Seasonal Reviews: Fall 2014 Pt.3
Fall continues on as we've already seen Terraformars, Trinity Seven and Celestial Method get the drops from myself and Stephanie. There's probably more on the way very soon, but what shows have continued to delight or surprise these past two weeks?
You know the drill, read on.
Dropped
A Good Librarian, Like a Good Shepherd
Jonathan Kaharl
Looks like it's finally time for that magical element. After a steady pace and trying to figure out the mystery of the shepherd messages, Kakei finally realizes the truth behind Nagi (still a bit hard to explain, until next episode) and a mysterious man appears that wants to take Kakei to some mysterious magical library. He passed some sort of test to be the next shepherd, and now it's becoming clear that this position is for someone capable of helping others realize their dreams and find their own happiness. Looks like the show is going into VN mini-arc mode soon, as every character has an established complex or problem now, and Kakei's precognition powers are going to be key in helping all of his new and old friends.
The implications here are interesting. I don't know if the series is going for a small scope or large scope with the importance of the shepherd, but either way, it's a really neat idea. Someone given mystical abilities to guide people through life like a god-like teacher, it's an idea steeped in old myths with a modern twist and some good lessons to be learned. Boy, I was not expecting that from the studio that brought you the show about boob-milk powered alchemy. I'm actually really excited about these developments, because I really like all of these characters. Several have interesting back-stories or hidden depth (especially Misono and Tsugumi), while the more simple characters are likable and fun to follow around. That cheesy, nostalgic tone of the series fits it so perfectly.
It's a real shame this is one of the most ignored shows of the season. Shepherd is somehow becoming a season favorite for me, not necessarily filled with surprises, but bleeding out charm and cute situations in nearly every scene. It's fluff, but it's high quality fluff, and it definitely has its heart in the right place. How the hell did Hoods end up with one of the most innocent shows of the season? And how did it end up working!? I don't know what demon they made a pack with to make this possible, but I'm glad that deal was made.
Oh, and Kakei wears a maid outfit. 10/10.
Strong Recommendation
Ai Tenchi Muyo
Joe Straatmann
It's only about halfway through the series, but I really feel like
the shorts need to get to some kind of point soon. Tenchi and the gang
go through a culture festival and immediately afterwards, have a sports
festival with the rival student council and science club in a showdown
for more funding. It's all a lot of wasting time, and even butt-only
sumo fails to get a smile from me. There is one funny episode, though.
Episode twenty-two covers the aftermath of Tenchi being forced into a beauty
contest by his supervisor after a series of mishaps, and as you would
imagine, Tenchi is by far the belle of the ball. This leads to student
Saryuu going into raging fangirl mode. It doesn't need much context
beyond that. Just watch that single episode and enjoy.
Otherwise, it's a lot of flat slapstick that mistakes being loud and manic with being funny. The only thing I'm left with after watching most of them is wondering who thought it was a good idea to design that flame next to Ryoko's breast. It's an extremely odd and unnecessary design choice and it dominates the screen whenever she appears. When a breast decoration fills about a third of my review, there really isn't a whole lot to discuss. Oh, I do hope it starts promoting tourism for the poor town that funded this thing soon. I hate to see taxpayer money go to waste like this.
No Recommendation
Amagi Brilliant Park
Stephanie Getchell
Where in the hell is Benedict Cumberbatch when you need him?! We have
a dragon on our hands, people!! (Though I haven't seen The Hobbit
films) Any who, the park is struggling to make payroll so Moffle and the
other mascots mention a treasure at the old abandoned stadium in a
separate part of the park. The group comes across a survival attraction
and find the Ruby Dragon, some mole looking things, and Dornell the
Fairy of Flowers that went missing ten years prior. Then, although Seiya
hired this group at the end of the episode, the park is still
understaffed causing the need for job interviews. While this is going
on, Macaron slips something called a heartsleeve fruit into Sento's
curry causing, you guessed it, her feelings to come out as if they
didn't have a filter. This ends up causing some rather amusing head
banging moments.
Here's something interesting that I've found in these two episodes: 1, It has cliche moments, and yet recognizes them on it's own, and 2, It takes potential cliched moments and turns them into something else.
The first instance can be seen in the fifth episode with the survival cave. Seiya is the one that bluntly points out how cliche the cave seems to be, as the group falls for trap after trap. It shows me how self aware it can be and doesn't fall entirely for those troupe story lines. As for the second one, this comes in the form of Sento and the heartsleeve fruit. This plot line could have gone the normal route of: girl eats mysterious food, food acts as a love potion of sorts, hilarity ensues. What we get, instead, is a more unfiltered Sento whenever she talks about Seiya. However, she never manages to finish those sentences because she stops herself by banging her head, repeatedly, on a table or a wall. Obviously, we keep seeing Sento's insecurities come into play since this is the second episode that brings it up, but I'm more focused on the interesting take on a very overused story line. Makes it into something new and, considering Sento's character, something rather funny.
This week actually brings me to the half way mark for the series (granted it's a 13 episode one and I'm only at six). It's been able to keep it's odd charm and also, somehow, give some rather funny moments and banter between characters. I mean, when you have a character calling himself superior with a straight face, then you gotta admit this series has something going on that you can laugh and enjoy. I look forward to taking this series into the second half of the season and seeing what it will try and do next. Also that superiority complex Seiya openly admits to... Needs more silly things like that.
Solid Recommendation
BONJOUR: Sweet Love Patisserie
Megan R
Picking up where we left off last time, Ryou and Sayuri find
themselves struggling to work together to complete their first
assignment. Still, not even Ryou can
tolerate Tsubaki’s blatant attempts at bullying, so together they manage to
create a delicious orange chiboust, earning Sayuri not only approval from the class,
but from Ryou as well. Apparently that
class took weeks to complete, as the next episodes brings us already to Golden
Week. Sayuri finds herself getting
roped into helping Japanese sweets professors Mitsuki make takoyaki for his fiancee. Still, all this fuss has attracted the
attention of the headmistress, which gives Sayuri cause to fear for the state
of her scholarship.
No Recommendation
Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon
Jonathan Kaharl
Cross Ange didn't do quite as good these past two weeks. Not to say I dislike what I watched, but compared to Sunrise's other weird mech shows, there's some elements popping up here that aren't as handled as well as they are in its contemporaries.Plot and story wise, Ange's arc still isn't complete, as her installed racism is still very present and more in a self loathing way. She lacks any passion for living and only seems to do it because she feel she has to. Unsurprisingly, this leads to Zola's harem deciding to get some revenge. Chris and Rosalie, the two lesser links of the group, prove to be terrible at this and are constantly comically foiled by their sheer incompetence and Ange's general apathy. The comedy continues in the next episode as Ange is trapped on a deserted island with Tusk, a mysterious man who seems to lack the ability to use mana and seems to know something about dragons and Ange's mech. Oh, and he keeps accidentally falling on Ange in various dirty ways because comedy.
Cross Ange does not use comedy well here. The gags are too cartoony, and while they are used in usual Sunrise fashion to disguise later reveals that massively contrast with the lighter tone from earlier, it's not handled nearly as well. A lot of this is due to the pilots all being clownish and silly in some way, with exception to Salia, Hilda and Jill. This is a problem, because Cross Ange starts with the dark stuff so early that any levity would be difficult to pull off properly without feeling out of place. There's also no established reason for that contrast while at the base, because it's been established as such a generally grim place. It's more forgivable with Tusk's island because it's an isolated place that gives the series some time to breathe, but the comedy is far less amusing. Ange threatening to shoot Tusk for looking at her naked in an extreme tsundere bit wears out its welcome fast (though it did get me at first because it comes so far out of nowhere). The show is also being FAAAAAAAAR more blunt with foreshadowing and delivering character info, like Salia constantly saying the name of Ange's mech instead of Ange's name while organizing a rescue mission. We get it, she was promised the mech and it means a lot to her. Stop doing that.
That said, there is some light world building that's still very interesting. We get a glimpse of an unknown group taking a frozen dragon to who knows where, along with a glimpse of the unknown with Tusk. He's some sort of unknown soldier who can't use mana, which is weird because that's supposed to be a female only condition. The development of the base characters is also appreciated, like showing more of the merchant woman and having Hilda try to become Zola, someone she obviously loved and looked up to. It's the things that don't fit with what I know about the world that are interesting me, and knowing Sunrise, they have something insane planned in the shadows. Can't wait to see what they're planning. The show is still good, but compared to Code Geass or even Valvrave, its tone is too messy. That needs to be corrected.
Solid Recommendation
Denki-Gai
David O'Neil
I've decided to drop Denki-Gai. Usually, dropping is a sign
that I'm so unhappy with it's low quality that I can't even stand
watching it anymore, but I'd like to clarify that this is not the case
with Denki-Gai. The truth is, I just feel like there's nothing
left for me to say about it. Every week I struggle to come up with
something new about it to cover, because at its core Denki-Gai is
a simple show. It has quirky characters, over the top humor, and good
animation, usually getting me to laugh pretty often with just how zany
it gets with it's various jokes and bizarre takes on anime/manga
culture. But there really isn't much to it under the surface, its not
hiding any tricks up its sleeve, its not really fluctuating in quality,
its not really progressing in any way. Now that isn't necessarily bad,
there's nothing wrong with a consistently funny comedy show that knows
what it is and doesn't try too hard to be anything more, but it's left
me feeling like I'm done writing about it. To me, I've said everything
there is to say about it, but to sum it up: Denki-Gai is an
incredibly fun show. The humor is insane, the characters are fun as
hell, and it backs all of that up with strong animation. If you're
looking for something to make you laugh, you probably can't go wrong
with Denki-Gai.
Editor's Note: I'll be taking over for Denki-Gai from here on, as I'm following the show anyways.
Dropped at episode five, Solid Recommendation
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
Jonathan Kaharl
Now with the Berserker chaos behind Shirou and Rin, Fate is normalizing again to allow some cast development. Since Shirou is shit at magic and can't make Saber invisible, he's introducing her as an out of town guest staying out his house while she acts as his bodyguard in secret. However, Rin is becoming frustrated with how Shirou isn't fully comprehending the weight of his situation, eventually leading her to challenging him to a fight in the school. Along with all this, we learn that the person with Caster is having her use some sort of horrible poison, we get our first glimpse or Rider as she tries killing a student after hours, Shinji is missing and is suspected of kidnapping, and Shirou and Rin decide to team up again to look into stopping the servants who would use the innocent people in the school as magical fuel.
This version of Fate is fantastic so far. Rin is surprisingly likable, the animation is stunning, the atmosphere is thick and natural, and the fights are some of the best I've ever seen from any anime. I also finally got hooked into the world's mythology. I tried getting into Fate once before by reading a manga adaptation, but it was so poorly paced and explained so little poorly that I couldn't muster up any enthusiasm. This version is filled with so much needed spectacle that I can finally wrap my head around why the Holy Grail war is such a huge deal, even when it's just delivering exposition (outside that stinker of a first episode). Really, there's very little negative I can say about these past two episodes, all I know is that I want to see more, and especially more Saber because she is adorable and wonderful.
...though there is this one thorn of a problem bugging me. Shirou is a bloody idiot at times. He's not too bad, showing proper logic and acting only in the most extreme circumstances properly before, but he got hit with a stupid stick these past two episodes. Why wouldn't you bring Saber along with you to school!? You just barely survived a battle with a giant that survived a mini-nuke, I would think you would want to bring your badass warrior goddess along just in case! This is dumber than the Parasyte vacation plot point. He's also amazingly dense in his conversation with Rin, and of course, his decision instantly bites him in the ass. Also, he tries fighting a servant by himself and nearly gets killed. SHIROU. BRING SABER WITH YOU. DAMN IT. But other than that, aces.
Strong Recommendation
The Fruit of Grisaia
Joe Straatmann
For the people who've been enjoying the comedy of the show, you get
one perfectly-timed Monopoly joke and that's about it. The gears have
shifted to focus almost entirely on the dark, traumatic past behind two
of the girls at the high school. For me, this is where the series is
starting to hit its stride. Not that I haven't enjoyed the playful side
of things, but it kind of irks me when a series intentionally hides
something behind its back I know is there and until recently, it's been
teasing with the darker aspects since a sniper rifer was broken out at
the end of episode one and instantly forgotten. The fan service and
lewder aspects of the show have gone into hibernation for now, but since
these stories aren't exactly material for getting anyone in the mood,
it's a respectable bit of restraint.
These episodes focus on the deeper issues of Michuru and Yumiko separately. Recovering from simply killing off an animal to push the audience's buttons, it deals with the tragic source of Michiru's multiple personalities in a much more sympathetic way. It's reminds me in a complimentary fashion of Garden of Sinners in how one character deals with two people being inside them. It's equally ridiculous in its portrayal of people with multiple personalities, but I am not expecting an anime of the reality where a high school girl joyfully collects bomb paraphernalia to stick to the DSM V manual. It's visually well told, it gets to the humanity of the matter, and it resolves itself in a surprising and effective manner. It's odd to discuss it in such a distant manner, but any kind of in-depth talk would require spoilers I really don't want to give. It's the best episode of the series so far and shows a real flair of being able to handle the heavier weight these stories have to them.
Yumiko's episode is not as good as it's mainly a vehicle to explain why the school formed, and honestly, I expected a lot more messy of a story. Oh, it's plenty screwed up, but with the most obviously violent person in a school where they are isolated and watched because they are a danger to the outside world, one expects bodies, and it's more a train magnate trying to hide what he considers politically unfortunate. What I've seen is the series manage the nudity and sexual aspects, the humorous aspects, and the incredibly dark aspects. Now to see how they all come together.
