Anime General Thread (Official)

[Toa of Gallifrey]

The original series or the Rebuild movies? If it's the original series, that gives me an excuse to rewatch it from the top. xD If it's the Rebuild movies, I'll probably just marathon 'em when 3.0+1.0 comes out.

[Terminus]

I'm pretty sure it's everything pre-rebuild. I'd love for that set to come over here, EVA's been OOP for too long and a good HD remaster is always nice.

 

But I won't be expecting that until all the rebuild movies come out over here, and considering 3.33's release schedule, that may not ever happen.

[Hodor]

IIRC, Sentai Filmworks has the rights to EVA TV- could come out before we get word on Funi's 3.33 home release. The only snarl would be Death and Rebirth and EoE.

[LockmanCapulet]

I really ought to watch Evangelion one of these days. If I can ever figure out the proper viewing order, that is.

[Hodor]

I really ought to watch Evangelion one of these days. If I can ever figure out the proper viewing order, that is.

TV 1-20 -> Directors' Cut 21-24  -> TV End- > End of Evangelion.

 

You don't really need to watch the Director's Cuts of 21-24, since they're just the new footage from Death and Rebirth added to the episodes themselves, but they're honestly overall better and make watching Death and Rebirth unneeded except as a curiosity. From there, you can watch the TV Ending or End of Evangelion- it's completely up to you. Both are worth watching and are both fitting ends (thematically speaking), but EoE is a lot more disturbing (it got an NC-17 for imagery, in fact) and not for the faint of heart.

 

After that, you can basically take the franchise in anyway you want. Don't go in expecting a 'deconstruction of mecha' like a lot of people claim, though- if anything, EVA is even more of a homage to the genre than Gurren Lagann is.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

It's not really a homage but definitely not so much a decon of mechas as it is to anime tropes in general. It has love letter aspects to the mecha genre but ultimately it deconstructs tropes present in them such as the trio of pilots, the dynamics between their mentors and the character's personalities as a whole. That said, it's not a deconstruction of the mecha genre similar to how Madoka isn't a decon of magical girls (difference being Evangelion is more of a different way to play with common mecha and general anime tropes and Madoka is a decon-recon). Of course, this is all up to the interpretation of the watcher, this is just how I saw it.

[LockmanCapulet]

TV 1-20 -> Directors' Cut 21-24  -> TV End- > End of Evangelion.

Thanks! Though I think I'll pass on EoE given your description... I typically don't have the constitution for stuff like that ^^'

 

And the Rebuild films (1.0, 2.0, and 3.0) are a reboot, right? I'll check those out if I enjoy the original series.

 

This will all be after I get started in Gundam, of course!

[dotcom]

So there's only a few weeks left until summer season ends and fall starts, so it's about that time. How are your falls looking so far?

 

After a ridiculously heavy summer season (17 is too much) and year in general my fall seems to be shaping up to be my lightest season since spring of last year. I'm only watching:

 

-Go! Princess Precure (continuing from summer)

-Owarimonogatari (all the hype, all the time)

-Attack on Titan: Junior High (because i see no real reason not to)

-One-Punch Man (the manga is absolutely fantastic, i can not wait)

-Comet Lucifer (because the pv hooked me)

 

I guess I'm also keeping an eye on the World Trigger filler season, but I really don't see myself watching it. The actual season was drawn out and padded as it is. But beyond that, this is it. The idea of only watching five series is pretty refreshing, I gotta say.

[Terminus]

Rebuild is a reboot of EVA, but at this point it might be worth it to wait until Final comes out to watch those (mainly wait on 3.33, because how good that one is completely depends on Final, as it didn't really do anything other than drastically change the direction of the series). But the first two are basically remakes of the first 20 or so episodes and they do that pretty well, so those might be worth a watch.

 

Also you're not missing much by skipping EoE, honestly you'd be fine just watching episodes 1-26, but the Director's Cut episodes have a good amount of worthwhile extra content.

 

As for next season, I'm planning on watching Seraph of the End, Heavy Object, Attack on Titan Junior High, Valkyrie Drive, and Testament of Sister New Devil, and I'll be continuing following Gate. 6 shows is a nice number, but I'm sure it'll become more once the season starts.

[Hodor]

 

TV 1-20 -> Directors' Cut 21-24  -> TV End- > End of Evangelion.

Thanks! Though I think I'll pass on EoE given your description... I typically don't have the constitution for stuff like that ^^'

 

And the Rebuild films (1.0, 2.0, and 3.0) are a reboot, right? I'll check those out if I enjoy the original series.

 

This will all be after I get started in Gundam, of course!

 

EoE worth a watch, honestly. It's basically Anno using the rejected scripts for TV End's original finale (rejected for content and budget; EVA's budget was generally 'whatever we found on the floor and in the couch'), and losing anything remotely resembling subtlety in the message. And the series wasn't exactly subtle.

 

It is, however, a very visually interesting movie. It's probably the most memorable thing in EVA- essentially Anno's attempt at making an arthouse movie.

 

Rebuild is a reboot/remake/possible-sequel/franchise send up. The first two are fun action movies worth watching, the third one is basically a microcosm of all the franchise's flaws. I appreciate how much Anno is messing with fans with the title alone for the next one, though.

 

It's not really a homage but definitely not so much a decon of mechas as it is to anime tropes in general. It has love letter aspects to the mecha genre but ultimately it deconstructs tropes present in them such as the trio of pilots, the dynamics between their mentors and the character's personalities as a whole. That said, it's not a deconstruction of the mecha genre similar to how Madoka isn't a decon of magical girls (difference being Evangelion is more of a different way to play with common mecha and general anime tropes and Madoka is a decon-recon). Of course, this is all up to the interpretation of the watcher, this is just how I saw it.

