What anime are you watching?

[Mullet Death]

Finally watching Spice and Wolf's dub. It's kind of weird to hear/see Brina Palencia in such a feminine role after all that Chopper stuff.

[GeneD]

The World God Only Knows Season 2 Episode 1. I have to say that the second season looks a bit more promising than that of the first.

I too enjoyed season 2 more than season 1 but I couldn't really give a reason why.

Ah, someone else who uses the pairing concept, too! And I hear ya on the brain-breaking thing... if I discover through previewing or in-advance research that I've got two heavy titles together, I'll swap one of them out for something lighter.

Episode Count: 2,720

Well this was more a case of text/speech/concept overload than say content or general mood heavy, but the effect is the same. ^__^

I'm curious about that impressive episode count, when did you start counting and do you use a site like MAL or something else to keep track of what you watch?

[Nozomi]

I'm curious about that impressive episode count, when did you start counting and do you use a site like MAL or something else to keep track of what you watch?

I started counting a few years ago, when my series count was much smaller and I could remember every series that I had completed since I started watching Pokemon in 1998-99. While I do use MAL, I only just picked that up about 6 weeks ago and I'm not all that active on that site aside from my list. When I first investigated MAL about a year ago, I already had my counting project running elsewhere and it didn't exactly match up with MAL's system. (MAL, in fact, gives me a higher count because it doesn't lump associated titles into respective franchises, and certain series (like the Tachikoma Days shorts for GITS) are counted as extra.)

So, I use MS Excel for my anime counting AND, more vital to running up the large number, scheduling. I have a thread for it here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=64765 if you'd like to know more about the actual spreadsheet and how it works.

And to further directly answer your question, personal scheduling and dedication to that schedule help a lot. Since I don't much care for live-action TV and most Western Animation (not that I hate the latter), anime IS my way of watching TV. So, at the current pace of 4 episodes a day, 2 each from 2 different shows, and no scheduled watching on Sundays, that's 24 episodes per week. And it definitely adds up!

[Mullet Death]

FINALLY finished all of Gintama. Taking some toilet humor that went too far, a few slow arcs especially in the beginning and a few other gripes aside it was a fun ride. Can't wait for the movie.

[Mullet Death]

Now I'm watching Naruto Shippuden episode 310.

[drill]

Just finished The World God Only Knows Season 2. Despite the 12th episode of each season, this anime is actually very well done.

Tsuritama Episode 2. Stopped half way through because I just couldn't really get into it mostly because of the main character (can't even remember his name ), unless anyone knows that this anime is going to get better after episode 2, im definitely going to drop this one.

[Mr. Hat'n'Clogs]

tsuritama is amazing and wonderful and if you don't like Yuki you clearly do not understand social anxiety at all because he is a beautiful character.

[GeneD]

@Nozomi Oh I saw that thread, didn't remember it was yours.

@drill I cannot second what Hat'n'Clogs said enough. Tsuritama is the happiest, most beautiful thing I've seen in the last while and I'm honestly sorry for you if you can't get into it.

[Vii]

@drill tsuritama picks up the pace halfway through if that helps any. It's a great series.

[drill]

@Vii Good to know, I might pick it up again sometime later.

[mysngoeshere56]

Rose of Versailles, episode 4.

[PandaPop]

Stayed up way too late and finished Sword Art Online like 5 minutes ago. Overall Really Good Anime! Now I have that sad its over feeling...darn that feeling.

[LastLfan]

Don't be sad pandapop, there's some sort of tv movie thingy of SAO coming to Japan late this year yay, either a recap of season 1 to get ready for season 2, or maybe a tv movie of the next arc, they made like 6 light novels, they have a LOT Of material left. Anyway, dog and scissor, I'm up trough ep 6 and its not that bad, the fanservice is a tad much but overall its a pretty funny anime. Also my saturday morning standard Yu-Gi-Oh! zeXal, i can't believe their on season 4 already. Giving the new beyblade a try, i loved the old beyblade but never got into the metal series but shogun steel looks okay. Mainly watching pokemon just to see Charizard(I missed him so) and really excited to have B-daman back in the states

[drill]

Watching K-ON!! Episode 2, watched the first season about a month ago and thought it was good, never realized there was a second season until today though.

