Anime - SuperJer Forum

NatureJay
SJA: Commander of Ruthless Abuse

2005 Mar 22 • 1871
574 ₧

buq25 said:

Blood+

For merely mentioning Blood+ and not Blood: The Last Vampire, you're going to get hell from aaronjer. I saw them in reverse order and I was okay with Blood+, mostly, but it got to the point where I realized that none of the scene-setting shit mattered and that the peripheral characters were all but disposable. That's not something that makes me happy.

Among the shows I would give some praise of but not fully endorse (it seems like you're well-versed in the Adult Swim stuff):

Ghost Hound - Takes place in a small Japanese town with primary characters of a brewer's son who was kidnapped as a child along with his sister (who died), a somewhat smarmy scientist's son from Tokyo who has a crippling fear of heights, the guitar-playing, ne'er-do-well grandson of a local cult leader (whose family was rumored to be involved with the kidnapping of kid #1), and the daughter of a local priest who is sometimes possessed/has visions. It's a decent premise rooted somewhat in the spirit world and self-exploration with questions of technology and the human soul, but the last few episodes shit the bed and they forget about the driving forces of the plot in favour of some other stupid bullshit.

Black Butler - Basic premise: Victorian era nobleman's son witnesses parents killed off by some cultish thing and then contracts with the devil to be his butler in exchange for his soul later. There are also the goofy side characters of the pyromaniac chef, the absurdly strong but clumsy gardener, the near-sighted maid, and the usually chibi old butler, none of whom are exactly what they seem. It's mostly humourous, but dark humour, mixed with the occassional feat of badassery from the butler. If you get into it, I wouldn't watch the second series, it's not nearly as good.

D. Gray Man - It's a shounen, so you have to deal with certain shounen tropes, but it has a driving force behind it that is a lot weirder and scarier than most shows will go to. In the world, there are akuma, or demons. These demons come out in a very particular way. First, someone dies. Then someone close to them, lamenting that death, contracts with the series' villain (a particularly goofy looking gentleman) to bring them back. The soul of the deceased is then transfered to large black skeleton where it is trapped, and the soul, no longer capable of controlling its own actions but remaining aware of them, kills the person that brought them back and wears their skin. Those are the akuma. There are various evolutions of each akuma which only corrupt the soul more and more, but that's the gist of it. Exorcists fight them. One of them has a big punchy hand and then there's a samurai and a girl who kicks stuff. They aren't quite so interesting as the akuma and the people controlling the akuma, but at the very least, they manage to give the main characters development. The shit thing about the show is that it follows a manga and the mangaka is frequently sick/injured/loony and production has become erratic, which means that the show went to an anime-only conclusion where the manga is still rolling (and has just recently revealed all of the players on the evil side). But when it's funny/silly, it's super silly, and when it's uncomfortable, it's super bleak.

Samurai 7 - Based off the Kurosawa flick, if you make the world not feudal Japan but some grey wasteland with pockets of dense industrial cities, if you make the raiders evil aliens with space ships, and if you give the titular samurai anime type martial arts superpowers. It's fucking pretty but I've never seen it in its entirety.

Last Exile - Steampunky, lots of air fights, weird world (kingdoms fighting each other, separated by giant storm fields), but ultimarely falls apart at the end like Ghost Hound does and fails to be as interesting as it seemed like it wanted to be. BUT THEY'RE MAKING A NEW SERIES.

Pani Poni Dash - Uhhh.... seen Azumanga Daioh? It's like that. But faster. And usually weirder. God is a cat that lives in vending machines and warms things up to his body heat.

Excel Saga - Also fucking weird. Just watch it. Nabeshin!

100% natural, no antibiotics, and ~~blood~~grass-fed

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2011 Oct 22 at 14:16 PDT — Ed. 2011 Oct 22 at 14:20 PDT