anime

[meganbmoore]

Anyone have any opinions on the following:

Banner of the Stars
D.N.Angel
Elfen Lied
Gantz
Serial Experiments Lain The f-list, it disapproves.
Speed Grapher
Vandread

Also, Blue Seed OVA: Yes? Maybe? "Think 'Slayers OVA'?" Etc?

Please put major spoilers under this code: <span style="color: #333333;background-color: #333333">Spoilers here.</span>

Comments

[sora-blue.livejournal.com]

DNAngel works best if you've never read the manga. I can't remember how blatant the boy love was, but it's been a year or two since I've watched it.

Enjoyed it enough to watch all the way through. Didn't enjoy it enough to watch a second time.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Never read the manga. Flipped through it, but it looked like the kind of series that works best for me as anime. Though...I thought the central romance was the hero's crush liked his alter ego and crush's sister liked hero? Or something like that?

[calixa.livejournal.com]

You know how I feel about D.N. Angel!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Remind me.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I adored Lain, but it's one of those series that really fucks with your head; it's not very linear, there's lots of philosophical meandering, and you have to pay attention and think about it a lot to not get lost. I'd place it somewhere between Ghost In The Shell without the action/police elements, Paranoia Agent, and a good dose of the more brain-hurty sorts of Philip K. Dick stories...

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's exactly like Ghost in the Shell with all the good bits removed. (God, I love Ghost in the Shell...)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I love GitS(series, at least, though movise are good, too) but am not familiar with the others.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Don't watch Serial Experiments Lain.

It's no fun, nothing happens, and while the plot is interesting, it takes four times longer for anything to happen than it should.

I watched it in my class of anime, and it was so confusing there were many days where we came in after watching it and the teacher had to explain what was going on.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*wonders how it can take 4 times as long in a 13 ep series*

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

You really hated PKD too, am I remembering right? I think that's probably a pretty good indicator right there (well, not that it helps Megan if she hasn't read PKD, but still...); a lot of the quiet-cyberpunky blurring of real and virtual worlds and questions of human identity that rise out of it that they're playing with in Lain sort of traces its SF family tree back to Dick in the end.

It's one of those things like Paranoia Agent that I would class as an interesting series rather than a fun series. You don't watch this for thrills or brain candy, you watch this when you're in the mood to turn your head inside out but good.

[the_rck]

I've seen D.N.Angel, Serial Experiments Lain, and Vandred. None of them made a really strong impression on me.

I know I missed some episodes in the middle of D.N.Angel (Netflix was missing a DVD, and the library had a different edition with different episodes per DVD). The twin sister love interests are annoying, and the relationships there don't come across convincingly (partly because I'm 40 and they're all 14. I don't believe in True Love Forever starting at 14).

Serial Experiments Lain depressed me, I think. It was pretty head-trippy, too.

I think I watched Vandread while I was pregnant. That means that I was happy with anything that kept me occupied while I was having trouble moving. It had action and wacky humor and weird gender stuff (it starts with two enemy planets, one all men and one all women) going on. I'm not sure if it made sense. I seem to recall that some episodes were better than others.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Hmm...a valid point about ages. I do better with "so getting married whn they grow up" coding than actual romance at that age.

[kingcrankycat.livejournal.com]

Lain has a fairly good reputation, but I suspect (having seen it myself) that a lot of it comes from the same school of thought that makes Donnie Darko "hip" and "edgy" (i.e. "it doesn't make sense, therefore it must be AWESOME!"). I'd skip it, it takes entirely too much effort to figure out what's going on, and once you do (if you do) it's rather disappointing in the end. Plus it makes the technobabble of GITS seem like everyday speak. Re-watch GITS instead :)

Banner/Crest of the Stars is a decent enough space opera played straight with pretensions of deep politics (which really aren't). It never gets beyond okay, and is (at worst) merely boring. You could do worse, but you could also do better.

Avoid the manga, though, as it amplifies the boring while diminishing the action and politics.

I have not seen Elfen Laid, but it's one that I get alternating "it's soooo awesome!" and "bleh, it sucks" reactions. Seems to be no middle-ground on this one.

[kingcrankycat.livejournal.com]

Elfen Lied* Or however it's spelled, I've seen dozens of variations...

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

DN Angel- It's twee and precious and not bad though I'm still struggling to care enough about it to finish.

Speed Grapher- Now that is an excellent series but so HARDCORE I'm having a hard time finishing it. There is so much perverse behavior and just random grittiness.

