Author Topic: What Did You Just Finish?  (Read 47684 times)

Offline Krozam

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #15 on: April 29, 2012, 11:29:46 pm »
Kamisama no Memo-chou

KamiMemo ended up being much better than I expected based on the first few eps. It's a bit of a mismatch between the very realistic, dark-toned crimes and the not-so-realistic and lighter-toned main character group, but in the end it was very enjoyable for me. The weakest point, the somewhat bland protagonist, has a pretty decent character development and by the end he's no longer much of a weak point. The strong point, the realistic crimes (not just murders, it includes drugs, prostitution, organized crime and such) really stand out in the two long arcs, eps 4-8 and 10-12. I think this could've been worth 5 stars without all the NEET nonsense and with characters who were a bit better overall and better suited to their environment. It was certainly intelligent and well dramatised enough for max stars. But, as it is, 4/5 stars.

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Offline Krozam

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #16 on: May 19, 2012, 12:15:55 pm »
Seto no Hanayome

Well, that was... interesting. The comedy in general wasn't really my cup of tea, and the show is fairly reliant on comedy. There was one episode I actually found hilarious, most were so-so, some were fucking terrible. The characters are nothing to brag about either, most of them are one-dimensional comedy characters. The female lead is okay, and I can't say that many of the side characters don't stand out in their own ways, but the male lead is pretty pathetic most of the time. I've seen worse, however, and he does have a few moments of sheer awesomeness. Romance plays a fairly important part, it's... okay. I've seen better, but I guess the romance is somewhat above average. Still, if this were all, I would have dropped Seto no Hanayome before finishing it.

However, the show has two saving graces. First, the music. Music has a pretty important part in the show, and it's composed by the awesome Takanashi Yasuharu, and the two seiyuu who sing in the insert songs are both great. The OST is one of my all-time favourites. Secondly, the show has a few scenes of blindingly brilliant dramatisation. I'll never forget episodes 8, 13 and 24. These episodes alone would have raised the show from 2½-star mediocrity to 3-star above average rating.

Then there is the last episode. The episode that deserves a paragraph of its own. The episode that single-handedly raises the show's rating by one fucking star! I still get the chills remembering it. Such pure awesomeness is so, so rare. I'd say this episode is in my top 3 best concluding episodes I've ever seen, quite possibly the very best. It takes the brilliant dramatisation of the three episodes mentioned above and cranks it up to eleven. It takes the more or less pathetic male lead and turns him into a real man. It gives you various kinds of satisfactions, it's full of action and romance, it's got countless epic moments and dialogue lines. And it gives a pretty satisfying ending (though the story isn't over yet). It's a superbly climatic ending that this barely above average show didn't deserve. It alone makes it worthwhile to suffer the bad comedy and the good-for-nothing male lead for 25 episodes.

I still have the OVA's to watch, but I doubt they'll give me anything new to write about. 4/5 stars.
« Last Edit: May 20, 2012, 03:53:49 am by Krozam »

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Offline Krozam

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #17 on: May 28, 2012, 01:12:43 am »
Strike Witches season 1

Until the 8th episode this was barely worth watching, an episodic fanservice fest focusing on introducing the characters. I'm not a fan of the character designs, so the fanservice had no positive side for me, it was only a negative element. Also, the lack of any major male characters, and the dialogue and comedy overall being quite mediocre, the character interaction was mostly uninteresting for me. The only thing keeping the anime entertaining enough to watch was the action.

Then, once the character introductions were done, around the end of ep 8... the plot kicked in. Despite only lasting about 4-5 episodes, it managed a few interesting twists, not to mention a lot of entertaining action. I really enjoyed these episodes. Overall, it was worth watching. 3/5 stars

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Offline Krozam

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #18 on: May 31, 2012, 03:16:01 am »
Asura Cryin'

My third watch, and the anime is still as great as ever. The fact that it's a mecha anime might turn you away, but let me tell you this: I despise mecha in general, but I love Asura Cryin'. It's not often you see an anime with an awesome, complex plot like this. It's a bit confusing at first, on the first watch, but intriguing from the start, thanks to numerous mysteries. The main character is also a bit on the bland side in the first season, but he gets a lot better towards the end of the series.

Main character aside, there are many great characters in Asura Cryin'. Misao, the protagonist's ghost childhood friend, always thinks out-of-the-box and comes up with hilarious observations. There are also a bunch of totally kickass female characters. There are antagonists who really make you hate them, and some who turn out to be decent, even admirable. All of them, however, have depth. Despite the protagonist having a harem, I find the balance of male and female characters good enough. Also no complaints about character development, though I don't consider it among the anime's many strong points. Despite a few mediocre cases, overall the crew is pretty awesome.

