What Anime are you watching?

My Dress-up Darling is the new hit in our household. The main female character Marin is a major contender for wifu of the year. She'd also make a fantastic DD although her earrings would be tricky to get right. Oh and I should also mention this anime is also about dolls, and doll outfits!!! There is arguably no other anime your dolls will enjoy more. It's the best doll themed anime since Angelic Layer.

We're onto Gantz series 2. Watch it now before it's banned forever as it kind of offends everyboy 😪. My girls love it though. We play a kind of 'where's Waldo' and try to spot the elusive girl.

Finally we tried getting into Fate: Grand Order. So far I guess we've watched 0.001% of the entire Fate universe. Saber DD armoured version has popped up, although we're really just watching it to try and spot our fabulous Egyptian themed noodle stopper. I don't think it's an amazing show, and My Anime List seems to agree with me. I know virtually nothing about the Fate franchise though, except that it's super popular. And now of course my girls also want a MASH 😂.

On 7/13/2023 at 7:27 AM, lildollface said:

This year I finally finished BNA: Brand New Animal, as well as Lycoris Recoil and thoroughly enjoyed both! Pleasantly surprised at how much I loved the latter too. I'll be starting up Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury with my partner now that it's over.

Lycoris Recoil is awesome. Somehow the slice of life stuff seems to work a whole lot better than the John Wick stuff. If there's a second series I'm sure they'll focus on the characters and ditch the plot. Another thing I loved is the ED. It's beautifully done and the episode recap is something I've not seen an anime show do before.

I also don't think any other recent anime has spawned so many meme-worthy clips...

 

I have been watching Miraculous Ladybug almost done with Season 5 and My Happy Marriage every wed when an episode drops. Waiting on Spy x Family's Season 2 to drop on Oct and The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 3.

I am all caught up with Konosuba and Chainsaw Man.

On 7/25/2023 at 12:32 PM, Xiongmao said:

My Dress-up Darling is the new hit in our household. The main female character Marin is a major contender for wifu of the year. She'd also make a fantastic DD although her earrings would be tricky to get right. Oh and I should also mention this anime is also about dolls, and doll outfits!!! There is arguably no other anime your dolls will enjoy more. It's the best doll themed anime since Angelic Layer.

Thank you @Xiongmao for the recommendation.  I started watching it tonight, and when my partner woke up to get some water, we ended up watching it together for a bit.  Now, we are planning on watching it together, especially since it is about dolls and cosplaying.  I just need to remember to have Miku sit on my lap when we watch! 😅

Also, I think I'll add Angelic Layer to my list, I didn't know it was about dolls.

 

Ryu

Edited August 7, 2023 by RyuichiSakuma13

On 8/7/2023 at 8:18 AM, RyuichiSakuma13 said:

Also, I think I'll add Angelic Layer to my list, I didn't know it was about dolls.

Not just regular dolls - battle dolls!!!

Omg it will give your dolls ideas.

We've just watched Gantz O, which is kind of a remake of the original Gantz anime. I don't know if Gantz O qualifies as anime as it's a CGI rendered show like the Final Fantasy movies. It's possibly the best remake of an original show I've seen since Battlestar Galactica was rebooted.

We're also slowly watching Fate Grand Order. I'm not entirely sure it's the best one to start with, but my girls are desparate to see the character we have a rather grand noodle stopper of. They also love MASH of course.

We're currently watching Angel Beats!

We started watching episode 1 a while ago but couldn't quite get into it. However me and my girls are now absolutely hooked.

What's absolutely mind bogglingly weird is that something that happened to one of the main characters in episode 3 has just happened to a family friend. How can anime foreshadow real life events? I am so freaked out.

It also has one of the best OP theme openings of all time.

Tragically there don't appear to any DD characters from the show. As a vinyl doll noob I was always confused between Angel Beats and Beat Angel (for which there are DD).

