Anime that you're currently watching?, For those anime fans. Options

[Raijinili]

dammit PAO PAO PAI that is not how you linebreak on internet

[Dr Strum]

Been watching me some Sakamichi no Apollon, Fate Zero, and recently started Monster.

[Raijinili]

saw Penguindrum, finished Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka?, and now going through Kore Wa Zombie Desu Ka? of the Dead, and Accel World.

[Lloyd Seegymont the Rasier]

Been watching some Fate Zero and rewatching Rah - Xpheon.

[DustyHaru]

Sakamichi no Apollon - Relationship pentagrams.
Space Brothers - Goofiness in the Space Program.
Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - Ghost girls, school mysteries, and shenanigans.
Fate/Zero - Going to watch both flashback episodes together

[P.P.A.]

I watched The Five Star Stories after having seen an AMV/MAD on YouTube of it, but it turns out that said AMV captured all the best parts of the film and the rest of it wasn't really worthwhile. The plot was a little weak too, but perhaps I would have appreciated it more had I read the manga it was based on, and had I known the context. The designs of vehicles in the film are all very pretty though, as are some of the exotic clothing styles.

Dominion: Tank Police (the four-episode OVA) I watched too, and it was quite a blast! However, it did suffer from a lack of good music. Except for the opening of the British dub, most of the music playing in the background is lacklustre, and often insufficient in setting the mood for what happens on-screen—many of the scenes would have been twice as good with a more fitting score backing them. Nonetheless, it was enjoyable—and explosive!

[Dr Strum]

Humanity has Declined - Gotta watch EP5 still.
Full Metal Alchemist - Never actually saw it the whole way through, and now I've gotten the wife into it. Around episode 20 right now.

[P.P.A.]

 I watched the four Megazone 23 OVAs yesterday and today, which are split up into I & II, and IIIa & IIIb. Part III was made in the nineties, and it shows—“datanets”; “nethackers”; virtual reality video games; floppy disks everywhere; giant, unwieldy interfaces. Its plot—set a few centuries after that of Part I & II, is a bit weak, and while it would be harsh to call Part III bad, it's nowhere as visionary or outstanding as the first two parts.

 These, however, shine. Part I is a little awkward; the characters are somewhat bland and typically anime-like (or they are today at least; back in the eighties when the OVA was made, they were probably forerunners of what has since degenerated into clichés), and the plot progression jerky. This might be a result of it originally having been planned as a 26-episode TV series, which then had to be compressed into an hour and a half.
 Nonetheless, it introduces us to the setting and its feeling… only to then deconstruct it as it unfolds the plot, revealing twists, and seeing the characters and their world undergo great changes. But only in symbiosis with part II—for which it lays the groundwork—does it become truly exceptional.

 Part II picks up six months after the first OVA's bitter cliffhanger, and sees the plot to its (shocking) conclusion. Its art style is radically different; the animation quality ranges from hilariously bad to overwhelmingly awesome, and it includes overly graphic scenes of violence and sex. Despite this, however, it's outstanding, and a greatly influential work not only in anime but film history. The different conflicts foreshadowed or introduced in part I escalate, we gain a deeper insight into the characters' motivations and the workings of the setting, and ultimately it concludes in a finale you are unlikely ever to forget.


 As for the plot: in a big Japanese city of the late 1980's lives Shogo Yahagi. A careless adolescent, who works at McDonalds, rides motorcycles with a passion, and hits, in the first few scenes, on Yui, a pretty but quite independent girl he almost runs over during a chase.
 One day he meets an old friend, who reveals to him Bahamut 6, an extremely advanced motorbike he stole from the military, where he was test-driving it. He was followed by suspicious suited men, who shoot him dead, while Shogo flees on the bike—finding it to be extremely hardy (it smashes a BMW) and fast.
 
