What Anime/Manga are you Reading/Watching? Part the Second!

Time for an update! I actually think I did an update over a month ago but for whatever reason it didn't get posted and I wrote so much that after losing it I just gave up on retyping it all out.

It was mostly all for Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. This anime was pretty bad-ass from start to finish and the main character is basically abducted and then forced to train and become a master assassin. There's a lot more to the anime than just that though. It's a dark look at the criminal underbelly of a fictional criminal organization.

Now let's move onto more recent anime I've watched:

Moeyo Ken. Eh, I can't really say too much positive about this one other than it's an interesting world. It's set in Japan during an era of technological growth after the feudal times. Oh yeah, and monsters have begun living in the human world . *sigh* This is the quick bio listed on Netflix: "This wacky anime series follows Yuuko Kondou, Toshi Hijikata and Kaoru Okita, daughters of the former members of the legendary samurai Shinsengumi team." So with that you are kind of left to believe that maybe these chicks would be kind of awesome. Nope, they completely suck ass as samuria. So much so that it's actually hard to watch the anime because it's not so much funny that they are so bad as it is pathetic. They are actually only secondary main characters, as the real main character of the anime is the son of their boss. This anime was really kind of a let down. Quite frankly it's just not that good.

After that I decided to check out 'Shuffle!' an anime that is apparently based off of some popular video game in Japan, likely dating sim. And with that in mind I kind of wasn't really expecting very much other than your typical harem anime. ..And it does start out like your typical harem anime where you have 1 oblivious guy who is adored by several attractive young girls that he goes to school with. What I wasn't expecting was how in depth the story would go into detail about all of these girls that like him and you come to find out that these girls all have some pretty big and serious flaws to their characters that you wouldn't have guessed by watching, say, the first 5 episodes. What I really wasn't expecting was how dark the story gets when it delves deeper into the characters of the show and what happens and had happened in the past. I was totally blown away and actually ended up enjoyed this anime a lot.

Currently I'm watching Mushi-Shi which I have seen and heard of for a long time now but never really thought it might actually be interesting or good enough bother watching it. I've only watched the first 4 episodes but I'm hooked already, this show is definitely facinating.. I can't quite describe it. It's creepy, but interesting and each episode makes me wonder what's going to happen in the next as it goes on.
 
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I thought I did an update too Ecks, but it's not there now. The new stuff I've been watching is Jormungand and Saki.

Jormungand is about an arms dealer who has a team of body guards, one of which is a child soldier; who actually hates arms dealers because his village was destroyed by an army supplied by them. It's only 10 episodes in, so I think they're going to start getting into the main plot of the show, but so far it's just been the different, very interesting, arms deals that they go through. Plus I LOVE the opening video.

Saki is a anime about Mahjong; and the people who are playing it. The main character is insanely good at it, and her team aims to win the national tournament, and she wants to be reunited with her sister at the tournament, because her sister is also a mahjong player. Although in this anime mahjong is frickin' huge, players are treated like movie stars. Some people have weird abilities that make them better at mahjong, or they have some skill that makes them good at one aspect of the game, but all in all, everyone is mostly normal. I don't even understand the rules of mahjong, but it's a fun little anime and a nice change of pace from all of the action ones that I've been watching lately.

Oh, I heard that they were going to make Btooom! into an anime, which I'm looking forward to since I'm reading the manga. It's basically there's a video game, Btooom!, that is deathmatch/team deathmatch but everyone has different types of throwable bombs. The main character is the best player in Japan, but is a total recluse without a job, who is sponging off his parents just playing the game. Inexplicably, he is still pretty fit, even though he literally only plays a computer game all day. He gets kidnapped and now has to play the game for real on an island; and all of the players were nominated to play by people who hate them and desperately want them gone from their lives.

I'll check out Phantom: requiem of a phantom, I'd never heard of it before.
 
