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Anime Title

Score 10 - Masterpiece 9 - Great 8 - Very Good 7 - Good 6 - Fine 5 - Average 4 - Bad 3 - Very Bad 2 - Horrible 1 - Appalling

Type TV (Television Series) Movie OVA (Original Video Animation)

Progress

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Add - More "Bungaku Shoujo" Kyou no Oyatsu: Hatsukoi

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Add - More "Bungaku Shoujo" Memoire

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Add - More .hack//Sign The thing with .hack//Sign is that it takes a marginally interesting premise, then manages to go almost nowhere with it. It establishes one or two plot points, and then slowly trudges through them for the entirety of the show with a bland, generic cast of characters in a visually uninteresting world, with interactions so dry and devoid of substance it may as well have not even had dialogue at all. If there was any weight or merit to the plot, it perhaps wouldn't feel so tortiously, laboriously slow. But instead of being a chance to take its time developing its world, plot, characters, or anything at all, it's just an exercise in heel dragging. The ending is so unrewarding the director may as well have personally come to your house to punch you in the face. Don't watch this show. The creators clearly put no care into it, and you shouldn't offer any of your care in exchange.

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Add - More 1 Pound no Fukuin

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Add - More 100% Pascal-sensei (TV)

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Add - More 1001 Nights

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Add - More 12-sai.

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(MAL, please make up your mind whether this is finished or not.) (MAL, please make up your mind whether this is finished or not.)

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Add - More 12-sai.: Chicchana Mune no Tokimeki

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Add - More 20-dai no Heya-hen

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Add - More 3-gatsu no Lion

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"March Comes in Like a Lion", FA2016 "March Comes in Like a Lion", FA2016

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Add - More 663114 Well done. You've taken a significant event and used it as fodder to produce a predictable, worn out message that is hardly unique both outside and within Japan. If you're going to go over ground already so well tread, you ought do it well. But here it reeks of laziness, of a film so transparent in its attempts to appeal to critics with its timeliness and safe, approved narrative that there is no voice from the creator at all, merely echoes of voices past. The horse isn't necessarily dead, but this director will certainly beat it like it is.

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Add - More A Kite (spoilers) It's weird. As a hentai, this wouldn't be good. As a drama, it wouldn't be good. As an action piece, it wouldn't be good. As all three combined, it still isn't good. There's one alright action scene that takes place in a bathroom and lasts a while. If it were just this, Kite would be alright. But it's sandwiched by uncomfortable rape scenes and flashbacks to child molestation, along with some other lackluster action sequences, tedious dialogue and an uninteresting story with a poor resolution that was probably meant to set up the sequel. How stupid do you have to be that, when you tackle somebody out of a window and are prepared to fall to your death with them and they manage to grab onto something, you shoot at their hand to make them fall instead of taking your clear shot at their much larger head, or even one of the other easily available body parts? Yes, your original plan was to make her fall to her death. But can't you use just a little bit of intelligence? What's kind of sad about anime in general is that this managed to have native English speakers when characters called for it while many other, much better anime just pass off heavily accented, even quite wrong English as authentic American or British English. I know that it's not as easy to find a native English speaking voice talent in Japan, but I appreciate when they do. I wonder how they managed to avoid a lawsuit from Disney over that one rape scene when this was licensed by Media Blasters. There's no way Disney would ever approve of their characters being involved in that. It's probably something to do with fair use. There's a sequel to this. I have no intention of watching it. How this became so mainstream, I might never know.

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Add - More A Piece of Phantasmagoria

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Add - More A-Channel So they saw K-on! and said "We can too!" only it's not as good as K-on! at all. It doesn't have the same spark, the same magic, the quality of animation or really much of what made K-on! the premiere "cute girls doing cute things" show. But it is fun, even if it can't live up to what it's liberally borrowing from. Not a deep or unique show, not a deep or unique comment. Yup.

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SP2011 SP2011

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Add - More A-Channel+smile It's more A-Channel, and there's really nothing to say about this that isn't to be said of A-Channel, so, yeah.

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Add - More Aachi wa Ssipak In the interest of testing SMA's recommendation quality, I'm taking the obvious route of watching some of the shows it recommended. This is one such anime. *** Korean comics are manwha, so what's the term for Korean animation? Oh, Wikipedia says that's "manwha" too. I'm not honestly sure why this is on "My 'Anime' List," but edge cases like this seem to be frequent sources of debate here, so whatever, we'll just roll with it. When you see how much of American and Japanese animation is farmed out to South Korean studios, it shouldn't come as too much surprise to see that their industry has their technical chops. And with a claimed budget of $3.5 million and eight years of production time, Aachi wa Ssipak had danged well better have something to show for it. And the money and time does pay off. You can still tell where CG is being used, but it's not an eyesore as it is in your typical anime movie (that is, it doesn't look like plastic or contrast horribly with the rest of the art). Movement feels natural to the exaggerated, cartoony physics of their world and the animation really supports the number of interestingly choreographed, if somewhat lacking in intensity, action sequences throughout the film. The art style is... I haven't seen much that looks like this (I think Studio 4°C has some works you could compare this to in that department) but it's not unpleasant. Honestly, in a world like this, it seems kind of right. (The human designs remind me of the music video for 2NE1's "Hate You", thinking about it.) The plot's a bit wacky, but doesn't have a lot of meat to it, instead just serving as a framework for this offbeat action flick. Peel away some of the absurdity of it and it's any other stock action movie plot. Antihero protagonist(s) goes up against the bad guys for success/the girl. Oh well. Even if not very innovative, feces gimmick aside, those sorts of things can still be fun. And Aachi wa Ssipak has good pacing, never quite getting into a lull, not feeling too long or too short, ending on something that could've used more punch, but was still satisfactory enough. Throw in some decent use of BGM, and you've got the trappings of a largely conventional but enjoyable action movie. And that's 7 territory. (One failure, one success for SMA so far.)

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SMA Test SMA Test

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Add - More Abarenbou Rikishi!! Matsutarou Dear ANN/MAL: Writing a flawed character is not inherently flawed character writing. That shouldn't be a controversial claim, particularly for those who pretend to be professional critics. If you use ANN's preview guide or reviews as a basis for deciding what to watch, you're making a big mistake. And I'm not saying that because they didn't care for this show, but because most of the people who work for ANN are generally terrible at what they do. You go to ANN because they have (not always accurate) news, not for their quality. I've said it once and I'll say it again: ANN is a terrible website that enjoys an unfortunate and undeserved level of relevance within the anime community which they've earned not by merit, but as a de facto status resulting from being R1 lapdogs who happily repackage press releases as news. They're largely hack writers and journalists with some serious delusions of grandeur, causing them to act like childish, overbearing primadonnas towards anyone who criticizes them or otherwise curries their disfavor. That's not true of everyone who writes for them, but everyone there that's true of is also one of their most regular writers, so their awfulness is something you feel relentlessly on the site. Thankfully, I'm far from the only one to feel this way about ANN, and their forums reveal just what sort of people most buy into what ANN is peddling (terrible people), but there are still too many people who casually accept that ANN ought have any sort of gravitas because they trust it as one of the more mainstream voices in the fandom. And that saddens me because they're being fed garbage. There are a number of people out there doing solid writing about anime. That's what readers deserve. And yet so many of them are left going to ANN and being pathetically underserved by people too prideful of their own egos to actually take pride in their craft. Although when you consider that their name seems to deliberately invoke CNN, maybe that's all rather appropriate! *** If Catcher in the Rye came out today and ANN's staff reviewed it, I wonder if they'd pan it as trash due to the protagonist being an unlikeable brat. (This show does have actual issues, of course.)

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SP2014 SP2014

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Add - More Abenobashi Mahou☆Shoutengai (vague spoilers) "Shall we?" Can our desires override our fates? Can't things just stay the way we like them? A part of maturity is accepting that the status quo is not inerrable in regards to our wants and needs. Life continues and exists around us, not for us. That which now is need not forever be so, for better or for worse. We can deal with the hand we are dealt, but we cannot ask for a new hand. When I was watching Abenobashi, I had the initial impression that it was a less coked-out version of Excel Saga. And in a lot of ways, it is. But it has something Excel Saga lacked: soul. And I don't mean "soul" as in "moral," but as in spirit, vitality, heart, that sort of thing. Man, maybe I should've just said "heart" to begin with. But it wouldn't be exactly the same, you know? See, Abenobashi is funny. But it's not just that. It's a tale of maturity. Of rejecting the inevitable. Of fearing change, of fearing loss. It's a protest against the steady march of time. It's escapism. It's denial. It's human. And it's also boob jokes, parodies and fun banter. Yay, dimensions! Fancy that. Abenobashi has charming characters who exude personality and life. They're a pleasure to watch interacting with each other. The dialogue is fun, clever, quick and amusing. The characters are distinct, both from each other and in the pantheon of anime as a whole. These are good, solid characters. They could totally skip those recaps every episode, though. TV series air once a week. Your viewers aren't that forgetful, Gainax. This show looks great. It's very good for a 2002 series. The character designs are largely vibrant, and mostly unique (not counting the ones that were deliberately derivative for comedy reasons). Its style serves its frantic nature well. But they cover a number of styles for the sake of parody, and show an appreciable range. That includes, and this is just a personal thing, some of Sushio's awesome style. I absolutely love his animation style, so that's always a plus. (If you're familiar with Sushio, you'll recognize the part I'm talking about instantly.) It's crisp, for an SD show, anyway. The colors are well saturated, neither overdone nor too dull. The OP is a fun song. I don't know that it's something I'd want to listen to while I'm driving or anything, but I liked it enough to not skip the OP each episode. The rest of the music isn't a standout soundtrack, but it's diverse and plays well with the show. The seiyuu do a fine job, too. It's weird. There are equal forces within me that say this deserves a 10, and ones that say it isn't quite at the level of a 10 series. But I loved Excel Saga. I loved The Tatami Galaxy. And this combines both in a very effective matter. I know if I give this a 9 or a 10, I'll always be second guessing that rating, wondering if maybe it shouldn't have really been the other. The show isn't perfect, but no series is. I have to follow my heart and properly reward brilliance: 10. (You just got to see my inner-monologue. Yay?) I'm sure there are people who will question that rating, saying it's not quite worthy of being called a masterpiece, and should I really be putting it at the same level as Usagi Drop and Cowboy Bebop? But I know it to be the truest conclusion I can come to. I heartily recommend this. I don't know that it'll leave the same impression on you as some of the other shows I've given a 10, but I doubt you'll regret watching it. (Ugh, I'm second guessing this rating already, and it's only been about two minutes. But I'm not changing it.) *** Due to Jojo raising the minimum threshold for a 10, this has been lowered to a 9. It's still really good, though!

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SP2002 SP2002

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Add - More Acchi Kocchi Everything falls flat. The characters have basically zero personality, and it's all so dull. (I heard a bit of praise for this from trustworthy channels, so I thought maybe I'd missed something. Watched the second episode and nope, still incredibly dull.) *** Marathoning it years later, no, it really doesn't get any better.

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SP2012 SP2012

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Add - More Acchi Kocchi: Place=Princess

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Add - More Active Raid: Kidou Kyoushuushitsu Dai Hachi Gakari

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Add - More AD Police

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Add - More Adventures in Beauty Wonderland

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Add - More Aggressive Retsuko (ONA)

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Add - More Aggressive Retsuko (ONA) 2nd Season

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Add - More Aggressive Retsuko (ONA) 4th Season

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Add - More Aggressive Retsuko: We Wish You a Metal Christmas

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Add - More Aharen-san wa Hakarenai

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Add - More Ai Mai! Moe Can Change! Everytime I see a modern anime released no higher than 480p I die a little inside. This was thirty minutes of personalityless female characters switching between various fetish outfits with a thin, barely sensical plot. Roll credits. I could barely stomach it because it was just so pointless. Absolute dreck.

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Add - More Ai no Utagoe wo Kikasete

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Add - More Aikatsu Stars! (vague episode 34 spoilers) So Mahiru's "individually" is robbing others of their own, I see. Ganguro fashion has been the subject of meaningful debate and analysis, but Aikatsu Stars! knows the real concern is that these dang kids look and act differently than the majority. Remember, kids: Don't stand out or be yourself! The demographic that worked on this episode was almost palpable.

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Aikatsu Desperation!, SP2016 Aikatsu Desperation!, SP2016

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Add - More Aikatsu! 53 episodes and I didn't make the connection between "Raichi" and "lychee" until the show pointed it out. (end of season one/start of season two spoilers) Having Ichigo leave for America and all the emotional capital that episode built felt a little squandered by having a timeskip and bringing her back the very next episode. We were built up for an absence that we never got to actually feel, nor did we get to experience its consequences. I was sad to see Ichigo go myself, sure, but any happiness from having her back is dwarfed by the disappointment in seeing that sort of opportunity squandered. It opened up so much potential and nothing even came of it other than one pretty good episode. I mean, you could've at least had her missing from the show longer than CM Punk was missing from Raw after his grand exit. (I watch little girls' idol anime and pro wrestling because I'm an adult.) *** So, are Daisuki's official releases based off of fixed-up BD versions of the episodes? Did the production values suddenly go downhill a bit? Am I just now starting to notice it? Because I'm seeing a number of occasions where characters are noticeably off model as well as a few animation errors, and I don't recall this being the case before episode 51 where I had to switch over to fansubs based off of TV encodes. I don't know what Daisuki used as their source video and don't know of any Aikatsu! TV vs BD comparisons, so I guess I'm just left to wonder why and be a bit disappointed by the dip in art quality. When Ichigo's eyes are suddenly way too massive or a side profile of Kii has the wrong color glasses frame, it's not show ruining, but it's distracting. Oh well. Mezashite seems to be in no hurry to release BD versions of these episodes, and I don't even know if those would be an improvement. I'll just to have to deal with it, I suppose. Still a bummer, though. *** I don't care one bit about real life idols, so tell me: Why have I become so emotionally invested in these 2D ones? *** Apparently there is an official Aikatsu shop in Japan, and I'm kind of glad an ocean, a language barrier and some sense of social restraint stand between me and it. Or I would be, except there doesn't seem to be much in the way of collectible Aikatsu merchandise, at least that I could find available to import online. Which I guess makes sense, since it's aimed at little girls and not otaku, after all. While my money may breathe a sigh of relief, my longing to own an Otome fig goes unsated. It probably won't happen, but I'm prepared to spend unreasonable sums of money on Aikatsu merchandise if it ever expands beyond basic stuff like candy and stickers. (Even just an adult-sized Aikatsu t-shirt for me to be somewhat ashamed of wearing would make me happy.) I'm getting way too into Aikatsu. *** Now, I don't mind the odd slice of tomato in a hamburger or a grape tomato in a salad or what have you. But tomato juice was so intensely "tomato" tasting I had to water it down significantly to get through it at all, and I still gagged a few times regardless. So for Yurika to down that stuff straight on the regular for the sake of her character, well, her tenacity in that regard has my respect. I mean, I outright enjoy the taste of carrots, and I still have to water carrot juice down a bit. Vegetable juices seem to have a very in your face flavor. Even if we assume Yurika genuinely loves tomatoes, tomato juice is another beast. And now I'm stuck with the reality where the rest of a bottle of tomato juice is in my refrigerator because a character in Aikatsu! who wouldn't even make my top 5 drinks it fairly often (also it sounded healthy enough) and I've got to drink it somehow. This is just a taste of how strong the obsession has become. When I started this show I gave it its tag as a bit of a joke, but it has become absolutely true. It's just so many things I desire from an anime all in one show. I thought about what I'd do when this show one day ended and I joked to myself that of course I'd just start rewatching it. But then that actually sounded like a great idea and maybe this is getting a little out of hand. I've enjoyed plenty of anime before, sure, but none have filled me with such a compulsive urge to want to own merchandise, to hunt down clips of it on YouTube, to get so utterly absorbed like this. It's not because it's the best made anime, certainly, but it has pretty successfully hit a personal sweet spot. Wait. I guess Pokemon was an anime, after all, and when I was a kid and Pokemon was at its peak you could've branded a punch to the face with a Pikachu and I probably would've craved it. Well, it's the first to make me feel that way as an adult, anyway. But it's basically all children's merchandise. I could import Aikatsu! cards but the shipping is pretty brutal just for that, so I'd have to find somewhere I could buy a bunch of different ones in bulk to justify it and that's more difficult. But basically, there are YouTube channels where people in Japan have their kids demo Aikatsu merchandise (I have seen far too many of these videos) and it's all cheaply made fashion and promotional items from 7-11, McDonald's and places like that. But there's an Aikatsu! variant of The Game of Life that I kind of want... Oh God the Aiktasu! wiki says there's actually apparel from the show sold in adult sizes. Time to scour the Internet to see just how much money I'm actually willing to burn in the name of Aikatsu!, I suppose. (Try mixing carrot juice with orange juice, by the way. It works pretty well.) *** (Trivial episode 81 spoiler) Why does a school that has security guards stopping outsiders from entering have a gift shop for visitors? *** I... These aren't the characters I spent 101 episodes getting very emotionally attached to. The transition to focusing on this other set of characters was really sudden. It's not like the original cast had their character arcs wrapped up and we gently switched over to Akari and co. It's basically "Yeah, the original cast are all off doing things still, but forget them! Here's these characters now!" and that's jarring. And why? Why are we switching the focus to this new cast of characters? Why are you wounding my heart like this, Aikatsu!? Those characters, their dynamics, their growth, they're a big part of why I became so enamored with Aikatsu! in the first place. I didn't come here for a show about idols, I came here for a show about those idols. And these ain't my idols, Aikatsu!. Maybe I'll grow to like them, sure. But they'll always be the ones who inexplicably took away from me a cast I held dearly. I would've been content to watch Aikatsu! forever. But now I just don't know anymore. *** If you think you can bribe me with a fun OP and a Halloween episode that's over the legal limit for adorableness, then... you're kind of right. But while members of the... previous? Original? cast show up as side characters here and there, there's been a noticeable glaring omission: Where are any Dream Academy characters? The old ones aren't there and there haven't been any new ones taking their place. Don't think just because Starlight Academy has cuter uniforms that nobody will mind if Dream Academy mysteriously ceases to exist. I've grown to like these new characters, even if some of my favorites from before have no suitable analogue now. (Who could ever replace Otome?) And the show has the same strengths its always had, pretty much. But this transition was anything but clean. I can guess various reasons why they'd essentially reboot the series, and all of them seem cynical. (Younger cast to appeal to the younger, toy buying demographic; Ran out of ideas for where to take the show; New characters to sell new merchandise; The game changed its characters so the show had to as well, regardless of how that would disrupt the show; etc.) I still love this show. I'll still almost certainly watch it for however long it continues to run. But while point A and point B are both delightful, the way we got from the former to the latter was handled pretty terribly. Unless of course it's actually all resolved neatly and satisfactorily in the movie. Which is still an imperfect way of handling things, but it's better than the alternative. And the original characters are in the movie, so maybe that is the case. ...I really want to see the Aikatsu! movie. But of course only Love Live! is an idol anime that's a big enough deal to have its movie screened in English somewhere I could realistically go see it. There's no justice in this world, I tell you. *** "Jurius Caesar Salad." This slow clap is for you, Aikatsu!. *** I mean, I get that a point in the show literally called "Akari Generation" is going to focus on, well, Akari, but if Noel still exists in this show it's kind of weird that her sister doesn't seem to any more. Maybe if I just downloaded those partially finished subs of the movie I could learn how Dream Academy apparently vanishes into the ether. Even if Kii, Seira, Maria and Sora have just disappeared somehow, can't there be new Dream Academy characters, at least? I'm really hoping that maybe they just haven't introduced them yet because this is getting awkward. *** What did Yuu do to get this kind of treatment? She's literally only showing up occasionally to be gotten rid of so they can bring in other characters. Her whole point currently is to not be around. Yuu, if they ask you to transfer to Dream Academy, run for your life. *** pripara has figs for sale but aikatsu! doesn't I mean I kinda want to blow money on those PriPara nendos anyway, but I'd really rather I wasn't able to because I'd already spent that money buying as many Aikatsu! figs as possible. I thought they weren't making Aikatsu! figs because of the target audience. Now I have to wonder if it's just to spite me. please let me make irresponsible economic decisions, aikatsu *** (episode 139 spoiler) D-Dream Academy?! Where have you been? Why has the show kept you away for dozens of episodes? Why, if the show is finally acknowledging that you still exist, aren't there at least some new Dream Academy idols around Akari and co's age? Will we see you again? it all makes no sense but it's so ok-ok-okay to see them now Fun episode all around, too. *** You know what there hasn't been for a while? A drama audition episode. Those are fun in their exaggerated absurdity. *** (spoilers) Much earlier in the series, Aoi dismissed the idea of idols not being allowed to fall in love or date people as "old fashioned." And that was refreshing. A bit later, that stance was softened to idols not being allowed romance because an idol's love "is for everyone." Which, besides being inconsistent, was also a disappointing change in course. It's not that I'm particularly angling for romance in Aikatsu! (it really doesn't need it) but I wish they'd stood by that dismissal of a toxic real life practice instead of going on to later perpetuate it even in a form that's a bit more palatable than the real world reasoning is. The... "Ichigo Generation(?)" did a lot of things well, but that particular bit ultimately wasn't one of those things. And I think it'd feel less noxious if they hadn't handled it so well before then walking back that notion. *** So long as we're shopping Yuu out to various idol schools anyway (just how long is it going to take to fix that leak?), maybe she could do an exchange with Dream Academy? Although Dream Academy members were pretty much at Starlight all the time anyway before Akari made them disappear for so long. The return of Aikatsu8 might be a great opportunity to bring in a Dream Academy member! There are really lots of ways Dream Academy could show up more often, and the show apparently hasn't tossed them down the memory hole entirely, so why does it continue to neglect Dream Academy so? *** They apparently get paid the same no matter how much they actually say in a given episode, but having a show that was formerly steady work call you in after months to say just one word must still feel awkward, no? *** I'm not surprised that some of the characters have separate people doing the singing parts, but I'm surprised at the number who apparently don't. Also the voice of Otome was also the voice of Kumiko in Euphonium? This is the first and only role for Sumire's VA? Mikuru's VA was also Mako in Kill la Kill and Tamako in Tamako Love Story? My utter inability to recognize voice actors between roles is resulting in just constant surprises here. *** It turns out some arbitrary German in an episode of Aikatsu is from Kant's "What is Enlightenment." I mean it's surely just there for visual flair with the presumption the viewer won't have any idea what it says, but huh, odd source to randomly pull from. Also moving away from talking into one half of a book to having Aikatsu smartphones was a great change because the former sure looked silly. *** I was wondering if Daisuki was ever going to sub anything beyond the first 50 episodes, but now it seems they've pulled down all Aikatsu! episodes altogether. Welp. One of the realities of streaming video. Now the only way to see any English subbed Aikatsu! at all is piracy. Congrats, Bandai? I could see if they didn't feel it was worth the money to translate more of the show, but I'm not sure what they gain by removing the only legal avenue to watch it. The show's still available fansubbed so the world goes on, but I'm puzzled by this move. I assume they had their reasons, but heck if I can guess what they were. *** "(adult male fans are often called "Aikatsu Ojisan/Aikatsu Old Man")." That's... huh. Precure's "big friends" is certainly more flattering. Or maybe that term is more widespread? I'm admittedly not expertly versed in the phraseology of "adults who enjoy children's franchises." *** http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2016/01/05/aikatsu-ichigo-and-aoi-join-bandais-sh-figuarts-line ahhhhh how much money do you want just take it They're only like $37 each on Amiami. But I've never bought anything from Amiami, so I'm not sure what the shipping costs are like. Although the general impression I've gotten is "what you'd expect, ergo not cheap." The pictures also show a Ran fig. Why do I not see a Ran fig on Amiami. Please let me spend even more money on Aikatsu! figs. Just keep making even more I'll buy all of them. Okay my money isn't actually infinite so there's a limit to how much I can realistically spend on Aikatsu! figs. But I'm pretty prepared to make that limit "as much as possible." Are "Figuarts" considered quality figs? I mean I'll take what I can get but obviously I'd be happier if the figs were of decent quality. For $37 I only realistically expect so much. Enough realism. oh gosh release an otome fig and i'll buy it in an instant they're actually doing the thing i asked for i am too excited by the prospect of getting to own aikatsu! figs to manage any sort of grammar right now i've wanted to have some sort of decent aikatsu! merch to buy for so long now seriously i will buy an akari fig, a kii fig, a sakura fig look pretty much anything you make in this area i will want just let me give you money for this, bandai. let me give you the money i've wanted to spend on aikatsu! merch for a long time now *** Hmm. They cost a bit more on Tokyo Otaku Mode than on Ami Ami, but if I just wait for the Ran fig to be available I should hopefully be able to pre-order all three at once and get free shipping unlike on Ami Ami so I figure I'll just go with the easier option even if TOM will mean waiting a little longer to get them. I'm not experienced with Ami Ami and don't want my long-awaited chance to buy Aikatsu! figs to be when I start experimenting with that. There's a chance they might sell out if I wait too long to pre-order them, but Aikatsu! isn't a hugely popular series in the west or anything so it'll probably be fine to hold off at least until Ran's available for pre-order. I still don't know if Figuarts are considered decent quality or not but I'm super excited to get them this year. But looking at the description for the Aoi fig on TOM, I couldn't help noticing it described one of her accessories as an "eye cutlet" phone. It's not the first time I've seen this odd form of... romanization? localization? of Aikatsu's name, but the first time I've seen it used by a source this official. It's such a silly title I can't help but giggle. Even the thought process one imagines went into that is odd. "We can't call it by its Japanese name in English! How should we translate it? Yeah, just going with two unrelated English words that sound like the show's name seems like the right way to handle this." Also it says "Aikatsu!" a number of times elsewhere on that page so what the heck, dude. Anyway, as aforementioned, please keep releasing more Eye Cutlet figs and I'll keep buying them. *** Thinking about it, it's probably a machine translation. Neither Google, Babelfish nor Bing would spit out "eye cutlet" as a translation for the show's name, though. No idea what crummy/amazing service gives you "eye cutlet" as a translation of "Aikatsu!" or why an official description with otherwise fine English that refers to it a number of times as "Aikatsu!" would include such a silly machine translation of the show's name without someone noticing/caring. Regardless of how it came about, "eye cutlet" is just too silly a name for me to not like it. And, oh gosh, it seems like her eye cutlet phone is the original design where it was shaped like a book. Switching away from that was a sound move on the anime's part and I wish the fig's phone was based on the smartphone style design rather than the book one, but oh well. Also kind of surprised to read that they're only about an inch taller than a Nendo. They looked bigger than that in the pictures. The sculpt isn't stunning, but it seems alright. These things seem pretty on point for what I'd reasonably expect at their price point, with perhaps the number of accessories exceeding my expectations a bit. I'm not blown away, but I'm satisfied. My only real complaint is that there's only three I can buy. That there are now Aikatsu! figs at all has made my hopes and desire to own an Otome fig grow that much more. The truly dubious hope? Figs of Dream Academy characters. (Also, is it telling that when they chose the first characters to make figs of, they didn't choose any from the Akari generation? I'd totally still buy an Akari/Hinaki/Sumire fig, but the ones they went with definitely seem like the smarter choice.) *** Ami Ami's description cleared it up. The Aoi fig seems to come with both the book and smartphone style phone. Which would be ideal. Yay. (If you can't tell, I'm really excited about these figs.) *** Aww. They fixed the item description. This really shouldn't amuse me to the degree that it does. Maybe this is what happens when the latest Aikatsu! episode hasn't been subbed yet. Didn't have to worry about that sort of thing before I caught up with the series. Could just watch three episodes in a row! Which is part of the reason I wound up becoming current with Aikatsu!, I suppose. I want a new episode of Aikatsu! to watch. And the next movie has a BD release in about 17 days. Although it seems like it might be like that Pripara movie. That is, a thin bit of plot stringing together a bunch of repeated performances from the series. I really hope that's not the case. That'd be even more disappointing than the Pripara movie because at least the Pripara movie convinced me I really want to check out Pretty Rhythm. Figs, new episodes, movies. My Aikatsu! obsession continues to get fed quite well. *** Also figs are fun and cute/pretty but holy crap maybe don't pick up this hobby if you're not already into it. These Aikatsu figs are around $40 to pre-order (once you factor in shipping [sites like TOM offer free shipping but charge more so it generally evens out]) and that's on the cheaper end for figs. Nendos and things like this aren't cheap per se, but they're "affordable." It's not unusual at all to see some of the fancier figs retailing for about $75-150, with some of the larger/fanciest ones retailing for $200+. These little trinkets are wallet vampires and you'll only ever want more of them. And dolls? Oh man, forget it. There's some "cheap" dolls for $150 I'd consider as an extravagance, but prices of $400-600+ are what you can expect for stuff like Volks and even up to four figures for some things. I can totally justify spending around $120-130 on three Aikatsu! figs. Multiple hundreds for one doll is a little rich for my blood. But maybe your financial situation is quite a bit more comfortable than mine in which case buy whatever collectibles you want, I guess. why am i picking up an expensive hobby like this ugh (but figs are just so neat) *** And, of course, don't forget cleaning your figs and figuring out how to display them. Display cases are an extra expense, and you're going to need to keep those somewhere which means you need to either have or get furniture to accommodate them. You could keep them in their boxes but you still have to store those somewhere and now you don't get to actually display your fig. Figs are expensive, inconvenient little paperweights that don't even have much practical use. They're great. (Crunchyroll has Ichigo and Aoi as part of their current daily deal. I'd save about $7.50, too. But I've heard plenty of negative experiences about buying figs from them and then I'd still have to find a way to buy Ran later without getting stuck paying an arm and a leg in shipping costs. Well, even if "where" and "when" remains in question, there's at least no question of "if.") Also, I've seen some comparisons and Figurarts quality seems... okay? Not "good" or "great," but acceptable. The quality doesn't seem on par with similarly priced Figma releases, which is annoying, and some people report getting Figurarts releases with paint defects which is troubling. But everything seems to boil down to "these could be better" rather than "avoid 'em." Also maybe I should get some Figmas whenever Aikatsu! figs stop eating up my figure budget. They seem nice. *** So I was gonna maybe point out that the latest Aikatsu 8 went nowhere at all and gripe a bit about the current state of the show. But then I caught wind of some rumors. Rumors that Aikatsu! was gonna end soon. There're further claims that this will lead to a timeskip and a new series. And if that's true, that's a bit more significant than elaborating on why Aikatsu!'s started to feel like "idol Bleach." you can't take my Aikatsu! from me I know. This series has gotten far more episodes than most do. But I want infinite Aikatsu! so I would probably never be okay with the show ending. A timeskip wouldn't be the end of the world, but the timeskip is rumored to be for a significant chunk of time and as kinda poorly defined as the character arcs in the Akari generation have been, they certainly don't feel like they're near a conclusion (the rumors claim the end will come within a couple of months). So... they're just gonna ditch all of this and try to start fresh? They kinda did that with the Akari generation and it didn't go great. This would just be an even worse way to abandon things and try that. And then there's the nature of what Aikatsu! Stars even winds up being. Is it a full-length show in the Aikatsu universe? Is it a series of shorts? Is it, as some suggest, partly a variety show? Or none of the rumors are true at all. It's a wild time in the world of Aikatsu!, I tell you. *** Oh, and there's a new rumor about Aikatsu! getting licensed in the US, but that sort of rumor's floated around for a while and the backing behind this latest one isn't particularly strong. Assume it's false until there's some kind of official announcement, I'd say. The rumors around Aikatsu! Stars have what seems like much more solid backing. While not official yet, there's at least reason to pay attention to these claims. (The Aikatsu! wiki is satisfyingly more active than I expected.) To bring up Love Live! for just a moment, they gave their character's arcs a fully sensible conclusion before transitioning into a new generation of characters to try to keep their money train going. I don't see why Aikatsu! can't manage the same. (If somehow the new Love Live! were to bomb they could probably find a way to bring back the original cast but whatever, this is about Aikatsu! and I don't care much about Love Live!, so I'll not pursue that thought any further.) If there's to be a positive about this I'd like to believe that a reboot and third generation with a new academy and everything can give them a chance to course correct and make this more like the first 100 episodes of Aikatsu! but I'm rather skeptical about that. I liked Pripara and that made me figure I should check out Aikatsu!, which wound up completely outshining Pripara and enrapturing me. But lately Pripara has seemed more focused and together than Aikatsu! and it's not because Pripara suddenly got stronger. urgh i need more official details *** "Grown Woman has Strong Feelings About Child's Idol Anime" *** "Hey IssacandAsimov, we heard you wanted an Otome fig, so we made one! By the way, it's a limited edition release that's exclusive to one online shop in Japan that doesn't ship internationally. You're welcome!" Why do you want to hurt me, Bandai? Time to get gouged on the secondary market! At least ordering Ichigo and Ran was simple enough, and Aoi should be as well when she gets to join them. I'm not sure I can financially justify paying whatever blood money people will be asking for that Otome fig and buying the alternate costume releases of the Soleil members, so it's a pretty easy choice to prioritize the former. And it wouldn't have to be a choice of Bandai saw fit to give the Otome fig a standard release, but alas. Why yes, the inconvenience I'm facing trying to buy an anime figure is a serious and meaningful problem. (Okay, no, but it's still annoying. She's my favorite character, dude!) *** These are the tiniest little Aikatsu! cards, holy crap. It's like they were designed to be lost. "S.H. Figuarts is a new standard figure series that incorporates the Bandai action figure 'Art' under the theme 'Pursuing Character Expression through Humanoid Action.'" Now that's a catchy motto. The instructions have English for all the little warning signs that seem to suggest "You'll break this thing if you ever touch it," and the rest is in Japanese. I'm not sure why there's any English at all if it's gonna be like that, but I guess I'll take what I can get. I can't read all these kanji, man. I can read the hiragana telling me there's supposed to be a rice scoop and the katakana telling me there's a clip for the stand, but that's about where my skills end. I mean this is what I signed up for when I bought a Japanese figure and it's not like it's actually that complicated, but when Good Smile is including English instructions these days I do wish a little that Bandai had followed their lead. No really these Aikatsu! cards are smaller than my pinky's fingernail. Writing "do not misplace" in the instructions isn't going to make actually doing that any easier. I still feel Nendoroids would've been preferable, but Figuarts releases still beat no Aikatsu! figs. I'll get more Aikatsu! Figuarts releases because they're Aikatsu!, but I don't know that I'd want to get Figuarts releases for other series. At least not when I could either go with Good Smile Company for quality at this level, or spring for a fancy statue or something. It's not that Figuarts is unacceptable, it's just that there're better figs I could buy if they're not the only source for a series that's dear to me. *** I found a review of the figure on the Aikatsu! wiki and the author took a picture of one of the cards on her fingernail. I'm not exaggerating about how tiny these things are. With Ran and Aoi each coming with minuscule cards of their own, these'll sure be fun to keep track of. *** I was watching a Japanese unboxing video of the Ichigo fig, as one does, and pretty much the first thing they brought up was how tiny the cards were. Truly a universal reaction. At one point she was holding them in her hand and comparing them to an actual Aikatsu! card and she had to stifle laughter over just how tiny they were. Also it's kind of telling how there's two versions of the members of Soleil plus an Otome and Yurika release without even a mention of any Luminas members or anyone else from the Akari generation. I'd still buy them, though. And probably some Aikatsu! Stars figures if those ever happened. Just... just give my money a chance to breathe between releases, maybe.

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And as I kept taking furtive glances at the void, I could swear it was starting to glance back, (Maybe that's where Dream Academy went?), "Eye Cutlet", FA2012 And as I kept taking furtive glances at the void, I could swear it was starting to glance back, (Maybe that's where Dream Academy went?), "Eye Cutlet", FA2012

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Add - More Aikatsu! Music Award: Minna de Shou wo MoracchaimaShow! I will never get to see this film in gimmicky 3D and that pains me. Also, wait, are... are those Dream Academy members in the trailer? Where has the show been keeping you? Do you need someone to call for help?

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Add - More Aikatsu!: Nerawareta Mahou no Aikatsu! Card

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Add - More Aiura I- No, really, who is the audience for these things? Who keeps putting up money for things like this? Does something like this really move enough manga volumes to make it worth it? Well, it doesn't seem like a big investment, so I guess it doesn't need a big result. *** ...And then I figure I might as well make the most of my CR guest pass and watch this. And it was pretty much what I expected from that first episode (but you have to give everything the three episode test, right?).

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(Score applies to both cours as a collective whole.), WI2016 (Score applies to both cours as a collective whole.), WI2016

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Add - More Akira Akira's one of those titles I've seen too long ago to fairly rate.

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Add - More Alice Gear Aegis: Doki! Actress Darake no Mermaid Grand Prix♥

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A fever dream of an anime A fever dream of an anime

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Add - More Alice to Zouroku I get that MAL reviews are terrible as a rule, but seeing a review for this series where the user watched less than half of the first episode is only a small step above those times people have submitted reviews for shows before they even started airing. There are threads to discuss individual episodes of shows! Why are you posting reviews for entire one or two cour series based off of one episode? What makes you think your reaction to a show's first episode is that important? It would be swell if it wasn't even possible to submit a review until at least the minimum point specified in the review guidelines. Maybe it'd get some people to think about why that is. But probably not. (this show itself is okay i guess)

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Add - More Alien 9 Does wanting to punch a child in the face make me a bad person? I kid (mostly), but the MC is arguably one of the worst characters I have ever seen in anime. She spends almost the entire series crying, whining and feeling sorry for herself. The other characters are equally one dimensional (you can actually just place them right into "happy," "ambivalent," and "sad.") Aside from looking like garbage, the show is underwhelming at everything else as well. It doesn't have a plot so much as a setting. There are no developments, after all. Characters don't progress, we don't learn anything of significance about them, nothing of value happens with the existence of aliens (they're just there and presumably continue to be there). Maybe it's because the whole series is so poorly written that I never bought their friendship for an instant. Every second of it seemed pained and forced, as though they were only hanging out because they "should." Yet from a few clues I get the feeling that the intent was that they genuinely got along. What a complete failure of character relations. It's not "unwatchable," but "horrible" fits it pretty well, so 2 it is.

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Add - More Amaama to Inazuma If this is a series of shorts I'll still be glad to have animated Sweetness and Lightning, but it will break my heart a bit. Sweetness and Lightning is basically "What if we took a number of things IssacandAsimov likes a bunch, put them all in one thing and then executed it pretty well," so I'll take as much of this as I can get. What I'm wondering is if the anime will adapt parts of the manga that haven't been translated yet. But at 12 episodes, it'd basically have to either be moving through more than three chapters per episode or just not following the manga's order religiously. So it's possible, but probably not. Just means there's enough material for a second season, right? (Please.) Also you should try making some of the recipes from Sweetness and Lightning if you have access to the ingredients. The couple I've tried have been good! (Oh gosh this is airing in the same season as an Amanchu adaptation. I'm gonna miss Flying Witch but I'll be in good hands come summer, it seems.) **** gjoaihjiogaghjggobi holy crap it's sweetness and lightning but like with color and sound and it's moving and oh man it's bringing me up just to bring me down and back up ag- Hi. My name is IssacandAsimov, and I really like Sweetness and Lightning in both manga and, now and thus far, anime form. *** It's too bad they don't include a little image at the end with the recipe like the manga does. As aforementioned, they're tasty recipes you should try. But if you're watching this show legally on CR, then you should just be able to read the recipes in the manga on there simply enough. (Or you could buy the physical volume releases, I suppose.) Also with the pace this is going at there's no way this catches up with where the translated manga is at. Also also: It's real good. *** You can't fool me, Sweetness and Lightning! I know there's enough remaining manga for a second cour. So the show's not really just over like this, right? Right?

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Add - More Amanchu! "I'll be in your chair" and "Hitchikari's Guide to the Galaxy" clearly indicate a willingness to localize a bit, so then why leave Dotty's nickname as "Teko?" It's not that it's not the name "Dotty" as used in the scanlations, it's that the nickname hasn't been localized at all and is just sort of nonsense to an English speaker. "Pikari" was kept although some attempt was made to have it make sense as a shortening of names that are intelligible to an English speaker, even if the exact original meaning would be lost without a little basic Japanese knowledge because that's the nature of Japanese wordplay, after all. But "Teko" barely got the same luxury. I get that it's difficult to make a perfect localization of a nickname based on Japanese wordplay, but that doesn't make an utter lack of an attempt any better. Although the name "Pikachu" wasn't localized and that thing got its own float in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade over here. Still nicer to be able to understand than to not be able to understand, though. (Though changing the name from "Freezer" to "Articuno" for a silly "uno," "dos," "tres" pun was fine, apparently. Also, why does Articuno have its own Wikipedia page?)

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Add - More Android Ana Maico 2010 I just read the synopsis of the original manga on Wikipedia, and boy, that sounds a little different from this. (It's probably for the best.)

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Actually, she's a gynoid. There's a key difference between the two, you know., SP1998 Actually, she's a gynoid. There's a key difference between the two, you know., SP1998

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Add - More Angel Beats! Specials Without MALgraph, I don't think I'd have ever noticed that an entry that had only one episode for roughly four years suddenly gained a second. It continues to be a rather handy site. Also, more Angel Beats!. Yay? I mean, there's nothing wrong with that, but man it's been a while. And the only addition to this series that would truly get me interested is something that would properly flesh it out. One more special is hard to greet with anything more than "Oh, alright." It's unexpected, sure, but it's not particularly exciting. I'd almost want to ask why they'd even bother, but of course they're doing it to promote something or other which is a valid enough reason. I'm really trying to care but I just don't know that I can.

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Add - More Angel Densetsu I wonder if this is saved or hindered by being short? It's funny enough for a brief stint, but the one joke already began to wear thin after two episodes. It appeared they had future plot developments planned, but I guess they couldn't get the budget to make it or whatever. That's the nature of OVAs. It's short enough that you might as well. Don't expect anything great, but it's good for a quick laugh.

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Add - More Ani ni Tsukeru Kusuri wa Nai!

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Add - More Animation Seisaku Shinkou Kuromi-chan (I'm going to sleep now. I'll tend to this part some other time.)

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Add - More Anne Happy♪ Now I enjoy myself some bad puns, and generally favor whatever the localized title is, but "Anne Happy" is pushing being too groanworthy even for me.

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Add - More Ano Natsu de Matteru (Spoilers) So this is close enough to over that I feel I can break down part of what is so wrong with this show. Ano Natsu is, above all else, character driven. I'm sure there's someone out there protesting "No! I watch it to see how their movie turns out!" but let's be realistic. There is only a shell of a plot, just enough to give the characters a raison d'etre. But these characters just aren't interesting. They're all one dimensional. Kai is your generic no personality viewer insert defined only by being an irrelevant nothing and a little bit lecherous. This of course gets two women to fall in love with him, just like real relationships don't work. So why is Kai in love with what's-her-name? The only reasoning we ever seem to get is that it's because she has red hair and big breasts. I'm sure their relationship will go places built on a foundation as solid as that. And the blue haired one (I haven't bothered memorizing most of their names because I just can't bring myself to care about them), why is she in love with Kai? Because even though he lost his parents, he can still smile. Are we supposed to gather that her turn-on is sociopathy? Considering this is apparently enough for her to remain in love with him for several years and cry bitterly with angst when, surprise, Kai goes for the woman he spends all his time with instead of the one who was too timid to ever express any interest in him, it's hard to decide what to make of it. Simply a teenage flight of fancy? Is blue hair socially maladjusted (they all are, actually)? Who knows, and who cares? Because it's not like her cause is somehow shallower than any of other meaningless interpersonal relationships on display. That's the thing. All of these characters are surface deep. Absolutely nothing lurks below. Blue hair is a generic "I love MC but I'm too timid to act on it," breasts is just an excuse to shoehorn in fanservice and moe (her reason for attraction is also very shallow, of course), Lemon is just there to serve as a prod (and maybe appeal to the DFC crowd), and so on. You can't care about these characters. They're paper thin. So when you have interactions between them, they can only ever fall flat. And when the crux of the show is their relationships, the show itself must inherently fall flat as a result. Contrast this to LOGH, another show I'm currently watching. I'm not going to put spoilers to that here, but I was excited at just the mere prospect of two particular characters meeting one another. And when it finally did happen, it was so very rewarding. That's because those characters actually have some depth. LOGH isn't perfect, but it's a handy, recent example for me of a show that, when contrasted with Ano Natsu, reveals just how terrible Ano Natsu's character relations truly are. (You could look at other titles like Cowboy Bebop, of course, but I don't need to list every title that handles this better in order to make my point). There are other issues with Ano Natsu, but this is the most crucial one. This show is terrible. (I wrote that after 10 episodes. After 12, don't worry, it only got worse.)

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Add - More Ano Natsu de Matteru: Bokutachi wa Koukou Saigo no Natsu wo Sugoshinagara, Ano Natsu de Matteiru. I wonder if this is the longest named thing on my list. Anyway, this show still isn't very good.

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Add - More Another This series really, really wants to be a horror anime, only its understanding of "horror" is something it heard second hand. Hey guys, creepy dolls! That's scary, right? And look how unnatural everyone is acting! Ooh, so unnerving! And then (spoilers?) comes the violent deaths! Whoa! Anime Final Destination! That's the transition point. It goes from "Hey guys, it's a horror anime. You get that, right?" to "So how's someone going to die this week?" right before ending with "Here's the big twist! Only it's obvious to the characters in the show, just not to you the viewer. Also we violate our own plot rules. Who needs to be consistent?" I'd totally watch a horror anime. This just failed to be one, no matter how hard it tried. Don't bother with this one. Fansub Group: Underwater

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Add - More Another: The Other - Inga Why? A bunch of meaningless, pandering moe fanservice preceding Another's typical death teases all topped off with a death completely out of character for the series (which so prided itself on bombastic, unintentionally humorous deaths). The only thing creepy about this is some of the more egregious fanservice. This is all so much nothing. While Another wasn't good, this OVA is incredibly lazy. (Commie's karaoke subs are really ostentatious, too. Did they use that for the main series? Simple karaoke subs really are the best.)

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Add - More Aoharu x Kikanjuu: Kemono-tachi no Senjou da na!

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Add - More Aoi Hana (spoilers) Much like Wandering Son, Aoi Hana just sort of drifts along, not seeming to aim towards anything, no regard for the three-act structure, just a work being true to the moniker "slice of life." There was never going to be a feeling of resolution, merely an experience. Ergo, I can kind of accept that sort of ending in this case (although it's perhaps more that this only adapts ~3 volumes of an 8+ volume manga, but it almost works). A strength that Wandering Son had (arguably more so in the manga) was a greater sense of realism. Oh, sure, it was still idealistic in some important areas, but it was so true to the feelings of alienation, depression, shame and anxiety that society causes many a trans*/queer youth to experience that the mangaka must've either experienced it herself or spoken with those who have. Most LGBT anime (and manga that I know of), on the contrary, seem to exist in a rather idealistic reality wherein homophobia and transphobia are nonentities. If only. Aoi Hana, alas, falls into that camp. That doesn't stop those series from being perfectly fine anime, but it severely hampers their ability to be particularly relevant LGBT anime. But does this still leave a good anime? In ways. The watercolorish art style is fetching, for example, and the animation delivers where it needs to, but the show doesn't really ask much of it. The real crux is the character interactions. And it's much like (at least early) Wandering Son here: Nobody gets to truly enjoy happiness, people are at odds and always some personal issue away from getting along. It's a drama, after all. Which gets at the point that Aoi Hana certainly lives up to its genre conventions, but rarely transcends them. The interactions feel somewhat overdramatic, but are largely believable, yet characters do not quite seem to grow. Well, right up until the very last moment of the show, that is, but it's a little late by that point. Their situations fluctuate but the characters remain largely stagnant. The romance is typical other than the superficial difference, but decently executed while simultaneously under-explored. Attractions and dissolutions of said attraction feel natural, but with so much left hanging it comes across as somewhat vapid. I'd suspect this gets further delved into in the source material, but this isn't the source material, so no dice. You get what feels like the start of a lot of things and then the anime ends. Hope you enjoyed your fancy commercial for the manga. A decent, pretty start to an okay, slightly sloppy romance drama. A low seven.

7

TV

11

SU2009 SU2009

93

Add - More Aoi Heya

-

Music

1

94

Add - More Appleseed (Movie)

-

Movie

1

95

Add - More Arete Hime

-

Movie

1

96

Add - More Ari Ningen Monogatari

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Movie

1

97

Add - More Aria the Animation (I don't even have a rough estimate of what I'd rate this yet.)

-

TV

13

FA2005 FA2005

98

Add - More Aria the Avvenire

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Special

3

99

Add - More Aria the Benedizione

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Movie

1

100

Add - More Aria the Crepuscolo

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Movie

1

101

Add - More Aria the Natural I think I kind of like Aria? I don't know. Guess I'll just have to watch a third season, right? I can't even begin to settle on a score for this season, either. All below was written prior. *** All this time later and I still can't even come up with a ballpark score for the first season of Aria, but I've at least finally decided that I suppose I want to watch a second season of it. Take from that what you will.

-

TV

26

SP2006 SP2006

102

Add - More Aria the Natural: Sono Futatabi Deaeru Kiseki ni... I probably should've watched this before the second season. Whoops!

-

Special

1

103

Add - More Aria the Origination

-

TV

13

WI2008 WI2008

104

Add - More Aria the Origination Picture Drama

-

Special

7

105

Add - More Aria the Origination: Sono Choppiri Himitsu no Basho ni... I usually just factor things like this into the score of the main season rather than rating them separately, but this stands so far above the rest of Aria up to this point that I'm half-tempted to just give it a 9 or 10 on its own to acknowledge its outstanding performance because it hardly seems fair to its strength to lump it in with the other episodes. But then, I'd give that same score to Kittan Zero and that just gets factored into the collective score for TTGL Parallel Works 2 all the same. Well, I'll have to think about it. But holy crap, man, just out of nowhere Aria suddenly got incredible. Why isn't it always like this?

-

Special

1

An exemplary entry in the franchise. An exemplary entry in the franchise.

106

Add - More Aria the OVA: Arietta

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OVA

1

107

Add - More Aru Machi Kado no Monogatari

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Movie

1

108

Add - More Aru Tabibito no Nikki

7

ONA

6

109

Add - More Aru Tabibito no Nikki Specials

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Special

3

110

Add - More Arve Rezzle: Kikaijikake no Yousei-tachi Not even an E for effort. Arve Rezzle feels like somebody outlined an anime series and then was told they had to put all of that into one episode. This works as well as you'd think. Ideas are trotted out and then just left abandoned. Any given event barely qualifies as leading to those which follow it. The plot, so slapdash in its execution, offers no reward for those willing to follow its scarcely cogent developments. "Full of sound and fury," and so forth. Think of your typical anime series as a meal. Now consider what would happen if you put that meal into a blender and reduced it down to an unpalatable paste where it becomes difficult to even distinguish various ingredients from one another. That's Arve Rezzle. The animation isn't terrible and... that's actually about it. I can't figure out what else salvages this list of bullet points in anime form. But it does seem like there could be an interesting concept here for an actual full series. Although it should drop the whole tacked on incest vibe that isn't contributing anything other than itself. Do be a bit more opaque about your pandering to the consumers, especially when you're already being funded by the government in the first place. It's pretty embarrassing that the same budget that could produce Little Witch Academia was squandered on something like this. A very low 2 that's peering right into 1 territory. Your finite time deserves better than this.

2

Movie

1

111

Add - More Asagao to Kase-san.

-

OVA

1

112

Add - More Asatte no Houkou.

7

TV

12

FA2006 FA2006

113

Add - More Asience: Kami wa Onna no Inochi It's just a commercial. I'm not rating or reviewing a commercial. It's only here because, well, I have indeed seen it.

-

CM

1

114

Add - More Asobi Asobase chrome's spell check doesn't even recognize the word "transphobia" cooool awesome to see anime continue to kind of get that trans women exist but also totally not understand them and also take it as a given that they're gross/perverts/jokes while insisting that they're "actually" boys totally never gets old (it's of course actually awful just like all the anime fans who not only readily gulp down such representations without questioning them, but rather actually celebrating them anime fans are bad) *** "Oh? But it's fine when they make jokes about foreigners?" if you can't tell the difference between this show's jokes about Olivia being white and straight up trans panic being used as a "joke", then you might be an anime fan! there's a difference between joking about something vs turning that subject into a joke there are jokes that derive from olivia being white but the joke is never the fact that she's white. it's never how gross or awful or dangerous or illegitimate white people are but the joke about trans women was "they exist" and the panic was "one might be among us?!" which the show never questioned because it agreed with that view the jokes about olivia aren't racist but that segment sure was transphobic and it really says something about anyone who has tried to equate the two

6

TV

12

"I'M YELLING AND OVERREACTING JUST LIKE A YOUTUBER LOL", "ha ha it's funny because transphobia", SU2018 "I'M YELLING AND OVERREACTING JUST LIKE A YOUTUBER LOL", "ha ha it's funny because transphobia", SU2018

115

Add - More Asobi Asobase Specials

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Special

2

116

Add - More Assemble Insert Assemble Insert is inoffensive, basically. Just this little puff of attempted silliness with very little weight behind it. The plot doesn't feel like it's really supposed to make any more sense than it does, instead expecting the viewer to simply take it at face value. You've got characters that are only sort of there, some loose series of events you could argue constitues a plot, lighthearted but not particularly amusing or interesting dialogue, animation that doesn't seem to be too lively. You get the spirit of it but you can't help feeling there wasn't all that much actual effort put into this. It's not awful, but rather seems like this hazy mix of ambitions that never quite pans out. So stunted and disoriented that it's hard to really elaborate upon its details. A low 4. While not terrible, it's lack of anything particularly compelling makes it not worth your time.

