Anime General Thread (Official)

[Infamousevil]

So on Toonami I've been watching Naruto Shippuden, Blue Exorcist, Attack On Titan. And JoJo's Bizarre Adventure on Crunchyrole.

[Terminus]

 

I'm really not sure why that's a thing

because Persona 4 prints money for Atlus, I mean look at how many P4 spin offs we're getting.

 

Yeah, sure, P4 prints money... But I really don't see any point to a P4G anime (besides printing money) other than shoving in everyone's face that yes, Marie is, in fact part of the main P4 canon (unlike P3P's FeMC, and not unlike Theodore).

 

I'm just thinking it'd be easier for them to get people to care if it was a sequel to the original anime (because, you know... Arena exists) rather than something that's pretty much guaranteed to be a nearly straight-up rehash. Wonder how many scenes from the original series they'll reuse.

[dotcom]

So I more or less wrapped up Elfen Lied yesterday. (I still have the OVA to watch, but that seems mostly unimportant) It was...better than it could have been (thanks to the flashback episodes mostly), though really I can't say I enjoyed it very much at all. Especially the end felt very unsatisfactory and peculiarly rushed. Mostly I just don't think it was my kind of series. Far too much nudity, gore, and combinations thereof.

 

After stumbling into Strength's figma on amazon last week I have spiraled into a hopeless infatuation with the aesthetics of Black Rock Shooter, and I'm about halfway through the anime right now. Beyond the overall design (which I love) and the quality of the animation (which is astoundingly perfect) I'm actually rather enjoying the story and what not. Certainly a bit overmelodramatic, but not unrelatable, and any shortcomings it might have are more than made up for by the art. I'm also having an extremely difficult time not throwing myself headfirst into bankruptcy by buying every BRS figma I can, so I guess just Strength and BRS will have to do until they finally release Chariot....if they ever do, anyway...

 

On the subject of Persona, which I've never played or watched or anything: oh man I really want to get those Aigis and Labrys figmas. They look like amazing toys and display figures, even if I have no idea what their deal is at all. Getting into figmas might be the most expensive thing I've done all year.

 

My appreciation for Steins;Gate keeps building with every episode, and I'm only on like episode 6, when stuff is still not that exciting (operating under the assumption that S;G gets crazier as it goes on) Good ensemble cast of characters, and great music.

 

Aoi Hana is just, sort of...extremely realistic in many ways. Perhaps too much so, and although I like it and it's great, I have a hard time seeing where it's leading (somewhat similar to real life it's more a series of incidents rather than a real story). I'm probably going to have to wait until I read the manga to fully appreciate it.

 

Gokukoku no Brynhildr is. I don't even know. It's like, Elfen Lied with a little less of everything I didn't like about it? And also kinda meandering and stalled and repetitive. Hopefully it gets a second season to really flesh out its story, because right now it feels extremely unremarkable.

[Terminus]

Steins;Gate is getting a followup novel. Interested in how this turns out, as I kinda like the new character designs (Daru is probably my favorite). I hope somebody picks this up, most likely Yen Press since they're on a roll with licensing their LNs.

 

I also finally decided to give up on trying to start following anything this late in the season, I'll just wait for final opinions and then watch everything on one go. Maybe two. Besides, I already have a decent list of things I'll start following come July.

 

And while anime figures are still being somewhat discussed, I recently got a couple, the Figuarts Sailor Venus (as soon as I got Sailor Moon last year, my collector instincts kicked in, I've already got Jupier and Saturn preordered) and the High Grade Build Fighters kit Wing Gundam Fenice (because even though I know absolutely nothing about Gundam, it looked cool and it was only $20 at Barnes & Noble), and wow, Gunpla is the Bionicle I never knew I wanted.

 

And I also recently got a bunch of manga (pushed my collection somewhere over the 115-volume mark), I finally got new volumes of Rosario Vampire and Karakuridoji Ultimo after two years (finished the first RV series and over halfway through Ultimo), started getting the Nisekoi releases, and caught up on a few other series.

