I realized I had missed the second OVA of Ghost in the Shell: Arise last month and grabbed it. I actually liked it a lot more than the first. The music is still bleh (not to mentioned a lot is re-used from the first OVA), and it is at times a little confusing and edited oddly. Not to mention Batou’s first appearance is like, wait, wtf? Still it progresses the initial formation of the team, has a slight callback to GITS2: Innocence (I think)… though, no Togusa. Saito’s re-imagining is somewhat, uhh… different.
— Alan
Miramon
3502
Geez, Amazon is selling the Arise 2 disk for $83.
Gendal
3503
Great news, though it seems we have to wait until at least April. Oh well, plenty of time to rewatch season 1!
Winter preview
The big news is Space Dandy, which marks the return of Watanabe Shinichiro (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo). Here he returns to space opera territory, albeit with a retro action-comedy vibe.
I had to reverse a bit and find a place where his name was used to make sure that guy actually was Saito. Totally was not expecting them to change him around like that. I like the SAC version better, at least so far. I don’t mind the lack of Togusa. They could leave him out entirely as far as I’m concerned. He was the new guy later on anyway.
On a totally different subject…anyone else think maybe we should start a new thread? This one’s starting to take a while to load.
Nobununga the Fool sounds kind of interesting. Space Dandy just looks weird, but I’ll give it a try.
— Alan
Otagan
3507
Nobunaga the Fool is so ridiculous as to defy explanation, but I found the first episode to be enjoyable nonetheless. It remains to be seen if it can hold or not.
Space Dandy is just weird. Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing yet. Probably best summarized as The Adventures of Zapp Brannigan, Bounty Hunter.
Go for it! I would name the title “Anime 2014+ - no mo gatari”. Don’t make me actually name a thread…
Buddy Complex from Sunrise looks promising. After 1 episode i wonder how the story will go.
Quikzen
3510
Best of this season so far: Nobunaga the Fool, hamatora, Noragami ,Tonari no Seki-kun, SoniAni (just nice graphics not much story or anything).
Tonari no Seki-kun is a very funny easy going simple anime, pretty enjoyable.
Nobunaga the Fool, hamatora hoping these don’t disapoint.
HRose
3511
I have the habit of going through a season and watch every single 1st anime episode and I’m still stuck in the previous one and not quite done.
But since I compiled it, here’s the ranking:
8 Kyousou Giga
8 Kyoukai no Kanata
7.5 Kill la Kill
7+ Non Non Biyori
7 Nagi no Asukara
7 Super Seisyun Brothers
7- Yozakura Quartet
7- Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio ~Ars Nova~
7-- Yowamushi Pedal
6.5 Log Horizon
6.5 Machine-Doll wa Kizutsukanai
6.5 Tokyo Ravens
6+ Walkure Romanze
6+ Gundam Build Fighters
6- COPPELION
6- Gingitsune
6-- Outbreak Company
5.5 Ace of Diamond
5.5 Meganebu!
5 BlazBlue: Alter Memory
5 Strike the Blood
5 Golden Time
5 Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shuushoku o Ketsui Shimashita
4 DIABOLIK LOVERS
3 Miss Monochrome The Animation
2 Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!
Anime like Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shuushoku o Ketsui Shimashita always make me uncomfortable.
Except in exceptional circumstances, it is in my opinion depressing to watch a show about a protagonist who is stuck in a dead end job and yet takes it super seriously. It makes it even worse that he went from being a top of the line hero saving the realm to minimum wage retail work. There are a number of anime that have this theme too.
Even though i’ve watched a ton of anime, i just don’t get the appeal of this situation. Maybe it is because i’m not Japanese?
I say that with the caveat that i did overall like the similar Hataraku Maou-sama, but this anime not only was actually funny at times, but it also did not abandon the fantasy theme, including frequent fantasy battles in the modern times.