4

OVA

2

117

Add - More Atama Yama

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Movie

1

118

Add - More Attraction It's a dumb ad and, thanks to being Flash, a part of it glitched so terribly that I had to just skip through it. A loud, obnoxious noise persisted through the rest of the ad and drowned out the dialogue. Unwatchable indeed.

1

ONA

1

119

Add - More Aura: Maryuuin Kouga Saigo no Tatakai

2

Movie

1

120

Add - More Awake A bunch of naked little girls, monsters, robots shooting missiles and explosions. That's pretty anime right there.

-

Special

2

121

Add - More Aya Hito Shiki to Iu na no Ishi Hata

-

ONA

1

122

Add - More Azumanga Daiou The Animation (It's not like this series is ineffable. Just have to get in the right frame of mind to write my thoughts on it. Maybe even watch it again for the first time in nearly ten years.) So I've been slowly doing exactly that. Still just as great as ever, by the way. *** And that covers that. Now I just have to succinctly explain why this is really just that perfect. Easy. (Since when was perfectness anything but an all-or-nothing deal, anyway?) *** Cool to see I'll apparently never get around to writing about why Azumanga Daioh is great. Oh well~ But going back to the original fansub release I watched like 13 years ago or so was, I guess "revealing" would be the word. The video quality was crap, the subtitles were a bit dubious, even at one point adding in an honorific that wasn't in the actual dialogue and the whole thing felt like a release that just wouldn't be accepted now on any level. Yet some people still praise that release as being an example of a great fansubbing effort. Which it's not. That release is nostalgic to me and probably some others, but there have been better releases of Azumanga Daioh since. By all means, unless you have some special attachment to the NLA&Ishin&A-F/Triad release of Azumanga Daioh, get yourself a version that looks and sounds better. Now southern accent dubbed Osaka, on the other hand.... *** I was wondering if Azumanga Daioh would be okay to recommend to someone looking to try out anime and, like many who answer that question, found myself thinking "No, it's perhaps too 'anime' for a first show." But then, this was the first show I completed and I'm still watching these cartoons over a decade later. And it made me realize that when people ask about where to start with anime, we anime fans tend to treat them less as someone curious about a medium they haven't explored and more like scared, sheltered children who would be terrified of anything new to them or alien to their culture. And thus the whole "What's an anime that's safely 'western' enough to not be scary?" is a bit of a patronizing stance to take. What we're ultimately saying when we suggest "This won't be too 'anime' for you!" is "Here you go, you closedminded idiot! You wanted to try something new, but I don't think you can handle that! We wouldn't want to challenge you to accepting anything more novel than animation itself!" And that's silly and insulting. When you see people talking about their first anime, you see a wide array of shows, plenty of which common opinion would insist are just too much for these potential first-timers to stomach. I'm gonna stop worrying that a show might be too "anime" and you should probably do the same. I don't know how or when the supposed "Well, Cowboy Bebop was alright so I guess I like anime. Now I can handle all its tropes!" jump is supposed to occur. There's a difference between "I like this anime" and "I like anime" and it's fine if the former never turns into the latter. But at some point, if they choose to explore anime further, they're gonna be confronted with twin-tailed tsunderes, sexualized little girls, Japanese folklore and any other aspect you might've been worried would be too alien and they're either gonna be okay with that or they won't. You're only delaying that inevitability. You might introduce specific, individual anime titles they enjoy, but for someone looking to get into anime as a thing, they're gonna have to confront anime as a thing. And trying to steer them away from that isn't really answering their request.

10

TV

26

SP2002 SP2002

123

Add - More Azumanga Daiou: Gekijou Tanpen

-

Special

1

124

Add - More Azumanga Web Daiou

-

ONA

1

125

Add - More Azusa, Otetsudai Shimasu!

-

TV Special

1

126

Add - More a_caFe

-

Music

1

127

Add - More ◯

-

ONA

1

128

Add - More B-gata H-kei Lines that aren't subbed? Check. Typos? Check. Putting your own subs over Funimation's hardsubbed translation of a song so that it's unreadable? Check. Bright yellow font that's a nightmare to read and all but impossible to read if it's ever over a bright background? Check. Sub-BD video quality? Check.* Why aren't people watching all of their anime on Netflix, I wonder? *(This is a point that seems to confuse a lot of people. They see that Crunchyroll/Netflix are 1080p and Blurays are 1080p, so they're both the same, right? No. Just because they're the same resolution does not mean they're the same video quality. At all. "Super HD" is an improvement, but still not close to actual Bluray levels of quality. Check out the obvious banding in the opening to an episode of House of Cards and you'll see exactly what I mean.) *** The fourth episode had dozens of unsubbed lines. This isn't me nitpicking. This is a significant failure in providing the basic promised functionality. I hardly think I'm being overly demanding when I say this is something Netflix needs to fix. Their subs for this series are in a terrible state of disrepair.

4

TV

12

Netflix is a really underwhelming option for anime., SP2010 Netflix is a really underwhelming option for anime., SP2010

129

Add - More B-Project: Kodou*Ambitious "Artists and repertoire (A&R) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists and songwriters. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label or publishing company; every activity involving artists to the point of album release is generally considered under the purview, and responsibility, of A&R." Thanks, Wikipedia! *** (spoilers) W-what? Humans wrote that ending, animated it, looked over it, directed it and nobody stopped it from happening. "Your father killed my family." He did what now? How? Why is there no further elaboration on this? Why is it only being brought up minutes before the end of the series? Why did this series undergo a very sudden and dramatic shift in tone? Why did you establish about a half-dozen plot threads in one episode to never resolve? Why any of this? Gee whiz, dude. This may not be at quite the same level as Master of Martial Hearts, but this ending practically felt randomly generated rather than actually consciously written. I struggle for words. And it's so out of left field, too. I mean part of it is that it comes across as very rushed, sure, but there are parts of it that no matter how much time they were given just aren't supported by the previous 11 episodes of material. Great googly moogly that's one terribly written episode of a show.

4

TV

12

SU2016 SU2016

130

Add - More B.B. Fish

2

OVA

1

131

Add - More Baa-cha no Kingyo

-

Movie

1

132

Add - More Baby Princess 3D Paradise 0 [Love] An incestuous and pedophilia-rife harem? Oh boy! This is one of the more ridiculous fanservice things I've seen, I'll give it that. If only for the sheer number of concubines the MC has from such a range of ages (right down to, horrifyingly, a baby) and personality types. Something for everyone! Why can't all of these things at least be at High School DXD's quality level? (I accidentally put this in the tags at first. Apparently there's a character limit for that.)

2

OVA

1

133

Add - More Baby Steps

6

TV

25

SP2014 SP2014

134

Add - More Baby Steps 2nd Season Over five hours since the latest episode of this "premiered" on CR and it won't play on their Roku app at all. The only thing aberrant about this is that it's longer than usual. In contrast, I checked Funimation's Roku app for the latest episode of Gangsta. about 10 minutes after it was scheduled to come out. It was fully available at all resolutions. If Funimation can do that, why can't CR?

6

TV

25

SP2015 SP2015

135

Add - More Baccano! (minor spoilers) Yay! Freed from the shackles of another academic semester! (I know it's a privilege to go to college and I actually enjoy it for the most part. But term papers still aren't fun!) Now to write about a bad cartoon. You know what? I saw in this all the reasons I dropped Durarara, and wouldn't you know it? It's also a Brain's Base show. I'm starting to suspect that's not just a coincidence. (MALgraph tells me I'm apparently none too fond of that studio.) Baccano became painful to watch. So many barely developed characters with shallow personalities, plot points that went nowhere*, loose plot threads, poor attempts at style, ugh. *I know the specials talk about how "stories don't need an end," but that's not what I mean. I'll give it that it's not just a schizophrenic mess, but it struggles massively with the intercutting timelines style of narrative. Again, this is bad directing. Not that they had a very interesting story to work with, mind you. Action gets cut into far too frequently because they don't know how to properly pace themselves. And that "action" is tedious, lazily choreographed, and visually uninteresting. Fights that could be interesting are dull to the eye. The dialogue is weak and stilted. The music is lackluster. A particular letdown when I had heard it described as superior to Cowboy Bebop's. But that was just one person's opinion, after all. You see, a show about prohibition era NYC ought to be interesting. But leave it to Brain's Base to give us a mix of uninteresting one-note characters. Most of them get so little time and development that you'll struggle to even remember who's who. They're basically interchangeable. There's some faint hints of relations between some of them, but it's all so much so what. And the plot point about the immortals? Ultimately irrelevant. There are two characters they try to use for comedy, but it's so forced and unfunny. So, full disclosure: I watched the dub. Have these people ever heard actual NY accents? For someone with a lot of relatives in and exposure to the city, hearing these was painful. They were such overdone accents that when one character had what was clearly a Jersey accent, I wasn't even sure if that was deliberate or just because the VA didn't know any better. This show was a letdown. I had heard good things about it everywhere. It didn't live up to those claims.

2

TV

13

SP2007 SP2007

136

Add - More Baccano! Specials A bit of useless background and sidestory for a main plot I never enjoyed in the first place. No thanks.

2

Special

3

137

Add - More Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

7

TV

13

WI2010 WI2010

138

Add - More Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!

7

TV

13

SU2011 SU2011

139

Add - More Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!: Mahou Hideyoshi Hideyoshi

-

Special

1

140

Add - More Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Specials

-

Special

6

141

Add - More Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Matsuri Seeing this is a reminder that despite their latest efforts, Silver Link is indeed capable of churning out something that's alright. The influence from being ex-Shaft members works, aesthetically, to the comedy's benefit in Bakatest, too. Bakatest is easy to compare to Kore wa Zombie as both are fanservicey (Zombie admittedly more so), dumb, silly comedies that aren't great, but work alright as fluff if you just want something fun. Both have trivial, almost irrelevant plots, as well. Bakatest is probably the better balanced show of the two. Bakatest doesn't deliver any moments that prompt big laughs, but it's enough to remain amused. It's of the same calibre as the aforementioned Kore wa Zombie, of a Haganai, of Hyakko, but a bit less than other 7 rated shows like Yuru Yuri. Bakatest keeps things visually interesting which helps freshen up low-level comedy bolstered by characters that range from sort of boring to actually fun. It's not a particularly even series, but while it has noticeable weaknesses, Bakatest is thoroughly okay. It's not the sort of show you most look forward to in a season, but it's definitely the sort you at least don't drop. Whether you'd want to go back and marathon it is questionable, but not outrageous if this sort of show really suits your taste. Personally, I'd rather have more at the same level as Galaxy Angel, but barring that, Bakatest is acceptable.

7

OVA

2

142

Add - More Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Matsuri - Sentaku ni Yotte Tenkai ga Kawaru "LIPS Eizou"

-

ONA

1

143

Add - More Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Matsuri - Sentakushi Ikou nomi

-

Special

6

144

Add - More Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Mondai - Christmas ni Tsuite Kotae Nasai

-

ONA

1

145

Add - More Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu: Spinout! Sore ga Bokura no Nichijou

-

Special

6

146

Add - More Bakemono no Ko

-

Movie

1

"The Boy and the Beast" "The Boy and the Beast"

147

Add - More Bakemonogatari (I know I've committed otaku heresy again. I have my reasons, and I'll type them later.)

6

TV

15

SU2009 SU2009

148

Add - More Bakuman. (spoilers, I guess) "That story's so dumb, only a woman could've come up with such sentimental pap!" "A girl I've never spoken to before is mutually into me and agreed to marry me if I become successful! All I need to know is that she's physically attractive! This is poor even for the logic of a 14-year-old, but the show doesn't even seem to be questioning it!" "I, your mom, said you shouldn't become a manga artist. But your dad said this was men's business and I can't override what a man says! Aren't I naggy?" "Your dream girl is way better than some woman who can study well or has distinguishing characteristics. She's pretty and doesn't stand out, and we all know women are meant to be seen, not heard!" "Look at how physically attractive her mom is at 42! That means she'll probably be that physically attractive at 42 as well! And as was already established, her looks are the most important thing there is. She's gonna be a great trophy to win!" gee whiz There's a bit of a trend here, Bakuman. A terrible trend. I want to ask you to please stop but I doubt you will. What this reveals about the author's view of women is embarrassing. *** It doesn't take much to get Google to offer to autocomplete my search to "Bakuman misogyny," a search that returns a plethora of results noting more of the same that I've already encountered. Heartening. *** "Hey, your mom here to nag you some more because I'm a women, am I right, fellas? and oh hold up one of the family's patriarchs cut me off by telling me to get him more food." And to think the worship of Shounen Jump isn't the most eye-roll inducing thing in this show. If only, huh? But I see this facet of the show indeed has no intentions of ever letting up. Yay~ *** And while crummy in and of itself, this damages other aspects of the show. If you expect the viewer to care about a romance, you also have to give them reason to care about the two(+) people involved in said romance. Even the most bargain-basement harem series gives their lot of female or male characters at least one personality quirk because this is something that's quite obvious and basic. When you go out of your way to establish that a character's only distinguishing trait is that they have no distinguishing traits and render them void as an actual person such that their character exists solely to be an avatar of the concept of "conventionally attractive female love interest," why would I care about her? And if I don't care about her, why would I care about a romance that involves her? At this point, the show is taking my investment for granted. It's bordering on insulting. If you're going to ask me to care, first give me a reason to do so. And yet the show can't even tell that its romance element is dead on arrival. This is poor writing. And it stems at least in part from the author's views on women causing them to write every female character in the show thus far in this fashion. But hey, this didn't stop their manga from getting published in Shounen Jump, so this show's male protagonists probably have a decent shot. *** So like 90% of what $female_character has done in this show is silently smile approvingly at our male protagonists actually doing things.

5

TV

25

MAL SS, Bakuman: Your source for non-stop casual sexism, FA2010 MAL SS, Bakuman: Your source for non-stop casual sexism, FA2010

149

Add - More Bakumatsu Rock

-

TV

12

SU2014 SU2014

150

Add - More Bananya I feel inclined to point out that cats can't actually taste sugar, but then, they also don't actually live in bananas, so I guess all the rules are out the window. Also: This anime is cute.

-

TV

13

SU2016 SU2016

151

Add - More Bannou Yasai Ninninman

-

Movie

1

152

Add - More Baoh Raihousha AWO's review covers everything I thought about Baoh and also has the benefit of audio and being funny. Go listen to it. (AWO is also the only anime podcast worth listening to, by the way. I recommend it beyond just that review.)

6

OVA

1

Watch this dubbed. Thank me later., 1989 Watch this dubbed. Thank me later., 1989

153

Add - More Barakamon I really don't like switching groups mid-show when I started with one I already liked, but I guess I finally have to give up hope that Underwater is ever going to put more of this out. Anime-Koi's subs just aren't the same, but they're serviceable and better than nothing. I missed this show.

-

TV

12

SU2014 SU2014

154

Add - More Bartender I've been to a bar all of once to go see a local band with someone. You might imagine that if you don't drink, a bar is a kind of awkward place to be in. Some DJ extolled the crowd to "drink beer" and "smoke weed" while music blared so loudly you could scarcely hear the person next to you shouting. The decor smacked of trying too hard to be hip, with outdated classic rock posters straight out of the moden era pretending to be the 80s pretending to be the 70s. A world removed from the gentle hospice of Bartender's Ginza hideaway. You'd be forgiven, after watching this, if you were to think bartending was one of the noblest of pursuits and that the answers to all life's problems were to be found at the bottom of a glass. The romanticized sentimentalism evokes a somewhat empty tale of redundant explorations of the basic human spirit and experience. What initially presents as an esoteric alcohol fetish eventually gives way to alcohol as mere conduit of basic yearnings and, in many instances, wistful nostalgia. To what end? Bartender has very limited animation and a simple and likewise limited soundtrack. We don't get to know the titular bartender very well because we're not supposed to. We're left with only two real avenues to find a purpose: The alcohol and the stories of the patrons. If you find the former fascinating, by all means, this is your show. The latter is a bit trickier. For as many permutations as the show labors to find, each patron's tale is pretty similar, in its foundation, to every other patron's tale. Some ordinary existential qualm is troubling them, typically some regret from their past, or a stumbling block in their present, and their nigh identical emotions are soothed by expertly selected alcohol. WAai is currently running a manga where high school boys face basic problems only to learn that, surprise, crossdressing is the cure for what ails them. But you don't see that celebrated as an "ambitious effort." And it shouldn't be. Yet some want to hold up this very similar anime as a "mature" effort that your average, shounen-riddled otaku lacks the sophisticated intellectual palette to truly savor in all its relaxed glory. What a pretentious load of prattle those guys are spewing, right? One thing I cannot stand is this linkage of "different" to "good." Indeed, I can think of a few anime like Bartender, but not many. But I can think of many anime that are better than Bartender, and that's what actually counts. Bartender is heavily repetitive, unambitious, low in substance and a one-trick pony that gets old fast. The sentiments are identical and the tales are not interesting in and of themselves, so they can't salvage the narrative from that fact. Maybe I have it backwards and the human element is actually the conduit to the alcohol. But in that case, how interested are you really in seeing an anime character make drinks? A low 5. Novelty doesn't forgive mediocrity. All below was written prior. *** Sometimes I try to watch mahjong anime. But I don't play or understand mahjong, and they quickly remind me of that. So Bartender makes me a bit nervous because I don't drink at all. I've no idea what whiskey or a "grasshopper" tastes like, nor, I imagine, will I ever. Can I still appreciate this show? I'm skeptical. Perhaps I'm just not the intended audience for this.

5

TV

11

FA2006 FA2006

155

Add - More Battery

-

TV

11

SU2016 SU2016

156

Add - More Beelzebub-jou no Okinimesu mama.

6

TV

12

FA2018 FA2018

157

Add - More Ben-To /a/ gets it right this time. This premise is pretty dang ridiculous. And they execute it with such gusto. Fun action choreography, silly but suitably fleshed out characters who take the plot as in-universe seriously as you'd hope them to, a soundtrack that properly drives the show. It's not really a show to spend a lot of time talking about. It's just low brow fun that you ought to go experience unless you take yourself ultra-seriously. The WEG image tells you basically everything worth knowing. David Productions, between this, Jojo and Inu Boku, you're becoming quite the studio to watch. How you came out of ex-Gonzo employees I may never understand.

7

TV

12

FA2011 FA2011

158

Add - More Bernard-jou Iwaku.

5

TV

12

"Miss Bernard said.", FA2016 "Miss Bernard said.", FA2016

159

Add - More Berserk

-

TV

12

SU2016 SU2016

160

Add - More Berserk: Ougon Jidai-hen I - Haou no Tamago

-

Movie

1

If I'd done any research, I'd have known this was a recap movie. I have only myself to blame. If I'd done any research, I'd have known this was a recap movie. I have only myself to blame.

161

Add - More Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE!

4

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WI2015 WI2015

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Add - More Binbougami ga! (spoilers) Binbougami ga would be a notably stronger show if it understood itself better. At heart, Binbougami ga is mostly a fun, Tom and Jerry-esque show. Yet repeated attempts to shoehorn in melodrama fall flat. It's a noble effort to have a more rounded show, but when you lack the capacity to adequately pull this off, you're better off just playing to your strengths. There's nothing wrong with just being a fully solid slapstick comedy, after all. The dramatic episodes really feel out of place. An episode with Tsuwabuki and a childified (that's not a real conjugation but I'm using it anyway) Ichiko is a low point for the series. Not because it is out of place, but for the reasons it actively feels so out place. That is, the absolutely inept handling of this story line. Can you honestly bring yourself to feel and care the way they want you to? No. They're trying too hard to force it, and it comes off stiff and artificial for their efforts. You go from a fun, competent show to a dismal one that's trying to be something it isn't. References sometimes trended towards "enough already" territory, these too feeling often just simply tacked on in a "Ha! You get it? She's dressed up as this character! That's something you recognize!" fashion. The recreation of the scene from Death Note where L dies was an almost offensively long example that overstayed its welcome. These are blights on a show otherwise filled with enjoyable, energetic characters well suited for screwball comedy. Strong, distinctive personalities make for a cast in which a solid number of characters can shine. Further, such jokes as the "trend" of hyper-masculine stoicism a la Fist of the North Star work, as does the referential humor, sometimes. The slapstick is solid, making the show a good entry in the field. Binbougami ga is, indeed, a good show, but is marred by flaws both minor (the little ending gag never amused and many of the "bonus scenes" just felt like filler rather than being interesting) and major (the aforementioned). Worth going back and marathoning if you missed it, but it's going to let you down a number of times. *** (Descends into tangent. Sorry!) A bit more on the characters: Is naming the show's one black character Bobby probably a bit racist? Yeah. I don't imagine it was out of some deliberate antagonism against black people, but rather just a reflection of the culture and racial hegemony in Japan. Ranmaru seems very, very much like Ryuunosuke from Urusei Yatsura. The more things change, right? It's always sort of silly seeing people complain anime has gone down the tubes "now." "Now" is never a consistent time period, either. Sometimes it's just when their favorite genre wasn't the big thing anymore. Sometimes it's just the past few years! What's really changed in the last four or five years? Not much, honestly. We all have access to the same season charts. Does 2007's anime really seem that different to you? There's a few potential reasons for this. One is just pure nostalgia. Another is availability. It's much easier to get anime now than when I started watching 10 years ago, and even then it was much easier than it was 10 years before that. What the difficulty in acquisition and the scarcity in translated anime ultimately meant was that, hopefully, you wound up not even hearing about the tidal wave of garbage that was being put out at the time and got the (on average) better titles. So yes, you probably didn't see the duff, because who'd bother going through the effort of putting that out? Now you have regularly updated charts before a season even begins and you can count on most titles in a season being simulcasted, and the rest getting subbed the old fashioned way, so you see everything. And now you know that there's a lot of bad anime that comes out every single season. (Substitute with "bad OVAs" as your timeframe requires.) Another part of it is closed-minded elitism. Am I personally a mecha fan? No, not particularly. Will I still give a new mecha series a try? Of course. I wind up liking some of them, too. Some other fans don't see it that way. Highschoolers? Nope. They not only won't even give it a try, but they'll insult the show and its fans on the basis of something so general. You get the same attitude from different people about a variety of genres and demographics. Shoujo? No thanks, they'll pass. Seinen? Must be a boring show, of course. A romance series? They'd rather have mature anime for mature viewers, such as themselves. When you write off a large swath of anime as axiomatically awful, is it any wonder you might come to the conclusion that anime quality is trending downwards? But of course, if you try to point this out to them, it's just further proof that the average taste of an anime fan has gone downhill, too. Because by "good taste" they really mean their own taste. It can't be helped. Really, it's probably a mix of those factors rather than just one individually. Oh, I started this off talking about Ranmaru, didn't I? Whoops.

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Add - More Binzume Yousei

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FA2003 FA2003

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Add - More Birth In part because they covered it thoroughly, and in part because Birth is so painfully boring that I don't even want to write about it myself, I'll defer here to AWO.

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Add - More Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (spoiler) There's nothing particularly special about Sailor Moon. It's more "good enough" than "good." Mostly repetitive monster of the week battles, somewhat uncomfortable romantic interactions between middle school girls and college guys, a cast with some personality but one that doesn't see much development, animation that has a bit of that 90's aesthetic you'd expect but lacks any real ability to impress. There's a few pretty good episodes when the show tries to advance the plot but those represent such a minority that they just serve to show what could've been before returning you to the same ol' same ol'. The ending seems as decent and proper as you might expect for this sort of thing right before just engaging in a complete reset so they could open up the space for more seasons. It's kinda fun and that's about it. There's nothing particularly awful about it but nothing particularly great, either. More or less average. All below written prior *** Wow. There's two decades between this and Smile Precure!, but thematically, it sure doesn't feel like it. Granted, mahou shoujo are intrinsically going to share certain things because that's the nature of a genre, but it almost felt like I was watching Smile Precure!'s first episode again. Perhaps greater divergence will develop between the two as I get further into Sailor Moon, because otherwise Smile Precure! is just going to feel really derivative. (If your show feels like a complete retread of something that came out 20 years ago, that's not a fresh experience at all. I know Precure is a children's series mainly meant to sell merchandise, but still, a little innovation, people!) Ah, yes, Sailor Moon itself. Well, it's a bit too early for me to have formed an opinion on that, you see. But I think it has potential. I suspect a "monster of the week" format will develop. It's certainly set up the plot for that already. MotW isn't exactly the greatest thing. It's generally a way to avoid having to do too much development of anything. Just trot out the new baddie, throw your characters against it and call it an episode. But those are just guesses. It's not really something I can tell from just one episode! Mahou shoujo is admittedly not very well tread ground for me, so I don't have too much of a foundation to draw genre-specific inferences from. But at the same time, it's still anime, so it's not like I'm stumbling forward completely blind. But enough speculation. There's 45 more of these to go. *** How come a grown man seems to get his kicks from being a jerk to a middle schooler? That's kind of sad. Anyway, it unsurprisingly is a monster of the week show. And as stated, that format has its flaws. But the show is fun enough, even with all its recycled animation (That's the benefit of transformation scenes, of course. Make 'em once, air 'em every episode! Saves some time and money.). I'm down for this.

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SP1992 SP1992

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Add - More Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R Hmm. Netflix seems to have started adding Viz properties. But it's almost surely too early for them to add Sailor Moon. Viz probably isn't done working on the first season, after all. But if they added Ranma 1/2 so I didn't have to watch that on Hulu, I wouldn't complain. If even just to not have the subtitles displayed in closed caption form. Is Viz also doing that for their Sailor Moon releases on Hulu? I hope not. It's serviceable, sure, but I doubt anyone could honestly say they prefer it over the alternatives. Although it's not quite as bad as when NISA used them for Love Live!'s subs. Dialogue and lyric subs all mixed together with the same color font? What a fun puzzle! Hulu's actually a decent platform for legal anime streaming, though. But you run into decisions from the content providers that inhibits it from realizing its full potential, most likely to promote disc sales. Like, here's this whole series, but not in HD like it is on these Blurays we sell. Or putting up the whole subbed series, but only two episodes of the dub. (Or in Panty and Stocking's case, two episodes of the dub and nothing else. Grr!) Or if you're Manga, making your anime "web only," so you can pay Hulu $8/month and still not be able to watch these things on your TV. Hulu supposedly shares 70% of the ad revenue with the content provider, which is enough for many companies to throw up a large chunk of their catalogue on Hulu. But it would seem disc sales are still important enough, or believed to be important enough, that they want to discourage cannibalization. And yet, Aniplex, notorious for their pricey collector's item disc releases, happily puts out HD and reasonably subbed releases of their properties on Hulu, even simulcasting shows. As much as people complain about Aniplex's pricing of their physical releases (and they're steep, to be sure), it's not like Aniplex doesn't also make it incredibly easy/affordable to legally watch their shows. Their physical releases are for collectors, not just people who want to watch Madoka or Fate/Zero or what have you. And speaking as someone who owns anime on discs and still plans to get more anime on discs, I really think Aniplex has the right idea for where things are heading. This company that people give the most grief, that so many western anime fans bemoan as backwards in its pricing structure, is actually probably the one that most gets it when it comes to the present and near-futrue of anime. Viz is coming around to getting it, too, having abandoned their ludicrous Neon Alley to move closer towards what Aniplex is doing with Hulu (although without charging an arm and a leg for physical releases). The company that least gets it, at least among relevantly sized companies? Funimation. Funimation simulcasts some shows, sure. But you have to sign up for their seperate Funimation service that costs more than Crunchyroll per month (assuming you have a yearly CR sub). Which gets you far fewer anime titles each season than CR on notably fewer devices. I mean, CR's PS4 app really needs to have its bugs fixed, but at least it exists. And the subs on Funimation's simulcasts range from "okay" to "Why did they hire Hadena for this?" which isn't even remotely okay for a paid service when CR is regularly putting out better subs. People who have Funimation subscriptions seem to complain all the time about the site and the player being pretty bad as well, although I can't personally vouch for that. And yet they put up week-late simulcasts on Hulu in SD to try to shepherd you towards their Elite membership. And their back catalog is generally put up in SD, too, again to steer you towards their streaming service and their discs. Same with the two episode dub releases. Instead of using this as a way to get money from people who might otherwise pirate their shows, they're instead using it to try to market their increasingly archaic disc releases and their increasingly inferior streaming platform. You can go watch Aniplex's Kill la Kill release on Netflix right now, and you'll probably be able to for a while. Meanwhile, Funimation took most of their content off of Netflix and put it on their own service. It's as though Funimation recognizes that professional, legal streaming is absolutely where the market is going/has gone, and that they have to acknowledge that, but that they really don't want to accept it. And yet Aniplex gets constant grief while most fans seem fine with what Funimation is doing. Myopia remains popular. This doesn't really have much to do with Sailor Moon, huh? (The only real problem with Aniplex is their presumably correct but overly stiff/literal subs. Subs in Aniplex releases just never quite feel like natural English.) *** I've managed to drag my feet on this series long enough that episodes of it are finally on Hulu in HD. But Viz's "HD" releases look worse than the original Japanese DVDs. Frustrating. *** "TL Note: Usagi is reading a comic." I... I mean, yeah, she is. You can clearly see that with your eyes if you watch the episode. Why... why are you pointing this out, fansubbers? This might be one of the most useless TL notes I've ever come across, even worse than "MVP means Most Valuable Person." The only worse ones I can recall were meant as jokes. At least one human being thought about that, wrote it and put it into the subtitles thinking it was a good and worthwhile addition. It's almost like a parody of how useless and overused TL notes have traditionally been. *** Wait. The dialogue is softsubbed, but the TL notes are hardsubbed? Why? *** I've been struggling to maintain interest in this, but it seems like they're introducing a new character and thus a new, but probably very similar story arc. And this next batch is directed by Ikuhara, which should maybe/hopefully be a change of pace. But then, I've generally enjoyed Sato's non-Sailor Moon work, so who knows what this'll actually be worth. I could just drop it and watch something I'm more actually interested in, but where's the fun in that? *** (spoilers) "Huh, Usagi's in junior high. How old is Mamoru again? Oh, there's the new little girl character... and she's introduced by accidentally kissing Mamoru and then straddling his crotch." Keep it classy, Sailor Moon. Well, that aside I guess, hopefully this is at least more compelling than that tedious Doom Tree arc. *** Oh, thank goodness! They found a way to flash Chibi-usa's panties! Keep it classy, Sailor Moon. *** Also did the guy from the arcade die or what's the deal? (I am slightly tickled that googling "sailor moon arcade dude" actually worked.) *** Oh hey, he finally showed up. For a little over 30 seconds. Where's he been? And right, his name was "Motoki!" It's easy to forget his name when the show nearly forgets his existence. Also sure is a lot of panty shots for a show ostensibly aimed at young girls... .Moon Sailor, classy it Keep *** (spoilers) Also wait there was an episode where Chibi-usa was paling around with a dinosaur and the show just treated it like it was no big whoop. Like, I get that their everyday life involves outer space and aliens and time travel, but you'd still think that maybe a dinosaur would elicit some kind of reaction. Also why did that episode even happen. Or that awful breakup subplot that was so successful at going nowhere that even the show itself seemed to forget about it for a while? What did any of that actually contribute to this show? For as much dumb, badly written nonsense the breakup subplot contributed to the show, that it had no actual payoff is just... just... blegh. It just happened. There's been zero consequence to it. No explanation afterwards, no impact on the plot, nothing. It could just as easily have never happened and honestly it would be better if it hadn't! I mean at least it was just a subplot instead of that whole, tedious Doom Tree arc that had nothing going for it, but going from "all bad" to "partially bad" isn't the most impressive of upgrades. Did they even fight a villain in that dinosaur episode? No... no it was just all about the dinosaurs, wasn't it? Geez Louise. *** Apparently that dinosaur episode got excised from the original American releases of the show. I mean it's not much of a loss, but you do still want a release to have all of a show, even its bad parts. "ADV's "uncut" DVD boxset of the second season omitted this episode. At first, ADV representatives claimed that it was because "the creator did not like it," but it turned out that ADV had obtained their masters from DiC, who apparently lacked the episode master themselves." ADV being dishonest? Shocking! Although it was at least a believable sounding excuse. But now Sailor Moon is in the hands of Viz who would never be dishonest or misleading about their releases of the show! (If even ANN is willing to very heavily insinuate that you, an R1 company, are lying, you're not fooling anyone.) *** (spoilers) So, in summation, Chibi-usa was first introduced to us by accidentally kissing her dad and straddling his crotch, the breakup subplot was forgotten for another few episodes before they finally made a thin attempt at justifying it ("I was testing your love!" Shut up, Sailor Moon), there are panty flashes galore in this little girl's cartoon, that dinosaur episode is a thing that happened (Rei totally just has a private island with dinosaurs, like everyone else!), arcade dude is missing and forgotten, Doom Tree was a tedious bundle of nothing that just occupied the first quarter of this season but somehow, in these next six episodes, surely Sailor Moon R will display to me why this is considered by so many people I otherwise respect to be an enduring classic. Individual episodes have charms, but the positive incidentals of Sailor Moon seem to constantly gravitate around a rather rotten core. It just manages to sabotage itself so many times in so many ways. Fansub Group: SMC

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43

SP1993 SP1993

168

Add - More Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R: Make Up! Sailor Senshi

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Special

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169

Add - More Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon R: The Movie Sheesh. There's two releases on BakaBT and I saw one was cropped so I figured I'd see what the uncropped one was like and good gravy that's bad. The picture quality looks like you're viewing it underwater and that's bad enough, but those subtitles. Holy crap, those subtitles. That karaoke is out of control. Why must the uncropped version be such rubbish? Obviously I'd rather get the whole picture. It's the same reason I won't watch those "HD" versions of the older One Piece episodes. But even calling that uncropped version "watchable" feels generous. Watching a cropped version of something just doesn't sit right with me, but as much as that'll hamper the experience, ultimately I have to concede that losing part of the image is probably better than getting a full but fully crappy image. You'd think a series with the historical relevance and success Sailor Moon has wouldn't leave you faced with choices like this, yet here we are. And the series gets a BD release, but it looks worse than older DVD releases. Sailor Moon doesn't seem to have a lot of luck in the video department.

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170

Add - More Bishoujo Yuugi Unit Crane Game Girls "Each episode of the show will have an anime segment as well as a live-action segment. Each anime part of the episode will be five minutes long, and each live-action segment will be 16 minutes long and will feature the cast playing arcade crane games."-ANN Where're my live-action crane games, Crunchyroll? How am I supposed to get the full experience of this show now?

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Add - More Bishoujo Yuugi Unit Crane Game Girls Galaxy

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FA2016 FA2016

172

Add - More Black Clover: Jump Festa 2016 Special

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OVA

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Add - More Black Lagoon Oh hey, so this is what Jormungand is cribbing liberally from. (The "second season" seems like they just took a small hiatus. I'll consider it all the same thing and state any comments there. The score here will likewise shift to that.)

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12

SP2006 SP2006

174

Add - More Black Lagoon Omake A bunch of gag side stories, none of which were particularly interesting or amusing, with a bit of fan service. Rather underwhelming, really.

3

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7

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Add - More Black Lagoon: Roberta's Blood Trail (spoilerish I guess) I mean, yeah, Japan has films like The Machine Girl, but if you want to see a little girl/maid kick a guy in the balls with the blade that's in the heel of her boot before unloading her arsenal of shotguns and explosives into a bar full of gangsters and cartel members all with solid production values, that's basically one of those things you only get in anime. It's not complex or really that intelligent at all. There's no impressive narrative, the characters are simple enough, you get the point. This OVA wants to do one thing and it does it well: Action, my friend. Adrenaline, blood, violence, body parts going this way and that way, bodies nigh evaporating into a mist of blood, explosions, chainsaws, bullets, maids, action! Why it excels is because it takes what made Black Lagoon good in the first place and just goes whole hog with the ridiculous violence. My goodness, it's just plain fun. (What creepy part of us is it that delights in seeing fictional characters getting blown away, anyway?) Yes, I still don't think Rock's very interesting, but the characters don't matter too much in this OVA. It truly is focused on voyeuristic violence. And it's a good thing then that Madhouse was handling this. I mean, could you imagine this in the hands of DEEN? (Please no.) The train of violence flows smoothly in motion which helps to give the action a satisfying kick. Couple that with music that's sufficiently high octane when it needs to be as well as contemplative but weary in the moments between action and it all just works. There's nothing new to know if you've already seen Black Lagoon. You know, I'm not sure you'd even need to watch Black Lagoon before watching this. Sure, it'd help, but the plot, to the degree that there is one, stands on its own, since it's really just an excuse for there to be lots of violence. Well heck, it's right there in the name, after all. If you liked Black Lagoon's gunfights, you're very likely to enjoy this too. And if you've never seen Black Lagoon, heck with it, go ahead and watch this anyway.

8

OVA

5

2010 2010

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Add - More Black Lagoon: The Second Barrage (Somehow, spoiler free.) The score for this applies to Black Lagoon as a whole, since the two seasons are really just one season with a hiatus in the middle. I had originally rated the first half of this a 7, but the last arc of this show nearly brought the whole thing down to a 5. It is an awful, unbearable arc that exposes multiple flaws in the series and drags on far too long. Alright. When a series has foreign characters that do not speak the language of the intended audience, there are two appropriate options. Either just have them speak in the language of the audience for the sake of convenience with the knowledge that they're really speaking another language, or just have them speak that other language. Both can work. What absolutely doesn't work is constantly switching between the two, even during the same conversation. And yet the final arc does this in spades. It's to the point that you don't even know what they're trying to tell you anymore. I couldn't figure out who was speaking what language and when at points. And that's distracting, forcing you to try to understand that rather than focusing on the rest of the show. And Black Lagoon worked alright as a series of vignettes. It absolutely does not work as an extended narrative. I became so fed up with their awful attempt at a story, which itself became a bit difficult (and pointless) to attempt to follow that I found myself actually yelling at characters to simply "shut up" already. (Well, I frequently talk at the screen when I watch, actually. It would probably be a bit embarrassing to be observed doing so, but it makes the experience more enjoyable.) And it's such a long arc, too. Was this supposed to be their way of going out with a bang? A big climax? Because other than the length, it was the lesser of several arcs which preceded it. Ending on a whole bunch of terrible episodes is a poor way of endearing yourself. The Black Lagoon I liked was a simple show. Now, I don't know much about guns. I'm seeing current reactions to Jormungand, and people are constantly berating it because "that's not how gun X would perform in situation Y!" while I just enjoy the Hollywood style gunfights. And that same sort of style was neat in Black Lagoon. But it doesn't work when you stretch out an arc like that. I'd imagine Jormungand would suffer similarly if it tried the same thing. (These two shows are pretty similar, after all) I expected something more to be done with Revy, but they never did. And they don't have to, except they kept hinting there was something they were holding back with. Yet they kept holding it back even when the series ended. There's some faint traces of development, but they're trivial. Dutch and Benny are basically plot devices. Rock doesn't develop nearly as much as they want you to think he does, and he never becomes interesting. Or likable. He's certainly aggravating, though. The overwhelming Japanese nationalism in that final arc get very tired very quickly. It's a series that can be enjoyable at times. The art's okay, often capturing the gritty feeling they're going for, and the character designs are visually distinctive enough. But I'm honestly enjoying what I've seen of Jormungand more than I enjoyed Black Lagoon. A bit of advice: Just skip the final arc. There's nothing you'll really miss other than a whole bunch of disappointment.

6

TV

12

Score applies to both seasons as a whole., FA2006 Score applies to both seasons as a whole., FA2006

177

Add - More Black Magic M-66 (Later.)

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OVA

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178

Add - More Black★Rock Shooter (OVA)

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179

Add - More Bleach When this started airing on Adult Swim in 2006, it was right around the start of my sophomore year in high school. I was 15. Now that it's over a bit over eight years later, I'm 23 and already have my BA. Adult me has lived with teenage me's decision to start watching this show for quite a while. Through all the continuity errors that I know exist because when Adult Swim temporarily reran the start of this show to stall for the dubbing process, I of course watched those reruns too because I make great life choices. Through all the unresolved plot threads. Through all the filler. Through all the new characters constantly introduced to avoid ever having to develop any of the previous characters. Through the predictability, the repetition, the laughable writing and all the way to the anticlimactic ending on just some irrelevant story arc. I trudged through this whole dang thing long past the point where I couldn't eke any enjoyment out of it anymore. And after eight years and 366 episodes, I can tell you: Bleach is not a good show. You shouldn't watch it. At some point you realize Ichigo is teenage anime John Cena. And while actual John Cena would probably be more interesting if he had a sword and special powers, Ichigo Kurosaki makes it so Bleach is a bit like an episode of Raw where every promo and every match involves John Cena. Only it's for 366 episodes. If you're wondering how one of Ichigo's battles in Bleach is going to go, feel free to watch any of his other battles for the answer. Feel the thrill as he uses his one move over and over until he eventually gets a more powerful version of that same exact move. Listen to him shout (that's how you know he's serious!) the same lecture every time. Jam your thumbs in your eyes as you realize, oh god, you're still watching this show. Marvel at how characters never change over the course of the whole dang show. Revel in completely unexplained backstories. Get interested in hinted plot developments that never actually come to fruition. Repress your sobs when you realize it's all meaningless, the mangaka has no plan and he's just making it up as he goes along. Enjoy the Bleach experience. 17.8% of MAL users rated this show 10/10, so it must be great! *** This is apparently the most dropped show on MAL (ha!). And people seem to be largely attributing that to the large amount of filler. Which, yes, is probably part of the reason for that, but let's give people a little credit: The parts of Bleach that aren't filler are also largely pretty bad! Even if you just skip all the filler episodes, it's not like Bleach is suddenly saved. The reason so many people have dropped Bleach and it got cancelled in Japan? Because many people aren't total idiots and can recognize garbage when it becomes this obvious. Meanwhile I've watched every episode, even if it was virtually purely out of spite towards the end ("Ha! I'll watch the rest of this bad, commercial-supported show every week! That'll show 'em!"), so clearly I'm not one of the wise ones. All below was written prior. *** 100 hours of my life. Gone. I'm not even sure if it was worth it. *** So apparently this current bit of filler precedes a filler arc that goes through episode 341, and then this show ends 25 episodes later. Yay~ I'm too close to the end to stop now, though. This show has been a part of my life for just shy of seven years and I'm seeing it through. (If you're wondering what sort of score I'll give Bleach, I'm pretty sure it won't be a favorable one.) Did you know that around half of Bleach is filler? Although, if you cut all that fat from the show, you'd still be left with a show that has tons of problems, but it'd at least move quicker. Bleach is such a poorly made show, it's no wonder I watch it every week!

3

TV

366

Even the filler has filler., It's over? I'm free!, I'm finally free!, FA2004 Even the filler has filler., It's over? I'm free!, I'm finally free!, FA2004

180

Add - More Bleach KaraBuri!: Gotei Juusan Yatai Daisakusen! Trying to piece through French fansubs with a mix of what I remember from high school and the help of Google Translate: Never again. (It worked, but oh boy that's no way to watch anything.)

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Add - More Bleach Movie 1: Memories of Nobody

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Add - More Bleach Movie 2: The DiamondDust Rebellion - Mou Hitotsu no Hyourinmaru

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183

Add - More Bleach Movie 3: Fade to Black - Kimi no Na wo Yobu

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184

Add - More Bleach Movie 4: Jigoku-hen

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185

Add - More Bleach: Memories in the Rain

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186

Add - More Bleach: Sennen Kessen-hen

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Wait what do you mean bleach is back I was free please no Wait what do you mean bleach is back I was free please no

187

Add - More Bleach: The Sealed Sword Frenzy

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Special

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Even by Bleach standards, this is pretty awful. Even by Bleach standards, this is pretty awful.

188

Add - More Blend S Look. I've accepted that anime is wont to feature cat's buttholes. But drawing in a pair of cat testicles is an extra level I'm not sure we needed. I mean it's not going to keep me up at night but... why? I get that yes, non-neutered male cats indeed have testicles, but we've all gotten on just fine until now without highlighting that fact. It's a weird thing that kind of stands out in an otherwise innocuous comedy fluff anime. And you know what? They drew cat testicles but no cat butthole. What sort of priorities do you have, Blend S? what has happened in my life that i'm writing about cartoon cat testicles

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FA2017 FA2017

189

Add - More Blood Lad (I can barely mark this completed without getting logged out. Any other details will have to wait.)

5

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SU2013 SU2013

190

Add - More Blood Lad: Wagahai wa Neko de wa Nai

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OVA

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191

Add - More Blood+

4

TV

50

FA2005 FA2005

192

Add - More Blossom

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Add - More Bobby ni Kubittake

9

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Add - More Bocchi the Rock!

7

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195

Add - More Body Jack: Tanoshii Yutai Ridatsu What is this I don't even. If this were marketed as a hentai, life could go on. But it's not, so I'll assume we're supposed to take it on the merits of its plot. It quickly descends from teenage male sex fantasy to something a bit more "unique." The entire plot is basically the MC changing bodies with a girl he thinks is pretty and using her body to procure access to various sexual encounters. Whoopee. And those encounters are progressively more deranged and less realistic. And then it ends. Just remember as you watch that people actually spent time and money on making this.

2

OVA

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Add - More Boku no Hero Academia With the season just about to begin, there's this vague but growing inclination that Funimation is going to wait for their Hero Academia pre-airing stream to announce the rest of their slate for spring. Which is alienating viewers and leading a number of people to believe that this show is the only show they're gonna simulcast. But all of the fanfare around this title and silence about whatever else they might be simulcasting really demonstrates just how much they're putting their eggs in this show's basket. They must expect it to be a pretty big deal. And I'm not familiar enough with this to speculate too much about how it'll perform (which isn't a great position as I'm forming my FAL team for the season!). but let's say it doesn't catch on for whatever reason. If the series is a flop, that leaves Funimation with a high profile failure and a number of other series they barely bothered promoting, perhaps even using them to promote said potential flop instead. Now maybe it's a smash hit but why take this risk? Even if it is a smash hit, wouldn't it be better to also put some effort into letting the other shows have a chance at the same? Yes, these deals can take time to work out and you may not have them finalized until right near the start of the show. But they're saying they already have other shows to announce, so either they're indeed withholding promotion of those titles, or they're lying. Even if this show is the biggest commercial hit in the history of anime this is still a weird marketing decision. Crunchyroll is steadily announcing a slate of titles they'll be simulcasting and customers are increasingly becoming legitimately convinced that Funi doesn't actually have any other shows, which is a perception Funi has pretty much deliberately created. I don't get it, and it seems to be baffling and upsetting a number of their current and potential customers. Such an odd move. *** I'm opting to watch Funi's marketing Twitch stream thing for this and I've never used Twitch before. Is Twitch chat always so... terrible? Gee whiz. *** And after four hours of counting down, the Funimation hosts can't even watch the premiere because they didn't successfully get the episode out on time. Sort of a great image of anime simulcasting in general, really. *** ...that's it? Just seems like a competent but typical one of those, really. *** Their marketing push definitely seem to have brought in new members. Members who really don't seem to understand how their service works or what it offers and seem displeased with it to the point that they don't intend to continue past their free trial. Success? And all the money they've spent on this show has left them with a catalogue of shows for this season that, while you may or may not individually like them, can reasonably be described as "the leftovers." Which is alienating and disappointing current customers, prompting them to not want to continue being paying customers. ...success? And for all this marketing blitz, the show's popularity just seems "okay," which isn't okay when you've staked this much on it. Obviously I don't have access to the actual hard numbers Funi sees. But at least from the outside, this hasn't seemed like a great marketing moment. It looks like Funi's sacrificed more for this title than they've gained from it and made a poor gamble. This show will probably do okay for them! But they've hurt the image of their simulcasting service and ceded a significant number of shows to Crunchyroll. Being "The Place to Watch My Hero Academia!" doesn't, no matter what you think of this particular show, stack up well against being "The Place to Watch Most of the Other Shows, Including Multiple Popular Ones!" When your service has a cost comparable to CR you want to convince potential customers that it also has a value comparable to CR. And they've neglected their forest to pamper what they think is a very nice tree. CR is a very, very incompetent service. Funimation does many things better than them. But if they don't have the content, who will care about the service? *** Oh dear. Now CR's announced they're also simulcasting Haifuri so that's even one less exclusive show Funimation can boast about having to entice people to subscribe. There are six exclusive, non-sequel titles from this season on Funimation. I'm currently watching around twice as many exclusive series on CR from this season as Funi has simulcasts altogether. Even if every single show on Funi was one I wanted to watch, that'd still be at best half of what I've opted to watch on CR. And that's because while "quality over quantity" is an easy line to spout off, quantity actually does matter. Especially when a number of the shows on CR also have the "quality" part. Funimation is 2/3 the cost CR for an annual subscription, assuming the basic tiers of both. This season it's giving me less than 1/2 the value in terms of anime. But it gets worse. CR includes manga. Funi doesn't. Last season CR let me watch the live-action second season of Wakako-zake. Live action on Funi is far less common. In terms of having stuff, CR has significantly more than Funi does. To say that Funi's simulcasting business isn't having a bad season is to bury your head in the sand. The disparity is obvious and users are making their displeasure clear. Funi's not gonna say that, most likely, because of course they want to constantly project a positive image of their business. We don't get to know how much Funi spent acquiring this show or how much it would've cost to acquire other shows. Could they have gotten some combination of the seemingly popular shows Joker Game, Twin Star Exorcists, Bungo Stray Dogs and/or Re:Zero? We can only speculate. But if they had the choice between a few popular shows or going for what they hoped to be the most popular show, I can't say the latter was the better move. Because, again, quantity does count for something. And if they couldn't get more than one of those shows had they not gone for MHA, then they're in pretty bad shape. Either they've made a fairly questionable marketing decision and/or they can't adequately compete with CR when it comes to bidding on simulcast licenses. The former is arguably a negative thing for this season. The latter would be a serious problem on a more long term basis.

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Add - More Boku no Kanojo ga Majimesugiru Sho-bitch na Ken I mean I'm not sure that the subversion of the "homosexuals are sexual predators" trope I wanted was "but perhaps only because so is basically everyone else in the show." Which is something that, for some reason, the wider western anime community generally just seems to find "hilarious," but in a rare turn of events, the general consensus on MAL actually makes my choice of giving this series a 3 seem almost generous. Not that the issue seems to be the rampant, casual sexual assault in the series. No no, they're still totally fine with that. The main objection seems to be that this is like SYD's formula of constant sexual jokes, just executed quite poorly. Which, yes, but ignoring what makes this show gross is disappointing if not unexpected. Anyway, guess now I wait to see if someone subs the OVA because please help what am I doing. All below was written prior to airing. *** The difference between how that term is used in English versus how it is used in Japanese will apparently never stop leading to misunderstandings. What's weird is the amount of people who refuse to accept the correct meaning of that term once the difference is explained to them. Why they insist on denying that reality so strongly is beyond me. *** "My Girlfriend Is ShoBitch" ...that's not actually the official English title, right? I mean it wouldn't be the first official English title that didn't actually make sense, but that doesn't actually make it any better. *** Yup, complete failure to understand what this show's title means is already rampant. Maybe when the show airs and people see the actual implication, followed by various Internet users chiming in to point out how Japan uses that word, western anime fans as a general group will become more aware that it's a "false friend." It would sure finally end a lot of confusion for many and erroneous complaints of "mistranslation" when people do correctly translate the word. And even more hopefully, will get people to stop leaving it incorrectly in subs as "bitch." Because even translators get fooled by this false friend. It seems many could use the reminder that loanwords aren't always identical in meaning.

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That word is a false friend, by the way., "SYD but worse" is a disappointing outcome, "My Girlfriend is a Faithful Virgin Slut", FA2017 That word is a false friend, by the way., "SYD but worse" is a disappointing outcome, "My Girlfriend is a Faithful Virgin Slut", FA2017

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Anime fans: Why do people treat us like weird perverts?, Also anime fans: So here's this running joke where we recommend animated child porn to newcomers. Anime fans: Why do people treat us like weird perverts?, Also anime fans: So here's this running joke where we recommend animated child porn to newcomers.

