What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2014

[pwhodges]

While I'm in this thread, I'm now 3/4 of the way through X. It's curious; I've seen it praised for the strength of character development rather than plot. Well, that's kinda right - but what's happening is that there are really strong episodes about characters which it's hard to criticise, but an increasing sense of the whole adding up to less than the sum of the parts. A particular irritation is the way that the antagonists keep pulling their punches. Sure, often enough you wonder why the baddies didn't just take out the goodies when they had the chance - but usually there's at least an attempt to justify this; here, however, the baddie has the goodie on the ground under his weapon, and then just turns round and walks away. There may be some covering comment, but it starts to feel unsatisfying. This happened in spades in the last episode I watched; and yet the whole episode felt really powerful because of the way the goodie responded to what was going on, even while losing.

[StarShaper7]

The X/1999 movie threw aside character development and condensed the whole story into a 100-minute-long apocalyptic tragedy. I liked it, but for different reasons from why I liked the TV show. Both have flaws. X TV had too many episodes so some of it just feels like excess that the show would have benefitted from removing. The movie didn't care about any of the characters (thus losing the emotional investment fo the supporting cast that were developed so extensively in the TV series) aside from Kamui and his best bro-turned-antagonist, but makes up for it in spectacle (don't think that really makes up for the lack for most people, but it does for me). Most people prefer the TV series over the movie to a great degree. I like them about the same, while having a slight preference for the TV series. I love the movie's ending though.

[pwhodges]

I have no plans to watch the movie, based on everything I've read about it.

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Anyway, now I've finished X, the series. The resolution worked kinda well, but the pacing of the story leading up to it was just all wrong. The greater focus on character building than most anime has was all to the good, in itself, but the balance between characters and plot just got pushed too far the other way. Overall, I enjoyed the show, and I would suggest considering giving it a go. But I would be hard put to it to give it a single overall score - so I won't try.

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Next up, Monster. Bear with me - I may be some time...

[robersora]

^
I really enjoyed the X TV-series. I wonder, if Clamp will ever get around finishing it...
(Secretly I'm hoping for a good adaption of xxxholic. Man, I love xxxholic)

Paul, have fun with Monster.

[Bagheera]

Anyway, I'm just saying what I felt watching the show. If you're enjoying it, that's great! By the way, be sure to post what you think when you finish watching it, I'm curious to what you'll think about it then.

Finished it. The problem isn't Kousei; the treatment of his mom was silly, no doubt, but that was a minor thread in the show. The real problem was Kaori: she was introduced as a main character, and relegated to a plot device (AKA a Manic Pixie Dream Girl) midway through. That kinda sucked. I mean, the last time she was on stage was in freakin' ep 4! After that, she spent all her time in a freakin' hospital room. Lame.

Show underperformed. Tsubaki had a decent arc, but she was the only one. Disappointing.

[Gus Hanson]

Cross Ange final episode

Satisfactory ending with a special treat for Sailor Moon and Evangelion fans concerning Aura's seiyuu.

[Bagheera]

Cross Ange final episode

Satisfactory ending with a special treat for Sailor Moon and Evangelion fans concerning Aura's seiyuu.

I'm satisfied. Looks like Ange threw Hilda a bone if that final montage is any indication. And she got her cafe!

[Fireball]

Kantai Collection

This series was kind of uh but not shit enough to actually hate it. The drama bits were cringeworthy and the combat made no sense. Shows like GuP, Strike Witches, Arpeggio all just treated their world setting much better. The episodes I digged were the lighthearted ones with the Kongou sisters and the curry contest.

I'm surprised they actually announced a second season. The game is super popular but even the Japanese don't want more of the anime. Maybe it will get better, I doubt it.


Cross Ange

fuck, Jill is kill. I'm happy that Salia survived though. Same for Vivi, this was the first time her voice actor outlived her role under Fukuda too.

All things considered this could have been way worse. This is probably the best ending you could ask for from such a show. I just wish Ange would have done more in the second half instead of being relegated to the damsel in distress. Whatever, I went into this with zero expectations and I don't regret watching at all. Good ride, I will miss the weekly shitstorms.

Cross Sylvia spin-off when?

[Trajan]

Watching Attack on Titan, only this time it's on a big screen with nice high-definition picture quality. Got through the first five episodes and will try to watch the next five next weekend.