Evangelion is subversive, not deconstructive. Similar concepts, but extremely different in execution.

 

The most deconstructive thing in EVA is Rei, who is a jab at the Yamato Nadeshiko, and it didn't really go well (mainly because Rei was less creepy, more sympathetic). Deconstruction is taking a concept and putting it in a realistic setting- something like Dai-Guard in the case of robot anime, or Watchmen. Subversion is taking something and putting a twist on it to take it in another direction.

 

Like, for example, the Evangelions are built up as mecha, not biotech. The pilots aren't the most psychologically stable, but instead of something like Getter Robo's straight up psychotic pilots, they're depressives.

 

There's also the incredible amounts of homages in EVA, ranging from UFO to Ultraman to Devilman to Ideon and so on. The series even pays direct tribute to the original Mazinger Z manga, and lovingly so at that. People often times forget how much of a fanboy Anno is- he just really doesn't like hikkomori. Even his 'i hate otaku' phases are something he flipflops on, and come off as hypocritical at best.

[LockmanCapulet]

Alright, I guess I'll do EoE once I watch the series.

 

For next season... hoo man, why do i always watch so many.

 

Gate (continued from summer. This series is fantastic)

Attack on Titan: Junior High (*sigh*, fine)

Comet Lucifer

Concrete Revoltio: Choujin Gensou

The Asterisk War

Heavy Object

Kagewani

Lance 'N Masques

One Punch Man

Onsen Yousei Hakone-Chan (i don't know why but I get a Celestial Method vibe from this)

A Corpse is Buried Under Sakurako's Feet

Antimagic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon

Tantei Team KZ

Utawarerumono

 

Eh, assuming I drop a few (inevitably) at least this will be fewer than I followed during the summer.

[dotcom]

Things are ending a whole lot lately. Or I guess, more like this week. But some stuff has already finished, so here are some final thoughts.

 

Shimoseka was definitely the highlight of the season and pretty close to being the highlight of the year so far. I'm not usually that big a fan of raunchy comedies, but this was exceptionally well done. The characters were great, their interactions were always fun, the jokes were funny, the censorship hilariously appropriate, the music perfectly fitting, the art and animation great, the voice acting superb...most importantly of all, I feel that it really took its subject matter and themes seriously, which seems counterintuitive for such a crazy show, but really isn't. Its themes and message were solid, even if wrapped in endless layers of redacted zany dirty antics. The characters and their interactions and the entire setting were completely able to carry the show with their comedic qualities, so the fact that the show as a whole was sorta serious only added to the experience. It was all really good. And despite the disproportionate amount of female to male characters, it wasn't a harem, so that was great.

 

Last episode was a bit underwhelming, and there is much that felt unresolved. Sort of hoping for something more eventually. Or at least that the novels get translated sometime. Show as a whole was great anyway.

 

Wakako-zake was...Hm. Short anime seem to be a tricky business to get right. I mean anime and all media really is tricky, but short anime has been really hit and miss in my experience. The shorter it is the trickier it gets as well. My first experience with a 2 minute show (ameiro cocoa) was pretty awful. It aimed too high, trying to have characters, interactions, a sliver of a plot and even a bit of a message to tell. It failed in every respect. Wakako-zake doesn't really get caught up in much. It's twelve episodes of Sawashiro Miyuki making pshuu noises for a minute and a half. It never aims to be anything more and succeeds at not being anything less. It is what it is, and I guess I can't fault it for that. It's sort of a pointless distraction, though at 2 minutes it's really not like it matters.

 

Castle Town Dandelion was just boring. Bland art style, passable animation, sub par character design, pointless superpowers attached to a menagerie of borderline-subtextually-incestous cliches trying to pass as characters...the story was boring, the focus on the huge cast was uneven, and it was just a generic slice of life with not a single original idea or thought to claim as its own....and I am just so tired of this wannabe coquettish "they're siblings but maybe they...like each other???" bull by this point. Japan's interest in incest has long since stopped being offensive and just started being mildly irritating and boring. Anyway yeah, this show was pretty much garbage. Classroom Crisis isn't over yet, but I'm almost ready to call this one as the worst anime I watched this season. (and then i remember ninja slayer, never mind).

Edited September 22, 2015 by the ghost of isaac newton

[Terminus]

Shimoneta really was one of the top anime of the season, and while it was really good by it's own merits, I also really liked how relevant it was (especially when it came to the (ironic) outcry from certain groups in Japan who claimed it was too dirty for TV). I'd also hope for another season or for the novel's to get translated.

 

Prison School also ended today, that had a pretty good run as well. The tension and stakes were always turned up way higher than they needed to be, but that pretty much always turned out in the shows favor. The normal student council showing up at the very end makes me kinda hopeful for another season, but now I'm just excited for next season's live-action Prison School. Hope Crunchyroll or someone picks that up.

 

And now that it's over, I'm really torn on Monster Musume. It did pretty much everything wrong, it had far too many characters for any real development, boring MC was excessively generic, and just generally a kinda weak harem series. But it got really funny, and hit the spot for a good comedy, and was pretty enjoyable on that front. Overall, I enjoyed it, so I guess the comedy won out in the end.

[dotcom]

And a ton other stuff ended, wall of text incoming.

 

Ore Monogatari!!...leaves me feeling mixed. The fact that the main couple got together in the first few episodes was pretty refreshing, and it was entertaining for a while, but it just eventually got kind of dull. Too safe, too samey. As obnoxious as it is, there's a reason that most romance anime beat around the bush for extended periods of time, and that's the fact that once they're together there's not really that much to be seen. In OreMono this ended up meaning that a lot of the episodes, especially in the second half, were of the "let's see what some characters who aren't Takeo and Yamato are up to" or "oh no, someone else likes Takeo/Yamato!" variety, which is, you know, the exact same kind of plot you'd see in any other romance anime, except in this one the only difference is they were already together. It's just...it's not bad, but it got bland.

