Mr. Tines wrote:And, once again, a note to say that you should all have been watching Eizouken,

I second this, it's been a wonderful little anime so far, with tons of pretty animation to delight the eye. One of the best anime of this season, and certainly the most different.

Ashire Melos: I knew this film from some gorgeous pieces of animation on sakugabooru I saw years ago, and decided to finally watch it. I'm happy to say it's a solid movie. The story is a classic Japanese book, which surprised me, because I really did think it was a based on a Greek play! It's a relatively short anime, but the characters are endearing enough and there is rarely a dull moment in it's run time. The third act, in particular, manages to get you pumped up quite nicely.

Also, as I expected, it is an absolutely wonderful looking film, which is in part due to the contributions of Hiroyuki Okiura. It is then a shame that I could only find the movie in VHS quality. Has no one released this movie in DVD or Bluray in Japan?

The only weaker aspect is the OST, which is hardly memorable.

8/10

Neo Tokyo: I can't believe I hadn't seen this yet. Just absolutely amazing looking. Worth watching for the animation alone.

8/10

I saw for the first time in two decades the first episode of Macross Plus the OVA version. Seems like I forgot some details in some scenes that the movie version lacked or ignored because I have been more dependent in those decades of the latter version for the ultimate thrill ride. Is it just me or does the OVA vision make Myung and Lucy look sexier? Maybe because the movie was given to us in a cheap knock off way that the visuals didn't look their best. Bryan Cranston as Isamu's voice is a joy to hear since he knocks every role whether voice or live action out of the park. And I am glad I saw the end credits to hear audio bliss with Yoko Kanno and Mai Yamane's "After in the Dark" which I totally forgot after depending so much on the movie all this time.

Blade of the Immortal ONA

I only just put together that this is not the same series I watched in 2008.

I spent like 3 hours trying to figure out where I left off...

Anyway, this was just something that fell in-between the cracks for me. No complaints; I love watching characters I come to care about, die.

The ONA version seems to be a more "complete" runthrough. Fixing the pacing and lack of details in the 2008 version.

Pokemon: Twlight Wings

Nothing complicated going on here; just solid animation, and a refreshing take on Pokemon as a setting.

No Ash in sight; it's a series of vignettes of characters who I assume show up in Sword & Shield.

Bea is best "COME AT ME BRO!" girl.

But I'll never understand why anyone would drag along three Pokemon of the same evolution line at different stages.

Alaska Slim wrote:Pokemon: Twlight Wings

Oh yeah, I've stumbled upon this as well! So cute, great animation and you can even understand it without speaking Japanese.

Also, I've watched the first Episode of the Patlabor OVA, unmistakingly Oshii, but his perks are a little bit reigned in in comparison to his later stuff. Great fun, definitely gonna watch Episode 2

Oh no, the new season is beginning!

I haven't watched that many anime this season it was a bit weak. Instead, and also because of the fun Covid thing, I've had plenty of time to watch some OVAs and movies:

M.D Geist- One of the most 80’s things I’ve ever seen. The plot is just a vehicle for the bombastic and gory action scenes and the protagonist is one of the most over the top anti-hero’s ever put into an anime
The animation is good looking,(although I did watch the Directors Cut version) as expected of an OVA of the period, and the ending is surprisingly conclusive, but there is no fooling anyone. If you like this, you’ll only like it for being super over the top and having a great OST. Lovers of good storytelling and compelling characters should steer clear of this one.
8/10

Etranger- A movie from an old mecha anime I’ve not seen. This truly is one of those hidden gems almost nobody knows. A surprisingly complex story about defying fate, carried by a lovable team of fighters, with one of them being subjected to a sort of psychological battle.
The animation is pretty good, boasting a couple of more experimental moments, although I did notice some coloring errors and other mistakes of that type. The cinematography as some cool looking moments. It’s definitely not a boring movie visually.
The OST is fantastic. There are couple goofier tracks, but most of it is quality 80’s stuff.
9/10

Space Fantasy: This is an odd, so odd I don’t know how to feel about it. The plot is simple, space exploration, children sent across the universe to populate a new planet. The entire anime has a relaxed pace. It’s pretty, and enjoyable, but I was left wanting for more at the conclusion
6/10

Violence Jack I: Best enjoyed as an unintentional comedy. Also, the OST is fantastic.
The two other OVAs are better animated and directed, so much of the humour is removed. Also, the violence is upped significantly. The third OVA is probably the mora conventional one but is also a bit boring as a result. I’d rate the first OVA as the best, followed by the second and third.
OVA I-7/10
OVA II and III-6/10

Crusher Joe: Very fun space adventure movie. It reminds me in many ways of Yamato, even though they are very different. Excellent animation, good comedy, a wonderful ensemble of lovable brave idiots.
9/10

Video Girl Ai: I went into this one expecting a light comedy and some romance, but it gets much heavier than that. It does have some fanservice and comedy, but it has a serious current throughout. The final episode in particular is pretty cool, and quite fun visually, although all the episodes have great animation.
7/10

Eizouken: Fun anime, but the ending is garbage. I mean, the style is different, and that’s cool, but I never got used to the character designs, which look ugly to me. The ending is complete garbage, no payoff, no character development, just an ending.

