Dagger

All Inuyasha-related questions should be posted in the official Inuyasha topic, found [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=39612&page=48&pp=15][u]here[/u][/url]. Please try to keep an eye on your post quality, as it is somewhat lacking. If you're at all confused, turn first to OtakuBoards' Rules and FAQ, which can be found by clicking the links located in the blue navigation bar to your left. After that, you should feel free to private message me or one of the other moderators. Thank you very much. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

I can't believe it took me this long to reply. Anyway, the Sciros/Siren showdown was sheer brilliance, and I've really enjoyed the latest chapters as well. The gritty language and atmosphere are refreshing, and you use morbid humor to great effect. I'm looking forward to reading more. ^_^ ~Dagger~

Well, I've found three new favorites. ^____^ [b]From Eroica With Love:[/b] I finally picked up the first volume, and it's a clever, frothy romp. Both of the male leads are simply dripping with charisma; the unresolved sexual tension is funny and sweetly frustrating. I normally detest the whole "thief" genre, but Eroica doesn't feel at all tired or cliched. I can't wait for the second installment. [b]Bokura no Oukoku [Our Country/Our Kingdom]:[/b] Insanely cute, with just enough angst and soap-operatic drama to keep it from being too sugary. It's licensed, too! I hope DMP starts releasing this soon. I really dig the artwork, and the ensemble cast is fantastic. [b]Wild Adapter:[/b] An awesome shounen-ai manga from Kazuya Minekura, the artist behind Saiyuki and Stigma. Like Stigma, it's deliciously dark and gritty, but this time there's no cute little shota running around to complicate things. The artwork is lavish and virtually flawless, although her tendency to recycle character designs from other series can be distracting. The two main characters, Kubota and Tokito, are also the stars of an alternate-universe manga called Araiso. ~Dagger~

[quote name='Sol-Blade]Call it curiousity, but someone please explain this: "[spoiler]The day he moves back to the Tohno household is the day he stumbles upon a woman named Arcueid Brunstud and decapitates her with one stab of his knife in a temporary fit of insanity. When she suddenly showed up beside him later alive and well, and asked him to be her bodyguard![/spoiler']", don't give me any real deep details just clarify it for me and simplify it a bit. Kinda just went, *woosh*, right over me.[/quote] [spoiler]When he first sees her, it triggers a murderous instinct buried deep within him. By cutting the relevant "line," he instantaneously slashes her to pieces. Being a vampire, she's able to put herself back together. Having been deeply impressed by Shiki's ability (not many people can just kill an ancient being like Arcueid), she seeks him out and orders him to protect her as repayment for wounding and severely weakening her. They have an interesting relationship, to say the least.[/spoiler] [quote]But uh, definitely an interesting way to start a story. Time for me to look for an OST! Oh and I got a question, how long is the series? Don't remember if you stated that, and I'm too lazy to look.[/QUOTE] Twelve episodes spread out over three DVDs. The first two should already be in stores; the third is coming in February. The first OST was released stateside last summer, and the second should come out sometime this winter or early spring. I actually went out and bought the first OST (something I almost never do), because I was pretty taken with some of the piano themes in the show. It doesn't hold up quite as well on its own, because much of the music has a distinctly synthetic sound to it, but there are some great tracks. If you haven't done so already, be sure to check out AzureWolf's very well-written assessment of the show, which is listed at theOtaku. ^_~ ~Dagger~

[quote name='EVA Unit 100']Since I haven't seen any of these outside of Nausicaa, FMA, SEED, and the GitS stuff, maybe people could give me their opinions of the shows I listed.[/quote] Gladly. Two titles in particular jumped out at me. Samurai Champloo: Absolutely brilliant. The problem is that people tend to go into the series thinking, "[i]Bebop, Bebop, Bebop![/i]" Though Champloo follows a familiar format--it's made up of episodic stories that occasionally reveal parts of a major character's (usually tragic) past--the two anime have quite different goals and are stylistically dissimilar. The series is smart, chronically irreverent and in certain ways more daring than Bebop. If instinct tells you to see this, you should definitely do everything you can to get your hands on it. Like Bebop, it has its low points (such as the overly Kenshin-esque episode 2 and the diary recap), but the series starts strong and just keeps getting better and better. Some of the later two-part tales are simply sublime. Paranoia Agent: A different kind of masterpiece, but a masterpiece nonetheless. Its storytelling style is strongly reminiscient of Booegiepop Phantom; however, PA covers a wider range of characters and brings Satoshi Kon's off-beat humor to the table. Be warned that the episodes are wildly uneven in terms of tone and plot development: some are disturbing and deathly serious, others are disturbingly silly. Some contribute a lot to the story, others are merely a half-hour of social commentary. The anime as a whole runs the risk of making no sense whatsoever, but despite my caveats, it is well worth watching. I'd really like to see [b]Giant Robo[/b], an epic OVA that took something like seven years to complete. [b]Figure 17[/b] and [b]Berserk[/b] are also pretty high up on my list (weirdly, all three of those anime are from Media Blasters). The upcoming titles I'm looking forward to most are listed in my signature, with links to their official sites. ~Dagger~

