What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Valkyrie Driver]

I actually just finished up Gate: Thus the Defense Force Fought. It's pretty good, and I've heard millings that there is a potential for a third season, which I'd be excited to see.

It's strangely satisfying.

[Gerli]

I actually just finished up Gate: Thus the Defense Force Fought. It's pretty good, and I've heard millings that there is a potential for a third season, which I'd be excited to see.

It's strangely satisfying.

I don't like the ending... it was... bland.

The story was good and had a lot of great moments but... come on Itami...

[Valkyrie Driver]

I don't like the ending... it was... bland.

The story was good and had a lot of great moments but... come on Itami...

It was, but it's kinda set up for a continuation, if I'm not mistaken the manga is still ongoing. I'll tolerate the ending, the Apocalypse Now references were great, and I laughed, and it made me so happy when they played ride of the Valkyries.

[chyll2]

Watching kuromukuro or black relic. I was surprised that it is a mechanical show. The summary was like an ancient samurai waking up in a dam. Lol

[Chet]

Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross

[renegadeleader1]

Anybody watch Hai Furi yet? Everthing I've read about it leads me to believe its more or less a naval version of Girls Und Panzer.

[Valkyrie Driver]

I'm currently watching Majestic Prince (Ginga Kikoutai Majesutikku Purinsu). It's decent, if a bit simplistic.

[technoblue]

I'm watching Bungou Stray Dogs and Kiznaiver, which is Trigger's new series this season. So far so good on both.

[Major Focker]

liking Stray Dogs too.

also really upbeat about Hero Academy. BGM keeps giving me goosebumps.

heck, maybe HA will come out on top of Kabeneri in my season fave list, but let's see what Kabeneri's delayed 2nd episode will bring.

haven't seen many posts about last season animes. usually, folks have a quick wrap up and reco list. i'm still finishing on my backlog from last season.

Edited April 21, 2016 by Major Focker

[Marzan]

Finally catching up to Ajin (reminds me a lot of Tokyo Ghoul for some reason, just with less teenagers). The main villain is one of the meanest, most well made bad guys in recent memory in manga/anime.

This season I'm watching Kabaneri, Jojo Diamond is Unbreakable, Kiiznaiver and Ushio no Tora.

[frothymug]

Last season was full of good shows. This season is lacking, however. Only So You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online? and Macross Delta are on my radar right now. The former is pretty funny and constantly pokes fun at people who game in their free time. I can relate.

[Dynaman]

I'm rewatcing Gurren Lagann, for the most part an excellent english dub, only real miss in the VA cast is Nia.

[Mazinger]

I'm re-starting Eureka Seven after an aborted attempt a few years back. I started with the english dub, but I just couldn't get into all the emotive, wailing, angst of the protagonist in english. For some reason, the dubs always amplify the awkwardness of these teenagers to the point that it's a turn off for me.

The original audio isn't so annoying and now that I know that Kawamori had a hand in the mecha designs I'm more invested. I'm also enjoying it more this time around.

One thing I'm grateful about Macross Delta is the lack of angst on Hayate's part.

[kajnrig]

I'm seriously considering dipping into WataMote based on word of mouth that went a little bit something like "It's so real it's sometimes painful, not because you feel bad for her, but because you feel bad for YOURSELF."

Ah, more effusive praise was never heaped upon a creative endeavor.

[Major Focker]

what i enjoyed from last season:

Erased - simple story that somehow ended up with fantastic, touching moments. my favorite from last season

Ajin - the CG was distracting at first, but the suspense was undeniable, and one of the best villains in recent memory with menace to rival that of Hannibal Lecter

Dimension W - if there was one show from last season that i hope would get a sequel but probably will not, this would be it. still lots of territory to explore and if one of the middle story arcs is any indication, lots of opportunity to go meta.

Gate - along with Heavy Object, the kind of anime i hope would continue with more adventures with or without an overarching plot. it's just fun to watch.

Heavy Object - excellent buddy vibe with shades of MacGyyver making things go kaboom.

Durarara!! x2 - more Celty is always a good thing. for now i'm sated, but will always welcome more DRRR zaniness.

Gundam IBO - first Gundam series i've watched, not counting OVAs. thought i was going to drop it, but it managed to keep me tuned in.

God Eater - uneven, slow burn kind of show, but grabs you hard when you're not looking.

