So, the Winter line-up

The fuck is all this shit?

maybe 2 or 3 shows seems midly entertaining, not really excited for it

also

lol

The only thing I plan on watching is Minami-ke. Only because I watched the last 3 seasons and feel like I have too. Honestly it feels like a chore...

Everything is complete shit like always

Train Hero sounds interesting, the rest sounds like crap.

I was on Fakku when I saw that. Nothing interested me on that whole list.

Looking at that list, I think it's time I accept the fact that I just can't enjoy new anime.

So, more Minami-ke (the non-sucky version, I hope), and more Chihaya... And a lot of stuff I won't be watching. I might watch the Studio SHAFT show, though, because well, it's SHAFT. The OVAs section is slightly more interesting, with Saint Young Men, Berserk and Library Wars.

P.S: Am I the only one that mistook Bakumatsu Jigiden Roman for something about Jigen from Lupin? The character design is somewhat similar.

Seriously is it me or does it get harder and harder to find a new show each season to like? I think there is like 1 or 2 shows a year that I end up liking, but other then that, I usually just end up disappointing. The only recent anime I watched and liked was Kids on the Slope, and the recent Jojo Bizarre Adventures. I just like watching the older 90's anime and early 00's shows. Are people having this issue as well?

It's just always like this, most are just dumb shitshows for cash grabbing, some good stuff, decent but forgettable shows, a few gems, some shows that had potential but end up being shit, and a bunch of crap nobody will care about. It's not like older anime were all masterpieces, there is a lot crap that was rightfully forgotten, and some that earned undeserved fame too.

I think it's just a bigger issue now because most westerners hate the new moe trend that has taken over the past few years. I personally can't stand those fucking "imouto" harem shows or whatever that have been popping up every season recently and is the new hot thing among the chronic masturbators that dominate the anime fandom.

The JoJo anime was a godsend though

2011 will probably live on as the last great year for anime. Steins;Gate, Tiger & Bunny, AnoHana, Madoka Magica, and Bunny Drop were all really high quality stuff.

I wanted to watch that so badly, but then I tried to get through the first episode and it was impossible. That watercolor art style they went for killed the show for me. Was even worse than the extremely low-budget animation of Great Teacher Onizuka (which actually had frame problems every single time they switched).

The character's hands in Bunny Drop's manga annoyed the hell out of me while I read it. They were so long and spidery. I find the art for shoujo/josei manga and anime in general to be terrible.

This I will agree with because imo that was the best year in anime since like 2005.

Hi, not normally a fan of anime outside Miyazaki's work, but I remember watching this batshit insane anime starring the now-ex Prime Minister of Japan playing Mah-Jong against world leaders to decide the future of international politics. It was hilarious, but I can't remember what it was called, does anyone know of it?

The watercolor art only appears before the opening credits, and then they switch to the more conventional style.

...



FUCK

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I saw The Rapeman yesterday
"Righting wrongs through penetration"
I cried tears of joy, best anime of all time

Almost halfway through LOTGH.... what a lot of intrigue, I'm really curious now as to how everything is going to develop.

I'm gonna try and blast through the rest of it over the next week or so.

Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku, also known as The Legend of Koizumi (not a literal translation of the original name, but who the hell cares, it's an epic show anyway). There's a manga too, which is even better.

This may sound crazy, considering how long this has existed, but I just finished the first season of Fullmetal Alchemist today and I must say that I was very pleased with it. The character development of Ed and Al is executed so well. That one episode where Al is depressed because No. 66 was telling him that he isn't human almost feels real. It's crazy that an episode that is built around Al, who sounds like a kid lost in a ventilation shaft, can be THAT emotionally believable. I can't wait to continue the series though. Can anyone tell me how good the manga is?

The manga is good, in my opinion. I don't know what you mean by "first season", though. FMA had one less-than-stellar-but-still-enjoyable-sometimes adaptation that diverted from the original manga, and a pretty good second one that closely followed it. Going by that, the manga is better than the first adaptation, and more or less as good as the second.

I'd like to disagree that the "first season" (the original 2003 FMA series) is inferior to the manga and the second series (Brotherhood). From the very beginning, Bones knew that they couldn't do a direct adaptation, so they set out to tell their own story from the beginning, using what manga was available as a guideline to start off their own story. Considering anime's tradition for more direct and literal adaptations, this seems incredibly ballsy, and I think they pulled it off. I still quite like the first series, not only because they told their own story, but also because their story was just as good, if in a slightly different direction. The first series is definitely the more introspective and philosophical of the two. The manga (and Brotherhood, by extension) had some of that, but was more interested in the action and intrigue than any real grand strokes of character development. Even when Ed and Al get confused for some reason, they come to a conclusion pretty quickly and move forward, making them much more decisive in the manga than they were in the 2003 anime series.

However, this doesn't mean that Brotherhood is bad in any way, but it is undercut by being an almost full adaptation of the manga series (they did cut some early stuff and rearranged a few things later on, but they're fairly insignificant to the overall experience). Essentially, the way I look at it is the manga is the full story, Brotherhood is the same story but more streamlined, and the 2003 series is a different take on the story, splintering off into another timeline to tell its own story, and ALL of them are good. If you haven't seen it, watch the first FMA movie, the Conquerer of Shamballa, as it wraps up the first series, kind of. I haven't seen the second movie, the Secret of Milos, but I have heard that the story is inconsequential and the animation is lacking in parts (not unlike some of the lesser Naruto movies, I'm imagining). The OVAs are more for the fans; your mileage may vary, and I haven't gotten to any of the video games, though I understand that the early PS2 ones are decent because they use the same engine as Kingdom Hearts, or something like that.

