The General Anime Thread...

[TheCorvette]

I actually do read the manga, I'm just fairly behind (Almost two years), among other things (A couple hundred episodes of anime anyone?), though when it comes to the Shippuden anime, I'm about half a year behind at this point. With how the war arc killed off my love for this series after eight years, it may be a while before I try catching up.

Also Twitter is such a timesucker if you're an anime fan.

 

[kennylmao]

If IE-tan isn't mentally handicapped, I wouldn't count on it.

From the Facebook page -> https://www.facebook.com/internetexplorertan/info

"When I was younger, I used to be a clumsy, slow and awkward girl."

Not mentally handicapped, but at least they acknowledged their disabilities.

I like shows about pretty girls with magical powers. Most of my friends think that I'm a paedophile. ^_^

I think all yous guys are pedophiles. Except Kent of course. And maybe Roger as well, since all he talks about is NGE and hasn't shown any pleasure/displeasure over magical girls. I personally still can't get over the loli factor. Getting there, but still not quite there yet.

What's the target demographic of Madoka Magica actually?

 

[nk4e]

---@Muzaffar

 

[Kent]

I actually do read the manga, I'm just fairly behind (Almost two years), among other things (A couple hundred episodes of anime anyone?), though when it comes to the Shippuden anime, I'm about half a year behind at this point. With how the war arc killed off my love for this series after eight years, it may be a while before I try catching up.

Also Twitter is such a timesucker if you're an anime fan.

I have no experience with twitter but...
I do have great/horrible experience with getting my love for the series killed by the anime. Same thing happened to me with the Asuma death arc.
I loved the fights between kakazu/hedien v. kakashi and gang but the anime just butchered the story and totally put in edits for the sake of political correctness. It's actually what put me onto the manga only diet. Before then I watched the anime and occasionally went to the manga for spoilers. During that arc I went to the manga for spoilers, got them, saw how the anime ended straying from the manga and said "that's it, never again"!
Went back and read every issue from the start to the most recent (at that time) and have been reading the manga with each new issue since then. That was a while back, come to think of it, I'd say I've probably been reading the manga without the anime for a good 2 years or so.

@kennylmao
Don't worry about me... I'm not in here to make trouble, intimidate, criticize or any other negative activity. You just happened to catch me while I was reminding people not to use rude or insulting language. That said though, you are totally right, the "loli" factor in magic girl and many other anime disgusts me. Even NGE became too sexual at points in the story.

That factor bothers me for a variety of reasons but one of the less spoken and more important reasons is that it hold anime back in America and other western countries. It's hard to reconcile a person's views on a genre when a preconceived notion is that it is made for children, then violence is introduced, then sexuality, then the worst, sexuality and violence with young adults/ minors... Until the Japanese and other anime producers can avoid their perversions Anime will never become main stream.

A great example of what happens and what could happen is pokemon.
Think about it, no sexuality in an anime and it spreads across America like wild fire for years and years.

Non-sexual anime = profit.
Companies should learn that and we'd all be better off for it.

 

[TheCorvette]

So you weren't a big fan of that arc with Hidan and Kakazu? Interesting, personally I found that one of the highlights of the series, and I still think quite well of it after all this time (Though the war arc ruins things a bit. Stupid reviving characters...-that's one of my biggest issues with that arc, reviving pretty much everyone), especially due to the character development that occurred because of it. If I rewatched that arc (Hell Shippuden up until the end of the Pain arc), I'd probably fall in love with it all over again. And that may just happen, Naruto Shippuden is coming to Toonami in a few months, Disney XD finally lost the rights.

Also the opening used for that arc is still pretty damn awesome, still one of my all-time favorite anime openings.


As for the topic of anime going mainstream, the key is to show people the non-weird stuff to ease them into anime. Then you can later maybe show them that the weird stuff isn't so bad, and can be enjoyable, and isn't destroying the industry like many people have been claiming it's been doing ever since the "moe boom". We still get those "mature" shows every year.

The biggest issue is just how can you get people into anime outside of the internet? One of the only avenues right now is Toonami on [adult swim], which comes on when normal people are asleep. I can only hope Space Dandy gets promoted, and that could maybe, just maybe further expose the medium. I'm not wishing for it to be mainstream due to the many cons it would have, but I would like for it to be a little more popular. You could maybe get the chance to see an anime movie in a theater (Like around what a limited release typically gets, or a bit better, which sure beats the stuff showing in less than 1/4 of the US), or have an easier time discussing anime IRL.

Another thing I'm hoping for is The Wind Rises (As Madoka has literally no chance) at least gets nominated, it's more on the adult spectrum of Ghibli it seems as that one NYTimes article I posted earlier revealed, and it's going to be PG-13. We currently live in a time where something like that getting an Oscar could really further push anime. It would do much more than Akira and Ghost in the Shell did back in the day (There was no animated feature category for the Oscars back then).

