What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I started Mayo Chiki and it is very funny.  I love Subaru when embarrassed she sounds just like Index.   I know it is iguchi Yuka.

Edited December 24, 2019 by Hikaru Ichijo SL

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

23 hours ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

I started Mayo Chiki and it is very funny.  I love Subaru when embarrassed she sounds just like Index.   I know it is iguchi Yuka.

Mayo Chiki wasn't bad.   It had its moments unlike most of this anime season.

So I wrapped up Ore wo Suki nano wa Omae dake ka yo.

There are just so many things that I find wrong with this series..  between unlikable characters..  extremely weak secondary characters..   And character art that literally creeped me out.

The plot or lack of any pretty much dominated the 2nd half..  so if Saekano was the good way to handle a harem type anime..   this series is the exact opposite.   

Spoiler.. it ends on a cliff hanger...  double spoiler...  it still didn't make any sense.   

 

  

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I finished Ascendance of a Bookworm and I liked it.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

Finished No Guns Life and Shinchou Yuusha.

 

No Guns life was probably my choice for best of Fall 2019 anime season.

Shinchou Yuusha felt like there was s disconnect somewhere between episode 9 and 10.    And IMO it really hurt the ending flow of the series.     But all in all not bad.

 

 

[DewPoint]

Going to give Choujikuu Seiki Orguss 02 a go.  No real expectations other than it will likely be weird. 

[SuperHobo]

Despite some drops in quality in Vinland Saga, they really stuck the landing in the end. That was an incredible finale. While I would really like a season 2 I'm not sure it's selling well enough to warrant that......

[Keith]

13 hours ago, DewPoint said:

Going to give Choujikuu Seiki Orguss 02 a go.  No real expectations other than it will likely be weird. 

Weird, and it shits on the series.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

The 11th episode of Shinchou Yuusha really threw me for a loop.

[Seto Kaiba]

I've just queued up the Youjo Senki movie on a lark... the series was good, albeit too short, so I've got high hopes for this one.

[Seto Kaiba]

Well, that was certainly a thing that happened.

Gekijouban Youjo Senki is a real trip.  It feels a little scattered thanks to falling at kind of an awkward point in the story of the novels, but the story mercifully cuts some of the creepier moments (like the paedophile Russian government official who is obsessed with capturing Tanya) in favor of focusing on the Eastern Front and the introduction of Mary Sioux as Being X's new puppet in the Great War to try and force Tanya into a corner.

The animation was generally excellent, barring one REALLY jarring moment of conspicuous CG where the 203rd's mages are briefly animated as fully 3D characters instead of 2D that's really awkwardly out of place.  The action sequences were beautifully done all throughout the movie, and it REALLY drew a line under how massively overpowered Mary is thanks to having given in completely to Being X's brainwashing.  The final dogfight between Tanya and Mary is a little hard to watch given how almost literally cutthroat its fighting was.  There's even a fakeout ending where it looks like Tanya has finally secured her much-coveted rear echelon position after a dramatic speech about the horrors of total warfare... only for her crowing about her victory to be almost immediately shot down one jump cut later when she's informed she's being given command of a new combined arms unit.

[kajnrig]

Just in case you haven't seen the news yet, Hideaki Anno issued a candid statement on the (lack of) connection between himself/Studio Khara/Evangelion and Gainax. 

https://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2019/12/30/hideaki-anno-denounces-links-between-him-and-arrested-gainax-president-discusses-past-with-anime-studio

[JB0]

By "candid statement", they apparently mean "eight-page scathing rant".

Anno has good cause to be mad at them, by all appearances. I'm just not used to seeing that much honesty from a business head, much less a japanese one.

[Keith]

Who bought Gunbuster?

[JB0]

53 minutes ago, Keith said:

Who bought Gunbuster?

Based on the DVD and BR releases, it looks like Bandai owns it.

 

Kind of a dick move to sell it without even mentioning it to Anno AFTER Anno offered to buy it.

