#Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These (Sequel) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nomadicism · 6 years ago

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What is the corect order to watch the anime Yamato that you have talk about? And same with Lotgh (about the order if theres more than one adaptation), also, you know where can someone find the novels on english?? After reading a lot of your posts on both animes I'm really curious to know more about them :)

Hello, thank you for the Ask!

I’m so glad that you are curious about Yamato and LotGH! (◕ᴗ◕✿)

In reverse order:

I. Legend of the Galactic Heroes

[ 銀河英雄伝説 Ginga Eiyū Densetsu ] by Yoshiki Tanaka [ 田中芳樹 Tanaka Yoshiki ]

Novels: Originally published between 1982 – 1987. Volumes 1-8 of the 10 volume novel series are available in English, published by Viz Media through their Haikasoru imprint. The translations of the novels are by Daniel Huddleston (vol. 1-3, and 7), Tyran Grillo (vol. 4-6), and Matt Treyvaud (vol. 8). Presumably the 9th and 10th volumes will be translated and released in the coming year. They can be purchased at RightStuf Anime, Amazon, Barnes & Noble all carry them. Amazon also has a Kindle version available, and of course used copies for sale as well. The Gaiden (Side Stories) novels have not been translated and released in English yet.

Anime, recently released: LotGH: Die Neue These is the remake (maybe qualifies as reboot?) of original series and there are quite a few differences (so far) if you were to compare them episode by episode. It is streaming in Japanese with English subtitles on CrunchyRoll and Funimation. Funimation also has the English dub. I strongly recommend watching this first, it’s only 12 episodes (first season as it were). If you love it enough that you can’t wait for more, then dive into the original. The BD/DVD of Season 1 is available for pre-order on RightStuf and Funimation.

Anime OG Run: Three films, the main OVA series, and two OVA side story series. HIDIVE is streaming all of these in Japanese with English subtitles. HIDIVE organizes them together under “Legend of the Galactic Heroes” with Season One being the 110 episodes that comprise the main OVA series, and “Season Two” (also called LotGH: Gaiden) being the combination of the two OVA side story series with 52 episodes, and Movie 1, Movie 2, and Movie 3 are the films titled “LotGH: My Conquest is the Sea of Stars”, “LotGH: Overture to a New War”, and “LotGH: Golden Wings”. Worth noting that Golden Wings was released before Overture to a New War, HIDIVE has them ordered chronologically.

Note: on the chance anyone reading this is unfamiliar with the term, ‘OVA’ refers to ‘Original Video Animation’ (called OAV in the U.S.) and indicates that the series was direct-to-video, rather than a television series. In the early days of “Finally we’re getting officially licensed and translated anime in the U.S.!” (e.g. early 90s), most of the anime brought over during that time were OVAs. OVAs are generally higher quality and more adult than anime made for broadcast.

II. LotGH Watch Order

Good luck! You won’t go wrong just watching the entire main OVA series all the way through…all 110 episodes! BUT, the films and the Gaiden OVAs take place before and during the main OVA series.

Hardcore LotGH fans might recommend differently, but you could probably watch in the following order:

The first film—My Conquest is the Sea of Stars—is a prelude to the main OVA series. (Movie 1 on HIDIVE)

The third film—Overture to a New War—or—first two episodes of the main OVA series. This film is a remake of the first two episodes and connects with the first film. (Movie 2 on HIDIVE)

Episodes 1-54 of the main OVA series.

The second film—Golden Wings. (Movie 3 on HIDIVE)

Episodes 55-110 of the main OVA series.

Episodes 1-52 of the two Gaiden OVA series as ordered on HIDIVE (called Season Two).

HIDIVE has their “Season Two” ordered a little differently as the two separate OVA Gaiden series are comprised of short stories that cover the early military careers of Reinhard and Yang. They are not ordered by release date, nor ordered relative to which series they were apart of, basically, the ordering on HIDIVE jumps back and forth between the two Gaiden series. It’s weird, but it makes sense.

The first arc—Spiral Labyrinth—of the second Gaiden series comes first, listed as ep 1-14. Then the first arc—The Silver White Valley—from the first Gaiden series comes next, listed as episodes 15-18. After that, the three middle arcs from the second Gaiden series—The Mutineer, The Duelist, and The Retriever—are listed as episodes 19-30. Following is the second arc of the first Gaiden series—Dreams of Morning, Songs of Night—listed as episodes 31-34, and then the final (fourth) arc of the first Gaiden series—A Hundred Billion Stars, a Hundred Billion Lights—listed as episodes 35-46. Finally, the final (fifth) arc of the second Gaiden series—The Third Tiamat Battle—listed as episodes 47-48, and the third arc of the first Gaiden series—Dishonor/Disgrace—is listed as episodes 50-52.

As they are side stories, they take place at different times relative to the narrative of the main OVA series. Personally, I think they are better to watch after finishing the main OVA series, but others may disagree.

III. Space Battleship Yamato / Star Blazers

[ 宇宙戦艦ヤマト Uchū Senkan Yamato ] by Leiji Matsumoto [ 松本零士 Matsumoto Reiji ] and Yoshinobu Nishizaki [ 西崎義展 Nishizaki Yoshinobu ]

I know very little about the original series (1974-1975) other than the basic facts easily found on Wikipedia. I have seen a handful of episodes from the original series, both Japanese and the English dubbed Star Blazers. The true fans of this series can be found on Tumblr and they can answer about the watch order for the original better than I. I can tell you that there were three TV series total for original, so the first run and then two sequel series in the 80s. Then there are several movies and an OVA. There was also a live action movie which I’ve heard good things about but have not seen.

When I post on Tumblr about SBY, it’s about the remakes that began in 2012. These are streaming online and available on BD/DVD (more further below).

Where/how to watch original series:

Amazon Prime Video has Star Blazer season 1 (this is the English dub of the 1974-1975 series), and you can find all three seasons of the English dub on YouTube (I can’t vouch for the quality or completeness). The three TV series (English dub) can be purchased on DVD. They are collected in three sets: Star Blazers The Quest for Iscandar, Star Blazers Comet Empire, and Star Blazers The Bolar Wars. I have no clue about the movies or where/how to watch the original series in Japanese.

The remakes: There are three so far, a TV series called Space Battleship Yamato 2199, a film called Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Odyssey of the Celestial Ark [ 星巡る方舟 Hoshi-meguru Hakobune ] and the chapter-film series Space Battleship Yamato 2202: Warriors of Love [ 愛の戦士たち Ai no Senshi-tachi ]. Funimation adds “Star Blazers” to the beginning of the titles for English-language recognition, while I use the shortest name possible when referring to them, so Yamato 2199 and Yamato 2202, and Odyssey of the Celestial Ark (aka Ark of the Stars).

Where/How to watch 2199 and 2202: Both of the Yamato 2199 and Yamato 2202 series are streaming on Funimation in Japanese with English subtitles, and as English dubs. Yamato 2199 can be purchased in as two BD/DVD sets from RightStuf, Funimation, Amazon, etc. The first set of Yamato 2202 is available for pre-order from the same. The blu-ray of Odyssey of the Celestial Ark film is available to purchase on Amazon, it is an import from Japan. If you are in the U.S. then your blu-ray player can play it (unlike DVDs, the U.S. and Japan are in the same region for BDs). The Japanese blu-ray also has English subtitles.

IV. Yamato 2199 and 2202 Watch Order

The titles are conveniently chronological. 2199 comes before 2202. So watch Yamato 2199 first, and then move onto Yamato 2202. The Odyssey of the Celestial Ark film takes place before the end of the 2199 TV series. You do not need to watch it before watching 2202. The film can be stand-alone (though it is clearly setting up for 2202) and act as the pilot episode to the 2202 series. That doesn’t mean that its story is superfluous, it’s quite good and I love how it is structured.

I hope this helps! Enjoy!

#legend of the galactic heroes #die neue these #space battleship yamato #star blazers #yamato 2199 #yamato 2202 #my recommendations #ask me anything #holebias

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animationforce · 6 years ago

Text

Year in Review: 2018 in Anime

Before we begin, I will have to have a few words. First off, unfortunately I can’t watch everything that airs in every season. I have a job and I am a student in a master’s program so, for now, watching anime isn’t my job. (I’m as broken up about it as you are, trust me.)

That means there is going to be some excellent anime that I did not have time to watch. In addition to that, this list is curated from my tastes and my biases so, as much as I try to avoid it, there will definitely be moments where my own tastes are overly reflected. This also means that there are some popular shows that I flat out have not and will not watch.

Some of the popular shows that I didn’t have time for or don’t plan on watching include “Sword Art Online”, “Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online”, “Darling in the Franxx”, “Banana Fish”, “Bloom into You”, “Goblin Slayer”, both seasons of “Overlord” that came out this year, “Killing Bites”, “Megalo Box”, “Angels of Death”, “Grand Blue”, “Persona 5: The Animation”, and “The Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime” among others.

