Seasonal Reviews: Fall 2015 Pt.1
It's finally that time again! This was supposed to release one week prior, but scheduling conflicts between all of the staff, not to mention general internet problems, caused issues. But we're here now, and we're here to share with you the Fall 2015 season!
Will it be better than the last two piles of forgettable disappointment? God, I hope so. Your usual Rainy Day seasonal staff, Danni, Joe, David, Stephanie, and myself are all apart, and we've ended up with an interesting bit of topics. But no Lupin because not all good things are allowed to us. We're also changing things up this time, with an added section for all short series with episodes under the normal runtime. With so many of these bloody things releasing, it only seems right. We're also going to look at continuing seasons for series where continuity isn't a huge barrier, like the new season of Kindaichi Returns and the spin-off Aria AA. And hey, maybe some of these will actually be good!
We also all have our usual drops. Every one of us can drop a series of shorts we're covering (except those with only one) at start, and we can also drop full shows at start and after part two. What will survive our drops, and will any of that stuff be any good!? Can a show about lesbians orgasming into weapons save anime forever!? And can a woman actually write a good Gundam series!? The answer to all three of those is yes. Yes a thousand times.
Onto the reviews!
Main Shows
Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon
Jonathan Kaharl
I got two light novel magical school shows this season! Yippie! Kill me ...is what I would say if these shows were actually bad. So yeah, Anti-Magic Academy is not bad. But it's not good either. It's just watchable, I suppose. But I'm also super excited about this one, because everything I'm seeing and everything I've heard tells me that we're looking at Magical Warfare 2.0. That is a type of bad you only see every other blue moon, a terror so great you can only stand in awe in its wake. But it's not that right now. It's just watchable.
The series is about the usual stuff, just a bit darker. The world has a witch problem, so witch hunters exist and this school is made to train humans to fight magic users, even using a few magical weapons to even the playing field. Mix in a little xenophobia commentary, boom, done. These first four episodes are all about getting the team together, and I'll give the series credit, it does a few things different, or just ridiculous enough that it feels different when it's not. Takeru is a bit aware of his status as a light novel lead, even intercepting the expected response from sexual misunderstandings, and both Usagi and Ikaruga make strong comedic relief because of how much they own their given archetypes to the point of near parody. Otori and Mari, unfortunately, are just awful. Otori is a gun-ho witch hunter out for revenge who doesn't play by the team rules, and Mari is a witch tricked into joining the team who eventually joins from real. They both have dark back stories, and both fall completely flat because they don't mesh with the comedy bits, and the two instantly hating each other in the passive-aggressive love interest sort of way is not amusing in any way.
Drama is where this show just utterly fails. There's nothing interesting about any of these characters, and the dramatic scenes play out exactly as you'd expect. It's a shame, because this series gets really damn dark when it wants to, especially with the starter wizard villain being an abusive stalker who turns people into walking corpses filled with magic vines. It's a tad shocking, but only for a moment, as we return focus to our main cast and they are just so uninteresting. Takeru is especially bad here, as his swordsman in a military academy thing gives him the most boring serious personality ever. He talks about being carnage incarnate and stupid crap like that, while also just being a boring nice guy when hanging out with the team. He has a good sense of humor, he just doesn't get to use it. Worse yet, the dialog is just awful, especially in the Mari two-parter, where the forth episode is bloated with exposition that has no emotional impact at all. Also, there's a light bit of Nasu inspired prose here, with overly wordy descriptions of what the characters are like ...being said by the characters themselves. People don't say how they feel! It's unrealistic! That makes me feel angry!
Production also takes a nose dive in episode four, which worries me. But despite how generic this mess can get, it still feels better than a lot of its peers. There is just enough self-awareness and almost interesting ideas that I can enjoy watching an episode, and I appreciate that the pace is pretty damn fast. There's no foot dragging here. There's no way this will end up being good, I can only hope it ends up being that special type of bad Magical Warfare was. If this gets darker, I want it to go all the fucking way. Oh, and the soundtrack is boppin'. Not boop boop bop, more like beep boop boop beep.
Weak Recommendation
Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA
Danni Kristen
Somewhere between bulletproof sailor scool uniforms and the protagonist getting hit by a car and thrown off the windshield, I fell in love with this show. I'll admit, I was extremely pessimistic about it. I had never seen the original Aria the Scarlet Ammo, but it sounded incredibly generic and kind of stupid. This being a spinoff, I had even lower expectations for it. I assumed it would just try to renew the old series and cash in on its popularity. I expected a generic show about girls with guns fighting other girls with guns and somehow none of them getting hurt or killed. I also expected some light yuri-baiting. Holy shit was I wrong.
Aria AA turns the focus from the original series' characters to Akari Mamiya, the lowest ranked student at an academy focused on firearm training and crime-solving. Despite her low status, she optimistically applies to become the Amica, or partner, of Aria, the highest ranked student in the academy. Out of curiosity, Aria decides to give her the Amica test. Akari technically doesn't pass the test, but Aria is so intrigued by her optimism and combat style that she takes her on as an Amica in training. This sets off a whole chain of events that involve a sword-wielding yandere, an ojousama who hires other people to laugh for her, and a shit-ton of lesbian action. I'm not even exaggerating. An Amica test between two of the characters in episode three ends with one of them kissing the other. The yandere owns a body pillow of Akari. This is a very gay show.
I mentioned before that this show sounded stupid. That was one thing I was right about. It is incredibly stupid. There is just no possible way that I can take a dramatic action scene seriously when the two girls fighting both look like eight year olds wielding dangerous weaponry. They carry guns on their person constantly in everyday life. It's a Republican wonderland. Let's not forget the aforementioned bulletproof sailor school uniforms. They look just like any other old sailor school uniform, but they're bulletproof, just trust me on this. They're also impervious to extremely sharp swords. Oh, electricity can tear them, though. Also, for some reason, they don't wear protective headgear or legwear. Sure, their skirts are bulletproof, but those only cover up so much skin.
Amazingly, it's this sheer stupidity of it all that lends this series its charm. It appears to be fully aware of how cheesy and uncool it is. The action generally takes a backseat to the relationships in the show, as they seem to be influencing the plot more. So far there's no villain for Akari to fight or anything of the sort. Currently, Aria AA is a show about girls trying to be noticed by the girls they are visibly in love with. There's something extremely sweet and innocent about it. Also, it's kind of fun to keep watching Akari get hit by cars, thrown off bridges, and shot in the boob. It would be less so if they horribly injured her, but she somehow walks away okay from it every time. There are hints the series is saving some dramatic subject matter for later. I'm not completely sure how well it can handle that, but for now, it's managed to be my personal favorite show this season.
Solid Recommendation
The Asterisk War
Jonathan Kaharl
Well, while I was surprised by the type of bad Anti-Magic Academy could be and its early signs, what's more surprising is that the other magical school show I'm watching is actually kinda good. Well, the better word is competent. Asterisk War goes for a regular magical school that's part of several in a techno-magical city, and all those schools are competing in violent competitions for sport, while also secretly trying to off each other. Capitalism! No really, it's not subtle about this. A guy named Ayato, whom rejects the concept of doors and just jumps up to high windows when he wants to go somewhere like a fucking ninja, joins the school and is trying to find his sister, who disappeared here at some point. He eventually earns her special ogre lux (this is what magical weapons are called in this series, dead serious) and becomes allies with Julis-Alexia van Riessfeld, a princess who's fighting to gain income to save an orphanage that was a huge part of her childhood.
There's actually a lot to like about this one. First off, the ending credits are amazing, and worthy of mention because they play a song from Julis' point of view that just explodes with emotion and sadness. The people making this really gave a shit about the source material, and they put a lot of effort in the production, making it pretty solid overall (opening credits also have a pretty fantastic techno-pop piece). Ayato and Julis are both very archetypical, but they're way more likable than they should be, helped by the series making jokes about how Julis has no friends because of how utterly tsundere she can be. The series is aware of itself, and that awareness really helps make the more cliched bits easier to accept. It even does a kinda clever twist I honestly didn't see coming with the first villain's reveal. The writer can play with expectations born from tropes, you have no idea how rare that is for this genre.
But this is still a light novel series about a magical school, so it has plenty of problems. There's no getting around how tired these archetypes can get, and the series isn't clever enough to really mess with them properly beyond a few jabs and plot misdirections. Just because you make jokes about Julis being a tsundere does not mean her tsundere attitude doesn't get old. What makes her likable is everything besides that, like her conviction and willingness to work together with others when things are on the line. Same for Ayato, who's aloof attitude and hidden savage nature work far better than his stoic presentation and every bloody joke based around him seeing boobs. These archetypes latched onto these characters feel like they're there because it's expected for them to be there. This show also moves far, far slower than Anti-Magic Academy, this starting arc could easily be squeezed into two episodes with little lost. There actually is some promise here, but I don't see this being a masterpiece.
Weak Recommendation
Attack on Titan: Junior High
Stephanie Getchell
Beautiful Bones -Sakurako's Investigation-
Jonathan Kaharl
Well, one more light novel show to go, and thank god, it's not a magical school show! But it's also still very much a light novel show. Beautiful Bones is a detective series about Sakurako Kujo and her assistant Shotaro, though neither is a proper detective. Sakurako is an archeologist with an unhealthy obsession with bones and some training in forensics. Also, she's just smarter than everyone because shut the fuck up. Shotaro is her boy assistant, just on the brink of puberty and this series makes sure you know it. Otherwise, he's the straight man to the semi-necrophiliac Sakurako, and the two keep getting wrapped up in murder mysteries that involve bones in some form. This is also a series from Aldonah.Zero studio Troyca, so yes, it's absolutely gorgeous.
This is one of the most uneven shows I have ever seen. What Sakurako does well, it does masterfully, and what it does wrong endlessly frustrates. Sakurako herself is amazing, taking the self-centered genius personality to hilarious ends. She listens to death metal, acts like a child to her actual child assistant when she doesn't get her way, tells off everyone around her while barely noticing their presence, and gets so excited about finding human remains that it borders on sexual. Shotaro is also a good counterpoint as he's very human and also not taking Sakurako's shit. Every time she gets worked up about a body, the show does the exact same joke where he decides to call the cops and ignores Sakurako's protests, and it makes me laugh without fail through sheer perfect delivery. The show is also colorful and feels very real, with familiar and realistic settings drenched in detail and life. This show truly feels alive, making it ironic that it's about death and has an on-going subplot about Sakurako not having had moved past the loss of a good friend of her's.
Where things start falling apart is the actual writing and mysteries. Most every case Sakurako involves herself in are incredibly simple and only remained unsolved because everyone but Sakurako is a bloody idiot. It gets old pretty fast. Dialog is also that same stilted, inhuman style that light novels almost all seem to have, but it's an especially big problem here because this show is entirely in the real world and works by real world logic and rules. But I do see promise here that is making me a little lenient. The thematic focus on death and grief are well handled and explored very well, like Sakurako helping a girl deal with her dead grandma's supposed suicide, or the dark turn the second episode takes in a case about a missing mother. Makoto Kato, a relatively new talent in the industry, shows a lot of promise as a director, really capturing the emotion and energy of every scene, helped by the strong art direction and atmosphere. This show really works amazingly well in the moment, but the larger picture has a lot of flaws to deal with. This one could go either way, but I think we may have something special in the end, though maybe not stellar.
Solid Recommendation
Brave Beats
David O'Neil
A while back, I became interested in an intriguing show from Sunrise called Tribe Cool Crew. I heard it was essentially a show all about dancing, which in the wake of the two dance-centric episodes of Space Dandy sounded like a tempting proposition. I checked it out, and about a half a minute in ended up closing out the second I saw that the dancing was done in horribly jarring CG animation. Considering I did hear some positive things about the show, I do often wonder if I should've given it a chance. I guess it's kind of funny then, that I'm now watching its spiritual successor, Brave Beats. So, is it worth giving a chance?
One of the biggest surprises to me about Brave Beats was its genre: its a magical girl anime (or, a magical boy and girl anime I guess). The show opens with a robot alien called a "Dancerian" named "Breakin" challenging the "King of Dance" to a dance-off. But the King of Dance is unimpressed by Breakin's moves, banishing him to Earth (which he calls "the dance center of the universe"), to recollect his "Dance Stones" with the help of a young human boy. Yes, it is as ridiculous as it sounds. And all that didn't even include the dancing T-Rex, or the superhuman moonwalking. The show is completely bonkers, and is clearly aware of it. It takes a large amount of inspiration from magical girl shows like Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure, along with the Pokemon anime, as the protagonist goes through a transformation sequence in order to battle the villain-of-the-week, usually created by a Team Rocket-esque duo of villains, and collecting their dance stones to obtain new powers. It's a kids show at heart (other than some questionable sexualization in the transformation sequences) but I've actually had a lot of fun with it. The show has a certain charm to it, and all the crazy, over-the-top hijinks are a lot of fun. Though I do worry that it could fall into the same repetitive structure that many shows of this kind often do, its totally up in the air whether it'll continue to do interesting and fun things with the concept or just keep repeating the same jokes and events over and over again.
The show's animation isn't anything too special. There are the occasional examples of some cute, energetic cuts of animation, and some neat use of smears, but as a whole it doesn't stand out from similar shows in terms of production. My feelings on the CG hasn't changed much since Tribe Cool Crew, I still think it looks pretty awkward and out of place next to the 2D animation. Although, it really isn't used all that often so it doesn't get in the way of the experience much. Brave Beats is pretty tried and true material, but its unique, dance-centric spin on the genre make for a crazy, entertaining watch.
Solid Recommendation
Chivalry of a Failed Knight
Danni Kristen
If I've every given anyone any indication that I at all enjoy light novel adaptations, let me apologize now for the misunderstanding. I do not enjoy light novel adaptations. In fact, I straight up hate them. They are the bane of my existence, and yet I'm always saddled with at least one. Anime reviewing is an unforgiving hobby, and Chivalry of a Failed Knight is awful garbage.
The show opens with our protagonist Kurogane (who could be the protagonist of any single light novel, really) monologuing about being chivalrous. Incidentally, the very first thing he does afterwards is walk in on a girl in her underwear. Quickly deducting that it's the only chivalrous thing to do, he begins taking off all his clothes in front of her. It's all downhill from there.
We soon find the girl he walked in on is Stella Vermillion, a foreign princess and talented battle magician of whatever bullshit magic they do at this academy. She's come from abroad to challenge herself, as she's already the most talented knight in her country. She's also incredibly pissed at Kurogane for staring at her near-naked body. Kurogane quickly diffuses the situation by saying he wouldn't stare at an ugly girl. She somehow finds this flattering. Kurogane mentions that the room she thought was hers was actually his. They then find out that they're roommates. I groan audibly. Being a tsundere, Stella refuses to room with him. They finally settle the situation by deciding to have a duel to determine who makes the rules in the household. Stella sweetens the pot by saying whoever loses has to be the winner's slave for life. She's sure she can win because she's of course an A-ranked student while Kurogane is ranked lowest in the school. He'll be easy to beat, right? Wrong. He may be lowest ranked in the school, but only because his "true power" defies the school's ranking system. He's actually the most powerful magician knight ever or something (Gee, who saw that coming?). He kicks her ass and passes out from using all of his power. Stella returns to their room to find him resting. She begins feeling up his back and somehow ends up straddling him near-orgasm as he sleeps. He wakes up and she angrily agrees to be his sex-slave for life per their agreement.
I hope by now you wouldn't need any more reasons as to why this show is awful, but I might as well give you some. For one, the animation is really boring. It's better than other light novel adaptations such as Sky Wizards Academy, but that's not a very high bar to meet. The only time I at all enjoyed the animation was during the battle sequence. It actually got kind of good there. However, it was completely marred by bad fight choreography and the fact that both characters kept breaking up the fight to monologue. It turned what could have been a cool sequence into a mediocre moment of a terrible show. The writing is obviously horrible, and this extends to the character writing in addition to the plot. No one is likable. Everyone is annoying. Kurogane is a stock light novel protagonist. Stella is a tsundere who really likes him but won't admit it. Their entire characterizations are summed up in that. Do yourself a favor and don't even bother with Chivalry of a Failed Knight.
No Recommendation, dropped after one episode
Comet Lucifer
Stephanie Getchell
Concrete Revolutio
Danni Kristen
Have you ever seen a show so ambitious and in over its head that you can't help but love it? That's what Concrete Revolutio is to me. I fell in love with this show immediately and nothing has been able to deter me. It's a smorgasbord genres rolled up into a giant mess. It crams sentai heroes, magical girls, superheroes, giant robots, aliens, ghosts, and kaiju into a 1960's spy show reminiscent of Dick Tracy and Get Smart. It doesn't handle any of these combinations gracefully, but god damn do I love it.
Concrete Revolutio takes place in an alternate universe version of (presumably) 1960's Japan. In this universe, pretty much any and every kind of superhuman and monster we consider fictional exists. Japan's government refuses to openly acknowledge their existence, but they have nevertheless created a secret bureau dedicated to protecting good superhumans and neutralizing dangerous ones. They're staffed almost entirely by superhumans, including the ghost Fuurouta, the human/yokai hybrid Emi, and the witch Kikko. The only human agent for the bureau is Jiro, though it's apparent that he has some kind of superhuman power residing in him. Each episode jumps back and forth between the past, present, and future of specific characters, ultimately foreshadowing a time when Jiro becomes an enemy of the bureau.
I'd try to describe more about the plot and characters, but there's just too much to talk about. Concrete Revolutio has a huge cast of characters all uniquely interesting and hiding their own secrets. Every episode is a self-contained story linking to the overarching plot. However, they try to cram so much into every episode that so much of it get lost in the confusing switches between past, present, and future. Oftentimes it will shift between these points of time without any indication that a switch took place, so you're playing catch-up to figure out what the hell is going on. It's obvious that the show's staff have high hopes for the series and are trying to turn it into a huge thing. They seem very in over their heads, but it looks like they're having lots of fun with it. I have to say I admire and appreciate that. I mean, this season is particularly chocked full with sequels and adaptations of games, manga, and light novels. There's hardly any really original, ambitious content coming out right now. One-Punch Man already had the manga's popularity and the high amount of people looking forward to the show going for them. I'd go so far as to say Concrete Revolutio might be the only really ambitious anime this season, aside from Perfect Insider. Even then, though, they're both ambitious in entirely different ways. While Perfect Insider opts for subtlety, Concrete Revolutio is loud and colorful and constantly throwing shit at you to see what sticks. It's not the smartest approach, but considering it's accompanied by such a beautifully vibrant and colorful Pop Art style and some fantastic sequences of animation, I have to say I'm enjoying it immensely.
Strong Recommendation
Dance With Devils
Danni Kristen
I don't know whether to blame God, fate, or Jonathan playing a cruel joke, but somehow I, the sole lesbian on staff, was assigned this season's only otome. Out of courtesy, I will be up front with you all and say that if you enjoy otome at all, you may hate my Dance with Devils reviews. I have no intention of reviewing this show from an objective standpoint. I pretty much hated it the moment I heard about it, and nothing in the show has been able to change that. So this is really your last chance to turn back. Still with me? Suit yourself.
