Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There! – 02

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There

This episode was certainly stronger than the first as Itami’s otaku tendencies were cut down and the focus was more on the conflict. The fight itself was brilliantly portrayed as we saw it mainly from the side of the other world. In the beginning when they were marching towards the army they were assured of their victory seeing as they had the bigger numbers. Just seeing the generals fight over who would take the front line so they could claim glory without knowing just what they were up against was amusing indeed. Only the main general found something off about the campaign. Then to see all that self confidence disappear and despair set it. You could really see when they realized the fight was unwinnable when their goal changed from beating the enemy to just hitting them with one arrow.It’s seeing it from their side is what made the episode interesting as to the army this wasn’t anything special but to the other world’s forces it was something akin to hell. The best moment was the general using a bow to fire one arrow in futility while his forces were getting slaughtered by the hundreds, then just reaching out his arms and laughing madly. I actually started to pity them there.

It’s nice that the episode didn’t take sides either as the other world’s moves make sense from a medieval standpoint and it looks to be using the war to solidify his position. Where as the army is simply responding in kind and even on there side there are those seeking to monopolise the new world’s resources. This isn’t an James Cameron’s Avatar situation where one side is clearly good and the other clearly evil. The armies were just doing their jobs and it’s nice to see the army not particularly care that they killed a huge amount of people. In any other show there would be some hamfisted moral of respecting human life shoved down the viewers throats. In a Gundam anime the main character would brood on and on about how war is terrible and killing people is bad. It is true that the protagonist Itami was rather disgusted by the aftermath it seemed more to do with how technological inferior the enemy was rather than some righteous morality. We all know that war is terrible and shouldn’t happen and we should join our hands in peace and harmony and etc, etc, so on and so forth. But sometimes war is just inevitable so its nice to see it just portrayed as it is. Not a giant fireworks festival or a overly sentimental don’t kill message set to the world’s smallest violin. The army was attacked so they responded in kind, they gave the warnings and the enemy marched regardless. That’s just how war works.

Thus after a bloody battle the army sets out to gather intelligence. Though I question how they managed to communicate with the locals and even managed to get a book translating their language to Japanese in a relatively short amount of time. Itami’s otaku-isms are still pulled in as a joke but at least now it’s rarer and at times funny. There’s just something endearing about a army rolling out after a dark battle with the squad leader and another soldier talking about meeting catgirls and waifus. But the story at least knows when to get serious s the group find a village destroyed by a dragon. Some might find it hypocritical that these people lament the deaths of the villagers when they killed far more in the battle but there’s a difference between killing defenseless civilians and armed soldiers. Next time, there be elf girls and dragons.

Gangsta. – 02

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Gangsta

As this show continues the Black Lagoon vibes only get stronger but this episode did present an issue. Namely the supernaturally strong dog tag soldiers which can jump ten feet into the air and pull out road signs. In a series that at least started fairly set in reality these elements are somewhat odd though at least still feasible. Anime has always had a rather lax grip on the laws of physics so this isn’t anything new. But when the little girl mentioned these people referred to twilight’s it was a cause for concern. Gangsta has things going for it because it’s a fairly gritty show set within a somewhat realistic setting but if it starts bringing super soldier experiments into the mix that illusion is lost. Another cause for concern is that Mangalobe has skipped ahead in the manga. It’s possible they might come back to it and really what they skipped wasn’t really important but this could be a problem in future episodes if they continue to do this. Mangalobe is fairly liberal with its adaptations and when they start adding their own quirks it’s usually not for the better but instead the worse. The World God only knows anime for instance is where they attempted to stretch two episode arcs into four episode arcs with little success. So the question is whether Mangalobe can stop themselves from changing the story too much.