Also i will take the time to say that i severely disliked Log horizon. This might have been decent on its own, but it simply came out too close to the vastly superior sword art online. It was impossible for me not to compare the two with obvious results. How can you expect me to take a “stuck in a game” scenario seriously when dying has no negative effect. The writer should have thought about this more and realized why basically every story that uses this element makes death have severe repercussions (if not real life death).
As far as a quickie of this season goes:
D-Frag: Really funny .
Kill la kill: I tend to dislike the (i think i’m getting the term right) GAR anime where it is over the top in manliness (even if the character isnt actually a man), but i found myself enjoying this one.
Mahou Sensou: This seems like a mediocre madoka wannabe, but we will see.
Nisekoi: I didn’t watch this yet but i read the manga and it does get old. Expect to see dozens of episodes with the same scene repeated over and over again. Still decent i guess.
Strike the blood: i actually like this one quite a bit. I’ve seen better with a similar theme though.
Witch Craft Works: Kind of interesting, some unique situations with unique’ish art work. I will say that i thought there was some bad animation in some of the fight scenes at times that kind of makes me think this show has a low to mid level budget.
The best show right now is Hunter x Hunter, which isn’t exactly new from this season.
I find it funny that it’s this part which makes you uncomfortable rather than the ridiculous fan-service. :)
Yu-Shibawas one of the more pleasant surprises of last season. It’s not a great show by any means; the pacing often drags and the animation is usually lackluster. But for what looks like a typical fan-service harem romcom, it’s surprisingly sweet & funny. It’s essentially about warriors in a world without war, forced to adapt to mundane lives. For the Japanese audience, I’m sure they’re thinking of the ronin, particularly during the Tokugawa era. [Nothing like centuries of peace & prosperity to really ruin things for the professional solider!] MINOR SPOILER: I’m not sure I’m down with its final moral - “It’s okay to give up your dreams to work as a salesclerk, because buying stuff makes people happy!” - but it was gratifying to see an actual character arc for Raul as he makes his peace with not being a hero.
geewhiz
3515
I thought that the moral was simple. Working hard at something is its own reward and protecting someone especially who is trying NOT to be evil, that is being a hero.
For a while now i’ve somewhat thought the japanese government was influencing some anime to try to convince young japanese men to embrace a life of slaving away endless hours at a dead end job that is not rewarding at all.
It is just something i don’t understand. I think in the USA we’re taught that the greatest ideal is to strive towards your dreams instead of settling in a dead end job being treated like shit by customers.
The protagonist’s blonde friend was the worst. She went from being one of the top heroes to being a bunny girl advertising in a store and having to put up with customers groping her and stuff. I’m likely not going to finish this anime, but i hope that she ended up getting out of that situation eventually. I think the anime tried to make it a funny moment sometimes, but I couldn’t help but feel bad for her.
When i watch movies/tv/anime/books, i don’t want to see stuff about people basically having their life coming crashing down in to total despair and then completely giving up. I want to see them fighting against all odds (and most of the time) to win. To each their own though.
Miramon
3517
Yeah, that sounds horrible. It’s one thing to suggest that mutuality and civic duty is a good thing, that everyone should strive together and all that jazz. Nothing wrong with that. But suggesting seriously that it’s a good thing to deliberately subordinate yourself to a lousy marginal existence is crazy.
At least in the silly credits sequences in the last few episodes of the Phantom series, the crazy angst-ridden killers shown enaging with ordinary Japanese society were having fun, enjoying themselves, and fitting in, not being subjected to ignominiously oppressive burdens.
Was there any semblance in these shows to the sheer rage presented by something like Gantz? Gantz depicts an unpleasant existence for its protagonist even before horrible things start happening to him, but at least he is not shown submitting to that life and later to the crazy strictures of the force trying to dominate him, but rather fighting against them.
I think you are thinking too hard. It’s just the “setup” of a situation comedy.
Nice list! I’ve only seen 15 of those (and working my way through Legend of Galactic Heroes, that’ll be 16). Things to put on the watch list.
