Anime IV - new SUMMER animu and guff

[andrew_]

Just finished Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood for the first time (yes i know I'm late). Was very good, probably not as good as everyone makes it out to be, but its was still damn good anime.

If I was to recommend an anime it would probably be the one where my display picture comes from, Planetes, simply a great relaxed anime that has some great philosophical, sociological and political themes throughout.

[Procrastimancer]

Finished Bakemonogatari yesterday. I didn't really like the style at first, but it grew on me. I love it now. I am now watching Gokukoku no Bryndhildr, which seems to be worse and worse as the episodes pass by.

I quit during the third episode of Gokukoku no Bryndhildr. It was one of the few that I was excited about last season, but it ended up going in a direction that didn't interest me at all.

[fuseprime]

Just finished Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood for the first time (yes i know I'm late). Was very good, probably not as good as everyone makes it out to be, but its was still damn good anime.

If I was to recommend an anime it would probably be the one where my display picture comes from, Planetes, simply a great relaxed anime that has some great philosophical, sociological and political themes throughout.

I liked Brotherhood better than FMA. Pretty much all of the filler from FMA gets eliminated, and the story gets straight to the point.

It's also one of the few anime where I prefer the English Dub over the original Japanese voice acting.

The scene where Mustang saves Hawkeye from Lust is without a doubt one of the most bad ass scenes ever

[armidil0]

Watched Samurai Flamenco. It was good. Funny throughout, and engaging. The twist on episode 7 was great.

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

Just finished Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood for the first time (yes i know I'm late). Was very good, probably not as good as everyone makes it out to be, but its was still damn good anime.

If I was to recommend an anime it would probably be the one where my display picture comes from, Planetes, simply a great relaxed anime that has some great philosophical, sociological and political themes throughout.

Don't worry. You will find lovers of Planetes on this forum. (Also, I too had not seen Brotherhood since this past year.)

[Fez]

Since watching Attack on Titan worked out, and since Netflix was really pushing it on me with its placement, I started watching Knights of Sidonia (not to be confused with Knights of Cydonia apparently, which is very cool too). Its pretty good, through five episodes at least (although it looks like there's only 12 total right now). I have noticed a lot of similarities with Attack on Titan actually. Some of them are probably just anime tropes that I'm not super familiar with since my viewing extent has been this stuff and Dragonball/Z, Gundam Wing, and Ronin Warriors back in the day. But some of it seems a little too specific, like the whole "giant, inexplicable monsters destroyed earth but haven't been seen in 100 years."

The plot moved way too fast the first two episodes and parts of it made very little sense; it seems like they wanted to get past the initial set-up as quickly as possible. But its settled down since then, and now there's started to be explanations for some of what's been going on. The English dub is pretty good too. I'm fine with subtitles when they're necessary, but I like not having them when possible. And there's not a ton of gratuitous, almost-nudity, but there's definitely more than I was expecting, so there's that.

Anyway, does anyone have some recommendations for other shows, available on Netflix streaming, that are similar to this or Attack on Titan? It doesn't need to be the "giant monsters are back" genre, I just mean very little comedy (which I'm not a fan of, or at least, I wasn't in Dragonball and I'm not whenever I play JRPGs), main characters that are at least in their late teens (even older would be better, but I recognize that's not likely to happen), and absolutely no prepubescent kids in positions of authority (I can't stand that trope). It seems like there's quite a lot of shows available, so I assume at least a few them would match what I'm looking for, but I have zero clue what any of them are.

[fuseprime]

Anyway, does anyone have some recommendations for other shows, available on Netflix streaming, that are similar to this or Attack on Titan? It doesn't need to be the "giant monsters are back" genre, I just mean very little comedy (which I'm not a fan of, or at least, I wasn't in Dragonball and I'm not whenever I play JRPGs), main characters that are at least in their late teens (even older would be better, but I recognize that's not likely to happen), and absolutely no prepubescent kids in positions of authority (I can't stand that trope). It seems like there's quite a lot of shows available, so I assume at least a few them would match what I'm looking for, but I have zero clue what any of them are.