The fight in this episode was well animated and managed to keep things interesting but something small just broke immersion somewhat. It’s a little thing but Gangsta, much like Black Lagoon, just seems off to be watched in Japanese. It’s no fault of the Japanese voice actors but when you have a American man mocking someone for being from the orient in fluent Japanese something is just wrong. Gangsta just seems like an anime better experienced in English as with the large amount of non Japanese people would likely be speaking English more than Japanese. Subtitle only watchers, sometimes it’s just the better in English. I know that’s hard to accept but its true and I don’t care how many times you try to justify it, Goku’s voice in Japanese is just wrong.(Off topic, I know. But seriously I can’t see Goku’s Japanese voice as anything but bad.) Though I am curious as to how they will handle Nicolas’s voice in English because I think it would be interesting to keep his voice in Japanese for the English dub. Seeing as he speaks very little, requires subtitles to be understood and is from Japan it would be an interesting way of showing his character. On a last note I find it quite amusing that the moral heart of the show happens to be a prostitute, I mean a member of one of the lowest rungs of society happens to be one of the few genuinely morally upstanding people on the show. Though that looks to be changing as she helps the handymen and much like the little girl in this episode she too might become accustomed to wrongdoing.

Some Quick First Impressions: Aoharu x Kikanjuu, Joukamachi no Dandelion, Prison School and God Eater

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Aoharu x Kikanjuu

Short Synopsis. A girl dresses like a boy for some reason and gets in survival games.

The main character of this show confuses me, for she dresses like a boy, acts like a boy but isn’t transexual and wants to be more feminine. I don’t understand it and really when you get mistaken for a boy and forced into a survival game then really it’s your own fault. What’s also contradictory is that a man thinks she’s a boy yet keeps making suggestive advances on the main character despite clearly not being gay. I mean…I just don’t get it. Well anyway there’s not much to see here, we have highly over dramatic fights between people who act like they are having a live or death battle despite using toy BB guns. So really it’s just a show about the main starting to love survival games and trying to cover up the fact that she is a girl to the other team members.My interest is missing cause I generally know how this is all going to go, I have no interest whatsoever in surival games and the characters in this series don’t really interest me. For one the main character I find immensely annoying and while the host fellow doesn’t seem too bad I can’t really see him getting any more interesting. Might be some peoples kind of show but I think I will pass.

Potential: 0%

 

Joukamachi no Dandelion

Short Synopsis: A large royal family with superpowers must play games to decide the heir to the country.

Fairly decent I suppose, nothing really special but nothing that stands out too much. I find these shows the hardest to talk about. It’s not special but it’s not horrible either, just there. It’s a mediocre show that could interest but I find it just doesn’t have enough to get me to care. Though I must criticise that when you have the power to manipulate weight, that does not equal flight. In order to fly you need a means to propel yourself forward. The power of probability must be one of the worst powers as well considering that there are computers that can do the same thing. And the power to remember everything, so sort of a photographic memory? These are some truly useless superpowers. I think this one is something you can check out yourself and decide whether it’s worth continuing but I don’t think it’s something anyone will get really excited about.

Potential: 10%

 

Prison School

Short Synopsis. Five boys are forced into a school prison after trying to peep of girls changing.

There’s physical comedy and then there’s just pure sadism. Seeing this in animation as opposed to manga panel has had a strange effect on me, where the show is trying to make me laugh at these guys situation but instead I find myself getting filled with righteous indignation. While it is true that these guys are perverts with no redeeming value I find that the level of abuse thrown at them is quite potentially lethal and if their wounds didn’t magically heal somehow this would be a very different story. There are other problems with this series besides that, for one the cast of characters are all really unlikeable. The male characters are all desperate, pathetic sex crazed losers and the female characters are all sadistic superficial horrible people. The only exceptions to this is the main lead and what looks to be the main lead’s love interest, though the main lead is only just a small amount of good traits and the girl is fairly naive. The fan service doesn’t work not because of it being censored but rather because the female characters personalities are repulsive to me. Call me sentimental but I prefer girls that look like they would be fun to hang out with and looks aren’t everything. So the comedy is along the lines of gross out humor or sex jokes which I have seen every example under the sun and the fan service is ineffective so what does this show have to offer besides that? Not a lot it so seems. It is possible that maybe just the premise annoys me to the point that it stops me getting any enjoyment out of this. However this does seem like the kind of show that would only appeal to you if you like barrels of fanservice and low brow humor.