If Towa looks confused it's because I'm trying to explain that she's cosplaying as somebody from Beat Angel not Angel Beats. I so want to cosplay her as Tenshi from Angel Beats.

8 hours ago, Xiongmao said:

As a vinyl doll noob I was always confused between Angel Beats and Beat Angel (for which there are DD).

Depending on which of these anime you were intending to watch, this can be quite a dangerous mix-up.

Nontheless, I'd say this uniform looks pretty good on Towa.

22 hours ago, Xiongmao said:

Angel Beats!

We started watching episode 1 a while ago but couldn't quite get into it.

The series has its warts and problems, but once you get to the acoustic guitar version of "My most precious treasure" in it ... well... the Maeda effect is in full play.

 

Edited August 22, 2023 by finnleo

My girls think Angel Beats! is rather excellent and there are some awesome characters they're busting to cosplay as.

KyoAni can really do no wrong, even if for this show they just seemed to have provided Key coffee the characters keep getting from vending machines.

We're watching Sword Art Online in English during mealtimes (it's a hassle eating and reading subtitles simultaneously). It has some good storylines, and Asuna is a great character.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Xiongmao

1 hour ago, Xiongmao said:

Angel Beats!

KyoAni can really do no wrong

This was one of the things back during the time of release that Angel beats wasnt done by KyoAni, but P.A. Works.  Still one of the better studios, but not the greatest that had done Kanon (Remake), Air, and Clannad.

But its still definately worth a watch ... if you can ignore yurippe ... and the metaphysical coincidences the plot relies on.

(And I actually do still hold angel beats in higher regard than Clannad: After story)

 

I just finished Shadow House and I am so inspired!! I plan to make a little Emilico doll out of my Baby Kumako. I started sewing her little black dress yesterday and I’m absolutely gushing! She’s just so cute. Perfect client hehe 

The girls and I tremendously enjoyed Your Name and Weathering With You. They're kind of a trilogy with Suzume (although unrelated, the anime style and characters are very similar). Let me know if there is anything else by this studio we should be watching.

SAO has got to be pretty good (we've reached the Titania part). I so want to turn somebody (probably Kirika) into Leafa. I've also realised SAO is on the PlayStation, although I will probably get Shining something or other instead because Kirika is in it.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl is quite good. I'm not sure if this is the right title but I'd say it's kind of Kanon/Clannad crossed with Haruhi. Mai is an interesting Kuudere character and there are many funny oni-chan moments.

I think K-On will be next after the mad bidding war for the DD guitars. As a consolation I bought the girls a Yui figure instead.

Speaking of KyoAni, I really should continue with Dragon Maid.... I also heard Utena was streaming on Crunchyroll too and that's something I don't wanna sleep on!

Toradora is very good as well. Now busy finding a fresh crop of shows to watch.

On 9/10/2023 at 12:52 AM, Xiongmao said:

The girls and I tremendously enjoyed Your Name and Weathering With You. They're kind of a trilogy with Suzume (although unrelated, the anime style and characters are very similar). Let me know if there is anything else by this studio we should be watching.

Not sure if it's the same studio, but I'd say "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo" has a fairly similar vibe.

1 hour ago, Tierparkzone said:

Not sure if it's the same studio, but I'd say "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo

Madhouse was just a co-operating studio for the Makoto Shinkai movies, but Madhouse's movies do include some nice items like Summer Wars and Wolf Children to complete the Yoshiyuki Sadamoto designed stuff that the Girl who leapt through time is.  The Satoshi Kon and Rintaro directed madhouse movies might be an aquired taste ... and then there is the obvious boatload of TV-series of varying degrees of zanyness (Kobato is still the best CCS series).

Edited September 11, 2023 by finnleo

SAO II is seriously good. I don't know whether it's because they have ditched swords for guns, or whether they've ramped up the slice of life stuff.

I'm gonna petition Volks and tell them they need to reboot Asuna again so we can have Asuna blue hair version.

