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Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Eps 1-5 (rewatch)

My boxset came so i'm giving this a rewatch. It's nice to revisit it knowing what's coming up actually. Will take my time with this as I've got a lot of new series to get through.

His And Her Circumstances (Kare Kano) Eps 1-3

This is interesting. I'm not sure why but when I read about the series I thought it'd be quite a slow romance anime. It's rather hyper and has a lot of comedy. And yet i'm strangely addicted and I can't say why. I can see this sticking inside my dvd player for a while.

Darker Than Black Eps 1-2 (rewatch)

I watched this when it first came out online but dropped it around ep 7 to try and cut back on what I was watching. So it's nice to be able to finish watching it on dvd. Looking forward to seeing newer eps that I've yet to watch.
 
Darker Than Black 1&2
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Darker Than Black starts out in a pretty standard way, for the genre that it is, but soon transcends expectations and delivers enough titbits to stimulate the grey matter (yet not overwhelm the viewer) and be immediately accessible. Set ten years in the past, where an abnormality has appeared in Tokyo called Hell’s Gate, and Contractors (people with special abilities, that can be used at a cost) have emerged.

One of the most striking things about Darker Than Black is the character design by Yuji Iwahara (King of Thorn); which can be striking yet subtle. The double disc set starts out very strongly, with three very immediately accessible story arcs, which serve as a great entry into the series. The first arc (‘The Fallen Star of a Contract’) is a particular highlight, as (the main character) Hei’s social limitations are exploited resulting in the perfect introduction to the world, and the changes to not just the landscape caused by Hell’s Gate but the inhabitants.

The following two arcs (‘A New Star Shines in the Dawn Sky’ and Red Giant over Eastern Europe) follow on from the first, setting up further intricacies of the world, while introducing new characters and fleshing out existing characters. They serve to continue to add to the viewers’ knowledge base while also building elements to be further explored in the future.

The last two arcs on second disc (‘The Scent of Gardenias Lingers in the Summer Rain’ and ‘The White Dress, Stained with the Girl’s Dreams and Blood’) are told in a fresh way, by positioning the main characters outside of the immediate story, which works very well for ‘The Scent of Gardenias Lingers in the Summer Rain’ thanks to a tone shift which provides a welcome comedic twist, and helps to give a broader more ranged dynamic to the series. A sharp script and hugely hilarious concept helps to stop this tone change from being too dramatic a shift and works very well.

However the last story arc on the disc, ‘The White Dress, Stained with the Girl’s Dreams and Blood’ suffers from quality issues. While returning the tone to a more similar style of the first three arcs, it sadly suffers from terrible animation (most especially episode 9), a shoddy story with gaping plot holes that distance the viewer from the action. It’s very hard to believe that Yuji Iwahara had anything to do with the dire designs of the new characters introduced. The arc picks up slightly in episode 10, but the ensuing climax lacks any kind of crescendo (I was hoping to see Hei’s Knives be thrown to cut through VI-952’s fingers as he was about to click them, seemed like the perfect crescendo to the action to me).

Despite the quality drop in the last arc on this double disc set, the series is without a doubt one deserving a place in everyone’s collection, and Manga Entertainment’s release is very faithful to the US version (or Manga’s reproduction of Madman’s faithful release of the US version? Sheesh it’s complicated!), but released in 3 double disc sets, which can be found for fantastic prices online. The picture quality is superb, especially if you’re watching it on a Blu-Ray player, which upscales it!

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8/10.
 
I have completed Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai!! Finished last night in a last 5 episode dash to the finish. Gotta say I wasn't disapointed. The series was highly entertaining and a story line that wasn't half arsed. Characters were loveable, which made it harder to see the get slaughtered continuesly. I don't think the third season will be able to top this but have still got it planned to be watched somewhere down the line.
One thing I may have changed to the story line... I wouldn't have minded seeing Miyo suffer a horrible death at the end... but then I guess I'm just sadistic that way.
:twisted:
7/10 :thumb:
 
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Dracos said:
Finished off the Twelve Kingdoms box set. What a series. At times it can be a little slow with a bit too much recapping and exposition, but there is very little else to fault it over. I just want more of it as there are several characters whose stories were not played out.
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Glad you manage to see why i love this series so much.

ilmaestro said:
Are you buying the books, too?
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I'm buying them and for some reason, it seems that book three is OOP already as its price keeps going up and up everytime I check. Amazon has no stock of it for a while as well.

