Advent Calendar Day 16!

[needles]

Day 16: Promote a favorite series of yours!
Hello, everybody! Are you enjoying the Advent Calendar event so far?

Do you constantly see unloved cards of a series you just know is amazing sitting in other people's trade piles? Are you a fan of a canon that gets a bad rep? Or are you just itching to talk about this neat, obscure thing that none of your friends seem to really be into? Well, here's your chance to tell the world why it rocks!

Today's theme is to promote a favorite series of yours. A long time love or a new flame -- all are welcome here! What aspects of it make it so awesome -- the characters, the plot, the art, the music, anything else? Where could we learn more about it that you didn't cover in your comment, or perhaps even play/read/watch/etc it ourselves? Anything you want to promote a series you love, you're welcome to do!

Answering this will earn you one choice card and 2 random character cards. Have fun! This round, like all the others, concludes December 31st.

Comments

[poland]

Everyone please watch/read Terra e... for the following reasons:
➜ Gay guys in space.
➜ Heartbreaking friendships and romance.
➜ Lots of tears.
➜ Pretty vintage shoujo art and animation.
➜ A guy for any type (girly, masculine, weaker, stronger, etc)
➜ Psychic battles.
➜ The old movie is hilariously old.
➜ The new series is a really good reboot.
➜ It's only three volumes, one movie, and a 26 episode anime.
➜ Also it's a sci fi that's targeted towards women but doesn't try to dumb it down or cutesy it up and is very mature for a female-targeted science fiction series.
➜ I really love it and you will too.
➜ They have Colors decks so you can collect their beautiful faces.
➜ Like look at Tony.
➜ Holy shit man. HE'S SO BEAUTIFUL...

Taking: soccer08

[yuugiri]

Psychic battle and gay guys in space and sci-fi for women you say... hellloo i am on the way

[creatively]

Everyone should watch VividRed Operation! If you've sen AKB0048 Hulu will suggest it to you and I agree. It's a cute one season anime about girls with the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP. They're only able to have the power they do because of their friendship!!! The animation is really sharp and appealing. There is A LOT of ass shots which kind of puts it out for me, but overall everything else is A+ enough that I'm able to ignore it. The music is beautiful and the characters are fun to see interact. It's really just the perfect anime to watch simply for friendship and relaxing '^'

Taking foreigner07!

[magaru]

I was kind of considering it, but the reviews I've seen were comparing it to Strike Witches, which I found a bit discouraging. How's the fanservice in this series?

[preternatural]

Today I'm gonna talk about one of my oldest fandoms, and that's the .hack series - pretty much everything from SIGN up to G.U. is amazing, and I even liked the new OVA, Quantum.

First of all: the music. The music is really amazing, and it always has been. Yuki Kaijura did a fair bit of it, and she's just a fantastic composer. I have too many favorite tracks to mention, but one of them is here.

Second: the story. I know, the game-within-a-game thing has been done a few places, but I feel like it's done best here.

Third: the characters. From Tsukasa to Subaru and forward to Haseo, there are just so many well-written characters.

Let's see. .hack//Quantum is on Netflix, and I know Funimation's got .hack//SIGN on its website. There are a few longplays of the games on YouTube, and there's a good wiki here!

For my choice card, I'd like puppeteer03! c:

[radria]

Ah, .hack! Probably one of my top 3 fandoms and a great series to boot! There is literally so much about this series to see and explore. If you don't like games, there's a few animes/OVAs. If you don't like anime, there's a ton of manga and light novels. If you don't like manga/light novels, there are online short stories and so much more.

Plus…some of the best music ever, english/engrish and japanese.

[yuugiri]

Please read Zettai Karen Children, I love it so much. I EVEN HAVE A POST ABOUT IT??

GIRLS/FEMALE FRIENDSHIP BEING IMPORTANT, FOUND FAMILIES, GOODASS CHARACTERS, GOODASS CHARACTER RELATIONSHIPS, SO MANY DIFFERENT TYPES OF SHIP POSSIBILITIES PLEASE LOOK AT MY OTP, JAPANESE X-MEN, EVERYONE IS CUTE

It honestly starts off pretty bad (needles knoWS) but when it starts to get good got dang does it stay good.

