[Maark Abbott]

Maark Abbott, on 19 December 2017 - 08:39 AM, said:

D, on 19 December 2017 - 01:15 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 18 December 2017 - 08:38 AM, said:

This week's Anime-Gataris was completely off the hook.

Spoiler

The MC has realised that she's in an anime, that said realisation is a result of her freeing Neko-senpai from behind the door, and right at the end she's seeing all her friends as uncoloured illustrations. It's wonderfully bonkers and totally meta. And the best part is this turn of events came out of absolutely nowhere.

Edit: Oh, I also binged PP Madoka Magica across the weekend. It was utterly fantastic. Ascendant tier.

WHAT IS GOING OOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Spoiler

That goddamned "let's rewind and watch the OP again to check"... jaw meet floor

I was expecting when she put on those glasses at the end for it to go live-action. Hell, that may still happen next!

Spoiler

I don't think that'll happen. She's realised that she's actually IN an anime now. If we do see any live action, I'm envisioning that it'll be her berating the animators or the audience. Mostly what impressed me is how they threw this in out of basically nowhere and then made it work!

This post has been edited by Maark Abbott: 19 December 2017 - 08:40 AM

[Maark Abbott]

Oh god the last episode of King's Game had me howling. It's so bad, such a trash anime, but I watched it all the way to the end because it was so cringe as to be enjoyable.

Spoiler

The five survivors get to the rendezvous. New order comes in. Teruaki's brother gets the next order, goes hollow-eyed because they have to dismember the group and build a doll from the parts, produces a FUCKING CHAINSAW, saws off his own leg, Natsuko helps him, he dies. Other Girl is angry, flies at Natsuko, she chainsaws Other Girl across the chest, SHE DEAD YO.

Then fighting, Natsuko gets chainsawed in the back and dies, except she not dead, oh no now she's killed Nobuaki, after which Riona carries his body into the sea so that she can drown and be with him.

It's absolutely silly. How this got greenlit, I'll never know, but it was a hoot to watch.

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 22 December 2017 - 08:49 AM, said:

Oh god the last episode of King's Game had me howling. It's so bad, such a trash anime, but I watched it all the way to the end because it was so cringe as to be enjoyable.

Spoiler

The five survivors get to the rendezvous. New order comes in. Teruaki's brother gets the next order, goes hollow-eyed because they have to dismember the group and build a doll from the parts, produces a FUCKING CHAINSAW, saws off his own leg, Natsuko helps him, he dies. Other Girl is angry, flies at Natsuko, she chainsaws Other Girl across the chest, SHE DEAD YO.

Then fighting, Natsuko gets chainsawed in the back and dies, except she not dead, oh no now she's killed Nobuaki, after which Riona carries his body into the sea so that she can drown and be with him.

It's absolutely silly. How this got greenlit, I'll never know, but it was a hoot to watch.

That sounds like a fun, silly slapstick comedic climax... but I guess it was supposed to be serious and dramatic?

[Maark Abbott]

D, on 24 December 2017 - 04:42 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 22 December 2017 - 08:49 AM, said:

Oh god the last episode of King's Game had me howling. It's so bad, such a trash anime, but I watched it all the way to the end because it was so cringe as to be enjoyable.

Spoiler

The five survivors get to the rendezvous. New order comes in. Teruaki's brother gets the next order, goes hollow-eyed because they have to dismember the group and build a doll from the parts, produces a FUCKING CHAINSAW, saws off his own leg, Natsuko helps him, he dies. Other Girl is angry, flies at Natsuko, she chainsaws Other Girl across the chest, SHE DEAD YO.

Then fighting, Natsuko gets chainsawed in the back and dies, except she not dead, oh no now she's killed Nobuaki, after which Riona carries his body into the sea so that she can drown and be with him.

It's absolutely silly. How this got greenlit, I'll never know, but it was a hoot to watch.

That sounds like a fun, silly slapstick comedic climax... but I guess it was supposed to be serious and dramatic?

I don't even know any more. The premise and the character interactions were always incredibly serious, but I don't know if the foray into full-on narm was intentional or not.

All my seasonals are done now, barring Sengoku Night Blood and Garo VL. Not really sure what tickles me next season. There only seems to be 4/5 shows that sound decent.

