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.

Nanabun no Nijuuni, also known as 22/7, is an anime to promote the virtual idol group of the same name.

The story is split up into two different things. One part of the story is the tale of modern day 22/7, along with their producers and a wall that prints out commands that are literally impossible to obey, and the other part of the story is the backstories of the characters.
The backstories of the characters themselves are hit or miss. Some are bad (the red haired one, whose episode was pretty bad overall, and manga girl who never got her story tied in with anything), some are pretty enjoyable to watch (Toda Jun, Akane's). I found it pretty obvious that the point of the stories was to make you feel for the characters themselves, since if you get emotionally connected to the group you're more likely to look up stuff about them, as was the case with me and Miu, the main character.
The main story is good for the first three episodes, with a focus on Miu trying to get used to being the center of the group and being an idol in general. Then, after that, the backstories start popping up and the main story basically takes a backseat for a really long time, up until episode 10 where 22/7 gets disbanded by the wall.
Did I mention the wall? It's a really dumb plot. I thought it was clever at first, since the wall never explicitly guaranteed the 'success' of 22/7, just that it would exist, and that it would be doing things on specific dates. The wall's orders are things that are going to happen, even if whoever reads it doesn't want it to, like said disbanding. But the problem with the wall is that it's never explained. It's never explored beyond the first episode. The fucking thing is just a Deus Ex Machina to keep the plot going. There's no explanation of what the wall is in episode 12 either, even after Miu breaks the (stone) wall open with a (luxury) chair, all we know is that the producers have apparently been stalking the group since they were kids, like fucking weirdos. Hell, the thing gives out another order even after they break it open and say they're not listening to its orders anymore.
It's sort of like they wrote the whole plot, but forgot to have anything to tie it all together with, so they just came up with Wallgod. The backstories, while nice, end up hurting the main plot since focus is usually torn near completely from it as the backstory is usually more interesting.
I'd have honestly been incredibly disappointed if I was actually expecting the wall to go anywhere, but I think I was just more happy that it wasn't Wizard of Oz bullshit.

The animation is great, but also frustrating. I always feel like there's a little more that could be done despite how well the animation is done usually, like maybe a few extra frames to carry the weight a little further with certain movements. A lot of people confused it for Kyoani though, so I guess that's a good sign for it.
There's also CGI animation in it. The most glaring of it is used for dancing scenes of the group, with some mixed in traditional. The dancing was fairly well done, and I believe they're doing it because of motion capture, so I don't have any real problems with it. Other CGI was done for budget cuts, with the typical sort of approach anime uses to this. Certain scenes used budget CGI in a fairly clever way by knocking it off to the sides where most people wouldn't have focused.
Probably the episode with the worst animation is red haired girl's. I think that one actually made me a little sick watching it, in spite of the fact it's supposed to be pleasing to look at since it's the swimsuit episode. A lot of things with the animation in it just didn't sit well with me.

I'm not the most musically inclined person, so I wouldn't really know how to rate the music. None of it sounded particularly off to me, but aside from the OP none of it stood out to me either. The ED changes every episode so maybe I just wasn't used to hearing the same songs, but if this is an anime about a musical idol group it's probably important to have at least one of those songs stand out to a viewer like me.

And then the voiceacting.
The voiceacting in this series is incredibly controversial among Japasnese audiences, something I earnestly didn't realize until I was done watching the series. I did see preliminary responses to the voice acting from watching the trailers on Nico Nico, but I didn't realize just how bad the reception was until today.
To put it short, the seiyuu for the characters in the show are the same line-up as the live idols. The thing about this is, these idols don't really have seiyuu experience. At all.
This hit really hard with the main character Miu. I didn't see much criticism of her voice acting in the English-sphere (I didn't see much of anything really), but in the Japanese sphere her voice was absolutely panned. Many people called her 下手 (heta), poorly skilled and 棒読み (bouyomi), monotone. It was apparently so bad to their ears that some people dropped the show entirely over it, or never picked it up. I even saw the aggregate reviews on Yahoo were 1 star, with pretty much every single negative review stating that the reason they hated the show was because of her voice. There' also a 2nd monotone character some mention but I'm not 100% sure who this is, maybe they mean Akane?

Which is odd, because I loved her voice. Miu's voice, character, and the animation of the series in general were the three reasons I liked the show enough to watch it all the way through. When I went to look up stuff about 22/7, it was primarily to look up stuff about Miu, and see more of her. Her character is probably the best done overall in the entire group, and I got really into her story at the start, and the only thing keeping me from completely laughing at the end was her resolve. It sounds like there's honest, genuine shyness in her voice which fits the character to a T in my opinion. I honestly think these reviews have completely overstated the 'badness' of it.

and don't say "can't understand good/bad voice acting if it's in a different language" i watched it with the fucking subs off

Overall, the best part of 22/7 were the characters themselves. There's nothing really complex about the plot other than how exactly it came to be as it is, which I'm scratching my head over because who could think that "random wallgod that we never explain" makes a good plot? The animation's only real problem is that it felt like there were problems with the budget in a lot of areas, as if things needed to be 'cut back' or else they'd run out of money. And the music didn't really stand out to me, although I didn't find it annoying either.

I don't really like number ratings so I'll just say that I'd recommend watching if you think the characters are cute and would like to see their backstories and interactions and that I'd not recommend it if you were thinking there was going to be something really clever happening with the wall plot.

I probably just wrote this whole thing because I didn't like Japs shittalking Miu. My opinion is practically polar opposite to theirs. Also 22/7 is supposed to be the fraction for Pi apparently, which I also didn't know until after I watched the show. Maybe I'll see some of the 計算中 episodes if I ever remember to do that, although that doesn't have anything to do with the anime and is more like an idol group "interview" show or something from what I can see. Sorry if anything I stated seems unclear, since I should've gone to sleep at least 2 hours ago.

I watched Yami no Matsuei, also known as Descendants of Darkness. Here are my thoughts:

This anime is basically a homoerotic supernatural anime about investigators of paranormal phenomena. The show has an interesting premise and a unique atmosphere. The protagonists are 'anti-heroes', which fits the theme. There are certainly some erotic moments. The plot itself though is quite dark and morbid.

Late 90s character designs and art style really suit the homoerotic atmosphere well. Although the animation itself uses stills a lot, stylistically the anime looked good.

Soundtrack was suitable. There was a fair bit of classical music, with plenty of violin and organ. I liked the use of choral music in particular. It definitely fit the atmosphere of the anime. That said, OP and ED songs were dreadful.

I'm kind of at a loss for words for evaluating this anime. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't that great either and I'm having trouble explaining why. Aside from the novelty of a homosexual horror story, the anime is mediocre. Maybe there's a decent story in here, but if so it's obscured by poor direction. Although I haven't read it, I imagine the manga does a better job fleshing things out. The premise of the show had a lot of potential, but the execution was disappointing.

The protagonists investigate/fight various supernatural threats. This can be cool and creative, but sometimes it also felt formulaic. It had kind of a monster-of-the-week-ish feel to it, which is a format I simply don't enjoy that much. Maybe I am biased in that regard. Sometimes the plot and character-focused stories felt incoherent, likely as a result of manga material being omitted from the adaptation.

Despite my criticisms, at the very least the uniqueness of the anime deserves appreciation. The style and atmosphere of the show are its most appealing elements, in my opinion.

Overall rating: 6/10

>>34307
I've been planning to watch that.

I finished Itai no wa Iya Nano etc etc.

It starts of fairly well and there is a cute intimate dynamic between the protagonist and her friend but that kind of drops as more characters are introduced and become more involved. It's fun, the way she become over powered and the abilities she gets, this extends to her friends but not really as much as it should, the ending also is a bit disappointing, partly due to the aforementioned reason. It would have been nice if they played more of a role in the end than they did.

More of a complaint than a review, but why do I keep subjecting myself to Shinkai's works?
Tenki no Ko, it's trash. Might as well have watched some hollywood garbage.I'm upset.
Nice looking water is all I can say as with any other of his movies. Not even much greenery in this one.

Fragtime: Sorely disappointed by this since it turned out to be a clichéd mishmash of melodrama and yuri: one MC is the popular yet fake persona trope, while the other is the shy and friendless trope, and there's the usual misunderstandings and yelling following by the "cathartic" conclusion. For a frame of reference though I didn't think too highly of Yagakimi either (although it's yuri/romance was definitely more nuanced).

The studio behind this has also apparently went bankrupt (supposedly unrelated to the anime itself, but I imagine it wasn't a smashing success in jp either). There's lots of pantsu fanservice though if you like that, and the ED is quite good.

Post edited on 10th May 2020, 9:46pm

Spice and Wolf (season 1 at least, I can't stomach having to watch another season). I have no idea why people rate this so highly (maybe it's the Madoka effect?).

To start, the widespread notion that this has to do with "economics" in any form is completely misleading. Economics isn't touched upon even once other than the most basic, implicit facts that people only trade for objects of greater value (sure, there's a plot about debasing currency and general arbitrage, but the framing in the show is more akin to pump-and-dump schemes of cryptocurrency than any real economic treatment). Of course I wasn't expecting a detailed introduction to the intricacies of modern monetary theory from an anime, but Spice and Wolf is fundamentally *not* about economics in any form – whether micro or macro. Instead, it's about business – and that too, "business" in the shady car-salesman sense. Most of the actual "business" in the show is related to people trying to swindle/scam other people, and the MC either falling into these traps or scheming his own (or rather, Holo scheming for him).

Next you have the other thread of the show, which is Holo and her relation to the MC. This might be your cup of tea if you like kemonomimi and tsunderes. But otherwise as with any anime laden with explicit romance-subplots (which I've learned to steer clear of) there's the usual pointless yelling, this time dialed up to 11 due to the tsundere nature.

The setting is bland, albeit probably appropriate for the (medieval?) time period. The OP is relaxing (so much so that it would fit better in an iyashikei anime); the ED is hilariously engrish, although might become grating if listened to back-to-back.

>>34337
I felt similar about the Spice & Wolf anime, never really saw what was so great about it, but some days ago I read a little of the manga and the light novel and it felt quite different in a good way, almost made me want to buy all the tomes and it's not a short series.
It's not like the adaptation wasn't faithful but maybe there was something about the translation, the bland digital colors and moments of low quality that made it worse than it should have been.

Just as a curiosity, I think the OP was a work of an amazing japanese rock-folk band called Zabadak, but they didn't use their best version;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT-B9X4xdww

>>34338
Thank you for the link to the self-cover of the OP.

Your attached image (along with the iyashikei-esque nature of the OP) makes me yearn for a more "relaxed" version of spice and wolf where the focus was more on the leisurely travel and enjoying the medieval ambiance. Of course this is probably incongruous with the realities of being a peddler, but the way some people discuss the manga makes me feel that perhaps the manga's pacing is indeed more aligned (or at least has some scenes aligned with) with this nature?

Or maybe the specific portions adapted in Season 1 didn't lend themselves well to an episodic format. I found an interesting long-form review [1] (in a place I wouldn't expect) that seems to share this opinion: out of the three main arcs in S1, the first and the last were relatively weak, and seem to set-up a "formulaic" nature. Quoting:

>It's another action-packed arc set against and economic backdrop… and that's the issue... this arc itself gives off the impression that Spice and Wolf is a good show, but it doesn't go far enough to deliver on the show's premise. Even worse, it makes it seem as though the show is going to follow a strictly formulaic structure for all of its story arcs. Between the first two arcs, it's not a bad gamble to guess that the show will follow the general format of "Some kind of money-making opportunity comes along, Lawrence gets involved in it, shady actors end up threatening Lawrence and Holo, Holo saves the day with her wolf form, rinse and repeat."


[1] https://www.mariowiki.com/The_%27Shroom:Issue_151/Critic_Corner

Key the Metal Idol is a 15 episode ova series that was released from 1994 to 1997. I haven't seen many shows that change in quality so much from the first episode to the last. The series began as an unusally cheap release and it shows in the first couple episodes with some truly egregious corner-cutting, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment. Starting from episode 8, the animation really takes a leap forward. The show explores in a kind of roundabout way scientific and media exploitation, combining the two.

One of the most impressive things about Key is how completely impossible it was to predict. At pretty much every twist and turn, what I expected to happen didn't. The tone of the show is equally unpredictable. Judging by the first episode, I thought it'd be a light-hearted, goofy ride, but by the end it definitely was not. At first, everything also seemed to happen completely by coincidence. Important characters randomly meet each other in the street or through some other incredibly unlikely event. The show takes place in Tokyo, but you'd think it was a village by how often this happens at the start. I wont say you need to "turn your brain off" to enjoy the show, but if your brain is pedantic and can't enjoy things that don't make sense or are unrealistic, then yeah I guess you do.

The characters don't have all that much depth. This is very much a plot-driven show, but what is there works and gels together. The main, corporate type villain in particular was incredibly entertaining. There's more scenes where he's hysterical and doing something comically deranged than scenes where he's calm and collected. Later on, a dance choreographer character is introduced who's also psychotic, but in a different and even more entertaining way. He ended up being my favorite character and his voice actor definitely played a large role in that. The titular main character herself is incredibly passive for most of the show, but the show does not follow her perspective most of the time. This being an ova, there was plenty of nudity and violence which you wouldn't typically see.

The last two episodes are feature length. 14 is mostly exposition that explains everything that happened and why through a conversation and another character's monologue, but it wasn't too hard to get through because of the interesting scenes put throughout and the good visual style. The last gives a fairly well-done, albeit somewhat rushed, conclusion that was bittersweet and a tad opaque.

I would recommend Key the Metal Idol if you enjoy slightly messy, eccentric shows with a lot of entertainment value.

>>34340
I had this show in my backlog for years and even after reading your review I still don't know what to expect from it, maybe it's a 90's thing like Neo-Ranga that's hard to explain since it mixes too different tones and themes.

>>34341
It's not actually a show about Key being an idol and singing concerts like I thought it would be. It's more conspiracy mixed with sci-fi and fantasy. The only way to know for sure what's it's like is to watch it.

>>34340
Thanks for the review. I've been wanting to watch the show myself for a while as I really enjoyed its OP after stumbling upon it.

Thought I'd give Hatena Illusion, a shot because the idea of magicians sounded fun.
The way the first ep started I thought it was a dream sequence. It seemed just so absurd and cliche with the main character being a introduced as a roof top phantom thief in a silly looking costume, that it must have been a delusion or anime within an anime, but nah it was real, and so is magic in this series apparently. The cliche just piled up one after another as the first ep went on, but I gotta say while the material seemed like trash, it was well directed trash if nothing else. Might have been nice if the main girl wasn't a bipolar psychopath. She went from cute to cunt the moment she realized the main character (who she was child hood friends with) was a boy and not a girl. I only made it half way into ep2, where the quality started to drop. I dropped it soon after the girl broke into the main guy's room and fell on him in a comically lewd looking way and beat the shit out of him even though she was completely at fault.

Finished fushigi mahou fun fun pharmacy this morning, after a couple months. It's a nice anime with a bit different of a take on magical girls, where magic happens to be things in the world around people that can be interacted with rather than just casting a spell etc like most anime do it. The whole thing is episodic which isn't out of the ordinary, but a few were rather abstract leaving me wondering if the kids watching this would even get it. It had a strong atmosphere of childhood wonder and things like that. Potpouri was cute and made the show a joy to watch each week. Mostly took to watching it the morning on weekends which worked out pretty well.

>fell on him in a comically lewd looking way and beat the shit out of him even though she was completely at fault.
Every time. I guess most Japanese men are masochists.

>>34398
Maybe the idea is getting ignored is worse than lovingly assaulted.

>>34399
You ever seen a scene like that? For instance, Rei in Eva. It's usually an awkward experience. The punch is supposed to dispel the tension.

