Sorry for the lateness of this entry. You can thank animecon for that. Anyway, the current season. I’m having trouble keeping up with it, and because of that I am rather glad that it’s such a small season. Nevertheless, this just pales in comparison to what we’re used to from Spring Seasons.
#12 (13) – Saint Seiya Omega – (7.75/10) – Saint Seiya Omega is currently in its boring character-reintroduction phase. At least, that’s what I thought until the creators pulled that really random episode in which Ryuuho suddenly became a rock star in order to let out the conflicted feelings that loom inside of him. Saint Seiya, you are treading a very dangerous line between character development, and someone just completely changing character. And don’t get me wrong, I like the idea, the execution was just… weird.
#11 (8) – Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge – (7.9/10) – I watched up to episode 6, and I think I’m going to drop this in favor of other series. I like how it celebrates really weird fetishes and all, but it does so formulaic, and the different powers all feel rather shallow. With the length of this series I don’t really think that this show can really make something memorable.
#10 (12) – Valvrave The Liberator – (8/10) – Valvrave is completely stupid. It however realizes this, and just rolls with it. This also means that I will drop it as soon as it starts taking itself too seriously (there is no way you can get anything remotely serious out of this), but as long as it keeps bringing in the cheese I’m hooked.
#9 (9) – Majestic Prince – (8/10) – I’ve seen up to six episodes now I believe, and this was a big surprise. The creators took cardboard cut-outs and slowly gave them character. I still dislike how these guys are able to somehow do the impossible by winning battles against huge odds, but it uses this well at least.
#8 (10) – Yahari Blahblah – (8.25/10)
I have seen up to episode six here. Yahari Blahblah took a while to get going, and it had a few boring parts. However, episode five gave the characters depth that I was looking for. Here, some of the characters became more than just random tropes and I didn’t expect that.
#7 (4) – Hataraku Maou-Sama – (8.25/10)
Hataraku Maou-sama’s sense of humour rocks. It still makes me laugh in every episode, but the clever plotting… it just isn’t as clever as what it was In the first few episodes, and that made this series a bit of a disappointment to follow. But who knows. It has the potential to pick back up again.
#6 (6) – Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet – (8.25/10)
Gargantia could have balanced itself a bit out a bit better, resulting in two strange slice of life episodes after each other. It still had thought put into it and it showed new and different things about the setting, but the writing just was not as solid as what it could have been. Also culture or no culture, having a bunch of teenaged girls dance half-naked into a bunch of grown men… they could have put some more thought on that.
#5 (15) – Uchuu Kyoudai – (8.5/10)
My biggest problem with Uchuu Kyoudai isn’t the slow pacing. That is brilliant, and it really allows the characters to slowly build themselves. Instead, I get more and more annoyed with the recaps at the start of each episode. I know it’s small, but this series is so good. It’s not worth it to have it brought down by such a single stupid thing that makes it much longer than what it needs to be. Because the effort it put into its character development this month was brilliant.
#4 (5) – Hunter X Hunter – (8.5/10)
Thank god we’re finally at the new material when it takes off, and thank god it actually delivers! They took a bit of time to get used to, but the villains are getting better with every episode as this show continues to explore their personalities.
#3 (3) – Shingeki no Kyojin – (8.75/10)
This really turned into an awesome action series, in a different way from the manga. It really tries to put the characters into as much despair as possible, without making it one-sided. The giant designs really work well in animation and how some of them are coloured, and most imporantly: the characters are also getting very engaging to watch.
#2 (1) – Aku no Hana – (8.9/10)
I don’t care. Aku no Hana is amazing. Heck, the past month had a few scenes that would have been impossible to do right if it was in regular animation. And heck: if you ignore the low budget then the creators pretty much did a perfect adaptation for this series with how god damn expressive it is.
#1 (2) – Chihayafuru – (9/10)
That finale was awesome. It just boggles my mind how much build-up the creators have been putting up throughout the entire second season (and also first season) in order to reach that point. Heck, everything is just coming together in such a ridiculously solid way. It’s amazing!
“I still dislike how these guys are able to somehow do the impossible by winning battles against huge odds, but it uses this well at least”.
They lost the big battle, the aliens retreated because the alien prince gave the order. I think the main characters have only won two battles so far, the one that made them famous, and the asteroid one.
What happend to Red Data Girl? You dropped it didn’t you? Yondemasuyo Azazel-san Z is also missing.
Red Data Girl…. I have been meaning to catch up to that one. Azazel-san I completely forgot, sorry.
Basically my opinion on that series is that it’s comedic gold that doesn’t know what it’s good at. Stick to the banter instead of trying to be as gross as possible.
Red data girl, comedic gold ? Aren’t you confused with another series ?
i think he was talking about azel-san…
So you dropped Red Data Girl? Well, that’s to be expected though.
I agree with how you rated Gargantia, those two slice of life episodes could have been better. anyway, check the recent episodes it gets really good.
Maybe I should try watching Yahari something again. I kinda stopped after episode 3.
Well, Red Data Girl has a fantastic concept and (had) great potential, but the execution is a wreck, so if you dropped it, you’re not missing out on much.
Based on what you’ve been saying about the two series lately, I thought you would put Aku no Hana above Chihayafuru. I agree though; I’ve been enjoying Chihayafuru the most lately.