Having gotten that out of the way, let’s get down to the awards!

Best Action Anime

1. Golden Kamuy Seasons 1 and 2

2. My Hero Academia S3

3. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

Honorable Mention: Attack on Titan Season 3

These anime have been the best this season at getting you pumped up and in the mood for some good violent fun. Golden Kamuy tells the story of several different groups all working against each other to find a hidden stash of Ainu gold. The character that brings out the best of the story is thankfully its lead, “Immortal” Sugimoto. No matter the trials he goes through he manages to come out the other side if not unscathed than still alive. My Hero Academia is rightfully famous and currently sits as perhaps the most famous Battle Shonen of the past decade. It should be well known by all anime fans. Powered by an ensemble cast, its third season was, in my opinion, the best offering yet. Jojo is another name that is on the mind of many anime fans. Part 5, Golden Wind, has not been a disappointment at all after strong parts 3 and 4.

Most Heart-Pounding Anime

1. Steins;Gate 0

2. Golden Kamuy Season 2

3. My Hero Academia S3

HM: Attack on Titan Season 3

Unlike the other two shows on this list, and the honorable mention, Steins;Gate 0 is not an action show in the slightest. Instead it is a genre bending thriller, romance, slice of life. Much like its predecessor the original Steins;Gate, it lures the viewer in with eminently likable characters and then puts those characters through trying times and emotionally devastating situations.

Most Heartwarming Anime

1. Hinamatsuri

2. A Place Further than the Universe

3. Tada-Kun

HM: Yuru Camp

Hinamatsuri is the heartwarming tale of a girl with strange psychic powers who is adopted by a yakuza. No, seriously. While the show is hilarious, it is frequently also very wholesome and the familial dynamic that develops between the two leads is wonderful. A Place Further than the Universe is cute girls go to the arctic circle. A simple premise but a strong cast and gorgeous animation give it plenty of life. Tada-Kun is an ensemble romance that is rare in that it has no bad guys or jerks, simply people with complex and human emotions. It’s not the same quality as Nozaki-Kun by the same studio but it has the same spirit and that is high praise.

Best Tearjerker

1. Steins;Gate 0

2. Violet Evergarden

3. Tada-Kun

Violet Evergarden is best left unspoiled, but there are episodes that hit you like a freight train, and I highly recommend getting in on the experience if you need a good cry in your life. Tada-kun is a tearjerker simply because not every pairing can have a happy ending. Overall this wasn’t the strongest year for shows that make you cry.

Best Romance

1. Wotaku

2. Tada-kun

3. Steins;gate 0

Wotaku is a show I cannot recommend highly enough. Many television shows in general, and anime in particular, leave relationships hanging in a nebulous space of will they or won’t they for ages. Wotaku solves the will they or won’t they in the very first episode and always does its best to portray a serious, adult relationship that is highly believable. Steins;Gate 0 may seem like the last place you’d look for romance given its heavy tone; but, believe it or not, love is what drives all the events of the plot.

Best Comedy

1. Hinamatsuri

2. Asobi Asobase

3. Wotaku

This has been kind of a heavy list thus far. Let’s spice it up with some laughter. These shows represent the very best the past year has had to offer in terms of knee slappers. Hinamatsuri and Asobi are both absurdist, often surreal, comedy that provide laughs by the bucket. Wotaku isn’t as much of a knee slapper but the dynamics between the main characters will always leave a smile on your face.

Best Anime to watch with a non-anime watcher

1. Golden Kamuy Seasons 1 and 2

2. Cells at Work

3. Hinamatsuri

HM: My Hero Academia S3

Have someone in your life that you’d like to get into anime, but they’ve been thus far resistant? These are the best of the best of the past year at luring them in. They do come with some caveats however; Golden Kamuy is extremely violent and often dark. It is best left for the action fans of the world. Cells at work is a more approachable work, and, while it draws from anime tropes, does not rely or dwell too deeply on them, and is overall a solid comedy. Hinamatsuri is hilarious but needs to be shown to someone who will appreciate absurdist humor. My Hero Academia Season 3 would probably have topped this list were it not a sequel. I have actually been showing my nephew and little brother seasons one and two of My Hero Academia, so I can confirm it is even good for younger audiences that love superheroes.

OVERALL TOP 5

1. Wotaku

2. Steins;Gate 0

3. Golden Kamuy Seasons 1+2

4. My Hero Academia Season 3

5. Hinamatsuri

Honorable Mentions: Legend of Galactic Heroes- Die Neue These, Tada-Kun, A Place Further than the Universe

Winnowing the field of literally hundreds of anime from the past year to just five was no mean feat. These represent, in my view, the best the past year had to offer in Japanese animation.

So, what do you all think? Do you agree with my picks? Disagree? Have any questions? Let me know and I’ll be sure to do my best to respond. Thanks for reading and let’s have a great year in 2019!

- Austin

#anime #japanese animation #wotaku #year in review #animation #steins;gate #golden kamuy #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #hinamatsuri #austin

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wheatbeats · 6 years ago

Text

2018 is over and I feel compelled to write a retrospective of sorts, but since I don’t feel like talking about myself I’m gonna talk about Every Anime (Series) I Watched in 2018. Each one comes with a numerical rating out of 10 and a short blurb of what I thought about it.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie - 9/10 - Incredibly sweet and heartfelt, with mature adult characters who act as such. Drama and comedy both are mined from real issues rather than petty miscommunication, and is all the more compelling for it.

Land of the Lustrous - 10/10 - A delightfully unique setting with an enrapturing story and fantastically constructed characters. The moments of levity and sweetness only serve to make the deeply engrained sadness and loneliness more poignant. The CGI animation is shockingly gorgeous, and a triumph of the medium.

Kino’s Journey: The Beautiful World (2018) - 5/10 - Certainly entertaining in spots, but ultimately rings rather hollow. Not really an improvement on the original in any respect.

Princess Principal - 8/10 - An absolutely gorgeous setting brimming with atmosphere and style, and a fun ensemble cast. The series-wide arc is a little hard to follow or understand, but each individual episodic plot is really enjoyable and engaging.

The Vision of Escaflowne - 8/10 - A well-built fantasy that’s occasionally ridiculous but never not fun. The new dub is really slick and helps the series go down nice and smooth.

A Place Further Than the Universe - 10/10 - Extraordinarily sweet, earnest and heartfelt. Deftly written, smartly directed, and masterfully executed. I cried really hard, a lot.

Tsuredure Children - 8/10 - Cute, ridiculous, and eminently relatable. If you’ve ever had a crush, you’re bound to identify with at least one character in this series.

From the New World - 5/10 - Had a glimmer of potential, but mostly ended up fake deep, poorly paced, and fucking ugly to look at. The more I thought about this series the less I realized I enjoyed it.

The Ancient Magus’ Bride - 5/10 - An extraordinarily promising start that’s disappointingly squandered by wildly inconsistent tone, static plots, nonsensical character arcs, excessive cliffhangers, and hollow stakes.

Princess Tutu - 10/10 - An expertly built deconstruction of fairy tales as well as a sweeping, gorgeous love note to ballet, classical music, and romantic storybook heroism. Wonderfully intricate plotting and stunning character work, a true gem.

Kaiba - 8/10 - Brilliantly unique and emotionally engrossing, if not a bit obscure and hard to follow at times. You never have, and probably never will again, see an anime quite like this.

Girls’ Last Tour - 7/10 - Deeply atmospheric and sometimes quite poignant, but also dreadfully, awfully, agonizingly slow.

Haven’t You Heard? I’m Sakamoto - 9/10 - A smooth and even mix between laughable absurdity and actual real emotional stakes. Somehow, I feel like I learned something about myself.

Megalobox - 8/10 - Briskly paced and action-packed, but by far the biggest draw is a classic 90s aesthetic reminiscent of pre-digital legends like Cowboy Bebop. This series lives and breathes style.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These - 6/10 - Would have the potential to be interesting if it wasn’t so hollow and boring. I wanted to get more engaged in the politics of this complicated war, but the plot is held at arms length and the characters are more like walking philosophy textbooks than actual people. That said, the ship designs are pretty cool.

Hinamatsuri - 10/10 - Sweet, pure-hearted, and gut-bustingly funny. Any moment I wasn’t laughing until my sides hurt, I was near to tearing up from actually caring about these characters so much. Each episode was a joy and I loved every second of it.

Golden Kamuy (S1) - 7/10 - Absurd, charming, and goofy, with a surprising amount of gore. Seems to care more about food than plot, but I’m kind of into it.

Revolutionary Girl Utena - 9/10 - Brilliantly dense, symbolic, and metaphorical. Sometimes hard to understand, sometimes hard to watch, but always excellent.

Dragon Pilot: Hisone & Masotan - 7/10 - Gorgeously animated and undeniably charming, but still a little awkward, garbled, and uncomfortable at times. The most earnest vore anime I’ve ever watched.

