What anime are you watching right now? Sep2011-May2012

[symbv]

I guess watching short anime PV also count as watching anime, right? Besides watching tons of this season's anime, I also took a glimpse at the PV scene and animation quality is not bad...

One example is the PV used by the keirin (bike race gambling) in Nagoya. As a sign of the spread of moe style, it adopted a "mahou shoujo" with high power moe attributes as its mascot and got Madhouse to make a PV out of it (with extremely denpa song/bgm to match).
http://youtu.be/MCkSRCm1LEE

Official website: http://pist-star.com/index.html

OMAKE:
Also watching PV from an ero-game called Dracu-Riot
http://youtu.be/uXSrZ84A0kc

[InstrumentalityOne]

One example is the PV used by the keirin (bike race gambling) in Nagoya. As a sign of the spread of moe style, it adopted a "mahou shoujo" with high power moe attributes as its mascot and got Madhouse to make a PV out of it (with extremely denpa song/bgm to match).
http://youtu.be/MCkSRCm1LEE

Official website: http://pist-star.com/index.html

D:

Saw Katanagatari up to episode 8.

Soo umm,

SPOILER: Show

FUCKEN SOLAR POWERED ROBOTS

[bobbyfischer's ghost]

I'm re-watching eva for the first time in three years. can't wait for over the rainbow. I also watched Mirai nikki episode 22 and Another episode 11.

[Final Messenger]

Watched persona 4 the animation episode 24, I thought it was a really good episode Adachi seemed far more crazy here than in the game.

Also I think this is a new enemy I don’t remember it in the game


And the moment I have been waiting so long for

SPOILER: Show

Oh fuck the hell yes.

Next week should be very good, I’m a little disappointed that the true ending will be absent from the series but that could be remedied with a OVA, a movie or perhaps a season 2 to include the winter months that will be in P4 the golden. It did do well enough to get one of these three options.

[Fireball]

Blood: The Last Vampire was rotting in my backlog for quite some time now so I got around and watched it finally. It was fairly straightforward and grounded but at the same time it was also a bit boring. Animation and production quality was what you expect from I.G. Interestingly enough characters were constantly shifting between the Japanese and English language because this took place in an American airbase on Okinawa which gave the whole thing a very international feeling. I'm intrigued by the setting though I'm not sure if I should invest myself in the alternative version Blood+.

Also started with Mobile Fighter G Gundam. Though I've seen the first few episodes before so nothing new, but I'm looking forward to a lot of manliness and silly Gundam designs.

[soul.assassin]

....because this took place in an American airbase on Okinawa...

BTLV took place on Yokota Airbase, which is near Tokyo; Blood+ was initially in Okinawa.

Only the latter -- the Okinawa arc -- is veiled political commentary, Oishii's criticism towards the US military presence in the islands.

[Fireball]

I see, I got that mixed up. So, is the series any good?

[ZapX]

Final Messenger, that's Death. He's very hard to beat and he's kind of a hidden boss.

I thought this ep was pretty disappointing. Weird, random pacing and didn't flow like it did in the game. Just felt really weird and kind of rushed. I sure hope the finale is better than this.

[Twin Drive Sigma Aquarion]

So I finally got around to watching the infamously obscure SD Gundam Mark 5 (and the mini episode of SD Gundam Mark 2 everyone except ANN and Tankred forgot existed). I never thought I would see an anime where Hyaku Shiki was a pimp, mobile suits were made of clay, the Zaku bros and Musha gundams return, Agguguy becomes a main character and partner of Re-GZ, and a Barzam morphing into a dragon-like weapon. Not as good as 1, 2, and Counterattack, but still enjoyable nonetheless and better than 3 and 4.

[Final Messenger]

Final Messenger, that's Death. He's very hard to beat and he's kind of a hidden boss.

Oh so that was death, I never wound up fighting him, I had heard he was extremely difficult and pops out of treasure chests on new game plus I tried avoiding him like the plague . weird though that Adachi is able to control death.

