The Old School Otaku Lounge

I finished the first Geobreeders. It's O-K. But you can't really focus on the plot, which is nonsense. It's basically Gunsmith Cats mixed with Project A-Ko; cute girls with guns causing pointless havoc and collateral damage. I'd say the show could have been better if there were even MORE havoc, but it's an OVA and not a film like Project A-Ko so there are budget issues. That said, the production values in Geobreeders are no slouch.

I don't know if Geobreeders is THAT rare--I've seen it for as much as $100 on ebay and some selling as low as $5. I don't mind owning it but it's an asset I'd be willing to trade if the right return came along.

I got a new 30-day Crunchyroll pass so I've been randomly catching up on a few shows I'd started but hadn't kept current on.

Watched more Samurai Flamenco and...the whole tone of the show changes along the way. Not to spoil anything, but it kinda starts out along the likes of "Kick-Ass"-Lite (dude dresses up as a "super hero" and tries to fight street bad-guys)...but now it's almost a completely different show and I'm...not really sure I like it? Though I'm compelled to keep watching just to see where it goes.

Crunchyroll recently added Rurouni Kenshin--dubbed AND subbed!--so I started from the first episode (subtitled...I can't get used to anyone other than Mayo Suzukaze as Kenshin, lol) and WOW: the nostalgia hit me SO HARD. I loved this show back in high school, so I'm looking forward to trying to watch it (or at least a good chunk of it) again.

Also watched the new Mushi-shi "special" episode and really liked it...it was basically a new, stand-alone episode. And apparently they're releasing a new season in April! So I might have to go back and re-watch the series. I really enjoyed that one.


OH...and did anyone else watch the premiere of Space Dandy? I watched it on Toonami and...while it wasn't terrible, I haven't been completely won-over by it yet. I'll give it a few episodes before making a real opinion. At the very least, the music was great, the animation was solid (esp. the second half) and the designs were fun.

Just noticed a theatrical showing of Evangelion 3.0 at our local theatre chain Saturday January 11th at 12:55 PM. Going to have to check it out. Never was big EVA fan after Anno's last episode of the original series then him saying he was dumping animation for live films then going back on himself some time later saying there was no money in live films. Give me a break...

I actually like the Eva TV ending, but I was in a Godard and Ingmar Bergman phase at the time, so it pushed the right "avant garde" buttons with me. I've watched the show through about 3 times since, and I think it's still fascinating despite (or because of?) its flaws.

I've seen the 2 recent Eva movies and I think they are missing the point. Evangelion's true "brilliance" was that it was all about Anno's self indulgence. Otherwise it's just a mediocre giant robot show if you take away the cheap (but fascinating) psychoanalysis.

I'm curious to see Space Dandy, but I have always viewed Watanabe's stuff with respect rather than love. I respect Cowboy Bebop, but don't love it. I like Samurai Champloo and I think it is Watanabe's best show, but again I don't love it. Kids on the Slope I've only seen 2 episodes, but slice of life high school shows typically don't make my annual top 10 lists, no matter how good they are. I just think it's a limited genre, although I think Touch is the very best of them all and deserves to be much better known in the West.

I honestly think that the movies are best if you've seen the TV series...if you have no knowledge of Eva and watch the movies, I feel like you're missing out on a lot of nods to the original show--ESPECIALLY in the latest movie. (For reasons I won't spoil.) I kinda feel weird that kids who've never seen the original are such big fans of the movies, because...kinda like you said, without the tie to the show, the movies seem pretty generic if you don't know any of the show's history/backstory/original plot. If I didn't know these characters already and what they'd previously been through, I'd probably get pretty bored of the films. BUT since I liked Eva the first time around, I feel a connection to the series and some of the characters, thus I feel like I get more out of the movies. (If that makes any sense, lol. )

Space Dandy was fun but the first episode didn't quite live up to all the hype it was given. (The jokes weren't that funny, the plot didn't seem to be off to a riveting start, etc.) It wasn't until the end that it seemed to get interesting, so I'm just hoping it suffered from "first episode awkwardness" and finds its footing in the next few. One of the animators is on Twitter/Tumblr and said he even thought the first episode was not his favorite, and said that the next few episodes were where it starts to pick up, so...hopefully!

Cowboy Bebop is something I love. Samurai Champloo was great, though I didn't love it as much. Kids on the Slope...I both loved and didn't like parts of it, but when it did well, it did really well. So I still thought it was worth watching at least once.

