Hey, all you old anime nerds.  You know who you are.  You pretty much hate anything made after 2000 and can't get through most shows.  Go watch Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu.  And then vote it up on the best anime of the year thing Crunchyroll's got going on.  It probably won't win, but I get the idea that this is a situation where a few votes could make a big difference.

And why should you bother doing this?

It's got genuine psychological character drama that's conveyed primarily through body language.  That is so rare.

This one goes on the top shelf.  And trust me, it is not a big top shelf.

Oh!

I had heard of this show before and was kind of interested.

I accept your recommendation.

An ongoing shounen-ai manhwa(? I think it's Korean) Moritat is really interesting. I suppose genre-wise it's closest to a thriller - of a Nolan's Memento variety - but with focus on an intriguing and unsettling romantic relationship between two young men. The plot is quite convoluted but it seems like every dialogue line is there for a reason and the author has it all planned out well.

It is not often that I get to find a shounen-ai manga that is very much centered around a gay relationship but still would work for me even if it weren't for the shounen-ai because the plot is good enough. I'm enjoying the read.

malna wrote:

An ongoing shounen-ai manhwa(? I think it's Korean) Moritat is really interesting. I suppose genre-wise it's closest to a thriller - of a Nolan's Memento variety - but with focus on an intriguing and unsettling romantic relationship between two young men. The plot is quite convoluted but it seems like every dialogue line is there for a reason and the author has it all planned out well.

It is not often that I get to find a shounen-ai manga that is very much centered around a gay relationship but still would work for me even if it weren't for the shounen-ai because the plot is good enough. I'm enjoying the read.

Ooh 40+ chapters, nice. Will check out

HonorableShadow wrote:

Just watched Erased and I liked it a lot! A 29 year old travels back in time (back into his 10 year old body) to save his mom's life and the life of some of his classmates who were murdered as kids. There are some really touching moments.

I enjoyed Erased, it started off super strong but I felt that the quality of writing dropped off in the last few episodes. OMG [Kayo's first proper breakfast] though

Flip Flappers is a lovely, whimsical, ridiculously well animated yuri romance in a bizarre fantasy setting. I didn't completely understand the plot, Jacob over at ANN did a good analysis but had to rewatch it to figure it all out. Recommended!

Keijo!!!!!!!! is about a sport where girls shove each other into water with their butts. Slightly better than it sounds.

This season I'm enjoying some comedies:
The return of KONOSUBA: incompetent, bitchy adventurers in an RPG-like fantasy world
Gabriel Drop-Out: angel does "life experience" rotation on earth as high school girl, becomes a lazy gaming addict
Kobayashi's Dragon Maid: Office lady cohabits with cute dragon

EDIT: Scum's Wish: an anti-romance. Unrequited love, self esteem issues, bad decisions, shockingly frank emotions. A must-see.

Last edited by purplepolecat (02-16-2017 05:40:47 PM)

Yo...A good ass anime is Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. It's about rakugo, which is a form of storytelling that is a single person telling a story by embodying every character in story by using their voice and gestures. The second season is airing now, which is really exciting. The first season shows a snippet of the current story, which has this guy called Yotaro that just got out of prison and wants to become Yakumo Yuurakutei's (master of rakugo atm) apprentice. Yakumo lets Yotaro live with him and Konatsu, his kinda adopted daughter. She's the daughter of Sukeroku, a master of rakugo when Yakumo was younger (when he was like in his 20s.) Konatsu hates Yakumo however, because she claims that he killed her father. After these few episodes, Yakumo sits down and tells them the story of his life (his childhood and adulthood) and what actually happened between him and Sukeroku. The second season goes back to the present. The first episode in the first season is around 50 minutes because it shows a complete rakugo performance done by Yotaro.

I ended up getting Satoshi Kon's Opus for myself for the holidays, and months later, I wanted to say that it was an experience that did not disappoint. It runs with it's concept of "manga artist falls into his own work, and must deal with his characters and their lives" to a very in-depth way, and actually does do a lot of neat things visually.


Just to tell you, yes, this is from a panel, and it's an early one. It gets better than this though.

Also of note, this was started before Perfect Blue was in conception, and ended up as an unfinished piece due to the production. It's a bit bittersweet reading it with that in mind, but I'd still recommend it.

Wait 'till the mentor dude/main dude for season 1 (OH GOD THE NAMES THEY HAVE TOO MANY/NO NAMES HOW DO I TALK ABOUT THESE PEOPLE) really hits his stride.  Hot damn is that some of the sexiest shit on anime like ever.  And it is literally just some guy sitting on a cushion, fully clothed, talking.  Rakugo is the best sports anime.

Also it absolutely sells the relationships, and… the rival/friend dude is almost like, the most aggravating character.  He is That Guy who succeeds at everything without trying, gets all the girls, and just causes other people problems everywhere he goes.  But there's always something more to him, he never quite gets his life together, he always has more complex motivations for what he does, and the rest of the world refuses to move out of his way.  And… it makes him a great, interesting, sympathetic, flawed character.

I haven't even started season 2, I kind of want to wait 'till the season's over so I don't have to wait weeks for new episodes.

Watching the Ideon movies, and if you've never seen them... there are people who insist the first (cut together from thirty weekly episodes) is too quick and choppy. Those people are wrong. Fast is good. The movie version, especially since this is a show that helped codify the entire giant robot genre, is a whole show with none of the fat. Shit just happens. Things develop. Constantly.

