Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

Toonami Saturday night!

Evangelion 1.11 - Really good overall. The animation was absolutely gorgeous, which helped the action to be very fluid. There wasn't so much techno babble as to where things got too confusing, and there were enough light hearted moments (though mostly early on) to keep things from getting too heavy handed. I also loved how they used real world elements to really bring home the idea that this was happening in "our" future (the heavy presence of the UN was the biggest contributer, but even the inclusion of Frito Lay, Doritos, & Yebisu did their part), which really helped immersion.

Evangelion 2.22 - Continuing on from the first, the animation & action continue to impress, but it does change things up by distancing itself from the original TV anime more than the previous film did. The biggest change was that Rei more obviously had feelings for Shinji (from what I remember, Asuka was the only one originally who cleary had such feelings, while here it's both), but maybe that's because they surprisingly took Asuka out of the fight (in the original, there was some other, I think male, student that was chosen to pilot that new Eva that became the 9th Angel. Here however, they made that Asuka, and they brought in a completely new female pilot to take Asuka's old Eva). I don't think I liked this one quite as much though, simply for the fact that it had much more techno babble, as well as completely WTF moments (especially at the end). Still a good watch, though.

Also, they had promos for Deadman Wonderland (which is returning next week), and one of those weird music videos they sometimes do.

I'm actually really surprised how little there will be to watch next season, at least for me. Nothing looks even remotely interesting that's new, and a lot of stuff is either ending this season or skipping Winter and won't return until the Spring. There are some nice movies coming out, but I don't really watch movies much...

That was me with this Fall season, but I ended up finding a few great shows so that made me happy.

For me there's at least a few things I'm gonna watch. Like Kamisama Hajimemashita season two, Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love! (this looks like the dumbest show I'll ever watch and I'm super pumped for it), The IDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls (I'm not really into this section of the franchise but I'll give it a shot), and Durarara!!×2 (Once I finally finish season one...)

Also I'll be all over that Psycho Pass movie!

Heh, I had more to watch this season than any other. And I'm actually enjoying most of them for once. I don't see anything that's even remotely within my area of interest, so I doubt anything will surprise me during the winter either. That's not to say there's nothing good. It's just that I don't like those genres (and two of the three that are action shows [Absolute Duo and World Break] are guaranteed to be trainwrecks). That said, while writing this I remembered that Love Bullet (made by the guys who did Penguindrum) is a thing, and might turn out to be a (very psychodelic) surprise. Yoru no Yatterman is also a thing, which I just learned about. Basically it's a sequel/reboot-ish/reimagining of an old super hero anime called Yatterman, this time where events are portrayed from the view of the "villain's side". I'm not sure if they're the same duo from Yatterman or what, but it looks and sounds really cool. I mean, it sounds like it'll basically be like if they reimagined Pokemon by making Team Rocket a complex and integral part of the plot. Not gonna lie - I've wanted that since I was 6.

Oh, and Rolling Girls looks like a ton of fun. I'm not big on slice of life (at least that's what it's labeled as) but I love it when they take place in interesting worlds, and this one's not holding back in that department. Why didn't I check this out sooner?

To easy my self back into anime I'm gonna start watching Beck. I meant to watch it a long long time ago but somehow just forgot. I won't be bothering to keep up with new stuff anymore but Rolling Girls that Canis posted does look interesting. Might check it out.

I feel like this thread has talked about Space Dandy, and Sgt. Frog in the past. (Cause those are some pretty dang great shows)

No offense sergio, but the only reason we aren't currently talking about One Piece, Trigun, Sgt. Frog, and every single other show you've got in your sig is because...we kinda already talked about most of those more or less to death as early as 6 months ago. ^_^; A few of us have been in this thread for years, and for some reason we don't get much new blood anymore (you and nazo are the newest ones we've had in months.). That said, I know what it's like to be odd man out. I'm big on older anime, and I don't like slower, slice-of-life anime, which often means I wind up talking at length about shows no one here really cares about. Never stops me, though. Also It doesn't help that when I am following new anime, no one else is...oh well, I still find it easier to talk about anime here than on anime forums, because either I'm talking to experts in the field who are way above my level, or I'm talking to jerks who have no idea what they're talking about. At least the conversation here is always calm and we all get to learn new things from one another.

@retro_on_theGo I have Beck on my list of shows to watch!...at number 51...

Does anyone here watch Parasyte? That's basically the only thing not discussed here....

that and Shin Sekai Yori.....

but that was last year....

