What Anime are you Currently Watching?/Anime Recommendations

[johnblade]

Just finish watching season 1 of Black Lagoon and loving it so far. Just something I need right now in my anime backlogged where they is tons of action but at the same time some backstory of the characters you're following (by flashback). Some of the arch story is fun to watch and I think the later two is most fun to follow from the beginning to end. Going into season 2 and will go to the OVA later on.

[SamuraiMegas]

Big news right now in Japan. The creator of Rurouni Kenshin, Nobuhiro Watsuki, is charged with child porn possession.
https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=2017 ... 7-yom-soci

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said on Wednesday that she had a child (39) (Tokyo Nishi-Tokyo City) a popular manga "Rurouni Kenshin" author Shin moi (Watsuki) Nobuhiro (real name, Nobuhiro Nishiwaki) I sent a document under suspicion of breach of child prostitution / child pornography ban (simple possession).

　According to investigators, Nishiwaki suspected possession of multiple DVDs in October, offices in Tokyo with videos showing naked girls in the early 10's. "I liked girls from elementary school high school grade to second grade junior high school students."

　In the investigation of another child pornography incident, suspected that Nishiwaki had purchased a girl's DVD in the early 10's. The agency boys training division searched his home and found several DVDs.

　The simple possession of child pornography is subject to punishment from July 2015. Child pornography for children under 18 years of age for sexual purposes shall be imprisoned for not more than 1 year or a fine of not more than 1 million yen.

I didn't watch Rurouni Kenshin but I have a feeling they're people who love the series here.

Disgusting. Also, on DVD? WTF? did he just walk into the CP store and buy a dvd? I don't get that. Why would you buy a DVD of all things of that.


Absolutely disgusting and I don't know if I'll rewatch Kenshin now.

[johnblade]

This is 2018 and I am getting through my anime backlogged which is growing ever slowly for not watching much anime for a while. Currently, I am in a Burn Up marathon which basically going to watch the entire franchise asap. Up 1st, the OVA which started it all, Burn Up.



Synopsis

To the unsuspecting eye Maki, Reimi and Yuka may not look like ace crime fighters, which might explain why they're stuck on traffic patrol instead of more "exciting" police duties.

All that changes when Yuka gets herself kidnapped by a white slave organization run by a politically connected businessman who's got the rest of the police cowed.

Now it's up to Maki and Reimi to don skin-tight battle armor, liberate a tank, and make sure that a certain slaver learns that when you play with fire, you're going to get your ass burned!
MAL

The story isn't much to discuss really (standard plot). It have this 1980s animated sci-fi punk police thriller flick feel which you tend to see a bit in Japan animated at the time. They're quite a few interesting idea in this OVA which, unfortunately, never seriously touched upon and the ending end abruptly at the final showdown which didn't really have any closure of the OVA (except everyone come back okay at the end).

The animation for the most part is standard late 80s flare. The better animation work is coming down to the vehicle fight scene which look decent and entertaining. The opening chase scene might be the best example of the work. As for the character animation, they're okay for the most part and some detail was put on the main characters in the OVA.

They is some character development in this OVA but it isn't deep and just get to the point which is fine for this OVA as they isn't much time to go too detail. You have the MC, Maki, who don't really follow the rules and regulation and will break it if it mean saving her friend. Her side kick,Reimi, is the typical supporting sidekick character while Yuka is the typical cute character who bring out some comic relief in the OVA (even though all three plus the side characters do).

The one thing I can say about this show is it have some similarity idea like Bubblegum Crisis which I notice as I am watching the OVA. Which isn't surprising as both are from the same Studio (AIC). Also, this isn't a hard watch as they're tons of action scene in the OVA with enough story to push the plot forward. In a way, it's a great OVA to put on the TV while you do other work in the house as this is how I feel when watching it.

[Xeogred]

Haha heah I don't remember Burn Up being that particularly special. Kind of like the low tier sci-fi babes kicking ass stuff, something to check out after you've seen Bubblegum Crisis, Iria, Dirty Pair, Gall Force, etc if you still want more of that genre.

I think I only completed 30 shows last year (2017), some entries just being an OVA or one shot. Hope to watch a bit more this year and keep knocking out my backlog. Still got stuff I've had downloaded for almost a decade.

Been thinking of checking out Flag soon. I think it's one of the last shows I need to watch from director Ryosuke Takahashi:
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1299/Flag

[isiolia]

Been thinking of checking out Flag soon. I think it's one of the last shows I need to watch from director Ryosuke Takahashi:
https://myanimelist.net/anime/1299/Flag

Heh, I have never gone back to try and watch that. I still remember it as being the series that broke my computer (BSOD when I clicked the file, machine wouldn't boot after...was the RAM, but I assume HDD at first, etc).