>>34398
I don't think it has much to do with Masochism. But it means that the girl will get exposed in a way that also has her defend her purity and is unintentional, so they can create fan service and have the girl stay pure.

I watched both seasons of Dream Festival. Here are my thoughts:

This is basically male Aikatsu.

Surprisingly good direction. Drama is handled well sometimes. At times there was definitely some 'forced drama' (forgive me for using this phrase), but it's a male idol show so I basically expected that. Forced drama and corniness comes with the territory (keep in mind the target audience demographic of this kind of show). I don't necessarily dislike forced drama but I will acknowledge it when I see it. In any case, the anime did a decent job of achieving the 'emotional rollercoaster' effect that I often enjoy in idol shows such as this.

Richer characterization than expected, especially with consideration for cast size. Most episodes had some element of character development within them, which is something I perceive as being a major strong point. The cast is fairly likable as well.

There was occasionally some shounen-ai subtext between characters, but it wasn't prominent. I would have expected more of that kind of thing from an anime like this actually. Not a negative or positive thing, just a neutral observation.

Idol songs themselves are good and the background OST is decent too. I notably enjoyed the voice acting of some of the characters (Yuuto and Chizuru).

Over-the-top tacky idol outfits, just like Aikatsu!

Warning: CG is used for the dance scenes.
The character designs are very simplistic, probably to make CG easier. Animation quality is serviceable at best. Art style is quite bland and lacking in detail. Visually, the production seems low budget.

Overall, this anime is surprisingly good for a low-budget low-viewership ONA associated with a video game.
My rating: 7/10

It did everything I'd expect from a male idol show and I felt satisfied with its performance. I wish there were more seasons. I would have rated this higher if the drama was executed a little better or if I liked the characters a little more; that's not to imply that the anime did poorly in either of those regards though.

I'm a huge sucker for idol shows that depict the more realistic/harder/behind-the-scenes aspects of working as an idol. This show does this fairly well, in addition to its other positive qualities. My expectations going into this were admittedly low, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised. I really like idol anime though so I might be biased.

>>34337
I also really disliked the characters in Spice and Wolf.

>>34401
You can achieve that goal without having the guy be battered. At this point, I'm assuming it's an industry joke.

>>34401
A slap I could maybe understand, but the level of violence these women commit makes them seem anything but pure.

>>34403
That's kind of the joke in itself, yeah. You have the slap cliche there already, and then they take it to higher extremes for the physical comedy aspect.

>>34405
>then they take it to higher extremes for the physical comedy aspect.
I get that, but they haven't reached such an extreme to make me laugh. Guess it's cultural differences.

>>34403
>>34404
The more severe it is the more pure the woman as the more of an issue she will take with it.

I watched Koukaku no Pandora, also known as Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn. Here are my thoughts:

The plot of this anime is borderline incoherent.

Poor animation quality with CG used in the action scenes. If I could describe the animation in one word it would be 'sloppy.' Much of it is out of proportion and off-model. In fact the entire production has a very low-budget feel to it. Maybe that is part of the charm though? Which leads me to my next point: this is a pretty fun show. It doesn't take itself seriously. It is completely ridiculous and self-aware of that fact, and as a result it is a pretty fun watch. It feels like some kind of yuri sci-fi fever dream.

Okay soundtrack. The music is unique but suitable for the show. Actually the audio production quality in this is okay overall (in stark contrast with the visuals). I liked the ED song and felt myself singing along to it. Voice acting had lots of variety among the cast with each character being very distinctive.

Very erotic at times. Without going into too much detail, I spent a lot of time rubbing my nipples thinking about hot digital cyborg intercourse with sensitive port connections and things like that.

Some neat sci-fi stuff in here. Most of it isn't explained well at all, but nevertheless it is very much a sci-fi series. The android main characters and their respective abilities were kind of neat. I liked the sci-fi elements in this, particularly with the cute silly spin on things.

Character interactions in this are really enjoyable. Nene and Clarion are great together. Takumi is also a funny character. Overall the cast is likable and cute.

In general the series feels very creative. This is not your modern design-by-boardroom commercial anime. It feels like artistic freedom was permitted liberally. Is it a masterpiece? No, but it is unique and creative, which is something that I value very much.

I really like the artistic vision and the spirit of this show. This anime is unique, fun, cute, and most importantly creative and authentic. However it is also somewhat poorly executed, mainly from a technical perspective.

My overall rating: 8/10
I really enjoyed watching this. Criminally underrated anime, in my opinion.

I didn't find out about this until after I finished watching the anime, but apparently the manga is written by the same person who created Ghost in the Shell.

I haven't been able to find the 'Pandoradio' specials anywhere, unfortunately.

Monster is 2004, mystery, thriller manga adaptation with 74 episodes. The basic question behind Monster is whether all lives are really equal, or if people are only equal in death. The main protagonist, Tenma, is a young, brilliant brain surgeon who operates on a boy at a great personal expense, but as result learns what's most important about being a doctor to him. Years later they meet again, but the boy has grow up to become a cold-blooded, criminal mastermind. He is not only a heinous person, he is almost not human. Most of the show is like a one-sided game of cat and mouse between the two.

The characters are a strong point of Monster. Each one is distinctive and some go through well-done arcs which are refreshingly nonlinear while still having an understandable progression and resolution. Tenma himself is a bit one-note with his perfect righteousness. As a fixed protagonist, he would get dull, but Monster regularly shifts perspective to other characters for entire arcs and the estranged sister of the boy serves as a deuteragonist. This aids in keeping things interesting and allows side-characters to be developed, which is beneficial even when they aren't the focus anymore.

Two unrelated characters will end up in a scene together and there will be all the more intrigue to it because we've seen things from both points of view and know where each character is coming from better than they do of each other. Monster is very much the type of show where the viewer knows more than individual characters. It is mostly a mystery for the characters, but there's a few twists that could catch less attentive watchers too. Lunge in particular was my favorite character. His mannerisms and quiet intensity are very entertaining and I wish Monster had more of him.

Each character goes through some kind of delima or has some kind of conflict which relates to the main themes and questions of the show. How much value does living have? How much value does one person have compared to another? How do you deal with your darker impulses? How do you make life enjoyable? What is left when a person is missing their emotions, memories relationships and name? The answers to these questions are suggested by the each character and a more positive outlook is encouraged of course, but they are largely up to the audience's interpretation, a preferable approach to theming for me.

The plot is also a strong point. The beginning has great momentum and things don't slow down until around the twenty episode mark. Around the fifty episode mark, things start to slow down again and feel a little meandering, but the pace picks up again and reaches a satisfying conclusion. A lot of people apparently have a problem with the ending and felt that all of the build-up doesn't pay off enough, but I think the way things end are as good as they could have been. The lack of dramatic closure is appropriate thematically and there isn't really any loose ends. The last episode works like an epilogue.

Monster could be summed up as a more mature Death Note. It explores who criminals actually are though. Why they would do what they do and how that could be interpreted. I would recommend Monster if you want to invest in a long, serious, relatively grounded narrative.

Post edited on 7th Jun 2020, 7:52am

>>34409
This is something I missed at the time and I don't know if I should get into it sooner or later or just forget about it. I think Urasawa is a great artist but also does extremely convoluted stories that make no sense and tend to suffer disappointing resolutions. See 20th Century Boys, acclaimed everywhere and entertaining to read but the whole thing seemed a mess to me and I don't think I could have dealt with it if I had to watch it in anime form.
Would you say Monster has good writing?

I watched all 12 episodes of Time Travel Shoujo: Mari Waka to 8-nin no Kagakusha-tachi. Here are my thoughts:

I have very little to say about this anime. This is basically the Japanese equivalent of an educational TV show that a school teacher might throw on when they're feeling lazy or something. It literally aired on Saturday morning and is targeted to a child audience. I mainly just watched it while I was eating breakfast.

The educational focus of the show is on electricity and magnetism. There are various relevant experiments that get incorporated into the show, and there are also some short educational segments at the end of each episode. For me, the most amusing aspect of the anime was the incorporation of various western historical figures into the cast, like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison. The use of these characters in an anime was entertaining enough to keep me watching.

Otherwise though, the anime was pretty bad. I mean, it's literally a kid's show. The plot was groan-worthy. The characters were very simplistic. The art style and animation were unremarkable. It seems perfectly fine as a kids' "edutainment" show, but for me personally it was bad.

My rating: 4/10

Worth it though to see Benjamin Franklin as an anime character. Lol.

>>34412
One of my big issue with it was the flagrant disregard for potentially catastrophic causality issues. None of these characters gave a single fuck about screwing up the past.

>>34413
I wouldn't expect something like that from a kids' show. In any case, I typically don't care about realism in anime.

>>34412
>Benjamin Franklin
I hope they animated him with his French harem.

>>34416
They did make him seem kind of pervy, actually.

>>34413
>catastrophic causality issues. None of these characters gave a single fuck about screwing up the past.
It just creates a new multiverse – paradox averted.

>>34417
I almost want to watch this.

>>34419
Keep your expectations low, lol. Like I said, it isn't worthy of being anything more than literally breakfast television.

>>34412
I watched it during its airing. It's not even good as edutainment. There're better shows for that. I don't find it that boring though.

I watched Drifters (12-episode season + 3 OVAs). Here are my thoughts:

Going into this, I expected it would be a very action-packed fast-paced show, but actually it ended up being fairly dialogue-heavy interspersed with some action scenes. This isn't a bad thing in my view because I don't care about action all that much, but it is something to be aware of.

Animation quality is good and the art style is creative. The art style makes heavy use of bold lines, particularly in the character animations. It kind of reminds me of American comics/graphic novels. I'm not overly impressed by it or anything, but at the very least it is unique, and I think it suits the series well. The action scenes look pretty good, although stills are used somewhat frequently. Voice acting and audio production quality are decent as well. OST is okay and suits the gritty atmosphere of the show.

The anime is filled with fighting and killing but it still feels very goofy to me. The premise is kind of ridiculous, and on top of that there is a fair amount of comedic relief. It's difficult to take seriously but that also means it's easy to watch casually. A lot of the humour is unfunny. The historical jokes, as you might expect, are very predictable. Most of the characters feel like caricatures, but given how over-the-top the rest of the series is, maybe it would be silly of me to expect that the characters not be equally as exaggerated. In any case, I would have preferred that the anime have a more serious tone and less comedy. At its best, the show has an atmosphere that is dark and gritty, which can be very captivating. Unfortunately, my immersion is often broken by the things mentioned here. One exception to the ongoing intrusive and unfunny comedy was the gay aristocrat character. He was genuinely hilarious and I often found myself laughing out loud when he was on-screen. The comedy itself wasn't always bad, the bigger issue was the timing and the way it interrupted plot-critical dialogue and scenes.

Despite the inappropriate comedic relief, the actual story is fairly interesting and engaging. Unfortunately, there are countless loose ends in the plot by the time the anime ends, leaving the viewer with the impression that they just watched a really expensive manga advertisement. This show has major issues with plot execution, even though the underlying story is promising.

Way too many characters. This is a common manga adaptation problem. Although I haven't read it, I'd wager that the manga is better. A single cour is too short for a story this complex and a character cast this large. Two cours (at least) would be much more suitable.

Overall rating: 7/10
Despite my criticisms, it was still entertaining.

People who like 'manly' anime with lots of grit and violence might enjoy this. For full enjoyment though, I think it's necessary to read about the history behind each character so that one can understand the frequent historical references in the show.

Yoichi is sexy as hell.

Apparently a second season has been supposedly confirmed for nearly 4 years now. If that does come to fruition then some of my criticisms may not apply or might at least be attenuated. In any case, it feels to me like they tried to cram far too many story arcs and characters into the show.

Breaking news: local high-budget anime gets ruined by poor direction! Stop the presses.

>>34411
I thought the writing was good all around. The story was pretty straightforward actually without any major twists or anything too unexpected.

>>34422
They couldn't adapt more because Hirano is extremely slow and there's just no more to adapt, also it could take a decade to have enough to fill another 13 ep.
Hellsing had the same problem and they had to invent it all. At the end they properly adapted the manga in OVA format but I doubt Drifters could ever have the same treatment. At least we got the three OVA's.

If you liked Yoichi there's some great doujinshi out there.

>>34424
Adapting a manga as it's written seems like a bad idea, IMO.

Infinte Ryvius is a 1999, 26 episode anime. Ryvius is most briefly described as Japanese Lord of the Flies in space. Around 400 students survive an "accident" on the military training space ship they were attending and evacuate to a mysterious smaller ship with strange capabilities hidden within theirs called Ryvius. For various reasons though, they cannot be rescued and are forced to search through the solar system for an independent planet to take them in while fighting off government assaults and being totally unable to communicate with the outside. Although there are space battles and there is a mech, Ryvius is a psychological drama and focuses primarily on shifting character dynamics and conflicts. If that doesn't interest you, don't watch it.

The beginning of Ryvious is rocky. The ost contains some bad, weird hiphopish tracks which the first episode unfortunately opens on. The actions of some characters are also hard to understand at the start, but make more sense later. Some of the comic relief is also handled poorly to a bizarre degree. These issues mostly get ironed out though and the show really hits its stride after the first third or so. Art wise, Ryvius benefits from being made in the pre-tablet era. An anime with similar production values would look quite worse if it was made in the mid 2000s. Its serviceable and most of the character designs are also fine.

A strong point of Ryvius is how daily life on the ship is depicted and how it changes depending on whoever is in charge. How average people feel on the ship and why is quite fleshed out, especially in terms of work, food and living arrangements. As the series progresses, it gets increasingly grim. The battles become tougher, motivation decreases, a general sense of being trapped is present. Some of the stuff that happens and raw emotion shown are the kind of thing I'd expect more from a VN and reminded me of Swan Song. It's a sadist's treat. There is a happy ending though

The characters also impressed me to some degree. Although some resemble archetypes, they all have some kind of twist which relates to their own back story and what happens to them, none of the main characters are static and some side characters aren't either. The main character is strange in how consistently normal he is. He gets sad and angry and laughs and has issues like others, but he's the only one who doesn't lose it even a little. Other characters even point this out. He goes from being relatable, to unlikable to respectable in cycles. How others see him certainly changes.

I would recommend Ryvius if you like decent psychological drama and can tolerate or even enjoy some clumsiness.

Cossette no Shouzou is a 3 episode ova from 2004. It's about an art student who works at an antique shop. He starts seeing a girl inside of an old glass and falls in love with her. The main focus of Cossette is the visuals. There's a whole lot of bizarre, extremely over the top light shows. Collosal, sweeping vistas of stuff flying at the screen. They're not really comprehensible. They just kind of happen and take up time. It is impressive. It does look kind of cool, albeit dated because of some inclusion of cgi, but it doesn't leave much impact because it's not connected with anything to care about. I was disappointed Cossette wasn't way, way more down to earth. There are scenes where characters talk, but they're just sort of aimless. There's kind of a plot and it kind of progresses and it's kind of understandable. There's a bit of theming on the difference between loving a person for who they are as opposed to their beauty alone. There's a little bit of that in there I guess.

I'd recommend Cossette if you want to watch a lot of over the top, nonsensical visual sequences with a vague horror theme. Maybe if you really love the gothic lolita aesthetic?

Blue Gender is a 2000, 26 episode anime. It's about a guy who wakes up from a cryogenic sleep he was placed in, during relatively present day, to stop the development of a disease in his body until a cure is found. Instead he's woken up to an Earth infested by giant insect monsters where most people are dead, but there's some living in space who want to transport him up there as a "sample". Yes, the premise sounds like Starship Troopers, but the execution and plot are completely different. Blue Gender is also a mecha.

