Anime Brigade: We all have 8th grade syndrome~

[Lord Celebi]

Hooked? Dayum man, hold on to your pants, you're in for a big ole ride after this new episode. Popcorn anyone? :P

As for recent watches, just finished Mud Grass from Mushishi and... that was really brutal compared to the episodes before. God, I'll be sad when Zoku Shou finishes :(
@Noblejanobii, I love the hell out of Baccano!, even more so than DRRR!!. Can't wait for the x2 season to come out for DRRR in the winter since there's so much more that needs to be adapted in the series.

My all-time favorites are Ping Pong the Animation (which I'm rewatching) and Mushishi. Lupin the Third is my one true love (in a general sense) because I've gotten way too hooked on the whole series, especially with the release of the Gravestone of Daisuke Jigen and the Woman Named Fujiko Mine. I've watched Gravestone like 4-5 times already... maybe I'm just obsessed.

Gravestone is out? I'm going to need to watch that after finals. I'm hoping FUNimation scoops that one up, because I loved the Fujiko Mine dub.

[Noblejanobii]

Really? I'm in for a plot twist? Well when the break comes I know what I'm doing when I'm taking my breaks. And DRRR x2 is something me and my anime friends from another friend were hyping several weeks ago. I'm looking forward to it (love my boy Izaya) but I really want them to go through the most recent arc with Celty and the whole plot twist with that.

[TheoreticalSelkie]

Gravestone is out? I'm going to need to watch that after finals. I'm hoping FUNimation scoops that one up, because I loved the Fujiko Mine dub.

Yeah the subs are out for Gravestone (actually really fast compared to the Detective Conan vs Lupin movie but I guess that makes sense). The animation is pretty good and I like Blue Jacket Lupin a lot. He's up to his old antics again, and I practically squealed when I saw the ending.

I didn't know you watched Fujiko Mine, what did you think about it?

Really? I'm in for a plot twist? Well when the break comes I know what I'm doing when I'm taking my breaks. And DRRR x2 is something me and my anime friends from another friend were hyping several weeks ago. I'm looking forward to it (love my boy Izaya) but I really want them to go through the most recent arc with Celty and the whole plot twist with that.

I'm not sure where in the plot this season of F/SN will stop at before the second season, but if it's where I'm thinking, hooo boy, that's a scary cliffhanger. Then I can curse Ufotable and end up twiddling my thumbs for the spring season.

I'm a Shizu-chan fan (though Izaya is quite the interesting guy in my opinion). While I didn't read much of the light novels, I'm interested in how Shizuo and the new characters end up interacting since I heard there's a lot about that. Maybe I should just read the light novels if I can... hmm.

[Noblejanobii]

Yeah the subs are out for Gravestone (actually really fast compared to the Detective Conan vs Lupin movie but I guess that makes sense). The animation is pretty good and I like Blue Jacket Lupin a lot. He's up to his old antics again, and I practically squealed when I saw the ending.

I didn't know you watched Fujiko Mine, what did you think about it?


I'm not sure where in the plot this season of F/SN will stop at before the second season, but if it's where I'm thinking, hooo boy, that's a scary cliffhanger. Then I can curse Ufotable and end up twiddling my thumbs for the spring season.

I'm a Shizu-chan fan (though Izaya is quite the interesting guy in my opinion). While I didn't read much of the light novels, I'm interested in how Shizuo and the new characters end up interacting since I heard there's a lot about that. Maybe I should just read the light novels if I can... hmm.

Well, I have watched the original fate/staynight series, as well as the movie for UBW, and Fate/Zero, so if this is going where I think it is going then yes, it probably will be.

And I love Shizu-chan, don't get me wrong. He's awesome and love the whole chasing Izaya gag (in fact me and a friend of mine have two characters that have that exact kind of relationship in a roleplay on another site). But there's something about Izaya's sadistic attitude that makes me laugh every time I see him on screen.

[Lord Celebi]

Yeah the subs are out for Gravestone (actually really fast compared to the Detective Conan vs Lupin movie but I guess that makes sense). The animation is pretty good and I like Blue Jacket Lupin a lot. He's up to his old antics again, and I practically squealed when I saw the ending.

I didn't know you watched Fujiko Mine, what did you think about it?

Like you, I'm also a huge Lupin fan. I loved the show. As far as I was concerned, they got everything right. The only thing I would have liked more of would have been Lupin himself (and maybe less boobs).

