Joy Evangelion wrote:Everything I'm watching this season is a sequel(or sequels to sequels)

Attack of the sequels indeed...

Dr. Stone: Stone Wars/season 2 - It would be easy/lazy to turn the conflict into a "we have the sharper science weapons, so you die" ordeal, and while that does hold a certain appeal- the protagonists pursuing a bloodless victory is a far more interesting approach to me. Looking forward to seeing how the story progresses.

The Quintessential Quintuplets, season 2 - I'm still a harem comedy junkie. The art style has shifted to a softer, more cartoony look; and all of the girls have apparently stopped overstuffing their bras. Seems to suggest this season will focus less on the fanservice and more on the rom and com, although the first season itself had very little fanservice to begin with.

Non Non Biyori Non Stop Nondescript Nondefinitive Nonchalant Nonsense - More of the same perfect healing animay series. This one almost slipped under my radar, so thanks for the heads-up, Joy. We animay watching EvaGeeks really do need to stick together.

That time I got Reincarnated as a Slime, season 2 - More of the same silly isekai hijinks with good, practically literal world-building.

Laid-Back Camp, season 2 - I didn't watch the spin-off show, so I hope I didn't miss any earth-shattering revelations that'll leave me lost and confused with this new season...

Speaking of lost and confused-
Re:ZERO, season 2 - So Garfiel was placated because Subaru mentioned his mommy; turns out he hates mother trauma as much as he hates Mondays. This took me completely by surprise. Was this fact ever alluded to in any of the last 15 episodes? I honestly don't remember and don't really care to hear the answer.
Things have reached a point where I've had enough of all the layered conversations and I'm skipping ahead to the dragon tackling.

Question- exactly when did it become common practice to end the first episode of your new season with the new OP?
This just bugs me.

I’m watching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures on Netflix right now. I already have the Blu-ray sets 1 and 2.

I don’t know how it’s possible, but it’s one of the best series. It’s particularly educational with over the top action, plus it’s a goldmine for memes. The educational part is how it talks about some of the customs of other countries, such as Tigerbalm Garden and the art of haggling.

And that final battle between Jotaro and DIO is easily the best in the series.

chazthesilencer wrote:Re:ZERO, season 2 - So Garfiel was placated because Subaru mentioned his mommy; turns out he hates mother trauma as much as he hates Mondays. This took me completely by surprise. Was this fact ever alluded to in any of the last 15 episodes?

I don't think they hint at this directly, so much as hint at something by means of the trial that he failed. As we piece together what the trial is, and that he has some sort of history with his half-sister (mentioned in episode 32), we can start to see that his trial was something family related.

chazthesilencer wrote: This one almost slipped under my radar, so thanks for the heads-up, Joy.

The first couple weeks it was on I forgot I was watching it too, hehe. It's too chill to leave a lasting impression I guess, which makes sense since I basically have no memory of the first couple seasons save that I really liked it. Eps. 3 and 4 have been my favorites of the five so far, with the broken planter and handcuffs crises being my favorite vignettes. The robot dog in the last episode was hilarious, but I wanted to see more of it.

chazthesilencer wrote:Dr. Stone: Stone Wars/season 2 - It would be easy/lazy to turn the conflict into a "we have the sharper science weapons, so you die" ordeal, and while that does hold a certain appeal- the protagonists pursuing a bloodless victory is a far more interesting approach to me.

I like what they're doing with it too, and I like how the show makes it clear that both groups have good people in them, instead of just being some good v. evil nonsense. It was quite the coincidence that the first person they tried to convert to their side from the strength camp was a super fan of that pop artist, but I don't care.

C.T.1290 wrote:And that final battle between Jotaro and DIO is easily the best in the series.

I remember when I was watching Stardust Crusaders I was looking forward to that fight like it was some big important bout between undefeated boxers, and it didn't disappoint. I like all of Jojo, but I think Jotaro and Stardust Crusaders stand out among all the rest. Diamond and Golden Wind are definitely legit, but I think SC has a simplicity to it that gives it a lot of charm, and it's an absolute joy to watch.

