My anime crew?

[Haruki]

I think there is a kind of 'collective karma' experienced by those who watch dubbed anime. Some years ago, for various reasons, I had trouble with my eyesight and couldn't read the subtitles quick enough so I watched dubs; people online, on MMO's and forums, gave me a hard time about it. So I understand the feeling and it's natural to want to 'prove your case' on the issue. We can all respect each other here though, so it's of no consequence.

Someone who gets it!  You put it in words I wouldn't have thought of.  Thank you.  ^_^  *huggles*

Though let us move onwards.  We're here for one common thing.....we all enjoy and <3 anime.

As for what I'd want to follow first, I'll have to get back on that one.....late and needing to catch Z's.

[Haibane]

Durarara!! Bakemonogatari or Sayonara~.

Should we put it to a vote?

What genre and themes do Durarara!! and Sayonara cover?

[Caeli]

Durarara!! is listed as action, psychological, romance, and supernatural, and covers themes of "Dullahan, Gangs, and social-networking."

Ryūgamine Mikado is a boy who longs for the exciting life of the big city. At the invitation of his childhood friend Masaomi, he transfers to a school in Ikebukuro. Masaomi has warned him about people he doesn't want to cross in the city: a champion fighter, an informant, and a mysterious gang called "Dollars." Nervous from Masaomi's stories, Mikado witnesses an urban legend on his first day in the city, the Headless Rider astride a black motorcycle. From then on, the existence of supernatural cases and a gang called the Yellow Scarves will rise to the surface, and Ikebukuro will pushed to the breaking point.

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei is listed as comedy, drama, and slice of life, with themes of dark comedy, harem, parody, satire, school, and suicide.

Itoshiki Nozomu is the world's most negative person. To his way of thinking, there is no hope or meaning in this existence. Even the three kanji of his name become the two-kanji word zetsubou, "despair", when compressed. What an ironic twist of fate, then, that he becomes teacher to a class containing his precise opposite, the invincibly positive-minded Fuura Kafuka.

Bakemonogatari is listed as "action, comedy, mystery, psychological, romance, slice of life, and supernatural" with themes of "absurdity, dark comedy, ecchi, fanservice, harem, magic and occult, spirits, and vampires."

Although there are still traces of the brief period he became a vampire, third year high school student Koyomi Araragi is human again. He happens upon others with their own supernatural problems and finds that he can empathize. Koyomi becomes involved in their lives, seeking to help them and occasionally asking for advice from Meme Oshino, the homeless man who helped him become human again.

[Major Major]

I have my own mighty collection where I live, and there's a few others out in the main room. I'll try and list off the anime and manga I have, but it might take some time:

Strike Witches
Ah! My Goddess
Love Hina
Great Teacher Onizuka
Negima
Please Teacher!
Please Twins!
Ranma 1/2
Full Metal Panic
Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu
Full Metal Alchemist
Azumanga Daioh
Midori Days
You're Under Arrest! (The movie)
Excel Saga
Vandread
El-Hazard: The Magnificent World
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor
Steel Angel Kurumi
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
Tenchi Muyo!
The Slayers
A.I. Love You (the manga)
Birdy the Mighty: Decode
Axis Powers Hetalia
Planetes
Robotech
Star Blazers

There may be others, but I'd need to look for them.

[Haibane]

Durarara!! is listed as action, psychological, romance, and supernatural, and covers themes of "Dullahan, Gangs, and social-networking."

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei is listed as comedy, drama, and slice of life, with themes of dark comedy, harem, parody, satire, school, and suicide.

Bakemonogatari is listed as "action, comedy, mystery, psychological, romance, slice of life, and supernatural" with themes of "absurdity, dark comedy, ecchi, fanservice, harem, magic and occult, spirits, and vampires."

Caeli, thanks!

I notice that Durarara!! is 25 episodes, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei is 12 episodes (in the first series plus loads of other stuff later) and Bakemonogatari is 12 +3 webisodes.

