What Anime are you Currently Watching?/Anime Recommendations

[ChimairaGT]

I'm watching Eureka 7 right now. When Bandai announced they were stopping DVD production I grabbed a bunch of series, including this one. It's pretty "meh." I've got about 12 episodes left, and then I'll probably sell off my discs. I'll probably be able to make a profit since the have gone up in value since I bought them. I can easily see this series getting license rescued since the sequel was picked up by Funimation, so now's the best time.

I'll also second the opinion of favoring older shows. The big thing for me is the art style. Hand drawn animation is just more pleasing to look at than the digitally animated shows. Plus, the general quality of shows seems to have dropped, though the occasional gem slips through. Madoka Magica springs to mind as an example of a very good, recent show.

[flojocabron]

eureka seven was going to be about 25 episodes. But since it was making bandai money, They extended it.

Its got its weird episodes, but I more or less liked it.

One of the reasons why todays anime isnt as great as older times is lack of budget and fear of experimenting.

Back in the 80-90's there was more money (disposable income) and anime studios had more time to experiment and try new genres. The economy back then in japan was going great so viewers bought more merchandise and VHS tapes of their favorite series.

Today most anime is about 13 episodes. Its a safe bet. If a show sucks it ends early and no reason to make more episodes. Also cost of making anime has changed since back then. Higher wages and more trained artists require more than ever. Hand drawn back then and digital now, budgets are more restricted and corporations need a high return (profit).

So yeah, the bubble has burst. Anime production and viewer consumption has declined greatly in the past few years.

What was once a labor of love became corporate shilled product, that is no longer relevant with the fans they once catered to.

And dont even get started with the cost of licensing anime for outside of the US.

[Nemoide]

I finally finished Heidi, Girl of the Alps. It's a cute show that's very light and slow paced, but can still hold some surprisingly effective drama here and there. I really liked it and had no problems understanding it raw. It's part of a series of different shows generally referred to as "World Masterpiece Classics" and now I'm hoping I'll be able to watch more of them at some point, despite the fact that they're pretty tough to track down outside of Japan.

I also bought a ton of laserdiscs recently. I got all Mobile Suit Z Gundam despite already owning it on DVD just so I could hear the original opening/ending songs... THEY'RE REALLY GOOD!
I recently watched Dominion Tank Police, which I thought started out pretty so-so but got pretty interesting by the end. I also watched a two-episode OVA called Tanjou Debut. It's based on a PC-Engine CD game, but isn't terribly interesting. The only thing I consider noteworthy is the fact that apparently the two episodes represent dramas that the characters from the game act in. I totally wouldn't have gotten that if not for the fact that there is an INCREDIBLE lack of continuity between them and part of the opening shows a director yelling at them. It's kind of a weird element for an anime, but still doesn't really do much to elevate it beyond mediocrity. BUT I'M STILL GLAD TO OWN IT ON LASERDISC!

Currently I have two more untranslated series on LD in my backlog. One is "Idol Defense Force: Humming Bird" which sounds pretty ridiculous. The other is Nurse Angel Ririka SOS. I'm really looking forward to that one! It's a 90s magical girl show from the director of Kodocha (and Fruits Basket, which I've never seen) and it basically sounds like a fun time!

Yeah, I've pretty much become that creepy bearded guy who watches magical girl anime... NO REGRETS.

[flojocabron]

hey Nemoide

Can you speak spanish?

That Heidi anime has been playing in Mexico for many years.

Youtube has them in spanish. Links from google:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=ps ... 24&bih=485

Another old anime seen in mexico is this one



Sandibel is what its called in spanish. Theres also vids on youtube.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello!_Sandybell

I've seen some of these in bits and pieces. In mexico they are aired intermittently.

[Nemoide]

Unfortunately, despite taking Spanish in high school, I'm much more comfortable with Japanese. But I know Heidi was a major hit in pretty much every country that doesn't speak English. (I managed to get it all on VHS while in a Japanese bookstore.)
That Sandybell show looks really up my alley. I'll have to keep an eye out for stray laserdiscs on eBay...

Another 70s-shojou show I'm looking forward to finally being able to watch is Rose of Versailles - I have both volumes preordered. And there's Kyatto-Ninden Teyandee coming soon too!
MY BACKLOG ISN'T GOING AWAY, BUT IT'S A GOOD TIME TO BE A FAN OF OLD STUFF.

[marurun]

I'd wager that many of us here are primarily into older anime. But similar to how we still get games in today's stagnant and over populated market that are great, some great anime still pops up here and there .... It sounds like you aren't really interested in bothering to look for it though. I'm almost exclusively into 70s-80s anime myself so I hear where you're coming from, yet some of the best watches I've ever had have been with rather modern anime.

Well, if I had easy access to the better bits of the newer stuff it might not be a problem. I sometimes try stuff on Netflix, but the best of what's on Netflix I saw before getting Netflix, and they are slow to get anything new that isn't Funimation. I'm not even sure how to easily find out what the good stuff is, disregarding the challenge of actually getting my hands on it to see it.

The other problem is that all the stuff on Netflix is dubbed, and I get along a lot better with shows subbed, as it allows me to challenge my brain a little trying to follow the Japanese.

Basically, I'm not going to spend money on something without knowing anything about it, and anime is more mainstream in the US now, meaning it's been better integrated into the media landscape, so it's more difficult to find out what's good and what isn't. There used to be a lot more distinct resources since, as a medium, it was largely outside the mainstream.

[Michi]

I'm watching Eureka 7 right now. When Bandai announced they were stopping DVD production I grabbed a bunch of series, including this one. It's pretty "meh."

I've been watching it on Adult Swim and have the same reaction. It's gotten better in the second half, but, barring a fantastic finale, it's not something I'd ever care to own or watch again.

MY BACKLOG ISN'T GOING AWAY, BUT IT'S A GOOD TIME TO BE A FAN OF OLD STUFF.

Truth.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Picked up the Sakura Wars movie when I was out game shopping today. I love the games, but have never seen the anime. I'll watch it soon - hopefully tomorrow when my daughter and I are up @ 6am. I'll report back.

[noiseredux]

Picked up the Sakura Wars movie when I was out game shopping today. I love the games, but have never seen the anime. I'll watch it soon - hopefully tomorrow when my daughter and I are up @ 6am. I'll report back.

nice. I've come across a couple of the mini-series, but didn't want to jump in randomly. I'm still not really sure of the order of them all.

[BoneSnapDeez]

noise watches anime?!?!?! My mind is blown.