Symphokyushinken Prismonogatari DXD
Short Synopsis: Our lead character goes to school and does stuff.
You know? I’m just lumping all sequels that I don’t care about together for the sake of efficiency. Because really: I tried watching them, but just didn’t have the patience for any of them. Yes, this entry is shallow, but the main factor here is my own patience! My impressions: that Fate Spin-off was chock full of really boring banter and annoying characters. Symphogear wasn’t as stupid as I remember the first season to be, but that left something that just didn’t stand out in any single way, which is still bad. Monogatari started off good by how it described Hanekawa, but then that Mayoi turned up and they started talking about how Araragi molested her and I tuned out. Ro Kyu Bu highlighted progress and was much better than the first episode, but it still was too boring in the end and not my type of series. High School DXD was the worst of the bunch with its boobs and Genshinken was probably the best of the bunch, but I only really liked two characters (Oguie and one of those new girls), while finding the rest (especially that one male) to be too annoying. That’s not enough to make me continue watching something that I haven’t seen the prequel of.
OP: They’re all bad! Even Monogatari’s isn’t up to Shaft’s usual standards with just a collection of random memes.
ED: With none of them I actually got to this point…
Potential: 0%
Dagan Ronpa The Animation
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are imprisoned by a bear.
Persona 4 made a big impression on me. Thanks to it, I now hate Seiji Kishi with passion, even though he does have some good series behind his name (though a fair amount of those are the types of series that are very hard to really screw up). I say this, because Dagan Ronpa has a bear in it. Now, instead of Persona 4 where this was just supposed to be this random side-character, here he is the main villain. And he just doesn’t work in the slightest! Every point at which he appeared and tried to look scary, it just ended up silly and my entire attention was gone again. About the rest of the episode… the thing is that Dagan Ronpa has a really good premise. The way they introduced it here though, could have been much better. For one thing, it just makes no sense whatsoever. Seriously, turn off your suspense of disbelief completely. Deadman Wonderland sounds like the most reasonable thing in the world next to this thing. Second of all: it relies very heavily on stereotypes in this first episode. Now I understand that with a cast of fifteen people, you need to start with caricatures in order to be able to get everyone in and all, but this episode took it too far: the vast majority of the characters just repeat their quirks over and over (fat guy (har har, he likes to eat), scared girl, sceptic guy, muscle guy, aggressive guy, bossy girl, spoiled girl, it’s just too much!). Also, Dagan Ronpa. Are you serious to say that you aim to create this cast of colourful and widely different characters… and yet you pick the main character to be Average McNormalpants? And you aim the female lead to be an idol? Oh come on.
OP: A slide-show that really says nothing about the characters beyond the stereotypes that we’ve seen already.
ED: Just a song with credits, and it’s decent I guess.
Potential: 60%
Love Lab
Short Synopsis: Our lead character joins a club in high school.
Really, don’t be fooled by the seemingly misleading title: this is just another “bunch of girl sit in a club and do nothing”-series, only this time it does sortof have a theme: love. The characters talk about it a lot, despite the fact that there are no males or lesbians in the entire series. And the random club happens to be the student council (not like we haven’t had enough of THOSE series…). Most of the series really is the banter between the two main characters, so yeah; its success depends entirely on whether that is good or not. And it isn’t. It’s too often random, and they just try too hard to be funny. It plays with tropes, but it’s the kind of series that just adheres to the things it parodies, rather than just making fun of them. The animation is good. Much better than this show has any business being. Skip this one, unless you like the genre.
OP: Hey look, it’s the 2518th series that grabbed a copy of Generic Openings 101
ED: “Hey, you know what’s a good idea? Let’s make that one really lame joke even more!”
Potential: 10%
I loved the first episode, personally.
I enjoyed how over-the-top it took the tropes, so the comedy felt spot-on to me.
Plus, the animation just adds so much expression and personality to the scenes that it was hard not to fall in love with it.
i call this type of animes “dogshit-anime”.