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Add - More Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai let's see an afab character who consistently asserts that their gender identity is male and anime fans.... consistently gender them female what a shock (anime fans generally understand trans people as poorly as anime itself does the only real exception seems to be, as you might expect, trans anime fans)

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Add - More Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Next Do some of you in the anime industry simply not understand the difference between leaving room open for more and just flat out not having an ending? Because the latter of those two is pretty much terrible! Particularly when you consider they've basically exhausted the source material, it'll be quite a while before there can even be a possible third season. So we're just left with a giant middle finger from the studio rather than any kind of resolution to the plot (that, of course, being the element people are most concerned with in their harem anime). And I get peeved every time this happens because it's awful every time. And it ends on a dang cliffhanger, no less. Are you just trying to make me mad, AIC? One last laugh at my expense for following this through two seasons? Haganai is a series you kind of put up with rather than fully enjoy. Well, okay, maybe not "you." More like "I." I deal with Rika fondling Yukimura for much longer than needed, with the show's fixation upon Sena's breasts and all the other fan service bits because beneath that hackneyed, slapdash plot there's a show that makes me laugh. That's basically it. That's the entire reason I stick with Haganai, because it sure doesn't give me anything else. I don't care who "wins," I don't particularly care about the story developments, I'm only here for the part of it which is funny enough of the time. The rest is detritus marred by the heady effluvium of which virtually all anime in this general category tend to reek of. If it didn't make me laugh a bit I'd have dropped it long ago. It's not always laughing with it, either, but sometimes laughing at it. I really wouldn't suggest you bother with this lest you're willing to set the bar as low as I am or, you know, you enjoy that whole harem and fan service business. Which a fair number of people do, so there's that. (Rika is the best character in the show, by the way.)

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Add - More Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai: Relay Shousetsu wa Ketsumatsu ga Hanpanai While basically just another episode of Haganai, this does fall under the criteria of what gets a score. It's pitched as and I'm recognizing it as an OVA for the series. It's a little weak. It'd be one of the slower episodes if it was part of the main season. It's a not that great episode of Haganai. There's not much else to say about the OVA. True, I haven't left any comment for Haganai at all, so it's hard to gauge what I consider to be a standard episode of Haganai, right? But the second season is so soon, you know? I might as well just cover it there. (Sorry! I didn't even know there was a comment field until after the first season aired.) So a bit laconic, but that's what I'm leaving it at.

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Add - More Bubblegum Crisis So here's an hour of AWO talking about this. Unlike them, I don't have nostalgia for this because I wasn't even alive when this came out. But that's the podcast episode that got me to watch Bubblegum Crisis, and they're knowledgeable, interesting people, so there you go. It's their opinions and not mine, but I think they do a better service to Bubblegum Crisis than I would.

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Add - More Byousoku 5 Centimeter (Spoilers) Far be it from me to need to tell you the major theme of this work. It's in the title of the film, it's characteristic of Shinkai and it's just plain painfully obvious that it's about distance. Physical distance, emotional distance, temporal distance, distance. It’s an honest approach. It’s rather well symbolically demonstrated by that scene right at the end where they seem to pass by at a railroad crossing. You know, how Tohno is sure if he looks back Akari will look back too, but by the time the train passes she’s gone. It’s basically the entire film summed up in one brief scene. I’m no stranger to slow moving plots. I gave Angel’s Egg a 9, after all, and it doesn’t get much slower than that. 5cm is faster than that, but has a decidedly relaxed, languid pace. Part of the issue I take with Voices of a Distant Star is that it comes across as overwrought. 5cm is better in that regard, properly spacing out its human drama, but still gives a bit of an air of trying too hard to communicate its emotion so you feel like Shinkai is beating you over the head at points. This also doesn’t represent Shinkai challenging himself thematically at all. Sure, it’s a better done version of Voices of a Distant Star, but it’s heavily derivative of it. You know, Satoshi Kon hovered around similar themes in the works by him I’ve seen, but still managed to produce unique works around his hobby-horses. This is Shinkai saying “Hey, what I’ve done before? Let’s do almost exactly that, again,” which is lazy and uninspired. There’s a marked difference between also having your common themes, and only having your common theme. Right, let’s move to a positive note. The backgrounds and detail in this film are very impressive. I actually stopped in the middle of Cosmonaut to go back and marvel at a scene in a convenience store. It can be very technically competent at times, too. But what I’ve come to appreciate no more since Voices of a Distant Star is Shinkai’s style for humans (and considering how heavily involved he was in this film, you know he’s behind this matter too). You have a great looking film and then there’s just these kind of ugly human designs that seem very out of place. It’s too bad. I get the feeling that Shinkai choosing to embrace the narrative of moving on is going to perturb viewers who love Hollywood endings. You know, the sort who expect a shot at the end with the whole “speak now or forever hold your peace” bit where Tohno comes rushing in at the last second, stops the wedding, and Akari realizes she truly loves him and can’t marry this other guy. Sound like a familiar ending? That’s because it’s a happy one, and people like those. They’re hopeful, optimistic. They tell you “Everything turns out fine in the end! Just never give up!” They’re also childish, immature narratives. I applaud Shinkai’s choice not to give in and to stick to a more realistic, more mature narrative of distance and growing apart. Just because it seems like True Love™ doesn’t mean it’s fated to work out. Anyone who has lived life (which should be approximately 100% of us) knows that plenty of things just don’t work out, no matter how hard you believe in a just world. The Hollywood ending is escapist fantasy. Shinkai’s is colder, but substantially truer. Come to accept this, and you’ll appreciate the film a lot more. (I’m not going to analyze the whole film here. I’m sure you can do that yourself.) I won’t call it a masterpiece like some have, because I honestly don’t feel that it is. It’s an interesting film that has its strengths and noticeable flaws. I haven’t seen Place Promised in our Early Days, but I’ve seen every other Makoto Shinkai work, and this is the strongest of them. Which doesn’t quite say that much, since I wasn’t too enthused with his other works. Honestly, if you’re going to watch anything Shinkai, watch this one. I’m not wild about it, but it’s alright and worth a watch. (Oh, and that music video at the end is pretty visually impressive, too.)

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Add - More Call Me Tonight ANN Buried Treasure article. (Read it. It's good!) Only the bubble economy could've made this. It's one of those things that just wouldn't get made currently because anime studios have gotten a bit more conservative than throwing money into a suspiciously flame-filled pit just in case it might possibly lead to a huge hit. There's nothing about Call me Tonight that seems to even remotely suggest economic success. Call me Tonight seems to come from an anthology of likewise poor ideas, such as the hentai-that-wasn't Body Jack. Considering they also funded the shoddy Cosmos Pink Shock, AIC was apparently determined to pursue bad ideas. So could Call me Tonight be a pearl among swine? Ehh. Consider it more of a novelty than anything. The linked Buried Treasure article covers the themes quite well so I won't regurgitate them here, but on the execution question, I find this a bit wanting. Or rather, overly aggressive with its premise, thrusting its point in your face while loudly whispering in your ear: "Get it? Huh? Ya get it?" It reveals a lack of deftness on the part of the writer. Although to be fair it's not like some other films I could name where everything stops so characters can monologue at length on their pet causes. But it's still a fault. As Sevakis notes, this has aged, and not too gracefully. You will not be able to shake the reality that this is old and was not particularly technically great for its time, either. Which leaves something a bit visually dull and antiquated, and it doesn’t hold up much better in the audio department, either. So just why is anime and manga so sex-negative? Goodness me if these mediums aren’t libido-charged while also simultaneously fearful, reproachful and patriarchal about sex. So often sex is either depicted in the aesthetic of or literally as assault. Sex in anime and manga harms. Physically, emotionally, socially, you are not allowed to simply have enjoyable sex. And I do not mean this as a knock against those who enjoy things a bit rougher and kinkier (Shine on, you crazy diamonds). That’s not what this is. This is about the inherent negative valuation of sex and sexuality. A woman who enjoys sex? A vile slut. Consider how often female antagonists are also promiscuous, just to show an additional layer of their awfulness as opposed to the pure madonna that is the female protagonist. Males who enjoy sex tend to fare better, but not necessarily positively. Ah, well, maybe I should save it for a blog post or something before I entirely derail this. But it does relate back to Call me Tonight, of course, which you’d grasp if you’d read the Sevakis piece in the first place like you were asked to. But it’s just a thought just like how My Little Monster brought a bubble to the surface that, like I’m now realizing for this one, had to be popped elsewhere because it extends beyond this work and it’s better to just separate it off than go on about it here any longer than I have already. Shifting off that point for now, Call me Tonight just isn’t particularly good. Once you unquestionably get its message, it’s just a largely dull ~30 minute wink. I see your pastiche, Call me Tonight, but I don’t see you taking it anywhere very interesting. Because outside of your core theme, there’s not much. And that’s what Call me Tonight is: not much. Not much action, not much interesting animation, not much humor, not much plot, not much worth watching. You won’t necessarily regret it if you go in only expecting a minor curio, but doesn’t your time have better uses? Meh.

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Add - More Candy Boy: Nonchalant Talk of the Certain Twin Sisters in Daily Life Hmm. So let me start by offering a bit of a broader commentary. There is a derpth of LGBT characters in anime. Of what LGBT characters there are, many are played as a joke. You know, as in "The joke is that they're gay! The mere fact of homosexuality is amusing, right?" and often in over-the-top stereotypes. Is this better than no representation at all? I guess, maybe. Then you have instances where it's trivial. This is common for "trap" characters. Sure, they're trans*, but what of it? It's usually just tacked on for, again, laughs, or to appeal to the libido of the viewer. Their gender identity is "for" someone, it is not actually a true part of them. This falls squarely into the latter, with incidental lesbianism. Is that a bad thing? Should LGBT characters be treated in a different way than heterosexual characters? We don't see a series like Toradora explore the deeper implications of what it means to be heterosexual in Japan, so why should anything else? And in a way, it's acceptable that this doesn't. But the fact is, since LGBT relationships don't exist within a vacuum but exist within the larger tapestry that is society, they are not 1:1 with their heterosexual counterparts. The mere fact of being LGBT already, even if it probably shouldn't, creates a divide in life experience between a straight person. I'd like to see a series honestly tackle these things, but I haven't seen one that does. (I'm told Wandering Son is good for that, so I guess I'll see when I get to it). Should I fault Candy Boy for not being that series when so many others aren't? Probably not. But I can't give it the merit it would earn if it was, so we're left to figure out what else this has going for it. Not much, really. Apparently there's a prequel that explains the start of their relationship. I haven't seen that prequel. Oops. But what stands out to me is the fact that everyone casually accepts an incestuous relationship. I mean, usually (and it's weird enough that there's a "usual" for this), they're not related by blood (Wink!), but after checking Wikipedia to see if that was covered in the prequel, it looks like they're genuine sisters. Actually, why IS incest this common a theme in anime? I know that incest is a popular theme for erotica, but it's generally considered a private, taboo interest. And yet anime often approaches it as a no big deal typical relationship. I recently saw a series where a girl withdrew her intent to confess to a boy after learning they were cousins. And, bafflingly, THIS was an unusual instance. I'm not saying they shouldn't, but how did they get so cavalier about it? I don't know, is incest just sort of "okay" in Japan? From my cultural perspective, it seems very unrealistic that nobody has an issue with that fact in Candy Boy, but maybe it's realistic after all. Or maybe I'm overthinkng cartoons. Their relationship is that vague, oh-so-innocent sort of thing that drives me nuts. I've come to expect it from budding teen romances in anime, but from an already established relationship? Come on already. It's clear that they have affections for one another, but it's all so tepid. Something's gone wrong when Mysterious Girlfriend X is currently displaying a more realistic relationship. For what little she contributes, Sakuya may as well not even be in the series. She only shows up in rare instances to either fill time (I think this is supposed to be amusing, but it's just boring since she's not fleshed out at all and it's the same thing constantly) or to use her Magical Wealth to solve plot problems. (I'm sure there's some fancy TV Tropes name for that, but I'm not gong to bother looking it up.) The only characters who are really relevant are the main two. Their little sister plays a role, but she's not given enough time to become her own full character, but rather gets absorbed by the main two to further embellish them. And they need all the help they can get. The show is very focused on their relationship, but as stated earlier, it's afraid to actually show them as an active couple. Guess how that goes. Everything about this is lukewarm. You know it's supposed to have funny moments, but you won't laugh. You know it's supposed to be romantic, but they refuse to actually let you feel anything. Nothing all that terrible happens, but there's never any moment where you feel they've done something well. Even the music is boring. I left out the art because I'm not sure on the exact source. If it's an ONA and I was watching webrips, I could understand. But I think this had a DVD release, and it doesn't look that great, although it doesn't look terrible, either. It's a bit too long for me to say "What do you have to lose?" and not good enough for me to suggest watching it. It's just kind of valueless. It doesn't elicit a "yay" or a "boo," but just an "oh." There's better uses for your time, don't bother with this.

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Add - More Cardcaptor Sakura Remember! The surest way to finish things you're already watching is to just go start watching yet another show! Wait. Sakura wears all that safety equipment, but not a helmet? She's just asking for head trauma.

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Add - More Casshern Sins (Spoilers. Comment and score reflect version aired on Toonami.) Ah, yes, Casshern Sins. A story of a struggling acrobatic troupe A commentary on liberty qua mortality with enough brooding that it starts treading freely right into histrionics. More on that later. Following some of the discussion on the series early into its airing on Toonami was amusing enough for the jokes cracked at its expense ("What were these robots built for?" "To monologue."), but it became clear this series didn't have the narrative strength to match its own seriousness. What it did have was enjoyable animation and aesthetic sensibilities. The visuals are constantly saturated with the all-important ruin and decay. The world around them genuinely feels like the crumbling remains of a once prosperous area. For what they're going for, the muted color scheme that trends toward soft, dull grays and whites and muddied browns is a perfect match. And when they want to use vibrant colors for a purpose, it causes them to stand out all the more. If you want some robots flipping around and fighting each other, you've come to the right place. Every episode is basically summarized by the tag I gave this show. Fights in Casshern Sins often seem more like something you'd expect to see at a circus. Agile machines glide forth or practically fly through the air, flipping to and fro, slicing and smashing and piercing with nigh pin-point precision. The choreography does not reveal a highly technical fight, but one that is fluid and easy on the eye. What the fights may lack in intellectual complexity they attempt to make up for in flashiness. What you make of that obviously depends on your own personal priorities, but I can appreciate a spectacle in motion. Casshern Sins does not present revolutionary animation, but it's still rather solid. The catch to this is, of course, that the show is often so languid that most of the time the animation isn't even much of a factor. That's a nice segue into the story. The message in Casshern Sins is trite. Being ephemeral makes us appreciate our lives more? Well gee, thanks for the bold new insight. Still, simple messages can still succeed if well presented. But Casshern Sins just doesn't pull that off. It just beats you over the head with the same point over and over. We get it. The ruin. Things decay now. Anything else? At a certain point you'd expect them to get over it, but it takes them nearly the entire series to stop just despairing and adjust to their new reality. Do we really need episode after episode of "Kill Casshern! Devour Casshern!" from immortality crazed robots to just keep driving the point home? I get that a sudden switch from living forever to constantly rotting away would come as an unwelcome shock, but it makes for a very tedious narrative. Of course, being able to move on in the plot would require them to have something more to say. And they don't. Mind Game can get away with a simple message because it's only film length and is competently delivered in that time frame. Casshern Sins is a simple message over 24 long, plodding episodes that want to make sure nobody could possibly miss the point they're trying to make. The plot on top of that is a paper-thin vessel for their message. So very little actually happens when you think about it. It's always obsessed with trying to be reflective instead. Casshern Sins thinks it's a lot more than it actually is. But since we're on the plot, how about the characters? While not a violent person, I was tempted to backhand Casshern. Could you care any less about his existential woes? You have a love interest who, like Casshern, has existential woes instead of a personality. You have two antagonists. One wants to be a rose eternally blooming in the vast wasteland and the other has an inferiority complex. That's the entirety of their personality and motivations. Look. These aren't interesting characters. They're not the least bit compelling. They're narrative devices and nothing more. They're nearly as disposable as the faceless robot hordes Casshern regularly dispatches. But hey, they only had 24 episodes to try to develop them, right? Maybe all of that plot took up too much time. The soundtrack is fitting and pleasant, but tracks tend to get overused. When all of your scenes are basically identical, I guess there's not too much room for variation. You'll hear the same "contentious atmosphere" music and "We're trying to be really brooding and existential right now, okay?" music many times throughout the series. Halving the length of this series would be a good start, but it'd ultimately still be rather flawed. Solid art and animation combined with the aforementioned soundtrack buoy the show somewhat, but they just can't salvage a show so weighed down by its failures. I can't really recommend this on the strength of its redeeming features, because you could find those all elsewhere in much stronger series. Casshern Sins is kind of like the ruin itself. It slowly crumbles away leaving a useless wreck of not-quite-salvageable parts behind, and those experiencing it just want it to stop as soon as possible, but it just keeps on happening.

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Angst, angst, robot violence, angst., FA2008 Angst, angst, robot violence, angst., FA2008

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Add - More Catman Well, since I dropped part 2, I guess this is the one I'm rating. Catman is nothing special and really just a vehicle to promote some band. The animation and sound effects are pretty low effort, the plot is barely there, it's roughly a bad music video. And that's about it. All below was written prior. *** With a vague airing date of "2002," it's hard for me to determine if "season" is just an arbitrary marker for Catman. I'm not sure which part(s) of Catman, if any, I'll want to give a score to, so for now I'm not giving this one a score. (As in cases like Fate/Zero, if it's not "really" another season, I opt to rate them as the one work they really are rather than heeding where they used a hiatus to buy time or, as in some cases, just arbitrarily declared something a new season despite having no break between seasons either temporally nor thematically.)

3

ONA

7

237

Add - More CCW: Crazy Clay Wrestling

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ONA

1

238

Add - More Cencoroll Cencoroll feels more like watching a pilot to something that could be interesting than it does like an enthralling or even, as some have hailed it, "revolutionary" series. And I do stress "could," because what is here seems like material that's been seen many times before. Cencoroll's take really isn't very unique, not in its deliberate, detached tedium nor in its presentation. The animation, limited as it is, fails to wow. Just to bring in something similar, compare Cencoroll to Kyousogiga. The first Kyousogiga has the visual and narrative flair that Cencoroll is simply missing. Watch one after the other, and you should be able to feel the difference instantaneously. Letting one person have such large control over a work is something I'd like to see more of, but in Cencoroll's case, it just feels unfinished. I'm curious to see how the slated Cencoroll 2 turns out, but Cencroll is pretty missable.

5

Movie

1

239

Add - More Centaur no Nayami While perhaps the most competent animation to come out of this studio yet, that's really not saying much. *** The thing with Centaur's Worries is that its' narrative is a bit odd in how its doled out, in that it isn't always a perfectly straightforward A to B sort of affair, but one that bounces from vaginas to aliens to medieval warfare to social commentary and so on. This is hardly anything that would be impossible to adapt to anime, but it would require some basic competence to pull off. Most in the industry could do that. But unfortunately, as previous Chinese co-productions involving Haoliners Animation League have demonstrated, "basic competence" isn't quite their forte. And while they may have upped their animation efforts for this outing (likely due to having more time/better freelancers on staff) from poor to mediocre, direction and composition didn't enjoy the same upgrades. Tonal shifts that are pulled off with debatable success in the manga become a mess of wild emotional inconsistencies in the anime that left viewers utterly puzzled as to how any of it all fit together, as online feedback indicated. The lackluster direction lead to viewers simply feeling that events unfolded without meaning or any real purpose, merely odd slices of narratives whose only connection was typically featuring the same cast. There was no sense of cohesion. I'd argue that the same isn't true of the manga, even if it's certainly not perfect, which renders this a poor adaptation. But worse than that, this also makes Centaur's Worries just not a good show regardless of the source material. Were it not adapting a manga I've read I don't know I would have bothered sticking with it. There's a problem in the Japanese anime industry that's received some coverage, but really deserves more attention: There are only so many animators in Japan and thus they can only make so much anime at once. Chinese co-productions like this are perhaps in part a response to that issue, as you could presumably make more anime if you no longer limit yourself to the animators in just Japan. But the results we've seen thus far don't make that a particularly inspiring solution. (This, of course, is certainly not the only reason for these Chinese co-productions, but that's a bigger matter for another time.)

5

TV

12

Not quite getting the narrative you're adapting is one thing. Not quite getting how narratives work at all is another., "Centaur's Worries", SU2017 Not quite getting the narrative you're adapting is one thing. Not quite getting how narratives work at all is another., "Centaur's Worries", SU2017

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Add - More Chainsaw Maid That sure was a thing. Assessing claymation really isn't my forte, so I won't. And considering there's not too much else to focus on, no score.

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ONA

1

241

Add - More Chainsaw Man

8

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12

242

Add - More ChäoS;Child Episode 0

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Add - More Cheer Danshi!! Recap

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Add - More Cheonnyeon-yeowoo Yeowoobi

8

Movie

1

"Yobi the five-tailed Fox", 2007 "Yobi the five-tailed Fox", 2007

245

Add - More Chi's Sweet Home My instincts want to say Chi is a perfectly fine children's show, and yet the manga runs in a seinen magazine. Well, so it goes. The art isn't that impr- oh my gosh a kitten! The story isn't very comp- aww she's typing! The music has very little vari- oh hey, my cat does that too! Look. If you don't like cats, you're not going to like Chi's Sweet Home. If you think they're cute and you like watching cute things, you're probably going to like Chi's Sweet Home. That's all it really comes down to. While certain liberties are taken, it's a fairly honest (if somewhat prettied-up) depiction of domestic cats and kittens. There's no fancy plot developments, characters don't really change, there's no impressive animation, it's just cats. That's all it promises, and that's all it delivers. Hardly anime of the year material, but it gets the job done. I want this, only with a bunny. Then it'd be perfect. Downloaded Episodes: 104

5

TV

104

SP2008 SP2008

246

Add - More Chi's Sweet Home: Atarashii Ouchi Chi's New Address successfully improves upon its predecessor by bringing in a host of side characters, allowing for more cats and a few other species to join the mix. This increases the cuteness (including a rabbit. Life is good.) and, much like Chi's expanded world, allows the show to open up and breathe a bit more. The narrative actually improves by focusing a little less on realism and injecting in more humor. It's still a cat-person's show, but it gives the show more than just the "Look, it's a cat!" factor of Chi's Sweet Home. There's even a bit of drama that, for this series, is a surprise. Allowing Chi to frequently go to places throughout town is also beneficial for the series, allowing for a greater breadth of scenarios for Chi to be involved in. This is also aided by the aforementioned expanded roster of characters. Chi's New Address is still fundamentally recognizable as part of the Chi franchise, but the changes to the formula breathe new life into it, letting it stay fresh for another season. It improves without actually introducing any new negative qualities, and manages a 6 where its predecessor only managed a 5. It's certainly worth watching if you liked the first season.

6

TV

104

SP2009 SP2009

247

Add - More Chi's Sweet Home: Chi to Kocchi, Deau. My thoughts on this are no different than my thoughts on the main Chi's Sweet Home series.

5

OVA

1

248

Add - More Chicchana Yukitsukai Sugar I'm not sure why I watched this whole thing. It's a kids show (I think) so it's not like I can be too disappointed with it. I wasn't even the target demographic. And it's fine for what it is. It's not awful, but there's nothing all that great about it. It's simple, fluffy, and, well, "sugary." (I had to.) It's just average.

5

TV

24

"Snow Fairy Sugar", FA2001 "Snow Fairy Sugar", FA2001

249

Add - More Chicchana Yukitsukai Sugar Specials

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TV Special

2

250

Add - More Chihayafuru (Later. Hopefully in the form of a full-on reaction for /r/anime's club because I haven't found the right time to post anything in this show's discussion threads, yet.)

7

TV

25

FA2011 FA2011

251

Add - More Chihayafuru 2

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25

WI2013 WI2013

252

Add - More Chihayafuru 2: Waga Miyo ni Furu Nagame Shima ni

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OVA

1

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Add - More Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki

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Movie

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Add - More Chim Chim Cher-ee

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1

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Add - More Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro

5

TV

12

"Chio's School Road", SU2018 "Chio's School Road", SU2018

256

Add - More Chiruran: Nibun no Ichi

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12

WI2017 WI2017

257

Add - More Chobits

5

TV

26

SP2002 SP2002

258

Add - More Chobits: Chibits

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Special

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259

Add - More Choboraunyopomi Gekijou Ai Mai Mii

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TV

13

WI2013 WI2013

260

Add - More Choboraunyopomi Gekijou Dai Ni Maku Ai Mai Mii: Mousou Catastrophe

2

TV

12

SU2014 SU2014

261

Add - More Choboraunyopomi Gekijou Dai Ni Maku Ai Mai Mii: Mousou Catastrophe - Shojo Kuriya (I'm guessing what I saw was this. It was a special and I can't find any other specials, so it must have been this, right? Not like anyone's gonna sub this so I might as well sate my completist desires and just watch it raw, understanding what I can [not much] and getting to visually look at it. And if this was a different special, then, whoops I guess? This is accurate as far as I know, anyway.) *** Welp. Someone subbed the special and it wasn't the thing I saw, but I guess now I've seen the actual thing. Don't know what the thing I saw previously was, then.

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Special

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Add - More Choboraunyopomi Gekijou Dai San Maku Ai Mai Mii: Surgical Friends

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WI2017 WI2017

263

Add - More Chokkyuu Hyoudai Robot Anime: Straight Title

4

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12

WI2013 WI2013

264

Add - More Chou Kidou Densetsu DinaGiga

2

OVA

2

Learning to pilot. Learning to pilot.

265

Add - More Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: Missing 99

2

OVA

1

266

Add - More Chuu Bra!! Why did I watch this whole thing? Why? I don't even know. Was the audience supposed to be girls going through puberty? I can't imagine anyone else caring. And it was pretty tedious even if that was the intended audience. The humor is very weak, the character relations aren't that interesting. Not the absolute worst thing you'll ever watch, but it's down there.

3

TV

12

WI2010 WI2010

267

Add - More Chuuka Ichiban!

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TV

52

"Cooking Master Boy", SP1997 "Cooking Master Boy", SP1997

268

Add - More Chuukou Ikkan!! Kimetsu Gakuen Monogatari: Kimetsu no Utage Tokubetsu-hen

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Special

3

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Add - More Chuukou Ikkan!! Kimetsu Gakuen Monogatari: Valentine-hen

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ONA

4

270

Add - More Chuumon no Ooi Ryouriten (1991) (spoilers) It's a little neat aesthetically, but I've seen much more impressive in that department. And that's really about it. You can see where this short is going right from the start and it's just a long, plodding ride to a pithy, lazy "Ha ha, the hunters are now the hunted!" conclusion. Which wouldn't be as bad if the ride were worth it, but that's pretty lacking, too. The impression I get is that it's supposed to be artsy, but it's hard to appreciate it in that regard because it doesn't pull it off well. A few tedious set pieces and one or two visual tricks is all it has. Likely due to its simplicity it's at least able to work as a silent short, but big deal. It's functional, but they don't actually make relevant use of it. Silent films allow for different ways of presenting a work than a talkie does, but this short is just silent for the sake of it. An unsubtle work that comes up short in so many areas. That's not how you describe something good, now is it? So a 3 it is.

3

Movie

1

"The Restaurant of Many Orders" "The Restaurant of Many Orders"

271

Add - More Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Oh gosh did I used to put the most chronologically recent thing at the top of this field? Weird. Anyway, Sentai is terrible at pretty much everything... except they've displayed a surprising ability to deliver on the concept of a "collector's edition." Like, being able to point at anything Sentai has ever done and feeling like other R1 companies should take notes is a bizarre phenomenon. Yet from a purely physical standpoint, their CE release of this show is rather impressive, delivering a bevy of neat trinkets, an extensive little book, pretty looking discs and some other appreciable odds and ends. It... it's pretty much exactly what a CE should look like, and it costs a fraction of some far less impressive releases that would claim to be for collectors (looking at you, Aniplex/Ponycan). They're even outclassing NISA's releases, and those things were always pretty decent. Yet that still leaves the matter of what they've done with the subtitles and dub of the show itself, and in that aspect it's business as usual for Sentai. In that they're both awful. And so now I'm in the position where the worst company is somehow putting out some of the best collector's editions and making me wonder if I want to buy it just for the physical part even if I'll never bother watching this terrible release of Chuu2. How can this company clearly put so much time, effort, money and passion into the physical part of this release and then just slap garbage subs and a third-rate dub on the show? How can both these things have simultaneously come from the same company in the same release? Can whoever worked on the physical part of this for Sentai somehow be put in charge of their dubs and subtitles instead? Because at least they actually seem to care about their work. I really hope their competitors learn to follow suit on the physical part because at least those companies already have the other part down pretty well. *** (spoilers) So initially this was looking like it would be praise for KyoAni's solid comedic timing as they've demonstrated in basically everything (especially Nichijou), their high quality animation as they've demonstrated in everything and all the other usual KyoAni praises. I should've seen the emotional moment coming, of course. That's pretty standard for KyoAni, too. And that's what this series is. It's pretty standard KyoAni. And I like standard KyoAni, but it's not anything fresh or new from them. It's just a good romcom. I won't lower my score just because this is average output for the studio, of course, but there's still a certain disappointment to getting what is a good series that'll ultimately just be a footnote to me a season later. I guess when a studio has made some of my favorite series of all time, my expectations get a little raised. I mean, there's a reason KyoAni series tend to sell well, have a strong presence on discussion boards, show strong viewership numbers here on MAL and all the other signs of a popular series. There's a reason that simply being KyoAni's new show raises a title's profile. They've earned their trust by consistently putting out enjoyable but largely similar titles. I don't blame them for sticking to their formula. It's certainly working for them. But I feel like they have more range than this. Nichijou wasn't straying too far, but it really showed off their comedic abilities. This series demonstrates they could certainly animate Fate/Zero-esque fight scenes. I like you, KyoAni. That's why I want to see you try new things. I mean, this show about an eccentric girl who starts a club full of eccentric people, including a brown-haired straight man and an attractive redhead, well, we've been here before. I'm just sort of contented, not wowed. Chuu2's ending was perhaps the most Hollywood thing they could've gone for. The tearful reunion with all their friends showing up to help them escape off into the night while their chuunibyou is brought back and it resolves all their conflicts and a pithy ending narration about life all coming together to make something that could almost be a parody if they weren't clearly serious about it. Sure, it's a cute and happy end, but wow is that cliched. It could've been handled far better if it were less over-the-top. Leaving the side characters to just be rather unresolved didn't help, either. But a cheesy ending doesn't null many episodes of fun character interactions (sans Makoto. He fluctuates between boring and annoying), good background gags (I had to pause the episode after seeing Dekomori... "whatever the right verb for curling is"ing Rikka across the pool because I started laughing too hard to pay attention to the show), lively, vibrant animation, well-executed seiyuu performances, smart direction decisions (showing a relationship's status by the closeness of hands on a train and then showing how it's advanced by having them later hold hands on a train isn't a radical idea, but it sure beats exposition telling me that) and everything else KyoAni always brings to the table. Consider it a low 8. Not your top priority KyoAni show nor the best show of its season, but a pleasant one all the same. It was fun, KyoAni. We'll see each other again in three weeks. EDIT: Dark Sage over at Whiners (fun site, by the way) has a pretty decent writeup on what's wrong with this show's ending. I'm honestly a little surprised that people on Reddit were calling this "10/10" or "AOTY" even while acknowledging all these flaws. Actually, I'd be surprised at that kind of praise even if the ending hadn't been as poor as it was. (But of course, you can't say that on Reddit or you'll get downvoted until your viewpoint is censored. Why actually address a point you disagree with when you can just click a button to pretend those opinions don't exist?) All below was written while the show aired. *** Like SSY, this show is sort of "probational." It hasn't yet convinced me it's a strong show, but it's given me no reason to drop it and I accept that this episode was introductory. K-on! didn't have me sold after the first episode, but that turned out well. Really nothing I can do about it but wait for another episode or two to be out. *** Given another episode, it's textbook KyoAni alright. It's giving off haremish vibes, which I hope is wrong, but a lot of the pieces seem to be there so far. Not that I won't watch any harem series, but I'd rather this particular series not tread that path. This episode makes me want KyoAni to animate a F/Z like show. But their bread and butter is cute girls, and I can't really blame them for riding the gravy train like that. They are a business, after all. Oh well. Is it even worth pointing out some of the nice animation that's been in these episodes? To their credit, that almost seems redundant when talking about a KyoAni series. Well, that's one of the benefits of being flush with cash (and talent). All written below was written before the show aired. It is maintained for posterity. *** A quick look at my listing on MALGraph reveals that, yes, I do suppose I'm a bit of a KyoAni fangirl at heart. But that is born of their persistently producing quality works since really emerging as a relevant force in the industry, with few exceptions. So I always get a little excited for a new KyoAni show. Couple that with this one's interesting (but laconic) trailer, and I have fair hopes this will be at least an alright if not good series. I've missed having a KyoAni show to follow since dropping Hyouka. (I could only imagine a series co-produced by KyoAni and Trigger would be the closest thing to my ideal anime. Although Trigger has still yet to produce a series at all, unfortunately. But you'd basically have the people behind five of my nine 10 rated anime working together, in such a scenario.) *** Further trailers have been less exciting, and the preview with a few minutes of actual show seems very familiar. Two semesters of Japanese isn't quite enough to fully understand most of the words said in the video without subs, but that and ten years of anime watching are easily enough to read the vibes and be able to follow along in what feels like a decent enough fashion. It's not that I feel like it will be bad. It just, right now, seems like it will be an alright but predictable and unrevolutionary title. Not the worst thing, certainly something that can still be enjoyed, but shows like that are ultimately forgettable. You watch it during the season, you have fun with it, but it's not a show you really go back to. It's just kind of ephemeral. Lots of shows are, but you still always hope for one that's transcendent, right? So it's a bit of a bummer that the show already seems like it won't be anything fresh or original, but likely just a competently executed retread. Although, I don't know what episode those few minutes are from. From what I've heard, things get interesting in the second episode, so this could be a misleading impression of the overall series. Well, I'd certainly like to be wrong in a positive direction. I very much want the show from that first trailer, but every bit of preview material hence has systematically worked at dashing those hopes. *** ANN says it's not actually from an episode at all. Well then. Still, it almost certainly gives an impression of where they're planning to take this show, regardless. Fansub Group: gg

8

TV

12

FA2012 FA2012

272

Add - More Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Depth of Field: Ai to Nikushimi Gekijou Too short/inconsequential to receive a score/comment.

-

Special

7

273

Add - More Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Kirameki no... Slapstick Noel Whoa, when did the remaining Depth of Field specials come out? I didn't even notice. And oh yeah, in all the new season hubbub I'd forgotten there's another season of this in the works. Neat. Anyway, I'm not giving this it's own score or comment. I can't be bothered to.

-

Special

1

274

Add - More Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Lite Finally having subs confirmed the impression I got from watching this raw. It's alright. It's fun and its got some cute humor, but I'm hoping the actual series turns out to be more than this. I'll still probably watch and like the show if it's like this, but it was the impression from that first trailer that got my hopes up for this series. It's every bit of material since that which has been bringing those hopes back down. *** There's only six of these? Weird. I'm not rating or commenting on these separately from the main series, though. They're just brief little bits of bonus material, basically, so there's really no point in doing that.

-

ONA

6

275

Add - More Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie: Take On Me Look. Referencing previous KyoAni works? Okay, sure. Choosing that insufferable bird from Tamako Market to be one of your easter eggs? You monsters. also holy heck it was like four years between the (worthless) second season and this movie. You can really see the impact of that gap. The show was decently popular back when it aired, and even with the widely disliked second season killing a fair bit of its momentum, if this film had come out within a year of that it still would've been pretty popular. But now? It barely feels like anyone even noticed this came out, let alone cared. I mean maybe people just aren't bothering to discuss it online but it's actually doing solid numbers over on various pirate streaming sites or something, but it just doesn't seem like there's any real buzz around this thing.

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276

Add - More Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren

5

TV

12

Please stop prostituting this franchise, WI2014 Please stop prostituting this franchise, WI2014

277

Add - More Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren Lite The first Chuu2-lite ED got stuck in my head for a bit and I'd find myself humming it. Now this one has already done the same. Great. Anyway, Chuu2-2 is one of the two shows this season I'm actually looking forward to, so woo~ This should hopefully be a return to form for KyoAni. Right before they go full steam ahead with Free S2, a new Tamako Market project and KNK S2 and damage my faith in them all over again, I'm sure. (Please no.)

-

ONA

6

278

Add - More Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren Specials

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Special

7

279

Add - More Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren: The Rikka Wars

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Special

1

280

Add - More Circuit Angel: Ketsui no Starting Grid

4

OVA

1

281

Add - More Clannad

7

TV

23

FA2007 FA2007

282

Add - More Clannad: After Story

10

TV

24

FA2008 FA2008

283

Add - More Clannad: After Story - Mou Hitotsu no Sekai, Kyou-hen

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Special

1

284

Add - More Clannad: Mou Hitotsu no Sekai, Tomoyo-hen

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Special

1

285

Add - More ClassicaLoid

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TV

25

FA2016 FA2016

286

Add - More Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch (vague spoilers) (This is written without having seen the second season. If something I say here seems foolish in light of events in the second season, that's why.) My list is admittedly low on mecha series. It's not that I dislike mecha entirely, it's more that super robot shows aren't quite my scene. Code Geass certainly has plenty of mechs (I grew up loving Mechwarrior 2, I'm calling them "mechs."), but really, you could almost forget they're there. That's because they serve as vessels to advance a narrative type that really appeals to me. Take one extraordinarily intelligent and cunning character and have them be better than everyone else? Tedious. Take multiple highly intelligent and cunning characters and pit them against each other in a high stakes situation? Just go ahead and hook me up to a steady drip of that, thanks. Throw in the usual dose of conspiracies, backstabbing and everything else that comes stock with a "Now it is I who am behind you!" narrative, and you've got your Death Notes, your Liar Games and your Code Geasi (What is the plural form of "Geass," anyway?) that certainly aren't perfect, but I'll never get enough of them. This season has a bit of a lull towards the middle, but once it started picking up steam again, I could barely bring myself to stop watching it even for a moment. Sure, Clamp's noodle people designs are off-putting, some music is overused, there are bits where the writing feels a little stiff or lazy, it can get a wee bit fanservicey and other assorted nitpicks are all true, but it scratches a lot of the right itches for me. The question, now, is if it can maintain its momentum. The lull in the middle exposes potential weaknesses in that regard. Still, they managed to keep ramping things up for the last third or so of the series, and that cliffhanger ending has me curious if they'll actually dare to let these particular bits of plot armor get pierced. There's only two things that can happen since they're determined to resolve all these various plot threads in the second season: Something incredible, or crushing disappointment. There can be no middle road. Since the first season doesn't end cleanly, I'll reserve more thorough comments on the plot as a whole for the second season. But, I'm glad to a degree that I missed this when it was first airing on Adult Swim. I don't know how I'd have managed a week's wait between episodes towards the end.

8

TV

25

FA2006 FA2006

287

Add - More Code Geass: Hangyaku no Lelouch Picture Drama Well, alright, sure, these are quick enough to watch before starting Ergo Proxy. Since they're just quick little specials, and "picture dramas" at that, I won't be giving them a separate score or comment. Something like a Code Geass OVA, however, would likely receive its own score and comment. Hence why the Denpa Onna and Steins;Gate specials get a score while this and the Usagi Drop specials don't.

-

Special

9

288

Add - More Coffee Tadaiku

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Movie

1

289

Add - More Colorful (Movie)

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Movie

1

290

Add - More Comet Lucifer

4

TV

12

FA2015 FA2015

291

Add - More Comic Girls ha ha they're sexually assaulting her but it's okay and funny because she's a porn artist projectile_vomiting.apng Why is this "a thing" in anime?

-

TV

12

SP2018 SP2018

292

Add - More Cool Cool Bye

4

OVA

1

293

Add - More Coquelicot-zaka kara (mild spoilers) Maybe the most charitable term for the film is "inoffensive." Although that's sort of just a softer way of saying "bland," isn't it? When this director's father succeeded, it was because he was bringing a sense of magic to a world that felt solid. The direction in this film, however, is muddied. You have the lively and vibrant clubhouse contrasted with the dull, lifeless everything else. You have characters doing so much so what in a young romance so basic and rote it'd threaten to blend into the background were so much else not even more tepid. Side characters are devoid of soul, of individuality, of relevance. Ultimately, the film just feels like it's spinning its wheels. I'd have suspected from the time this is set in to see a bit of that characteristic Ghibli nostalgia, but, and this just ties further in to the lackluster story, it was ultimately all but irrelevant. This film could've taken place in modern times and lost nothing for it. Which should be a red flag. They've deliberately chosen to set it a certain time and yet failed to actually do anything with that. Which means either they just arbitrarily set it at that time point or they just didn't know how to actually capitalize on their temporal setting. Either one is sloppy. From up on Poppy Hill is kind of like two films stitched together. One a mildly interesting tale of an effort to preserve the clubhouse, and the other a generic, woefully unambitious tale of young love. I say "stitched" because they don't mesh together. They don't feel like the same film and the narratives feel heavily divorced. It doesn't benefit the film that more of it is dedicated to the less impressive of the two narratives. The film's music is suitable to the time period, but not particularly striking. You'll forget it shortly after watching the film. The animation is mixed, but favors the positive. While generally fluid, you get occasional moments of unpleasant jerkiness so noticeable I thought my media player was having a fit. Pleasant amounts of detail in the background art are brought down by lethargy in the background characters that are all rather samey in action, personality and appearance. Character designs are very stock Ghibli, and this studio has done better there in other films. The sum total is watchable, but unimpressive, rising above mediocrity in some spots, falling below it in too many. A low 5.

5

Movie

1

"From up on Poppy Hill" "From up on Poppy Hill"

294

Add - More Cornelis

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Movie

1

295

Add - More Cosmo Police Justy

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OVA

1

296

Add - More Cosmos Pink Shock

1

OVA

1

297

Add - More Count Down

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Movie

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Add - More Cowboy Bebop (spoilers) "You're gonna carry that weight." Back in the day it was basically a given that you'd have seen Cowboy Bebop. It was a big title at the time. If you're newer to anime fandom, think of how Haruhi was, only even more so. (If you're too new to even remember Haruhi airing, then I don't know what show to use. There just doesn't seem to be as many "big shows" these days.) Apparently, these days a large portion of the fandom hasn't seen this title. A fair amount of those people haven't even heard of it. That's not a travesty. It just means there's a lot of people who have a chance to see something incredible for the first time. If the "cowboy" part of the title had you hoping for something taking place in the Wild West, well sorry, but it actually refers to bounty hunters in space. The "bebop" part is certainly there, however, and in spades. This show oozes style and pure, uncut "cool." Is there jazz? You know it. (The soundtrack for this show is fantastic, by the way.) Cowboy Bebop can pivot between comedy, melancholy and even a bit of action, and all with seeming ease. There's a few misfires here and there, but they're minor and only stand out because they're in contrast to something so otherwise masterfully done. (Okay, I know I said spoilers, but seriously, BIG SPOILERS AHEAD.) I want to offer an example. There's plenty, but this is one I feel is good. With Ed and Ein gone and Faye only maybe coming back, no promises, we get to the scene where Spike and Jet are together, prepared to eat eggs. Pay attention to this scene. You can clearly see portions set aside for all the now gone crew members. If you've been paying attention, you'll recall that food was always scarce, frequently stolen, and, if given, only ever begrudgingly. There were frequent complaints about sharing food with the new crew members. Now, when they've seemingly finally accepted them enough to willingly prepare portions for them, they're gone. And Spike and Jet eat their eggs without saying a word. There is an incredible amount of subtext to two characters eating eggs. And that hinges upon the strength of the characters, and particularly their relationships with each other. You won't find a shallow main character here. Faye gains depth in uncovering her history. Whether it's seeing that old tape of herself or meeting that doctor (whatever his name was), she becomes less con artist drifter femme fatale, and becomes more humanized until she's uniquely "Faye," if you know what I mean. By the time she's shooting up in the air as Spike leaves to never return, she's a different person than when you first encounter her. And that's because your perception of her has changed, and because she's developed herself. And that all plays into the meaning of her last interaction with Spike and lends it its subtext. Actually, backstory is important to most of them. Spike becomes more than a laid-back, cynical nihilist. Jet becomes more than some gruff, exasperated fellow. Ein doesn't develop much, but he's perhaps more plot device than character, really. And supercomputers don't quite have much character development to do, anyway. I'm not sure that Ed's backstory really fleshed them out. You didn't get to see much of it. It added something, certainly, but not nearly as much as it did for the other three characters. So, excluding Ein and maybe Ed, the other three characters become so very human. They're complex, they have their own motivations, they have depth. When so many series have characters that can be fully described in single words ("tsundere," "clumsy," "shy"), this is a refreshing thing. It's unfortunate that Cowboy Bebop was made in that period where it was new enough to be digital, but not new enough to be HD. This means the show could never truly be in HD (so upscales don't count) without them reanimating the entire series, which they aren't going to do. Yet the show still looks fine, keeping in mind that it's SD. Characters aren't too out there, but they're still "anime" in contrast to something like LOGH's character designs. They're all distinctive and unique looking. Colors are applied where they make sense, so it suffers neither from being too dull nor over-saturated. It's fluid and pleasant from a technical standpoint. I read a critique of comic books complaining about female characters taking the "broke back" pose, which was criticized for sacrificing a chance for characterization in favor of fan service. The characters in Cowboy Bebop move in ways that demonstrate their respective personalities. Ed is bouncing about, running in a wild, unrestrained fashion. Spike kind of shuffles about when he's not doing anything important. It's touches like these that help make this title great. Cowboy Bebop is somewhat episodic. That is, if you want to follow the actual plot, you could watch a fair number of these episodes out of order, and would still be fine. But the character development is, in fact, sequential. Watch an episode where a character is first introduced (again, Ein excepted) and compare it with that same character towards the last moments you see them. They should be noticeably different. And if you've been watching in order, you'll understand how they got there. So about the ending. There was actually something satisfying about Spike dying. Not that I wanted him dead, but that the way he died felt right. It was the only proper way for Spike to go out. But then, he'd already been dead for a while, just not physically. This was only closure for him, which perhaps makes it most fitting to serve as a form of closure for the series. I'm not too out there in being disappointed with the endings of a lot of series out there, but this one works. "Bang." I mentioned the soundtrack earlier. It's fantastic. I didn't listen to jazz before this. I'm sure there's a jazz fan foaming at the mouth in rage right now over my pleb tastes, but this got me to actually go and search out more like it. It's a soundtrack that stands on its own as something you could listen to without ever having seen the show, and still love. I've heard Tank! performed by a live orchestra, and not as part of some anime tribute. It's just genuinely good. But how is it in the show? Great. It's wisely placed into the episodes, and doesn't get repetitive. It enhances scenes rather than distracts. It's not there to sell the latest single from some new idol. Some scenes wouldn't be the same without it (such as when Julia gets shot, or the aforementioned egg eating scene). Truly, a great job by Yoko Kanno and co. (end spoilers) Cowboy Bebop is a title you need to see if you haven't (sorry that my reasons why are full of spoilers!). A number of older titles that were popular back in the day don't hold up, but this one holds up beautifully. Go pick up the boxset (or however you wish to procure it. I won't tell.) and watch it today. Oh, and go ahead and watch the dub. It's actually fantastic. EDIT: The Internet told me this wasn't shot on film. Now I'm finding out it apparently was. You lied to me, Internet! (Now I have to watch the BD version.) *** "Why 'Cowboy Bebop' is the best anime you've never heard of"-Daily Californian ...I mean people still know about Cowboy Bebop, right? Right?

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Add - More Cowboy Bebop: Ein no Natsuyasumi Well, that was pointless. No rating for minor side material like this.

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Add - More D-Frag!*

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Add - More Dagashi Kashi FUNimation, please stop using the word "dagashi" in English subtitles. That is absolutely not an untranslatable term. When fansubbers insist on using "nakama" in One Piece fansubs, it's silly. When professionals are operating at the same standard, it's embarrassing. If a viewer has to infer through context what "dagashi" means, it's probably not the term you should be using.

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Add - More Dai Mahou Touge In the interest of testing SMA's recommendation quality, I'm taking the obvious route of watching some of the shows it recommended. This is one such anime. EDIT: This is not representative of SMA's top recommendations, as SMA previously glitched when this title was culled from it. *** I’ve seen this before. Not this exact title, but just in general. This feels like a mishmash of anime that preceded it. Sure, an obvious comparison is Dokuro-chan, but that’s just the most immediate one. I could point towards Excel Saga to a degree, to Puni Puni Poemi even more so and so on, but it would just get to the general vibe: I’ve seen these characters, I’ve seen this atmosphere, I’ve seen these gags. But a title doesn’t have to be unique to be good, right? To quote from No First Prize, “Novelty for its own sake is no virtue. Emulation in the pursuit of excellence is no vice.” Yet Dai Mahou Touge isn’t pursuing excellence. It’s just taking an average version of the same goods and putting them in a similar package. So even if this were entirely fresh to you, it still wouldn’t impress. It’s not that Dai Mahou Touge isn’t funny. It kind of is. But it’s too quick to reach for the obvious, for the easy, to avoid taking risks or challenging itself in its steadfast dedication to cribbing from its predecessors and refusal to develop very far beyond its basic premise. Ha ha, the world of mahou shoujo is actually cruel and despotic despite its light and fluffy aesthetic! And now what? Where do you go from there? How do you use this as your foundation for jokes and not as the sum total of your humor? And it doesn’t really seem sure, instead opting to repeat gags (yes, they couldn’t come up with enough to fill four episodes with unique gags) and keep returning to the well for more permutations of the same, basic reversal of expectations that defines the series. (Small joke spoilers) The mascot is actually a grizzled, violent veteran despite appearing cute, the cute magical girls rule by violence, the cute little sisters are actually violent and murderous and on and on until you want to throw your hands up in the air and shout “I get it already! Please, give me something new!” but something new just won’t come and the joke simply isn’t funny or clever enough to hold up while being stretched that thin. In about 12 minutes you’ve got the whole series down and the rest is largely a regurgitation demonstrating that they have an idea, not a show. The animation similarly fails to impress. Movement looks cheap outside of fight scenes and even those are rather limited and lackluster. It’s not Petit Eva levels of outright terrible (which, if you’ve never seen, looks like it was animated on a budget of $5 an episode) but it only serves to make fight scenes that already lack action even less fun. And that’s really in line with everything about the show. Music, character designs, animation, humor, it’s all stuff that could be worse and at least gets the job done, but the end result is more along the lines of “stomachable” than something that’s genuinely fun and pleasant. This isn’t necessarily to say you should avoid Dai Mahou Touge. You’ll probably get a few chuckles and wring some enjoyment out of it. But when you consider that everything it’s going for has been done better before, with better animation, better jokes at a faster clip, more wit, more originality, Dai Mahou Touge is something that should be far down on the list. Because if you want what this is imitating, you don’t have to settle for this. It’s a weak, average series. A low 5.

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Add - More Dai Mahou Touge Omake Short side content like this does not get a separate score or comment.

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Add - More Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken

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Add - More Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken 2 Sure-me Fansub Group: Horriblesubs?

6

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Add - More Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

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"Daily Lives of High School Boys", WI2012 "Daily Lives of High School Boys", WI2012

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Add - More Dantalian no Shoka Oh hey, it's Anime-Planet Secret Santa time again! You know, that time where I secretly recommend someone three anime I think they'll be into and someone does the same for me (or maybe picks three they think I'll hate if they want to be jerks). And if all goes well and I both don't drop this and do finish it in time, then I'll likely attempt to write a review for it on A-P that'll be terrible and nobody'll read! Good times. Seriously though, it's too late to sign up this year, but next year you, unknown reader, should totally sign up. You might even get your chance to subject me to an anime/manga and wouldn't that be something? Ha ha, who am I kidding? Nobody would care about that. But you really will enjoy the event.

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Add - More Dareka no Manazashi I'm getting really tired of seeing Makoto Shinkai make the same thing time after time. I consider his name being attached to an anime to be a bad sign. I think I'll just skip whatever he puts out in the future because I've already seen it half a dozen times or so. I have no problem with his animation abilities, but he really needs other people to handle the writing for him because he can only write one story.

3

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Add - More Darkside Blues

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Add - More Date A Live Oh anime, you can trot out premises like these with nary a hint of shame in its ridiculousness from a meta level. Anyway, this show is exactly what I thought it would be, basically, which is great news for my FAL team, but not so great in terms of me wanting to watch more of this. I'm not part of its audience that its pandering to. (But keep watching, the rest of you! I want to win this FAL thing. Although dropping an anime from my own team isn't helping...) *** That Twintails show made me wonder: Had I perhaps been dismissing "dumb" shows like this too quickly? So I tracked down the director's cut of Date a Live to make sure I got the "full experience" and the answer is: No. Not at all. Date A Live is exactly what you'd think it would be, which I almost want to sum up as "a much less competent version of The World God Only Knows" but that'd still feel insulting to TWGOK. I'll never doubt my instincts again.

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Add - More Days Let's see. His mom's 151 cm tall and weighs 39 kg. That's a BMI of... 17.1, with under 18.5 being considered underweight. Healthy! Anime, please think a little so you stop telling us your women aren't just thin, but they might actually have a medical issue. You could Google a realistic skinny weight in seconds! A weight like that seems more like she's malnourished. And this isn't even a rare occurrence. Anime seems to stop at "Her weight? Well, that number should be low, right?" without getting to the part that requires a little basic understanding of how human bodies work. No, seriously, a doctor would say something if she weighed that little. Something this easy to get right really shouldn't be gotten wrong so frequently! Also this show isn't very good. ("Well actually, BMI is imperfect as a tool for measuring an individual's weight and-" That's not the point and you know it.)

