Total Clubs: 8 Shinsengumi!, ~The Yuki Kajiura Fanclub~, Thoughtful Discourses on Japanese Audiovisual Culture Club, Art Jam!, Obscure Anime/Manga, Kazuya Minekura Fan Club, ~* SAIGA MITSUKI FANS *~, Asian Drama Addicts
Total Friends: 3 asksam, rickyrock, Aionic
Total Reviews: 4
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| Last Online |
Yesterday, 6:23 PM |
| Gender |
Female |
| Birthday |
July 7 |
| Website |
fallensiren.deviantar... |
| Join Date |
March 23, 2008 |
| Access Rank |
Member |
| Anime List Views |
184 |
| Manga List Views |
146 |
| Comments |
16 |
| Forum Posts |
19 (Find All) |
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| Time (Days) |
30.0 |
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| Watching |
4 |
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| Completed |
91 |
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| On Hold |
14 |
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| Dropped |
10 |
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| Plan to Watch |
17 |
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| Total Entries |
136 |
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| Time (Days) |
8.7 |
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| Reading |
8 |
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| Completed |
19 |
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| On Hold |
6 |
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| Dropped |
2 |
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| Plan to Read |
1 |
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| Total Entries |
36 |
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Your anime compatibility with grendelity is:
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Your manga compatibility with grendelity is:
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I'm an idiot who cries over poetry and broken hearts. I love movies and pretty pictures.
That's about it.
Displaying 15 of 16 Comments
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Aionic | 11-15-08, 9:11 AM
*bangs head on keyboard* I just remembered that we talked about Gankutsuou just after you started stalking me. Sorry - I have mentioned before that my memory is god awful. :P Don't be offended if I forget your name; I love you...honest!
The movie is Hollywood trash. I'd love to add more detail to that comment, but all I remember is that the plot was simplified to the extreme and Albert was turned into the Son of Edmond...and it had a fake feeling happy ever after ending. I watched, I deleted and I cried.
As the thread you posted in prior to adding me revealed to you, I've had the feeling I've been growing out of anime for a long time. I'm either left feeling annoyed with the lack of depth/huge amount of ecchi or even more annoyed with plots that try to come across as complex by revealing as little as possible. There are very few series out there that I can be bothered with at this point.
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but I've turned towards manga and light novels of late. It's lovely to escape from the anime evil known as fillers and poor art/animation. If I'd started Love Hina by watching the anime I would've hated it due to how bad the studio behind it did with the sauce, but the manga is going to go into my top 5 when I finish reading it. There are very few anime series that do manga justice, and I simply don't have the motivation to bother with poor adaptations these days.
But, like I said before, you should check out 'Now and Then, Here and There' before 2010. It has a story you've probably seen many times before - a story about someone normal getting warped to another world - but no other series like that has the main character deal with war, rape, slavery and lots of other lovely things. It was made for adults, so I can't see why you'd dislike it.
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Aionic | 11-14-08, 11:50 PM
Unlike Genshiken, where otaku culture is the main focus, the focus of NHK is hikikomori problem Japan has. There are supposedly over 2 million people in Japan who can be classed as hikikomori's - people who don't go out; recluses - and NHK is a fictional story about one of those people. It was written by a hikikomori, and it shows, with the paranoia of the main character coming across as very realistic.
The 240 page novel was written first, then came the manga and finally the anime. The novel is the darkest of the three, the lack of pictures and the more serious tone (there's less filler and added jokes) making it less amusing. But it still has some of the same black comedy moments that the other versions I have, one example being a sequence where the main character tries to cure himself of his loli addiction by going to a school and trying to take panty shots...only for his friend, who was supposed to be taking a photograph of how disgusting he looked doing such a thing, to vanish and a girl he knew to walk up and tap him on the shoulder. It's the sort of story where even the darkest parts of the human world can be funny.
I watched Sword of the Stranger a long, looooong time back. It made my heart pump faster, too - it was a very exciting film. I love samurai flicks, and I love action films, so I loved it. The Dynasty Warriors battle towards the end, where a small army took on a few elite Chinese warriors, was epic. And the soundtrack is brilliant - I loved the music that played during the last fight. It's just too bad Beez have licensed it over 'ere... I'd need to pay £10-£13 to own it on DVD, and with the pound currently being so weak against the dollor I wouldn't be able to import it for cheap...