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Watched 2019's How Heavy are the Dumbbells You Lift? over the last week. It was really funny and really really informative(it got me to add bicycle crunches to my workout). Made me wonder how many gym memberships it got people to sign up for in Japan. All the characters were really likeable and it was nice that the show was self aware and didn't take itself that seriously. I don't think I would have really enjoyed a show where they were like serious body building competitors or something. It did kinda make working out seem funner that it actually is, but I guess if that makes it easier for people to get into working out, whatever. My favorite moment in the series was probably the lead up to and all the drama of the girls' arm wrestling contest

Since I've been on a bit of a Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney trip lately, I've decided to give the anime a watch. Dubbed because cognitive dissonance with the original names is too much to handle, but my god this show is good. Every last voice actor is perfectly cast, despite kinda janky animation it feels super vivid, music is great and it's just all around fun so far

C.T.1290 wrote:I’m watching JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
And that final battle between Jotaro and DIO is easily the best in the series.

I'm a fan of the D'Arby the Gambler battles, myself.

So I’m a Spider, so what? – Didn’t catch my attention at the start of the season, but since we’re a few weeks in I zipped through a bunch of episodes to see what’s going on.
Yet another isekai, with all the expected tropes. One thing it’s doing right is having the main character (…whose name I forget) suffer some hardship and put a little effort in before becoming an unkillable god. This approach worked well for the Rise of the Shield Hero too. That said- I’m 6 episodes in and I’m tired of the dungeon setting she’s trapped in.
The story will occasionally switch to focus on some human characters, bringing a welcome change of scenery with it, but I have to say- this show has some of the worst staging I’ve ever seen in an animated program. Close-up shots are used way too frequently and it often feels like everyone is getting stuffed into the frame with no breathing space:

This is one of those background-noise-while-I-exercise shows.

Also picked up Horimiya. Harmless, vanilla school romance. So vanilla there isn’t much to say about it, I don’t think I’ll even bother finishing this sen

Went and gave the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney a watch; Definitely didn't feel like 47 episodes, that's for sure. Watched the dub because the cognitive dissonance with the original names was too much for my brain, quite possibly one of the best dubs I've ever seen. Every character is absolutely perfectly voice cast, not one that doesn't fit and the delivery is on point throughout.
Animation is a bit janky at times and it feels rather over the top forced most of the time it invokes an animation from the games (especially the "damage" animations are represented as a huge gust of wind blowing people over, it's quite stupid), but I guess that's the price you pay.
In general it's a lot more fast paced than the games, a fact that works well in some cases and not so well in others.
The actual cases, for better or and worse, are far more consistent in quality. The more infamous cheesy ones like Big Top or Recipe are a hell of a lot better and have genuinely good drama and emotions; on the flip side, the cases on which the games excell usually take a bit of a hit. Turnabout Sisters and Goodbyes are about on par with the game counterpart with a few cut corners here and there and Bridge to the Turnabout smoothes out some of the more dubious elements of it at the price of somewhat lessening the impact at the end, but the one that really got done dirty is Farewell, that one was rushed through in four episodes and the result is accordingly. It's not bad by any stretch, still a very good arc, but a noticable step down from the brilliance of the game case.
The only thing I am upset about is that the show keeps teasing Rise from the Ashes throughout it (to the point where the blue Badger is in about half of the scenes of the second ending), but does not actually include the case.

Overall 8/10, fun watch, hoping for an RftA OVA

Let's for a moment suggest this thread is about summer 1996 and later

After War Gundam X (on DVD) eps. 1-5 (aka DVD 1): The art style is very typical of mid-1990s anime (pointy noses, the clothing, the hair styles), no way that it plays only 15 years after a major apocalyptic event (150 would have been more realistic), the cities are full of Japanese signs despite ostensibly not being in Japan , the opening theme is quite nice if also rather typically 1990s, the music in the episodes themselves is better than usual and quite diverse if you listen well, all adult females are quite buxom and are not afraid of showing it off (slightly annoyingly so...it comes over as a bit sexist), the expository voice-over feels like a throw-back to a early 1980s anime and is rather irritating (and sometimes states the obvious), the titles that must be mentioned word-for-word in each episode are corny, clearly the colony drop brought out quite a few characters' inner punks, and the episodes often suffer from some mood wiplash when Garrod's teenage hormones play up.

