#i KNOW nisio isin would agree with me on this

[floorpancakes]

iykyk (gay repression metaphor that rhymes with rat gex)

[tokiro07]

Cipher Academy ch.39 thoughts

[Handing Out Sad Backstories Like Candy]

...So Yugata's parents killed Nutaba's, right?

We don't know when Nutaba's parents died, but Yugata's perpetrated a "fatal scandal," meaning that their actions weren't just a threat to national security, they actually resulted in someone's death, and we just learned the bare bones of Nutaba's past in the same chapter, suggesting that there is likely a connection between the two

While we're on the subject, Yugata's parents were apparently planning to "subvert the government," suggesting that they were plotting a coup. Knowing Nisio Isin, the plot of said coup was likely pretty broad and complex, a conspiracy deeply intertwined with the lives of our cast. Perhaps certain terrorist groups were enlisted to cause some damage, or political cartoonists spread propaganda to bolster or overshadow certain incidents? If we end up learning that Iroha is either somehow a major puzzle piece or an indirect victim of all of these circumstances, you won't catch me being surprised

I'm really glad that we're getting a little more insight into Yugata's character, and considering how much of a role she's played so far, I'm starting to get the feeling that she's either Nisio's favorite or the stealth protagonist of the series. The "Dark Hero who couldn't become the Main Character" as it were. She was probably the most major recurring element of the first arc (being the source and solution for Iroha's trauma), a persistent mystery (which we're only just now beginning to really solve), and her lack of involvement in the previous arc was a deliberate point of concern for the plot that was clearly meant to lead into her involvement in this one. She's getting a shocking amount of focus, but due to how her character is written, she wouldn't really be a good fit for the main character role: she's too passive, too subservient, and too high-leveled, so she has to be a support role that the main character takes particular interest in in order to get the kind of focus that would allow her comparable development to what Iroha does

It almost makes me think that she's meant to be Iroha's primary love interest, but I maintain that this is meant to be a harem series, especially when you consider that Anonymity easily has the shippier interactions and Iroha's been the thirstiest for Yosaimura so far

I have to imagine that one of them is the one that he wants to convince to join the mission since they're the most skilled members of the class outside of the ones that are already recruited. I anticipate that one or both of them will join up in the end (hopefully Anonymity), but if neither of them is the one he's targetting, I think it might be Karigane. With her love of mysteries and puzzle-solving (and their brief but strongly friendly interaction), she seems like a good pick for a mission like this

Oboro seems like a shoe-in from the Pending group since she was the first Glasses Wearer to be introduced outside of Iroha. Her initial antagonism felt like it was meant to signify she was more important than she ended up being in the following 30 chapters, so I'd like to see her make a stronger contribution. If Oboro joins, there's a good chance that Umitsubame will too, mostly so that their joint backstories can be elaborated on (I doubt Umitsubame just agreed to be Oboro's glasses holder on a whim)

After that...I don't know, honestly. Everyone else has been so undeveloped that I could easily see any of them being explicitly ignored or given the opportunity to shine. I'm personally most interested in either Yorokawa or Mamushihishimeki, but Mokumokuren seems like one of the more interesting personalities to follow. It's really hard to say, so I'll save any further speculation for when we know who's actually on the list

Pivoting back to Yugata, her relationship with Toshusai really seems to have had a drastic impact on both of their personalities. Toshusai insisting that Yugata be her maidservant in lieu of their inability to be friends feels pretty similar to Toshusai trying to indenture Iroha in chapter one. I'm wondering if perhaps Toshusai was just kind of messed up by that moment and doesn't really have a good concept of what friends even are anymore. I could easily see her making Iroha into a gofer, but...I think she really just wanted to be his friend and didn't know how to ask like a normal person. Maybe she thought she was too scary to get a normal answer, maybe she was just trying to strongarm him into getting rid of the Glasses Weapon and wanted to scare him straight, who knows?

Yugata's personality in particular was really mangled by her past, though. Let's jump back to chapter 11, the end of the lipogram battle.

"How long will people keep killing each other?"

"I couldn't find the words to answer your question."