[Noblejanobii]

Like you, I'm also a huge Lupin fan. I loved the show. As far as I was concerned, they got everything right. The only thing I would have liked more of would have been Lupin himself (and maybe less boobs).

Fan service does tend to lower the quality of an anime. I feel like the japanese version of high school of the dead would have been a lot better without boob and panty shots every five seconds. The subbed version took itself very seriously and the fanservice distracted from the seriousness. The english dub, on the other hand, made very effective use of it. The english dub wasn't serious AT ALL. They added the f-Bomb every five seconds to couple with the fan service and added so many jokes that you couldn't take it really seriously. The fan service helped amplify this. Sure it was still VERY distracting (especially given that all the girls lack the invention known as a bra and each breast seems to have its own physics engine from the matrix) but it was funny by that point.

I haven't seen Lupin so I can't give my opinion on the fan service in that particular anime.

[Lord Celebi]

Fan service does tend to lower the quality of an anime. I feel like the japanese version of high school of the dead would have been a lot better without boob and panty shots every five seconds. The subbed version took itself very seriously and the fanservice distracted from the seriousness. The english dub, on the other hand, made very effective use of it. The english dub wasn't serious AT ALL. They added the f-Bomb every five seconds to couple with the fan service and added so many jokes that you couldn't take it really seriously. The fan service helped amplify this. Sure it was still VERY distracting (especially given that all the girls lack the invention known as a bra and each breast seems to have its own physics engine from the matrix) but it was funny by that point.

I have issues with how anime as a cultural expression and as a medium is homogenizing into basically porn. It's only there because producers refuse to take new risks with their productions and would instead rather cater to and enable the hikikomori crowd. It's bad for the industry and for the art as it alienates everyone that isn't sexually deprived.

I haven't seen Lupin so I can't give my opinion on the fan service in that particular anime.

Lupin III is excellent. I'd highly recommend either the new Fujiko Mine series or Lupin III: Part 2 (AKA "Red Jacket" Lupin).

[TheoreticalSelkie]

Like you, I'm also a huge Lupin fan. I loved the show. As far as I was concerned, they got everything right. The only thing I would have liked more of would have been Lupin himself (and maybe less boobs).

I think it's kind of understandable considering the show has their main focus on Fujiko rather than Lupin. Though it's kinda a trend for Fujiko to get the short end of the stick sometimes. And she does end up being the fanservicey one (I'm looking right at you Gravestone T_T), which does annoy me because I liked the dynamic of the Green Jacket series more with Lupin getting outwitted a lot by Fujiko.

As for the fanservice, I think it depends on the show you're watching. Highschool of the Dead is notoriously fanservicey, while Free! is on the other end of the spectrum as well. Then you have shows like Kill la Kill, that make fun of the fanservice by being overly blatant with it. And there's shows like Mushishi that don't have anything to do with fanservice. At least, I haven't been noticing it a lot in the shows I'm watching.

And I definitely second the motion with Lupin III. The Woman Known as Fujiko Mine is pretty dark and hits on the tone of the original manga with all the visuals. There's a lot of nudity but it's a really good show once you get past it. However, I do recommend watching Green Jacket (Part 1) as well since it's the original series and adapts parts of the original manga. Red Jacket is also fun, but I find it a little too episodic/wacky for my tastes. At least, I prefer the darker tone of the series rather than the light-hearted ones.

[Noblejanobii]

Yes I think a lot of anime has fanservice in one way or another. There are a select few that are mature enough to have almost no fanservice. Fate/Zero, for example, had like no fanservice at all. I know Gilgamesh was naked at the end but there's a perfectly good explanation for that. But I wouldn't discredit an anime just because it has fanservice. Despite all the boobs and panties flying everywhere every five seconds, I loved high school of the dead. I actually found the fanservice humorous (especially in the case of the nurse who I have nicknamed Dr. Boobs because… Eh do I need to explain?). But then there's anime like Free! I originally started watching it because of the swimming. Now… I am ashamed to admit that the fact that the only reason I'm still watching it is because no one is really wearing any clothes for most of the episodes. ^^;

[Ganyu]

Fan service is just another marketing gimmick and usually tells me that a) the producers are insecure about their anime and/or b) the writing is boring so they resort to other attention-grabbing tactics like hormonal manipulation.