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The protagonist of Phantom isn't actually abducted (technically I guess?). He witnesses an operation by the organization that nabs him, and that's why they nab him, after they realize he has some of the qualities they are looking for in a "subject." I thoroughly enjoyed the original as well as the newer series you probably watched Ecks.

Jormungand is incredible if you ask me. I'm a huge fan of Black Lagoon, and I think Jormungand is pretty much another Black Lagoon, but with more wit and charm to it. It's such a blast to watch each week.

Also, if you guys are still having issues finding a manga site, check out: http://www.mangahere.com/
 
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I don't think the Phantom series I watched was anything new, it was just new to me at the time. And yes.. while he did witness the operation he was still pretty much abducted because of what he saw and through drugs, fear and relentless training he became brainwashed and forgot who he was before he was nabbed. (for a long while at least) The only aspect of that anime that bothered me was how the young blonde girl (forgot her name) is so young when you first meet her. She appears to be anywhere from 8-11 years old, yet ***Slight Spoiler Ahead*** when you see her again after only 2 years have passed she has a fully developed body of an 17-18 year old. I mean wtf, she's like totally smokin' hot but mathematically she shouldn't really be that attractive (read: Adult looking) for being so young. ><;
 
Mangahere is actually who I changed over to a few months ago when I was having issues with Mangafox and mangareader. They're a little slower to get releases than some of the other sites, maybe a day later at the very worst; but they're definitely good.

I'd forgotten about black lagoon Strid. I'd read some of the manga, but I could only find the first few chapters online, but I enjoyed what was there. I'll have to grab the anime.
 
Ecks said:
I don't think the Phantom series I watched was anything new, it was just new to me at the time.
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Well, that was my bad, I meant the more recent one. The series originated as a short-run anime in 2004 and then got a full blown series in 2009. Though, you don't really miss anything at all seeing the second go. I figure you watched the lengthier, newer version. Yeah, Cal's transformation was huge, but if I remember correctly, in the game so I assumed in the anime too, she's a teenager to begin with. That said, she doesn't appear it at all pre-returning to the scene. I just thought of it like Military boot camp. I had a pal go off to the army after high school, he was a tiny little momma's boy and when he came back after... holy hell how he'd grown and developed.

If you enjoyed that though, you will probably enjoy the Girls with Guns collection they (Bee Train) did; Noir, Madlax, and El Cazador de la Bruja. You may have already seen them though. I found them all very similar but for some reason not terrible in that, definitely good time killers.

Baja the anime for BL is a riot, make sure to grab the Roberta's Blood Trail OAVs too and watch them after. I normally don't bother with OAVs but they made a pretty good run out of theirs.
 
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Strid said:
If you enjoyed that though, you will probably enjoy the Girls with Guns collection they (Bee Train) did; Noir, Madlax, and El Cazador de la Bruja. You may have already seen them though. I found them all very similar but for some reason not terrible in that, definitely good time killers.
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Yeah I have actually watched all of those. Started with Madlax, then Noir and then El Cazador de la Bruja. Which seemed to be a good enough way to watch them. I noticed one scene in El Cazador de la Bruja that actually shows the logos for the other two anime in that collection' and was like "Wait a second. *back up to scene again, pause* I recognize those..." Then I looked it up on wiki and found out about the girls with guns thing.

Another good series is Gunslinger Girl and it's sequel series Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino. Pretty good stuff there.
 
Yeah, the Gunslinger Girls series is pretty good. I can't remember why I liked it anymore, but I do remember being somewhat surprised with my enjoyment of them.

I sure hope the Sword Art Online anime is good. There is a lot of potential in this upcoming anime, if you guys have read the manga you'll know what's up. If not, look out for it, it should be fairly good if done right.
 
