Anime General Thread (Official)

[Hodor]

TBH I'm just one of those people who really liked EVA when it was a funny mecha show with some really good battles, post-apocalyptic undertones, and a good deal of symbolism. The ending really just lacked the action and humor that I came to love throughout the series, and to me replacing all that with a mentally interesting but otherwise boring therapy session was the real mindscrew. (Of course all the meta stuff was too, while I was first watching it when I was 14 or so)

 

Also I'm one of those people who likes the idea of Death & Rebirth > End of Evangelion > Last episode. That timeline at least made EoE and the last episode a bit more tolerable for me plotwise.

Honestly, agreed. Evangelion is really interesting in terms of themes, and solid all around but the characters aren't exactly three-dimensional. If anything, they're fairly 2D.

 

They're all rather obvious takes on various psychosis- Shinji is depressed, Asuka is depressed and has an inferiority complex (and possibly BPD), Rei is emotionally repressed, Gendo is a sociopath, and so on. It's easier to count the characters who aren't mentally screwed (Fuyuts- no...) than anything  They're relatable, yes, but they're basic. I also completely understand why people can't get into EVA because of the characters.

 

When they're botched in anyway, they're extremely prone to the Seven Deadly Words. 'I don't care about these people'. It's a big reason why 3.33 is awful- they completely toss out the setting, the characters are unlikable and hostile (albeit very justified), there's little connection to the last movie, the plot elements introduced are just stupid, and so on. They give you absolutely no reason to care about these people, and the narrative only really makes sense if you're already a fan of EVA and get all the little references and allusions to the TV series.

 

And are enough of a fan to get all of the strange, strange things with Kaworu seemingly referencing the past incarnations of the story and Super Robot Wars.

 

I guess it's part of why RahXephon arguably does better with the shared plot elements. Evangelion is a mess pacing-wise because Anno completely threw out the plot outline somewhere by the time they were writing. RahXephon was outlined beforehand, and stuck to it.

 

Yeah, it seems like an absolute mindscrew the first time around, but upon a rewatch, it makes perfect sense. It plays with the whole 2deep4u schtick and then comes clean, because it literally foreshadows everything from day one. Everything makes sense and the tonal shifts aren't nearly as bad as Eva's, since it's always a slow series with a surreal, dream-like atmosphere. You get to know the characters and their quirks a lot better because of this, which makes it easier to relate to them. It also makes the emotional moments of the series much more of a punch to the gut.

 

Albeit it's harder to grasp the plot because of how dense RahXephon can get (watch it AT LEAST twice). Trade offs, I guess.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Hodor

[dotcom]

The Spring season is fully underway now and I've managed to catch up on most everything I'm planning to watch (I'm an episode behind on Punchline). Ranking them would be...

 

1.Nisekoi:

2.Mikagura School Suite

3.Ore Monogatari!!

4.The Heroic Legend of Arslan

5.Punchline

6.I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying 2

7.Ninja Slayer from Animation

8.Seraph of the End

9.Rainy Cocoa

 

So, big surprise, Nisekoi is as fun as it ever was. I'm not a big fan of the opening but the endings so far are good, first episode was hilarious, didn't like the second as much (don't find Paula's character very interesting) but all in all a fun, energetic experience, as always. Shame : is only going to be 12 episodes!

 

Mikagura was a pleasant surprise. The atmosphere is great, the main character is fun and gives the entire show a lot of energy and humor. The setting reminds me a lot of Medaka Box and the character design is solid. It's all fun and gay as heck, I'm really enjoying it.

 

Ore Monogatari!! is fantastic. Great animation, character design, music, characterization...it's really charming and fun, and I think it's going to end up being one of the best romances I've seen. Hopefully the misunderstandings get cleared quickly though, I have enough frustration from romcom misunderstandings from Nisekoi already.

 

(Yamato's voice is a little too high)

 

Arslan is alright thus far. Character design is solid, music is good. Still in the beginning stages of the series so there's nothing too engaging going on, but I think once the plot starts it'll be a lot more interesting.

 

Punchline I'll have to watch a little more of to have a proper opinion, but from the first episode, it's...ok? Character design is good, premise is good and ridiculous, animation is fine, voice acting is good, humor is ok, the whole thing is colorful, music is nice...it's got the makings of a decent series, but the first episode was very awkwardly structured. Hopefully it comes together soon. Considering who is writing it, though, I have some degree of expectations...

 

I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying is the same as it was last time. Short, amusing...and, that's about it. Seems they upped the anime references this time around, which is something I have no real opinion of.

 

Ninja Slayer ended up being Inferno Cop 2.0 after all. I always vaguely expected that'd be the case, but I admit I wasn't exactly hoping for it. I didn't really enjoy Inferno Cop. Ninja Slayer...well, I don't even know. It has more going for it than IC, since it includes bits of actual animation, and some stuff is funny (the police brutality scene is top notch). But yeah, I don't know.

 

Seraph of the End...I shouldn't judge it so much from just 2 episodes, but dang, this is one generic anime. Character design is nothing, setting is...I don't even know. Pseudo-post-apocalyptic, has vampires, school...? Eh. Poorly built up and paced tragic backstory was boring, whole thing is kind of predictable and none of the emotional cues they've doled have actually hit. I don't even know what they were doing setting up a traumatic past for the mc in episode one and then trying to resolve that the very next episode. Come on. Hopefully it gets a lot better.

 

The first half of the opening is really awesome, but I really don't like the rest. I think it's the first time I see an op that divides my opinion so.

(the lyrics are dumb in the whole thing)

 

Rainy Cocoa is weekly one minute and thirty second doses of absolutely jack squat. That's all there really is to say about it.