You really, really, really, really, REALLY need to watch Gankutsuou. You like period pieces, and although it's set in some silly future year like 5000, it retains the 1800's feel of the novel for the most part. You won't find much better in the way of anime out there... Why not skip the rest and cut to the best if you're short on time?
Of course, if you prefer transforming into a book worm, you could also bury your head into the unedited 1250 page novel. I'm guessing that option isn't too attractive when you're probably fed up of reading, what with studying and all.
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Aionic | 11-14-08, 6:25 AM
Not to worry, I'll get over it. It's just an annoyance in my case more so than with most people because I use the MAL review system to improve my uneducated brain; learning to be more concise and learning to be better at English in general. It's like a slap in the face for my effort to be rewarded with poor scores, thanks in no small part to people who went all down my reviews and kept clicking 'Unhelpful' without reading them.
MAL does have an awful lot of Narutards and members of the GAR army; the forums reveal that much. However, there are also some people who use the site as a source for informative reviews and opinions...it's just that those people are far lesser in number than the Narutards.
It's very true that some of my reviews are too long. Lately, like with my Bitter Virgin and Saikano reviews, I've been trying to get to the point without typing endlessly - I am slowly learned from the sort of mistakes I made with my Death Note review. But, sometimes, I lstill et my enthusiasm (sp?) take over, ending up typing more than was needed.
Anyway, enough about reviews. I'm sure this is all boring and a bit pathetic for you to watch. :)
Have you read the 'Welcome to the NHK!' novel and/ or manga ...or have you watched the anime?
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Aionic | 11-14-08, 1:37 AM
Ah, sorry. Don't take it the wrong way; I enjoy chattering/typing with you. It's just that I'm a moody AND lazy sod, so I end up losing motivation and then never get around to replying back. Depression makes it hard to be socialable, even on the internet.
Currently, I'm a bad mood because of my reviews. I think most of them are pretty good - I spent a lot of time typing them and made sure to make them detailed - but I either have lots of people who dislike me or I'm wrong. 3 times now I've had someone rate all my reviews unhelpful (although some were left unrated the third time). And, to rub salt in the wounds, the Gankutsuou review with a score of 11/18 that I deleted and reposted now has a score of 4/8... I'm at a loss with regards to what I'm doing wrong. After reposting the Gank review later tonight, I think I'll be giving up reviewing to avoid frustration.
Anyway... *looks at your last message*
No, I never got around to watching Code Geass R2. I planned to do so, but, as ever, the motivation wasn't there to watch it when the series finished. Annoyingly, I've seen various Code Geass GIFs over on NarutoFAN; GIFs that practically reveal the plot.
The series is supposed to save itself towards the end. Just yesterday someone commented on my profile, telling me that the quality decreases each episode until the last five, where the series raises in quality. In my case, I doubt the last five episodes being epic will save a series that disappointed for 20 episodes.
About Light: His intelligence, which 99% of the population in the DN universe couldn't match, isolated him. He was like an alien, viewing everyone around him as inferior lifeforms that only existed to serve as stepping stones as tried to become God. Even though he was surrounded by people, and had a warm family, I think of him as one of the most lonley characters I've seen. L himself wasn't very different - he just fought on the side of 'justice' and worked to stop criminals with the brain that isolated him from others.
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Aionic | 11-14-08, 1:37 AM
Ah, sorry. Don't take it the wrong way; I enjoy chattering/typing with you. It's just that I'm a moody AND lazy sod, so I end up losing motivation and then never get around to replying back. Depression makes it hard to be socialable, even on the internet.
Currently, I'm a bad mood because of my reviews. I think most of them are pretty good - I spent a lot of time typing them and made sure to make them detailed - but I either have lots of people who dislike me or I'm wrong. 3 times now I've had someone rate all my reviews unhelpful (although some were left unrated the third time). And, to rub salt in the wounds, the Gankutsuou review with a score of 11/18 that I deleted and reposted now has a score of 4/8... I'm at a loss with regards to what I'm doing wrong. After reposting the Gank review later tonight, I think I'll be giving up reviewing to avoid frustration.
Anyway... *looks at your last message*
No, I never got around to watching Code Geass R2. I planned to do so, but, as ever, the motivation wasn't there to watch it when the series finished. Annoyingly, I've seen various Code Geass GIFs over on NarutoFAN; GIFs that practically reveal the plot.