The show opens with a short musical number seemingly foreshadowing later events. Yes, I said musical number. This show sometimes becomes a musical. Anyways, we're then introduced to our protagonist, Ritsuka, and her superstitious mother, who gives her a pendant meant to give her good luck and protection. Ritsuka heads off to her huge private school for extremely rich people where we're introduced to the student council aka her romantic leads. There's Urie the ladies man, Mage the athlete, Shiki the emo sadist, and Rem, who always looks like a stick is jammed incredibly far up his ass. Also they're all devils. They call her up to the student council room and accuse her of being a devil worshipper. She denies everything and storms out. After school she goes home to find her house ransacked by hooded men who have also attacked her mom. She leads some policemen to her house to investigate but finds everything back in order and her mom missing. She calls her brother, Lindo, who says he will come home from studying abroad immediately. It should be noted that Lindo is actually an exorcist and is also one of the romantic leads. Anyways, that night the hooded men come back and attack Ritsuka, but are beaten away by Rem, who takes her in. From there on, we find out they are vampires looking for something called a Grimoire they think she is in possession of. The boys vow to protect her, though it's obvious they have ulterior motives in mind.
Look, I'll be blunt. I hate otome. I can't help it; I'm a lesbian. Pretty much any series that features a lot of men you're supposed to be attracted to annoys the hell out of me. Dance with Devils is more annoying than usual, however. I mean, when it comes to shows like Haikyuu or Free I can understand why those boys are attractive. They're all very sweet and I would befriend them. Conversely, the boys in Dance with Devils all strike me as huge assholes. They're rich, stuck up, and popular with all the girls. Meanwhile they treat Ritsuka like a plaything. This is actually alluded to in one of Rem's musical numbers. As he sings about Ritsuka, the camera focuses on a single doll resembling her. The boys are able to charm her into a stasis where she stares dead-eyed and unaware of anything around her. This same look is given to her in both the opening and ending themes. She's always needing to be saved or protected by one of the boys. The idea of being helpless or played with by men is incredibly creepy to me; I can't understand why that would be someone's fantasy. Not only that, but nearly all the girls in school hate Ritsuka since the boys are all over her. I hate seeing girls get jealous and tear each other down, especially over men. There's a chance I may stick with this show to the end, but not at all out of enjoyment. At least not enjoyment of the show itself. I do find some enjoyment watching and making fun of it the whole time with a lesbian friend. That part is fun. That's it, though. I hate everything else about this show.
No Recommendation
DD Fist of the North Star II + Fist of the North Star: Strawberry Flavor
Danni Kristen
Rounding out the season of assigning Danni shows she has no right reviewing, we have a Fist of the North Star spinoff. Technically, this show is two spinoffs, as it combines material from both DD Fist of the North Star and Fist of the North Star: Strawberry Flavor. Now, I have never read a single page of Fist of the North Star, and I know literally nothing about the series. The only thing remotely related to the series I know is that it influenced the creation of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, so I'm deeply indebted to it. Nevertheless, I will try to make sense of everything I saw.
The show opens with Jonathan Joestar - I mean Kenshiro - searching for the end of the century (someone should probably tell him it's still 85 years away). He meets an old man who tells him he can find it at Private End of the Century Academy. Upon entering he immediately pisses off a class of evil guys who have taken over the school. He meets a sickly classroom of students all chanting that seeds must be rubbed and soon learns that studying is important. When the evil guys attack him again, he beats them up and pisses off their leader, naked Dio. Naked Dio challenges Kenshiro to find his classroom and confront him one-on-one. Kenshiro kicks naked Dio's ass. Then a guy named Thouzer talking about how excited he is to be getting an anime, and episode one comes to a close.
I'm not sure at all what to make of anything in this show. If the first episode sounded strange, the rest are even stranger. I spend most of each episode wondering how much butter I'd understand things if I were more familiar with the events and characters of the original Fist of the North Star, and therein lies my biggest problem with this series. I have no possible way of knowing whether this is a good spinoff or not, so I can only review it as its own self-contained thing. It's not strictly speaking bad in that regard though. The chibi-like art style is well-animated and quite fun to watch. While many of the jokes seem to fly over my head, some still land and are able to make me laugh. One of my favorite jokes so far being Kenshiro's shirt tearing in the middle of a battle and being quickly covered by a censor bar. The problem with this show is most of its content is referential of the main series, so it all goes over my head. As much as I enjoy it, the incomprehensibility of it all makes it hard to review properly. Whether or not I'll be able to stick with it all season remains to be seen.
Solid Recommendation if you're a Fist of the North Star fan, Weak Recommendation if you're new to the series
Garo: Crimson Moon
Joe Straatmann
I did not realize this was the follow-up to a franchise when I put this on my list of suggested assignments. I was simply trying to avoid dying from light novel adaptation poisoning (Which is totally a real thing that exists), did a quick skim, and looked like this had potential. Little did I know not only was there a previous anime series, but it's also based on a live-action tokusatsu series (something that requires a lot of special effects) worked on by some of people behind iterations of Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, and for the older anime fans like me, the live-action Zeiram companion movie. Thankfully, this is more of a spinoff than a sequel, even if we meet the characters in what feels like the second season of something. The hero starts off unable to use his powerful golden armor ultimate form because the ring that activates it was turned to stone by an offscreen event, the main cast is already very familiar with each other, it feels like we're supposed to know their floating bosses, etc. But it's a new, standalone story and taken by itself, it's rather standard so far. Steady and formulaic as many of the shows that inspired it, its occasional spark of character hasn't quite penetrated the familiar feel as of yet.
Taking place during the Heian period (For those whose eyes glaze over at Japanese history names, very early medieval Japan at 800-1100 AD where their religion and samurai class started to take shape), a palace of light is threatened by the Horrors, demons who feed on the negative energy ofhumans. Protecting the people are the Makai knights, and our title character Raikou just happens to be one who can summon powerful golden armor more than capable of slashing Horrors to ribbons. His suit is controlled by a ring which is sealed off and controlled be Seimei, a mysterious, smart-talking woman who seems to wear many different hats from bard to Makai alchemist to former noble to gender-bent historical figure to whore if you talk to the men she's pissed off (Yay, another awesome character for Romi Park!). Also with them is Kintoki, a child who can identify Horrors that have disguised themselves as humans. They have the usual setup of something is cursing/killing people in an area, the team has to investigate and figure out what's causing it, and exterminate it with Raikou getting into his gold armor and shredding everything. From a sculptor who's been infected by a Horror after trying way too hard to get the "essence" of his subjects to figuring out if a princess is really a Horror killing her suitors, at least the content is somewhat interesting even if the execution is from the usual playbook.
You've likely seen a show like this if you've spent a decent amount of time watching anime or Japanese TV general. Guy with amnesia, a power suit that Deus Ex Machina's them out of whatever problem they're in, demons that feed off the evil in the hearts of men, and so forth. This seems to be a Garo series made for the Japanese history and folklore buff. Aside from historical figure Seimei, the latest episode has them encountering Princess Kaguya (Yes, the title character from the legend Ghibli made a movie out of). That's just the ones my mind with a sketchy understanding of Japanese history caught. There're probably tons more. If that doesn't catch your fancy, the rest is a mixed blessing of some good, funny dialogue and lackluster action. Seimei makes the series worth a watch with her quick-witted banter. The climactic battles have not escaped the absolute clichés from the days when Ultraman walked the Earth. It looks nifty, but there's no dramatic weight to any of the fights so far.
This isn't the most fascinating project MAPPA has taken so far, but it's a good distance away from being written off. I'm sure the battles are going to get better with increased dramatic tension, they've set up a villain who knows how to play off the politics of the palace of light for optimal impact, and I like the people we get to hang out with. As of right now, it's unspectacular with the ability to be better.
Weak Recommendation
Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
David O'Neil
At this point the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise has been going on for so long that it essentially just acts as a generic, high profile vessel to which teams of writers and artists can insert their own new spins on the mecha genre (well, in addition to selling model kits I mean). The newest entry, titled Iron-Blooded Orphans comes from the somewhat unexpected duo of director Tatsuyuki Nagai and writer Mari Okada. This came as a surprise to many, considering the two had previously collaborated mostly on more down-to-earth, sentimental projects like the high school romcom Toradora or the fantasy drama Anohana. The two suddenly making the jump to gritty, large scale mecha warfare certainly was a bit of a leap (perhaps less so for Okada, who's has worked on some large scale action shows in the past).
The series takes place on a terraformed Mars under the control of the Earth government, following a martian private security company made up largely of young, orphaned child soldiers. When a mission to escort a high profile Noble speaking for Martian independence goes awry, the abused orphans have to fight to defend her and each other, even against overwhelming odds. The first few episodes of the series are a strongly executed thrill ride, with cleverly implemented exposition complementing the high stakes mecha battles. The characters are full of potential, and the show manages to craft a dark, desolate tone without going too far into edgy territory. It has just enough humor and humanity in the character interactions to prevent the harshness of the show's world from being overbearing, and the disturbing moments are well executed and used sparingly, making them all the more effective when they come around. It's not dark for the sake of being dark, there's always purpose behind it's grimness. As of now the story has stepped back to set up some future plot points and conflicts, taking a break from the tense action for some necessary build up, but the tight pacing keeps the show from ever getting boring even during the calm of before the storm.
In an age of CG mecha dominating the genre, I will say it's a wonderful pleasure to have a major show boasting high quality 2D mecha animation once again. The battles are fast and exciting, with dynamic animation enhanced by a stirring soundtrack. Nearly every battle is grand and memorable, especially the first episode's big entrance of the series' new Gundam, dubbed the "Barbados", which was one of my favorite moments of any show so far this season. The production quality does suffer outside of the action unfortunately. In dialogue scenes animation gets messy, and faces frequently go off model. There are countless cases of distant characters looking near-comical in how poorly drawn they are, and even when they get closer they mostly remain stiff, with only the rare instances of decent character acting animation. Despite this, as a whole Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is still off to a great start. It's a thrilling, engaging mecha show that's absolutely worth checking out.
Strong Recommendation
Heavy Object
Joe Straatmann
War in the future is kind of stupid. I'm no military tactician as evidenced by the dozens of strategy games that lay unfinished in my collection, but it seems that this future where war is decided by one-on-one battle machines called Objects seems cute and naive, and even moreso when the plot turns rely on people just forgetting the concepts of sabotage and targeting maintenance facilities exist. Did everyone just forget if you stop the methods of keeping an incredibly complex machine maintained and fueled, you stop the machine? Robot Jox may be one of the goofiest movies ever made, but at least its setup made sense to me. If that was the only issue, the show would be fine. Alas, one of the leads has a problem that must be addressed before it gets out of hand.
No points for guessing this is based on a series of light novels. Have all of Japan's trees just disappeared by the sheer volume of these things? Anyhoo, our main characters are slacker soldiers in Alaska, Havia and Qwenthur. Yes, those are names these people actually use. Havia is a noble slumming it in the military and Qwenthur is a foreign exchange student in engineering looking to get a closer look at Objects. Objects are massive machines with extremely thick armor, devastating weaponry, and extremely fast movement. The invention was such a game-changer that it literally caused worlds governments to collapse and re-shuffled nations to a handful of kingdoms. Now governments put most of their military budgets into simply building the best Objects they can, and since the technology is so top secret Objects are instantly self-destructed if they're rendered inoperable, the defeat of a single one can topple nations. Since the only soldiers truly necessary are the pilot and the maintenance crew, Havia and Qwenthur's work is mostly relegated to shoveling snow and other menial labor under their ball-busting taskmaster Frolaytia.
This all changes when the base's Object Baby Magnum faces off against a more specialized attacking Object and loses. Usually, the losing side just waves the white flag and is able to walk out without even the pilot dying due to an ejection system, but the opposing army wants their facility decimated and all of its soldiers strung up. Almost like war isn't so cut and dry. With their literal princess of a pilot Milinda being hunted in the Alaskan wilderness and the opposing Object trying to slaughter the rest of the troops, Havia and Qwenthur take on a suicide mission to save Milinda and give their troops enough time to escape.
It's extremely simplistic, but the show is competently made at least. The Objects are mostly CG creations, but they blend in with the rest of the animation. It's paced well, never feeling too rushed or too casual. I mostly like the cast... mostly. See, Qwenthur is a decent and smart fellow who gets the idea of trying to sabotage the internal parts of the Object to trick the self-destruct triggers in the thing. His weakness is breasts. During an early meeting with Milinda, the safety belts on her pilot seat malfunction and threatens to suffocate her if they aren't released. Qwenthur is the only one who can save her by releasing the strap around her breasts, but the breasts cause him so much anxiety that he can't do it even when she gives him her expressed permission to do so. Luckily, the situation sorts itself out or he would've completely dropped someone's life down the toilet because boobies. Later when they're all being stalked by a war machine in which one wrong move means death for his entire unit, a blast knocks Milinda onto him, and, well, look at the picture. So if it turns out everybody dies and they have to explain to the families how this happened, is "Woot! Boobs!" the answer you want to go with (I sincerely hope that's the translator having fun and not what he literally said)? You've got deep psychological issues with breasts Qwenthur, and if you don't seek help now, everybody you care about is going to die. Even though Havia is given the more generic anime hero look, it seems you are the main character given the attempts to establish romantic chemistry with Milinda. That's a big responsibility and you've got to pull yourself together, man! I mean, Havia likes looking up skirts, but it doesn't distract him from his work!
Heavy Object is worth keeping an eye on at least. I probably put the hammer down too hard on its wide-eyed premise and I'm especially harsh on its main character for good reason, but it's not bad. Simply... problematic. The first arc is three episodes detailing the initial encounter in Alaska, and by the third episode, it stays on point and pulls together a fine finale that shoves aside the weaknesses of the show save their weird eyecatch that slaps on a funny illustration with goofy music no matter the dire straits of the scenes that surround it. There's even time for an amusing epilogue. At this point, it's becoming Shadow of the Colossus mixed with one of those mahjong games from the 90s where the anime girl in the background will strip if you clear the area. Qwenthur and Havia have to figure out the weak point of seemingly indestructible Objects, they find it, and their reward is some implied sexy fun time with their commanding officer Frolaytia. Hoo boy, I try to say nice things, and then this show has the CO shower in front of her soldiers to reward them for a job well done. You give them an inch, and they run a mega weapon right over you, I suppose.
Weak Recommendation
The File of Young Kindaichi Returns (Season Two)
Jonathan Kaharl
This season, I decided to review the new season of Kindaichi, because I want to recommend this series to as many people as possible. Even with the first four episode arc of this season starting with a major reoccurring villain, the series is structured so episodically that it doesn't really matter. The bad guy loses but gets away, and Kindaichi solves all the mysteries. Kindaichi treats ongoing story arcs like Detective Conan, which is to say that it doesn't give a shit and just uses any reoccurring characters to set-up mysteries to solve. And just like last season, Kindaichi Returns starts off with one hell of a bang.
For those new, this series is about one Hajime Kindaichi, grandson of a famous detective and general solver of homicides (he's also a pervert because this never stops being funny to the Japanese). As of this season's start, a man known as the Puppeteer of Hell has come to Hong Kong. He's a criminal that plans out crimes for others and is obsessed with making the perfect crime, and he and Kindaichi have crossed paths a good number of times. This time, he's using a mystery person who was trapped in an old Japanese imperial military prison and their desire for revenge to create a Count of Monte Cristo situation, also seemingly hypnotizing Kindaichi in a magic show and making him out to be the killer. Of course, he's not, but how exactly this trick is pulled off, along with the identity of the Count, are the big questions.
Last season started out in a trip to Hong Kong as well, and dealt with stolen jewels, a blood vendetta, and a nuclear warhead. This season tops it by making Kindaichi targeted by the police, and it works. Seeing the guy try to figure things out while on the run and also doubting himself is well paced and tension filled, and the actual mystery that the puppeteer set up is utterly brilliant. All the details and clues are laid out properly, and we get a lot of nice character moments between the cast. While this starting arc does reward those familiar with the characters, the actual plot requires no knowledge of the series, and what you do need to know is explained quickly and neatly in the first episode. This is what makes the series so easy to approach, as set-up is never skipped, and it is always assumed that this may be someone's first arc. If you want a strong mystery series, this is your go-to ticket if Detective Conan is a little too ridiculous for you.
Strong Recommendation
Lance N' Masques
Joe Straatmann
Those hoping this to be some kind of Ghost 'n Goblins anime will be sorely disappointed. So will most other viewers, come to think of it. It doesn't start out particularly strong and only gets more garbled from there. It feels like a show that had one simple focus and then lost itself trying to expand its world. We have a young, inexperienced knight in the modern world trying to protect the isolated daughter of an insanely rich man from kidnappers. The characters are a bit lacking, but it's a decent setup. Then it decides to dip off for a few minutes and become something else entirely. If you looked at this concept and imagined a good quarter of the first few episodes is businessmen/yakuza staring at the scenery from their skyscraper windows and discussing their next move, you might be psychic.
In one of my two shows this season that explains its concept in the Engrish logo (Heavy Object being the other), young Yotaro is the member of the last order of knights. Some of them grow up to have jobs like high security for rich industrialists, but Yotaro is fresh out of knight training and trying to make his own way in life, broke and homeless. He goes through town saving maidens as an involuntary reaction due to his "White Knight Syndrome" that comes from his training. This behavior including kissing the rescued girls's hands and calling them "my lady." It pretty much creeps them out. That is, until he meets Makio, a rich young lady who just happens to live with only maids in a palatial estate with plenty of room for a young knight to live and eat even with a horse. Fortunately for her, this is just before a yakuza group comes in to attempt to kidnap her. The trick is, she doesn't recognize Yotaro as the "Knight Lancer" hero who saved her, but she houses him anyway.
This is a light novel adaptation, and even though I have a fair share on my list this season, this is the only one that really frustrates me. It's essentially a simple harem show where eventually Yotaro, who only wants to live a normal life, gets enrolled in a high school called Shinra Academy (Hopefully, Yotaro's growth does not involve Jenova cells). He eventually gets involved in a Knight Club, a student organization that makes heroes, and everyone else is a female harem prototype minus the horse who somehowgets to go to school. Easily the best moment in the series so far is when the horse decides to put on a poorly made human mask and tries to go with them to school. I'd almost be with the utter stupidity of that gambit fooling everyone. All simple and easy to understand. Then there's the extra plotting.
See, before this, Makio's father decides to take her overseas with him. Yotaro disagrees with this, but he has to clash with one of the elder knights to win the argument. When he does this, the knight has a protege who immediately doesn't like Yotaro and at the same time, the yakuza group involved in the kidnapping attempt are trying to get back to their former glory after years of being barely anything. The connection is the knight Yotaro defeated was involved in the breaking up with the gang and they want revenge, so they go to the knight's cabin and their protege points the finger at Yotaro's Knight Lancer as the person responsible, so they send an assassin after him. Within one moment of mistaken identity is another one where the assassins accepts Lancer Knight as her father. All of this so a ninja assassin girl with a father/daughter relationship with Yotaro is in the harem. Oh yeah, and there is a betrayal in there and something with the maids being dismissed and then re-hired, and other such things. That is way too much going on for so little result. Even the latest episode with three characters getting seemingly critically injured is all sound and fury.
