Durarara!!X2
Short Synopsis: People are strange, when you’re a stranger.
It felt like a lot happened, but nothing really changed. That is the first season of Durarara summarized perfectly. The show itself even seems to revel in this. That said the main enjoyment of Durarara is seeing the cast of wacky characters interact with each other. Seeing Celty, Izaya and the gang again gave me a great hit of nostalgia and reminded me that the last time I saw these guys was back in 2010. Just seeing things like Celty’s hilarious fear of the police brings a old smile to my face. But Erika and Walker, you disappoint me. Last time I saw you two you were dragging around a Spice and Wolf cutout. Now I hear you name dropping the likes of Black Bullet, Mahouka and Oreimo? What happened to you two? For shame, guys. For shame….oh yes the impressions! One of the new characters introduced are a bit too much of a mothermouth. Well for my opinion, if you liked the first season then you will like this. However do not go in expecting character development or a move into a dramatic huge ongoing story arc. You will be disappointed.
OP: The op much like Narita’s other works seems focused on naming out the huge cast of characters. But the song is really good as well as the animation.
Potential: 80%
Soukyuu no Fafner Dead Aggressor – Exodus
Short Synopsis: Humanity is fighting a war against golden CG monsters.
Xebec is a animation studio with not the best of reputations. Many of their works are fanservice related. But in 2004 they brought out an anime known as Fafner. The inspirations for the show were pretty apparent and the CG was terrible but it was a good show with a slow start. In particular I am rather fond of it’s prequel OVA called Right of left which had a great premise that could have made a full fledged series on it’s own(And was even better than the series itself.). This will be the second tv series of Fafner though it has had a sequel movie to the previous series. So the main problem so far is that you need a lot of knowledge about the previous series to watch this. It makes no effort to clue in the audience about anything here. And as someone who has seen the previous series even I can say I was even a bit lost. This was also a build up episode so it’s difficult to make a judgement on what the series will be like with this. But if the last series are anything to judge it by I would say we got giant robots and despair incoming. Much like the previous series this does have great potential. Though the main problem with this franchise is that the works didn’t use that potential to it’s fullest.
Potential: 60%
Aldnoah Zero Season 2
Short Synopsis: I SAY CRYYY! I SAY CRYYY!
The first season of Aldnoah Zero had one of the strongest first episodes of it’s season. It retained that quality for two or three more episodes. And boasted a great soundtrack. But then something went awry. Mainly because the story was too concerned with putting the characters in extreme situations rather than develop the characters to give the viewer a reason to care for them. In a last ditch effort to make things interesting the last episode took the kill everyone route. Not realizing that it made the entirely of the season, well…pointless. Now we know that the Gen Urobuchi has jumped ship I really don’t hold much hope for this. You may be calling me a fool for that but remember, Psycho Pass S2. Same scenario, it did not end well. And this starts off with a rocky start as a robot pilot remarks that the bullets are missing because the wind is too strong…in space. My opinion drops further as they resurrect everyone who supposedly died. As I continue watching I can’t help but get the feeling I am watching Code Geass season 2 all over again. What Aldnoah Zero needs to do is develop it’s characters. Not spring plot twist after plot twist to the point where each grows more nonsensical than the last.
Potential: 20%
Some really quick first impressions
Juuou Mujin no Fafnir – And here I thought Absolute Duo would take the cake for most uninspired of the season. Monsters attacking humanity, school setting, Only girls have magic powers and our protagonist is the first boy admitted because he’s the first boy with powers which are not special but will turn out to be super special awesome, all girls want him because there’s no other competition…you have seen it already. Don’t bother. I say the only thing this anime tried on was adding dubstep to the soundtrack. Terrible, unfitting dubstep.
Dog Days season 3 – There are many great mysteries in the world. Is there a god? The nature of existence? Why are we here? But surely a new mystery has been added and it is the greatest of all. That being, why is there a third season of Dog Days? I truly do not understand it. Just as I don’t understand how they have not been sued for various copyright violations. Just try and tell me those are not Chocobos. And that pink girl equipping armour that was clearly ripped off of Saber from Fate/stay nights signature look? Never forgive, never forget. And various more. My point is that this really does not need to exist. The second season didn’t need to exist, let alone a third. And here it is again, the consequence free adventures of easy going mcgee and his furry harem. You are getting nothing new here. Like Dog Days? Watch it. Have sanity? Don’t.
For some reason I felt like Juuou was better than Absolute Duo, but they’re both still pretty bland at the moment.
I’ve never watched Aldnoah Zero, but it’s getting a lot of hate but still got a second season so I’m curious to see what all the hoopla is about.
I wouldn’t know about hate. For me, Aldnoah is so ridiculous I can’t even be angry at it. It started fine and then became gloriously stupid very quickly, but never fails to be entertaining if you buy its outrageous hijinks. In this sense, the comparison with Code Geass fits perfectly: there’s a lot of it here. I just kinda roll with it. Plus most fights are gorgeous and often also quite inventive, and the soundtrack stays consistently great throughout the show.
I wouldn’t really put down Urobuchi for this.He came up with the original concept of Aldnoah and penned the first 3 episodes but that’s it(he even admitted in interviews that he didn’t come up with some of the chara. And he didn’t even have any involvement with Season 2 of Psycho Pass. So I wouldn’t exactly chalk it up to him.
I know. I believe his reason was that he couldn’t connect with the main character. My point is that when Gen jumps off the project, that project then deciles. Hence why I brought up Psycho Pass Season two. He didn’t have any involement with that and it was a travesty.
Yeah, given that the main character ended up being sort of the same self-insert fair we’ve seen before, I’m not suprised he couldn’t connect.
I guess my main point is that for the most part Urobuchi jumped ship early on in the first season and we saw happened there. At least he was able to provide some sort of framework. Now it just seems like this is going full bonkers. I know Urobuchi has a distinct voice and you can’t replace, but why does every project that he departs from (or have minimal involvement to begin wtih) completely tanks when he leaves?
Suisei no Gargantia was pretty much the same case. He provided the basic framework and let others handle the rest.
Well most stories tank whan another writer takes over. Mostly because the writer wants to make it his own story or is trying to outdo the previous writer. Though for an opinion on why Gen storie seem to go down the drain when he leaves…..There’s nothing really behind this other than my own opinion but Gen has always been the master of pacing and story structure. But he has always had a giant critical flaw. His characters. Gen may say he left Aldnoah because he couldn’t connect with the main character but personally I think he just left because he got tired of the idea or just was pushed into it. After all Gen himself has stated that he basically thinks of characters as plot devices. And it shows. In pretty much all his works the characters are usually bare bones in terms of characterization. They rarely, if ever have an aspect of their personality that isn’t directly related to the plot. And yes you may say “What about Fate/zero?” but frankly the characters were all Nasu’s work, I think. Lancer and Kariya, Those are the kind of characters I expect from Gen. But Rider and the rest? Nasu’s work. No matter what he says.
So case in point because the characters personalities are so dependent on the plot, it causes huge problems when the writer changes and attempts to push it in another direction.
Though in this case I would bank on the subsitute writer just being really terribly incompetent.