Solid Recommendation
Garo: The Animation
Stephanie Getchell
Well, I'm kind of left a little speechless with this one. And not
exactly in a good way. After Leon and German return to "the place where
it all began," the duo meet a blacksmith and his adoptive son in order
to gather information. However, the blacksmith has found out that his
actual son is dead after taking on the trials of knighthood. This causes
him to be consumed by grief and revenge, becoming a Horror. After
German defeats him, everything seems all sunshine and rainbows. At least
until Emma, the Mekai Alchemist the pair met a little while ago,
informs German that the black knighthood that is being talked about, and
the same one the blacksmith's son was trying to join, is a band of men
that are possessed by Horrors by order of Mendoza. The next episode then
gets a little weird. It starts off with Leon on the run from the black
knights after the couple taking him and his father in mistakes him as
Alfonso. This leads to Leon's first encounter with Bernado, the man who
created the black knights and who, apparently, has Mekai Knight armor
(was wondering when that black armor would come into play). Leon fails
to defeat Bernado and is sent over the castle walls before Bernado can
capture him. When Leon wakes up.... Well..... Something about a
hallucination with him as a werewolf..... I still don't one hundred
percent understand that bit. Anyways, when Leon wakes up again, he seems
to have lost his memories and is in a small village. After some time
spent as someone named Pepe, Leon regains his memories which, we find
out, were hidden thanks to a Mekai Alchemist, and he fights against the
real Pepe who has now become a Horror. There's also this thing about
kids being sold into slave trade, but whatever. Leon reunites with a
naked German and is now determined to defeat Bernado. And that's
episodes six and seven in a nutshell.
At this point in the game, like Amagi, I've reached the half way mark with Garo (at least report wise, since this is set for a two cour series). Honestly, this is the first week that it's felt a little lacking. Up until this point, it's been a lot of fun and rather compelling in it's story. Not only that, but it's among the most mature anime I've seen all season. Not just because the first episode involved German and a woman in bed together. It's kept that maturity from episode to episode, with a recent example being Emma and Leon talking about Leon's lack of "experience," if you know what I mean. The show has also kept something else that I find rather interesting, and that's some rather cheesy humor. I may not be knowledgeable in tokusatsu, but I am at least mildly aware that it tends to have rather cheesy and corny humor mixed in. Seeing as how Garo was first a tokusatsu and now an anime, it's really nice that the humor is there not only as a call back of sorts, but to break up the monotony and give us something lighter every now and again with such a dark and mature series. But, the reason I feel like this week is a bit lacking is really all because of the whole werewolf thing that occurred in the seventh episode. First of all that dream or hallucination or whatever it was, came out of no where and made absolutely no sense! Even though the fear of werewolves the townspeople had was explained a tiny bit a few minutes later, whatever happened to Leon was never explained. Not in the slightest. And then it just goes into whatever the heck it actually wanted to go into and we never hear from that bit again. Granted, there was a call back to it slightly as the kids called Leon a werewolf after Garo saved them, but that didn't help much. It was just so confusing and out of the blue that I was just sitting at my desk going, "Uhh.... Garo? What the heck are you doing?" Unless they make some kind of connection later on, I don't see this moment ever being fully explained.
That one moment doesn't hurt the series too much for me, this week. As confused as I was, it was just a small moment that I had to pick on a lot because it stood out to me. Otherwise than that, the series is still really strong and a lot of fun to watch. The character development for Leon has calmed down a bit while we haven't seen Alfonso at all this time around, though I think that will be fixed rather soon. But, somehow, probably not in episode eight cause, for some reason, I'm sensing something German relating about to happen. I took a peak at the episode listings on Wikipedia (because I needed to remind myself of where the heck they are) and found out that episode eight is, supposedly, going to be titled "Full Monty." And now the theatre nerd in me is predicting the weirdest stuff. If you don't know what I'm referring to, then look it up. You'll see what I'm getting at.
Strong Recommendation
Girlfriend Beta
Thom "Tama" Langley
Oh, Girlfriend Beta. How incredibly dull you are. Seriously,
this makes K-On! and Kyo-Ani's usual fare look like mile a minute
intricate studies of everyday Japanese life on a par with Murakami. What characterization Girlfriend Beta has is that of the sticky label
approach-each character has just enough of it to fit onto a
post-it note to be attached to their foreheads to differentiate them
from the horde of other characters, but not enough to actually make them
interesting. So. Without further ado. Let's get on with episode three and four.
Episode three and the focus of this episode is odd couple, Murakami Fumio and Mochidzuki Erena. Or, for the Cliff Notes edition, camera wielding yuri girl and flower club girl, and their first meeting. Yay. I will say this, the OP is enjoyably colourful, and the song deserves so much better than this. It's oddly KyoAni-ish again. A baby! On a train! Oh look, our cast are so polite! And sudden...yuri moment. At last. Though Erena insists it's just "to model". Oh, and Fumio is bookish and shy-thus getting more character development offscreen than she does on it-Fumio is convinced into modelling for Erena...even though she says no. Oh dear. Cue much covert photography. And the attempts by Erena to capture the perfect smile. Much stalking ensues, until Fumio hits her, and tells her to stop. She then watches Erena walk off, with her other friends Oh. For perhaps the first time, this show has actually pulled off a moment of true pathos. Which is actually...quite impressive. Fumio seems to have moved on, but Erena clearly hasn't, still wanting to photograph her. They eventually make up, though now Fumio is worried that Erena will now quit photography. So, they eventually decide to go on a date. With strawberry shortcake, during which Erena says she wants to photograph Fumio, though not for the contest.
Honestly, this is...surprisingly good. Centering on two characters, and their relationship is not only interesting, but this episode is surprisingly active, mapping the ups and downs of Fumio and Erena's early friendship. Unfortunately...episode four...promptly goes back to the formula of episode one and two. Today...abandoned kittens! In a box! Oh, and the friendship between two other characters. Yes ! Let's bring the cats to school! Brilliant idea! And now...it's time to find them owners. Via the radio. Introducing another five people who seem to have the single personality trait that..they kinda like cats? Oh, and Sensei is here to give us a "A dog is for life..." style lecture. Oh, and everyone's not that great at studies. No cats for you. Cue...STUDY MONTAGE. Oh wait. Nope. Everyone's busy. And busy again. Time for an allnighter STUDY MONTAGE?! With the other girl who found the kittens. No study montage. Just...eating. And buying more food. And going to a bathhouse. And then the power goes out. And ghost stories are told and FINALLY A STUDY MONTAGE. YES. Silver Link deliver! And somehow, they all improve. Amazing. So now, they all have cats, and are busy planning a slumber party. Greeeeaat.
Episode three showed promise, Episode four is back to the dull grind. One step forward, one back. It's still (aside from episode three) dull as ditchwater, slower moving than a continent, and ephermeral to the nth degree. In fact, it's starting to slide backwards from what little progress it's made. C-. Must improve.
No Recommendation
Gonna be the Twin-Tails!!
Jonathan Kaharl
My initial enthusiasm for Twin-Tails is finally starting to die down, but I'm still having a blast with it. The first major fight has gone down with the monster who craves the Twin-Tail affinity, with Soji proving his love for twin-tails and Twoearle's true identity being revealed. The show lost me a bit here, as there's a lot of exposition explaining who Twoearle is and why she's here, and it's very dry and filled with techno-babble. Not a good episode for humor for most of it, though the fighting was pretty cool. The series should avoid playing things straight like this, there needs to be more absurd elements present for any fun to be found for major story bits. Sure, it's all ridiculous, but it doesn't have any awareness of its own ridiculousness during this episode, which is not a good thing, as self-awareness is the series major positive.
Thankfully, the following episode was a return to form as the third twin-tail was found. Erina, the student council president, got a new suit from Twoearle that turns her into TailYellow, and her design in powered form is a nice change from the more agility focused Red and Blue, giving her larger armor and laser canons, plus giving her flying brick style momentum. More self-aware comedy weaves itself in as Twoearle joins the class and new monsters prove to have even more hilarious kinks (there's a warring faction of flat chests and large breast monsters that made me lose my shit), plus the president getting attacked at the exact same place twice. Made me giggle. Also, one of the monsters kinks is ...the back of the neck ("DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD I HAD TO TRAIN TO SNEAK UP BEHIND PEOPLE AND SEE THE BACKS OF THEIR NECK!?"). Amazing. The show doesn't have an original sense of humor, but when it keeps the spoof stuff at a good speed, it's damn funny.
Oh, and Aika wanting to increase her breast size was far funnier than I was expecting. That old joke of the flat chest girl being envious of girls with larger breasts usually makes me groan, but the show makes it work. Seeing her willing to beg while crying in front of Twoearle didn't just catch me off guard, it caught the characters off guard. You'd be amazed how rare that is. This is stupidity at its finest, truly.
Strong Recommendation
Gugure! Kokkuri-san
Jonathan Kaharl
Didn't think this series could manage more surprises after the sheer force that is Inugami, but I've been surprised. These past two weeks have introduced several characters to the cast, most notably the old tanuki Shigaraki. If you thought Inugami was depraved and monstrous in his ability to leave chaos and suffering in his wake, you haven't seen anything yet. Shigaraki is a lecherous drunk and compulsive gambler, not to mention makes his living by using others who can't refuse him due to his overwhelming power and stubborn, nonchalant attitude. He manages to actually scare Inugami of all people, and has a history of making Kokkuri's life miserable. The only reason he's in the cast now is because he's harder to get rid of than Inugami is. Even when it seems he'll have a redeemable trait by financially supporting an orphanage, it turns out it's an orphanage that exists because of his financial leeching and gambling with the parental funds of these poor kids. The guy is simply hilarious from the moment he appears, absolute scum in the most wonderful way.
More focus is put on Kohina's school this time around, as we meet two of her classmates. The first one is Yamamoto, who is the most obvious alien you've ever seen that has somehow managed to convince every human around him that he's human, despite doing strange things constantly. His little segment ends with him being carried off by men in black suits and the show informing the audience that he went missing for a month. Yeah. The other classmate is Jimeko-san, or "Bully-san," a girl who keeps leaving flowers on Kohina's desk as a means of bullying (in a confused way). She's actually just a very shy tsundere, and bullying is her only way of getting Kohina's attention. The flashback showing why she started targeting Kohina is hilarious, while the Yamamoto segment from the previous episode, while wonderfully bizarre, uses way too many homages to E.T to really get a laugh. Thankfully, we also get time with Kokkuri and Inugami infiltrating the classroom in both episodes, and it's hilarious both times, especially the second. There was also more girl Inugami, and that is always a positive.
There's more wackiness hidden under this show then I was expecting, and I really admire the dark humor with how generally terrible Kohina's later two house-guests are. The pacing is still shot, though, and a few jokes have a habit of falling flat or are a tad too one note. When it works, it's hilarious, but the dull moments are hard to ignore as well. Kokkuri-san isn't quite one of the strongest comedies this year, but it's definitely a lot of fun when its on, and it has a style all its own.
Solid Recommendation
Gundam: G no Reconguista
David O'Neil
Up until now, Gundam G Reconguista had been keeping me
thoroughly entertained, but I can't help but feel that during the last
two episodes the show went through somewhat of a lull to me. Technically
lots of stuff was happening, there was a big fight between Captain Mask
and his team against Bellri and the pirates, Bellri's mom ran away from
the Capitol in order to get to the bottom of what was happening to her
son, and Aida's father entered the mix as well. Yet despite all this
going on, I felt a lot less engaged than I had earlier on in the show.
I think one major issue that lead to my lesser enjoyment as of late, as a dip in the quality of the show's previously stellar action. It didn't get bad per se, but in comparison to the interesting, well choreographed, and mostly well animated previous battle scenes, this one seemed a lot slower and a lot more dull. At one point characters are standing around having a casual conversation outside of there mecha while a battle waged over head. It all felt a bit too laid back, the stakes seemed too low. Not much has happened in the story either, the big reveal that Bellri killed one of his close friends was kind of swept under the rug and ignored as soon as the new battle showed up, and even though plenty has been happening things don't feel like they've actually progressed all that much. Pretty much the only really positive thing I can say that's happened lately is that I have been liking the recently introduced "Captain Mask" character, he's pretty cool and has sort of a goofy anti-hero vibe to him, though it'd be nice if the show explored him more.
Right now Gundam G Reconguista feels a bit like it's biding time in the space and story it's created so far rather than moving forward, it is moving things along with more exposition and plot events, but not with its characters or conflicts. It also didn't help that the most recent episodes had some of the most uninteresting action that the series had featured so far. It's still enjoyable mecha mecha show, and it hasn't quite taken a dive in quality, but it has dipped more than I would have hoped. I'm hoping it gets itself out of this and improves from here on.
Weak Recommendation
Hi-sCool! Seha Girls
Walter Holleger
Another couple of weeks, another couple of Seha Girls shorts, and
another dull twenty minutes. Continuing from last time, the girls work
their way through Space Channel 5, helping Ulala save people through
dancing, including Jeffry from Virtua Fighter and Gilius from Golden
Axe. The joke about Saturn being into Gilius is back and, surprisingly,
it was pretty funny, if just because Gilius has more visible emotion
than any other character thus far. Other than that, all the other jokes
and gags fall flat and the whole experience, an experience that can
accurately be described as hot women dancing to fight off alien
invaders, was dull. The worst part of this is that I now have no
interest to ever look up and play Space Channel 5 after seeing this,
because this show sold the game that badly. I'll take my first time
playing through Earthbound and be on my way.
The fifth episode was a one-off adventure where the girls had to think up new games using Puyo's from the puzzle game Puyo Puyo, which basically means they put Puyo's in different games for six minutes. The entire sequence of events was just a show wall of obscure Sega games that had Puyo's photoshopped into them, and I'm left wondering what part is meant to be funny, where the punchline is, cause if there was one, I either missed it, and caught it and didn't recognize it as one.
