|
Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 21, 2016 7:34:34 GMT
And this time...it's personal.
|
|
|
Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 21, 2016 8:15:19 GMT
I half expected the new title to be "Anime Thread 2: Anime Boogaloo".
Anyway, we've got a lot of ground to make up, since I think the previous thread had hit about 220 pages, so let's get started.
I meant to mention this the other day, but I got bored waiting for the new episode of Matoi to show up (as I mentioned before, the official versions were nowhere in sight and I eventually got fed up and picked up the only version available; luckily, the subs were quite good) and decided to check out Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu; mainly, it was because I heard a lot about it when I'd check out the Reddit discussions for KonoSuba, since they aired at the same time and were both produced by DEEN, which is still a massive shock. I mean, we don't have "DEEN finds a way" for nothing. A pretty decent anime with nice production values, animation, and some surprisingly big names for the seiyuu (I chuckled a bit at seeing Sukeroku voiced by Yamadera Koichi and Miyokichi voiced by Hayashibara Megumi, seeing as they previously voiced Spike and Faye, respectively, from Cowboy Bebop). That said, it's not really my kind of show, being a bit too heavy on the drama for my tastes; don't get me wrong, I don't mind drama, just not the manufactured, high blood pressure kind when it comes to drama as a genre. Still, I satisfied my curiosity, which is what I was after, though I also won't be watching the sequel next season.
On the other hand, I finally got around to checking out Gundam Unicorn Re:0096, the TV remix version of the Gundam Unicorn OVA series; I was sadly disappointed after just two episodes. I'd mainly been curious due to the promise of new footage, but after seeing nothing in the first two episodes, I did some digging and found the "new footage" is the OP/ED that was added and slightly touched up animation. Furthermore, each episode ends pretty much whenever, regardless of what's actually happening. To add insult to injury, each episode runs for 29 minutes, the last 5 of which is literally nothing but commercials for Gunpla models of the various mobile suits that appear in the series. Not even Gundam Build Fighters, a series based entirely around the love of Gunpla and dedicated to promoting them, was that blatant about it. Bleh.
In more relevant news, my last show for this season, Luger Code 1951, finally airs later today. Here's hoping it's not a similar disappointment.
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 21, 2016 8:44:06 GMT
I watched the first three seasons of Working!!. This new one is a spin off, and not as good.
Bungo Stray Dogs this season has kind of been warning people that one of the lower-tier members, who is a good friend to Dazai and a seeming pacifist, is not someone to get angry, as Dazai mentions that if he does, he could likely kill everyone in the building. Well, the fellow had a few rough days and returned to a special place where he pays to keep orphans fed and housed by an old friend. Old friend is dead, and the kids are missing. He hears a large engine revving outside and looks to see some of the kids in a van window get pulled back and the vehicle immediately explodes. Episode ends with him explaining calmly that he can't breathe and his throat burns and there's somebody screaming somewhere, without realizing it's him. He keeps screaming as the episode ends. Never really an overly happy atmosphere with this show, but it took a big, mean-ass turn there.
|
|
|
Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 21, 2016 9:38:23 GMT
That sounds very familiar, for some reason. I wanna say it kinda reminds me of Harry Dresden, but he's less "pacifist that doesn't really get angry", more "the thing in the night that bumps back, even against angry gods", so I don't know why the comparison popped into my head.
Oh! Forgot to mention, but I was checking AniChart's TBA section the other day and noticed that there's going to be a No Game No Life movie sometime in the future. I wonder if, like the upcoming Trinity Seven movie, it'll be an original story that possibly heralds a second season, a recap compilation, or just a sequel to the anime.
|
|
|
Post by randomnobody on Oct 21, 2016 16:13:01 GMT
I miss the old thread, but then again, it was quite daunting to any potential newcomers. Frankly, I hadn't been that active in it, anyway...
Which comes to a new point: This season is feeling very lackluster for me. I'm getting way too big a kick out of Keijo, and Izetta is amazing so far, but the only other shows I've checked out are Sangatsu no Lion, Udon no Kuni, Brave Witches, and Stella no Mahou. Of those, I'm turned way off by Brave Witches, but then again that franchise lost me years ago, and while Sangatsu seems promising, it's not one I've felt pressed to watch. Udon no Kuni is nice, but I'm not sure it'll keep my interest long.
