What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

Well I got to Ep 10 on Monster Musume no Oisha-san.   I can't comment on any similarities to Monster-musume as I haven't seen it.   Yep there is some fanservice,  and it does have some creep factor to it.   But it's nowhere near the creep factor of say Eromanga Sensei level.      It has been entertaining so far.. which is more then I can say for some other titles of late.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

 

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Oracle was pretty good, and shed some light on some story gaps from the game, while trimming out some of the less interesting content leading up to the final fight of episode 3 in the game.  The high school one looked cheesy and out of place at first, but was pretty enjoyable once the context of the story was fleshed out better.  Sort of falls into the typical high school anime trope pile, with a side of MMO-based humor, but I had fun with it.

As I understand it, a big part of the reason for that is that what we got when the North American launch of Phantasy Star Online 2 hit was a somewhat cut-down version of the Story Missions that removed the need to actually unlock new content via the Matter Board and took out some of the multiple-choice content to streamline the story.

I'm kinda reluctant to watch the Episode 4 prequel because of how absurdly meta the Episode 4 story got/is getting.  SEGA did a bit too much patting themselves on the back about their game's popularity in Japan there.

 

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Oracle is on the Funimation streaming site (I signed up for the free trial to watch this one), while the high school series can be found on Youtube, since I don't think it was localized officially yet.

The high school series is also available officially on Crunchyroll, for those who have memberships there.

IIRC, you can find the protagonist from the Episode 4 prequel anime in the Shopping Area of the Arks Ship Lobby down near where Patty and Tia are.  He's one of the NPCs which dispenses quests, and looks for all the world like the Hunter/Fighter protagonist from the game's OPs.  Tie-ins, y'know.

 

1 hour ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

Well I got to Ep 10 on Monster Musume no Oisha-san.   I can't comment on any similarities to Monster-musume as I haven't seen it.   Yep there is some fanservice,  and it does have some creep factor to it.   But it's nowhere near the creep factor of say Eromanga Sensei level.      It has been entertaining so far.. which is more then I can say for some other titles of late.

As I've noted previously, Monster Girl Doctor does A LOT of copying from Daily Life with Monster Girls... to the level I'd call straight-up plagiarism.  There's a more robust backstory in Monster Girl Doctor though, what with the idea that people always knew monsters were real and we're seeing the peace after generations of war as they try to live together.  The plot in Daily Life with Monster Girls was a more transparent excuse plot where monsters always existed but were covered up by the government and now there's some government sponsored cohabitation to help get them adjusted to human society.  Glenn has more of an excuse for his monster girl harem since he's a practicing physician for monsters and not just some unlucky guy a lazy government official keeps dumping problem cases on.  

The fanservice is basically the same between the two... though Daily Life with Monster Girls does a lot more of it.  A lot of accidental partial nudity and accidental pervert moments from the protagonist (exacerbated by the jealous lamia's overreactions).  A lot of it's even the same exact situations, like being forced to finger-bang a harpy because she's having problems laying an egg, dealing with an arachne who's into BDSM, a zombie girl who's falling apart but still can feel her disembodied body parts, a very clear fetish for comically large breasts, naughty tentacles wearing people out and leaving them in puddles of slime, etc.  

It's definitely less creepy than Eromanga Sensei, since at least in those two everyone's an adult, but it's still really incredibly blatantly all about the fanservice.... which is what takes me right out of it.  I don't mind fanservice, but if it's the show's raison d'ê·re it's rather difficult for me to enjoy the story.

[Focslain]

9 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The fanservice is basically the same between the two... though Daily Life with Monster Girls does a lot more of it.  A lot of accidental partial nudity and accidental pervert moments from the protagonist (exacerbated by the jealous lamia's overreactions).  A lot of it's even the same exact situations, like being forced to finger-bang a harpy because she's having problems laying an egg, dealing with an arachne who's into BDSM, a zombie girl who's falling apart but still can feel her disembodied body parts, a very clear fetish for comically large breasts, naughty tentacles wearing people out and leaving them in puddles of slime, etc.  

