What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Seto Kaiba]

4 hours ago, Focslain said:

Ok yeah the set up of this series is nuts considering the short time span. Just wait til the brief history is Vers shown. That makes even less sense.

Yeah, I'm like 3:10 into episode two and the events thus far are already a screaming pile of hot nonsense.

The Vers are just too advanced for amount of time that passed between the discovery of the hyperspace gate by Apollo 17 and the present day.  There's just no realistic way that the Martian colonists went from nothing to interplanetary empire capable of building dozens of space colony-sized mobile fortresses and mobile weapons capable of taking out whole armies themselves in two and a half decades... unless there's some kind of time travel-related nonsense going on like how the Zor in Southern Cross were humans who'd been sent back in time by a warp drive accident and spent thousands of years advancing their society and technology.

This show really doesn't feel very well thought-out, and I expect that's going to get worse rather than better as the story progresses.

 

4 hours ago, Focslain said:

On that though the series isn't too bad. Just make sure to watch the last episode of season 1 and first episode of season 2 back to back.

I'm mostly watching one episode a day at work on my lunch break... partly to relax, and partly as a way to gently discourage certain team leaders from trying to treat my lunch as an open spot on my calendar.  (Thanks to my current client's switch to G Suite, I have expanded network access and can get to Crunchyroll using the corporate network.)

 

4 hours ago, Focslain said:

Also Inaho is massively OP. His like Tatsuya from Irregular but with mechs and without the sister complex.

Given what I've heard, I'm assuming he doesn't get an ace custom or anything like that... which really makes me wonder how he'll manage against such overpowered enemy mecha.  I was expected a level of OP around Universal Century levels, this is more like the level of unbalanced combat in New Mobile Report Gundam Wing.

[Seto Kaiba]

Caught episode two of To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts today over lunch, and it's a pretty jarring disconnect from the first episode.

Spoiler

Much of the episode is spent on the backstory of one of the soldiers in Hank's unit, John Bancroft, who apparently led a pretty idyllic life running an orphanage in some far-flung country town before being drafted for the Incarnates unit for... reasons?  The episode doesn't really seem to join up with the series proper until John comes back from the war in Dragon form about 2/3 of the way through the episode, and tries to resume a normal life despite being stuck in the body of a giant flying lizard.  He eventually starts showing all the telltale signs of going berserk, and Hank shows up out of nowhere, kills him offscreen, and spends the last few minutes of the episode being hunted through the countryside by John's daughter Nancy while en route to deal with another member of his old unit.

Spoiler

Nancy, to her credit, despite being too gentle to kill a deer for food earlier in the episode, immediately blasts his ass straight in center mass with what looks suspiciously like a Colt Model 1855 .44 revolving carbine... which accomplishes a lot less than she hoped.  He drags her off to question her, then tells her to run and hide when his other former subordinate shows up fresh off of having murdered the passengers of a stagecoach for their valuables to support his family and hometown... which earns him an immediate summary execution via explosive spear and revolver with anti-Incarnate bullets.  Nancy announces her intent to follow him to figure out WTF is going on, and I guess this is the start of the actual story proper?

 

After such a strong start in the first episode, the slow build-up in this episode feels like they stopped to do up their shoelaces mid-race... hopefully next week's episode will be a bit less Little House on the Prairie.

[Seto Kaiba]

The first episode of the Isekai Cheat Magician anime by Encourage Films is up on Crunchyroll... and it looks like crap.

Encourage Films apparently did some production support for Senki Zessho Symphogear back in '12, and that's about the only thing in their filmography I recognize apart from the Lucky Star spinoff net animation.  I don't know if they've fallen on hard times or Isekai Cheat Magician was a tough sell to the production committee, but whatever the cause it's unmistakably being made on the cheap even by anime standards.  The whole first couple minutes look like the markedly lower-detail off-model animation from Macross Frontier's 8th episode which made up for the budgetary drain caused by the lavish animation of the previous episode's battle scenes and it never really gets much better.