Vandread- I LOVE this series. I think it's highly underappreciated. It was one of the first series I actually watched and still love it. It's funny and poigniant and has some great characters.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Tell me more about Speed Grapher...

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

Only commenting on ones I've seen or heard enough about to make my opinion on watching it or not.

D.N.Angel - Cute. My college roomie was a massive fan of the manga so I heard a lot about it, but I may have gotten a skewed version. The anime was only just coming out when I moved.

Serial Experiments Lain - I got choked through three episodes and gave up. It's sloooooow (mind you, I tend to like shows other people call slow) and tries too hard to be deep and trippy. Conceptually, I should have loved it, but I gave up. Then again, I was at a party with a girl that went off about how much she loved it and it was all about technology and transformative something-or-another, and again, conceptually I should have loved it because I'm into that, but couldn't stand it.

Speed Grapher - I've heard really good stuff about this one, and want to see it.

Vandread - I vaguely recall this was a show about boobie chicks in space and not being terribly interested.

Possibly the most unhelpful opinions ever :P

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Well, it helps with the "probably not Lain" part. I keep hearing of Speed Grapher, but not ABOUT it...

Lain

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Slow, confusing, and depressing. Maybe it improves later; I gave up after the first disc.

Re: Lain

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

How depressing are we talking as compared to, say, Saikano?

[jennawaterford.livejournal.com]

DNAngel is adorable and fun and *does* end which is nice. I don't actually get that different of a vibe from the manga (which has distinct het pairings but plays constantly with the pretty boy double-entendres--as does the anime). It is fluffy and episodic but sticks to its overall arc well and, as I said, wraps the story.

Gantz I've only seen the first very few episodes of. It's *gorgeous* and -- from what I know of Battle Royale -- is up there darkness-wise with that. And it has a similar nihilistic streak. I didn't watch more because I'm rarely in the mood for anything that dark, but what I did see was fantastic.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Animes that actually end are always a bonus.

Serial Experiments Lain

[desdenova.livejournal.com]

I watched Lain. All of it. And I have no idea what happened in any of it, except for a minor plot element involving a supporting character. And that plot element is one of my big turn-offs (I'm being vague 'cause it's spoilery). I kept watching it because I expected they'd explain WTF it was all about, but they never did.

Of the others, I've only seen a few episodes of DN Angel, which were entertaining enough.

Re: Serial Experiments Lain

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd heard good things about Lain before, but I'm thinking now that I've been convinced to skip.

[may-flyer.livejournal.com]

Banner of Stars is decent, but not spectacular. Vandread fails for being made mostly of fanservice.

If you're looking for some really spectacular sci-fi anime then you should go for Legend of the Galactic Heroes instead. It was never licensed for English release, but all the subbed ups are up on crunchyroll.com

Legend of the Galactic Heroes is about two brilliant military commanders who belong to opposing forces - Yang Wen-Li of the Free Planets Alliance and Marquis Reinhard von Lohengramm of the Galactic Empire. Yang reluctantly soldiers on for his corrupt and inefficient democratic rulers, while Reinhard has ambitions to usurp the throne of the ruthlessly despotic Goldenbaum Dynasty . Of course they develop an epic rivalry. The FPS is badly governed, while the GE is a bad government, and only one system can prevail. It's sort of like Death Note but with more politics. And space explosions.

[tokyofish.livejournal.com]

. . . I liked Lain? D: Erm. Well, at the very least, you should watch the opening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_3Eu22xKnk

Crest of the Stars, Banner of the Stars, Banner of the Stars II, and Banner of the Stars III are excellent. Yes, the series is slow, but it's all about character development and interaction and features one of my favorite couples ever. It's also based on a novel series.

Vandread is a lot of fun, but I have no idea how it's held up over the years. It's a mix of comedy, harem, mecha, and space hijinks . . . though it does develop a plot later.

The Blue Seed OVA isn't great, and Kusanagi got less hot D:, but I still like it.

[tokyofish.livejournal.com]

P.S. Legend of Galactic Heroes is THE best space opera, period, so I'll agree with the poster above on that point.

[gloryquest.livejournal.com]

I love Lain myself. Yeah, it's a somewhat dark series, but I still thought it was very good.

[bzoppa.livejournal.com]

What! I loved Serial Experiments Lain. I'm not going through 57 comments to find out what they said about it. I liked it.

Vandread is entertaining enough. A little too fan service-y but the second set had some good stories.