That said, for all my complaints, it’s still solid most of the time, and there is some gorgeous animation and endearing moments throughout, so…
7/10

Rhea Gall Force: What if the opening of The Terminator was an anime? The answer is this. It is one in a long series of OVAs so I’ll have to take a look at the other ones as well.
7/10

Metal Skin Panic: Cool mechanical animation. Also, Hideaki Anno worked in this anime. Other than that, there isn’t much that stands out. It’s just solid.
7/10

Birth: It looks amazing. Another anime in witch Hideaki Anno worked on when he was still an animator. The plot doesn’t matter much, what matters is the insane animation. Also, there are some really funny moments. It’s not quite a comedy, but it’s very lighthearted.
9/10

Dragon Half: Great comedy anime. Very short, unfortunately.
7/10

Dragon’s Heaven: Very distinct visuals. Also features a live action sequence with big robot models (almost 2 meters tall) in the beginning. The final battle is very anticlimactic tough. Clearly just a vehicle to show of the cool art style.
6/10

Bio Hunter: Lovely character designs carry the story for me. I really like that more realistic style. The story is solid though, and I did find the main duo endearing, although you never spend enough time with them to really connect.
7/10 or 8/10

MD Geist II: A weird sequel that didn’t really need to exist. The only thing that remains up to the standards of the old OVA is the OST.
The ending is abrupt, and it looks like some of the animation wasn’t finished. It wouldn’t surprise me if several scenes had been cut for whatever reasons.
4/10

Urban Square Garden: A Crime/detective movie that is aware of its clichés but plays it mostly straight anyway. Fun to watch, but I’ll probably never see it again.
7/10

Twilight Q: What if Japan did the Twilight Zone series? Well, aside from the title and format, it’s very different. Only two episodes exist and they’re weird. Ididn't really get the first one at all. Still fun to watch
8/10

Blade of the Immortal: Best anime of the season. Blood, swords, what more could I ask for? The director of Texhnolyze worked on this and it shows. It’s a shame he didn’t have more money and/or more animators, because with a superior crew, this would have been an instant classic. It I also, somewhat rushed, although has someone who has not read the manga, that was only noticeable at the final episodes.
Best anime of the last season and this one.
9/10

Genocyber: A rather well known, very violent OVA series from the 90’s, Genocyber stands out in many ways, mostly with it’s bleakness and violence. Unfurtunately, the first episode is the peak of all those things.
It does reward you with an unexpected positive ending if you stick with it all the way.
8/10

Magia Record Madoka: Calling this a disappointment is putting it lightly. The only thing here that is even close to the original Madoka is the visuals, specifically, the witches and the cinematography. Also, the OST isn’t bad at all. But that isn’t nearly enough to make up for the awful and confusing story, the gigantic cast and the sad fact that most of this anime consists of a group of girls I don’t care about talking about nonsense that does not matter.
5/10

Kyokou Suiri- I like the character designs and the animation is solid, but this anime is paced glacially. That’s about it.
7/10

AD Police- Bubblegum Crysis edgier brother. The third episode is an highlight has it is essentially a love letter to Robocop and Robocop 2. It’s probably the closest I’ll ever get to a Robocop anime.
8/10

You’re under arrest OVA and movie- Gorgeous looking, and I’m not talking about the main characters. Has a less serious tone than I expected, not that that is a bad thing. Looks gorgeous with some insane car and background animation.
The movie, despite looking good, has a couple still shots in action scenes that don’t look intentional to me. Unfinished animation, perhaps?
OVAs-8/10
Movie 7/10

Pet: I had high hopes for this anime and while it didn’t reach the level I wanted; it was still a fun ride. It had a good, open ended finale and was generally well animated. The OP and ED were some of the best of the season.
8/10

---

I hope the new season is better than this one, even with the delays.

Justacrazyguy wrote:Oh no, the new season is beginning!