[Seto Kaiba]

Started Aho-Girl today, and it's been a good laugh thus far.  It's got the same sort of manic energy I fondly remember from the Excel Saga anime.

[Seto Kaiba]

13 hours ago, JB0 said:

By "candid statement", they apparently mean "eight-page scathing rant".

Anno has good cause to be mad at them, by all appearances. I'm just not used to seeing that much honesty from a business head, much less a japanese one.

Given how manners-obsessed Japanese corporate culture can be... I have to wonder if that rant'll come back to bite him in the arse one day.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I finished Shinchou Yuusha and it really left me hoping for more. This show cemented my love for Toyosaki Aki.

 

[AN/ALQ128]

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Given how manners-obsessed Japanese corporate culture can be... I have to wonder if that rant'll come back to bite him in the arse one day.

Anno will be fine. He owns Khara and the rights to the Eva characters, and Shin Godzilla did extremely well iirc. Plus, the reason he did this was to distance himself from the shambling corpse of current Gainax, and the current case with the Gainax director who got nabbed for having sex with an underage voice actress.

[Keith]

It's just a shame how prophetic Otaku no Video turned out to be.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Railgun T opening

[Seto Kaiba]

Aho-Girl was a pretty enjoyable watch.  Akuru's a walking thot slayer meme, and he does a great job as the straight man in Yoshiko's nonsense.  I wish it'd had more than twelve episodes.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I finished Mayo Chiki and I really enjoyed it.  The last episode seemed more of a OVA.  Episode 12 was a cute episode.  Jirou and his delusions.

[Marzan]

This upcoming season doesn't look too promising to be honest. There's no sure thing like Vinland Saga. Let's hope there's something that surprises.

They've adapted  one of my favorite manga, Dorohedoro, but alas, it seems that once more a seinen adaptation gets that cheap primitive cgi that Berserk 2016 was saddled with. It's a shame since Dorohedoro has such a fascinating story and merry band of characters.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

 

50 minutes ago, Marzan said:

This upcoming season doesn't look too promising to be honest. There's no sure thing like Vinland Saga. Let's hope there's something that surprises.

They've adapted  one of my favorite manga, Dorohedoro, but alas, it seems that once more a seinen adaptation gets that cheap primitive cgi that Berserk 2016 was saddled with. It's a shame since Dorohedoro has such a fascinating story and merry band of characters.

I agree, this season has only 2 shows I am really interested in Railgun T and Infinite Dendrogram.

[AN/ALQ128]

10 hours ago, Marzan said:

This upcoming season doesn't look too promising to be honest. There's no sure thing like Vinland Saga. Let's hope there's something that surprises.

They've adapted  one of my favorite manga, Dorohedoro, but alas, it seems that once more a seinen adaptation gets that cheap primitive cgi that Berserk 2016 was saddled with. It's a shame since Dorohedoro has such a fascinating story and merry band of characters.

Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na! is pretty good from its first episode. Great soundtrack, some impressive animation, an appealing art style, and it features some of the iconic scenes from Future Boy Conan (the first anime I ever watched).

The premise of three friends making their own anime is cool too, especially if they really dive in to the specifics of how anime is made.

[Major Focker]

oh wow. Eizouken blew me away.

and that ED!

[Seto Kaiba]

Aho-Girl was too damn short.

I know I bag on the half-length shows a LOT because one-cour run of 12 minute episodes feels too insubstantial for there to be any real character development, but Aho-Girl turned out to be the exception that tests the rule.  It was a surprising amount of fun to watch.  It definitely had that same kind of slightly manic energy as Excel Saga, as if Il Palazzo had been taken over by one of the most savage thot slayers in anime.  They even managed some pretty good character development in those twelve short episodes that genuinely left me wanting a bit more.

[Focslain]

So over the holiday I watched Magical Sempai and started Fire Force.

Magical Sempai was as advertised, a cute slice of life with plenty of fan service. Was neat that they explained a few of the tricks between Assistant-kun and the chemistry club. Not a bad way to waste an afternoon.