Voddas said:
I have completed Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai!! Finished last night in a last 5 episode dash to the finish. Gotta say I wasn't disapointed. The series was highly entertaining and a story line that wasn't half arsed. Characters were loveable, which made it harder to see the get slaughtered continuesly. I don't think the third season will be able to top this but have still got it planned to be watched somewhere down the line.
One thing I may have changed to the story line... I wouldn't have minded seeing Miyo suffer a horrible death at the end... but then I guess I'm just sadistic that way.
:twisted:
7/10 :thumb:
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Only 7? come on, i know you want to give it a better rating =)
I must agree with everything you put over there, except for your rate.

I think that the complicated storytelling was the main hook for me, which actually made me rate higurashi higher.
 
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SaiKano sort of put me off watching anime for a week, so after burning through I decided to man up and start Turn A Gundam. My God, it took me two years to actually watch this.
 
chaos said:
Only 7? come on, i know you want to give it a better rating =)
I must agree with everything you put over there, except for your rate.

I think that the complicated storytelling was the main hook for me, which actually made me rate higurashi higher.
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Fine *changes to 8* :D

I want to rate it higher but was trying not to get too excited. To be honest I rate all the anime's I watch rather high. Looking back at them, I haven't ghiven myself much of a scale to go off. Guess I love my anime too much.

;)
Lupus said:
SaiKano sort of put me off watching anime for a week.
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Not a popular anime to say the least but I have seen much worse. I enjoyed it for the way it was so depressing. Think me carzy but I find it mildly entertaing how the story line starts on a high and gets worse and worse. Everyone Even dies in the end! I loved it. lol
 
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Nurse Witch Komugi - 7/10
Reminds me of Puni Puni Poemy in its nonsense comedy style.

Kitaro - 4/10
Bad live action adaptation of a 70's manga series, which supposedly is still popular in Japan.
 
chaos said:
Kitaro - 4/10
Bad live action adaptation of a 70's manga series, which supposedly is still popular in Japan.
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Really? Shame, I was actually interested in it.

Anyway, I caught up on Guin Saga, Bakemonogatari and... =Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, due to constant changing in scenes and what had happened to Yuki, I believed he was alive, b-but...
 
Lupin the Third: The Secret of Mamo - 9/10

My second encounter with the great thief himself and it wasn't a let down either even though it is the better part of 30 years old. Thoroughly enjoyable and good fun i think, music was brilliant too and just seemed to fit perfectly for the show. I kinda wish we still got stuff like this about more often nowadays but i guess that won't happen. Still, there is a ton of Lupin shows to go through still, so i just have to choose where next to look.
 
Slayers 1-10

I've never been that sure of Slayers - After watching the first film and some of the OVAs It struck me as something which should be brilliant but didn't quite live up to my expectations. Not to say that it's in any way bad, it just seems to fall a little short, especially for what I'd expect of a fantasy themed anime starring Megumi Hayashibara (who does a brilliant job as always, and was born to play Lina).

After watching the first TV story arc I'm cautiously optimistic for the rest of the series'. It had all the right ingredients - The characters are great and the plot was sound, if pretty predictable and clichéd (if you've ever played a fantasy RPG or read a fantasy novel, you know it). It just needs a little polishing which hopefully will come with time. I did often find myself switching off during the fight scenes, but that's probably not a fair criticism as I tend to do that anyway.
 
Lupus said:
chaos said:
Kitaro - 4/10
Bad live action adaptation of a 70's manga series, which supposedly is still popular in Japan.
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Really? Shame, I was actually interested in it.
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I'm no fan of rubber monsters, I've sit thorugh it and it didnt'make me sleep, that should be something maybe?
 
Up to episode 50 of Legend of the Galactic Heroes and it's really awesome but can be pretty boring sometimes. I imagine even the most hardcore LotGH fans admit that the abundance of dialouge can get boring when it's the third straight episode of just talk with nothing resembling action happening. Still, it's definitely a series I'm going to stick with and definitely something I'm enjoying most of the time :]

Also trying to catch up with FMA: Brotherhood. Up as far as episode 12 now and it's basically just the exact same as what happening in the original series so it's not as compelling as it was the first time around, obviously. I really thought episode 12 with their mentor Izumi tugged on the heart strings a little which is what I expect from FMA.
 
On XXXholic season one (watching with the wife), and rewatching Last exile, also Valkyria Chronicles on FS though i'm really disappointed as the game is far better.
 
Beck 11-18 (volumes 3 & 4).

In the orginal Japanese version, several characters speak fluent (or near enough) English. Why, then, are the song lyrics so bad?

Large lips in the motion
Trying to keep blaming on
As I say reason I'm late on
Find you turning
Laughing and smiling
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STOP MANGLING MY LANGUAGE, JAPAN.
 
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