Darker Than Black

Death Note

Elfin Lied

Those are darker style anime which, I think, everyone should watch. They are all shorter series too, so you won't have to invest a lot of time into them. None of those shows have mega-type monsters, and are light on the cheesy humor. Elfin Lied is especially brutal, but good.

If you really enjoy anime, I would consider trying to find a Hulu Plus trial, or perhaps snag someone's password. They have a much more diverse selection of anime on there.

[Pliskin]

Not sure if Elfen Lied is a good recommendation in that case...

Some anime with adult characters that come to my mind:

Ghost in the Shell, Monster, Legend of the galactic heroes, etc.

In the other hand, if you're new in this world and haven't yet watched Fullmetal Alchemist, you should probably start with it.

It's the best experience this medium can offer.

The two main characters are teens, but that shouldn't pose a problem here.

Oh, and there are two series. The first one deviates from the source manga, but is generally considered stronger in the first few common episodes, and even the original ending is considered good. The second series adapts very quickly the beginning of the story (that was already adapted in the first show) to move on to the new stuff (faithful to the manga). Not sure what is the best experience, to start with the first series or the remake.

Some even suggest to watch half the first series and then switch to Brotherhood (the remake) in its 11th or so episode to make a bridge. But whatever.

[Fez]

Alright, cheers. I'll check all those out when I'm done with Knights. When I watch Netflix, I prefer TV shows to movies for whatever reason, and I've now seen pretty much all the live action and western cartoon shows that are available and interest me, so I figured I'd give anime a shot. And since I'm 2 for 2 so far, seems like it would make sense to keep going. I'm not going to get another service though, so its really just what's available on Netflix streaming.

Death Note is available, but the other two aren't.

I've heard of Fullmetal Alchemist, but never seen it. It looks like both the original and Brotherhood are available, and something called The Star of Milos.

There's another show Netflix has been pushing on me, Samurai Champloo, is that worth checking out?

Beyond that, there appear to be 71 other anime shows available. Just browsing through their thumbnail cover art, I'm guessing that at least 3/4ths of them are not going to interest me. But I'm hopeful that some of the others will

[andrew_]

I've heard of Fullmetal Alchemist, but never seen it. It looks like both the original and Brotherhood are available, and something called The Star of Milos.

Watch Brotherhood, it's definitely superior, the english dub is excellent as well

[armidil0]

I feel like I'm in the minority when I say I prefer FMA rather than FMA Brotherhood. But I'm also biased as I ahave not finished brotherhood yet. Watched a good chunk of it and never picked it up again.

Samurai Champloo is really good, Carlos. I recommend it completely. The soundtrack is not what you would expect but it fits with the style of the show.

[Procrastimancer]

Anyway, does anyone have some recommendations for other shows, available on Netflix streaming, that are similar to this or Attack on Titan? It doesn't need to be the "giant monsters are back" genre, I just mean very little comedy (which I'm not a fan of, or at least, I wasn't in Dragonball and I'm not whenever I play JRPGs), main characters that are at least in their late teens (even older would be better, but I recognize that's not likely to happen), and absolutely no prepubescent kids in positions of authority (I can't stand that trope).

Netflix doesn't have the best selection to choose from, though they've gotten a little better in the last few months. Fate/Zero might be what you're looking for. You might also try Madoka Magica, but you'll have to stick with it for a few episodes.

[Pliskin]

I'm not sure he would stick with the "cute adorable little girls doing serious things and saving the world" trope...

[andrew_]

"cute adorable little girls doing serious things and saving the world" trope...

This is my main problem with anime, the majority of shows give the audience no respect and think everyone just wants to watch gratuitous up-skirt shots of teenage girls in school uniform saving the world, its actually makes me sick. It's the main reason I don't watch a lot of anime, I see the posters/advertisements and instantly know to not even bother.

[Pliskin]

This is my main problem with anime, the majority of shows give the audience no respect and think everyone just wants to watch gratuitous up-skirt shots of teenage girls in school uniform saving the world, its actually makes me sick. It's the main reason I don't watch a lot of anime, I see the posters/advertisements and instantly know to not even bother.

