Anime General Thread (Official)

[dotcom]

I finally finished Robotics;Notes today. It was pretty good. I really enjoyed the characters (Kaito is probably one of my favorite anime protagonists) and I think the plot as a whole is very good. However, the way the plot was paced and structured is kind of lousy, and it ended up dragging the whole thing down. Things didn't really start happening until the second half, and although they were great when they happened, that was still a whole lot of nothing and wasted time that ended up making everything feel unbalanced and make the more sci-fi turn towards the end feel somewhat jarring. It was just structured really weirdly and it caused a weird disconnect for me at some points. Also not that happy that a couple of plot threads were just left hanging without a very satisfying resolution (Furugoori's mom, mainly). In the end I really did enjoy it a lot, though. It had some pretty good moments especially around the turning point. I would like to play the visual novel someday, but I doubt I'll get the chance to anytime soon.

 

Do have to say that it didn't really feel much like a science adventure anime, though. The cleaner, somewhat more generic art style and lack of convoluted messes throughout definitely were not consistent with C;H and S;G. Got better towards the end, but still. Also, the fact that the opening theme was not done by Itou Kanako sure didn't help in that respect (I did like the ops quite a bit, but eh) though for what it's worth, the second ending theme is among the best.

 

In any case, a pretty enjoyable series. I like these science adventures. Wonder how long it'll take for Chaos;Child to get an anime, if at all....

[Terminus]

I enjoyed R;N alone, but I felt that it kinda sucked as the successor to Steins;Gate. That was probably one of the things that I disliked the most about it, because since S;G was so great, I was expecting something close to as good, but R;N's general not-greatness only served to widen the gap between the two.

 

And Fate/Stay night UBW's first season ended yesterday, and I'd say I'm enjoying it much more than I did Zero. Gonna be a long wait 'till April, why couldn't the next season of of Prisma Illya happen this winter to fill the lack of Fate in my weekly schedule?

[LockmanCapulet]

Been gone for a while so just dropping in again. Will try to be more active.

 

Amagi Brilliant Park and Celestial Method both ended while I was gone. Absolutely loved the ABP ending, while CM's was kinda shaky. I agree with one reviewer from ANN that Ep. 11 would have been a nice, leave-it-to-the-imagination ending. The real ending did have its merits-- I loved the bit with the hat.

 

I really should get around to Fate/Zero and FsN: UBW. Also, how exactly does Fate/kaelid Liner fit in the series?
 

[Ektris]

Now that I've finished up all the shows I was watching this season, some thoughts...

 

SAOII delivered for what I wanted it to. It was unquestionably better than the first season (taken as a whole... the charm of Aincrad is still hard to top and I do wish, like many others, that we saw more of that world). I just wasn't very pleased with the ending, which was blatantly sequel bait. It wasn't even a very exciting cliffhanger - despite that it would have also just been pushing for another sequel, there's a point a little farther along that I wish it had ended on that would have wrapped up the season together rather well instead of seemingly having three distinct plots. It would have been a much more impactful cliffhanger too.

 

Psycho Pass 2 was a mess... It took too long to make it clear and it's all still shrouded in confusion, but I like the basic premise of "who judges Sibyl?" as the second season. It just was not executed well.

 

Unlimited Blade Works has been great. I really wish it was continuing straight into the next season and not taking a break lol. It's just so much more interesting than the Fate route, and this show had a season finale I was satisfied with. They're doing a good job at making all of the characters interesting, which is a lot like Fate/Zero and I love it (well, except Rider, who went the way of Zero's Assassin... But then we should see more of her in Heaven's Feel anyways).

 

Log Horizon is continuing so not much really to say here, although I definitely didn't care for the Valentine's Day episode. Just uninteresting. The conclusion to the raid before it was awesome tough.

 

Next season I'll be watching:

• Log Horizon 2 (continuing from the current season)
• Tokyo Ghoul √A (What kind of name is that??)
• Aldnoah.Zero 2 (Even though I'm not pleased with what will happen... I feel like I need to continue)
• Durarara!!x2 Shou (This I can't wait for)

~|ET|~

[dotcom]

Huh yeah the next season is about to start.

The fall season wasn't that exciting though at least Parasyte and Inou-Battle were great.

 

So I'm watching.