I have recently (finally) watched The Boy and the Beast from director Mamoru Hosoda who...continues putting out quality. Yay for anime deals of the day. That also led me to watching Ghost in the Shell: Arise since most of it was on sale at the time (and the associated movie). It's pretty decent, if acquired for a reasonable price at least.
Recovery of an MMO Junkie also ended, which was alright - pretty straightforward, without the kinds of dramatic turns that made Welcome to the NHK! or Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions more memorable.

Started watching Nichijou: My Ordinary Life which has been...all over the place in the first couple episodes. The release is sub only, which seems a little odd, but maybe it's just hard to translate for a dub.

[Gunstar Green]

Finally finished watching ZZ from beginning to end. I had watched bits of it in the past to get some context for other parts of the franchise but I had never braved the entire series.

And I'm glad I did honestly. Despite the rough start, some of the characters grew on me, while others really didn't. The early episodes are full of humor that doesn't really land... at all... and silliness that is completely out of place given the depressing end to Zeta Gundam that it's picking up from. Not that there's anything wrong with a lighter take on Gundam, especially following one of its darker entries, but the transition could have been handled with more care. The Moon Moon arc that comes next, well, the less said about that the better.

Then something strange happens, as the protagonists descend to Earth the show takes a more serious turn and except for a brief arc at the end (WHERE THEY BRING BACK MOON MOON CHARACTERS GOD WHY) it stays that way. Meeting and getting to know these characters as kids who refuse to take the war seriously and enemy officers who seem more silly and incompetent than a threat early on suddenly carries more weight once things become dire and the conflict stops being all fun and games. I don't know if this was intended but it's actually quite effective in driving the character development that occurs later in the series, turning hate-worthy characters into likable ones and non-threatening villains into dangerous psychopaths. Speaking of villains, Haman Karn carries on being quite the scary lady from late Zeta Gundam and is one of the stronger elements of the show.

I'm also quite fond of Judau Ashta who isn't a typical Gundam protagonist other than being a teenager. He's (usually) more upbeat, driven and social and often feels more like a super robot hero, at least once you get past the rocky beginning episodes where even as a delinquent he's still pretty of likable because he just wants to get enough money so that his little sister can live comfortably.

There are still unacceptable levels of stupid going on here, especially how Captain Bright Noa lets the Shangri-la teens get away with murder (sometimes literal attempted murder in the form of treason) and considering how strict a ship he's run in the past it doesn't make a lot of sense. I suppose you could argue he's grown used to newtype intuition sorting out the universe's problems by this point but it gets a little ridiculous especially near the end when he allows the kids to sail into the final conflict by themselves. Bright has always been one of my favorite characters because he's one of the few normal people in UC Gundam who actually has principles and is nigh incorruptible, though they soil some of that image here by having him get a little flirty with another character throughout the series despite being married and having a son. It's usually not Bright who initiates this but it gets uncomfortable at moments.

Still, when it's at its best it's as good as any other Gundam work (the Africa and Dublin bits especially) though when it's at its worst, it's legitimately hard to watch (which is unfortunately roughly half of the series). It's a show where you can easily get away with skipping over most of the bad episodes and not really miss much plot-wise since the ultimate plot is shockingly simple. Haman Karn wants to take over the world, she needs to be stopped and there's another Zeon faction that wants to take over the world too and is plotting against Haman. All the while wacky antics ensue with the AEUG kids who are in the middle of this until the final battle happens and all the villains die and that's about it other than the Ple sub-plots sprinkled in-between everything. Parts of it are still worth watching to gain context for other works, especially Gundam Unicorn, but you definitely don't need to sit through all 47 episodes.

The mecha designs are pretty good for the most part, at times on par with Zeta Gundam's though unfortunately the titular ZZ Gundam is a bit of an overdesigned mess and the combining transformation is something that's just silly for a UC mobile suit. Bigger, flashier and more complex is not always better in this case though it definitely looks like a product of the 80's as does the hilariously 80's clothing styles that the main characters wear throughout the series.

Overall I'm glad I could put this one behind me and I enjoyed a lot of my time with it thanks to characters like Judau and Haman and a few others (some only OK in small doses). It's ultimately some of the worst Gundam's Universal Century has to offer but I couldn't bring myself to outright dislike it. It's still an extremely uneven and misguided show that deserves its black sheep status, but what else can I say? I had some fun, but can only really recommend it to Gundam completionists.