And I call people like you assholes ;}
I predict Psgels being tsundere for Monogatari series. <3
I’m not that surprised that psgels didn’t like Monogatari Second season. He didn’t like the animation style that was used in bake and the second season is a lot more like Bake than Nise with those random screen changes. I understand why SHAFT does it as otherwise it’s just talking heads.
As to the fanservice .. I wish they didn’t pander so much. Sure it’s a bit more tasteful than normal but girls standing around chatting in their underwear about showering together is pretty blatant. As I recall from the novel that this arc is from this is pretty much it for the fanservice, unless they actually animate them having a shower together! .. who knows with the people who brought us the Toothbrush episode!
“Kill Me Baby” with with more focus on a single topic (romance) and far FAR better animation. The Prez is the comic; the tomboy is the straight man. Nothing too fancy or original, but solid execution.
Didn’t think it was bad personally. Better animation than it has the right to be? Meh. Reminds me of Joshiraku and Nichijou. I love it when mundane comedic setups are well animated.
Don’t say you’re going to avoid C3 like you avoided Girls und Panzer, psgels.
C3 is nowhere near as good as Girls und Panzer was.
I agree. Girls und Panzer was a nice surprise. Really well-executed!
Average McNormalpants?
Whatever happened to Yuji Everylead the Bland™?
Pssst, wrong blog.
Perhaps, but that moniker is the better fit, cuz it’s the right content & the right context.
Actually Araragi wasn’t molesting Mayoi (for once), it just sounds that way. He is actually preparing to travel back in time to save her life, so she won’t become a ghost.
Nice spoiler, Dad.
I’m just tired of Psgel constantly bitching about Araragi molesting girls that in addition to not being human, are actually older than he is.
To me, it’s the same as incest where both members aren’t blood related. Yeah technically they’re doing nothing wrong here, but come on we all know what’s being implied here.
Non-technical incest right?!
Psgels should watch Genshiken (from the start) it’s cool.
I can understand psgel has no patience for a sequal (which he didn’t like the previous seasons), but 0% potential for Genshiken is ridiculous!
And the characters are far from annoying! (yes, except that really annoying one)
Reading anime bloggers rage-quit on popular show: priceless.
Yeah, good point. Genshinken does have more potential than that.
Anything one could possibly say about DR is a spoiler, but I’ll try.
The idol has far less of a role than you think. This is primarily a murder mystery and she, well, is not that bright.
The cast are stereotypes, yes. Some subvert them and some don’t, and figuring out which is which kept me on my toes the whole game.
As for the MC… eh, in the game it was fine because he was the one character you don’t see much or talk to (because you play him).
I really can’t say anything more.
“Anything one could possibly say about DR is a spoiler”
Then don’t say anything at all, is it that difficult to keep your mouth shut? The second sentence is a huge spoiler and ruins an important plot twist that subverts viewer expectation. But now you just destroyed that expectation by correcting psgels’ assessment. Nice one!
God, it’s like you people have to go out of your way to prove you’ve already read the material, but here’s the thing you can’t seem to comprehend, not everyone has and just as you said, anything you could possibly say will be a spoiler. So don’t. The viewer will figure those things out on there own without you pointing them out before they happen.
Do you mean calling it a ‘murder mystery’? How the hell is that a spoiler? It’s the basic premise. It’s in every summary.
None of the things I said were spoilers.
And at this rate psgels is not going to be a viewer.
“The idol has far less of a role than you think.”
Read line again, in full. Including the second sentence. Then slap yourself for maybe almost spoiling something.
You completely missed the point.
So did you.
Wow you got me there!!
This actually got me to give DR a try, so thanks!! I don’t think you spoiled anything at all–you only just made me realize how I can’t take anything for granted in the show, which is good because I was going to write it off as too 1D.
Gameplay Spoilers: It is impossible to lose in this game as it gives you infinite continues and the game stops you from solving the murders of the chapter without having all the necessary proof, also this game only has two endings(three after beating the game but it is more an easter egg),one bad and one good,and if you get the bad ending it actually just goes back to the options and you get to retry again.
