Just finished watching both seasons of Sangatsu no Lion. Here are my thoughts:

Exceptional in so many respects. Both from a technical point of view and in terms of artistic merit. The direction is excellent. The writing seems excellent (I plan to read the source material). Visually it is excellent and I applaud their frequent use of 'visual metaphors' in scenes. Visual direction is excellent. The studio is Shaft if you care. Characterization is extremely well done. The characters are rich and elaborate, as are their interactions. I liked character designs - especially the unique style of the faces. OST was good but not spectacular. Given the dialogue-heavy nature of the show though OST is relatively less important.

I cried a few times while watching this. Although I should mention that I cry easily and even enjoy it, and for many weeks this was my go-to anime when feeling more depressed than usual.

Drama is one of my favourite genres. Sangatsu no Lion excels in this context. The drama utilizes the rich cast of characters well. It is multidimensional in nature as opposed to a simple linear romance. There are many axes along which drama is developed, and it follows that there are many aspects through which you can engage with this anime emotionally. I personally found many characters relatable and this enhanced my experience. There's a high probability that you will as well and with this in mind I strongly recommend watching Sangatsu no Lion.

10/10 overall. Highly emotionally engaging and exceptional in many respects.

I found myself rewatching many scenes over and over.

I think I liked season 1 slightly more than season 2, overall. They're both great - I just found the plot in season 1 more personally engaging. I don't want to elaborate more because whichever plot one prefers between the seasons is highly subjective and any discussion of it will inevitably result in spoilers.

Also an afterthought about humour: the show has a lot of genuinely funny gags. I laughed out loud many times while watching. Comedic relief is used to effectively to create sort of an emotional rollercoaster. The flavour of humour itself is objectively kind of lame but personally I'm a sucker for silly puns and stuff like that. There is a lot of (social) situational humour as well, which I find enjoyable. I previously mentioned the use of visual metaphors - this is used for comedic effect as well.

That's kinda what I've been doing over at http://tohno-chan.com/an/res/2446.html
But whatever I guess.

>>33341
Beat me to it.

I watched Memories for the first time today. I'm on the younger side, so that explains why I haven't seen it already. I enjoyed each part as individual pieces, but I'm not sure how well they fit together as a whole. Stink Bomb and Cannon Fire are good as shorts. Quick, interesting, and just enough to satisfy without overstaying their welcome. Magnetic Rose would have benefited from being a full-length movie. Only Magnetic Rose really embodies the "Memories" theme, but if you reach I guess the other two could fit. As a whole, i'd say the shorts comment on different negative aspects of humans and society. It made me want to watch more old, lesser-known sci-fi anime like Roujin Z.

Magnetic Rose: The best of the three. It efficiently and smoothly develops the world and characters. The intro, build-up and climax were also well-paced for the time length. The visuals and integration of music was breathtaking. All three shorts do a great job of using music to add the story-telling, but Magnetic Rose does it with the most impact. I was a little annoyed by the "let's split up" trope, but within this context it's not too unbelievable. I appreciate its necessity and how it allows the story to go in two different directions, showing a lot more overall. The message was also well-conveyed. I would have liked to get more from Miguel's character.

Stink Bomb: People say this is the worst of the three, but i'd disagree. I enjoyed it more than cannon fire, but I wouldn't compare them in terms of "quality". Nothing makes sense, including the ending, but it's not supposed to. The short sets out to be humorous and say something about human stupidity, and it accomplishes those goals. I liked its high-production value and old-fashioned aesthetics. The music also stood out here in a good way.

Cannon Fire: At first, the visual style was jarring, but it's well-done and the animation was very smooth. They succeeded in making this style appealing in its own way. The short does a good job of criticizing soviet style conformity. The juxtaposition of how ugly real people are compared to people in propaganda posters was also impressive. I enjoyed this one the least, but that's only because of my personal preferences.

Post edited on 1st Sep 2019, 11:08am

>>33349
Magnetic Rose was good. The other two were garbage.

>>33350
Maybe they look that way compared to Magnetic Rose, but I think the other two are better than average. Animation, music, those are still high up there in both. Junk Boy is bad, for comparison.

I recently finished watching the ReLIFE anime. Here are my thoughts:

Bland art style and character designs. Animation is mediocre and often looks cheap and sloppy (and I did watch the BDs.). I did kind of like the super-saturated colour tones that are sometimes used, but besides that the anime is weak visually.
Unremarkable OST, however the rapid switching between tracks and/or silence is used well for dramatic effect. Overall, the production quality feels like a cheap disposable seasonal anime. Which is a shame because I think it deserved more. This anime would have benefited from a higher budget and/or better technical staff.

Quality of direction seems to vary a lot. Dramatic scenes are often handled poorly. Suspense is built up well but I feel like the climatic scenes are often 'fumbled' for lack of a better phrase. Comedic relief is sometimes used inappropriately. I'm already innoculated against this from watching lots of anime, but it can be pretty bad in this case. Overall, I'd say the direction is weak to mediocre at best. As someone who values direction more than visuals for this kind of genre, the weak direction is the most significant flaw of the anime in my view.

It's kind of cliche but I really liked the premise and thought it was promising (28 year old NEET relives high school - what's not to like?). Whether or not the premise was capitalized upon to its full potential is highly subjective. The plot ended up evolving differently from the way I expected it to, but I still liked it.

As you might expect, there's a lot of situational humour, which I'm fond of. Humour isn't a selling point here, but I did chuckle to myself a number of times while watching.

Decent script.

Good voice acting, especially the female cast. Kariu's VA in particular is absolutely terrific. I found myself rewinding many times just to hear her deliver some lines over and over again. I was extremely impressed by her talent.

MC is sort of unlikable, in my opinion.
Overall though, the cast is likable (ONOYA IS LITERALLY ME). Characters are well-developed. There was less focus on the MC than I initially expected, which was a pleasant surprise in my view. There are certainly some memorable characters. I miss them and want to go back. In particular, the female cast and the interactions between them were really enjoyable. Felt very real and human. The main female characters are the best in the entire series, in my opinion. The male cast was bland in comparison, despite receiving a similar amount of screentime.

Great writing. I get the impression that the source material is excellent and I hope to look into it sometime. Well-done character-driven drama is something I very much enjoy. Judging this anime before watching, I expected that it would basically be a large serving of hedonistic escapist fantasy. Again, I was pleasantly surprised in this respect, and this serves as a lesson to refrain from judging an anime before actually watching. Actually I would even say this anime is the opposite of escapism because one of the underlying themes is confronting real problems or personal shortcomings in your own life (trigger warning). Absolutely the writing is good, however I should clarify that I didn't find any of the themes explored to be all that engaging on a personal level. For this reason someone else might derive even more enjoyment from the series than I did.

Envy is a theme that comes up in the story and I applaud its use because it's such a common aspect of human nature. Jealousy permeates this disgusting world we live in, yet its representation in fiction is rarely commensurate. I think a lot of people can relate to this or at least would find it an engaging theme in fiction.

Very watchable. I watched the first 8 episodes within ~12 hours which for me is extremely unusual.

Many anime start out strong and then flop in the later episodes. ReLIFE was the opposite experience for me. It started out good, but it was only in the latter half of the anime that it really started to shine. This is mainly due to payoff from developing rich characters earlier in the series (take notes, anime writing staff). My progress through the later episodes was slowed because there were far more scenes that I needed to appreciate by watching over and over before continuing.

I'll try to comment on the romance component without spoiling anything. Despite the poor direction, especially in this regard, ReLIFE is still pretty romantic. It's not strictly a romance story, but there are certainly some romantic scenes and moments. ReLIFE owes its romantic merit entirely to the underlying writing. It is probably the best het-romance of 2016 (competition is not stiff). Please feel free to respond with alternatives for that title though.

This anime has appeal to a broader audience. Would be easily digested by casual anime fans. Despite its flaws I'd still recommend it. I think I'd actually recommend this to a woman due to how much the female perspective is explored during the romantic story arcs. Again, the female characters are such a strong aspect of this anime; I really can't overstate it.

I rate this anime 8/10 for great writing with great characters and a good script with good voice acting. I really wanted to rate this higher but I can't overlook the flaws in its execution. The show is like a poorly polished diamond; the beauty is there if you look closely.

Due to the series being continued in OVAs released 1.5 years later, and the peculiar obsession that imageboard users have with watching things the instant they air, I think that this show (or at least the OVAs) may have been overlooked by people. It also serves as a lesson for why you should wait for an entire series (including BDs and extras) to be released before watching. In my case, jumping right from the last episode to the OVAs (instead of waiting 2 years) provided a vastly superior viewing experience, especially with consideration to the plot of the show.

The OVAs feel very rushed to me and I would have much preferred a complete second season, or at least more than 4 OVA episodes. Production quality and direction of the OVAs was just as poor as the original tv anime. Truly a shame because the story is great.

Update since writing the above review draft while still watching the anime:
fucking hell this is really starting to tug at my heartstrings. The waterworks have started.
tl;dr: *sobbing mess* b-but m-muh direction and production quality

final update: okay I cried a lot but that doesn't invalidate my criticisms and my rating remains unchanged.

In retrospection, it might be better to approach this franchise via the literature. I'm getting the impression that the source material is vastly superior to the anime adaptation. Maybe someone can respond with their impressions of the manga. I jumped into this anime completely blind without doing any research; maybe that was a mistake.

>>33365
I think any adaptation should stand on its own two feet, so going in blind is always fine. From what I could find, this is the first show Tomochi Kosaka was the main director for.

Gakkou-Gurashi: If you have not previously watched this but are a fan of CGDCT/SoL, I would recommend trying two episodes with the caveat that this has Madoka-esque reveals in the first few episodes so you should avoid researching it too heavily to make it more interesting for yourself. That being said, the description on MAL doesn't give away too much anyway and the core aspect of the show isn't in the reveal itself but in the aftermath.

It's unfortunate discussion of this died down in http://tohno-chan.com/an/arch/res/23470.html because even beyond the reveals, there was a lot of detail and attention put into each episode, from the color patterns on Yuki vs others' outfits (they're inverted versions of each other), to the changing OPs, the subtle reflection of Megu-nee in the car window in the last episode, not to mention the well-chosen literary references.

For as much hype Madoka gets in the cute-girls do suffering genre, I didn't really find its story too compelling or relatable. Gakkou-gurashi on the other hand interweaves the usual slice of life pacing with its emotional moments which I feel helps build up the characters and brings them closer to the audience, allowing the audience to closer empathize with their situation. That said, there was still some places where this could have been improved, such as replacing the amount of time spent chasing the dog with something more substantive. I would have also liked better development of the friendships between the characters; while it was adequate enough and on par with your average SoL, I feel their unique situation provided many additional opportunities for this.

Character development is also limited to Yuki and Miki, but I don't really see this as too much of an issue though since I consider it a slice of life first and foremost, with the darker themes lingering in the background to provide context and plot. So while the anime might disappoint those who usually prefer more serious psychological anime, for those who primarily watch SoL and want something offering a tinge of sadness and moments for reflection, Gakkou-Gurashi fills that niche.

