Damn, it's been a long time since my last reply (looks like a little less than a year now), sorry for taking so long to reply. I did figure I would take a while but things got a lot busier than I expected with the past year due to college work. It's not as though I had no free time but I tried (and mostly failed) to catch up to anime during the chances I had, I never got around to finishing everything even from the fall season and I'm pretty behind with the ongoings over the past couple seasons as well. With summer vacation around again though I have a lot more time so I'm hoping to catch up to a lot of anime while I have a chance.
Thanks, glad to see that you like it, it's fun coming up with things to add to my profile to make it a bit more interesting. Sometimes I see neat things other people put up on theirs that catch my eye and incorporate them on my own if I find them interesting enough. But yeah I definitely get what you mean, there are things I want to update at times but it's too easy to try catching up to anime instead and so there are some things that have stayed on there for a while unchanged even if I want to update them.
So I actually got around to both of those since my last reply, though in the case of Mushishi I read the manga. Hotarubi no Mori e was a rather nice watch, it was short but it was a heartwarming watch with some bittersweet feelings at the end, I do wish it was a bit longer to flesh out the characters more but I rather liked it all the same. Mushishi was a solid read as well, it's not totally my cup of tea (personally I'm not all too big on episodic stuff) but it was really well done and I can see why the anime community is fond of the series. It has really interesting world building and the stories are pretty sophisticated, each chapter almost feels like a one shot and if I take it that way, pretty much any given chapter is better than most one shots I've read in the past. If I had any complaints about it, it would be that because of the episodic nature there isn't a whole lot of time to get invested in characters (personally I'm big on characters above any other element in anime, or any narrative form in general) but Ginko was a good main character tying everything together and the characters were still rather effective for their individual stories. I'm not sure how the anime differs from the manga (I assume they'd be more or less the same, though chapters are a lot quicker to finish than anime episodes) but one day I would like to watch through the entire anime to see how it compares in terms of presentation. And sure thing, if you ever get around to any of my favorites (or if you already have since we talked and I just haven't noticed) then do let me know what you think of them, hopefully you enjoy them a good deal as I did.
How'd you feel about Zankyou no Terror overall? For me, the beginning and the end were both really enjoyable but I feel like the middle of the series wasn't as great. I guess my expectations of what the series was meant to be didn't quite match up to what it ended up being. The story was a bit unclear about the motivations of Nine and Twelve early on so I was a bit disappointed when the reason for their bombings ended up being as straightforward as it was.
As for SAO season 2, I actually ended up enjoying it more than the first season. GGO ended up being my favorite arc since I found Sinon to be one of the most compelling characters of the series and it was one of the only arcs that really seemed to give Kirito any substance to his character beyond just being incredibly OP with his whole PTSD conflict from killing some of his enemies. If anything I feel that arc's biggest problems were the villains being underwhelming (something relatively common for the series already and probably worse before) and season 1 just not adapting things properly given some events mentioned in S2 were never addressed at all back then. Mother's Rosario wasn't a bad arc either and a nice change of pace, though I was a bit disappointed that despite Asuna getting a bit more focus it didn't feel like her character actually benefited much from getting more screentime than Kirito that arc. It looks like you didn't enjoy S2 as much as S1 though, what were your thoughts on it?
Jojo is a really fun series, I'm a big fan of the manga and I was definitely excited to see it get a new anime from the very beginning and enjoyed what I've seen of it. I watched the first season of Stardust Crusaders and enjoyed it a good deal, though I haven't started the second season where (in my opinion) Stardust Crusaders really proves its worth and has some of the greatest moments of not only that part but perhaps of the series as a whole. It looks like you finished season 2 though, how was it for you? I'm hoping to pick it up soon since it'll be great seeing the Vanilla Ice and Dio battles animated as I really enjoyed those in the manga.
Well, I'm pretty late on this so a lot of the seasonal stuff is long done, but some of my favorites from summer season were Tokyo Ghoul and Ao Haru Ride. Tokyo Ghoul is my type of story with the gray morality conflict between humans and ghouls and I rather enjoyed seeing how Kaneki coped with his situation. Not too long ago I watched season 2 as well, although I found it a bit disappointing since some of the story events seemed incoherent and Kaneki's character felt almost nonexistent in that season. This was really solidified when I read the manga, as most of the events from season 2 take place in the manga as well but are explained a lot better and make more sense (Kaneki, for example, doesn't join Aogiri in the manga, which actually does wonders for the logic of the story) and despite Kaneki feeling really lacking in personality in the second season, he was an absolutely amazing protagonist in the second half of the manga and a really interesting character that pretty much drove the story. I've seen people complain about how the anime adapted Tokyo Ghoul's manga, and I'd say that while there are a few awkward changes in season 1 and a sense of rushed pacing near the end, season 1 was largely a solid adaptation of the first half and that complaints were exaggerated by the manga fandom. In my opinion though, season 2 didn't do as good a job of presenting the manga story and omitted quite a few important plot and character details. As for Ao Haru Ride, in a lot of ways it feels like a typical shoujo (or at least what I imagine one as since I don't usually watch/read those) but the execution was refreshing and I found the two leads really likable throughout the story. I'm not sure how it compares to other shoujo anime but I enjoyed it quite a bit and wouldn't mind more.