Although having said that it's Asada Shino who is stealing the show in season II. Leafa is still cool too.

We're also still watching Toradora. This show has many awesome moments.

Stiiiill watching Toradora and SAO II.

I think Toradora is the funniest anime I have ever watched. I think Taiga would be a great character for somebody to cosplay as. She might have to be an MDD whereas everyone else is a DDS. The pool episodes are absolute classics.

SAO II is much better than SAO I, mainly due to a much stronger storyline. I hope Volks revisits this show and releases more SAO DD.

One thing that popped up as a possible experimentation was that since Spy X Family is sort of set in cold war era europe I actually started to wonder how it would feel watching it dubbed in european languages ...

German is sort of there in terms of a overall experience, but oddly enough French seemed almost perfect... however it all came to a screeching repeat in EP2 with looping the bit where Yor kicks and balances the hurling plate of gratan on her foot ... Too bad crunchy doesent allow crossing dub and sub languages for whatever reason. since it could be a hoot for a rewatch option.

otherwise doing my annual rewatch of Shield Hero, and Didnt I say to make my abilitied averedge series...

39 minutes ago, finnleo said:

but oddly enough French seemed almost perfect...

French dubs in anime are usually pretty spot-on because the voice actors listen to the original Japanese beforehand and try to mimic it. As a kid, I much preferred watching Sailor Moon and Card Captor Sakura in French instead of English (although nowadays I don’t need dubs or subs 🙃).

I might have a go at watching Attack on Titan in German. Not many people realise many of the songs from the show are sung in German. The final season's Germanic influences are much more obvious than in previous seasons.

We're still watching SAO II. Now I really want Volks to make blue haired Asuna, although Sinon steals the show in this season. I'm watching it in English, mostly because I watch while eating lunch/dinner and it's easier without subtitles. Also Sinon's English voice actress has a really nice accent. Usually I watch anime in Japanese unless it's dinner time anime or the audio tracks don't work properly.

I should probably make more effort to learn Japanese, although I do find I am relying on the subtitles slightly less now.

We're slowly watching Toradora too. MyAnimeList reckons Taiga is one of the most popular anime characters of all time.

Another season, and another set of picks from the generic streaming service of choise:

Theres actually a lot more in my watchlist but here's the main cliff notes:

The Maybes:

Idolmaster million live -- Generally I've watched these series for the fun of it, but seems like I've reached my fill of these, and based on the first episode this one has very little going for it, at least in terms of anything fresh to bring to the table.

Faraway Paladin -- I sort of liked the first season of this, but this second one starts off quite luke warm, and thats probably due to there being quite a good selection of actual proper stories to watch this time around.

MG Ghost -- this one is probably for those that have a longing for Initial D for whatever reason, and this sequel series does deliver to a degree... but is it worth actually watching is still up for debate.

The relationship comedys:

A Girl & Her guard dog -- I suppose this is for those that wanted a little more mature version of the Yakuza Babysitter series, but shinenigans ensue when a family heiress goes to highschool and her older handler watchdog follows suit. the heroines cat mouth base expression is oddly cute though.

Girlfriend, Girlfriend 2 -- The love triangle, turned square, turned pentagram debauchery series continues, and with the girl I sort of liked the best joining the harem... shall see how silly it gets in the end.

100 Girlfriends -- So if you thought a five girl close quarters harem was bad, how about a 100 strong harem? Gauranteed shinenigans

Zero-Kimi -- If you watched Hajimete wa gal a few years back, and enjoyed the premise, then this one is for you. although the initial way the lead girl is wired might be a bit off putting at first. Still cliché´s abound so beware of those.

Royal otherwordly mayhems:

Im in love with the Villainess -- I am starting to wonder just how many Bakatrina clones its possible to make, and this is probably the third so far? in anycase the lead heroine seems to be properly off her chain to a degree that this might actually be entertaining.

