Anime/Manga uguu?

[ShyRayq]

I actually preferred Adolescence of Utena to the TV series; the characterization was more interesting, the symbolism got amped up to eleven (turning into cars, I ask you!) and the ending was much more satisfying. Utena was still a pretty good series - although I'd say it was far more formulaic and predictable than Tutu - but I think the movie just did a better job with the cast and the concept.

...plus it swapped their hairstyles around, and I think Utena looks better with shorter hair. xD

I haven't watched the movie yet; I will eventually. I thought the TV series was symbolic, but I didn't really..feel it? Kind of. Not that I didn't, just that it was obscure. I mean, what does Miki's watch mean?! I mean, some episodes were really obvious in their symbolism, like the later episodes with Akio's car and stuff, but some episodes just felt like...episodes. I don't know, I guess I got my expectations a bit high, especially after watching something like Lain.

Don't forget the ravens. :P

...and the prince...

 

[Dusk]

I actually preferred Adolescence of Utena to the TV series; the characterization was more interesting, the symbolism got amped up to eleven (turning into cars, I ask you!) and the ending was much more satisfying. Utena was still a pretty good series - although I'd say it was far more formulaic and predictable than Tutu - but I think the movie just did a better job with the cast and the concept.

...plus it swapped their hairstyles around, and I think Utena looks better with shorter hair. xD

I enjoyed both the film and tv series well enough. The design and style of the movie is richer and the car shenanigans are fun.

I don't know what it is about this particular scene but it makes me laugh every time.

Spoiler:

Nice frilly interior, Shiori.

Sometimes I wonder how the rest of the cast would like like if they could have transformed into cars, too. But I'm getting a bit off topic now. xD

I suppose what I liked about the tv series was the time taken to develop each character. Yes, it was very formulaic.. but the introspection intrigued me. Some people are confused just by the show's symbolism, but I think it's a lot easier to digest than the movie where it's compressed and amped up into such a short span of time. I wonder what the studio could have done with the show if they had a larger budget... more like the movie, perhaps?

I haven't watched the movie yet; I will eventually. I thought the TV series was symbolic, but I didn't really..feel it? Kind of. Not that I didn't, just that it was obscure. I mean, what does Miki's watch mean?! I mean, some episodes were really obvious in their symbolism, like the later episodes with Akio's car and stuff, but some episodes just felt like...episodes. I don't know, I guess I got my expectations a bit high, especially after watching something like Lain.

Ah, the infamous stopwatch! ^_^
No one really know what it means exactly. Not even Ikuhara, apparently. Some fans theorize that Miki is aware that time is.. off at Ohtori, as seen in the Black Rose Saga, among other examples. But I dunno. Maybe it has to do with his obsession with the passage of time, like how he'd probably like to literally stop time and go back to his "sunlit" childhood? Who knows. There are many elements laced with symbolism in Utena. Sometimes the creator put it there for a reason, and sometimes it's there just 'cause. ~_~

 

[Altairis]

Well K-On! is basically No Plot: The Anime. Unless you like cutesy stuff it's not worth the watch.

I really don't really understand why K-On is so disliked for its lack of plot but the Slice of Life genre is still pretty popular?? Nichijou had no plot yet I only see praise for it; stuff like Clannad, Hyouka, and One Week Friends are also slice of life... Hyouka even has basically the same setting but its "mysteries" go across more than one episode so I guess that's why it's not pointless? I'm... a big K-On fan xD

 

[Candy]

I really don't really understand why K-On is so disliked for its lack of plot but the Slice of Life genre is still pretty popular??

I'm confused as well. I mean, it's a Slice of Life. It's supposed to depict everyday life. Heck, most shows follow the cute girls doing random things and they aren't bashed as much.

K-On! is supposed to be a heartwarming show that gives you the fuzzies type of SoL. Sometimes no plot is okay, 'cause you'd get tired of watching them eventually. It's supposed to be a refresher. At least, in my view.

I've watched plenty of these types of SoL since I need something simple once in a while.

 

[ShyRayq]

I guess it just came out at the wrong time and got the wrong crowd? I don't know, the openings for K-On are good in my opinion and it doesn't look THAT bad. Actually, I'd say it doesn't get that much hate.

SoLs are good and relaxing to watch. Aria is a prime example of just relaxing, quiet, happy and cute things. It's very..soft. Like a cloud.

