The Anime/Manga/Related Merchandise Thread

I suppose I should write a grand introduction here for the opening of this thread, but my heart just isn't in it right now.  I figured since we had one of these back on Ngamer it was worth seeing how an attempted rebirth of it is.  To help keep things open this place is for all anime, manga, and merchandise discussion and general showing off.  Got a new figure?  Flaunt it!  Just watched or read a series?  share your thoughts!    


Alas this isn't only started because of pure desires, I also wanted to ask a question.  Right now I'm kind of in the dumps so I'm thinking of just burying myself in some anime I haven't watched before that are sitting on my shelf over the next few days, but I've no idea if I should watch them dubbed or subtitled.  The series are Birdy The Mighty Decode, fullmetal alchemist brotherhood, gurren lagann, and eureka seven.  I'm assuming Birdy and fma are fine as they're funimation dubs and they seem to have a good track record, but if anyone's seen the other two some thoughts would be welcome.  

Actually that could make a good beginning subject to break the ice.  Which do you typically prefer to watch, subtitled with japanese audio or english dub?  I'm more of a dub kind of guy, but only if the dub is well done, I also have no problems going subtitled if the dub is poorly acted or incredibly unfaithful to the source.

SUBSUBSUBSUBSUB. Subtitled all the way. Too many bad experiences with whiny American VAs. As such, I can't help you much: I've seen both Gurren Lagann and the first part of FMA:B, but both with subs. only.

I'm not watching anything at the moment, but my favourite anime of all time is Hikaru no Go. It's about a kid learning to play a board game, but the character work is brilliant.

I'm a dub man. I'd rather hear some dodgy American voice than some irritating Japanese voice that I have no idea what they're saying. Might as well watch it with the sound off!

I think I've seen Eureka Seven, it sounds very familiar but for the life of me I can't remember anything about it. Can't imagine the voices were too bad though.

You can't go wrong with FMA, and Gurrenn Lagann is just plain awesome in sub or dub.

I'm currently going through Fairy Tail again and going to finish Senran Kagura at some stage

Not a fan of dubs myself. Too often do they sound out-of-character.

Plus these days they seem to get the same VA's for everything.

I only have dubs for when on night shift and I can't read the subs

Well I'm almost finished with Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood right now and this series has been a complete joy so far.  The first 13 or so episodes felt more like a recap than anything else, but once the new material had a chance to establish itself I found myself going nuts for this one.  The only sad part is I'm almost at the end, six more episodes to go and it's all done.  

Also in anime news that most are probably already aware of Sword Art Online has had a second series announced to the surprise of probably nobody.


And that's that, all finished. The ending was far more satisfying than the downer that was the ending for the first series, no silly nazi Germany parallel world shenanigans.

Athrun888 wrote:

Also in anime news that most are probably already aware of Sword Art Online has had a second series announced to the surprise of probably nobody.

Still didn't make us less excited when announced.   

Also glad to hear that Fairy Tail will be back anime wise in April and that one of the manga I'm reading's anime will start on the 11th (Nisekoi)

shanks wrote:

Athrun888 wrote:

Also in anime news that most are probably already aware of Sword Art Online has had a second series announced to the surprise of probably nobody.

Still didn't make us less excited when announced.   

Also glad to hear that Fairy Tail will be back anime wise in April and that one of the manga I'm reading's anime will start on the 11th (Nisekoi)

Yeah, I hear the next arc of sword art online is supposed to be one of the best ones so I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully the villain in the next arc is less of a freak, I'll admit I didn't really like the second arc all that much and the villain had a good bit to do with that. I'm also happy about the fairy tail announcement, I haven't watched it yet but I was planning to and was put off when I heard it was getting canceled, but the news it's getting continued has made me interested in checking it out again.

It ended as it caught up to the manga and they didn't do a filler arc.

And I hated Sugou and what he did to Asuna. As for the bad guy if you saw the Extra edition episode you'll have seen the bad guy for the next arc

Ah so that's why the first fairy tail series stopped. Well that's good to hear, honestly I wish more series went with the stopping when they catch up to the source material approach. And I guess I'll just have to wait to see the villain for the next arc then, I skipped the extra edition special since it sounded like a recap episode with the obligatory beach style episode added in and I'm not really a fan of those sorts of episodes.

Yeah that's what it is

Which FT figure should I get?

Lucy 1


Lucy 2

Though if I get Lucy 2 I feel like I'd have to get these as well..

Wendy

Erza

Out of those two I'd go for the first one.

Lucy 1 then?

Well ultimately it's your choice, so I say pick whichever you like the best.

Yeah I decided to get Lucy 1 as I want a different Erza if they ever make any more

I finished Gurren Lagann yesterday, it certainly lived up to its reputation.  The fights went beyond awesome and in to insane territory by the end of the series, and the cast was mostly very loveable.  The music was also really awesome, and I'll be making sure to grab a copy of the soundtrack in the near future, while I'm sure most peoples favourite themes are the obvious libra me from hell and so on, mine are these.  Spinning Spinning spinning Spin!, Spinning Spinning Spinning Spiiinniiing, and The Blue Monday Electrical Parade.  

Now for the cons, what few I have.  

Major spoilers:

Yeah I can be a sap sometimes, so I guess it wasn't really a con since it did what was intended.

Yeah I wouldn't really call it a con. Plus at least they got married

Ooh yes, that is not a happy moment.  My major major low point of the series was Yoko. 14-year-old fanservice, and the kiss of death thing. Pretty great otherwise!

In other news I see Shonen's big 3 are back this week which is good as really want to see what happens in One Piece with "him" being alive.
And Nisekoi anime started last week and got a good reception which is good. (For me, do like the series)

Balladeer wrote:

Ooh yes, that is not a happy moment.  My major major low point of the series was Yoko.  14-year-old fanservice, and the kiss of death thing.  Pretty great otherwise!

Wait, Yoko was only 14? On the bright side Yoko by the end of the series was older than most heroins in anime! And unlike a certain other famous mecha series that has received some reboot movies they didn't create some bull excuse to keep her at 14.


In other news I started watching Chunibyo yesterday and finished the first season. Normally I wouldn't watch shows of this genre as they usually from what I can tell just end up being harem fanservice series but gave this a shot because I was bored and the studio behind it has a good track record and as the saying goes you should always try new things. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. The first half was fantastic and the second half kept a good amount of comedy mixed with some satisfying character development.

I just bought another Kousaka Kirino figurine. It's my sixth one. I need to stop doing this.

I'm starting to get worried about my Lucy figure as I ordered it last Tuesday and it was shipped on the Wednesday last week and with it now being a week and 2 days and no figure I'm wondering what is taking her so long to get here from Sydney..
And the tracker number is "invalid" according to Aus Post..   

I'm finding each episode of Golden Time to absolutely sail by.