[QuickTidal]

Found a strange and yet rather mesmerizing new anime you can watch free online at Crunchy Roll called STEINS; GATE and I'm only 3 episodes in but it's pretty damn good!

Steins; Gate follows an eclectic group of individuals who have the ability to send text messages to the past. However throughout their experimentation process, an organization named SERN who has been doing their own research on time travel tracks them down. Now it’s a careful game of cat and mouse to not get caught and moreover, try to survive.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/steinsgate

[amphibian]

Summer Wars is a great, great movie. Glad you're making a tribute to it in avatar and name change.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 19 July 2011 - 04:40 PM, said:

Summer Wars is a great, great movie. Glad you're making a tribute to it in avatar and name change.

Indeed. Just re-watched it last night and enjoyed it even more on a re-watch.

[QuickTidal]

I also want to note that I picked up a copy of (but haven't watched it yet) 5 CENTIMETERS PER SECOND and have heard nothing but ridiculous praise of it as well, and I'll comment once I have seen it. Look kind of incredible though.

[sappers rule]

animecrazy is a good place to go to watch most anime

[Silencer]

I can thoroughly recommend 'Noir'. The soundtrack alone is worth listening to, though I now feel I've been a bit spoiled by the quality of animation from KyoAni, as it's nowhere near as good in Noir. But the aforementioned soundtrack, the plot, the main characters, and the sheer amount of "DID THAT JUST HAPPEN!??!?!" or HSQ (Holy Shit Quotient) more than makes up for it, and I can see what they were going for given the limited budget.

I'd tell you more, but I'm still busy as hell, so I'll leave it up to TV Tropes for now. A great watch though, and I'm only halfway through!

[QuickTidal]

Totally. I think NEWtype Mag still lists NOIR as like #2 in all time best anime's ever...and it's ten years old now. I only watched about 10 of the 26 eps and I was pretty damn impressed...must sit down and finish the series one day.

[D'rek]

I've started watching a bit of Darker than Black. It's... okay. It's visually nice and there seems to be some interesting characters and character abilities, but it's yet another show where the "mystery" of the show is simply that the audience knows nothing and they tell you only a teeny bit of anything in each episode. It doesn't seem like there'd really be any intrigue to the plot if I actually knew more of what was going on.

That makes it sound worse than it is, though, it seems like it's actually a pretty good show other than all those things above.

[Gust Hubb]

D, on 20 July 2011 - 07:02 PM, said:

I've started watching a bit of Darker than Black. It's... okay. It's visually nice and there seems to be some interesting characters and character abilities, but it's yet another show where the "mystery" of the show is simply that the audience knows nothing and they tell you only a teeny bit of anything in each episode. It doesn't seem like there'd really be any intrigue to the plot if I actually knew more of what was going on.

That makes it sound worse than it is, though, it seems like it's actually a pretty good show other than all those things above.

I do like the intro music though. Truly awesome...

[Silencer]

Finally finished Noir. It was great, but a couple of particularly interesting things I noticed - it *feels* SO LONG. Each episode feels far longer than the twenty minutes they take to view. Now, granted, this is a single season of twenty-six episodes, which is quite a few compared to the sometimes twelve-or-fourteen-episode long stuff I've been watching so far. On the other hand, it felt like it took forever to get through a single episode, and the whole thing still felt like it took forever, number of episodes notwithstanding.
The other thing that stood out to me, which I mentioned above, was the soundtrack. Anime, I've noticed, often has phenomenal backing tracks, or at the very least phenomenal opening/ending songs. Now, I'm sure many TV series have these as well, it's just that you don't notice so much because music is a lot more 'background' in those, it seems. Despite this, the sheer level of awesome that Noir's background music reaches is Beyond the Impossible. 'Salva Nos', in particular (which backs almost every combat scene), is simply stellar.

Anyway, I can highly recommend this series - it's made it into #2 spot for me, just behind Haruhi. While it does sometimes slip into perhaps a *tad* much exposition, or goes a bit heavy on the Improbable Aiming Skills (at least as far as Kirika is concerned), for the most part it is very reserved on the amount of ridiculous scenes involved, instead being mostly plot- and character-driven, with the combat scenes being the 'reward' or the icing on the cake, and boy, are they awesome!


