What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2014

[Alaska Slim]

Grisaia No Rakuen Ep 8



She nearly died from starvation and exposure, had a broken arm, so of course she loses just a hand and is otherwise fine. This from the same series that was thoughtful enough to have another character die due to complications from a non-lethal bullet wound they had received years ago.


... Oh and the girl here has a submarine because *internet*. And here I thought the images of it in the OP before were just stylization.


Yeah, no sidestepping the fact now, this series is capable of being smart, but it delights too often in being dumb; making for a lopsided experience. The characterization at times has merit, but they can't overcome the trashy, pandering hentai-dating sim premise they have to operate in.

[Bagheera]

Heroic Legend of Arslan 10: Holy shit, this was a good ep. It's like everyone is saying, "lol, your silly idealism will never work" combined with "But holy fuck, you really believe in that shit and I wanna give you the chance on the off chance you can do something." Basically, they know this system is fucked, but this kid is doing everything he can for them, and so they feel like they have to give him a chance. It's glorious in its way. I have no idea where it will end up going, but damned if it's not worth the ride.

[Dr. Nick]

Ai City:
So apparently this title was among the first japananimes to be licensed in the west during the heyday of the VHS. I envy the people whose first exposure to anime this was because it's kind of bonkers even by the 1980s OVA rules. It has plenty of the usual stuff - shading, cyborgs and tentacles - but also some really trippy reality-bending as well, and it's entirely set in the USA. Recommendation: watch this as a double feature with California Crisis.

Guardian Hearts Power Up:
Well, that's definitely the first time I've seen a recap episode in a four-episode OVA. And another thing I didn't expect: bloody limb-chopping torture. On a plus side, after this Natsuru doesn't really feel like that worthless of a harem main character.

Tokyo ESP:
Rarely have I wanted to like a show as much as this one. The concept seems like an action anime dream come true - a light-hearted X-Men pastiche set in the Ga-Rei-verse - but as much as it pains me to say this, Tokyo ESP is in some crucial ways the complete opposite of the things that made Ga-Rei Zero so awesome: It's one of those "just read the manga" type of adaptations with no proper self-contained story, the visuals devolve into QUALITY and initially very cool-looking villains devolve into needlessly gruesome idiots. And then there's the problem of tone. I absolutely adore the way anime oftentimes doesn't give a damn about genre boundaries (a feature it shares, I've been told, with western cape comics). But some things just don't gel together, and in Tokyo ESP's case its self-professed light-heartedness (just look at the opening!) clashes shockingly hard with its ripped-from-the-headlines terrorist violence. Ga-Rei Zero ugly demons and buckets of gore, but Tokyo ESP's violence just seems so much nastier in comparison, mostly because it's largely just innocent civilians being suddenly bombed to bits. And it's not that I mind the fictional terrorism - the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is the underdog faction, so it makes sense for them to use all means in their disposal, including molotovs and nail bombs - but the way it's executed here just screams "no fun allowed" in a show that's clearly meant to be based on fun. The main cast is lots of fun and they manage to do some really fun things with their fairly generic superpowers, the cameos are fun and the McGuffin, a fairly literal mystery box at that, is roariously funny, but that just isn't enough. I wish Ei Aoki would have directed this show as well, but unfortunately he can apparently only direct shows with the word "zero" in the title, so Tokyo ESP kinda got fucked there.

[pwhodges]

I finished Tsuritama. Not a great show, but a very good one, and a most enjoyable one. There's nothing revolutionary or especially deep about the plot and the underlying themes, but things are well balanced, and the show proceeds with excellent pacing (and zany humour) to a suitably gripping finale. As I find with a lot of anime, even those which otherwise seem uninteresting, there are quite wide-ranging references to be found. Haru has parallels with Saint-Exupéry's "Little Prince", and the brief appearance of conch shells on a couple of heads links into Hindu mythology, for instance. The duck, Tapioca, is plain to look at, without the exotic appearance of our favourite penguin; but Tapioca gets sucked into the action and does a couple of awesome things while Pen-pen just sits and reads.