"Please stop calling me Tayutan. We're not little kids anymore, young miss"

Yugata's parents' actions seem to have nearly sparked a war, so given the proximity of these moments, this question from Iroha being the moment that she decided she was too chummy with Toshusai, it seems that the lipogram battle was just as traumatizing for her as it was to Iroha. Reminded of her parents and the war she just barely managed to stop, she also remembered that she had sworn to distance herself from her friends so as not to betray them again. "Tayutan" is a mark of shame, proof that she couldn't stay true to her own word, that she had cheated and allowed herself to stay close to and potentially endanger those she wanted to protect at arm's length

Or at least, that's how it looks from here. I think there's a lot more going on than just that, but we're only going to get a better understanding of it once we've dug deeper in, so we'll just have to wait for that

The thing I'm really looking forward to beyond understanding Yugata, though, is seeing how she moves forward once she forgives herself and allows herself to live the life she wants. Will she smile more? Will she call Toshusai "Kyorarin"? Will she give Iroha a nickname? Will she cut her hair???

[lia-nikiforov]

Fall 2017 Anime Watchlist

Blablabla school is kicking my butt blablabla I shouldn’t even be doing this blablabla THERE’S A LOT OF GOOD ANIME THIS SEASON

So naturally I’m gonna go back to my worst to best format for this list. Get the trash out first

Dropped

Dies Irae: Aren’t these villains named after actual historical Nazis who were directly involved with orchestrating the holocaust soooo cooooool , so interesting, such tortured profound souls that--- ugh, I just threw up in my mouth a little. I don’t care if the Nazis are the villains, making them into complex, appealing characters is unacceptable, less so given the times we live in.

(get it, it’s a real nazi getting punched in the face, aren’t you glad you follow me so I can provide you this quality content)

Yuki Yuna wa Yuusha de aru: Yuusha no Sho: Because I wasn’t a big fan of the first season, I thought this might make for decent hate-watch, but it’s just not bad enough to warrant it. It’s also criminally boring. And because part of what made the original so bad was the ending, and this being a prequel we already know how it ends, there’s no point to it imho. I enjoy screaming at the void about shows I find stupid, but this one isn’t even worth the time. Ballroom is all the hatewatch material I’ll ever need

Black Clover: I could say a lot about this show’s egregious lack of uniqueness and originality, or how poorly executed the whole thing is, but really the only thing you need to know about this and why it’s an insufferable watch is:

THE!!!! PROTAGONIST !!!!!NEVER!!!!! STOPS!!!!! YELLING!!!!!! 

Inuyashiki: My first problema with this show is the main dude is supposed to be 58 years old but he looks older than most 65+. It’s a dumb little thing, but it completely breaks my suspense of disbelief. Other than that, the writing is just so viscerally hateful it’s extremely uncomfortable to watch. What I’d understood from the synopsis was that the aliens had accidentally merged the old man and the young dude into a single robot body, but the way it is presented  -with the old guy as the hero and the young guy as the villain- the moral of the story seems to be basically “millennials are killing the diamond industry”, or, in terms of a more well-known -though perhaps too easy- meme:

Urahara: I really wanted to like this show and support these young female creators in an industry that tends to not give them any opportunities. It’s not like it’s bad at all, nor is it offensive, it’s just really boring. The visuals are adorable, but the characters feel completely unreal –three high school girls run their own shop in Harajuku?-, especially pigtail girl who delivers every line like she was trying super hard to sound like an ojousama archetype. The show is completely committed to its Harajuku kawaii culture aesthetic and attitude, which is commendable but also something that honestly make me a little uncomfortable for no particular reason. I also feel extremely robbed off actual transformation sequences in this magical girl show. In a less busy season I might hold on to see where this went, but as it is, I’d rather wait and see how it ends and then decide if I should spend time on it.

Utter trash that I’m still gonna watch because I hate myself or something

Ousama Game: I think it’s important to make a distinction between hate-watch and irony-watch. Hatewatch is something you do with a show that’s terrible and probably offensive, but it never touches so-bad-it’s-good territory.  You can pick the show apart for all of  its flaws, be it an ill-conceived plot, poor characterization, or, you know, being grossly mysoginistic. Examples of shows I’ve hatewatched include KADO, Sailor Moon Crystal and Super Lovers. An Irony-watch is a show that pretty much everyone can agree is a dumpster fire, and it succeeds so much in its terribleness it’s histerical. Hand Shakers and Neo Yokio are prime examples of quality irony-watch material. And so is Ousama Game. It’s not even worth pointing out its flaws because there’s just nowhere to start, there is not a single thing this show does right and it’s hysterical. Of course it has the squick factor of having some gross fetish with people’s tongues lolling out and their faces getting ridiculously contracted in gross fashion when they die, but other than that, it takes itself so seriously and mixed with its 2006 low budget aesthetic the whole thing is madly hilarious.

