Anime

[Meh]

Best OP/ED evah.

[Jack]

Gundam 00 - 23

I fear that Lockon may actually be dead. I know the rule, but I reckon it'll be that he's either dead or "they can't find the body and therefore are assuming that he's dead". It was an awesome episode with so much happening. So, GN Arms is dead and buried already! Lockon is dead or missing; Ali's Throne is proper FUBAR and loads of the false solar furnaces are also destroyed. I'll be really annoyed if Lockon is done for the series, it'll be worse than losing Mwu because at least he 'died' right at the end!

I do think Lockon should stay dead, but they've set it up so perfectly for him to come back and have a 'HE IS A CHAR' moment

[Preacher]

I don't think Lockon or Ali are really dead. The rule in Gundam is 'Unless you actually see them die, they're not dead'. Fantastic episode though. Darryl goes out in a massive cloud of pure GAR, Ali keeps stirring shit up and apparently pays for it, Patrick gets it right in the face, and Lockon does a fucking wonderful Spike Spiegel/SEE YOU, SPACE COWBOY right before the end.

You had better be fucking right about that. Jesus,

he'd only just recovered as well!

Agreed though, great episode.

[Chopsocky]

(Mr.Jeff @ Mar 11 2008, 01:47 PM) *

Random question but what was the series or movie that got everyone into anime? Bit interested to see what made everyone else start.

Hmmm

I started on stuff the Sci-fi channel used to run like Vampire Hunter D, Gigantor, Lensman, Cashan, Project A-ko, Eight Man After, Street Fighter, Akira (this was friggin scary when I first saw it) and sometimes they used to show movies like Galaxy Express 999. Then Cartoon Network started showing G-Force (battle of the planets over here) Voltron and Pirates of Dark Water (not really anime). Been into Anime and Manga since.

Been buying an awful lot recently but haven't been watching them.

[Dandy_Sephy]

Best OP/ED evah.

A lack of context makes me ask the question if you are referring to Urusei yatsura?

[Mr.Jeff]

Gonzo are going to be showing streams of their latest spring anime with subs simultaneously while airing in Japan. Then anyone that wants a high res version of said episode then pays fee to recieve it.

Thoughts?

[Dandy_Sephy]

Bah you beat me to it.

This is very big news even when you take into account Gonzo's highly varied track record. Coming a week or two after ADV's blaming fansubs for their own cockups in the uk (heres some news ADV - if you start to only release shows no one has heard of, they wont sell!) and only days after a higher up at Kadokawa said that companys need to embrace Youtube and co to increase awareness and not go on mad copyright fueled rants and takedowns. At the end of the day it's going to depend on the quality of the show and the quality of subs but in theory it can only be good for us. Maybe not so good for the licensing companies though.

personally youtube quality video isn't enough to watch on a decent sized screen (either ripped into a "real" video format or simply viewed fullscreen on youtube), but I could easily watch youtube sized video on my iPhone. Hopefully Druaga and its subs will be of decent quality.

[imp]

If the quality is as good as bbc iPlayer, then I'm cool with it.

[Jimmyzilla]

Gundam 00 - 23

I fear that Lockon may actually be dead. I know the rule, but I reckon it'll be that he's either dead or "they can't find the body and therefore are assuming that he's dead". It was an awesome episode with so much happening. So, GN Arms is dead and buried already! Lockon is dead or missing; Ali's Throne is proper FUBAR and loads of the false solar furnaces are also destroyed. I'll be really annoyed if Lockon is done for the series, it'll be worse than losing Mwu because at least he 'died' right at the end!

Ahh I've caught up with the Bleach and Gundam 00 that i've missed while I was on holiday now...

Didn't Exia's combat container have a GN Armour attached as well?

And what happened to Nena and her Trinity? Did Setsuna just leave her?.

Bleach

I get the feeling that I just want them to get it over and done with already, it's kinda cool watching them fight but having them be too weak all the time gets boring, especially when they die and are just healed up as well...they can't just keep having secret strategies all the time!

[Jack]

Ahh I've caught up with the Bleach and Gundam 00 that i've missed while I was on holiday now...

Didn't Exia's combat container have a GN Armour attached as well?

And what happened to Nena and her Trinity? Did Setsuna just leave her?.

Exia does still have the associated GN Armour. Nena did a runner with her Throne, she'll probably get in touch with Wang Liu Mei to get it fixed up.