I hate to say it, but if this thing tried to be more like an average light novel adaptation, it'd be a lot easier pill to swallow. It can look good when it wants to (The opening is absolutely beautiful). The interactions can be funny and enjoyable. Just ditch trying to be Infernal Affairs, or if you're going to do that, be some kind of inspired parody. Right now, Lance N' Masques has a couple good crops in a tall field of weeds.
Weak Recommendation
Mr. Osomatsu
David O'Neil
How does one go about rebooting and reintroducing a long dormant, classic franchise for modern audiences while still upholding the spirit of the original work? This was the question that both the staff, and main characters were faced with in the first episode of Osomatsu-san. The first episode of the newest re-imagining of the Osomatsu-kun series that dates all the way back to the 60s, starts by kicking down the fourth wall and having the characters conversing about the excitement and fears that come with getting a new series after all these years, followed by them trying to revitalize the show by blatantly copying every big series out there, from idol anime, to sports anime, to Attack On Titan. Parody this upfront is difficult to pull off without devolving into lazy references, but the first episode of Osomatsu-san is just clever enough to make it work. It has a lot of fun with the premise, and got a whole lot of laughs out of me with its unique and goofy take on modern anime conventions as a way to introduce the characters.
With that said, it's clear they knew this was no way to structure an entire series, and the episode ends with an assurance from the characters that they'd start for real when episode two came around. It's in the second episode where the show's real identity starts to shine through, and it's one that's just as enjoyable as the first episode. It all follows a single overarching narrative, giving the characters room to more fully establish their differing personalities, along with acting as a way to set up great gags. The show is crude, immature, and often mean spirited, a style of humor that won't appeal to everyone, but one that I absolutely adore. It really comes down to strong writing, all of the jokes have great set up, punchlines, and over the top reactions that all flow together at a brisk pace that never gets boring. The characters are all horrible human beings, but have just charm that I never hate them, and the show portrays them with jut enough self deprecation that their horribleness get in the way of my enjoyment of the show. The third episode actually goes in yet another totally different direction, turning away from an overarching narrative to shorter, individual, rapid fire gags. Although I think I prefer the show more with narratives and more human moments for the characters, this structure works well enough on its own. There are a lot of great jokes, including one final sequence that's so shamelessly juvenile it left me laughing my ass off. Though I was glad to see it returning to a more straightforward structure when the fourth episode came around.
Another thing the show does remarkably well is its visuals. It has a unique art style with lots of bright colors, exaggerated environments, and thick colored outlines that looks great. The animation isn't especially fluid, but it features tons of over the top reactions and detailed cartoonish faces that give the characters a lot of personality. In addition, the backgrounds are done by Studio Pablo (studio who did the backgrounds for Seraph, Rolling Girls, and Little Witch Academia) and as always they provide gorgeously painted backgrounds that effectively complement the character designs. The first few episodes of Osomatsu-san were so all-over-the-place it is a bit difficult for me to get a feel for it, but if all you're looking for is dumb, well executed laughs, Osomatsu-san fits the bill very nicely.
Solid Recommendation
One Punch Man
David O'Neil
As a big fan of the One-Punch Man manga, my expectations were already unfairly high. A large appeal of the manga came from its meticulously drawn action scenes. A running joke on the internet was "there's no way the show could have animation as good as the manga", because the manga's artist (of the Shonen Jump version, not the ONE's original web-comic version) would draw fights with key-frame animation like sequences that were big, detailed, and gorgeous. Which is why I'm insanely impressed that the anime actually DOES look as good as the manga (even if in a different way). The animation is incredible, with Space Dandy director Shingo Natsume and studio Madhouse bringing on an incredible team of some of the most talented animators in the industry in order to create some of the coolest, consistently visceral anime action in recent memory. It's loose, but polished, fast, but detailed, and the unique styles of each animator shines through without sacrificing the show's overall art style. In addition, it manages to effectively capture the tone and humor of the original manga as well. Saitama's dry, uninterested reaction to the over the top, satirical interpretation of superhero fiction that surrounds him while not always laugh out loud funny, is a lot of fun and retains the blend of insanity and mundanity of the original manga, while also interpreting many scenes in totally new ways in order to better utilize the new medium.
When I originally read the One-Punch Man manga, in the back of my mind I had a visualization of what a perfect adaptation would be like. One that instead of trying to replicate the crazy good manga art, took advantage of the unique strengths animation has to offer, and acting as a vessel for loose, dynamic fight animation, all while still keeping the one of a kind personality that made the manga so fun to read. And watching the anime I was so pleased to see that dream adaptation playing out before me exactly as I imagined it, in some ways even better. Not everyone will love One-Punch Man, it's dry, and often dark approach to humor only appeals to certain tastes, and the jokes can be hit and miss at times (mostly hits though), but the manga's brand of tongue in cheek, large scale superhero action has been brilliantly realized in this adaptation, and it's absolutely worth watching.
Strong Recommendation
The Perfect Insider
Joe Straatmann
It's been awhile since an anime has challenged my expectations. I had no idea what it was going to be or where it was going when I tuned in and the first few episodes have managed to keep changing it up. The fabulous opening suggests it's going to be some peppy romance set in the world of computer programming. By the time it hits episode four, the anime has leaned towards a thriller involving a brilliant woman who may be a devious murderer, an Ex Machina-esque trip to a cutting-edge tech company tucked away from prying eyes that may have gotten in over its head, and as of this moment, a closed-circle Agatha Christie murder mystery (The most natural fit since it's based on a novel). Everything's calmed down a bit, but it still keeps throwing unexpected angles and revelations out there. I can't say it's for everyone as it requires a certain amount of patience for the plotting and for its occasionally repellant lead, but I'm glad there's something around that isn't pre-packaged, transparent, and featuring a cast two feet from the archetype well.
Our main character is Souhei Saikawa, a pretentious, chain-smoking associate professor who has somehow garnered the affections of one of his freshman students, Moe Nishishono. She's cute, she's rich, she's extremely smart, and when she crushes hard on Souhei... he doesn't really pay her much notice. That is, until she brings up her long-distance conversation with Shiki Magata, a world-renowned computer genius who has been locked in a room on an island for well over a decade despite having an entire company literally centered around her. Why she's such a recluse comes from an event in the past where she may have been responsible for the murder of her parents. Despite this unsettling information, Souhei would love nothing more than to have one conversation with Magata. He tries to pull Moe's strings to make it happen, and despite her being clearly annoyed that his desires are centered around another woman, she too wants to actually meet Magata, so they manage to get a boat to the remote location where she lives.
Magata's company is on an island that allows no communication with the outside world and severely limited transportation. The corporation makes a computer program called Red Magic which is supposably perfect and runs the entire facility. The "perfect" program has an error that shuts off the power, unlocks Magata's room, and... let's leave it at that. The mystery is the most compelling aspect here, slowly revealing detail after detail. It's a familiar setup, but it keeps itself one step ahead of the audience without ever feeling like it's holding back too much. Intercut with the present is Moe's conversation with Magata that feels like two intelligent people picking each other's brains and managing to shine a little light on what led to everything. Once the mystery starts, thankfully Moe seems to take a little bit of initiative and becomes more of the main character than Souhei, who continues to smoke while occasionally tossing in some thoughts as to what the holy hell is going on. The episodes end on a usually disturbing note, as it takes what we know about Magata and flashes back to an older man narrating his experience with her before she was locked away, and as it stands right now, it might've turned sexual. It's the most awkward fitting piece to be sure.
The Perfect Insider isn't an easy sell. The first episode is mostly a handful of people chatting in a professor's office with Souhei serving up shallow philosophy and casually swatting away Moe's advances. I'd understand not being blown away by this. As it goes along, I'm more and more admiring how close to the vest it's playing things and how darn subtle it is. noitaminA does outstanding work here, but I can't put a screenshot up and make it obvious, even in its fabulous opening that's the second best one of the year (Nothing's beating Death Parade, let's settle that right now). The imagery is cold and realistic, keeping its distance from the characters and leaving personal details to brief glimpses. Being meaningful without being forceful. It reminds me of Minority Report without the blue hues permeating the look (Or much of its iconic imagery, to be fair). Look, it's not perfect like its name would suggest, but if the endless light novel adaptations have you down, if you want to shoot the next idol team in the face, if you don't want all anime treating you like you're still in high school forever and ever and ever, give this a couple episodes. Please.
Solid Recommendation
Shin Atashinchi
Joe Straatmann
This is probably one of the most popular shows in Japan on this list and to understand why, all you have to do is go to the American funny pages. It's full of stuff like this. Short subject with easy-to-identify characters doing broad comedy based on the observations of average daily life. You've seen tens of things like this since they've permeated the newspaper pages for decades, and perhaps have existed long enough to get animated series or holiday specials that will run until the end of time. It's the Family Circus strip your aunt shared on Facebook (Not the cool aunt, and not the lunatic aunt who's always raving about something. The benign one) served up in 24-minute form. How much you enjoy this will depend on how much that sounds like Hell to you.
This is NEW Atashinchi, so what's old Atashinchi? A manga by Eiko Kera turned into a 330-episode (?!) anime that ran from 2002 to 2009. It translates to "our family" and is literally about an average Japanese family named the Tachibanas. It has Mother and Father who are about as self-descriptive as their names would indicate. Trout-shaped Mother is the closest thing to a main character and the typical queen of the house while Father is the salaryman who isn't there often and isn't much of a presence when he is there. Their daughter Mikan and son Yuzuhiko are the awkward teenagers (Well, softened for a general audience) with small quirks like being scatter-brained or really wanting to be cool. The family does things like purchase the hell out of products to kill a bug only to find smashing them is usually the best method or try to find the right sunglasses when all their friends keep forcing the joke ones.
It's the "nice" show your grandmother crabs about not being on TV anymore when she accidentally stumbles onto Criminal Minds. No matter the problems, no matter the flaws, this is a warm family that loves each other and learns through their misadventures. This show's also pretty predictable, pretty bland, and it's annoyingly divided up. There are three stories per episode, but they're broken up into little chapters that have dividers where the show's logo pops up and one of the cast members says the show's name. This happens about 20 times an episode. That is some hardcore tediousness. Still, this is harmless, and from what I've read, actual things that have impact do happen on occasion. If you have a show that runs 330 episodes, lightning has to strike sometime, I guess.
Weak Recommendation
Shomin Sample
Stephanie Getchell
STARMYU
Stehanie Getchell
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid
Jonathan Kaharl
Ah yes, the show that makes up for every piece of light novel dreck I have to watch this season. Valkyrie Drive is a yuri action series from the people who made Senran Kagura, in which girls make out until one of them climaxes, turns into a weapon, and the other then goes wreck shit with her. I don't give a shit if this is the most terrible ecchi garbage I've ever seen, I was sold at the premise. And thankfully, the show itself ain't bad. The series takes place in a world where a virus is spreading in the world, turning those affected into either beings that can turn into destructive weapons, of giving them abnormal combat ability and the skill to wield said weapons. The story proper takes place on Mermaid, an island quarantined that is run by a group of infected that have made their own society and are trying to prove they can live in the outside world, though their methods are to strong arm transfers into their ranks and decide their partners based around performance and what benefits their own agenda most. Mamori Tokonome (who's last name sells out as "virgin," a running joke) is transferred to the island at the age of sixteen, and she quickly comes under attack in a test, only to be saved by the tall, tan, and quiet Mirei Shikishima (who is somehow one year younger, go figure). One's a normal girl, one's a former super soldier with a chip on her shoulder, and the two end up together and rebelling against the established authority.
First off, this is indeed a Studio Arms show made by the Senran Kagura people. It is RAUNCHY, and it is shameless about this, which is good. This was not a series that was going to win anyone over with subtlety. It also weirdly pays close attention to consent, like a minor villain with a supposed slave weapon girl actually being a couple sadist/masochist who are both totally into exhibitionism. Yeah. Anything rapey here leads to someone getting fucked up for being evil, and a lot of time is spent on Mamori and Mirei's cute relationship. It's the little things that let smut shows work. And while the animation is pretty cheap most of the time (as expected for Arms), it has an incredible soundtrack. Hiroako Tsutsumi really gets to show his stuff, composing a ton of sweeping, epic orchestra pieces and making the entire series feel far more grand for it. The opening and ending themes are also fantastic, one exciting rock, and the other ultra-cute love confessions moving at rocket speed. There's even greater lore being developed like a supposedly male leader of the infected society, and two mysterious ladies that may have a major part of the politics of the island. That's not to forget everything with Mirei's past, which is bound to be important later.
So yeah, there's a good deal good here, though it's far from perfect. The animation flaws can be really distracting, especially matched against such amazing music, and there needs to be more definition for the villains. They have great personalities, but we know little about them and their real motivations beyond their one high ranking member who turns a blind eye to a thief who supplies a group of women who broke off from the rule. Mamori and Mirei also have a very superficial relationship three episodes in that desperately needs some development. I also worry that there's going to be some gross stuff later on at this rate, but time will tell. But as it is, I'm really enjoying this show, and it's nice having something so shameless and fun that doesn't make me feel dirty after (please stop Maria in New Sister Devil).
Solid Recommendation
Young Black Jack
David O'Neil
I feel a bit bad that I only have what I guess I'd call "second hand experience" with Osamu Tezuka's work. What I mean is, I've read Naoki Urasawa's Pluto, but I've never read the original Astro Boy manga. I've seen the anime film Metropolis, but not read any of the manga it was inspired by. And now, I've watched a few episodes of Young Black Jack with barely any knowledge of the original Black Jack manga. I'm terrible.
Young Black Jack follows the titular protagonist of Tezuka's iconic manga Black Jack, Kuroo Hazama, in his younger years, still in medical school and still performing outrageous transplants without a license. It's a weird show. And not in a goofy, or random way. The tone incredibly bizarre while simultaneously taking itself seriously, characters are ridiculously over-dramatic, there's tons of weird heavily symbolic visuals, and the OP.....like, even if you don't watch the show itself AT THE LEAST watch the OP because it is.....something else. Words can't do it justice. The show does have things going for it, the surgery scenes are pretty intense, the visuals are consistent, if a bit lacking in terms of movement in the animation, and the novelty of just how strange the overall feel of the show is does help to make it more watchable. The show is also clearly targeting a specific demographic, with it taking any opportunity possible for the male characters to strip and show off their surprisingly well toned bodies. It gets pretty silly at times, but in comparison to other fanservice I've seen this season it's honestly pretty tame. Speaking of tame, the surgery scenes, while probably the high point of the show (judging from the one in the first episode) suffer immensely from the complete lack of gore. There's a good chance this was a necessity considering how much of anime has to handle censorship, but in a surgery scene being unable to actually see any of what's going on is a huge issue.
It does some things well, but as a whole I'm really having trouble getting into the show. It all moves a bit too slowly, with not enough to be engaging. There isn't much in the form of comedy or non-expositional character interaction, which leaves it all to the drama which unfortunately isn't all that strong. The protagonist's main arc so far is a very basic, "eccentric, insanely talented person having to resist the temptations of evil to accomplish good" narrative that's fairly shallow and blatant in its themes. As a result, I've been unable to get excited for new episodes of the show, or even very interested in continuing it at all. It has some cool concepts and imagery, but all felt so lifeless and routine I wasn't able to really care.
Weak Recommendation, dropped after two episodes
Shorts
Anime de Training EX!
Joe Straatmann
As a person who has a fitness game where former football pro Troy Polamalau and his beautiful hair try to help me through a half-hour of intense exercises, I completely understand the need of having something you like cheer you through the unpleasant task of getting into a shape that isn't whatever you're poured into. I cannot endorse these four-minute shorts of girls dreaming to become idols trying to get fit, however. The explanation of the exercises are fine, but these are mostly excuses to ogle the girls in poses that expose their bodies and imagines them in swimsuits. Look, I know plenty of women who would love to have a dynamite body in a swimsuit, but they don't usually try to look intentionally pre-pubescent and don't see themselves through the male gaze. If the creepy vibe wasn't enough, the characters are bland facsimiles of idol tropes. A four-minute time limit's a pain for such issues as character development, I know. This kind of thing works a lot better attached to an existing property than trying to pass itself off with Val-U brand versions of various archetypes. It pays lip service to the best of intentions while trying to pander to the worst. At least the girl in the third episode looks her age instead of two years younger, simply keeping the leer factor at creepy rather than To Catch a Predator.
No Recommendation
Hacka Doll: The Animation
Danni Kristen
Shows based on mascot characters never end up being good in my experience, and unfortunately Hackadoll is no exception. In real life, Hackadoll is an entertainment app that collects information on your interests and gives you recommendations based on those interests. In the show, Hackadoll apps materialize as actual physical entities tasked with advancing the human race. The show follows three Hackadolls unceremoniously named #1, #2, and #3 as they inevitably fail at every task given to them. The one thing about Hackadoll that sets it apart from other mascot shows is that it actually looks like effort went into it, which is sad considering how it all falls flat. The art style and animation were appealing, but I couldn't find any of the jokes funny. They all felt like they had the potential for good humor but were watered down somehow in execution. I never had high expectations for this show, but I get the sense that the creators did, which makes its mediocrity even harder to watch.
No Recommendation, dropped after three episodes
Hakone-chan
David O'Neil
Watching terrible anime is rarely a pleasant experience, but at least some entertainment can often be gained from laughing at such a terrible show's expense. Truly even worse, is watching a show that is boring. Hakone-chan is incredibly boring. I'm writing this mere minutes after watching the second episode, and I can barely remember any of what happened in it. Everything about it is ripped straight out of countless other comedy anime, only with all the energy or even decent humor ripped out of it. There's a smug little girl who's a hot spring spirit or something. She does smug things. There were some hijinks. That's all, that's it, nothing to see here other than some incredibly lazy animation, jokes so poorly delivered I didn't so much as giggle a single time over two episodes, and pacing so mundane it made the minuscule three minute runtime feel too long. Over the two episodes, there was a single thing that almost nearly resembled something close to a clever idea. The spirit girl vomits hot spring water. It wasn't really all that funny, but it was different. Somewhat novel. Everything else though, was a soulless, drab exercise in repurposed bad slice of life comedy gags packaged in a pointlessly short span not even worth wasting your time on. Don't bother.
No Recommendation, dropped after two episodes
JK-MESHI!
Jonathan Kaharl
Three high school girls study together and then make and eat a snack of the week, the end. That's every episode. Add in the horrifyingly awful 3D animation, and I was considering dropping this. But then I found a groove with it. It's cute and has fun characters, going for a pretty solid set-up (the tough one, the nice one, and the genius ditz) and playing well with the chemistry between the cast. It's a nice little, semi-educational series, but little else. If it ran any longer for three and a half minutes, though, I'd probably despise it. Good on the staff for knowing people can only take so much of something before it's too much.
