What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I don't understand the general feeling of butt-hurt going on about Goblin Slayer..   Maybe its my age,  but I remember 80-90's OVAs that made this series look like a walk in the kiddie park.   Off the top of my head Violence Jack!  I mean c'mon need I say more..    

 

I think the Anime did a pretty good job toning it down considering..

 

Other titles worth watching

Zombie land!   ok not great,  but it's amusing me

The slime one... yeah, yeah google the actual name..    this one is kinda generic,  almost feels like its riding the wave from Overlord.   Not a bad series but the verdict is still out.

I just finished watching recovery of an MMO junkie.    And I was pleasantly surprised,  it had some sap to it but I found myself enjoying it anyway.

 

On 10/21/2018 at 6:04 PM, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara is just so good the visuals are great.  It is P.A. Works so I am not surprised.

 

I dunno about this title..   It looks great,   but it put me to sleep in the 1st episode.     Seriously no joke.. I fell asleep watching it.    

[no3Ljm]

Finished watching Lupin III Part 5 series. Didn't like some revelations on Lupin but it did end well. Hoping for a Part 6.

Captain Tsubasa (2018) on the other hand entered the next chapter (High School), which I basically missed out when I was still in Japan back in the mid 80's. It's just so nice to relive and watch one of my all-time favorite animes (re-animated) again.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

Caught the third episode of Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight today... and the pacing is still all kinds of f*cked up.

Spoiler

They open on what I guess is a timeskip?  We've gone straight from the British burning Domrémy and Montmorency giving Jeanne half of the Philosopher's Stone that turned her into a superhuman psychopath to Montmorency proclaiming that she is a Lady Saint sent by the Archangel Michael to save France from the British.  The show makes zero secret of this being complete BS Montmorency came up with so he could weaponize Jeanne for use against the British without being proclaimed a heretic by the church.  La Hire and the others apparently go along with this because, why not?

There's a really cringeworthy scene that feels right out of a hentai series where Jeanne is literally begging Montmorency for another round of elixir tonsil-hockey, complete with tons of innuendo.  There's more in Montmorency and Arthur de Richemont's conversation about what they did during the timeskip when Montmorency is abducted in princess Charlotte's (Charles VII's) palace in Bourges.  

Then we get some gratuitous violence while Jeanne beats the stupid out of assassins attempting to kill her and Charlotte.  She looks to have broken one's neck by spinning his head around ala The Exorcist before her superpower time limit ran out and she got curbstomped by the other assassins.  It looks like Louis I de La Tremoille is shaping up to be an antagonist, having apparently arranged Charlotte's assassination and Montmorency's kidnapping.

If they'd stop skipping around so much, Ulysses would be a lot more watchable.  I'm still getting this really bad Seikon no Quasar vibe from it, in that it feels like the fanservice is a desperate "please like me" end unto itself, but when Jeanne starts acting like someone switched her script with one from Hellsing Ultimate it starts getting watchable.  The story's clearly trying to get somewhere interesting, but after three episodes of disjointed, seemingly random exposition I can't quite say where.  

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

I don't understand the general feeling of butt-hurt going on about Goblin Slayer..   Maybe its my age,  but I remember 80-90's OVAs that made this series look like a walk in the kiddie park. 

I suspect a lot of it has to do with the way the anime industry is currently in one of its "light and soft" periods.

Shows like Overlord and Goblin Slayer look a lot darker than they actually are when the rest of the season's packed with your standard shounen and shoujo offerings, cutesy stuff, and slice of life comedies.  The next darkest thing on the schedule that isn't Attack on Titan is either Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight or That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime... and those are sweetness and light by comparison.  Even then, Attack on Titan has largely used up the shock value of the titans in both formats so the darkness of its setting is feeling decidedly careworn, making Goblin Slayer look all the darker for it.

You also kind of have to mark OVAs to different standards, since they don't have to comply with the same censorship requirements as a TV anime.

(WRT the light novel and manga versions, the sheer gratuitousness of the violence and the general rapey-ness of the goblins can be rather off-putting in that it's clearly meant to be fetishized and is all the more wrong and distressing for it.)

 

1 hour ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

The slime one... yeah, yeah google the actual name..    this one is kinda generic,  almost feels like its riding the wave from Overlord.   Not a bad series but the verdict is still out.

Having read the manga version... it totally is.  Rimiru is just WAY faster about getting to the same endgame Ainz is looking for.

