Anime

[wander]

Batman would be more like a Ninja if going by the version he got training from the League of Assassins, which could be ported as a ninja clan, where you could have R'as al Ghul as a Daimyo or even better, like the Shadow Yagyu head from Lone Wolf and Cub.

[Haruki]

Did a little splurge of anime buying as I do around this time of year when all the sales are going on.  A few catalog titles, one newer-ish one, and some things I missed over the years.  I like to mix it up when I go on these buying sprees twice a year.

• Scrapped Princess

(Missed this years ago when it came out, so I'm glad to finally have it in my collection and to finally be able to see it.)

• Snow White W/ the Red Hair

(The new'ish one I got.  Watched S1 of this via streaming.  Decided to skip streaming S2 because i loved this show so much, I figured I'd just buy both outright.)

• .hack//SIGN

(I saw this on Saturday evenings on Cartoon Network back in '03 or so...but at a bad point in the series.  Finally will see the whole thing.)

• .hack//Legend of the Twilight

(figured if I got SIGN, I may as well get its companion series and call it complete...from what I read, they were the peak of this franchise's anime output.)

• Martian Successor Nadesico

(Oldie from ADV's days when 'Evangelion' TV was their top dog.  I figured, while not into sci-fi or mecha, something with a comedy element would get me to enjoy such genres more).

• The Devil is a Part-Timer

(More comedy to go with the above.  I try to get a few in the general comedy genre.)

• Record of Lodoss War

(I got the set that also includes the TV series.  The OAV series is what I'm after here; the old DVDs used videotape masters and it shows....it looks bad with modern equipment.  They went back to the film elements for the update to BluRay disc, so the new HD remaster should look quite nice.  Getting the TV series is basically like one big 'bonus feature'.)

I asked for Fruits Basket (on BluRay) for a gift this Christmas.  Not sure if I'll get it, but we'll see.  This and Lodoss are updates from my very old DVDs that frankly, look rather awful on my setup.

Other titles I had to shelve but will get at a later time, I learned of another I may check out in the future, Kids On The Slope, and Marmalade Boy was a show I wanted to see back in the mid '00s, but the sets were hard to find and expensive.  I also was going to get Cardcaptor Sakura on BluRay, but I have read countless reviews that NIS did a terrible job with the subtitling compared against the old Nelvana/Pioneer Japanese-only DVDs I have.  A terrible shame, what with the new anime coming next month.  Can't win 'em all I guess.



I also find it odd (but not surprising) how anime and pop culture in general sometimes mix up the whole ninja / samurai thing, especially when some project comes Stateside.  My gateway anime, Samurai Pizza Cats in its original Japanese, is a show featuring anthropomorphic cats who clearly battle in a ninja style not dissimilar to the battles found in contemporary series like Naruto, where as we know, true samurai were typically made up of the wealthy noblemen.  Ninja were more within the lower classes, typically mercenaries and assassins.  Aside from basically ad-libbing the whole thing in its (more famous) English version, they decided 'samurai' just sounded cooler I guess...more 'ring' in the series title so to speak.

[Yukina]

I definitely recommend you see Kids on the Slope/Sakamichi No Apollon when you can then, Haruki. :)

[Haruki]

I definitely recommend you see Kids on the Slope/Sakamichi No Apollon when you can then, Haruki. :)

I have this other anime about some young people getting a band together that's also good called Mongolian Chop Squad, so I had figured that one would also be worth a watch.

[wander]

Dunno if you've seen Martian Successor Nadesico or The Devil is a Part-Timer yet, though both of these are amazing series in their own right, let alone just great comedies.

As for more fuel for the Ninja/Samurai thing, back when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had it's cartoon in the late 80s and 90s, over here in Britland they changed it's title to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and edited the OP accordingly to fit the new title. The tv censors decided the word 'Ninja' was violent and villianous and no good for a kid's cartoon.

[Haruki]

Dunno if you've seen Martian Successor Nadesico or The Devil is a Part-Timer yet, though both of these are amazing series in their own right, let alone just great comedies.

