Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

It's also a pretty good show, too. I suggest giving it a watch, I'm pretty sure it's all on Youtube.

Actually, Turn A Gundam reminds me a lot of Ideon. Similar themes and pacing problems due to spending too much time on world-building. Hopefully Ideon gets this epic near the end, or even more so. Seriously, it only took about 45 episodes, but I'm finally left with a smile throughout an entire episode. I can't wait to see where it goes.

I found this promotional from Japan for some newly released One Piece figurines!

Sometimes I wish that I lived in Japan.

Hey, anyone remember that arcade game in the 80s by the name of Tower of Druaga? Yeah, they made an anime out of that. And what's even better is that they've made MORE anime out of it.

Yes, my mind was blown too.

Azumanga daioh....I love that anime. :3

Yes, I knew of the anime but I had no idea it was based off of a game from the golden years. I have to look up more of the game.

Is anyone else watching Kino's Journey and Blue Exocrist?

Kino's Journey is on my list of stuff to watch this year. I keep hearing it getting recommended over here and at AN, plus it seems pretty interesting. Blue Excorsist, on the other hand, is Jump Shonen. I can't stand Jump and I'm not really a fan of shonen in general, so I'll probably pass.

Wait, stop, strike that, reverse it.

Blue Exorcist isn't just your average Shonen Jump experience. Blue Exorcist is on a new level for Shonen Jump, it's in an orbit with The Edge Chronicles or Percy Jackson and the Olympians for lack of a better example. As much as I dislike to be cliche and say it's like Harry Potter, there isn't any other way around as it is indeed on that kind of tone and note.

It would be a shame if you missed out on Blue Exorcist Mickeymac, the show is just blatently good. It really could become the Harry Potter of anime and I'm saying this in all sincerity. The show has much heart and tenderness in it as well and I pray to God they don't mess up Blue Exorcist as I'm really enjoying it and want to see it stay on the straight and narrow and not get marred and redundant like most anime. Please don't let it go the way of Bleach either ShoJum.

Just in case you doubt me on the Potter-verse thing just take a look at the link below, take note of their uniforms for if that doesn't say Hogwarts then I don't know what does.
http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/21800000/Blue-Exorcist...

I have to agree with Tokyored on this one. At first I didn't care for Blue Exorcist, but the manga was on sale so I got it. As far as Shonenjump goes it's pretty decent. I like it from what I've read. I hear the anime adds more stuff though, and I've never seen the anime. There's definitely heart in there. I really like the main character's relationship with his brother. It's sad, heart warming, charming, and at times funny. The manga wasn't just fight after fight or dumb waste of time filler conversation either.
Once you get more amines out of the way I suggest you watch it Mickeymac.
_{I still haven't seen gurren laggan btw man. Sorry, if I can make time tomorrow after all the school work and studying I'll check it out.}

No need to bother with Tower of Druaga unless you've got time to waste, it's pretty mediocre and forgettable on all accounts. Even if you manage to get through the original anime, the sequel is plain badly written. I should've dropped it but apparently felt like torturing myself.

Kino's Journey (Kino no Tabi) on the other hand, is a masterpiece. Watch every OVA/spin-off/movie you can find after watching the show.

Honestly, from what I've heard about Blue Exorcist it's hit-and-miss, and given the small amount of anime I watch now I can only bother with the best of the best.

Man, are you serious? Blue Exorcist is hit and miss? That is a fib if I ever read one.

Just as you don't judge a book by it's cover neither do you judge a show by what you hear. The best way to determine if something is good or not is take a sincere look at it yourself with an open unbiased mind.

Blue Exorcist is in NO way a hit and miss at all, final, definite, end of story, BAM. As I have already said and I shall repeat it. Blue Exorcist is on the same high quality, captivation, clean, epic and well executed level as were the Harry Potter and Narnia movies. In my opinion, Blue Exorcist is the Harry Potter of the anime world and it far exceeds anything that Naruto or Bleach could ever hope to attain.

@TokyoRed It seems that you're very passionate about something.

As for Blue Exorcist, I saw the first episode and to me it can be summed up in one word; "bleh". I don't care, it's not that good, and there's no motivation to continue.

EDIT: Wait a second, you're comparing Blue Exorcist to HARRY FREAKING POTTER?!?! Alright, let's start this smack-down!

Passionate? Thou canst put a pin in it for yea, passionate about Blue Exorcist I am.

Oh, and let's not even get a smack down underway because I don't argue with anyone unless they have sufficient ammo to fire back at me with as it's unfair to wage a war against someone who is virtually defenseless without ample intelligence.

In order that thou mayest be able to understand why I am comparing Blue Exorcist to Harry Potter you must watch episodes II through III in order to see the path that Blue Exorcist has taken. I would say more so you could better grasp it but I don't want to give away spoilers to others who might want to watch without having their pie spilled aforetime. So please V8Ninja just pick up at episode II (with an open mind) and then come back here and we can have a Potter vs Exorcist smack down if thou so desirest it although I eschew violence even in words.