If the walls of text weren't enough, I'll admit that I'm a big fan of the Fullmetal Alchemist franchise, as I consider the manga and both the anime series to be some of the best in their respective mediums, and I kind of wish there was more of this kind of go-nuts-style of world building, character creation, and conflict resolution (especially since NONE of it takes place in a high school). It reminds me of the creator's author note in the first volume was about how she wanted the series to have the kind of reckless spontaneity of a B-movie, and I think she really succeeded.

I agree, the first series and the manga are good, I skipped brotherhood after the first few terrible episodes.

The 2003 FMA series was good, but it had some pretty major problems with the story in the last third or so. Brotherhood, however, is absolutely brilliant.

Good to know, because that's the FMA I decided I will be watching.

Dang, I really need to read the manga as well then to get the full picture. I honestly had no clue that the 2003 series is a different story. Oh, another great anime was Hellsing. I loved the overall darkness of the series and it followed the manga pretty well. I'll always love the manga more, though. There were some things in the manga that I found lacking in the anime.

The first episode was an original story (with the ice alchemist guy), and then it spends the next twelve or so episodes redoing the early stuff. If you've only watched the first anime series, the new stuff doesn't really show up until about episode 14 or 15. If you can get to that point, the following 50 episodes are quite the ride. (Unless you've read the manga, through which you know everything that follows is awesome.)



I haven't seen/read any Hellsing, but I was under the impression that they followed a similar path as FMA. There was one anime series that tried to adapt the manga but many people didn't care for it, so they started Hellsing Ultimate (which still isn't finished, I believe) which is a more faithful adaptation. I plan on watching both at some time, but grad school has been keeping me busy. I still haven't watched an episode of JoJo yet!

You are correct. Hellsing Ultimate is a mixed bag, I'd say. There is some really good stuff in a whole shit-ton of bad. There are also some scenes that even for someone like me were far too dark. Don't think I'd sit through the anime again, and that's mainly because there's nothing really rewarding out of watching it.

Yes, yes, by no means did I mean to imply that the first FMA series isn't good. Whether it is better than the manga and, by extension, Brotherhood, is merely a matter of taste. I just prefer my anime adaptations to be... well, adaptations, and not a completely different story. Conqueror of Shamballa blows balls, though, as does that Milos thing. They're not an offense to all things holy, but they aren't very good either, and certainly don't live up to what a fan would usually expect from something related to the FMA franchise.



Now, regarding Hellsing... Why yes, that is a similar case. There is a short and not-so-good anime adaptation that doesn't follow the manga and has a rather dumb ending (I consider it a prime example of what an "asspull" is), and a magnificent adaptation (the Hellsing Ultimate OVAs) that follows it closely, and which still has one more episode to go until it's finished. Needless to say, I can hardly wait until it's released and subbed.

And I haven't watched any JoJo either. But at least I finished some of the shows from past seasons that I was watching.

EDIT: Ah, I see there is some disagreement on Hellsing Ultimate too... Well, I'll concede that it's not for everyone. It puts emphasis on certain things, perhaps even more so than the manga does, and some people don't like that (not saying that's your case, OzzyApu). I liked the rest well enough to make up for it, though. So again, a matter of tastes, I suppose.

I guess the main reason why I like the 2003 FMA series is because it wasn't a direct adaptation, while still being very good (IMO). That just doesn't happen very often in anime.

Regarding Conquerer of Shamballa . . .

On a completely unrelated note, I'm still waiting with bated breath for Diskotek Media to release Samurai Pizza Cats. Apparently, they've been having trouble getting the dub masters, so the subtitle box sets will probably come out first, and I can hardly wait. I don't know if any of you guys are SPC fans, but getting this series on DVD feels like a complete miracle to me.

My memory might be playing tricks on me, but...

Actually, the 2003 FMA does state that...

So I just watched Sword of The Stranger. Good movie. Not gonna lie, I shed a tear(a very manly tear) when Nanashi drew his sword for the first time and cut down that Chinese fellow.

Exactly!

Damn. That is true, my memory was in fact playing tricks on me...

So has anyone here checked out Psycho-Pass? I'm always skeptical about newer sci-fi shows being dribbled with fan-pandering crap and moe, etc, but everything I hear about this one sounds like it could be legit sci-fi and mature stuff finally. So pretty curious to know if anyone here is keeping up with it.

A bit behind on JoJo, but I'll try to catch up today. I'm really stoked for it to go into the second part with Joseph, sounds like it'll be even better from there on. Hopefully it continues to do well and because of the manga is conveniently broken up into parts, perhaps they could just make more seasons down the road to cover the bigger parts.

You JoJo fans might appreciate this gif I just whipped up, haha. Gotta love the HnK throwback, I think Fairy Tail even did a scene like this recently.

Hey guyz, if you don't mind helping out an anime poser do you know any good shows filled with adventure and/or fantasy with a strong central romance? Preferably something that isn't hundreds of episodes long.

Been in the mood for such a thing lately...

Thanks!