I guess its time to write something really about me this time :) I have been married for 6 years now and have a daughter who is 3. My first exposure to anime was way back in the 80s when I saw reruns of a show called Space Battleship Yamato when my family was vacationing in Asia. I didn't understand anything that was being said but I remember how it captivated me. Later on as a teenager I saw shows like Sailor Moon and Magic Knight Rayearth and other shows that honestly didn't make a big enough impression to remember their names. I would have considered myself a very casual fan. I have always enjoyed to read comics and manga. Several years ago I started watching anime again, I saw Elfen Lied and later saw the entire Magic Knight series I had never seen all of before. It was from those shows my interest grew even more. Then I started picking up other shows until I saw Shakugan no Shana and everything changed. With that show I became a burgeoning otaku and that has launched me into this current obsession!
Last year a friend introduced me to MAL, giving me an outlet for some of my thoughts. I really enjoy sharing my list with others and talking about the shows I have seen and getting ideas from others about what to watch next. I love to chatting about anime and manga so feel free to leave a comment or PM! I enjoy chatting on MSN too so feel free to ask me to add you once we know each other better.
My favorite genre would be fantasy and supernatural. Be in a modern setting like Shakugan no Shana or a more classical magic world like in Scrapped Princess or even Zero no Tsukaima. However I really am open to watching things from all genres. I do have a bit of a weakness for guilty pleasures such as echii comedies. Anime romances tend to always disappoint me as they almost never end satisfyingly for me. I think the Japanese may have some issues with expressing their feelings to one another. I do enjoy yuri stories as well, particularly in manga but I don't care for yaoi which may seem odd because I am not a lesbian. I think that's because one of my main dislikes is bishounen's. I really hate pretty boys who don't look like men. I don't care for hentai either, though I have watched a few but these were pretty tame titles.
I have also found love writing reviews on the shows I have seen. I enjoy getting feedback so if you read one of my reviews and either liked or didn't like it feel free to let me know what you think to! If you want to disagree atleast have the stones to do it from a non-troll account and try to make some sense. My criteria for judging may be a little different from others so let me explain how I rate things. My opinions are mine alone!
10 A masterpiece or something that my enjoyment level was off the chart 9 Exceptional, with very small flaws or annoyances 8 Very Good to Great 7 Average to slightly above average, usually contains significant flaws or doesn't set itself apart from other shows 6 Average to below average. Similar to a 7 rating but usually has a major issue that I really didn't like 5 Barely watchable, kept my interest and thats about it 4 Dreadfully bad, sometimes they have one or two redeeming qualities but are mostly forgettable 3 Painful to watch 2 Just kill me now 1 /slits wrists
Apparently some of you do not understand what a review is and that it is a work of criticism and not supposed to be devoid of opinions. I guess I have to define it for those of you on the short bus.
review
n review [rəˈvjuː]
1 a written report on a book, play etc giving the writer's opinion of it.
I tend to not drop shows either even if they are bad. I'm either a masochist or I just don't like leaving things unfinished.
I am here to make new friends but I will not accept random friend or club invites. Try to chat me up a bit before asking. :P Girls like a little foreplay.
But...
If you insist on sending a random friend request you might find yourself sealed away inside someone's balls in poor Emmaniel's predicament.
I work at a radio station so I love music, but since becoming an anime fanatic I started loving Japanese music too :) My favorite artist is Mami Kawada, she has such a powerful and beautiful voice. I also love Mamiko Noto, Aya Hirano, and Rie Kugimiya. My favorite songs:
1. JOINT - Mami Kawada (Shakugan no Shana)
2. Ashita no he Hikari - Asuka Hinoi (Seto no Hanayome)
3. Mou Sukoshi...Mou Sukoshi - Saori Atsumi (Midori no Hibi)
4. Hoshoku no Sora - Mami Kawada (Shakugan no Shana)
5. Futari ha Wasurechau - Mamiko Noto & Ami Koshimizu (School Rumble)
6. Forever We Can Make It! - Thyme (To Love Ru - Trouble)
7. Honto no Kimochi - Rie Kugimiya (Zero no Tsukaima)
8. Kaze ga Nanika wo Iou to Shiteru - Saori Hayami (Wagaya no Oinari-sama)
9. Onna no Ko Otoko no Ko - Yuko Ogura (School Rumble)
10. Hitosashiyubi Quiet! - Mamiko Noto + others ( Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu)
Of more mainstream music.. my favorite band is The Offspring, I also like Green Day, Linkin Park, Hinder, Buckcherry, Jet, AFI, and Korn
Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan - Why? Read my review! (As if that disgusting picture isn't enough)
Kaname Chidori!
