|
Keeping this short and sweet, the title should be self evident. While I'd have to get a full list of everything I watched to really nail down an answer, one of the shows I watched this year that really stuck with me was Romeo's Blue Skies. I had never watched any World Masterpiece Theater anime despite knowing about them for a long time, and despite its shortcomings near the end (The anime has a lot of original content because its source material is so short, which isn't a problem until the very end when it has to reconcile its original content with the book's ending and they don't mesh very well), I found it to be an entertaining watch all the way through. There's a specific look to most of the WMT anime that I really dig and it works well in motion. I picked that WMT anime in particular since I had some familiarity with the stories of the more well known WMT shows, so I looked around the shows I had zero knowledge of. And it paid off, I'm definitely willing to check out more and plan to watch at least one of them in 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK-aCo-NFMg This year I also watched far more anime movies than I typically do. There's a bunch I could name but for now I'm gonna narrow it down to one, A Penguin's Memories. Newly fansubbed this year by the best fansub group still active, Orphan. Its entire existence is remarkable; the director behind the commercials for Suntory Beer featuring penguins was able to make a movie with said penguins. As far as I can tell (there's not a lot of information out there about its production and in fact the fansubs are only available via laserdisc rips) he had a lot of freedom when making this movie. In short, the director of some beer commercials featuring penguins made a movie that opens with penguins fighting in not-Vietnam, and centers around a penguin soldier trying to find himself after coming back from the war. It's not breaking any particularly new ground for movies as a whole but as far as anime movies go it stands out. Despite a few minor bits of silliness over the course of the story, it's a surprisingly mature movie that is very much worth a watch. It's a drat shame that this is the first and only anime its director ever made, as far as directorial debuts go it's quite good. What cool older anime have you seen this year, ADTRW?
|
#
?
Dec 26, 2017 19:46
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 11:54 |
|
|
The new Kino made me go find the old Kino, which is incredibly good except for the weird scanline filter.
|
|
#
?
Dec 26, 2017 20:11
|
|
|
Well probably not the best but the one that stands out the most for me is definitely Honey and Clover. I checked it out because it has the same author as March/Lion and I absolutely adored it. It's portrayal of love and university life really spoke to me. That ending is so goddamn loving retarded though. I'm still mad. The "best" anime I saw this year has gotta be Paranoia Agent. The first half is pretty standard mystery stuff but the back half is surreal and one hell of an experience. RIP Satoshi Kon.
|
|
#
?
Dec 26, 2017 20:27
|
|
|
shorts: this year i almost finished my little project to watch every subbed short anime (ie: anime with a length of less than 15 minutes per episode, some are as short as 5 seconds per episode, some longer). there's like 5 subbed shorts in existence i haven't watched. i saw all 3 seasons of wooser. season 1 was the funniest, 2 was rather meh and 3 gets close to the comedy of season 1, but adds an experimental vibe to make up for it. gag manga biyori is a really funny 3 season shonen comedy short series, but it also has a worse season 2. this is something ive been noticing with a lot of short series. outside of this ribbon-chan is pretty drat funny the short pugyuru is the most important piece of satire i've seen this year. made when maids ruled anime, its about a lil maid named cheko-chan. perpetually featureless, she stretches out and dominates the series like a monstrosity, fit to adapt to any situation. the actual mc is never named, and desperate for anyone to hear her name, a futile effort as mcs are unimportant blank slates that deserve nothing. the side cast rounds out the various trope parodies. for example nachiko a squid girl (the series predates squid girl), literally. shes a squid, who puts on the face of the stock catgirl in the vain hope of being popular. mizore meanwhile is a big boobed yuki onna who literally grinds up her flesh as icecream for others to eat, a clear piece of commentary on monster girls, and the voracious appetite of the otaku, endlessly consuming the latest seasonal anime girls. outside of this there's a fair amount of others like the nurse, the eternal sexual harasser, and a girl parodying japan's obsession with putting schoolgirls and various deadly weapons together, as well as the ever predictable delinquent girl with a heart of gold. besides its satire it also helped found a genre, i am ignoring di gi charat cause it sucks, and is an obvious inspiration on the works of bkub (with him recycling a lot of jokes) and works such as ai mai mii. Tsuki ga Noboru made ni: there have been a fair amount of ww2 anime. but if there's one thing in common is that they almost totally refuse to acknowledge the wrongdoings of japan during the war. now there is nothing wrong with just showing the impact of war on civilians, but the steadfastness with which anime refuses to acknowledge anything but is almost cultish. this is a rare exception. a wonderful little ova focusing on a boy who lives in a village where american pows are set to deadly work. in a rare twist, the japanese army is the bad guy here it explicitly casts japan as the bad guy. unsurprisingly, containing its honest portrayal of the war, there exists nothing but bad vhs rips of this and it was only subbed this year. for anyone else interested in seeing other japanese portrayals of the war not doing the old pity play, check out nobi fires on the plain. the anime mouryo no hako also mentions unit 731. flag: continuing on with the war theme this is a neat war anime about journalists. it has one of the most successful combinations of theme and visual style i have seen because it is completely from the point of view of cameras. it shows wonderfully the sad uselessness of journalists in a war and the effects on civilian life. it has its faults though, there are a ton of recaps disguised as journalists discussing their findings and it has some of the most egregiously out of sync lip flaps i have seen. Legend of Galactic Heroes: finishing of the war theme i watched this long rear end anime. there's a lot to complain here. every plot point with the terraists is awful, many of the strategies rely on the opponents acting like complete idiots and it reaches its highpoint somewhere in the last 20 episodes that makes most of the episodes after that a downer to watch. furthermore almost every single battle, and a lot of the other plot points, are straight out of history or the textbooks which made a lot of it rather predictable for me. all that said, its still better written than 90% of anime out there, and any way you cut it is a tremendous accomplishment so i still gave it a 9. Towards the Terra: moving on to another space show, this is a rather fun and epic work of shoujo YA sci fi. it hits all the clichés, but it executes them well. other space shows i saw: starship operators, which is a rather enjoyable 'realistic' space show, TO: which is an extremely realistic and dull space show and finally freedom, which is a cup noodle commercial that looks like cgi akira set in a post apocalyptic world, great fun if you get over how ugly it is. Real Drive: a rather underwatched piece of of cyberpunk fiction by shirow, i don't think this one is any worse than GITS. it trades in the predictable stories of neon light cities and evil capitalist companies for a story largely set on beautiful tropical islands with storyline focusing on slice of life segments and environmentalism. outside of a rather dull beginning and ending, this show is great. also noteworthy for having a cast with actual realistic