What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

4 minutes ago, Dangard Ace said:

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

Index in the beginning was very good,  its spin offs not so much.

 

On that note,  I figured I would give the accelerator spin-off a shot.     Meh..  it's at least got my interest more the Index S3.

 

[Gerli]

Dr.Stone started pretty good....

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

On 7/20/2019 at 9:01 AM, Dangard Ace said:

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.

Enjoy it I love the Index/Railgun and Accelerator.

[Seto Kaiba]

On 7/19/2019 at 2:48 AM, JB0 said:

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

... didn't see that coming.  

 

Still finding Magical Sempai weirdly enjoyable.  It's got a fair bit of fanservice, but it doesn't feel like it's an end unto itself the way it did in Ao-chan Can't Study, so it doesn't feel as objectionable.  There's a certain sympathetic appeal in watching that poor, put-upon assistant try to keep the titular character in line (and fail) and watching her occasional schemes to cheat backfire horribly.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable still doesn't feel quite right to me.  I think it's the change in art style from Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro just doesn't look right without being ridiculously shredded.  That and the weird texture on Josuke's pompadour and a few of the flattops makes them look like they're wearing cartoon steaks on their heads.

[kajnrig]

59 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable still doesn't feel quite right to me.  I think it's the change in art style from Stardust Crusaders, Jotaro just doesn't look right without being ridiculously shredded.  That and the weird texture on Josuke's pompadour and a few of the flattops makes them look like they're wearing cartoon steaks on their heads.

Yeah, the art style is a really big shift. I like it a lot, but the flat lighting, especially the sky in outdoor scenes, makes everything feel just that much more off from reality. Well, "reality."

Jotaro progressively gets younger. I just caught a picture of him in Part 6, which stars his teenage daughter, and he looks the same age as her. Dude went from a 40-year-old looking 17-year-old to a 17-year-old looking 40-year old. It's so weird. One might even call it bizarre.

[Seto Kaiba]

18 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

It's so weird. One might even call it bizarre.

 

 

20 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

Yeah, the art style is a really big shift. I like it a lot, but the flat lighting, especially the sky in outdoor scenes, makes everything feel just that much more off from reality. Well, "reality."

It definitely takes on a more surreal tone, especially with the OP "Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town"... which borders on being a dance OP even before being remixed into an EDM version after a dozen or so episodes.  Jojo was already over-the-top, but it seems to have totally stopped taking itself even a little seriously.

Kinda vaulted into straight-up weird when I hit that two-episode bit with...

Spoiler

... Koichi's crazy stalker Yukako, who abducts him and holds him prisoner in a house she broke into.  It feels like that entire plot was only possible because Koichi forgot he had a Stand too.

 

Also, is it just me, or does Crazy Diamond look suspiciously like a pink and platinum version of The World?

[Mazinger]

Seems like each volume, or season, has it's own style.

I haven't read the manga,  I'm gonna assume this might be because they are emulating the style changes that Hirohiko Araki own stylistic changes.

And if you have enjoyed the OP's, I gotta say that Golden Wind first is really something.  Reminiscent of James Bond openings in a good way.   

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Finally getting near the end of School Rumble and it is really good.

[kajnrig]

23 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It definitely takes on a more surreal tone, especially with the OP "Crazy Noisy Bizarre Town"... which borders on being a dance OP even before being remixed into an EDM version after a dozen or so episodes.  Jojo was already over-the-top, but it seems to have totally stopped taking itself even a little seriously.

I think that's a consequence of the slice-of-life flavor that this arc took on. Some of your neighbors having wacky, stupidly specific magical powers that the rest of your neighbors can't see is silly.

Part 5 so far seems to have the same sense of... inconsequentiality? Low stakes is what I mean, even though the stakes have obviously ramped up from Diamond is Unbreakable. Just seems like a wacky fun aaaaaadventure time! rather than the more serious, personally-driven main conflicts of the first three stories.