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Add - More Dead Leaves

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Add - More Deadman Wonderland (Full disclosure: This comment reflects the version aired on Toonami.) (spoilerish) Are you kidding me. I feel like I got a story arc, not a complete narrative. And it's possible to suggest that's because, yes, they only adapted part of a manga, but that doesn't make it okay. Plenty of series are adapted either in part from whole sources or have to cope with still unfinished sources. And whether you think those various works have satisfying conclusions or not, most of them still, at the very least, conclude. But not Deadman Wonderland. An anime adaptation ought to be able to stand on its own. Otherwise you're following along and then it's just like a punch in the gut, as though it had all been nothing more than a trailer for the manga and you were a fool for watching. You just spent 12 weeks to have them pull the rug out from under you at the last moment. And maybe you could attempt to defend this by saying "Well, they were leaving the possibility open for adopting more of the manga!" No. If you know you're making a second season, well, alright, but otherwise this isn't okay. They could still have left that avenue open without the episode feeling like you clearly ought to expect another one next week, even teasing potential future details and leaving numerous introduced plot elements unresolved. (Who is the Red Man? What exactly is the Branch of Sin? Tell me more about this character you just introduced recently. What happens to Deadman Wonderland? What's the deal with Shiro? There's tons of questions left unanswered.) It's simply not okay. But as for what happens before that, it's actually pretty fun in a "turn your brain off" kind of way. Funimation's localization really works in the show's favor as a sort of pulpy, exploitative (in the genre sense) gory action show. Since the plot is so incomplete, I'm not sure to what degree I could reasonably further comment on it. The characters seem like they could be interesting, but many of them lack the time to flower. It was pleasing to see Ganta not be like Shinji and instead accept the challenges before him. Shiro probably has something interesting to reveal. She was a curious character, after all. But while that's teased, the anime never actually delves into it. Many characters simply die before they can be developed. It's likely that these characters were just meant as fodder to help move the story along to where truly important characters (Probably the ones that didn't die!) would get fleshed out more, but again, that didn't happen here. And that's really what's so frustrating about this! Sure it's lowbrow, but it's fun and certainly had room to go places, but as it is it all just ends so abruptly right when it might be about to finally dispense some answers and the show could get pretty interesting. Ugh. I'd definitely watch a second season of this, but if that's it (which it probably is), consider me vexed. There's an OVA, but it's apparently just a prequel. I can't not dock it for the complete nonending, but it was an enjoyable show up to that point. It's weird to give something a 7 and yet not be sure if you'd actually recommend watching it.

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SP2011 SP2011

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Add - More Deadman Wonderland: Akai Knife Tsukai It sure was great moving away from that carnival of excess to get this portion of a backstory that scarcely stands on its own to be nothing more than generic loose cannon cop revenge plot #52423. I'm glad that this not only is nothing like the main series, not only offers no further elaboration on the main series, but is also pretty dang worthless independent of the series, too. I'd have hated, just hated for this to have been anything interesting or compelling.

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Add - More Death Billiards Although the past has demonstrated "tomorrow" can be a little bit of a loose term for me. Consider it an aspiration, I guess. Fansub Group: gg

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Add - More Death Note It's not like Death Note is a forgotten relic in 2017, but its heyday is certainly a number of years behind it. The manga had a popular anime adaptation as well as a number of Japanese live action movies. So why it's now getting an American live action remake on Netflix I'm not quite sure. It's a weird time for an awkward thing. *** oh and it'll probably be bad, of course

8

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37

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Add - More Delpower X Bakuhatsu Miracle Genki!

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Add - More Denki-gai no Honya-san I'm actually a little surprised my feelings on this show seem to be the same as most other people's I've seen. I was under the impression that the manga was liked. And the anime, while weaker in execution than the manga, is something I figured people who aren't me would enjoy. So to see "kind of, but not quite" be the predominant reaction caught me off guard. Often, mainstream western anime fan opinion seems to overlook a lack of technical proficiency and half-baked comedy writing, perfectly sated so long as its wacky and screwball or cute enough. Which may be why this isn't clicking with those people. The humor is neither subtle enough to be witty, nor bombastic enough to wow not with nuance, but with sheer aggressive loudness. The character designs aren't unappealing, but feel so samey in respect to the work's peers that it can't quite hook that crowd, either. Nothing about the work comes across as particularly bad or objectionable, but the true fault is that there's simply a lack of anything compelling about its particular blend of mediocrity. Had it at least committed to an extreme, it would likely not have increased the actual quality, but it would at least have given it a greater chance to appeal to certain people. As it stands, it's basically a show most people wouldn't really say they dislike, but they don't want to watch it, either. Denkigai is anime tofu. *** I discovered that one of my devices has a legitimate application that has an unofficial CR channel. Out of curiosity, I checked it out. I figured watching the second episode of this would be a good way to find out both how that app performed (surprisingly, it streamed this in 1080p with no ads even though I'm not a CR subscriber) and if maybe this show wound up getting better. The answer to the latter is apparently an aggressive, emphatic "No." The first episode was ultimately bland and dull. The second episode seemed to try to remedy that by adding in as much uncomfortable and creepy perversion as it could, tossing out any semblance of charm for embarrassingly sophomoric humor and fan service. Never bother going back to series you dropped, folks. *** To be clear, I'm not objecting to lowbrow humor, but there's a line between that and tawdriness and this show planted its flag firmly on the latter side of that line in its second episode. *** "Ugh, why am I watching Denki-gai?" are the exact words that ran through my mind when I for some reason decided to give this show a third go, but here we are. It's still not that great! *** (spoilers) 1. When Fu Girl kissed Sommelier in his sleep, that wasn't "cute" or "charming," that was assault. Sleeping is not a form of consent, anime. Please stop glamorizing this sort of thing. Please. 2. Also, how old is Sommelier anyway? Fu Girl is in high school, so... 3. "Ero-hon," CR? "Ero-hon?" Why would you not translate that? Why would you demand that your viewers know some Japanese to read your English subtitles? I can think of a half dozen reasonable translations for that easily. At one point you apparently slipped and wrote "ero-books" in the subs before going back to "ero-hon." This isn't like trying to find a suitable translation for "moe." This is a really basic thing that has no reason to be left in Japanese. So why? You charge $60 a year for this, the least you could do is actually translate the dialogue. ("But CR supports the industry!") 4. I thought this series was retailing for $144. Then I looked a little more into it and realized that no, there was going to be a third volume for presumably the same price, making it $216. I started thinking the bonus collectibles didn't really seem to live up to that sort of price, and then I wondered why I even cared about the release of a series I had no interest in buying. I don't have a good answer for that. *** But in general, it's hard to look at something like Sentai's $80 premium release of Chuu2 that's chock full of fancy bonus items and say that Pony Canyon's release that costs nearly 3x that amount even offers comparable value. Free/low-cost streaming for mass distribution and collector-priced physical releases is a strategy that makes a lot of sense to me and seems like the most forward-looking distribution model for anime currently, but collector prices should also imply collector quality releases. (To be fair, Sentai's actual subs/dub of Chuu2 are terrible, but that's generally true of any given Sentai release.) *** "It is a lot to pay for four episodes these days, but if you're a collector willing to spend, the only issue is that the English in the magazine is not particularly well-translated, reading as if someone not entirely fluent did the work; there are missing articles (the, an) and odd phrases such as “This book spurs many speculations and rumors in the blank period.” It is understandable in context, but a definite quality issue, at least in my mind." -ANN's Rebecca Silverman That is not okay when you've priced something for collectors. That's one of the things that's supposed to justify the purchase in the first place. Little bonus booklets are not a novel idea, and cheaper releases from other companies have included them without such issues. This is a poor first showing for Ponycan USA's disc releases and makes me less inclined to splash out that kind of cash when/if they finally release a show I actually would like to own. I don't know about you, but if I'm spending $216 on one show, I expect the quality of the supplemental items to be up to par. I'm not gonna spend that just for the show itself which I could watch on CR or Hulu or wherever. That's justifiable for a $15 release from Funimation or Nozomi, but not a premium release at a premium price. Surprise: People get pickier when you charge more. *** ANN's Theron Martin suggests that Ponycan's releases have the highest per-minute cost of any "modern R1 anime release for a TV show" which... yeah that's not true at all. It took about 20 seconds to compare the price of this to the price of Fate/Zero's BD from Aniplex. And you start wondering why any professional would say something so clearly wrong in their review, but then you remember it's by Theron Martin and it all makes sense. Remember, that's ANN: "The Internet's Most Trusted Anime News Source." (Okay, yes, Theron Martin is a bit of a special case, but misinformation on ANN sure isn't.) *** Their $216 collector's edition of this series apparently has locked subtitles. ponycan what are you even doing

4

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12

FA2014 FA2014

330

Add - More Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

7

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331

Add - More Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko: Mayonaka no Taiyou

8

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4

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9

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Add - More Detatoko Princess Firstly, whoa, what, Shinbo directed this? I'd have never guessed. Secondly, this is another reminder of how JC Staff has changed. Is Detatoko Princess an unambitious bit of throwaway fluff? Sure. But it's the sort of thing I just don't think JC Staff could even make anymore. Modern JC Staff is one of the three studios I've designated as belonging to the Axis of Mediocrity, but Detatoko Princess, even if it isn't great, represents a general basic competency that is absent from the majority of what JC Staff has put out for the past number of years. And that's not strong praise for Detatoko Princess, but a sad reflection of what JC Staff currently is. But about Detatoko Princess itself. It's just another in a sea of OVAs that contain minimal setup and world building because you can't be entirely sure you'll actually have time for that to pay off, so instead it's just some generic setting with barely defined characters with simple humor and a bit of fanservice thrown in. Yes, that's a number of conditions that I'm claiming are commonly found together, but if you've even a modest degree of experience with these sorts of OVAs, you know it's true. Nothing about Detatoko Princess is impressive and there's nothing in it that isn't a direct copy and paste of its many nearly identical peers. Watchable? Sure. But at the same time, there's no reason at all to go out of your way to do so unless you've exhausted every better possibility and still want to watch something. Unless this is your first OVA series from this general era, you've seen a palette swap of this somewhere before.

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Add - More Detroit Metal City What this has in common with Angel Densetsu and (sort of) Goldden Boy is that it relies upon a very narrow set of jokes that it hopes you just won't stop finding funny. Angel Densetsu can get away with it since it's only two episodes long, but DMC stops being all that interesting when there's still a good portion of the show left to go. You see, our MC wants to be a musician playing bland, calm pop music and live a kind of yuppieish lifestyle. But instead, he's wound up as someone who's really good at being in a metal band, despite how he might want to view himself. And that's it. And it's easy to say "Well, what's Azumanga Daioh about? And that show's great!" but that's not apples to apples. Azumanga Daioh has a premise with which it does a lot, using it simply as a foundation to build upon. DMC never builds upon the premise, however. Due to this, and the more or less episodic nature of the series, I basically just gave away the entire plot to DMC in this comment. Oops. It's now like you can't like this show. But it's sort of like Chi's Sweet Home in the regard that if its one premise can't sustain you, this is going to get old pretty quickly. If you like Metalocalypse, this is probably a good choice for you. It's certainly not like they haven't put effort into this, between the exaggerated parodical songs, the send-up of the stereotype of the death metal band, the... well the fanatical fans (ugh, that redundancy) and so on. Negishi accidentally and not-so-accidentally becoming a metal god is handled about as deftly as you might expect from a narrow focus title. But then, narrow focus shows never really appeal to me, anyway. I mean, I like Chi's Sweet Home somewhat, but it's not like I find it particularly great or all that good. Just satisfying. Well, you probably know if DMC is for you or not. If you're looking for relevant development in either characters or plot, DMC's a poor choice. If you find this narrow range of humor endlessly funny, well, enjoy!

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Add - More Dimension W Funimation getting on the production committee for this show isn't unprecedented, but it's still not a common move. And at first blush, one can see why they'd be interested. The vibe feels like a variety of shows that have been successful from 2000-2010, and maybe even 1990-2010. But there's a number of potential problems here: 1. The length. One cour shows aren't unusual in anime, but when you look at what tends to air on Toonami, it's usually two cours or longer. While this wouldn't be the first one cour show to air on modern Toonami, it would only be the second*. Though if Funi can get it to them quick and at the right price, it'd grease the wheels a bit. Or maybe another cour will be announced towards the end of this one. 2. The actual execution. We're nearing the halfway point and the show's writing quality is gradually imploding. Anime fans may have proven they're willing to gulp down garbage en masse, but I think the majority still at least expects some basic competency and coherency. It's rather questionable how this plot is going to conclude in any sort of satisfactory way as we enter the latter half of the show, too. 3. It ain't 2000-2010 anymore. What's en vogue has been moving away from this type of show. There's still an audience for it, of course, but that audience has shrunk. Considering the cost of licensing an anime and getting on the production committee are said to not currently be that far apart (which is kind of crazy), Funi probably won't view this as a colossal mistake versus having just licensed it in a more typical fashion, but it's looking dubious that it will live up to the sort of optimism they've placed in it, financially speaking. And if it doesn't perform as they would hope, what would that mean for future considerations when it comes to joining production committees? (If you're going to invest more money and take a more active role in the show, you're probably looking for results that exceed "modest success.") And how relevant is that on either side of the equation, anyway? Oh well. Just some musings. *Toonami aired the latter season of Big O which was one cour. I considered that the other half of Big O and didn't count it, but if you want to, then that'd still make Dimension W only the third one cour show to air on Toonami. They've directly confirmed that the length of a show is a consideration and that they prefer shows they can get more mileage out of in that department (but not to the point of completely overwhelming the lineup with endless shounen). An extra cour would really help in a few ways for this show. *** The Internet says these past two episodes covered about two volumes worth of manga material. If that's the case that'd explain some things, although I'm not sure it'd ultimately be better for being longer. Also would further demonstrate the issues with trying to stuff this narrative into one cour. *** And as many suspected, it's coming to Toonami. Which is still kinda weird even if it was obvious Funi would want it to air on TV. Even without official numbers for Funimations streaming service, you can safely presume way more people will see it on Toonami than would ever watch it streaming via Funi. That sort of exposure can only help it and Funi will get whatever they got Adult Swim to agree to pay. They've covered the "quick" criteria, though we'll probably never know how much money changed hands. And giving Toonami a 2-week exclusivity window on the dub certainly helps make it more appealing to them. Funi's doing everything they ought to try to put this show over and get the most out of it. I just still remain skeptical that it'll live up to their hopes. *** "It seems like the dimension where Dimension W is a good show exists only in a realm of other possibilities." -ANN's Gabriella Ekens Certainly gonna be interesting to see how the ratings hold up as this continues to air on Toonami. *** I thought that the dub should play Kyouma slightly gruffer and was disappointed that Mira wasn't being played like a gynoid at all, but that it was overall basically okay. Then I checked the Internet to discover that people apparently have really strong opinions about this dub! And thus another sign that voice acting will be one of the things in anime I'll never particularly "get." Or care significantly about. Also why am I watching the broadcast dub of an underwhelming show on Toonami while also watching the subbed version as it comes out?

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You can watch this show fall apart right before your very eyes!, WI2016 You can watch this show fall apart right before your very eyes!, WI2016

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Add - More Dimension W: Short Track/Robot wa Sentou no Yume wo Miruka

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Add - More Dirty Pair So, two small things: 1. I totally want a laserknife. It is both a knife and a laser. How could I not want that? It'd go well with my dumb letter opener that has a base that's like a skull with snakes crawling around it and the top is a demon skull and... look I couldn't find a full picture of this thing on Google, but trust me, it's dumb and wonderful. (I did find a picture of it without the base and the description read "Very Cool Pewter letter opener with Bat, Skull, Snake, Devil? It's Awesome" which is pretty accurate. Also there's apparently like a million different versions of this same idea and I don't actually know how to open letters with this thing but darn it it's great and so are laserknifes.) 2. Man, come on. You have a future currency called "credits" but it's physical money? Everyone knows "credits" are supposed to be a digital currency. Sheesh, Dirty Pair. (To be clear, I don't seriously care. I do seriously want a laserknife, though.) *** Dirty Pair is from 1985 and handles the existence of trans people better than nearly all anime airing now over three decades later. I want to live in the world where both laserknives and decent trans representation in anime are so common as to be benign.

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Add - More Dirty Pair no Ooshoubu: Nolandia no Nazo

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Add - More Dirty Pair OVA It was obvious that this had a different director than the TV series, lest the previous director had suffered a stroke between that and this. But finding that the OVA director was also the director of Boku no Pico was not what I expected. Although, to be fair, I suppose I've never spent long dwelling on the directing in Boku no Pico. But that's just a curious bit of trivia about the director. His clearly not being as adept as his predecessor is the unfortunate reality of this, which brings about the disappointing shame of going in expecting more Dirty Pair, a name the TV series inspired a decent bit of faith in and good will towards, and finding instead a watered-down also ran. Dirty Pair in look and name, but not in feel and spirit; the same characters, but none of the character.

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Katsuyoshi Yatabe is no Toshifumi Takizawa . It may bear Dirty Pair's name, but this ain't Dirty Pair. Katsuyoshi Yatabe is no Toshifumi Takizawa . It may bear Dirty Pair's name, but this ain't Dirty Pair.

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Add - More Dirty Pair: Lovely Angels yori Ai wo Komete

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Add - More Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera Maybe the better question is: How many current Imaishi fans even know who Go Nagai is? Also these official subs sure do take some creative liberties. Not "Ghost Stories' dub" level of liberties as this script was still trying to convey the spirit of the original rather than just rewriting the show, but still very clearly not the original dialogue in several spots. Maybe a closer comparison is how Manga used to "punch up" the dialogue in their dubs, although a bit short of that. I wonder how various fansubbers handled this script?

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I wonder how large the cross section of people who like Imaishi but dislike Go Nagai (or vice versa) is, SP2011 I wonder how large the cross section of people who like Imaishi but dislike Go Nagai (or vice versa) is, SP2011

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Add - More Dr. Slump Movie 01: Arale-chan Hello! Fushigi Shima

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Add - More Dr. Slump: Arale-chan - Penguin Mura no Shouboutai

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Add - More Dragon Ball Kai I guess I shouldn't be surprised that a show that appealed to me when I was 11 and has had a number of decades of anime building upon it and has to go up against all that advancement of the medium might now seem corny. But though I can understand and appreciate why that's so, it raises the question of why I should then bother watching this in 2014, and "it moves faster now" is something, but not an overly compelling reason. Then again, I watched all of Bleach, so I suppose my willingness to sit through some really low quality endless shounen anime has been established. And this is probably better than that! So, yeah. *** Well, then again, while even older titles like Dirty Pair or Urusei Yatsura certainly feel dated, since over three decades is kind of a long time, they don't feel corny. Maybe some of these things have just aged better than others. Try looking at some of Go Nagai's stuff in a modern context. *** Toonami updated their schedule at the last moment and my DVR didn't update its guide data in time to reflect that. The result is I had to find a fansub of episode 8 and Goku's voice in the Japanese dub is, well, not what I expected. *** Okay, let's clear this up: "Android 18" would not be an android, she would be a gynoid because she has a human female form. Except both her and Android 17 apparently have some amount of human in them, which means they're neither androids nor gynoids, but both cyborgs. Android 16, as the only one of the three to be purely robot, would be the only android among them. These words aren't synonyms, darn it! This concludes a pedantic point nobody else cares about. (Except for FLCL, of course.)

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Add - More Dragon Ball Kai: Mirai ni Heiwa wo! Goku no Tamashii yo Eien ni

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Add - More Dragon Ball Z Movie 05: Tobikkiri no Saikyou tai Saikyou

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Add - More Dragon Ball Z Special 2: Zetsubou e no Hankou!! Nokosareta Chousenshi - Gohan to Trunks i accidentally wrote the comment n the tag section but you know what i think it's better this way

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"Mr. Satan['s] [...] real name is Mark." Hmm. No, I reject this information. "Mr. Satan['s] [...] real name is Mark." Hmm. No, I reject this information.

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Add - More Dream Festival! I get how, if you just took a very quick glance at this show, you might make the "male Aikatsu" comparison, but beyond some surface elements (cards, Bandai and idols), that doesn't really seem to hold up. And instead it's looking like a pretty standard, if below average, male idol anime. With some cards. Which is disappointing on two fronts. Oh well. *** Alright, an episode revolving around the lyrics of a song, focusing on how the content of the lyrics is very important and the song itself is: Untranslated. Awesome. Anime subtitling in 2016.

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Add - More Drifters One of the first shows to demonstrate the "benefit" of the Funimation/Crunchyroll partnership, and the encode is messed up. Good to see they're starting off on a high note. All below was written prior to viewing. *** As someone trying to cobble together a FAL team, Drifters is currently a bit confusing. I hadn't heard any real buzz around this, but it's apparently currently the series with the second highest number of users planning to watch it among the eligible series this season. And I don't know why, which is a problem. What's generating the hype? What sort of fan and user is looking forward to this show? How likely is this to fizzle out once it starts airing? I don't know the answers to any of these questions, and so I don't know where I should place this on my team or if I even should include it at all. And this is part of why you should sign up for FAL. It makes seasons more interesting. Drifters has instantly gone from "show I've heard the name of" to this intriguing curiosity I need to explore and learn more about. To do well at FAL, you're forced to look closer at shows, at fans, at the western anime industry, at MAL and other factors you otherwise might not have paid so much heed. It's neat!

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Add - More Dungeon Meshi

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Add - More ef: A Tale of Memories.

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Add - More ef: A Tale of Memories. - Prologue

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Add - More Eiga Daisuki Pompo-san

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Add - More Eiken: Eikenbu yori Ai wo Komete Stand back, here comes a polemic. Eiken. Eiken. Oh, dear goddess, Eiken. So I'd heard this was a bit infamous. I just had to see for myself. I'd seen bad anime before. And who knew, maybe it'd be so bad it'd be good? What on Earth is this? I often found myself just baffled while watching this. Who was this for? Who was honestly supposed to enjoy this? There is no area of this which is good, and it is, in fact, actively and aggressively awful. And it is deliberately so. This isn't some result of them screwing things up. This was their actual vision being realized. And that's the worst thing of all. I'd say "You've got to see this to believe it," but nobody should watch this. So I'll describe a bit of it to you. So it starts off with our hero, the generic male MC, on his way to his new school. Well, that's not the worst thing so far. Aside from the fact that he is surrounded by exclusively female students walking there with him, and they all have small tumors on their chests. But hey, it's only been about ten seconds! Almost immediately, there is somehow an incident with a banana peel (Oh boy, physical comedy!) that results in said protagonist accidentally landing on top of the Prettiest Girl in School, but not before we get a good look at her panties. In his confusion, he squeezes her breasts. Once he realizes this, he decides to give a few more squeezes just to confirm. Like any rational personal would. This causes the males at his school to become angry at him. But don't worry about this. They never show up again. For some reason, his molestation of his peer instantly gets him recruited into the Eiken club by a girl whose giant tumors (I refuse to call these monstrosities "breasts") should be enough to clue you into the fact that this is going to be awful. What's the Eiken club? Ha ha, you're looking for a coherent plot. That's adorable. The members of the Eiken club include a child with chest tumors that I'm pretty sure weigh more and are bigger than the the rest of her, a child who is one of the only flatchested female characters in the whole show (Horrifyingly, I can only assume this was put in to make sure even pedophiles had something to enjoy), our MC's sexual assault victim and a few others. The only time you see them in their clubroom is during part of the first episode. But it's enough time for you to establish that the child's tumors jiggle constantly (and you even get "sproing!" and other assorted sound effects for them), and they even get shoved in MC's face because that's just so funny, right? And you get to see what's-her-name with the hugest tumors of all felate a banana. Yes, felate, not eat. There is a point later wherein she is literally just taking a banana and moving it in and out of her mouth. That's not even close to how you eat that fruit. And you can also establish that there's no meaningful point to the Eiken club, because all that happens is a bunch of genuinely revolting fanservice (if you can be turned on by Eiken, I worry for you) including a ridiculous scene with noodles that I won't describe in detail, because there's another scene I want to put that much effort into (just so you can truly understand). After that noodle bit, it cuts to our sexual offender, the MC, being called over by male friends he apparently somehow has. Not that they've ever shown up before, nor will they again. They want our sexual predator to share in peeping on the girls changing in the locker room. He gets caught, and wouldn't you know it, the aforementioned Prettiest Girl in School is one of the people he was spying on. So I want to reiterate this: he groped her and peeped on her. And how does she respond? She's not mad at him for all of the harassment and assaults. No, she just wishes they could've been alone together for it. Remember kids: Sexually attacking girls makes them like you! This repugnant moment is interrupted by a new character, Prettiest Girl in School's sister. She is introduced by way of charging into our molester's face, vagina-first. And don't let that sort of thing come across as odd to you. This is Eiken! She's flat-chested (whoa), shameless, and somehow, wouldn't you know it, totally in love with the MC for some reason. I mean, they don't seem to have met before this. Or maybe they have? Who knows? Who cares? We don't need plot consistency or logic. Again, this is Eiken! This leads to further sexual harassment of Prettiest Girl in the School, but with help from her sister (lovely!). They leave, but our scummy MC somehow winds up with a pair of her panties. But here's where we get to the meat of Eiken. Biggest Tumors shows up and tells our pedophile MC (remember, the child's tumors) that to win his victim's further affections, he should buy her a birthday present. And wouldn't you know it, but the school's games are just about to start! Wait, what? Yes, apparently this school has set up an elaborate and expensive series of events for the students to partake in on their astoundingly plentiful real estate, and you can win a cash prize! I'm going to describe one of these events. So the basic idea is that it's a water slide, only they have to go down it as a group and maintain contact the whole way down or they'll lose. And instead of water, it's vanilla yogurt. Yes. This is all described by an announcer girl whose skirt is actually designed in such a way as to constantly be held up so you can see her panties. (Don't worry, she also shakes her butt at the camera just because). I am not making any of this up. The group the Eiken team sends includes our villainous MC, Prettiest Victim in the School, her Sister and the club's adviser. (There may have been one more member. I'm not watching again to check.) So how does this wind up? With the sister sucking on his toes, his hands on the Victim's breasts, and all the girls covered in white, vanilla yogurt. I'm not even sure if that's the most over the top example I could've picked. That's right, that's not an exceptional case in Eiken. That scene is just one among several. I hate this OVA. It's ugly, misogynistic, terribly written, and all of that is deliberately so. But not as a parody. That was actually their idea of "good." Things like the lackluster and repetitive music don't help, but who can focus on that in the face of everything that is immediately obviously terrible and even villainous about this OVA? This isn't something enjoyable for fanservice lovers. This isn't something enjoyable for comedy fans. This isn't something enjoyable for human beings. It is genuinely hateful, and like I said, I hate it right back. There is not a single ounce of fun to be squeezed from this. There is no redemption. Avoid this. (This is actually licensed. It's dubbed, even. You could buy it for $15. Don't give them a penny.) *** EDIT: Bleh. This is one of the first comments I wrote about an anime and I feel like it could be a fair bit better looking back at it. But I'm far too lazy to rewrite this. Anyway, describing this as the worst thing I've ever seen has apparently encouraged at least three people to go watch it, which was the opposite of my intentions. But then, that's pretty much how I wound up watching it myself, so I should've seen it coming. In an effort to discourage that, if you simply must see part of Eiken with your eyes, might I suggest this video review I found? The reviewer is trying a bit too hard to be "wacky" for my tastes, but it puts video to the words, including the noodle scene I glossed over, without you having to suffer through watching the whole OVA yourself. The first clip of AMV Hell 1 also contains more than you ever need to see of Eiken, if you'd prefer something shorter.

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This is the worst thing I have ever watched in any medium. (Click "more" for details.) This is the worst thing I have ever watched in any medium. (Click "more" for details.)

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Add - More Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma

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Add - More Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma: Intermission

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Add - More Eikyuu Kazoku Blah. Petty morals and simplistic messaging meet a plot that never builds up steam and animation that's just kind of blase. Experimental dross. I certainly appreciate that Studio 4°C is willing to try out various ideas because sometimes they work out really well, but this isn't one of those times. So much hot air. It's arguable that removed from its zeitgeist the themes seem a bit more trite, but I assure you the heavyhanded nature of this would be just as unsubtle and just as pithy at any time. It's of too little interest to write about any further. Not worth your time.

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"Eternal Family" "Eternal Family"

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Add - More El Cazador de la Bruja The ED shows a cat looking down the scope of a sniper rifle. Please, please tell me this is an actual thing that happens in this series. *** Finding out that the director also directed a bunch of .hack anime suddenly causes a lot about this show to make sense. Also I'm 17 episodes in and there has yet to be a cat sniper in the actual show. I'm going to be very disappointed if that doesn't wind up being an actual thing. *** (spoilers?) No cat sniper in the actual show. Heart: broken.

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Add - More Elfen Lied Hey guys, people are bad and do bad things! So deep! Hey guys, tits and blood! So mature! Elfen Lied is trash.

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Add - More Elfen Lied: Tooriame nite Arui wa, Shoujo wa Ikani Shite Sono Shinjou ni Itatta ka? - Regenschauer Maybe my lack of awareness of this special for many years being due to my sheer and utter apathy to even ponder if there was more Elfen Lied says it all. Elfen Lied is a cocktail of some of anime's worst traits in a tedious package. Maybe that's why some of anime's worst, most tedious fans love it! Because it has ~edgy violence~, boobs, cute moe girls, harem elements, grimdark and an empty vessel of a self-insert so the audience can play along at home. It might exude a certain oily charm to the most easily appeased if the hucksters behind it had even an iota of talent to imbue it with any sort of life at all rather than leaving it a sleazy, pandering empty husk. That it is one of the higher rated anime on MAL all the same ought also say a lot about MAL's core demographic and indeed perhaps about anime fans as a whole, to the degree that MAL might be indicative of the broader fandom (by which I do imply a certain reasonable minimum level of investment into anime, and not just anyone who watched an anime or two once without the slightest care that it was an anime). I can't say it's for the better that I found out this OVA existed and got one more dose of Elfen Lied's toxic sludge. May this dross perish at the bottom of the memory hole.

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Add - More Evangelion Movie 1: Jo This largely serves as recap of part of Eva, so I won't comment on matters that would be better reserved for a comment on the main series. The quickened pace sometimes leaves you wishing you had a bit more of the elaboration the main series offers, but in a lot of ways it works. If you've seen the original series, that is. It cuts out a lot of cruft including a lot of Shinji feeling sorry for himself. You still have a depressed Shinji, but one who seems very reasonably so. Taking out a fair bit of filler has benefited the narrative. It does have a feeling of being rushed, though. I suspect it's because they want to get to something new already. If this is meant for people who've already seen Eva, couldn't they have skipped past this? And if it's meant to be accessible to newcomers, it isn't quite so. Just look at this thing. HD and Pizza Hut's money have been kind to Eva. If only all anime could look so nice. Just, wow. Fluid animation and very pretty artwork produce an experience that's what an anime's movie ought to look like. You know, I've always thought of a surround system as something that would be neat to have, but not anything essential. This may be the first time I've actually regretted not having one because this is probably incredible sounding with one. Even in stereo the sounds of missiles or beams firing and exploding are crisp and satisfying. From a purely audio/visual standpoint, it's fantastic. I've seen better in both departments, but this is without a doubt in the upper tier. If the price for that is a few bags of Doritos in my anime, I'm willing to accept that. (Of course, most late night anime isn't Eva levels of popular to get that kind of sponsorship. Alas.) If you liked Eva, I couldn't imagine you not liking it in this form. You could skip it because it's a recap, but Eva's never looked or sounded this good before. Part of Eva that's been streamlined and prettied up? That's enough to bump it up to a 7 for me. The changes have almost exclusively proved to be improvements. That aside, I'm glad the rest of the Rebuilds aren't entirely recaps, because that'd get boring.

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Add - More Evangelion Movie 2: Ha (spoilerish) I still don't intend to comment too much on the plot until all the Rebuilds are out. Yes, I'm aware of how far in the future that'll likely be. So maybe (probably) I'm just reading too far into things, but I was idly musing to myself about the fanservice in these things, what with the skintight plugsuits. And I was thinking about places where they could've gone for fanservice and didn't. You have the old bit of characters being nude but having their lewder bits covered up by something (from the camera's perspective) with Shinji and Asuka. But in the scene where Shinji goes to Rei's apartment and she comes out of the shower, you fully see Rei's breasts. And at first, it just seemed like so much whatever. But when I considered the contrast of them not showing Asuka's breasts when they had the chance, I wondered if something more was at play. Was this a deliberate method to portray the difference in humanality between Rei and Asuka? If it's just fanservice, why not show both? But by depicting Asuka's breasts as something that ought be censored but Rei's as something that oughtn't, it seems like a clever move. Asuka would be flummoxed if she were exposed like that. Rei, as you can see in that scene, doesn't care. And so the camera doesn't care either. That's kind of clever. (Or they just wanted to show Rei's boobs.) I said I wanted new. I got new. Too bad that new character didn't get to serve too much of a role yet. But seeing that preview for the third Rebuild (looks awesome, by the way), I trust she'll by serving a larger role in the future. Still looks and sounds pretty great.

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Add - More Evangelion Movie 3: Q 1080p video on a 720p monitor. Yay, impatience!

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Score later. Score later.

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Add - More Fantascope: Tylostoma

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Add - More Fashion no Hajimari

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Add - More Fastening Days

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Add - More Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works Double-length episodes? You don't see that too often. Anime tends to be made on a pretty short schedule, and aiming to make something twice as long at this quality level means they've either got more time than usual to work on these, there's reason to be worried about their ability to maintain this quality level, or ufotable has convinced everyone working on this to completely forgo sleep and food until this show is done. You hear some of the stories about guys like Yuasa sleeping only thirty minutes a night during particularly busy periods and even during ordinary periods, they work insane hours, so it's possible they're indeed just pushing their staff to the max. Makes you feel kind of badly for them, especially when you know they're probably being paid a pittance for it. Nobody would put up with that sort of job if they weren't really dedicated to it, but you still wish they had better working conditions.

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"We know you're wishing that it'd go away. But the exposition's here and it's here to stay", FA2014 "We know you're wishing that it'd go away. But the exposition's here and it's here to stay", FA2014

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Add - More Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works 2nd Season

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Score applies to both parts as a whole., SP2015 Score applies to both parts as a whole., SP2015

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Add - More Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works Prologue

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Add - More Fate/Zero (Technically a part one. No comment until the whole show is done.) Fansub Group: UTW

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Add - More Fate/Zero 2nd Season The first season barely edged its way into a 10, and now it's time to break the silence on what's so right that it scored that well, but so flawed that it almost didn't. Let's get this out of the way first: This is my first foray into the Type-Moon universe. Some people say you ought to be familiar with Fate/Stay Night before watching this, but I never felt lost due to this being a prequel to a work I'm not familiar with. Perhaps some will disagree, but I feel this works fine as a standalone work. So if you too aren't familiar with the other works, don't be afraid to start here. I guess I'll start with what's simpler. There's something about Ufotable's human character designs that has always irked me. I think it's the faces. They just seem kind of... sparse? Something's just off about them. It's like they're too soft. I don't know, I can't quite figure out what the proper adjective is, but it's a little irksome. But that aside, the show is otherwise well-animated. This lends itself well to the numerous fight scenes. But, that can be vexing, too. You see, since the fight scenes can be competently handled, you wish there were fewer cases where they constantly cut away from a fight. Sure, some of those times it’s to intercut between two fights but come on, more cases where one fight is shown persistently from start to finish would be nice because it would give you a better chance to really get into that fight. And there certainly is a place for intercutting narratives, but too often it just felt like they were stretching fights out. (spoilers past this point) But I digress. Watching a fight between Archer and Berserker is a visual pleasure. An anime depicting fights, as you might expect, hinges upon the choreography and animation quality of those fights and Ufotable delivers with engrossing although sometimes lazily-crafted battles. As an example, seeing Rider’s last battle against Archer certainly seems like a fitting blaze of glory for Rider, but it’s hardly a battle. It’s simply Archer using his power to dissolve the reality marble and using his infinite weaponry to easily best Rider. Compare that to the aforementioned battle between Archer and Berserker, and there’s not a comparison at all. But, it’s made up for at other times with such fights as those between Kiritsugu and Kirei. The issue is that it’s uneven. Good fight scenes are weighed down by the presence of lazier fight scenes, and the good ones themselves can, as mentioned, be intercut too often which disrupts their flow. There’s promise there that gets squandered too often. Speaking of battles, could the results be any more telegraphed? It’s interesting to see the strategy and politicking, but that quickly starts to break down in the second half of the show. Somehow, it actually starts to feel rushed. It starts to feel like it’s coming off the hinges a bit, really. It really, really wants to get to just Kirei and Kiritsugu already. I suspected Saber and Kirei, in one way or another, would be there to the end, but I gave the show the benefit of the doubt that it would be cleverer than that. Nope! And if we’re on the subject of the narrative starting to collapse in the second half, Kiritsugu is not interesting enough of a character that I want to see two episodes worth of backstory for him. He didn’t need that long to have his motivations explained (Oh, and as if it wasn’t obvious enough he’d be covered in plot armor by having the ED so focused on him, you give him two episodes of focus. Telegraphed indeed!) and his backstory just became boring. By the time those two episodes were over, I already knew this would not be maintaining its 10. Fate/zero has an issue of embracing “tell, don’t show” sometimes. Not an unusual flaw in an anime, but as vexing as it ever is, especially given that, you know, anime is a visual medium. Do we really need several minutes of Waver in a sleeping bag talking for the sake of exposition? With the great sales this series had, I can’t imagine this was due to budget constraints. So that just leaves either lethargy or incompetence on the part of the director, neither of which are excusable. I don’t hand out 10s liberally. Maybe I’m not as absolutely conservative with them as some, but I still feel I don’t dole them out often. So that I gave the first half a 10 should be demonstrative of the promise I felt this series held, even with cracks already beginning to display. They could’ve avoided the developing faults demonstrated in the first half if they’d had the skill and the gumption, but they didn’t and they went for predictable and cliche. Fate/zero fumbles the ball ultimately, and I can’t give the combined work any higher than an 8 if I’m being honest. Watch it if you want an enjoyable battle anime, but don’t expect to be totally wowed at the end. (Note: I watched the TV version, not the BD version that may or may not have had uncensored child corpse furniture. Oh, and that scene with the wine glasses and the circular walking in the first episode? Still ridiculous.)

8

TV

12

Score applies to both parts as a whole, SP2012 Score applies to both parts as a whole, SP2012

389

Add - More Fetish Doll

-

Movie

1

390

Add - More Fireball

8

TV

13

SP2008 SP2008

391

Add - More Fireball Charming

9

TV

13

SP2011 SP2011

392

Add - More Fireball Humorous The disappointment of there only being three new episodes of Fireball is perhaps outweighed by the surprise of there being any new episodes of Fireball.

-

TV

3

FA2017 FA2017

393

Add - More Fireball Special

-

Special

1

394

Add - More First Squad: The Moment of Truth

-

Movie

1

395

Add - More Flag All below was written prior. *** Finish one thing, start another, watch the backlog only grow. I could've actually started Gintama like I keep meaning to, but no, I picked Flag. And I know not what to make of it just yet, but it's a curious little show. I wonder how it'll pan out over a full cour rather than just the novelty of the first episode, however.

9

ONA

13

SU2006 SU2006

396

Add - More FLCL (spoilers) “It takes an idiot to do cool things. That’s why it’s cool.” FLCL is a series that grew on me. I’d see an episode here or there on Adult Swim, but never seemed to manage to watch the whole thing in order. Then, one day, they just marathoned the entire series in order. I wasn’t entirely in love at first sight, but I was intrigued. I didn’t fully grasp everything. It’s a quick moving series, after all. I was 15 when this happened (I was actually able to track down the exact date it happened. It’s great what you can find on the Internet), and it spoke to something within me. This is, essentially, a tale of maturity, draped in loads of blatant symbolism and playful Gainax aesthetic. Some will tell you it’s about puberty, and it largely is, but that’s not exactly right. Yet it’s a big enough part of FLCL that you can’t discuss the show without giving it extensive mention. You see, FLCL is essentially a bildungsroman. But nobody outside of a high school English class says that, so maybe we’ll just call it a “coming of age story.” Look past the robots, past all the other dressing, and look to the plot (yes, Virginia, there is a plot). Look to Naota. He’s torn between two worlds: the cocoon of youth and immaturity that has been his rightful domain as a child, and the new and confusing but tempting world of maturity that is adulthood. Naota wants to be the latter, but don’t you know? He doesn’t like the sour drinks. The show isn’t subtle about this. Focusing so heavily on whether Naota will “swing the bat” at one point is pretty obvious in what it’s a metaphor for. Yes, the bat is largely a phallic symbol, but this isn’t strictly a sexual metaphor. It’s a demonstration of his maturity. He’s stepping up to the plate (Whee! More baseball metaphors!) and taking responsibility rather than hiding from an issue. But he doesn’t mature perfectly. He grows, but as Haruko tells him, he’s “still just a kid.” Even after he swings the bat, he can only put on a false modesty in the hope of impressing those around him. “Kids don’t get to pick the adults in their lives.” Mom, dad, two and a half kids, and a puppy in a house out in the suburbs. That’s the “picturesque family,” right? Of course, that’s very uncommon. Kids won’t axiomatically be born into ideal settings with perfect parents. Life is thrust upon us rather than volunteered for. And as children, outside of dying, our only realistic option is to be dependent upon them. But as I said, they’re not always perfect. Sometimes they make mistakes. Sometimes they fight amongst each other. Sometimes they might even split apart. If it’s not obvious, this is about Ninamori. She, too, is facing the complication of being not quite a kid, but not yet an adult. And her rallying cry is “I don’t think it’s any big deal.” She’s not dependent on her parents, right? What they do doesn’t bother her. She’s strong, she’s independent. And this is how she affects maturity, by pretending the complications in her life don’t bother her. Yet this is only a lie she believes for her own benefit. It’s not her dealing with the situation, it’s her denying it. In her effort to come across as mature, she taken a very immature approach. She can’t really handle that spicy curry. She takes her own step. She learns to convince others of a false appearance rather than to lie to herself about how she feels. Is that really the best option? That’s up for debate, but being able to face her own feelings and deal with them maturely is certainly a step in the right direction. “Never knows best.” Mamimi doesn’t pretend to be mature. She may be a high school girl, but she’ll still act like a child. She’s just using Naota as a replacement for his brother. See, Mamimi is desperately clinging to a sense of agency. She wants more control over her life. She’s not interested in the “who” of Naota, but in the what of him. She doesn’t even call him by his name, because that doesn’t matter to her. And when he starts to claim his own identity and his own agency, he no longer fits the bill of what she wants. Mamimi wants her absolution, wants a third party to come in and fix all the issues with her life that she can’t solve herself. She won’t stand up for herself. She doesn’t want to swing the bat. She doesn’t want someone who will swing their own bat. She wants someone who will swing her bat for her. But she’ll never find satisfaction that way. “What happened to your eyebrows?” Amarao is an adult, but he’s not mature. He wants to seem mature, putting on his false masculinity in the form of bushy eyebrows, or purchasing spicy bread that he won’t actually eat. This is a facsimile of maturity. Age does not automatically beget wisdom or maturity. Growing up is something that happens at an individual level, not as some biological process. Yet all the false trappings of adulthood can’t hide the childish person inside. Many of the adults around Naota are immature. I’ll leave it to you to pick up on the rest of this. I’m taking enough of the fun out of the show as it is just by telling you this much. *** Puberty is confusing. So many new experiences both mentally and physically. And we shame it. We couldn’t use “pubescent” as an insult if we didn’t. So we try to hide our new developments. Be they erections, or, say, robots popping out of our head. It’s no coincidence that Naota grows horns, mind you (especially if you pay attention to when he does). There’s the new perspective of when you stop seeing just boys and girls, but men and women. So it’s only fitting that something depicting the experience of puberty would be equally crazy. And FLCL is nuts to watch, with robots going flying, references to Lupin and the Daicon animations, sudden shifts in visual direction when they let their key animators do what they please, explosions and everything else that happens. Throw in a whole bunch of phallic symbols and visual sex metaphors, and this is what puberty would look like. This is another older (and I know there are some out there who would sneer at me calling this “older,” but it is) series that holds up well visually. It doesn’t quite look modern, but it still looks good. Colors are applied wisely, never too bright, but certainly the sort of vibrant colors this show commands. But also subdued when they need to be. The sakuga is an interesting visual flourish, and such touches as depicting a conversation as a moving manga keep things visually interesting. The soundtrack heavily features the, at least then, little known Japanese band the pillows. The indie rock really lends this series the sound it needs. Is there anything more suited to teenage angst and knocks at the door of maturity than rock music? It fits really well in the show. And if you’re not humming “Ride on Shooting Star” to yourself afterwards, then I’ll be darned. FLCL tackles a genuine subject, but does it in a fun, laid back fashion. It’s rife with Gainax’s brand of humor. And the visual eccentricities are applied wisely, rather than as slapdash gimmicks like Shaft would. I’ve only touched on the background story rather than the surface story of Haruko and Atomsk, but if you couldn’t even grasp that much, well, I worry a bit for you. If someone ever tells you that FLCL is “plotless,” just wish them luck in high school English and carry on. I’ve watched FLCL about eight times now, and I just love it more each time. This is certainly deserving of a 10. If you somehow haven’t seen FLCL, get on that. As of this writing, it’s still airing on Adult Swim. A little commentary on the FLCL BD: A reversible cover, a little survey card, and the disc in a thin case. Simple but effective packaging. The show really benefits from all the extra bitrate. It solves a lot of the encoding problems that were present on the DVDs. But no widescreen? That’s vexing. The commentary track is neat, offering some interesting insights about the process behind the show. The trailers are nice in that they’re actually trailers. Sold me on Summer Wars, at least. Dang, I need to get more anime on BD. Those trailers looked great, visually. The outtakes are pretty boring, and it’s disappointing to see that the included pillows songs are, save for “Ride on Shooting Star,” just set to random scenes from FLCL. There’s no surround sound mix, but I don’t have a surround sound system, so I guess that doesn’t really matter on my end. But I know people care about that. This is one of the cases where I actually like the dub. According to the commentary track, the person who was involved with picking the Japanese seiyuu feels the dub is extremely close to his vision, so that should be enough for everyone, right? It was worth the $13 I paid for it, at least. *** Bleh. I should rewrite that some day, but, y'know, that'd involve effort. I don't know how I feel about the announcement of FLCL sequels. I love FLCL. I've watched it 12 times and I'm sure that number will continue to climb. It's a really solid six episode OVA that never once made me think it needed more episodes. Which isn't to say that they can't make a worthwhile sequel, but it's also so many years later with a different staff and studio working on it. It's neat that Toonami has the kind of budget that they could co-produce something like this, but I don't know how much anyone really needed or wanted "something like this." When I saw the headline it caught me off guard and I just don't really know what to make of it. It could totally wind up being great! But right now it's just weird.

10

OVA

6

397

Add - More FLCL Alternative

-

Movie

1

wait when did this change into a movie, FA2018 wait when did this change into a movie, FA2018

398

Add - More FLCL Progressive

3

Movie

1

Well, I like it less than hard bread, SU2018 Well, I like it less than hard bread, SU2018

399

Add - More Flip Flappers This seems to be one of the lesser-watched anime this season on MAL. There are more people watching Bloodivores than watching this. And I wonder why that is. The people who are watching it seem pretty happy with it and it's not like it has a particularly high number of users who dropped it, so I'm guessing something about it is preventing and/or not causing people to pick it up in the first place. What does it have and/or lack that's responsible for this? This isn't a rhetorical question. I'm genuinely curious what the answer is.

8

TV

13

FA2016 FA2016

400

Add - More Flying Witch

-

TV

12

SP2016 SP2016

401

Add - More Flying Witch Petit

-

ONA

9

402

Add - More Free! (Later.) *** Let's settle two things right up front: 1. No, Tumblr/Reddit/YouTube/Livejournal/etc., you didn't cause this anime to exist by watching the trailer a bunch for an anime you're probably pirating anyway. Please stop honestly believing that. 2. If you don't like this show on its own merits, by all means. But if you're offended by its very existence because (gasp) it's boys and their muscles and not cute girls, you're probably a terrible person. Whew! Glad that's settled. Anyway, the show itself has neither proven itself to me nor dissuaded me from watching it. I need another episode or so to get a better feel for what this one is going for. KyoAni can make K-on!, and then they can also make Tamako Market. I like what they do far more often than I don't and I do consider them my favorite studio (although Trigger's poised to give them fierce competition for that title, but that's still in the future), but their shows still aren't a sure thing. Oh well. Until next week. (They sure don't like keeping their clothes on. N-not that I'm interested in their solid abs and other muscles! That'd be lewd. [But seriously, it's not that I don't have a libido, but even when the genders change my opinions on fanservice don't. I won't drop a show just because it has it, of course, but I don't watch anime with the intent of getting off. There're much more direct bits of media for that purpose, after all, so I'd prefer to see a show excel in other categories.]) *** I've already seen a number of people who vigorously defend fanservice when the characters are female now livid and upset when there's fanservice with male characters. No matter how this show ultimately winds up turning out, the tears of those homophobic sad sacks is gift enough. *** You know what it is, of course, don't you? Why "people" (and I use that term generously) are so aghast at this existing? It's not because they feel it's objectifying males (which would be a whole separate deal but certainly one with far more merit than their actual grievances). It's because KyoAni made a thing and it's not for them and their penises. It's something for those filthy creatures, those females! How dare such undeserving beings get something? When females get an anime, that means it's an anime those men aren't getting! When a show is full of female characters falling and landing vagina-first on a man's face and then wriggling around to get off (real example, by the way), that's just giving the fans what they want and ugh won't the feminists just shut up about "objectification" or "sexism" or whatever? Get over it, ladies! It's just some harmless fun! But take a bit of the same idea, tone it down quite a bit and target it at someone that isn't them? WHOA NOT OKAY. An anime with two women kissing is great, but guys with their shirts off? Protect your heterosexuality, gents, it's barely hanging on by a thread! That's what it really is. It's heterosexual and male privilege joining forces with misogyny and homophobia to create a smoothie of entitlement. It isn't even really that they hate Free! so much as that they hate that there's something being made that isn't being made for them. I mean, they only have most of the anime, which is still less than all of the anime. It's basically like the people who complain about "moe shows," only this time it's in a position that allows a ton of bigotry to seep right in. Considering the casual misogyny and homophobia that permeates so many anime communities, these views found a welcoming host and continue to fester. Heck, most of them don't even feel they have to pretend their outrage isn't borne of prejudice. They spout it proudly and their band of brothers rushes to have their back in a circlejerk of intolerance as they join together in a refrain of their favorite whine: "But what about me?" And that, good madams and sirs, is why they're awful, awful people. *** And if you're wondering why casual misogyny and homophobia are so common in anime communities, perhaps you'd like to consider to what degree that's a reflection of the content in anime itself. Although, which is the chicken and which is the egg? *** Crunchyroll! I saw "Miss Ama-chan" in the subs and blood shot out of my eyes. Please pick one way to deal with honorifics and stick with it. Ahem. Anyway, with another episode of perspective, sure, seems like a fun enough show. I'm down for this for now.

5

TV

12

SU2013 SU2013

403

Add - More Free! Eternal Summer Maybe this season was better off when it was treading water than now when it's trying to introduce drama and character progression. That's not a sentence that should be accurate about a show except maybe for an iyashei-kei anime.

4

TV

13

SU2014 SU2014

404

Add - More Free! Eternal Summer: Kindan no All Hard!

-

Special

1

405

Add - More Free!: FrFr - Short Movie I, a native English speaker who studied journalism at a university, who took and did quite well in a specialized grammar course for journalism students, had to look up what part of grammar an "antecedent" was. There's this small bit of insecurity that Japanese high schoolers may have a better grasp on the names of parts of grammar than I do, but it's not like you need to know the word "gerund" to be able to use one. I think my areas of academic knowledge may be woefully unbalanced. A paper using Hesse's Demian and selections from Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil to posit that sociopathy is the beginnings of a transcendent being in a post-perspectival singularity world? No problem. High school level math? You can't possibly expect me to wrap my brain around that. I don't know how a grade curve actually works, but I do know it's the only way I passed my university's statistics course. (Well, that and Khan Academy. It's a seriously useful site! It can even help an incompetent idiot like me understand math a bit.) And that's the biggest thing I took away from this. They're just little fluffy bonus bits, after all. Maybe if I spent less time watching anime specials and more time studying...

-

Special

7

406

Add - More Fudanshi Koukou Seikatsu Ah yes, of course. MAL is full of people who don't realize that "it's just a joke!" doesn't axiomatically make something okay, too self-centered to understand that their lack of offense over something does not invalidate other's offense and privileged enough that they take it for granted that they get to tell others what is and isn't offensive to them. Business as usual. Which is easily worse than this show itself, which will be forgotten in about a fortnight or so. "It's just a joke based upon a presumed shared belief that homosexual men are gross sexual predators! Why are people so uptight that they find any issue with that?" (BL/Yaoi itself is a more complicated matter I won't bother getting into here because I don't feel like it.)