Log Horizon S3

Eh, I think this season is a casualty to COVID-chan.

Animation was never a strong suit of this series, but now it's really just a constant slow-pan across a series of still images, like Shougeki No Soma in its later seasons.

It also feels like it takes longer for anything of substance to happen (one whole episode to get across "Oh, there's a guy coming to Akiba. Might be a threat."), and they're slowly retreading points we already got across in season 2 (Midori likes Shiroe, WILL SHE CONFESS?!? Teeheehee)

Shiroe still has some decent masterplan-reveal moments, but they're so stretched out that even those feel like the script is playing for time.

A lot more posturing, a lot more overeactions, a lot more "let's delay sharing that telegraphed exposition for the next 5 minutes to tell a not-funny gag."
And for a show that made a name for itself humanizing NPCs, it's done a great job simply reducing all the characters to tropes or formulaic, by the number exchanges.


FTR, I love Log Horizon, I still got the urge to read up on the lore while watching the show to put things in context. But that's been more fun than watching it.

New Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning

I realize beginning my journey into a property like this with the final thing they put up is probably not the proper way to do it but I wasn't in the mood to sift through tons of episodes of TV and OVA series. Also, it caught me off guard how much the younger tone in 19 year old Kyosuke's voice by the talented Jason Douglas can be. Hikaru was a stellar case of a transformation from duckling to swan especially that her profession is dancing in that bright yellow suit that makes her look oh so sexy for a cartoon character. As for Madoka and her beautiful "Kyosuke Number 1" piano song, it hit with me all the right notes of a melody sent from the heavens. The best thing of all is that this film was directed by Kunihiko Yuyama, the director behind many of Pokemon's hit movies.

Gus Hanson wrote:New Kimagure Orange Road: Summer's Beginning
I realize beginning my journey into a property like this with the final thing they put up is probably not the proper way to do it but I wasn't in the mood to sift through tons of episodes of TV and OVA series.

Oh no, I hope you didn't miss the first of the two movies- I Want to Return to That Day.
I only saw a handful of episodes of the TV show but enjoyed the movie, all anybody really needs to know is there is a love triangle. And mind powers? What mind powers?
Has a great, sad song too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nc3Omwnjzs

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There has been a lot of stumbling towards the finishing line in this season:

So I’m a Spider, So What? – Ep10 ends with the protagonist slaughtering a party of humans after making no attempts to communicate or peacefully solve the situation. Am I supposed to continue rooting for the protagonist after this?
I guess the show is now called “So I’m a violent sociopath, so what?”
If this wasn’t bad enough there’s still the consistently awful staging to endure during the human sections. It lasted longer than it deserved, even for a casual watch, but I’m done with this one.

Higurashi Go! – This show is at sixes and sevens:

With the game they are playing being “memory”, this could either be a silly mistake or a bizarre breed of foreshadowing.
I’m invested enough that I want to see how the whacky, Groundhog-day shenanigans ends, but I really hate it when the spotlight gets shined onto side characters toward the end of a show’s run, especially when it stalls the momentum of a building climax. I’m not prepared to sit through waffle exploring Takano’s back story, she hasn’t been relevant for the entirety of this season - I’ll just be skipping forward.

Horimiya – Any semblance of interest this show carried peaked about half way through. The two leads are in a caring relationship, warm fuzzies everywhere… so what now? Need to fill out that 12 episode quota somehow… let’s spotlight the uninteresting side characters, I guess.

Laid-Back Camp 2 – I don’t remember the characters being drawn so often having melty-blob and Bomberman faces in the first season, lately it feels like I’ve been seeing them more often than I do the regular face models.