I'm only half way through Fire Force, giving me lots of Soul Eater vibes, which is good because I enjoyed that series and the fights here are really pretty. Only real complaint is Tamaki, her lecher lure seems like they were trying really hard to make her the focus of the fan service to the point of annoyance.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I started Mikakunin de Shinkoukei and it seems pretty funny.

[Marzan]

On 1/6/2020 at 8:29 AM, AN/ALQ128 said:

Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na! is pretty good from its first episode. Great soundtrack, some impressive animation, an appealing art style, and it features some of the iconic scenes from Future Boy Conan (the first anime I ever watched).

The premise of three friends making their own anime is cool too, especially if they really dive in to the specifics of how anime is made.

Yeah, I caught it yesterday. First real good show this season. No surprises there since it's directed by the great Maasaki Yuasa. I hadn't heard or read that something of his was coming up so this was a very pleasant surprise.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Anybody planning to see Tenki no Ko (weathering with you) in theatres in the US. I am planning to go on the 19th.

[Seto Kaiba]

I've spent some time catching up on my backlog... this week it's Crawl Up! Nyaruko-san.  

It's... odd.  Odder than I was prepared for, and that's saying something.  It's a H.P. Lovecraft-inspired harem comedy.  Let that sink in for a second.  It's a raunchy romcom based on H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos.  That description itself feels like a cosmic horror.  The premise is that apparently H.P. Lovecraft was simply a mortal who was in on the coverup of alien life, and modeled his Cthulhu mythos on very real alien lifeforms who come to Earth to indulge in its pop culture.  One very average young Japanese boy named Mahiro is nearly abducted by a Night Gaunt and is rescued by a young girl who professes to be none other than the dark god Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, who is really a space cop out to bust an eldritch pop culture smuggling ring.  He quickly assembles a small collection of equally eldritch spongers and freeloaders at his home, including a Cthuga and Hastur, the King in Yellow.  So a very befuddled boy is stuck in a weird soft of bisexual love quadrangle with Nyarlathotep in the guise of a young silver-haired girl and Hastur in the guise of a young blonde boy both want to jump his bones, and Cthuga has a single-target sexuality wanting to sexually assault Nyarlathotep.  It's a setup that gets forgotten about 80% of the time, making it feel a LOT like Excel Saga with them constantly parodying other shows.  They drop a lot of references to Call of Cthulhu too.

It's such a weird premise that I couldn't not watch, and it's proven to be pretty entertaining if only for Mahiro being a dangerously genre savvy thot slayer who uses every underhanded trick in the book to avoid being cornered by "Nyaruko".  

Spoiler

The story's bizarre self-awareness hit a new peak in the last episode I watched, where the Big Bad turned out to be... a pack of self-appointed moral guardians from space who are convinced that anime and manga are corrupting the space youth.

 

Well THAT was unexpected... the 11th episode of the first season more or less opened on a Macross reference.

Edited January 12, 2020 by Seto Kaiba

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I saw episode 1 of Railgun T and couldn't have been happier, I missed these folks. 

[Seto Kaiba]

Crawl up! Nyaruko-san's writers seem to really like Macross.  They've been averaging 1-2 references to it an episode in the second season.

Nyaruko's rant about aliens with weaksauce weaknesses brings up a few different kaiju, the aliens from Mars Attacks, and the Zentradi losing their will to fight when they heard music for the first time.

(Hell, her sneezes are her listing mecha from the series... Phalanx, Valkyrie, Armored, Super, Fire, Work-type, and VF-1.  Her last sneeze is "Big West".  The narrator even says "Deculture" at the end...)

Edited January 15, 2020 by Seto Kaiba

[kajnrig]

23 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

(Hell, her sneezes are her listing mecha from the series... Phalanx, Valkyrie, Armored, Super, Fire, Work-type, and VF-1.  Her last sneeze is "Big West".)

Her... her sneezes?