Parasyte got good reviews, IIRC; I confess I never watched it because the hand-alien thing freaks me out. ;p
geewhiz
3782
Yes, Parasyte was very good. The ending song is really good too.
Except a few scenes
(and even in them, maybe), it isn’t really a horror show.
Teiman
3784
My read is that is about building friendship, and what make us humans (or dehumanize us). But there are a lot of horror in it, that exist purely to advance the plot, I think.
Is also surprising realist about many things.
Its also a very good anime, I give it a 9.0/10 and I think everyone should watch it.
Thumbs up for Parasyte! But yes, it’s not really a “horror” anime.
Monster is very good. I think that counts.
Gendal
3787
Monster needed to be cut in half, then it would have been very good. As is there is just way too much filler.
And another thumbs up for Parasyte. Nothing great or anything, but I did enjoy it.
Fate/Zero? Edit: I’ve also heard really good things about “Another”, I think?
I also watched Madoka.
It was pretty good. Very pretty.
At first it seems kind of deconstructionist, but by the end, I don’t think it is, really.
I think a big part of the Magical Girl concept is that their power is in large part a metaphor for budding female sexuality (What do Carrie and Sailormoon have in common?) But, unless I’m fairly dense, Madoka wasn’t interested in that at all (the relationships are unequivocally not lesbian in nature, and I think its an utter misread to interpret it that way). There’s a potentially interesting social commentary in that Magical Girls have to cannibalize older women to stay young and vital (the witch-as-older women thing being telegraphed very early on), and it made reads of the teacher and Madoka’s mother difficult. But, at the end of the day, they didn’t really seem interested in that at all.
At the end of the day, it was “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader” for magical girls. Which is fine, and actually very nice, but I don’t think it was actually saying anything especially profound.
It was good though. I don’t regret my time with it at all.
It was interesting to me how much some of the character designs appeared to owe to Rayearth (Sayaka’s especially).
Alstein
3790
It’s a shonen magical girl show to me.
In some ways it’s as overrated as Evangelion is, but it isn’t anywhere near as pretentious. (I liked Madoka, thought Eva got stupid near the end)
Some older suggestions: Vampire Princess Miyu, Mermaid Scar and some other Rumiko Takahashi one-shots, manga-wise Franken Fran, if you want more comedy Ghost Sweeper Mikami.
I dunno, personally, if I was making a shonen magical girl show, I would have at least 50% fewer scenes of Madoka talking about how worthless she is. Those really grated after a while.
Earlier this week, I was reading a review of the Comedy Central show Review, which talked about how, in that show, Forrest is profoundly selfish, because he is utterly committed to his reviews when they harm other people, but is entirely willing to cave when his own well being is threatened.
So, it was a coincidence that I went into Madoka with that in my mind. But as I watched, I though about how a similar analysis applies to Madoka, who talks about saving and protecting everybody all the time, but is unwilling to sacrifice herself to do so. Now I can hand wave this away
spoiler
(if this same story happened across hundreds of timelines, there are many in which she does make a pact immediately)
but regardless of that_our_ Madoka comes across as a bit of an asshole. I wondered if this was also commentary on the insecure “I’m useless, there’s nothing special about me” type of female character, but I don’t feel confident reading it that way either.
You mean male audiences, in opposition of the normal shojo [girl] audiences that magical girl shows have. But technically, it’s more seinen than shonen. I mean, basically it’s a mystery/time travel/drama series.
There are shonen magical girl shows, like Symphogear or Nanoha (though I’ve watched neither).
For me Madoka came out as a little girl who just was unable to cope with everything thrown at her. As long as everything remains a fantasy all is cool, and she’s willing to believe everybody around her. But when things get real she’s just unable to cope because, well, no matter how powerful she is, she’s still just a kid from who too much is asked. If there’s any social commentary (I tend to read it more like a character study) I think it’s about growing up and finally realizing and assuming life’s gonna be full of shit (the contrast between the fantasies we create through media and the reality. It is somewhat deconstructionist, I think). I think Madoka’s mother is the key to understanding the girl and what she’s going through (she’s a very interesting character, that mother, and well depicted).
She’s even drawn much more girly/young than the other girls. In contrast, the grounded mature character is sort of somber as hell.
This is yet another anime show in which the protagonist is not the POV/main character (Madoka is not a protagonist here). It does make for somewhat more difficult watching, as we spend many episodes not watching anybody taking any decision, but instead watching someone react to other characters and refusing to take any decision (and some cool fights). I like this kind of stuff (I liked the series a lot), but I need to put myself in a different mode when watching.
Wow, you guys read a lot deeper into these things than I do. I liked the world-building in Madoka and the mystery aspect of the story, but I never thought too deeply about social commentary.
Yeah, insofar as it has something to say, I think Madoka’s mother is probably very important. She feels very deliberately crafted, but I’m not sure to what end. (It’s also possible that there just isn’t any “there” there, which is fine, too.)
I’m at a place with anime where I don’t watch it for casual entertainment, but only watch it very actively. This is partially because there’s a surfeit of terrible anime, and I have little desire to waste time watching things that are terrible, so I mostly just don’t watch anime anymore (in the past 3 years, I’ve probably watched 3 series: Kill La Kill, Space Dandy, and now Madoka). That probably puts undue pressure on the few that I do watch, as because I’m fairly selective, I feel the need to imbue them with a lot of meaning.
It’s also because my wife studied Japanese history and culture, and because she’s the one I mostly talk to about any media I consume, our conversations tend towards that direction.
Teiman
3796
I spoiled myself reading the manga of some animes/other info.
After knowing more about them, my opinion of the animes have changed somewhat:
-
Gate +1. There seems a lot of drag to make the next seasons fun.
-
Rokka no Yuushu -1. I just did not expect the serie to be a spy vs spy saga with double traitors centered about whos the secret Cylon. I will still watch it, but I have lowered my expectations.
I have watched some random anime, called Shimoseka. It play a theme that would be interesting to see if are well developed, a anti censorship theme, but the scripts don’t exploit it much, going for the shock and fanservice instead.
You’re probably right; I never finished it.
I’m in avery similar place to you (my wife is studyin Japanese for hobby and find the ocutnry fascinating. And I have watched so much terrible anime that I stayed away from it for a while). My recent adventures in modelling have pushed me to watch some of the older real robot shows (Zeta Gundam, Votoms…) but otherwise I’m also very selective and watch actively.
I’m enjoying Bakemonogatari, fwiw.
My wife got me started on School-Live! She heard about it on some podcast and told me I had to check it out.
Don’t read anything - not a single thing - about it before you go into it. Don’t even skim the synopsis on Crunchyroll if you can help it. Just hit the button and enjoy.
Watched parasite and loved it. Kudos for actually wrapping up the show in a great way and not just making the last episode the typical anime brow beating message episode and doing something intriguing.
What should I watch next?
