chrisc31

I would just say Angel Beats or Clannad but thats just me. A lot of people could say Madoka Magica but for some reason I just realized I have no idea what it is about, I never gave it any thought before. Something turned me off about checking it out, maybe becouse Aniplex of America releases animes that are over-priced with sub-only. I am going to check it out now since the dvd has a dub.

Edit: I cut my simulcast watching way down since Toradora, Oreimo, Familiar of Zero F, & Fate/Zero got sub only releases. The only simulcasts I can think of that I watched in a while is Blessing of the Campanella, High School DXD and So, I Can't Play H!
I have to rewatch Aria the Scarlet Ammo to see if I am going to buy it. and Fate/Zero I stoped watching when I found out how it was being released.

Some animes I don't watch online and just wait for the dvd like Last Exile: Fam, Shakugan no Shana season 3

TheBigDave

The first ones that come to mind are anohana and Madoka Magica.

milo bloom

Finally watched Secret World of Arrietty over the weekend. We watched the dub since we had our 5 yo watching with us and Will Arnett sounded like Gob Bluth trying to be serious all the time.

Otherwise a cute movie, though I guess I would have preferred a happier ending where they

I keep wanting to call them "Littles" since I grew up with that cartoon.

PhantomStranger

Death Note- I'm amazed a Hollywood studio hasn't tried adapting this series into a movie or mini-series yet. It's got all the elements to be a monster hit with the right cast. On the other end of the spectrum, you have to watch Clannad.

Ash Ketchum

I finally watched all of FLCL for this month's Animation Challenge over on the DVD Talk board. (Why aren't more of you participating?)

I like serious (i.e. dead serious, non-comic) head-trip anime like LAIN, EVANGELION, and BOOGIEPOP PHANTOM. But when you make it whimsical, like FLCL, I lose all interest immediately. If I want comedic sci-fi anime, I've got dozens of URUSEI YATSURA episodes to keep me happy. When someone comes along who's as genuinely witty as Rumiko Takahashi, let me know.

RichC2

Death Note has already been picked up for a US adaptation, they're running into a few road blocks though.

Thanks for the recommendations! Will check some of these out, haven't heard of any of them outside of Death Note.

^Headtrip anime is one of my favorite genres, with Boogiepop and Lain being near the top of my list.

TheBigDave

If you like headtrip stuff, you have to check out Humanity Has Declined (Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita). That's some wacky, demented, what-the-hell shit. I have no idea where it's going, but it's a lot of fun to watch.

TheBigDave

Here's the chart for the Fall 2012 season:

http://i.minus.com/i9VnqrnACrdCE.jpg

Super X

I'm currently about a half-dozen episodes into Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. While I'm a big fan of alternate timeline series like Gundam Wing, I still prefer the Universal Century stories, particularly the ones featuring Amuro and Char.

big e

I watched Appleseed (2004) last night and did not care for it. I didn’t think the CGI looked very good, (there were a few scenes where the background and characters didn’t match very well), I thought the main girl came off as your run-of-the-mill generic loaner soldier character, and Hitomi and the main girl’s boyfriend/partner both came off as flat, emotionless characters. I don’t know if this was because they were both bioroids (or whatever the hell they were called) or if it was just bad acting on the VAs part. The other bioroid characters didn’t come off like this.



As for the ending, I would have liked to have seen the characters achieve victory for themselves instead of having the sappy, deus ex machina ending we ended up with.

TheBigDave

Here's my impressions midway through the Summer 2012 season.

Sword Art Online - So far, the best show of the season. This is the one show I can't wait to watch each week.

Tari Tari - I like this show. It's extremely well done. If you enjoy the High School/Slice-Of-Life shows, you'll like this.

Kokoro Connect - One of my favorites this season. Does a good job keeping things fresh and interesting.

Humanity Has Declined (Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita) - Awesome show. They're doing some really fun trippy stuff. It probably won't appeal to everyone. But I'm loving it.

Arcana Famiglia - I'm enjoying this more than I expected. I'm not sure why. But so far, it's pretty good.

Yuru Yuri - This season is just as good as the first one. Episode 5 (Lazy Japanese Summer) is probably the funniest episode of the whole series.

Nakaimo: My Sister is Among Them! - As far as sis-con/harem shows go, it's pretty average.

Natsuyuki Rendezvous - I'm gonna wait until it ends and watch the full season.

Campione! - Still a convoluted mess. I only watch it when I've seen everything else.

Dog Days - Dropped after 3 episodes. I appreciate moe shows, but this was a little too cutesy. And the story didn't seem interesting.

Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate - I'm not totally crazy about it so far. But I'm hoping it'll get more interesting, so I'll keep watching.

Oda Nobuna - Watched 1-2 episodes. Had a hard time getting into it. I might give it another chance.

So, I Can't Play H! - Another show I'm not crazy about. Usually I don't care about censoring. But there's tons of nudity during the fights. So the huge oversized black bars are blocking all the action. This show just seems like an excuse for nudity, and watching the censored version is pointless.

Ash Ketchum

Just looking at the artwork in the links you provided, BigDave--and I appreciate your doing so--I'm struck by how much alike these shows look in terms of design, the one exception being NATSUYUKI RENDEZVOUS, which seems to be alone among these shows in featuring adult characters. I suppose I should sample a few scenes from each before making such a sweeping assessment, but am I remiss somehow for wanting a little more stylistic diversity in contemporary anime?

Once upon a time, there were similar numbers of anime shows on at the same time that didn't all look alike (e.g. 1995-99: Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, Rurouni Kenshin, Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040, Tenchi Universe, Serial Experiments Lain, Gundam Wing, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Initial D, Pokemon, Digimon, etc.)

