The last anime you saw?

[Redgrave]

No Guns Life

 

No Guns Life is about the cool guy in the trenchcoat with the pistol for a head. He's a real gunhead if you will. It takes place in a kind of cyberpunk setting where people with augments are called Extendeds and the main character Juzo is one. His gimmick is obviously that he has a pistol for a head but if he lets someone else pull the trigger for it he shoots a big laser out of it. He basically just does oddjobs that require his talents like solving problems involving other Extendeds. Despite him being a big cyborg with a cool trenchcoat he has a soft heart where he goes out of his way to protect others and even has sympathy for the people he fights.

 

Along with that he has an engineer named Mary (the blonde girl) that gives him repairs and helps him out with whatever else, and then later gets the dark haired kid named Tetsurou on his team and they get caught up dealing with other Extendeds and other agencies in the way. It's a simple but interesting series and it kind of makes me think of something that I would have seen on Toonami. There are some episodes that are their own standalone episode with one of my favorite ones being where they investigate a haunted house and figure out what's happening there. The side characters are also pretty good too, with Mary and another character named Colt being my favorite ones although Colt isn't in it for very long.

 

It's only two seasons so far and the way the second season ends off it does seem like there were still some things left open like what happened to Juzo's previous partner but it's been a few years since the second season so I don't know how that is coming along but it would be nice if it got a continuation.

[Slava]

Whisper of the Heart

 

 

My mind is blown, my heart is overwhelmed, and my eyes are blessed. At times like this, I ask myself if I have an animation bias - some sort of favouritism. The answer, of course, is "no" every time. I think Ghibli movies are just that good. Whisper of the Heart is yet another example. Ни убавить, ни добавить - идеальный фильм.

 

Once again, I look at these insane backgrounds and think to myself "This is the most beautiful thing I've seen" or "How is this real?" every 5 minutes. First, you think the city in this film looks like a dream, but then they invite you into that antique store and you start to question if studio Ghibli is run by magicians. And of course, it won't come as a surprise when I'll say that the animation itself is impeccable. Character acting is done amazingly, every little moment, every insignificacnt detail. On top of that, Yoshifumi Kondo (RIP) uses the frame well. For example, he makes you feel how steep the stairs are without showing them. You'll feel it when you see it.

 

What surprised me the most is how the story structure reflects the mind of our main character - Shizuku. When Shizuku doesn't have a path in life, the plot feels random, it's about everything, almost like a slice of life. She follows a flow, and the viewer is asked to do the same. But once Shizuku has a goal set in stone, the story is placed on a track and goes from point A to point B. And what a touching track that is. If you've ever felt like you don't know what you want to do in life (and I expect most people to know that feeling), Whisper of the Heart will probably resonate with you on some level. Creative minds will find themselves in Shizuku and Seiji as well.

 

Another thing to note is how every single character feels alive thanks to rich and detailed writing. Each of Shizuku's family members is always busy with something, either job-related or just normal routine. They don't feel like parts of the secondary cast, they're just people who have their own goals, worries, and responsibilities, and just happen to get into frame most of the time. Even an important conversation doesn't start immediately - we wait for a character to finish what they're doing first. I almost want to rewatch the film just to pay closer attention to them and follow their mini-substories.

 

There's a lot to love in the film, including things I didn't even mention, namely the song and the romance plot. Whisper of the Heart easily makes my top 10 animated movies list. Looking forward to watching it many more times.

[ninja-star95]

Mobile Suite Gundam (Episode 27)

Edited March 8 by ninja-star95

[Redgrave]

 

In that 80's and 90's era where there were anime that was heavily influenced by American action flicks while having their own sci-fi twist to them, Spriggan is no exception. I don't even really know where to start with the plot because I feel like explaining any part would be like I'm explaining something crazy.

 

It's about a 17 year old kid named Yuu Ominae that is basically a commando that works for an organization called Spriggan. There is another organization called ARCAM that in an expedition of the Ararat Mountains in Turkey, they find Noah's Ark. Noah's Ark winds up releasing some kind of energy pulse that destroys an orbiting satellite. Are you with me still?

 

There's also a branch of the Pentagon called the US Machine Corps. with two cyborgs and a psychic that wants to capture Noah's Ark for their own gain. I realize this sounds like I'm describing what could have been scrapped ideas for Metal Gear Solid and funny enough one of the cyborgs is a big guy with a mini-gun named Fat Man. Before they even said his name I really thought to myself "This guy is basically Fat Man and Vulcan Raven with cyborg parts".

 

 

I think it's really worth checking out for that premise alone. It's also got some really great animation that I believe was supervised by the same guy that did Akira and it really shows. I feel like it stays consistently good all throughout it and even near the end it does a really cool effect when they show the scenes inside Noah's Ark. While I wouldn't say the story is a masterpiece I was surprised seeing how people seemed to hate it for some reason. It's definitely not bad and I think the story is aware of how over the top it is so I don't really see the problem with it.

