Found Arpeggio of Blue Steel on Netflix and decided to give it a shot, primarily because I’m a sucker for psuedo-military things. Boy, this could have been a pretty awesome series if they’d decided on what it was going to be. Quasi-military naval adventure? Starts looking that way, with a couple of nice tense cat-and-mouse battles of subs vs powerful surface ships. Until they break out the super spiffy cannon of doom tech, and now it looks more like big mecha fights, only these are boats instead of robots. And then there’s a couple of episodes that leave the ships entirely behind and focus on backstory and a couple of AI girls. OK, so it’s a exploration of the mystery bad guys and their journey of self-awakening…oh wait no, now they’re all together on some hidden island and holding beach parties. Harem love story? A good chunk of that, including way too many fan service shots, but way too much serious stuff going on to focus on it. It just keeps jumping around and doesn’t settle on anything, and with only 12 episodes there’s no time to finish up much of any of it. Too bad, the production is excellent and the backstory is interesting, if only there was any attempt to actually make use of it. A quick skim of the Wikipedia page says that the anime only covered about half of the manga story, which may be why it feels so incomplete. Apparently they’re making a movie follow-up for later this year…maybe it’ll be a decent stand-alone story, we’ll see.
Otagan
3702
The Arpeggio anime goes off the source material’s plot by the fifth episode or so, and anything after episode eight is basically original material. The upcoming movie is going to continue the anime’s original plot line, which is a bit of a shame since the source does everything so much better. Still liked it, for what it was worth, but reading the manga was much more satisfying overall.
Teiman
3703
I am watching all sort of animes latelly. Too many to list here (but more important, I forgot the names).
The one that I have a tab open in the browser ATM is “Magi the Laberythm of Magic”. Unlike what the format may one think, is not really a adventures story… instead the characters are busy… I am tempted to say tortured, by very important issues like slavery, personal responsablity, leadership, national debt,… The story contains many tropes you may have seen here and there (not all from the same place) but theres a lot of padding consisting of the character forced to face the problems, they can’t shrug their responsibility and you can see their sentiments and ideas fight in their heads. I really enjoy that, but I don’t know if other people would like that. Everything else in the anime is average.
Pulled this off my to-watch list over the last couple of weeks. I generally agree with Rock about it being short; the 12 episodes seemed like about half a story arc. They do a little backstory, a couple of decent sized fights, and then its over while I’m still looking around for some big climax to the season. Blowing up an asteriod is nice and all, but it didn’t feel like an ending, not even a wait-for-next-season type of ending. Having said all that, I still enjoyed all of it except the unimpressive oblivious-boy-harem-of-females standard anime handling of relationships. If they make more, I’ll give it a shot.
Otagan
3705
Second season is about halfway through its airing run at the moment, so you’re in luck.
Hit an anime con for the first time in a few years- “daughter” wanted me to go. Not really my thing anymore, but I did see something called Time of Eve that looked really good.
It’s a movie about androids and a cafe where humans and androids can’t show prejudice to each other- pretty smart and good stuff.
Time of Eve is excellent.
Agreed. Short and good. I wanted more at the end of it, which is more than I can say about a lot of the anime I watch.
Is it only on Crunchyroll? Any other platform? Hulu? Netflix?
Otagan
3710
That’s the only platform I’m aware of to find it on if you don’t have a physical copy (thank you, Kickstarter).
I wouldn’t have heard of it I think if it was not for Crunchyroll. I remember listening to interview with someone at Crunchyroll and he stated they were trying to get some Anime’s that deserved attention (like Time of Eve) out there. Glad I watched that Interview! :)
Knights of Sidonia Season 2 is coming to Netflix Instant Watch July 3rd.
Otagan
3713
Amusingly enough, I’m watching episode 11 right now.
Watched Expelled from Paradise on Netflix the other night. Not exactly groundbreaking, in either story or production, but I enjoyed it. Mid-range-future sci-fi dystopia world, privileged people living digital lives, not-so-privileged living on a dustbowl Earth, etc. Visuals were nicely done, and no complaints about the voice acting (Japanese, watching with subs). A low level of fanservice in the portrayal of the main character, but pretty tame as these things go. Thought the characters were interesting, and while there was really no surprises in the storyline, it’s well-executed and never really got boring for me. Worth a couple of hours.
I enjoyed it. Also, I am waiting until nextflix has knights of sidonia. Better quality than streaming online.
Gil102
3716
Also watched Expelled from Paradise and I feel the same way as ineffablebob. Maybe I’m a victim of societal norms, but I was surprised at seeing a few scenes featuring the main character topless…even if it was during a transport sequence. I double checked that the rating was TV-14. I’m starting to wonder what the rules are for TV ratings as this was the second TV-14 show on Netflix I’ve seen with some nudity (both animated shows, of course).
Still, pretty entertaining. I am watching Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit and I’m about a third of the way through…its been pretty good. Rather enjoyable.
Timex
3717
Be advised, the ratings for anime on Netflix are completely arbitrary. I’m not sure if their database is screwed up or what, but I’ve found them to be really crazy.
Ratings? You mean whether they’re appropriate for children of a certain age, etc? Or do you mean 1 star, 2 stars, etc? If the later, then someone mentioned in the Netflix thread that they have switched over and no longer show how much they think you’ll give a particular show, but instead what everyone on average has given it.
Timex
3719
No, i mean the actual ratings, like tv-14,tv-ma, etc.
They seem to be totally whacked a lot of the time.
Ratings are wierd. Nudity and sexuality being more taboo than violence is an American construct that is not universally shared.