TheBigDave

Perhaps the main reason is that I only listed shows that appeal to me. So most of them are high school/slice-of-life/moe/harem/comedy shows. And those all look alike.

There's the other shows from the current season.

Space Brothers - Looks good. I'm gonna wait and watch the full series.

Moyashimon Returns - Comedy show that looks good. I have to watch season 1 first.

Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse - Sci-fi mecha action. Not interested.

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere - Season 2 of a fantasy/action show.

Hakuoki Reimeiroku - The 3rd season of something that doesn't appeal to me.

Utakoi - Historical romance.

Binbogami ga! - I might give this a shot when FUNi's Roku channel comes out.

Kingdom - Chinese historical drama. Not my thing.

Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero - I might give this a shot when FUNi's Roku channel comes out.

Rinne no Lagrange - Season 2 of a sci-fi mecha show. Maybe if I'd seen season 1.

Kuroko's Basketball - Sports show. Not interested.

Polar Bear's Cafe - Looking forward to watching this. Just haven't had a chance.

If you're looking for something that stands out artistically from the others, check out Humanity Has Declined. It's totally different from any anime I've ever seen.

Ash Ketchum

Ah, that's better. Of this batch, I'm interested in checking out the following:

Hakuoki Reimeroku
Utakoi
Kingdom
Rinne no Lagrange

...esp. the first two.

Thank you for alerting me to them and providing the links.

TheBigDave

Viz Media's upcoming streaming service Neon Alley will be airing the English Dub version later this fall. They just announced the cast.

http://www.fandompost.com/2012/08/14...ast-announced/

TheBigDave

Just finished Natsuiro Kiseki (A Summer-Colored Miracle) and I really enjoyed it. It's another high school/slice-of-life/comedy, but the supernatural aspect gives it a nice twist. I'm surprised it hasn't been picked-up yet for a US release.

PhantomStranger

I was a little disappointed by Ef: A Tale Of Melodies. I simply liked the main characters in Ef: A Tale of Memories better and that series had tighter plotting and pacing. Yuko's backstory had a number of poor twists to it that I was not happy with.

dugan

Just marathoned all 7 available episodes of Sword Art Online. I like it. The episodic structure (every episode is a short story) reminds me of the Elric stories.

That reminds me: when I filled out Funimation's survey and got asked which book/movie/videogame I would like to see as an anime, I really should have said Stormbringer.

milo bloom

Tried the first 2.5 eps of Chobits on Netflix last night. I gave up when they trotted out the "accidentally got a job in the pub with the funny jackets" trope. But, even before then, I was expecting something slightly more serious dealing with the issues of human like AI's walking around, and having to teach one how to do everything.

Is this worth finishing out?

chrisc31

About half way though the series it starts getting serious. You didn't even see the dumb episodes yet and you gave up.

I like Chobits but everyone likes diffrent animes, like I don't care for Madoka Magica.

milo bloom

Thanks, I think I'll just move on.

I was going to watch Clannad next, but Netflix took it off and only has the Afterstory!

So I watched some Shin Chan instead.

milo bloom

Tried Girls Bravo on Netflix. Watched the first ep, and thought I'd try the second episode, but the "show me more of this incredible Earth-bread!" made me turn it off.

I watched This is Spinal Tap for the first time ever instead.

Am I done with anime? I watched Nausicaa for the first time a few months ago and that was fantastic so I don't think so. Is it the dubs on Netflix?

TheBigDave

I didn't like Girls Bravo either. I'm a fan of those comedy/harem shows, but it just wasn't very good.

For a long time, I preferred dubs because it was easier to watch. And since so many anime characters had western features, it just seemed more natural to me.

But for the past 1-2 years, I've been watching almost exclusively subtitled shows. And it's reinvigorated my love for anime. The Japanese language tracks are almost always better. And I've grown to love many of the familiar phrases.

Also, a lot of the shows on Netflix are 10 years old. I'm not saying they aren't good. But you might want to try some newer shows.

Try some of the stuff on Crunchyroll. They have currently airing series. I highly recommend anohana, it's one of the best recent shows.

Here's a free 48-hour premium pass.

http://www.crunchyroll.com/guest_pass?code=3WE45RPYU3V

TheBigDave

I'm five episodes into Kuroko's Basketball and I'm really surprised at how good it is. I'm not a fan of sports anime. So the show wasn't on my radar. But the raving reviews kept grabbing my attention. I'm glad I finally checked it out. It's an extremely enjoyable show.

Koby

Started Sword Art Online and got caught up in one night and it left me wanting more, so I decided to check out Accel World since it's written by the same mangaka and is somewhat similar since both deal with virtual reality and being in a game. Got caught up with it too in only a couple days. Both are really interesting. I just wished Sword Art Online didn't skip around so much. Heck, like 2 years past between episode one and episode 2, and every episode just about it seems they've jumped another 10 levels or so in the tower. There is only 100 levels to go through and here it is episode 8 and they're already near level 70. It'd be better in my opinion if they went more in detail about how things work and what happened during the gaps.

Accel World on the other hand, has better pacing in my opinion, but I can't help but feel they aren't going to be able to finish the story in like only 3 more episodes. After all, it's still building up and they have to take care of this current villain which is completely despicable. So hoping another season will be announced rather than leaving us hanging for ever. I dislike it when a series just ends and never gets picked back up, makes it seem like just some big troll fest intended to get us to read the manga and to be honest manga isn't really enjoyable to me.