As for more fuel for the Ninja/Samurai thing, back when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had it's cartoon in the late 80s and 90s, over here in Britland they changed it's title to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and edited the OP accordingly to fit the new title. The tv censors decided the word 'Ninja' was violent and villianous and no good for a kid's cartoon.

I always find censorship standards between Japan, us here in the U.S. and other countries like the general U.K. region, interesting.  The 1980s/1990s especially made for some choices that some would find odd.  With streaming services more and more popular here in the U.S. and starting to finally catch on (slowly but surely) in Japan and the UK, content creators have been going all-out when it comes to pushing the envelope.  It'll be interesting to see how they react.

Anime has always been known for being violent and featuring fanservice.  That hasn't changed and won't at least in the foreseeable future.

[Caeli]

One thing I really appreciate about a lot of anime, especially the best ones, is they have GREAT music.  Not just the background music, but also the OP and ED songs.

I'm currently re-watching Full Metal Alchemist, and I was reminded of how much I love this song by Chemistry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAUPnWbrfV8

[yugi006]

That song is so great. If you enjoy Chemistry this is a recent one they did for an anime called Shoukoku no Altair.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=U8notIVTa_U

[Avalon29]

I have to agree. There's some anime that just have amazing opening and ending songs.

The original opening from Genesis of Aquarion was stuck in my head for the longest time. The link has both the original opening song and the English version they sometimes sang during the second season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTiCg_5CZDI

One of the others that really stuck out to me was  Hikari no Uta one of the insert songs in Cross Ange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iajsQDK-wnU

While we're on the subject of anime songs does anybody else listen to LeeandLie's stuff? She does English dubs of anime and video game songs and I think she's really good.

[Avalon29]

Anybody know if Ancient Magus’ Bride is going to be a 12-13 episode seies or a 25 episode series?

[Caeli]

According to Wikipedia it's supposed to be a 24-episode season.

[Avalon29]

Well I’m certainly happy to hear at least that much is planned. I’m liking it a lot.

[Haruki]

They extended Magus' Bride through the Winter 2018 (January) season, so yes, it's been extended.  That show seems to be proving popular on both sides of the Pacific, so I'm not shocked.  I'm catching up slowly with it....and it's proving to be an interesting story.  Happy that they're going to let it have some breathing room to explore the characters and world further.

[QTgirl]

Woo hoo! I've been reading the manga because I've been so stoked about Ancient Magus' Bride. Nice that it's gonna go on for so long.

Also, hello.

Anybody else have trouble trying to figure out which anime to watch and getting split between like a dozen?

[SithLordOfSnark]

Woo hoo! I've been reading the manga because I've been so stoked about Ancient Magus' Bride. Nice that it's gonna go on for so long.

Also, hello.

Anybody else have trouble trying to figure out which anime to watch and getting split between like a dozen?

I have so many Anime series' on my Netflix list and I'm not even sure where to start.

[Haruki]

Anybody else have trouble trying to figure out which anime to watch and getting split between like a dozen?

Between my Netflix & FunimationNow queues and the anime on physical (BluRay / DVD) mediums that I still have to catch up on along with what I just bought as a little Christmas gift to myself, I'm easily always putting too much on my plate.  You're definitely not alone.

[Caeli]

I have a lot of series wishlisted on crunchyroll right now! Definitely wish I had more time to watch - many of these series came highly recommended to me.

[Avalon29]

So with the fall anime season coming to an end with most series either this week or next week did anybody have any anime that surprised them or surpassed their expectations?

Konohana Kitan was one of those for me. I expected a simple show about fox girls working at a hot spring inn that I would laugh at a few times but it managed to hit me in the warm and fuzzies in a good way quite a few times over the course of the season. I really enjoyed it.

[Wyldeviolet]

I've got Animelab app on my PlayStation.... I have far to many Animes on my 'to be watched' list.

[Sain]

For me Magician's Bride was a pleasant surprise. I thought that for sure they would fail to capture the feeling of the manga, but I think for the most part the adaptation was really nice.