Edited April 18, 2015 by I-AM-YOUR-LORD

[Terminus]

I really need to get around to RahXephon. It's at least on Amazon Prime, so it's easily available to me, I might try and watch it when I can. I already have far too much on my list of things to watch/finish (including the second half of the second season of Code Geass, which I've somehow been putting off for months now) to really start any new non-simulcasting shows.

 

Anyways, on Eva- if there's anythingEva is good at, it's ditching it's plot for something else at the most important time. 3.33 was really important because it's the penultimate rebuild movie that would lead into Final. Then we got the timeskip (which I really wouldn't mind, were the rest of the movie handled better), hype surrounding two new characters (who really served no purpose, period) right around the time the movie hit theaters, no more development for Mari (again, another useless character introduced in the movies who I just can't care about), and then something like an hour of Shinji x Kaworu fanservice. IMO the only good things to come out of that movie were some of the redesigns (specify the Evas and Asuka's red & white plugsuit) and Kaworu's death (because if you already didn't like him, then watching

his head get blown up

made the hour before kinda worth it), and then there was also some good mecha action but that doesn't really make or break the plot. It's also very much middle ground for the series as content goes, it wasn't as psychological as the later episodes, nor generally straightforward as earlier parts, so yeah, more problems there. If there's one thing the spinoff manga series (I've read Campus Apocalypse and The Shinji Ikari Raising Project) are good at, it's staying consistent throughout their runs, unlike main Eva.

 

And this season. Overall, not too bad:

1. Fate/stay night UBW

2. Nisekoi:

3. Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon (DanMachi)

4. The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan

5. Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches

6. I Can't Understand What my Husband is Saying 2

7. Seraph of the End

8. Triage X

9. Ninja Slayer

 

F/SN is doing really well with the original material over the past couple weeks. It kinda made me hope that they might change the moment I inevitably knew was coming, but... Nope. This is still the UBW storyline, and they're sticking with it. At least I know the next season of Prisma Illya is airing next season...

 

Paula's introduction in Nisekoi was a pretty good show of how entertaining this series can be even when it's not focusing on the usual main cast. It's also a reminder that the underclassmen exist, because at the current point in the manga, the only one who really ever appears is Haru (who has only showed up in the OP so far), and I kinda forgot Paula and other girl in the OP exist.

 

DanMachi is probably the biggest surprise of the season for me- the first novel has been fully adapted in the first three episodes, and it's an all-around improvement. If nothing else, the fact that the novel's bad writing style doesn't really carry over into animation is an improvement in itself, and it lets me get into other parts of the series more, and the RPG-like setting is much more tolerable when "THIS IS AN RPG!!!" isn't constantly being crammed down your throat.

 

Nagato Yuki-chan is a nice, quiet little slice-of-life show... And then Haruhi showed up, and things got crazy (albeit with no espers, time-travelers, or aliens this time). It's definitely doing a pretty good job of adapting the manga, IMO, both visually and plotwise.

 

Yamada was pretty good, it's the second time I've seen the body-swapping thing in anime (haven't seen any since Kokoro Connect a few years ago), and once again I enjoyed the concept and execution. It also gets bonus points for being one of the only series to ever get me to start yelling at my TV (when Yamada had switched bodies and was confronted by the bullies, "Deck them. DECK THEM!" Because I know he could. And it was so satisfying when he snapped.).

 

I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying is still 3 minutes of funny with a kinda loose overarching story and not much else to say about it. Pretty much just what I was expecting after the first season.

 

Seraph is pretty decent, although I'm not really a fan of the color palette- the lime greens are a bit too lime green, and everything is just a tad bright for my tastes. Still, it at least holds up nicely in the animation department, so I guess things kinda balance out. So far it's been a pretty faithful adaptation of the manga, but I wonder how it'll go in later episodes.

 

Triage X started out good enough to get me interested- so much so that I've now read about half of the manga, and I've really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I'm now familiar with the source material and have it really fresh in my mind- and while the first episode was a good adaptation, the second was not as much. The second episode adapted the entire second arc, which is twice as long as the first. The first arc was just short enough to fit into a single episode fine, but so much actual, important plot was cut from the second arc to fit it into a single episode that it really didn't hold together well at all.

 

And lastly, there's Ninja Slayer. There's some neat animation to be had here, somewhere between the mess of moving cardboard cutouts that comprised 90% of the episode. I really wasn't hoping for this, as Inferno Cop really was not my thing, and the cardboard cutouts plus neon explosion, along with the comedy that really didn't do it for me... Feeling like this one's gonna be a dud.

[dotcom]

Well, technically Paula, Haru and Yuu have shown up in the anime before...but only in the third OVA, so that's...kind of out of chronology, not that it makes much of a difference.

[Terminus]

I completely forgot about the Nisekoi OVAs, mainly because they aren't on Crunchyroll, and I pretty much completely left the fansub scene once I became a premium member there. I saw the fist one shortly after it came out, gonna have to check out the other two soon.

[LockmanCapulet]

Alright, thoughts on this season so far. In no particular order, I'm following:

 

1. Heroic Legend of Arslan

2. Ultimate Otaku Teacher

3. Gunslinger Stratos

4. Mikagura School Suite

5. Plastic Memories

6. My Love Story!!

7. Re-Kan!

8. Seraph of the End

9. Knights of Sidonia: Battle for Planet Nine

10. Sound! Euphonium

 

Arslan's pretty cool so far. They've sowed some good plot seeds, and animation is top notch. No reason to think it'll go south yet.

 

Ultimate Otaku Teacher is plenty of fun! I'm kind of surprised where they've taken this premise so far. I'm also enjoying all the nods to other anime series, especially throughout the Akihabara scenes (just last episode I spotted posters for Nanana's Buried Treasure and Sword Art Online).

