The Gaming Den

I'll second Simoun and Legend of Galactic Heroes. My family has been watching LoGH when we get the chance over the past year or so, and we're about twenty episodes from the end. Creating and supplying the number of ships in the battles would be a logistical nightmare, and it's not really explained how battles stretch on for hours when ships appear to pop like balloons from the slightest blow, but the politics and character interactions more than make up for it.

I haven't really had a chance to watch One Piece since I stopped watching it on 4Kids. Yes, I liked their dub. I didn't exactly have the original on hand to compare it to. If it really sucked as bad as everyone says it did, I imagine the awesomeness of proper subs or the other dub will blow my mind.

I've spent the night watching half the Gurren Lagann series. The male chauvanistic attitude is so apparent. I usually hate that sort of shit. but why the fuck do I like this show so much?

Because it's close to over the top awesome maybe?
I ain't sure, haven't really watched it myself yet . . .

Cynic wrote:I've spent the night watching half the Gurren Lagann series. The male chauvanistic attitude is so apparent. I usually hate that sort of shit. but why the fuck do I like this show so much?

I feel like I should hate it - the Shonen "FUCK YEAH WE'RE MEN" thing, and the anti-science "We'll just make it work because we're awesome and we have BALLS!" approach (see how much shit forehead-boy gets, whether he's religious (early) or scientific (late) it doesn't matter: he's wrong and the "make shit up and win" guys are right).

But then there are giant robots that dual-wield galaxies, and suddenly everything is invalid.

That said, I prefer a later creation of theirs: Needless. Instead of being over-the-top GAR mecha almost-parody, it's over-the-top GAR post-apocalyptic-superpower-fighting (see: Fist of the North Star) almost-parody. With a very... similar... cast to TTGL (whiny kid who is main character, manly hero guy with crazy sunglasses, angry big-boobed girl, idiot guy who fights hero guy at first then teams up with him, etc.)

The art style is very reminiscent of the old post-apocalyptic superpower fighting types, and often bright and nice to look at. Everyone has their one special power ("I can create blasts of fire", "I create short-term mind-control scents", "I use the power of lesbianism to cause long-term mind control" etc. - all the usual ones), except they often get used in actually interesting ways.

Let's take the angry girl, for instance. She has metamorphosis, powered by high calorie energy drinks. She can do the following:
[*]Make herself look like someone else
[*]Turn her arm into the drill that will pierce the heavens
[*]Grow extra limbs (when she has the super-energy-booster added)
[*]Morph her body from "me, injured" to "me, uninjured" (as seen in Terminator 2 I guess)
[*]Turn into a wall
[*]Regular "my body is steel, you can't hurt me" stuff

So basically, imagine an RPG where everyone has one superpower. Because roleplayers tend to be all over the "How can I use my power to do other weird stuff?"

The kid has no superpower, but is really good at thinking, to the point that in several fights he's the real hero.

Then we have the fact that the closing of the first half is practically industrial-grade lesbianism. I approve heartily of this. Even though only one of the characters involved actually does swing that way in the show. Also, whereas TTGL gives us "a bath scene where a guy gets a finger jammed up his ass", this gives boobs, and panty shots. In the words of the hero guy, "There is always time for more panty shots!"

Oh, and the extras on one of the discs: something like 12 mini-episodes (5 minutes each, IIRC - maybe fewer), of events that happened in the mango but are presented as an alternate universe silliness thing here. It's rather funny.

Going to jump on the Legend of the Galactic Heroes bandwagon, fantastic series.

Railgun is kind of ok, but its' also a spin-off of To Aru Majutsu No Index, and Railgun's actually better in that. Also, read the Railgun manga because its' a lot better than the anime. Just watching the anime means you know very little about Railgun's character(like the illegal clone experiment).

You also don't get to meet Accelerator, the best character in the whole franchise.

EDIT: To Aru Majutsu No Index isn't actually all that great- Railgun was the best thing to come out of the entire setting.

I haven't finished it yet, so maybe I'll hate it by the end, but so far TTGL gets a pass with me because the dopey shit Kamina says is so transparently narcissistic that he undermines his own message as often as not--It's seems more "I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am" as opposed to the usual passive-aggressive cynical bullshit I've seen in awful crap like Highschool of the Dead.

Still, I suspect that maybe I'm just getting pretty inured to that shit--these days about the only stuff that consistently gets me grinding my teeth is when you're reading/watching some coming of age story and they get to the cliched "cutting the apron strings" scenes. Those all too often feature an otherwise reasonable character telling a woman that you need the pride of a man to really understand how awful it is to never be allowed to stand on your own. That's weapons-grade irony right there.

wow, people are just now watching Gurren Lagaan?

sadly most of those anime are just flashes in the pan, and never finish the story, just T&A and fan-service. not bad, but sadly has a good story that gets Gainax'd.

@Koumei: you character collection group is in MANY harem/ecchi anime as well as others:

Tenchi Muyo
Outlaw Star
Eiken Club
Magikano
Maburaho
Cowboy Bebop
Ranma 1/2

its a format that works, so they dont change it, just change the character, move some positions around for who does what, and give a different theme or backstory. unlike D&D, anime knows and understand "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

I haven't seen most of the anime, but I read all the volumes of Ranma. Watching the first few episodes gave me a much better appreciation of how much Ranma and Ryoga improved over the course of the series. It also made me realize my initial estimate of Ranma being able to defeat was based on late-series Ranma vs. early series Inuyasha.

shadzar wrote:wow, people are just now watching Gurren Lagaan?

