The Anime Thread

[Syt]

[Duque de Bragança]

Strike Witches Operation Victory Arrow. The latest installment in this long-running military magical girl show.  The story takes place in an alternate Earth where WWII did not happen.  Instead, aliens invaded Earth in the late 1930s, and the various Earth governments joined forces to fight back.  So Tigers and Shermans fought on the same side.  While conventional military worked, the most efficient method to fight the aliens was teenage magical girls who could deploy magical shields, and fly using "fighter legs".  The magical girls are essentially moe anthropomorphisms of WWII fighter aircraft. 

If anyone but you had written that I would have sworn they had made it up on the spot.

It's obviously a sign of a classic work destined to be remembered throughout the ages.

[Monoriu]

Shinsekai Yori, or From the New World.  A millennia from now, humanity lives in what appear to be utopian villages that are isolated from the outside world.  For some reason, they have technologically regressed to be primarily agrarian societies.  The most notable difference however is that all humans are capable of psycho-telekinesis.  Nevertheless, there are ominous signs everywhere.  Students disappear without a trace.  Rumours of man-eating monsters strike fear in everybody.  The authorities are obviously keeping a lot of secrets from the children, and there is a ban on finding out humanity's history.  The show is seen through the eyes of five close companions at school, and it portrays their journeys to adulthood. 

This is a fantastic show and I give it a 10/10 with no hesitation.  Dramatic, intense, thought-provoking, unique, addictive, nightmarish.  There is almost no comic relief whatsoever, and it is definitely not for people looking for relaxation.  Lots of anime are about super or magical powers, and most of them portray these powers positively.  The usual perspectives are, those with special powers save the world, or do contracts for the plebs.  From the New World asks the question, "seriously, what happens to human societies if some of us *really* get superpowers and are not saints?"  If a random person can kill another on sight with a mere thought, human relationships will turn upside down. 

Shinsekai Yori isn't an eye-catching show.  It is easy to overlook it with its premise and promotional poster.  One problem is that the show relies heavily on plot twists, mysteries and dramatic reveals, so it is difficult to discuss it without spoilers.  Although it starts with the most clichéd high school anime setting, it is one of a kind and avoids most otaku tropes.  It is a masterpiece that is extremely rewarding, but be prepared for lots of death, gore, blood, deceit, and betrayals. 

[Lettow77]

Shinsekai Yori has good yuri elements, and Squealer is one of the most delightful characters around.

Although mono says "This is a fantastic show and I give it 10/10 with no hesitation", he can be a bit free with his praise. This is actually very nice.

[Monoriu]

Shinsekai Yori has good yuri elements, and Squealer is one of the most delightful characters around.

Although mono says "This is a fantastic show and I give it 10/10 with no hesitation", he can be a bit free with his praise. This is actually very nice.

I actually keep a list of anime that I have watched, and I do score them.  My mean is slightly below 7. 

[Eddie Teach]

Strike Witches Operation Victory Arrow. The latest installment in this long-running military magical girl show.  The story takes place in an alternate Earth where WWII did not happen.  Instead, aliens invaded Earth in the late 1930s, and the various Earth governments joined forces to fight back.  So Tigers and Shermans fought on the same side.  While conventional military worked, the most efficient method to fight the aliens was teenage magical girls who could deploy magical shields, and fly using "fighter legs".  The magical girls are essentially moe anthropomorphisms of WWII fighter aircraft. 

If anyone but you had written that I would have sworn they had made it up on the spot.

Only Mono and Lettow would use the word moe.

[Monoriu]

Strike Witches Operation Victory Arrow. The latest installment in this long-running military magical girl show.  The story takes place in an alternate Earth where WWII did not happen.  Instead, aliens invaded Earth in the late 1930s, and the various Earth governments joined forces to fight back.  So Tigers and Shermans fought on the same side.  While conventional military worked, the most efficient method to fight the aliens was teenage magical girls who could deploy magical shields, and fly using "fighter legs".  The magical girls are essentially moe anthropomorphisms of WWII fighter aircraft. 

If anyone but you had written that I would have sworn they had made it up on the spot.

Only Mono and Lettow would use the word moe.

It is a common anime term.  And you also used it just now 

[Eddie Teach]

Technically, I suppose I did, but I wasn't trying to convey a specific meaning by it, unlike the rest of the words in that post and this one.

[Savonarola]

Strike Witches Operation Victory Arrow. The latest installment in this long-running military magical girl show.  The story takes place in an alternate Earth where WWII did not happen.  Instead, aliens invaded Earth in the late 1930s, and the various Earth governments joined forces to fight back.  So Tigers and Shermans fought on the same side.  While conventional military worked, the most efficient method to fight the aliens was teenage magical girls who could deploy magical shields, and fly using "fighter legs".  The magical girls are essentially moe anthropomorphisms of WWII fighter aircraft. 

If anyone but you had written that I would have sworn they had made it up on the spot.

Only Mono and Lettow would use the word moe.

Well, yes, but even without the "Moe" the premise sounds like a slightly more sophisticated version of a five year old playing make believe. 