proportions (which the internet, as far as it knows of it, seems to have taken mostly as fat) GITS: 2nd gig: what a disappointment this one was. awful villain, barely any of the episodic stories that made the first season strong and the few that it has are just retreads of movies. the main plot is also terribly paced, predictable and features multiple eps of the cast recapping the extremely obvious story beats. it took me almost a whole year to watch the 2nd GITS movie after this disappointment, which is sad cause that's a great movie Kurau Phantom Memory: another work of 'cyberpunk', this one is sadly rather dull. a strong opening with a new age spiritualism vibe is undone by having most of the story consist of standard episodic storytelling, before ending with a really dumb redemption ending. speaking of weak endings, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 has an extremely weak one. starting strongly as a piece of disaster fiction, the final plot twist was so obvious it had me begging for it to be a fake out Chouyaku Hyakuninisshu: Uta Koi.: do you like chihayafuru? do you want to learn more about the poems? this is about those poems. or well, at least mostly. its strong whenever its just portraying the poems but its waylaid by dreadful comedy sequences. nice op though. Tiger & Bunny: great show, awful last arc and movie. Kino's Journey: i've seen this get a lot of praise, but it did nothing for me. the philosophy is high school stuff, and the 'twist' or point of each episode should be obvious to anyone in the first 5 minutes, after that they stretch it out forever, hammering it in if you somehow haven't' gotten it yet making the whole thing rather dull. also i loathe the voice of the bike Miami Guns: this forgotten cop comedy is great fun if you aren't the sensitive type, it also has a crazy ending that somehow ties in every single insane joke earlier into the series into a cohesive whole. in the same vein, see Detroit Metal City for great crass comedy Emblem Take 2 is fairly unique for one thing, its an ova with an actual yakuza hero. while it isn't the most noteworthy thing outside of that, its premise and some good jokes make it worth watching What's Micheal is a great little ova that uses the starting point of a cat, to do a series of increasingly bizarre skits. certainly worth watching Riding Bean: now this is everything an old ova such aspire to be, brutal violence, car chases and plenty of moments that make the viewer feel awkward. Alien 9: a brutal and uncomfortable display of puberty, this is a show that does not hold back in making both its viewers and its characters miserable. its gotten a lot of criticism by viewers cause of its main character spending 90% of her screentime crying, but those idiots have missed the point. Paradise Kiss: i technically haven't seen the last ep of this. still, im writing here to say its nice to see a show with teens that has the teens actually acting like teens rather than the idealized imaginations of its horny writers. great writing and a strong sense of style, however its sadly sparse on animation, with large parts of it just being stills, sometimes not even of the characters but of random walls. i've seen plenty more movies, but i've kinda run out of steam typing out all this and most were bad anyway. some i thought worth watching that not everything knows are: Happy Birthday - The Time When Life Shines, Roujin Z, Yumedamaya Kidan (this is basically shoujo laughing salesman), The Anthem of the Heart, Seoul Station and Cat poo poo One. outside of this there's some shows i have nothing new to bring to the table for like lain, gunslinger girl, zetsubou sensei and devilman. i hope somebody actually reads all this hah
|
|
#
?
Dec 26, 2017 22:16
|
|
|
This is going to be in roughly chronological order and TV series only. Blast of Tempest: The first half of this was neat but the second half was pretty dull and I can't really remember anything about it. Kyou Kara Maou: This show surprisingly had a pretty good ending. The comic relief characters suck though and got way too many episodes devoted to them. Earl and Fairy: The character motivations are way too often muddled. It feels like they cut out too much transition stuff from the source material. The romantic scenes are laughably cheesy, and the ending is kinda limp wristed since there's no real resolution to either the main plot stuff or the central relationship (lol they don't even kiss). Also I hate the cat. Moyashimon: The microbes were my favorite part of this show and they should've gotten way more screen time than they did. Majestic Prince: The coloring and art of this show looks really cheap, but I really got into it after a few eps, and it had a very exciting final arc and movie climax. I love onii-chan. Cowboy Bebop: It's alright. Punch Line: I liked the central premise a lot but its wrap up was a rushed mess, leaving the overall storyline feel rather unsatisfying. Library Wars: The premise is really silly, but once I got over that, I had a fun time. The parkour scenes in the movie were a treat as well. Love Live: This is basically a sports anime where they don't show much of the sport. A lot of times the drama felt overly contrived to me, and I don't really care to see iteration 316 on the tomboy who secretly wants to be a pretty girly girl, but the movie was good. Tiger & Bunny: I binged this all in like three days. It's basically the kind of fujobaity action shounen junk food I eat up. Monster: Solid crime drama with maybe the best use of dramatic irony I've seen this year. The scene of the guy torturing the other guy by clipping his nails too short made me die inside. Clannad: Blargh. This show is pretty ugly and a lot of its settings have long been done better in other shows. The soccer club arc is the worst thing in the show and it boggles my mind how so few people who've watched this show remember it. The Tatami Galaxy: A lot of people hype this up as making them feel miserable about their life choices, but it didn't really do anything for me, other than finding the boner personification CGI man very upsetting. Towards the Terra: A space show that barely triggered my space anxiety and got me very invested in the cast despite the numerous deaths. Reincarnated Keith is cute, though I constantly kept hearing his last name as onion in the show. Day Break Illusion: Had some okay setup but dropped like half of its plot threads in its final arc. Pretty unremarkable overall. Anohana: Anthem of the Heart basically did everything in this better. I spent most of this show frustrated by the lack of ghost experimentation but I guess that's what depression does. Ixion Saga DT: It basically feels like they had pretty much just two jokes and ran on its premise through 25 episodes, when it really could've only sustained like 2. The writing also got incredibly predictable because it kept following the pattern of something wacky happens > same wacky thing happens > same wacky thing happens, when any other comedy would know to at least mix things up at the third instance. Selector WIXOSS: The first season was okay, but then it seems like they blew their pacing on the second season, where the first half is muddled with recap, leaving the second half struggling to tie up all its loose ends, which it really fails to do in a satisfying manner, even if you include the additional background provided by the movie. Ace of the Diamond: The protagonist is a really fun underdog to root for. The strongest arcs in the show were about him dealing with a mentor he initially didn't really like, and later on when he gets the yips and has to overcome them. These arcs however happen in the early and midpoints of the show, so the second season ends up kinda fizzling out its momentum by the end. The reuse of a few plot threads didn't really help either. Still a solid sports shounen all around though. Maybe I'll get to see them actually play at Koushien in another ten years. A lot of the shows I watched this year I ended up feeling pretty lukewarm on, but at least there weren't any major stinkers. I hope Dav is happy now.