The settings are full of great ideas. It's funny how large a part of such a grand-scale adventure is spent in a school, but once you get over the absurdity of it, it's actually rather nice. Asura Cryin' is pretty much the only anime that I consider to be on the heavy side yet enjoy re-watching often, and the reason for that might be how well it blends light school life with epic adventure and fantasy action. The world also has a lot of intriguing mysteries that I enjoyed discovering (I love ruins of lost, advanced civilisations), and the fusion of magic and technology, demons and mecha, gave birth to a very interesting magic system. I really like the fact that many essential aspects of the magic system are more or less explained.

The action is very nice. Lots of explosions (mostly thanks to Shuri, a woman who carries enough weapons in her body to arm a battalion), magic and unusually cool mecha. There's enough variation to the Asura Machina's and demons' abilities to keep me happy. Besides action, the comedy isn't bad at all, and overall I consider the entertainment value of Asura Cryin' to be in the highest class together with Kaze no Stigma and Ookami-san to Shichi-nin no Nakama-tachi.

Then there are some scenes... beautiful and epic, touching scenes. Foremost among them in my mind is the first season finale, ep 13. Even on my third watch, even though I knew exactly what was coming, the emotional impact was just as strong as ever. Made me cry like a baby. Part of its brilliance is in the 11th episode, which seems oddly peaceful in such an action-packed anime at first, but which deepens some characters nicely in preparation for their starring role in the 13th episode. In its most climatic moments, Asura Cryin' usually manages some great dramatisation.

Musics are generally very good. The best BGM's are very atmospheric, and both seasons have amazing OP's and ED's by angela. Character designs are a bit rough, but the Asura Machina look really cool. Also, the magic circles have pretty cool designs. Battle animation isn't bad at all, there are a few lazy stills but mostly it's pretty fluid combat.

But in the end, the plot is the strongest point of this anime. Certainly, there are a few problems with it that could be considered plotholes, but that's pretty much unavoidable considering there are powers in the story capable of manipulating space and time. In return, they enabled the creation of a really complex, screwed up plotline with lots of delicious mysteries, interesting characters and epic world-saving. What's best, by the end almost everything makes sense (though it might take a second watch): all the important mysteries are properly explained and all the plotlines neatly tied up.

As in any epic fantasy story done right, there is tragedy and comedy, life and death, love and hate, humanity and inhumanity, past and future, a beginning and an end... and a whole lot of good ideas. Asura Cryin' is one of the most complete, fulfilling stories of its kind I've ever seen or read. If not for some minor weaknesses, like the protagonist being rather bland at first, and its wisdom lacking just a bit of depth in comparison to my other 5-star anime... *sigh* Well, missing a place among my 5-star anime by a very small margin, I rate Asura Cryin' 4½/5 stars.

Damn... Wrote another wall of text. -.-'
« Last Edit: June 01, 2012, 07:11:28 am by Krozam »

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Offline Krozam

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #19 on: June 01, 2012, 06:24:03 am »
Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu

Hmm... Not bad. A notch above the first season of the series, I'd say. A bit boring at first, and Kyon's embarrassing panicking was downright painful to watch, but other than that, it was enjoyable. The Yuki who actually showed some emotion was much cuter than her extreme kuudere normal self (even if she's slowly changing), though she's still not my type. Haruhi going missing was good, and even when she was found, she wasn't altogether quite as annoying as usual. The little window on Koizumi's true feelings was welcome. Mikuru was lovely, as usual. All the central characters got some development and the plot was deliciously twisted. Animation was top-class, musics okay. I felt Kyon's narration lacked... something, I rarely found it funny. But all in all, a good watch. I'll give it 4/5 stars.

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Offline hensomm

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #20 on: June 01, 2012, 06:58:40 am »
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai

First of all... wtf, long title.

I found it to be an enjoyable anime, with the key feature of realistic and relatable characters which added to the real feel of this anime. While I do find the usually characters in anime to be extremely enjoyable this was a great change of pace to see anime characters who actually 1. acted human and 2. I could imagine being real people.

However the story I found dragged on a bit too much. It seemed to self-glorify the way it stretched out its episodes having minimal levels of character development. By the end I can say that the overall development of the characters was well done, but could have been done so in half the time.

I did like the story, was interesting reminded me of  :fuko: so that is never a bad thing. The ending I have issues with, mainly because it kept dodging around how it actually wanted to end, eventually settling for a contrived "feel good" and cheesy finale.

