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.