Anime/Manga Journal

[Bytor]

As far as recommendations I read a lot of reviews from THEM, Nihon Review and MyAnimeList....if it sounds interesting, regardless of the scores received, then I try and find a way to watch it. There's actually a guy who lives not too far away from me who has a pretty large E-Bay store, so his shipping is dirt cheap to me.

[Aeolus]

I tried to list things that weren't Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Fairy Tail or some other well known big name.

I also didn't list those tournament fighters because most of them aren't really anything special.
Who here wants to watch Beyblade?

I guess there's Shaman King that's a tournament shonen fighter, right? I never watched it myself... so can't say.

There's Shaman King, Blue Exorsist, Soul Eater (which I swear he said he saw some of), JoJo's, Hitman Reborn (which you listed. I blanked on it earlier), Hunter X Hunter (2011), Dragon Ball (not Z. A lot of people never saw the original, which is way different from Z), Gintama (more of a comedy I guess, but it still sorta counts), Beelzebud, Fist of the North Star, Rurouni Kenshin, and Yu Yu Hakusho. All of Which I enjoyed much more than Naruto, Bleach, Inuyasha, and Fairy Tail. Those four are bottom of the barrel in my opinion. Not Better than One Piece, though. That show is the shiz, man (I dunno if Klyde would be into it, since it tends to be very silly a lot of the time, though).

Wait. Why do you consider Fairy Tale to be bottom of the barrel material? I thought that it was basically Rave Master with a better cast?

Also I'd like to add Bobobo to the list of unwatchables. Trying to watch that is like locking yourself in a closet with a truckload of cigarettes and chain smoking each and every one until you're ready to swear off of them forever, except replace the cigarettes with Japanese humor.

And Fushigi Yuugi is about as Shonen as Seikerei except genderswap everything (including the genre) and make the premise less retarded. Or to put it directly, it's a pure blooded Shojo series (modern day girl falls in magical sudo history and into the waiting laps of her harem of pretty bishonen) that borrows a few Shonen elements to give the pretty bishonens something to do while the MC tries to figure out which of her lovely harem she wants to motion towards first base with without just giving in and taking the Tenchii solution.

[Mickeymac92]

As far as recommendations I read a lot of reviews from THEM, Nihon Review and MyAnimeList....if it sounds interesting, regardless of the scores received, then I try and find a way to watch it. There's actually a guy who lives not too far away from me who has a pretty large E-Bay store, so his shipping is dirt cheap to me.

I see. That's pretty interesting. I never read reviews of anime unless it's a show I'm done with, since I'm afraid it'll color my opinion of the show beforehand. For some reason I don't have to worry about that with games, but for anime, it's all about my expectations. Anyways, interesting how that works for you.

Btw, I notice that if I like the intro to an anime, I tend to like the series. I can't think of any show where going by the intro didn't have some value. If it got me pumped, the show got me pumped. If the intro was meh, the show was usually not to my tastes. The only thing is that it only works for the first intro.

[Mickeymac92]

I tried to list things that weren't Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Fairy Tail or some other well known big name.

I also didn't list those tournament fighters because most of them aren't really anything special.
Who here wants to watch Beyblade?

I guess there's Shaman King that's a tournament shonen fighter, right? I never watched it myself... so can't say.

There's Shaman King, Blue Exorsist, Soul Eater (which I swear he said he saw some of), JoJo's, Hitman Reborn (which you listed. I blanked on it earlier), Hunter X Hunter (2011), Dragon Ball (not Z. A lot of people never saw the original, which is way different from Z), Gintama (more of a comedy I guess, but it still sorta counts), Beelzebud, Fist of the North Star, Rurouni Kenshin, and Yu Yu Hakusho. All of Which I enjoyed much more than Naruto, Bleach, Inuyasha, and Fairy Tail. Those four are bottom of the barrel in my opinion. Not Better than One Piece, though. That show is the shiz, man (I dunno if Klyde would be into it, since it tends to be very silly a lot of the time, though).

Wait. Why do you consider Fairy Tale to be bottom of the barrel material? I thought that it was basically Rave Master with a better cast?

