The Otaku Lounge

[Expllo]

Looking at your Tumblr I will assume you like Tokyo Ghoul.

[SouloftheAbyss]

Expllo said
Looking at your Tumblr I will assume you like Tokyo Ghoul.

That would be a fair assumption. I can guess that you are a fan as well.

Welcome, Expllo. I hope that you enjoy your stay. ^^

[Expllo]

Currently one of my favorite series alongside Attack on Titan, that I can see you're a fan of as well.
You read the manga or....?

Much appreciated.

[SouloftheAbyss]

Expllo said
Currently one of my favorite series alongside Attack on Titan, that I can see you're a fan of as well.You read the manga or....?Much appreciated.

I am currently watching the anime and reading the manga, but I have yet to catch up on any of the newer chapters. I have been quite busy lately.

[Jealous Angel D]

Otaku lounge! Why have I not seen this wonderful meeting place before?

Sadly I'm not up to date on all the fancy new animes such as Attack on Titan. But I love me some old animes like FMA and Yu Yu Hakusho. Good animes and good times.

[Expllo]

SouloftheAbyss said
I am currently watching the anime and reading the manga, but I have yet to catch up on any of the newer chapters. I have been quite busy lately.

Ah, I see.....
Favorite character?

Jealous Angel D said
Otaku lounge! Why have I not seen this wonderful meeting place before?Sadly I'm not up to date on all the fancy new animes such as Attack on Titan. But I love me some old animes like FMA and Yu Yu Hakusho. Good animes and good times.

If you like Yu Yu Hakusho I highly recommend Hunter x Hunter if you aren't following it. It's by the same mangaka and on par with Yu Yu, if not better. FMA is also good, one of my top favorites.

[Jealous Angel D]

Expllo said
If you like Yu Yu Hakusho I highly recommend Hunter x Hunter if you aren't following it. It's by the same mangaka and on par with Yu Yu, if not better. FMA is also good, one of my top favorites.

I'll have to take a look into Hunter x Hunter. Seen the title but never knew much about it or if it was good. Thanks for the recommendation. :)

[Expllo]

No problem.

[Wayne]

Recently gotten into Neon Genesis Evangelion, and I'm hoping I can find some time to watch Redline all the way through soon.

[Punished GN]

... Did somebody say Redline?!?!!1!

Seriously, though, Redline is one of the best anime movies out there... Just so over the top and action-y, with a diverse cast of interesting characters. What's not to like about it? =P

I don't consider myself an otaku (Even in the slightest), I just like anime, and some manga.

[Kaga]

SouloftheAbyss said
That's fine. I don't blame you. I love your new icon and signature, by the way. ^^ What have you been up to lately?

Oh, thanks. ^^ An Adventure in Space and Time is a totally underrated movie, don't you think?

And I've just been busy spending the past couple of weeks adjusting to my first year of college. Good news is, I found a club that's finally getting me back into anime. Lol. You know, after having hardly started any new anime series all summer being so distracted by Classic Who and all.

[Kaga]

Jealous Angel D said
Otaku lounge! Why have I not seen this wonderful meeting place before?Sadly I'm not up to date on all the fancy new animes such as Attack on Titan. But I love me some old animes like FMA and Yu Yu Hakusho. Good animes and good times.

Man, I need to watch more of Yu Yu Hakusho. I bought the first two seasons on DVD super cheap at a convention once, but I don't think I got any further than episode 10-ish. Not that I got bored, per se, just distracted I suppose. o.o

[SouloftheAbyss]

Expllo said
Ah, I see.....Favorite character?

My favorite character would have to be between Touk, Uta or Hide. How about you?

Jealous Angel D said
Otaku lounge! Why have I not seen this wonderful meeting place before?Sadly I'm not up to date on all the fancy new animes such as Attack on Titan. But I love me some old animes like FMA and Yu Yu Hakusho. Good animes and good times.

Welcome!
FMA is a classic. It is one of my favorite anime/manga that I don't talk about that much. This is possibly because I am much too emotionally caught up in SNK, Tokyo Ghoul, Black Butler, and Zankyou no Terror for the time being.

Wayne said
Recently gotten into Neon Genesis Evangelion, and I'm hoping I can find some time to watch Redline all the way through soon.

Welcome to the lounge, Wanye!

I have only seen a bit of Neon Genesis Evangelion, probably because I was busy watching other things. I am not very famillar with Redline. Is it good?

Mr Allen J said
... Did somebody say Redline?!?!!1!Seriously, though, Redline is one of the best anime movies out there... Just so over the top and action-y, with a diverse cast of interesting characters. What's not to like about it? =PI don't consider myself an otaku (Even in the slightest), I just like anime, and manga.

Welcome, Mr Allen J!

Redline does sound interesting. I will make sure to check it out.

We all like anime and manga here, so you will fit right in. ^^

Kaga said
Oh, thanks. ^^ An Adventure in Space and Time is a totally underrated movie, don't you think? And I've just been busy spending the past couple of weeks adjusting to my first year of college. Good news is, I found a club that's finally getting me back into anime. Lol. You know, after having hardly started any new anime series all summer being so distracted by Classic Who and all.