 

[KingRin]

I really don't really understand why K-On is so disliked for its lack of plot but the Slice of Life genre is still pretty popular?? Nichijou had no plot yet I only see praise for it; stuff like Clannad, Hyouka, and One Week Friends are also slice of life... Hyouka even has basically the same setting but its "mysteries" go across more than one episode so I guess that's why it's not pointless? I'm... a big K-On fan xD

The thing is I'm not a huge Slice of Life fan. Nichjou is liked for its comedy. Like that's the selling point for most people. Clannad still has a somewhat "coherent" plot. While K-On! is episodic and it's just cute girls doing cute things. It didn't even feel all about music. I don't know if things changed in the second season. I haven't watched Hyouka nor Isshuukan Friends so I can't give an opinion about them. Also the huge hype K-On! gets really ruins some peoples experience or just rubs some the wrong way.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

I really don't really understand why K-On is so disliked for its lack of plot but the Slice of Life genre is still pretty popular?? Nichijou had no plot yet I only see praise for it; stuff like Clannad, Hyouka, and One Week Friends are also slice of life... Hyouka even has basically the same setting but its "mysteries" go across more than one episode so I guess that's why it's not pointless? I'm... a big K-On fan xD

Some people are weird and don't like cute girls doing cute things.
Or they don't like fun things being fun.

 

[derozio]

Okay, let me tell you people something -

I practically hated an entire genre because of K-On! for two years or so.

I'm not kidding. The first "slice of life" anime that I ever saw was K-On! It was being marketed as a "sensation" and had advertisements where the girls were constantly singing and looking pretty while doing so. The animation looked shiny. I liked that.

Then I saw the episodes. And all I saw was Yui being clumsy and laughing and the girls eating cake and drinking tea (or coffee whatevs). There was no music, or, at least, not as much as I'd have liked based on the advertisements. Okay, I accept, the advertisements for the show are to blame and not the show itself since my expectations were distorted from the beginning. Yeah, fine, I accept that.

But it was all so pointless. So, so pointless. There was NO plot. Nothing. Granted, I saw like two episodes instead of watching 8-10 but I saw nothing in it apart from pretty girls eating cake and making merry - at that point of time, I used to watch anime to experience worlds. To experience tales of adventure, of romance, of action - anything. But there should be something. And K-On! lacked that something.

And I associated this lack of "something" with Slice of life shows in general. And for a good two years I avoided any show with a "slice of life" tag because I thought they'd all be pointless "no plot" shows like K-On! was.

Then I saw Clannad, Anohana, One Week Friends, Barakamon, Welcome to the NHK, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, OregaIru, Hanasaku Iroha etc. And no, even though they all do belong under the same genre, they're not like K-On! in the sense that they possess a coherent plot. Everything that a character does in an episode carries some weight - their actions seem like they have some significance. Something, I'm afraid, I can't say for what I saw in K-On!

Don't get me wrong, I'm still open for giving K-On! another shot in the future sometime. But it definitely isn't fair to group it up with other slice of life anime imo because they do have something going for them while K-On! just comprises of girls being cute and making you feel warm and fuzzy inside (if you're into that kind of stuff). There's no "plot" - at least nothing I saw when I last watched it.

again, no offense to any K-On! fan over here. But these are just my thoughts on the show. and sorry for the tl;dr. XD;

 

[Candy]

K-On is so overrated imo. As much as it's a cute, fluffy anime that's supposed to cheer you up with its plotlessness, people praise it way too much. It's annoying.

The manga has almost the exact same plotlessness, but hey, it's a yonkoma. They don't play music that often in the manga either, not that you could hear any of it lol.

 

[derozio]

I don't even know if I should call it overrated. Because I see people who like it and ones who hate it in equal amounts. So it kind-of balances things out. I like its opening and ending songs though. They're very catchy.

Oh, and I'm watching digimon btw. Just downloaded 30 eps of the first season in preparation for tri. <3

 

[Skip Class]

I've never watched K-On! and I don't think I'll ever plan to tbh. It's not that I hate it or anything, it's just looks too cute and fluffy for me - it's more or less that I don't really watch most things that have a full female cast (or main female cast) I guess.

As for Digimon. I feel like I should have a rewatch of Adventure before Tri. kicks in... but time ;-;

 

[Sonata]

I don't see myself watching K-On. Ever. I hardly even know what it's about and I already hate it because it's literally everywhere. And from what you all have said I'd probably end up killing myself before I even got through the first episode.

And as far as digimon goes, I'd watch any season of digimon over the pokemon anime for Kanto, Johto and Hoenn. Which are the only ones I actually enjoyed.

 

[ShyRayq]

I find Digimon fascinating. It's got a cool world, cool monsters and all that good stuff. I myself only saw a bit of the original in Dub format. Where I really got the experience was Digimon Frontier. Good god, those transformation sequences. I'd watch the eps just for that. Just a lot of screaming. I loved it.

Despite all of that, I'm afraid I won't be watching Tri. I've got a lot of anime I want to watch next season, but Tri ain't one of them.