Right, so, in the place of watching another new series (my apologies QT, I will watch that series soon, but...), I'm instead going to go on a rewatching binge. Starting with Noir (seeing as I've watched that the least, and it's awesome), then probably moving onto Full Metal Panic, then culminating in Haruhi (hopefully arriving at the end of this rewatch precisely on the 28th of July...) so I can watch the English release of 'The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya' (movie) when it comes out, with the events of the series fresh in my memory. And because Haruhi is freaking awesome.

Anyway, that's my update for the day.

[QuickTidal]

My three fave theme songs from anime shows:

BLOOD+



Vision of Escaflowne

[QuickTidal]

and of course Haruhi!

This post has been edited by King Kazma: 22 July 2011 - 12:49 PM

[Dolmen 2.0]

Just watched deadman wonderland 1-14, its pretty good. Morbid and violent with decent animation music and some clever revelations halfway in. Thanks to whoever recommended it.

[champ]

Not sure if this has already been posted as I've come to the thread late... but...

Anyone else managed to watch some of the Marvel Anime...

http://en.wikipedia....ki/Marvel_Anime

Finished Iron Man a while back and it was a cracking series... Started Wolverine yesterday and ended up watching 6 episodes back to back... Cannot wait to finish it so I can start the X-men series... Highly recommended!

Also the Street Fighter series is definately worth a watch if you are a fan of the game or the Street Fighter animated movie...

http://en.wikipedia....et_Fighter_II_V

[D'rek]

I watched Summer Wars last night and would also whole-heartedly recommend it!


edit: and joining in the avatar-changing support lines, too, since I found a great pic of Natsuki with the funky ears...

This post has been edited by D'rek: 30 July 2011 - 05:27 AM

[QuickTidal]

D, on 30 July 2011 - 01:16 AM, said:

I watched Summer Wars last night and would also whole-heartedly recommend it!


edit: and joining in the avatar-changing support lines, too, since I found a great pic of Natsuki with the funky ears...

Natsuki! Nice.

Such a great film.

"Koi koi!"

[Silencer]

D, on 20 July 2011 - 07:02 PM, said:

I've started watching a bit of Darker than Black. It's... okay. It's visually nice and there seems to be some interesting characters and character abilities, but it's yet another show where the "mystery" of the show is simply that the audience knows nothing and they tell you only a teeny bit of anything in each episode. It doesn't seem like there'd really be any intrigue to the plot if I actually knew more of what was going on.

That makes it sound worse than it is, though, it seems like it's actually a pretty good show other than all those things above.

I actually quite enjoyed Darker than Black. Just watched the first season, and while I'll give you the point about the 'mystery', it does get better. The plot thickens, more factions become involved, and we learn a lot more about the characters - which are generally well done and interesting.

It's not quite top-tier in my books. But then, I think my top 3 at this point are iron-clad right now, seeing as they're not just my favourite anime, but some of my favourite entertainment, full stop. That being said, Darker than Black season one is up in my top anime at #4. I'm looking forward to season two even though I'm going to have to watch it with subs instead of dubbed, as the dub doesn't release until later this year (dammit, what with that and Disappearance, and the next Rebuild film...I think I'm starting to catch up with the curve... ).

Gust Hubb, on 20 July 2011 - 07:06 PM, said:

I do like the intro music though. Truly awesome...

THEY CHANGED IT. THEY CHANGED THE DAMN INTRO SONG AND SCENES HALFWAY THROUGH THE FIRST SEASON. WHY!??!?!?

Yeah...I really liked the original OP as well. The new one is growing on me, but it's competing against a song that was incredibly well-suited to the series. Again, I'm just impressed at the ability of an anime to have (in this case pick) great OPs. It's a good indicator of quality if the intro song matches the series well, especially if the OP is good. Of course, it's nothing definitive - the tone of the show could develop over time, or the OP could just be great while the series is mediocre, but it's a good starting point.

[Dolmen 2.0]

If you liked Bacano I recommend Durarara!!. Im a fan of this method of storytelling.

very eriksonish in its use of multi-faceted perspective.Tropes puts it down well.
Its definately in my top 5 animes. The final three episodes are absolutelt excellent.

[Kanese S's]

Have been watching a bit of Durarara, seems pretty interesting so far.

Though the name is kinda odd.

[LinearPhilosopher]

hellsing ova #8 was finally released. It was awesome.