[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 08 February 2012 - 09:44 PM, said:

just to feed the obsession.

Which is naturally what this has become for me now. Must watch, whenever I get the chance!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 09 February 2012 - 12:32 AM

[Silencer]

And that ^ is precisely why I am still flat-out refusing to indulge.

[Dolmen 2.0]

Is it possible to wach the anime from the strongworld movie onwards? I tried something simiilar with shippuuden and gundam with great success. Starting one piece from square one is way too hectic for me right now.

[QuickTidal]

Silencer, on 09 February 2012 - 01:19 AM, said:

And that ^ is precisely why I am still flat-out refusing to indulge.

Oh but your should Silencer! It's SO good so far.

It's weird, my gf works with this one guy who is a super nerd and both he and his wife watch and obsess (like me) over DOCTOR WHO...and up till now I thought that was our only common nerdiness.

Yesterday my gf tells him "Oh, my boyfriend is watching some anime show....about pirates or something." (She's no good remembering titles and names) and the nerdy guy says "Oh my god! Is it ONE PIECE?! that show is the frigging BEST!" He and his wife are devout fans who have watched every single one.

LOL, so apparently this is a phenomenon I was unaware of till folks here mentioned it.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 09 February 2012 - 03:59 PM

[rhulad]

A phenomenon that has been around for the better part of 15 years .

@Dolmen: if you have read the manga up to that point then yeah you shouldn't have any problem. If not some of it might be a little confusing for lack of history etc.

Edit: thought about this after I posted, but has anyone watched the Toriko anime? I haven't yet but I have been reading the manga... just want to hear thoughts on whether it is any good or not.

This post has been edited by rhulad: 09 February 2012 - 05:59 PM

[Chance]

With a master done and so I've taken to watch some series while doing less serious work

Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari: a strangeness mystery ghost story kinda of thing, worth watching for animation alone and some fairly great episodes too. Probably even more enjoyable for those who like seeing the standard anime relationship troups twisted until they break.

Gosick: a mystery detective stories in imaginary pre ww2 europe not perfect but easily watchable and with some quite pretty animation even if the main character dynamics have been done to death.

Steins;Gate: time travel done brilliantly even thought the heritage from its game source material make it slightly less interesting.

Fate Zero: probably more less uninteresting for those who havent watched Fate Stay Night but a fairly well done prequel and another case of new anime being awfully good looking. Now if only one didn't have to wait for months for the second half !

The World God Only Knows: A parody on the dating game and subculture around it, simply hillarious and I rarely watch more or less simple comedy.

Not much but I might have to readjust my earlier judgment upon the last few years as crap animewise.

All this OP discussion make me inclined to catch up...

This post has been edited by Chance: 09 February 2012 - 07:35 PM

[LinearPhilosopher]

JLV, on 05 February 2012 - 03:50 AM, said:

Watched with my dad:

Ghost in the Shell - Pure Amazing
Samurai Champloo - I liked it a lot, my dad not so much.
FMA (Not Brotherhood) - Pure Amazing
Eden of the East - loved the series, watched the first movie and was slightly dissapointed.
Darker than Black - Pure amazing

Watched alone:
FLCL - Loved it
Ergo Proxy - Loved it
Bleach - stopped after a while. Meh.
Witchhunter Robin - Watched the first few, never got around to finishing them. Not on streaming, unfortunately.
Death Note - I liked it a lot. Not obsessed with it being intellectual like a fanboy, but it was extremely tense and entertaining. Unfortunately only on netflix in sub, which neither I nor my dad feels like dealing with.
EDIT: Code Geass - Absolutely loved it. A mech show that I could enjoy. Not on netflix, unfortunately.

I'm sure there are more but my brain is drawing a blank. If you just leave suggestions I can check if they're on netflix.

Oh, and if they're girl's with guns they have to be something MORE, ya know? (GitS)

id get around to finished witch hunter. It gets better once you hit the mid season point. No more episodic stuff and more of the arc stuff thats beeen building up behind the scenes.

JLV, on 05 February 2012 - 04:45 AM, said:

I take that back, Baccano! IS on netflix.

