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[Clevinger]

Samurai Flamenco 11-14

This show is like the anti-Valvrave. Instead of taking a bad, dumb show and drenching it in insanity to make it entertaining, they took a charming, good show and made it unbearable with craziness.

That last plot twist made me audibly say "Oh, fuck youuu."

 

[Midonin]

Witch Craft Works 04

Two of the shows I expected to be magical this season seem to be robot shows in disguise. The scale of Kasumi's bear was huge! Kugimiya remains a curious adversary.

 

[Passive Assassin]

Yessssss.

I liked Texhnolyze for the sheer, unabashed (don't read until the end of series!)

Spoiler

nihilism. End of humanity, it's that simple. Hell, actually most of humanity went post-human singularity, all the series were about the rest of the rest that were left, and their fateful end.

There's no stopping now!

The chart is always right.

The chart is always right. What a fucking show.

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

I'm honestly surprised that KLK's biggest weakness ended up being the writing. I mean, I know I shouldn't be too surprised because of the general quality of anime writing overall but still it seemed like Trigger is a pretty cool studio made up of talented people who should honestly know better. It's not like this is the director's first experience with this kind of material.

Original anime in general has become a real trash field these days. In the past 2 years the only anime-original TV shows that have been legitimately good are Tsuritama and Girls und Panzer. Anime should just stick to adaptations, becuase at least some manga/novel authors can actually write.

 

[jbug617]

Kokoro Connect manga got licensed by Seven Seas. Might end up buying to find out what happened to Inaba and Taichi.

 

[cajunator]

Original anime in general has become a real trash field these days. In the past 2 years the only anime-original TV shows that have been legitimately good are Tsuritama and Girls und Panzer. Anime should just stick to adaptations, becuase at least some manga/novel authors can actually write.

Maybe youre right. Haibane Renmei is the best anime series and it was an adaptation. Tsuritama was just inspired and GUP was a perfect storm.

 

[Branduil]

Maybe youre right. Haibane Renmei is the best anime series and it was an adaptation. Tsuritama was just inspired and GUP was a perfect storm.

Haibane Renmei started off as a manga by Yoshitoshi ABe but he never finished that so most of the anime is basically original.

 

[Jex]

It is incredibly rare for any anime to be complete by the time it goes on air. I can think of a couple of shows where that was the case, but it's so rare that it's not worth considering as a norm. In most cases the production is considered timely if the production lead time has a dozen or half dozen episodes animated by the time it goes on air.

In extreme cases, episodes are only completed to a satisfactory level on the same day it goes on air in Japan, and delivered to the station at the last minute. Even shows with a good lead in production can start to fall behind if later episodes take longer than expected. By the end of a series, it's not unusual to see a all-hands-on-deck approach to the final episodes, similar to crunch time on games which need to hit a release date.

So no, Crunchyroll does not get entire series weeks before hand. They get episodes a week in advance sometimes, more often in the same week its meant to be released. It's kinda shitty but that's how the entire anime industry is. It's a rushed industry, where opportunity cost and broadcast windows dictate everything else, rather than studios having an easy time sitting back and making stuff until they're complete and then selling them off like they are actually valued products. That's a pipe dream.

This is the harsh truth that anyone unfamiliar with the traditional anime production schedule should be taking on-board and internalising when they're thinking critically about any TV anime because it explains so much about the field. I really do urge people to go and read accounts of what it's like working in that kind of relentless demanding environment and then you'll be pretty surprised that anything of any quality gets made at all. The collection of Hayo Miyazki's translated essays has a pretty great section on this topic and it really explains why Studio Ghibli would never go anywhere producing an anime tv show.

 

[cnet128]

Original anime in general has become a real trash field these days. In the past 2 years the only anime-original TV shows that have been legitimately good are Tsuritama and Girls und Panzer. Anime should just stick to adaptations, becuase at least some manga/novel authors can actually write.