M.D Geist- One of the most 80’s things I’ve ever seen. The plot is just a vehicle for the bombastic and gory action scenes and the protagonist is one of the most over the top anti-hero’s ever put into an anime
The animation is good looking,(although I did watch the Directors Cut version) as expected of an OVA of the period, and the ending is surprisingly conclusive, but there is no fooling anyone. If you like this, you’ll only like it for being super over the top and having a great OST. Lovers of good storytelling and compelling characters should steer clear of this one.
8/10

Huh, not what I was expecting based on the stuff that I have seen. Will probably still give it a watch at some point, but that kinda caught me offguard

Violet Evergarden movie

It's... fine. I think it leans too much on Taylor being the ultimate bundle of joy (those chubby toddler fingers DEAR GOD). You could definitely cut things out and make this just an episode in the series. However, you'd then lose the sense of progress within the setting; Violet's world is moving beyond just being post-war and is becoming a place that strives forward again.

The fleshed out scenery and the moments of characters taking in the "bustle" of the city helps you to feel that.

It was also great to see Benedict get a lot of focus here; beyond ep 2 we see barely anything of him. Here, you get into his head space and see what he's like at his work.

Still, not a lot going on plot wise, especially in the first half. The story's use of "Debut" makes me wonder if I understood what that convention meant.
I thought you appeared in front of the public and the gentry, not just your school peers who already "know" you? But meh.

Also... as beautiful as the animation is, I came away thinking teeth need to be worked on. It's not realistic, and it clashes with the detail they put into everything else.

All in all; not as good as the OVA, but the focus on a sidelined character and an update to the setting are much appreciated. The relationship between Taylor and Amy also has nice moments.

Justacrazyguy wrote:Blade of the Immortal: Best anime of the season. Blood, swords, what more could I ask for? The director of Texhnolyze worked on this and it shows. It’s a shame he didn’t have more money and/or more animators, because with a superior crew, this would have been an instant classic. It I also, somewhat rushed,

If you think this is rushed, don't look at the 2008 version; it's half the length with most of the same content.

My First Girlfriend is a Gal: Episodes 5 and 6 were fun to watch if a bit icky on the fanservice with Nene seducing Junichi in his bed with her abnormally large breasts too big for her loli naked body. I will say it did spark a righteous scene of cool Junichi ego killing pervert ego by going Super Saiyan hehe.

Gus Hanson wrote:My First Girlfriend is a Gal: abnormally large breasts too big for her loli body

Look forward to this:

For a less insulting “gyaru” show I would recommend Please tell me! Galko-chan.

Who decides when a season starts/ends exactly? Well, either way- the season that just ended was an especially dry one for me. The show I had the most interest in watching was the one I was apparently not supposed to…

Gave Somali and the Forest Spirit a look-in. Episode 1 presented a mildly interesting fantasy setting I might have stuck with, but I was quickly scared off midway through episode 2.
“I’m gonna work hard too” utters the sweet, innocent, rosy-cheeked child too good for this world. Why not have the character stand next to a sign saying “This is such a good, little girl. Please care about this child. Please”.
No, thank you. I don’t have the patience to endure a robot slowly discussing the weather and a child scampering around for 20 minutes just because there might be 2 minutes of “don’t eat my child” adult-fear, peril tacked-on near the end.
If anybody else did have the patience- let me know if I missed something that actually turned out to be worth watching.

In/Spectre managed to keep me interested until episode 3. Then episode 4 was all an all-talk, back-story discussion snooze-fest.
My thought process was: “You know what? I don’t care. I’ll check back in two weeks when this arc is completed and watch the rest of the show…”
If the episode synopses on Crunchy are at all reliable- the “Steel Lady” arc lasted 10 bloody episodes, right to the end of the show’s run.
Tragic, yet hilarious.

Interspecies Reviewers was easily the most entertaining and refreshingly unpredictable show I’ve seen in a long time. Damn the prudes- coitus and cartoons will never not be funny.

Looking forward to the next season of Ascendance of a Bookworm.
Rewatching Working!! as I wait.

chazthesilencer#893230 wrote:Gave Somali and the Forest Spirit a look-in. Episode 1 presented a mildly interesting fantasy setting I might have stuck with, but I was quickly scared off midway through episode 2.
[...]
If anybody else did have the patience- let me know if I missed something that actually turned out to be worth watching.

I saw it through. Yes, there was a little tension later, but essentially it remained sweet relaxation.

What I did enjoy last season (and required a degree of concentration) was Pet. The way that some people could go into the minds of others was unbelievable, of course; but as the setup for a science fiction story with mobsters it was fine. I enjoyed some of the graphics it led to, in particular.