The anime adaption is shit and the spin-off is Okay but both have REALLY GREAT music and seiyuu, so u can jam while u read okok.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2w6xtjjY6U

WOW!!!!

(i'm taking sound02 lol)

[hoppip]

I can attest to this, once you get past the gross stuff at the beginning it gets so genuinely GOOD

[totling]

Well I've just finished nostalgia-bombing myself with Legend of Dragoon decks, so I guess... I could talk about that...

LoD was the very first game given to me when I got my PlayStation back so many years ago. I devoured it. Blah blah the generic story of a ragtag team of mismatched heroes who discover they are connected more than they thought and save the day from great evil, BUT. Oh this game punishes you for failure. You have to time your hits, something that is not typically done in an RPG game! And if you mess them up, welp. You're gonna take damage. Plus there are dragons and fabulous story building lore, and the beautifully rendered graphics are beautiful. Just ... not the polygons. You get to go on a fantastic journey and suffer loss and see all kinds of characters and stories fold out. Plus getting 100% completion? Painfully hard. You will have to replay again for it, because chances are you will forget to grab a Stardust or two in time.

Bbbbasically if you like Final Fantasy at all you would probably enjoy Legend of Dragoon, though LoD is far more sadistic (WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN ONLY CARRY 32 ITEMS).

The one thing I really want for Christmas are new cables for my PS2 so I can replay this game over and over again next year.

I'm gonna grab syndicate16!

[netbug009]

LEGEND.

OF.

DRAGOON.

This game made me spend hours in RPG Maker creating a story based on it and sparked a lifelong appreciation of game design storytelling that is now influencing me to become a computer science major. I know that is probably overselling it but I'm a sucker for "slowly collect your team as they realize they are meant to join you by friendship/destiny/whatever" RPGs and I just...

I need the rest of the party's decks soon.

[lanvaldear]

EVERYONE really needs to play Tales of the Abyss! The Tales games in general are really amazing, but Abyss is my most favorite! It's got an amazing cast of characters (I don't dislike anyone except for Mohs because fuck that guy, and not in the fun way), amazing music, an incredible story, and Luke's got a very believable/relatable case of depression. Oh, and Jade Curtiss. The English cast is a rare cast because I actually like it more than the Japanese cast.

UH and not an anime, manga, or video game, but Kristen Cashore's novels are amazing. I'm reading Bitterblue right now, and it's actually got LGBTQ+ characters! Who aren't dead! Who speak a lot and are real people outside their sexuality! When another character confronts Bitterblue about maybe having sex, she doesn't shame her! She just gives her something to prevent pregnancy. Oh, and it's got a female protagonist--who doesn't like female protagonists?

Grabbing companion08.

[ex_painter182]

IT EXCITES ME TO SEE NOVELS BEING MENTIONED HERE #NERD
I haven't even started on Graceling yet because of an overload of novels on my desk but I have been wanting to read that forever... ;_;

[surskit]

EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH/READ SHIKI AND ROZEN MAIDEN, OKAY. The former is about vampires portrayed in an awesome, non-twilight way with lots of moral ambiguity, while the latter is a fantasy animanga about dolls with supernatural powers that come to life. Both series have kick ass soundtracks, lovable characters, beautiful art, and amazing storylines. GIVE THEM A TRY PLEASE I'LL LOVE YOU.

I'll also take this moment to shamelessly plug the Kirby anime, because I'm fairly certain only Netbug understands how much I love it and how cute it is. ITS SO SILLY AND FUN WATCH IT etc etc.

i'll take ability07!

[hoppip]

SECONDING
please read/watch rozen maiden

[sal]

I'm going to take this opportunity to promote Little Busters, one of my favorite series of all time. I like, well, everything about this series. It has an amazing cast of characters, I love them all, and each of the characters are very different from each other and will give you reasons to like (or dislike) them. All of the characters are unique and there's a good chance you'll find at least one of them you really like.

The plot is a great one, too. It may take a while to figure out exactly what the series is about, but it provides many great examples of friendships and Refrain (especially) will show exactly how strong the bonds are between the characters and how much they care for each other.

I'd recommend Little Busters to everyone and anyone looking for a new series to check out. Just recently, most of the cast received decks here at Colors, too! It may take a few episodes to really get going, but if you give it a chance you'll be able to learn more about each and every one of the main cast as you watch more of the series. As well as (hopefully!) being entertained and watching a new anime you'll like.