I liked the first half of Blue Gender. The reaction a person would have to waking up to that is handled well. I also liked the dichotomy between the mentality of a person from the 21st century with the mentality of people who grew up in militarist, apocalyptic circumstances. The main female lead in particular was appealing and the best part of Blue gender. It felt kind of organic and the adventure format was fun. This is the kind of anime where characters die really easily from all sorts of things, to the point where you get a little paranoid about going outside because you're reminded of how fragile people are.

After things cool down from the first part, the plot meanders and some character change occurs which I disliked. These character shifts didn't feel believable and took away some of the appeal characters had actually. After some political intrigue, there's more action and more political intrigue, and then after a second climax, Blue Gender rapidly crashes into a confusing, out of left-field and unsatisfying conclusion.

Despite having a hard sci-fi kind of aesthetic, Blue Gender has distractingly bad biology. A bit of obnoxious romantic drama throw in too. There's also a heavy-handed and nonsensical environmentalist message. The animation is nothing special and pretty bad in some places, but the soundtrack is quite good minus the op and ed.

I wouldn't recommend Blue Gender. If it was only made up of the first part and that worked as a complete story, I would, but what happens after isn't worth watching for the most part.

Post edited on 21st Jun 2020, 7:23am

I watched Koutetsujou no Kabaneri. Here are my thoughts:

Remember that movie Snakes on a Plane? Well this is basically Zombies on a Train - anime edition. Wow I'm so funny.

I didn't expect to like this anime but decided to give it a fair chance. Apparently it was fairly well received in Japan, not that that means much. Anyway, I found it entertaining enough to watch to completion.

This is kind of a guilty pleasure 'junk food' show from my perspective. Like a two-star Hollywood trash movie that you impulsively throw on and don't plan to take seriously. Although that kind of feeling is sort of intangible, I'll try to be more specific. This anime is a zombie show with a cliche cast and storyline, and is clearly meant to appeal to a broad audience. They even released a mobile game to go with it.

In addition to being a TV series, the content was recycled into a movie trilogy. Although I watched the Blu-ray release of the TV series (+the post-TV sequel movie "Unato Kessen"), it certainly had a cinematic feel to it and a fast pacing that I'd expect in a movie.

This anime has a rich steampunk theme/setting. The setting is a strong point for sure and was one of my favourite aspects of the show. I thought the 'railforts' were pretty cool. Furthermore, a steampunk setting combined with zombies is definitely a winning combination. It's difficult to screw something like that up, I think.

Decent soundtrack. Very polished, although I would have liked to have seen more variety.

Visual production quality is solid. There is a fair bit of visual detail overall. Fight choreography is at times complex which makes the action scenes more entertaining. Character animations in general are nice. Cinematography is decent as well. I typically don't value action all that much, but the action scenes in this often looked pretty good.

My one petty complaint about the visuals are the eyes. Characters' eyes frequently appear to be crudely 'pasted' onto their faces in a way that appears unnatural and sloppy. The eyes have a lot of detail, but when they're carelessly pasted onto a character's face, say during an action scene where the rest of the character animation is far less detailed, it appears unnatural. Even during ordinary scenes, the highly detailed irises clash with the pencil-sketch art style of the rest of the character's face.

Plot is fairly predictable and stereotypical. I'm not the kind of person who automatically considers a stereotypical plot to be bad, but that kind of thing is dependent on the viewer. Execution is always more important from my perspective.

Characters frequently act like idiots just for the purpose of creating drama, which is a sign of lazy/poor writing in my opinion.

Apparently this is commonly criticized as being an Attack on Titan rip-off. I actually have not seen AoT but in any case I think that, for any kind of media, that kind of criticism is childish and unmeritorious. However, I think the AoT talking point alludes to something more meaningful, which is the fact that the series isn't particularly creative. It's a zombie thriller show, albeit with some unique mechanics and a somewhat refreshing setting.

The main character has a really unlikable personality, in my opinion. I'm having trouble coming up with the exact words to describe him. He's geeky but in an insufferable kind of way. His self-righteousness is groan-inducing. In fact, pretty much the entire cast is unlikable. The only exception is the lead female character, Mumei. She was cool and sexy, and her athleticism allowed for some great action scenes. This series was at its best when she was on screen. Otherwise though, characters are arguably the weakest aspect of the show. Most of the characters are either unlikable or totally bland.

Both the story and characters make the show feel as though it is targeted towards a teenage audience. This is not an objectively bad thing but still noteworthy.

Overall rating: 5/10

Seriously, the characters in this were terrible. My apathy towards the cast just made the sappy drama all the more eye-roll inducing (and I say that as someone with a very high tolerance for sappy drama). The story was Hollywood-tier. What kept me watching was the unique setting and the above-average visuals. Plus the fact that I was able to carelessly watch episodes of it without feeling any pressure to savour or appreciate it in any way, which is what 'junk food' shows are good for. I also sensed some potential in the earlier episodes which ultimately did not pan out.

>>34430
The characters designs were supposed to look retro and I really like how it ended, it really feels like Macross (same character designer) with a touch of Leiji Matsumoto, it's not something you see this days too often. I think the whole idea of the anime was to make something that looked and felt classic but with really high production values and techniques from today, you can see it looks really impressive for a TV show.
Being critiziced as too similar to AoT it doesn't make sense since AoT it's basically changing zombies by giants, so not the most original thing. Kabaneri is really similar to a korean movie called Train to Bussan and I thought it was a rip-off until I checked and the anime was actually older than the movie.
I didn't dislike the characters and I liked how energic the MC was, but at least we can agree Mumei was delicious (pretty much everyone agreed on that).

>>34431
They both have "hybrid" protagonists and steam punk elements too.

>>34431
>but at least we can agree Mumei was delicious (pretty much everyone agreed on that).
I'd say all the girls were delicious, but some were more than others.

>>34431
Like I said, it's just my opinion. I don't want to diminish anyone else's enjoyment of something.

One thing I really liked about Mumei is how she actually kicked ass during all the fight scenes. Instead of being yet another useless female character (like Ayame).

>>34434
Yukina is another one that's competent.

>>34435
That's true too!

Koi Kaze is a 13 episode, 2004 anime. It's a grounded and serious romance story between siblings. The majority of it is spent seeing how the relationship forms and the psychological processes behind it. While far from melodramatic, it does not gloss over the issues a incestuous relationship would face.

Koi Kaze relies a lot on inner monologue to effectively convey the characters' thoughts and feelings. This both makes them more sympathetic and relatable, and is compelling in itself. Aside from the protagonist and heroine, some other characters get a bit of depth and good moments, especially the protagonist's female coworker. Despite only being 13 episodes, far shorter than most romance anime, it doesn't feel rushed or artificial. You can plainly see why this romance would happen. Koi Kaze also doesn't shy away from the sexual aspects of romance either, which is also rare in romance anime.

The sound track is nice and the art style is pretty. The animation isn't stellar, but works well enough. The use of soft colors and blurred backgrounds compensates for it a bit and fits with the mood.

I'd recommend Koi Kaze if you're interested in a taboo, but sweet romance story that avoids the beating around the bush, glacial pace, and immaturity typical of shoujo.

Post edited on 25th Jun 2020, 8:29am

I watched the animated movie Kono Sekai no Katasumi ni, also known as In this Corner of the World. Here are my thoughts:

The story takes place in the 1940s of WW2-era Japan. It is mainly told through the eyes of civilians.

Even though it was released in 2016, the movie feels very old. Everything about it: the art style, the music, the voice acting, the story; they are all reminiscent of early anime productions from the late 20th century. I personally am not a huge fan of anime from this era (speaking VERY generally), so I might be unfairly biased towards this movie. Furthermore, I usually shy away from WW2-era fiction because of how I've seen it done ad nauseam in western media. So I might be biased in this respect as well, although the perspective of a Japanese citizen is relatively less common in western works.

Characterization is one weak aspect of this movie. Despite the 2-hour runtime, characters are not adequately fleshed out or even properly introduced at all. Random characters are just thrown into plot-relevant scenes as if the audience is expected to know who they are. This issue is exacerbated by the blob-like same-face character designs and dull earthy colour palette, which makes individual characters not particularly distinct from one another.

Although I didn't like the character designs, the background art is often quite nice. It has an organic look to it in that it often appears hand-drawn/painted. I frequently paused the movie to admire the landscape frames.

The main focus is on female characters and it felt as though gender roles were a consideration in the writing. The lives of Japanese women during this time period are explored in various ways. A lot of screentime is spent on the various domestic duties performed by women (mainly the MC). I enjoyed this aspect of the movie, but this enjoyment was derived from cultural interest rather than the usual mechanisms through which one appreciates fiction, like emotional engagement.

Good audio production quality. However, I did not like the voice acting. The characters mumble constantly and it is difficult to discern the words. Additionally, there is often very little emotion in the voices. Maybe this was a deliberate artistic choice but in any case I did not like it.

This movie has major direction problems. It tries to be sentimental and emotional but instead watching it feels like I took too much cough syrup. I often felt confused by what was happening, particularly during the first half of the movie. Basic plot components are never explicitly explained. It seems like the movie wants to be 'show don't tell' but it does this very poorly. Even before events take place, foreshadowing could have been handled better. Additionally, the characters' behaviour never seems to match the situation. The whole series feels absurdly tone-deaf; if this is an intentional artistic choice then it is a poor one.

Despite my distaste for the WW2 context, the movie does provide a rich view of the daily life of Japanese citizens during this time. From a sociological perspective it is interesting. The movie is clearly meant to be some sort of social commentary, and the characters and plot are just tools with which to accomplish this task. It does a good job of presenting a historical cultural snapshot, but perhaps at the cost of sacrificing any actual emotional engagement with the characters themselves. Throughout the movie I did not feel anything for the characters despite the tremendous hardship that inevitably comes with the Japanese WW2 setting. Emotionally, it felt like I was watching a documentary. Even though the subject matter is tragic, it was still viewed with detached emotionless intellectual interest.

In my judgement, the only reason to watch this movie is if you are interested in Japanese culture and history. I satisfy that criteria and for that reason I watched the entire thing.

Overall rating: 3/10
I am shocked by the praise that this movie has received.

For the record, nothing I've written here is intended to trivialize the events of WW2; I am simply stating my personal evaluation of a work of fiction.

Footnote: I watched the original length movie, not the extended version. Maybe the extended version would have been more coherent. Also, apparently there was a live-action adaptation (unseen by me) of this released a few years before the animated version.

>>34437
That has been in my backlog for a while. Hope to get around to watching it sometime.

>>34438
3/10 seems harsh given your description. I don't like numerical ratings because what they're based on isn't clear. Personal enjoyment, production values, some abstract relative quality? A "mathematical" formula for scoring would be contrived too. I don't think I ever finished an anime I really hated or would give a 3/10 for. Maybe it's because I only watch stuff I'm confident I'll be interested in.

>>34439
For me, it's basically just an intuitive measure of overall satisfaction or enjoyment.

For the past year I've been taking chances on things I wouldn't ordinarily seek out, so there have been a lot of pessimistic scores. If that movie were a TV show, I would have dropped it after a few episodes and never written anything about it.

>>34439
I feel like I should elaborate a little. In addition to the crippling direction problems, I felt very frustrated by the behaviour of the characters.

I literally would have been much better off just spending those two hours by watching an actual documentary about WW2 Japan civilian life.

Gallery Fake is a 2004, 37 episode anime about a suave, but shifty art dealer with a heart of gold getting into various exploits along with his cute assistant. It follows an episodic format with some continuity, but no actual overarching story. From the beginning of Gallery Fake to the end, nothing substantial changes.

The art style and animation is simple, standard and bland. Nothing about it stands out. The ost is fine, but repetitive to the point of being a bit obnoxious. There might have been one scene which gets its own track.

Some episodes are more grounded and realistic, while others are more adventure and action based. A few episodes veer off into completely ridiculous plots. There's magic and psychics in this show. Not as a regular part, but just casually in a few episodes and played completely straight. It's bizarre. Gallery Fake is neither grounded nor fantastical, it's different depending on the episode. There's also a whole lot of sappy little plot lines reminiscent of a soap opera.

I kind of don't like episodic anime anymore, especially longer ones. I was hoping the romance subplot would at least go somewhere, but it doesn't. It's hinted at, poked at, but it hardly progresses and has no conclusion, which I feel is juvenile. There's also a character introduced which you'd really, really expect to become a regular cast member, but never appears again. Gallery Fake is adapted from a manga which continued to run after the anime, so that may explain it. I tried looking for a scanlation to see if there's some kind of proper conclusion, but couldn't find one.

Gallery Fake is also somewhat educational about art. The subject matters are all based on things in real life and widely vary from different cultures and time periods. It could be considered a "cosmopolitan" anime.

I would recommend Gallery Fake if you're really interested in art or love the suave, highly competent, slightly unscrupulous character archetype.

Post edited on 2nd Jul 2020, 1:31pm

I watched the anime movie Doukyuusei. Here are my thoughts:

Doukyuusei is about a homosexual romance between two male characters.

I don't have much to say about this because it's just a short movie. The main concern I had going into this movie was that it was only ~1 hour long. Unfortunately, my concern was justified.

The romance feels forced, partially as a result of pacing problems, but even moreso due to a complete lack of foreshadowing. Also, I find it difficult to engage with a romance story that has so little character development. Probably one saving grace for the movie is that the source material is fairly short as well, so it's not like a much longer story was crudely crammed into a short adaptation, as is often the case with anime. The movie felt slightly rushed, but it could have been much worse in this regard, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

The plot is fairly stereotypical and touches on a lot of the usual themes of same-sex relationship stories. It felt kind of fanfic-tier at times. It was all pretty standard fare for this kind of story. Emotionally, I didn't really feel much while watching. A short runtime with simple characters and a stereotypical plot just can't engage me all that much, usually. This is one of the reasons why I tend to shy away from movies and prefer TV series.

It's nice to see a canonically gay male relationship in anime. Like, with actual kisses and frequent displays of affection, instead of the usual noncommittal subtext that's often implemented just to pander to a vocal minority in some franchise fanbase. The affectionate moments of the movie are pretty cute. Although they're simple, the two main characters do have decent chemistry when interacting with each other.

As the title of the movies implies, the setting is an all-boys high school. Although it was kind of hot in my imagination, in reality the setting doesn't add much to my enjoyment, and actually just contributes to the bland feeling of the movie.

Animation quality and cinematography are okay for a movie. Art style was kind of organic and watercolourish, but with a muted earthy colour palette; it wasn't anything special. Similarly, OST and voice acting were both unremarkable.

My overall rating: 5/10

It wasn't really unique in any way besides being an overtly homosexual anime. There are a lot of cute moments, but ultimately they feel kind of hollow because of the bland writing and underdeveloped characters.

I think this anime might have attracted a disproportionate number of people from outside the usual anime fanbase, and was subsequently overrated by people for whom the content of this movie would be more novel.

>>34471
I hate this anime because it makes it difficult for me to search for Elf's eroge, also titled "Doukyuusei". I never watched it but I resent it.

91 days is a 2016 mafia revenge story set during the prohibition era. It's about a guy getting revenge on the mafia family who killed his family by infiltrating them and orchestrating revenge stuff. Everything about 91 days is pretty ok. The characters are pretty okay. The plot and pacing is pretty ok. The production is pretty okay.

Some of the plans in 91 days are kind of ridiculous and have a million points of failure while still working out for the protagonist, which gets hard to swallow quickly.

The friendship that forms between the protagonist and one of the family members serves to convey the message that revenge is bad and not worth it and that kind of thing good enough. It's very standard in the killing people is bad department.