-

TV

12

SU2016 SU2016

407

Add - More Fukashigi no Kazoekata

-

ONA

1

408

Add - More Full Metal Panic!

5

TV

24

WI2002 WI2002

409

Add - More Fullmetal Alchemist

6

TV

51

FA2003 FA2003

410

Add - More Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

-

TV

64

SP2009 SP2009

411

Add - More Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - 4-koma Gekijou

-

Special

16

412

Add - More Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood Specials

-

Special

4

413

Add - More Fullmetal Alchemist: The Conqueror of Shamballa

-

Movie

1

414

Add - More Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos

-

Movie

1

415

Add - More Fumiko no Kokuhaku

-

ONA

1

"Fumiko's Confession" "Fumiko's Confession"

416

Add - More Fune wo Amu

-

TV

11

"The Great Passage", FA2016 "The Great Passage", FA2016

417

Add - More Furiko

-

Special

1

418

Add - More Fushigi Mahou Fun Fun Pharmacy That there were figures produced for this series I can believe. That one was produced as recently as 2012, however, surprises me. That implies a level of lasting relevance in Japan for this series that pleases me, but that I wouldn't realistically have expected.

8

TV

48

WI1998 WI1998

419

Add - More Fushigi na Kusuri I have no idea why I at one point downloaded a collection of this guy's films, but here we are. As a historical curiosity, it's neat. But from the perspective of watching it as a film, not so much. It's a pretty chintzy little tale and the animation is nothing that's going to impress you at this point. Other than adding another example to the "anime isn't an art style" argument, I can't say this has any particular entertainment value here in 2013. But it's from 1965. It's arguably two years away from entering the public domain. The sort of anime that's so normal now just wasn't really a thing back then. I'm going to regard it as a curio and decline to rate it.

-

Movie

1

420

Add - More Fushigi na Somera-chan

-

TV

12

FA2015 FA2015

421

Add - More Fuujin Monogatari (utterly trivial spoilers) Consider me nonplussed that this isn't more popular than it is. I'd figure the Aria crowd would be all over this. And if there's one thing supposed anime aestheticians have turned into a unifying mantra, it's their absolute love for Aria. If it seems like I'm harsh on iyashikei works (I gave the much lauded YKK a 3, after all), it is only because they are very difficult to get right. Stray too far in one direction, and your work is simply dull. Go too far the other way, and you've missed the point of iyashikei in the first place. There is a very narrow band to stay within to properly execute an iyashikei anime, but when it works, atmospheric works like this can be incredible. Anime like Fuujin Monogatari are deceptively simple. If you were to look at simply from the point of view of what is happening in the plot, you would see what is only a somewhat jazzed up version of kick the can, for example. But through intelligent direction, a wisely chosen art style, very apt music and everything else that went into this production, what you get is an experience of wonder, whimsy and calm. Iyashikei, ya know? Think of it like an anime tone poem. That's really the trouble with explaining why any given iyashikei show is good. It seems like I ultimately just wind up describing iyashikei itself. Let it be stated that being different is not something to laud on its own merits. A series that was nothing but rotoscoped footage of the director taking a dump would certainly be unique, but likely not a very good anime. However, do not take this to mean that all anime should look alike, either. Indeed, as a consequence of what should be pursued, it is almost axiomatic that you will get distinct looking works. Not because it is inherently good to be distinct, but because those making an anime should choose a style that best reflects and advances the narrative (see Mind Game for a great example). And that's why distinctive looking shows might be more likely to get praised: Not simply because they are different (I think it's a very simple person who is wowed that easily), but because of what that difference contributed to the work. And Fuujin Monogatari's sketchy, loose quality really works in its favor. The faces tend to constantly appear in some mixture of confusion and discomfort, though, which combined with the essence of pudge that pervades the designs leaves characters that just look kind of weird for it. But overall, it's a rough, fluid style that really suits the whole wind aspect. What I suggest is that you don't marathon this. Watch an episode here or there when you're comfortable. You'll probably appreciate it more that way. If you've tried a number of iyashikei anime in the past and hated all of them, well, this won't change your mind. For anyone else, this comes highly recommended. A low 9.

9

TV

13

I haven't managed to stop thinking about this series for over 2.5 years now, so I guess I should rewatch it at some point. (And it's probably fair to describe it as "haunting."), Licensed? Yay! Sentai? Eh..., FA2004 I haven't managed to stop thinking about this series for over 2.5 years now, so I guess I should rewatch it at some point. (And it's probably fair to describe it as "haunting."), Licensed? Yay! Sentai? Eh..., FA2004

422

Add - More Fuyu no Hi

-

Movie

1

423

Add - More G-9 I have to draw the line somewhere between what is and is not actually animated, and this narrated slideshow doesn't fall on the former side. No amount of "But, it's an art style!" can save the crude, vacant marker drawings, either. What little plot there is simply jumps from point to point, fleshing out neither itself nor its characters. Yeah, MAL, "horrible" sounds about right.

2

OVA

1

424

Add - More Ga no Iru Tokoro

-

Movie

1

425

Add - More GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class Lest this is your first introduction to the genre, there's absolutely nothing in this title you haven't seen elsewhere. It's yet another calming "cute girls doing cute things" title. It's weaker than titles like Hidamari Sketch or K-on!, and yet it's still satisfying. It's a very light watch. You likely know how these titles are: not particularly funny, no grand plots, not much of anything that really stands out, generally. And yet I never seem to tire of them. Honestly, I could take almost any element from this show and find a predecessor of it with a practically identical element, down to the setting, the characters, everything. But while innovation is neat, its presence does not axiomatically beget a good anime, and its absence does not axiomatically beget a bad one. True, this is a retread, but it delivers fairly enough on what it promises and it promises something I want. A low 7 by my standards. Not a series that's going to change the mind of anyone who doesn't care for this genre, nor an essential watch for fans of the genre, but still a good series.

7

TV

12

Score covers OVA as well., SU2009 Score covers OVA as well., SU2009

426

Add - More GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class - Aozora ga Kakitai (Just a bonus episode. Not sufficiently differentiated enough to warrant its own score and comment.)

-

OVA

1

427

Add - More Gabriel DropOut

7

TV

12

WI2017 WI2017

428

Add - More Gabriel DropOut Specials

-

Special

2

429

Add - More Gake no Ue no Ponyo

5

Movie

1

430

Add - More Gakkou no Kaidan Does this make you laugh? The answer to that is the answer to whether you should watch ADV's jokedub of this. I haven't seen this with the actual dialogue (although I get the impression the show is probably pretty mediocre), so I won't be rating it. Fansub Group: Exiled-Destiny

-

TV

19

(ADV dub. Will not rate.) "Ghost Stories", FA2000 (ADV dub. Will not rate.) "Ghost Stories", FA2000

431

Add - More Gakkou no Kaidan: Kubinashi Rider!! Shi no Noroi

-

Special

1

432

Add - More Gakkougurashi!

-

TV

12

SU2015 SU2015

433

Add - More Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight! It suddenly occurred to me that about a decade later I have virtually zero recollection of anything that happened in this show. Which I guess means I could totally rewatch this if I wanted to. But since I don't remember any of it, I also don't know if there's any reason to bother rewatching it. What an impression Manabi Straight has clearly made on me.

-

TV

12

WI2007 WI2007

434

Add - More Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight!: Natsu da! Manabi da! Kyouka Gasshuku da!

-

Special

1

435

Add - More Galaxy Angel It's been way too long since I've seen this for me to appraise each season individually.

9

TV

24

Score applies to Galaxy Angel (sans Rune) as a whole., SP2001 Score applies to Galaxy Angel (sans Rune) as a whole., SP2001

436

Add - More Galaxy Angel 3

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26

FA2002 FA2002

437

Add - More Galaxy Angel 3 Specials

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Special

2

438

Add - More Galaxy Angel 4

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13

SU2004 SU2004

439

Add - More Galaxy Angel Music Collection: Shouen to Shien no Cassoulet

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OVA

1

440

Add - More Galaxy Angel S

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OVA

1

441

Add - More Galaxy Angel Specials If it weren't for MALGraph, I'd have never known this was a separate entry from the main Galaxy Angel one. Improved list accuracy, yay!

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Special

2

442

Add - More Galaxy Angel Z

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TV

9

WI2002 WI2002

443

Add - More Gambo

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Movie

1

444

Add - More Gamers! Wait, they have all that money from "serious gaming" and they use it to get a fancy TV but not a PS4 Pro to go with it instead of the regular PS4? Immersion ruined. (I'm kidding but it actually would've been a nice touch.)

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TV

12

SU2017 SU2017

445

Add - More Gangsta. The first anime of a new season (with a subbed release) is always this odd but exciting feeling. The lull between seasons is coming to an end and that feels great. There will be ongoing shows to watch again! And it finally makes the new season feel "real." It's not just a bunch of pictures and paragraphs on some chart, it's here. It's' this and it's now. And it also signals that I'm about to be utterly deluged with new premieres to check out, diving into a new fictional world every time I turn around for the next fortnight or so. It's hectic but it's fun. Some seasons are better than other seasons, but they're all the most exciting at their start. There's so much potential. That said, I'm not quite sold on this show itself, although I do still want to see where it's going at least. But yay, new season! *** Eugh. I accidentally glanced over some details about the source material and it seemed like this turns into basically magic warriors who just so happen to be gangsters? I hope that's not the case. I'd much rather watch a show about actual gangsters doing actual gangster things. The quality of this show already seems dubious enough that something like that would probably tip me right towards dropping it.

4

TV

12

There's a reason Manglobe went bankrupt, SU2015 There's a reason Manglobe went bankrupt, SU2015

446

Add - More Gatchaman Crowds (Later.) All below was written prior. *** I apparently need zero prior Gatchaman knowledge to get into this. If that's true, then I'm down. Don't you lie to me again, Internet. *** I've seen two crowds: People who are familiar with Gatchaman and are angry at this for not being like Gatchaman, and people who aren't familiar with Gatchaman and aren't angry at this. So I presume my lack of Gatchaman knowledge won't be an issue. Onward we go, then. *** Oh, right. Show seems fun, I love the MC already, soundtrack's nice and the art style's pretty much what you'd expect given the director. My brain's in too many new shows and it's still too early right now to start picking which ones are the best, but this one's got promise. *** Alright, you're going to read this post by a member of ADTRW. Maybe you already noticed and realized everything it points out, but if not, it should bring a fair bit of order to seeming chaos. It's also an example of what a Good Post™ looks like. Imagine if posts on MAL looked like that. Ha ha, I know, what a good joke, right? (Sigh.) Anyway, it's a pretty good sign for a show when I'm not just okay with watching its next episode, but actively want to see it. For example, I pretty much spent every second after an episode of Jojo ended craving another dose, and when I watched it it would fly by, leaving me distraught when I realized it would be another week until I could see it again as the credits took me by surprise. Gatchaman Crowds is not quite at that level, but it's one of only two anime this season I'd say I'm actively looking forward to, and this is the one I'm currently anticipating the most. So long as it continues to go this well, this is a very strong contender for my personal AOTS. If you ain't watching this, you're missing out. (Oh, and stay away from Cthuko's subs. They're bad.)

8

TV

12

You should get this OST, SU2013 You should get this OST, SU2013

447

Add - More Gatchaman Crowds Insight Even if this season was maybe somewhat underwhelming compared to the first season, I still wound up ordering a Hajime and Utsu-tsu Nendo. Am I "supporting the industry" now? Probably far more than watching the show on CR did, I'll tell you that much. Consider that those two figs combined cost more than a year of CR does. That's not an exact science since there's still the question of how much of each of those purchases goes to who, but how would you imagine both of those equations go? There's always this sort of odd quasi-cognitive dissonance amongst fanboys who wish to dismiss all criticism (valid and otherwise) of CR with the mantra that they "support the industry." The critics are really just trying to justify why they're too cheap to support the industry like the proud, noble CR subscriber, you see. When it's pointed out to them that those people are buying figs or importing BDs and that this gives more money to the "industry," the CR fanboy rolls their eyes at those concepts as being "too expensive," never quite seeing the contradiction and blindly defending CR all the way. But figs are a bit pricey. Even though Nendos are at the lower end of the price spectrum in a relative sense, in an absolute sense these things were still about $31.30 a pop. Just because it isn't one of the big, fancy $100-200 ones doesn't make it chump change. Well, at least not on my budget, anyway. They're more "affordable" than "cheap." It's not like I wouldn't also like to own some of those more expensive ones, you know. Ah, but Nendos aren't some consolation prize. I like them. They're cute. The Utsu-tsu one maybe is just a bit shy of what I want from her facial expressions, but still looks like it'll be a lovely addition to my collection... which is currently only one Nendo and a tiny little bonus fig that came with a limited edition of Disgaea 4, if that thing should even count. Man, buying two Nendos tripled my collection. It's nowhere near the size I'd like it to be. No complaints at all about the Hajime fig. I guess it's possible the finished product I'll receive will fall drastically short of the promotional images (there's apparently one manufacturer notorious for this), but I've seen nothing negative said about whoever "Phat Company" is so I'm not too worried. Fig buying is a fun but expensive hobby you'll enjoy but probably shouldn't get into for your wallet's sake. I mean I just bought two of these things and my only regret is that I couldn't financially justify picking up two CCS Nendos as well. They're so nice, why wouldn't you want more? Run while you still can. (Seriously. If I didn't have coupons and rewards points these two would've cost $84 where I bought them. Without coupons and points they're cheaper to import from Amiami before, of course, you factor in shipping. And duty charges, depending on where you live. Figs are fun, but figs ain't cheap.) *** About two months before the release, Hajime's Nendo is sold out on Amiami. Utsu-tsu's is still in stock and has been discounted around 900 yen. Such is the fate of not being the main character, I suppose. (Who could be so cruel as to order Hajime and not have her friend and co-worker come with her?) *** I get that US stores tend to ship out Nendos later than Japanese stores. I could kind of get the shipment on these Nendos being delayed months further still. But getting a shipping notification for Nendos I pre-ordered, going to the site, and seeing reviews from over a week ago from people who apparently already got their orders is maybe one layer of frustration too many. This was my first order from Tokyo Otaku Mode to give them a try since they were having some discounts. I don't know that I'll place a second order there or that I'd suggest anyone else bother using them. You know they're not selling some huge volume of Gatchaman Crowds Nendos, and yet it still takes them maybe two weeks plus to fully ship out pre-orders. At least they're finally coming, I guess. They'd better at least be packed well. If they come this late and they're damaged, that'd be a bit much. (I've been waiting like eight months for these things. Gee whiz. But my collection now consists of one Nendo and one Figuarts so it's twice as big as when I ordered these! Look figs still aren't cheap, okay?) *** They finally arrived and they were packaged rather well, actually. I was a bit nervous when I saw one of the packages arrive with a hole in it, but the contents were smothered in bubble wrap with some packing paper in there as well. The figures were in perfect condition. They threw in some little buttons with my order which, hey, neat I guess? I didn't expect much of free display cases, but man do these things seem like the absolute least they could've thrown in. The plastic bases on these things are all scratched up and even look melted in spots. You're supposed to get these little collapsable plastic walls into slots on the base and that seems simple enough, but I tried for about an hour and couldn't get the dang things to actually fit in there. It seemed like no matter how I tried, there'd be one corner that just wouldn't fit. I have to wonder if I'm screwing up, or if they just unloaded defective units on customers as a "bonus." I mean it's not like I paid any extra for them and I can just buy an actual decent display case on my own if I want, but this is still underwhelming. The whole two pictures I could find online of these things show they work exactly the way I think they do and someone out there can actually get them to work, so who knows. It's nice to finally have these figures I ordered about eight months ago, at least. If you're patient and there's a decent sale, Tokyo Otaku Mode will eventually get your figures to you in good shape. But don't be swayed by any offers of free display cases, at least. *** I cannot for the life of me get this peg to fit into Utsutsu. I had plenty of trouble with Hajime but with a hair dryer and some patience got it on, or at least it looks like it is. But Utsutsu just won't play ball. Her hair causes you to have to try to snake this tiny little pole into a very limited space and try to find some angle where this impossibly tight hole will actually let you jam a peg into it. And it just ain't happening. I looked up an unboxing online and the video maker couldn't get it in either. She's just kind of leaning against the peg now. I guess that technically works. I have no idea how to get Hajime's backpack to fit on her but I don't want to mess with the peg now that it's in to experiment. The instruction sheets that come with these things aren't terribly informative. Still, some assembly headaches aside, they're cute figs. Just kind of boosts the appeal of statues and makes me never wanna even consider getting a garage kit, though. Or maybe just get little trading figs? They're small, cheap and I have one that just sticks to its base via magnetism. Though it doesn't look nearly as nice, which I suppose is the tradeoff. I haven't even gotten around to assembling the stand for my Aikatsu! fig, but that uses a little claw like my older Nendo does, so maybe that'll be easier? Figures are adorable, expensive little headaches. You know I could just buy plushies and never have to set up anything ever again. ("What, and ruin all this frustration?") Or I could sell a kidney to get into BJDs and truly just embrace the nightmare. It's probably for the best that I can't really afford $400-600 dolls. This is what happens when MFC doesn't have a comment section like this I can use for these Nendos. These tangents get shunted into this anime entry on MAL instead. And their tiny character limit for merchant feedback makes it pretty difficult to really relay your experience. Why even have a character limit? The amount of data text uses is so tiny it's not like they can't afford the bandwidth longer feedback would use. Also does Utsutsu have a hyphen in her name or not? I've seen it written both ways and I'm not sure which is correct.

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TV

12

SU2015 SU2015

448

Add - More Gatchaman Crowds Insight: Inbound

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ONA

1

449

Add - More Gatchaman Crowds: Embrace

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Special

1

450

Add - More gdgd Fairies Look. It's just one of those shows you kind of have to take for what it is. The animation is made on a budget of nothing, large chunks of it are just improved with both character and the fourth wall being broken, there's only a bit more plot than You Have to Burn the Rope, it's somewhat incoherent, the characters are incredibly simple and the dialogue formulaic, this is not an impressive show. It was exactly the sort of simple thing my mind needed to recover from an entire day spent writing papers on such ever-so-fun topics as the transcendental aesthetic, but it sill is what it is. Silly? Yeah. Weird? Yup. Good? Not so much. The humor is repetitive, basic and while unusual, not particularly clever. A low 4. All below was written prior. *** Fine, AWO, I'll watch the show you recommend. This isn't very long and my midterm essays are due by the end of Saturday one way or another, so maybe after that deadline? I'll figure something out. *** Close! The correct answer to what to watch after you spend over ten straight hours writing about Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (not fun!) is surely something light and silly, and here I wound up with almost that, but in dada form. What am I doing my brain is completely shot. Maybe I should've just slept, but what, am I supposed to just record Toonami and watch it when I wake up like a more sane and reasonable person? Bah! So long as I'm up anyway...

4

TV

12

FA2011 FA2011

451

Add - More gdgd Fairies 2 More or less on par with the first season. I'm not sure why MAL sees fit to label a 4 "bad." It's just below average. Something below average overall can still be worth watching.

4

TV

12

WI2013 WI2013

452

Add - More gdgd Fairies Movie: tte Iu Eiga wa Dou kana...?

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Movie

1

453

Add - More Gdleen (A high 4. More later. Maybe.)

4

OVA

1

454

Add - More Ged Senki (no spoilers) I'm embarrassed for Goro Miyazaki. This is less a stumble, and more a tumble down a flight of stairs. Preachy, cliched narrative delivered from characters who are much the same in a film that's needlessly padded out and feels lethargic for it. It's not like his father's movies never had their messages, but Goro's utter failure to comprehend the notion of subtlety practically screams "Do pay attention to the man behind the curtain!" Up its own butt, Tales From Earthsea is the laziest form of moralizing dressed up in threadbare, cobbled together narrative elements drawn from fantasy 101 while Emperor Miyazaki believes it wears but the finest silks. Tales from Earthsea is pathetic. While Ghibli's trademark watercolor landscapes are on full display, the animation, while decent, lacks typical Ghibli panache. Music and seiyuu alike fail to stand out, seeming bland, if not a bit stale. The plot is such bogstandard "good vs evil" I can only picture Goro's father heaving a sigh. My goodness, Cruella de Vil had more nuance than Cob. Throw in halfbaked elements that go nowhere (for example, the darkness, "true names," etc.), boggling directorial miscues (for example, an extended lingering on ships in a harbor that never winds up paying off) and a two-hour runtime for an, at best, one-hour narrative and you're putting together the pieces of a terrible film. Goro Miyazaki, I've seen both of the films you've directed now, and I have zero confidence in you to direct a third. Ghibli certainly needs someone who can keep the ship afloat once your father retires/dies, but with you at the helm it'd be as good as sunk. You do incredibly sloppy work. Whoever takes over need not necessarily be able to make the next Totoro, but they certainly shouldn't be someone who'll make the next Tales from Earthsea. Saved from a 1 by virtue of its art and animation. I assure you, precious little else exists to salvage this wreck. Downloaded Episodes: 1

2

Movie

1

"Tales from Earthsea" "Tales from Earthsea"

455

Add - More Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun CR and whoever Sekai are have gotten two episodes out before Underwater has managed to sub even one episode. Come on, Daiz.

7

TV

12

SU2014 SU2014

456

Add - More Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun Specials

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Special

6

457

Add - More Genius Party

8

Movie

7

458

Add - More Genius Party Beyond

8

Movie

5

459

Add - More Genmu Senki Leda (small spoilers) So, let me get this straight. There's a young red-haired girl who fights in a skimpy outfit while wearing her hair in a ponytail, uses a somewhat mysterious force to take down an entrenched power structure in a castle, pilots robots and other machines and her name is Yohko. Somehow, that sounds familiar. Well, that's just a joke. This is over two decades older than TTGL, and I doubt TTGL was paying homage to this. But still, what a string of coincidences. This is incredibly schlocky fantasy anime. It's like a fantasy book you find for fifty cents in some bargain bin with the most generic "this is a fantasy novel" art on it. Everything here is by the book. This generic paint-by-numbers OVA brings nothing fresh to the table, with lazy art for its time and particularly lethargic directorial decisions. The story is incredibly weak and mindnumbing. Don't even bother.

3

OVA

1

460

Add - More Genocyber

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5

461

Add - More Ghiblies A tale of two Ghiblies: One boring, bland and banal, the other playful, pleasant and pleasing. But both must be rated as a whole. You may as well just skip the first Ghiblies, as the latter trumps it in every regard. The first is devoid of any life, just random, lazily animated brief appearances of characters who are barely granted personality. Not even worth noting, actually. But the second oozes charm. A level of playfulness in the animation you often don't see in Ghibli's films lends the vignettes an additional potency your more typical Ghibli style just would not be able to bestow. It's looser, freer, lighter, perhaps a bit more cartoony. And the animation works well to match the tone of the vignettes, liberated to change a bit when appropriate. The narratives never have the time to really go too far, but they don't feel incomplete, either. They're simple bits of life, amusing or bittersweet, sentimental moments. The execution won't knock your socks off, but they're satisfying little drops. The music and seiyuu are more lackluster than bad. There's not much to them. It meets the bare minimum, I suppose, but you'd really expect a bit more, at least from the BGM. It's just rather bland. A pity, that. The second one on its own would get a higher rating than this. But combined, the first one manages to drag this rating down to a 5. Despite that combined rating, the second is quite worth watching.

5

Special

2

462

Add - More Gi(a)rlish Number

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TV

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FA2016 FA2016

463

Add - More Gin no Saji (No ratings for half a show!)

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TV

11

SU2013 SU2013

464

Add - More Gin no Saji 2nd Season (Consider it a high 8. Seriously just shy of a 9 and probably there in its second cour, but not quite in the combined efforts of both cours.) Fansub Group: Horriblesubs/Commie

8

TV

11

Score represents both "seasons" as a whole, WI2014 Score represents both "seasons" as a whole, WI2014

465

Add - More Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (Comments to come.) (Ha ha, who am I kidding? This is a long, complex work. Don't expect comments too soon. But eventually. Really! And you should totally watch it, by the way.) *** There was one way to break my heart with the phrase "LOGH has been licensed for an R1 release" and that was following it up with "by Sentai." I mean it was a long time coming but... Sentai...

9

OVA

110

"Legend of the Galactic Heroes" "Legend of the Galactic Heroes"

466

Add - More Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Waga Yuku wa Hoshi no Taikai

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1

467

Add - More Ginga no Uo Ursa Minor Blue

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1

468

Add - More Ginga Tetsudou 999 Part of Operation SciFi, an effort to find more quality SciFi.

4

TV

113

Operation SciFi. Operation SciFi.

469

Add - More Ginga Tetsudou no Yoru (You might consider some of this to be spoiling.) Firstly: This is supposed to be a children's movie? I'll let you in on a secret: I was a child once. And speaking from experience, no kid is going to willingly sit through an hour and forty-five minutes of slow, abstract messages on death and Christian themes. Most kids wouldn't even be able to understand this film. Not that it's incredibly complex in general, but it's likely to go over the heads of a young audience. There's a reason most children's media isn't very subtle. In case you've never been on a train before, I'll relate the experience to you: It's boring. It's just sitting there and waiting until you get where you're going. Maybe you have someone to talk to. Maybe you brought a laptop or something to read. Either way, you're really just filling time. Night on the Galactic Railroad certainly has that down. It's an adaptation of a novel that's trying too hard to be literary. Let me clarify that. Books and animated films are, obviously, not the same things. You don't craft a story for one the same way you would for another. It's possible to adapt one to the other, but "adapt" is the key word there. You have to make concessions to your new medium. The medium is the message. You could honestly condense this film to about 15 or 20 minutes without losing much. The film is going out of its way to be slow and plodding, as though to mask how laconic its message really is. It's a pithy statement about life and death. That's all it really is when you boil it down to its core. It's not like Mind Game has a hugely profound message either (carpe diem), but it communicates it in a far more effective way for an animated film. Let's contrast this to Angel's Egg, though. Angel's Egg is absolutely glacial, and yet it works. Angel's Egg suffuses the film with its messaging producing a sincere statement from the director. Stillnesses and silences punctuate dialogue to build mood and convey tone. Galactic Railroad sort of wants to do the same, but falters. That's because in Angel's Egg they're part of the narrative, whereas in Galactic Railroad they're just stoppages. They don't add anything other than running time. Watching both, you'll feel the difference. It just leaves Galactic Railroad feeling deflated. I'd say the animation hasn't held up well, but it wasn't good for 1985, either. Look at how jankily Giovanni moves as he's leaving the classroom early in the film. A lot of this is masked by how little they actually move, being on a train and all. But when they do, you can see the weaknesses. While part of that can be blamed on technology, compare it to other works from the same time period. 1987's Robot Carnival and Urusei Yatsura from a few years before Galactic Railroad easily outshine the animation seen here. So you know it was fully possible for them to do better. And then consider movies are supposed to have better budgets and animation, and it just seems even worse for it to be underperforming a ~200 episode weekly television series. The largely classical score works for a slow film based off of a classic piece of literature (in Japan, anyway). The soundtrack is often spot on and one of the highlights of the film. This is an element that does succeed in helping to build the mood they're going for. I doubt you'll be looking to download a copy of the OST, but you'll certainly appreciate it in context. Character designs are pretty basic. You usually can't screw up too badly when you're not being very ambitious (unless you're just hopelessly incompetent), but while not failures, the designs just aren't very interesting. These would not pass the silhouette test (a suitably unique character design should be recognizable from just their silhouette). You'd think when you use anthropomorphic characters it would be a chance to experiment a little, but nope. I suppose they're playing it safe because they're adapting characters from a well known work of literature, but it's also a little cowardly. They're afraid to really put concrete faces to characters people already have conceptions of, so they've gone for something as uncommitted as possible. This film just doesn't work. Or at least not very well. There's too little material trying to fill too much time. What actually is there isn't very impressive. It completely misses its supposed target audience. The animation is poor. This film is rife with issues. I'd honestly have to recommend you skip it.

4

Movie

1

470

Add - More Gingitsune

6

TV

12

FA2013 FA2013

471

Add - More Gintama I'd follow the pattern and put this after Kannagi, but this is 201 episodes. This is also pretty much the upper limit of episode counts I'm willing to embark fresh upon, which is why I have no intention of starting something like One Piece. I've seen some out of context images from this that made me laugh and people constantly speak well of it, so it's probably worth a shot. The same people spoke well of LOGH and that was worth its 110 episodes. I probably won't start this before I finish/drop Urusei Yatsura, because the idea of watching two ~200 episode series at the same time is too daunting. Man, I need to actually do something with Urusei Yatsura already. *** It only took forever, but now that I've finally finished everything from Urusei Yatsura, this can be my next massive undertaking. (And then there's further seasons after this. Ay caramaba.) *** And it only took over a year from deciding that to actually start watching this show. Just as planned!

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TV

201

SP2006 SP2006

472

Add - More Gintama Movie 2: Kanketsu-hen - Yorozuya yo Eien Nare

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1

473

Add - More Gintama x Mameshiba

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CM

6

474

Add - More Gintama'

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51

SP2011 SP2011

475

Add - More Gintama': Enchousen

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TV

13

So basically the straight man is like a laugh track that not only tells you when to laugh, but also why., FA2012 So basically the straight man is like a laugh track that not only tells you when to laugh, but also why., FA2012

476

Add - More Gintama': Futon ni Haitte kara Buki Nokoshi ni Kizuite Neru ni Nerenai Toki mo Aru

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477

Add - More Gintama.

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12

WI2017 WI2017

478

Add - More Gintama. Porori-hen

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FA2017 FA2017

479

Add - More Gintama. Shirogane no Tamashii-hen

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TV

12

WI2018 WI2018

480

Add - More Gintama. Shirogane no Tamashii-hen - Kouhan-sen

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14

481

Add - More Gintama: Dai Hanseikai

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482

Add - More Gintama: Nanigoto mo Saisho ga Kanjin nanode Tashou Senobisuru Kurai ga Choudoyoi

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483

Add - More Gintama: Shinyaku Benizakura-hen

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484

Add - More Gintama: The Final

9

Movie

1

485

Add - More Gintama: The Semi-Final

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486

Add - More Gintama° Coming from watching 265 previous episodes of Gintama over the course of about two weeks, watching it weekly now feels odd. Also, don't watch 265 episodes of anything in only two weeks.

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51

“I think you and I are destined to do this forever.”, SP2015 “I think you and I are destined to do this forever.”, SP2015

487

Add - More Gintama°: Aizome Kaori-hen

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2

488

Add - More Gintama°: Umai-mono wa Atomawashi ni Suru to Yokodorisareru kara Yappari Saki ni Kue

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489

Add - More Girlfriend (Kari) All below was written prior to completion. *** "Girl Friend BETA TV Anime Adds 15 More Cast Members" That ANN headline kind of says it all, doesn't it? *** If you told me I'd give a show based on a girlfriend simulator game more than one episode, I probably wouldn't believe you. But so far it just seems like somewhat bland homosociality. Even though I get its actual purpose... I kind of like somewhat dry homosociality in my SoL series. I get that's not the direct intent of the series, so I don't know that it'll maintain that without more aggressively pursuing its actual aim (giving the viewer girls to fantasize about dating), but I'm willing to give it more time to clarifiy its nature, anyway. Best case scenario, I feel a little weird as I watch it for the wrong reasons. Worst case, I wind up dropping it like I expected I would. It can't wind up worse than I expected either way, so sure, let's roll the dice. *** Also this show apparently appeals to seiyuu fans but the only seiyuu I can generally recognize is Norio Wakamoto, and everyone can recognize Norio Wakamoto. Also I'm pretty sure he's not in this. So that aspect is fated to do nothing for me. Seriously I watched all of Gintama and didn't even realize Rie Kugimiya was voicing Kagura until they made a joke about her and tsunderes. And that was only after I looked it up. And this was in the dang movie after watching over 260+ episodes and hearing her voice pretty frequently. I am terrible at recognizing seiyuu's voices.

5

TV

12

FA2014 FA2014

490

Add - More Girlfriend (Note)

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ONA

3

491

Add - More GJ-bu You should be able to know your opinion of GJ-bu in about an episode or two, because the quality level remains very consistent throughout. I don't know that I'd go so far as to call this series "good," but it's eminently watchable. The animation really isn't anything impressive, nor is the soundtrack, the characters have a pretty limited set of traits and a number of other things that would seem to hamper this show, and yet you never quite get the feeling that you want to drop it. No episode impresses, but you still want to watch the next one. It's just cute enough, with just enough charm and amusing enough that, if you don't go in demanding much, you'll probably wind up enjoying it. GJ-bu can feel a bit lewd sometimes (goodness me that's a lot of hairbrushing and a rather unique massage method), but it's never to any truly detractive extreme. There is no "extreme" to anything in this show. Everything's just rather okay. It's thoroughly average. Not a high priority series at all, but you can't go too wrong by watching it. All below was written prior. *** The first episode went by and I still have no idea what a "good job club" is or does, so it's pretty clear it doesn't really matter. The club is just a pretext. Merely a setting. Which is fine for what this is. It's just characters talking to each other. All they really need is a simple reason for them all to be together and they've reached their goal. When a show is being this unambitious, I expect it to be able to deliver pretty solidly on what it's going for, which is usually fundamentals. What they've delivered is ardent inoffensive banality, just like that new Monkey Punch show this season. And I guess I'm more forgiving of that in this sort of context. Well, not "forgiving." I don't think any higher of it. Maybe more accepting, because it's more in line with my interests. Actually, I can't recall anything from the episode I actually laughed at or anything I found particularly amusing. But somehow I wasn't bored, either. I'll give it another episode or so to see how I feel about it once my winter season schedule is a bit more concrete. I'm not sure I'll stick with this one, but I'm giving it a further trial run for now.

5

TV

12

WI2013 WI2013

492

Add - More GJ-bu@

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TV Special

1

493

Add - More Glass no Hana to Kowasu Sekai

3

Movie

1

494

Add - More Glasslip In fact, if Nishimura's name wasn't attached to this, I'd have no real hope for liking this at all. PA Works doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to making things I want to watch. And a lot of the PVs seem like trademark PA Works. But this guy directed Windy Tales and one of the better episodes of Urusei Yatsura. You know, the one where Ataru's mom has that accident and a series of nightmares? If you haven't seen that, see it. It's one of the most memorable episodes in the whole series. And you can see exactly what he pulled off there at work all those years later in Windy Tales. This is the only thing that's given me hope about a PA Works title since the phrase "from the writer of The Tatami Galaxy" and that didn't quite pan out. Let me naively get my hopes up one more time. *** From the current top review on MAL: "After all this anime was done by PA works[...]" I've seen this sentiment posted on Reddit and elsewhere for this show, but I've seen it basically anywhere for basically any show. While the studio is not an irrelevant factor within a certain time frame, you should remember that studios don't make anime. They're just names of corporations that people work for. A lot of anime staffers are freelancers. That a show is made by PA Works or KyoAni or whoever is a relevant factor, but it's not the only nor the most relevant factor. What you actually want to look at are the people who are working on the show. This show is similar to Nagi no Asukara to the extent you would expect from it being the same studio, which is largely only in a superficial way. That much is valid to expect (sometimes)! But expecting some sort of spiritual successor to that show when this one has a different writer, director, audio staff, producer and so forth is kind of silly and unrealistic. Being shocked or angry or disappointed that the thing you had no particularly valid reason to expect to be true is actually false isn't really fair. Holding it against the show for not living up to expectations you invented and it never promised you is a pretty bad way to get anyone to take that criticism seriously. So it's weird that this seems like one of the most common criticisms of this show! Oh wait, no it isn't, because people don't actually read staff lists. They just look at anime as a Shaft show or a work by Trigger, not an anime directed by this dude and written by this other person. And they keep getting burned by these false expectations they develop ("Shows from this studio are like this!") but they never seem to learn. The staff working on a show will give you a much better idea of what that show is like than the studio name attached to it. Yuasa is Yuasa whether he's working for Madhouse, I.G. or Studio 4°C, y'know? These are the sorts of discernments these people clearly wish to be able to make, but they're going about it the wrong way. We don't treat movies like this. I've never heard somebody say "Whoa, Fox Searchlight? Sold." It's always about directors, writers, etc. So why do we do this wrong with anime? I don't get where this idea came from. *** Another way to not be taken seriously: Watching the show with bad subs (CR) that don't translate certain lines correctly and then thinking it's the show that's nonsensical. *** Two more ways not to be taken seriously! 1. Complaining that Glasslip doesn't make sense. That's a failure on your part to understand something that isn't very confusing at all. But then, many people remain convinced that FLCL is meaningless despite it being very unsubtle and the ready availability of countless people explaining what it's about. 2. Claiming that the various deliberate still shots are a sign of production troubles. My, what Osamu Dezaki would think of hearing that claim. Oh wait, sorry, we've all accepted that he's a talented director but the narrative is that Glasslip is a terrible show, therefore the same thing is now different. Is Glasslip perfect? Nope. But so much of the criticism aimed at it is of the laughable variety rather than focusing on the show's actual faults. Is this because people can't recognize the actual problems? Like, so many people were dismissing Day Break Illusion for being derivative of Madoka which wasn't just asinine, but also ignored all of that show's numerous other glaring faults. Yet it was the dominant criticism all the same. Why are misguided, uninformed and wholly fabricated criticisms the ones that win out over actual, seemingly obvious criticisms? Seriously, you have to invent some of this stuff in your own mind while the actual problems are right there staring you in the face. *** I mean, the thing is, these shows have real problems. You don't have to invent your own. And if it was just a few people saying dumb things, hey, whatever. But when those become the dominant strains of criticism, that's a bad thing. Now people are attempting to discuss works critically, but they're focusing on phantoms rather than actual issues. This is bad for the discourse of criticism. I don't care if people like shows I don't or dislike shows I love. That's certainly not what this is about. The problem is one of futility and waste. You wanna tear Glasslip apart for its actual problems? Go for it! But all of these false critiques really just perpetuate continued ignorance. Ignorance of how craft works, of how anime is made, of how media criticism works, of what the actual problems are and aren't. Discussing anime critically is a good thing! But you're doing it wrong. *** "Hot orange juice?" I want to say that sounds pretty gross, but Japan also apparently thinks mayonnaise and corn pizza is a good idea, and I guess this kind of pales in comparison to that. A lot of food in anime sounds pretty great, but sometimes there's things like these that just don't translate across food cultures. I mean there's so many other warm beverages that could've been chosen. Tea? Coffee? Hot cocoa? Why orange juice of all things? And yes, I know some of the things I eat and consider normal probably seem gross to people elsewhere (apparently peanut butter is uncommon in a lot of places?), but still. Is this even a common thing in Japan? Maybe people drink this where I live and I'm just out of the loop. There's a store near here that was selling ostrich eggs and at first I just thought it was unusual. But then I realized that there had to be enough people in my area who specifically needed ostrich eggs for their recipes so as to make it profitable to keep those in stock. And I had no idea what you'd do specifically with ostrich eggs. Maybe there's a small group of people right in my very town who start every day in winter with a glass of hot orange juice. Maybe it's actually a great idea and I've just been missing out. Perhaps if I were talking to someone in that store that sold the ostrich eggs and said that hot orange juice sounded gross, I'd get a shocked stare back before they explained how it's great and everyone drinks it. Or maybe it's just a weird thing that came up very briefly in an episode of Glasslip and I care far too much about it. 50/50 odds, I suppose. *** There's a comment here on Nishimura's page expressing confusion that one show he directed was a show that person thought was great, but he also directed Glasslip which they didn't care for. And that confusion isn't uncommon. There's a lack of knowledge about what exactly a director actually does, and a tendency to ascribe far more of a show to an individual than is actually accurate. I believe this is born from Hollywood's marketing style which tends to indeed credit films to basically one person, usually the director. And a director is certainly important! But an anime show or movie generally isn't the director's sole creation. There's a source material, there are writers, artists, producers, production committees and so on and so forth. Being a director is an important role that certainly has a meaningful influence on the final product, but "I didn't like this show, therefore the director is bad" is not the correct train of thought. Not liking the directing is certainly a reason to question the abilities of a director, but again, most don't actually seem to recognize which aspects those are and instead ascribe the totality of the work to that one individual. Many know Yuasa, but far fewer know EunYoung Choi even though she's worked together with him quite a bit. Because people only know that one name, that sometimes cult of personality, the director. And they know what works that director has been part of, they know how they feel about those works, and they translate that into their feelings about the director while rarely having any thought about their actual involvement on those works. Also a year later and hot orange juice still sounds gross. Seriously.

3

TV

13

The dissonance between how craft actually works and how the majority think it's supposed to work, SU2014 The dissonance between how craft actually works and how the majority think it's supposed to work, SU2014

495

Add - More Go! Princess Precure There are four groups subbing this series and I don't know any decent way of choosing between them other than downloading all of them and personally comparing them, which I'm not going to do. Hopefully the group I chose isn't awful/won't drop the series! It's not like I'd really know if their translations were incorrect, although I guess the Internet would raise a stink about it if that happened. It sure would be neat if all the battle scenes in this series were as well animated as the one in the first episode, but I'm not actually expecting them to be. The realities of time and money for a TV anime just aren't quite amenable to that, generally speaking. Just compare the animation in TV series vs movies, in aggregate, and the distinction is pretty obvious. I'm just setting my expectations accordingly. Still a neat sequence regardless, though. *** Yup, about what I expected in terms of animation. Oh well, them's the breaks. (minor episode 2 spoilers) Also, I see Haruno's OPSEC skills are somewhere below Smile levels, but at least above Sailor Moon Crystal levels. Obviously run the other way from everyone else? Check. Make no effort to see if anyone might notice you transforming into a magical girl? Check. Don't even bother trying to conceal your real identity when someone calls out your name in front of the enemy? Check. Which part of "keep this Precure thing a secret" did you fail to understand? *** You see, the thing is the sub group I was using was also putting out releases I really liked because they were apparently actually another group whose releases I generally really like. But then that group basically died and so too went their releases of this. And that leaves Commie and Doremi, and neither of those are compelling choices but they're also the only choices and picking the lesser of two evils isn't a fun time. (I guess Commie because they're beating Doremi from a visual standpoint, but man.) *** "Bonjour!" Aw man, come on. *** "I am le designer." "You still miss le something!" Aw man, come on. Maybe next episode I should check out Doremi's release? Changing sub groups is proving to be very not fun. I mean I'm not gonna drop the show because of this or anything but sheesh. Fansub Group: MikaruSubs (1-4), Commie (5+?)

-

TV

50

WI2015 WI2015

496

Add - More Go! Princess Precure Movie: Go! Go!! Gouka 3-bondate!!!

-

Movie

1

497

Add - More Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?

-

TV

12

SP2014 SP2014

498

Add - More Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? Bloom

-

TV

12

499

Add - More Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka??

-

TV

12

FA2015 FA2015

500

Add - More Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?? Dear My Sister

-

Movie

1

501

Add - More Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?? Sing for You

-

OVA

1

502

Add - More Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Roughly akin to the second season, roughly similar score.

7

OVA

3

503

Add - More Gokujou Seitokai In the interest of testing SMA's recommendation quality, I'm taking the obvious route of watching some of the shows it recommended. This is one such anime. *** (spoilers) You wanna know the real problem with Best Student Council? At the very end, they bring back a whole bunch of characters that appeared during the show and rather than "Oh boy, them!" the reaction is more "Oh yeah, I guess they were in an episode, weren't they?" The show ends by bringing back these characters who showed up once and played a minor role very early on and there's really no logical reason to bring them back at this point. I guess it gives the series a way to end, but eh. And that's because the series never spends any time developing its plot until right until the very end, but the long stretch of bland high school club comedy before it simply does not support it. So when they go full throttle on the plot development, they still leave a whole bunch of questions hanging and it's not even rewarding, because who cares about this background thread that rarely gets visited during the show while it's more focused on silly curry cookoffs and other assorted hijinks? The greatest flaw is that Best Student Council tries to maintain two moods, but doesn't give enough time to one and isn't that great at the other. The show can never get off the ground like that. The animation here sure spared plenty of expense. You can really feel the effort they didn't put into this when characters are talking but their mouths never start moving. Well, it wouldn't be current J.C. Staff if it wasn't disappointingly mediocre, I guess. It's not like there's terribly much going on in this show that'd require effort to animate, anyway, so to not even bother with mouth flaps at times is just supremely lazy. Maybe not Petit Eva levels of lethargy, but come on, these are basic expectations. What I find funny of course ain't necessarily what you find funny, but Best Student Council is more stomachable than anything, filled with one-note gimmick characters that typically get an episode of barely being fleshed out. None of them ever rise to the level of "notable," just like the show itself. Best Student Council does a better job of convincing itself it has a soul lurking beneath its stale humor than it ever does of convincing the viewer of that. Woefully bland and excelling at nothing, Best Student Council still doesn't do anything exceedingly wrong, other than it's lack of doing anything particularly right. An average show that's probably not worth your time. I guess I can't fairly consider this a failure on SMA's part, though, since the site only parsed part of my list when it suggested this. (All below was written prior.) *** ...And several attempts to get SMA to process my list again later, I discover the first crop of results was only processing a very small portion of my list to generate recommendations. And that titles like this one are actually pretty far down the list once it actually takes everything into account. So I conclude that SMA, as a site, could certainly work better, and that what I've been watching to test its value isn't actually representative of its top recommendations for me. Well, at least I discovered that pretty early on. But since the three things I started were SMA recommendations all the same, I'm not removing the "SMA Test" tag from them. But I won't base my judgement of SMA on them too much.

5

TV

26

SMA Test (glitch), SP2005 SMA Test (glitch), SP2005

504

Add - More Golden Boy (spoilers) Golden Boy has a limited repertoire of schtick that it quickly exhausts and then spends another five episodes just repeating itself. Is Kintaro fondling a toilet seat his latest lustful obsession used a bit creepily humorous the first time? Kind of. It certainly doesn't hold up when they keep using that joke. You're going to have to find the first episode really, really funny to make watching the whole thing worth it, because the exact same thing is going to have to stay funny to you throughout the whole series. That's really the problem with Golden Boy. The series is just dull. Oh, they're utilizing excessive fan service again. Oh, Kintaro is being perverted again. Oh, he won the girl's heart again because he's a genius who can do anything. How utterly formulaic, and with a formula that isn't that great, to boot. You have boring side characters and an MC that has one trick. There's a few small laughs at the start, and then nothing. Golden Boy really isn't worth your time. (The final episode about anime studios at least offers a more realistic depiction than Otaku no Video did.)

4

OVA

6

505

Add - More Golden Time (Movie)

-

Movie

1

506

Add - More Gondora

-

Movie

1

507

Add - More Goro-chan

-

Music

1

508

Add - More Gosenzo-sama Banbanzai!

8

OVA

6

509

Add - More Gosick

6

TV

24

WI2011 WI2011

510

Add - More Graphillion: Kazoeage Oneesan wo Sukue

-

ONA

1

Not what you're looking for. Not what you're looking for.

511

Add - More Gravity Daze The Animation: Ouverture

-

OVA

1

512

Add - More Great Hunt

-

TV

19

513

Add - More Great Teacher Onizuka It took me half a year to settle on just a score for Spice and Wolf, so read what you will into "later." (But, in the simplest of terms for now: I liked this, overall.)

-

TV

43

Score later, SU1999 Score later, SU1999

514

Add - More Gugure! Kokkuri-san It's not just me, right? One of those characters looks a lot like a young Asuka, doesn't she?

6

TV

12

FA2014 FA2014

515

Add - More Gunnm Corny as heck. Granted, I know this is only an adaptation of part of a manga, but I always judge an anime by its own merits and don't factor in the source material. An anime ought to be able to stand on its own, after all. This seemed to fit in nicely with the Tank Police and Angel Cop school of anime. You have your typical cyberpunk (And no, I'm not interested in getting into a pedantic debate about what is and isn't actually "cyberpunk") setting with some generic, unelaborated land of riches and luxury subsisting off of the exploited underclass. You've seen this basically anywhere and everywhere and nothing new or fresh is being done with it here. Throw in some excessive violence, and yeah, these were a dime a dozen back then. Offering scant more than a vignette, you have a conclusion that lacks the emotional punch it's desperately looking for because you can't connect with the characters. Who are they? We know very little about them. So why do we care about this last moment other than it being clearly something meant to be sad? You have a "what," but not really a "who." Given more time to be properly fleshed out, this would be better, but nothing here actually suggests it would start to be good. Just generic. Completely skippable. (I did get a laugh out of their currency being "chips." Because, you know, future and cyber and robots and stuff!)

5

OVA

2

"Battle Angel Alita" "Battle Angel Alita"

516

Add - More Gunnm 3D Special

-

OVA

1

517

Add - More Gunsmith Cats

-

OVA

3

Score later. Score later.

518

Add - More Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Hakairoku-hen (spoilers) The problem with this second season is that it stretches itself too thin. The Bog is initially interesting. Indeed, I was quite into it, wondering how Kaiji would prevail. But there just wasn't enough content there to keep the tension going that long, and that tenseness eventually gave way to tedium and boredom at just how long they were stretching things out. To wit: Sure, you could probably fit all of the Bog arc into about three episodes, give or take, but I understand the need to draw things out a bit for dramatic and psychological reasons. But the Bog just isn't a cour or so's worth of material. Kaiji's twists and turns are fun, but you eventually have to get on with it or it just becomes Namek. It's worse than the first season's Restricted Rock Paper Scissors arc that also went on too long. What we've seen here is that Kaiji doesn't really work with long arcs like this. (Are they this drawn out in the manga?) The interest just can't be sustained that long, and all the flashbacks and constant slowing things down just makes it all the more evident what's going on. I know this feeling: It's the same one I get when a paper has to be six pages long but I only have three pages of argument and I need to somehow fill the rest. I think this season would've worked better as 13 episodes with around six episodes for each arc. The animation remains limited and often cheap looking, which isn't really fitting of Madhouse's reputation. The CG is obvious and jittery. There's very little movement and most of it is simple or could just be looped. It's a visually disinteresting show. This is weaker than the first season, which is disappointing. If they'd budget their time more wisely, however, they could fix some of their problems. (More elaborative comments on Kaiji in general to be found in the comment for the first season.)

6

TV

26

SP2011 SP2011

519

Add - More Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor

7

TV

26

ざわ, FA2007 ざわ, FA2007

520

Add - More Gyo

3

Movie

1

521

Add - More Hacka Doll The Animation

-

TV

13

FA2015 FA2015

522

Add - More Hagane Orchestra

5

TV

12

FA2016 FA2016

523

Add - More Haibane Renmei What is this "actually scoring things" of which you speak? *** That finally covers scoring. Maybe some day I'll get the other half of this equation down. All below was written while watching this, and is preserved for posterity. *** I've been meaning to watch this for about nine years now. Well, I guess the benefit of waiting was that there's a BD source these days, even if it's not that great of one. Hopefully this lives up to the hype from roughly nine years ago. (Geez, I'm the worst procrastinator sometimes.) *** It's only been two episodes, but I'm already starting to get a really good feeling about this series. Also, I feel like I've seen a similar shot of a crow in Lain. It's another ABe work, so I wonder if it's a thing of his. Or maybe I'm remembering incorrectly. Or I might just be reading a little too much into a coincidence. Well, I guess the only real answer is to just watch more ABe works. *** Thinking about Lain resulted in that urge I get every now and then to listen to Lain's OP. But this time, instead of listening to the full song, I went and watched the actual OP animation. Crows everywhere. Hmm. Man, I really oughta rewatch Lain one day. It's been so long.

8

TV

13

FA2002 FA2002

524

Add - More Haikyuu!!

6

TV

25

SP2014 SP2014

525

Add - More Haikyuu!! Karasuno Koukou vs. Shiratorizawa Gakuen Koukou

-

TV

10

FA2016 FA2016

526

Add - More Haikyuu!! Lev Genzan!

-

OVA

1

527

Add - More Haikyuu!! Second Season

-

TV

25

FA2015 FA2015

528

Add - More Haikyuu!! vs. "Akaten"

-

OVA

1

529

Add - More Haitai Nanafa Typical stomachable short comedy anime. There's nothing more worth saying about it.

4

TV

13

FA2012 FA2012

530

Add - More Hakubutsushi

-

Movie

1

531

Add - More Hakumei to Mikochi

7

TV

12

WI2018 WI2018

532

Add - More Hakumei to Mikochi: Neji to Bed to Irori to Bakuchi

-

Special

1

533

Add - More Hal & Bons

-

OVA

5

534

Add - More Hametsu no Mars I don't think this does anything right. Why is classical music playing at random moments? Why is it so loud it's actually drowning out the dialogue? Why is that dialogue provided by seiyuu who sound like they were plucked off a street corner? Why is that dialogue seemingly arbitrary nonsense? Why are the characters having that dialogue just random personalities thrown out there for a minute or two? Why? It looks terrible, the sound track is lifted straight from the public domain, there are glaring errors in pacing (you wouldn't think they'd manage to move too slow with things in something this short, but pay attention during the bit of choking and you should pick up on what's gone incredibly wrong), there's nothing to praise about this. Being a promotional video doesn't excuse it. But it's not the worst thing I've ever seen. It just fails at everything it was going for. It doesn't actively try to be aggressively awful, though. That's Eiken territory. But I'll cover that whenever I finally write down my full thoughts on Eiken.