 

[SuperShouden]

Watched Mass Effect Paragon Lost. Nice to see the Ghost in the Shell team can still animate pretty well, but...why they chose Vega in a story that takes place before Mass Effect 2, I don't know. Also, Freddy Prince Jr. was an interesting choice. Especially considering everyone else is voiced by professional voice actors like Monica Rial and Jamie Marchi. You know, people who can act. Other than those two small details, it wasn't bad. Can't wait for ME4.

 

[Roger the Horse]

While I dislike the over-sexualisation found in some anime, I only personally let it put me off if the rest of the show isn't good enough to make up for it. Of course, the more overly-sexualised a show is, the more likely it won't be of an especially high quality to begin with, and as a result, its makers are simply resorting to sex selling.

Honestly, having seen Madoka Magica, I can't really say the show itself comes off as at all perverted; it simply presents itself as being incredibly cutesy and girly so as to create a dissonant effect when the psychological horror elements kick in. Sure, you're going to get creepy perverts on the internet who find the characters sexy, but you also get people on the internet who find that My Little Pony cartoon sexy, so what people on the internet find sexy probably isn't the best way to judge the original work itself.

 

[TheCorvette]

Though certain shows can still have lots of fanservice, and end up having enough substance to back it up. This show sure was a surprise for me, one of the best shows of last year. Season 2 wasn't as good, but still was almost on par with season 1. Season 3 here I come (The discs are selling well).
http://myanimelist.net/anime/11617/High_School_DxD

 

[C-ZETA]

I love it that people still talk about Internet Explorer like it's still 2005; IE6 was replaced long, long ago, and Internet Explorer 11 is legitimately good. If I wasn't so encumbered by Google's infrastructure and didn't mind IE's rubbish font anti-aliasing, I'd probably use it instead of Chrome.

I actually made an attempt to use IE10 yesterday, as a test.

Every time it loaded a page, the entire tab crashed. And when it reloaded, it crashed again. And again. And again.

It's not fixed is it?

I think all yous guys are pedophiles. Except Kent of course. And maybe Roger as well, since all he talks about is NGE and hasn't shown any pleasure/displeasure over magical girls. I personally still can't get over the loli factor. Getting there, but still not quite there yet.

The problem is, the main series I follow has girls in lolita clothing everywhere but the series never tries to make them loli. So what does that count as...?

 

[TheCorvette]

I use the latest version of IE on this laptop I got early this year at times (I'm 90% of the time on Chrome), and IE works just fine whenever I use it. I rarely have issues, it's a huge upgrade over the past versions.

 

[AOS-]

What's the target demographic of Madoka Magica actually?

Unsure, but I'm guessing boys.

 

[Michelin]

So hey, guess I'm back to posting here after a great amount of time. Anyway, two friends asked me to watch Danganronpa as I'm a huge P4 fan and they said that it look a lot like it. After resisting a while to watch because of my laziness, I decided to watch today. Needless to say, I look forward to watch the last 10 chapters of it, because it's awesome! So yeah, that's it.

 

[Sly Guy]

Honestly, having seen Madoka Magica, I can't really say the show itself comes off as at all perverted; it simply presents itself as being incredibly cutesy and girly so as to create a dissonant effect when the psychological horror elements kick in. Sure, you're going to get creepy perverts on the internet who find the characters sexy, but you also get people on the internet who find that My Little Pony cartoon sexy, so what people on the internet find sexy probably isn't the best way to judge the original work itself.

Truer words were never spoken. Weren't we just talking about not judging something through it's fanbase? Feels like deja vu.

Not gonna lie though, being around one of those legitimately creepy perverts is pretty gross. When I went to see the Madoka movies in the theater, the guy sitting behind me kept mumbling "Sexy Homura-chan" and making noises throughout the entire FOUR HOURS.

 

[Sephy]

Not gonna lie though, being around one of those legitimately creepy perverts is pretty gross. When I went to see the Madoka movies in the theater, the guy sitting behind me kept mumbling "Sexy Homura-chan" and making noises throughout the entire FOUR HOURS.

That's hilarious. Creepy? Oh yeah. But hilarious. I probably would have moved to a different seat.

 

[DK]

You'd be the same when you go to Eva 3.0.

 

[Kent]

So you weren't a big fan of that arc with Hidan and Kakazu?

Actually that's not what I said... I said I loved the arc but the Anime ruined it and the Manga was what hooked me on reading the Manga and ignoring the Anime. The only thing I loved about the Anime for that arc was the fighting.