I sounds like you are having a great time in college.

Honestly, I have yet to watch that movie, but I plan to has soon as I can get my hands on it. The commercials looked so good!!

[Kaga]

SouloftheAbyss said
Honestly, I have yet to watch that movie, but I plan to has soon as I can get my hands on it. The commercials looked so good!!

Funny story is though, I had it set to record on my DVR when it first premiered, and it sat there for a really long time, and eventually I just deleted it because I didn't think I'd ever get around to watching it. However, that was all before I started watching Classic Who and fell in love with William Hartnell.

So I eventually hunted it down online (I'd link you, but that Dailymotion channel got shut down since then), decided it was absolutely amazing, and then bought a DVD and Blu-ray combo pack despite the fact that I don't even own a blu-ray player because Best Buy didn't have it just on DVD and it was the only copy left so yeah I was taking it.

But yeah. Great movie. Maybe it's on Netflix by now? Idk.

[SouloftheAbyss]

Kaga said
Funny story is though, I had it set to record on my DVR when it first premiered, and it sat there for a really long time, and eventually I just deleted it because I didn't think I'd ever get around to watching it. However, that was all before I started watching Classic Who and fell in love with William Hartnell. So I eventually hunted it down online (I'd link you, but that Dailymotion channel got shut down since then), decided it was absolutely amazing, and then bought a DVD and Blu-ray combo pack despite the fact that I don't even own a blu-ray player because Best Buy didn't have it just on DVD and it was the only copy left so yeah I was taking it. But yeah. Great movie. Maybe it's on Netflix by now? Idk.

Well, at least you got to watch it. Now I will have to hunt it down on Netflix or the library. Wish me luck!

Now that we have gathered a good group of people, I think it would be wise to start a group discussion. Here is the question:
Are there any manga/anime you have read/seen that you think are underrated?

[Kaga]

SouloftheAbyss said
Are there any manga/anime you have read/seen that you think are underrated?

Kino's Journey. It is a fantastic anime and more people need to know about it.

It's kind of like a collection of cautionary tales, as a young girl named Kino and her talking motorcycle, Hermes, travel to various "countries" together with no real end goal - they just travel to travel. Now, I put "countries" in quotes because, while they call them countries, each one is really only about the size of a small village, and yet, they're all so diverse that they all feel like completely different worlds. I feel like I can't even easily describe what the overall setting of this anime is like, because some of the countries Kino visits are so technologically advanced that robots have replaced all the work that humans normally do, while others are so primitive that they feel much more like a medieval time period.

The one thing that links all the countries together, though, is that there's always something seriously wrong with them. Sometimes they give you an uneasy vibe right off the bat, and sometimes they don't, but either way the horror of the town presents itself eventually. As Kino explores and learns more about the place, it's usually made very clear how that society became the way it is now, and the weirdest part is, that it usually doesn't feel that far from reality. You can, often times, imagine something similar happening in the real world, given the right circumstances. Stranger yet, Kino almost never attempts to solve the problems she sees, or change the way the countries are established, like you'd expect her to with a setup like this. She learns about the town and you, as the viewer, learn and explore with her, and then... she leaves. And you're just left with the memories of what you saw, giving you something to think about. And, despite using the word "horror" earlier (as some of the problems with these countries can be pretty terrifying), it really doesn't feel like a horror anime. More accurately, it just shows you some scary things in a brutally honest way that leaves you thinking "Oh... that's a thing... ok..." and kind of leaves you feeling sort of empty and depressed in an extremely satisfying way that I just can't explain. The best way I can describe this anime is a "journey into human nature".

The main characters themselves are also quite interesting. Kino, while I described her as a "young girl", probably isn't the sort of girl you imagined when I said that. She doesn't come off as very feminine most of the time (in fact, when I first watched it, it took me a few episodes to even realize she was a girl), but I don't want to call her very tomboy-ish either, because it doesn't feel like they place any emphasis on her more masculine (or, I suppose more accurately, androgynous) nature being present in a female body. It kind of just feels like they took the personality you would expect from a stoic, quiet, almost lone-wolf-type adult male character and just put that in a 13-year-old girl's body, all without ever acknowledging the difference. Oh, and she's a pretty badass gunslinger, too.

Also Hermes, her motorcycle, is just adorable. He's kind of the only source of comic relief in the show but wow does he do his job perfectly. A lot of that probably stems from the fact that he just doesn't at all have the personality that you would expect a talking motorbike to have. Somehow you'd expect a motorcycle to be kind of rough-and-tough, right? Well Hermes is adorably childish. He really does sound like a little kid. Also what's bizarre about his design is that, normally, you'd expect a sentient vehicle to be at least somewhat anthropomorphized, yes? Like, he would have a face or at least something kind of resembling one, you know? Well he doesn't. He is a perfectly normal-looking bike. Additionally, he can't steer himself or control his movements in any way, as he still needs a rider to do that, and he still runs on gasoline just like any other engine of his kind. He's just a motorcycle... that talks. And nothing else. In fact, when I first started watching it, I had assumed that Hermes' voice was actually just a figment of Kino's imagination, but then she met other people who responded to Hermes and clearly acknowledged his sentience and I was like "Oh... that's a thing." But yeah his unexpected level of normalcy kind of makes him even cuter if you ask me.