So what i am saying is that unlike most visual novels, there are no routes to worry about and it is impossible to make it unwinnable,so explore the school and talk to anyone you want because you will not penalized in any way.
Monogatari! Whatever man, Mongatari is top tier. Roppa whatever looks good, but you can see the strains of a game adaption. Not sure what to expect but it should be okayish.
While I can understand dropping the Monogatari series, at least watch Nekomonogatari: Kuro if you haven’t already. It’s short, it’s fast paced and has the best story.
If the adaption isn’t shit, Dangan Ronpa will definitely subvert your low expectations. Keep watching for at least another episode.
Having played the Dangan Ronpa game twice but not having seen the first episode i have to ask one thing… do they really try to make Monokuma scary in the anime?
I mean, i know why the characters would find him scary considering the circumstances but the game never tries to make him scary for the players, the whole point of Monokuma is mood whiplash where he acts in such an childish and cartoonish way at all times including the more dramatic ones that it is hard to take him seriously(they even lampshade it in the game)
Otherwise, all i can say is keep watching the anime, because it has an good story.
I forgot to mention it, but the game even throws little sketches called “Monokuma Theatre” at some parts of the game where he monologues about his life in an humorous way(or at least tries because none of them are funny, God i hope they do not put those in the anime since they have no relevance to the story)
Also, try not to mind the villain being an bear, there is actually an suprisingly good reason why the main villain is an bear(that is to say, unlike Persona 4 they actually give an good explanation for it considering the kind of setting it has)
>Idol
>main heroine
>can’t see the death flags
lololol
Did anyone else get Bokurano vibes from Danganronpa?
both had the same set-up: death and kids, but Danganronpa did not have what made Bokurano great: gravitas. Danganronpa doesn’t take itself that seriously – which just might be its saving grace.
The set up of kids having to kill is the same I suppose, but HELL NO.
by the way, Muscle “Girl” , she’s wearing a skirt
She’s a girl after all…
Psgels, I strongly recommend you keep watching Dangan Ronpa for at least a few episodes more. The game it’s based on is really good, and while it may not look like it from the fast paced first episode with a huge cast and hardly any time spent on each of them, characterisation is one of the strengths of the series. Some characters will subvert their stereotypes, and some will conform to them, but right now you won’t be able to guess which of those two categories each will fall into.
The only worry about the anime is that it is only 13 episodes, which means that there’s a risk the characterisation time may be skimped on in favour of the plot.
I think that about episodes 3 to 4 of the anime are likely to be the equivalent of the time that most people started to love the game. So try watching until then at least before giving up on the series. I swear, the source material for this series is great stuff.
Average McNormalpants 😀 Well, he is, but he is the one that keeps the show running too.
Give Dangan the 3 chapter rule at least.
The Monogatari series caters to the particular emotional trope of a given arc. You can say Araragi is a lolicon, but she alleviates his huge amount of built-up stress so he doesn’t become an anomaly, and it’s Isin’s way of showing he’s a flawed character. In so many ways, Araragi is really adept at dealing with women, but in exactly as many ways, he has no idea what he is doing and is simply a pervert.
I personally don’t understand brother-sister relationships or have sisters, so Nisemonogatari did nothing for me. Same with the Suruga Monkey and Nadeko episodes. But I know a partial Hanekawa in real life as well as a partial Senjougahara. And summarizing a lot of trauma and depression into a youkai-like monster is a very clever way of presenting them as themes. The way each is “solved” symbolically is also very emotionally gripping for me since they apply to real life alarmingly well.
Mayoi is an event. Characters meet her when they are lost. Also, Araragi is attracted to her because she’s the only person he can interact with without stress. It’s a hypersatire of the sidekick character. With respect to the lolicon-ness, her real age, had she not died and become a spirit, would be in the ballpark of all the other characters.
In the end, the amount you can relate to each trauma is probably why this series has such a dichotomy of fans/nonfans. Freud would probably have a field day with it if he were around.