As for fall season, of the things I did get around to finishing, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works was probably my favorite since I'm a big fan of the VN. It was really neat seeing everything in really nice animation and I think the anime did pretty well in presenting the VN material with good pacing and changing a few things up to make it interesting without taking away from the source material's intention. I have yet to start the second season though, that's where most of the great moments of the route take place, although I've heard some VN fans complain that this season wasn't adapted so well so I hope I end up enjoying it regardless. Another series that caught my eye was Parasyte as it seems to have the kind of appeal that Tokyo Ghoul does and I've heard people say it was executed better so I'm curious if this is true. I've seen the first 3 episodes but it's way too early to make any reasonable conclusions about the quality of the story that early on. I'm planning to pick it up pretty soon (probably after I finish Hunter x Hunter, which I'm watching right now) so hopefully it won't disappoint.
To make it a bit more relevant, since the new summer anime are starting pretty soon, some titles I'm looking forward to are To Love-Ru Darkness 2nd (the first season of Darkness was really enjoyable and imo it propelled the series above just being ecchi comedy, even if a lot of that still remained), Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz (more animated Fate material is always good, and it's interesting seeing how Prisma Illya ties into the overall Fate universe and the roles the characters take in a different setting), Gatchaman Crowds Insight (the first season had a really interesting concept and I'm interested in seeing where this new season takes the story), Ushio to Tora (I know very little about this beyond a friend saying the manga was really good, so I figure I might as well pick up the anime since it's starting), Classroom Crisis (the writer of White Album 2, one of my favorite anime, is writing this as well, not sure what that means for this series since they seem nothing alike but I'm interested in finding out), Durarara!!x2 Ten (I still have to watch the new season from winter but I loved the original), and Charlotte (more Jun Maeda stories are always good since I'm a huge Key fan). Which ones are you most interested in?
Well it's been a rather long time since my last reply, so how have you been? Anything particularly interesting going on? Have you picked up any great anime lately?
Just as a heads up, I'll probably be slow in replying. At the moment I'm trying to catch up to a bunch of anime/manga and blog stuff (both of which are going at a very slow pace) so it might take a while before I respond to you and I apologize in advance for that.
Anywho, nice favorites. NGNL, DN, and CG are all great series, sadly I have yet to see Mushishi or Hotarubi no Mori e though. Yuno's one of my favorite characters as well and Izaya's pretty awesome.
So what's up? Anything interesting going on? Have you picked up any particularly notable anime as of late?
All Comments (3) Comments
LMFAO I lost it right there
Thanks, glad to see that you like it, it's fun coming up with things to add to my profile to make it a bit more interesting. Sometimes I see neat things other people put up on theirs that catch my eye and incorporate them on my own if I find them interesting enough. But yeah I definitely get what you mean, there are things I want to update at times but it's too easy to try catching up to anime instead and so there are some things that have stayed on there for a while unchanged even if I want to update them.
So I actually got around to both of those since my last reply, though in the case of Mushishi I read the manga. Hotarubi no Mori e was a rather nice watch, it was short but it was a heartwarming watch with some bittersweet feelings at the end, I do wish it was a bit longer to flesh out the characters more but I rather liked it all the same. Mushishi was a solid read as well, it's not totally my cup of tea (personally I'm not all too big on episodic stuff) but it was really well done and I can see why the anime community is fond of the series. It has really interesting world building and the stories are pretty sophisticated, each chapter almost feels like a one shot and if I take it that way, pretty much any given chapter is better than most one shots I've read in the past. If I had any complaints about it, it would be that because of the episodic nature there isn't a whole lot of time to get invested in characters (personally I'm big on characters above any other element in anime, or any narrative form in general) but Ginko was a good main character tying everything together and the characters were still rather effective for their individual stories. I'm not sure how the anime differs from the manga (I assume they'd be more or less the same, though chapters are a lot quicker to finish than anime episodes) but one day I would like to watch through the entire anime to see how it compares in terms of presentation. And sure thing, if you ever get around to any of my favorites (or if you already have since we talked and I just haven't noticed) then do let me know what you think of them, hopefully you enjoy them a good deal as I did.
How'd you feel about Zankyou no Terror overall? For me, the beginning and the end were both really enjoyable but I feel like the middle of the series wasn't as great. I guess my expectations of what the series was meant to be didn't quite match up to what it ended up being. The story was a bit unclear about the motivations of Nine and Twelve early on so I was a bit disappointed when the reason for their bombings ended up being as straightforward as it was.