Weak Recommendation
Kagewani
Stephanie Getchell
Komori-san Can't Decline!
David O'Neil
When it comes to adapting a 4-panel comedy manga into an anime, to me there's a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. The right way is to properly convert the original manga's humor and gags into overarching narratives, to some point creating a typical comedy anime structure while keeping the humor of the original intact. The wrong way is to just cut between barely animated, straight copy and pasted versions of the original gags to the point you can tell which lines went in which panels of the four panels. The latter, unfortunately, is how the anime adaptation of Komori Can't Decline has turned out. It's basically a clip show that as far as I can tell is panel-for-panel adapting the original comic, cutting from joke to joke without anything connecting them all. A few of the jokes are sort of funny, but as a whole it feels very lazy. There are some neat character designs, but the animation is incredibly limited. It goes by quickly, but then again it left almost nothing with me. Also, the entire second episode is just bad boob jokes. It wasn't very funny. If you're just looking for quick bursts of funny gags, I suppose Komori Can't Decline does the trick, but at the same time I'd rather just recommend far better anime comedy shorts, like Wooser's Hand to Mouth Life, or I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying. I'm hoping the show improves, or at the least gets funnier, but as of now its just passable overall.
Weak Recommendation
Kowabon
Joe Straatmann
Playing Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water at the same time as watching Kowabon probably isn't doing the show any favors. No matter how clunky the controls, no matter how fractured the story is, the Fatal Frame team has perfected the Japanese horror atmosphere. It also doesn't help that this is essentially an evolution of found footage, extremely budget-minded horror that I can't stand. See, this is about a ghost/spirit/as-of-yet unknown evil thing that strikes through technology and the episodes seem to be told mostly through cameras, computers, and monitors. The first episode is two friends Skyping, for example. The other trick is this is live-action being rotoscoped into animation extra cheaply in order to make the ghost work without burning through the budget on makeup and effects (The credits have footage of the actual actors rehearsing and joking around on the set). The problem isn't the tricks themselves, but that gimmicks tend to undermine characters. In this case, the three-minute shorts have NO room for development. There is time for a short conversation, some weird happenings, and then the creature appears. It's typical Ringu Japanese horror stuff that was played out a decade ago (Closest to Pulse, really). Maybe if you were the middle school girl who screamed at every single potentially scary part at the screening of What Lies Beneath I attended. Hopefully, you've grown up by now and your nerves have strengthened. We'll see where this is going, but so far, I'm not impressed.
No Recommendation
Magical Somera-chan
Danni Kristen
The very first episode of Magical Somera-chan opens with the main character getting impaled through the abdomen by the head of a made-up, alpaca-like creature. At one point in the following opening, one of the show's characters turns into a giant robot while another turns into a train. If this hasn't already convinced you to watch Somera-chan than I have no idea what will.Despite being a short, it's one of my favorite shows this season. The humor is crude and off-beat, reminding me at times of Teekyu, the only difference between the two being that Somera-chan doesn't have a character playing the straight man. There isn't a whole lot of animation in this show, a fact that is played up for laughs at times, but it makes good use of the frames it has. To put it simply: Magical Somera-chan is weird as hell and I for one love it.
Strong Recommendation
Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note
Jonathan Kaharl
What is it with this season and mystery shows? This one follows a young girl named Tachibana and her four guy pals from cram school as they form a detective agency and solve crimes with their various areas of expertise (Tachibana is the language expect, one has a strong network of friends, another is a stats guy, ect). The set-up is good and the characters are cute, but this feels like it missed out on being a full show because there wasn't enough there for the staff to work with. It's very simple, but it's enjoyable. It's just kind of pointless in a season where Kindaichi and Sakurako are fighting for attention. And slow. It's surprisingly slow.
Weak Recommendation
Second Opinions
Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon
David: Honestly, this season has been pretty light as far as I'm concerned. Sure, there are some stand out shows, but they're largely overshadowed by the sea of disappointing and underwhelming shows also airing this season. With so little to watch, I decided to look to a place I typically avoid like a plague for something watchable: Fantasy light novel adaptations. Out of all the choices, the one I hated the least was Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon. Don't get me wrong, this show is not good. It's visuals are absolute garbage (which is too bad, considering at the least visuals are typically the one thing studio Silver Link can do well), it's filled with tropes, and it primarily follows the same story framework as ever other fantasy Light Novel ever made. But at the least this show for the most part hasn't made me actively angry. It's just sort of meh, with the occasional cute moment from the less obnoxious characters in the cast, and even a few decent joke or two. Plus it has some cool character designs. So with all that, at the least, I'm able to actually watch this show with my brain switched off without yelling at my monitor. So that's worth something....I think. Though I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone, except as a last resort. It's very bad. No Recommendation
Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA
Jonathan: Was not expecting so much gay this season. I'm really liking this one, and like I never have to watch the probably terrible original show to enjoy it. Good action, fun characters, interesting plot building, and just a general good time. Also, I love that the main character of the original show has only had one significant scene so far, and it was him seeing the heroine's panties by accident and freaking the fuck out, dropping into a river, panicking, and needing his ninja sidekick to save him. Wonderful. Strong Recommendation
The Asterisk War
Joe: This is really weird. Even though it's the usual light novel harem crap that makes up far too many anime that are made these days, even though the characters are molded from such stereotypes that I don't remember their names and call them by their roles (Self-insert lead, the main girl, the "mature" girl, etc.), and EVEN THOUGH its setup is so generic, five minutes of the first episode are almost exactly the same as five minutes in another title this season... I kinda' like it. How do I put this? It's the best assembling of elements from the most disposable anime. Well, the couple minutes where the self-insert character jumps into a woman's dorm room in an obvious bad idea can go find a hungry polar bear. The rest? It looks far better than it deserves, they make attempts for the self-insert character to react in the neighborhood a person would in these circumstances, and characters do have a little more to them than just the kink they're trying to exploit. I will say it would be better if the main character's sister was the lead and she was investigating her brother's disappearance. She seems awesome. What I'm saying is if you ever wanted one of these with actual effort put into them, this is worth a shot. I will make amends to the anime gods for saying nice things about this and considering the first episode of Blood Blockade Battlefront to be frustratingly overwritten later. Solid Recommendation
Attack on Titan: Junior High
Jonathan: Yeah, I only need two episodes of this. I imagine if I was a bigger fan of Attack on Titan, I'd be following this, but as it is, I feel I've gotten all the injokes for a good while. This series is basically a string of filler episodes in a long running shonen given an ongoing story arc with a bit of a budget, and while all the continuity and fandom nods are cute, they really start to get old after a bit. Also, I don't think they went far enough making jokes out of certain characters. But it's okay, I guess. Weak Recommendation
Beautiful Bones -Sakurako's Investigation-
David: I grew up watching a quite a few american detective dramas on channels like USA, Monk, Psyche, White Collar and the like. In these shows, the cops would always either be 1. BAFFLED by the case, or 2. It's suicide yep definitely suicide no other explanation. After which the eccentric protagonist would strut onto the scene, and proclaim "NO, IT WAS MURDER" and the point out all the painfully obvious clues the criminal had left behind, but had been totally ignored by the proper authorities. I think it's my fondness for these sorts of shows that makes -Beautiful Bones- Sakurako's Investigation such a guilty pleasure for me. It's not a show that's actively funny or goofy, but almost feels like it is with how straight it plays the detective show routine. Inept police-work, a level-headed sidekick to the eccentric detective, detailed explanations of how the murder took place, hell, Sakurako even has a catch phrase and ridiculous sequence of giant skeletons walking around her whenever she starts investigating a crime scene. I'm not saying the show is "so bad its good", in fact it's actually very well produced with solid animation and some neat use of depth of field and filters that, while mixed in execution, when it works, makes for some stunning scenes. And it's only been getting better with every episode, episodes two and three had some legitimately strong moments that were more than just dumb fun. If you can stand the contrivances of procedural crime dramas, or even better, actually have a soft spot for those contrivances like I do, -Beautiful Bones- is absolutely worth watching. Solid Recommendation
Joe: You will be assimilated by Sherlock Holmes inspired procedurals. Resistance is futile. If you go to anime to avoid the conventions of Western television, this might not be for you. For what it is, the story of yet another extremely eccentric genius and their straight-laced sidekick solving mysteries centered around their particular form of expertise, it's all right. The animation is very sleek with unexpected pops of sumptuous color from time to time (Though the "let's get ready to solve this shit" sequence is a touch overblown for the scenes it's used in). The mysteries aren't particularly top drawer so far and they seem to lack some basic knowledge of police work, but they aren't horrid. It's also not about who the murderer is all the time, but occasionally who the person who died was. The quality of these shows usually hinges on how enjoyable the genius eccentric is, and Sakurako is quite fun as an obsessive bone collector with a love for loud music whose hobby just happens to kick up a human skeleton from time to time. As far as these shows go, it doesn't reach the awesome levels of House as of yet, but it's better than the, "Eh, if there's absolutely nothing else on, I'll watch it" feel of Elementary. Solid Recommendation
Stephanie: And here comes the classic detective, mystery story but this time taking on the form of the TV show Bones, basically (though to be fair I've never seen the TV show so... Yeah). There's a lot of good things going for this series so far from stunning animation to a rather episodic story line with an underlying plot attached to it. While it can get drawn out at points, it's still really nice to see a consistent progression in story and characters. Sakurako would be the reason why I'd want to get into forensic science if this series came out while I was in high school and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. It's fine though, theatre is amazing. Anyway, Beautiful Bones is off to a decent start and I do hope it gets better from here. Solid Recommendation
Comet Lucifer
Jonathan: It's amazing how fast I lost interest in a show. This here is trying to be Eureka Seven, but about ten times more blunt and far less interesting. This is the generic fantasy version of the rebel youth coming of age story that's been a growing thing in the past few years, and by the first episode, I can already tell a lot of where it's going to go. It does not help there is absolutely no subtly in the script. That first episode was just so lifeless. Meh. No Recommendation
Concrete Revolutio
Jonathan: It's like Grant Morrison collaborated on an anime! 70s pop art, dozens of genres smashed together, every character representing a different superhero or fantasy subgerne, past and future time switching with connected story threads. It's like this series was made exclusively for me, and I love it. Just a fair warning, you will not understand some of this if you are not a gigantic nerd like me. But if you love comics and superhero manga and anime, you will get a kick out of this. Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: Bones is at it again this season and with a rather strong start for Concrete Revolutio! They've been having a good year overall with Blood Blockade Battlefront, Revolutio, and Noragami season 2 also airing this season. In Revolutio's case, it's so bright and colorful with fun characters to meet. It's clear that something is going on in the story seeing as how there are two timelines the viewer follows and ends up connecting to the other during each episode. The obvious question currently is what caused Jiro to shift sides, however it's more than likely going to be explained as the earlier timeline moves along and connects to the second, more present, one. I'll be surprised if this one doesn't get a Broadcast Dub from FUNimation. I ought to make my predictions now just in case... Strong Recommendation
Dance With Devils
Jonathan: It's an anime musical based off a horror themes otome game with a set-up similar to Diabolik Lovers. I can't make this shit up. It's also pretty damn enjoyable. Sorta. The brother is just an awful character, and he's not supposed to be, unlike the pick-up artist douchebag demon guy. The rest of the love interests are fine otherwise (and the muscular guy is weirdly attractive), and I like that the main character actually has a spine and tries to figure things out as it becomes more and more clear that everyone is keeping something from her. But this still deals a lot with creepy shojo gender politics, not to mention a lot of the events occurring because a good number of characters are about as intelligent as a bowl of pudding. Could go either way, but it definitely has atmosphere when it wants it. Weak Recommendation
Stephanie: Once again, a series that I decided to add at the last second because people tell me amazing things about it. They may not exactly be amazingly good things, but having the occasional amazingly bad series to have for a fun watch isn't a terrible thing either. And yet.... Why didn't I add this to my list of want to watch shows and possibly get it as one of mine?! Not only does it have a possibly bad reverse harem story and supernatural beings (which is such a guilty pleasure of mine) it's also a damn musical! Why is the theatre graduate not talking about the musical anime?! Geez, I'm an idiot for skipping this before. Hell, it's actually not all bad since the lead heroine is the most capable one I have seen in a good long while. And while the group of love interests are rather stereotyped, the music helps give it something fresh. Yeah, this is gonna be a fun one for me! Strong Recommendation
Garo: Crimson Moon
Jonathan: This is a massive drop in quality from the first series. The cast is far less interesting than Leon and the gang, and the political scuffles around them are boring and stupid. It's a bunch of humans being dicks to each other and sometimes horrors appear. It's hard to be engaged when not even the characters seem to give a shit about much of anything. Our main character is also even more generic than Leon, and lacks the good writing to sell his character that Leon was blessed with. Only Seimei manages to be interesting in any way, but she can't lift up this drab series by herself. I say skip it. Weak Recommendation
Stephanie: I don't get to talk about more Garo this season. DAMN!! Aww well. I'm not quite sure how to feel about this season's Garo so far. Of course it's completely different than the first season from last year in many ways including animation and characters, but the basic plot line remains the same. Guy fights Horrors while dealing with an even bigger evil. Simple enough. After getting through these first three episodes, it's clear there's a different direction being taken for this season, and yet I liked the more darker season one compared to what seems to be the typical action series as of now. It's not a terrible start, but it just reminds me a lot of the stereotypical shonen/action anime we see very often and this could hurt the series in the coming weeks. But, again, seeing it take this side on compared to the previous season is good in order to keep the franchise fresh. It'll be interesting to see what these next few weeks will bring, but it's been a decent start so far. Solid Recommendation
Heavy Object
Jonathan: Light novel show where the main character nearly kills the love interest by tightening her seat belt too much and can't save her because he doesn't want to touch her boobs because that would be embarrassing. It sucks, moving on. No Recommendation
Kagewani
Jonathan: This is something special. Anime rarely gets any good horror to work with, and most of it gets budgeted to hell and back. But then you have Kagewani, which got hit by the poverty stick from start, yet manages to engage me more than most any other show this season. This is a labor of love, filled with sweat and tears and held together with duck tape and off brand graphic design programs. It looks so cheap, but I'm so constantly in the moment whenever I watch. The acting is strong, the actual character and monster designs explode with life and grotesque detail, and the stories themselves really tap into some primal fears (outside the first episode). This is good horror because it's ugly horror that takes advantage of its limitations and uses them to hook the viewer in, while managing to hide the worst parts of the production (most of the time). If you want a good bit of horror to marathon, every episode of this show is under eight minutes. Just saying. Strong Recommendation
Komori-san Can't Decline!
Jonathan: Really cute series of shorts. Fun characters, nice character designs, and good timing with the gags. I'm impressed how much humor they fit in two minutes without going with the absurdity assault style of Teekyu. There may even be a bit of extra depth here, with one episode hinting at character development. Neat. Solid Recommendation
Kowabon
Danni: I can't say this show is particularly scary, but I still like it a lot. It's biggest weakness is that its format as a short doesn't allow for time to build up suspense or tension. I definitely still consider it a good horror anime, though. Some may argue it fails because it likely won't scare viewers, but I don't think that's a requirement of horror. Each episode of Kowabon is like a window into the lives of people being haunted by a single spirit. While it doesn't scare me, it tells the stories of individuals undergoing their own horrors. I appreciate that. Also, the fact it tells the story mostly through webcams, security cameras, and selfies is pretty unusual and cool. Solid Recommendation
Magical Somera-chan
Jonathan: What the fuck Japan. Strong Recommendation
Mr. Osomatsu
Danni: I don't think anyone really expected this show to be as good as it is. First episode was a reference fest that went on a little too long, but episode two and on have all been hilarious. I appreciate a comedy anime that focuses on twenty-somethings for once. The crude and cynical humor only adds to its relatability, which might not say great things about me. My biggest problem with the show, however, is the design of the side characters. The main sextuplets look very similar to Jim Davis characters, so they don't seem out of place. The side characters, though, all have the same designs they had fifty years ago. They seem incredibly ugly and out of date compared to other cartoonish characters in modern anime, but I suppose that's what happens when you reboot a fifty year old show. Solid Recommendation
Jonathan: This may be one of the smartest comedies I have ever seen. It's like the Japanese Regular Show, but with hopeful nostalgia replaced by biting cynicism and black humor. It's fucking great. Hell, it's easily one of the best shows of the season, if not the year. Top ten material here, even possibly top five. Strong Recommendation
One Punch Man
Jonathan: Welp, unless something goes horribly wrong, this is one of the five best shows of the year. The original manga was already fantastic, and the remade version even better, but the anime somehow even tops that with some of the most painstakingly animated fight scenes I have ever seen. This is movie quality animation here, and amazingly managed just because of how dedicated the staff was. Do not miss this one, do not wait for the dub. Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: The one series that everyone and their mother seems to be excited for this season is One Punch Man. Frankly, I try to stay away from the hype in order to not get disappointed since Sword Art Online was one massive clusterf**k of a series. It also doesn't help me that I haven't read the web comic or the following manga as I always tend to go into new anime blind and never really read the source material. In the case of One Punch Man, I may actually fall for the hype! While it does take the well known comic book hero and keep it, the series also, in it's own way, parodies the comic genre. Saitama is a strong hero, but he's now much more bored then ever before while a bunch of things happen around him including monsters attacking the city and inadvertently taking on the cyborg Genos as a student. I laughed quite a bit while watching the first three episodes, and Saitama's personality may have a lot to do with it. Strong Recommendation
Tama: It's often interesting to see the Japanese take on the western Superhero; sometimes it ends in abject, often bizarre failures, like Stan Lee's Heroman, reduced to spitting out old cliches, sometimes they're interesting reflections of the genre, given a distinctly Japanese fascia, such as Tiger & Bunny, exploring what it means to be a superhero. And then you have One Punch Man. Imagine, if you will, Superman is a slightly boring, average Joe, who, rather than being born with superpowers, gets them from...exercising a lot. During which he goes bald. Anyway, our hero, Saitama, is now pretty much a superhero as a hobby, casually defeating monsters that would usually be the final battle of a longish series with his titular "One Punch", which unfortunately tends to make fights with him...rather one sided. The first four episodes throw invaders from beneath the earth, a giant man and his scientist brother, a genetically modified beastery and the scientist that created them, and, during a fight with a mosquito girl (that I'm pretty sure already has a lot of amusingly NSFW art), teams up with earnest cyborg Genos who becomes his more-than-willing apprentice. Finally, the (not so) dynamic duo take on the mysterious (if amusingly inept) Speed-o'-Sound Sonic. The genius of One Punch Man lies in its duo; Saitama is the everyman, trying in short to have a normal life, but drawn again and again to the fight, Genos is the earnest fighter, driven by revenge, but still essentially a child. For all its superheroic antics, (and rarely has action ever been rendered so beautifully than the fight towards the end of the first episode), it is also notable that One Punch Man is shot through with humour, both particular to the genre, and slice of life. All of this make it an early contender for show of the season. Strong Recommendation
The Perfect Insider
David: It's not often I go into a show as blind as I did with The Perfect Insider. Going in I knew next to nothing about the show other than some of the staff, and had almost no clue what to expect. I can say that what I've gotten so far is immensely interesting. It's the epitome of a "slow build" series, in the three episodes I've seen things have moves along at a perfectly gradual pace, with dialogue littered with foreshadowing and mysteries that constantly evolve as the show progresses. The show does very little at a time without being boring because it constantly keeps your mind occupied trying to figure out what exactly is going on and what it all means. Being a mystery series, I do hope it manages to pay off on that mystery, but it's certainly off to a fascinating start. In addition it's damn near flawless from a production perspective: The animation is consistently solid, the character designs are interesting, it's use of lighting, colors and depth of field are brilliant, its cinematography is excellent, and it has a fantastic OP. I only have a vague idea of where the show is headed, but as of now the show has thoroughly grasped by attention and so far appears to have no intention of letting go. Here's hoping it manages to stick the landing. Strong Recommendation
Jonathan: This one is a NoitaminA show, so I was expecting artsy, and that's exactly what I got. This novel adaptation is a mystery story with a really interesting bit of presentation, creating a very real but closed off and claustrophobic world. It's damn creepy when it wants to be, and I love the dialog between the characters, helped that the show seems to be aware that its main character is a philosophical twat. This could be a huge upset for the year, so watch it carefully. Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: I'm not sure if this series wants to be some overarching mystery series or just a slice of life with a little romance to it. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the first three episodes. I just don't know where it's trying to go. The set up has been good so far, and the characters are interesting to watch. Add in the animation from A-1 Pictures and we got ourselves a pretty good show! I do hope it stays with the mystery route cause there's a hell of a lot more then what the series is letting on with all the flashbacks and narrations occurring. Who knows what it's trying to do, but it'll be interesting so see where it decides to go. Solid Recommendation
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid
Danni: A lesbian fingered her girlfriend on the beach and she orgasm'd into a giant gun. This show is trash and I love it. Weak Recommendation
Young Black Jack
Jonathan: Never have I wanted to love a show so much, only for it to suddenly serve into a right wing lecture on how young people ruined the world and we should feel guilty about it because all the old people were right. This show throws out so much fucking shade on the 1960s youth movements that it's practically an eclipse. It's ridiculous, most every episode has to make a point about this. But this is still Black Jack, so shit gets crazy, interesting, and exciting. I just wish it didn't come at the cost of blaming an entire generation for being wrong for not listening to their parents (despite the fact they were fucking right). It's like that one cool uncle who will just go on random political tangents and kind of shit on everything you stand for, but only for a moment before going back to buying everyone ice cream. Conflicted feelings abound. Weak Recommendation
Stephanie: I have to preface my thoughts on Young Black Jack here and now. I know nothing about the franchise. I've heard little things, but I have not seen a Black Jack series prior to this season and am diving head first into this series blind. From what I can tell from the first three episodes, this has a mix of drama and psychological aspects that work rather well together. Adding in the backdrop of the late 60s during the Vietnam War, and there's a lot of pieces that are at play and manage to set up the struggle of morals vs. ethics which will more than likely play a part on the series overall. I'm interested to see what this one has in store in the coming weeks and wether or not it will be able to keep this momentum going from here on! Solid Recommendation
Will it be better than the last two piles of forgettable disappointment? God, I hope so. Your usual Rainy Day seasonal staff, Danni, Joe, David, Stephanie, and myself are all apart, and we've ended up with an interesting bit of topics. But no Lupin because not all good things are allowed to us. We're also changing things up this time, with an added section for all short series with episodes under the normal runtime. With so many of these bloody things releasing, it only seems right. We're also going to look at continuing seasons for series where continuity isn't a huge barrier, like the new season of Kindaichi Returns and the spin-off Aria AA. And hey, maybe some of these will actually be good!