 

Spoiler

Even the story has an unmistakable air of laziness about it.  Taichi Nishimura and his friend Rin are abducted by a badly-drawn magic circle to a fantasy world, and despite being alone in a thoroughly unremarkable looking field Taichi ignores every potential explanation and leaps right to having been transported to an alternate fantasy world... and after a brief battle against a crudely drawn unicorn at quality levels straight out of the 1990s, they immediately become the standard fantasy isekai overpowered protagonists.  It's like a Isekai madlib or a fantasy form letter.  The character designs are generic, the backgrounds are generic, the setting is generic, the story is generic. 

It was all so badly done that I felt genuine embarrassment on behalf of Encourage Films and stopped watching about 15 minutes in.

 

TL;DR: Don't encourage Encourage Films, skip Isekai Cheat Magician.

[kajnrig]

Not as much a fan of Stardust Crusaders as the previous two arcs, but I'll say this: Jojo's OP/ED game was and remains super on point.

[Seto Kaiba]

11 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Not as much a fan of Stardust Crusaders as the previous two arcs, but I'll say this: Jojo's OP/ED game was and remains super on point.

Dunno, I think they could've stood to keep Walk Like an Egyptian through the end of Stardust Crusaders.

[Mazinger]

3 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Dunno, I think they could've stood to keep Walk Like an Egyptian through the end of Stardust Crusaders.

Yeah, Last Train Home didn't really do it for me, though going by the song's title, I can see the relationship with the end of Stardust.

If any of you are interested in music referenced in JoJo's there's at least a handful of decent playlists on Spotify that tackle them, while one other is just openings and endings.

Since much of the references are music from the west, JoJo's happens to be one well supported Anime title on there.

Anime is that one area where most music streaming services just do poorly in overall.

[kajnrig]

48 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Dunno, I think they could've stood to keep Walk Like an Egyptian through the end of Stardust Crusaders.

Yeah, I really like Walk Like an Egyptian, but Last Train Home quickly grew on me in its own way. A really mellow, relaxed but melancholic tune. It's part of the reason why I wasn't too put off by the spoilers. I already had a feeling.

40 minutes ago, Mazinger said:

If any of you are interested in music referenced in JoJo's there's at least a handful of decent playlists on Spotify that tackle them, while one other is just openings and endings.

Will look for them, thanks.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I am watching Log Horizon after I finish Yamato 2202.

[kajnrig]

So I'm coming to the end of Stardust Crusaders, and it's been a heck of a romp. Once things finally got going with Dio proper, they went fast. The episodic nature does the story a disservice, though, methinks. @Seto Kaiba, I remember you expressing similar dissatisfaction with the ending. I don't know if you checked out the older OVA version of the same story, but I feel like it does some parts better even if it's less accurate to the source material. The final fight definitely takes some cool liberties. Something you might want to check out.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

On 7/10/2019 at 2:06 PM, kajnrig said:

Yeah, I really like Walk Like an Egyptian, but Last Train Home quickly grew on me in its own way. A really mellow, relaxed but melancholic tune. It's part of the reason why I wasn't too put off by the spoilers. I already had a feeling.

IMO, a really mellow, relaxed tune doesn't really fit with what was essentially the action-packed climax of the Stardust Crusaders arc until the final episode.

 

5 hours ago, kajnrig said:

So I'm coming to the end of Stardust Crusaders, and it's been a heck of a romp. Once things finally got going with Dio proper, they went fast. The episodic nature does the story a disservice, though, methinks. @Seto Kaiba, I remember you expressing similar dissatisfaction with the ending. I don't know if you checked out the older OVA version of the same story, but I feel like it does some parts better even if it's less accurate to the source material. The final fight definitely takes some cool liberties. Something you might want to check out.

 

Yeah, after all the buildup to the fight with DIO it felt like it was over way too fast... I'll definitely give it a look.

