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Heres some life for this thread

Have you ever noticed that in any One Piece movie that has direct involvement from Oda (author and artist of the series) the cast changes their outfits a ton of times?

I mean here's just an example of Nami's outfits from "One Piece: Strong World":

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

5th

I went to go see the new Madoka movie in theaters last weekend. I waited in line to get these things. They only gave them to the first 50 I guess. Saw them on ebay going for about 90 bucks each. not bad for something I got for free!

Anyways, I really enjoyed the movie a lot and eagerly await whats next for the series. It seems its going to get a 2 cour second season plus more movies and mangas.

Nami #1 and Nami #3's waistlines skeeve me out.

see more here

Given that the year is nearly done, I think we should discuss what we thought of 2013. What do feel was the top anime of the year? Anything you guys feel didn't get enough attention or was underrated? While I haven't decided what my personal anime of the year is (I'm a bit indecisive when it comes to making up my mind on things like that), I do feel that My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU deserved a bit more attention. It had some really great dialogue, and watching Hachiman be a cynical bastard about everything was awesome.

Normally I would consider the phrases "romantic comedy" and "teen" in the title of an anime massive red flags, but that's probably just my /a/non instinct.

That's completely understandable, given the quality of most anime associated with high school romantic comedies. However, the show is more a satire of the genre, poking fun at the usual tropes found within it. Honestly, it's less of a romance and more of a disillusioned loner's commentary on social dynamics.

Favorite anime of the year huh?
Since it was easily the most talked about anime of the year, I'm just gonna throw this out there. While I did like AoT, I can't say it's my favorite anime of the year. Not trying to be a hipster going agaisnt the mainstream, but it was just flawed in my opinion. it really got on my nerves at times I almost dropped it actually at one point( when Eren, Mikasa, and Armin or talking under his half formed titan) pacing was a big issue with me, I never felt like enough was done in an episode and it was downright infuriating at times with the talking. A lot of talking done well is fine, but the excessive talking was really agrivating. It was good, but it wasn't great. I actually really liked The Devil is a Part Timer and Gatchaman crowds, both good shows that were good through and through. Call me crazy, but I thought the Devil is a Part Timer was the best show of the summer, that I saw at least.
Kill la kill and golden time are my favorite ones currently running and most likely kill la kill will be my favorite of the year once it ends. Madoka Magika rebellion was very good. Being that Madoka is easily one of my favorite animes, I was worried that it would ruin an ending that I felt was satisfying, but it continued the story in a way that felt very organic and was the continuation I never knew it needed. It sets it up for more work( a 2 cour series, movies, and manga are in the works) I can't say I'm upset they are continuing a series I absolutely love.

I finally got around to watching Neon Genesis Evanglion. Everything started off so well. There was giant robots, fighting, and horrendous amounts of techno babble. There was even that great brick joke about the pilots in the MAGI hacking episode. Then (from what Wikipedia tells me) GAINAX decided they weren't going to follow the script they had written and decided to derail the plot train.

The finale is one of the worst finales I've seen of any show. There's some cool character stuff. As if Asuka couldn't have bigger mommy issues, and there's the reasoning behind Misato's alcoholism, but its all shrouded in philosophical nonsense. I already dislike incoherent storytelling but this takes the cake--and I already knew it would be a mindscrew at the end. I can't imagine watching this when it first aired and seeing that last episode. Having nothing resolved and the vaguely hinted at Instrumentality--the entire thing the plot of the show is built upon--happening off camera while telling instead of showing is happening, and not even useful telling, but "I think therefore I am." and "What is a man? A miserable pile of secrets!" level philosophical BS.

On the bright side, it wasn't nearly as dark or depressing as I had been lead to believe. Everyone kept saying how "infamous" the Ode to Joy stuff was, but I just hummed along to Asuka's mind rape. Maybe they were referring to one of the adaptions.

Had they stuck to the original plan/not ran out of money/whatever reason they had for doing that crap ending, I think it would have been much better. Then again, it probably wouldn't be nearly as famous.

Watch End of Evangelion, it clears things up.

@xTSGx
Read the manga is you want a conclusion that at least makes sense. Also, the most infamous scene is from end of evangelion( Shinji masturbating to a comatose Asuka), but yeah, people exagerate just how dark it is. It's no Elfen Lied or Monster for example.