Himouto Umaru-chan leaves me much less mixed. I just didn't really like or care for it much. The main character was sort of obnoxious no matter what form she was in, and the supporting cast was hit (kirie, tsf sometimes) and miss (ebina, most everyone else). It just...was too generic a comedy, relied a whole lot on pop culture references, and simply...wasn't really fun. It tried to do quirky but it never really achieved it.

Classroom Crisis is just garbage. The..."plot" is a weird combination of a  generic "let's save the club/school/class" plot nested in a more "ambitious" and "intriguing" plot of, supposedly, company scandals and machinations and political shenanigans or something. Scare quotes because it's all useless tripe. The school side of the story is just incredibly dull. The class involved is a menagerie of side characters who exist for no reason but to fill up the time in between "relevant" stuff happening, none of them really matter, they get no development or fleshing out of any kind, and at the times when they do get any focus they squander it by being obnoxious. They don't do anything interesting. The more "interesting" plot for all it tries to do is hardly any less dull, since the characters involved still spend most of the anime involved in the school stuff. Eventually that plot thread just sort of peters out...and then gets a really jarring push, at which point it ditches the more ~sophisticated~ mind games or whatever clever thing it thought it was doing and just leads to a really unsatisfying life-or-death rescue mission...a mission that failed not only at creating the tension it wanted but especially at providing a proper climax.

 

Worst of all are probably the main character, though. Ignoring the boring generic hot-blooded protagonist teacher, there's one other dude involved in the "company's dark side" plot. He's probably the best character in the series, but his was still just a boring "friendless guy...GETS FRIENDS" story, and it sucked. Then there were the two main girls, who were largely static characters for the entire thing, one of them was dull, the other was obnoxious, and together, they were really boring. The annoying one got involved in an incredibly forced romance with the dude, until the last episode when the dull one decided she wanted in on that (equally forced) action. So the two best friends end the series by fighting over the dude. And that's the point where my opinion of this show went from disapproving indifference to unbridled disgust.

I was also unimpressed with the voice acting, art direction, music, and stiff attempts at humor. Just such a poor series.

It seems my reluctance to name Castle Town Dandelion as the worst thing I watched was well founded, because this anime was just ######.

Anyway.

Wooser's Hand to Mouth Life: Phantasmagoric Arc. Not bad. I wasn't exactly a super big fan of the first two seasons of Wooser, and this third one was twice as long (a mighty increase from 4 minutes an episode to almost 8) so I was wary. But it really wasn't bad. Still didn't exactly impress me, but it wasn't boring either. They were able to do some interesting stuff (like the "beach house" episode or the one with the sketchy art style where Wooser became the universe) and develop gags a bit more. Not much. But a little. It was entertaining enough.

The ed was a highlight of every week, as well. It was a good ed.

Charlotte was a mess of a series. It's like. The posterboy for messes of a series. The first half of the show was essentially wasted on a bunch of plots and characters who immediately stopped being relevant after the halfway point, and after that point, things get interesting for a few episodes (though it all got invalidated soon enough), but by the end stretch they just start piling new thing after new thing after new thing in. The last 3 or 4 episodes are just extremely dense in content, full of twists and developments, but it just...doesn't work. Nothing is given its proper time, it all comes across as rushed and lacking buildup, and SO MUCH happens that it makes the starting episodes feel that much more like fleeting, pointless distraction. The last episode itself had enough stuff to fill probably an entire season, but because it was just one dang episode, all the new things and development just feel jarring and...weird. One scene the main character is himself and the next he just...it's weird.

So many wasted one off characters too.

I still like...liked it. I guess. But jesus. What a mess.

DRRR!!x2 Ten was pretty alright. I didn't really like it as much as Shou. Instead of a lot of plot threads coming together for one big thing, Ten had like...a few smaller plots, with just the stuff with Mikado and the Blue Squares in the background. There was no big payoff and no real intermingling of plots too much...mainly it was set up. But it was pretty good set up, and the conclusion should be pretty cool.

 

Gatchaman Crowds insight was awesome. For a superhero show, Gatcha has always been more preoccupied with what it has to say than with flashy action sequences. insight itself has action scenes in less than half of its episodes. And it's pretty great. Instead it spends just, inordinate amounts of time doing social commentary about politics, public opinion, modern tendencies to just go with the flow, passive citizenship, media...it spends a lot of time developing its message, and I think it works wonders. Very nice, thought-provoking, topical plot and themes. And just pretty fun to watch in general. Berg-Katze, who I didn't care for in season 1, was even pretty enjoyable in insight.

 

If there's anything to criticize about insight, it's probably that it was so focused on its plot (and the two new characters that were central to the plot) that the characters just really fell by the wayside. Most of the Gatchaman (with the partial exception of Rui) didn't have anything to do for the entire season...even previous protagonist Hajime. She still got a fair bit of focus and got the chance to shine at the end, but like everyone else she didn't actually do much. Oddly enough, Jou, who was the one with the least focus in season 1, actually was featured a bit in insight, which worked well. I would have liked to have seen some more focus on Paiman, though, since leadership was such an important theme in this season.

 

Putting simulcasts aside for a bit, I also finished a couple of series recently.