[xEl_Cidx]

 

Season 2

 

Spoiler

I prefer Season 1 over 2!

 

[Redgrave]

"It's you, you're the Revenger™!"
 

Initially this post was going to be about an anime called Un-Go but I couldn't get past four episodes of that before I dropped it because I felt incredibly bored watching it and so I opted for this instead. This is about a group of assassins that call themselves Revengers because they take hits from people that leave bite marks on gold coins as revenge against whoever. I'm not a gold expert but I feel like you would hurt your teeth and even break one if you tried biting down on a gold coin hard enough to leave a mark but what do I know.

 

Anyway, it's only 12 episodes and most of the episodes are a standalone kind of episode with different hits but the overarching story involves another group selling opium in Nagasaki. The assassins shine in one way or another in certain episodes with probably my favorite ones apart from the main character being a buff doctor named Teppa Murakami who uses a large bow to fire harpoons as arrows like the Silver Knights in Dark Souls. It even does the sonic boom kind of effect when he fires them. The other one being Usui Yuen who uses some kind of golden paper that he sticks on peoples faces to suffocate them but when he does this he lowers his shirt revealing a tattoo of Mary and he does a prayer before the target suffocates. 

 

 

The other assassins are a kid that uses kite strings covered in sharp (what I think are metal shards) objects that he uses to decapitate and cut targets. Sometimes he also uses the kites to help the doctor aim their harpoons at a target. There is also a gambler assassin that uses razor sharp Koi-Koi cards, of which I wish I could use in the Yakuza games on the opponent after they get like a 30 point lead and not call Koi-Koi. As for the main character he's a ronin that joins the group after his fiance and her father get murdered. He usually does a war cry and charges at whoever the target is for him and will slice them in half after confusing them with his scream.

 

Overall I liked it even if I feel like it could have had more episodes but I suppose it probably would have overstayed its welcome since the episodes did start to feel formulaic so maybe it's for the best.

[SelectiveGamer]

 

Yep I'm back in this thread again. Anime has been pretty dead for me for awhile. I might have to remedy that... 😅

 

Anyway Mashle S2 has started english dubbed. No I don't know why it took so long.

[Sigma999]

Frieren : Beyond Journey's End (2023/2024) finished all 28 episodes so far  

 

[SmileSlice]

Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan

Crunchyroll (Dub)

 

Everything about this series is absolutely hysterical. The writing is brilliant and makes this possibly one of the funniest Slice of Life I’ve ever watched.

[Heather342]

[LastHelghast-]

Currently watching JJK for the first time!

Edited March 27 by LastHelghast-

[Dav9834]

Rewatching Re:Zero because I had forgot everything 

[Redgrave]

 

Normally I don't watch the big flavor of the month (or in this case several months) anime but the premise to this one sounded interesting enough for me to check it out since it was finishing up. I really like the premise to it since it felt like something different. It starts off with the main elf girl Frieren and her party ending their ten year journey but to her it wasn't long at all since she is immortal or at least lives way longer more than everyone else and so you see her outlive most of the group she was with and she starts another journey with a new group. It made me think of that part in Lord of the Rings where Elrond is warning Arwen about how she will outlive Aragorn, so I appreciate that this anime explores that idea a bit in its own way. 

 

Since it's new I won't really go too much into it but I liked it. I wouldn't say it was PEAK like some have been saying but I think it has its own merits that lets it stand out on its own and earned the positive reviews. If there is one thing I can say is that once it gets to the mage academy towards the end I feel like it started losing my interest compared to everything else before it. I get what it was going for since it was trying to get Fern to become a stronger mage but something about that whole arc made me think it stuck with it for too long and also introduced other characters I didn't really care for since they felt like one-dimensional trope kind of characters like the gloomy eyed "bored" characters or the smirking cool guy that you see pretty much everywhere else.

 

I assume due to its popularity it will get a season 2 and so I hope that season 2 continues on and keeps the quality of the first 3/4'ths of the first season. Let's just hope Frieren and the group don't come across this guy

 

Edited March 28 by Redgrave

[Slava]

The Animatrix

 

 

 

The Animatrix is an awesome animated anthology and a required viewing for people who liked the original films. The industry GOATs including Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) and Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D : Bloodlust) expand the world of The Matrix in beautiful, deep, and unique ways. 

 

The one short that aged the most is the CG one called Final Flight of the Osiris, which probably looked great in 2003, but now resembles a pre-rendered PS3 cutscene. Story-wise, it's basically this franchise's equivalent of Star Wars' Rogue One. The rest are animated in 2D, each looking uniquely cool, and explore different aspects of this world. 