Same here, but I have to give Madoka some credit though: it's supposed to be a deconstruction of this trope.

But deconstruction or not, the trope is still there. And it might turn off a lot of people.

[Procrastimancer]

Same here, but I have to give Madoka some credit though: it's supposed to be a deconstruction of this trope.

But deconstruction or not, the trope is still there. And it might turn off a lot of people.

Yeah, it turned me off of it. I sat through the series, but I'm not at all fond of it. It is something that I recommend because a ton of other people love it. I recommend it here because it is humorless and dark and should scratch that itch if you can deal with the magical girl protagonists.

[Galactus]

Since watching Attack on Titan worked out, and since Netflix was really pushing it on me with its placement, I started watching Knights of Sidonia (not to be confused with Knights of Cydonia apparently, which is very cool too). Its pretty good, through five episodes at least (although it looks like there's only 12 total right now). I have noticed a lot of similarities with Attack on Titan actually. Some of them are probably just anime tropes that I'm not super familiar with since my viewing extent has been this stuff and Dragonball/Z, Gundam Wing, and Ronin Warriors back in the day. But some of it seems a little too specific, like the whole "giant, inexplicable monsters destroyed earth but haven't been seen in 100 years."

The plot moved way too fast the first two episodes and parts of it made very little sense; it seems like they wanted to get past the initial set-up as quickly as possible. But its settled down since then, and now there's started to be explanations for some of what's been going on. The English dub is pretty good too. I'm fine with subtitles when they're necessary, but I like not having them when possible. And there's not a ton of gratuitous, almost-nudity, but there's definitely more than I was expecting, so there's that.

Anyway, does anyone have some recommendations for other shows, available on Netflix streaming, that are similar to this or Attack on Titan? It doesn't need to be the "giant monsters are back" genre, I just mean very little comedy (which I'm not a fan of, or at least, I wasn't in Dragonball and I'm not whenever I play JRPGs), main characters that are at least in their late teens (even older would be better, but I recognize that's not likely to happen), and absolutely no prepubescent kids in positions of authority (I can't stand that trope). It seems like there's quite a lot of shows available, so I assume at least a few them would match what I'm looking for, but I have zero clue what any of them are.

Hmmm, Gundam shows tends to have teenage protagonists as pilots, but there's usually older people being in the actual positions of authority. The older, UC stuff is generally better.

Not sure what Netflix has got, honestly, so I'll stick to my usual recommendations:

Planetes: It's about people picking up garbage in space. There's a political plot, a romance, some comedy (which you didn't like) but it all meshes together into something quite unique and quite fantastic. It's about space and the dream of space and romanticization meets humdrum reality. It's hard to describe but fantastic. Still, might have too much comedy for your taste, and it's not an action show.

Infinite Ryvius: A bunch of teenagers (as in, a school's worth) get stuck on an alien warship due to a terrorist attack. The rest of the world believes the terrorists took control of the ship, so they have to figure stuff out on their own. It goes about as well as expected when you put a high school (complete with cliques, etc.) in charge of a warship capable of blowing up a moon. Think "Lord of the Flies" (although slightly older) IN SPAAACEEE!

RahXephon: Your standard "boy falls into cockpit of super robot" thing, it's not quite as unhinged as Evangelion, but it's still not exactly happy go lucky robot fighter. (the japanese VA mentioned that one of his troubles with the lead role was that a lot of his dialogue was inarticulate screams :p) What makes the show stand out though is the plotting. (the director described it as a "chinese box" structure, there's plenty of instances of people holding conversations that (given what you know) makes perfect sense and doesen't seem mysterious at all but then takes on an entirely different light as new information is revealed, etc. It's all very well done.

