Legend of Korra is pretty great. Arguably better than The Last Airbender.

The Trip - BRAWL 2012

So at MCM in London last Sunday, I bought two seasons of FMA Brotherhood. Oh my God I love this show so much, Edward Elric is just awesome.
By the way, for the few people here that have ever watched To Aru Majutsu no Index  (which you should by the way, it's awesome, and the spin-off is almost as good) they're making a movie which should be out in Feburary.

BRAWL 2013 ENTRY Quack In Time
"Why in the world did you do a weird language if you know English?" - tenny1028

Should I watch any of the following?:
Black Butler
Soul eater
Death Note

I'd like to know which of these programmes are worth my time. They've all been recommended to me at one point in time

Also today I got a button with Baron (from The Cat Returns) on it. Figured that's anime related.

For the last few months I've been watching a fair (read: unhealthy) amount of anime, and I just remembered we had this thread, so I figured I'd drop a few reviews.

Stein's;Gate: The basic premise (a group of oddballs accidentally turn a microwave into a time machine that can send texts into the past) makes the show sound more absurd than it is. It begins slowly and I've seen some complaints that the first few episodes are difficult to follow (personally I don't agree, but it's worth mentioning). Once the main arc starts the setup pays off and it goes from mildly amusing to being an extremely enjoyable show. Don't get me wrong- it definitely isn't without its flaws. Most grating for me would be a very obvious "plot twist" that is dragged on for two or three episodes (it is something of a side plot, so I suppose that makes it slightly more excusable), and some peculiar fanservice... which, while mild by anime standards, was still pointless enough to bother me. The two main characters are extremely well acted and written, but the rest of the cast is mostly one-dimensional (lovable, but shallow nonetheless). The show holds a surprisingly self-consistent system for time-travel until the last few episodes... at which point it kind of throws everything out the window.

When I list all of the things I didn't like about it, it starts to become difficult to understand why I think Stein's;Gate is worth watching at all. In spite of that, I feel compelled to state that it was a thoroughly entertaining show with more than its share of humorous and poignant moments. Is it the pinnacle of animated television? No, no. Nope. Not at all. Still, it had that spark that made it worth watching for me in spite of the numerous problems. Also, the title song is awesome.

Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day: Anohana is really one of the more interesting shows I've watched- there's no grandiose save-the-world plot and the animation is simple (though that isn't to say poor- the visuals are exquisite), but the show succeeds in that it focuses on its characters without falling into the typical slice of life trap of becoming a show about nothing. The characters themselves are well written and likable... with a few exceptions. If you're the kind of person who gets emotional about television shows, be forewarned: tears will be shed. Overall, I think this is one of my all-time favorites. It doesn't bite off more than it can chew, the art and music are well done and memorable, and it wraps things up beautifully. I really only have two complaints- the first being that there's a gigantic plot hole that affects the main plot mechanic. I know, I know, "Squash, why are you praising the writing for a show with a huge, gaping plot hole". To the writers' credit, it was addressed briefly and hand-waved away, but ultimately I didn't think the explanation was satisfactory and it does leave a bit of a blemish on an otherwise solid story. The second issue is that despite only being 11 episodes long, there are points where the show felt like it could have been shortened. At no point does the story drag on, but it does begin to repeat itself toward the end. Nothing major, but worth noting, I think. Regardless, a superb series and definitely worth a watch if you don't mind a touch of melodrama.

Future Diary (Mirai Nikki): Ugh. I saw the first episode of Mirai Nikki at a club meeting months ago and wasn't particularly impressed. The visuals were decent, but not fantastic, the main character is irritating, and the Battle Royale/fight-to-the-death plot didn't strike me as particularly compelling.For some reason I decided to try it again a few months later, and a few episodes in I started to understand why the show isn't considered a total waste of time. I'm going to throw in some spoilers for this one.

Future Diary is a popcorn show. It's action packed and exciting, with a whole lot of wrongness thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, if your brain doesn't shut off entirely while you watch television, you're going to be left frustrated by the terrible writing. Also, did I mention that the main character is incredibly annoying? It bears repeating. I can't really recommend this one.

Psycho-Pass: Psycho-Pass follows the same basic formula as Mirai Nikki: episodic antagonists, a futuristic conceit (in Psycho-Pass, this takes the form of the Sibyl System, a large scale computing device that reads neural scans and determines if the person being scanned is a criminal). It differs from Mirai Nikki in that it isn't utterly brain-dead. The show does take the time to examine the philosophical implications of the technology. The characters have more depth than I anticipated at its inception, and they tend to evolve in a way that is believable. Be forewarned that there is a fair amount of shock material- though it was usually in keeping with the themes of the show, there were points where I felt it was overdone.

Anime tropes don't saturate Psycho-Pass, but they are present; small bits of fanservice and frequent cornball references to "destiny" only served to take me out of what was otherwise a well constructed sci-fi universe. While not flawless, Psycho-Pass is an exceptionally well written action/thriller, and certainly worth giving a shot if you like the genre. The first season is for the most part a contained story arc, but they are producing a second season... I'm not sure how I feel about that. I have a sneaking suspicion that the show has peaked, but I'll watch when the next season premiers and hope that I'm wrong.