As a mafia story, i'm not sure how good it is. There's a lack of that nihilistic brutality in stuff like good fellas, for better or worse. I can't imagine any of the characters in that movie tolerating some of the stuff that happens here. Characters do die, but somehow it doesn't hit those same notes, which may be a good thing if you don't like that kind of stuff and prefer a portrayal of death that gives it more significance. As a revenge story, it's certainly no Monte Cristo, but it's not awful. I did binge watch it, so at least it didn't bore me.

I would recommend 91 days if you want a short, mid-light show which is for the most part grounded, plot-centric and conclusive.

Post edited on 2nd Aug 2020, 8:54pm

I watched Luck and Logic (partially) and its spinoff Hina Logi ~from Luck and Logic~. Both of these shows were made by Doga Kobo. Thoughts on both series are provided below.

Luck and Logic:
The female hero characters are somewhat likable and showed some potential for an interesting character-driven story. The main male character is a generic personality-less MC.

Nice transformation scenes.
Episodes are mainly monster-of-the-week conflicts which are boring as hell.

I dropped this after episode 6.

Some of the female hero characters seemed interesting but truly this show is trash with few redeeming qualities.


Hina Logi:
- Surprisingly enjoyable
- Likable and cute characters
- Nice mahou shoujo outfits
- CUTE!!!!!!

Mostly episodic in terms of plot. Fairly typical school SoL plots but with a mahou shoujo flavour. There was a healthy mix of comfy SoL, sweet moments, and some minor drama. There were some mild shoujo-ai vibes between the two lead characters, but it was only a subtle aspect of the show until THAT ONE SCENE (*squees internally*).

Decent voice acting and the OST was okay as well.

Hina Logi was overlooked by many due to it being a spinoff (in name at least) from the show Luck and Logic. Consequently, very few people watched it despite it being a decent CGDCT show. Furthermore, it is underrated as a result of a selection-bias effect whereby those who did watch the show were typically those who enjoyed the garbage original series. The two shows are completely different and the kind of person who would enjoy one is unlikely to enjoy the other. Anyway, my point is that Hina Logi is a show which is very much underappreciated by those who are fans of CGDCT anime.

Aside from some character cameos from the original series, this show is almost entirely independent from the Luck and Logic anime. It takes place in the same world, although the tone is completely different. The atmosphere in Hina Logi is very soft and playful with minimal conflict. The main girl characters are in training at an academy to be the same kinds of heroes that are depicted in the original series. You do not need to watch Luck and Logic to watch Hina Logi. The plot dependencies and crossovers are very insignificant between the series.

My rating for Hina Logi: 7/10

It's a good CGDCT show that barely anybody watched.


>>34495
I watched the first episode of this but dropped it because it seemed like a bad homage to American mafia movies. If I wanted to watch western media then I would watch western media. Not making an objective value judgement - those were just my personal feelings. I also tend not to like edgy plot-heavy shows with violence, so it didn't really appeal to me.

>>34500
>edgy plot-heavy shows with violence, so it didn't really appeal to me
I don't think I'd call edgy, it's a bit too grounded and there's not actually much power fantasy. Jojo is considerably more violent too if that means anything to you. You didn't miss out on much either way.

>>34501
yeah 'edgy' was probably a poor word to use. I didn't mean it in a pejorative way.

Yowamushi Pedal ~ sports anime but feels like a fighting anime where no one dies....

Are all sports anime like this?

>>34557
more or less yeah.

pic not related.
I recently finished Masamune-kun no Revenge. It started out very strong, and gets a little weaker around the late middle, but redeems itself by the end. Given what the show was building up to, I'm actually surprised that I liked the ending, but it is what it is, I suppose. It's certainly not a mind-blowing show, but it doesn't place emphasis on elements which I think in most other shows would be over-emphasised to the point of annoyance: for example, I was pleasantly surprised at how the main antagonist was portrayed, very understated I'd say compared to most shows, and that's honestly the main charm that places it just about above the average show, which is that it gets the balance just right, neither overstating or understating it's elements too much. I can't rate it too high since it was essentially just some quick fun, a simple 12-episode story that was finished in the space of an evening, but for what it is I'd recommend it - I guess I'd say 7/10 overall.

Jigoku Shoujo(Hell Girl) is a horror anime about a website that lets people send someone straight to hell if they visit it at midnight and feel genuine hatred for that person, but it comes at the cost of also being sent to hell after they die. This exchange is carried out by a supernatural girl with her assistants' help. I watched the first 3 seasons, each 26 episodes long, and skipped the fourth since I hear it's way worse and only 6 episodes without adding any kind of conclusion.

The basic formula of a Hell Girl episodes is that somebody has some kind of greivance or grudge, they get pushed over the edge, use the website, and meet hell girl who explains the rules. Eventually they pull the string on a doll they're given and the object of their revenge gets some surreal punishment and is then ferried to hell by hell girl. This formula gets varied sometimes with the order being changed, some parts being skipped, or multiple people using the site within the same episode. Each season also has some kind of narrative and a few reoccurring human characters. The narrative picks up in the second half of the season and dramatically concludes in the last two episodes. I'm explaining all this to emphasis how formulaic it is which makes little in Hell Girl suprising after the first season.

Character actions often make no sense what so ever. The motivations, logic, common sense or even emotions behind a lot of what they do is either absent or absurd. This is later used as a crutch to make things less predictable. Going to hell after dying doesn't deter almost any character either. In the first season, it kind of worked because the feeling of a urban myth was still there, so it kind of felt like you where watching a story passed from person to person on the internet or something. This feeling goes away though as hell girl because more concrete and commonly known within the setting. People who use the website and pull the string are permanently branded in an easily accessible place too, which is a massive weakness in the logic of the setting and the narratives. There's never any serious investigation done by authorities despite everything that's happened within three seasons and it makes no sense. The branding never plays an important role.

Hell Girl fails as horror, in fact it gives up on being horror and transforms into an absurdist comedy. The reoccurring supernatural characters are too humanized and the sense of atmosphere is too weak. Hell Girl focuses on gimmicks and ways of mixing things up over being eerie. The punishment sequences also become increasingly more comical, in a way that's obviously intentional. The rules of the website are applied inconsistently for writer convenience. Every season also has some episodes where other supernatural things are present and it's ridiculous and cheapens the setting.

Season 1 had the best narrative because enough time was spent on making the two characters endearing. It's also the only season with a few scenes that succeed at having an eerie atmosphere. The people being sent to hell were for the most part comically evil, which is at least enjoyable to watch. The second season has a weaker narrative and does a lot of harm to suspension of disbelief, but has its moments. The third season features an incredibly passive, boring protagonist. If her friend or somebody with an actual personality were the main character, the possession gimmick might have been interesting. If she had an investigative spirit or just did anything which felt significant like the first season's narrative protagonist, it would have been better and worked as a change of pace. This season also has most of the people being sent to hell not deserving it, which is both a cheap, ineffective way of changing things and heavy-handed method of expressing the themes already explored much better during season 1. Many of the people using the site are students within the same school as the protagonist, but this never has any consequences and weakens the urban legend, disconnected, mysterious events thing Hell Girl was created with in mind even more than season 2 did.

I would recommend Hell Girl season 1 if you're in the mood for a semi-episodic anime which tries its best to make humans look bad. I would recommend the subsequent seasons if you really love season 1 and want as much more as possible.

Post edited on 9th Sep 2020, 11:34am

>>34603
>Hell Girl fails as horror, in fact it gives up on being horror and transforms into an absurdist comedy.
I was going to start watching this as Fall nears, but now I'm hesitant.

>>34604
Higurashi is probably the only horror anime that really unnerved me, especially the first arc. That's probably because of its source material. I'm interested in the remake they're making, but while it looks "better" art-wise, who know if it'll capture the same feeling. I tried watching Another, but it somehow managed to miss all the right beats and timing to be scary, like the director didn't understand how to do it, so I dropped it. Haven't seen Shiki.

>>34605
That new higurashi adaptation looks so strange, like I can't tell if it really looks any better

>>34606
I'm excited for it myself. I love Akio Watanabe designs.

>>34607
He worked on key animation in at least one episode of the original adaptation. The original's off-model scenes and over-the-top facial expressions actually helped the mood. I hope they keep at least some of that. I'm worried it'll look too "clean".

Shigofumi is a 2008, 13 episode anime about a postal worker who delivers letters written by dead people in the after-life, the last sentiments they want to communicate to somebody alive. While it isn't horror, a few of the themes and stark, bright colors convey an unnerving, purgatory like atmosphere. When Shigofumi follows its premise, it's decently interesting, albeit sappy at times.

The first sign of something wrong is the inclusion of a comic-relief side-kick that accompanies the cold, indifferent postal girl. Other light-hearted characters are also introduced that interfere with the atmosphere present in the first few episodes. Shigofumi does have a narrative, it does take up most of its runtime, it is centered around the backstory of the postal girl and it also involves a high school. I don't get why this was done. I would have preferred if they played the premise straight, kept the whole thing episodic, and left the origins of the postal girl ambiguous. Maybe they couldn't think of enough story ideas that focus on the letters and who receives them. It was disappointing none the less.

The narrative itself is contrived, dull and unbelievable all at once. The reoccurring characters are boring too.

I would recommend Shigofumi if you're in the mood for a light show with a few interesting elements here and there.

>>34622
I barely remember anything about it, but that does sound about right. I do recall it had a lot of issues with it's inconsistent tone.

>>34605
im concerned with how hard they seem to be pushing the new adaptation, it makes me think that theyre afraid it wont do well. im also not a huge fan of the new character designs,they all seem too similar to me. however, that could just be a preference for the older designs, so i guess we'll wait and see

>>34625
>im concerned with how hard they seem to be pushing the new adaptation, it makes me think that theyre afraid it wont do well
That doesn't make any sense.

>>34626
I believe the anon is saying the publishers may think the remake wouldn't be financially successful by name recognition, word of mouth, and traditional advertising alone. That the publishers need to advertise it more aggressively in order to 'crank up the hype' less it flop.
From what I've seen, the ad campaign has been fairly average and word of mouth has been moderately above average at best due to the popularity of the franchise. I think the remake will do perfectly fine.

Shiki is a 2010, 22 episode horror anime. It also has two special episodes which fit chronologically within the original 22. Shiki is about a vampire plague in a rural, Japanese village. After a western style mansion is built near the village, an epidemic seems to start that kills young and old. Some people attacked by vampires turn into one after dying, while others just die. They die if exposed to sunlight and don't show vital signs like a pulse or body warmth. The catch is that vampires retain their humanity, memories and personality, but must drink human blood to survive.

Shiki fails as horror, to put it bluntly. A big part of this is that vampires are humanized quite a lot. Not just in an abstract, barely visible kind of way, but them acting casually and monologuing is extensively shown. This is done for thematic purposes, but shoots the horror side of things in the foot. The creepiness of mystery is removed and becoming a vampire stops looking bad enough to be scared of. Being attacked could also mean death, but the repetitiveness of vampire attacks also makes them less scary. Music cues and comic relief make it clear that Shiki gives up on being scary. Only the first few, slow episodes manage to be unnerving in that way, before we know what exactly is going on. Some of the gore later on did succeed in grossing me out, which deserves some points.

Shiki is mildly interesting from a philosophical perspective. The questions it raises are nothing new, but the way it asks them is at least entertaining. "Is it right to kill shiki" is a proxy for other quandaries like "is eating meat okay", "does living in a village suck", "is it okay to kill your fellow man to survive, or should you just kill yourself", and most importantly, "do humans = shit"? At only one point does a character suggest a way for shiki to survive without killing others or multiplying, and they get dismissed with a contrived comparison to humans eating meat. Ignoring the existence of vegetarians, if you were to be asked "would you kill and eat a cow that is clearly as smart as a human and could talk and read books and do calculus" and your answer would be "no", the philosophical premise kind of falls apart. I'm surprised that more of the vampires in shiki weren't suicidal or tried running away from the village.

The story itself is entertaining. The structure is a slow start, gradual build-up, big turn, and rapid, brutal rush to the conclusion. This is typical for a thriller, which shiki ends up being more so than horror. The characters are mostly two-dimensional and static, but I enjoyed some of them. It was refreshing to see an academic type of person as a horror protagonist rather than side-character. I also liked the little nods to Bram Stoker's Dracula. Shiki did succeed in making me feel bad for the monsters, but never to the point of making me feel the humans were doing the wrong thing. That being said, the ending is rushed. Two extra episodes added after the finale was already made can only do so much to alleviate that.

Various things which I really expected to happen before the end just didn't for seemingly no reason. Maybe that was intentional to convey a greater sense of brutality or something, but it's also unsatisfying. This also made me wonder why certain characters were included at all since they pretty much just waste screen time without ever doing anything of note. There are a lot of characters. Worst of all, a particular character doesn't die for contrived reasons, and this makes the entire show feel kind of pointless. Maybe this was done for thematic purposes, or maybe it's because of her popularity.

The production values are decent. There's really nice animation here and there and the music is repetitive, but works well enough. The first op is catchy too. The character designs on the other hand are quite jarring. Some of them are super pointy chined and have crazy hair, while others are realistic to point of ugliness. They feel incongruous with each other. More subtle character designs would have also helped on the horror side of things.

I'd recommend Shiki if you're looking for an entertaining, mildly unsettling watch for October or just the fun of it. It's not scary though, so don't expect that.

I watched Little Busters (including Refrain, EX/Ecstasy, and the OVA). Here are my thoughts:

Similarly to other Key adaptations, genuinely emotional moments are dispersed within, but you need to be willing to overlook some drawbacks. There are some great impactful scenes but you need to be patient. Like other Key adaptations, the writing/direction/script feels ham-fisted. Underneath this though there are elements with appreciable artistic merit.

I'm actually quite forgiving of VN adaptations because I understand that by their very nature there are limitations on direction quality. My view is that VN adaptations need to be 'watched differently' compared to ordinary anime. The nonlinear and discontinuous nature of the source material must be taken into consideration. Even with this in mind, the direction ranges from poor to okay. Direction is probably this anime's most significant flaw. Sometimes it feels like it 'fumbles the ball' during crucial emotional scenes.

Little Busters seems to lack the rich atmosphere that was so noteworthy in past Key works like Kanon and Air. Although it does have a similar melancholy undertone and a pervasive supernatural theme.

The cast is large but it's handled well; pretty much every character is likable and given a chance to shine. The female cast in particular has some really memorable characters who are very likable and full of personality; some of them felt like real people to me.

There are plenty of comfy SOL scenes/episodes. Healthy mix of drama and comfy SOL. There are some funny scenes but be prepared for some oh-so-hilarious Japanese slapstick humour, particularly in the earlier episodes. Foreshadowing is sometimes implemented well, and sometimes it is used ineffectively or insufficiently. As you might expect, the series becomes more drama-heavy in the later episodes.

The OST is, on average, maybe not quite as amazing as more well-known Key adaptations like Clannad. Nevertheless, it is still great and there are some excellent songs in the catalog if you dig through it. As expected, there are some absolutely breathtaking piano tracks. The OST is still far better than your average anime and is still a major source of enjoyment, don't get me wrong. I found myself rewinding scenes just to hear the music again. I've set aside a choice selection of songs from all the musical content which I'm certain I'll be listening to for many years to come. Also, I liked the voice acting for the entire main cast.

I think the greater length of this adaptation is capitalized upon effectively. A more elaborate story is woven and a larger cast of characters is constructed, as compared to shorter Key adaptations. I think this is an advantage of Little Busters compared to a shorter adaptation, like Air for example. The greater length also ensures that story arcs are neatly tied up, not rushed or incomplete. Not once during the total 48 episodes did I ever feel like the series was a drag or a chore to watch. I always looked forward to watching the next episode. As time went on, I felt myself become more attached to the characters. Once the cast is fleshed out, the show can be a pretty good 'friend group simulator' at times. I should mention that friendship is a fairly significant theme in Little Busters. The stories are (relatively) more platonic compared to other Key works. I'm not the type of person to ever feel loneliness, but there were moments when this anime invoked whispers of that kind of feeling within me. Being with all the Little Busters characters made me feel like I was in my early teenage years again, or something like that.

