Anime Club - Cycle 1, Discussion Phase: Gosick and Ghost in the Shell+GITS 2: Innocence

Martin

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(Art by Fusion Flare )

How does it work?
In this club, we nominate shows to watch and discuss as a community over a short period of time, similarly to a book club. Obviously, anime varies wildly in scope and length, so to try and accommodate for this I've decided to use a slightly less rigid format than a book club would.

Each cycle will last for 3 weeks total and will consist of three phases: nomination, voting, and discussion.

Phase 1: Nomination
This phase will last for 2–3 days. During this phase, people can nominate shows or movies that they would like to watch. Depending on how popular this project ends up being, I may start setting themes for each round to diversify what we watch a bit, but for now, feel free to nominate whatever you want.

Nomination Rules:
  • Each person may submit the following number of shows:
    • 2 series
      • Try to keep it around 1–2 cour if possible, but 3- or 4-cour shows like Death Note are probably fine at a push. If you want to submit something that's longer than two 2-cour seasons or longer (e.g. FMAB), it will need an extended cycle to accommodate for people who can only watch maybe 2–3 episodes per day, which is fine occasionally, but I'd prefer it not to become a regular thing.
    • 3 movies, short series, or shorts (cumulative)
      • Short series = series with a low episode count (e.g. FLCL, Eve no Jikan, etc.)
      • Shorts = shows with short runtimes per episode (e.g. Inferno Cop, Yami Shibai, She and Her Cat -Everything Flows-, etc.)
  • Don't submit movies/OVAs/etc. that depend on prior knowledge of a franchise to follow.
    • That said, it's fine if you group it with the series it ties to (e.g. Madoka and Rebellion, NGE and EoE, ReLIFE and its sequel OVA, etc.).
  • Don't submit anything that hasn't been fully subbed yet.
  • Please only make one nomination post. This is just so that I can keep better track of who submitted what. I won't process the nominations until the deadline, so feel free to edit your post as much as you want before then.
  • Use common sense—I don't care if a show's not completely PG, but it should go without saying that you shouldn't submit porn lol. I'd prefer if we avoided ecchi shows, but if you really want to submit one and are not sure, check the rating on MAL: R-17+ is fine, Rx is not, and ask me first if it's R+.
To nominate a show, simply post in the thread using the following format (repeated for each nomination):
Code:
[B]Title:[/B] Official English Title (Japanese Title, if different) (Starting Year)
[B]Category:[/B] Series (__ episodes) / Movie / Short Series / Shorts
[B]MyAnimeList Link:[/B] www.myanimelist.net/whatever
[B]Legal Sources:[/B] [url=www.example.com/show]Example[/url]

Any particular reason for choosing it? (optional)
Please include both the English and Japanese titles so that people know what to search for whether they choose to stream or torrent. Also, I obviously realise that streaming licences vary quite a bit globally, so just including what you know for your own region is fine. If something isn't available legally (or if you can't figure out where it streams), feel free to leave this field blank. I mostly included it to make things easier to find for anyone who has a subscription to one of those services, as it can be a pain trying to figure out where something is streaming if you don't already know. It'd be useful if you provided a link too.
Title: ERASED (Boku Dake ga Inai Machi) (2016)
Category: Series (12 episodes)
MyAnimeList Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/31043/Boku_dake_ga_Inai_Machi?q=erased&cat=anime
Legal Sources: Crunchyroll, Netflix

Phase 2: Voting
This phase will also last for 2–3 days. During this phase, I will post two straw polls containing all (valid) nominations for people to vote on. This will be used to select one series and one movie/short series/short to watch and discuss over the remainder of the cycle. Multiple votes will be enabled, so feel free to vote for anything that catches your fancy. In fact, I encourage you to vote for lots—we want to make sure as many people as possible have something they'd like to watch, even if they don't get one of their own nominations.

Phase 3: Discussion
Pretty self-explanatory and will last for the remainder of the cycle. Watch the show and post whatever comes to mind, and feel free to discuss those thoughts with other members in the thread. That said, for the sake of others who may be behind, please wrap any spoilers you post in hide-tags and label them with the episode that you are spoiling.

Anime List Compendium
I'm collecting MAL/AniList/etc. profiles in the OP, so if you would like yours included, simply post a link in the thread or in a PM and I'll add it. If you decide later that you want it removed from the list, let me know and I'll edit it out.
Martin: MyAnimeList
 
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Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Cycle 1 is now starting
You have until Tuesday evening GMT to nominate shows to watch. Don't forget to follow the format in the OP, and make sure to only post one nomination post.