 

Parasyte (continuing from fall)

World Trigger (continuing from fall)

Aldnoah.Zero 2 (please stay dead inaho)

Durarara!!x2 Shou (please don't bore me this time drrr)

Tokyo Ghoul √A (hype)

Assassination Classroom (i guess)

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love! (yep)

Death Parade (probably)

Junketsu no Maria (why not)

KanColle (not expecting much good)

Rolling Girls (teal got to me)

The Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls (for the jougasaki)

Yuri Kuma Arashi (probably the one i'm looking forward to the most, the art style looks really great)

 

Also may end up watching Princess Precure, but I'm gonna wait until that actually airs and my Cure-knowing friend tells me if it's any good. Still a ways away, though.

 

who cares about winter season though

 

it's all just filling up the time until spring

 

come onnnnn digimon adventure tri

Edited January 1, 2015 by farmstink buttlass

[Hodor]

Yuri Kuma Arashi (probably the one i'm looking forward to the most, the art style looks really great)

I'm wondering how Ikuni is going to screw with the audience this time.

[Terminus]

Let's see, thing's I'll be watching in the Winter season in addition to fall leftovers:

Aldnoah.Zero 2

Durarara!!! 2

KanColle

Koufuku Graffiti

iM@S:CG

 

And, like always, I'm expecting this list to triple in size as soon as shows actually start airing.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

I'm currently watching Parasyte (at the pilot atm), planning to pick up SAO and Soul Eater again when I have time. I also read a manga that bears a name that I do not think I can post here. Despite me reading it out of a dare and expecting some sort of satire, it actually got really deep and I really enjoyed it.

[Jobber]

Just finished watching all of the DBZ movies.

I wish some of them were canon.

[Razgriz]

I love me some Monkey an unhealthy amount, but Tsukimonogatari was definitely more fun than Hana.

Lots of Phoenix and Doll fun.

Everyone sees through Ougi's nonsense this time around, which was neat.

8.8/10 it was okay AOTY happy 2015

[ActivePalpitation]

Guys, It's 2015.

Angels are coming.

 

Do we have one of these?

 

Edited January 2, 2015 by Turaga of Ponies

[Terminus]

Something huge just has to happen for Eva this year. It's the 20th anniversary and the year it takes place.

 

Well, everything before Rebuild is getting rereleased on Blu-Ray, and 4.0 might come out... That's a start. Maybe Funimation could also finally get 3.33 out by the end of this year, that'd be nice.

[LockmanCapulet]

This season, to my surprise, has far fewer series I want to follow than previous seasons- only six (compare to my usual fifteen or sixteen!)

 

I'll be starting:

 

Aldnoah.Zero S2 (equal parts excited and worried)

Assassination Classroom (watched the OVA the other day, hilarious)

Death Parade (Also saw the Anime Mirai episode the other day, very interesting stuff)

Gourmet Girl Graffiti (It's either gonna be really good or really bad. Can't tell quite yet.)

How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend (I really like the premise for this one.)

World Break (interesting premise, and it looks like it won't be following the typical "magic school" formula)

 

I'll also be continuing Fairy Tail, Cross Ange, Magic Kaito, and Your Lie In April from the fall. I need to catch up on Yona of the Dawn and Garo too...

[Hodor]

Something huge just has to happen for Eva this year. It's the 20th anniversary and the year it takes place.

 

Well, everything before Rebuild is getting rereleased on Blu-Ray, and 4.0 might come out... That's a start. Maybe Funimation could also finally get 3.33 out by the end of this year, that'd be nice.

I'm really glad I didn't preorder 3.33 like I did with the first two.

 

I mean, other than it being terrible. Good lord, how did they waste all of the hype from the 2.22 preview AND the pre-release material.

[Doctor Makuta]

Anyone heard Digimon is getting a series with the original characters in it released this year? That and isnt Eva 4 meant to be out this year?

[Terminus]

Well, I got caught up on a few things over the weekend. Finally finished SAOII, the feels, which were made all the more powerful by the fact that pretty much the exact same thing was happening in real life, with Final Fantasy XIV player Codex Vahlda's passing on the day the last episode aired.

I also must say that I appreciate SAO in general more now that I've gotten into an MMO (FFXIV).

