3641

I just finished log horizon, and watched SAO earlier this month. I thought they were both pretty weird. I enjoyed watching SAO just because the stakes felt higher, and I was a sucker for the action romance thing that they got into. Log Horizon was just… weird. I felt like it was missing something. The characters seemed WAY too okay with what was going on, and why they were trapped inside a game. They felt pretty poorly written. You don’t really know anything about them. The only character I liked was Akatsuki.

I feel like the writing in both of these series was frankly bad. I think it’s just hard to actually write about being trapped in a mmo. That said, I did enjoy how things changed once they were inside, like how everyone was scared about farming since they now fight from first person perspective, or how the NPCs became sentient, or how they figured out how to change things inside of the game.

3642

Nozaki-kun is the best anime this season. Stop wasting time with mmo-stuff! :P

3643

I approve of that message.

3644

I am rooting for the red headed girl! She is determined! :)

My kids and I like the survival game on Crunchyroll. It makes us laugh every episode. We love that the main character is actually more nuts than everyone else.

3645

Just started watching it. I like it.

3646

From the list of “5 best anime series of 2013” on Kotaku, I’d already seen Attack on Titan (and loved it), so I added three of the other four to my Hulu Plus queue.

  • Silver Spoon
  • The Devil is a Part Timer!
  • Gatchaman Crowds

They each sounded interesting for different reasons.

I tried Silver Spoon yesterday though, and while it may be a good series, I was watching it like I watch most TV: while eating, or trying to do other chores like paying bills. And since there’s no dub, only subtitles, pretty soon I realized I had no idea anymore what was going on.

So it’s not a new realization, but one that I keep forgetting: if I want to watch an anime without a good dub, I can’t watch it while I multitask. Stupid subtitles.

3647

I prefer the subtitles; I find that a lot of dubs do not always do justice to the story (IMHO).

I really Ike Silver Spoons, it was something very different than most of the shows we watched. I think as a family we enjoy some of the slice of life shows more than most.

Yes, cannot multitask if a show has subtitles. On the other hand if someone in the family is watching a show while I am busy the show is not being ruined for me since I do not understand a word I am hearing; I guess there is give and take. :)

3648

I can’t stand watching anime with dubs. It feels so out of place, especially after watching so much with subtitles. Also some things can be lost in translation, and while they might still be, you can tell what they were going for when they talk in Japanese.

I got through all the current episodes of Nozaki Kun. Does anyone have any good recommendations for animes like it?

3649

I’m not aware of anything exactly like it, but what aspects of it are you looking for in other series? What’s your favorite thing about it? Shows similar in spirit are out there but I try not to throw out recommendations without having a better idea of what you think you’re looking for.

3650

I like that it is light-hearted with comedy and a bit of romance, that is well done.

3651

I would try this:

Arakawa Under the Bridge

It is whacky and a romance. My daughter absolutely loved it.

3652

These are some oldies but goodies: Fruits Basket; Kare Kano. Both are more Romance with some light-hearted comedy, at least at the beginning half of the TV series. Bail if it gets too serious.

I might come back with more suggestions…do you like harem genre?

3653

I was trying to think of something last night and failed. This one probably should’ve been my answer.

3654

I’ve not yet watched Silver Spoon, though I’ve read good things about it. I feel like I need to finish watching Moyashimon before I get started on another “agriculture school!” series.

The first half of Hataraku Maou-sama! is pretty funny; the second half drags at first (some so-so filler episodes), then gets better by the end, but never quite hits the first half’s apex. Still a fun show, though, IMHO. [tl;dr summary: the premise is a bunch of characters from a fantasy world are transported to modern-day Japan and forced to live normal-ish lives, including the eponymous devil-lord and his arch-rival. Hilarity ensues.]

I watched the first few episodes of Gatchaman Crowds but just couldn’t get into it. I like the visual style, but I simply wasn’t dragged into the story nor cared about the characters; in particular, Ichinose grated on my nerves. Then there’s the jailbait who spends most of her screentime in her underwear and…ugh. Timeout called on account of Creepy Loli Factor.

3655

I agree for most of the dubs I’ve tried. But every once in a while I run into a great dub, that really preserves the feel of watching it in Japanese. Knights of Sidonia turned out to be one of those. I watched the first five episodes in Japanese with subs, but then switched to the dub for one episode when I wanted to watch it, but had to multitask in the living room. But oh man, I thought the English version felt very much like the Japanese version. The voice actors sound very similar, and the “feel” of the characters is the same, even the little exclamations.

3656

Well, one of us remembered so another good anime will hopefully be watched! :)

3657

Ah yeah, that’s true too. I guess it just depends on the show and the quality of the dubber. I think Funimation does a pretty good job for the most part. I watched FLCL dubbed and I enjoyed it. I tried watching Naruto with a dub once and it was totally awful. I bet that something like Bakemonogatari would not work well with a dub either.

3658

So I finished Sword Art Online season one, and have gotten about halfway through Log Horizon. I’ve decided the two are totally different animals, despite the superficial similarities regarding players trapped in an MMO.

SAO is a love story with a single hero who more or less wins everything he puts his hand to simply because he wants it badly enough. (With the addition of brother-sister forbidden love that seems to crop up in a lot of anime, never really understood why they do that.) Not my favorite genre but it hangs together all right, as long as you don’t take the MMO part too seriously…it’s there to give Kirito someplace to be the hero.

Log Horizon feels much different to me. There’s a significant focus on teamwork, for one thing…the main character isn’t even a fighter class and spends a lot of his time manipulating rather than overpowering. They’re making an effort to flesh out the world in a way that SAO never did; for instance, the episodes I’m currently watching deal with negotiations with the NPC characters (who have become something more than just NPCs). Assuming it doesn’t take a completely different direction in the last half of the season, I’d call LH a story about exploration and adaptation in a new world. And the MMO themes that crop up feel much more realistic…when the idiot sorcerer just about got his lowbie party killed in a dungeon, I was thinking “that’s exactly how it really works!”

My tastes definitely run more toward Log Horizon.

3659

I like more SAO. I think SAO is more free from anime cliches (still have a billion of them) and goes to interesting places, also it growns the characters into maturity and is very pleasant to see that.

Log Horizon explore things that SAO don’t explore, so they are great together.

3660

@Kyle700: Comedies in similar style to Nozaki-kun, minus the romance: Hyakko, Seitokai no Ichizon.

All: Hanamonogatari is out. Anyone watched it yet?