(The joke was that EoE most certainly does not neatly tie up all the loose ends left by story.)

I think the primary reason why everyone says Eva is so grimdark is because by the standards of its day, it really was pretty dark.

If you want a grimdark mecha anime and Evangelion just doesn't cut the mustard, then allow me to direct your attention to Bokurano.

^
I know you were joking.

Not anime, but certainly worth mentioning. Disney just released a "first look" of their upcoming animated film based on the Marvel comic Big Hero Six. Edit: sorry its been out for a couple months, They just attached a director to it! my bad. First time I've heard about it though.

"Set in a fictional metropolis called San Fransokyo (a portmanteau of San Francisco and Tokyo), Big Hero 6 will be centered on a young prodigy named Hiro Hamada and his self-created robot Baymax, both of whom uncover a criminal plot and must join a team of inexperienced crime fighters, including Wasabi No-Ginger, Honey Lemon, GoGo Tomago, and Fred"

Is it just me, or has there been a lot of Japanese influence in Hollywood lately?

Well, Didney Whorl's no stranger to animu, judging by_Atlantis._ Was that movie any good, by the way? I never got around to seeing it.

[Obligatory "Oh no not another non-pixar CG disney film; wtf happened 2 u guise"]

Um, are you serious about Atlantis? If so, no. It had nothing to do with anime. It was based on the works by Jules Verne and the visual style was based on the style of Mike Mignola, one of the production designers and the artist behind hellboy. The movie was pretty good I guess, nothing great. Also, the non Pixar Disney movies have been great lately. Frozen was really good as was wreck it ralph, tangled, and the princess and the frog. The most I can say about Disney and Anime is that it distributes the studio Ghibli films and they had Naruto on Disney XD for a bit.

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over sound of Blue Water.

And also Porco Rosso

And regarding non-Pixar Disney films, I was expressing that miss the flat stuff. Wreck-it-Ralph was good and Tangled was good, I had a load of fun with both of them, I'm just a bit peeved that Disney is moving away from their 2D roots.

And why are we talking about Frog again? That one's 2D.

I was just talking about the quality of the films coming out of Walt Disney Animation Studios has been good as of late. Anyways, I cant blame Disney from moving away from that, it doesn't sell as well anymore.
Anyways, because of their current track record, I am looking forward to this movie.

Speaking of things that are only vaguely related to what the current discussion is on, has anyone seen the trailer for Ghibli's The Tale of Princess Kaguya? It's insanely beautiful.

Just wait. Give it a couple years, and absence will make the heart grow fonder.

Another thing that a lot of people overlook in the classical vs. CG debate is that classical is actually a cel of a lot cheaper nowadays. This is because with such fast technological improvement, the standard for quality CG has skyrocketed as well. We've come a long way since Toy Story. But the standard for quality hand-drawn animation has stayed more-or-less static.

EDIT: Goddamn Ninjas.

And yes I have seen that trailer.

I hope so, but yeah, companies have little incentive to do hand drawn at the moment.

I get that it's more cost effective but I really hope that hand-drawn animu makes a strong comeback because it's so prettyyyy.

from Kotonoha no Niwa

I mean, this is like rain porn.

=3=;; Nothing is really catching my eye this quarter. Then again I might just be awaiting JJBA 3 and Fate/Stay Night 2014 a bit too anxiously.

I guess I'm gonna watch Wizard Barristers, but only because I thought it was Wizard "Baristas"
and I added it to my queue. That honestly sounded like a funny anime, wizards working at starbucks. I thought it would be something like the devil is a part timer. Besides that, I rather just catch up on shows I missed.

You have no idea how excited I am for this one. Ghibli has this weird set style that they work in which they hardly ever budge from. The aesthetic in this one is more painterly in this one, which really works with their style of animation.

For the past couple of weeks I've been watching Serial Experiments Lain, re-watching Wolf's Rain.

If you've seen either of them, what are your guy's opinions on the shows? I'm definitely a fan of both series, with Lain having some really interesting animation from what I've seen so far (I'm on episode 5), and a really catchy opening.

Wolf's Rain has some really nice animation and a really catchy opening too (Damn thing has been stuck in my head for a while now).

I recommend both if you haven't watched them, but I'm not sure if you'll like them.

