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qaiz said:
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You probably have a point about my knowledge base being quite limited the further back in time you go. However, I'd like to think I've at least heard of some older titles through osmosis, but I haven't. Utena, for example, I hadn't heard anyone talk about apart from you, yet Evangelion you pretty much can't escape if you're getting into anime, so to put those two on the same level seems a bit, I dunno, inaccurate? I'm probably not qualified to say. It's probably also worth mentioning I pretty much don't pay any mind to film releases either, so unless it's something big like a Ghibli, I probably won't know that either.

Also, in regards to the shows you point out, I can see why people might still think your tastes aren't as broad as they may be. Say what you will about the shows themselves, there's nothing really mainstream in there, it still leans into the niche, which in itself can be seen as a little insular. I'm not saying it's a bad thing or whatever, you like what you like, no one should force you to change that, but I can see why people might view your tastes as more narrow than they may actually be.
 
Watched the first two episodes of Samurai Flamenco. Enjoyable stuff. Glad AL finally got part 2 out. Feels like I've been waiting years for this (admittedly I have been as it was licensed aaaages ago!)
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
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I see what you mean, it's not that I'm oblivious to your point but I guess rather that the stuff I mentioned is not as niche as you think and rather it all has to do with perspective, but then again who am I to say. I guess none of the shows I listed are on the mainstream scale of say AoT and Death Note, two shows that I haven't seen and have no intention of seeing, or something more recent like One Punch Man, another show I have no interest in. These are shows that entered the general anime lexicon and became shows that are synonymous with anime itself, but that's just another extreme side of the spectrum because most anime series aren't on that level either. Those are extreme edge cases that occur once all the stars align every few years. In that sense, what I mean to say is somebody saying Utena is niche or whathaveyou is like me saying Spice and Wolf is equally niche, because anime fans tend to be insular and only stick to small subsections of the medium, and so a person could watch 1000 shows and still never watch Evangelion because the amount of anime out there is vast. Believe it or not, there's people out there whom love anime and have never seen Evangelion. MAL is a small sub-pocket of anime fans but only 317,885 users on the site have completed Eva, 53,299 users have completed Ping Pong and in comparison to bring it all back 207,407 users have completed Spice and Wolf. Now of course MAL is MAL and MAL means nothing, Evangelion is huge, but did you know that Bakemonogatari is behind it as the second best selling anime series in Japan? And as a whole series, it might not be that far behind. (296,337 users have competed Bakemonogatari on MAL)
Franchise Average sales (initial release + re-releases). (in ranked order)
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  1. Neon Genesis Evangelion - 197,453
  2. Bakemonogatari - 112,434
  3. Gundam SEED DESTINY - 93,271
  4. Gundam SEED - 87,280
  5. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica - 84,257
  6. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu - 77,715
  7. Code Geass Hangyaku no Lelouch - 75,575
  8. Love Live! 2nd Season - 65,796
  9. Nisemonogatari - 65,043
  10. Macross Frontier - 62,503
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- The above numbers (outside of Eva) are from shows released after the year 2000 since that's when Oricon started tracking. Evangelion numbers aren't 100% due to the age of the series, naturally.

My main point is, perspective is always skewed depending on where you look. Evangelion is huge, the biggest anime franchise by a huge margin in fact, but its very much escapable. I've seen Pokemon, Digimon, all the Ghibli films, the first season of Bleach, Yu-Gi-Oh, Shaman King, Medabots, Sailor Moon, because I've watched anime for all my life (that sounds sadder than I intended) but I won't deny that the shows I watch now are a little more niche than those, but not to the degree that they're hidden gems, because as far as I'm concerned they're in plain sight. I don't intend to be a contrarian for the sake of being a contrarian either, I just watch whatever my eye catches.
 
I suppose my knowledge on older shows gained via osmosis goes to show that perhaps, as a general whole, the anime community, or at least the pockets I've been to, aren't quite as well versed on older shows as recent ones. To me, saying Spice and Wolf is niche sounds nuts, because it's something I've almost always been aware of and I thought was a really popular show. Not to the level of AoT or Death Note, as you say, those are incredibly rare, but despite the fact you couldn't wander into HMV and pick up a Spice and Wolf poster, I wouldn't ever suggest it's niche. You could say the same for stuff like Madoka, Fate/Zero, Monogatari, K-On, Code Geass, etc, all popular shows that aren't exactly mainstream enough for non-anime fans to pay attention to, but I think even your more casual fan, as in, knows more than just Death Note and Attack on Titan, would at least be aware of shows such as the ones I mentioned, but I think something like Utena would be far less likely to get name recognition amongst fans. I suppose it is down to perspective, as you say, and what you're exposed to.
 