I think, for our first discussion, we should go for one of the two shorter ones. I've seen Bakemonogatari a few times so my vote goes for Sayonara~

[wouldjakoindly]

Pokemon, Digimon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Dragonball Z, which evolved into One Piece and Shaman King, which evolved into Fullmetal Alchemist, which evolved into anything by the godly hands of Naoki Urasawa.

Yeah, pretty big anime (well, manga) fan here. (:
Though I have to say, my love right now is totally for American comics (Batman in particular).

As it is, I only stick to shounen, the less romance the better. Battle Royale was alright, Gyo and Uzumaki freaking amazing, and Worst!, which is about an all-boy's high school and has LOTS of yankee/bansho type guys (what we'd call greasers in America, sort of), and all of them are always fighting. Mmmmmmmm, pomadorssssss.

[Haruki]

It's too bad, Japanese often just don't know how to grasp romance very well.  More often than not, it comes across as lacking.

Same thing happens in American / Western works too, but it seems to be more glaringly bad in manga / anime.  As such, I'm none too surprised.

I used to be one who 'had' to have a romantic angle in anything I was looking to get into, anime-wise.  Trouble is, it got me into some series that, I admit nowadays, I can't help but be just slightly embarrassed to having in my collection.  Lots of rather mediocre 'harem' type series and 'puppy love' situations in shoujo works.  Watching stuff like 'Fruits Basket' (which didn't focus on romance as much as I felt it would at first......probably being a reverse-harem helped), and moreso, 'The Twelve Kingdoms', literally changed my mind and got me looking for deeper, more mature plotlines and characters.

Oftentimes, for that, you sacrifice other aspects.....romance and slapstick comedy are the biggest sacrifices, but these days I'll take something that'll last and have me wanting to rewatch a dozen times over, than something that may be good the first time, but every time thereafter, there's nothing left to discuss or question within the plot.

As for a pick for our viewing / discussion, I'd probably aim for the shorter titles.

[Caeli]

For the discussion, I'd like to vote for Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei. Maybe after we finish that title, we can do Bakemonogatari? :)

Also, once we settle on a title, would anyone be opposed if I created a new topic for the group/discussion? xD I have the perfect title in mind for the thread.

[Haruki]

Good idea to make a new thread of course.  I wonder what title you have in mind?  Or are you going to be all sneaky and secretive with it and not reveal until it's made?  :P

[Caeli]

Precisely. ;D

[Chris Brady]

It's too bad, Japanese often just don't know how to grasp romance very well.  More often than not, it comes across as lacking.

Incorrect, they have a differing view of romance.  CLAMP is one of the few Anime/Manga crew that refuse to share the aversion to touching that was common in the early days of Japanese culture.  Also, one of the big tropes is that any of the main leads either kiss (or outright have sex, as in a 'fade to black') one or the other is going to die, likely horribly.  The Japanese thrive on failure and tragedy, their entire 'code of Bushido' is set up for it.  It's impossible to live up to, but because they know they can't they do so.  Outside of Shoujo, very few will have happy 'endings' of any sort.  It's sort of changing now, but they have a long way to go with it.

Too Long Didn't Read version:

It's not they don't know Romance, it's just they have a different ideal of it, one that isn't very Western.

[Haruki]

Incorrect, they have a differing view of romance.  CLAMP is one of the few Anime/Manga crew that refuse to share the aversion to touching that was common in the early days of Japanese culture.  Also, one of the big tropes is that any of the main leads either kiss (or outright have sex, as in a 'fade to black') one or the other is going to die, likely horribly.  The Japanese thrive on failure and tragedy, their entire 'code of Bushido' is set up for it.  It's impossible to live up to, but because they know they can't they do so.  Outside of Shoujo, very few will have happy 'endings' of any sort.  It's sort of changing now, but they have a long way to go with it.

Too Long Didn't Read version:

It's not they don't know Romance, it's just they have a different ideal of it, one that isn't very Western.

I was about to actually backpedal on my earlier comments, because I was thinking about this, and what you put forth took the words out of my mind.

