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Oh yeah, finished nearly all Chuunibyou has to offer except the movie and like one or two shorts that I couldn't find.

 

That was a lot more fun than expected!

 

~|ET|~

E-T... Phone home.

 

"He walks among us, but he is not one of us."

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Christ...this last Death Parade was just brutal. Best anime of the season by far. Shame that there's only 3 episodes left.

 

I finished Vividred Operation yesterday. It was all in all fairly generic and the fanservice was always off-putting, but I found it all very entertaining, which is more than I can say for some other stuff I'm watching, so I have to say I liked it. The designs really were always pretty good.

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Alright, this weekend's episodes.

 

Man, the wait was worth it for the Death Parade two-parter conclusion.. Seriously heavy stuff this episode. Looks like we're going to start exploring the inner workings of the system for the rest of the show, so that should be interesting. Especially since according to the preview,

Decim and Onna will participate in the next game, possibly Onna's proper judgment?

 

 

Your Lie in April had what may have been its best episode yet! Perfect symbolism, huge and very satisfying plot developments, and the feeeeeels

 

Aldonah dropped the

Asseylum is awake and Lemrina knows this

bomb this week and promptly dealt with the consequences. The big battle was cool too, and a nice spin on the typical "beat the ultrabot" fare. I also look forward to seeing what happens with

Cruhteo's son.

 

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I finished Fantasista Doll. That series had literally nothing going for it and there's literally nothing even worth talking about. Except perhaps for the just awful art direction. A great example of utter mediocrity.

 

Read most of Codename: Sailor V today. Pretty enjoyable from what I've gotten through. Minako always felt like the least defined out of the main Sailor Senshi, which is saying something, because as individuals they just never did much. Having this series all to herself really does bring her personality to light (her personality basically just being proto-Usagi but hey it's something). And the brief cameos and references to the main series are pretty nice.

 

Artemis is a big old jerk in this though. Wow. Bad cat.

 

Also I finished Psycho-Pass. That...was a very good anime. I really enjoyed seeing the development of all the characters, especially the two Inspectors, and I think as a whole it was done very very well. The only thing that bothers me is that for whatever reason I was never actually able to become invested emotionally in any of it...None of the deaths actually affected me in any way, which I found really bizarre. Maybe I just instinctively closed up my emotions knowing that Urobuchi was involved, heh...anyway, yeah. Great series.

 

Oh, yeah. I also watched the first couple of episodes of Another yesterday? Pretty creepy atmosphere, though the over-reliance in quick cuts to creepy dolls felt a bit tacky and even a little bit comical. Still creepy though. The carnage hasn't begun yet and I am no good with horror at all, so this...should be fun? The opening is really great, anyway.

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So apparently Red Dragon, a series of replay novels transcribing a DnD game that featured Nasu and Urobuchi as players and had one of the original players of Record of Lodoss War's campaign as a DM, is getting an anime in the summer season.

 

This is either going to be great or absolutely terrible, but either way, it's gonna be an amazing thing to watch.

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Currently going through Assassination Classroom and Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb.

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Please take some time to read my friend's Hero Factory story "End Factory".
It was in the works for 2 years and is now available online to read.
Please be sure to leave a review if you can as it would mean a lot to both me and him.

A nice surprise awaits you inside.
 

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Just realized I never commented about last weekend's episodes.

 

That was a GREAT Saekano episode. Given the proportional amount of development the arious characters have received, plus the fact that one "main" character hasn't even appeared yet, I'm expecting (and sincerely hoping) they'll announce a second season.

 

I'm not ready for the Your Lie in April finale. Nope. Not ready. My soul is going to be in agony. feels

 

Loved the newest Assassination Classroom. When we were promised a transfer student, I certainly did not expect what we wound up getting. It was also nice to have her

overcome her personal struggle with Koro-sensei's help but ultimately of her own volition-- he didn't need to spring in to save her from having her upgrades removed.

 

 

We're entering the big final battle of this season of Aldnoah. It is most certainly going down. I like what they're doing with this new character. The fact that he was introduced so late, plus the timing of certain things coming to pass, like 

Asseylum waking up or Inaho's eye doing... whatever it's doing

make me suspect we might end up with another season. Maaaybe. I can dream.