I should have watched Blade of the Immortal and Dorohedoro by now - but I've not yet found time, though I was pleased enough with the start of each of them. Keep your hands off Eizouken held me for several episodes, but eventually I lost interest.

Meanwhile, the new season gives me the return of Fruits Basket, which was welcome, though a rather mediocre start to the season, mainly just introducing a load of new characters. BNA I almost dropped after the first episode, but I continued and it's got a bit better - though I'd not call it great. And sadly Re:Zero season 2 is delayed by coronavirus impacting production.

First Episode of Listeners
I'd rather rewatch Eureka Seven, which did everything better.
Breaking up expository inner monologue with expository dialogue doesn't give me hope. Instead of letting the 14 year old talk about his daily life, how about, y'know, using the visual medium of anime to your advantage and show his daily life?
Cool character design, that doesn't really translate well into animation, mostly because the garish colors of the cast don't really mesh well with the earthy backgrounds. They shot for... uhm the moon and landed in a Slum in Bangladesh.


Patlabor OVA on the other hand was just amazing, the first movie was as well, and the second movie was downright spooky, terrifying and a masterpiece. 8/10 9/10 10/10 respectively.

Picked up the first Ep of Gleipnir the other day, liking it so far.
The show is... very horny, but I've been told that gets better later on;
Probably my favorite detail about it so far is that the MC acts very much like an edgy teen, internally monologuing to himself and convincing himself he is some sort of puppet master keeping two steps ahead of everyone else because of his dark secret (which unlike every other edgy teen he actually has, lol) but all of that completely falls apart the moment things are going south

Gus Hanson wrote:My First Girlfriend is a Gal: Episodes 5 and 6 were fun to watch if a bit icky on the fanservice with Nene seducing Junichi in his bed with her abnormally large breasts too big for her loli naked body. I will say it did spark a righteous scene of cool Junichi ego killing pervert ego by going Super Saiyan hehe.

This is what people who hate anime think all of it is like.

I watch Kengan Ashura now.

After sitting on it for a while, I think Eizouken did itself a disservice by not just fading to black when they put the DVD of their Comiket anime into the drive, rather than ending with what was the most underwhelming of the three pieces. The best bits were the girls interacting, with Kanamori being the voice of reason amongst all the flights of fancy -- the process rather than the outcome.

And with the entirely insubstantial Heya Camp△ finished, and the usual underwhelming spring line-up, the only continuing series I'm watching is Railgun T. I shall have to see what Alaska Slim has to say about the new Digimon.

So in the interim I've been rewatching the cycling oriented series Long Riders and Minami Kamakura Girls' High School Cycling Club, for the vicarious miles on the road, mixed in with fluffy stuff like Vividred Operation and Konohana Kitan; and, from the backlog, Overlord II, which dropped the plot thread trailed at the end of the previous season in favour of half a dozen episodes of lizard folk and other "world-building" before we got to the expected kerb-stomping bit near the end.

chazthesilencer wrote:Look forward to this:

That image makes my back hurt just from looking at it.

Started Scissor Seven. Credited as "The first Chinese anime to debut as a Netflix Original". It's about a hairdresser who wants to became the world's greatest hitman... which I guess is the plot.
But, really it's a weird and hilarious show with a wild personality all it's own that just likes to have fun and features some killer action scenes -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnsZb2LWrOI

It's on Netflix in the States. Don't know about everywhere else. But, it's a good time.

Animeigo was so nice to release a region-free Bluray of Bubblegum Crisis (more companies should do this kind of thing). Yesterday I watched OVAs 1-4. My previous experience with this series was watching two of the OVAs with the Madman dubs on VHS, which had incredibly muddled voice acting that was barely comprehensible at times. The Bluray has nice clear voice acting and of course looks much better than VHS.

OVA 1 I already knew, but boy am I glad that I never bought OVA 2 and 3. Basically both have the same plot (never-seen-before acquaintance of one of the cast members ends up murdered, revenge follows), are full of plot holes (weird logical jumps, stuff the cast can't possibly know based on what happens), and have a clearly worse visual quality than both the pilot and later episodes. OVA 4 was much better, even though the plot had not much to do with Genom and the Boomers.

Of course, this series is why I can't take the phrase "Okay, Boomer" seriously. A Boomer is a murderous household robot, not some post-WW2-born person (although they may look like one). A Millennial telling a Boomer (the blue kind that bursts out of its skin) "OK, Boomer" would likely end up like a thin red paste with some chunks in it smeared on a wall.