The anime is on CrunchyRoll if you'd like to watch it on there, if not, I'm sure there are other places to watch it as well. There's also a Visual Novel, which the anime is based off of, and I would recommend the visual novel even more than the anime because it has a lot of content that didn't make it into the anime. If you play the vn, be careful you're certain of which version you're going to play before you start! Little Busters! Ecstasy is a game in the series, and it's adult rated so if you decide to play that one make sure you're okay with that kind of thing first.

There are so many things I love about Little Busters but it's hard to put all of my love for the series into words without including major spoilers so I'll stop here. For my choice card, I'm going to take deceiving07. Thank you!

[hoshii]

As a fan of Key games/anime I can say Little Busters! is amazing.

[sannin]

Okay, I am a major fan of violent series, so I'm going to suggest Sun Ken Rock! It's actually the cover picture for my card post and while the fanservice is excessive sometimes, the fight scenes more than make up for it! Blood, broken bones, and the art is amazing! I can't get enough of it!

But if that's not your thing, I will forever plug House of Five Leaves. It's a slow moving series but the art and character design is so beautiful and the story is so sweet! Even an action-adventure/superpower/samurai/ninja/fighter fan like me really enjoyed this series.

Taking Salamander09 I'm gonna finish this deck just off these Advent Calendars

[needles]

Ooh, yes, House of Five Leaves is a beautiful little series. The art style is so different from other anime out there, but that's a part of what makes it very unique! I've never heard of Sun Ken Rock, though, I'll have to check that out. :o

[hoppip]

Please read Umineko! It's one of my most favorite fictional stories ever. I have no idea how to explain the plot but it's a weird fantasy/mystery type of thing but at it's core is actually a love story. Beatrice is also one of the best and most complex and well developed leading characters in anything ever. The characters themselves are extremely flawed and feel like real people. ALSO BADASS LADIES and one of the few series were the parents also have faces, active roles and are possibly more interesting than the children. The anime is shit, don't bother with it though. The manga is decent and possibly the next best thing if the visual novel won't run on your computer.

Magi is also a fine shounen series. While it's flawed (and admittidly i dont care for the fanservice at all but thankfully gets toned down in the recent arcs)if you want a good adventure story with a fascinating world building, politics and badass ladies, you might enjoy this. Also the anime's not that great so stick with the manga for this too.

choice card: paimon17

[aaveplsgo]

YES seconding Umineko with burning passion!

[accelerator]

It would be so easier for me to preach about Raildex but I know a few people around these parts that love it as much as I do. So I gotta tell you all the YOU HAVE TO READ DEVILMAAAAAAAN

I just got into it like, a week ago, but it's so good. Oh man is it good. It's a Go Nagai manga from the early 70s -- so it can be a little trashy and cheesey, but it's such great fun! The ovas are all around amazing (I'm a sucker for gritty 80s anime deep down and it delivers), the tv series...not so much, but I can forgive that. There's some great spinoff manga too (must of which I've read) and a 45 volume psuedosequel (which I...have not read yet sob). Read it if you like over the top violence and want to see this badass motherfucker in action



and devilman himself but ryo asuka is most important

(Taking seele09~)

[needles]

Every time I see this image I crack up...

[karayan]

Everyone should read Amatsuki. To summarize it very briefly, it's a manga about a high school student named Rikugou Tokidoki who fails his history class and has to go do a make-up assignment at a virtual reality museum based off late-Tokugawa Edo. Except then he gets attacked by a monster and suddenly he's not in Kansas anymore, Toto the museum. He's in Edo. For real... maybe. Or maybe it's still a simulation...? What is reality, anyway?

Certain people (like the dumb bird in my icon) call the place he's found himself "the Amatsuki," which is short for "amayo no tsuki" or "seeing the moon on a rainy night" -- in other words, something that shouldn't be possible. In any case, it's an approximation of Tokugawa-era Edo where ayakashi are real and everyone's fates are unknowingly controlled by a being called Teiten and something known as "Heaven's Net." Toki, an outsider who hasn't been noticed by Teiten yet, has the power to potentially re-write Heaven's Net, and as such is highly-sought after by individuals on both sides of a seemingly straightforward conflict between humans and ayakashi. But absolutely nothing in the Amatsuki is as simple as it seems.