23 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Kinda vaulted into straight-up weird when I hit that two-episode bit with...

  Reveal hidden contents

... Koichi's crazy stalker Yukako, who abducts him and holds him prisoner in a house she broke into.  It feels like that entire plot was only possible because Koichi forgot he had a Stand too.

All of that, then (spoilers in case you haven't gotten there yet)

things just work out in the end anyway. I mean yeah, it's clear that Yukako mellows out and Koichi discovers that she actually hits a lot of his particular tastes when she's not (or maybe when she is) yandere-ing it up, but it's still just the slightest bit eyebrow-raising to look at them now and remember how it all started. But I guess it's not that unbelievable. Crazy noisy bizarre town, amirite?

23 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Also, is it just me, or does Crazy Diamond look suspiciously like a pink and platinum version of The World?

People have said as much too, now that I look them up. I also found it insanely weird that Jotaro opted to give his Stand's ability a name, and especially to name it after his nemesis. If anything, I'd have thought he'd simply tell Star Platinum to "TOKI WO TOMARE!" but then again that would rob us of more wonderful "ZA WARUDO!" pronunciations, so let it rock, I suppose.

[Seto Kaiba]

21 minutes ago, kajnrig said:

I think that's a consequence of the slice-of-life flavor that this arc took on. Some of your neighbors having wacky, stupidly specific magical powers that the rest of your neighbors can't see is silly.

On that score, am I the only one who finds it slightly odd that almost none of the Stand users in Morioh have found any kind of a mundane utility for their newfound psychic powers?  The closest we've really seen is Okuyasu using The Hand to put out a fire in someone's hair by vanishing the burning hair.  

[kajnrig]

Well, there's the chef... And Josuke fixes broken noses on the regular...

I wonder, if Kishibe Rohan opened up Reimi and Arnold and wrote in that they weren't dead, would they come back to life?

[JB0]

1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

Well, there's the chef... And Josuke fixes broken noses on the regular...

I wonder, if Kishibe Rohan opened up Reimi and Arnold and wrote in that they weren't dead, would they come back to life?

The chef was the best mini-arc in Josuke's series.

[Keith]

5 hours ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

Finally getting near the end of School Rumble and it is really good.

Prepare yourself. I still haven't recovered after almost 15 years.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

18 hours ago, Keith said:

Prepare yourself. I still haven't recovered after almost 15 years.

I am always prepared.

[Keith]

3 hours ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

I am always prepared.

YOU ARE NOT READY!

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

15 hours ago, Keith said:

YOU ARE NOT READY!

 

lol yeah  School Rumble was great..    Go read the manga,   it does have a definitive resolution to several character arcs.

 

 

I watched the Dan Machi Arrow of Orion movie last night.     Not bad,  probably 7/10 overall.    It is stand alone,  and can be watched without any previous Danmachi experience.

 

[kajnrig]

2 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

I watched the Dan Machi Arrow of Orion movie last night.     Not bad,  probably 7/10 overall.    It is stand alone,  and can be watched without any previous Danmachi experience.

My friend wanted to see it too and dragged me along with. My thoughts on it, not knowing anything about the series:

 

It's fine. Doesn't do anything particularly cleverly, doesn't do anything particularly poorly. Story seems like it could have been way better if it wasn't essentially filler material. A lot of the humor falls flat because it's not well set up and/or set up at all, and other times it gauges the scene wrong so it comes off as inappropriate, but other times it got a chuckle out of me.

Really liked the two dark-skinned adventurer girls who showed up towards the end. They, uh... they do a lot of things right.