El Squibbonator wrote:This is what people who hate anime think all of it is like.

Or they think its Urotsukidoji Legend Of The Overfeind and go its porn, and have vivid memories of pointing people to Akira and Ghost In The Shell and some of the classic series during the 2000's to prove them wrong and educate them.

Side note I think Urotsukidoji Legend Of The Overfeind's first movie despite its more awful elements and bad dubbing had guts and is one of the few animes to do what End Of Evangelion did in terms of bleak endings and go well you opened the pandora's box because you were so desperate to find your one god who you thought was your savour but he's not like that he's a destroyer of worlds and now you're utterly fucked, it also stands up as a solid horror as far as the demons go and how they behave and how sadistic they are.

Bubblegum Crisis OVA 5-7 watched. 5 and 6 are a two-parter directed by Masami Obari, so expect a load of mecha and scenery porn. The plot is also quite good, if overly melodramatic at times. There's a slight tendency to really off-model character shots, though. Also some world- and plot-building going on, which unfortunately likely won't be expanded on in the remaining episode because the series was cut short...
OVA 7 is Double Vision, the other episode I saw on VHS back in the day (I've only noticed the pun in the title today ). The VHS version was also slightly censored by the looks of it, I don't remember any bare breasts in it. Another good quality episode.

Edit: Last OVA also watched. This one has some quirks that make it weird compared to the others. Gone is the gloomy, violent, futuristic Megatokyo from OVA 1-7. Instead everything is in pastel colours, and looks much more contemporary. The plot is quite unrelated to Genom, even though it involves someone from Genom and also Boomers - frankly, the plot feels like a waste, because if they had bothered to connect it to the myth arc (e.g. by having Brian J.Mason show up at the end...) it could have been awesome. There is a lot of slapstick humor that does not fit in very well with the tone of the other episodes. There are continuity problems, too (Nene's character, mostly). Basically it feels like a high school anime episode with Bubblegum Crisis characters... The animation, however, is really quite good, and disregarding the unfortunate fact that two of the "new design" hardsuits look exactly like the old ones, the mecha designs on the Knight Sabers' side is quite nice...the boomers however are treated too much like robots that need orders to operate.

Comments on the Bluray: Too few bonus material compared to DVDs. Also, having the bonus art galleries as a fixed speed slide show is not ideal...

Edit: Watched tonight, episodes 1-4 of Brutal Loli Murderfest, sorry, When they cry I mean A series I've been wanting to watch since a very long time (I have the artbook somewhere). Wow, paranoia fuel incarnate, if you have certain mental conditions or traumatic experiences I suspect this series might provide loads of triggers - speaking through (unfortunately) experience here, the process of falling into madness due to mindfuck/gaslighting is depicted quite realistically (ignoring those goddamn eyes on the girls ). Kenji Kawai music (another soundtrack I'll have to buy).
Edit 2: Dear god, when the girls in this series snap, they snap. I thought the eyes were bad. The faces are worse. The nails thing.The eviscerated corpses are nausea-inducing. Also kudos to the animators for providing us with a wonderful view of the background...through someone's head after it got cleaved into two halves.
Of course, since the opening provides us with lots of symbolic flowers (flower diagrams were never this scary) and butterflies, you just know the shit's gonna hit the fan hard...and does it.
Edit 3: Season 2 is a bit lighter on the outright psychotic horror, and quite a bit heavier on the government conspiracy and crimes against humanity side. Auauauauau.
OVA 1 is purely fanservice, with some amusing lampshading of males behaving creepily to boot. The problem is that besides fanservice it has little contents...
OVA 2-4 are back to being quite serious, although I'm disappointed that we didn't see Rika go all psycho (even though it's implied she did have to).
OVA 5 was quite amusing.

silvermoonlight wrote:Or they think its Urotsukidoji Legend Of The Overfeind and go its porn, and have vivid memories of pointing people to Akira and Ghost In The Shell and some of the classic series during the 2000's to prove them wrong and educate them.

Side note I think Urotsukidoji Legend Of The Overfeind's first movie despite its more awful elements and bad dubbing had guts and is one of the few animes to do what End Of Evangelion did in terms of bleak endings and go well you opened the pandora's box because you were so desperate to find your one god who you thought was your savour but he's not like that he's a destroyer of worlds and now you're utterly fucked, it also stands up as a solid horror as far as the demons go and how they behave and how sadistic they are.

There's quite a few anime with outright bleak endings, and they're not necessarily horror. E.g.:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/Windaria

Outright warning: Do not watch if you're depressed. It will make you want to shoot yourself.