Maybe it was produced of the 30th Anniversary? Looks very cool, though.
My best friend recommended Moribito to me. They have it on Crunchyroll’s website but it doesn’t show up in the apps (in US) and if I add it to my queue and try to play it, it blows up. Maybe they don’t have US rights?
I ended up signing up for the premium trial so I could use the PS3 app and watched the first Ep of Kids on the Slope. The PS3 app worked fine, the only downside was when I tried to play Moribito, I couldn’t get out of the app without powering off the machine.
Moribito is well recommended. I love it. Such a great show–I’m sad they didn’t do any follow ups.
— Alan
For our North American readers, Maria-sama ga Miteru is now available on youtube officially:
http://www.youtube.com/show/mariawatchesoverus
Marimite is an anime (and manga, and novels) about a Catholic girls’ school in Japan and the relationships in the student council of that school. They’re also the only Japanese novels I’ve read except for Twelve Kingdoms.
Aw, sweet. I watched some of this on Netflix a year ago or more, but never finished it. Good character-relationship-based story, if a bit sappy. But then, what shojo isn’t?
So what’s the deal with youtube having some anime series for free? Who’s sponsoring? When will they add more series?
Highschool of the Dead is surprisingly good, considering it’s a bunch of high schoolers fighting zombies. Of course that’s like saying that jalapeños are surprisingly mild, considering that they’re in the same family as habaneros. It’s bad, just not as bad as one might have expected. There’s a goodly amount of gore and a ridiculous amount of fan service, to the point where if I was rating it for a US movie theater, it would definitely be R. If you can stand the cheesiness, it’s worth watching for some interesting characterizations and pop culture references along the way.
Alstein
3347
I’ll second Moribito being awesome. I need to watch the rest of it sometime.
I’m surprised that you think it’s awesome without having finished it. The middle stretch of episodes were a bit slow, but the tremendous finish brought everything together and made all the build up worthwhile. Still my favorite anime series.
Also, watched the Persona 4 anime (Finally finished the game recently – I had gotten halfway before, but I burnt out from having played P3 in the same stretch.) The anime is okay. They did a good job of squeezing a lot of content into 26 episodes, but I think it would have been better if they didn’t. They should have stuck the miscellaneous social link storylines to the background (like how they handled the Tower/Devil/Death links) and concentrated on the core team.
For anyone else (like me) who was sad to see the game end, I found some translations of the Persona 4 drama cds here. A lot of variations on the same jokes (the girls can’t cook, Kanji, etc.) but it’s entertaining and the characters are just so damn likeable.
On to P4:Arena!
P4 Arena is like another drama CD, but with fighting levels in between. No, that’s not true…the story isn’t fluffy slice-of-life like most drama CD, and there’s a setup for a sequel of some sort.
I actually got the game on day 1, and got >500 gamer points out of it. I probably should have started a thread on it, except that I have nothing much to say. I don’t play many other fighting games, and I’m not that competent, so I can’t compare technically. But this game is easy enough for me to make a lot of progress.
OK, you guys have convinced me to try it out. Next up on the obtain-and-watch list.
Edit: And having now actually looked up Moribito on wikipedia, it appears I already watched it! I’d forgotten the name, apparently. You’re all right, it’s a great series.
been watching sword art online. Really like it, probably the best anime in a long time.
If used to play mmorpg’s, or still do, it will have a bunch of fan service for that as well.
I know nothing about the games and have been pleasantly surprised that MLA:TE is a pretty solid mecha show in its own right. The pacing is a bit uneven: the first episode is slow, the second hits the ground running (and gets hella brutal); then it jumps forward a few years and goes slow for the next few episodes.
For those as unfamiliar with the source material as I was: the premise is alternate-history scifi. Earth is invaded in the early `70s by aliens called the BETA (a really awkward acronym even by Japanese standards); by the time the TV show starts (2001), the BETA have already wiped out most of Eurasia. The TV show centers on a team of test pilots in Alaska working on a new mecha (“TSF” in the show’s parlance); while fighting the BETA do figure prominently into some episodes, it’s not the series’ central focus.
I’m terrible at fighting games, but I’m having a lot of fun with this one. I love the auto-combo system, and the story’s great so far (I imagine it’s safe to say that it has the best story of any fighting game, ever.) Anyone who’s a fan of P3 and P4 needs to try it out.
I watched the first three episodes of SAO earlier and really enjoyed it, so far, it is not what I was expecting, which was something in a slightly goofy vein (maybe like Blue Exorcist, which my kids and I have been having a blast watching together). The tone is more serious and the writing more sophisticated than I thought it would be. Looking forward to more of this one.
I also figured out why I had been having trouble with Moribito. Apparently, you have to have mature content enabled in the Crunchyroll account settings for this one to show up in the apps or play. I haven’t had a chance to start watching it yet, though.
mixuk
3356
So, I’ve seen quite a few good anime shows in my life. The ones that stuck with me were: Monster, Death Note, Berserk, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Trigun, and some others. There are guilty pleasures like Naruto and Bleach, but I don’t consider them in the same ballpark as Death note or Monster.
Now, I’m wondering, based on that list, what great ones have I missed?
Well, until I started watching Crunchyroll recently, most of my experience with anime in the last 20 years was from Cartoon Network, but they have had some I really loved:
Fullmetal Alchemist (original and Brotherhood, though I prefer the original)
Cowboy Bebop
Witch Hunter Robin
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
Currently I have been or am watching on Crunchyroll:
Blue Exorcist (in the Bleach guilty fun category)
Magi
Sword Art Online (loving this one)
Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit (only a couple of eps in, but was highly recommended to me)
Kids on the Slope (huge fan of Yoko Kanno’s music)
All of these have been enjoyable, and I have a bunch of others in my queue.
Cowboy Bebop. Samurai Champloo. IMHO, RahXephon (I like it so much better than Evangelion, although it riffs on similar notes). Paranoia Agent. Probably Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood (I haven’t seen it, but the manga was great and supposedly Brotherhood is pretty faithful, unlike the original FMA anime). Haibane Renmei. I’d like to recommend Ghost in the Shell Standalone Complex, but haven’t really seen enough of it to date to be sure - I definitely hear good things, though, and it’s way better than any of the movies. Last Exile. If you can track it down and have a lot of time to spare: Legend of the Galactic Heroes.
More debatable, but that I enjoyed: Madoka Magica (it’s a magical girl show, but it’s a magical girl show that deconstructs magical girl shows and makes of them a thing of deep, devastating horror). Texhnolyze (it takes forever to figure out what the hell is going on, if you ever get there, but I like weird, and also depressing). Blue Gender (alien invasion. Commendably ready to dispatch characters at the slightest notice. Get attached to nobody).
You guys took all my good suggestions to mixuk already. Damn you!
Oh wait. Check out Claymore, Serial Experiments Lain, Noir, Eureka Seven, and Steins;Gate. I sense mostly adult drama in your list, so these should be good.
Then watch Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z Hen to satisfy the Naruto/Bleach side of you that wants things to go boom!
Then watch Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which should completely end your need to watch Naruto/Bleach ever again.
I’ll help you out with that. GITS:SAC is well worth watching; I’ve gone through three times and am considering a fourth. You have to be willing to pay attention to follow the storylines, especially when things get frantic in the last few episodes of a season. Don’t expect much connection with the movies - character names are about all that carries over. Do watch SAC in order, though; season 1, then season 2, then Solid State Society.
