[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 12 December 2014 - 01:29 AM, said:

BalrogLord, on 11 December 2014 - 02:37 PM, said:

D, on 10 December 2014 - 05:14 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 10 December 2014 - 01:31 PM, said:

It should be noted I can't get the theme song for the opening (Crossing Field) out of my head.

But why would you want to?

because the vocalist can't sing... She's worse than maroon5,

LiSA? Nuh uh, she's a good singer!

(Which is why, for example she also sung the OP in Fate/Zero and a bunch of other animes)

She tries to sing higher in that op then she actually can, she isn't supporting her voice properly #usethediaphragm. Also it's auto tuned. Listen to her live and...

https://www.youtube....h?v=4Dma_PHZa7w

I really don't like how whiny her voice is as well. I only recently got into singing myself but it's not very difficult for me to pick up on these things. One vocalist i was really into was mama kawadi. However, i listened to her live and... yeah, she can't sing either.

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 12 December 2014 - 03:38 PM

[QuickTidal]

SAO S1 - ep 15-onwards.

What the everloving heck is going on!?

The game is beaten, Asuna in a coma, and now Alfheim?

Something fishy is going on.

Still, this show is awesome. I'm just lost now.

EDIT: Finished S1 now. Man, there was some squicky stuff with the system admin villain, but that just made it SO satisfying when Kirito went to town on him.

Spoiler

Heathcliff/Kayoba showing up was a nice touch, as was him giving Kirito the world seed. I'm impressed with the fact that they pull the rug out from under you by having Kirito fight Heeathcliff early, then deal with the real world, including his cousin and her crush, and then swing it round to Aelfheim...which I initally found WEIRD...but the payoff is glorious. The hail mary shot against the Guardians, and then the backup showing up...I nearly cheered.

OH, and I know I was initially lukewarm about Asuna....but I swear to Odin, if there is a world where Kirito and Asuna aren't together...I don't want to know about it. The love aspect between them is well handled...aside from what I can only term as the "fridging" of Asuna in the latter half of S1.

Anyways, I'm off to start S2 now!

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 12 December 2014 - 08:25 PM

[D'rek]

QuickTidal, on 12 December 2014 - 06:52 PM, said:

SAO S1 - ep 15-onwards.

What the everloving heck is going on!?

The game is beaten, Asuna in a coma, and now Alfheim?

Something fishy is going on.

Still, this show is awesome. I'm just lost now.

Yup, the first season of the anime contains two very different arcs from the original LNs, which evidently could've been a lot more formally separated in the LN than in the anime. I suppose they could have done just one 13-episode cour with just the Aincraid arc, or tried to stretch Aincraid out to 26 episodes, but I'm glad they did what they did instead.

Season 2 similarly contains 2 arcs (and some in-between).

QuickTidal, on 12 December 2014 - 06:52 PM, said:

EDIT: Finished S1 now. Man, there was some squicky stuff with the system admin villain, but that just made it SO satisfying when Kirito went to town on him.

Spoiler

Heathcliff/Kayoba showing up was a nice touch, as was him giving Kirito the world seed. I'm impressed with the fact that they pull the rug out from under you by having Kirito fight Heeathcliff early, then deal with the real world, including his cousin and her crush, and then swing it round to Aelfheim...which I initally found WEIRD...but the payoff is glorious. The hail mary shot against the Guardians, and then the backup showing up...I nearly cheered.

I think I really did cheer the first time There aren't all that many different songs in the SAO soundtrack, but the ones that are there are really good and they really, really fit well in hyping up the intensity of the confrontations!

QuickTidal, on 12 December 2014 - 06:52 PM, said:

OH, and I know I was initially lukewarm about Asuna....but I swear to Odin, if there is a world where Kirito and Asuna aren't together...I don't want to know about it. The love aspect between them is well handled...aside from what I can only term as the "fridging" of Asuna in the latter half of S1.

Totally agree. And if this is one of those series that has to have a young main male character surrounded by a harem bunch of young girls (it is), I can at least appreciate that Kirito doesn't seem inclined in the slightest to wander

[Silencer]

BalrogLord, on 12 December 2014 - 03:35 PM, said:

D, on 12 December 2014 - 01:29 AM, said:

BalrogLord, on 11 December 2014 - 02:37 PM, said:

D, on 10 December 2014 - 05:14 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 10 December 2014 - 01:31 PM, said:

It should be noted I can't get the theme song for the opening (Crossing Field) out of my head.