The series is supposed to save itself towards the end. Just yesterday someone commented on my profile, telling me that the quality decreases each episode until the last five, where the series raises in quality. In my case, I doubt the last five episodes being epic will save a series that disappointed for 20 episodes.
About Light: His intelligence, which 99% of the population in the DN universe couldn't match, isolated him. He was like an alien, viewing everyone around him as inferior lifeforms that only existed to serve as stepping stones as tried to become God. Even though he was surrounded by people, and had a warm family, I think of him as one of the most lonley characters I've seen. L himself wasn't very different - he just fought on the side of 'justice' and worked to stop criminals with the brain that isolated him from others.
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Aionic | 10-21-08, 8:18 PM
Wait, you're a school girl!? I thought you were a sophisticated older woman (her, I can fantasize, right?) for some odd reason. I'm now happy I didn't add my request for semi-pornographic images as a reward for typing the last message...
I can understand where you're coming from as I don't handle stress too well myself. If I'm told to do something within a certain time frame or be specific then I do tend to panic like an idiot. Aside from pressure, my other problem with doing work I have no interest in is motivation; it's difficult to do anything when you're a lazy sod. :)
I'm usually pretty luck when it comes to illness; I very rarely catch colds and have only had anything serious attack my body once - the two weeks I spent in bed due to food poisoning (damn ice cream van...) weren't pleasant. Those two weeks made me never want to live until I'm an old man who cannot look after himself; I was that ill that I couldn't even get to the bathroom without help.
Turning to Love Hina, you're probably right. The only reason the story goes on for as long as it does is because the main two don't get it on, so it's most likely true that a love scene won't be shown or even hinted at. The only reason I'm hopeful that something will eventually happen is because the last manga cover shows Naru in a wedding outfit, which I'm hoping means the two do the deed at the end; after the ceremony. It'll be annoying if, after 14 volumes, I can't end the series with the knowledge that Keitaro FINALLY discovered a use for the two round objects attached to his lower body.
Depressing stories are the only kind that tend to get an emotional reaction out me. Happy stuff usually gets nothing out of me since I have a sense of humour failure - if it ain't sad then it probably isn't going to be able to get into my top 10. All of my top 5 are fairly depressing and serious, all 5 highlighting my taste very well. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a series with no tragedy that I've rated highly, and that's because those sort of series/films just aren't memorable.
Talking of tragedy, you really need to check out my Bitter Virgin review after saying you like depressing stuff.The female lead may bother you a little because she acts like you'd expect an overly shy virgin girl to act, but her reasons for acting that way should allow you to love Bitter Virgin for its story and how the author wasn't afraid to deal with very difficult subjects. It's only 32 chapters long, so it's easy enough to read in one-sitting if you put aside an hour or two.
The Wolf's Rain OVA *almost* reduced me to tears. It was sad how EVERYONE died, one after the other. I hadn't expected it before watching, my only reason for watching being that I wanted to see an actual ending to the series. At least there was a sort of happy ever after ending that stopped it from being overly depressing - if the world hadn't been reborn at the end I would've said that the deaths were only done to draw an emotional reaction from the viewers.
It's was too bad that the author of Chrono Crusade kinda fell short at the last hurdle. Like I said in my (overly long) review, the author tried to fit too much into the last few volumes and put too little in the first 5 or so in comparison. I didn't like how the story suddenly switched to a battle to save the world, nor was I happy with the inconclusive ending (or rather, the lack of conclusion) to the Aion/Chrono relationship, with the last you see of Aion being a Samurai style charge against Chrono. I still loved it to bits, but I couldn't bring myself to score the story above 8 for too many reasons.
Death Note: Bah, I thought you were asking because you hadn't read the manga (I'm lowering your status to evil girl now you've revealed that you're still at school, by the way =D). The punishment for assumptions is clearly finger/back pain in my case.
Oddly enough, my favourite part of the anime is one of the most simple sequences of the lot, and it was copied panel by panel from the manga. I'm referring to start of one of the last episodes (35?) where you see everyone going about their business (Mikami being followed, Mogi playing with Misa, Near playing with his toys, Mello with Matt, etc) with the haunting theme that played when Light's father died raising it above how it was to read in the manga.