Spoiler

After forty-plus episodes spent building DIO up as this massive threat who terrifies even the mightiest Stand-using assassins and commands the worshipful loyalty of complete psychopaths through awe and fear... particularly fear of his amazing stand The World... and then he proceeds to accomplish almost nothing besides wasting Kakyoin and some innocent bystanders before Jotaro kills him.  In hindsight, he's less effective than the majority of his henchmen... especially compared to Vanilla Ice and the D'Arby brothers, as the D'Arbys (reversibly) kill three Crusaders and Vanilla Ice manages to permanently kill two and incapacitate a third.  DIO's only actual victory is over Kakyoin, the weakest of the crusaders.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

Not sure if I care for the change in art style between Stardust Crusaders and Diamond is Unbreakable, but at least the OP for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 4 is on par with the others.

[Mazinger]

9 hours ago, kajnrig said:

So I'm coming to the end of Stardust Crusaders, and it's been a heck of a romp. Once things finally got going with Dio proper, they went fast. The episodic nature does the story a disservice, though, methinks. @Seto Kaiba, I remember you expressing similar dissatisfaction with the ending. I don't know if you checked out the older OVA version of the same story, but I feel like it does some parts better even if it's less accurate to the source material. The final fight definitely takes some cool liberties. Something you might want to check out.

I kinda agree.  I watched the OVA years back before I learned about the 2012 series and though I was more than a little lost jumping into it with no background at all on the characters or stands, I thought that the way the final fight took place better expressed the horror of fighting DIO.

I think however part of the difference might be due to the graphic nature of some parts of the battle that perhaps the series wanted to skip, though the series seems to get plenty graphic when it needs to.

Also, perhaps they wanted to spend the budget on things not previously covered in the OVA, which they certainly did.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Toaru Kagaku no Accelerator starts today I hope it is good.  It also mean we are getting closer to Railgun 3.

[JetJockey]

SSSS Gridman. I just started a topic for it. I'm a few episodes till the end. But I've already started looking for figures and toys from the show.

[Focslain]

So went through Helpful Fox Sanko-san via the dub during work. Cute and calming and not nearly as depressing as I was worried it would feel. Mostly since I know exactly how Nakano feels on a personal level, so this series was something that hit way too close to home.

Got mom to sit thru Violet Evergarden as well as finish the whole thing myself (stopped at ep9 in my first try) and she enjoyed it. Called it beautiful but a tear jerker the whole way through. 

Violet's return to the war front was a nice change of pace but still heart wrenching. Though not as sad as the dying mother hiring Violet to write 50 years of letters for her daughter. Like I had a feeling the mother was writting a post-mordem letter, but that many?

Also since I found some of the Monotagari series on Audiable (Kizasnotagari and Nekonotagari White) I watched some more of the anime, Nekonotagari Black and started Monotagari season 2, basically the arc that covered what I just listened too. The opening to Nekonotagari Black was beautiful and some of the smoothest animation I've ever seen. Other wise the series is how I remember it. Very art housey, pretty as frak and a test in speed reading since the series is sub only.

I want more of the series to get the translated audio book treatment, it was done really well. Like an audio drama and easier to follow then the anime.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I started Log Horizon and it seems good.

[Seto Kaiba]

To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts doesn't really feel like it's living up to the promise shown by its first episode... I'm actually pretty disappointed by that.

Spoiler

Hank Henriette seems to have misplaced most of the character development he got in the first episode during that two year timeskip.  

(I'm still not entirely sold on him not realizing a Vampire supersoldier named Cain Madhouse wasn't Obviously Evil... dude rolled straight 1's on a Sense Motive check.)

He wanders into a town called Rogue Hill, on a mission to execute one of his out-of-control comrades, only to discover said comrade has built a sprawling fortress packed to the bursting point with boobytraps in just two years unassisted.  Hank and Nancy obligingly just walk right in through the front door, brutally beat his ass down, and cap him in the face once he's too badly wounded to go on.  I'd kind of expected Nancy's hat was going to end up being that she's constantly harping on Hank to try to reason with his former subordinates, but that lasts all of about 30 seconds before she realizes this latest guy is batsh*t f*cking bonkers.