 

I also finished the second and third volumes of the Sword Art Online light novels. I forgot how good the original arcs were. (Am I the only one who actually really likes the Fairy Dance arc?) I also went ahead and preordered the fourth volume, the first Progressive novel, and the first Devil is a Part-Timer novel. I'll probably read the first Attack on Titan: Before the Fall novel soon, it's been sitting on my shelf for a while.

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Wasn't there a time when Your lie in April was pretty much just a happy, carefree rom-com? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO MY FEELS NOW!?!? Either way, really looking forward to the finale tomorrow, although I'll be sad to see this go. It's been one of my favorites over the past two seasons.
 
I'm also really looking forward to tomorrow because of the penultimate episode of Shirobako (personally my second favorite behind Parasyte over it's runtime). Can't wait to see what happens after last week's table-flip cliffhanger. Out of everything I'm following that's airing, I want this to get another season the most, if only because of Zuka being the only one of the five main girls being completely left out of everything (and that's something I dowbt will change in the last two episodes.)
 
Parasyte was once again really good this week (I especially liked

Migi's slight humanization

that happened over the last two episodes), and quite honestly, I could see this as the last episode, but I'm glad we'll likely be getting some definitive closure next week.

 

I resumed KanColle today after not having watched any episodes for about 6 weeks, I'm finding it enjoyable enough so that I'll probably catch up on it over the next few days.

 

I also finally got to reading both volumes of Strike Witches: 1937 Fuso Sea Incident which have been sitting on my bookshelf for the longest time, It gives some nice backstory to the series, but It didn't really have any strengths beyond that. Now that I have that out of the way, I'll probably be reading One-Winged Witches soon (which I also have both volumes of), hoping it stands on it's own better, especially since it is even less attached to the main Strike Witches story.

 

 

I also finished the second and third volumes of the Sword Art Online light novels. I forgot how good the original arcs were. (Am I the only one who actually really likes the Fairy Dance arc?) I also went ahead and preordered the fourth volume, the first Progressive novel, and the first Devil is a Part-Timer novel. I'll probably read the first Attack on Titan: Before the Fall novel soon, it's been sitting on my shelf for a while.

I liked Fairy Dance. I'm not a fan of Leafa (the biggest strike against Fairy Dance for me), but otherwise, Fairy Dance was a pretty decent arc, although still the worst of SAO so far. Really looking forward to progressive, as apparently each novel covers one floor. At the very least, it sounds like some good expansion into the Aincrad arc.

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Regarding Parasyte: it's finally up on Hulu Plus for those who have it. I don't know about you all but being a fat nasty trash and binge watching on Hulu is so much easier than any other way of finding anime episodes and I'm glad I can watch it on TV rather than a computer screen now.

 

Maybe I'm behind on discussion but my thoughts on it so far is that it's really a good adaptation of the manga (it's been one of my favorites since I was in high school so this show's been so exciting to me) but the design and animation seem sort of wonky occasionally, especially in non-action scenes. Cutting corners to use the budget on more visually impressive sequences methinks?

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I normally wait until Sunday or so to post about each week's episodes, but I felt the pressing need to tell you all that I am currently weeping my eyes out over the Your Lie in April finale. That is all, have a good day.

Yep. I feel like I've had enough of the feels for a whole year from that episode. It was extremely good.

 

I'd say something about the new Shirobako, but according to Crunchyroll, it's been delayed due to production issues. Id be upset, but since Shirobako is pretty much all about production issues in anime and making sure the episodes get in on time, I actually find it kinda funny.

 

Anyways, the winter season is ending, so what's everyone going to be watching next season? For me, it's looking like:

1. Fate/stay night UBW 2

2. Nisekoi 2

3. The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan

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

5. Seraph of the End

6. Shokugeki no Souma

7. The Eden of Grisaia

8. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

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Just had to go check what will be airing... Hadn't even crossed my mind that the season was ending so soon heh.

  • Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works season 2
  • Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo
  • Digimon Adventure Tri
So really not that much.

 

~|ET|~

E-T... Phone home.

 

"He walks among us, but he is not one of us."

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I have fallen really behind on my shows this week. Tempted to just let it all pile up until the end of next week since like ten of them are ending.

 

I'm watching (thankfully) less stuff in the Spring. But not by a whole lot.

