Aoi Bungaku, Aoi Hana, baccano!, Darker than Black, Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Gankutsuou, Genius Party, Gintama, Kaiji, Kino's Journey, Koguma no Misha, Kuchu Buranko, Kure-nai, Lucky Star, Millennium Actress,
Mind Game, Nana, Nodame Cantabile, Ouran High School Host Club, Saikano, Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, Seirei no Moribito, Shigurui, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo, xxxHOLiC
~ My Likes and Dislikes in anime world ~
Genre and Themes I like the most: Slice of Life, Psychological, Mysterious, Historical, Supernatural, comedy, Seinen, Josei, Dark Humor and philosophical.
Genre and Themes I usually don't enjoy (There are exceptions): Mecha, Action, Magical Girl, Sports, Shounen, Harem and Ecchi.
I like the type of anime that once I'm done watching it I'd be able to remember something amazing and creative about it. Preferably I'd like the plot to have something new and mind provoking to say, regardless of the genre of the anime. I do enjoy anime with great and inovative art that suits the theme of the anime (Best example: Mononoke). I also love witty and sarcastic comedy although at times I resort to a light romantic comedy just to cool off my head before going back to working on my projects!
I absolutely hate anime that drag the story and think that their audience are dumb. (Best example: Naruto) Plot holes and directing flaws bother me a lot specially if they are repeated throughout the show (Best example: Bleach). Completely generic characters bore the hell out of me and mostly annoy me. I'm also sick and tired of shoujo anime with a weak/sick and dumb girl as their heroine. I find their lack of personality pretty offensive! Anyway those are the most annoying factors that are enough for me to drop an anime once i detect any traces of them.
~ More About Me (if you care to read) ~
I am a second third year university student.
I've been watching anime since I was a kid.
I enjoy reading and love literature but I'm not into reading manga that much.
Other than reading books and watching anime, I watch movies, ride my bike and paint on my free time (which is not much considering me being a student and a part time worker who likes to hang out with her friends a lot!)
I'm gonna return with a longer reply. Right now wanted to ask which release are you following for Aoi Bungaku? I can't find a decent release past ep.2.
Oh, damn, pumpkin blew all over us. we were at the place excited for the gig and then a vga adapter malfunction and a chain of excuses from the organization. I think we are done with ThePub, time to get a deal with BoomBox :). A stage frequenter friend of mine have warned me about places; "expect anything from no payment to sell outs if no paperwork is involved", I now see how right he was. At least %70 of the material I got ready is salvageable for a general show. The rest will wait for a fright night or next halloween.
Launchpad got it's debut...yesterday! Gotta save 400 greenies for it :). Monome is a very flexible device and it's all handcrafted with a wooden board, reminiscent of good old times. I watched a video of Reactable on a Bjork show after you told me about it, the performer got really quick using it, better to be on the check out, grand for a big stage if we ever hit that.
By the way, I'm tuning on Trapeze, the 3rd episode is better for me than the last 2, I think it's slowly getting there. A usual writer's block and drawing inspiration from real experience theme contrasted well with the extravaganza of the show.
Forgive me for a rather grim look on Burton. Edward Scissorhands was one of the first movies I watched at the theater, I watched Beetlejuice countless times on tv, Nightmare B.C. is still one of the best movies that gazes from the other side. He made me shudder in excitement so many times, I still feel sympathy for him. For me Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd was genuine attempts to capture that essence, I wholeheartedly believe that.
Burton is as commercial as he ever was, not more, not less, he's simply trying to bring his gothic inspirations to audiences unleashed. Merely the fact that he chose Alice makes it obvious he's seeking shelter in the roots. Let's see how the parade turns out.
Nope I'm not the Dj and I'm not the Vj (to the left), I'm the eye and the mastermind there mwahahaha. So far our financial resources got depleted on two Macbook Pro's you saw there. There is at least half a year to complete the whole setup. Endgame is turning this into a total live show with music written live electronically by two performers as well. By then I gotta deal with my shyness and step into the visual seat.
Thanks for your enthusiasm, it's really appreciated considering most of the people there weren't even aware that the visuals were being performed :D. We have to get some contacts from İstanbul, that's where the whole scene is in Turkey (like any other bussiness area). Getting recognition there is primary to step abroad. Larger projection surface, better projector, eventually giant lcd screen is our dream, but that's not gonna happen at ThePub.
