Contemporary Anime/Manga in the vein of Gundam/Macross?

[Sephiroth]

you know, I can't believed I spaced on this, but to the OP, look up Zoids: Chaotic Century, 's pretty good

 

[firehawk12]

Was Zoids the one that looked a lot like classic Mechwarrior where it was much slower paced?

 

[Sephiroth]

no, Zoids had dinosaur lion and ape looking mechs, and the pace was really pretty quick

 

[firehawk12]

For some reason I remember a Fox Saturday morning thingie with robots and the pilots strategizing on a battle grid before and during the battles. Oh well.

 

[clint g]

Basically, the final game is

Spoiler: stuff

filler. Kurono pisses off Gantz after he cries because Kato, Kei, and the chick he just got it on with died in the second to last game, so it makes him the "alien" that the rest of the people have to hunt down. So either he wins and kills the selection of scum or they kill him. Ultimately you never find out what Gantz was or where it came from or what it's purpose is supposed to be. In the end after everyone is dead including Kurono's hot Teacher, Kurono gets somehow transported back to the moment where he and Kato saved the bum. Some kind of wierd pretentious and confusing crap ensues where he watches himself and Kato save the hobo and he ends up running on the train tracks for no discernable reason, turns around to face the oncoming train and gets hit again after refusing to play Gantz's games anymore and denouncing it. Then Gantz takes off and goes to who knows where: end credits.

I've heard from other people that the manga is a lot better and goes on past that point. However, after being severely burned by the anime I have absolutely no intention, whatsoever, of ever finding out.

Gant manga isnt really worth getting into. It essentially hits a very long filler arc.

As for the Battle Royale Manga, thats another one that should be avoided. Just read the novel lol

 

[zakkrusz]

For some reason I remember a Fox Saturday morning thingie with robots and the pilots strategizing on a battle grid before and during the battles. Oh well.

Sounds like Exo Squad to me, pretty sure that one was US made though.

As for the Zoids series, they didn't really interest me personally, wouldn't call them bad though, and the animation wasn't all that fantastic.

 

[Sephiroth]

^Chaotic Century was alot better than the original zoids

 

[firehawk12]

I'm curious, anyone listen to any Anime podcasts at all? I wouldn't mind some way of keeping up with the news without actually reading anything.

Also, the Combat Butler series is cute. I can't believe it's soooooooo long though... one full year of episodes.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Yeah, it is pretty long. And unfortunately the whackyness of the second half tends to be more funny.

 

[firehawk12]

Hee, I've hit the second half right now and yeah, it's nice.

It's also funny that I can recognize the Code Geass and Nahuri references. Yay limited knowledge of the genre!

 

[firehawk12]

I think this is turning the thread into a general anime thread, but anyone have any recommendations for shonen-ai/shojo-ai series?
I picked up a series called Strawberry Panic and, while the series itself might be of some questionable quality (someone hits their head and loses her memory!), I did find it interesting that it essentially created a space where homosexuality was normal - to the point where there aren't any male characters whatsoever. It's just quite different from the typical Western narrative, like say, Sugar Rush, where there's "is s/he straight" angst and "what will people think of us" angst.

I'm also wondering if there's a harem anime that's must watch? It seems to be a subgenre that's fairly well represented.

 

[clint g]

Well with harem anime, like you said it is considered one of the more represented genres. Three of the best ones, Air Kanon, and Clannad/Clannad After Story are all done by the same people who did Haruhi, FMP Fumoffu, and FMP TSR so since you enjoyed Haruhi and FMP I would suggest you bee line straight towards those three shows. Air can be a little hard to get into but its only 13 episodes and 2 OVAs so you wont be wasting alot of time giving it a shot. Kannon is considered by many to be one of the best shows of 2006 and Clannad/ Clannad Another World/ Clannad After Story has (in my mind) surpassed Kannon due to some powerful character development. As a matter of fact, the character development in these shows is so good that I sometimes forget that they are harem animes; which often times are...less than good to say the least lol

There is also Love Hina, which is considered to be one of the defining harem animes. I'm not sure how well it has aged though considering I saw it a while back but it do remember enjoying it

For Shoujo-Ai...well i havent watched much in the genre but The Mai-Hime and Mai Otome series have alot of Shoujo-Ai elements and are definetly worth a watch. They are probably the best examples of the magical girl genre and are filled with lots of angst and love rivalries. Fun stuff indeed

 

[Leroy]

zakkrusz wrote:
More on Topic, I recieved my Votoms DVDs today. It's interesting so far, though I only had time to watch a few episodes of it.

Glad you took my advice I hope you enjoy the show as much as I did.

firehawk 12 wrote:
I'm curious, anyone listen to any Anime podcasts at all? I wouldn't mind some way of keeping up with the news without actually reading anything.