Ive always wanted one of those giant harisen's to smack my husband around when he does something dumb!
I am not really active in clubs, even the ones I am in but my favorite is this one:
I forgot; I don't actually sleep. I'm also a night/morning owl, preferring to do things in the dead of night.
Doesn't your husband mind you sitting up watching weird anime shorts and talking to strange individuals on your PC as late/early as you do? If I'm being too nosy or w/e, ignore me - idc. I'm just conversational/curious/annoying.
For me, my top two are pretty much stuck in place, both being very close to 10/10, where as the five other 10's I've given are more in the 9.5-10 zone. I think LotGH is the only anime with a chance of breaking those two up; they're just too good. In the past I had NaTHaT above Code Geass, where as now it isn't even in there.
Out of my top five, like yourself, my fifth will be the first to go if I ever find another ten. When I watched Zero, I think I might've got a little carried away, having been awed by the visuals, pacing and battle with a God that was actually understandable. On reflection, when calmer, I might see things a little differently. It's still a great anime, no doubt, but whether it's worthy of top marks and a place in my top five is open to debate. However, considering I've got a review up, my opinion will be difficult to change; it'd be too much like hard work.
(Be aware that adding Kimi ni won't improve my view of your top five. All the weeping fangirls in every episode discussion thread have put me off it. I need my anime discussion threads to have long, 15 paragraph messages, no emotions and perfect grammar.)
The strange thing about FMP for me is that, even though I love Chidori and think the best aspect of FMP is the ChidorixSagara scenes, TSR is my favourite part of the series to date. It started with good ol' comedy and then had some excellent/dramatic action sequences. Even the baddie that never dies made a return. I guess, no matter what, I'll always rate serious business over comedy... despite the final episode of Fumoffu being hilarious.
I've read some of the manga, and I'm aware the Fumoffu content was originally blended in with the serious goings on. I'm glad those in charge of the anime saw it best to separate the comedy and action after the first anime, though - it turned out to be a move towards goodness in my eyes.
I see. I didn't think Seto was truly bad, which is why I dropped it with a seven. I just couldn't see a hook that would've kept me watching it on my PC until the end. Since it's getting a US release (My Bride's A Mermaid?), I'll no doubt import a cheapo box set at some point to have another look at it. It can't be that bad if two of the top five reviewers on MAL have top fived it... even if one loves Giant Robo and the other Shana. :-|
Everyone hates Suzaku. 4chan had a lot of fun with him when his infamous spinkick occurred. No-one likes a hypocrite, and he's just about as hypocritical as you can get. He became a hate figure of legendary proportions when the CG writers just did whatever in R2, having Suzaku go from 'I KILL U! U KILLED MY WOMAN!!!! BASTARD!!!!!!!!!!!' to 'I'm going to capture you, take you halfway across the world and give you away for a promotion.' Sunrise suck at sequels.
I finally downloaded the Word trial, so I also now use its grammer/spell checker. It's useful; even pointing out repeated words. The only thing it doesn't do is highlight F.slips, meaning I still need to re-read EVERYTHING, paying attention.
I don't know if most review readers on MAL are smart enough to spot errors. I doubt it, having seen a lot of the forum posters. However, if only to know what I need to eventually delete and to see what not to do in the future, I could do with re-reading everything. Shame I'm lazy...
And, finally, Black Jack. No need to thank me for helping you find it.
The first episode is the weakest of the opening five. It's slightly boring, tbh. But then, with 2-5, the quality increases, nearly everything in terms of story being top draw. Then the quality drops again in the second half before the final episode saves it, making people with good taste score it highly.
In any event, I hope you get as much out of it as I did.
You see how much you've advanced? Not even using the 'F' word gets a reaction now. I'm training you well, clearly.