 

I watched Suisei no Gargantia. I did not like it. Art style was pretty bad imo, I especially hated how the girls (and bebel i guess) were drawn. Didn't really care for the voice acting and Amy's voice irritated me. Amy irritated me. I really do not like Amy; not only was her appearance and voice grating, her character was a huge drag. Generic morality pet and boring romantic interest...meh. My favorite part of the series was how she was basically entirely absent from the last 4 episodes or so. My least favorite part was when she flew back in in the last episode. such a mood killer.  Other than Ledo and to some extent Pinion no character was really utilized that well. The plot itself was nothing particularly interesting, and the more action/conflict oriented climax sort of seemed to go against the themes of the show a bit. Didn't do much for me at all, honestly.

 

The soylent squid is people stuff was kind of interesting, but it didn't really like...go anywhere. Seemed like a move done mainly for shock, with little actual pay off.

 

Anyway yeah, meh. Still got the ovas to watch, doubt I'll enjoy them a whole lot though.

 

Anyway I also finished Selector Spread WIXOSS. I didn't like it as much as Infected. The explanation for the plot still doesn't really make any sense. Some characters just ended up dropped (aki lucky...) and the twists and turns didn't seem to have the same impact. Also wasn't super thrilled with Iona's development and her backstory just sort of came out of nowhere; meanwhile, Hitoe and Yuzuki were sorta just there. The latter was sort of annoying. (and i really wish her brother had taken the hanayo route instead...). Also, the op had Midoriko and Piruruk in it despite the fact that neither actually appeared, and it appeared to bill Futase as a major character despite the fact that she was in like, one episode. It's got nothing much to do with the actual anime, I guess, but dishonest ops are sort of annoying.

 

On the other hand, Spread had way more Chorizo and Eldora than Infected, and ultimately, isn't that what matters most? I'd argue that no, but I love those two, so it was definitely a nice bonus.

 

I still rather liked Spread, but it definitely didn't hold my attention like Infected did. Or perhaps more accurately, it did hold it (especially the stuff with akira and ulith was pretty nice old fashioned f'd up) but ended up sort of losing it towards the end when characters dropped off the map, stuff wasn't explained, and that whole deal with Hanayo that seemed to only work to push the series to a climax instead of naturally working up to it.

 

I'm looking forward to Destructed.

Edited September 28, 2015 by dotcom

[LockmanCapulet]

I really liked Castle Town Dandelion... It really improved itself as it went on. With such a large cast I'm surprised it got me to care about all of them.

...And Gargantia is nothing sort of my favorite anime...

 

Charlotte ended on a cool episode and a nice final scene, but all in all it had serious pacing and cohesion issues. It was full of so many great ideas but never put its utmost into most of them. Especially in the second half. It did have lots of great scenes though (the desert scene from the final episode was great) and a likeable cast.

 

School-Live... oh MAN, School-Live. I could not have asked for a better finale. Did a fantastic job of capitalizing on the characters' development and hit the thematic nails on the head. I have GOT to read the manga soon.

 

Finally watched that pre-air One Punch Man episode. Cannot wait for the whole series.

[Ektris]

I am watching nothing new in this next season. Feels weird.

 

Should use it to catch up on stuff, but not sure what..

 

~|ET|~

[dotcom]

I really liked Castle Town Dandelion... It really improved itself as it went on. With such a large cast I'm surprised it got me to care about all of them.

...And Gargantia is nothing sort of my favorite anime...

More power to you, honestly. I feel I'm slowly but surely turning into some kind of anime curmudgeon. My tastes seem to be getting less and less forgiving lately, it's kinda lame.

 

Anyway, few more things ended...

 

Arslan Senki was pretty alright. First arc or so was good enough, nice manageable cast of characters, straightforward but decent plot...kinda got trickier in the second half since a chunk of it was spent on what can at best be described as a total detour, when the quest to reclaim the kingdom was put on hold while they went off to meddle in some foreign affairs. It wasn't a bad detour, really, and delivered a couple of the series' strongest episodes, but with the limited time they had to work with I can't help but question the effect it ultimately had not only on the pacing but the narrative as a whole...ultimately when they got back to the main plot they only had so much time left, so the ending wasn't much of one. I appreciate that they didn't rush one out anything, but it also feels like it ended JUST when the climax was about to happen and it's...weird. The characters introduced in the second half (particularly Alfreed...) didn't have much time to do a whole lot either. Unlike the characters introduced earlier there was simply too much going on and too many characters to keep track of for new guys to really get much positive characterization. Alfreed just showed up in one sorta rushed episode and proceded to stay as a one note character for the rest of the series. Few newer characters fared any better. Putting Gieve on a bus towards the end also didn't help much...In the end, still a good enough anime, but the second half had some issues. I do hope it gets a second season, if only for the sake of actually seeing the story get some sort of conclusion.

 

And, uh, Jitsu wa Watashi wa. I really liked this one. I mean, it's kind of a standard generic harem, but I think the performances really sold me on it. I could listen to Shiragami's voice for days. Aizawa and Asahi and other main characters were pretty good too. Even if the animation wasn't always up to snuff I still love the art style and the hilarious facial expressions they used...and it was just really fun in general. Liked the music a fair bit. I would have liked some more...substance, especially towards the end, but still, fun. I wouldn't mind a second season.

 

(last time i said that about a generic but fun harem i got nisekoi: oh no)

 

Second season or not though, I'm glad the anime at least made me aware of its existence. The manga is coming out next year here in the US, and it looks great. Love that art style, and the manga just looks like it was always meant to.

 

Though "My Monster Secret" is still a positively awful title. If Seven Seas' manga releases weren't usually so great I would almost be irritated. But they are so mostly I'm just excited about it.

 

Lastly (for now) Sore ga Seiyuu. This one was...fun? I'm not sure how to describe this one. I liked it. It was interesting, informative, amusing. Really can't say I liked or particularly cared for the characters or the plot in particular though. Especially the idol direction it went to later on. (I've been watching too much idol stuff...). Really very informative though, and all those voice actor cameos were pretty neat. Definitely something worth watching and very cool, but its actual content is kinda bland. Cool though.

