Anime 2009

What are you niggas watching or have watched recently or throughout the year? I'll forgo mentioning any remotely girly/overly geekish ones that i may or may not have seen.






Avatar Season 1: 3.5/5(rating)- American anime...which is actually decent. It was available for netflix streaming on my 360 and it was highly rated, so i decided to give it a chance(which i'm doing a lot of lately). Main story is above average, the downside being the filler episodes...which thankfully aren't filler arcs. It's obviously targeted more for a younger audience, but it's still enjoyable enough for anyone.

Black Lagoon (whole series): 4.5/5 - Pretty fucking good....Revy is one gully ass bitch. Odd group of mercs doing business in southeast asia. Good story, action and occasional humor. the second season ended in 2007 and there isn't a 3rd season out yet...i was greatly disappointed by that.

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad: 4.5/5 - It's a rock band anime...i didn't expect much from it, but it was surprisingly good. kid has a chance meeting with an older up and coming guitarist forming a band. the kid learns to play guitar, eventually joining band and becomes lead singer. Songs are pretty good, story is great...I've even bookmarked the manga to continue with.

Basilisk: 4/5 - Fight to the death between two warring ninja clans...Word.

Gurren Lagann: 4.5/5 - Almost done with the series and almost tempted to give it a five. 27 episodes, so the story moves real quick.
After the first couple episodes, I wasn't really impressed...almost stopped watching it, but then it picks up and changes completely. several times actually. as soon as you think it's settled into the current plot, it flips again.
It's set in the future, mankind has been reduced to living underground...for centuries. a pair of opposites decide to break towards the surface after finding a drilling robot, with the heavens as their goal. halfway through the first season i was left like ...and basically hooked me in for good.

One Piece (season 1): 4/5 - So far so good. never gave it a shot because of the overly cartoonish animation...but the story makes up for it. A kid who after eating "devil fruit" has been turned to rubber(right, but that aside)...is on a mission to be the King of Pirates...and is out looking for a ship and is handpicking a crew that can help him achieve that by attaining the highly coveted One Piece treasure. It's definitely interesting.

Shigurui Death Frenzy: 4/5 - Would be 5 out of 5 if it were actually a complete series. Don't know where to start, really...but it's based around a duel(to the death) between two rivals looking for revenge. Starts out slow, and you wonder what the fuck is going on, until it becomes obvious that the story has gone back to tell in great detail the story behind each swordsman...Then as soon as the stories are coming to an end and nearing the actual fight(from the beginning of the anime), it stops...just like that. You'd have to read on in the manga to get any closure...but the anime itself is fucking amazing up until that.

Code Geass: 4/5 - No need to explain since i've seen you niggas discuss this on several occasions, without the fucking spoiler warnings. death to you faggots. I'm not actually finished with it. Not a fan of the animation...story and characters are decent, but a far cry from death note.

Ergo Proxy: 4/5 - Ill. A dark post-apocalyptic future where humanity lives on in domed cities with androids and there's a mysterious and elusive demon/monster on the loose wrecking shit.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam: 2.5-3/5 - Separate from the other Gundams...even though it's old, the animation is tolerable. i'm on the 3rd disc of 12...if it doesn't pick up on the next disc, i'm just going to drop it. It's decent, but not exactly what i was looking for/expecting out of a gundum series.

The Gokusen - 3.5/5 - A bit odd. the new head of a Japanese Clan, The Yazuka(which acts out more like an Italian Crime family), is a young woman who accepts this role, though she has always wanted to be a school teacher...which she already is secretly. It's decent enough though...which i'm halfway through.

Shura no Toki: 4/5 - Pretty dope. An undefeated Legendary clan of martial artists that kill only with their hands known as the Mutsu is at the center of the story.

Morbito: 4.5/5 - just started it, but so far it's really good. It's style reminds me of Ninja Scroll. An incredibly skilled female warrior has been given the task of protecting a young prince from would-be assassins sent out by his father in order to quell the rumors that he is possessed.