[robersora]

^
It's really fun entertainment, sometimes the pacing feels like DBZs finest power charging moments though.

_________________________



Here are my thoughts on Winter 2015. I've watched a staggering amount of shows this year, but meh, social life is overrated anyways. Spoilers are there mainly due to pictures - but if you're really sensitive you might pick up one minor spoiler.

Durarara x2 a.k.a. Salvaged from chaos by some dear old friends.

SPOILER: Show

Altough the first season wasn’t perfect by any means; I was really stoked for this sequel, it was like meeting old friends again. And while it treated those characters not too shabby and provoked quite a few laughs, sadly, overall this season of Durarara was simply not very good. They had a lot of ground to cover, for sure, but I don’t think this should have been a problem, since the frantic nature is one of the main draws to DRRR, at least for me. I’m not really sure, where they went wrong as well… Somehow I had a really hard time caring about what was going on since everything felt inconsequential, albeit some potentially high-tension moments.



So basically a diminished form of the problems Gundam G Reco plagued.

There were some moments where the magic from the first season shined through though (and season one already worked with a diluted version of the Baccano-magic, mind you). This was mostly thanks to some great characters. They tried to play a similar trick from Episode twelve of the original series, but I didn’t even notice it, until I read a writeup over on ANN. It's really, really not good, when the main twist flies over your head, due to poor execution. But the cliffhanger was sufficient enough to lead me onto the ride for the next batch of Episodes due in summer.
Recommended for: Avid fans of the first season

_______________________________________

Night on the Galactic Railroad a.k.a capturing imagination

SPOILER: Show

For everyone who likes movies to gently be guided into a magnificent dreamland, this is it. Despite its age, the visuals stand firm, altough I admit I'd love to see an update with the current expertise in animation. This is one of the most beautiful movies I've seen a while, so it really saddens me, that hardly anyone seems to talk about it. This was one of the biggest inspirations for Galaxy Express 999 after all. It really leaves room for some interpretations, though it closes off quite neatly, and it stirs you into the right direction.
Funnily enough this was made at studio Bee Train, a studio infamous for slow series. They pulled this style of slow pacing off pretty well with Noir, no doubt, but this movie mastered it way before.


Oh yeah, most people depicted as cats. Don't worry, it's not just a gimmick.

After that I've watched the brilliantly surreal autobiography of the original author of the Galactic Railroad. Spring and Chaos which was directed by none other than Shoji Kawamori. And it shows. I recommend watching this, after you've familiar with the basic outline of Kenji Miyazawa's life and after you've watched the Galactic Railroad. Sadly, I was unable to find a version of decent quality for both of those titles, but oh well.

_____________________


Death Billiards a.k.a. Madhouse the Powerhouse

SPOILER: Show

Superficially speaking this show is very enjoyable and entertaining; the animation and art design was just breathtakingly beautiful. And there’s this one piece of piano music that just is my jam.


It grabbed my soft-spot for pretty pictures and wistful music and stroked it gently.


The series was at it strongest when it played its judging games, but I guess they thought they couldn’t fill 12 Episodes with good stand alone content. So they decided to incorporate an overarching story, which was not bad, but ultimately failed due to sometimes over the top execution and a little bit of drawn out content. The ice skating scene really caught me off guard though as it is one of the most beautiful realised scenes, I’ve had the pleasure to watch in any medium this year. Aside from this scene I think that, If they had subdued the dramatic scenes just by one notch, they would have engaged me more, I guess. They tried really hard to shove the feels up my ass, and while anal penetration has its merits, I’m not big into rape scenarios.


This is Bar of maximum style, what can we serve you? Substance? We have a little bit of that as well!

I guess this series would have been stronger overall if they would just have focused on strong episodic outlets. If they employed the writer of Mushi-shi or the guy from Kino’s Journey, these people would have played their magic and this series would drop my panties faster than a real life Kaworu. As it stands, this series was very good, but not perfect.
Still, I recommend this for anyone who likes being entertained with a little bit of depth.

_______________________


This is it for now; go watch Night on the Galactic Railroad if your a hipster dreamer, like I am; or Death Billiards if you want some bling-bling entertainment with and edge in the meantime.

[Justacrazyguy]

As it stands, this series was very good, but not perfect.

Yeah, that is a good description of Death Parade.