But why would you want to?

because the vocalist can't sing... She's worse than maroon5,

LiSA? Nuh uh, she's a good singer!

(Which is why, for example she also sung the OP in Fate/Zero and a bunch of other animes)

She tries to sing higher in that op then she actually can, she isn't supporting her voice properly #usethediaphragm. Also it's auto tuned. Listen to her live and...

https://www.youtube....h?v=4Dma_PHZa7w

I really don't like how whiny her voice is as well. I only recently got into singing myself but it's not very difficult for me to pick up on these things. One vocalist i was really into was mama kawadi. However, i listened to her live and... yeah, she can't sing either.

Wait a second. Are you...critiquing LiSA? What the everloving....

People spend five minutes learning something and suddenly they can expertly critique someone whose work is not only commercially successful, but is basically one of the biggest names in anime OP songs over the past five years?! For shame, BL, for shame!

(I mean, she sang Ichiban no Takaramono (Yui final ver.) from Angel Beats, for the love of all that is holy! If you can listen to that song and 1) not cry and 2) critique it, I WILL hunt you down and make you eat the sheet music...)


Bearing in mind that this is in another language, also - e.g. there isn't exactly a consistent level of what is "whiny" across the board. XD



Anyway, onto other matters:

QuickTidal, on 12 December 2014 - 06:52 PM, said:

SAO S1 - ep 15-onwards.

What the everloving heck is going on!?

The game is beaten, Asuna in a coma, and now Alfheim?

Something fishy is going on.

Still, this show is awesome. I'm just lost now.

EDIT: Finished S1 now. Man, there was some squicky stuff with the system admin villain, but that just made it SO satisfying when Kirito went to town on him.

Spoiler

Heathcliff/Kayoba showing up was a nice touch, as was him giving Kirito the world seed. I'm impressed with the fact that they pull the rug out from under you by having Kirito fight Heeathcliff early, then deal with the real world, including his cousin and her crush, and then swing it round to Aelfheim...which I initally found WEIRD...but the payoff is glorious. The hail mary shot against the Guardians, and then the backup showing up...I nearly cheered.

Yeah, this is what happens when they adapt two separate light novels into one "season" with no clear time delineation/shift between the two....

Quote

OH, and I know I was initially lukewarm about Asuna....but I swear to Odin, if there is a world where Kirito and Asuna aren't together...I don't want to know about it. The love aspect between them is well handled...aside from what I can only term as the "fridging" of Asuna in the latter half of S1.

Anyways, I'm off to start S2 now!

And you're now in for what is both a highly superior story AND a 10000000000x better adaptation of said story. Seriously, the first two arcs were so poorly handled...ugh.

D, on 12 December 2014 - 08:55 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 12 December 2014 - 06:52 PM, said:

SAO S1 - ep 15-onwards.

What the everloving heck is going on!?

The game is beaten, Asuna in a coma, and now Alfheim?

Something fishy is going on.

Still, this show is awesome. I'm just lost now.

Yup, the first season of the anime contains two very different arcs from the original LNs, which evidently could've been a lot more formally separated in the LN than in the anime. I suppose they could have done just one 13-episode cour with just the Aincraid arc, or tried to stretch Aincraid out to 26 episodes, but I'm glad they did what they did instead.

Season 2 similarly contains 2 arcs (and some in-between).

They REALLY should have done the pacing different. We ended up with shoehorned side-stories at the START of season one (and if they were going to do that, they really should have added filler to link them/make them not stick out like a sore thumb) then no gap for pacing between the first two arcs (which makes people like poor QT here mistake them for one "season", when they're two very distinct plot arcs) and a horrendously rushed Alfheim arc (see...you know that bit in Caliburn? Where they meet Tonkii? Completely hand-waved out of existence in Alfheim, when there was plenty of stuff going on that could've been shown...if they hadn't squeezed both arcs into one season) which didn't really do justice to a lot of the emotional fallout Kirito was dealing with + Sugu and then the two of them getting into the whole mess with Asuna together and, yeah. That plotline was really put on a bullet train to completion, mostly because of the lack of episodes they had to tell it.
Heck, there is still material from Aincrad that was cut - most noticeably the lack of detail of most dungeon/boss fights...but also other plot items. (Frankly, I'm still kind of bitter about the treatment of the "St Nick" boss and the whole plotline with the Moonlit Black Cats/Sachi, but maybe that's just me...)