[Defectron]

Just watched the rumiko takahashi tenth anniversery urusei yatsura oav that came out not long ago. Well this was a fun anime, had some decently funny parts. Also the animation was really good, I suppose this is what urusei yatsura with a really high animation budget looks like.

On the other hand though it also felt kind of forced much of the time, sort of like a classic joke a good comedian tells and then he stops for about fifteen years, when he tells that joke again it might not come out quite right. Some parts felt a lot like that when compared to the older urusei yatsura anime. Despite that though it was still a fun watch.

[Xard]

Welp, time to brutally slug three disappointing anime titles I've finished during last 48 hours.

For sake of somewhat nicer arc and tone for the post I'm proceeding from the absolute worst to "least bad" in order.


Gyo OVA



well damn now I'm struggling to find anything to add to that.

Okay, the character design is good and the hand drawn animation is mostly between passable and good.

All the rest is irredeemable junk.

It's not like Gyo was Junji Ito's best work to begin with but didn't this shit it up well and good. The whole title is basically a one hour guide through all trademarks of horrible directing and utter incompetence in writing department. It's unintentional comedy gold and I was laughing so hard in places (where I shouldn't have) that my eyes watered.

Think of every tired cliche and trick you find from horror films, smash them up, execute them with mindboggling incompetence and voila, you have something that resembles this OVA. The idea of sea life getting, uhh, legs and wrecking shit up is glorious in the first place and genuinely threatening with Ito's fantastic art but with scenes this haphazardly put together and handled what sense of threat there was in original is utterly gone. Add some seriously out of place ridiculous fanservice to some of these scenes and we're done.

Actually even if the directing and writing hadn't been such mind boggling hackjobs any sense of horror would've been doomed to disappear by atrocious CGI used in animating the critters (not to mention the cheap, ridiculous effect used to illustrate the rotten smell LOL).

Pacing is terrible too (as probably goes without saying) and a real rushjob especially in the beginning.

Characters are onedimensional and a lot of the time utterly nonsensical (scientist guy) or pointless screen time hoggers (main chick's two friends). The main chick's nonplussed reaction to all crazy disturbing shit going down in her life becomes fun on its own right and the effect is only made better by seriously wooden voice acting with her (and rest of the cast too). I haven't heard this wooden voice acting in anime in a long time. Speaking of audio side of the effort the "epic" soundtrack is ill-fitting and sounds more suitable for Elder Scrolls title than any horror story.

But not even the characters don't really compare to shittyness of story that is jumpy, jerky and clumsy and utterly nonsensical to a point you can't piece it together even if you try. Needless to say there are holes and questionable transitions between set pieces to share with dozen of other anime titles.

Utter piece of shit that has significant comedy value (the scene where above screenshot comes from being one of the unquestionable highlights of sheer hilarity)

3/10

ps. I can't get my head around the fact the guy who directed and storyboarded this is the same guy who directed the fantastic fifth Kara no Kyokai film. WTF

Guilty Crown


Why can't I hold all this fail in these hands

The series ended like it started: as a clusterfuck of horrible writing, inept directing, lifeless characters combined with underwhelming, disappointing music by Supercell and good visuals.

I don't really have much to say about Guilty Crown's badness as it's quite self-evident for most viewers and you can dig up a number of lenghty WTF WAS UP WITH THAT SHIT ENDING threads from /a/ if one wants to - hell even the picture is from wrong episode (as I didn't bother to take a single screencap). The Da'ath business was so badly written and incomprehensible Instrumentality knockoff I don't even want to try to talk about it.

There are two things I want to give a special shout outs for though:

- The indestructibility of Slut-Sheryl

oh fuck you writers, fuck you. You cock teased me long and repeatedly only to pull out a knife and castrate my hopes in the final moment. How many false death flags can you cram in for a character for absolutely no reason beyond trolling I wonder.

- THE MOST POINTLESS HEROIC SACRIFICE IN HISTORY OF ANIME

OH

MY

GOD

If you've seen the episode you know the scene I mean. Glassesbro had been watching too much End of Evangelion, I gather.