 With the military on his heels and his friend's murder covered up, he tries to get on the live show “Only You” of the pop idol Eve Tokimatsuri, who has been dominating the charts for quite some time. However, as he presents Bahamut 6, the intermission is disrupted, and while he is still talking to Eve on the video phone, some pre-recorded clip of her plays on TV.

 He plays hide-and-seek with the military for some time still (and discovers, in the meantime, that his bike can transform into a mecha), until he and a friend of his stumble into a secret tunnel, where, after an elevator ride, they discover…

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

…a giant deserted city underground beneath their own, the view dominated by a giant thing in the distance. Shogo sends his friend back to the surface to explore the bizarre landscape. It gets colder and colder, the gravity acts strange, and eventually he has to switch into mecha-mode. The military is revealed to have a base down there, and they send out units to capture the intruder: hoverbikes, and other mechas. Shogo manages to shake off most of his pursuers, but gets involved in a fight with one mecha, in the course of which they break through the hull and find themselves outside… in space.

 After Shogo rescues the pilot of the other mecha (which he had demobilised), the man, a low-ranking officer called B.D., explains to him what he has stumbled upon. The entire city is contained within a giant spaceship, and it is the 29th century. The illusion that everyone is living on Earth in the eighties is one maintained by the giant super computer Bahamut—the huge thing in the background of the underground city—which also implants false memories in people who “travel abroad”, and generally administers and controls the megazone. Eve, or rather EVE, is a program of this, and not real.
 Bahamut is also strictly pacifist (revealed later to be the consequence of humanity having turned Earth into a nuclear wasteland centuries ago, which led to these spaceships being built and launched); as the military has been observing a large object nearing the spaceship for some time, it wants to disable Bahamut so it may mobilise all resources to fight off the impending extraterrestrial invasion. Shogo's bike, along with its predecessors, functions also as a terminal to access Bahamut's sixth layer of defence, which the military has cracked already—leaving only the seventh.

 Shogo returns to the surface, confused and disillusioned. He infiltrates the TV studio where Eve's music clips are filmed, and discovers that she really is just a virtual figure, her clips animated on computers, and her songs written and sung by a special program people discovered. (A virtual idol/popstar twenty years before Hatsune Miku!)

 Meanwhile, B.D. along with an accomplice launches a military coup d'etat, disposing of the previous military leadership for not really caring about the megazone's future, and seizing control of the country. The first alien (though these aliens are descended from humans as well, living on their own megazone) scouts are, with a lot of effort, shot down—their technology is more advanced than that of Megazone 23.
 As thus becomes urgent now, the military finally manages to crack the seventh layer of Bahamut, and subsequently uses EVE for military propaganda, after she sent out a last (futile) distress signal to Shogo, begging for his help before she is overwritten, and explaining to him the history of the megazone and humanity.

 What happens from there on you will have to see for yourself…

 Also the music is awesome, Eve's songs in particular.

[P.P.A.]

The Weathering Continent — A single film based on a series of novels. It's very humble—the characters are run-of-the-mill, and there is practically no plot: it's more of an animated dungeon crawl. However, in this simplicity lies its charm. The location is nicely done, from the basic idea to the atmosphere and looks; the little twist at the ending was also very well done, and added a lot of mood to the setting.
It's far from outstanding or special, but worth watching nonetheless.

[DustyHaru]

Watching:

Chu2byou - 5 episodes in, it's pretty entertaining, also Kyoani quality.

Zetsuen no Tempest - 6 episodes in. I've been reading the manga so it's interesting to see them do original plot episodes.

Jormungand: Perfect Order - 5 episodes in. R ;_;

I'm going to start Robotic;Notes eventually. Probably during Thanksgiving break or so.

[Dr Strum]

Working on finishing Monster. At this very moment I'm watching Berserk The Golden Age Arc II: Battle for Doldrey. These movies are doing some great justice to the series.

[Enzd]

I'm into Gatchaman Crowds at the moment thanks to Rhia. I like it.