So are you describing Monster Musume or Oisha here? Most of this is from Musume with exception of the zombie bit (which was the dulahan, in Musume)

In Musume the zombie had zero feelings, the sewing of her breast was to show that the MC treated all the girls like girls and not monsters. In Oisha the dulahan gag was used a little with the zombie.
The harpy egg laying in Oisha was a battlefield birth, nothing sexual about it. 
The BDSM was swapped from the the archne in Musume to the centaurs in Oisha (the leads attendants).
Unless Cthuley has assaulted the pair in ep 9 (only up to ep 8 personally) then the tentacle bit is from Suu going after the Centaur in Musume

I'm going to look into grabbing the LN for Oisha because the science in this series has my interest. Sure there is fanservice, but that is to be expected if this series is to drawn in and hold the old Musume crowd. Which seems to be the plan. In general Oisha has a better world and a more interesting plot. 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I am not enjoying the new Digimon series all that much.  I find it slow and boring.  I also miss Brave heart.

[chyll2]

Re:zero never disappoints.

 

 

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

2 minutes ago, chyll2 said:

Re:zero never disappoints.

 

 

It's on my list to catch up on.   

 

I caught up to Ep 11 on Maō Gakuin no Futekigōsha,    this series again is a mixed bag.   There are a few moments where it shows some brilliance only to be brought back down to mediocrity.    The last few episodes have been on a higher note,  but still not something I would personally go out and recommend to anyone.

 

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

6 hours ago, chyll2 said:

Re:zero never disappoints.

 

 

I agree 100%, this weeks episode was awesome.

[Chronocidal]

On 9/14/2020 at 9:11 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

As I understand it, a big part of the reason for that is that what we got when the North American launch of Phantasy Star Online 2 hit was a somewhat cut-down version of the Story Missions that removed the need to actually unlock new content via the Matter Board and took out some of the multiple-choice content to streamline the story.

The story quests were definitely re-engineered, but it's more that they completely omitted Harukotan from the anime (for the better, I think). None of the characters or events in that region get shown, and and the major events from Episode 3 take place in entirely different locations.

On 9/14/2020 at 9:11 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

I'm kinda reluctant to watch the Episode 4 prequel because of how absurdly meta the Episode 4 story got/is getting.  SEGA did a bit too much patting themselves on the back about their game's popularity in Japan there.

For what it's worth, I think the prequel anime is better than the actual game content for episode 4, because the story just felt more solid before they added all of the cheesy super-secret factions, and you were just dealing with players of the game.  I actually stopped playing episode 4 mid-way to watch it, and find out what they were referencing in the story.  The nature of it being a prequel that couldn't reveal a lot of the later story content worked in its favor, I think, since it just worked better without trying to explain everything.

Also, as meta as the series gets, it does not hold a freaking candle to the actual game content.  I don't know how far in the storyline you might be, because I flat out marathon each segment as they come out.  The story missions in the game take the fourth wall, tug the bottom of it like a pull-shade until it rolls up like a pool noodle, and then cut it up into segments to make pretzels. 

I honestly don't want to spoil it though, because the way the final segment was resolved had me crying with insane laughter at how silly it was, and despite that, laughing that hard felt pretty good. 

 

On the unfortunate side though, the story winds up playing out very much like a rough copy of Lightning Returns, or possibly any number of the final Fantasy games.

Side note, you actually get several characters from the series (and their alts) if you finish their quests.  Just don't use the English voices for them.  

Edited September 16, 2020 by Chronocidal

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

The story quests were definitely re-engineered, but it's more that they completely omitted Harukotan from the anime (for the better, I think). None of the characters or events in that region get shown, and and the major events from Episode 3 take place in entirely different locations.

That might actually be better... no offense to SEGA and Phantasy Star Crew, but going from the appropriately science fantasy-friendly backdrops of Naverius, Ambduskia, and Wopal to the planet of feudal Japanese cliches was a bit of a weird thematic jump.  Doubly so since Dark Falz Gemini doesn't really fit the theme either with the toy-based gimmicks and an ending that isn't even on the same planet.