Welcome to the Ballroom: This is my choice for hatewatch show of the seaon. After the disgusting dung that was episode 15, I’ve lost all hopes of the show ever getting “better” as was repeatedly promised by fans of the manga once the queen lord and savior Chinatsu appeared. Lo and behold, Chinatsu’s character arc is to learn to be more “feminine” and to let herself be “controlled” by Tatara. Throw in some casual homophobia just for good measure. I really have to wonder why the mangaka set out to write a manga about a sport that necessarily requires a man and a woman in partnership if she hates women so much and can’t treat them as anything above second-class citizens-

(srsly show, why do you hate women so much)

Sengoku Night Blood: It’s been a while since we got a dumbass Sengoku bishonen show that wasn’t aggressively boring. This one though, still challenges my tolerance limits for being dumbass ridiculous with its premise of vampire/werewolf Sengoku daimyo. The costumes and character designs are super ridiculous yet strangely non-distinctive. I have a hard time figuring out who is who because most lack their historical counterparts most notable features, and there’s a lot of same-face-iness everywhere. The show is clearly not afraid of embracing its otoge origins, the “love event” moments are terribly transparent. I just wish either the female character was completely erased or that the guys would stop treating her so badly. I know she’s useless, but I don’t understand why the show has dudes saying things such as “it’s really bothersome that you’re here” and frame them as if they were suuuuper romantic.

(lmfao there are no gifs for this one, maybe I’m the only sucker watching it)

Juuni Taisen: To be honest I was ready to drop this one after confirming it was gonna be more Nisio Isin fake philosophical bullshit that is actually just otaku fanservice. Instead I got schlocky ultra violence garbage and it’s actually kinda fun? Look, I’m gonna come clean, I’m just watching it for the necromancer chip’n-dale rabbit with high heels and a huge fluffy tail, but if that’s not a good reason to watch a show, none is.

Not bad, but not quite good

Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryoukou: This was another one that wasn’t quite on my radar before the season began, I only checked it out because it got excellent reviews. It’s actually surprisingly charming, although the pacing is slow, the muted color palette can be tiring and nothing really seems to be happening. I honestly struggled to stay awake during episode 2. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with the show, I’m considering dropping it because I’m just watching too much stuff and don’t have time, but I’ll wait for episode 3 to make my final decision (I’ll probably watch it Monday)

Shokoku no Altair: After the really good Sultan arc, apparently we had to go through another speed course on how to acquire new members for the party. I’m pretty much resigned to this not being the epic historical drama Arslan also failed to be, but it’s still sad to see this one getting the crappy production values while Inuyashiki is a lavishly animated production about bitter old men hating youngsters. Anyway, as long as further arcs can replicate the level of excitement and intrigue of the sultanlu arc, I’ll be looking forward to it and how Mahmut’s story unfolds. 

Fate/Apocrypha: You can tell how trashy the summer season was that Fate, which was one of my favorite shows of the season, is barely in the middle of the pack of this crowded Fall season. It’s also worth noting that I’ve lost a lot of the goodwill I’d mustered for the show after the writers remembered Palurdo-kun was supposed to be the protagonist, so now that he’s taken the center stage (and become Astolfo’s Master, which is a travesty, Astolfo deserves so much better than satisfying otaku’s otokonoko fetiches orz) I find myself rolling my eyes more often than not. Still hope to get cool fights out of this one and more Astolfo and Mordred.

GARO Vanishing Line: MAPPA brings us a new iteration of the GARO franchise, this time with a modern setting that throws back to ultra macho 80s anime OVAs aesthetic –I wouldn’t know, never watched those-. The hero is a buff uber muscular dude that literally prays at women’s boobs and Zaruba is a giant motorcycle that thinks women stink. The production values are impressive, both fight scenes are incredibly cinematic and exciting. The hypermasculinity borders on the hilarious, but I wish it could do away with the sexist humor, which luckily hasn’t been abundant enough to be insufferable. It’s a little soon to judge because they’re barely introducing us to the characters, but I’m still hoping this won’t devolve into shit territory like Crimson Moon did.