[Ryan]

Bleach

I get the feeling that I just want them to get it over and done with already, it's kinda cool watching them fight but having them be too weak all the time gets boring, especially when they die and are just healed up as well...they can't just keep having secret strategies all the time!

Manga's the same, it's just a joke.

[Djx]

Again with the Bleach complaints?

Since all of us are watching and reading it for free, You can't really complain. Actually you can't complain, full stop.

Shonen manga = drawn-out story. Keeps the sales of Weekly Shonen Jump going. Deal with it.

[Jimmyzilla]

Again with the Bleach complaints?

Since all of us are watching and reading it for free, You can't really complain. Actually you can't complain, full stop.

Shonen manga = drawn-out story. Keeps the sales of Weekly Shonen Jump going. Deal with it.

...uhh that's a joke right?

Surely a better story would keep the sales of Shonen Jump higher?

Just because it's coming out chapter by chapter doesn't mean they've got to make it a bad story arc...

[Djx]

Nope. The more popular a shonen manga is, the longer it'll run for.

Following the plot of most shonen manga on a weekly basis can be excruciating because of the drawn-out cliffhangers.

Most, if not all, manga stories take a long time to get their conclusion.

The arcs of most mangas always read better in collected volumes.

Anyway, Amazon.co.uk are having an Anime Boxsets sale.

Complete collections of Chrono Crusade, Azumanga Daioh, Excel Saga, Last Exile and others are retailing for about £25 each.

No doubt someone has already posted this info 2 pages ago in this very thread or the Bargains folder but it's worth repeating.

[Jimmyzilla]

They could rewrite it for the anime then, having it in seasons instead of inserting filler all the time when they have to catch up...

[JohnC]

Anyway, Amazon.co.uk are having an Anime Boxsets sale.

Complete collections of Chrono Crusade, Azumanga Daioh, Excel Saga, Last Exile and others are retailing for about £25 each.

No doubt someone has already posted this info 2 pages ago in this very thread or the Bargains folder but it's worth repeating.

Do they have a page listing what on offer? I can't seem to find one.

[imp]

Again with the Bleach complaints?

Since all of us are watching and reading it for free, You can't really complain. Actually you can't complain, full stop.

Shonen manga = drawn-out story. Keeps the sales of Weekly Shonen Jump going. Deal with it.

Some do it far better than others though.

Also I don't think anyone would be complaining about the current arc if there hadn't been a time in which they did enjoy it. I don't think Tite Kubo has really been up to scratch of late, and that's very unlikely to transfer well into the anime.

The last Bleach episode was really weird with the flashbacks - the characters used to look pretty cool, even a little bit edgey - now they're all drawn so blandly.

[Chow]

Time to watch Gurren Lagann again. It has been far too long since I've seen an episode!

[Dandy_Sephy]

Nope. The more popular a shonen manga is, the longer it'll run for.

Following the plot of most shonen manga on a weekly basis can be excruciating because of the drawn-out cliffhangers.

Most, if not all, manga stories take a long time to get their conclusion.

The arcs of most mangas always read better in collected volumes.

It's for similar reasons that most of my anime watching is now done on a arc by arc basis. The only show Im watching weekly is Shippuden, and thats more out of habit now as after I watched the series opener it was hard not too. I simply can't put up with cliffhangers anymore. Far better to watch in nice big chunks. I caught up on the Arrancar arc of bleach recently, now I'm waiting for the current arc to finish before watching that.

They could rewrite it for the anime then, having it in seasons instead of inserting filler all the time when they have to catch up...

It doesn't always work when you do that, especially as arcs in shows like Bleach can have pretty random episode counts. It's better to keep something like Bleach going. Although Rurouni Kenshin hemorrhaged viewers when it switched to filler, Bleach and Naruto both kept viewing figures high. In Bleach's case it helped that the Bount arc was actually well done!* very few shows can sucessfully pull off 50+ episode filler arcs, never mind ones that are one continuous story and not twenty storys(like naruto was).

*Don't anyone give me the "it was shit because its filler" rubbish, thats a pretty lame claim.

[Cocky]

Blade of the immortal anime coming this Summer.

[Sketch]

I've just watched Afro Samurai and think it's one of the worst things I've ever seen, is a piss poor example of anime, and encapsulates everything which I despise about East/West crossovers and the "mainstreaming" of what was once a niche and cool pastime.