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So I finished watching Mushi-Shi and I still sorta don't know what to think about it. I found it really enjoyable and interesting. It was definitely different. In fact, I'll go as far as to say there wasn't anything bad about it.... except that it has no real plot, no real underlying story. Each episode (except for 1) is about the main character helping someone that was effected by a mushi. (You should watch the anime to figure out what that is. You'll find out in the first episode) Each episode explores this particular world which is almost nearly set in reality during a somewhat ancient time in Japan (doesn't seem to be a feudal era, however it's definitely not a modern era). I kept thinking that at some point a plot would appear and continue like most anime, but this anime was episodic. Each episode could stand alone, and yet each episode followed the other in terms of a timeline (with the exception of that one previously mentioned episode).

It was definitely different and good. Though I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't an overall story or an ending to said story.
 
Yeah, that's kind of how I felt about Un-Go. There didn't seem to be anything really unifying the whole series, other than the same characters keep showing up in each episode; but each episode was interesting.
 
I just finished the first season of Phi Brain. It's an interesting series about puzzles, and apparently there is a "divine puzzle" which will reveal the secrets of the universe when solved. There's a secret organization bent on solving it, and killing those unworthy, so they train the main character and his friends to be capable of solving it. Most of the puzzles are pretty good and well thought out, although the puzzle at the very end of the season wasn't even a puzzle, it was a platform jumping obstacle. All in all, the series is good, I'm going to start on the second season this week, where apparently a completely new secret organization that no one's mentioned until now that will come out of the wood work, so I'll see how that goes.

Strid, you were right, Black Lagoon was great. I'd like to have seen some kind of unifying story line throughout the series, but it's still been entertaining.

I've got the last episode of Moretsu Pirates to watch. I'm really hoping that they will bring it back for more episodes in the future, because they've gone to a lot of work introducing an interesting cast of characters, crafting a great world, and then finally reveal a new area where they could have some really great stories, but I think it's going to end abruptly.

Edit: finished moretsu pirate, the ending was decent. There was resolution, but they left it open for another series or some movies that will continue the story. Still, I loved every minute of it and highly recommend it.
 
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Cool stuff. I just watched two series: Sengoku Basara: Samurai Kings and Tears To Tiara.

Both were good for what they were. Sengoku Basara, aside from being an awesome Dynasty Warriors clone video game (with more awesome!!!!), was a pretty decent anime as well. It is basically yet another type of 3 kingdoms era anime with Nobunaga as the ultimate bad guy and the story follows two of the many characters from the game and showcases numerous others, yet it doesn't have the whole cast of the video game. This may have been done in order to still keep the game fresh since I think they released the anime first to hype the game. It's very action packed, funny and a little bit steam-punk. I mean.. I don't know what else to describe a samurai who rides horses outfitted like they are motorcycles. The plot is predictable but still enjoyable. It doesn't help that I have a thing for Samurai and Ninja.

Tears To Tiara (why it's named that, I have no idea) was a pretty epic anime. Along the lines of Heroic Age except pure fantasy, not sci-fi. Swords and magic and all that good stuff. At the end of the anime, I came to the conclusion that this was.. well.. essentially a strange anime fantasy version of King Arthur. They never really stress it per-say, but if you watch it it become apparent. The last episode really kind of emphasizes this and is the only time they reveal that the character known as Arthur actually has the last name of Pendragon. Slight spoiler I suppose.. but eh, no not really. That knowledge really doesn't change anything since the anime is so vastly different than anything you would possibly tie to the normal King Arthur of legend.
 
Did you watch both seasons of Sengoku Basara? Pretty much all of the characters make their appearances, the ones left out aren't really necessary. Season 2 even has a decent amount of screen time given to the less popular generals/armies of the time.

Sengoku Basara is huge in Japan, having 4 games that released before the anime (one even a popular arcade fighting game from the makers of Guilt Gear). You don't have a two season anime built around an already popular series, simply to promote it, it's unnecessary. I can't imagine what they spent on the anime either, it's a well done, quality series, which honestly I didn't expect from Capcom's backing in the slightest even if it came from Production I.G. I think the more likely case is that Capcom saw an opportunity to make a good quality anime and launch a game in the same frame, to get people hype, for sure, but really, I think there is more there than a crappy, simple promotion anime, those I've always found to be totally lame.