In my case, I can feel good about at least 3/5 of my top five, maybe even 4/5. Code Geass attracts hate like light attracts moths, so that's really the only title that gets a reaction out of people when I get into a battle of opinion. Not that I care, mind.
I was able to review Gankutsuou, rating it 10-10-10-10-10, without feeling any guilt whatsoever. That's the best part of picking an adaptation of one of the greatest novels of all time as your #1; it makes you feel like a better person.
Your inclusion of Shana, as well as FMP in your top five does puzzle me a little... but, to be fair, you are female (meaning you think differently; not at all sexist... honest! I never even mentioned squirrels!!) and pretty much everyone disagrees about something. I've never quite understood how someone can rate FMP higher than its sequels when, in my eyes, it's a mess; combining the comedy and mecha sides rather poorly. Entertaining, but not on the same level as its far more focused sequels (in my holy opinion, obviously.)
I'd like to see you review Shana, highlighting the plus points of melon bread, girls with bad attitudes/no breasts and having 'Flame Haze' being repeated at least ten times per episode. Who knows; maybe you'd end up turning me into an even more insane Shana fanboy. :D
While on the subject of top fives, does Seto improve at all after the opening three or so episodes? It struck me as being... I don't know, a pretty generic and straight-forward comedy. Once the crew headed for a school setting, I lost all interest. I might've been a bit too picky but there's a lit of anime out there...
I've always wondered how people handle working on the radio. I'd be afraid of slipping up constantly; it amazes me how the people on political debate channels can just keep on talking (FYI, since my standard buzzer alarm never wakes me, I have my alarm set to radio, and it always picks a political discussion of some sort....)
Well, mainly I'm referring to the lack of apostrophes and whatnot. I don't really care - I can understand you and that's all that really matters - but it does strike me as strange that you put so much effort into reviews and a lot less into long arse comments.
Yeah, I get the whole 'Swed > Eng' thing. I guess, if I was in your position, I wouldn't bother with editing every error out of my English messages, either. I guess I'm just weird that way, having once typed lik dis nt usng apastraphes an usin nambers instd f wrds whn i wuz 13
Awwww, bugger. I thought you might feel guilty enough to send an invite way after insulting me so much previously. Oh well, I guess, since I'm too unfriendly to send out invites, it just isn't to be. We can, instead, remain multiple paragraph acquaintances, though my harem dream will remain a dream.
Oooooooo, then you must have a nice on the ears voice, right? Lemme listen, and then discover who you are...and, later, go on to brutally murder you. >:D I don't speak a word of 'Ja', but I'd be happy to grade your voice for you. Just give me the signal. Any sign will work.
I'm afraid to say my voice isn't so nice. I have to confess; when I first heard a recording of my West Midlands British accent, I died a little inside. When hearing myself speak the words, I never realized how depressing my accent made me sound. From that day onwards, I made an oath never to listen to my voice again.
Yeah, I've heard Noto a hell of a lot, I must say. After finishing School Rumble, I keep hearing her. Her voice is lovely, and she fits Sawako like a glove, but it's never a good thing hearing the voice actor instead of the character speak. And back we go to damn JYB... Grrrr.
Yes, but Shana is also in your top five. Should I or shouldn't I trust you - that is the question. Maybe if we progress beyond 666/the sign of the devil to 70%+ I'll believe you aren't a Haruhi fangirl... yeah, maybe.
(Seriously, I will check it out, one day - the day when I can import it/buy it for under £18. I'm rather cheap, FYI.)
Now that there's a sort natural lull in our... well, MY long posting session, I have two questions for you:
1) I meant to ask this before, but instead I wisely waited until calling you old got no reaction -- How come you have good grammar in your reviews and you don't bother one-on-one? 'tis odd when most reviewers try to go 'I'M SMART! I MAKE NO ERRORS! HAHAHAHA!!11!'
2) What exactly do I have to do to get a damned friend invite from you? Is 100 paragraphs sent in your general direction not enough!?
I'm trying to start my very own female reviewer harem, and you arent helping matters. Next on my list is whobody, and I'm sure she'll stop calling me a douche when I use my long message spam charm on her. Probably.