Even the fact that I find fishing a distasteful activity was swept aside by this delightful show.

(Don't get put off by Yuki's stupid "angry face" in the first couple of episodes - they tire of using it quite quickly.)

[Defectron]

Ai City:
So apparently this title was among the first japananimes to be licensed in the west during the heyday of the VHS. I envy the people whose first exposure to anime this was because it's kind of bonkers even by the 1980s OVA rules. It has plenty of the usual stuff - shading, cyborgs and tentacles - but also some really trippy reality-bending as well, and it's entirely set in the USA. Recommendation: watch this as a double feature with California Crisis.

Though this wasn't the first, it was one of the early animes I saw. Don't forget it also has the biggest troll ending in the history of anime, seriously this makes psg's ending look like it wasn't trying to troll people at all. I remember I got gasmask to stream this haha I wish I could have seen the look on his face when the ending happened.

[Alaska Slim]

Hyouka

JESUS CHRIST WOMAN  SPOILER: Show

Over the years, I've begun to notice that I exhibit a slight case of anthropophobia whenever I'm in a crowd and stressed out, or in a place I simply don't want to be. And while anime coming across as uncannily visceral is not unusual for me, Grisaia last week being an example, *this* series, is the first to have ever vicariously *activated* that dislike of human proximity.

The off-kelter yet persistent way the girl makes her approach, the elaborate *ensnaring* imagery, the OVA-quality animation capturing every single detail in how she cuts off his escape...

... It was so bad that it had me in tears.

If I were in the MC's place, I would have given her three seconds, before I pulled out my pen and started to carve my personal space out of her plush, moe-blob exterior.


... So yeah, props to the director, they sure know to make someone UNCOMFORTABLE. Seriously, they could be giving Hideaki Anno pointers on that sort of thing.

[pwhodges]

I decided to watch Akame ga Kill, just because... Was that a good idea? Well, yes and no. Yes, because it's actually ridiculously entertaining so long as you can handle the gore; and no, because I can see from here (nearly halfway) that the whole thing is going to be unsatisfying.

Half a dozen eps in, I was thinking it was following the downward spiral of Death Note (which I dropped), with the protagonists deciding to take out more and more arbitrary targets, just because they could, and thus, like Light Yagami, transforming their original quest to do good into an evil slaughter-fest. But then they started dying off themselves, and their targets started getting more focussed, both of which were improvements. In some respects, it's now more like Mirai Nikki, say, in that there is a coherent reason for the bloodbath-a-week storyline, but it's still not really a terribly good one.

So the plot is weak, but will do; what about the characters? Pretty much the same, really. Tatsumi is ridiculously endearing, skilled, naive and lucky - not to mention generic. Quite fun to watch, but boring in that you just know that he'll pull through with little more than a scratch, on alternate occasions through his own skill and by being rescued. The rest of Night Raid are basically cutouts to keep him company - we see their skills, a little background, and then one by one they die. What's missing here is any character interaction. Even at a harem level. The villains are much the same - mostly dead before there's anything to be intriguing about them (but that just seems to be changing with the formation of the Jaegers).

I expect I'll watch this to the end with only half my attention, and enjoy doing so. Then I'll forget it.

[Bagheera]

So I was right to give it a pass, then. Good to know.

[bobbyfischer's ghost]

Gintama° Episode 10:

So it's the first in line of episodes that deal with gender swapping aliens, so as you would expect there are a lot of jokes dealing with the day to day task exclusive men and women. Ginto.. I mean Ginko learning how to use the facilities was entertaining to say the least. Kagura changed into some sort of war general(maybe from a feudal era manga Jump is trying to push)not sure. The funniest gag thus far was the slight change in Shinpachi glasses from their normal black frame to a pink one. Glad they keep the glasses gag alive even after all this time. Gender swap Sougo is actually pretty hot.(sucker for ponytail's)

also:

SPOILER: Show

Thank You!

