Anime Megathread III and Cartoon Megathread I!

Hitsugi_no_Chaika 09 ~ Ba! another slow episode (still like it), definitely leading up to the finale, maybe cliffhanger?

Then I've gotta wait till October for more Chaika :(.

Bishoujo_Senshi_Sailor_Moon:_Crystal trailer

@bigjeffrey:

Two things:

1. We finally know what this looks like, and it looks OK.
2. Will I have to worry about continuity with this, or is it pretty much a full reboot?

From what was said in the trailer it seems to be a reboot

you can tell because there are no outers (uranus/neptune :( )

Only if you've watched enough of the series up to this point. (For the record, I haven't even made it to the point where they introduce another Sailor.)

When I first saw the concept art with the elongated bodies I wasn't sure I was going to be on board with the visual style, but after the trailer I guess I'll have to deal with it. Blood C had the same elongated bodies and I got over it. I've only seen the first 7 or so episodes of the original on Hulu and I still haven't seen Sailor Mars or Mercury introduced.

Also, where is the NO GAME NO LIFE hype? The episodes keep getting smarter and smarter.

To be fair, I haven't been watching it. Hard to hype a show you haven't been paying attention to.

At this point, the Sailor Moon "lore" is kind of crufty so wiping the slate clean and starting over is fine by me!

But then again I remember how other reboots went. I definitely wasn't a fan of things like BGC 2040. Hmm..

Guess who's back on the first week of July, baby.

Oink.

Hmmmm, pretty meh episode of Mushishi this week. I can't really put my finger on it, but something just felt...off. Well, whatever, still got Kawaisou and Mahouka to look forward to. All hope for some anime goodness this weekend is not lost!

Mahouka_Koukou_no_Rettousei 10 ~ This dude is like a every where. He's always there to save the day. Alright episode.

The last few Reddit threads about this series have been amazing. The ways in which Tatsuya's perfectness annoys some people is just hilarious. Oddly enough, I don't mind it though. It doesn't exactly make for compelling storytelling, but I can't recall many characters who are just straight up 10 steps ahead of everyone else at every possible moment so it wins points for being different if nothing else.

Why is it hilarious? I think it's a fair criticism. A character who has no weaknesses and has no room for improvement is just plain boring and groan inducing. Similarly to him, Lelouch Lamperouge and Medaka Kurokami were also really bad Mary Sue protagonists.

@alexandersheen: sigh...bad choice of words on my part I suppose. It's not the criticism I find hilarious. It's the reactions. The threads I was talking about are often filled with lot of obvious sarcasm and exaggerations about Tatsuya that I find funny. And I'm not defending the writing in that series. I just said I didn't mind.

@disaya I'm one of those Elfen Lied fans. I enjoyed it a lot!

@golguin: They have the intro of Mercury up now. It's the eighth episode. It's not too long because Mars is introduced (because she's introduced a few episodes before Jaedite is permanently put on ice).

I've been watching the added episodes whenever I can each week (next week is going to be a cluster you-know-what because of E3 and all and trying to digest all that goes down). The best two episodes I think are up there right now is the sixth and eighth ones. The sixth one has the piano composer running from the succubus-like Youma. I posted this on Aria's Ink (Sailor Moon fic website) about it:

This episode, for lack of a better phrase, kicked some major ass. The flashback of what the guy was telling had some of the best imagery I've seen in a long time, with the red and black colors that made it look like a vampire graphic novel (looked like something you'd see out of something like Sin City or that). The Youma was very entertaining to look at for all the bats and the poses she made before she revealed her true form. Finally, Usagi really shines in this episode. She seemed more determined here to protect, showing that she can be brave (and it foreshadows so well the type of person she becomes later on; one that thinks and acts more with her heart than her brain). The chase scene also shows the neat imagery when you see Usagi's hair being blown back from the wind when she looks out towards the Youma from the car window. The way they did the scene in the parking garage, where you hear and see nothing but the elevator come down is such a great buildup to what could, and does, happen next. Challenge anyone who had always hated SM to try to say that after watching this episode. It's that good, and obviously the best episode that Usagi was still solo.

The eighth episode is liked for obvious reasons, and the uncensored version makes it even more apparent of Usagi's likability. She not willing to believe Luna's suspicion of Ami, but she opens up to her extremely quickly (which we learn is one of her strong characteristics; her huge heart). It did it better than the dub did, to be honest with you.

I do wonder, though, why they decided to only do two per week when they began by debuting the first four in the first week.

As for the new trailer, I do think they should've shown more of the animation (looked more like a teaser than a trailer), but it looks nice. I do need to get used to the difference of the hair, though. But the way the backgrounds are shown show that they could be looking at trying to attract an expanded audience with this one (they know they have an honest male demo here...honest being males who don't watch it just because they are pervs). The settings look cleaner, sometimes a bit darker, and the animation itself is more fluent than before. This is one of Toei's classics they are redoing, and they seem to be taking some good care into this one.

Gokukoku_no_Brynhildr 10 ~ New opening is some scremo metal shit fits with the show cause it's so dumb. I liked the 1st opening, more anime could use some dubsetep openings.

Yeah, I didn't like the new OP. I'm glad they kept the ending, just added a little bit of sad reminder at the end.

I know that Neko is probably the main relationship, but I think I'm pulling for Kazumi

Finished When They Cry seasons 1 and 2. Definitely fantastic! Those first 12 or so episodes of season 1 though felt like they were daring me to give up and watch something else. After that though, I really got into it.

