What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

2 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

This season's new offerings don't seem to be off to a great start.

I started Monster Musume no Oisha-san over lunch today, and... y'know that "copy your homework" meme that goes "just change it up a bit so it doesn't look obvious you copied"?

The best way I can sum up this show is "that, for Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou".

The protagonist, Glenn Leitbeit, is a young doctor who recently opened a clinic specializing in monster care... and while he doesn't look a thing like the main guy from Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou, he's basically the only one who doesn't look like they were lifted right out of Okayado's manga.  Six minutes into episode 1 and we've already got off-brand versions of several members of the MonMusu cast including the clingy jealous lamia girl (who is, in this case, Glenn's de facto nurse) and the blonde centaur princess-knight with the giant rack who immediately decides that the main character is her one-and-only because he's not a musclebound jerk.

It is, at least, somewhat less fanservice-heavy than Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou... though they still did manage to make shoeing a centaur sound creepy and sexual.

It's not bad per se, it's just painfully unoriginal.  Right now, 4/10... we'll see if it actually develops into something worth watching the way To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts did.

The next new offering I'm going to have a look at is The Misfit of Demon King Academy... which seems to by holding The Irregular at Magic High School down and stealing its lunch money.

it is the same for me, about these shows.  It is strange that I am only watching 2 shows this season that are not sequels.

[Seto Kaiba]

So... The Misfit of Demon King Academy.

This didn't start where I was expecting.  We got an opening narration right out of Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou that temporarily veered into Harry Potter territory, with owls delivering the handwritten invitations to magic maou school.  Seems like we've got a fairly standard Isekai-style massively overpowered main character... admittedly more along the lines of Ainz Ooal Gown from Overlord, who wasn't afraid to make his demonstrations of overwhelming power messily lethal.  It follows all the boring, standard Isekai magic user plot beats, like having a power level that defies measurement.  He's only a month old... somehow... is that normal?  Basically, this is Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou if Sai Akuto had actually lived up (or down) to the joke in his name (that he's the ultimate evil) or The Irregular at Magic High School if Shiba didn't have the emotional range of a cress sandwich.

Like Monster Musume no Oisha-san, this is borrowing so heavily from other titles that it feels more like a form letter than a story.  I'd score it even lower than Oisha-san, since there's no sign of an actual plot here... just an overpowered main character stomping on anyone who crosses him.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-07-10/a-certain-scientific-railgun-t-anime-video-previews-dream-ranker-arc/.161690

 

looks good.  I like the new opening.

[TangledThorns]

Finished JAPAN SINKS on Netflix. Gripping drama, highly recommended.

Spoiler Alert!

Damn nature, you scary!

[blackconvoy_D01]

13 minutes ago, TangledThorns said:

Finished JAPAN SINKS on Netflix. Gripping drama, highly recommended.

Spoiler Alert!

Damn nature, you scary!

Same! Just wrapped it up yesterday. What a messed up situation!

[bluemax151]

Based on the criticism in here for Monster Musume no Oisha-san and The Misfit of Demon King Academy I won't be bothering to watch them. Seems like conversion from LN to Anime didn't go well in either instance. I'm used to a bit being lost in translation like most of the background info in Mahouka but some conversions are worse than others. It should be conveyed that Saphentite is the only real love interest at least initially ( I haven't read all the volumes yet) in Monster Girl Doctor.

 

I've been watching the The 8th Son and My next life as a villainess. The former I enjoy the setting but the protagonist is a bit too passive. The latter is too humorous for my taste.

[Seto Kaiba]

37 minutes ago, bluemax151 said:

Based on the criticism in here for Monster Musume no Oisha-san and The Misfit of Demon King Academy I won't be bothering to watch them. Seems like conversion from LN to Anime didn't go well in either instance. I'm used to a bit being lost in translation like most of the background info in Mahouka but some conversions are worse than others. It should be conveyed that Saphentite is the only real love interest at least initially ( I haven't read all the volumes yet) in Monster Girl Doctor.

