774 replies to this topic

[TK8305]

I find there's too much old stuff in life that I've been wanting to see and am backed up on, to actually keep up with new things very consistently. So I'll just list some stuff I have watched that stood out, and the one thing I'm currently watching/rewatching. I'll also list some manga because I've read at least as much as I've watched.

 

Blue text for definite favorites,

Green text for aspiring favorites.

 

--- Anime
Sailor Moon (the original one; going to try Crystal later. Currently watching, definitely going to finish it; right now I'm in the middle of SuperS. I've liked basically the whole show, though I'd say season 1 was the best (especially episodes 23-24, 26, 31, 34-35, and 44), with early SuperS being the least good so far (most of the Amazon Trio episodes were kinda bleh, but I really liked the last two of that arc. I absolutely love this show, though; when it's at it's best, it's one of my favorite things I've ever watched in any genre or medium. As far as an adaptation, it lacks some cool ideas from the manga, and it runs a little long in some places, but it develops a lot of the characters so well and to such good effect that I don't mind at all. I like it so much, I started writing fanfic and drawing fanart and have a playlist full of the music... uh-oh. Also, my favorite characters are Naru, Umino, Nephrite, Zoisite, and Professor Tomoe, although there's a lot of other good ones)

 

Love Hina (All, including the specials and Love Hina Again. But the whole thing was a really sucky adaptation that compares poorly to the manga; I really recommend the manga over this any day, for better character development, better art, less weird dead-end arcs, and a way more satisfying ending. But at least the music was good? In fact, I still listen to music from this today, like 'Egao no Mirai e', 'Ramune Iro no Natsu', and 'Smile Smile').

 

Mahou Sensei Negima (Only a few episodes of the first version, it seemed kinda like another bleh adaptation, where again the most interesting part is the music.)

 

Negima?! (Only one episode, planning to try it again sometime. This one, on the other hand, seemed intriguing, with more of a new takeoff on the story and somewhat better art than the first show.)

 

Gargantia on the Verduruous Planet (All 13. Really really good. I can barely say anything that isn't a spoiler, but basically, it has good plot twists and interesting philosophical points, and I agree with some of what it's ultimately saying about 'being human'. This is also the newest anime I've watched.)

 

Project A-Ko (only 1 and 2 so far, planning to watch the other 4 OVAs sometime; amusing and goofy, really short but really lively with it's time, feels like a time warp to the 80s in a mostly good way. Something very 'breezy' about it, if that makes any sense.)

 

Tenchi Muyo OVA (only the first 14 episodes so far. I want to rewatch it, and then maybe try 'OVA 3', because my memories are old and foggy by now, but I know I liked it when I saw it...)

 

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (currently watching, halfway through season 1 of a dubbed copy. Really good fairly-hard-science intrigue/action/detective fiction with cute mechas, deep philosophy, disturbing moments, and just a lot of fascinating ideas in almost every episode. Pretty heavy material, but really cool.)

 

Azumanga Daioh (I've only seen a couple episodes, but it seemed like a super faithful adaptation of the manga... which means it's pretty great! Gotta see the rest sometime.)

 

--- Manga

A.I. Love You (All of it. Interesting concepts, cool whiplash of humor and dark dramatic bits, wish it was longer and less episodic, and the artwork doesn't really get good until volume 6, though I really like volume 7 and 8's art. It's sort of a weird favorite of mine, where I have to preface my favoritism with all the little things that are wrong with it, yet I like it a lot anyway? Mostly for Saati's character development, although I like Hitoshi, especially the bit where he jumps in the river after the disks.)

 

Love Hina (All of it. Pretty good, insofar as it's got some funny humor, cute character drama, and I would say it's got some of the most attractive-looking artwork I've seen. Cool hairstyles, too. It makes me want to write a polyamorous Keitarou/Naru/Mutsumi fixfic, though)

 

Mahou Sensei Negima (up to volume 22 or so; I want to reread the whole thing and finish it because I'm confused about a lot of it now. This one was big and complicated and confusing, but I know I liked some of it. Setsuna, Nodoka, and Chisame were cool.)

 

Ground Defense Force Mao-Chan (the first couple volumes. Cute, but kinda goofy and fluffy without much of a sense of really going anywhere? And something feels awkward about it, but I dunno, it's alright)

 

Mahoromatic (it was amazing and I wish it were longer and I wish it had a prequel series about the war and maybe a sequel series and frankly I'd also read a story just about the Matthew/Arcadia thing, and wow this one is just really dramatically intriguing, saying a lot with a little, and whiplashing awesomely between darkness and cheerful humor all the time. It's one of my favorites. Also, the artwork looks really, really cute most of the time, except for when it's got crazy gonk going on, but honestly at least it's also pretty good at the creepy gonk stuff. But I have a hard time believing adult Suguru's way-less-cute appearance, unless he had a ton of growth stimulants and/or cybernetics, which... he easily might've)

Azumanga Daioh (very cute and always cheerful. Makes you feel better when I'm depressed. I would consider it a classic.)

 

Yotsuba&! (up through volume 7. Lots of fun, very comparable to Azumanga Daioh, but with more of a weird-stuff-kids-think-of bent. Fairly innocent, too.)