>>33372
I loved Gakkou-Gurashi when I first watched it. It was so atmospheric and that drew me into their situation. The use of weather, music(it has a great ost) and other little things to establish mood was great. I see it as a zombie show for people who don't like zombie shows. It places an equal amount of emphasis on "living", staying sane, enjoying yourself, making every day worthwhile, and surviving, which I personally haven't seen any other apocalyptic fiction do.
>Character development is also limited to Yuki and Miki, but I don't really see this as too much of an issue though since I consider it a slice of life first and foremost, with the darker themes lingering in the background to provide context and plot.
The managa develops each character as individuals more, but the anime places more emphasis on them as a group. I like the manga too, and it does feel more in-depth in a few ways, but it didn't have as much impact on me, maybe because I watched the anime first, or maybe because of the medium's limitations.

>>33372
>the changing OPs
I'm glad people appreciated that. I thought it was a great touch.

I reluctantly watched Kiznaiver. Here's my shitty stream-of-consciousness review:

Wow I really hate this art style
Wow I really hate this cinematography
Wow I really hate these character designs
This visual stuff is all subjective so I won't dwell on it much.

I almost didn't give this any chance at all because Trigger.

Forgive me for saying this but the pacing and exposition could best be surmised as 'zoomer-tier'. In all seriousness, I feel like this was made for someone about 14 years old.
Wow I hate this direction

Why am I still watching?
I like the premise and thinks it's promising.
Some of these characters seem interesting.

Let's see how it goes.

Yep, this literally feels like a Pixar movie.
Maybe the writing will have some artistic value...

None of these characters are particularly likable.
I'm finding it difficult to envisage a scenario where these characters are used to construct a compelling story. These characters have personalities that are unpleasantly exaggerated. They would be suitable for a comedy sketch, not a serious drama.

The animation itself is 'high quality' but I hate how these wacky jump cuts are constantly used. Like I feel dizzy just watching this. The animation itself is fluid but the cinematography ruins it, IMO.

I'm detecting a lot of ship-baiting. This is actually fine with me because I'm trash and can shamelessly enjoy shipping as cheap entertainment.

I'm liking Maki's backstory. Took them bloody long enough to get to this.
If they took Maki's backstory and turned it into a full cour anime with a quarter of the budget of this, it would be better and would have more artistic value.

It seems like people who watched this can be divided according to who did and did not like the forced shipping. My rebuttal to those who disliked it is "what else could have possibly been done with these shitty characters?" The anime is already bad regardless of whether shipping occurs or not. Removing the ships is like rearranging the cutlery on the fucking Titanic as it descends to the bottom of the ocean. If not ships, then what? What else is there with this awful cast? The problem is the characters themselves and shipping is just a band-aid on awful writing.

Everything about this anime is so ham-fisted. I'd liken it to building hobby models with mittens on.

This anime would benefit significantly from better foreshadowing.
Nico's voice actor is talented.

Watching this is reminding me of why I hate watching movies, generally speaking. They try to cram as much garbage as possible into a tiny period of time, all the while pacing it way too quickly and catering to people with an extremely short attention span. This is literally just a Pixar film masquerading as an anime.

A grown adult is not the target audience for this.
>but that's all ani-
No, there's a difference. This anime is designed specifically for a teenager's brain.

What a waste of a good premise.

The OST for this is supposed to be good but I'm not observing that. Maybe you could respond with your favourite tracks in the OST? The OP song is okay. Musically it is simple, but still it's pretty catchy.

The only decent attribute this anime has is the animation quality. Pretty much every single artistic choice possible was made poorly, in my opinion. Still, this might be one of the most well-animated works of 2016, I'll admit. The only competition I can think of is Sansha Sanyou. I'm probably overlooking something from that year though.

Overall 4/10. you_tried_sticker.png
There was serious potential here but so many poor choices were made along the way. But hey, despite all my complaints, I still didn't drop the damn thing. So take from that what you will. On the other hand, the only reason I'll be watching anything from Trigger from here onwards is out of morbid curiosity. In fact, Trigger should probably just upload all their work directly to Liveleak from now on.

A couple other things:
I want Chidori to sit on my face.
Nico is literally me.

>>33393
I really despised that series, for similar reasons as to what you said. I couldn't finish it myself.
If you really wanted to give something from Trigger a shot, I would recommend Gridman, which I almost avoided for similar reasons. I enjoyed the callbacks to the live-action series and it felt like they really understood the spirit of that work, which felt surprising after so many flops from them.

>>33393
I couldn't even finish that anime, I really enjoyed the aesthetics but that wasn't enough to make me sit through 12 episodes.

Carole and Tuesday
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yObMUSTcaPc
Directed by Shinichirō Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy). Need I say more?

>>33430
I didn't watch this series because I was put off by the American indie pop music.

Malice Doll is a 2001 cgi ova series written and created by Chiaki J. Konaka, who also worked on Lain and Ghost Hound. This is an anime which I had almost no interest in and thought was going to be a difficult viewing experience. I hate cgi, and on top of that this is cgi from 2001. After powering through my initial disdain for the visuals, which are as expected, very primitive, and mostly made up of dark, muddy colors too, I was pleasantly surprised with everything else.

Malice Doll is an interesting little experiment which aimed to explore what being human means. That's nothing that hasn't been done before, but the angle which this show takes is almost never seen. Malice Doll questions whether being human is really better than being a machine, and from my point of view, it seems to lean more on the side of machines. It goes very far to show the ugliness of humanity.

Again, the visuals are lackluster, but I appreciate how cgi conveys the inhumanness of the characters. The screen was so dark sometimes that I could barely tell what was going on. There's a lot of sexual and gory imagery to enjoy and being in cgi didn't take much away from its impact. At certain points, behind the limitations of cgi, I felt similar directing to Lain's.

This is an ova series, so it doesn't have much time to develop the characters and get us invested in them. Considereing the animation medium, that's probably for the best. There's more that could have been done with the themes, but I bet since 2001 there's been anime where machines become human I just don't know about. The ending is almost identical to Lain's. I would recommend watching Malice Doll if you like obscure, old stuff with some substance.

Has anyone here watched this before?

Post edited on 21st Sep 2019, 7:12am

>>33471
So nobody here has seen Malice@Doll? Come on, guys. It's entertaining if nothing else and it's only three episodes, so you should give it a try.
https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=NYN0DFuybe8
https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=p_CuRIc_oL0
https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=EQzSNkCi7k8

>>33486
I haven't, but you got me interested in it. I'll watch it this week.

Machikado Mazoku- It's humorous and cute, the dialogue can be fast and overwhelming with the added text on screen and the background tones but while I found that I had to pause and go back a few times overall I found that to be endearing. Essentially the anime is an SOL with a plot which I quite liked, the plot is slow but works well for the SOL nature of the anime, the plot picks up substantially for the two last episodes and make me really look forward to what next season(if it gets a next season) will bring.

Also, the Subs are awful.

Princess Principal, completing the trifecta of Studio 3Hz original anime with Sora no Method and Flip Flappers. If there's one thing to learn about Studio 3Hz from these, it's that they love non-linear narratives and blurring genres. Especially accompanied by major plot twists 3 episodes from the end.

Whether any of that is put to good use though is another question entirely. In the case of Flip Flappers, the non-linear narrative worked very nicely and it's evident that Oshiyama went through a lot of effort to ensure a cohesive flow: each of the character's motives are understandable and the anime remains engaging throughout the various plot twists. Sora no Method is another story entirely, as I briefly wrote on the old review thread >>/an/33214

Then we come to Princess Principal: as with the others, regardless of the story quality the design and artwork are no doubt excellent, this time with a steampunk inspired decor. The first few episodes are reminiscent of archetypical spy films, which is perhaps where my initial gripes with the plot begin. I'm not a particular fan of the spy film genre because at its core spies are usually used as pawns in some political or military machination which to me doesn't serve for an emotional or engaging premise. Princess Principal does go to some attempts to subvert this by showing how the "principal team" grows closer over the series (culminating in the final episode) but nonetheless its Slice of Life aspects – where character dynamics, friendships, and genuine honesty – are fundamentally incompatible with its drama/action/spy ones – where duplicitious dealings are the norm.

For me the best episodes were the middle few which stuck closer to the slice of life core: rallying to rejuvenate a dilapidated laundry mill, Ange relating her past to the pickpocket, etc. These episodes not only provided needed characterization but were also where we saw the team just enjoying being together. But unfortunately the realities of their occupation make such amusement impossible, and the final arc that serves as the plot twist is where it's ability to engage me fell apart.

Spoilers follow:

The reveal of Ange/Charlotte's past makes for an interesting plot but is also where the anime veers sharply into the "political machinations" subgenre and the suspension of disbelief that cute anime girls are endowed with is shattered. On the one hand you have these spies that won't hesitate to kill off their classmate, but will disobey their boss to avoid killing their recent friend. And when Ange goes through heroic efforts in a last-ditch effort to get both her and the princess to safety, the princess irrationally decides that she'd rather go back into the shitshow, become queen herself, and presumably end the strife so they both can be together in the open. And after cleaning up the entire mess, they're back to square one: still disposable pawns of a regime engaged in a power struggle, somehow willing and eager to be a lackey when they could have just stayed on the plane and been out of there: in its attempt to blend slice of life with drama, characters' motives become less believable.

>>33494
Middle episodes were the most enjoyable, I agree. The ending could have been good too, but it was too rushed. They should have removed the one Asian girl from the story, she did nothing the entire show and they wasted an entire episode on a personal problem of hers; remove her and that episode and stretch the ending out to two parts and it could work.

>>33508
>They should have removed the one Asian girl from the story
Some of her lines and the lampooning of Japanese culture were pretty funny, e.g. dialogue of "can't you speak English" spoken entirely in Japanese.

There is a PriPri movie set to be released, so perhaps that will finish things off properly.

Roujin Z is a comedic project by Katsuhiro Otomo. It's about a robotic geriatrics-care bed that goes rouge because it has a military grade "sixth genetation computer" inside it. The entire thing is completely ridiculous and over the top, but it's a lot of fun. I really like how 90's anime characters seem to have such a good time. That specific type of warm, fuzzy stuff seems rarer now. The animation is a bit inconsistent, but gets the job done, and the music is interesting to say the least. The pro-elder theme was a bit confusing, but I can see how it would be feel-good.

>>33530
Thanks for reminding me I didn't watch this yet, I just did and it was quite good. It felt like a light-hearted Akira.

I watched Shuumatsu no Izetta. Here are my thoughts:

This has some really cute romantic shoujo-ai scenes.

Strong confident female lead, which I always like to see. Girls are so strong and powerful. Girls can do anything!

Lots of strong confident women kicking butt in this. Girls are amazing!

The female cast is super likable. Unfortunately there are a lot of dumb males in the cast as well that exist only to advance the plot.