Somehow, I've managed to go with Space Dandy and Sakura Trick, probably the two shows this season that are the most different from each other. Not sure how that happened. That being said, I've pretty much covered all my bases at this point.
Kill La Kill: Action-packed, dramatic, unconventional and interesting storyline.
Space Dandy: Nonsensical maybe-action/storyline comedy.
Sakura Trick: Humorous romance and a back-up in case Kill La Kill doesn't end up as lesbian as I want it to be. (Psh, as if.)

I still haven't finished Beyond the Boundary. I'll just leave the upcoming anime on my to-do list.

Oh my god, I just stumbled across the funniest anime I've seen in a while on Netflix. It's called "my bride is a mermaid". Seriously, I can't stop laughing at it. You have to give it a watch, it's so fucking funny. I also started watching Rosario+Vampire on Netflix and its also pretty funny.. I didnt know until a couple days ago, but Netflix has quite a few animes.

So The Wind Rises got nominated for an Oscar.
I kinda of expected it to get nominated, though. I mean, it's supposedly Miyazaki's last film before his retirement, and it's no question that Miyazaki's films are quite well loved in west. I will admit though, it would have been cool to see Rebellion get nominated, even if I was pessimistic about its chances in the first place.

Another anime was nominated for the short animated films category, so that's pretty interesting. It's called Possessions, and while I haven't seen it the screenshots make it look very interesting visually speaking.

^
I really want to see possession.

I'm glad that The Wind Rises got nominated, but I know for a fact that it will lose out to Frozen. The nomination was nothing more than a nod to Miyazaki and his work. Foreign animated fare never win the Oscar for best animated feature and have also never been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film when the are not dubbed into English. I do really like how we have two foreign animated films nominated this year like we did two years ago, but I know they won't win, and, looking at the pool of American films up against Frozen, well, they stand no chance.

So….. anyone watch hentai?

crickets

…. Is that a yes?

I doubt there is a hentai out that would cater to my very… specific tastes.

……That's scary.

Who doesn't?

Been a while.

^
Which ones?
I like Ryoujoku Famiresu Choukyou menu and Sora no Ira.
I also have School Days, Yumina the ethereal, and Demonbane visual novels. hot stuff…

Actually, I take that back. My tastes are probably covered by loads of hentai, but any hentai that covers my tastes would probably also cover other things that are most certainly not to my taste.

What are your tastes?

I think SAO isn't a very good action Anime as the current ones. Don't get me wrong, the idea of getting trapped in a virtual-augmented reality MMORPG with thousands of people is a great idea, but the romantic subplot in not well made IMO. There is sad parts and enjoyable moments of the anime, but the moments with with Kirito and Asuna feels forced. The Romatic stuff feels out of place and gets in the way of the action sequences. But that's my Opinion.

I recently watched the movie The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. It was pretty decent. I was expecting it to be a lot more mindscrew-y with the time travel but they kept it fairly basic. Any feels the ending may of had were voided by the main character being an idiot. She whines and complains for five minutes about how she'll never see her love interest again, then when time travel enables a loophole, she proceeds to spend several hours just sitting next to him and not talking to him or addressing her love for him. He then gets up and leaves, only to return and hug her.

Also, the entire time travel plot was based on the extremely stupid premise of "I'm going back in time to look at a painting" Its never elaborated on why the painting is so important that bitch slapping causality is required to see it. Also, if the brakes on your bike completely fail, and you're going downhill toward a speeding train, just fall off and take the road rash. Don't go careening into the train's path.

Dac said:

So….. anyone watch hentai?

The closest I've come would be the anime Blue Drop, which is based off of an extremely explicit manga complete with gender bending and the psychological ramifications of it. The anime itself deals with the Space Lesbians (who took over Earth and implemented the sexy times depicted in the manga) initial (and incredibly stupid) invasion of Earth. There's no sex in the anime, just lots of shipping.

You still sound shady, and now I feel curious….

@Dac I've seen some hentai in my life but most were forgotten (especially their titles), but I remember Choukyou menu, it's good.
But there's where… I get shady with Bible Black and Yakin Byoutou…. cough okay moving on. As for visual novels I only played Katawa Shoujo and I liked it, I'm thinking of replaying sometime again.


As for mangas, I've read CRAZY seinen one-shots.

^ I downloaded Katawa Shoujo but haven't played it yet, is it eroge?

Also, Genry, you gotta tell us. You sound so shady right now.

^ Eeyup eroge it is, and nakige.