Having not picked up anything from the Winter season, nor even watched more than half a dozen episodes of the one Autumn season show I was nominally following, I broke my drought by caving and watching the first part of Washio Sumi. Having read the LN around the time that YuYuYu was airing, the animated version took the rather sparse (and, in the fan translation, fairly directly rendered) prose and treated it as a rough working draft, embellishing it based on a couple of years' development of the setting.

Of course that's as much to do with the LN being very light on the descriptive text, leaving a fairly blank canvas for the anime to fill in, from the ritual defences on the Great Seto Bridge to the wounds we see the girls bear -- this is not the Year 300 Hero System with fairies to take the bullet. The lack of previous detail also lets them embellish the weapons the girls wield -- Sonocchi's spear is not just a boring polearm, and Gin's axes are even more awesome.

Being what will eventually become two TV episodes, of course we get two henshin sequences (one full, one cut-down); Sonocchi's is just unlike any that I have seen before, Gin does the Ultraman pose during hers, and I would advise chaz to skip the first in each set for the same reason as previously expressed. Dammit, Studio Gokumi, Sumi's only just turned twelve.

The varied response to Scum's Wish has got me interested in giving it a try. Does the anime actually have an ending or is it one of those ongoing series? My life is so busy at the moment that when it comes to anime - short of Little Witch Academia which continues to be an absolute pleasure - I'll only watch shorter shows that don't last longer than 14 or 15 episodes.
But it sounds interesting for sure!

Gendo'sPapa wrote:The varied response to Scum's Wish has got me interested in giving it a try. Does the anime actually have an ending or is it one of those ongoing series? My life is so busy at the moment that when it comes to anime - short of Little Witch Academia which continues to be an absolute pleasure - I'll only watch shorter shows that don't last longer than 14 or 15 episodes.
But it sounds interesting for sure!

I believe the last episode airs today

Gendo'sPapa: Same ending as the manga, if /a/ isn't lying. Either way, there's no sequel bait or "buy the manga!" nonsense. The anime ending concludes the story. Whether you enjoy is another matter entirely.

Scum's Wish [end]: Holy fucking shit, that's about the most grownup ending to a love story I've ever seen. And goddamn, I'm not even being hyperbolic there.



This looked like it was going to be a train wreck, but it wound up being one of most relationship-positive shows I've ever seen. The last few episodes turn this show into a must see, since they take the train wreck momentum and transfer it to something completely different (and absolutely amazing). My recommendation has gone from qualified to heartfelt, and if you dropped it midway through I'd say it's worth your time to persevere and finish it. The novelty alone makes it worth it.

Bagheera, I'll take your last post - aside from what's in the spoiler tag cause I ain't gonna read it - as confirmation I need to see Scum's Wish. Guess I'll have to set aside a couple hours when I get the chance. Thanks!

Bagheera wrote:Scum's Wish [end]: Holy fucking shit, that's about the most grownup ending to a love story I've ever seen. And goddamn, I'm not even being hyperbolic there.

SPOILER: Show

Hey, we can't get our true loves, so let's be fuck buddies! Great, let's do that! Okay, we should at least try to get our true loves, and if that doesn't work out we can go back to being fuck buddies, right? Sure! Well damn, we both crashed and burned. Yeah, that really sucks. Hey, y'know, I'm really glad I met you and all, and I think you're a swell person, but how about we don't settle? How about we keep looking for someone we can actually love? Okay, I'm with you. Let's do that. Let's keep trying!

This looked like it was going to be a train wreck, but it wound up being one of most relationship-positive shows I've ever seen. The last few episodes turn this show into a must see, since they take the train wreck momentum and transfer it to something completely different (and absolutely amazing). My recommendation has gone from qualified to heartfelt, and if you dropped it midway through I'd say it's worth your time to persevere and finish it. The novelty along makes it worth it.

Cosigned. This show was absolutely brilliant. I went into it with similar expectations to you, expecting it to take the easy/obvious pain-train path, and it just kept surprising me. It was an easy favorite for me in a season with several great shows, and it's a shame that Amazon's double paywall seems to have kept a lot of people from seeing it.

I have in my over 15 year history of watching hentai seen a lot but until today, I have never seen the tragic void that is left on a poor soul when all hope for some semblance of happily ever after is stripped away. I refer to the 2 episode OVA called The Big Boob Lady Who Was Impregnated By A Delinquent. No other hentai title before it left me feeling mad that a fucked up incest relationship didn't stand the test of time. Even FUBAR titles like Bible Black and Prison Battleship have a bit of satisfaction in the sense of "evil got somewhat punished but still gets a prime piece of heaven" every now and then. This show had none of that. I wouldn't even recommend it on my worst enemy since even they would be on their knees begging for mercy too easily and my revenge would have to consist of something like Masamune-kun but more effective and drawn out.

Mobile Suit Gundam - Iron-blooded Orphans. I've enjoyed this show throughout (disclaimer - the only Gundam properties I've seen before it are the first film trilogy and War in the Pocket), and although I thought as we approached the end that it could become a slight train-wreck was happy to find that the ending was more smoothly done and satisfying than I had expected. Also my predictions made a couple of weeks ago were all spot-on. I can't say where it stands in the scene of Gundam-related things, though.

