What anime are you watching right now? Summer 2016 to now

[Alaska Slim]

Goblin Slayer: Goblin’s Crown-
30 minutes are spent at the start recapping material you’ve already seen (same animation, no new scenes);

Yeah, I nearly thought it was just a recap movie and dropped it on the spot. The story beats from the old episodes were captivating just long enough for me to realize "oh wait, at this rate, they'll get through the series long before it hits the end running time."

Bare-bones plot with no twists

No sexual assault in the beginning of the story.

SPOILER: Show

Instead it's in the middle. And mercifully not shown.

Oh, the Goblin Paladin gets the girl's sword, and may have even been the thing that put him in that class. That's a minor twist.

I had to chuckle at the shoe-horned cameo by the buxom redhead at the end, she had no business being in the guild building and the story never required her presence, but hey- this is the Goblin Slayer movie, right? Got to sneak in an appearance by… wait, what’s her name?... “Cow Girl”? That’s actually her name? Blimey…
Come to think of it- very few names are given in this world. Most characters are only identified by their race or vocation. What are they, Naknadans?

From what I understand it's apart of following DnD RPG conventions. Characters are named by just their class until a player takes up that role, or the NPC is of a certain degree of importance.

The writer even envisioned this as being a RPG campaign people could play, and wanted them to insert their own names to better identify with the characters.

[*]OreGairu / My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU: 3rd Season- It feels like exercise, watching this. You just can't relax. Every other line of dialog can potentially break someone.

Did you notice that the sky in the OP ending shot changes? (Ep 1 vs Ep 3) I was looking specifically at that very shot for difference and I still didn't catch on till episode 4.

Partly as I was looking in the wrong place; I thought it'd be the tea set.

Not sure what it's meant to signify, maybe Yukino's emotional state?

[Gendo'sPapa]

I watched an episode of Rent a Girlfriend and am now trying to wrap my brain around how such a trash anime can have such superb animation. Like there isn’t a bad frame of animation in it but the story And characters were hot garbage. Was foolishly hoping it would slightly deal with world of sex work (or the Emotional girlfriend Rental equivalent thing) but it’s just a vehicle lame anime antics.

Might wait until it’s over to hear where it goes before deciding if I should watch the rest. If it ends with the lead having amassed a harem, the girls pining for him and that he “won” a girlfriend (likely the end) I’ll skip. If he learns to grow as a person and actually view women as people (what a concept) I might watch the rest.

Though I saw on Twitter a recent episode framed one of the girls giving the lead dude CPR as something like an erotic kiss so I’m not too hopeful. Having had to perform CPR on someone once I can safely say it is the least erotic act you can think of.

[chee]

Interspecies Reviewers made me crave death in ways that major depressive disorder could only dream of

[Blockio]

That's a very.... vivid description, and based on everything else I've heard about the show, I can't blame you

[chee]

That's a very.... vivid description, and based on everything else I've heard about the show, I can't blame you

It's mental kryptonite my dude. By the end you're gonna feel like the guy from House of Leaves, driving yourself into a frothing madness trying to understand the multiple layers of brain-breaking psychosexual pathology that is INTERSPECIES REVIEWERS. I haven't been this baffled by a series of creative choices since Neil Breen's oeuvre graced my life with its presence.

Also, Great Pretender fucking rules and everyone should watch it.

[Gus Hanson]

Watched the English dub of episode 15 of Cross Ange. Can I just say that the actress who voiced Salamandinay earns nothing but praise from me because her voice is captivating! Just one episode of her character's full debut and I love her every time she speaks, way more than listening to tough and feisty Ange or whiny beta male Tusk.

[Alaska Slim]

I watched an episode of Rent a Girlfriend and am now trying to wrap my brain around how such a trash anime can have such superb animation.

Er... does this help?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3rKrTehORY&vl=en

But come now, don't you find honesty in the fapping? Isn't this just like in the The End of Evangelion?

A boy laying bare his frustration with the world? Multiple times? So it's extra-super-special-awesome honest?

Truly, I've never seen a whole ED dedicated to fapping. I hope Moyoco Anno is taking notes for a Memoirs adaptation.

[Blockio]

I watched an episode of Rent a Girlfriend and am now trying to wrap my brain around how such a trash anime can have such superb animation.

Hot garbage having stellar execution wasted on it is sadly not something unheard of

One of my favoriute examples of this is Valvrave the Liberator; Openings and Endings by T.M. Revolution and/or Eliza, Character designer by the person behind D.Gray Man, mechanical design by Naohiro Washio, the animation was fluent and pretty as all hell and even the setup was promising; but the whole thing was a narrative downwards spiral from basically the first episode on, and ended in being a complete idiot plot
[/rant]

[robersora]

Anime at large always pandered at a demographic so repressed and juvenile I struggled to understand at age 13 as a closeted gay person, but thankfully there's almost no year where not at least 1 worthwhile thing comes into existence, and that is enough.