[dotcom]

The Elfen Lied OVA was a great comedy. I really wish all of Elfen Lied had been like that. Oh wellllll

I started watching Free! and it's a lot of fun. The art and animation is impeccable and the characters are really good. And considering how much anime as a rule suffers suffers from Male Gaze, having all these half-naked dudes is pretty nice.

Black Rock Shooter ended up kind of a mess, but for a series I only got into because I thought one of the characters looked really cool, I was satisfied. The art never stopped being cool, though. And it helps that just as everything stopped making any sense that character finally showed up.

I finished Aoi Hana the anime and because of its utter feeling of incompleteness (and my lukewarm opinion of some of the voice actors they got) I thought it was pretty passable. Then I started Aoi Hana the manga and
wow
Anime is a lot of things, but as a whole it's not very inclusive. When gay characters appear, more often than not they are at least initially portrayed as a caricature, whether it's the psycho lesbian character or the super camp gay character or whatever. On an individual basis this isn't necessarily bad (characters like toaru's Kuroko and TTGL's Leeron are among my favorite) and a good series will develop these characters beyond those tropes. but as a general trend it's worrying. On the other hand, some series like Sakura Trick focus more on sexualizing the situation rather than treating these characters and their orientations in a meaningful way. So when characters pop up that are gay but also full characters in their own right from the get go (Soul Eater's Jackie and Gankutsuou's Franz being good examples) it's pretty sweet.
And Aoi Hana is even better at that. It's yuri, so there's logically a lot of lesbians in it, but they're all also very real characters. They're varied and they're flawed and none of them are a stereotype. And they're not the only people that exist. There's bisexuals and there's straight people, and they're treated no different from the main focus. It's not a world of gay, and I think that's really important. Every character, and every relationship, romantic or not, involving a gay person or not, is treated as being important. Each character is portrayed equally--flawed and very human. There's also no tiptoeing around the fact that the society they're in is still prejudiced against them. I think it manages to be a series that champions equality while acknowledging that that's not where the world is yet. There's suffering, uneasiness, secrecy, fear, and a societal pressure on the characters. Characters struggle to sort out their feelings and recognize who they are--there's very real internal struggle in this story and it's really great and very human. characters change and become unsure of what they really are and what they feel and why.There's also no focusing on only one kind of relationship--there are tons and tons of variations and never are any of them shown negatively except when it's explicitly shown that it's unhealthy. Characters are not sexualized despite the fact that sexuality is recognized as an important part of maturing.

And I could go on and on because I love this story just so much but I'm just rambling by this point and I'm pretty sure I'm not making any sense. But it really is a great, meaningful, very human story and it's become really important to me.
Apparently the same author also did a series about transgendered kids, and if it's anything like this one (I hear it is) in how respectfully and meaningfully it treats all its characters, I can't wait to read it.

Edited June 21, 2014 by dotcom

[Infamousevil]

I have recently finished watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency and will now be watching Stardust Crusaders.

[dotcom]

I have no idea what the BRS OVA was supposed to be, but it was not good.

 

I just started SoreMachi and it looks pretty fun. The ending might just be the greatest ending ever? Maybe.

 

Steins;Gate keeps getting better with every episode. I love everything about it. I only regret not watching it earlier.

Edited June 24, 2014 by dotcom

[JiMing]

So I'm not entirely sure this counts, but I might as well post this gem I found.

 

 

This is a parody of the Namco x Capcom opening, replacing all the original chars with ones from Classic Mega Man, specifically, the Gigamix manga. The author of that manga thought the video was so well done he actually asked to upload it to Youtube, aka the link I have above. All I can really say? Wow.

[GFLK]

Is anybody here a fan of LoGH? I'm probably gonna go overboard for a bit and claim that it's the greatest space opera of all-time, but hey...what do I know?