And, it's beautifully hardcore. Even after they figure the giant robot isn't actually a god you can pilot, people still treat giant robots like one, and maybe they is after all. Or, maybe the gun is our god.

The horrible treatment of POWs, in spite of military/government intent, probably resonated a lot heavier back then, closer to the War, as too, the justifications given for invasion and colonization; ancestral rights.

The fairytale bits are beautifully Utena-esque.

And, the all-original second movie just goes big.

I bought a hamster hoodie for my twin sister and I from "Himouto! Umaru-chan", and wearing it is what true happiness feels like.

I haven't seen Midori myself, but it has music by J. A. Seazer!

I've kept up with modern anime on-and-off; on the whole I do tend to favor anime from the 90's and early 00's, but I didn't want my preference to completely close me off from what's happening now, as there are definitely still shows after 2010 that are worth watching. And if there's one anime from the past few years (aside from Ikuhara's projects and various magical girl antics/misery) that I recommend hard, it's Shin Sekai Yori.

I bought the whole series during a sale, based purely on the good reviews. I picked up several other shows at that time, and it took me months to ever get around to watching them with fellow forum-alum Frosty, but we both agreed that Shin Sekai Yori was far-and-away the biggest "must see" of the lot. I usually value the strength of characters over the strength of the plot, and while having both is the ideal, I generally find it easier to sit through a somewhat formulaic plot if the characters are developed well-- but this show proved to be one of the bigger exceptions to this in my personal list. The characters do become a little more endearing by the end, but the strength absolutely lies in the world-building of this show. Frosty and I both felt several times during the early episodes that we had no particular favorite character, though they were all likable enough, but we wanted to come back episode after episode to learn more about the world they lived in, and how the plot would advance. That is not often my top concern.

A short summary: The story is set in what could be considered another version of earth, where the development of telekinesis in humans drastically shaped the way civilization looks and functions. The world is very rustic and hearkens to much earlier days in Japan's history, but there are unique additions to the wildlife and other sentient species, most notably a race referred to as Monster Rats. We follow a group of 5 children who age to adults over the course of the anime, and in that time learn how the utopia they've been raised in was built on a very dark history, and that history has lasting effects on this world as the pursuit of understanding irrevocably changes their fates. There are some very interesting moral questions posed throughout the story regarding the price of unfettered power, chaotic knowledge vs ignorant tranquility, what measure is a non-human, and others of a similar theme; certain scenes toward the end of the show left me with chills. I do wish a few plot points were expanded upon better or worked out a little differently, but on the whole there was nothing that bothered me enough to leave a bad impression of the show. Additionally, I found the portrayal of sexuality and attraction during the teenage years to be quite nicely done, as the occurrence of both opposite- and same-sex couples in the show actually gave more context to how their society views and values physical affection, and this "free love culture" actually factors into a major revelation in a way that didn't feel like fanservice the way that description might imply.

Bonus, it's on Crunchyroll!

dollface wrote:

I've kept up with modern anime on-and-off; on the whole I do tend to favor anime from the 90's and early 00's, but I didn't want my preference to completely close me off from what's happening now, as there are definitely still shows after 2010 that are worth watching. And if there's one anime from the past few years (aside from Ikuhara's projects and various magical girl antics/misery) that I recommend hard, it's Shin Sekai Yori.

I bought the whole series during a sale, based purely on the good reviews. I picked up several other shows at that time, and it took me months to ever get around to watching them with fellow forum-alum Frosty, but we both agreed that Shin Sekai Yori was far-and-away the biggest "must see" of the lot. I usually value the strength of characters over the strength of the plot, and while having both is the ideal, I generally find it easier to sit through a somewhat formulaic plot if the characters are developed well-- but this show proved to be one of the bigger exceptions to this in my personal list. The characters do become a little more endearing by the end, but the strength absolutely lies in the world-building of this show. Frosty and I both felt several times during the early episodes that we had no particular favorite character, though they were all likable enough, but we wanted to come back episode after episode to learn more about the world they lived in, and how the plot would advance. That is not often my top concern.

A short summary: The story is set in what could be considered another version of earth, where the development of telekinesis in humans drastically shaped the way civilization looks and functions. The world is very rustic and hearkens to much earlier days in Japan's history, but there are unique additions to the wildlife and other sentient species, most notably a race referred to as Monster Rats. We follow a group of 5 children who age to adults over the course of the anime, and in that time learn how the utopia they've been raised in was built on a very dark history, and that history has lasting effects on this world as the pursuit of understanding irrevocably changes their fates. There are some very interesting moral questions posed throughout the story regarding the price of unfettered power, chaotic knowledge vs ignorant tranquility, what measure is a non-human, and others of a similar theme; certain scenes toward the end of the show left me with chills. I do wish a few plot points were expanded upon better or worked out a little differently, but on the whole there was nothing that bothered me enough to leave a bad impression of the show. Additionally, I found the portrayal of sexuality and attraction during the teenage years to be quite nicely done, as the occurrence of both opposite- and same-sex couples in the show actually gave more context to how their society views and values physical affection, and this "free love culture" actually factors into a major revelation in a way that didn't feel like fanservice the way that description might imply.

Bonus, it's on Crunchyroll!

YES YES AND MORE YES. This show is truly one of a kind and one of the most incredible anime out there. You did describe everything I think about the show except for the characters, which I found the main cast to be rather interesting.