Kino no Tabi: Full disclosure, I only watched the first season of Kino a few months ago, so I have it very fresh in my memory. Since I didn’t know that this new season was more a soft reboot rather than a sequel, I thought I needed to watch the first one to check this one out. Turns out it wasn’t necessary, but I’m still glad I did it because the first season is fantastic. Which is why I’m a little concerned about this one, because the reinterpretation of the Colisseum story was… not good. It rushed through the story and made Kino look like a psychopath. The first episode was good so I’m crossing my fingers that this won’t turn into a horrible mess, but so far I’m feeling cautious and worried. But even if this one turns out to be a good reboot, I’d 100% recommend you check out the original.

Anime is in Fact Good

Classicaloid: Another show that came back with a different director and that I worry will struggle to replicate what made the first season special. There are some tonal things that make the change very evident, but so far it has overall been pretty great nonetheless, Classicaloid insane business as usual. I must say “New character appears claiming to be X’s relative, X believes it and starts treating N better to the detriment of the established cast” is a trope I’m not too fond of, but I’m willing to give them some time purely because they have a Hippopotamus that can do Musik. Honestly watching anime makes one write the weirdest of sentences.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu. Something comedy shows have in their favor is that if they come back, even after a long time, it feels like they never left. Hoozuki’s the same old Hoozuki and it’s a load of fun. I’ve loved both episodes so far, I can’t even pick a favorite skit of the ones we’ve had so far because all of them were so good. There’s not really a lot to say, if you liked the first season you’ll like this one. As usual it’s only detriment is you may miss some of the jokes if you’re not familiar with Japanese folklore, but there’s a lot of fun to be had nonetheless. 

Recovery of an MMO Junkie: Honestly, I’m very quick to judge a book by its cover, or in this case, an anime by its title. In this case, I promptly dismissed this as yet another otaku oriented harem videogame fantasy or whatever without even reading the synopsis. Then I heard the positive reactions to it and decided to give it a shot and boy was I pleasantly surprised! Not only does it feature a woman in her thirties as a protagonist –which is insanely rare! But it also focuses on delightfully adorable romance that breaches the barriers of gender. And honestly, there’s that scene in episode two in which Moriko sends a text and then horrified realizes it’s 2:00 am and feels super ashamed about it and it was so relatable I was 100% sold.

Best of the season

(don’t mind the order, I’ve loved all of these equally

Kujira no Kora wa Sajou ni Utau: So I may have misunderstood what this was about. I rarely read plot synopsis, so for some reason –I guess at first I thought the title was Kujira wa Sora- I thought there would be flying whales. There aren’t, but that’s definitely not a detriment to this incredible fantasy dystopian world. The color palette and the watercolor texture of the backgrounds gives it a magical atmosphere that is just a delight to watch. Although there’s a lot of exposition, none has felt like a forced infodump. The pacing is overall fantastic, and although the characters are a mystery for the most part, they’re already very endearing. This season is ripe with enchanting fantasy worlds and I’m really hyped about it. 

Houseki no Kuni: I was concerned about the CG designs on this one, but they work surprisingly well! The plot is still a bit unclear, but they’ve done a really good job in building the characters through their relationships to one another. Even though we don’t know a lot about them, I felt a lot of empathy for Cinnabar and Diamond and Bort, and Phos is a pretty nice point of view character to follow around. I’m definitely intrigued by the concept, and the execution has been great so far.

Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond: I hadn’t realized how much I missed this show until I watched the first episode of this new season. The loss of Rie Matsumoto’s wonderful directorial vision is very noticeable in the straightforwardness of the storytelling, but otherwise the show is surprisingly still a load of bombastic fun with endearing characters and fascinating world building. I particularly liked the hospital episode. I’m not sure where this story is going, but I’m excited to go along for the ride.