Revolutionary Girl Utena (TV-series): There's... Really no good way to describe Utena. It's a fairy tale nested in a psychedelic high school drama nested in a feminist critique, nested inside a magical girl show nested inside a "OH WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THE TOASTER!?" It's about a girl who was rescued by a prince, and she so admired the prince that she decided to become one. There's a car. And a cowbell. And some really creepy interactions and... Yeah, there's really no description that can do Utena justice. It is fantastic though. The thing is that half of it is Serious Critique and Deeply Embedded Symbolism, and the other half is the director putting shit in just to troll people. (I'm fairly certain the episode full of toasters is just there for shits and giggles)

Princess Tutu: This is a more "classical" magical girl series: It's about a duck turned into a girl to fight a raven for the heart of a prince. Through ballet. And despite this, is fairly dark. It doesen't have Utena's deconstruction of feminine archetypes thing, but it does have a lot of fairytale elements, and of course cribs the best of western music history for it's soundtrack.

Gundam Stuff: Gundam is a Thing (as you probably know) someone claimed it's sorta the equivalent of Star Trek in Japanese culture, and there's a ton of series. Most of which share certain elements, but they vary widely in quality. *generally* I'd say the UC stuff is more interesting than the others (the UC, or Universal Century being the "main universe", with a bunch of shows that at least theoretically follow each other) but you might get more out of just watching your regular stuff. I'd especially recommend 08th MS Team: It's about a bunch of grunts being stationed in the arse-end of nowhere rather than teenage super-telepaths in prototype suits.

Samurai Champloo, is that worth checking out?

Samurai Champloo has a lot of comedy stuff, references, etc. It's not a bad show (although I found it kind of underwhelming as a whole) that doesen't mean it can't get dark, but it's got that particular mix of funny and serious that's kind of the director's signature.

[Galactus]

Summer cour is ending. My thoughts:

Ao Haru Ride was a decent shoujo romance with some decently likeable characters.

Argevollen was surprisingly decent. Neither the plot or characters is anyhting you haven't seen, but it's executed decently, and they at least nod a bi towards some greater realism. (noting that while a Super Prototyp might b nice to have, its not a war-winning weapon until it can be mass produced) It's vaguely "grunt level" war story was decent. Nothing special but it surpassed my expectations.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun clearly wins "show of the season" for me. It's absolutely hilarious, with a great intro tune, a great sense of comedy, and amazing characters. It's highly referential kind of humour, but it's genuinely one of the better comedy shows I've seen. (Seo s amazing)

Barakamon was a fun Slice of Life show. Nothing amazing, but the kids are adorable.

Seirei Tsukai no Blade dance has the distinction of being one of the most incompetent shows Ive ever seen. Not only is it the lowest kind of harem-show, but it completely fails in excution on every level. It's amazing. It's like someone looked at the genre, and then completely failed to understand what makes that kind of show work. Which is amazing. I don't think I've ever seen a show set so low a bar and then fail s completely.

Sabagebu was... Hit and miss. It had some fun gags. (mostly the MC being sociopathic) and a lot that fell flat.

Captain Earth: Not quite as good as Star Driver, but it has it's moments. Lots of fun characters and it was competently executed overall, although the ending was terribly rushed.

[Fez]

I've finally gotten around to watching another series. I ended up picking Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. It took some getting used to, and i'm still not very far in at all, but its pretty good. The in media res of the first episode was so severe that I thought I had put on a later episode by accident, or that I misunderstood the relationship between this and the 2003 series; but by the end of episode two this was cleared up. The animation style, specifically the way the characters all become very "kid-like"/unrealistic looking at some points, took some getting used to; and I definitely wish they picked a different title for the head military guy than Fuhrer.

On the plus side, even though the two main characters are teens, the one doesn't really act like it and the other is a giant suit of armor, so that trope isn't bugging me. And even though a lot of the other characters seem a little young, so far I've only seen one actual example of someone in a job that they are clearly way too young to have, so that's good. There's a little more comedy than I'd like (I love comedy, but I rarely find anime comedy funny), but it helps undercut the rest of the show from being too self-serious, so it basically works. The dubbing is mostly alright, although some of the info dumps are seriously unnatural run-on sentences.

[armidil0]

The Fuhrer thing is because it kind of takes place in a weird pseudo alternate history version of germany where magic exists (if I'm remembering right). And the first few episodes are weird. But I got through it easily because I watched the original series. If you haven't done that then I can see it being a bit difficult to understand whats going on.