MY SUMMARY SUCKS but basically Amatsuki has great characters who are multifaceted and and have complex motivations PLUS a really intriguing mystery story that blends science and technology with folklore and history. And the writing is amazing -- as new plot points are revealed, re-reading earlier scenes completely changes their meaning and significance.

As a bonus, the art is drop-dead gorgeous.

There is an anime, which covers the first arc of the manga. I would highly recommend it, since it sticks pretty close to the original. The manga can be found here, though the translation for the first few volumes does contain some errors.

But seriously, I picked up the first two volumes randomly back in 2006 (when there were only five volumes out total), and I've been in love with it ever since. Volume 17 was recently released, and we're on what promises to be the final arc -- and wow is the story really coming together in amazing ways. JUST. IT IS INCREDIBLE OKAY.

I'll take restore02!

[apprivoiser]

+1 for Amatsuki PLEASE READ THIS SERIES GUYS it deserves way more love than it gets. ;u;

[anruik]

I feel like I should discuss Honey & Clover for... reasons. It's about a group of art school students in Japan in their day-to-day struggles with relationships, themselves, and work with a super focus on Takemoto, who inner monologues a lot through most of the two seasons. It's a really fun series that has situational humor that can turn into aching sadness on the turn of a dime. (no i'm not kidding, there's plenty of scenes where i've been crying of laughter and then one single dialogue line later i'm crying from sadness it's really well written)

It's got a lot to do with loneliness and inadequacy feelings too. It's just a great series in general, would recommend every damn time, A++

I'll graaaab pottery14

[needles]

One of my friends is very into this, but I never got the chance to check it out before. I've definitely been meaning to give it a second look one of these days, so thank you for reminding me!

[acperience]

Everyone should read Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu/The Legend of the Legendary Heroes/That series with the really weird and redundant name. BUT THE TITLE IS GREAT OKAY and actually horribly inappropriate because what... heroes...

If you assume that it's a cracky series that doesn't take itself seriously, you're right... about 50% of the time! :'D The other 50% is doom and gloom and despair and crushing of souls.

EXPLAINING THE ACTUAL PLOT IS... DIFFICULT AND SPOILERY but overall, despite the silly title, it's actually a very meaningful series with an amazing cast and dynamics, wonderfully grey morality, and great character development. There's a lot of misery and suffering involved, as mentioned earlier, and it's brutally cynical and pragmatic quite often because it does take place in a Crapsack World—but in the long run, it's a very hopeful series that focuses a lot on the idea of finding a reason to live no matter how hopeless things might seem or how cruel the world might be. c:

Also we've donated 2934823947234 decks for it and they're lovely so you'll have lots to collect. /nods

... Katie explain the rest for me I can't think right now—

Grabbing manipulative12!

[apprivoiser]

read it for lucile

just lucile

[hoshii]

Everyone should go watch Kaiba. My reasons for this are:

➜ Cute retro-style that looks like Tezuka art, even tho the anime aired in 2008.

➜ But disregard the cuteness there's a lot of mindfuck, tears and life lessons.

➜ Aired in the NOITAMINA timeslot.

➜ It's only 11 episodes, but really good ones.

➜ Very good OST.

➜ Recommended especially if you like sci-fi, something different, WTF elements and with a lot of surprises that will either rip your brain or your heart out.

Grabbing stalker07!!

[zhopa]

I'm really happy someone else recommended this so I don't have to thank you

[laurant]

LoD's been mentioned before, but it really was a nice game! I haven't replayed it in ages because of the item carry limit, but it had a great story and awesome music o/ (though finding this one battle theme online that wasn't on the ost was really hard). I really hope that one day they remake the game or make a sequel or something, even tho it's probably highly unlikely that the will.

To talk about a really obscure game, Dual Hearts is a really interesting game that involves traveling to other people's dreams and solving their problems, and the dream worlds are really neat! It was made by Atlus, that company that brought you Odin Sphere and GrimGrimoire, which everyone should play as well \o/

Grabbing ghostgirl08!

[needles]

Oh man, Dual Hearts sounds super cute. I wonder if it's still in print? I'd love to grab a copy of that!