Steins;Gate 0 - 4/10 - A total, utter, crushing disappointment. Follows up a spectacular prequel with a nonsensical, contrived plot, inaccurate characters, and piss-poor visuals. This series is only carried by its relationship to the original. I will never trust again.

Princess Jellyfish - 7/10 - Charming, varied characters populating an unfulfilling narrative.

The Big O - 6/10 - Plenty of goofy, stylish fun, but slowly devolves into an inscrutable, incomprehensible mess. R. Dorothy Wayneright is the best part of this series by far. Roger Smith is a louse.

Aggretsuko - 7/10 - Fun and relatable, if a bit simple.

TOP 3

3. Hinamatsuri - This series came totally out of left field for me. I usually don’t emotionally respond to comedies very well but this one somehow hit all the right buttons. None of the humor was mean-spirited or put anyone down, the situations were absurd but didn’t cripple me with secondhand embarrassment, and on top of it all I really started to care about the cast. I wish I could get surprised like this more often.

2. Land of the Lustrous - As you can tell if you’ve been following me at all recently, this series has been absolutely consuming me from the moment I watched it. The plot is gripping and excellently paced, and I don’t know if I’ve ever been invested in another main character quite as much as Phos. It’s plenty easy to get wrapped up in thinking about the plot and the character arcs and the meta, but then when I go back and watch the series again I’m shocked by how good it is on a technical level, too. The CG animation is beyond gorgeous and the technical grace of each scene, the pacing, the colors, the music, the character animation, the voice acting, are all stellar. If this anime had more of an ending it would absolutely be my number 1 pick, but for now I just have to read the manga (AS SHOULD YOU, YOU COWARDS. IT’S EVERY BIT AS GOOD AS THE ANIME).

1. Princess Tutu - I, like many people, I think, reacted with derision at the title of this series, but by the time I was done I was completely blown away, and every time I thought about it more I was even more shocked. Every inch of this series shows some of the smartest construction I’ve ever seen in fiction, every layer is filled with stylistic flourish, brilliant writing, and metatextual commentary. You can dig as deep as you want and Princess Tutu will always have something to offer you. It’s been less than a year, I’ve already watched it twice, and I’m still discovering new things about it. A story this brilliant would be a once in a lifetime experience on its own, but Tutu is fulfilling on the surface level, too. Even if you’re not diving deep into what the series means you can still be just as enraptured by the characters. Fakir probably has the best redemption arc this side of Prince Zuko, and I could sing the praises of every other major cast member. And the music, the music! I was doomed from the start the moment I heard both The Nutcracker and Pictures at an Exhibition in the score. Princess Tutu takes some of the greatest masterpieces of western art music and builds off them, creating a sense of atmosphere as deep and vast and dramatic as the finest opera or ballet could ever be. Princess Tutu is one of the greatest works of fiction I’ve ever consumed, and absolutely the best I’ve watched this year.

BOTTOM THREE

3. From the New World - Immediately after I stopped watching this series I actually sort of thought I’d liked it, and I think the reason for this is because From the New World tries its very best to engage in ideas a bit deeper and more ambiguous than a lot of other anime do. But the more I thought about it, the more I disliked this series. Everything about the plot was confusing and off-putting, I didn’t find the characters particularly charming, and perhaps most of all, this series is butt-ugly. It might have a high score of MAL. but my advice is to give this series a hard pass.

2. The Ancient Magus’ Bride - I wanted to like this series so fucking bad. I fell in love with the prequel OVA and waited anxiously for each new installment to come out. I even bought tickets to my local Artsy Fartsy Theater to see the first three episodes when the screened there. And I liked them! Finally, an anime engaged in Celtic and English mythology, some of my favorites, and a protagonist with a truly gripping internal struggle. I was certain from the very first moment that this series would sit in my Top 10 list, and that Chise would be one of my favorite protagonists ever. And then it... didn’t happen. As the episodes unfolded I was treated to a series that had no idea how to establish or maintain stakes, how to relate its two main characters to each other, or how to use the wealth of mythology it was referencing and drawing from. How am I supposed to care when Chise gets stabbed in the chest every 2 episodes and then just kind of shrugs it off for the sake of drama? How am I supposed to be interested in the mythology when it’s all just watered-down fantasy archetypes with giant boobs? Don’t even get me started on the main villain. I feel very betrayed by this series and honestly I’m still bitter.

1. Steins;Gate 0 - This series is as much a lesson in betrayal as Ancient Magus’ Bride, but I think this one stings worse because it’s preceded by Steins;Gate, and anime I love dearly. I sincerely believe that the original Steins;Gate is one of the best anime ever produced, and this sequel struggles to live up to even a single aspect of it. As it began I was hopeful- I liked the darker tone, I liked the idea of a story within a failed timeline. But as I kept watching, I realized something awful: I was bored. All of the charm and intrigue was gone. The characters were all acting different, all looked different (why are all the girls wearing skintight winter coats? Why have their chests all inflated three sizes??), and there was no impetus for the plot. Steins;Gate was driven by simple goals; in the first half, it was to build a time-leap machine. In the second half, it was to save Mayuri. In Steins;Gate 0 the impetus is to... watch Okabe be sad. Hope he gets less sad. There’s nothing to keep the plot moving, and this listlessness was so overwhelming that the random bits of unforeshadowed action and unprecedented (for this franchise) violence felt cheap and confusing after the doldrums we just sat through. By the time the plot finally, finally, picks up towards the final quarter of the series, the damage is done. I don’t care anymore, I can’t figure out what’s going on, and I’m just so done with a franchise I used to love. One day I’ll go back and rewatch the original Steins;Gate and remind myself why I cared so much, but for now I’m nursing wounds. If you say the name “Kagari” in my presence, I’ll probably blitz the fuck out.

Here’s to a good 2019!

#princess tutu #land of the lustrous #hinamatsuri #the ancient magus' bride #steins;gate 0

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kyogre-blue · 6 years ago

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Spring 2018 wrap-up

A rather thorough culling. Can you believe only two shows survived to the end?

Caligula, ep9 - Dropped. I got to this ep and realized I neither knew nor cared about what was going on (despite the post-credits twist implying we’re finally going somewhere). The pacing is a mess.

Golden Kamuy, ep12 - Complete? On-going? There isn’t an ep13 at the moment, but that wasn’t really a conclusion, so I assume there’s going to be more. tbh I don’t find this series particularly interesting, and the info dumps about hunting, food, and Ainu culture feel kinda blatant, but on the other hand it’s not bad either and I’m mildly curious about where it might be going. The overall setting is also unique, which is nice. Very mellow was to kill half hour every week.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, ep12 - Complete. I heard there’s going to be a sequel movie, but I don’t know the details. Anyway, I read some interesting posts about what the anime excluded, which kinda helped shape one of my complaints, and that is how the supposedly genius tactics were not really presented as anything impressive or engaging. Since that, along with political intrigue, is the basic draw here, it’s kind of a problem. Aside from that, I do like space opera a lot, although I prefer more “fantastical” space settings. On the whole, I did get attached to Yang and Reinhart & his boyfriend a bit, so it was interesting enough. I might go and try watching the old OVAs.

Persona 5 Animation, ep10 - On hold indefinitely. I’ll try to marathon this later, but it’s really not worth watching week to week. Like, the plot drags (when you don’t have the gameplay to justify it) and the characters are all dull, so what’s even the point?

EDIT: lmao I forgot to post this like four months ago....

#now playing #season overview

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deltaengineering · 7 years ago

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Spring Anime 2018: Lightning round

I didn’t get around to full writeups this season, but here’s the condensed version. It’s a weak season (the weakest in years) with very few surprises anyway.

3D Kanojo Real Girl

What: Otaku loser lucks into girlfriend.

+ Loser is actually a loser, and how

+ Heart seems to be in the right place

- Writing is clunky

- - some of the most amateurish production values this side of Clione no Akari and I don’t think this is made by one guy

Verdict: no

Akkun to Kanojo

What: Short. A guy is rude to his naively cute girlfriend and then stalks her.

- - Creepy, unfunny and dumb

Verdict: naw

Amanchu! Advance

What: Sequel. Ostentatious anime characters enjoy chilling on the beach.

+ Actually chill most of the time

+ looks and sounds good

+ somehow even more gay than before

- - @_@

- - 8D

Verdict: I watched the first season and enjoyed it more than not, so I might as well.

Alice or Alice

What: Short. Siscon 4koma comedy with a lot of fanservice.

- - Creepier, unfunnier and dumber

Verdict: hell naw

Butlers: Chitose Momotose Monogatari

What: Best I can say is that it’s an otome instaharem of shounen fightmen invading Marimite.

+ makes so little sense it’s sometimes funny

- makes so little sense it’s mostly just baffling

- little chance to become legit

Verdict: nope

Caligula

What: What indeed. Virtual idols overwrite reality, a Persona clone ensues.

