What's the last anime you've seen?

[Mad Hatteress]

It really felt like it was to me. Especially the first episode.

How much did you see? Yeah, the first episode is totally a gore fest of ripped off limbs flying everywhere but after that it does dive into characters' pasts, which are still pretty brutal, but it becomes thought provoking in how disturbing it is. This is coming from someone who normally gets pissed off by so much gore and wonders how sick a person has to be to enjoy such things.

[ElricJC]

It was necessary to have the early gore to establish the Lucy character, but as the show developed it relied less and less on it, but still had to show the violent, hateful side of her. But the last episode was one of the best "open" endings I have seen. The show has its flaws, and they are many, but it really questioned what makes someone innocent, and when that seems to be lost is there any way to come back from the trauma and the hate?

[Foggle]

I'm not trying to say that the story itself or the thought-provoking aspects of it are bad, because they aren't. I just didn't like the show because it seemed to me that the characters were bland and made using a cookie-cutter, and that the violence could have been toned down or done more tastefully and it still would have proven its point just as well, if not better.

[Poey]

Actually, I thought about the relatively simple characters and compared it to something like Evangelion (a show with REALLY complicated characters, and a show with depth). Elfen Lied, unlike Eva, is only 13 episodes long. So it focused on other things... memories, experiences, love, morality, etc. It doesn't really focus on CHARACTER motivations and things the same way as something like Eva does, and I think that's justified simply because of the short length of the show. The character motivations and such relied on simple things (a couple college students, a child who was abused, etc) to save time. That's what I think.

Also, I think the violence was ABSOLUTELY justified because of the huge contrasts of the show. To me the show was two huge extremes - peace, and violence. In the first episode alone... you have the scene with Lucy escaping, and then suddenly you see Khota and Yuka in this nice little happy world with happy music and whatnot. Lucy herself is the personification of these extremes... Lucy, and Nyu. One of the themes of the show (to me) is the unification of these two extremes, or what connects them. And the answer? ....Love? haha... cheesy perhaps, but it's one answer.

[Poey]

My point being: I don't see it as shallow, mindless violence and nudity. It's obviously a huge staple of the anime, but... blah.

[Mad Hatteress]

Thanks a lot for explaining it better than I ever could, Elric and Poey.

[exckilla]

Hmm, it was a very good series, it was ashame elfen lied was a little too short, I felt 13 episodes was not enough.  I did like when they revealed the final di-clonius, certainly saw that one coming.  Anyone here ever got in samurai X, I tried to but lost interest in it.  Is there any decent anime you can recommend on it's way to the U.K. I need anime

[Mad Hatteress]

Hmm, it was a very good series, it was ashame elfen lied was a little too short, I felt 13 episodes was not enough.  I did like when they revealed the final di-clonius, certainly saw that one coming.

I still wish they'd release the manga. It sounded amazing. 

Is there any decent anime you can recommend on it's way to the U.K. I need anime

Is anime not released as much there as in the US? Since I'm pretty ignorant to that information I'm not sure if I should try suggesting any or not. Sorry if I repeat one that you've already seen; it's hard to remember who's seen what.

Based on your tastes, I think that maybe the only anime I've seen that you might enjoy is Paranoia Agent.

[exckilla]

I was tempted by paranoia agent, just planning what to buy next month apart from the rest of my ruddy christmas presents.

[ElricJC]

If you haven't seen it yet, Ergo Proxy was a pretty good series. Very dark but with some odd humor splashed in, you have to watch it at least twice to pick up on the things you missed the first time through, but it was a good, mature series. Last newer anime I really cared much for.

[exckilla]

That was another I was looking into, I gave burst angel a try but I was unimpressed, it would be nice if they released happy lesson in the UK, I do have the region 1 movies, but my previous multi purpose dvd died and I ended up buying a dvd/video combo region 2, though I did find one solution to my anime problem in terms of the region 1 stuff I own which is quite a bit, since I do own the original disc backing them up using a region code remover, but at moment I do not have the time or patience.

[ElricJC]

Burst Angel sucked, I posted a long diatribe on that piece of trash somewhere here in the past, but it just continued the same cliches of so many action animes, especially ones with a mainly female cast - such as the gun girl always wearing shorts or pants that are unbuttoned at the top and held up either by extreme tightness and/or some ridiculous belt. Seriously, go back and look at some other shows of the same type, it pops up a lot - Black Lagoon and Gurren Lagann are two recent examples. But beyond all that the Burst Angel characters were either actively repugnant or just utterly disinteresting.

[E^D Crow]

I really enjoyed Elfen Lied. And that's all I'm going to say about that.
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I finally bought Genshiken!  I already owned the manga, and both the Kujibiki Unbalance animé and manga, so I thought it was about damn time.  It's a great series.  I see parts of myself in each of these characters... manga, animé, games, cosplay, models... I am such an otaku.

Now, on to Genshiken Season 2!  Even though I already know the story (from reading, and re-reading, the manga), it's nice to see it animated.

One thing I have to say is that I'm really glad that they went in a whole different direction for the actual Kujibiki Unbalance animé, than what was included in the Genshiken DVDs (it's too confusing in the manga, so I can't have an opinion of that)...  I really liked the KujiUn animé (and manga) a lot more than the 3 "episodes" included with Genshiken.  If it was like that, I don't know if I would have liked it as much... then again, I think that was Kio Shimoku's intention with the animé-within-an-animé (or manga-within-a-manga):  I think the original idea for KujiUn was intentionally waaay out there, but when they made the 'actual' animé, and manga, they seriously put some thought into them.
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I've heard nothing but poor reviews of Burst Angel, and it looks like my instincts were right.  I thought about buying it (a long while ago) but decided not to, even though I dig the sexy character designs/outfits, that wasn't enough to justify a purchace.

E^D

[exckilla]

I manage to get hold of a cheap copy of volume 2 ad 6 of excel saga since my previous had died of over use, and a crappy dvd player, but then again thats what I get for being cheap.

[Lord Il]

If you haven't seen it yet, Ergo Proxy was a pretty good series. Very dark but with some odd humor splashed in, you have to watch it at least twice to pick up on the things you missed the first time through, but it was a good, mature series. Last newer anime I really cared much for.

Would you recommend this to buy? The series boxed set has been staring at me at my local HMV for the past few months. I've been cautious because I've heard people say that it's one of those series that you're either going to like or just hate.

I saw episode one a long time ago, but maybe I should see more first.