We also all have our usual drops. Every one of us can drop a series of shorts we're covering (except those with only one) at start, and we can also drop full shows at start and after part two. What will survive our drops, and will any of that stuff be any good!? Can a show about lesbians orgasming into weapons save anime forever!? And can a woman actually write a good Gundam series!? The answer to all three of those is yes. Yes a thousand times.
Onto the reviews!
Main Shows
Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon
Jonathan Kaharl
The series is about the usual stuff, just a bit darker. The world has a witch problem, so witch hunters exist and this school is made to train humans to fight magic users, even using a few magical weapons to even the playing field. Mix in a little xenophobia commentary, boom, done. These first four episodes are all about getting the team together, and I'll give the series credit, it does a few things different, or just ridiculous enough that it feels different when it's not. Takeru is a bit aware of his status as a light novel lead, even intercepting the expected response from sexual misunderstandings, and both Usagi and Ikaruga make strong comedic relief because of how much they own their given archetypes to the point of near parody. Otori and Mari, unfortunately, are just awful. Otori is a gun-ho witch hunter out for revenge who doesn't play by the team rules, and Mari is a witch tricked into joining the team who eventually joins from real. They both have dark back stories, and both fall completely flat because they don't mesh with the comedy bits, and the two instantly hating each other in the passive-aggressive love interest sort of way is not amusing in any way.
Drama is where this show just utterly fails. There's nothing interesting about any of these characters, and the dramatic scenes play out exactly as you'd expect. It's a shame, because this series gets really damn dark when it wants to, especially with the starter wizard villain being an abusive stalker who turns people into walking corpses filled with magic vines. It's a tad shocking, but only for a moment, as we return focus to our main cast and they are just so uninteresting. Takeru is especially bad here, as his swordsman in a military academy thing gives him the most boring serious personality ever. He talks about being carnage incarnate and stupid crap like that, while also just being a boring nice guy when hanging out with the team. He has a good sense of humor, he just doesn't get to use it. Worse yet, the dialog is just awful, especially in the Mari two-parter, where the forth episode is bloated with exposition that has no emotional impact at all. Also, there's a light bit of Nasu inspired prose here, with overly wordy descriptions of what the characters are like ...being said by the characters themselves. People don't say how they feel! It's unrealistic! That makes me feel angry!
Production also takes a nose dive in episode four, which worries me. But despite how generic this mess can get, it still feels better than a lot of its peers. There is just enough self-awareness and almost interesting ideas that I can enjoy watching an episode, and I appreciate that the pace is pretty damn fast. There's no foot dragging here. There's no way this will end up being good, I can only hope it ends up being that special type of bad Magical Warfare was. If this gets darker, I want it to go all the fucking way. Oh, and the soundtrack is boppin'. Not boop boop bop, more like beep boop boop beep.
Weak Recommendation
Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA
Danni Kristen
Aria AA turns the focus from the original series' characters to Akari Mamiya, the lowest ranked student at an academy focused on firearm training and crime-solving. Despite her low status, she optimistically applies to become the Amica, or partner, of Aria, the highest ranked student in the academy. Out of curiosity, Aria decides to give her the Amica test. Akari technically doesn't pass the test, but Aria is so intrigued by her optimism and combat style that she takes her on as an Amica in training. This sets off a whole chain of events that involve a sword-wielding yandere, an ojousama who hires other people to laugh for her, and a shit-ton of lesbian action. I'm not even exaggerating. An Amica test between two of the characters in episode three ends with one of them kissing the other. The yandere owns a body pillow of Akari. This is a very gay show.
I mentioned before that this show sounded stupid. That was one thing I was right about. It is incredibly stupid. There is just no possible way that I can take a dramatic action scene seriously when the two girls fighting both look like eight year olds wielding dangerous weaponry. They carry guns on their person constantly in everyday life. It's a Republican wonderland. Let's not forget the aforementioned bulletproof sailor school uniforms. They look just like any other old sailor school uniform, but they're bulletproof, just trust me on this. They're also impervious to extremely sharp swords. Oh, electricity can tear them, though. Also, for some reason, they don't wear protective headgear or legwear. Sure, their skirts are bulletproof, but those only cover up so much skin.
Amazingly, it's this sheer stupidity of it all that lends this series its charm. It appears to be fully aware of how cheesy and uncool it is. The action generally takes a backseat to the relationships in the show, as they seem to be influencing the plot more. So far there's no villain for Akari to fight or anything of the sort. Currently, Aria AA is a show about girls trying to be noticed by the girls they are visibly in love with. There's something extremely sweet and innocent about it. Also, it's kind of fun to keep watching Akari get hit by cars, thrown off bridges, and shot in the boob. It would be less so if they horribly injured her, but she somehow walks away okay from it every time. There are hints the series is saving some dramatic subject matter for later. I'm not completely sure how well it can handle that, but for now, it's managed to be my personal favorite show this season.
Solid Recommendation
The Asterisk War
Jonathan Kaharl
There's actually a lot to like about this one. First off, the ending credits are amazing, and worthy of mention because they play a song from Julis' point of view that just explodes with emotion and sadness. The people making this really gave a shit about the source material, and they put a lot of effort in the production, making it pretty solid overall (opening credits also have a pretty fantastic techno-pop piece). Ayato and Julis are both very archetypical, but they're way more likable than they should be, helped by the series making jokes about how Julis has no friends because of how utterly tsundere she can be. The series is aware of itself, and that awareness really helps make the more cliched bits easier to accept. It even does a kinda clever twist I honestly didn't see coming with the first villain's reveal. The writer can play with expectations born from tropes, you have no idea how rare that is for this genre.
But this is still a light novel series about a magical school, so it has plenty of problems. There's no getting around how tired these archetypes can get, and the series isn't clever enough to really mess with them properly beyond a few jabs and plot misdirections. Just because you make jokes about Julis being a tsundere does not mean her tsundere attitude doesn't get old. What makes her likable is everything besides that, like her conviction and willingness to work together with others when things are on the line. Same for Ayato, who's aloof attitude and hidden savage nature work far better than his stoic presentation and every bloody joke based around him seeing boobs. These archetypes latched onto these characters feel like they're there because it's expected for them to be there. This show also moves far, far slower than Anti-Magic Academy, this starting arc could easily be squeezed into two episodes with little lost. There actually is some promise here, but I don't see this being a masterpiece.
Weak Recommendation
Attack on Titan: Junior High
Stephanie Getchell
When 2013 came around, no one would have expected Attack on Titan to be a big success. Not even Studio Wit and it's director thought it to become such a huge deal. Fast forward to 2015, where a hugely popular dub has been released, a second season is set (supposedly) for 2016, and a couple spin offs and OVA stories have been released. Cue Attack on Titan Junior High, a spin off manga series that explores Eren and his friends' adventures in junior high school in a much more comedic, and slight parody, story using the original material, in more ways than one.
What is the most different are the personalities of the characters being dialed up to eleven for comedic effect. The affection Mikasa has for Eren is clearer, Connie is a complete idiot, Jean fantasizes about being popular in school, Levi is a bigger clean nut, Ymir shows her love for Crista a lot more, etc. You get the idea here. Basically they take one well known trait from the characters and take it to the level of stupidly funny. I mean, Connie not knowing how dodgeball worked until the last second got a nice chuckle out of me. Another part that's different is the Titans themselves as now they are after the human's lunches rather than the actual humans. It turns the Titans into a group of delinquent bullies, which for the setting and nature of this series actually works regardless of how stupid the idea and reasoning is. But this spin off still carries pieces that resemble the original series such as the scene where Eren's mother is eaten being switched to Eren's lunch while Hannes carries Eren and Mikasa away in the same manner as before. Also, Sasha's potato eating scene is kept almost verbatim and is just switched to eating a rice ball in class while introductions occur... As well as adds a drooling Connie.
It is very very clear that the series makes fun of itself within the first three episodes. While it takes well known scenes from the original material that people can recognize easily if they have read the manga and/or seen the anime, it puts a new spin on those scenes for the sake of parodying itself. Add the characters and their much more extreme personalities that I mentioned before and this is a recipe for a self aware parody on the overall Attack on Titan franchise. Luckily, this one is set to be much shorter compared to it's predecessor and it's probably a good idea so it doesn't overdo it's welcome or run out of steam. Now to just hope it still doesn't come to that as the weeks go on.
Strong Recommendation
Beautiful Bones -Sakurako's Investigation-
Jonathan Kaharl
This is one of the most uneven shows I have ever seen. What Sakurako does well, it does masterfully, and what it does wrong endlessly frustrates. Sakurako herself is amazing, taking the self-centered genius personality to hilarious ends. She listens to death metal, acts like a child to her actual child assistant when she doesn't get her way, tells off everyone around her while barely noticing their presence, and gets so excited about finding human remains that it borders on sexual. Shotaro is also a good counterpoint as he's very human and also not taking Sakurako's shit. Every time she gets worked up about a body, the show does the exact same joke where he decides to call the cops and ignores Sakurako's protests, and it makes me laugh without fail through sheer perfect delivery. The show is also colorful and feels very real, with familiar and realistic settings drenched in detail and life. This show truly feels alive, making it ironic that it's about death and has an on-going subplot about Sakurako not having had moved past the loss of a good friend of her's.
Where things start falling apart is the actual writing and mysteries. Most every case Sakurako involves herself in are incredibly simple and only remained unsolved because everyone but Sakurako is a bloody idiot. It gets old pretty fast. Dialog is also that same stilted, inhuman style that light novels almost all seem to have, but it's an especially big problem here because this show is entirely in the real world and works by real world logic and rules. But I do see promise here that is making me a little lenient. The thematic focus on death and grief are well handled and explored very well, like Sakurako helping a girl deal with her dead grandma's supposed suicide, or the dark turn the second episode takes in a case about a missing mother. Makoto Kato, a relatively new talent in the industry, shows a lot of promise as a director, really capturing the emotion and energy of every scene, helped by the strong art direction and atmosphere. This show really works amazingly well in the moment, but the larger picture has a lot of flaws to deal with. This one could go either way, but I think we may have something special in the end, though maybe not stellar.
Solid Recommendation
Brave Beats
David O'Neil
One of the biggest surprises to me about Brave Beats was its genre: its a magical girl anime (or, a magical boy and girl anime I guess). The show opens with a robot alien called a "Dancerian" named "Breakin" challenging the "King of Dance" to a dance-off. But the King of Dance is unimpressed by Breakin's moves, banishing him to Earth (which he calls "the dance center of the universe"), to recollect his "Dance Stones" with the help of a young human boy. Yes, it is as ridiculous as it sounds. And all that didn't even include the dancing T-Rex, or the superhuman moonwalking. The show is completely bonkers, and is clearly aware of it. It takes a large amount of inspiration from magical girl shows like Sailor Moon and Pretty Cure, along with the Pokemon anime, as the protagonist goes through a transformation sequence in order to battle the villain-of-the-week, usually created by a Team Rocket-esque duo of villains, and collecting their dance stones to obtain new powers. It's a kids show at heart (other than some questionable sexualization in the transformation sequences) but I've actually had a lot of fun with it. The show has a certain charm to it, and all the crazy, over-the-top hijinks are a lot of fun. Though I do worry that it could fall into the same repetitive structure that many shows of this kind often do, its totally up in the air whether it'll continue to do interesting and fun things with the concept or just keep repeating the same jokes and events over and over again.
The show's animation isn't anything too special. There are the occasional examples of some cute, energetic cuts of animation, and some neat use of smears, but as a whole it doesn't stand out from similar shows in terms of production. My feelings on the CG hasn't changed much since Tribe Cool Crew, I still think it looks pretty awkward and out of place next to the 2D animation. Although, it really isn't used all that often so it doesn't get in the way of the experience much. Brave Beats is pretty tried and true material, but its unique, dance-centric spin on the genre make for a crazy, entertaining watch.
Solid Recommendation
Chivalry of a Failed Knight
Danni Kristen
The show opens with our protagonist Kurogane (who could be the protagonist of any single light novel, really) monologuing about being chivalrous. Incidentally, the very first thing he does afterwards is walk in on a girl in her underwear. Quickly deducting that it's the only chivalrous thing to do, he begins taking off all his clothes in front of her. It's all downhill from there.
We soon find the girl he walked in on is Stella Vermillion, a foreign princess and talented battle magician of whatever bullshit magic they do at this academy. She's come from abroad to challenge herself, as she's already the most talented knight in her country. She's also incredibly pissed at Kurogane for staring at her near-naked body. Kurogane quickly diffuses the situation by saying he wouldn't stare at an ugly girl. She somehow finds this flattering. Kurogane mentions that the room she thought was hers was actually his. They then find out that they're roommates. I groan audibly. Being a tsundere, Stella refuses to room with him. They finally settle the situation by deciding to have a duel to determine who makes the rules in the household. Stella sweetens the pot by saying whoever loses has to be the winner's slave for life. She's sure she can win because she's of course an A-ranked student while Kurogane is ranked lowest in the school. He'll be easy to beat, right? Wrong. He may be lowest ranked in the school, but only because his "true power" defies the school's ranking system. He's actually the most powerful magician knight ever or something (Gee, who saw that coming?). He kicks her ass and passes out from using all of his power. Stella returns to their room to find him resting. She begins feeling up his back and somehow ends up straddling him near-orgasm as he sleeps. He wakes up and she angrily agrees to be his sex-slave for life per their agreement.
I hope by now you wouldn't need any more reasons as to why this show is awful, but I might as well give you some. For one, the animation is really boring. It's better than other light novel adaptations such as Sky Wizards Academy, but that's not a very high bar to meet. The only time I at all enjoyed the animation was during the battle sequence. It actually got kind of good there. However, it was completely marred by bad fight choreography and the fact that both characters kept breaking up the fight to monologue. It turned what could have been a cool sequence into a mediocre moment of a terrible show. The writing is obviously horrible, and this extends to the character writing in addition to the plot. No one is likable. Everyone is annoying. Kurogane is a stock light novel protagonist. Stella is a tsundere who really likes him but won't admit it. Their entire characterizations are summed up in that. Do yourself a favor and don't even bother with Chivalry of a Failed Knight.
No Recommendation, dropped after one episode
Comet Lucifer
Stephanie Getchell
Comet Lucifer is probably going to be one of my more frustrating ones from this season. I say this because I don't really have a lot to talk about right now. From the first three episodes it's filled with a good amount of action and fantasy troupes we're used to seeing with a dash of scifi added in for good measure. It's not like it's a wash, rinse, and repeat scenario like you may see when you go from anime to anime with a similar story. It's setting catches my interest just like the rest of the animation quality, and the characters are a decent bunch. At the same time, however, nothing truly noteworthy has made this series stand out. In fact, it almost makes it forgettable. Yeah, as odd as this may seem, this series is one that I can't remember much about. Even worse, still, is the fact that out of all the shows I decided to write for this first report, Lucifer is the last one I'm writing up.... We got a problem here.
The story seems to be pretty straightforward; a kid finds this mysterious alien girl in a crystal, frees her, and helps her get away from the military who want to capture her (more than likely for power). We also have a stone worm thing that can turn into a giant robot, crazy mo-fos like the glasses wearing hacker from the third episode, and an adorable little girl who knows nothing about earth and has the mentality of a three year old. I'd say that's the gist of it right now. There are some elements that caught my attention and curiosity like Moura and his rather egotistical personality. Of course the animation is really nice, but 8bit does some nice stuff every once in a while... Even though I don't really recall seeing any of their other work in it's entirety... Yeah, this is a tough one to talk about.