1

OVA

1

"Mars of Destruction" "Mars of Destruction"

535

Add - More Hana to Alice: Satsujin Jiken

-

Movie

1

536

Add - More Hana to Mogura

-

Movie

1

537

Add - More Hana wa Saku: Touhoku ni Saku

-

TV Special

1

538

Add - More Hanamaru Youchien

-

TV

12

WI2010 WI2010

539

Add - More Hanamaru Youchien Special Preview

-

PV

1

540

Add - More Hanamaru Youchien: Panda Neko Taisou

-

Special

8

There are seven more of these than there should be. There are seven more of these than there should be.

541

Add - More Hanamonogatari

-

TV Special

5

542

Add - More Hanasaku Iroha (Watched as a recommendation from an A-P secret santa.) And it's live. Feel free to read that to get my thoughts on this show and mock my review writing skills. All below was written before publication of the review. *** I told myself I wouldn't start any new, non-current series until my watching list was a little less insane. But then I heard about this anime secret santa event... forgive me. I was weak. But if everything goes according to plan, I'll be actually reviewing this. That means I have to have higher standards than these comments and everything. I have to actually put effort into this. Well, if I want to do it right, anyway. I'll link to it from here whenever it actually exists. I'm sure you'll giddily tear it apart either because this'll be my first review or (gasp) it won't mirror your own opinion. That's something baffling I've noticed. It's always been my impression that reviews are for people who haven't seen/played/read/whatevered the thing in question, but instead all comments on them seem to come from people reading them after the fact to see if they came to the same conclusion they did. It's weird. And then they accuse the reviewer of not being "objective" enough. What does that even mean? I'm not going to get all standpoint epistemology on you, but these reviews are always written by people with their own viewpoints and own preferences and when they're deciding if something was good or bad, that's always a value judgement. What is "objectively" good animation? What is "objectively" good writing? If one person thinks something is good and the other person thinks it's bad, is one of them "objectively" wrong? It's silly. A review shouldn't seek to be some bizarre detached thing because then it's not even honest. Even if you intend to be "objective" you won't be. You can't be. There are many strengths a review can have, but "objectivity" is a laughable aim for a review that really just seems to be a codeword for "You didn't agree with my opinion on the work, so I'm going to delegitimize your opinion by saying the work itself is 'objectively' good/bad and you're just letting your own biases cloud your judgement." But it sounds silly and petty when you phrase it more honestly like that, right? So instead you ask for a more "objective" review because "objective" sounds good. It's academic. It's proper! It's rubbish is what it is. Umm. Where was I? Oh, right, I'll be reviewing this over at Anime-Planet. Look forward to that if you actually care what I think about things.

3

TV

26

A-P SS, Review on A-P, link in comments, SP2011 A-P SS, Review on A-P, link in comments, SP2011

543

Add - More Hanayamata

5

TV

12

SU2014 SU2014

544

Add - More Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora (Later. Probably a high 4 or a low 5.)

-

TV

6

WI2006 WI2006

545

Add - More Happiness!

3

TV

12

FA2006 FA2006

546

Add - More Happiness!: Watarase Jun no Kareinaru Ichinichi

-

OVA

1

547

Add - More Harbor Light Monogatari: Fashion Lala yori

3

OVA

1

548

Add - More Harmonie

-

Movie

1

549

Add - More Haru no Ashioto The Movie: Ourin Dakkan Oh man this is awful. The plot is barely coherent. In part because it's missing a lot of details. Details like the beginning, setting, who many of the characters even are, really most of the stuff necessary for it to make sense. But what's actually there barely seems connected, largely failing to build on the events which preceded it. I felt a bit like I was watching cutscenes from a VN put together, but even then it would still be terribly written. You can come away with the roughest idea of what generally happened and that's about it. It's not funny, interesting, emotionally compelling or anything that might reward your following it. The dialogue is delivered so stiffly and without any sense of timing that the awful writing never even had a chance to work in the first place. It's just a mess. The animation is depressing. They take numerous opportunities to avoid actually animating and when they do they put in the bare minimum effort so everything just looks lazy and boring, which doesn't work well for something that's supposed to be full of fight scenes. And there's a number of animation errors, too. For example, look for a hallway to simply grow longer House of Leaves style when they need to have characters in the background seem to be getting further away from a still character in the foreground. Art, ladies and gentlemen. This is bordering Mars of Destruction level, although it is at least a bit better than that. But "a bit better than Mars of Destruction" isn't quite praise. Just terrible.

1

OVA

1

550

Add - More Hataraki Man (Later.) All below was written prior. *** "Man mode," eh? Well, good to know one has to transcend womanhood to be an effective worker. Thanks for the great, sexist message. (No, arguing that that view reflects Japanese culture does not make it any less sexist.) Bit of a rushed first episode. You don't really get a handle on the characters as human beings or why you should particularly care about them. I'm taking it they work at a more tabloidy sort of publication, though. A more respectable publication tries not to take on the sensationalist argot of your supermarket rags and New York Posts. Although I'm not personally acquainted with your standard editorial guidelines for Japanese journalism (only American journalism), so I can't be entirely sure. Still, with a fair bit of respect for the skill and effort of the craft and some firsthand knowledge of the trade (don't go into journalism, kids. It pays badly, sources are unreliable, your article's potential depends on the willingness of people to help you out by providing info, it's a bunch of work and it's thankless, but if you make a mistake you'll feel the wrath. You will become a better writer, though, if your editor is worth anything. But if you think it's an easy job then you have no idea.), I'm interested in seeing how faithfully and fully they show that sort of environment.

5

TV

11

FA2006 FA2006

551

Add - More Hataraku Maou-sama! (Later. I'm making raviolis and stuff. Anyway, depending on how the last episode of Gargantia goes, this is probably the second best thing this season that I watched. Although, considering I only watched three, and one of them ironically, maybe that's not saying much.)

6

TV

13

SP2013 SP2013

552

Add - More Hate You

-

Music

1

553

Add - More Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko

-

Movie

1

Score later. Score later.

554

Add - More Hello!! Kiniro Mosaic Now and then people say "The show you most look forward to is your AOTS." And I'd say that personally, the worst part of any given episode of Kinmosa is easily the part where it ends and I have to wait a whole week for another episode. Well, maybe the actual worst part will be when the final episode ends and then there won't be any more at all. I enjoy this show plenty. It's probably the one I get the highest level of pure enjoyment out of this season. But to then extend that to saying that this is therefore also what I'd call the best show of the season is... I mean that's just too simple a metric, isn't it? I'm not sure which series I would consider to be the AOTS at this point, but it wouldn't be this one. I certainly do like having fun with an anime, but that's not the only consideration in the same way we don't consider pornography to be the height of art despite its enduring popularity. Which isn't to say a fluffy series couldn't be the best series in a season, or that by focusing on fun fluff a series is somehow lesser or not as legitimate as a series with more thematic depth. While we shouldn't consider pure enjoyment as the most meaningful metric for determining this sort of thing (and to whatever degree that's actually even a useful exercise and not just feeding into our "top 10 whatevers of all time" sorts of cravings that have made Buzzfeed such a success), it'd also be wrong to infer from that that iyashi-kei series are inherently of lower critical value. That's a common mistake for the self-styled amateur critic. You seldom see movie critics of note dismiss a film solely for being lowbrow or a blockbuster action flick. They approach it from the standpoint of how that sort of film succeeds given its aims and unique strengths rather than attempting to create one universal mold of "True Art" that all films must adhere to. Because those films have their own value and there are well crafted ones and poorly crafted ones. But the amateur critic can tend to lump them together and casually dismiss them on the mere basis of what they are. To wit: To bring this back to anime, how many times have you seen a show dismissed out of hand because it's "just some moe fluff" and "nothing happens?" Which isn't actually a real substantiated criticism. "It's bad because it's part of a particular genre" is what that really comes down to. And it's fine not to like a particular genre, of course, but once you're claiming to engage in actual critical discourse or writing a review, the expectations become higher than that. "The new Madden title is a sports game, and sports games are crap, so therefore the new Madden title is as well. 1/10" "Schindler's List was in black and white, when films should of course be in color. One star." And so on. You wouldn't be very impressed with reviews like that, would you? Of course not, and you shouldn't be. Again, no critic of merit would ever write such a thing. Yet for some reason too many amateur critics see fit to do that on a regular basis with lowbrow and populist entertainment because they've become enamored with the concept of high art and blindly believe it to be inherently superior as the natural aspiration for all works of art. It's a phase that hopefully they eventually grow out of. But of course, "It was so cute and I really liked it! Anime is saved!" isn't substantial enough to serve as anything more than a pithy reaction, either. Art thankfully isn't something so simple that we can just reduce it down like that. Critical discourse and art itself would be so much duller if we could just write off entire genres or held personal enjoyment as the paramount quality of a work. There are multiple levels an anime can excel at for you to appreciate, and while Kinmosa is excelling at certain ones that make me look forward to it each week, as an overall work I wouldn't call it the best anime of the season. There are shows I don't look forward to as much but are stronger shows all the same. The one you look forward to the most might make it clear which one you enjoy the most, but "AOTS," insofar as it's a worthwhile consideration, should be more involved a consideration than that.

8

TV

12

Goodbye!! Kiniro Mosaic, SP2015 Goodbye!! Kiniro Mosaic, SP2015

555

Add - More Hells You know what's weird? A lot of five or six episode series don't seem to fit within their time constraints, but a lot of two hour movies just feel too long. And that's the issue with Hells. I feel like I could cut out generous portions of this film and lose nothing in the process. You could heavily compress the latter half of the film and wind up with something stronger as a result. What's there isn't the strongest, but at least if it were compressed it wouldn't just drag on and on, hammering its point into the audience long past reason. The freshness of Hells' visual style wears off quickly. For however different it looks on the surface, in motion it's largely staid and indistinguishable from any other given churned out anime film. The bits of charm are few and far between. A pittance of character designs are appreciable, the rest just bland and uninspired, barely fit to be minor enemies in a new Disgaea game. Really, it feels like you've seen Helvis, Phantoma, Wolfie and others in a number of places before. And when you're creating character designs for demons, you have even more free reign than when you're just doing for regular humans, so it's even less excusable here. I feel like Hells is lost. It has some idea of what it wants to be, but it has no real idea of how to get there. It throws out religious references, but doesn't actually know what to do with them. It goes for a different shade of paint, but doesn't know how to paint any differently with it. It has an outline of where it wants its plot to go, but isn't sure how to actually deliver on it. Hells is a pile of of unfulfilled ambitions. And the result is this nonstarter of a film. I appreciate the spirit, but the execution just isn't there.

4

Movie

1

556

Add - More HenSemi

2

OVA

2

557

Add - More HenSemi (TV) Why do I let /a/ talk me into these things? *** It took me nearly two years to finally come back around and finish this thing. I feel like there's a reasonable chance I will die before finishing some of the things on this list.

5

TV

13

SP2011 SP2011

558

Add - More Heppoko Jikken Animation Excel♥Saga This is another series I watched early on in my fandom. I had remembered it fondly, but when I thought about rating it, I wondered if it would hold up to my current standards. So I rewatched a bit, and it's just as great as I remember it being. Maybe even a bit better now that I'm better versed in the fandom. Oh man does this series move quickly. Just go look up a clip with Excel on YouTube. Any clip. The whole series is like that. Everything is constantly going crazy. But it's not just a bunch of random garbage being thrown around. Impressively, even at the clip it moves at, it manages to be pretty consistent and clever. (Minor first episode spoiler) The start of the series, with Excel trying to kill the original series creator and being brought back to life a number of times in a lampshaded, shameless form of ret-con should key you into what to expect. Excel Saga gets meta, sometimes showing an absolute disdain for the fourth wall. It's also rife with parody. If you're not looking for something silly, you're not looking for Excel Saga. Excel is constantly whirling and twirling, her physical movements mirroring the rapid-fire nature of her speech. It's a good thing the animation is technically competent here, or it'd let down the whole series. The show looks nice. It's vibrant, but not overdoing it. Character designs are distinctive and well done. I wonder how many takes it took Excel's seiyuu to nail her dialog? If you're familiar with the last episode of Excel Saga, you might share in my thoughts here: I can't believe Funimation has that up on YouTube. That's got to be pushing the content restrictions a bit.

9

TV

26

FA1999 FA1999

559

Add - More Heya/Keitai

-

Movie

1

560

Add - More Hi no Youjin

-

Movie

1

561

Add - More Hibike! Euphonium The worst thing I just realized about this show is that it's licensed by Ponycan. Just a few days ago I was disappointed in what I was reading about their release of Denki-Gai, a show I don't want to own. But this is a show I might maybe want to own if it can maintain/exceed its current level of strength. And I could be persuaded to pay ~$200 for a series if it's a really, really nice collector's edition, but the description of Ponycan's Denki-gai release leaves me worried I'll be in the position of choosing between not buying the show or having to buy a subpar collector's release at full collector's price. I mean it's still better than if it was licensed by Sentai (whose premium versions are actually pretty nice except for their work on the shows themselves), but man. (Speaking of Sentai and licensing KyoAni properties: I'd really like to own a subbed copy of Tamako Love Story on BD, and I'll even deal with Sentai's quality or pay Ponycan's prices for it. Please? The series is already out there...) *** There's something frustrating about a show that isn't, ultimately, depicting a budding queer romance being so much better at it than many shows that do attempt to depict that. But this show does a number of things better than a number of other shows do, so I guess it only makes sense. (But really shows about queer romance need to step it up. And be made more often, while we're at it.) *** (episode 11) HEY, YOU KNOW, THERE'S SOMETHING FRUSTRATING ABOUT A SHOW THAT ISGIHIHFIHGUHWIG are you trying to wound my heart, kyoani *** Take this for what you will. I don't know how accurately that translation reflects the original chart. ...maybe this show is ultimately depicting a budding queer romance? (Don't let yourself believe, IssacandAsimov! It'll just make it hurt more.) All below was written prior to airing. *** I'm a bit hesitant about this director/writer combo. If this series errs on the fluffy side, it's got a better chance of turning out alright than that combo trying to make something more dramatic. I guess KyoAni can't get by just having Yamada Naoko direct movies written by Yoshida Reiko, though, even if I'm getting the impression the results of that would be pretty consistently great from a creative standpoint. (I'm only drawing from a sample size of two, but when both of those are pretty dang good it gives me a certain confidence about wanting to see them make more things together.) *** Apparently the director confirmed it won't be a fluffy SoL title, so, yeah, some reservations. It's not like this pair can't handle the alternative well, it's just iffier.

9

TV

13

SP2015 SP2015

562

Add - More Hibike! Euphonium 2 "like senpai and junior" "senpai and junior" "senpai" "junior" ahhhhhhh Whether both should be translated or neither should be translated is its own discussion, but why would you ever go with the option of translating one but not the other? "Senpai" is not an English word. If you believe "kouhai" is okay to translate, why isn't "senpai?" What's unique about "senpai" that makes it some ~sacred nihongo~ word that's untranslatable? it doesn't make sense Show itself is still pretty alright, though. All below was written prior to viewing. *** I want to say "Why, but of course this will be good!" but the memories of Chuu2's second season are still fresh in my mind as one example that the sequel season to a good anime will not necessarily be good itself. Which certainly isn't meant to imply the inverse, that this will therefore be a failure, but rather that nothing's fully certain until it all actually airs. Well, other than that it will be really visually pleasant, of course. That much is a virtual guarantee in this case.

-

TV

13

FA2016 FA2016

563

Add - More Hibike! Euphonium 2 Specials

-

Special

7

564

Add - More Hibike! Euphonium: Kakedasu Monaka

-

Special

1

565

Add - More Hibike! Euphonium: Suisougaku-bu no Nichijou

-

Special

7

566

Add - More Hidamari Sketch

9

TV

12

WI2007 WI2007

567

Add - More Hidamari Sketch Specials Oh, whoops. These were just on the DVD like regular episodes, so I didn't even realize they were specials.

-

TV Special

2

568

Add - More Hidamari Sketch x 365 The specials are also factored into this score.

8

TV

13

SU2008 SU2008

569

Add - More Hidamari Sketch x 365 Specials

-

Special

3

570

Add - More Hidamari Sketch x ☆☆☆ It's difficult for me to say exactly why I love this series. The art is nice, but that's not the thing that makes it great. The characters are fun, but that's not it either. It's not any one thing that I can point to as a specific strength. Hidamari Sketch is basically a perfect "chill out" series. It's very casual and laid back. You laugh a little here and there, but it's not overwhelmingly funny. It's just very relaxing. Wide faces, light hearted, airy. The characters aren't very complicated. The plot isn't complicated. The show isn't complicated. But when you watch it, it just works. And it somehow works really, really well. Bonus! A commentary on the DVDs. Why? Just why? Ugly, aliased, huge yellow subs. Great. And they're riddled with errors. Missing words, typos and even randomly left over words. You get such lines as "but my feels won't change." That's a meme, not a proper translation. Further, there's the issue of "sempai" vs "senpai." You see, when you romanize the "n" from Japanese, it is indeed also considered acceptable to change it to an "m" (see "tempura" vs "tenpura"). However, they're inconsistent about this, and use both. Why? In fact, why are they saying "senpai" at all? Sometimes they capitalized it and didn't use a hyphen, as though it was the character's last name. Other times it was lowercase and hyphenated. Another inconsistency. These subs have a terrible consistency issue with liberal subs vs literal subs. Sometimes they're liberal, translating "itadakimasu" as "bon appetit." This is fine. Other times they leave in uniquely Japanese terms with zero explanation. This is not fine. There are a few, rare translator's notes, including a very lengthy one to describe Tanabata, which just makes it worse. If you're going to be liberal, be liberal. If you're going to be literal, be literal. If you're going to use TN to explain things, use TN. Some Frankenstein mix of all three is just baffling. For the third season, there's a ridiculous error. The last two OVA episodes have a different OP. For the first time this plays, they display the wrong lyrics. The lyrics they display are for the OP from the rest of the episodes. Then, on the second OVA episode, they have the correct lyrics, but they display both the English and the romaji. Why? They don't do that in any other episode of the show. And if they're going to display both, do they have to cluster them together like that? They could just put one on the bottom and one on the top, for a better use of space. And why do they just cycle between romaji and English with each episode? Is just displaying both every time not "professional" enough? Infuriatingly, the second season is a complete botch. The episodes are low bitrate, and it shows. And there's no reason for this. There's ample free space left on the DVDs, so it's not like they were trying to use fewer discs. It's just pointless. Thanks, Sentai. And man are these things spartan. The "special features" are just the OP and the ED without credits. Yay. My FLCL BD has a commentary track, music videos, and trailers. This has "trailers," but not quite. Rather than theatrical style trailers, they're just raw OPs from various shows Sentai has licensed. That's incredibly useless. But it does use up space on the disc that could've gone to giving us slightly higher quality episodes. Fansubbers get torn apart for less than this, and they're just volunteers giving you free anime. Sentai are professionals who are charging you $30 a season. This is not okay. These are things that show a complete lack of care. A lot of these things could've been fixed if someone had watched these DVDs and bothered to fix them, but apparently that wasn't worth it. Also, there's no dub. I don't need or want a dub here, but it's just another thing they decided not to give us. This is unacceptable, Sentai.

9

TV

12

WI2010 WI2010

571

Add - More Hidamari Sketch x ☆☆☆ Specials

-

TV Special

2

572

Add - More Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb I thought maybe I'd elaborate on why the series is so relaxing, but then I realized I was basically just defining iyashikei. It's not like there isn't more that could be said about Hidamari Sketch. I saw an interesting point about the use of synedoche in the series, for example. But there's not really more that actually needs to be said than what I stated in the comments for the previous season. It's not like Hidamari Sketch changed this season, either. You can get a very good idea of how Hidamari Sketch works just from watching one episode, so it's not much of an investment if you want to see for yourself if this show is for you or not. I'd feel like hoping for a fifth season would be too optimistic, but we've somehow just reached the end of a fourth season, so it feels like anything's possible. I'd never get tired of this series, anyway. I had thought the previous season's loosely anachronistic order was an intelligent way of letting the series run however long they wanted to, but they seem to have abandoned that in this latest season, which gives me the impression that if this actually did get a fifth season, that'd probably be it for the show. Not that five seasons (or four) is a paltry sum, of course. Guess there's nothing left now but to wait to see these very close, totally platonic friends again for the almost guaranteed BD specials, since every other season had specials. Until then. All below was written while the show aired. *** Oh no. Oh no. This is the first season of Hidamari Sketch I've actually watched as it aired. Waiting a week for another drip of Hidamari is going to be a long wait indeed. Why must this show be so good at what it does? *** Oh, Shaft, you developed a style meant to make your shoestring budgets not result in so terrible looking shows, but even now that you have all this *monogatari and Madoka money, it's too late to change your style. Everything below was written before the show aired. It is archived for posterity. *** There's something exciting about a season with a show I'm almost guaranteed to enjoy. I don't know that I'd ever tire of seeing more Hidamari Sketch. Although now I'm going to have to learn the unbearable strain of only getting weekly installments rather than bingeing through entire seasons.

9

TV

12

FA2012 FA2012

573

Add - More Hidamari Sketch x SP These two episodes were great, but they just make me realize how much I can't wait for the upcoming forth season now that I'm caught up. (Also, Nutbladder did a much better job with this than Sentai did with the first three seasons. Again, Sentai is supposed to be run by professionals.)

9

TV Special

2

2011 2011

574

Add - More Hidamari Sketch: Chou Hidamatsuri Special

-

Special

1

575

Add - More Hidamari Sketch: Sae Hiro Sotsugyou-hen More Hidamari Sketch you say? I'm always down for that.

-

OVA

2

576

Add - More Higashi no Eden (spoilers) What happened here? You had something that started off seeming so promising which then get totally lost in a series that just drags its heels in the middle before desperately scrambling through its last third or so all to produce an effort that at once seems stale and wasted. The animation in the series is decent. But the choice to occasionally use little visual shorthands (spirals for consternation), but just rarely so, is a misstep. If you're going to do it, commit to it. Being so utterly inconsistent with it just makes it seem out of place when it does show up. Well, that's a minor point. Just like the somewhat sparse and flat appearance of characters' faces. Back to the main point! There's no real hiccup to begrudge the series and things flow as you'd hope. It's not a particularly playful style which doesn't give it much excuse to do anything particularly out of the ordinary, but it functions and fully achieves its ends. This plot. Goodness me, squandering your premise 101. Which angle do you want to take this from? Social commentary? It's an utter retread that has nothing new to discuss and nothing interesting to say about these worn out topics. Romance subplot? Barely developed. The "game?" Who cares? Maybe we should take it as a whole. That's how it's presented to us, after all. And that plot develops smoothly enough at first, but somewhere around the point of the "Johnny Hunter" this show just isn't going anywhere anymore. Then introduce a few more characters to quickly lay all the cards on the table, have your big, flashy ending and despair that you're trying to build a fancy house on top of a rickety, termite-plagued foundation and your ending is just being completely desiccated by the utter void of substance that preceded it. The plot just leaves numerous loose threads about, oh, almost everything. Maybe the movies tie those up, but telling people they have to watch an entire series and then also the movies to get the full narrative is kind of a jerk move (Am I right, Evangelion?). The characters are not particularly compelling. You've our MC who can be defined as "upbeat." It seems he lost his personality with his memories. Saki is just "the girl." Go on. Tell me about Saki. Tell me something interesting about her. Indeed, you cannot, because there's nothing there. She's just a college senior (has she already [very recently] graduated? That was a bit unclear but I don't think she has) who you see a small hint of facing typical college grad malaise and whoopity doo (If you want that explored in a far, far better way, go read Solanin). The rest is just her sulking, acting confused and being kind of attracted to the MC. Ohsugi's personality is Saki and whining. I think we all know who Mikuru is for. I won't bother with the other side characters, because they're not even significant enough to bother with. The other Selecao are gone so quickly they don't even have time to become more than plot devices rather than characters. Could you possibly connect to any of these nonentities? Unless you enjoy seeing the potential for charm and intrigue in a series simply dissipate, skip Eden of the East.

3

TV

11

SP2009 SP2009

577

Add - More High School DxD So, I'd like to clarify something. Yes, as a matter of fact, that 5 is indeed meant to imply that I enjoyed this show more than Ano Natsu, Another, Moretsu Space Pirates (because that's not redeeming itself at this point) and many of the other shows I for some reason didn't drop this season. This, of course, being a show (minor spoiler) where the MC develops a skill to make women lose their clothes, which he powers by picturing women's breasts. Yeah. This wasn't a good season. But this is an oddly okay fanservice series. The story gets ridiculously rushed towards the end (in that it seems like they genuinely did not account for time at all until they realized they were out of it), and it's not that impressive a story in the first place. The series is full of dumb wish-fulfillment and chances to show off panties and exposed breasts. It's not shy about what it is. Yet it at least manages to have a mediocre, somewhat interesting plot for a while. It would have been nice if they could've actually had a smooth finish, but alas. I'm not going to give too much commentary to this because, well, it doesn't need it. Even if it's one of the better fanservice shows ("better" not being a commentary on how arousing it is or isn't), it still is what it is. But if you're going to watch that sort of show, it may as well be this one. Fansub Group: Hiryuu *** Oh 20-year-old me, why did you bother watching this whole thing? But I am somewhat... I guess I'd say "impressed" that six years later this franchise is still going and pumping out new seasons on a regular basis. "Yo he makes their clothes vanish" is apparently a premise with even more staying power than I would've imagined. Congratulations?

5

TV

12

WI2012 WI2012

578

Add - More High Score

2

TV

8

FA2011 FA2011

579

Add - More Highway Jenny A very, very pretentious work. Seems like they were going for aesthetic novelty, but it's actually rather trite in that department. The narrative hits all the proper brooding, pretentious themes (love, loss, etc.), but handles them poorly. So much failed style coupled with a lack of worthwhile substance. Entirely skippable.

4

OVA

1

580

Add - More Hikari no Megami

-

Special

1

581

Add - More Himouto! Umaru-chan

3

TV

12

SU2015 SU2015

582

Add - More Himouto! Umaru-chan OVA

-

OVA

2

583

Add - More Himouto! Umaru-chan R

-

TV

12

FA2017 FA2017

584

Add - More Himouto! Umaru-chanS

-

Special

12

585

Add - More Hinako Note

6

TV

12

SP2017 SP2017

586

Add - More Hinamatsuri

6

TV

12

SP2018 SP2018

587

Add - More Hinata no Aoshigure

-

Movie

1

588

Add - More Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu "Speaking as someone with personal experience of both, social anxiety and panic disorders are not funny and they take a lot of work to learn to cope with. That makes this show's central premise, that socially anxious Bocchi's one friend has abandoned her in order to “help” her overcome her issues, leaving the girl high and dry as she begins middle school, feel more cruel than funny." -ANN's Rebecca Silverman hold up there, chief Speaking as someone with personal experience of pretty severe social anxiety, who has and currently receives professional help in part to deal with that, social anxiety is indeed difficult and not inherently funny, but that in no way means humor cannot be successfully based around social anxiety and a person's attempts to cope with it. Humor revolving around social anxiety is not necessarily cruel or mocking, as Ms. Silverman's impression of the first episode continually implies, but what matters is how it is done. To dismiss such humor as inherently cruel is counterproductive as it discourages people from putting in the effort to actually make quality, non-cruel humor about sensitive subjects since if there's no winning, why bother trying? Indeed even with the best of intentions one can still inadvertently craft a malicious work, but no such malice seems present here. Ms. Silverman's entire claim for its presence seems solely based on a view that humor centering the subject of social anxiety is inherently cruel, as she never makes any argument as to why a particular example is cruel beyond merely pointing out that it exists. Ms. Silverman is fully free to be personally uncomfortable with or dislike this work, but to declare social anxiety as wholly off bounds for humor seems woefully misguided. Were her complaints with the specific manifestations of that humor in this episode, that'd be one thing. But she instead dismisses the notion as a whole (perhaps because the episode was truly too innocuous in its humor to reasonably raise any more specific objections?) which just seems like poor form for someone engaged in media criticism. (And, again, this isn't to say that the concern about mocking and/or belittling an indeed very real and very difficult to cope with problem is meritless, but to say that is axiomatic that humor based around social anxiety is mocking and/or belittling social anxiety is just really off base. And personally, as someone who's struggled with social anxiety even more intense than this show's main character does, I'd just like to add that I actually appreciate some relatable humor about the situation rather than feeling mocked by the show. As stated, Ms Silverman is of course fully free to not feel comfortable with it herself, but that's certainly not the only way those of us with social anxiety receive this sort of show.)

-

TV

12

SP2019 SP2019

589

Add - More Hitsugi no Chaika

-

TV

12

SP2014 SP2014

590

Add - More Hitsugi no Chaika: Avenging Battle

-

TV

10

FA2014 FA2014

591

Add - More Hitsugi no Chaika: Nerawareta Hitsugi/Yomigaeru Iseki

-

OVA

1

592

Add - More Hiyokoi I thought that maybe I was finally done remembering things I'd seen that were missing from my list, but nope, there was also this. I don't recall this well enough to give it a score or a comment, but I know I've seen it, so on the list it goes.

-

Special

1

Saw too long ago to rate. Saw too long ago to rate.

593

Add - More Hiyokoi (2012)

-

Special

3

594

Add - More Honey Tokyo I think this might be one of the least effective tourism videos I've ever seen, and I went into this already thinking Tokyo would probably be a neat place to visit. It does a poor job of selling Tokyo or really even giving you much information at all, yet it's too focused on trying to be a tourism video to actually just be something interesting on its own. The animation is okay for the studio. The voice work lacks enthusiasm entirely. It's clear the seiyuu don't care about this tourism video and nobody working on it cared that they didn't care, either. It seems fair to describe this a "churned out." The tourism board just wanted a video and the studio just wanted their money. It should probably be a 2, but I'm a bit of a sucker for 4°C's animation, so it's a very low 3 instead.

3

CM

1

595

Add - More Honobono Log

-

TV

10

596

Add - More Hoshi no Koe

4

OVA

1

"Voices of a Distant Star" "Voices of a Distant Star"

597

Add - More Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo

6

Movie

1

"Children who Chase Lost Voices" "Children who Chase Lost Voices"

598

Add - More Hoshikuzu Telepath

5

TV

12

599

Add - More Hotaru no Haka (spoilers) Welp. In the process of trying to find out how in the world this of all things was chosen to be a double feature with Totoro (turns out the answer is "money"), I found out the film is adapting a true story and for the second time nearly sprung a leak in my head. This film bummed me out when I was watching and has done the same every time I've thought about it during the past three days. Thanks a lot, Ghibli, now I'm sad. Some months back this film came up in a discussion with another member here on MAL who dismissed its theme as "war is bad." And one can certainly take that away from this (despite the director's insistance he didn't intend to make a value judgement about war), but to boil it down to just that would be uncharitable at best. While the misfortunes of the main characters stem from warfare, I hardly see it as about war at all. It's human drama, far, far more about the realties of human experience than about the ethics of war. The only true relevance World War 2 holds is to engender such hardships for the main characters. So yes, depicting the honest reality of war is never likely to make it look pretty, but that's just not the focus here. The war is not more relevant than the people. (There's a real life point I could make here, but I don't feel like proselytizing.) What you get instead does feel a bit like an easy sell for tears. "Come watch these two kids desperately attempt to resist their own slow, drawn-out, nigh inevitable deaths" doesn't have a lot of emotional directions to go, after all. But that doesn't mean it has to be effective. Rather, that can easily come across as forced and corny. And the reality of all that effort coming to be for absolutely naught, even if it's honest, could come across in less skilled hands as cheap and manipulative. But have a little faith in Isao Takahata. There's no surprise in where this is going, but the journey there is so effectively realized that it never feels as though it were trying too hard to make you cry, but rather that it is simply the pitiable truth of the relatable, human characters, their fate a mix of circumstances beyond their control and their own imperfections, which has so moved you. Thus the death of Setsuko comes across not as a trick, but as a realization of all which preceded it. For though they had good days and bad days, their trajectory was always trending downwards and, indeed, the very beginning of the film warns the viewer that they ought to brace themselves, evincing failure. Yet even with the foreknowledge that it ends poorly for them, it is earned empathy, not a false attempt to drum up pity, which allows this to fully maintain its impact. Really, it's to its benefit that it is not really about war. There's an equiprimordial relation between war and grief, and merely pointing that out would have been trite. But I've dwelled on that enough. You get the point. Given Ghibli's reputation, I think I scarce need mention that the film is well executed aesthetically. (Heck, I hardly need to even say anything about a Ghibli film, do I? People seem to get excited just at the reality of a film being by this studio. But I digress.) Fluid, intelligent color palette, standard Ghibli animation praise #3 and so on. The sound isn't as well articulated as it is in Nausicaa, but few anime can make that claim (If you've not seen it, the sound direction in Nausicaa is pretty much phenomenal). It's decent. It's a bit beyond just getting the job done, but falls short of being stand out or memorable. When the seiyuu was an actual six-year-old girl, I'll give her no particular credit for sounding her age, but I will give credit to the seiyuu for delivering competent, genuine-sounding performances. I wavered between a low 9 and a high 8 (part of writing these comments is to give myself an opportunity to work back over the anime and give it a more considered score) but ultimately went with the former because the film has nothing new or particularly profound to say, but is such a successfully realized effort at what it was going for that anything lower just didn't feel right. For while it has weak points notable enough and not enough high points that are high enough to earn a 10, it's certainly in a position to duke it out with Totoro for the role of my favorite Ghibli movie. Watch this.

9

Movie

1

"Grave of the Fireflies" "Grave of the Fireflies"

600

Add - More Hotarubi no Mori e

6

Movie

1

601

Add - More Hotori: Tada Saiwai wo Koinegau

7

TV Special

1

602

Add - More Hourou Musuko Constrained. That's the feeling I get when watching this. You see, it's fine for a story to start in media res. The problem is, the story of Wandering Son doesn't. This adaptation seems to have entirely skipped over their elementary school years. That's not a minor thing to skip. A lot happens during that time. Strong character development and important plot details happen then. And the anime just starts after that, but with everything that happened then already in effect. And it doesn't do much to explain any of these critical developments. That's not in media res. That's opening a book up, skipping seven or ten chapters, and starting to read it there. And what you lose is great stuff. I've read the manga up to the point right around some of the first episode, and it's wonderful. As a part of the LGBT community, this is the most genuinely relatable bit of fiction I've ever read. It doesn't just treat LGBT issues seriously, it actually gets what it's like to grow up trans* and not straight. I love it. And I could guess that it's because this show is the typical Noitamina 11 episodes. They can't cover this much and cover the elementary school years in just 11 episodes. Ideally, this would've been two-cour, or two seasons, or some combination thereof. But realistically, we're lucky a work like this even aired on TV. And I don't know how I'd have them do this. They could've used those 11 episodes to cover the elementary school years, but I'm not even sure 11 episodes would be enough to do it without rushing too much. And then you only get the beginning. You get all that buildup, and you'd end on the events that have set everything in the anime adaptation in play. But as you have it now, you don't know why things are the way they are. And, that can work for people who've read the manga, at least the part that precedes the adaptation's timeline. But obviously the work struggles a lot more to stand on its own if you need to have read several chapters of the manga first. The show looks okay, the watercolor aesthetic really working in its favor. But it can be very subdued and dull, which isn't quite in homage to the source material, so I'll trust this was a decision made for the adaptation. It works, at least. Nitori's seiyuu does a poor job with her. The rest of the voice cast is okay, but this seiyuu seems almost monotone. It's a disappointment. I want to love this like I love the manga. But the realities of TV scheduling are complicating things. Yet while having to say "Well, at least the manga's still good." would be awful, it's kind of the truth. It's not that this is a bad series per se, but when I compare it against the manga, it's not even close. This may be one of the best representations of LGBT characters you'll see in an anime, but I'd still have to encourage just reading the manga instead. You'll get the full story and, in my opinion, better art. Alright show, bad adaptation. But I'm only scoring it on the former of those two qualities. Man, I need to pick up those licensed volumes before they go out of print.

6

TV

11

Read the manga instead, WI2011 Read the manga instead, WI2011

603

Add - More Howl no Ugoku Shiro (spoilers) Another bit of Miyazaki bombast going nowhere. While the level of detail and animation is of typical good quality, there ultimately isn't much to Howl's Moving Castle. The plot, churned out in dribs and drabs, is just a so-so bit of fluff. And I know it's a family film, but Miyazaki himself has demonstrated that is no excuse. The teensy kernel of romance, the splattering of character development and the plot that largely occurs in the background doesn't do much to service the rest of the film. For as lovingly rendered as the castle is aesthetically, it's not really an interesting place, nor are its inhabitants. Howl, whose birdform and activities involving it seem to get the cold shoulder from the writer and director, is of only mild interest. Calcifer is scarcely a character, the writing for the Witch of the Wastes is as confused as her seemingly senile brain probably is, Markl isn't even worthy of note and Sophie seems like someone took out the mold for "kindly female Ghibli character" and forgot to actually fill it in with anything. The result is a dull narrative with dull characters, neither of which you can get invested in. Howl's Moving Castle is what happens when Miyazaki phones it in. A filler Ghibli movie. Spirited Away certainly wasn't perfect, but at least it was more cogent and developed than this. Yeesh. If this seems brief, it's because Howl's Moving Castle doesn't give you much to work with. While not terrible, outside of the animation and art it's really just too bland to recommend. Roughly average. Downloaded Episodes: 1

7

Movie

1

"Howl's Moving Castle" "Howl's Moving Castle"

604

Add - More Hunter x Hunter (2011) All below was written prior to completion. *** There was a pretty noticeable issue with the subtitle timing early on but it hasn't happened for seven episodes straight now, so hopefully that was just an aberration that won't reoccur. What's totally gonna keep happening, though, is the macroblocking and banding that's resulting from the bitrates Netflix uses (you can see a bit of obvious banding in the House of Cards opening credits, too). They're putting out 1080p at the same bitrate as a DVD. Higher bitrates would probably help (although there's other things that could help if the effort was put in), but if they wanted to match, say, the bitrate of an actual BD they'd need a downstream faster than most people in the US even have the option of getting. It's a current reality of streaming video. Improvements in codecs should hopefully address that (HEVC promises better quality at a fraction of the bitrate), but that's still not quite here yet. It's not unwatchably bad or anything, but it's definitely noticeable. Also this show seems pretty cavalier about people dying. Like four dudes fall to their deaths and seconds later it's all happy music and smiles and talking about how good the food is. Just, "Welp, better not do what they did. Tally ho!" They've all been nameless mooks, but still, dude, dang. Friendly acquaintances? Empathy and caring. Strangers? Who cares! Kinda seems like lazy writing to me! *** So Netflix has 100 episodes of this, out of what will be a total of 148. Hmm. What to do when/if I reach that point? Fansubs? Wait and hope Netflix adds the last of it in a timely fashion? Oh well. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Streaming realities. *** Whoever writes the next episode synopses for this on Netflix please don't put spoilers in them, okay? Not cool, dude. Also don't ever try to look up images of characters from this show because Google's autocomplete is another source of spoilers, apparently! Sure hope I forget that by whenever I reach it in the show. Sorry I came to a show late, geez.

-

TV

148

FA2011 FA2011

605

Add - More Hyakka Zukan

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Movie

1

606

Add - More Hyakko The thing with Hyakko is that it can see the brass rings up above, it just can't grasp them. There are moments when it has the potential to break out and be so much more than it is, but it isn't able to capitalize on them. A pity. That still leaves us with an enjoyable but flawed show. While there are a few characters who are the clear focus of the show, Hyakko has a rather large cast and gives a bit of time to all of them. Having a large cast is fine (see LOGH, for example), but they don't really have enough time to devote to all of them. They wind up as distractions rather than strong side-characters. You get tastes of development from them, but since Hyakko wants to keep introducing more and more characters, there just isn't enough time to explore them further. This leaves characters and plot threads hanging loose. What a waste. The show isn't spectacular looking, but it still looks alright. Nothing jarring on the eye. The characters are fun together, but due to the large cast, don't get enough time together to form strong, interesting relationships. Yet through them, the show still manages to be funny at times. (Minor, vague spoiler) There's a bit of drama at the end that feels rather sudden and forced. I appreciate that they wanted to add a bit more depth to the character and throw in some more plot, but it's pretty sloppy. (End spoiler) Hyakko isn't a must-see, but if you're not dealing with a massive backlog, it's worth watching.

7

TV

13

FA2008 FA2008

607

Add - More Hyakko Extra

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608

Add - More Hyouka Typical for KyoAni, it looks great. But so very little happened. I'll let a bit of bias creep in and give it a little longer because it's KyoAni, but it needs to get better quickly. *** One more episode. That's it. If this doesn't stop being moe Scooby Doo and become something interesting by the third episode, I'm done with this. *** That's it. No more. It's been a while since I dropped a KyoAni series, but this one is terminally boring. *** why am i coming back to this four years later what am i doing Well, the show hasn't changed in all that time, but my willingness to trod through its overeager and easy visual metaphors has, I guess. My anime, I guess you could say "experience," has increased a fair bit in four years and I can better fit this into certain preexisting schema. So I guess now I'm watching it. Yay?

-

TV

22

SP2012 SP2012

609

Add - More Hyouka: Motsubeki Mono wa

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OVA

1

610

Add - More Hyper Police

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TV

25

SP1997 SP1997

611

Add - More I My Me! Strawberry Eggs

7

TV

13

SU2001 SU2001

612

Add - More Iblard Jikan So the only Ghibli thing I've ever really liked is basically just scenery porn. I can actually hear the gnashing of teeth from the otaku cognoscenti.

9

OVA

1

613

Add - More Ichigo Mashimaro With the high quality of the Ichigo Mashimaro OVA, I began to think that maybe my memory had failed me and I hadn't given this a fair rating. Rewatching it revealed that no, 7 was the right score after all. Ichigo Mashimaro is amusing enough, adorable enough and relaxing enough, but it's not a particularly special series. Just another good one. It does come across as a bit archetypal SoL, but it's not like that's ever stopped me. There's not much I want to say about Ichigo Mashimaro. Plenty of shows have come along since this that do what it does just as well or better, but Ichigo Mashimaro still holds up, aside from some dated animation. There's nothing noteworthy, really. Considering the plethora of comparable alternatives, there's no real need to watch this, but there's no real reason not to, either, if you like SoL shows. This is another testament to what I've observed, though. That is, these series have been getting faster-paced on average over the years. And those more hyper SoL shows are fun, don't get me wrong. But there's still a place for a more relaxed show without going full iyashikei.

7

TV

12

SU2005 SU2005

614

Add - More Ichigo Mashimaro Encore I've covered Ichigo Mashimaro in general, so I won't repeat that here. I don't actually know if these had a larger budget than the main series or if that's just seven years worth of technological progress showing through, but the animation is definitely upped. As well as the characters work in the main series, they work even better in Encore and the OVA. The same can be said of the comedic timing and overall humor. Consider this somewhere in the 8.0-8.5 range. It's great to see that the various Ichigo Mashimaro parts still hold up so well.

8

OVA

2

615

Add - More Ichigo Mashimaro Episode 0

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Special

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616

Add - More Ichigo Mashimaro OVA AnimeCF wouldn't stop recommending this to me since I hadn't scored it yet, so I watched it again just so I could rate it already. Whoa. I didn't remember Ichigo Mashimaro being this good. I like this as much if not more than Hidamari Sketch. You know what this has, that so many of those "shouting equals funny" and "look at this odd situation!" comedy series don't have? An actual sense of comedic timing. I'm going to rewatch Ichigo Mashimaro, because I don't remember it being this funny, but if the OVAs are this good, I need to reassess my scoring of the original series. I'll save any more elaborative commentary for then.

9

OVA

3

617

Add - More Idol Jihen (episode 5 spoilers, but honestly who even cares) This show cheerily offering the cavalier message "Remember, kids: Terrorism isn't only just and righteous, but it's effective, too!" is the sort of embarrassingly naive thing that typifies Idol Incidents as a whole. This particular bit comes with the added bonus of sending a rather terrible and dangerous message. I mean this is an example of my choosing to watch this to "see where [it] goes" bearing fruit, but gee whiz. And I don't think the show is even clever enough to realize what exactly it just promoted. At first I suspected that was by design (making the show deliberately toothless to avoid actually saying anything about politics the audience might find even remotely disagreeable) but now I have to question the intentionality of its very simplistic approach to politics because otherwise that'd mean they viewed an endorsement of terrorism as "no big deal." I'm going to trust in Hanlon's razor here. Terrorism is bad and so is this show. *** Actually there was a sign of some degree of self-awareness. They made sure to explicitly state the kids weren't going to kill the idol politicians they'd "taken hostage." Because hey now, that'd be too far. So there was some consideration going on, and they decided that endorsing terrorism was a-okay so long as it stopped short of murder. Oh boy. Look. I know this is a show where every non-idol politician is a cartoonish, simplistic, mustache-twirling villain ("Women belong in the home, not the office! I'm gonna shut down this preschool to build a business center in its place because I prioritize big, monied, corporate interests over children and the average citizen! Nyeh!"), where episode plots are consistently all over the place messes, where the idol politicians have spent infinitely more time performing concerts than engaging in legislative action, but I guess maybe I still would've expected enough restraint? savvy? basic competence? to not casually endorse terrorism. Heck, to actually celebrate terrorism. (These kids who claimed to have taken multiple dietwomen hostage, occupied a school building and assaulted police officers were greeted with a chorus of applause when they emerged from the building smiling and waving. A literal celebration of terrorism.) Maybe at this point I've given this more thought than the staff of Idol Incidents ever has. But out of all the ways this show has gone wrong, this is definitely the most disastrous.

2

TV

12

A show in which terrorism is literally celebrated, WI2017 A show in which terrorism is literally celebrated, WI2017

618

Add - More Ihatov Gensou: Kenji no Haru

7

Movie

1

619

Add - More Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san

-

TV

12

620

Add - More Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san 2nd Attack

7

TV

12

621

Add - More Ikoku Meiro no Croisée Picture Drama

-

Special

6

622

Add - More Ikoku Meiro no Croisée The Animation Actually, the term "moe" didn't originate until the late 1980s so there's no way Alice, a French girl in the late 19th century, could be using that word to describe Yune. Way to ruin my immersion, show. "I mean, what are we to believe, that this is a magic [vocabulary], or something? Ha ha, boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder."

-

TV

12

SU2011 SU2011

623

Add - More Ikoku Meiro no Croisée The Animation: Ongakkai "Récital"

-

Special

1

624

Add - More Ikoku Meiro no Croisée: Yune & Alice

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Special

7

625

Add - More Ima, Soko ni Iru Boku Ugh. There's nary a character in this series that isn't a mix of annoying and useless. I'd point out a particularly egregious example, but there's just too many. Honestly, the ones that most immediately come to mind are just the ones that happened to get the most screen time. These characters are so one-dimensional, so tedious, so worthless. Absolute caricatures that you couldn't care less about. The plot is so hamfisted, so generic, so bumbling, so poorly directed, so stretched out, so, well I could just go on for a while insulting it with adjectives. And that's in part, but surely not entirely due to how thin their budget must have been. That's some pretty strong abuse of stillshots. They take every possible excuse to save money by offering the viewer less. And this show looks like garbage for late 1999. Character designs are absolutely lazy and uninspired, the bgs are cheap, the animation is insufficient and technically inept. Colors are dull, underused and poorly applied. The music is lazy, unappealing and repetitive. You're going to be hearing the same tracks a lot. In the middle of the 12th episode, I just got so fed up with this show that I watched it at 1.5x speed. It was still too slow. The plot and the characters are just so much nothing, that you can't care about any of it. At least I only paid $5 for this. Looks like it's selling for $15-$20. Maybe I'll use this to fund a purchase of the Redline BD so it's not just a complete loss. Don't bother with this series. (This series got me curious, and I'm beginning to get the impression that AIC should be right up there with Xebec, DEEN, and JC Staff on my list of bad studios.)

1

TV

13

FA1999 FA1999

626

Add - More Inaka Isha

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Movie

1

627

Add - More Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha.

5

TV

10

WI2014 WI2014

628

Add - More Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha. Inari, Konkon, Semishigure.

-

OVA

1

629

Add - More Inferno Cop Well, that sure was something. It always came as a bit of a shock to see how many names were listed in the credits each episode when the whole series feels like it was made on a budget of around $5. I... this dang show. With its barely coherent plot, its shallow characters, with it being barely animated, with everything else that is true of this show, it's still fun. Fun because of its badness. Inferno Cop is certainly not a good show, but it's an enjoyable one. It's a rather silly show. It's the sort of thing that would never hold up as a full series, but as a few short ONAs, yes Adult Swim dada, you can be worth it. I wonder how the conversation went when this was pitched and those with the authority gave the green light on this. Someone okayed putting money and time behind Inferno Cop. And I'm glad they did. I have no idea if this will prove profitable to them, but I can tell they enjoyed making it. I'm happy Inferno Cop is a thing that exists. But while Inferno Cop was good for a laugh, what I'm really looking forward to are Trigger's more serious projects. With Little Witch Academia being available soon enough and Imaishi directing a new show, thankfully it won't be too much longer. All below was written during airing. *** I... What? *** Inferno Cop is the smartest anime I've seen in years (and it's not even half-way done). Wait. No. Inferno Cop is knowingly dumb. It's Trigger putzing about. And it's kind of fun. Not something you'd watch a full, regular series of. But at a minute or two a week, yeah, episode two leaves me open to another dumb laugh or two every week. So long as it can provide that, I'm in. But I really want Little Witch Academia to air already so we can get a real project from Trigger. I'm having fun with this, but I still recognize that it's underwhelming in a whole bunch of places.

3

ONA

13

Watch it anyway. Watch it anyway.

630

Add - More Inferno Cop: Fact Files

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ONA

12

631

Add - More Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de That sure is just slightly on the watchable side of average.

4

TV

12

FA2014 FA2014

632

Add - More Interstella5555: The 5tory of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

8

Movie

1

633

Add - More Inu x Boku SS If anything, I'd call this a "cotton candy" series. Light, sweet and fluffy, but not much actual substance behind it. A little bit of plot goes on, but it's quite protracted and nothing significant. This series is really just an excuse for characters to bounce off of each other. And it's a bit unfortunate in that regard. It's clear which two characters the main focus is on, because the side characters barely get any time to shine, and never as the central focus. Which is a shame, because there are going-ons (goings-on?) between those side characters that seem at least as interesting as the main pair. But these side characters don't get much chance to develop their tale, and some of them don't even get developed at all. They're just sort of there (pretty much any of the servants besides the SS). Which just makes the show even weaker when the story involving the main pair isn't bad, but it's nothing special. The show looks fine, which is nice. The soundtrack can get repetitive, however. During the main show, that is. There's a pleasant number of different EDs focusing on various characters. Inuboku is a series that's fun enough to follow weekly while it airs, but if you missed it, it's not really anything you need to go back and marathon. It's an okay show that will most likely be forgotten to time. It's not that you'd regret watching it, but if you're dipping into the past, there are a lot of series that should be higher on your priority list. EDIT: For the curious pedants, it turns out it's "goings-on."

6

TV

12

WI2012 WI2012

634

Add - More Inu x Boku SS: Miketsukami-kun Henka/Switch/Omamagoto Getting a little more focus on the too often neglected side characters was nice, but it's obvious who the main focus remains. Aside from being a bit more forward about some relationships, this OVA only offers a few short comedy segments rather than anything advancing the main plot of the show. That's an alright watch, but it's basically Inu x Boku lite. Fun enough if you liked the original series, but don't expect anything more from this than basically some bonus material.

6

Special

1

635

Add - More Inu-Ou

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Movie

1

636

Add - More Inuki Kanako Zekkyou Collection: Gakkou ga Kowai!

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OVA

1

637

Add - More Isekai Shokudou

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TV

12

"Restaurant to Another World", SU2017 "Restaurant to Another World", SU2017

638

Add - More Isekai Shokudou 2

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TV

12

639

Add - More Issho ni Sleeping: Sleeping with Hinako From what I hear, if you own the DVD you can set it up with timers or whatever, but who cares? Even if that at least makes a bit more sense than what you see in the fansubbed version, that doesn't change what this is at its core: kind of sad. But then again, when compared to the whole of "waifu" culture, it's not really anything to bat an eye at.

1

OVA

1

640

Add - More Issho ni Training Ofuro: Bathtime with Hinako & Hiyoko

-

OVA

1

641

Add - More Issho ni Training: Training with Hinako

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OVA

1

642

Add - More Isshuukan Friends.

4

TV

12

SP2014 SP2014

643

Add - More Isshuukan Friends. Specials

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Special

12

644

Add - More It Girl

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Music

1

645

Add - More Itazura Majo to Nemuranai Machi

4

ONA

1

646

Add - More Itoshi no Muco

6

TV

25

FA2015 FA2015

647

Add - More Jahy-sama wa Kujikenai!