Serial Experiments Lain: This is going to be a difficult one to write about. I guess the best way to start out is by saying that I have quite a few abandoned scripts that resemble scenes from SEL. The plot is eclectic at best, the main character's personality changes constantly, and characters weave in and out of the narrative with alarming frequency. One episode is half composed of a narrated history of computing and its intersection with conspiracies and hoaxes. Another has a seven minute psychedelic clip show set to a wailing guitar solo. In short, the show does what it wants, and doesn't seem to care if you understand it or not. As you can imagine, this leads to a fairly confusing plot. That said, the main story arc was less interesting to me than the scenes that composed it. For having been created in 1998, SEL was remarkably prescient when it came to examining the influence the internet would grow to have on first world culture (though obviously the internet had been around long enough at that point to give them some indication of the things to come). It tackles themes of loneliness, social isolation, and identity in a way that is surprisingly engaging. Fans of science fiction and cyberpunk will find Easter eggs in almost every scene, and it's clear that the showrunners put a great deal of thought into creating Lain's world. There's also a significant amount of symbolism... though I'm ashamed to admit that I would often fail to recognize a recurring motif until three or four episodes after its introduction. The bottom line for me is that the show was worth watching for its ambition, but is more successful as a series of vignettes than a cohesive series.

Bumpity-bump.

Not too long ago I finished reading Death Note (the Manga)... and I think I've just discovered my new favourite thing.  I've never been into Manga/Anime at all up til this point, but it's just brilliant.  My favourite characters are Ryuk and L (as you may have guessed from my current profile pic), and Light Yagami is my new favourite villain.  It's incredibly well-written; all of the characters are very strong, although Misa Amane is kinda annoying (though I get the feeling she's basically meant to be a parody of the annoying fan-girl).  I did feel that the story did decline somewhat in later volumes, especially after

But the finale totally and completely makes up for it, in addition to having basically the greatest epic speech and death scene in the history of epic speeches and death scenes.  It keeps you guessing until the very end.  I also quite like the philosophical aspect and moral ambiguity of it.  L says that "justice will prevail" and the "good guy always wins", yet both Kira and L consider themselves to represent the good side.  The story structure actually reminds me somewhat of Breaking Bad (the characters of Light Yagami and Walter White share quite a few similarities, coming to think of it).

I do have a few issues, though.  There are a few contrived moments and plot holes.  Ryuk mentions that humans who use the Death Note suffer from psychological pain and anguish, but aside from a throwaway remark by Light in the beginning, we never really get the feeling that he is affected much by it.  (Granted, he becomes more and more unhinged and insane as the story goes on, and

also somewhat reflects this, but we never get the feeling he is actually feels doubts or is tortured by it.)  As mentioned before, Near doesn't seem very convincing to begin with (though his characterisation does get a lot better by the end).

Also, I thought Mello was a girl at first (due to his manner of dressing and hairstyle, and the fact that he apparently shaves his armpits...).  In fact, I was rather disappointed to find out he wasn't a girl.  It's a bit disappointing that the only female character with any long-term development is Misa, and she's basically an annoying, shallow, dim-witted fan-girl.  (Yes, there's Naomi Misora, Hal Lidner, Rem, and Takada, but none of them are around for very long so it doesn't really count.)  Not only that, but Light also seems to not like women much because he thinks they're weak and emotional, so it would have been interesting to see a strong/smart female character as a counterpart/foil.  Now, to be clear, I'm not one of those feminists who rants about how women are under-represented in films made in a male-dominated society blah blah blah etc. but it just felt a bit imbalanced to me.

Needless to say, I'm rather interested in watching the Anime now, and I'm not sure whether I should go for sub or dub.  Actually, Death Note has gotten me interested Manga/Anime in general.  I'm contemplating looking at Fullmetal Alchemist, Psycho-Pass, maybe Attack on Titan, and Studio Ghibli's and Satoshi Kon's films, but I'm always open for suggestions--does anyone have any recommendations?

You should defanently watch Satoshi Kon's films, in fact anyone who is interested in film or animation should watch his films, he is one of my favorite directors. You should also watch this video essay about his editing, he was a really incredible film maker and his time came to soon.

One of my favorite films of Kon is Millennium Actress, but one of my favorite genres is films about film making so I may be a bit biased.

Some other films you may want to consider are:

Tekkon Kinkreet, heavlly influenced by the visual direction of City of God, this a a gritty story about two young brothers who live in the 'Treasure Town' neighborhood. I highly recommend it.

Samurai Champloo is pretty well known and with good reason, I hate a lot of anime soundtracks but this has a great, more stylized and modern approach that is wonderful, I would put it as the same level as Bebop, both overall and as far as great use of soundtracks goes.

As far as Ghibli's films go I really love Castle in the Sky, it's everything I want out of an adventure story.

If you haven't watched a lot of the legendary classics of anime it would be worth checking out, Akira which was first recommended to me by other film nerds who I wouldn't classify as anime nerds, also Ghost in the Shell is very good which even seems to borrow philosophical ideas from the works of Ingmar Bergman and the like and work it into and excellent piece of science fiction. One of the saddest movies ever made and a film I think everyone should watch is Grave of the Fireflies, don't listen to me, listen to Roger Ebert

I have heard of Akira, in that it's the film that brought Anime and Japanese Cyberpunk to the West (at least, that's what I've heard, I could be wrong).  My experience with Manga/Anime thus far is basically limited to Death Note and the aforementioned viewing of Howl's Moving Castle, so I'm not really familiar with anything else (hence why I've become interested in getting to know it a bit better).  Regarding Ghost in the Shell--should I go for the original film, or the Stand Alone Complex TV series?

Last edited by Mr Vertigo (October 26, 2014 (07:31am))