So today I have been streaming on Crunchy and decided to watch Gate which turned out to be a fantastic decision as it was amazing. Premise rocked and was handled realistically (as much as a gate to another world can be of course) the character's were great... and we got a main character around my age for once not a teen... the girls were fab, especially Rory and Leilei, and the supporting cast were winners too. It was real edge of the seat couldn't stop watching stuff, nine out of ten easy.

The only downside is I'm now going to have to buy that Rory Mercury figure as I need her in my life (cabinet anyway heh)
 
Taboo Tattoo - complete - Utter crap, avoid at all costs (please no season 2) 3/10

Psycho pass season 2 - Complete -Let down buy poor writing and over use of violence to hide it. Also the villain sucks. 6/10
 
My Hero Academia - Episodes 01-13 (Complete)
A good, if unremarkable, adaptation of an excellent manga. Aside from some questionable pacing decisions at the start, there's nothing wrong with it or that I could criticise, but there's not much I could highlight that isn't really par for the course with this type of show, especially from Bones. Given how exciting and lively the manga is, Bones' adaptation is kinda tepid and dull. The excitement and almost child-like nature the manga inspires in me is my favourite part of My Hero Academia, so for the anime to miss out on that is really disappointing. I would personally rather they'd gone less for a panel-by-panel copy of the manga and instead chased after that tone, but given many anime fan's instance on direct copies, I'm probably the only one.

On the plus side, it does have a weird obsession with random shots of people's trainers, and bizarrely overfrequent use of the phrase "plus ultra!" (which to my great surprise is in fact not Latin for "Buy Merch!" :p).


There is a bit of a weird plot hole in episode 10. The first villain says they were expecting Thirteen, All Might and Eraser Head to be there, but a few minutes later one of his goons then says they were only expecting Thirteen and All Might, and they weren't expecting Erased Head. It's a little weird that they wouldn't tell their goons about him, given he can erase quirks, no? Also, they do go a few episodes conveniently ignoring the fact Izuku seemingly breaks a couple of his fingers whilst escaping the shipwreck, ignoring it or only mentioning other injuries, only to show it in a bandage in one of the final shots. There's nothing major about either, but I was disappointed to see them drop the ball like that. :(
 
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Yeah, even though people raved about it, I wasn't overly fussed about the anime version either - mainly due to the slow pacing. I believe the first cour of the show only covers around 2.5 volumes of the manga?

When I first saw the manga was debuting in WSJ, my first impressions weren't that great - I thought it looked like a kids version of One Punch Man or Tiger & Bunny, but on picking up the collected volumes over the summer holiday, I really got into it. The author clearly has real skill as both an artist and writer, and injects some real emotional heart and verve into the story of a kind I haven't really seen since the hey-days of Naruto, Hunter x Hunter etc. - and I dunno, something seemed to be missing in the translation over into the anime.
 
Lutga said:
Yeah, even though people raved about it, I wasn't overly fussed about the anime version either - mainly due to the slow pacing. I believe the first cour of the show only covers around 2.5 volumes of the manga?

When I first saw the manga was debuting in WSJ, my first impressions weren't that great - I thought it looked like a kids version of One Punch Man or Tiger & Bunny, but on picking up the collected volumes over the summer holiday, I really got into it. The author clearly has real skill as both an artist and writer, and injects some real emotional heart and verve into the story of a kind I haven't really seen since the hey-days of Naruto, Hunter x Hunter etc. - and I dunno, something seemed to be missing in the translation over into the anime.
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Yeah, 2.5 volumes is about right. I can handle slow, I'm a World Trigger fan. It's just that World Trigger is purposefully slow, whereas My Hero Academia's slow pacing isn't what Kohei Horikoshi was going for. He made something exciting and lively and Bones didn't.

If I'm being really honest, I kind of get the impression that Bones would have basically made the same show for any other Shonen Jump series. I enjoyed it, it's a good show, but I wanted something more than that, and I feel like another studio might have been able to get something more out of that manga.
 
thedoctor2016 said:
Only 2.5 vols oh it must have slow paced, I will have to try the manga eventually I just delayed it cos of the second season annoucement.
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I would read at least the arc after the anime ends. I don't think you want a slow version of that arc at least. (I didn't reach much further past that, because Viz are really slow with the volumes. Sobs.)
 
Food Wars! The Second Plate episode 12.
Re:Zero episode 25. (finished)

Enjoyed Re:Zero, very good series.

Unless I missed something I still would like to know why Subaru was brought to another world.

Joe said:
Re:Zero Episode 25.

Now that sure was the ending of an anime that doesn't know if it's getting a second season. A good place to end though. The decision to leave out the cliffhanger that immediately follows that last scene was the correct one.
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What is this cliffhanger you speak of?
 
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