I never cared much about Light until I came to the realization that Death Note Note would end as soon as he died. After L's death I hated him; I wanted him to die, but the closer the series moved to its conclusion the more I found myself wanting him to beat the lifeless prick/L clone known as Near. However, I still wasn't happy with the way Madhouse, in my opinion, ruined the ending by attempting to give Light a peaceful death - I preferred to watch him die pathetically, abandoned even by Mikami. Madhouse removed the last plot twist by tampering with the ending, stopping Ryuk from doing what the author planned for him to do by keeping his appearances in part 2 to the bare minimum.
I also miss the fun times of Death Note fans going crazy whilst waiting for the next sub to be released. Death Note was the last series that managed to get me excited and keep me interested with 1 week waits in-between each episode. I ended up staying up until 3 AM at times just to download the latest sub as soon as it was released!
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Aionic | 10-21-08, 2:39 PM
Note: This message will probably be slightly inferior to the one I was going to send yesterday. Blame MAL for having a stupid pop-up message box.
In a way, I'm jealous of you not having the time to read manga. Reading manga, watching anime and other activities are great but there needs to be a balance between free time and busy time - too much of a good thing is bad. The lazy majority of the inner me is pleased to have so much free time, though.
What part of your life is "killing you", or is that too much of a personal question for a possibly deranged anime fan to ask? I'm almost afraid to ask after seeing the lengh of your last message but, being the kind hearted soul I am, I thought I would. It can't be that bad if you have the time to hit me with lengthy messages. But, on the other hand, I'm honoured if you think so much of me that you'd spend your tiny fraction of free time typing endless messages...messages that result in my poor back aching worse than it already does. :D
About Shoujo stuff, I'm starting to think that I have a delicate feminine side hidden away somewhere - I seem to have a thing for romance stories. Love Hina is currently highlighting my love of romance; I can forsee me being geekishly happy when Keitaro and Naru FINALLY get it on, and not for the perverted reasons any sane male should be thinking about instead. Maybe I'm a manly woman inside a mans body?
Chrono Crusade: Comfort? You like your comfort given depressingly if you find the story comforting!
My feelings for Rosette pretty much mirror how you feel about Chrono - I, as any normal male would, had a crush on the big breasted/loud mothed nun as soon as I watched the anime. Of course, the fact she was willing to sacrifice her own life and get on with it also played a part in me liking her. I have a thing for fiery woman in general; the red-head stearotype is pretty much my mental image of an ideal woman. Basically, it seems like any female character who is happy to hit the male she's closest to is ok in my book.
The part I found confusing near the end? That's tough to recall with my memory. I think what I was referring to was the origin of demons on earth and Pandimonium. From what I understood, Pandimonium died when the demons crashed on earth and the demons high up on the food chain decided to replace her with a human (Lilth?), not letting the rest of the demons know. I'm pretty sure it was revealed that Aion and Chrono were both born from this human, meaning neither were true demons and that Aion calling Chrono 'brother' had more meaning behind it than it seemed to...
The manga ending depressed me too much. I didn't like the thought of Rosette having to endure 7 years without Chrono, only being reuninted with her man when the grim repear came calling. I prefered the anime ending, which allowed them to live together in peace before they died together. It was still depressing but it didn't leave the same bad taste in my mouth that the manga ending did.
As for Karas, the first half wasn't great due to nothing whatsoever being explained. It was made way too confusing with there being more than one Yurnie, which I didn't realize until it was explained in the second half. I enjoyed the second half much better since it got right into explaining what the hell ws going on, even giving the main character a a gangsta back-story, which made him likeable. But, forgetting about the story, there's no doubt that Karas is a visual feast; it looks wonderful and has a lot of rewatch value as a result.
Now, moving onto Death Note (this isn't going to end...), my review was long because I tried to do the impossible and combine a detailed review of the box with a review of the manga itself. This resulted in the review being far too long and not detailed enough on the content side of things. What I should've done was create two different reviews, posting one for the box on Amazon and one for the manga on here, but that seemed like too much trouble when I don't like planning things in advance. :/
There isn't really a lot between the manga and anime - I rated the manga 9/10 and the anime 10/10. Madhouse did an amazing job of being faithful with the best and unfaithful with the worst parts of the story, which improved the last half of the story a lot. And, with Death Note having the best soundtrack EVER, it's hard not to think of the manga as slightly inferior to the stunning anime.
