Shinmaru

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About Shinmaru

  • Birthday 11/19/1985

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  1. The Girl Who Leapt through Time is awesome. I should watch it again some time. And, yeah, I saw New Wings, along with the first season of Kaleido Star. Loved it just as much as the first season, even if May and Leon are super annoying through most of it (although they are supposed to be, so it's easy to forgive). At the ending, after man, it's just magic. Haven't felt that kind of emotion since I finished Eureka Seven.
  2. Ferris Bueller is my favorite. As for his best, I really want to say Planes, Trains & Automobiles, but it's been a while since I watched it, so I'd have to see it again to be sure.
  3. I really should visit this place more often ... Anyway, amusingly enough, I ended up putting off Gundam SEED until yesterday (through ep5 right now), but I did finish off some other shows in the meantime. -- Azumanga Daioh: Yes, somehow I had never watched this before. Loved it from start to finish, still completely hilarious and fresh. -- Kanon (2006): Very good series, although as far as KyoAni is concerned, I think both Clannad and Air are a step above it. But, hell, being KyoAni's third best series is nothing to sneeze at. -- Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Like it, but damn, there are so many annoying/frustrating characters. Don't think I've ever been that irritated at a show I enjoyed overall. -- Kaleido Star: Absolutely brilliant. Amazing, even. Nothing but great things to say about this series -- love the sheer guts and grit of Sora, and the wonderful payoff of all her hard work. One of my five favorite series now. -- Hayate no Gotoku: Fun series. Nothing amazing, and it really drags in the middle, but when it just does straight comedy with tons of parody, it's quite enjoyable. -- Claymore: Once the show gets rolling it's great entertainment, even if the ending is kind of lousy. -- Speed Grapher: Good, but it just lacks that certain something that would have pushed it into "great" territory. -- Fullmetal Alchemist: Yet another super popular series that I had somehow not seen before. Solid show. Pretty much everything I like about shounen series without too much of the bad.
  4. K-On! is a fun little show. Ep3 is the funniest of the series so far, I think, so you'll have something to look forward to. I'll be watching ep4 in a few minutes, myself, haha. Some of the best shows of the current season, for anyone interested: FMA: Brotherhood (this is especially cool for me, since I never watched the original series, nor have I read the manga -- please be kind, haha), Eden of the East, Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~, Sengoku Basara and Valkyria Chronicles. Coincidentally, I am also starting Gundam SEED soon, although I will be seeing it for the first time.
  5. I enjoyed this. Gankutsuou is a recent favorite of mine. Totally agree with you about Jouji Nakata -- I'd heard him in a couple of anime prior (most notably X), but his performance as the Count absolutely floored me. It's as close to perfect as any voice acting performance I have ever heard. Kikuko Inoue's performance is a good shout, as well. I like that she plays a character similar to the ones she's normally cast as, but there's a darkness to Inoue's character that separates her from, say, Belldandy or Sanae from Clannad. And, personally, I adore Gankutsuou's art style. It is unique and incredibly lively.
  6. Ooh, good choice at No. 1. I recently watched Gankutsuou and loved it. The plot and characters had me gripped from scene one, and the visuals are outstanding. Baccano! is fun, too. Episode one is so insanely confusing on first watch that I wasn't sure how well I could keep track of everything, but the series does a remarkable job of juggling a crapload of characters, plots and timelines. Adolescence of Utena just barely missed my top 10 movies. My favorite part is My top 10 anime has updated since I posted. It now looks like this: 1. Revolutionary Girl Utena 2. Monster 3. Eureka Seven 4. RahXephon 5. Gankutsuou 6. Ouran High School Host Club 7. Cowboy Bebop 8. Clannad 9. Honey and Clover 10. Saikano Honey and Clover is a wonderful, surprisingly mature romantic comedy. It never takes the easy way out with the characters or romance, and the emotional payoffs in the end are (mostly) excellent because of that.
  7. Thanks! I plan to spend the day bumming around and buying a gift for a friend whose birthday is also this week. Life is pretty sweet. :happy:
  8. It's been a couple of years since we had this topic, so I figure it is fair game. Everyone's lists have to have changed at least a bit -- I know mine is drastically different now. Feel free to mix series and movies in your list. I'm going to make separate lists, because it would take me forever to compile a mixed list, haha. Favorite anime: 1. Revolutionary Girl Utena 2. Monster 3. Eureka Seven 4. RahXephon 5. Ouran High School Host Club 6. Cowboy Bebop 7. Clannad 8. Saikano 9. Gurren Lagann 10. Boogiepop Phantom Utena is my favorite because it is the most daring, off-kilter series I have ever seen. It's quite bizarre, and it doesn't always work, but when it does, Utena is magic. Monster is an excellent thriller and has my favorite protagonist and antagonist in all of anime. Eureka Seven is just wonderful -- excellent character development, brilliant action and one of the most positive experiences I've had watching anime. Can't imagine anyone being unhappy after finishing it. RahXephon has dropped a bit for me, but I still appreciate it for being an excellent, human story. Ouran is just friggin' hilarious and has great characters. Cowboy Bebop is what hooked me onto anime; I'll always have love for it. Clannad is a great mix of drama and humor, and it is gorgeous to boot. Saikano, well, I think that the very act of making my top 10 is a testament to how superb the second half of the anime is, especially since I didn't enjoy the first few episodes quite as much as I would have liked. Gurren Lagann is just crazy, over the top fun. Been a while since I watched Boogiepop Phantom, but thinking about it still gives me the creeps, haha. Favorite movies: 1. Grave of the Fireflies 2. 