Samurai Deeper Kyo: 3.5/5 - A bit off Samurai series. Two rival samurais fighting during the Sekigahara battle...a comet hits near the battle ground, apparently killing one, whose spirit/soul is trapped inside the body of the one that survived. Shit's kind of weird, but not bad. The fights are pretty good. I'm only halfway through.

Hellsing Ultimate: 2.5-3/5 - If you've already seen the original Hellsing, don't bother with this.

Mezzo: 3/5 - I'd suggest you watch the anime movie Mezzo Forte first...which was obviously better than this series, but it's still enjoyable. The story revolves around 3 main characters that are part of a merc-like agency. impossibly strong and agile bitch(who i suspect was an android, but i don't think it was ever said that she was) who basically get's shit done or people killed.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2.5/5 - If you were a fan of the movie you might enjoy this. I didn't really care for the movie and the first series after it even less. It was whatever...nothing special. Every episode was a stand alone story not at all connected with any of the previous ones. didn't actually finish, didn't see a reason, given the shit 23 minute separate plots.

Blood +: 3.5/5 - So far. Amnesiac girl that is somehow the only being(half-vampire, though she doesn't know it) able to destroy blood-sucking demons that are increasingly becoming a threat to society. She continually regains old memories(which put her several hundred years old) as the story progresses.

I don't care for Morbito. Loved Stand Alone Complex.

I'll check out some of these.

Anyways, i've been watching Elfen Lied and Rurouni Kenshin (thanks for the recommendation) recently. Too early to really critique, but I like what I see.

Is One Piece actually that good? I've heard it was, but it didn't seem like something I could get into.

Sorry for spoiling Code Geass, I'm sure I was one of them.
All hail LeLouch.

I didn't think Morbido would be any good tbh. I may have to check it out, you have impeccible taste in anime. So I'll take your word for it.

Lol What??

How many episodes of Morbito did you get through? Was it the politics early on that put you off?
The plot, characters, animation, score...it's all done very well.
and let me correct myself. I said ninja scroll, but I realized that this anime actually reminds me a lot of Hayao Miyazaki's anime films....Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away in particular.

Lmao@ Morbito and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex done by the same director.

but Stand Alone Complex? really? Granted, I only got about 4-5 episodes in, but none really left an impression. Does it pick up later on in the series or what?

Elfen Lied is one of those anime's that i went out of my 'comfort zone' a few years ago...going through a gory-filled phase with that, gantz and berserk.

I got into the Rurouni Kenshin series after watching Samurai X(the OVA's Trust & Betrayal and Reflection being the ones that captivated me...even the Motion Picture of the series was better than expected, which i'm not usually fond of.). You haven't watched them, right? Probably best that you watch the series first.

The thing about the RK is that it wasn't done in it's entirety. Low ratings cut the series short(from the manga version), so after the Shishio arc(which pretty much was the series), it gets pretty weak.

Yeah, It's better than I expected. Maybe, it's because I began watching it with really low expectations that it seemed like it was that good...but so far I'm pretty satisfied with the anime. A bit hard to swallow at times n/h, but you just have to go with it.
It wasn't something I was even interested in or thought I could ever get into either, given the previews and animation, but it's worth a look.

Lol yeah, you and dolla. I kind of walked into that, and shouldn't have kept scrolling down in those threads, but eh.

Like I said in the first post...I'm giving a chance/opening myself up (n/h) to animes that I previously wouldn't have bothered with. Some good, some bad, some with it's own particular charm...some I wouldn't admit to watching lol.

but yeah, Morbito was a pleasant surprise. At least to me, anyway.

good post, i'll check some of these out sometime.

dbz, inuyasha and death note are still the only ones i've seen.
lol.

Lmao.

The are just the more notable one's that I've watched this year.