I will post my nominations shortly.
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Title: Angel's Egg (Tenshi no Tamago) (1985)
Category: Movie
MyAnimeList Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/885/Tenshi_no_Tamago
Legal Sources: Unknown

Title: Ghost in the Shell (Koukaku Kidoutai) (1995) and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (Innocence) (2004)
Category: Movie
MyAnimeList Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/43/Koukaku_Kidoutai, https://myanimelist.net/anime/468/Innocence
Legal Sources: Unknown

Title: One Outs (2008)
Category: Series (25 episodes)
MyAnimeList Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/5040/One_Outs
Legal Sources: YouTube apparently

Title: Cromartie High School (Sakigake!! Cromartie Koukou) (2004)
Category: Series (26 episodes)
MyAnimeList Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/114/Sakigake_Cromartie_Koukou
Legal Sources: Unknown
 
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Title: You're Under Arrest (Taiho Shichau zo)
Category: OVA (4 episodes)
MyAnimeList Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/1577/Taiho_Shichau_zo
Legal Sources: dunno

I've shilled this one over and over and imma do it again. Very, very nice cel animation, as much character development as one can cram into 4 episodes, and idk it makes me feel nice watching it. Second episode I really liked.
 

DC

Kpop Main, No Brain
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Title: Digimon Adventure tri. (2015)
Category: 6 Movies = Series (26 Episodes)
MyAnimeList Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/25687/Digimon_Adventure_tri_1__Saikai (Link to first movie)
Legal Sources: Youtube Movies (Link to first movie)

Watching this series brought back alot of nostalgia from early childhood. Digimon Adventure tri. explores the maturation process of the Digidestined and how that it impacted their relationship with their Digimon partners, which I found unique as many shows catered to children dislike showing what happens when their stars grow up.
 
Title: Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor (Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor) [2007]
Category: Series (26 Episodes)
MAL Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/3002/Gyakkyou_Burai_Kaiji__Ultimate_Survivor
Legal Sources: Dunno

Probably one of the most popular Fukumoto adaptions, and he is effectively the mangaka to go to when it comes to gambling manga. Nominating this over Akagi because no mahjong. (even if I watched Akagi with absolutely no mahjong knowledge and still enjoyed it)

Title: Detroit Metal City [2008]
Category: OVA (12 half episodes)
MAL Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/3702/Detroit_Metal_City
Legal Sources: Dunno

Extremely fun, extremely vulgar.
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Title: Digimon Adventure tri. (2015)
Category: 6 Movies = Series (26 Episodes)
MyAnimeList Link: https://myanimelist.net/anime/25687/Digimon_Adventure_tri_1__Saikai (Link to first movie)
Legal Sources: Youtube Movies (Link to first movie)

Watching this series brought back alot of nostalgia from early childhood. Digimon Adventure tri. explores the maturation process of the Digidestined and how that it impacted their relationship with their Digimon partners, which I found unique as many shows catered to children dislike showing what happens when their stars grow up.
Heya, do you need to have any background knowledge about Digimon Adventure to watch these or are they totally independent? I’d prefer for us to stick to things which aren’t dependent on knowing characters/plotlines from elsewhere, and from what I can tell this is a sequel to DA, which itself is 59+50 eps+2 movies long, but given that it’s one of those big anime franchises I don’t know how connected everything is.
 
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DC

Kpop Main, No Brain
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Heya, do you need to have any background knowledge about Digimon Adventure to watch these or are they totally independent? I’d prefer for us to stick to things which aren’t dependent on knowing characters/plotlines from elsewhere, and from what I can tell this is a sequel to DA, which itself is 59+50 eps+2 movies long, but given that it’s one of those big anime franchises I don’t know how connected everything is.
Yeah, it is a sequel but, you can honestly not know anything beforehand to watch it. Knowing the original characters is ofc a bonus, but I think its distinct enough to function as a stand alone series. Lmk if I should submit a different franchise and I'll just edit that into my original post!
 

Diophantine

Banned deucer.
Probably one of the most popular Fukumoto adaptions, and he is effectively the mangaka to go to when it comes to gambling manga.
Granted I haven't seen Akagi (it's on my to watch list), but I'm not sure you can make this claim if you count Shinobu Kaitani's work gambling. I think it looks into human psychology/game theory (at least Liar Game does) a lot better, and is far more entertaining thanks to more brilliant characters (Tokuchi, Akiyama, Yokoya) leading to more interesting games. Kaiji is entertaining though, and does a good job at raising tension.

Also, the One Outs anime does a disservice to the manga because it stops halfway through, and the second half is way better than the first. The first half still is very entertaining, however. It's just that the stakes are higher in the second half, the main character faces even tougher challenges, and we see his impact on the other characters more. (It's on Youtube btw for "legal" source)
 
words i'm responding to
I enjoyed both Liar Game (what was that ending though) and One Outs (still haven't checked out the manga) a lot, but I singled out Fukumoto because he has a long history of releasing gambling (and psychological) manga one after another for decades. I couldn't make a definitive claim that he's written the best gambling manga (although I could say that he's written my favorite), but the first mangaka to come to mind in regards to those kind of works will always be Fukumoto for me.

Edit (partially just me thinking to myself): Now that I'm thinking about I guess I could say that Fukumoto is more defined by the psychological elements than the gambling elements (ex. Kurosawa, Buraiden Gai), but so many of his series have those elements that saying psychological elements are the defining trait isn't right.
 
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Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
Cycle 1 nominations are now closed

You have until Thursday evening to cast your votes for what we should watch first. Feel free to vote for as many shows that you like the sound of as you want.