The Ancient Magus Bride: It’s important to note that the first episode has a lot of questionable material (please, can Elias never ever call Chise a puppy ever again), but I have to commend a great production when I see it. Readers of the manga assure that the questionable content will be contextualized later on, so I’m hopeful, because I’m already really sold on this show and I really don’t want it to be gross. It’s hard to explain or describe, but it just has this fantasy magical charm and a beautiful production that got me hooked from start to finish. It has been hyped to hell and back and so far it has lived up to my expectations. I think, apart from the lovely production values, the characters feel very real and deep from start to finish. It’s hard to explain why I feel so drawn to this show that should have so many red alarms ringing in my head, but I can’t help feel completely charmed by it

How am I gonna survive such a busy season with so much homework? Will I die trying? Will Ballroom ever stop hating women and gay people? Stay tuned to find out! And let me know which shows you’re watching this season!

[tombosdeliveryservice]

Why are the English dubs of Rumiko Takahashi shows so terrible?

I am watching InuYasha right now, and the English dub always comes up before the Japanese one. This is natural, but, to me, it sounds like the voice actors are just phoning in it the whole time, and I can’t get through a minute of InuYasha sounding so abrasive and Kagome sounding like every romantic bone in her body has been removed before clicking off and finding the original. I watched all of Ranma 1/2 earlier this semester because it quickly became one of my favorites, but it was the exact same problem. I tried a quick google search to see if others felt the same way. Everyone agreed that all of the Urusei Yatsura dubs are terrible, but everyone said that they prefer the dub to the sub for Inuyasha while admitting that it was probably due to nostalgia.

This I totally get. As someone watching these shows for the first time now, I know that I am having a completely unique experience compared to the majority of Americans who had InuYasha airing next to Dragon Ball as a mainstream cartoon before anime was thought of something as different. (Btw, that baffles me because the demons in this show are horrifying and resemble the ones in the grim 80s OVAs. It doesn’t look like something I would expect American kids to watch.) I am totally of the mindset that dubs vs subs should be a question for a show-by-show basis. I grew up with Pokémon in the same way. It doesn’t seem to me like any of them were phoning in it on that show. All of their character seem perfectly expressive and fitting. However, this could be nostalgia. I feel the same way about Dragon Ball. All of the English voices seem to fit, and when I try to watch it in Japanese the shrill voice of the woman actor for Goku throws me off the whole time. There are plenty of shows, though, that I have watched as an adult and prefer the dubs for. K-On! seemed to have no trouble doing it right. I watched Evangelion’s dub first and then watched the sub because I saw a post showing that enough of the character’s dialogue had been changed that it completely changed their character. After watching it, I ended up deciding that the poster was ignoring the fact that subtitles are just as much a translation as a dubbing, therefore just as much will be naturally lost in the translation. I also felt that all of the English Evangelion voices did a fine job keeping the characters in tact. Shows like those make it to where it leaves it up to your preference. Cowboy Bebop is one of the only shows where the English dub is definitely preferable to the sub. Part of that is due to the fact that it was made with Western audiences in mind. Another part is that most people here originally saw it on Toonami (once again, not the case for me). A lot of it is just Steve Blum being one of the best in the business.

One person on the forum I read talked about how they had tried the sub for InuYasha and found that it had plenty of flaws. This is accurate. I have definitely noticed it. Once, I could clearly hear Kagome say “Baka” but the subtitle read “I hate you.” There have been many times I see a character speak for a while and the subtitles just have two words. (This is completely possible. Often a thing in translating any language. I’ll just never know how much is lost without knowing the language anyway.) After a while in the series, Hojo started calling Kagome “Higurashi”, but the subtitle would read “Kagome.”  The dub would likely do the same thing, but it’s still distracting when you can hear it is different. In one episode, everyone is referring to a demon that has appeared, and they use four different words for “Oni”: demon, beast, specter, and ogre. That was confusing. Still, my understanding that this is just how translations across different cultures works makes me feel most of this is forgivable. 

If I had to guess why I have this dissenting opinion on this show’s dub, it would have to be me seeing it as the actors “phoning it in.” Two of my other favorite shows that I have watched recently are KonoSuba and Bakemonogatari. I can’t bring my self to call the rest of Monogatari a favorite because of how creepy it gets with its female cast. They gear the sexualization of lolis and sisters up to 11 after the first season, and I could not take it. I was so glad to watch DemolitionD’s video and see that I was not alone in that sentiment. The reasons that Bakemonogatari is one of my favorites is the romance between Koyomi and Hitagi, the experimental and stellar animation, and the voice acting. Every character sounds distinctly of themselves, and they are clearly working their hardest at making Nisio Isin’s weird-ass writing fire on all cylinders. KonoSuba’s voices sound so great because of the way Digibro put it in his video. KonoSuba’s comedy is actually funny, compared to most comedy anime (like the English dubs of Ranma 1/2 and InuYasha), because the actors sound like they’re having such a good time with it. You can hear their passion and their fun.