There's no other explanation

4/10


Nisemonogatari




To say I'm disappointed with Nisemonogatari doesn't quite capture the discontent and empty feeling this installment in Monogatari series ended up giving - and when your friend whose main meter for evaluating anime often seems to be whether the cast members are fappable and if the MC is alpha enough goes and concludes Nise was "very good fap material but not actually good in any other sense" your feelings are probably not entirely off the base.

Of course the blockbuster commercial success of Nisemonogatari can't be avoided but if yaraon slices of episode reactions I followed through the season are indication of anything Japanese audience too seems somewhat underwhelmed and disappointed with it (esp. those unfamiliar with novels and particularly with the ending and content not directly related to the painfully fitting nickname "pornomonogatari"). Which won't stop it from selling well thanks to large fanbase but in any case I doubt many people will come forward to claim this as the highpoint of the overall series.

I had originally written this novel without any plans to publish it. I wrote the entire thing without showing it to anyone. I wanted to hide it away without even making a single printout. In other words, this novel was originally something I was going to keep to myself. So this novel was written 200% to fit my tastes. I very much enjoyed getting to write everything that came from my mind without any arbitrary restrictions.

Yes, there were times when I asked myself, “What the hell are you doing? You’re a professional!” But I think there’s a certain charm to approaching writing as if I were an amateur.

I also thank you the readers for bearing with this novel filled with my dumb stories written without much care.

-Nisio Isin

The series's problems and failures go straight back to source material and Shinbo's stubborn "loyalty" to it: thus the failures of the novel (going by synopsis/reviews by people who've read the originals in Japanese I've seen on net) seem to be identical with the ones of anime adaptation.

You really can tell Nisemonogatari was written for drawer, something he never ment to publish as "official" Monogatari title but got dragged into doing that probably for money. The overbearing self-indulgence (and given that Nise apparently suits "200% his tastes" and he never ment to show it for anyone else makes me think he might've written it as a fap material for himself which would be fitting ) contributes little in terms of valuable material, the writing and its flow has marks of nearly nonexistent editing and the pacing is downright terribad, especially in Tsukihi Phoenix arc that wastes most of its runtime on anything BUT its supposed focus character and issue and then "resolves" itself neatly in anticlimatic, whimpering final showdown of philosophical sophistry and SHAFTesque non-animated fight scene which together with tired imouto fanservice antics led the final episode being almost as disappointing as Guilty Crown's one - certainly it doesn't feel like end of story arc.

Hell, I'm all for chinese essentialist philosophies in principle and using them in story that has its main theme nature of fakeness but NOT when it's done this haphazardly, pseudo-intellectually (I hit the rage button for awful philsophizing for the first time in ep 7 and its incoherent ramblings) and essentially as a window dressing that never leads anywhere or to any interesting conclusions or things to say.

Basically it was just another example of NisiOisiN writing whatever came to his mind and no attempt was made for it to be actually meaningful (even if I find such subjects interesting on their own) for the whole: this inadequency of possible thematic explorations really concerns the writing of Nise in general and was not limited only to this instance.

This combined with the treatment of characters I found generally increasingly offputting and sleazy means the other levels of Nise feel nothing more than window dressing what is essentially a parade of sleazy smut. It's softcore pornography with literary pretensions and genuine artistry in its visuals but they're not enough to change the series's nature into something it isn't.


Koyomi acting out of "fraternal love" and helping his sisters is the excuse to get into imouto fanservice and not vice versa. Fanservice isn't the "superfluous" you can remove from the real meat of the story: it's the supposed "real meat" that is superfluous and dispensible - fanservice is what truly matters in Nise.

It's no different from likes of To Love-Ru Darkness when it comes to merit, another title that pretends to be something that it isn't and tries to deny its real nature (pornography).


The high points of Nisemonogatari that were good:

- the first Hachikuji dialogue and the whole COURAGE thing was brilliant and amusing
- All of episode 8 aka Godly Incestuous Toothbrushing. It's the one episode in which Nise is 100% honest with itself and at its most extreme, thus giving its sleazy smut kind of transcendent aura tha shouldn't be possible. It's helluva good watch too
- Superb art, good music and exceptional animation quality for SHAFT title (unfortunately faltering EXACTLY in the final fight, lol)
- Senjougihara was good occasionally, more so in Karen Bee arc


and that's it.


