Chatterbox - Anime & Manga

The section for that sort of request is You Know That Show

All I can say is that it looks 80s-ish

They're going for cheap because DV Ds are on their way out.

Just finished watching Sora no Otoshimono (TV show and OVA). I can see why people give this show higher regard than typical ecchi trash. Technically it should be ecchi trash, it's made of all the right tropes to be ecchi trash, but somehow there's a charm to it that sets it apart. Maybe it's the self-awareness and parody elements, maybe it's the strength of the story, or maybe the characters are just that likable. I daresay it's better than Rosario + Vampire, DearS, Hand Maid May and Kanokon, but not up to the quality of Chobits, Oh My Goddess, Strike Witches or Shuffle. Something comparable would be Mahoromatic, Familiar of Zero or UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie. The comedy was mostly pretty good, and the story was generic but okay when it was there. The characters were hit-and-miss; Nymph was probably the most interesting and likable of them all (and got the most character development), and Ikaros, Eishirou and Mikako were decent, while Sohara and Astraea were pretty dull and Tomoki, sadly but predictably, was perhaps the most pointless of the entire group. I will say this for Tomoki, though, he managed to escape becoming a completely generic harem MC through actually being an over-the-top perv, rather than just getting repeatedly and falsely accused of being one. (Who knows, maybe that's the thing that makes the show work.) The voice acting and music were nothing to write home about. The animation was surprisingly good for a show in this genre, and I appreciated AIC's attention to detail; while it's not exactly KyoAni work, it never really felt like the budget was wearing thin, either. (That said, they really could have done without chibifying the characters all the time. I assume that was present in the original manga, but either way it kinda detracts from the show without adding anything.) Overall, I'm glad I watched the show (mostly for Nymph) and I wouldn't mind if more ecchi harem animes strived to be like it.

I'm deliberately leaving Angeloid of Clockwork for later, on the basis that the first half is a retelling of the TV show and the rest is a somewhat disconnected story. This is the first time I'm delaying watching a movie that goes with a TV anime by choice, rather than because the movie wasn't out yet or I didn't yet have the file.

Next up is Gakkou Gurashi. I've watched a fair number of moe shows before, and there's something to be said for cute girls just doing adorable things together. The tradition of cute, fluffy comedy anime has been long established by the likes of K-On, Azumanga Daioh and Strawberry Marshmallow, and it's good to know that shows such as Gakkou Gurashi have been keeping that tradition alive into the 2010s. Sometimes it's good to just sit back, relax, and soak in the pure wholesomeness of an adorable moe show. Hahaha, who the fuck am I kidding, I know perfectly well what I'm getting into and I mean to enjoy every minute of it.

edited 17th Jun '18 2:54:05 PM by Meklar

I managed to finish watching Kamisama no Memochou yesterday. Overall, I found it to be a decent enough mystery anime. It definitely has good art, the cases were interesting enough and I found Alice and Narumi to be interesting leads. However, I feel a little disappointed by the show. It's a decent anime but it could've been better than just decent. I feel like most of the supporting cast didn't get enough development. While they were entertaining at times, it still felt like I didn't know them well enough to get as emotionally invested as I could've been. Also, I felt like the ending was kind of rushed and anticlimactic. Overall, not a bad anime but it could've been better.

Anyone here seen Basilisk: The Kouga Ninja Scrolls? Now there's a sequel series called Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls. The original Basilisk was set in 1614 and chronicled a war between two ninja clans. Thing is, all the promotional material for the Ouka Ninja Scrolls say it "is set in 1626, ten years after the events of the original series." But 1626 - 1614 =/= 10, and it says this on all the wikis I see, as well as press releases.

The kabedon has... evolved.

you know the kabedon might be bad but that's ok.

just going to say that I finished streamlining 3 mangas in a row.... Planet With,Twin Star Exorcist and Hakoiri Devil Princess.... Needless to say, for Twin Star Exorcist, the story is truly a different animal than the anime altogether and can't wait for the raws to be translated and I learned that the manga was made by the same guy who made Binbougami Ga...Something you learn new everyday. For the rest though, Hakoiri is an interesting experience and I kind of laugh when I read it... I made a page of it so yeah. Also, for Planet With... Given it will get the anime adaptation soon.... SPOILER ALERT as I will say this:.... The manga has a bit of a confusing storyline and so many questions that I want to get answers from. But can't wait for the anime adaptation though

Wait, planet with is that Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer dudes work right?

It’s already been fan translated?

So I just finished the anime of Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge. Very fun show, but now I can't get the opening theme out of my head.

So I've decided to inflict my pain on you all. Mhuhahahaha!

Edited by Kayeka on Jul 1st 2018 at 10:15:13 AM

More a fan of he ending theme, myself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCQhczirWLs

@vicarious Yeah... that Planet With... it's only been translated until chapter 4 as for now in Manga Rock so yea

@Evolved Kabedon: I'm surprised at two things. First, that it took this long for apply the kabedon to characters that are capable of wall-walking/hanging. Two, that I never thought of such an idea before.

