Hyperdimension Neptunia
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a goddess who needs to govern over the people who worship her and has to contend with other goddesses who try to do the same.
Well, it had to happen at some point: the first genuinely bad series from David Production. I mean, look at the premise: that sounds like it has potential, right? A number of characters are references to the current generation consoles, but it doesn’t beat you over the head with it, so in theory, this could have been good. Alas, in practice the creators royally screwed this up by making every single character insanely stupid, incredibly annoying and one-dimensional, throw pointless fanservice and heaps of superficial drama in way too fast and the the tasks of the goddesses ended up including getting rid of sexually assaulting tanuki slimes. I mean, you can see that at least the animation was good, and the backgrounds are of David Production’s usually high quality and all…. but this was bad. Really bad…
OP: Good visuals, terrible song.
ED: Terrible song as well.
Potential: 0%
Gatchaman Crowds
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets a notebook and catches aliens.
So, now that we’ve gotten nearly all of the series this season, I feel confident to say that Gatchaman Crowds has the best action, soundtrack and eye candy of the bunch. It’s something that Kenji Nakamura is really good at, so this was to be expected, but this all combined made for a really fun episode. But let me get to the main factor that will either make or break this series: the female lead. She is annoyikng, but that doesn’t even begin to describe her character. You know these types of characters who are so outrageously over the top in their actions? That’s her. She brings ditziness to a new level, and seems to live in to her entire own world. She made me laugh in this episode with how far she went, but the creators need to keep that up, otherwise she’ll make this series unbearable to watch on her own. I mean, the premise is very solid, the action is amazing, it’s fun, fresh and kept my attention from beginning to end, and I also trust the creators enough to know that they know how to write a 12-episode series and make it conclude properly. It’s definitely one of the most interesting shows on the series, so female lead: you’ve got your task set out for you.
OP: Pretty much the best OP of the season. Great visuals.
ED: One of the exceptions that makes me appreciate good J-Pop.
Potential: 90%
Silver Spoon
Short Synopsis: Our lead character enters a farming school
There are lots of really good slice of life series this series! Tamayura, Uchoten Kazoku, Servant X Service and Watamote were already there, and now we also have Silver Spoon to join their ranks. Perhaps it’s not the best of the season, but the creators brought a lot of life to a bunch of agricultural students. Within the first episode they already showed lots of different sides to what life is like as such a student, from following classes to having dinner, and the cast of characters is also very diverse and likable (not to mention big). The main character for once also isn’t bland: the only thing bland about him is that he doesn’t have any goals, but he has an actual back-story and personality, and works well as this posh cityboy in the middle of a bunch of farmers. This is a series that also toys a bit with your expectations, and I also like how well it managed to portray the lead character’s fear of germs. Also you can see that this comes from Hiromu Arakawa, with a cameo from Armstrong’s long lost brother.
OP: This opening is actually very bad because it reduces some of the characters to annoying stereotypes
ED: Nice use of instruments. Really fits the setting.
Potential: 85%
“Here we are, face to face A couple of Silver Spoons.”
Had to get that out since the day I knew about this show.
While not sucking me in as hard as Space Bros did, I really like this show, I like the attention to detail, that there’s a female with nontraditional body size is not a constant fat joke, and every character seems to have their strengths and weaknesses as part of the farm.
Plus, chicken anus.
BTW, anyone know if the singer of the ED also did one of the songs for Space Bros? Sounds like it.
Yeah its Sukima Switch, they sing the song Eureka for Space Brothers
IMO i love the OP song very much..maybe because i love MIWA
it’s better than chAnge at least “|
i like all MIWA’s song!
Chasing Hearts & 441 <3
I found it funny that the gymnastics teacher had the same look and from the sound of it also the same voice actor as lt. armstrong from full metal alchemist brotherhood.
Where exactly in Europe do they give silver spoons to newborns lol?
And this is pretty awesome.
Pretty much agree psgels we’re in for a good season for slice of life.
I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would, I think I may end up liking it more than Moyashimon.
@Kiraly: Yes! That stood out for me too, my reaction was “wha..wait a second thats not true right? Where are they getting that from?”