[-Windrider-]

Is anybody here a fan of LoGH?

 

It's certainly something I've been meaning to watch, but I don't really have any means of doing so right now. : X

[Toa Of Virtues]

I just discovered the wonders of anime very recently, so I'm still very new to the whole genre. However, in the past month I watched all of Attack on Titan, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and Sword Art Online...

 

 

send help.

[Hodor]

Is anybody here a fan of LoGH? I'm probably gonna go overboard for a bit and claim that it's the greatest space opera of all-time, but hey...what do I know?

I haven't seen much, but it's a phenomenal series- probably up there with Dune in terms of space operas.

[Blair the Cat]

The Soul Eater manga ending...

 

Nopenopenopenope I refuse to accept this.

[dotcom]

The Soul Eater manga ending...

 

Nopenopenopenope I refuse to accept this.

You know, I've seen a good number of people complain about the Soul Eater ending, but I don't really get it. The final chapter is admittedly way stupid, but it's not too far off the course for this series, and other than that I don't really see anything to be that angry about. Shrugs.

 

Further research has led me to conclude that SoreMachi is one of the greatest comedy anime I've seen, and I'm only on episode 3. Omigawa Chiaki has a fantastic voice and I wish she did more stuff.

[Blair the Cat]

It's not the dumb fanservice chapter that bugs me, it's what they did to beat Asura. It leaves too much hanging.

[dotcom]

I guess it is kind of unresolved since the fix was kind of temporary and possibly incomplete, but it never really bothered me. Shrugs

 

Then again I like to think that NOT! won't be the last thing we see of the Soul Eater franchise. A third manga is probably unrealistic, but I still hope it happens.

 

(The thing that bugged me most about the way SE ended is that I don't think we ever learned the name of the wolf witch lady. my priorities might be a little skewed)

[Toa Of Virtues]

Aaaaand just finished watching Soul Eater, just in time for this conversation, it seems. How different is it from the manga?

[Blair the Cat]

Aaaaand just finished watching Soul Eater, just in time for this conversation, it seems. How different is it from the manga?

 

I think the manga splits from the anime at the battle for brew, and just gets more depressing from there.

 

Also, what happened to 2003 Wrath in the FMA movie made me a whole lot more emotional than The Fault In Our Stars. (Unsurprisingly)

Edited July 1, 2014 by Grimdark Pony

[dotcom]

Aaaaand just finished watching Soul Eater, just in time for this conversation, it seems. How different is it from the manga?

Like GDP said, the anime stops following the manga more or less right after the BREW battle, and although some elements are kept for much of the arachnophobia arc, the overall conclusion to that is considerably different. All in all there's about 10 volumes the anime covered and 15 it didn't, the parts it did cover are remarkably accurate, after that the differences are extremely numerous. In general the manga goes more in depth about....well, everything really.

[Zidonaro]

Does someone here watch Gundam ? What you think about the new Reconguista in G ?

[Hodor]

G-Reco's in great hands; very little of Tomino's Gundam work is bad.

 

Anyway, watched the first episode of Sailor Moon Crystal on simucast. Was very, very bland. Art style looks weird with the Sailor Senshi- they don't look natural, while just about everyone else does. Scouts continue to look like a horrible mix of the artstyle of the original manga, and that to Revolutionary Girl Utena. Eyecatches had the same feeling as some of the art from Utena too, and were easily the best part of the show. Some of the cues- particularly the rose framing and the eyecatches and the ending title card- looked like the director was trying very, very hard to be Kunihiko Ikuhara at times, which doesn't bode well for this series since they're trying to avoid the shadow of the original anime.

 

The opening is typical J-pop, nothing memorable- music wasn't that good either, but there wasn't really enough in the episode to judge it. Animation liked to bounce between being choppy and a bit overly fluid, particularly noticeable whenever Usagi's hair moved around. Story-wise, they were dead on to the first chapter of the manga but if they were they did something incredibly wrong. It just didn't have much soul to it- characters felt like they were just going through the motions because that's how it was in the manga, rather than it feeling organic.

