J-E Discussion

[22sa]

I'll respond to you guys tomorrow, for now my brain is mush XD I just marathoned all of Freezing tonight because the final uncensored blu-ray rips finally got subbed, and I want those four hours of my life back so very badly now.

Haha... I understand. I didn't waste as much as 4 hours on censored To Love-Ru anime, but yeah.

 

[Arcanine]

I'll respond to you guys tomorrow, for now my brain is mush XD I just marathoned all of Freezing tonight because the final uncensored blu-ray rips finally got subbed, and I want those four hours of my life back so very badly now.

Freezing wasn't "bad" (like a lot of shows it had too much fanservice). But I wouldn't have waited until the blu-rays were out.

Ben-To. Pleeeeeeeeeease let there be a second season. Haven't laughed so hard at a non Gintama comedy in ages.

There's funnier shows out there then Ben-To or Gintama. Not saying they're not funny comedies... But still...

 

[Weeaboo Name]

Funnier than Ben-to, loads of things are but I haven't seen one air in a very long time. Gintama is a step above even the "serious" shows laced with humour most of the time though for me. I see you have it on hold at 20, It took more than 130 episodes for me to hold it in such regard so it's not surprising you don't like it as much.

Would like to hear your suggestions for comedy be it straight up or just a sub genre though.

And Freezing was terrible. The manga was better for a while but then

Spoiler:

she jumped in the water to save the person that ****** her up so badly she snaps when people touch her....after a fight with him and his pandora in which she and the main guy got the crap beaten out of them

I lost all respect for the series...not that it had a lot in the first place.

 

[Ryoutarou]

What did you think of Gintama before that point? My experience has been that the show is so rooted in Japanese comedy that it can be pretty hit and miss across the scope of things. It hooked me right from the first episode, but it's pretty much one of a handful of Japanese comedy centric shows I actually enjoy. (and then there are the times I watch just because, hey, it's got Elizabeth in it)

 

[Weeaboo Name]

I liked it from the off but it certainly got better as the episodes went on. There is a lot of stuff that would have gone over my head but for the annotations but even without that it's still great. People often say it picks up around episode 30, I wouldn't disagree but honestly I think it gets better and better. Yoshiwara in Flames is one of my favourite arcs from any show ever.

 

[Chairman Kaga]

Okay, catch-up time.

My theories on why PreCure isn't popular:
1. PreCure isn't a mature show for mature people such as myself.
2. It's too long to catch up with.
3. t's moe (more like kawaii) enough to be hated by the anti-moes, but not moe (actual moe) enough to be loved by the pro-moes. If that makes any sense.

Right now, I'm guilty of reason 2 with asdf backlog.

1. I can grant some people that without begrudging it, everyone has their own standards of quality and may just not find the show substantial enough to keep them entertained. Though viewing Precure as inherently immature because it's full of bright colors or targeted at girls is another matter entirely.

2. Each season with the exceptions of Max Heart and 5 GoGo are self-contained so that's generally not a problem. Just pick one that's been subbed and get to marathoning :p

3. Precure definitely has a strong otaku base but it really doesn't seem to be the same people that slobber over K-On, Madoka, Touhou, etc. For anyone who visits Danbooru, are any of you familiar with the artist Haruyama? He's done hundreds of Precure arts and specializes in fanarts of obscure series. If you want to talk about people who see Precure as a sort of alternative moe, he's a prime example.* On Pixiv and whatnot I've definitely noticed that Precure fan artists tend not to do a lot of arts for series that pander conventional moe, so I do wonder what sets Precure apart. Is it, perhaps, the fact that the girls are assertive and don't need protecting? That the show doesn't overtly sexualize them?

*

Spoiler:

For his less work-safe images, he even focuses on "alternative" fetishes. Instead of T&A we get a lot of pantyshots, upskirts, waki, etc. in the Precure arts.

Basically, yeah. And I think it's perfectly okay for people not to like it because it's too girly, we can't all be bronies. I just think it's weird for people to chastise it as this irredeemable children's dribble when stuff like One Piece, Bleach, Gundam, and whatnot have always been aimed at children. I dunno, it just bugs the ever loving crap out of me when certain blog sites treat this stuff as if it were leprosy.