9/10

*I would have given it an 8.5 but the creativity and quality of the opening made me give it another .5*


P.s. don't expect me to post here often, I just did it so Krozam would stfu on cbox about being the only one to post here  :hibiki:

Offline Miku

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Shiki
« Reply #21 on: June 04, 2012, 09:54:49 pm »
Shiki   # of Ep. 1-22    Rating: 10/10

Well, in a year full of Twilight and Vampire Diaries hypes and other crappy vampire stories, Shiki comes as a refreshing drink. That's how a vampire story has to be. The feeling of suspense and horror, deaths and plot twists. If you can't have this in a vampire story than it's not vampires you're dealing with. It's just some shiny metrosexual guy with fangs.

The story of Shiki is absolutely outstanding. Full of plot twists, heart racing revelations and it gets to a point where you're not absolutely sure which side to support, vampires or humans. While the first half of the anime is for story and suspense development, the second half focuses on the war between the two species.

The art is amazing as well. The sceneries are well detailed, the characters are really well drawn and it always enhances the feelings that are supposed to be conveyed.

The soundtrack, as the art, never fails to help enhancing the atmosphere. Takanashi Yasuharu had already done a great job in Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror and in Jigoku Shoujo, among others, and showed his skills once again in this amazing anime.

Possibly the strongest point in this series, the character development is unique. Vampires or humans, all of them are deep and act accordingly to what could be expected in the situation they are. Some will often make you have twisted feelings towards them.

With so many great aspects this is by far and large the best show iv seen about vampires. I enjoyed watching until the very last episode and hopefully there'll be a second season.

So, if you're looking for suspense and vampiries, look no more. Shiki is the one! ;D


Offline Krozam

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #22 on: June 05, 2012, 08:12:10 am »
Well, the original author of Shiki is Ono Fuyumi, the author of masterpieces such as Juuni Kokuki and Ghost Hunt, so the director would have to be really crappy to be able to mess that one up. ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌ I'm not very far into the series yet, and I must admit I wasn't too impressed by the beginning, but I fully expect to love the series once I watch the rest of it. That's how it was for Juuni Kokuki, too: the first 5 eps are nothing special, but in the end it's my all-time favourite anime.

As for musics... Takanashi Yasuharu doing the BGM and Buck-Tick doing the OP, there's so way the musics could be anything less than awesome. ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌

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Offline Miku

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #23 on: June 05, 2012, 04:05:51 pm »
Well, the original author of Shiki is Ono Fuyumi, the author of masterpieces such as Juuni Kokuki and Ghost Hunt, so the director would have to be really crappy to be able to mess that one up. ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌ I'm not very far into the series yet, and I must admit I wasn't too impressed by the beginning, but I fully expect to love the series once I watch the rest of it. That's how it was for Juuni Kokuki, too: the first 5 eps are nothing special, but in the end it's my all-time favourite anime.

As for musics... Takanashi Yasuharu doing the BGM and Buck-Tick doing the OP, there's so way the musics could be anything less than awesome. ┐( ̄ー ̄)┌

yes when i first started in episodes 1-5 or 6 i was like this is boring but then it started to get good and i couldn't stop watching it i hope there is a second season  :konata:

Offline Krozam

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #24 on: July 11, 2012, 07:49:05 pm »
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san

I enjoyed this anime a helluva lot more than I should have, considering my usual taste in comedy. The comedy is simple, sometimes even crude, but somehow I just found myself laughing more often than not. Also, the romance isn't bad, although the male lead is just a bit too tsun. Honestly, I must say that I found the anime excellent light entertainment, if somewhat too shallow and scarce in character development for my tastes. 3/5 stars.


Nagareboshi Lens

This short shoujo OVA was recommended to me by Irie Naoki. In one sentence it's an extreme case of pure love story. Too sparkly, too innocent female main, too perfect male main, too simple a story... It left the theme of jealousy, which as a properly used element of conflict could have made the story much better, sadly unexplored. Sorry, Irie, but I found it boring. Not unwatchable, I've seen much worse, but worth only 2/5 stars.

