[Jexhius]

I liked it more when we were coercing people into watching Utena last year. Maybe we can point people to Macross Plus considering the Watanabe hype this season?

Apparently getting people to watch terrible anime is the "in thing" this season (and last season, and the season before that...) mainly because it's much easier to do.

If you tell someone that a show is terrible, when they go and watch it because it's terrible they'll have no complaints!

If you tell someone a show is good, but they don't actually like it, then they'll be disappointed.

The only reason to be disappointed with a recommendation for a 'bad anime' is when it isn't bad enough.

Plus, Macross Plus is a mecha anime and no-one likes those anymore. People probably don't even know what a Vf-1 valkyrie is.

[cajunator]

The design for the Pied Piper ship is infinitely inferior to the Gekko-State ship.

La Muse from Kiddy Grade is remarkably similar in design.

[pizzaroll]

And warning you about all the Nanami comedy episodes! I think it's easier to deal with them when you're prepared. I did forget about 27 being one, though unlike the others I think that one's actually kind of funny, whereas I'd rather chop my arm off than watch Nanami-sama Secret Diary again. That's 24. You could probably skip it and I bet no one but Hito would think less of you.

I would. Skipping episodes is not watching a show. It's incomplete.

[cajunator]

I never skip episodes. Must be a shounenbro thing.

[Regulus Tera]

Apparently getting people to watch terrible anime is the "in thing" this season (and last season, and the season before that...) mainly because it's much easier to do. If you tell someone that a show is terrible, when they go and watch it because it's terrible they'll have no complaints! If you tell someone a show is good, but they don't actually like it, then they'll be disappointed. The only reason to be disappointed with a recommendation for a 'bad anime' is when it isn't bad enough.

It's easier to destruct someone's perception of anime than to construct one.

We could be better than this. We could do more for the community.

Plus, Macross Plus is a mecha anime and no-one likes those anymore. People probably don't even know what a Vf-1 valkyrie is.

More the reason why we need to do God's work!

[Makoto]

Saki From the South Side A 01 Not knowing mahjong everything revolving around the game was completely obtuse to me. Not world ending but it becomes immediately obvious that the show has no intention of explaining any of the intricacies. Because of this I had to question, why mahjong? It mostly just seems like an excuse to tie the series to a specific subject and name drop terminology. Unlike Chihayafuru where the characters appreciation for the sport is pretty plainly laid out I have no idea why these girls like mahjong so much, and it doesn't seem like there's much love for the game in the way its portrayed in the show. So I was expecting some slow character build up that would maybe do some of these things and bring the girls together or something. Nope, nine minutes in you get the bonding montage.

Those are pretty much my impressions after watching the first episode about a week ago. I kind of felt derp because the show didn't bother explaining Mahjong the way Chihayafuru explained Karuta. I also had a wtf moment again with the bonding montage. The whole episode made me feel like the one person in the group of people who didn't understand a joke and just sort of smiles stupidly wondering what in the world people heard that I didn't.

[Jexhius]

I would. Skipping episodes is not watching a show. It's incomplete.

Skipping episodes can vastly improve a show. It's a good thing to do in a number of circumstances.

[cajunator]

It's easier to destruct someone's perception of anime than to construct one. We could be better than this. We could do more for the community.

But it wouldn't be as fun, would it? Seeing people scream in terror is kind of rad. But only as long as the scarring isn't permanent. We don't want to kill the new residents.

[A Black Falcon]

Why are you ignoring the multitudes of objective criticism made against the show here? I don't care if you like the show but sticking your fingers in your ears and ignoring stuff like that and just saying the only reason people here hate it is because they hate Key is downright false and really annoying.

Objective criticism of a Key show, on GAF? Hah! It's not objective. It's very strongly biased against Key.

And if the entire plot made no goddamn sense and if they abruptly shifted from weird schizophrenic action/comedy to a hastily-pasted-together-with-spit-scotch-tape-and-gum "love" story between generic no-personality MC and a white-haired mentally disabled otaku spunk rag with no distinguishing features and a personality so devoid of anything resembling characterization that it makes Qui-Gon Jinn look like Hamlet in comparison. Oh (ending spoilers) she received his heart in a transplant while she was alive, whoop-de-damned-doo. You might be able to tell that I didn't like this show.

The plot makes just as much sense as anything else Key has done. They always involve something supernatural and tragedies. AB is no exception. They're very good at their tragic-supernatural writing, too, far better than anything else I've seen from anime.