[Rhiannon]

For someone who probably watches more anime than most people on LCN I sure never post about any of it. So here's a post that's too long. It's all currently-airing stuff except for Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

Dokidoki Precure - I'm like five episodes behind on this, but I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm glad it's taking from and evolving Smile Precure's sense of humor (and art style) but not so happy that it also seems to be taking Smile's idea of character development (which is, of course, to have none). I sort of like the Regina thing, but I'm disappointed that they seem to be taking away any possible awesomeness that could come of it by making her not responsible for any of the bad things she does. It's not like she'd have no motivation to do these things of her own free will. :(

Gatchaman Crowds - YO I TOLD ENZD HE MIGHT LIKE THIS AFTER I WATCHED THE FIRST EPISODE AND I'M PRETTY SURE HE WATCHED THE REST BEFORE I DID. But I can see why. This is just bananas in at least three different ways.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes - I watched the first two episodes this when I was in Baudette, but it didn't seem very interesting at the time. Recently decided to watch episode 3 and now I'm convinced I will be watching all 110 episodes. I'm surprised it didn't take longer to catch my interest, since things this old usually take ages (or I give up before it ever happens).

Majestic Prince - Started off boring and lame but gradually got better and better. Now I'm not even sure what happened but suddenly the fight scenes are amazing every episode and the thing that kept me watching early on (ALL THE WARM FEELINGS FROM WATCHING EVERYONE SUPPORTING EACH OTHER WHEN NORMAL THINGS THAT MAKE HUMANS FEEL TERRIBLE MADE THEM FEEL TERRIBLE) is still there. Plus, space.

Kimi no Iru Machi - The unhealthy part of my anime-watching habits, where I watch a series I know I'll probably dislike because the OVA was stupid... and my reasoning? Hearing Yoshimasa Hosoya and Megumi Nakajima, and seeing that glorious Shigeyasu Yamauchi directing.

Monogatari Series 2nd Season - I have bad taste, so I loved Bakemonogatari AND Nisemonogatari (and Nekomonogatari Black) but this might be my limit. Be a big tease about the fanservice, don't SHOW Tsubasa and Hitagi doing things in the shower that normal female friends would never do. That's boring. In fact, Tsubasa in general is boring when we're not watching Nekomonogatari Black so this is kind of... ugh to me right now. But I guess Tsubasa's part is over now, so it should get better.

Symphogear G - I can't believe it! It's almost as if they actually had money left over after paying Nana Mizuki this time! No more two-frame walking animation! I'm so proud of Symphogear. It's almost as if it's becoming a real anime.

Uchouten Kazoku/Eccentric Family - Shenanigans and family. Good enough for me, and probably the right time for me to be watching something like this since I was suddenly being all depressed about things involving family. Apparently this was from the same author as The Tatami Galaxy, too.

Space Battleship Yamato 2199 - The last few episodes weren't as amazing as the batch before had been, but man oh man. It's all been setup for the finale. I think the last four episodes are going to destroy me...

And there might be unicorns soon, since Turn A Gundam made me decide that Gundam can be for me after all.

EDIT: THERE WERE UNICORNS AND IT WAS TRULY MAGICAL AND I MIGHT BE INTO GUNDAM NOW (HINT EVERYONE GO WATCH IT)

This post has been edited by Rhiannon: Aug 14 2013, 09:54 PM

[Frisk]

Working on finishing Monster. At this very moment I'm watching Berserk The Golden Age Arc II: Battle for Doldrey. These movies are doing some great justice to the series.

The manga was awesome. I dunno if I'll ever watch the anime. Also, this:
http://screenrant.com/monster-guillermo-de...-naoki-urasawa/


Attack on Titan, episode 7. WAS THERE A DECOY PROTAGONIST OR WAS IT A DECOY OF A DECOY PROTAGONIST?

[DustyHaru]

Currently watching Mahouka and No Game No Life. I've read the translated LNs for Mahouka but don't know too much about No Game No Life. The references are solidly hilarious though.