|
|
#
?
Dec 26, 2017 23:55
|
|
|
Boner personification man ftw
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 00:19
|
|
|
I did not watch a lot of anime from years past, but the only one that really left an impression on me was Hokuto no Ken. Of course it would. I had started it a while back but never finished it. This year was the year I challenged myself to watch it start to finish and boy was it good. I knew it off of reputation and memes, (you are already dead...) and I know how important it was. Even if I had not ever seen it, I would have known something with its characteristics existed because of the immediate shift in form, tone and structure from 70s shonen to modern shonen. I was not prepared for how great the entire package of hnk was. It really is one of the best cartoons ever made. What I had always heard about Fist of the North Star was that the manga was better because it had no filler and didn't have the bad animation. I do not agree with this. The stylistic choices the anime made significantly enhanced the story being told. For one thing, the manga did not have the freeze frame with name of move written on the screen and voice over by a narrator after a special attack. In the manga, people just say the name of the move after they do them which makes the move look less important. The casting of HnK is excellent. It's one of the few shows that I can definitely say that the voice actors add depth to the characters through their performance. Akira Kamiya plays Kenshiro as a stoic and hardened killer, full of vengeance. Takaya Hashi plays Toki as compassionate but still resolute to fulfill his vow to kill Raoh. However, it is the villains that the anime really improves. The anime improves over the manga in its characterization of the antagonists. Shin is much more pitiful and sad in the anime, someone who just wants love and yet will never find it. Jagi is a huge bitch who grovels at Ken's feet before getting owned. Raoh is the most interesting because he becomes tragic while still keeping his honor. Raoh cannot stomach Thouther's (Souther? Thouzer? Souzer?) implied pedophilia and child slavery, even though his men have killed thousands. When Roah cries because Toki cannot kill him he shows a vulnerability that other shonen antagonists at the time (and still today!) do not. It is Kenshiro's destiny to kill Raoh, but no one is happy about it. A thing that I've picked up was that people think that Hokuto no Ken is just a goofy shonen fighting show with wooden dialogue. Bruce Lee and Jesus walking around Mad Max world. That's simply not true. Hokuto no Ken is an amazing work of art with DEEP THEMES and INTERESTING SUBTEXT. A real classic. Every episode of Hokuto no Ken (another reason why the anime is superior to the manga) begins with the question, Who will be the savior of the century's end? The world has ended. What will be the defining philosophy of the new age? Hokuto no Ken is about competing ideologies. From Shin's romanticism to Thouther's heavy handed Confucianism to Judah's Darwinism (survival of the most beautiful) to Raoh's Machiavellianism. Each person is the messiah of a particular belief system. However, all of them are eventually defeated by Kenshiro who consolidates the best parts of each fighter into his own personal style. It's interesting to note that after all other philosophies are dead, the only two left are an amalgam and Machiavellianism, which has something to say about the world (maybe i dont know). Hokuto no Ken posits that the best way to rule a society is a mix of every philosophy and compassion. This is true justice in the wasteland. Hokuto no Ken is the greatest shonen anime ever made and has not been matched in 35 years. everything after raoh dies is trash tho Smoking Crow fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Dec 27, 2017 |
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 00:26
|
|
|
I may think of more later, but the one that stands out to me the most is Millennium Actress. It was very good and it made me cry. I really loved the ending punchline.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 00:35
|
|
|
Souten no Ken had this,, which might be the funniest scene in the history of the medium
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 00:40
|
|
|
srice said i could write this if i posted about hokuto no ken so now it's time for BONUS POST Most of this year I've been watching Japanese wrestling from the past. I started watching puro after the Wrestle Kingdom with Okada vs Tanahashi and Nakamura vs Ibushi, but that was just current New Japan. This year I decided to check out 90s Japanese pro wrestling which is what the smart fans call the best era of wrestling ever. I had heard that 80s America was the best, so I was a bit skeptical but holy jeez it's legitimately the best!! Of the 17 major promotions of Japan in the 90s (thereabouts) all of them are incredibly influential. All Japan Pro Wrestling of the 90s was a lot of great psychology and spectacular moves and I think it's THE BEST WRESTLING EVER. FMW pioneered the deathmatch style by pairing barbed wire and explosives with high flying technical wrestlers into probably my favorite wrestling ever. All Japan Women's is just the highest workrate I've ever seen anywhere. These women are so technically proficient and hard hitting, probably because they wouldn't be taken seriously otherwise. If you are a fan of moves and in-ring wrestling, this is your promotion. Michinoku Pro is the birth of indie high flying, but I prefer Taka Michinoku and Super Delfin to a majority of today's wrasslers. RINGS is a style I wish had never died. Shoot style; make it look as real as possible. Volk Han and Akira Maeda are the stars here and look like absolute killers, especially against jobbers. Pancrase is the forerunner to modern UFC. Even more so than old UFC. It's just really technically proficient catch wrestlers with strong muay thai skills going at it. New Japan Pro Wrestling had all the stars of yesteryear and the super juniors, guys like Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask and many more. A+ Great wrestling, check them all out best wrestling ever made
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 00:50
|
|
|
Ah yes, Chris benoit
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 00:57
|
|
|
