Just a little anime series that I’ve been watching for the last coupla weeks.
Let me just say—especially after tonight’s episode (#16)—holy crap. And I mean that in the best possible way.
This series is everything that Chris Carter ever tried to be, but failed at. (And with no aliens, to boot.) And the animation quality just puts everything else to shame. Hell, it puts a lot of live-action cinematography to shame.
Just…yow. I thought I should bring it up.
Ranchoth
I only watched it till episode 12 or so and it terribly suffered from the monster, I mean witch of the week syndrome, story till there was terrible bland too so I gave it up.
The artwork on the other hand is incredible full points for that.
I saw it last year when the fansubs got released. Pretty slow going until the main story arc kicks in in the early teens. After that it doesn’t let down until the series ends. Probably one of the better anime series I’ve seen in a while. Unlike a lot of anime I’ve seen, they actually explain everything by the end, which was refreshing.
My favorite part is watching Robin not be impressed by things. Before she kicks their butts. 
I find that entertaining as well–someone is trying desperately to kill her, and she gets this mildly disapproving, pursed-lips expression…then nukes them. You’d think that someone who drinks that much espresso would be higher-strung.
Bubba, you dropped out too soon. Things started heating up soon after that point, and #16 was really hard-hitting.
Based on the recommendations in this thread, I watched an episode last night. I had no idea who anyone was or what the hell was going on, but it looked interesting. Maybe Cartoon Network will re-run the whole series from the beginning soon.
Heh heh, you stopped watching right before everything changes for the better. Just one episode shy.
This is Adult Swim so we’ll be seeing it through several times. They’ve only got 26 episodes so it ends this March and restarts on April 1st. And it’ll almost certainly start again late may.
Annoyingly anime never seems to want to tell you how things stack up so you spend a lot of time wondering “Who are these people?” and “What role does this organization play?” Every character knows but they never let you in on it. I find that very annoying and very common in this series. I don’t want technobabble but a bone here and there would be nice.
I haven’t found the animation to be so great. In fact there are several bits where I was shocked at how bad they were. Robin on her vespa. On last nights episode are car comes around the corner towards the screen and all they did was just slide the cel with the car on it to the left. No change in size or anything, awful. Although they do pay much more attention to the action scenes. There were some really nice scenes on wednesday.
I’m liking it. I definately want more.
I’ve only been able to stay awake through a few episodes. It seems to suffer greatly from a lack of pace and a lack of backstory. I have no idea why they’re chasing witches, or why the witches are so bad. And the characters * are * terribly bland. I rate it a “Meh”.
I watched a few episodes, and I wasn’t too impressed. The ep where a witch was healer and sacrificed his life for another so Robin could see that not all witches were evil was the best one I saw. But IMHO, it’s no Bebop.
I do wish they’d re-run it in a nicer timeslot. I just can’t go to sleep at 12:30 and then get up at 7:00 four weekdays out of five.
(And before any smart-aleck jumps in, while I do have a VCR it isn’t programmable. It’s an old VCR that came with the room I’m currently renting, and I’m not about to buy a new VCR for my landlady’s benefit.)
I think W.H.R.'s kinda like Babylon 5 or The X-Files in that respect. You have no chance of “getting” the story arc just by casual viewing. As Scott Adams said about B5—Any series that you can’t fully understand unless you regularly consult web pages about it has to be great.
Well, that would mean that The Prisoner was a great series, too. I guess it only counts for series’ that aren’t being oblique and surreal just for the hell of it. (Which includes X-Files too, doesn’t it? 
:p)
I saw one episode. It seemed interesting, but, like Ranchoth said, it’s not the type of series that you can only catch sporadically (I have school, so I can’t be staying up till 12 AM on weeknights). Actually it seems like most anime is like this, which is why I haven’t been able to get into other late-night anime shows like Ruroni Kenshin or Inuyasha (which is a real shame 'cause Kagome’s hot ).
Well, I could certainly roll with not knowing everything. There’s a balance though. You go “Big O” on me and I end up feeling very dissatisfied with the series. You try DBZ where everything is explained in excruciating detail and I’ll stop watching eventually. I guess where it really starts to bother me is when I think that the character should be curious and be asking questions but isntead they choose to stay ignorant. Bugs the heck out of me.
You could do what I used to do Orbifold, buy an 8 hour tape and start recording before I go to bed. Do little fast forwarding when you wake up.
Kagome’s certainly got a lot working for her but it’s Sango for me. Decked out in her red battle and black outfit. What’s funny about WHR are the big debates about her hair. Sometimes we’re so predictable. Although what I can’t understand is you’re on the run, you have the most distinctive hair style in the country and so you choose to stay with it. 
Sango is hot, no doubt about it. But Kagome has that schoolgirl uniform…
I think about every series like this has to do the “freak of the week” for a while to establish a footing, to show what normal routine is like. Then after that’s set up, the subtle clues that have been dropped along the way begin to take on full force and the story focus changes to the overall arc. Big O and Smallville kind of did the same thing.
My main question since the first episode is… What’s the difference between a Craft user and a witch? They’re obviously considered different, since Robin routinely denies that she’s a witch and only a Craft user.
The only thing I can figure is that witches are considered decendants of some supernatural beings (the lady in the wheelchair says that they were the gods cast out of heaven by the other gods jealous of their powers, but the Inquisitor called them “fallen angels” who abused their powers) and that Craft users are “pure” humans (decendants of Saturn, the wheelchair lady said) who are somehow able to use the magic of the world without being a witch.
A fine line, to be sure, that IMHO makes no difference whatsoever, since both can use the same power.
I’ve only seen up to #16 - Heal the Pain - so if my question is answered later in the series, just tell me that without giving away any spoilers