Anime Megathread III and Cartoon Megathread I!

Watched a bunch of Tonami when Attack on Titan was on last Saturday night and out of the block I really enjoyed Space Dandy and Black Lagoon. Are those worth watching the entire series?

Also when people decide to watch animes with 300+ episodes like One Piece and Naruto do you just start at the newest episode or do most people watch from the beginning? I find it difficult to start any show that has so many episodes, I feel like I would be lost the entire time if I started from the middle.

@mendelson9: If you like action and guns and lots of bullets flying around in the way of old-school Hong Kong mafia films, you'll likely enjoy Black Lagoon thoroughly. Can't really comment on Space Dandy as I haven't finished it, either.

Should you decide to commit to an anime that runs for like a billion episodes, it's probably best to start at the beginning. There are usually anime original filler material between cours (assuming we're talking about anime adaptations of existing material), and those can be safely skipped without worry as they do not impact the actual canon.

If you liked that one, you should check Toaru Kagaku no Railgun later. It has a different tone but I liked that more than Index.

Yeah, I enjoy it too. Haven't tried Ping Pong The Animation yet because I feel indifferent about it. But if someone who watching it want to try to sell me on it then go ahead.

Talking about sports, Diamond no Ace is still excellent and looking forward to see what this Todoroki Raichi dude and his team is all about.

Also, Haruichi is still blushing up a storm whenever he plays.

Here is a 2014 summer lineup chart.

The ones so far that look somewhat interesting to me:

• Psycho-Pass - I guess I'll watch it... again
• Himegoto - It's a trap!
• Aldnoah.Zero - "Original story by Gen Urobuchi" Deal!
• Glasslip - P.A. Works
• Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
• Hamatora Second Season - Hopefully they will get more than 5 bucks as a production budget this time
• Zankyou no Terror - A grandiose game, you say? We'll see about that
• Tokyo Ghoul - I like the picture of that dude
• Kantai Collection -Kan Colle- - Maybe after watching this those hentai doujins that pop up more frequently will make more sense... I mean what?
• Ao Haru Ride

Finished up my binge of JoJo's Bizare Adventure and ready to start Stardust Crusaders...It was damn good. Evil Dubstep Vampire Squirrel is the best thing to happen in anime.

@bigjeffrey: Are you enjoying Coffin Princess so far?

Yup it's good so far. The characters are not annoying and story is okay so far and barely picking up steam. I like the brother and sister characters.

As an ardent fan of Chinese cartoons, I believe everyone should watch Space Dandy.

You still have the second season of Index and the movie.

I've started watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Liking it so far, even though some of the characters are beefy as fuck, which is kind of off-putting.

@alexandersheen:

Blasphemy! You can NEVER have too much beef.

Well, Part 1 is from 1987, and Araki was a fan of Fist Of The North Star. Big beefy dudes was pretty in back then. His art style has really evolved over the years, current JoJo doesn't look anything like it used to.

Watch from the beginning. If you enjoy the show a lot then you'll be glad there are 500+ episodes for you to get through. If you just jump in randomly things won't make sense and scenes that are supposed to have an impact on you won't. One Piece in particular has so much lore, world building, characters, etc that are introduced hundreds of chapters/episodes before, that jumping into a new arc would be really odd.

Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index_II [Complete 1-24] - Pretty good i liked this season more than the 1st one.

Toaru_Majutsu_no_Index:_Endymion_no_Kiseki [Movie] - i liked it.

Inugami-san_to_Nekoyama-san 05 - So dumb

@bigjeffrey: Do you have a MAL list?

NOW that description alone has got my attention.

Also who here is following Nisekoi?

Also who has seen Silver Spoon? Probably my favorite anime out of all the animes I've seen these past few months. Its pretty fucking good.

@mendelson9: Oh man, that's a pretty tricky dilemma. I started watching Naruto years ago (back when I was still in 1st year of high school...and I'm just realizing that it's been over a decade...fuck that's long time ago) and then when I kinda got sick of watching filler story arcs in college and wanted to catch up I just started reading the manga and stopped watching the anime altogether. You should probably do a Google seach for a guide for new viewers that can point out which episodes are the main arcs and which ones are just filler arcs for the anime you want to watch but that would still require a LOT of binge watching. Also if you are planning on watching Naruto, the anime is seperated into two: the first being Naruto and then followed by Naruto Shipuuden.

I can finally contribute meaningfully to this thread! Attack on Titan was added to Netflix so I decided to try it and ended up binge watching it. It's really good. I have nitpicks but whatever. The animation is really good and they do a great job building tension.

I laughed my ass off during episodes 6 of JoJo. Jotaro has it pretty rough compared to Jonathan and Joseph since they were able to rely on Speedwagon as their hype man. Jotaro literally had to tell Avdol to provide the hype after his amazing attack. It's good that Polnareff was able to also pick up some of the slack.

I haven't watched an anime in a year, that hasn't stopped me

@animasta: When Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal comes out, you'll be back in the A-game.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was fucking bananas! It was indeed an adventure. I need some time off before I start Stardust Crusaders, though.

WORD UP

Are there any actual screenshots of this show anywhere, or is it just promotional stuff?

Still enjoying this season of sports animes though I have since dropped Baby Steps. Couldn't really get behind the art and it just wasn't all that exciting or funny or heartfelt to me. Ping Pong and Haikyuu are good enough for me at the moment though they certainly aren't without caveats. And JoJo remains fantastic. Anyone else notice that even the subbers for JoJo seem to be feeling some of the proverbial legal heat in the latest episode?

Jotaro sucks balls. I don't like him at all.

I remember someone mentioned Mekakucity Actors in this thread so I popped it into Crunchyroll without knowing anything about it.