I often find that a male lead character in anime can be unlikable or bland at best. Key adaptations are unfortunately no exception to this, but Little Busters is unique in this respect. I found Riki to be a really endearing and likable character. He's so cute too! He had by far the most screentime of any character but I never tired of his presence.

Visually, the anime has a bland art style and colour palette, and the animation is unremarkable. Although I did notice an increase in animation quality for the sequels relative to the first season (this is probably a testament to the success of the original series). More detail was added to facial expressions, which was a major plus in my mind. Even though the same bland art style is used, the sequels have better cinematography, and lighting is used more effectively and in greater detail.

Overall I rate Little Busters 9/10.
I liked it a lot and it made me feel a lot of things. It's not perfect but it still has tons of charm. Maybe a different studio could have done a better job. Despite my (perhaps harsh) criticisms, I did cry during the last episode of Refrain. I think that Little Busters will have a place in my heart for a long time to come. Every time I relisten to the OST I start to feel emotional.


Little Busters is a really good 'depression anime,' in my opinion. If you're feeling sad then the melancholic supernatural atmosphere is really complementary. I think this is true for most Key adaptations.

Would I recommend Little Busters? Not broadly. There are aspects of it that I can see a different viewer disliking. Most of the usual issues with Key adaptations apply here. Although I haven't read it, I suspect that the visual novel might be a better (or at least more authentic) way to approach this.

I did not enjoy Refrain as much as the original series overall. Refrain excluded a lot of the best characters, and I did not like the plot as much, although it did build on the plot of the original series and resolved some unanswered questions. The last few episodes were excellent but the journey there was somewhat rocky.

-sort of maybe spoilers below-

There is a romance arc involving Riki and another character that doesn't begin until the latter half of the entire story. Up until this point I had shipped Riki with this character, and them coming together felt natural in theory. The actual romance arc itself though seemed unnatural and forced from my point of view. It was poorly executed and disappointing. Definitely a lot of potential was wasted because this could have been a potent mechanism of emotional engagement. It felt cathartic for me to see them finally realize their affection for each other, but what followed was so poorly directed I almost wish it hadn't happened at all.

Speaking of character relations, I thought the relationship between Riki and Kyouske was a really promising aspect of the story and I wish it was explored more thoroughly. I would have liked to have seen more character development for Kyouske overall, actually. He was used as a plot device moreso than any other character, so maybe this justifies his lack of development. For better or worse, the male characters overall in Little Busters are relatively undeveloped. Given the importance of the male cast to the plot itself, I think I would have found the show more emotionally engaging if they were more richly characterized.

I'll also make some comments that are specific to the EX/Ecstasy episodes:
- These were included as specials with the Refrain release, so they're not essential to the core plot of the show. They include VN routes involving some less-important characters.
- These specials are somewhat less serious and more fanservice-heavy than the TV anime, so the viewer should set their expectations accordingly.
- Romance is a more significant aspect of these specials relative to the TV anime. There are some decent romance scenes.
- I'm very grateful that the Ecstasy routes came with even more musical content, the quality of which is on par with all the other music put out by the franchise. There are some excellent songs in the catalog.
- I liked the voice acting for the newly introduced characters.
- Overall, I did not like these specials as much as the TV anime. There was a little too much pandering for my taste, and I didn't like the stories quite as much. I still enjoyed watching them, but I don't think they have quite the same artistic value as the TV anime.
- I rate these EX/Ecstasy specials 8/10.


A couple other important things:
- god I want Kurugaya to spank my bum and scold me
- Mio is literally me


Note: at the time of writing this I have not yet seen the Kud Wafter movie.

I decided to watch School Days, the 2007, 12 episode, infamous "romance" anime with soikoylogical elements. School Days is about a boring, unremarkable guy who inexplicably finds himself in the middle of a love triangle that grows into a love hexagon, but just can't choose a girl and so vacillates, acting based only on his selfish desires and fickle "kindness". Sounds familiar? School Days is best seen as a satire of the harem genre.

I don't know whether I couldn't understand the characters at first, or they were so deficient I didn't want to put myself in their mindset. Pretty much none of the characters do the things that you would want the characters to do. Basic tenants like "you should be in a relationship with someone who you actually enjoy being around and want to do things with for its own sake rather than to play the dating game" and "break up with somebody properly rather than cheating on them and stringing them along" are completely ignored. Makoto Mcnormalguy especially was absolutely bizarre. He was seemingly incapable of explaining himself and whenever asked to just stutters and fumbles through a few meaningless words until the other person leaves him alone. The only way his actions make sense are if he's actually being puppeteered by somebody into making awful decisions. School Days is like a high budget walkthrough of the vn it's based on.

Katsura Main LoveInterest goes from being reluctant and almost breaking off her relationship with Makoto immediately after it starts, to obsessively devoted to him and willing to forgive any past betrayal. Makoto on the other hand goes from being pushy and waiting hours at a train station for her, to completely indifferent. Why? I don't know. Maybe people are like this in real life or something. Katsura's character is kind of a lampooning of the oh so shy, timid, reserved archetype, which along with harem is another things I dislike. The show might have been trying to convey that being such a person, someone's who's so much of a doormat and totally incapable of standing up for herself even a tiny bit, is actually a bad thing. People like that are bound to get taken advantage of, which is exactly what happens.

Friend guy is interesting in that he actually does something instead of just serving as comic relief who sits on the sidelines, acts goofy and passively accepts that his buddy who's just as boring as himself gets ton of attention for seemingly no reason. He actually acts out based on his own emotions. After that though he disappears until after the last episode's credits for seemingly no reason. Setsuna, the diet-kuundere, while also unlikable, stands out as the only character with enough of a spine to directly confront somebody else. Every time a character directly says something which the other person may not like, they were forced to by Setsuna. Her motivations, means of going about things and own inexplicable stupidity, keep her from being a shining beacon. If she was actually decent, she wouldn't even associate with any of the other characters.

Maybe Schooldays is actually social commentary on how being indirect all the time and being dishonest to avoid hurting people's feelings because they're supposedly too sensitive, is actually self-serving and harmful to the people involved. Too much aversion to direct confrontation is a poisonous state of mind. In that case, School Days would be like a psa on the importance of being direct and honest.

After episode 6, I got over the inital hurdle of accepting the characters for what they are and enjoyed how things got progressively more pear-shaped. Episodes 10-12 are a rollercoaster and make that slow climb up worth it in entertainment value. While I enjoyed it, I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, because the girl who stabs Makoto to death isn't the one who I wanted to do it. The one who I wanted to kill him stays completely enamored with him until the very end, which was disappointing. I revealed that plot point right now because basically everybody knows about it already and knowing about it in advance actually made the show more enjoyable for me. The biggest question is why does anybody like Makoto? Why on earth do people not see him for what he is and hate him for it? Only one character realizes that he's actually a really bad "catch". If that's the point, School Days did a great job of poking fun at harem.

The animation was mediocre, but not distractingly so. In the last two episodes it greatly improves, especially during the stabbing scene. The music was alright and the scarier tracks are decently done. The op was pretty catchy and my favorite part of every episode. I actually wish it was longer. Just watching it out of context, you would think School Days is about friends having fun, or yuuri and blue angels. There was no yuuri and there was no blue angels.

I would recommend School Days if want to watch awful people do awful things to each other and then all become miserable as a result, or you just want to see a harem protagonist get stabbed to death.

Post edited on 26th Sep 2020, 8:12am

>>34663
In a lot of ways, I felt school days was a very ugly but accurate representation of real world "romance" in the packaging of what is typically idealized and unrealistic romance. In those stories, people are generally kind and caring, romance is sweet, and relationships are formed out of love and compassion. In reality however, people lie, use, and manipulate each other for their selfish animalistic desires and have little care if they ruin a life or two along the way. I often hear stories about friend/family of friends that make Makoto seem fairly average. One friend has an std ridden brother who has impregnated dozens of women, each time these women naively think that by having this persons child they can somehow get him to stay with her. Just last week someone I've known for years who is being kept apart from his girlfriend due to covid, told me his girlfriend gave him an NTR green light and that he was considering taking her up on the offer. Loneliness leads people to being easily manipulated and taken advantage of, the fear of being alone again can make them endure horrible horrible treatment from people that obviously don't love them or care about them at all. I knew a girl who was in a relationship with a guy that was very obviously gay, but even has he had her go at him with a strap on, she didn't want to see it and stuck it out until he dumped her. Don't even get me started on how many women I've talked to that have been raped at some point in their life. This is why I for one will die a wizard, not because I can't play the game but because I don't want to. Humans are horrible disgusting filthy animals, and school days makes a lot more sense if you stop looking at them like 2D anime characters, and more like 3DPD masquerading as 2D. Frankly I hated the school days because of how much it reminded me of the real world, which is something I try to get away from when watching anime.

>>34664
I see your point and I predicted that somebody was going to say something like this. School Days is different though in that Makoto gets his comeuppance and the whole thing does seem to be communicating a lesson. If you view School Days as only a mirror of real life, yeah there's no point in watching it. If you see it as a parody, I think there's some enjoyment to be had. I don't like romance anime and I hate the harem genre, so it had some value to me. I never attempted dating and am fortunate enough not to know anybody that messed up in my tiny circle, so it's really easy for me to disconnect it from all that.

I don't see anime as an escape from reality so much as reality with an attractive paint job and actual meaning added to it. The paint can be layed on heavier or thinner, but what's underneath is the same. What School Days has to say about Japanese society is also part of why I got some enjoyment out of it in the end.

I watched Amanchu (both seasons and the OVA). Here are my thoughts:

For those unaware, this anime's source manga has the same mangaka as the more well-known Aria series.

The anime is (superficially) focused on diving but I feel that the activity is just a suitable allegory for the true character-driven story. Superficially it's a SoL show, but it is steeped heavily in romance. I was not expecting yuri romance going into this but I welcome it with open arms.

Romantic. So romantic. The two main characters have great chemistry. Romance is probably the strongest aspect of this anime. There are so many elegantly crafted romantic scenes.

Very nice character designs, especially the faces. I like the school outfits - they're unique (although apparently an homage to Aria?). Actually all of the outfits in the series are really cute.

Good character animation sometimes. Not consistent but it is good when it counts like during close-up scenes. Some episodes are more sloppy than others in this regard. The cinematography during some scenes can be quite nice.

Nice setting. Nice atmosphere. Very relaxing. Soft and sweet. I can practically smell the salty ocean air as I watch this anime. Setting and atmosphere are definitely strong aspects of this show. Very immersive. The setting is the classic coastal Japan that you've probably seen before, but nevertheless it is executed very well.

The OST is decent, depending on your tastes. It mainly consists of acoustic string instruments. It fits the setting well. All the OP and ED songs are good too. Generally speaking, I liked the voice acting of the two main characters, although sometimes Hikari has some mildly annoying quirks. The script can be surprisingly thoughtful sometimes, particularly during more-emotional scenes.

The two redhead sibling characters are kind of weak and drag down a lot of scenes they're in. They are somewhat unlikable and often used for unfunny humour. I found myself dreading their appearance on screen. These two characters are probably the most significant flaw of the anime. That said, they don't really soak up that much screentime, so this is a fairly minor criticism. Generally speaking, Amanchu is at its best when it is focused exclusively on the two main characters.

Overall the romantic aspects of the anime are terrific but strictly as a SoL it is comparatively weaker (although still good in this respect too). The diving scenes are pretty nice, as are the various activities around town, but many scenes are steeped in some kind of underlying character-related drama, so it often doesn't really function as a typical comfy SoL. This is more than fine with me and I really enjoyed the anime, but it's important for the viewer to set their expectations accordingly.

One 'complaint' I have about the anime is that it introduced a few new characters during the latter half of season 2. These characters seemed really promising to me and it was somewhat disappointing that there wasn't enough time to give them more attention. This is a perennial issue with manga adaptations though. Things are rarely tied up neatly - Amanchu is no exception to this. The introduction of these promising new characters late in season 2 impeded the feeling of finality I might have felt at the end of the anime. On the other hand, this has also amplified my desire to read the manga. This kind of thing comes with the manga-adaptation territory. It would be more of an issue for an anime that is more plot-heavy than Amanchu. It's also worth noting that the ending of season 1 was handled really well and left me feeling very satisfied.

My overall rating: 8/10
Some of the best girl-girl romance I've seen in a while, and it's wrapped up in a nice soft and relaxing atmosphere. Very pleasant.

This show seems to be underappreciated/underviewed by fans of shoujo ai. If you like yuri romance then I strongly recommend watching this. On the other hand, someone who doesn't enjoy yuri romance would probably find this anime slightly boring, which might explain the show's lukewarm reception.

I should mention that, at the time of writing this, I have not yet seen or read Aria. I expect that I'd enjoy it though.

I haven't been able to find the specials for this anywhere so unfortunately I have not seen them yet.

>>34663
I finally downloaded this literally yesterday out of morbid curiosity. What a strange coincidence to see it posted here today.

>>34664
I have similar feelings...

>This show seems to be underappreciated/underviewed by fans of shoujo ai. If you like yuri romance then I strongly recommend watching this.

Because there was a controversy about one of the members of this romance being a shota instead of a girl amongst yuri fans.

>>34675
yeah I'm realizing this now, unfortunately. I had no idea this was such a controversy. Silly dramas like this are one of the many reasons why I don't watch anime as it airs anymore.

Supposedly the anime really played up the shoujo ai aspects, whereas there is more hetero content in the manga. I was unaware of this and now I'm getting a lot of backlash from other yuri fans lol. I'm reading through various archives from when the show aired and it's just endless arguments about this.

>>34676
To add to this, I try to avoid taking in any information about an anime before watching, so i don't become biased or tainted by some external info. I want the experience to be as pure as possible. I don't read any other reviews until I'm done writing down my own thoughts.

>>34673
>I haven't been able to find the specials for this anywhere so unfortunately I have not seen them yet.
They're out there, included among the extras in some of the untranslated BD rip torrents.
I only watched the first few. They're mainly just sparsely animated presentations about sea creatures and didn't really capture my interest.
One of the forum posts on the MAL page supposedly links to subbed versions of the episodes, but I can't vouch for them as I haven't tried them myself.

There's also a neat Amanchu!/Aria crossover series that I rarely see mentioned. It's called the みらくるあどばんすプロジェクト (Miracle Advance Project) and consists of a story told over four manga chapters (for which I have found no scans) and its four-episode drama CD adaptation. Episodes 1 and 3 were bundled with special editions of volumes 12 and 13 respectively of the Amanchu! manga, while 2 and 4 were bundled with BD volumes 1 and 3 respectively of Amanchu! Advance. It's worth listening to if you know Japanese and enjoyed both anime adaptations.

>>34678
Thanks for the tips. I did download those drama CDs! I think I will start watching Aria. It will probably be a slow burn for me, but I guess the timing would be good for the upcoming(?) movie.

Having read today more and more about the infamous hetero direction that the Amanchu manga takes, I'm feeling less optimistic about reading it.

>>34676
>it's just endless arguments about this.
And it's great.

>>34675

I watched Kuma Miko (including the OVAs). Here are my thoughts:

The anime takes place in a nice rural-Japan setting, which is complemented by the pleasant organic-looking background art when outdoors. Character designs are unremarkable, however the character animation is sometimes better than I'd expect from this kind of show.

