So I kept watching Etotama. Just watched ep 3. What the....
But anyway, the battles are good enough to at least keep watching even without this curve-ball.

I am close to the half of Black Lagoon. And while I am on my anime spree, I selected from reviews a few to watch if possible. These are the animes I am considering, in order of preference: Texhnolyze, Ergo Proxy, Shigurui: Death Frenzy and Mirai Nikki.

Any suggestions?

No suggestions. I picked most of these animes from this list: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls052464887/.

About Black Lagoon. Finished season 2. The action is much more satisfying this season than it was season one. The anime is certainly good, very close to being great, only not due to some inconsistencies and bad scenes.

5 more episodes to go.

I personally prefer the manga.
But every person I've recommended it to thus far has told me they prefer the anime.

I recommend Moyashimon.

I won't go for the manga. I have many books already for me to read.

Moyashimon. It is a comedy. It is this fact that is stopping me. I am very hard to please when the subject is comedy. That said the anime has awesome reviews and a reviewer that I care has reviewed as great. Maybe I'll check it.

Watched through Shangri-la on a whim. I have very good whims sometimes.

Should give the other Last Exile a chance sometimes.

That is not what he did.

wow i could hear obamas sweat while he was trying to pronounce all those words right

"Today is a chance for Americans, especially our young people..."

That is definitely Obama personally thanking Japan for Anime. Literally, it is him doing just that.

Finished Black Lagoon.

And I started Shigurui: Death Frenzy. Also I wanted something lighter and I decided to watch, based on reviews, Bakemonogatari. I was not sure I would like it, because it is mainly a romance/harem anime, in other words out of my comfort zone, but the dialogues and characterization are really great. It has a good dose of drama and a good art style. I am hooked, I will continue to watch this show.

Wish Ninja Slayer was nothing but these incredibly well-animated battle scenes.

Hey all remember when we were talking about Elfen Lied about two months back?

Well, partly because school's finally let up (slightly), and partly because I've come down with a respiratory infection, I've watched half the series so far this week. I've got a few things to say about it:

1. Yes, I agree with what was said that things are so in-your-face "what's the most awful thing we can think of" that it takes any actual emotional impact away from the events.

2. Time skips to imply how close characters become are horrible.

3. This is my reaction to every sub-plot that doesn't have to do with Lucy:



4. A;DLKAJPOGFHAPOIHFCVAPEIRUGPWAOJD WHY AM I WATCHING ANOTHER SHOW WITH A F#@%*NG INCEST SUBLOT!?!

Because you needed something to do once they killed off Ned Stark?

As always opinions may vary, it depends on your referential. I liked it a lot as many others like me.

This is an extract from wikipedia.

Reception for the Elfen Lied anime series was generally mixed to positive. It has received praise for its story and technical excellence in production quality, animation and color.[12][19][20][21] Due to the many scenes of nudity and gore in the series, it has drawn criticism as being "overly blatant"[22] or "sad and forced".[23] The overt graphic nature of the first nine minutes of the first episode has deterred some viewers and caused controversy upon its release.

The series drew criticism for having "sub-par voice acting", in both the original Japanese audio track and the English dub of the series, although the series still drew an "A-" rating for both language dubs.[19] Another criticism is that "the series ends abruptly with some loose ends to the story that could leave viewers unsatisfied".[24] Despite these criticisms, Western reviewers also describe the series as "really a genuinely good watch",[22] "a horror series of exceptional merit",[24] "certainly memorable"[12] and "a very special show, good and bad parts taken into consideration".

I always try to read reviews first to know if I will like it and then I try to form my own opinion. In this case, I agree with all the bold parts, positive and negative. Some negative points, in my opinion, I think are actually positive. But I also agree that is not an anime for everyone, specially if you have suicidal tendencies.

I finally saw the amazing Gintama movie and it's all Rubik's fault. How dare he do this to me.

I find it interesting that two of those quotes come from T.H.E.M.

Also, it's not a horror series.

I have finished the series now, and all my previous complaints still stand, ESPECIALLY No. 4. I found the story to move along too slowly for my tastes, mostly due to a lack of interesting characters in the numerous subplots. The only ones I really cared about were Lucy (not Nyu), Nana, and Kohta. Even Kurama, who could have been an interesting character, isn't really given enough time to develop until the last few episodes.

I actually think that I wouldn't have criticized it for being "forced sadness" if most of the humans were normal. The director (and by extension his son) being an exception, there were too many unbelievable characters to me. Especially the bully kids from the flashback. But Rambo too (or whatever his name is) who's all "I'm here to kick ass and chew bubblegum" who didn't need more than his first appearance where Lucy handed his ass to him. I can understand Mayu running away because of a pedophiliac stepfather, even though I don't think that was necessary, but her mother was completely unbelievable. Overall, I think there were at least 50% more villains in this story than there needed to be.

To be clear, I don't think it was "bad" in the same way I think SAO2 is bad or the same way I think AoT is overplayed, but it was a bit of a bore for me, and I suspect if it wasn't so short I wouldn't have watched it all.

