The Anime Thread

[Monoriu]

Now I am really interested in Durarara.  The novels of both Durarara and Baccano are written by the same person, and the animation studio of both shows are also the same.

[jimmy olsen]

I have Baccanno's amazing jazz soundtrack, but I've never got around to actually watching it. I've heard it really is great. I gotta make time for it one of these days.

[Monoriu]

Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid.  4th season of one of the most popular magical girl shows in Japan.  Set several years after the events of the third season, the story takes place on a distant planet and focuses on the life of Vivio, one of the characters introduced in the third season.  She has taken an interest in martial arts, and enters a tournament with her friends. 

Yup, that's pretty much the plot of the entire season.  I did not enjoy it, for many reasons -

1. Nothing much really happens in the story.  The first half of the show is an extended epilogue showing what happened to most characters introduced in the previous seasons, and given Nanoha's already enormous cast, that is a lot of catching up to do.  The second half is one big tournament.  While that is an improvement, it is just a lazy way that justifies another season without any actual plot.  It is simply boring.

2. There is a lack of focus, and there are too many characters.  Season 3 introduced a ton of characters, both friend and foe.  A lot of them stick around in this season, which introduced yet another generation of magical girls.  I have a really hard time telling who is who.  Vivio the main character doesn't really get much screentime or character development.

3. The style is somewhat off.  Fan-favourites Nanoha and Fate are still here, but somehow Nanoha, one of the most recognisable characters in the anime world, doesn't look like Nanoha. 

The first two seasons of Nanoha were enjoyable.  Third season is already more than a notch down in quality, but fourth season is even worse.  I realise ViVid is split cour, i.e. 12 episodes were aired between April and June, and another 12/13 episodes should be aired between October and December 2015.  So strictly speaking I have only watched half the show.  But still, it says a lot that they can't get a real plot going with 12 episodes in. 

[Monoriu]

Assassination Classroom.  Based on a very popular manga in Japan.  An alien lifeform that resembles a giant, talking, yellow octopus has destroyed 70% of the moon.  Nothing that the world governments throw at him work, due to his crazy speed of 20 Mach.  He has threatened to do the same to Earth one year later.  In the meantime, he has sought and obtained the job of teaching a class at a Japanese middle school.  The world governments have placed a multi-billion bounty on his head, and have provided training and equipment for his students to kill him.  A typical school day starts with all students firing a hail of anti-alien bullets at the teacher, who effortlessly dodge them while taking roll-call. 

It is apparent from episode 1 that the alien teacher cares deeply about the students, and is the best teacher they can ever dream of.  The school is one of the best and most competitive schools in Japan.  But the alien teacher's class is specifically created as punishment for the worst students of the school, and is openly discriminated against.  The sole purpose of the existance of that class is to scare the rest of the school that, if they don't work hard to become the best of the best, they'll suffer daily humiliation in that special class.  The show is therefore mostly about the heartwarming relationships between teacher and students, and is also a critique of the hyper-competitive nature of the Japanese school system. 

It is very enjoyable.  The overall tone is light and there are a ton of genuinely funny moments.  There are also serious moments when the class have to work together to solve problems, such as when the department of defence is fed up with the lack of progress and they send serious military trainers to do something about the class.  I don't know the reaction of western viewers, but the show strikes a chord with me as HK's education system is similarly crazy as the Japanese one.  The production values are very high due to the huge popularity of the source manga.  The show is careful to avoid a situation where the alien teacher solves every problem with his special powers.  Instead, it is the students who are at the front, and the teacher is there to empower and encourage the students.  One of the best shows in the first half of 2015.  Second season has already been announced.

Oh and, the student with light-blue hair is the viewpoint character, and it is a "he". 