 

6 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

For what it's worth, I think the prequel anime is better than the actual game content for episode 4, because the story just felt more solid before they added all of the cheesy super-secret factions, and you were just dealing with players of the game.  I actually stopped playing episode 4 mid-way to watch it, and find out what they were referencing in the story.  The nature of it being a prequel that couldn't reveal a lot of the later story content worked in its favor, I think, since it just worked better without trying to explain everything.

I'll bump it up the queue then.  I've been somewhat hesitant about watching it because of how ridiculously narmy the whole plot of Episode IV has been so far.  It went full shonen anime, but with a dub that would've been terrible even by 90's standards.  I played the first couple chapters on a Discord stream and my friends and I basically kept up a running MST3K-style commentary that was WAY more entertaining than the actual plot.  

 

6 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Also, as meta as the series gets, it does not hold a freaking candle to the actual game content.  I don't know how far in the storyline you might be, because I flat out marathon each segment as they come out.  The story missions in the game take the fourth wall, tug the bottom of it like a pull-shade until it rolls up like a pool noodle, and then cut it up into segments to make pretzels. 

I honestly don't want to spoil it though, because the way the final segment was resolved had me crying with insane laughter at how silly it was, and despite that, laughing that hard felt pretty good. 

The last bit I did in-game was the Episode IV boss fight with Esca Falz Mother, which I found amusing familiar since the design was based very heavily on the third/final form of Dark Falz from Phantasy Star Online episode 1.  Kind of a pain in the butt as a solo Techter/Force.

 

6 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

Side note, you actually get several characters from the series (and their alts) if you finish their quests.  Just don't use the English voices for them.  

Yeah... no kidding.  The dub is a real ear-bleeder.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

This weeks Oregairu Kan was the best episode of the entire series so far.  I love Yukino.

[Petrov27]

Recently catching up on some shows that I missed

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku - enjoying this, amazed that there is a Macross Frontier reference in Ep4

RE: Creators - animation is very nice but having some issues getting into it. Reverse Isekai premise at least is a little spin that is interesting

No Guns Life - season 1, liking it so far

Astra Lost in Space - really want a space/sci-fi series to get into but so far this is not really doing it for me. Its ok...

APPARE-RANMAN! - again really nice animation but so far not super engaging to me but only on ep 2

From this season:

Uzaki-chan wants to hang out - enjoying it somewhat, really slow show but has its funny moments

Deca-dence - enjoying it, definitely a different spin on what you think this is going to be from ep1 and I like that change-up from standard formula

RE:ZERO - watched the 1st ep of season 2 and I am holding off till the whole season is out - it just seems like it is amazing and I hate waiting for eps to come out, rather watch em all on my own schedule (which if it is as good as this may be all in one sitting....)

Edited September 18, 2020 by Petrov27

[Marzan]

21 hours ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

This weeks Oregairu Kan was the best episode of the entire series so far.  I love Yukino.

Yeah, the series finally delivers. The anime production team made some questionable choices in the adaptation which this season feel much less compelling than the last two. This episode fixes that with top notch delivery.

[treker14]

I just started watching;

Dirty Pair Flash I am a fan of the original Dirty Pair and I finally decided to watch the reboot. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it because of the major difference in the artwork, but so far I am enjoying it. 

Mobile Police Patlabor I never watched Patlabor but it was suggested to me so I started watching the Patlabor TV series and am also enjoying it very much. The characters are unique and have crazy personalities. 

& the strangest 

Dragon Pilot Hisone and Masotan I have only watched one episode and I don't if this is considered an anime because it's a Netflix original but made in Japan. It deals with a young Air Force cadet who gets eaten by a dragon and spit out. She learns that the dragons exist and that the Air Force hide them and a dragon picks a pilot by swallowing them. I might watch a little more to see where this is going. 

Edited September 18, 2020 by treker14

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

2 hours ago, Marzan said:

Yeah, the series finally delivers. The anime production team made some questionable choices in the adaptation which this season feel much less compelling than the last two. This episode fixes that with top notch delivery.

