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Post by Morcombe on Apr 2, 2014 0:46:40 GMT -5
the chart A whole new season of anime yay, how will I do this time lol. Let's start with: Majin Bone Ep.1Not expecting much from this series which is based of a kids card game but it had a few laughs. The CG isn't all that great though and since it's in CG suits that most of the action takes place it may hinder my potential enjoyment of the series. overall it was a pretty decent start.
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Post by Morcombe on Apr 5, 2014 1:33:57 GMT -5
New update, still waiting on a few tae get sub or simulcasts though -_- Fairy Tail Season 2 Ep.1Man did I miss my weekly Fairy Tail anime fix, so glad it's back. With a pretty great new opening theme as well. The stupid magic circles are gone, thank fuck. And we got BLOOD!!!! This episode covered the history of the Dragon War and how Acnologia came to be. We also got "filler" in the form of a flash forward into the future where Natsu battles Dragons in the ruins of the capital to protect Lucy. If the "flash forwards" are gonna be a regular thing then I hope they show us how everyone died and all the other guilds fighting the dragons as well. I'm actually hoping for a whole filler arc on it, since Hiro didn't touch upon this at all in the manga, Hoping he left it out so it could be used as anime only stuff so that it doesn't catch up to quick. would be easy just omit Future Rogue and have the eclipse plan play out as normal, the after we get epic survival in a dragon world we jump back to the present with Lucy at the moment Future Rogue debuts and we can continue right from the manga. though if they continue the flash forward route I won't complain. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Ep.1I marathoned Season 1 a couple weeks ago in preparation for this lol. Dunno how I feel about Jotaro yet, he cares about peopel since he locks hismelf up to hide his "evil spirit" and stop it hurting people but he's a real asshole to his mother for no reason. The new powers introduced "stands" are pretty epic looking. wtf does it take to make Dio stay DEAD Blade and Soul Ep.1Typical Fantasy world stuff, Girl from some sort of assassin group is on the run from an empire she wants revenge on. the action scenes and fights were pretty good. I liked it even if the ending of the episode was predictable.
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Post by Kyubey on Apr 12, 2014 15:15:01 GMT -5
Okay, I've now seen at least the first episode of every show I wanted to watch this season, time for opinions. In general, I will say that last season, my opinions on things were decidedly mixed. There's a lot I thought was just okay, and because of this, I barely finished anything. This season, my thoughts are a lot more dynamic. I either really liked it, or I really didn't. There is one exception, that is the last show on this list, but let's start with...
The Comic Artist and Assistants Deplorable. That's the only word I can think of to describe this. The first episode was only fifteen minutes long, but I couldn't even stomach that much, and stopped around the seven minute mark. From what I did see, the story is about some comic artist, who basically sees women as objects and only thinks about boobs. Or in other words, it's a story about every single person in the manga industry. I got the sense that much of the humor is supposed to be a sly commentary on the manga world and the people who make it, but I got less of that, and more of just a lotta cringing on my part. Again, maybe the point sailed right over my head. Maybe I was supposed to be cringing. But honestly, even if that was the case, comedy anime has not yet reached a point where one should aim for that level of irony. There's too much awful schlock that looks exactly like this that comes out every single season for me to believe this is the one that's the knowing parody. As it is, I wouldn't watch more of this if you paid me, and the fact that the story seemed to imply that the main character was intended to be a stand-in for the audience was absolutely disgusting.
Disc Wars: Avengers Yeah... it's bad, guys. But, strangely enough, not as bad as it could have been. I'm not much of a comic book guy, the whole superhero thing just doesn't hold much appeal for me, but what I do know from the movies and hearing other people talking about them and such, didn't much seem to be contradicted in any huge ways. The characters, at least, the classic characters that everyone would be watching it to see, seemed to be consistently portrayed, albeit a bit boiled down to their most common traits with none of the depth. That is, it's true for the two characters, Iron Man and Spiderman, who were given any sort of focus in the first episode. The rest of the Avengers had maybe seven lines between them. To its credit, there were some good things. Tony Stark's introduction scene made me legitimately laugh out loud, and I did get a bit of a thrill every time I saw a character I recognized. Apart from that? The whole disc concept was a cop-out idea to begin with, the art design is some of the worst I've seen in years, and all of the new cast that Toei introduced is just horrible. I mean, those kids are insufferable. I would complain more, but I feel like my lack of comic knowledge prohibits me somewhat, so today, I will refrain from that. Otherwise? I really hope that Toei's going to use the money they got from this to make something exceptionally good.