Halfway through season 4 of Ranma 1/2. I've also been occasionally watching the OVAs and some of those have been fantastic. The best ones so far: Team Ranma vs. The Legendary Phoenix, Ranma Super OVA, and Reawakening Memories.

Started up Humanity Has Declined. Watched episodes 7 and 8 last night. Time Paradogs.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders - episode 10 - Lovin' it!

I've been watching episodes of Detective Conan for a while now, and got up to the first episode that features The Kaitou Kid, which ended with me watching the first two episodes of the Magic Kaito specials. Good stuff.

I finished it a few days ago and I didn't enjoy it, I was really hoping to get into it but no. Though reading through the wiki and about the manga did make me appreciate the story more and cleared up some things for me. I think the show maybe needed a 2nd season in order to flesh it out.

I don't know but now I'm moving onto some show called Fractale.

@sergio said:

@bigjeffrey said:

Gokukoku_no_Brynhildr 10 ~ New opening is some scremo metal shit fits with the show cause it's so dumb. I liked the 1st opening, more anime could use some dubsetep openings.

Yeah, I didn't like the new OP. I'm glad they kept the ending, just added a little bit of sad reminder at the end.

I know that Neko is probably the main relationship, but I think I'm pulling for Kazumi

Best Girl

It took me a while to get used to Jotaro (he's kind of an asshole) and old Joseph (he's not as fun compared to his younger self) but it's still the same bizarre adventure I liked before.

And Humanity Has Declined was one of my favorites in the year it came out. The art style, the world, Watashi and the fuckin' fairies made that show something special.

In surprise news that probably no one here other than me care about, voice actress Sawashiro Miyuki gotmarried last week.

She is now, in the realest of senses, a waifu.

:>

Well, that and the fact that the series is actually about fighting Queen Beryl again. They really are starting from the top.

Also watched this week's episodes of OG Sailor Moon tonight, Rei has shown up!

Not yet. Does she speak English not that well?

Gosh, you're right. I fucked up. She's one of the few Japanese VAs who can speak competent English.

But she's no Kaida Yuki.

@zomgfruitbunnies:

Then she is no waifu. Only Japanese women who can only sort of speak English are waifu. Otherwise, you're a wife or a ワイフ.

As a lunar waifuologist, would you say this is the one and only correct definition of waifu? Are there future plans to expand this classification? Please elaborate.

Black_Bullet 10 ~ what a dark episode all the little girls were killed :(.

I just got around to watching this and man was it depressing. This show really has no problem with killing little girls :(

Just poked my head into Kanon 2002 vs. 2006:

o/~ Memories! o/~

I remember them taking way to long to get to Mikoto and Minako where the issue is that the group dynamics where off with just Usagi, Ami, and Rei. Rei is (to put it kindly) pushy and Usagi is (to put it kindly) a klutz where there too many episodes of with Rei and Usagi bickering and neither Ami nor "Tuxedo Kamen" being a great moderator or motivator.

One thing I hope with Crystal, crazier fight scenes! The limitations of 90s tech made it hard to do anything that complex on a TV budget and schedule. With modern tech I would like to see their imagination run with the crazy power resulting in loopy fights.

Korra is getting a third Season, which is good because they where forced to rush the end of season 2

I've started re-watching Animaniacs, I advise you all to do the same.

@gokaired: Season 3 of Korra: featuring the end of the universe.

Thanks Korra.

Edit: Trailer seems like it could potentially not be that catastrophic (in other words, alright). Looks like some flashbacks might be happening. Grandpa Zuko (unless he's still alive somehow). I'm guessing something strange is happening with bending. More benders being born, perhaps with more than one element?

How many episodes do they get for this season? If it's more than twenty, they may be able to come up with something approaching the quality of the first series.

The only way to foil the bad guy's plan to destroy the world is for Korra to destroy it first.

Side thought: I thought I saw that Bumi air bending. She kind of broke the universe so why not have this as a strange side effect?

It already had a third season coming. I think they had announced that (and maybe a 4th, can't remember) while the second season was in production.

yes and no, they had planned for more season but during production they wasn't renewed, they originally wanted season 3 to have Korra without her bending, or something along that line. Which is why they made a swift conclusion in season 2, if it was the end they wanted to rap everything up.

Seconding this. The action of the old show doesn't hold up so well today in my opinion. It's essentially the same magic animations over and over again to end fights and each sailor scout had only like one special attack per season if I remember correctly. At least Rei had those protection from evil talismans that paralyzed dudes before burning them. Everyone else had kinda nothing else going on. If the action in the reboot ends up being decent then I'm willing to get into it.

Why is JoJo so good?!!! It has no right to be as good as it is!!!!!!

I like the look of this new thing:

Zankyō no Teroru

"directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, with character designs by Kazuto Nakazawa and music by Yoko Kanno."

I'm not sure of the details, but we've known of season 3 and 4 for almost two years. I'm not sure what you mean by rushing the end, since their development isn't like South Park. Perhaps during production before they had the reorder they decided to change the story at the end. I did think it ended poorly since I thought it would have been better to start the next season without powers.

Mahouka_Koukou_no_Rettousei 11 ~ okay Now THAT was a boring episode.

Seitokai_Yakuindomo 1-13 ~ Awesome show, glad there is another season for me to watch.

Best Character