No Recommendation
I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying
Thom "Tama" Langley
From a show in which so little happens...to a show in which almost too much
is happening. Seriously. Six episodes in, and this show has had more
going on in twenty-one minutes than Girlfriend Beta has in over an hour and a
half. And honestly, compared to Girlfriend Beta, it's getting ever more
enjoyable. Episode five...and someone has trashed the house. It's Kaoru.
Whiiiilst drunk. Cue Detroit Metal City reference. And Kaoru's drunken
exploits. And spousal coercions.And a pub crawl. And sake making!
And...strip rock paper scissors. Aww. They're a happy drunken couple.
Oh, and the hangover after.Finally, this show seems to be hitting its
stride-this episode is largely around one idea, the comedy is just a
little more focused, with the comedy a little more universal. Episode
6...and Kaoru is ill. Oh no! Oh. And she's got to quit smoking. Which
her friend (also her doctor) has been pestering about her for years.
Meanwhile on the work front, Mika (AKA DESTINY FUCKER) is worried our
protagonist is working too hard, and our protagonist is trying to be a
nice husband, which gets on Kaoru's nerves.
A great little couple of episodes. Husband is getting better and better, the episodes are developing nicely without throwing too much at the audience at once. A little more development In short, as it reaches its halfway point, it's slowing down and enjoying the scenery a little more, whilst keeping the humor as good, if a little less quick-fire.
Solid Recommendation
In Search of Lost Future
Jonathan Kaharl
Unless some crazy shit goes down in the next two weeks, I'm probably going to drop Lost Future. If The Fruit of Grisaia is a brilliant twist on the visual novel drama, Lost Future is the basic and dull, played safe counterpoint. Nothing particularly interesting has happened again, as the show dances around the interesting subject matter, but there has been more general frustration. Kaori continues to be one of the worst written female characters I've seen from VN drama adaptations, and that is quite the achievement. Her entire role in this show is to be the catalyst to all drama ever, to be a part of a bad series of love triangles and be the character who's death causes suffering for everyone involved. So, the show decides the best way to use her is to constantly loom death over the idiot's head, as she keeps putting herself in more and more dangerous situations, while also having the survival instincts of a lemming. She is aware of how weak she is compared to the rest of the cast (especially the living perfect of Kenny), but that is absolutely no excuse for how blatantly she's used for cheap drama. There is absolutely nothing else in her character besides being a tragedy magnet and obsessing over Sou. Absolutely nothing else.
The show is mostly just looming heavy handed foreshadowing of later events right now, and the entire time this is going on, I simply think to myself that I could be watching Steins;Gate instead. Sure, it's also a slow series, but the story is actually interesting and the cast is colorful and engaging. Nobody but Kenny shows any ounce of originality here, with exception to a few other clubs, but they barely get enough screen time. I can't be bothered to care about the tragedy coming to these characters because I don't think of any of them as actual characters, just walking arctypes meant to fulfill a role in a tired formula. This time travel stuff has been handled far better in so many other shows that Lost Future feels like it has no purpose for existing.
Well, besides Kenny's wonderful engrish. But that only gets you so far.
No Recommendation
JOKER
Walter Holleger
JOKER has proven to be less of the gadget of the week series, rather
being a character of the week series, with the introduction of two new
characters being the primary focus of the recently released episodes.
Episode three introduces a new Phantom Thief, Spade, who turns out to be Joker's old rival, King, and his assistant, Dark Eye, in a rather lackluster way. The whole episode feels like a giant pissing match between Spade and Joker, which sounds great to see two Phantom Thief's exchange skills to prove themselves the best, but the whole things comes across as more childish than anything, and I say that fully understanding that this is a kids show. Joker and Spade spend most of the episode arguing over childhood pranks, to the point they give away their disguises and get caught. The only thing interesting about this episode was some possible foreshadowing about a weakness that Joker has, and only time will tell if it's followed up upon.
Episode four does everything episode three tried to do but better. Spade and Joker try to steal a valuable ice scuplture of Odin when the building is lit ablaze, forcing the union of the two Phantom Thieves to save not only their treasure, but the other people trapped inside. This episode did a great job showing off Spade and cementing him in a good place for the show as Jokers rival, while also showing a more kindhearted side to Joker. Mixed into that are a few intense moments and a new gadget, and it makes for a stellar episode.
Solid Recommendation
Laughing Under the Clouds
Joe Straatmann
Laughing Under the Clouds has hit the mid-season blues. The latest
episodes have seen a significant drop in animation quality, relying on
frozen frames accompanied by sound effects to handle much of the action.
It's a trick most studios use to save money at least once an episode,
but when it starts showing up three-to-five times an episode in scenes
where it doesn't have any sort of dramatic effect, it gets annoying. The
exposition train has also returned to town with the backstory caboose
in tow. I estimate a hefty 80% of the runtime of the latest batch of
episodes to be people talking about their past. The Kumo brothers, their
family friend Shirasu, the mysterious man in prison, the prison guard
who is not all she appears to be, the members of the Yamainu special
forces, and other random people all get to have flashbacks and discuss
why they are the way they are.
That's not to say I'm disliking this. On my last update, I did say I wanted to see more of the story they were keeping mysterious, but this is a stilted way of going about it and slows the momentum when serious events that should be building the series a big head of steam are going on. Finally done with being coy about the Orochi, the destructive serpent that threatens to destroy all of Japan every 300 years, there are serious plot twists at work-especially in its relationship to the Kumo family-and it's set to go in a new direction. So it's curious why it chooses to not be in a particular rush at the moment. The gigantic threat to destroy mankind is also a bit bland in comparison to Japan's transitional era this takes place in, but a speech by Tenka about the wonder in how rare it is to see a country change in such a radical manner at leasts hints that the more interesting undercurrents won't be forgotten.
This all feels like the work of a staff that has been held in the shadows of anime craft finally getting their chance and having flashes of inspiration as well as marks of inconsistency. Of the major staff, only character designer Takao Maki seems to have been around the block. As much as I can compliment the look of the show when the animation isn't hampered and there is plenty of potential, it suffers from feelings of inexperience like not knowing how to properly balance humor and drama. There are times when an unexpected sight gag or behavior can be disarming (And certainly one exists when Tenka appears half-naked when you'd expect him to be completely serious), but too many times, loud, humorous moments slam into serious times and disrupt the mood. Too many times, it wants to be everything without being able to control it. I'm still liking it as a whole, but there is certainly much to be done that could improve it.
Solid Recommendation
Lord Marksman and Vanadis
Jonathan Kaharl
I have no idea how to feel about Marksman anymore. I really don't. Part of me is a tad disgusted with it, but the other part of me keeps getting engaged with it every episode. Marksman is the weird melding of two very different genres; male fantasy light novel harem trash, and sweeping political fantasy. These things shouldn't work together ...and they don't. Whenever Tigre ends up in a compromised position with a nude war maiden or Ellen shows submissive personality quirks towards Tigre while pretending that she wants to be dominate over him, I feel like gagging. It's male otaku ego wank on display, creating a purposefully personality devoid shell for them to insert themselves into and feel like they're super special. Tigre has almost no flaws from what I've watched so far, and he's even central to using war maiden powers to their full effectiveness. I hate this element of the show, and it appears in the dumbest, most insulting ways (yes I am still mad about that scene with Titta).
But this lesser side of the series isn't prevalent enough to really get me to hate it. The political warfare stuff is all well explained and interesting, especially the scenes on the battlefield. Seeing Tigre, Ellen and the gang thinking up clever strategies to gain the advantage is engaging, and their plans are very creative. I also like seeing how this world as a hidden brutality to it, like in how uncaring the king is over disputes of land ownership, leaving himself open to side with the winner for his own benefit. How fast he was ready to punish Ellen for helping Tigre was also surprising, with her hide only saved by the words of another war maiden. All of this is very interesting, and stuff I don't see in fantasy anime anymore, assuming I see any new fantasy anime at all.
This show is a mashing of good and bad, but has good production values and pacing to keep it more on the good side. Marksman makes me feel insulted at times, but also rewards my interest at others. This is one of the most polarizing things I've ever watched, by far. For those wanting a traditional style fantasy anime from recent years that isn't also about MMOs, this might be the best you can find, and I realize how sad that is.
Weak Recommendation
Magic Kaito 1412
Joe Straatmann
So, they can't figure out the kid named Kaito who is amazing at magic
is the Kaitou Kid, the thief who eludes capture using a massive barrage
of magic tricks whose father disappeared around the same time the
Kaitou Kid stopped engaging in heists heists for years. It's like that
extra part added to the name is Clark Kent's glasses or something. Sorry
sorry. I'm getting my "things I shouldn't think about while watching
this show" out of the way early. To be honest, this show keeps getting
better and better and I specifically save it for last so I can get the
final boost of energy I need to finish these reviews.
Say you're a series about a magician who has to steal all the rare jewels in the world to find the one that is the source of immortality before an evil syndicate gets ahold of it, and you're worried about the episodes becoming stale after so much repetition. What do you do? Magic Kaito 1412 finds its answer in involving MAGIC magic. Like throwing ingredients into a cauldron and using voodoo dolls magic. The first villain to make an appearance is Lady Akaka, a witch and temptress of red magic who gets prophecies from Lucifer. This show suddenly got awesome. I might be overstating things as her introductory act is merely a Valentine's Day episode where she transfers into Kaito's school and tries to lure him into her clutches after he refuses to take her chocolate. However, she becomes a reoccurring character who decides to try and get Kaito's heart in about as old-fashioned way as she's able, and in the follow-up, she almost summons the minions of Hell to assist her. Hopefully, not all of the villains-of-the-week transfer into his class. If so, this could get messy.
It still has all of the goofy charm one comes to expect from this series, and now, someone who is in a coven with the legions of darkness. This thing is as standard as a pop song from the fifties, but man, does it never cease to entertain. Despite the original manga having a reputation of being Gosho Aoyama's neglected child after Cased Closed made him very very rich, the anime has a surprisingly solid foundation and admirable consistency. I think the only thing I'm not on board with right now is reading the 1412 in the title as "kid" written in numerals is a bit of a reach. Yeah, that's why there's a 1412 in the title. Maybe I'm simply not using the right font.
Strong Recommendation
Orenchi no Furo Jijou
Megan R
These last two episodes have taken a turn for the
spooky. Episode four starts with rumors of
a ghost, which turn out to be another member of Tatsumi’s collection of aquatic
friends. This one is a jellyfish boy by
the name of Mizuki, who is very sweet and very forgetful, even about things
like his ability to electrically shock others with a single touch. Still,
Tatsumi is determined to be a
conscientious host, bringing him expensive bottled water to consume, and
his generosity serves as morbid inspiration for his other guests. Episode five finds the trio surprising Tatsumi
by dressing up for Halloween (don’t ask how they got the costumes). Tatsumi decides to join them in the holiday
spirit by carving a jack-o-latern and giving them the full Halloween
experience, complete with trick-or-treating for candy.
Solid Recommendation
Parasyte -the maxim-
Stephanie Getchell
Pretty sure that this week is the most intense this series has
gotten, mostly because Izumi's parents are now dead.... kind of. And his
mother has been taken over by a parasyte. Fan-freaking-tastic!! Ok, so
let me back track for a minute here. When we left off last time, we were
about to have our encounter between Izumi and Migi against A. Now that
it was over in about five minutes (I'll get to that in a minute), Ryouko
gets fired from her teaching position because it looks bad that a
pregnant and unmarried woman is teaching. Way to be, Japan! Ryouko
decides, since she's not teaching anymore, that she wants to kill Izumi,
however she stops because she senses a change occurring in him and
leaves him alone. We also get a little time between Izumi and his
parents, his mother in particular, as she begins to notice something
going on with him. But Izumi manages to calm her worries and both his
parents go on a little vacation. The next episode, episode five,
involves a fight with some thugs which introduces us to Kana, a girl who
senses something different about Izumi (we know she notices it's Migi),
but she doesn't know what that is. After the fight, we get a sweet
moment between Izumi and Murano, and then later on a phone call from
Izumi's dad saying something has happened to his mother before passing
out in a phone booth. The next morning, Izumi's mother, who is now taken
over, comes back to the house. After Izumi denies it over and over
again while Migi tries to get him to fight her, he is stabbed by his
mother.
So. Yeah. That all happened. Again, this is the most intense it's gotten since starting the series so props there for surprising the ever loving crap out of me. But here's where my praise stops for just a minute. The little arc with A and the encounter at school almost seemed rushed to me. Granted, most of that really takes place in the latter half of episode three, but when you watch episode four it doesn't take more than three minutes or so before that fight is done. I feel that there was a little wasted potential there, because, seeing as how Ryouko says Izumi is changing, the fight with A doesn't really justify it. At this point, we've only seen some outbursts of Izumi's slowly changing behavior. However, on the flip side of it, it may have actually been better to finish that arc faster due to the remainder of the episode and the chance we get with Izumi's mother. The series spent the time in episode four focusing on his mother and her relationship to Izumi. I feel like, although the A arc irritated me slightly, this was the right way to go! By deepening that relationship for the viewer, and then taking a slight breather in the next episode, we then get the first huge plot point that will, no doubt, play a heavy impact on Izumi. And now I understand that bit in the opening with Izumi's mother. IT ALL MAKES SENSE!!!
Originally I was going to drop my recommendation level this week down to a solid after the A thing happened. However, that's not going to happen. The series did exactly what it should and gave focus to a piece of Izumi's development as a character. Not only did it do that, but, literally, episode five was a nail biter episode. There's a lot going on now between Izumi and Migi, Murano's relationship with Izumi, the introduction to Kana, Ryouko still being at large and expecting, and now Izumi's mom as a parasyte. I couldn't have asked for a better week for this show! There may be a lot going on, but I know it'll all come together and work out eventually. Again, I trust Studio Madhouse on this one. After all, Monster and Paranoia Agent are some of their better works, in my opinion. And since Izumi is developing as a character more and more, I'm pretty sure Madhouse has got this one under control.
