Cleaning up stuff in my video recorder to make way for this season's anime. Ended up re-watching anime from last season (2010 4th quarter). If the number of re-watch is an indication of how I would rank the shows, here are the result:
Re-watch most-
Motto ToLoveRu (fan of the original manga, tears of joy as the anime finally stays close to manga, the pinnacle of harem comedy)
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Shinryaku Ika-musume (very enjoyable short stories-deGESO)
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Ore no Imoto ga konnani kawaii wakega nai (the characters keep pulling me back, and not just the main leads, love the art style too)
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Toaru Majutsu no Index II (the world building is cool, Touma is cool, Misaka is charming, and more besides)
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Amagami SS (my closet romantic heart is exposed - in particular watch Ayatsuji's arc multiple times)
** I guess one reason of picking these, besides they are all very fine anime, is that they are made up of short stories so it's easy to just pick one and enjoy without worrying a bigger story line. And you can tell I love comedy
OP re-watched most-
Ore no Imoto ga konnani kawaii wakega nai (ClariS is charming)
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Toaru Majutsu no Index II (I think it is even better than last OP Masterpiece)
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Motto ToLoveRu (just like its rhythm and melody, and the animation too)
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Shinryaku Ika-musume (this one is addictive)
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Kami nomizo shiru sekai (most unexpected OP last season, all English lyrics in multi-movements?!)
ED re-watched most-
Soredemo Machi wa mawatteiru (seiyuu sound great singing as a band, the animation is a lot of fun too)
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Amagami SS (seiyuu singing as a girl in the story, the lyrics and animation both fit the stories very well)
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Fortune Arterial akai yakusoku (the best ballad anime song last season)
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Tegami Bachi Reverse (the second best ballad anime song last season, animation is so-so though)
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Shinryaku Ika-Musume (another ballad ED!)
Honorable mention (re-watch for some particular reason)
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Yosuga no sora (despite its subject which could turn off most people, I must say that it has absolutely wonderful BGM, OP and two ED, the artwork is very good too)
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Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls (the experimental style of using black sumi ink for the background and character artwork deserves praises, very good character design too)
For the list in my to-watch list this season, I am not following Rio any more but might come back and check the fan-service if time allows.
So the watch list now is (those on the top are more likely they are the one I like most but I don't really like the idea of ranking so take it only as a rough indication of which I like best)
- Puella Magi Madoka Magika
- Toaru Majutsu no Index II
- I.S. Infinite Stratos
- Hourou Musuko
- Kimi ni Todoke 2
- Oniichan no koto nanka zenzen suki janain dakarane!
- Freezing
- Yumekui Merry
- Fractale
- Koreha Zombie Desuka?
- Tegami Bachi Reverse
- Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu
- Gosick
- Level E
- Bakuman
- BeelzebubWrote some views on some of the shows above. Anybody interested can check:
viewtopic.php?p=414558&highlight=#414558(general preview and expectation)
viewtopic.php?p=416702&highlight=#416702(Fractale, Hourou Musuko)
viewtopic.php?p=417771&highlight=#417771(Puella Magi Madoka Magika)
viewtopic.php?p=417955&highlight=#417955(some more Fractale)
viewtopic.php?p=417441&highlight=#417441(Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki JanainDakarane/Beelzebub
viewtopic.php?p=417723&highlight=#417723(I.S. Infinite Stratos, Gosick, Mitsudomoe, Kimi ni Todoke. Toaru Majutsu no Index II, Bakuman, Tegami Bachi Reverse)
Mitsudomoe has since recovered the original setting and style back in ep.2 which is very funny, otherwise it would have sunk to the bottom of my list...
Let me write a few more words about shows that I have not yet covered:
FREEZINGBefore the show started, many people tried to compare this with I.S. because both are in a sci-fi high school setting, and both have strong females dominating the cast as well as do almost all the fighting. It seems both are harem. But they could not have been more different. While I.S. is a harem love-comedy supplemented by mecha; Freezing is something that does not come so often -- in Japanese they call it "Ero Guro" (erotic and gore) I call it "Boobs and Blood". I am not sure when the last time I see similar type of anime -- the last one I could think of that fits (slightly) into EroGuro category is Qwaser of Stigmata, but even that one has a lot more comedy moments and much less blood and gore.
(Note: Later I remember Ikki Tousen and Sekirei that may also be put as anime similar to Freezing, though neither have much gore in it, and ero-level is lower than both Qwaser and Freezing)
To decide if you may like Freezing, besides realizing it is EroGuro, the other thing you need to know is it is an Oneesan-kei anime, meaning all the main female characters can be grouped in "elder sister" look and style. The pairing of Pandora (female) and Limiter (male) seems to be almost a elder sister/younger brother combination.
