The Anime Thread

[Josquius]

I just finished watching Arpeggio of Blue Steel. It was pretty good.
Oddly I felt Takao to be awesome and it seems that show has a pretty big fandom which also feels the same way.

[Eddie Teach]

Nobunaga Concerto.  Yet another time travelling story about a high school student who travels back in time to the Sengoku period and become Oda Nobunaga. 

The setting and story has been done to death. 

No kidding.

[Monoriu]

Nobunaga Concerto.  Yet another time travelling story about a high school student who travels back in time to the Sengoku period and become Oda Nobunaga. 

The setting and story has been done to death. 

No kidding.

Some people jokingly call this the "Nobunaga year" in anime as there are already three shows on this topic this year (Concerto, Nobunaga the Fool and Nobunagun).  One of them deals with space and aliens 

The authors are well-aware of this problem though.  So they made a lot of interesting twists in this show.  For example, [spoiler]Hideyoshi in this show is actually an Imagawa spy sent to infiltrate the Oda clan.  He constantly tried to betray Nobunaga but ended up climbing the ladder every step of the way.  The real Nobunaga is a proper samurai but suffers from physical ailment.  He switched places with the time travelling Nobunaga in the first episode, then came back later to become Mitsuhide (Nobunaga's retainer who betrayed him in the Honnoji incident).  These two look exactly alike so they switch places often [/spoiler]

[Monoriu]

Psycho Pass Season 1.  Probably Gen "Urobutcher" Urobuchi's third most well-known work after block busters Madoka Magica and Fate Zero.  In the future, Japan is ruled by the "Sybil System".  Everybody is constantly scanned for their "psycho pass level", a sort of stress level or tendency to commit crimes.  If their psycho pass level is higher than a certain threshold, they will be immediately taken to a mental facility.  If it passes another, higher threshold, they'll be vaporised on the spot.  There is no need for a criminal justice system.  Sybil also assigns jobs for everybody based on their psycho pass scores. 

To carry out the verdict of the Sybil System, the Ministry of Health employes enforcers, who are themselves people with psycho pass levels that are too high.  They are granted exemption to live ordinary lives in exchange for service.  Since the enforcers are essentially latent criminals, the Ministry employs inspectors to watch over them (and kill them if necessary).  The show is a police and crime story about a team of inspectors and enforcers. 

And it is one of the best police and crime stories I have watched.  I actually prefer this over Ghost in the Shell.  It is a ripoff of Minority Report, but it is very enjoyable in its own right.  The show is typical of Urobuchi's work with its serious and dark tones, graphic and gory depictions (one episode has to be cancelled from its broadcast run when a real life case of a teenage female murderer happened), grey morality, and exploration of philosophical themes.  The character deaths are done right as the audience have grown to care about them. 

Why Season 1 only?  Because season 2 will be aired in the next week or two.  The show has two versions, a normal version of 22 episodes and a "director's cut" version of 11 episodes.  I have only seen the 11-episode version.  From what I've read, the differences are minimal.  They just added some small transition scenes to make the combination of 22 episodes into 11 more smooth.  There is also an anime movie in the works.

[Lettow77]

Giovanni's Island

Released this year, Giovanni's Island is about the fate of Japanese displaced from Russian occupation of islands outside of Japan's surrender agreement in the aftermath of WW2. For all that is on the wind lately, it isn't a blustery nationalist piece; No vitriol is spent on the Russian occupation, and Russians come across as merely people on another side of the border, which from the eyes of children on both sides, becomes increasingly blurry.

The story draws enormously on Kenji Miyazawa's Night on the Galactic Railroad, an influential piece of period children's literature that has spawned many Anime and is still held dear, although it is slowly fading from Japanese public memory. It isn't so heavy that a lack of  familiarity with the material renders the film toothless, but the presupposition for the viewing audience is that you, too, will share in the children's fondness for the Galactic Railroad and be moved by its imagery.

The film comes close to falling into the victim view of WW2 that Japanese are so prone to; anime about Japanese experiences based in reality to any degree (So Kantai collection is out..) fixate on civilian suffering, and this is no exception. But a rare look at how, say, Koreans   stranded away from their peninsula as the empire that subjugated them crumbles, manages to provided a more balanced fare than the usual tint.

Recommended.

[MadImmortalMan]

I watched Psycho-Pass. It's good. The theme is effective and treated well. There are no high schools/magical powers/stupid cute creatures. I like that it shows both the benefits to having an over-prosecutorial society and that's why people support that kind of thing and also what you have to give up by surrendering your humanity to a thing like that.

[Monoriu]

I watched Psycho-Pass. It's good. The theme is effective and treated well. There are no high schools/magical powers/stupid cute creatures. I like that it shows both the benefits to having an over-prosecutorial society and that's why people support that kind of thing and also what you have to give up by surrendering your humanity to a thing like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5OlmcCcIC4

Trailer for Season 2

[Monoriu]

Higurashi When They Cry.  The title is a word play and can have multiple meanings.  Literally, it is "when the cicadas cry".  But "higurashi" is not that far from the word for "murderer", so it can also mean "when the murderers cry".  At first glance, there is a single main male lead and multiple cute girls in a school, one of the most cliched anime settings.  It is actually one of the most horrific, gory and disturbing anime shows I have watched that has nothing to do with harem building.

