Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

@OdnetninAges : If I had to choose between the two, i'd pick the altered lines over bad actors. If a voice is bad enough it'll render a dub completely unwatchable to me.

@Mitsuko_Chan : I've seen it. The Americanizations in some episodes are pretty ridiculous, but overall it's pretty good. Nobita (Noby) sounds a bit old for his age, but that's not much of a problem.

Hellsing Ultimate is coming to Toonami.
http://myanimelist.net/forum/?topicid=1256813

Like sub or dub purely comes down to which you saw first and what age.

The dub anime I watched are stuff thats on TV but the sub anime i watched are series that are newer or just recently got a dub. So i cant really say i like both i guess XD

Well, it looks like after last week's poll thing (where they asked their viewers what direction they'd like to see the block go), the decision was to go darker...

Nvm, Disney Americanizing Doraemon? That's really odd to be honest... (Just like 4KIDS.... ಠ_ಠ) It's there an subbed version for Doraemon (2005) around?

So I've finally caught up to HunterXHunter and honestly, this is one of the best anime I've seen in a while, much better than SAO imo. Which I'll give my impressions on another time, since I have a lot to say about it. I put off watching HunterXHunter because of its cover art on Crunchyroll, but never have I been so wrong before. This show has some very dark moments, like very ! I don't want to give anything away, but that show has some off the deepest character development I have seen in an anime. Also the anime gets serious thumbs up for not having a single episode of filler unlike other popular anime out there. I give this show my highest recommendation. This goes right up there with FMA: Brotherhood.

Hunter X Hunter is a reminder that shonen characterization seems to be some bizarre evolution of stereotypical "Japanese honor" (though it might have evolved past that evolution in this case). Although it uses that in more mature and clever ways then most (read: the many botched "I need to be stronger" storylines in lesser shonen)

Maybe it's because I've gotten a bit more into (the (thankfully) saner parts of) feminism, but I really love Soul Eater's attempt at that. Because Maka goes through a really solid "I want to be stronger" storyline (so far from what I've read at least) and they walk the fine line between her being a girl being relevant to differences in that story without her being defined by her gender. Soul Eater isn't my favorite series but I really respect how well written it really is the more I think about it.

HunterXHunter was also censored in WSJ. weird black bars covering violent stuff. Only in the magazine do once in book form the bars werent there.

I wonder whats gonna happen once Bleach ends in toonami, are they gonna just replace it with another series or start from episode 1 and bump the show back in the line up?

@ELI-ASH, I've never read Hunter X Hunter, but from what series I have read, it does seem that WSJ does seem to be a bit more strict on the content it allows than other Shonen publications (particularly Weekly Shonen Sunday, which I've noticed seems to be more lenient by comparison).

As for Bleach on Toonami, I suspect that Dragon Ball Z Kai (which they've announced for a vague fall premier) will be it's replacement. However, I think Bleach will probably stick around. Possibly taking the final two slots of the block (much like InuYasha did before they had to let it go). It's sure as heck long enough to sustain two episodes a week...

Am I the only one who is irritated with Jump's way of cancelling good series, such as the late Stealth Symphony (RIP) and other promising series within 20 weeks if they aren't popular? I know from a business stand-point it's understandable, but it really is quite irritating when it feels like all sorts of good series are getting cancelled. Oftentimes series have to change significantly in order to survive (i.e.) KH Reborn, and other times even long running series are abruptly cancelled. Meanwhile, Naruto and Bleach which have been on their supposed "last arc" for 4 years party on down the road of awful writing...and get continually high ratings... ;_;

Jump's recently been putting previously cancelled series in other magazines, so it's not really too bad.

And am I the only one who thought Stealth Symphony was boring? Honestly, where's the potential people keep saying it has? :/ There were a lot of better and more unique ones that they've cancelled, IMO...

I haven't read much of it, but it seemed like it could go somewhere definitely, and it was being written by the guy who did Durara! and Baccano, which already sounds great. Since 20 chapters equates to 10 or less episodes, and it was being set up to be a long battle shounen, you can't really see just where it was going yet. Lots of people claim you can't get into shows like One Piece or Gintama till 50 episodes in (to be honest, all those people who talk about skipping the East Blue Saga, or up till Arlong Park (even heard of someone who started at Alabasta) just make me slap my face, I guess I'm one of the few who enjoyed it from episode 1) so I guess with Battle Shounen you never know. (Note, I've taken to calling them Battle Shounen, because it strikes me as a good way to distinguish the genre from the demographic Shounen, too many people refer to shounen as a genre when talking about these types of anime and completely miss that shounen is an insanely broad demographic. So, Battle Shounen, is what I call a shounen anime/manga that generally is long running, focuses on improving ones skills over a period of time, and fighting increasingly difficult opponents, generally)

Speaking of Gintama, I recently began that, and although I hear people saying its got an awful start, I must say I find the first two episodes (apparently filler) very funny. I also have started and almost finished Level E to get my Togashi fix now that HxH 2011 is ending, and I must say it's hilarious and excellent in its own way. I also began Nisekoi, just to sample a harem/romantic shounen since I can't say I've seen one before. I can't say it's terribly good, but I am enjoying it a lot and it is quite addictive haha.

Anyways, that's all for now.

Awful start? It's starts out with a bang and just keeps getting funnier from there.

I find think the people who thought the opening was "Awful" were probably expecting something more pure action-y, and were expecting it to be enormously great, because of all the hype the show gets. That said, I went expecting a wacky, reference laden comedy, and was very much fulfilled. I hear that there are "Serious" arc that occur every bunch of episodes (the first ones are apparently near the 20s) and are supposed to be fantastic, so I'm excited for those, but I'm loving the comedy the show is using, and am anticipating my next round of episodes tonight.

Ooh, so Gintama's really good? I was interested but was waiting till I heard other opinions.
It's going on my list then!

Yus, it's very funny. Also, the character development and plot is supposed to be amazing in the sparse "serious" arcs.

Also, if anyone cares, I've been brainstorming ideas for a battle shounen for a few months now...my art sucks, but I've got an illustrator possibly. Not to mention if I ever actually do this, it'll probably be a free webcomic.

Awww, it seems Crunchyroll is losing a bunch of titles August 31 at midnight...including 3 I really have wanted to see...My Ordinary Life, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Gosick. It seems pretty impossible for me to marathon Haruhi in that time considering my schedule unfortunately, however, I think I'll try my best to watch My Ordinary Life really quick. And they're losing one of my favorites, Lucky Star, but I've already seen that at least once.

Even in the one-off episodes Gintama often has its really touching moments, in between all the comedy. That's exactly the kind of comedy series I like - Comedy-ish

...Seriously? Wow. That really sucks...