The first 1/3 of the manga is the same in the anime, just with excellent direction and music improving it. For example, there's a plan early on in the series that involves eating a packet of crisps, with a camera hidden in the packet. In the manga the scene was nothing special, but in the anime Light started laughing when he opened the crisps (the sort of laughter that makes you want to laugh along with him) and, with a combination of dramatic camera angles and top class voice acting (WITH MY LEFT HAND...I EAT...A POTATO CHIP!!!), the scene was transformed from decent to the most epic eating of packet of crisps ever. Madhouse, who clearly loved what they were working on, did lots of that kind of thing.
The main differences come in the last half of the story; the last 11.5 episodes of the anime. A huge amount was cut, such as Mello manipulating the American president and the president ending up killing himself. However, nearly all of what was cut was what made the last half of the manga dull in comparison to the first half. Madhouse did a wonderful thing when they removed all the boring crap and only kept the important/epic stuff.
...Fuck, that was too much typing for a simple message. You're cruel, sending me such a lengthy message knowing full well I had to reply. :'( Evil woman.
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Aionic | 10-20-08, 1:14 PM
Sorry for not replying yet. After I had been typing for 15 minutes earlier I clicked the screen behind the message pop-up box, which resulted in my message vanishing since MAL is a bit of a cunt like that. In future I'm going to type lengthy messages in word and C&P them onto MAL.
After just finishing typing up a review for Last Order, with much fannying about trying to get sentences right, I don't really feel in the mood to get involved in an epic typing contest with you (you type longer messages than I do reviews =P), so I'm going to leave attempting to respond again until tomorrow.
I promise I'll comment back this time! :D
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Aionic | 10-20-08, 9:59 AM
Hey, how have you been and what'cha been up to?
Sorry for not responding to your last message - I was too lazy. The message was about an anime I had no experience with, so I wasn't really sure what to type back in return. It would've been too much like hard work to think up a decent response. :)
As you can probably see, I've gone on a bit of a manga reading frenzy of late. Bitter Virgin and Chrono Crusade have been completed, I've read Berserk 1-4 and I'm now in the process of reading Love Hina, although it's currently on hold due to me wanting to wait for volumes 6-7 to arrive in the post (I started reading with 5/14 volumes).
As for anime, I've watched all my Rahxephon DVDs since I have volumes 1-7 plus the movie. I also watched Karas and Saikano. None of it blew me away in truth; my review of Saikano should give you an idea of my thoughts about that! The other two were 7.5-8/10's.
Since we last spoke I've typed up a fair few reviews: Bitter Virgin, Chrono Crusade, Death Note and Saikano all getting my review time. If you have time, tell me what you think of some of them! :D
Oh, and a random question: Do you keep a diary? I've picked up a diary today and I'm planning on using it. It'll be good to keep track of things, and it'll hopefully make up for my lack of memory.
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Aionic | 09-20-08, 8:50 AM
My memory is TERRIBLE, so I struggle to pay attention when lots happening myself. I can be having a conversation with a friend, they mention something minor that happened the previous week and I'll be stood there looking clueless. That's why it's a pain for me to try to watch the type of series where you need to put the pieces of the puzzle together yourself. >__<
Hellsing Ultimate is a complete remake of the original 13 episode series, it staying far closer to the events of the manga. Where as I found the first 5 episodes of the original TV series to be dull, the stunning looking and sounding OVA blew me away - It was perfect in EVERY area. If the rest of the new series manage to stay as high quality it's going to replace one of the series currently in my top 5.
Just make sure you watch it in English; you can't miss out on hearing top class British voice acting in a series set in England and hearing Crispin Freeman as Alucard. It's one of the few series that you shouldn't watch in Japanese.
Although it's tempting to download and watch all the available OVA episodes now, I'm going to wait for the DVD releases instead of watching the episodes on my 19" monitor. For some reason I enjoy watching anime more when I'm watching a DVD I own... o_O
What's Harikari Waka Dai about? Can't say I'd heard of it before you dropped the name. :)
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Aionic | 09-20-08, 8:20 AM
I can't say I thought it was a mess at the end; I thought it was done very well. Lots went on, with a ton of characters doing their thing, but I never found it to be messy.
Moving back to S2, I REALLY wanted it to be great; I was very excited when it was coming out. It's too bad that the series I hoped would reignite my anime flame managed to make me drop it before even the halfway stage...