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Offline Krozam

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #25 on: July 30, 2012, 08:02:12 am »
Nisemonogatari

As the sequel to Bakemonogatari, which I count among my top 15 anime, I was looking forward to this. Fortunately, it didn't let me down. Maybe it isn't quite as good as Bake, but there's no significant difference. Nise only has two arcs, the first of them spanning 7 eps and thus a bit slower in pace than the arcs in Bake and the other arc which only got 4 eps. I don't mind, though, the dialogue is as brilliant as always and the time that isn't spent advancing the plot is well spent re-acquainting us with all the lovable characters. Of course, it's also very nice to learn more about Shinobu and Koyomi's sisters, who didn't get much time in Bake. There's less of the annoying visual randomness than in Bake, but Akiyuki Shinbou's hand is still noticeable, which I count as a plus. He's a great director when he doesn't go too far with the visual randomness. 4.5/5 stars.

BTW, after watching Nise, I got the urge to re-watch Bake, which I did the next day. It was a nostalgic marathon and confirmed that Bake is indeed as great as I remembered. Senjougahara is one of the most brilliant female characters ever creted, and I immensely enjoy Hachikuji's dialogue.


Acchi Kocchi
Cuteness overload. Romantic slice of life at its best. I don't usually enjoy 4-koma or their adaptations, but something about Acchi Kocchi makes it unusually enjoyable. The female lead is cute and the male lead is likeable and both are cool. The supporting cast are are a fun bunch. The comedy is sometimes great, sometimes good - usually great - and I love the carefree mood, somehow it's not boring at all, it just sucks you into the show. 4/5 stars, the best rating I've ever given a mainly slice of life show.

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Offline AnimeIndex22

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #26 on: August 02, 2012, 11:20:39 am »
C3 CubexCursedxCurious

I personally liked this series. It was better than I thought it would be. Has action/comedy/romance/ecchi etc. Story is really getting good. Hope the studio does a second season. It really deserves a second season!  :konata: like the emoticons. :P

8.5/10

Offline AnimeIndex22

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #27 on: August 12, 2012, 06:29:34 pm »
Angel Beats!

What can i say about this? Well the story was very interesting. The characters were very well-developed (well to me). TK was probably one of my favorite characters. Great music/soundtracks. Has comedy and some romance. Action with GUNS LOL! It was good. Angel Beats! even made me get teary eyed.
It was a great show. Kept my interests.

9/10

Offline Oukimuni

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #28 on: September 10, 2012, 10:15:21 pm »
Katanagatari :togame:

I was exited by the art style, but It was tough getting into the dialogue heavy show. I had to strain through the first episode, but after that the series flew by, despite being 50min episodes.
The experience was unique and fun, the characters were adorable, and vibrant, and the story was wonderful.

I suggest any who have felt a slump in anime to find and watch this series.

Offline Krozam

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Re: What Did You Just Finish?
« Reply #29 on: September 21, 2012, 09:38:42 pm »
Katanagatari is good, I should finish it one of these days...

Haven't watched anime for a month or so. Been busy with studies and stuff. This weekend I'm going to try and catch up on a few recent/ongoing series. First off:

Hyouka
An excellent anime. At first I was somewhat underwhelmed by the slice of life element's domination and the... 'insignificant' nature of the mysteries, but on the other hand, I was quite impressed that they managed to make those 'insignificant' mysteries so interesting. I also liked the characters and the calm atmosphere, and the fact that they didn't rush the story, opting to adapt a small enough number of novels into 22 episodes, instead of the nowadays all too common 12-13 eps.

Regarding characters, I find Houtarou, the protagonist, quite easy to identify with, as I'm also very lazy and somewhat unsocial, lol. I also like the smart type over all the useless idiots and most of the action heroes. I don't find Eru quite as adorable as everyone else seems to think, but she's cute enough and amusing. I actually prefer Mayaka, her personality is darker and more complex, but still not too much of a downer, and I like her character design more. Satoshi is an unusually good 'sidekick' character with a deep and complex personality, it was a delight to see the story peel off layer after layer of his carefree exterior.

Later on there are some really intriguing mysteries, though they never stray far from the minor everyday problems concept. Throughout the series there is a pleasant, calm but powerful atmosphere that kept me hooked well enough. The dialogue is good - nowhere near Bakemonogatari-level good, but good enough to carry the dialogue-heavy, action-less show through with flying colours. There's a calculated amount of quite decent humour to lighten up the mood. As a spice, there is some romantic tension between the two pairs (another thing I like about the story, no annoying triangles, the pairings are clear from the start), though the romances don't really develop in any significant way.

Did I forget anything that should be mentioned? I'm kinda tired and I've eaten too much sugar tonight, not thinking straight anymore, so this'll have to do for a review. Overall, a pleasant slice of life mystery show with deep and multidimensional characters. 4/5 stars.
« Last Edit: September 21, 2012, 09:55:45 pm by Krozam »

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