Series poll: https://strawpoll.com/9s56xd5v3
Movies, shorts, and short series poll: https://strawpoll.com/ggh1vwezs

I have put Digimon Tri under series for this, as I feel like it's better aligned with that than with movies/shorts. Whatever has the most votes in each category at the deadline will be what we watch/discuss for our first cycle.

In the event of a tie, would you rather I break it or would you prefer for me to put a runoff poll up for 24 hours with multiple votes disabled?
 
Cycle 1 nominations are now closed

You have until Thursday evening to cast your votes for what we should watch first. Feel free to vote for as many shows that you like the sound of as you want.

Series poll: https://strawpoll.com/9s56xd5v3
Movies, shorts, and short series poll: https://strawpoll.com/ggh1vwezs

I have put Digimon Tri under series for this, as I feel like it's better aligned with that than with movies/shorts. Whatever has the most votes in each category at the deadline will be what we watch/discuss for our first cycle.

In the event of a tie, would you rather I break it or would you prefer for me to put a runoff poll up for 24 hours with multiple votes disabled?
I'd prefer you breaking the tie. Runoff poll seems overkill and I'm not sure if everyone will vote within 24 hours

Edit: I have never seen any of these nominations so I'll end up watching most of them even if they don't get nominated.
 

Martin

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The poll is now closed and these are the results:
Screen Shot 2021-02-19 at 01.28.56.png
Screen Shot 2021-02-19 at 01.29.32.png

As such, the first things we'll be watching are Ghost in the Shell 1 and 2 and Gosick

We will be watching and discussing these over the next two weeks or so, and the next cycle will start on Saturday March 6th. In the meantime, feel free to use this thread how you like—liveposting thoughts, discussion posts, what you like/dislike… whatever is on your mind.

========================

I'll probably start watching things on Saturday or Sunday. Dunno which I'll start with, as I don't really know a whole lot about Gosick other than that it's apparently a mystery show and that the title is some garbled Engrish lol. I quite like going into stuff without knowing anything about it tho (not even a blurb or genre), so maybe that's for the best.

I got GitS and GitS2 secondhand on DVD months ago and just haven't got around to watching them yet (can't remember if I also got Stand Alone Complex), but I'm a big lover of Sci-Fi so I expect it'll be right down my alley. It's directed by Mamoru Oshii* too, so regardless of what I think of the story, I can be sure I'm gonna love the visual direction and that there'll be some excellent animation sequences sprinkled throughout. I can't remember if the version I own is GitS or GitS 2.0, but I'm looking forward to it either way.

*Patlabor, Angel's Egg, Urusei Yatsura, Jin Roh, Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai!, Blood+, Halo Legends
 
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DC

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Gosick
Intro: Noice
Plot: I actually enjoyed the show. It might be a weird comparison, but the show reminds me of a more mature Detective Conan with romance added. There are some major/minor flaws in the show, mainly with bland side characters and an ending that felt quite rushed, but outside of that it was a good anime. I even read some of the manga to get the full picture and there was a great deal of difference between the anime and the manga, which might have been the case for some of the scenes where it felt "different".
Outro: Very nice
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
I had a big post about GitS that was 3/4 written but lost the draft ;;; I should've used the sandbox forum… I'll try re-writing it over the next day or two but it's still sorta frustrating losing 3–5 hrs worth of text when I don't really have 3–5 hours worth of day to re-write it in lol. For a very brief opinion until then, I enjoyed it a lot and am very glad I watched it.

I didn't get a chance to start Gosick sadly 'cuz I've been very busy/wrote a few other things in what spare time I did have, but I'll probably try and balance it with my other work over the weekend/next nomination phase and will post about it then.

Regarding the low activity: was it because I didn't take the initiative by posting earlier in the cycle, or would you like me to try and focus discussion a bit more so that people know what to write about? Any other suggestions for how you think I should run this?
 

vonFiedler

I Like Chopin
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Would it help if you scheduled chunks of episodes to watch and talk about as people watched through them? Like, thoughts on episodes 1-3 etc? Then maybe there could be back and forth. Not sure how well this would work will all shows though.

I'm too busy sprinting to finish the mal top 100 to fully participate, but I've been meaning to post about GiTS1&2, just damned if I can remember anything about 2 except that I didn't like it.
 

Martin

A monoid in the category of endofunctors
is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
I meant to say this yesterday, but I'm extending this by a week both for my sake (been really busy between IRL stuff and other Smogon stuff) and to give ppl who haven't posted a bit more time to share their thoughts.
Would it help if you scheduled chunks of episodes to watch and talk about as people watched through them? Like, thoughts on episodes 1-3 etc? Then maybe there could be back and forth. Not sure how well this would work will all shows though.
That could work honestly. It might help me build it into my overall schedule too. Would everyone else be down to try this next cycle?
 
I would also be down for a recommended "watch X episodes in per Y time period", would remind me to check this more often.
Still watching Gosick since the last month was rough but it's pretty fun. Vaguely reminds me of Bakemonogatari with the psuedo-supernatural elements.
 

Martin

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is a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Contributor Alumnus
I'm just putting this on hold until I'm not permanently behind on coursework. Don't have much time for anime atm and I'd feel bad running this as pure admin.
 

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