I figured it was about time for us to have a decent Tsukihime thread (there's a short Tsukihime-centric topic that can be found by using the search function, but it's filled with unmarked spoilers, quadruple-posting and the like). It's a great show, and the R1 DVD release has a lot going for it. Moreover, I [i]know[/i] I'm not the only Tsukihime fan around these parts. ;) Lunar Legend Tsukihime is a relatively new twelve-episode series, and the first anime ever to be based on a doujinshi ero-game. Despite its origins, the show has no hentai content and can stand alone as a separate entity. Rather than attempt to squeeze in every detail of the game's astonishingly intricate backstory, the creators opted to focus on character development and atmosphere. Fans of the original game and its sequels have complained about feeling underwhelmed, but in my opinion, the anime is a fascinating work in its own right. The protagonist is Shiki Tohno, a teenager who can see the lines that bind everything together (and, by cutting them, utterly destroy everything from people to entire buildings). The plot mainly deals with his past and his relationship with the vampire Arcueid Brunestud. Though Tsukihime's animation ranges from limited to adequate, with some moments of nice fluidity, its exquisite artwork is what really sets it apart. The beautifully painted backgrounds would threaten to steal the spotlight if the characters were not drawn with such lovely detail and shading. The music, alternately ominous and gently melancholy, lends the series a sense of weight and underlying sorrow. I've found that Tsukihime has a lot of replay value, although I do have to be in the right mood to watch it. I'd love to discuss any aspect of the show. ~Dagger~

I don't understand the point of this thread. What would you like to discuss--purchasing anime? Lacking the money needed to do so? The prevalence of bootlegs? I'm going to lock the topic for now, but you are welcome to private message me or one of the other moderators if you want to explain exactly what you're trying to focus on here. We already have a topic dealing with DVD collections and a topic dealing with online anime stores; you should also feel free to seek out and post in those threads, both of which are fairly recent. Thread closed (temporarily or otherwise). ~Dagger~

@duorocks17: I [i]finally[/i] figured out who the person in your avatar is! I can't believe it took me so long... those eyes are quite distinctive. Right now I'm only eight or ten episodes away from the end of R; at this point I guess I may as well just wait to see the movie. Thus far the show has covered both the distant past and the distant future--it really makes me wonder what the next three seasons have in store, heh. [spoiler]Is Saphir actually the prince's brother? I've seen about a billion different spellings for the prince's name, and I can't remember which was used in ADV's subtitles, so I'm not even going to bother guessing. "Prince D" will do for the moment, I suppose. I assumed they were fully blood-related until Saphir started insinuating that he, like Esmeraude, is in love with D. At least I [i]think[/i] that's what he was implying--my shounen-ai sense could be going haywire, but whatever. I'm oddly amused by the prospect that R is a veiled exploration of incest, haha (first Chibi-Usa, and now this!?).[/spoiler] While Rubeus was relatively cool, Esmeraude is rather annoying. Maybe I'm just naturally biased toward the male villains. ~Dagger~

Though there's nothing wrong with the idea behind this thread, your post quality needs a bit of work. Please try to use proper punctuation and capitalization as much as possible--it'll make your writing look much cleaner and easier to read. Others who feel like responding to the topic should keep that in mind as well. I really don't want to have to close this. ~Dagger~

[url=http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/video.jhtml?show_id=ava&clip=16][u]Official site[/u][/url] [url=http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20041215/d_nick15_side.art.htm][u]USA Today article[/u][/url] After watching the online trailer, I am incredibly psyched about watching Avatar. This is the only example of Western animation I have [i]ever[/i] seen that successfully captures the intrinsic look and feel of quality anime--while bringing American production values to the table. The animation is stunningly smooth, and the requisite CG bits don't seem too jarring. I can't quite describe what aspects of the video clip provided made Avatar scream anime, but I'll try: it probably has something to do with the style of shading, the character designs (sophisticated, clean and fairly realistic) and the placing of the camera. The story sounds as though it could be interesting, and I'm already intrigued by the (obviously Asian-influenced) setting. In any case, I can't wait to see Avatar. It's scheduled to premiere in February. Hopefully this series will not only live up to its initial promise, but also do well enough to a) increase awareness and acceptance of Japanese anime, and b) encourage other American companies to produce similar works. ~Dagger~