 

Amagi Brilliant Park had a fun last episode, albeit it felt more like filler than an actual resolution (given that the bad guy's identity was revealed in the previous episode, I was expecting something to go down go give it a conclusion). From what I've heard, though, the anime is pretty different from the source material (the princess is blind, for starters), so not too surprised. I do want to read the light novels now, though.

 

I'm not sure what took me so long to watch the last episode of I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying. I mean, it's a three minute short, I've had tons of three-minute periods where I'm sitting around doing nothing since that episode aired... Anyways, it was a pretty good final episode for the first season, with one of my favorite Evangelion references in forever. Pretty excited for the next season in a few months.

 

I was really hoping Sailor Moon Crystal would end it's first arc this week, but nope. I guess it makes sense, for the BD releases, at least, to end this arc on episode 14 so you won't be switching arcs in the middle of a set, but still. I was kinda hoping for some Chibi-Usa this month, but I should have expected this, since this show tends to kill hopes and good expectations.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Caught up to the most recent episode of Parasyte, now I really can't wait for Wednesday. Gonna try to finish Ano Hana today.

[dotcom]

 

Yuri Kuma Arashi (probably the one i'm looking forward to the most, the art style looks really great)

I'm wondering how Ikuni is going to screw with the audience this time.

 

That didn't take long....

[Terminus]

Well, the new season has started. So far, I've seen KanColle an Testament of Sister New Devil. KanColle had a decent first episode, it felt kinda like Strike Witches, although I doubt that this will be as much of a fun WWII history lesson in disguise as SW.

 

Testament (because the full name doesn't really make much sense) passes the generic supernatural harem test with flying colors:

1) Generic-ish dude (check) somehow gets paired up with generic-ish girl (check), but they have an awkward encounter before they're supposed to meet (check) that makes generic-ish girl hate generic-ish guy (check)

2) There's a demon lord (check), who is more of an average decent person than a demon lord (check)

3) Generic-ish dude has some power/weapon/skill that nobody expects (because he's such a generic-ish dude) (check)

4) When magic happens, clothes disappear (check)

I have pretty much zero expectations for this show, but I did enjoy it a bit more than the first episode of last season's Trinity Seven, so I'll see where it goes.

[Infamousevil]

I have just learned that there is an anime called Lesbian Bear Storm. Yes really.

[Constructelf]

So, I watched the first episode of Tokyo Ghoul √A tonight.

 

... Pacing was... Odd.

 

Like, don't just stand there and talk! Don't you have a fight to be fighting?

 

The OP was pretty weird too. I won't say bad, but I have no idea what they're trying to do. Like, I couldn't even figure out the time signature.

[dotcom]

I have just learned that there is an anime called Lesbian Bear Storm. Yes really.

Yeah, that's the Yuri Kuma Arashi that was briefly discussed a few posts higher. The title is far from the oddest thing about it, really....

Honestly, it just confused me. Love the art style and music still, but I can't even begin to have an opinion on the episode itself beyond extreme confusion.

 

Some other stuff started....

 

Binan Kouko Chi...something Bubei-bu LOVE!....uh. God these anime all have unnecessarily complicated titles. The mahou shounen! That thing! I liked it a lot. It seems a lot more intelligent than I at first expected. and the characters too seem more savvy than I would have thought we'd see so early on. Definitely looking forward to more.

 

KanColle exists, I guess. I had no expectations going in so I guess it's fine that I didn't get anything from the first episode. Seems like a lot of very boring moe stuff so far...I'd describe it as Soul Eater Not! without a Soul Eater to make it relevant. I guess at least it's nice to finally put a voice and character to the face, considering that I already have figmas of Akagi and Kaga and have a few others coming....At least now I feel more comfortable (and more willing) to get Nagato and Mutsu, since they were pretty ok. In any case I hope the anime is successful, because it would increase the odds of getting more figmas. I'm still holding out hope for a Wo-Class. (the nendoroid is awesome, but I'm all about figmas) Anyway...

 

Tokyo Ghoul √A's first episode REALLY should have aired back in the summer. Besides the fact that I couldn't recall all the specifics from episode 11 going into 13 like 3 months later, it felt like more of a conclusion than a beginning, so, like. Big old shrug. Anyway, apparently the anime is going in a separate direction from the manga (though with a story by the mangaka) so that should be interesting. I enjoyed the first season a lot, and this had a really weird beginning, so I'm looking forward to the rest.