Another person on the forum said that they hated InuYasha’s Japanese voice because he sounded like some whiny 14-year-old. I was ecstatic when I heard InuYasha’s voice because I knew it was Ranma’s. They were able to bring him back. Many people notice the 1 to 1 ratio of characters from both series, and InuYasha is definitely Ranma and Kagome is definitely Akane. Ranma and InuYasha’s voices are energetic and cocky, not constantly abrasive like in the English. Akane is supposed to both be cute in moments and the aggressive “tomboy” in others. The English voice comes off as the adult woman that it is, not a 16-year-old, and she never sounds cute. All of the characters sound bland and flat in the American versions. In the Japanese, the energy is constant. It seems like character assassination.

Maybe it makes it into two different shows entirely: the anime and the cartoon. The memories of the commercial for the Ranma 1/2 movie with Akane’s voice narrating that was at the end of my Pokémon VHS’s as a kid are what inspired me to check the show out in the first place. In the American version, the cast’s trip to China looks as exotic as the Japanese setting that they are normally in. 

Despite all I just said, I tried out Spanish dubs for both and Pokémon and Dragon Ball, and they don’t seem to suffer from the same problem. Maybe that’s what happens when you don’t have cartoons made at home to work with.

[thejpfdude-blog]

The Week in Anime (Week of 8/14/17)

Hello friends and welcome to another edition of TWiA! There’s a lot to get through, but first let’s head on over to...

The News Corner

This week didn’t have too much in terms of shocking news. The one thing I do want to highlight that came out this week is:

Violet Evergarden PV2

Mmm that’s good stuff. Not as amazingly animated as the first CM, but that was more or less done for the light novel so I don’t expect the whole show to be that level of quality. And even then the PV had some dang good animation, complete with some more information about the show. From the translation done here, one might think it has a big focus on romance. And that’s what I thought too, that is until I read another comment in the same thread that mentioned light novel spoilers but had a TL;DR stating it’s a coming-of-age story and not a romance. Good to know, otherwise I probably would’ve had the wrong expectations for it.

I’m not gonna lie though, I’m pretty hyped for this show. I’m trying not to be, but ever since the CM came out (which was the first glimpse of the show), my first question was “when?” (which has since turned into “how many days until January?”). I’m excited for the potential pairing between KyoAni animation and a great story considering the light novel won the Grand Prize award in the same yearly award that other light novel-turned-KyoAni shows like Kyoukai no Kanata and Chuunibyou only got Honorable Mentions in. Well, only four months to go. That’s not that long of a wait honestly.

Now before I get onto the rankings and awards, I want to write some blurbs about some shows I recently finished. Now some of these shows aren’t ones I finished within the last week, but I think it’s a good time to talk about them after having them stew in my head for a little. So let me start by talking about a show I might have an article on in the future...

Love Live Sunshine

With season 2 of this coming soon, I was determined to try and finish this show. And I did. So that’s nice.

On a more serious note, Sunshine was a nice sort of spin-off to the main Love Live anime. I think one of the biggest complaints I heard was that it was too similar to the original anime, and I can see that. The whole school-closing storyline was a bit too convenient, though it actually didn’t get resolved by the end of the season, so that’s something to keep an eye out next season. Another thing was the similarities of the leaders of each group, which I strongly agree with. I mean I wasn’t a huge Honoka (Honkers) fan in general, and Chika to me feels sorta like a ripoff of her (hence the reason I call her Ripoff Honkers).

But some of the other stuff wasn’t as bad to me. Like other than Ripoff Honkers (and Dia to an extent) I feel like each character is unique enough to be their own person, rather than be a clone of a previous μ‘s member. Sure there’s some obvious parallels that can be made. Ruby/Hanayo for shyness (which is even eluded to in the anime), Mari/Nozomi for being the memester, etc. But when I think of, say Hanamaru, I don’t think of anybody from μ‘s in particular, but about her zuras and her eating habits. Same schtick for the rest of them (except Ripoff Honkers). If anything, I like Aqours a bit more than μ‘s so far, if only because my favorite character from the Rabu Raibus is in Aqours (though favorite group is still a toss-up as of now).

