I mean, you can't give a 5 year old a copy of war and peace and expect them to get anything out of it. In theory, one could make a fictional work which could convey some of the ideas of war and peace while still being comprehensible to a younger audience, but complexity of presentation is definitely a barrier of entry.

You guys realize that it was episodes 64 (I think) before we finished with the first story arc? Bleach arcs last forever.

Episode 121 is immediately after Grimmjow invades the World of the Living. We then have about 40 episodes of Hueco Mundo before 100 episodes of unrelated filler followed by the immediate resumption of the Hueco Mundo arc for another few dozen episodes (probably did something in there for like 20 episodes in the middle of the filler too).

I forget why, but I think they had a good reason for at least one of the filler arcs. But I don't like it when an anime suddenly drops EVERYTHING in the middle of an important event to do something completely unrelated. "Oh the fate of the world relies on the next 10 minutes of footage? Let's have 20 episodes of unrelated content between now and then where we will flash back to this with no warning".

Edit: Not 100% sure, but I think they have caught up to the manga at least once and thus some of the filler.

This is why people should just read manga instead :v

I agree with true believer's assessment that it's harder to please multiple age groups than please a narrow age range.
I haven't seen any of the so-acclaimed anime for kids and adults, though, so my viewpoint may be screwed.

I have never read War and Peace (I'm an uncultured git, I know), but if the said 5-year-old had the reading capability to actually read what I understand is a kind of dense work, I couldn't see why keeping it from them is a bad thing. My argument is that just because something is going to go over the average child's head doesn't mean they shouldn't watch/read/listen to it. That is assuming on my part that War and Peace isn't very graphic in terms of violence and/or sexuality.

I'm not saying that 5 year olds should be deliberately kept from reading war and peace. I'm saying that a 5 year old would neither enjoy nor benefit from reading war and peace, much in the same way that most 50 year olds would neither enjoy nor benefit from watching sword art online. Yes, there's probably at least one 5 year old who could understand war and peace, but 99% of them wouldn't be able to get anything from reading it, so I wouldn't recommend it to someone in that age range.

Okay, I'll grant you that (although I feel half your reason for using the 50-year-old argument is because of the VR game concept). At that age, though, I feel that they fall into that early age range that I listed where they have more of a need for educational types of shoes (to instill morals, teach lessons, and general preparing for life).

It's kind of like why things like Shakespeare are in schools: they might be better understood by older audiences, but to say there's nothing most children couldn't get out of reading it (provided they were given the proper understanding of the Shakespearean tongue [because even I, as a grown-ass adult, have a lot of trouble with Shakespearean language]), isn't a great argument against them reading it in my eyes.

Well ****. Last night we had the first episode that didn't begin until 6:01.

Already answered, but I am suspect to answer this question. I am very easily bored.

Touhou reference? In my harem anime?
Monmosu AOTS

Just finished Psycho Pass...it's alright. The characters seem pretty cookie cutter, the premise is too. Pretty predictable, but the ending is at least interesting. Lots of inconsistencies and I feel like they could have done WAY better with the protagonist...but it's entertaining.

Glad I watched Apocalypse Now before the 6th episode of Gate...

Okay, that explains it, then. I am quite the opposite. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've been "bored" in my life, to the point that I've retired that word from my vocabulary (boring is still a word I will use to describe something, though). I've even questioned the legitimacy of my friends' usages of the word.

In that case you're measuring a piece of media's level of engagement, I suppose, or at lease its ability to engage you, which I can completely understand as a metric to gauge things even if I am willing to sit through an entire season of something to wait for it to engage me.


EDIT: In watching Code MENT, it occurs to me that perhaps the 3d movement system from Attack on Titan borrows its idea of movement from Code Geass.

When time is essential, you need to be picky. Also I am naturally picky.





Almost finishing Puella Magi Madoka Magica. And it is a really great anime. Definitively a 10, which normally doesn't say very much. I reduced my definitive note of Psycho Pass to 9. But in this case, it says very much.

Also watching Akame ga Kill. It is not very good, but incredibly I am liking it more than I should have. Maybe it is because of the J. R. Martin's style.

Have you reached the "Kyubey's an ****" part yet? I forget how far in that is.

Only 2 episodes to finish. So yes, he revealed his true colors already. I believe at least 2 episodes before.

So cruel to little girls.

I think he's a pretty swell fellow.

／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

Swell of cruelty in a freakish emotionless way.

Very nice guy!

Finished it. Can I give it an 11?

I never personally understood the appeals of Madoka.
I mean, yes, it was a good series, and I liked it too, but I never really felt the seeming level of amazingness others seem to express over it.

I really liked it at the time, but I know part of my enjoyment was the incredibly dark themes coupled with the candy-coated aesthetic, which I imagine was the base appeal for a number of people.

Ultimately, Madoka is considered much like Evangelion in that it's a deconstruction of its genre: exploring the possibility space and repercussions of the genre it imitates (I don't really consider a deconstruction to be part of the genre it deconstructs). Even if you aren't intimately familiar with the magical girl genre (I for one know I watched Sailor Moon as a child but couldn't tell you a single thing about it nowadays), the show itself is incredibly inventive in its creation and exploration of magical girls, witches, wishes, powers, and mascots.

I'd really have to watch it again to be sure, but I believe it also stems from the character exploration. As far as my memory serves, the only girl we don't get a full backstory to is Mami, and I think we still get hints as to why she ended up doing the thing and where her powers stem from. I'd probably be willing to call B.S. on the plot twist near the end (again, once I re-watched it), but I still think it was a marvelous series.

Madoka had really good music, really good and unique artstyle, and a decent enough plot to back it up that didn't completely rely on hackneyed stereotypes like 95% of anime out there. It's not the best anime ever (I personally prefer Stein's; Gate), but it's certainly up there because they did a really good job with the whole thing.