6

TV

20

SU2021 SU2021

648

Add - More Jam

-

Music

1

649

Add - More Jarinko Chie

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Movie

1

650

Add - More Jashin-chan Dropkick The first episode had me wondering if I'd missed something. Was this a sequel? Had there been some OVA I had to watch first? But seeing equally perplexed reactions online from those who've read the manga indicated that no, the anime had indeed opted for the "one, two, skip a few" method of introducing its world and characters. Watching "Wait, who's that?" engage in presumed already understood character relations with "So wait is she also a devil or what's or the deal" is a feat only basically manageable because the show doesn't really have much meat to it. Though I'm sure there're probably some minor elements that were lost on me and likely most other viewers due to the introduction consisting entirely of "Sometimes mages can summon demons to Earth and I guess that happened with this snake girl okay go" before throwing us right in the middle of the story. Thus the show sabotages itself from the word go. The comedy can only be so effective when you're dealing with the distraction of trying to piece together what you're even watching in the first place. Regardless of how simple this show may be, that sort of in media res approach doesn't work in a comedy show that relies entirely upon character interactions. You don't even know the characters who are doing the interacting. Why would you care about them or what they do? The show was elsewise consistently stabbing upwards at reaching mediocrity. Taking a show that feels like it almost, kinda works and saddling it with a rush to get into the action just ultimately produces a show that fails to register. It's almost funny. It's almost cute. It's almost worth watching if you've got nothing better to watch instead. But the execution just ain't there. *** also i'm a prime member and i didn't even know they added this show for like two days like you have to be actively researching what anime prime is simulcasting to ever know amazon can spend months sending me recommendations for surge protectors because i looked at one once, but when all i watch on prime video is hell's kitchen and anime simulcasts i hear nothing from them about a new anime being added amazon come on *** Also it's good that Amazon, unlike CR, actually subs OP lyrics because this show's OP lyrics are like the only place it actually sets up the show at all. Also I guess I'm watching this after all? It still has all the same problems in the second episode that it had in the first. That still leads to various bits of the episode simply not even registering because they seem to operate on the presumption that I already know who random, unnamed side characters are. But its not like it's a totally irredeemable show. It's just a somewhat unimpressive show with some meaningful flaws. Not a ringing endorsement, I know. I still wouldn't recommend it, at least not in a general sense, but it's overall watchable even if at points it's inscrutable. But, again, you have so many better options you could choose instead.

4

TV

11

SU2018 SU2018

651

Add - More Jashin-chan Dropkick Episode 12

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ONA

1

652

Add - More Jashin-chan Dropkick'

6

TV

11

653

Add - More Jashin-chan Dropkick': Chitose-hen

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Special

1

654

Add - More Je T'aime

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OVA

1

655

Add - More Jigazou Things like this don't get scores because it'd be silly.

-

Movie

1

656

Add - More Jigoku Youchien

2

ONA

12

657

Add - More Jijou wo Shiranai Tenkousei ga Guigui Kuru.

6

TV

13

658

Add - More Jikuu Ihoujin Kyoko: Chocola ni Omakase!

2

OVA

1

659

Add - More Jitsu wa Watashi wa

5

TV

13

SU2015 SU2015

660

Add - More JK Meshi!

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TV

26

FA2015 FA2015

661

Add - More JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken (TV) (Well, it's two things. One is that I have a feeling what I have to say about Jojo will run long, and thus will take long to write. Eureka Seven is in ~40 minutes and I probably won't be able to stay up past 3 because circadian rhythm and all that. The other is that I'm pretty sure of what score I want to give this, but still not entirely sure. For now, just know that this is good. Really good.) (The comment will not be finished by the end of today as I had hoped. I mean, I could, but Wrestlemania is on so...) *** timely as usual Anyway, I saw the preview for this show's dubbed airing on Toonami and... I can't not hear Ichigo Kurosaki from Johnny Yong Bosch's Jonathan Joestar and it's pretty distracting. Maybe/hopefully that'll fade while actually watching it rather than just hearing a few lines in a commercial but he's using basically the same voice just with a slight accent. He also sounded the same in Blue Exorcist, but I'm not hearing that role here because, come on, it was Blue Exorcist. ...does this guy just use the same exact voice for every character he plays? I have somewhere around zero ability to recognize voice actors and yet I can recognize this guy pretty consistently. Mr. Bosch, a little more variety if you'd please. *** If the dub doesn't have changed names, I'm going to wonder why CR has to. If it does, then I'll be sad. All below was written prior. *** Oh goddess yes. Yes to everything about this. Yes to every bit of this ridiculous nonsense and oh man, I need more and I need it now. It's a bit early to be calling "show of the season," but if it keeps up like this, it's certainly a strong contender. You need to be watching this. (Go with gg over Nutbladder. Trust me on this one.) *** I can comfortably call it now that this is three episodes in. This is the best show this season. There's no doubt about it. And this is a season with some other shows that are pretty great. This is a fabulous, ridiculous show. Any part of the manga that doesn't get adapted into anime form I am now sure I must read. I've heard for years this is great, but if anything, it was undersold. If you haven't given this series a shot, you're doing yourself a grave disservice. It's the highlight of my week so far as anime goes. And being 26 episodes, it's got a great shot at being the best show of next season, too. I really hope they can keep up this level of quality (or even further top it) throughout the rest of the show. Their budget is low, which is worrying, but they hide it very well. *** Impossible. Part II is actually looking to be even better than part I. And yet, still, this has about half the viewership on MAL as a show like Little Busters does. Why aren't more people watching this? All below was written before the show aired and is archived for posterity. *** I hear this franchise is good. On the other hand, I hear that the people behind this blew a lot of their budget just on getting this franchise and the staff has a number of ex-Gonzo members with very underwhelming CVs. It is hard to be optimistic about this.

10

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26

FA2012 FA2012

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Add - More JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 3: Stardust Crusaders CR, he very clearly said "Steely Dan." This is an obvious reference. So why do your subs claim he identified himself as "Dan of Steel?" Is this some sort of legal thing?

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SP2014 SP2014

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Add - More JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 3: Stardust Crusaders - Egypt-hen Fansub Group: Some-stuffs

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Add - More JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 4: Diamond wa Kudakenai

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"JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable", SP2016 "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable", SP2016

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Add - More JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 5: Ougon no Kaze

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Add - More JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken Part 6: Stone Ocean

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Add - More Joker Game

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Self-congratulatory yet trite, SP2016 Self-congratulatory yet trite, SP2016

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Add - More Jormungand (Another part one, so no comment until the whole series is complete. Score currently reflects only this first half, naturally. When the final half airs it will receive one score reflecting both halves combined. All text below was written during the airing of this half and remains for posterity.) *** So when I was watching this, there was this overwhelming din coming from it. "Oh goddess, please think we're cool. We really want to come across as cool. Look guys, English and guns and stuff! TELL US WE'RE COOL." And I really want this to be the show it really wants to be. You know, the kind that makes you think of people wearing shades, wherein after a particularly intense scene you find yourself fist pumping in the air and letting out a "Heck yeah!" in response. But it's not that. At least, not yet. Mostly I blame the pacing of this first episode. This was an isuse I noticed in White Fox's other work, Steins;Gate (but I'll cover that more there), so now I'm wondering if this will be a feature of their works. They don't have enough titles to draw that kind of conclusion, however. See, I don't have a problem with starting in media res, so don't think that's what this is about. But they moved through everything way too fast. I get that this was supposed to be an introduction episode and they just want to start establishing the basics of the characters and the setting, but that's not an excuse to be sloppy. And that killed areas where the show so deserved to be strong. It ruined the action, it ruined the negotiations, it ruined everything. Instead of being full of energy and awesome and all that good stuff, it just seemed slapdash. Oh White Fox, Steins;Gate started out too slow, and now this is threatening to be too rushed. But what I can now assume is characteristic of White Fox works is their poor quality of character designs. As in Steins;Gate, the character designs range from "okay" to "terrible and lazy." I don't even get why this is. In some cases they draw faces that look alright, for example, but then on other characters they give absolutely terrible faces (like Kurisu in S;G). Why this inconsistency? But I want to believe. What this show clearly wants to be is indeed something I'd like to watch. It just has to actually pull it off. S;G was a bad show, so my faith in White Fox isn't that great. But I'll give it another episode or so to see if it can live up to itself. (So two episodes in, and it seems to be finding itself, which is great. Still need more time to get a fuller grasp of the situation, but it's showing promise.) *** Okay. Three episodes in and this thing has finally found its bearings. The third episode just flew by. The credits took me by surprise, which is always a good sign. This is one of the best shows of the season. Yes, it's a strong enough season that I can't conclusively call this "the best" yet. Such a great rebound after the incredibly lackluster winter season.

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(Remnant of old policy, second "season" will have combined score whenever that's decided on.), SP2012 (Remnant of old policy, second "season" will have combined score whenever that's decided on.), SP2012

669

Add - More Jormungand: Perfect Order

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Add - More Joseito

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Add - More Joshikousei: Girl's High Joshi Kousei is an underambitious series that largely delivers on its aims, although that's not very impressive. Animation in Joshi Kousei is nothing special worthy of any particular note. Characters and plot don't develop in any meaningful sense. Jokes are simple and predictable, too often going for the low-hanging fruit. There's a bit of groan-worthy fanservice at poins, but it's ultimately a sometimes mildly funny series with sometimes mildly interesting but standard characters, boilerplate plots stuck in the doldrums of their own lack of imagination, uninspired music that sounds like it was composed in a slightly more advanced version of Mario Paint (I can't help but suspect that one of the songs has farts in it) and it all comes away as watchable if a bit boring. A bit shy of average. A high 4. All below was written prior. *** Well, this represents the last of what was mistakenly acquired when SMA exhibited a glitch in processing my list. Even if it was acquired by mistake, I might as well try watching it since I already downloaded it, right?

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SMA Test (glitch), SP2006 SMA Test (glitch), SP2006

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Add - More Joshiraku So every now and then, you get a series that proves that JC Staff can deliver. They often don't, but they do have the potential. Personally, I think if they'd just stop trying to make so many shows at once they'd be able to give more money and attention to individual shows and they'd probably be able to at least be an alright studio again, but I digress. This is about Joshiraku, after all. Let's just get this out of the way right now: Are you Japanese? Do you at least have a fairly solid grasp on the Japanese language? At the very least, are you comfortably abreast of Japanese social, political and cultural matters? Because the more times you answered "no" to those questions, the less you're going to get out of Joshiraku. A constant reminder, both from fans and professional critics alike, is that anime is made by Japan for Japan. But that's usually for an explanation of certain market matters and related pandering. The plots are usually universal enough. Shows like Haruhi are, definitely, Japanese, but would any western anime fan really find themselves lost? And shows like Cowboy Bebop are even more universal. That's the norm, generally. But then you get a show like Joshiraku which almost seems determined to remind you that the domestic market is the target one. That's because there's intricate Japanese wordplay, domestic political commentary and just a general presumption that the viewer is Japanese and will already have a familiarity with and understanding of what's being presented. Suffice to say, I'm not Japanese, my two semesters of Japanese aren't at all enough to appreciate the wordplay here and I'd like to believe myself not completely ignorant of global politics, but I'm certainly not at the level Joshiraku would require of me. And yet despite all that's being lost on me, I still like this show. Because even though you can't miss the "this isn't meant for you" feeling, there's still a lot left to like. Joshiraku is quick, occasionally meta, prone to frequent references and kind of aggressively funny. While not as hyper as Excel Saga, a bit of the same vibe is there. For a show that is, as it itself notes, largely dialogue taking part in the same dressing room, it gets a surprising amount of mileage. Having them get out of that dressing room to go to various places in Japan serve as the second segment of every episode seems smart, in that regard. It helps keep things fresher. Not everything works perfectly. I'll give you an example from episode seven. It's a classic bit, really. The cast finds a number of rather unusual things and everyone but one character treats it as normal. You've probably seen something like that before. Not original, but it works. Yet the mistake here is to have Kukuru point it out each time. The joke works better without you having to explain to us that, yes, these things are odd. You can just show us Kukuru's expression and our own intelligence will fill in the rest. It makes the joke snappier. I'm not going to critique this show joke by joke (I have a bit more of a life than that), but that's not an isolated example. However, the ratio is heavily in the favor of jokes that do work. It's a show that often got me to laugh out loud. The show merges physical and verbal humor almost seamlessly at points, and you'd almost have to be dead inside to not appreciate it at some level. For as much as they joke about how this show doesn't make sense as an anime because there's so little to animate, the animation actually serves the show pretty well. Not that it’s a dazzling technical spectacle, but for a show that’s not very action heavy the animation still manages to punctuate the dialogue. If you’d like to see for yourself if it’s quite as superfluous as they joke, here’s a sample from a drama CD (that should also help you get one of the references in the ED.) Admittedly a parody of a rakugo routine isn’t identical to the dialogue in the show itself, but it should still get across the point. Since we’re on the seiyuu, they’ve turned out solid performances here. It’s hard to complain. Kigu’s seiyuu is apparently a relatively new face for anime roles, but you’d never notice. Could any of the voices really be said to be unfitting or poorly acted? Ayane Sakura’s voice is Marii. So too for Kigu, Kukuru and the rest. I can’t quite decide if Tetora is a boring character, or just underused. It’s probably a bit of both. In a cast of strong personalities, Tetora just feels out of place. She’s not annoying, she’s just a bit bland. Could you see Tetora playing the same role in the “imaginary pregnancy” scene as Kukuru? No, because that scene was decidedly Kukuru. But what does a scene that’s decidedly Tetora look like? I can’t think of one. She’s somewhat of an also-ran. Despite that weak link, the cast still play off of each other nicely. Roles are defined, but never stifling. Kukuru is going to be a bit morose and maudlin, but that is able to be applied in a number of ways that stay interesting. When they want to cheer Kukuru up, each character approaches it in ways that feel natural to them, forming a cohesive whole that, with its individuals, functions as a group. What you have here are properly formed characters, such that they feel like people, not just props. This proper group dynamic and the (largely) solid characters really give the humor the proper atmosphere it needs, boosting it. These aren’t wildly unique character designs, but they’re above painfully bland. They’re no eyesores, yet they’re just kind of average. The outdoor segments allow the characters to explore a number of hairstyles and fashion choices, which is welcome when so many series prefer the simplicity of just having stagnant designs. Joshiraku is ultimately recommendable to the layperson, but with the caveat that there’s a reason this series didn’t (and probably won’t) get licensed. If, however, you’re in a position to fully get (or at least get some of) the lingual and culturally-specific humor, you’ll get even more out of the show. My rating reflects the former camp far more than it does the latter. *** You'll probably want these tl notes, by the way. All below was written while the show was airing. *** A show that's largely talking heads, made by JC Staff, that opens with a meta statement about the show making more sense as a manga than as an anime and it's looking to be one of my favorite shows of the season? Pleasant surprise indeed. I wonder how popular a show that's this Japanese will be amongst my fellow western members of the fandom. *** You know what this reminds me of a lot of the time? That discusion on how to eat food from the first episode of Lucky Star. Only as an entire series. From the reactions I've seen to that scene, I was in the minority for actually finding that interesting to watch. So maybe most people won't like this show, either. (Not that it'll change my opinion on the show, but I'm still curious to see the overall reaction.) All below was written before the show aired. *** On the one hand, this has the same writer as SZS. On the other hand, JC Staff. JC Staff can ruin anything. My expectations aren't very high for this. But I do like pleasant surprises.

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Add - More Joshiraku OVA There's nothing I feel that could be said of this that wasn't already said about the main series.

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Add - More Jumping Kittan Zero is in the 9-10 range, and that's only 8.5 minutes long. So no excuses just because this is six minutes long. Some of Tezuka's experimental shorts are interesting. This one isn't. That's the nature of the beast, I guess.

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Add - More Junketsu no Maria (episode 2 spoilers) "Ha ha, the joke is that we're going to have this incubus be raped by a guy! And also Maria, because better raped than a virgin!" Ughhhh. *** I mean, I get the angle they're pushing here, but still. *** (episode 8 spoiler) "A fantasy race? Is that really where this is going?" Shortly after asking that, I realized I'd already accepted witches, magic, gods and demons without any pause, so why did this now seem like a leap? I think it's because all of those things had been established up front and this now seemed like a violation of this world's rules which I thought I had understood. Or perhaps it's also because the show has, so far as I can discern, yet to establish a particular reason for them to exist within this crafted narrative. That is, those other things are necessary to the story while these so far seem incidental to it. Still getting the angle they're pushing, by the way, and still not sure they'll ultimately pull it off in a decent way.

4

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Add - More Juubee Ninpuuchou

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"Ninja Scroll" "Ninja Scroll"

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Add - More K-On! (If nearly six years later K-on! is still your go-to reference point, maybe your narrative of "moe killing anime" isn't as sound as you think it is. But then, people've been beating that drum since at least the 80s, so why let reality stop them now? It's that sort of slow death where revenues are up and the industry continues to put out critical darlings every year. In its death throes, they assure you, and it's all moe's fault!) (Actually they're just bitter that they aren't making the sort of anime they prefer, but it's so much more ~dramatic~ to paint that as an industry in decline!) (And "moe" is such a vague term in its usage within this context that they can apply it to a rather wide range of things they don't personally care for. How convenient.) *** I'm continually baffled by the people who just fundamentally fail to understand what K-on! is. This isn't a complicated show and plenty of people have no issue getting what it's after, but there's a number of people who continue to bemoan a lack of "plot" or try to ding it for not focusing more on being a musical band. How is it difficult for these people to get that it isn't about a school band, but about five girls who are in a school band? It's like complaining Aria didn't focus enough on the gondoliers or that Hidamari Sketch didn't spend enough time on creating artwork. That's not the point, dude. Why does K-on! seem to get a disproportionate number of people who don't grasp that compared to other shows of this nature? It's a really simple point that only seems to elude people when it comes to this show. *** For another perspective, read this. While I can't personally agree with with some of its conclusions, it should hopefully demonstrate what a more substantial critique of the work looks like. At least compared to standard ones, anyway. (But then, merely actually getting what K-on! is after already put the author a fair bit ahead of some.) *** Like, if you asked someone to name an example of an LN anime, most people's first answer would not be "Haruhi."

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Over half a decade later and still people's go-to reference for the nebulous, kind of artificial concept of "moe anime?" That's pretty self-defeating in some amusing (but boring) ways!, A fine show that's used pretty terribly as a "symbol", SP2009 Over half a decade later and still people's go-to reference for the nebulous, kind of artificial concept of "moe anime?" That's pretty self-defeating in some amusing (but boring) ways!, A fine show that's used pretty terribly as a "symbol", SP2009

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Add - More K-On! Movie (No spoilers, unless you haven't even seen the trailer.) I’ve already covered my more general opinions on K-on! in the comment for the second season, so I’ll focus more exclusively on just this movie here. Over a year of waiting. Pale imitators came and went while those of us outside Japan had only articles on the film’s esoterica (sales, the fact that you could get a K-on! toaster and so forth) to sate our desires. For a while, there was not even so much as a release date. But finally, a fansub has come forth. Was it worth the wait? If this exalted tone hasn’t given it away already, yes, it was more than worth it. To make a very brief departure, when I was trying to articulate why I enjoy Hidamari Sketch, I couldn’t quite find the right words to express my experience with the franchise. But I’ve recently come across a term that I feel is appropriate to both franchises: Iyashikei, or “healing” anime. I wish I had known that term earlier, because it encapsulates a lot of what I was trying to express in the comment for the franchise as a whole. For those of you unfamiliar with the term and who find Googling it simply too arduous, it basically refers to, as I termed K-on!! earlier, “anime comfort food.” The film, unsurprisingly, is not at all a departure from that formula. For good or for ill, this film is pretty much peak K-on!. It’s as cute and charming as ever. The animation is fluid, better than the show. Speaking of the show, the movie felt like it was awkwardly in between being an extended episode of the show and something more fully... “movie.” Well, that’s probably not the best way of phrasing it, but hopefully you at least understand what I mean. There’s certainly quibbles. Their time in England just felt so incidental. The trailer focused heavily on their going to London, so I sort of expected it to be more relevant. It felt like they barely did anything there, and that’s due in part to the fact that not nearly as much of the movie actually takes place in London as the trailer would lead you to believe. And the things they do in London seem like things they could have done on a trip pretty much anywhere. Further, the English voice actors sounded like just random people off the street with questionable audio quality. And all of them were just such milquetoast, polite nonentities that again, they imbued the film with absolutely zero flavor of London or anywhere distinct. So much of their time in London feels like a missed opportunity. It would take only some minor changes to have the same film be in America or France which wouldn’t be the case if being in London actually meant something rather than just being the result of the plot revolving around them taking a trip to a foreign city and that city having to be somewhere. But as stated, they’re quibbles. They’re things I wish weren’t so, but they’re not absolutely major issues. There’s not really much else to be said that isn’t to be said of K-on! in general, since the film isn’t exactly a large departure from the show. Despite what was stated earlier, it still works as a movie, and you get, well, more K-on! but with a movie budget. You can pretty much gauge how much you’ll like this by how much you liked K-on!. The average score for this here on MAL is probably going to be a bit inflated since those most likely to watch the film in the first place are those who liked the first two seasons enough to want even more. But you don’t need me or MAL to know if you want to see this. It’s more or less everything I’d have wanted from a K-on! movie, and if you’re a fan, you’ll probably feel the same way.

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Add - More K-On!! "Fun things are fun." K-on!! is noticeably stronger than K-on! (When did Japan get too good to just tack on a "2" or something? I mean, Yuru Yuri is using musical notes. How are you supposed to say these names out loud? Ha ha, who am I kidding? Nobody discusses anime in person), but not strong enough to make the leap into 10 territory, so I've given both the same score. But this is a much higher 9 than K-on!'s 9, if that makes sense. (I consider the gap between 9 and 10 to be much larger than that between 8 and 9.) So I bet you've heard it all. Of all the moe series supposedly killing anime, this one is the moest and anime-killingest. It has no plot and is simply there to support the male gaze so people can lust after high school girls. It is a cancer ruining the entire fandom. Geez, talk about melodramatic. It's just a really fun show, you guys, relax. That's what K-on!!'s all about: Fun and good times. Kick back, relax and get your friendship on. It's anime comfort food, although it causes heart attacks for slightly different reasons. K-on!! is heavily character driven, and it works here. These are solid, if a bit simplistic characters that play off of each other really well. Fancy that, they actually function well as a group! It's not just a joy to watch Mugi or Yui, but to see their personalities contact each other, and see the others engage with and respond to that, and so on. Or, in brief, good character interactions. So one of the things people joke about with K-on!! is all of the tea and cake. You should understand something about K-on!!. You, the viewer, are not a character in the show of course, but you're still part of it. This was created to be watched and experienced by a viewer. And all of this tea and cake is very much for your benefit, to create a cozy environment for you. K-on!! wants to make you relax, wants to make you laugh, wants to make you smile, and even at some points, wants to make you cry. And for succeeding at that (again, this is because the characters are strong enough for you to care about and connect with them), it deserves accolades. K-on!! is the comfy chair in front of the cozy fire, and the girls are your friends. I know that sounds sad, but you're misinterpreting it. This isn't "Sleeping with Hinako," but hanging out with them by proxy. You witness their friendship, go with them, as a viewer, on various trips and adventures. You're heavily keyed into this friendship. It is an odd blurring between spectator and participant. The show looks great. This isn't some avant-garde Yuasa piece, but for traditional aesthetics, it's pulled off well. Colors are appropriate, movement is fluid and well choreographed. It's a pleasure on the eye. I can't offer a commentary on K-on!! without bringing up sound, can I? The songs aren't the greatest songs in the world, but then, it's a high school light music club. It would be a bit of a stretch for them to be too incredible, anyway (although Yui's guitar abilities are already kind of unrealistic). They're still serviceable. Pleasant enough on the ear, a few you might hum to yourself afterwards, but nothing that's quintessential listening. The BGM is appropriate, but can be repetitive and overused. The sfx are fine. If you're looking for a deeply involved narrative, move on. The plot of K-on!! is very simple, almost threadbare. What it is composed of is charm. And it oozes charm out of every pore. It can certainly be cute, even downright adorable (pretty much everything Mugi does, for example). Fun and vibrant while not bombastic. You know what's really pleasing? This show has some side characters, but it actually develops them. Obviously they're not the subject of as much focus as the main characters (that's kind of inherent), but they're given ample time, exploration, and, to the degree that K-on!! allows, depth. Ah yes, as mentioned earlier, these aren't the deepest characters. You can boil them down pretty fairly to stereotypes. I shouldn't need to lay out what stereotypes they fall into, as they wear them on their sleeves. These characters have a lot of heart, but it would be nice if there was a bit more to them. (These are the sorts of things that keep K-on!! a 9 and let Nichijou be a 10, you see.) Yet the show wouldn't be the same without any of them, so there are no wasted characters here. K-on!! is really good at what it does. And since it sold so well, other studios are using it as a template (I'm looking at you, A-Channel). Yet these imitations do not live up to K-on!!. I never recommend a series just because it was influential. But if you like the series that have been and continue to be inspired by this, you should watch it because it's genuinely good, and you ought to see what these other series are trying to be. When I started watching K-on!, I was skeptical of it, but had some trust in KyoAni to deliver. It picked up steam as it went on, and by the end of K-on!!, I was in love. You ought to watch this. Especially if you've been avoiding it under the presumption that it's "moe trash." At least give it a fair shake. The worst that could happen is you wind up enjoying something (oh no!).

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Add - More K-On!!: Keikaku!

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Add - More K-On!: Live House!

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Add - More K-On!: Ura-On!

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Add - More Kachou Ouji (spoilers) So when I said I liked the first episode, I didn't really mean I wanted to see near-identical replicas of it for another nine episodes or so. I wish that was an exaggeration. But it's the same developments leading to the same conclusion to the same exact song and they could probably just get away with reusing the same animation while they're at it. It's great the first time as setup. It's not great when that never gets developed or becomes anything else for nearly the entire show. Characters don't advance in any meaningful fashion, the plot scarcely changes even when they finally form a band, and the ending is just a baffling mess. His wife finally decides to file for divorce after him spending the entire show neglecting her, but after getting a message from him on their answering machine telling her to come on down and bring a bunch of fans, she now apparently believes the whole "fighting aliens" story she didn't believe before. I mean, she has to, right? Him leaving to go play music was the final straw that drove her to file for divorce, and now she not only shows up dressed in her old groupie attire but has basically gone through the effort to bring the neighborhood with her. If she was prepared to divorce him for choosing to go play with his band, it'd be bizarre for her to do all this to then go and support that unless she had reason to believe that he wasn't just simply neglecting her, i.e. fighting aliens. But there's nothing that should cause her to any more readily believe this than she did before. And then we cut to a "happy" moment of the MC engaging in adultery, and then back to his tepid, seemingly dead marriage. Hooray! It's a pretty illogical set of developments that exists only to set up all the key moments they feel the ending needs without going through the hassle of making sure the narrative is consistent or even coherent. It works a lot better if you don't think about it at all. At least then you'd be approaching it from the same angle as the writers. And that's the cherry on top of this repetitive waste of potential that goes absolutely nowhere. It's almost constant set up and the only thing that ultimately gets set up is a terrible, incoherent ending that's barely different than where this series started in the first place. The attempts at humor aren't funny at all 99% of the time, and it's the same exact jokes every time except for that 1%. The moments that are neat in the first episode? Those are the same moments you see again and again until they're just not interesting at all. You'll spend the whole series waiting for it to get started only to realize it finished before it even got off the ground. How could a show about using rock and roll to fight aliens in space manage to be this painfully boring? Anime found a way. All below was written prior. *** So apparently VLC can't exactly handle seeking .ogm files. This is part of why it's not recommended, you know. That first episode was not Jojo or P&S levels of "I think I just saw one of the greatest things ever," but was still pretty much just wonderful. I have no idea if the rest of this could maintain that. I'm almost afraid to watch on for fear it might taint the beauty of that episode.

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Add - More Kagewani: Shou

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Add - More Kago Shintarou Anime Sakuhin Shuu See, there's a novelty to good guro. Simply drawing carnage and bloodshed isn't particularly impressive. No, the good guro artists have to get creative. And the charm of guro is in the pure absurdity and imagination of it. Alas, it has not quite retained what makes it fun in these series of shorts. Aside from the production values that are roughly on par with a 13-year-old's first submission to Newgrounds (and not a particularly skilled one), they're just not that clever. Oh, sure, they're unusual, but not in a way that really makes you take notice. If anything, they don't go far enough. They're a little bit weird and a little bit violent or gross. And I expect my guro to offer a lot more in those departments. I've seen and enjoyed good guro, but this isn't good guro. A low 3 for the weak effort.

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Add - More Kaguya-hime no Monogatari That Miyazaki's last film and his impending retirement was treated as such a spectacle, with western fans crying "Please don't go!" while tripping over themselves to heave accolades upon the man while what may well be Takahata's last film seems to be a work you'd hardly know was released at all by western reaction, lest you're paying attention to the niche sakuga appreciation community or film circuit critics, is saddening in this particular instance, of course, but also symptomatic of the ignorant and confused hero worship which so permeates western anime fandom ("Studio X produced anime Y, so how could they now be making something like anime Z?" "You can really recognize Shinbo's directing/Urobuchi's writing!" "I didn't care for the plot of this anime and that's the director's fault!" etc.) and renders online discussion of anime this odd juxtaposition between a facet people seem rather keen on discussing at length, but not so keen on actually doing a little research so as to have any idea what they're talking about. And it's a key reason I'd wager more people recognize Grave of the Fireflies or Only Yesterday as "Ghibli films" than they do as films directed by Takahata, or for that matter even know who Takahata is. Well, maybe that's the fate of a man who retains more auteur spirit than Miyazaki ever even dreamed of possessing. Oh, wait, western anime fans have co-opted "auteur" and applied it to people like Shinbo. Ha. Ha ha. i shouldn't care but darn it it's frustrating *** According to Wikipedia, the film's box office returns were roughly half its budget. Even when you factor in the 8k+ units it sold in home video plus whatever tail those sales have, that's still a financial flop. International rights will help, but they probably won't make up the difference. Man...

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Takahata was always a more interesting director than Miyazaki, actually. Takahata was always a more interesting director than Miyazaki, actually.

690

Add - More Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: First Kiss wa Owaranai

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Add - More Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen hi chika is a treasure and anyone trying to bully or speak ill of her will have to answer to me okay thanks

6

TV

12

WI2019 WI2019

692

Add - More Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai: Ultra Romantic

7

TV

13

693

Add - More Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai? Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen

6

TV

12

694

Add - More Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai? Tensai-tachi no Renai Zunousen OVA

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OVA

1

695

Add - More Kaiba

6

TV

12

SP2008 SP2008

696

Add - More Kaidan

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Movie

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697

Add - More Kaijuu 8-gou

5

TV

12

698

Add - More Kaijuu Girls: Ultra Kaijuu Gijinka Keikaku

4

ONA

12

FA2016 FA2016

699

Add - More Kaitou Reinya

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TV

12

WI2009 WI2009

700

Add - More Kaitou Reinya Pilot

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Special

1

701

Add - More Kakegurui

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12

SU2017 SU2017

702

Add - More Kakegurui Twin

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ONA

6

703

Add - More Kakegurui××

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WI2019 WI2019

704

Add - More Kakumeiki Valvrave In the past I've temporarily scored the first half of a show with a hiatus until I could give a conjoined score to the second. I've decided that's kind of silly and will now just wait until the whole thing is done to give any score, except for shows I opt not to follow to their second halves. Which is still kind of silly and somewhat contradicts my own policy of not rating unfinished shows, but that's how it is. So I shan't be rating this. Nor will I write any comment for it until it is complete, as I consider shows with a pre-planned one season hiatus to really just be one, two-cour season. I watched this ironically, but I think I'll genuinely miss it until it returns. All below was written prior. *** Many anime are just regular bad. But some anime are so spectacularly, absurdly terrible that you can actually get a sort of ironic enjoyment out of them. To be sure, they are not good shows. But so long as they keep providing enough laughs at their expense, well, how could you drop it? You must see how far down the rabbit hole it all goes. It's why people watch films like The Room. And it's why I'm going to stick with this thing and its leaps in logic, inane dialogue and everything else that makes it "so bad it's good." Let's do this.

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(First halves don't get scores), SP2013 (First halves don't get scores), SP2013

705

Add - More Kakurenbo

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706

Add - More Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai

7

TV

12

"The World God Only Knows, " FA2010 "The World God Only Knows," FA2010

707

Add - More Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai II

7

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12

SP2011 SP2011

708

Add - More Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai: 4-nin to Idol

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OVA

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709

Add - More Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai: Megami-hen

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12

SU2013 SU2013

710

Add - More Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai: Tenri-hen TWGOK business as usual. I'll save broader thoughts on the franchise for season three, since that should be more fleshed out anyway.

7

OVA

2

711

Add - More Kamichu! (spoilers) A character who is a god and is surrounded by a whole bunch of gods around her? This should be interesting. Keyword "should." If I didn't love this sort of low fantasy element as much as I do I would've dropped this. Our heroine, who apparently develops pica when she's nervous, has to be combined with several other characters to form an actual, complete human being between them. The plots are tedious and simplistic. I won't write much about this because it doesn't interest me much. The characters, plot, animation, atmosphere and so forth just aren't interesting so I'll just keep it simple for you: Don't. Kamichu is an unambitious show with uninteresting story lines that just has so little going on worthy of note that there's very little I actually could say about this other than "meh." If you're not an absolute sucker for low fantasy who can put up with a pretty poor show to get your fix, just skip this.

5

TV

12

SU2005 SU2005

712

Add - More Kamichu! Specials

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Special

4

713

Add - More Kanamewo

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ONA

1

714

Add - More Kanashimi no Belladonna (Comment in the works.)

2

Movie

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715

Add - More Kangaeru Renshuu

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716

Add - More Kannagi (spoilers) So Kannagi starts out as something that could've actually been an interesting plot. Then suddenly it becomes a love triangle. Or maybe a harem? Or a comedy? Or a slice of life show? It doesn't really seem to know, because it just kind of teeters between halfhearted attempts at all of these while simply abandoning the plot. Sometimes it's club antics. Sometimes it's Zange and Tsugumi (and kind of Nagi) competing for the MC's affections. Sometimes its meta jokes and references. This show has no idea what it wants to be. The director who was fired off of his role directing Lucky Star is demonstrating exactly why that happened with his handling here of Kannagi. Unfocused, lackluster, awkward, lost, stilted, forced. I mean, do you chuckle when Jin accidentally walks into a karaoke room to find the cast from Lucky Star? Sure, kind of. But then it's back to a status quo, tedious karaoke segment with the actual Kannagi cast. And the switch from plot to several episodes of mindless meandering is instant and out of nowhere. Well, it's a good thing we made room for a 1.5 episode long gay joke (because homophobia is apparently just that funny). And then, in what will surely give you whiplash, we jump right back into the plot for an ending that just doesn't work because these characters have not been given nearly enough time to properly develop for this context. And all of that love triangle nonsense? Nothing is resolved. You just get a "Ha ha, so awkward!" moment of Jin indicating that he kind of sort of has feelings for Nagi. Just like he kind of sort of has feelings for Tsugumi. (And maybe Zange? Who knows?) Well, good thing nothing was resolved there! So all we have is a hamfisted, overwrought, underdeveloped ending cheapened by a little sexual tension joke afterwards. Thanks. And what about Zange? Remember how she was introduced as Nagi's rival and then just sort of becomes fanservice? She's genuinely reduced to just a cute girl to fawn over the MC and occasionally delve into some exposition to move the plot forward. It is really tedious to see honest motivations revealed, then just cast aside and never revisited in favor of pandering. And there's also when characters are off model. And how lazy the meta humor can be. And the cheap, shallow otaku/fujoshi nods. Look, there's plenty of things wrong with this show. What you should take away is that the show can sometimes deliver a chuckle, but is otherwise a complete mess. Don't bother with this. And the worst part is, this had potential. It could've been good. But incompetent handling sunk its chances. Oh, and if you're wondering about the 14th episode, it's just a throwaway bonus that has all the problems the rest of this show's filler (and I'm going to call it that even if it's potentially canon, because it really does do nothing than delay the plot to stretch out the episode length) has.

3

TV

13

FA2008 FA2008

717

Add - More Kannagi: Moshimo Kannagi ga Attara...

3

Special

1

718

Add - More Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko

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OVA

1

"She and Her Cat" "She and Her Cat"

719

Add - More Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows

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TV

4

WI2016 WI2016

720

Add - More Kanon (2006)

7

TV

24

SU2006 SU2006

721

Add - More Kantoku Fuyuki Todoki

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TV

13

SP2014 SP2014

722

Add - More Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi (spoilers) It just drags on and on. This would've worked better as a 90 minute movie. There'd be less of it, at least, and it'd get them to punch up the pacing a bit instead of just putting in so much needless material. This film simply has no need to be as long as it is. Character designs are bland. A bit ugly, even. The facial shapes of the humans is off-putting. The story is just loaded with elements that could easily be truncated (the trip to find more kappas, pretty much the entire ending and everything leading up to it could've been done in 10-20 minutes. Those are just two examples) which just makes a tedious, run-of-the-mill story all the more painful to sit through. After so much time of watching boring, plodding scene after meaningless, joyless scene, you inevitably shift from boredom to outright disdain for the film. And then there's still over an hour of it left to go. The characters are so nondescript, generic and uninteresting that it doesn't help you care about their already irrelevant and minor qualms and struggles that the film poorly executes. A romance subplot that barely gets off the ground? Sure! Oh, you're being hounded by the media and it's been exposed that the kappa can make birds explode with his mind? Barely even a speed bump in their daily lives! Just a minor inconvenience is all. Character development? Ahahahaha, come on, who has time for that? There's only around 2.5 hours in this film, after all! You know what? Try an experiment: watch the film at 1.5x or 2x speed. Other than some expected sound oddities, see if anything actually feels wrong. Personally, it felt like I had finally restored the film to its intended speed. It was a little slow, if anything. It's the director's job to see something like this and point out that, hey, this is pointlessly glacial. Angel's Egg is purposefully slow. This is just bad directing. Awful. Just awful. A completely milquetoast film hampered by incompetence at every turn.

2

Movie

1

723

Add - More Kara no Kyoukai Movie 1: Fukan Fuukei Aniplex is releasing a box set of these films in my country that costs more than the exact same set is sold for in Japan. Which is a curious little reversal of the norm, ain't it? Especially since that Japanese set includes English subtitles and is in the same BD region as the US is. So you're paying around an extra $100 for... convenience I guess? I'd think anyone interested in paying hundreds for anime BDs is also someone with enough of a dedication level to be familiar with and prepared to import BDs from Japan. It's not a particularly difficult or onerous task. Selling collector's goods at a high price is justifiable. Selling an identical product that can easily be gotten elsewhere for a higher price than said elsewhere is foolish at best, insulting at worst.

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Movie

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724

Add - More Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san

5

TV

12

"Skilled Teaser Takagi-san", WI2018 "Skilled Teaser Takagi-san", WI2018

725

Add - More Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 2

6

TV

12

SU2019 SU2019

726

Add - More Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 3

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727

Add - More Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san Movie

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Movie

1

728

Add - More Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san: Water Slide

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OVA

1

729

Add - More Karigurashi no Arrietty To be fair, I saw this in a Japanese class where the sensei played this as an avi with English subs overlaid on Korean subs. So, not an ideal copy.

6

Movie

1

730

Add - More Kataku

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Movie

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731

Add - More Katte ni Kaizou There's no real objective standard of funny, but these vignettes of absurdity meet my own subjective standards. But then, I like gag humor anime. It's more towards the Pani Poni Dash/SZS end of the Shaft spectrum, although more toned down than either of those. It made me laugh multiple times, which really does seem like the basic expectation you'd have of a comedy, right? The characters are very simplistic, but they don't really need any development. It's not like there's actually a plot going on here. Just characters put into scenes. The show starts leaning a little bit more on references towards the end (References? In a Shaft comedy series? Impossible!) which comes with the usual caveat of you either know what they're referencing or you're not going to get the joke at all (references to Japanese baseball teams simply went over my head). If you've seen a Shaft comedy before, you know what to expect. If this happens to be your first, well, it's certainly a gentler introduction. The animation is decent if not a bit crude and minimal. Although so is the art style, so perhaps it's fitting. Shaft isn't at Kyoani levels, but they've gained a reputation for being able to make some pretty looking anime, and while this has some traditional Shaftisms (yes, there are headtilts), really, it could've been made by almost anyone, visually speaking. While a step back from surreal dada, it's still a pleasantly weird six episodes of fun. If you're into this type of show, that is.

8

OVA

6

732

Add - More Kaze no Na wa Amnesia

3

Movie

1

733

Add - More Kaze no Tani no Nausicaä Gaze upon this with your eyeballs. You've really got to see how well this works in HD. I bring it up immediately because you'll notice it immediately. This film looks pretty dang great. And sounds pretty dang great. And it's pretty dang great as a whole. This could hardly be more Hayao Miyazaki. Reverence of nature? Check. Animism? Check. Portrayal of humanity as ignorant, (self-)destructive rubes? Check. Positive portrayals of strong female protagonists? Check. Distrust of technology? Check. Everything else you might put on a Miyazaki checklist is present. But it's such an early Miyazaki work it isn't even technically a Ghibli film, which makes that forgivable. And it's delivered with such aplomb, you could almost be forgiven for forgetting for a moment that the world isn't quite that simple. Oh goddess those well-choreographed aerial scenes so perfectly accompanied by the soundtrack- can we talk about the soundtrack? Listen to this soundtrack. In the film, it's thumping at just the right moment to elevate an intense action scene and pulls back to fit calmer moods and oh gosh I'm starting to gush. But it's such a good score and it just fits so well. Full credit to Shigeharu Shiba (who was likewise skilled at sound directing in Angel's Egg), Joe Hisashi and anyone else involved in this part of the film. My word. Considering the source material (greek mythology), they've just nailed it. It's kind of a pity that Nausicaa (and I'm not copy and pasting that fancy "ä" each time), an engaging protagonist in her own right, is surrounded by the kind of ho-hum entire rest of the cast.I mean, they're not bad, but for the most part they're just kind of there. (spoilers past here) Yupa serves his purpose, but that's about it. He, himself, is not interesting. You scarcely get to know him. Kushana is a bit more elaborated upon, but still scarcely serves as more than... well she's barely even a foil. She's just kind of antagonistic. And characters don't have to (and if you don't want your work to be simplistic, shouldn't) be just pure good or pure evil, sure. But she's not really going anywhere more complex, either. She's a relevant element to the plot, but that's about it. Even Asbel barely gets a personality. So you have the strong, heroic protagonist surrounded by these minor personalities and it feels out of place because there's just such a contrast. For Nausicaa to be heroic doesn't require everyone else to be milquetoast. I've mixed feelings about the ending. I ponder, as a hypothetical, how the ending would have fared if Nausicaa had been left dead rather than brought back to life as reward for her morality and convictions. I can't help but feel it would have been stronger than a "good things happen to good people, everyone's happy now" end. Although it comes after a kind of trite environmentalist message that, if it weren't for the effective delivery in the direction, animation, sound and other departments would probably feel as heavy-handed as it is. But being well buoyed and masked only makes it more palatable. It does not serve as a defense or an excuse. I guess this is starting to sound a little negative, but shouldn't be construed as such. It's a film with drawbacks, sure, but there's no part of it I'd consider bad. Lackluster at worst. And some parts, as outlined, are pretty fantastic. What you get is a low 8 for an epic (used in the sense of Greek epics, not in the overused Internet buzzword sense) narrative. It's no Totoro (go watch Totoro if you haven't), but a film entirely worth watching. Go for it. As for me, it seems I've a manga to read since the Internet collectively insists the Nausicaa manga trounces the movie. (A special shoutout to MAL for renaming this entry to "Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa," just like everyone in your target demographic of fansub watchers doesn't call it.)

8

Movie

1

734

Add - More Kaze no Toori Michi

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Music

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735

Add - More Kaze Tachinu

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736

Add - More Keijo!!!!!!!! "But Keijo!!!!!!!! can't quite decide if it's a straight fanservice show or one that wants to also create a new sport and justify it as legit, and that's where it falters."- ANN's Rebecca Silverman There's no subterfuge to Keijo!!!!!!!!. There is a partnership with Fanservice: The Game where the -look I'm just gonna call it Hip Whip Girl so I don't have to keep typing eight exclamation points- Hip Whip Girl costumes promise to be "disintegrating." Everything about the framing and marketing of Hip Whip Girl has made it pretty clear what this is about. If, as Ms. Silverman seems to believe, Hip Whip Girl was actually trying to disguise its true aims as a fanservice-driven title, it'd be doing a pretty terrible job at it. That Hip Whip Girl is somewhat more legitimately a show about the sport of "keijo" than Wanna be the Strongest in the World is legitimately a show about the sport of professional wrestling does not supersede the incredibly obvious implications of keijo being a sport where ladies dressed in swimsuits swing their butts and breasts at each other. That is, unless we presume a fanservice-driven show having anything even an iota grander than the thinnest shell of plot and setting to serve as flimsy justification for those fanservice scenes to, in some way, be disingenuous. Ms. Silverman would seem to believe that a fanservice-driven series having writing any more sophisticated than softcore porn is trying to mask its true identity, as though Hip Whip Girl for some reason wanted to constantly thrust cartoon butts and breasts in the viewer's face yet pretend that such a thing was merely a consequence of the rules of keijo rather than keijo's rules being designed expressly for that purpose. To believe this, even if we ignored all the marketing material indicating otherwise, we'd have to believe the primary focus of this episode was on keijo itself rather than the bodies of the athletes, and that this was therefore a show that believed itself to be, at best, a middling sports anime rather than one focused on its numerous presentations of the female form. And I just don't see that view being supported by the work itself. It strikes me as no more dishonest about its aspirations than High School DxD. Some may take legitimate interest in the sports anime angle of Hip Whip Girl, just as they may take legitimate interest in the story of High School DxD, but that precludes neither from being transparently and deliberately prurient. The amount of butts and breasts in Hip Whip Girl isn't incidental or occasional. By the very nature of the rules of keijo, it's a central focus. One presented not with a wink, but with blaring sirens and big, flashing text asking "Is this not what you wanted?" With all due respect, Ms. Silverman simultaneously gives Hip Whip Girl both too much and too little credit. *** So that one girl kind of looks like Cirno from Touhou and that's neat I guess. Look. I know a lot of people are kind of tripping over themselves to give this show a lot of credit because it's a fanservice show that actually puts a modicum of effort into its fake sport???? but exceeding those people's very low expectations doesn't actually mean what's there is worthwhile if you're not in it for the fanservice. "Despite expectations, it's actually also a very middling sports anime!" is damning with faint praise. And based on their track record it's totally fair to have such abysmally low expectations from fanservice-driven anime. They tend to put all their points into boobs and butts and then they don't have any left over for writing, animation or, you know, all the other elements of a show. So if you're not in it for leering at sexy anime characters, these sorts of shows generally ain't got much else for you. But that's not always necessarily the case. Prison School certainly featured lascivious displays, but managed to have them both on top and in service of an actual show. But Hip Whip Girl sure ain't Prison School. And it's never gonna become Prison School. Hip Whip Girl certainly isn't the worst thing to air this season (I'd take "How about another episode of Heybot?" as more of a threat than an offer), but it's clear what the focus is. This isn't nearly bad enough for me to approach it like Rail Wars and watch it just to gawk at the spectacle of an utterly broken production. It isn't nearly good enough for me to actually enjoy it like Prison School. Hip Whip Girl just sort of is. And while "just sort of is" is good enough for genres I like, I couldn't say that holds equally true for a genre I couldn't care less about. I've been ambivalent about whether I should drop this or not, because I could at least stomach watching it, but I just don't know that I see where or why it makes sense for me to continue with this. The initial novelty of the silly premise is out of the way, and I suspect I'd just be really bored watching future episodes. But still, there's a nagging voice in the back of my mind that at least wants to give it another episode to confirm that. So I guess I will. I'm sure I'll know very well by the end of a second episode of this just how much I'd want to watch another ten. Cause I could be down for a dumb, goofy thing. I'm just not currently convinced this is sufficiently that enough to be interesting. *** I mean basically I'd love to believe that Hip Whip Girl is "Needless but with butt sumo" but that's just not the case. *** Hip Whip Girl seems to be getting some rather negative attention from places, with headlines decrying it as "wretched," "deplorable" and other unflattering adjectives. And while they're welcome to make the case that Hip Whip Girl is those things, I must wonder: Why this particular show? I don't see anything particularly special about Hip Whip Girl. It's not the most egregious case of fanservice, I'm not sure what's particularly more sexist about it than any other run-of-the-mill fanservice series, it hasn't really done anything extreme. So far it's just a dumb anime with boobs and butts. There's a lot of those. And you're free to object to them in general, but I'm not sure why this series in particular has been singled out for scorn. What is unique to Hip Whip Girl that is not shared by all those other fanservice anime? I can't identify what apparently sets it apart. Because these articles aren't about fanservice being a bad thing. They're about Hip Whip Girl being a particularly bad thing. Is it just because it's the new shiny? That it's a new, seemingly popular fanservice anime? For it's not yet as graphic as High School DxD, where exposed breasts were the norm (heck, it's tamer than Food Wars, even). Nor perhaps as objectionable as High School DxD's protagonist using a demonic power to remove clothing as a way to attack female foes. Why, right now there's even a second season of that anime where the high school dude gets a live-in, underage fiancee and sucks on her breasts in the first episode. And here's Hip Whip Girl with its dumb, goofy butt sumo. And you can certainly object to Hip Whip Girl. But how is it so much more objectionable that it's a pox on culture in comparison? I just don't see it. *** this has become a surprising amount of words about one episode of the butt sumo show also speaking of it i should get around to watching the latter half of needless. i've just been so busy with all these new shows starting! (needless is real dumb but has been pretty fun so far. this isn't a perfect scale or comparison, but it's like somewhere between kill la kill and ttgl in terms of dumbness, fun and quality) *** (episode 2) Is this unsubtle enough now? Anyway, with another episode of apparent pariah Hip Whip Girl under my belt, I've come to an identical sounding conclusion: It's goofy and lewd. Which is a sentence that could describe Needless, which I will keep using as a comparison because these new anime are keeping me from watching more of Needless and I want to watch more of Needless, darn it. Ahem. But this second episode upped the goofiness a fair bit and really upped the lewdness. And three parts anime butts for every one part goofy nonsense isn't the greatest balance for my personal tastes. It's like the inverse of Needless's balance. Goofier is an improvement! But "look at all these butts" is pretty dull. The goofy butt things are silly and can make me giggle. But when it's just butts qua butts there's little more to do than utter "Oh," and wonder how much time is left in the episode. And that's where the problem sets in. I'm kind of curious to keep seeing what silly things they'll keep coming up with. But those are small peaks between the wider valleys of "here's some anime butts also nobody tell the audience that hentai exists." Which leads to a sort of inevitable conclusion: "This is made for somebody else." Which of course leads me to wonder why I'd spend time watching this instead of finishing Needless. Or watching any myriad other things that're more my speed. Does watching something like this make sense in a reality where I'm not starved for options? Simply, is Hip Whip Girl interesting enough to be worth making other shows wait? There has to be a lower bound or else I'd just wind up watching anything and everything. But that lower bound obviously has to be somewhat accommodating, or else I'd wind up watching nothing at all. I thought that with a second episode I'd know very well if Hip Whip Girl was worth continuing with. And I do have a better picture, but it's one that's simultaneously more optimistic and more dismal. And I don't want to spend this much time thinking about Hip Whip Girl every week. So I'm committing to this: One more. One more episode and either I'm done with this show or I'm watching it all no matter what. Silly? Sure. But it's anime! It's okay to have fun with shows in ways outside the content of the shows themselves. (And besides, if I can watch all of Rail Wars!, Hip Whip Girl won't be a problem.) *** Also Funimation's dub of this show should hopefully be something alright. This thing's full of silly dialogue. Also also: molesting your friends and peers is not okay anime please stop doing this *** Gelato is good but I'm not sure it's a proper breakfast for an athlete. *** Right then, time to settle this. The third episode toned down the goofy, roughly maintained the same level of lewdness and, for some reason, decided to lean more on the part where it's a sports anime. And it's not a very good sports anime. Let nobody say I didn't give Hip Whip Girl a chance, and whatever exactly next episode's "boob hypnosis" is does seem wont to be silly, but I set up an ultimatum for myself so that one way or another I wouldn't have to spend any more time thinking about whether to watch this every week, and I intend to stick to the terms I laid out for myself. I can only answer the speculative question "Will any of them move into the elite class?" with "I don't care." Why would I? Why would I care about keijo or any of these characters? I can't even name one of these characters. There's the one that wants to be good at keijo, the one that wants to be good at using her butt for keijo and looks like Cirno, the one that doesn't talk much and the one with the red hair. And that's about the full extent of their characterization. These aren't yet fully realized people. And so why would I care if they personally succeed or fail if I have no reason to care about them in the first place? Thinking about it, there's nothing I care about here beyond its potential for goofiness. The rest is, at best, tedious. And it can't even consistently deliver a desirable level of goofiness. So I'm out. I'm just not interested enough to watch another episode, let alone another nine. Also: gee whiz anime why do you think sexual assault is hilarious *** The first episode of Funimation's "broadcast dub" (I feel like there's gotta be a better term for that) is out so I watched a bit of it out of curiosity. On the plus side, it seems fine. On the disappointing end of things, it just seems fine. Certainly watchable if you prefer dubs, but too straight-forward to give any reason to rewatch the show dubbed if, all other things being equal, you prefer subs. The only things that might give viewers pause are conveying the red-headed girl's dialect as a US southern drawl, which is an understandable change but still a change, and Funimation's zero-effort typesetting. Thought I doubt they'll ever publicly release any real hard numbers, I wonder how many people watch these broadcast dubs. How big is the audience that ignores subbed simulcasts to instead wait for these? How many lunatics watch both concurrently? Funimation clearly believes the number is large enough to make this business model viable, but what's the size of the fandom that will pay $60 per year to wait a bit longer to get fewer anime in exchange for having them dubbed? Alas, we'll probably never know for sure. Also, Funimation's new signature is terrible. Why they switched from that simple "Funimation Now" thing to whatever this nightmare is I have no idea. I wouldn't even bother pointing out something as minor as their signature if this iteration wasn't just so aggressively awful and something you'll see now before every new episode released on Funimation's platform. *** I took a quick look at some Internet posts about the fourth episode just to get an idea of what went down and... it kind of seems like it really goes back to the goofiness that gave me any reason to be interested in Hip Whip Girl at all. But this show has also demonstrated that it won't deliver that consistently and I've found everything outside of that to not be interesting. And "it's sometimes alright at being goofy" is a dubious reason for me to reconsider dropping this series. It should be clear by the fact that I looked into the next episode and am writing this at all that I have my second thoughts about dropping Hip Whip Girl. Heck, all of this text should've demonstrated that I've had mixed feelings about what to do with Hip Whip Girl from episode one. And I think that's because I ultimately do and don't want to watch it. I do want the dumb, goofy side. I don't care about the fanservice. I don't want the bad sports anime side. So the goofiness would have to be strong enough to make the show's forays into bad sports anime territory worth slogging through to get back to more goofiness. And that's the issue. I wrote that I wasn't interested enough to watch another episode, but I'm clearly still curious enough, still want enough to believe, that I'd at least try to get an idea what the next episode was like. Somewhere in my heart I don't want to give up on Hip Whip Girl's potential to be what I want. And what's frustrating is that this is the sort of hemming and hawing I sought to avoid by setting up that ultimatum, but here I still am. There's fun in Hip Whip Girl. It just gets pushed to the side at points to make way for tedium. It'd be like if Needless stopped at some point to try to emulate Bleach. Except the good parts of Hip Whip Girl aren't as strong as Needless. (Look if it's not clear at this point, yes, you should watch Needless. And also don't watch Bleach.) And at that point it does come down to a difference in my level of interest in genres. I'm willing to watch this season's underwhelming Magic of Stella because I enjoy SoL enough that I can still find an "underwhelming" one worth watching, which certainly doesn't hold equally as true about fanservice or sports anime. And if I roughly average out Hip Whip Girl, it's probably somewhere around Magic of Stella. (Hip Whip Girl has higher highs and lower lows while Magic of Stella is just pretty consistent.) And Magic of Stella is kind of pushing it in terms of my desire to watch an anime. So a show of roughly the same quality in genres I care less about leads to this situation where it's basically straddling the line between being dropped and being watched. Or basically, in probably unflattering terms, the question is whether or not Hip Whip Girl is virtually the absolute least I will accept from an anime. Which, writing that, I guess is kind of obvious when I think about it. It wouldn't be a difficult decision whether to drop this or not otherwise. And it'd be easy to say that if it might just barely shade off into "vaguely watchable" it's simpler to just drop it and know that you probably wouldn't be missing much regardless. So why can't I just let this show go? Why am I still thinking about it at all? Because even though I can see the logic in dropping it, the fact remains that I was so divided on it that neither option will probably ever feel fully satisfying. And if I'm going to have my doubts and second thoughts either way, does it make more sense to have them while wringing whatever enjoyment I can out of this show, or to have them while saving 24 minutes each week to just do whatever with? And so, great, nothing's changed. I set up a whole plan and even dropped this show so I could move on and not even that worked. How naive I was. Seemingly the only way I can stop thinking about whether to watch this or not would be if I just went with the other alternative and committed to watching all of it no matter what. For as much time as that would take to watch, should I find it tedious, when I think of the time I'm spending just thinking about whether I should watch it or not I have to wonder if it's really all that different. So the pros (There are things about this show I enjoy and I won't have to spend time thinking about whether I should watch it or not anymore) seem like they're now just slightly outweighing the cons (having to slog through the tedious parts, not having those 24 minutes to do things like watch more of Needless). There, I managed to work through this and reach a conclusion by writing this out. Hip Whip Girl's undropped and, true to my ultimatum, I'm watching this whole dang thing now. Let me move on with my life now. I don't want to think or write this much about the butt sumo show anymore. (also some people online say the anime is removing moments from the manga that lend characterization to the protagonists but even if true that doesn't do anything to improve the anime and also that's the sort of complaint people make about basically any anime adaptation of anything so ~faaaarrrrtttt~) *** (spoilers but who cares) Also, if it's not clear, Hip Whip Girl isn't a good anime. The fourth episode introduces a concept as silly as "titty hypnosis" and does all of nothing with it. Much like the show itself, it just exists. And that's so very disappointing. Goofy ideas only go so far when they're barely executed. And in such a straight-forward and plain fashion. They named the whole episode after this thing and it was just a couple minutes or so of Who Cares swaying her breasts, causing her opponents to be unable to move while other characters dump exposition. And then it was over. A goofy idea realized in the most boring way possible. If you can't make "titty hypnosis" funny, interesting or exciting, what exactly can you do right? Certainly not fleshing your characters out into actual distinguishable human beings, at least. Hip Whip Girl is lazy. It can't be bothered developing anything past merely introducing it as a thing. But if you like anime butts, it's got those. Just not a whole lot else. From a quality standpoint I was clearly right to drop this show. But unfortunately peace of mind won out. *** that said, i'd still rather watch another episode of this than another minute of heybot i just wish that while seeming like its target demographic is 14-year-olds that it didn't seem like it was also written by a 14-year-old *** With the whole show out of the way, I can very safely conclude that yes, Hip Whip Girl isn't very good at all. Once the silliness of the initial premise is out of the way, the rest is just a low-quality sports anime but lewder that offers the occasional goofy idea that, should you not be so thoroughly suppressed under the weight of all the surrounding tedium, might elicit a brief "heh" in acknowledgement before the show goes nowhere further with said idea and resumes the aforementioned tedium in earnest. Boo. also i finished needless and that show was both lewd and fun because, you know, those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive All below was written prior to viewing. *** "The aim is to push the other contestant off of the platform into the water, but they are only allowed to use their butt or breasts to push the others off." I feel like I can see where this is going. *** Why does this title have eight exclamation points in it? "Don't know, man. Nine would just feel excessive but seven just ain't enough."