Now looking forward to the return of The Eccentric Family, S2. Not a little nervous over whether it can match up to the original, of course!

IBO was great. I think the first season had a lot more depth to it (and simultaneously had more to say), but the second absolutely delivered. I thought the ending fizzled in a couple of ways, particularly wrt McGillis, but the ultimate resolution was so damn satisfying that I forgive the show for pretty much everything that came before. It was well worth the watch, and I'll miss it when it's gone.

Been into Attack on Titan, just caught the second season premiere.
Got through the first half of Sword Art Online until the second half pissed me off enough, story-wise, to lost interest.
In the middle of the 2nd season of Tokyo Ghoul.
Re-watching Gundam Wing (I just discovered Crunchy Roll ).

G Gundam has passed the 3-episode test as a candidate for some Saturday morning cartoon watching, helped, I feel, by being Gundam in name only, so far, and much more like a magical girl boy series, what with the henshin scenes and all.

And thinking of magical girl boy series, the first episode of Magical Girl Raising Project seemed reasonably harmless, so I may take that as a back-up feature.

Meanwhile, having expected ClassicaLoid to be a 1-cour series, it turns out to have run two seasons, with more to come in the autumn, so that's well backlogged now...

Little Witch Academia is starting to heat up and grow an overarching plot within the last few episodes. It's probably going to be my favourite weekly show now that Konosuba's wrapped up again.

Having started to read the translations of Legend of the Galactic Heroes that had built up on my to-be-read stack last year, I've also begun a third pass at watching the series, after having gotten distracted in the mid-teens of episodes on previous goes. Let's see how it goes this time.

And three episodes in, Minami Kamakura Girls' Highschool Cycling Club is being a fairly decent "cute cycling girls doing cute cycling things" B-feature title, even if it flew completely under the radar while it was airing. And you know you've watched too much anime when you start to recognise pieces of Japanese scenery -- major landmarks like Mt Fuji, the (Neo-)Tokyo Tower and such excluded -- from earlier titles you've seen (this one being set one town along from Tsuritama).

A new season is here, so lets talk about last season:

Konosuba and Rakugo: I talked about these some time ago and I have nothing to add. Just watch them!

3-Gatsu no Lion: Drama show about a kid that plays Shogi. The interesting visual direction and good OST elevate this one above its competitors, although the pacing can feel glacial at times. A good show to watch in small chunks at the end of the day.

Lesbian Dragons: Watch as a silly comedy/fanservice shows attempts to have emotional moments and fails spectacularly. Had Kyonai been honest and just kept to the shows strengths this might have been better.
Although it's strengths aren't that strong anyway. Liked a joke? Well you better get used to it then, because you're going to see it 20 more times. Like characters with depth? They don't have any.
The popularity this show has baffles me, and I'm not talking about the people that like the fanservice, those I understand, its the ones that think this shows as anything else going for it that confound me.
But, initial harshness aside, there are a couple good things to be found: the animation is great and the backgrounds are the traditional kind that you don't see often anymore. Also, I want to have sex with the dragon loli.
Watch at your own risk.


ACCA: A show so relaxed and chill doesn't come very often. Solid animation, pretty backgrounds(courtesy of Pablo) and a groovy ost were enough to sell me this show. But there are other positives: the main cast has rather unique personalities that lend themselves well to the story being developed and, despite the general relaxed pce, the show manages to trow some twists at you near the climax.
A nice change of pace.

Youjo Senki: An sociophatic atheist gets turned into a loli by SOUNZAI EXU, sent into a mashup of WWI and WWII with magic and must now fight SOUNZAI EXU has he sends increasingly ridiculous bullshit at him. This along with some nice animation, make it a solid action show.

Kuzu no Honkai: Sensei is best girl.

---

And that's it. Oh god, the new season looks like crap, what am I going to do to waste my time now?

Justacrazyguy wrote:Rakugo

I can't get over how really wonderful season 2 was, two weeks on. I rewatched the first season the week after Christmas, which was pretty cool because I realized how big Bon's first performance of Shinigami was, so it was really nice to see it used throughout the second season. I really hope the entire series gets a nice blu ray release, but I'm not sure how likely that is since the series is impossible to dub.

Justacrazyguy wrote:3-Gatsu no Lion

My main problem when referring to an anime; do we call it 3-Gatsu no Lion or March Comes in Like a Lion??? Shit like this keeps me up at night
I really liked this one, but yea, it did drag. I really got down with the final third though, and can't wait for the second season.

Justacrazyguy wrote:The popularity this show has baffles me

After watching FMA: Brotherhood and Steins;Gate no shows popularity can ever baffle me again. I was almost baffled to death by those two, so like in DBZ I'm now invincible to it. (I was almost baffled pretty hard early on in my anime fandom as well, when I realized there are some sick, twisted people in this world who don't consider NGE the best. Animmay. EVERRRRRRRRRR.) So when I finally watch Your Name and see what that's all about I won't have a heart attack and die(hopefully).