Sins was a really great show and sort of what got me back into anime after a dry spell of not being interested by much else. I tend to have a much shorter tolerance period with most anime than I do with other shows, if it doesn't hook me in the first two episodes, I'm done with it. Sins just grabbed me right from the get go, heck, from those first few seconds before the opening, and never let go. The character designs were amazingly unique and stylish in that respect. I guess it was one of the reasons I thought it would attract hard core otaku, but it seems like Nana Mizuki's name was more of a draw. (which is a shame because I think Suit is a genuinely better show sans the animation, but I still like the designs of that show quite a lot)

I don't think that the anime community will ever get over the stigma of toyetic/mahou shoujo shows. Shounen shows are deemed perfectly acceptable, I assume, mostly because they make their profits without incorporating the stuff they're trying to sell directly into the show, and so people basically write things like Precure/Bakugan/Cardfight/Pokemon/etc. off as something incapable of having an entertaining plot and characters because the merchandising is more front and center. It's ironic for most Western anime fans who were kids in the 80s or 90s because a lot of the things we watched as kids were just to sell plastic crap and we have tons of nostalgia toward things like He-Man, Power Rangers, Transformers, Thundercats, etc.

Oddly it took me a few episodes to really start falling in love with Sins, but the art and the superb Wada Kaoru music got me through the initial period. I think I wasn't expecting it to be so episodic at first, but once I accepted that it was, everything was great.

Sadly gonna have to disagree with you about Suite being better than Heartcatch, not just because of the animation, but I thought that the Desertrian battles were just generally more meaningful than Negatones. Defeating Desertrians involved resolving whatever personal or emotional conflict that caused the character-of-the-week's Heart Flower to wither, and it could be surprisingly emotional sometimes. With Suite, Note + nearby object = instant Negatone. While Negatones are sometimes created from objects that are relevant to that week's story, there just isn't as much buildup and tension in Suite fights (although the Negatone Jeopardy episode was the best episode of any Precure series EVAR.)

Hibiki and Kanade oddly don't have that much chemistry either even though the whole point of the show is that they're trying to mend their friendship. Hibiki's personality just completely overshadows Kanade's by such a huge amount that I barely notice Kanade until she's transformed into Cure Rhythm, even when she's in the show the whole episode. I don't know that Siren has been integrated into the cast all that well either and Cure Muse joined the team too late in the series, I think.

Of those two I was planning to watch Haganai but then I saw the art work they used for the show, I'm not usually picky about art but the manga just looks better. I might watch it when the manga is a little less fresh in my memory though.


Ben-To. Pleeeeeeeeeease let there be a second season. Haven't laughed so hard at a non Gintama comedy in ages.

Bu...bu....that awesome Denpa Onna style! Haganai is the closest thing we have to a SHAFT anime this season, how could you pass that up?

Ben-To is indeed hilarious, I just wish the emphasis hadn't strayed from the fights in the past few episodes. Sadly I don't think that the show is doing that well, I guess they're changing it into a harem comedy in a last ditch effort to get some blu-ray sales.

Freezing wasn't "bad" (like a lot of shows it had too much fanservice). But I wouldn't have waited until the blu-rays were out.

There's funnier shows out there then Ben-To or Gintama. Not saying they're not funny comedies... But still...

I'm not going to lie, there's only one reason why I would wait a whole year just for the uncensored blu-rays to all be released. Well, two reasons. Beyond the obvious, I couldn't stand that the show was inexplicably aired in 4:3 and basically just had each side of the image chopped off. But in regard to the...ahem...more obvious reason for watching the blus, it pretty much failed in that regard for me.

I only ever saw the first episode before deciding to wait for the blus, and it really misrepresents what Freezing is about. I was expecting Boobvangelion, but three-quarters of the series is one giant boring arc about a steady stream of girls with sticks up their asses about the fact that Satellizer is stronger than them challenging her to successive duels. Boobvangelion finally kicks in in the last couple of episodes, but it was such a shameless Eva ripoff in plot device (pretty much THE ANGEL IS APPROACHING TERMINAL DOGMA! IT'S TRYING TO REACH LILITH!) that it's ended up being one of the most miserable viewing experiences I've ever had.

Funniest anime I ever watched is probably either Cromartie High School or Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei. The first half or so of Excel Saga is also hilarious.

Funnier than Ben-to, loads of things are but I haven't seen one air in a very long time. Gintama is a step above even the "serious" shows laced with humour most of the time though for me. I see you have it on hold at 20, It took more than 130 episodes for me to hold it in such regard so it's not surprising you don't like it as much.