[Josquius]

Parasyte.  Worm-like aliens invade Earth.  They enter the human body, take over the brain, kill the original host, then shapeshift into various human forms and devour other humans.  Other superpowers include turning cells into numerous fast-moving muscles, sharp blades, eyes and shields, and hyper-senses etc.  They are essentially shapeshifting killer machines that live among humans.  The protagonist is a high school student.  Since he wore headphones on the night of the invasion, the alien worm only managed to eat and replace his right arm.  Both intelligent lifeforms now co-exist in the same body and they must depend on each other to survive attacks from other parasytes, which can telepathically sense them from a distance. 

This is a horror science fiction thriller.  It is choke full of gore, blood, dead students, body parts, and fangs, blades, eyes appearing out of the human body and attacking other humans.  The anime opens with a husband literally opening up his head to reveal a large number fangs and eyes, then chopping off and eating his wife's head. 

It is one of the best thrillers since Death Note not just because of the constant stream of exciting battles.  It is a show of meaningful conflicts.  The protagonist and his alien right hand form a formidable battle team, but outside battles their philosophies are at odds with each other.  His right hand (named Migi, which means "right" in Japanese) is rational and emotionless, and prioritises self-preservation.  He forbids his host from telling his strange situation to anyone for fear of being taken to a laboratory.  On the other hand, the protagonist wants to help his friends and family against the parasyte threat, and constantly struggles with the question of whether he should turn himself in to share his knowledge about the parasytes.  The parasytes are not simply interested in humans as a food source.  They are capable of intelligent thought, and some of them want to learn more about humans, or even form organisations of their own.  Add a suspicious girlfriend (or two) and other teenage problems and we have a very interesting show. 

I've read that manga. It's pretty old. Didn't realise there was an anime

[Monoriu]

I've read that manga. It's pretty old. Didn't realise there was an anime

The story I have read is like this.  The manga was published in the 80s/early 90s.  Some western film studio acquired the rights to make a live-action film out of it.  After more than a decade, they decided not to do it afterall.  Many years passed and some Japanese film-maker finally made two live-action films.  They were released in theatres recently.  The anime was made as part of the publicity for the films. 

[Monoriu]

Naruto, the protagonist of this extremely well-known shonen battle series.  Quite possibly the most popular ninja-anything ever.  Many years ago, the nine-tail beast attacked the Konoha ninja village.  It wrecked great havoc, but was eventually defeated and sealed inside the body of infant Naruto.  He grew up as an orphan and was shunned by the rest of the village.  But he is determined to become the next Hokage, the leader and strongest ninja of Konoha.  After a multi-year effort, I have finally finished watching all 637 episodes, 9 movies, and 10 specials.  The source manga has been completed, but the anime is still ongoing. 

There are good reasons why this show is popular.  Some of the episodes are indeed great and are worth the time investment.  The ninjas are ninja in name only.  They may as well call themselves magicians who are capable of anything, up to and including bringing back the dead, summoning city-sized monsters, escaping to another dimension etc.  The biggest problem with this show is the sheer amount of filler material.  Out of 637 episodes, there are around 250 filler episodes, including a notorious single stretch of 85 silly filler episodes (almost two continuous years in real life) that are a disgrace to the franchise.  The canon ones aren't well-paced either.  Many of them are summaries of previous events and repeated flashbacks showing the same scenes over and over.  I feel like some key scenes have been shown 10 times throughout the series. 

In Japan, Naruto is considered a distant no. 2 to One Piece, but for some reason it seems to be more popular in the west.  Having watched both, I agree that One Piece is better.  Naruto is filler hell; One Piece is snail pace.  One Piece has a much bigger world and an enormous cast compared to Naruto's already big cast.  Naruto is more battle-focused; One Piece also has great battles but does better in adventure, plot-twists and comedy.  Naruto seems to be one huge story; the One Piece crew goes from island to island with more distinct arcs and greater variety in settings.  Naruto's writer doesn't seem capable of creating strong females.  The production values are obviously better in One Piece. 

I enjoyed watching the canon episodes, especially the major fights.  It is hard to find anything nearly as good.  If you have the time to watch a huge series, I think One Piece is better.  If you still want to watch Naruto, I suggest skipping all the filler, especially the stretch from episode 136 to 220.  From episode 221 onwards, they decided to rename the show as Naruto Shippudan just to tell fans that the canon story has returned.  Shippudan isn't a sequel.  It is part and parcel of the same story and there is no broadcasting gap between Shippudan and the original Naruto. 