Meh?
|
|
|
Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 21, 2016 16:54:06 GMT
So it's apparently possible to spoil yourself without even meaning to. I was looking at info on Gunpla and came across a first look at the Gundam Vidar, which is very clearly the Kimaris' successor. Interestingly, unlike the other Gundams from IBO, the name is not one of the 72 demons of the Ars Goetia, but rather from Norse mythology, wherein Vidar is a god of vengeance. Curiously, Vidar is said to avenge Odin by killing Fenrir, indicating a possible primary conflict with Mikazuki (Barbatos' newest form, Barbatos Lupus, is named for a wolf) rather than McGillis, who betrayed and attempted to kill him; of further interest, this also suggests Gaellio may survive to the end of the series, as Vidar is one of less than a dozen gods to survive Ragnarok (though most of the goddesses survive). This is quite unusual for a Gundam series, as the vast majority of Char clones perish at the end of their series. I can actually count, on one hand, how many survive their respective series and have fingers left over.
Anyway, just an amusing case of managing to spoil potentially major plotlines through a simple name.
EDIT: @random: Yeah, it was getting a bit daunting for newcomers. That aside, I agree this season feels very lackluster. I have Drifters, Gundam IBO, Luger Code 1951 (which premiers in a few hours), Izetta, and Soushin Shoujo Matoi. IBO is pretty safe unless they f*ck it up big time like they did with G-Reco, but since Tomino isn't involved, I don't have much to worry about there; the rest, however... Drifters is... Interesting. It's funny with a good bit of action, but the art style is better suited to a manga, so we'll see if it can make up for that or not. After all, crappy art style is what turned me off that god-awful Berserk adaptation last season. As long as Izetta keeps its current momentum, I foresee it being AOTS, at least as far as I'm concerned. Matoi is similar to Drifters: interesting, a bit funny, with decent action, and seems to have a serious story to it without trying too hard, but we'll see if its current charm lasts. I normally wouldn't be down to 5 shows at least until about week 4-5 of a season, but that's basically what I started with, so definitely lackluster.
At least next season looks decent from my perspective.
|
|
Ifrit
Member
More edgy than a double edge sword
Posts: 3,284
|
Post by Ifrit on Oct 21, 2016 19:50:10 GMT
Should have called the thread "Anime Thread: Rise of the Thread of the Anime".
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 21, 2016 21:16:30 GMT
My new title is perfect. Absolutely perfect. As imperfect creatures you cannot perceive this, so just take my word for it.
|
|
|
Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 22, 2016 17:51:02 GMT
No sign of Luger Code yet; well, subs for it, anyway, but it amounts to the same thing since I'm not fluent enough to watch the raws. Oh, well, I rented Battlefield 1 yesterday, so that'll help kill time 'til it shows up. In the meantime, I watched Drifers and Izetta.
Drifters was quite interesting, though the Black King apparently doesn't care about sacrifices, otherwise he'd have given his troops breastplates at least. Would have saved quite a few men during the charge to the walls. Leaving that aside, though, I'm wondering if the long-haired dude accompanying Joan is meant to be Gilles de Rais; he's the only person I can imagine following her so loyally. The after credits with the crazy trio was hilarious.
Izetta was pretty good, particularly as we get our first solid look at the Germanian emperor. Was a bit surprised at him telling the officer he'd be let off lightly and keep his peerage; I expected him to then say "but I'll be taking your head" rather than the guy's lands. Izetta is quite adorable first thing in the morning and Lotte, the maid, is just amusing with her telling Izetta she's free to use a bed or two... Or three or four. I also have the feeling Izetta's going to be very wary of people saying "banzai" from now on. After the incident with the statue that follows, we get a full explanation (mostly) of how Izetta's powers work, which are much along the lines of how I was thinking they would from previous episodes. I will say I didn't expect the ley lines to be quite so finicky that a matter of a dozen or so miles could determine whether Izetta could use her magic at all. The most surprising tidbit, however, came with Elvira's introduction with the naming of the United States of Atlanta; that, I think more than anything, speaks to just how divergent this world's timeline is from ours. Poor Izetta, though. Still, afterwards, we finally get the complete story of Fine saving Izetta, which is quite interesting; I half expected her to be saving her from an angry mob that was after her for being a witch, so them being angry because they thought she was just a nomad that burned their barn took me by surprise. When Fine and Izetta speak prior to the coronation, it was interesting to see that Izetta remembered Fine's impassioned speech perfectly, as well as hearing Izetta's grandmother call the White Witch a traitor. Interestingly, looking at the ley line map, they don't seem to extend very far into the oceans, so I wonder if large quantities of water dilutes magic.