 

Really, it felt like a trailer.  Most of the cast had great performances- though whoever was playing Mamoru sounded a bit too old, but otherwise sounded identical to Tohru Furuya. Kotono Mitsuishi was just awful, sounding far too forced, which only added to how badly out of place Usagi felt. They really, really should've recasted her, if she sounds this badly in the rest of the series.

 

It's just kinda... there.  It lacks the charm that the original anime and manga already established in the first episode, and I just don't think it'd keep interest long enough with the current airing schedule outside of hardcore fans. Maybe it'll improve in a few episodes, like the live action series did? I'm not hating it that much, just feeling.... underwhelmed, especially since this was in the works for two years.

[Zidonaro]

G-Reco's in great hands; very little of Tomino's Gundam work is bad.

 

Anyway, watched the first episode of Sailor Moon Crystal on simucast. Was very, very bland. Art style looks weird with the Sailor Senshi- they don't look natural, while just about everyone else does. Scouts continue to look like a horrible mix of the artstyle of the original manga, and that to Revolutionary Girl Utena. Eyecatches had the same feeling as some of the art from Utena too, and were easily the best part of the show. Some of the cues- particularly the rose framing and the eyecatches and the ending title card- looked like the director was trying very, very hard to be Kunihiko Ikuhara at times, which doesn't bode well for this series since they're trying to avoid the shadow of the original anime.

 

The opening is typical J-pop, nothing memorable- music wasn't that good either, but there wasn't really enough in the episode to judge it. Animation liked to bounce between being choppy and a bit overly fluid, particularly noticeable whenever Usagi's hair moved around. Story-wise, they were dead on to the first chapter of the manga but if they were they did something incredibly wrong. It just didn't have much soul to it- characters felt like they were just going through the motions because that's how it was in the manga, rather than it feeling organic.

 

Really, it felt like a trailer.  Most of the cast had great performances- though whoever was playing Mamoru sounded a bit too old, but otherwise sounded identical to Tohru Furuya. Kotono Mitsuishi was just awful, sounding far too forced, which only added to how badly out of place Usagi felt. They really, really should've recasted her, if she sounds this badly in the rest of the series.

 

It's just kinda... there.  It lacks the charm that the original anime and manga already established in the first episode, and I just don't think it'd keep interest long enough with the current airing schedule outside of hardcore fans. Maybe it'll improve in a few episodes, like the live action series did? I'm not hating it that much, just feeling.... underwhelmed, especially since this was in the works for two years.

 

I fear people assume G-Reco will be bad because it's so different that people might think it's similiar to The Turn A Series, which did not received a very good reception in the beginning...

 

And about Sailor Moon, I didn't watch it yet, but I feared this would happen. What a shame 

[Toa Of Virtues]

I'm watching Death Note right now, and it's very good. It sort of reminds me of a book series I read when I was younger; Artemis Fowl.

[Terminus]

So after starting a good chunk of what I'll be following this season... I've gotta say, Sailor Moon is just my least favorite out of everything so far. Everything else I've seen so far looks like at least twice as much effort was put into it, which doesn't reflect well on all the production delays... Still, it's decent, if only because it has some pretty solid source material in the Sailor Moon manga, so I'm just hoping they stay close to the story.

 

Oh, and one more thing about Sailor Moon: WHY are the transformation sequences in 3DCG??? The only really good 3DCG I can think of in anime is Rebuild of Evangelion, and even then the quality fluctuated from passable to really good at times. Plus, having worked in animation, I know that 3DCG can be a fair bit easier to work with, so it just seems like some corner-cutting to me, which kinda sucks because it's on the most iconic part of the whole series.