If you don't have Sengoku Basara 3 Utage on the PS3 I'd highly recommend importing that, it's a sure fire riot. Even if you've played 3 to hell and back. If you're interested, try to find the Asian version, I paid after shipping and everything about $45 for it, while the Japanese version goes for around $75-80, which it's still worth.

Baja, glad you enjoyed it. You'll have that happen in those types of anime though. It's rather fitting I think, seeing in those rings trusting others long-term, outside your circle, can lead to your own downfall. Every organization has their own objectives as well, so really, eventually they'd just end up stepping on each others toes. As for Un-Go, did you watch the special (last episode)? I think that may clear your issue with it up, but for me, it was always about the main character, and wondering simply, "what's up with that?"
 
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Oh? Hmm. I had no idea it was such a huge thing in Japan. Considering, at least to my knowledge, we just got that one game in the states. It was the first I had ever heard of it or anything. And no I haven't seen the second season of the anime, didn't even know there was one. Where do you go when Nobunaga is dead? Resurrect him I suppose?

I don't think I'd buy it personally as I find those types of games way more fun co-op than single player. I live by myself so.. eh, no sense in buying it for me. Those types of games just aren't what I generally play when I do happen to play a console game these days.
 
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Ecks said:
Oh? Hmm. I had no idea it was such a huge thing in Japan. Considering, at least to my knowledge, we just got that one game in the states. It was the first I had ever heard of it or anything. And no I haven't seen the second season of the anime, didn't even know there was one. Where do you go when Nobunaga is dead? Resurrect him I suppose?
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Oh no, no, no. You get the true Incredible Hulk... Toyotomi Hideyoshi. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srQ1GmWlDxY&t=0m51s No spoilers to worry about there, just a song and a picture. You're still not done after that even, there is a movie that goes after season 2.

We got the first game on the PS2 released here before the Wii and PS3 game as well, it was just called Devil Kings and was localized into a piece of garbage. Also, I shouldn't say it's huge in Japan, it's no Monster Hunter, but it's a safe bet that anything they do with it will be a success in Japan at this point. Just typically Musou-esque games do very, very well in Japan. That genre could be thought of as the CoD genre of Japan, though they're actually good games so they don't lose the steam that say a light weight contender, like Homefront, per instance, does in our market. I wish I could let you borrow my copy of Utage, it's such a pleasure to experience, even more so than the version we got due mostly to complete shenanigans.
 
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Well.. within the last week (and really it actually just took two days) I got to watch 2 13 episode animes that I found to truly be gems.

Both of which I had been avoiding for a long while because the cover art shown and summary didn't seem all that appealing (on Netflix), but I'm finally at the point where I've nearly watched every anime that Netflix has to offer so, I figured what the hell.

First off was This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, really a jem and a perfect use of having an amazing first episode that hooks you. There isn't much action all and all, but when it happens, it's a treat. It's kind of like... an action/drama with some comedy thrown in. And the story itself was totally not what I was expecting. I did kinda think it was funny how some certain characters that were so obviously not normal were so readily shrugged off in passing as normal things to see. I'm being kinda vague because I just don't want to ruin this for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

Secondly was AngelBeats! I never really cared for the look of this one, but have always sorta been curious about it, just not enough to watch it until now. HOLY CRAP, I was blown away. The first half of this anime is like complete action and comedy while still building up the storyline. Then there's the sad parts.. and man, I don't know what's wrong with me but there were 2 parts that made me sad. The first one just made me sad and brought a single tear from me, the second (just about the entire last episode) had the tears just flowing. LOL.. It's funny when I think about it. I'm a grown ass man crying at an anime. I really had to clean myself up after the end of this one. Really a great story and it definitely touched my emotions deeply.
 
I've been watching several of the new shows this season, figured I'd chime in on them.