 

I've been watching the The 8th Son and My next life as a villainess. The former I enjoy the setting but the protagonist is a bit too passive. The latter is too humorous for my taste.

All told, I'm not sure the problems with this recent spate of light novel adaptations is a problem with the adaptation process... in almost every case where I've sampled both the original light novel and anime adaptation, the flaws in the story were invariably the original sins of the source material.  Like KonoSuba being a tedious mess with exactly one joke it repeats ad nauseam, TenSura being every bit as thrilling as the Microsoft Excel help menu, or 8th Son recounting Wendelin's adventures in the same slightly bored tone one would use to recount how they had forgotten their wallet on the way to the market.

The only real exceptions have been The Irregular at Magic High School and The Saga of Tanya the Evil, where details that were left out dramatically changed the interpretation of their main characters.  

[bluemax151]

Not to be argumentative but your previous post's criticism lead me to believe you either haven't read the LN or aren't recalling all the details. A lot of what was criticized was better developed or explained in the corresponding LN. Obviously it's not the viewers responsibility to have read the source material. The Anime should stand on it's own merits. I don't generally hold LNs to exceedingly high standards as it's essentially pulp fiction but in every instance I have encountered the LN is inevitably better developed even if it's not by that much. That's also to be expected as the anime treatment is generally just a animated commercial for the LN.  I've only read one series so far that is more of full well developed novel and that's Saihate no Paladin. Still in that each volume is fairly short so not much can be depicted.

The fact the art in Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou anime looks like Monster Musume is disappointing. The color art of the character designs included in the LN is actually pretty nice. I've read a few LNs were the art style change in the anime has irked me. 

I can't bring myself to watch or read KonoSuba. It's entirely too much slapstick from what I sampled. I do not have the patience for that anymore. I enjoy the change of pace TenSura and Death March kara provide. They're pretty low key and slow paced slice of life style isekai stories. I do find the food trope stuff in them annoying though.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Ao Haru Ride is the next show I am watching.

[Seto Kaiba]

2 hours ago, bluemax151 said:

Not to be argumentative but your previous post's criticism lead me to believe you either haven't read the LN or aren't recalling all the details.

To be fair, I haven't sampled the light novels for Monster Musume no Oisha-san or Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha yet... so you have a point in that I have not read those two specific light novels yet.

I was speaking more generally, since there's been an increase in the number of anime series adapted from light novels over the last couple years.  There are a couple isolated cases where the show demonstrably suffers because of material from the light novel that was cut in the adaptation process (e.g. Yōjo Senki or The Irregular at Magic High School), but it's vastly more common for the TV anime's flaws to be bad writing that was faithfully carried over from the source material (e.g. KonoSuba, TenSura).

 

2 hours ago, bluemax151 said:

A lot of what was criticized was better developed or explained in the corresponding LN. Obviously it's not the viewers responsibility to have read the source material. The Anime should stand on it's own merits. I don't generally hold LNs to exceedingly high standards as it's essentially pulp fiction but in every instance I have encountered the LN is inevitably better developed even if it's not by that much. That's also to be expected as the anime treatment is generally just a animated commercial for the LN.  I've only read one series so far that is more of full well developed novel and that's Saihate no Paladin. Still in that each volume is fairly short so not much can be depicted.

Granted, a light novel that's got a half-dozen volumes or more is going to have more time to develop its story than a twelve episode TV anime... but my criticisms weren't about the as-of-yet unanswered questions in the stories.  Most of what I mentioned was how obviously derivative Monster Musume no Oisha-san and Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha are.  It's like the authors weren't even trying to disguise whose homework they were copying.  It's really spectacularly blatant in Monster Musume no Oisha-san... the promotional materials even feature the same group of standard light fantasy monsters as Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou, and it's so far we're batting 1000 for them having the same defining character traits and personalities.  It's just less fanservice-y... or I should say less overtly fanservice-y.

If the stories develop in an interesting direction I'll excuse an awful lot... it's just such blatant plagiarism does nothing to rope me in, y'know?