 

Anyways, before I go any further, current rankings for this season:

 

1. Aldnoah.Zero

2. Sword Art Online II

3. Rail Wars

4. Glasslip

5. Sailor Moon Crystal

 

Aldnoah.Zero is easily my favorite from all the first episodes, it definitely smells of Urobuchi and set up the show pretty nicely. I would have liked a bit more in he character development department, but I'll hold off on judging that until a few episodes in. Kinda feels a bit like Code Geass combined with Fate/Zero from my initial impressions.

 

I'm generally just excited for the GGO arc of SAO, as an anime about an American Online FPS just seems interesting to me. The setup was interesting, even if it was almost entirely in the real world, but I get the feeling that the pacing will be a lot better than in SAO, which in itself is a big improvement.

 

I'm not really sure what to expect from Rail Wars other than that it fills my quota for at least one fanservicey-comedy-action-whatever show per season. And it does that job well.

 

Glasslip definitely feels like it'll need some time to get somewhere, but in the meantime we have pretty fireworks, lots of stills, and a jerky transfer student who I'm guessing is gonna be the male lead. Nothing really to complain about yet, although I'm kinda feeling this could go either way for me, as slice-of-life isn't exactly my thing, but I'll just wait and see.

[Infamousevil]

I am currently watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Kill La Kill on Crunchyroll.

[dotcom]

I haven't had the chance to watch much of anything for a while due to personal reasons, so I haven't started on any of the shows I'm watching this season except for Free! Eternal Summer. I'm really itching to start SAO2 and Space Dandy 2...

 

I did find out a couple of surprising things yesterday. One, that apparently a figma exists of Railgun's Kuroko and somehow i never knew because it was some exclusive thing bundled with the visual novel or something and for whatever reason GSC doesn't list those in their website. Welp

 

Second, apparently the Soul Eater Repeat Show had a second opening (which I did not expect since, as much as I wasn't a fan of it, the first one seemed to cover everything in the anime pretty adequately) So I watched it for the first time and wow. I like it a lot. Way more than I ever liked Papermoon. Doesn't quite match the tone as well, but it's very good. (The second ending was unremarkable, though) 

[Terminus]

So, I've started the (for now) final four shows I'll be following via simulcast this season: Fate/Kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei, Jinsei, Black Butler: Book of Circus, and Persona 4 the Golden Animation.

 

I'll start right off and say that you just shouldn't watch P4GA unless you've seen P4A or played P4/G. It glosses over all the important stuff (you know... everything), while offering a somewhat alternate take on scenes that were also in the original P4 Anime. I'm expecting this to really be minimal on actual P4 stuff, and instead focus on Marie/Adachi social links and Golden-exclusive events (the beach, concert, and ski resort events especially). I kinda get a feeling that this won't turn out so well...

 

Prisma Illya is pretty much more of the same so far, so I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy it. The transformation scene (which I'll just casually leave here) was easily my favorite part of the episode, and possibly the best thing in the series after last season's Archer Illya battle.

 

Jinsei is filling the high school comedy slot this season, and enjoyably enough so far, even if it really isn't anything memorable yet.

 

And Black Butler had a rather good episode, I've yet to see season 2 so I'm glad this picks up shortly before season 1's non-ending. It's been a while since I've seen Black Butler, and this episode reminded me how much of an awesome butler Sebastian is.

 

Also, I saw the second episode of Glasslip. It was a lot better then the first one, and it's leaning much more towards "I'll probably like it" now than it was last week.

 

Anyways, having completed the first Rosario + Vampire manga series, I decided to check out the first season of the anime, and I watched the entire thing over a few days. And... I'm really not sure how they managed to screw it up this bad. They managed to take a decent battle manga with average-ish levels of fanservice and a cool male lead, and up the fansevice by some insane amount, twist around the story, leave out the cool battles, and then make it so the main character never even gets his powers, which is kinda the most important part of the entire series after the midway point, and even earlier it's still rather important. So, yeah, the changes kinda make it not feel like Rosario + Vampire anymore, which really disappoints me. Hoping that it'll eventually get a good adaptation, but that's probably not going to happen.