The rest of the characters seem fine, too, except boy oh boy, what a hardtack biscuit made of cardboard left in the dry stale air of an undisturbed Egyptian burial chamber for millennia of a main character Bell is. Could not care less about anything about him, which is unfortunate because a lot of the movie is about him. He is the ultimate self-insert Nice Guy harem protagonist who cares about everybody and doesn't stand out at all and is completely uninteresting yet has seemingly all of the female characters vying for his affection and is the coolest and bestest and he's the chosen one and on and on and on. Artemis was fine, Ais(?) was fine, the loli girl was fine, Hestia was fine, science bomber lady was fine, head honcho lady with the sexy barely-a-dress was fine, Hermes and Local Big Sword Guy were fine, Bell Carnel was a sleeping pill that's defective so instead of either keeping you up or helping you sleep it just leaves you in a drowsy, inattentive state.

The fanservice was pandering (but my friend enjoyed it so successfully pandered to, I guess) and actively distracted from what were supposed to be serious, dramatic scenes. Nothing like conveniently censoring a nipple while the main character struggles with the moral dilemma of killing his newfound love for the sake of the greater good to completely take you out of a scene.

 

All of that said, I'm sure I'd like it more if I watched the show, so... sure, 6/10, it's pretty standard anime fare I guess. (Seriously though, who were those two dark-haired chicks because GAT DAYUM.)

Also, there was a trailer for apparently an August screening of Millennium Actress, and I am most definitely not missing out on that opportunity. That movie is so frakking good.

Edited July 24, 2019 by kajnrig

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

4 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

 

lol yeah  School Rumble was great..    Go read the manga,   it does have a definitive resolution to several character arcs.

 

 

I watched the Dan Machi Arrow of Orion movie last night.     Not bad,  probably 7/10 overall.    It is stand alone,  and can be watched without any previous Danmachi experience.

 

I plan on seeing the Danmachi movie next week, I hope it is good.  I love Hestia.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Hikaru Ichijo SL

[Seto Kaiba]

Started watching Akashic Records of the Bastard Magic Instructor the other day while I was getting my new gaming rig set up, and  confess I'm not sure what to make of it yet.

The visual design of the anime is appealing and appalling in equal measure, the latter mostly being the result of the uniforms for the girls at the Alzano Imperial Magical Academy which look better suited to a particularly racy cheer squad than the late 19th century-esque fantasy world everyone else is dressing for.

First episode was kind of meh, but the second episode was actually rather enjoyable until the [...]

Spoiler

[...] completely unnecessary and gratuitous attempted rape of a student by a terrorst(?).

Seems to be headed in a vaguely Negima!-like direction if Negi were an adult and a massive troll.

Unwelcome sexual content aside, the second episode's story actually seems to be developing in an interesting direction, so I think I'll give it a further shot.

[hal9000]

13 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Started watching Akashic Records of the Bastard Magic Instructor the other day while I was getting my new gaming rig set up, and  confess I'm not sure what to make of it yet.

The visual design of the anime is appealing and appalling in equal measure, the latter mostly being the result of the uniforms for the girls at the Alzano Imperial Magical Academy which look better suited to a particularly racy cheer squad than the late 19th century-esque fantasy world everyone else is dressing for.

First episode was kind of meh, but the second episode was actually rather enjoyable until the [...]

  Hide contents

[...] completely unnecessary and gratuitous attempted rape of a student by a terrorst(?).

Seems to be headed in a vaguely Negima!-like direction if Negi were an adult and a massive troll.

Unwelcome sexual content aside, the second episode's story actually seems to be developing in an interesting direction, so I think I'll give it a further shot.

My wife and I started on it this weekend as well.

After Ep 2 I was on the fence but gave it one more.  We then watched all the way to ep6  , it makes a change for the better.  

Its not ground braking but its been fun.  

[Seto Kaiba]

21 minutes ago, hal9000 said:

My wife and I started on it this weekend as well.

After Ep 2 I was on the fence but gave it one more.  We then watched all the way to ep6  , it makes a change for the better.  

Its not ground braking but its been fun.  

I got through episode 4 last night before turning in, and apart from that rough start and the weird fetish-y uniforms the girls wear it's been a thoroughly enjoyable series. 