...Still, it was entertaining enough if you can get it over it failing to make Code Geass into one of the best series ever - High production values and certain plot points of interest (Lelouch vs. Snigger/his blonde elder brother) see to that. Since R2 should be finishing soon I think I'm going to marathon it; that way I won't have 1 week between the episodes to think and type about how badly things were done.
I like S1 of Code Geass and Death Note a lot. I like Death Note more since it's darker, the writing is more intelligent and it has the best soundtrack I've ever heard...but I don't hate Code Geass for it being more comical and less realistic; their differences are what make them great.
Anyway... Have you seen Hellsing Ultimate? I watched Vol. 1 after picking the LE for £10 and enjoyed it a lot. These were my thoughts:
After watching the first 30 minutes (had to stop because the Man United match is starting), I think it's one of the best pieces of animation I've witnessed. The entire thing reeks high quality; the art is the terrific, the usage of colour (blue and blacks to set the mood) has been perfect, the animation has flowed, the pacing has been fast without rushing and the direction has been top notch. It's on an entirely different level to the original series, which looks almost amateurish in comparison.
Aside from everything mentioned above, what I've liked the most about OVA is the British voice acting. All the British voice acting is top notch, Integra's voice actress doing a stunning job. Although I usually watch anime in Japanese, when there are relative unknowns putting in performances like this with British accents there's no chance I'm going to watch anime in a language I don't speak. I'll have to give the the first 5 series of the original series a re-watch in English.
I like the big breasted blonde chick (Seras?) much better this time around. In the original series she simply came across as a timid and obedient, not having any charm, but in the OVA she comes across as much more fiery and slightly insane at times. I might look for some 'research materials' later.
Anyway, in a nutshell: It's well worth the money, even at £10 per DVD. Highly recommended.
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Aionic | 09-20-08, 7:33 AM
If you think the first series was a train wreck I hate to think what your thoughts about S2 will be!
At the start, S2 copies lots of the first season, the first 2 episodes being near identical to the first 2 episodes of S1. The repeats continue for awhile, with Lelouch going back to school and old plot twists (the crumbling floor tactic, for example) getting reused. There's a serious lack of originality on show.
However, the biggest problem S2 has isn't the repeated content; it's the illogical and unexplained plot twists. For example, at the start of the 3rd episode Lelouch manages to somehow get somewhere far away in a matter of minutes (while the building he was in was surrounded), change into different clothes and be in front of the right person at the right time. In S1 plot twists were explained, where as in S2 they just happen without the mechanics getting explained.
It also has many other issues, such as the serious increase in fan service downgrading the quality of the show, poor new characters being included for the sake of it and mecha battles now turning into single mecha slaughter unless the other army has a super mecha to counter it (Suzaku beats the European army alone), with normal mechas now unable to even scratch the new super mechas when they hit them directly.
Basically, S2 is far more silly, lacks the interesting plot twists of the first season (throwing random plot twists at the end of every episode to compensate) and Sunsrise just didn't seem to know how to continue the story well. I dropped it after 8 episodes.
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Aionic | 08-27-08, 4:00 PM
Ok, lets try this again. -___-
Out of the series recommended by my good self, 'Now and There, Here and There' is the one I recommend you watch. It's a classic that isn't as well known as certain other series due to the subject matter it covers and depressing tone. It's a shame because it's a tragic story told in a beautiful way.
I'm sure you've seen one or two series where characters get transported to another world, lots of humour follows and the tone is always happy. NaTHaT (Nat's hat for the win!) is the exact opposite of those type of shows, it throwing away the humour similar stories through around excessively and replacing it with despair. The alternate world in NaTHaT is one of death, slavery and child abuse, the world even ruled world by an insane madman who looks like Hitler and enjoys throwing around dead cats for lulz.
Once the first episode is out of the way the following twelve don't hold back, showing some fairly disturbing scenes. Child rape (only an attempt is shown on screen), children murdering, torture...it's all there. It isn't a series where comical goings on occur.
