What Are You Watching As Of Now?

With the TV and Movies thread doing pretty well for general stuff, i think anime should be reverved for this section here. Saves any derailing or mixed topics.

So yeah, you can post what anime yer currently watching here.

The main reason why i felt like sharing is because i finally caved and watched the latest episodes of Saint Seiya The Lost Canvas.. I've been waiting for ages since two of the main fansubbers of this series have been inactive for months and what has been subbed by others are in piss poor quality. I want a release in good quality so i can fully appreciate this thing, but it doesn't look like it's gonna happen anytime soon so i downloaded the shitty version... which still had me squealing with pure joy. This series is so epic sometimes, i fucking love it :D
Here's a sample of the episodes i just watched (someone made a tribute vid on youtube).
Now, i know some people may remark on the femininity of some of the male characters here :P , and that's exactly why people thought i was a chick for the first 2 weeks i joined MR.. cos i had a Saint Seiya avatar, and the dude liked like a girl. Whatver man, this rules :D

I'm also watching Dragonball Kai. I kinda thought it would get old fast since I've seen it all before, but it's actually really good. They cut out all the fluff and power-up-for-three-episodes-straight bullcrap, fitting what was at least two episodes into one. It also has a new soundtrack, so it really does feel like a proper reworked version.

Lastly, it's not something i'm watching, but 'tried' watching since it seems to be very successful... a series called Bakemonogatari. I watched the first episode and the animation is fucking slick (serious, it is some top ranking stuff), but I can't, for the life of me, follow the story or dialogue at all. It's all twists and turns between every scene and sentence said... a pretty unconventional way of telling a story; but considering all the hype for this series (setting record sales in Japan), i'm thinking it must just be me not getting it... maybe i just got a shitty subber, but it's not like i had many choices, so i dunno.
Has anyone watched this and actually followed what was going on? If so, let me know what sub group you had, cos i wanna know what the hype is about without mindfucking myself again. It looked and sounded very intruiging in any case, even if i didn't know what the hell was happening.

Bakemonogatari, like Zetsobou Sensei pays a shitload of attention on wordplay (and metahumor, to an extent) in Japanese, so unless you're fluent with the language, all jokes will just go right out the window. Hell, the title of the series is a wordplay in itself.

So yeah, I can't follow it whatsoever myself, I got up to episode 4 and just gave up (maybe I got a horrible subber too, s/he even uses some shitty blocky sci-fi font that takes at a third of the screen). :P

All I know is that the series roughly follow Araragi and gang around as they fix other people's problems which are somewhat in/directly related to supernatural phenomenons through a 'monster of the week' format. Something like that.

Blargh. I might pick it up again actually, considering that it's not a long series at all; I'll just let it play on my PS3 while I do other stuff. It's not the kind of series for me to devote my undivided attention to.


Regarding Saint Seiya, I'm in a completely wrong era; I never got into the series, and it'll be a while for me to pick it straight up from the top.

I plan to get right into it at one point or another though, I got a mate who's always nagging me to read the manga and watch the rad series (fuck yeah, the 80s).

So yeah, I dunno', would the older anime series and manga series be an obligatory watch and read before watching Lost Canvas; or would LC cope as a standalone series for newcomers to the series?





Anyhow. Most recent stuff I've been keeping tabs on/watched are Eden of the East and Aoi Bungaku (Blue Literature).

Eden of the East is incredibly solid, love it so far. The most concise way for me to describe it is that it's like a Ludlum novel. So if you're into his stuff, this one's worth checking out. And for some reason, I'm gettin' Miyazaki vibes, dunno' how, but hey. A pretty good story, great animation and overall a solid production; I wasn't expecting much when I picked this one up, but I was pleasantly surprised and was glad I chanced upon it.

Aoi Bungaku is a series of adaptations of modern classic Japanese literature. In order to really give the series an oomph on its visuals, Madhouse employed Obata, Konomo and Kubo (guys behind Death Note, Prince of Tennis and Bleach; respectively) as character designers, iirc. No shit on Obata though, the promo pic for the series features a direct clone of Raito. Overall, can't say much about this one so far, since the series is pretty new.

But the first episode is promising, so yeah, I'll be coming back for more on this one.


And I would include drama CDs that I've been listening to as of late, but that would just totally affirm how much of a neckbeard I am.

So I'll just stop here.

Well i'm glad it's not just me who doesn't get it.. At least now i know why it was difficult to follow. Guess i can just wipe off off the list then.