 

Gunslinger Stratos is clearly a video game series, through and through. The premise is interesting, but it remains to be seen if it'll deliver.

 

Mikagura School Suite is pretty fun! The battles are silly and exciting, and I love the music too. (I guess I have a thing for anime based on Vocaloid series-- first Mekaku City Actors, now this.)

 

Plastic Memories is shaping up to be one of this season's best-- a lot of the background characters are walking tropes, but the two main characters are interesting, and the individual "recovery" vignettes are compelling. Reminds me a lot of Death Parade! Which is a good sign.

 

My Love Story is hitting all the bases! Another of this season's best. Shoujo done absolutely right.

 

Re-Kan is nice, I guess. Nothing special, but a lot of the ghost gags are clever. I particularly liked the roll-call samurai.

 

Seraph of the End... it's... there, I guess. Not bad I suppose. Just... kinda generic.

 

Ohh man, the new Knights of Sidonia season is so good so far! Love the plotlines they've introduced. The animation quality has improved too. I especially like the new character introduced toward the end of the first episode.

 

In terms of animation, Sound! Euphonium has possibly the best this season. The story is pretty good too, and I hope we get some good musical numbers too!

 

Also, I just got an alert that my package has arrived-- I got the Sword Art Online Vol. 4 and The Devil is a Part-Timer Vol. 1 light novels! I'm off to pick those up!

[dotcom]

I finished watching Wooser's Hand to Mouth Life last night. The second season was better than the first, but just, barely. Mainly I blame Darth Wooser? And some other stuff. ED was pretty nice I guess. And I suppose I got one amazing wallpaper out of it so that's cool. All in all it was pretty mediocre still, just a couple of chuckles here and there, guess the final episode was ok? Anyway, if the trend of slow improvement continues, season 3 this summer should be almost ok.

 

Also I got through Another finally. It's really the first horror anime I've watched (though I have seen some others with horror elements? Like, Elfen Lied at the least. Does Parasyte count? Probably not.) and to my surprise I actually ended up enjoying it quite a lot in the end. The last 3 or so episodes really got me engaged and episode 11 in particular was just. Bonkers. I think this is the first time I've really even begun to understand the appeal of the horror genre. Anyway, yeah, it was pretty good. The OVA was also pretty alright, the kamikaze bird fakeout was...I don't know? Funny, trollish, brilliant, sad? It was something. Whole thing was kind of sad. Good, though.

 

Also I started reading Oyasumi Punpun and I'm like a dozen chapters in and it's...I don't even know how to describe it properly honestly. this mangaka has a really interesting style both as far as the art and the writing is concerned, I'm not sure how much I'm liking it (loved his Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction, which has raised my expectations) but it's interesting as heck.

[Ektris]

Rather disappointed Digimon Adventure Tri appears to not actually be airing spring as was originally guessed. The next announcement is coming in spring? We didn't need an announcement for the announcement, Toei! >_<

 

Unlimited Blade Works has picked up where it left off wonderfully. The references to Zero and just continuinity overall have been so fun to see.

 

And I'm quite pleased with the pacing Yamada has had so far. It was my biggest worry after learning it would be so short and yet they were advertising all of the witches already (even though that takes a really, really long time in the manga). It's still entirely possible for them to rush the plot and just resolve all of them magically in one episode, of course... But for now, it's exactly what I wanted.

 

~|ET|~

[dotcom]

Yeah,the delay on Tri is pretty disappointing! People are speculating that it'll start once DBZ Kai ends, since apparently that's taking up Digimon's old timeslot. Which could take a month or two, apparently. I guess I don't mind a delay as long as they don't pull a Crystal on us. I really can't wait for Tri, man...

 

Anyway, ohhh boy Ore Monogatari!! is just too good. We do not deserve it. Great characters, lots of progress in just the first three episodes, and it's a blast to watch. If it keeps this up it'll end up one of the best things I've ever watched. I swear, it's getting there.

[Terminus]

I just watched this week's Ninja Slayer, and went in expecting to drop it after this week, but ended up being surprised with a somewhat decent episode (the lack of the boring cutout animation prevalent in earlier episodes really didn't hurt), so I'll stick around some more.

 

And numbers, because I think things have changed around since two weeks ago:

1. Fate/stay night UBW

2. Nisekoi:

3. Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches

4. The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan

5. DanMachi

6. I Can't Understand What my Husband is Saying 2

7. Seraph of the End

8. Ninja Slayer

9. Triage X

[dotcom]

Bluhhhhh let's see. i finished reading Oyasumi Punpun, it was a really strange and great and weird and impactful experience. This mangaka is truly a brilliant artist.

Also I started reading and caught up with the WataMote manga, it was great and hilarious and cringey. Just like the anime really.

And I've started reading the Ika Musume manga, it's pretty fun, also not unlike the anime. I haven't seen anything new yet, but it's good.

 

I finished Psycho-Pass 2. It wasn't like. The worst thing ever, but it really didn't have much on the first season, did it? It was more shallow, had less interesting and solid characters and villains and developed the new characters kind of awkwardly in some respects. Also the eyepatch brainwashed inspector was super super dumb but whatever. I'm not super sure how to feel about it all in all. I guess I'd say it's ok.

 

Just started watching Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono. From just the first episode I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about it, but, oh my god. The opening. The lyrics. It is incredible.

Just. Behold:

 

 

amazing

 

Looks like it should be a somewhat meta experience in any case, which is good, because if there's anything I just eat up, it is metafiction.

Also it is made in MMD and I think that is kinda funny. It's pretty mediocre animation and graphics obviously, (kind of redundant to say I guess since the MM in MMD both already stand for mediocre) but it adds a weird charm to it. 