Strong Recommendation
Rage of Bahamut: Genesis
Thomas Zoth
Bahamut continues to impress as one of the best anime of all of 2014.
At this point in the series, you'd expect them to be running short on
time and putting episodes together in a rush, negatively impacting the
quality of the animation. Not so with Bahamut. The freedom Cygames
offered Studio Mappa allowed the series to be animated out of order,
meaning elaborate sequences from all of the series twelve main episodes were
worked on when there was plenty of time and money. So
it shouldn't really be a surprise that episode five ends up having the
most awesome battle sequences yet, but it still surprises! Kaisar and
Amira are captured by the devilish Azazel and taken into his floating
fortress Gregor. That leaves Favaro and Rita as the odd couple tasked
with saving them. And what a great addition to the cast Rita is! Her
no-nonsense attitude contrasts humorously with the outrageous nature of
the fantasy world, giving her the opportunity to strangle a duck, attack
skeletons with a parasol, and ride on Favaro's back in a burlap sack,
without even mentioning her best moments.
The rescue sequence with Favaro and Rita is stunning as it is, but when Jeanne D'arc and her Orleans Knights proceeds to attack Gregor, things get even more elaborate, with raining arrows and swarms of dragon knights filling the skies with flaming projectiles. It's an incredible scene with skillfully blended CGI elements, leaving me to wonder what spectacle is being kept for the conclusion. Episode six is not quite as impressive, but it's also the first part of a two parter introducing Jeanne D'arc as a main character. So far, she's a bit straight fantasy archetype, and it doesn't help that she's introduced with a lot of exposition that lays out the story of the world, Bahamut, and the two keys that keep its power in check. Around the same time, Favaro and Kaisar hit the expected story beats, with Favaro learning to be a bit more responsible, Kaisar learning to be less impulsive, and the two of them remembering what it was like to once be friends. The writing is still top-notch, but it's expected development, and not as delightfully surprising as the rest of the series has been.
Next week offers a recap episode, right in the middle of the two-parter, which will be painful to endure. After that, the second act will begin, and Bahamut will have to try pretty hard to undo all of the great things it's accomplished so far. With great skill, Bahamut has managed to juggle a large cast, a strange new world, and countless action sequences into a fantastic adventure. As long as the series can keep a sense of humor and its sense of wonder intact, we may be looking at the best anime of 2014. Bahamut is not to be missed!
Strong Recommendation
Ronia, the Bandit's Daughter
Joe Straatmann
Thankfully, this series has moved beyond Ronia becoming acquainted
with the forest, because regardless of whether it's considered relaxing
or boring, it's very difficult to discuss at length. Ronia has met with
Birk, the son of her family's rival bandits, and they engage in a mutual
dislike of each other before a dangerous situation suggests they aren't
as far absorbed in their hatred of each other as their dads. Oh yeah,
and the reason they meet each other is the two families of bandit
leaders and their crew of men now live in the same castle which was
split in half by a lightning bolt the night Ronia and Birk were born.
Convenient coincidences aside, all of this means more of Ronia's father
Mattis, easily the best aspect of the show. Combining the aspects of the
most doting father in the world and a gigantic child who doesn't want
to share his toys, Mattis shares emotional space of great and tender of
love and horrific rage that could destroy the entire forest. Now he has
to deal with the source of everything that causes these emotions
underneath the same roof, and the results are exceptionally
entertaining.
Certainly the latest episodes are more enjoyable to a general audience, and they introduce themes involving the cycle of hatred, as Mattis used to be best friends with his rival Borka before they were split from each other by their fathers and beaten into accepting they should dislike each other. Both families are on a verge of repeating the same mistake with their children even though they are essentially two sides of the same coin. Ronia is also beginning to ask questions of what her daddy does for a living that he doesn't wish to answer. It's all more interesting than the journeys through the forest, as Polygon Pictures trying to computer animate Studio Ghibli's aesthetic remains a mixed bag. The autumn trees that currently fill the forest should be a beautiful scenery slam dunk for any animation company, and here, it's very underwhelming, focused on a general aesthetic of less detailed water coloring. At least now when Ronia takes her constitutions, she has to share the forest with Birk, so I'm not just witnessing a nature walk.
I'm finally getting the classic fairy tale feel they've been trying at. It's fairly obvious now that I think about it, but since the parts of the story aren't wandering off on their own, I realized it's going for a classic adaptation somebody like Toei might've done in the 70s with modern technology and a few Ghibli touches. There are still some glaring issues with the look of the show that will likely never leave, but it's good that they're moving to the glut of the story, if nothing else to give me something to write about.
Solid Recommendation
Seven Deadly Sins
David O'Neil
The Seven Deadly Sins is impressively managing to keep it's
momentum going episode by episode. As I mentioned the last time I
covered this show, despite it's shonen adventure roots The Seven Deadly Sins moves
at a satisfyingly brisk pace, and this hasn't changed since then. In
only two episodes this arc of the story is already wrapped up, and the
characters are moving on to the next. Which is a good thing, because as I
watch it more I have started to realize something. Past all the fun
action and comedy, The Seven Deadly Sins isn't doing much to keep me engaged.
That isn't to say the show's story is actively bad, there's some pretty interesting stuff going on in terms of the world, the lore, and the characters, but at this point it's all very brief and surface level. Sure, I really like that this show isn't dragging on, but at the same time I also feel like there's a significant lack of any truly interesting or engaging aspects to the story. The show's only major conflicts or character development in the past few episodes is Elizabeth proving her dedication to saving the kingdom, and Diane feeling useless for being unable to help Meliodas. There was a solid opportunity to really delve into these character's personality's and motivations, maybe even create some strong parallels between the two and reach some sort of emotional conclusion or climax, but it only touches on the subject, only gives a glance of that conflict, before moving onto the next action scene.
I don't want to end mixed signals, but while I do like that the show is keeping up the pace, I also think it'd benefit the show greatly if on occasion it did slow down just a little bit, to really take a deeper look at the characters and what they're going through. The show is still really good, the action is crazy fun, and the characters are only getting more entertaining as the cast grows, as their unique personalities are given more opportunities to bounce off each other. I'm already a big fan of Ban, "Sin of Greed", and his reunion with Meliodas absolutely brilliant. But still, I hope that soon the show takes the character's conflicts beyond the very shallow levels that it's been sticking in lately.
Solid Recommendation
Shirobako
David O'Neil
I've always been, to an extent, pretty adamantly against the use of
CG animation in anime. I've always known that it's a childish way to
think, and I always try to stay open to the idea, heck, there've even
been some cases in which I really liked the way CG was used in an anime
(See: Gankutsuou, Ping Pong: The Animation) but pretty much any
time I see CG showing up in a 2D anime I groan and roll my eyes. A big
part of this is that I've always worried that anime would eventually go
the way of the western animation, throwing out traditional animation
almost entirely, instead putting the focus on CG animation. And I think
for a lot of other animation fans, there's a similar feeling there. But Shirobako has
reminded me just how damaging that mindset can be, along with how it
totally misses the point of why we came to love animation in the first
place.
In the two latest episodes, the fictional anime studio at the center of Shirobako ran into some new problems, the most significant of which: Their Animation Director walking out on them after they decide to do a pivotal action scene with CG animation after he'd already started drawing it himself. Tackling the subject of the rise of CG animation in anime is not an easy one to tackle, which is why I'd like to really emphasize how remarkably Shirobako handles it. It looks at the issue from all the angles, and with a real sense of sincerity and love towards the art form. It major theme starts on how "blaming" problems in the industry on CG is only more damaging, and how if anything CG should be accepted and encouraged to advance further to new heights. Along with that, a really smart scene towards the end brings together the opposing 2D and 3D animator, and ends on a stirring note about the common ground for all animators: a love for animation.
Shirobako has made me reevaluate the way I look at the medium of anime as a whole, and that's not something I can say about a lot of shows. It's a show that using it's setting of an anime studio to it's full extent, analyzing some of the biggest issues and uncertainties facing the industry and everyone who works in it. It's strong characters go through arcs that take an interesting look at aspects of the subject matter with enough brains and compassion to make it work with flying colors.
Strong Recommendation
Tribe Cool Crew
Jonathan Kaharl
Not much to report on Tribe Cool Crew this time, as the show had a one week break. All I can say is that it's still Tribe Cool Crew, and that implies exactly what it has always implied. We're getting closer to the eventual merge of Haneru's and Kumo's crews, as Haneru and Kanon are learning more about dance, particularly their personal appeals. The show has a really nice message here previously implied with Yuzuru, where Haneru and Kanon begin to become more comfortable with their physical limitations or appearances, owning their odd sizes to their advantage. Kanon is learning more how to best use her long limbs for her own dance style of precision, while Haneru is better learning how to synch his jumps (learned from playing basketball in his short stature) with Kanon's movements. Also, totally not Jey keeps appearing towards haneru to point him in the right direction, while Kumo continues to be a total tsundere.
This show really has a lovely tone to it. It's a very pleasant series, but there's a bit of emotional baggage with Haneru and Kanon to give the show something to weight in down a little. It never goes too far with the heavier stuff, but it does a good job of adding some elements to be used in character arcs. The animation and style continues to be expressive and creative, and even some of the CG dancing is starting to grow on me. You know, when not put against 2D characters. That always ends badly. Please stop doing that animators.
Solid Recommendation
When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace
Jonathan Kaharl
Ando is now my aesthetic. I connect with him in ways I have never connected with a fictional character, and I am convinced that he is me in another dimension. I'm sorry. These past two weeks have put possible superhero battles on hold for character development. First, Chifuyu got some help from Ando on making amends with her best friend at the elementary school, while Tomoyo accidentally got caught being a total dork by Ando, who also discovered that Tomoyo is trying to right a really cheesy light novel. The two have a day out with each other and a love triangle is subtly formed between them and Hakoto. This triangle will eventually become a pentagon, knowing Mirei and Sayumi, but I don't mind too much.
The show moves slowly and lets relationships flesh out pretty convincingly, so it's hard for me to get annoyed by the harem trope being played here. It helps that this is sometimes played for the sake of humor (Mirei, man), and it especially helps that Ando is at the center, because Ando will probably not care and continue to make up rejected JoJo and Medaka Box power names. The living embarrassment is both hilariously devoid of any sense of reality, and surprisingly wise. His anime-rotted brain actually soaks up good life advice and has a clever side to it, and the show makes it believable to boot. It also leads him to saying completely terrible things to solve his problems, with one speech to Chifuyu's best friend coming to mind. I am still aback that someone wrote that and then had someone say it, and I am still laughing. The fun silliness is also still on full display and enjoyable from start to finish, especially that one sequence where the club uses Chifuyu's powers to play a cosplay game. I used an image from that game last week, and yes, the actual sequence is even more amazing.
I hope the show starts moving forward soon, though. The slice of life shenanigans are a lot of fun, but they can't last if the series starts to spin its wheels too much. Some direction is needed, and I hope relationship misunderstandings aren't the main direction the show is picking out. Maybe the good stuff is being saved for the last quarter.
Strong Recommendation
Wolf Girl and Black Prince
Joe Straatmann
What does the latest development have in store for us? Well, it oddly
writes in me from high school as a romantic rival. Okay, not me per se,
but an awkward boy with feminine features who can barely stutter out a
sentence just the same. Whatever the case, it's still not enough for
Wolf Girl to get out of the critical doghouse. At this point, the show
is going through its Christmas and Valentine's Day episodes. Erika's
fake boyfriend Kyoya hates them both to the point where she gets a
modicum of self respect and throws a drink in his face for how
deplorably mocking he is of them sharing typical holiday activities. Not
to be seen as completely uncaring, he makes it up to her by buying her a
necklace. A necklace that's supposed to symbolize her collar indicating
his ownership of her. Now, I have consulted a person who's been
involved in master/pet relationships, and while yes, this kind of
relationship can be beneficial and provide a feeling of complete safety
and assurance, the couple in this series is a warped construct of it. It
is bereft of trust, built on blackmail rather than actual rules, and
whatever acts of kindness exist, they are occasionally laced with
cruelty, so no matter what standard you have, this is still a bad
relationship that nobody should be rooting for.
This is around when Kusakabe enters the story. An extraordinary timid student used to hanging out in the background, he is thrust into Erika's life when she randomly does a favor at the supermarket and after Kyoya ignores her for almost two months, becomes Erika's listening buddy and perhaps more after a string of misunderstandings. Of course, since he's not mentioned in the series title or shown in any of the opening or ending animations, odds of him being any sort of real threat are about as high as a hurricane destroying Chicago. Besides, with his physique, he doesn't cross-dress nearly enough to be the love interest of a shojo series. If this series isn't being offensive, it's being annoyingly predictable. Keep passing on this one.
No Recommendation
World Trigger
Stephanie Getchell
Why do we have to have a tsundere character? Just, why? Is this
really necessary? So here's how this episode went (since there was some
kind of break in Japan, making only episode four available to me).
After the attack on the school, A rank Border agents come in to praise
Osamu for saving everyone. All except one, Kitora. She points out that
Osamu went against regulations and should be punished for doing so.
Remember, it was Yuuma using Osamu's trigger that saved everyone, not
Osamu. After school, Kitora meets Osamu to escort him to the base in
order to receive his punishment (of course Yuuma tags along, cause
reasons). On the way, another Trion soldier appears in the real world
and Kitora and Osamu must fight and save the people from it's bombings.
And, apparently, the kicker here is that the Trion soldier is one that
Border has never seen before, but, of course, Yuuma has. So, more than
likely, he's going to be helping out once again.