 

My absolute favorite part of the entire show, though, was the fact that Masumi Asano--the creator and writer of the manga--just popped up in the anime everywhere doing cameos in bit roles--taxi driver, audiobook director, receptionist, herself, etc.--throughout the whole thing. If you're a voice actor who writes a manga about voice actors and then that manga gets an anime adaptation, doing cameos as yourself in the randomest places is just about the most amusing thing I can think of. Fun stuff.

 

Still got like three shows left over from summer waiting to end...and some six new ones starting in a bit. I think all but one of the series I'm watching in the fall are Sunday shows. That's gonna be...fun.

[Hodor]

 

I really liked Castle Town Dandelion... It really improved itself as it went on. With such a large cast I'm surprised it got me to care about all of them.

...And Gargantia is nothing sort of my favorite anime...

More power to you, honestly. I feel I'm slowly but surely turning into some kind of anime curmudgeon. My tastes seem to be getting less and less forgiving lately, it's kinda lame.

One day, you'll just shake your cane at the young'ans who haven't seen Ashita no Joe and Hols, Prince of the Sun

[LockmanCapulet]

And, uh, Jitsu wa Watashi wa. I really liked this one. I mean, it's kind of a standard generic harem, but I think the performances really sold me on it. I could listen to Shiragami's voice for days. Aizawa and Asahi and other main characters were pretty good too. Even if the animation wasn't always up to snuff I still love the art style and the hilarious facial expressions they used...and it was just really fun in general. Liked the music a fair bit. I would have liked some more...substance, especially towards the end, but still, fun. I wouldn't mind a second season.

 

(last time i said that about a generic but fun harem i got nisekoi: oh no)

 

Second season or not though, I'm glad the anime at least made me aware of its existence. The manga is coming out next year here in the US, and it looks great. Love that art style, and the manga just looks like it was always meant to.

 

Though "My Monster Secret" is still a positively awful title. If Seven Seas' manga releases weren't usually so great I would almost be irritated. But they are so mostly I'm just excited about it.

I absolutely ADORED Jitsu wa Watashi wa. Shiragami is queen. Agreed, the VA in this series was great. I'm still surprised at how much I like Aizawa, and I think it's from her performance.

 

Looks like the fall season's started. First off, I tried to start with Concrete Revolutio, Kagewani, and Onsen Yousei Hakone-Chan but gave up partway through each for lack of sense, horrible animation, and lack of substance respectively. So that's three less to follow. Probably a good thing.

 

Premise and worldbuilding-wise, Heavy Object had a good start, even if its intro was exposition-heavy. If for the rest of the series it can avoid the kind of "sexual harassment" jokes like it used this one time, it has the potential to be really great.

 

The Asterisk War was pretty cool. Looks like it'll have all the good things about Infinite Stratos, hopefully without the bad. Nice battle animation too. Here's hoping it can mostly avoid harem tropes.

 

Attack on Titan: Junior High. Well. I mean. It made me laugh. So there's that.

 

Already talked about One-Punch Man when I saw the pre-air episode the other day.

 

I decided to try to foray into Gundam with the new series, Iron Blooded Orphans, since I was told it's a new timeline and thus a jumping-on point. Unlike the weirdness of Recon in G, this one had a solid pilot and cool, realistic setting. I have high hopes for this!

 

What else... Comet Lucifer and Lance 'N Masques both had interesting starts, hopefully they can each go someplace. Not much else to say on them for now.

 

I also finally rewatched Gargantia, first time since the simulcast. The dub is pretty dang good. And the show is better than I remembered! I also had a friend with me who hadn't seen it before, it was fun seeing his reaction to all the Urobuchi-trademark twists.

 

I also splurged and ordered the Attack on Titan complete collection on Blu-ray. Crunchyroll was running a great sale. I regret nothing!

[Razgriz]

i forgot to pop in with this

(ｷﾀ━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━! ! !

KIZU PART ONE JANUARY 8TH 2016

THANK YOU BASED SHAFT

G E T   H Y P E 

also Owarimonogatari's looking great, started off strong with a surprise double-episode that basically gets Ougi Formula out of the way right off the bat. Really digging Decent Black as an OP, despite the discrepancy between the OUGI IS THE FINAL BOSS looking intro, the all-around amazing visuals, and the surprisingly mellow lyrics.

Really mad at myself for not getting the nickname pun on Sodachi's name, and everything else was your standard Monogatari fare: WORDSWORDSWORDS, Ougi having no sense of personal space and slithering all over Araragi, a great soundtrack, Shaft-gonna-Shaft visuals (the meeting going to ###### in a handbasket gave me a seizure, they're still finding ways to be frugal with the budget even though the series basically prints money, the colors get wacky, etc.), and basically 48 minutes of two characters stuck in a trippy classroom talking about what normally would be nothing much, but making it interesting nonetheless. Granted, the aforementioned "nothing much" also somehow managed to set Araragi down the solitary path he was on until Kizu (H Y P E), but I digress. As usual, if you pay attention, most things that are meant to be brought to light will.

This being a Shaft show, I'm sure there were also already like, 3 headtilts that I just sort of filtered out. Best girl sighting near the beginning, always appreciated. Can't wait for next Saturday.

Edited October 7, 2015 by Best Gungnir

[dotcom]

Holy christ, it's alive. Kizu is alive.

 

Part 1, though? It takes them four, five years to announce a release date, and they're gonna stretch it out? Come on Shaft. And not just two parts, but three. Just terrible. Not to even mention that waiting for it to be subtitled is going to add even more time to the waiting period...