 

-World Trigger (continuing from winter)

-Assassination Classroom (continuing from winter)

-Go! Princess Precure (continuing from winter)

-Digimon Adventure tri (hype hype hype)

-Nisekoi 2 (so ready for more frustrating awesomeness)

-I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying 2 (should be fun)

-Robot Girls Z+ (counts? maybe)

-Ninja Slayer from Animation (no idea how or what is going on with this one but it's Trigger so whatever?)

-Arslan Senki (for reasons)

 

There are a couple of other series I'm going to keep an eye on, but these are the ones I know I'm watching for sure.

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I should have included this above. Ah well. My next season:

  • Fairy Tail 2 (cont'd from Spring 2014. Dang, a year already.)
  • Assassination Classroom (cont'd from Winter)
  • Heroic Legend of Arslan (because Hiromu Arakawa)
  • Blood Blockade Battlefront
  • Denpa Kyoushi
  • Gunslinger Stratos
  • Mikagura Gakuen Kumikyoku
  • My Love Story (I'm a sucker for good, unique romances, I'll confess)
  • Plastic Memories (particularly excited, cool premise)
  • Re-Kan
  • Seraph of the End (heard good things)
  • Knights of Sidonia: War of the Ninth Planet (SO STOKED)
  • Sound Euphonium

...Thirteen. Wow. That's a lot. Well, with my track record I'll probably drop two or three. So that's a thing.

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I completely forgot about Yamada and Ninja Slayer happening in the spring, so I'm planning on 10 shows. Still manageable I guess, hopefully everything will be on different days because having everything I watch air between just three days this season was a bit annoying.

 

Anyways, over the weekend- Aldnoah definitely got me excited for the last episode next week, especially with

Asseylum becoming the empress to mix things up a bit.

It did have a bumpy time in the middle, but I think at this point, Aldnoah's gonna ultimately turn out to be a good show.

 

DRRR had another pretty good episode, and the fight between Kadota and Rocchi was probably one of my favorite parts of this season. Glad we're getting another two seasons of it this year.

 

And Cross Ange is in all-out end of the world final battle mode, which is pretty good, although everyone still switching sides at this point is kinda annoying.

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Alright, this week's episodes.

 

Not much to say about Assassination Classroom, other than this show has surprisingly good filler.

 

Death Parade has me very excited for the finale. The ice-skating sequence this week was simply beautiful.

 

Once again, Your Lie in April has me wallowing in feels. I need a happy series this season to make up for that.

 

I'm excited for the Yona of the Dawn finale, but hoping they'll announce a second season. There's no way in heck they'll finish the story in one episode. And I hope they don't pull the "buy the manga to finish it!" .

 

Since ya'll have been saying good things, I'm giving Nisekoi a try. If I like it, I'll try to watch the whole first season this week so I'll be ready for Season 2.

 

Attack on Titan: Before the Fall is pretty good so far. Nothing spectacular but it's nice lore. I learned recently that there's going to be an official translation of the second and third volumes in one book, so that's exciting. I also started on the first Chuunibyou novel. Only a chapter in but I'm enjoying it thus far.

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I've been making progress on volume 2 of Index, though I still have a ways to go. Over...a month after it came out. Whoo. I am taking my time reading it, which is fine because it is better if it lasts longer I guess! It's just a fun read, definitely better than the anime. So much more detail and...stuff..happening. Can't wait for the rest of the volumes to start coming. Especially looking forward to 3, 5, 8, and of course 12/13 in like two years or something. It's kind of sad to think that we won't see any of the volumes that haven't gotten adapted into the anime until around 2018, probably...then again, if we still don't have Index III by 2018 I am seriously going to cry.

 

Also, apparently the first volume of Accelerator is already slated for a release here later in the year? That was pretty fast. I haven't heard or seen much about Accelerator, looking forward to it. 

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Well, a lot of stuff finished this week. Aldnoah probably was my favorite ending of the season, with everything else having the ending feel like just another episode (DRRRx2, Testament of Sister New Devil) or be slightly below par (Parasyte, Shirobako). Anyways, my overall thoughts on this season are as follows:

1. Parasyte

2. Shirobako

3. Your Lie in April

4. Durarara!!x2

5. Cross Ange

6. Aldnoah Zero

7. KanColle

8. Testament of Sister new Devil

9. Unlimited Fafnir

 

Parasyte's final episode was more of an epilogue episode than an ending (that happened last week) that mainly just wrapped up all the loose ends. If nothing else, it's satisfying to see a solid, definitive ending to this series.