Reactable and such fancy new technologies are interesting, there are some years till they enter the end user market. I wonder what will happen when reactable gets customized for visual control, gotta lay my hands on one of these things. On the stage practicallity comes first, so customizable surfaces such as the modest looking monome and launchpad are the primary target :).
I'm looking forward to Doc. Parnassus, but don't let myself get excited about Alice. Burton has been dissapointing me way too long with his mediocre output from the late nineties till now. I know Alice is just his forte to boot with, I'll be happy to hug him back if he can deal with this in more than a fashion sense.
Ah right, Aoi is an adaptation and consisted of arcs, should have done my research before guess game :).
Buranko's 2nd ep. is more comprehensible and gets it's intentions clearer, they are not after realistic cases or drama. Show is prolly gonna progress on fantasies of dysfunctional individuals. Slapstick and door popper professor is still getting on my nerves rather than making me smile.
Normally other than programmable computer pieces we only use abstract minimal visuals from some shorts like Norman McLaren's. This time I go for scare&shock value, filmic material is too long to list, I went through early horror movies like Nosferatu to lots of B-movies and some of my favorites from Burton,Jeunet and Gilliam to lighten the mood. For anime Open Your Mind (Oshii's own AV), Karas, Gurren Lagaan's cheesy sequences, Genius Party+Beyond, Diebuster, a few crazy moments of NHK, Paprika, Mind Game made it's way in.
Well I grew up in a muslim culture, what's there for me to celebrate in Halloween? I think Halloween got imported to the metropolitan youth culture in the last decade here. It's just another excuse for people to get dressed up and party. A good chance for us showcase the stuff without worries, tis gonna be crowded anyway :). Since this one will be commercial with us doing the visuals and other djs, I don't think we are gonna cut an excerpt from footage. Two weeks ago was our debut, e-flyer and an excerpt is here.
Bokurano ended on a low note, the kind that deems -story is done, don't expect further resolution or information- so I may have to reevaluate that reccomendation :). But what I already told holds true, it's basically a series that's concerned with characters and mini stories than -uuu look at my mecha, how cool is that-.
Aoi Bungaku rocks! What a detailed series with cinematic storytelling, stroke me when I least expected. I hope it doesn't fail to deliver in the later episodes. We are given an interesting character study, I expect it to stay -inside- that character instead of -here's your monster, now let's see who'll gonna defeat it-.
Halloween is about to come, it'll be the first time I'll ever celebrate it...not by choice. We have an audio visual performance on a party, I edited clips from lots of horrorish movies including some anime. I was planning to cut some Mononoke for it, but noticed it won't work well with the gory material. It's time will come :).
Yea of course there are no set of rules one has to follow, it's normal for an engineer get interested in art. All my engineer friends do so. What I wanted to emphasize is the aspects of that interest. People tend to behave beneficially, they draw from what is easily avaliable and when they do, they do so primarily for entertainment value without having that much of an interest in the specifics. That's why the market (anime or otherwise) output clutter around some demographics. So save me the surprise element :P.
My scattered interest on everything prevented me from becoming a scientist while all my collagues flew abroad (tensor algebra was the point I yelled enough is enough). After various jobs I'm still not settled for life, at least I'm happy with being a nutcase and things are coming together at last.
I only watched an episode of F.L.A.G. yet and put it aside as a sure bet. I know what is there deriving from Gasaraki experience. I believe for these kind of works story doesn't revolve around characters, it is primarily the setting and progression of it as a whole. Since I commisioned for the job of watching Lotgh I'll wait for other similar shows that means serious biz till it's done. I'm not sure if you or anyone will enjoy FLAG & Gasaraki, these things float around the hard scifi line, still it's better to reccomend them instead of the obvious stuff.
When did Cowboy Bebop become old? OMG that means I grew old :D. I always considered it's production values as timeless, I don't think it'll fail to impress someone of the visual arts department. By the way you are pure evil with the grin and all.
I grew up watching Macross, so I never had problem purely with the existence of mechas, but I grew tired with the usuals the genre as well, so I'm looking for variations of it. Bokurano is using a twisted NGE template with the set of children cast inside a gargantuan (this time extremely big and bulky) robot and earth saving. Like I said it gives almost no importance to create adrenaline so even the mecha battles are dramatization of what precedes and follows. It isn't a show extremely pulping at the viever with tragedy, fit of rages and more concerned with it's mini stories. So it may remedy your hatred for mecha.
