(no subject)

[rachelmanija]

[Poll #921214]

Comments

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I've only seen Mirage of Blaze on that list. I found it very depressing and confusing, but YMMV.

[the_rck]

I also found Mirage of Blaze confusing. From what I understand, the main problem is that it's one of those animes based on a small part of a huge series of novels. The underlying story is interesting, and the characters have some depth, but most of that isn't fully realized in the anime.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

Do NOT bring Paranoia Agent if you dont want anything depressing. Hikaru No Go, Naruto and "Twins Effect 2" are all good mind fluff, but you'll probably want something filling to go with them.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I didn't find PA depressing, because I didn't find any of the characters sympathetic enough to care about. It was more of a "Let's see if I can figure out what's going on" thing that kept me watching.

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

Same here. I'd call Paranoia Agent "disturbing and mind-bending," maybe, but not depressing.

[yeloson.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much how I felt about Requiem for a Dream, surprisingly.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Without going into spoiler territory, what did you think of the ending? I found it weak.

Did you ever end up watching all of The Melancholy of [name that is too ass-long for a stupid Westerner like me to remember unless it is just Suzihara, which I don't think it is, at least not spelled like that]? I watched bits of the first episode and perhaps got a mistaken impression of it. This past winter vacation I gave it another try and liked it well enough.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much. But OTOH, I can't figure out a better way for it to have ended. Oh well. It was interesting up until then, though.

Nope, never finished it. I never got around to downloading the rest of the episodes once a friend figured out an end-run around my ISP's block. XD

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

I love Hikaru no Go so much! It is very faithful to the manga, so I guess some people feel like it doesn't add much to the manga, but for me the voicework is pretty good and the music adds a lot. Plus, in my case, I saw the anime before the manga.

Paranoia Agent has some good crack, except that the ending was disappointing, which is why I didn't vote for it. Plus, maybe yeloson is right about it being depressing, too, to boot.

[m00nface.livejournal.com]

Selfish, but I'd love to know what you think of Gankutsuou, if not now then at some other point. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I know a lot of people as put off by the visuals as I was entranced by them, so there are no guarantees. I loved it though, and would happily watch it again.

[marith.livejournal.com]

Paranoia Agent is not what I would call cheerful, no. Disturbing and ultimately clever. Also possibly squickful depending on your psychlims.

Gankutsuo is all about the Impending Doom from the very first frame - it's revenge drama set in futuristic superdecadent Parisian society. If a sense of Impending Doom doesn't bother you, then no it's not depressing. (And the visuals, zomg.)

Neither one is even a tenth as depressing as Saikano, if that helps as a benchmark.

[larryhammer]

Yes, but Saikano bends the curve for depressing the way a Math Olympian bends the curve for an intro trig class -- incalculably.

---L.

[rilina.livejournal.com]

I only voted for H&C and Spooks, because I am not rational on the subject of these shows! Also, I think H&C will be a fun one to watch with Oyce. :)

[literaticat.livejournal.com]

i picked sarah waters movie fest because they are the only ones i've ever heard of.

also, i liked them - but not as much as i liked the books.

if i recall correctly, they were both very faithful adaptations, but due to time constraints had to condense certain elements, which made for less suspense.

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

The person I trust most on anime despised the H&C ending so much that it caused a swear-word-filled post to his LJ.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

First season or second?

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

I have no idea, actually.

[dragovianknight.livejournal.com]

Don't take Chrono Crusade if you don't want depressing.

[octopedingenue]

NOT PARANOIA AGENT

OR AT LEAST NOT PARANOIA AGENT AFTER DARK


but yes to Rose of Versailles shojo analyses please!

[octopedingenue]

Also I vote for episode 101 of Naruto, so that I can use this icon.

[octopedingenue]

And this one!

[rilina.livejournal.com]

That episode makes me laugh and laugh--further proof that my mental age continue to regress back toward 12.

[pzb.livejournal.com]

Chrono Crusade can get pretty heavy.... Still good though - just don't watch the last two episodes if you don't want anything horribly depressing. XD

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

_Dunbine_ is a Tomino show. Need I say more?

OTOH, you CANNOT go wrong with the Rose of Versailles. I'd suggest pairing it with TV Utena if you really want your head to do a Linda Blair.

Aura Battler Dunbine and Tomino

[liquid-identity.livejournal.com]

ABD isn't his most depressing work (Zambot and Ideon are probably the worst cases of his "kill-em-all" side; Victory Gundam is up there too).

I don't think everything of his is stellar; Brain Powerd, for example, is kinda hit-and-miss (it also tried too hard to be "better" than Evangelion).

Aura Battler Dunbine is dated, but it isn't horrible.

[greenapple2004.livejournal.com]

The ending of Chrono Crusade made me cry my eyes out, but I actually didn't consider it depressing. It's a flawed series, with pacing issues and a great concept that isn't ever explored quite as well as I wanted it to be, but nuns with guns are always good for a laugh, Chrono is adorable, and the series has some of my all-time favorite opening and ending music.

Whatever happens, I'd love to borrow Rose of Versailles from you at some point. :-) I've only seen snippets, but it looks awesome.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Rose of Versailles is what I'd go for. Sandbaggers isn't the sort of thing to put one in a cheery mood...

"Random DVDs that your parents got you"

[liquid-identity.livejournal.com]

I'm actually really interested in what the content of those were. "The Twins Effect" is probably a Hong Kong fluff movie with the cantopop duo Twins. Wikipedia has an article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twins_Effect) on it.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

You don't necessarily have to take 'em traveling with you, but you MUST see Sandbaggers sometime soon. Really.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I didn't think Paranoia Agent was depressing, just dark and puzzling, and I like Gankutsuou too.

pleonastic is nuts about Hikaru no Go, which seems to be pretty cheerful.

I've wanted to see Rose of Versailles for ages but know nothing about the tone.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Hikaru no Go, which seems to be pretty cheerful.

For the most part. I guess it made me get teary for both happy and sad reasons, with the former outnumbering the latter, but there *were* sad moments.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

The tone of Rose of Versailles alters quite a bit over 50 episodes, shading from swashbuckling fluffy bunny to serious tear-jerker angst. Absolutely worth seeing, a classic.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Hikaru no Go will rip your heart out and stomp on it every so often, but in a good way. Still it's mostly upbeat-ish, and tremendous fun. It's about go, which should mean it's like watching paint dry, but no, it's *fascinating*

[szzzt.livejournal.com]

Go, with the fight music, the speed lines, and teh cosmic novae!!

[oyceter]

H&C AND SPOOKS!

And anything else that looks interesting. But mostly the first two, as I will happily rewatch both of them, and I've only seen two eps. of S5 Spooks!

(p.s. Should I burn H&C? Which episodes of Spooks?)

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

YES PLEASE! Spooks: I'm up to 4x04 at the moment, and not sure how much I'll get a chance to watch after that, so you should probably just burn everything after that.

Plus, I will bring a little assorted mystery DVD packet.

By the way, are we rooming with your sister also, or is that just in Taichung? Are we going to drive her insane by watching weird anime/late seasons of shows she's never seen?

[oyceter]

Sounds good! I am just worried that my stupid burner will end up burning something unplayable.

Yay mystery DVD packet!

So in Hsinchu, we will be rooming together, and ditto in Taichung. But in Taipei, you may be rooming with someone else (my sister or her friend) since there aren't enough beds and I volunteered for the floor b/c of your back.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks, that's really sweet of you. Hmm, maybe we will have to periodically vanish into a back room or something to watch anime.

To save ourselves torment, we should probably both test any home-burned discs before we pack them.