efaardvark

Love this stuff. Been a fan since Animusic 1. For those unfamiliar with Animusic, every note in the audio is keyed to a visual in the animation. You'll want to watch this as well as listen to it... I think I still prefer the first album though...

I don't think I'll ever understand the "shipping" phenomenon. Then again I didn't get pet rocks or pokemon go either. As long as you're having fun it's all good.

Engaged to the Unidentified seems like it fits all your criteria. The guy is the supernatural "creature" and the girl is human. The whole supernatural thing is played down however. The guy barely even speaks for the whole series, never mind does anything interesting. Definitely not one of those action shows where the guy(s) transforms into superdude every show to save the heroine from this week's bad guy. (Though he did come through in a pinch to save her life, even that event is background that happened before the series even started.) Another thought if you're after the "reverse-harem with a supernatural aspect" thing then you might try Hiiro no Kakera. The heroine is human and though she has some inherited power that puts her nominally in charge she doesn't have a clue how to use it. For the entire series she's basically in exactly the same situation as Nanami in Kamisama Hajimemashita while the guys use their powers to protect her.

Doing the 3-episode thing on Kuzu no Honkai to see if I want to add it to my "to-do" list. Seems like just a bunch of messed-up people though. Not looking for another psychotic love triangle (quadrilateral? pentagram?) here! Anyone know how it turns out? No spoilers please, just warn me if it is going to be another School Days so I can blacklist it.

I don't see Inu X Boku Secret Service in your list & it seems like it might be a fit. Sorry, that's all I got. Not that familiar with the (sub?)genre.

The first season of Clannad I thought was kind of boring tbh. It is a somewhat odd HS hatsukoi story. That's not really my thing and I actually dropped it about halfway through. I only came back to it later, after I'd heard everyone talk about After Story. So I started watching that. I almost dropped After Story too, but it started to get more interesting in the second half. I stuck with it and towards the end I found I'd gotten more invested in the characters and the story got pretty good. There's also an episode that briefly takes you back to the beginning, so I thought I'd start the first season over with After Story in mind. I wound up watching the whole thing, both seasons, start to finish all over again and came away with a much better impression of both seasons overall. Taken in combination with After Story, the first season is pretty good. It is silly and juvenile, but that's the way high school is. In that context it's fine. Without giving too much away, later Tomoya and Nagisa grow up and a lot of the silliness goes away. It is actually pretty intense in places. The ending was a bit too much "and then a miracle happens" for my realist sensibilities but it did bring together all the separate threads nicely, and like I said it did make me want to go watch the whole thing again. Often the second season seems "extra", or somewhat separate from the first. Sometimes it even seems like just a contrived and obvious attempt to cash in on the popularity of the first season. I didn't get any of that with After Story. It was definitely different in tone from the first season, but the transition was nearly seamless (After Story picks up exactly where Clannad leaves off) and the character progression from there is sensible and in character. There's a bit of suspense in the threading - what's with the girl and the robot and the funny, glowing lights anyway? - but it all gets taken care of. I think they did a really good job.

For some reason I got the urge to queue up Planetes for a rewatch this evening.

Today I'm on a metal kick. I put Blind Guardian on shuffle after lunch & currently am listening to The Curse Of Fëanor from their Nightfall in Middle Earth album album. Any fans of Tolkien's The Silmarillion out there? Prior to that it was A Past and Future Secret from (IIRC) Imaginations from the Other Side.

I had the same problem with star-thatcoffeplacethatshallnotbenamed-bucks. Ugh. I don't know how people drink that stuff. The only way I can tolerate it is if I add tons of sugar, cream, salt, caramel syrup, and everything else to kill the bitter "coffee" taste. Of course then it costs $$. Not to mention adds about 300 calories/sip. (And there's my girlish figure to consider.*) But there's other coffees I can tolerate, even enjoy, even though I don't care for coffee in general. With both beverages the trick is to find something you like and go with that. It may take a while with tea. One reason I prefer tea is because there is so much variety. Breakfast teas, oolong, herbal, "chai" (usually meaning spiced tea, of which I'm not a fan either btw), matcha, rooibos, green, black, white, yellow... (*not really. )

Felt like a Monday. Yesterday we had some equipment malfunction and misplace a bunch of data at work. Today we got to go and find it (the data), (re)process it, and send it to the relevant owners. The data was from a science and relay satellite so we also had to take 1000s* of calls from scientists, engineers, and relay customers, all asking variations of "where's my data?" and/or "is it done yet?". I think I got it all taken care of, but it was a long day. I didn't even get a chance to eat lunch! Fortunately where I work they run a 9/80 work schedule (9-hour work days M-Th, with 8hr Fridays and alternate Fridays off) and today was one of the off-work Fridays so a lot of people won't hear about it until next week, and by then it'll be old news. Monday the email storm will start though. Probably a few 1000 more phone calls too. Happy Monday! <blech> On top of that I think I'm coming down with a cold. (*ok, maybe only a few hundred & it just seemed like more.)