Is there a dedicated RLLMUK topic where I can rant about this, or should i start one?

How or why the press is giving it so much fanfare is beyond me. Poor acting, crappy stilted dialogue, atrocious accents, the worst performance by Jackson I've heard, and choppy wooden animation that makes the 1980s version of The Guyver seem like liquid silk poured onto film. How this cost over a million dollars per episode I do not know.

The animation quality is some of the worst I have EVER seen, with the characters looking like they've got 3 frames of animation and have been pasted over static backgrounds like cardboard cutouts. Seriously, cheap American cartoons from the 1980s are animated better than this. It's laughably bad, with the same jerky movements for Afro's bandanna making him look like some kind of invalid having a spastic fit and jittering around.

Prior to this I watched Paprika, which has perhaps some of the finest animation I've seen in anime, bursting with detail, and oozing charm and quality.

The plot is incomprehensible, and ridiculous. I could see the plot twists a mile off. Ninja Ninja? No one else sees him, I bet he's a figment of Afro's imagination. That woman? I bet she's the same woman from his childhood. I bet the teddy bear guy is also from his childhood. And so on, and so forth. Who was this scripted by? Monkeys? Bleurgh!

Also, the music by RZA has no... oomph to it and, is a bloody awful example of hip-hop. Jet Set Radio and JSR Future had great hip-hop. Afro Samurai has garbage for a soundtrack. I don't know who RZA is, and frankly I'm not bothered now that I've heard his work. Furthermore, none of the music is in any way suited to what's on screen.

Jesus, this could be not only the worst anime I've forced myself to sit through, but it's also the worst £1.50 I've ever spent on a rental. I want my money back, GONZO!

[Dandy_Sephy]

Thats Gonzo for you (a few gems like Full metal Panic aside).

[Sketch]

Wait, you mean they're known for being shit?

is it just me, or does everyone else realise Afro Samurai is rubbish? NEO magazine praised it like the second coming, and praising the quality of it.

Had the media been lying to me again?

[imp]

Wait, you mean they're known for being shit?

is it just me, or does everyone else realise Afro Samurai is rubbish? NEO magazine praised it like the second coming, and praising the quality of it.

Had the media been lying to me again?

I watched the first episode a while ago and thought it was utter wank - it really doesn't betray its roots as a doujin. I've moaned about it here or in the dedicated thread - but it's like it was written by a thirteen year old who'd just been introduced to Dragon Ball.

EDIT: Samurai Champloo has great hip hop! Mostly instrumental stuff - but it's pretty good if you like J Dilla / Madlib / Flying Lotus / MF Doom's Herbs and Spices and all that jazz.

[Meh]

Wait, you mean they're known for being shit?

is it just me, or does everyone else realise Afro Samurai is rubbish? NEO magazine praised it like the second coming, and praising the quality of it.

Had the media been lying to me again?

Gonzo generally produce some lovely imagery, but they can rarely string a plot together worth shit.

See: Hellsing. Oh christ.

On a different note, they produced the rather good Last Exile, which is well worth a shot. It sometimes threatens to fall off the tracks plot-wise, but it keeps things together.

Oh, and NEO is absolute wank on a page.

I watched the first episode a while ago and thought it was utter wank - it really doesn't betray its roots as a doujin. I've moaned about it here or in the dedicated thread - but it's like it was written by a thirteen year old who'd just been introduced to Dragon Ball.

EDIT: Samurai Champloo has great hip hop! Mostly instrumental stuff - but it's pretty good if you like J Dilla / Madlib / Flying Lotus / MF Doom's Herbs and Spices and all that jazz.

Samurai Champloo

[Dandy_Sephy]

Oh, and NEO is absolute wank on a page.

A certain J Clements contributes, so it's barely useful even as toilet paper for that reason alone

[Meh]

I quite like his stuff, actually.

[Jack]

Gundam 00 24:

Holy shit. Alejandro's golden monstrosity has seven GN Drives. Oh, and some other people died too.

SEVEN?!

[Dandy_Sephy]

I quite like his stuff, actually.

:)

[Chow]

Gundam 00 24:

Holy shit. Alejandro's golden monstrosity has seven GN Drives. Oh, and some other people died too.

SEVEN?!

F**k me... Where are they going to go from here!? It was a Gundam massacre!

But yes... SEVEN!?