Edit: BTW when I try to preview my message I get a blank.

[TehDonutKing]

So I was right to give it a pass, then. Good to know.

I dropped it at the first episode. It was too edgy for me.

[IronEvangelion]

I watched a youtube video about Nadia SBW: The Motion Picture. Thank goodness I only watched that short video instead of the actual film. Every bad show I've ever watched seems to suck less now.

[pwhodges]

Well, I finished it (Akame ga Kill), as I said I would. It was kinda fun, in a garish way; but it was really pretty bad. There were some ideas that could have been good, but they mucked them up, every time. At least it was consistent that way. They could have made something of the moral ambiguities in the story, and I suppose they tried, but it was done in such a ham-fisted way that it just fell flat. It never succeeded in generating any real suspension of disbelief - instead I spent a lot of time noting where they had lifted each idea from...

I liked the ED songs (they had my favoured touch of melancholy about them). The second OP was a curious patchwork, the first part of which was lifted straight from Mirai Nikki - first time I heard it I actually laughed.

Oh, and the wrong girl got the guy, sorta, but as he was dead at that point and she was on the point of death, it didn't really matter much.

[Mr. Tines]

So I watched the first couple of episodes of the new Gainax magical girl sentai show -- which is being less of a blatant Subaru ad than the ONA on which it expands. So far it comes over as bland (there's not even any sense of tension in the magical girl action sequences) but it's pretty enough, and has at least the virtue of providing a its own style of visuals and maguffin hunt.

Edit: BTW when I try to preview my message I get a blank.

That's because you have a non-ASCII character in your post (the 8th character in the post, in fact) -- it's a known problem with the forum code, which is generally flaky when it comes to extended characters.

I dropped [Akame ga Kill] at the first episode. It was too edgy for me.

There's a benefit, I find, to letting /a/ pre-watch everything for me. Or, in this case, read the manga ahead of the adaptation. The production committee clearly kept Takahiro on a tight leash when he went on to script YuYuYu.

[Fireball]

JoJo

that fucking OP

[Final Messenger]

JoJo

that fucking OP

I think that was the first time I ever jumped out of my seat out of excitement due to a op

[Alaska Slim]

Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabu Kome wa Machigatteiru (Oregairu) Zoku ep 11

The splendor that is MEGANENON!  SPOILER: Show

Rushed, but not as bad as last time. The only two things I'd complain about is, first, that it felt as if the episode was consistently failing to properly set up the next scene, so the viewer would be confused as to what was happening next. Second, the running scene didn't strike quite the right tone.

Hachiman had his final confrontation with Hayamoto during the annual sports festival. I didn't see the show mention it anywhere, it just happens.

Additionally, when Hayamoto tells Hachiman "I hate you", the scene seems to imply it's just an amazing off-kelter way of him showing Hachiman affection. The Light Novel however makes it clear that this is likely what he genuinely feels, and Hachiman may be the same.

All other significant scenes were done well. The rumor reveal, Hachiman's growth with Totsuka,
Yumiko's confrontation in the club room (although she was supposed to get physical), Hachiman's chat with Haruno, the infirmary scene (probably the best one), and the after-party.

Zoimikuza and Kawasaki scenes were cut for time (don't begrudge that decision). But it seems that we will be getting something of the former in the next episode, which means, 6.5 is getting an adaptation after all. I don't recognize the announced plots in either ep 12 or 13, so they likely both derive from there.

[robersora]

I've rewatched the first Ghost in the Shell and Utena movie. Both of them hold up eerily well. In fact, I feel like I enjoy them more now than I ever have before, haha.

[Dr. Nick]

Perhaps I just haven't been watching the right shows, but it seems to me that anime doesn't really dabble all that much with genuine satire, instead opting more for a meta point-and-laugh commentary (see: many, many chapters in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei). Or it may be that sometimes these things are just well-hidden: surprisingly enough, Cross Ange of all shows actually turned out to have some decently heavy satirical bite to it towards the end, once its pretty cool main villain got properly introduced. If only the show had had an actually competent director, we might have gotten something genuinely good.