I'm rusty on this stuff these days.  I used to know all this stuff off the back of my hand.  Thanks.

[Haibane]

I agree with Chris that anime is full of romance. It's everywhere! Male+female (or for other genres; person+person of whatever gender your market wants) is the biggest single driving force in human existence and every culture has countless stories that centre around it. Of the anime I favour I find it hard to actually think of any that don't include it, at least as a sub-theme. Heck, even series like BECK whose main focus was elsewhere had a really rich and subtle romance sub-plot that while it didn't get much screen time pulled at my heartstrings it was so well done. Even the series about that madcap crazy goddess Haruhi Suzumiya has, underneath in there, a romance thread. Whenever boy and girl come together, there's potential for it.

I agree Caeli, a group discussion thread separate from this would be a good idea. There might even be scope to talk to the Elliquiy Herald team and see if some of the best posts that come out of our talks might not go in there as a blog type feature. Our discussion group might even be counted as a form of blog... thoughts on that?

[Caeli]

I've already notified BeMi that I'll be writing an article about the formation of this anime discussion group in the next issue (to be released late February) of the H&P. :) It would be pretty awesome, actually, if we condensed or summarized some of the discussions about the series to be published as articles as well. That's something we can definitely talk about as our discussions take place, and we can also discuss possible formatting, length, and so on. Or to go a simpler route, a couple of people can volunteer to write short articles/reviews of the anime, giving general overviews and a star/tomato/number rating.

[Koibito]

I started a cool little deal here. If we do that club idea I highly suggest we read shounen. It seems nearly everyone here is about the obscure shoujo/small stuff and I think reading (not even new) shounen heavy action big time stuff. I may sound like a broken record but stuff like Saint Seiya, D. Gray-Man, One Piece, stuff that doesn't really seem like the stuff that everyone on this thread is posting about so that there's more variety. Of course nothing against what anyone likes, it's just a suggestion ^^

[Tiaan]

I think it's more the length of the series than that no one wants to use them for the club. We'd need to start at the beginning for the benefit of anyone who hasn't seen them, and going back to the beginning of One Piece, for example, is quite a daunting prospect! No reason fans of the big action, ongoing anime can't have their own discussion thread too? Personally, I gave up on One Piece at about episode 50 and am still at episode one-hundred-and-something of Bleach. Both good series though.

The idea here was to make something we can watch together, in its entirety and discuss it, before moving on to something new :-)

[Haibane]

Yes, if we pick a monster series we will have people lose interest and drop away. I have had exactly that experience before in an anime club on a forum. We decided to go for a half-season show, something around 11-13 episodes in its entirety to begin with. Also, sprinkling in films now and again.

[Koibito]

Ah. Well I'll join but I can't say I'll participate until it's shounen. No offense to those into it but I don't like shoujo, I got into anime for action and stuff and that's what I like. I've tried other types and they don't interest me.

[Haruki]

Yeah, shorter series typically work better in a gathering / discussion format, plus it gets people interested in those series they may otherwise be missing.  Almost everyone knows and already follows the big name shounen titles.....it's the most popular genre of anime besides the ecchi/hentai stuff.  I like the earlier Naruto series (canon eps anyways) as much as the next person, but most people already know and the die-hard fans of it still follow Shippuden to this day.

Shorter shounen series.....probably have to look into what's called 'seinen' then.  I'm thinking of titles like Eden of the East for an example.  Short, packed with plot, and seems to be aimed at a male audience, or movies like Akira or Ghost in the Shell (the movie and its various TV spinoffs).

What I'm going to like most about this online club idea is that it's with adults, able to hold a more engaging discussion about the finer details of what we're watching, rather than just blatant fan-boying/girling over characters and such that I typically find at other forums

@ Haibane:  Yes, I recall that from BECK.  It didn't get much time, as you said, but there was clearly a romantic interest there between a couple of the characters that I easily noticed.  I find romance works better (in anything really, never mind just anime) when it's more of a sub-plot.  It's allowed more subtle moments and those tug at the heart more than outright displays for me.