[Xeogred]

Glad you liked it. I'm a big fan of ZZ, I'm not in the crowd that thinks it's better than Zeta, but I think it's fine aside from some of the problematic issues and episodes. I think it's better than half the AU Gundam's out there and would probably take it over a lot of other mecha shows, especially modern ones. So... maybe it's bad to someone who only watches some UC Gundam or something, but overall it's still a solid series to me. Honestly even Zeta is pretty flawed, last time I rewatched it for the second time I realized again just how awful half the characters are (the Cyber Newtypes) and it also has some major pacing issues (Paptimus disappearing for half the series and Haman is only in like 10 episodes). I really hate the end of ZZ with Haman though, but even some other stuff building up to CCA doesn't make much sense. I still enjoy that movie a lot too but I think it could have been way better with other previous main characters involved. Kamille alone would have been interesting to see thrown in there, since he was actually friends and an apprentice to Char... makes you wonder where he would have landed between Char and Amuro.

I agree the ZZ design itself is goofy haha. It's like the size of the Big O too. But yeah, overall I love how ZZ is just an extension of Zeta aesthetically and maximum 80's Sunrise budget sexiness.

Have you seen Dragonar? It's similar in tone and also probably another 7/10, but still fun. Though I think it's currently getting better subs. The old HK subs were pretty bad and I think brought down the experience a bit for me. I think this series was originally supposed to be Sunrise's attempt to build another Gundam styled franchise but that didn't happen. You could seriously slap the Gundam name on it and it would be a solid AU Gundam... haha.

Oh but have you seen Heavy Metal L-Gaim? Now that one I can give a glowing recommendation for. It's more Tomino and tonally like a mix of Zeta and ZZ. It doesn't have the Gundam budget but it's got awesome Nagano designs and seemed a bit more Star Wars flavored in spots. I really dug it a lot.

[johnblade]

Haha heah I don't remember Burn Up being that particularly special. Kind of like the low tier sci-fi babes kicking ass stuff, something to check out after you've seen Bubblegum Crisis, Iria, Dirty Pair, Gall Force, etc if you still want more of that genre.

I think I only completed 30 shows last year (2017), some entries just being an OVA or one shot. Hope to watch a bit more this year and keep knocking out my backlog. Still got stuff I've had downloaded for almost a decade.

Yup, nothing special to say at least when they're quite a few which did the similar plot but have better character development or much interesting action scene. What make it funny is this OVA franchise have manage to get 3 additional OVA or TV series. This tell me they have enough fans who love this franchise to keep it alive which this OVA is based on the manga from some digging.

I just finish watching Burn Up! W and now watching Burn Up Excess. I will post my impression of Burn Up! W later on the day.

This year, I am trying to get through around 30-40 Anime show/OVA/Movie. I have put all the show which I need to get through from my collection. I do hope I can get most done but they will be few which will be difficult to finish either they is too many episodes or show which genre kinda die off in me and never fond of it now.

[Gunstar Green]

I really hate the end of ZZ with Haman though, but even some other stuff building up to CCA doesn't make much sense. I still enjoy that movie a lot too but I think it could have been way better with other previous main characters involved. Kamille alone would have been interesting to see thrown in there, since he was actually friends and an apprentice to Char... makes you wonder where he would have landed between Char and Amuro.

It was really clear that when Tomino got the greenlight on CCA that he kind of stopped caring about ZZ and just said "end it" though the climactic final battle episodes are still alright. I'll be frank on CCA, the animation was great and the final showdown between Char and Amuro is nice to have but everything else is pretty dumb and as the "finale" for early UC and even just for Char it's unsatisfying. It would have been nice if ZZ had done a better job of letting us see how Char's character had changed since Z but I understand it wasn't a sure thing he'd be making the movie at the time. Thankfully Unicorn came along and rectified that for me by giving the Zeon era a proper sendoff.

I read that the Hi-Streamer novel explains Char's changes a little better. Kamille's brain damage upset him greatly and the defeat of the Titan's ended up feeling pointless because the Earth Federation was still as corrupt as ever and arguably even more apathetic to the plight of the world so it all finally drove him over the edge. It still would have been nice to see this transformation in animation instead of dropping into it in the middle of the story in CCA.

I do think CCA had a lot of missed opportunities as well. I don't mind not seeing Kamille, I think ZZ Gundam gave the dude a happy ending and while it's clear he's doing better he might not be better enough to be piloting mobile suits given how telepathically sensitive to death he's become (apparently Zeta Gundam was supposed to be in the film, recovered from Axis but this was changed for whatever reason, maybe they just wanted new suit for Gunpla purposes and hence the ReGZ was born). Hi-Streamer has Amuro telling Char that Kamille went completely and inconsolably insane... I think I prefer to stick with the ZZ ending on that one. It would have been cool to see some of the ZZ crew in Londo Bell instead of all of the random new characters nobody cares about. And then there's the lame Hathaway and Quess plot who feels like he's only there to be a plot hook for a Hathaway's Flash movie that was never going to be made. It's just a lamer version of Katz and Sarah in Zeta Gundam which wasn't that great to begin with and much weirder since it's clear Quess doesn't care about Hathaway at all. Speaking of which, Char and Quess was just Glemy and Ple all over again only without cloning this time. Blech.