[hamiltonian]

EVERYONE SHOULD READ WALLFLOWER IMMEDIATELY

It's this hilariously adorable manga about four stupidly attractive teenagers who are allowed to room in a beautiful mansion for free...provided they can turn the owner's niece into a 'perfect lady'.

Said niece is obsessed with horror movies and gore - she's got a bunch of movie monster mannequins and skeletons in her room that she talks to like they're her buddies, and considers people who are too attractive to be 'beings of light' and suffers explosive nosebleeds upon viewing them.

IT'S AS HILARIOUS AS IT SOUNDS and all of the characters are incredibly endearing and you really get involved in their lives and want everyone to just be happy together. Also the art is super pretty and the jokes are really funny and just read it I promise you won't be disappointed.

read it and then donate more decks - I mean what?

Taking chaos02!

[needles]

She already sounds like a perfect lady to me, haha. I'll need to look into this more, though! I'm always on the lookout for great comedies.

[empanadas]

Everyone, please watch Macross Frontier! Seriously, do it now.

It's got transforming mecha jets! A kickass soundtrack courtesy of Yoko Kanno! Idols! A pretty boy pilot who... can actually pass off as a woman due to his previous job as a kabuki actor. Yuuuup. Oh, it also has giant alien bugs.

One more thing: watch this, a super over-the-top concert performed by one of the most-developed female protagonists!

A series that comes with 26 episodes and two movies, you can't go wrong if you like sci-fi, mechs, romance, and music.

Taking pixie16!

[rubatosis]

SECONDING THIS LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS.

Sheryl is seriously one of my favourite characters ever. And it takes a lot for someone to reach that status.

[apprivoiser]

A chance to sell my favourite obscure series?! Sign me right up. Everyone should read Ciel: The Last Autumn story. If you like a story that has deep, meaningful friendships, gorgeous art, wacky fourth-wall humour coupled with despair-inducing plotlines and beautiful wham-liners like these, this manhwa is for you.


This is the series of intense two-girl two-guy friendships. Read more to find out!!

The story... is admittedly too complicated to explain, but what you have here is essentially a tale about the deep, complex friendships between four quirky individuals, and their relationships with the world at large. Toss in a mixed ensemble of witches, sorcerers, kings, princesses and dragon deities, and you have a hideous plot where people sabotage each other out of the greater good or extreme pettiness, complex emotional plotlines where characters don't always make the best decisions because, guess what, they're all human, and plot points that come in the form of throwaway comments only for it to foreshadow heart-wrenching events seven volumes later.

Also, it'll only take you nine or ten volumes or so before you realize why it's called 'the last autumn story', and then you will either slap yourself on the forehead, or burst into tears or both. I admittedly did both WEEPS.

But yes! You should read this series! And cry with me! Also, the decks for this series are absolutely gorgeous. If this isn't reason enough to read it just so you can mass collect it, I don't know what is :>

Whoops, got so busy talking about Ciel that I forgot my choice card lkasdjfklsa. I'll be taking laurant17!!

[needles]

Ahh, what pretty art... I've admittedly never heard of this, but I'll definitely be checking it out! After all, it seems to have quite the fanbase here at Colors, so it must be pretty good.

[radria]

I recommend, if you enjoy RPGs to try out Golden Sun!

It's… a series of RPG's for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance (and Nintendo DS). You play as a young boy in a world where Magic (or Alchemy, as it's called here) roams free throughout the world in the guise of the four elements; wind (Jupiter), water (Mercury), fire (Mars) and earth (Venus). Unique creatures called Djinn (or Djinni, depending on the version) help people called Adepts (of which you are one) to help hone the elements to your bidding. Of course, as is many times the case, there is evil in the world wanting to control the elements for themselves. And one very fateful night, the lives of an entire town (natch, even more as the story twists and turns) could become nulled if alchemy is left unchecked across the world!

You start with a party of 2, yourself and another boy from your town but slowly gain additional members along the way who have powers derived from the other elements. With the Djinn helping you, the party travels the world in search of 4 mysterious gem-like objects that can help seal alchemy and the ravages it brings.

The battle system is derived from a turn-based system; the faster you are, the more likely you'll go first. You level up normally and gain new base skills along the way but the Djinn can also help augment your skill set. Do you like hitting the enemy hard? Equip some Venus djinn and become an all-out berserker! Rather go first and blast enemies with wind? Jupiter Djinn are your friends here. Prefer to hang back and heal? Mercury's the way to go.