 

2 hours ago, bluemax151 said:

The fact the art in Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou anime looks like Monster Musume is disappointing. The color art of the character designs included in the LN is actually pretty nice. I've read a few LNs were the art style change in the anime has irked me. 

TBH, I think the art style is distinct enough... especially since the character designer for Oisha-san seems to not have Okayado's ginormous boob fetish.

 

2 hours ago, bluemax151 said:

I can't bring myself to watch or read KonoSuba. It's entirely too much slapstick from what I sampled. I do not have the patience for that anymore. I enjoy the change of pace TenSura and Death March kara provide. They're pretty low key and slow paced slice of life style isekai stories. I do find the food trope stuff in them annoying though.

KonoSuba was good for about one and a half seasons of the anime, or around 4 volumes of the light novel.  Past that point, it gets samey really REALLY quick because the author of the light novel apparently thought character development might hinder the one joke the series has.  So every since volume of the light novel after they defeat Vanir starts in exactly the same place, with Kazuma having fallen back into his hikikomori lifestyle with approximately half the volume spent trying to get him off his arse.

 

 

 

Next up in my list of this season's new offerings is Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time.  This one actually has a freaking content warning on it on Crunchyroll, so I am not hopeful that it'll be watchable.

[AN/ALQ128]

While on the subject of fantasy, I've been really into Witch Hat Atelier and Dungeon Meshi. Would be nice if they got animated adaptations, although it would be hard to do the art style on the former justice! Gorgeous manga, that.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Just finished the 2nd episode of ReZero S2 and it was so good.

[bluemax151]

Not necessarily Anime related but it could be. I saw a story that Amazon has started pulling LN and Manga from Kindle. As far as I can tell this has not yet impacted the physical releases or Anime yet.

As examples Arifureta volume 6 was pulled and all of No Game No Life. There's some speculation the Anime for the latter may be pulled as it's some what "problematic" from what I understand ( I haven't read or watched it myself).

[Focslain]

3 hours ago, bluemax151 said:

Not necessarily Anime related but it could be. I saw a story that Amazon has started pulling LN and Manga from Kindle. As far as I can tell this has not yet impacted the physical releases or Anime yet.

As examples Arifureta volume 6 was pulled and all of No Game No Life. There's some speculation the Anime for the latter may be pulled as it's some what "problematic" from what I understand ( I haven't read or watched it myself).

No, they are pulling anything that has NSFW material. Infinitis Stratos also got pulled as did Glinpr, How not to summon a demon lord and others of the same nature. Basically if it had ecchi it's dropping.

[Seto Kaiba]

So... Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time...

Unsurprisingly, this seems to be yet another low quality, one cour, half-length TV anime that exists almost exclusively for ecchi fanservice that's occasionally played for comedy.  All of what passes for exposition is front-loaded into a minute or so before the OP in the first episode.  Peter Grill is a knight in Generic Western Fantasy Land #3263827, who'd just become the first human to win the "world's strongest warrior" tournament in over 150 years and now that he's officially the World's Strongest Man every monster girl around wants to ride his pocket Zaku for the sake of having strong children.  Peter, of course, already has a painfully sheltered love interest and wants exactly none of this.  Lather, rinse, repeat the same one f*cking joke of him being cornered by an (occasionally literally) horny monster girl ad nauseam in Double Standards: Female on Male Sexual Assault: the Series!

The OP inexplicably reminded me of a scene from Excel Saga where they're introducing Misaki and she demands to know why they've stopped the camera tilt where they did, focusing on her "assets" and leaving her face out of the frame.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, Studio Wolfsbane did a pretty crap job animating it as well.

0/10... if you're going to take a hard pass on one series this season, make it Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time.

[technoblue]

9 minutes ago, Focslain said:

No, they are pulling anything that has NSFW material. Infinitis Stratos also got pulled as did Glinpr, How not to summon a demon lord and others of the same nature. Basically if it had ecchi it's dropping.

