HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII - Page 76

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

I watched Elfen Lied volume one last night. I was totally unprepared for what I saw. Not that I mind gratuitous violence or nudity, I guess I wasn't prepared for the amount of said violence and nudity. I'm looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.

John.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

Just how violent and nude is this show ? I dont mind the nudity but excessive violence makes me really quesy for some reason.
Watched some of Legend of Himiko (?) yesterday at a friends house. It was neither great nor bad. Just bleh. That was just a one episode impression though. The animation looked kinda cheap too.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

I watched it at the same time as Gantz and didn't think it was all that bad to be honest.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

Alanna:

Well, the nudity (full frontal) starts with the OP animation, and just goes on from there. I should mention that, at least for the opening, it's more artsy than anything else. The violence starts from the beginning as well, with enough blood and body parts flying around to give the goriest of horror films a run for their money. However, the violence is in spurts, and most of the four episodes were not violent.

John.

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I watched Elfen Lied volume two last night. More nudity. More violence. Some character development for Kohta and Mayu, including a couple of rather disturbing sexual abuse scenes. If this ends on a positive note, I'll be surprised, although it's not currently as sad as Saikano or Now and Then, Here or There. It may be the ED song, which is *way* too upbeat for this show. Maybe it was chosen to diffuse the negative feelings during the show.

John.

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I dont know about Elfen Lied after reading these bits about it. Nudity dosent bother me, like I think I stated earlier, but the gory stuff does. Blood is ok as long as body parts are not being shown flying all over the place. Thats why I hated Reservoir Dogs (the movie) cos it was so violent or atleast implied violence.

finished Kamichu with volume 4. This was a show that gave a very poor impression on the first volume but really found itself and finished off nicely. A very good upbeat series. Yurie was just like a junior high school girl, kind of shy, lazy, awkward and good hearted and watching her try and keep up with being a god as well as her school activities and a bit of a conclusion with her crush was well done. Things are taken a little overboard, but its usually just the right touch of magic suitable for the program. Even her supporting characters developed nicely, and even though the ending did wrap some things up, it still makes you wonder about their futures. Of course no story ever has an ending since the world keeps turning and lives keep on going so it was satisfying enough as it is. a show I would highly recommend for those looking for something sweet and easy to watch. An A- overall for me.

My next series up for bat is Rumbling Hearts.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

Alanna:

Then Elfen Lied is definitely not for you. There are many scenes of body parts flying around.

All:

I got a bit of anime watching done over the weekend:

Elfen Lied volume three: Some more background on a few of the characters, and more violence and bloodshed. I definitely need to get volume four ASAP, because I really want to see how this ends up.

Aquarian Age volumes one through three: I didn't really know anything about this series going in, but after watching the first couple of episodes I found it to be enjoyable and compelling. You don't really find out about the background until a little more than halfway through, but that's when the main character finds out, so it matches. 'B+', recommended.

Full Metal Panic FUMOFFU volumes one and two: I started in on this series yesterday since I had to watch my daughter, and couldn't really do anything else. I really enjoyed the first series, and probably was one of the few people who liked the serious elements. This series is definitely all humor, and I'm finding it not quite as enjoyable as the first one, but still worth the time to watch. I hope The Second Raid has some more serious moments in it.

John.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

Been a while since I've had something to contribute to this thread .

Alanna - I'll agree with John and say that Elfen Lied is problably not one you'll enjoy. The violence, though intermittent, is quite graphic.

Overall, I enjoyed Elfen Lied but not as much as Kong did (where's he been btw?). Where he found himself being moved quite a bit by the series, I was not. Yes, most of the main characters are pretty well fleshed out over the course of the show, but for some reason I just did not connect enough to let the events that transpire to move me to that extent. It may have also had something to do with watching the show over a few months timeframe.

Lately I have found myself in an anime funk. For one thing, I'm really trying to cut back on my frivolous expenses and anime in particular is where I made a major cut (though I haven't been buying many dvd's in general). I still have to get the last two releases of Gankutsuou and the last 3 for Basilisk. At that point, I won't have any other series that I am collecting.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

James:

I would have to agree with your assessment of Elfen Lied, at least as much of it as I have seen. I really haven't been moved by much of it, other than the unrelenting sadness. Still, it's been interesting enough to keep me watching it.

As for cutting back, I've been reducing the number of disks I buy, too. My goal for this year is only 10 new anime series, although it will probably go to 14-16, since I hadn't counted on TRSI's sale. Because of my daughter, I can usually only do one hobby activity a night, so watching new shows has to share time with computer games and whatever else I'm interested in doing.

John.

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Just had my anime party on Saturday. Tried showing the first disc of Full Metal Panic, but everyone wanted to run screaming after the first episode, so so much for that. Twelve Kingdoms got a far better reaction and got through about 10 episodes.

As for buying anime, I still need to catch up on the stuff I already own. I don't buy too much anymore and have rented a few series from NetFlix.

Jason

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Hmm it seems that nearly every scrap piece of extra money I managed to accumulate in the past six months went to anime. I bought quite a few series but have also watched quite a few. Singles are too expensive for the most part (unless its part of one of those crazy Rightstuf sales) so thinpaks and cheapie collections have ruled the day. I am *very* much looking forward to the economy sets of Twelve kingdoms and also the thinpak for Madlax this July. Those are on my MUST buy list for sure.

Other than that I have been cutting back in the past month or two and buying clothes instead when I am not wasting money on my kids (something I tend to do far too often).

