What Anime are you Currently Watching?/Anime Recommendations

[TSTR]

DRRR!!!!!!!! is the shit

[isiolia]

Yeah, started watching the second season of DRRR!!! last week.

Also watching Another right now, and watched Maoyu recently. That show could have done with a second season or more rather than trying to compress everything like it wound up doing (resulting in an ending that felt very weak). I assume the novels it was based on were better paced. Also watched some movies..HAL and the Garden of Words, offhand.

[Anapan]

Decided to look up another from Studio BONES hoping for some more Darker than Black type action and mystery (but hopefully with some mysteries explained rather than prolonging the plot-holes through a horrible mess of crappy followups).

I'm enjoying the first few episodes of Hitsugi no Chaika a lot. Great battle sequences, steampunk-like magic and technology system, likeable antiheroes with weird social problems, light story driven moral dilemmas without too much pointless drama - all that stuff. Since it came out about the same time as DTB it's exactly what I was looking for. Looks like it won't disappoint.

[J T]

Royal Space Force: Wings of Honneamise is one of my favorite anime movies. I have had a VHS copy for years and just upgraded to DVD, so I watched it again. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it, but know that this is a slower moving movie than your typical anime. It's not an action film, even though there are some scenes of war and space travel. It's more about the character development of the main character, who starts out as kind of a loser, but ends up doing something extraordinary with his life by being the first man into space.

The film was originally released in 1987, so the animation is all traditional hand-drawn stuff. It's really well done and detailed. They also pay a lot of attention to little details. The story takes place in a world very similar to our own, but it is a different planet and timeline. As such, everything looks just a little different and has a foreign vibe to it, which isn't just because it's from Japan. These things would look different to Japanese people as well. There are different technologies, religious iconography, and cultural traditions. I love this aspect of the film as it makes it a truly unique experience.

What I like most about the film though is its generally strange, almost depressing tone. The main character is part of a space program that is considered a joke. The brilliant soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto gives the film a dreamy new age-ish soundtrack that conveys hopefulness and lament. The film never feels uplifting, but it is fascinating and somehow feels important, without being overstated. There's a subtlety to the entire production that gives it an intangible uniqueness that separates Wings of Honneamise from other films, anime or otherwise.

[Fragems]

Just started Death Parade tonight and it is freaking awesome watching the 5th episode right now. Basically the setup is two people who have recently died are sent to a parallel dimension for judgement. The people lose all memories of connected to their death due to the shock of dieing, but during the course of a randomly selected competitive game which is used to judge them they slowly get memories associated with their deaths back. Usually both individuals have a close relationship(friends, married, etc.) however they can also just be people with similar issues. After the game they receive judgement from the arbiter who has access to their past memories, but mostly bases his judgements on the players true nature which is revealed during the course of the game. The game itself doesn't really matter but being unaware they are dead the people are told they can't leave till they finish the game and the arbiter basically alludes that it's a death match to coax out their true character.

Pretty much each episode centers around a different set of the dead with the climax being whether they are reincarnated or get sent to the void. However their is also a main story following the arbiter, his assistant and the other characters who are present in the realm. The arbiter and other inhabitants of the realm are pretty interesting since they aren't perfect beings and really are left to make judgement calls based on their own intuition so there is plenty of room for error and the show has inserted quite a few characters that could easily fall either way based on your opinions.

Overall I wasn't really hooked till the 3rd episode,but now I'm loving it. The first episode was pretty awesome, but the second basically was like a replay of the first episode from the perspective of the arbiter's new apprentice. Episode 2 was basically there to further explain the purpose behind the game as well as the reasoning behind the arbiter's actions which kind of sucked a lot of the punch out of the show. Episode 3 and 4 however got back to the good stuff and were very emotional with a lot of feels. Really can't wait to see where this show goes and I highly recommend. If nothing else watch episode 4 which is awesome and features a arcade fighting game.


You can also watch it legitimately for free at hulu

http://www.hulu.com/search?q=death+parade

[Nemoide]

I think I'll try some Golgo 13!

Golgo 13 has one of the funniest sex scenes I have ever seen. He just lies there looking cool and the girl is reeling in ecstacy. Duke Togo is a super stud of extraordinary magnitude.

MAN IT IS SO RIDICULOUSLY TRUE. I kind of cracked up in the first episode. He's not even just "looking cool" he's GLARING ANGRILY at them! I'm just imagining someone trying to follow his example in real life and go to a bar and angrily stare at women, not saying anything, and hoping they'll just notice his manliness and beg to get a hotel room or something.

The secret to being the absolute best in bed = don't move, don't say anything, just stare... angrily. Because that's how a REAL MAN like Golgo 13 does it.

[J T]

I told you! Didn't I tell you?!

[Soldier Blue]

Akame GA Kill, and Ruroni Kenshin.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Uh, watched Kill la Kill last night at like 12 am.

The stuff airs on American television? Anime airs on American television? I guess I was vaguely aware of that but I don't watch much TV.

Totally bizarre. Why are the characters naked?

The show gave me a few chuckles. If I see a DVD set for like $20 someday I'll pick it up.

At least now I now where TSTR's avatar comes from. Saw the character make that face on screen and I was like "oooooooohhhhhhhhh."

[Xeogred]

JT you should check out Planetes if you haven't seen it. Pretty down to Earth (grounded in reality for the most part) laid back space exploration series. I've always thought it and Royal Space Force were fairly comparable. The main characters in both are pretty realistic people just doing their normal jobs. lol