Anime Discussion

[Sc0ut]

Just a tad late, but Your Name, Garden of Words, and literally everything else by Makoto Shinkai is amazing and everyone should go watch them.

I haven't seen these, but thirding(?) the recommendation for Makoto Shinkai. He basically creates poetry in the medium of animation, I admire him immensely.

[Athena]

I'm still a few episodes form the end of Code Geass, but I started watching Steins;Gate the other day and just can't stop, its so good!!

[PickleChip]

Bringing back this thread because "CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES" IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! I cried more watching this than I did with "Your Name", "Spirited Away", and while reading "Bridge to Terabithia". So, a lot. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone. It's amazing.

[Athena]

Bringing back this thread because "CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES" IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! I cried more watching this than I did with "Your Name", "Spirited Away", and while reading "Bridge to Terabithia". So, a lot. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone. It's amazing.

Oh no, another sad anime movie to watch

I started watching Yuri on Ice the other day, and I have no regrets. Loving it so far.

[Iceea]

Bringing back this thread because "CHILDREN WHO CHASE LOST VOICES" IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! I cried more watching this than I did with "Your Name", "Spirited Away", and while reading "Bridge to Terabithia". So, a lot. I strongly recommend this movie to anyone. It's amazing.

I'll bring it back up. I watched Your Name and as the ending approached and I could see the possibility of them being star crossed lovers and never getting together, I found myself subconsciously really hopping for, routing for a "happy ending". And when it did happen, I was deeply touched. And at my age that's saying quite a lot.
Looks like Children Who Chase Lost Voices is next.

[Lenny]

Since I'm seeing a lot of older "tried and true" "everyone recommends this" "staples of the anime world" anime in this thread recently, I'd like to bring up some of the anime that's been made in the past year that I'm actually enjoying, and not seeing talked about much:

Made in Abyss :
This one is about children, but I'm not sure I'd actually let children the age of these kids watch it unless I knew them quite well and that they can take it. It handles some pretty mature themes and topics (for those who are worried, nothing sexual and no extreme gore - it does involve death, injury, survival, and coming to terms with some very hard situations), and is absolutely beautiful. It has a rich and full world that the characters interact in, the artwork is absolutely beautiful, the soundtrack is stunning, the characters are lovable and unique and fleshed out and you can cheer for them, and the story surprised me. It's very rare that a fantasy series is actually good, and equally rare to find a fantasy series that makes a unique world rather than something generic. I highly recommend it.

Status : First season is complete, and the arc it covers is complete. The story is not complete but a sequel is in the works. It is based on the manga/web comic of the same name, which currently has 6 volumes.



The Ancient Magus' Bride :
Another fantasy, whoo. This one is the first anime based on more Celtic mythology that I actually like. It's still got a bit of cognitive dissonance which tends to happen when one culture tries to portray another, but it makes a very good effort. Designs are very Japanese, reactions are also still Japanese (though it seems they're trying to mitigate this, too, it's minimal compared to many others), but the series takes place mostly in England and it... actually looks like England. Odd. This series does deal with some difficult themes (child abandonment, isolation, human trafficking, depression), and abusive situations. So far it's been heading more towards the "get this bad situation to a good, working, healthy situation", so I feel safe recommending this. I may be wrong as I've not read the manga yet, and perhaps avoid it if those subjects are difficult for you. At its heart it is a story about two people learning to heal and accept each other, and it does that job well.

Status : It has a three-part prequel OVA. Don't watch this OVA until you've at least watched up to episode 8 of the anime to avoid character spoilers. The anime is currently up to episode 8 with 24 episodes planned. As they've advertised it to high heaven, the OVA was released before the anime, and the official twitter is releasing a weekly 30-second mini episode along with the main, I don't see this dying before it reaches completion. The manga it is based on has 8 volumes, and is ongoing. also for some reason it's classified as shounen, it's not, it's shoujo



Black Clover :
This one is, again, fantasy. Like, proper cliche fantasy world with magic users and kings and wizards and knights and all that. ...this whole story is a cliche. BUT. It's a cliche done well, which tends to remind you why things become cliche in the first place. The art and music and backgrounds and all that is all done extremely well, too. Black Clover has given me a proper fantasy shounen that is good. It's been a very long time. Asta, the main character, has a very jarring voice in the sub, but you can grow used to it. Either that or they tone it down as the series progresses. I can't quite tell. (I quite like it now, haha.) The anime isn't finished (this is one of the most recent anime I've reviewed and been able to recommend people in a long time - it's still ongoing), but I liked it so much I read the manga in two days afterwards. The manga is also excellent, and they're sticking to it pretty well (it's paced in such a jampacked way that the anime can keep to one or two chapters an episode and not run out of material or make it feel like a slog glares at One Piece). Wholeheartedly recommend this one for some good fun!

Status : First season is incomplete at only 8 episodes at the time of writing, but it's planned to have 51 episodes. It's based on a manga of the same name, which is also incomplete but at the time of writing has 13 volumes out.

Random other mentions that aren't limited to this year or that I haven't seen fully but deserve mention for a variety of reasons: No Game No Life, Re:Creators, Durarara!! (and its sequels), Spice and Wolf, Barakamon, Kamisama Hajimemas***a, Mob Psycho 100, aaaaand.... the new Pingu series.