[quote name=''[SKY KEEPER]'']They said that the manga ending is more depressing than the anime's, is that true? If so, I'm gonna read the manga instead.[/quote] Wow, seriously? o_O It's hard to imagine anything more deliberately and brutally depressing than the anime's ending--I hate to say this, but there was such a surfeit of tragedy that it ended up feeling pretty gratuitous. For those interested, [url=http://www.saikano.net/ova/promo/saikano_ova320.mov][u]here[/u][/url] is a link to the upcoming Saikano OVA, "Another Love Song." The animation and artwork look beautiful, as expected. However, the plot remains a mystery, and a rather perplexing one at that--will it be a side story, as I had previously guessed? An alternate universe re-telling? Some kind of prequel? Either way, I'm looking forward to seeing this. ~Dagger~

Episode 11 and episode 12 were interesting--and, perhaps unsurprisingly, both of them ended on big cliffhangers. I'm having trouble getting a handle on Ishida. [spoiler]He has a real chip on his shoulder, obviously, but summoning all those Hollows just seemed foolhardy--very unlike the kind of guy who would snag the number one place in the school exams. Speaking of which, that scene was great. I almost expected Rukia to be the one on top, heh. It was surprising--pleasantly so--to see both Ichigo and Chad getting good grades. Little things like that really help distinguish Ichigo and co. from the cast of Yu Yu Hakusho. Of course, I thought Ichigo's approach to the situation also left a lot to be desired. He let Ishida take advantage of him (and, in fact, Ishida had no difficulty making him look like a complete doofus). He should have just walked away or made some comment about Hollows being their common enemy. I feel justified in expecting that kind of maturity from him as a character, because despite outward appearances, he's a lot more grown-up than most shounen heroes.[/spoiler] Some other scenes I especially liked were Chad's flashback and the rock-paper-scissors match between Urahara's kid workers. [quote name='pbfrontmanvdp']Well even though its totally not relevent to the topic, which part of New Jersey did you visit? I live right next to Great Adventure (Ocean County in Jackson) so where you next to that place at all?[/quote] I used to live in Montclair, which is pretty close to New York City. We go back there every year to meet with old friends and so forth. ^_^ ~Dagger~

After watching volume 4, I finally figured out why I originally felt so let down by the [spoiler]reunion[/spoiler] episode! Ironically, it's [i]because[/i] the new television characters are so well-developed and likeable that [spoiler]Yomiko and Nancy[/spoiler] seem sort of flat and uninteresting in comparison. This is rectified by the end of the show, but [spoiler]in that initial meeting, the three sisters (particularly the confident, brave and friendly Michelle) totally outshone Ms. Readman. They had received fourteen episodes' worth of character development, while she was only allotted three, all of which were mostly action-centric and portrayed her pre-"incident" personality.[/spoiler] On the plus side, I love [spoiler]Yomiko's new[/spoiler] dub actress. [spoiler]This time around, she has a much deeper, softer voice and a British accent. She sounds a lot more calm and mature--which fits the character perfectly, since she was supposed to have greatly changed in the five years since the OVA.[/spoiler] ~Dagger~

Welcome to OtakuBoards. ^_^ Introduction threads are not permitted here. Rather, we prefer for new members to immediately begin participating in whatever discussions interest them most. People can get to know you through your posts. As always, you are welcome to private message me or one of the other moderators if you have any questions. Thanks! Thread closed. ~Dagger~