Eh, I'm not buying it. I'm really enjoying Kill la Kill, Samurai Flamenco, NagiAsu, Sekai Seifuku, Space Dandy and Wake Up, Girls, all of which are original, and that's this season alone.

Sure, some original shows are going to be lacking in quality in one area or another, or not be to everyone's taste, and truly great ones are going to be pretty rare, but the same can be said of adaptations, or any other form of entertainment really. And original anime have the definite advantage that they can at least deliver a proper ending to their narratives, which isn't something most adaptations can claim.

At any rate, I'm not about to write off original anime any time soon when it gave me the likes of Gurren Lagann, Madoka, NatsuMachi, and more recently, Tamako Market, Gatchaman Crowds, Gargantia and Kyousougiga.

 

[Branduil]

Certain studios though, like KyoAni and Ufotable, seem to treat their employees well and actually have decent pre-production time compared to the rest of the industry. So it doesn't seem like it has to be that way, it just is most of the time. Because it's easier.

 

[Jex]

Original anime in general has become a real trash field these days. In the past 2 years the only anime-original TV shows that have been legitimately good are Tsuritama and Girls und Panzer. Anime should just stick to adaptations, becuase at least some manga/novel authors can actually write.

I certainly wouldn't argue with that but on the other hand I don't know if there was a time when this wasn't the case. I don't have a good enough recall of what 'original' anime shows came out when.

 

[Midonin]

Maken-Ki! Two 03

Cats! And mating season. That must've been a task for the translator. Though I'm looking forward to next week, not just because of the lewd title, but because I saw Prisma Illya cosplay in the preview.

 

[Jex]

Having a casual look at original anime titles over the years it seems like, at most, you only get one or two good ones per year, if you're lucky. They just aren't that common in the first place so in reality their apparent high 'failure rate' may well be the same "90% of it is crap" that you see in every field but I really wouldn't want to say more without diving deeper.

 

[jman2050]

Original anime in general has become a real trash field these days. In the past 2 years the only anime-original TV shows that have been legitimately good are Tsuritama and Girls und Panzer. Anime should just stick to adaptations, becuase at least some manga/novel authors can actually write.

There are so few original shows to begin with compared to adaptations that it seems unfair to single them out in that fashion. Most everything will be crap after all.

EDIT - Annnd Jexhius of course says it better than I can.

Even still I've had decent success with original productions lately. I mean, Madoka was only three years ago (Oh my god it's already been three years since Madoka, where has the time gone?!)

 

[Branduil]

Original works are usually films or OVAs rather than full series. Wolf Children, Garden of Words, Little Witch Academia, Death Billiards... that's all in the last year.

 

[Jex]

What Branduil says is certainly correct and those are all pretty goods but what I'm looking at is really writing for anime TV shows (as this discussion spun of from my comment about Kill la Kill) and that's really a fundamentally different ball game to writing for one off works. I understand thatthe writing for a movie/OVA has to be of a pretty high standard as those works tend to be scrutinised more heavily than a 'disposable' medium like television but it's still really tough to write and pace a story over 26 (or even 11/12) episodes. Where Kill la Kill runs into trouble is that it doesn't feel like enough has happened either to the characters or our understanding of the world and yet it's half finished. For all that I've written about how I didn't like the direction Gargantia ended up going in that show didn't really waste any time and things were always developing at a rapid pace.

 

[R_thanatos]

You hail from the EU? I hear tell that NISA's BDs work in EU PS3s even though they're locked...

All of my nisa bluray works but not this one.
Its not locked by the disc restriction but on the disc player(that is loaded by the ps3)
Was going ti buy more but now i'll wait for more info

 

[Branduil]

Maybe Kill la Kill should have been 13 episodes?

 

[Dresden]

Kill la Kill shouldn't have existed.

 

[jman2050]

Your least favorite anime is Great.

GREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

 

[Branduil]

Kill la Kill shouldn't have existed.

Should have been a full series of Little Witch Academia.