Around 1:20 in the video you see such dynamic animation between the movement of the toons and the camera I genuinely felt like this was just about pinnacle of Naruto animation at the time (only a few other moments or fights were equally impressive).
Really I'd have to say seeing this fight for the first time was like seeing Rock Lee and Gaara for the first time.

 

[jeffgoddin]

Just to jump in, as I occasionally still do... Naruto is worth watching IMO, and deserves to be one of the few 300+ episope animes. Haven't watched it in over a year, though.

And why I jumped in, just watched Sword of the Stranger... Bones production, so high expectations, and solid ratings on ANN and IMDB. But just rubbish. 2/10 if I'm being mean, maybe 4/10 really. Many points early in the movie had me thinking it would be great. But then the story just degenerated into stereotypes/simplifications/predictability. And then there's the CGI **** inserted here and there to terrible effect. Chinese voice acting for the one guy was also terrible. Just painful, extended, bad production and story. Again, not that there weren't a few great moments, but those moments just made me hate the overall movie even more.

Anybody else seen this, share my opinion?

 

[AOS-]

Watching some Clannad clips recently reminded why Akio's character is extremely likeable.

 

[nk4e]

So hey, guess I'm back to posting here after a great amount of time. Anyway, two friends asked me to watch Danganronpa as I'm a huge P4 fan and they said that it look a lot like it. After resisting a while to watch because of my laziness, I decided to watch today. Needless to say, I look forward to watch the last 10 chapters of it, because it's awesome! So yeah, that's it.

Welcome back.

 

[Kurei]

Hoping you guys can help as my Google-fu is proving not strong enough.

I'll trying to re-find this Animation from (what must've been the 90's) about Sci-Fi racing in the future, it was 10-minutes long (may have been longer), a story told from the perspective of a reporter who was watching this race-series involving these sort of 'hover-cars' and 1 racer who, through para-normal nightmares was being haunted by the ghost of a past-racer. This ghost had a reputation of showing-up mid-race and causing all sorts of problems, cars would have component failures, cars would crush-in on their drivers, and 1 really 'violent' scene has the racer, who was being interviewed, has his whole cockpit explode while trying to match the ghost, exposing his body to the speeds and ultimately killing him as blood drains from his mouth/eyes/jaw.

I can't, for the life of me, remember the name or anything else about it, the ghost car always had a blue-aura to it, and the animation was also popular/famous for its 'finish' quality, lights shining over the racecar bodies was smooth as could be, like 60fps for a hand-drawn animation.

 

[nk4e]

Future GPX Cyber Formula 11?

 

[Kent]

Future GPX Cyber Formula 11?

That was my first thought but it could also be another one called "Redline" but for now my money is on GPX. Didn't they show some gpx on toonami a long time ago?

 

[nk4e]

 

[otakukid96]

There's a Blazblue anime? How did I not learn of it until now?

 

[Kurei]

Future GPX Cyber Formula 11?

Nope, that's not it, the animation-quality looks about the same age-wise, but the series (it may actually have been a short instead) I'm thinking of was more gritty, colors were more muted, and the machines don't look like those in GPX.

The machines were more like 'pod' and less 'car', I've been 'googling' various Japanese Animators but nothing's popped up.

 

[jacnob]

There's a Blazblue anime? How did I not learn of it until now?

I've known about it for a while, I think (what I've watched of it anyway) its pretty O.K, even though its really compressed.

Nope, that's not it, the animation-quality looks about the same age-wise, but the series (it may actually have been a short instead) I'm thinking of was more gritty, colors were more muted, and the machines don't look like those in GPX.

The machines were more like 'pod' and less 'car', I've been 'googling' various Japanese Animators but nothing's popped up.

Like Kent above, I think its probably Redline.

 

[Kurei]

Nope, Redline is closer but I finally found it, it's a short called 'The Running Man' directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. (So glad I figured it out, was driving me nuts.)


Edit* It is a bit graphic, nothing worthy of SAW movies, but death and paranormal events abound.

 

[nk4e]

There's a Blazblue anime? How did I not learn of it until now?

Because I think I posted about it like a month ago. It's just giving more life to the video game story line.

<3 Noel...

 

[otakukid96]

To be honest, I only initially played the games because of Noel's English voice actor, but I'll probably enjoy the anime.

 

[jacnob]

There's nothing wrong with that.


In other news, I had a strange encounter with the girl I mentioned last week; she (assuming was joking) asked me if I was going to be a pedobear because of my current laptop background (I'm putting it at the bottom of this post), and the fact that she doesn't have any of the "usual things guys like" and I just told her that in universe she's our age, and I'm different, etc. She also asked me what series she was from and stuff (she, as I mentioned, watched anime for a while), but I have no idea what to make of that...