Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatte Iru Darouka Gaiden: Sword Oratoria
Short Synopsis: A spinoff story of the DanMachi series.
Not even three minutes in and we got a boob joke. I say watching anime is really demoralizing for girls C cup and under seeing as anime seems to assume that if you aren’t stacked then you have no sex appeal. Well this is basically the Raildex of the DanMachi series. It lacks originality(I only just noticed that the first meeting between the sword girl and the protagonist of the DanMachi series essentially ripped off the iconic first meeting of Saber and Shirou in Fate), it’s bundled with fanservice and the action set pieces are only there to make the characters look good. Also yuri because why not. It’s not something as offensive as the next entry on this post but it is the equivalent of anime shovelware. This series was clearly made to target the SAO demographic and to those who don’t fall into that category it’s just a rather soulless experience. Guess the only thing left to say is that this show manages to barely beat out SukaSuka in terms of absurdly long anime titles.
Potential: 0%
Mario: A spinoff story based on the universe of DanMachi (which I only watched the first episode of it), this new season unfortunately is a weaker RPG fantasy fluff this season. What we have so far is the gang fighting a bunch of monsters. The cast so far is generic and the main heroine is so helpless she drags the whole cast down. I know everyone isn’t meant to be perfect and the main girl needs to develop somehow through its run, but for God sake don’t do that by making her unbearable at the start. I still don’t really get why the show has to use “level” and all the monsters and level path exactly like a RPG? Aren’t they supposed to be in another world? Cut that game mechanics then. Now after few hours watching it, I don’t remember much of it so it kinda speaks to the quality of this one. Bland and forgettable.
Potential:10%
sin Nanatsu no Taizai
Short Synopsis: Lucifer falls from heaven and fights the well endowed seven deadly sins.
You know I think a series like this is an director just daring god to smite him. Cause I don’t know how more blasphemous you can get without genderbending Jesus.(Frankly I am surprised that hasn’t happened yet) So theres angels and demons and something something banished…honestly this show cares about it’s story as much as I do. This is essentially queens blade anime where the goal is tits, ass and more tits. Sadly the titillation is something I can’t enjoy because they made the age old mistake of making the breasts so big that it just becomes unappealing. The show goes out of it’s way to show nudity whenever possible and pretty much everyone is a lesbian who’s ready to feel up whoevers closest. This is an anime where a girl’s female best friend hugs her and then proceeds to cop a feel. But you know the biggest sin here is that it uses the seven deadly sins motive in the laziest way possible. Previous shows I seen at least played around with the concept to subvert expectations. Not here. Pride is prideful, envy is envious, sloth is lazy, Gluttony is hungry, wrath is picking fights, greed is trying to get money and lust is a bitch in heat. If you are interested in anime you can watch with your trousers down…honestly you would be better off going for hentai. At least that will put out.
Potential: 0%
Mario: Hello softcore porn, here we meet again. This season has offered heaps of terrible trends of current anime: we have a blatantly advertisement anime to promote their products, we have an incest anime, we have a lazy Light novel rip-off anime, but this is the trend I distaste the most: a fanservice softcore porn that numbs all the senses of us viewers. This is the most blatant misuse of seven sins concept that I have ever seen, and I can’t call this plot “plot” either because all they do is tied up the girl and “torture” her, in what sense I think you have an idea by now. The other girls are combination of huge tits, fetished custom designs and behave like they’re all ready to strip off. I will give it an upvote though that Sin never pretends to be something else, it’s straightforward fan-service from start to finish and I know there’s a market for this sort of anime but with all my respect this anime is what I disgust the most.
Potential: 0%
Atom: The Beginning
Short Synopsis: A prequel to Astro boy, two creators work to make an intelligent robot.
Much like Young Blackjack two years ago we have the return of another Tezuka favorite with a prequel series. In all honestly if we were going to get a prequel to Astro Boy animated I would have prefered Pluto. Not to say this series is bad, actually it’s a strong start to the series. But Pluto is a manga by the mangaka who made Monster and 20th Century Boys. So the level of quality is on another level. (It really is sad that only one of Naoku Urasawa’s best works has been animated.) But enough on that, this show manages a nice blend of old school and new school with excellent animation and a simplistic yet effective story. Atom’s design is excellent and there is a certain love put into the mechanical workings of the robots. The main characters are loveable dopes though due to my ignorance of the source material I feel like I am missing some sub level context in the shows presentation. Seeing as the manga got better as it went along I actually have high hopes for this one. People may have some trouble getting past it’s old sensibilities such as the catchphrases and tendency for characters to awkwardly shove exposition into dialogue. But if the animation can stay strong and keep it’s charm then this could be something worth checking out this season.
Potential: 80%
Mario: We get to the end of this long winded first impressions period (finally!), Atom the Beginning is a worthy title to close off these new anime-tasting offerings. Served as a prequel to the classic Astro Boy, although you don’t need the knowledge of the existing material to enjoy this one. The best thing this series offer so far is its rich and natural world building where robots becoming a prominent factor in human life. From robots specifically giving balloons to the children, helping human for constructions, to appearing in a massive parade, that world is well-detailed and I enjoy looking those technologies on display. This episode also succeeds on introducing the main casts so far, both informs us how they view of each other (like the genius *genius* wheelchair guy towards the main duo), and clearly establishes their personal traits. The main duo so far is your typical nerdy, self-centre and blind-by-their-own-ambitions type, and hearing them keep babbling about how genius they are can be bothersome at times, but their chemistry is quite grounded. Furthermore, if this episode is any indication, the show will go less action, save-the-world pack, but more about the implication of using Atom, which for me is far more interesting angle. The productions and the retro character designs also help to make this one more accessible. A solid start for Atom.
Potential: 70%
I am really not a fan of all these rpg-fantasy chimeras. It just feels stupid when they’re using rpg terms in a world that is real. And game-isekai aren’t my thing either even though I loved .hack//Sign (at least as a character drama).
I just wish they’d either do actual high fantasy OR a non-isekai series about a game for once. You know, a real game and people acting like players, not characters of a game-like world.
The other thing is that it always feels like the authors have no idea how games actually work. There is always a lot of stuff happening and exceptions from rules that are just impossible in games/gameplay – especially in series like SAO and its clones.
Would you believe that hentai anime has been getting worse its not even because of the medium but technical wise there has been less animation less s tyle and stories while explotative are also lazy and kind of cheap[er]. I get the feeling at times that most have moved to these types of shows.