[LockmanCapulet]

So I've gotten a pretty good feel for this season's shows. My ranking so far:

1. Knights of Sidonia: Battle for Planet Nine (The battles are just as good as I remember from last season!)

2. My Love Story!! (now THIS is how you do a high school romance.)

3. Sound! Euphonium (Gorgeous animation and beautiful OST.)

4. Plastic Memories (Cool premise, good execution so far)

5. The Heroic Legend of Arslan (I like the direction)

6. Mikagura School Suite (crazy, zany fun and great music)

7. Re-Kan! (Clever use of the ESP mechanic)

 

I started watching but dropped Seraph of the End (sooo friggin generic, and I despised the tropey main character), Gunslinger Stratos (I couldn't keep track of who was doing what and why), Denpa Kyoushi (Good start but didn't have legs beyond episode 2), and Blood Blockade Battlefront (what was even. Everything was poorly explained.)

 

I also finished reading the Devil is a Part-Timer Vol. 1 and Sword Art Online Vol. 4 novels. Fantastic, both of them. Really looking forward to this August- we'll get volumes 2 and 5, respectively, plus Black Bullet Vol. 1!

[Dapper I Guess]

In the recent past, I didn't watch anime due to my laptop's old age and my lack of a Netflix account. However, it seems I have underestimated my computer's capabilities. Binging on Blazblue: Alter Memory at present. Granted, video quality is abysmal by necessity- this old piece of junk can't play anything better than 240p- but I'm glad I started doing this.

[dotcom]

So I guess we finally found out what the deal is with Digimon Adventure Tri and...it's a 6 part film series? Starting in November? Way to not be misleading, Toei. I guess I don't mind too much, but still, kind of disappointing? /hopefully the animation quality is consistent and high. Also, animated Alphamon, that's pretty rad?

Finished Cardcaptor Sakura after, what, five months? Sure was fast on that one. It was fun! Not sure if it suffered a little from Seinfield Is Unfunny or not, I did really enjoy it but can't say I loved it exactly. Certainly was old fashioned in any case. But it had good characters (the Li family is my fave) and music for the most part. (I honestly hated the third ed, though. I wish Honey had been used for the third season rather than Fruit Candy or whatever that stupid song was called. Honey is fantastic.)

And. I got through Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono, Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono: Encore, and have caught up with Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono Spin-Off: Purupurun Charm to Asobi.

Tesagure may just be my favorite anime ever (I mean, maybe not, but it sure feels like it) It's just really incredible to me. The series revolves around 4 girls in a club where they think about new club activities after thinking about and discussing other clubs through a manga/anime-aware lens. It's so self aware it hurts and so smart and clever in its riffing of tropes and in its humor in general, I just really really love it. Each episode has a part where the actors just ad-lib a discussion, talking about new ideas, and it's where the true heart of the series becomes evident. The way they interact in those segments is genuine and it's utterly hilarious. Running gags are born, puns are made, it is a riot.

Even where Tesagure fails, it succeeds. When jokes fall flat during the improv parts, it just makes everything better. It adds to that genuine feeling, and the ensuing scenes can be true gems. Characters trying to recover from a bad joke, the others making fun of them or just responding in turn to stupid ideas. It's a trial-and-error process that's very true to the spirit of the series and it's so great.

The latest episode in the spin-off had actual on-site recording at a fricking haunted house, it was everything I could have wished for and more.

The beginning of the second season was apparently a really spur-of the moment thing, so there were a couple of episodes where the characters are like "they're not making the animation deadlines, so they asked us not to move too much." What follows is nothing short of stupid, and nothing short of hilarious.

I really really like the Tesagure! Bukatsu-mono series. It is my new favorite comedy if nothing else.

 

Also I just finished No.6. It wasn't the best thing I've ever seen, but it was pretty good nonetheless! Good characters, decent enough setting I guess, a fine soundtrack and good art and animation. The way the entire thing was structured felt completely non-tv-series-like to me, it really struck me more like a long movie. Not sure if that makes any sense. But I liked it well enough. End was really dang weird and hasty though. Can't win them all I guess.

[Ektris]

*sigh* Looks like the pacing fears for Yamada-kun were true. I thought after Nene got two episodes to her, that it was on track to really show a good amount. But the last two episodes have condensed 8+ chapters each into single episodes. So that's one witch per episode. I was kind of okay with it last week because it was the most boring witch, but this week rushed all of Sarushima and Tsubaki's introductions and it really felt like things were moving too quickly. If the next episode tries to shove Noa's entire arc into a single episode too... Well, I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed since it's what we guessed would happen anyways...

 

~|ET|~

[dotcom]

So I've watched a few anime movies over the past couple of weeks...When Marnie was Here, the latest Ghibli movie. Thought it was really good. Rakuen Tsuihou: Expelled from Paradise, which was...nothing special and had annoying fanservice but was generally ok. (liked Kamiya Hiroshi-bot anyway). Wolf Children Ame and Yuki, which I really really enjoyed. And most recently He[ck]s, which was weird as, well, heck but certainly interesting. I plan to read the manga at a later date.

 

Also I've watched. A bunch of stuff.

 

Saw Gatchaman Crowds, thought it was really good, really liked the characters. Weird ending. Looking forward to the second season this summer.

Saw Beyond the Boundary. It was pretty and sometimes interesting. Ending was no good. That's about it.

Saw Chronicles of the High School Club. Slow start but got really funny around episode 4 or so. Good gag anime.

Saw Cuticle Detective Inaba. Better gag anime. It had a talking goat italian mafia boss. A+

I'm like 4 episodes away from finishing Zetsuen no Tempest. It's ok. I think it peaked at episodes 8-12. edit: I finished it. It was ok. I think it peaked at episodes 8-12.

