Does anyone have a suggestion for something that is similar to Spice & Wolf?

In what way? I might consider Haibane Renmei in terms of tone and feel, but the themes are quite a bit off.


On another note, I ended up watching my way through A.I.C.O.: Incarnation, and I have a review for it

The only show I'm familiar with that's remotely similar plot-wise is MaoYu, which is basically a slightly-less-good version of Spice and Wolf where you replace "middle-ages economics" with "high-fantasy middle-ages politics" and add in a bit more fanservice.

I haven't watched it myself, but C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control seems to be a modern fantasy take on the stock market. It also features a magical red head. I think MaoYu, C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control and Spice & Wolf were all written by the same person actually.

Similar in either way (feel vs topic) would interest me. Doesn't have to be both at the same time.

Thanks for the suggestions! I will look into all of those!

A quick Wikipedia check reveals the opposite to be true: none of these three series share an author, though it's worth noting that Spice & Wolf and MaoYu were originally light novels, while C was an anime first. I didn't check if the anime adaptations shared directors or anything.

I thought there was an author out there with a very specific set of preferences. It's a weirdly specific combination to show up 3 times. Magical redhead love interest assists protagonist with economic concerns. Is that a trope now?

C only really shares superficial elements with the other two. It's much more of a dramatical show with some social commentary, it doesn't have the same atmosphere.

So I watched "In Search of the Lost Future".


It's neither the worst high school slice of life nor the worst time loop/leap/travel story, and in fact it does some things really well, but man is it flawed at times. Like, there are elements it almost does TOO well because it goes on to sacrifice them later and the replacement is not as well done. High note is getting an episode that details and thereafter cuts to the future timeline from which the traveler was sent, which doesn't just disappear when the past changes (Since the show uses "Many Worlds" time travel rather than, say, the World Lines of Steins;Gate) and has IMO the better payoff. Low note is the timeline where the technical events work out; to which, quote about hunting rabbits, above. Can't hate it, but wouldn't recommend it.

I didn't think until now to say so, and here is probably the closest place to talk about it, but a month or two ago I read A Silent Voice. I teared up. A lot. I liked it.

I also just reread Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. I cried again. A lot. I do so love that one.

So I finished "Children of the Whales" today.

Such good world-building.
Such terrible pacing and character development.

I'm normally of the opinion that "Show, don't tell" is an over-taught maxim in writing, and that especially when it comes to descriptive passages (not applicable in a visual medium) or details of a setting that is unlike the Earth we are familiar with, there are times when you have to tell, and provide exposition, so that your readers/viewers aren't lost. Being excessively afraid of exposition as some writers are would, especially in fantasy, miss out on my favorite parts of certain books, like Eyes of the Dragon, The Tombs of Atuan, or The Silmarilion -- all of which I greatly enjoyed despite, or perhaps because of masses of telling (especially about mechanical or anthropological details).

But Children of the Whales highlights where "Show, don't tell" is most important -- Characters. We are told that the main character, Chakuro, is always writing like it's a compulsion, and that he gets called "The destroyer" because his telekinesis is really strong but he's clumsy with it. Over all twelve episodes, we see him writing stuff in a scenario NOT relevant to his job as record-keeper twice, and see him do a TK-screw-up exactly once. None of that seems to justify his reputations, and his role in the story doesn't do anything with his writing mania or strong but unskilled powers, he just sort of hangs out on the fringes of scenes, looking sad, and occassionally calling out (or screaming, as is appropiate) the female lead's name. Another character, Suou, is called out as constantly working to find a cure for the fact that the telekinetic subset of the population has short lives, but we never really see him mixing medicines or doing research; maybe a little in the background, but nothing that justifies how often that 'fact' is brought up. The character Ouni is the ringleader of a group that are such troublemakers that they've been spending most of their lives in prison, but despite his reputation as a rule-breaker we never actually see him break any rules or hear what crimes he gets penned up for -- he's more sullen and combative than other characters but he never does anything criminal. Lykos, the female lead, is supposed to be experiencing emotions for the first time, and allegedly she's become a real person over the course of the show but while she does get a couple crying scenes and a little emoting in her voice to back it up, I can't name a single actual trait to her character except that she seems to like Chakuro. Sort of. Maybe. Her affect is flat enough that it's hard to tell if there's really been any progress. A couple of the side characters (Sammi, Gishnu) are better about having their personalities be, well, personalities that we get to see rather. In essence, the vast majority of character attributes in the entire show are (tvtropes link) Informed Attributes. It's grating enough when a character or two have an important trait or two that rely on that. In Children of the Whales, it's most of the characters, and most of their attributes.