 

Shirobako had a decent ending, and while the delivery sequences were really fun to watch, I just felt that it was lacking a lot of the character interactions I've come to love in this series. It did leave the door open to more Shirobako in the future, though, and that's definitely something I'd like to see.

 

Now I'm really excited for the next season of DRRR!!

Shizuo's quitting the dollars? Mikado's the leader of the Blue Squares? Izaya got stabbed? It's gonna great to see where this goes.

 

 

Aldnoah was about as solid as I could've hoped for, no massive, last-second twists, although I was kinda hoping

Slaine and possibly Inaho would go down.

Oh well, at least the second season mostly ended up fixing the first's screwups.

 

KanColle ended up being a pretty fun watch. I'm assuming the sequel announced at the end of the last episode will be a season 2, so I'll be looking forward to that.

 

And then there are the bottom two shows, Testament and Unlimited Fafnir. Testament ended up being one of my favorite harem/battle series I've seen in a while (which is saying absolutely nothing, as it's generally all just meh), although I feel that the fact that it had some good male characters gave it a bit of an advantage over the rest, along with some good focus on action and some hilariously clever censorship. Fafnir, on the other hand, was one of those meh harem/battle series, and... I really have nothing to say about it, other than the fact that the most notable thing about it was that it was so flashy that the screen had to dimmed pretty often to comply with Japanese broadcasting laws.

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Such great finales this week! And the best part is, they all felt like proper season and series finales this time.

 

Tokyo Ghoul: Yeah, that's a proper season closer. Not mid-fight like the last one, which was so annoying. I loved the moment Kaneki and Hide had and how it played out. Spent the entire time thinking Kaneki was the one injured, which is why he was so silent, and then Hide falls... Overall just a satisfying conclusion to Kaneki's little rebellion of sorts, but I certainly can't wait to see what happens next (and hopefully it involves explaining what actually happened to Kaneki).

 

Log Horizon: Hope. Underlying theme of the entire season and the finale really exemplified it. There are still a lot of questions to be answered, but I'm more than ready to wait for them. I just find this show really fun to watch. Glad it ended on action too and not politics heh.

 

Durararax2: Weeeell... Yeah I am quite pleased to know we have two more seasons of this coming this year, even if they're all so separated. The Dollars twisting Mikado, despite them becoming what he didn't want (or did he secretly desire it?), was interesting to watch. How easily he snapped and returned to normal was shocking, but probably the best part.

 

Aldnoah.Zero: This entire season made up for the ending of the first and then some. I think that if viewed as a whole it might not be so bad. Only thing I wish had been shown in the conclusion was Lemrina's fate. I'm sure Asseylum wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, but I'd have still liked to see it. Slaine not getting the death escape he wanted was so satisfying (as was seeing him point to his eye for where Inaho should shoot).

 

~|ET|~

E-T... Phone home.

 

"He walks among us, but he is not one of us."

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And with that, the Winter 2015 season comes (mostly) to a close. There's still a few things airing, but all the shows I was following have ended (save Assassination Classroom and Fairy Tail).

 

Aldnoah had a great finale. The final several minutes of battle animation were spectacular, and the end result of the story was satisfying. It was nice to hear "Heavenly Blue" again too.

 

Death Parade's ending was nothing short of fantastic. Sure, we didn't get answers to all of our questions about the arbiter system, but Decim and Onna's character arcs wrapped so perfectly. It was great hearing "Flyers" one last time too. ~Everybody, put your hands up!~

 

Saekano wrapped nicely. It wasn't a great overall conclusion, but the arc involving Michiru had a nice ending, and while I'd love to see more, I'd be satisfied if this was all of the anime we get. (The cover of "Sorario Days" from Gurren Lagann was pretty cool too.)

 

I finished reading the first Sword Art Online: Progressive novel today. Very good stuff. Kirito and Asuna's banter is always perfect, and it's great to have all this additional worldbuilding without it feeling shoehorned in. Really looking forward to getting the next Fairy Dance volume and the first Devil is a Part-Timer novel next month!

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Finally started watching again after a couple of weeks of not doing that! I'm making slow progress but at least it is progress.

 

I watched the Free! OVA. It was pretty boring! I did not enjoy it much.