For the record, the reason why I'm watching this is for a friend, who happens to be a rather big superhero fan. He doesn't want to see this. So I watch it for him. Such are the sacrifices I make for friendship.
Magica Wars Hey, remember Kyousogiga? What if we made an anime that kinda looked like that? What if it was five minutes? And had none of the creativity? Or intelligence? Or heart? Watch Magica Wars! Oh, how Gainax has fallen... it's a tragedy.
Mekaku City Actors Oh yeah, now we're talking! The art and style here is really cool, and already there's enough energy and spirit to propel the series further. It may be true that I only picked this up because of one certain word in the title (guess what it is, kiddies) but I'm actually really glad I did. Now, it's true that Mekaku City Actors does have some issues. The story itself is vague at best, and there's not a single character that doesn't have something annoying about them. But the good parts more than make up for it. The effects they use here look fantastic, and the dream sequences are just plain lovely to watch. I have no idea where this series will go, or even if it can keep up the quality I saw in the first installment. But I sure hope so.
Mushi-shi Sequel Series In one of my threads, "Ky Watches Anime and Talks About it Here," I wrote about the first season of Mushi-shi. Go read that, and mentally insert the review here. I have nothing to add as far as the quality of the product itself goes. The sequel series is just a continuation of the first series, nothing more, and nothing less. The experience of watching this is like reuniting with a friend you haven't seen in a while, and feeling like they never left at all. Everything looks and feels just like it did in the first season, which is absolutely fine, and more than what anyone could ask for. Mushi-shi may not be a perfect series, but it's close enough, and you can't really improve upon that. Whether you're a fan of the first 26 episodes, or if you're an absolute newcomer, I give this my highest recommendations. Easily the high point of the season. Oh, the new opening theme is nice, too.
The World is Still Beautiful I feel like I shouldn't have liked the first episode of this. But I do. The story is trite and ordinary. But it doesn't make any pretensions about being otherwise, and just basks in being the kind of anime that it is. The fantasy world is as cookie-cutter as it gets. But they make it look good and fun. The comedy is standard fare, overly-reliant on cliche, and not funny at all. But I still don't hate it. All the flaws I can find for this show, still can't get me to ignore the charm it has. If there's one thing that The World is Still Beautiful isn't lacking, it's heart. I also genuinely like the lead, a refreshing kind of heroine that's neither perfect, or a complete idiot. If it wasn't for the coat of shiny modern-anime gloss that the art style is drenched in, I would say that this is virtually indistinguishable from those 90's fantasy-comedy romance anime, like Slayers Next. And I mean that in the best possible way. Just for how not bogged down in the pandering crap that's so prevalent in today's shows, I felt rather nostalgic watching this. Maybe I'm the only one that had this reaction. I don't know. Not sure if I'll keep with this show, but it's won another episode's worth of my time, that's for sure.
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Post by Kyubey on Jun 30, 2014 1:01:27 GMT -5
Spring's over, and so are the series I picked up this season (and continued watching.) I know it's a double post, but I think that now would be as good a time as any to look back and see how the series of Spring 2014 fared, before we fully jump into summer.
First of all, the series I dropped:
Disc Wars: The Avengers Because at the end of the day, it was a stupid concept and a stupid show. Not much more needs to be said about that.
The World is Still Beautiful I said before that I couldn't bring myself to hate this, and honestly I still can't. It has too much charm for me to have any sort of strong negative feelings. However, charm alone cannot sustain me, and eventually I just saw no reason to keep watching. It's certainly not the best in its genre, but then again, it's far from being the worst. Quality, in this case, comes down much to personal preference, and there's not a whole lot here that's the sort of thing I like, but there's enough that may be what other people like, so while I didn't finish it, I can't discredit it either. That is, save for one scene, that was ultimately the blow that made me lose interest entirely. At a vital moment in the story, a character takes a major turn and makes a harsh and serious decision. It was the sort of thing that should have changed the relationships in the series forever, and push the story ahead both in terms of plot and maturity. That the moment closed with a truly tense cliffhanger, and a weighty sense of ambiguity, made me restless to watch what came next, but sure enough, right at the beginning of the next episode (before the freaking theme song, no less) the whole thing is completely invalidated. That just made me angry. Don't expect any groundbreaking drama or revolutionary storytelling, but if you're a fan of this kinda thing, it's not a bad way to pass the time, I don't think.