|
|
|
Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 22, 2016 21:16:59 GMT
So, Luger Code 1951 finally showed up thanks to a lone amateur. I can't recall the synopsis and the show has inexplicably dropped off AniChart for the moment, but it posits that WWII ended in 1941 thanks to the emergence of a new enemy in the form of werewolves. Of course, since the war with them has been going on for about 10 years, I'm not sure that's exactly a good thing. We're introduced to the protagonists, Testa and Rossa, the former a researcher attempting to crack the titular Luger Code used by the werewolves in order to help end the war, while the latter is his superior/bodyguard/friend/what have you as they travel towards a meeting with some soldiers who managed to capture a living werewolf (later mentioned to be unusual as they tend to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner). Curiously, said prisoner is female, which is used to point out that female werewolves rarely transform, so we're left with a rather cute girl with wolf ears and a tail. Testa has her muzzle removed so he can use a listening device for a vague reason pertaining to the Code and we find out why she was muzzled in the first place: she can, quite literally, howl at extreme volumes, which brings a large pack of wolves to her aid. During the panic, one of the more assholish soldiers attempts to kill her, leading to Testa getting wounded stopping him. The soldier, along with a fellow, then brazenly attempt to flee when they reclaim their guns, which had been taken from them by Rossa when they met, as they were attempting to kill the werewolf. Naturally, they get chomped on pretty quickly, but buy enough time for Rossa to put together an improvised time bomb out of reloading supplies and they all make their escape; Testa, however, has to rescue the werewolf, who had been chained to the floor, using one of the left behind rifles to shoot the chain.
We then learn her name is Yonaga and that she doesn't give a damn about the war, thinking humans and werewolves can exterminate each other for all she cares. It also turns out that humans can't decipher the Luger Code, because it's not just words and borders on telepathy, so without wolf-like ears, they can't understand it; amusingly, Testa's theory, mentioned earlier, is just that: that humans can't decipher it. We get a nice, long look at Rossa's jaw drop before the soldier they escaped with reveals himself to be a werewolf disguising himself as Balke, apparently indicating that werewolves can take on the forms of those they devour. Rossa's rifle does nothing to him once he fully transforms, barely even tickling him, leading to a pretty tense fight... Until Testa barrels into him in the truck they were heading towards, saving Yonaga yet again. As they're fleeing in the truck, Yonaga explains that she was used as bait by the other werewolves to find out if humans had really deciphered the Luger Code and, upon finding out they hadn't, decided to kill her along with them. Surprisingly, the Balke-wolf shows up right in front of them, only this time, hitting him with the truck causes the truck to flip end over end. Balke-wolf is about to chomp on a downed Testa only for Rossa to hit him in the eye, with a pistol, from about 20 yards; pretty impressive accuracy for a man just in a major accident. Of course, that just pisses Balke-wolf off and he goes after Rossa, tossing him about like a ragdoll.
That's when Yonaga comes up to Testa and asks him if he truly wants to save Rossa; when he agrees, she tells him to die and shoots him before taking a chunk out of her own arm and letting the blood pour into his mouth. Just as Balke-wolf is about to twist Rossa's head off, a transformed Testa slices his hand off. Balke-wolf looks over at Yonaga, realizes what happened, and freaks out in his attempt to kill Testa; we then get to see why she called her blood (and now Testa's) cursed: Testa blocks an attack with his hand, letting two of Balke-wolf's fingers go through it... And his blood dissolves the fingers to the bone. He makes fairly short work of Balke-wolf before helping Rossa a bit, though he does mention he can't return to civilization as he is. Rossa makes him promise to return one day by loaning him his hat (to hide his ears); amusingly, both Testa and Yonaga agree it looks a bit lame on him. Afterwards, we get to see Yonaga quite cheerful as she walks alongside Testa, possibly happy at no longer being completely alone.
A pretty interesting episode all told, though nothing revolutionary; still, should make for an enjoyable series, which is good, because those are in short supply this season.
In other news, the upcoming Full Metal Panic! anime has been confirmed for Fall 2017 and will be a continuation of the previous anime, as it's title will be Full Metal Panic! IV; a bit annoying, since that'll make it something like 11 since TSR aired (I think) and it's changing from KyoAni to Xebec, as well, so I can't help but think it really would have been better off getting a remake. On the plus side, the scriptwriting and series composition writing are both being done by FMP's original author, so there's that.
Surprisingly, I've also seen an announcement for a fourth season of High School DxD, which is generating a lot of mixed feelings; most people hated BorN (season 3), as it was apparently roughly 50% anime original. I'm not super familiar with the LNs, so I didn't have as big a problem, though there was a major dip in quality compared to the first two. It was still fun, but not as good. Hopefully, things will return to form.
