The season is almost over, so here are my thoughts on the shows that have already finished.
Aho Girl: There's a girl that is really dumb, nonsense follows. That's it, the entire show, and it's great. I think it's the actors performance that really sells it. Many of the jokes aren't really funny by themselves, but with the over the top performances and hilarious reaction faces they become fantastic.
I should mention the OP, that changes with every episode and is basically its own contained joke. The anime is only a little over ten minutes a episode, so they use every second they've got.
A great show, but you have to like it's particular type of comedy for it to work.
Re:Creators: Fictional characters enter the real world. Quite possibly one of the strongest premises of its season and yet, the actual show doesn't live up to it.
This isn't to say that it is a bad show, but it could have been so much more. Despite the 22 episodes it has, it doesn't feel enough to really develop the large cast they introduce. The big actions scenes only occasional get the animation quality they deserve . The cinematography is fine, but bland most of the time. The characters that get brought from fictional worlds aren't varied enough(although I understand that if, say, Punpun was summoned, things would be very different). You get the point. The show has problems.
But ignoring that for a moment...The soundtrack is good, the composer just keeps repeating the same soundtrack he did for Kill la Kill, but I liked that soundtrack, so its fine. The climax and epilogue are well delivered and make up for the slow episodes at the beginning. The character dynamics are a joy to watch.
So yeah, all in all, a good anime, just one that couldn't really excel.
Kakegurui: Pretty girls get wet from gambling and make funny faces: The animation.
The gambling isn't really the focus, surprisingly, it's the reactions. This isn't like that show with really big noses.
So, stating that, can the show deliver on those pretty girls making crazy faces? Yeah, sort of, most of the time the animation keeps up, with the notable exception of scenes were cards are placed or flipped and other similar scenes. In these cases, CG is used. Because animating hands is hard, I guess.
The actual drama is really dull. The protagonist is a wild girl that likes gambling and she must face off against equally wild opponents! Her sidekick is a male(self insert, kinda?) that reacts to all the madness around him with the typical reactions every time: "What are you doing MC? Why are you making wild gambles that are consistent with your motivations? Why am I still reacting in the exact same way despite having seen your insane actions multiple times?"
Yeah, I've seen all this before
One final mention to the soundtrack and OP, the latter a wild, jazzy song that might be the best part of this anime and the former a surprisingly distorted and garbled madness in some tracks, witch does much to bring mood to otherwise flat scenes.
A slightly above average experience that I can't really recommend.
Sakura Quest: Shirobako in a small Japanese town. Seriously, its almost the same. It's an enjoyable show, nothing particularly great, like Shirobako before it.
Really, the only reason people throw wild praise at Shirobako is because it's about anime. Looking past that both it and Sakura Quest are just enjoyable SoLs.
Tenshi no 3P!: Lolis that play rock. The memes are coming true.
Seriously though, it's a show about lolis, you know why people watch it.
And you know, as far as these kind of shows go, it was a good time, better at the first episodes.
Princess Principal: A spy show with cute girls in a SteamPunk London.(Why do people really like this style? SteamPunk, I mean, I don't dislike it, but the love it gets is something I don't understand)
A mostly episodic anime about spies doing spy things. Despite the cuteness of the main characters, the show doesn't shy away from having a great deal of heavy episodes were said cute characters suffer quite a bit. Hey, you need a counterbalance for those tea drinking scenes, right?
The animation is really solid throughout, with a couple of particularly impressive fights scenes here and there. The soundtrack has a couple of memorable tracks, but it tends to blend in with the rest of the show.
I should mention that the ending is a fast paced conclusion that obviously is leaving space for a season 2 that I hope happens.
Great show, my favourite this season after Bahamut and Made in Abyss.
And that's it for this season, I'll do another post or edit this one when the other anime finish.
---
I've also watched a couple of other shows in the meantime:
Appleseed: This is one of those Gainax shows that isn't really well known.
It's a really straightforward action show with some nice animation. There really isn't anything else of note about, witch is probably why it isn't remembered by most
Hideaki Anno participates as a mechanical animation advisor or something along those lines. He deals with the mechs, not very surprising.
If you're curious about early Gainax this could be a interesting watch, for everyone else there isn't much to be had here. That said, I personally enjoyed it.
Bobby ni Kubitake: A very calm drama about some kid that likes bikes.
I have no idea who managed to convince Madhouse to even make this but I'm thankfull to them. Not because of the story or characters, that, while certainly different from the usual, just don't have enough time to really shine. The one thing that shines though, is the visuals. It seems like there is experimentation at every couple of minutes as some unusual techniques are used. For example, the close up shots of objects will sometimes be a static detailed drawing, something that I have seen before, but not in anime. It's a bit different from what you see in shows like Rose of Versailles. I can't really explain it.
But without doubt, the best reason to watch this obscure OVA is one of the final scenes, an amazing animated sequence that will make you wonder how it ended up in an obscure 1985 OVA.
Worth watching for the animation alone, seriously.
Kamui no Kem: Very long movie about a boy taking revenge and seeking a legendary treasure.
Despite the length of the movie, I feel this would've worked better as a series. Too much happens under 3 hours. This said, the story works. It has a number of fossilized cliches, but if you don't mind that you'll be fully on board the ride an hour in to the movie.
The soundtrack is mostly various instrumental rockish tracks, that are implemented with varying results. Unfortunately, someone decide to have every scene in which there are various ninjas to have a loud sound effect play, sometimes over the cool music. The sound is TAKATAKATAKATAKA. It's really annoying.
The animation is great, as expected of Madhouse.
Goku:MIdnight Eye I and II: A Big, muscular man fights evil criminal masterminds in future Tokyo while saving(or failing to save) pretty women.
That's it, and it's great.
Also, the ending music is extremely 80s.
The Cockpit: Three 20 minute stories about WWII. All of them beautifully animated and all of them extremely sad. I really liked this one and would recommend to anyone that likes planes and WWII stories in general.
Koe no Katachi: Everybody and their mother was talking about this when it came out. I don't really have anything new to say. I read a bit of the original manga and its problems carry over to the film version. The first part is great and what comes after can't live up. The manga had these later sections be too long and the movies has them too short. I guess you just can't win.
Still, 2 hours well spent.
Really minor spoiler:
Also, they play a The Who song in the movie. How cool is that?
Last one
Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni: The life of a woman during the 30s and 40s in Japan. You know, I'd never realized just how pretty some of the western style architecture in Japan was. All those neo-classic and art-deco building, turned to rubble.
So yeah, I don't really know what to say about this one. It excellent and it will make you feel really sad. I really recommend it.
Absolutely wonderful movie. I'll have to try to get in on DVD or Blu-ray one day.
---
This post become much larger than I was expecting.