Tearmoon Empire -- Speaking of bakatrina, from the studio that brought that comes another slightly dark-toned humoristic piece, where a spoiled brat of a monarch princess gets a chance at redemption after originally coming to her demise at a guillotine. Overall it seems to be the Typical fast paced silver link comedy where you might be rewinding every now and then to get all the visual gags and whatnots, but there are a few deeper moments which lead you to wonder about how the future is formed around the lead character.

Butareba -- Taking at least one step back from Vending machine reborn the lead dude in this one is actually a living thing ... allbeit a pig, but there is still some amusement and charming moments to be had with the interactions with the esper lead girl.

S-Rank daughter -- father / Adopted daughter story in a midevil setting where both happen to be overpowered adventurers of sort. endearing at the very least, might actually lead to greater events.

Potion survival -- generic isekai OP skill series, but there is still some bite to the humor.

The MMO's

Lemme check the walkthrough -- One of the china based animation efforts this season, that will require near RWBY like acceptance in 3D animation quality, but the savage humor the lead woman/girl dishes out is almost worth the pain of entry.

The Highlights:

Shangri-la frontier -- This one gets better by the episode, and thus made it from the general MMO bunch to the highligts, and while this one is a bit of a joint promotion for an actual game of sorts, it still doesent really take away from the general zany setting of a trash game addict going for a full meme-build in a AAA-rated VR-MMO ending in a unique route setting thats best described as out of the alley and into the frying pan comedy. Also FZMZ's Broken games is one of the more catchy intro tunes of the season.

Frieren -- If Bicentennial man was to your liking, then Frieren will probably scratch the itches that movie left. Although it has to be said that the timeframe in Frieren is a lot more vast, giving the flatpan heroine subtle but firmly rooted depth as to why and how she does things. Yoasobi's intro song, despite beeing quite close to a hatsune miku song ( Hm, Ah, Yes? ) is also on my shopping list as a result.

Goblin Slayer 2 -- The Ultraviolence continues, and the Goblin Slayer is his typical Karl Urban style Judge Dredd self, however it seems like the animation budget has taken a hit versus the first series and in between movie, so will have to see if expectations will be met.

Spy x Family -- The Forgers (And Briar) are back ... and to start off, I loathe the new opening sequence. Although I do have to admit the series itself makes up for it within the first actual minutes with Yors little occupational accident and the resulting expressions ... so maybe its waku-waku time after all.

Oh Jeez it has been a while since the last good Anime i've sat down to.

IIRC; it was "The Squid Girl" a Wonderful early-2010's series that i discovered about a decade late~

 

The girls are now watching Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja Nai (My Sister, My Writer). Hmm, this is definitely not for everybody. I'll say no more except that many of the cast are DDdy 😁.

It has a great OP and some good outfit ideas.

We watched the Netflix Death Note (not an anime). It wasn't bad, but they let out the whole shinigami eyes thing.

Finally we're still making our way through Toradora! and Sword Art Online III. Our Azone Asuna is in this series.

Frieren is amazing. It could be the new Violet Evergarden.

It's definitely made up for an underwhelming Spy x Family season 2.

Finally going back and rewatching the 1st season of "Rising of the Shield Hero" so that I could watch the 2nd season.  And now a 3rd one has started!  I love this show, it really flipped things from the typical isekai hero setup scenario.  Plus, Raphtalia is such a cutie!   

Altho not anime, I started watching "Fiona and Cake" on Max.  It's basically an extension of "Adventure Time" with loads of guest appearances.  I also started to go thru the Adventure Time "Distant Lands" series.  There's only 4 episodes but the first one starred BEMO and it was super fun.

I *was* watching the new Bleach series but it got annoying as hell in the 2nd season.  Oh look here's more bad guys who are overpowered.  Let's power up!  Oh no now we lost our powers!  Now we got them back!  Now the bad guys are even more powerful!  Ichigo is still training!  BLAH.  Get to the dang point people.  😛 

 

Billy