What Anime are you watching?

[B E C K]

I watched Youjo Senki dubbed and dropped it like a hot potato.  Monica Rial's playing Tanya.  She's a real talented voice actress but the main character in this one carries so much of the energy that I really wanted somebody a little less, um, exposed, I guess.  This would've been the perfect role and series to try out some new talent.  I'll stick with subs on this one.

Scum's Wish is, um, interesting.  I like the main character (the girl) but don't really care for the dude.  Since this and the manga it's based on are going to end at the same time, I'm curious about how it's gonna go.  For now I'll stick with it.

Took a peek at Kubikiri Cycle.  Maybe not quite my thing.

Little Witch Academia... meh, I'm feeling a bit bored by it.  I think because it's being super episodic when I think one main goal or mystery should be running through the entire series.  Kinda like a Harry Potter format, I suppose, where there was a big mystery afoot but then they still have side adventures.  Without some main "theme" or whatever, eps like this "Lotte likes fake Stephanie Meyer loli and inspires her to write again" feel like a waste.  There's no B plot.  The A plot was getting Lotte to the event.  Then they show Diana's friends but never tie them back in nor tie it to Diana.  What about the mystery of Lotte's internet pal?  It was a teacher but that part becomes a "blink or you'll miss it" gag.  There's not even any stakes for the girls returning to campus.  Scrubbing a bath tub's not a stake when they joke and hold a light-hearted conversation at the same time.  The show should've made it so that they have to sneak in or else they get expelled or zapped by a spell or something else.  Or Ursula could've gone to get the girls for missing out on her lesson.  This episode could've easily been used to develop one of the other girls, be it Diana, Diana's friends, Amanda and the other girls that will become the friends of the main characters, or even the teachers.  What even happened to the freaky broom from last week?

[B E C K]

This latest episode started off sooooo good and the ending just fell apart.  I think making Diana surpass all the teachers by being fluent in Dragonese was going too far.  Diana needs some spinach now.

[B E C K]

In regards to the last two eps of LWA, these were much better than previous eps so I hope they keep things up.  Again, they need to work a bit on their endings.  In this last ep, it was good enough that Ursula stood up for Akko so passionately.  Having them clean together as punishment was fine.  That the whole "the fishies were endangered" angle got thrown into things was unnecessary.  I hope the progression between Akko and Ursula means that Akko will find out she's Chariot sooner rather than later.

Also, I liked Frank better than Andrew. 


I also saw a bit of Demi-chan wa Kataritai so I decided to try it out.  I haven't had time to start at the beginning yet.  Maybe later in the week...

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

I like that one. It's a bit pie in the sky (as if monster people wouldn't suffer extreme racism in everyday life and especially in high school), but it's a nice show without all the intrigue that seems to pervade so much other stuff.

[B E C K]

Still haven't gotten to Demi-chan.  Le flu kept me from all of my anime.

Feeling a little better, I decided to start with the dub of Overlord because I was mainly just playing it in the background while I caught up with a week's worth of cleaning.  Overall, it's good.  Ainz is a bit mixed for me.  Sometimes I swear he sounds like Snagglepuss but other times he sounds all right.  Albedo could've been sultrier.  The chick they got for Clementine is really good.  You can tell she had a lot of fun in her role and that makes her delivery all the better.  I wish more of these actors just had fun with it because some of them sound too serious.

[B E C K]

Okay, watched Demi-chan and overall it's a good show.  That all three girls have the hots for the old-looking teacher (even though he's actually supposed to be a young college student but whatevs) is kinda squick for me but at least he doesn't seem to be a lech and enjoy it and shit.  I'm glad the succubus character is an adult.  I hope her and the mc get together.  The cutesy version of Bram Stoker's Dracula's hairstyle that Hikari has cracks my shit up every time I see it.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

She's just a really cute character in general...watching her get worked up over the biting thing is pretty funny, and it shows that she's not as comfortable with her nature as she lets on. The dullahan is the only one who really has problems with her monster-ness (having to tote her head around all the time), and she's still the best-adjusted one. In comparison, the others are almost normal, even the succubus with her pheromone and clothing concerns.

[Rama]

Saw Akira for the first time in years. Watched it with the 88 dub since that is what I had on VHS back in the day. Pretty good...but the dub doesn't hold up well. Gonna what it with the 2000's dub and then the sub at some point.