There's nothing really deep or interesting going on here, it's just Monster of the Week stuff.

Oh, and Cain is apparently full-on dressing like Dracula and keeping Hank's old lover in a tube because why not?

 

[AN/ALQ128]

Aside from Cop Craft, I've also picked up "Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru", which is a light hearted look at exercise delivered via some cute anime girls.

Its pretty enjoyable, and also decently accurate in its factoids on proper lifting form, protein intake, dieting for muscle gain, etc.

[Seto Kaiba]

Aldnoah.Zero is rapidly shaping up to be one of the worst-written original mecha anime properties I've seen in recent years.

How did this hot mess manage to last 24 episodes without being cancelled?  I'm four episodes in and the setting makes basically no sense.  How did Mars evolve a strict feudal society rife with fantastic racism when it's only been colonized for thirty years?  How did the Martian colonists reverse engineer enough technology to put them centuries ahead of Earth in an even shorter span of time?  Why is a high school student with an at-best moderate grasp of science consistently more effective than the most highly trained soldiers despite having an old training mecha instead of a state-of-the-art military machine?  There are plot holes big enough to hide a planet in all throughout this series.

Spoiler

The threat posed by the Martian Kataphrakts the Orbital Knights are using is massively oversold.  Sure, they have incredible abilities, but absolutely nobody except Inaho seems to be willing or able to look past those capabilities to consider how they do those things and what the implications are.  Nobody noticed the big freaking camera drones that initial Kataphrakt was using to see until Inaho pointed them out?  How d'you miss something apparently the size of a minivan hovering at low altitude?  One would be hard enough to overlook, never mind half a dozen.  This entire series is only possible because everyone in it is a drooling moron.

Nowhere is that conclusion more obvious than the episode I just watched, where the Martian Kataphrakt of the week is literally just a robot with a plasma sword that's used as a way to deflect incoming fire.  Despite watching the enemy Kataphrakt repeatedly detonate high explosive rounds in midair with the heat of its blade, NOBODY except Inaho has the brains to try different types of ammunition to see if something that isn't explosive fares better... or simply hitting him from the side that isn't holding the sword.

That's right, this antagonist is only a threat because nobody thought to attack him from the two sides he wasn't covering with the only weapon he has.

Irony of ironies, Inaho probably would've had even more success if he'd just dropped the heavy shipping containers he used to smack the enemy Kataphrakt with on it from the top of the crane... instead of blinding its entire left side he could've taken its entire bloody head off.

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I started School Rumble s2 and it is still wacky as ever.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

6 hours ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

I started School Rumble s2 and it is still wacky as ever.

School Rumble was great,  I remember going on a binge over a 3 day weekend and watching the entire first season non stop.

 

[kajnrig]

Part 4 of Jojo is off to a stronger start than Stardust Crusaders, IMO. Just beginning the psychotic yandere part that I've seen memed to hell and back now, am excite. Some wtf's, though:

- Josuke "punishing" Angelo by way of paralyzed immortality was pretty fraked, and the story just rolling with it was also pretty fraked.

- The whole thing with Okuyasu and Keicho's dad was a super unexpected gut punch. If you'll forgive my being a bit personal, that entire substory is remarkably similar to life with my own father. I found myself empathizing with a LOT of Keicho's tirade, including his broad range of feelings for his father. I was actually a bit mad at the show for not foreshadowing it ; I was totally unprepared.

- The immediate follow-up story (IIRC) feels like something that could only work in Japan. I can't imagine anyone in the States feeling guilt for any ill fate befalling such an obvious snake like Tamami Kobayashi.

[Alto-23]

10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Aldnoah.Zero is rapidly shaping up to be one of the worst-written original mecha anime properties I've seen in recent years.