 

Really makes me wonder if I should read Kizu in the meantime, though. Novel's coming out next month. If it was just going to be the movie coming out early next year and say a bunch of months later I can see it, meh, I'd just wait to experience it fresh. Do not know if I can hold off on reading it for however long it takes all three parts to come out. Jeez. Quite the predicament. Even worse, Bake doesn't have a release date yet even though Kizu is already close to coming out, so I can't even count on that to hold me over.

 

Anyway.

 

World Trigger "ended," as it were. The part I cared (kinda) about, anyway. They're jumping straight to the filler and I couldn't care less, though the new opening looks really good. But eh, it was an anime all right.

 

And all the new shows I'm watching this season with one exception have started. Some thoughts, from worst to best:

 

Komori-san Can't Decline wasn't awful, but it also wasn't good, and more importantly, it was 2 minutes. Two minute anime are the worst; you can't do anything with them, and this was no different. Just kinda unremarkable.

 

Attack on Titan: Junior High had a cool op and was generally sort of amusing but it's going to take more to get me to care.

 

Comet Lucifer was pretty decent, putting the "eeek a lizard i as a woman am frightened and must cuddle up to you, the male lead, and then become embarrassed; is this stupid and formulaic forced sexual tension interesting yet?????????????????????????????????????" scene aside. (The Biggest Sigh Of All). Fight scene was pretty neat though.

 

One Punch Man didn't wow me, to my great sadness. I think that's mostly because I have read this part of the manga several times already and the magic is gone a little bit (and i like manga over anime in general so that doesn't help) though. It was cool, well done, and the action scenes were pretty rad. Decent start, hope it gets me more excited when it gets to the stuff I haven't read.

 

Owarimonogatari was pretty great. It's one of the smallest Monogatari series we've had, in pure terms of the scope and number of characters involved, and I think it definitely worked in its favor. Seeing more Ougi was very interesting and I'm all down for this character searching for Koyomi. If I have any complaints (and I don't) it's probably just that the twist was pretty obvious from the second you know who was mentioned. Though I also get the feeling it wasn't really meant to be much of a twist, I dunno. Really good stuff though.

 

I get the feeling I'm going to be skipping Owari next week though. Kinda feel like just waiting until each of the stories is over to watch them all at once. It probably helps that Riddle and Lost are very short...may just watch Mail as it airs, though, because who even has the patience for that.

 

Fall season so far: kinda ok.

Edited October 7, 2015 by dotcom

[Terminus]

Heavy Object is the only thing I'm planning on following this season that's started, finally got around to watching it earlier today. It's off to a solid start, looking forward to seeing where it goes. Hope it's worth getting this instead of Index III.

 

And since I'm only following 4 shows this season, I'm planning on burning through my DVD backlog of about 20 shows/movies/OVAs, already finished up two things, Kirameki Project and Puni Puni Poemy. Kirameki project was a silly, un-noteworthy, trope-filled giant robot OVA that kinda just feels stale at this point. It did have some cool behind-the-scenes features on how the show was made, though, and those were probably the best things on the discs.

 

Puni Puni Poemy was a solid bizarre hour of what, pretty much what you'd expect from Shinichi Watanabe. I don't really know what to say other than that it was just bizarre and what and funny. Pretty enjoyable if you're just up for a solid hour of weirdness.

 

Oh, and the DVD has Pig Latin subtitles. I love it.

[Hodor]

Yo, what manga are you guys reading? I've been reading Berserk, Shin Mazinger Zero, AMON: The Darkside of Devilman, Lone Wolf and Cub, Kyomu Senki, and rereading Getter Robo Saga.

 

Berserk has been consistently good for almost 30 years now. I'm glad that Miura's returned to a monthly format, since it really makes following the series way easier.

 

Shin Mazinger Zero is great. It's a really, really enjoyable action manga, full of little references and homages to both past Mazinger series, and Dynamic Pro series as a whole. It's also the only manga I've ever read that manages to be loud in a non-audible medium. Shame it takes quite a bit of time for the scanlators to release new chapters. Oh well.

 

AMON is just kind of... okay? It's well illustrated and decently written, but it's not connecting with me the same way the original Devilman did (which you should go read, like, now- it's a classic for a reason). It's a decent read, I guess. Wouldn't really recommend it unless you're really into Devilman and want some backstory for Satan and the demons, or just want something really pretty to look at.

 

Lone Wolf and Cub is fantastic. I'm only a volume in and it's already amazing. I absolutely love Jidai Geki/Chanbara stories when they're well done, and LWaC is honestly one of the best I've seen in awhile.

 

Kyoumu and Getter are great series by the unfortunately late Ken Ishikawa. Only a small bit of Miroku, the first arc in Kyomu, is translated- but it's a pretty neat blend of fantasy, sci-fi, and Ishikawa's samurai manga. Getter is a masterwork- something to be read by anyone who liked TTGL, which owes quite a bit to Getter in terms of themes and plot.

 

Honestly if I had to make a sales pitch, I'd call Getter Robo Saga 'Gurren Lagann's psychotic older brother'. Admittedly, Getter is also far more grim than TTGL, but the point remains.

 

As for this season, I'm basically just following two, maybe three or four, shows this season. I'm terrible at actually keeping up with weeklies, since I prefer to binge watch and tend to keep in the realm of 'classic' anime. Doesn't help that I never drop anything.

 

Comet Lucifer, Garo: Guren no Tsuki, and maybe Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans and Young Black Jack. Chances are I'll just end up watching the first two- and the Devilman VS Cyborg 009 OVA, when that drops. IBO's staff doesn't look promising and I haven't even had time to finish G-Reco, and I tend to be wary of most Black Jack adaptations since that's by far my favorite Tezuka work.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

I've mostly been reading the manga of some anime I'd seen recently to compare the original vs. the anime adaptation.

