Well, here's a list of anime I've watched, am watching, and my thoughts.
My favourite anime:
Name: Magic Knight Rayearth
Genre: Magical Girl/Adventure/Fantasy
Special Notes: Manga/Anime by CLAMP
Plot: 3 girls, from different schools are on class trips to Tokyo Tower when somehow the floor melts away, and they find themselves stranded in a strange, magical land. They soon learn that in order to make it back to their world, they must fulfill the wishes of Princess Emeraude, The pillar of the world, who's prayers preserve the world normally, but who is currently imprisoned by Lord Zagato.
My thoughts: While this is an older anime (Came out 1994, with OVAs in 1997), it's damn fun to watch. Sure, it's kinda cheesy in the whole Magic Girl aspect, but it's not like Sailor Moon, or Tokyo Mew Mew, it's a bit more adult, and these aren't girls who make stupid poses and shit. They fight. The anime is centered around the whole aspect that they need to do this to get home, not the magic girl aspect. The second season happens after they completely finish with the first plot, and is a bit more adult. It's really hard to explain why I like the anime without actually having someone watch it, and see after a couple episodes. In any case, I really enjoyed it, and if you're willing to give something a little childish and corny a chance, I say you should go ahead. The characters are lovable, cute, funny, and overall just plain fun. The second season adds a lot of romantic interests for the characters.
Name: Darker Than Black
Genre: Supernatural
Other notes: Opening is Howling by Abbingdon Boys School (commercial music, not the normal "made for the anime" stuff) Incidental music by Yoko Kanno (cowboy bebop, Escaflowne, GITS: Standalone Complex and others)
Plot: 10 years ago, a mysterious area of abnormal activity appeared in Tokyo, and was called Hells Gate. This place created what are known as Contractors. They are called this because they are given special powers, but every time they use them, they must pay a price, an obeisance of sorts, for the use of the power. These contractors are unknown to the public, but criminal organizations and government agencies around the world employ them as spies, among other things. The main Character is Hei, also known as Li Sheng Shun, and a contractor. He is a member of an organization known as The Syndicate. The show follows him through his placement in Tokyo, both during day-to-day happenings, as well as his various missions. Part of the reason that contractors are used by these Syndicates, is that they lack many human emotions, (well, that's the popular belief. They do in fact feel the emotions, but instead view things in very logical ways, able to ignore those emotions.) including the aversion of killing, which makes them all the more dangerous.
My Thoughts: A very dark anime. Looks amazing, since it's very new. I really love this show, because it's so different than a lot of things I've seen. It's not going to the point of being ridiculous, but rather keeps all the characters rather believable, considering the aspect of the Contractors, and all that. In any case, I would really recommend this, because it's plot, characters, overall feel, and pretty much everything about it fits, and feels creepy.
Name: Simoun
Genre: War/Drama/Science Fiction/Yuri
Other Notes: all voices are done by women. Even the male characters are voiced by women. It's there to show how they are all born as girls, and that even when they chose a sex, they are not quite the same as a natural male.
Plot: Simoun is set in a world where, oddly enough, everyone is born a girl. In this world, they chose a permanent gender at the age of 17. During the time that they are young girls, they have the chance to become part of an elite branch of the religion as priestesses, known as Sybilla. As a priestess, they are entitled to fly 2 seated flying vehicles known as Simoun which are powered by ancient engines that are, for all practical purposes, magic. Nobody knows how they work, but nonetheless, the Simoun fly. In fact, they fly much better than the mechanical contraptions created by the other countries that inhabit the planet. On top of flying better, they have some sort of ability to create patterns in the sky. This is the main offensive weapon of the Simoun. When a certain pattern is created by the trail left by the Simoun, different effects can be achieved, such as a shield, or a powerful explosion. The need for Sybillae is high, because the country is at war with the other 2 countries on the planet. Unfortunately, this leaves them in an awkward position, because the Sybillae are not supposed to be warriors, but priestess, who don't slaughter the enemy, but pray to the sky.
My Thoughts: I absolutely LOVED this show. It's certainly different, but different in a really good way. There is a LOT of drama in this show, but it's more or less covered in 2 main parts: the relationships of the members of Chor Tempest, once, the most revered Choir of Sybillae, which was recently devastated, and left with few remaining members, and is rebuilt with new recruits; and the political manipulation behind Chor Tempest. These girls are constantly torn between the peaceful ideas that their religion preaches they follow, and yet, they are used by the military as elite warriors, able to decimate enemy forces with relative ease. They are constantly being caught in the crossfire of the internal politics between the military and religious parts of their government. In any case, I really recommend this to anyone willing to look for something more out of the ordinary. It takes 3 or 4 episodes to start getting into it, but it's so emotionally charged, and so well executed that I fell in love with it after the first couple episodes. Honestly, this is one of the best dramatic anime I've ever seen (barring 5 Centimeters Per Second, which was absolutely beautiful). To be perfectly honest, I cried more than once watching this. Seriously.
Name: 5 Centimeters Per Second ~ a chain of short stories about their distance ~
Genre: Drama
Other Notes: Directed by Makoto Shinkai, the same guy behind Hoshi no Koe, among other less known things.
Plot: The basic plot is that of a love story, but that's where the originality kicks in. The movie is split into 3 sections, each, a short story about the characters, and all the problems that keep them apart. I'm not going to give much of the plot away, but if you want, you can search wikipedia.
My Thoughts: WOW. Just. WOW. The animation in this is absolutely STUNNING. The music fits perfectly, the plot is so sad, and so perfectly executed. Everything about this anime is absolutely amazing. I know I'm giving all of these anime high praise, but that's because I tend to avoid anime I know I'm not going to like as much as I like these. I just don't like watching something I know I'm going to be slightly disappointed with, so I only watch something if I know it'll be good, and wow. I can't get over how powerful this movie is. I honestly say that every member of spectere.net, weeaboo or not, should watch this. I also wanted to cry watching this, and would have had my GF not been watching it with me, lol. I can only admit this because it's online and all that stuff.
More to come later, but this post has taken forever to write up, so I'll edit/post more later.