How did this hot mess manage to last 24 episodes without being cancelled?  I'm four episodes in and the setting makes basically no sense.  How did Mars evolve a strict feudal society rife with fantastic racism when it's only been colonized for thirty years?  How did the Martian colonists reverse engineer enough technology to put them centuries ahead of Earth in an even shorter span of time?  Why is a high school student with an at-best moderate grasp of science consistently more effective than the most highly trained soldiers despite having an old training mecha instead of a state-of-the-art military machine?  There are plot holes big enough to hide a planet in all throughout this series.

  Hide contents

The threat posed by the Martian Kataphrakts the Orbital Knights are using is massively oversold.  Sure, they have incredible abilities, but absolutely nobody except Inaho seems to be willing or able to look past those capabilities to consider how they do those things and what the implications are.  Nobody noticed the big freaking camera drones that initial Kataphrakt was using to see until Inaho pointed them out?  How d'you miss something apparently the size of a minivan hovering at low altitude?  One would be hard enough to overlook, never mind half a dozen.  This entire series is only possible because everyone in it is a drooling moron.

Nowhere is that conclusion more obvious than the episode I just watched, where the Martian Kataphrakt of the week is literally just a robot with a plasma sword that's used as a way to deflect incoming fire.  Despite watching the enemy Kataphrakt repeatedly detonate high explosive rounds in midair with the heat of its blade, NOBODY except Inaho has the brains to try different types of ammunition to see if something that isn't explosive fares better... or simply hitting him from the side that isn't holding the sword.

That's right, this antagonist is only a threat because nobody thought to attack him from the two sides he wasn't covering with the only weapon he has.

Irony of ironies, Inaho probably would've had even more success if he'd just dropped the heavy shipping containers he used to smack the enemy Kataphrakt with on it from the top of the crane... instead of blinding its entire left side he could've taken its entire bloody head off.

 

The first few episodes were fantastic like Valvrave but soon ended up being kinda meh. 

[AN/ALQ128]

Some nutbar has burned down Kyoto Animation's Studio 1, there are multiple people dead and a lot more injured.

From the footage, the studio itself looks gutted.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20190718/k10011996791000.html

https://twitter.com/ultimatemegax/status/1151678230908276742

[Keith]

On 7/16/2019 at 7:58 PM, Alto-23 said:

The first few episodes were fantastic like Valvrave but soon ended up being kinda meh. 

It however was not the dumpster fire that Valvrave degraded into.

[JB0]

5 hours ago, Keith said:

It however was not the dumpster fire that Valvrave degraded into.

I love Valvrave for how terrible it is. It turned into self-parody somewhere along the way.

[nathans82]

I'm going old school Mecha and watching Mazinger Z.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

Looks like I am gonna be thinning the herd this season already.

Maou-sama, Retry!   First episode had a highly amusing scene involving a spanking.. but 2nd and 3rd episodes are pushing this to the chopping block.     Honestly series shouldn't go stale this early on.

 

Tsuujou Kougeki ga Zentai Kougeki de 2-kai Kougeki no Okaasan wa Suki desu ka?     Maybe it's just me but the skeeve vibe from this series is already creeping me out.     The MC's mom has an unhealthy attachment to the MC.   So much so that I can't rule out this series crossing THAT line.      I'm willing to try for another episode or 2,  but if this skeeve factor remains high.. it's chopped.

Uchi no Musume no Tame naraba, Ore wa Moshikashitara Maou mo Taoseru kamo Shirenai.        Not sure with this title,  too early to tell.     The whole daughter/possible romantic interest avenue that is floated later on though.. may put this with the title above.

 

Dumbbell Nan Kilo Moteru?   This series has been amusing so far..  I think it might be ok assuming it keep its current atmosphere going.

 

Kanata no Astra     Only watched 2 episodes,   probably watch the 3rd tonight..   the initial premise and the explanation on why there are no adults is probably the only thing I can knock this series for at this point.    Honestly though,  if this series can not go overboard with the Drama I think it will do well.    If they decide to go all super serious,  I will drop this title.