[D'rek]

I finished Re:Creators! I really enjoyed the second half, the whole idea of the final event made for a ton of fun and lots of good/funny/shocking twists. It was really nice to have a full farewell episode at the end, instead of the rushed epilogue that many series have. This whole series was really heartfelt, even with the minor or low-screentime characters.

Spoiler

Matsubara and the Alice author's reactions to their characters' deaths was potent. And the callbacks in the epilogue where Selesia is seemingly talking to Sota/Matsubara in her commercial, and the poster announcing an Alice/Mamika crossover are great little heartstring tuggers. I really liked Hikayu's farewell with her exit, too.

Best moment: Yuya unintentionally dropping a huge spoiler for his own series and the audience/author reaction had me in absolute stitches.

Animegataris finale - honestly, not as good as I was hoping it to be. A couple good scenes when Minoa was at the utmost despair, but the episode itself lacked a general plot of any sort and the ending was mostly an asspull.

Looking back on the series as a whole, I don't think the ~7 episodes of typical high school club comedy was worth it for the last few mind-bendy episodes. They could have spread the idea of

Spoiler

Minoa realizing she is actually in an anime

across the episodes a lot more gradually, and gone for a much more interesting climax/ending than a boilerplate "two worlds overlapping/merging" scenario.




Food Wars S3 finale - it's a damn good thing they've already announced season 4 of Food Wars coming in the Spring, because season 3 ended on one hell of a cliffhanger/revelation. Ended on a pretty good food battle, too. Overall, I expected a very middle-season-feeling of school shenanigans and occasional shokugekis without much else, and instead got some giant plot changes that leave the viewer with no idea what's going to happen next, and on top of that a bunch of great new characters. However, this season also had a very noticeable drop in animation quality with far more pan-and-zoom still shots being used, plus some awkward CGI in places.

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 29 December 2017 - 08:47 AM, said:

All my seasonals are done now, barring Sengoku Night Blood and Garo VL. Not really sure what tickles me next season. There only seems to be 4/5 shows that sound decent.

Yeah, looks like all the big-name shows for next season are sequels that I have no interest in:

Overlord season 2 (First Overlord season was IMO awful, and readers of the LN say season 2 still probably won't get to the "good part")
Even more Seven Deadly Sins
Yowamushi Pedal season 4 - wow, who knew this bicycle show would take off
Yet another Fate/something spin-off
Dagashi Kashi 2 - I didn't watch the first one, it sounded pretty boring
Yet another "trapped in a fantasy RPG world" ("Death March something something")
Yet another boy-meets-robot-girl ("Beatless")


BUT there is a new season of Saiki Kusuo, the short comedy about the depressed psychic kid. I'll definitely watch more of that!

[LinearPhilosopher]

People are hyping up Violet Evergreen will be checking that out.


I will be watching overlord s2, regardless of how BAD s1 was, guilty pleasure i suppose?

Honestly this season didnt really watch much, Kino's Journey was dissapointing. Theres a rumor that the episodes were fan voted, which may explain why the videos we got didn't really have the feel of the previous work.

This post has been edited by LinearPhilosopher: 29 December 2017 - 07:50 PM

[D'rek]

Yeah, I've seen some Violet Evergreen hype but I really don't know anything about it. Why is it such a big deal?

[Silencer]

Assuming you two actually mean Violet Evergarden, the hype is that it's KyoAni, and adapted from a light novel entry that won the grand prize in the fifth KyoAni Awards for the category of "novel" - which was apparently the first time anything had won the grand prize in any category. So pretty much it's hype off that.

[D'rek]

Ok, so it's basically just the usual KyoAni hype. Granted, KyoAni is a good studio and everything they make is very pretty, but that's no guarantee of the story being any good... case in point A Silent Voice (or Myriad Colours Phantom World). The source material being prize-winning sounds reassuring but... its an award that KyoAni gave themselves? To a novel they themselves also published? That doesn't sound very trustworthy...

[Silencer]

D, on 31 December 2017 - 06:07 AM, said:

Ok, so it's basically just the usual KyoAni hype. Granted, KyoAni is a good studio and everything they make is very pretty, but that's no guarantee of the story being any good... case in point A Silent Voice (or Myriad Colours Phantom World). The source material being prize-winning sounds reassuring but... its an award that KyoAni gave themselves? To a novel they themselves also published? That doesn't sound very trustworthy...