In all honesty, as of now, Comet Lucifer doesn't have anything truly unique to catch my interest in a season filled with musical series, long awaited second seasons and spin offs, and at least one overly hyped up show in One Punch Man. Lucifer falls more in the middle and is much more average than what I had hoped for, which is sad because I honestly think there's good premise and story there but it's just having a slightly underwhelming start for me. It could just be the past week finally catching up to me and tiring me out, but I'm not going to rule out my own personal mood just yet. I have to see what Lucifer decides to do and if it's either going to be a series I come to like or just one large disappointment. I sincerely hope it's not the latter of the two.
The story seems to be pretty straightforward; a kid finds this mysterious alien girl in a crystal, frees her, and helps her get away from the military who want to capture her (more than likely for power). We also have a stone worm thing that can turn into a giant robot, crazy mo-fos like the glasses wearing hacker from the third episode, and an adorable little girl who knows nothing about earth and has the mentality of a three year old. I'd say that's the gist of it right now. There are some elements that caught my attention and curiosity like Moura and his rather egotistical personality. Of course the animation is really nice, but 8bit does some nice stuff every once in a while... Even though I don't really recall seeing any of their other work in it's entirety... Yeah, this is a tough one to talk about.
In all honesty, as of now, Comet Lucifer doesn't have anything truly unique to catch my interest in a season filled with musical series, long awaited second seasons and spin offs, and at least one overly hyped up show in One Punch Man. Lucifer falls more in the middle and is much more average than what I had hoped for, which is sad because I honestly think there's good premise and story there but it's just having a slightly underwhelming start for me. It could just be the past week finally catching up to me and tiring me out, but I'm not going to rule out my own personal mood just yet. I have to see what Lucifer decides to do and if it's either going to be a series I come to like or just one large disappointment. I sincerely hope it's not the latter of the two.
Weak Recommendation
Concrete Revolutio
Danni Kristen
Concrete Revolutio takes place in an alternate universe version of (presumably) 1960's Japan. In this universe, pretty much any and every kind of superhuman and monster we consider fictional exists. Japan's government refuses to openly acknowledge their existence, but they have nevertheless created a secret bureau dedicated to protecting good superhumans and neutralizing dangerous ones. They're staffed almost entirely by superhumans, including the ghost Fuurouta, the human/yokai hybrid Emi, and the witch Kikko. The only human agent for the bureau is Jiro, though it's apparent that he has some kind of superhuman power residing in him. Each episode jumps back and forth between the past, present, and future of specific characters, ultimately foreshadowing a time when Jiro becomes an enemy of the bureau.
I'd try to describe more about the plot and characters, but there's just too much to talk about. Concrete Revolutio has a huge cast of characters all uniquely interesting and hiding their own secrets. Every episode is a self-contained story linking to the overarching plot. However, they try to cram so much into every episode that so much of it get lost in the confusing switches between past, present, and future. Oftentimes it will shift between these points of time without any indication that a switch took place, so you're playing catch-up to figure out what the hell is going on. It's obvious that the show's staff have high hopes for the series and are trying to turn it into a huge thing. They seem very in over their heads, but it looks like they're having lots of fun with it. I have to say I admire and appreciate that. I mean, this season is particularly chocked full with sequels and adaptations of games, manga, and light novels. There's hardly any really original, ambitious content coming out right now. One-Punch Man already had the manga's popularity and the high amount of people looking forward to the show going for them. I'd go so far as to say Concrete Revolutio might be the only really ambitious anime this season, aside from Perfect Insider. Even then, though, they're both ambitious in entirely different ways. While Perfect Insider opts for subtlety, Concrete Revolutio is loud and colorful and constantly throwing shit at you to see what sticks. It's not the smartest approach, but considering it's accompanied by such a beautifully vibrant and colorful Pop Art style and some fantastic sequences of animation, I have to say I'm enjoying it immensely.
Strong Recommendation
Dance With Devils
Danni Kristen
The show opens with a short musical number seemingly foreshadowing later events. Yes, I said musical number. This show sometimes becomes a musical. Anyways, we're then introduced to our protagonist, Ritsuka, and her superstitious mother, who gives her a pendant meant to give her good luck and protection. Ritsuka heads off to her huge private school for extremely rich people where we're introduced to the student council aka her romantic leads. There's Urie the ladies man, Mage the athlete, Shiki the emo sadist, and Rem, who always looks like a stick is jammed incredibly far up his ass. Also they're all devils. They call her up to the student council room and accuse her of being a devil worshipper. She denies everything and storms out. After school she goes home to find her house ransacked by hooded men who have also attacked her mom. She leads some policemen to her house to investigate but finds everything back in order and her mom missing. She calls her brother, Lindo, who says he will come home from studying abroad immediately. It should be noted that Lindo is actually an exorcist and is also one of the romantic leads. Anyways, that night the hooded men come back and attack Ritsuka, but are beaten away by Rem, who takes her in. From there on, we find out they are vampires looking for something called a Grimoire they think she is in possession of. The boys vow to protect her, though it's obvious they have ulterior motives in mind.
Look, I'll be blunt. I hate otome. I can't help it; I'm a lesbian. Pretty much any series that features a lot of men you're supposed to be attracted to annoys the hell out of me. Dance with Devils is more annoying than usual, however. I mean, when it comes to shows like Haikyuu or Free I can understand why those boys are attractive. They're all very sweet and I would befriend them. Conversely, the boys in Dance with Devils all strike me as huge assholes. They're rich, stuck up, and popular with all the girls. Meanwhile they treat Ritsuka like a plaything. This is actually alluded to in one of Rem's musical numbers. As he sings about Ritsuka, the camera focuses on a single doll resembling her. The boys are able to charm her into a stasis where she stares dead-eyed and unaware of anything around her. This same look is given to her in both the opening and ending themes. She's always needing to be saved or protected by one of the boys. The idea of being helpless or played with by men is incredibly creepy to me; I can't understand why that would be someone's fantasy. Not only that, but nearly all the girls in school hate Ritsuka since the boys are all over her. I hate seeing girls get jealous and tear each other down, especially over men. There's a chance I may stick with this show to the end, but not at all out of enjoyment. At least not enjoyment of the show itself. I do find some enjoyment watching and making fun of it the whole time with a lesbian friend. That part is fun. That's it, though. I hate everything else about this show.
No Recommendation
DD Fist of the North Star II + Fist of the North Star: Strawberry Flavor
Danni Kristen
The show opens with Jonathan Joestar - I mean Kenshiro - searching for the end of the century (someone should probably tell him it's still 85 years away). He meets an old man who tells him he can find it at Private End of the Century Academy. Upon entering he immediately pisses off a class of evil guys who have taken over the school. He meets a sickly classroom of students all chanting that seeds must be rubbed and soon learns that studying is important. When the evil guys attack him again, he beats them up and pisses off their leader, naked Dio. Naked Dio challenges Kenshiro to find his classroom and confront him one-on-one. Kenshiro kicks naked Dio's ass. Then a guy named Thouzer talking about how excited he is to be getting an anime, and episode one comes to a close.
I'm not sure at all what to make of anything in this show. If the first episode sounded strange, the rest are even stranger. I spend most of each episode wondering how much butter I'd understand things if I were more familiar with the events and characters of the original Fist of the North Star, and therein lies my biggest problem with this series. I have no possible way of knowing whether this is a good spinoff or not, so I can only review it as its own self-contained thing. It's not strictly speaking bad in that regard though. The chibi-like art style is well-animated and quite fun to watch. While many of the jokes seem to fly over my head, some still land and are able to make me laugh. One of my favorite jokes so far being Kenshiro's shirt tearing in the middle of a battle and being quickly covered by a censor bar. The problem with this show is most of its content is referential of the main series, so it all goes over my head. As much as I enjoy it, the incomprehensibility of it all makes it hard to review properly. Whether or not I'll be able to stick with it all season remains to be seen.
Solid Recommendation if you're a Fist of the North Star fan, Weak Recommendation if you're new to the series
Garo: Crimson Moon
Joe Straatmann
Taking place during the Heian period (For those whose eyes glaze over at Japanese history names, very early medieval Japan at 800-1100 AD where their religion and samurai class started to take shape), a palace of light is threatened by the Horrors, demons who feed on the negative energy ofhumans. Protecting the people are the Makai knights, and our title character Raikou just happens to be one who can summon powerful golden armor more than capable of slashing Horrors to ribbons. His suit is controlled by a ring which is sealed off and controlled be Seimei, a mysterious, smart-talking woman who seems to wear many different hats from bard to Makai alchemist to former noble to gender-bent historical figure to whore if you talk to the men she's pissed off (Yay, another awesome character for Romi Park!). Also with them is Kintoki, a child who can identify Horrors that have disguised themselves as humans. They have the usual setup of something is cursing/killing people in an area, the team has to investigate and figure out what's causing it, and exterminate it with Raikou getting into his gold armor and shredding everything. From a sculptor who's been infected by a Horror after trying way too hard to get the "essence" of his subjects to figuring out if a princess is really a Horror killing her suitors, at least the content is somewhat interesting even if the execution is from the usual playbook.
You've likely seen a show like this if you've spent a decent amount of time watching anime or Japanese TV general. Guy with amnesia, a power suit that Deus Ex Machina's them out of whatever problem they're in, demons that feed off the evil in the hearts of men, and so forth. This seems to be a Garo series made for the Japanese history and folklore buff. Aside from historical figure Seimei, the latest episode has them encountering Princess Kaguya (Yes, the title character from the legend Ghibli made a movie out of). That's just the ones my mind with a sketchy understanding of Japanese history caught. There're probably tons more. If that doesn't catch your fancy, the rest is a mixed blessing of some good, funny dialogue and lackluster action. Seimei makes the series worth a watch with her quick-witted banter. The climactic battles have not escaped the absolute clichés from the days when Ultraman walked the Earth. It looks nifty, but there's no dramatic weight to any of the fights so far.
This isn't the most fascinating project MAPPA has taken so far, but it's a good distance away from being written off. I'm sure the battles are going to get better with increased dramatic tension, they've set up a villain who knows how to play off the politics of the palace of light for optimal impact, and I like the people we get to hang out with. As of right now, it's unspectacular with the ability to be better.
Weak Recommendation
Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
David O'Neil
The series takes place on a terraformed Mars under the control of the Earth government, following a martian private security company made up largely of young, orphaned child soldiers. When a mission to escort a high profile Noble speaking for Martian independence goes awry, the abused orphans have to fight to defend her and each other, even against overwhelming odds. The first few episodes of the series are a strongly executed thrill ride, with cleverly implemented exposition complementing the high stakes mecha battles. The characters are full of potential, and the show manages to craft a dark, desolate tone without going too far into edgy territory. It has just enough humor and humanity in the character interactions to prevent the harshness of the show's world from being overbearing, and the disturbing moments are well executed and used sparingly, making them all the more effective when they come around. It's not dark for the sake of being dark, there's always purpose behind it's grimness. As of now the story has stepped back to set up some future plot points and conflicts, taking a break from the tense action for some necessary build up, but the tight pacing keeps the show from ever getting boring even during the calm of before the storm.
In an age of CG mecha dominating the genre, I will say it's a wonderful pleasure to have a major show boasting high quality 2D mecha animation once again. The battles are fast and exciting, with dynamic animation enhanced by a stirring soundtrack. Nearly every battle is grand and memorable, especially the first episode's big entrance of the series' new Gundam, dubbed the "Barbados", which was one of my favorite moments of any show so far this season. The production quality does suffer outside of the action unfortunately. In dialogue scenes animation gets messy, and faces frequently go off model. There are countless cases of distant characters looking near-comical in how poorly drawn they are, and even when they get closer they mostly remain stiff, with only the rare instances of decent character acting animation. Despite this, as a whole Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is still off to a great start. It's a thrilling, engaging mecha show that's absolutely worth checking out.
Strong Recommendation
Heavy Object
Joe Straatmann
No points for guessing this is based on a series of light novels. Have all of Japan's trees just disappeared by the sheer volume of these things? Anyhoo, our main characters are slacker soldiers in Alaska, Havia and Qwenthur. Yes, those are names these people actually use. Havia is a noble slumming it in the military and Qwenthur is a foreign exchange student in engineering looking to get a closer look at Objects. Objects are massive machines with extremely thick armor, devastating weaponry, and extremely fast movement. The invention was such a game-changer that it literally caused worlds governments to collapse and re-shuffled nations to a handful of kingdoms. Now governments put most of their military budgets into simply building the best Objects they can, and since the technology is so top secret Objects are instantly self-destructed if they're rendered inoperable, the defeat of a single one can topple nations. Since the only soldiers truly necessary are the pilot and the maintenance crew, Havia and Qwenthur's work is mostly relegated to shoveling snow and other menial labor under their ball-busting taskmaster Frolaytia.
This all changes when the base's Object Baby Magnum faces off against a more specialized attacking Object and loses. Usually, the losing side just waves the white flag and is able to walk out without even the pilot dying due to an ejection system, but the opposing army wants their facility decimated and all of its soldiers strung up. Almost like war isn't so cut and dry. With their literal princess of a pilot Milinda being hunted in the Alaskan wilderness and the opposing Object trying to slaughter the rest of the troops, Havia and Qwenthur take on a suicide mission to save Milinda and give their troops enough time to escape.
It's extremely simplistic, but the show is competently made at least. The Objects are mostly CG creations, but they blend in with the rest of the animation. It's paced well, never feeling too rushed or too casual. I mostly like the cast... mostly. See, Qwenthur is a decent and smart fellow who gets the idea of trying to sabotage the internal parts of the Object to trick the self-destruct triggers in the thing. His weakness is breasts. During an early meeting with Milinda, the safety belts on her pilot seat malfunction and threatens to suffocate her if they aren't released. Qwenthur is the only one who can save her by releasing the strap around her breasts, but the breasts cause him so much anxiety that he can't do it even when she gives him her expressed permission to do so. Luckily, the situation sorts itself out or he would've completely dropped someone's life down the toilet because boobies. Later when they're all being stalked by a war machine in which one wrong move means death for his entire unit, a blast knocks Milinda onto him, and, well, look at the picture. So if it turns out everybody dies and they have to explain to the families how this happened, is "Woot! Boobs!" the answer you want to go with (I sincerely hope that's the translator having fun and not what he literally said)? You've got deep psychological issues with breasts Qwenthur, and if you don't seek help now, everybody you care about is going to die. Even though Havia is given the more generic anime hero look, it seems you are the main character given the attempts to establish romantic chemistry with Milinda. That's a big responsibility and you've got to pull yourself together, man! I mean, Havia likes looking up skirts, but it doesn't distract him from his work!
Heavy Object is worth keeping an eye on at least. I probably put the hammer down too hard on its wide-eyed premise and I'm especially harsh on its main character for good reason, but it's not bad. Simply... problematic. The first arc is three episodes detailing the initial encounter in Alaska, and by the third episode, it stays on point and pulls together a fine finale that shoves aside the weaknesses of the show save their weird eyecatch that slaps on a funny illustration with goofy music no matter the dire straits of the scenes that surround it. There's even time for an amusing epilogue. At this point, it's becoming Shadow of the Colossus mixed with one of those mahjong games from the 90s where the anime girl in the background will strip if you clear the area. Qwenthur and Havia have to figure out the weak point of seemingly indestructible Objects, they find it, and their reward is some implied sexy fun time with their commanding officer Frolaytia. Hoo boy, I try to say nice things, and then this show has the CO shower in front of her soldiers to reward them for a job well done. You give them an inch, and they run a mega weapon right over you, I suppose.
Weak Recommendation
The File of Young Kindaichi Returns (Season Two)
Jonathan Kaharl
For those new, this series is about one Hajime Kindaichi, grandson of a famous detective and general solver of homicides (he's also a pervert because this never stops being funny to the Japanese). As of this season's start, a man known as the Puppeteer of Hell has come to Hong Kong. He's a criminal that plans out crimes for others and is obsessed with making the perfect crime, and he and Kindaichi have crossed paths a good number of times. This time, he's using a mystery person who was trapped in an old Japanese imperial military prison and their desire for revenge to create a Count of Monte Cristo situation, also seemingly hypnotizing Kindaichi in a magic show and making him out to be the killer. Of course, he's not, but how exactly this trick is pulled off, along with the identity of the Count, are the big questions.
Last season started out in a trip to Hong Kong as well, and dealt with stolen jewels, a blood vendetta, and a nuclear warhead. This season tops it by making Kindaichi targeted by the police, and it works. Seeing the guy try to figure things out while on the run and also doubting himself is well paced and tension filled, and the actual mystery that the puppeteer set up is utterly brilliant. All the details and clues are laid out properly, and we get a lot of nice character moments between the cast. While this starting arc does reward those familiar with the characters, the actual plot requires no knowledge of the series, and what you do need to know is explained quickly and neatly in the first episode. This is what makes the series so easy to approach, as set-up is never skipped, and it is always assumed that this may be someone's first arc. If you want a strong mystery series, this is your go-to ticket if Detective Conan is a little too ridiculous for you.
Strong Recommendation
Lance N' Masques
Joe Straatmann
In one of my two shows this season that explains its concept in the Engrish logo (Heavy Object being the other), young Yotaro is the member of the last order of knights. Some of them grow up to have jobs like high security for rich industrialists, but Yotaro is fresh out of knight training and trying to make his own way in life, broke and homeless. He goes through town saving maidens as an involuntary reaction due to his "White Knight Syndrome" that comes from his training. This behavior including kissing the rescued girls's hands and calling them "my lady." It pretty much creeps them out. That is, until he meets Makio, a rich young lady who just happens to live with only maids in a palatial estate with plenty of room for a young knight to live and eat even with a horse. Fortunately for her, this is just before a yakuza group comes in to attempt to kidnap her. The trick is, she doesn't recognize Yotaro as the "Knight Lancer" hero who saved her, but she houses him anyway.
This is a light novel adaptation, and even though I have a fair share on my list this season, this is the only one that really frustrates me. It's essentially a simple harem show where eventually Yotaro, who only wants to live a normal life, gets enrolled in a high school called Shinra Academy (Hopefully, Yotaro's growth does not involve Jenova cells). He eventually gets involved in a Knight Club, a student organization that makes heroes, and everyone else is a female harem prototype minus the horse who somehowgets to go to school. Easily the best moment in the series so far is when the horse decides to put on a poorly made human mask and tries to go with them to school. I'd almost be with the utter stupidity of that gambit fooling everyone. All simple and easy to understand. Then there's the extra plotting.
See, before this, Makio's father decides to take her overseas with him. Yotaro disagrees with this, but he has to clash with one of the elder knights to win the argument. When he does this, the knight has a protege who immediately doesn't like Yotaro and at the same time, the yakuza group involved in the kidnapping attempt are trying to get back to their former glory after years of being barely anything. The connection is the knight Yotaro defeated was involved in the breaking up with the gang and they want revenge, so they go to the knight's cabin and their protege points the finger at Yotaro's Knight Lancer as the person responsible, so they send an assassin after him. Within one moment of mistaken identity is another one where the assassins accepts Lancer Knight as her father. All of this so a ninja assassin girl with a father/daughter relationship with Yotaro is in the harem. Oh yeah, and there is a betrayal in there and something with the maids being dismissed and then re-hired, and other such things. That is way too much going on for so little result. Even the latest episode with three characters getting seemingly critically injured is all sound and fury.