 

Tejina-senpai...   I don't even know where to start with this title...  it might be the train wreck title of Summer 2019   still too early to tell.

 

Cop Craft   So far so good.    Honestly if it was not because of Range Murata,  I probably would have skipped this altogether.    

 

Kawaikereba Hentai demo Suki ni Natte Kuremasu ka?    The premise of this could put this on par with Tejina-senpai with vying for Train Wreck of summer 2019.   

 

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 2   I haven't watched any of this yet.. it's on my list as I really enjoyed the first season.

 

Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru no Darou ka II   Besides  Takagi-san  this is the only other title I really am looking forward to.      I saw the premier at AX this year,  and it looked very promising.       This along with the movie coming out on 7/23 and I hope this season does well.

 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

9 hours ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

Some nutbar has burned down Kyoto Animation's Studio 1, there are multiple people dead and a lot more injured.

From the footage, the studio itself looks gutted.

Fortunately KyoAni has more than one studio facility... but what a disaster for the industry, losing so many talented animators and support staff.

A lot of their stuff wasn't really my cup of tea, but the quality of their work was pretty consistently amazing.

 

 

 

Been a weird week for industry news too... a couple days back I saw an article from an animator working on Symphogear XV trying to argue that a transformation sequence involving pole dancing totally wasn't "sleazy" or exploitative.  From what he described, the staff pretty clearly tried to make it less sleazy, but that isn't the same thing as not being sleazy at all.  (It's probably easier to give it a pass in Gainax's Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt since that whole show was unapologetically trying to push the limits of good - or bad - taste.)

Black Lagoon's apparently getting a spinoff manga about Sawyer, the "cleaner" who handles body disposal for the various toughs in Roanapur.  I'm still waiting and hoping they'll do more with the animation, since they basically stopped at the El Baile de la Muerte story arc's conclusion. 

 

A few episodes into Magical Sempai and it's every bit as one-note as Ao-chan Can't Study!, but I'd say it's more entertaining by far since the running gags are more your typical boke and tsukkomi routine with the assistant as the straight man instead of being focused on maximum lewdness.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I am going through Log Horizon so quickly it is so good. 

[JB0]

14 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Been a weird week for industry news too... a couple days back I saw an article from an animator working on Symphogear XV trying to argue that a transformation sequence involving pole dancing totally wasn't "sleazy" or exploitative.  From what he described, the staff pretty clearly tried to make it less sleazy, but that isn't the same thing as not being sleazy at all.  (It's probably easier to give it a pass in Gainax's Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt since that whole show was unapologetically trying to push the limits of good - or bad - taste.)

Friggin' Symphogear. 

The original transformation sequences from the first series were fantastic. They were brief, well-matched to the show's overall theme(I loved the LED EQ meter), avoided most of the usual questionable artistic decisions that accompany magical girl transformations, and unique for the genre. Even ignoring Hibiki's first transformation, which is its own special thing.

And then they decided to go total fanservice with the sequel, and since then they've been trying to find ways to turn it up. So we've gone from silhouettes against a VU meter to "not sleazy, honest" poledancing. Hooray for progress.

 

 

I should probably look before I judge, though.

Wait... Hibiki's transformation is the best since the original. The camera doesn't stop to stare at her boobs or butt even once(I have low expectations after the previous shows). It is almost tasteful, and FAR nicer than I expected. What's the probl- oh. KIRIKA. And her scythe.

Why is Kirika even still around? I thought she was slowly dying from gear incompatibility back when she was first introduced in G. And how did they not do the obvious poledancing sequence back in G when they were blatantly pandering with EVERYONE'S transformation?

...

In all fairness, it IS about as classy as a magical girl transformation that involves poledancing can possibly be. I genuinely believe the guys actually responsible for choreographing the new round of transformations wanted them to just be cool and awesome and fighty, but were stuck with a higher power's mandate that the scythe girl do a poledancing routine.