I listen to the Gundamn podcast at MAHQ/Mechatalk, while it's more of a mecha podcast than general anime. Gundamn is very entertaining and they talk about a lot stuff that gets overlooked as well as the state of the industry. The Gundamn crew is in the process of reveiwing every Gundam series in addition to Code Geass.

http://www.mechatalk.net/viewforum.php?f=22

 

[firehawk12]

Well, Gundamn gets points for the name. Haven't really gotten into the Gundam series yet though... I think Gundam 00 started off too much like Code Geass, so I decided to give it a pass. But if they talk about more than just the Gundam series, I might give it a listen.

I might check out Air Kannon soon then. I'm guessing that the Harem genre is mostly based on the comedy of misunderstanding... like that Shakespeare play whose name I'm forgetting at the moment. (God, I HATE when that happens. It's going to bother me for the whole day. Edit: Comedy of Errors. How could I forget that? )

Any interesting shonen-ai texts? And is queer anime limited to the "young person" genre? I guess that's the other thing that I just noticed - nearly everything I've watched so far involves teens at the oldest.

 

[Leroy]

firehawk 12 wrote:
Well, Gundamn gets points for the name. Haven't really gotten into the Gundam series yet though... I think Gundam 00 started off too much like Code Geass, so I decided to give it a pass. But if they talk about more than just the Gundam series, I might give it a listen.

Gundam 00 gets a lot better in the second arc so I wouldn't write it off as a Code Geass clone just as I wouldn't write it off 00 as a clone of Wing or Code Geass as a clone of Dune.

Gundamn talks about other mech anime and topics such as some highlights are special 002 where the crew has a panel at a convention talking about Macross, Gundam, and Transformers and gives a rundown on each franchise it is good for veterans and the uninitiated. I think episode 27 is a must listen even if you want to skip the Gundam stuff that is when they declare war on whiny internet complaints since this is something that deeply affects fandom (I'll point out Chris is a Star Trek fan and mentions it). I would listen to their review of a series to see if you might like them they also have reviews of various mecha anime including 00 on their main site.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Well with harem anime, like you said it is considered one of the more represented genres. Three of the best ones, Air Kanon, and Clannad/Clannad After Story are all done by the same people who did Haruhi, FMP Fumoffu, and FMP TSR so since you enjoyed Haruhi and FMP I would suggest you bee line straight towards those three shows. Air can be a little hard to get into but its only 13 episodes and 2 OVAs so you wont be wasting alot of time giving it a shot. Kannon is considered by many to be one of the best shows of 2006 and Clannad/ Clannad Another World/ Clannad After Story has (in my mind) surpassed Kannon due to some powerful character development. As a matter of fact, the character development in these shows is so good that I sometimes forget that they are harem animes; which often times are...less than good to say the least lol

I still haven't seen After Story yet. I was waiting for to finish (Has it finished yet?) so I could watch the whole thing and then just sort of forgot about it.

There is also Love Hina, which is considered to be one of the defining harem animes. I'm not sure how well it has aged though considering I saw it a while back but it do remember enjoying it

I think Love Hina is only defining because it broke in a lot of virgins ... sorta speak. I knew of several people of whom it was their first. While, I do enjoy it and would say it is certainly worth a watch, I never thought it was all that great.

One good harem I would recommend is Shuffle! (zakkrusz and I were discussing it earlier in the thread.)

One problem with most harems (Like Love Hina) is you pretty much know his the guy is going to end up with by the end of the first episode. Shuffle! keeps things ambiguous throughout and even sort of throws a curveball at the end.

Then there are the ones where the guy has one defined love interest through out (No triangles or anything), but it constantly living/surrounded by women. Two very popular examples or this are: Ah! My Goddess and Ai Yori Aoshi. I highly recommend both with the latter being a bit more grown-up. Goddess has a TV series that ran two full seasons, an "else-world" OVA and a feature film based off the Manga. Ai Yori Aoshi has two seasons with the second season having 12 (13?) episodes.

Another one of the like I'd recommend (and is one of my all-time favorite anime) is Yoake mae yori ruriiro na: Crescent Love. It's pretty funny. Has action, adventure, political intrigue, aliens, and a Indiana Jones Spoof.

For Shoujo-Ai...well i havent watched much in the genre but The Mai-Hime and Mai Otome series have alot of Shoujo-Ai elements and are definetly worth a watch. They are probably the best examples of the magical girl genre and are filled with lots of angst and love rivalries. Fun stuff indeed

One that is sort of both shonen and Shoujo-Ai and at the same time not (Can't really get into details without spoilers.) is Otoboku [Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru]. The premise is ... um ... different. But the show is very excellent. It's also where my current avatar comes from.