Out of the other series, Berserk tops everything in terms of quality (including NaTHaT). You have to put up with a lot of sexism since the Berserk world is very much a world ruled by men but it has a wonderful story underneath the mass slaughter, rape and other things that make it a a show most women wouldn't enjoy. I would give you some details but it's a popular series with lots of reviews and I don't want this message to go on all night due to my describing all 5 in detail for no real reason. :P
His and Her Circumstances, which I mentioned would probably please your more feminine side (assuming you aren't a tomboy!), is a wonderful love/romance story told in a completely believable way, without any perverted rubbish dragging down the quality (although there's a lot of comedy). Two high school geniuses who hide behind masks (the female acting sweet when she's really fiery/loud and the male putting an a front for his parents sake) end up slowly becoming close after a bumpy start where they compete against each other, the female (forgot her name >_<) seeing the male (forgot his name ;____;) as competition for the top spot in the school. The only thing wrong with the series is the LOOOOW budget that made the animation team use paper cut-outs in one episode, use uncoloured images, use amateur live-action footage for the ending sequence, etc.
The final two I mentioned, Gunslinger Girl and Noein, are also both very high quality shows.
Gunslinger Girl is a relatively simple story about young girls on the verge of death getting saved by a company who want to brain wash them and use their bodies as weapons. While it does sound a bit silly/far fetched it's surprisingly gripping stuff, the highlight of the show being the relationships each of the girls have with their handlers (an adult who has to stay disconnected emotionally and work with them). Due to the direction of certain scenes, the use of colour and excellent soundtrack the first GG series is supposed to be much more involving than the manga - I can't say so far sure as I haven't read it.
Noein is a series that blends simple slice of life high school stuff (without fan service) with parallel universe sci-fi to great effect. When done right, a story where there are different universes for every choice and many possible futures for every character is breath taking. It was amazing near the end when adult versions of the cast were shown briefly.
*phew*... It hurt having to do that twice. :(
Moving away from my lengthy descriptions, I notice you've just started Bokurano. I was torn about Bokurano when I watched it a month or so ago... it was definitely interesting to see characters die every other episode but it also made it uninvolving when characters died as soon as they received character development. When the lack of involvement was put together with clunky CGI fights and a horribly dull mafia sub-plot I had to rate it 7/10. I'm told the manga is better - You'll have to let me know!
I also notice you've started Code Geass. Wonderful first series, poor second - That's all I'm going say! :D
And, in one final paragraph before my finger falls off, I received my Vol. 1-27 Naruto manga box set today. I had a bit drama since it arrived a bit damaged but ended up managing to get £18 of the £60 refunded. I'll have a lot of reading to do!
/dies
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Aionic | 08-26-08, 6:03 AM
...I feel like killing myself because I just spent 30 minutes typing up a long reply and then closed the window by accident. :(
I'll try again when I don't feel like smashing my monitor. Just thought I'd let you know that I did attempt to beat you in the long post competition we're starting.
Here are what were the key parts of my message:
- Went to the dentist, had a painful injection into my upper lip. I let water drip out of my numb mouth and onto my jeans...twice, and in front of 2 attractive ladies.
- Some lovely person has voted all my reviews unhelpful.
- Out of the series I mentioned, His and her Circumstances is a series you will find hard to hate as a female and Now and Then, Here and There is an unmissable classic.
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Aionic | 08-25-08, 7:09 PM
Sadly, I haven't seen Mononoke or the other title you mentioned...but I have just added the latter to my neverending list of anime I won't live long enough to watch. It sounds interesting, it's highly rated, it's short and it ticks all my boxes.
By the way, after looking at your profile, I noticed that we've given near identical ratings to everything we've both watched. Either you're my long lost twin or you've been stalking/copying me! :) I'll be using your list to select a few more series I'll probably never get around to watching.
There are few glaring omissions on your list: No 'Now and Then, Here and There', no 'Berserk', 'Noein', no 'His and Her Circumstances', no 'Gunslinger Girl'...well, you get the idea. You've watched a lot and somehow managed to miss out on some truly excellent series that, if you are actually my secret twin, you will love. I can see you disliking the first two if you hate really depressing stories or are a feminist ( who would ignore me from this point onwards for suggesting such titles), though.
I also noticed something else: You've just finished Mushishi. After I force myself to marathon Code Geass R2 in 5 weeks, I'm going to watch Mushi due to everyone recommending it to me. If you feel like making your fingers ache some more, do you think you could tell me a little about it?
...damn, I type a lot of rubbish. I'm now going to finish re-watching Ronin and then head for bedfordshire as it's 3:17 AM in the UK and I have an exciting appointment with my local dentist to look forward to tomorrow. Talk to you later.
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