Anyone watch Aoyama-kun? The anime about some clean freak? Let me know if it is funny.

Remembered LWA's dub is available so I checked out a few episodes. Other than Lotte being pronounced Low Tay, I really enjoy it!

Watching a dubbed episode of Gundam Age: This is fine

Watching a dubbed episode of Gundam Build Fighters Try: *ear bleeds*

In other news, I've been watching Shirobako. It's really interesting and enlightening. It doesn't do a lot for me on its own merits (not big on the art style in particular) but simply on the basis of how educational it is on the industry it's very worth watching.

Started a few seasonals too, which so far are so good. Really liked Kakegurui's first episode. It's no Kaiji or anything, but it was and looks to be great fun.

Aho Girl was also a lot funnier than I expected it to be. I was just watching the first episode to try it out, not expecting much, but the comedy really worked for me. Had me in stitches constantly. Found myself rewatching that first episode last night for no real reason, and it was still just as funny on the rewatch. If it can keep up the humor it'll probably be one of my favorites of the season.

Also watching Tsurezure Children. It wasn't anything groundreaking, but it was funny enough to keep me watching, so I guess that's what I'm doing.

Still have five or so shows I'm thinking of watching that have yet to start. Since I liked the first three that have started, law of averages say the rest probably won't do as much for me. But I guess I'll see.

I have been curious about these, are they official or fan dubs?

Well GBFT's was done by Aniplex so I'd guess official.

But they aren't exactly high quality a lot of mispronounced words and the actors sound like they just got dragged off the street.

So we watched the first 9 episodes to Outlaw Star. The first three were kind of slow, but things have really gotten enjoyable since. I only saw this show once when it aired on Toonami, but I gotta say that I barely remember any of what I watched. I remember characters and voices, but that is about it. Thus, I feel like I'm watching this show for the first time. The remastering job is outstanding and the animation looks wicked good in a lot of places. Although it does still have that 90s cheapness to backgrounds (like characters who will just stand still unblinking for a 15 second sequence). Nevertheless, I'm enjoying this show a lot. The ship's computer is hilarious too. "I'm beginning to wonder about my future outlook." The dub is pretty stellar too, which I was kind of worried about (which I guess i shouldn't have been since it is done by the same people who did Cowboy Bebop). Lastly, I did not realize that Kou Otani did the score to the show, which is pretty awesome too. Looking forward to watching the next disc tomorrow (unless we do more tonight).

Ok, so, I started Diamond is Unbreakable a bit ago. Only five episodes in but it's good stuff. It seems that the pattern of me enjoying every subsequent JoJo part more than the last continues to prove true. Change in approach to the art style is also a nice touch, helps to differentiate from the earlier parts, my one complaint being that Jotaro doesn't much look like himself anymore.

That aside, watched the first episode of Made in Abyss. Didn't blow my brains from episode 1, but it has potential.

Anyway, in more important news. The anime adaptation of Centaur no Nayami finally aired, so I watched it. I approached this show with some hesitation; Centaur no Nayami is essentially my favorite manga, and I was doubtful of how it'd come out of the transition to anime, especially since I was largely unfamiliar with the staff and the studio appeared to have a spotty track record.

Taking all that into consideration, I'm pleasantly surprised. Actual quality isn't objectively speaking particularly notable: animation is minimal and not always well-synced to the voice acting (which, employing mostly novices, is nothing outstanding either). Speaking on the whole, it comes across as kind of bland. I don't think anime-only viewers will find much to grab them, at least from the first episode alone.

As a fan of the manga though, I really enjoyed it. It was an accurate adaption, and they made the appropriate choice to skip the vagina woes pilot chapter. I was concerned they would gloss over or ignore the seedier elements of the world-building, but my worries were evidently misplaced. They moved up the exposition on the evolution of the human race by about a volume's worth, which shows that establishing these things was a priority. Although I think better music choices could have been made for that particular scene, I think the way they highlighted the propaganda speech was well done. They didn't skimp out on the hate crime discussion during the marathon either, so it looks like they're going full force with that theme, and that's good. That's what makes Centaur no Nayami Centaur no Nayami.

