Dunno about normal, but it's definitely foreign

JJ... you're getting stranger and stranger with each post .

Had a watch of some of the new anime out this season.

Dance in the Vampire Bund is looking to be my favourite, it's very different from the manga which i read through after watching the first episode (people were complaining because it had a different take). I won't say it's either better or worse, just that it's slower... was surprised you scored it a 6 JJ, didn't take to it very well?

Also watched Onamori Himari (or something Himari at least) and it seems to be a relatively casual series to watch with some ecchi humour here and there interspersed with some form of Shounen plot.

There's also Baka to Test something something, which also appears to be a casual series with general slapstick humour that i quite like and just generally funny in general.

I was getting bored of waiting for weekly episodes so i took a look at Da Capo after you rated it a 9 and i'd heard about it before.

TBH the first 4 episodes haven't exactly got me hooked, it's decent enough to watch but nothing's really drawn me in like say Clannad, Kanon of Ef. Not to mention some things just annoy me like Nemu's bipolar tsundere as opposed to a more traditional one and the thing about Miharu. Admittedly i've still got 22 episodes to go so there's room for improvement which i look forward to hopefully seeing.

I've just watched the second episode, and my score has improved. I found the first episode really disappointing, but I guess it was just a way of introducing the show. I'm used to it taking a few episodes to "get into" a series, and that really didn't work for me. Now the story is going properly, it's a lot better.

Not having read any of the manga, I have to say I've been a little shocked by the overtly sexual loli. The ED is really bad for more than one reason, but Seriously; rubbing cream all over her naked body was not something I expected

Of course, that's the usual twist of an experienced woman stuck in a young girls body. However, there's usually some strategically placed steam or something. Heck, they even stuck random bats over the panty-shots in Rosario+Vampire!

The skit at the end was pretty funny. It's left me singing "pettan pettan tsurupettan", which I really must get out of my head before I go outside

It's late, so I'll finish this post tomorrow. Right now, I think I need to watch some big-breasted Latin girls shaking their booty

I thought the first episode whilst slow, did a good job on introducing the world etc. I mean i understand how some people who came in expecting "whoo loli, whoo vampires" and expected an action show with SHAFT animation may have been disappointed, but i think this opening sets a nice "mature" tone to the series and makes it seem more serious.

As for the loli scenes, it's pretty much like that in the manga... i actually think because it's manga that there may actually be more of it as well ¬.¬ . However that said, i find that something more acceptable than some of the stuff i've seen in other ecchi animes since Akira didn't/doesn't necessarily make it out to be anything sexual.

And damn you JJ... damn you. That song's stupidly addictive... am actually glad i'm not going to Judo today with the 2nd dan exchange student from Japan . + That song really sounds like something i've heard before - in fact i took a few minutes to actually recall it. The verse of the pettan song reminds me of a sped up version of the awesome Bakemonogatari OP for the Nadeko Snake arc - clicky.

I look forward to the rest of your post, especially your thoughts on Da Capo. After watching a few more episodes i'd say it's improved, but it still doesn't "grab" at me although in terms of characters i'm happy that Kotori is becoming a more "standard" character. I can pretty much assume how Da Capo (or the second season) ends (especially since i accidently read the plot synopsis of Da Capo II ) which just annoys me at how standardised these things seem to end up. Although if Da Capo If is what i think it is, then hopefully i'll enjoy watching that .

This week I've been working stupid hours, not sleeping anywhere near enough and watching lots of new animé. The result is, I keep getting all confused about everything


I like this a lot. It's a very "comfortable" show, with familiar characters and a familiar plot all beautifully animated in a familiar style. If I hadn't seen it all before, then I'd probably rate it 10.

Sadly, after watching Vampire Bund I keep expecting the cat to be a vampire, and the demon slayer to be a werewolf. However, I love cats and the ridiculously colourful demons are fabulous. Ice Loli + tenticle monster FTW!

It's obviously not a "high-brow" or pretentious show, but every season needs some good quality light-hearted glossy fun. I have no complaints, and I'll watch it every week.