1) Opens with a clock and timer. Reminds me of Madoka.
2) Extremely detailed backgrounds with color gradients and lens flares.
3) Art shift to very sketchy pencil style
4) cryptic dialogue with more very detailed backgrounds
5) head tilt

It took 1 minute and 22 seconds to realize that this was indeed made by Shaft and that means it's going to go crazy. I've seen the first two episodes so far and it's pacing is VERY similar to the Monogatari series right down to the way dialogue flows. I have more episodes to watch so have some Shaft head tilt in the meantime.

If you don't mind crappy video quality and hardsubbed mandarin subtitles you can watch the first Persona 3 movie early

Akagi might be my new favorite series. Not as many crying big nosed men as in Kaiji but I liked the less outlandish tone and it didn't drag on as much, Kaiji played that one pachinko machine for like seventeen episodes. He hates it! Looking for more mahjong centric anime I started watching Saki, a bit of a change in tone but it ain't bad.

Saki is better then all other Mahjong based anime. Indisputably.

Well the first season ED is tough to beat, I'll give it that.

I finally got around to watching the 3rd Madoka movie. I was pretty wasted while watching it, but I have a feeling this would have made just as much sense as if I was sober. What just happened?

I'm really warming up to Bokura Wa Minna Kawaisou.

The characters are very likable and charming! Hell, the animation in general is very charming. The humor hits more than it misses, and each episode feels complete and satisfying. I find myself looking forward to the next episode more than I initially expected I would.

Ace of Diamond episode 31 - So, Raichi showed up and confirmed my belief of him being the batter version of Sawamura. He's great. Just look at this idiot:

Although, the voice actor choice for him is really weird. He is voiced by the same guy who voices Kuroko. From a soft spoken and polite dude to a loud mouthed dork who maniacally laughs whenever he can.

[Finished] 1-12 Outbreak_Company - guy teaching japan "Otaku" culture to a different world, i enjoyed it. I even learned some things.

@petiew: Love happened.

It was one of the best shows I've seen in a long time that had no business being that good, but it all works out.

Uhh, so, 8 days ago I said I was starting Bakemonogatari. Since then I've watched Bake-, Nise-, Neko- and most of Monogatari season 2. I liked Bake- the best so far. Nise- was pretty good, but it felt like a very different show from Bake-. Like it became a less eventful show, which persisted through Neko- and into Season 2. It's taking longer for things to happen. Or maybe this is how it was meant to be and Bake- was rushing through things. Either way, I prefered the pace of Bake-.

I also watched an episode of Black Bullet, an episode of The Master of Killing Time, and few more episodes of Space Dandy.

I always felt Bakemonogatari is better because of its more focused and compact nature, likely due to it being initially conceived as an independent project without foreknowledge of its success and subsequent inclusion into a much larger body of fiction. The later -monogatari adaptations can afford to be more "loose," since the franchise has already achieved a degree of reputability in terms of quality and fan following.

Note to self: never talk about the perception of lolicons and pedophiles in society on an anime forum.

http://forums.hummingbird.me/t/should-lolicons-be-condemned/9053

@gaspower said:

I've seen the first season of it, and it seems well made, but it doesn't really seem like my cup of tea. I liked the setting, and the art was passable, but the characters didn't really do much for me, and the story tended to solely focus on the characters.

I totally missed your post. It was in my Top 5 list last year. Yes, it is pretty fucking good.

Watched Blade and Soul 1-4, that show isn't great. I had some interest in trying out the MMO whenever that came out so decided to see what the anime was about. Pretty generic, both in terms of story and animation. I don't hate it though, will probably finish it since its only 13 episodes.

Also watched Hyouka 1-14 over the last week. It almost feels like nothing really happens each episode though I guess that is kinda the point. I enjoy the characters a lot. Its not the greatest thing ever, but seems decent enough. Really beautifully animated however, gorgeous in 1080p.

@alexandersheen talking about Ace of Diamond kinda made me wanna check that out.

@atwa: I can only recommend it. And it would be great for me to have someone to talk about it.

@vigorousjammer: You mean the entire twenty two episodes or just the first 11? I really liked the story and though the art isn't its strong suit, I thought the humor and how grounded the story was stuck with me.

A lot of that probably has to do with how focused and specific Silver Spoon's context is. A look at the sales numbers of the manga shows just how popular it is in Japan, and for good reason. Hachiken's experience is reflective of, but certainly not unique to, the growing pains that many, many teenagers in Japan and East Asia have to deal with. The predominant notions that one must do well in school to get a well-paying job or be cast aside by society and shunned by parents and peers alike, and one should always keep one's head down to just live plainly and honestly while appeasing the wishes of one's parents and serve social norms exert an enormous amount of pressure on the youths of East Asia. One is constantly reminded how one should follow predetermined paths to "honest living" and any deviations from such paths are seen as rebellious and childish, and are often met with disapproval and stern backlash from parents and guardians.

Many teens become "lost" when they realize they don't want to follow the path that was set for them by their parents or elders, but having done so little out side of the predetermined paths, they're not sure what else is out there that they can do. The desire to simply be away from the sources of pressure often drive teens to leave home, favoring faraway universities and colleges that offer campus housing. While there's no arguing that Hachiken's case is an idealized version of this, as many of those who leave home return after graduation to resume the career paths that were set for them for one reason or another (reflected in the case of Komaba), it's precisely what the youths of East Asia needs and wants: an optimistic view of the existing possibilities in an environment filled with bitter gloom and uncertainty.

@gaspower said:

I watched the first 11.
The humor and the story were both pretty well done. I probably would have liked it more if I found a character that I liked, maybe somebody I could relate to... but everybody just seemed to have the kind of standard personalities one normally sees, with one leading trait and not too much depth.

It's a good show, just didn't blow me away or anything.