Hm... personal bias aside, i think LC is pretty average most of the time. It's only now and then there would be an epic fight scene, which is what Saint Seiya is all about really. Epic fight scenes. I'm keeping up with the manga and, despite most of it being pretty bland, occasionally there would be parts which make me jizz in my pants. You probably don't need to watch the original series to get into it either... Like, Regulus is this recreation of a character from the original series, but he's completely different and so much more win than the original. I personally think he's one of the best things LC has to offer, even if he had nothing to do with the original series. I dunno if it'll be enough to keep you tuned into the series, though... I'm a heug SS fanboy, so i don't mind the bland parts. So's long as it's not 'bad' i'm cool with it, but you might see it differently.

If you're going to watch the original, i recommend NOT watching from the start. It picks up reeeeeaaaaallly slowly. Chances are you'll drop the series long before you get to see what it's loved for. Just like the Rurouni Kenshin series (which is another classic), it doesn't get really good until a certain point. I think you should start from the middle and just roll with it. Saint Seiya gets most epic during the Sanctuary saga, and it's where i would suggest starting. It's all fights from here on up, and a few are the best in any anime i've seen to date. The two sagas which come after are also really good.

Bad news if you're looking for english fansubs, though. No one has subbed it all the way. There are official releases with what i assume should be flawless subs, but (like the fansubbers), they also stopped halfway through.. right before the meaty bits. I'm not sure how the chinese subs are, though... i got a bootlegged DVD boxset of this series with the worst eng sub i've ever seen in my life and optional chinese subs. Can't read chinese, so it doesn't help me any. I could lend it to you the next time we meet up if you want, but if it's anything like the english subs, you're better off not watching it. Reading their english subs for my all time favourite series was like watching a rape recording. A part of me died inside, i almost wanted to cry.

tl;dr... Lost Canvas has the occasional jizz-in-the-pants moments, but otherwise quite average. If you're gonna get into the original, good luck finding decent subs that actually finished the job.
If by some miracle you do find it... inform me at that microsecond. I will call you God from that day forth; i am so serious.

theres not enough Dragon Ball Kai on youtube yet :P. I really want to see it though. My roomate Skypher bought the entire series up until the end of the Freiza saga on DVD already though, so i doubt he'd buy Kai whenever it's released, but then, I don't mind most of the filler in that part of the series. actually, it wasnt until the buu saga that the filler got UNGODLY UNBEARABLE, made worse that Toonami would restart the series constantly <<



I'm not currently watching anything, but I just bought Tekkenkinkreet and Steam Boy on DVD a week or so back. I saw them both before that, but they are just awesome. (and they were $3 each :P)


The Evangelion REbuild 1.01 movie is going to come out in the US soon - NEED to pick that up. Still haven't seen the 2nd one (saw the first in japanese). I'm actually pretty shocked its being released in the US before the entire series is done. Still dont know if i'll like 1.02 You Cannot Advance cuz of the new pilot girl introduced... but eh, either way, gotta have the first movie. pure awesome. bit too much 3d used for my taste, but still, overall, just fucking awesome.

I missed out on Tekkonkinkreet at Telecom's Film Festival a couple of years ago, but I managed to pick the manga up and it was awesome. I still plan to watch it at one point or another though, even though I can't find a Blu-Ray of this film anywhere (I'm a huge fan of Studio 4°C).



@ Des: Oh yeah, Kenshin, goddamn I never picked that one up solely because I remember the series taking up an entire shelf at the rental store, and that wasn't even the complete collection, lmao. Whether I'll pick it up or not, I hear it's still a classic anyhow.



Back to Saint Seiya though.

While hunting for completed fansubs of Saint Seiya, I found this.

And this. edit edit: No wait wait, Horrible!Seiya returns around the last couple of episodes too, goddamn. You know what, you might as well just scrap that entire link.

I have a feeling that this is where your bootleg copy got its subs from. D:



Ah well, I'll just keep lurking around, I'm still keen on watching the whole thing. This series reminds me of my Thundercats days. So retro.

Sounds like the same subs i found earlier. It gets really bad at the best part, then slowly gets better towards the later episodes.
iirc, it starts going to shit during the Leo/Virgo temple episodes, which is utter bullshit since one of the best fight scenes is Ikki vs the Virgo saint. The fansubber is an asshole to stop right before one of the best parts.

and yeah, i've heard that wonder voice before. That guy is hardcore haha

i'm also still waiting for you may not advance... its gonna be awesome despite all the changes they're taking in characters and editing plotlines... but until then, eden of the east was the last good anime i saw...and havent found anything since.. (also waiting on that movie, the series needs some closure damnit)

so i'm going back in time to find stuff that could be good, starting with macross plus

edit;

evangelion 1.0 is gonna be released on the 17th of november in english

heres a preview of the first 8 mins ; http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-...episodes-online

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ARIA

This looks pretty and I should watch it. Sadly, I probably will not.