Voice acting was fine as well, while the inexperience comes across pretty clearly, I thought the voices fit the character well. Tama in particularity was a pleasant surprise, the performance is a bit uneven, but it has the proper force behind it. It fits her character well. I hope they manage to do Suu justice when her time comes (crossing my fingers for before episode 5). Hopefully she has a good and unusual voice.

I'm not sure if I'm fully on board with Inukai's but eh, she barely has lines even in the chapters she's featured most heavily in. Also kinda feel they kinda made her too similar to Akechi, since generally she's the more subdued of the couple even when they're teasing people together. She was a tad forceful in the first act, but when it comes down to it I'm really just being a giant nitpick.

But anyway, yeah. I enjoyed it. It convinced me to stick through with the show, so I guess it did its job. That being said, the opening worries me a little, particularly in how much it over-emphasizes the fanfiction scenario and other fanservice parts. My other main worry besides watering down the world-building was that they would over-emphasize what little fanservice there was, and while there wasn't really any of that in episode 1, that they devoted a good chunk of the opening to a silly joke from a single chapter just because it features metal bikinis is somewhat worrying. They're skipping right ahead to the mermaids next episode too, and while I want to think it's in part to compliment the explanation of race from episode 1 and further expand on the world-building, I somehow doubt the swimsuits didn't play a role in that decision.

But eh, that's worrying about maybes, and one way or the other they were gonna have to do the mermaids eventually. Hopefully they go back to some of the chapters they're skipping--though at the same time I suppose they kinda have to, if they want to focus on the children at all (and the opening certainly implies that they will). I'm betting either episode 3 or 4 will be fully devoted to introducing Shino and Tama's sisters. Should be fun.

But that's enough rambling from me. Point is, I didn't dislike it, and I generally don't much enjoy adaptations of manga I've already read, especially if it's one I really liked. May just be my fanboyism carrying me through, but either way. Hopefully the season can be at least as entertaining as this. I'll be satisfied with that.

As stated yesterday, we watched the second disc to Outlaw Star today and there were a lot of damn good episodes there. The space race was enjoyable, but it was the showdown with the assassin and the one with the water planet that I loved the most. Both of those were excellent. My least favorite episode though is easily the one that featured the wrestling match. It was great to see Aisha finally transform into her animal form, but the episode itself was just stupid (I'm going to guess that this episode was skipped when the show aired on Toonami).

The dub continues to be great and the animation for the most part is well done. There have been some off-model moments, but nothing too bad.

We watched the final disc to Outlaw Star tonight, completing the show and overall it was fantastic. I do think the first episode on the disc, Law and Lawlessness is hands down the worst episode of the series. It's not a bad episode, but it was kind of boring. Nothing interesting happened in the slightest and the characters in it make no impact on the rest of the series. The infamous hot springs episode was weird. I understand why Toonami had to skip it now, but it is such an important episode from a plot perspective that is kind of sucks they did. Learning about the origin behind the Caster Shells and how Gene got the special ones he used in the finale are vital to the finale. My favorite episode of the disc was probably the prison break one.

Speaking of the finale, ugh, I forgot that they pulled the deus ex bullshit. That final battle was just awful all around as if the writers had no idea how to handle the Galactic Leyline. Thankfully the ending itself is conclusive and well done, but I wish the show had done more with the Anten Seven. Especially given the leader's motivations at in the last few episodes.

I did finally have a dub cringing moment though, which dealt with Melfina's attempt at singing. God does her English voice actress not know how to sing. On the other hand, I learned that Aisha's English voice actress is the girl who played Rogue in the 90s X-Men cartoon, so that was awesome, especially since she is my favorite of the main crew. My favorite character overall though is Harry McDougal. That dude is just down right insane, and yet, he was exactly a villain. Plus, the show managed to make you sympathize with him in the end. Impressive.

The animation was pretty top notch outside of occassional off-character model moments and the previously mentioned cheap backgrounds and static characters. It featured a lot of the normal troupes anime was fond of in the 90s, but the material handled them quite well to keep them from getting distracting. Otani's score kicked ass and the opening theme rocks. Not so much for the ending theme though. Yuck!