As for SAO season 2, I actually ended up enjoying it more than the first season. GGO ended up being my favorite arc since I found Sinon to be one of the most compelling characters of the series and it was one of the only arcs that really seemed to give Kirito any substance to his character beyond just being incredibly OP with his whole PTSD conflict from killing some of his enemies. If anything I feel that arc's biggest problems were the villains being underwhelming (something relatively common for the series already and probably worse before) and season 1 just not adapting things properly given some events mentioned in S2 were never addressed at all back then. Mother's Rosario wasn't a bad arc either and a nice change of pace, though I was a bit disappointed that despite Asuna getting a bit more focus it didn't feel like her character actually benefited much from getting more screentime than Kirito that arc. It looks like you didn't enjoy S2 as much as S1 though, what were your thoughts on it?
Jojo is a really fun series, I'm a big fan of the manga and I was definitely excited to see it get a new anime from the very beginning and enjoyed what I've seen of it. I watched the first season of Stardust Crusaders and enjoyed it a good deal, though I haven't started the second season where (in my opinion) Stardust Crusaders really proves its worth and has some of the greatest moments of not only that part but perhaps of the series as a whole. It looks like you finished season 2 though, how was it for you? I'm hoping to pick it up soon since it'll be great seeing the Vanilla Ice and Dio battles animated as I really enjoyed those in the manga.
Well, I'm pretty late on this so a lot of the seasonal stuff is long done, but some of my favorites from summer season were Tokyo Ghoul and Ao Haru Ride. Tokyo Ghoul is my type of story with the gray morality conflict between humans and ghouls and I rather enjoyed seeing how Kaneki coped with his situation. Not too long ago I watched season 2 as well, although I found it a bit disappointing since some of the story events seemed incoherent and Kaneki's character felt almost nonexistent in that season. This was really solidified when I read the manga, as most of the events from season 2 take place in the manga as well but are explained a lot better and make more sense (Kaneki, for example, doesn't join Aogiri in the manga, which actually does wonders for the logic of the story) and despite Kaneki feeling really lacking in personality in the second season, he was an absolutely amazing protagonist in the second half of the manga and a really interesting character that pretty much drove the story. I've seen people complain about how the anime adapted Tokyo Ghoul's manga, and I'd say that while there are a few awkward changes in season 1 and a sense of rushed pacing near the end, season 1 was largely a solid adaptation of the first half and that complaints were exaggerated by the manga fandom. In my opinion though, season 2 didn't do as good a job of presenting the manga story and omitted quite a few important plot and character details. As for Ao Haru Ride, in a lot of ways it feels like a typical shoujo (or at least what I imagine one as since I don't usually watch/read those) but the execution was refreshing and I found the two leads really likable throughout the story. I'm not sure how it compares to other shoujo anime but I enjoyed it quite a bit and wouldn't mind more.
As for fall season, of the things I did get around to finishing, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works was probably my favorite since I'm a big fan of the VN. It was really neat seeing everything in really nice animation and I think the anime did pretty well in presenting the VN material with good pacing and changing a few things up to make it interesting without taking away from the source material's intention. I have yet to start the second season though, that's where most of the great moments of the route take place, although I've heard some VN fans complain that this season wasn't adapted so well so I hope I end up enjoying it regardless. Another series that caught my eye was Parasyte as it seems to have the kind of appeal that Tokyo Ghoul does and I've heard people say it was executed better so I'm curious if this is true. I've seen the first 3 episodes but it's way too early to make any reasonable conclusions about the quality of the story that early on. I'm planning to pick it up pretty soon (probably after I finish Hunter x Hunter, which I'm watching right now) so hopefully it won't disappoint.
To make it a bit more relevant, since the new summer anime are starting pretty soon, some titles I'm looking forward to are To Love-Ru Darkness 2nd (the first season of Darkness was really enjoyable and imo it propelled the series above just being ecchi comedy, even if a lot of that still remained), Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz (more animated Fate material is always good, and it's interesting seeing how Prisma Illya ties into the overall Fate universe and the roles the characters take in a different setting), Gatchaman Crowds Insight (the first season had a really interesting concept and I'm interested in seeing where this new season takes the story), Ushio to Tora (I know very little about this beyond a friend saying the manga was really good, so I figure I might as well pick up the anime since it's starting), Classroom Crisis (the writer of White Album 2, one of my favorite anime, is writing this as well, not sure what that means for this series since they seem nothing alike but I'm interested in finding out), Durarara!!x2 Ten (I still have to watch the new season from winter but I loved the original), and Charlotte (more Jun Maeda stories are always good since I'm a huge Key fan). Which ones are you most interested in?
Well it's been a rather long time since my last reply, so how have you been? Anything particularly interesting going on? Have you picked up any great anime lately?
Just as a heads up, I'll probably be slow in replying. At the moment I'm trying to catch up to a bunch of anime/manga and blog stuff (both of which are going at a very slow pace) so it might take a while before I respond to you and I apologize in advance for that.
Anywho, nice favorites. NGNL, DN, and CG are all great series, sadly I have yet to see Mushishi or Hotarubi no Mori e though. Yuno's one of my favorite characters as well and Izaya's pretty awesome.
So what's up? Anything interesting going on? Have you picked up any particularly notable anime as of late?