[Justacrazyguy]

I don't even understand how Rent a Girlfriend, what is likely the trashy anime of the season, is getting so much attention. Granted, its mostly sequels this season, so I guess people are starved for something new, but surely there is some better stuff in the other 10 or so original anime that are coming out.

I had to only watch the trailer to immediately nope out of that one.

I don't think Great Pretender fucking rules like chee wrote, but it sure is a better way to pass the time. Or Re Zero, or Oregairu, or Fire Force, or Appare Ranman, or literally anything else. Uzaki is probably better.

[silvermoonlight]

I don't even understand how Rent a Girlfriend, what is likely the trashy anime of the season, is getting so much attention. Granted, its mostly sequels this season, so I guess people are starved for something new, but surely there is some better stuff in the other 10 or so original anime that are coming out.

Rent a girlfriend reminds me of the Citrus situation some years back as everyone banged on about how great it was even though it has non-consenting kissing all the worst Yuri/shoujo ai tropes possible and was a genuinely crappy anime with awful characters but had huge animation values. My take from this is these animes don't last long term as they are in the moment animes. Only popular during their time frame but in five to ten years no one will give a damn about them or even remember them.

[Alaska Slim]

I don't think Great Pretender fucking rules like chee wrote, but it sure is a better way to pass the time. Or Re Zero, or Oregairu, or Fire Force, or Appare Ranman, or literally anything else. Uzaki is probably better.

Deca dence is the best anime this season IMO. Its sense of pacing is right on; it's incredible to me how much ground was covered in just 6 episodes. The show bounces between the Natsume story of wanting to overcome yourself in a world telling you to know your place, and Kaburagi's story of overcoming his fear to act in a depressingly materialistic society while losing the relevance of neither. Both stories remain resonant even as you the viewer get the look behind the scenes that makes Natsume's struggle seem moot. By the conclusion I'm convinced this show will be regarded right below Gurren Lagaan in the whole "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!?" vibe. It's original content done right.

Appare is... dumb as it keeps fumbling with character motivations. Equally, characters are amazing one moment then dumb the next because plot/ the scene demands it. I like the Western soundtrack though, not sure I've heard any similar since Trigun.

Oregairu is struggling with weaker material in its last two volumes. For progressing relationships, I get that whatever event Yukino used to show up YukiMom! it had to at least be tangentially related to the school, otherwise Iroha and the other side characters would have no reason to participate. Still, a prom feels weak as that vehicle. I feel like Yukino is becoming Clarissa Mao, before she decided terrorism was the right way to steal the spotlight from her sister.

Oregairu is still good though, and serves as a strike contrast to Rental Girlfriend as where the former understands how to add dimensions to characters, and how people talk and react, the latter is knee-jerk in its reliance on tropes.

I couldn't really stand Fire Force. Just like with Index, invoking nuns 'cause style just irks me, and the conceit of the always smiling protag felt annoying.

Digimon 2020 (just to throw in something else) is a force in animation (better than Tri, or anything short of the original Digimon OVAs), and its switch up of the characters personalities is interesting to watch. However, it's also emotionally less resonant. Tai didn't "earn" Ultimate (perfect) nearly as well as he did in Digimon Adventure. It also feels like this Digimon has adopted older Shounen conventions, which is strange for a series already 20 years old.

SPOILER: Show

But Ikkakumon swimming in a desert. LOL.

[Justacrazyguy]

Deca dence is the best anime this season IMO.

Deca dence has been frustrating me, unfortunately.
It's mostly gorgeous, with sakuga and pretty animation on every episode(I'll ignore the CG) and the direction, while not flashy, is solid, but I'm not enjoying my time with it at all.

For starters, I've yet to connect with any of the characters. As you said, a lot of ground has been covered, and many dramatic turns have happened, none of which have had much of an effect on me.

SPOILER: Show

I think most of it is due to not liking the second episode twist: the robots, AI, things? have really unattractive designs to me and my mind wanders whenever they are on screen, which is unfortunately a lot of the time.

I just wish we could spend some more time with the girl and see if maybe I finally start caring about her

[silvermoonlight]

Toradora
I was genuinely surprised by this one as I tend to stay well clear from school stuff unless its horror and don't go near harem animes and I made the mistake of ignoring this when it came out as thought that's what it was along with lolicon since the palmtop tiger looks like a kid. But its just so good and its none of that and it handles its romance in a really mature and smart way.