I'm not sure if it's so enjoyable I'd pursue the light novels the way I did for Overlord or KonoSuba, but definitely enough that I'd watch more.

(Though, weird fetish-y uniforms being what they are, it's sure as hell not a show I'll be watching at work on my lunch hour where someone might see.)

 

Today's viewing material was Mobile Suit Gundam: the Origin: Advent of the Red Comet episode 11... the Battle of Loum.  It's really well-presented, but I'm still a bit annoyed that they can't seem to decide if the Zakus used during the operation were the MS-05 Zaku or MS-06 Zaku II.  

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

Akashic Records of the Bastard Magic Instructor   was kind of a middle of the road title for me.     Not all that great,  but not all that bad either.    I was left on the fence at the end of this one.    I wanted to see more,  but at the same time was kinda meh.

[Marzan]

Holiday's are over and daily life is back which means binging on the summer series. And the invitable cull. The survivors are as follows:

Vinland Saga: No brainer. I'm a big, big fan of the manga and so far Studio I.G is doing a stellar job with the adaptation. The changes have not disturbed the flow of the stories and while it has some of that cheap CGI that all seinen series seem to be saddled with, its not enough to ruin the action scenes.

Fire Force: really dig the art and the world building. Really hawt character designs too.

Dr. Stone: Crazy premise and tackles some interesting moral questions. Visuals are ok too.

Dumbell Nan Kilo Moteru: High school girls working out in a gym with muscle guys. I always watch a "light" shallow series a season. This is it for me.

Dungeon 2: We need more AIZ.

 

Dropped: Demon Slayer. Just some weeks ago I was raving about the art and animation. Unfortunately, the story has a massive mood shift around episode 10 and takes a turn for the farcical with some loud comic relief characters suddenly taking up a lot of screen time. A shame really.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I watch the Love Live! Sunshine movie and it was good just like the series.  I started watching Symphogear season 1.  I love it so much I put everything else on hold for now.

[JB0]

1 hour ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

I started watching Symphogear season 1.  I love it so much I put everything else on hold for now.

Now just imagine a world where Basara gets his hands on a relic.

 

Also, the commander is my favorite character.

[kajnrig]

Started Konosuba the other day. It turns out I can't stand these Isekai setups where the fantasy world isn't explicitly an RPG but runs on RPG rules, but the characters are fun at least. They help to distract from the absolutely boring world and all the questions I have about it.

It seems like something to just shut your mind down and have fun with the wacky mishaps the characters get into. That's fine, I guess. The kids like it, so it'll be something to watch with them.

...it's just I see this and I get cravings for Escaflowne and Slayers to come show them how Isekai and comedic fantasy anime are done right.

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

Started Konosuba the other day. It turns out I can't stand these Isekai setups where the fantasy world isn't explicitly an RPG but runs on RPG rules, but the characters are fun at least. They help to distract from the absolutely boring world and all the questions I have about it.

KonoSuba is entertaining as long as you don't think too hard about it... but it also wears out its welcome VERY quickly because the recurring joke is that Kazuma will never be allowed to make any lasting progress towards his goal.  The anime ends pretty much at the point where it would've started getting really tedious.

Spoiler

He gets knocked back to essentially square one an average of twice a season if not more, when his own natural laziness isn't preventing him from making progress.  It's even more pronounced in the light novels.  I'm eight volumes on in that and he's never managed to make lasting progress, he's always back to square one at the start of a new volume thanks to slipping back into his NEET/hikikomori tendencies anytime he gets his hands on even a tiny amount of wealth or influence.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

Since we had a long lunch today during a meeting marathon, I caught the latest episodes of To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts and Magical Sempai.  

To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts is starting to feel like it ran out of tricks and is desperately rummaging around for something to show the audience.  I feel like this episode was bait-and-switch, since they promised some progress towards finding Cain Madhouse and it was another monster-of-the-week episode instead.  Really a dick move after the setup in the previous episode [...]