Unlike so many other comedy-heavy SoL shows, this show is actually funny. I laughed out loud during pretty much every episode. There are comedic spins on traditional Japanese culture and folklore, plus a lot of lolruraljapan humour. I often dislike comedy-heavy anime but I really enjoyed this one. The humour is way better than the typical slapstick garbage that you might begrudgingly expect. A common theme in the writing is the clash between modern life and traditional Japan. In terms of plot, the show is mostly episodic.

Okay OST which uses traditional Japanese instruments. Suits the mood and themes of the anime, and sometimes enhances the humour. I liked the voice acting for the main character (Machi) and the bear (Natsu). The script also is sometimes thoughtful and is skillfully used to deliver humour.

My overall rating: 7/10
This is a genuinely funny and creative show that is surprisingly underrated. I'm glad I gave it a chance. It has lots of personality and consistently made me laugh.

As you might have heard already, this show caused some bitter with a lot of people. There are two reasons for this, the first of which is that the humour is sometimes politically incorrect and perhaps in bad taste. The main female character is also commonly treated poorly just for the sake of some skit; it's always done in a lighthearted joking way, but I can see why some people wouldn't like this kind of comedy. The second reason for common bitter is the ending of the anime, which a lot of people disliked. There is some truth to this - the last two episodes were probably the weakest of the entire series, in my opinion. That doesn't invalidate my enjoyment of all the other episodes though. Supposedly the anime ending wasn't faithful to the manga, and there was a public feud between the mangaka and anime staff. I don't really know the specifics of the controversy so I'm not going to comment on it. Personally, these things didn't significantly compromise my enjoyment of the anime, but these discussion points are so common that I felt obligated to mention them. It seems like a lot of people complained about how Machi's character arc was handled at the end of the anime. As you can tell from what I've already written, I wasn't watching this anime for the story, so my enjoyment was fairly insensitive to the way that the characters' arcs were concluded. In theory I'm sympathetic to people being upset about an unfaithful adaptation, but since I haven't read this manga it had no effect on my viewing experience. That said, someone interested in this is probably better off reading the manga due to the alleged unfaithfulness of the anime adaptation.

>>34690
> There is some truth to this - the last two episodes were probably the weakest of the entire series, in my opinion.
The ending itself might have been fine as an objective sequence of events, but the framing of the ending left a bad taste where it feels like Machi, traumatized by fear, abandons her dreams of going to the city. All it would take is a different framing of "Machi's clearly not ready yet, but she'll keep trying harder" or something along those lines and it would have been fine.

The anime also felt oddly like a commercial at times with the number of brand-name references. Yoshio was also a weak character; even though the show tried to portray him as the absent-minded/scatterbrained type, he comes across more as as an insensitive twat whom you want to punch.

>>34691
>All it would take is a different framing of "Machi's clearly not ready yet, but she'll keep trying harder" or something along those lines and it would have been fine.
An alternative I might have liked to see is accepting city life isn't for her, not out of fear but out of a realization that she's happier back home with her friends and family.

I watched the anime movie Koe no Katachi, also known as A Silent Voice or The Shape of Voice. Here are my thoughts:

This is a ~2 hour movie made by Kyoto Animation. My understanding is that it is known for being drama-heavy and emotionally impactful.

The first ~30 minutes were pretty strong. This timespan was well-directed, and the story showed promise. I felt empathy for the characters during this 'grade school arc'. It's common knowledge that the male lead is the bully character and the female lead is the deaf character who is bullied. I'm telling you this for context - I'll talk more about characters further below.

When I do watch movies, I usually prefer longer runtimes. In the case of Koe no Katachi, I'm happy to say that the pacing overall seemed fine. However, one of my major complaints about this movie's direction is that it doesn't handle emotional climaxes well. Hugely important events happen abruptly and without a commensurate level of emotion or seriousness (LOL tone-deaf).

Visually, the animation is quite fluid, as expected. Art style is fairly unremarkable though. Character designs are basically typical KyoAni, but of course with high-quality character animation. I actually think that the unremarkable art style is a smart decision because too much visual flair could distract from the emotional experience. As for the OST, I wasn't consciously aware of it for most of the movie, so I guess it wasn't that intrusive. I recall there being a lot of piano. The soft piano during some scenes did enhance some emotional moments. Voice acting (insert cruel joke here) was unimpressive, and I didn't really like the male MC's voice work. He has this one-note faint soft way of speaking that I grew tired of hearing (very minor complaint).

By far my biggest issue with Koe no Katachi is with the story and writing itself. The lead female character has inadequate development. This is despite all her screentime and her crucial importance in the story. I wish there wasn't so much focus on the feelings of the male MC (at the expense of everyone else, especially the female lead). The movie is utterly dominated by the thoughts, feelings, and development of the male lead. To the point where the female lead is literally just a prop for the presumed viewer's messiah-complex fantasy. It turns out that the character who I empathized with during those first solid 30 minutes is actually nothing more than a prop for what I found to be shockingly one-sided storytelling. At least a typical LN shameless self-indulgent fantasy story doesn't pretend to be anything more sophisticated than what it is. I see the story of Koe no Katachi as being equally crude. Drama doesn't work well when you only focus on the feelings of a single character.

I also didn't like the ending much at all. Particularly among the supporting cast, a lot of the characters' actions didn't make sense. The female lead basically doesn't have a character arc, so there was nothing to conclude there. Of course the ending revolves around the male MC, but it's unclear how any of his own personal issues have actually been resolved. The entire ending felt nonsensical to me.

My overall rating: 4/10
It has some emotional moments but to me it ultimately feels like a good premise was crudely squandered.

-maybe spoiler below-
During the beginning of this movie, it felt like there were some good ingredients for a decent drama story. Eventually though, a somewhat typical romance arc develops. This should have been foreshadowed more. I kind of expected it eventually just because this is a blockbuster anime movie with a teenage fanbase, but it was introduced very abruptly. It could have been executed much better. I would have welcomed the romance if it was built up slowly, but in this case I barely felt any tension before the reveal. This also relates back to the weak characterization for the lead female character. The helpless disabled girl with zero characterization. Pretty much the only time the movie ever focuses on her feelings is when she expresses her romantic affection for the male MC. How virtuous. It's never even explained why she becomes attracted to the MC, she just conveniently is, because she's just an object inside of a universe that revolves exclusively around the male MC.

Other minor comments:
This is a matter of personal taste, but I never ever want to hear anglosphere music in anime - ESPECIALLY classic rock. The movie added a song from The Who, a song I have a vast catalog of bad memories to associate with. Don't ever pull that kind of nonsense again, KyoAni. Thankfully this was only done at the start of the movie, so my viewing experience wasn't disrupted too much.

I saw Wolf Children. This is a bit spoilery as a heads up.
The first chapter(?) that shows how the parents met, seemed a tad rushed and while overall sweet I'd say a little clunky. From how it was presented, It seemed like a case of love at first sight with very little getting to know each other before going all in. I guess the dad just had that animal magnetism? And as I'm sure others have probably pointed out, not only did it seem weird how the mother didn't react at all to seeing her boyfriend turn into a wolf in front of her, but as a viewer it was uncomfortable and disturbing to see them fuck for the first time while he was in furry mode. I can only assume she was a furfag but that detail wasn't explored much. Speaking of unexplored stuff, it's hard not to notice how many unresolved plot lines the movie has for something that's two hours long. I guess it's just a Japanese story telling thing, but as someone who watches a lot of western movies too it can be pretty weird. In western movies 101 everything happens for a reason, and they have a rule of threes where you have 1 introduction, 2 reminder, 3 payoff. In Wolf Children you have characters that get brought into the story, have an issue or potential subplot, then they never get brought up again. For example, they meet an actual wolf that the mother tries asking for advice as if she expects it to talk to her, we're given a snippet of it's story, and while leaving the son comments on how sad the wolf seemed. A few scenes later the son goes to visit the wolf again while showing it his wolf form. A little latter we learn the son isn't going to school anymore and is leaving on his own to visit his "sensei". The mother assumes it's the old man that helped them out before. For the viewer it's natural to assume he's going to see the wolf, but the wolf is never seen or mentioned again in the movie and instead he's visiting a fox who's apparently the master of the local mountain. The old man also disappears from the movie after playing a significant roll, but he did what he needed to, he has an ark of sorts, so I'm not too bothered with him vanishing from the movie. In that vain, it felt so weird that they dedicated so much screen time to the daughter forming a relationship with the douchbag transfer student and to an extent his parental issues, but then never gave that a conclusion. The daughter reveals her biggest secret to the boy and bam her story is over with just an epilogue suggesting she went back to the city for school, the end. I guess it's up to the viewer to just assume that relationship didn't work out. Overall it was a pretty well done movie that almost made me feel what humans call "emotion" at times, it was nice seeing these kids grow up before your eyes with all the ups and downs that come with it, it does deserve the praise I've seen it get so often, though it's not without it's flaws.

>>34758
It's been a while, but the manga is certainly (and unsurprisingly) better. Further, the romantic tones are amplified in the movie, and since this movie is about redemption, it makes sense that the male lead receives a lot more focus than the deaf girl.

>>34765
I certainly believe that the manga is better. I realize that the main focus is supposed to be the male character, but the way that the deaf girl is used in the story felt unbelievably dehumanizing to me.

Some rambling thoughts on Release the Spyce (hereby abbreviated RTS), which for some reason fell through the cracks of my usual seasonal watchings.

In many ways I'd consider this as a dual to Princess Principal (>>33494). Whereas PriPri more earnestly focused on the spy aspects, Release the Spyce is at its core closer to cgdct/SoL with the spy-girl aspects serving to set the ambiance. That can go either way depending on your affinity to either genre: if you're interested primarily in action or earnest spy fiction, then RTS may leave you disappointed with its overuse of deus-ex-machina spy gear and a more caricatured protagonist/antagonist dichotomy. Consider, for instance that PriPri puts a lot of detail – almost excruciatingly so – into developing the setting of the underlying political machinations, whereas in RTS you just have the protagonist group Tsukikage fighting the stereotypical "take over the {city|country|world}" ne'er-do-well group Mōryō.

In return for this however, you you get the tighter-knit character friendships and group bonds that you'd usually find in a cgdct/SoL genre (think Kirara-esque – there's the expected yuri tease as well). If you enjoyed the middle-few episodes of Princess Principal (the laundry mill arc, etc. as I mentioned in the review of that series), then it might be worth giving this a watch, especially if you're fond of this cute girls doing X genre for values of X in {spying, combat, justice}. With the exception of the last few episodes (which I'll gripe about later) there's much of the same team dynamic. Enough attention is also given to characterization such that the viewer is compelled to care about the characters and so that tender moments are indeed emotionally moving instead of falling flat. As was unfortunately the case with Yūki Yūna – whose creator was one of collaborators on this anime – and Madoka, portraying "suffering" is meaningless if you don't have a reason to care about the characters, but RTS does a great job of establishing this character connection thanks to its SoL core.

It does seem like the character designs for this were phoned in though, since they're a spitting image of the cast of Yuru-Yuri (the other collaborator is in fact the Yuru-yuri mangaka). That's not necessarily a bad thing, since I personally didn't take to Yuru Yuri (it's not very "yuru" when the main character gets excluded as a stale, repeating gag), so I'm glad to see the designs put to better use here. The fight scenes (what spy work would be complete without them?) are decent both animation & choreography-wise. The accompanying background music was the real star of those though, standing out in its freshness (I can't recall very many instances of repetition), orchestration with the ongoing action, and general ambiance fit.

That being said, there is one major gripe I have about the show, and that is its "plot-twist." And at 3 episodes from the end, it's among the latest plot-twist I've seen, although the viewer is foreshadowed (read: warned outright) of it from the very first episode.

SPOILERS FOLLOW, for both PriPri and RTS

My framing of RTS as the dual of PriPri extends to the way it uses the last three episodes to subvert expectations. In PriPri you had the Ange/Charlotte plot that appears seemingly out of nowhere and usurps the viewer's previous conception of the show. RTS, on the other hand, doesn't have as drastic a change of plot content but does similarly surprise the viewer with the identity reveal of the traitor. This reveal worked exceedingly well in stirring emotions: The potency of the gut punch that is the betrayal plus subsequent deaths stems from the emotional attachment you had previously formed with that character (given that there was an entire episodes devoted to her backstory), and the rest of the surviving cast whom you feel sorry for.

I will absolutely not fault the anime for succeeding in its goal, but I personally felt that episode quite enraging in the way it completely shatters and rewrites what had up till that point been a stellar, enjoyable show. But I suppose my low tolerance for this stuff is why I don't watch much psychological horror or similar (even though supposedly well-hyped media like DDLC or Madoka failed to make any impact on me, presumably because I did not form any emotional bond with the presented characters).

The final episode does try to make amends, but that's where fans of psychological horror might also object. There's supposedly a maxim in media where it's shoddy writing to first kill off a character – allowing the audience to take-in its emotional impact – and then later follow up with a reveal that it was all a fake-out – not only canceling that prior emotional impact but also cheapening the value of anything done in the future. Unfortunately RTS does just this, both in the reveal that the traitor was in fact a triple-agent, and in revealing that supposed-deaths of the cast members were a cover-up. While it leads to a happy ending, by that point you have whiplash with the turn of events and in the severance/re-attachment of the viewer's emotional bonds with the characters, the strength of those ties is ultimately weakened.

Outside the main cast, there's also the subplot with Theresia which suffers from the same violation of this maxim, and the final resolution of her arc feels like it should have had more time devoted to it (props for successfully subverting expectations though, since the audience is fruitlessly left holding their breath waiting for her to jump in and save the protagonist's group in a dire situation). Perhaps all that whiplash can be forgiven by the final tender Yuki/Momo scene though. Would not have expected less from Yuki, lying to the very in order to foster Momo's independence.

So overall, while my preference for a less rollercoaster-y show is clear, I feel it was nonetheless something that was still worth watching

Finally, it’s good to know that crime syndicates – much like big enterprises – write their business logic in C# (and with pretty idiomatic linq usage!).

>>34767
>RTS does just this, both in the reveal that the traitor was in fact a triple-agent, and in revealing that supposed-deaths of the cast members were a cover-up
Interest lost.

Post edited on 4th Oct 2020, 3:37pm

Red Garden is a 2006, 22 episode anime about four girls who are resurrected and then must occasionally kill men in business suits who act like rabid dogs and have glowing eyes in the middle of night. Also it takes place in a sanitized version of New York where everybody acts Japanese. The few accurate Americanisms here and there are interesting.

Action isn't the main focus of Red Garden. The fight scenes are pretty mediocre actually. The girls don't get any kind of powers, except later on they can jump really high, and the guys they fight aren't much stronger than average men. Instead, they just beat them death with sticks and baseball bats, which is brutal in a kind of refreshing way.

What Red Garden is really about is the budding relationship that forms between the four girls, who never interacted much with each other before dying despite going to the same school because their personalities are so unalike. The conflicts they have with each other and the people in their past life is quite interesting and well handled. Eventually, it does feel like some of the conflicts they have with their other friends are repetitive and petty, especially with Rachel, who I think got a bit too much screen time.

For the first half of the series, the why and how of their current situation is kept vague, which I preferred. The actual "plot" is nonsensical and boring, so it was annoying when it started taking center stage. The plot makes so little sense it feels like it was improvised after the series already began because they needed something to fill the time. The saving grace of it was a character voiced by the same VA that did Dio, who was at least a little entertaining towards the end when he started going crazy, and a bizarre Gainax-like ending with cool visuals. A couple parts of Red Garden reminded me of Gainax.

