Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

Just out of curiosity, does anyone around here know of any good anime/manga centric forums?

I know larger sites tend to get crazy, but I figure it can't hurt to ask.

For now i decided to skip animes i dont like. Just couldnt bring myself to finish macross delta. I dont think its a bad anime. Its ok. But most ok stuff feels more and more like dragging garbage if it lasts to long. Some genius even said if a dream lasts to long it becomes a nightmare.

Gotta say, I'm really enjoying JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. I've not enjoyed an anime this much since Kill la Kill.

Just got done watching Death Note again for the second time. Looking for recommendations similar to it if there's any. So basically good drama. Plus, is there a good dubbed site anybody watches on?

Gundam Unicorn just finished up it's run last night on Toonami, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Definitely will watch it again sometime in the future to get the most out of it.

Anyhow, it's being replaced by the new Lupin the 3rd series next Saturday, and I'm pretty excited to see it

I would like to know this as well. Just finished this show recently and thoroughly enjoyed it, although the last part began to crumple a bit, less focused and lost potential IMHO. Still a great show though.

@Tsurii Thanks, both sound interesting if nothing else. I'll check them out.

Started getting into anime recently._ and already seen some great ones toradora..Your lie in april.._ snow white with th red hair._._fuuka could go on

Glad you liked it. Were those the 50+ minute OVAs, or the 0096 series, which was the TV edit version in Japan? I've been debating whether or not to watch that, since TV edits of OVAs don't always work out.

Anyways, I watch a ton of anime while was gone:

Rewatched Gundam Wing + Endless Waltz
Rewatched Code Geass + R2
Rewatched Gundam 00
Saw the Gundam 00 movie (which I hadn't seen before)
Finished Madoka Magica + all 3 movies

They were all amazing, far more than I had previously given them credit for.

I also watched:

Saga of Tanya the Evil
Kuromakuro

These were...less than fantastic, to say the least...yeah...pretty disappointing, actually. Kuromakuro was especially a frustrating watch, since a lot of the story hinged on its relationship between an ordinary high school girl and a samurai, but it just was not interesting in the slightest. It's like with Inuyasha, where I wished it was more about the dude and his accomplishemnents and how he adjusts to a radically changed Japan, rather than wasting all this screne time for a couple that just does not have much noticable chemistry. Without spoiling anything, that focus is the entire reason the ending is so anticlimactic, and for that it infuriates me to no end.

@CanisWolfred, as the episodes fit into the normal 30 minute timeslot, I imagine it was the TV edit (it was 9 or 10 episodes in total, I believe).

I pulled myself together and finished macross delta but i still dont like it.

Sinbad no bouken was also not really good and felt rushed at times. But it was still enjoyable enough and sin is a good looking hero with a nice aura.

0096 was 22 episodes, last I checked...so either you have a bad memory, or you only saw half of it? I mean, Gundam Unicorn itself was 7 episodes, but each one was between 55 minutes and an hour and a half...

Mobile suit gundam unicorn re 0096: At first i didnt like it much. Its my third gundam and it already felt too much of the same. Also the characters were really boring especially the mc and the princess feels off putting. I almost disliked banagher when he basically begged to be the princess slave not too long after he met her . But i accepted him and i think its only natural to feel the urge of being needed by the person you love. Sometimes its just strange to watch lovers.

The cast felt kinda realistic but there really was no one i liked unlike in orphans with many likeable people. Luckily the mc and his friend grew a little bit on me. Now i think banagher is more soothing than boring.

The rest is good mecha action and political affairs with the typical moving-from-one-faction-to-the-other-stuff.

Id say until the last episdes it was good enough. They really grabbed me. I could feel it and even got a little bit of tears into my eyes. I love it so much when a series ends this good.

The new Lupin the 3rd premiered on Toonami last night!

I was a bit disappointed by the opening, as it doesn't come close to the vocal track of the original, but the show itself looks like it's going to be fun. It's so far more lighthearted than anything else on the block (maybe even moreso than DBS), and really the only show that isn't an action focused series, so it stands out. The art direction is both vibrant & unique looking too (it's like they took the late 70's aesthetic, and melded it to the modern world).

Got around to watching Attack on Titan Season 2 and catching up with the manga. I don't watch much anime, and I'm very selective as to what I watch, but it was definitely entertaining to watch. Despite having already read the manga up to that point, it was awesome to see how things turned out. I also enjoyed seeing less of the main characters and having more emphasis placed on the side characters. The fights were also pretty intense and I liked the overall feel of this season. Strangely enough, it seemed like it wasn't trying as hard to be all up in your face with things.

As for the characters. I don't particularly hate Eren, but he comes off as obnoxious at times. Especially when he gets into his psycho mode promising to murder and cause his enemies to suffer. It had me rolling my eyes, and muttering to myself "This again, you've said this so many times". I understand why he's the way he is, but he seems far to hot blooded, and hypocritical. Mikasa is a bit meh for me with her downright obsession with Eren, and Armin is okay. Don't have much else to say about him, he seems like one of the more normal one. The side characters were fun to watch for the most part.

Never watched the first season of kyoukai no rinne. But i liked the second season. Very solid series with likeable caracters and good chemistry between them. Really like sakuras gently cute aura. The poverty jokes didnt get old and overall the humour is good.

