Topic: Anime & Manga (NO SPOILERS PLEASE)

Toonami Saturday night!

Bleach - Boring filler episode. It wouldn't have been so bad, but those "fights" were just so anticlimactic. Looked kinda pretty in HD, though.

Naruto - Wow, fantastic episode. Seriously, any show that has a "Kai-O-Ken" imitation that cool is fine by me That was pretty intense, too. Tied as my episode of the night.

One Piece - Luffy getting all up in arms about the "talking" pigeon is the highlight of this episode. That was some hilarious stuff.

Soul Eater - I'm mixed about Black Star's issues (just like I'm mixed about the character himself). On one hand I like his diligence & determination, but on the other hand, he's way too arrogant (so much, that he falls into annoying territory, IMO). Maybe it would do him some good to be more humble.

Sword Art Online - Tied for my episode of the night. Looks like things may be looking up for our hero, and this new world is just as much a treat on the eyes as the old one (those flying controllers look like Wii nunchucks, lol).

FLCL - I've always had a love hate relationship with this episode. I adore the baseball theme that permeates the episode, especially the climax, but the robotic dad thing is always unsettling, lol.

Also, T.O.M. had some great words about respect (seriously, someone should post a link to this speech every time someone's being condecending on the forums).

Now time to wait for InuYasha to come on. Surprisingly, over time, my rewatch of this has become my most anticipated part of the night. Not really sure what it is, I just gravitate to this show...

This image of Mako from Kill la Kill episode 7 concerns me greatly.

(It's especially worrying when you realize that Studio Trigger aren't slouches when it comes to animation.)

I don't get it...

Read the numbers as a sentence.

Hint; 51 = Season 1.

Oh, you mean they're hinting there might be 101 episodes? o.l

I'm a copuple of days late but, Katekyo Hitman Reborn is easily one of my favorites! I remember that when I started I wanted a comedy anime and it was really funny but when the action started it only got better and better! I recommend it!

@CanisWolfred
So after Skypiea is Water 7, then Thriller Bark. That's when Brooke and Franky respectively come in right? Are they as good as Alabasta?

Also, I'm kinda wishing that I didn't know Robin joined their crew beforehand, now whenever Miss All-Sunday comes up I know she's going to join soon.

Just finished up the newest chapter of History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi!

so apparently in March Toonami is getting Blue Exorcist.

Toonami on Xbox One Saturday night! (seriously, they acted like T.O.M. was running the block through the XO interface, while he and Sara got in some Forza 5. Kind of ironic, lol)

Bleach - Despite being filler, this was a fun episode. The two major fights featured here were exciting & animated wonderfully for Bleach filler. (other than the fact that they had freakin' Kenpachi lose his fighting spirit so easily. He's been cut up 10X worse than that in the past, and it only made him more excited)

Naruto - Aww man, I was actually rooting for the hefty kid... (overall good episode though. Lots of setting up for future events)

One Piece - This was a pretty good episode. The well being of Usopp was a shock (I think that's something this show does really well. It looks all goofy & cheery on the surface, but when someone gets messed up, they get messed up to an almost alarming degree), but it looks like he wants to proove himself. Go get 'em Usopp!

Soul Eater - Lots of surprising developments here. I'm not believing Medusa for a second though... (Death the Kid easily had the best scene in the entire episode, not surprisingly).

Sword Art Online - Episode of the night! Of course, that sleaze bag introduced a couple episodes back just has to be in charge here (the first villain wasn't evil per sé, he was just a perfectionist that went way too far in trying to realize his dream project, but this new guy, it'll be enjoyable seeing him get the crap beat out of him when the time comes). As for the true identity of Kirito's new companion, I saw that coming a mile away (athough it's stupid that she doesn't realize who he is in real life, given that his avatar is almost identical to his real life appearance).

FLCL - When a show has crazy a** gun fights, a Lupin III parody, & a South Park parody in one episode, you know you have a winner.

@kkslider5552000, That sounds interesting. Will have to look it up. The only sad thing is (at least for me), that it's looking more & more doubtful that they'll ever get the Final Act (I know they were looking at it initially, but it was too expensive to get the airing rights at the time. I don't think that would be an issue for them anymore, given the brand new shows they've been getting, but it looks like it's faded from the picture...). I guess I'll see what happens once they finish up with the original series next fall.

