So Attack on Titan finished last weekend, watched the last ep last night, curious to hear what people thought. I'm up to date on the manga and only really started watching the anime once it was in the last week of airing, then raced through it, have to say, was pretty impressed. There's been a ton of talk about it, probably the last thing I can remember getting this much attention was Gurren Lagann, and that was like 6? years ago, so I was a little skeptical, but for the most part it seemed to hold up.
I don't watch as much anime as I used to as a teenager, but I honestly can't remember watching anything as bleak as AoT, like a few posters above mentioned, ep 21's got the most depressing 10 minutes of anything I've seen, probably since GoT's red wedding. Not too happy with the changes they made from the manga to the S1 ending, but apart from that, it's been a good adaption. The manga's got a lot of pacing issues, understandably so given it's a once a month thing I guess, and they seemed to do a good job addressing that in the anime.
The manga's currently in its 12th volume, and the author's said he intends to end it by the 20th, although that can always change. Given how well the anime's been received it's hard to imagine they're not going to follow through, even if the second season's a couple years away. If it does stick to 20 volumes, I think that's 3 seasons, possibly 4 if they have a little bit of filler, saw one or two sequences of the anime that weren't in the manga, so not sure what the plan is there.
Prior to watching AoT I gave High School of the Dead a look, fucking hell talk about squandering potential in favor of constant fan-service, jesus. Ended up reading the manga afterwards to see if it was just an anime thing, but nope, that washroom scene's in there. Such a great concept, high-schoolers fighting off zombies, ruined by endless crotch and cleavage shots, bleh.
Also watched a couple movies on the back of reddit recommendations; Redline, a 2009 anime set in the future focusing on this underground race, very sci-fi, whacky, exhilarating, and most importantly, beautifully drawn. It's free on Youtube, in 1080p, if you want to check it out. Manga Entertainment's got a bunch of stuff uploaded there.
The other thing I saw yesterday was the live action Rurouni Kenshin movie. Didn't really know much about it beforehand, only seen bits and pieces of the anime growing up, so I had no idea how faithful an adaption was, and I ended up really enjoying it. It's got good choreography, not too many special effects, a solid score, and is a good watch. I'd love to know what people who are familiar with the original material thought of it, I've read it combined a few arcs and is ultimately one of the better live action adaptations out there.
"My post has been amended by autocorrect. Please report me to the site admins for being ignorant". - AoT was depressingly boss, HSotD is fan-service bullshit, Redline is gorgeous, Ruruoni Kenshin live-action adaptation worth a look.