Garo really surprised me. My initial impression of it was that it was going to shape into a mediocre action anime, but I'm glad to have proved wrong. The plot is nothing special or original but the charming characters combined with great execution of key moments(episode 13 in particular is fantastic) makes this a good choice for anyone looking for a good action anime. Be warned though, there is CGI in abundance and aside for some key fighting scenes with great animation, all that saves the battles is good choreography.

Yuri Kuma Arashi: That's it? That's the ending? It's not bad, but I expected much better from the man that made Utena. Maybe it's the lenght, how could I connect with the characters in such a short time span? Or maybe, it's just not that good? What do you guys think?

---

Well, this season was pretty good for me overall, there were some very bad shows(the usual harem rubish) and some disapointing ones(Durarara, Rolling Girls) but there were many that I enjoyed(Maria The Virgin Witch, Garo, Death Parade, Yoro no Yatterman) that make up for those weaker shows.
Well, lets see what the next season brings!

[Dr. Nick]

Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohko OVAs: While Sekai might be the flavor of the month, it's good to remember there are far bigger Sues out there. Yohko's hax levels make so little sense that the TV version wisely uses the good old Total Recall / Space Adventure Cobra gimmick to explain how a Japanese schoolgirl can be an instant master of space warfare. It still doesn't explain how she's super athletic despite being a constantly snacking, videogame-loving slacker, but I'm going to assume it's due to nanomachines or something.

Guardian Hearts: This is a bottom-of-the-barrel ecchi OVA that doesn't even have the decency to be based on a fappan game, but it's strangely made near-watchable by the fact that the quality of the fansub matches the quality of the anime. Truly, the early oughties were the golden age of fansubbing.

[Compiling_Autumn]

Finished watching Yuri Kuma Arashi today, and I have to agree that it's just not good. Too much time spent on the boring romance plot, too predictable, and nothing really interesting to say.

[IronEvangelion]

Recently started watching Senran Kagura. Currently on episode 4.

Possibly NSFW image here (no nudity):

SPOILER: Show

I'm liking Katsuragi the most so far. Hopefully the dark shinobi will get more screen time later on.

[robersora]

Finished watching Yuri Kuma Arashi today, and I have to agree that it's just not good. Too much time spent on the boring romance plot, too predictable, and nothing really interesting to say.

Shabadadoo~~

Yuri Kuma Arashi: That's it? That's the ending? It's not bad, but I expected much better from the man that made Utena. Maybe it's the lenght, how could I connect with the characters in such a short time span? Or maybe, it's just not that good? What do you guys think?

Never back down on love. ♥


After the tremendous interest and raving discussion my thoughts on the Anime Winter 2015 have received here, I just can't stop. Here are my thoughts for the other two series I've watched this season.

Lesbian Bear Storm a.k.a. Turn it up to 11, Iku-chan

SPOILER: Show

deep allegorical meanings


Ikuhara had a different approach this time. In Utena the complexity and insanity gradually enfolds, in Mawaru Penguindrum there’s a constant to and fro of complexity and straight narrative. In Yuri Kuma at the beginning, nothing makes sense on a narrative level as he presents his themes in a direct manner, but as in every good mystery show, everything comes together in the end beautifully.
Ikuhara is still Ikuhara. Only he can fuse highly enjoyable batshit insane with over the top camp while still being able to somehow put in so much subtext that one can dissect the show and get more out of it than just an entertaining watch. That being said, I think I can only appreciate all of YKAs glory after a second way through as it was the case with Mawaru Penguindrum, in which I really fell in love with upon a second watch. So I hope Yuri Kuma Arashi holds up as well as well.
The overall theme seems to be, that love can cross all borders, even the biggest enemy of love, society can be conquered. What a nice message. Even the the Wall of Severance cannot keep Lesbian Bears apart.
There’s a fantastic write-up going on over at ANN, for everybody who wants some thought-provoking impulses on all the stuff going on in this show.
There is so much going, and I think everybody should come to one’s own conclusions. Best case scenario, you garner some poignant profound insights for life; worst case scenario, you have a wicked good time with a crazy storyline.


:3

That being said, this show is a sentiment, that one can make a show on a string-thin budged and still allow it to look beautiful and not cheap. While the animation cuts corners on every turn, Ikuhara knows how to circumvent this issue like few others. (Shinbo and Anno come to mind as well). He once again uses stock footage to generate a formula in the beginning of the series, not only to spare money, but also to give the viewer much needed footing in this hurricane of ideas. Then he breaks the formula to generate an effect of „damn, shit is hitting the fan now“. I also love how the selection process is portrayed as a faux democratic process in an ultra-stylish manner.

