OJN Discussion #4: Our Love For Anime

Welcome to our OJN discussion.  This is a continuation from our last discussion as we go more in depth about Anime and why we enjoy it.

What Anime are you looking forward to in the upcoming months?

Draco - Though it is embarrassing to admit this, I really don’t keep up with the newest and upcoming releases. Don’t get me wrong though; I do have some series that have caught my eye. For example, Shinichiro Watanabe has a new series that is premiering in January called Space Dandy. I don’t know a whole lot about it, but I am looking forward to seeing what it will all be about. I managed to catch a trailer for it and must say that it looks pretty interesting.  Aside from that, I would also have to say Gundam Build Fighters. This one is based on simulated Gunpla battles. I recently bought my first Gunpla so I’m looking forward to how this series plays out.

Yours Truly - Honestly I’m not the type of anime fan that actually looks up upcoming anime. I’m quite lazy in that regard plus the anime I do end up watching I typically come across on Tumblr once it airs. So yeah, the next anime that I’m looking forward to is the one I’ll wash up on by random means lol!

Loli-chan -  One of the few animes I’m looking forward to is Saikin, Imoto no Yosu ga Chotto Okaishiin Da Ga. This will be airing in January 2014 but I’ll probably won’t start watching it till the end of May lol.

Ranzignus - Actually I’m with Draco on that. I don’t have to much of an idea whats coming up in the next couple months. Probably by the time I actually watch anything up and coming it will be like 2 years from now, lol.

What is your favorite Genre of Anime

YT - Oh man is this one of the easiest questions I’ve answered so far! By far my 2 top favorite genres of anime is magical girl and shounen ai HOHOHO! The aspects I love magical girl anime is watching the protagonist grow and realize her power. I’m a type of person that loves the very first episode of a given anime especially a magical girl anime. I get the see how a normal girl turns into something a lot bigger than she ever thought she could be. That and I love all the transformations, which is probably my favorite part of any magical girl anime honestly. I love the bright colors, the sparkles and the whole thing. It just makes me smile and I have no one to blame but Sailor Moon for that. The transformations are pretty top notch even in today’s anime by far. It’s hard to compete with. Besides that I love the somewhat cheesy plot, upbeat tone and vibrant colors that magical girl anime typically have. It’s apart of the experience for me when I do want to escape from regular life. I can go on forever but that is probably the top highlights.

As far as shounen ai… My god… What can’t I say. I honestly just love seeing guys do things that isn’t all that socially acceptable. Like having a lot of emotions, being really sensitive, vulnerable and most of all just falling in love with another man. Just seeing those emotions clash and the energy being played throughout is something I love to see over and over again. That and I just love guys with other guys *coughtokeepitclean*.

LC - I have several favorite genre lol they are action, adventure, horror, comedy, mystery, school life, slice of life, and magical girl. As you can see I like mostly all types of anime lol c:

D - Wow this is a tough one for me. I watch so many different genres and I’m sure that by now you are seeing a bit of a repeating theme. I have been known to watch a lot of action as seen in my sometimes over enthusiastic mentions of Dragonball Z in some of my previous anime posts. There is also my love for anything with suspense/mystery. When done right, an anime falling under this genre will really grab my attention. You can see this in my love for series like Death Note. There’s also magical girl (which I rarely watch though do enjoy when I do *coughMADOKAcough*), slice of life, and romance…..yes...I fucking said romance lol.

R - If there is one thing I like its a good school-life anime. They usually come with the most feels. Besides it usually hilarious to see what mischief that “regular” school kids get into every episode. A close second place belongs to Parody of course because that ish is always full of laughs to the tenth degree.

What is your favorite Theme Song to an Anime show?

LC - My favorite anime theme hands down is “Katayoku no Tori” by Akiko Shikata from Umineko no Naku Koro ni.  

R - Well if I had to choose one song I guess it would have to be “Core Pride” which is the opening to Blue Exorcist and performed by Uverworld.

D - Ranz likes an Uverworld song?! Oh man! I must agree with him though. It seems like anything that they touch turns to gold. They did one of my all time favorites, “D-technolife” which is one of the theme songs from Bleach. This song really gets me hyped up when I hear it. Picking one favorite is so unfair, but this comes pretty close to being number one.