 

I also watched the Dramatical Murder OVA. Whereas the series was a very SFW and dreadfully non-gay trek through all the good endings of the VN, the ova was a dreadfully NSFW, although very very gay, trek through all the bad ends. (and whoever wrote the bad ends for DMMD was pretty freaking messed up! It was like some School Days ####, except, times five! So much blood, guys.) It was....scarring. Jeez man. Wow. Ouch. Ouch. It was pretty dang weird.

 

Caught up/finished Parasyte. I really enjoyed it, as I did the rest of the series. The "real" end of the plot and conflict of the series in episode 23 was done pretty well, and the more epilogue-ish last episode was also done well. Tying up loose ends, and narrowly avoiding a tragic end to a series that already had more than enough of that...it was good! Really great series all around.

 

Caught up with World Trigger. The big fight is finally starting...totally expecting to see them milk this battle for the remainder of the series!

 

Finished Yurikuma Arashi. There's no denying that this series started off... a bit bizarre? But eventually all the pieces started falling into place and it was pretty good. I really liked the last couple of episodes. I even called some of the more implausible twists. (Really, she was Kumaria??? I was just joking, YKA, come on!) All around a good series.

 

Aaand I just finished watching Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-Bu LOVE! (I call it BiKouChiBouBuLO for short) I don't know if it's because I was desperately looking so hard for a decent parody of the genre after the revolting terribleness of Ore, Twintails ni Narimasu, or if it really is just that great, but Bikouchiboubulo was just really fantastic. It was smart, it was funny, it was ridiculous and it was really really gay. The final episode is probably my favorite ending of the season so far, and one of my favorite endings in general. (Sorry, Parasyte, your psychological and high-octane emotions cannot match stupid magical boys, it is simply impossible)

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Well, this season is off to a good start.

 

F/SN had another really good episode for the S2 opener. Yay for

Shirou finally confessing his feelings for Rin and Archer obviously having some sort of plan!

really excited for what happens next week.

 

I've also started Nagato Yuki-Chan and Seraph of the End, Yuki-Chan got the transition to anime pretty right, and I rather enjoyed it. I'm wondering how far it'll go in 16 episodes, though.

 

Seraph had a pretty good start, and it rekindled my faith in adaptations of Jump action series after the awful World Trigger adaptation. I forgot how brutal the first chapter of this was...

 

Anyways, also got the first two volumes of the Parasyte manga recently. It's pretty good, and it's neat to see the differences between the source material and the adaptation.

 

Also my copy of Madoka Magica the Movie: Rebellion is coming tomorrow. Haven't watched the dubbed versions of Beginnings and Eternal yet, precisely because I waned to marathon all 3 movies dubbed at once, so I'll be doing that tomorrow.

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Funnily enough I watched Rebellion with my sister yesterday (albeit subbed). I had already seen it but it was her first time. Gotta say I enjoyed it more the second time around.

 

 

Finally watched Neon Genesis Evangelion and the various movies (I only got into anime less than a year ago). I know Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0+1.0 comes out this year, but does anyone know when specifically? I heard Dec. 31 but I'm not sure.

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Pretty much the only solid evidence we have about Final this year is that Utada will be writing the ending theme this year. I'd expect it to come out really late this year if it happens this year, but I'm not really expecting it to hit until 2016 at the earliest. I'm really hoping it'll hit this year, because 20th anniversary of Evangelion and all. Of course, Sailor Moon's 20th anniversary has been going on for something like 3 years now, so I wouldn't put it beyond Evangelion to do the same thing.

 

I'm just hoping 3.33 comes Stateside this year, been waiting forever for that on BD.

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So I've caught up on a few things.

 

I finished KanColle like a week ago. It was ultimately a pretty boring experience and...yeah, that's all I have to say about it really. Mediocre, mediocre, mediocre. And with a lot of irritating and underdeveloped characters. Pretty much the only ones I liked were Nagato and Mutsu. They were cool, I suppose. Other than them...Not much. Music was good. Glad to be done with this one, or at least I would be, if a second season hadn't been announced. Oh well?

 

Also finished Tokyo Ghoul Root A, and...yeah.