Now, I wouldn't have gone for a full 24/26 eps, but they *easily* could have done a pair of 18s. Makes a lot more sense, pacing-wise, and would have given them more room to develop all the characters/plot threads in BOTH arcs.

Quote

QuickTidal, on 12 December 2014 - 06:52 PM, said:

EDIT: Finished S1 now. Man, there was some squicky stuff with the system admin villain, but that just made it SO satisfying when Kirito went to town on him.

Spoiler

Heathcliff/Kayoba showing up was a nice touch, as was him giving Kirito the world seed. I'm impressed with the fact that they pull the rug out from under you by having Kirito fight Heeathcliff early, then deal with the real world, including his cousin and her crush, and then swing it round to Aelfheim...which I initally found WEIRD...but the payoff is glorious. The hail mary shot against the Guardians, and then the backup showing up...I nearly cheered.

I think I really did cheer the first time There aren't all that many different songs in the SAO soundtrack, but the ones that are there are really good and they really, really fit well in hyping up the intensity of the confrontations!

Yes, well, that's because they were done by Kajiura Yuki, who is THE BEST damn composer in the anime industry...XD

Quote

QuickTidal, on 12 December 2014 - 06:52 PM, said:

OH, and I know I was initially lukewarm about Asuna....but I swear to Odin, if there is a world where Kirito and Asuna aren't together...I don't want to know about it. The love aspect between them is well handled...aside from what I can only term as the "fridging" of Asuna in the latter half of S1.

Totally agree. And if this is one of those series that has to have a young main male character surrounded by a harem bunch of young girls (it is), I can at least appreciate that Kirito doesn't seem inclined in the slightest to wander

They are a pretty good couple. But Asuna really badly needed/needs more focus time. As QT notes, after their relationship is established she almost literally gets put in the fridge...all the way up through until Mother Rosario, ffs! Which is just really boring, from a relationship-development standpoint. I think it was a lot to do with the author basically realising he'd taken them from 0-100 a *bit* too early on, so there wasn't a lot he could do except make Asuna the Macguffin (see: ALO), which didn't really sit right with him, but he couldn't figure out what to do about it until Mother Rosario, basically.

Of course, imho, Sinon is still best girl. XD (And totally the only legit person in Kirito's set of admirer's who a) would work and is mostly actually just his friend, rather than in the "look on enviously while Kirito and Asuna are all lovey-dovey" camp - which is awesome, because it just highlights how damn robust Asuna and Kirito's relationship is, but also shows the rest of the bunch up as being rather silly. XD)

[LinearPhilosopher]

Quote

Silencer, on 13 December 2014 - 09:35 AM, said:

She tries to sing higher in that op then she actually can, she isn't supporting her voice properly #usethediaphragm. Also it's auto tuned. Listen to her live and...

https://www.youtube....h?v=4Dma_PHZa7w

I really don't like how whiny her voice is as well. I only recently got into singing myself but it's not very difficult for me to pick up on these things. One vocalist i was really into was mama kawadi. However, i listened to her live and... yeah, she can't sing either.

Wait a second. Are you...critiquing LiSA? What the everloving....

People spend five minutes learning something and suddenly they can expertly critique someone whose work is not only commercially successful, but is basically one of the biggest names in anime OP songs over the past five years?! For shame, BL, for shame!

(I mean, she sang Ichiban no Takaramono (Yui final ver.) from Angel Beats, for the love of all that is holy! If you can listen to that song and 1) not cry and 2) critique it, I WILL hunt you down and make you eat the sheet music...)




Bearing in mind that this is in another language, also - e.g. there isn't exactly a consistent level of what is "whiny" across the board. XD

More than five minutes bro, and it doesn't take an accomplished artist to point it out. All it takes is a good ear that's received some vocal tuning. You don't need to be a movie director to critique a movie director. Yes it does bring in a certain perspective, but it isn't required. All's thats required in the art of critique is the ability to evaluate, to judge. Look at criteria, how something fits within that criteria and how it compares to other work. Critique, at it's most basic level is analysis. One doesn't have to play football to be a good football analyst. What's required to be a good fottball analyst is to be able to break apart games, and see trends in teams, while not having to watch the same games fifty times. One doesn't have to be an author to do litterary analysis. One just needs to be accomplished in the art of pulling shit out of their asses.