I dug into a lot of old stuf this year. Saw lots of old classics like Project A-Ko, Dirty Pair: Project Eden, and Robot Carnival for the first time. Oh, and Ai City, which was...a thing. Revisited Oshii's GitS films, which make such a weird pairing watching back to back. The original is thought of as such a cold, consistent slab of atmosphere and precision animation, whereas the sequel, Innocence, has such visual and narrative highs and lows, it's wild. Been trying for the third or fourth time to get through all of the first season of Mushishi and got the farthest through yet! I dunno what it is about these slower, bookish anime that take me so long to get around to, but they're not the sorts of things I can marathon in large chunks. Been really enjoying the show as is, easily enough to count it as a favorite despite having yet to finish. Just gotta finally finish so I can move on toward trying to watch Haibane Renmei or Kino again. The Animatrix was an intriguing rewatch right in the middle of Blade Runner mania. The second segment in patricular from Mahiro Maeda is a stonecold classic all by itself, and got me on a middle-of-the-year anthology kick that led to Neo Tokyo and the aforementioned Robot Carnival, both of which are great. Sirius and the Fire Child and Horus, Prince of the Sun both had stupendous animation and hit me weirdly hard in spite of their age, and reading Mike Toole's ANN article on The 100 Other Greatest Anime Films provided lots of fun rabbit trails to follow like Chie the Brat. I recommend going down the list and seeing what sticks out to ya. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/the-mike-toole-show/2017-03-19/.113010 Other than all that, Blood Blockade Battlefront, Utena, Eccentric Family, Ping Pong, Tatami Galaxy, Kids on the Slope, and Death Parade were all great fun and rewarding to go back to again. Even in the anime that didn't come out this year, it was a pretty good year for anime.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 01:53
|
|
|
when virgin soul started getting lovely i rewatched genesis and it was just as good as i remembered. also, no one had a star-crossed romance with fantasy hitler.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 02:09
|
|
|
The second season of Kaiji, specifically the first 8 episodes; the next 8 after were good too, but the last 8 could have been collapsed into 2 or 3 episodes without loss.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 04:42
|
|
|
i guess i will also be one of those people and post about literally everything i watched, in order One Outs - dunno if i'd say this one is not talked about enough, but i certainly would've watched it sooner if someone had told me it was part of director Yuzo Sato's trip through FKMT manga. while not by FKMT, Sato adapts the manga with all the same flourishes you'd be familiar with from Akagi and Kaiji. it had a bit of a slow start and ends rather abruptly (Sato had to rush to work on more Kaiji?), you get a few solid arcs of baseball mindgames...at least if you can handle the constant narration, triple/quadruple takes and mid 00's cg spinning pan shots. Birdy the Mighty Decode 02 - where Decode 01 is a retelling of the 80's kawajiri ova, to mixed results, this season adapts new-to-me/us? material that plays out like a murder mystery, though the audience is let in on the perpetrator from the start. i don't remember the first season terribly well to compare, but this one is an absolutely jaw-dropping showcase of action animation, and delivers an incredibly strong emotional climax in its exploration of birdy's past in relation to the serial murders. Angel Beats! - this is the only Jun Maeda adaptation i've seen so i might be more forgiving of it, but found this show very enjoyable for its comedic timing and music. a handful of the arcs, ones i found to be less melodramatic, landed for me and i did like the slow burn of the mysteries behind the world they were in. the ending is not particularly great and registers on par with some of the lovely melodrama like the girl whose family was held hostage and killed in front of her, or the dumbass who took his sick sister out of the hospital and was sad when she died. Ginga Nagareboshi Gin - an anime that epitomizes hot-blooded shonen tropes of the era, if it didn't make them itself. the beginning of this was a perfectly good man vs nature story but then it went gently caress that and ditched the humans to have talking dogs amass an army to kill evil bears. the dogs may talk, but that doesn't mean you don't need a narrator to recount their mental states, events that just happened, or secret techniques. only enriched by the old-school aesthetic, animation, and shoddy subs, this show was a delight that ended too soon. Mnemosyne - i thought i would be into this, as a modern tits n' gore OVA, but it doesn't really deliver on that front and i couldn't adjust my expectations quickly enough. i did enjoy the early eps and how the show maintains its passage of time well, but not much else stood out as i slowly fell into watching out of obligation. Natsuyuki Rendezvous - watched some trailers/fan stuff related to this on youtube and it maybe built the show up in my head a bit much, especially with knowing it was noitamina when that still kinda meant something. a fine supernatural romance about loss, the focus on flowers and a fairytale motif made for some beautiful visuals but ultimately i was not terribly engrossed by the story or characters. Natsume Yujinchou - honestly i think i forgot too much about this one. it was a relaxing and occasionally sad experience and made me want to slowly continue onto further seasons. felt like a lot of the larger world stuff had yet to be built on, in terms of recurring characters. Kuragehime - enjoyed watching this up until the end, then totally hated it. i'm not sure why this was greenlit when it ends so unsatisfyingly. Rainbow - a 1950's juvenile penitentiary is a pretty interesting setting for an anime, and i feel like this show really delivered in all the ways you'd want from what is essentially an extended prison movie. prisoners forming brotherly bonds, escape plans, corrupt guards and wardens, and life after detention. the characters constantly struggle against adversity and find solace in each other. the villains are truly scum and the slow build to their comeuppance is deeply satisfying, capping off the first half of the show. the back half of this struggles as it switches structure to smaller arcs centering around post-release life for specific characters, but there are as many hits as misses and it goes out on a strong note by again centering the show on the show's inspirational figure and themes. Shigurui - i was disappointed by this year's Onihei, and this delivered in the ways i wished that had. the atmosphere of this show is cloying like the summer heat that hangs over much of its story. the instrumentation of the show seems to be solely cavernous bells and drums, held string notes, and choruses of cicadas. the series has an incredible aversion to sensible levels of light, instead trading in levels of pitch black, candlelight, or blindingly white sun. on display in this suffocating atmosphere is a parade of depraved and violent swordsmen, fighting over the honor and secret techniques of their dojo. the violence is swift and visceral, and several characters sport grotesque designs or deformities, either befitting their own personalities or just mirroring the darkness that permeates the rest of the world. not being familiar with the manga, the "flashback" material covered in the series feels like a good self-contained story. it was only hurt by the series bookending it with flash-forwards that are far past what the series covers, leaving story gaps begging to be filled. K-On! - i'll admit for a long while i assumed this show was the boring substance-less fluff it was often derided as in lovely anime forums. finally watching it myself with eyes not clouded by that misogynistic meme, i really really enjoyed it. seeing the club and friendships develop was lovely, accented by the warm atmosphere conveyed by hot cups