[StarSlayer]

I think the best analog would be a Metal version of Spinal Tap or a prequel of Metalocalypse before while they were still making their bones.  We found it because it was in the "If you liked Deathgasm..." queue but its grounded in being a very funny comedy about being a metal band rather than a metal derived grindhouse horror comedy.

[TechnoD11]

Decided that studying for final exams is for losers so I finished Cowboy Bebop and the associated movie (watched the movie right before watching 'brain scratch', as directed by the wonderful people on the cowboy bebop subreddit).

Now I get why everyone says to watch it.
10/10

[Luis Dias]

and spoon loses another soul to bebop. ahahah

[Turambar]

Bebop is 'just OK'

It's no Gundam or Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

It's more like Eureka Seven in that it's all about style and any overarching plot is a distant consideration.

[TechnoD11]

Alright alright, just to emphasize - my experience with anime is limited compared to many here, and my appreciation of Bebop comes from that limited perspective. If that makes me wrong or my rating incorrect, then so be it. Perhaps after I have seen more anime I can give an updated review.

[Colonol Dekker]

I do love bebops style.   The plot is simpler than trigun though

[Turambar]

I am absolutely 100% not saying you are wrong at all.  Bebob does have a neat style.

But yes, there is some really great anime you should check out.  There's also a whole lot more anime that isn't good.  Just be picky.

[Colonol Dekker]

I'm on your side bud.   But we've gotta try the crap so we know the good ain't bad.


Like women   try all the women!!


#dekkermaybexmasdrunk

[Turambar]

Yeah, I just get annoyed when something is cool, but then fails to go anywhere or do anything.

[Mongoose]

Bebop is 'just OK'

It's no Gundam or Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

It's more like Eureka Seven in that it's all about style and any overarching plot is a distant consideration.

A few thoughts, and I don't mean any of them in the "you must like what I like" sense, but still:

--It seems...misguided to criticize an episodic series for being, y'know, episodic.  Bebop's story is its characters, these broken people desperately trying to hide from pasts that keep finding them regardless, and how chance brings them together to form a sort of family they don't even recognize until after it's gone.  I've seen people seriously float the argument "well there's only 5 episodes about Spike v. Vicious so there's like no real story," and it's like, man, that's missing the point by so much it's in the next county over.  Pretty much every episode, no matter how stand-alone or goofy, develops some other aspect of the crew's personalities.  And if that sort of storytelling isn't your bag I fully understand, but to act like it doesn't do what it does very well is selling the series woefully short.

--I would never argue against LOGH, but from the experiences I've had with Gundam as a total entity (which admittedly is not as much as I'd like just yet), I would not say that most of its incarnations have tight storytelling as a particular strength.  Tomino's writing style in particular is...well, let's just say "interesting," and some of the AUs get pretty damn messy.  That's not to say that many of its series aren't very good, but most of them seem to share a certain "Gundam-ness" in their storytelling that you occasionally have to grin and bear.

--Um, Eureka Seven definitely placed major focus on its over-arching plot.  It was mostly in the background early on, but it came more to the forefront as the first half of the series progressed, and pretty much the entire second half revolved around it.

[Turambar]

--Um, Eureka Seven definitely placed major focus on its over-arching plot.  It was mostly in the background early on, but it came more to the forefront as the first half of the series progressed, and pretty much the entire second half revolved around it.

If by last half, you mean last 10 episodes.  They took longer to get to the point than any 50 episode anime I'd ever seen.

[Mongoose]

No, I mean by episodes 27-28 at the very latest.  Major events are already in motion at that point, and indeed have been in the background for some time.

And as important a role as the plot played in the series, at its heart it's very much a love story.  One that's definitely a slow burn, but goddamn did it pay off.  All of my feels.

[manwiththemachinegun]

I am watching for the first time Gundam 00, or the origin of Wings of Dawn's soundtrack, whichever you want to call it.

I finished all of VOTOMS along with the first few OVAs, Red Shoulders, Mellowlink and Big Battle. That series is the king of real mecha. They should call the whole Front Mission strategy series VOTOMS: the college years.

[Colonol Dekker]

I finished Voltron - Netflix edition.

[TechnoD11]

Watched Neon Genesis Evangelion over the past two weeks, just finished End of Evangelion

Remarks:
1. What the ****
2. Again,...what the ****
3. Why did I not watch this before playing JAD

[Det. Bullock]

The new Carmen Sandiego show is nice, interesting how now VILE is mostly screwing out various countries around the world either by robbing their cultural artifacts or by actively sabotaging them for a quick buck (one episode is

Spoiler:

centered on VILE trying to poison the entire supply of rice in Indonesia to be able to sell them a surrogate at inflated price via a shell company, another on instigating the destruction of Ayers Rock by sabotaging a launch from not-spaceX so they can later buy the company for cheap

) and Carmen being a former member disgusted by their methods trying to stop them. It's less formulaic and more stylized than the original show (rather obviously) but it still maintains the geography infodumps of the old cartoon without them feeling too out of place.