[Kalopsia]

and instead focus on Marie/Adachi social links

 

Oh boy. I hope they adapt the accomplice ending.

[dotcom]

The way Gokukoku no Brynhildr ended....I did not like the way Gokukoku no Brynhildr ended. So much rushing....so much rushing.....I really hope the manga is better

 

I watched the specials for Free! (really funny) and for Usagi Drop. I missed Usagi Drop so much. It really is such a perfect series, and yet every time I watch it I just get so depressed....

 

I also watched the Noucome OVA and it was just. So much infinitely funnier than the entire anime was. They really cranked up the raunchiness up to eleven and it was so over the top it's almost hard to believe (not that the anime was particularly clean) but for this, it really worked. It's a really stupid anime to begin with, and its humor is extremely low-brow at the best of times, so at least they went the full way and got something really freaking crazy (but funny) in the process.

[Terminus]

Anyone know if Okamoto's art in the GNB manga is any better than in Elfen Lied? Because I tried to read Elfen Lied so I could continue from the anime, and I hated the art so much I couldn't make it past the first chapter. If it isn't, then I might just take my time waiting to watch GNB until I feel ready for a rushed ending.Might just wait for the DVD release.

 

Also, Aldnoah.Zero is still staying strong, although Inaho feels so terribly soulless to the point of feeling less like a character and more like a plot device. Kinda hoping Slaine gets more time in the spotlight, as he seems like he might be a much more interesting character.

[SarracenianKaijin]

Sailor Moon Crystal is pretty cool. Happiness charge Precure is finally catching up slightly.

 

Other than that I have no idea what is going on, other than the ever present question of "why is Sword Art Online a thing"

[dotcom]

el psy congroooooo

Okabe Rintarou is a surprisingly awesome figma. I just got him because I love love love the character, and I honestly wasn't expecting much from him as a figma, but he blew all my expectations out of the water, I think he might even be my favorite figma now? He's really great is what I'm saying. Many awesome extra parts (so many hands!) and he just looks so much like himself. Just great.

 

(i should probably finish Steins;Gate soon?)

[MyOwnCreator]

WACH SGT. FRAWG IZ FOONEH!!!!!

[Terminus]

I'm getting the feeling that SAO2 is pretty much the polar opposite of the first SAO, being about a shooter and with it now impossible for Kirito to be the male harem lead (at least in GGO). Also I think Sinon is already a far more interesting character than pretty much anyone in the first SAO, tbh. Only thing I'm sure will stay the same is the fact that Kirito will never lose. Even when using a sword in an FPS.

 

Anyways, Aldnoah is still my favorite this season, so far it's easily one of the best new shows I've seen in the past couple of years. Already psyched for next week's ep, as it looks like Slaine will (finally) join the fray. Also, more of that epic soundtrack, plus my favorite insert song so far is the new ED.

[dotcom]

They're making a new Digimon Adventure series in 2015. They're making a new Digimon and it will an Adventure sequel and it will be next year. New Digimon. Adventure. 2015. My brain is not currently ready to process this properly, but I'm excited and I hope it's great. 

 

I finally finished the 3 series I was watching. Hourou Musuko really did nothing for me (much like Aoi Hana before it) so I think maybe I don't like the anime adaptations of this mangaka's manga? I hope I like the manga as much as I did Aoi Hana's. 

 

I finished SoreMachi and...just. Wow. It was really a funny, charming, clever, quirky, great series. It's just a shame that it's so short, but I look forward to reading the manga. 

 

I finished Steins;Gate, and the ova, and the movie. It was a truly spectacular series. Not quite flawless, but close enough to get by, and the characters (particularly Okabe and The Zombie towards the end) were so great. I really really loved S;G. It's rare for a series to live up to the expectations set by overwhelmingly positive audience consensus, but Steins;Gate even surpassed them. 