Konosuba - hilarious parody on the recent spate of trapped-in-a-gameworld animes

Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko - 4 eps, 7 mins each. i teared up, dammit.

dropped:

Dagashi Kashi, Divine Gate, Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut, Bubuki Buranki, Active Raid, Utawarerumono, Schwarzesmarken, Grimgar.

the last two i might pick up again when i'm in the mood.

shows i know i'll enjoy and saving up for a marathon:

Assassination Classroom, Shirayuki-hime, Rakugo, Haikyuu

Edited April 24, 2016 by Major Focker

[Major Focker]

Last season was full of good shows. This season is lacking, however.

my first reaction was to disagree. but after recapping last season, yeah, winter was pretty strong, albeit, about half of the shows i enjoyed were continuations.

four new shows this season left me with the impression that spring would be even stronger: Hero Academy, Kabaneri, Joker Game, Stray Dogs.

plus of course, a new Macross series.

the bankable ones this season: Ushio to Tora, Jojo, Magi:Sinbad

then, there are the promising ones i'm hearing about but haven't started on yet: Kiznaiver, Sakamoto, Re:Zero, Kuromukoro

on the side, watching Hundred for my harem fix. also started Haifuri, which i initially dismissed that it could be a worthy Girls und Panzer spiritual successor, but the first couple of episodes surprised me with its presentation of naval tactics. this could indeed be a moe Ars Nova.

all in all, a promising season, heavy on newness.

[technoblue]

I stuck with Bubuki Buranki. The issue that I have with it and God Eater is pacing. Both shows seem to have a great potential for story beneath the surface, but they are having difficulty tapping into it. It doesn't help, either, when a whole season passes by and things only start to pick up in the final episodes. BBK, especially had some major character development that it just laid out and then left unresolved.

Last season, my favorites were Gate, Durara!!, and Beautiful Bones (a fun detective show). Erased...I really like it, but I may have a bias against it because I'm such a fan of Steinz;Gate. I loved how the former anime tackled the butterfly effect more, and used humor to relieve the tension. Erased did things differently, which is okay, but as the story got caught up in its complicated twists and turns the tension built up and...well, no spoilers. I do think that the ending was well done.

I haven't finished watching Gundam: IBO or Ushio and Tora, but I do plan to finish both at some point. I won't be dropping them.

[ErikElvis]

I thought erased was great. I'm not totally drawn into delta yet like I was frontier. Hopefully it picks up.

[frothymug]

dropped:

Dagashi Kashi, Divine Gate, Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut, Bubuki Buranki, Active Raid, Utawarerumono, Schwarzesmarken, Grimgar.

the last two i might pick up again when i'm in the mood.

Grimgar was great. It was intentionally slow-paced to develop the characters much more than usual. They still had plenty of action in almost every episode. The final 2 or 3 eps were excellent. It ended well, but there's plenty of potential for more.

[Major Focker]

wasn't Beautiful Bones from the fall season? in any case, i enjoyed that too, even if it ended sequel-baiting.

i liked Grimgar, just that with work being toxic, i wasn't in the mood for something heavy. maybe in that regard, the short doses of God Eater helped me finish it (IIRC correctly, 4-5 eps across 3 sesasons).

Konosuba was my antidote to Grimgar, and what a good antidote that was. recently hired a bunch of good people so i should have more free time the rest of the year. like the MC in Gate, i know my priorities

will go back to Grimgar around summer. i left it at episode 4 or 5 i think.

maybe Bubuki too, if the summer season proves lean. it showed promise in the 4 eps i watched; i'll give it that. but with the number of good shows in winter, it got nudged out.

Steins Gate is my top fave, though it's frequently challenged by Bakemonogatari every time the latter puts out a new story arc. Kizu might finally topple it, which reminds me, when the heck is the BD coming out?

Erased being compared to SG was inevitable i suppose, but for some reason i never gave it that burden. the use of kids as cast gave it a different feel that leveraged tenderness and innocence rather than the more mature concerns of morality, guilt, and romance in SG. Erased having half the episodes of SG, it couldn't afford to go into the convolutions of time travel as SG did, and i'm glad they didn't.

i do think Erased missed some opportunities when it shuffled between past and present. i thought the MC could've had more clues and insights contextually triggered by the era he was in. as it turns out, most of the puzzle solving was in the past. what i think they did instead was to show how the adult MC matured as a person (caring for others, learning to trust others) by giving him a chance to relive his childhood. that to me makes it different than SG and a worthwhile show on its own. they're different kind of stories that just happened to both involve time travelling.

[spanner]

for stupidly obvious reasons.. but does Delta count?

[technoblue]

wasn't Beautiful Bones from the fall season? in any case, i enjoyed that too, even if it ended sequel-baiting.

I don't recall. It might have been, but I started watching Beautiful Bones over the winter months.

