And lo and behold, the skies opened, and the recs fell like drops of rain upon a dry land!

Gonna write down Darker than Black too, Ozzy. Again, can't promise I'll watch any of the stuff I'm being recommended any time soon, but it helps to keep a suply of shit to fall back on whenever I wonder "hmmm, anything I could check out to mitigate my crushing boredom?" Thanks guys.

I guess we had to disagree at some point Ozzy...

I'd say Darker than Black is next to Psycho Pass among some of the most overrated shows I've seen. I went into Pyscho Pass hoping for something like GITS or something, good lord that wasn't it. Darker than Black... is not terrible, but who was I supposed to like? Hiei is boredom incarnate! I remember the second part which was an OVA I think that focused on other characters was almost unbearable. I just don't get these two at all. lol

But I did like Texhnolyze a lot and Ergo Proxy (bad ending though) both quite a bit, which are way weirder and probably more hit or miss. So whatever haha.

spoilered for plot


Still xl, see it (dubbed, yes dubbed).

Fate/Stay Night just really, really rubbed me the wrong way with the Fate route, and Unlimited Blade Works was merely okay (both the 2010 movie and 2014 TV series are more enjoyable, if only because the action is actually animated). Heaven's Feel, however, I've warmed up to quite a bit, and I already liked it a lot. I just...the very idea of Saber being a sex object brings my piss to a steaming boil. The Fate route is my anathema.

As for series similar to Fate/Zero, I can't really say I've seen many other shows like it. I mean, Kara no Kyoukai and Fate/Stay Night 2014 have the same studio and as such have a similar tone, and Madoka Magica has a similar sense of inevitable crushing despair, but other than that, I haven't really seen anything else like it.

Zelkiiro, why didn't you recomend Kino's Journey? ;-;


I could never get into the plot of Ergo Proxy, but the the couple of really surreal episodes were pretty cool.

Kino's Journey is great, but the ending is fucking sad.

And also Kino's Journey isn't really a gateway anime. It's a bit more artsy than your standard fare. :V

Probably what I liked most about it, the atmosphere. I can't say I really remember much of the characters. lol

Seen Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works Series. It's likable but it just doesn't have the same feel as Zero did because most of the masters come off as weak, forgettable, and/or hold their servants back. Madoka Magica was great, but like most series it's story held it together more than its action. Haven't heard of Kara no Kyoukai before, so I might give it a try.

Just watch Shigurui.

Darker Than Black is not really bad not nothing truly incredible, same with Persona/Trinity Soul and Steins Gate. Ergo Proxy is cool but it ends weirdly.

If you wanna cry, just watch the Grave of the Fireflies or Kanon (2006).

I read the Shigurui manga and it's half butt. The first half is cool if slow moving, and the last half spends 40 pages at a time building up new characters as unstoppable badasses who just all end up dying the same way as everybody else one panel later. I hear the anime only covers the first arc, which is good, but isn't as violent, which is lame.

The anime is pretty good and gory enough. Yes, it covers the first half which is the best one and does a good job at it.

Rewatching Death Note during my between-reviews period. This show is so much fun.

And like most anime, the story makes absolutely zero sense whatsoever most of the time. It's completely about characterisation, style, social encounters and all that.

Not so different from Samurai Champloo!

Started reading the Angel Beats manga while Im watching the show again. I didn't know the anime was this different which makes me feel kinda dumb cause its one of my favorite shows. Also Ive been watching a few horror shows like Another and Corpse Party. Corpse Party was cool but Another was just so boring.I could barely got past episode 9 before I quit it was just so bad.

I coulda told you that. :V

I'm watchin' WataMote right now, and I'm really liking it. Very funny show, often in a very bleak way, and it's refreshing to have a high school anime about someone who is decidedly the antithesis of the cute main character we're all used to. I'm actually having trouble finding any major flaws in the show, come to think of it. It's just a fun little series. Unless you're like Tomoko, then this series is depressing as hell.

It's kind of ridiculous how much anime I've bought on DVD and yet haven't had the time to watch. This includes all of the first series of Digimon, several seasons and movies of Inuyasha, the entire series of Cowboy Bebop and Vampire Knight, several Marvel anime, and the entire series of Samurai 7. And I'm pretty sure there's more and I just forgot what I have at the moment.

And as much as I love the original Neon Genesis Evangelion, I must confess that I have an equal love for Ouran High School Host Club. It's too hilarious (most of the time, anyway).

Ouran isn't plagued by budget problems and a bipolar writing team, though. :V

Finished rewatching the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist plus its movie this week. Still as batshit crazy as last time, and still a little bit disappointing compared to Brotherhood, but I will give it its due: the 2003 anime does a way better job in the character development department. And considering Brotherhood is already solid in that department, that's sayin' a lot.

ive watched brotherhood twice now and i for some reason just can't watch the original series. either way, ed still kind of annoys me. i know this term gets thrown around so loosely in anime especially, but Ed can sometimes comes off as a gary stu to me.

still a great series. since i watched brotherhood, the only other shows I've watched episode after episode are Girls und panzer and Psycho pass. I have only recently started to give Neon genesis evangelion a try, as that old 90's anime look is pretty nostalgic to me, so why not.