+ Denpa stuff is actually disorientating and creepy

+ Makes somehow even less sense than Butlers and in a more funny way to boot.

- Still a bunch of nonsense that will probably not pay off in the long run

- - Protagonist spends the first episode being a Sagrada Reset-class blahmancer.

Verdict: 3 ep rule since it’s still a better Persona than the actual Persona and the dude has little time to do stoner philosophy once shit hits the fan

Comic Girls

What: Hidamari Sketch without the charm, a basic comedic Kiraralike where the joke is that the girls embody manga genres.

+ High production values, pleasant to look at

- Typical Kiraralike cast with little personality besides the blindingly obvious

- - Full of jokes that get old before the setup even starts

Verdict: Not worth it

Cutie Honey Universe

What: Ancient proto-mahou shoujo series by Go Nagai gets its fourth or so anime adaptation.

+ Some choice sakuga cuts

+ Generous helpings of Go Nagai sleaze at its finest

- Design is a weird mishmash of current and 70s

- Does not even attempt to explain anything about the show

Verdict: Mainly aimed at existing fans, of which I am not one. If it turns out to be a classic I’ll hear about it

Devils Line

What: Some Tokyo Ghoul-ish thing about the vampyr police.

+ Probably not half a dumbass fighting shounen

+ nothing too offensive

- nothing particularly interesting either

- looks are completely bland

Verdict: I have already forgotten everything about this

Dorei-ku The Animation

What: Magical devices gives people mind control powers. Everyone’s an asshole.

+ Some actually good character writing

- Trying to be Kakegurui and failing, just too tame for its outrageous conceit

Verdict: Has potential but doesn’t appear to take advantage of it

Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory

What: Sequel to FMP and it’s still FMP.

+ More serious than basic FMP

- FMP is inherently too silly to attempt seriousness

Verdict: Fumoffu is the only acceptable FMP

Fumikiri Jikan

What: Short about couples(?) at a railroad crossing

+ Reminds me of Tsuredure Children

+ Seems a bit more clever than the usual comedy short

Verdict: At 3m/week, why not

Gegege no Kitarou

What: Truly prehistoric spoopy manga for children about kids who fight youkai.

+ Actually a little spooky

+ Nekomusume

+ Unapologetically for children, but with oldschool charm

+ Does a good job of modernizing the subject matter

Verdict: Pretty good, I’m in

Golden Kamuy

What: Taciturn Ainu girl and tough guy hang around in frozen 1900s Hokkaido to nab some gold.

+ at least sounds like it could have potential

- Does a good job of making its unique setting seem not particularly interesting

- not as bad looking as incensed manga fans allege, but certainly not a feast for the eyes

- okay, that CG bear tho

- - I’m not feeling much character chemistry, which is an absolute killer for this specific setup

Verdict: Probably not

Gurazeni

What: Mediocre baseball pro plans his retirement money

+ not actually about baseball much

- - actually about baseball finances, which is even less interesting

Verdict: Weird but not in a good way

Hinamatsuri

What: Dadfeels show about a yakuza middle manager that gets a girl with superpowers dropped on his head.

+ Nitta being a yakuza thug makes for good comedy

+ Seems way less wish-fulfilmenty than most shows of this type

- Yeah speaking of which, could lose itself in Maidragon-style sameyness

Verdict: I’m feeling it for now

Hisone to Masotan

What: Air Force clerk becomes dragon pilot/emergency food supply. Yeah, the Japanese Air Force secretly has a dragon squad masquerading as F-15s.

++ Psychedelically unhinged dragon vore bonanza

++ Looks really great

+ Secretly a mecha show, but without mecha baggage; Kawamori is involved and it shows.

+ Mari Okada writing means strong characters

- Mari Okada writing means high chance of eventually going into the weeds

Verdict: Either way this is going to be a ride

Isekai Izakaya - Koto Aitheria no Izakaya Nobu

What: Another anime about a Japanese restaurant that connects to a fantasy world.

- Less interested in worldbuilding than Shokudou, and yes I actually enjoyed that aspect

- 100% about Japanese barfood instead

- Weak to nonexistant characters

- - styled like Japanese daytime television, hope you enjoy text plastered all over the screen

Verdict: Isekai Shokudou S2 where

Juushinki Pandora

What: Postapocalyptic robot vs. space monsters fights for the Chinese market.

- Just a bunch of anime characters doing anime things

- - truly hideous

Verdict: I’d rather watch MuvLuv and I’m not watching MuvLuv either

Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi

What: Bland girl gets transported to youkai world where she gets macked on by the boss and opens a restaurant.

- Barebones otome harem setup, though shockingly not based on a Vita game

- another fucking cooking show

- - Nothing’s romantic like possessive creepy assholes

Verdict: Nope.

Last Period - Owarinaki Rasen no Monogatari

What: Mobile RPG adaptation that advertises the game to you while making jokes how terrible gacha and grind is. Hey, Konosuba was popular right?

+ Certainly ballsy

- not really funny besides that

- - I already know mobile RPGs suck, but thanks for the heads up

Verdict: Fuck off and take your smug with you

Legend of the Galactic Heroes - Die Neue These

What: Spess men playing spess chess in spess.

+ Credible and respectable

+ Makes LoGH ultrafans mad because it’s not ugly enough

- space war seems like a video game, both visually and tonally

- if it adapts the whole thing, it will take forever

Verdict: Promising, but there’s always the old one which is at least complete. No reason to watch this particular version right now.

Lupin III Part V

What: Lupin is in ur cloud, stealin ur bitcoins.

++ Classic Lupin feel

++ Ruthless modernization of the bells and whistles keeps it from feeling overly familiar like Part 4

- Comes across as desperate occasionally

- Action is extra unexciting for some reason

- Looks nowhere near as good as Part 4

Verdict: It’s entertaining, so why not

Mahou Shoujo Ore

What: Comedy about a bad wannabe idol that works as a buff male mahou shoujo for the yakuza.

+ Core idea is amusing

- - spends most of the time on anything but the core idea, such as hilariously pointing out how it is indeed a cartoon

Verdict: I’ve tried and not picked up much better mahou shoujo parodies

Mahou Shoujo Site

What: Girl is bullied all day at school and beaten up all night at home, becomes a magical school shooter

+ Certainly effective at setting a, um, “particular” mood

- - relentlessly mean and nasty

- - simply no fun at all, with little reason to believe that that’s going to pay off

Verdict: Not looking for a bad time right now.

Megalo Box

What: Classic underdog sports story about a boxing jobber looking for the big break, now with more cyborgs.

++ looks amazing

++ cinematic-level direction and storyboarding

+ doesn’t reinvent the wheel as far as story goes, but it’s classic for a reason

- Overreliance on dog metaphors is already getting out of hand

Verdict: Would be stupid not to watch this

Nil Admirari no Tenbin - Teito Genwaku Kitan

What: Actual PS Vita otome harem about a bland girl with the power to see evil books, which impresses a bunch of handsome combat librarians.

- takes itself far too seriously

- not a looker

- I can’t remember a single character

- - pacing is criminally turgid

Verdict: I know better otome harems.

Omae wa Mada Gunma wo Shiranai

What: 4koma short about how Gunma is weird and Gunma people are even weirder.

+ It’s like a bizarre perversion of a tourism anime

- 4koma jokes

Verdict: Mmmmmmmaybe?

Persona 5 the Animation

What: High school kid finds himself in a weird woke fever dream. It’s P5, you know what it be.

+ Kawakami

- P5 is too known and too long to make a good anime

- serious issues don’t work with the residual Persona silliness

- Not very well made

Verdict: I’d rather watch a LP (or Caligula)

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori

What: Chill boys run a chill cafe

+ very chill indeed, totally works as iyashikei

+ characters are all likeable, even brings the moe in an ikemen show

+ Suwabe! With glasses!

- Iyashikei always has potential to drift into boring sludge

Verdict: I’ll take that chance

Saredo Tsumibito wa Ryuu to Odoru

What: JRPG dudes fight monsters and argue about payment

+ Opening narration is so stupid it made me laugh

+ No seriously, “we changed the Planck constant and now there’s fucking dragons everywhere”

+ a few decent buddy cop moments

- - Rest of the show is just as stupid, but the laughter went away

Verdict: Durr hurr

Souten no Ken Re-Genesis

What: CG men with no neck make frowny faces at each other

- story is vague and hard to follow while at the same time just being an excuse for poses and fights

- - looks like an absolute butt

Verdict: stay far away

Steins Gate 0

What: Sequel. Okabe is sad that Chris is dead.

+ Epic twists will be coming... eventually.

+ Punished Okabe is a better character than he ever was before

- - Rest of the cast is still a bunch of hateable wankers, and even Okabe will be going back to his catchphrase eventually

- - nothing happens in the first two episodes besides establishing that Chris is a Tamagotchi now

Verdict: Possibly a hatewatch but seems to be too dull for even that.

