[Mikey]

Anybody watching Seto no Hanayome? It's sort of standard in the 'boy meets supernatural girl and awkward romance follows' way, but it is also pretty damned funny. It's been a while (since maybe Kemonozume) that I've I really laughed out loud at an anime.

[SplashBeats]

antitype watch gurren-lagann and bask in it's glory

i still haven't seen 9 through 11 :(

[remote]

I've been a little bit skeptical of that one, but I'll check it out. I think I've been skeptical mainly because I've learned that I'm most interested in stuff that would qualify as Superflat, and I'm unsure of whether or not Gurren-Lagann is embracing certain anime conventions, subverting them, or something like both. I mean, it's a giant robot anime. Tell me more about it?

Just watched Paprika, though, and yeah. Fucking amazing. Easily Satoshi Kon's best work so far.


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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[haircute]

Anyone else digging on Hayate no Gotoku? I love it.
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Get Wild and Tough!

[chevluh]

[professor_scissors]

[remote]

I dunno, I'll grab a couple of episodes of Gurren-Lagann, but I remain skeptical.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[psiga]

[remote]

I wouldn't recommend reading this post (specifically, the comments section) if you haven't yet seen the movie, but if you have, maybe you'd be interested in scrolling down a bit and reading my defense of its portrayal of women and sexuality.

Major spoilers: "In short, Chiba was seen as a real woman, beautiful and tastefully naked, exposed in her vulnerability after the facade of the dream-girl was torn down. ... In fact, I think one could even go as far as suggesting that the hand-rape scene equated dream-girl fetishizing otaku fanboys with the rapist; his hand being their immature, selfish, depraved urges."
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[wpham]

Paprika was very entertaining, but nowhere near as moving as Millenium Actress.
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last.fm

[psiga]

Grabbed and watched. I love the opening credits. This poor tube video of it does not live up to the true sound quality, but it'll give people an idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_d-rLBECGE (Edit: Huh. That video is actually not as good as what I saw in the movie I watched. The one I watched put the credits onto things rather than over things. Like instead of just white text in front of Paprika's face, it would be a bluish glow projected onto her cheek. It was really classy.)

I agree with the dude on your livejournal, antitype, that it's one of those movies that is best seen on a big screen. Too bad we likely won't get that chance. MAYBE IN OUR DREAMS LOL

Now I am not really going to look too deeply into the messages. It seemed like your standard Japanese attempt at making a movie that is deeper than the average whatever. That one particular scene you mention had a feeling that seemed a little disjointed from the rest of the movie in a way that I can't quite put my hand in on, though. It was an interesting scene; it's just that it seemed out of place since they didn't delve into that sort of stuff anywhere else in the movie.
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[remote]

[stotelheim]

[remote]

You know, I'm not sure. It's a common theme in a lot of stuff that ends up being good, but I have a feeling that there's a lot more stuff that's perfectly willing to settle for adolescent boys fantasizing about perfect little soulless girl-bots, maids, etc. And giant robots, of course.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[dark steve]

[remote]

Mostly, yeah. That was probably especially true for Perfect Blue and Paranoia Agent. Honestly, though, I think Paprika is simultaneously a fuck you and a love letter to otaku. Kind of like he's saying, "Come on, I like you. You're brilliant and you have beautiful dreams, but you really need to wake the fuck up and see some things for what they really are." That's kind of the where the superflat thing comes into play, I think — it's a compression of all of the best and worst things about anime fandom and everything that surrounds it. A certain conversation between Chiba and Tokita sums this up nicely.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[psiga]

Which just made me remember that conversation distilled as: YOU ARE FAT THE WAY AMERICANS ARE FAT, BUT IN THE MIND

It's interesting to think of that as a veiled message to the otaku. At the same time, I still feel weirdly disinterested in reading into things. Like, whatever commentary he has to give is just not relevant to me.

Interested in seeing Millennium Actress now, though. So that's nice.

Still have three eps left of Gunslinger Girls, and I'm nearly ready for Macross Plus.

I've been listening to Nigeru Mono (Paprika) and Pulse (Macross Plus) a lot today.

Also:

Thanks for that.
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[internisus]

I hadn't heard about Paprika until now. Downloading that and 3 eps of Combat Butler, which looks pretty funny!

Oh hey, how did Gunslinger Girls turn out? I watched like 6 eps once and liked it but didn't feel compelled to finish it off.

[remote]

Hokay.
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letterboxd | last.fm | steam

[professor_scissors]

Don't expect the innuendo and phallic imagery to stop anytime soon.

[SplashBeats]

paprika made me tear up a bit

mostly just because of the sheer fucking beauty than anything else

[psiga]

I was worried about Dennou Coil at the end of episode 3, but instead of faltering, episode 4 just burst into a running stride.

Again, the show is about Augmented Reality, so a lot of virtual stuff is happening for the people with these glasses on. You cannot be physically hurt by anything, but you might end up bricking the firmware on your glasses, or get some other sort of tech support problem which costs money to fix.

One of the characters earns herself some enemies and snoops, leading to her being attacked by about five boys trying to brick her gear.



It's fast-paced and nicely animated, with tribal drums going on in the background. People hacking and counter-hacking eachother though virtual terminals hovering around their heads.

It's still rated G compared to Paprika's R, so bear that in mind. But yeah, I'm happy with it so far.
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[chevluh]

[Martial Loh]

Dennou Coil looks sorta interesting. I'll pick up some eps this evening.
Im slowly getting bored with Gurren Lagann.
The inevitable whingy-broody-phases of protagonists always come across badly. I've not watched the latest episode (11?) yet, but I really hope they end this phase!