Sora_no_Woto
I love this so far, but I'm really not sure what to expect. There are a couple of potentially explosive plots which have been seeded, but I've watched the first three and they're still building the character relationships.

Once again, the characters are all very familiar. A lot of people are comparing it to K-on, but I'm really hoping for something very different. It may seem to be about music at the moment, but we have a whole history of demons and legendary figures already.

The main character reminds me of Lain, simply because of the hair style. Did you ever watch SE Lain? I must have asked before, but I forget...


It was so long ago now! I remember it started quite slowly and was quite ordinary, but there are a few moments which are really powerful. I think the whole show is really about putting those moments into context. There is a lot of depth to this story, and as it's revealed you're drawn deeper into the world. I'm also pretty sure I cried, which always adds a point to my score

And there's lots of food. I really love food. That's another automatic +1

Don't worry about the Junichi + Nemu spoiler, because that's not what the true story is about. This is a romantic tale, but they are not the only characters

I'm surprised you'd rate it a 10, as you say it's very "comfortable", something that's easy just to watch and you don't exactly have to take it all in. However, whilst interesting, i never found it to be a "draw" and again, as you said it's all been done before. For example, the only shows i've rated 10 were Clannad (as a series), Kanon and Ef... funnily enough each of those are probably more romance orientated than i would have expected (that is, expected to get a 10, not expected them to be romance lol) however all three share high production quality, good story, character interaction and atmosphere all coming together in a very engaging way.

Omamori Himori seems to be generic... maybe generic done well but it seems to lack the sparkle that the aforementioned shows... showed. Maybe that will change in future but at the moment i think this is initially a 7, 8 if it keeps up the quality and a 9 at the most (and even then, it's got to be special to compete with the likes of the other 9s i've watched =X, Code Geass, Black Lagoon, Lucky Star, Haruhi... maybe Toradora gets lowered to an 8 actually... it's more 8.5).

Then again, i think i'm sometimes rather harsh with scoring when i compare it to the rest =X.



From what i've read, it seems like they've done a good job of differentiating themselves from the original label of "K-ON Goes to War"... i haven't watched any of it yet since i think i overdosed on K-On's moe-moe-ness, however since i was mentioning scoring i'm surprised that i rated it a 7... think it must have been whilst i was still fed up with it. The episodes went from being funny to slightly hard to watch.

As for SE Lain, i've seen you mention it before and i looked into it, i haven't watched it and it looks interesting but i've not really been a fan of the whole psychological/supernatural series... i tried watching Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and whilst technically good, i never found the compulsion to finish watching the last few episodes of the first season (that could also be in part of the completely fragmented storytelling system where there's actually multiple universes and plotlines in an effort to recreate it's game-based roots ).



See... this is commentator's curse (or whatever it is in terms of writing)... I just finished watching Episode 18 and bam, there it is, the point where things seem to get interesting. I think it first hit me when Nemu started narrating about her feelings for Junichi because up until that point, you know that they like each other but there's just something lacking in the character interaction... i mean with the aforementioned 10 shows, i felt like i could understand the characters whilst with this i knew what they were feeling, but didn't necessarily empathise?

Anyhow, as of episode 18 with Nemu's narration i think the show's quality has hit an 8 (if it had been like this from the start, maybe a 9 ;>). I also loved the fact that episode 19 started off with Junichi's narration of how he felt about the situation which i think solidified the "turning point" in the anime. I think another thing was that nothing really seemed to develop in the first 17 episodes since all you got was Junichi half-heartedly acting interested in Moe-senpai (Mako's sister), Sakura just acting all huggable and not really seeming to commit to her feelings (until episode 18 as well funnily enough) and there was that brief arc with Junichi pretending to go out with Mako that culminated in what seemed like Mako having feelings for Junichi... but that then quickly got shelved for other unrelated episodes.

It's not that i necessarily dislike episodes where nothing happens, but it's when a show seems to set out to tell a story and then gets caught up in things that don't advance the plot or develop any character (or develops it then seems to ignore it) that i don't really enjoy it as much.

Either way, hopefully the series will carry on getting better and i'm going to go back to watching episode 20 .