Sword Art Online Alternative - Gun Gale Online

What: Catgirl with pink P90 totally puts serious operators in the PWN ZONE.

+ Main character’s IRL identity seems funny

+ evades most of the memetic SAO failings

- adds a lot of failings of its own

- egregious gun- & tacticool wank

- - boring as shit

Verdict: yeah, guess

Tachibanakan To Lie Angle

What: Unimaginative fanservice 4koma short, but this time it’s yuri so that makes it okay.

- - no, it doesn’t

Verdict: *snore*

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai

What: Regular Anime Dude™ chances upon a weeaboo princess from Europe and her weeaboo bodyguard.

+ Looks real nice, Doga Kobo delivers

+ anime original, so there’s a chance of it ever going anywhere

- Just about the least interesting setup ever

- - comic relief guy friend is tremendously annoying

Verdict: Nozaki-kun was better.

Uchuu Senkan Tiramisu

What: Short. Some sort of mecha parody.

+ Gundamian masterpiece names like “Vulgar Hummer” and “Pubic Hair”

- not actually funny beyond that

- - at all

Verdict: Seems totally pointless, but what do I know about anime comedy

Uma Musume - Pretty Derby

What: School sports show about horse girls that are also idols

+ Premium production by PA Works

+ Lively and colorful

- awful, overwrought gacha game character designs

- characters are as generic as they come

- the setup is just Kancolle again, but without the “escort” pun

- something this wacky shouldn’t be so predictable and boring

Verdict: 3 ep rule, but 3 eps have passed and it didn’t grab me. So no.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii

What: Adult otaku meet at work, fail powerlevel stealth check, fall in love.

+ Well written characters once you look past their gimmick

+ Much more respectable than most shows with this exact idea

+ Doesn’t lean on references

- Will have to put in some hard work to make it last

Verdict: I don’t want to like it, but I do. At least so far.

#anime #impressions #spring2018 #all of them #yes all of them

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thenichibro · 7 years ago

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Spring 2018 Anime First Impressions

Two weeks into the season - basically on schedule by my standards! This season, as always, has ups and downs as well as popular shows I’m not watching (Megalobox) and shows I immediately regret starting (Devils Line). As a further point, I don’t do impressions of sequels, and in this case I’m including Steins;Gate 0 as a sequel because it is so based on the events of the main show. Regardless, here’s what I’m watching with MAL links and original shows marked:

Legend of the Galactic Heroes - Die Neue These (MAL) Look, I'm not going to immediately say go watch the original LOGH, but I'm kidding that's exactly what I'm going to say. LOGH is a masterpiece in every sense of the word. My issue with this series is not that they will not represent the characters badly, but that 110 episodes shoved into 12 episodes and three movies is simply not enough. LOGH has a scale, a grandeur, a weight that is conveyed as you invest yourself into it for hours on end, from bombastic space battles and the minutiae of day-to-day politics. You need both scales, the imperial and the individual, to really experience LOGH, and I feel like 12 episodes isn't enough time to have both. The LOGH remake looks and sounds fine (though with way too much CG and a bit of same-facing with Reinhard and Kircheis), but I am incredibly nervous about the pacing. This is a first impression, and if Production I.G. pulls this off it will be a classic reimagined for a modern audience that deserves it. But I simply don't think that's going to happen. I'm hopeful, but apprehensive. And again, watch the original. It is pure class.

Persona 5 the Animation (MAL) Play the game first. Please.

Devils Line (MAL) A world where vampires exist under the guise of normal people and some lose control and kill under cover of night. Basically Tokyo Ghoul with less of a vampire "society" and more just individual threats, with more of a sexual twist. Tsukasa is our helpless college heroine, adrift as she finishes school, when she finds out the guy who likes her is a serial murderer who wants blood! So wacky! She's saved by Anzai, a calm, collected member of the agency tasked with dealing with vampires, before unintentionally revealing himself a vampire. Yet we are expected to just accept Anzai forcing himself on Tsukasa because he's the savior? Right. Background sound design isn't bad, art/animation are bland and at times awkward. Devils Line is trying real hard to be a new Tokyo Ghoul, but now with more sexual undertones for whatever reason. Pass.

3D Kanojo: Real Girl (MAL) Ah, otaku love. At least it can't be worse than Saekano, right? That'd be a serious challenge. 3D Kanojo follows Tsutsui, an otaku that suffers the typical ostracization of anime, when he meets Iroha, a blunt girl who for once doesn't ostracize him. The first episode has plenty of the classics - falling into a pool, talking about "3D women" being out of his league, heroics when he knows he can't win. Everything you'd expect. By the end of the episode, things progressed a helluva lot more than I expected, in many ways. It seems thus far that the otaku thing is the impetus for Tsutsui's low opinion of himself, rather than anime being the point of the show. More introspective than I would otherwise think, I think 3D Kanojo holds a lot of slight surprises. It's interesting, for sure, and I hope it continues that way.

Tachibanakan Triangle (MAL) One of two short anime I'm watching this season, Tachibanakan follows a girl who moves into a girls apartment complex and gets more yuri than she bargained for. We've got the fang-sporting short one, the quiet one, the onee-san, the blonde foreigner, you name it. I don't expect a lot of character development or anything similar, but three and a half minutes of yuri sounds just fine to me.

Uma Musume (MAL) First off, props to the show for making the horse girls' names just as stupid as those of real racehorses. I mean, I know it’s because the girls are named after real racehorses, but still. Uma Musume involves a world where horseracing is hugely popular, only the racers are anthropomorphic horse girls. Our main girl is Special Week, a newbie transferring to a popular racing school in Tokyo. She's your typical genki type - eager, energetic, bright-eyed. Enthralled by one of the top girls Silence Suzuka, she aims to become one of the top horse girls in Japan. Oh, and the top horse girls perform as idols after each race. This sure is a mobile game adaptation, god damn. P.A. Works' art looks solid as always (props to the flowing tail animation); the OP and ED are pretty standard idolish stuff. I prefer the ED. Anthropomorphic racing is fine, yet for some reason the idol part is what makes it weird for me. This show is strange, but if it's not much more than cute horse girls doing cute horse girl things, I'll keep paying attention.

SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online (MAL) I hate SAO. I have a laundry list of reasons that I despised both seasons of SAO. The reason I'm giving GGO a chance is because the main charater is a girl playing a cute chibi girl in-game and she just wants to make friends. Hopefully, that will avoid the terrible pitfall that was anything relating to Kirito. GGO starts right in the action, with a topical Battle Royale mode putting our pink girl and her partner right into the action. The tactics are good and help set up the basic premises of the gametype, if that necessitated a bit too much monologuing by M, the partner. Also, plenty of pouts. Always a bonus. As always the invincibility of the protag is annoying, but I don't really expect breakthrough plot changes from an SAO spinoff. I mean, SAO S1 was good for the first 10 episodes too. Keep this cute girl and not-harem, focus on connecting with others through video games rather than shanking perverts in a parking lot, and it'll be solid.

Hinamatsuri (MAL) A super-powered middle-schooler falls into the life of a nicer-than-normal yakuza. Nitta is the yakuza, with a penchant for fancy porcelain. Hina is the middle-schooler, your typical otherworldly killing machine set into an unfamiliar world. Hinamatsuri puts a lot of good spins on the taking-care-of-a-supernatural-girl trope, with the main character being a yakuza rather than an "average high schooler." Furthermore, there are some nice father-daughter vibes going between the two, though it's clear Hina maintains the upper hand. Won over by Nitta's refusal to use her as just a tool, their life together begins. The comedy is your standard boke/tsukkomi, but the lightning-quick delivery of the lines had me cracking up regardless. Hinamatsuri looks like it could go darker any second, but if it doesn't I'm perfectly content to stay around.

Comic Girls (MAL) Probably the most classic cute girls doing cute things show this season, Comic Girls follows a group of mangaka girls living in a dorm together. Moeta is the worrywart crybaby, Koyume's the genki blonde, Ruki is the less-than-secret pervert, and Tsubasa is the tomboy. There's plenty of nice compliments between the girls' personalities, and Koyume and Moeta seem like a great fit as the newbies in the group. Furthermore, their personalities being informed by the manga they draw allows for a nice exploration of manga cliches through their interactions. This looks to be more on the character-driven side than a deep dive into the logistics of manga production, but that's just fine. Animation and sound aren't really anything special, but they're by no means bad. As a slice-of-life fan I'm all in, even if this show doesn't turn out to be anything super unique.