Yeah. Amazon isn't a service I would describe as user-friendly for this sort of content. They change the rules all the time, especially on the US portal. Reading into it, I think, is just part of the strange stir-crazy days that we find ourselves in at the moment. Thankfully, there are other resources if you want to buy (even in the US). Yen press noted rightstuf still caries all their light novels in print form and book walker is available for digital editions.

Edited July 16, 2020 by technoblue

[bluemax151]

1 hour ago, Focslain said:

No, they are pulling anything that has NSFW material. Basically if it had ecchi it's dropping.

Is that accurate? I was under the impression that I will survive using potions was not an ecchi title (I haven't read it). Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash was pulled as well and I don't recall it being an ecchi title either but it's been a while since I read volumes 1 & 2. I also went back and skimmed through Arifureta volume 6 to see if I could find anything that stuck out and may have caused this installment in particular to be pulled but I couldn't locate anything questionable.

 

I decided to re-watch Zoids Chaotic century and see if it holds up well. Episode 1 has already successfully reminded me why I generally prefer the story line  over New Century. Van is much less irritating in comparison to Bit.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Oregairu episode 2 of Season 3 was so good. I love this series.

[Seto Kaiba]

On 7/16/2020 at 4:17 PM, bluemax151 said:

Is that accurate? I was under the impression that I will survive using potions was not an ecchi title (I haven't read it). Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash was pulled as well and I don't recall it being an ecchi title either but it's been a while since I read volumes 1 & 2. I also went back and skimmed through Arifureta volume 6 to see if I could find anything that stuck out and may have caused this installment in particular to be pulled but I couldn't locate anything questionable.

Several news articles from various sites have popped up in my newsfeeds over the last day or two alleging the same thing... that Amazon is dropping titles based on how much explicit content.  The example title most of them used was the light novel series Isekai Maō to Shōkan Shōjo no Dorei Majutsu, which is admittedly not a good example of a marginal title given its massive quantities of fanservice.

 

The third episode of Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha went up on Crunchyroll a few hours ago, so I'm watching that right now.

So far, the only thing that really makes Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha stand out is its heavy use of Isekai tropes without actually being an Isekai story.  Anos - and I am NEVER going to be able to take that name seriously - is a reincarnated protagonist who retained memories from his previous life, possesses immense magical power, and no matter what he does he ends up gaining status and power regardless of how many rules he breaks or who in power he offends.  He's the standard Isekai protagonist in everything but the fact that he wasn't sent to another world.  Admittedly, the fact that he has perfect recall of his past life has already started to make everyone's reluctance to believe he's the demon king reincarnated feel like it's arbitrary skepticism, and we're only three episodes in.

All in all, I've revised my estimation of it up a bit in light of what appears to be the start of an actual plot thread worth following but it doesn't really feel like it's doing anything to stand out, y'know?  The character design is very Mahōka Kōkō no Rettōsei and the plot feels like Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maō.

 

[Marzan]

This season seems like it will be much less affected than the previous one due to the Covid19 situation.

Oregairu season 3 picked right up where the second one ended and all is good with the world.

Fire Force S2 and No Guns Life S2- ok so far.

God of High School- Crunchyroll is really pushing it's own manwha productions really hard, but I'm not too impressed so far. Pretty basic battle shounen stuff

Rent a Girlfriend- I can only cringe so much before my teeth start chipping off. The MC is such an unrelatable loser.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I am really enjoying this season of Sword Art Online.  The last episode was great.

[bluemax151]

Pulling How Not to Summon a Demon Lord makes sense if speculation for the reason is correct. Images of  Rem and Sylvie would be considered problematic. The art in the LNs are just as ecchi as the anime in this instance. Not a huge loss imo as the story arc sort of went off the rails around volume 10 anyway.

 

Looks like other Amazon storefronts are starting to pull titles as well.

Stop the removal of Manga and Light Novels from Amazon

 

It's been a while since I read some of the Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha LN but Anos was essentially omnipotent and was only defeated to prove a point and because he was bored iirc. He literally is the Demon King where as Akuto Sai in Demon King Daimao is what the current Administration in universe classifies as a Demon Lord. He's essentially Neo from the Matrix. I'm not sure if the Anime ever really explains that though. I enjoy that we appear to be getting more JPN fiction with strong protagonists but unfortunately most of the stories aren't really well developed. 