I do rent alot of the newer stuff from Netflix once a series is completely released and looks interesting. I have recently seen Kaliedo Star: New Wings, Kamichu, and Strawberry Marshmellow (the three I can think of right now anyway) because of Netflix.

Sounds like I will skip Elfen Lied for now after all the descriptions offered here. It sounds like something I might like if I could take the blood along with it but am too squeamish right now to try and accept that aspect of the show too.

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Maybe I'm desensitized, but the gore in Elfen Lied didn't bother me one bit(I also had no problem whatsoever with Gantz). I've seen grosser scenes in a South Park episode. Anywho, I thought Elfen Lied was a great series and would recommend it to anyone that could handle the violence. BTW, Amazon has a great deal on the thinpak right now-$26.99.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

All this talk of Elfen Lied and Gantz is getting me in the mood for watching them again :-)

Ive just finished disc 4 of Gankutsuou im finding to be very good!

Cheers,
Michael

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

I finished up the last two disks of Full Metal Panic FUMOFFU last night. The episodes were generally decent, although the Fumoffu episode was totally unbelievable, considering the previous episodes and the first series. The final episode made up for it, however. All-in-all, it was a pretty good way to spend a few hours. I am looking forward to picking up The Second Raid, and I hope that there are some more serious episodes. 'B' - recommended.

John.

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The Second Raid is all serious. It focuses much more on Mithril than it does on the high school comedy aspect of the show. In fact, Kaname is barely even in the first 4 episodes. There is a psychotic new villian and two mysterious sister assassins. You should enjoy this series.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

Excellent!

John.

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I watched volume one of Sakura Wars OVA 2 last night. Unfortunately, the third episode was totally unwatchable due to disk errors. I tried it on my other player and that one was having problems, too. I'll try and get a hold of TRSI about a replacement. The first two episodes were ok, but I wish there was more action and less theater.

John.

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Oh, I don't mind slice-of-life stuff, it's just that the OP is rather misleading .

John.

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Panyo Panyo DigiCharat - vol 1.
I was expecting cuteness to the point of insipid and thats exactly what i got. The dub is hyper to the point of annoying and Princess Dejiko has a really grating voice. With that being said, these are really simple stories (even moreso than Galaxy Angel) told in short bursts with alot of kinetic goofiness to go along with it. Cute, but overly so. My daughter did enjoy the show though so we'll be watching the rest of it. Not much else to say.

We watched some nonanime Blu Ray discs (Happy Feet, Open Season, the Wild) and they are absolutely mindblowing. I was not expecting the jump from DVD to HD to be that huge, but its enormous. Especially when comparing a Blu Ray to a DVD. The detail is staggering, even more so in these CGI movies. Incredible.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

I watched volumes one and two of Blue Gender yesterday. It seems similar in theme to Genesis Climber Mospaeda, i.e., aliens invade the Earth, humans escape the Earth, humans try and retake the Earth. The aliens (Blue), are shown to be totally inhuman, which is at the same time startling and satisfying.

John.

Re: HTF Anime Discussion Part VIII

I finished up four series this weekend:

Blue Gender: My initial reaction was correct, and this series really is a lot like Genesis Climber Mospaeda. There was a lot of character development in the two leads, and Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) I also watched Blue Gender: The Warrior, which came with the set. As might be expected, it's about 75% recycled content, with some story changes. It's only an hour and a half, so it was worth watching once to see the differences between it and the series, but not worth picking up on its own. 'B' (series), recommended.

Elfen Lied: For all the blood and nudity (and there was plenty of both), this series had a compelling story. There was a also a heaping spoonfull of sadness, so this is not a show to cheer yourself up with. I found the characters to be believeable and generally compelling. 'B+' - recommended.

Sakura Wars OVA 2: As I noted in a previous conversation on this thread, the OP animation for this series is really misleading. There are only a few action scenes, and most episodes are 'slice-of-life' type stories. If you liked the first OVA, you'll probably like this one, but maybe not as much. I'm looking forward to picking up the TV series, which hopefully will restore some of the action. 'B-'.

Stratos 4 OVA: Return to Base: This disk was a delightful little capper to my weekend DVD frenzy. It follows the end of the TV series, and can be thought of two more episodes. There is a fun little omake between the two episodes which gives some more insight into The Admiral's feline psychology. If you liked the TV series, you'll like the OVA. If you haven't seen it, watch the TV series first, since it assumes that you know the story. 'B', recommended for fans of the TV series.

John.

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I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but the new film Tekkon Kinkreet, from studio 4c is going to be showing at the MOMA in nyc starting april 25. I don't know if anyone here has seen Mind Game, but it was also by studio 4c and it was incredible. The trailer for Tekkon is up at youtube, just search tekkon kinkreet. Just wanted to give a heads up.

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I've gotten through a few more anime disks in the last few days:

Inu Yasha vols. 20-22: More of the same IY stuff. Some decent action, more bad-guy badness.

Gilgamesh volume one: I found the first volume to be rather interesting. The visual style is very different from the usual anime offering, which I appreciate. I'm looking forward to watching more of this series.

John.

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Can anyone here recommend Le Chevalier D'eon? I've been curious about this anime for a while, but a bit hesitant. I was thinking of netflixing but I don't wanna waste any time on it if it's only average. Thanks

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I saw the first three episodes and thought it was pretty good so far.

AICN has a review of the second volumn and it sounds like it continues to be good.

Jason

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I'm through volume four of Gilgamesh. I'm still enjoying the series, including Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) I'll be adding the last two volumes to my purchase list.

John.