of tea, fluffy comforters and pajamas, or hallways dappled with sunbeams. i really grew to enjoy almost all of the girls (mugi and azusa seem a bit behind the others in s1 at least), and the ura-on and live house ova were great supplements. s2 and the movie are definitely on my 2018 shortlist. Haikyuu!! Season 3 - only very technically is this not 2017, but it was a drat strong season of sports. i love the conceit of a single short season built just to cover a single climactic match, and this season delivered on a lot of amazing emotional beats. i still think the aoba vs karasuno match from the end of s2 is a bigger high, and s2 being so long allowed for some more casual/humorous bits, but i absolutely loved watching this anyhow. Lupin the IIIrd Part 1 - dark lupin is a cool guy. seeing a side of the character a bit closer to the scummy serial murderer/rapist from the manga was interesting, and this season has a ton of great concept episodes like the flying, fire-spewing magicial Pykal or the famous time traveller ep. other highlights like the clocktower, lupin's squad being held hostage, and the first "zenigata catches lupin" ep were great too. aside from just being good fun lupin, i really enjoyed the significant detail this show put into mechanical design. accurately rendered cars and guns really stand out positively in this show, and while there are tons of animation shortcuts i found them more endearing than anything negative. Fantastic Children - despite being a "modern" show in 2004, this had some serious old school sci-fi feel. the simple character designs allow for a handful of fairly impressive action sequences and evoke series like Towards the Terra or Cyborg 009. probably the biggest hook to me was an expertly directed sequence that introduces the horrifying metaphysical force that pursues the Befort Children and tries to erase their consciousnesses to preserve balance. the rest of the show did not really deliver on this potential visually, but it did weave a twisting and engrossing story of both familial and romantic love and tragedy across dimensions and lifetimes. i feel like this is a grossly overlooked show considering its existence as an ambitious original anime by Takashi Nakamura, who directed a segment of Robot Carnival. Garo: Seal of Flames - i've cooled a bit on this since finishing, but watched it voraciously after getting through the first third. the beginning struggles with centering its surly teen protagonist Leon and mixing in clumsy cg action, but hits a stride with Leon's crushing defeat and his father's subsequent abandonment. this gives way to a good ol farming arc that gives Leon perspective and appreciation for the power he once had, while the show also builds up his foil in fugitive prince Alfonso. as the disparate plot threads trailing Leon, Alfonso, Leon's father, and alchemist Ema come to a head, they weave into a series of episodes where their individual arcs get resolved in excellent action setpieces both 2d and cg. nothing in terms of the writing is groundbreaking, but it is well-executed and i definitely did not expect a glider dogfight in medieval spain. the follow-up movie is another great animation setpiece that mostly focuses on Luis' role as a father, but outside of the action and main cast character moments, is bogged down by a dreadful movie villain/storyline. Book of Bantorra - this ended up kinda disappointing. an LN adaptation for a relatively long series, it was more of a sampler platter of whatever stories Mari Okada wanted to adapt from the books than a series with a strong throughline. the mini-arcs deal with different characters and aspects of the strange world these characters live in, so you get equal doses of worldbuilding and character backstory/development. the problem comes when the characters and the arcs they are following don't deliver, which is almost the entirety of the series. the opening arc dealing with a dead clairvoyant and a "soulless" human blends these setting elements with its drama expertly and pokes at the age-old question of what defines humanity, making one think the show might explore this in more depth. sorry no, the soulless guy dies and most of this arc's elements disappear until the finale. other arcs dealing with: a character who has ptsd from committing war crimes, another soulless human searching for meaning in life, and investigating an actress' death testing the resolve of a central cast member, are near total misses. the setting, character design, and solid ost pull off the significant task of carrying this show along when there's next to no ambition in the direction or action sequences (that's davidproduction for you). nothing ever quite rises to the quality of the first or fifth arc (both centering on the soulless humans) and all 26 episodes only result in a handful characters with any interesting depth or growth. i did watch some movies and ovas but will save those for a diff post dogsicle fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Dec 27, 2017 |
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 05:06
|
|
|
I watched Memories. Magnetic Rose was an exceptionally well told and presented ghost story, and Cannon Fodder's uninterrupted single take was incredible to watch unfold. Stink Bomb was the weak link since it was just a fun distraction that was well animated, and little else unique about it.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 05:25
|
|
|
dogsicle posted:Kuragehime - enjoyed watching this up until the end, then totally hated it. i'm not sure why this was greenlit when it ends so unsatisfyingly. Yeah the anime-original ending felt pretty awful and tacked-on to an otherwise awesome show. At least it got me to go and read the manga, which then led to me discussing it and being recommended a ton of other good josei that I now love. dogsicle posted:K-On! - i'll admit for a long while i assumed this show was the boring substance-less fluff it was often derided as in lovely anime forums. finally watching it myself with eyes not clouded by that misogynistic meme, i really really enjoyed it. seeing the club and friendships develop was lovely, accented by the warm atmosphere conveyed by hot cups of tea, fluffy comforters and pajamas, or hallways dappled with sunbeams. i really grew to enjoy almost all of the girls (mugi and azusa seem a bit behind the others in s1 at least), and the ura-on and live house ova were great supplements. s2 and the movie are definitely on my 2018 shortlist. I just want to chime in to say that while K-ON! season 1 is great, I see it in retrospect as a bit unsteady on its feet. It borrows tropes heavily from its noble predecessors (Azumanga Daioh, etc.) and doesn't have enough downtime to really flesh out the characters as they plow through two years of highschool in twelve episodes. K-ON!! Season two has everything that S1 lacks, in a wonderful glut. It's the purebred racehorse to S1's newborn foal, and the two major arcs in the back half of it are the main reason that every time I see Namtab tell someone to "Watch K-ON!", I find myself nodding vigorously and maybe emptyquoting. The movie is the strawberry on top of the cake, and its opening sequence alone made me laugh until it hurt. Enjoy!