YT - Good god this is a tough one since I like a lot of anime opening themes. But there is an anime I’m currently watching which I LOVE the opening theme to which is Rinbu - Revolution from Revolutionary Girl Utena. I not only like the music but the actual video of it as well, so whenever it comes on I can really enjoy myself watching it. In fact the soundtrack to that anime is great on it’s own and I would recommend it!

What Anime are you currently watching?

D - Well, if you’re keeping up with my current blog posts, I’m watching “Kids On The Slope”. It is pretty good so far actually. I think that it has potential to be really good, and I am saying this based on me not checking out any reviews online about it. Follow my anime Monday posts to keep up with my “What I’m Watching” series. Shameless self promotion there.

LC - Currently I’m not watching any anime. I will probably change this once I go on thanksgiving break. College is very stressful at the moment and has taken over my life. DX

R - I am in the process of watching several different things, First one up is something that Loli-Chan recommended to me which was “Hitman reborn”, next up I’m watching “Ikkitosen” and I am currently on the second season of that. I am on the last couple episodes of “Ben-to” Which was recommended to me by Draco’s younger brother JF Crazy. Usually I’m not into watching a bunch of different anime at one time but it seems that the time has come where I need to do so to keep up with everything I want to watch. Come to think of it I need to join Draco in watching “Attack on Titan” lol.

YT -  There is actually an anime that I’m keeping up with which so happens to be the same anime that my former answer came from! Revolutionary Girl Utena a total gem and classic of an anime. It’s one of my top favorites by far, I LOVE the show. It’s so different from a lot of the anime out there with it’s own unique added charms, it really captured my heart from the very beginning. I won’t go into the whole plot but the deeper aspects into the human psyche that it takes it’s inspiration from into each episode is something I truly appreciate. The characters are all fleshed out and have deep and meaningful backstories to them that make them who they are in the show. The relationships, allies and enemies that is made throughout the plot is something of a masterpiece and keeps me interested in what’s going to happen next. I highly recommend it, though it does have some light yuri undertones to it, but it’s subtle to the point I was able to overlook them for the show’s sake.

What Manga are you currently reading?

LC - The manga I am currently reading is something I’ve been reading for years and that is Naruto. I’m not even sure why I’m reading it anymore since its going down hill but I guess I just want to see how it ends at this point lol

D - I don’t read manga. The last one that I read was probably Naruto or Parallel back in 2006.

R - Shame on both of you...although just like Loli-Chan, I am also reading “Naruto” just to see how it ends as well...at least its not “Bleach”. I guess if it counts I need to finish “Battle Royale”. OH and finally start “Future Diary”

YT - I haven’t had a true manga series to keep up with for years sadly. I hate to be “that guy” but after 2006 manga went downhill for me, however I did see some titles that look promising the last time I was in the manga section of a bookstore a few weeks ago. I just remembered, I do have a short series (4 volumes)  that I’ve been reading. It’s called Momogumi Plus Senki, it’s pretty typical the whole one guy with guardians has to defeat demons to achieve ABC type of storyline but the actual characters makes plot. That and it has my yaoi undertones that I love … Yeah ... *Cough*

If you could make your own anime/manga what would it be called and what would it be about?

D - This is classified lol. I’m joking…..yet serious. I’ve written some stuff before but it has never seen the light of day. I like to play around with themes of teens with powers or the ability to manipulate ki. The whole idea of that has always been something that I wanted to write from start to finish. Don’t ask me to name it though. I’m horrible with names.

R - Well I’m not going to say I don’t have an idea or 7 written down somewhere but...one said idea is named “Rise of the Mainds” (don't ask me how to pronounce the last word I haven't figured it out the be cannon yet). I think that the whole premise of it was a kinda “X-men”/Avatar kinda thing. Its been awhile since I even took a look at it really. I did believe at one point it would be a great concept for a manga at least...not that I discredit myself now. Maybe I’ll pull it out, finish, and make it into an OJN production.

YT -  Wow this is a loaded question for me. As an anime artist and creative person in general I can probably spit out 10 basic ideas at you. I day dream so much that I would see the whole story play out in my head in an amazing way. It’s hard to answer this question for that reason alone, I have too many ideas lol! Even trying to find an old story is hard because I have so many mental paper balls with ideas on them in the back of my mind.