Potential: 0%

 

God Eater

Short Synopsis: Humanity lives inside walls and must send out teams to kill all the Titans…um…Aragami I mean.

Ufotable, I respect unconventional choices, I really do. It takes guts to adapt something that’s not really guaranteed to sell however I really wish you could have picked someone much more deserving than this. It’s clear that God Eater doesn’t deserve this kind of treatment, honestly it’s like presenting a five star meal to a hobo. The story is highly generic and the characters are fairly stereotypical with the main lead being the standard personality for this kind of show. But the visuals are certainly something, God eater sports a unique style where the characters all have this shiny look that reminds me of an oil painting. I am still on the fence on whether it looks good or not, as there are times when it looks impressive and other times when it looks just off. In particular I find the shading of characters to be inconsistent and not really adearing to where the light source is coming from. Music and animation are top notch but editing is a bit schizophrenic as some scenes have this jarring jump frame that looks like the film skipping on a projector. It seems to be there for a stylistic reason but I find it just distracting. This anime to me just looks like an experiment from Ufotable and while I think that it is interesting visually, I am afraid that story wise it has no value.

Potential: 30%

Some Quick First Impressions: Durarara!! X2 The Second Arc, Himouto! Umaru-chan and Sore ga Seiyuu!

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Durarara!! X2 The Second Arc

Short Synopsis: The adventures of the odd people of Ikebukuro

Second verse, same as the first. We still have another cour after this and Durarara doesn’t look to be changing its stripes anytime soon. So after being given a cliffhanger last season with Izaya getting stabbed and lying dying in the street we are straight away greeted by Izaya in a hospital bed, perfectly fine. This my friends is the problem with Durarara, the illusion of consequences. When the show constantly forebodes a looming threat and placing characters in dangerous situations, how can I care when I see Izaya brush off a stab wound to the stomach with a two day stay in a hospital? To me, none of these characters are in any true danger, and yet the show constantly tries to convince you otherwise. None of these characters are going to die, the author loves them too much do if there’s no real danger then what value does these dangerous encounters have. Durarara isn’t trying to put forward a meaning or a message, it’s just wacky people in a wacky place having wacky adventures and while that’s fun for a while there comes a time where I can no longer bring myself to care. Sure I still find the character interactions amusing but outside of that I am more or less watching out of obligation. In hope that maybe at the end of all this there will be true consequence.

Potential: 20%

 

Himouto! Umaru-chan

Short Synopsis: A brother needs to constantly deal with his demanding selfish sister.

There is a particular thing that comedy nowadays needs to take note of. When you make a gag in a comedy show or film, please take into account how that gag reflects the character of the person in the joke. There have been a number of examples of fictional characters who became horrible people just for the sake of comedy. One such example is Alan from the Hangover movies. In the beginning he was a strange but good natured person but when the third movie came around he became someone who didn’t even care when his own father died due to his negligence. Homer Simpson is another casualty as in the beginning he was a flawed person with best interests at heart but slowly became a dangerously impulsive person who never took into account how his actions affected other people. And so finally this brings me to Umaru, the star of this show. However instead of showing this character having good points we are immediately shown just how much of a selfish spoiled brat this person is and how she will go to any lengths to get her way. In another show this character would be a villain or someone pushed to reform but here the show seems to want us to be on her side even when she is treating her brother like a complete doormat. It’s hard for me to enjoy comedy when a lot of it is just mean spirited bullying by our ever so perfect Umaru-chan and the sad fact is that due to this shows nature as a one note gag that Umaru will never get that deserved slap in the face. This is a show about a spoiled brat that always gets her way. Feel free to enjoy.