Yeah, to be completely honest KyoAni hasn't been up to their A-game lately. I'm still disappointed they haven't continued some of their earlier works beyond one or two seasons, because they've been pretty hit-and-miss with the later stuff. It's almost always gorgeous, but the actual stories and direction have been a bit lacking.

Regarding the award, I believe it was KyoAni who ran their usual competition, and they gave the award to a third-party entrant, who they then published as a "reward", kind of like how many of the LN competitions work. Functionally it works as a quick and easy way for the studios to find material, often cheaply, to then publish and gain plenty of money off doing so. So really the fact that it was given an award is only evidence that the studio (or whoever was doing the judging) thought it was great. And apparently they hadn't given out any grand prizes before, suggesting it is a step above the other competition entries for the previous four years at least. But again, that's not wholly indicative of quality itself, and it's not indicative of the adaptation being done well, at all.

I'll wait and see what happens to it after it releases before getting hyped myself, especially as a quick glance at MAL/TV Tropes suggests the source material is nothing revolutionary, so its quality will depend entirely on how well it is written and then adapted.

[LinearPhilosopher]

Briar King, on 31 December 2017 - 06:05 PM, said:

Finished Unicorn Gundam. Most confusing shit I ever watched but it sho wuz purrdy.

Unicorn gundam is set in the Universal Century so if you're not familiar with UC gundam might be why. Though i do remember the OVA being very well animated.


So i have finally decided to watch a few shows that got a lot of hype, Magus Bride (up to 9), Girls Last patrol (up to 2) and made in abyss (up to 2)


Magus Bridge:I can somewhat understand the hype, it is a cool show with a cool atmosphere and im glad the relationship between chise and the mage is somewhat downplayed as if it was a more central focus it'd be superrrr creepy. Main emphasis is on the magical world they live is (as advertised by everyone talking about it). Looking forward to seeing the rest of this. As a sidenote i find the choice of Cartophylis as a villain interesting choice as he is a very obscure character from xtian mythology. Very few know of him so Kudos to the writer for doing their research.

Made in abyss: Looks like an interesting show, main character is quirky yet full of spirit its kinda endearing. I wonder where this will go.

Girls last patrol: seens two episodes so far, it's interesting but not binge material. Ill finish this eventually.

[LinearPhilosopher]

Briar King, on 31 December 2017 - 08:13 PM, said:

Yeah not sure what that honestly means. I have seen 00 and most of SEED and I was able to follow along with who was who and factions etc. this one was just confusing as hell.

I have 9 Ep of another on DVR but it just says Mobile Suit Gundam. I will start it soon.

Neither 00 nor Seed as In UC. think of those are alternative universes that have Gundams in them. UC is like the main gundam verse where most of the works happen. Unicorn is one of the more recent ones so itd be like reading malaz starting with the bonehunters.

If you wanty more gundam, i'd reccomend looking into the gundam the 8th MS team.

[Dolmen 2.0]

LinearPhilosopher, on 31 December 2017 - 06:23 PM, said:

Briar King, on 31 December 2017 - 06:05 PM, said:

Finished Unicorn Gundam. Most confusing shit I ever watched but it sho wuz purrdy.

Unicorn gundam is set in the Universal Century so if you're not familiar with UC gundam might be why. Though i do remember the OVA being very well animated.


So i have finally decided to watch a few shows that got a lot of hype, Magus Bride (up to 9), Girls Last patrol (up to 2) and made in abyss (up to 2)


Magus Bridge:I can somewhat understand the hype, it is a cool show with a cool atmosphere and im glad the relationship between chise and the mage is somewhat downplayed as if it was a more central focus it'd be superrrr creepy. Main emphasis is on the magical world they live is (as advertised by everyone talking about it). Looking forward to seeing the rest of this. As a sidenote i find the choice of Cartophylis as a villain interesting choice as he is a very obscure character from xtian mythology. Very few know of him so Kudos to the writer for doing their research.

Made in abyss: Looks like an interesting show, main character is quirky yet full of spirit its kinda endearing. I wonder where this will go.

Girls last patrol: seens two episodes so far, it's interesting but not binge material. Ill finish this eventually.

Doing the same and keen to hear your opinion on Made in Abyss. Fast becoming my edgy anime of the season.