The story was clearly planned from the beginning, and was well thought through from start to finish. There sort of is a shift of focus in the series, as the series plays with your expectations and then goes in an unexpected direction, but I think that was great -- it kept things interesting, and it made the story better than it could have been otherwise... Otonashi is a much more complex character than most anime leads. He definitely has a personality, and makes important decisions in this series! Or did you miss how one of the major themes of the series is how he decides to try to help the students of the resistance committee move on from within their group, despite their stated goal of finding and defeating God because of their anger at being put here and not knowing what's right or what to do? That's a major decision indeed., and the lead girl is somewhat different as well. Who'd have guessed at the beginning that the "main girl" wasn't the lead female at all... but no, it was obviously planned, and planned well. The plot centers around the two of them, and the plot is good.

[Instro]

I never skip episodes. Must be a shounenbro thing.

Never skip anything, you must stay the course when watching a show.

[pizzaroll]

Skipping episodes can vastly improve a show. It's a good thing to do in a number of circumstances.

If I had to skip episodes to make a show good then I would just not watch the show at all and watch something that I can watch without making arbitrary changes of my own to make it good. :P

[zeroshiki]

Ok ABF, I'll bite. The show has overwrought drama and really ugly visuals.

[cajunator]

Skipping episodes can vastly improve a show. It's a good thing to do in a number of circumstances.

This sounds like something a quitter would say.
Stay the course. Ride out the storms. Victory is so much sweeter.

[Jarmel]

Objective criticism of a Key show, on GAF? Hah! It's not objective. It's very strongly biased against Key.

I actually liked Clannad a lot at times. Most of the KyoAni Key shows though suffer from pacing problems.

[icarus-daedelus]

I would. Skipping episodes is not watching a show. It's incomplete.

I was joking...

[Master Milk]

To be fair, A LOT of people like it.

Hmm, I guess. But the way ABF talks about it, if he recommended it to me like that and I actually watched it because of him, I'd want to find a way to get him permabanned to pay him back. That's be the only way I could consider us even.

Angel Beats is an outstanding show, your hating it doesn't change that. I know animegaf has taken upon itself to be the internet's #1 Key-hater destination, and I've said plenty of times how much I disagree with that (because I think Key is great), but that doesn't make it in any way true or accurate. It just makes it your opinions.

I don't mind the animeGAF label, but I had 13 posts in the last thread. Keep that animeGAF hivemind bullshit to yourself. I hate AB because it's a bad show. That's all there is to it.

If you like it, that's fine. But it's still a terrible show. There's nothing wrong with liking terrible shows, if all you're gonna do is like it. When you start proclaiming it as a great, or even good show, when it's obviously an ill-made piece of trash, you're gonna have people disagreeing with your opinion.

[Uchip]

This sounds like something a quitter would say. Stay the course. Ride out the storms. Victory is so much sweeter.

Have you seen Wolfs Rain?

[Jexhius]

It's easier to destruct someone's perception of anime than to construct one. We could be better than this. We could do more for the community.

Well, the best way to recommend an anime is to some it up in a neat catchprase or write a whole thread for it. I've already done that for Rose of Versailles, Mushi-Shi, Angel's Egg, Legend of the Galactic Heroes (0 posts, you guys suck), Giant Robo, Patlabor, Kaiji/One Outs, GAINAX and Master Keaton. It tends to be the stuff that I am most passionate about.

[Kagami]

There's absolutely no reason why she shouldn't wear pants, particularly when trying to disguise herself... as I said before, Gruier's statement doesn't make sense. I guess you mean that people identify her as the highschool girl space pirate, so she has to dress in a school uniform all the time? What? But when not in school plenty of anime schoolgirls dress in other things, including pants...

Of course it doesn't make sense! It's supposed to be silly, this idea that her uniform skirt is some kind of mark of her station. Especially how Gruier phrased it. It's treating a very silly idea as if it were of the utmost importance. Notice how Marika herself is flabbergasted?
Gruier isn't intentionally telling a joke, which is itself the joke--the humor is that Gruier said it in (apparently) all seriousness.

It's like any character in any show behaving in a silly way (that the character thinks is serious), for the sake of humor, while the other characters and audience look on bemusedly.

(Also, of course, only in a place with mandatory uniforms like Japan would you get a concept like "high school girl equals skirt".)

Exactly. It's not an "anime girls" thing; it's a general high school girls thing.

[Narag]

Skipping episodes can vastly improve a show. It's a good thing to do in a number of circumstances.

Subtle Nadia Island episodes warning.

[pizzaroll]

I was joking...

I know. Giving straight responses to jokes is my thing. Dunno why.

[cajunator]

Have you seen Wolfs Rain?

True wisemen know when not to START a show.