[Ektris]

Naruto resumed with the start of a filler arc. Again. UGH! We had like 3 or 4 episodes after the last one!

 

Tokyo Ghoul √A immediately reminded me of my biggest, and still pretty darn valid, problem with the first season - that ending was garbage as an ending. Fantastic episode, not a good close to a season. It was just a plain bad ending point. And how it resumed was horrible. But the ending of the first episode of √A would have been fantastic to end the first season!

 

So that out of the way, I still liked it, and am definitely interested in where it's going.

 

I also just learned it's going to be radically different from the manga, but by the author, yesterday. And that sounds fascinating. Also made me go read up on everything the manga's done lol. (And want to go read it properly now of course...)

 

~|ET|~

Edited January 9, 2015 by Ektris

[dotcom]

Oh man.

 

The new Aldnoah episode took everything that could have been interesting about the way the last one ended and ruined it thoroughly. So many idiotic cop-outs. That's it. I'm done with this dumb series....

 

...Is what I would say, if I wasn't so incredibly opposed to not finishing what I started. I'd really rather not, because it is all just so very dumb, but I've gotten through worse things before, so whatever.

 

Anyway.

The Idolm@ster started considerably stronger than I was expecting. The protagonist herself is kind of a drag, but the other characters seem interesting. Especially the Producer. He seems like a fairly unique character.

Assassination Classroom is pretty ok so far I suppose. What a weird op, though.

 

 

Aldnoah, though. So dumb.

 

edits:

 

DRRR!! had a good first episode. The season as a whole looks like it'll be interesting. So many new characters in the op....

Rolling Girls though. I was expecting some slice of life moe stuff, so not much really. But we got so much more! Probably my favorite first episode in the winter season so far! The thing as a whole has a very Trigger-like feel to it, and it's really cool. Definitely looking forward to the rest of this one.

Edited January 11, 2015 by farmstink buttlass

[Terminus]

Haven't really watched anything new for the past few days since I've been so busy (planning on catching up Monday-Tuesday since none of the 20 shows I'm planning on following air those days), but I just managed to slip in the new Aldnoah.

 

Wow, this is terrible. At least it falls into the "it's so bad it's funny" category, and not the "it's so bad it's just awful" category (like Psycho-Pass 2). Stuff felt too much like retcons and not enough like some sort of natural progression, although I wouldn't say they were as awful retcons as they could have been.

Asseylum being on life support over a year and a half later and Inaho losing his eye and slightly damaging the antisocial part of his brain were definitely not the worst that could happen.

 

At least there was a kinda-cool mecha battle. No complaints there.

 

At least there's still Cross Ange for a decent mecha show that I'm following.

[Ektris]

I went into Aldnoah.Zero's second season expecting it to be bad, and the first episode blew my expectations out of the water. It's actually even worse and I didn't think that possible.

 

But I also want to finish what I've started...

 

DRRR!!x2 was a great start and I'm really interested in more. The amount of characters now is a little daunting though.

 

And we finally got to a moment in One Piece I've been waiting anxiously for! Still shocked it's not in filler mode and continuously moving forward, even if somewhat slowly at times. But that's most satisfying.

 

~|ET|~

[LockmanCapulet]

You guys really have me worried for the new Aldnoah...

EDIT: Saw the new episode. Wasn't awful except for the blatant fact that

having Inaho and Asseylum AND Saazbaum still alive

is pretty much a massive "Screw you!" to the audience. I'm glad that at least

Asseylum is in stasis/still healing

, but still.

 

Death Parade had a nice start. Thematically very similar to the Anime Mirai episode, but it looks like we'll be exploring some new directions soon. The OP is quite fun too!

Gourmet Girl Graffiti was surprisingly good! I'm still kind of surprised at how much i enjoy pseudo-moe shows like this, Jinsei, Locodol (!!) Etc.

Cross Ange is taking a new, interesting direction. Looking forward to that.

I get the feeling that I'm the only one here who watches Fairy Tail, but can this filler arc please end?! It's already wasted all its potential and butchered a lot of canon. This is why i skipped the fillers in the first series... at least we're getting adaptations of some great special chapters soon!