Root A was fricking terrible. Probably among the worst anime I have watched. The first few episodes were kind of promising? But as soon as we got to the prison stuff it all went utterly and irrevocably to uncensored (but censored!) heck. You wanted to know why Kaneki joined Aogiri? Pfft, screw you! You wanted the series to ever actually use, explain, or ever involve any of the dozens of one-off, stupidly irrelevant side characters? Haha, sorry, you have the wrong anime, I think you wanted one with taste. Did you want good, or at least passable animation? Halfway decent fighting choreography? Consistent characterization? Anything resembling pacing or a plot? Didn't think so! This anime sure has none of those things. It's just so...frustratingly terrible. Almost nothing is properly explained (what is really going on with Kaneki's transformations? Why did he join Aogiri? Why did they go to the prison? Who was that guy they freed? The heck were Kurona and Nashiro up to? Where did they come from? What was with the clowns? AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE?) Everything was so poorly utilized and...just. So stupid. When I heard that the anime was going to take a different route from the manga, I thought, "Oh, ok, this makes sense, I am guessing this is so that they don't have to cram a million plot threads and characters from the manga into just 12 episodes, since they would never be able to do that properly." And then they go and do exactly that! And, as expected, they botched it up, but with so much pure ineptitude that it's actually kind of impressive? As far as I know the extent of the differences (beyond all the stuff that was cut that could have added relevance to all those stupid unresolved plots) were that Kaneki joined Aogiri (Again, why????) that Touka ran to the battle at the end (which, you know, DIDN'T AFFECT NOTHING) and that you know who died the way he did. (which, in the manga, is...well, it's a different story altogether) So, you know...what was the point? Why? And why did this have to be so awful.

 

I know some people had issues with the first season regarding a bunch of the same things--not using characters well, having a haphazard pace/plot....and I kind of get those complaints, to an extent. (not as much, because I still haven't read the manga) But I still really enjoyed that. This, even only watching the anime...this was just complete garbage.

 

The worst part was the :re bait at the end. I mean. God, no. Please just stop, studio pierrot. Please. For everyone's sake.

 

(I did really like the eds and the op, however)

 

 

Assassination Classroom is definitely getting interesting, what with the transfer students and all...the mystery of Koro-sensei deepens. And the character interaction remains pretty fun. The baseball episode was pretty good!

 

Finished The Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls. After what I felt was a strong first episode, the series kind of nosedived when it came to enjoyability, but..over the last few episodes it really managed to get itself together, got some proper development for most its characters (and even got me to stop hating what I thought were some of the most annoying characters I had ever seen). The ending was very enjoyable and very satisfying. While I was originally pretty much dreading the second cour, I'm now actually pretty much looking forward to it.

 

And just finished Aldnoah.Zero.

 

You know, A.Z is flawed so hard it is really just baffling. It has so very few things going for it. The art style is bland, the writing is just not good, the soundtrack, while good on its own, isn't implemented too well, the supporting characters are not only irrelevant, they are all for the most part flat, boring, and to the very end they never actually accomplish anything. The main characters are all ridiculous in one way or another. And the plot...well, not only is the plot as a whole looking at both the first and second seasons kind of...well, there's little that can be said to properly express just how incredibly stupid the transition from the first season to the second went. (You just can't unkill characters like that, A.Z, come on). but it was also generally not paced very well. And to the end...it was hard to care for anything. After that one friend of Inaho's that died in like, episode 3, not one good guy ever died. Not a single, lonely soul got murderized, sacrificed, hero-rized (total words guys!)  or...anything. The main characters of course survived getting shot relatively easily, too. A death or two would have at least given us something to work with as far as engaging the audience. It is hard to feel interested in the outcome of a battle when the series in question hasn't given a single indication that it had the guts to kill even a most irrelevant side character. And indeed, it never did! So all that resulted in was that in the end we just had a whole ton of characters who...played second fiddle to Inaho, sat around on their hands, filled up the time between when people who mattered did things, and then....just. Lived happily ever after, I guess.

 

Pretty dumb, is all I'm saying. Marito, and Yuki especially, just...what was their deal? They did so much nothing in the second season I kind of wish they had gotten offed at the end of the first, just because they were useless even among a cast characterized by being useless. Shame even because they...sort of were made up to be characters we were supposed to care about? Sure didn't happen.

 

And so little consequence and follow up for stuff. Rayet...Rayet choked a girl and then...then she also did nothing. Inaho became even more of a robot, then his eye hurt a bit, this was built up as a BIG DEAL, and then...then, Aldnoah.Zero says: "eh. Who cares, really."

 

(Aldnoah.Zero, you're not very good at storytelling!)

 

And, Lemrina, guys. Wow. Ok, Lemrina. You keep doing that. Keep...being. Around. Saying vaguely meaningful things and...having purple hair...and....yeah...