I'm gonna make a list of a few we have in instaqueue just because they sounded somewhat interesting. Let me know how they are if you've seen them:

Xenosaga: The Animation
FMA Brotherhood
Chrome Shelled Regios
Blood+
Basilisk
Mushi-Shi
Phantom Requiem for a Phantom
Jyu-Oh-Sei: Planet of the Beast King
Black Blood Brothers
Gun X Sword
Noir
Night Raid 1931
Ghost Hound
Noein
Le Chevalier D'Eon
Baccano!
Last Exile

I've seen Le Chevalier D'eon, Baccano, Gun X Sword, FMA brother and Jyu Oh sei.
Chevalier is myy fav series of all times. It seamlessly blends historical facts (though forget about timelines) with the action in the story. If you're a history buff you'll love it. It also has legit FENCING in it. This is a really unique series. Nothing else really quite like it.
Baccano is awesome. It's very quentin tarantino esque.
Gun X Sword. It's an okay series i guess. If you want just a straight up action series then look no further. It is generic in terms of story and characters but well executed.
FMA brother. If you liked the original FMA then i would try it. The stories diverge a lot after ep~15 so its an interesting twist on the story. This one stays more faithful to the manga.
JYu oh Sei: It was entertaining,lord of the flies in space. Nothing to write home about. Here watch this to learn more.
http://www.desudesbr...e-beast-king-2/

btw that site is full of great reviews so its a good place to look for reccomendations.

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 09 February 2012 - 07:40 PM

[Sindriss]

Sil, look at it this way: You have read no fantasy before, and you begin on Terry Goodkin thinking it is quite good. It certainly keeps you interested enough to continue reading: you just found bleach. Now your friends start talking about some big ass series, that is really good, although a bit heavy on some character traits: Congratulations, you have just found WoT/naruto/FMA. A good series that really sparkled your interest. Great in many ways the first time you read it. Yet, you somehow feel in your gut, is this the apex of fantasy? Great in some ways, yet missing in others and ultimately feeling just a bit shallow.

Suddenly, a friend from way back meets up with you randomly, and you begin to talk. He has found the light apperently! Its called the malazan empire of the fallen, by this dude called SE.

Yup, One Piece is just that good. Its the Malazan series of the manga world.

[Silencer]

We'll see...


No, wait! That's exactly what he WANTED me to say! ARGH!!!!1

Alright, well, I'm currently engaged in mortal combat with Durarara and a couple of in-progress rewatches...but I'll put One Piece on the bloody list. *sigh*

QT, you watching subbed? I probably don't need to ask, but...

[amphibian]

Dolmen+, on 09 February 2012 - 08:58 AM, said:

Is it possible to wach the anime from the strongworld movie onwards? I tried something simiilar with shippuuden and gundam with great success. Starting one piece from square one is way too hectic for me right now.

I would actually start with the Thriller Bark arc, then do the Strong World movie, and then proceed onwards. There's an arc that comes up ahead that depends a bit heavily upon what went before in Thriller Bark.

Just be warned that the lead characters usually have some sort of doofy thing that they always do -

Spoiler

Zoro gets lost, Luffy barges ahead without thinking too much, Sanji is completely girl crazy, Usopp has self-esteem problems, Nami is money-obsessed, Robin is really distant most of the time, Chopper is not a grown-up, Franky never wears pants and Brook gets really dramatic/tells awful jokes.

I put the stuff before in spoilers because some people may not want the Straw Hat crew members at the time spoiled for them.

That's a good spot to jump in halfway at.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 09 February 2012 - 11:13 PM

[Chance]

Sindriss, on 09 February 2012 - 09:53 PM, said:

Yup, One Piece is just that good. Its the Malazan series of the manga world.

Its hard to respond to this statement without being unbearably rude but I'd put One Piece as Harry Potter or something in your comparison its resonably fun and hyped beyond compare by rabid fans but the truth is some less noticed work are far superior even thought they might be a bit narrower. Its not without reason "the big three" (Naruto/Bleach/One Piece) are spoken about in the same breath by many tired with shounen action genre and especially amongst manga there are some works of art amongst the chaff.

This post has been edited by Chance: 09 February 2012 - 11:39 PM

[sappers rule]

I would try one piece but i am in my 6th year with the l.c. coming up plus i already watch way too many animes already and i havent caught up with detective conan yet so i cant see myself getting in to one piece.

[amphibian]

Chance, on 09 February 2012 - 11:36 PM, said:

Its hard to respond to this statement without being unbearably rude but I'd put One Piece as Harry Potter or something in your comparison its resonably fun and hyped beyond compare by rabid fans but the truth is some less noticed work are far superior even thought they might be a bit narrower. Its not without reason "the big three" (Naruto/Bleach/One Piece) are spoken about in the same breath by many tired with shounen action genre and especially amongst manga there are some works of art amongst the chaff.