@crimsontadpoles @Tsurii Jojo is my favourite manga and anime, I liked the beginning because it felt so unique and different than other common shonen. To be honest, I prefer the first half of Phantom Blood than the second half and than Battle tendency. Battle tendency is good but it's not bizarre enough. Stardust crusaders, Diamond is unbreakable and Stone ocean are the best parts, it's with Stardust crusaders that the real fun begins. I think that Vento Aureo is disappointing because imo characters have not adequate motivations and the story itself is rather shallow and empty but I guess when one write so many different stories it's just normal that sometimes one of them is less good than the others. Still I like some of the characters from Vento Aureo, Giorno, Bucciarati and Abbacchio, and Abbacchio sub plot was very interesting and engaging

Glad to see someone else who enjoys Rinne. Just so you know, seasons 1 & 3 are just more of the same (though they progressively add more characters to get in on the shenanigans), as it doesn't have much of an overarching narrative (except for the vague goals of Rinne trying to escape poverty, and the secondary narrative of Rinne & Sakura's relationship, which advances & regressess based on what's needed for the comedy at any given time). But hey, if you like it enough be sure to check them out.

Most should do ya fine. Most of the OVAs and a couple movies would greatly benefit from prior knowledge, but it's hardly required for all but a few. Iron-Blooded Orphan would be a good place to start if you just want a self-contained story, as would Thunderbolt. Granted, neither encapsulate the usual tone of the series, and part of their appeal is that they're stylistically different from previous entries, but I doubt it'd have too much of an impact on your experience.

If you want to get into the whole of the franchise, I'll have to go to my usual standby: The original series, or at least the Movie Trilogy, which thus far are the only Gundam compilation movies I've encountered that are worth watching. It helps establish the basic tropes that the rest of the franchise pulls from for inspiration to varying degrees, and it's just a fun watch in its own right. Very detailed setting and good people pushed to the brink by the horrors war on both sides, without it feeling too heavy-handed or going to R-rated lengths just to shock people. It'll also give you the backround info for a lot of the side stories, including Thunderbolt and 08th MS Team, and I feel like it paints certain stories like Stardust Memories and War in the Pocket in a different light depending of if you're familiar with the events of 0079 and its direct sequels, Zeta Gundam and ZZ Gundam. Gundam Unicorn also benefits greatly if you've seen those three, plus Char's Counterattack, but really, you just need Char's Counterattack to get what's going on, because outside of fanservice and backround info, that movie is the only story it ever directly references.

Still, whichever ones you want to watch should still be fine, so long as they aren't direct sequels. And there aren't even a lot of those - I already named almost all of them. Here, I'll list the last remaining ones: Gundam SEED Distiny is the sequel to Gundam SEED, if not an outright retread. Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz and Gundam 00: Awakening of the Trailblazers are, along with Char's Counterattack, the only movies that directly follow the storyline of their preceeding TV series. Gundam Bulid Fighters Try is the second season of Build Fighters, I don't know why they named it differently. And there's a couple obscure OVAs that are still mostly self-contained, but are still side-stories within their respective subseries: Gundam SEED Stargazer (takes place during SEED Destiny) and Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 1 & 2, which are, along with the 7(!!!) other OVAs that take place within the UC Timeline, specifically during the events of the One-Year War. It's an anthology, though, and if I'm being honest, you could probably learn more about the UC setting from watching these OVAs than you would from watching the original Gundam series. I know I watched it soon after finishing 08th MS Team, and it really sold me.

...I hope I didn't scare you off with all of this like I did several others before you, but then again, I didn't have Iron-Blooded Orphans back then for me to go, "watch this great piece of standalone work!" in case they still don't want to dive into the enormous ocean that is the Gundam multiverse, of which IBO is a warm, luxurious lagoon within it.

So yeah, TL;DR - if IBO interests you, go with that. Thunderbolt is still ongoing, so I'm less likely to recommend that until it's finished. If you like them and want to dive into the rest of the franchise, I recommend going straight for the starting point, but it's also not that necessary, as IBO is one of the many "alternate universe" settings that they've been going with since G-Gundam, and even Victory Gundam and F91 before that were self-contained stories that take place long after the only long continuous story-thread had been tied neatly into a bow (and later double-notted by Unicorn Gundam, because hey, why not?). I don't believe it's nearly as intimidating as people seem to think it is. It's like being worried you won't enjoy Final Fantasy XV because you haven't played 1-14, including that mobile game based on Final Fantasy 7. You're not missing as much as you think you are, although I do still recommend trying the rest of the franchise at your own pace if you enjoy it. You just gotta start somewhere.

@RR529 Yeah im planning to watch the third season. Good to know it stays classy.

Just finished sansha sanyou. Its just another clone moemime that didnt moe me. Seriously the day ill enjoy shows of this caliber will be the day ill be someone like barry goodman. What i dont like about these shows is how cheap the protagonists often feel. All they seem to emanate is fluff and sugar without any substance. Im sure ive seen those girls with the same (aura) in other animes before, squeaking at each other and trying too hard to be kawai.

Id say it was a mediocre watch.