"Expectations blown away. It horrifies me to think that I almost passed on this. Ordinarily I hesitate to watch Japanese bastardizations of European history. If you do watch this then obviously much suspension of disbelief is required. I mean, it's anime. Magic is involved in the story and it takes places in a pseudo-WW2 setting.

Way underrated and underappreciated."
^is what I wrote in my anime notes after watching the first 3 episodes. This anime had a very strong start.

Getting further into this anime I'm beginning to see what is probably its most significant flaw: the plot. Ultimately, the plot is kind of lame. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but the issue is how much screentime is used to advance the plot. The series is very plot-heavy. There are some terrific scenes lurking within, but the overall series is diluted by this lame plot which consists of dumb violent men fighting each other for power. So basically men ruin everything as usual, smh. In all seriousness, I found most of the fighting/conflict-heavy scenes boring to watch. The fight scenes soaked up a lot of valuable screentime.

Having said the above, foreshadowing is used effectively and all the developed storylines tie together well in the end. In this regard, the show isn't poorly directed. I still cried during the last two episodes when the story climaxed. The wrap-up of all the story arcs was pretty good, even if the journey there was a little messy.

This anime is an unusual juxtaposition of genres (military/historical and shoujo-ai), of which a lot of people will like one or the other but less commonly both. I reluctantly gave this a chance knowing only that it was a historical military anime, and I was subsequently pleasantly surprised by the cute yuri romance that evolved as the episodes progressed. However, I think a lot of people who watched this had the opposite reaction, and consequently the anime is rated poorly by many. I guess an appropriate metaphor would be that Shuumatsu no Izetta is like an exotic food with a unique taste that puts most people off. Is that a flaw in the food or in the person tasting it? Maybe the same could be said about my distaste for the plot-heavy nature of the anime.

An argument could also be made that the two genres balance each other well. The soft tone of the cute romance provides relief from the seriousness of the military conflict. I'm not sure I agree with this but maybe this is what the writers were thinking.

I think the series is weakest during times when it's focused on large-scale conflicts. During times of inaction, or small-scale conflict, there is much greater emphasis on the characters themselves. When the characters and their interactions are allowed the shine, the series is good. I wonder if the characters had been peasants instead of upper caste, would the series have been better due to a diminished scale of conflict?

Overall, I rate this anime 7/10.

I feel bad about rating this so low because there really were some terrific memorable scenes. Like I said though, it was too heavily diluted. Objectively speaking, I think that most people would really like some aspects of this anime and strongly dislike others. It is certainly not 'one size fits all', but maybe its uniqueness can be appreciated.


Additional Comments:
Good animation at times but the quality is inconsistent. Character animations like hair and body movement looked pretty good. At times the background landscapes looked nice too.

The OST is decent. It's high quality from a technical perspective and really suits the series thematically. The OP and ED songs are good. The voice acting is good.

Overall the production quality is good, but not spectacular. My number one criticism is that the action scenes were completely unremarkable in terms of audio-visual quality, and this made them more of a chore to watch.

I really liked the character designs, especially the female cast. Not only are the character designs great, but they also get lots of different lovely outfits and different pretty hairstyles too! Yay!

>>33580
Your description reminded me of Princess Principal which I jotted some thoughts a few posts above, and it's at the very least cross-linked as a strong suggestion on MAL.

>Overall, I rate this anime 7/10.
>I feel bad about rating this so low
Is 7/10 supposed to be a low score? Assuming we're not doing MAL style rating inflation (where for some reason the mean score always seems to a 7, and 9/10s are given out liberally), then for me a "meh" series usually gets a 5, maybe a 4 if I couldn't bother watching it completely.

>>33582
I read your PriPri review up until the spoilers. I'm waiting for the movie to be released before
watching the series. I'm looking forward to it and expect I'll enjoy it!

The numerical rating is highly subjective...
For me, anything below around 6/10 is where I start dropping things. My median rating for anime that I finish would be about 7/10. I drop a lot of things though.

>>33582
>rating so low
What I meant by that is this:
There are a lot of scenes in Shuumatsu no Izetta that are 9/10 anime material, they're just weighed down by the other more mediocre stuff.

numerical rankings are kind of silly I know

>>33580
The paragraphs from three to five sound like badly concealed propaganda, or some kind of teen-ironic statement.

>>33580
Just get a sex-change operation already, anon.

>>33585
>>33586
Yuri fandom is different from trannyism and all the stuff that comes with that!

I watched the Mahoutsukai Tai OVAs (The 6 episode series released in 1996, AKA "magic user's club"). Pros and cons (in my opinion) are listed below:

Pros:
>Some genuinely funny gags that were worth a laugh here and there.
>Cute characters and cute character designs.
>Surprisingly really well-animated. Seriously, the visuals for this were great and looked like a ton of effort went into them. I found myself frequently pausing to admire the art.
>Character personalities are simple but effective, particularly for humour.

Cons:
>Lame cliche plot.
>Too much time spent on 'wacky oh-so-funny' boring action scenes used to advance said cliche plot.
>Too much slapstick humour in general (I know, it's anime).

I probably won't be watching the TV anime version as apparently it is much worse than the OVAs.

Overall 7/10
Yes, I'd recommend these as a casual thing to watch. It's not like much commitment is needed (only 6 episodes).

>>33580
Truly embarrassed at seeing one of my favorite anime reviewed with such wording.

I finished Uchi no Musume.

The first episode was alright and it looked like it had potential but then it fell flat from there. It's kind of like SoL(well I guess it actually is SoL, it is severely lacking in any kind of plot) yet it lacks interesting characters, comedy or anything that makes an SoL good. It's not awful, I did manage to finish it after all, but nothing about it stands out and it's not memorable in anyway.

I'd give it a 6/10.

I watched the movie 'Glass no Hana to Kowasu Sekai'. Here are my thoughts:

Positive aspects:
>novel premise
>tons of cute outfits!!
>decent animation and cinematography
>nice backgrounds, pretty solid visually overall
>cute characters
>good audio production quality
>cute!!!!

Negative aspects:
>rushed and kind of incoherent plot
>bland characters (this is partially why I rarely watch anime movies, also this point can't really be avoided with such a short runtime)
>weak direction
>felt sort of 'unpolished' overall

Overall 6/10.
I still watched the whole thing and it was enjoyable. If you're the kind of person who values style over substance then I guess I'd recommend it.

also this was pretty lewd at times, should probably have an ecchi tag FYI

Apparently a lot of impressive people worked on this, but as usual Japs can't into project management.

I watched Kore wa Zombie desu ka? (both seasons + all OVAs)
Here are my thoughts:

This is just another junk food harem-comedy show that for some reason became popular among inexperienced anime viewers and was subsequently overrated.
Any attempt at plot always resulted in a convoluted mess. The show is strongest when it sticks to SOL and comedy scenes. The weakest episodes by far were those which were plot-focused. Poor direction might be the biggest flaw of this anime.

The show's best aspect is its supernatural flavour, I think. This is somewhat unique, and a lot of the skits and gags built around supernatural phenomena were funny and creative.

There is a strong otaku culture influence as well, which I found entertaining.

The character designs and animation seemed somewhat dated even for the production year. I'm not sure if this was an intentional artistic decision. This is not necessarily a bad thing but I thought it was noteworthy.

The music is okay; I liked all of the OP and ED songs.

There are moments where the show shines but they're outweighed by the mediocre remainder, unfortunately. I rate this anime 6/10 overall. It's watchable junk food, but junk food nonetheless.

>>33718
It was kinda shit but the ED was so amazing;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47SquTj_nC4

I recently downloaded the latest One Punch Man OVA, but I haven't watched it yet because the sumo tournament was occupying most of my attention so I can only review the download so far. It was very swift and trouble free, A+ stuff for sure, I'll probably be back with a review of the media I got so easily in relatively short order now that Hakuho is done claiming his record setting 43th sumo crown.

>>33721
Watching the latest One Punch Man OVA was every bit as enjoyable as downloading it, an excellent experience all around

>>33722
Thanks for reminding me, I liked it too.

Finished Bem(the new version, I've not seen the old one). Pretty average and the ending made no sense. Not much more to say.

Has anyone seen Brain Powerd? Some people think it's genius. It's kind of long though, so I'd like to know if you guys recommend it.

>>33743
I haven't seen Brain Powerd specifically, but I've seen other works by that director (Yoshiyuki Tomino) and I've heard that it's more enjoyable if you already like his works.

Alright so I watched Memedragon (not including OVA). Here are my thoughts.

Solid production quality. Well-animated.
Funny sometimes.

Very 'gag-like' episode structure with rapid jumps from short scene to short scene. Not necessarily a bad thing but certainly more reminiscent of comedy than a typical SOL anime.

The way they jump from short scene to short scene is almost disorienting. Slow down please. Feels like the target audience has the attention span of a goldfish. Maybe some people like this but I don't really. I guess for packing in as many jokes as possible it works.

Cast is kind of unlikable but they do have good chemistry.

Most of the cast are one-note characters and the gags are often unfunny and repetitive.

Most of the supposedly sentimental/touching moments felt forced to me. You have to make me give a shit about the characters first before injecting an emotional scene and expecting me to engage with it. You can't just jump from short gag after short gag to sentimental moment about family or whatever. You have to build a foundation first and that just wasn't done in this anime.

My favourite aspect of the story was the relationship between Fafnir and Takiya. Which isn't saying much because they got very little screentime together.

This anime started out mediocre to me but as I progressed through the episodes my opinion of it declined. Each newly introduced character was worse than the last, and as time went on the gags became more repetitive.

I'm not knocking you if you liked it but I disliked both the direction and writing.

Overall 4/10.

Just finished Lord El Melloi II Case Files. It was alright, not much of a plot and too much self insert fan service type stuff but it was interesting and the characters were not awful, it's certainly not the worst Fate show I have seen.

>>33747
>The way they jump from short scene to short scene is almost disorienting. Slow down please
I don't remember Dragon Maid being that much different from other SoL shows. The only show I felt that was egregious in this regard was Hidamari Sketch, presumably on account of its SHAFTiness (also Teekyuu but since the rapid fire jokes are the whole point, I feel that doesn't count).

>>33756
> Hidamari Sketch, presumably on account of its SHAFTiness
I think yonkoma adaptions tend to be a bit jumpy, due to the nature of the source material. Not always, of course.

I watched Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari. My thoughts on it are written below.

I initially passed on this because of the totally unenticing premise, but eventually gave it a chance and was pleasantly surprised.

Confused by how little traction this got. Possible 'hidden gem'. Seems easily digestible and would appeal to normalfags I think. Suspect of being breeder propaganda from Abe-sama (/sarcasm).

Insanely cute scenes with some deeper emotional undertones about life and family.

Poco a cute! CUTE!

Male ~3/8 life crisis: the anime

Direction is inconsistent but ranges from mediocre to bad. Which is a damn shame. The entire series is sloppily executed in terms of direction. Direction is a deep flaw of this anime. With improved direction this anime would have been far better, I think.