Ah, I fear perhaps you misunderstood me.

I said I'd probably rate it 10, If I hadn't seen it all before. It's definitely a really good show for people relatively new to the genre, because it encompasses a lot of the current trends in a very slick way. If I'd have seen this when I were a young lad, I'd probably have been blown away and remembered it forever.

As it is, it'll probably be an 8.

Hope you enjoy your Da Capo Marathon, and I'll be interested if you choose to watch II. I can tell you, it was a mighty peculiar feeling of déja WTF to start with

Opps, i didn't actually misunderstand you, just forgot to write proper in context to it during my answer lol.

I can't really comment on the series fully since i've still only seen one episode (am trying to stick to Crunchyroll to try and do the "moral" thing). Hopefully my opinions of it will evolve after a few more episodes and i'll find it as encapsulating of anime as you have.

As for the Da Capo marathon, have just finished it. I think i needed to since i have work to do and i'd just want to watch some episodes during (rather frequent) breaks otherwise.

On the whole i was very impressed with how well the anime sorted itself out at the end... however i still feel that they missed so much on character interaction/development during the start of the series... thankfully it was still enough for the final few episodes involving Yoriko and Miharu to have an impact... as for Kotori i can't believe how she just got shafted off like that...

I also felt that the last run of episodes after 18 were rather "intense"... from the semi-non-chalant series it started off as, it almost suddenly ramped up the seriousness and the focus on the triangle between Junichi, Sakura and Nemu... and then for added effect it hit the Miharu and Yoriko episodes as well. Overall i think it could do with better pacing since whilst i wasn't necessarily getting "bored" of it by the end... i just felt it to be tedious.

Trying to rate the series is hard, the start i would have probably rated around a 7.5ish, about episodes 18-22ish about an 8.5 whilst the last few episodes hovers more around the 8ish mark. I'll have to think of it and see if i look back on it relatively fondly...

On a side note, the tone of the series reminded me of Shuffle! which i think you should add on you "To Watch" list... it's slightly more ecchi but i personally found it to be a better series i think, at least, a solid 8 the way through with maybe a couple of eps getting a 7.5.

As for the Second Season... i'm not exactly "drawn" into watching it like i was say with Clannad After Story or Code Geass, however i'm definitely curious... it'll wait till my work's done though ;>... or at least this piece I'm also looking at True Tears though since i've heard relatively good things about that... similar to Kanon and Clannad. Have also got to watch Air though as well ¬.¬... pah, i'll get round to all of them at some point.

Why are Manga unable to advertise their products in advance? How hard can it be to update their website with product release date rather than not mention them until the come out? All I want to know is the the box set of Bleach series 4 is out! Even Amazon is of little help, I guess Manga tell them about as much as the rest of us.

An Early Look at Devil - A Unique Comic/Manga Project Offering a Bit of Anti-Twilight Catharsis

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43888

I know it's Manga, but it sounds very

That looks serious.

Added to my "wish list".

The style reminds me a lot of the Hellsing Ultimate series... although it's not quite gotten as graphic yet.

It definitely looks interesting though, however i'm having issues with reading it as a comic (left to right) and not a manga (right to left) lol.

Right you lot, recommend me a good anime film.
I've seen Akira, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind.
I've posted enough about what I like to watch in this forum for you all to be able to make an informed recommendation.
So, over to you …

Mark

You may have posted it, but that doesn't mean i've read it

You seen to have watched quite a few Studio Ghibli films so i guess the easy recommendations are Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro and Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea.

I've not seen that many films to be honest. Many films are a diluted version of the series.

However, I think Ghost in the Shell is arguably better than the series and probably to your taste. The much more recent "Innocence" is especially visually stunning, but you really should watch the first one first. There are a lot of GiTS DVDs of the series and other films, so be careful what you buy. It can be confusing.

1st film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113568/
2nd film: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347246/

It's often compared to Blade Runner, but it's very different. It does address some of the same issues though.

I really should watch the first film again, because I borrowed it over 10 years ago and I can barely remember it at all. There are usually good offers on box sets, but I've never gotten around to actually buying them