And it's not just battles! Golden Sun is full of puzzles that you'll need to progress through the game. Use your Djinn to gain knowledge of new spells and tricks to carve a path forward. You may find yourself returning to past towns and villages with a new spell to find a new path along the many places you'll visit.

Your party is literally yours to design! Do you give up the pure-Djinn summons and go for more eclectic ones or do you summon the might of the very stars to your aid? It's all up to you! Hunting for Djinn and the Elemental Stars will send you all across the world and into the very depths of danger but it's up to you and your friends to save the planet!

The second game, leaves off where the first ends, with a few key differences. You can literally bring over your saved game from the first with a password and bonuses but you can jump into any game with little knowledge of the previous ones. Dark Dawn makes the jump to the DS with a new cast of characters (and some old favorites!) but a familiar quest; save the world with the Djinn and some friends by your side.

Unfortunately, Dark Dawn is where the series ends…for now. With hope by our side, let us believe we will get another installment here soon.

While there are not any character decks for Golden Sun, there's a lovely special deck called Adepts that introduces you to many of the characters you'll encounter on your journey.

Definitely check out Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn if you can; I think you'll find them to be fun, challenging and a great addition to your gaming library!

Taking kitsune11, thanks!

[needles]

I need to get Dark Dawn so bad, argh. Aside from the Lunar remake, the first Golden Sun was one of the games I replayed constantly as a kid, and the fact that I haven't been able to check out the DS version yet is killing me!

[rubatosis]

Everyone please go read Claymore. It may look like a stereotypical shounen at first glance, but I can guarantee it's not.

A main cast full of badass, incredibly powerful female characters? Check.
That wield giant swords and fight monsters? Check?
Lesbian subtext that is so prevalent it's practically text? Check.
A female lead that the main male character idolizes ever since she saved him as a little boy? Check.
A complex plot that still manages to make sense? Check.
A shadowy organization that is obviously so much more than it appears on the surface? Check.
Meaningful female relationships with no drama over ~men~? Check.

Just... please. Watch or read it. You won't regret it.

Taking aimo20!

[kues]

YES. YES YES YES. Claymore is so incredibly good. The anime's also pretty on-par with the manga in my own opinion, so you can go either way and still get a great story ;3;

[citoyenne]

I'm going to rec Boku wa Tomodachi no Sukanai, or Haganai as it is commonly abbreviated to. It translates to I Don't Have Many Friends!. Basically the plot revolves around Kodaka Hasegawa, your typical I-look-like-a-delinquent-but-I'm-actually-kind guy, as he gets roped into the Neighbors' Club, a club specifically geared for friendless losers to gain some social skills. Of course, they all end up being really pretty girls who vie for his attention.

Yeah, it's a harem comedy, big whoop, but I don't know, there's a few things about it that have managed to endear themselves to me and set it apart. For one thing, you know, given the title and purpose of the club, all the girls are socially inept and while they're supposed to be ~cute haremettes~ the show really makes no joke about how their personalities aren't cute at all. But this is all done in a way that's pretty amusing.

Secondly, the rivalry between Yozora and Sena is really funny, so trust me on this one.

And finally, and I think this is the main reason, the second season really starts to have some great character development. You really start to see them actually being better people, and see them actually becoming a tight group of friends despite the fact that most of these characters don't even realize it. And the harem is actually interestingly explored--Kodaka becomes a lot more self-aware of his position, and you really get to see that the typical harem protagonist indecision has real emotional consequences for everyone. While this comes in almost at the end of the second season (and since the light novels are still continuing, you don't get a clear ending, but whatever), it's really fascinating and well-done.

If you can stand fanservice of Sena's boobs, you've got a really fun show on your hands.

I'll be taking cleanfreak01 for my choice card!

[needles]

YES I love Haganai so much! What a fun little series, and the honest character development that happens over the course of it (especially with Rika) is really great. I'd definitely recommend it over other comedies of it's kind.

[bridgitkiido]

Do you own a DS? Do you like RPGs? Do you like cliche storms that still have a solid story and likable characters?