Watched Ghost in the Shell the movie as well, which I also hadn't see in years. So long that I forgot how much the ending pissed me off. The flick was great up till that point, but for some reason I thought it had something to do with the Major's real past...but nope. Ah well.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

I never liked the first Ghost in the Shell movie. I've seen it several times, but it's damned pretentious. And GitS2 was ten times worse in that regard...and most other regards. However, the Stand Alone Complex TV series was awesome. Wasn't so fond of the second season, but the first year was gold.

I took Akiba's Trip off my watch list. I'd been downloading it, but I realized that I'd only watched four episodes and really didn't want to watch anymore. The premise was goofy, but they never bothered to do anything with it besides monster of the week stuff. So I dropped it.

[B E C K]

I didn't drop that Dragon Maid show, not really.  But when I got super sick, I was too tired to even dl anime and with Demi-chan, Little Witch Academia, Scum's Wish, and Youjo Senki already on my plate, something had to give.  I actually wasn't even dling it, I just streamed that one.  So I haven't been keeping up since about three or so episodes back.  I might pick it up again when I run into a void of things to watch.  I haven't caught up on Scum's Wish or Youjo Senki yet.  I'm almost caught up with YS but I'm about two or three behind on Scum's Wish.  YS is starting to bore me a little bit.  I don't feel like it's really going anywhere anymore.  Tanya had strong motivations in the beginning and now it's just feels, weakened, I suppose now that she appears to be rolling along with the punches now.  That guy as a potential enemy of the season for her is kinda a bummer.  He would've been better off staying dead, which is what I believe actually happens in the light novel.

Demi-chan stumbled with last week's episode.  Kinda boring.  I guess it's time to ramp up some drama since it looks like vice principal-chan's going to get sensei shit-canned or something.  Really, I just want more succubus.

LWA is still a cute, inoffensive time-waster but 10 episodes in, it doesn't match the magic of the original mini-movie.  I'm still waiting for the plot to show up.  Andrew showing up was a nice surprise because I wasn't expecting to see him again so soon and I thought I'd get bored of his shit, but at least the show introduced more of a conflict between him and Daddy Politician so that's better than nothing.  Frank x Lotte, I'm not on board with.  Frank seems like more fun and he would've been a better love interest for wacky Akko than Andrew aka Boy!Diana.  At least Sucy still likes fuckin' up Akko's shit for laughs.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

The place I was DLing Academia from quit around episode 6. That's ok, as I haven't watched it since the second episode.  But it's a drag, since I actually like that one.

The Dragon Maid show has been consistently entertaining to me. Haven't watched anything past the first episode of Scum's Wish, as it looks too dramatic for my tastes. I started watching Seiren again, but it seems it's in the same boat. I want more fun and less angst.

[jonhammstein]

I've been downloading a few shows but haven't watched anything, and now April is already looming on the horizon... with Attack on Titan returning after long last. I wonder if it will grab everyone's attention once more, or if people have since moved on.

The only other upcoming show that piques my interest is Warau Salesman NEW, and that's only because the art style looks so atypical. No idea what it's even about.

[B E C K]

https://myanimelist.net/anime/season/2017/spring

The synopsis for that salesman one actually piqued my interest.  Other than that one and AoT, maybe I'll see at least one ep of Atom: The Beginning and see if I like it.  None of the rest... not really.  And holy shit, for summer there's another Saiyuki series.  They arrive in India.  I don't think I give a shit anymore so I doubt I'd watch it, but it's still cool they finally got there or whatever.

The place I was DLing Academia from quit around episode 6. That's ok, as I haven't watched it since the second episode.  But it's a drag, since I actually like that one.

The Dragon Maid show has been consistently entertaining to me. Haven't watched anything past the first episode of Scum's Wish, as it looks too dramatic for my tastes. I started watching Seiren again, but it seems it's in the same boat. I want more fun and less angst.

I tried catching up on Scum's Wish just now and I was all "yeah, I don't want something being a bummer right now."  What are your standards for the anime you dl?  Like you don't want hard subs or need them at a certain size?

[Rama]

I never liked the first Ghost in the Shell movie. I've seen it several times, but it's damned pretentious. And GitS2 was ten times worse in that regard...and most other regards. However, the Stand Alone Complex TV series was awesome. Wasn't so fond of the second season, but the first year was gold.

