Current Fansubs

[Jinx999]

Are there any series of current fansubs worth watching? I've had to luck finding anything that tickles my fancy.

[katreus]

Saki!!

Saki is your reluctant prodigy and the main character of the series. She doesn't like mahjong because she's only played with her hyper-competitive and
skilled family and they punished her if she won OR got last place. To avoid this, she learned to hit 0 every wind round, which is basically impossible in real
life. After getting dragged into the mahjong club, she finds that winning is actually fun and the Kiyosumi mahjong club aims to get to the nationals by winning
the prefectural team tournament. Saki also has her own personal reason to get to nationals as she hopes to get through to her sister with mahjong.

It's a fun, over the top series about mahjong. It does start off a bit slow and Gonzo upped the yuri-ness (blushing galore!) but once it hits the
prefectural tournament in around episode 5, it really gets going. It's a very sports-like anime so cheating is looked down upon but almost every notable
character has a special power or specialty of some sort.



Oh. And everyone is really good with tiles. TSUMO! Woo! This is Hisa,the club president in the chuuken (middle) round.

You can watch it either legally from CrunchyRoll or from other streaming sites and tokyotosho has some fansubs from Underwater Mahjong.

[robkelk]

Marie and Gali. (I'm pulling back the http://a.scarywater.net/dats/ sub.) No, I won't try explaining it to you. I'll just mention "Gali" is short for "Galileo". Yes, that Galileo. Well, at least in name.

Here's Dave Baranyi's take on the Spring 2009 anime season, as copied from his June 8 Usenet post. (Message-ID 795bo0F1osc1eU1@mid.individual.net , for those who want to see the original and know how to do an advanced Google Groups search.) Dave watches raws, so I don't know whether all of these are being fansubbed - in fact, I'm pretty sure at least two of them aren't because they've been licenced for years - but it's worth a look for the better titles. Dave is a tough grader...

Here we are, almost at the end of the Spring 09 anime season, and it's time for one last update before some of the new series reach their completions. As usual, these are my own opinions regarding these series, ranging from unjustifiably jaded to unrealistically enthusiastic.

Natsu no Arashi, episodes watched 10, rating: A. Wow! I didn't expect things to go this direction. Even without slapstick comedy this episode was very good. In addition, the details in the scenes inside of the house reminded me of the scenes in the Count's mansion in Tsukuyomi Moonphase. I can't wait until the first R2 DVD arrives in July to start to watch this series again!

Shin Mazinger Z, episodes watched 10, rating: A. Android-Babe Service! How can you go wrong?!!! (LOL) Of course, it would have helped if the android girls didn't have doll-joints, but the episode sure was fun anyway. We start out like an old Urusei Yatsura episode, and then jump right into bloody crushed skulls. And, of course, Go GAR Baa-san!!!! (ROTFLMAO) This is a series that needs to be marathoned, with plenty of beer and pizza on hand, and some good friends who enjoy TRUE GARness!!! (LOL)

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, episodes watched, 10, rating: C+. We're still in the "FMA - the Rehash" mode, I'm still waiting to see an episode that wasn't in the first anime series, and the previews for next episode are familiar too. And I haven't seen anything in "Brotherhood" that is a significant improvement over how it was done in the first anime series. Essentially, I've seen nothing in the first 10 episodes of "Brotherhood" that makes me want to retire my DVDs from the first anime series.

One Piece, episodes watched, 404, rating: A++. Gawd - that was incredible!!! I never thought that I'd see all of the Strawhats so totally outclassed and out-fought. That left me crushed into my seat. This arc is one of the best ever!

Hatsukoi Limited, episodes watched, 9, rating: B+. That was a sweet little story. (And the lolicon flew off before this became H-rated... LOL) This series has turned into the pleasant surprise of the season.

Basquash, episodes watched, 10, rating: A. We get a bit more into Dan's head this episode, as well as get more fun time with Dan and Rouge together. So while this was a breather episode, it was still a lot of fun for me because I really like the characters. I also really like the backgrounds. I hope that an art book comes out for this series.

Eden of the East, episodes watched, 9, rating: C+. At times, such as during the flashback at the beginning of this episode, I momentarily get the feeling that this series is actually a black comedy from Shaft in disguise. Then I get to the formulaic ending of the episode and I become once again convinced that this is really just a routine pot-boiler thriller.

Ristorante Paradiso, episodes watched, 8, rating: B+. Ah, so when Claudio was young he was a reluctant boy-toy for rich women... (LOL) I feel for the poor guy, always having women flirting with him while he still carries a torch for his ex-wife.

Asura Cryin', episodes watched, 10, rating: C. I'm having real problems caring about the characters in this series. The main characters aren't getting the time to develop at all, mainly because we get more and more secondary characters showing up each episode. And I haven't found any reasons to care about the secondary characters either. Add to that the abysmally bad character animation of late, as well as the dead delivery of the voice actors and this series is just sinking into the mud. Thank gawd there are only three episodes left to suffer through.