And commercial viability i've found has little correlation with actually being able to sing properly, especially in ages where everything in auto tuned. Look at any top 40s singners. (looking at you maroon 5)

I wasn't aware she sang ichiban no takaramono, but then, the real test would be to listen to a live version and see if it's as good.

And your last point, it's only a personal grievance of mine, but i very much doubt tone changes from language to language. I've seen enough anime in japanese to hear that japanese voices emote in the same way english ones do when it comes to emotions.

Edit:i messed up the quote tags.

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 13 December 2014 - 04:04 PM

[D'rek]

Hey, there's a new AoT OVA out. Looks like they're going to do 3 of them prequelling how Levi and Erwin first met, got involved in the Survey Corps and became its leaders.

[LinearPhilosopher]

D, on 13 December 2014 - 05:05 PM, said:

Hey, there's a new AoT OVA out. Looks like they're going to do 3 of them prequelling how Levi and Erwin first met, got involved in the Survey Corps and became its leaders.

sweet definitely will check it out. The last OVa feraturing a training exercising eren and co went through was pretty entertaining. So this week's batch of anime has been pretty good. Sad part is im having trouble remembering it.

iirc, shingeki no bahamut is sending jeanne d'arc to the gardens of Gethsemane,

|Fatestay night, i must say i do enjoy seeing shirou getting his ass kicked.

This post has been edited by BalrogLord: 14 December 2014 - 11:13 AM

[Silencer]

Yeah, good episodes from SAO and UBW this week, but Fate really highlighted my biggest problem with it, especially compared to the likes of Fate/Zero:

Spoiler

There is no way in hell Souichirou should be able to take on Saber, either in hand-to-hand or in any other form of combat.

But that's ok, he's pretty much a unique case...

Wait, how the fuck did Shirou just 1) survive even a single blow from a man who just broke Saber, and 2) then manage to somehow gain silks enough to actually block a second round of attack from the guy who just curb-stomped Saber - a fucking Servant, of all things - just by managing to make some shiny Archer-style swords?!?!?!?

It reeks of "believe in yourself" idealistic bs, basically. Which is annoying even when the character is otherwise likeable, but when they're not...ugh.

As much as it's an inescapable part of the story, it is still really stupid and annoying. XD

And I'm pretty sure it's basically the only story by this author/in this universe which does it so blatantly and, well, does it at all, actually, but also does it so poorly. XD

[QuickTidal]

5 eps into S2 of SAO and loving it. And yeah Silencer, Sinon really is amazing. I think a large part of that comes from her backstory being poignant, and the fact that they wasted no time telling us that backstory. I also fell off my chair laughing when Kirito reveals he's a dude to her and she freaks out. The GGO setting is a nice change of pace, and the gun fighting is interesting.

I fear now that when I'm done SAO II I'll start buying the manga...and I hold you responsible for that Silencer!

[LinearPhilosopher]

QuickTidal, on 14 December 2014 - 01:57 PM, said:

5 eps into S2 of SAO and loving it. And yeah Silencer, Sinon really is amazing. I think a large part of that comes from her backstory being poignant, and the fact that they wasted no time telling us that backstory. I also fell off my chair laughing when Kirito reveals he's a dude to her and she freaks out. The GGO setting is a nice change of pace, and the gun fighting is interesting.

I fear now that when I'm done SAO II I'll start buying the manga...and I hold you responsible for that Silencer!

buy it off rigthstuff if they have it, likely cheaper

[D'rek]

This week, onnnnnnn:

Sword Art Online season 2 (23) - RoboYuuki, as expected. Good wrap up to the family plots - Asuna and her mom interacting within Alfheim was really good.

But there's still 2 or 3 episodes left in the season, right? Are they going to just do a little filler arc or something? Doesn't seem like there is much left needing resolution that could take up two whole episodes.



UFOT/F/SN/UBW (10) - As Silencer said, there's a bit of credibility strain going on here...