Potential: 0%

 

Sore ga Seiyuu!

Short Synopsis: Voice actresses are so Kawaii!

My initial impressions remain true, Shirobako already did this and did it better. Plus with Gakkou Gurashi airing this season offering far more than this, this series just seems redundant. It’s like the quota for a standard cute girls doing cute things was not met so they just tossed this anime in. This anime has nothing to offer besides filling up an empty slot in the season lineup.

Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Akagami no Shirayukihime, Jitsu wa Watashi wa and Classroom Crisis

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Akagami no Shirayukihime

Short Synopsis: Little miss bland is bothered cause she’s getting courted by a terrible prince only to run away and get courted by a more handsome terrible prince.

Look, I know I am not the right person to judge this show. I have an ingrained hatred of the shoujo genre that just interferes with any enjoyment that could be had. Every single line that comes out of that white haired prince’s mouth just makes me want to punch him in the face. I just can’t understand what people can see in such a bland and boring girl such as our MC and it just bugs me that she makes such a deal about this being her story yet from what I saw she was just a prize to be won. I am sure there are girls who look at harems and think the exact same way, I even agree with them. Plotwise i find it contrived, because this girl has red hair she is being forced to be a prince’s concubine who happens to be channeling the spirit of Shinji from Fate. Runs away and just so happens to run into the prince of a neighbouring country who takes a liking to her immediately. Terrible prince decides the best thing to do is send her poison apples, white prince eats an apple for some reason and then when Miss bland is about to agree to be a concubine rather spiritedly, white prince pops in an flaunts his authority. Only to take her for himself. It’s just so…irritating. I understand if you don’t agree and I don’t fault you if you like this show but I just can’t bring myself to feel the same.

Potential: 0%

 

Jitsu wa Watashi wa

Short Synopsis: A boy goes to confess to his crush only to find out she’s a vampire.

The thing that’s likely to make or break this show is how well the humor is executed because other than that there isn’t really much heard that hasn’t been seen before. The comedy doesn’t even work on me making it hard to gauge its value. Aside from the comedy it’s a pretty typical harem that eventually leads to the old harem purgatory of no progress or results. The animation seems fine and characters are decent but again its the comedy that will make or break this. But even if all you want is a decent fairly average harem show you will likely get your fix with this.

Potential: 10%

 

Classroom Crisis

Short Synopsis: A transfer student is taken hostage and his class makes a rescue effort.

It’s still not clear as to what this show will actually be about seeing as this first episode acted more as an introduction to our main cast and potential main character. For one I like this business transfer student who can manage to negotiate himself out of a hostage situation and its interesting that he’s mainly being sent to the class to find ways to downsize their budget. But I am just rather confused about the setting as the “classroom” is more like a club or a company. So far the school setting looks completely unnecessary and these characters could be easily made adults in the working world. It would also make more sense seeing as no matter how futuristic the school is, I highly doubt they would allow students to do something as dangerous and expensive as spacecraft building and piloting. Some of the characters are enjoyable and the setting on Mars colonized by different nations is interesting. But I would just like to know what exactly I am in for the rest of the episodes.

Potential: 35%

Some Quick First Impressions: Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan, Ushio to Tora and Gakkou Gurashi!

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan

Short Synopsis: How I learned to stop worrying about giant purple death beetles and cover my crotch in strawberry jam.

Well the standard generic light novel anime of the season quota has now been filled. I really wonder just what unwritten rule demands that one of these be made every season but well here it is. Nothing new to see, protagonist is a secret badass whom all the girls are after, cheap mistaken pervert jokes, bare essential animation and of course, a high school setting. I must really say that the music in this anime is atrocious, it doesn’t fit at all and just sounds grating to the ears. The villains of this show are about as intimidating as a puppy with  a soldier helmet and from the battle shown at the beginning aren’t even that much of a threat. The three main girls have at most one trait and are all annoying. Overall I wouldn’t recommend this.