Story-wise, I liked Sunshine a lot more than the original, if only because there was a minimum of the “power of friendship” stuff that the original had (like the final scene from the last episode of S1). And before episode 10 when the third-years joined the group, I actually liked how the drama didn’t feel too cheesy. Of course, that changed when the third-years joined, but it still wasn’t as cheesy as the original show, which was nice. Add in the fact that the slice-of-life scenes added some nice snark (making it less /r/wholesomememes cult-like happy), and in the end Sunshine > original (at least anime-wise). 6/10 overall, and actually somewhat excited for the next season in 2 months-ish.

Free!

Funny story. Actually not really funny, or a story: I had this on my list for some time, but it wasn’t until I visited my friend last week that we ended up watching the first 6 episodes of this show. And then from there I finished it a few days later, and now we’re here.

This show’s pretty famous for its manservice (fanservice of the male variety), and I’m not gonna deny that. In fact, I’ll confirm it: there were a lot of shots of those muscular sculpted bodies, toned to perfection.

...

Uh yeah. But other than that this show was actually pretty fun to watch. I don’t know how much of that is the fact that there was at least one main girl character in the show, who ended becoming one of my favorite girls and now has a place in my Favorite Characters list on my MAL profile.

But it’s really because in it’s core it’s a sports anime, and not of the shounen type. Like there’s competition and hype sports moments with none of the shounen tropes like explaining every single ilttle thing. It’s actually... like sports with just plain competing, which as a huge sports nut I’m down for. The races were pretty hype, and the drama between the characters wasn’t too out there (though the whole thing between Rin and Haruka seemed very ship-friendly).

So overall, a surprisingly good show, manservice aside. I’ll definitely be watching the second season of this soon (once I settle in to my new place). 7/10 would recommend for swimming shenanigans.

Teekyuu

In my quest to have Nisemonogatari be my 200th entry on MAL, I watched shorts/specials that wouldn’t take too much time to watch. So why not watch the famed 2-minute short known for having faster pace than the Roadrunner? Generally I don’t like fast-paced shows, but I think that this short does a really good job with itself. Content-wise this show is so freaking ridiculous and doesn’t take itself seriously. But it works for the most part, and it’s pretty hilarious. Though it’s technically about a tennis club, I think they only have tennis in like 3 of the episodes, with the others focusing on some other random subject.

If there’s one negative to this, it’s the pace. Because as well as they use it, it’s still super quick, and sometimes an episode goes by and I go “what just happened?” Still, it’s a stupidly fun show: overall 6/10, and definitely will be watching the next 8 seasons (no I’m not joking, the ninth season is airing right now).

Nisemonogatari

So that was an adventure. This was an interesting case study, considering these were the stories that Nisio Isin (the author of the light novel) never intended to be released. As a result this show ended up being probably the most controversial entry in the Monogatari series. And it showed: this version of Monogatari really ramped up on some questionable scenes. Before I get into the infamous scene this show’s known for, let me get into some other stuff I wasn’t really about. First, the bath scene in episode 4. I don’t doubt it was an important scene: in fact it’s probably one of the most important scenes in the whole of Monogatari. But it’s the whole showing a naked 8-year old girl for the majority of the episode thing that made me pretty uncomfortable. It’s funny looking at the comments of the rewatch thread, and people trying to explain why it wasn’t that bad. The most common thing I saw was that it wasn’t sexualized at all, what with Araragi not being pedo like he is with the others and the fact that there wasn’t any zoom-ins of the naughty bits.

Yet the problem I have with that is that at it’s core it’s still... a naked 8-year old for the majority of an anime episode. And I’m not denying what the people in that thread are saying: actually it makes a hella lot of sense. But it’s still a naked 8-year old. I’m not about that life, even with the deeper meaning and all that.

And now that toothbrush scene. That... was a thing. Yep, a thing. Indeed. A. Thing.

Sigh... that was honestly the most uncomfortable I’ve been while watching anime. I’m glad I live alone or else I would have feared a roommate or something coming into my room and seeing me watch that. 

