Japan

commodorejohn wrote: Cowboy Bebop is the goods.

OMG I love the opening theme. It's amazing!

In the last few weeks I've seen

- 'Nanatsu No Taizai' or 'The Seven Deadly Sins'. Enjoyable, 7/10.
- 'Saint Seiya Omega' to episode 50-ish (end of the first main story arc). Just about watchable, 6/10.
- Sword Art Online II, Not as good as the 1st season (8/10) but enjoyable nonetheless, 7/10.
- Tokyo Ghoul, good, but not a classic, 8/10.

J

Cyber City Oedo 808
An unfortunately short lived series. Lots of foul language and violence. Perfect.

One-Punch Man
A fresh take on cape shit stuff, hilarious. It is now on Netflix, so you have no excuses.

Sword Art Online
An interesting technical premise that quickly abandons any sort of logic and continuity just to railroad you into the writers magical realm. Made me want to play Lineage 2 again.

Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt: December Sky
Great music, solid animation and a desperate story of war that is perfect for any mecha fan. Sieg Zeon.

Rewatched: GitS, Bebop, LOTGH (Man that is a lot of reading), Votoms and Fist of the North Star.

smj wrote: I recently picked up a copy of Serial Experiments Lain and watched the whole thing through - nice refresher.

Never seen it but have heard nothing but good things. Going to pick this up later in the week.

Lain is definitely worth a go. It's like David Lynch directed a cyberpunk anime.

VenomousPinecone wrote: Cyber City Oedo 808
An unfortunately short lived series. Lots of foul language and violence. Perfect.

Couldn't agree more, one of my favs! I'm still waiting for a gyro stabalised structure to be built IRL ... .

In the distant past I watched Jin-Roh (Mamoru Oshii of Patlabor/GITS fame), slow in the midlle, good start and a good end... some of that nice atomospheric feel in the middle...but can be a bit sleep inducing o.0

The best surprise was a trailer at the end for a film called Avalon ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon_(2001_film) ) directed by said director!

It's not Anime, but live action SCI-FI (Simulated Reality), Polish language and highly recommended. Excellent atomspheric scenes (like Oshii is good at), and really nicely implemented visual FX (it is 16 years old o.0).

After watching the first two episodes of Serial Experiments Lain... it is like I am missing the joke.

commodorejohn wrote: Lain is definitely worth a go. It's like David Lynch directed a cyberpunk anime.

In that it starts with a dead girl like Twin Peaks?

Here I was hoping for something more Rabbits and a little less Blue Velvet. Instead what I got was drugged up kids without any David Bowie. So like Dune. Maybe it is just one of those phenomenon, where you had to see it in the right frame of mind and at the right age. You just had to be there to get it.

I'd encourage you to stick with it. It starts slow, but the reveal of what's really going on and the gonzo lengths it goes to while remaining remarkably self-consistent (and the depth of background material it weaves in) are fascinating when you get towards the end and look back at everything that's built toward it.

VPinecone: Sorry if Lain does'tn click for you.

If people have missed FLCL or Darker Than Black , go check those out.

I try to keep Mushi-shi around. All the episodes I've seen have been standalone stories, so it's good for combating between-series depression.

commodorejohn wrote: I'd encourage you to stick with it. It starts slow, but the reveal of what's really going on and the gonzo lengths it goes to while remaining remarkably self-consistent (and the depth of background material it weaves in) are fascinating when you get towards the end and look back at everything that's built toward it.

Now I see what you mean by David Lynch. I can certainly keep watching.

smj wrote: VPinecone: Sorry if Lain does'tn click for you.

If people have missed FLCL or Darker Than Black , go check those out.

Apparently I wasn't holding the keys down long enough during the boot sequence.

Gonna finish watching, what is the worst that could happen? I might like it? That would be nice. Also, seconding the FLCL recommendation.

VenomousPinecone wrote: Now I see what you mean by David Lynch. I can certainly keep watching.

Yup. It's funny because I only really noticed the connection when I watched Fire Walk With Me and noticed the similar fixation on power lines, and I'm still not 100% certain the other similarities are deliberate, but there's enough there to make me wonder.

I really should give FLCL a shot sometime. I have a limited tolerance for self-conscious extreme wackiness, but every now and again I run into something like Nichijou or Excel Saga that's totally worth it anyway...

Eromanga-sensei is alright thus far.