 

Sailor Moon (only the Dark Kingdom arc so far, going to read the rest of it. I'm pretty sure I like the anime better because this version is a lot more short and brutal, lacking a lot of the side-character development and redemption arcs I really loved in the anime...  but I still want to check this one out more because there's some cool stuff, and it's the original story. It also complements the anime by including ideas the anime missed, like the full backstory of the Shitennou).

 

A-Zone Sailor Moon Doujinshi by Kiyohiko Azuma (chapters 1, 2, and 4, because those are the only ones I can find. The Azumanga Daioh guy did this amazing comedic Sailor Moon fanfiction, basically, and it's super great.)

Gate! Thus the JSDF Fought There (up to volume, um... uh, the part where they go to the Minotaur Labyrinth. There's a lot of interesting worldbuilding depth, fantasy politics, plausible economic issues, and super dark brutal nasty stuff going on in this one, with a very interesting societies-mashing-together theme. I like it and want to read the rest of it, but it's pretty heavy material. More interested in the story than the art, but the art is alright. I think my favorite character is Pina, or maybe Itami's ex-wife).

 

Excel Saga (the first three volumes. I remember it being kind of funny but it's been a long time and I never finished it.)

 

Read or Die (the first four volumes... but some key plot points barely made sense to me back when I read it 10 years ago, so, I dunno. Maybe I'll try the anime version someday?)

 

Dragon Ball (the first 6 volumes or so... the part where Goku was beating up the Russian Red Ribbon Army. Really silly and I never got super into it, but I guess it's kinda fun. I also read Dragon Ball Z's Saiyan arc, which was alright. I get curious and poke at it every now and then.)

 

--- Some stuff I think I want to read or watch, but haven't yet

WIP: Sailor Moon (the rest of the anime and the manga)

Sailor Moon Crystal

WIP: Ghost in the Shell (the rest of S.A.C. and probably 2nd gig)

Mahou Sensei Negima (manga; start over and read all of it)

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Neon Genesis Evangelion (maybe also the Shinji Ikari Raising Project?)

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha (the manga and the anime)

Mahoromatic (the anime, probably both seasons)

 

And that's probably me forgetting some stuff, and without even scratching the surface of the non-anime stuff I want to watch but haven't yet! This is why I don't take totally random recommendations from people very often, and am hesitant to go around pushing my own on anybody. Backlog.

 

Do Hiyao Miyazaki films count? I've only seen a couple of those (Mononoke Hime, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, Spirited Away), and there's some more I'm planning to see at some point, but my brain wants to classify them as something different.

 

YES!  I love Mahoromatic too!  Mahoro is like my #1 waifu for laifu.  x3

Fate Testarossa from Nanoha is #2.  

 

Also, the current animes I'm watching now are as follows:

 

Demi-Chan (Will be watching last ep tomorrow!  Gonna miss that one.  ;-

Dragon Maid (Will be starting that this week...wanted to wait for the series to finish!)

Spice And Wolf (Nearing the end of S1...loving Holo!)  

Love Live!  (Halfway through S1 so far, Honoka is fav girl from that.  lol)

[The Satellite]

Do Hiyao Miyazaki films count? I've only seen a couple of those (Mononoke Hime, My Neighbor Totoro, Ponyo, Spirited Away), and there's some more I'm planning to see at some point, but my brain wants to classify them as something different.
 
Likewise, does Avatar: The Last Airbender count? I watched most of that (all but some of the very early parts). While I wasn't really into the art, it had a pretty great story that developed good continuity and depth as it went, and I was fond of Zuko.

Anime films completely count, since, well, they are by definition anime.

 

Avatar is the tricky one that I tend to consider not anime, more anime-inspired, but it's its own unique style and animated with western methods. Except for some episodes of the second season of The Legend of Korra which were in fact animated by Studio Pierrot. But regardless, Avatar is amazing.

[Naru]

I totally agree with what you are saying about the movies from Hiyao Miyazaki! Anime typical have a lot of unusual elements compared to your typical cartoon, some I really dislike but also a lot of thing I love. The movies though feel just like really good but normal (but animated) movies, excluding many of the (modern) anime-elements.

 

Not giving any additional recommendations but a few thoughts about the stuff you mentioned yourself.

- Quality-wise I am not much of a fan of Sailor Moon, but I admit that I enjoyed watching the show a lot.

- Dragon Ball and Dr. Slumps are both shows I love for the comedy-elements, but I have to say that both suffer a lot later, especially Dragon Ball Z, dying, reviving, tons of laser beams and neraly no comedy anymore...

- The GitS mangas are a bit difficult to find (only found the early books so far), but they are not bad and differ a lot from the anime - not storywise, but with a focus on comedy that the anime completly lacks. The two movies are also very nice, only Arise is a big let down, the story is OK, visually it looks rather standard, especially some charakter-designs and uniforms (that mostly never change for charakters).

- Madoka has some dark elements and the first part feels at times somewhat slow, I would recommend to watch it on a day you feel a bit down and when you are rather in the mood to soak in that feeling instead of getting your mood up.