I wasn't aware you are studying to be an engineer, I assumed you are of social sciences or art deriving from your interests. It's nice to see someone outside of stereotypical engineer mold. Your real cure about mechas is Gasaraki, it's the only show that deals with realistic probability of armor suits appearing in near future. It takes part in an imaginary middle eastern setting (right before 2nd gulf war,eerie) introducing bipedal combat machines.
Very heavy on politics and details of engineering, I'm amazed how unknown and underappreciated it stayed. This director went on to direct F.L.A.G. if you heard it, a similar show that appealed to little audience because of its similar nature and documentary style.
Thanks for the birthday message and the C.C. picture as well.
Naw, I don't mind the examples at all. However I don't use real life movies as examples when discussing topics in anime. The problem I have when using that method is I have to look back at topics such as characters that I felt brought a great significance (within anime or manga) and then realize that their significance may not be as strong as it once was.
If real-life movies (or other non-anime material) were part in an anime discussion and it effects a vote (based on judging anime, manga, and characters) then we have to open the floodgates and let other non-anime related mediums effect an anime discussion. An example (possibly not the best one though) is to test the worthiness of Legend of the Galactic Heroes to other sci-fi series like Star Trek, Star Wars, or Battlestar Galactica. Bringing up the example of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is something to think about though.
Lol infesting virgin minds with anime. What was your choice for first injection? Depending on the person I vary, but Cowboy Bebop always worked.
Mononoke was mostly a shrink with a sword show, so it's expected for Buranko to bring forth heavy cannon psychology. Was it really necessary to adopt Japanese tv aesthetics like the interference of paper cut psychiatrist that pops up from a door occasionally?
I am perfectly fine with the choice of classical music for Lotgh, I can't come up with a more befitting choice. Though I am not an expert or heavy listener of classical, some ends up on my playlist, I particularly like the late romantics such as Rachmaninov.
They use it well for battle scenes rising to a crescendo. There were also many moments that I would prefer silence in the natural flow of the show that classical music does nothing more than emphasizing something grand in scale is going on. I'm not sure if the piece played is in accord with the scene all the time.
Talk about defective democracies, second season has a step by step portrayal of what can go wrong. I was planning to watch Lotgh in one go, but right now I decided to stop for easy digestion :). First done with Darker than Black which turned out to be better than my expectation despite the numerous cliches. Right now I'm enjoying Bokurano; a not so well known mecha show which goes light on the action and focuses on the drama, it's refreshing. I'll be checking Aoi.
There was something called midterms back in the day, right? And then there were finals OMG :D. I'm glad those aren't a part of my life anymore (or better definition would be -my life isn't revolving around them-) I don't know if you did it deliberately, but sending out your stock on external is a smart move to concentrate on exams.
I'm hanging on Kuchu, if it wasn't for Mononoke I'd have low expectations after such an initial episode. I guess Mononoke was way more traditional despite the unexpected but perfectly absorbed artstyle, I was sure what to expect from the first few minutes.
I love psychedelia, add to that Kuchu is filled with pop art and some gayness I have yet to comprehend. And it plays more like Zetsubou bombarding the viewer with images and styles without a payoff yet. But then I was skeptic to Mind Game for the first half hour which then I loved deeply. Let's wait what the content adds upto.
Lotgh is fantastic, I would have watched it a decade ago. It's so rare to see any show play on this scale zooming back and forth different elements of the setting. I now know why people are telling to hang for 20+ episodes. First season has some sharp corners, especially in the powermonger viliain department.
They are trimmed by the second season and it becomes a bizarre labyrinth of different motivations. I love how it let's the viewer into situational readings of the characters. This show is not a poseur laying partial information to viewer assuming that they'll be amazed when the revelation comes, everything is out in the open.
In the end my minor irritations are related with general space opera scheme. While Lotgh runs heavy on social sciences department, it lacks on physics. My physics graduate side is constantly bothered by this, in order to enjoy what's going on I try to revert to 2-D chess thinking as the show mandates. Then there's the problem with classical music. Lotgh is designed as an all-out climax so there's classical music playing almost nonstop. Most of the time it is tiresome and seems arbitrary than fitting the particular scene.