 

1 hour ago, no3Ljm said:

Finished watching Lupin III Part 5 series. Didn't like some revelations on Lupin but it did end well. Hoping for a Part 6.

What did you think of it overall?  I'm still slogging through Lupin III: the Italian Adventure... my mind keeps checking out around the time Lupin steals the Mona Lisa for what must be the sixth or seventh time.  

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

5 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

I don't understand the general feeling of butt-hurt going on about Goblin Slayer..   Maybe its my age,  but I remember 80-90's OVAs that made this series look like a walk in the kiddie park.   Off the top of my head Violence Jack!  I mean c'mon need I say more..    

 

I think the Anime did a pretty good job toning it down considering..

 

Other titles worth watching

Zombie land!   ok not great,  but it's amusing me

The slime one... yeah, yeah google the actual name..    this one is kinda generic,  almost feels like its riding the wave from Overlord.   Not a bad series but the verdict is still out.

I just finished watching recovery of an MMO junkie.    And I was pleasantly surprised,  it had some sap to it but I found myself enjoying it anyway.

 

 

I dunno about this title..   It looks great,   but it put me to sleep in the 1st episode.     Seriously no joke.. I fell asleep watching it.    

It does start a little slow.

I enjoyed watching recovery of an MMO junkie

[chyll2]

So Goblin Slayer is dark? Looks fanservice dark to me.

[kajnrig]

9 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

I don't understand the general feeling of butt-hurt going on about Goblin Slayer..   Maybe its my age,  but I remember 80-90's OVAs that made this series look like a walk in the kiddie park.   Off the top of my head Violence Jack!  I mean c'mon need I say more..    

 

I think the Anime did a pretty good job toning it down considering..

From watching the first episode and reading up the summaries of the rest from everyone else here, the show seems to be coasting almost entirely on the extremity of its controversial content. The characters, the world, the story, all are remarkably generic, only deviating from formula when they need to prop up the titular Goblin Slayer himself. It's rather amateurish, like bad self-insert fanfiction. Here's this world where everybody is incompetent and/or clueless about the real threat except for ME, I know what's really going on, and only I have properly prepared myself to tackle it.

The fact that no other characters get any interesting character development (based on everyone's summaries here), the derivative Dungeons and Dragons world, the unpleasant undercurrent of misogyny running through the entire thing... It's "I was studying the blade" levels of masturbatory fantasy. Even the GS's backstory is all sorts of edgelord-tier ridiculousness. It reminds me of the bosses from Metal Gear Solid 4, with their backstories handling the theme of wartime trauma with all the subtlety and grace of a cudgel smashing against a brick wall.

And it's not like the OVAs you mention didn't have their share of the same problematic elements. The anime industry is chock full of Go Nagais and Kentaro Miuras who've created amazing works that are equally as... messy. What separates Goblin Slayer from something like, say, Berserk, is that Berserk is more than self-insert fanfiction. Or, as chyll2 puts it, GS is "fanservice dark" and not much more.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

15 minutes ago, chyll2 said:

So Goblin Slayer is dark? Looks fanservice dark to me.

The TV anime may or may not turn out to be... the light novel it's adapted from, and the manga also adapted from it, likes to dive into fairly dark territory on a regular basis vis a vis the horrible things goblins do to people because of their general disregard for non-goblin life... the general rapey-ness of goblins aside, they're also pretty darn enthusiastic about torturing people to death for fun or revenge, openly cannibalistic and routinely force their prisoners to engage in cannibalism, employ unconventional weapons like poisoned blades and poison gas, and neither they nor Goblin Slayer are at all shy about killing children.

It is pretty clearly pandering, but it's more gore porn than the regular kind.

[treiz]

Quote

So Goblin Slayer is dark? Looks fanservice dark to me.

It's trying to have it both ways.  It wants to have table top gaming characters and situations and present them in the most realistic and unflinching way possible.  It wants to be an arcade game and a simulator game at the same time, or it's trying to be Konosuba and Berserk at the same time.  It's a bit of a mess tonally.  You have unrealistic characters in unrealistic situations making unrealistic choices in a world that often and explicitly exacts VERY VERY realistic consequences.  It doesn't mesh well IMHO.  The latest episode seems to be toning down the gaming themes, so perhaps it will soon find more even footing.  

Edited October 24, 2018 by treiz

[AN/ALQ128]

1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

The fact that no other characters get any interesting character development (based on everyone's summaries here), the derivative Dungeons and Dragons world, the unpleasant undercurrent of misogyny running through the entire thing... It's "I was studying the blade" levels of masturbatory fantasy.