The art and character design are jarring in just how mediocre they are. The characters have big noses and lips, which was hard to get used to. This wasn't as noticeable on characters who didn't wear lipstick. Red Garden definitely suffers from early 2000s, tablet syndrome seen often in anime with lower budgets. The last two episodes at least look kind of nice. Also, there's singing. Characters will occasionally start singing something like a melancholy lullaby, but the VAs aren't that good at singing. The child characters are voiced by actual children, and it's just awful. I'm glad that doesn't happen more often.

I would recommend Red Garden if you want to want some decent character interaction set in a novel enviroment and can tolerate a lot of nonsense and subpar art.

Post edited on 4th Oct 2020, 10:44am

>>34770
You might want to spoiler that quote, just in case someone here is still planning to watch it.

Higurashi 2006
Nii~pah
When the studio decides to animated *ALL* the paths of a horror story in a rural setting.

Madoka Magica is Urobuchi's 12 episode, 2011, magical girl subversion anime thing. Also, a sequel movie was released in 2013(after two previous recap movies). It's about magical girls suffering a a whole bunch. Before this, I never watched a Magical Girl anime before, so I couldn't fully appreciate whatever subversive elements were in it, but I did notice the lack of team work and meaninglessness of the initially presented good vs evil dynamic.

While watching Madoka Magica, I felt that it was incredibly rushed. I thought they couldn't tell the story properly and needed twice as many episodes. Very little time is spent getting the viewer initially invested in the characters through casual interaction. Bad things also happen almost immediately, so the only reaction it got out of me was "oh. okay. whatever". I kept waiting for when Madoka would become a magical girl because it felt like that was taking forever. This only made sense later on. Many decisions made sense later on. In retrospect, Madoka Magica achieved its goal remarkably efficiently. It stuck the landing, but the spot it landed is far away from what I could easily consider a "good story". I don't know whether it was worth it. If Madoka used the same setting, characters and tone, but had a more conventual story, it might have been more enjoyable than what they did do.

Madoka Magica's characters are pretty flat. Madoka herself is like a non-character who's only there as an audience surrogate, to represent some idea, and act as a plot device when she's needed at the very end. It's also hard for me to understand why the sociopathic, food chain girl had such a large change of heart. I can guess at the reasons for that, but it happened so fast that it's not emotionally convincing. Homura does a really shitty job of controlling events despite having her special knowledge. After learning about her back story, her previous actions made no sense. It seemed like she didn't try to do what she wanted to do, which makes no sense. It only makes sense if the plot wasn't pre-planned, or the plan changed in the middle of production.

The large-scale, philosophical aspects of Madoka Magica are goofy, to put it as succinctly as possible. Very goofy. The entropy explanation was especially funny. Madoka Magica as a whole feels like a 90's throwback with its sci-fi/fantasy literature like focus on the "human condition" and the universe, massive scale endings and moe on top. I think anime has become slightly more down to earth since then. Saya no Uta uses sciencecy elements to create a sense of dread better than Madoka Magica. Saya no Uta is better overall. This might be due to the inherent limitations that come with being about Magical Girls. Being a parody or subversion of something might also not have been worth it if it meant forcing in incongruous elements like souls, magic, light body horror and entropy.

Calling Madoka Magica nihilistic rings a little hallow because humans are significant within the setting and the emotions of pubescent girls are apparently the greatest source of energy in the universe, so much so that they have the power to rewrite the laws of nature. The wishing rules are vague and allow even a normal magical girl candidate to wish for insanely overpowered things. The sense of helplessness needed for a piece fiction to feel "nihilistic" is missing in Madoka Magica, especially because of the ending.

Madoka Magica has excellent production values. The ost is great, the directing is captivating, the scenography is interesting, I liked the surreal, stop-motion bits mixed with 2D animation. I wasn't a fan of the art style used for the characters. I don't really like the wide-face look, but that's not a big deal. The heavy use of glass and transparency was fresh, and probably has a symbolic meaning about communication or whatever. If you're somebody who loves attractive animation for its own sake, I would recommend Madoka Magica for that alone, especially the sequel movie.

The third movie's plot is dumb and confusing. Watching it is also not necessary to get a complete story. The series had a conclusive, understandable ending, unlike certain other anime with a movie attached to it. If Madoka Magica was trying to be nihilistic, it betrays itself twice, once at the end of the series, twice at the end of the movie. The second time was even worse because it didn't even seem special after what already happened. It made me wonder why nothing of that scale ever happened before. There was plenty of time. The movie's ending wasn't Urobuchi's idea, so he can't be blamed for that. It left a sour taste in my mouth, but I would still suggest watching it after the series for the spectacle because it really is that impressive.

I would recommend Madoka Magica if you want to watch something very visually impressive and can tolerate or enjoy "not normal" stories. Or if you want to put a check mark next to the list of anime everybody knows about.

>>34857
Madoka – much like Haruhi – seems like a show that receives exponentially more acclaim than appears to be warranted. Perhaps it's due to nostalgia?

> The series had a conclusive, understandable ending, unlike certain other anime with a movie attached to it.
While there's been much digital ink shed over this, I'd take the position that it's the _anime_ had a discordant ending and it's the movie that rectifies this. As a character Homura seems to be a case study of "batshit insane yandere," where she blinds herself with her devotion to Madoka. And each failure only narrows this tunnel-vision, which is why it's amusing to see that some people view Homura as a role-model for "fighting in what you believe in," when the whole point of her character seems to be that what she's "fighting" for isn't born out of some ideal for justice but just out of misguided selfishness. Under this light, does the anime ending – where Madoka goes off to become a magic sky god and Homura just accepting being separated from her only goal – really make sense?

>>34860
Haruhi for better or worse changed the face of the industry, it had an all star cast, and it didn't hurt that it came out at a time when anime was just starting to get big around the world. I agree the hype might have been a 'tad' over blown however. In a way, maybe one could say the anime itself was a meme? The creators certainly seemed to love trolling fans. First with the random ep order, then with the endless 8. I didn't understand it myself but got on board because at the time thought "if everyone likes it this much, it must be good". Looking back at it, it really does make one wonder why it was so popular when at it's core it's just a bitch treating her friends like garbage but getting her ass kissed by everyone because she's essentially holding the planet at gunpoint. It's like that ep of the twilight zone where the town lives in constant fear of a kid who sends people he doesn't like to "the corn field" and can do worse just by thinking it. With that said, Haruhi could almost be made into a psychological horror story if you spin it the right way.

Madoka meanwhile has plenty of people who hate it, even back when it aired (such as myself), but we're admittedly in the vast minority. I've debated about it enough for one life time however so that's all I'll say on that.

>>34861
>meme
>trolling
What does that even mean? In any case, the order it aired in originally is the real order. It not matching the chronological order of events isn't that unusual, particularly when the flow of time is a relevant point in the story. It just means you could watch it in chronological order if you so preferred. Regarding her character, certainly she is a selfish brat and placating her is important, but it's not like she's evil. Her antics are ultimately fun for her friends.

>>34860
>As a character Homura seems to be a case study of "batshit insane yandere,"
I didn't see that until watching the movie. To me, it seemed like they decided to change her into that in the movie. I did think it was weird that she seemed most motivated by Madoka, but I chalked it up to Madoka being nice and technically being the main character(the one we followed most of the time). Your interpretation makes some sense if you see Homura as the real main character, which I didn't. Her arc or whatever being fuffilled didn't matter to me because to me she seemed like a device to move the plot. Even if her goal wasn't really selfless and she also didn't respect Madoka's wishes, I'd just see it as tough luck for her. Mami didn't get what she wanted either. I saw the actual main character as Kyubey, like Ryuk. The same as us, Kyubey is an everpresent, seemingly passive, impartial observer using the girls for its own purposes.

>>34861
>Madoka meanwhile has plenty of people who hate it, even back when it aired (such as myself)
I can understand hating the people who say it's the best thing ever or that it saved anime or whatever, but I don't get why'd you hate the anime itself. It's unique, which makes it memorable. It's kind of fun. The presentation is really nice. Great soundtrack. A few interesting ideas. The girls are cute. It's pretty alright.
>Haruhi could almost be made into a psychological horror story if you spin it the right way
>>33057
I thought the same thing.

>>34862
>the order it aired in originally is the real order
The story I read was that the producers literally shuffled the order around. There was nothing intentional about it when they made the episodes in the first place.
>the flow of time is a relevant point in the story
Really? If it was, I don't think it was blatant enough. Baccano! did the out of order thing properly.
>Her antics are ultimately fun for her friends
They do it because it's their job. Nagato didn't like it. As far I remember, Kyon was the only one also selfish enough to think it was fun.

Post edited on 10th Oct 2020, 4:56pm

>>34862
>What does that even mean?
I mean "meme" in it's per-bastardized form. Like a fad, people doing or partaking in something because it's popular. The ending theme was a clear example of that, but what I mean is maybe liking the anime was in itself a "meme" for a lot of people? That a lot of people who got on the hype train didn't exactly like the anime or think it was good, they just wanted to fit in and join the fun. As for trolling, well maybe their intent wasn't specifically to fuck with viewers, but animating and airing the same episode eight times in row while wasting a good chunk of the long awaited squeal... I'm not sure what else to call it. A publicity stunt at best, a dick move at worst?

>you could watch it in chronological order if you so preferred.
This was how I watched it on my second viewing a few years back, and it's how a friend new to the series recently decided to go about it.
I wasn't nearly as impressed with it my second time, but I tossed that up to it not being new to me. The person I mentioned meanwhile went from mildly amusing, to disinterred, to seemingly annoyed at the anime by the end. To my surprise they flat out hated ep00 because the stuff leading up to it was that hard to watch from what I gathered. ep00 (the home made movie) was what I showed to a coworker who had some interest in anime, and in his words "What the hell is this, this is fucking awesome!". This was around the time it had first aired. I think the order they went with made things a tad more interesting, it came across as a unique form of story telling that made it a little harder to figure out what was going on and where it was going. Like figuring out a scrambled puzzle, instead of one with steps given to you to follow.

>>34865
>I think the order they went with made things a tad more interesting
I've come up with an even beter episode order.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part One
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Two
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Three
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Four
Mystérique Sign
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Five
The Day of Sagittarius
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Part Six

Then watch movie and skip everything else. That's the best way to get everything of value from the anime without the boring stuff.

>>34865
>animating and airing the same episode eight times in row
A thought occurred to me. blu-ray volumes tend to have 2-3 ep each, so doesn't this mean they had had a couple volumes released which were all nothing but the same episode? I would be curious to know how well those sold.

>>34872
Well, the BDs are only split by season, although I don't know about the contemporary DVDs.

I watched both seasons of Bubuki Buranki. Here are my thoughts:

My expectations going into this were rock bottom but surprisingly I enjoyed watching it. For those who don't know, this is a mecha-themed action show that is animated entirely in CG. I watched the Blu-rays, which might've been a bit more polished than what was presented to a seasonal viewer.

The plot is kind of a mess and it was sometimes confusing. There were some pacing issues; seemingly trivial things got more screentime than plot-critical events. There were also some questionable decisions, like introducing a bunch of new characters in a short period of time during the latter half of season one. That was probably especially bothersome for those watching the anime as it aired, as opposed to watching both seasons continuously. Another noteworthy thing is that the conflicts/fights rarely have any consequences for the party who loses, which kind of removes any feeling of suspense. The story is somewhat ridiculous at times, and I did not take it seriously. However, the show is sometimes fun to watch and the episodes usually passed quickly. Basically, "just shut your brain off, bro." Admittedly, a lot of loose ends in the plot get tied up during season two. Even beyond the overarching plot, there are a lot of character arcs that the show is constantly juggling. It gets messy at times, especially considering that most episodes spend a significant amount of time on action scenes as well.

The characters were okay, although a few were bland or annoying (looking at you, Kogane). There was adequate character development for the four main supporting characters, but a glaring lack of development for the bland MC. For context, the four supporting characters form the limbs of a mech and the MC is the torso ('heart'). I liked a lot of the antagonist/villain characters actually. There was tons of variety among the antagonist characters and a lot of them were entertaining when on screen. Unfortunately, this is in stark contrast to the zero-personality MC. Overall though, I liked the variety of personalities that were featured in this anime.

Voice acting was decent and there was a lot of variety among the cast. There were a handful of characters (mainly antagonists) who had notably unique voice work. The OST was okay and I liked the OP and ED songs. Felt myself singing along to the first OP. One stand-out aspect was the great sound effects (mainly related to mech function and movement).

Action scenes were pretty fun to watch. Both the human-on-human conflict and the mech fights. I think my favourite aspect of the series was the action scenes. They felt fresh and creative, and the CG allowed a lot of things I wouldn't expect from conventional anime. In addition to motion, the action scenes were very colourful. Aside from the mechs themselves, there were neat weapons and equipment.

Unfortunately, CG is a double-edged sword in that it really inhibits characters' facial expressions, which impairs dialogue-heavy scenes and dramatic moments. One thought I had was that the lack of facial expressions could be compensated for with more-emotional voice acting, but this wasn't discernably employed, in fact many characters are kind of deadpan. It would be interesting though if the use of CG in anime influenced decision making related to voice acting.

This anime has an experimental feel to it. It is surprisingly creative, especially for an action-focused mech show. It is unique from a technical perspective, as well as in terms of the characters and story. With better writing and direction, it could have been a great show. Even so, I don't regret watching it.

Overall rating: 6/10
It was flawed but it had a lot of fun moments and was easy to watch.

For those who like action and mecha shows, you might consider sampling this anime. It has problems but it also has some redeeming qualities. It seems underappreciated.

Flip Flappers is a 13 episode, 2016 adventure, magical girl anime. It's about two girls who have to go to a magical land called pure illusion and collect magic rocks or something. One of them is normal and the other is hyperactive and feral. They can also transform into magical forms somehow and they get some kind of power from it for some reason.

If I haven't made it clear yet, the plot of Flip Flappers is confusing, not because it's so complicated, but because many things happen for seemingly no reason. Some plot lines start and are dropped with no explanation or further development. Flip Flappers tries being different in various superficial ways while still ending up cliche and predictable. It's not the typical magical girl show, yes, but besides that, as a story, it was formulaic, especially towards the end. Nothing ever happens that surprised me and that was a bit disappointing. It's like the opposite problem of Madoka Magica. Flip Flappers also suffers from expositionitis, a condition where a story over relies on flashbacks and exposition dumps to create emotional investment in characters and explain things rather than gradually revealing info and using character interaction to teach the audience.

The characters were pretty static and boring. Cocona didn't have a personality. There was something in there about her being indecisive and dragged along by everybody around her, which is supposed to have been resolved, but this isn't shown in a convincing, meaningful way. One flaw also does not a personality make. Papika was more entertaining, but only had enough depth to be a side character. Yayaka might have made a better protagonist and I enjoyed the scenes with her perspective more. Dr.Salt, the Gendo guy, also disappointed me. He wasn't Gendo enough, he didn't get nearly enough screen time or fleshing out, and his relationship with Cocona is never explored despite their implied connection for whatever reason.

The magical girl, power of friendship thing was contrived and dumb. I didn't buy the friendship between Cocona and Papika. Very little time is spent on establishing the relationship and seeing a gradual change in their interactions. The proper legwork felt missing. I didn't see why they would like each other or how they complement one another either. What sort of chemistry or commonality is there? This is mainly Cocona's fault. One character having a personality and the other not having one is not a real dynamic.

Flip Flappers might be an example of how thirteen episodes is insufficient to tell a really good story. Stuff like the first episode's post credit scene and how what was there is never brought up again make me suspect the writers may have wanted to do more, but cut and changed things to squeeze something coherent into their limited time. I liked the presentation. Good animation and nice music, especially the ed.

I would recommend Flip Flappers if you what to watch something light, not completely cookie cutter, and aren't in the mood for following a complicated plot.