SPOILER: Show

It gives you stereotypes but then around episode 5 everything changes and it starts getting in to the characters layers and problems it plays on the love triangles but then has Ryuji Takas ignores Ami Kawashima as he cares more about Taiga Aisaka (The palm top tiger) If you like Asuka you will love her though she more Asuka lite and her struggles with height are so relatable if you were ever short in school.

Also, it's generally funny with the same punchy humour as Dragonmaid just not as extreme and Ami Kawashima and Taiga Aisaka verbal sparing is utterly hilarious.

Parasyte
This is a generally good anime, if you like body horror or ever wanted to know what the thing from the 1982 movie would be like if it had the time to get to know the victim, from a horror standpoint its so good and delivered really perfectly sadly one thing lets it down though and stops it being as brilliant as but could be.

SPOILER: Show

The outdated gender politics though are really jarring and utterly stupid in places I know the manga was written in the 80s and I wish the anime had just set itself in the 80's and not the modern day as it would have fixed this whole issue but it doesn't it decides to give people modern internet and phones and curbs none of these outdated issues or reframes them making it look utterly stupid and well behind all the anime coming out around it.

Despite this issue I'd still say watch it, just be prepared to be utterly jarred at times.

[chee]

I don't think Great Pretender fucking rules like chee wrote

seething in film nerd THE EDITING THE BLOCKING THE COLORS THE CHARACTERS THE FRAMING THE CHARACTER SAKUGA THE SHEER LACK OF DUMB ECCHI BULLSHIT EVERYBODY'S AN ADULT abby best girl of the year

[Justacrazyguy]

It's all good, I don't disagree, It's just not anything above "good" in my view. I doesn't tower high and above all other anime I'm watching this season. Also, I find the bright digital backgrounds kind of ugly.

And hey man, I like some ecchi bullshit from time to time.

[robersora]

^
If your and my taste in Anime were points on a chart, they would be the furthest possible points from each other, lmao. So I'm curious how I'll like Decadence.

[Justacrazyguy]

^
If your and my taste in Anime were points on a chart, they would be the furthest possible points from each other, lmao. So I'm curious how I'll like Decadence.

I do sometimes wonder if Evangelion is the only thing we have in common!

---

Bubblegum Crash: The continuation (sort of) of the well know first OVA. Unfortunately, it is inferior in many ways.

Not because of the animation, which while feeling a little less flashy, is still good looking (as good looking as it gets on the garbage quality I found it on)and the OST is still a highlight,with the OP being catchy as anything on the original. This anime was made in the first years of the 90s, but it still sweats the 80s.

The biggest problem here is that the episodes just aren't interesting. You lounge around for 20 minutes of set up and boring dialogue that leads up to pretty, but not very exciting battles. The first episode is by far the weakest, with the other two being just OK most of the time.
The direction doesn't help with it's blandness, having only a couple of interesting compositions in nearly hour long episodes is tortuous.

It's hard to recommend this unless you really liked seeing the original cast and want a bit more of that.
6/10

[Zusuchan]

Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I've watched all 12 episodes and loved them all. The visuals and music were superb, as were the surreal witch fights and the plot, themes and character development were all stunningly done. Ultimately, it's a beautiful, multi-faceted story. Certainly among my favorites.

[Justacrazyguy]

Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust: If you’ve seen any other of Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s work you know more or less what you’re getting into:

Very detailed character designs, manly men doing manly things, loads of blood, the usual.

That said, this particular movie is gorgeous even by the man’s high standards, the backgrounds especially are a thing to behold.
Also great is the music, unusually composed by an westerner, although that isn’t the only non Japanese thing here. The movie was originally released with English voiceover! Something which confused me a bit. I decided to go with the Japanese dub, but to be honest, I didn’t even hear the English voices. Maybe they’re good? I admit it’s a bit hypocritical of me to watch a dub over the original language, but I couldn’t help it.

It’s a bit of a shame the story, while good, can’t quite live up to the rest of the movie, until, that is, we reach the final segment, all the way from when they enter the castle till the end. That sequence is the highlight of the movie and is without hesitation a 10/10 for me. From the amazing architecture, to the story hitting all the romantic and dramatic peaks, there isn’t a single weak spot here.

Which makes it harder than usual to score this movie. I'm trowing out a 8/10, but I can see that rising quickly on a rewatch.

Ai City: Very, VERY 80s movie, with some gorgeous visuals and a silly but fun story and a great OST. Also, a loli keeps saying papa over and over, make of that what you want.
7/10