To be fair, I didn't watch a whole lot of Fairy Tail, only got through the first arc. But the problem is it doesn't set up an end goal early on, and from what I gather, it never gets one. The premise, which is about the Fairy Tail mage guild and adventures they go on that may or may not have anything to do with eachother, is relatively bare-bones and just sounds like a total excuse to make things up as he goes and end it the minute it gets unpopular. I seriously got to the end of the first arc and figured they could end the show right there, because there were barely any presented questions left unanswered. Heck, they didn't really even set up character motivations despite having 10 episodes to do just that, or even who the main character is - is it Lucy the useless or Natsu the bonehead? (I should hope it's Natsu, but what other reason does Lucy even have to be in this show?) It's as if the author himself set the bar as low as possible, and that really annoys me.

Meanwhile, none of those were problems in Rave Master, IIRC. There was a clear goal, clear main character, who had motivations that were made clear enough fairly early on. And I watched all of Rave Master that was on Toonami for those reasons alone. It was a pretty meh show, but I consider those things essential to shounen. In fact, while some like to keep you guessing about the character motivations, I can't think of any other shounen show that doesn't really establish a central goal early on, besides Bleach, which suffered for it, IMO.

TL;DR, it's bottom of the barrel in my eyes simply by default, by lacking some key traits that usually ensure my general enjoyment of these types of shows.

[Ranadiel]

Wait. Why do you consider Fairy Tale to be bottom of the barrel material? I thought that it was basically Rave Master with a better cast?

Also I'd like to add Bobobo to the list of unwatchables. Trying to watch that is like locking yourself in a closet with a truckload of cigarettes and chain smoking each and every one until you're ready to swear off of them forever, except replace the cigarettes with Japanese humor.

I would second that Fairy Tail is a bottom of the barrel series as someone who reads the manga(although I really don't know why at this point). The best way to describe Fairy Tail is that it is a series that attempts to copy the greatness of One Piece without understanding what makes One Piece great. I won't go into all the instances of similarities between the two series, but they are there. Now as for examples of Fairy Tail being inept....those I will gladly go into.

Code:

One of Fairy Tail's biggest failures has to have been a time skip event that happened semi-recently(a year or so ago?). It happened a few months after One Piece had its well done time sk....I said I wasn't going to go into that. Basically every single member of Fairy Tail that has any importance of any kind was on an island for an event and after repelling an invasion by an evil guild, a dragon that happens is going to destroy the world shows up and attacks. The Guild Leader stays behind to fight it to protect everyone while they run away, they come back to save him but are completely useless, the dragon sets up a final attack, and they respond by....joining hands and thinking about how great friendship is. x_x The island appears to be blown up and we jump forward a few years, where it looks like the first arc will be character's quest to find/save the important members of Fairy Tail.....and next chapter it turns out the island has randomly decided to reappear at that moment and everyone on the island is fine and hasn't aged a day. And thus only unimportant people suffered consequences from the time skip.

So yeah that is just one example of Fairy Tail's failings. I could continue the rant, but I would hope I've gotten the point across.

As Bobobo, I like that show/manga. I admit it doesn't always translate well, but I still enjoy it. >.>

[Dice]

I'd love to dedicate myself to a few Shonen's.... but they seem to run a fucking minimum of 30 volumes (or 300 episodes).

I was disappointed with Farty Tale as well.  I loved Rave Master, but then his style switched both graphically and almost conceptually to be a hollow and unambiguous copy of One Piece, and yeah, lacks the same "heart" and honesty of One Piece while it's at it.  There was a great idea, but it just kinda faltered and fell flat.

Watching some of the new tings this Winter.

Tamako Market: The new KyoAni animation with an *original* story (which is almost as big a deal to brag about like when Hollywood does the same these days).  The animation and vibe looks and sounds like it'd suit a Kirby anime better than.... well, the Kirby anime that came out some years back.  The animation is flawless, but in typical KyoAni style, has a lead who's simply cute for the sake of being too cute (where things hurt twice as much as she covers her head and tears up a bit, or when she takes a bite of something and her face can't help but turn all cutesy).  I'm mixed.  A cute slice of life concept made a bit silly with the presence of a talking bird that feels almost as out of place as The Great Gazoo from Flintstones.  I'll follow it for a bit, there are lots of T&A animes right now, and I want something simple and nice right now...

...the main girl wears glasses but wears contacts... I wish I could see her putting in "anime contacts"...what shape would they be??????