Now before you start telling me “deeper meaning” and all that jazz, I’ll just say this: my least favorite subject was English. The reason? I always had to be on the lookout for some deeper meaning, some symbolism, etc., instead of just enjoying reading. Now with the Monogatari series full of its more deeper themes, symbolism and looking deeper into events is very necessary. But looking past the deeper meaning this scene is a guy brushing his sister’s teeth while she starts getting sexually aroused, almost leading to a kiss in the end. That’s... also not my thing. Big time.

Well, that rant’s out of the way. Not counting the above scenes (as well as some of the other questionable stuff like imouto boob touch), I actually did enjoy this show. Monogatari’s slowly becoming one of my favorite franchises, making what should like a boring dialogue-heavy show fun and interesting. And now that Nisemonogatari’s out of the way I’m excited for what’s arguably the best version of Monogatari, Monogatari 2nd Season (kinda misnamed don’tcha think?). Overall despite above statements still a 7/10 show, with hope for the future.

Now that that’s done let’s move on to the good ol’...

Rankings:

1 (0). New Game!! (9/10) [5/12]

2 (0). Princess Principal (8.5/10) [6/?]

3 (0). Kakegurui (7/10) [6/12]

4 (0). Tsurezure Children (7/10) [6/?]

5 (0). Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season (7/10) [19/25]

6 (+1). Sakura Quest (5/10) [19/25]

7 (-1). Ballroom e Youkoso (5/10) [6/24]

8 (0). Centaur no Nayami (5/10) [6/12]

9 (0). Isekai Shokudou (4.5/10) [6/?]

10 (0). Nana Maru San Batsu (4/10) [6/12]

Awards

The Tangent Award: Centaur no Nayami

After 6 episodes, I think I have a general idea of why I feel like this show is off. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do like the show. Some of the scenes offer some nice commentary on the small issues that these people face (like the whole toilet thing) that some people may think is pedantic but I think is super interesting. Basically the stuff like the first few episodes of Demi-chan wa Kataritai (with the nice interviews and stuff).

The problem that this show has is that it goes through different scenes that seem jarring in transition. It jumps from one thing to a completely random thing, leaving me wondering how they even got to a certain point in the episode. Though in the end they’re able to show that the disjointed events are somewhat connected, the connection’s as fragile as Troy Tulowitzki (sports fan explanation: a baseball player who’s seemingly always injured, hence he’s called “fragile”). And in the end I continue on, wondering what I just watched for the past 23 or so minutes. I feel like there’s a better way to organize the episode, but I’m not really sure how yet. For now I’ll just continue watching, because despite questionable organization it’s still a mildly entertaining show.

The Not Comfy Award: Kakegurui

Yo but actually what was that episode. Return of masochist queen = return of fear for my life. This show isn’t high on my “comfy show” list, but after this episode it’s sunken even lower.

On a totally unrelated note, I’ve changed my opinion from slightly liking Yumeko to not liking her at all. In fact it’s kinda funny that my opinions of Yumeko and Mary flipped, and now I find Mary to be the better girl (if not best girl of the show). Seeing how she’s not just one of the crazies and actually seems kinda nice is reassuring to say the least (even if the crazy leaks out at times). The return of Suzui was also nice, considering he’s a good dynamic compared to the insane characters in the show. If anything, I’m curious to see how this ends, considering the pace so far and the fact that it’s one cour.

Best Episode of the Week: Princess Principal

After three straight weeks of New Game!!, we finally get a new show for best episode of the week. It was a hard choice, considering this week’s episode of New Game!! was very good. But Princess Principal wins out with a great episode about Dorothy and her life before being a spy.

I won’t go deep into the episode because I want to try to not have too much spoilers in these blurbs. But what I will say is that dang, these girls have good reason for being spies. Also that the end of this episode was pretty sad, especially considering Dorothy’s final line. Princess Principal’s been impressing so far, and I love the disjointed style of storytelling (with case 6 last week and case 18 this week). Next to New Game!!, this show’s been my favorite of the season. I highly recommend it even if you aren’t the biggest fan of CGDCTs or spy stuff.

And that’s all for this week! Thanks for reading! Just a quick announcement/notice: I’ll be busy next week preparing for school and moving into my new place, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t have the time to watch the currently-airing shows. If that does happen I’ll mention which ones I didn’t get to, and if it doesn’t well then it’ll be business as usual. Anyway, thanks again and I’ll see you in the next post!