Which is, I guess, par for the course. The original series was only even remotely notable because someone decided "we have a shoestring budget to animate this shameless cashgrab of a CD commercial , but dammit we are going to do our best and make something nice ANYWAYS."

 

 

 

And now, THE BIGGER ISSUE! The weapon is supposed to be the LAST part of the transformation. Bodysuit goes on, then the armor plates, and THEN the weapon comes out! That's how it was on every symphogear user in every previous show(except Hibiki, since she didn't inherit the Gungnir spear), and it makes logical sense. Why the crap is her scythe even coming out at the beginning of the transformation? Do they not care about implied metacontinuity at ALL?

 

 

 

 

Oh. Wow. That was ENTIRELY too many words about a magical girl transformation sequence. Even ignoring the self-mocking "bigger issue".

[Dangard Ace]

Not too much I really want to watch this season except for “Dungeon pick up girls” so watching/rewatching some KyotoAnimation stuff because. Y’know.   Haruhi, and FMP.    Also needing to watch some Macross since it’s been so long since Frontier so rewatching Frontier.  It’s still so good!

[kajnrig]

Speaking of, gave a new friend of mine the Frontier series last weekend, and he finished the entire thing by Wednesday. I think it's fair to say he liked it.

[hachi]

On 7/17/2019 at 12:46 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Aldnoah.Zero is rapidly shaping up to be one of the worst-written original mecha anime properties I've seen in recent years.

How did this hot mess manage to last 24 episodes without being cancelled?  I'm four episodes in and the setting makes basically no sense.  How did Mars evolve a strict feudal society rife with fantastic racism when it's only been colonized for thirty years?  How did the Martian colonists reverse engineer enough technology to put them centuries ahead of Earth in an even shorter span of time?  Why is a high school student with an at-best moderate grasp of science consistently more effective than the most highly trained soldiers despite having an old training mecha instead of a state-of-the-art military machine?  There are plot holes big enough to hide a planet in all throughout this series. 

Hide contents  Hide contents

The threat posed by the Martian Kataphrakts the Orbital Knights are using is massively oversold.  Sure, they have incredible abilities, but absolutely nobody except Inaho seems to be willing or able to look past those capabilities to consider how they do those things and what the implications are.  Nobody noticed the big freaking camera drones that initial Kataphrakt was using to see until Inaho pointed them out?  How d'you miss something apparently the size of a minivan hovering at low altitude?  One would be hard enough to overlook, never mind half a dozen.  This entire series is only possible because everyone in it is a drooling moron.

Nowhere is that conclusion more obvious than the episode I just watched, where the Martian Kataphrakt of the week is literally just a robot with a plasma sword that's used as a way to deflect incoming fire.  Despite watching the enemy Kataphrakt repeatedly detonate high explosive rounds in midair with the heat of its blade, NOBODY except Inaho has the brains to try different types of ammunition to see if something that isn't explosive fares better... or simply hitting him from the side that isn't holding the sword.

That's right, this antagonist is only a threat because nobody thought to attack him from the two sides he wasn't covering with the only weapon he has.

Irony of ironies, Inaho probably would've had even more success if he'd just dropped the heavy shipping containers he used to smack the enemy Kataphrakt with on it from the top of the crane... instead of blinding its entire left side he could've taken its entire bloody head off. 

  

For me it had interesting characters and mecha. I never thought about it too seriously because the feudal society + mechs was already fantastical to begin with. With brain turned off I enjoyed the show (but not saying it was that good). That said I have KG Sleipner kit that I bought 3 years ago and still haven't got to building it lol. Frankly I don't even know where to put it--my finished Scopedog is still also in the box. Damn these space problems  T_T

[Dangard Ace]

11 hours ago, kajnrig said:

Speaking of, gave a new friend of mine the Frontier series last weekend, and he finished the entire thing by Wednesday. I think it's fair to say he liked it.

It's a completely bingable series.  .... and I kept rewatching the ending.  Love that medley.

 

On another note decided to start A Certain Magical Index.  3 episodes in and it's interesting, like it so far.