[Makoto]

I don't mind the animeGAF label, but I had 13 posts in the last thread. Keep that animeGAF hivemind bullshit to yourself. I hate AB because it's a bad show. That's all there is to it. If you like it, that's fine. But it's still a terrible show. There's nothing wrong with liking terrible shows, if all you're gonna do is like it. When you start proclaiming it as a great, or even good show, when it's obviously an ill-made piece of trash, you're gonna have people disagreeing with your opinion.

I don't like AB either but ehhhh, that's harsh.

[Jexhius]

If I had to skip episodes to make a show good then I would just not watch the show at all and watch something that I can watch without making arbitrary changes of my own to make it good. :P

If you watch, for example, 100% recap episodes with no new material you're literally wasting your life.

Which is your own choice, of course. A series is not some monolithic structure [most of the time], it can be chopped up and separated however you chose, largely due to the inconsistent nature of TV anime production.

[Regulus Tera]

Well, the best way to recommend an anime is to some it up in a neat catchprase or write a whole thread for it. I've already done that for Rose of Versailles, Mushi-Shi, Angel's Egg, Legend of the Galactic Heroes (0 posts, you guys suck), Giant Robo, Patlabor, Kaiji/One Outs, GAINAX and Master Keaton. It tends to be the stuff that I am most passionate about.

Tell you what, I swear I'm gonna start watching LotGH for realz this time as soon as one element in my MAL gets cleared out.

[Uchip]

True wisemen know when not to START a show.

its an interesting show with nice music
and problems

[cajunator]

Angel Beats is entertaining to me, and guess why I watch anime?

[Instro]

Skipping episodes can vastly improve a show. It's a good thing to do in a number of circumstances.

You can't just sweep those Nadia episodes under the rug!

[cajunator]

What are these Nadia episodes people are referring to?

[zeroshiki]

Tell you what, I swear I'm gonna start watching LotGH for realz this time as soon as one element in my MAL gets cleared out.

The only complaints I have with LOGH is that the visuals are pretty bad and the tactics employed make sense only for land based cavalry and not for spaceships. Should have at least used naval tactics.

Other than that, its one of the best shows I've ever seen.

[Ultimadrago]

Hmm, I guess. But the way ABF talks about it, if he recommended it to me like that and I actually watched it because of him, I'd want to find a way to get him permabanned to pay him back. That's be the only way I could consider us even.

I would find it hard that an anime could be that offensive to cause so much bad blood towards someone else for it.

[Jexhius]

This sounds like something a quitter would say. Stay the course. Ride out the storms. Victory is so much sweeter.

Nope. Especially with episodic shows, cutting out really awkward or boring episodes improves the whole experience and saves me a lot of time.

[icarus-daedelus]

Ok ABF, I'll bite. The show has overwrought drama and really ugly visuals.

It's also poorly paced (for example - an uninteresting, barely resolved subplot is brought up 2 or 3 episodes from the end when it should be engaging us with the central conflict, which also happens to be the only remotely interesting one) and suffers from completely flat characters all with a predictable, token "tragic" past. I'm not convinced that the timeline offered by the ending for the three main characters makes any sense whatsoever. The tonal shifts between almost always unfunny & awkward comedy, SERIOUS DRAMA, and random concert scenes (ok, those were kind of tolerable?) are handled horribly jarringly every single time and gives the impression that the show has no idea what it wants to be and, instead of picking one thing and sticking to it (even generic KEY VN drama is better tbh) it whiplashes all over the place for the worse.

And did we mention it's fugly as hell?

[Jarmel]

Well, the best way to recommend an anime is to some it up in a neat catchprase or write a whole thread for it. I've already done that for Rose of Versailles, Mushi-Shi, Angel's Egg, Legend of the Galactic Heroes (0 posts, you guys suck), Giant Robo, Patlabor, Kaiji/One Outs, GAINAX and Master Keaton. It tends to be the stuff that I am most passionate about.

I have a lot of issues with Angel's Egg mainly it feels like an 'art' film in that it feels like the writer having a self-jerk about how many philosophical terms he can fit into a film.

I plan on watching LotGH this summer.

[Regulus Tera]

What are these Nadia episodes people are referring to?

The ones outsourced to Korea, I imagine. They are pretty awful.

[Uchip]

Nope. Especially with episodic shows, cutting out really awkward or boring episodes improves the whole experience and saves me a lot of time.

Hell if you like shounen anime, you can skip entire arcs!

[pizzaroll]

If you watch, for example, 100% recap episodes with no new material you're literally wasting your life. Which is your own choice, of course. A series is not some monolithic structure [most of the time], it can be chopped up and separated however you chose, largely due to the inconsistent nature of TV anime production.

