The Anime Thread

[Monoriu]

I finished watching Madoka.
It does pick up and gets quite good though not as dark as I was expecting from the writer.
[spoiler] Some hints from third episode that things are a bit fishy.  And cool to see characters be killed so casually. Time travel reality warping plots though unoriginal tend to be good.
One thing I don't get though is where all the witches come from. So the magical girls grow into witches, right...but it doesn't seem sustainable given that before they do this they usually defeat a few witches. I guess familiars and the mention that they can grow into witches is an attempt to explain this, but those witches must be pooping out a lot of familiars to create enough witches for magical girls to fight.
At the end it seems Madoka spoiled her wish with the 'with my own hands' bit. Why not just wish the witches away generally. The overall ending from her  wish...its weird. Its presented in such a happy manner but it doesn't seem so great to me at all. You've just got a slightly different type of villain.
Also an unexplained ponderance- so Akemi's natural magic weapon is that shield thingy that only in the last episode I realised was her time spinner....where then did she get all the other weapons she uses? It shows her making bombs at one point, which is fair enough, but then in the last battle she's shooting a full military arsenal somehow.
Overall though it does strike a pretty interesting balance between typical kids adventures and some more modern elements like character mortality- which nobody seems to care too much about.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]Akemi Homura's shield is a hyperspace storage.  She pulls all her weapons from there.  Yes, including the missile frigate.[/spoiler]

Now that you have finished watching the TV series, I suggest that you watch Movie 3: Rebellion story.  It is a sequel.  Movies 1 and 2 are summaries of the TV series.

[Monoriu]

Sailor Moon Crystal.  A remake of one of the most famous magical girl warrior shows in the world that promises to stay close to the source manga, and with updated graphics. 

Surprisingly, it failed on the graphics front.  A show that is so famous that many non-anime watchers are aware of, has a large international following, appeals to a much wider demographic than the typical otakus, failed to secure the budget and care to produce a visually impressive show.  It isn't awful, but you won't expect merely average and uninspired graphics for a show with a celebrated history.  It is like a remake of the Titanic movie with a B-movie budget.

Even more problematic is that the show failed in its primary mission to be entertaining.  Other than the two main leads, almost everybody feels like cardboards, especially the closest friends of Sailor Moon.  Sailor Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus are there just because they have to be.  The majority of the time, they are not plot-relevant.  They are just there either to shout the once-an-episode attacks, or wait to be rescued. 

When I watched magical girl shows in the 80s, the lead girls transform not to fight monsters, but to sing on stage.  They needed the help of magic to look good, gain confidence, and summon fireworks out of thin air.  Sailor moon popularised the idea that magical girls can tank monsters and fight as a team, and they fight better than the males.  I get the feeling that Sailor moon's job has been done, as that idea has taken root in anime culture.  Since then, the world has moved on, to more innovative and refined ways of story-telling. 

[Lettow77]

Sailor Moon Crystal was a big disappointment. Even most of the tie-in merchandise to cash in on it had the sense to mimic the old aesthetic instead.


Nichijou

At the time it came out, Nichijou was a break from Kyoto Animation's chain of successful cute girls slice of life shows. They subsequently broke from this mold with mixed success, and have just lately returned to it.

Nichijou is still cute girls doing cute things, but is a series of comedy sketches. It has been described as a more surrealist Azumanga Daioh, which I think is fair. "Nichijou" means daily life, but here is a gross misnomer.  Contrasting it to Azumanga Daioh, there are differences- the art team obviously had enormous amounts of fun on a project that wasn't static scenes of girls in a club room, and it shines through. On any episode, several types of animation style will appear for different scenes.

Nichijou had a surprisingly good set of character songs released seperately, and its openings, featuring Hyadain, and endings are also quite good.  A lot of anime comedies don't do it for me; I always smile with this one. Beautiful, with loveable characters and energetic, happy music, it's an energetic, happy show.

[Monoriu]

Spoiler Warning.  Don't read if you don't want major spoilers for the excellent Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi movie, or the TV series. 


You have been warned.




Disappearance of Nagato-yuki Chan.  Spin-off of the Suzumiya Haruhi series and not based on the source novels.  Takes place in the "Disappearance" world.  Essentially, this is what happens if Kyon chose to join the literature club and stay.  Naturally, the Nagato-yuki is the shy, easily embarrassed version rather than her expressionless self in the TV series. 

It is entirely possible to do an extremely good slice-of-life series where nothing happens, as K-On and other shows have done.  It is also possible that these shows are boring, as this show is.  It already has the advantage of using some of the most memorable characters that anime has ever created, but the result is disappointing.  The first problem is that it feels like filler.  The majority of anime fillers are boring because the sole purpose of filler is to buy time for the source manga artist to publish.  They cannot be inconsistent with the canon story, so they always go back to square one at the end.  The same applies to this series.  It is afraid to go anywhere or do anything with the characters.  Given how slow the pacing already is, the decision to stretch the show to 16 episodes instead of the typical 12/13 is mind-boggling. 

In this case, the once great characters become a burden.  They are never meant to appear in a slice of life series, and it shows.  Kyon is designed to be a snarking, unreliable narrator.  Removing that main trait from him doesn't work well.  The Nagato in "Disappearance" (which I consider one of the greatest anime movies ever) is shy but lovable, and is a believable character if she were human.  It is easy to sympathise with her as this is what the real Nagato wanted to be.  In this spin-off, she isn't just shy, but also clumsy and idiotic.  I understand that these traits are added to provide comedy effect, but they are not believable.  The real Nagato wants to be more human, but she won't downgrade herself to a point where she basically needs a 24 hour caretaker. 

If the characters are given different names, this show will become an unremarkable and generic slice of life that will be easily forgotten.  Alas, they have used the Haruhi franchise, and all it does is convince the powers-that-be that further investment in this is futile. 

[Monoriu]

Speaking of merchandise, I have promised myself that I won't buy any.  I do buy a few CDs every year if I love the songs AND can't get them from other means.  I get around the no merchandise rule by reclassifying them under "music" and not "anime" 

Nichijou is on my to-do list, though I fear it will be a long while before I get to it. 

[Eddie Teach]

You should buy anime t-shirts and wear them to the office on casual Fridays.

[Monoriu]

You should buy anime t-shirts and wear them to the office on casual Fridays.

We don't have casual Fridays.  I do not allow pictures on my clothes 

[Eddie Teach]

I do not allow pictures on my clothes 

What about words?

[Monoriu]

I do not allow pictures on my clothes 

What about words?

Nope, no words allowed. 

[Syt]

[Monoriu]

[Eddie Teach]

A polo shirt? I expected more from you. 

[Monoriu]

Polo shirts are for weekends. 

[Josquius]

Spoiler Warning.  Don't read if you don't want major spoilers for the excellent Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi movie, or the TV series. 


You have been warned.

I had no idea they had made something new. Awesome. I like that series.

[Monoriu]

Dragonball Super is being broadcast now.  It is a direct sequel to Dragonball Z, with involvement by the original author as series creator and charactor designer.  So this is considered canon.