Animation and overall production quality are mediocre. OST is unremarkable aside from the OP song.
Ultimately, it is a seemingly low-budget manga adaptation. The strength of this anime arises from the writing itself. The writing is great.

At times, this anime is very emotionally engaging. I started to cry during multiple episodes. The themes around family and such can be a real gut punch. They really got to me with those family childhood stills (motionless images). It feels like an emotional sucker punch when they show images of the MC's now-deceased parents in the ED. There are definitely some touching moments in this. This sentimentality is the best aspect of the show. I strongly recommend this anime if you have mental issues relating to family.

I felt very positive about the anime after watching the first 4 episodes, but during subsequent episodes a feeling of squandered potential crept in. Any anime watcher will know this common feeling.

There are some subtle 'touristy' plugs in the anime but they're not particularly intrusive and mesh with the plot fairly well. The story mainly takes place in Kagawa(Takamatsu city) which is known for a number of foods (ex. Udon) and various attractions. This might put some people off. On balance, I'd prefer that these touristy plugs not be included. Following this train of thought though, I strongly feel that this anime deserved a higher budget. I think more of the potential could have been captured with more skillful staff. That said, it appears to be a faithful adaptation. I plan to read the source material. In fact, the source material might be a better way to approach this. I'm unsure if the anime enhances the story much. Like I said, the strength of this work is mainly due to the writing itself.

Spent too much time on the dynamics of his job instead of exploring themes like childhood and family more. Introduced more characters than necessary for the story. This is a 12 episode anime and time is valuable. I suspect this might be an issue of being overly committed to creating a fidelitious adaptation of the manga, instead of more effectively catering the story to the single-cour anime medium. A lot of plotlines were introduced and then simply not even close to resolved. During the last couple episodes I was left with a feeling of there being a ton of 'loose ends' that were not tied up. This is a typical manga adaptation issue, unfortunately. When I say that the direction was flawed, this lack of focus is a major component of that.

Overall I rate this anime 7/10. I'd at least consider reading the manga first though if you're interested. If anyone's read it already I'd be very interested in hearing their opinion.

The anime is still good, don't get me wrong, but this had the potential (or should I say ingredients? lol) to be a 10/10 masterpiece. I don't say that lightly. Seriously squandered potential. I cannot shake this feeling of frustration that I feel over such an enormous waste of potential. I wouldn't even call this a manga adaptation - it's more like a manga advertisement.

Should you watch it? Yes, if the positive aspects I've outlined here are appealing to you. At the very least it is good drinking-and-crying material.

Addendum: after digging around a bit I've read that apparently there were major conflicts among the production staff. Sadly, this doesn't surprise me at all. As usual, Japs cannot into project management. If anyone knows what happened with the production staff feud then I'd be interested to hear.

I watched Sakamoto Desu ga. Here are my thoughts:

This is actually really funny. I consistently laughed out loud at every episode.
I'd describe the humour as kind of a combination of absurdist and situational. The gags themselves are really creative too, as opposed to the same recycled humour/jokes that we've seen countless times in anime.

Other characters play off of the main character (Sakamoto) well to create humour.

The jazz-like OST suits the series really well and enhances the humour.

The most common criticism of this anime is that it is repetitive. It's true that the humour tends to follow a similar theme (Sakamoto and his interactions with others), but I found that there was plenty of variety among the gags themselves to entertain me. A lot of the gags were completely unpredictable (often due to their absurdity). I'm laughing to myself as I write this just thinking about it. Much of my enjoyment came from wondering what ridiculous scenario would come next and how Sakamoto would react to it.

I rate this anime 8/10.
One of the funniest series I've watched in recent memory. I put on every episode with happy anticipation and I was never disappointed.

My impression of Himouto! Umaru-chan prior to watching it was that it was simply dumb and for some reason caused a lot of bitter among a lot of people. One day I put on the first episode out of impulse/curiosity. To my surprise, it was actually decent. I ended up watching both seasons and the OVAs.

Sibling relationships are a dominating theme. This is personally very depressing. Be warned. I had to stop watching sometimes because I'd start to think about my own family and would become very sad. This isn't a negative aspect of the anime, in fact it's a potent mechanism of emotional engagement. That said, one's reaction to the sibling relationship theme will be highly individual.

Another prevalent theme is the glorification of one's hobbies and leisure, which is obviously very relatable. Actually a lot of the themes explored in Umaru are relatable, I think. Various elements of Japanese culture are commonly included in the show, ranging from traditions to more otaku-ish stuff.

The series has broad appeal and is easily digestible. The quality is consistent. This would be good material for someone relatively new to the anime medium, I think.

Good direction. The show smoothly jumps from happy uplifting scenes, to light conflict, to comedy etc...
Episodes typically consist of scenes which are entertaining in isolation, but are woven together by a light episodic plot of some kind. Sweet moments are skillfully implemented within the light-hearted writing.
Very 'watchable' show overall.

The characters are simple but they do have good chemistry. There are funny scenes sometimes. The characters are cute and there are a lot of cute outfits!

In terms of likability, the cast is kind of a mixed bag. A lot could be said about this, but I'll summarize by saying that some aspects of the character personalities could be considered unlikable, and that one's own viewpoint on this will be highly individual. Regardless of the specifics though, I think the most common criticism of this anime is that character(s) are in some way unlikable or unethical. I'm sympathetic to this argument, but my own view is that it's just a fun light comedy SOL show and if you're sitting there doing a complex analysis of ethics then you are watching the wrong show for your mood. Go do a tiring day of work and come back, or put on a more intellectually demanding anime. Stop watching things that don't fit your mood. That said, I think the anime would be improved with better written characters, but I also think people are overreacting when they say that it's literally unwatchable because of the cast. This is yet another aspect of the show that will invoke a reaction that is strongly dependent on the viewer. Perhaps these highly variable audience reactions are why this anime stirred up so much bitter.

The animation and art style are unremarkable. The OST is unremarkable, though I liked the S1 ED song. Also, the S2 ED animation is CUTE CUTE CUTE!

A lot of SOL shows tend to fizzle out as they progress. For this reason I had guarded expectations of the second season of Umaru. Actually though, season 2 was pretty good.

I'd liken watching Umaru to eating plain potato chips. It's not complex or unique, but it's still consistently good and you can consume a lot in one sitting and not even realize it.

Overall rating: 7/10

Kirie is literally me.

FYI, I used the Nii-sama release for the season 2 BDs. The release was unpolished and filled with innaccurate and lazy translations. I definitely won't be using their subs willingly again.

-kind of spoiler below-
a lot of light-hearted episodic anime tend to be ruined when the author attempts to introduce some kind of plot. In this case during the second season I found that the theme of private lives/secrets among the characters was handled well. It didn't intrude too much on the episodic SOL, but still provided a compelling and relatable theme for the viewer while simultaneously adding a little more character development. It also provided some relief from the repetition of season 1. I think this is a good example of mild plot injection for an SOL series being handled well.

>>33772
I made it about 3 episodes into Umaru-chan before I gave up from wanting to punch that chibi form through the wall due to her whining and taking advantage of her brother. Perhaps it improves later on, focusing less on this chibi nonsense and instead on Umaru's friendships, but since SoL enjoyment is mainly dependent upon the ability to empathize with the character those three episodes squandered my motivation to watch much further.

>>33772
It's about an annoying, selfish bitch who's magically a beautiful, straight A student. We're supposed to not hate her. I'm never in the mood for that. There's plenty of sol and comedy anime without characters I want to curb stomp. I'm judging it compared to those, not seinen.

Post edited on 21st Dec 2019, 7:06pm

>>33777
Yeah, I couldn't watch it either.

>>33777
Same. I mainly hated that cunt for the way she treated her brother. The anime itself didn't sit well with me either as it tried to make being a lazy selfish manipulative leach seem fun and cool.

Finished Doctor Stone(well this season, they are making another one)

It's premise is quite interesting but the execution isn't, it feels lacking, like there is so much that they could have done but didn't. The technology they create doesn't really make much sense either, they tend to put all their energy into complex technologies while ignoring basic things like housing, armour and weaponry(they touch on weapons towards the end but it comes out of nowhere and appears more like a gimmick than anything else), There isn't much focus on the changes to a tribal society itself but more on creating a specific technology. There seems like their is much more that could have been done character and plot wise as well, they don't really have any interesting plot developments or backgrounds when they quite easily could have. There are people that have been living for thousands of years in this lonely world(which is dumb in itself, they should have developed past what they had) yet all they have to show for it is one village, they didn't spread into numerous peoples with opposing views and aims and characters and cultures at all, there aren't wild wolf skin wearing cultist bandits in the woods or anything like that. Also it can be quite cringey at times too.

Overall I would give it 6.5 out of 10.

>>33777
>>33778
>>33779
>>33780
All fair opinions. Like I said, it's in the eye of the beholder. The show definitely gets really polarized reactions.

>>33783
It'd be a better show if you removed nugget-Umaru and made the MC less generic and more someone who can play off of her eccentricities. Nugget-Umaru only serves to make her feel like a worthless brat and it's hard to feel any love in her relationship with her brother.

I watched Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume. Here are my thoughts:

Really fun series. Puts a smile on my face. I really enjoyed watching this.

Great direction, both on-court and off-court. The ping pong matches are engaging and fun to watch, and the off-court drama is well-executed. The great direction is a major positive in my view.

Decent soundtrack. Decent overall audio production.

Cute characters. Cute character interactions. Good chemistry among the cast.

Decent character development, particularly for a single-cour sports anime with a somewhat large cast.

Animation is unremarkable with occasional poor quality moments, but this is no big deal to me. CG is used briefly during some of the matches. Animation is not a strong point in this series. I'm indifferent to this but still it's worth mentioning, particularly for a sports-focused show.
The overall visual production quality for this anime is low. I don't value animation that much but the bland art style is a missed opportunity for sure.

I should mention that the climax of the series is around episodes 9 and 10. The last two episodes were still good but there were a few 'hooks' added to try to draw you into the manga. This is fairly typical of manga adaptations, for better or worse. I'll also point out that the team talks about wanting to go to the national competition multiple times, but they never actually go in the anime. This might bother you if you're a subhuman plotnigger. ahem. Anyway...

Overall I rate this anime 8/10. Really this is just an incredibly fun series and a joy to watch.

Great example of a low budget anime done well (especially impressive considering that it's a sports anime). Low production quality can't ruin a well-directed anime, but poor direction can cripple any show.

Great OP song! I found myself singing along every time it played.

Would recommend if you like CGDCT or sports anime, especially as a means of bridging the gap between the genres.

Angel's Egg is an experimental movie from the mid eighties about a girl who carries an egg around with her through a quiet, gloomy, apocalyptic world. There's very little dialogue and no clear conflict or progression.

The film is split into parts where you're trying to figure out what's going on, and parts where you're waiting for the scene to end. There's many long still-shots with silence or dramatic choir music in the background. I'd be lying if I said it doesn't get boring and I watched it in a single sitting.