Finally got to watching a few more episodes of "Beyond the Boundary" and...I'm pretty sure I'm done with this show. It's moving further away from the sci-fi/fantasy elements and more towards fanboy pandering stuff (they had to fight a monster by distracting it with...cute singing and dancing and prancing around in idol costumes....ugggghhhhhh). I'm seriously disappointed because the basic story premise seemed really neat and different, but they just had to ruin it with a bunch of fanservicey bullshit. *removes from queue* -___-

Actually, I think the Rebuild movies are better for people who hated the TV series. The people who don't like the TV series are usually the ones who hated those episodes where Shinji or Misato or Asuka monologue to themselves over and over in abstract visual segments, and the Rebuild movies mostly cut that stuff out. It's just that I feel when you do that, Eva ceases to become unique.

llj wrote:I finished the first Geobreeders. It's O-K. But you can't really focus on the plot, which is nonsense. It's basically Gunsmith Cats mixed with Project A-Ko; cute girls with guns causing pointless havoc and collateral damage. I'd say the show could have been better if there were even MORE havoc, but it's an OVA and not a film like Project A-Ko so there are budget issues. That said, the production values in Geobreeders are no slouch.

I don't know if Geobreeders is THAT rare--I've seen it for as much as $100 on ebay and some selling as low as $5. I don't mind owning it but it's an asset I'd be willing to trade if the right return came along.

I actually really enjoyed Geobreeders, but I love Project A-ko and Gunsmith Cats too, so it was right up my alley. I don't think it is rare, but it is hard to find for the right price at times. I've been wanting to collect the oavs and the manga.

llj wrote:Actually, I think the Rebuild movies are better for people who hated the TV series. The people who don't like the TV series are usually the ones who hated those episodes where Shinji or Misato or Asuka monologue to themselves over and over in abstract visual segments, and the Rebuild movies mostly cut that stuff out. It's just that I feel when you do that, Eva ceases to become unique.

Really? I dunno, I had some friends who hated Eva try to watch the movies and they complained that it was more of the same, so they didn't like them, either. The characters and story are basically the same, just told slightly different...while the abstract visual segments might be gone (well, I think there were some in the second movie, but not as badly as the last episodes of the TV show), there's still a bit of that monologue-ing and character study aspect in the movies, though, since the story is still very "this is less about the robots and more about a look on what would happen if people with problems had to deal with robots and the end of the world". It's far LESS than the TV show, like you said, but I think that's only because they're movies, so...significantly shorter.

Eva was such an "emo" show. I know that sounds derrogatory and I try not to use that since it is so overused these days, but that's how it struck me. "Hey, let's make the main characters of my show hate each other! Such tension! It's the perfect formula for drama! I'm so clever!" I really liked Nadia way better. Jean let out a bellowing Shinji-esque "I think I'm about to snap" scream only once in that show.

We finally got back to GS Mikami after a 2 week hiatus. More stupid, unnecessary translations. The 5th episode has a shot of a cup ramen with chopsticks resting on it. For some stupid reason, they felt compelled to put a translation of "CHOPSTICKS" right on top of the chopsticks. Just because it had "hashi" written on the paper sleeve. Oh, so those are the so-called "chopsticks" I've heard so much about! I always wondered what those were! Well, no-duh! How could anybody NOT guess that those were chopsticks? Did they really need to translate the word "hashi"? What the crap, man! Again, I realize that I can always turn off the subs and just pretend I bought the DVD here in Japan, but I would still miss out on so much of the story due to the language involved, the subject matter, and the speed in which they talk. I really wish the on-screen subs could be toggled off. I can forgive the occasional confusion of your and you're, but subtitles need to complement the show, not interfere with it. Whoever worked on these subtitles really lacked common sense.

So anyhow, I remember somebody on here (one of the ladies) was watching the AKB48 anime. How did that turn out? Is it worth watching more of? I wonder if my kid would like that show?

Over the week of staying with the in-laws, they rented an anime called "Kaidan Restaurant" (I guess it means "Haunted Restaurant"). I was busy with other stuff, but even my father-in-law was watching it. My girl, my wife, my in-laws, and my sister-in-law were all watching it. It must've been interesting. My daughter loves ghost stories, and this show is nothing but ghost stories.

I wouldn't call Eva an "emo" show...it's more like "psychological"? The character's emotions aren't played out for typical drama, they're set up from the very beginning to be like "hey, what if a teenager with clinical depression really was asked to pilot a robot and save the world?" or "what if an actual 'kuudere' girl existed, wouldn't she be HELLA creepy?" etc etc. There's an actual purpose for the way they act rather than some shows who just have characters acting "emo" as you put it just for the sake of being emo. (I really want to do an Eva episode of the podcast someday, that's always a really great series to discuss.)

Haha, oh man, I remember seeing that in GS Mikami and just thinking "Geez...if you don't even know what chopsticks are, then you definitely shouldn't be watching this VERY JAPANESE show." XD;

I was the one that brought up AKB0048! I'll be honest and say I look a break from it to watch a few other things first...but what I've seen, I still liked. While I definitely wouldn't call it a must-watch or anything, it's been fun to zone out and watch so far. I really should watch some more of that while I have my free month of CR still, lol...