[QUOTE=r2vq]Dagger-dono Is it possible for Okita to be putting on an act? I believe his contrasting and polar attitudes are not a result of masking or faking his beliefs. Rather, I believe that both sides of Okita are the "real" Okita Souji. Okita was only a child when he joined Shinsengumi was he not? His childhood life was rather, disturbing, to say the least. The child-like (feminine?) innocent side to Okita's personality may represent the child that Okita was before he became a monster. The child was scarred and although the childhood ended, adulthood never began. The monster-like side to Okita may show what he feels he has become. "To slay a demon, you must first become a demon." The "demon within" may exist out of necessity. Can slay a man if you are innocent? And if you can, how innocent are you? Young Souji was so traumatized that the bi-polar personality was the only way of dealing with it. To make up for what he felt like was a horrible monster, he stayed innocent and sweet, like a child, whenever he could. Just what I think off the top of my head. ^^ Sorry if it's innaccurate. >:o wow It felt so long ago when I wailed about these characters. -ArV[/QUOTE] Long time, no see! :) That's an astute assessment. I especially agree with what you said about him never fully becoming an adult. It reminded me of something I read a while back--that women who were sexually or physically abused as children tend to have higher-pitched, almost girlish voices, as though time stopped for them when they were first traumatized. Obviously the situation is different with Okita, but I think the same general principle applies. What made me question Okita was the fact that the TV series is sprinkled with random shots of him looking peculiarly melancholy, nearly always when he's alone. Of course, I suppose even cute little Oki is allowed to be pensive at times. Other than that, he seems almost scarily well-adjusted, considering his past. ~Dagger~

[url=http://www.otakuboards.com/rules.php?][u]Rules[/u][/url] [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/faq.php?][u]FAQ[/u][/url] Anime should be discussed in the Anime Lounge. And with that noted, our official Final Fantasy: Unlimited thread can be found [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=31603][u]here[/u][/url]. Please don't use OtakuBoards in lieu of a search engine, and please put some significant work into your post quality so that you can avoid getting banned. Thank you very much. ~Dagger~

My most memorable moment? The first time I caught a glimpse of Charles's current avatar. I did a very impressive spit-take. I had actually seen variations of it at other forums, but this was probably the... er, speediest incarnation. Like Lady Asphy, I feel sorry for poor Akari and her giant, giant tongue. EDIT: Oh, and becoming a moderator. How could I forget? ;) ~Dagger~

Wow, now "spam" is some kind of acronym? I guess you really do learn something new every day. ^_^;; Out of [strike]morbid[/strike] curiosity, what makes you think that people [i]want[/i] to read stupid, pointless and annoying messages? ~Dagger~

Episode 8 did not falter, even though I went into it with a whole lot of excitement and completely renewed expectations. First of all--and I'm positive I've said this before--it's wonderful and almost startling to see a shounen hero who acts his age. Ed makes a believable twelve-year-old (at least, I think that's how old he is at this point in the show). Seeing him actually get scared out of his mind and seeing him frantically scramble to stay alive added an extra layer of emotional realism to the show. The artwork helped a lot in this regard: the wild, panicked look on his face during [spoiler]the part when he was being attacked by the serial killer[/spoiler] really grabbed my attention. I had been expecting the usual burst of scrappy courage one normally gets from this kind of protagonist. But even Ed's amazing resourcefulness wasn't enough to [spoiler]save him and Winry. He survived only because Al and the others arrived in time.[/spoiler] Overall, this episode got its message across very neatly (although I still think that the title was sort of misleading). Ed and Al clearly need each other, and they are very much an equal team. Though they are both strong by themselves, neither is capable of making it on his own. I like that. ~Dagger~

Welcome to Otakuboards. ^_^ Frankly I don't understand how this topic is supposed to work, and your rather brief post doesn't exactly offer any clues. Under certain circumstances, comparing genres can lead to an interesting discussion, but what are people supposed to say here? "I like yuri better because I'm more attracted to women than men?" It just doesn't make sense--one may as well argue that heterosexual romances are better when the woman has brown hair. And what the heck is "better" supposed to mean? Sexier? More entertaining? You are welcome to PM me if you would like to explain your reasoning. Thread closed. ~Dagger~

Welcome to OtakuBoards, Sea of Chaos666. ^_^ Do you think Okita is putting on an act? I can't quite figure out whether he is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky person who occasionally gets taken over by his inner "demon," or a person who only behaves that way because he feels obligated to. In certain respects, he reminds me of Ginji from Get Backers. ~Dagger~

It's a fun series, reminiscient of both Sensei no Ojikan (a personal favorite) and Azumanga Daioh. But for me the jokes are pretty hit-and-miss--I have to be in the right mood to watch the show, or else it's just sort of annoying. The mini-episodes are nicely paced, though, and I've never felt as though School Rumble was actually wasting my time. I particularly loved the episode with the portrait-drawing, as well as the Initial D cameo which appeared early on in the anime. Tenma's obsession with that oddly named samurai television drama is always hilarious. The OP and ED themes are great! I really could listen to them all day. As for favorite characters, I can't say I have any--Tenma's antics and antennae are cute, but she's sort of empty between the ears. To me it looks as though Harima is slowly starting to replace her as the main character. ~Dagger~