It's not bad per se. The visuals and animation have a lot of style, the dramatic music does build mood, there's enough tidbits to piece together some theme, maybe. Could the budget and premise have been used on something more compelling though? Probably.

It's interesting and I think unique. I'd recommend it if you have the patience for it.

I watched Koe no Katachi last night, and it was fine. Its biggest issue is that it's an adaption of a ~60 chapter manga, and as such, it cut quite a bit out. Kawai was presented in a much better light than in the manga (much to my chagrin), and Mashiba's presence was barely felt in the anime. There was also the missing subplot of Ishida et al. making a movie. Etc. Again, it's to be expected, but still it affected the experience for me.
My favorite parts of the movie are the soundtrack and voices. The latter, especially, made watching this adaption worth it. Nishimiya's attempts at speech are painful and cute.
And that's all I have to say since I have the composition skills of a dumb JC.

>>33803
I'd also like to add that even when 2D tries to be as awful as 3D, it's still the significantly better dimension.

>>33804
Are you reeeeaaaaaaly sure about that? I've seen some alright looking 3-d and some down-right repulsive 2-d before. Also, do you mean Japan's 2-d, or 2-d in general?

>>33805
>Are you reeeeaaaaaaly sure about that? I've seen some alright looking 3-d and some down-right repulsive 2-d before.
Admittedly, I'm never really sure of anything. My opinion is predicated upon my own experiences. I also consider Aku no Hana to be some sort of 2D-3D abomination. So I'm really, really not sure. Also, mind you, I'm talking about a mixture of 2D "personalities" and 2D appearances.

>Also, do you mean Japan's 2-d, or 2-d in general?
The former.

>>33806
>I'm talking about a mixture of 2D "personalities"
Here's the deal, the Aku no Hana manga, which the anime was an adaptation of, actually has a really nice art style. Look up some more panels. It actually looks really good(to me at least). However, assuming the anime faithfully adapts the manga, the personalities are the same. Idealized "2-d personalities" only exist in a subset of 2-d media. The type designed for escapsim and making the audience happy and all of that shit. The way your perceive personality is dependent on the visuals. Make a live action adaptation of an anime with the exact same diaologue word for word, and your perception of the characters would suddenly change. Abstraction, abstraction, abstraction, of reality.

>>33807
Gee, she's such a sexy lady now. I can kind of relate to her now.

>>33807
I've read Aku no Hana, and yes, I agree that the art is very nice. Which was why I and many others were vexed by the anime's visuals. And yes, if you change the appearance of something, your opinion of it will be altered too. As I said, for me, it's a mixture between personalities and looks. I'm a dumb man; maybe I'm missing your point.

I'd also like to take this chance for a double off-topic: I enjoyed the timeskip.

>>33809
In the tohno-chan thread for Aku no Hana's anime, a lot of people were complaining about real life/3-d intruding in their fiction. It's shitty people doing shitty things, so it's just like real life. They were seriously enraged. This perception is incorrect though because the source material was 2-d through and through, so the actual content of the story wasn't the problem. It's a 2-d drama.
http://tohno-chan.com/an/arch/res/14729.html#15064

Post edited on 26th Dec 2019, 2:16pm

>>33811
I guess pretty people get more leeway?

Pure Mail is a 2001, 2 episode visual novel adaptation about the romance between two classmates who had rough childhoods and unwittingly became internet chat buddies despite never talking in real life. From the start of the story, the male lead has figured out who the other person is. This is the kind of premise that could only come from the late 90s-early 2000s romanticized era of the internet. It's very much a product of its time, but is enjoyable none the less. It's also a hentai. The main focus is on the story, but there's a couple sex scenes thrown in. The biggest issue with this is the lack of good streaming options. The upload I watched seemed okay and the quality was the best I could find, but the subtitles obviously fucked with the dialogue in one scene and adds unnecessary crudeness at times.

This is a drama. Familial trouble, most characters doing some shitty things, dramatic conversations and revelations, misunderstandings, what you would expect. It's executed pretty well though. The main character's morose, Shinji-like personality is mostly empathic and compelling enough. The dichotomy between the real him and his online persona is interesting. Seeing how characters kind of make up for each others traumas is also nice.

It's seriously rushed, and the attempt to cram a bit of everything from the source material is transparent. Nowhere is this more clear than the little sister sub-plot. As a consequence, some characters get introduced, but have next to no resolution. You can tell there's a lot more to them, but you're just taking a little peek. The heroine's friend seriously gets the short end of the stick, like REALLY bad.

Visually it looks very decent. Smooth animation, alright character design. It looks great for what it is. I liked the eerie flute music too.

Check this out if you're in the mood for a short, above-average novelty. Good luck finding a good way to watch it.

Post edited on 5th Jan 2020, 7:02pm

I watched Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge (all animated content). Here are my thoughts:

Great direction
Solid production quality
Decent soundtrack
Nice character designs
Genuinely funny - the humour is derived from character interaction which I like.

I generally don't seek out humour as a genre, and typically don't like shows where the focus is on humour. Humour works best as a side dish at most, usually. I made an exception for this show because I thought I might like the flavour of humour. I was right; it was pretty enjoyable and I laughed out loud plenty of times. The gags in this are implemented well with things like dramatic pauses, facial expressions, thought bubblish stuff for context, etc.

Fairly likable cast of characters. Using their various personalities, the entire cast is employed to create humorous situations.

Both the writing and the execution of the show are well-done. Not at all surprised to see how universally well-received this show was. My rating: 8/10

I don't have any criticisms. It did what it said on the label. I have nothing else to say; maybe the listlessness of this review is a reflection of the contagious mood of the show.

Urahara. If you imagine a plane spanned by Flip Flappers, Madoka, and YuYuYu, then I like to imagine that Urahara might land somewhere near the center. It lacks both the deep character dynamics of Flip Flappers and the execution of Madoka (whose thematic content/plot I personally don't care much for yet whose visual impact is undeniable). And yet it's more memorable than YuYuYu since at the end of it all we are left with the impressional of a unique-world and memorable characters.

It follows the same theme of injecting some unorthodoxy into the traditional "magical girl" show, although by this point the "suffering girls" trope is nothing novel. This time we get cute girls (with absurdly bushy eyelids) battling a monster that's hard to even take seriously, scoopers (skoo-pahs!) with a side of mild musings on the nature of artistic expression and creativity. I do get what they were going for here, and the unstated meta-commentary the show leaves you with is neat. The artwork also has that indie feel, with a vivid pastel palette nicely complementing the sugary-sweet parts of the show.

Unfortunately while their concept is good, the implementation feels lacking. Especially closer the end where the 'twist" is revealed, the characters' behaviors become less relatable and the show devolves into stale tropes of quarreling and an anti-climactic climax where the power of friendship ultimately solves everything. In fact it reminded me very much of YuYuYu in how implausible and clichéd things turned out to be. I

So overall while it's not a breathtaking show by any means, it is nonetheless one of those rare "premium mediocre" anime, which is both simultaneously exceptionally average yet uniquely memorable (just as Sora no Method was). Perhaps the other saving grace is the OP/ED which is very catchy.

Post edited on 13th Jan 2020, 9:38pm

Dragon Half is a 90s fantasy, comedy anime which got cancelled after two episodes. Whether or not you'll enjoy it depends on your sense of humor. It's stupid, but in a way which I like. It's not really crass or anything. The animation and fight scenes are quite nicely done, though there is the obligatory, overt corner-cutting here and there which you can expect from this era. The show also often makes usage of the chibi style which i'm personally not a fan of, but this could have been much worse.

I think this show had a lot of potential. The setting is kind of interesting with it being typical medieval fantasy, except with radom bits of modern technology here and there. Some characters had room for development and you can see some outline of arcs they could have gone through. I'm interested in reading the manga. There's also a pc-98 game that looks fun. Give it a go if you like dumb humor and this sort of sexy/cute artstyle.

Post edited on 15th Jan 2020, 7:43pm

>>33935
>cancelled

Wasn't just the common-from-those-years OVA to sell the manga?
Also, the manga is a lot better, you should read it.

>>33936
They were planning to make 4 episodes, but only made 2 because interest wasn't high enough, according to the wikipedia page. The post-credits scene in episode 2 backs this up.

>>33937
I didn't know that, that's a shame.
Also the manga is really good but I forgot to say that while doing Dragon Half Ryusuke Mita style changed drastically into something really weird (to the point it seems a completely different author) and that can turn you off (I didn't like it but at least it was still fun). The OVA's just adapted the beginning so it's the old style.

>>33938
It looks mostly the same to me, just "sharper" later on.

Tenamonya Voyagers
I just finished it after having it sit on a disk for years
4 part OVA from 1999 abt 3 girls that try to return to earth after being stranded on a foreign planet with no money.The artstyle is amazing-it has its funny moments though.Not based on any manga it ended a little abruptly probablty due to lack of interest but still it became one of my all time favorites.

>>33935
just rewatched it a couple weeks ago
really funny and lighthearted show-highly recommended

Kirara is a 2000, 1 episode ova about a woman who dies on her wedding day, but gets to see her fiance once more, except as a ghost 8 years ago, as their relationship was just beginning to develop. Her interference could potentially screw everything up.

It's clumsy, confusing, aimless and has no real conclusion. You'd think at the end everything turns out okay and she moves on to the after-life or something, but that never happens. There actually is no clear ending. Everyone is aware of her and knows she's a ghost, but they all act strangely nonchalant about it. Nothing anybody does makes a whole lot of sense. There are a few touching moments here and there though. The premise has potential, but could have been executed way, way better.

Visually, it's surprisingly poor. It look like something that easily could have come out more than ten years before it did. The art style isn't that pleasant either. The animation itself could have been worse, but it's just okay. Watch this if you're a romance junkie I guess, or love old, shoddily executed stuff.

Evangelion

I'm probably going to cause some friction here but I didn't like it, the first 20 or so episodes were bland and a bit silly and then it just went stupider from there. I was disappointed by Rei and Asuka as well, they are often spoken of and referenced and people often raise them on some pedestal as if they are the archetype of blue haired and red haired characters(such as with the thread on Rifle is Beautiful) but I actually didn't think they were really even fit for those character types they were supposed to have inspired. Rei was just boring and Asuka was a generic immature brat or even a trollop(although in some ways she felt more like an immature western/3d brat than an anime one). There was a fair amount of forced drama in this that made little sense and was poorly executed and then the end was four episodes of garbage much of which was just repetitive notions on loneliness and feelings of worthlessness that even Naruto handled better.

>>33950
This argument gets poked fun at a lot, but I actually think you didn't understand what the show was trying to convey and what the writer's intent was. It's about pathetic, dysfunctional, traumatized people, mishandling their problems in the most destructive way possible, the end result of which may or may not have been actually beneficial, it's up to you.

