aion sized post, I didn't think I could do it, but I did. If you actually read that you win.

EDIT: Nevermind, it's not as meaty. >_>
 
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