[ORIG] Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai (MAL) Tada-kun follows, well, Tada-kun - a student and photographer who runs into Teresa, a rich European while taking pictures. Tada-kun, following the show's title "Tada Doesn't Fall in Love," has a calm, somewhat stoic demeanor, while Teresa is your bright, beautiful girl finally in the Japan she'd only seen on TV. After meeting multiple times as Teresa wanders lost, Tada helps her out of the rain before she finds her hotel, right next to his family's coffee shop. And then, of course, she transfers into his school along with her bodyguard, the fiery-tempered Alec. The art is crisp and animated well, and both the OP and ED have their charms. I personally like romance focused tightly on a single pair (Tsuki ga Kirei and Ore Monogatari are two stellar examples), and I hope this delivers. With a single couple development becomes the key, but if this show keeps it up - increasing interactions leading to discovered feelings, all starting from a photo (sounds a bit like Just Because, don't you think?), this will be a emotionally engaging experience.

Fumikiri Jikan (MAL) The other short show I'm watching, Fumikiri Jikan is about conversations while waiting for the train to pass. The first episode ran the gamut all the way from peppy slice of life to romantic character drama. Being so tightly focused on conversations and with limited time, a show like this needs to nail the dialogue to set up the characters each episode. I felt like I almost watched a movie in three minutes this time, and that's a good thing. The main sticking point is that with individual stories each time, quality can vary wildly. This show is a bit strange but equally interesting, but it will certainly depend on the story being told.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii (MAL) Ah, otaku love. It can't be worse than Saekano, right? That would be a serious challenge. Wotaku ni Koi puts a spin on the genre by situating the main characters as adults who met each other in middle school and just now reconnected. The main cast of four and especially the banner couple Hirotaka and Narumi are uniquely quirky and their personalities gel so well with each other. Despite the long gap in meeting each other I feel the chemistry immediately between the two, and as episode one ends with their relationship actually beginning I'm all in. Not only does Wotakoi change things up by having the main characters as adults but it also gets past all the roundabout bullshit that often bogs down high-school romances. Furthermore, the true enthusiasm with which Hirotaka and Narumi can nerd out about what they like is refreshing, kind of like Animegataris before it became the Matrix. Combine that with a crisp art style and great musical themes, and maybe Wotakoi can provide the grounded otaku love story we've been waiting for. Oh, and fuck the Saekano shout-out. Not that I'm going to let that cloud my thoughts on Wotakoi - I just really, really don't like Saekano.

Golden Kamuy (MAL) This season's "a popular manga is finally getting an anime" show, Golden Kamuy is the story of a soldier and an Ainu girl suriving in the north of Japan in the Ruso-Japanese War era just after the turn of the 20th century. The pair aims to find a hidden treasure, stolen from the Ainu and stashed by a criminal somewhere, with the location hidden on tattoos of various escaped prisoners. I enjoy historical shows, and Kamuy is great in that it is more than just feudal Japan or something similar - the snowy, late-Meiji Hokkaido setting is undoubtedly unique. Sugimoto, the soldier, has earned his nickname "Immortal" due to his war exploits, and his personality shows it - confident in his skills yet cautious of threats. Asirpa, the Ainu, is the resourceful, collected partner Sugimoto needs in the wilds of Hokkaido, and shares Sugimotos motivations, having lost her father to the criminal who hid the treasure. The art is clean, and while the main characters look good there needs to be mention of the awful-looking CG of the two bears and the wolf that make appearances in the first episode. It just looks horrible. The dynamic between Sugimoto and Asirpa is great - the contrast between violence and peace especially - and I look forward to see where they're going. I only wish the overall tone was more consistent - the first episode is a great solemn look at the task in front of them, while the second episode inserts a whole lot of "comedic" moments that seem out of place with the action and Sugimoto himself. Regardless, quick shout-out to Man With a Mission for the OP - one of my favorite bands and this song is no exception.

#legend of the galactic heroes #persona 5 #devils line #3d kanojo #tachibanakan to lie angle #uma musume #sword art online alternative: gun gale online #hinamatsuri #comic girls #tada-kun wa koi wo shinai #fumikiri jikan #wotaki ni koi wa muzukashii #golden kamuy #spring 2018 anime #my anime reviews

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megareviews · 6 years ago

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Okay I’m pretty late on this one as the Spring 2018 season is about 4/7ths finished by this point, and I could be giving excuses, or I could just get to the review. I’ll opt for the latter, so here we go for first impressions of Spring 2018, under a read more because this season is pretty massive, and I realized the first one should probably also be under a read more.

3D Kanojo (3D Girlfriend): The main character is a super otaku in high school with only one other friend who’s also an otaku dude. After being late one day he gets stuck cleaning the pool with another late student, who happens to be female. Judging her on her appearance and tardy frequency, he assumes she’s not going to come help clean. Surprise surprise, she shows up and is earnest in her work cleaning, and they end up getting along. I like the female lead, but I hate the main guy and also the concept of the show in general so that’s a no watch.

Aikatsu Friends: There’s a lot of Aikatsu and I’ve never planned on watching any of it as of this point.

Akkun to Kanojo (Akkun and His Girlfriend): A guy who’s a jerk to his girlfriend, but actually loves her very much and can’t express it well. The show is a short about a guy who’s a tsundere, but it’s pretty painful to watch for even a few minutes, especially since I’m not a big fan of the tsundere archetype in the first place.

Alice or Alice: Siscon Niisan to Futago no Imouto (Alice or Alice: The Siscon Brother and His Two Sisters): Well the title of this show is one of the largest red flags I’ve seen in a while, and it’s just about as bad as what can be expected from the title. From watching one episode it seems like the sisters are more into their brother than the other way around but that’s still pretty bad the way the show portrays any of the characters.

Amai Choubatsu: Watashi wa Kanshu Senyou Pet (Sweet Punishment: I’m the Pet of the Guards): This is pretty much a hentai that just barely sneaked by without the hentai tag. Don’t.

Amanchu! Advance: It looks pretty cool like the first season, but I have that on my plan to watch so I can’t say or watch anything about the second season.

Beyblade Burst Chouzetsu: I generally preferred playing with Beyblade toys or games rather than watching the anime is most cases, and this is the third season of Burst, so there’s really nothing I have to say on this one. Why are there so many sequel seasons at the beginning of the alphabet this year?

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu HAPPY KISS! (Cute High Earth Defense Club HAPPY KISS!): I was not a fan of this for the first episode of the first season, so I’m definitely not watching the second season of it.

Boku no Hero Academia 3 (My Hero Academia 3): Finally, a second (third) season that I’m actually watching and can talk about with knowledge. While the first episode was kind of pointless and more of a recap of the previous seasons, two of my favorite characters will be introduced in this season, so I’m looking forward to it.

Butlers ~Chitose Momotose Monogatari~ (Butlers x Battlers): I almost understood what was going on in this show, and then everything, including the genre, changed. Then I look up the description of the show and got even more confused, because there’s like butlers who travel through time and fight things, which wasn’t indicated at all through the first episode. I’d only suggest this for people who could be oddly curious as to what the heck will happen in the show.

Caligula: Our main character here is a psychology geek, but besides annoying his friends every so often with attempted psychology lectures, lives a normal high school life. That is, until he goes into his high school graduation ceremony and the speakers start giving entrance ceremony speeches. After that people start turning into monsters and attacking the people who are still normal. After fleeing the school, we run into a guy with a black spike running through him and a black arm holding a black gun. I really liked the character designs from the game this is based on, which I never got to play, so I’ll be watching it to see how it goes. I’m also a fan of the importance the music seems to play in the show, so bonus points there.

Captain Tsubasa (2018): Probably like the one from 1983, but in 1080p. It’s an elementary soccer anime, so there’s pretty much no reason that I’d watch it, but it’s probably fine for fans of sports anime or the original.

Cardfight!! Vanguard (2018): Another season of a card game anime. I physically own a deck of CV cards and that’s about the extent of my knowledge of the series.

Comic Girls: After ranking poorly in her magazine, a young mangaka moves to an all-female dorm for mangaka to learn from / with others. Knowing that she has issues writing high school kids despite being in high school herself due to the fact that she has no friends or communication skills, she accepts readily. After meeting her roommate and some neighbors she finds out she’s got a long way to go in the manga business, but is hopeful of the possibility of getting better with the help of her new friends. I’m a fan of many of the content creator anime, and this feels like a moe version of Bakuman., but I think I’ll just put it on hold now for other shows that I’m more interested in for this season.

Cutie Honey Universe: Another reboot of a popular Nagai Go series, I’m not sure how much information I’m supposed to have of the series before watching this iteration of it. The other series, Devilman: Crybaby, seemed much more comprehensive in how the story was told so that someone starting the series from there could understand what was going on. Either way I’m applying the same decision to this as to D:C, watch the original first, and then try this one.

Devils Line: Don’t let the title fool you, this is about vampires. Vampires who get sexually aroused by human blood. The show has the main female plot device and the actual main character is a half-vampire in a police division for fighting vampires. There’s plenty of shows with similar concepts that are better than what I’m feeling from this with the amount of murder and rape alluded to as of ep 1 and the fact that there is a romance tag in the genres.