Boy, the season finale of Steven Universe was WILD.
I don't know if it's another series faux-nale intended to avoid not having an ending in case of cancellation, but if they intended it like this from the start (which is likely since they stated Reunited was made with that in mind and season 6 was confirmed while working on that) I can say that the Crewniverse are a bunch of loons, and I mean that in the good way.
They basically solved most of the plot points and changed a huge chunk of the status quo regarding gem stuff in one fell swoop, where they'll go from here is very difficult to say, there is at least another season and a movie in the works and statements on part of Rebecca Sugar that they are aiming for something like 7 to 9 seasons.

I'm about half-way through the second season of Punisher and while still grim the show was unexpectedly funny in places, also the bad guys seem made to piss off the alt-right (which is explicitly mentioned at a certain point).

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Just managed to watch the Steven Universe finale (well season 5 finale anyway). My initial thoughts on it :

[What Det. Bullock said]

Not sure what to add (though let's try to keep things spoiler-ish free), I'm glad that there's more seasons & movie(s) confirmed, 'cause that means we'll get get to explore what the new status quo is. I for one would be curious to be if there are gems that decided to stay on earth besides the Crystal Gems themselves. I'd also be curious to see a Rose Quartz at some point, to see how they compare to CG-Rose Quartz.


Moving on to anime, I watched though about 20+ episodes of Seven deadly sins. Not particularly impressed overall, but as an action Shonen, it's seviceable. The animation & action are alright, the fanservice level is average, plot-wise it's not exactly enthralling, but it's got a diverse enough cast to balance that.
Bottom line is : it's OK. It's not great, but it's not bad.

I watched a couple other anime series, but I didn't get past the pilot forthose so far, so I'll hold off commenting on these for now.

On to live action stuff. Saw the first few seconds of the trailer for Salvation, got interested in the premise, watched the actual pilot, realised that A), the core cast was basically 3 very standard pretty white boy elites & a white girl elite, and B) it's actually the Standard Killer Asteroid plot that I've already seen in Deep Impact, Armaggedon, SG1, Sliders, and probably a bunch of other works that I can't recall right now, then promptly noped the **** out.

On the plus side, I powered though what Mythbuster was available on Netflix and it was awesome. Also crazy, it's intriguing how many "confirmed" or "plausible" are among the "busted" myths.

I also watched the pilot for DC's Titans series earlier this week. It's absolutely hilarious in how it tries to shove the edgy-dark-gory in your face, I did not expect that . Not sure how it's gonna fair plot & character-wise, but it looks fairly good and I got a lot of good laughs out of it - I do plan on watching more of it.


Last year I also got my hands on The Orville, and the series absolutely does not work for me. I wouldn't go so far as to call it garbage, there's clearly some love being put into it but for me : A) I don't find most of the jokes funny, B) the characters are fairly standard cardboard cutouts, C) the plots seem to be either old recycled SF (especially Star Trek) scripts with no attempts at making them fresh, or so badly handled and mangled that whatever message they were trying to say is flung out into space & never heard from again, and D) while it has a respectable budget overall, action-wise it is woefully underwhelming.
TLDR: It's not funny, not interesting & not pretty. Would not keep watching.


Aside from all that, I've received recommendations for Dirk Gently, Money Heist, The Good Place & 3 Below - Tales of Arcadia. I'm also intrigued about the Carmen Sandiego series, and what the new ST:Discovery season will bring.

[TechnoD11]

Alright, finished 2 more animes (after finishing NGE...had to take a breather after that mind****):
Space Battleship Yamato 2202  - Just caught up through ep 22, from ep 1 over the course of the past week. Episodes 1 and 2 were excellent, then things kinda lost focus for 3 through 6ish, then picked up steam and just got better all the way to 22. Eagerly awaiting the last episodes. Animation, as expected, was excellent. VA was good, except for

Spoiler:

Kodai screaming Yuki when she jumped off the ship in I think episode 11 which was really cringe.

Also:

Spoiler:

The battles were f*cking awesome. First the battle at the 11th planet was great, then the refugee transfer which also served to give character agency via some hints of Zorder's motive. Telezart was well done, but Saturn and Mars were just straight 10/10.

And secondly...
My Hero Academia - Second best shonen I have seen (ranked after HxH). Liked it a lot, fanservice was tolerably moderate. The characters carry the show (I found them to be likable - especially All Might!). Season 4 coming in October, hoping for more:

Spoiler:

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/133/616/a12.png

[TechnoD11]

Just finished Gurren Lagann. Quite the antithesis to Evangelion! Very over-the-top, I mean...

Spoiler:

Robots inside robots inside robots hurdling galaxies at each other. Also the big bang is now a lazer.

Very enjoyable.

Next on the docket is Yu Yu Hakusho. Huge fan of Togashi's other work Hunter X Hunter so I suspect I will also enjoy this.

[Scourge of Ages]

Just finished Gurren Lagann.

If you liked Gurren Lagann, check out Planet With. The two have been very favorably compared.