It’s kind of annoying. I suppose what I’m saying amounts to: “The characters look too laid-back in a show titled “Laid-Back camp”.”
Some people can’t be pleased.

Not everything is stumbling however:
I’m enjoying Quintessential Quintuplets plenty, the end is nearing and the conflict between the sisters keeps building, as it should.
Looking forward to seeing how the war plays out in That Time I got reincarnated as a Slime, after watching the nation of monsters slowly build-up from a small settlement, I'm very much behind the protagonists and I’m invested in seeing how Rimuru wins the day in the end.
Non-Non Biyori continues to do no wrong. Sweet seeing Renge getting to once again meet her old summer-buddy from back in the first season.

Yeah the Takano focus in the last episode of Higurashi Gou was a really bizarre choice.

Like it would have made more sense for the previous Teppei episode to be the focus of the finale instead, since that's not only more relevant to Satoko's character but honestly I think it just flatout gives you more relevant information to what Gou was actually doing too.

chazthesilencer wrote:I’m not prepared to sit through waffle exploring Takano’s back story, she hasn’t been relevant for the entirety of this season - I’ll just be skipping forward.

That was how I felt watching that part of Higurashi Kai back in the day -- so some things haven't changed.

Can't say the funny faces really impinged on me in Yuru Camp which is the only full length this-season show I'm following -- it's just harmless fluff over Google StreetView backgrounds, anyway. Otherwise, I'm interleaving both the old and the new Digimon Adventure -- again entirely harmless.

And then there's the unexpected star of the season, TVアニメ「PUI PUI モルカー」, which has been good-to-great all season, and, alas, has its last episode tomorrow (07:30 Tuesday in Japan)

Mr. Tines wrote:

chazthesilencer#916892 wrote:I’m not prepared to sit through waffle exploring Takano’s back story, she hasn’t been relevant for the entirety of this season - I’ll just be skipping forward.

That was how I felt watching that part of Higurashi Kai back in the day -- so some things haven't changed.

She's like 1000x more relevant to the OG and Kai than Gou lol.

Went out on a whim and gave Mazinkaiser SKL a watch; best I can describe the show as is "shockingly alright". I was expecting a mindless edgefest with zero anything else, and while the first episode certainly was that, two and three were just self-aware enough to be entertaining and do some moderately intewresting things. If only the show wasn't an absolute pixelfest for most battle scenes......
6/10 good watch if you have an hour and a half to kill.

The anime I've watched...Why....I kinda sorta have a sort off pity but I kinda like the antagonist, but I think he utterly stupid, and everything happening is his own fault and his destructive tendecies, and yet....

Why do his cries of pain hurt me so much even tough I'm telling myself "It's ok...Your not like him, you shouldn't be feeling this heart wretching feeling when you ear him screaming, and yet... Why do it hurt even tough it have nothing to do with me, even though I'm nothing like him? Why do I feel compassion for this asholle?

Higurashi -When they Cry literally had me rabidly waiting as each episode was released on HULU.....the last 2 or 3 though it feels like its lost it's way a bit.
I understand this is a reboot and I have never seen the original and have read there are a few differences. Pretty much has gone from mysteriously creepy
and bloody to somewhat mean spirited.

Mr. Tines wrote:And then there's the unexpected star of the season, TVアニメ「PUI PUI モルカー」, which has been good-to-great all season, and, alas, has its last episode tomorrow (07:30 Tuesday in Japan)

But the good news is it is now airing on Netflix.

EvaChero wrote:Higurashi -When they Cry literally had me rabidly waiting as each episode was released on HULU.....the last 2 or 3 though it feels like its lost it's way a bit.
I understand this is a reboot and I have never seen the original and have read there are a few differences. Pretty much has gone from mysteriously creepy
and bloody to somewhat mean spirited.

If you're talking about Gou, its not a reboot. Its a direct sequel to the OG anime and Kai.

If you're talking about Gou, its not a reboot. Its a direct sequel to the OG anime and Kai.

I would definitely like to see it then. I had read some stuff on line but you know how that goes.....