It is a super natural murder mystery and horror show, and offers a very unique structure and viewing experience.  The setting is a standalone rural village.  The story always starts with a group of close friends having fun times together.  Soon, something goes wrong, and they die one after another, in horrific fashion, until they are all dead.  It then restarts itself in a different story arc, with a different view point, different details, and the story goes differently.  But it still ends the same way.  Then it restarts again.  The story arcs are distinct but related, and the answers to the mystery are only slowly unveiled bit by bit. 

I consider this one of the best written anime shows.  Its repeating arc structure is one of a kind.  Each time, the viewer is left wondering if the same details will happen again, or will the story go differently.  As the show goes on, the answers to most of the questions raised earlier are indeed answered satisfactorily.  It also tries its best to scare the viewers, and it works.  It is a pretty controversial show, especially for its gore.  Children and teenagers are brutally murdered, tortured, crucified, and dismembered alive, sometimes by other children and teenagers.  There is a scene of a loli offing herself by driving a kitchen knife into her neck, with all the details shown.  This show is one of the standard answers to requests for horror and gory shows on anime forums. 

One word for those who care about animation quality.  Season 1 is the very definition of cheap animation.  I couldn't believe that it was made in the mid 2000s.  It gets better in subsequent seasons as the show gained popularity.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (26 episodes): first season.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Nekogoroshi hen (1 episode): a mini-side story
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai (24 episodes): second season.  This is not a sequel.  It is part 2 of an integral story with season 1.  Season 1 won't make sense without season 2.  "Kai" means "to explain" or "to untie the knot".
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei (5 episodes): a mixture of fanservice and side stories.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira (4 episodes): almost pure fanservice, with the female characters appearing in various costumes, something that didn't happen earlier.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku outbreak (1 hour-long episode): a side story and a return to its horror and serious roots

[Monoriu]

Fate Kaleid Liner 2.  Fate is a hugely popular umbrella fantasy series, and Kaleid Liner is a light magical girl show set in an alternate universe.  The story is about Ilya, a token mini-moe in the main series that is given the lead role in this spin-off. 

Season 1 was mainly about Ilya and her friend Miyu battling the spirits of the 7 class cards.  The first half of season 2 focuses on Kuro, a clone of Ilya that appeared out of nowhere and tried to kill her (Ilya is white; Kuro means black, or a black version of her). The second half is about the team fighting a new enemy. 

To be honest, I watched this just because I am a fan of the Fate series and I am determined to watch everything Fate related.  Season 1 was decent as it fulfilled expectations that weren't too high in the first place.  I have to say that season 2 is a notch down in quality.  The basic problem is that the story is too cliched.  An annoying clone appears, you battle her, listen to her tragic backstory then befriend her.  I think I've seen this set-up far too many times.  The battle scenes with the new enemy in the second half are not bad, but there is little substance, because the new enemy just popped up like that with no clear purpose, motive or foreshadowing.   Just lots of flashy fights. 

Season 3 has been announced, and yes, I am going to watch it 

[Monoriu]

Aldnoah Zero.  Or War of the Worlds, the anime.  A few decades ago, humans discovered long lost alien technology on Mars, and a space gate on the moon.  A few hundred thousand colonists were sent to the planet.  These folks used the advanced technology to build a feudal empire, called themselves a superior race, then invaded Earth for its resources.  The story begins when the Mars princess visits Earth on a peace mission, and the bad guys are out to assassinate her.  Aldnoah is the name of the alien technology. 

There is little doubt in my mind that the best anime of the Summer 2014 season (July - September) is either this or Sword Art Online 2.  In the end I pick this out of a technicality - SAO2 has 24 episodes that lasts until December; Aldnoah Zero is split cour (around 24 episodes are planned from the start.  They air the first half in Summer 2014, and the second half from January to March 2015.  Nothing in between).  So technically "season 1" of Aldnoah Zero is already done. 

The pedigree is Aldnoah is impressive.  The director is the guy who made the famed Fate Zero show.  He specialises in using computer generated and 3D images to produce outstanding fight scenes.  Urobuchi's name appears as well, but he seems to be only invovled in the first 3 episodes.  Kajiura, famed soundtrack composer of Fate Zero, returned to make the excellent Heavenly Blue opening song.  So basically three key people who made Fate Zero joined hands again.  The result is an action packed, intense, beautifully animated and clever mech story.  The Martians have vastly superior technology, so the battles against Earth forces are more like massacres.  The protagonists must make use of the logical weaknesses of the Martian weapons to have any fighting chance.  This time, the germs won't be of any use as the Martians are humans who come from Earth.  As of now, I've only seen the first half, or season 1 of the show, but I absolutely love what I have seen. 

[Siege]

I just finished the first episode of Knights of Sidonia.

Amazing. Ages ahead of anything out there. The animation is incredible.

[Neil]

I liked Higurashi, way back in the day.

[Monoriu]

I just finished the first episode of Knights of Sidonia.

Amazing. Ages ahead of anything out there. The animation is incredible.

I'll get to it sooner or later 

[CountDeMoney]

[Kleves]

One thing that has always struck me as weird about anime is how, for all the often obnoxious fanservice, it is kind of bizarrely sexless. As is I don't think I have ever seen an anime in which characters actually have sex. Hell, I don't think I have ever see characters make out.