Verdict:Ikuhara once again serves us a delicious meal of what animation is capable of in terms of story telling that no other medium can offer. He is one of the visionaries of today’s anime world, and Yuri Kuma Arashi is another strong outing of his.


Parasyte a.k.a. Metamodernism, a playground.

SPOILER: Show

I’m going to try a metamodern approach on this review. I’m going to illustrate my biggest problem with this show in my writing. I’m going to spell everything out repeatedly.


Me, watching the show.

Parasyte had all the ingredients to be an excellent show, and at times, it was. But overall, it sadly crumbled over its urge to spell everything out. This is what I call the Shonen-show-problem and this is a type of story-telling I cannot stand, because the show makes out the viewer to be dumb. And I hate being treated dumber than I am.
I dislike when things that could easily be conveyed in a subtle manner, are told explicitly. I roll my eyes, whenever a show tells me about its themes. I cannot stand it, when a show tells me what is happening on screen. And I detest it, when a show breaks the flow of action sequences constantly, only to tell me what is going on, or, even worse, tell me what is happening instead of showing it. Parasyte sometimes degraded to DBZ-power-charging levels in its action sequences.


Never has a forced smile been nailed better.

Parasyte also felt the need to state some moral dilemmas over and over again. Instead of just letting the subtext speak for itself, the show told us what we are supposed to think about at this particular moment. Instead of focusing on delivering a good, thrilling narrative with a lot of subtext one CAN think about but doesn’t need to, Parasyte killed all its interesting subtext (and the show itself subsequently) through sheer rambling on about them. Also, many action scenes were dragged down due to the need to break the flow to explain what’s happening. This was especially aggravating for me, because those problems were not that present at the beginning, but appeared more and more, up until the last Episode which was just talking about moral dilemmas. And it’s not an interesting talk (like in EoTV), no, it’s spelling out everything what was told beforehand once again, in case of anyone might have missed it the other four times.


Go watch them, instead.

The biggest offence of Parasyte was, that it sold itself as a different show as it ended up being. At times it was thought provoking edgy entertainment (especially in the beginning), other times it was boring, and sometimes it was pure trashy entertainment. The problem is, I checked in for thought provoking edgy entertainment and not trash. *sadface*


my sadface

The female cast was really expendable, but from what I’ve read this was a problem of the adaption.
The animation was beautiful at times, a few fight scenes were really brought to life whenever Madhouse decided to play its magic (again, happened much more frequently in the first quarter). On other occasions I felt as if I was watching a particularly drawn out Episode of some Shonen. The music was pretty hated by some people, but I did not take offence on it. Some scenes which were handled well overall, did not fall apart due to the choice of music.The sloppier executed scenes were enhanced to elevate them to trash level, so I could at least laugh my ass off.

As it stands, Parasyte was not bad, I’m just bummed that it could have been much better with a script of its own and not the Manga as storyboard.

Verdict: I hope HunterXHunter fares better

[Redtophat]

I can't stop rewatching this, S2 is gonna be hype: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PY9qcyr3-0

[Shinoyami65]

^Ermagerd, can't wait~

Right on time for me to resume my Skyrim walkthrough with all those F/SN mods I got, too.

[robersora]

Blood Blockade Battlefront
They tried to emulate Baccano! and spice it up with Kill la Kill. It emerged as a clusterfuck. The biggest problem here is not even the messy script, but that all the characters go about the first Episode talking exposition and spatting lazily recycled one liners. It tries hard to be stylish, but without strong characterisation or a feel for energising action there is hardly anything there to back it up. Gorgeous animation, though.

[Stan]

Just finished watching all the Kara no Kyokai movies. I must admit that I am very confused. The movies are animated beautifully and have a fantastic soundtrack, but the plot is a mess (the way it's presented anyway). The movies are not in chronological order, but even after watching all of them, the events that transpired still did not make a whole lot of sense. But at least the 7th movie + epilogue + movie number 8 are done well enough to provide closure. So if you want a beautifully animated, bloody movie with a ton of mindfuck in there -- then this is for you.

also beware of some very graphic scenes and animated rape

[Giji Shinka]

Nagato Yuki-chan no shoushitsu Ep. 1
I'll never get used to shy Yuki.