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 06:31
|
|
|
I watched Nagi no Asakura. Happened to watch it while streaming Wixoss, and not too long after streams of Anthem of the Heart and Anohana, so I got a good sense of the themes Mari Okada tends to write from. Learning about Mari Okada's past history of being a hikikomori and her complicated strained relationship with her mother, it starts becoming easy to see how it informs each of her stories, since all of them examine the pain and value of having relationships. NagiAsu tackles it from the angle of a coming-of-age romance story, with the added twist of half the cast being fish people so there's some subtext of racial conflict in there too. Since it stars a bunch of middle schoolers, you'll be getting a lot teenage longing, and pondering about confessing and not confessing and the pain that comes with that, but it fits pretty well with theme Love is Painful, but it's worth the pain that Okada puts into her stories (Yuki from Wixoss essentially goes through that arc too and uses some of the same exact lines NagiAsu characters use, it's just not quite as obvious what with SERIOUS CARD GAME BATORUS to worry about). I'd say it is one of her stronger stories since the pacing is pretty good, other than putting you in agony when it drops a cliffhanger on you at the end of episodes. It also just has pretty neat world-building since it imagines a society of fish people living alongside regular humans, so you get some nice pretty sequences outta it. Definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it already, and are in the mood for a coming of age story about a bunch of kids with relationship problems Also maybe global warming apocalypse on the horizon
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 06:31
|
|
|
The vast majority of the anime I watched this year was seasonal, but there were a few things, largely as part of idolwatch or other streamings. Here's what I can rememer! Wake Up, Girls! - Marathoned this in idolwatch in the leadup to AX so that I'd know who they were when the seiyuu performed there. It was a really solid idol show. It has something of a reputation around these parts as being the idol show that exposes the seedy underbelly of the idol industry that Zorak warned us all about, but really that's only like one ep towards the beginning, and their manager learns his lesson after that. Thereafter, it's just a nice story about a group of underdog idols taking on Lemon Angel Project - The non-seasonal component of the current idolwatch. Still got one more ep, but I've been kinda paying half attention for a while. It's had some fun moments when the characters make fun of each other and such, but it's mostly been Serious Drama Times, with the Hatsune Mikus of the far future year of 2017 threatening to render idols obsolete and also the MC's childhood friend's mysterious death hanging over everything. Would not rec. Louie the Rune Soldier - I watched several eps of this when I was in the mood for some '90s fantasy, and this scratched that itch perfectly. it was fun, and I'll probably watch more when the itch flares up again. Moyashimon - I watched this last spring when I just felt like marathoning something, and it was pretty great. Not terribly conclusive, but it was fun, funny, cute, and just a bit dramatic. Seeing all the different microbes was fun, and I liked how well they tied pretty much every happening to them. Not sure what's up with all the folks that look like Kei, and iirc the manga gets even more into that, so I think I might be OK with the two seasons being all there is. I also rewatched the first half of Turn A Gundam, which is if anything even better than I remembered.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 21:13
|
|
|
Thanks for watching k-on
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 21:48
|
|
|
Puella Magi Madoka Magica, on LSD.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 21:55
|
|
|
i've already watched all the old anime but I rewatched Yu Yu Hakusho because Crunchyroll is hosting it now so now I don't have to go digging around for discs it's still really good, and actually doesn't take as long to get good as i remembered
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 22:56
|
|
|
A thread derail in the Megaten thread convinced me to watch Symphogear only got up to the major twist in S1, but I'm ready to declare it the best. Lovable characters, real cool concept with the sing fighting, and the twist is the right kind of crazy. I'm glad the Wild ARMS writer is still getting work. Runner up goes to Blood Blockade Battlefront with a cast of equally lovable characters and the best ed song. Honorable mention to Shougeki no Soma for it's first ed song. Too bad about S3.
|
|
#
?
Dec 27, 2017 23:13
|
|
|
The only non-2017 anime I watched this year was Michiko to Hatchin, but it was so good that it would still be the best anime I watched this year even if I had watched a bunch of other old shows. Actually, it might have been the best anime I saw this year, period, and there were some pretty good shows this year.