[skreyola]

I've been watching Clannad (Hulu recently posted subs for it, and I'd been wanting to see it). Almost every episode ends on a terrible cliffhanger! asdfghjkl! Can't stand it, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to continue, because it's getting late. Enjoying the show immensely, untill each cliffhanger. Since I started, I've been watching 2-3 episodes every day.

Also, Aria the Natural. So relaxing... sadly, I've run out of episodes. =T_T=

[GeneD]

Over the weekend I watched the following:

- Dennou Coil: SPOILER: Highlight text to read: I think the boy Yasako met as a kid is Isako's brother and whatever happened to Kanna (the reason why she died) happened to him too.
- Bakemonogatari
- Natsume s2: The start of the OP has made me jump a few times when I'm not paying attention. Also, love this show.
- The 2012 Kyousougiga ONA: Well this got me extra excited for the anime coming out next season. The last episode was particularly well done, telling the story with very little spoken dialogue.
- Whisper of the Heart: I must say "Country Roads" is the last thing I expected an anime film to open with. I can see why it's a lot of people's favourite Ghibli and I could relate to Shizuku to a degree. However, I can't help but be a little cynical over SPOILER: Highlight text to read: the chances of their romance succeeding, due to how young they are and the fact that, as I understand it, after where it ended off Seiji is going away again for TEN years. A heck of a lot can happen in that time. Maybe it's ironic that I expect this to go the way of a Shinkai film, when I'm not that fond of his overall themes of distance and losing touch either. It's still a solid watch though.

[Mullet Death]

Finished the latest One Piece and Fairy Tail episodes according to Funimation's release over the weekend. Makes me very sad to be out of episodes again. I would be watching something else right now in between classes but I can't seem to get video apps to work on this connection. I doubt the school help desk would be interested in helping me watch anime instead of studying.

[Mullet Death]

Watching the zany Naruto Spin-off show about Rock Lee, episode 11.

[skreyola]

Finished the latest One Piece and Fairy Tail episodes according to Funimation's release over the weekend. Makes me very sad to be out of episodes again. I would be watching something else right now in between classes but I can't seem to get video apps to work on this connection. I doubt the school help desk would be interested in helping me watch anime instead of studying.

They would if your school has a cinema appreciation class.

[PandaPop]

Watching Rurouni Kenshin, Blood+, and soul eater. Not sure how I ended up watching 3 shows lol I usually stick to one at a time.

[MangaRocks!]

Durarara!! ep.'s 1-24 + the two specials (complete, sub):

So, after falling head over heels for Baccano! (both the anime and the novels ), I decided to also watch + read pretty much everything else that Narita-sensei's created, and this series was the next one on the list.

Interestingly, other than a few elements (a large cast, with all of them being main characters; several rather bizarre couples; somewhat non-linear storytelling {though this was *far* more linear than Baccano! }; and the fact that it's supposed to take place in the same universe), it was actually pretty different (not that that's a bad thing, though, of course; just different ). I do have to say that it did take me a good while longer to really warm up to both the characters and the story (until right around episode 5, I think?)... however, once I did, I was hooked. And I really connected with a lot of the themes in this, too (like SPOILER: Highlight text to read: "Life isn't as bad as you think"; accepting and loving yourself; accepting and loving others, as well as really connecting with and being open with them; the fact that anyone can make a difference for good, and even more so when helping each other; etc.). So, while this was not *quite* as fantastic as Baccano!, IMO , it was certainly a great series in and of itself, and I enjoyed it.

Interested to see where it goes from here in the novels...

[the_wolfs_howl]

Started showing Baccano! to my roommate. We've watched episodes 1-3, and she loves it so far ^_^ It's great to watch it again; now that I've seen it once, I understand what's going on a lot better than I did the first time, and it's awesome to see all of these vibrant characters interacting again.

