Suggestions and General Discussion

[beamish14]

I’d love to do one for Lain. If it goes well, we could jump to spiritually similar shows like Boogiepop Phantom and Denno Coil

[feihong]

How would it work? Discussing an episode a week?

I already started watching Serial Experiments Lain in advance of the previous Film Club vote. I'd be interested in what people think of it.

[Mr Sausage]

I don't know, an episode a week seems a bit restrictive. I'm all for setting aside a 2-week period and letting people tackle the episodes at their own pace. Kind of like our previous tv rounds.

[therewillbeblus]

Anime episodes are also like 20 minutes if you excise the opening and closing credits plus occasional ‘sneak peak’ blips contained in 25 min runtimes. The show is about the length of two long movies, so two weeks seems more than reasonable.

I’d love to do one for Lain. If it goes well, we could jump to spiritually similar shows like Boogiepop Phantom and Denno Coil

I still have my copy of Boogiepop Phantom unwatched so that’d be cool, but I’d never heard of Denno Coil so I’ve added it to my list- thanks for the rec

[Michael Kerpan]

The advantage of doing a series bit by bit is it allows new watchers to speculate on what might be going on (which requires re-watchers to be circumspect to avoid premature revelations). As I've seen Lain many times, I'm fine regardless...

Boogiepop Phantom (the long ago anime series) was sort of a fraternal twin of a live action movie called Boogiepop and Others. The anime dealt mainly with side stories while the movie covered the central story line. Lots of intersection between the two, and basically complementary to each other. I suspect the movie is much harder to find at this point than the anime....

[therewillbeblus]

I tend to view most animes as long movies, so this would play differently in my mind from Euphoria’s group watch project where each episode functioned like a self-contained movie often shifting narrative and character-focus each outing, especially in its second season. I’ve never seen this one though, so maybe each episode is rich and singular enough to space out.. we’ll see

[Computer Raheem]

I'm voting for the Serial Experiments Lain watchalong simply because I've been looking for an excuse to finally watch this series in whole; having a place to talk about it with others (both newbies and seasoned diehards) would be greatly appreciated. I'm not sure if watching both this and Dekalog for the first time together is a smart idea, but we'll see

[feihong]

Anime episodes are also like 20 minutes if you excise the opening and closing credits plus occasional ‘sneak peak’ blips contained in 25 min runtimes. The show is about the length of two long movies, so two weeks seems more than reasonable.

I’d love to do one for Lain. If it goes well, we could jump to spiritually similar shows like Boogiepop Phantom and Denno Coil

I still have my copy of Boogiepop Phantom unwatched so that’d be cool, but I’d never heard of Denno Coil so I’ve added it to my list- thanks for the rec

I saw Denno Coil, a long time ago. If I recall right, it's basically a story where kids are all into a VR experience that's a lot like Pokemon Go!, and the show posits that it was probably a bad technological development. I remember a lot of atmosphere, and a lot of sentimentality, and I remember it began to feel very drawn-out at some point. I don't know. Was there much to talk about in the show? I don't think I even told anyone at the time that I was watching it.

Nowadays most shows seem to be a single season of about 12 episodes. If you go back into the past, something like Lain is a little bit of a standout for how short it seemed. Most of the old shows are 24 or 26 episodes, with a season break around episode 12 or 13. Maybe it makes sense to talk about them a season at a time? I get the 2-week period to watch, though, and that sounds like it makes sense.

[vsski]

As I mentioned in the Anime thread I’d really like to start exploring Anime, so participating in something like this would be great - although since I have seen nothing don’t know how my answers would be perceived. I started ordering titles based on Feihong’s and Michael’s recommendations, but haven’t ordered this one yet, so it will have to come from the UK as that seems to be the only physical release easily available that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg (and I don’t have the option to do streaming at the moment). Given my location and continuous travel in the coming weeks though, I don’t think I can start watching until late this month or early February, so this will likely put me out of contention. However, as with the thread about Princess Kaguya, I will be following this.

[Mr Sausage]

I mean, this'll only be the second anime series I've seen (after Cowboy Bebop), so you'll hardly be alone.

That raises a question, when should we do this? I'm all for capitalizing on enthusiasm when it's high, but I also want as many people to be able to participate as possible. When would people be up for this?

[feihong]

Personally, I'm fine with whenever. Most weeks I can watch a series in a few days.

[therewillbeblus]

I mean, this'll only be the second anime series I've seen (after Cowboy Bebop), so you'll hardly be alone.

Wow, I would love to read your reactions to Neon Genesis Evangelion in episodic records as you digest it for the first time. I think you would have a particularly rich and novel perspective on the series.

As for a timeline on this project, I don't want to hold anyone up- I can get a hold of this and will make it a priority viewing whenever the group decides to hit the play button

[Mr Sausage]

Alright, so when should we start this, then? Next week? At the end of the month? In February?

[Saturnome]

I very recently watched Serial Experiments Lain and I was mostly just lost and confused, and also annoyed by all the padding*. I didn't got much out of it except some visual and sound motives and could hardly say anything about what I've seen, it felt like endless gibberish about the internet that I couldn't connect to. For context it's only the second anime show I've watched in 15 years, the other one was 5 years ago and I adored it (Neon Genesis Evangelion, though I watched it with a friend who grew up with it and it affected her very profoundly).

So I feel like I really need to read people's thoughts about it and I'll be very interested to read this upcoming thread.

padding*Show

there's even a clip show in there!

[Michael Kerpan]

After my first viewing (long ago) I decided to treat the technobabble as part of the environmental sound track rather than as anything I needed to "understand".

[vsski]

Alright, so when should we start this, then? Next week? At the end of the month? In February?

Please don’t let me be the hold-up and as it turns out I found a way to get my hands on copy possibly as early as this weekend, so will jump in whenever possible.

[Mr Sausage]

Ok, can we start as early as this Monday?

[Michael Kerpan]

Would it be better to stagger this so it starts one week after the other discussion starts?

[Mr Sausage]

You mean The Third Man? It'll be basically one week after that one (I was a day late getting that up, I know...), and, really, who hasn't seen it by now?

[Mr Sausage]

I know, I know, another poll. If you don't like the options, please list one below, and if it has traction I'll add it.

[Mr Sausage]

Poll on the schedule here.

[Mr Sausage]

Hardly an overwhelming turnout, but looks like we're doing this come Monday. I'll get a thread ready this weekend.

[therewillbeblus]

Maybe half of the people who expressed interest just don’t care when?

I was the lone vote for putting it off a week. I was thinking of devoting a significant portion of time to The Third Man next week, but I’m not sure my motivation matches my ambitions for that degree of participation anymore, so I changed my vote back and will begin on schedule with the rest of you weebs

[feihong]

I voted for sooner than later, but I guess I don't care when we talk about it, either. Almost finished with the series, so at least it'll be fresh in my mind on Monday, because I doubt it will be in another week or so. The show has sent me down a rabbit hole learning things I never knew about Sinnead O'Connor, though––which was pretty productive.

[Michael Kerpan]

I'm fine for "whenever". I located my Bluray set (not necessarily an easy task in the current state of disorganization of my home video stuff).