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 23, 2016 9:04:57 GMT
Got caught up on Izetta. When she goes after the Germania tank and air divisions and they first started that choir music I really hoped they'd do it Akira style, hahaha. That would have made it epic. It, Drifters and Bungo Stray Dogs are my shows this season. I'm also watching Sangatsu no Lion, Udon no Kuni, Stella no Mahou, Fune wo Amu and Bloodivores, but like you guys am not chomping at the bit for them. It's nice to have some fall back shows, though.
Orange, Hero Academy, Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka, MonMasu, No Game No Life, Trinity Seven and Overlord all have movies or OVA's coming out.
|
|
|
Post by randomnobody on Oct 23, 2016 13:08:58 GMT
Speaking of movies, I'm still waiting for good subs of Koe no Katachi.
|
|
|
Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 23, 2016 18:38:43 GMT
Finally got to Gundam and, surprisingly, my prediction from last week (that Mika and the Juliett would fight over who gets Sandoval until he escapes) was wrong. They in fact ignore one another unless they get in the other's way; the three-way fight that follows, with reinforcements on all sides, is beautifully animated and I got a chuckle out of Mika pinning Sandoval against his own ship, to which Sanddoval replies "this isn't over" as expected, only for Mika to start wailing on his MS with the Barbatos' maces for a solid 10 seconds, after which Sandoval meekly ejects from his MS and surrenders. Cutting to Naze and old man Teiwaz, along with an obvious future enemy of Tekkadan, we hear the aftermath where Teiwaz decides to reward Tekkadan's performance by having them operate and manage the new half-metal mine they're opening, which will be the largest in the entire region; this is also a lot of potential money they're being given. Back to Tekkadan, Hush asks Mika to ask Orga if he can pilot a mobile suit, giving his reasoning as wanting to be stronger than Mika, which he accepts; there's then a scene with Kudelia and Atra where Kudelia seems to be waiting for Mika. Short as that scene was, it did make me think: this is episode 29 (overall) and we haven't heard anything regarding Kudelia's parents since about episode 3. Kinda makes me wonder just what happened to them in the interim. Anyway, we move to Allium Gyojan, the guy who got pissed at Kudelia and hired the pirates to kill her because she refused to work with him, and he's freaking out trying to get a hold of Nobliss to convince Kudelia of his innocence right before Orga and Mika walk in, laying their cards on the table. It's a bit amusing seeing Orga act like an actual gangster with how he treats him. Hilariously, when Orga leaves the threat of what they'll do to Allium if he can't pay them reparations for their battle against the pirates, Allium freaks again and goes to call Gjallarhorn, only to be told it's none of their business. We then find that Tekkadan has taken over Allium's facilities and surrounded the building, when Orga says that, since he can't pay, he can just go straight to heaven and apologize directly to those they lost; cue Mika shooting him several times with his usual casual disinterest. Onto another scene with Atra and Kudelia (and how nice it is to see two girls in anime interested in the same guy being such close friends), where we actually get a mention of Kudelia's parents, though only in passing, when Atra asks why she isn't living with them; she also mentions that it's been a year since the last season and that, surprisingly, Mika's been studying and trying out new cultivation methods on the farm. It's one thing to hear he wants to be a farmer, another to really see it in practice. Hilariously, at the end of the scene, Atra basically proposes to Kudelia, by saying that, once she achieves her goal of creating a world where Tekkadan and Mika aren't really needed in their current form, she should work on the farm with her and Mika; she didn't quite say "live", but the implication was there. Interestingly, we get our first look at the mine Tekkadan was gifted and one of the workers needs them because they found something: a Gundam Frame. Meaning that, out of 26 Gundam Frames still operational, Tekkadan now controls at least 3. I say "at least" because they also found something else; we don't get to see it right away, but it's described as being too big to be a mobile suit. We then get to the last scene of the episode, a meeting between Orga, Mika, and Merribit and McGillis. He reiterates his end goal of purging Gjallarhorn's corruption when asked, but the purpose of the meeting was to formally make an alliance between Gjallarhorn (minus the Arianrhod fleet) and Tekkadan, which is pretty ironic given they were the main antagonists last season.
|
|
Ifrit
Member
More edgy than a double edge sword
Posts: 3,284
|
Post by Ifrit on Oct 23, 2016 19:30:40 GMT
I recently watched an anime movie called "the boy and the beast" or something like that. Was a great movie. If I had kids I would definitely put this on for them. It's beautiful.