I’m interested in what you’ll have to say about the most recent Gargantia episode once you get to it.
Red Data Girl is same like almost every other PA Works. Starts out fantastic and then loses it’s footing
To be honest I dropped after episode one. I was interested at first, but quickly realized it probably wasn’t my thing. Felt like it would be one of those dull drag on kind of stories. I really didn’t like the whole “the dude has to watch over her against his will thing” as well.
It didn’t even start out that good.
It’s a really stunning trend…Canaan, Angel Beats, Tari Tari, Hanasaku Iroha, and now RDG have all begun auspiciously, then seemed to lose out interest in the later episodes. Another probably had the best ending of this group.
What the hell man, I get why Crime Edge might not be for everyone but it deserves a better score than Valvrave at least. Crime Edge needs more love IMO.
Valvrave is a lot of fun actually, it’s hard for me not to like Ichirō Ōkouchi, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a bit disappointed. But eh, the last episode was actually better than the last couple so it’s not all bad.
And whats wrong with half naked teenaged girl dancers? xD
HxH has me really interested as of late. I don’t like the idea of the ants getting wiped out, and I have my suspicions about the who the King is going to take after.
Haha Titans, knew I was gonna follow that series after seeing its awesome trailer. The action scenes are really well animated, though the series has a habit of putting in still images (the ones with a ‘faded look’) with dialog. Guess even the likes of Wit Studio have to cut corners somewhere eh?
Crime Edge and Valvrave aren’t very good, but each has its charms. Neither really clicked with me, but I’m at least kinda interested in seeing what they do with Crime Edge, even if it’s been mostly pedestrian. I can see why Valvrave has its fans, but there hasn’t been any worthwhile payoff, just a couple of typical cliffhangers.
Gargantia totally lost me after two great first eps. Now THAT is pedestrian. Not for anime, but for stories in general. The belly dancing scene sums the series up pretty nicely: what the fuck? I dropped it, only to hear that they went in exactly the silly direction I expected. Total disappointment.
Titan turned out to be action shlock, but that’s fine. At least it’s decent action shlock with something neat to animate. I’ll take a relatively exciting shounen series over the usual ones anyday, even if none of it makes sense and the characters are boring as sin.
The more I hear about Aku no Hana the more I’m convinced that it’s just a contrived set up to deliver a few key scenes. If the novelty of those scenes (and the production style) works for you, I’m sure it’s fantastic. But to me it’s just a whiny rotoscoped j-drama that’s impossible to take seriously.
If it wasn’t for Chihayafuru I’d have written the season off as a ball of missed opportunities and frustration.
…
Your words hurt Hogart.
lol, to be honest, I thought this season has been pretty great, it’s next season I wonder about.
I’d say Aku No Hana has more depth than most J-drama. It’s a good exploration into the futility of youth. though I can see why people think it’s whiny, but that feels like it’s just too superficial of judgement for the series
Instead of calling Valvrave stupid, wouldn’t it be better to just call it dramatic and unpredictable? It may not be SERIOUS BUSINESS, but it’s not aiming for some kind of grimdark atmosphere in the first place.
The show’s plot progression has been surprisingly sound IMO, and I’ve been impressed with how much information it manages to convey with its breakneck pacing. There’s already been some good foreshadowing and decent character development. I’m really curious to see where the story will go from here.
Hataraku, Titans, Hunter, Chihaya >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Aku no hana (droped at five episode, just see hogart at least a im whit him in this show)Personal Opinion. Also Railgun S2 are very awesome despite the moe moments.
And Omega, I can´t belive that you still dont droped that disgusting show.
This is why I like anime, its very diversive the kind of tastes each viewer has.
As of now I’m checking Hataraku for the comedy, Shingeki for the action and Aku no Hana for the drama.
It kind of let me down Hataraku since it lost some pacing after the huge battle with Lucifer. Shingeki its just getting on my nerves with their character development (I despise them more than the ones in Aku no Hana, I suppose because of how little depth they have). Aku no Hana I think I like it because it feels fresh (I don’t say better or stepup/stepdown) because it defies conventions in this particular medium and even after catching up with the manga I think the execution is better in the anime (the manga’s art made for some unintentional comedic moments).
The final stretch of OreGairu will be excellent. It will be the closest thing you’ll ever get to an anti-hero in a slice of life/school rom-com series
It’s a shame that this won’t get a 2nd season because the anime basically burn through the entire series up to date.
Seriously?, then I really want to see that end.
Our Rankings so far:
10: Valvrave
9: Yahari blahblah
8. Majestic Prince
7. Railgun S
6. Red Data Girl
5. Maou-sama
4. Oreimo 2
3. Gargantia
2. Chihayafuru 2
1. Aku no Hana
Omega became so bad since the beginning of the second season, I have really enjoyed the first season, It have flaws but It’s also have many good thing.
But the Second season have nearly only flaws. the best episodes of this second season are juste uninteresting, the worse are really horrible.
The story and writing is so bad, It was logical with the worst scenarist of Precure taking the place of the veteran Reiko Yoshida and Michiko Yokote.
And the departure of half tof the staff of the season one, including the chara designer/animation director made the tachnical level go really down.