Yeah I think a lot of my good will towards GITS comes from that show.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

I have to admit, Masamune-kun no Revenge has been a hoot so far.

What are your standards for the anime you dl?  Like you don't want hard subs or need them at a certain size?

My "standards" is funny to me given that the anime I typically enjoy tends to be a tad on the ecchi side. Anyway, I prefer soft subs as they render cleanly no matter what screen I use to watch and you can have multiple sub streams. Everything I watch on does a good job rendering, which wasn't always the case. But hard subs will do if I'm desperate...for instance, the only way I could ever find Macross Plus in HD was with hard subs.

As for other considerations, I tend to download shows in 720p resolution, since TV anime is generally created in that range...very rarely will you find television anime in 1080p natively. If it's a movie, though, I'll typically download in 1080p as I presume feature-length anime starts life in, and thus actually takes advantage of, that resolution. Old film animation, however, can be even higher...I remember in the 1986 Transformers movie bluray that they said the film source was actually scanned in 6K. I was like, "well, why didn't you assholes put it out on UHD, then?!" The potential quality of an old film animated feature is staggering...I'm not generally a fan of Disney animation, but I'd like to see some of those old movies in 4K with 10-bit color....

Speaking of that, I prefer anime encodes in 10-bit color since they typically result in much smaller files and less color banding on gradients (that really bugs me). I typically go with AAC sound encodes as I'm not much of an audiophile, and it helps reduce file sizes, but I'm not choosy in this regard.

Yeah I think a lot of my good will towards GITS comes from that show.

Yeah, that show was boss. I have the DVDs of the series, but I was really glad to find HD versions online awhile back.

[B E C K]

My "standards" is funny to me given that the anime I typically enjoy tends to be a tad on the ecchi side.

Tee hee.    But yeah, I meant technical standards like you mentioned in the rest of your post. 

I only ask because a couple of the sites I go to have LWA in 720p so I was gonna say "oh, blah blah and wah wah have LWA..."  Unless you prefer to torrent or something.

How do you know an anime is encoded in 10-bit color?

I have to admit, Masamune-kun no Revenge has been a hoot so far.

Is that show a bit ecchi or you like it for other reasons?  I was initially interested in that one when I first heard of it but then I hear the revenge aspect is dropped pretty quickly.  That kinda reminded me a bit of a gender-flipped Watashi ga Motete Dōsunda (Kiss Him Not Me) where it was described as "a fat, lazy, pervy fujoshi in a hot body being pursued by hot young men who she actually ships with one another" which was fucking hilarious when they did it.  But the show itself only gives you a tiny bit of that before it decides to become a regular romcom.  If they had only played the selling aspect for all that it was worth, that show would've been AOTS.  For me, anyway.

I never liked the first Ghost in the Shell movie. I've seen it several times, but it's damned pretentious. And GitS2 was ten times worse in that regard...and most other regards. However, the Stand Alone Complex TV series was awesome. Wasn't so fond of the second season, but the first year was gold.

Yeah I think a lot of my good will towards GITS comes from that show.

I really, really want the live action movie to flop on its ass.  I'm sure it'll still make money one way or another: either the domestic bo will be just enough or the Chinese bo will prop this one up like they did PacRim.  Looking at footage, none of it looks impressive visually as far as scenery is concerned and the actors all look bored.  It looks no different from something serialized on Syfy.  The only thing I haven't completely written off is the soundtrack.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

How do you know an anime is encoded in 10-bit color?

It'll usually be written in the file name. The reasons why it's not done for everything is because A) it takes longer to encode the video (so don't expect a group like Horrible Subs to use it since they're speed-subbers), B) not everyone's hardware can handle it (slowly becoming less of a problem now), and C) not everyone's software supports it (again, it's becoming less of a problem).

Is that show a bit ecchi or you like it for other reasons?  I was initially interested in that one when I first heard of it but then I hear the revenge aspect is dropped pretty quickly.  That kinda reminded me a bit of a gender-flipped Watashi ga Motete Dōsunda (Kiss Him Not Me) where it was described as "a fat, lazy, pervy fujoshi in a hot body being pursued by hot young men who she actually ships with one another" which was fucking hilarious when they did it.  But the show itself only gives you a tiny bit of that before it decides to become a regular romcom.  If they had only played the selling aspect for all that it was worth, that show would've been AOTS.  For me, anyway.