Also the whole series is only 13 episodes, so it doesn't take long to get through.

Edit: Wow I typed a lot. Oops.

[vancexentan]

It's a tie really three ways actually so I've divided them into categories

Action: Hajime No Ippo
Mecha: New Mobile Report Gundam Wing
Comedy: Baka and Test

runners up being: Space Dandy and Sekirei (mostly due to the amount of fan service in the latter making it a bit hard to watch at times despite it being a relatively good anime.)

[SouloftheAbyss]

Welcome, VanceXentan!~

I have heard a lot of good things about Kino's Journey before, and may I say is sounds like a very interesting anime. I will make sure to add it to my list.

vancexentan said
It's a tie really three ways actually so I've divided them into categories

Action: Hajime No Ippo
Mecha: New Mobile Report Gundam Wing
Comedy: Baka and Test

runners up being: Space Dandy and Sekirei (mostly due to the amount of fan service in the latter making it a bit hard to watch at times despite it being a relatively good anime.)

I have never heard of Hajime No Ippo or Sekirei. I will, however, argue that Space Danny and Baka no Test are not underrated. I have seen both of they and know quite a lot of people who enjoy those series, especially Baka no Test. I am interested why you do think they are underrated, though. As for Gundam, I have never seen any of the series, but I thought they all did fairly fell. I guess I was wrong.

As for myself, I am aware of a few underrated anime and manga, but I want to shed light on one in particular. That being Gatchaman Crowds.

This anime aired a year ago and at the time I didn't know of anyone else who was watching it. To this day, I have only met a few of people who have watched the series, all of them saying that they loved it.

Here is a link to a synopsis since I am a bit too tired to write one myself. As a brief summary, I would like to say that not only does this anime look and sound fantastic, but all it characters are enjoyable and how it handles the characterization is genius. This anime also contains some of the most unique and beautiful mecha designs I have ever seen.

Am I saying this anime is one of the best anime I have ever seen? No, no I am not, but it does diverse a lot more attention then it has received. So, if you like action-based anime with a bit of a psychological twist and aren't afraid of some moe, give this anime a try.

[vancexentan]

Ah well in my college not many people know about the series so I tend not to know what is popular and what is not exactly.

Hajime no Ippo is an anime about a young fisherman boy who was picked on as a kid and was to weak to defend himself. One day by chance he happened to be in the way of champion class boxer Takamura on his morning jog. Ippo was being bullied and he was saved from the bullies by Takamura after he easily dodged the bullies punches but he also while doing so ripped off their coat buttons without noticing. Seeing that display Ippo decided that he would become a boxer like Takumura despite only being heavy enough for the Featherweight class. The anime follows his boxing adventures and the manga is still running today I believe since it started in the nineties. It is an anime I would recommend to nearly anyone. I won't say much more because I don't want to spoil the series.

Sekirei is an echhi anime with action except the ecchi gets either played up for comedy or is toned down later in the series. It follows a young boy named Minato who had just flunked out of his college entrance exam. By chance he runs into a girl named Musubi, whom is one of the one hundred some sekirei currently competing in the competition but she has yet to find a ashikabi (a master or lover) to fight for. After saving her life and standing up for her despite her hunters being winged sekirei and having electricity powers Minato kisses and by doing so winging Musubi (winging is done by a human with ashikabi genes kissing and causing the unlocking of the powers of the sekirei willing or not). Musubi saves the day and becomes Minato's first sekirei and promises they will win the competition so that they may stay together forever.

It's not an anime I'd recommend to anyone like Ippo but it's a good anime as long as you can ignore the fan service.

As for Mobile Suit Gundam it's an amazing series and most anyone can get into it in someway or another if you even have a passing interest in mechs. Super robots fans can see G Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing while cliched and flawed at times is still one of Cartoon Networks most watched shows from back in the day and ranked just below Evangelion in Japanese polls back in the day, Gundam OO is a solid watch for a person wanting a mix of super and real robot action, Gundam's OVA's are all good watches, and shows like Gundam X and Turn A while lesser than the others are watchable. For anyone who wants a more light hearted take rather than war can see either of the gunpla based animes. And of course you can almost never go wrong with the original gundam series especially ones featuring Amuro Ray and his iconic rival Char Aznable. And you weren't wrong about gundam but not many people in the states know about it per say unless they're into anime while Japan has made a life size model of the RX- 78 Gundam (the original) and Char Aznable has reached Darth Vader status in Japan and he has numerous clones in not only gundam but in many anime and games alike so much you can look towards the Char Clone trope on TV Tropes.

[Cayden Black]

I'm not sure I can qualify anymore for a serious member. The last anime I watched was Kharas, and I still haven't finished that...

Very good though, again a fighting mini series.