Spoiler

Kuzuki is faster and stronger than Sabre? Unless Sojiro is somehow possessing Kuzuki that is pretty insane. And then Shirou with his 1 day of sword training does better than Sabre did against Kuzuki...

Basically, Sabre has so far lost against every enemy she has faced (Lancer, Sojiro, Kuzuki) except for the strongest one (Berserker), because I guess her Noble Phantasm is to increase her skills in proportion to how screwed she is otherwise?

And AGAIN the bad guys just leave when they're winning for no good reason. Kuzuki just laid a smackdown on all 3 and Archer still hasn't shown up. Caster is all set to blast the crap out of them from above. There is absolutely no reason for Caster to just shrug it off and leave - she's hardly even spent any power so far so it's not like she's weakened or wounded.


Meanwhile, something is obviously up with Archer and Shirou. Archer has made so many weapons, Shirou wishes he could make weapons, then he does summon weapons from scratch and they are Archer's. Hmm. Given the Nasuverse's penchant for insanity, could be anything though... time travel, long lost uncle, cross-summoning error where Shirou was supposed to get Archer, etc...


So Shinji gets Blondie, and per Silencer Sakura's out of the game. Now we know Kuzuki is a Master (and no one is surprised). That leaves just Lancer's master unknown, which I will go with it being Kirei then since Blondie was calling Kirei a rogue before and it makes a lot of sense for Kirei to enjoy killing Shirou. Surprised Kirei and Blondie didn't just keep working together themselves, though - we saw them both in the church before and evidently Blondie intends to take the role of a Servant.

Log Horizon (11) - Yay, a fun episode! Log Horizon doing what it does best, finally!



Shingeki no Bahamut (10) - HOLY CRAAAAAAAAP

Spoiler

Did Amira just die?! And Favaro went full demon? AND JEANNE WENT DEMON WHAT THE LITERAL HELL

Everything is a lie! Amira was not really born at all. All her memories are false. Probably all of Lavalley's are, too, or else he is working for the demons after all. I am guessing that the angel talking to Jeanne was really Martinet - the vial looked the same as Favaro's - but that doesn't really help the situation!

Inou-Battles (11) - BEST GIRL IS BACK OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIT

Spoiler

No really OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIII...

Spoiler

...IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT

Spoiler

Evil-Mirei! NOOOOOOOO!

Okay, so obviously she's been brainwashed by the F-member (who was contacted by Sagami after Hijemi's lazy team members deleted the footage of her escaping). But she already has Hatoko's power now. The only way I can see them fighting that rationally would be for Tomoyo to run away while the others distract Mirei, and once out of sight freeze time so Mirei can't steal it. Not likely going to happen.

We still have not seen Andou's awakened power, but everyone was terrified of it and not in a joking way. Plus he screamed like he was really hurt. What's an evolution of a power that is useless? How about a power that does nothing *and* hurts the person using it.

So I theorize that Andou will talk Mirei into stealing his awakened power and she'll blow herself up with it.

At which point she should be restored with no powers or memories of them, per the fairy war rules.

The question is, then, how many other characters are going to go down with her? And how much memories do they lose, exactly? If Andou and Tomoyo forget how awesome they are together I'll be sad

Maybe it'll end up with Hajime's gang (7 members, I think) + one survivor of the literature club as the Final Eight and they'll get a wish? Seems a bit too neat for Trigger to want to end it that way when they can flip things around and have an anti-climax or something.

Gah, I am going to die waiting for next Monday!!!

[QuickTidal]

10 eps into SAO II and I'm significantly impressed with the unwavering FOCUS of the show in comparison to S1. I mean we started out about Death Gun and GGO and Sinon and the narrative has barely wavered from that, which means it's delivering just a solid string of story.

Though I will say:

Spoiler

that the ep which ended with Sinon on the ground in front of Death Gun about to be shot was MILKED for all it was worth as a cliffhanger. I can't imagine having had to wait a week to find out what happened.

Still enjoying, and now THIS theme song is stuck in my head.

At a guess I'll have caught up to the most recent ep later this week. At which point I'll probably bust into PSYCHO PASS on Netflix, and chase that with KILL LA KILL.

[D'rek]

QuickTidal, on 16 December 2014 - 04:32 PM, said:

10 eps into SAO II and I'm significantly impressed with the unwavering FOCUS of the show in comparison to S1. I mean we started out about Death Gun and GGO and Sinon and the narrative has barely wavered from that, which means it's delivering just a solid string of story.