I've been, semi, patiently waiting for the story to become good. I keep hoping that it will. But, the more and more I watch this show, the more that patience is wearing thin. It's been sticking itself into this rut with a strong possibility that it won't come out. This makes watching the series extremely frustrating. The major characters we've met are so dull and boring while the new characters that have been added in, so far, are possibly worse than Osamu and Yuuma. This is a huge fault on the writing end, because this could be something really good if it tried hard enough. But the more I cling to that hope, the more I find myself feeling utterly terrible by the end of a single episode.
I honestly really want to like this series. I really do. There's just so much wasted potential here, and it's making practically zero effort in improving itself. I just feel like the boring/disappointment train will just keep on going and going until I finally toss this series to the side. Which may happen in a couple weeks. I think the only thing I like from this show right now is the opening theme since it's kinda catchy. Otherwise than that, this one is nearing the ground in an ever long fall.
Weak Recommendation
Yona of the Dawn
Jonathan Kaharl
You know, I was expecting to hate the love triangle stuff in Yona, but I'm surprised that I'm pretty okay with it. Despite Soo-won's horrible acts, the series does a really good job of showing that there's a tragic figure there, and that Yona can still see that figure, causing her initial indecision. This is important, because it informs to why Yona is going to become such a strong character. She's been developed into a very willful, compassionate character with the last two episodes, seeing people from outside her palace and realizing how much Hak is risking by continuing to be her bodyguard. It's that well of empathy that lets her realize there may still be something good in Soo-won, not simply because of a crush and being an ignorant dolt (like many other bad shojo series). Seeing Yona finally get back her will and grow a spine was pretty awesome, especially when she finally showed some fight and the show threw in some symbolism with her long hair looking like a burning flame with some clever placement of the sun and a bit of wind. Really impressive moment. It finally has me excited for the potential of this series.
Pierrot is definitely on a role again, but Yona definitely isn't another Tokyo Ghoul. The visuals are more like they were in The World is Still Beautiful, very basic style with strong and constant execution. It's not a show that's a feast for the eyes, but it never offends them and throws in a few neat visuals from time to time. The animation is also well handled, with visceral fight scenes and sweeping movements during them. I don't think inoffensive is the right way to describe it, more like effective. It does what it needs to in just the right way, even if not trying anything new or risky. The character designs have a similar feel to, with a somewhat uninteresting art style, but with neat touches to several characters at times.
This is a nice bit of Eastern influenced fantasy, and I expect good things from what I've seen so far. If you need a good shojo show this year, I'd probably suggest The World is Still Beautiful from the Spring, but Yona has the potential to surpass it. We'll see how the full two cour run goes.
Solid Recommendation
Your Lie in April
Stephanie Getchell
This one certainly likes to be up and down in animation quality. I
can't be too mad it it, though, because when it looks nice it REALLY
looks nice. So Kousei and Koari make it to the concert hall in time for
the violin competition. Without having practiced together, even the
slightest, the two take the stage. After a decent start, Kousei starts
feeling the pressure of his deceased mother and starts panicking,
thinking to himself he can't hear the sounds. It becomes unbearable for
him, so he stops playing. This, in turn, gets Kaori to stop playing to
try and encourage Kousei. After picking up again, once more, Kousei
begins to play again and the duo finish the song to roaring applause.
However, because of many flaws in the performance, Koari doesn't move to
the next round of the competition. But, we don't find this out until
after she passes out on her way off the stage. While staying in the
hospital, Kousei, Tsubaki, and Watari begin to have a shift in feelings
among the group. While his feelings for Kaori don't change, Watari
realizes that Kousei may be developing feelings of his own and welcomes
the challenge to him in a friendly manner. Tsubaki recalls her crush on
her former baseball captain, now in high school, and questions what made
her feelings change. At the end of the episode, Kaori, released from
the hospital, asks for a present from Kousei. She wants him to
participate in a piano competition.
Wanna know something odd? This is actually the one show I have the hardest time writing about. I don't know what it is, because there's quite a bit going on in this series, but sitting here every couple of weeks to tell you how I feel about it seems to be extremely difficult. It's not because I don't like the series either. On the contrary, I love this series! It not only looks beautiful, but the story and characters have been easy to follow and understand. Granted there's some kind of love square that's going on right now, but I still don't mind. How I've actually been watching this, to be completely honest, is as an experience. I don't focus too much on the story's flaws or pick at the characters that much because the music and visuals are what capture me the most. It's like, the visuals and the music enhance the story. This is especially the case during the performance Kaori and Kousei gave, with Kousei trying to play at the bottom of the ocean. Like I said before, when the show wants to look beautiful, it looks friggin beautiful! I almost feel like, if the visuals and music weren't there to support it, the series would just fall flat on it's face. But, I do admit, I can't just talk about the pretty visuals every time this series comes up. That means, I'll have try extremely hard to look at the story and characters a bit more.
At this point, Your Lie in April, to me, is an experience. And a rather beautiful one at that. I am amazed at how much I get captivated in it all and am just moved by it (at least music wise). Despite some parts of the story starting to look cliche to me, I can't really complain. It's the visuals and music that are carrying the series through, for me, right now. From this point on, however, I need to start paying attention at least a little more to the story so I have more to talk about. But, honestly, it's the experience this series is sending me on that makes me love it so much right now.
Strong Recommendation
Yuki Yuna is A Hero
David O'Neil
The last episode of Yuki Yuna is a Hero was genuinely
unsettling to me, but at this point it's hard to tell if that's a result
of actual strong storytelling or just my own paranoia. I guess this
plot detail could be considered a spoiler, but to talk about my current
feelings on Yuki Yuna is a Hero it's fairly vital: The heroes of
the series have won. Now one may wonder, but the series is only halfway
over. What exactly happens next? And that's what's getting me on edge.
As a result of Madoka Magica's popularity, the concept of
"darker" magical girl series has had somewhat of a spike recently. Being
from the creator of a "darker" shonen action series, Akame ga Kill,
I had a sneaking suspicion that this show would fall into that
category. But for 5 straight episodes, that didn't come true at all.
With the exception of the big episode 1 reveal, the show so far has been good, but fairly basic magical girl fare. They've strengthened friendships, fought with heart, defeated the enemies without too much in the form of negative repercussions. And in episode 6, it felt as if it had all come to a close, as they defeated the last of of the evil monsters by the skin of their teeth. This conclusive feeling left me really curious where exactly the show was going with things, but the next episode didn't exactly answer that question. It was a very laid back, reflective episode, and at risk of sounding like a mad conspiracy theorist constantly insisting this show is going in some drastically different direction, it felt like set up for some very different things. As a whole the episode seemed very optimistic, things seem to be going well for the heroes, almost excessively so. The final scene of episode 6 features two characters simultaneously getting messages essentially say "EVERYTHING IS GONNA BE OOOOKAY". With one catch. As a result of the final battle, each of the girls (with the exception of Karen) have suffered the loss of some physical ability, whether it be taste, speech, hearing in one ear, or sight in one eye.
This strange, out of place, darker side effect of their battle is what's giving fuel to my uncomfortable sense of uncertainty. With that and the episode's title, "In Anticipation of Tomorrow", it really does feel like the series is setting up something big. It feels hard to come to a clear conclusion on Yuki Yuna is a Hero when it's hard to tell if the show I'm watching is actually hiding something more from me. I enjoy it, the action is cool and the characters have some good development, but at the same time the show seems to be teasing me and teasing me to the point I'm starting to wonder if it's actually teasing me at all. Either way, for now it's still a decent watch.
Solid Recommendation
Second Opinions
Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon
Stephanie: Quiz time! Who finally accepts herself as a Norma and gets bullied by Hilda and the others? The answer is: ANGE!! Somehow, this series keeps growing on me despite the extremely mature content we see in every episode. It still feels weird of me to say that, but, hey, there's always going to be that one show that, for some reason, you enjoy. We wouldn't have guilty pleasures otherwise. Though, I'm still debating on if this is a guilty pleasure series or one I legitimately enjoy. Solid Recommendation
Denki-Gai
Jonathan: This series gets funnier and funnier every week, and I'm gelling with the characters more and more (especially Sensei). I hope it keeps up this momentum, because if there's more gags like the Sensei girl power rating video, this could potentially surpass even Nozaki-kun as the best comedy of the year. Strong Recommendation
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
Stephanie: It's hard to say what's new and what isn't in this adaptation when you haven't seen the original series in years. Regardless, this series has still been rather good. Despite the slower moments that I saw in this episode, more than likely, it'll pick up again rather soon. And when it does, I suspect that it will be pretty awesome! Solid Recommendation
The Fruit of Grisaia
Jonathan: This is my favorite VN anime main character ever. Everything he does is completely out of left field and it's so refreshing and hilarious, even when the series is in dramatic moments. The show appears to be going into girl mini-arcs now, and after how good the first one was, I'm excited to see the rest of these stories. Grisaia is brilliantly mad, and it may go down on my best of the year list. Strong Recommendation
Garo: The Animation
Jonathan: I love how dark and unflinching this show is, and I really like how Leon is developing since the village episode. The action is strong too ...but if you're gonna have a CG fight, make the monster CG as well. Strong Recommendation
Gugure! Kokkuri-san
Stephanie: So we're adding in a tanuki, an alien, and a shy tsundere to the show? We just keep getting more and more new characters brought into this crazy show. Not only that, but we're getting some really weird pop culture references like ET and Alien all in the same gag. I am perfectly ok with this. Strong Recommendation
Magic Kaito 1412
Stephanie: So we add a young detective and a witch to the show and the result is some fun times! The nostalgia is still kicking in this series, but it's slowly becoming more than that. The story is easy to follow and still manages to have a single plot line that it stick to. Props to the series for that! Solid Recommendation
Parasyte -the maxim-
Jonathan: Unlike a lot of people, I'm really digging the lively soundtrack. Not so much the main plot. There's one development that was caused by a pretty stupid action with Shinichi's parents, but I can forgive that for the end result. The source material does show its age, as a lot of more recent shows (especially Tokyo Ghoul) have gone back over Parasyte's ideas in more inventive ways, so the series feels a tad stale to me. However, the execution by Madhouse is still fantastic, and it's ultimately very engaging when it counts. Solid Recommendation
Rage of Bahamut: Genesis
Jonathan: Oh, I almost forgot about this while writing the Marksman entry. Bahamut is still getting better as it goes, still beautiful and constantly finding fun and exciting new ways to put the heroes in danger. It's amazing just how damn enjoyable this series is. Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: I find it amusing that our two major female characters are both of the supernatural variety, with Amira an angel/demon hybrid and Rita a zombie necromancer. And the guys are now, kinda, sorta, getting along! Everything is just going so well! ....Ya know, aside from that huge dragon. Still a really good series for me! Strong Recommendation
Shirobako
Jonathan: They locked the director in a cage until he finished the draft for the last episode. That it's, this is the best show of the season. Strong Recommendation
When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace
Stephanie: ANDOU AS LOLICON CONFIRMED!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!! I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! Pardon the outburst. Things seem to be pointing towards some kind of love triangle right now between Andou, Tomoyo, and Hatako but Andou just doesn't seem to notice. As well, I'm fine with it staying way since his outbursts are a lot more fun than the possible love hijinks. Solid Recommendation
Yona of the Dawn
Stephanie: I think we've stopped with the back and forth time jumps, for now, and are sticking to a straight story. We're also starting to get Yona to put on her big girl pants and start developing into a strong female character. The humor and the story are still going rather strong for me, and I think it's actually growing on me more and more now that Yona's character is really starting to take shape. This week has been great for me and Yona, that's for sure! Strong Recommendation
Yuki Yuna is A Hero
Jonathan: Well, I wasn't expecting final battle stuff in the fifth episode. I wanna see where all this is headed. Great action, fun characters, big drama, and a whole lot of questions. JUST DROP THE SHOE ALREADY. Solid Recommendation
You know the drill, read on.
Dropped
- Celestial Method (Jonathan Kaharl)
- Terraformers (Jonathan Kaharl)
- Trinity Seven (Stephanie Getchell)
A Good Librarian, Like a Good Shepherd
Jonathan Kaharl
The implications here are interesting. I don't know if the series is going for a small scope or large scope with the importance of the shepherd, but either way, it's a really neat idea. Someone given mystical abilities to guide people through life like a god-like teacher, it's an idea steeped in old myths with a modern twist and some good lessons to be learned. Boy, I was not expecting that from the studio that brought you the show about boob-milk powered alchemy. I'm actually really excited about these developments, because I really like all of these characters. Several have interesting back-stories or hidden depth (especially Misono and Tsugumi), while the more simple characters are likable and fun to follow around. That cheesy, nostalgic tone of the series fits it so perfectly.
It's a real shame this is one of the most ignored shows of the season. Shepherd is somehow becoming a season favorite for me, not necessarily filled with surprises, but bleeding out charm and cute situations in nearly every scene. It's fluff, but it's high quality fluff, and it definitely has its heart in the right place. How the hell did Hoods end up with one of the most innocent shows of the season? And how did it end up working!? I don't know what demon they made a pack with to make this possible, but I'm glad that deal was made.
Oh, and Kakei wears a maid outfit. 10/10.
Strong Recommendation
Ai Tenchi Muyo
Joe Straatmann
Otherwise, it's a lot of flat slapstick that mistakes being loud and manic with being funny. The only thing I'm left with after watching most of them is wondering who thought it was a good idea to design that flame next to Ryoko's breast. It's an extremely odd and unnecessary design choice and it dominates the screen whenever she appears. When a breast decoration fills about a third of my review, there really isn't a whole lot to discuss. Oh, I do hope it starts promoting tourism for the poor town that funded this thing soon. I hate to see taxpayer money go to waste like this.
No Recommendation
Amagi Brilliant Park
Stephanie Getchell
Here's something interesting that I've found in these two episodes: 1, It has cliche moments, and yet recognizes them on it's own, and 2, It takes potential cliched moments and turns them into something else.