07 Ghost, episodes watched: 9, rating: B. More fighting and less hugging would have been good in this crucial episode. Teito isn't getting much help from his magic eyeball implant - I want to see him cause chaos and massive destruction, not faint every time he fights and have Frau always save him. And poor Mikage - reincarnated into that pink rabbit thing. If he gets any "bunny love" out of Teito, he's going to be really sore... (LOL)

Meitantei Conan, episodes watched: 536, rating: A. This was an unusually quiet and poignant episode. No blood, gore, murders, kidnappings, etc. The preview for the next episode looks like it will be a repeat of a very early episode - the character designs are very different from the current designs.

Marie and Gali, episodes watched, 9, rating: A. Newton's back, and with him the explanation for a rainbow and spectrum. Marie's little Goth teru teru bozu is great!

Pandora Hearts, episodes watched: 10, rating: A. You've got to give Oz credit for trying... It's only too bad that he never tries to pick up normal girls... (LOL) That aside, there was some pretty good development in the past few episodes. Echo is cute and deadly, and maybe Break isn't as much of a pain as he has seemed to be to date. I've now gone ahead and pre-ordered the first DVD for this series.

And finally a manga series:

Rin-ne, chapters read, 6, rating: B-. Takahashi has to start to bring something new to this series soon. Not only do the characters look like characters in IY, Ranma, MI, UY, etc., but the chapters seem to just be borrowed from her previous works. Somehow, Takahashi just seems to be in "auto-pilot" mode with this series.

Dave Baranyi

Since he posted that, Basquash got a new creative team and (in his opinion, I still haven't seen the show) went downhill fast as in pushed-off-a-cliff fast. And he's still not impressed by FMA:Brotherhood, thinking it's too much like the manga.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

FMA: Brotherhood IS SUPPOSED TO BE MORE LIKE THE MANGA. That is THE ENTIRE POINT OF ITS EXISTENCE. If he doesn't
like that, he shouldn't be watching it at all, never mind reviewing it. >.

[robkelk]

In his words (from Message-ID 7aa90pF1u3sarU1@mid.individual.net , posted today):

The original FMA anime was a classic tragedy about hubris and its recognition that transcended its origins in the manga. In contrast, Brotherhood emphasizes the melodrama inherent in the manga by eschewing continuity-of-the-moment and instead flaunting its childish humor in a manner that deliberately deadens the potential for drama. We also still effectively have no contiguous mystery to offset the chance occurrences that are taking the place of plot line. So we end up with a tale that is uninspired and derivative.

He's happy with the first anime.

Edit: Seeing why he doesn't like FMA:B helps explain his preferences, which gives the earlier post I quoted some context... ne?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

Yes, well, my impressions of the first anime were a little... different.

"Let's take a not-entirely-grim manga and stuff the women into refrigerators."

That about sums it up.

--Sam

"Blood covers The City like a big red afghan."

[Valles]

I honestly wonder if he's even read the manga. 'Cause there's a whole lot more going on there than his comment gives the impression of.

Anyway, getting back on topic, I'd like to reccomend Kemono no Souja Erin, coming-of-age-fantasy brought to you by the minds behind Seirei no Moribito, and K-On, adorable bubblegum rock moe.
===========

===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

As for Rin-ne, it's far too early even to form an opinion. At this stage, almost any manga will still be in the "introducing cast of characters and
establishing the situation" mode, and will give no hint of the larger plot (if such exists).

--Sam

"I think I got a bone bruise."

[robkelk]

and K-On, adorable bubblegum rock moe.

Right! K-on! "Cute girls doing nothing", like Azumanga Daioh or Lucky Star, but the "nothing" the K-On! girls are doing is "forming a band". Although this one's more than likely to be licenced, considering it's more popular than Jesus Haruhi in both Japan broadcasts and US fansub circles...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Florin]

I've watched a few episodes of 07-Ghost and it's not to bad so far. My only problem with it is everytime one of the CLAMP-like pretty boys hug or look
soulfully into each others eyes and such my eardrums rupture from the sound of a million yaoi fangirls squeeing.
--
If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. 

[katreus]

BTW, Canaan seems really interesting as well. Beautiful animation (including a fantastic gun-fu fight scene in ep. 1), voice acting, and music. Also seems like
an interesting plot.

OP link:

[Evil Midnight Lurker]

The new season of Haruhi is getting on my nerves.

Seriously, four episodes worth of Endless Eight so far, and at least one more to come? BORED NOW.

--Sam

"Elf finger magic. I hate that."

[nemonowan]

I believe they are trying to make the viewer sympathize with Yuki's plight...

[Jinx999]

Canaan looks good from the first episode - although Canaan's little necklace reminds me of Nanoha's.