Oh wait apparently its a British thing among aristocrats from ages ago, silver was seen as something to do with purifying and wealth, people believed that silver was a healthier open too. Poorer families did it too apparently, something to do with celebrating what little silver they had…cause they weren’t well off so they’d give it as a gift to the baby.
Usually silver spoons were a christening/Baptism gift. “Apostle spoons” (spoons with an apostle figure on the handle) were seen as very suitable gifts from your godparents, and would give the kid emergency cash in the future if needed. As time went on and the populace got more prosperous, a lot of babies got a big haul of silver cups and spoons and such.
So yeah, you’d never go hungry because you’d sell it first. 🙂
“A number of characters are references to the current generation consoles” I have no idea how you could see potential in this. Oh well, david production is always producing weird stuff. One moment its italian old people romance, next it’s trolling aliens, then it lunchables fight club, then something actually relatively popular and now it’s gamestationweebox.
For Neptunia it’s the shitty source material. We all know David Production is just doing this to get easy money to fund more Jojo seasons.
This i hpe this sells very well so we can have moar JOJO.
Jojo also sells a lot of BD tho.
I’ve played all 3 of the Neptuna games and they’re pretty fun. Sure it’s nothing particularly serious but the characters are fun and play well off each other. I may be infested with fanservice and moe but every once and a while it’s good to turn your brain off and play a game like Hyperdimension Neptuna. I think the anime is in the same category.
Gatchaman a great … disapointmen, i expected to much for that series and simply the animation was a Little off, the protagonist to bland, and the setting, i dont know, uhmmm two to four chapters to see if this is good or not. Silver spon, great, very good slice. Yeah this season action series was a disapointment but the slice of life was very good two more weeks to see what i will follow.
And I thought Gatchaman action was poorly executed (after seeing the last chapter of Majestic Prince, I’m biased I know). A lot of transformation scenes and eyecandy, true, but about the action it’s some ways off from being the best. Let’s see next episode if it can show better.
Gatchaman Crowds has no right to call itself Gatchaman. It’s kind of like the whole DmC and Donte debacle. It SHOULD have been it’s own game but instead they tried to ride on the good name of Devil May Cry. The result is direct comparisons between the old and new games, the conclusion being that it’s inferior. The same can be said of Crowds in many ways.
Yes it has nice colors, yes the suit designs are kind of neat and lots of technical elements of the show are well done. NONE of it feels Gatchaman and while that isn’t necessarily bad…why couldn’t it simply be it’s own show? Why do they have to use the Gatchaman name at all? The idea you can “broaden the audience” and still satisfy old time fans is flawed. It’s a self defeating strategy.
All Crowds leaves me wanting is a big budget REAL Gatchaman show. Which unfortunately directly hurts my ability to enjoy an otherwise decent show.
>Tamayura, Uchoten Kazoku, Servant X Service and Watamote were already there, and now we also have Silver Spoon to join their ranks.
I hope you’re aware that there’s a single slice of life in the titles listen.
Uchoten is a drama/comedy in a fantasy setting, ServantXServant and Watamote are two comedies, Silver Spoon is a drama/comedy (actually it’s a bildungsroman, but that may not be clear if you just watched the first episode).
Just take Tamayura for an example, what does it have it common with all the other animes?
Basically nothing, apart from not having the main characters pursue some kind of objective, which is surely not what being a slice of life means.
By calling everything a slice of life you’re just depriving the term of any meaning, it’s just an empty words that has been abused over and over.
tl;dr: Don’t use slice of life to refer to animes which have nothing in common, it’s bad and you’re contributing to depriving the term of its original and real meaning.
I liked Gatchaman Crowds! Pretty sure it’s nothing like the original, but the colours and the music and the designs were all fresh, with lots of touches that reminded me of Tsuritama, and a little bit of Mawaru Penguin Drum.
Possibly too many quirky characters, but I actively enjoyed the show, so hey.
I take it you have never played the Hyperdimension Neptunia games…this anime is pretty much spot on with how the characters act. In this case I wouldn’t blame David Production since they seem to have captured the feel of the game quite accurately.
That said, the game is fun as long as you can overlook the other stupidity.