Have you seen Dragonar? It's similar in tone and also probably another 7/10, but still fun.

I've seen some videos but not full episodes. I'll probably check it out when the subs are done. I've actually once had it described to me as "ZZ Gundam but good."

Oh but have you seen Heavy Metal L-Gaim? Now that one I can give a glowing recommendation for. It's more Tomino and tonally like a mix of Zeta and ZZ. It doesn't have the Gundam budget but it's got awesome Nagano designs and seemed a bit more Star Wars flavored in spots. I really dug it a lot.

Yeah, L-Gaim is pretty neat and in solid competition with Gundam to give its characters the weirdest names possible. I don't always love Nagano (Baund Doc WTF) but his stuff here is cool.

[johnblade]

Synopsis

When crime and terrorism go out of control in Tokyo, the police unleash Team Warrior - a band of highly-skilled and completely reckless band of female cops. Featuring loose cannon Rio, triggerhappy Maya and ace hacker Lilica, Team Warrior will get the job done, regardless of the budget of the mission.

(Source: ANN)

Burn Up! W is a 4 episodes OVA which like Burn Up, isn't much special to discuss and like what Xeogred say, a "low tier sci-fi babes kicking ass stuff." It's not really 100% as this OVA (a spin off you can say) is basically a low tier police crime fighting babes kicking ass stuff . The story (plot) of the show is pretty much generic anime story tropes of crime fighting at the time. The 1st two episodes of the OVA is this episodic formula of the bad guy of the week feel. They is a crime happen in a location and the police force can't do jack shit to solve the issue. A special police force come in and they take them down the problem and everything end positively with some sprinkle of comedy skirt here and there and a big fan service cherry at the top to finish the episode.

The 2nd half of the OVA is where the show get serious and darker tone which pick up quite well. You found out in the 1st episode they is this terrorist boss who is pulling the string but kinda put on the back side a bit over the terrible terrorist of the week tune. She become the major plot point of the 2nd half and thing get very serious when the entire police force is getting attack from the inside out and an emotional event which change the MC of the show to be more serious of the situation (but don't worry this only last up to the end of the OVA as her bad habit come back in the sequel Burn Up Excess which suck when you consider what happen in the OVA. In a way, the 2nd half is actually better than then the 1st half if you want a bit more serious tone of the story. They is some silly stuff here also and let's not forget the fan service stuff here .

As for the animation of the OVA, it's average OVA animation at the time. They is enough detail animation of the characters, background, and machine in the show but didn't go too detail on it. Most of the work I have to say is coming down to the character animation and all the fan service scene which you notice they put a bit more effort in them.

The character development is a bit similar to the Burn Up. Just enough character development for you to follow but isn't deep and just get to the point. They did expand more development of the MC of the show at the later half of the OVA after an incident which actually make sense based on what happen. This team of character are list below.

Rio Kinezono (MC) aka: The generic girl who love rich guy (sugar daddy?) to pay down her debt of spending too much money on goods. Thankfully, she know how to kick ass and she is someone you will spend more time in the fight scene in this OVA.

Maya Jingu aka: The girl with the guns to kill. She love guns to the point she want to use it to kill her enemies. Unfortunately, when she can't use her gun to kill, she get sexual frustration to the point you wonder she is either physio or have a gun fetish .

Nanvel Candlestick aka: the engineer (or builder). She is the one who build those gadget to solve the issue of the episode even if it mean copying something from another show (she literally copy EVA-01 from Evangelion in one episode) and use it in the episode.

Maki Kawasaki aka: the team captain and very good captain I have to say. She basically the glue which manage to get the team to work as a united team to take down the terrorist.

Lilica Ebett aka: the bookworm, resident hacker and computer expert of the team.

Yuji Naruo aka: the guy who know how to drive the car to the target point (as those girls don't know how to drive....). Also, a pervert, a peeping tom, and then some.

Overall, this OVA is okay and entertaining for the most part. The serious part of the show is where I wish they is more as it might push the show a bit more interesting but I have a feeling it won't last long as the sequel go back to the terrorist of the week feel from where I am in the show right now. Like the Burn Up, it's a show which is great to put on the TV while you do other work in the house or if you LOVE Fan Service as they're quite a few here for you to watch and see .