Dunno if misogyny is the right word, GS is pretty equal opportunity when it comes to bad things happening to its characters.

[blackconvoy_D01]

Just started SSSS.Gridman, and King of Braves Gaogaigar. 

[JB0]

11 minutes ago, blackconvoy_D01 said:

Just started SSSS.Gridman, and King of Braves Gaogaigar. 

Courage and guts are the key to victory!!! Final fusion: approved!

 

I love GGG.

[Seto Kaiba]

8 hours ago, treiz said:

You have unrealistic characters in unrealistic situations making unrealistic choices in a world that often and explicitly exacts VERY VERY realistic consequences.

One aspect of the Goblin Slayer light novels that's been largely left out of the Goblin Slayer anime adaptation thus far is the occasional chapter breaks that show the story in progress from the perspective of the gods (usually Truth and Illusion).  The world is literally just a (tabletop) game to them.  That's implied to be the reason nobody has an actual name, and is more or less explicitly stated to be why it's a crapsack world in eternal Medieval Stasis, perpetually overrun with Always Chaotic Evil monsters, and is so disproportionately fond of the Total Party Kill.  (The gods are pretty vindictive GMs.)

The pre-opening blurb does kind of allude to it in a vague way, with the talk about the gods rolling dice for the fate of the world.

 

8 hours ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

Dunno if misogyny is the right word, GS is pretty equal opportunity when it comes to bad things happening to its characters.

It's equal opportunity in terms of the severity of the horrible things that happen to its characters... but the women FAR outnumber the men in the "you've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" department.

[Vifam7]

22 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

I don't understand the general feeling of butt-hurt going on about Goblin Slayer..   Maybe its my age,  but I remember 80-90's OVAs that made this series look like a walk in the kiddie park.   Off the top of my head Violence Jack!  I mean c'mon need I say more..   

I think the Anime did a pretty good job toning it down considering..

 

Blood-C and Elfen Lied were far more graphic/disturbing than that one episode of Goblin Slayer. 

[kajnrig]

14 hours ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

Dunno if misogyny is the right word, GS is pretty equal opportunity when it comes to bad things happening to its characters.

Besides what Seto already has to say...

4 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It's equal opportunity in terms of the severity of the horrible things that happen to its characters... but the women FAR outnumber the men in the "you've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" department.

...there's also the fact that the only ones with specifically sexual violence heaped upon them are the female characters. (I mean, given how much the show fetishizes everything else, it could be argued that EVERYONE gets sexual violence heaped upon them, but the point still stands.) The show/manga/novel seem to take extra pleasure in depicting what the female characters go through. The most explicit we ever get with Warrior dude is a close-up of a goblin taking his hand off. Contrast that against shots of the goblins visibly stripping the girls naked (convenient censoring aside), stabbing one in the uterus, multiple close-ups of the girls' horrified faces, and yes, the just-short-of-hentai-territory rape. Not to mention more and more scenes of violence specifically enacted upon women immediately following that (all cavalierly thrown in while framing the titular GS as Badass McHunter Guy).

 

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

[...] The show/manga/novel seem to take extra pleasure in depicting what the female characters go through. The most explicit we ever get with Warrior dude is a close-up of a goblin taking his hand off. [...]

What I was getting at was more that, details of their suffering aside, you can count the number of male characters who end up on the receiving end of that violence on one hand while only a few of the prominent female characters have been exempted from it.  

Goblin Slayer himself is the only one of the recurring male characters who is ever nontrivially injured, and the only prominent male character to actually die is the greenhorn Warrior in the prologue.  The ladies team had already racked up five graphic deaths and a rape by the time chapter four (episode two) was over and their track record really hasn't improved.

Edited October 24, 2018 by Seto Kaiba

[kajnrig]

3 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

What I was getting at was more that, details of their suffering aside, you can count the number of male characters who end up on the receiving end of that violence on one hand while only a few of the prominent female characters have been exempted from it.

I know, I didn't bother repeating this point because you made it pretty succinctly the first time around.  I don't mean to imply that sexual violence is "more extreme" than torture, forced cannibalism, etc., if that's how it was taken.

[blackconvoy_D01]

On 10/24/2018 at 6:41 AM, JB0 said:

Courage and guts are the key to victory!!! Final fusion: approved!

 

I love GGG.

Yes! The standard series was ok at first, but then got so good towards the end. Then the Final; literally was OP. But the ending made my heart cry. 

[technoblue]

I finished the first season of Yuru Camp (Laid-Back Camp) last night. It's a very well put together and sublime slice-of-life anime.

