Winter 2014 Anime Season

[Morcombe]

New Season, New Anime, time for a chart

SPOILER: Click to show

So far I have watched 3 shows.

Witch Craft Works
This was really weird lol, A fire witch protects a guy from being kidnapped by another witch who controls big metal rabbit doll things.
The ending theme is awesome and funny it features the witches singing along while showing them in torture devices XD

Nobunaga the Fool
Another weird one, you have 2 planets, one is medieval euorpe and the other fuedal Japan, but they have space travel and giant mecha!! I liked it lol.

Space Dandy
Why is there no normal shows this season thur all weird XD
So this show had a lot of hype and I really dont see it. I seena good comment that summed it up "It's trying to be funny by being stupid but it's just stupid"
It's not a bad show, but it's not very good either, I was just really bored while watching it.

[Kyubey]

First episode opinions:

Hozuki no Reitetsu
Just getting this out of the way right away, I probably won't watch the second episode of this. This does not mean that it is a bad show, nor does it mean that the episode offended me in some way. This is just a show made for an audience that does not include myself. Basically, it's a comedy anime about the upper management of the afterlife. It's a clever idea, and the comedy is rather solid, with a hilarious "fight" sequence in the first half (pheasant for Best Character 2014) and the entire second half being mostly a string of random dialogue between two of the protagonists. Combine that with it's neat Japanese-culture based aesthetic, which was actually the reason I checked the series out in the first place, and you've got a pretty good anime, if this is your cup of tea. However, aside from the general style of the setting and artwork, there's nothing all that special about this one. It's just a string of comedic moments in a weird location. Basically, it's fluff. Some people like fluff. I cannot. Some people can also talk about this kind of fluff a lot better than I can. I will move on.

NOTE: This does not at all mean that I think all comedic works are fluff, nor do I think that they don't have artistic merit. On the contrary, I consider myself a strong supporter of meaningful, funny, inventive comedies. It's just that this show in particular doesn't have anything notable enough to keep me interested. And it is a good show. Just not an interesting one. And even if a show isn't very good, as long as it is intriguing in some way, I will probably watch it. Such is the case with...

Nobunaga the Fool
Oh hey, Morcombe and I have exactly the same opinion on this! Potential is the name of the game with this series, and even though there's not a whole lot I liked about it in general, there's enough little things for me to still want it to do well. The core idea, revolving around an alternate universe where famous historical figures live concurrently in a futuristic society, is nothing short of genius. Ever wonder what would happen if an anime stereotype version of Oda Nobunaga met an anime stereotype version of Joan of Arc? This show has all those answers, and more! Add mech battles and stunning animation to the table, and you've got a solid Saturday Morning Cartoon for history nerds. Kinda shaky on the first episode, but if it does even half of what it could possibly do with its setup, then I'm hooked already.

The Pilot's Love Song
There was so much here that annoyed me. The characters were cliched and bothersome, it never felt like the writers knew what they were doing, the character design is the crappiest crap, it somehow felt rushed and dragged out at the same time, and it's not that much of a stretch to say that in every minute of the episode, there was something new for me to hate. The main character, in particular, is just awful, and is so inconsistent and unfocused I can hardly call him a character at all. The real stars of the show are the planes, and to this anime's credit, the effects are great, and the animation is used to great effect during the flying scenes. The backgrounds are also great, and many a time I was able to forget how shoddy the plot was by just looking at the beauty of the stuff behind them. I will also say that this anime owes a whole lot to the series Last Exile, including the aerial action, the setting, and the dynamics between the lead and his partner (also the appearance of the leads themselves. the heroes of the two anime could easily be twins). And while I did have plenty of problems with Last Exile that I noted in my review thread, it was still far superior than The Pilot's Love Song, which has very little to like. However, my reaction to this is more or less the opposite of my reaction to Hozuki no Reitetsu. I didn't like it, and yet, I can't help but want to keep following it. While the good things were few, they were good enough for me to want to watch more of it, the world itself actually is fascinating, and the lines at the end seemed to set up for some twists that could change the way I view this series forever. One can always hope for the best in the future, right?

Space Dandy
I touched on this briefly in the chatbox, and I will say it again. Anyone who thought we were getting anything like Cowboy Bebop was just asking to be disappointed. This is a very silly series, and I don't think it's really what anyone was hoping it would be. Long story short, Space Dandy may be dandy, but it's not gonna save anime any time soon. However, one can only call it bad when one compares it to the ridiculously high expectations everyone had for it. Take Shinichiro Watanabe's name away from the project, and you have one of the most vibrant, inventive, stylish, and just plain fun sci-fi comedies in years. Dandy himself is a very amusing character, there are enough references and parodies to have a little something for everyone no matter what your tastes are, and the sheer artistry that went into this world is astounding. To understand all there is to be valued about this anime, one need to only watch the opening and ending themes. Sure, it may be a little too blatant and self aware about its fanservice. Sure, the silliness can be a bit much to bear at times. Sure, not everyone will see the value, especially not your modern conventional anime fan. But who can stay mad at a work like this for too long? It's just so... innocently joyful and entertaining. I mean, dang, baby.