I have checked the manga briefly before the anime starts. I love its character design -- I think they render the voluptuous bodies and the dress/hairstyle very well. The anime did quite some changes to the manga, making A LOT MORE bloody and stress maiming and limb loss, and it shows nudity A LOT MORE often as well. The vast majority of Ep.1 was used to explain how the Freezing world is functioned (pandora, nova alien, limiter etc) as well as highlight the brutality in Freezing world, with training being a bloodbath. While I am a bit taken aback by the blood splatter, I am glad that the anime at least keeps its serious tone (so don't expect much comedy element). They also changed the Pandora suit (like a armor) to Pandora mode (the body glows but no armor) -- I suspect it was changed so as to show nudity easier... The real story (matching the first chapter in the manga) only started near the end of Ep.1 While the purpose of Pandora is to fight super-strong mysterious aliens (which we caught a glimpse in ep.1), but if it follows the manga, most if not all the story in the anime would be about the fighting between various female students in school -- apparently this is their way to create bond and friendship....
The OP showed clearly the Untouchable Queen is the main heroine but personally I prefer those side (female) characters
Interestingly, even though the male/female ratio is supposed to be 1to1 (pandora, always female, should always have a limiter parter, who is always male) but you see mostly female in the anime ha ha
Sidenote: The manga was done by a pair of Korean. It seems that their ero and gore approach does not allow them to be published in Korea. The story writer also wrote Black God, animated in 2009 (the manga drawing was done by another Korean).
KOREHA ZOMBIE DESUKA?I found it a bit hard to tell my reaction to the first episode. Based on a popular light novel (and now a manga too), it seems to be a story about an ensemble cast all with strong character and all with some special power. Sounds like Melancholy of Haruhi you say? Indeed some did compare this to Haruhi, but it is only the settting:
- We do have a Kyon figure but this guy is a zombie (take the word zombie only as a word, it is more like an undead with heightened strength and agility(!));
- we have a Nagato figure who never speaks (but here we have a armor-clad purple-clothes necromancer who somehow lives with the zombie after she resurrect him as zombie when he was killed);
- we have a Haruhi figure who is egotistic, loud-mouthed and does thing her way (but here we have a Masou Shoujo -- never say Mahou Shoujo! -- whose magic weapon is a pink chainsaw but lost her power to the zombie -- yes, zombie is also a Masou Shoujo now, wearing the same costume! -- and now needs to live with zombie until she got her power back)
- instead of a big-breast naive figure, we have a big-breast foul-mouthed vampire-cum-ninja, who tried to get necromancer to come with her back to her village but ended up stuck with the zombie as the necromancer refused to leave
It looks like a harem but somehow it is not really about a harem. The zombie has its moments of perverted fantasy and there are indeed a bunch of female characters who seem to take a bit of liking to the zombie but that's about it. Fan service is not that much either -- restricted to the fantasy time, some close up of the ninja chest, and a few panty shots. The story is more about those characters interacting with comedy as a result. Their strong character and way of speech has a lot to do with how you may like this anime. There is also an element of adventure, as the zombie wants to find his murderer, and all the other characters have their issues to resolve (why necromancer never speaks, how to get the power back for masou shoujo, what is happening at the village of the vampire-ninja). And there is always a fight scene just round the corner. There is even a hint of romance underneath the adventures and comedy... There are also running jokes about the zombie can never die despite being cut off (dokuro-chan moments did happen), being afraid of direct sunlight, necromancer always getting hungry, masou shoujo only wants to cook eggs etc. So it is quite a mixed bag of various elements. Whether you'd like this anime depends on whether you like them as mixed and presented in the anime.
I think the color they use tends to be a bit darkened and always in some blurred state. Perhaps they want to highlight most of the characters seem more suited to the night time. But to me I would like the color to be brighter and sharper. The jokes can also be uneven -- the cliches of getting hit by car and wigs flying off are too old to be funny. And the directing sometimes look odd and awkward -- there are scenes where the only thing I noticed is the Dyson Air Multiplier fan (did they have an unannounced product placement ads with Dyson??). And I am not sure about the MALE fan-service (check out the male panty shot, not once but twice in ep.1!). Anyway, I have expectation that the story will turn more interseting and the cast are just warming up for the act. Kind of like the OP/ED though.
YUMEKUI MERRYSomebody thought this is a Mahou Shoujo show but it isn't. Also unlike Gosick it is not ONLY about the main heroine Merry even though the OP/ED seem to show it that way. The manga is not too well-known but word-of-mouth reputation is very good. I would say the forte of this anime should be its STORY, which in manga is tightly structured and contains a few layers. This may make it harder to create an initial quick appeal to watchers. So in anime it needs to focus on Merry, and some fight scenes in the Dream World -- though I think the battle scenes were not as thrilling as it could have been. The color and background also tend to be darkened and blurred, but not as much as Koreha Zombie Desuka, perhaps because of the story link to dream? On the other hand, I love its directing and the way it focus on small objects or background to get the point across.
Ep.1 we already have the mystery of why Merry lost her memory and came to this world, and then there is the power of the lead guy seeing "dream color". Ep.2 is much better than Ep.1 because more mystery and characters are introduced. We now see more dream worlds and other dream fairies. We also see the childhood friend of the main guy has a really cool dad. And there is again a very cold and mysterious transfer student. This and combined with some innovative "dream world" design led some people to associate it with Puella Magi Madoka Magika but I think they are more like coincidence. Anyway I have a feeling that this anime is being underappreciated but my guess is that patient watchers will be rewarded.
@merridian
No prob. If you have a little time, you can also write me a short note any time.