People do stupid, seemingly inexplicable things, that make sense if you figure out what's going on in their head, but you can't do that unless you literally fuse minds, which isn't possible in real life yet.

Rei is tool for Genji, and isn't that interesting in isolation. Asuka's not what I would call generic. I didn't find her likable, but her obsessive need to be self-sufficient, her complete failure and the destruction of the last normal thing in her life, her childish crush on a grown man, was interesting to me. It's a show for sadists and depressed people.

Post edited on 20th Jan 2020, 5:49am

>>33951
>It's about pathetic, dysfunctional, traumatized people, mishandling their problems in the most destructive way possible, the end result of which may or may not have been actually beneficial, it's up to you.

That's just it, they aren't that traumatised, it's forced drama. The worst things to have happened to them is to have a parent die, big woop. It's all the more daft when they live in a post apocalyptic world, I'm quite sure there would be people in a world like that who have suffered far more than they. Shinji ends up living with a woman that cares for him and has freinds from school yet he still complains how he suffers and feels like he is worthless. Again, it's forced drama.

>Rei is tool for Genji, and isn't that interesting in isolation.

Potentially it could have been, if it was well executed but it was not.

>but her obsessive need to be self-sufficient

So she says but lives with others when she easily could choose not too. She could just ask for her own apartment and they woudl give her one. Hell, with the amount of money they spend on that project and the fact that she is one of few that can pilot an EVA they would give her a palace if she asked for one.

>her complete failure

Yet again, forced drama. People have failed at things far worse than she did.

>and the destruction of the last normal thing in her life, her childish crush on a grown man, was interesting to me.

I don;t really care for that kind of thing so it doesn't interest me. I would watch 3d drama if I did, which kind of sums up the series as a whole.

>>33952
>they aren't that traumatized, it's forced drama
I think you just don't like any drama. They don't have to have the worst things ever happen to them for them to be traumatized. Characters don't need to have been raped by five hundred people or have their extended family tortured and killed in front of them. Being abandoned by your father, or betrayed by your mother, or having a dead wife, are good enough reasons. The show wouldn't have been more interesting if it was about starving Africans or whatever. Characters don't need to accidentally set off twenty nuclear bombs to fail in a meaningful way story and character-wise.
>a woman that cares for him
She rotates between acting like a mother, a friend, a roommate, a coworker and a lover, with little rhyme or reason. She's not a well-adjusted adult herself and she's almost entirely oblivious to whatever shit Shinji is going through in his head.
>has friends from school
The school parts were forced in by executives. His school friends were meaningless and hollow relationships. They barely get any screen time for a reason. The human shaped angel was Shinji's first and only real friend.
>Potentially it could have been
How other characters thought about and treated Rei was compelling to me. The character herself wasn't, nor did she need to be.
>So she says but lives with others when she easily could choose not too.
You don't know that. Nerve is controlling and Genji has a convoluted rationale behind all of his decisions.
>it doesn't interest me
Doesn't mean it's bad. Anime doesn't have to be all super serious and gritty, but it doesn't all have to be moe either. Somebody can appreciate both.

Post edited on 20th Jan 2020, 6:38am

>>33953
>The school parts were forced in by executives
I don't think it was because I've never heard of this, but one of the things that impacted me the most about the series is how the city and the school emptied out as the series went on.

>>33952
>The worst things to have happened to them is to have a parent die, big woop.

Asuka literally found the corpse of her mother after she killed herself, mother who also tried to kill Asuka multiple times and talked to a doll like if it was her real daughter.
Yeah, who could get traumatized by that, right?

>>33953
I just don't like forced drama that is poorly executed, which is what this anime is full of. They don't need things like you say to have happened but Shinji could have been cast aside and treated poorly by everybody and that would then actually explain things, people get adopted and/or have awful relations with their father all the time.

No she doesn't, you just read to much into it.

They didn't treat her or think about her in any interesting way.

I do know that, in any world that had half a mite of sense that would happen. It actually would be in Genji's interest to do that,psychology plays an important part in synch rates, it would make sense to give the pilots the best space possible.

It's not super serious and gritty or moe, Naruto is more serious and gritty. It's just forced drama.

>>33955
And yet her behaviour is actually perfectly normal, She just wants attention like any 3d trollop in real life does.

>>33958
>forced drama
I haven't heard that phrase used straightforwardly in years. It's still as incomprehensible of a criticism as it used to be.

>>33959
Very well I shall explain it to you then. Many times in this anime a moment will occur when something that otherwise would have been treated in a fairly level headed and mundane way is blown completely out of proportion simply to create drama. Hence it isn't natural, it is forced. In many cases with a bit of competent writing it would be engineered in a manner that would organically create the drama they are aiming for but such an industry standard level of writing skill is something that eluded the creator in this case.

>>33958
Okay, so you can't relate to Shinji because his reasons for being depressed aren't close enough to whatever social rejection you've been through. Also, you don't like the "forced drama", whatever that means, that was "badly executed", whatever that means.
>you just read to much into it
Uuuuuuh, huuuuuuuuh. Maybe try reading into things more?

>>33961
>Uuuuuuh, huuuuuuuuh. Maybe try reading into things more?

One could say that about literally anything. Using Naruto again, you could use this to say that Naruto is a masterpiece and the most in depth analysis of the human condition that has ever been made and if you disagree well you just aren't reading enough into it.

>>33960
That doesn't really tell me anything. Why should heavy issues be treated as mundane things in a fantastical setting? Would it really be more entertaining to have emotionally level people efficiently do their work and never experience things they can't handle?

>>33962
Yep, there's no such thing as objectivity, everything is completely subjective now because post-modernism is king. If you can't see something, that doesn't mean it's not there. If you really think this is true
>No she doesn't, you just read to much into it.
you're just incapable of picking up on what the show is conveying. I feel bad for you, but I can't help you. You can't teach a Monkey english, it will always be gibberish to it no matter what. I wont say anything else on this.

>>33963
No, by your post it clearly doesn't tell you anything as it seems to have flown right over your head.

>>33964
Okay, well to each their own. Enjoy your pseudo-intellectual, 3d drama like anime I guess.

>>33965
Name a good anime drama.

I think there's reading too much into something, and then there's inventing and assigning meaning to things that simply aren't there, and yes this can be applied to anything.
It's not that characters have shallow personalities and lack any depth, it's a commentary on the lack of individuality in modern society. It's not that the art is ugly, it's a metaphor for how ugly the world is. It's not that the voice acting is bad, it's representing how awkward real conversations are. The writing isn't bad, it's non-traditional unorthodox thinking and experimental genius at work.

>>33968
In End of Evangelion, Misato kisses Shinji and implies she'll have sex with him after everything blows over. That doesn't come out of nowhere. The tv series makes it clear that their relationship isn't that clear. There's no role you can label her as except "woman who lives with Shinji". Some people are too autistic to pick up on even the exaggerated social cues anime characters display, so flirting and seduction goes over their head unless a character is literally taking off their clothes and yelling "fuck me".
>In the manga, when talking with Shinji at the train station after his first attempt to run away from NERV, Misato confesses to Shinji that she took him in not because she thought it was her duty to do so, but because she was lonely.
>Misato finds herself often acting as a mediator between Shinji and Asuka. There is also sexual tension between Shinji and Misato
>During her Instrumentality, she expresses regret that she was not able to "be a mother for Shinji" in the end.
I picked up on it, other people picked up on it, and nobody had to tell us. The wiki talks about it. If somebody has a developmental disorder which prevents them from seeing it, sorry, but they're wrong. If they can't even see this, then yeah, they probably wont enjoy the show.

Post edited on 21st Jan 2020, 2:47pm

>>33970
She acts like a woman living with an unrelated teen the whole time, there really isn't much change to it even in the movie, she basically just tries to manipulate a teen with sex, which is because she is a woman living with a teen. She never acts like a friend, co worker, lover or mother, she always acts like a woman living with an unrelated teen.

And even If you were to live with an older woman then you are living with an older woman, she doesn't have these set in stone roles you ascribed to her that would cause some kind of issues if borders in that role were crossed. She could have put on an apron in the first scene and made him scones and neatened up his collar as he left to school one day and then taken him to a love hotel the next and it wouldn't actually cause mental issues.

>>33971
>She acts like a woman living with an unrelated teen the whole time
>because she is a woman living with a teen
>it wouldn't actually cause mental issues
This makes perfect sense... If you're autistic. I'm not saying that to be insulting.

>>33972
Maybe it's you that is autistic, have you considered that? You do have a preference for placing things in categories with set borders and seem to awfully dislike the idea of anything going against that.

>>33973
I have a basic understanding of how relationships work, which most people agree with. There's no such thing as just "a woman who lives with an unrelated teen". No one thinks like that. Most people don't want to fuck their sister or actual parents, because to them they're not just "a person closely related to me". If they accidentally fuck their sister, it greatly upsets them.

If you're not sure if the woman you live with is your mother figure, or your friend, or your lover, and you're already an unstable teen with abandonment issues, it's not going to be pleasant. Okay? If understanding these things doesn't come naturally to you, try learning.

Post edited on 21st Jan 2020, 4:27pm

>>33974
>I have a basic understanding of how relationships work,

Yes, It really is just a basic understanding.

>If you're not sure if the woman you live with is your mother figure, or your friend, or your lover

Unless you are autistic you won't actually be thinking that about an older woman you live with.

>>33975
Why do you think Misato regretted not being "a mother" to Shinji? If your way of thinking was normal, why would she think that? What would that even mean? She was just "a woman", so what else would she have wanted? Why is having sex with your sex-siblings and step-children taboo? Why does confucianism and the bible go into such lengthy detail about relationship roles? Why did Freud think they were so important? Why does every psychologist talk about them so much?

Also, you still haven't named an anime drama you think is good.

Post edited on 21st Jan 2020, 5:16pm

>>33976
Because she is an older woman. Your autistic categorisation seems to cloud your perception of things. Relationships are not some set in stone thing. If you were to have three co-workers of the exact same position as you all of whom were adults but one was older, one was younger and one was your age then you would have a different relationship with them all based purely on age ignoring gender or friendship or closer bonds(you could actually be a lover of a co-worker or work with a sister or a parent and not have a mental break down because of it, relation ships are not these definite things).

>Why is having sex with your sex-siblings and step-children taboo?

Because they are related to you, step children are not and it's less of a taboo and that taboo is more to do with other factors. If the step child was an adult and the 'mother' divorced his father then it would no longer be taboo.


>Why does confucianism and the bible go into such lengthy detail about relationship roles?

Eastern ideas tend to actually bring the role of wife and sister together, imouto used to be the word for wife in Japanese. A wife is basically just a sister you sleep with, the relationship is very similar.

>Why did Freud think they were so important?

Funny that you bring him up when his views were based on the idea that sons all want to sleep with their mother and women all want to sleep with their father(because they want to have a penis).


>Also, you still have named an anime drama you think is good.

I'm not going to. But Naruto is better at it than EVA so maybe you should watch that.