That is why I am reading the light novels.  Too bad I am so far behind.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

So I just went from Ep 29 to Ep 36 in ReZero in less then 24 hours..  holy $%^! 

I was caught up in the novels till about the first white rabbit scene.     S2 is coming off just as strong as S1,    but not S tier because no Rem... lol

 

[Seto Kaiba]

On 9/18/2020 at 4:34 PM, treker14 said:

Dirty Pair Flash I am a fan of the original Dirty Pair and I finally decided to watch the reboot. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it because of the major difference in the artwork, but so far I am enjoying it. 

A lot of people don't give that one a fair shake because of how iconic the original Dirty Pair was... but IMO it was actually pretty good.  Not great, but enjoyable enough that I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time watching it.  (I also really like the first OP, Limitless Answer.)

 

On 9/18/2020 at 4:34 PM, treker14 said:

Mobile Police Patlabor I never watched Patlabor but it was suggested to me so I started watching the Patlabor TV series and am also enjoying it very much. The characters are unique and have crazy personalities. 

Patlabor's pretty damn great... the only real problem with it is that they reuse plots A LOT.  Like, you'll see the same plot about the SV2 crew fighting a kaiju like four times including the movie.  The Type-98AV Labor is one of the most beautifully detailed works of mechanical design ever created.  It's a labor (lol) of love rivaling Shoji Kawamori's VF-1 Valkyrie or Yoshiyuki Tomino's RX-78 Gundam, design-wise.

[Seto Kaiba]

Did some catching up after work last night... The Misfit of Demon King Academy is feeling more and more like a HEAVILY compressed adaptation.

They tried to have a climactic battle between the demon and human academy students, and the whole thing felt like they'd tried to compress an entire volume (or more) of light novel into two episodes.  I feel like there should've been a lot more exposition going on, and probably was in its original format.  It's still pretty disappointing as a series because there's zero dramatic tension.  Nothing is ever at stake because the main character is a boring invincible hero.  This feels like it could've been a compelling series despite the fact that death is VERY cheap with ubiquitous, consequence-free resurrection magic if not for the fact that the protagonist already knows everything better than everyone else and is so powerful he can beat the combined power of ten million people with nothing but an eight person cheering section (no really, this is a thing that happens in the story).  He's a textbook Mary Sue and that's just killing the rest of the story.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I also spent some time staying current with Episodes 11 and 12 of Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha.     I guess this is supposed to be the big climatic reveal in Ep 12,  but it didn't feel that way.    None of the side characters seem to really even matter,  and the BIG reveal was pretty poorly executed and was predictable.

Did the same with Ep 11 of Monster Musume no Oisha-san.   The season ending climax arc can be summed up simply as Loli Dragon.   

 

I still need to wrap up Uzaki-chan which is next on my list.

 

As for Kanojo, Okarishimasu and Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru Kan.     I am in the same place I was mid season,  both series turned me off for one reason or another.. KO was because the main character was just so pathetic and creepy that I had to stop.    And SNAFU because I saw where it was going Ep 5 and it no longer interested me anymore.

Lastly..  Railgun..   I need to go back and watch this season again from the start,   I am so far behind I can't remember where I left off.    Maybe next season.. lol

 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Stampeed Valkyrie

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

I also spent some time staying current with Episodes 11 and 12 of Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha.     I guess this is supposed to be the big climatic reveal in Ep 12,  but it didn't feel that way.    None of the side characters seem to really even matter,  and the BIG reveal was pretty poorly executed and was predictable.

Eh... yeah, they definitely flubbed the "big reveal" and left it feeling like a non-event.  

It kind of comes out of nowhere and ultimately doesn't mean anything, but it doesn't help that the main character receives this supposedly game-changing news with the precisely the same level of urgency, gravitas, or interest than he receives any other piece of news.  It's rather difficult to remain invested in the story's big moment when the main character isn't.

 

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Did the same with Ep 11 of Monster Musume no Oisha-san.   The season ending climax arc can be summed up simply as Loli Dragon.   

Ah, yes... I needed to watch that latest episode.