Update

Avatar Season 1: 3.0/5
Dropped a half point on it. Finished the first season and my interest in the series waned a bit. Still a good story, but it hasn't really picked up much and nothing really that interesting has happened since the first episode.

One Piece (season 1): 4.0/5
Finished the first season and the rating holds. It started off somewhat slow and left me feeling unsure about the series as a whole...until maybe half way through. The anime seemed almost too silly to take in, but once you accept that it's, it's own world, you become immersed in the story/characters/fights/etc. When it got to the "Arlong Pirates/Empire" arc, I was completely hooked.
Second season is shaping up to be even better.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 3.0-3.5/5 (Half way through)
Decided to give this a second shot and I'm glad I did. 3 episodes(I checked where I actually left off) wasn't enough to give it a fair critique. It finally became interesting with a set plot/storyline.

Mobile Fighter G Gundam: 2.0/5
Don't bother.

__________________________________

New series' that I've started since.

Full Metal Alchemist (So far on 2nd disc of 13) : 3.5/5

Another anime I was apprehensive about at first. Simply put, It's the story of 2 very young brothers adept in alchemy who try to bring their recently deceased mother back from the dead and end up paying grave consequences. Forward 5-7 years later and they're renown alchemists searching for an amulet that will infintely increase their powers in the hopes of restoring themselves.
So far, It's good.



Mushi - Shi (On the 2nd of 6 discs): 4-4.5/5

It's a fantasy drama you'd mistake for a Miyazaki film, visually speaking. So far the stories have only been an episode long each, but they're very well put together. Protagonist is a Mushi Master named Ginko traveling throughout Japan encountering mushi related cases...mushi being otherworldly entities that only few can see and are afflicted by. Given the slow pace, I was surprisingly drawn in to every episode thus far...They could have easily done a short series on each of these separate storylines or spread it out over several episodes as I found myself anticipating, the stories were that good.



Gundam: The 08th MS Team (on the last disc of 4) - 3.0-3.5/5

Despite the dated animation (released in 96), this is still a decent anime.
If you're familiar with the Gundam series, it's set in the "Year One" war, towards the end of the conflict from the perspective of the 08th Squad...which is just regular soldiers doing simple recon missions, search and rescue..etc. with an underlying love story between 2 members of each faction(The Federation and Zeon). It's nothing special, but I'd still recommend it if you were to start watching the Gundam series.

FMA is one of my favorite animes/manga.

Are you watching the original or FMA:Brotherhood?

Brotherhood is more gritty, dark and closer to the manga than the original.

I'm in the midst of the original series...then I'll move on to Brotherhood. Netflix shows Part 1 will soon be available.

FMA was definitely a pleasant surprise.

I have all the DVDs that and Inuyasha, trigun got me into anime and manga.

Is there a difference between FMA and Brotherhood, or is it just more gritty as you said Dex?

It's the same storyline. Just more violent/gritty. I haven't seen it all yet.

But from what I've seen it looks more mature than the original.

btw - I'm not Dex. my last name was Perfect Drug.

Ha my bad, thought I read that under Dex name. Just came home from work in the morning.

lulz - its np. Everyone thinks I'm dex anyway.

They're both rated TV-14 for some reason.

I used to watch random Inuyasha eps on Cartoon Network back in the day, but I've yet to see the whole series. Netflix is missing the first disc and I think the last time I looked I was having a hard time finding those first several episodes subbed...only ones I could find were dubbed.

Princess Mononoke, Ninja Scroll, DBZ, Samurai X, Trigun and Cowboy Bebop got me.

Shit - how could I forgot DBZ.

Are you having a hard time finding FMA, or FMA:Brotherhood?

No, those are available...Brotherhood will be by the time I'm done with the original series, I'm sure.

I have them all burned.

You plan on watching the FMA movie?

Yeah, any good?

It's not bad.
I expected more, I'm not gonna lie.

But it's a must see after you finish the series.

MUST SEE.