Edited January 12, 2015 by LockmanCapulet

[Terminus]

Just finished this week's Sailor Moon Crystal, first episode of that I've felt is so awful that it's good. It was another great demonstration on how to not animate a show (I especially loved the parts where the Legendary Silver Crystal vanished between cuts), and somehow the cat anatomy's gotten worse. On the content side, I really wish that they'd stop doing one chapter per episode, as the flow is kinda awful. It'd have been better to have the battle finish last week and wrap up the first arc in the first half of the episode, and then start the next arc in the second half.
So, par for the course. Good job, Toei.
 
Aldnoah had one of those episodes this week where, if you completely forget all the awfulness of the plot in past episodes, you can just hang on and enjoy the ride. It had a pretty funny demonstration of Inaho's

robo-eye, where he used it to calculate weight and as a lie detector,

and Inaho and Slaine Finally know each others names after a cool space mecha battle.

 

Also, gotta love the super-spoilerific new OP (the first five seconds completely spoil the end of the first season for anyone who hasn't seen it), and if stuff seen in the OP is to believed, then apparently

Cruhteo is still alive, as well. HOW FREAKING INTENT ARE YOU ON NOT KILLING YOUR CHARACTERS, SHOW!?!

 

 

And I also started watching Rosario + Vampire Season 2 on Netflix, after deciding that I'm going to finish up the manga in a couple weeks. So far, there are zero improvements over the first season. Heck, It's probably going to end up even worse, considering how far away the anime deviates from the manga. None of the good parts ever even make it into the anime.

 

Anyways, on the non-awful side of things, DRRR!!x2 is pretty good. Probably my favorite show starting this season. Also, REALLY EXCITED that the DRRR!! Light novels are coming west via Yen Press, I'm definitely going to be getting those when they come out.

[Toa Of Virtues]

I am happy to announce that I will be going to ACen this year!

 

Also, I'll begin watching Tokyo Ghoul after my semester finals are over, and I loved the run of Psycho Pass 2. I recommend the Psycho Pass series to anyone wanting a psychological thriller similar to Death Note and the like. 

[LockmanCapulet]

AZ episode 2 wasn't bad at all, barring the bridging the seasons. The bit with

Inaho showing off his eye

was actually pretty hilarious.

 

Loved the Saekano premiere. Sure, it's a typical harem setup, but I really like the premise and am rather happy that there's no fanservice as I was fearing. (barring "episode 0" which I didn't watch)

 

Really REALLY loving Assassination Classroom so far. Great dynamic, great execution, and Koko-sensei is hilarious.

[Bloody Nine]

Anyone watching Rolling Girls? It's pretty baller. There's something about it I enjoy.

 

Yoru no Yatterman is great as well.

[dotcom]

I'm watching too much stuff. Getting hard to keep track of everything in my mind.....

 

Some stand-out thoughts.

 

KanColle is just incredibly unbelievably mediocre right now like wow (please go die in a hole Yuudachi) But the op and ed are probably my favorites this season. Really really good songs imo. The anime itself bores me to tears, though.

 

Tokyo Ghoul and BiKouChiBou-buLO (that is what I'm calling it now) are maintaining their quality from the first episode. Pretty good so far.

 

Assassination Classroom's second episode was a whole lot better than the first, really starting to see the premise come together in a great way. Very enjoyable.

 

What else....uh. Oh. Yuri Kuma Arashi is still incomprehensible. Nothing new there.

 

I haven't gotten the chance to watch the second episodes of Aldnoah, DRRR!!x2, Im@s or Rolling Girls so far, though...Most interested in seeing where Rolling Girls goes most of all. That's probably my favorite thing this season from the first episode alone. Optimistic about the others, except Aldnoah....

[Ektris]

Naruto: Do I even need to mention how utter garbage Fillerto is?

 

Tokyo Ghoul: I was actually a little confused by this one. Clearly some time has passed between the first and second episodes, but I just couldn't figure out how much. Some parts made it seem like a long time, others just a few weeks. But... it did a lot of set up that the first episode should have done, so I can't complain.

 

Log Horizon: Well this'll be interesting. The kids always were good characters in my book, so some time spent focusing on them after the first half of the season being pretty much exclusively Akatsuki and Shiroe will be nice.