It is my favorite review site, because I tend to agree more with its reviewers. I also use http://www.nihonreviews.com, http://www.dvdverdict.com, http://www.imdb.com and http://www.animenewsnetwork.com. Just reading one review is never enough.



It is, maybe not a normal one, but it is for anime at least where horror is difficult to be achieved.



I like the pace quite nicely. I like action, but I absolutely don't care for it.



The forced sadness is actually the good negative point I mentioned in my previous post. You may find the characters unbelievable, for the most part I don't. Well, maybe for Kohta's reaction in the end, and that reaction would be even believable in the right circumstances, which are not present.

You must believe me when I say that I know real stories that are far worst than the ones depicted in this anime, some from personal experience. I don't think anything is impossible when humans are the subject. The themes displayed at the anime are quite real, maybe exaggerated a lot, but real nonetheless.

Changing a little the subject, but still on the subject of reviews. It is because of reading reviews that I decided to watch Gurren Lagan. It has some awesome reviews, but the anime isn't good enough for me. I have to agree it has a nice message to pass, specially for children. It has a weird, but very fluid animation. But that is it, not much more, kind of mindless one.

Why should horror be difficult to achieve in anime? Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni is definitely a horror, and nothing über-fantastical like the vectors in Elfen Lied happens. There's nothing in Elfen Lied that I would say did or will stick with me, and that's because I can point out all the "worst elements of humanity" that are showcased in the show are all rather cliché. Children are cruel. The director and his son are classic nihilists. Mayu's parents (especially her mother) are common for her kind of backstory. The essentially human testing on the diclonius that don't actually make much sense when you take a step back and analyze them.

Despite the dark nature of it, it's not a straight-up horror show. The director of the series himself apparently called it "a love story", which I'm inclined to believe given the (at least) two romantic subplots.


I did include that caveat for a reason. If I had cared for more than three characters, I probably wouldn't have minded, but most of the time I was waiting for the story to get back to one of the few arcs I cared about.


Well, I can see any and all of the characters working to an extent, but as I said there's just an over-saturation of the evil end of the spectrum for me. I can believe in apathy much more than active maliciousness, and seeing so many actively malicious people (not even counting the diclonius who are believably malicious) just takes me out of the experience. As I progressed through the series it also felt like there were maybe a lot of conveniences for the plot?

Also, I'm trying to figure out what "Kohta's reaction" you mean. I assume you mean after his memories come back? Or do you just mean the way it ends with "and life returned to normal for our heroes"?


I saw Gurren Lagann on Sci-Fi (before it changed names) before ever considering looking up reviews for it and just had a hell of a time. I don't know what the reviews said about it, but to me Gurren Lagann is definitely just a dumb, fun show. Extremely dumb, in fact, since it ends with galaxy shurikens. It parodies Evangelion a little along the way, but overall that doesn't make much of an impact other than stage the second arc of the first season.

After he recovers his memories, his expected reaction, in my opinion, should have ranged from murderous rage to sincere forgiveness. Instead he shows love, not believable, unless other characteristics were present. The loose end is also not a problem with me. I chose to believe she died and life returned to normal to the other characters.

The forced sadness was not a problem, the Deus ex Machina was a problem to some extent. There is an OVA softening Lucy´s character and explaining why her and the other diclonius are not enemies anymore. It falls between chapters 10 and 11. Unnecessary in my point of view, because it changes nothing in the end.



Yet it has many good reviews, almost an unanimity. It only proves only it doesn't matter how many people liked something, you can still not like it.

I am not trying to make you like it. That is impossible, only for you to see that opinions diverge. A lot. As I said before, my experience would not have been the same if I had not traced a parallel between this story and a story from the Afghanistan war, in the book The Kite Runner. That was the best point for me. It was the moment OH Snap! for me.

I can see that, actually. I don't think it needs to be quite that cut and dry, but you do kind of have a point. Like, if he knew how the dicloniuses (diclonii? how do you pluralize that?) were experimented on, then it would make more sense, because he would know how desperately they all need just love and acceptance; but as it is it does fall flat, doesn't it? There were a number of loose plot threads but I didn't comment on them because ultimately I don't care enough about them. If I was interested in the series I would complain about it and probably read the manga, but it just didn't capture me enough for me to care.



To be fair, I would also give it a positive review, but I wouldn't paint it as something unbelievably good, just something really fun if you're in the mood for some lighthearted action.

However, to your point, yes, I understand completely. I hate Attack on Titan, partially because so many people liked it -- it was painted as some really good show and all it is is a pretty but otherwise quite sub-par shonen anime. Apparently Sword Art Online is also well-liked? Like, I don't know how many people actually care outside of the Aincrad arc, but it's a show that's so bad it's fun to watch.


Oh, that's fine; and I wasn't trying to convince you to not like it. Engaging in discussion like this is, besides being enjoyable, often can open my eyes to things I may have missed during my first watch -- good or bad or just interesting trivia. For instance, I've heard of The Kite Runner, though I of course have never read it, so that might be something for me to do in future. Thanks for engaging me, though. It was fun.

On to Steven Universe!