Even at my age it's exciting to see democracy contrasted with autocracy, to be honest I thought I was settled on these matters, it makes me reevaluate my outlook on society. I missed this feeling :).
Thanks for your reply and comment on the work I did in helping CnC. It is greatly appreciated.
Fair enough, but the problem I have when determining whether Balalaika is consider more original than Revy is how much do we know of Balalaika altogether as a character in Black Lagoon (whether it involves her past and relationships). Obviously knowing her past and relationships can be consider different or special in comparison to Revy but that doesn't always make her a better original character.
When it comes to knowing a character's past I like to see how it impacts the story or series (perhaps giving me more to think about) before I realize it is just another past story. Revy manages to achieve that (even though I can agree it is somewhat cliche) while Balalaika's past story doesn't bring all that much. The same can be said when it comes to relationships. I obviously would not mind how Balalaika and Mr. Chang had a decent relationship (especially considering they work in different organizations) but there isn't much detail on it. Considering the fact that Revy's relationship with Dutch gives me something more to think about, I would like to know what series (if you are interested in answering) made you realize it is an overuse idea.
I can't say what kind of world Kafka had in mind for Country Doctor at the start, but I think it's natural, even knowing Kafka reputation, to picture the bits more grounded in reality with realistic images. Then again, I've never been the artistic type and my imagination is a bit dull. I like how it gets progressively harder to picture, but I don't see how an animated version could have accomplished this. The metamorphasis starts with something surreal in the first, or maybe the second sentence, and I can see how Gregor's ease in accepting his fate, though he does seem to think it's a hallucination from stress for a bit, as an indication that the world isn't right to begin with, but in Country Doctor, you don't see anything like that until the horses teleport. 2 horses and a random groom in a pigsty is odd, but not necessarily surreal, at least not relative to turning into a millipede.
This goes for my issue with the narration as well. I don't particularly care for the two little things narrating his thoughts, though i can't think of a better idea. It creates a lot of stillness, but it does help in conveying the doctor's inability to act on his own desires. My real complaint though is that the narration not only misses the bitterness and desperation that the doctor feels, but it can make everything even more confusing with its monotone. There's a line where the Doctor sarcastically says "In such cases, the gods do help. they give me a horse, 2 because it's urgent, and they even give me a useless groom." The weird shrine prayer tone that the narration takes completely contradicts the text. It sounds more like "Yes! The gods do help. They gave me a horse, and 2 because it was urgent." At this point it sounds like he's being thankful, and when he mentions the groom, only then does it seem a little sarcastic, and awkwardly so since the tone completely doesn't match.
Now that i've rewatched the pigsty scene, i see what you're saying about him holding back at first. That's probably what the animators intended, but it looked to me like he was investigating the pigsty. When he bounds forward, he holds his head out for a second like he's checking it out.
To sum up, my real problem is the general ambiguity in the doctor's character. The text and most of the imagery is the same as the short story, especially now that i see what the pigsty thing was going for, but the only time you actually see anything is expressed is when he trembles with anger as he talks about how the family is basically taking rosa away from him. He has so many bitter lines, but they're all narrated as if they were prayer recitations. It pretty much goes against the faithful lines themselves.
I'm reading the metamorphasis now, and it would be the equivalent of putting all of gregor's thoughts in the same monotone. His thoughts feel human in the story, with all the normal compliment of emotions, and the doctor is the same way. Giving it that narration distances the character more from a normal person.
Ooh, you're like me then. I loved Higurashi and Umineko's first four episodes, but after that, it seemed both anime took turns for the less favourable.
At least Higurashi wasn't as bad.
Umineko is retarded. I can't find another word to describe it. It rides the short bus to school and wears a helmet.
I've had some uber fans come and tell me how wrong I am for thinking it is crap, and giving these long explanations from the visual novel it's based on. My point is--I don't care about the VN. I am watching the anime. And the anime is pure mess.
I suppose if you liked Chaos;Head you might like Umineko. I actually like all the things people seem to hate about Umineko.
I like the horrible, evil bitchy minor characters. The main characters SUCK, omg. Even Beatrice. She's like the lamest bad guy EVER. She was cool and interesting in the beginning, but then you realise that like everyone else, she's also just retarded. She's just evil and retarded.