>>33977
>Because she is an older woman.
So?
Why do you think you're in the minority opinion about Eva? Why do you think most people think it's good?
>I'm not going to.
Why not? If you think Eva is a bad drama, just tell me what you think is a good one.

Post edited on 21st Jan 2020, 5:28pm

>>33978
If you are older than somebody else you tend to take on different roles because of that, older bosses or team mates tend to act in fatherly manners, older women on the street will act like a mother.

>Why do you think you're in the minority opinion about Eva?
Who knows? I don't generally concern myself over that. I'm sure there are some anime that are rated highly that you don't like either. But what I will say just becuase something is like by the masses it does not make it good.

>Why do you think most people think it's good?

Well blasting pseudo-intellectual messages at you over and over again may appeal to the lowest common denominator, once something gets a reputation particularly a reputation like this it tends to gain momentum mas well. I also think the 3d drama elements would go into it's favour, it's something that people who don't necessary like anime that much may enjoy(hence why it's now on Netflix). It's funny when people say things like 'but I actually think you didn't understand what the show was trying to convey and what the writer's intent was' as if it was something that people generally struggle with when it's actually something so popular as this is. It's hardly some esoteric, deep and cryptic things only able to be understood by those with some kind of above average intellect or a deep knowledge of phycology.

Start of by watching Naruto.

>>33979
>older women on the street will act like a mother.
This has never happened to me. If said women was my senior at work, and I lived with her, and my mom was dead, and she acted like my mom, and I accepted her as such, and I also had serious daddy issues, and then she wanted to have sex with me, I wouldn't be too happy about it.
>He also shows an obvious fright toward Misato's perceived attraction to him.
>When Toji and Kensuke point out that Misato allows Shinji to see that side of her because she considers him family, their connection becomes even stronger.
>Misato, however, has difficulty in reaching out to Shinji in later episodes and Shinji is horrified when she offers her body to him, seeing her as a mother figure.
>As his "boss"/NERV Chief Tactical Officer, Misato can be quite intense, causing Shinji to not come home at night more than once
>Though Shinji denies it, he yearns for praise, and he eventually begins to pilot Unit-01 to gain the approval and praise of others, as well as the love of his father
Hmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder what Anno meant by this? What could it possibly mean? I must be reading too much into it.
>I'm sure there are some anime that are rated highly that you don't like either.
I don't like Kemono Friends, but I understand why other people like it. It's not a mystery to me.

>>33980
She doesn't act like his mum, she act like an older woman, in what way does she act like an actual mother would and not like any older woman living with a teenager would? As I said, it's natural that older people will adopt mother or father like behaviours but it does not mean they are literally acting like the persons mother or that the person thinks of them that way.

>Hmmmmmmmmmm, I wonder what Anno meant by this? What could it possibly mean? I must be reading too much into it.

You know he didn't actually write it right? And it also is quite likely that he is just milking attention for it by doing things like that.

>I don't like Kemono Friends, but I understand why other people like it. It's not a mystery to me.

That actually doesn't surprise me. But still, Kemono Friends is actually less popular than EVA.

>>33981
>does not mean they are literally acting like the persons mother
She firstly wanted to be like a mother to him, housed him, fed him, intervened when he argued with Asuka, she gets told about his school troubles. It's been directly said by other character that they are like family.
>oji and Kensuke point out that Misato allows Shinji to see that side of her because she considers him family
>since it is Parent Visitation Day, she visits the school
>Gendo starts to tell him that all those parental duties have been delegated to Misato
It's a close, familial like-bond, with a older woman. Age plays a part in how you would see a women who feeds and houses you. Shinji's actual mother has been dead for a long time and It's obvious how desperate Shinji is for these types of bonds. Him latching onto her and seeing her as mother makes sense. Him being horrified by her sexual offers makes perfect sense if he sees her as like a mother. There's nobody more like a mother to him than her and he wants someone like a mother.

Post edited on 21st Jan 2020, 9:09pm

>>33982
>housed him

So it's not possible to live with somebody who is not your mother?

>fed him

Ah huh. Maybe you should rewatch the anime. But regardless, people who are not mothers can feed people that are younger than them as well.

>intervened when he argued with Asuka

Again, nothing particularly abnormal here.

>she gets told about his school troubles

Nothing abnormal either.


All of these things are things that not even an older woman would do but basically anybody in general. You could easily write it as a boy his own age offering him a place to say, feeding him, intervening in arguments and listening to his troubles.


>It's been directly said by other character that they are like family.

maybe it's an autistic thing but you are taking that too literally.

Hate to interrupt but think you guys could take this to another thread? This one's for anime reviews after all.

>>33983
I'm not making another thread for the sake of this, I give up. This is also just a small part of the show. If accepting that Shinji somewhat saw Misato as a mother figure is too hard for you, it's obvious why you didn't like EVA. I wont shit the thread up any more.
From even more people.
>Mother Figure: An older woman, often one in a position of power or influence, who elicits the emotions usually reserved for a mother.
>Misato makes her first "motherly" actions in the relationship while still remaining curiously sexual. This is probably very confusing for the already overwhelmed Shinji
>her role as Major is directly contrasted with her other roles of Mother and Love Interest. The alienation in this episode and later episodes can be theorized as a result in this confusion of roles.
>Shinji no longer feels comfortable with his living conditions with Misato, and runs away
>Misato's "motherly" attitude is shown toward both Shinji and Asuka
>Shinji probably still sees Misato as a "mother figure" and obviously, he would react negatively to the imposition of sex
>Shinji realizes that, despite his fear, he finally has a real home, and a mother figure
>Misato herself has her own thoughts wondering if she's really fit to serve as Shinji's surrogate mother
>With Misato he sees her as a mother figure

>>33985
Okay, will likewise I won't bother pointing out the issues with words of other people you are using. I will just leave things as is.

Nobody is right.
Everyone is wrong.

Misato= ane
Ane romance= win
Therefore all other opinions are incorrect.
Shinji might be resistant to the idea but he's obviously wrong. Get in the big sis, Shinji.

I finished Honzuki no Gekoujou, I liked it. It was like a girl who had never played a video game before decided to make an Iseakai.

Cat Soup is an experimental ova from 2001. I liked everything about it. Wonderfully bizare visuals, dynamic animation and great sound design come together to make great surrealist art. Cat Soup successfully captures an unsanitized feeling of childhood, including it's more morbid, cruel aspects, something it shares with the manga source material and the animated shorts. It's short, atmospheric and poignant. If that's what you're in the mood for, watch it. I don't know why it isn't way more popular.

Post edited on 25th Jan 2020, 3:30pm

Kuro no Sumika: Chronus is a 2014 ova, pilot thing which seems like it might potentially become a full series, but didn't. It's about a highschool guy who can see shinigami, who are attractive people wearing business suits in this. The art style is simplistic and not too appealing, but it looks okay in motion.

I didn't like the boring romance sub-plot and it, predictably, was used as the only source of conflict, to give the the main character something that puts him in conflict with the death spirits. After all this is established, it rapidly devolves into a shounen kind of thing with battles and light shows and speeches about fate and how it can't be changed, but actually it can. I didn't expect at lot and I was still disappointed.

Post edited on 25th Jan 2020, 4:59pm

>>34002
The manga is really interesting. It's like a nightmare diary.

Eve no Jikan is a 2008 ova about a world where sentient androids exist, but can only be treated as emotionless servants, which some people disagree with. One such person runs a secret cafe where humans and robots must treat each other the same.

There's a couple of problems with the premise itself. It's impossible to accidentally create sentient robots with feelings. Nobody would expect you to treat such things as emotionless tools either. The method of distinguishing androids from humans can also be readily turned off by the androids. It's just a projection thing. Asimov's laws govern these android's behavior. Asimov's laws however were created to be absurd and dysfunctional. Treating them seriously in any context kind of misses their point. The setting is a bit underbaked and illogical in general.

Ignoring all that, the show is quite good. The character interaction is by far the strongest aspect. It kind of reminds of how Steins;Gate and Haurhi(except actually good) went about it. They constantly bounce off each other in a way that makes sense given their personalities. They also develop through these interactions, which is more than can be said of many other shows. It's compelling, funny, and heart warming.

This show is an emotional roller coaster and the pacing is well done. Nothing feels like it drags on or gets rushed too much. The ending however doesn't wrap everything up and I was left wanting much more.

Visually, it's impressive, especially for 2008. I haven't seen much better, more seamless usage of 3dcg. The animation is smooth and the directing has a punch to it which really helps the visual gags. The score is a bit repetitive, but sounds nice and gets used to good effect.

I'd recommend it if you like light sci-fi and very character-driven stories.

Post edited on 27th Jan 2020, 3:29pm

>>34011
Your problems are more or less addressed with additional content from the movie, I'd recommend checking it out if you haven't yet.

Rifle is Beautiful

Overall it was good, I felt it was let down by the sport it was focused on though, it's really not an interesting sport to watch, if it had stayed more SoL like as it was early on it would have been better.

>>34006
I'm not sure why, but I have an immense desire to watch this. So thank you for the review!

Candy Boy. The title is of course as misleading as Yuri on Ice, though the sub-title "Nonchalant Talk of the Certain Twin Sisters in Daily Life" should help clear things up.

Yuri shows usually seem to span a spectrum from light Kirara-style yuritease to more serious dramas á la YagaKimi. I'd place Candy Boy much closer to the Kirara end of the spectrum; with the exception of one or two episodes, drama is essentially non-existent and the core of the series is simply following the daily activities of these sisters SoL-style. Character dynamics and VA'ing are excellent: the strength of the relationship between these sisters is evident, and as in Machikado Mazoku it's clear that they care for each other. Perhaps the only complaint might be that Sakuya as a gag-character feels unnecessary and out-of-place with the casual atmosphere the show tries to develop.

Given that each episode is only 10 minutes, it's certainly worth a watch (start at EX01 - Mirai Yohouzu which is the first in chronological order, and also the best animated).

I watched the movie Da Yu Hai Tang, also known as Big Fish & Begonia. It is a chinese animated movie and I watched it with chinese audio. Here are my thoughts:

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE CHINESE?
*ahem*
sorry, I had to get that out of my system.

Anyway, if I could describe this movie in one word it would be "strange." This movie is very strange. It involves a lot of supernatural and mythical themes. It makes me think of the absurd fables that are part of ancient mythologies, such as Greek or Indian mythology. This movie feels like a strange illogical fable straight out of some ancient mythological belief system. In fact, the movie apparently does draw on some themes from chinese mythology. It could be that my complete lack of knowledge in that area impeded my understanding of the story.

Visually, it looked pretty good. Animation quality was high. There were lots of strange creatures too which were entertaining to watch. This movie doesn't really look like anime both in terms of art style as well as the animated movement itself. The animation style feels more like western animation, despite its chinese origin. This felt like a demented Pixar film to me. It's worth noting that I am quite sick right now and I watched this with a fever which probably amplified the delirious feeling of the movie.