It's not ecchi. Makabe basically hates Adagaki because she treated him like shit when he was a little fat kid, so he transforms himself specifically so he can get with her and break her heart. Except she defies him all the way, with only occasionally showing cracks in her shell, which keeps him going. And it's funny to watch her continually shoot him down, which he completely deserves. But he gets enough progress to keep him on the revenge path, particularly since he gets help from an unexpected source (her maid, Koiwai). Towards the end they all start getting more buddy buddy, but it certainly never turns into anything romantic, which is probably why I find it so funny. I can just imagine the sappier people watching it getting tweaked every time nothing happens between the two mains.

My real problem with it is that it never ties things together with the past events, so the girl is always just a bitch when there's obviously some sort of convolution there that made her so bitchy. And then there's the other girl who was pursuing Makabe, Fujinomiya, with whom we see some sort of past connection but never an explanation as to what it is. I'm sure they were shooting for a second season, but, still, you have to have some sort of payoff.

I really, really want the live action movie to flop on its ass.  I'm sure it'll still make money one way or another: either the domestic bo will be just enough or the Chinese bo will prop this one up like they did PacRim.  Looking at footage, none of it looks impressive visually as far as scenery is concerned and the actors all look bored.  It looks no different from something serialized on Syfy.  The only thing I haven't completely written off is the soundtrack.

I honestly don't know what I think. On one hand, I'd like for it to succeed so as to get more money flowing in the anime sector...the rising tide raising all ships, basically. On the other hand, I don't expect it to be worth me bothering to go see it. I'm not a huge GitS fan to start with, it appears based primarily on Oshii's movie versions which I didn't like (wonder if there'll be a damned bassett hound somewhere in it?), and it doesn't look particularly impressive.

[B E C K]

As if it weren't a big enough strike against it to miscast Motoko Kusanagi, everyone else also looks like shit.  For Batou, all they did was ask some round-faced fuck that came out with Scarjo in "Lucy" when they should've just thrown a sack of money at Ron Perlman.  They casted Togusa with a 47-year-old Chinese man.  Was Yoshi Sudarso from Power Rangers Dino Charge that fuckin' busy?  I don't even know what's going on with the guy they casted as Boma but I hope for his sake that those eyes get fixed in post because he looks like a cartoon and not in the way Ghost in the Shell was one.

As for anime I'm watching right now...

I think I'm through with Scum's Wish.  I'm bored by it and the manga just ended, using a dull shit-ending that makes sitting through any more of this not worth it.

Netflix got One Punch Man, which was cool but it's sub only.  I was kinda hoping I could chell out the dub.  Usually they end up with dubs anyway (so it's just a matter of waiting) but then the subtitles went out of sync so I just gave up and watched my own subbed copy instead.

Oh, yeah, and going back to live-action Western adaptations, I saw the trailer for the Death Note movie.  It makes the Japanese live-action Death Note look like high art.  It's a Netflix original now so I don't know if I'll be able to contain my curiosity when it's actually available for streaming.

[B E C K]

Yep.  Tried watching the new Attack on Titan when the first new ep appeared and couldn't sit through it.  Maybe I'll try again later.

[jonhammstein]

I'm not even going to bother with Titan until it's all out, then I'll binge it. I'm done watching shows week to week. D, O, N, E, done.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

I haven't found anything I'm interested in this season. My backlog is such that I still have plenty to watch, though.

[B E C K]

That Salesman show-whatever got completely shat on by Anime News Network's review people.  Savage!  I think I'll do the joe-move and wait for the entire 2nd season of AoT to come out unless something really awesome happens that makes me tune in earlier.  So far tho', nothing really exciting this season.  Saw a bit of Grimoire of Zero.  Might try another ep and see if that one's a pick-up for me.  Otherwise, looks like I gotta wait until summer.


Oh, yeah...  AHAHAHAHAHA.  Ghost in the Shell bombed on its ass.  Supposedly, we're still getting a new GiTS anime something or other outta it, tho'.

[jonhammstein]

Any time I've ever read anything by those ANN gatekeepers, I've pictured them lounging on divans, holding dainty teacups, pinkies out.

Seriously, fuck their opinions.