I am something like halfway through Heartcatch Precure. It is very good. I love the main character and the art style. Leagues better than the current Precure series, and I really like the current Precure series.

Started watching Hetalia World Series since I finally found it dubbed. I am 30 episodes in. It's amusing.

And just started Kore wa Zombie desu ka. It's not any good so far.

 

Nothing too shocking has happened with the shows airing this season. Punchline keeps getting more interesting. Owari no Seraph keeps being awful. Ore Monogatari!! keeps being really good. I guess Nisekoi: has been a...little disappointing? Thought the first episode was hilarious but nothing since has really done too much for me. It's not terrible but. Eh. Not nearly as fun as the first season or even the ovas, for some reason. Maybe it's the fact that we are seeing more Marika? I don't really like her.

Edited May 26, 2015 by I-AM-YOUR-LORD

[Terminus]

I haven't watched much over the past couple weeks, mainly stayed up to date with UBW and Yamada-Kun, although I haven't seen the most recent episodes of those. Given that I've read source material for pretty much everything else I'm following and I don't really care much for Ninja Slayer at all, it's no big deal, although since the semester is done I'll probably catch up in everything within a week or two.

 

I have done some other things, I've watched about half of Kirameki Project, which is a strange little OVA from about 10 years ago. It excels at being weird and silly, which I enjoy, but overall it's pretty meh. I really enjoyed the making-of video that was on the DVD, had some interesting stuff on 3DCG. Probably enjoyed that even more than the show itself.

 

I also started watching Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, I've only watched the first episode and thought it was good, but it cut a good deal of stuff from the manga. Might wait until I get my hands on the third volume of Phantom Blood to actually start it, though.

 

And I've also gotten the third Index LN, the first Sailor Moon Short Stories manga, and the fourth Parasyte manga. Only read Parasyte so far, and it's staying pretty good.

 

I guess Nisekoi: has been a...little disappointing? Thought the first episode was hilarious but nothing since has really done too much for me. It's not terrible but. Eh. Not nearly as fun as the first season or even the ovas, for some reason. Maybe it's the fact that we are seeing more Marika? I don't really like her.

I just cared about Marika for the first time at all in the last few manga chapters (around 170). It shouldn't take 170 chapters for me to start to like a character. Although the manga's kind of at a point where it's just spinning it's wheels, pretty much 3-4 chapters with this girl, 3-4 with that one, a few with that one... Can't wait for some actual plot development with this.

[LockmanCapulet]

May as well talk about what I've thought of this season so far. (Haven't really posted on here in ages it feels.)

 

So I've already dropped a lot of stuff... Arslan, Seraph of the End, Denpa Kyoushi, Blood Blockade Battlefront, and Gunslinger Stratos.

 

• Arslan wasn't bad, per se, but it failed to really hold my attention. I just... didn't care about it, for whatever reason.
• Seraph had a good start (read: latter half of the first episode) but turned into formulaic shounen by episode 2. (Mentor tells protag not to do something or he'll be hurt/get punished, he does thing successfully anyway and is unharmed, he is rewarded instead of punished and moves up in his quest to become Hokage-equivalent. Yech.)
• Denpa Kyoushi also had a good start but the premise wasn't enough to go beyond the first two or three episodes. I would have liked it as a movie or OVA.
• BBB made zero sense out the gate. I'm all for mystery, but when information that is public knowledge in-story is withheld from the audience, things get mixed up quickly. Is Jerusalem's Lot inaccessible to the outside world? They certainly say things like that but also talk about people coming and going. Why is our protag running after/away from those people in the first episode? Nothing was explained.
• Gunslinger Stratos took the path of many video game anime (Looking at you, BlazBlue) by having an interesting premise but falling flat quickly due to poor execution Pacing and writing were horrible.

 

Okay, on to the good stuff!

 

• My Love Story/Ore Monogatari is nothing short of incredible. It's great to see a shouo go further into a romance than the moment the couple gets together. And Gouda's expressions just make the show.
• Re-Kan continues to be surprisingly funny and heartfelt! I was worried it would run its premise dry by now, but it's doing well in focusing individual episodes on the side characters while developing the main cast. I also like that the Roll Call Samurai and Kogal Spirit's roles have been expanded; they're probably my favorite characters on the show!
• I'm still enjoying Plastic Memories, but the recent episodes have had a dip in quality over the first five or so; the series gives off a "trying too hard to be a romcom" vibe lately, and the slapstick is too overplayed. The premise and implications of Giftias have all but been ignored after setting up the fact that
  Isla has only a month left

  ; we could have reached the same point in the storyline in a modern setting, by having

  Isla contract a terminal illness or something.

  I wish they'd stuck with the terminal recovery vignettes from the first quarter and gone in a similar direction to Death Parade.

• This season of Knights of Sidonia has been fantastic too. I don't know how, but even though they're clearly taking the story in more of a romance direction, they manage to make it work. Even the slapstick. (The "voices carrying from upstairs" gag from two episodes ago had me in hysterics!) The animation is high-caliber too, and the battles are still incredible to watch.
• Sound Euphonium is great so far too, but I'm several episodes behind. I need to catch up.

 

I also scored the Attack on Titan: Kuklo Unbound and Kagerou Daze Vol. 1 novels the other day as well! Really looking forward to reading 'em.

[dotcom]

I made a big manga order last week. Finally finished getting Soul Eater and Bakuman, caught up with Centaur no Nayami (so great) and threw in Railgun 4 because why not. (it is certainly the best Railgun up to that point. Sisters arc is good like that). It feels good to finally put those series to rest. I'm planning on getting the Nausicaa box set and start buying Bunny Drop and Yotsuba& soon...Maybe finally get past volume 10 of Bleach?

 

I started Kore wa Zombie desu ka? like, a week ago or something? I've watched five episodes it's mostly uninteresting.