Spoiler

[...] made it look like the vampire Incarnate Cain Madhouse was basically this setting's Jack the Ripper.  Instead it turns out to have been a massive false flag perpetrated by a gargoyle Incarnate who is basically Judge Dredd by way of Batman (or just Night Haunter from WH40K) out murdering whores in the slums of his hometown because reasons.  

Once again, Nancy is completely useless and still refuses to accept that the Incarnates are beyond saving because they've lost human reason.  The only thing that's really noteworthy is that [...]

Spoiler

[...] the Chekhov's Gun that is Liza Renecastle's impossibly low cut blouse was finally fired, leading to a scene of her screaming at the offender while Nancy frantically censors the scene with her hands.

 

Magical Sempai's pretty fanservice-y this week, with a fairly stock cliche bit about the titular sempai overhearing what she thinks is her assistant saying he loves her (he's actually praising a prop) and inviting him to her place to gently turn him down before finding out she misunderstood.  They do seem to be setting up a love triangle with the chemistry club lead though, which had some mildly entertaining moments.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

21 hours ago, JB0 said:

Now just imagine a world where Basara gets his hands on a relic.

 

Also, the commander is my favorite character.

That would be strange.

 

I admit that Miku is my favorite character.  It could be because Iguchi Yuka voices her.  Close second is Tsubasa.

[JB0]

Just sayin', the relics are powered by song energy, and Basara has LOTS of that.

 

Tsubasa is probably my favorite of the characters I'm SUPPOSED to care about, but it is hard not to like someone as over-the-top as the commander.

[AN/ALQ128]

I'm a fan of Chris, myself.

Nothing beats tons of DAKKA and missiles!

[JB0]

That was why I said Tsubasa's PROBABLY my favorite. Chris put up a couple of good counterarguments.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I started Symphogear G last night and Maria shows up and I am like Rias Gremory is now a singer.  Tsubasa's character song is so addictive, I keep on listening to it.  I haven't got to the G music yet but I hope that Tsukuyomi Shirabe's song is also good.  One of my favorite singers Nanjo Yoshino is her voice actress.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I just wrapped up the first season of Blood Blockade Battlefront.     I was entertained by this title,  however IMO the plot is pretty muddy and the general premise is a hard sell.    After doing some research apparently my favorite character is "anime only" and is not even found in the manga.

I have season 2 on deck and I'd like to see it flesh out some things,  and maybe not be so murky in regards to the overall plot.  

Still all in all not bad for a title I picked up on a whim.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

Finished Akashic Records of the Bastard Magic Instructor.  

Ultimately... not bad, but not great.  Glenn is actually a reasonably interesting protagonist, as what basically amounts to a former military-run magical hitman who found a conscience, but it feels handicapped by the fanservice-y designs of the female cast.  It definitely could've benefited from being longer than twelve episodes too.  Leos is built up like he's going to end up being the antagonist of the final story arc [...]

Spoiler

[...] but he's killed offscreen, replaced by a completely different antagonist, and revealed to have been a mind-controlled puppet via a deadly narcotic the entire time.  

His replacement is pretty much the Giant Space Flea from Nowhere, a heretofore unmentioned deactivated member of the Imperial mage squad with questionable motives which aren't properly explained and powers that conveniently sidestep Glenn's trump card until Glenn remembers that he owns a gun and can just shoot things instead of punching the crap out of them.

Decent story, but the ending's weak.

 

Since I'm on a bit of a fantasy kick, I gave Isekai Cheat Magician another whirl and it's freaking terrible.  Worse than I originally thought.

The animation quality is awful... it looks like it's about ten to fifteen years old.  The story is, if anything, worse.  It feels like a madlib for a generic isekai fantasy story or a really awful fan fic for Slayers where Lina is a guy.  About the only thing it seems to bring to the table so far is fanservice, since the main duo's magic teacher seems to have nicked her wardrobe from a Slave Leia cosplayer.