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by bluemax151

[Seto Kaiba]

Since this season's proving to be kinda weak, I've started some more old shows including KyoAni's Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid.  

It's not quite what I was expecting, but in a good way.  I was expecting something a bit more comedy-heavy, but this is more a surprisingly pure slice of life story.  That kind of light and innocent story is right up my alley right now, given how stressful the world has gotten.  I'm three episodes in and enjoying it immensely, though I'm a bit perplexed that Crunchyroll put the French dub as the default start position instead of the original Japanese audio.

My weekly work watch parties are going smoothly in isolation too.  My team's halfway through Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable and they all seem to be loving it.  They want to tackle Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood once they finish Golden Wind.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shuushoku wo Ketsui Shimashita us turning out to be pretty good.  I like Phino.

[kajnrig]

I've traveled from the future to tell you all what I'm currently watching a month and seven days from now:

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Fruits Basket Season 2 has been so good. The last episode was so sad.

[Seto Kaiba]

Monster Girl Doctor's second episode is up on Crunchyroll... missed that it got posted because the new app surprisingly doesn't seem to want to display it in my bookmarks.

Still not over the fact that the lamia's name is, for all practical intents and purposes, "S. Nakes"... and the anime's opening isn't doing much to dissuade me from thinking the author of the light novel ran more than a cursory eye over Okayado's Daily Life with Monster Girls when they were writing this.  Admittedly, this one is shaping up to be a lot less ecchi, and that would be a significant point in its favor.  (I'll admit that the at-least moderate case of showing their work WRT albinism in snakes scored them a few points too.)

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

ReZero season 2 is been nothing short of great.

[hachi]

On 7/21/2020 at 10:01 AM, kajnrig said:

I've traveled from the future to tell you all what I'm currently watching a month and seven days from now:

 

I tried to watch the 1st season but I was just getting angry thinking she should do something more proactive about her work (like resign or look for another job?) Does anything good ever happen?

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I finished Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shuushoku wo Ketsui Shimashita last night it was pretty good.  Nothing special.

[aradii]

I finished Yakusoku no Neverland, What a masterpiece!
Characters, story, music, animation and everything is wonderful, one of THE BEST anime's I've seen, I can recommend this one so much, and you only have to watch one episode to get hooked.

Edited July 26, 2020 by aradii

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Yes, Railgun T is back and it was awesome as usual.  I love the new fripSide opening song.

[Seto Kaiba]

Well, another episode of Monster Musume no Oisha-san has come and gone... and I'm baffled that this even got published as a light novel.

It's not that it's bad - all told it's utterly mediocre - it's that it's so completely and utterly devoid of anything resembling original thought.  Yoshino Origuchi was absolutely copying from Okayado's Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou chapter and verse, that much is painfully obvious.  What's more impressive is that, with all that blatant copying, they still couldn't manage to pen a worthwhile story or likable character.  It feels a lot like Macross Delta, in that regard.  The audience is clearly expected to like these characters because they resemble characters in an earlier work someone actually put effort into... not because of anything the characters themselves actually contribute to the story.

Episode 3 of Monster Musume no Oisha-san is two running jokes from Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou tediously drawn out into an entire 24 minute episode... Zombina falling to pieces in public places to people get freaked out by moving disembodied limbs, and Lala's body getting molested by someone while her head isn't on it.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I am enjoying Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha far more than I thought I would.

[Seto Kaiba]

Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid really is the feel-good slice-of-life story I needed in these stressful times.

Ten episodes in, and I can't think of any one episode I'd say I didn't thoroughly enjoy.

 

Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time is... well... exactly what I expected it to be.  It's actually kind of cringe-y to watch.

 

My weekly watch party finished Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part IV: Diamond is Unbreakable the other day and moved on to the very start of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part V: Golden Wind... and I think they're hooked.  The sheer absurdity of Bruno's intro scene definitely grabbed their attention.