Decided to resurrect this thread
There's been a few new purchases, in fact so many I couldn't even begin to list them all. I've had a HUGE pile of them sitting on my shelf for months (some that I got around Christmas in 2009!!!) that I haven't had time to view due to being tied up in the studio working on the new album since April/May. However, the album is getting closer to being completed and I'm finding myself with a little more personal time, so I've started dumping some over to my iPhone and watching segments here and there when I have a chance or catching an episode of a series before heading to bed.
A few that I've recently watched:
Martian Successor Nadesico - Fairly entertaining, but a little too goofy for what the plot entailed. The Mecha design is pretty cool, and the voice over's are decent, but the story-line is pretty predictable. Not sure If I could watch it again, but it wasn't too bad. The movie itself (not the series) that came with it was much more dramatic with little or no slapstick/comedy like the series, which was more palatable, but made the characters seem unlikable and cold at the same time.
Argentosoma - This one started out with a lot of potential, but the animation was a bit lackluster and the storyline really dragged half way through. It had some of the best mecha design I've seen in a long time, but the characters, voice over's and pacing were hard to get into. This almost would have been perfect as an OVA rather than a series.
XXXHolic - I LOVED this series! I have to admit, this isn't my normal go-to anime to watch, and the animation is extremely awkward, but the individual episodes, character development and voice acting was top notch. Funny, thought provoking, with a nice touch of comedy in the right spots. Gotta hand it to CLAMP at doing a great job with this one. Outside of a few moments of really scary/violent segments (which out of the whole series, there was probably 2 or 3 short moments), This would almost make a great family series like The Last Air Bender with some great moral lessons at the end of each episode.
Patlabor: The TV Series - Just started watching this one, its 48 episode long, so more than normal concerning Anime (two seasons), and less than what you would get for an American animated series. It's from the late 80's, and being that it was released by U.S. Manga Corp, it's no secret that the voice acting/dialogue is painful to watch/listen to. However, knowing it's a vintage series that's 20 years old, it's actually really not too bad and has some great episodes and fantastic Mecha designs. This very well could have been a successful series if it was aired in the U.S. back when it came out. But I'm sure it would have been edited to death and completely dumbed down for only kids to watch
so maybe it's best it never happened. I scored the entire series for $15, so I consider it a total bargain.
Devil Woman - I'm not to familiar with Go Nagi's Devil Man stuff or anything he's done outside of this series for that matter, but I thought this was a pretty decent series. It's dark, dramatic and had great pacing. The characters and voice over's are very well done, and even though it's a bit far fetched as far as story line (much like any comic book series) it kept my interest to the very end. It was almost like Witchblade, but without the comedy and much, much darker.
The Big O - It's funny, but the theme songs to this series is an absolute rip off (or from what I found out latter - paying homage to) Queen's "Flash Gordon". In fact, it almost has a later-era Blind Guardian feel to it more than anything. I believe this came out in the late 90's? For that, it's actually not too bad, and has a very interesting plot twist. However, this series is like a combination of Batman and Giant Robo with a fairly strong noir film style, and a slightly silly yet believable plot. This is one of the few series' I actually found myself needing to keep watching up to the end.
I know I'm missing a few, and if I find the time, I'll actually post an up-to-date list of my current collection, which has grown out of control.
I've also recently revisited Ghost in the Shell: SAC (the first season) and almost forgot why this is still one of the best animated series to date. I tried to make my wife watch it, but she lost interest by the 3rd episode
and it takes several more episodes than that to really appreciate it. With her being a huge fan of crime dramas and anything sci-fi, I thought this series was a perfect combination and it would totally hit home for her, but I guess there was far too much tech-jargon/dialogue for her, which is why a lot of people have a hard time following it. For me, they need to keep the series going, as 2nd gig (season two) was even better, but could possibly be too hard to top.