What series is so dramatically superior to One Piece as to be the Malazan to its Harry Potter?

[LinearPhilosopher]

@amphibian. Let me see, theres berserk, the manga is still on going and it's far superior.
Claymore is superior.
and i'm only touching on the medieval manga to anime action series here.
for original series:
FMA
FMA:Brotherhood
Madoka
GITS
Baccano
Durarara
Count of Monte Cristo
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Outlaw Star
TTGL
Kino's Journey.
Digimon tamers(season 3)
Gundam Wing

And let's not forget, Dragonball (original). The series that inspired every single shounen ever. And guess what they remade dbz into db kai, and its awesome they cut all the filler out.

Those are all series that are far superior to OP as far as im concerned. And my list only accounts for 100~odd series. There's much i haven't watched. And guess what, most of these are original concepts, not that generic shounen crap that litters mainstream anime. If you're going to say "x series is the best evar". please have the refinement to not pick one of the big 3 shounens. It hurts your credibility, big time. In fact, let me ask you a question how many different series have you watched? I've watched over a hundred and i would never claim that one is superior to all.

Chance, on 09 February 2012 - 11:36 PM, said:

Sindriss, on 09 February 2012 - 09:53 PM, said:

Yup, One Piece is just that good. Its the Malazan series of the manga world.

Its hard to respond to this statement without being unbearably rude but I'd put One Piece as Harry Potter or something in your comparison its resonably fun and hyped beyond compare by rabid fans but the truth is some less noticed work are far superior even thought they might be a bit narrower. Its not without reason "the big three" (Naruto/Bleach/One Piece) are spoken about in the same breath by many tired with shounen action genre and especially amongst manga there are some works of art amongst the chaff.

Im sorry but one piece is not malazan. Malazan is fantasy completely redone and stuff. One piece is still a shounen series with all the added baggage that comes with it. Don't get me wrong OP is a great series, but its still a shounen series, still has all of those traits the other shounen series has.

It's called product differentiation man, one piece has achieved that through polishing up stuff that already existed. Malazan is completely different from anything out there atm Its based on pre-existing stuff, but its been taken to such a degree of change it can't easily be reconciled with other authors. Erikson is very very Unique. OP is unique only in the way that it's avoided the pitfalls of most on-going shounens.

Madoka would be closer since it's a genre deconstruction as well, but i wouldn't put madoka on the same level as SE.

Now if i seem im being overly defensive or passive agressive, it's because narutard/bleachtard (im on a bleach forum)/one piecers have exhausted my patience. Most of those who watche those series have watched precious little, and are all like "xxxx is the best series evar!". Get's real boring, real fast.

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 10 February 2012 - 04:37 AM

[Silencer]

Whoa whoa whoa. I'm just gonna point out one little concern here: "Shounen series", as you refer to them, is a ENTIRE DEMOGRAPHIC. I assume you are referring to the 'generic, filled-with-filler and POWER LEVEL OVER 9000!!!!' set of series, not the entire shonen catalogue!

I say this, because things like Fullmetal Alchemist, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and plenty of other decent shows are shonen by nature. I know you specified 'generic shonen crap that litters mainstream anime', but even so. And let's not forget that you are ranking Dragonball up there, which as you say, started all that 'generic shonen crap'. XD


I can't speak for One Piece, as I haven't watched it yet, but your response really seems quite over the top to me - bearing in mind we're discussing how much people like something this is a very subjective matter. If Sindriss thinks OP is that unique, he's entitled to that opinion, and entitled to share that opinion, same as you're entitled to contradict him...but really...overdose of fangasm from other sites aside, is that scale of response really warranted? :S

[QuickTidal]

Silencer, on 09 February 2012 - 10:57 PM, said:

QT, you watching subbed? I probably don't need to ask, but...

I'm watching the current Funimation English dub (the one with "We Are" as the theme song for the first Season) as it is actually quite good up to and including Colleen Clinkenbeard's awesome Luffy voice.