I hate to say it, but if this thing tried to be more like an average light novel adaptation, it'd be a lot easier pill to swallow. It can look good when it wants to (The opening is absolutely beautiful). The interactions can be funny and enjoyable. Just ditch trying to be Infernal Affairs, or if you're going to do that, be some kind of inspired parody. Right now, Lance N' Masques has a couple good crops in a tall field of weeds.
Weak Recommendation
Mr. Osomatsu
David O'Neil
With that said, it's clear they knew this was no way to structure an entire series, and the episode ends with an assurance from the characters that they'd start for real when episode two came around. It's in the second episode where the show's real identity starts to shine through, and it's one that's just as enjoyable as the first episode. It all follows a single overarching narrative, giving the characters room to more fully establish their differing personalities, along with acting as a way to set up great gags. The show is crude, immature, and often mean spirited, a style of humor that won't appeal to everyone, but one that I absolutely adore. It really comes down to strong writing, all of the jokes have great set up, punchlines, and over the top reactions that all flow together at a brisk pace that never gets boring. The characters are all horrible human beings, but have just charm that I never hate them, and the show portrays them with jut enough self deprecation that their horribleness get in the way of my enjoyment of the show. The third episode actually goes in yet another totally different direction, turning away from an overarching narrative to shorter, individual, rapid fire gags. Although I think I prefer the show more with narratives and more human moments for the characters, this structure works well enough on its own. There are a lot of great jokes, including one final sequence that's so shamelessly juvenile it left me laughing my ass off. Though I was glad to see it returning to a more straightforward structure when the fourth episode came around.
Another thing the show does remarkably well is its visuals. It has a unique art style with lots of bright colors, exaggerated environments, and thick colored outlines that looks great. The animation isn't especially fluid, but it features tons of over the top reactions and detailed cartoonish faces that give the characters a lot of personality. In addition, the backgrounds are done by Studio Pablo (studio who did the backgrounds for Seraph, Rolling Girls, and Little Witch Academia) and as always they provide gorgeously painted backgrounds that effectively complement the character designs. The first few episodes of Osomatsu-san were so all-over-the-place it is a bit difficult for me to get a feel for it, but if all you're looking for is dumb, well executed laughs, Osomatsu-san fits the bill very nicely.
Solid Recommendation
One Punch Man
David O'Neil
As of late, I'd begun to worry that my increase in manga reading was making me jaded towards anime adaptations. In my earlier days as an anime fan I almost exclusively read manga that had no chance of getting an adaptation, or simply to relive moments from my favorite anime in manga form. But recently, I've gotten in the habit of reading a more wide array of manga including those with anime adaptations likely on the way. And lately I've been frequently disappointed by anime adaptations of manga I've read beforehand. First there was Soul Eater NOT!, an adaptation so muddled with moe and lacking the source material's unique charm I could barely get any enjoyment from it as a fan of the franchise. Then there was The Heroic Legend of Arslan, a blandly produced adaptation devoid of the manga's impact and polish, made worse by horrendous use of CG animation. Then there was Gangsta, which, while a good effort, still felt more stale and sloppy than the manga I'd enjoyed so much. And don't even get me started on the World Trigger anime. I was starting to worry reading manga before anime was ruining the experience, that I was setting my expectations too high, and an anime could never really turn out the way I imagined it in my head. And while this may still be true, the anime adaptation of One-Punch Man has certainly made me second guess this notion.
As a big fan of the One-Punch Man manga, my expectations were already unfairly high. A large appeal of the manga came from its meticulously drawn action scenes. A running joke on the internet was "there's no way the show could have animation as good as the manga", because the manga's artist (of the Shonen Jump version, not the ONE's original web-comic version) would draw fights with key-frame animation like sequences that were big, detailed, and gorgeous. Which is why I'm insanely impressed that the anime actually DOES look as good as the manga (even if in a different way). The animation is incredible, with Space Dandy director Shingo Natsume and studio Madhouse bringing on an incredible team of some of the most talented animators in the industry in order to create some of the coolest, consistently visceral anime action in recent memory. It's loose, but polished, fast, but detailed, and the unique styles of each animator shines through without sacrificing the show's overall art style. In addition, it manages to effectively capture the tone and humor of the original manga as well. Saitama's dry, uninterested reaction to the over the top, satirical interpretation of superhero fiction that surrounds him while not always laugh out loud funny, is a lot of fun and retains the blend of insanity and mundanity of the original manga, while also interpreting many scenes in totally new ways in order to better utilize the new medium.
When I originally read the One-Punch Man manga, in the back of my mind I had a visualization of what a perfect adaptation would be like. One that instead of trying to replicate the crazy good manga art, took advantage of the unique strengths animation has to offer, and acting as a vessel for loose, dynamic fight animation, all while still keeping the one of a kind personality that made the manga so fun to read. And watching the anime I was so pleased to see that dream adaptation playing out before me exactly as I imagined it, in some ways even better. Not everyone will love One-Punch Man, it's dry, and often dark approach to humor only appeals to certain tastes, and the jokes can be hit and miss at times (mostly hits though), but the manga's brand of tongue in cheek, large scale superhero action has been brilliantly realized in this adaptation, and it's absolutely worth watching.
Strong Recommendation
The Perfect Insider
Joe Straatmann
Our main character is Souhei Saikawa, a pretentious, chain-smoking associate professor who has somehow garnered the affections of one of his freshman students, Moe Nishishono. She's cute, she's rich, she's extremely smart, and when she crushes hard on Souhei... he doesn't really pay her much notice. That is, until she brings up her long-distance conversation with Shiki Magata, a world-renowned computer genius who has been locked in a room on an island for well over a decade despite having an entire company literally centered around her. Why she's such a recluse comes from an event in the past where she may have been responsible for the murder of her parents. Despite this unsettling information, Souhei would love nothing more than to have one conversation with Magata. He tries to pull Moe's strings to make it happen, and despite her being clearly annoyed that his desires are centered around another woman, she too wants to actually meet Magata, so they manage to get a boat to the remote location where she lives.
Magata's company is on an island that allows no communication with the outside world and severely limited transportation. The corporation makes a computer program called Red Magic which is supposably perfect and runs the entire facility. The "perfect" program has an error that shuts off the power, unlocks Magata's room, and... let's leave it at that. The mystery is the most compelling aspect here, slowly revealing detail after detail. It's a familiar setup, but it keeps itself one step ahead of the audience without ever feeling like it's holding back too much. Intercut with the present is Moe's conversation with Magata that feels like two intelligent people picking each other's brains and managing to shine a little light on what led to everything. Once the mystery starts, thankfully Moe seems to take a little bit of initiative and becomes more of the main character than Souhei, who continues to smoke while occasionally tossing in some thoughts as to what the holy hell is going on. The episodes end on a usually disturbing note, as it takes what we know about Magata and flashes back to an older man narrating his experience with her before she was locked away, and as it stands right now, it might've turned sexual. It's the most awkward fitting piece to be sure.
The Perfect Insider isn't an easy sell. The first episode is mostly a handful of people chatting in a professor's office with Souhei serving up shallow philosophy and casually swatting away Moe's advances. I'd understand not being blown away by this. As it goes along, I'm more and more admiring how close to the vest it's playing things and how darn subtle it is. noitaminA does outstanding work here, but I can't put a screenshot up and make it obvious, even in its fabulous opening that's the second best one of the year (Nothing's beating Death Parade, let's settle that right now). The imagery is cold and realistic, keeping its distance from the characters and leaving personal details to brief glimpses. Being meaningful without being forceful. It reminds me of Minority Report without the blue hues permeating the look (Or much of its iconic imagery, to be fair). Look, it's not perfect like its name would suggest, but if the endless light novel adaptations have you down, if you want to shoot the next idol team in the face, if you don't want all anime treating you like you're still in high school forever and ever and ever, give this a couple episodes. Please.
Solid Recommendation
Shin Atashinchi
Joe Straatmann
This is NEW Atashinchi, so what's old Atashinchi? A manga by Eiko Kera turned into a 330-episode (?!) anime that ran from 2002 to 2009. It translates to "our family" and is literally about an average Japanese family named the Tachibanas. It has Mother and Father who are about as self-descriptive as their names would indicate. Trout-shaped Mother is the closest thing to a main character and the typical queen of the house while Father is the salaryman who isn't there often and isn't much of a presence when he is there. Their daughter Mikan and son Yuzuhiko are the awkward teenagers (Well, softened for a general audience) with small quirks like being scatter-brained or really wanting to be cool. The family does things like purchase the hell out of products to kill a bug only to find smashing them is usually the best method or try to find the right sunglasses when all their friends keep forcing the joke ones.
It's the "nice" show your grandmother crabs about not being on TV anymore when she accidentally stumbles onto Criminal Minds. No matter the problems, no matter the flaws, this is a warm family that loves each other and learns through their misadventures. This show's also pretty predictable, pretty bland, and it's annoyingly divided up. There are three stories per episode, but they're broken up into little chapters that have dividers where the show's logo pops up and one of the cast members says the show's name. This happens about 20 times an episode. That is some hardcore tediousness. Still, this is harmless, and from what I've read, actual things that have impact do happen on occasion. If you have a show that runs 330 episodes, lightning has to strike sometime, I guess.
Weak Recommendation
Shomin Sample
Stephanie Getchell
*sigh*............ I don't even know where to begin with this series. It doesn't help that I was so behind on fall anime that I had fully heard stories about Shomin Sample. People made it out to be much worse than what it actually is. Reason I say this is because I was expecting it to really trashy and sickening bad. What I saw was a series that fairly trashy, but was more boring and stupid. Not only is it every cliche and stereotype from a terrible visual novel ever, but it does nothing to try and make it a fun hate watch. The characters are bland, the story is bland, and gags are bland. There is nothing fun about this series. Add to it the classic case of ordinary mary sue, who for some reason looks a lot like Kirito from Sword Art Online, entering an all rich girl's academy to teach them the ways of the commoner and you have extremely dumbed down female characters that it's nearly insulting to me. And so many dumb misunderstandings happen in just the first three episodes that it drove me nuts and I almost wanted to punch something while I was watching these episodes on a bus ride home from work this week. When you have a female character who wants to kiss the male character in order to make her dreams come true after not really even running into him and meeting him, you'd wanna punch things too.
It will come as no surprise to anyone when I say I am dropping Shomin Sample. This boring, cliched, and nearly insulting piece of garbage is not worth your time in the least. Hell, I talked to Jonathan a little about it he told me he wouldn't watch it. And if you know Jonathan and the things he normally watches, that's saying something right there. There are so many anime this season that will be more enjoyable than this piece of junk. Also, as much as I love FUNimation, why is this getting a Broadcast Dub? I understand wanting to have a diverse season, but you could have done Concrete Revolutio. I'm fine with dubs for Attack on Titan Jr. High. I'm fine with Noragami Aregato. I'm fine with Dance With Devils. And I don't care about Heavy Object, but even that's a good choice. Even more Seraph is fine by me! Shomin Sample is not a good choice. There are plenty of other decent options compared to this one! Just don't watch Shomin Sample. It sucks.
It will come as no surprise to anyone when I say I am dropping Shomin Sample. This boring, cliched, and nearly insulting piece of garbage is not worth your time in the least. Hell, I talked to Jonathan a little about it he told me he wouldn't watch it. And if you know Jonathan and the things he normally watches, that's saying something right there. There are so many anime this season that will be more enjoyable than this piece of junk. Also, as much as I love FUNimation, why is this getting a Broadcast Dub? I understand wanting to have a diverse season, but you could have done Concrete Revolutio. I'm fine with dubs for Attack on Titan Jr. High. I'm fine with Noragami Aregato. I'm fine with Dance With Devils. And I don't care about Heavy Object, but even that's a good choice. Even more Seraph is fine by me! Shomin Sample is not a good choice. There are plenty of other decent options compared to this one! Just don't watch Shomin Sample. It sucks.
No Recommendation, dropped after three episodes
STARMYU
Stehanie Getchell
During the assignment process for seasonal this time around, I saw Starmyu and read the summary. From there I kinda decided f**k it and added it to my list since I know that no one else would want to watch it and I have been getting into male idol shows lately like Shonen Hollywood. While this one has the basis of you normal idol series, it does bring a few fun things peppered in that just make it even more enjoyable such as the setting and characters. But also because I have been picking up on seiyus more and more that it makes me giggle hearing some of them sing like Natsuki Hanae who you may know as Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul. I kid you not, he voices the lead.
The first arc seems to be going through the motions of forming Team Ootori and each episode has some sort of focus. The first two episodes are concentrated, on and off, between Hashtani and his roommate Nayuki while episode three gives more focus of our resident jack ass who thinks highly of himself. While the series does this how you would expect it too, it also does so another way; with music. During each episode so far Hashitani, Nayuki, and Tengenji had a chance to sing solo in a near music video style of animation. Each one has their own unique spin in order to show the kind of personality, motivation, and style they personify. There is an exception to this as both the Kao Kai and Ootori also perform their own songs during episodes one and two respectively. Speaking of Ootori and the Council, the distance between the two is rather clear, with the fued between Ootori and Hiragi the start of a side plot. Add to it other established plot threads such as the relationship between Tsukigami and his older successful brother and we can see a lot going on.
As silly and dumb parts of this show got this first week, I still got a lot of enjoyment out of it! It has no shame in itself and doesn't give a rat's ass about hiding it. It's campy, clichéd fun and that's all there is to it. It's unknown how many episode will be produced at this time, however, considering the story so far and a couple milestones that could turn into future arcs, I can possibly see it as a two cour anime. However, in my experience when dealing with idol anime, it may not happen. Either way, this is a fun ride and is more than likely going to be a guilty pleasure of mine this season.
Strong Recommendation
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid
Jonathan Kaharl
First off, this is indeed a Studio Arms show made by the Senran Kagura people. It is RAUNCHY, and it is shameless about this, which is good. This was not a series that was going to win anyone over with subtlety. It also weirdly pays close attention to consent, like a minor villain with a supposed slave weapon girl actually being a couple sadist/masochist who are both totally into exhibitionism. Yeah. Anything rapey here leads to someone getting fucked up for being evil, and a lot of time is spent on Mamori and Mirei's cute relationship. It's the little things that let smut shows work. And while the animation is pretty cheap most of the time (as expected for Arms), it has an incredible soundtrack. Hiroako Tsutsumi really gets to show his stuff, composing a ton of sweeping, epic orchestra pieces and making the entire series feel far more grand for it. The opening and ending themes are also fantastic, one exciting rock, and the other ultra-cute love confessions moving at rocket speed. There's even greater lore being developed like a supposedly male leader of the infected society, and two mysterious ladies that may have a major part of the politics of the island. That's not to forget everything with Mirei's past, which is bound to be important later.
So yeah, there's a good deal good here, though it's far from perfect. The animation flaws can be really distracting, especially matched against such amazing music, and there needs to be more definition for the villains. They have great personalities, but we know little about them and their real motivations beyond their one high ranking member who turns a blind eye to a thief who supplies a group of women who broke off from the rule. Mamori and Mirei also have a very superficial relationship three episodes in that desperately needs some development. I also worry that there's going to be some gross stuff later on at this rate, but time will tell. But as it is, I'm really enjoying this show, and it's nice having something so shameless and fun that doesn't make me feel dirty after (please stop Maria in New Sister Devil).
Solid Recommendation
Young Black Jack
David O'Neil
Young Black Jack follows the titular protagonist of Tezuka's iconic manga Black Jack, Kuroo Hazama, in his younger years, still in medical school and still performing outrageous transplants without a license. It's a weird show. And not in a goofy, or random way. The tone incredibly bizarre while simultaneously taking itself seriously, characters are ridiculously over-dramatic, there's tons of weird heavily symbolic visuals, and the OP.....like, even if you don't watch the show itself AT THE LEAST watch the OP because it is.....something else. Words can't do it justice. The show does have things going for it, the surgery scenes are pretty intense, the visuals are consistent, if a bit lacking in terms of movement in the animation, and the novelty of just how strange the overall feel of the show is does help to make it more watchable. The show is also clearly targeting a specific demographic, with it taking any opportunity possible for the male characters to strip and show off their surprisingly well toned bodies. It gets pretty silly at times, but in comparison to other fanservice I've seen this season it's honestly pretty tame. Speaking of tame, the surgery scenes, while probably the high point of the show (judging from the one in the first episode) suffer immensely from the complete lack of gore. There's a good chance this was a necessity considering how much of anime has to handle censorship, but in a surgery scene being unable to actually see any of what's going on is a huge issue.
It does some things well, but as a whole I'm really having trouble getting into the show. It all moves a bit too slowly, with not enough to be engaging. There isn't much in the form of comedy or non-expositional character interaction, which leaves it all to the drama which unfortunately isn't all that strong. The protagonist's main arc so far is a very basic, "eccentric, insanely talented person having to resist the temptations of evil to accomplish good" narrative that's fairly shallow and blatant in its themes. As a result, I've been unable to get excited for new episodes of the show, or even very interested in continuing it at all. It has some cool concepts and imagery, but all felt so lifeless and routine I wasn't able to really care.
Weak Recommendation, dropped after two episodes
Shorts
Anime de Training EX!
Joe Straatmann
No Recommendation
Hacka Doll: The Animation
Danni Kristen
No Recommendation, dropped after three episodes
Hakone-chan
David O'Neil
No Recommendation, dropped after two episodes
JK-MESHI!
Jonathan Kaharl
Weak Recommendation
Kagewani
Stephanie Getchell
Here we go again with more shorts to deal with. It's funny cause in Kagewani's case, it's actually off to a good start! From what I can tell, the episodes will play out episodically and each telling a monster of the week kind of story. The only real character connecting these stories, thus far, is Banba, a professor at a university. Now it's hard to tell what exactly his role is since he's done rather little in the show so far, however, thanks to episode three, it seems like he takes on a more investigative role into these different incidents. How much of a driving force Banba is going to be in the series is still up in the air right now, but it's better than not knowing why this character exists when he hadn't done squat until episode three. And then there's the animation which is an interesting choice. While it's clear this short doesn't have the best budget in the world, it also isn't squandered either as it uses the style that suits is the best; almost like a motion comic rather than an animated series. It's a great idea to go with in order to reserve your budget as well as create the kind of tone you are looking for since this is considered a horror/mystery show. All in all, so far so good!
Solid Recommendation
Komori-san Can't Decline!