@TokyoRed After watching the first episode over again and episodes 2 and 3, I have to change my opinion of Blue Exorcist; It's alright. Like almost every anime show that's popular, it has potential, but IT'S COMPLETELY BOTCHED because it seems that every anime nowadays needs to appeal to a "Young & Hip" generation and exclusively to that generation, with Blue Exorcist being no exception.

@V8_Ninja, I do understand how you feel about the young and hip generation thing.

(Minor Spoilers Below)
Anyway, Is Mephisto a runaway from Gehenna who is trying to find Redemption from Evil? From the ending of episode V I would guess or suppose that Mephisto is attempting to formulate a Righteous Holy War against Satan and Hell? That was one confusing ending to say the VERY lest. Seriously, with such confusing elements and unexpected twist and turns this anime is getting better and better!

I recently watched the first few episodes of Hetalia: Axia powers and that anime is so funny. All the main characters are personified versions if different countries and each main characters' name is the country they are based on. Its a comedic anime with short episodes that are around 5 minutes and the episodes are often based on real events that occurred like World War one and two.

Yes, I started reading about that on Crunchyroll.com and I plan on starting to watch it as soon as I finish reach the tenth episode of Blue Exorcist. I also plan on watching Nabari no Ou and Glass Feet this week if not this afternoon.

Bamboo Blade isn't bad. A couple of major LOLs so far by half way through, but I can't help feeling there's something missing.

Check this out: http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2011/08/31-1/j-pop-summ...

School work ate up all my time today so I still haven't seen Gurren Laggan. >_>
_{I'm going to use the last few minutes to download the free NES games.}

Never underestimate my hatred for Jump, or Shonen in general, for that matter.

Do any of you guys read anime reviews? I never read reviews to decide what to watch, since out of the 20 or so reviews I have read, I've only agreed with 3 - Nihon's reviews of Gundam X and Turn A Gundam (which was spot on although I'd add some things) and ANN's review of Fractale (to a lesser degree. I agree that the SoL-like episodes felt like excessive filler and took a lot of focus away from the main story, yet I actually found that those episodes to be the most enjoyable and made the show stand out in my mind. It was the sudden dark and dramatic episodes that I felt were hard to stomach. Overall, though, the show did lack focus and felt like a mish-mash of 3 completely different styles that just weren't meshing, so overall I agree with the review. On the plus side, it introduced me to 3 very talented people in the anime industry, so maybe I'll get some better shows out of it).

Some of the reviews I disagreed with so hard I wondered if we even watched the same shows, most of which were from THEM reviews. Heck, I stopped reading reviews there after their horrible review of Gundam X, which was 3 strikes all in one - not only did I not agree with a single word of it, but the reviewer didn't even get a third of the way through it before writing the review. In fact, judging from a few sentences in the review, I think the reviewer hadn't even seen the show in a long time, and was judging it solely on old memories, which would explain some of the oddities in the review, such as the reviewer complaining that the show was too depressing, even going so far as to compare it to Evangelion. That's three strikes right there - not only does the show have a post-apocalyptic setting therefore making a depressing atmosphere appropriate, but it's actually rather cheerful for a Gundam show (very few character deaths, most people having positive outlooks, etc.). Even if it was depressing, comparing it to Evangelion would still be a gross hyperbole since very few shows match Evangelion's level of depression as far as I know, especially seeing as depression is the main freakin' theme of that show. All in all, that was one of the worst reviews I've ever read.

Sorry for the rant, I just had that bottled up for a while now.

Anyways, I finally finished Turn A Gundam. I think I was too hard on it at the beginning. Yes, it was very slow for much of the show, there was more filler than necessary, and the story was a tad confusing, but it all worked out in the end. After about 30 episodes it became compelling, and I thought the ending was pretty good. Not to mention the music was great and the action was intense and very heavy/realistic. I loved the setting, who knew WW1-America-with-Ancient-robots-being-invaded-by-_Martians Moon-people would be so interesting? The character designs were also very interesting, with a wide variety of styles and body types which made it so even the smallest side characters were unique and visually interesting. With that said, the lack of a consistant style did bother me - some characters looked cartoony while others looked hyper realistic, with everything in between. Of course, the style reflected the characters, but still, it bothered me. The mech designs, on the other hand, sucked royally. Yes, they were very unique and were kinda interesting to see in action, but that doesn't escape the fact that they were the ugliest and most bizarre mech designs I have ever laid eyes on. Also, for a show that was supposed to combine every timeline in the entire series, there were very few returning mobile suits - just the Zaku (which is a plus) and the weird ball thing from ZZ Gundam. Everything else had never been seen before. It would've been nice if we got to see more, you know?

The only other thing I didn't like had to do with the very end where Loran doesn't go with Sochie in the end. I really wanted to punch Loran as he walked away from her. I don't think there's anyone else in the series that cared about him more than her. Overall it was a good show. Still no where near a favorite of mine, but it was enjoyable and well worth watching.