What anime are ya watching?

[NejinOniwa]

Naga's insanely annoying laugh sum total of my knowledge of Slayers.

THIS MUST BE FIXED POSTHASTE

QUICK, TO THE TORRENTMOBILE

[Nichi]

QUICK, TO THE TORRENTMOBILE

*'60s Batman scene transition*

So, with the year almost over...I need to catch up on Soul Eater before Toonami resumes playing it :\

[stewartsage]

Reviews!

Like everything else, all my anime is on the nonfunctioning laptop so I'm totally stalled out on everything.

[Chocofreak13]

*'60s Batman scene transition*

So, with the year almost over...I need to catch up on Soul Eater before Toonami resumes playing it :\

oh god oh god oh god me too

Reviews!

Like everything else, all my anime is on the nonfunctioning laptop so I'm totally stalled out on everything.

yay, someone reads my stuff! ^^

provided I have time in between the mass moving, there'll be another today. :3

[Balrith]

Not sure where to put this PV.

http://www.fate-sn.com/
Video will probably be unavailable.

So alternate link

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bhdyujkp9v9vlic/%E3%80%8CFate_stay%20night%E3%80%8DPV.mp4

Looks like Heaven's Feel. Get hype

[NejinOniwa]

More like Heaven's Fail, amirite?
SAKURA A SHIT

Also, I'm now officially annoyed as fuck at male MC's who don't answer "I'm getting dressed" when someone asks them what they're doing, because apparently that's too embarrassing to say. OR SOMETHING, IDGAF, MAN UP

[Balrith]

I liked HF's story ;_;

[Nichi]

*is watching Arcade Gamer Fubuki*

This series is so lulzy -w-;

[NejinOniwa]

Started watching ToLove-RU Darkness on a whim because /a/ was raving about it. And...holy shit. It's actually fucking good. Not just "good for a haremshit anime", but objectively genuinely GOOD.

Now I've watched the original 2 TLR series, which were pretty silly ecchi harem comedy things, and read some of the mango they're based off. Now the thing with TLR is pretty interesting: The mangaka, Yabuki Kentarou, actually was sued by his divorced wife because one of the original main characters was reportedly based off her or something, and he was forced to cancel the original series and give it a short, cut-off inconclusive ending, much to the chagrin of fucking everyone general. So then Darkness was started off as a sequel/reboot or whatever, starting off somewhere halfway in (idk how much of the later mango stuff it retcons, but I'm fairly certain the anime is safe) and turning the heat back on.
Except here's the twist:

"THE TWIST": ShowHide

Originally Rito just started with Lala (alien princess) and Haruna (classmate and crush), and things escalated from there but he never really got romantically attached himself to anyone else than those two mains (and that's a damn feat seeing as there's a metric fuckton of girls to choose from in this series), and the series kept plodding on the good(or bad)-old-well-trodden-harem-stereotype-route, until the day it was forced to an early end.

NOW, the game is switched up. Momo, one of Lala's younger sister twins, is promoted from naughty trickster who's secretly lusting for Rito but knows she can't defeat Haruna or Lala, to the mastermind of a literal harem plan. Or as /a/ terms it: Rito King of the Universe end. One of the main plot points is that Lala (eldest daughter to the king of Deviluke/Ruler of most of the known universe) is engaged to Rito (happens in like, first episode of original TLR) and shizzle, which means Rito is slated to most likely be the next King of Deviluke / The Universe. And as Momo informs Rito upon announcing her plan, "There's nothing wrong with a king having concubines." Since this also means Momo herself (and pretty much every other grill in the show) get to sate her needs for Rito's D, she deems it as the ULTIMATE HAPPY END FOR EVERYONE and completely seriously sets things in motion. And Rito (sasuga harem mc)  doesn't have the balls to stop (or go along with) her.

From this point on, the series manages a refreshing run combining harem/ecchi/romance/slice of life stuff with a GOOD amount of plot and character development - especially for a harem series, which generally otherwise suffers unimaginably hard from a deficiency in that regard. The main reasons for this are twofold: first of all it helps a lot that the original TLR set the entire backdrop up for Darkness, and aside from some small refreshers in the first episode/first time you see a character return like "oh this is that girl and she can do this, in case you forgot", there story takes a good deal of focus. But secondly and perhaps even more important is the fact that the show openly guns for the harem ending. There's no dilly-dallying about and trying to get us to like this or that girl for the MC better: the (new) female lead is literally sailing the ship for the final harem route from the very start, because that's her only chance of getting her own claws on Rito in the end.

Of course, the show is not exactly worksafe. At all. Like, much of Kentarou's stuff is very much borderline hentai to begin with, and the quite accurate anime adaptation (Bluray of course) only adds to it. But if you compare it (and the straight way it's executed) to your average haremshit ecchi anime these days, TLR:D comes out MILES AND MILES ahead of any possible competition. When the show wants to be squeezy, it REALLY IS. When it's time for plot or other stuff, it's almost not squeezy at all! There's none of the usual "CLOG EVERYTHING UP WITH RANDOM FANSERVICE BECAUSE WE CAN, ALSO MONEY" shit you see from this genre; it usually quite clearly distinguishes between - so to speak - when to watch and fap, and when to think and listen.

pictured: the main cast. L-R: Yami, Rito, Mikan, Momo, Nana, Lala.
So if you have the time to watch/skim the original TLR series (To Love-Ru and Motto To Love-Ru and maybe some OVA's - they're both pretty damn good comedies if my memory serves me right, and not at all as H as Darkness) to get inserted into the plot and setting, I really recommend watching TLR:Darkness. Just make sure you watch it more or less alone, and with headphones. It's really not something you'd want to share with your family, if you get my drift...

At the moment there's one single-cour season of the anime out (12 eps, from 2012), along with 4 OVA episodes. The manga is still ongoing at...idk, but many chapters. 100+ iirc. Check it out!

[Chocofreak13]

nej, have you ever considered writing a review? i'd post it as a guest post on my blog if you felt so inclined. and bear in mind that if anything ever happened to me i'd be leaving my blog to you and rodney

i was supposed to write 2 more reviews. and watch Wolf Children (despite the feels) so i could review it. (might change my mind since i'm afraid of the FEEEEEEEELS)

[NejinOniwa]

Hah :D
I think the problem is that I don't really have a proper in-between mode for that sort of stuff. When I review, I'm in full on proofer/prereader/editor mode; I've mostly done that sort of stuff in direct contact/on request from the author. This is just a fanboi rant thing; I don't think I'd be able to do a proper casual review, in all honesty.

Thanks for the offer tho, minion ^-^

[Chocofreak13]

np. if you ever reconsider, let me know and we can put one up, provided it follows the format of

info blurb
brief summary
visuals
sound
demographic
rating out of 5

with captioned pictures in between. -w-

[Nichi]

Just finished Arcade Gamer Fubuki. I now understand why there's so much fanservice in this; when I saw the English credits at the end of the final episode:

"Animation by SHAFT"

[LeaflameSD]

Just finished Arcade Gamer Fubuki.

mah nigga

[LeaflameSD]

Considering watching Swort Art Online, since the extra episode came out on New Years Eve, and Season 2 will air later this year.