Good example of bad execution would be how Senjougihara's haircut (HORRENDOUS when we finally get to see it during the very final moments) was handled: something that was ment to symbolize her "moving on" from her past was never shown or elaborated upon despite the crucial importance for her character arc. It was jus stuck there in the end which has confused and enraged viewers unfamiliar with novel spoilers more than anything else. Bad move.


Even worse was the way Senjougihara's and Koyomi's first time was handled earlier. To quote myself

Senjougihara and Araragi probably finally doing the deed was handled poorly as fuck and felt empty. It’s one thing to skip over the sex scene (it can be done well) but entirely another to have the buildup to it feel like nothing and have the scene after dramaturgical ellipse be as trite nonsense as this episode’s ending was.

Contrast the magnificent ep 12 of Bakemonogatari (for example) with the Gahara's implied implications followed by Koyomi returning home and meeting LOL IMOUTO ANTICS WHEEEEEEEEE not even minute later. In absolutely no way are we shown how this crucial step in their relationship affected the two etc. - it's pushed aside to make room for the real deal in Nisemonogatari: KOYOMI ONII-CHAN bullshit.

Oh, and the whole Koyomi-Gahara-Hanekawa dynamic that was introduced and dangled in front of viewers early on? Pretty much completely forgotten for time being without any clear indications it's just foreshadowing developments in further installments (I don't know if that's the case but I hope so).

Then there's how characters were treated. NisiOisiN's artificiality and open metaness has always limited the realness and convincingness of the cast as actual individuals overall with some exceptions (Gahara, Koyomi) to various degrees and in various way Monogatari as harem title has treated the girls as sex objects beyond what most anime fanservice does (ass shots of Major Kusanagi or Misato or Sheryl never "reduced" those three for example) but it was still ok.

Nise on the other hand? Poor Nadeko is nothing but jailbait to be fapped on here: she was always closest to utter objectification in Bake too (Gahara being on opposite of the pool) but they really crossed the line here. There was practically nothing else to her character here.

Kanbaru fared only slightly better thanks to her brand of smutty fanservice having a bit more personality inserted in it. Hachikuji actually came off the best out of the vulnerable bunch and not surprisingly most of the best dialogues were between her and Koyomi.

Gahara was still the singular transcendental girl here, impossible to reduce to mere sexual object, but she was featured nowhere near enough.


What Nise did most painfully however was utter butchering of the Araragi sisters. They could've been so interesting characters on their own right (and Karen kinda is despite all) had the focus truly been on their "playing justice" deal and NOT leering on them and stealing all dignity as characters away from them, emptying both girls of their personalities to point Karen's fighting abilities and fierce personality is little more than superfluous topping on the "IMOUTO FETISH CHARACTER" cake.

Fire Sisters in Nise were reduced ultimately into this archetype and fetish material. This was done through Shinbo's lenses of pornographer that couldn't stop objectifying and downright eating the girls with their gaze EVEN IN WHAT WERE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD SERIOUS SCENES and the writing hellbend on providing endless incidents of sexual tension between girls and Koyomi.

oh right, Tsukihi doesn't count as wincest because she isn't "real sister".

Karen totally didn't want it in ep 8.

Yeah, ok.

I have hard time genuinely getting into characters when the show is too busy almost constantly trying to bait my dick by adding sex appeal to all the underage chicks (SHAAAFT)


Conclusion: Platinum Disappointed


6/10

(yeah, despite all that I can't bring myself give the show lower score than that due to its excellence in art direction and such as my appreciation of anime is in its heart largerly aesthetic. Plus there's smutty brilliance in form of ep 8 that is hard to deny)

[Azathoth]

ps. I can't get my head around the fact the guy who directed and storyboarded this is the same guy who directed the fantastic fifth Kara no Kyokai film. WTF

Frankly Rinne no Lagrange has finally convinced me that even the best new directors in anime are spastic retards at worst and bumbling clowns at best. Half the show is created by someone with a great eye for framing, motion, and most especially the elusive feeling of embodiment; the other half is directed by a HURR I MAEK ANIMATE who can't decide which side of the screen a stationary character should be on.