 

My favourites include The Second Renaissance, Program, World Record, and Matriculated. The first one has some of the most striking visuals and some of the most interesting imagery and symbols. Even though it's mostly lore/exposition, the history parallels and its bleakness hit hard. Program is simple in terms of story it tells, but it has my favourite style of the bunch, and manages to do something unexpected. World Record has the most powerful message - humans cannot be bound by the limits of the simulation. The ending is very emotional as well, which is an impressive thing to achieve on such a short runtime. Matriculated is very trippy, and probably has the most depth. The idea of this short is that machines can be turned to the side of humanity volantarily, you just need to show them the good perspective of humanity. And the protagonists try to do that through simulation. Its purpose basically gets reversed.

 

There's a lot more of course: a chill (in comparison) episode about a glitch in the Matrix, a detective story set in a retro-futuristic world (previous version of the Matrix, perhaps), even some skateboarding sakuga. If you like The Matrix, don't skip this anthology. It's a great way to spend 100 minutes of your life.

 

Can't say which VA was better - I watched some episodes in English, and some in Japanese. But it might be one of the cases where dub is a good choice.

 

 

 

On 3/28/2024 at 8:45 AM, Redgrave said:

I wouldn't say it was PEAK like some have been saying

 

Are you saying it's not the best anime in history by far as MAL suggests? 😁 Heathen!

 

 

Edited March 30 by Slava
Fucking automatic smileys turn Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust into some nonsence

[Redgrave]

5 hours ago, Slava said:

Are you saying it's not the best anime in history by far as MAL suggests? 😁 Heathen!

 

!!

 

 

But it's cool that you watched The Animatrix now, I definitely think it's one of the better Matrix series after the first movie that I would say is actually good. I still remember renting it around the time it came out and the part where the soldier in the power armor is screaming while the machines are pulling him out of it frightening me I would love to see a series in the same style as Program though. As far as that detective one I assume it was all retro-futuristic as a design choice but I did wonder why it looked so old and I don't think it was a previous iteration of the Matrix since Trinity shows up. I would like to to see an earlier version of the Matrix where it's in an older setting so the Agents look like 1950's FBI agents but they are all doing kung fu flips and dodging tommygun fire.

[Dantes_994]

This anime is a wonder  

[Revvie]

Oh, don't mind me. I'm smiling like an idiot and everything around me is very fluffy. 

Otonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsunomanika Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken

 

 

Spoiler

Cute

 

Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu Season 2

 

Spoiler

CUTE

 

[Sigma999]

Finished Hokkaido Gals are Super Adorable 

 

 

 

[StewartBros]

 

Just started watching the Onimusha anime on Netflix.  Only 2 episodes in so far, but it's looking good.

[Redgrave]

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit

 

Moribito is about a woman with a spear named Balsa that has a personal quest to save eight souls after something that is later revealed in her backstory. She winds up taking an oath to protect a young prince from any harm they wind up forming a kind of surrogate mother-son relationship. The prince also has some kind of spiritual egg thing inside him that lets him interact with some kind of spirit world.

 

The characters and their dynamic are all pretty good, and probably one of the best things about the prince is that despite starting off as a kid that can't really defend himself he actually does wind up wanting to learn how to fight to defend himself better as opposed to just acting like a prince that can't fight his own battles with one of my favorite episodes where he challenges a bully during some festival and he holds out on his own. There isn't too much in the way of action scenes but when they do happen they are really well animated to where I wonder if they used fight footage as a reference.

 

Overall I liked it. Apparently the anime is only a part of the actual story but the ending of the anime feels conclusive enough so it doesn't feel like you're robbed of a proper ending. Along with that I gained a soft spot for the opening song.

 

 

[SelectiveGamer]

 

Found out that the new Spice and Wolf anime started english dubbed so I have started watching it. I never watched the original so I can't really compare the two. It was (and I guess technically still is) in my backlog and I never got around to it.

 

I'd say... it's definitely... interesting so far. I guess? 😅

 

I know I said I would watch Steins Gate but things kept coming up and then this started. If I can find a way to watch it then I might but no promises at this point. Sorry? 😓

[Redgrave]

 

The Skull Man is about a reporter named Hayato that goes to investigate a town under lockdown with other mysterious rumors with the main one being the titled Skull Man. With him is a photographer named Kiriko that is also investigating for her own reasons that are revealed halfway through. Despite the title it wasn't as dark as I was expecting it to be and with Hayato and Kiriko it's on the humorous side but I thought they evened the tone out well enough. It's got an interesting mystery to it and I think Hayato and Kiriko were funny and interesting characters. Kiriko gets extra points for being energetic and having some cute moments where she's playing with the kids at the orphanage they visit.

 

It's only 13 episodes but it's short and sweet. Initially I was kind of put off by how strange it gets near the end but I then found out that the reason it does is because apparently this series ties in to both Kamen Rider and Cyborg 009. I don't know much about Kamen Rider other than it's also popular but I remember seeing at least some of or perhaps one adaptation of Cyborg 009 on Toonami back in the day and I remember liking it, so it was cool knowing that this and that was connected.