What are you reading/watching? AKA Anime/Manga General

[Mattias]

My brother keeps recommending it to me, and I felt like watching something fun and it was the first non-serious, <24 episode series on my queue.

[pinetree]

But more importantly, why he still tries to choke her in the end?

I've seen a lot of different interpretations, but as for me...

Spoiler:

Shinji comes out of Instrumentality to a destroyed scenery only to find that the only person that also decided to leave was the girl with whom he had a relation of both hate and love, the one who humiliated him in his lowest moment during Instrumentality, he simply couldn't bear it and decided that for once he would do something about it and prevent his own suffering. However, having his cheek caressed was the first act of compassion he received in a long time, since Kaoru, and he broke down crying in happiness/satisfaction, knowing that maybe, this time around things wouldn't be so bad. He had made the right choice after all, because despite the Hedgehog's Dilemma being true, it was worth it going through that pain for the warmth of intimacy.


As for Asuka, I think maybe she accepted her fate as dying the same way her mother did (asphyxiation), and when Shinji didn't do it, she cursed him for it. He was still the coward who could do nothing right.
The most common interpretation seems to be that it's just her late response to him jerking off to her comatose body.

[Spartacus]

I just find it weird after the whole 'loving is painful at the same time' that Shinji choose, the first thing he does is to strangle her.

[bassgs435]

Man I haven’t thought about that show in a long time

it was just okay from what I remembered

I love it. I plan to rewatch it before getting into the game (coming out at the end of this month if you live in Europe or 9/25 if you're in the US)

[LJ3]

Oh yeah, video game is true ending

[Mattias]

So I've finally conquered the peak that is Gundam SEED by finishing Destiny. It does some things better than Seed, being far less bland, but is so fucking stupid in some places. The new MC starts off really good, a orphan of the first series who blames the old MC's for his families death. I can see why some people told me that it's the Seed version of Zeta. There's a whole stretch of the middle which is just the Hong Kong arc again, only with a busty Blonde rather than the 80's personified. But then he becomes one of those incredibly stupid villains who joins that side because of a trauma and then goes around inflicting the exact same thing on everyone else.

Then there's the old cast who have all reset back to their season 1 personalities, except Kira who retains his "I'll kill no-one" creed, but harps on it way too much. Especially coming from Turn A where I don't think the main character ever actually kills anyone, not because he hates war or death or anything, but because he's on both sides and cares for them equally.

Then there's the ending where the villain and the hero have an ideals-off at gunpoint and instead of the hero killing him or talking him down, his crazy subordinate, the guy who was down with killing his own side to help the villain and is a clone of a genocidal guy form the last season, kills him instead. Then Villains old girlfriend and captain of one of the main ships of the series decides to stay in the exploding fortress with him and then reveals that she has a kid out there and would rather die and have someone else check up on him then leave her ex's corpse behind and see him again herself.

In the end it isn't the worst, that title is still held by Victory, but it's also far less memorable because of it. Victory is so bad it's fun, this is just adequate enough that that terrible bits are infuriating not humorous. 4/10


Also finished up Punchline. I really liked how the second half of the show was the first half from a different PoV. The ending was good, but didn't really solve the main characters issues. The world is fine, but they're still trying to get the good outcome. I might have enjoyed it if the villains got redemption but the MC stays as normal and the heroine gets the spare.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

At least it gave us the start of Shiki and Mikiya's romance.

[Laserman]

D.Gray Man Hallow Episode 9: Oh, so the soul of the woman that Kanda loved in his past life happens to be in Alma Karma and what the hell is happening? What the hell, what happened to this series? What happened to all the cool action? I don't know how many episodes focused on Alma and Kanda where barely anything exciting happened like in any of the past seasons. Why would Katsura Hoshino do this after everything that happened before?

- - - Updated - - -

So I've finally conquered the peak that is Gundam SEED by finishing Destiny. It does some things better than Seed, being far less bland, but is so fucking stupid in some places. The new MC starts off really good, a orphan of the first series who blames the old MC's for his families death. I can see why some people told me that it's the Seed version of Zeta. There's a whole stretch of the middle which is just the Hong Kong arc again, only with a busty Blonde rather than the 80's personified. But then he becomes one of those incredibly stupid villains who joins that side because of a trauma and then goes around inflicting the exact same thing on everyone else.