Dorei-ku The Animation (23 Slaves and Me / Slave Ward): The main object of this show is called an SCM, and what it does is let the users of It engage in duels, with the loser becoming a slave of the winner. The term duel seems to be pretty loose and left up to the users, which is pretty interesting, mostly consisting of some type of game. The show seems pretty edgy with characters being introduced with an into card of their name and them in bondage, plus the whole “slave” thing, and the implied rape scene. Since I pretty much consume any media with characters fighting each other through games, no matter how edgy (No Game No Life, Rengoku Deadroll, etc.) I will be watching this, and I’m pretty sure it’ll be interesting, if nothing else.

Duel Masters!: It’s a children’s card game anime, there’s a million of them and I have no clue what season of this it’s supposed to be. It could be the first or the fiftieth, and I would be none, the wiser, not that I care.

Fullmetal Panic! Invisible Victory: My friends all say FMP is good, so I’ll watch it… eventually. This is a sequel, so not much I can do to change people’s opinions on watching this.

Fumikiri Jikan (Railroad Crossing Time): It’s a short about conversations that people have while waiting at the crossroad for trains to pass. It looks like just a series of episodic conversations that are only slightly absurd from the description and the first episode, so you’re not losing much by trying it out.

Future Card Buddyfight X: All-Star Fight: I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot at this point, but there are so many children’s card game anime airing this season. And this one is coming in as the fifth season, so my dig at Duel Masters! Is justified as I write these all in alphabetical order.

Gegege no Kitarou (2018): A youkai child who goes around helping humans not be annihilated by other evil youkai. This is a reboot for the fiftieth anniversary of the series, and it looks pretty interesting. From the first episode, it’s probably going to be episodic and aimed in the family friendly direction, so anyone can watch it and enjoy.

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu – Die Neue These- Kaikou (The Legend of Galactic Heroes: The New Thesis – Encounter [wow, one of the few times I can use my German and Japanese knowledge at the same time]): There sure are a lot of reboots this season too, and I’ve seen a couple of people with mixed opinions on whether you should watch this or not, whether you’ve seen the original or not, so I decided to skip this one until I make it through the original Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu.

Golden Kamui (Golden Kamuy): A war veteran of the Russo-Japanese war is trying to eke out a living during the Hokkaido Gold Rush, and hears about a hidden Ainu stash of gold with a map etched into the bodies of a bunch of prisoners as tattoos. As he starts his search for the pieces of the map he runs into an Ainu girl, who helps him survive in the wild and collect the map on the condition that she won’t kill anybody for the map. I enjoy the dynamic between the two main characters and the show has a really good balance between comedic wilderness survival sections and brutal combat scenes, so this is near the top of my watchlist.

Gundam Build Divers: I got no clue on how the Gundam Build series fit together, and maybe I never will.

Gurazeni (Money Pitch): It’s a major league baseball anime where the main character is a left-handed relief pitcher, who enjoys studying the salaries of other players in the league. The show description says that player’s performance determines their salaries, but as far as I know, that’s just how it works in America, and I don’t know if it’s a different system in Japan, or if the show just gets really focused on the money aspect of it.

High School DxD HERO: BOOOOOOSTO! (I’ve watched literally no DXD). This is the fourth season, and the studio animating the show changed for this season, from TNK to Passione, a newish studio that I’ve enjoyed how all their shows looked, if not the shows themselves.

Hinamatsuri: After a tough day of yakuza work, the main heroine drops onto the yakuza man’s head in metallic egg thing. A day later the yakuza releases her and she starts going on a psychokinetic rampage and breaking a bunch of valuable vases. After the yakuza generously decides to accept this girl into his house until further notice they just try to live together in as peacefully as possible. It’s full of a lot of goofy scenes played completely straight, which is pretty funny. The artstyle constantly reminds me of Tsuki ga Kirei, which is pretty much the only reason I’m not adding it to my watch immediately list, despite the comedy being right up my alley.

Hisone to Maso-tan (Hisone and Maso): The main character is in the Japanese Self Defense Force’s air force when she gets transferred to an assignment that very few people have been able to qualify for. This assignment involves being eaten by a dragon that can transform into an aircraft and piloting it from inside it’s digestive tract. The artstyle is pretty unique, and I can’t quite pin down a genre to call it, so I’ll say check it out, but I won’t be keeping up with it in season.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu 2: Sono ni (Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 2: Part 2): Have you watched part 1 of season 2? Then you can now watch this.

Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin: You only need to have watched the first Inazuma Eleven to understand what’s going on in this soccer anime. Unfortunately, I don’t even have that fraction of the Inazuma Eleven series watched.

Juushinki Pandora: As humanity continues to make scientific progress, accidents are going to happen. One such incident caused the world to be blanketed by a mysterious energy, that caused most life on earth to start hybridizing with machines. These hybrids then started evolving at a faster rate than humanity’s technological progress, and start destroying humanity. Various mechs are piloted by humans to protect the dwindling lands that can support humanity, and that’s where the main character steps in. A brilliant scientist on the verge of a breakthrough that will bring the mechs built by humanity up to par with the wildlife, or even stronger. While I like how the hybrid wildlife looks, that’s about the only thing I like about the show and don’t care to sit through CG mech fights for that purpose. That’s what Horizon Zero Dawn is for.

Kakurio no Yadomeshi: The main character of this show has grown up being able to see youkai, and enjoys feeding them to prevent them from harming other humans. One day a youkai shows up and brings her to an inn in the youkai world, telling her that her grandfather owes him a large debt, with her being the collateral. To this she responds with a swift “No way” and decides to work off her grandfather’s debts instead. To this end she tries to find someplace in the inn where she can help, and by the end of the episode finds a café in the yard that’s about to be closed down, so she decides to work with one of the kitsune employees to reopen the café so she can start paying off those debts. Not my cup of tea so I’ll be passing on this one.

Koneko no Chii: Ponponra Daibouken 2 (Chi’s Sweet Adventure 2): CG kittens doing CG kitten things I would assume from what I know about the series, but it’s the second season, so, even more kitten things.

Kiratto Pri☆chan: With a massively popular system for a variety of user created shows and capabilities to upload from any device, the Pri☆chan system can let anybody be a star. The two main characters decide to become an idol duo basically through a challenge, and end up doing well with their debut live show. The CG for the live show is pretty good, but I’m not really a fan of idol shows so I don’t have any plans on further watching this.

Kuroneko Monroe (Monroe the Black Cat): I have not been able to find a source on this one, which is an issue with a lot of the children’s shorts.

Ladyspo (Lady Sports): After getting about 5 minutes in, I had to give up. It was a different still image every 15~30 seconds of women on the toilet while some kind of mascot character talked to them. There is no subbed version of this so I only got the gist from listening myself, but this barely qualifies as animation.

Last Period: Owarinaki Rasen no Monogatari (Last Period: Story of an Endless Spiral): A show of magic-users called Periods fighting monsters called Spirals. Though the guild branch of the main characters suffers from the theft of everything of monetary value, and the main characters are tasked with taking quests to recover enough money to buy back their guild hall. That’s the setting at least, and as revealed later in the show, the show’s just really about making fun of gacha games while (probably) following the plot of the game it’s based off of. I think the roasting of gacha games is an untapped anime market, so I’d recommend this to anyone else who suffers on their own quests for full ☆☆☆☆☆ or UR teams.

Layton Mystery Tanteisha: Katori no Nazotoki File (Layton Mystery Detective Agency: Katri’s Case Solving File): An anime about the famous professor Layton’s daughter, solving mysteries, just like her dad. It’s a mystery show for kids, the first episode’s mystery was kinda quick and weak, but the characters are pretty interesting. I can’t think of a detective mystery show that’s come out since Kindaichi R2 finished so this show can be useful for scratching that itch, and later episodes might have more interesting mysteries.

Lostorage conflated WIXOSS: There’s so much WIXOSS and I have no idea how they are ordered, but this definitely isn’t the first season of a show, which may not be obvious to people who don’t know the series. Unlike a lot of the other card game based shows that have way too many seasons for me to understand, I do actually plan on watching this one at some point.

Lupin III: Part V: Part 5?!

Mahou Shoujo Ore (Magial Girl Ore): There’s just… so much going on. The basic premise is a comedic magical girl show, except the transformation is into a buff dude. As of episode 1 it is a series of absurd comedy skits leading up to this reveal, and the show can go literally anywhere from here. Being a fan of absurdist humor is the main reason to watch this show.

Mahou Shoujo Site (Magical Girl Site): And now, the complete opposite, a psychological horror magical girl show. We spend the first half of episode 1 watching the main character get brutally bullied, then she becomes a magical girl through one of the creepiest ways possible, and then accidentally exacts revenge. The show finishes introducing another magical girl who seems to have her schtick down a bit better than the main character. I really like most of the visual aspects of the show, and am a big fan of dark magical girl series in general so this was a no-brainer watch for me.