Haruhi is something I'm not going near until I can get it on DVD for cheap. It strikes me as an over-rated title aimed mainly at otaku. Judging by its fanbase, it isn't up my alley. That said, I'm yet to experience the wonders of dubbed Haruhi.
If you've watched Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing Ultimate and Vampire Bloodlust dubbed and still express your dislike for dubs, then fair enough - opinions and all that. But, until then, I think you should try to hold back on the dub hate. I mean, it's possible you've seen a lot of bad dubs and I've seen a lot of good dubs. It's also possible, with English being your second lingo, you aren't as fond of English voices as myself.
Negi does sound terrible, yes. I disliked watching Negi dubbed because of him. It sounded like he was an old man trying to sound like a boy, him sounding terrible as a result. I have similar feelings for the lead in Love Hina; he sounds terrible, like the most pathetic guy in the known universe. I'll never watch either show dubbed for those voices alone.
I hate when the wrong people are cast to avoid using children, or when an English person tries to put on an accent to play a role convincingly. I couldn't watch Nadia dubbed simply because it had a young, inexperienced boy putting on a dodgy French accent.
I wouldn't say there isn't enough talent (I worded that badly); it's just a case of those in charge of dubs playing it safe. They want star names US fans know about in order to attract more buyers, and that's why the ever popular JYB - with his one voice - gets in just about every anime known to man. He's been ruined in my eyes because of over-usage.
As for using real actors, there's a big difference between acting on screen and acting off screen. When the focus is 100% on voice, then little things they'd be excused for on-screen would hurt them a lot more off it. Listening to Sam. L Jackson without seeing him, for example, did nothing for me - I just heard the same voice I always did, not hearing the character at all.
The best thing a voice actor can have is a varied voice, and Laura Bailey is a Goddess in this respect. I'm being deadly serious when I say I never recognize her due to her having a 1000 voices. One minute she's a ditzy 16-yeay-old with a high-pitched voice in Persona 3, the next she's playing a stoic, 20+ woman in Blue Gender, with little emotion being expressed. She's wonderful and puts the likes of JYB to shame.
With regards to your second to last paragraph, you reminded me of Persona 3-4. They both had excellent dubs, but the translations aimed the games squarely at Wapanese people. They didn't even bother removing the Japanese suffixes, instead opting to leave them in spoken lines. It was weird.
I once viewed anime like you do, too. And I have no issues reading subtitles... except in cases where there's a ton of in-anime terminology used or complex discussions. However, as I've aged, I've preferred to actually, you know, watch anime; not keep focusing on the bottom of the screen. In the case of Akira, I seemingly missed the supposedly stunning animation because I was far too busy trying to understand the plot!
There are good dubs, there are bad dubs. But to tell the difference, you need to view the English dubs objectively; not swayed by the Japanese version. I've found that, whenever I've listened to anime in Japanese first, 9/10 I prefer it... but, if the reverse is true and the dub is decent, it's the other way around. That's why I always give dubs a chance nowadays.
I suspect they want to do an intervention? I keep saying, would they care if say I used to surf all day long? Or if I liked doing Sudoku puzzles for like three hours every day? Or would they care if I donated all my time to mastering chess or being a ballerina? Not really. It's because watching anime makes you loser. I can probably spend all day watching MTV or lounging in a cinema taking in movies, and I still wouldn't be told, "You watch too many movies. You watch too many music videos. You listen to too much music--you're overdoing it."
It's because anime is seen as a negative thing even by anime fans. Like I said, the only people who actually hate anime fans are other anime fans. People who don't watch anime would just call otaku "nerds" and leave it be. But the only ones who criticise and condemn and despise the otaku is the otaku himself.
Honestly, it sounds like you haven't heard enough dubs - simple as that. You're kind of coming across like a reviewer that reviews early. :P The main problem with English dubbing is that, outside of some big names, there isn't much quality to go around, which leads to the same people getting the same roles over and over. I hate seeing JYB listed usually because the guy always sounds the same, though he wasn't so bad in Please Twins.
I can't say I agree with any of your issues, and I actually recall dislking the Ghibli dubs I've listened to for some reason. And English voice actors don't have to sound like the Japanese versions; they just have to fit the role. That's all that's important... unless you've listened to the anime in JP first and are looking for flaws, like I once was. I think most anime fans actually want to find issues just so they can go, "The Japanese are better!", not even giving dubs a chance.