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 23, 2016 20:57:51 GMT
Yeah, Bakemono no Ko, The Boy and the Beast. I saw that too. I waited a long time for it to come out, then a long time for someone to get around to subbing it. Real good show.
|
|
Ifrit
Member
More edgy than a double edge sword
Posts: 3,284
|
Post by Ifrit on Oct 23, 2016 21:04:59 GMT
The English voice acting was on point too. I am pleasantly surprised at all the good English voice acting that anime has had lately. I swore off English dub after attempting o watch battle angel alita back in the day. The dub was atrocious
|
|
|
Post by Adrian Jordan on Oct 23, 2016 21:46:50 GMT
Whaaat!? That was Amanda Winn Lee! Voice of Rei Ayanami! But yeah, not great, hahaha.
I tend to watch the subbed version of shows, as I hate that what is being said gets altered, sometimes drastically, with the dub. I did think the English dub they did for the Vampire Hunter D movies were pretty great. I watched them again recently. My brother found them both on Blu Ray and got me copies, so I was jazzed.
|
|
Ifrit
Member
More edgy than a double edge sword
Posts: 3,284
|
Post by Ifrit on Oct 23, 2016 21:54:32 GMT
I never watched the dub of NGE. I feel that voice actor butchered Shinji way too hard and his English voice changed the character way too much. When I watched the Japanese version, I never got the impression he was a loser. Felt more like he was just a scared kid who was generally perceived as attractive. In the English, it changed the show into "loser fights monsters and gets every chick, he even gets an angel dude" which felt nonsensical. His Japanese voice implied he was supposed to be "cute", doubled with the fact he was drawn with the same face as Rei and Asuka, which wasn't commonly done for male characters aside from the Angel dude, who would obviously been drawn attractive. As he's an angel.
Then suddenly the dub gave him a nerdy cracking voice and it annoyed me 😂
|
|
|
Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 24, 2016 1:40:19 GMT
So here's something I didn't realize while watching the most recent episode of Izetta (I only caught it thanks to looking at the Reddit discussion): Neu-Berlin, the brief shot of it we get, is actually a very accurate recreation of Welthauptstadt Germania, a city model designed by Albert Speer for Adolf Hitler's vision of Berlin after they won WWII. Compare: Neu-Berlin vs Welthauptstadt GermaniaNow I'm really curious as to just how extensive the divergence is between this world and ours; how far back does it go? Is it one of those where it only goes back about a hundred years? Or is it more like Code Geass, that traces its divergence back to about 55 B.C.E.? EDIT: On an unrelated note, checking the Reddit discussion for IBO's 4th episode revealed the name and full design of the Gundam Frame discovered in Tekkadan's new mine: Flauros. Named for a Duke of Hell, Flauros can take on the form of a man with a fierce expression and burning eyes (the unfinished Gunpla has its traditional red beard shaped so that it looks like razor-sharp fangs) and can be called upon by mortals to take revenge on other demons. Considering Hush has a low-burning hatred of Mikazuki, commonly referred to as a devil, and a desire to surpass him, it seems like this may be the mobile suit Hush gets to pilot.
|
|
|
Post by Vincent Dolan on Oct 26, 2016 0:45:03 GMT
So Matoi was good (and I'm grateful someone picked it up, seeing as HS only released last week's episode Sunday) and explained a few things, though it surprised me a bit. So, Clarus, the blonde, has a personal vendetta against Creed Killer, the guy who showed up at the end of last week's episode; he killed her kouhai that she was training. It surprised me a bit there, since it prefaced the scene introducing said kouhai with "3 years ago", so I half expected it to be Matoi's mother, but it was someone completely different. After a bit of useless fighting, where we see that Matoi's power can easily open Gates of Caelum, we get a flashback fleshing out the kouhai a bit and I'm kinda glad she's not a main character, as she's the type that believes everyone deserves happiness, even if they're genocidal monsters and I absolutely loathe that character type. It gets worse during the second flashback where we see her end when she actually defends Creed Killer from Clarus for the purpose of discussion; just file her under "Too Dumb to Live" and move on. At least Matoi is smarter about the whole thing, accepting there's no possibility of negotiations, even if she's not thrilled about fighting. Naturally, she ends up having an insane amount of power, as her Divine Union draws from the unique Japanese ideal that there are gods in everything, which manifests as Creed Killer attempts to wipe them all off the map and she stops him from doing so, allowing Clarus to defeat him. Now that the first arc is, seemingly, over, I can't help but wonder just when Yuma will get her Divine Union as shown in the OP.
|
|