 

 

But you know. Yeah. Aldnoah.Zero is pretty garbage.

But. I still have to say I liked it?

 

The saving part of the series is really Slaine. Slaine is...an interesting guy, to say the least. Harklight and a bunch of the Orbital Knights also provided some interesting characters, I suppose, but really, Slaine. His character arc, descent into pseudo-villainhood...kind of fascinating. Motives could have been expanded certainly but I just generally like the way he carried the season with his plans and stuff. The ending...the ending wasn't nearly as catastrophic as I expected. Really it was quite quiet. Everything had been building up for everything to come crashing down around him and for his end to be a messy one, but...the Princess escaped, his plans were vaporized, and then he sort of accepted defeat (though obviously wasn't going to go down without settling some things first, and also, dying or trying to). Which really I actually prefer, as it makes the conclusion to his arc more bittersweet, more honorable, in a way, it even awknowledges that although yeah, obviously he went well off the deep end, he was not really "the" bad guy....I dunno. But I did really like the way the ending went down. It was more personal between the two male leads, the fight was good, the scene at the beach was indeed a very strong moment, and the tears shed in jail were pretty poignant. All in all, a satisfying finale.

For Slaine, anyway.

The rest of the series is still kind of garbage.

Edited by farmstink buttlass

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At this point, I'm just hoping Final has a good ending. Like, an actual ending that can easily be followed and grasped while watching the movie, without requiring looking back on everything after it's all over to get it. I really don't care about the rest of the movie, just give me five-ten minutes of decentness at the very end.

Because the ending was the worst part of EVA, IMO, including EoE.

 

Anyways, I've started pretty much everything I'll be watching this season, with the exception of things that haven't started streaming yet (Yamada-kun, Ninja Slayer, and Grisaia), and I've yet to start Food Wars.

 

Nisekoi is my candidate for best OP of the season, simply because the video was really funny (as was the entire episode). Wondering how far it'll go this season, I'm guessing that if it takes up the same amount of chapters as last season, it'll end right before the last girl shows up.

 

Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon (which I just found out is shortened to DanMachi by fans, which is a heck of a lot less of a mouthful) improves a good deal on the novel, as I was hoping. The blatant RPG elements of numerical stats, loot drops and the like are pretty toned down a bit, plus it even feels a good bit less harem-y (elf girl at the guild, waitress girl, and hero girl Aiz have gotten a lot less time here than in the novel), which leads me to finally enjoy the world building a bit more, because a setting that combines Greco-Roman, Norse, Hindu, and Shinto mythology could turn out pretty good. The surprising not-badness of this anime has gotten me excited for the second novel, which just so happens to be coming out a few days before the anime starts adapting it. That'll definitely be a day one read.

 

Picked up Triage X due to it being recommended by some friends, who also happened to recommend HotD to me a while back, and that just so happens to be really high on my list of awful anime series, so between who was recommending it and it's connection with one of the few anime series I've absolutely hated enough to drop (although I think the guy who does Triage only does HotD's art), so I really wasn't expecting anything, and I ended up getting something that felt like a kinda trashy old OVA. And I can enjoy those once in a while. And this season just seems to be that once in a while.

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I dunno, I enjoyed the mind screwy nature of EoE (though less so of eps 25 and 26 of NGE) but Rebuild is more linear so an ending that makes sense off the bat would fit it better.

 

Started High School DxD a few weeks back since a friend said the third season was starting soon and I've had fun with it, very funny and enjoyable all around. Also been watching Kill la Kill, which has been very fun and exciting like TTGL. So far I prefer TTGL, and I'm still not fully accustomed to KlK's art style, but it's still fun to watch.

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The endings of Evangelion are pretty simple to follow- just pay attention to the dialogue instead of the visuals. TV End is about learning to love yourself in the form of Anno having an extended therapy session, EoE is basically a rather extreme version of what happens when you don't.

 

This is shown by Shinji accepting and rejecting Instrumentality respectively. You have to remember, Evangelion is very heavily based in Japanese culture, especially how they heavily discourage 'bothering' other people with your problems. This makes things like depression not only common because of frequent overworking of employees (along with most jobs being discriminated against in favor of more stable office jobs), but also widely untreated because of the stigma against disabilities/disorders. It's why the nation has some of the highest suicide rates in the world.