Though I will say:

Spoiler

that the ep which ended with Sinon on the ground in front of Death Gun about to be shot was MILKED for all it was worth as a cliffhanger. I can't imagine having had to wait a week to find out what happened.

Well yes, but...

Spoiler

...c'mon, we all knew Kirito was going to burst in and save her. It's what he does! Kirito won't ever let another party member harem member friend die again! (Klein included)

[D'rek]

Speaking of cliffhangers though, I am going to be going out of mind this week waiting for next Monday, two-fold.

Also, looks like SAO season 2 is only going to be 24 episodes according to myanimelist so I guess next episode is the last one (wrapping up the season, and maaaaaybe a bit of hint towards the next big arc).

Silencer, you've read/know the SAO LNs, right?

Spoiler

Do Kirito and Asuna ever deal with the sorta-being-married thing? Asuna's mom looked like she noticed the ring in Alfheim, but didn't bring it up, and it seems they are not talking about it since Asuna didn't tell Yuuki she was already married

[QuickTidal]

D, on 16 December 2014 - 04:38 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 16 December 2014 - 04:32 PM, said:

10 eps into SAO II and I'm significantly impressed with the unwavering FOCUS of the show in comparison to S1. I mean we started out about Death Gun and GGO and Sinon and the narrative has barely wavered from that, which means it's delivering just a solid string of story.

Though I will say:

Spoiler

that the ep which ended with Sinon on the ground in front of Death Gun about to be shot was MILKED for all it was worth as a cliffhanger. I can't imagine having had to wait a week to find out what happened.

Well yes, but...

Spoiler

...c'mon, we all knew Kirito was going to burst in and save her. It's what he does! Kirito won't ever let another party member harem member friend die again! (Klein included)

This is very true. I just wanted to suspend my assumptions I guess.

[D'rek]

QuickTidal, on 16 December 2014 - 04:59 PM, said:

D, on 16 December 2014 - 04:38 PM, said:

QuickTidal, on 16 December 2014 - 04:32 PM, said:

10 eps into SAO II and I'm significantly impressed with the unwavering FOCUS of the show in comparison to S1. I mean we started out about Death Gun and GGO and Sinon and the narrative has barely wavered from that, which means it's delivering just a solid string of story.

Though I will say:

Spoiler

that the ep which ended with Sinon on the ground in front of Death Gun about to be shot was MILKED for all it was worth as a cliffhanger. I can't imagine having had to wait a week to find out what happened.

Well yes, but...

Spoiler

...c'mon, we all knew Kirito was going to burst in and save her. It's what he does! Kirito won't ever let another party member harem member friend die again! (Klein included)

This is very true. I just wanted to suspend my assumptions I guess.

Of course the truly dastardly thing for them to do would be to keep those assumptions going and then crush them mercilessly...

[QuickTidal]

LOL, yeah that sounds about right for any given anime.

[LinearPhilosopher]

So it's coming down to that time of the year again, all the season's shows are wrapping up. SAO II, latest episode was very well done. I could easily empathise with the characters, likely because all nerds feel the same way. I definetely commend the directing of this show, i can't stress enough how different, and better season 2 is than season 1 is. Season 1 oscillated between terrible and average, but s2 just keeps on delivering.

Psycho Pass s2 was amazing. Im pretty sure it just concluded (11th episode) and was a solid piece. Good tidbits of philosophy thrown in there that kept me happy, but s2 was definetly more focused than s1. Likely because all the world building was done so there was less slice of life investigate X. On tangnetial note, why can't we have more series run 11 episodes. What i'm getting at , is having a series play out in a way that makes narrative sense, without having artificial limits. I've also been watching akame ga kill. Near the end of the show, theres an episode "missing" involving a fight between several characters, resulting in the death of three of them. It goes from setting up the fight in the end of episode x, and in episode X+1, everyone is mourning over the loss, and the viewer is filled in through dialogue what happened... This is only a gross example, but sure all of you are aware of similar things.

Also since it's the end of the year would we be interested in nominating what we thought was the anime of the year?