Just finished AnoHana. Aaaaaangst. It's not bad, and the last episode really does do a good job which is fairly critical for the story its telling, but I'd rather watch any of the other shows I've seen that have solid similarities: Haibane Renmei in its structure and emotional goals, Dusk Maiden of Amnesia in its plot and setting, or Mekakucity Actors with certain character details. All three of those were spectacular in at least some way, and AnoHana never really was.

I'm also watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. In the middle of the Endless Eight right now. So far I've been enjoying the show and despire dire warnings even the "another very slightly different episode with new animation" aspect of this arc.

Thinking of starting either Psycho Pass or Mirai Nikki opposite Haruhi.

I very much liked to Haruhi. I've been told that it's cliched, but ti's not at all similar to anything else I've seen. I also get the impression that it's a sort of commentary on those cliches. There's a Haruhi movie to check out to if you like the show.\

Haruhi is in spellchecker. Just mine or everybody's?

"What if Azathoth were a bratty/adorable teen girl?" is Cliche? I've not gotten that feeling yet. True, Haruhi has some cliched desires, but she desires them precisely because they're cliches, and Kyon is a pretty perfect straight man for the comedy.

As for the spellchecker, might be browser-dependent. (My) Firefox doesn't know who it's messing with.

Looks like I'll be embarking on Mirai Nikki. I've heard both good and bad about the show but the one thing I've heard without contest is that it's an important show or if not the whole show at least that Yuno Gasai is an important character to the modern history of anime. I feel like it's one of four frequently talked about, landmark sort of Anime shows that I had somehow avoided. Haruhi was another, so it'll be kind of cool to be seeing them side by side for a bit (the other two are Tegen Toppa Gurren Lagan and Neon Genesis Evangelion; I'm basically a stranger to the Mecha genre. I really do want to see Evangelion at least, since TTGL has never sounded like my cup of tea, but it's been a PITA to track down)

Mirai Nikki is considered important? I was unaware. I t has a really good opening theme at least. And Yuno Gasai is always fun to watch. Unfortunately, everything around her is really stupid or fairly boring. There is one really good plot twist towards the end though.
mjack did a review of the show.

I wholeheartedly recommend Evangelion. And I less wholeheartedly recommend TTGL.

I will wholeheartedly recommend Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and less than wholeheartedly recommend Neon Genesis Evangelion.

That said, I imagine Tevish would prefer Evangelion. From the outside looking in, though, the mecha genre seems to be dominated by shows that just focus on the mechas (a la Gundam), but of the ones I have been exposed to, a majority of them (or at the very least the more memorable/notable ones) have all been, essentially, metaphorical. Big O, Eva, etc.. Gurren Lagann I wouldn't consider about the mechas as much as one of the Gundam series, but it is considerably more about the mechas and the fighting than Eva/Big O/etc.. Personally, I'd more readily recommend Gurren Lagann because it has a much broader appeal than the mindbending psychoanalysis that Eva is, and because its character arcs and development are effing brilliant.

I am going to leave my thoughts on Haruhi short, because I didn't like the show (disclaimer: I've only seen the first season so far). However, I wouldn't be surprised if the people who call Haruhi cliché are the same people that say Queen stole from Vanilla Ice. As I understand it, a metric **** of anime that resembled Haruhi cropped up in the few years following its initial broadcast.