Monster Girl Doctor at least did a better job of building up to its climax than The Misfit of Demon King Academy did, but not by much.  Despite the dragon-loli in question's status as the lynchpin holding the town's mixed human-monster government together, there's very little urgency surrounding the supposedly life-saving surgery they're trying to talk her into having done.  Instead, we get the better part of an episode devoted to some cheap drama and a girl's night out spent mainly talking about how they're all in love with the completely oblivious main character.

 

 

I'm thinking about starting Re:Zero, though from what I've heard and read about it I suspect I'll find the main character rather obnoxious.

Edited September 21, 2020 by Seto Kaiba

[Sanity is Optional]

FWIW, on Maou Gakuen, as of the end of this season, it'll be at roughly ch 115 of the novel.

So it got massively compacted.

[Seto Kaiba]

32 minutes ago, Sanity is Optional said:

FWIW, on Maou Gakuen, as of the end of this season, it'll be at roughly ch 115 of the novel.

So it got massively compacted.

How many volumes is that?  Ten? Eleven?

[Sanity is Optional]

42 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

How many volumes is that?  Ten? Eleven?

Dunno, reading translation and they don't say.

It's at least the 3rd/4th major arc, depending how you count the trip to the Human academy.

[Seto Kaiba]

7 hours ago, Sanity is Optional said:

Dunno, reading translation and they don't say.

It's at least the 3rd/4th major arc, depending how you count the trip to the Human academy.

So, I did a little digging into this based on what you said... and suddenly all of the problems with The Misfit of Demon King Academy make perfect sense.

Both The Rising of the Shield Hero and The Misfit of Demon King Academy TV anime adaptations adapted the first five volumes of their respective light novels.  Where Misfit starts to run into problems is that its light novel volumes are a good 25% larger than Shield Hero's, meaning the amount of content they're trying to adapt is more like six light novel volumes rather than five and they're trying to pack that material into half as much episode count.

When you work it out, the adaptation density of The Rising of the Shield Hero is about 63.04 pages per episode.  The adaptation density of The Misfit of Demon King Academy is about 149.54 pages per episode... well over double Shield Hero's.  No wonder everything feels so rushed and poorly explained, this TV anime should only be half over it were being properly adapted.

[Focslain]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

So, I did a little digging into this based on what you said... and suddenly all of the problems with The Misfit of Demon King Academy make perfect sense.

Both The Rising of the Shield Hero and The Misfit of Demon King Academy TV anime adaptations adapted the first five volumes of their respective light novels.  Where Misfit starts to run into problems is that its light novel volumes are a good 25% larger than Shield Hero's, meaning the amount of content they're trying to adapt is more like six light novel volumes rather than five and they're trying to pack that material into half as much episode count.

When you work it out, the adaptation density of The Rising of the Shield Hero is about 63.04 pages per episode.  The adaptation density of The Misfit of Demon King Academy is about 149.54 pages per episode... well over double Shield Hero's.  No wonder everything feels so rushed and poorly explained, this TV anime should only be half over it were being properly adapted.

Huh, might explain some of the issues in the Irregular at Magic High School adaption, considering they did 7 volumes in 26 eps. Though that just had whole side story chapters removed, but those stories helped in the world building.

[Seto Kaiba]

Just now, Focslain said:

Huh, might explain some of the issues in the Irregular at Magic High School adaption, considering they did 7 volumes in 26 eps. Though that just had whole side story chapters removed, but those stories helped in the world building.

I think the bigger issue there might be that the main character's fairly plot-critical internal monologue was axed completely... which kind of derails every aspect of the story.

[Focslain]

1 hour ago, Seto Kaiba said:

I think the bigger issue there might be that the main character's fairly plot-critical internal monologue was axed completely... which kind of derails every aspect of the story.

Just about, granted the series did it's job, it got me to buy the LN. 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-09-19/sword-art-online-progressive-light-novels-get-anime/.164241

 

Yes, I love the books.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

So I decided to give Demi-chan wa Kataritai a go as I was instructed it wasn't anything like any of the other Monster girl titles floating around.