I just lack the compulsion to go check out whatever Gainax puts out and TTGL isn't the sort of thing I usually watch.

If Inuyasha kept up the tone of the first 20-30 episodes for the rest of the series it would've kicked more ass than Chun-Li fighting a legion of double-butted Donkey Stormtroopers. I'm still not quite sure how this dark, gothic fantasy (see: Shura and Koga before he was whitewashed) morphed into... well, that.

I'm pretty sure I've only really seen the first 20-30 episodes of Inuyasha, though maybe I got a little farther than that. In the latest episode I saw, Naraku had most of the jewel shards and Inuyasha could spam Wind Scar so much he didn't bother calling the attack, but he didn't seem to have any of the other special attacks I heard he learns later.

The episodes before "Naraku gets away again!" became the entire plot were definitely better.

its just a case, like many others, where the real plot is hidden until after the intro to get you into the show. or as some would consider jumping the shark early on...but was always intended to go that way.

we had to get to know miroku, inuyasha, kagome, songo, and shippo. they met at a bar and then.... well it took them a few episodes to get to the story to build the relationship.

also consider Inuyasha is a love story written by a female mangaka, so it isnt going to be Tite Kubo's Bleach that has a lot more action, and has more emotional development between the characters.

Sunrise quit at episode 167, but finally released the ending of the manga as a movie to finish off what happened.

like most anime the pacing for the episodes can be vastly different than the manga, and Inuyasha caught up to the manga, but instead of the 100 episodes of filler like Naruto was given, Inuyasha just ended.

at least inuyasha finished sometime, unlike many that are ended abruptly like say Gakuan Alice, Kekieshi, etc.

The whole - my will/penis is so strong that I can make Gurren laggan new things each episode is so fucking weird.

So many deux ex machinas appear but this show is still enjoyable. WHY? WHY?

Cynic wrote:So many deux ex machinas appear but this show is still enjoyable. WHY? WHY?

Okay. Am I the only one who doesn't like Gurren Lagann? I DON'T GET IT.

The reason is do the impossible, see the invisible, row, row, FIGHT THE POWA!

But at least note that just about everyone here has said "I shouldn't like it, it's all kinds of things I don't like, and yet..." It's like the Nobby* of anime.

*As in, the Discworld Nobby, with his Charisn'tma

Just thinking about it, I think one of the interesting parts of the show is the sudden arc changes. Each arc changes the type of plot and the scope increases. I just started the anti-spiral and the change in the scope of both the enemy and the setting is pretty damn cool.

Koumei wrote:The reason is do the impossible, see the invisible, row, row, FIGHT THE POWA!

I get that the over-the-top "Not awesome enough? THEN I'LL JUST BE AWESOMER" is what everyone cites as its cool factor, but that is exactly what about it that made me cringe. I get (hope) that's it's done while wholly aware of its own silliness, but I still couldn't get into it.

DSMatticus wrote:

Cynic wrote:So many deux ex machinas appear but this show is still enjoyable. WHY? WHY?

Okay. Am I the only one who doesn't like Gurren Lagann? I DON'T GET IT.

it is the Gintama of Mecha/Voltron type anime. it was in a death spiral since episode 2.

I have to say that I've become a fan of Redline, it just strikes a wonderful surreal nerve in my head that lets me just recline and enjoy the show.

Spice & Wolf is another pleasure, the economics of it just intrigue me.

The anime that I am currently watching is Wakfu.

i have watched the railgun: someone's watching you OVA.
and i liked the Ookami-san series . .

Nihilistic_Impact wrote:Spice & Wolf is another pleasure, the economics of it just intrigue me.

sadly the love story pans out too quickly, and the Lawrence's merchant skills are underdeveloped in the show beyond trickery and (Horo's) gimmicks, but i love the show for what it is.

hopefully they will be inclined to continue with something more along those lines, even though i think the light novels ended. then we can see maybe more characters in that land doing merchant trade. and hopefully they will make a 3rd season of the series to continue on to the north and Yoits.

it is a VERY good show to related to the D&D and medieval type of RPG to show how things get from one place to another..

the pyrite was the most developed part of the economics portion of it from what i saw and read, and that was a wonderful part. the silver coins just got too quickly into combat that mercantilism or money-handling.

I watch a number of anime recently, mostly ONAs:

Wings of Honneamise: I definitely see why this is considered a classic anime movie.

Time of Eve: Pretty decent.

Aquatic Language: Waste of time.

Pale Cocoon: Pretty good.

Kaichuu!: Okay, but feel more like a prologue to a longer series.

Navia Drapt: Pretty forgetable.

Hoi Hoi San: Okay, and funny.

6 Angels: Terrible

Steady x Study: Forgettable, and I think the first anime that I've seen a CG paper airplane.

Layton Kyouju to Eien no Utahime: Good movie, definitely watch if you are a fan of the Layton series.

Cat Shit One: This was good one, really good CG.

Chocolate Underground: This was a good one.

Candy Boy: Pretty decent Shoujo Ai.

She and her Cat: I liked it.

Del Power X: Silly and fun.

Magical School Lunar: Really silly and it was okay.

Fireball series 1 and 2: I really liked it.

Urda: It was okay, but very predictable.

Mnemosyne: Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi: Pretty decent, the twist was predictable as well.

On a more serious note, this anime was fucking amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJfl2zTd-G0

If you can get your hands on it, watch it.