[Haibane]

Ah. Well I'll join but I can't say I'll participate until it's shounen. No offense to those into it but I don't like shoujo, I got into anime for action and stuff and that's what I like. I've tried other types and they don't interest me.

That's fine and everyone here will respect your opinion - mine is the opposite - I'll watch almost anything but shounen, although some of it I like. My understanding is that the actual anime club discussion will be on a seperate thread and general anime/manga chat will be here so you won't have to flip past posts you are not interested in and if you want to natter about anything at all related to the subject, feel free!

Shorter shounen series.....probably have to look into what's called 'seinen' then.  I'm thinking of titles like Eden of the East for an example.  Short, packed with plot, and seems to be aimed at a male audience, or movies like Akira or Ghost in the Shell (the movie and its various TV spinoffs).

Mmm, yes, in that case seinen works for me too :D Eden of the East was spectacular. I only finished watching it a few days ago, loved it from start to finish. The use of CGI in anime is getting very slick and pretty high quality now. Romance in there as well, at least a little, and heck, if you can say there is romance between cyborgs it was present in Ghost in the Shell too (the first two movies at least) ;)

[Tiaan]

Shounen, shoujo, seinen, josei are just target market audiences anyway; like a radio station will target it's music to listeners of a certain age and demographic - doesn't mean they'll play the same genre of music all day!

Although I am really interested in the series we mentioned so far for this club, I am quite looking forward to watching something later on that I wouldn't normally pick, to experience something new. You should join Koibato, you might find something you really like!

[Caeli]

Strictly speaking, Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei isn't a shojo series - it's slice of life, and it was originally serialized as a manga in Weekly Shonen Magazine, so its audience is less gender-biased. I know that Durarara!! is also fairly action-oriented, so even if it's not guns-blazing-ninjas-fighting-ten-minute-long-battle-scenes type of action, it might be something you could give a try.

I know you said that you like action anime and you don't really like other stuff, but book clubs/film clubs/whatever clubs are also good opportunities to try out series you might not normally try because of the genre they fall under. Obviously, if you really found it a trial to go through more than a couple 20-minute episodes, I'm not saying you'd have to go through with watching the whole series... but since you have a distinctly different genre preference, your insights during any resulting dialogue could give a lot of flavor to the discussions.

Also, it would be silly for us to stick to one genre. As demonstrated, many of us have watched and enjoyed a huge variety of anime, so it would make sense to switch up genres. I think Haruki's suggestions to watch Eden of the East in the future is a good suggestion - I've heard only good things about the series.

By the way, I just put up the discussion group thread, here.

[Tiaan]

Thank you for setting up the thread Caeli~

[TentacleFan]

*sees an Anime thread and pokes my head in*

Hello fellow anime fans. I'm a big time collector myself with way too much on my overloaded shelves to list it all. I'll just list some of my personal faves from my collection. I do like a fairly diverse selection of titles rather than sticking to the shonnen, shoujo, seinen, josei, etc categories.

A smattering of faves :
Series or Movies
Neon Genesis Evangelion
FLCL
Nadia
Ghost In The Shell (The 1st movie and Stand Alone Complex both seasons)
Eden of the East
Akira
Summer Wars
Lupin III
Last Exile
Cowboy Bebop
Outlaw Star
Full Metal Panic
Bleach
Speedgrapher
Gunbuster
Ranma 1/2
Godannar
Fushigi Yugi

There's tons more where that comes from but that's a good start.

I'm not necessarily going to take part in the anime club thread (good luck and have fun to those that do) But I'm always up for general anime discussion.

[Tiaan]

Hello TentacleFan! Welcome to the thread. There are a lot of series on your list that I've enjoyed. If you had to pick only one to be your favourite which would it be? Don't choose any of the ongoing series like Bleach etc.! Maybe something that you watched while something big was happening in your life and which brings you find memories of that time?

For me it's Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It was on for around 15 months while I was going through some really life changing stuff; as well as being a great series it reminds me of what I overcame! It made me cry and laugh and gave me goose pimples, usually one or all of those in every episode!