Finished watching Gakkou Gurashi yesterday. I'm just going to put my entire review in spoiler tags. It was much more of a moe show and much less of a horror show than I was expecting. I was looking forward to watching cute girls suffer on the level of Madoka Magica or Elfen Lied, but I didn't get that. Overall it was more of a moe show that had some horror than a horror show that happened to be moe. Nevertheless it was a good show and I'm glad to have watched it. Although I'm not normally a fan of flashbacks, in this show the jumping around in time somehow worked without being annoying. It wasn't as brilliantly paced as Code Geass, and it wasn't as perfectly constructed as Madoka, but it nevertheless fit together very naturally, and the ending was unusually satisfying for an anime based on an ongoing manga. The animation was up to par with no obvious weak points, which seems to be standard for 2010s anime. The voice acting and music were pretty generic, save for the OP song which I thought was quite effective and memorable. The characters worked well together, and the themes, while a little blatant, were interesting and presented reasonably well.

Next I mean to watch the original two Ghost in the Shell movies. I'm hoping to have a couple of quiet days coming up to get through these with minimal noise pollution. I figured since I'll probably watch the Hollywood adaptation at some point, I really should watch the real thing first. After that, the next anime show I have queued up is Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran, an apparently rather obscure samurai comedy show from 2000. Not sure what to expect from it, but hopefully some laughs, if nothing else.

If you’re watching Ghost in the Shell, try checking out Stand Alone Complex as well, especially the second season, which is a great political thriller. Then you can kind of just take or leave the live-action movie, because you’ve seen all the good bits they lifted from the source material and cobbled into a product that’s less than the sum of its parts.

I'll probably watch Stand Alone Complex eventually, but not this time around.

I must say that the following clip is probably one of my favourite action scenes from a Fate anime

Amusingly it is from the cooking OVA

Just finished an obscure manga from Shonen Jump that unfortunately got axed called Novice Police Kiruko-san...it was alright

Holy shoot for a cooking anime, they really went all out with the volleyball match! It's almost Unlimited Budget Works!

Finished watching Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Ghost in the Shell Innocence.

Thoughts on Ghost in the Shell (1995): It was a fairly short movie, with less in it than Akira; in ways it felt even shorter than its own running time, possibly due to a number of slowly paced scenes, and I'm kinda surprised that such a brief movie became so influential. It was very much standard cyberpunk, even more so than Akira, and reminded me a great deal of Deus Ex, to the point where I strongly suspect that the people who made Deus Ex were deliberately taking influence from this movie. The art style was a little strange, and showed its age. The animation quality was good, but less impressive than Akira's, particularly for its time; however, the attention to visual detail was amazing, some of the best I've seen in any anime. The music was excellent, much better than the voice acting which was generally pretty forgettable. The characters themselves were...really bland, actually, and struck me as serving little more purpose than as vehicles for the plot and the philosophical/cyberpunk exposition. Overall, I'm glad to have watched it but I was expecting more.

Thoughts on Innocence: This was longer than the first Ghost in the Shell, but still pretty slow-paced, and substantially weirder. This was a pretty weird movie, not the weirdest I've seen, but weird even for cyberpunk, which is saying something. The production value was very high, easily higher than the first movie in every respect; the cel-shading animation quality was close to the best I've seen in any anime, and the 3D CGI was probably the best I've seen in anime, period- although, even then, it felt like it was lagging a few years behind the quality of CGI in Hollywood productions at that time. It was interesting to see Batou as the main character, especially since I always assumed that GITS was mostly about Motoko and was surprised how little she showed up this time around. The characterization (specifically of Batou and Togusa) was more filled-out and satisfying than in the first movie. I also though the voice acting had slightly better quality, although maybe it was just a matter of what scenes they wrote for the VAs. With that being said, the weirdness of the plot, visual presentation and dialogue (what was with all the quote-dropping?) kinda dragged the movie down, and I didn't feel as satisfied overall with this movie as with the first one. The Deus Ex feel was also not so strongly present here.

This is why you wanna check out Stand Alone Complex, to see the characters get a bit more fleshed out. I watched the movies after SAC, and it was interesting to see a Motoko who is completely done with this shit.

If you want to see the characters with some personality go with the original manga. She is a full on The Lad-ette, selfish, mischievous, hosts orgies and has a really colorful vocabulary to call her boss. Only later after tone shifts and character development does she seem more like her movie counterpart.

Anyway Stand Alone Complex is where it is really at.

just finished reading World's End Harem manga....Errrr....This is one of a case where the p*** does have a plot. Though I have to admit that the real main protagonist is pretty much a bit infuriating and spineless despite he had a little bit of a Well-Intentioned nature. And the guy with glasses who got bullied in the past seems to be much more interesting than him

Can't wait for the future chapter to be translated though as I want to know what will happen with number four and five and so does the future for the three guys

Edited by ElfenLiedFan90 on Jul 5th 2018 at 11:05:09 PM

fuck yes Aggretsuko is getting Season Two next year

I wouldn't recommend GITS SAC right after watching the movies. This show is really nice but the production values are much lower than the movies (which is normal for a tv show).

Edited by gropcbf on Jul 6th 2018 at 9:48:48 PM