 

The season is nearing an end now. Probably about as good a time as any to rank all the stuff I'm watching.

 

1. Ore Monogatari!!

2. Tesagure! Bukatsumono Spin-off Purupurun Charm to Asobou

3. Punchline

4. Go! Princess Precure

4. Arslan Senki

6. Assassination Classroom

6. World Trigger

6. Nisekoi:

9. Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku

9. Ninja Slayer from Animation

9. I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying 2

12. Ame-iro Cocoa

13. Owari no Seraph

 

Ore Monogatari!! is great!! It hits all the right notes every episode. Great romance story, friendship story, story...It's cute and it's charming and it has a lot of heart and brains. It's great.

 

Tesagure! kind of lost me the last two episodes with the Yuriwolf thing but other than that it's been an amazing and hilarious season that has really only upped the amount of innovation they've been doing. Even the Yuriwolf game, though I don't think it was a great success, was entirely in line with the show's purposes. Also, Aoi's punchline was amazing as always. Oh, Yua...

 

Punchline's great. The story has gotten really involved and twisty and all. Characters are interesting, whole thing is pretty silly but very good. Nothing out of line here considering it's written by the Zero Escape guy.

 

Precure's fun. I started watching the infinitely better Heartcatch a while ago, and the comparisons aren't kind to Princess. It's still a solid and very fun series though.

 

Arslan's good. It feels like it's still really just waiting for something to happen. Who knows what. It's been interesting though.

 

Assassination Classroom is ok. Just. Ok, mostly. This latest island arc has been uncharacteristically interesting though.

 

Things are happening in World Trigger. This is a novel thing for World Trigger.

 

Nisekoi: is. I don't know. I want to like it, I really do. I loved everything in this series up till episode 2 of :. But I just. I don't even care anymore. I don't even know fully what happened. I miss when it was just Raku, Kosaki and Chitoge, I suppose.

 

Mikagura took a general dive in quality as far as animation and art go as early as episode 2. And it just. Hasn't been all that interesting in any area for a while. I guess it's there.

 

Ninja Slayer is, well, it's still Ninja Slayer. And...it's. I dunno. Adjectives like "good" or "bad" seem to lose any semblance of meaning near a show like this.

 

The Husband show hasn't changed a bit. It's kind of amusing and inoffensive but that is as far as it goes.

 

There wasn't anything to say about Ameiro Cocoa when it started and there's still nothing to say about it now.

 

Owari no Seraph is awful. Awful and generic and poorly animated and utterly, utterly boring. Really though the animation is just terrible. I may be able to forgive a show as awful as this if it at least bothered to look pretty, but as choppy and cruddy as it is it just accentuates all the awfulness in the show rather than make me want to ignore it. Terrible show.

 

edit: oh yeah RGZ+ started too. That sure happened. First episode was ok? May be worth waiting until it's all out to watch it though, dunno.

 

All in all I'm not very impressed with this season at all. There's a handful of pretty solid series but a lot of it is just not that great. Kinda missing the winter season over here.

Edited June 6, 2015 by farmstink buttlass

[Jobber]

Anyone know how long it usually takes for an Anime adaption to be made from a manga? I'm craving a One-Punch Man show, or at least a Boku no Hero one. 

 

Though, it probably won't be until at least 200 chapters in. 

[dotcom]

Anyone know how long it usually takes for an Anime adaption to be made from a manga? I'm craving a One-Punch Man show, or at least a Boku no Hero one. 

 

Though, it probably won't be until at least 200 chapters in. 

Anime adaptations are never a definite thing for any manga. It's a matter of its popularity and a studio's interest, in the end.

But, if you want a One-Punch Man anime, you are in luck. One is slated to start this fall.

[Ektris]

So... Last week's Yamada...

 

It was so disappointing. So terribly, incredibly disappointing. I really want to know what people who haven't read the manga feel about the pacing, because even trying to take myself out of that mindset, things just went too fast by far. All of Noa's arc in a single episode?! That was too darn much.

 

In contrast, I also watched the second OVA. Strange how I enjoyed that one more when I love Noa so much... Probably because it was properly paced. Despite being an original story, it was given time to develop and become enjoyable.

 

*sigh*......

 

I also watched all of Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet that Netflix and Hulu had to offer combined. So basically just haven't found the two OVAs. It was pretty good. I feel like I should have expected the curveballs thrown at the end, but I didn't really, so that was cool.

 

Speaking of disappointing! Or perhaps infuriating, I should say. We only got through one and a half freaking episodes of Naruto before it went back to filler. WHYYYYY. *headdesk*

 

*ahem*

 

Now to decide what show to watch next. Thinking of giving Nyaruko-san a chance again.

 

~|ET|~

[Infamousevil]

In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Za Warudo! MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!

[Terminus]

Well I've caught up with everything I'll be watching except Seraph (and I've dropped Ninja Slayer, I just didn't really like it that much), so now my stuff looks kinda like this:

 

1. Fate/stay night UBW

2. Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches

3. DanMachi

4. The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan

5. I Can't Understand What my Husband is Saying 2

6. Nisekoi:

7. Triage X

 

UBW is still really solid. It's definitely a good step above the earlier F/SN anime and UBW movie (although the UBW movie was just awful, so really no contest there), although I don't think it'll end up as good as Zero.

 

Despite some issues (mainly the fact that characters appear one episode and just don't show up again so far), Yamada-Kun is probably one of my favorite comedies in a while. A bit nervous about it turning more into a harem series, but as long as it stays as funny as it has, it should be fine. Also picked up the first two manga volumes of this, read the first one and it was pretty good. It's adapted (at least the first volume) well enough so that it hasn't really affected my opinion of the show, although from what others are saying, that'll change once I get farther in the manga.