Well, you're talking to somebody who has dedicated themself to watching every single episode of DB and DBZ. I'm probably crazy and should be tuned out!

[cajunator]

its an interesting show with nice music and problems

I saw episode one from one of those preview discs that comes with Newtype issues, back when that glorious magazine was published in the US. I have a huge number of such discs and it was a good way to gauge my interest in various shows and helped me to develop my collection.

[pizzaroll]

I have a lot of issues with Angel's Egg mainly it feels like an 'art' film in that it feels like the writer having a self-jerk about how many philosophical terms he can fit into a film.

I think you may have the wrong movie because that doesn't describe Angel's Egg at all.

[zeroshiki]

It's also poorly paced (for example - an uninteresting, barely resolved subplot is brought up 2 or 3 episodes from the end when it should be engaging us with the central conflict, which also happens to be the only remotely interesting one) and suffers from completely flat characters all with a predictable, token "tragic" past. I'm not convinced that the timeline offered by the ending for the three main characters makes any sense whatsoever. The tonal shifts between almost always unfunny & awkward comedy, SERIOUS DRAMA, and random concert scenes (ok, those were kind of tolerable?) is handled horribly jarringly every single time and gives the impression that the show has no idea what it wants to be and, instead of picking one thing and sticking to it (even generic KEY VN drama is better tbh) it whiplashes all over the place for the worse. And did we mention it's fugly as hell?

I found not-Haruhi really offensive as fuck because you know she looks and acts like that specifically because of Haruhi. Its like, yeah sure steal ideas and designs but don't be THAT blatant about it.

[trejo]

Angel Beats is entertaining to me, and guess why I watch anime?

For the hnng?

[Jarmel]

I think you may have the wrong movie because that doesn't describe Angel's Egg at all.

I was in an artclass of about thirty people, two who were philosophy majors and one who had a degree, and nobody liked it for that exact reason. It's way too open ended in regards to interpretation and narrative.

[hosannainexcelsis]

I have a lot of issues with Angel's Egg mainly it feels like an 'art' film in that it feels like the writer having a self-jerk about how many philosophical terms he can fit into a film.

The thing about Angel's Egg is that its religious imagery and musings aren't meaningless mumbo-jumbo as they often are in anime. Oshii had something he wanted to say, drawn from his personal experiences, and he said it. He knew what he was doing.

[Jexhius]

Subtle Nadia Island episodes warning.

Nadia is a really interesting and telling example, I think.

GAINAX and Anno in particular were working crazy hours to get the show animated properly during the middle of production (19 hour days and all that stuff) so eventually he just went 'screw it, I am making the ending to this show right now and you ruys can create some filler while we get this finished'. So he went out to make the final five episodes of the series while some other folks filled out the ten or so episodes that they were contractually obligated to produce.

Now, it's not filler in the classic sense of the word because it's not based off a manga or anything. However, Nadia is not an episodic show, it's a traditional story. However the 'filler' episodes that got created were entirely episodic and on top of that they were badly made, tonally inconsistent and completely discordant with the nature of the show as a whole. They literally don't belong with the rest of the story and they only exist because the show's length was artificially increased by Executives who needed it to run longer.

[Narag]

Angel Beats 1

[cajunator]

I have a lot of issues with Angel's Egg mainly it feels like an 'art' film in that it feels like the writer having a self-jerk about how many philosophical terms he can fit into a film. I plan on watching LotGH this summer.

That's not really how angels Egg is though. Its more of a religious wank, but it only really presents a single argument.

Nope. Especially with episodic shows, cutting out really awkward or boring episodes improves the whole experience and saves me a lot of time.

The only thing this would be right about is skipping Recap episodes, because the entire point of those is that the writers did not have any new material that week to present.

[Jarmel]

The thing about Angel's Egg is that its religious imagery and musings aren't meaningless mumbo-jumbo as they often are in anime. Oshii had something he wanted to say, drawn from his personal experiences, and he said it. He knew what he was doing.

We discussed the hell out of that and whether the religious analysis(which was only one of the theories we went through) was correct or not.

[pizzaroll]

I was in an artclass of about thirty people, two who were philosophy majors and one who had a degree, and nobody liked it for that exact reason. It's way too open ended in regards to interpretation and narrative.

It's really not.

[Ultimadrago]

Nope. Especially with episodic shows, cutting out really awkward or boring episodes improves the whole experience and saves me a lot of time.

Inclined to agree. Though I don't always skip episodes I know I'm better off without. I could hardly say someone else need to follow the rule of "Watch all episodes, even the useless and boring"

[trejo]

Angel Beats 1

You were warned dude!