I regret to say that I have yet to finish the latest arch of Bakemonogatari. I keep meaning to, but then I get distracted. I fully expect Keith to pop in at any moment and reprimand me for not doing my due Bakemono diligence. Regarding Kizu, didn't AniplexUSA release the movie on this side of the Pacific only recently? I think it was brought to select theaters in February? I think the Japanese BD is due out in July.

i do think Erased missed some opportunities when it shuffled between past and present. i thought the MC could've had more clues and insights contextually triggered by the era he was in. as it turns out, most of the puzzle solving was in the past. what i think they did instead was to show how the adult MC matured as a person (caring for others, learning to trust others) by giving him a chance to relive his childhood. that to me makes it different than SG and a worthwhile show on its own. they're different kind of stories that just happened to both involve time travelling.

The story had convenient rules which helped the MC toward his goal. And that's okay, but for me that same convenience broke the illusion from time to time. Being a twenty-something man who is forced to relive your childhood shouldn't be something that you can adapt to so easily and, even as you try to adapt, when you ultimately mess up the people who know you well shouldn't be as clueless about how your behavior has changed. This story needed that, though, and forgave those logical leaps.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I hated it. I liked it for what it was, but it wasn't a great time travel story, IMO. It was a better story about friendship and the bonds that bring people together. I do agree that if it had a longer run time (another season, or something) it might have been able to give the audience more satisfying timey-wimey transitions.

[Major Focker]

you phrased it better. Erased was more about friendship/bonds first, and just happened to have time travel elements second.

paging Keith. we have someone here who has lost his way

[technoblue]

I added a few titles to my Crunchyroll queue today:

Space Patrol Luluco (Trigger's short form anime for the season)

The first episode had me laughing, which is a good sign.

Joker Game (following up on the recommendations here)

High School Fleet (looks interesting)

Bakuon!! (motorcycles, women, and exclamation points!!)

Edited April 26, 2016 by technoblue

[Marzan]

I added a few titles to my Crunchyroll queue today:

Space Patrol Luluco (Trigger's short form anime for the season)

The first episode had me laughing, which is a good sign.

Joker Game (following up on the recommendations here)

High School Fleet (looks interesting)

Bakuon!! (motorcycles, women, and exclamation points!!)

Been watching Luluco too. I love Trigger's style.

[Dangard Ace]

Just finished Diamond no Ace. Reminds me a lot of Slam Dunk. Can't wait for season 3.

[kajnrig]

So my dad and I are incapacitated with illness today. I hop on Amazon Prime, browse through a category that consists almost entirely of anime I saw sitting on the shelves in the early 00s, and my eye lands on a little gem called Patema Inverted.

All around a really neat film, well-paced and well-directed. Its central gimmick is two groups of people living in close proximity to each other who experience opposing gravitational pull. A more conventional film would have some deux ex machina in order to minimize that gimmick, but this one takes the idea and runs with it. It was nice.

Also started watching Galilei Donna! the other day, and of course an anime about the descendants of Galileo Galilei would star moe schoolgirls. Also fairly lighthearted, also well-told so far. Looking forward to seeing the rest of it.

Oh and I suppose Macross Delta, but that kind of goes without saying.

[technoblue]

Been watching Luluco too. I love Trigger's style.

Caught myself up to episode 5 of Luluco. It's over-the-top zany and endearing---very much a Trigger series. And speaking about zany reminds me that I need to rewatch Gurren Lagann soon.

I'm a behind on my first viewing of Macross Delta. I'll be watching episode 3 tonight.

[kajnrig]

Are the Gurren Lagann movies worth checking out? Opinion seems to be polarized on them.

[Keith]

Are the Gurren Lagann movies worth checking out? Opinion seems to be polarized on them.

First: Overcondensed.

Second: Amazing new ending fight.

[Ghadrack]

Finally finishing Fist of the North Star (2) it's been on my to-do list for years. I was curious where they heck it was going to go after the battle with Raoh, but I'm genuinely interested in seeing where this is going crossing the sea for the finale.

[JB0]

Finally finishing Fist of the North Star (2) it's been on my to-do list for years. I was curious where they heck it was going to go after the battle with Raoh, but I'm genuinely interested in seeing where this is going crossing the sea for the finale.

Knowing Fist? Kenshiro punches the Earth's pressure point and it explodes. Everyone dies, except Kenshiro, who goes on to punch all the planets.

[Chet]

Just finished Southern Cross. Now watching Genesis Climber Mospeada

[Dynaman]

Based on the mention of the show here I started watching AJin - 3 episodes in and a darn good show so far.

[Negotiator]

Kabaneri and delta. I'll check out ajin soon. Sounds interesting.