[Mullet Death]

Started Wagnaria!! season 2 on Crunchyroll. Looks like I'll have to import it if I want to own it. Bummer. Love Wagnaria to death, though.

[SierraLea]

I finished No. 6 in TWO DAYS!!!!! There was a lot to be desired with that ending, but it kind of reminded me of Princess Mononoke. I still wished they could have stayed together, thought. I liked the fact that they used music as a plot device, and it was funny that there was so much Shakespeare since I'm taking a course in that right now.
I wish Rat and Shion hadn't both been boys, but their relationship wouldn't have been as beautiful if one of them had been a girl. Rat is the closest one to the gender, but he wouldn't have been as cool a character if he'd been a girl since there are so many tough girl types out there. Since I've started reading Train + Train, he kind of reminds me of Akuza or whatever the main girl's name was.

[faithb4sight]

I just finished the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (including the movie). I actually sat through the "endless eight" of the series in one night. Ah!
I'm currently watching the dub of Fairy Tail and Digimon Adventures.
Have watched a few D. Gray Man episodes as well. Will probably focus on FMA Brotherhood in the near future - I borrowed the series from a friend. I've seen the original series (years ago) and loved the characters, so I think I'll really enjoy it.
Started Black Butler but was seriously turned off by a particular scene and do not know if I ever even want to pick it back up again. Some of the characters are funny but I don't think it makes up for the morbid feeling I get after watching it.

[the_wolfs_howl]

Baccano! episodes 4-7 - It's so great to watch this again; the plot makes so much more sense this time!

[drill]

Acchi Kocchi Episode 2

[Kaori]

The following wall of text is entirely about Fushigi Yuugi (TV series plus 3 different OVA series).

Fushigi Yuugi TV (covers the Part 1 of the manga, which is vv. 1-13): The early part of the story seemed completely dominated by extremely over-exaggerated humor (the same kinds of humor were present in the manga, but when I first started watching the anime I felt like the episodes were entirely focusing that overblown humor), and even when it got into more serious parts of the storyline it still had a lot of melodrama and cheesiness. The same thing can be said of the manga, though, since that’s just what FY is like. The anime did stay pretty faithful to the manga overall, often right down to specific lines, though of course there were some things that were cut out because of time constraints (on the other hand, the anime was able to show a bit more of Keisuke and Tetsuya than the manga, which iirc is material that Watase Yuu wanted to include in the manga but had to cut), so although I felt some aspects were exaggerated too much I can’t fault the anime very much as an adaption.

Overall, the manga was able to go into more depth in a lot of ways, so I would say it is better for people who are interested in FY and haven’t read or seen it to read the manga instead of watching the anime. The exceptions would be anyone who is interested in FY but doesn’t want to be exposed to nudity (the TV series is much cleaner in this regard and also toned down or cut some of the other objectionable content) or FY fans who really want to see the characters come to life, so to speak, with color, motion, voices, and so on, because actually that is really cool to see. Also, there is one particularly good episode that really stands out above the rest, episode 51, and when I went back and compared it to the manga I noticed that ep. 51 of the TV series actually spends a bit more time fleshing out and adding to the climactic battle scene with Nakago, so that episode is worth watching. Other than that, though, the manga is better.


Fushigi Yuugi OVA series 1 (original story written by the director, not by Watase Yuu): The premise of this is that a new priestess entered the book, causing the existence of one of the old priestesses, Okuda Takiko, to disappear, and Tamahome got dragged back into the world of the book. It was really pretty bad; the plot was poorly written to the point of sometimes being barely coherent, the pacing was extremely rushed, it often felt like a bunch of plot elements from the original series were just mashed together and recycled, and it’s also cheesy. The climax of the story was summarized, which is a terrible mistake and something that I used to warn my creative writing students not to do.

