Rose of Versailles 10: Simply too good. I'm not worthy. No one is. Also, Oscar is such a good character. When she's on screen, everything is even better. Almost cried this time.
Damn the last 1/3 of every episode, though! Always perfect, making it hard to blink so as to not lose a single frame.
The daily lives of ordinary teenaged girls should not be this compelling to watch and yet this series is operating on a level of depth and sophistication that few anime series can ever even hope to reach.
This was comfy and a little spooky. Soundtrack was pretty catchy. I think the comedy bits worked well enough.
The occult thing is the main appeal to me, but I wonder if it'll have enough variations to not make it feel stale. Better than expected.
This show is confusing as hell. 5 episodes in and I have no idea who is who and what the hell is going on, but some bad guy just blew some stuff up and an automatic doll is some deadly armor... wtf?
Wow, I wasn't really enjoying it until the Hot Pot episode around 25 or 26, and I think it's pretty consistently great now so you should really enjoy it.
It is a social commentary that I feel is much more striking and provocative for Japan given some of their cultural provocativeness. There is a certain universality in the message though as societal norms will always exist.
I'm only/mostly watching this for Yui. Never really liked Hachiman - if he's anime's Holden Caulfield, and like Holden, I don't take much of what he says at face value. Yui's the best, end of story. May her goodness spread to everyone else.
Re-Kan! 01
Now this I like. The comparisons to Yokai Watch are fitting, given that that's making all the money. Ibuki Kido starring series always tend to be hit or miss, and this one looks like a hit. That's the power of Kirara. Also the power of ghosts. The way Hibiki is just casually used to this makes for an easygoing mood. Looking forward to more.
Though if I had any complaints about the last few episodes, it's these:
1. The villain's motives kinda lost me.
It basically boiled down to her throwing a shit-fit. I mean, they don't try to redeem her in a half-assed way or anything, but I really don't understand what the whole deal with her father was. She kinda just goes on a murderous rampage and accidentally kills her father and blames everybody else for it. :|
2.Gaiking, I know you like to play it safe, but
if you're going to make Dick die in a heroic sacrifice, at least make it stay that way! I mean, it could have gone worse, but showing him alive in a hospital room for a second kinda demeans it. Do the others know he's still alive after the five-year time-skip?
3. The ending itself felt a little bit rushed.
Proist is defeated, Daiya reunites with his father, there's a five-year time-skip showing everybody all grown up, a new threat from space comes, Daiya and Gaiking get ready to fight again, and that's the end.
So yeah, it's no huge cliffhanger, but it's basically a set-up to a season 2 that never happened. Considering the budget that this show had judging from the animation, the show probably didn't do very well. Which is kind of a shame, since
a season 2 with everybody grown up would have been cool
But at the end of the day, there's nothing (save for the animation) that really struck out to me as horrible in Gaiking. I enjoyed it. It's a fun, enjoyable little show.
Next on the mecha list, it's back to the ol' Imagawa stuff with Giant Robo!
I mentioned this in my review awhile back but Patlabor 2 felt like Oshii was getting tired of the Patlabor universe and so started tweaking stuff and characters to get where he wanted. You can see him transitioning into Ghost in the Shell and I feel like he 'broke' Patlabor to get to that point.
I mentioned this in my review awhile back but Patlabor 2 felt like Oshii was getting tired of the Patlabor universe and so started tweaking stuff and characters to get where he wanted. You can see him transitioning into Ghost in the Shell and I feel like he 'broke' Patlabor to get to that point.
The difference between Patlabor and Patlabor 2 is pretty clear, too. Patlabor 1 has this crazy amount of energy and things are generally active and cheerful. Patlabor 2 is this crushingly bleak movie where Gotoh has long conversations with a dude with a lazy eye about war and peace to the backdrop of slow moving towers.
And it's still better than Giant Cancer Penis Monster Patlabor III.
Animated perfection. Great adaptation. Their voices for Yu and Mika did sound a bit too old for their characters though, but would be perfect if used for their age they are the rest of the series.
Backgrounds looked fantastic, artbook please. and ost too, ost please.
Somewhat good: Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Part 2 - I feel weird putting it here after not caring much for part 1 but this just grabbed me much more. Maybe because I wasn't marathoning it. Or I just got used to Stands. The formula remains the same but the opponents, the solutions to fights and the humor feels much better. Outside of 2, 3 episodes it managed to retain steady, satisfying level.
Varying degrees of decent: Yuri Kuma Arashi - Second half was pretty good though I'm not very hot on the conclusion. Managing to complete it gives me courage to take on Utena one of these days. Yoru no Yatterman- With the hype going down, I do feel a bit harsher about the finale of this. They should really have cut down the dilly dallying in the middle and spread the events that transpired there across at least two episodes. The forced and to me,
nonsensical separation of Doronbo and Yatterman at the end still rubs me off the wrong way
. Good beginning, awful middle, decent ending. Shirobako Death Parade
Meh: Parasyte
Poor: Durarara !! x2
Trash: Aldnoah.Zero - Somewhat competently executed travesty of a script.
Tokyo Ghoul Root A - Horrifying piece of crap that feels like it was written by three different writers. One for eps 1-5 with their awful original plot, one for 6-11 where they mostly stuck to the manga and one for the finale where someone seemingly just said: Fuck everything and everyone. I've seen this last episode defended as piece of arc and the logical conclusion to shows themes but I'm not seeing it. All I saw was contrived as hell situations -
Hide surviving meeting with Noro, Anteiku being an oasis of peace despite being in the middle of warzone and demented character decisions
. Most of the plot makes no sense, Kaneki doesn't have one meaningful conversation with leaders of Aogiri nor do we find anything of note about them because of his decision, (that everyone seems to completely forget halfway through) the show introduces multiple characters and plot points and then appears to just forget about them. I dare say that my resentment stems not from the knowledge of source material but from the fact that it was simply and objectively awful. Budget was non-existent too.
Best OP: Death Parade
Best preview music: Death Parade
Most memorable episode: Tokyo Ghoul Root A 04 - Almost Tomino levels of direction and plot coherence combined with budget that even Pierrot reserves only for its very special episodes. The results are simply astounding.
Right so the Blue Exorcist award for the blandest grimdark anime of the season goes to Seraph of the End. It isn't doing anything terrible yet but I already feel like I am watching a watered down version of Attack on Titan or Akame Ga Kill. I do like the artstyle and the animation, there is a certain hand drawn quality that I have not yet put my finger on completely yet. I'll give this the standard four episode treatment before re-visiting judgement.
Gray had his shirt off for like 95% of the episode, finally the animators are doing good again. Also his arguing with Natsu was incredible. This canon arc is already off to a great start.
This is going to be one of those shows isn't it? A show that uses its grimdarkiness to make you feel for these characters but the writing isn't good enough to make to care, and that all the problems with the writing and other elements are attempted to be wiped away because "ermahgerd it's so purdy and dat Sawano".
This is going to be one of those shows isn't it? A show that uses its grimdarkiness to make you feel for these characters but the writing isn't good enough to make to care, and that all the problems with the writing and other elements are attempted to be wiped away because "ermahgerd it's so purdy and dat Sawano".