 

[Sephiroth]

well, for harem manga, I ended up LOATHING Love Hina, what the main charater ended up changing into plus the other love interests being MUCH better choices for him than the one he ends up with (like, they ACTUALLY care about him)

hawk, I found a good one by a Korean author called "couple" not exactly harem i dont think (only have the first issue) but it's pretty good, and Ai Yori Aoshi is also fairly good as well, but I don't really consider it as a harem manga per se as out main charater is engaged to Aoi throughout the whole thing, and the other charaters are there for kinda silly reasons

 

[clint g]

Well with harem anime, like you said it is considered one of the more represented genres. Three of the best ones, Air Kanon, and Clannad/Clannad After Story are all done by the same people who did Haruhi, FMP Fumoffu, and FMP TSR so since you enjoyed Haruhi and FMP I would suggest you bee line straight towards those three shows. Air can be a little hard to get into but its only 13 episodes and 2 OVAs so you wont be wasting alot of time giving it a shot. Kannon is considered by many to be one of the best shows of 2006 and Clannad/ Clannad Another World/ Clannad After Story has (in my mind) surpassed Kannon due to some powerful character development. As a matter of fact, the character development in these shows is so good that I sometimes forget that they are harem animes; which often times are...less than good to say the least lol

I still haven't seen After Story yet. I was waiting for to finish (Has it finished yet?) so I could watch the whole thing and then just sort of forgot about it.

After Story is essentially done. The main plot ends on episode 22, episode 23 is a special episode, and episode 24 (which hasnt aired yet) is a recap episode

There is also Love Hina, which is considered to be one of the defining harem animes. I'm not sure how well it has aged though considering I saw it a while back but it do remember enjoying it

I think Love Hina is only defining because it broke in a lot of virgins ... sorta speak. I knew of several people of whom it was their first. While, I do enjoy it and would say it is certainly worth a watch, I never thought it was all that great.

i don't think its that great either, but it is one of the biggies in the genre and its certainly better than most other shows in the genre as well. I would take it over To Love Ru and Asu no Youichi any day of the week

One good harem I would recommend is Shuffle! (zakkrusz and I were discussing it earlier in the thread.)

Shuffle was pretty good but most of the good stuff it had to offer came towards the end in my opinion

One problem with most harems (Like Love Hina) is you pretty much know his the guy is going to end up with by the end of the first episode. Shuffle! keeps things ambiguous throughout and even sort of throws a curveball at the end.

While it does keep things ambiguous it does spend ALOT of time in the whole "girls are the slaves to the guy" territory that I find annoying. It does shed this latter on though so I suppose thats a plus. On this topic though, if we're talking about harem animes with a twist, School Days is the way to go. Talk about a fucked up show

For Shoujo-Ai...well i havent watched much in the genre but The Mai-Hime and Mai Otome series have alot of Shoujo-Ai elements and are definetly worth a watch. They are probably the best examples of the magical girl genre and are filled with lots of angst and love rivalries. Fun stuff indeed

One that is sort of both shonen and Shoujo-Ai and at the same time not (Can't really get into details without spoilers.) is Otoboku [Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteru]. The premise is ... um ... different. But the show is very excellent. It's also where my current avatar comes from.

That show creeped me out like nothing else *shudder*

 

[zakkrusz]

I'm not really much for Shoujo Ai but I'd highly recommend Kannazuki no Miko as being an excellent show. It's also got mecha action as a bonus. A group calling themselves the Eight Heads of Orochi have awakened with the intention of destroying humanity. Himeko Kurusugawa and Chikane Himemiya soon awaken themselves as the Solar and Lunar Priestessess and are humanity's only defense.

For Harem series I'd second:
Ah! My Goddess/Oh! My Goddess
Ai Yori Aoshi/ Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi
Shuffle!

...and also add:
Girls Bravo (The dub is the way to go with this,, much funnier.)
H20-Footprints in the Sand (Kinda hokey, at times but pretty dramatic.)
Maburaho (The magical genre meets the harem genre)
Negima!/Negima!? (Same as above.)
School Days (Definitely not your typical harem/romance series though )


Also for a romantic comedy (that's not harem), I think everyone here should watch REC. if you haven't already. Very good series. After being stood up on a date by a co-worker, Matsumaru meets a strange but interesting girl and takes her out, on her suggestion, instead of just throwing away the tickets like he planned. They hit it off, and he escorts her home and finds out they live near to each other. However, later that night her apartment complex burns down. Matsumaru offers her his place as somewhere to sleep until she finds a new place, but never expected to sleep with her. In the morning she acts like nothing happened and leaves for work. Matsumaru also goes to his job at a confectionary company only to find that his project has been approved and that now he must choose the voice actor to represent his character in the commercials. One of the applicants is Aka, the woman he's in a relationship with. She ends up being the most talented for the role so Matsumaru chooses her. Unfortunaty, this now means that he has to keep the fact that he and Aka are living togather and in a relationship secret from everyone at his company or it will look like he's given her special treatment and he could be fired.

 

[CorporalClegg]

That show creeped me out like nothing else *shudder*

Yeah it's kinda fucked up!