NGE can be insanely confusing, but if you stick with it, it can be a rewarding watch. For the record, I have not watched the Rebuild movies, which are a remake of the series and are supposed to be just as confusing.

Not really.

Only the first Rebuild movie is a strict remake, in that it pretty much is a shot-for-shot recreation of episodes 1-6 of the original TV series. The second movie uses some of the iconic scenes, but for the most part, it's its own beast. The third movie completely jumps the rails and only very loosely covers the Kaworu arc; hell, I think he actually gets more screentime here than in the TV series.

As for confusion, the Rebuild movies are actually (pretty explicitly) more straightforward than the series was.

I wouldn't say that--he's just the hero, so of course he's the one who saves the day in the end. Unlike a Mary Sue/Gary Stu, Ed does have some legitimate flaws: he's quick to anger, he's irrational, his idealistic notion of right and wrong get him (and others) in trouble often, he's impulsive, and he's often dismissive of the opinions of others.

Man, I stopped watching FMA Brotherhood some time ago. Had to be early last year and I believe I made it 10 eps or whatever when they battle those 2 people named after sins (?). I was kind of enjoying it but I expected it to be much more serious. I was watching it based on recs here and a rec from my sister who loved it. I remember one annoying thing - Ed's voice. He sounded as bad as the guy who did Krillin's voice in the DBZ dub. Fucking sucks.

Never saw any FMA yet but usually I hear nothing but praise for Vic Mignogna's voice acting.

I remember watching a lot of anime with my brother back when I was in middle school. I watched Trigun, Kenshin, and most notably, Naruto. He and I just stopped watching Naruto simply due to the fact that it just never ended. Every story arc seems to revolve around a massive fight scene that involved two or more dudes duking it out. Said fight scenes usually consisting of one guy basically saying "I've got this technique that's going to end you" and does this. Then the other guy fights back and says something like "this isn't even my final attack" or something. It just goes on and on till your head just goes spinning. It's like "just end it already!" I think there's a lot of anime that does that.

Naruto is just one of the more recent variations of the Shounen Tournament Fighter, which is one of the more tiresome (and awful) types of shows you'll find in anime.

Thanks. If I ever get into anime again, I'll know which ones to avoid.

A big giveaway for those kinds of shows is this: Look up how many episodes it has. If it's more than 100, chances are very good it's a Shounen Tournament Fighter. Now, to be fair, there are a couple that are good (Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter X Hunter), and there are some that are fun in a goofy sort of way (Dragonball and One Piece), but usually they end up being awful (Naruto and most of Bleach).

If you're ever curious, you can always check out my anime reviews (shameless plug shameless plug) to see what I think highly of, and hopefully you'll find something interesting.

yea, those are some good points. I never really noticed Ed's anger because it was mostly made light of in the humorous scenes in the show. But yea, i can now recall a few times when he just looses his temper. And i guess you could look at his ego which flares up from time to time as a character flaw as well.

What I was coming from with that Gary stu crack was that he is good looking, smart, talented, and young. While those things don't necessarily make a bad character, it should also be noted that Ed also has a troubled past, and is mainly disliked by only the antagonists (with a few exceptions here and there). I know that last one might sound a little stupid, but when you see it played out over and over again, you can see why its considered a bad character trope. Its the totality of each of these that makes me raise an eyebrow. Either way, I still found Ed likable enough to complete the series, and now Brotherhood is definitely in my top 5 anime.

Also, I didn't see it in your review list, but have you seen psycho pass? I really like the antagonist in this series, and the story as a whole makes for a great thriller. Ive seen a few people recommend it along side death note and Code Geauss.

Check my upcoming review schedule. Psycho-Pass is comin' up next month. ;3

Also urrgghhhh, I'll have to watch Code Geass eventually, won't I? I'm sure it's a good show, but that artwork just turns my stomach for some reason.

i know what you mean about code Geass. The art direction looks, very yugioh to me. Actually, I'm not sure if thats what it reminds me of, but it has more of a look that i don't see being a drama/psychological intrigue show that it gets hailed as. I can't quite put my finger on it.