Potential: 0%

 

Ushio to Tora

Short Synopsis: A boy and an invisible tiger fight demons.

This season is troublesome as they are so many interesting titles that I would like to keep up with. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this as some could call it Calvin and Hobbes Shounen edition. There’s odd trend going in anime to adapt old manga, in this case a manga made in the 90’s. The problems with this is that the animes are fairly dated in storytelling often bringing up the tropes of yesteryear. But on the plus side this is a completed manga and from the looks of things this is getting 39 episodes so they intend to cover the entire manga. The animation and art are quite pleasing but that at times it’s deliberately limited for the sake of comedy or just using old animation saving techniques like speed lines and still image after attack shots. Speaking of which the comedy is mostly slapstick and it’s hit or miss. It’s rocking an excellent opening that just gets you pumped for an action show though this is going to be not quite that action packed. The main thing that sets this story apart from other shounens is the dynamic between Ushio and Tora, they are a pretty delightful duo and their interactions can be most amusing. My main concern for future episodes though is when the episodic monster of the week formula goes away and a main plot kicks in that it may be a bit too stereotypical to hold interest.

Potential: 40%

 

Gakkou Gurashi!

Short Synopsis. Cute girls are living in a school and are having super happy fun adventures.

If you haven’t read my preview for the summer season and know nothing about this show then stop reading this post right now and jump into the first episode blind. Well that was certainly a successful first episode, made quite a number of changes from the manga but they were all for the best. I truly regret reading the manga now cause it ruined this episodes surprise but the great thing was just how subtle the foreshadowing is to the observant. There are hints showing that something is off throughout the episode and I only managed to catch half of them on a first watch. The blackboard was something I can’t believe I missed. Admittedly the meat of this episode is in the final minutes as the majority is typical moe fluff much like any other moe anime. But it’s well crafted and calculated that even I was second guessing what I knew was coming. What really could make this series is contrast, where two completely opposite genres strengthen the effect of the other just by the sharp tonal shift. Depending on how it’s handled, this could end up something special.

Potential: 80%

Some Quick First Impressions:Shimoneta,Aquarion Logos and Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Shimoneta to Iu Gainen ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai

Short Synopsis:  In a world governed with heavy censorship, one terrorist strives to teach everyone about the birds and the bees.

When I read the source for this anime I didn’t know how to react to it. Now with the anime I still don’t know. It’s a remarkable weird show with low grade toilet humor based in a dystopian society where the slightest mention of sex can get you arrested. It’s so utterly audacious that it’s strangely engrossing. I mean this episode ends with a class assembly as getting off to a video of two flies mating while the terrorist provides erotic voiceover. That’s South Park levels of pure absurd. I guess this show is mainly to satirise censorship and show that an extreme case that no matter how much you try to cover up the dirty details of life that people will naturally seek them out. Or in this case become even more depraved than they were without censorship. The key question that determines whether this show is can provide even more ridiculous scenarios because while setting has some potential interest, the humor isn’t enough to carry the show for a whole cour.

Potential: 30%

 

Aquarion Logos

Short Synopsis: A villain is using Kanji to destroy the world and the only defence is a combining giant robot.

Now I recall what Aquarion is all about. It was a pretty traditional mecha series that addeared to the tropes of old giant robot shows. So here we have a protagonist who can pilot a robot with no training whatsoever in the first episode, some pretty sexually suggestive robot combining and people yelling out flashy  finishing moves to defeat the monster of the week. There is certainly an appeal to this old style and I rather like how the monsters of this series are based around Kanji so that the villain infects a certain symbol which throws the world into chaos. In this case the Kanji for twist which results in people getting strangled by twisting scaffs and twisters appearing out of nowhere. Though the Kanji monster itself is pretty lame and I hope they come up with better designs for other symbols.  Admittedly it’s also completely ridiculous and really cheesy in it’s over the top presentation but well that can be it’s charm. My initial impression from the summer preview still remains however, that this is a show that you can enjoy watching but not one that you are going to remember.