Now then, for the anime that I completed:
Mekaku City Actors At the beginning of the season, this was looking to be my favorite series of them all, if only for the sheer amount of promise it held. With a starting point like that, how could it now grow into something truly fantastic? Well, sadly, while it still held onto its promises, and kept looking as pretty as ever, it never really did anything with its potential. The characters did grow on me a little, even if for the life of me I can't remember any of their names, and the puzzles were sort of fun to at least try to piece together. But the problems plagued by this series are too heavy to not drag the show down with it. I said before that the plot is too vague, which is something that is never fixed. From what I've read, this anime is an adaptation of... something, and it's clear that many important details were left out to fit the whole thing into 12 episodes. While this would be bad enough in any adaptation, because the story is, at its core, about a mystery, this becomes outright inexcusable. Additionally, many of the moments that go for comedy or drama fall flat, and while the visual aesthetic is really appealing, at times it becomes a bit distracting. Much of the anime's time is focused on telling the stories of each cast member, and while some of the backgrounds are captivating and add a lot to the characters, others are just plain dull, and make it seem like the show itself is dragging its feet. That being said, I did still like this anime. The ending was similar, structurally and thematically, to the end of MadokaMagica, but it handled it just as well, if not, perhaps, better, than the former show did. I got the sense that Mekaku City Actors is an anime best watched marathon-style, rather than weekly, which is perhaps why there was so much of it I failed to follow, so it could be that I'm not the best person to talk about it anyways. While it's a show that has its problems, it's not one I wouldn't recommend to anyone, and I do wish more anime had as much style to them as this one.
Mushi-shi: Sequel Series I adore Mushi-shi, and believe that, without question, it deserves every single bit of praise it gets. Which is why now, I am forced to make a confession: I hate writing about Mushi-shi. Why? Because no matter how hard or how often I've tried, I can't think of a single interesting thing to say about it. Simply put, it's nearly flawless, to the point where it's kinda boring to try and say anything else. Not to say that this is true for others, as I have read some very interesting and insightful reviews and opinions on it for others, but for me, personally? What can I say? The atmosphere is enthralling, the stories are timeless, and the mushi are among the most creative and memorable creatures in any story. This second season is just as good as the first, containing some of the most memorable episodes in the entire franchise. The last episode, in particular, is especially haunting, and remarkably beautiful. What else is there? Not much, because hopefully you've already been watching, and can't wait for the continuation in fall. Oh, and that opening is so gosh darn pretty. And sad, too. I mean, damn, way to depress me at the beginning of every single episode, guys.
One Week Friends You may notice that I did not speak about One Week Friends in the last post. There's a very good reason for that. Pretty much every season (except winter because winter anime sucks) there's one show that slips under my radar at first, along with near everyone else's, and ends up being the shining gem of the season. Because of this, I tend to only discover the Best New Show midway through its run. Last summer, it was The Eccentric Family. In the fall, it was Kyousogiga. And this spring, that honor goes to One Week Friends. The story is pretty simple enough, a high school love story with a memory-loss related twist, but the way it's executed is so intelligent and multidimensional, it stands high above 90% of its peers. The way the story is set up, and from the expectations set at the very beginning, this is a series that, from start to finish, could have been dangerously close to being either soft and bland, or tiresome and melodramatic. Thanks to the pure strength of the writing, and the heartfelt, no-gimmick presentation, it avoids both failures. The characters are rather subdued for an anime cast, but still distinct due to their clear motivations and overall presentation and growth. The characters are some of the most human I've seen in an anime for a long time. And while they, the protagonist in particular, do make some rather bad mistakes and don't always correctly asses their circumstances, nothing they do isn't understandable. What's important to remember with a story like One Week Friends is that nobody makes all the right decisions in high school. It's a time when people act impulsively, think with their emotions, and can't always see the bigger picture. But it's also a time for learning, which is something that One Week Friends understands really well, and it's the process of growing and developing that drives the entire arc of the plot. Even when the story stumbles a little, most notably in one part in the second half of the story where they pushed too much for drama and ended up going a little overboard, it just bounced right back immediately after and resolved the conflict in a remarkably mature fashion. With any luck, there'll be a sequel series in the future, as I would love to see the story continue. If only Mushi-shi didn't have to be such an undisputed classic, this would be my favorite series of the year so far, hands down. I give it my highest recommendation, if anything I said so far sounds at all appealing to you.
All in all, I'd say that Spring was a pretty good season, that gave us some memorable products. I'd be sad that it's gone, but instead I'm looking forward too much to the future. Bring it on, summer!
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