The Anime Thread

[Monoriu]

I just found out that the guy who made this Madoka magi thing mono is so fond of so created the rather interesting visual novel (game is too strong a word) saya no uta. Might be worth giving Madoka a few more episodes to impress if lovecraftian horror is in the offering.

If I remember correctly, you stopped at episode 2.  That's like watching the movie previews but leaving the room just before movie starts 

[Lettow77]

IIRC first two episodes seem like generic cookie cutter cuteness, but it's just lulling you into a false sense of security before dropping a megaton of eldritch horror on you.

You misrecall. There is distractingly strange architecture, an inverted family relationship, and a sense of unease from a mysterious transfer student. As a cute series it is an abject failure.

[jimmy olsen]

Non Non Biyori

Non Non Biyori is a do-nothing anime about life in the rural countryside. Because the population is nothing but elderly, the schools have been consolidated into one school with five students.

"Slice of life" anime are frequently attacked for how little happens in any given episode. Non Non Biyori offers the promise of still less happening.

A show like this depends on its characters, interaction and ambience- and it's all quite good.

A new season has just begun as of this week.

Just girls? Or is there a boy student off panel they're all in love in?

[Monoriu]

IIRC first two episodes seem like generic cookie cutter cuteness, but it's just lulling you into a false sense of security before dropping a megaton of eldritch horror on you.

You misrecall. There is distractingly strange architecture, an inverted family relationship, and a sense of unease from a mysterious transfer student. As a cute series it is an abject failure.

The dream sequence in the first few minutes of episode 1 was creepy as hell. 

[Lettow77]

Just girls? Or is there a boy student off panel they're all in love in?

I leave recommending harem anime to the rest of you.

[Syt]

I've signed up for a Crunchyroll.com trial. Looks good so far. Especially when I noticed that the number of available shows increased a lot when I switched the language from German to English.

[Josquius]

I'll just post this here whilst I go in the corner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3WMOfh2Wo

[jimmy olsen]

I'll just post this here whilst I go in the corner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3WMOfh2Wo

The three dimensional maneuver gear looks like shit, I doubt even ILM or Weta could make it look convincing. Some things only work in animation and I think this is one of them.

[Monoriu]

Like I said before, I have very little faith in live-action adaptations of anime.  Pink hair looks fine in anime; a lot less so in live action.  Anime, even in Japan, is not really mainstream entertainment.  It is difficult to convince studio executives to give the necessary budgets to make live-action adaptations work.  The people who do the live-action films are usually different from the anime crew, and they usually make such drastic changes to the show that (a) the anime fans are pissed off and (b) misses the point of what makes the anime successful. 

[viper37]

I'll just post this here whilst I go in the corner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt3WMOfh2Wo

ok, I'm sold.  Even if I don't understand a word, I want to see this.  In my experience, dubbing of asian movies has been very bad and I hate subtitles.  Anime dubbing (well, Gundams, at least) are often done in Canada (the part of the country where's there's no winter) and they're usually very good, but I'm afraid of the dubbing such a movie...

[Josquius]

I was very skeptical about this one but looking at he trailers it might just work.
There are lots of good anime/manga adaptions, some that are better than the anime even.
Detroit metal city was absolutely awesome, Deathnote I saw before the anime and it encouraged me to go watch it, Thermae Romae was good, etc...

Generally crap anime adaptions come about when for some reason a Hong Kong or American company has got hold of the license and decided to make a film. There are quite a lot of HK anime films out there.

[Eddie Teach]

Just girls? Or is there a boy student off panel they're all in love in?

The boy prefers bald, cynical French Canadians.

[Monoriu]

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works.  Seven teams engage in a survival battle for a holy grail that grants any wish.  Each team consists of a magician master and a servant, who can be a historical or mythical hero brought to life.  The original story is a visual novel that consists of three independent storylines.  UBW is the second route. 

I think this is a strong contender for the best anime in 2015, but it isn't without flaws.  The obvious strength is its absolutely gorgeous animation.  Yet another good job from ufotable, the animation studio.  It is a challenge to find better animation anywhere from TV anime.  When compared to the UBW movie made just 5 years ago, this series wins 100-0, bearing in mind that movies are supposed to have much better animation than their TV show counterparts.  The story execution is also much better than the movie, which was a complete failure that tried to compress too much story into 90 minutes.

But I hesitate to call it a masterpiece.  Compared with Fate/Zero, the prequel, the storyline is less interesting.  Fate/Zero has a rich array of interesting characters and lots of great subplots.  UBW is more focused on the Shirou/Archer storyline.  While interesting, the story can be a little slow at times, and making the equivalent of 27 episodes is stretching the story too thinly.  Would have less downtime if it is slightly compressed to 22 or 23 episodes.  The characters are also less interesting than their Fate/Zero counterparts, with Shirou being the clichéd anime hero who wants to save the world for no good reason. 

With this addition, the question of how to watch the increasingly complicated Fate Series becomes even more difficult.  There is no definitive answer but my personal suggestion is –

1.   Fate/Zero (prequel, chronologically the first story, also the best anime so should be watched unspoiled)
2.   Fate/Stay Night UBW (second route in the visual novel)
3.   Fate/Stay Night (first route, made in 2006 by a different company.  The execution is less good so should be watched after the previous better shows)
4.   Fate/Stay Night UBW 2010 Movie (identical plot as the TV series.  So bad it is good.  If you have time to waste.)
5.   Fate/Kaleid Liner (light magical girl spin-off.  Not much to do with the original story.  For hardcore Fate fans only)
6.   Carnival Phantasm (plotless official fan-fiction that is good for laughs).

[Lettow77]

Canival Phantasm is probably the best in the lot, but reading Tsukihime and the Fate/stay night VN first is nearly mandatory. The gags draw heavily on Tsukihime and also heaven's feel, neither of which have anime representation, so it can be a bit exclusionary.

Really cute.

[Josquius]

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]