Lucky Star is .... Im sure they reuse the same jokes over and over again, but manage to just about get away with it. I'll think of a word to describe it with sooner or later.

[psiga]

[professor_scissors]

[haircute]

I started watching Emma last night after my net connection died. The character designs kind of threw me off but I ended up really enjoying it. I think this show is going places.

Also: more people should watch Galaxy Angel. Especially seasons three and four.
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Get Wild and Tough!

[DonMarco]

Paprika = good.

So hey! They aired GitS: Solid State Society on scifi last night. Wow.
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Still alive.

[Baron Patsy]

[Martial Loh]

[DonMarco]

[internisus]

Uh, I dled a very nice sub version of Solid State Society months ago. It shouldn't be hard to find.

Dennou Coil looks interesting to me, as well. It's only up to episode 4, huh? I'll wait awhile. I still have to watch all of Death Note, after all. BTW, Death Note makes me think a cool name for a spinoff would be Dead Beat.

My copy of Paprika isn't as good-looking as those two images up there. =(

Bleach 128 is almost on my hard drive. 110-115 were still the best of the new arc, though.

[BotageL]

Denno Coil is pretty great so far. The animation budget is way, way higher than most of the other stuff running this season, and since it runs on the NHK, it possesses a level of class and dignity most modern anime lacks. Also, it has a neat and terrifying vision of the Internet future.
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[internisus]

That was a really lame Bleach episode.

[wpham]

Dennou Coil is very intriguing, and very beautiful.



Seirei no Moribito is maintaining its level of quality. Though there's currently (as of episode 9) a lull in the action, character development and plot movement are still taking place.

On someone's recommendation, I started watching the "Bakeneko" arc of a series called Ayakashi Classic Japanese Horror, and it's worth checking out just for the composition and colors alone.


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last.fm

[psiga]

Amazing. The anime thread dropped to page 3.

So I finished watching Denno Coil 7 just now. It was unimpressive. 6 was unimpressive as well. I'm losing faith in the series. Too bad.
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[Takashi]

The last two episodes were just set-ups, I belive. They needed to integrate the Haraken and Isako characters as members of the main plot, and unveiling the work of the Encoders. The episodes themselves, however, were very alike, including both putting Kyoko in peril and getting saved at the last moment.. so for me it's a toss. I expected to be a nice, complex enough kid's show about technology and friendship and that's what I'm getting the vibe of.

I think some people here would like the anime adaptation of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. It's beautifull and inane. Maybe a bit deep into otakudom to be really, really good, but it's worth it for the "what the hell" feeling.
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low-end.net | Whimsy (soon) | Serfdom 2.0

[psiga]

EYES

EYES

Aside from one poorly executed scene from a character who was out of manga canon, this movie struck me as fucking awesome. I can't really get into the anime series, but the movie adaptations are pretty excellent so far. Waiting for the second movie to hit the torrents.
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[Broco]

[alice]

I finally saw paprika today and god it was good. It's funny that *someone* mention it was no where near as moving as millenium actress or at least use that for a basis of comparison. Paprika was definitely not meant to be too particularly moving though i admit the ending was cute. It was just amazing the way Satoshi Kon blurs fantasy and reality to such an appreciable degree. There are movies that may play games with you by hiding the truth and the constant anxiety of whether what you see is truth or not is blurred. Satoshi kon succeeded in blurring not only truth and lies but fiction and reality until the end where they become undistinguishable. Albeit he did the same with paranoia agent, For a substantial part of Paprika, the same anxiety existed of whether what you see is fiction or reality. I felt the movies focus was on the eventual melding of the dreamworld and reality and its visualization (which is absolutely amazing).

But about millenium actress. I saw that a while ago not knowing it was a work by Satoshi Kon and didn't realize it after finishing the film since it was such an offshoot from Paranoia agent (the only satoshi Kon thing I've seen). The movie was good but I didn't think it was great but now that i've watched Paprika and Tokyo Godfathers, I want to watch Millennium actress again. Tokyo Godfathers on the otherhand had an incredibly moving ending and I think is a bit more comparable to millennium actress than Paprika is.

Imma watch perfect blue later :3.

Is dennou Coil really worth watching.. It's kinda lame after watching Paprika you gotta admit. I started watching it because of the art/animation style. For some reason though, I always feel that the artits for dennou coil stole his style from Ghibli. I'm sure it's not, but that's the feeling i get when I watch it :p. I saw up to the second episode and the plot wasn't too intriguing and got ultra lamed up when the girl's grandma showed up and they form this stupid club composed of a bunch of kids and their super glasses whereas I'm sure there are EMPLOYED ADULTS in the world of dennou coil who can solve any problems much better than kids ever could. Well, there is sorta a dystopia feel to it, but that's probably giving dennou coil too much credit. Someone convince me to watch more.

Speaking of dystopias, is anyone here watching freedom? The animation style sucks and the first two episodes were very lackluster and stupid and I couldn't believe it was actually a work by otomo. The third episode springs forward the plot with the dystopia thing and makes me want to watch the fourth episode really badly now. I only wish they used traditional animation rather than some stupid 3DCG. Oh, and I wish they made the first two episodes suck less.

In other news, Genius Party by studio 4c came out but the interweb has yet to see its release. I'm really excited about the 'door' and 'happy machine' and I'm sure the other 5 shorts will be no less kickass. I can't wait for this.

And in other other news, has anyone seen Tekkon Kinkreet? Any studio 4c feature length film is a must see for me. I'd buy the DVD or download but i can find neither right now. Well, least not with english subs.

[rabite gets whacked!]