Topic: Manga and Anime discussion

@Jaz007 @SteveBuyler2210 finished full metal alchemist. Top series - ending tied all the loose ends up nicely. They could of easily condensed it into 52 episodes without losing much and at times the Briggs campaign and war on central dragged on. Not necessarily the war itself but the personal conflicts within each episode. Compared to episodes 1-35ish there's a lot of filler. But its still the greatest anime series I have watched. The ensemble of characters is the best in any series, film or game I have spent time with. The Armstrongs, Greed, Ling, Teacher, Hawkeye and Wrath are my favourites as Ed and Al started to grate - although fortunately they played less of a big role as the series went on with other characters playing centre stage.

@themcnoisy: Glad you enjoyed it! It's definitally of be best series I've seen as well. If you thought there was thatit's filler in FMA:B, you might want to be wary of long action seroes like Bleach and Naruto then, as they have much more filler. And I mean a lot. They drag things on to insane levels, and while they're skipable, have entire seasons of filler. I wouldn't recommend buying any of them unless you know you'll like them for sure.

@Jaz007: Took your advice picked up Deathnote 1+2 box set delivery in 3-5 days. Building up a nice collection now my wife bought but pitch perfect 2 shortly after which brought me down a touch lol.

I just finished the second season of black butler (minus the filler that makes up the last 6 episodes), and I loved the way it ended. Completely awesome. Great anime for sure. Sebastion is awesome, and Ciel is a likable and great character. Ciel becoming a demon at the end was awesome. The red eyes, all the black, it's just awesome. I love Sebastian will be his butler forever too. It's just such an awesome way to end season 2; I was less than pleased to find the last six episodes were filler though. It didn't seem like that type of anime too, so it put a little damper on things when I thought I was only 2/3 through the season.

I've watched a fair amount of anime and the top 10 I can recommend are (in no specific order):
Psycho Pass,
Black Butler,
Steins Gate,
Baccano,
Durarara!! (Same creators as Baccano),
Fate Zero (And its sequel Fate/Stay Unlimited Blade Works (2014-2015), though that ones characters are a bit less tolerable),
Code Geass,
Guilty Crown,
Death Note,
Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood,
And of course the other ones mentioned in this topic so far. These shows are definitely worth watching in my opinion and all have their moments of comedy and strong emotion (and some cool fight scenes if you're a fan of those). I love them because of all the character development and intelligent story in each of them, which a lot of mainstream anime like Attack on Titan and SAO lack, though i'd recommend those too since they are good overall and have very creative concepts that are well represented in the shows. Other anime i'd recommend are Hellsing Ultimate, Soul Eater, Blue Exorcist, Kill la kill, Akame ga Kill, Darker Than Black, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Future Diary (also known as Mirai Nikki, personally I really love this one, but it is definitely not family friendly and has a lot of mature content which is why its not in the top 10 list), and Log Horizon. Caution - Don't watch them all at once.
The shows i've listed are from recent years, so they shouldn't be as dated as some other good ones listed like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, etc. They should also be easy to find on a google search

@alphadrago5: Psycho pass? Sounds mental. Are the subs good?

@themcnoisy:
Personally I read the subtitles on almost every anime I watch, since I generally hate the english dubs.
Although for some I have tried and liked the dubs.
If I recall, Psycho Pass is dubbed for the first season, and not the second. And the dubs for Black Butler, Death Note, and Full Metal Alchemist are all really good. Code Geass has a pretty good dub too, though it has its dumb moments.
The quality of the subtitles depends on the source you view it from. There are multiple translations with english subtitles and some are gonna be better than others. I've never really had much experience with particularly bad ones. Sites like crunchyroll, hulu, and other stuff that'd appear on the first page of a google search tend to be pretty good quality.

Since I'm playing the Zone of the Enders HD collection (I think I'm almost done with the second game), I decided to watch Zone of the Enders: I Dolo last night on YouTube.

It's a prequel to the first game, and while it only features one character from the game (in a side role), I'd recommend playing the first game before watching this, because the events of this 50 minute OVA are what drive that character's motivations in game. It's also interesting because it's from the perspective of the "other side", and it's kind of cool to see that their motivations weren't always supposed to be evil.

Also, just out of curiosity, does anyone else here watch Toonami?

@RR529: I haven't watched Toonami in years. Of course it doesn't help that I don't have cable or satellite.