 

DanMachi is going very surprisingly well. I wasn't expecting too much at the beginning of the season (because I had only read the first novel, and it was pretty meh), but it's doing rather well. I'm not a fan of how the world is a normal-ish fantasy world, but with random MMO-ish things sprinkled in, it makes it feel less like a real world and more like something that's part of SAO. Still, it has some pretty good action and a nice cast of characters.

 

Nagato Yuki-Chan finally got to the part where the old Nagato appeared, and it's shifted away from being mainly a comedy to something a bit more serious, although it's still being a fairly good adaptation of the manga, and I really liked this arc.

 

Husband is still pretty much the same as it's been for all of this and last season, so yeah, no complaints there.

 

Nisekoi is getting to the "spinning its wheels" part, when Naoshi Komi decided he did way too much development in the first part, and then kinda tried to draw it out with new characters and repetitive arcs. It's still funny and I still like it, but it just isn't what it was at this point.

 

And Triage X... I'm kinda wishing I hadn't already read the manga for this series, as the manga is just so much better in... Everything. What's really bad is that they've tried to put 9 volumes into 10 episodes... Which just results in awful pacing and tons of bad cuts. I'm just glad it ends next week.

[dotcom]

Anyway, since I'm way over the spring season and we are close enough to summer to pretty much know everything that's going on with that, the time has come again. How are your summers looking, anime-wise?

 

Every season I feel like I want to cut back on the amount of series I'm watching yet almost always I end up with even more than before, it's a real issue. Anyway my summer watch list is looking like this.

 

-World Trigger (continuing from spring)

-Go! Princess Precure (continuing from spring)

-The Heroic Legend of Arslan (continuing from spring)

-Ninja Slayer from Animation (continuing from spring)

-My Love Story!! (continuing from spring)

-DRRR!!x2 Ten (for once really looking forward to this)

-Gatchaman Crowds Insight (all the hype)

-The iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls 2nd Season (should be fun)

-Wooser's Hand-to-Mouth Life Mugen-hen (guess so)

-Charlotte (apparent spiritual successor to angel beats? sign me the heck up)

-Classroom*Crisis (looks good, like the director)

-Himouto! Umaru-chan (seems to be pretty funny)

-Jitsu wa Watashi wa (art style looks good, have liked the director's previous work on ika musume)

-Castle Town Dandelion (premise seems promising)

-Sore ga Seiyuu! (anime based on a manga made by a seiyuu. should be interesting.)

 

There's a couple others under my "maybe" category, but these are what I'm planning on watching. It's a lot! :/

[Terminus]

Off the top of my head, there's Charlotte, Non Non Biyori 2, Prisma Illya 3, Prison School, and the next part of Durarara!! next season. I think this is about half of what I'm planning on watching, there are some others I can't remember at the moment and I'll probably pick up some more, depending on recommendations.

[Hodor]

I just finished Madoka: Rebellion after putting it off for like two years now.
 

Did
 
did I just watch a magical girl version of Paradise Lost? Because I think I just did.

 

[LockmanCapulet]

For next season, I have...

• Fairy Tail 2 (Continuing, as always, from Spring 2014)
• My Love Story!! (continuing from Spring)
• Akagami no Shirayukihime (Particularly looking forward to this one)
• Charlotte
• Classroom Crisis (sounds really really interesting)
• Danchigai
• Gakkou Gurashi! (looks frikkin hilarious)
• Gangsta.
• Gate
• God Eater
• Joukamachi no Dandelion
• Kuusen Madoshi Kouhosei no Kyoukan (holy cow that is a mouthful)
• Rokka no Yuusha
• Sore ga Seiyuu!
• Wakaba Girl

That's a lot, but given my track record I'll probably drop four or five in the first few weeks. There's a few other series I want to see too, like the new Durarara season, but I still need to see the prequels.

[Ektris]

Oh man I haven't even bothered looking at what's coming out in summer. >_< Let's go do that (and probably update MAL so I remember)...

• Durarara!!x2 Ten
• Dragon Ball Super
• Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou

So not much at all again.

 

~|ET|~

[Toa of Gallifrey]

My parents felt in an anime mood recently and watched Madoka and Parasyte with me (the latter still ongoing, with episode 11 next). They haven't seen Rebellion yet due to Parasyte hype.

 

I just finished Madoka: Rebellion after putting it off for like two years now.
 

Did
 
did I just watch a magical girl version of Paradise Lost? Because I think I just did.

 

 

Yes, yes you did.

[Ektris]

Sweet, the two OVA episodes of Gargantia just got posted on the streaming site I used. Only watched the first one because I didn't realize how long they would be! That's awesome. Bit of a shame I had to switch to subs, but it really kind of made me appreciate the dub even more because the voices don't sound that different at all. They did a real bang up job.

 

And they're a continuation of the show, not side stories (...sort of), so that's a plus too.

 

---

 

Yesterday's Yamada-kun wasn't as bad as Noa's episode the week before. Which still disappoints me greatly. But if they're going to condense the entire first story into a single season, at least nobody's getting cut out. They're getting the events and info presented, but it's really falling short on character development.

 

~|ET|~

[LockmanCapulet]

@Ektris, where are you watching the Gargantia OVAs? The ones on the site I use have fansubs of... questionable quality.

[Ektris]

@Ektris, where are you watching the Gargantia OVAs? The ones on the site I use have fansubs of... questionable quality.

Ugh I don't really even want to suggest it. The first was fantastic I think. But the second, the one just released, has subs of such incredibly horrible quality I couldn't finish it. Probably the same one you watched lol. Might have to wait and hope a different group gets to it.