 

Aldnoah.Zero: It's still getting worse! As if he weren't insufferable enough already, Inaho hasn't been humbled by his experiences in the least and is actually even more perfect thanks to literally having an all-seeing eye now?!?! WOW. And it still bugs me that Lemrina even exists as the identical-except-for-hair-but-magic-devices-fix-that sister of Asseylum.

 

DRRR!!x2: Seeing new characters is a good way to start, but... And oh, they're real characters alright (granted we saw the twins before, but not in the same light). I reeeeally just want to see Ryugamine and Kida interact though.

 

One Piece: Another scene I've been really waiting for. Oh, Sabo~.

 

~|ET|~

Edited January 18, 2015 by Ektris

[Toa of Gallifrey]

Finally caught up to the latest Parasyte epi, and I'm really excited. Also finally finished AnoHana, it was quite good. I found some of the twists fairly predictable but it was enjoyable nonetheless. Gonna continue with Gurren Lagann and Puella Magi Madoka Magica. On a side note, I got my parents into anime with Akame ga Kill!, which they really liked. We finished that so up next I'll be showing them Death Note, hopefully starting tonight, followed by Mirai Nikki.

[dotcom]

so many serieeeeeess

 

13 airing, plus the NAM shorts, and like 3 series. I've started watching....too much anime Way too much anime. ._.

 

Um. Anyway.

 

Death Parade is pretty great so far. The opening is completely inappropriate for the series, and I love it. Actual series is hitting all the right points. Very great.

 

Anyway yeah I started Nisekoi. Pretty interesting first episode. The Shaft touch kept my attention pretty well throughout. Shame that it's gonna be one of those shows as far as the romance is concerned...Oh well. Hopefully it can stay interesting.

Also started Cardcaptor Sakura! Sakura was probably my first anime. I watched it when it aired in Mexico like 15 years ago...it was definitely one of the most prominent parts of my early childhood, and probably the most relevant anime for me around that time. Then I moved on to Digimon or something... Anyway. Revisiting this series should prove interesting. It's been so long I've honestly forgotten most of what I saw. Gonna be fun to experience it all over again.

 

Also Inferno Cop exists? Man. What even is Inferno Cop.  

[Ektris]

Weekly update:

 

Naruto: *BLAHHHHH* Such filler. Much garbage. So waste time.

 

Tokyo Ghoul: Alriiight, we've established how much time has passed, which has things making a little more sense. And some nice development showing how everyone's choosing to progress the state of affairs... or not... after that first battle against Anteiku. But most importantly we saw that Kaneki might not have snapped so much as we think he has, but that's not going to help him as people start to realize who he is. Overall, good development episode.

 

Log Horizon: ...So... female Shiroe... wut?

 

Aldnoah.Zero: ...What even is going on here. Okay so maybe this helped redeem Slaine a little bit for me, but it still did kind of come out of nowhere. I know his actions all along have been pretty much like that, but this time I was sure he was being straightforward. Instead we get another flip. With again, no foreshadowing or build up. But how he did it was pretty cool...

 

DRRR!!x2: So is that girl supernatural or not? Anywho, this one finally clicked into place all of the timeline jumping that had been going on, so I think I see how it all went down now. That had been kind of annoying. Hopefully it goes a little more linear from here on out.

 

One Piece: So things slowed down a little and this episode had very little action, but that's fine given what we've been seeing. Sabo finally just saying his name and getting the placard introduction was just as silly as the manga, since we've known for a while who he is. Ah, but the ending with Doflamingo... Some nice setup there.

 

Also watched three of the Digimon movies this weekend: Diaboromon's Revenge, Adventurer's Battle, and Runaway Locomon. They were all pretty alright.

 

~|ET|~

[dotcom]

Death Parade is so good. Watch Death Parade, guys. It is so good.

 

I actually really liked the last Aldnoah episode. Fixed a lot of what went wrong during the transition from the first to the second seasons, and actually gave the plot some direction. This could turn interesting yet. Not very happy with how Inaho is still generally perfect, but I like the fact that he really is acting much more like a person now.

The only part I'm still wary of is Harklight. He just seems too loyal. We're at a weird point in media where it's unclear whether being trope-savvy would indicate he's gonna end up betraying Slaine or not. I don't know which option I'd prefer.