Would like to hear your suggestions for comedy be it straight up or just a sub genre though.

I never got more than a few episodes into Gintama but I do want to try it again. The humor did absolutely nothing for me at all, but everyone says that it gets consistently excellent eventually. Like any remotely long-running shounen show, the setup episodes can be a chore to marathon. One Piece bored me to tears for the first 40 or so episodes, but then the Arlong Park arc happened and it's up there with my favorite anime of all time now, 500+ episodes in. Maybe I'll make Gintama the next thing I marathon after this interminable Sailor Moon marathon I'm currently trying.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

You know what, I never saw the Eva similarities, was probably too distracted by all that plot.

Cromartie and Zetsubou-Sensei are both great in fact i scored them 8s and 9s putting them alongside Gintama, Azumanga, Moyashimon and Hidamari.

Marathoning anything that is episodic can be tough, the arcs be they "serious" or comedy do make the show go faster. Quite sad to be up to date now. D=

edit..
So I just got up to date on Penguindrum, gonna need one hell of an ending to tie all of this together.

 

[Ryoutarou]

Sadly gonna have to disagree with you about Suite being better than Heartcatch, not just because of the animation, but I thought that the Desertrian battles were just generally more meaningful than Negatones. Defeating Desertrians involved resolving whatever personal or emotional conflict that caused the character-of-the-week's Heart Flower to wither, and it could be surprisingly emotional sometimes. With Suite, Note + nearby object = instant Negatone. While Negatones are sometimes created from objects that are relevant to that week's story, there just isn't as much buildup and tension in Suite fights (although the Negatone Jeopardy episode was the best episode of any Precure series EVAR.)

I think there are basically two kinds of Precure shows, the kind that focus on the superhero aspect and the kind that focus more on the day to day story revolving around the characters, and I think Suite sort of falls into the second category, so that at times does lead to the monsters of the week feeling a little tacked on. This is probably the one aspect I dislike the most about the series, but it's actually not been the biggest bother for me. At times I sort of sigh at how easy it would be to connect a Negatone to the story of the week, basically as early as the third episode where the Negatone was a stringed instrument, I thought it would have had a bit more meaning if it had taken control of the piano. In the long run, though, it doesn't quite bother me as much when I consider what I think the show is trying to do.

I think this is one of the few aspect HeartCatch did better, and that's strange for me because when HeartCatch does focus on that aspect of itself, it becomes less enjoyable. It' at its best when the show is focusing on the things like Tsubomi's lack of self-confidence, Erika's lack of self-awareness, or Itsuki's self-image problems since it hits them all pretty dead on and realistically.

Hibiki and Kanade oddly don't have that much chemistry either even though the whole point of the show is that they're trying to mend their friendship. Hibiki's personality just completely overshadows Kanade's by such a huge amount that I barely notice Kanade until she's transformed into Cure Rhythm, even when she's in the show the whole episode. I don't know that Siren has been integrated into the cast all that well either and Cure Muse joined the team too late in the series, I think.

In regards to Kanade feeling as if she's there, I see her as having decent chemistry with Hibiki, but at the same time feel like the show's trying to portray how differently matured in their time apart. I think the overshadowing is something that plagues most Precure series, so it's something I've grown used to. And coming off HeartCatch's second half of "HEY GUYS IT'S CURE SUNSHINE SHE'S THE BEST CURE EVER WAIT NO ACTUALLY IT'S CURE MOONLIGHT NOW" I kind of expected the same would happen here because HeartCatch and Suite share the same producer. It's something that is a little more obvious when you start out with a small number of leads, but from the start I always figured Hibiki would be the one getting most of the focus and, admittedly, it is a bit of a flaw, but I don't mind too much because I enjoy her as a character so much. I'm not sure that Siren has integrated with Hibiki and Kanade all that well either, but at the same time I'm not sure if that was the point to her character. I mostly like her because I do enjoy having characters around for a while before they transform so that first transformation feels like the conclusion of their initial story arc and they can then blend into the larger story.

I can't say much about Muse because...I'm not that far yet! I'm not sure I'll dislike it to be totally honest. This mostly comes off me watching Sentai where all the main characters are usually introduced by the first 17 episodes or so, but when a series like say the 2006 series, Gekiranger, introduced its final main character at episode 30, I liked that because it felt like a bit of a shake up to the formula. I sort of think along the same lines with Pretty Cure since they do share a crazy amount of writing staff and what I like in on franchise, I tend to like in the other.