 

I honestly don't get how people think Evangelion is this huge mindscrew, at least when you understand the culture it was created in. It gets a bit meta at times, yeah, but it beats you over the head with its messages constantly. The whole show is 'learn to love yourself' and 'don't be like these people' with the occasional giant robot fight and a metric ton of references to things Anno loves.

 

And Anno probably having a thing for Ikuni, if theories about Kaworu being heavily based on that guy are true. And considering what we know about EVA's development (and how through most of it, he was desperately trying to get Ikuhara involved), and Anno spearheading a doujinshi about Ikuhara, they probably are.

 

As for Rebuild's ending... Well, before 3.33? I would've told you to look at the Evangelion Pitch Book, which was eerily accurate to the first two Rebuild movies- I think it was probably strongly based on that booklet, honestly. Now? I have no idea. 3.33 was pretty awful in nearly every sense and threw everything off the rails.

 

If I had to guess, it's probably going to lead up to something along Ikuni's suggestion to Anno on how to end the TV series

 

Anno: Everyone understands that it's a fiction, but precisely because it's a fiction you have a pure feeling, you fall for the character to an even greater extent. You assume that an anime character will not betray you. Iku-chan said [to me], "in the last episode, please have Rei Ayanami get married and become pregnant. Just please betray the Ayanami fans. The Rei Ayanami they are thinking of is not real. The real Rei Ayanami gets married, and her belly..."

Oguro: (laughs) Ah, if Ayanami really existed.

Anno: He told me something like, "please, make them realize that, If she were real, she would get married, become pregnant, have a child, and grow older." I was thinking, "we don't have to go that far..." (laughs).

 

 

Honestly, it just makes me wonder how Rebuild or EVA would've turned out if Ikuhara was involved. We probably would've seen the EVAs designed by Mamoru Nagano, at least, since IIRC Ikuni and him are bros. Overall would've been a lot more obscure in meaning, and fabulous too.

 

 

 

Urobuchi was actually only directly involved with the first three or so episodes, before he went off to work on Kamen Rider Gaim.

 

It should be noted that those first few episodes are probably the most solid part of the series.

For the best, honestly. Urobuchi works best when you give him a confirmed order of 26 eps at minimum, and Gaim was apparently pretty great. Otherwise you get the flat out weird pacing of Madoka, which despite being a fantastic series, felt like the cliffs notes to a larger story towards the end.

 

Hoping we get to see him do more Cthulhu Mythos-esc stuff from now on, really.

Edited by Hodor

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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.

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I dunno, Aldnoah.Zero was intended to run for 24 episodes from the beginning from what I understand, it was just split cour for whatever reason. I think Urobuchi could have done the series a lot of good, but I guess we're long past that now and since Gaim did from all accounts end up great (still have to get to it someday) I guess it was fine.

 

Honestly, it felt like with Aldnoah they were just throwing a bunch of talented people into a pot and hoping that something good would come out, but in the end it was just...messy.

 

Anyway.

 

I finished DRRR!!x2Shou. This season was infinitely more enjoyable than the first DRRR!! for reasons I'm not yet fully aware of, but that I'm perfectly happy with. I was able to appreciate the way everything got tangled together much better than I would have expected. Looking forward to the rest.

 

Also finished Rolling Girls. Sadly the series never quite recaptured the energy and fun of the first couple of episodes, but it was still a fun ride.

 

Junketsu no Maria was all in all a pretty good series, with good relatable characters and a good, if just a bit cliched, story. I enjoyed the performances in it a lot.

 

Death Parade's ending (last three episodes really) was fantastic. That ice skating scene from episode 11 is one of the most stunning and well done things I have ever seen in any anime. The fantastic displays of emotion in this anime were always the best part, and they really outdid themselves in the end. Probably the best series of the winter season, in my opinion. It's just a shame it was so short! A run of 24 episodes would have allowed for more Ginti episodes (which I think would have been greatly beneficial, since he was obviously meant as a foil to Decim...something which is especially exemplified in the way both Mayu and Chiyuki's stories hit their climax with a difficult choice. That contrast still came across, but...could have still been shown more) as well as generally more time to see more of everyone else outside the bar. I still don't really know what Oculus' deal is. That entire storyline seems like it could have ended more conclusively! I'm kind of hoping for a sequel, but with Chiyuki gone, I wonder how it would go...

Edited by farmstink buttlass

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