I feel like a girl. (Hanbei Ranmei discussion)

GalaxyHead · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:08 am

The second episode kicks off the story revolving around Grave and Harry's past. The series remains a steady awesome until around episode 19 or so, when it becomes an odd mish mash of sci-fi and mafia drama that focus more on the game itself. These episodes are still enjoyable (especially the ones with Bear and Bunji), but they seem a bit odd.
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“We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” - Harry Schoell, Cyclone Power Technologies Inc, in response to erroneous reports about a robot under development.

rf · Joined: 14 May 2007

Mr. Apol · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 1:24 am

SplashBeats · Guest

yeah. it's wonderful gangster drama.

psiga · saudade Joined: 04 Dec 2006

The most I'd known about it up to now was that it's an anime based on a game (KICK THEIR ASS!!) based on character designs by Yasuhiro Nightow.

Mr. Apol · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:01 am

just watch brave reideen (the old one) instead of rahxephon
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diplo · Joined: 18 Dec 2006 Location: Brandy Brendo's bungalow

my take: gungrave could have been wholly amazing if it had slashed the full blown animu transformation halfway in - the transformation that just became kind of terribly ridiculous, what with helicopter bobu poundumaxu and so on.

but then i guess you couldn't really do that, yeah, since, you know, the show couldn't just ignore what birthed it.

i think gungrave's soundtrack was more of the anime i wanted than gungrave itself. if that makes any sense.

still: yeah, really enjoyed the non-super-zombie arc of the story. had a fantastic weight and atmosphere to it.

nothingxs · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 7:52 am

charlie · Joined: 05 Dec 2006

Oh god I FUCKING LOVED HAIBANE RENMEI. Seriously. I think I cried. Ok I have to get back to drinking and drawing bye.

Mr. Apol · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:38 pm

PianoMap · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: victoria, british columbia

Yeah the fight with Bunji is my favorite singular scene in the whole show. I loved that they tried really hard not to fuck it up by making him all grotesque or carnival-like.

Yeah after Brandon's revenge is more or less complete the show gets pretty great again in the finale.
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Mr. Apol · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:32 pm

but it wasn't revenge

that's the most beautiful part about gungrave!
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PianoMap · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: victoria, british columbia

psiga · saudade Joined: 04 Dec 2006

Gironika · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: Dragon Range

psiga · saudade Joined: 04 Dec 2006

<3

Digging in now...

Speed Tube is awesome so far. Dig the keyboardist with his crazy vertical arrangements.

OH SHIT. This is the guy who did FORCES. That makes so much sense, in retrospect.

Ashura Clock, I like a lot.

賢者のプロペラ, very neat. I can hear the proto-style that led to his Paprika work.

The solo kinked-up live version of Forces is slick as heck.

The live 'love song' with a hundred disembodied heads of himself floating around... That is art.

The NHK show OP has one really great idea that gets played to death and surrounded by junk. :(

Neat. Bipedal robot with his face on it. http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xo7CAbpkpbg

This guy is more interesting than I thought.

Thank you for the links!
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

One I recently watched that's definitely girly, is probably Paradise Kiss or Nana. Paradise Kiss is kind of a weird fashion show with story segments in-between, and Nana is a typical melodrama. It's typical, but it's pretty good for what it is. It's not quite so pretentious about the fact that it is a melodrama though, and the music's pretty good.

As for more serious stuff that's less fluffy, try When They Cry. Really cool, good stuff. I can't say more than that because I haven't seen the whole series, but for the first five episodes, it's a fucking awesome roller coaster ride.
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psiga · saudade Joined: 04 Dec 2006

With a name like 'When They Cry', I'm going to have to see what the deal is.

(Back on Hirasawa topic: There is a discography torrent conveniently about the size of a whole DVDR. Will have to dip into that when my burner's working again.)
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Apparently When They Cry is the American name of the anime for the Japanese h-game Higurashi no naku koro ni.

So, yeah, I'm downloading Higurashi now. I hope the rest of the episodes are as good as the first five.

Also, in a similar line, watch Murder Princess.
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v84j3gs2uc7ns4 · Joined: 05 Dec 2006

Ratoslov · Joined: 05 Dec 2006

rf · Joined: 14 May 2007

>O<
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Mr. Apol · Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 12:59 am

SPOILERS
it's that way in the games, but the anime is quite different. in the anime, it's not that he's seeking revenge for harry killing him, it's that he's trying to protect harry and maria like he's done his entire life. they are the only two things that matter to him at all. the way i gather it, he sees that by destroying the syndicate that harry has created, one that's out of balance since harry's taken over, he is protecting harry from his eventual downfall. it's sort of weird. i think he's trying to protect harry's soul from becoming evil, sort of. like digi said, it's a tough love kind of thing. jesus christ just watch the anime already. i told you nadesico was good and it was, believe me when i say gungrave is my second favorite anime of all time.
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Mr. Apol · Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 1:00 am

god i want to watch the final episode RIGHT NOW AGAIN
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psiga · saudade Joined: 04 Dec 2006

PianoMap · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: victoria, british columbia

Gironika · Joined: 05 Dec 2006 Location: Dragon Range

nobody has mentioned piano yet? it's ... very girly and if it wasn't for fujishima being involved, i wouldn't know anything about it, but there you go.
[edit] should mention that nothing happens at all. watch the daily life of a 14(?) year old (not to sure about that age) girl.

as for the hirasawa/P-MODEL-torrent, it's .... uh, worth it. If you did like his vids (like you did), you want to have that as well. Enjoy!
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psiga · saudade Joined: 04 Dec 2006

My laptop's burner is out of commission, and I've only got about 4.6GB left on the hard drive at the moment. Will definitely get the whole torrent on disc when that little issue's resolved. There's something about some of his tracks that I'll just get randomly infatuated with for a while, and listen to on loop long enough to forget how long I'd been listening to the same thing. When I finally stop listening, it's just because I'm done listening to music, not so much because I'm tired of the track.

Can't say that about a lot of musicians.

...It's more trance-like than most of Trance music itself. Wild.
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Talbain · Joined: 14 Jan 2007

Well, I watched more of When They Cry... and I found myself bored. Re-telling a story from multiple "perspectives" if you will, is something best left to the professionals, i.e. Rashomon.

As for Gungrave, watch it. It's certainly one of my favorite animes, even though I watched it a long time ago. I only remember some of the angelic references, but they hearken back to Cowboy Bebop and create a sense of awe-inspiring hatred, in a manner similar to the death of Julia (they are not the same in many ways, but the feeling is similar).

Edit: I also watched more of Murder Princess. It's cute. Campy, but cute. While When They Cry may have a more technically compelling storyline, I found myself bored to tears with it, to the point that I couldn't continue watching it.

When They Cry reminds me a lot of Le Chevalier D'eon in terms of pacing, the difference being that D'eon has a story that actually progresses, and good action sequences. When They Cry has neither, just LOTS of brooding characters. Ah. Now I know what it reminds me of, and why I hate it so much. It reminds me of Ju-On (The Grudge). If you like the Grudge, you'll probably like When They Cry. If not, you should really skip it. It's a basically a much longer remake.
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