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2017 06:44
|
|
|
I guess this should serve as an introduction to ADTRW. There's a whole long story about what chased me out of anime around a decade ago here. The same went with games, after FFX in 2001 I just gave up on Japanese storytelling. Until a friend poked me to play some odd game called NieR. And then I decided to give anime a try again. The best old stuff I watched, as a reawakened anime fan in 2017: Part 1, How Magical Girls Changed Me Ever since I was a little one, I loved shows about young girls doing good. In the US that meant crappy toy shows like Rainbow Brite and My Little Pony. By the time I reached my 30s I forgot about that past and was busy living my adult life, but as a starter for getting back into anime, a whole lot of friends recommended something called Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It was the third anime I tried, and my first impressions were mixed. I found the premise interesting, the show enjoyable to watch, but I was not ensnared beyond enjoying the more adult things compared to things I liked as a kid. Because of it, I decided to seek out 'darker' magical girl shows, as Madoka created a desire for more depth. Not Good: Magical Girl Raising Project the disappointing take where adult = pointless murdery plot with too many characters that are not well sorted out. Motivations are questionable. Characters are introduced just to serve a trope and then abandoned out of the plot, it's a disappointment. Day Break Illusion pure disappointment. If MGRP's lack of motivation for its premise was concerning, DBI is downright bad. Good: Flip Flappers starts painfully slow and seems random for the first few episodes. It's a tough watch because they hide the central plot development until the middle of the season, which is a major detriment, because the show ends up having an interesting story that is just not given enough time to earn all the emotions it crams in the end. Beautiful and sweet, it was a fun ride. Great: Matoi: The Sacred Slayer is Alka-Seltzer to post-Madoka post-FlipFlap depression. The show has a smaller crew of characters, but this allows more interpersonal development. On the more interesting side, this show includes a strong relationship between child and father and features parents playing an active roll in the lives of the magic girls. Both direct parental relationships and teacher/student relationships are covered in detail and all of the characters grow through the series. A further delight is that there are multiple generations of magical girls introduced. Not only do we see the development of a young magical girl, but the show also explores what happens to the previous generation and how they are living. Also Great: Lyrical Nanoha and its 2 follow-ups. You know a show is good when it redefines or creates an entirely new genre. Though the first series starts slow for the first half, it's a straight shot to top afterwards and continues to get better. I find the dropping of her friends from Season 1, and parents from Season 2 to be problematic. The way the show shovels aside all the family members and non-magic friends (and male characters) is unfortunate. Having said that, Nanoha is entertaining for showing a character's progression over many years -- as long as it's Nanoha, Fate or another magical girl. It made me cry: Selector Infected: WIXOSS, and it's sequel season ended up being intensely emotional in a good way. The relationships between the primary characters and their cards is given significant development time and ends up being paid out over multiple story lines. If it wasn't for the lengthy and slow start I would recommend this as highly as Matoi, but I've found a lot of people drop off because of the long run time and plot development. If Homura (from Madoka Magica) is my favorite dark girl, Tama is absolutely my favorite light. The show legitimately brought me to tears multiple times. Part 2, Let's Have a Good Cry Together AngelBeats suffers from unearned melodrama. I enjoyed it, but I found that a lot of the backstories were sprung and resolved in a single episode and not allowed to earn catharsis. It is also hurt by the title character, Angel, being a Blank Villain for the start of the show and a Blank Protagonist until the very end. You want to cry, music edition: Your Lie In April left me in well-earned tears multiple times as the show took the time to develop the characters, earn their relationships, explore their dreams, and share their heartbreaks. If AngelBeats was melodramatic, Your Lie In April is the cure as every emotional beat is earned and results in a strong showing all about the power of inspiration and the pain of depression. Most of the end of the series I watched clutching blankets to my face wiping tears away. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day follows closely after Your Lie In April. If Your Lie is an exploration of depression, Anohana is an exploration of growing up flawed and the power of unresolved emotional trauma. I enjoyed it immensely aside from the premise being a bit odd, and one of the character's.. reactions to the trauma being pretty unusual. Part 3, LGBTQ in Japan - Or - Let's Hear It For the Cross-Dressers! Princess Jellyfish is an unusual take on cross-dressing. I greatly enjoyed the portrayal and growth of the protagonists as a stylish good looking cross dresser helps out a family of otaku gals. Unfortunately the anime is limited on its focus to the main characters, with a few of ladies never given an exploration on their pasts and why they have the interests they do. I enjoyed it despite its failings. Subtract the respect Princess Jellyfish offers and you get Steins;Gate. The primary focus on the show is on the premise of what would happen if a group of odd people had the ability to change their pasts. How Steins;Gate ended up in this bucket is related to the way the protagonist relates to the transgendered Ruka who he constantly points out is a boy. I had a hard time getting through this show, but found the primary story interesting enough to enjoy, and it certainly conveys how difficult being LGBTQ can be in Japanese society. The single show I enjoyed most this year was Seraph of the End. Post-fallen world complete with demons and vampires. Full of action with some great fights and character building. A team of various characters and enemies (though mostly focused on the heroes) fight each other as both sides work on their plans to achieve final victory. Best part of it? The relationships between the characters are not cringy or focused on stilted flirting. Even includes a great platonic relationship without hangups between two very male friends. I loved it so much, that I'm doing cosplay based on one of the minor side characters. All hail the best looking.. guy? (NSFW warning) Asuramaru Honorable mentions: Baka To Test - Played for laughs with Hideyoshi. Assassination Classroom - The feminine look/Crossdressing because of trauma trope. Magical Girl Raising Project - An actual boy who loves who dreams of being a magic girl. Played straight and easily my favorite part of that show. Part 4, All the Rest Monogatari is for the snappy dialogue fans. If you like witty, playful, meme-ic characters and do not mind a protagonist who is the perfect everyman who solves all women's problems, this is your show. The studio behind this, SHAFT, is full of crazy in the best way and nearly every scene is fascinating. It even features the rare main protagonist relationship developing into a full adult friendship. Note: Some portions of the series are heavy on the fan service. KONOSUBA is the most enjoyable show I've ever watched. Take your average loser otaku and toss him in a fantasy world with no special powers or abilities. Throw in a bunch of fellow oddballs and stir. It is impossible to convey how well done this show is as it does not come across in a preview, but the quality comes from how delightful each of the characters is, and how wonderfully they work together. The Devil is a Part-Timer take one world's Satan, in his 20s, and strip him of his powers. Now see how the ruler of all evil handles having to work his way up from the bottom at a McDonnald's. The show ended up being delightfully funny as various powers learn to live on a world devoid of magic. And that's about it. After my first time through Madoka, I ended up inviting my roommates along for the ride and infecting them with the terrible Magic Girl bug. Madoka is one of those shows that benefits from a second watching to understand the relationship dynamics between the characters. Despite not initially being impressed, it ended up having the largest impact on me personally. Edited to remove a word 
Loiosh fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Dec 28, 2017 |
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2017 22:49
|
|
|
don't say trap
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2017 23:02
|
|
|
dogsicle posted:don't say trap Done
|
|
#
?