 

[cajunator]

This is the harsh truth that anyone unfamiliar with the traditional anime production schedule should be taking on-board and internalising when they're thinking critically about any TV anime because it explains so much about the field. I really do urge people to go and read accounts of what it's like working in that kind of relentless demanding environment and then you'll be pretty surprised that anything of any quality gets made at all. The collection of Hayo Miyazki's translated essays has a pretty great section on this topic and it really explains why Studio Ghibli would never go anywhere producing an anime tv show.

YOu need only watch some of the anime production episodes of certain animes to see how crazy this process can get (even if its exaggerated or changed a bit
) Stuff like in Paranoia Agent or Goldenboy for good examples.

Eh, I'm not buying it. I'm really enjoying Kill la Kill, Samurai Flamenco, NagiAsu, Sekai Seifuku, Space Dandy and Wake Up, Girls, all of which are original, and that's this season alone.

Sure, some original shows are going to be lacking in quality in one area or another, or not be to everyone's taste, and truly great ones are going to be pretty rare, but the same can be said of adaptations, or any other form of entertainment really. And original anime have the definite advantage that they can at least deliver a proper ending to their narratives, which isn't something most adaptations can claim.

At any rate, I'm not about to write off original anime any time soon when it gave me the likes of Gurren Lagann, Madoka, NatsuMachi, and more recently, Tamako Market, Gatchaman Crowds, Gargantia and Kyousougiga.

Theres a lot of good stuff. Its just a matter of how good the original idea actually is.

 

[nintendoman58]

Y'all are lookin' at Kill la Kill the wrong way. We should be laughing at Mako's antics and rooting for Satsuki. She and the elite four are the real protagonists of Kill la Kill.

Never mind Ryuko's character development. Satsuki all the way!

 

[Crocodile]

@Jarmel: As someone who knows next to shit all about Star Driver, your posts aren't doing a good job of making me believe it's as shitty as you claim it is

It is incredibly rare for any anime to be complete by the time it goes on air. I can think of a couple of shows where that was the case, but it's so rare that it's not worth considering as a norm. In most cases the production is considered timely if the production lead time has a dozen or half dozen episodes animated by the time it goes on air.

In extreme cases, episodes are only completed to a satisfactory level on the same day it goes on air in Japan, and delivered to the station at the last minute. Even shows with a good lead in production can start to fall behind if later episodes take longer than expected. By the end of a series, it's not unusual to see a all-hands-on-deck approach to the final episodes, similar to crunch time on games which need to hit a release date.

So no, Crunchyroll does not get entire series weeks before hand. They get episodes a week in advance sometimes, more often in the same week its meant to be released. It's kinda shitty but that's how the entire anime industry is. It's a rushed industry, where opportunity cost and broadcast windows dictate everything else, rather than studios having an easy time sitting back and making stuff until they're complete and then selling them off like they are actually valued products. That's a pipe dream.

I've kind of picked up on some of these facts over the years but its certainly sobering and a bit depressing to have it all laid out like this

Kill la Kill shouldn't have existed.

Well this certainly isn't hyperbole. No siree

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Maybe Kill la Kill should have been 13 episodes?

I thought some miniarc moments in it could have been condensed, episodes this year have been quite good while a few last year felt unnecessary or could have had parts cut and combined with other episodes to tell a better and more actiony story.

 

[madp]

Maybe Kill la Kill should have been 13 episodes?

Should have been 300 because it's basically the introductory arc of a battle shounen without anything after.

 

[strangedopamine]

I feel that anime originals have pretty good from what I've watched. I've enjoyed Madoka, Gurren Lagann and even Kill la Kill which has a more mixed reception. I don't think I've watched a bad one yet to be fair (although that might be because I don't watch that much new original stuff).

Ojamajo Doremi Episodes 11-20

Ended up watching 9 of these with a friend of mine who was curious about it as well. She seems to have gotten hooked on it as well! The power of cute is too strong!