Tea, definitely. Kettles and kettles of tea.

"S'Mores" cookies and tea... girl scout cookie season here.

If you just watched the first 2 episodes of the 3-episode "prequel", "Hoshi Matsu Hito" (aka "Those Awaiting a Star"), then yeah, I'd give it another try. The background episodes in the prequel (and even the first episode of the main show as well) are kind of downers, but it's been different & getting better from there as Chise settles into a new home and comes into her own powers. Kind of slow in places so if you're into action then it might not be your thing. I'm ok with the more laid-back pacing tho, and I'm liking the artwork too.

Hmmm... not offhand. I'd have to reach a bit for the older Ah! My Goddess!, but that's getting more into harem which may not be what you're after. If you're into the supernatural aspect then I'll also say I really like what I've seen so far of Ancient Magus' Bride. Also (re: Blue Exorcist) maybe Strike The Blood? Similar vibe, though I have to admit I didn't finish BE. Good luck!

If you liked that then you might want to check out Kamisama Hajimemashita It's a bit different but kind of in the same vein.

Off the top of my head it would have to be Clannad. The first season isn't that bad. It is just a somewhat odd - and boring, tbh - HS hatsukoi story. In fact, I dropped the first season when it first aired and then had to come back to it after seeing the end of the second. (Now though.. just remembering that first line, "kono machi wa kirai da", makes me want to go watch it all again.) Even After Story takes a while to get started. But then it gets serious! Like wife-and-kids, life-and-death serious. Poor Tomoya.. first Nagisa (OMG!), then Ushio too just as he's getting his act together again! I wanted to yell at the writers to stop jerking him around. Even the side arcs are basically built on sad. Especially Misae's, or Fuuko's. Quite the roller-coaster. So much sad. Not all, fortunately, but I don't want to give anything away for anyone who hasn't seen it. (Note though, I strongly recommend the Japanese-audio version. The English voicing/dub kind of messed up Nagisa's character and significantly changed the tone of the whole story. IMHO, YMMV, etc.) Honorable mentions to AnoHana and Shigatsu Kimi no Uso.

It's there. Usually I find it mildly cringeworthy. Occasionally it achieves amusing or annoying status. Most animes could easily do without it. Very rarely does it add anything significant to a story. When I do come across it I generally just ignore it. I tend to not care for the types of animes that are the worst offenders anyway (harem/romance).

53, male.. been enjoying anime basically my whole life. Hyakujuu-Ou GoLion (known as Voltron here in the States), Kaze no Tani no NausicaÄ (aka NausicaÄ of the Valley of the Wind), Uchuu Senkan Yamato (Space Battleship Yamato), and Mach GoGoGo (Speed Racer) are some of the anime titles I grew up with. I'm also a big (book) reader as well as anime watcher and in both media I tend to like "hard" sf themes best. Planetes and Ghost in the Shell are two of my favorites from recent years. Then again I'm presently enjoying Ancient Magus' Bride too. I'm a believer in the Three Episode Rule and my tastes are pretty eclectic. My preferences may have changed over the years, but "anime" is like "books" or "movies". A different medium is all. The variety of stories means there's something for everyone, everywhere, everywhen.

Oh no! I started bingeing Ancient Magus' Bride. I was going to just watch the fist half/season but it was too good and I didn't (couldn't) stop! Now up to ep15 (the latest on Crunchy) and I have to wait a week. And then another week after that. And then another. And another. Nine more weeks! Aaarrrgtpft! I hate it when this happens!

Just about to start this one myself...

iPhone 5S. (It was the cheapest smartphone my cell company was offering when my old phone broke.)

I actually have a friend from HS who was/is a voice actor. I kind of knew anime existed before that, and I'd even watched a bit, but I got more interested and started actively seeking it out after hearing her talk about the work she was doing. Back then it was a bit difficult to find a lot of anime over here in the US - occasional Westernized versions of stuff like Nausicaä or Voltron on network TV was about it - but following some of the work she's done over the years was motivation to dig a bit deeper or pay more attention than I might otherwise. I'd usually look to see what came out every season, and look in the credits to see if she'd had a part in a new title. That sort of thing. Kind of kept me motivated and interested back before the 'Net or streaming services when I might have otherwise gone astray due to lack of material.