 

I've also begun catching up on shows from this season. Free! Eternal Summer has been pretty decent so far. Dramatical Murder is pretty interesting, though the character design is pretty hit-and-miss. I'm mostly caught up with SAOII, and it's been pretty good so far. Definitely better than the first season in terms of pacing, and Sinon is definitely the most interesting character in the show right now. I still haven't had the chance to watch Space Dandy 2 or Tokyo Ghoul, unfortunately. 

[Terminus]

Steins;Gate is one of the only series, along with Gurren Lagann, Madoka, and maybe Evangelion, that I've seen that lived up to the hype, IMO. Everything else just falls short of expectations (Attack on Titan) or was a "You had to be there" thing (Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball).

Anyways, I'm still (slowly) working my way through the Steins:Gate Visual Novel, It's pretty good, but TBH I just don't like VNs on PC. I'd love it if the Vita port came over, as I enjoy VNs on that.

 

Anyways, I got Fate/stay night on DVD last week, finished it last night and rather enjoyed it. Zero was definitely better, but now I'm definitely looking forward to the new F/SN adaptation starting next season. Unlimted Blade Works as fleshed out as Fate/stay night and treated as a sequel to Zero? Yes please. Hoping that maybe after the new series Hollow Ataraxia gets an adaptation, as I don't see myself playing it unless the Vita version comes over.

[dotcom]

Wait, nevermind, I watched episodes 4 and 5 of SAOII, we're back to it being pretty terrible. Ah well.

 

Started catching up with season 2 of Space Dandy, and every episode I've seen has been just completely fantastic. The first season almost always left a little something to be desired, something that made me feel like they'd stopped just short of making a truly great episode, but these new episodes have been completely perfect. Definitely looking forward to more.

[Akuna Toa of Sonics]

I've already seen Gurren Lagann and watched the movies, but I'll probably watch it again when Toonami starts airing it. To be honest, I really thought they would've aired it sooner, but I guess it's better late than never.

[Terminus]

I'm hoping that Gurren Lagann on Toonami is a prelude to Kill la Kill on Toonami. It'd probably be an easy sell to people who enjoy Gurren Lagann (especially if they focus on the fact that KLK is made by the GL people), and the BDs will probably still be coming out by then.

And speaking of KLK BDs, it's been almost a month since Aniplex released the first one, and still no word on the second... I was hoping they'd be released two months apart, but now I'm doubting that'll happen...

And of course, they announced it today. October 21 is a little farther away than I was hoping, but at least the whole series will be released within a year at this rate.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Terminus

[dotcom]

Ok! After more than a month of being behind on everything, I'm pretty much caught up on everything I was interested in this season!

I'm watching seven shows in this season, which is a really high number considering the most I've done up to this point is one and a half.

Anyway, at the current point, I'd probably rank them like this:

 

1. Space Dandy Season 2

2. Tokyo Ghoul

3. Zankyou no Terror

4. Aldnoah.Zero

5. DRAMAtical Murder

6. Free! Eternal Summer

7. Sword Art Online II

 

Space Dandy started out strong and has continued to climb higher and higher with every episode. Episodes 4 and 7 are particularly good, but that might just be my love for comedic animated musicals talking. Even putting that aside, though, the art has been fantastic, the stories interesting and all in all it feels like a massive improvement from the last season. Really fantastic show.

 

Tokyo Ghoul is crazy interesting and I like the entire mood and style it's got to it. Most characters are really morally ambiguous, and I find myself having the most complex emotions about certain characters (Nishio and Tsukiyama come to mind...) The op and ed themes are fantastic, and the voice actors are great (Hanazawa Kana and Miyano Mamoru in particular have been superb) I'll definitely have to check out the manga before too long.