Episodes 17-18 was the standout episodes for me. They got pretty emotional at times, especially

Spoiler

Yada punching Seki in fustration which was pretty hard to watch

.

I heard that 4Kids ended up dubbing this. Anyone here watch it?

 

[Dresden]

Should have been a full series of Little Witch Academia.

If only.

Cutting it down to 13 wouldn't help much. I mean, it'd be faster obviously, but it just means it gets to gloss over plot points untouched faster, too. The way it fails to capitalize on things it sets up is infuriating. It's just a poorly written mess now and something I didn't expect out of this staff.

 

[Mature]

Should have been a full series of Little Witch Academia.

Not at the cost of an inconsistent production. I'll take the short films being released years apart over that.

 

[Branduil]

I guess it's actually much harder to write a school battle series than a super robot series.

 

[CorvoSol]

Y'all are lookin' at Kill la Kill the wrong way. We should be laughing at Mako's antics and rooting for Satsuki. She and the elite four are the real protagonists of Kill la Kill.

Never mind Ryuko's character development. Satsuki all the way!

You'll hate me for saying this, but Satsuki really only has 2 good henchmen: Gamagoori and Monkey. Nonon is voiced by Cindy from Arjuna so she's awful by default, but Dog is held back by the fact that his latest armor is CG.

 

[BluWacky]

I certainly wouldn't argue with that but on the other hand I don't know if there was a time when this wasn't the case. I don't have a good enough recall of what 'original' anime shows came out when.

It is, however, worth noting that in the 2007 NeoGAF best anime ever list, the top three entries are all anime originals (Bebop, FLCL (OVA but point still stands), Evangelion).

The risks are greater with anime original shows, but the rewards are frequently substantial. Without anime originals, even leaving aside the above we wouldn't have had Utena and Escaflowne. The 2011 anime ranking on this very forum rated Madoka at number 1 with Penguin Drum at number 3. Hell, even though this year's cult pick Yamato 2199 is a remake, it's a remake of an anime original series!

To be frank, while I don't think there have been that many well written original anime recently, it's not as if we've been swimming in what I'd consider to be well written adaptations either. Even From The New World, my most recent favourite show, suffers from adaptation decay (although admittedly most of its flaws are technical rather than in the script).

 

[Dresden]

Nonon is voiced by Cindy from Arjuna so she's awful by default

who cares

she's Haruko

 

[Branduil]

Speaking of the NeoGAF best anime list, it's probably high time for another vote.

 

[KirbYuuYuu]

@Jarmel: As someone who knows next to shit all about Star Driver, your posts aren't doing a good job of making me believe it's as shitty as you claim it is

*implying posts that makes an anime sound shitty as possible actually does something*

Ojamajo Doremi Episodes 11-20

Ended up watching 9 of these with a friend of mine who was curious about it as well. She seems to have gotten hooked on it as well! The power of cute is too strong!

Episodes 17-18 was the standout episodes for me. They got pretty emotional at times, especially

Spoiler

Yada punching Seki in fustration which was pretty hard to watch

.

I heard that 4Kids ended up dubbing this. Anyone here watch it?

4kids only did the first season of Doremi. And I watched a few minutes of it while I was watching subs. Aiko's voice made me want to die. She's probably the main reason why it bombed.

Spoiler

Aiko still suffering.

 

[Jex]

@Jarmel: As someone who knows next to shit all about Star Driver, your posts aren't doing a good job of making me believe it's as shitty as you claim it is

Just go watch a MAD on youtube instead of actually watching Star Driver.

 

[astrogamer]

Tokyo Ravens 16
Pretty cool fight between those two. Too bad the main cast got shoved aside for most of the episode (mostly because we got so little of Kon)

 

[Jex]

I guess it's actually much harder to write a school battle series than a super robot series.

Kill la KIll should be relatively straightforward, structurally speaking, but it's ended up as a weird mess of cool ideas that never really seem to gel together and there's a lot of wasted heat escaping from the system.