I was watching "Sensual Phrase/Kaikan Phrase/whatever" anime yesterday. imo, the anime is a vast improvement over the abomination of the manga, and I can go on about how shitty the manga is, but then I'll be writing too much.

Lmao, Sensual Phrase is a bloody joke. Both anime and manga.



Also. Am I the only one here who's fangirling over Baccano! and Claire right now? (I came in piss-late for this one but MEH)

I honestly hope not.

I shit you not. This is one of the most solid anime series I've seen in a while, with a surprisingly strong english dub cast. Plus I'm sure this will also be a real treat for Pulp Fiction/Reservoir Dogs fans.

Never fear Nyx, you're not the only fangirling over it XD. Baccano is absolutely fantastic.

As for the Sensual Phrase anime, by itself it's kinda meh (I've only seen the first 4 episodes though), but compared to the manga, it looks like gold. Plus the heroine in the manga is just too dumb to bear.

I just realized that I just flat out don't watch anime anymore
:ypwned:
I mean, I've been weaving in and out a bit for a couple of months, but there's really no anime that I watch consistently nor have any interest in anymore.
The last anime that I was really interested in was.....Death Note......
So, to answer this thread....
NOTHING
:dead:

very interesting.. and the artwork reminds me a little of Persona.
i wish i knew how much bandwidth i've left before i'm capped for the month. will download this for sure if i have enough.

Now that you mentioned it, yeah, I'm feelin' the Persona vibe too... Anyhow. When you do get to check this one out, I thoroughly recommend watching the 3-part OVA (a.k.a. Episodes 14-16) in addition to the series itself.

It serves as a wrap-up and an insight as to what happened to a number of characters after the ending of the series.



At the end of the day, I sure hope you won't be disappointed with this series, mate. I know I wasn't. :)

Goddamn that looks awesome.

I think I have a .gif of them dressing up like baseball players and stealing swag? If so, hell yes this anime is the raddest anime.

Goddamn that looks awesome.

I think I have a .gif of them dressing up like baseball players and stealing swag? If so, hell yes this anime is the raddest anime.

lol, yeah that's the one. Those two are awesome, even went to as far as stealing 'time' by robbing a watch store and instead of stealing the entire museum, they stole the entrance so that 'people can't get in'.

Speaking of which, you still got that .gif?

Finished Basilisk the other day.Its bloody lovely,I love it,its great etc.

finished Clannad+clannad after story two weeks ago, been meaning to watch it forever, and finally got to it. Clannad was pretty good, after story was pretty much an emotional roller coaster.
don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet, but if you get easily depressed, or are highly emotional you might want to set yourself up with a comedy after you finish after story.

more recently Finished Last exile, didn't love or hate the story it was enjoyable, but the art style was just way too awesome.
if ever they were to mix eureka 7's story with last exile's art style I'd probably have a nosebleed.
(not to say eureka 7 wasn't well animated, it was awesome as well, but the detail of the 30's styled warships was really awesome to see)

been into the new FMA series, which is FMA so you know it's good, not much more to say about that.

and started watching Ladies vs butlers, which is basically echi/comedy, worth the look

Anyone with taste can't be disappointed in Baccano. It was sweet.

Haha, good on ya'. Baccano turned out to be completely different from what I was expecting, so it was a real breath of fresh air for me. Anyhow, glad ya liked it. I can't seem to stop fangirling over it. :)



Just curious though, did you watch in subbed or dubbed?

i got it subbed.

Currently watching Durarara, which is a series by the same person who wrote Baccano.

I quite like it so far.. it follows a similar structure to Bacanno, with a huge cast that are somewhat connected. Already love the Izaya character and how he messes with people.

Wow bro, that's bloody scary. I just finished watching the first two episodes of Durarara sometime this morning before coming to this thread. O_o"



And yeah, Izaya is fantastic. So twisted. Personally, I'm liking Shizuo so far... although he can never be my Ladd Ruso.

(Posted Image)

Hmm.. I never was a big fan of Ladd. I'm all for psycho killers, but he seemed very one-note and predictable to me. Vino, on the other hand, had a much more interesting and creative way of getting shit done.

That's not to say i like a character based on how they kill their victims, but Vino was a more mysterious and intriguing character in general.

Oh, dear. I just love how primal and how much of a masculine brute Ladd is. And don't get me started on Rachel. *heart*





But yeah. Ladd can't hold a candle against Vino in terms of axe-crazy ass kickery. The Rail Tracer is epic God-tier and just in a whole higher league.

Plus I don't know whether to facepalm or squee at his head-over-heels obsession with a certain Miss Laforet.