5 Centimeters Per Second 3. The Place Promised in Our Early Days 4. The Girl Who Leapt through Time 5. Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade 6. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind 7. Spirited Away 8. The Castle of Cagliostro 9. Perfect Blue 10. Voices of a Distant Star Grave of the Fireflies is still one of the most painful, moving movies I have ever seen, animated or not. 5 Centimeters Per Second, The Place Promised in Our Early Days and Voices of a Distant Star are all wonderful, gorgeous movies from Makoto Shinkai. If you love animation, even if you are not fond of anime, you need to see these movies, if only to be floored by the visuals (although I think the stories are solid or better in all of them). I am a mark for time travel stories, and The Girl Who Leapt through Time is one of the more fun, joyous time travel stories I can remember. Jin-Roh is excellent -- Kazuki Fuse is one of the best characters I've seen in an anime movie. Nausicaa and Spirited Away are both high quality movies from Hayao Miyazaki; I think I prefer Nausicaa because the title character is a good, inspiring heroine. The Castle of Cagliostro is just a boatload of fun, as expected from Lupin III. Perfect Blue is the kind of mindscrew movie I enjoy when it is done right. So there you go. How about everyone else?
  9. I just finished Saikano, and it is one of the saddest series I have ever seen, if not the saddest. Ep9 is particularly heartbreaking, although there is a bit of plot manipulation on the part of the writers to get to that point. However, the emotional power of the ending is undeniably amazing. I rarely cry when watching anime (or anything, really), but that episode did it for me. Only thing I don't like about the series is that it starts slow -- at least, for me it does. How quickly you get into it depends on how quickly you get into the relationship between Chise and Shuji, I think, because it carries the show. I didn't really get into it until around ep5, which, ironically, is when
  10. I actually liked the second movie much more than the first. The first is dull as all hell because it's a complete retread of the manga/anime, except in live action, so it's not as stylish or interesting. I did like the last half hour or so more, if only because it's something different, even if it is silly and contrived (then again, as good as it is, Death Note is often silly and contrived, haha).
  11. All movie edition right here ... -- The Boondock Saints: It fails in just about everything it sets out to do. I will never understand how this movie ever got so popular. -- Oldboy: Maybe the most frustrating thing about the movie is that it actually does do a lot of things well, but the story is absolutely god awful by the end and had me ready to claw my eyes out in frustration. -- Fight Club: Well, I don't really hate it, but the ridiculous fanboys make me want to hate it. -- The Graduate: Again, I don't hate it, but I thought it was boring and unfunny a lot of the time. -- Paprika: For the anime fans. It looks great, but the story is kind of dull. Perfect Blue is a better Satoshi Kon mindscrew movie.
  12. Man, I am watching so much stuff from the current season. I'll just give the rundown on the shows I am actually enjoying ... Chaos;Head -- Solid on the horror and mystery front, and all the characters show potential to be quite awesome by the end of the series. The protagonist, Takumi, is really creepy; the random delusions he sees straddle the line between horrifying and hilariously perverted. This is my kind of series. Clannad ~After Story~ -- Loved the first season of Clannad, and I definitely love this. First four eps have been excellent; the climactic scene in ep4 is one of the best in the series so far. Hyakko -- Just mindless fun. Kannagi -- Basically the same as Hyakko. Kurozuka -- Best action series of the season. The fight scenes are beautifully animated (and bloody as hell). There are some similarities to Mnemosyne, which is a series I enjoyed quite a bit. Story takes a huge turn after ep2; I'm curious to see where it's going. Mouryou no Hako -- Confusing as hell, but, man, oh man, does it ever have a wonderful atmosphere. It nails every emotion it goes for in every scene and does it so effortlessly that I can't help but love it. Seems like this is the type of series that will reveal its secrets slowly. I'm going to enjoy the ride. Shugo Chara! Doki -- Um, yes. Love Shugo Chara! and am sure I will love this, even if the first two episodes have been mainly recaps (much to my annoyance). Toradora! -- Definitely the romantic comedy to beat this season. The relationship between Taiga and Ryuji is pulled off so well, and the series is actually taking some chances with the way it's building the story, which is very refreshing.
  13. I actually saw for the first time (yes, I know) a couple of weeks ago. It's as awesome as I hoped it would be. Also, I would say this is an example of a movie being better than its literary source. And, yes, I think that about the girl in the movie, too, haha. did not surprise me in the least.
  14. Joan Allen, 52 EDIT: Total name fail on my part, haha.