The Anime Thread

[Ideologue]

Death Note: the best thriller of all time?  Possibly.

[Kleves]

I am trying to find another show to follow, now that I am caught up with SAO and finished Aldnoah Zero and Girls und Panzer. I tried Akame ga Kill! It goes from showing tortured bodies of children and describing how drawn out their suffering was to slapstick comedy involving bewbs! within the same scene.

[CountDeMoney]

Kleves, a notable absence in the Axis. That has been rectified.

[jimmy olsen]

Death Note: the best thriller of all time?  Possibly.

If it's anything like the manga it completely jumps the shark at the half way point. One of the most disappointing manga ever given how great it started out.

[Ideologue]

I like the parts with Mello and Near, but it is true that the real peak of the show is the final showdown between Light and L.

[Monoriu]

I am trying to find another show to follow, now that I am caught up with SAO and finished Aldnoah Zero and Girls und Panzer. I tried Akame ga Kill! It goes from showing tortured bodies of children and describing how drawn out their suffering was to slapstick comedy involving bewbs! within the same scene.

I like Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works that is being aired right now.  Psycho pass 2 is also great but is close to being completed.  If you like SAO, try Log Horizon 2.  It is a lighter version of SAO. 

[Monoriu]

Girls und Panzer movie to air in Summer 2015 (July - September).  It is still expected that the movie will be a direct sequel.

[Josquius]

I started watching something called Samurai Flamenco. It makes me snigger. Pretty good.

[Savonarola]

I like the parts with Mello and Near, but it is true that the real peak of the show is the final showdown between Light and L.

Yeah, I thought it ran out of steam after that episode.  The Mello and Near parts are okay, but they were never as gripping as the earlier episodes.

[Ideologue]

Actually, I do remember that the Mello and Near parts do have the dumbest assed thing in the whole series, landing that jet in the middle of the desert.  WTF.

[Siege]

Death Note: the best thriller of all time?  Possibly.

I haven't watched death note yet.
It is rated very high...
Should I bother?
I am still disappointed with vampire anime, including Blood.

[Savonarola]

Death Note: the best thriller of all time?  Possibly.

I haven't watched death note yet.
It is rated very high...
Should I bother?
I am still disappointed with vampire anime, including Blood.

The first two thirds of the series is a taut cat and mouse thriller.  That's a cut above almost any other anime in the way that it presents competing value systems and points of view without providing easy answers.  The last third of the series runs out of steam; it's okay but nowhere near as good as the first part.

[Monoriu]

Ghost in the Shell Arise.  A reboot of the beloved cyberpunk police and crime story in a new continuity.  There are new character designs, an entirely new voice cast (at least in Japanese.  I read that the production company insists that the English dub actors must be replaced too), and new character backstories.  There are four mini-movies, each about an hour long, that together serve as a prequel on how Section 9 was formed. 

For compaison, these are the old designs -



A lot of the elements that make the franchise a success are still there.  The production values are sky high, with stunning visuals and well animated and chereographed fight scenes.  Fans will be delighted with the call-backs to the old series, like how Motoko always dives down from a building at some point, she tries to pull open a hatch from a tank, she and Batou have a philosophical conversation on a boat etc.  The murders, ghost hacking, corrupt politicians, false memories, conspiracies, plot twists are all there.  The characterisation of, say, Saito and Paz may have changed a bit, and Motoko got new hair colour.  But Motoko is still Motoko, and the show feels very Ghost in the Shell. 

My problem is that the new series also takes convoluted plots to a new level.  The Stand Alone Complex plots were not easy to understand, but Arise is worse.  The show relies too much on exposition dialogue to explain all the plot twists, which are far too complex and difficult to follow. 

This is not the end of the franchise, as they have already announced yet another feature length movie that will come up some time in 2015.

[Monoriu]

Akame ga Kill.  Literally, Akame kills/slashes.  The story is about a group of assassins who fight against a corrupt empire.  The show is based on a popular manga that is known for its dark themes, character deaths and gore. 

At its heart, Akame ga kill is a pretty standard shonen battle series.  The show is essentially a series of battles between elite assassins with special powers fighting against elite agents of the empire with other special powers.  There are plenty of colourful characters on both sides of the conflict.  Perhaps the most popular character is Esdese, the badass, sadistic, mother to her men empire general pictured below.  It is almost no longer considered a spoiler that [spoiler]she falls in love with the male protagonist who is on the other side of the conflict. [/spoiler]



It is dark alright.  If you like to watch a show that is not afraid to kill off its characters, this is it.  [spoiler]In fact almost the entire cast is killed off eventually.[/spoiler] There are gory shots showing tons of blood and maimed bodies throughout the entire series.  But overall the tone is light.  I think this is proof that just because a show is dark does not necessarily mean that it is good.  The character deaths happen so suddenly and frequently that the emotional impact is reduced.  It tries to do comedy, ridiculously revealing outfits, shonen, character deaths, cheap jokes, gory shots, flashy battles all in one package, sometimes within the same scenes, and ends up not doing any of that well. 

Not really worth your time, imho.

[CountDeMoney]