Overall, I highly enjoyed this show and finally getting to see it in its entirety and in a few days really made me appreciate it more than I did when I first saw it on Toonami all those years ago (I think it aired in what, 2002?). The convoluted final battle and a few minor nitpicks will keep it out of my top 10 list, but it is definitely a fun and engaging show all the way through. I just need to make sure it doesn't take me like another 15 years to rewatch it.

We watched the first disc to Code Geass tonight. This was the first time I'm seeing the show dubbed, which is quite impressive. I prefer Lelouche's Japanese voice because he changes his tone when he acts as Zero compared to Bosch just being Bosch, but that nitpick aside, this dub is great. It has been some time since I watched this show (not as long as Outlaw Star was though) and it is even more enjoyable the second time around. THe episode with the runaway cat was hysterical and manages to show that this show can pull off comedy just as easily as it can do drama. Nice job there. Oh, and the soundtrack friggin rocks.

Watching Little Witch Academia and Fate apocrypha

I watched the first episodes of Castlevania and Mahou Shojo Taisen last night. The first was good. The second was....interesing. it was only 4 minutes long.

And we just watched disc 2 of Code Geass. I honestly forgot that everything that went down in this bit happened so early. For some reason I thought the stuff with the Narita battle and then Shirley's dad was in Season 2. The hostage episode where Zero unveils his Black Knights is easily my favorite episode so far. That scene is just badass and I have to say that I really loved Bosch's performance in that scene. While I still wish he would deepen his Zero voice so that they sounded like two different people, he does have the mannerisms down. I still can't help but laugh at the parallels this show has with Gundam SEED though. Anyway, my god things are really getting intense.

EDIT:

Four more episodes to Code Geass watched and this show continues to improve. It's amazing to think that the entire war Lelouche has is all becasue of his father. He doesn't even know that Cornelia and Yuffie love him and think he is dead, which is why they are treating Japan the way they are. A lot of great battles in these episodes, the music continues to impress (although the new opening and ending themes are mediocre compared to the first ones), and I'm really getting pumped up to watch more. I forgot how badass this show was. Definitely going to finishe Season 1 tomorrow and then watch Akito the Exiled before Season 2.

Well, I think I found my new show for this summer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeUnXetHlOQ

Show is called Nana Maru San Batsu and it is about competitive high school quiz competitions

For the uninitiated, My Hero Academia's English dub won't be simulcast anymore, but rather be uploaded 2 weeks after the original air date, so watch out

Well that freaking sucks. :/

And so ends Season 1. I forgot what a cliffhanger the season left off on (more complaints on that when I start season 2 though). These batch of episodes were fantastic. I feel really bad for Yuffie because she was trying to do something good to set her apart from her family and Ledouche had to go and screw it all up. Still, the stuff that goes on is oustanding and the slaughtering scene is mind blowing. Probably the most shocking thing in the show thus far. I do love how they have no qualms about showing off racism in the world as it is pretty damn true. ****ing white people!!! :-p

Next up, Akito the Exiled.

We watched the first three episodes to Akito the Exiled and they've been a mixed bag. The first episode and the first half to the second episode were pretty boring. The characters were kind of lifeless and monotone. Thankfully, things took a massive turn in the enjoyment levels during the second episode with a down right kick ass battle sequence that puts most of the battles from the main series to shame. In fact, it was on the same level as that Gouf battle from Gundam 08th MS Team. The third episode finally fleshed out the characters, giving us some truly outstanding moments despite the whole scenario itself being awkwardly dumb. I guess I don't remember the second season as well as I thought I did to know why Lelouch is the way he is right now, but whatever. His few moments have rocked.

I love that we get to see what the EU is like and it was nice of Funimation to give the EU characters accents since Bandai never bothered to do that with the main series dub.