 

[cnet128]

Gais. Gais. Let us forget our meaningless squabbles about the merits or lack thereof in original anime. There may be a time for ugly conflict, but it is not this day. Let us instead join hands and raise our voices in rejoicing, because MOENESDAY IS HERE!!!


Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren 4

Okay, it's official now. New girl Shichimiya may still not be making a particularly compelling case for her own character, but she has well and truly established herself as a Catalyst of Wonderful Things.

Last episode she was responsible for causing Rikka and Yuuta to share an adorable physical display of affection, which is no mean feat considering they are canonically established as the least physical couple the world has ever known. And this week, she may have gone one better, breaking down a wall that has stood firm since early in the first season and prompting not only

Spoiler

the return of Mori Summer in all her glory

, but also

Spoiler

a blissful period of true love between Dekomori and Nibutani, with no animosity to be seen

.

Yes, okay,

Spoiler

the status quo is a mighty beast, and against all the odds managed to take hold once more in the end

, but even so this was a fine achievement, and resulted in the best episode this show has seen in quite some time. Shichimiya, I salute you. Now let's see if you can catalyse good things for yourself as well as other people one of these days, yeah? Lord knows you've earned it.

 

[Tizoc]

Evangelion Ep. 1 and 2
Should I put this in spoilers? Let me know if I should.
I've been wanting to watch this series for a long time and just started. I've kinda spoiled various stuff from the show to myself, but much of it is forgotten to me know.

My verdict on Shinji's character won't be formulated until I watch some more eps., but from the first 2 I watched:
I liked how at the start of Ep. 2 the actual fight doesn't even start off, and it cuts to Shinji in bed followed by him getting to his new home. The last scenes in Ep. 2 was creepy though, so the EVAs are biological 'giants' covered in armor?
Pen Pen was hilarious too.

 

[Branduil]

Kill la KIll should be relatively straightforward, structurally speaking but it's ended up as a weird mess of cool ideas that never really seem to gel together and there's a lot of wasted heat escaping from the system.

Well, with Gurren Lagann, you could say it was relatively easy to keep escalating things, because escalation and change is inherent to the nature of super robot stories. The characters were on a journey, and a journey means something new every week.

With a school setting, you're limited to that setting, but you're also limited by the nature of school itself. Schools imply repetition, cycles, discipline. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it requires a very different kind of writing from a typical hero's journey story. You have to know how to use that structure of repetition, how to create new meaning and change in the plot but especially the characters through that repetition. Otherwise you end up with formulaic and flat, boring series like Star Driver.

 

[cajunator]

Should have been a full series of Little Witch Academia.

You know this would have gone wrong somehow and ended up with its own issues.

Y'all are lookin' at Kill la Kill the wrong way. We should be laughing at Mako's antics and rooting for Satsuki. She and the elite four are the real protagonists of Kill la Kill.

Never mind Ryuko's character development. Satsuki all the way!

Its about how awesome Mako, Nonon, and Harime are.

 

[Gazoinks]

Well, with Gurren Lagann, you could say it was relatively easy to keep escalating things, because escalation and change is inherent to the nature of super robot stories. The characters were on a journey, and a journey means something new every week.

With a school setting, you're limited to that setting, but you're also limited by the nature of school itself. Schools imply repetition, cycles, discipline. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it requires a very different kind of writing from a typical hero's journey story. You have to know how to use that structure of repetition, how to create new meaning and change in the plot but especially the characters through that repetition. Otherwise you end up with formulaic and flat, boring series like Star Driver.

That's a really good point, I'd never really thought about that before.

Utena wins out again.

 

[CorvoSol]

who cares

she's Haruko

She keeps talking but all I hear is "why does it feel so good".