One idea that I would one day love to make into a comic is that artists from a popular art site gets sucked into another world where they have to fight each other. The kicker is that each artists fight with their own unique power based on that artist’s personality and skill. I made the concept into a contest on TheOtaku a few years back that was super successful, it had ton of entries so it might be worth considering making. I would base it off my own online experiences as an artist and even base a lot of the characters around real like people I’ve met.

LC - This is a tough question for me since I’m not that creative lol but if I did make an anime it would probably have to do with death, angels, and the four horsemen of the apocalypse. It would be very dark, scary, bloody, and a mystery.

Is there an anime that made you cry?

R - Well if there is one anime that I ALWAYS talk about that makes me cry its Clannad. Its probably the only anime that I can admit had me in manly tears of awesome XD. I can never recommend this anime enough, It pulls at the heart strings just enough to make you shed those tears.

LC - The only anime that I recall that gave me some slight “feels” is the part when my favorite character in Fullmetal Alchemist dies.

D - The award for saddest anime that I’ve ever seen in my life goes to *drum roll* ……”Grave of the Fireflies”. This anime movie was really sad. I’ve only seen it once after swearing off ever watching it again. Yes, I found it to be that sad. I think that is why I have been so reluctant to watch Clannad at Ranz’s recommendation.

YT - The only anime made me cry that I can remember was Wolf’s Rain. It was near the end if not the actual ending. Honestly the whole thing is kind of  fuzzy but I do remember the ending of the anime being incredibly sad especially since the plot itself was basically finding paradise in some form.    

Do you dislike any anime, if so which one and why?

D - Yes. I hated “Fighting Foodons”. Something about that series rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was just the dub. I mean it was on Fox Kids. It felt like a fake Pokemon. Actually, Ash needs to go eat Fried Ricer.

LC - Oh mai god yes! The one anime I can’t stand is The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya because its just so stupid and I cannot understand why people like it. From the characters to the story something about it made me want to flip a table.

R - Now I think Draco would have you believe that everything that I hate would have to do with some sort of mech...well thats not completely correct. Going off of that terrible time in the “Fox Box” my second most hated anime comes from there, “Ultimate Muscle”. I detest that show so much. BUT the biggest loser in my opinion is “HAMTARO”. I’m met with much opposition when I say this but its just one of those anime that I can’t stand for the life of me. Maybe its just that its cute and I can’t stand it? Maybe it was the fact that it was randomly on Toonami? Maybe I wasn't man enough for it...All I know is that he is on my shitlist  

YT - Okay Draco or Raz has no idea what they’re talking about, fighting foodons and Hamtaro was that hot shit in my opinion, but anyway… I have to agree, Ultimate Muscle was ultimate trash, as well as bobobo-bo bo-boboo. Also Escaflowne, Blood and Rin are fucking awful for so many reasons that I won’t go into. I can honestly say there are a lot more animes that I don’t like then I take credit for. But those are the main ones I could think of on the top of my head lol.

Favorite anime ending?

D - My all time favorite ending to a story in an anime would have to be the ending of Cowboy Bebop. It really wrapped a lot of different things up and kind of presented an unexpected ending. It was so cinematic with how the ending of the series lead to the series outro song. Genius!

LC - I’m going to have to agree with Draco. My favorite anime ending is from Cowboy Bebop.  From the animation to the way the story went into the ending song was simply amazing.

R - My favorite actually a pretty zany one. The end of “Excel Saga”. It ended as stupidly as it started, in a good way of course. Completely random and off the wall as expected of the series itself, funny part is even though its a short anime (about 24 eps) I missed just about half of it when I watched through the first time.

YT - I did recently see the ending to Digimon season 1 (you can watch both season 1 and 2 on Netflix) and it was incredibly heartfelt and real. There are so many anime endings that lack true substance that made you feel satisfied. In this, I felt so good about everything and how it came together. Even if it didn’t have a second season I would of felt good on the way it ended. It made me emotional too, I had to hold back the tears because how real the relationship between the digimon and the main characters have gotten. It was a good feeling.  

OJN Crew