 

Grinded Black Butler from the beginning all the way to the end of the Green Witch arc. Jack the Ripper and Curry Competition were better in the manga, Noah's Ark I liked better as anime (the anime-only scenes I thought were great) and Phantomhive Manor Mystery was pretty much the same on both. Ship Voyage, Public School and Green Witch are not adapted yet so I experienced them for the first time and really enjoyed them, especially Ship Voyage.

 

Akame ga Kill! and Akame ga Kill! Zero, which I enjoyed a lot better as manga. I like Zero a bit more since it feels more akin to what I thought Akame ga Kill would be like when I first picked it.

 

Shimoneta, even though the manga's behind and the LN came first. I enjoyed the anime a lot more, the manga felt sorta like an abridging.

 

Since I'm caught up with those, I'll probably read Gakkou Gurashi next.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Toa of Gallifrey

[Terminus]

Manga I've been reading? Well, for weekly stuff, I'm following Nisekoi, Bleach, World Trigger, Food Wars, and World Trigger in Shonen Jump, Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches on Crunchyroll, and Freezing and Prison School fan-translated.

 

The stuff in Jump is really a mixed bag, Bleach and World Trigger are both moving at a terribly slow place (you know, single battles that take months), while Nisekoi and Food Wars feel better suited for the pace of weekly serialization. Seraph feels slow, but that's mainly because it's a monthly series, reading the chapters back-to-back makes for a decent series.

 

Yamada-Kun is going pretty well at the moment, it got a bit bumpy after the point where the anime ended due to a massive cast shuffle and expansion, but it been settling down and getting on the upswing for a while now. Might try looking for a few new things to follow on Crunchyroll sometime, they seem to have a pretty good collection and it's free with my subscription anyways.

 

Prison School is still on its second arc, and has been for the past hundred chapters, but so much has been going on that it never really got dull. I do hope this arc closes up soon though, if only for it to get a second anime season.

 

Freezing is in one of it's darker side backstory arcs at the moment, and it's a good break from what's been a long battle arc. Cutting back a lot on fanservice and action to really focus on the story has made this a pretty good drama arc.

 

In non-weekly stuff, I'm waiting for the first volume of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 2, Phantom Blood was some pretty good stuff so I'm looking forward to Battle Tendency.

 

Also have 2 volumes left in Parasyte. Been kinda slow going through this, but I've been really enjoying it.

 

And I've recently read through Unofficial Hatsune Mix, it makes me kinda wish there was a good Vocaloid manga (as this was pretty meh). There's some Vocaloid manga serialized in the Miku-Pack magazine, but that's pretty much all series based off individual songs/song series (I'd still really like some of those to get translated though, I'm especially interested in This is the Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee.), and with the popularity of idol anime, I'm kinda surprised that there isn't one already.

[dotcom]

I've been reading Elfen Lied recently.

 

The art truly is laughably atrocious. Quite possibly the worst manga art I've seen in an officially published work, if not completely. So bad.

 

I thought Gokukoku no Brynhildr was just decent art-wise, but after seeing, this, I have to say Okamoto Lynn improved by a factor of about ten thousand percent...probably.

 

In more anime news, the Nihon Animator Mihonichi shorts seemingly finally came to a close. I wouldn't have minded if they went on indefinitely for a while longer, but it's as good a time to cut it as any I guess. I'm glad that at least it went long enough for I'm a Girl to come out, since it was great. All in all an eclectic mix of shorts ranging from fantastic to forgettable. Fun, though.

 

And Ninja Slayer ended. Yippee.

Edited October 12, 2015 by dotcom

[Hodor]

I still really need to watch the rest of the  NAM shorts- I've only seen the Gridman short, and Me!Me!Me. And I thought both of them were pretty good, so I might as well finish it all.

 

I also started reading Knight's and Magic, after stumbling onto a translation. That LN/Web novel speaks to me on sheer concept (mecha otaku dies, reincarnates in fantasy world with robots). The translation is clunky, and really reads like the translator isn't completely fluent in English (and has terrible editors). Serviceable until Vertical or Viz or someone picks it up, though.

 

Alright, so. Started my main two seasonals.

 

GARO: Guren no Tsuki had a nice start. I already mentioned my love for jidai geki, and I absolutely love the GARO franchise as a whole. Like Honoo no Kokuin, I went in with fairly low expectations. Thankfully, I was wrong again. Moving the setting from a fantasy setting based on Inquisition Spain to Heian-era Japan, the series is certainly starting on the right foot. I'm half expecting this series to tie into the tokusatsu incarnations, but I'm pretty sure it's going to stay as standalone as Honoo was.

 

Comet Lucifier is comfy. I honestly can't find a better word to describe it: it's incredibly comfy. I'm getting some pretty serious Eureka Seven vibes from it, too. Really good CG, too! Honestly, it's off to a fairly decent (if rushed) start, too. I'm going to have to wait for a few more eps to really form a solid opinion.

 

Probably going to start Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans soonish. The worst that happens is that it's another trainwreck like SEED and SEED Destiny were.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Hodor

[LockmanCapulet]

Oof, don't get me started on manga. There's a link to my list in my signature.

 

The ones I follow weekly or monthly are Fairy Tail, Attack on Titan, Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Assassination Classroom, Real Account (i would KILL for an anime of this!), and Tsujiura-san to Chupacabra.

 

There's a few I'm following whose scanlations are behind and get posted sporadically but regularly: 4 Cut Hero (oh my lord this one is amazing), Dagashi Kashi (anime coming soon, hype hype​), I Don't Want to Say I'm a Chicken, and Mizutama Honey Boy.