[D'rek]

BalrogLord, on 18 December 2014 - 07:19 PM, said:

So it's coming down to that time of the year again, all the season's shows are wrapping up. SAO II, latest episode was very well done. I could easily empathise with the characters, likely because all nerds feel the same way. I definetely commend the directing of this show, i can't stress enough how different, and better season 2 is than season 1 is. Season 1 oscillated between terrible and average, but s2 just keeps on delivering.

Psycho Pass s2 was amazing. Im pretty sure it just concluded (11th episode) and was a solid piece. Good tidbits of philosophy thrown in there that kept me happy, but s2 was definetly more focused than s1. Likely because all the world building was done so there was less slice of life investigate X. On tangnetial note, why can't we have more series run 11 episodes. What i'm getting at , is having a series play out in a way that makes narrative sense, without having artificial limits. I've also been watching akame ga kill. Near the end of the show, theres an episode "missing" involving a fight between several characters, resulting in the death of three of them. It goes from setting up the fight in the end of episode x, and in episode X+1, everyone is mourning over the loss, and the viewer is filled in through dialogue what happened... This is only a gross example, but sure all of you are aware of similar things.

Also since it's the end of the year would we be interested in nominating what we thought was the anime of the year?

Hmm, here's the ones I can think of that started airing this year and were at least talked about a lot (which doesn't necessarily mean they were good!):



Mushishi Season s2
Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works
Log Horizon s2
Sword Art Online s2
No Game No Life
Barakamon
Your Lie in April
Zankyou no Terror
Space Dandy
Psycho Pass s2
Akame ga Kill!
Tokyo Ghoul
Knights of Sidonia
Aldnoah Zero
Rage of Bahamut
Noragami
Trinity Seven
Persona 4
Pokemon Origin OVAs


Hard to pick an absolute best since I've only seen a handful of these and many of them are trying to be completely different things. But with those caveats in mind, here's my best attempt:



The pokemon origin OVAs were awesome, especially after 13 years of the too-kid-friendly Ash Ketchum show, but ultimately they stuffed too much content into just 3 episodes that it was too fast and shallow to be more than a bit of fun entertainment.

Unlimited Blade Works is still going, so who knows how it will turn out, but even up to so far I'd call it too stretched out into repeated fights with no major progression to be close to the best.

Zankyou no Terror was good, but as discussed a lot earlier in the year got too bogged down in its villain that the anti-heroes weren't anti- enough and overall didn't have the depth it needed to be great.

Log Horizon s2? Nope. It's fun, but it isn't anywhere near great. At least not yet.

Irregular at Magic School? Nobunaga the Fool? Rail Wars? Eugh... dropped these. Definite nope.

Space Dandy is extremely original, creative and fun. Every episode is something new and imaginative. It's hard to find much fault in it. On the other hand, the episodic nature of it means it doesn't have the impact and scope of the continuous shows. Very hard to judge.

As much as I love and am thoroughly enjoying Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de, by its very nature it is not going to be a big epic, meaningful show. And I'm not sure that the comedy, hilarious as it is, or the meta-commentary/parody are enough to make this a truly great show (then again, the standard is pretty high since these are the same people who made Gurren Lagann). OTOH, I still have 1 more episode to watch so who knows!

And that leaves me with... Shingeki no Bahamut! Still 2 episodes left, but if things continue as they are I'm ready to declare this my show of the year. It has a great cast of characters that go completely against your usual anime cliches. They manage to squeeze as much world-building in just 13 episodes as some two-season 50-episode shows do. The pacing is excellent, adding world and character backstory gradually without dropping the momentum and leaving plenty of room for twists and sudden revelations. The animation and musical score are also top-notch (though I detest the OP). How many fantasy-action animes has there been in the last few years that hit the ball running right from the start, only needed 1 cour instead of 2 whole seasons to reach an epic climax, and still found time to have some of the funniest moments of the season mixed in? Favarooooooooooooo!

Sword Art Online s2 almost reached as high, but it's just not as epic or emotionally investing when Kirito has all his friends/relationships sorted out and they are comfortably living and just playing games. It's thoroughly entertaining and thought/emotion-provoking, and the execution of this season has been exemplary. But it's just not as epic as Rage of Bahamut (which didn't need a mis-managed season 1 to get there either). So honourable mention goes to SAOs2, but not the award.

[LinearPhilosopher]

I think as a rule, the show needs to have started and ended this year. Not sure if we should include sequels however.