Animedragon

Just watched Sound! Euphonium again. Nice little Slice-of-Life series about a high school concert band and their aim to enter a band competition. As is so often the case with this type of series it's the characters and the interactions between them that make the series so enjoyable to watch.

Yard

Obscure

Noir has quite a high 'body count' per episode. Mireille and Kirika are highly trained and deadly assassins, but they're up against a determined adversary and can't afford to make mistakes.

Water

I've just finished Saikano. The series is subtitled "The last love song on this little planet", is one of those series that doesn't quite fit into any genre. The story is based on an interesting concept, what would you do if you suddenly found out that your girlfriend was no longer completely human and had somehow been turned into a living weapons system that could destroy a whole city in the blink of an eye? At its heart it's a slice-of-life love story that takes place amid the background of a global war. There are definite Sci-Fi elements and there's also plenty of action scenes. Some of the events in the story are quite sad and will make you think.

Number

My favourite non-anime series are (in no particular order): The Prisoner (the original series not the remake) M*A*S*H Thunderbirds (the original series not the animated remake)

Clanad, Kanon and Air are often thought of together as all three are from Kyoto Animation and based on visual novels by Key and all have a similar basic storyline and share some plot elements, although they are all quite different stories. Clanad and Kanon are very popular, Air less so mainly I think becuase it's much shorter than the other two and suffers as a result as there's not enough time to develop the story properly.

Yes, that clip comes from You're Under Arrest. But the two lady cops from YUA are nothing like the Dirty Pair, they don't blow up, destroy and otherwise wreck everything they get involved with.

The series with the Dango and the girl with a starfish obsession is Clanad. The one where the girl is always saying "Gao" is indeed Air. Kanon is a series with some rather weird storylines. When I first saw it I thought is was a good series, then a few years later I decided I didn't like it, now a few years later on again it's one of my favouries. Air is one of those series I really can't get my head round. It's a good story up to a point, I really don't understand how or why the main guy became a bird to my mind that ruins an otherwise good story. Then there's the second series that makes no sense at all. I think the main problem is that the series was too short to tell the story properly.

I've recently watched several of those already mentioned and would agree that they are forgotten gems. As my contribution to this topic I'd like to offer "Kurogane Communication" a series from 1998 which is made up of 24 episodes each running for 15 minutes. It's another of those "Post apocoliptic World" series where mankind develped sentient war machines that were so efficient that they wiped out their creators. The story centres around a young girl who is believed to be the last remaining human and is being cared for by a group of five sentient robots. Life is not easy of course because the war machines are still active and out to destroy anything thing they encounter. The story is well told and intersting to watch.

Welcome aboard. I hope you enjoy it here.

I've just been watching "Someday's Dreamers" a 12 part slice of life series from 2002. It's a series that's seemingly been forgotten over the years, which is a shame because it's a quiet peaceful series with a good storyline and great characters. This is a happy upbeat series but part of the last episode is going to resonate with anyone who has lost a loved one.

Just finished Kanon, I always enjoy watching this series because it has a good story and an interesting cast of characters. It tells quite a serious story but it's not without some amusing incidents and there's some really good banter between some of the characters, both in the dialogue and visually.

The whole discipline thing is a complex issue with so many variables; home environment, parents, peer groups etc. I don't think anyone has really come up with an effective way of both punishing people and teaching them to be a better member of society.

It was a bit scary, but it kept everyone in line. While I agree with banning the use of the cane I think the problem is that there was no suitable and effective replacement. A couple of my friends used to be teachers and said that without any effective form of punishment for wrongdoing the unruly students just looked at them and said "so what are you going to do about it?" knowing full well that there wasn't much the teacher could do.

I was in school during the 1960's and I guess things have changed a bit since then. Actually my old school wasn't a bad school, it just wasn't a very good one. Very few of the teachers were any good a passing on their knowledge.

When I was at school sleeping at your desk would get you into serious trouble and usually meant being sent to the headmaster's study. One of my teachers threw things at sleepers, usually whatever he had to hand, and his aim was deadly accurate! Sleeping anywhere else in the school was very high risk because the school bullies would do nasty things to you, or your stuff, or both, while you were sleeping.

I never could get the hang of Thursdays.... <checks calendar>.. Hang on, it's Wednesday today.

I've just finished Madoka Magica and the movie. The TV series is excellent. The Rebellion move rather less so. I think they vastly overdid the surreal graphics (have they not heard the saying "less is more"?). I think it would have been a far better movie if they'd concentrated more on clearly telling the story rather than all the weird graphics. But I guess that's what happens when you let a production team go for maximum visual impact rather than story development. The term "style over substance" comes to mind. I don't really see the point of the movie, unless it's extract a bit more cash from the franchise, because the TV series has quite a conclusive finale.

I don't have any tattoos or piercings, and I don't want any. Personally I don't understand why anyone would want a tattoo, I especially can't understand why someone would want their whole arm or body covered in tattoos, but it's their choice so I just accept it and don't make any comments. Then again I do things that some others wouldn't do and don't understand why I do, so each to their own.

Yes, the practicality of the merchandise on sale at the last couple of conventions I went to had dropped quite a lot. Most of the stuff I bought was more in the way of memorabilia of the series I liked, if I had a model, CD or art book it was like I had 'part' of the series. I have to say that I find the idea of a body pillow with a waifu printed on it just a tiny bit creepy. I think the coolest thing I bought at a con was the Totoro.

The anime merchandise available at conventions 17 to 20 years ago largely consisted of art books for various series which had some really beautiful pictures in them, all the text was in Japanese but that didn't matter the books were worth buying just to look at the pictures. Other items were original soundtrack CDs with most of the track lists in Japanese (sometimes I could find translations on the 'Net), enamel pin badges were also a common item. There was usually a small collection of character figures and model kits, the the size of the packaging meant that the dealers couldn't get many of them in their cars. One year there was a stall selling anime plush toys and I got a rather nice Totoro who stands about a foot high to the tip of his ears. 17 to 10 years ago the rot started to set in with more and more dealers selling locally produced stuff and not all of it was properly licenced, and some of the soundtrack CDs were pirate copies, some of which were really professionally produced and not easy to spot.

A while back I read somewhere that some anime studios produce series just to sell merchandise, they're not really bothered about the story just as long as its got cute girls they can sell models and other stuff of. The trouble is that if they keep doing that eventually people will get fed up with generic series and stop buying them. About 10 years a go I used to regularly atend anime conventions and I saw the contents of the dealer's rooms slowly change from quality original Japanese merchandise to items produced by Western companies who were jumping on the merch bandwagon. Some of the stuff was good, but most wasn't.