- The Neon Genisis Evangelion manga seems to differ enough from the anime to be worthwhile and at least it is one concluded story instead of the anime chaos.

- The normal FMA-series is also really good and the movie based on the first series is quite a highlight, the first ~27 episodes are contenwise identical to the first 13 episodes of brotherhood, but in my opinion the start of brotherhood feels rushed anyway.

 

Since Azumanga Daiho and Yotsuba are also feel-good-mangas for you I recommend Aqua (manga), YKK (only know manga), Mushishi (anime), Lucky Star (only know anime) and maybe Haibane Renmei (anime, long time since I watched) and Gosick (only know anime). All these are mangas that lift my heart and they all are slice of life, so the first chapter/episode is enough for you to know if you like them.

[Dark Ice Dragon]

If you like Miyazaki, try Laputa : Castle in the sky and Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.

Lately i see few episodes of èlDLIVE, not sure i want continue to see it, i guess i will try to look other 2-3, i like the 2 main characters but not too much the story

 

[The Satellite]

If you like Miyazaki, try Laputa : Castle in the sky and Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind.

Those two are definitely my favorite films of his. I'm not as big a Miyazaki fan as everyone else but these were really good movies.

[Haylee]

Currently caught up with Boku no Hero Academia. I'm really enjoying how it gives the side characters a good bit of screen time, whilst still giving the protagonist the screen time he needs to remind us that this show has a protagonist.

[Russ]

Like Eins, I'm also watching Hero Academia. Loved the first season last year, and I'm loving that, like he said, all the side characters get lots of screen time. Even if I struggle to remember the names. Seriously, as if remembering foreign names were't hard enough, everyone on this show has three names. Izuku "Deku" Midoriya, Katsuki "Kacchan" Bakugo, etc. It's tough keeping it all straight. This new season... I have my reservations about the direction, but I'm confident they'll do it right. I'm also really excited that the dub is airing the same day as the sub. I generally prefer dubs, and this one's pretty good. And also same day. It's nice.

Also watching Attack on Titan's second season. Already read the manga, so I'm half watching to see the reactions from my anime-only friends and half to be horrified by how much creepier it all is animated.

I also finally got around to watching Erased. Decent show, kinda lackluster ending, with some questionable decisions throughout. It was enjoyable, but I' a bit upset because it could have been amazing and just kept falling a little short.

[Matthew]

Attack on Titan's second season came out?! Finally, it's been so long... how is it so far?

[Lüt]

I don't really watch much cartoon-based material these days, but Netflix has been pushing this thing called Ajin: Demi-Human and it's actually looking a little interesting. Anybody think it's worth watching a few episodes? I don't see any recent discussion on it in here.

[The Satellite]

Attack on Titan's second season came out?! Finally, it's been so long... how is it so far?

 

It's only two episodes so far, but those two episodes are pretty good. I feel like a lot more's happened in two episodes than the entire first season but then the first season annoyed me with its obnoxiously slow pace.

 

It's only going to be a standard single "cour" length though, meaning... I'm not sure if it's 12 or 13 episodes, but it won't be 20+ like the first season.

[Russ]

Yeah, unfortunately, after four years they decided to only adapt a single arc of the manga, so we're looking at 12 episodes, covering chapters 34-50 (for reference, season 1 was 25 episodes covering chapters 1-33). For what it's worth though, the arc they're covering is pretty great. I'm bummed we're not getting into the one after it as well, but ah well, I can wait for season 3 I guess. Basically agreeing with TS that the two episodes are great; this arc moves at a much faster pace than the previous ones.

[thepsynergist]

I don't really watch much cartoon-based material these days, but Netflix has been pushing this thing called Ajin: Demi-Human and it's actually looking a little interesting. Anybody think it's worth watching a few episodes? I don't see any recent discussion on it in here.

I watched all they offered, and after getting past the CG style they have, it was semi-decent.  I'd rate it 7/10.  Enjoyable, while not groundbreaking.

[Russ]

So hey, remember how I complained about Erased's ending? Turns out the manga had a completely different ending. A much better ending. In fact, the anime cut off the entire last 1/4 of the story (11 out of 44 chapters) and rushed to a completely different and somewhat unsatisfying ending instead. It wasn't that the anime had caught up to the manga either; the manga finished before the anime. I dunno why they felt they had to change it, but I'm upset.

[Moosh]

So hey, remember how I complained about Erased's ending? Turns out the manga had a completely different ending. A much better ending. In fact, the anime cut off the entire last 1/4 of the story (11 out of 44 chapters) and rushed to a completely different and somewhat unsatisfying ending instead. It wasn't that the anime had caught up to the manga either; the manga finished before the anime. I dunno why they felt they had to change it, but I'm upset.

They erased some of the story to make it fit into one cour.

[The Satellite]

Next season of anime once again seems pretty dry, except for a single show that actually looks... quite interesting. But I did find something that made me rejoice, for the No Game No Life anime adaptation is continuing after all! ... in a single film that's adopting the sixth light novel, but still, same team, same cast, same studio, it's something! Also the trailer for it's great too. So I'm excited.