 

Zankyou no Terror is really really good. Definitely has a bit of a Death Note feel to it, and it's all around very very well executed. I would probably rank it a bit higher, but recent developments have taken the series in a bit more sci-fi anime route that I think doesn't fit it very well. Although not exactly realistic before, it was still grounded in reality, whereas these new developments and one character in particular push the suspension of disbelief a bit too far. I mean, Death Note had its share of ridiculous things going on, but seeing as how that series is based on a notebook that kills people, they kinda warned us. Here, it's a bit more conspicuous. Not to mention that the introduction of this third clearly antagonistic party takes away a lot of the moral ambiguity in the situation, as it kinda forces the main characters to show their true colors. It's still too early to really judge, however, and I hope it all ends up in an interesting conclusion.

 

Aldnoah.Zero can best be summed up by one simple meme: "Well, that escalated quickly." Indeed, quick escalation seems to be a very common thing in A.Z. It's gotten really intense and very, very interesting. I love the way the series is structured so far, and the fights are very enjoyable. I like the many varied enemies and the way the characters have to outsmart, not overpower, them. It's pretty great. I would rank it as my second favorite series this season, except for one thing....the only problem is...Inaho. Oh god, Inaho. Terminus really put it well when he called him a soulless character. Inaho is so dispassionate and uninteresting and perfect, I really couldn't care less for him if I tried. For that matter, I couldn't care any more about him if I tried. I have tried. It has not worked. And I said the characters had to outsmart their enemies, except, it's not characters plural, it's just Inaho, because he is perfect. God he is boring. I really can't stand him. I like Slaine way more, but he's been featured much less, and even recently that he's become more involved he's stuck dancing to Inaho's tune. Meh. (also the art style is pretty generic and the opening's visuals are terrible, but that's really minor)

 

DRAMAtical Murder is...intriguing, and it's developing well. The art style can get kinda lopsided sometimes, but it's cool, and the story's gotten to a really interesting point. Certainly is a lot less gay than I was expecting, which is a bit eh. (I hope Noiz's episode fixes that somewhat)

 

Free! Eternal Summer is there. By this point it's really just solidifying my opinions of the characters that I formed in the first season. Haru is ok, Nagisa is best character, Rei is a cool funny guy, and I really want to punch Mako in his stupid face. The new characters are alright. Momo is fun. The plot is predictable sports fiction fare, and it's getting really, really moe sometimes. I don't have much to say about Free!, honestly.

 

Sword Art Online II is just...bad. Really, really bad. Kirito continues to be a perfect Hero Guy, and his overplayed guilt only makes me roll my eyes in exasperation. That one nice guy is obviously the bad guy somehow, and it kinda bugs me a lot how little they've tried to not make it obvious. I don't know he's the bad guy, 100%, but I trust that SAO is predictable enough for me to say, with all certainty, that he is totally the bad guy. Also oh god Suguha. Please, please stop being creepy. I don't know what they're even trying to do here, honestly. Are they trying to make it seem like some sibling bonding? Because the fact that we know that she likes him and that he knows that she likes him only makes it all gross. So gross. Can't they just let us forget about the entire incesty thing last season? It's not too much to ask, I think.

 

Sinon is still an interesting character, IMO, though she's obviously going down the road of falling for Kirito, because he's the Big Hero Guy, and all the girls have to like him. It's kind of mandatory and very, very obnoxious. God I hate SAOII.

 

Anyway, that aside, I watched the third Attack on Titan OVA, which was pretty good. Nice character building for Jean and the group overall. Also season 2 is almost certainly going to happen next year, so that's pretty exciting.

 

Also finally watched the second Tiger and Bunny movie, and it was so good. I loved it a lot. Pretty much every single character got development and some cool chance to shine. The parts with Fire Emblem were particularly great. The story was simple and ultimately not that exciting or new, but it wasn't bad and it served as a decent basis for all the other cool stuff to happen. Like always, the animation was great, and the fight scenes fantastic. I also generally liked the redesigns, especially Dragon Kid's. Very good movie and great follow-up to the series.