I finally got around to finishing Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet and I gotta say; I enjoyed the show. Despite the off-putting middle of the show, the beginning and later half of the series is very enjoyable light sci-fi. Sure, the show isn't here to change anything and there are some problems with it, but overall it's delightful to watch. I also like how the show ended the heavily-handed romance between what appear to be the main characters. Rather than go full-out lovers, it's simply left at the "They're Very Good Friends" stage.

Anyways, let's go down the list of series I'm currently watching, starting with a bang;

• Kill la Kill (Episode 8): Man, this series is starting to live up to the amount of escalation that everybody was expecting the show to head towards. And, dare I say it, I prefer the escalation of Kill la Kill over that of Gurren Lagaan, at least in concept. Kill la Kill is inventive with its escalation, whereas Gurren Lagaan is pretty standard when it comes down to it. Granted, Gurren Lagaan thrives off of having great execution rather than having inventive ideas. So far it seems that Kill la Kill has both execution and inventiveness on its side.
• Kyousougiga (Episode 4): While I continue to enjoy this series, I am a bit confused as to what the series wants to be. The first two episodes of Kyousougiga expected the viewer to be able to gather and extrapolate the proper information at a very fast pace. However, in the fourth episode the series almost entirely dropped that pretense of trusting the viewer and basically told its story blatantly without any major thinking required of the viewer. Granted, I'm still liking this show, but I definitely see this uncertainty in audience trustworthiness becoming a major issue if it's not resolved one way or the other.
• Outbreak Company (Episode 5): I'm really contemplating whether or not I should continue this series. On one hand, there's potential for interesting discussion. On the other hand there's this episode, where the plot twist of the episode is an otaku's wet dream.
• Log Horizon (Episode 7): I'm going to call it; this is the MMORPG anime of the decade. It's way better than Sword Art Online. Or rather, it's not as disappointing as SAO.
• Samurai Flamenco (Episode 6): And here we are; Samurai Flamenco is all decked out and ready to take on much more serious enemies. As this series has continued to escalate, I doubt we're going to be stuck with fighting street criminals for very long. Also, the show is still pretty good in almost every respect.

And finally, before I bid you adieu, I should point out that Kokoro Connect has 4 additional episodes that Crunchyroll does not list on their website. So yeah, time to go surfing the not-so-legal side of the internet.

SAO is quickly losing me with this new arc and I am so sad about this. They abandoned important storylines so quickly and for such stupid reasons it's like back when I watched wrestling. Just...no.

So I watched Gravity today and the first thing I did after getting back home was listen to the Planetes ED. Dang, I really need to go back and finish that show!

I also saw the complete Bakuman collection at a bookstore for about 100 dollars - got super tempted but held off because I didn't want to carry a huge box back home lol

oh and @V8_Ninja I basically got those four episodes spoiled for me by online communities. They don't really sound like something that I'd enjoy though - I thought that Kokoro Connect had one of the strongest initial episodes but kind of teetered off towards the end. Episode 13 wasn't satisfying, but I don't feel like an OVA could bring it back to episode 1-5 quality

So, what are your favorite "modern" anime shows? (for the purpose of the question, I guess any "modern" anime is one that is digitally animated, which I believe started to become common practice during the early to mid 00's).

Gundam UC and Space Battleship Yamato 2199, because they're the only ones that even try to recapture the magic of older-era anime while using modern animation techniques to take those ideas further, and still being fantastic shows in their own right.

if by digitally animated you mean with CGI, I'll say Gatchaman Crowds and Tiger and Bunny(though, thankfully, both aren't 100% CGI)

this is a redundant question for me considering most of the anime I've watched are from the last 10 or so years.

Nope, doesn't have to be CGI. It's very rare for any anime to be made up of physically hand drawn animation cells in this day and age.

Even if it's in 2D, the vast majority of anime nowadays is animated digitally on a computer (it's the reason why so many early-mid 00's anime look "glossy" & cheap, because that's when they first started adopting digital animation. They've gotten a lot better using digital animation though, since then, even though the cheap "glossy" look can still be a problem nowadays, just look at the Kenichi anime).

As for my favorite "modern" anime:

5. Deadman Wonderland
4. Soul Eater
3. Sword Art Online
2. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
1. InuYasha: the Final Act

DW would probably be higher if it weren't so short, and if you don't think I:FA counts (since it's just a continuation of the original, which started out hand drawn), just move everything else up a spot & throw in GitS at #5.

So I started watching Fairy Tale and...
...
...
I like what I'm seeing. Plus Ezsa seems like an older, more mature Cordelia (Fire Emblem: Awakening), so there's that too. Consider this snagret's feathers ruffled.