PS: sorry for my bad English

attaching meaningless numbers to things

D:

I do like the comedy scenes. Yukimura and Takeda punching eachother is plain funny.

I can accept the over-the-topness (after all I love TTGL) but the fact that there are huge armies and tacticians and all is pretty meaningless. You just need one super soldier to blow everyone else away…
That pretty much kills all the entertaining stuff that you usually get when watching epic war shows.

(Also amusing that when the main characters clash there’s always some sort of humongeous explosion to express their awesome powers, but when they’re up against a few folks with medieval guns they’re like OH NOEZ! Weaponz! We’re so DEAD!)

Writers can effectively recycle the same characters over and over, changing small details and adding a gimmick here and there and sell their things. The fact that most moe shows are a guaranteed sell – especially if they’re based off an already popular property – discourages taking risks with more creative or at least original productions. While adaptations of popular franchises will always happen and can turn into entertaining shows, I have more respect for a studio that will take a risk with an occasional original production every now and then than one which relies almost exclusively on adaptations of already popular franchises. To me, shows like K-ON are a cancer. That and Yui is just too damned retarded. That’s beyond “cute” and far, far into “actually handicapped.” It’s a little… Creepy.

Having said that, it’s difficult to talk about how much I love Sengoku Basara without sounding like a bit of a hypocrite, but an over-the-top adaptation of an already over-the-top franchise makes for some serious fun. Despite lacking any real depth, the extreme craziness and badassitude makes me wish Japanese history was really like this. And it has a good soundtrack.

Taking in account all the references (Jason Bourne, Dawn of the Dead,…) one would think it’s an American-made ‘anime’ (like avatar). Personally I’m rather pleased that they’re willing to look beyond their own border for ideas and content. It ends up enriching the whole.

PS, currently watching episode 3 and just had a massive lol at the “the world is yours” globe in his room…now all we need is an M16A1 assault rifle and an ID saying he’s Tony Montana.

One of the things we were perplexed by was the rather lukewarm reception the show seems to have garnered by a number of folk. It might just be that our tastes are starkly different than others, but I think part of the issue might be that people were expecting something entirely different with Eden of the East.

I think it is fair to say that the art and animation are breathtaking and the character models are also quite captivating. If anything, what seems to be rubbing viewers the wrong way is the story structure. The story reveals itself entirely through the experiences of the cast rather than imposing a greater structure of the world itself from a third person, omniscient view.

Darker than Black was similar in this regard and rather than relying on a more familiar mythic structure chose to invest the narrative development purely in the characters rather than spending much time espousing the intricacies of the setting: the details of the gate incident, the contractors, Hei’s past, etc.
In DtB you learned about the world through the characters, not vice versa. It’s Philip K. Dick not J.R.R. Tolkien.

Sorry for the rant.^^;

1. Shin Mazinger Z Shogeki Hen: a grand mashup of various characters from the Nagai Go archives, in the larger-than-life visual and narrative style of Imagawa Yasuhiro. It’s amazing.

2. Souten Kouro: A playfully innacurate bombastic take on Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It has epic ambitions and so far it’s working splendidly.

3. Sengoku Basara: similar to Souten Kouro in that it’s a playful retelling of Japan’s warring states period, but the absurdity is amplified to ridiculous levels to achieving epic lulz entertainment value.

4. Hatsukoi Limited: Rabu-rabu hijinks in a school setting, with charming payoffs. A fanservice vehicle featuring JC Staff character designs that’s even better than Toradora. I didn’t expect to like this at all.

I’d put K-ON! at 5 I guess. I’ve put Eden on hold for marathoning later on. The top 3 on my list are shows I’ve written about. Check out my archives if you’re interested.

“Just recently watched Cowboy Bebop (really a nice show to watch in the evening, night or verrrry early morning with a dram of Laphroaig), Monster, Moyashimon and Mushishi again. Somehow the past is always brighter.”

Of course the past is brighter; you’re comparing the best of the best from the last decade of animation to the the random fare from one specific anime season! As much as I’d love for every season to be full of shows of that caliber, you have to recognize that there’s only going to be 1 or 2 shows of that kind of excellence in a given year.

I do agree with you about the Bebop Laphoaig combo, though, no doubt there.

@ Passingass

I actually feel this season has a surprisingly strong showing overall. Perhaps not many big “blockbuster” series, but a very large number of “good” shows that are fun to watch.

@ Jupe

Thanks, Epicwin! You’ve crushed yet another weeaboo ego.

* crush crush stomp *

Haha fragile weeaboo ego, take that!

Just kidding, good job on identifying all the references in the image. Honestly of the ones you didn’t get, even I’m not sure what they are supposed to be.

@ Nekonron

It definitely can be easy to get lost with all the intricacies of mahjong hands and strategy. Then again, if people can enjoy Akagi without really knowing what’s going on, they certainly can enjoy this, what with all the fanservice and whatnot.

@ usagijen

You’re a convert too, you just don’t know it yet. Bwa ha ha!

And I felt the same way about K-On, but it’s been slowly winning me over as the season progresses.

Seriously, though, sorry about the error in attributing that to you. The writing style seemed like yours so I just assumed. And we all know what happens when you assume. =P

@ Martin

I’d be curious what it was that frustrated or bothered you about Eden of the East. I’ve enjoyed it all the way through. I genuinely believe it’s a masterpiece of a series, so I’m having a hard time understanding what it is about the show people don’t like.