Lastly, the main villain's mech is hands down my favorite mech of the franchise. It has a centaur mode and a really weird, highly improbable, yet badass, sword.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! :cry

We watched the last two episodes of Akito the Exiled after dinner tonight (and before we watched GoT) and they were really good. The mech battles were oustanding as was the music. The character development seemed to slow down a lot as these last two were more action than plot, but they still had some top notch moments. Although, the whole Geass thing has now gotten a tad more convoluted than necessary, but I liked how this show explored what it would be like if you gave a child a Geass he wasn't really old enough to comprehend, while also using the Geass on a child not old enough to understand what he is supposed to do under its power. The villain was kind of a wuss in the end, but my favorite character was one named Ashley (who was a boy, not a girl). I actually got a lot of Dilandau vibes (from Escaflowne) from him, which was also helped as Joel McDonald did his voice. The ending was overall very satisfying and I would like to see these characters return in the unneeded third season of the show.

On to Season 2!

So apparently there is a new Saiyuki anime... WHAT THE WHAT.
Oh yeah, aside from Nana Maru San Batsu I have begun watching Knight's & Magic.

This post is most likely predictable given what I have been watching over the last several days, but we did start the second season to Code Geass. The first three or four episodes are kind of meh. I have no idea why they felt they needed to do a time jump when starting right back where they left off would have sufficed. In fact, this is getting to be an annoying habit of Sunrise's. I don't need every 50 episode mech show that is split into two seasons to have some damn time jump. Just continue the second season as if no time has passed! It completely throws off the feel of the show for the first several episodes, if not longer!

With that said, the pacing is pretty awful in the first three episodes as they are pretty much having to repeat the process of getting Lelouch to being Zero and never truly explaining what happened in that year time span. Why the hell would Suzaku even bring him to his dad in the first place? That goes against everything Suzaku was in the first season. Also, when the hell did the Knights all get captured? And they never explained what happened with Nina pulling out that hydrogen bomb during the big battle. TOO MUCH TIME HAS PASSED WITH NO INFORMATION ON WHAT OCCURRED!!!! STOP IT!!! Oh, and that little piece of crap wannabe brother of his needs to go.

Fortunately, the last few episodes on the disc take off once Lelouch is finally back to being Zero and the Knights have been freed. Why it took them a year to try and execute them I do not know, but the scene when they were being freed was pretty awesome. Nanally being made a Viceroy is an interesting twist, but again, what lead to this?

C2 continues to be my favorite character though and I love that she went back to the school just to get her stuffed animals and to finally try that giant pizza that never gets made. The Knightmares that belong to the Knights of the Round are pretty awesome though, especially Gino's. The interesting thing here is that despite watching this show years ago, I don't remember much of this part of the season, so I feel like I'm experiencing it for the first time.

Just finished disc 2 to Season 2 of Code Geass. Things are really amping up here. The scene where Lelouche manages to get a million people to peacefully leave Japan was pretty awesome. That kind of felt like a V for Vendetta moment there. The stuff in China was pretty cool, but the season really takes off here and now with the stuff dealing with Shirley and then the battle afterwards. Oh man, this season has finally gotten to the same level of quality as its predecessor. Also, the twist regarding Jeremiah was great.

Oh boy, Disc 3 to Code Geass Season 2 was down right amazing. First, we have some great battles going on here, the Knights betraying Zero, the show down with Charles and Lelouch's mother (what wonderful parents they are), but the most badass moment of all is when Lelouch walks into the throne room and plops his ass down decreeing that he is now the emperor of Britannia. Oh my god that was so amazing and the defining moment of the entire series. Tonight, we dine on Disc 4.

EDIT:

Dinner has been served and we have finished the last four episodes of Code Geass. Good god was this show awesome. The first bit from the second season keeps it from entering my top 10 anime series list, but it is still up there. A lot happened in these four episodes to give us one of the greatest endings in anime history. It is so satisfying and the final showdown is brilliantly done. I really need to rewatch this show again sooner rather than later, probably before the third season comes out next year. One of the most remarkable shows released in the last decade and one that everyone should definitely check out if they haven't already. Funimation's BD release is top notch.