[Silenter]

I second Ancient Magus' Bride, it's a lovely fantasy show. I haven't been catching up on most recent anime, since well, there's others that I haven't finished or started watching. But there's one I finished recently, and it's ACCA 13: Territory Inspection Dept. I'm particularly bad at describing things, as I tend to stretch it longer than needed be, but it's basically drama/seinen. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, though.

I have yet to catch up with Detective Conan. Man, so many episodes.

There's also a show called KADO: The Right Answer, which is basically about humanity negotiating with an alien outsider that wants to give them advanced technology and what not. The story was great, but the ending just felt like they rushed and pushed the rest of the plot into the last episodes/scenes. Other than that, it's a good show. I sometimes wished they had more of the negotiating aspect of the story put into it, would have been interesting to see where it went.

[Ragnarok]

Am writing a One Piece SI. Read and enjoy?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/16368542/chapters/38306252

[Auxivele]

I've started getting back into anime recently, mostly to practice listening to Japanese. I know Kimetsu no Yaiba was really popular, I've only watched the first couple of episodes but I'm enjoying it so far. I also started watching Bungou Stray Dogs since my sister really liked it, and I'm going to watch March Comes in Like a Lion next.  As you can tell, I'm a bit behind on the hip new animes.

For non-Japanese shows, I've been meaning to watch Quan Zhi Gao Shou. I watched the live action but the game mechanics are absolutely bizarre and make no sense. The donghua is supposed to be a lot better, according to my friends who are really into eSports.

[yung_chrysanthemum]

I've started getting back into anime recently, mostly to practice listening to Japanese. I know Kimetsu no Yaiba was really popular, I've only watched the first couple of episodes but I'm enjoying it so far. I also started watching Bungou Stray Dogs since my sister really liked it, and I'm going to watch March Comes in Like a Lion next.  As you can tell, I'm a bit behind on the hip new animes.

For non-Japanese shows, I've been meaning to watch Quan Zhi Gao Shou. I watched the live action but the game mechanics are absolutely bizarre and make no sense. The donghua is supposed to be a lot better, according to my friends who are really into eSports.

i love, love, loooved march comes in like a lion. i hope you enjoy it :]

last night i watched the most recent violet evergarden OVA... just as good as everything else in that series. i love the steampunk / victorian feel to that world. and there's a lot of tearjerker moments too. i'm all in.

[RanVor]

The Ancient Magus' Bride :
Another fantasy, whoo. This one is the first anime based on more Celtic mythology that I actually like. It's still got a bit of cognitive dissonance which tends to happen when one culture tries to portray another, but it makes a very good effort. Designs are very Japanese, reactions are also still Japanese (though it seems they're trying to mitigate this, too, it's minimal compared to many others), but the series takes place mostly in England and it... actually looks like England. Odd. This series does deal with some difficult themes (child abandonment, isolation, human trafficking, depression), and abusive situations. So far it's been heading more towards the "get this bad situation to a good, working, healthy situation", so I feel safe recommending this. I may be wrong as I've not read the manga yet, and perhaps avoid it if those subjects are difficult for you. At its heart it is a story about two people learning to heal and accept each other, and it does that job well.

Status : It has a three-part prequel OVA. Don't watch this OVA until you've at least watched up to episode 8 of the anime to avoid character spoilers. The anime is currently up to episode 8 with 24 episodes planned. As they've advertised it to high heaven, the OVA was released before the anime, and the official twitter is releasing a weekly 30-second mini episode along with the main, I don't see this dying before it reaches completion. The manga it is based on has 8 volumes, and is ongoing. also for some reason it's classified as shounen, it's not, it's shoujo

I LOVE this one, it's one of my favorite anime series! Partially because of the magical, fairytale-ish atmosphere and partially because, as someone with severe self-esteem issues, it resonates very strongly with me. I'm so glad to see people talking about it (even if it was three years ago)!

Random other mentions that aren't limited to this year or that I haven't seen fully but deserve mention for a variety of reasons: No Game No Life, Re:Creators, Durarara!! (and its sequels), Spice and Wolf, Barakamon, Kamisama Hajimemas***a, Mob Psycho 100, aaaaand.... the new Pingu series.

Re:Creators is bad, BAD, BAD, don't ever watch it. Whoever designed that finale must have been out of their mind. It's not even disappointing, it's just downright insulting.

[Alkia]

I LOVE this one, it's one of my favorite anime series! Partially because of the magical, fairytale-ish atmosphere and partially because, as someone with severe self-esteem issues, it resonates very strongly with me. I'm so glad to see people talking about it (even if it was three years ago)!

ooh yes, I watched a little bit of the Ancient Magus Bride, but eventually lost interest and turned to the manga instead, which I haven't checked on in months but loved!!!! That fairytale magic feel is what drew me to it too

[Lenny]

Re:Creators is bad, BAD, BAD, don't ever watch it. Whoever designed that finale must have been out of their mind. It's not even disappointing, it's just downright insulting.

Aw man, that's sad, it started out really promising. I never did end up finishing it, and definitely won't now :'D

[Auxivele]

There's an unfortunate trend in the anime I watch where they start off interesting and go downhill. I haven't watched a lot recently (and haven't been able to watch much more of the ones I mentioned last week) but two that come to mind are Charlotte and Aldnoah.Zero.

[RanVor]

There's an unfortunate trend in the anime I watch where they start off interesting and go downhill. I haven't watched a lot recently (and haven't been able to watch much more of the ones I mentioned last week) but two that come to mind are Charlotte and Aldnoah.Zero.

Some of the people behind Re:Creators also worked on Aldnoah.Zero. Coincidence?