And, continuing from last season...

Kill la Kill
Ugh, do I really have to talk about this? I mean, not that I don't like writing about Kill la Kill, it's just that I feel I've already said most of what I have to on Our Inked Obsession, and everything I didn't say has already been covered thoroughly by other critics. Comparing my thoughts now to my thoughts from when the series first began, however, I must commend Studio Trigger for improving the story greatly since it first began. Everything it needed to have then, it has now, and some more stuff I didn't think it could have had. It's a good show!

Samurai Flamenco

I want to like this. I really want to. I loved what it was back when it began. There are parts of it that I dig so much. And I absolutely adore the "we don't give a fuck" attitude that the creators seem to have adopted when telling this story. It does what it wants to, whether it's what anyone else wants from it or not. But when it does so much so jarringly, it's hard to keep along for the ride. As of right now, while I do know how I want to feel about it, I just can't figure out what I actually think about it, or even how I should be feeling. I might watch more of it, but I dunno. For some reason, I always feel exhausted after I see an episode, and not necessarily in a good way, either.

Those're what I watched, and I may watch more later (Nobunagun does seem to have gotten some attention...) but who knows. 2014 is shaping out to be a strange year so far. Such is anime. No matter how far you get, or how much you think you've figured it out, the madness only runs deeper.

[Morcombe]

So how have i done this season so far, as usual nota s wella s I'd hoped I somehow always fall behind despite never actually having anything to do to make me fall behind.

Nisekoi
up to epsiode 9 and this show is just as good as the manga once you get used to shaft's weird animation style. love it.

Noragami
6 episodes down. pretty decent action show about a god trying to make a name for hismelf and killing monsters along teh way with a girl who has become part spirit due to an accident involving him.

Witch Craft Works
9 episode in
This show doenst know wether its a comedy or serious but even still it's awesoem although the main heroine is really overpowered so the villains a
re kinda boring in comparison. even so i still think this is worth watching

Yowamushi Pedal
21 episodes and it's continuing into spring woo.
THIS. SHOW. IS. AWESOME. that is all

D-Frag! & Engaged to the Unidentified
Currently watched 9 episodes for each.
These 2 shows are absolutely hilarious and the best comedy anime I've seen in a while.

Kuroko no Basket & Haime no Ippo: Rising
Seen 22 episodes of Kuroko and 20 Episodes of Ippo.
seeing Murasakibara and Eagle in animated form is great.
Ippo still has so much to cover so I hope we'll get season 4. Kuroko needs a little more manga content for a season 3.

Hamataora
Only watched 2 episodes but it's interesting so far

Killa la Kill
I've reached episode 16 and hoy shit this is one fucked up show, Ragyou has a serious screw loose and Nui is the biggest bitch in anime av seen in ages. Kick all thur asses Ryouko!!

Magical Warfare
one episode in and it's your typical light novel adapted anime with magical flying action and stuff, same old same old really. But then I like this genre so guess thats good for me lol.

Maken-Ki! 2
well any hint of the story from season 1 and the evil organisation has pretty much been abandoned in favour of pure fanservice. havn't read the manga so i dunno if these are just fanservice filler eps or not but i have read on wikia that they should have fought the evil organisation by now so I'm pretty sure its just ecchi filler. really, really pointless show unless your watching it for the boobs.

Strike the Blood
up to episode 16 and can't really say anything i havn't already. it's a good action show.

DROPPED
Space Dandy and Nobunaga the Fool.
I watched episode 2 of Dandy and the show just doenst appeal to me and i never bothered continuing nobunaga.

[Morcombe]

Kill la Kill.
Just an outstanding show, I fucking loved this and will miss it greatly.

D-Frag! & Engaged to the Unidentified
Man these 2 shows were hilarious, gonna be hard for any comedy to top these 2.

in fact it's gonna be hard for anything to beat these 3 above shows.

Witch craft Works
a very fun show but the ending was a major letdown.

Maken-Ki
total crap, it abandoned the manga for extreme ecchi filler despite having 8 volumes of material to work from.


oh well now bring on the finale's of Kuroko and Ippo on saturday.