David O'Neil
Weak Recommendation
Kowabon
Joe Straatmann
No Recommendation
Magical Somera-chan
Danni Kristen
Strong Recommendation
Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note
Jonathan Kaharl
Weak Recommendation
Second Opinions
Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon
David: Honestly, this season has been pretty light as far as I'm concerned. Sure, there are some stand out shows, but they're largely overshadowed by the sea of disappointing and underwhelming shows also airing this season. With so little to watch, I decided to look to a place I typically avoid like a plague for something watchable: Fantasy light novel adaptations. Out of all the choices, the one I hated the least was Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon. Don't get me wrong, this show is not good. It's visuals are absolute garbage (which is too bad, considering at the least visuals are typically the one thing studio Silver Link can do well), it's filled with tropes, and it primarily follows the same story framework as ever other fantasy Light Novel ever made. But at the least this show for the most part hasn't made me actively angry. It's just sort of meh, with the occasional cute moment from the less obnoxious characters in the cast, and even a few decent joke or two. Plus it has some cool character designs. So with all that, at the least, I'm able to actually watch this show with my brain switched off without yelling at my monitor. So that's worth something....I think. Though I still wouldn't recommend it to anyone, except as a last resort. It's very bad. No Recommendation
Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA
Jonathan: Was not expecting so much gay this season. I'm really liking this one, and like I never have to watch the probably terrible original show to enjoy it. Good action, fun characters, interesting plot building, and just a general good time. Also, I love that the main character of the original show has only had one significant scene so far, and it was him seeing the heroine's panties by accident and freaking the fuck out, dropping into a river, panicking, and needing his ninja sidekick to save him. Wonderful. Strong Recommendation
The Asterisk War
Joe: This is really weird. Even though it's the usual light novel harem crap that makes up far too many anime that are made these days, even though the characters are molded from such stereotypes that I don't remember their names and call them by their roles (Self-insert lead, the main girl, the "mature" girl, etc.), and EVEN THOUGH its setup is so generic, five minutes of the first episode are almost exactly the same as five minutes in another title this season... I kinda' like it. How do I put this? It's the best assembling of elements from the most disposable anime. Well, the couple minutes where the self-insert character jumps into a woman's dorm room in an obvious bad idea can go find a hungry polar bear. The rest? It looks far better than it deserves, they make attempts for the self-insert character to react in the neighborhood a person would in these circumstances, and characters do have a little more to them than just the kink they're trying to exploit. I will say it would be better if the main character's sister was the lead and she was investigating her brother's disappearance. She seems awesome. What I'm saying is if you ever wanted one of these with actual effort put into them, this is worth a shot. I will make amends to the anime gods for saying nice things about this and considering the first episode of Blood Blockade Battlefront to be frustratingly overwritten later. Solid Recommendation
Attack on Titan: Junior High
Jonathan: Yeah, I only need two episodes of this. I imagine if I was a bigger fan of Attack on Titan, I'd be following this, but as it is, I feel I've gotten all the injokes for a good while. This series is basically a string of filler episodes in a long running shonen given an ongoing story arc with a bit of a budget, and while all the continuity and fandom nods are cute, they really start to get old after a bit. Also, I don't think they went far enough making jokes out of certain characters. But it's okay, I guess. Weak Recommendation
Beautiful Bones -Sakurako's Investigation-
David: I grew up watching a quite a few american detective dramas on channels like USA, Monk, Psyche, White Collar and the like. In these shows, the cops would always either be 1. BAFFLED by the case, or 2. It's suicide yep definitely suicide no other explanation. After which the eccentric protagonist would strut onto the scene, and proclaim "NO, IT WAS MURDER" and the point out all the painfully obvious clues the criminal had left behind, but had been totally ignored by the proper authorities. I think it's my fondness for these sorts of shows that makes -Beautiful Bones- Sakurako's Investigation such a guilty pleasure for me. It's not a show that's actively funny or goofy, but almost feels like it is with how straight it plays the detective show routine. Inept police-work, a level-headed sidekick to the eccentric detective, detailed explanations of how the murder took place, hell, Sakurako even has a catch phrase and ridiculous sequence of giant skeletons walking around her whenever she starts investigating a crime scene. I'm not saying the show is "so bad its good", in fact it's actually very well produced with solid animation and some neat use of depth of field and filters that, while mixed in execution, when it works, makes for some stunning scenes. And it's only been getting better with every episode, episodes two and three had some legitimately strong moments that were more than just dumb fun. If you can stand the contrivances of procedural crime dramas, or even better, actually have a soft spot for those contrivances like I do, -Beautiful Bones- is absolutely worth watching. Solid Recommendation
Joe: You will be assimilated by Sherlock Holmes inspired procedurals. Resistance is futile. If you go to anime to avoid the conventions of Western television, this might not be for you. For what it is, the story of yet another extremely eccentric genius and their straight-laced sidekick solving mysteries centered around their particular form of expertise, it's all right. The animation is very sleek with unexpected pops of sumptuous color from time to time (Though the "let's get ready to solve this shit" sequence is a touch overblown for the scenes it's used in). The mysteries aren't particularly top drawer so far and they seem to lack some basic knowledge of police work, but they aren't horrid. It's also not about who the murderer is all the time, but occasionally who the person who died was. The quality of these shows usually hinges on how enjoyable the genius eccentric is, and Sakurako is quite fun as an obsessive bone collector with a love for loud music whose hobby just happens to kick up a human skeleton from time to time. As far as these shows go, it doesn't reach the awesome levels of House as of yet, but it's better than the, "Eh, if there's absolutely nothing else on, I'll watch it" feel of Elementary. Solid Recommendation
Stephanie: And here comes the classic detective, mystery story but this time taking on the form of the TV show Bones, basically (though to be fair I've never seen the TV show so... Yeah). There's a lot of good things going for this series so far from stunning animation to a rather episodic story line with an underlying plot attached to it. While it can get drawn out at points, it's still really nice to see a consistent progression in story and characters. Sakurako would be the reason why I'd want to get into forensic science if this series came out while I was in high school and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. It's fine though, theatre is amazing. Anyway, Beautiful Bones is off to a decent start and I do hope it gets better from here. Solid Recommendation
Comet Lucifer
Jonathan: It's amazing how fast I lost interest in a show. This here is trying to be Eureka Seven, but about ten times more blunt and far less interesting. This is the generic fantasy version of the rebel youth coming of age story that's been a growing thing in the past few years, and by the first episode, I can already tell a lot of where it's going to go. It does not help there is absolutely no subtly in the script. That first episode was just so lifeless. Meh. No Recommendation
Concrete Revolutio
Jonathan: It's like Grant Morrison collaborated on an anime! 70s pop art, dozens of genres smashed together, every character representing a different superhero or fantasy subgerne, past and future time switching with connected story threads. It's like this series was made exclusively for me, and I love it. Just a fair warning, you will not understand some of this if you are not a gigantic nerd like me. But if you love comics and superhero manga and anime, you will get a kick out of this. Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: Bones is at it again this season and with a rather strong start for Concrete Revolutio! They've been having a good year overall with Blood Blockade Battlefront, Revolutio, and Noragami season 2 also airing this season. In Revolutio's case, it's so bright and colorful with fun characters to meet. It's clear that something is going on in the story seeing as how there are two timelines the viewer follows and ends up connecting to the other during each episode. The obvious question currently is what caused Jiro to shift sides, however it's more than likely going to be explained as the earlier timeline moves along and connects to the second, more present, one. I'll be surprised if this one doesn't get a Broadcast Dub from FUNimation. I ought to make my predictions now just in case... Strong Recommendation
Dance With Devils
Jonathan: It's an anime musical based off a horror themes otome game with a set-up similar to Diabolik Lovers. I can't make this shit up. It's also pretty damn enjoyable. Sorta. The brother is just an awful character, and he's not supposed to be, unlike the pick-up artist douchebag demon guy. The rest of the love interests are fine otherwise (and the muscular guy is weirdly attractive), and I like that the main character actually has a spine and tries to figure things out as it becomes more and more clear that everyone is keeping something from her. But this still deals a lot with creepy shojo gender politics, not to mention a lot of the events occurring because a good number of characters are about as intelligent as a bowl of pudding. Could go either way, but it definitely has atmosphere when it wants it. Weak Recommendation
Stephanie: Once again, a series that I decided to add at the last second because people tell me amazing things about it. They may not exactly be amazingly good things, but having the occasional amazingly bad series to have for a fun watch isn't a terrible thing either. And yet.... Why didn't I add this to my list of want to watch shows and possibly get it as one of mine?! Not only does it have a possibly bad reverse harem story and supernatural beings (which is such a guilty pleasure of mine) it's also a damn musical! Why is the theatre graduate not talking about the musical anime?! Geez, I'm an idiot for skipping this before. Hell, it's actually not all bad since the lead heroine is the most capable one I have seen in a good long while. And while the group of love interests are rather stereotyped, the music helps give it something fresh. Yeah, this is gonna be a fun one for me! Strong Recommendation
Garo: Crimson Moon
Jonathan: This is a massive drop in quality from the first series. The cast is far less interesting than Leon and the gang, and the political scuffles around them are boring and stupid. It's a bunch of humans being dicks to each other and sometimes horrors appear. It's hard to be engaged when not even the characters seem to give a shit about much of anything. Our main character is also even more generic than Leon, and lacks the good writing to sell his character that Leon was blessed with. Only Seimei manages to be interesting in any way, but she can't lift up this drab series by herself. I say skip it. Weak Recommendation
Stephanie: I don't get to talk about more Garo this season. DAMN!! Aww well. I'm not quite sure how to feel about this season's Garo so far. Of course it's completely different than the first season from last year in many ways including animation and characters, but the basic plot line remains the same. Guy fights Horrors while dealing with an even bigger evil. Simple enough. After getting through these first three episodes, it's clear there's a different direction being taken for this season, and yet I liked the more darker season one compared to what seems to be the typical action series as of now. It's not a terrible start, but it just reminds me a lot of the stereotypical shonen/action anime we see very often and this could hurt the series in the coming weeks. But, again, seeing it take this side on compared to the previous season is good in order to keep the franchise fresh. It'll be interesting to see what these next few weeks will bring, but it's been a decent start so far. Solid Recommendation
Heavy Object
Jonathan: Light novel show where the main character nearly kills the love interest by tightening her seat belt too much and can't save her because he doesn't want to touch her boobs because that would be embarrassing. It sucks, moving on. No Recommendation
Stephanie: After only seeing one episode of Heavy Object, I'm not planning on seeing anymore. There was a lot of exposition and set up that didn't exactly go anywhere. Think about it, the opening sequence took around three to four minutes of the episode to explain EVERYTHING. Granted, it was nice to learn what this world is about, but then we proceed into a bunch of nothing. The largest problem I have, however, is that it is rather boring. It is so boring that I actually fell asleep while watching the episode and cannot remember half of it. Either I'm extremely tired from work or this is some kind of sign of things to come. To be safe, I'll say it's the latter. Weak Recommendation
Kagewani
Jonathan: This is something special. Anime rarely gets any good horror to work with, and most of it gets budgeted to hell and back. But then you have Kagewani, which got hit by the poverty stick from start, yet manages to engage me more than most any other show this season. This is a labor of love, filled with sweat and tears and held together with duck tape and off brand graphic design programs. It looks so cheap, but I'm so constantly in the moment whenever I watch. The acting is strong, the actual character and monster designs explode with life and grotesque detail, and the stories themselves really tap into some primal fears (outside the first episode). This is good horror because it's ugly horror that takes advantage of its limitations and uses them to hook the viewer in, while managing to hide the worst parts of the production (most of the time). If you want a good bit of horror to marathon, every episode of this show is under eight minutes. Just saying. Strong Recommendation
Komori-san Can't Decline!
Jonathan: Really cute series of shorts. Fun characters, nice character designs, and good timing with the gags. I'm impressed how much humor they fit in two minutes without going with the absurdity assault style of Teekyu. There may even be a bit of extra depth here, with one episode hinting at character development. Neat. Solid Recommendation
Kowabon
Danni: I can't say this show is particularly scary, but I still like it a lot. It's biggest weakness is that its format as a short doesn't allow for time to build up suspense or tension. I definitely still consider it a good horror anime, though. Some may argue it fails because it likely won't scare viewers, but I don't think that's a requirement of horror. Each episode of Kowabon is like a window into the lives of people being haunted by a single spirit. While it doesn't scare me, it tells the stories of individuals undergoing their own horrors. I appreciate that. Also, the fact it tells the story mostly through webcams, security cameras, and selfies is pretty unusual and cool. Solid Recommendation
Magical Somera-chan
Jonathan: What the fuck Japan. Strong Recommendation
Mr. Osomatsu
Danni: I don't think anyone really expected this show to be as good as it is. First episode was a reference fest that went on a little too long, but episode two and on have all been hilarious. I appreciate a comedy anime that focuses on twenty-somethings for once. The crude and cynical humor only adds to its relatability, which might not say great things about me. My biggest problem with the show, however, is the design of the side characters. The main sextuplets look very similar to Jim Davis characters, so they don't seem out of place. The side characters, though, all have the same designs they had fifty years ago. They seem incredibly ugly and out of date compared to other cartoonish characters in modern anime, but I suppose that's what happens when you reboot a fifty year old show. Solid Recommendation
Jonathan: This may be one of the smartest comedies I have ever seen. It's like the Japanese Regular Show, but with hopeful nostalgia replaced by biting cynicism and black humor. It's fucking great. Hell, it's easily one of the best shows of the season, if not the year. Top ten material here, even possibly top five. Strong Recommendation
One Punch Man
Jonathan: Welp, unless something goes horribly wrong, this is one of the five best shows of the year. The original manga was already fantastic, and the remade version even better, but the anime somehow even tops that with some of the most painstakingly animated fight scenes I have ever seen. This is movie quality animation here, and amazingly managed just because of how dedicated the staff was. Do not miss this one, do not wait for the dub. Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: The one series that everyone and their mother seems to be excited for this season is One Punch Man. Frankly, I try to stay away from the hype in order to not get disappointed since Sword Art Online was one massive clusterf**k of a series. It also doesn't help me that I haven't read the web comic or the following manga as I always tend to go into new anime blind and never really read the source material. In the case of One Punch Man, I may actually fall for the hype! While it does take the well known comic book hero and keep it, the series also, in it's own way, parodies the comic genre. Saitama is a strong hero, but he's now much more bored then ever before while a bunch of things happen around him including monsters attacking the city and inadvertently taking on the cyborg Genos as a student. I laughed quite a bit while watching the first three episodes, and Saitama's personality may have a lot to do with it. Strong Recommendation
Tama: It's often interesting to see the Japanese take on the western Superhero; sometimes it ends in abject, often bizarre failures, like Stan Lee's Heroman, reduced to spitting out old cliches, sometimes they're interesting reflections of the genre, given a distinctly Japanese fascia, such as Tiger & Bunny, exploring what it means to be a superhero. And then you have One Punch Man. Imagine, if you will, Superman is a slightly boring, average Joe, who, rather than being born with superpowers, gets them from...exercising a lot. During which he goes bald. Anyway, our hero, Saitama, is now pretty much a superhero as a hobby, casually defeating monsters that would usually be the final battle of a longish series with his titular "One Punch", which unfortunately tends to make fights with him...rather one sided. The first four episodes throw invaders from beneath the earth, a giant man and his scientist brother, a genetically modified beastery and the scientist that created them, and, during a fight with a mosquito girl (that I'm pretty sure already has a lot of amusingly NSFW art), teams up with earnest cyborg Genos who becomes his more-than-willing apprentice. Finally, the (not so) dynamic duo take on the mysterious (if amusingly inept) Speed-o'-Sound Sonic. The genius of One Punch Man lies in its duo; Saitama is the everyman, trying in short to have a normal life, but drawn again and again to the fight, Genos is the earnest fighter, driven by revenge, but still essentially a child. For all its superheroic antics, (and rarely has action ever been rendered so beautifully than the fight towards the end of the first episode), it is also notable that One Punch Man is shot through with humour, both particular to the genre, and slice of life. All of this make it an early contender for show of the season. Strong Recommendation
The Perfect Insider
David: It's not often I go into a show as blind as I did with The Perfect Insider. Going in I knew next to nothing about the show other than some of the staff, and had almost no clue what to expect. I can say that what I've gotten so far is immensely interesting. It's the epitome of a "slow build" series, in the three episodes I've seen things have moves along at a perfectly gradual pace, with dialogue littered with foreshadowing and mysteries that constantly evolve as the show progresses. The show does very little at a time without being boring because it constantly keeps your mind occupied trying to figure out what exactly is going on and what it all means. Being a mystery series, I do hope it manages to pay off on that mystery, but it's certainly off to a fascinating start. In addition it's damn near flawless from a production perspective: The animation is consistently solid, the character designs are interesting, it's use of lighting, colors and depth of field are brilliant, its cinematography is excellent, and it has a fantastic OP. I only have a vague idea of where the show is headed, but as of now the show has thoroughly grasped by attention and so far appears to have no intention of letting go. Here's hoping it manages to stick the landing. Strong Recommendation
Jonathan: This one is a NoitaminA show, so I was expecting artsy, and that's exactly what I got. This novel adaptation is a mystery story with a really interesting bit of presentation, creating a very real but closed off and claustrophobic world. It's damn creepy when it wants to be, and I love the dialog between the characters, helped that the show seems to be aware that its main character is a philosophical twat. This could be a huge upset for the year, so watch it carefully. Strong Recommendation
Stephanie: I'm not sure if this series wants to be some overarching mystery series or just a slice of life with a little romance to it. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the first three episodes. I just don't know where it's trying to go. The set up has been good so far, and the characters are interesting to watch. Add in the animation from A-1 Pictures and we got ourselves a pretty good show! I do hope it stays with the mystery route cause there's a hell of a lot more then what the series is letting on with all the flashbacks and narrations occurring. Who knows what it's trying to do, but it'll be interesting so see where it decides to go. Solid Recommendation
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid
Danni: A lesbian fingered her girlfriend on the beach and she orgasm'd into a giant gun. This show is trash and I love it. Weak Recommendation
Young Black Jack
Jonathan: Never have I wanted to love a show so much, only for it to suddenly serve into a right wing lecture on how young people ruined the world and we should feel guilty about it because all the old people were right. This show throws out so much fucking shade on the 1960s youth movements that it's practically an eclipse. It's ridiculous, most every episode has to make a point about this. But this is still Black Jack, so shit gets crazy, interesting, and exciting. I just wish it didn't come at the cost of blaming an entire generation for being wrong for not listening to their parents (despite the fact they were fucking right). It's like that one cool uncle who will just go on random political tangents and kind of shit on everything you stand for, but only for a moment before going back to buying everyone ice cream. Conflicted feelings abound. Weak Recommendation
Stephanie: I have to preface my thoughts on Young Black Jack here and now. I know nothing about the franchise. I've heard little things, but I have not seen a Black Jack series prior to this season and am diving head first into this series blind. From what I can tell from the first three episodes, this has a mix of drama and psychological aspects that work rather well together. Adding in the backdrop of the late 60s during the Vietnam War, and there's a lot of pieces that are at play and manage to set up the struggle of morals vs. ethics which will more than likely play a part on the series overall. I'm interested to see what this one has in store in the coming weeks and wether or not it will be able to keep this momentum going from here on! Solid Recommendation
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