Then there's the old cast who have all reset back to their season 1 personalities, except Kira who retains his "I'll kill no-one" creed, but harps on it way too much. Especially coming from Turn A where I don't think the main character ever actually kills anyone, not because he hates war or death or anything, but because he's on both sides and cares for them equally.

Then there's the ending where the villain and the hero have an ideals-off at gunpoint and instead of the hero killing him or talking him down, his crazy subordinate, the guy who was down with killing his own side to help the villain and is a clone of a genocidal guy form the last season, kills him instead. Then Villains old girlfriend and captain of one of the main ships of the series decides to stay in the exploding fortress with him and then reveals that she has a kid out there and would rather die and have someone else check up on him then leave her ex's corpse behind and see him again herself.

In the end it isn't the worst, that title is still held by Victory, but it's also far less memorable because of it. Victory is so bad it's fun, this is just adequate enough that that terrible bits are infuriating not humorous. 4/10

I didn't finish Gundam Seed Destiny, but I read about the ending. It happens to be another show, that makes me wonder what the creator was thinking after everything was going so well.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Well, I think they were thinking "god I hope this illness that I'm feeling doesn't kill me."

Sadly hope doesn't always work out.

[Mattias]

Also I wouldn't say it was going well to start with. There's some neat things here and there, but the fact that the character all reset themselves to Season 1 status quo, or worse in some cases (looking at you Cagali), at the beginning dosn't really bode too well for the future.

[bassgs435]

Also finished up Punchline. I really liked how the second half of the show was the first half from a different PoV. The ending was good, but didn't really solve the main characters issues. The world is fine, but they're still trying to get the good outcome. I might have enjoyed it if the villains got redemption but the MC stays as normal and the heroine gets the spare.

That's because the show was made to get people to play the game to get the full story and best ending. They confirmed the game will show stuff that wasn't in the anime

[Spartacus]

Was not interested in JoJo until 40 minutes ago, but Misc. thread convinces me to give it a shot.
Usually, epic, funny, stupid and dramatic tends to be exclusive, at least not four of them present at the same scene.
That's how the first episode makes a good impression.

Oh yeah, watching Rebuild 1.0 too, Zeruel (the cube thing) is cooler here I guess. But because it basically just the first half of Eva without pacing issue, it kinda kills my interest to watch the next movie.

[ryokatagenji]

Rebuild of Eva 2.0 is a very good movie. I recommend continuing also the story goes slightly of the rail with bright surprises if you already watched the original series.

[Spartacus]

Yeah, I have watched the first 5 minutes of 2.22. Totally caught off guard.
But I guess I need to cool down and my inner psyche just doesn't want more hedgehog dillemma for awhile.

[Arashi_Leonhart]

Rebuild 2 is amazeballs and even points at the freakish moment it goes off the rails.

Rebuild 3 is...not what you would expect unless you are in the same drug-filled haze that Anno writes this stuff in.

[Spartacus]

Amazing middle and ultra-weird finale.

Fantastic, a full Eva experience.

[Skull]

Trying to get through my physical backlog and decided to watch the Escaflowne movie.

A pretty solid flick. Interested to check out the TV show now.

[Mattias]

Never seen the movie but I love the TV version. A lot of that may just be nostalgia combined with the 90's art style I love and the fact it's a shoujo anime with giant robots.

[aldeayeah]

I remember liking it back in the day. I tried to rewatch it recently and was overwhelmed by the shoujo cliches.

It's basically Fushigi Yuugi with better music, animation and mechas. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but not of my taste anymore.

[Spartacus]

Watching JoJo up to ep 10 (the whole Part 1?), aside from the aforementioned ham and absurdness, it has other charms.

I don't know it is anime only thing, but I love how the series pacing didn't pull any breaks and super random at everything. Suddenly vampire, suddenly tophat guys, suddenly ripples, suddenly we have evil Elizabeth I and fake history, suddenly ice power, body manipulation power, beam made from fluid and good ol' body hijacking. And I have not seen the memetic Stand yet.

Then how it feels like they are not telling a story, but they are telling a mythology. It has the origin that starts all, familial ties between hero and villain, a random encounter with party members and bosses out of nowhere, they suddenly died, new abilities came out of nowhere, fighting the same villain non-stop and dies a tragic death. His descandant continue his legacy and a new chapter starts anew.

After watching Eva, which tries so hard to tell a meaningful story. This is super fresh as it doesn't try to be one, it aims for maximum entertainment value.