This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you've found that you enjoy. Post what you're reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.
Rules:
- Please avoid downvoting recommendations just because you don't personally like the recommended material; remember that liking is a two-place word. If you can point out a specific flaw in a person's recommendation, consider posting a comment to that effect.
- If you want to post something that (you know) has been recommended before, but have another recommendation to add, please link to the original, so that the reader has both recommendations.
- Please use the comment trees for genres. There is a meta thread for comments about future threads.
- If you think there should be a thread for a particular genre of media, please post it to the Other Media thread for now, and add a poll to the Meta thread asking if it should be a thread every month.
I've been watching several ongoing anime series recently. It can sometimes be fun to watch shows as they air rather than afterwards (at least if you like discussing online), so I'll give my mini-reviews so far. I also list the number of episodes I've watched out of the anticipated total, and include links for free online watching (some shows may not be available in all countries).
Attack on Titan (9/25): Really intense action show about a future where humanity is forced to stay behind walls to avoid man-eating giants. Good art direction and exciting and well animated fights. Some good atmosphere and mystery elements in the setting and background too. Suffers a little from teenagery "all authorities are bad" syndrome, and the characters are good but not great. Probably the best I've watched this season. Also has an extremely good opening theme song. Warning: very violent/gory.
Flowers of Evil (8/13): Artsy show about a neurotic high school student being pulled into (mildly) "evil" behavior by a crazy classmate. Uses rotoscoped actors over detailed painted backgrounds for a look I like but which puts some people off - although don't be put off by the jerky animation in the first episode - they smooth it out from ep 2 onwards. Many scenes have extremely high social tension, but I found it well worth suffering through - and there are some really beautiful scenes later on. Ultimately though it's not exactly an epic battle to save the earth, and you may or may not be able to sympathize with the main character and his endless bad decisions.
Valvrave the Liberator (8/12-24): Giant robots in space piloted by highschool students. Sort of 1/3 serious, 2/3 parody. Pretty funny and entertaining in an over the top way, but muddy characterization and storytelling prevent it from being truly top-notch.
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (8/13): Giant robot show about a 16 year old space-war veteran who gets trapped with his AI-driven robot on a primitive water planet where people live on giant ship-clusters. Probably the most disappointing show of the season for me. Nice art direction and animation and good characterization, and characters generally behave in a logical/consistent way, but the story doesn't seem to know what it wants to be and hasn't gone anywhere very interesting yet, even this close to the end, and is hinting at being a somewhat lame morality tale.
Bonus review for an older show I completed recently:
Serial Experiments Lain (13 episodes): This is one of the best shows I've seen. A very atmospheric story about a girl who gets caught up in a cyberpunk conspiracy. Makes me think of things like Snow Crash or Deus Ex, but without all the testosterone-driven action. The animation seems low budget but is artistically very nice, and the story does a good job of being mysterious without being too vague (for the most part). Let down slightly by jamming in a bunch of unnecessary real-world conspiracy references, but that was only really in one episode. Also has a very 90s conception of computers and the internet, but for me that was kind of nostalgic. It's quite slow paced, but I was never bored.