Potential: 50%

 

Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou

Short Synopsis: A man has to take take of a Lamia girl as part of a demi-human species law.

This is an odd one. On one hand I do have a morbid curiosity about the whole thing but on the other it is indeed a pretty shameless harem material. Though this first episode did focus on only one girl and at least this time the lead has a real genuine reason to not become romantically involved with her, well besides the fact that she has nearly killed him three times in one episode. The aspects of demi-humans integrating into human society I also find interesting but there’s still a hefty amount of fanservice and it still got harem antics. The fanservice this time is also a little disturbing, taking into account that the girl is only technically human. Monster girls has always been a thing that veered too close to beastility for me.(Wouldn’t making love to a centaur be the same as getting it on with a horse?) But if you can get past that it’s…interesting I suppose. The ending card had a surprising amount of detail about various types of lamia that was fascinating. I for one never ever heard of a melusine before or knew there was a mythological snake girl known as Echidna. In a genre as stale as this, this is actually some rather refreshing creativity as questionable though it may be.

Potential: 15%

Some Quick First Impressions: Chaos Dragon,Rokka no Yuusha and Overlord

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Chaos Dragon

Short Synopsis: A boy is forced to take the path of a king

This isn’t a good start. The pacing of this episode was all over the place as the story moved to scene to scene much like a skittish rabbit. Very little of it having artistic cohesion seeing as it starts in an orphanage and when a boy hits another boy and mentions a war we are suddenly thrown into a giant infodump regarding the land and the ongoing war. The show jumps from visions to flashbacks to other character to pointless bath scenes so rapidly that it’s hard to get a clear grasp of the situation. The villains are one dimensional and purposefully idiotically evil. Watch as a man calls people savages only to decide after a sneak attack by a small group that the most logical choice would be to kill everyone in the entire town. Animation was inconsistent with some scenes having some good movement but then others resorting to speed lines and terrible still frames. The episode opens with a bad circular pan of the characters to a poorly animated CGI dragon. There is some potential as Nasu’s and Gen’s characters seem interesting and you can see parts of their writing style in the narrative. I am hoping the pace slows down and now that a hefty amount of info dumping is done we can gather the main cast and have some narrative focus. I am so far not impressed as we have a character death in the first episode and quite honestly it’s hard to feel for a character we have known for about ten to five minutes. Her death was also rather odd seeing as the main protagonist makes a deal to save her life and then the Dragon demands that he sacrifices her so he can…get the power to save her…hmmm try to figure out that logic.I would be pretty angry at that dragon in that case. This could still have the potential to turn itself around but I am starting to reconsider blogging it. If the second episode continues this then I will trade this off for Ranpo.

Potential: 50%

 

Rokka no Yuusha

Short Synopsis: A dirty fighting man is chosen to fight an ancient evil with five other heroes.

Well I am most certainly surprised. The experience of reading Rokka no yuusha was a rather mediocre one. Yet now that I am seeing the story get a large degree of loving care in the adaption this has turned into one of the best first episodes of the season so far. There was some rather clunky exposition in the middle of the episode where two characters recounted the legend of the six flowers for only the audience’s benefit seeing as both were well aware of the legend already. But the fights are beautifully animated and the art is very pleasing. It also helps that the main characters constant repeating of being the strongest man in the world is not quite as annoying. The animators made a lot of little changes too which make the story a lot more charming such as showing the passing of time with Adelt marking the walls of his prison cell with a sword and the princess of blades cutting up the cell and pushing all the guards in. Admittedly I am still expecting this to fall flat on it’s face once the real story begins but now a potential possibility has been shown. It could actually happen that the animes strength of presentation could make up for the stories shortcomings in writing.

Potential: 70%

 

Overlord

Short Synopsis: A virtual reality MMO player has found himself in the MMO world turned real.