I noticed fate zero was at your number 1 spot, so I have to ask. Is fate: stay night required to understand whats going on in fate zero? I started watching fate zero and i stopped about half way through, I had no idea what was going on. I hate it when i pull the plug on shows dead center like that, but sometimes i have to chalk it up to not caring or not understanding. Fate zero seemed like a show that i would have liked, had there been a little extra context for what was going on. maybe there was and it went over my head

I first watched Fate/Zero ice cold with no knowledge of the setting (aside from the fact I'd watched and forgotten about a few episodes of the 2006 series 6 years prior) and I understood what was going on fine, so it's possible, but I may have also just been filling in the blanks with good guesses and vaguely-remembered information. If you're not really following along all that well, then I would recommend reading through the Fate/Stay Night visual novel if only for the third story arc, Heaven's Feel, and for the necessary background information. Do NOT watch the 2006 anime. It's pretty goddamn terrible. The 2010 film of the 2nd story arc is pretty good, though, but it's just a 90-minute action sequence with no exposition, so it won't help you. :V

As for the visual novel, do be warned ahead of time that it was initially released as an eroge (a.k.a. it has porn), so there's gon' be titties and shit. Also, the first story arc of Fate/Stay Night (the creatively-titled "Fate" route) suuuuuuuucks. Hard. But it gives you the nitty-gritty of the setting and background, so just grit your teeth and power through it.

EDIT: Oh, and I forgot the most important information: Fate/Stay Night does not, in any way, have the same atmosphere or tone as Fate/Zero. It plays more like a high-school rom-com with a bit of nighttime supernatural battling as an afterthought. Also, there is a 2014 adaptation of Fate/Stay Night, but don't watch that just yet--it has a lot of nods and references to Fate/Zero (being made by the same studio and all), so those'll likely throw you off.

I feel like I'm missing something about Code Geass. I started watching it last year after finishing Monster and Death Note (now two of my favorite anime series) , and I can not for the life of me get into it. Well, there were some things that I liked, such as
and oddly enough

And there are some other moments here or there that I thought was interesting, but I felt almost nothing for most of the characters and did not get absorbed into the story as much as I hoped I would. Kallen started out as my favorite character, but as the show went on I started to care less and less, and so to with other characters that I liked. It's hard to explain why, but I think the general thing that turned me off was the style of anime that it was. It's difficult to take characters seriously when they are being used as fan service half the time, among other issues. I guess my expectations going into it might also have been the issue.

About Monster, has anyone else heard about Guillermo del Toro turning it into a live-action series on HBO? I know he has a habit of starting projects and never finishing it, but I would like to see this happen (simply because I can't get enough of Monster).

Pretty big anime fan here. My fav anime easily is Ashita no Joe. I also like Urusei Yatsura, City Hunter, Galaxy Express 999, Kaiba, Monster, and Hunter X Hunter.


With a passion I hate Code Geass.

I'd maybe rewatch this over Gundam 00 (season 2). At least with Code Geass, it was so insanely bad and over the top that it was chaotically amusing at times, but 00 has to be one of the most dull modern anime shows I've ever seen. Never have I hated an entire cast so hard.

Nice selection of favorites there. MOKKORI!

Honestly Code Geass made me be very cautious over what anime I watch. I mean I legitametly found it painful to watch even more so than Mars of destruction, and Pupa then again those were shorter. It just had every single thing I hated about anime in it or so it seemed. Haven't seen Gundam 00 but for mecha I like Xabungle and Votoms though I still need to finish the latter. I like Mazinger Z from what I've seen but wow those sub's are painful lol!

Votoms... now you're talking my language. Doesn't get much better in my book. Ryosuke Takahashi's shows were incredible. Check out Dougram and Layzner (finally fully subbed now) if you really enjoy Votoms and want more. He also did Panzer World Galient, but I think it's one of the weaker ones, still not bad though and has a very grim vibe.

Yeah again haven't finished Votoms yet made it half way through and decided to take a break. Might get back to it soon though mainly just been watching an episode or two of Urusei Yatsura. What I saw of it though was pretty much incredible of course. I do have Dougram and Layzner on my radar though.

That said there's several anime I really need to finish :/

It warms the cockles of my heart to see old-school anime fans. ;w;

Yeah I think more people need to try out the old school stuff I mean I don't understand the mentality of folks who claim they're huge into anime but refuse to watch the classics. I especially think those who complain about modern anime tropes would be willing to give old stuff a chance.

Sadly seems like the largest majority of the anime fanbase can't go back more than a few years. When stuff like Lagann, Bebop, Monster, GITS SAC, or the original Hunter x Hunter are "old"... lord have mercy. Age shouldn't dictate quality.

Bigger fan of cel animation myself. The early 2000's digital era was the absolute worst era by far, just look at any Sunrise show from then, it's disturbing how bad Gundam SEED, Argento Soma, etc look, especially when compared to Outlaw Star, Bebop, Ippo, Hunter x Hunter 99', etc which were late 90's and some of the last cel drawn shows, they look like movies in comparison. Nowadays though, I really have no complaints and studios like Madhouse have some godly looking shows that look like full blown TV OVA's (Hunter x Hunter). But the charm of the cel era and the amazing colors/blacks will probably never be fully replicated again. Animation and art style wise I think the late 80's/early 90's have the coolest looks ever. All those OVA's and stuff like City Hunter or late 80's Sunrise shows, that stuff is perfection.

Discotek recently licensed Giang Gorg. Seriously came out of nowhere, I hope this means they're going to license more classic Sunrise. Either way I want to buy everything from Discotek, they rock!