[Xard]

Frankly Rinne no Lagrange has finally convinced me that even the best new directors in anime are spastic retards at worst and bumbling clowns at best. Half the show is created by someone with a great eye for framing, motion, and most especially the elusive feeling of embodiment; the other half is directed by a HURR I MAEK ANIMATE who can't decide which side of the screen a stationary character should be on.

Lagrange's director isn't exactly new by any standards though so I don't think he counts

I haven't yet caught up with Lagrange (at ep 7 right now) and Pirates so not many comments on Lagrange for now but I think I know what you mean based on those eps

well, apart from "the elusive feeling of embodiment" which just has me raising eyebrows because I don't see it in Lagrange if I understand what you're after with the concept here (and I don't think it's always aesthetic value on its own, Oshii for example has spend most of his career working against the concept)

[soul.assassin]

* About the one show that I appreciated the most was Another, but then Episode 11 just drove itself off the cliff.
* Bake was still superior and coherent compared to Nise, which is too fucking crazy it ingested too much nose candy (only Episode 8 redefined the use of the toothbrush, which is an exception for me).
* Good thing I didn't pick up Guilty Crown.
* Moretsu Pirates is too technical for those too derp and expecting instant PEW PEW action and pantsu on tap.

Frankly Rinne no Lagrange has finally convinced me that even the best new directors in anime are spastic retards at worst and bumbling clowns at best. Half the show is created by someone with a great eye for framing, motion, and most especially the elusive feeling of embodiment; the other half is directed by a HURR I MAEK ANIMATE who can't decide which side of the screen a stationary character should be on.

In a nutshell, I think you were so angry about the mistakes that you've dropped it.

Now if only the late Noburo Ishiguro were to survive his illness alive and thought of setting up a school for anime directing, none of us would ever be seeing screw-ups like now.

I'll try to watch Ozma later.

[InstrumentalityOne]

Eh, Nise certainly wasn't all that good, but I did enjoy it thoroughly(uhh).
Yeah, the pacing was crap and it totally destroyed the Bake level of interaction after the first episode, but it wasn't all that bad.
In Bake he made a bunch of friends and in Nise he interacts with them more and we get to see more of his sisters which were only shown and mentioned briefly.

I'd like to look at it as a breather and setting of a stage for the next few books/anime, with it's many (sometimes poorly) introduced elements.
What will become of Araragi's family? Will some waruiman tell his dad?
Karen and Kanbaru?
And Shinobu's new form and new found power? What will come of it?

And I really enjoyed seeing the characters I like so much again, which really does say something because they're still the same and did not get completely butchered.
That's basically it.

[User-iel]

@ Xard - - Late reply - Thank you for the advance warning concerning "Gyo OVA ." Is it perhaps more concise to liken this to the anime exploitation version of the horror film "The Host?" The general description seemed similar to me.

[Fireball]

Can't add anything to what Xard said about Gyo and Nise since I pretty much said the same in a less elaborated manner. Very dissapointing in both cases.

[Ornette]

exceptional animation quality for SHAFT title

I still don't get why it's surprising to get exceptional animation quality for a SHAFT show. Having seen just about every show that SHAFT has produced, it's by far the norm, moreso than any other studio and with some shows that are mindboggling well done for a TV series with quality that surpasses some animated movies. It's not to say that everything they do is flawless, everyone succumbs to time and budget, but their track record over the last 10 or so years is pretty evident.

[InstrumentalityOne]

^
A lot of people on /a/ probably only watched SHAFT shows like Madoka and maybe Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei which did look "Meguca" at times. (Especially the Broadcast versions)
And that's probably where this whole SHAFT QUALITY thing comes from.
Bake's broadcast version was supposedly a bit unpolished, too.

moreso than any other studio and with some shows that are mindboggling well done for a TV series with quality that surpasses some animated movies

Yeah, this gets me every time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZF0nbX-6RI