It’s decent but overall just pure power fantasy show. There was some interest in the grief Momonga felt at having all his MMO friends ditch the game for real life. Leaving him, the last person who cares, alone to watch the servers get shut down. I really question how successful this MMO would be in our current market as a game which allows you to customise everything is just asking to get exploited and mechanically broken. But the servers shut down and Momonga realizes that it’s all suddenly become real and he is now the overpowered leader of a group of overpowered guardians. One of whom is a girl who he actually edited to fall in love with him at the last minute. Which he would need to do if he ever wanted a human relationship considering that he’s a skeleton…which causes me to question why the girl didn’t find it painful to have a bony skeleton hand grope her. She even offered to have sex with him which I am truly mind boggled as to the mechanics of how that would be possible. There is a charm of being an overpowered god in an RPG that can one hit kill anything but I often find that can become boring after  a while. I expect the same to happen here as it’s clear this won’t be a story about someone becoming mad with power and abusing his situation. CGI skeletons aside the animation is solid and art likewise. This could be fun to watch for a while but there only so long it can last.

Potential: 30%

Some Quick First Impressions: Zesshou Symphogear GX, Charlotte and Dragon Ball Super

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Zesshou Symphogear GX

Short Synopsis: Three idol wannabes with mech suits are trying to be the thunderbirds.

Good god how can a show get more progressively awful with each new season and to make matters worse it get more budget with each season. It just fills my heart with pity for the animators putting their hard work and talent to such a bankrupt story. Well here it is, the fact that the character sing while in battle is still as terrible and distracting as ever. The comedy is even worse as well as the clear lesbian undertones. The anime episode has a pretty blatant music video pasted in the middle of it to advertise a single that’s likely to come on sale after the show. Also I don’t exactly understand why it was decided that girls with mech suits clearly designed for combat was the perfect group to handle global natural disasters and accidents. I mean wasn’t there some creatures called Noise which these girls were supposed to combat or something? Or did they wipe those out in the last seasons? That’s a genuine question because while I did watch those seasons, I fear(Or am glad) I have forgotten everything about them. Look I understand the joy of watching something stupid sometimes but I at least would like it to have some merit of entertaining through its stupidity. Symphogears third season is shameless to it’s core and shows the reason why it exists with every minute. That reason being made out of paper and commonly exchanged for services and goods.

Potential: 0%

 

Charlotte

Short Synopsis: A guy who can possess other people is forced to attend a high school that has superpowered students.

This started off as quite interesting at first as the main character is interesting seeing as he uses his ability for his own selfish benefit. It even made me laugh hard as the main character started manically laughing in class only to suddenly become embarrassed as everyone started looking at him weird. But then it turns out this isn’t the real setting and the real cast shows up to drag the main into the age old Maeda sitcom portain. It all went downhill from there as they introduced the main characters little sister who acts like that period of childhood where the kid is not cute anymore but continues to try to act cute only to end up ungodly annoying. Sure some may find her cute but people remember, she’s been engineered for suffering. Like giving a child a puppy and then once they have grown attached, infect it with a fatal disease. It’s all part of the plan for maximum tears. Maeda’s written female characters do act like they are ten years younger than they are supposed to be in general. The skits are already starting up and  it’s clear that these rather useless superpowers will be mainly used for comic effect. Then comes the dramatic second half, likely to do with people losing their powers and the mains missing brother(I am guessing he’s dead but used his magic powers to erase himself from their memories so they wouldn’t be sad.) used to wind up the drama to “cry now damnit” levels. I am giving it half potential as it could still surprise but my friends, it’s the same old story, same old song and dance.

Potential: 50%

 

Dragon Ball Super

Short Synopsis: …Do I even need to s ummarize this? It’s Dragonball people. Dragonball. Vegeta, a beloved character from Dragon Ball Z, has a plethora of powerful and thought-provoking quotes. If you’re curious to discover the essence of his character, read more here and experience the true depth of Vegeta’s wisdom and emotions.