Second season of Kekkai Sensen was also quite funny.

Not sure if those were real surprises though.

[Haruki]

The Winter 2018 season in Anime is upon us.  What's on our schedules during these ice-cold days?  I know what's on mine, and it starts today: Cardcaptor Sakura: Clear Card

[yugi006]

Not much has come out yet but so far I've checked out Grancrest Senki and Toji no Miko. Out of those two Grabcrest Senki looks to be pretty good. Toni no Miko was okay although I don't expect it to be any better than just decent. I'm going to check out a lot more but I'm excited for Nanatsu no Taizai season 2.

[Avalon29]

Finished my binging of the original Cardcaptor Sakura yesterday and rushed through a lot of the new stuff. I also discovered much to my pleasant surprise that Amazon's Anime Strike has quietly been killed and all the shows have moved over so that anyone with Prime can watch the anime that was previously exclusive to that channel. My theory is a combination of bad press they were getting for the extra paywall and the awful service which was combination of shows being put up late, bad subs, and even no subs at all sometimes. I also suspect that whatever deal they had going with Sentai is dead as well with Sentai doing their own service so Amazon no longer have the amount of content they would get to make the extra paywall worth it to customers.

But on to the new stuff.

The new Cardcaptor Sakura is great. All the old voice actors are back and they're throwing us right into the thick of things quickly with new cards. Can't say much more than that without spoiling things so I'll stop here.

Kokkoku which I just watched is great. Definitely one to watch this season. Not sure what all is going on yet other than a kidnapping and the ability to stop time but flawed characters, a main character in her 20s, I believe 22 was what she said, and something definatly going on in the time stop world makes it worth the time to watch. If you have Amazon Prime member I suggest giving it a shot.

The other stuff I've watched so far is Overlord. The new season looks promising with some potential threats brought up early. I'm hoping this season there will be problems that can actually challenge  the main character that he can't just steamroll through.

Record of Grancrest War has potential but I'd like to see where it goes first. Katana Maidens sin't bad either though I suspect it'll remain in just the entertaining category rather than really standing out.

The two Slice of Life shows I've seen so far seem promising. Laid-Back Camp is going to be my relaxing show of the season I think. It's about a group of girls going camping during the fall and winter months. They get a lot of details right which is nice and overall just a good show to watch to make you feel good. The other one  A Place Further than the Universe is about a group of high schoolers trying to join an expedition to Antarctica. This one feels like it's going to be a bit more serious with some nice character growth. It'll be an interesting watch I think.

This also looks like it'll be the last season of Gintama with the final arc being done this season. I'm going to miss the combination of laughs and action but I'm also excited to see the conclusion.

Think that covers just about all the new stuff that I've seen come out this season. Still got a few shows I'm excited for that haven't come out yet. One of the ones I'm most interested in Violet Evergarden I might have to go to other sites for sadly since it's a netflix anime and the US branch hates simulcast and only releases stuff at the end of the season and I don't think I can wait.

[Haruki]

One of the ones I'm most interested in Violet Evergarden I might have to go to other sites for sadly since it's a netflix anime and the US branch hates simulcast and only releases stuff at the end of the season and I don't think I can wait.

Mind-reader; I was about to bring this up.  Sadly, yeah, Netflix, with anime, is "give us the whole cour and nothing but."  Their U.S. model is 'marathon', and it seems they don't do this to the rest of the world where they're more keen to simulcasting.

I admit, I'm probably more patient than most so I'll wait to see this one, but really Netflix, change with the times.  "Netflix and chill" is already so 2015.  Not everyone wants to (or has the TIME to) binge several episodes in one sitting.

Looking forward to Overlord II and CCS: Clear Card.  As I preference the English voiceover, I plan to check them out when they come online (FUNimation has both).

[Sain]

The new Devilman was quite enjoyable. Never managed to read through the manga because art hasn't aged so well, but they did nice job adapting and modernizing the story.