 

Several I'm just waiting for scanlations to resume... there's one volume each left of Full Dozer, Chicha Koi Nikki, and Ichiro Heian. Nothing I can do about those I guess.

 

My manga-tracking site includes light novels so I'll mention those. I'm following five translations- Amagi Brilliant Park, Saekano, Re:Zero, Fire Girl, and Chaika: The Coffin Princess- over at NanoDesu as they update. Several others, including Rokka no Yuusha, Sekai Game, and Sky World are at the top of my to-read list.

 

I'm working through my print copy of Black Bullet vol. 1, and a bunch of others are on my shelf. Sword Art Online vol. 5, Devil is a Part-Timer vol. 2, Attack on Titan: Kuklo Unbound, and AoT: Harsh Mistress of the City vol. 1. I need to pick up the pace.

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

Does anyone know when the next episode of One Punch Man is coming out?

[dotcom]

Does anyone know when the next episode of One Punch Man is coming out?

Sunday. It comes out on Sundays.

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

 

Does anyone know when the next episode of One Punch Man is coming out?

Sunday. It comes out on Sundays.

 

Thanks!

[Terminus]

So I've started everything for this season-

 

Valkyrie Drive is pretty much Queen's Blade combined with Soul Eater. Which is exactly what I was expecting. The first episode was mainly just action, lots of random beams of light, yuri, and a tiny bit of exposition. If nothing else, it was a fun watch.

 

Seraph is still Seraph. Pretty slow episode this week, mainly went over what went down last season and featured Yu at his revenge-hungry finest.

 

Testament of Sister New Devil Burst is also more of the same as last season, decent action, a bit more story and some hints of new allies/enemies this arc, then it hits the fanservice wall which is probably only decent because of the silly censorship that makes it better than if it wasn't censored.

 

I also got the first volume of Kiss Him, Not Me! today, it's a reverse harem comedy (which I usually actively avoid), but I read half a chapter on Crunchyroll and decided it'd be worth a look. So far, it's different from a lot of stuff I've read, but this change of pace is also pretty funny and enjoyable. Closest thing I can think of to it would probably be Watamote with an attractive and sociable protagonist.

[-Windrider-]

I shouldn't be this hyped about today's chapter of Bleach, but here we are nonetheless.

[Hodor]

Watched the first ep of Heavy Object.

 

It's... interesting, at least. Could really go either way in terms of quality. I noticed that the episode's quality improved quite a bit after the eye catches, so I'm suspecting the first impression was bad because of the info dump.

[Pohatu: Uniter of Stone]

I saw the new episode of One-Punch Man today, and it was still just as awesome. I didn't read the manga, so I don't know how well it follows it, but I would recommend it to anyone who likes action anime.

[Terminus]

Well snap.

 

Full Metal Panic is finally getting another season. Been hoping this would happen for ages. Really excited for this because all the best arcs happen after where the anime currently ends.

[Hodor]

Well snap.

 

Full Metal Panic is finally getting another season. Been hoping this would happen for ages. Really excited for this because all the best arcs happen after where the anime currently ends.

Two cours and a movie, launching... sometime before the Tokyo Olympics, hopefully.

[Toa of Gallifrey]

New Black Butler anime movie and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable anime adaptation confirmed. I am very pleased!

[Hodor]

I've actually been pretty plesantly surprised about the series I've followed this season. The worst I've seen is Heavy Object, which isn't bad as much as it bounces between trying to take itself seriously and being a comedy a bit too much.

 

 

New Black Butler anime movie and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable anime adaptation confirmed. I am very pleased!

What did you say about my hair?!

[dotcom]

Hm so, over the last few weeks...

 

I finished the Gargantia ovas. I don't like Gargantia in general, but it's mostly indifference. The first of the (long) ovas was just so terribly written it disgusted me a little, though. I hated it so much I honestly just played with some figuarts while watching the second one, so I do not remember that at all.

 

And I am fine with this.

 

I finished El Cazador de la Bruja. It was pretty nice! Definitely something of a slow burner...I have no idea when exactly I started enjoying it, but at some point I started getting really into the characters. It was pretty good.

 

The Idolm@ster Cinderella Girls finally ended, it was ok. I really liked a bunch of episodes of the second season, especially the ones with Uzuki. All in all this series wasn't anything special, but it was alright.

 

The second Kyoukai no Kanata movie finally got subbed, so I watched both of them. The first is a decent enough refresher I guess but it was a pretty dang recap and an even worse movie. The sequel was eh-kay I guess. Mostly mediocre, kinda pretty, blehrg ending? Kyoukai no Kanata, basically.

 

Started reading Tokyo Ghoul, roughly halfway through. I can see why the first season was so disliked, now. I expect reading the second half will only show me new ways to hate Root A, though.

 

Started watching Hidamari Sketch, almost done with the first season. I was surprised by how enjoyable it is. It's a lot of fun, it's very Shaft-y, voice acting's good, humor is nice, ending theme is great...I'm having way more fun with it than I expected. It's nice.

 

RGZ+ ended, I don't really have much to say about it.

 

I watched Gokicha. I don't know what I was expecting, and I still don't...know.

 

Anyway I finished reading Elfen Lied yesterday. It was certainly better than the anime. Had some pretty good characters (Nana and Arakawa are the beeeest) and was just kinda decent. A lot of stuff in the last part was kind of haphazard, though, I feel. Antagonists and characters just started coming out of the woodwork with little buildup or purpose... And really just in general I think the series was a couple of non-creepy relationships and a non- protagonist short of being good. Kouta is just a boring, sucky, whiny dude with little real relation to the "plot." The entire Inn stuff could have been cut down on considerably. Nozomi, was just, so useless. And completely unnecessary. Wannabe harem stuff just...bleh.

 

Art did improve considerably by the end though...