Amnesia: an anime based on an imoto PSP[?] graphic novel.  The animation is stunning and the visual style unique even for a shoujo title.  Naturally, our leading lady has several handsome suitors wearing bizarre outfits and following a playing card theme.  The story seems interesting enough because they frame it around our lead heroine's -- OMG PLOT TWIST -- amnesia!  She seems lovely enough, but she spends the first episode talking at a slow pace, speaking at a level just above a whisper, and making bad decisions ("I shouldn't tell people I have amnesia even though I don't know where I live...or how to do my job... and I shouldn't go to the hospital because I passed out at work")

[Mickeymac92]

Amnesia's one of the shows I was hoping to follow this season (Along with The Unlimited and Cuticle Detective Ibara). I'm not a CR Premium member, though, so I gotta wait until next week to start it. It certainly sounds promising enough.

I actually have a lot of shows I want to watch an episode or two just to try them, as well...

[Annubis]

I want something simple and nice right now...

You want Minami-ke.

Up to now, that's the only new show I'm watching.
Everything else is moeblob kyu kyu ♥ ♥ ♥ or T&A

Amnesia might be ok (haven't watched) but the art style is sooooooo shoujo... I'm afraid it'll turn out has a reverse harem show.

[Kevadu]

None of you are interested in Maoyu?  If I could only watch one show this season that would be it.  Mind you, I don't really like what they did with the character designs for the anime version, but I'm still excited about the content.

[Mickeymac92]

Anybody else watch the latest season of Gintama? I just saw episodes 253 and 254. I have not kept up with this show, or even viewed its first episode, before. I have see a few bits of prior episodes here and there, but found the show to be simply too weird to really get into.

But holy cow did that change with those episodes! The comedy was perfectly balanced this time around - not only does it have just the right amount of strangeness and absurdity while not going completely overboard, it also has the right about of comedy versus serious drama and story, which at least where I'm at is pretty good - There were times when I felt genuinely moved, especially in episode 254. I'm also not entirely lost, despite not knowing everything that's happened up until now. The characters are the usual tropes so it's easy to understand them, despite not knowing who they are. The in-jokes don't seem that plentiful and when they're there, they're funny just for being absurd. Really, this might be a good place to start if you haven't already. Maybe. It's possible those bits I saw got me familiar enough with the series, but still, I'd say it's at least worth a try.

For those who have kept up with the series, how do these episodes compare with the rest of the series? I'm really thinking of trying to get into this series.


@Kevuda - I intend to give Maoyu a shot in a week or two, but I'm not too confident they'll pull it off for some reason. It's just a gut feeling, but I've learned to trust my gut feeling more than anything else.

[Annubis]

None of you are interested in Maoyu?  If I could only watch one show this season that would be it.  Mind you, I don't really like what they did with the character designs for the anime version, but I'm still excited about the content.

I watched episode one... and it was a pair of jiggling breasts in my face for 15 minutes.

It feels like it's going to do what that one show did 2 seasons ago... the high school vampires one... where the novel was (supposedly) incredible, the manga added ecchi and the anime turned it into a tits and ass yawn fest.

[Akanbe-]

Fushugi Yuugi

Fushigi Yuugi is soooooooo not shounen...

I've seen people call it shounen. That's literally all I know about it.

Those people don't know what they're talking about then.  Kevadu and Aeolus is right.  Fushigi Yuugi is 100% shoujo.   I'd probably say the same for Inu Yasha as well.

[Yggdrasil]

You want Minami-ke.

I was pretty surprised seeing that Minani-ke is still a thing.

[Dice]

You want Minami-ke.

I was pretty surprised seeing that Minani-ke is still a thing.

IIRC, one season was notorious for bad animation.  And by bad, it's like....15 year old drew better.  But hey, if it's good it's good.

[Mickeymac92]

Fushugi Yuugi

Fushigi Yuugi is soooooooo not shounen...

I've seen people call it shounen. That's literally all I know about it.

Those people don't know what they're talking about then.  Kevadu and Aeolus is right.  Fushigi Yuugi is 100% shoujo.   I'd probably say the same for Inu Yasha as well.

Inyuasha's totally shounen - it's an Action Adventure fighting anime, aimed towards boys (but not strictly in this case). It's Manga version appeared in a Shounen magazine. It has all the trappings of your average shounen show. What more do you want?

Fushigi Yuugi I'll give you at least premiered in a shoujo Magazine according to Wikipedia, so you may be right that it's a shoujo. But Inuyasha being a shoujo is a very tough sell.