I am glad I did,  it was amusing, and light hearted.   Plus as a bonus the Mrs. sat and watched it and it got good reviews from her.

 

 

[Focslain]

14 hours ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-09-19/sword-art-online-progressive-light-novels-get-anime/.164241

 

Yes, I love the books.

Hoping it ends up better then the original series. I got a FMA: Brotherhood vibe from this though.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

17 hours ago, Stampeed Valkyrie said:

So I decided to give Demi-chan wa Kataritai a go as I was instructed it wasn't anything like any of the other Monster girl titles floating around.

I am glad I did,  it was amusing, and light hearted.   Plus as a bonus the Mrs. sat and watched it and it got good reviews from her.

 

 

I loved this series, it was a great watch.

[hachi]

On 9/22/2020 at 6:31 AM, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2020-09-19/sword-art-online-progressive-light-novels-get-anime/.164241

 

Yes, I love the books.

Is this less rapey than the original? I was pretty ok the 1st 2 times but was put off  when I read about it in forums

Spoiler

re: Alicization

 

[Seto Kaiba]

In light of the rather sparse offerings of late, I find myself wishing with increasing frequency that David Production would get on with animating Stone Ocean...

For now, I've fallen back on catching up on older titles again.  Today's menu includes Gasaraki, Lost Universe, and Saiyuki Reload: Blast.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I just finished Oregairu Kan and what a beautiful ending too the series.  I loved when they played Yukitoki at the end.  The last episode left me in tears multiple times.

[Seto Kaiba]

I have to admit, I was not expecting to enjoy Gasaraki as much as I am.  This is some good old-school mecha.  The ADV Films previews I remember seeing it advertised in did not do it justice.

 

This season's starting to wrap up, and Crunchyroll is teasing shows it's licensed for its Fall lineup.

I can't say I'll be sad to see Peter Grill and the Philosopher's Time go... I feel like this 13 minute short series format is really more conducive to adapting something like a 4koma (e.g. Azumanga Daioh) rather than trying to do anything like storytelling.  Doing a whole series where the one joke is the double standard about female-on-male sexual assault was just in spectacularly poor taste.

After learning what I've learned about the adaptation of The Misfit of Demon King Academy, I feel a bit like I should be kinder to it.  Most, if not all, of its issues were a result of the metaphorical attempt to fit ten pounds into the five pound bag.  The ending's as rushed as the rest and lacks impact as a result, but the knowledge that it's not the story's fault helps a bit.  The climactic fight between the reincarnated demon king and reincarnated hero who "killed" him would, I suspect, be pretty anticlimactic even in its light novel form.  It's a curbstomp battle like every other one in the series, though killing the hero six times in a minute and change definitely has to be some kind of record.  The attempt at drama with the main character "dying" fell pretty flat given the story's been pretty rife with casually abused resurrection magic.  It's actually kind of unbelievable that anyone in the story took it seriously.  The animation quality also took a pretty noticeable dive for the final battle, which is exactly when you don't want to have animation quality decreasing.

 

Of Crunchyroll's Fall offerings, I think I'm most looking forward to Tonikawa... we could do with a bit of upbeat romcom nonsense in such a stressful season.  I've got kind of a bad feeling about the final season of Attack on Titan.  I wonder how badly it'll go over with the "moral guardian" types in Japan, since it's very heavily nationalist and its story kind of deteriorates into two equally evil fascist city-states pounding on each other.  They also picked up the third season of Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?, and I see the sports/exercise anime thing is branching out.  I'm actually mildly curious about what this rock climbing anime (Iwakakeru) they're advertising is about.  

[Seto Kaiba]

Monster Girl Doctor's final episode dropped on Crunchyroll a bit ago.

Kind of a nonevent episode, really.  The ending of the previous episode would probably have been a much more solid series finale.  Fetish-y fanservice aside, all this episode really does is offer one last inconsequential scene to the various patients from previous episodes before trying to go out on a harem note with the lamia, centaur, arachne, and dragon loli all fighting over the protagonist.