 

[Jarmel]

@Jarmel: As someone who knows next to shit all about Star Driver, your posts aren't doing a good job of making me believe it's as shitty as you claim it is

Honestly, the episodes so far have generally been very good. The protagonists and villains right now are all pretty likable but also do their separate roles well. I could nitpick here and there but the show isn't anywhere near as bad right now as I remember it. There is a lot of ambition and setup in the writing. That said, I do remember it stalls out in the teens.

I will admit that parts of it have been repetitive but it hasn't been that bad as out of the seven episodes so far, there were no mech fights in two of them and a third episode, the fight was structured in the middle.

Having a casual look at original anime titles over the years it seems like, at most, you only get one or two good ones per year, if you're lucky. They just aren't that common in the first place so in reality their apparent high 'failure rate' may well be the same "90% of it is crap" that you see in every field but I really wouldn't want to say more without diving deeper.

Only a couple of studios pumped out a lot of original works in the past and that is BONES and Gainax for the most part. Gainax is dead and BONES is in a serious rut. That said, BONES this year is putting out three separate anime original TV series so we'll see.

Just go watch a MAD on youtube instead of actually watching Star Driver.

I would generally agree with that except for the climax episodes. Those are legit awesome like episode 8, the one in the teens somewhere where

Spoiler

Takuto fights his dad

, and the final two episodes.

 

[cajunator]

I certainly wouldn't argue with that but on the other hand I don't know if there was a time when this wasn't the case. I don't have a good enough recall of what 'original' anime shows came out when.

It likely was never any different. Quality writing is what it is. Some have it some do not.

Speaking of the NeoGAF best anime list, it's probably high time for another vote.

Non Non Biyori
Others

 

[DiGiKerot]

But starting from last season it seemed like they were more willing to just let a delay slide a day or two. Could it be a sign that their resources are being totally stretched out, hence a delay in materials could throw a spanner into their already tight schedules causing longer than usual delays? In contrast I've noticed that Wakanim and Daisuki have no problems putting up their non-English subtitles on time for stuff like Kill la Kill, but their English subtitles would always be held back since they're provided by CR.

That the official French streaming site for Chuu2 have mentioned that the delay is being imposed from the Japanese side due to earlier early leaks of the show from other services reminded me that I meant to respond to this.

Regarding Wakanim, at least as far as the UK English streaming goes, I'm under the impression (and I'm completely forgetting where I heard this!) that Samurai Flamenco is actually the only show they have where they are beholden to CR for their subtitles - it's the main reason why they very quickly ended up having to push the stream of that a day behind it going up on CR.

As far as Kill la Kill goes, I'm pretty sure all the materials for that are coming from Aniplex. As for the watermarking thing, I'm thinking that must just be a change in policy - I will point out that the UK streams of Magi never had the watermark on. Aside from that, though, there are certain idiosyncrasies to the way that Aniplex subtitles things which aren't common to things that CR handle that Kill la Kill displays, like switching family/given name orders.

(Also, Chuu2's subs are provided by Sentai as far as I know, which is probably why the QA is kinda ass. There's been some real basic translation clunkers in the 2Chuu2Koi subtitles...)

 

[cnet128]

Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha 3

I'm starting to get the feeling they're rushing the pacing here a little, which is unfortunate. If you wanted to cover plenty of material, don't make your show stupidly short in the first place! ò_ó

That said, the show is too nice for me to care much about minor pacing issues. We meet a couple more gods in this episode - Toshi, the most insufferably antagonistic and womanising Takehito Koyasu character since Dio himself (not to mention a massive

Spoiler

siscon

), and Miya-chan, who seems all right.

Oh, and we get to see the beginning of the relationship between Uka-sama and Inari's brother that everyone around here seems to be obsessed with, which is kind of sweet I guess, but frankly I'm not that keen on the brother's character from what I've seen of him so far. Needs less of him and more adorable Inari.

 

[Narag]

Should have been a full series of Little Witch Academia.

or 365 episodes of Inferno Cop

 

[Gazoinks]

or 365 episodes of Inferno Cop

I'd Kickstart that.