Dec 28, 2017 23:11
|
|
|
Been watching Nichijou and I have about 4 episodes left and I don't know how to make it so there are more episodes left which is really upsetting
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2017 01:02
|
|
|
Loiosh posted:Ever since I was a little one, I loved shows about young girls doing good
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2017 01:19
|
|
|
Brasseye posted:Been watching Nichijou and I have about 4 episodes left and I don't know how to make it so there are more episodes left which is really upsetting You could always buy and read the manga. Also consider supporting Keiichi's newest manga City.
|
|
#
?
Dec 29, 2017 03:31
|
|
|
Rose of Versailles
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2017 01:29
|
|
Loiosh posted:2017: Part 1, How Magical Girls Changed Me I really enjoyed this post. It felt emotionally honest to me. We also have a Magical Girl thread, though it's somewhat quiet. I watched a lot of Magical Girl shows too! Kill La Kill - This show is so single-mindedly devoted to it's particular adolescent mix of blood, swords, nudity, and jet fuel that it's truly something else. The chutzpah of it. Insane ambition that pushed the bounds of good taste (and occasionally missed). It shouldn't work, but it does, and it's incredible. Wouldn't blame someone for disliking it, though.   Gatchaman Crowds / Insight - If Superheroes were real, would they really help with the problems of the modern world? One of the only shows I've ever seen that tries to grapple with the insanity of Planet Internet. REDLINE An audiovisual treat, start to finish. Rage of Bahamut - Genesis A classic european fantasy-adventure a-la The Princess Bride. Gorgeous animation and lovable characters who felt truly connected. Symphogear( G)?X? I really like Symphogear.
|
|
|
#
?
Dec 30, 2017 21:11
|
|
|
I saw a few really good older anime this year, actually. I'll try to list them in descending order from my favorite but don't hold me to that ranking because I might forget about something and add it in later. Revolutionary Girl Utena - I don't really know what to say about this show except that it's a goddamn classic that everybody should watch and I want more good anime in the sword lesbian genre. Initial D - I knew about the memes for a while, but I'd heard a few times that it was actually worth watching and wow it absolutely was. What a really good car show. It affected my driving a bit more than I should probably have let it, but so far I haven't wrecked  Tiger & Bunny - How is there not a second season of this really good show? Rage of Bahamut: Genesis - FAVAROOOOOOOOOOOO i think that's it? nothing else sticks out to me right now.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2018 02:31
|
|
|
Loiosh posted:I guess this should serve as an introduction to ADTRW. There's a whole long story about what chased me out of anime around a decade ago here. The same went with games, after FFX in 2001 I just gave up on Japanese storytelling. Until a friend poked me to play some odd game called NieR. And then I decided to give anime a try again. I was really underwhelmed with Angel Beats. It felt like the start to a good show except it just ends. I wish they'd make more Princess Jellyfish because apparently the manga has several seasons worth of more show they could have made, and I really dislike reading manga compared to a good anime - I guess it's a good problem to have but some of my favorite shows suffer from not having more show (CHIHAYAFURU SEASON 3 WHEN) Those 2 shows were around the time I think 13 episode shows weren't yet fully popular and studios were figuring out how to pull them off? If I compare them to something like Yuri on Ice that show feels like it was made for the smaller amount of episodes, and actually the majority of my favorites these days tend to be those shorter shows.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2018 07:31
|
|
|
I think 2018 will actually be the year I finish Utena, my wife's favorite anime She never watched Neon Genesis Evangelion so I can only assume Utena is Evangelion For Girls
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2018 11:24
|
|
|
utena was very popular with both men and women when it came out and has no real similarities to evangelion in any way
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2018 12:46
|
|
|
THE AWESOME GHOST posted:I was really underwhelmed with Angel Beats. It felt like the start to a good show except it just ends. Princess Jellyfish will sadly never see another season (at least for awhile), but boy was it an interesting thing. I really enjoyed it. As you say, wish I didn't have to follow the manga to get the rest of it. Right now I'm, for the first time, suckered into manga thanks to Seraph of the End. I've even picked up the light novels and been loving them. It's such a fascinating world, but I want to know more about all of it.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2018 17:05
|
|
|
Endorph posted:utena was very popular with both men and women when it came out and has no real similarities to evangelion in any way
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2018 17:50
|
|
|
Endorph posted:utena was very popular with both men and women when it came out and has no real similarities to evangelion in any way I googled Evangelion Utena for girls andddd https://www.japanpowered.com/anime-articles/the-evangelion-of-shojo-revolutionary-girl-utena
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2018 21:14
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 11:54 |
|
|
THE AWESOME GHOST posted:I googled Evangelion Utena for girls andddd I skimmed that but it looks to just be saying "I like both of these shows and think they're both classics." Not seeing any real way in which the two are similar to each other, especially not after having watched them both. Seems like a lazy comparison.
|
|
#
?
Jan 2, 2018 21:56
|
|