Recently I watched an anime that was actually released in Japan with only an English dub at first; Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust. Because of it being dub only originally, a lot of effort was put in, and the quality showed through. A more recent(ish) title with a top dub is Hellsing Ultimate; it being set in England and having a mostly English cast for the people who need those voices. It sounds amazing; better than the Japanese.
My favourite dub isn't an anime dub; it's a game dub: .hack//G.U.. Jamieson Price but in a wonderful performance as Ovan, adding a mysterious, slower tone to his voice it lacked previously. It's easily my favourite English voice acting performance.
Example:
Skip to around 3:30 in.
I remember Chidori's voice, vaguely. She sounded like her Japanese counterpart. I preferred her JP voice, though, mainly because her voice sounded the hotter of the two, going with Chidori's image more. I'm pretty sure the JP voice actress played a WTC character and was on my top people list in the past...
Well, yes, I'm always right. The problem is, people never realize until it's too late. It depresses me.
At one point I was going to rate Please Twins higher than Teacher; I was even thinking about 9/10. That's rather shocking now, considering how the series lost its luster towards the end, not even explaining its main plot point very well. I guess I just liked the fact the lead of a harem, for once, wasn't a loser and was reliable. Plus some of the girls' actions were very funny, like when they tried to prove he wasn't gay.
I disagree about dubs sucking. I now tend to watch anime dubbed on DVD, providing I haven't watched it in JP first. Mushishi had a top draw dub, My-HiME did too and the teacher in Please Teacher is mu definition of a hot sounding older woman in English. When the Japanese get it right, they do it in style, but it's unfair to say all dubbing sucks.
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You're lucky I'm nice to you; if anyone else responded with basically a single paragraph after I typed a wall of text, I'd anger. :P It's hard playing the good guy...
...oh, and on that note:
^ I need to try that line out in real life. What's stopping me is the risk of jail if someone takes me more seriously than I take myself. I do look a bit evil, and my sarcasm never does go down too well...
Ja (/swedish), I read that the Japanese even class Disney films as anime. If you go up to a Japanese guy and ask what anime is, he'd just say animation (according to the net, anyway). They have it easy.
I have Aeon Flux ('anime') on DVD, for some reason. However, I'll never watch it because the movie is terrible. I'd rather slam my **** in a door than sit through that (most likely) horrible rubbish.
I've never bothered with Avatar because anime has turned me Wapanese. Well, that and it being aimed at kids. I'll stick to stroking my Naruto manga box set, methinks. Naruto > all other kiddy rubbish.
-----
And, finally, my main reason for messaging you (yeah, I take this long just to get to the start....): Please Teacher. I said I'd chat to you about if I changed my mind about it, and change my mind I did.
The start really put me off. I thought the side characters were all for show, the 'teacher' was too... pure for my tastes and the lead couldn't be viewed as anything other than pathetic and annoying. I saw it to be trash; aimed only at women who like the idea of screwing scrawny boys (shota) and otaku who think there's no hope for them.
But, the more I watched, and the further I got from the start, the more I liked it. I started to view the relationship of the fuck-up and teacher as sweet (God help me...), me actually cheering for them internally. I found it cute how they teased each other and took so long to get it on, and it surprised me how thoughtful the fuck-up became towards the end, when he put his friends first. It also surprised me how dark the reasoning behind his condition turned out to be.
Another aspect that pleased me was how well the stories of each character ended. The loli was transformed from lolicon bait into an actual person, with emotions and everything required for a person to be a person. Even the cliche childfood friend of the lead became 'real' in my eyes.
By ze way, you were both right and wrong: you were correct when you said the whole alien thing stays in the background. However, you seem to be losing your memory with age because, though you said only two girls go after the fuck-up, most of the female cast did - even the mother and sister of the teacher. How could you forget the mother after the excellent OVA episode!?
Also, one last question: What do the 'DVD extras' refer to - the shitty music vids? :| i very confuse
(If you respond to this message with a single paragraph, I'll delete you from my friend list after adding you.)
Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan - Why? 
<3<3<3<3<3<3 Yakumo!!!! <3<3<3<3<3<3