From what I understand, after it first debuted in Japan... 4KidsEntertainment & Viz Media bought the license for North American release and made a HEAVILY EDITED version of the show which apparently cut the story to ratshit as well as for length at the time went from 143 eps to 104 or something. They changed shit to make it more kid-friendly: Stuff like turning Sanji's cigarettes into lollipops?! The story is apparently that 4Kids didn't bother VIEWING the show and didn't realize it wasn't really aimed at kids, so they had to cut it to fit the demographic. Obviously they only aired a small portion before dropping it. This fiasco apparently "ruined" 4Kids Ent. reputation according to their CEO.

Anyways, Funimation picked it up in 2007 and did a faithful dubbing leaving the show relatively untouched.

Note, the site I stream it on also has every ep subbed as well, so it's your choice. I'm watching the dub because I'd heard good things about the translation.

When you DO decide to watch this is the official Funimation site that streams it: http://onepieceofficial.com/ and as far as I can tell they have ALL of them right up to date.

You can also apprently find it subbed and dubbed VIA HULU, but I can't vouch for that.

[QuickTidal]

Instead of answering BalrogLord's rather caustic response in detail I'll leave that to Amph and Sindriss since they seem to be the experts on the show, and I'm still a newbie.

That said, you can question my taste all you like man, but I'm loving ONE PIECE so far. And I've watched A LOT of anime. Hell, I write a monthly column on anime. This is my new favourite.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 10 February 2012 - 03:01 PM

[Chance]

amphibian, on 10 February 2012 - 02:37 AM, said:

What series is so dramatically superior to One Piece as to be the Malazan to its Harry Potter?

Of course thats subjective as OP probably wouldnt be in my top 25 or even 50 but for manga like Sindriss posted about Berserker comes to mind with superior artwork and story, a more grown up action epic then any of the three it of course won't be to everyones taste either.

For series I'd say BalrogLord has several good examples above thought I have no nostalgia or liking for Dragonball in any form and would add to that list shows like Mushi-shi, Twelve Kingdoms, Wolf & Spice, Visions of Escaflown and many others. Of course I got nowhere near complete knowledge of the genre as I tend to ignoring amongst others "romance/slice of life/highschool" stuff not coming very highly recommended. Still the main problems with OP in my opinion is that it is restrained by conventions of a genre and target audience that doesn't really allow it to go into more interesting directions, thought the writer really is good at making the most within the restraints.

It should probably be noted that I both read OP (thought the just finished fishman arc was a lowpoint of the series in my opinion) and watch OP and usually find it entertaining and would certainly recommend it. OP is great comedy-adventure-action stuff but there are anime/manga with considerably more substance.

/Chance

This post has been edited by Chance: 10 February 2012 - 03:02 PM

[QuickTidal]

Chance, on 10 February 2012 - 02:45 PM, said:

OP is great comedy-adventure-action stuff but there are anime/manga with considerably more substance.

But see, even 20 episodes into it, I can vouch for there being some heavier tones to the proceedings, underneath the adventure-action-comedy stuff. Some poignant stuff, that I actually wasn't expecting. Things that DB never did for me.

Why are we yardsticking it at all though? I mean yeah, for example in Eva there are thick, dark, heavy themes that are absolutely pregnant with allegory...but does everything need to be so blatant as that to be recognized? Why does subtlety not qualify?

I dunno, no less than 3 times now OP has made me sit up and think "Wow, I wasn't expecting that level of drama from this show" and I'm not even that far into it yet. I think that's a good sign in early days from a show that some folk seem to want to handwave as fluffy, dismissible shounen.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 10 February 2012 - 02:58 PM

[Chance]

QuickTidal, on 10 February 2012 - 02:57 PM, said:

But see, even 20 episodes into it, I can vouch for there being some heavier tones to the proceedings, underneath the adventure-action-comedy stuff. Some poignant stuff, that I actually wasn't expecting. Things that DB never did for me.

Why are we yardsticking it at all though? I mean yeah, for example in Eva there are thick, dark, heavy themes that are absolutely pregnant with allegory...but does everything need to be so blatant as that to be recognized? Why does subtlety not qualify?

I dunno, no less than 3 times now OP has made me sit up and think "Wow, I wasn't expecting that level of drama from this show" and I'm not even that far into it yet. I think that's a good sign in early days from a show that some folk seem to want to handwave as fluffy, dismissible shounen.

Damn I can't really criticise the first twenty episodes in any way that would make sense so I'll just agree. Like most of the long running manga/anime the problems develop years after the first manga.

This post has been edited by Chance: 10 February 2012 - 03:22 PM