[Malthus]

Strike Witches Operation Victory Arrow. The latest installment in this long-running military magical girl show.  The story takes place in an alternate Earth where WWII did not happen.  Instead, aliens invaded Earth in the late 1930s, and the various Earth governments joined forces to fight back.  So Tigers and Shermans fought on the same side.  While conventional military worked, the most efficient method to fight the aliens was teenage magical girls who could deploy magical shields, and fly using "fighter legs".  The magical girls are essentially moe anthropomorphisms of WWII fighter aircraft. 

If anyone but you had written that I would have sworn they had made it up on the spot.

Only Mono and Lettow would use the word moe.

It is a common anime term.  And you also used it just now 

What about larry and curly? 

[Josquius]

I knew a girl called Moe in Japan.
She was rather hot.

[Monoriu]

Chaos Dragon. The anime of a table-top fantasy RPG session played by some of the most famous writers in the anime industry.  A small island nation has been partitioned by two great powers, and there is an on-going rebellion by the locals.  The Red Dragon, a local deity, has gone mad.  The three sides form a joint investigation team to find out what is going on.  Ibuki the protagonist belongs to a race that traditionally rules the island.  His special ability is a curse that allows him to sacrifice one of his friends for calling on the red dragon to roast another.

This is a failure of an anime, one of those shows where I tell myself "I am so glad it is finally over" after watching the last episode.  The first problem is that the main story is incoherent and far too fragmented.  Each episode consists of random, repetitive and uninteresting stuff happening to the party.  Geography seems meaningless, and the party members just appear and disappear where they are needed.  Characters don't develop throughout the story.  New characters are introduced in almost every episode, resulting in a cast that is underdeveloped.  The ending simply appeared out of nowhere. 

The second major problem is the protagonist and the atmosphere.  The show is supposed to be dark, serious, and riddled with character deaths.  This is supposed to be underpinned by the tragic circumstance of the protagonist, that he needs to kill his friends for his country.  The emotional impact of the deaths isn't much, because most of the people who died are ones that the audience don't care about.  The next issue is that if Ibuki spent episodes 1 and 2 brooding about his circumstance, that's fine.  It doesn't really work if he complains about the same thing in every episode without coming up with solutions.

[Monoriu]

The Autumn 2015 anime season will begin next week, and these are the anime that I plan to follow.



Owari Monogatari.  Literally, the last story.  Continuation of the hugely successful monogatari series, where the protagonists deal with people who are cursed with various demons and supernatural elements.  Based on a best selling novel, the show is noted for its signature art style, and lengthy dialogue.  One thing is for sure, it certainly isn't the last story in the series.  The novelist has already published several sequels to his last story. 



One Punch Man.  I know very little about this, but it seems to be based on a popular manga.  The idea is that an ordinary salaryman has somehow become a part time superhero who is able to defeat any invading monsters with a single punch.  Supposed to be funny. 



Noragami Season 2.  Sequel of Noragami, the story about a penniless deity aspiring to become rich. 



Attack on Titan: Junior High.  Yes, it is a self-parody.  All the Attack on Titan characters are junior high students in this world, and apparently all the titans study in a nearby school.  I have a feeling that the show could be 5-minute shorts, but I am not sure. 

[Monoriu]

Tsukihime, literally, Moon Princess.  This is based on a popular pornographic visual novel.  These visual novels are pornographic, but the storyline is very eloborate, sophisticated and serious, with dozens of hours of non-porn content.  They just have to add the porn stuff to boost sales.  The anime has removed all the porn content, but the harem and incest subtext aspects stay.  The makers of this visual novel also made the very popular Fate/Stay Night and Kara no Kyoukai (Garden of Sinners) visual novels, and the similarity shows. 

The protagonist finds himself cursed with "eyes of death", enabling him to see lines and points over everything and everyone.  If he attacks these with a simple knife, he can kill or destroy anything.  One day, he somehow cut up a woman, who turned out to be non-human.  They team up to battle vampires, but things are complicated by his younger sister who is keeping a lot of secrets from him, and a female classmate who appears perfectly normal by day, but stalks him by night. 

This anime has a bad reputation.  There is even an anime meme that "there is no anime for Tsukihime".  I haven't touched the source visual novel, only seen the 12 anime episodes.  Based on what I have seen, the anime is perfectly enjoyable.  Certainly isn't a masterpiece, but is better than a lot of stuff out there.  The atmosphere is mostly dark and serious.  The mystery surrounding the past of the protagonist keeps the audience on edge and the story going.  The characters are memorable.  The soundtrack is really good.  The harem vibe is a little too strong for my taste, as the three main heroines (six if you count the maids and a secondary character), including the little sister, openly fight for the only significant male character's affection.  12 episodes isn't a lot of airtime, and I get the sense that a huge amount of story in the visual novel has been skipped.  Maybe that's why others are not happy with it, but I am fine with this show. 

The main reason I watched it though, is because this is required reading before I can watch Carnival Phantasm, a show that assumes prior knowledge of Tsukihime and Fate/Stay Night. 

[Lettow77]

 Visual Novel adaptations usually have a problem reconciling a game that has multiple routes and continuities into a single anime narrative. Fate/stay night has been successful enough to make separate anime out of its separate routes, (although we've still not gotten a proper Heaven's Feel..) but Tsukihime's best route was for Kohaku, a 'secondary' character.

Kohaku's route was really excellent and had what I thought was the story's best content, but none of it makes it into the anime at all.