I loved this anime until the last couple of episodes (YMMV)
I’m watching Food Wars based on a number of recommendations, and it’s pretty good. It’s addictive the way that anime can be.
I haven’t watched a straight faced shonen / battle anime in a while, so it took me a while to really warm to it. I think that it gets a lot better after the first 4 episodes or so (basically, when he gets to the dorm and you meet the full cast). For one thing, having more characters rounds it out, but they also zeroed in, I think, on how to make the food fights work.
I had a hard time buying the first challenge (entrance exam), because there was a little too much “masaka!?!” I’m sorry, but the finest chefs in the world wouldn’t be dumbfounded by aspic on rice. I think they made a couple changes after that to make it work better. They stopped focusing on surprise ingredients or techniques and focused more on the emotional experience, (e.g. “It tastes like the first day of spring”) which is easier to justify. I realize that it’s part of the suspension of disbelief, but it’s pretty hard for me to buy the shock and awe parts.
I’ve also been thinking about what it is about the show that I actually enjoy, and I think a big part of it is just camaraderie-porn. Soma’s surrogate family is so supportive and…generally upbeat and pleasant. It’s really just kind of nice.
Honestly, they haven’t quite nailed how to render the food without making it look slightly gross and plastic. They try to give it a photorealistic sheen in show cases, but it doesn’t really work for me. I recall that making the food look appetizing was a huge challenge for Ratatouille (which they only kind of solved), and it’s clearly still a problem. Although not really a problem, because again, focusing on the fictional experience of eating it rather than trying to sell it just through the visuals works better anyways.
Before this was edited (WTF Misguided?) it used to list “Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon”. With an intriguing name like that, I had to give it a try. And I’m at about the 12th episode now.
Is this for kids? It seems extra juvenile in funny ways sometimes compared to all the other anime I’ve seen recently. I kind of enjoyed it so far, but when they do all these things to try to create a world in which things happen that happen in MMOs like Everquest, I just kind of have to roll my eyes. I wonder if it would be different if I enjoyed MMOs? Then maybe reaction would be delight: Oh look how clever, they created a scenario that explains such and such convention in MMOs and it fits right into their universe!
But still, it’s so earnest that it’s got charm. So don’t dislike it.
It wasn’t from 2016, which was why I removed it. Great show, though. Guilty pleasure sort of fun. Haven’t heard anything on another season, though they are doing a side story of the events of season one from Eiz Wallenstein’s POV.
It seems to me to be kind of an analogue to the “stuck in an mmo” sub genre. Like Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash, it has game-like concepts, but isn’t obviously inside a game like Log Horizon or Sword Art Online, etc.
Youjo Senki:
The MC has to have the most evil face I have seen especially on a little girl. This anime was not on my original list to watch this season. I happen to select it to see what it is about. I have added it to my seasonal winter 2017 list.
I have taken Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu 2 off my watch list. I like to keep a season to about 10 shows (or I start to get overwhelmed and find myself watching shows I do not like as much just to say I got that episode done). I am still in the process of culling different shows with about 16 on my list. I will watch over 10 shows if they are really good; not sure if this season will merit it.
I also keep a list of animes that are out of season that I watch:
Kuroko no Basket 3
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Durarara!! X2 Ketsu
Naruto
(this was something we watched as a family and we still watch but in big binges. My daughter especially loves this show because she loves the romance elements of Naruto and Hinata. She has been watching this since she was 9 I think and she turns twenty next week).
Detective Conan
(I enjoy this in little spurts. So I watch the new episodes and slowly work through all the old episodes. I am currently at 345 & 845.
Does Code Geass season 2 get any better? I’m about half way through right now.
In season 1, just before the stadium Euphie thing happened, I was thinking “WTF are they doing?” and actually turned it off about half way through the episode. I knew it was going off the rails. And I kind of proposed to myself to stop and just say that’s how it ended (before the END of that episode occurred with the thing). I’m starting to wonder if that wouldn’t have been a good idea long term as I sludge through season 2.
After the stadium, Code Geass never gets back on the rails. Either you make your peace with that or you hate it. There tends to not be a lot of middle ground, I find.
That is really disappointing! The show was so good up until that point. Ugh
I watched Code Glass dub version and the voice acting of MC grated on my nerves after awhile. I also did not like the lead character.
Probably having watched it with a break in between I could not remember who was who etc. also affected my feelings about the show. Some people just love it to death and good for them.
Anyone watch Onihei? Boy it is really rough in the beginning (not for kids - heavy violence).
We intended to maybe watch Code Geass after we are done with Double O, guess I’ll keep that “stadium” thing in mind.
Speaking of purgation, I took advantage of a Gundam Netflix invasion to finally watch Seed.
Boy, what a mess.
The start was nice enough, with despicable characters all around - I always like bad mood on board of my anime ships (I guess that’s nostalgia from Zeta Gundam.) And Then Lax (sp?) happens, and we are back into nonsensical anime nightmare. People teleport around. Nobody dies without wearing a red shirt and having expressed death wishes. Most resurrect anyways. Women are back at their appropriate social position - pouring coffee for the tired men and yelling hysterically occasionnally, that is. Some weird idiotic fascism hiding behind an excuse of pacifism is reigning on (“Here are some weapons for you to stop the war, teehee”), while the designated bad guy is the one planning to use WMDs instead of honorably murdering one by one the whole adverse army, like the empty heroes we are supposed to care about are systematically doing.
The whole thing felt like a terrible parody that got worse and worse as it went on.
There seems to be some very light allusion to the vestige of a rape theme (a first, in my case, in this medium) that just went down the drain with all the rest of what was probably the original story. Can’t say I am eager to ever watch Destiny.
Here is hoping Double O will not be such a dire waste of time.
If you didn’t like Seed don’t even bother with Destiny. That’s a disaster of a sequel.
The best Gundam, imho, are the side stories without Gundams prototypes): War in the Pocket, The 8th MS team, and 0083: Stardust Memories (ok, this one has prototypes, but it’s good). Unicorn was ok, I guess…
Both my kids love Iron Blooded Orphans. Pretty sure I heard Unicorn was not so hot.
Iron Blooded Orphans is very good. I have been saving the second season to binge watch after it ends.
Almost makes me curious to watch :O
I’m pretty boring as far as my Gundam interests goes: they seem to begin at First (in a mix of the beginning of the series, the second movie, then the end of the series), and end at Zeta.
Never heard of Iron Blooded Orphans before though.
Amazon is apparently launching an anime-channel add-on to Prime.
Competition for Crunchyroll, I suppose. Not exactly a saturated market just yet, though.
It’s irritating that they left out a really fucking crucial piece of information about the service (though Amazon may not be saying) - are they dubbed, subbed, or (ideally), your choice which?
God damn, I’m almost done with season 2 of Code Geass. Every time I think it’s starting something new and solid it goes off the rails again. I think it’s doing it every 2 episodes now. Holy shit, I’ve never seen anything like it. Maybe I just gave up in other anime when this started happening. It’s not cliffhangers like usual, instead it’s “let’s just reformulate the whole story arc, again”.
Has anyone watched this show?
ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka
My daughter and I watched it and we are a bit confused. It seems to have a bit of mystery to it and we are a bit intrigued. Trying to figure out what is really going on: Like is the MC a good guy or not - I am betting that he is but the second episode does make you wonder
Depends on the series.
I missed this post and just realized Amazon strike was a thing, and was momentarily excited that maybe they would have Yamato 2199, but no…
Why doesn’t anyone have this damned series? I would GLADLY subscribe to strike for the rest of my friggin life just to watch this.