 

~|ET|~

[dotcom]

Finished the first season of Kore wa Zombie desu ka. Honestly, the only thing keeping me from thinking it was garbage was the extremely, undeservingly superb ost. This show has some good music. I don't care for it at all otherwise. Second season has been even worse. Though the music is still pretty great. That being said, I do like Sarasvati, I think. The harem genre usually being full of girls who fall for the main character for no real discernible reason (this show included/especially), the notion of a character who just likes the mc because he has a hot butt is...fresh, and really pretty hilarious. So yeah, I guess she's ok.

 

Anyway, I watched Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun over the span of two days (that's some sort of record for me I think). I. Really liked it. The characters are unique, the whole thing is a really unusual and fun romance (I don't think I've ever seen so many confessions in any anime before, these people are honest.). The whole show is funny and charming and kinda weird but most of all, really good. But...unfortunately, like too many anime, it suffers from having a criminally low amount of episodes to really do itself justice. The same studio that did this series did Kuragehime, which is one of my all time favorite anime as well as one of the most unfortunate. It only had 11 episodes, so ended just as things were getting great. Abruptly, and in the middle of things. And Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (though it had 2 more episodes) is pretty much the same deal. It built up to a really good spot for the first stretch of the show, but the last couple of episodes or so were sort of trying to build up some plot threads that never got to mean much since it ended in a really awkward final episode. (pretty sure it's a filler ending too, it didn't feel like something any manga would have to do ever). So even though I think it was mostly fantastic, in the end I'm just left kinda conflicted. And with a massive desire to read the manga. So I will do that. Thankfully, this once it turns out a manga I'm interested in is being licensed over here. Woo.

 

Oh yeah, and I started Nichijou a few days ago. It's pretty much amazing. The animation is great, which is really important. But mostly it's just a really really hilarious show. It's a lot of fun.

 

 

And. I watched Summer Wars yesterday or something. It was ok I suppose. Maybe.

[Hodor]

And. I watched Summer Wars yesterday or something. It was ok I suppose. Maybe.

It's literally an Our War Game remake. I liked it for what it was- not a bad piece of fluff to watch in between series.

[Terminus]

Well, Triage X was the first thing I've been watching this season to end, and... The ending was pretty par for the course for this adaptation (as in, not really that great), it spent far too much time (about half an episode) on a dull bath scene where they went over the events of the last episode, and then some dull school stuff happened and we got our cool closing bike chase action scene. I feel like it was kind of an odd place to end (the last half of the episode adapted the first two episodes of the next arc), but I guess that's what the upcoming OVAs are for. I'm kinda surprised that they managed to fit 9 volumes of manga into 10 episodes, but I'm not surprised it didn't turn out well.

 

I'm getting caught up on Seraph of the End (3 episodes behind), I guess I'm just doing it because I like the manga at this point, because it's not really all that great. As an adaptation, it scores more points than Triage, and it's not as drop-worthy as World Trigger, so I'll probably end up sticking this one out.

 

And I also got Hyperdimension Neptunia on Blu-Ray yesterday, never saw the OVA, so I ended up watching that right out of the box. Everything I pretty much expected, general silliness, gaming in-jokes, the works. Glad they got to keep most of the cast from the games, as the characters were spot-on. All in all, I enjoyed it.

 

Also found out all of the Yamada-Kun manga is on Crunchyroll, so I've started reading that. 4 volumes in, and I'm already noticing stuff that was cut in the anime.

[Hodor]

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-06-18/cyborg-009-vs-devilman-anime-teaser-staff-stills-unveiled/.89447

 

That's pretty unexpected. Looking forward to it.

 

Really suggest the Devilman and Cyborg 009 manga if you haven't read them. Genuinely some of the best manga ever written.

[Infamousevil]

Watched the final episode of Stardust Crusaders.

 

ROAD ROLLER DA!

[dotcom]

I finished Kore wa zombie desu ka of the dead. I'm not entirely sure if it was worse than the first season exactly, but I know I didn't like it all the same.

 

I finished Heartcatch Precure a bit ago. Fantastic mahou shoujo for what it was with fantastic characters. Gotta hunt down the rest of the figuarts I'm missing.

 

Anyway, spring season is almost over. Things have ended, are ending...Assassination Classroom, (which I ended up not caring for ultimately (though two or so of the later episodes were actually interesting)), Owari no Seraph (which was all in all, through and through, a huge pile of ), Ame-iro Cocoa (whoooo caaaares), Mikagura School Suite (which stopped being worthwhile two episodes in), I can't understand what my husband is saying 2 (guess it was ok ish), Punch Line (pretty solid, not as well fleshed out as I would have liked, game will probably be better), and Nisekoi: (this season made me super sad and even got me regretting my Chitoge and Kosaki nendoroid preorders. Why you gotta do this to me Nisekoi. I used to really like you).

 

The last show I'm watching ends tom...today. Tesagure has been a really solid and fresh show all season and the finale to this spin-off should be no less great. I expect it will be one thing this season that I have unambiguous positive feelings towards.

 

Spring kinda sucked. Pretty disappointing showing all in all...I really liked the winter season, and was hoping I may start watching some better shows going forward from that, but I'd rate spring a solid meh-. I can only hope the summer brings better things. And since I'm gonna be watching 15 shows...it better.

[LockmanCapulet]

Spring kinda sucked. Pretty disappointing showing all in all...I really liked the winter season, and was hoping I may start watching some better shows going forward from that, but I'd rate spring a solid meh-. I can only hope the summer brings better things. And since I'm gonna be watching 15 shows...it better.

I agree, it pales in comparison to last season. We have gotten some good stuff like My Love Story!! and Knights of Sidonia season 2 at least, but yeah, a lot of shows were disappointments. I think I hit a personal record with 6 shows dropped just from this season. I'll post my overall reactions to the season once the rest of the shows I'm following end.