 

[Skip Class]

I watched all of digimon with the exception of Xros Wars in dub. It's like, when you have the english voiced etched into your brain from childhood, it's not easy to get into it's Japanese version - so watching Tri. will be pretty interesting for me. I loved all the digimon seasons - Frontier especially was one of my favourites!

 

[Sonata]

I'm really glad to see that I'm not the only one who really liked frontier. Literally everyone I know irl who's seen the first 5 seasons has said that frontier was so terrible that even data squad was better. I thought frontier was a nice change of pace and I would watch it every morning before school when I was younger and it got me a lot more excited than any of the previous seasons and was much much better that data squad. I do need to hop on and watch Xros wars though before I start tri.

 

[pkmin3033]

I loved Frontier! Unlike Tamers - which I couldn't stand - it had a decent cast of characters, and some truly fantastic villains. The humans-becoming-Digimon thing was a bit...strange, but it didn't detract from the overall story or my enjoyment of the show. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the original series, but it was still one of the better series, I think. Dynasmon and Crusadermon were amazing, and Lucemon reminded me a bit of Mithos. After Daemon got given the brush-off in Adventure 02, and Beelzemon turned out to be an absolutely rubbish antagonist, it was nice to see a Demon Lord take center stage and be a persistent threat.

...the less said about Savers and Fusion, the better. xD

Watching tri in Japanese is going to be jarring for me, too...I'm used to dubs when it comes to Digimon. I hope they dub it with the original voice cast in the future, but until I get word of that, I'm not prepared to wait for it. I'm hoping if they do dub it that it means there is a possibility of some of the better Digimon games getting localized, too.

 

[Candy]

I guess most of us watched Digimon in dubs instead of subs. Then again, how old are they? Obviously if it's part of our childhood then dubs are usually the preference in watching haha. The only season of Digimon that I've watched in subs is only Frontiers. I tried watching the others in subs, but I can't get over their voice. I'm just so used to the English dub version haha. Same goes to Frontiers and the English dubs, can't get used to their voices.

And man, I actually like Digimon Frontiers. The first four seasons were really great. Savers wasn't really that good imo (I only watched 'til episode 8 before getting bored haha, and it was during my gotta-watch-all-Digimon-seasons phase), and Xros Wars was horrid. Maybe it's because of the whole humans turn into Digimon concept that made people turn it down, but at least there's a consistent villain unlike the previous seasons where the villain constantly changes.

Plus, Lucemon shows no mercy to anything. He's awesome as a villain haha.

 

[Skip Class]

It's funny how I actually forced myself to watch Savers for the sake of watching Digimon and for some reason I ended up actually liking it. I hated Savers to begin with because of the large change between the first 4 season and Savers, but after a while I ended up really like it. Xros Wars I also ended up having a lot of fun watching despite what a lot of people think of it. Then again like I have said previously, I still haven't watched the second part of Xros Wars, but I did enjoy the first and hunters nothertheless. Once I get the time out of Uni, I'll sit down and rewatch all of Xros Wars and see if my opinion changes.
I am a weird one xD

I really need to find the article again because I found it interesting where a mother let her child watch Digimon but mixed up the order on how he watched it. Not quite sure what the order was but I remember Savers being first, Tamers being second ( I think) and then both Adventure 01 + 02 show side by side and Frontier being the last three. The boy said he liked Savers the best since he watched it first which was quite interesting.

 

[pkmin3033]

That doesn't sound too strange to me, I think it's a pretty common thing where people will like the first instalment of a franchise they see the most, even if it isn't necessarily the most popular one. I think a huge part of popularity is down to what you see first, as you use it as a standard by which to judge what you see in the future, whether consciously or otherwise.

My first Precure season was Suite, which is easily one of the least (if not the least) popular in the franchise, but it's my favourite season. By contrast, I loathe the fan favourite, HeartCatch. I didn't like the Advanced seasons of Pokemon very much because it wasn't as exciting or interesting to me as the original series. Similarly, I didn't like Tamers or Savers because I felt they were weaker versions of Adventure, which had a much stronger cast and more interesting villains to me. If I'd seen what I didn't like as much first, I expect my opinion would have been reversed and I'd not be as excited for tri. Stuff has to be radically different now to attract my attention a lot of the time; it's difficult not to have standards or expectations based upon past enjoyment.

...or maybe it IS weird, and I'm just weird for thinking that. xD

 

[Skip Class]

Only thing I just a bit meh about in Xros Wars is that Kiriha is voiced by Vic Mignogna in the english dub and I can't really get used to him with that character...

Like how Vic is also Rin from Free! I don't know how that will turn out, but I wasn't expecting him...