 

[Charizard★]

Ryoutarou, the new Kamen Rider theme I see, it's pretty cool.

Anyways, I'm saving up some money to add on to my manga collection, which I'm trying to restart. Going to Barnes & Nobles to get the manga, does anyone know if they have coupons/membership discounts/etc.?

And anyone have suggestions on what series I should get? I have about $140, and I was thinking about buying Blue Exorcist and CardCaptor Sakura or something.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

If you can find them I would buy;

Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan
Voices of a Distant Star (much better than the film)
Yotsuba&!
Sakura
Beck
Welcome to the NHK
Goth
Azumanga Daioh
Mirai Nikki
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Battle Royale (first one as the second one kinda sucked)
Aria/Aqua
----
Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
Hidamari Sketch
Black Lagoon
Spice and Wolf

That's from memory so I've probably missed some good ones but oh well. Also I believe all of them are licensed over in the US but i'm not 100%

 

[digi-kun]

Ryoutarou, the new Kamen Rider theme I see, it's pretty cool.

Anyways, I'm saving up some money to add on to my manga collection, which I'm trying to restart. Going to Barnes & Nobles to get the manga, does anyone know if they have coupons/membership discounts/etc.?

And anyone have suggestions on what series I should get? I have about $140, and I was thinking about buying Blue Exorcist and CardCaptor Sakura or something.

I would actually reccommend Right Stuf if you're in the states. They've started their 12 Days of Savings sale, so you might find something you're looking for there. Also because (my local) B&N has really decreased how much manga they've been holding since Borders shut down. Also how Tokyopop is temporarily dead as far as manga goes right now.

As a reccommendation, get Pluto. It's a retelling of Tezuka's Astro Boy story arc "The Greatest Robot on Earth" by Naoki Urasawa (Author of Monster), and it's really, really good. 8 Volumes at 10-13 each

 

[Weeaboo Name]

Edit...wtf was I talking about last night. -___-

Anyway, just downloaded Star Driver in 1080p. Sparkles.

Edit....

Is it bad that I killed Ika?

 

[parallelzero]

Guys, this season is ending soon. ;.;

But I've already picked out most of what I'm watching next season. Nisemonogatari, since I finally finished Bakemonogatari this week, Another, Aquarion Evol,and Rinne no Lagrange for sure, but I want to check out Inu x Boku SS, Symphogear and Gokujyo.

 

[Weeaboo Name]

I am saddened that I will be losing Beno-To but not so much the other stuff. Another, Daily Lives of High School Boys (gotta replace Kimi to Boku), Kill me Baby, Miniskirt Space Pirates (will be the best show of the season), Nizumono and (unfortunately) ZnTF are my definitly trying. There are a few others that I might like but whatever.

Decent anime series count has been rising again after a poor 2010/

 

[Lawrenсe]

I'm as well saddened by the near end of this season. There was a decent collection of anime; especially Guilty Crown which I recently started perpetuating.

As for the next season, I have yet to see the updated list; can anybody provide that list, please?

 

[Zet]

Has anyone else see this trailer for the Madoka english dub? https://vimeo.com/33740013

 

[Weeaboo Name]

Here's one.

Finished Major S6. I shall miss that show, surprising considering I don't like Baseball.

 

[parallelzero]

Has anyone else see this trailer for the Madoka english dub? https://vimeo.com/33740013

Ow... that is awful. I feel like I'm expecting too much for a magical girl anime dub, but still... Madoka's voice is horrific.

 

[Chairman Kaga]

Worse than any of the voices is the freakishly stilted pronunciation they're using for Madoka.

MADo-ka. MADo-ka. MADo-ka. Trying to sound Japanese when you're speaking English just doesn't work. It's like when Simon was called "SHEE-moan" in the Gurren-Lagann dub in an attempt to be ultra-faithful to the Japanese even though it's only pronounced that way to begin with because of the lack of a "si" sound in the language. Sounding natural to English language/inflection/etc. trumps enforcing total authenticity, IMO.

Come to think of it, most of my favorite dubs are for shows where there are few Japanese names or terms.

 

[Jack O'Neill]

Ow... that is awful. I feel like I'm expecting too much for a magical girl anime dub, but still... Madoka's voice is horrific.

Many female voices in the original Japanese are far worse. This dub's not particularly bad, just lackluster.