That being said, I haven't actually watched the show yet.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

They seem to me that they like to pick out artsy stuff for their recommendations. Their Shelf-Life segment seems to be more normalized.

[B E C K]

Started Quan Zhi Gao Shou aka King's Avatar.  The MC's like Chinese Kirito (OP, Gary Stuey, kinda broody) with a bit of Shiro (smart, strategic, seasoned adult player) thrown in.  But I hear this story doesn't go harem or anything annoying like that, so that's cool.  I also like the aspect of not being trapped in the game.  Like, people just sit in front of computers wearing headsets and play it like a normal game.

I'm still kinda watching LWA but, yeah, I'm officially bored by it now.  I was hoping the appearance of Croix would shake things up and it did for a moment, but then another important lesson for Akko or some shit came along.  The very first LWA they made will always be a mini-masterpiece to me tho'.

[jonhammstein]

Haven't really watched any animu in a while, but I still read new One Piece every week. Also, I think I'm pretty much caught up on everything that's been translated of the latest JoJo manga. I just keep thinking about how rad it's going to be when they finally get around to animating it twenty years from now.

[B E C K]

I forget to mention the Mickey D's product placement in King's Avatar.  That shit's hilarious.  One of the characters is eating a fry and all MMMMMMMMMMMM ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤  McDonald's being that delicious is probably the biggest area of disbelief in the story. 

[B E C K]

Anybody watching anything this season?  None of it is interesting me.  I feel sad that The King's Avatar didn't have a much bigger budget.  They've been reusing a lot of animation from prior episodes.  Also, I think they're trying to cram in a bit too much story.  The story's over 1000 chapters long.  A lot needs to be sacrificed to keep the dramatic pace decent.  Having now read a least a fourth of the source material now, I can confidently say most of the cuts made in the first four episodes were the right ones.  Short of getting a Legend of Korra-sized budget, they just don't have the space.  But the tempo's become kinda muddled now with these last two episodes.  They're only doing twelve episodes for now and I can't tell what direction they're taking this in.

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

I'm downloading the following (and forgive the abbreviations as I don't have patience to write out these long freaking Japanese titles):
DB Super (ongoing) - after a strong start to season 5 it reeeeally drug for a while, but they're about to get the team together for a universe-saving tourney. I'm always down to watch fights where people with far higher powet levels than Master Roshi get beaten up by him using the powet of perversion.
DanMachi Gaiden - Side-story rather than a second season...it's been a bit dull, but I like the world it's set in. Hopefully they'll actually do something soon.
Akashic Records - high school magic academy with a weird teacher savant: two tropes in one. But it looks good and has been entertaining.
Saekano S2 - The first season was interesting, and the second season has been more of the same.
Re:Creators - Video games are actually created as alternate realities (who knew?), and now they're striking out into the real world. Looks really nice, and it drew me in pretty well.
Rage of Bahamut S2 - I'm collecting this one, as I downloaded the first season and never got around to finishing it...once done I'll binge it.

[B E C K]

I deleted Scum's Wish in disgust.  It started off interesting but then it had "worst girl gets best ending."  (Same as the manga, ha ha.) Fuck that. Youjo Senki, I never finished. I dunno, I just got bored with. It started off pretty good so that's too bad. Dragon Maid show I still need to finish but I'm in no hurry. But all of this shit is last season. Out of last season, Demi-chan was the show I enjoyed the most.  It managed to keep the general light-hearted tone until the end. Still rooting for succubus-sensei to get the guy.

As for this season... Rage of Bahamut 2... it's just... I never finished the first one. It didn't pull me in. I'm not sure why. Favaro was pretty annoying but he could also be hilarious. The chick was hot. I don't know. I might just stop with LWA even though I'm still downloading it. It's coming to Netflix anyway so I could always just watch it there and not bother.

Looking for other things to watch (as in any overlooked gems) and came across the two-part television special for The Dragon Dentist that apparently aired just this past February. So that's probably what I'm watching next. Oh, and since I've been watching King's Avatar episodes and previews on YouTube, YouTube recommended another Chinese animated show called Rakshasa Street. Not certain what this is all about yet but the first few minutes interested me so I'm checking this one out. It's not very long anyway.

Oh, yeah, and I saw some of GiTS Arise. Not great but not terrible either. I enjoyed it with a bag of popcorn anyway.