If you answered yes, I highly recommend Nostalgia. It's your typical steampunk RPG with a pretty typical save the maiden, collect the macguffin, save the world plot, but it does it well, the characters are fun, and the music is great~ (Even if some of the airship enemies are a pain. 2k HP? Really, Nidhogg Class?)

Also +1 to Jan's recommendation of DenYuuDen above. The title is silly, but the series is only silly half the time and the silly half only serves to make the mood whiplash more powerful. It starts out looking like it maybe might be a chase the macguffin series, but it's really anything but. It's really emotional and the characters are amazing and the anime is really pretty and the music is beautiful and I'm still holding onto the hope that they're just waiting for the ending to make a second season and ajklsdfa please just give it at least through episode 3 before you dismiss it you won't regret it

I'll take formulas19 ^^

[radria]

Great game honestly. Way too song for its glory and it's a pain in the rear to re-track down but if you can find a copy it's so much fun!

[beccastareyes]

So, I donated four PlanetES decks, and, while I appreciate the ease of finding them in trade piles, I want to share the love of this awesome (and lesser known) anime. Plus, I already collected one deck, so now someone else can go after the Ai cards

Basically, PlanetES is a 'hard' SF anime: no giant robots, no aliens, no funky physics. Instead, the first half is an office comedy... in space! Basically the show opens with Tanabe Ai, newest EVA specialist (read: astronaut) in Technora Corporation's Debris Section. Rather than being 'the right stuff' that we associate with astronauts, 'half section' (because of its funding situation, and its members reputations for being 'half-assed') at first lives up to its reputation. Everything is run down, the office doubles as a boarding place for the station's pet population, and Ai's instructor, Hachirota Hoshino, is an abrasive jerk who manages to make The Worst First Impression.

Never the less, the characters are what drive the show. They pretty much have a dirty and under-valued job -- Debris Section is in charge of keeping orbits clear so that leftover satellite bits don't kill spacecraft -- and take pride in it. The characters are generally awesome. In addition to the idealistic Ai, and the mostly-cynical Hachi, you have Fee Carmichael, the captain, known for her general ability to take charge (and a powerful cigarette addiction), Yuri Mihairokov, who is usually the crew's straight man (but his backstory has some of the most pathos in the show), and the office staff (Philippe Myers and Arvind "Robbie" Ravi, and temp Edelgard Rivera) are generally played for laughs (especially Myers's and Robbie's attempts to play office politics to get promoted), but are good people.

(Another thing I like: while this is a Japanese anime, space isn't a Japanese place. Fee is African-American, Yuri is Russian, Robby is Indian, Edel is from Europe, and there are characters from the Middle East, South America, China and so on. Fee and Ai also get some pretty badass scenes.

The second half of the series shift slightly to the dramatic in that there is an overarching plot both featuring the first crewed mission to Jupiter and the general issue of 'who gets the resources in space, all of Earth or the first world nations who got there first?'. The series in general talks about the human place in the universe, both with big questions like those, and a sort of ideological debate between Ai (who really lives up to her name in promoting 'love' and connection to other people over all) and Hachi (who is driven more outward and in a solitary fashion).

(I like the anime better, but the manga has several Fee based story arcs that I'm sad weren't animated. OTOH, the anime develops other plots far better.)

There are also Moon ninja fanboys. Because if you were in 1/6 gravity, wouldn't you try to do all the crazy moves you saw in anime?

And my choice card is serpent06

[ankari]

I remember watching this anime a few years ago and enjoying it a lot! I should probably read the manga too :o

[aaveplsgo]

Everyone should watch Katanagatari! It's got amazing fight scenes and gorgeous animation, a deep and complex story, and an absolutely heart-breakingly (bitter)sweet romance between the two leads.

Also included: a whole lot of ninjas, various swordsmen, plenty of badass ladies, and ridiculousness. A lot of ridiculousness.

Admittedly it can be a little difficult to watch because the episodes are extra long and there is quite a bit of narration and dialogue, but it's definitely worth it!

(taking paranoia20!)

[needles]

I loved the heck out of what I saw of this, but unfortunately I was spoiled on the ending, and that completely killed my drive to see the end of it. :( HOWEVER that doesn't mean everyone else shouldn't pick it up immediately, because it is beautiful and sad and everybody will love it, I promise.