Sword Art Online - INCREDIBLE. It's like .Hack, but where people are actually playing an MMO. This is easily my favorite new show this season, and I hope the anime will continue for quite a while.

The main plot is that during the first run of a new MMO, everyone gets trapped in the game; die in the game, you die in real life. Once someone clears all 100 floors of the tower(the purpose of the game), everyone will be allowed to leave.

Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero - Tons of fan service, but also a decent show. In this anime, some people randomly get teleported to another world where magic exists. When/if those people return from that other world, they can still do magic. So, there's a school to teach them about their magic and to integrate them into positions to make use of their new talent. The main character is a hero on the other world for defeating the demon king, but then he brought the demon king's daughter back to earth with him and is posing as his sister.

They haven't really started up the main plot line of the show yet, and other than the main character is a perv, I'm not quite sure where they're going with it yet., but it's enjoyable.

Campione! - drastically less fan service than aesthetica of a rogue hero, and built on another interesting idea. This is another anime that hasn't hit it's underlying story just yet, but it's been fun so far.

In Campione! there are rogue gods all over the place, all of the gods from the old civilizations that people don't really pray to anymore. If a human kills one of these gods, they gain that gods' "authority" and part of that gods' power, and become a Campione, or a king. There's also apparently a few different orders of knights that are dedicated to serving these kings, but why I have no idea. The main character killed a Mesopotamian god and was brought into this new world, but like I said, they don't have a driving plot just yet.

I've also started watching Hikaru no Go, as I like game-based shows. The main character gets possessed by a Go expert from a thousand years ago, and is playing go like a pro to obtain the "hand of god," whatever that is. It's kinda like yu-gi-oh, but without being nearly as annoying. The main character actually becomes interested in Go, and is working to improve his own skill rather than always relying on the ghost expert inside of him; which is a nice change from other shows. Apparently he creates a rival from some other 12-year old kid that is some phenom that can beat pro's in Go; so they've quickly established that they will have a show down.

The animation is very dated, but then it was started in the late 90's, but I'm still enjoying it. At least I roughly understand how to play Go(even though I'm terrible), when I was watching Saki, I had no clue how Mahjong is played.
 
Oh my, I haven't updated this in a long while. Well, it's to be expected I suppose. I've had a lot of not so great things happen in the past few months and I'm in a rough spot that I'm hoping to get out of soon.

Anyway, I've had plenty of spare time and have watched nearly every anime available on Netflix. Like seriously. I'm watching the final anime now and will probably be done with it in a few days. After this there won't be any anime series or movies I haven't seen on Netflix with the exception of Initial D as I will never ever watch that series. Ever. Hmm, I guess technically I still could finish Noir however I just wasn't able to make it past the first 2 episodes. With it's slow pacing, lackluster action scenes and quiet dialogue it just bores me to death.

Currently the last thing I'll be watching is a much older anime that I've skipped watching for a long while: X. I've watched a few episodes of it now and I'm still not quite sure if I'll like it. It's definitely older because the voice actors are ones you usually hear in older dubbed anime (not to mention the art style is older). It feels like a late 90s anime (and might be, I'm not bothered enough to wiki it), but apparently was released in English around 2006 if I remember what I saw correctly. It's not bad, it just might be that it has that older feel to it. Like they weren't using as a good of a studio that Funimation now has.

I'm gonna update this post later with a list of all the anime I've watched since my last posting (or try to) with a brief description of whether I thought it was good or bad or whatever, instead of doing a longer review like I usually do.
 
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Just finished watching Black Butler II. And while it wasn't bad, it wasn't nearly as good as the original and the ending was a bit of a cop-out if you ask me.

Not sure what I'll watch next time I get the chance. But I'll see.
 
Wasn't the ending of the first series a cop-out as well? I forget anymore, but I remember them making me worry so much about something that turns out, I never should have been worried about in the first place because of plot/otome appeal armor.
 
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