Does anyone know any good animes with villain protagonists? I loved it in Death Note, and I love the idea in general.

@RR529: Nope, crunchyrolls on my ps4 - gonna subscribe very soon.

@Jaz007: unfortunately I've not had the chance to watch any of them yet, but from what I've heard Black Lagoon is a really good anime with an anti-hero protagonist. Also maybe Berserk and Darker than Black (again, not things I've seen yet, but come recommended by friends).

My god something tragic happened....

I bought the live action death note #facepalm

@themcnoisy: Dang... I would recommend not watching them so the much suprior series remains unspoiled. And remember, get the anime series- not the anime movies.

@themcnoisy: haha oh dear! This is what you want to be looking for: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Death-Note-Complete-Tetsuro-Araki/dp/...

Handily it also has the pictures for the individual volumes. Although it's probably cheaper just to buy the collection, as the individual volumes will only have 4 episodes each on (and 3 in each of the last 2 volumes usually).

EDIT: to be honest that Amazon price is actually really good, so may even be worth getting it from there. Or, again Death Note is another series now available on Netflix. It really is worth the fiver a month it costs, and it's cheaper than accidentally buying live action DVDs of films you don't want!

My anime recommendations (in no particular order):

X'amd: Lost Memories
Noragami (Season 1)
Mushi-shi (Season 1)
Beyond the Boundary
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Samurai Champloo
Darker Than Black (Season 1)
Basilisk
Wolf's Rain
Haikyuu!! (Season 1)
Terror in Resonance
Corpse Princess
Eden of the East
Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Movie)
Blood: The Last Vampire (Movie)
Paprika (Movie)
Sword of the Stranger (Movie)
Tekkonkinkreet (Movie)
Tokyo Godfathers (Movie)
Vampire Hunter D (Movie)
Pretty much anything by Studio Ghibli but my favorites are Porco Rosso, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle
Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal (OVAs)

Also, the three Rurouni Kenshin live-action movies are definitely worth watching. For me, they're the best I've seen when it comes to manga/anime live-action adaptions.

Currently, I'm looking forward to both Noragami:Aragato and Attack on Titan (Season 2) animus.

Edit: Gonna add both K: Return of Kings and One Punch Man to my "looking forward to" list as well.

I was just on a great little website called Den of Geek (I highly recommend it, if your into genre TV and Films) and they published an exclusive story with regards to a possible live action Akira movie. Now of course Warner Bros. have tried for years to get this film off the ground, with Kristen Stewart the most recent name linked. But now Den of Geek understand that WB want to make a trilogy of Akira films and the big rumour is that Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception) may helm at least one of them. It was confirmed recently that Nolan's next film will release in July 2016 (distributed by Warner) but so far, no name has been mentioned. Though you would think that releasing at that time of year, it must be some kind of big blockbuster. Either way it sounds like things are moving along. I must stress that Den of Geek isn't a website that puts out clickbait articles and news stories for free hits. If there publishing this then must feel comfortable in doing so. Anyway what do you guys think, would a Hollywood adaptation of Akira (which normally would make us sceptical) helmed by Nolan excite you?

@adf86: Akiras Brilliant, watched it again a week or so ago. Do we need a movie version? Nope - the characters in the anime film are horrible, flawed and grim. You cant act as well as the cartoon depicts the characters.

@adf86: Wasn't Leonardo DiCaprio attached to a live-action adaption Akira a long time ago?

Anyways, I have faith in Hollywood when it comes to the production aspect, its the casting that I'm worried about. It'll never work if they plan on casting Caucasians again instead of Japanese or Asian actors.

A Hollywood Naruto live-action movie is also in the works. I hope its not another Dragon Ball Evolution.

@WanderingBullet: I didn't realise there was an American live-action Naruto in the making. Honestly, I could see that being even worse than DB:E, and that really is saying something...

Oh well, at least the East seem to have their heads screwed on properly when making live-action adaptations, as the AoT adaptation looks fantastic!

Also, much respect for having Paprika and Tekkonkinkreet in your must watch list - I thought they were quite big at the time, but it must be more because I was following the anime scene closely at that point as most people I talk to have never heard of them. Shame as they're both fantastic! If you get a chance, definitely read the original Tekkonkinkreet manga - it's more expensive as it is pretty much like a telephone book in size, but it's a must read for any fan of the movie (and only one volume so you won't be committing to anything major).