Major 2nd: It’s a baseball show about a kid who’s father casts a large shadow of baseball greatness on his son. You get to watch the kid play baseball with his team.

Megalo Box: While this show was created for the 50th anniversary of Ashita no Joe, this show is unlike the reboots and alternate series of this season as this show is completely unique and separate from the old show. An underground boxer who makes a living throwing matches who wants to compete for real is given a goal of a countrywide boxing tournament called Megalonia. There are many issues with a nameless man with no citizenship trying to get into such a tournament, but a fight with the number one ranked boxer sparks a fierce desire within the main character. In addition to the show looking amazing, the boxing is also upgraded in the future that the show takes place in, with mechanical boxing gear that increases the offensive and defensive capabilities of each boxer.

Neko Neko Nihonshi 3rd Season (Cat’s Japanese History 3rd Season): Another short this season about cats, but now they’re teaching Japanese history. It’s the third season, so there’s about 12 hours of the show to catch up on if you want to watch this season.

Nil Admirari no Tenbin (The Scales of Nil Admirari): This story is about books which become infested with negative emotions to the point of causing readers to injure themselves. The main character’s brother nearly committed suicide due to one such book, and the experience caused the main character to see these negative emotions in books. Due to this ability she gets scouted for a secret branch of the government that deals with these books. I honestly can’t figure out how to make the show interesting with the way the story is set up now, so I might actually watch more of this to see what happens.

Nobunaga no Shinobi: Anegawa Ishiyama-hen (Ninja Girl & Samurai Master: Anegawa and Ishiyama Arc): The third season of ninja comedy shorts.

Omae wa Mada Gunma wo Shiranai (You Don’t Know Gunma Yet): As the main character is moving to the Gunma prefecture, he texts one of his old classmates that moved there before, telling him about the move. An immediate warning to not to is the response, but as he gets it, the mood on the train suddenly darkens and he can’t get off the train. Overall the show seems like a weird comedy with factoids about the Gunma prefecture, if you want to learn about it for some reason.

Oretacha Youkai Ningen G (We Are Youkai People G): I literally cannot find anything about this show, and the image provided is kinda terrifying to be honest. It seems to be related to the series with the same name minus the G, but they don’t look anything alike. Hopefully I can purge knowledge of this show from my mind after writing this.

Oshiri Tantei (Butt Detective): Another short that I cannot find any traces of online, even though it seems to be something Crunchyroll picked up and was supposed to air sometime this month. I’m just gonna go ahead and say it’s probably a lot of butt puns while vaguely following some mystery.

Persona 5 The Animation: An anime of Persona 5, just like it says in the title. The show seems to follow pretty closely to the game, so this looks like it might be a good way to get the story of the game without a lot of the grinding battles and relationships. It will be 24 episodes, so the entirety of the show is about 10 hours, rather than the game’s 60+, though whether this is a good or bad thing will only be known after the show is well on it’s way.

Piano no Mori (TV): This show is about two pianist children who meet each other in elementary school. One is the son of a prostitute who lives in the forest and plays an abandoned piano he found there, and the other is from a prodigious family who’s had piano lessons since he could reach the keys. I think this show could an interesting watch, except the CG used for the piano scenes is ugly as hell and keeps switching on and off depending on if a character’s fingers were on screen. CG on it’s own is fine, but the constant switching during a singular scene drives me crazy, the same issue I had with Toji no Miko last season.

Puzzle & Dragon: I cannot find subs of this version of the PAD anime, as it is completely different from PAD Cross. Now that I actually play the game it’s based on on occasion, I thought I’d check out the anime based on it.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori: A couple of dudes running a tea shop. That’s about it and judging from the first episode I’m going to say it seems like an episodic show focused on relaxing, both for the viewers and the characters. Probably a fine show if you’re okay spending your time watching the staff interacting with each other and learning about their individual traits and how they interact, but it’s not doing anything for me.

Saredo Tsumibito wa Ryuu to Odoru (Dances with the Dragons): The story of two bounty hunters in a world of magic and dragons. A human with offensive magic fighting with another humanoid species who fights with a sword and strengthening magic. The show’s visuals are pretty average and the story seems to be of the main characters balancing their personal lives and expenses with their abilities to defeat dragons. I wasn’t feeling like keeping up with it from the first episode, but it doesn’t look like a bad choice to watch.

Shiyan Pin Jiating (Jikken-hin Kazoku / Creature Family Days): Okay so a genius, a dog, a plant, a spider, and a psychic walk into a Chinese restaurant. This isn’t a joke, this is just what happens in the first episode. The main characters are all siblings who are exceptional in some way, the oldest four as being experiments of their parents, and the youngest child who is the genius. The story takes place some time after the parents of this family are arrested for performing illegal human experimentation, and are about the family trying to live the most normal life they can. I like the characters and their mix of supernatural traits, and it’s a pretty cute show overall. It’s a bit shorter than a normal show, but longer than a short, and airs with both Japanese and Chinese audio, so there’s a lot of oddities mixed into the show in many ways.

Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara – Tootsuki Ressha-hen (Food Wars: Third Plate – Totsuki Train Arc): I still gotta catch up on the third season of this, but I’ll finally be able to see Rindo animated, so that’s great.

Souten no Ken: REGENESIS (Fist of the Blue Sky: REGENESIS): The second season to the prequel to Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star), I think?

Steins;Gate 0: The Science Adventure Series will eventually be watched by me, as people keep yelling at me to watch it.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online: I can’t watch this until I fulfill both conditions of finishing the main SAO series and another project I’m working on, so it might be a while before I get to this. The author for this story is completely different from the main series writer, and I’ve heard that this is a vast improvement.

Tachibanakan to Lie Angle (Love to Lia Angle): After moving from her hometown as a child, the main character returns to a student dorm to start high school. Soon after finding it her dreams of a high class dorm are shattered, but at least there are plenty of other friendly girls living there, and two of them were friends from back when she used to live in her hometown. Other than that, the main premise seems to be related to the residents chilling in various states of undress, so I’m planning on just skipping this short.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai (Tada Can’t Fall in Love): After saving a foreign girl from the rain by bringing her to his family’s café, the main character learns that she came to Japan and even learned Japanese almost exclusively because of an old samurai anime. That’s all I really remember, and it’s a romance show where none of the characters really resonated with me, so I can’t vouch for it, and my reason to not watch is that I couldn’t find a reason to watch it.

To Be Heroine: A sequel to To Be Hero, which I couldn’t finish, so I couldn’t start this. The art looks pretty good from what I saw when searching for a screenshot.

Tokyo Ghoul:re: I don’t understand the order and relations between the Tokyo Ghoul series, so I’m still stuck somewhere in season 2.

Uchuu Senkan Tiramisu (Space Battleship Tiramisu): The show follows the ace of humanity’s alien defense fleet, one of the youngest men fighting to protect Earth. This age difference causes the main character to not get along well with any of his teammates, and he usually just ends up isolating himself in his mech’s cockpit for some peace and quiet. But things never go as smoothly as he likes, and the show is just watching this poor man struggle to relax in space, which has been pretty funny as of so far.

Uma Musume Pretty Derby (Horse Girls Pretty Derby): A show where we got racehorses, but instead of actual horses they are anime girls. I was somewhat dubious of this as an idea for a show, and watching made me realize how wrong I was to doubt this show. It’s pretty funny and while the main character doesn’t enter a race, one of the other main characters does race, and it looked pretty good. There’s plenty of factors coming together to make this into a promising show from the first episode, like the writing, the animation (90% of the time), and the fact that it’s exactly like an actual sport, but not actually.

Usagi no Matthew (Matthew the Rabbit): It’s a kid’s short, and therefore, nobody has bothered ripping and subbing the show, so I can’t really say anything about it.

Wakaokami wa Shougakusei! (The Inn Mistress is an Elementary Schooler): After her parents die in a traffic accident, the main character moves into an inn run by her grandmother. Then after a few misunderstandings mostly caused by trying to talk to a ghost and real people at the same time, she ends up getting formal training to take over the inn for her grandmother. I’m not particularly interested in where the plot goes and the characters are all kind of annoying, so I’ll be passing on this show.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii (Love is Hard for an Otaku): This is one of the few shows where I’ve read the source material before watching the show so it’ll bias me a bit, but it’s a good rom-com. The main character broke up with her former boyfriend after he learned she was an otaku, and even changed companies because of how ashamed she was, only to find an otaku friend she hadn’t seen since elementary school. They start to date each other because they’re good friends and don’t have to hide their otakuness from each other, and just go through office life balancing work and fun. I relate very strongly with the guy and how he lives his life so I will follow this show to the end of the universe.

Youkai Watch: Shadow Side: Season ??? of Youkai Watch. What else can I say at this point?

#Megareviews #first episodes #anime review #Spring 2018

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