The story itself was quite incoherent and often rushed. Many things were unclear in terms of plot as well as character motivations. I spent most of the movie confused about what was happening. Both the writing and execution of the plot are the weakest aspects of this movie. The exposition during the first half of the movie was also quite rushed and left me confused before the plot even really kicked in. My confusion continued to compound as things progressed.

Audio in this was really good. Audio production quality was high. The soundtrack was very good. There were some really nice chinese vocals that played during the ending credits as well.

My overall rating: 6/10

I'm searching for a copy of the soundtrack and I'd be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction. It's not on Nyaa.

>>34056
Here it is.

>>34062
Amazing! Thank you.

Do you have a source for the ending songs as well? I think they were released as separate albums.

Where did you find this torrent if you don't mind my asking?

>>34063
That one was from rutracker, found with torrents.io
I'll look for the other album later, can't find anything about it right now. If you know what it's called it shouldn't be too hard to find.

>>34064
I would wager it's on Baidu somewhere but I haven't figured out how to download via Baidu.

The song I'm most interested in is the 2nd ending song. It has the title 湫兮如风 and the artist is 徐佳莹 (https://www.xiami.com/artist/FtH750fa).
I've embedded a youtube vid of the song with this post.

Pardon me for being a choosy beggar, but the torrent you posted doesn't appear to have any seeders.

I've already ripped the entire OST off of youtube so this isn't a huge deal. Unfortunately the highest quality on youtube seems to be 125 kbps :/
I would prefer lossless, obviously.

I think I found it here as well, but the site is giving me trouble.
https://y.qq.com/portal/search.html#page=1&searchid=1&remoteplace=txt.yqq.top&t=song&w=湫兮如风

I need to do some more research into how to download music from the chinese internet sites. I always run into either software compatibility issues or being locked out because I'm not using a VPN.

>>34065
video embed isn't working for me for some reason:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uvF_MHZMck

>>34065
I didn't find anything. Maybe someone else could help.
Checked the torrent, there's plenty of seeders. Don't know why it's not working for you.

>>34070
thanks for your help anyway. The torrent issue might be due to a problem on my end of things.

>>34070
FYI the torrent is seeding for me now; you were right.

I watched Hidan no Aria and its spinoff series Hidan no Aria AA. Thoughts on both series provided below.

Hidan no Aria:
I remember some of the action scenes were kind of cool. Art style was bland but the animation was okay. The OP and ED songs were both great.

Otherwise it was complete trash. I mean literally textbook garbage as far as the medium goes. All the things that people say they hate about anime? This series exemplifies most of them. It's an action harem series where the main character gets power ups by becoming sexually aroused. I can enjoy/tolerate a ton of otaku pandering, but this show was trash even by my very low standards. The plot was also completely ridiculous and involved one of the female characters being the descendant of Sherlock Holmes or something. The characters were 'elite' crime-fighting high school students (of course) with bulletproof school uniforms. I have nothing against ridiculous stories/premises either, don't get the wrong idea; this anime was just simply terrible.

Anyway, I somehow watched every episode. When I was finished I rated it 2/10.

It should be noted that I watched the original series sometime around 4 years ago, so it's possible that, unbeknownst to me, I'm forgetting important details or that my tastes have changed over time (this is why I write my thoughts down now). That said though, I distinctly remember this particular anime as being one of the most ridiculously bad shows I ever actually watched to completion.


Hidan no Aria AA:
This is basically a yuri spinoff with a girl replacing the self-insert male MC of the original series. I will watch pretty much anything with yuri in it and this is no exception. This spinoff is made by Doga Kobo instead of J.C. Staff who made the original series.

This spinoff is just as cheesy as the original, albeit in a more endearing way due to the all-female cast and softer tone. Again, the art style is bland but the animation is okay. I like both the OP and ED songs, although the actual OST is totally forgettable. Both this and the original series have a yandere character whose antics are kind of funny. There are plenty of cute girl-girl moments. This spinoff is cuter than the comparatively more ecchi original series.

Despite the negativity expressed thus far, this spinoff wasn't completely awful. The plot is totally (endearingly?) corny, and at least it is coherent and not rushed. The characters aren't great, but they're not unlikable either. Actually, I would say character interaction is a (relatively) strong aspect of this anime. The senpai-kouhai relations are super cute. Additionally, the yuri elements combined with the combat action theme is at least somewhat unique and at times enjoyable.

For me, the spinoff is within the threshold of 'so bad it's good' territory, whereas the original series is beyond any kind of redemption.

Actually, this spinoff is pretty funny as well. There are a lot of comedic scenes, mostly revolving around yuri fanservice.

I like Aria's hairstyle. Twintails are pretty! I liked Aria's personality a lot more in the spinoff too. Wow Aria is such a cool senpai!!

Rating for the spinoff Hidan no Aria AA: 5/10
It was adequate shut-my-brain-off-and-drool-at-the-screen material.

>>34172
>I mean literally textbook garbage as far as the medium goes. All the things that people say they hate about anime? This series exemplifies most of them.
It's based on a light novel. Has there ever been a good light novel? Has there ever been a good light novel
adpatation?

>>34175
>Has there ever been a good light novel?
There's been many.
>Has there ever been a good light novel adpatation?
On the other hand, there's been very few of those.

>>34172
AA was great when it wasn't doing some 'plot' stuff and just being fun.
Then again, that's how a lot of these things go.
It's not even that the plot is bad, it works fine in the manga, but it feels like the directors only put it in the anime because they had to from higher ups.

>>34189
The plot-heavy episodes were definitely the worst. As is often the case with anime, unfortunately.

I watched Magic-Kyun! Renaissance. Here are my thoughts.

Positive aspects:
>setting and atmosphere
>art style
>decent character insert songs with enjoyable scenes to accompany them
>sometimes romantic

Negative aspects:
>mediocre direction
>bland and somewhat unlikable characters
>bland plot

There are aspects of this anime that I really liked and appreciated, but my average level of enjoyment over time was moderate at best. Overall rating: 6/10

More detailed thoughts are provided below.

I thought this was an all-male idol anime prior to watching (did zero research before watching - had modest expectations because I usually like boy idols). The main character is actually an awesome girl who is sort of a 'manager' for a group of male artists (i.e. it's a reverse harem show). I didn't realize she was a girl until I heard the voices because her character design relative to the male cast is so androgynous. It's good that there's a female manager though because boys are REALLY DUMB, especially when they don't have a confident talented girl to lead them.

I like most of the character designs. One petty complaint I have though is that the MC has this 'dopey' resting facial expression that makes her difficult to take seriously at times.

The setting is CUTE CUTE CUTE. Everything is super sparkly and amazing! The setting is like a girly fantasy world with lots of jewels and spirally staircases and stuff. A lot of detail went into it and it looked great. I definitely like the vibrant colour palette used in this anime.

If I was giving this series genre tags I would definitely classify this as shoujo. The tone of the series is quite girly, even moreso than the average boy idol anime. The MC is also very 'self-inserty', if that makes sense.

Okay animation quality.

I liked the music at first but unfortunately they play the exact same piano melody over and over again. There are character insert songs added into most episodes which are good and have pretty scenes to go with them. OP and ED songs are good too.

Mediocre direction. Moments that should be more emotional are underplayed, which is strange for a shoujo anime like this. Screentime also feels like it is often wasted on totally mundane and boring material. There were a lot of scenes revolving around preparing for the summer festival thing that felt like a drag to me.

Both the characters and plot are kind of bland and cliche.

There are romantic moments at times but it's difficult to get into due to the lackluster characterization. It's a cheap shallow kind of romance, like one would expect from a harem show. Most of the male cast is pretty cute, with some exceptions. Some of the male cast have kind of unlikable personalities as well (looking at you especially, MONET). That said, one aspect of the story is that the MC helps the boys with their flaws, so maybe it's unfair of me to fault the male cast for having personality issues.

The MC's jaw looks like she could literally crush boulders with it. Seriously I have no idea what they were thinking with her character design besides intentionally making her kind of homely so the intended audience can more easily self-insert. At least her hair is kind of pretty. She looks like an ogre got sent to a hair salon.

Despite all my criticisms of the anime, I think the overall franchise had promise and was underappreciated. The musical content is pretty good and the seiyuus even held a live concert, the previews of which look pretty good.

One final note: I'm searching for any music related to this franchise and I'd be grateful to anyone who could help me with that. I'm also searching for the full video release of the live concert. Lastly, I unfortunately have not seen the OVA because I could not find it anywhere.

>>34176
I doubt there has been many good light novels. The only ones on the top of my head that I can think of that are not fanfiction tier are Kino, All you Need Is Kill, Spice and Wolf, and maybe Overlord and Haruhi.

>>34200
By this post I can understand that you don't understand japanese.

I watched Amaama to Inazuma. Here are my thoughts:

The anime is mainly focused on a single widowed father and his kindergartenish age daughter. Cooking is the primary focus of the show and the bulk of each episode revolves around cooking in some way. This cooking theme is a major component of the anime's appeal, at least from my point of view.

I don't like the daughter character's voice actor. She sounds like she has food in her mouth or something. Really unnatural-sounding voice acting in her case. Otherwise, the show's audio is completely unremarkable.

Don't really like the character designs, although they appear to be accurate depictions of the manga art. Animation quality is okay and the art style is bland.

Emotional aspects of the show feel forced and artificial. The characters are quite bland and lacking in personality. Spuriously sentimental moments are often forcefed to the viewer in a way that feels crude and unnatural.

The main characters are literally imbeciles. To the point that it's both unbelievable and infuriating. Actually, none of the characters are particularly likable.

I did appreciate that there was sometimes considerable detail shown in the cooking processes. At the same time though, the most detailed scenes were often the most frustrating because the incompetence of the characters was illuminated to an even greater degree. For example, there was one otherwise okay episode where the characters randomly are gifted fish which was freshly caught off a pier from a stranger on a hot day. The characters gut the fish and proceed to eat it as sashimi on impulse, and even feed some to the ~6 year old daughter character. No sanitation or deep freezing procedures are used to eliminate parasites, so it's fairly dangerous, particularly for a child. I used to eat freshly caught fish raw too IRL before I learned how stupid it was. Anyway, this is just one of many examples where my enjoyment is compromised by the idiotic behaviour of the characters. Generally speaking I'm quite permissive in this regard when it comes to anime, and I'm not the type to ever complain about 'realism', but still the constant incompetence of the characters was off-putting to me. It was well beyond the realm of endearing and deep into annoying territory.

Aside from the kind-of-unique premise, this anime does not bring a lot to the table. It doesn't take any risks, yet still it doesn't do anything particularly well. Nothing about it is particularly noteworthy. It's not terrible; I still watched the entire thing. It's just an unremarkable mediocre anime mainly focused on cooking. I like cooking, so from my subjective point of view it was still watchable. It was nothing more than something to fall asleep to at the end of the day.

Overall rating: 5/10

My initial impression was that this anime had some promise but it ended up just being totally mediocre. Disappointing.