Parasite I've heard great things about, but I'm under the impression it's horror-ish, which doesn't suit me. Same for From the New World. I'm sure it's a good show for what it is, I just can't stand horror. Though I'm tempted by The Flower of Evil at times...

It might be horror anime, but probably not the horror you think it is, and not the kind of horror I hate. I'd call Parasyte more of an action horror, and Shin Sekai Yori a...... I don't know what I'd call it. It defies classification. There's only a few scenes near the end that would qualify. And, neither have jump scares, so that's a plus.

Parasyte, upon further investigation has a lot more action and comedy than I expected. The trailers for From the New World definitely showcased a very dark and tense atmosphere. Maybe I'd watch it next halloween, but believe it or not, anime is the one genre/medium where I can't stand really heavy tones. Take Victory Gundam for instance: It's not even trying to be horror, but it takes no prisoners as far as character death goes, so every episode has me on edge, thinking that my next favorite character is going at any moment. It makes it really hard to watch. It's the only good Gundam I couldn't pull through and finish...and I finished SEED Destiny no problem...

Then never watch Higurashi.
I'm kind of weird. I like dark, atmospheric stories, but when it is just straight horror with jump scares, I hate it. And I hate horror movies, especially ones that don't try to do anything but scare you.

Too late, I already watched a clip that I will never unsee...back in 2011. _{the horror...}

I actually don't have much trouble with horror movies anymore. They're a bit formulaic, so it's easy to separate myself from the situation and not grow attatched to any of the characters enough that I'll miss them when they die. A goood horror movie actually will have me rooting for the monster/killer, IMO.

It's not like there's a lot of great horror anime anyway. I'm a bit of a horror buff when it comes to movies, so I'm always on the lookout for good horror anime as well and there's like... three. There's some good horror manga out there, but that's hard to find too.

Higurashi wasn't really for me though. Drastic sudden character changes for the sake of shocking twists, the plot resetting every few episodes, and trying way too hard to be edgy, I didn't make it through the first season.

@SpookyMeths - Which ones do you like, just out of curiousity?

Anime? The one most recent in my mind is Another. It had plot twists that make sense within context of the characters/plot and while it does have plenty of kick-you-in-the-gut moments throughout, it slowly builds towards a very intense finale. It's just as much mystery as it is horror though, which is probably why I found it so intriguing. You may not like it though, as it definitely does cruel things to characters that you like and there's no real bad guy to "root" for. The bad guy is a curse/force of nature.

Other favorites kind of stretch the genre a bit. Monster is a masterpiece, but it's not a horror in the traditional sense. It's a character drama with psychological horror elements. I would say the same for From the New World and Garden of Sinners.

Just for the heck of it, I watched an old anime OVA called Exper Zenon the other night.

An early 90's anime, it features an arcade gaming genius, who after replying to a strange message on his computer, is forced to engage in a real world game. 100 people from around the world are bestowed with an "Exper" suit (giving them superhuman powers), and the last one standing wins the game. Things aren't as they seem however, and our hero must find out what's going on.

It's about an hour long, and as for objectionable content, it features mild language & blood (nothing out of the ordinary as for your average Shonen stuff), as well as some fanservice (definitely not a main focus, but it's OVA status means that when it happens, mostly early on, it's a bit more risqué than what you'd usually see on a TV anime).

Also just noticed Crunchyroll got Magic Kaito 1412....that's a thing.

Still waiting on Yoru no Yatterman, though.

It's fine, but it's literally the 2nd adaptation of the series in the past few years and outside of there being more of it, I'd say the first one was mostly better. So yeah more than half of the episodes were literally adapted by a different company 5 or less years ago.

Toonami Saturday night!

Dragonball Z Kai - Missed first half. What I did see was Gohan going all ape,

Naruto Shippuden - The truth about Sai's mission comes to light (or does it? I'm still not sure whether or not to trust anything he says, which says good things about his character design). Decent enough episode, I suppose.

InuYasha: the Final Act - Pretty good episode, but still noticeably rushed. In the manga, InuYasha was so beat down after the fight with Dakki, that he had to recover in Kagome's time. Of course, this means that fight with Moryomaru didn't happen until later, and it wasn't where he absorbed the Adamant Barrage attack (In the manga, that actually happened earlier, in a confrontation that was written out of TFA).

One Piece - Another compilation episode. This time covering the pasts of Sanji & Chopper. Interesting.

Gurren Lagann - A compilation episode, recapping everything they've been through so far.