Being slice-of-life, there is an amount of moe scattered throughout. It wasn't overdone, IMO. However, if you aren't into that at all, you might get frustrated. In any case, this one is easy for me to recommend. A second season and an OVA are planned from what I hear (yay!), so I'm looking forward to more camp-time stories.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

5 hours ago, technoblue said:

I finished the first season of Yuru Camp (Laid-Back Camp) last night. It's a very well put together and sublime slice-of-life anime.

Being slice-of-life, there is an amount of moe scattered throughout. It wasn't overdone, IMO. However, if you aren't into that at all, you might get frustrated. In any case, this one is easy for me to recommend. A second season and an OVA are planned from what I hear (yay!), so I'm looking forward to more camp-time stories.

It was great one of my favorite animes this year.

[Big s]

I wish the action genre was as good as the slice of life lately. I’m not a fan of slice of life, but I gotta say they have been doing well.

[Marzan]

On 11/1/2018 at 1:32 PM, Big s said:

I wish the action genre was as good as the slice of life lately. I’m not a fan of slice of life, but I gotta say they have been doing well.

They get the good studios and massive budgets. I find it ironic that drama shows where dialogue is the primary driver get the gorgeous art and animation and action shows look like they were done by 2 guys on their Macbook.

Just finished watching an oldie but goodie in Chevalier d'Eon. Good stuff and what an ending. They don't make stuff like that anymore.

Gonna start on Noir now (yeah 17 years too late, I know) to fill the gaps on the days I'm not watching anything current.

 

Speaking of current, the show I'm enjoying the most is Bunny Rascal etc...love the banter between the 2 mc's. It's like a mix between Bakemonogatari and Oregairu.

[Seto Kaiba]

54 minutes ago, Marzan said:

They get the good studios and massive budgets. I find it ironic that drama shows where dialogue is the primary driver get the gorgeous art and animation and action shows look like they were done by 2 guys on their Macbook.

It's all about how you spread the money around.  They can afford lavish animation for backgrounds and characters when 80% of scenes are talking heads with minimal motion.  When you've got high motion, you have to compromise.

 

Caught the latest episode of Gyakuten Saiban today... I'm surprised they wrapped the whole second case of the story in a single episode with room to spare.  Not the show's fault, but the incredibly limited cast definitely feels weird in a TV series.  It really throws Yahari's status as the world's unluckiest man into sharp relief when he's dragged into court every couple episodes to give testimony.

Gonna give Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight episode four a go after dinner and see if it's worth anything.  

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I'm going through some backlog again.

Rewatched Love Chunibyo and Delusions,  both 1st and 2nd seasons..   Getting ready to go see the Take on me Movie 11/19

Watched Arpeggio of blue steel Ars Nova..  and I enjoyed it.. much better then the crapfest that is Kantai Collection.

My cousin started watching Haganai (sp?) I don't have any friends..      I remember watching this when it came out,  and I didn't remember this series being so in your face about fanservice..  or maybe I pay it no mind.   Regardless she says its overkill,   me I see Sena and I am like.. no its not.. lol

 

[dizman]

I finished watching Fang of the Sun Dougram a few days ago. The political side of the story is the main focus of the show and they handled it really well, watching Lecoque claw his way to the top was great. The guerilla warfare part is also neat because they take the time to show the planning stage of almost every battle so you understand whats going on with both sides tactics. It's a long series but definitely worth the watch, I might watch the compilation movie out of curiosity to see how they handled taking a 75 episode series and turning it into an hour and a half movie.

 

[RavenHawk]

On 11/12/2018 at 12:17 PM, dizman said:

I finished watching Fang of the Sun Dougram a few days ago. The political side of the story is the main focus of the show and they handled it really well, watching Lecoque claw his way to the top was great. The guerilla warfare part is also neat because they take the time to show the planning stage of almost every battle so you understand whats going on with both sides tactics. It's a long series but definitely worth the watch, I might watch the compilation movie out of curiosity to see how they handled taking a 75 episode series and turning it into an hour and a half movie.

 

This is next on my list to watch, I think... well, unless I decide on something shorter first before tackling 75 episodes.

Currently finishing up re-watching Knights of Sidonia as well as the Frame Arms Girl series on YouTube (not really my thing, but I love the Kotobukiya Frame Arms model kits, and figured, hey, why not? It's not a long series).

It looks like YouTube is the only place to find Dougram. Is that correct?