Some salient points about the first OVA series: There is a little snippet of information at the end of this OVA series that sets up the premise for the second OVA series (Dai Ni Bu), which covers Part 2 of the manga, so anyone who wants to see the second OVA series would either need to see that or have already read the manga. Also of interest is the series of humorous animation shorts at the end of the each episode about all of the characters taking a bus trip to a hot springs resort (it’s a gag series; I found some of it humorous and some of it not). Overall, though, aside from a brief scene in episode 2 where Tasuki does a hilarious spot-on imitation of Chichiri, I’m just going to pretend that this series does not exist. Content: OVAs can be a lot more liberal in what they show than TV, so this series does have some brief detailed female upper body nudity at one point.


Fushigi Yuugi OVA series 2 (Dai Ni Bu): This OVA series covers volumes 14-18 of the manga, which is Part 2, and like the TV series it is canonical and also sticks pretty close to events in the manga. However, if you consider that the TV series had 52 25-minute episodes to cover 13 volumes and this series has 6 25-minute episodes to cover 5 volumes, the story obviously had to be condensed a lot. So there was quite a bit that was left out, but I would say that the series did a pretty good job of making the story and pacing flow coherently despite having such constraints. This series was more or less okay, though as a content warning there is some very detailed brief female upper body nudity in a couple of places, and there’s also a scene where a character is almost raped.


Fushigi Yuugi OVA series 3 (Eikouden): Apparently this series is based on a FY gaiden novel the concept of which was originally by Watase Yuu but which was written by someone else (because Watase Yuu is not a novelist, so she came up with the concepts and someone else wrote the light novels). The plot suffers from a bit of recycling of elements from the original plot, though not nearly as badly as the first OVA series, and it was also pretty predictable; I would say it was not as good as the second OVA series but definitely not as bad as the first. The pacing was decent, and as a story it was more or less okay. Anyways, it is basically about a new girl entering the Universe of the Four Gods book because she wants to steal Miaka’s husband from her. Tamahome has to go back into the book as well and gather the Suzaku Seven again to change the fact that the nation of Konan is falling into ruin. The characters who died in Part 1 of the manga (i.e. during the TV series) have all been reincarnated, because it’s 10 years after the events of Part 1, so you get to see those characters as little kids, and I get the sense that this story basically only exists so that fans who want to see the characters in action again, or want to see what is going on in the characters’ lives after the end of Part 2, can do so. Content: a bit of non-detailed nudity, other than that nothing in particular aside from Tasuki’s rough language occasionally being translated into mild profanity (this would go for every other FY anime as well); I don’t think there was even any blood.


As a side comment on the whole 52 TV episodes and total of 13 OVA episodes that I’ve just watched, I have to say that I am going to miss hearing Tasuki’s Kansai-ben. One of the main reasons why I watched the FY anime after having read the manga already was because I read the manga in English and wanted to find out what kind of styles of Japanese the characters use to express themselves. Overall it was pretty enjoyable to hear the characters speaking, but this was the first time since being able to understand Japanese that I’ve seen an anime that had a character with a Kansai-ben, and it was extremely fun to listen to, even though I can only understand about half of it.

[MangaRocks!]

Hetalia: Axis Powers ep.'s 1-4 (dub), DROPPED:

Eh, I actually watched the first four episodes of this ages ago and have had the series on hold ever since, but at this point I don't really intend to continue it, so I'm going to finally just mark this as dropped. Yes, I think the *concept,* at least, was good; yes, the outrageous accents were amusing (which is the reason I chose the dub); and yes, some of it was actually truly hilarious (this bit in particular is still one of my favorite comedy clips, and is in fact the very video that actually got me to start watching the show in the first place)... however, as it turned out, the rest of the time the humor was either too edgy or not funny enough for me to really enjoy it, and then after ep. 4 I just got bored. Oh well.

[skreyola]

Just finished Kaichou wa Maid-sama. Enjoyed it immensely. The music cues are especially good in this show. I don't know that there's anything particularly deep to get out of this show, but it was a rollicking good time, for the most part. A few questionable bits, though, so I don't know how easily I'd recommend it to someone else.