[Maark Abbott]

I started an Izetta rewatch. My feelings are probably not ready but hey ho. Annoyingly, Episode 5 won't load on Crunchyroll so I've been mopping up some straggler shows on my list.

[Maark Abbott]

OK so some general thoughts on last season:

Ancient Magus Bride is obviously going to be my top pick for Autumn 17, the pacing, score and characterisation are grand. The concept is likewise really nice. It doesn't quite top Sakura Quest to be my top pick of 2017 (did you guess that's what my top pick for last year would be would be, D'rek-sama?), but it does come close.

Vanishing Line: Garo kind of irritated me. It ramps up towards the end and then... nothing. The twelve-episode run finishes basically in the middle of a major plot point. And as it's an original animation as opposed to an adaptation, the fact that it ended there is kind of a jip.

Code:Realize was fun. Often predictable, but still enjoyable. Not really a huge amount else to say there.

Konohana Kitan was an unexpected winner last season. Very chilled out show, seemed to draw very heavily from mythology which kept it interesting.

Blend-S was fun, often stupid, and a right laugh for that fact. 2017 had a bunch of meme animes and they all delivered.




Crunchyroll are starting to upload new season stuff so I'm going to see what tickles my fancy. Meanwhile, I've finished Episode 6 of the Izetta rewatch. I'm still in love with the soundtrack, and the story is just as good as the first time I watched it. It's a good companion for formatting the novel.

[LinearPhilosopher]

Briar King, on 03 January 2018 - 05:22 PM, said:

Started the 1st season of Iron Blooded Orphans. These kids are murdery! Loving it so far. I hate The ads......

This hair on the leader and blonde girl is horridly bad. Guy looks like he got a horn on his head.

IBO was great, you're going to be in for a good time.

[LinearPhilosopher]

Briar King, on 03 January 2018 - 08:50 PM, said:

It’s been fun these 4 episodes. Really like the Gundam to. Looks so good. Where does this fit in that timeline stuff? They mention the Gundam is a few hundred years old.

IBO is in its own self contained universe, so there's no real backdrop you need.

If you want a more recent example of a UC gundam series, try looking into gundam thunderbolt. It is its own self contained story so little knowledge of UC is required. Same as other Gundam such as Gundam 8th MS team or Gundam War in the pocket.

This post has been edited by LinearPhilosopher: 03 January 2018 - 10:25 PM

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 03 January 2018 - 08:43 AM, said:

It doesn't quite top Sakura Quest to be my top pick of 2017 (did you guess that's what my top pick for last year would be would be, D'rek-sama?), but it does come close.

I did not guess that at all!

Not that I had any particular guess in mind... maybe Hajimete Gal

[Maark Abbott]

D, on 04 January 2018 - 03:33 AM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 03 January 2018 - 08:43 AM, said:

It doesn't quite top Sakura Quest to be my top pick of 2017 (did you guess that's what my top pick for last year would be would be, D'rek-sama?), but it does come close.

I did not guess that at all!

Not that I had any particular guess in mind... maybe Hajimete Gal

HnG is probably in the top 5 (strongly so, maybe even top 3), but nope, Sakura Quest was an easy choice for top of '17.

For the sake of argument, let's say the top 5 are:

Sakura Quest
Ancient Magus Bride
Hajimete no Gal
New Game!! S2
KonoSuba S2

You can probably change the bottom three about as they're all on par with each other. New Game season 1 was a lot stronger, mind.

Sakura Quest won overall due to a few factors. The characterisation was really strong, and in addition, the characters fail at what they try to do as often as they succeed. The plotline involving someone moving far from home and being quite out of their depth is pretty personal to me which made it easy to connect to it. The artwork is gorgeous. The scoring is brilliant. The length is most Ready and of Alacrity, without becoming over-long (i,e. JoJo Part 4: Diamond Is Not Crash). And the ending was actually satisfying. Considering that (as I tend to these days) I picked it up because the key visual looked nice, it surprised me!

S1-18: I've picked up ' A Place Further Than The Universe" which up until this morning at least was the sole 2018 new season upload on Crunchyroll. Artwork in a similar style to Anime-Gataris, and the storyline is about a listless young lass who finds herself drawn into an expedition to Antarctica, amidst a subtext that I imagine involves helping a new friend to find their missing mother. Episode 1 was pretty strong so I'll be interested to see where this one goes!