 

DRRR!!x2 has been surprisingly fun so far, which surprised me since I didn't find the first season too interesting. I wonder if it's the weekly release schedule that is helping. I think with the faux-mundane atmosphere DRRR!! has, watching it all at once feels like it drags at times. One episode at a time, there's less-more stuff happening. Feels more focused somehow. I dunno.

 

Yuri Kuma Arashi finally delivered some exposition, and it was...siscon? I don't even know anymore. This is a weird one.

 

Rolling Girls' 3rd episode seems to confirm my suspicions of how the plot will be structured. Wasn't too exciting, but should get more interesting in the second half. It's a nice compromise between slice-of-life and action, anyway.

[LockmanCapulet]

Gave up on Gourmet Girl Graffiti and Cross Ange this week. GGG was just getting weird and going absolutely nowhere (I probably would have enjoyed it more if the first episode was a standalone OVA or something) and Cross Ange tipped too far on the fanservice-to-plot ratio. In hindsight I'm kinda regretting following it at all.

 

Death Parade continued its excellence with ep 3. Love it. And the totally mismatched yet amazing OP just seals the deal!

 

I actually really really liked Aldnoah ep 3. The series is doing an excellent job with the less-than-ideal direction it set for itself, oddly enough. (I still really miss the original OP and ED though...)

 

I'm not watching KanColle but I looked up the OP. Great song, and I love the group! (AKINO with Bless4 also did the Amagi Brilliant Park OP last season, my favorite OP from fall.)

[dotcom]

Heck yeah, KanColle has a really great opening theme. I like the ending theme even more though. They're the only good things about that anime, but dang, they are good.

 

Speaking of good, Nisekoi is way more fun than it has any right to be. I think if it wasn't for the voice actor's great performances and all the shaft bits they got in, it probably wouldn't be as great. But wow, it has entertained me like few other anime in a long while. I still wish it wasn't a harem though. Those almost always end up so poorly...And the thing is, they're doing it sickeningly well. I feel like I'm watching three separate romance stories instead of a harem, which is...complicated.

Sadly, from what I've read eventually the story ends up stalling in limbo while more and more harem members are thrown into the mix, and I'm...not really looking forward to that. The love triangle setup was good enough. ..But it really has been really fun so far, even if contradictorily it feels just so very generic.

[Terminus]

Well, I finished the second season of the Rosario + Vampire anime earlier this week... It's probably some of the worst butchering of a decent series I've seen since Final Fantasy Unlimited. Only thing it really had going for it was that it didn't even try adapting the manga except for maybe 3 or so episodes (what happened, or rather, didn't happen, in S1 made the majority of the manga unadaptable anyways), but even then it still pretty much just killed itself instead of butchering the manga. Shame, since the manga would probably make a pretty good anime if it wasn't butchered.

In other things, the new Aldnoah made me really like Slaine, and it's also one of the few times I've felt a twist actually worked here. Still doubt that it'll end up as more than a decent series overall, but it's gone back to being a fun watch every week.

I'm not really sure how I feel about KanColle yet... At the moment it's this show that I watch that kinda just exists, with not much going for it and not much to hold against it. The new episode felt random as heck, which was kinda funny, but it didn't really hold together all that well.

Speaking of random, this week's episode of Cross Ange essentially boiled down to Ange fighting a Dragon for the fate of the world- in a game of Twister, while wearing a bikini. Because they decided mecha battles weren't fanservicey enough.

 

Nisekoi is easily the best thing running in Weekly Shonen Jump, IMO. Even though the main plot (the pendant and keys) rarely appears anymore, It's a good, episodic series that never really feels like it's dragging on (unlike absolutely everything else in Jump, except for possibly Gakkyu Hotei, but that's still starting out), and the comedy stays consistently funny. And even when more girls come into the harem (there are like... 6 or so in total, although one doesn't appear that often), everyone is enough of a character that they manage to be fun and interesting while still being kinda generic harem stereotypes. I think the fact that it's more of a feel-good comedy harem series than a fanservice harem series is a huge thing in it's favor, though

Anyways, just remembered that the second season of Nisekoi starts next season... Actually, now that I look at it, there's a lot of stuff I'm actually looking forward to next season (unlike this season, where I didn't really care about anything until it aired.)