Well, Cardcaptor Sakura is seventy episodes long and doesn't seem to have suffered much for it. Of course, a fairly good portion of the show is episodic, and I don't know whether or not Tsubasa's story would lend itself to that kind of format. What I find surprising is that Bee Train (best known for Noir, Madlax and .hack//SIGN) will be animating this show. To date, most big CLAMP productions--including Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits and X TV--have been taken care of by Madhouse. Even more startling and perhaps alarming is the fact that Koichi Mashimo, who has directed all of Bee Train's major titles, is apparently slated to direct Tsubasa. It's not as though he totally lacks range (he also directed Irresponsible Captain Tylor and Sorcerer Hunters), but as far as I know he's never done anything even mildly CLAMP-esque. Meine Liebe is the only shoujo anime Mashimo has ever directed, and though it has its merits, I think CLAMP fans would be up in arms if Tsubasa turned out to be anything like it. But regardless of what happens, if any Legal Drug or Tokyo Babylon characters appear (even if it's only for two seconds!), I'm totally there. ^_^ ~Dagger~

I'd be able to watch episodes 11 and 12 all at once... if only I weren't heading down to New Jersey for the weekend. Ah, well. The wait will be worth it, I hope. The seiyuu taking on the role of Ishida is the same guy who plays Sasuke Uchiha in Naruto, which is sort of interesting. Sasuke must have been his breakout role, as he doesn't seem to have played large parts in many other anime. ~Dagger~

[quote name='AzureWolf][FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue]Dagger, are you referring to the English or Japanese dubbing of Haibane Renmei? I've only heard the Japanese, but I don't remember it at all anymore.[/color][/size'][/font][/quote] The English dub. I haven't gotten all that far, so in this case I may go back and re-watch what I've seen of the series, this time in Japanese. I suppose I can't point to anything truly awful about the English track, but so far it just hasn't clicked with me. The anime itself is calm and seems to be very gently paced, which makes any off-sounding voices more distracting than they would normally be. [quote][font=book antiqua][size=2][color=blue]I figured since this is the designated sub/dub thread, I would put this question here (if it should be separate, sorry and separate it - if that's possible O_o): recently, from the Anime News Network apparently, the programming director of The Anime Network said they would air subtitled [B](note: NOT fansubbed)[/B] anime. Do you think this move is a good one? Why? I personally think the move is one of the better ideas as of late. *laughs at Gantz and Pita-Ten* "1337" anime fans will have less to whine about.[/color][/size][/font][/quote] What's funny about Gantz and Pita Ten? *is very curious* o_O If this topic ends up derailing the discussion or something (although for now I think it's perfectly fine), Solo or I can split it off into a separate thread. So no worries. ^_^ Anyway, I think it's an excellent idea. Whenever the subject of The Anime Network is raised, there are inevitably people who say, "Oh, it's too bad all that stuff is English-dubbed--I'd watch the channel like a rabid animal, if only the shows they offered were subbed." This gives the "1337" anime fans (to borrow your phrase) a chance to show that they're made of more than posturing and hot air. Even if the subtitled programming totally fails, the people who run TAN will at least be able to say that they tried. I do wonder what criteria they'll use in choosing shows for this time block, though. [quote][font=book antiqua][size=2][color=blue]But what about the whole domestic dubbing process? I've heard that GitS 2: Innocence's DVD doesn't come with the US dubbing, and that other series are sure to follow (yet another bad move, IMO).[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE] This is something that has really pissed me off. I can almost forgive the lack of a dub in stand-alone movies like Millennium Actress (the only other anime title to have been released by Go Fish Pictures). But both Ghost in the Shell and GitS: SAC have superb dubs. I'm sure it would have cost Go Fish Pictures--a division of DreamWorks--chump change to hire some or all of the VAs who appeared in those earlier productions. When you add in the fact that Innocence's DVD subtitles contain the type of stuff one would only expect to see in a hard-of-hearing sub track (i.e. [helicopter approaching] and [Japanese singing] and [silence]), it just gets very annoying. In other words, I do think this is a bad move. At the same time, I'm confident that almost all newer anime will continue to be dubbed--most fans simply expect dubs. Some older shows (like Urusei Yatsura and City Hunter) have been released in sub-only format, and I think that's probably going to continue. ~Dagger~