The first instance can be seen in the fifth episode with the survival cave. Seiya is the one that bluntly points out how cliche the cave seems to be, as the group falls for trap after trap. It shows me how self aware it can be and doesn't fall entirely for those troupe story lines. As for the second one, this comes in the form of Sento and the heartsleeve fruit. This plot line could have gone the normal route of: girl eats mysterious food, food acts as a love potion of sorts, hilarity ensues. What we get, instead, is a more unfiltered Sento whenever she talks about Seiya. However, she never manages to finish those sentences because she stops herself by banging her head, repeatedly, on a table or a wall. Obviously, we keep seeing Sento's insecurities come into play since this is the second episode that brings it up, but I'm more focused on the interesting take on a very overused story line. Makes it into something new and, considering Sento's character, something rather funny.
This week actually brings me to the half way mark for the series (granted it's a 13 episode one and I'm only at six). It's been able to keep it's odd charm and also, somehow, give some rather funny moments and banter between characters. I mean, when you have a character calling himself superior with a straight face, then you gotta admit this series has something going on that you can laugh and enjoy. I look forward to taking this series into the second half of the season and seeing what it will try and do next. Also that superiority complex Seiya openly admits to... Needs more silly things like that.
Solid Recommendation
BONJOUR: Sweet Love Patisserie
Megan R
Once again, Sayuri is nothing but a spineless ball of pink
fluff dragged along by the plot instead of being an active figure in her own
story. It’s always one guy or another
who drags her from plot point to plot point, and all she can do is make small
talk and admire their abilities instead of showing off her own. It’s telling that I have a stronger sense of who
Tsubaki is than I do about Sayuri, and all we know about Tsubaki is that she’s
a shallow, jealous, stuck-up bitch with horrendous ideas about flavor combinations.
The show is clearly planning on going through some heavily condensed version of each route, having now featured two of our four potential bishonen, and it’s also clearly not planning on fleshing out said bishonen beyond the traits mentioned last week. I guess that makes them more than perfect matches for the equally bland and underdeveloped Sayuri, but it also makes for a tiresome show on the whole. I was hoping for something silly and giddy with this show, but instead it’s spiritless and bland. I’m dangerously close to dropping this show unless it finds something more interesting to do than lazily show off barely moving pictures of bishonen and pastries.
The show is clearly planning on going through some heavily condensed version of each route, having now featured two of our four potential bishonen, and it’s also clearly not planning on fleshing out said bishonen beyond the traits mentioned last week. I guess that makes them more than perfect matches for the equally bland and underdeveloped Sayuri, but it also makes for a tiresome show on the whole. I was hoping for something silly and giddy with this show, but instead it’s spiritless and bland. I’m dangerously close to dropping this show unless it finds something more interesting to do than lazily show off barely moving pictures of bishonen and pastries.
No Recommendation
Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon
Jonathan Kaharl
Cross Ange does not use comedy well here. The gags are too cartoony, and while they are used in usual Sunrise fashion to disguise later reveals that massively contrast with the lighter tone from earlier, it's not handled nearly as well. A lot of this is due to the pilots all being clownish and silly in some way, with exception to Salia, Hilda and Jill. This is a problem, because Cross Ange starts with the dark stuff so early that any levity would be difficult to pull off properly without feeling out of place. There's also no established reason for that contrast while at the base, because it's been established as such a generally grim place. It's more forgivable with Tusk's island because it's an isolated place that gives the series some time to breathe, but the comedy is far less amusing. Ange threatening to shoot Tusk for looking at her naked in an extreme tsundere bit wears out its welcome fast (though it did get me at first because it comes so far out of nowhere). The show is also being FAAAAAAAAR more blunt with foreshadowing and delivering character info, like Salia constantly saying the name of Ange's mech instead of Ange's name while organizing a rescue mission. We get it, she was promised the mech and it means a lot to her. Stop doing that.
That said, there is some light world building that's still very interesting. We get a glimpse of an unknown group taking a frozen dragon to who knows where, along with a glimpse of the unknown with Tusk. He's some sort of unknown soldier who can't use mana, which is weird because that's supposed to be a female only condition. The development of the base characters is also appreciated, like showing more of the merchant woman and having Hilda try to become Zola, someone she obviously loved and looked up to. It's the things that don't fit with what I know about the world that are interesting me, and knowing Sunrise, they have something insane planned in the shadows. Can't wait to see what they're planning. The show is still good, but compared to Code Geass or even Valvrave, its tone is too messy. That needs to be corrected.
Solid Recommendation
Denki-Gai
David O'Neil
Editor's Note: I'll be taking over for Denki-Gai from here on, as I'm following the show anyways.
Dropped at episode five, Solid Recommendation
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
Jonathan Kaharl
This version of Fate is fantastic so far. Rin is surprisingly likable, the animation is stunning, the atmosphere is thick and natural, and the fights are some of the best I've ever seen from any anime. I also finally got hooked into the world's mythology. I tried getting into Fate once before by reading a manga adaptation, but it was so poorly paced and explained so little poorly that I couldn't muster up any enthusiasm. This version is filled with so much needed spectacle that I can finally wrap my head around why the Holy Grail war is such a huge deal, even when it's just delivering exposition (outside that stinker of a first episode). Really, there's very little negative I can say about these past two episodes, all I know is that I want to see more, and especially more Saber because she is adorable and wonderful.
...though there is this one thorn of a problem bugging me. Shirou is a bloody idiot at times. He's not too bad, showing proper logic and acting only in the most extreme circumstances properly before, but he got hit with a stupid stick these past two episodes. Why wouldn't you bring Saber along with you to school!? You just barely survived a battle with a giant that survived a mini-nuke, I would think you would want to bring your badass warrior goddess along just in case! This is dumber than the Parasyte vacation plot point. He's also amazingly dense in his conversation with Rin, and of course, his decision instantly bites him in the ass. Also, he tries fighting a servant by himself and nearly gets killed. SHIROU. BRING SABER WITH YOU. DAMN IT. But other than that, aces.
Strong Recommendation
The Fruit of Grisaia
Joe Straatmann
These episodes focus on the deeper issues of Michuru and Yumiko separately. Recovering from simply killing off an animal to push the audience's buttons, it deals with the tragic source of Michiru's multiple personalities in a much more sympathetic way. It's reminds me in a complimentary fashion of Garden of Sinners in how one character deals with two people being inside them. It's equally ridiculous in its portrayal of people with multiple personalities, but I am not expecting an anime of the reality where a high school girl joyfully collects bomb paraphernalia to stick to the DSM V manual. It's visually well told, it gets to the humanity of the matter, and it resolves itself in a surprising and effective manner. It's odd to discuss it in such a distant manner, but any kind of in-depth talk would require spoilers I really don't want to give. It's the best episode of the series so far and shows a real flair of being able to handle the heavier weight these stories have to them.
Yumiko's episode is not as good as it's mainly a vehicle to explain why the school formed, and honestly, I expected a lot more messy of a story. Oh, it's plenty screwed up, but with the most obviously violent person in a school where they are isolated and watched because they are a danger to the outside world, one expects bodies, and it's more a train magnate trying to hide what he considers politically unfortunate. What I've seen is the series manage the nudity and sexual aspects, the humorous aspects, and the incredibly dark aspects. Now to see how they all come together.
Solid Recommendation
Garo: The Animation
Stephanie Getchell
At this point in the game, like Amagi, I've reached the half way mark with Garo (at least report wise, since this is set for a two cour series). Honestly, this is the first week that it's felt a little lacking. Up until this point, it's been a lot of fun and rather compelling in it's story. Not only that, but it's among the most mature anime I've seen all season. Not just because the first episode involved German and a woman in bed together. It's kept that maturity from episode to episode, with a recent example being Emma and Leon talking about Leon's lack of "experience," if you know what I mean. The show has also kept something else that I find rather interesting, and that's some rather cheesy humor. I may not be knowledgeable in tokusatsu, but I am at least mildly aware that it tends to have rather cheesy and corny humor mixed in. Seeing as how Garo was first a tokusatsu and now an anime, it's really nice that the humor is there not only as a call back of sorts, but to break up the monotony and give us something lighter every now and again with such a dark and mature series. But, the reason I feel like this week is a bit lacking is really all because of the whole werewolf thing that occurred in the seventh episode. First of all that dream or hallucination or whatever it was, came out of no where and made absolutely no sense! Even though the fear of werewolves the townspeople had was explained a tiny bit a few minutes later, whatever happened to Leon was never explained. Not in the slightest. And then it just goes into whatever the heck it actually wanted to go into and we never hear from that bit again. Granted, there was a call back to it slightly as the kids called Leon a werewolf after Garo saved them, but that didn't help much. It was just so confusing and out of the blue that I was just sitting at my desk going, "Uhh.... Garo? What the heck are you doing?" Unless they make some kind of connection later on, I don't see this moment ever being fully explained.
That one moment doesn't hurt the series too much for me, this week. As confused as I was, it was just a small moment that I had to pick on a lot because it stood out to me. Otherwise than that, the series is still really strong and a lot of fun to watch. The character development for Leon has calmed down a bit while we haven't seen Alfonso at all this time around, though I think that will be fixed rather soon. But, somehow, probably not in episode eight cause, for some reason, I'm sensing something German relating about to happen. I took a peak at the episode listings on Wikipedia (because I needed to remind myself of where the heck they are) and found out that episode eight is, supposedly, going to be titled "Full Monty." And now the theatre nerd in me is predicting the weirdest stuff. If you don't know what I'm referring to, then look it up. You'll see what I'm getting at.
Strong Recommendation
Girlfriend Beta
Thom "Tama" Langley
Episode three and the focus of this episode is odd couple, Murakami Fumio and Mochidzuki Erena. Or, for the Cliff Notes edition, camera wielding yuri girl and flower club girl, and their first meeting. Yay. I will say this, the OP is enjoyably colourful, and the song deserves so much better than this. It's oddly KyoAni-ish again. A baby! On a train! Oh look, our cast are so polite! And sudden...yuri moment. At last. Though Erena insists it's just "to model". Oh, and Fumio is bookish and shy-thus getting more character development offscreen than she does on it-Fumio is convinced into modelling for Erena...even though she says no. Oh dear. Cue much covert photography. And the attempts by Erena to capture the perfect smile. Much stalking ensues, until Fumio hits her, and tells her to stop. She then watches Erena walk off, with her other friends Oh. For perhaps the first time, this show has actually pulled off a moment of true pathos. Which is actually...quite impressive. Fumio seems to have moved on, but Erena clearly hasn't, still wanting to photograph her. They eventually make up, though now Fumio is worried that Erena will now quit photography. So, they eventually decide to go on a date. With strawberry shortcake, during which Erena says she wants to photograph Fumio, though not for the contest.
Honestly, this is...surprisingly good. Centering on two characters, and their relationship is not only interesting, but this episode is surprisingly active, mapping the ups and downs of Fumio and Erena's early friendship. Unfortunately...episode four...promptly goes back to the formula of episode one and two. Today...abandoned kittens! In a box! Oh, and the friendship between two other characters. Yes ! Let's bring the cats to school! Brilliant idea! And now...it's time to find them owners. Via the radio. Introducing another five people who seem to have the single personality trait that..they kinda like cats? Oh, and Sensei is here to give us a "A dog is for life..." style lecture. Oh, and everyone's not that great at studies. No cats for you. Cue...STUDY MONTAGE. Oh wait. Nope. Everyone's busy. And busy again. Time for an allnighter STUDY MONTAGE?! With the other girl who found the kittens. No study montage. Just...eating. And buying more food. And going to a bathhouse. And then the power goes out. And ghost stories are told and FINALLY A STUDY MONTAGE. YES. Silver Link deliver! And somehow, they all improve. Amazing. So now, they all have cats, and are busy planning a slumber party. Greeeeaat.
Episode three showed promise, Episode four is back to the dull grind. One step forward, one back. It's still (aside from episode three) dull as ditchwater, slower moving than a continent, and ephermeral to the nth degree. In fact, it's starting to slide backwards from what little progress it's made. C-. Must improve.
No Recommendation
Gonna be the Twin-Tails!!
Jonathan Kaharl
Thankfully, the following episode was a return to form as the third twin-tail was found. Erina, the student council president, got a new suit from Twoearle that turns her into TailYellow, and her design in powered form is a nice change from the more agility focused Red and Blue, giving her larger armor and laser canons, plus giving her flying brick style momentum. More self-aware comedy weaves itself in as Twoearle joins the class and new monsters prove to have even more hilarious kinks (there's a warring faction of flat chests and large breast monsters that made me lose my shit), plus the president getting attacked at the exact same place twice. Made me giggle. Also, one of the monsters kinks is ...the back of the neck ("DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD I HAD TO TRAIN TO SNEAK UP BEHIND PEOPLE AND SEE THE BACKS OF THEIR NECK!?"). Amazing. The show doesn't have an original sense of humor, but when it keeps the spoof stuff at a good speed, it's damn funny.
Oh, and Aika wanting to increase her breast size was far funnier than I was expecting. That old joke of the flat chest girl being envious of girls with larger breasts usually makes me groan, but the show makes it work. Seeing her willing to beg while crying in front of Twoearle didn't just catch me off guard, it caught the characters off guard. You'd be amazed how rare that is. This is stupidity at its finest, truly.
Strong Recommendation
Gugure! Kokkuri-san
Jonathan Kaharl
More focus is put on Kohina's school this time around, as we meet two of her classmates. The first one is Yamamoto, who is the most obvious alien you've ever seen that has somehow managed to convince every human around him that he's human, despite doing strange things constantly. His little segment ends with him being carried off by men in black suits and the show informing the audience that he went missing for a month. Yeah. The other classmate is Jimeko-san, or "Bully-san," a girl who keeps leaving flowers on Kohina's desk as a means of bullying (in a confused way). She's actually just a very shy tsundere, and bullying is her only way of getting Kohina's attention. The flashback showing why she started targeting Kohina is hilarious, while the Yamamoto segment from the previous episode, while wonderfully bizarre, uses way too many homages to E.T to really get a laugh. Thankfully, we also get time with Kokkuri and Inugami infiltrating the classroom in both episodes, and it's hilarious both times, especially the second. There was also more girl Inugami, and that is always a positive.
