I watched four amazing anime movies recently; Tekkon Kinkreet, Paprika, 5 Centimeters Per Second: a chain of short stories about their distance, and Grave of the Fireflies.
All of them were great to watch but my favourite was Tekkon Kinkreet. It had a wonderful and pleasing visual style that wasn't too over-the-top or anything. The backgrounds were beautifully well done. I watched it dubbed; and it's probably the best dub I've ever seen (there might be better dubs out there, but whatever… I don't watch a lot of dubbed anime). I even felt myself getting a bit teary-eyed at certain parts. The characters were lovely and memorable, and even the yazuka were quite memorable (especially Kimura). It's currently my favourite movie and it will be for a long time.
Paprika was a strange yet wonderfully fascinating movie. It was a bit hard to understand but I don't think it was really meant to be understood… if that makes any sense. The characters were nice (Paprika was adorable) and the art was simple but I enjoyed it. I bought this on DVD since I seen it in a store (I was quite surprised to find a store that sold anime DVDs) and so I watched it dubbed. Again, the English voice acting was very good and Paprika's voice was cute but it wasn't incredibly high-pitched or majorly cute; it was about right. The background music was great as well. I'm glad they released an OST for it. I love "A Drop Filled With Memories", "Mediational Field" and the ending song, "The Girl in Byakkoya - White Tiger Field". Oh, and a little something for any VOCALOID fans out there: the composer of the music (Susumu Hirasawa) used MEIKO's voice in the songs I just listed. I didn't realize it was her singing until I was I seen it when I was looking through the VOCALOID Wikia. Pretty cool, amirite? Satoshi Kun is a pretty good director so I plan on watching his other works like Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, Memories and Millennium Actress.
5 Centimeters Per Second: a chain of short stories about their distance was a movie with the best background art I have ever seen in a anime ever (the sunset scenes were gorgeous too). It wasn't as sad as I expected it to be but I raged hard at the ending; I wanted to punch that girl so hard for not waiting after the trains had passed still found the ending very sad. The music was great too. I plan to watch more of Makoto Shinkai's works.
Grave of the Fireflies was a Studio Ghilbi film. And an extremely sad one. I almost cried. Almost. I probably would of cried but my family were laughing at something in the background which kind of ruined of the mood. Again, I bought it on DVD (I'm trying to collect all the Studio Ghilbi films on DVD: I have… four so far /o/). As with most Studio Ghilbi films, I enjoyed the English voice acting. A great movie with great characters.
Anime shows I've watched but I can't be bothered to elaborate on them: Dance in the Vampire Bund (cool fight, bro), Ookami Kaushi (keeps on getting better and better), Bakemonogatari (good news: it was an enjoyable episode / bad news: there's only one more episode left), Gintama (recently started this series and it's good), CLANNAD ~After Story~ (too bad I saw spoilers for the later episodes), Durarara!! (that twist at the end, ffff) and Sora no Woto (lolwat). Now onto manga:
I've read Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Onikakushi-hen*, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Watanagashi-hen*, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Tatarigoroshi-hen (MyAnimeList says there's been eleven chapters published, yet I can only find seven that have been translated/scanlated?) Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Himatsubushi-hen* and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai Utsutsukowashi-hen. Yeah, that's a lot of Higurashi. The ones with a * next to them means that I've finished them. Watanagashi-hen will always be my favourite arc because of pshyco!Shion. <3
Other manga: Katekyo Hitman REBORN!, Pandora Hearts (that last chapter was so amazing i dont even), Kuroshitsuji, Kimi ni Todoke and Touhou Bougetsushou ~ Silent Sinner in Blue.
HOLY CRAP this post is so tl;dr. ;__; Sorry~