I didn't watch old Dragon Maid since it's not really in my wheel house, so unfortunately I can't hate on it.

pwhodges wrote:Mobile Suit Gundam - Iron-blooded Orphans

I watched this though. It was awesome. Nice and brutal, just how I like it.

Justacrazyguy wrote: Oh god, the new season looks like crap, what am I going to do to waste my time now?

Every season sucks dude. That's why I make it a point to not watch anime, and instead spend my free time meeting new people and doing new things! Except last season because it had the dragon maid show and the season before that because it had the show with the fat ice skater.

....................
I would say I watched Attack on Titan S2 E1, and that I really liked it, but I don't know if I should call it Attack on Titan or Shingeki no Kyojin, so I won't. I'm working my way through the manga now though, and I have yet to finish volume 7, so I'm not sure if I'll keep watching this one weekly until I catch up or not. Also, the new OP is cooooool.

Sakura Quest ep. 1 was pretty cool too,(I really love the character designs) though the m night shamaylan twist ending was a tad corny. Honestly, how is her memory that crappy?

I also watched episode 1 of Tsukigakirei, since I've been pretty into the romantic stuff as of late, but I was pretty tired when I watched it and it almost put me to sleep. It was alright though, I guess. Maybe I'll drop it in a couple weeks!

Excited for Eccentric Family 2 tomorrow as well.

As for the older stuff, I watched Ghost Hound recently and really loved it, even if a few parts of it went over my stupid head, but I figured that would happen based on its writer. I'd say I'd put this one above Texhnolyze, but a bit below Lain.

Working my way through Big Windup now, since my local baseball team is crap this year and I need my spirits on the sport lifted. There was a lot of crying in the first three episodes which almost got me to jump out my window, but once the kids started playing baseball I was pretty alright with the series. Will they make it all the way to Koshien?(Probably)

Mr. Tines wrote:Magical Girl Raising Project seemed reasonably harmless

No mention of MGRP in your latest post. Dropped for being too harmless?

Justacrazyguy wrote:Lesbian Dragons
1) silly fanservice show
2) Also, I want to have sex with the dragon loli.

1) Besides the occasional appearance of Quetzalcoatl, did this really have much fan-service to speak of?
2) …Damn furry.
I’m sure Kanna will be on everybody’s “my animay* daughter” list for a while.
I’ll miss singing along to the OP. “Jew-jew-You! Mean-Gene!”

*Mind if I play along with you, Joy Evangelion?

Finished Plastic Memories. Bit of romance and comedy here, tragedy there, sprinkled with themes of mortality and acceptance of. 13 episodes with a solid, no-melodrama ending. Good show.

Sampled a few first episodes of the new season:

Love Tyrant. A troublemaker angel abuses the power of a death-note parody book that ships (rather than kills) its victims, hijinks ensue. Utterly ridiculous premise, but the hyperactive, don’t-take-this-seriously-for-a-second presentation and execution make it work… maybe.
Might make for some half-amusing background noise during exercises.

Alice & Zoroku. Oy, this is a prime example of how not to start a show.
45 minutes of lousy action, cheap CG and unnatural human behaviour.
Was nobody in production paying attention to the background during this scene?:



The car is supposed to be stationary, by the way.
I’ll give this a chance to pass the Tines test yet; the main character is an elderly chap, which has my interest, for the novelty alone.

What is wrong with you people?

Dragon Maid: Lesbian romance, cute kid, decent gags, and best OP in forever.

Alice and Zoroko: Old guy regularly lambasts tyke murder bombs and they shut up and take it. All the cheap CG in the world can't offset the sheer awesomeness of those scenes.

In other news:

Berserk: Yup, still awesome. And yes, that's because of the CG and the clanging sword, deal with it!!!

Re:Creators: This is better than it has any right to be, and OMG I want a Elemental Symphony of Vogelchevalier anime and I want it now, now now, goddamnit!!! The mech design, music, and MC for that show are fucking fantastic. She casually caught a sword that was flung and her, and at that point I was in love.

Seikaisuru Kado: 'Kay, I'm in.

Tsukigakirei: Stock romance with Grimgar aesthetics? Sure. Romance looks pretty solid, too.

Sakurada Reset: Neat concept, impossibly bland characters. Pass.

Sakura Quest: Well, that's your MC of the season. Can't go wrong with this one.

Attack on Titan: This will be an entertaining train wreck. Mercifully short, too!

Still waiting on Eccentric Family. Should be a good season.

> What is wrong with you people?

What did he mean by this?

chazthesilencer wrote:No mention of MGRP in your latest post. Dropped for being too harmless?

On hold for the moment (two episodes in, so not really at any point for an update), for not being as cute as the cycling girls.

Berserk has started up again, and I 'm cautiously optimistic. The first 2 new episodes weren't bad- I quite liked them, to be honest. I feel like they're trying to bite off more than they can chew by trying to replicate the manga with the rather controversial 3D style, but we'll see how it goes.