 

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

Started watching Pandora.. Last Hope   on Netflix.

I was holding off on this till I could see the whole thing.    On Ep3 right now.. kinda meh,  but still better then Mac Delta... lol

[Seto Kaiba]

Started digging into my own backlog, starting with Masamune-kun's Revenge.  The manga's initial premise was a bit unsettling at first, but the show is doing a much better job of drawing a line under what a creepy f*cking motive Masamune had at the outset.  It feels a bit more comedy-heavy than the manga was at this stage, but that's all to the good IMO.

[Focslain]

6 minutes ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

Started watching Pandora.. Last Hope   on Netflix.

I was holding off on this till I could see the whole thing.    On Ep3 right now.. kinda meh,  but still better then Mac Delta... lol

Your going to eat those words in a few episodes. I'm giving a single watch through (done what is on US Netflix now) just so I can see what happens when/if the reactor gets repaired and if Mob Boss Zed gets knock off.

Otherwise I'd like a few hours of my life back please.

[RavenHawk]

1 hour ago, Focslain said:

Your going to eat those words in a few episodes. I'm giving a single watch through (done what is on US Netflix now) just so I can see what happens when/if the reactor gets repaired and if Mob Boss Zed gets knock off.

Otherwise I'd like a few hours of my life back please.

I have to say that I continue to be surprised by how little the general fandom seems to like this show (from what I can see, anyway, and I might be missing a lot).

I have really enjoyed the half of the series that Netflix put up so far. I do have issues with it, and there are some things I don't like, but I've seen a lot MORE of those same issues in other series which the general fandom seems to view much more favorably.

[Focslain]

33 minutes ago, RavenHawk said:

I have to say that I continue to be surprised by how little the general fandom seems to like this show (from what I can see, anyway, and I might be missing a lot).

I have really enjoyed the half of the series that Netflix put up so far. I do have issues with it, and there are some things I don't like, but I've seen a lot MORE of those same issues in other series which the general fandom seems to view much more favorably.

It might be an expectation thing. Pandora at least from my angle, was a bit hyped up. 

Issue was that upon viewing the series is pretty generic and has too many tropes. Maybe once the we get the second half of the series we'll at least get a resolution.

My biggest disappointment in Pandora was it seemed that Kaworai phoned in his mech designs. I had to pause the show when the sniper's mech fully transformed because to looked too much like Halo's Mjolnir armour on rollar blades and I was laughing too hard.

In the end, if you had fun and were entertained then all's good.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

Still too early to make a judgement call..   first thoughts of the main Mecha.. was a ripoff of the Nirvash from Eureka 7...    but I think Kawamori did the mecha from that series as well.

Edited November 16, 2018 by Stampeed Valkyrie

[Seto Kaiba]

4 minutes ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

Still too early to make a judgement call..   first thoughts of the main Mecha.. was a ripoff of the Nirvash from Eureka 7...    but I think Kawamori did the mecha from that series as well.

Yup, he did.

[Saruta]

I watched the first (double) episode of Umamusume Pretty Derby because base on the trailer I thought they would screw up. They did not, and I ended up watching all 13 as they got released. The end result so far was me getting into actual horse riding and also producing a fanfic about the non-thoroughbred horsegirls in that world and its history including a "Genghis-chan" (sorry, it's in Russian; I failed to make up a proper framing device in English).

It ran in Spring'18 season but is still current - OVA was announced (should have been released the day before yesterday on BD, but apparently was not).

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I watched Index III episode 7 and all I can say is damn Misaka and yay Touma and Itsuwa are back.

Edited November 16, 2018 by Hikaru Ichijo SL

[dizman]

16 hours ago, RavenHawk said:

This is next on my list to watch, I think... well, unless I decide on something shorter first before tackling 75 episodes.

Currently finishing up re-watching Knights of Sidonia as well as the Frame Arms Girl series on YouTube (not really my thing, but I love the Kotobukiya Frame Arms model kits, and figured, hey, why not? It's not a long series).

It looks like YouTube is the only place to find Dougram. Is that correct?

 

That's kinda how I looked at Dougram before I watched it  "Yeah I'll watch that next......well maybe I'll watch Area 88 again since it's short...." I could have watched a few other shows in the time it took me to finish up Dougram but I'd still say it was worth the watch even if it gets slow every now and then.

I was watching it a few different places, YT has it but the subs are kinda messed up when multiple characters are talking. Some of the shifty anime streaming sites like 9anime and kissanime have it too. In retrospect I probably should have just found it somewhere to download.