Nostalgia is definitely the main positive factor here and this episode plays that card hard. It’s a lighthearted start to the series which brings in all the old characters and hijinks. But my initial concerns with the series still remain. For one they seem to have placed this before the battle of gods movie and are setting up Beerus as the main villain which is just screwing up the timeline completely. Another is that the characters seem to have gone down in power seeing as Goten and Trunks fought a giant snake in this episode and actually had trouble with it when by all accounts they should have smashed it to pieces with a single punch. Overall while it’s nice to see Goku and the gang again, I just don’t see how we can make a credible threat to them when they should be on the level of unbeatable gods at this point. In Dragonball z it was clear the idea’s were running dry by the end of the series and I don’t think the man can come up with anything new in the years past since it’s end. Nostalgia may carry this for half a cour but if something new isn’t presented then I think this will lose favor soon.

Potential: 60%

Little Witch Academia The Enchanted Parade – 81/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Anime Reviews, Reviews by AidanAK47

I wonder when it was that a film being childish became a flaw. As a medium grows it takes steps to aim to mature itself and seek a more intellectual level of presenting entertainment. Animation did it as Anime aimed to explore terrontry that cartoons refuse to explore and video games only recently broke away from the stigma of being children’s entertainment. However in doing so I believe a fear was born. A fear to return to making “childish” media or to attempt to step down from creating something that could be considered for kids only. It’s a shame really as some of the most fondly remembered games and shows are those “childish” material.  The Crash’s, Spyro’s, Sly Cooper’s, Dexers laboritories, powerpuff girls, Samurai Jack’s and many more do seem absent in current times. When you get down to it, sometimes you don’t want an intellectual thriller, a political commentary, a satire or philosophical exploration. Sometimes you just want something simple and fun. Trigger have provided exactly that with with the second OVA/movie for Little Witch Academia.

For those who don’t already know, this anime is a result of studio trigger putting up a Kickstarter to help extend a planned second episode for their 2013 animated short made for Anime Mirai 2013. They asked for $150,000 and with the help of 7,938 backers they got $625,518 instead, over three times what they asked for. Thanks to that we have an hour long, wonderfully animated episode that never overstays it’s welcome and is just downright enjoyable from beginning to end. The story is fairly simplistic and is predictable from the get go, as well as the characters being straightforward. Through that really just adds to the charm, for you see to those who grew up watching saturday morning cartoons this anime brings back that nostalgic feeling. You can really tell that this was made with a lot of heart and soul with the animation which is more cartoon than anime styled. On that note many of triggers works tend to go in that direction and it is their strongest suit in my opinion. When you think of a trigger work it’s not for it’s story or deep thought provoking characters but instead for it’s seer energy and lively atmosphere. In that regard it’s hard to judge a Trigger work on a critical standpoint when the real value is just in how it makes you feel. When watching this I knew exactly what was going to happen, I knew Akko would have a falling out with her friends and this would end up with them making up at the climax to help defeat the villain. I seen all the chekhov’s guns get fired and there were no twists and ends that surprised me but I just didn’t care. The journey and characters were so entertaining that I honestly didn’t want it to end.

I think that if this anime deserves real merit it would be in how contained the story is. Often in anime I find that Japanese works seem to have trouble with a small time frame, anime movies in particular are guilty of this. It always seems like they can never wrap up the story in the movies time frame, pacing can just become too slow or go too fast and endings don’t feel like an ending. It’s like a large story crushed into a short time frame but with this the story doesn’t waste a single moment. It went on exactly as long as it should and ended where it needed to end thus creating a solid satisfying experience. I understand that this might not be the kind anime for everyone as I am certain people will get turned off by its simple nature but if you find the character interactions as amusing as I do I say this will give you entertainment that is harder to find in the current market. I can safely say that the backers of this project got their moneys worth which is rarer than you think with Kickstarter projects. Studio Trigger, I missed the Kickstarter for this episode but if you are planning a new kickstarter for the third episode then you can count on me being a backer.