A proper minor classic can be found in the 1980s. Call Me Tonight is a very unique treat: it's a short and focused 30-minute burst of sharp satire aimed at a target that's both vulnerable and deserving. Its story, which is superficially one half Chick tract and one half Stephenie Meyer romance, takes the absolute piss out of the whole naughty tentacles genre, so if you're a connoisseur of the smarter kind of borderline hentai, definitely give this one a go.

Master of Martial Hearts is harder to pin down. Based on the final episode alone, one could make the case the OVA is in fact a brutal takedown of the braindead panty fighter genre. The show seems to be going out of its way to say "This is horrible and you should feel horrible." But then again, whatever might be interpreted as satire is all part of a big ending twist that's buried beneath four completely bog-standard episodes of z-grade panty fighting, so if it's actually meant as satire, it definitely risks losing its audience before it gets to say its piece. Competing theories suggest that the ending is a result of sabotage by a hostile director (a claim I find unlikely, considering that his resume contains earlier examples of unabashed sleaze), or that it's shocking purely for shock value's sake without any intended subtext. In a way, the situation resembles School Days and its famous ending. What motivations can you read into the the whole nice boat thing?

My thanks go to Squigs for introducing me to this show. It wasn't quite Brazilian Mega Man, which is unfortunate, but I can definitely see how the final episode is said to have caused a veritable meltdown when the gentlepeople of /a/ watched it streamed.

[Alaska Slim]

Anohana

Enjoyed it. Bordered on underhanded the way it tried to work in Pokemon references, but that's also where you slipped up, Anahano! For you see...

I NEVER TRADED WITH ANYONE! Not even online! Manipulation, denied. Oooh, I do believe I just scored some Hachiman points.

~Anyway~, I thought the show had lost it when it was blatantly made apparent that Menma was a ghost, instead of leaving it ambiguous. I feel that the show may have been stronger if the characters had managed to come terms with their guilt and sorrow without clear *supernatural* input... but as the story went on, I did come to get & respect why they decided on the clearly-ghost route.

Part of why I was okay with it, is that the writers *didn't* use the realization to everyone that she was real as a "clean-slate" moment. Instead, they approached the characters as humans, and explored the ramifications in a manner consistent to what they had set up prior. Out of this, we saw that ugliness arose instead of altruism. The characters, unrepentant, continued to lie to themselves until the result of the rocket launched forced them to confront what they were doing.

I also have to lend props to what the show did with Poppo. His lack of a sob story concerning Menma became highly conspicuous towards the end. His moment came so late in fact, that by episode 10, I thought for sure his story had merely been overlooked. He was after all the comedy relief character, and presumably the only one without a love interest from or to anyone else. Whatever pathos he was owed, it was allocated simply to small moments, like when he came to Jintan's house begging for the chance to see Menma...

But that was wrong. It turned out that he had perhaps the worst experience of the lot. And it explains perfectly why he ended up the way he did (although, not exactly where his parents got to.)


... Speaking of "getting over without supernatural influence" though, Menma's mother was never allowed in on her daughter's return. I thought for sure that Menma's "physical growth" was tailored just for relieving the former's grief, nigh the moment she let on that she hated Jintan and his friends for reminding her of Menma's lost life.

But she has to buck her grief the hard way. No two-way goodbye for her. That's just all kinds of suck right there.


I also saw the movie, feared it was just going to be a re-tread of moments of the series. But it turned out to be worthwhile, filling in details simply glanced over in the series.

Honestly though, I'd say it was worse watching, just for...

SPOILER: Show

... Hearing Menma compliment Yukiatsu on how good he looked in that dress.

[pwhodges]

Glad you liked it; these DVDs here on my shelf tell you how much I liked Anohana! But being me, I had no idea about any Pokemon references...