There's more wackiness hidden under this show then I was expecting, and I really admire the dark humor with how generally terrible Kohina's later two house-guests are. The pacing is still shot, though, and a few jokes have a habit of falling flat or are a tad too one note. When it works, it's hilarious, but the dull moments are hard to ignore as well. Kokkuri-san isn't quite one of the strongest comedies this year, but it's definitely a lot of fun when its on, and it has a style all its own.
Solid Recommendation
Gundam: G no Reconguista
David O'Neil
I think one major issue that lead to my lesser enjoyment as of late, as a dip in the quality of the show's previously stellar action. It didn't get bad per se, but in comparison to the interesting, well choreographed, and mostly well animated previous battle scenes, this one seemed a lot slower and a lot more dull. At one point characters are standing around having a casual conversation outside of there mecha while a battle waged over head. It all felt a bit too laid back, the stakes seemed too low. Not much has happened in the story either, the big reveal that Bellri killed one of his close friends was kind of swept under the rug and ignored as soon as the new battle showed up, and even though plenty has been happening things don't feel like they've actually progressed all that much. Pretty much the only really positive thing I can say that's happened lately is that I have been liking the recently introduced "Captain Mask" character, he's pretty cool and has sort of a goofy anti-hero vibe to him, though it'd be nice if the show explored him more.
Right now Gundam G Reconguista feels a bit like it's biding time in the space and story it's created so far rather than moving forward, it is moving things along with more exposition and plot events, but not with its characters or conflicts. It also didn't help that the most recent episodes had some of the most uninteresting action that the series had featured so far. It's still enjoyable mecha mecha show, and it hasn't quite taken a dive in quality, but it has dipped more than I would have hoped. I'm hoping it gets itself out of this and improves from here on.
Weak Recommendation
Hi-sCool! Seha Girls
Walter Holleger
The fifth episode was a one-off adventure where the girls had to think up new games using Puyo's from the puzzle game Puyo Puyo, which basically means they put Puyo's in different games for six minutes. The entire sequence of events was just a show wall of obscure Sega games that had Puyo's photoshopped into them, and I'm left wondering what part is meant to be funny, where the punchline is, cause if there was one, I either missed it, and caught it and didn't recognize it as one.
No Recommendation
I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying
Thom "Tama" Langley
A great little couple of episodes. Husband is getting better and better, the episodes are developing nicely without throwing too much at the audience at once. A little more development In short, as it reaches its halfway point, it's slowing down and enjoying the scenery a little more, whilst keeping the humor as good, if a little less quick-fire.
Solid Recommendation
In Search of Lost Future
Jonathan Kaharl
The show is mostly just looming heavy handed foreshadowing of later events right now, and the entire time this is going on, I simply think to myself that I could be watching Steins;Gate instead. Sure, it's also a slow series, but the story is actually interesting and the cast is colorful and engaging. Nobody but Kenny shows any ounce of originality here, with exception to a few other clubs, but they barely get enough screen time. I can't be bothered to care about the tragedy coming to these characters because I don't think of any of them as actual characters, just walking arctypes meant to fulfill a role in a tired formula. This time travel stuff has been handled far better in so many other shows that Lost Future feels like it has no purpose for existing.
Well, besides Kenny's wonderful engrish. But that only gets you so far.
No Recommendation
JOKER
Walter Holleger
Episode three introduces a new Phantom Thief, Spade, who turns out to be Joker's old rival, King, and his assistant, Dark Eye, in a rather lackluster way. The whole episode feels like a giant pissing match between Spade and Joker, which sounds great to see two Phantom Thief's exchange skills to prove themselves the best, but the whole things comes across as more childish than anything, and I say that fully understanding that this is a kids show. Joker and Spade spend most of the episode arguing over childhood pranks, to the point they give away their disguises and get caught. The only thing interesting about this episode was some possible foreshadowing about a weakness that Joker has, and only time will tell if it's followed up upon.
Episode four does everything episode three tried to do but better. Spade and Joker try to steal a valuable ice scuplture of Odin when the building is lit ablaze, forcing the union of the two Phantom Thieves to save not only their treasure, but the other people trapped inside. This episode did a great job showing off Spade and cementing him in a good place for the show as Jokers rival, while also showing a more kindhearted side to Joker. Mixed into that are a few intense moments and a new gadget, and it makes for a stellar episode.
Solid Recommendation
Laughing Under the Clouds
Joe Straatmann
That's not to say I'm disliking this. On my last update, I did say I wanted to see more of the story they were keeping mysterious, but this is a stilted way of going about it and slows the momentum when serious events that should be building the series a big head of steam are going on. Finally done with being coy about the Orochi, the destructive serpent that threatens to destroy all of Japan every 300 years, there are serious plot twists at work-especially in its relationship to the Kumo family-and it's set to go in a new direction. So it's curious why it chooses to not be in a particular rush at the moment. The gigantic threat to destroy mankind is also a bit bland in comparison to Japan's transitional era this takes place in, but a speech by Tenka about the wonder in how rare it is to see a country change in such a radical manner at leasts hints that the more interesting undercurrents won't be forgotten.
This all feels like the work of a staff that has been held in the shadows of anime craft finally getting their chance and having flashes of inspiration as well as marks of inconsistency. Of the major staff, only character designer Takao Maki seems to have been around the block. As much as I can compliment the look of the show when the animation isn't hampered and there is plenty of potential, it suffers from feelings of inexperience like not knowing how to properly balance humor and drama. There are times when an unexpected sight gag or behavior can be disarming (And certainly one exists when Tenka appears half-naked when you'd expect him to be completely serious), but too many times, loud, humorous moments slam into serious times and disrupt the mood. Too many times, it wants to be everything without being able to control it. I'm still liking it as a whole, but there is certainly much to be done that could improve it.
Solid Recommendation
Lord Marksman and Vanadis
Jonathan Kaharl
But this lesser side of the series isn't prevalent enough to really get me to hate it. The political warfare stuff is all well explained and interesting, especially the scenes on the battlefield. Seeing Tigre, Ellen and the gang thinking up clever strategies to gain the advantage is engaging, and their plans are very creative. I also like seeing how this world as a hidden brutality to it, like in how uncaring the king is over disputes of land ownership, leaving himself open to side with the winner for his own benefit. How fast he was ready to punish Ellen for helping Tigre was also surprising, with her hide only saved by the words of another war maiden. All of this is very interesting, and stuff I don't see in fantasy anime anymore, assuming I see any new fantasy anime at all.
This show is a mashing of good and bad, but has good production values and pacing to keep it more on the good side. Marksman makes me feel insulted at times, but also rewards my interest at others. This is one of the most polarizing things I've ever watched, by far. For those wanting a traditional style fantasy anime from recent years that isn't also about MMOs, this might be the best you can find, and I realize how sad that is.
Weak Recommendation
Magic Kaito 1412
Joe Straatmann
Say you're a series about a magician who has to steal all the rare jewels in the world to find the one that is the source of immortality before an evil syndicate gets ahold of it, and you're worried about the episodes becoming stale after so much repetition. What do you do? Magic Kaito 1412 finds its answer in involving MAGIC magic. Like throwing ingredients into a cauldron and using voodoo dolls magic. The first villain to make an appearance is Lady Akaka, a witch and temptress of red magic who gets prophecies from Lucifer. This show suddenly got awesome. I might be overstating things as her introductory act is merely a Valentine's Day episode where she transfers into Kaito's school and tries to lure him into her clutches after he refuses to take her chocolate. However, she becomes a reoccurring character who decides to try and get Kaito's heart in about as old-fashioned way as she's able, and in the follow-up, she almost summons the minions of Hell to assist her. Hopefully, not all of the villains-of-the-week transfer into his class. If so, this could get messy.
It still has all of the goofy charm one comes to expect from this series, and now, someone who is in a coven with the legions of darkness. This thing is as standard as a pop song from the fifties, but man, does it never cease to entertain. Despite the original manga having a reputation of being Gosho Aoyama's neglected child after Cased Closed made him very very rich, the anime has a surprisingly solid foundation and admirable consistency. I think the only thing I'm not on board with right now is reading the 1412 in the title as "kid" written in numerals is a bit of a reach. Yeah, that's why there's a 1412 in the title. Maybe I'm simply not using the right font.
Strong Recommendation
Orenchi no Furo Jijou
Megan R
Mizuni may seem mild-mannered, but that makes him the perfect comic foil for Wakasa and Takasu. This is only aided by Natsuki Hanae’s sweetly
androgynous performance, and he’s another welcome addition to the series. Episode five is a break in the formula, not only
in the sense that it’s holiday themed but in that it’s unusually sweet compared
to what we’ve seen previously. It’s the
first time where not only did the humor click, but the notion of these four
coming together as a sort of circle of friends. To pull that off in only four minutes is something I wouldn’t have
expected from this show. This show has
only grown in my esteem over the weeks. It’s
not only found its comedic voice, but now it’s finding its heart as well, and
it continues to be a delight to watch.
Solid Recommendation
Parasyte -the maxim-
Stephanie Getchell
So. Yeah. That all happened. Again, this is the most intense it's gotten since starting the series so props there for surprising the ever loving crap out of me. But here's where my praise stops for just a minute. The little arc with A and the encounter at school almost seemed rushed to me. Granted, most of that really takes place in the latter half of episode three, but when you watch episode four it doesn't take more than three minutes or so before that fight is done. I feel that there was a little wasted potential there, because, seeing as how Ryouko says Izumi is changing, the fight with A doesn't really justify it. At this point, we've only seen some outbursts of Izumi's slowly changing behavior. However, on the flip side of it, it may have actually been better to finish that arc faster due to the remainder of the episode and the chance we get with Izumi's mother. The series spent the time in episode four focusing on his mother and her relationship to Izumi. I feel like, although the A arc irritated me slightly, this was the right way to go! By deepening that relationship for the viewer, and then taking a slight breather in the next episode, we then get the first huge plot point that will, no doubt, play a heavy impact on Izumi. And now I understand that bit in the opening with Izumi's mother. IT ALL MAKES SENSE!!!
Originally I was going to drop my recommendation level this week down to a solid after the A thing happened. However, that's not going to happen. The series did exactly what it should and gave focus to a piece of Izumi's development as a character. Not only did it do that, but, literally, episode five was a nail biter episode. There's a lot going on now between Izumi and Migi, Murano's relationship with Izumi, the introduction to Kana, Ryouko still being at large and expecting, and now Izumi's mom as a parasyte. I couldn't have asked for a better week for this show! There may be a lot going on, but I know it'll all come together and work out eventually. Again, I trust Studio Madhouse on this one. After all, Monster and Paranoia Agent are some of their better works, in my opinion. And since Izumi is developing as a character more and more, I'm pretty sure Madhouse has got this one under control.
Strong Recommendation
Rage of Bahamut: Genesis
Thomas Zoth
The rescue sequence with Favaro and Rita is stunning as it is, but when Jeanne D'arc and her Orleans Knights proceeds to attack Gregor, things get even more elaborate, with raining arrows and swarms of dragon knights filling the skies with flaming projectiles. It's an incredible scene with skillfully blended CGI elements, leaving me to wonder what spectacle is being kept for the conclusion. Episode six is not quite as impressive, but it's also the first part of a two parter introducing Jeanne D'arc as a main character. So far, she's a bit straight fantasy archetype, and it doesn't help that she's introduced with a lot of exposition that lays out the story of the world, Bahamut, and the two keys that keep its power in check. Around the same time, Favaro and Kaisar hit the expected story beats, with Favaro learning to be a bit more responsible, Kaisar learning to be less impulsive, and the two of them remembering what it was like to once be friends. The writing is still top-notch, but it's expected development, and not as delightfully surprising as the rest of the series has been.
Next week offers a recap episode, right in the middle of the two-parter, which will be painful to endure. After that, the second act will begin, and Bahamut will have to try pretty hard to undo all of the great things it's accomplished so far. With great skill, Bahamut has managed to juggle a large cast, a strange new world, and countless action sequences into a fantastic adventure. As long as the series can keep a sense of humor and its sense of wonder intact, we may be looking at the best anime of 2014. Bahamut is not to be missed!
Strong Recommendation
Ronia, the Bandit's Daughter
Joe Straatmann
Certainly the latest episodes are more enjoyable to a general audience, and they introduce themes involving the cycle of hatred, as Mattis used to be best friends with his rival Borka before they were split from each other by their fathers and beaten into accepting they should dislike each other. Both families are on a verge of repeating the same mistake with their children even though they are essentially two sides of the same coin. Ronia is also beginning to ask questions of what her daddy does for a living that he doesn't wish to answer. It's all more interesting than the journeys through the forest, as Polygon Pictures trying to computer animate Studio Ghibli's aesthetic remains a mixed bag. The autumn trees that currently fill the forest should be a beautiful scenery slam dunk for any animation company, and here, it's very underwhelming, focused on a general aesthetic of less detailed water coloring. At least now when Ronia takes her constitutions, she has to share the forest with Birk, so I'm not just witnessing a nature walk.
I'm finally getting the classic fairy tale feel they've been trying at. It's fairly obvious now that I think about it, but since the parts of the story aren't wandering off on their own, I realized it's going for a classic adaptation somebody like Toei might've done in the 70s with modern technology and a few Ghibli touches. There are still some glaring issues with the look of the show that will likely never leave, but it's good that they're moving to the glut of the story, if nothing else to give me something to write about.