[Monoriu]

OMG.  The Chinese state-owned Central TV did a documentary about the Japanese armed forces, and there is a clear image showing a...Gundam!!!!111

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onur9czCDNA

(fast forward to 0:55)

Are they trying to say that the PLA is no match for the Japanese armed forces, and this is why?  Do they know something we don't?

[Monoriu]

July is the start of the Summer 2015 anime season, and these are the anime that I want to watch, if I have time.



Gakkou Gurashi! , literally living at school.  The story is about the daily lives of several young, cute, school girls.  The school is beautiful, the friends are nice to each other, and the teacher is caring.  Living in school is paradise.  Or so the protagonist girl thinks.  In reality, they are living in a zombie apocalypse.  They are apparently the only survivers of a massive zombie attack, and their real lives consist of hiding from the zombies and scavanging food for survival.  Her imagination of a good life is a psychological defence mechanism. 



Chaos Dragon. The majority of anime are adaptations of manga, novels or games.  Some are original works.  This one is none of the above.  It is based on a real life fantasy RPG game session by 5-6 all-star anime script writers and character designers, including Gen Urobuchi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate Zero), and the character designers for the Fate series, Garden of Sinners series, and Durarara series. 

[jimmy olsen]

In Japan, Naruto is considered a distant no. 2 to One Piece, but for some reason it seems to be more popular in the west.  Having watched both, I agree that One Piece is better.  Naruto is filler hell; One Piece is snail pace.  One Piece has a much bigger world and an enormous cast compared to Naruto's already big cast.  Naruto is more battle-focused; One Piece also has great battles but does better in adventure, plot-twists and comedy.  Naruto seems to be one huge story; the One Piece crew goes from island to island with more distinct arcs and greater variety in settings.  Naruto's writer doesn't seem capable of creating strong females.  The production values are obviously better in One Piece. 

Western anime fans (not the casuals who may catch something on cartoon network) tend to have seen both the show and read the manga. I think the style of art in One Piece truns a lot of people off.

[Monoriu]

Charlotte.  This story is from Key Visual Arts, the same people who brought us legendary shows Clannad and Angel Beats, as well as Kanon, Air and Little Busters.  That's enough for me.  Not much is known about this, other than the show takes place in a school and the main characters have supernatural powers.



Overlord. Yet another trapped in a virtual game story.  An old massive online RPG game is about to be closed.  An ordinary salaryman is determined to stay in the game until the last minute.  When the servers are supposed to stop, he found the NPCs came alive in the virtual world.  So he stayed in a bid to take over the online world as an evil overlord. 

[Syt]

Is there anything you can recommend that doesn't feature high school protagonists?

[Lettow77]

 It's been done. Why not watch Mushishi or Saraiya Goyou?

[Monoriu]

Is there anything you can recommend that doesn't feature high school protagonists?

Sure.

Legend of Galactic Heroes
Death Note (protagonist starts as high school student but move on to university mid-story)
Steins Gate
Fate/Zero
Attack on Titan (protagonists are young but they are not students)
Ghost in the Shell
Scrapped Princess
Baccano
Gundam 00
Kara no Kyoukai/Garden of Sinners
Psycho Pass
Black Lagoon
Spice and Wolf
Log Horizon (protagonists are university students)
Gargantia (protagonist is a child soldier, but not high school student)
Hataraku Maou-sama
Appleseed
One Piece
Naruto
Seven Deadly Sins
Fairy Tail
Akatsuki no Yona
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

[jimmy olsen]

Full Metal Alchemist
Cowboy Beebop
Samurai Champloo
Vash the Stampede
Rurouni Kenshin
The Irresponsible Captain Tylor
Basalisk
Scrapped Princess
Outlaw Star
Pumpkin Scissors