I have also never heard anything about Mirai Nikki being "important", but I like in a largely pre-2010s anime world, so anything I've heard probably isn't helpful. The very last anime I watched was the Cowboy Bebop movie (which I have seen before), and before that was Gunbuster 2 (2004) and Golden Boy (1995), and my plans for next anime to watch are either Galaxy Express 999 (1979) or Angel's Egg (1985).

Of course, I could undermine that by admitting I started watching RWBY. I just got to the end of the third season, so only a single "big" thing has happened IMO, at the third season finale. I'm willing to forgive it a lot, but there are some things I just can't take. It's got good writing, marvelous fight scene choreography, and absolutely fantastic character design on the level of fighting games or MOBAs, but oof do some animations look really sketchy, and some moments so shonen anime cliché, and eurgh some of those references. Don't get me wrong, I loved the subtlety of "detach the caboose! It will kill us all!", but I was out when they actually said "you activated my trap card". I'm also finding that I do not like most of the theme music. Some of the background and/or ending music has caught my attention, but the only song with lyrics that I've moderately enjoyed thus far has been the first season's opening.

I feel like TTGL betrays its own themes and basic logic at several points. Eva gets weird, and some parts near the end seem pretty arbitrary if you're not versed in ancient Hebrew Kabbalism (so pretty darn arbitrary) but I never feel like it goes against itself.

I'm solidly a fan of RWBY, as I may have mentioned. The art gets better every season (1 is hillariously bad, but the shadow-figures for crowds never reappear after that since their budget presumably improved from "Enough to get a ham sandwich") but 3 to 4 is the biggest jump because they actually switched out things under the hood, using a different engine to render the show. Of course, the 3/4 split also shakes up the pacing and writing in a way that's... debatable. I still enjoy it but I know some don't. For music, we might just have different tastes, but its worth noting that the soundtracks have significantly more songs (and extended ones; pretty much only the season-end-credits songs play in full in the show).

As for the importance of Mirai Nikki, I guess I've just heard it brought up as a) a major source of popularity for the "Death game" genre/arc and b) Yuno Gasai as the ultimate archetype of the Yandere the way that Tohsaka Rin or Evangelion's Asuka get brought up for the Tsundere character type.

While I don't think the opposite is true, I do not agree with you at all. Gurren Lagann never "betrays" its themes, it's just that the tone changes significantly after [plot point]. It's always in service of the characters growing up, most notably Simon.





I honestly enjoyed the shadow-figures for background characters, because it solidly directs your eyes to the characters who are important in the scene. And to be fair, I can't help but be subtly impressed by how much they make CG work for them -- not that some animations and such couldn't be done in a more traditionally animated show, but I notice things like using the same "wolf cut in half" animation from different angles at different speeds with different protagonists and think "wow, that's really good use of the CG format". But I'm talking about how some animations are just clunky-looking, due to clipping, or improper timing, or other weirdness that comes from the low-budget CG they're making. As for the writing, I would imagine that Monty Oum's passing would have something to do with the shift.


Oh, I absolutely think it's my tastes. Most of the songs have a teenage punk-rock garageband feel that makes me think about Scott Pilgrim, and all the lyrics are very much directly related to what's happening in the scene or season. Both of these are matters of personal taste, but for the former, I don't really care for the genre, and for the latter, the lyrics end up being laid on a bit too thickly to the point it makes me think of fan-music rather than its own thing.


I can see that, especially in regards to b). But again, I haven't really, well, ever been plugged in to the anime community (such as it is), so whatever I may have heard is likely out-of-date to say the least.

So I literally just watched Galaxy Express 999 -- it was recommended by... I think it was either Mother's Basement or Anime Everyday, I can't remember now. Anyway, it was a well-done adventure story with a sci-fi aesthetic. I liked it, but it didn't blow me away.

Basically I decided to watch it this week so I could keep my word, then stay up late on Saturday to watch FLCL Progressive.