Solid Recommendation
Seven Deadly Sins
David O'Neil
That isn't to say the show's story is actively bad, there's some pretty interesting stuff going on in terms of the world, the lore, and the characters, but at this point it's all very brief and surface level. Sure, I really like that this show isn't dragging on, but at the same time I also feel like there's a significant lack of any truly interesting or engaging aspects to the story. The show's only major conflicts or character development in the past few episodes is Elizabeth proving her dedication to saving the kingdom, and Diane feeling useless for being unable to help Meliodas. There was a solid opportunity to really delve into these character's personality's and motivations, maybe even create some strong parallels between the two and reach some sort of emotional conclusion or climax, but it only touches on the subject, only gives a glance of that conflict, before moving onto the next action scene.
I don't want to end mixed signals, but while I do like that the show is keeping up the pace, I also think it'd benefit the show greatly if on occasion it did slow down just a little bit, to really take a deeper look at the characters and what they're going through. The show is still really good, the action is crazy fun, and the characters are only getting more entertaining as the cast grows, as their unique personalities are given more opportunities to bounce off each other. I'm already a big fan of Ban, "Sin of Greed", and his reunion with Meliodas absolutely brilliant. But still, I hope that soon the show takes the character's conflicts beyond the very shallow levels that it's been sticking in lately.
Solid Recommendation
Shirobako
David O'Neil
In the two latest episodes, the fictional anime studio at the center of Shirobako ran into some new problems, the most significant of which: Their Animation Director walking out on them after they decide to do a pivotal action scene with CG animation after he'd already started drawing it himself. Tackling the subject of the rise of CG animation in anime is not an easy one to tackle, which is why I'd like to really emphasize how remarkably Shirobako handles it. It looks at the issue from all the angles, and with a real sense of sincerity and love towards the art form. It major theme starts on how "blaming" problems in the industry on CG is only more damaging, and how if anything CG should be accepted and encouraged to advance further to new heights. Along with that, a really smart scene towards the end brings together the opposing 2D and 3D animator, and ends on a stirring note about the common ground for all animators: a love for animation.
Shirobako has made me reevaluate the way I look at the medium of anime as a whole, and that's not something I can say about a lot of shows. It's a show that using it's setting of an anime studio to it's full extent, analyzing some of the biggest issues and uncertainties facing the industry and everyone who works in it. It's strong characters go through arcs that take an interesting look at aspects of the subject matter with enough brains and compassion to make it work with flying colors.
Strong Recommendation
Tribe Cool Crew
Jonathan Kaharl
This show really has a lovely tone to it. It's a very pleasant series, but there's a bit of emotional baggage with Haneru and Kanon to give the show something to weight in down a little. It never goes too far with the heavier stuff, but it does a good job of adding some elements to be used in character arcs. The animation and style continues to be expressive and creative, and even some of the CG dancing is starting to grow on me. You know, when not put against 2D characters. That always ends badly. Please stop doing that animators.
Solid Recommendation
When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace
Jonathan Kaharl
The show moves slowly and lets relationships flesh out pretty convincingly, so it's hard for me to get annoyed by the harem trope being played here. It helps that this is sometimes played for the sake of humor (Mirei, man), and it especially helps that Ando is at the center, because Ando will probably not care and continue to make up rejected JoJo and Medaka Box power names. The living embarrassment is both hilariously devoid of any sense of reality, and surprisingly wise. His anime-rotted brain actually soaks up good life advice and has a clever side to it, and the show makes it believable to boot. It also leads him to saying completely terrible things to solve his problems, with one speech to Chifuyu's best friend coming to mind. I am still aback that someone wrote that and then had someone say it, and I am still laughing. The fun silliness is also still on full display and enjoyable from start to finish, especially that one sequence where the club uses Chifuyu's powers to play a cosplay game. I used an image from that game last week, and yes, the actual sequence is even more amazing.
I hope the show starts moving forward soon, though. The slice of life shenanigans are a lot of fun, but they can't last if the series starts to spin its wheels too much. Some direction is needed, and I hope relationship misunderstandings aren't the main direction the show is picking out. Maybe the good stuff is being saved for the last quarter.
Strong Recommendation
Wolf Girl and Black Prince
Joe Straatmann
This is around when Kusakabe enters the story. An extraordinary timid student used to hanging out in the background, he is thrust into Erika's life when she randomly does a favor at the supermarket and after Kyoya ignores her for almost two months, becomes Erika's listening buddy and perhaps more after a string of misunderstandings. Of course, since he's not mentioned in the series title or shown in any of the opening or ending animations, odds of him being any sort of real threat are about as high as a hurricane destroying Chicago. Besides, with his physique, he doesn't cross-dress nearly enough to be the love interest of a shojo series. If this series isn't being offensive, it's being annoyingly predictable. Keep passing on this one.
No Recommendation
World Trigger
Stephanie Getchell
I've been, semi, patiently waiting for the story to become good. I keep hoping that it will. But, the more and more I watch this show, the more that patience is wearing thin. It's been sticking itself into this rut with a strong possibility that it won't come out. This makes watching the series extremely frustrating. The major characters we've met are so dull and boring while the new characters that have been added in, so far, are possibly worse than Osamu and Yuuma. This is a huge fault on the writing end, because this could be something really good if it tried hard enough. But the more I cling to that hope, the more I find myself feeling utterly terrible by the end of a single episode.
I honestly really want to like this series. I really do. There's just so much wasted potential here, and it's making practically zero effort in improving itself. I just feel like the boring/disappointment train will just keep on going and going until I finally toss this series to the side. Which may happen in a couple weeks. I think the only thing I like from this show right now is the opening theme since it's kinda catchy. Otherwise than that, this one is nearing the ground in an ever long fall.
Weak Recommendation
Yona of the Dawn
Jonathan Kaharl
Pierrot is definitely on a role again, but Yona definitely isn't another Tokyo Ghoul. The visuals are more like they were in The World is Still Beautiful, very basic style with strong and constant execution. It's not a show that's a feast for the eyes, but it never offends them and throws in a few neat visuals from time to time. The animation is also well handled, with visceral fight scenes and sweeping movements during them. I don't think inoffensive is the right way to describe it, more like effective. It does what it needs to in just the right way, even if not trying anything new or risky. The character designs have a similar feel to, with a somewhat uninteresting art style, but with neat touches to several characters at times.
This is a nice bit of Eastern influenced fantasy, and I expect good things from what I've seen so far. If you need a good shojo show this year, I'd probably suggest The World is Still Beautiful from the Spring, but Yona has the potential to surpass it. We'll see how the full two cour run goes.
Solid Recommendation
Your Lie in April
Stephanie Getchell
Wanna know something odd? This is actually the one show I have the hardest time writing about. I don't know what it is, because there's quite a bit going on in this series, but sitting here every couple of weeks to tell you how I feel about it seems to be extremely difficult. It's not because I don't like the series either. On the contrary, I love this series! It not only looks beautiful, but the story and characters have been easy to follow and understand. Granted there's some kind of love square that's going on right now, but I still don't mind. How I've actually been watching this, to be completely honest, is as an experience. I don't focus too much on the story's flaws or pick at the characters that much because the music and visuals are what capture me the most. It's like, the visuals and the music enhance the story. This is especially the case during the performance Kaori and Kousei gave, with Kousei trying to play at the bottom of the ocean. Like I said before, when the show wants to look beautiful, it looks friggin beautiful! I almost feel like, if the visuals and music weren't there to support it, the series would just fall flat on it's face. But, I do admit, I can't just talk about the pretty visuals every time this series comes up. That means, I'll have try extremely hard to look at the story and characters a bit more.
At this point, Your Lie in April, to me, is an experience. And a rather beautiful one at that. I am amazed at how much I get captivated in it all and am just moved by it (at least music wise). Despite some parts of the story starting to look cliche to me, I can't really complain. It's the visuals and music that are carrying the series through, for me, right now. From this point on, however, I need to start paying attention at least a little more to the story so I have more to talk about. But, honestly, it's the experience this series is sending me on that makes me love it so much right now.
Strong Recommendation
Yuki Yuna is A Hero
David O'Neil
With the exception of the big episode 1 reveal, the show so far has been good, but fairly basic magical girl fare. They've strengthened friendships, fought with heart, defeated the enemies without too much in the form of negative repercussions. And in episode 6, it felt as if it had all come to a close, as they defeated the last of of the evil monsters by the skin of their teeth. This conclusive feeling left me really curious where exactly the show was going with things, but the next episode didn't exactly answer that question. It was a very laid back, reflective episode, and at risk of sounding like a mad conspiracy theorist constantly insisting this show is going in some drastically different direction, it felt like set up for some very different things. As a whole the episode seemed very optimistic, things seem to be going well for the heroes, almost excessively so. The final scene of episode 6 features two characters simultaneously getting messages essentially say "EVERYTHING IS GONNA BE OOOOKAY". With one catch. As a result of the final battle, each of the girls (with the exception of Karen) have suffered the loss of some physical ability, whether it be taste, speech, hearing in one ear, or sight in one eye.
This strange, out of place, darker side effect of their battle is what's giving fuel to my uncomfortable sense of uncertainty. With that and the episode's title, "In Anticipation of Tomorrow", it really does feel like the series is setting up something big. It feels hard to come to a clear conclusion on Yuki Yuna is a Hero when it's hard to tell if the show I'm watching is actually hiding something more from me. I enjoy it, the action is cool and the characters have some good development, but at the same time the show seems to be teasing me and teasing me to the point I'm starting to wonder if it's actually teasing me at all. Either way, for now it's still a decent watch.
Solid Recommendation
Second Opinions
Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon
Stephanie: Quiz time! Who finally accepts herself as a Norma and gets bullied by Hilda and the others? The answer is: ANGE!! Somehow, this series keeps growing on me despite the extremely mature content we see in every episode. It still feels weird of me to say that, but, hey, there's always going to be that one show that, for some reason, you enjoy. We wouldn't have guilty pleasures otherwise. Though, I'm still debating on if this is a guilty pleasure series or one I legitimately enjoy. Solid Recommendation
Denki-Gai
Jonathan: This series gets funnier and funnier every week, and I'm gelling with the characters more and more (especially Sensei). I hope it keeps up this momentum, because if there's more gags like the Sensei girl power rating video, this could potentially surpass even Nozaki-kun as the best comedy of the year. Strong Recommendation
Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
Stephanie: It's hard to say what's new and what isn't in this adaptation when you haven't seen the original series in years. Regardless, this series has still been rather good. Despite the slower moments that I saw in this episode, more than likely, it'll pick up again rather soon. And when it does, I suspect that it will be pretty awesome! Solid Recommendation
The Fruit of Grisaia
Jonathan: This is my favorite VN anime main character ever. Everything he does is completely out of left field and it's so refreshing and hilarious, even when the series is in dramatic moments. The show appears to be going into girl mini-arcs now, and after how good the first one was, I'm excited to see the rest of these stories. Grisaia is brilliantly mad, and it may go down on my best of the year list. Strong Recommendation
Garo: The Animation
Jonathan: I love how dark and unflinching this show is, and I really like how Leon is developing since the village episode. The action is strong too ...but if you're gonna have a CG fight, make the monster CG as well. Strong Recommendation
Gugure! Kokkuri-san
Stephanie: So we're adding in a tanuki, an alien, and a shy tsundere to the show? We just keep getting more and more new characters brought into this crazy show. Not only that, but we're getting some really weird pop culture references like ET and Alien all in the same gag. I am perfectly ok with this. Strong Recommendation
Magic Kaito 1412
Stephanie: So we add a young detective and a witch to the show and the result is some fun times! The nostalgia is still kicking in this series, but it's slowly becoming more than that. The story is easy to follow and still manages to have a single plot line that it stick to. Props to the series for that! Solid Recommendation
Parasyte -the maxim-
Jonathan: Unlike a lot of people, I'm really digging the lively soundtrack. Not so much the main plot. There's one development that was caused by a pretty stupid action with Shinichi's parents, but I can forgive that for the end result. The source material does show its age, as a lot of more recent shows (especially Tokyo Ghoul) have gone back over Parasyte's ideas in more inventive ways, so the series feels a tad stale to me. However, the execution by Madhouse is still fantastic, and it's ultimately very engaging when it counts. Solid Recommendation
Rage of Bahamut: Genesis
Jonathan: Oh, I almost forgot about this while writing the Marksman entry. Bahamut is still getting better as it goes, still beautiful and constantly finding fun and exciting new ways to put the heroes in danger. It's amazing just how damn enjoyable this series is. Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: I find it amusing that our two major female characters are both of the supernatural variety, with Amira an angel/demon hybrid and Rita a zombie necromancer. And the guys are now, kinda, sorta, getting along! Everything is just going so well! ....Ya know, aside from that huge dragon. Still a really good series for me! Strong Recommendation
Shirobako
Jonathan: They locked the director in a cage until he finished the draft for the last episode. That it's, this is the best show of the season. Strong Recommendation
When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace
Stephanie: ANDOU AS LOLICON CONFIRMED!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!! I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! Pardon the outburst. Things seem to be pointing towards some kind of love triangle right now between Andou, Tomoyo, and Hatako but Andou just doesn't seem to notice. As well, I'm fine with it staying way since his outbursts are a lot more fun than the possible love hijinks. Solid Recommendation
Yona of the Dawn
Stephanie: I think we've stopped with the back and forth time jumps, for now, and are sticking to a straight story. We're also starting to get Yona to put on her big girl pants and start developing into a strong female character. The humor and the story are still going rather strong for me, and I think it's actually growing on me more and more now that Yona's character is really starting to take shape. This week has been great for me and Yona, that's for sure! Strong Recommendation
Yuki Yuna is A Hero
Jonathan: Well, I wasn't expecting final battle stuff in the fifth episode. I wanna see where all this is headed. Great action, fun characters, big drama, and a whole lot of questions. JUST DROP THE SHOE ALREADY. Solid Recommendation
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