BTW, I forgot to mention this when I watched Disc 2, but they forgot to wipe the Pizza Hut logos out in one episode. lol

Just wrapped up Diamond is Unbreakable. In short, I loved it. It appears that the recurring pattern of my enjoyment of JoJo increasing exponentially with every subsequent part will continue unabated. The downside there being that like everyone else I'm now left to wait impatiently for the next part. Which should be fun, once and if it gets here.

But yeah, Diamond is Unbreakable was fun. It was in many ways nothing like what I was expecting out of JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, and I find that to be regrettable in some ways, but the fact that I enjoyed it as much as I did regardless speaks for itself.

Not having spoilers compared to the earlier parts also definitely helped. I had a few details here and there, but nothing big, up until I foolishly learned about the thing with Shigechi a couple of episodes before I got to it. But that came and went quickly, and after that it was just blindly taking me along for a pretty wild ride. It was really Great.

(that last opening is also probably my favorite of the whole series thus far. really damn great)

Knight's and Magic is awesome. Go watch it.

So my friends try to show me some of the newer anime made this decade. This is what I watched.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress (Episode 1-3): So what's so special about this anime? It feels like I'm watching Attack on Titan again, but with zombies. Nothing about the characters and story felt all of that interesting. I will probably pass watching anime.

Made in Abyss: I could not get into this one. I had a hard time sitting through the first episode because I found it kinda boring.

Kakegurui (Episode 1-2): I notice that this anime is getting a lot of buzz lately. I wanted to like this anime, but it felt like a water down of Kaiji to me. Not to mention I found some of the fan service to be distracting. The show felt meh to me.

Death Parade (Episode 1-3): Wow this was really good. I saw episode 1 like a couple years ago, but I really like this anime. It was dark, serious and didn't have any of the tropes in modern anime that I can't stand. It was a show that made me on the edge of my seat. I want to watch more of this anime soon.

KonoSuba (Episode 1-2): This one was not too bad. It had some really funny jokes and the story was pretty interesting. I would consider watching it later on.

Psycho Pass (Episode 1-2): I saw bits of this anime over a year ago and never saw much of it. This one was really good and it felt like nice fresh of breath air. It is a cyberpunk anime made after the 90's and reminds me of Ghost in the Shell, A.D Police and Cyber City Oedo 808. I can't wait to watch more soon.

Try Knight's & Magic. So far it has been entertaining.
Rough premise; otaku programmer who loves robots from our world dies and reincarnates in a world of magic and monsters. His memory of his past life is intact along with his nerdiness, and begins making robots with the tech of that world after discovering that knight armors are giant mechanical humanoid robots pretty much. It is on Crunchyroll so there is that. So far it is fun seeing him apply modern engineering and robot anime ideas into making the armors better.

Psycho Pass is amazing, I really enjoyed it at the time, season two is more "ok" compared to season one, but still decent and a fair watch. I have yet to watch the movie though.

The first season is phenomenal, the second season is decent and answers a lot of questions around the Sybil System, while the movie feels like a Season 1 episode.

Watched a bit of Infinite Stratos, all I can say is it's a typical harem anime with mecha girls.

Tiffany Grant voices one of the female leads though.

Sometimes I wish Japan would just make an anime about badass dudes playing an epic game of croquet. They make gourmet cooking look like a stand battle from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure so it should not be hard.

Just finished the first episode of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo. I was apprehensive at first about that first episode being longer than most movies I've seen recently, but it went by in a flash. Was very enjoyable and quite good. I've heard little but praise leveled at this series, and based on this first foray I'd say it should deliver. Should be a fun couple of seasons.

What I watched recently:

Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 - It's been a long time since I seen this anime and I never watch the dub that was made by Manga UK. This anime does hold an important piece of history in the US Anime & Manga fandom because it was one of the first anime to be released subtitled on VHS in the late 80's. So this anime did help start the licensing industry in the first place back in the late 80's. I did not see this anime until I was in High School more than a decade ago because I wanted to check out more stuff from Hideaki Anno.

While Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 is not a great title, it is a very fun anime to watch. The story is nothing amazing because the story can be predictable. I wish that more of the supporting cast was handle better because they are pretty interesting. Ellie Kusumoto and Kouji Sugimoto are fun characters, but I feel like that they didn't do much.

However, I do find the humor in the anime to be very funny at times and some jokes give me a good laugh. Lt. Kilgore is a very fun villain and can be so over the top which is not a bad thing. I love cheesy over the top 80's villains, so there is a lot of charm in Lt. Kilgore's character.

Our main character "Haruo Onose" is a pretty likeable character in my opinion. He is not the best main character ever, but I do like his personality and I can relate to his character seeing that he is a typical college student going through money troubles and relationship issues. He is a type of character that people around my age in their mid 20s can related with.

The best thing about Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 is the animation. Most of the animation in this anime is very well done and some of it looks pretty good after 30 years later. The mecha designs look awesome and the animation is very smooth looking. I love all the animation detail put into the characters, action sequences and the backgrounds. The action sequences are so much fun to watch and nothing in this anime was boring.

The music is enjoyable and the Japanese voice actors do a good job on voicing the characters. However the Manga UK dub is pretty weak and most of the English voice acting is very flat. The English dub comes off as very lazy and cheap in my opinion. Stick with the Japanese version.

Overall, Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 is a fun little gem from the past. This anime is nothing amazing or groundbreaking with the story and characters, but you do get great animation, fun characters, funny humor and awesome action sequences. If you like old school anime or mecha anime, give it a try. It's only 40 minutes and you have nothing to lose. I give Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 a 7/10.

Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie (1982) - I remember when I rented this movie back when Urban Vision release it on VHS in the late 90's. Seeing that it has been 18 or 19 years since I seen this movie, I decided to re-watch it on Blu-Ray. I think the movie holds up very well.

I'm a fan of Space Adventure Cobra and I seen most of the original TV show. This movie was the first time that I heard about the series back in the late 90's. Not to mention this anime is the last anime to be dubbed by Streamline Pictures in the 90's.

The animation is beautiful and feels very experimental. The movie is made in 1982 and holds up very well 35 years later. Osamu Dezaki is a fantastic director and he really give this movie a very surreal atmosphere to it. The movie has a lot of bizarre imagery and I love it. It help creates the feel of sureness of the galaxy that the movie takes place in.

The story, while seemingly simple, is still pretty good. Cobra himself is a total badass and is pretty funny too. Cobra's villain, Crystal Boy is very enjoyable and has a great voice for his dark personality. Crystal Boy is probably one of my favorite 80's anime villains for how fun his character is. The other characters in the movie are pretty enjoyable and I found myself really liking them.

The movie also has a very good soundtrack and solid Japanese voice acting. The English dub from Streamline is very good and Dan Woren did a great job on voicing Cobra.

Overall, Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie is a very good sci-fi action anime movie in my opinion. This movie is a nice way to introduced people into the world of Space Adventure Cobra. The movie is inspired by pulp sci-fi such as Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Flash Gordon while having a surreal atmosphere. I wish we had more anime similar to Space Adventure Cobra. I give this movie an 8/10.

Watching Little Witch Academia again, but this time it's dubbed and 3 friends are watching it together. It's a pretty rough rewatch if you say the final few episodes considering Akko's inability to use magic was because of Chariot's performance

So I finished Skull Man last week and well by the end I was left feeling meh. Also the ending came out of fucking no where.

Now I started on Another finally and so far does give an eerie feeling so that's good.

Also just watched the first two episodes of The Reflection which is in a comic book style where Stan Lee is involved in making it. He even made himself a villain and does the voice hor Villain Lee.

So glitter force doki doki I been watching so far it nice dub that is aim to girl market like power rangers and dub not bad ether

I continue to chug along with Knight's & Magic. Anyone else watching this? You should.

Knight & Magic is an anime where there is a medieval like world but they have giant knight like mechs. There are time skips but they are handled well like reverse Sword Art Online. Plus there is a centaur knight mech.

SOMEONE MAKE TOYS/MODEL KITS OF THESE MECHS!