Post edited on 21st Oct 2020, 10:05am

>>34973
Conversely, I absolutely adore Flip Flappers and consider it to be perhaps the most stunning and jam-packed visual work I've watched. Many of your points are indeed valid, but I think FliFla is one of those works that's greater than the sum of its parts. Yes, the plot line is at its core a standard bildungsroman, but that story is immersed in overarching themes of psychology: themes of sexuality (read: yuri), maternal influence, and the mind's role in perception. You're absoutely right in that these threads are scattered about as an amorphous blob and not necessarily presented to the viewer as a cohesive whole. But I think that's why I love it – unlike Madoka or other ambitious anime, it _doesn't_ blugeon the viewer with themes (because quite frankly, properly presenting philosophy is something that's better done via a textbook than an anime). Instead, FliFla delivers an LSD-laced yuri adventure that you can sit back and feast your eyes on, with any thematic content found lurking in its shadows waiting to be peeled should you so choose.

Or in other words, it's one of the few shows I've watched that I can sit back and think upon a few months later, and discover new things. Things such as the episode titles all having to do with signal processing (maybe it's the EE in me speaking, but abstractly representing the mind as a "signal" is a beautiful metaphor that fits elegantly with the idea of amorphous as refactoring perception, briging the gap between unconscious & conscious the same way signals can be transformed), or the fact that the notion of "duality" isn't just seen in the Mimi split but also very visually in the colors of their dresses. Of course, one could claim that it's mere high-school level sophistry to load a bunch of symbols and make claims of substance, but at the very least it's mind-boggling the sheer amount of detail that was put into the show. Which is why it seems ironic that you mention it "lack[ing] a complicated plot," when the common critique about FliFla is that its plot is unfollowable.

So while it would belabor the point to respond to each of your critiques with my own (obviously biased) perspective, I do think that your characterization sells the anime a bit short in dissuading the viewer from watching it.

Post edited on 21st Oct 2020, 9:52pm

>>34975
Ehh, I don't really see it. I didn't hate it. It just wasn't that enjoyable to me.
>the most stunning and jam-packed visual work I've watched
I would place Tatami Galaxy or something Satoshi Kon worked on(probably Paprika) in that role for myself. Above FliFla is also Eva in how "stunning" it was to me. The visual motifs, directing and some specific scenes in Eva will stick to me as long as I live. If I just compare the base invasion scene in both I know which one left a bigger impression on me. I don't know or really care about the minute details or symbolism. My eyes have just liked things a lot more than they liked FliFla.
>yuri
I'm not a fan of yuri. FliFla also only had yuri undertones. It might actually have been a lot more interesting if it had full on, hardcore yuri. That could have forced the writers to consider the character relationships more carefully. I could detect the psychological and sexual and parental issue themes, and I could tell that it was probably referencing a bunch of things i'm not familiar with, but I don't really care about or value that sort of thing for its own sake. I noticed the color swapping and what it might be impying. If the actual characters I'm watching aren't compelling, it doesn't do anything for me.
>one could claim that it's mere high-school level sophistry to load a bunch of symbols and make claims of substance
I would make that claim. If a story wants to have themes, I think it should go at it from a teaching angle, demonstrating them through the story rather than only self-indulging in references.
>it seems ironic that you mention it "lack[ing] a complicated plot," when the common critique about FliFla is that its plot is unfollowable
I don't know why that would be the case. I correctly predicted most of the major plot points well before they happened.
>I do think that your characterization sells the anime a bit short
A prospective viewer can read our posts and decide which person their tastes are probably closer to. I don't give numerical ratings because I think different anime will appeal to different people for different reasons and that the point of watching is getting enjoyment out of it.

Post edited on 21st Oct 2020, 10:41pm

This is going to be a moreso-than-usual bloggish and self-indulgent post, so apologies in advance.

I tried watching New Game and Stella no Mahou. Here are my unrefined thoughts:

Full disclosure: I really can't stand 'game-making' as a premise. I'm not into video games and I did programming for work for a number of years, which has the effect of ruining my immersion and/or reminding me of the workplace. I know other people love the game-making premise, but it doesn't appeal to me at all. Also every person I've ever encountered in the workplace who had a 'gamedev' background was particularly insufferable in some way, and unfortunately this taints my view of things as well. I'm not judging anyone else for liking the game-making premise, I just really don't like it. I'll probably drop both of these anime due to this, but I'm at least sampling them.

Stella no Mahou:
Somewhat ironically, the production quality is doujin-anime level (read: bad). It's a SoL so this is no big deal, but should be mentioned here regardless.

Really ugly character designs (my opinion, sorry!).
Feels like a formulaic SoL (not necessarily a bad thing).

Finished the first episode and I can tell I simply won't enjoy this much. There's really nothing of note here beyond the premise itself. I'm dropping it with no hard feelings. If you enjoyed it, great, but I know I won't enjoy it enough to justify the time spent. Now I am going to give New Game a chance.


New Game:
I have a weird interest in Japanese workplace culture, so I will likely watch more of this than I would of another equivalent-enjoyment anime. Also, I see these characters plastered all over the internet so at least this will allow me to develop some emotional association with them, for better or worse.

Wow this is really similar to a real-life workplace. This is just reminding me of work. I don't know how anyone with an office job IRL would find leisurely watching this enjoyable. With episode titles such as "Salary is Just a Loophole in the Law to Lower Wages", how could I not feel relaxed while watching!
Oh Christ they're going out to lunch together on her first day and stuff like that. Wow this really is anxiety-attack material.
Speaking more broadly, this show incorporates the more unpalatable aspects of Japanese work culture. Foremost, incompetent project management and the long work hours. Framed another way, despite the show's typical SoL saccharine atmosphere, it does seem to present a somewhat authentic simulation of Japanese white-collar work, and that could be viewed as a desirable feature. Like a lot of things discussed here, it really does depend on the viewer's expectations and preferences.

Most of the cast ranges from bland to unlikable. Nene is annoying as hell. Hifumi is my favourite character, but the cast as a whole feels shallow and underdeveloped. That said, the content of the show hardly requires well-developed characters. I will also concede that the supporting cast got a bit more character development during season 2.

OST and voice acting are unremarkable, although the ambient sound of the office setting is done well. The OST did frequently use '8-bit'-sounding music, like one would associate with retro video games, which did suit the theme of the show. I don't like the 8-bit music style at all (in any context), and due to this bias I felt apathetic about its use; someone else might find it charming though.

Animation quality is okay. Sometimes the character animations are fairly detailed, moreso than I'd expect from the average SoL series. The character designs are typical Doga Kobo SoL characters - some are pretty cute. Cute outfits too, sometimes. Visually, I like the colour palette. It is filled with bright pastel colours, even moreso than the average Doga Kobo series. Indoor settings like the office or characters' bedrooms look nice with this bright colour palette. Visuals are probably the strongest aspect of this anime, at least from my perspective.

The plot consists mainly of your typical lighthearted episodic SoL stories, but usually with an office work-related spin or context to them. I know I'm bemoaning this point, but the stories are kind of triggering instead of relaxing because they just remind me of past workplace events. Especially when there's a 'light' conflict in the anime, it gets amplified in my mind because I'll randomly just recall a bad somewhat-related event from like literally years ago. Even outside the workplace, for example, there's a scene where the MC has to go get her blood drawn by an inexperienced nurse. WHY ON EARTH WOULD I WANT TO WATCH THAT? STOP REMINDING ME OF SHITTY REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCES.

If I could sum up New Game in one word it would be 'mediocre.' This series doesn't really excel at anything in particular, aside from some visual aspects. Watching New Game felt like I went to a rundown diner and ordered a cheap burger and it arrived cold and soggy, but I still ate it. At the end of the day, I got what I expected. New Game is a typical bread-and-butter SoL show that isn't particularly remarkable aside from the unique premise. Even so, despite the unique premise, New Game felt shallow and formulaic to me. My lack of affection for the cast is also probably a major reason for my lack of enthusiasm for the show.

As you can probably tell already, I am not an impartial judge of this anime, so the reader should pair my opinion with some skepticism. However, I did complete both seasons of New Game (and the OVA), and more generally I am an eager consumer of SoL anime.

My personal rating for New Game: 4/10

I mainly just watched it during meals or immediately before falling asleep.

One outlier was the OVA, which I found fairly comfy. The characters go on a ski trip together. I found it more enjoyable to watch than the office environment, which is probably an indication of my own biases.

Hifumi is literally me.

I'm fully self-aware of how crappy this post is. I just wanted to write my feelings down.


>>34973
>>34975
>>34977
I friggin LOVED Flip Flappers but I'll admit that the last few episodes were rushed. It's still an amazingly creative anime though.

Gunslinger Girl is a 2003, 13 episode, special-ops anime. It's about an Italian government agency which gives little girls who would otherwise die a new lease on life by making them cyborgs, although they have a greatly reduced life spam. However, they also brainwash the girls and use them as weapons against terrorists in "brother sister" teams of a girl and her handler.

While Gunslinger Girl does contain action scenes with little girls firing automatic rifles, the most interesting aspect of it is the relationship between the girls and their handler. There is no standard way for the handlers to train and treat their cyborg. While the girls are brainwashed to lose their past memories, know hand to hand combat, protect and obey their handler, and not be afraid of violence, they retain their personality, awareness of the abnormality of their situation, and some of their autonomy. How the brainwashing works and what exactly it changes about the girls is left ambiguous. To what extent their handler treats them lovingly or like a tool affects the girls.

This idea is played with in all sorts of interesting ways. A lot of time is also spent on showing the girls relaxing in their dorms, talking and having fun together, and generally acting cute. During all this though there's a constant feeling of uneasiness. These girls have killed people in cold blood, some of which probably didn't deserve it. They know it and you know it. Gunslinger Girls does moe mixed with dark elements in a more thoughtful way than anything I've seen before. Madoka Magica doesn't even compare in that department. Gunslinger Girl is down to earth and doesn't rely on entirely fantastical story elements or abstract concepts which let the audience distance themselves.

Italy has a lot of terrorists in Gunslinger Girl. What they want and why is never explained, which I liked. Leaving it ambiguous removes any potential justification or otherwise for them being killed. Making the terrorists sympathetic or villainous would have cheapened the other aspects of the story. The actions scenes usually show the girls acting kind of like berserkers going in and killing everybody there, which was a little hard to believe. Using their arm to block headshots happened a few too many times. They're short and look nice though.

I didn't watch season two since the studio is different and the visuals suffer a large downgrade. More attention is payed to the terrorists and there's a lot of flashbacks apparently. None of that seems appealing or interesting to me within the context of what I already watched. The conclusion to season 1 was dramatic in a way I liked and felt conclusive. Here's a hint, look back at my first paragraph.

I would recommend Gunslinger Girl if you want to watch something that's thought provoking and melancholy while also being cute. Or you're a lolicon like me.

>>34994
Your post was good.

>>34994
People like it because of the designs. The brown girl and hifumi are 10/10s.

>>34994
>Stella no Mahou
Yeah I felt it wasn't something necessarily too noteworthy in the cgdct/SoL genre, but I guess there was at least an attempt to portray the character's friendships which – mediocre as it turned out to be – is already solidly above the sea of other shows that don't even manage to do that. The pacing also gets ruined later on as they try to shoehorn some sort of rivalry with Minaha. I think Fujikawa is cute though. (This show is also infamous for having perhaps the worst official subs in the recent decade. Never did I think I would see the phrase "real mccoy" used.)

>>34998
I'm one of the five people on earth who liked Yun.

>>35001
The kansai dialect is cute: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IB6k9MY17w

I watched Harukanaru Toki no Naka de. Specifically, the Hachiyou Shou series, associated OVAs and specials (including prequels and sequels), and the Maihitoyo movie. These various anime are related to otome visual novels which have the same title. These media may also be known by the titles Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time, or In a Distant Time. Here are my thoughts on the anime content:

Harukanaru is a reverse harem but don't judge it based solely on this fact. It is a reverse harem but without cheap trashy fanservice. It actually has lots of nice romantic scenes. The show has artistic merit.

Large cast, most of whom are well developed and decently characterized. Unlike so many others, this anime takes advantage of its length by developing its characters. Character development augments romance so well, so in this case it is of particular importance. Similarly, despite the large cast, within the harem there is a diverse variety of personalities; each character is distinctly unique from the others. Takamichi, Yasuaki, and Eisen are my favourite characters. The female MC is a comparatively bland character relative to the male cast, which is regrettable but not surprising since this is a reverse harem series.

Romance, lust, love, envy, teamwork, prejudice, duty and various other themes are explored in an emotionally engaging manner.

Really nice soundtrack which uses traditional Japanese instruments extensively. Although the number of songs in the OST is relatively low, especially when the length of the anime (26 episodes) is taken into account. Consequently, some tracks are repeated quite frequently. The quality of the music is high but I simply wish they produced more of it. Regardless, the OST was enjoyable enough to be placed on my portable music device. The voice acting is decent as well.

Nice traditional japanese outfits. Character designs in general are attractive despite the production year. The animation is serviceable. The character animations are generally crude but they did an okay job at animating facial expressions, which to me is far more important than any action scene (Note: this aired around early 2000s).

The historical setting felt genuine and immersive. After the credits they even have these cute short "guide to traditional japan" segments. Sometimes there are old Japanese poems displayed at the end of episodes as well. Supposedly the story takes place in and around the coetaneous capital city during the Heian period of Japanese history (and the sequels take place progressively further in time).

The pacing is slow but I was fine with it because it allowed for richer characters and setting. That said, much of the actual plot I found kind of dull. Specifically, the demons-versus-guardians plot device felt repetitive and boring after a while. This is my most significant issue with the anime. The show was at its best when it focused on character development and character interaction, instead of the boring unengaging plot.

In terms of direction, again this was most flawed in regard to the plot. Specifically, I was sometimes confused by what was happening and why the characters were doing what they were doing.

My overall rating: 7/10

I think it's worth mentioning that I was forced to suffer the indignity of streaming this because the one torrent I managed to download only had french subs (unbeknownst to me beforehand). Anyway, my point is that this anime has a high probability of being lost in the sands of time (pun intended - see anime title harhar), and for this reason you might want to watch it soon if it sounds appealing.

I'd also like to make some comments that are specific to the 2006 "Maihitoyo" movie:
- the tone/atmosphere was notably darker than the original TV series.
- comparatively better animation, unsurprisingly. Furthermore, a lot more care was put into lighting, cinematography, and artistic detail. Overall visuals were definitely much stronger than the TV show.
- entirely fresh soundtrack which was just as great as the original TV series.
- I liked the demon love interest more in this than in the TV series.
- the focus was mainly on the female MC and her character arc during this movie. However, this comes at the cost of not using the usual male characters for anything more than trivial plot advancement. Which is unfortunate because this series is good at using the males for character-driven story arcs. That said, I actually thought the movie's story was excellent, even though the usual male characters of the TV series weren't used in any meaningful way. In fact I might even rewatch this movie because of how much I liked the story (or perhaps read the VN it's based upon if I can find it).

The sequel OVAs are all kind of bad and my enjoyment of them was at best lukewarm (although the music is quite good). These OVAs were probably meant to be paired with the visual novels, as opposed to the TV anime and Maihitoyo movie, both of which can be enjoyed by a viewer otherwise unacquainted with the franchise. I dropped the second of the animated sequels (Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 3), mainly because all of the characters and backstory had presumably been explained in other franchise media, making the viewing experience incomprehensible from my anime-only perspective.

Finally, here's a list of the animated franchise content with my corresponding numerical ratings.
Ajisai Yumegatari: 5/10
Hachiyou Shou: 7/10
Maihitoyo: 7/10
Shiroki Ryuu no Miko: 5/10
Kurenai no Tsuki: dropped ~30 minutes in.