Not necessarily in order

[timepiececlock]

Anime I need to finish:
Seirei no Moribito
Soul Eater
Haibane Renmei
Tweeny Witches / Mahou Shoujotai Alice
Monster

Anime I need to watch:
Toradora
Bakano!
Fantastic Children
Last Exile
Gankutsuou
Denno Coil
Hikaru no Go
Now And Then, Here And There
Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto
Akagi
Ergo Proxy
Yukikaze
Code Geass
Kino's Travels
Petite Cossette
Read Or Die (TV)
Romeo x Juliet
Lupin III (movies!)


Some of these shows I've actually owned for three years and still haven't watched! It's positively ridiculous that I haven't finished Monster yet. I stopped in the middle because of some RL stuff and never picked it back up until now...

Comments

pimpin

[http://users.livejournal.com/_ri/]

If you have Akagi on the list, you might want to check out Kaiji as well - it's by the same author (his most successful title), and the games are a bit easier to follow. Both are psychological dramas about gambling, Kaiji being a lot more emotional (the protagonist keeps losing), while Akagi is more about following nerves-of-steel brilliance (protagonist crushes his opponents).

Re: pimpin

[http://users.livejournal.com/_ri/]

If you're interested, you can watch Kaiji episodes 1-8 completely legal online here:
http://www.joost.com/353kubd/t/Kaiji-NTV-Anime

[irrel.livejournal.com]

How are you liking Soul Eater?

I never finished Romeo x Juliet! Maybe I should...

[pico-the-great.livejournal.com]

How is Seirei no Moribito? I've seen pictures and trailers and it looks really good.

Oh man, I have to finish reading Monster before I even think of watching it. (Hilariously, theonline translations thereof are much, much better than the bookstore translations. A pity, because this is a series I would be willing to buy; notsomuch, though, if it's going to read badly on paper.)

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Serei no Moribito is solid. It looks gorgeous, it has an interesting premise, and has a kickass female character. But I have to tell you--it's hard for me to get into. It's missing something that keeps me from loving it, which is weird because all the things I should love are present. It's well-plotted, it has good development for its characters, and its not stupid (a lot of anime fails to pass the "not stupid" requirement.) But I just don't get very excited about it. Its kind of like Mushishi that way.

I'd say give it a try. It's got action and mayhem and intrigue. Maybe you'll bond more than I have. I plan to finish it, but I have no fandom feelings for it.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

Our to-watch lists have some overlap, I see! I haven't seen the last three episodes yet, but Haibane Renmei is amazing. Code Geass is okay, but I really just watched it for one or two characters. It relies too much on plot twists. R.O.D. is excellent for the first half and then kind of falls apart, and what I've seen of Last Exile(12 episodes), was also very good, but I'm told it falls apart as well.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I've heard nothing but good things about Last Exile, actually.

I got halfway through Haibane Renmei, and everyone loves it...it's just SO SLOW! So slow! I felt like I was pulling my hair out one strand at a time waiting for anyone to grow or change or act. But I'll probably finish because it's only 13 eps.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

I've heard that halfway through, it sort of turns into an annoying love triangle after 12 episodes of utter excellence. I've also heard from other sources that it recovers, though. I watched the first half before I left anime for a little while, and I haven't really gotten back to it.

Well, a major catalyst occurs on disc three of Haibane Renmei, which is episodes 7-9.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Last Exile doesn't really fall apart. It holds everything together, it just doesn't explain parts of the ending well, and some things are too rushed. (IIRC, it was initially meant to be longer.) Still one of the better animes I saw this year.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

^^; My friend who told me this watched up until disc four, and said that the main problem was a love triangle that took away from the rest of the show.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

There's no real love triangle there. There's about 2 episodes of oddness where a large chunk of the oddness is how things look happening so closely together, but they aren't what they look like on rewatch.

There is a triangle in the second half, of sorts (it's more that one person has apparently unrequited feelings for another, while someone else seems to have feelings for that person-the one w/ the unrequited feelings-that do have a chance of eventually being returned) but that one is extremely well done, IMO. And I despise most triangles.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

...

Unless I remember the episode count wrong, that bit (the irritating one that looks like a triangle that makes no sense, but isn't really) would have already been over. It's an irritating bit, but also a brief one. The actual love triangle (such as it is) is secondary, and I can't see objecting to it unless you just despise all three characters.

[ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com]

^^; Disc four is episodes 13-16, I believe, and I had seen up to episode 12 and hadn't seen anything that looked at all like a nonsensical triangle. I'm also not sure if my friend finished said disc. I don't think she did. Said show is still on my watch list(in fact, I'm probably going to start it over. It's been at least a year), and I do intend to finish it, so I guess we'll see.

[pico-the-great.livejournal.com]

Actually, this is encouraging to read, since I have really really liked what I've seen of Mushishi; I don't mind an un'exciting' story, as long as it's interesting. Also, has a lot of novums/ideas.

Hokay, then, I'll give it a shot! (I'm not worried about the fandom part: haven't had fandom feelings for anything since ... Avatar. So quite a while.)

[pico-the-great.livejournal.com]

Ditto on Haibane. I watched it out of order and missing several eps about three years ago, and I still remember it as being excellent. Will have to rewatch it properly sometime...

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

Have a new fandom, then! It's big and wonderful and makes Avatards look like nice kids having a tea party.

[rasielle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen and I share that complaint about Seirei no Moribito, without knowing quite why either. It's a perfectly sensible, perfectly reasonable series, which might be the reason -- there should be no harm in tapping into the anime world's inherent craziness sometimes, when the premise is already solid. I don't want to say it's a predictable series, but it establishes the characters' roles and the possibilities of the storyline early on, from which it seldom if ever deviates, and it consistently fulfills a viewer's expectations without surpassing them. Nonetheless, it's still consistently enjoyable (and miraculously without any periods of drag before the climax), so I'd still recommend you finish it.

The same author released a set of novels, The Beast Player, with an anime adaptation that airs in January, which I thought sounded really interesting. It's about a girl who can "control the greatest of beasts as if she was playing a musical instrument. However, she gets embroiled in a war for supremacy between kingdoms." Your to-watch list is already enormous, so I'll let you know how it is about halfway through the series. ^^;;

[rasielle.livejournal.com]

How is Soul Eater?

Last Exile, Haibane Renmei, Hikaru no Go, and Kino's Journey~! I say knock these up a spot on your list, for they are marvelous. Last Exile is STEAMPUNK, not stupid, and always moving; yeah, the sci-fi stuff could have been developed a lot more thoroughly than it was, but there were numerous subplots and conflicts, almost all of which were resolved successfully.

You know how I feel about Hikaru no Go, but if you stick around for about ten episodes and find that the Go fixation can't hold your attention despite the story, then it won't be for you. I've yet to meet a viewer who didn't enjoy the series despite varying opinions about games and sports, so no worries.

Haibane Renmei has plot, and Kino's Journey doesn't; both are pretty slow series, but yeah, Haibane speeds up after the well scene towards an extraordinary ending. So much metaphor! As for Kino's Journey, it should be watched between action series, I think; it's slice-of-life (my least favorite genre), slow, but extremely thought-provoking. Even Mushishi couldn't hold my attention as raptly as Kino's Journey did.

Baccano! was disappointing: the premise is brilliant; I thought Yoko Kanno did the music when I first heard the opening; despite the ten or more POV's, the story actually became more coherent as more characters and backgrounds were introduced; it is interesting and it's by BONES. Sadly, the resolution and endings were really shallow and weird; 'weird' shouldn't ever be a problem, but too many of the developments felt half-baked. I didn't walk away with anything but a desire for my disk space back. Don't hesitate to knock it down or off the list if you're ever tempted.

Also, I know I really endorsed Toshokan Sensou in the past, but I watched the rest of it, and the quality plummeted. It was promising until episode 8 or so, when the focus moved to romance and never came back.

[rashaka.livejournal.com]

I'm only 3 episodes into Soul Eater, and honestly I'm not that impressed yet. It's got interesting and trendy visuals, but the whole thing has a very DBZ/YYH/Bleach power-up contest feel to it. I'm mostly past that point in my anime tastes (with the exception of Naruto I suppose), but I know redbrunja loves it and we tend to like a lot of similar things. I do like that the main character is a female and she has a male partner who literally transforms into a weapon scythe when she fights. That's interesting and I'd like to see where they take it. I am fairly certain that it won't be quite as cool as it could be in my head, but we'll see.

Thanks for the summaries about the other shows, they're stuff I've heard before and most of the reasons I acquired these shows for future viewing.

I heard great things about Baccano!, so I'm surprised to hear criticism, but I understand how something can end in a whimper instead of a bang. I've actually seen the first episode already. It'll stay on my list for a while until I watch some more.