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, That one girl kinda looks like Cirno, "Virtually the absolute least I will accept from an anime", FA2016 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, That one girl kinda looks like Cirno, "Virtually the absolute least I will accept from an anime", FA2016

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Add - More Kekkai Sensen (episode 11 spoiler) I don't know whose idea it was to have the dog grab the ice cream cone while being psychically lifted up into the air, but I thank you. I had to pause the video because this made me giggle too hard. Fansub Group: Vivid

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Add - More Kemono Friends how has kemono friends become a big deal i do not get the internet please help *** Oh, I see. From what I can gather, what people like about this show can be generally summarized as "it's comfy." I can see that, I can respect it and I can conclude that there's therefore no real reason for me to personally give this another episode or two. Not that I don't enjoy "comfy" anime, but more of the same from the first episode wouldn't quite scratch my itch in that department. Carry on and I guess congratulations, Kemono Friends. *** Having now seen seven episodes because please help, I have a problem, the series has once again put lie to an oddly pervasive myth and furthered a question that isn't quite that simple to answer. The myth: "You have to give Kemono Friends X number of episodes for it to really get going, then it changes from how it initially seems and becomes better." This isn't true. This is virtually never true about any anime ever. From seeing one episode of Kemono Friends I was able to predict exactly what these further six I've watched would be like and I'm extremely confident about what the remaining five will be like. This is not because I am some unparalleled Goddess of Anime. This is because anyone with a reasonable base level of exposure to and experience with anime(/visual storytelling in general) can come away with a very reasonable basic approximation of a show's quality from the first episode. Maybe not it's exact plot beats, although in a number of cases you can also guess those reasonably enough as well (because a lot of it is derivative and heavily steeped in tropes), but that's a secondary matter. And while anything could potentially be someone's first anime, anyone watching Kemono Friends likely has that base level of experience. It was, in the west, a not that popular show that was only simulcast and wasn't dubbed. You either had to be specifically seeking it out, or, like me, had to be someone who just tries pretty much every new show in a season. Either one implies a certain level of familiarity with and interest in anime. So most anyone watching Kemono Friends should've very easily been able to gauge how the rest of the series would go. So why does this claim keep coming up, then? There's the obvious question of "If a show was capable of becoming significantly better later, why didn't it do so from its first episode?" that seems to be conveniently ignored. And the matter of what it suggests if a show actually does need to stumble around that long before it "gets good." But these concerns get ignored because they're not the real aim. True, some anime fans are simply hopeless when it comes to media analysis, but I don't believe that group is quite large enough to explain the commonality of this myth. I suspect a larger reason for it is the sadly common one of denial. "The reason you didn't like this thing I like is because you simply didn't give it a fair chance." The episode they had to reach is conveniently always further along than what they watched up to. Don't let the absurdity of saying One Piece is a great series, it just needs 240 episodes to "get good" stop you! Of course, if they've seen so much of the series that it would be laughably absurd to say they simply needed to watch even more, that too can be turned around on them. "Well if you didn't like it, why'd you keep watching? Are you an idiot? Were you just looking to hate it?" It's simply set up so any criticism can be easily deflected and dismissed. That, again, is not the entirety of the reason why people so often repeat this myth or misuse the so-called "three episode rule." (That's supposed to be used, at best, for a series you're truly on the fence about. Not for all series by default. It's a guideline not a law like too many seem to think it is. And most won't actually need three episodes of a show to make a decision.) But it's an all-too-common one. The thing is, pretty much any series has people saying this about it. Your time on Earth is finite and the amount of even just anime is vast, let alone everything else fighting for your limited time. Why waste it on a show you already decided you didn't want more of because some stranger online said "It gets better, I swear?" Never let others' stubborn insistence that you watched the wrong amount of an anime dictate how you spend your time with a luxury entertainment product. That'd be silly. Kemono Friends at episode 7 is Kemono Friends at episode 1. K-on! at episode 7 is K-on! at episode 1. Panty and Stocking at episode 7 is Panty and Stocking at episode 1. Etc. The question: Something a number of fans of Kemono Friends who watched it while it was airing cite is being part of the community reaction to it. Puzzlingly, a number of them cite trying to work out Kemono Friends' backstory as being particularly invigorating. What was so fascinating about a vaguely unexpected but gently inconsequential post-apocalypse narrative with all the complexity of a two-piece jigsaw puzzle that has been obvious in its execution since the first episode of the show is something which escapes me, but I'll take their word for it. And anyway, the real matter is the degree to which one's personal experience of a show should be reflected in how they criticize that work. Anyone coming to this show now cannot share in that experience, so if we were to perceive anime criticism as a product review, such information would be useless. And a number do indeed look at anime criticism that way, oddly. I've personally never been of the thought that art should be evaluated like a toaster oven. In the words of Robert Warshow, "A man goes to the movies. The critic must be honest enough to admit that he is that man." They cannot relate their experience of Kemono Friends without also factoring in the external factor of the fan community/ies with which they experienced it any more than they could remove themselves from their experience of Kemono Friends. You can no longer share in or recreate their experience. But that's okay, because that's not how art works. And so their personal experience of it is relevant, valid and important to the process. But I don't suppose people will stop spilling ink over that debate any time soon. With that aside, Kemono Friends remains a bit over on the wrong side of average. Unsurprisingly. *** Oh and apparently CR's on the production committee and managed to wield their financial influence by having their mascot make a cameo as a Friend. Too bad more exact details of their financial involvement in this (and other) shows is unlikely to made public knowledge. I'd be curious to know some more specifics of their role. *** oh hey kadokawa fired everybody who worked on this show that became a surprise big hit good to see them rewarding success All that's now left of Kemono Friends is the brand recognition. And while that certainly counts for something, any future works are almost certainly going to not jive with what people want and expect of Kemono Friends. Maybe whoever takes over work on it will wind up making something as or even more popular, but most likely the future of Kemono Friends has been destroyed over "communications issues." (read: "the studio tried to exert a little autonomy and capitalize on the success") This is an example of why the anime industry is well known to be facing serious problems. Hopefully the staff lands on their feet shortly in other, better jobs, but yeesh. *** So not only has Kadokawa managed to make things even worse, but now they're having voice actresses apologize for them. Konami should not be seen as an ideal to strive for, Kadokawa. It's heartening to see that Japanese fans are aware of and upset about this situation, though I wonder if that'll actually change anything other than bruising Kadokawa's image a bit. I'd like to believe it would have an effect, but, well, you know.

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Add - More Kemono to Chat Why does this OVA think it needs to remind viewers of the basic premise every few minutes? Is it because it suspects this anime is so unable to hold a viewer's attention that they need a constant refresher on the one thing that about 98% of the "jokes" are based upon? I derived amusement from roughly 0% of this. The animation is cheap and lazy, looking more like one of those short Flash shows (maybe it is made in Flash?). The music is not worth noting nor is anything about this. If you don't find it funny, there's really nothing here for you at that point.

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Add - More Kenpuu Denki Berserk (spoilers) Alright, I know that isn't actually where Berserk ends. And I could almost accept it as an ending of sorts if not for the fact that the anime starts off clearly showing us that there are events after where this ends. Which means we can't even begin to lie to ourselves that this actually has an ending. And shows without actual endings drive me (Don't say "berserk," don't say "berserk...") absolutely berserk (darn it!). I can accept anime original endings, I can accept open endings, even bad endings are infinitely preferable to no ending at all. Berserk, I came along with you for 25 episodes and you not only just suddenly stop, you stop on a note like that. It felt like something was really starting to begin and that's where you cut us off. But, alright, my never-ending frustration with non-endings aside, how is Berserk while it lasts? Right up until the end that seems to take this plot in a whole different (and quite possibly far more interesting) direction, Berserk is a decent but standard tale of (I think) medieval warfare and politics. The development of the camaraderie feels natural, and the reason things seem to go just too smoothly most of the time is potentially explicable by the fatalistic end that's alluded to before the start of every episode. The first 23 episodes are largely retreading territory that has been tread for centuries, nay, millennia prior. But whatever. Even if it's not new, seeing these bonds develop and a cunning band of soldiers overcome trials offers some reward, but it's kind of like a pretty good Big Mac. It's nice for what it is, but, you know, it's still just a Big Mac. A few moments where Griffith or other Band of the Hawk members seemed backed into a corner initially produced some tension, but once it became evident they'd basically never lose, that vanished and simply gave way to musings about how they'd deftly overcome their challenges. And that way was by basically being perfect. Griffith can out-think anyone, Guts is unstoppable in combat, nobody gets punished, nobody really grows, they just keep getting their way 99% of the time. Seeing them have it that easy gives every moment about the suspense of a fight in Bleach. And maybe that's all setting up to make the sheer devastation of what happens at the end all the more potent, but... The characters could certainly be better. You've the too perfect Guts, a nigh Marty Stu in Griffith, Casca who starts potentially interesting before succumbing to the damselfication that threatened to consume her from the onset and a number of recognizable but ultimately trivial side characters like Corkus or Pippin. Some of that seemed poised to be shaken up by events in the last two episodes, but we'll never see the payoff of that in this anime. They've distinctive designs, though. The color palette seems largely dull and drab. I don't expect war to look pretty, but not even court life? Colors just stay dark and muddied. Even for late 90s this isn't quite impressive animation. It's decent, but movement is often simple. It does what it needs to, but that's about it. It's never playful, never technically impressive, never anything more than something you can't really complain too much about, but can't particularly praise, either. All things considered, even though I've never read it myself, I'd be willing to bet you'd be far better off reading the manga for this. Because this seems to be a slow buildup to something much grander. And it's okay for what it is, but what it is isn't all that much. A low 7 that's probably not worth your time over just going to the source material.

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Add - More Kick-Heart (spoilers) A password protected Vimeo link probably isn't the most secure thing when everyone gets the same one password. Oh well! I was in the middle of watching WWE's Money in the Bank event when I got the email from the project, which felt like perfect timing. Unless I'm mistaken, this is the first successfully Kickstarted anime to come out. And we backers got it as soon as it was done... and after it toured festivals, and a convention, and ran in a theater to be eligible for an Oscar. But right a few days after that (I mean, what, are you going to digitally release a film on the weekend? Come on.) those of us who funded its creation in the first place got to see it. And we were the last people to be listed collectively under "special thanks," so you can see why we were their top priority. Alright, I know I'm being a little sarcastic and glib about the actual process, but Kick-Heart is still something I'm glad exists as a general thing both because, yay, more anime from Yuasa and because it demonstrated that, yes, Kickstarter has the potential to be used for anime things. There hasn't yet been an entire TV series funded by Kickstarter (that'd be quite the project) but as Time of Eve funded a western release and Trigger is swimming in money from their currently ongoing LWA2 kickstarter (which you should totally back, by the way), the viability of the platform is being reified to the extent that we're pretty likely to see even more such projects in the future, and that means fans can fund the creation of things that otherwise may have never been, and many of those backers are us western fans so often relegated to the sidelines. And what's in that far too long sentence is a good thing. But that's only covering the general existence of Kick-Heart. Is Kick-Heart itself good? Good enough even for me to feel like it was worth paying more than $1 per minute of it? Sure. Its creation may be significant, but the anime itself isn't anything transcendent that will revolutionize the medium. It has not, for me, supplanted Mind Game as my favorite Yuasa work. However even if it's not at that level, it's still good. It's a lot of what you expect from Yuasa in terms of style. Colorful, certainly, but not in that Nakamura "a rainbow vomited on your screen" way. Think roughly of Kaiba. And it's got that rough quality of Yuasa's Kemonozume. It's pleasant, but if you're familiar with Yuasa you know exactly what to expect. Yuasa may be operating with neither Studio 4°C nor Madhouse as the producers (Studio 4°C was in the credits, though), but I.G. are as fully able to bring Yuasa's vision to life as at least the latter. It all flows in a stylistically dirty and jagged matter. If you've never liked it before, this won't dissuade you from your poor taste. (Because I know people freak out over statements like that, relax, I'm mostly just busting your chops!) Ah, it's a classic story of the sadistic nun main-eventer face and the masochistic jobber sharing what's supposed to be a squash match but, after passions meld in the ring transforming the spectacle into a passion play told not through words but blows, it ends in shades of Montreal. (If no part of that sentence made sense to you, then sheesh, go learn wrestling jargon.) A good part of this plot seems introduced but largely pointless, perhaps due to the limits of the 12 minute runtime. What does it matter that she's a nun? Not much, really. The orphanage isn't really important and could almost just have been left out entirely. Really, the only part that matters is that one, brief match in the ring. A match that fluidly conveys everything and in a moment cleverly captures an interplay, serving much like an actual pro wrestling match by communicating through attacks, momentary verbal exchanges and pure ring chemistry built from their personal lives. Was CM Punk's match in Chicago against John Cena a great match simply because of their abilities in the ring? No, and definitely not in Cena's case. It was two personalities, two ideas, two cultures, two radically different histories and belief sets fighting it out and putting their very souls on the line in front of a jazzed-up, partisan crowd there to see the hometown hero take the title from the man they so despised and obtain his absolution in leaving the WWE with the vindication he had sought and his claims of skill validated. Yeah, wrestling can be pretty ridiculous and that's part of why we fans love it, but it can also be almost magical at times. And in those few minutes I saw wrestling's charms aptly captured. Even if only those two fully knew the significance of the drama taking place inside the squared circle, nobody in the crowd could miss the electricity flowing. And then, all too quickly, it's over, a mere fleeting moment where everybody there witnessed something special that altered the future trajectories of those involved. In a few minutes Kick-Heart both demonstrated why people love this fake sport and conveyed a simple tale through intelligent means, quite a bit like Mind Game did. Really, I only wish there were more of it. That wisp of passion and brilliance was worth every penny this smark gave to see it realized. The music was pleasant if underused and the seiyuu were serviceable but nothing special, but the real star is that brief moment of magic that distills the entire wrestling experience down to a brief bit of solid animation and clever direction. Any wrestling fan must watch this. And everyone else watch it, too, because come on, it's Yuasa. Well, I guess fellow backers don't actually need any encouragement because they already gave money to this thing, I can't imagine they'd then not watch it. But if you're thinking of pirating it (for shame), watch it and feel badly about not contributing if you could've. After that, maybe you can make up for it by backing the next one that comes along. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to see if Dolph Ziggler can reclaim his title from Alberto Del Rio before another match starts where people hit each other with ladders while trying to grab a briefcase suspended from the ceiling. Because that's art.

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Add - More Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor What sort of future has fancy, pilotable robots but hasn't advanced beyond corded landline phones? The awesome sort with the right priorities, that's what sort.

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Score later. Score later.

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Add - More Kidou Senkan Nadesico Part of Operation SciFi, an effort to find more quality SciFi. *** (I think I have the movie on DVD somewhere. I'm not sure if that'll affect the rating.) All below was written while watching. *** Did I miss something? Like, a prequel or something. Because that felt like a barrage of tenuously connected events. That's somewhere in the neighborhood of Excel Saga levels of hyperactivity, although Excel Saga was more composed. Is the whole series like that? Yeesh.

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Add - More Kidou Senkan Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness According to Wikipedia, this is a direct sequel to a Nadesico video game. That actually begins to explain some things. Things like why the plot of this film seems so detached from Nadesico or even real comprehensibility. I wish I had know this before I spent 78 minutes watching the film. The tricky business is that the game never saw an English release, so it's not like I could play it and fill in the missing bit of plot. So now I own a movie that is a direct sequel to something I'll probably never actually be able to experience. Hooray! On that merit, I shan't be scoring this. I'm presuming it seems less utterly terrible if you're actually familiar with the thing it is a direct sequel to (the sense of having a game serve as a sequel to an anime and then a movie as a sequel to said game aside). Since I cannot accomplish that, I suppose I can't really judge it. I technically got this for 50 cents. I can't quite say I even got that much value out of it. EDIT: And apparently you're then supposed to play yet another untranslated game to complete the plot. I'm just going to pretend this film doesn't exist because that may as well be the case. What baffles me is a number of positive reviews for this from people who are watching a direct sequel to something they have never played. They are watching a movie that expects you to know details from this game and yet they can't spot that something is obviously wrong. Some of these people are even professional reviewers. It cannot fully make sense to them, and yet they don't seem to question it. There's something a little depressing about that. *** Dearest Sentai nee ADV, I don't think there's a single thing I own from you that hasn't frustrated me in some form. The case for this DVD promises a running time of 90 minutes. The movie is 78 minutes. That's a discrepancy the size of a "lie." The case promises that the film is in the "original widescreen format." This apparently means letterboxing on the sides and on the top and bottom so you get this little square of film in the middle. That's not exactly what most people imagine when you say "widescreen." The subs are also questionable in spots. I'm not really surprised. You're the same company that put a completely fabricated ANN quote on one of your DVD cases. You're the same company that gave me shoddy Hidamari Sketch subs on barebone DVDs with lousy encodes for the second season. You're the same company that put out a Princess Tutu box where one half is all the DVDs on one spindle and the other half is just a big piece of foam. I guess what I'm saying is you guys are liars who put out substandard releases. When I see your name attached to an R1 release it deters me. If I were deciding between buying two different anime and one was put out by Funimation and one was put out by you, that would be enough to serve as the deciding factor in the former's favor. You are a bad, sketchy company, Sentai. *** Per ANN: "There are times when the letterboxing and pictureboxing collide, such as when you play an old letterboxed widescreen DVD (encoded as 4x3) on a modern HDTV. The TV will sense a 4x3 signal and add black borders on the sides, unaware that there already IS a black border on the top and bottom of the picture. The resulting image now has a giant black border all around it, and the picture is now a tiny inset in the middle of the screen. " Technology!

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(Apparently a direct sequel to a Nadesico video game. Cannot score.) (Apparently a direct sequel to a Nadesico video game. Cannot score.)

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Add - More Kidou Senshi Gundam 0080: Pocket no Naka no Sensou (Later. Just like my LOGH comments. And my Azumanga Daioh comments. And Jojo. And Usagi Drop. And Patlabor. And dozens of others. Yup, later.) *** So apparently Turn A isn't quite like mainstream Gundam and neither is this. Which would leave me, then, with zero mainstream Gundam experience. Whatever. Not like it's a major franchise or anything. (When next a new Gundam series comes out I should probably give it a try.)

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Add - More Kill la Kill One of the more embarrassing spectacles was watching a number of people attempt to argue that the fanservice in this show was somehow a parody or even a satirical condemnation of fanservice in anime. You get an argument like that for two reasons: 1. People don't really know the dudes who make their anime. This is directed by Imaishi. He unironically loves stuff like that. It's very obvious if you're somewhat familiar with his work. But a lot of people don't know how the sausage is made. They just hear "from the guys who made TTGL" and get excited. I mean, it's pretty common to see people credit shows to studios rather than the people who actually made them. And it's not entirely offbase, but that's focusing on the less important party. Yuasa's directed anime that've been produced by a number of different studios, but they're all pretty clearly works he was involved in. If more people were actually familiar with Imaishi, they'd know both that the fan service was done in earnest, and that they ought to have expected as much gong in (and should expect the same for anything he directs in the future as well). 2. People liked Kill la Kill. But this show they liked had this thing they ordinarily don't like. Rather than just accepting that thing they otherwise like also has thing they don't like and isn't perfect, they instead have to try to rationalize away the flaw, nay, actually try to turn it into a positive thing so as to defend the show's image in their own minds. Keep in mind, they're not really trying to convince other people of this. They're much more trying to convince themselves that this is so. It's not exclusive to Kill la Kill. This sort of thing happens all the time with various anime/games/movies/etc. And it's dumb every time. It's okay! You can like something without it having to be perfect. You can enjoy a work despite its flaws. But desperately trying to deny such an obvious truth about a work is pretty much only going to result in other people laughing at you. You don't have to try so hard to justify to yourself why you're watching this show that has an element you would generally criticize to the point that you engage in mental gymnastics to pretend it's not actually there (I'm looking at you, people who call the Monogatari franchise a "deconstruction of the harem genre"). A turd's gonna smell no matter how much you polish it. All below was written prior to airing. *** Oh. Yeah, sure, whatever. It's just some of my favorite people in the industry. Not like I care. They've only made some of my favorite things, including my co-absolute favorite anime. Big deal! So they're making something that seems like the sort of thing they're great at making and I love. That doesn't make me excited at all. I can totally wait patiently for this without letting the hype drive me nuts. Definitely. I mean it. oh goddess i need it now

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In some ways, TTGL 1.5, but in too many ways, TTGL 0.5, although this one series hasn't broken my overall faith in Imaishi, FA2013 In some ways, TTGL 1.5, but in too many ways, TTGL 0.5, although this one series hasn't broken my overall faith in Imaishi, FA2013

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Add - More Kimagure Robot Well, at least it's short. The humor mostly didn't work for me. There's no ongoing plot or development (or even establishment, for the most part) of characters for me to talk about, probably due to this being a bunch of 2 minute vignettes. So, that really doesn't leave much to say. It's visually interesting sometimes, but nothing in this series left an impression. A dull novelty is a poor thing indeed. I'll give it a point for the occasional interesting visual, but I can't go any higher than 2. There's just very little there to be praised. On the one hand, it's only 20 minutes of your time. On the other hand, even at and under that running time you can find much better things.

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Add - More Kimi no Hikari: Asagao to Kase-san. Rather than be pleased to have this at all, its existence instead seems to have annoyed people that it exists instead of a full anime TV adaptation. People would rather have nothing than something unless they can get everything. Humans, eh? (Buy they're not wrong that seeing an anime series made out of this would be nice. Or just more yuri anime in general, thanks.)

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Add - More Kimi no Koto ga Daidaidaidaidaisuki na 100-nin no Kanojo Whoa whoa whoa whoa, there's no such thing as Sweet Chin Music delivered via headbutt. That move is very specifically a superkick. Literally unwatchable. *** Is dude really eating a whole can in that op

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Add - More Kimi no Na wa. Before the movie, a trailer for some emoji movie played. Someone in the audience reflexively shouted "No! No!" which seemed fair. Why are they making an emoji movie? Anyway, it turns out seeing an anime movie on a big, fancy screen with a high-quality audio setup and comfortable chairs is a nice experience. Who'd've thunk? But I don't want to let that factor into how I evaluate this film as compared to films I didn't have the luxury of viewing in such a venue, and how exactly to decouple that is a bit of a tricky question. One I'm not yet sure how to solve, actually. Also, Funimation handled a bit of dialogue that involved gendered pronouns in the laziest way possible. They just wrote the Japanese pronouns in as notes. How did they handle this in the dub where that couldn't fly? Why didn't they do the same in the subs? They could've handled that more smoothly. Heck, I could've easily come up with something less zero-effort than that. I mean it's not like Your Name. is a ~bad movie~, but what made me lose all interest in him as a writer is that, after seeing him make the same movie three times, I decided I just didn't need to see him make it a fourth time. And Your Name. is him making that same movie for the fourth time. And it being his best rendition of that movie yet doesn't negate my feelings about seeing Makoto Shinkai's One Movie yet again. And yet I paid money to go to a theater and watch it. So steadfast in my convictions! But I mean, while on the one hand I want to look at Your Name. just on its own, at the same time it's still part of Shinkai's canon and that's not irrelevant. It's, you know, what this movie would be(/it's impact?) if it wasn't following three previous takes on this same movie, right? Bleh. These thoughts all just feel disjointed. Though I guess I did just finish watching it less than an hour ago. But I feel like maybe the bigger takeaway is "You should watch anime in a theater if you get the chance," rather than "You should watch Your Name." which feels odd but also makes sense. Though I guess if it's your first time seeing one of Shinkai's movies, that's a different matter. (I don't hate this movie, if it's not clear. It's alright!) *** People are sharing anecdotal reports online about how when they saw it, the whole audience burst into tears and fell to their knees proclaiming the majesty of Your Name. and Makoko Shinkai. The audience when I saw it watched in seemingly bored silence, with their only reactions being to chuckle at anything to do with breasts and once during what was supposed to be an emotional scene. Maybe that audience was just overly jaded and dead inside, but I can't help suspecting some of these claims of enraptured audiences are a touch exaggerated. *** Just more generally: If you bring more anime films to theaters that are actually near me, I'll probably keep going to see more of them. When you put them in so few theaters most people need to take a train or drive for hours to get to the nearest showing, most people understandably won't bother. I get that anime appeals to a niche audience, but it's still always a bit frustrating when an anime movie is showing at two whole theaters in my state. They're too far away for me to reasonably give them my money even if I wanted to. (Of course Funimation is only going to do this sort of thing for big deal movies like this. Hoping I'll be able to watch any of Yuasa's upcoming films like this is just setting myself up for disappointment.) *** That said, even though I was lucky enough that this seemingly wider distribution lead to me being able to watch it subbed in a good theater very near me, other people online are still reporting having to drive significant distances. It's better than usual for some of us, but for those saying they drove 30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour+ to see it, it'd really say something about how many theaters anime movies show in if that still constituted an improvement for them. *** Apparently the dub has English versions of the songs in the movie provided by the band. That's... huh. That sounds offputting, but I suppose I'd have to hear it in context to really judge. Not that I have any particular plans at the moment to rewatch this, though. *** For some perspective, Box Office Mojo says Your Name. was in 290 theaters in the US. The Love Live! movie was in 28. That's a difference of roughly one order of magnitude. Definitely a significant increase! But the live action Ghost in the Shell movie is in 3440 theaters in the US. So while definitely relatively better, there's also still quite a gap between this release and the sort of wide release more mainstream films enjoy. Also, the Love Live! movie was only in 28 theaters? Dang, dude, that's a smaller number than I expected. All below was written prior to viewing. *** It seems work is being done to make this film eligible for an Oscar nomination. I feel very confident saying it won't win. I haven't watched the film yet, but neither will the majority of voting Academy members. Which is a large reason why anime never wins. So don't get your hopes up. (Also the Oscars don't really matter beyond being a marketing thing, of course.) *** Not even getting nominated was a more cynical outcome than I would've guessed. But it's one that should've been yet another demonstration of the inevitable fate of anime at the Oscars, yet people online still seem somehow surprised. It's been made very clear, from their own testimony, that voting Academy members largely don't know about anime movies, don't care about anime movies and in some instances don't even bother watching the nominated anime movies before voting. If you for some reason care about who wins an Oscar, your expectations for an anime movie to do so should always be set firmly around "zero." It's how it works. And also another demonstration of why you really shouldn't care who wins the Oscars. But if you're going to, at least don't set yourself up for disappointment every year when the inevitable happens. *** Also, since too many of my fellow US anime fans still don't seem to realize this: Let the fact that this massive critical and box office success premiered in a number of other countries long before it's finally showing in theaters in the US be a reminder that the US is not and has never been the primary market, nor the second largest or most important one. It's a relevant market, but it's just another market. Keep that in mind when you're offering your latest hot take on why the anime industry should be specifically catering to the US. *** If it's coming to US theaters, I'm sure that, like anime movies always do, it'll only be playing in a theater in the city and I'm not taking a tr- Oh. It's... it's actually playing in two theaters near me. One playing the dub, and one playing it subbed. I could actually reasonably go see this. That's unusual. I'm not sure I've ever seen anime on a movie screen before. Then again, I haven't even been to a movie theater in years. $11 for a ticket, $6 for popcorn drenched in "butter," uncomfortable seats, screaming kids, someone in the back who thinks they're auditioning for MST3K the whole movie, no ability to pause the movie, there's a lot of things to like about watching movies in your own home vs in a theater. But my home also doesn't have a giant screen and fancy sound system, so there's that. Maybe I'll do it. (The better theater that's also closer and has reserved seating with nicer chairs and is cheaper too is showing it dubbed. The one showing it subbed is worse in every way, but it's not a bad theater, just an average one. Thankfully neither of them are the worst theater in the area, which isn't even showing it in the first place. So it's sort of just a question of what's more important. Though I heard a number of Funimation's subbed showings of that Attack on Titan movie had issues with their subtitles displaying correctly, which isn't exactly confidence building.) *** Tried calling the worse theater to be sure they were showing the movie subbed. The phone never rang, never gave me a busy signal, never gave any noise at all. Awesome. So I guess there's no way to contact them short of going there in person. Good stuff. In finding their phone number I also found plenty of reviews that assured me that place was still dirty, crowded and smelled bad. Cool. Man, can't understand why I haven't been to a movie theater in years! (I mean if the worse theater is also showing it dubbed then obviously it's no contest between them and the better one, so I'd actually like to know.) *** Turns out both theaters are showing it dubbed. Of course. Well, I guess that solves "where." Now for the matter of "if..." I haven't even watched a trailer for this thing. All I know is it exists, it's apparently quite popular and an anime movie is actually playing in a theater near me??? I can't say I'm in any rush for this particular movie, but if I don't see this one in a theater I don't know when I'll ever next have a chance to see another anime movie in a theater. And as awful as movie theaters can be in many ways, there's at least a novelty to this. *** The better theater added subbed showings, too? Aww geez, it's getting harder and harder to say no now. The subbed showings are also late showings which isn't great, but that's still an upgrade from when they weren't available at all. *** If I click the link to buy tickets through Funi's site, the "convenience fee" is $1.50 If I do it through the theater's site, which links to the same site, the fee is suddenly only $1. So maybe don't use Funimation's site to buy tickets, even if it is only a fifty cent difference. *** Fine. It's at the good, close theater. It's available subbed. It's showing on the day they make their tickets cheaper. There's even reserved seating so I don't get stuck with a bad spot. You got me to purchase a ticket at a movie theater for the first time in years, Funimation and Your Name.. Outside of knowing this movie is being heralded as a ~big deal~, I'm going into this thing blind. Haven't read a synopsis, haven't watched a trailer, haven't anything. Which maybe isn't the right amount of research to do before paying actual money for a movie ticket, but what'd be the fun in that? Surely there's no way this could fall even remotely short of, as anime fans seem to be christening it, "the best thing ever," right? (I mean it's not like I ever thought Makoto Shinkai was bad at making his one movie. It's just that he made the same movie three times. Even if this turns out to just be his fourth stab at the same thing, it should at least be competently executed if dull. And it should probably be pretty because Makoto Shinkai makes pretty looking movies. Movies that'll probably look even prettier on a movie theater screen! So worst case scenario, I don't think there's much risk I'll get burned too bad.) (Also will my ticket purchase help those bringing anime movies to US theaters remember in the future that there's more to New York than the city? I can only hope. Not that I expect one ticket sale to dictate their distribution strategy, but it's something. And the theater sold out of all four dubbed showings on Sunday! Though I'm currently one of three people who've apparently reserved a seat for the subbed showing on Tuesday I'm going to. Then again, I was one of only three people in the theater for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie near it's opening day and that thing had a notably bigger marketing push. One time I and the person I was with were the only people watching a screening of a movie. Having the theater to ourselves was neat, but I wonder what would've happened if we hadn't bought tickets. Would they even bother showing the movie before empty rows of seats?) *** I'm reading anecdotal reports online of audience members being nuisances at screenings and shouting out dumb anime fan jargon at the screen. Don't do this. Not just at this movie, but don't shout out your dumb jokes during any movie at a movie theater. People paid their money to watch the film, not listen to your witless interjections. You wanna shout memes at movies you're watching at home? Go for it, I guess. But when you're around other people in public, practice some self-restraint, would you?

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Makoto Shinkai's best stab yet at making the same film doesn't negate that he's now made the same film four times., "Your Name." Makoto Shinkai's best stab yet at making the same film doesn't negate that he's now made the same film four times., "Your Name."

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Add - More Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai

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Add - More Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru ka Dec 9

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Add - More Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns "Good to be working with you, AD-san." "Me too." That's not how English works, CR. My two semesters of Japanese taught me at least enough to know that the second line is correct in a vacuum, but my lifetime of speaking English tells me it doesn't follow from the first sentence. Can I still understand that exchange? Sure. But again, that's not how a paid service should work. It's thankfully been a while since the last time I saw you utilize the wholly unacceptable practice of simply displaying a question mark when there was a line your translator(s) couldn't figure out in time, but why that's so clearly unacceptable demonstrates why something like this isn't either. Part of what you're offering when you sell people the ability to watch this show is those subtitles so that the show is intelligible to people who don't understand even a word of Japanese. And something like this pulls you out of the show. Now you're puzzling out what they're saying. Now you're thinking about the subs, about Crunchyroll, about the money they're charging for subs like that. And that's never where the viewer's attention should be drawn to. We're there to puzzle out whodunnit, to giggle at the latest manzai antics or to watch the protagonist explain that they'll win because they have the power of friendship on their side. And CR, you should be nothing more than a conduit for that. Never once should the viewer be even remotely aware they're using CR. They're just watching the latest episode of that show they like. And anytime the former distracts us from the experience of the latter, you've failed. *** CR, why are you leaving in empty sections where they would typically name their sponsors? Now it's just a few seconds of a static image. There's a reason fansubbers tend to take those things out, but you've left in an even more pointless version of them. I don't recall this being something you do with other series, so why this one? Are they actually requiring you to leave this in for some reason? Did you just get ultra-lazy and decide you couldn't be bothered to remove it? There's no sensible reason for it to still be there, and yet there it consistently is. CR, please at least try to deliver a professional product to your paying customers. *** Wait, does Japan refer to first class as "super seats?" That's fantastic.

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SP2014 SP2014

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FA2015 FA2015

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Add - More Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns 2nd Season: Akechi Keibu no Jikenbo

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Add - More Kiniro Mosaic (Score probably within 48 hours. Also, that entire last scene? Awesome.)

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SU2013 SU2013

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Add - More Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - Byouki no Kuni - For You

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Add - More Kino no Tabi: The Beautiful World - Nanika wo Suru Tame ni - Life Goes On.

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Add - More Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon Bleh. In the simuldub, Kobayashi sounds more like a bored highschooler than a tried working woman. Also there's a change in a line that causes Kobayashi to firmly affirm herself as heterosexual. And I don't know those involved personally to be able to say definitively, but that's probably just a mistaken bad call rather than deliberately trying to erase any hint of reciprocal homosexuality from the show. But it's still a bad call that exemplifies the inherent issue with the schedule of a simuldub. Not the first time this sort of thing has happened and it probably won't be the last. Not something that should be blown out of proportion, not something that should be overlooked, but an unfortunate reality of simuldubs past, present and future. These sorts of mistakes will hopefully be corrected for the home video releases, but that doesn't help the simuldub viewers at all. Not that it'll affect me too much personally, I suppose. I'll just stick with the subbed simulcast for this show. But dub fans are no less deserving of a quality viewing experience. *** also the endless, internecine conflict between dub fans and sub fans is one of the dumbest things somebody watches their anime in a different way than you personally prefer? ~who cares~ how does this keep being a thing why do people continue to be snide and aggressive towards each other based over what language audio they prefer for their cartoons how can your life even be so cushy that this could register as an active concern if you are involved in keeping this truly dumb conflict going, please step back and really take a look at what you're arguing about and if it somehow still seems like a valid, worthwhile crusade to you, please try going outside and interacting with real world humans with actual, real world concerns because you clearly lack perspective ("Only YOU can prevent bad fandom discourse!") *** Funi's dub apparently makes a reference to the "How to Train Your Dragon" films, which is ehhh. That's not a reference to something as immediately forgettable as their reference to that "Winning!" meme in the KoreZom dub, and the line can still work to a degree even without knowing it's a reference (though any potential humor would be lost), but it still seems generally preferable to avoid these sorts of pop culture references that might be meaningless in five years or so, unless you just don't care how the script ages. This probably won't be changed for the home video releases. And again, that's ehhh. All below was written prior to airing. *** This is the second anime this season that's adapting a Seven Seas manga I was planning to look more into to see if I wanted to buy it or not. And it's being adapted by KyoAni, no less. That's a convenient outcome. Heck, why not just adapt all those yuri manga Seven Seas is releasing while you're at it, Japan? Won't see me complaining. *** And then, shortly after, two Seven Seas licensed yuri manga actually did get adaptations announced. Man, maybe I should've asked for something bigger.

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Add - More Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon: Valentine, Soshite Onsen! - Amari Kitai Shinaide Kudasai

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Add - More Koe de Oshigoto! The Animation

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Add - More Koe no Katachi And perhaps "clumsy" is putting it gently. There were a number of subplots that only even registered as things because I'd read the manga and knew what they'd kept the faintest traces of. That is, enough for them to be present, but also confusing and meaningless because the movie no longer had any of the elements that made them mean anything, such that it'd have been better off if they weren't included at all. If you haven't read the manga, they're just confusing elements of the film. And the film absolutely has to stand on its own. "Well if you just read the manga, it fills in these blanks/does this better" is never an answer that absolves an adaptation of its sins. And yet that's the excuse you'd have to try to make constantly throughout the film. You'd understand what Ueno's deal is reading the manga, but in the film any real degree of nuance to her character is stripped out to the point that this character is now just a caricature because nearly all of the "why" of her character isn't there. The manga attempts to flesh Ueno out. This film gets rid of all that for time. And yet it still dedicates so much screen time to this character because you can't just treat her like an incidental character to the narrative, despite their best efforts to do so. Most side characters are just kind of there, never really developed, their purposes murky, all enough to make you wonder at the end where exactly those two hours and change of run-time went. No, really. Who even is Mashiba in this film? He just kind of shows up, you're told but barely shown that he's now Ishida's friend, he triggers Ishid'a lingering guilt and complex over his past bullying, and then he's kind of just gone. That's a plot device, not a character. Ishida's former elementary school chums turned tormentors? He sees one of them once when Ueno tricks them into meeting briefly, then later she casually mentions that they pulled him out of the river he fell into. And that's it. There's no impact to that anymore. It's been basically stripped of all meaning such that these two instances are, at best, just confusing interruptions. They stripped out nearly the entire subplot but left in some vestigial organs. I'm not going to bother going through every character one by one because I'm not gonna put in that sort of effort, but the trend sure doesn't stop. And keep in mind that A Silent Voice was never great source material to begin with. So taking something not great and finding a number of ways to make it worse does not beget something great. Sure it looks pretty, but that's about it. As a whole, this thing is extremely, almost shockingly clumsy, seeming to rip out nuance, plot, characterization and outright coherence to make room for trying to ramp up the pathos. The latter is of course unsuccessful because they've significantly undermined it via the former. To be clear: This isn't just a bad adaptation, it's a plain old bad movie. This staff has shown they're much better than this, so seeing this movie turn out like this is a particular disappointment.

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A clumsy adaptation of a clumsy manga makes for a rather clumsy movie. A clumsy adaptation of a clumsy manga makes for a rather clumsy movie.

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Add - More Koi Kaze Nobody reads these anyway, but I optimistically project to have something besides a placeholder here in a week or so. *** Ahaha it's been over a year since I wrote that and I had just entirely forgotten about any intent to write anything about this series. "Optimistic" indeed. Who knows if I'll ever write anything about this. Or anything else, for that matter.

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(Later.), SP2004 (Later.), SP2004

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Add - More Kokoro ga Sakebitagatterunda.

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Add - More Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu.

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Add - More Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu. 2nd Season

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Temporarily not subscribed to Netflix. Will watch when I resume my subscription. Temporarily not subscribed to Netflix. Will watch when I resume my subscription.

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Add - More Komori-san wa Kotowarenai! It's not like I'm rubbing my hands together with glee at the prospect of this failing, but seeing as it's only three minutes long it just doesn't have any real chance. It could've benefited from being fleshed out a bit in anime form, but with three minutes, it pretty much has to be very true to reading the 4koma because that's just not enough time for it to do anything more. This could've, in skilled hands, been made alright with at least 12 minute episodes, but at this length it's not going to be very different from reading a chapter or so from the manga each episode. Which might be fine if you enjoy the manga, but as someone who found the premise wasn't executed that great in the first place and wore thin extremely quickly, yeah, that doesn't inspire optimism. I get why they'd do it this way (they're looking to promote the manga and sell volumes, not necessarily to make a great anime) but that doesn't suit my wants any.

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"This Art Club Has a Problem!", SU2016 "This Art Club Has a Problem!", SU2016

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Add - More Kono Danshi, Mahou ga Oshigoto desu.

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Add - More Kono Danshi, Sekka ni Nayandemasu.

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Add - More Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!

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Add - More Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! 2: Kono Subarashii Geijutsu ni Shukufuku wo!

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Add - More Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! Movie: Kurenai Densetsu

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Add - More Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!: Kono Subarashii Choker ni Shukufuku wo!

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Add - More Kore wa Zombie desu ka? Because it's surely a better, more selfless use of my money to buy anime BDs than to donate that money to lifesaving charities, I've now watched this show dubbed and it's alright. Some of the jokes they wrote in fall a bit flat ("Winning!" was likely already an out of date reference by the time this went on sale, "brojob" may be an amusing term to the dub writer, but it didn't really fit in the context it was used in, etc.) and the voice acting is mostly serviceable, with the exception of Austin Tindle as Ayumu. The faults with his performance here are apparently endemic to him as a performer, if Internet comments are any sort of reliable metric. He's not in terribly many things, but he's still voicing characters in dubs, so hopefully he's improved somewhat since this role. Outside of him, though, the dub's basically acceptable depending on how you feel about "punched up" dub scripts. Not Funimation's best work in that department, comparing it to standouts like their Panty and Stocking dub, but nothing unwatchable. ("Unlistenable?") Shame about the noticeable banding in the video, though. There's not an excessive amount, but more than in some of Funi's other releases and when it's there it's not terribly subtle. And then there's the element that was likely out of Funi's control: The OVA episode is only available on the DVDs. And man, popping that thing in just long enough to watch that episode just strengthened my continued befuddlement over the small but vocal number of fans who say they can't tell the difference between DVD and BD video quality. Even just the subs are worth the difference. I have no affection for DVD's subs that are so jagged you could put an eye out on them. And the visual quality difference between the videos just isn't subtle at all. And that's one of the reasons I don't intend to buy the second season that's only on DVD presently. HD anime is pretty nice! (I'll still buy DVD releases of series that have no HD version, but I do feel disincentivized to do so.) It's kind of a bummer to have a reason like that stopping me from owning the whole series. If you like the show and it's part of a decent sale, go ahead and pick it up. A few too many issues with this release to pay full price for it, though. It's not like there's any particularly compelling special features to sweeten the pot, anyway. Maybe if the episode commentaries were as insightful as the ones on ADV/Sentai's Princess Tutu release, but they're not. Oh well. Could be better, could be worse. Sometimes, that feels like it could be Funimation's slogan. *** Oh hey, the second season is finally coming out on BD later this year. Yay. I'm guessing the reason it's taken so long is "something something reverse importation." This series being released under an "anime classics" label doesn't quite feel right, but Master of Martial Hearts has also been released under that label so it might as well be meaningless.

7

TV

12

WI2011 WI2011

810

Add - More Kore wa Zombie desu ka? of the Dead (very minor and general plot details) Ending in the middle of a plot and teasing future developments, all while not confirming a third season? That's harsh, DEEN. Kore wa plays a balancing act between dumb, silly comedy and dumb, obnoxious fanservice while sometimes advancing a kind of asinine plot. So long as you're not fool enough to take it seriously, it can be a fun ride most of the time. This season might have gone a bit too heavily on the SoL aspect. It took it a while to even introduce plot elements, instead veering into pointless, lengthy fanservice segments and miscellaneous hijinks. And of what plot we do finally get, that barely gets developed as the show takes it very slowly to work in even more hijinks. Which isn't the worst thing, since the plot in Kore wa has never been all that great, but it's still a part of the show that they introduced, so giving it such poor treatment can't really just be ignored. Sure, it'll probably be resolved in a hypothetical third season, but it feels like they squandered their ten episodes. Well, at least this season did end on a climatic note. It would have been awkward if it had just been an ordinary episode. The show is very recognizably DEEN in its aesthetic, which isn't exactly a good thing, but it's probably one of their better looking titles. By no means a visual feast for the eyes, but it's serviceable if simple and gets the job done. Like the show itself, it feels a bit lazy at times, but it's not an eyesore. Music tends to get reused often enough to be very noticeable. The music is kind of basic and just "alright." Characters are very, very simple, with one stereotyped pattern of behavior that they refuse to deviate from. You'll get all you'll ever need to know about a character from the first time they're introduced in the series. And most of the female characters develop feelings for Ayumu because of harem logic. Only instead of being placated generic love interests, they wind up killing him, berating him, objectifying him and otherwise introducing conflict into his life. Which is still a harem at the end of the day, but it's over the top enough to keep things somewhat interesting. If you don't take yourself too seriously, you'll probably laugh at a number of the sillier moments in the series. It's no work of fine art by any stretch, but as a lowbrow romp, it's fun despite a number of deep flaws. It's somewhat generic, but unique enough to stand on its own. That's low 7 territory, probably somewhere right around Haganai. Not my favorite series nor the one I most looked forward to every week, but should a third season materialize, I'll watch that too. Which you can take as at least mild praise. And man, I kind of want an air multiplier after two seasons of this.

7

TV

10

SP2012 SP2012

811

Add - More Kore wa Zombie desu ka? of the Dead: Hai, Minotake ni Attemasu Just a fun bonus episode. Quit teasing a third season and just confirm one already, DEEN. Sheesh.

7

OVA

1

812

Add - More Kore wa Zombie desu ka? OVA I waited a while for anyone other than Hadena to sub the second OVA, but alas. These tend to lean much heavier on Kore wa's weaker element, its fanservice. Luckily there's still a decent amount of humor (particularly in the second half of the second OVA, which manages to also be a bit sentimental). Not much has to be said, since these are basically just bonus episodes. Whatever you thought of the rest of Kore wa is probably pretty similar to what you'll think of these. Am I the only one who finds "Thank you for being born." to be a really powerful phrase?

6

OVA

2

813

Add - More Kotarou wa Hitorigurashi

7

ONA

10

814

Add - More Kotonoha no Niwa Makoto Shinkai blah blah fourth attempt at the same movie blah blah pretty blah blah lackluster attempt at emotion blah blah not putting more effort into this than Shinkai actually put into that narrative blah blah high 5. *** The trailer makes me worry that this is going to be Makoto Shinkai slapping a new coat of paint on the same film again, but Children Who Chase Voices didn't turn out so well, so maybe it's for the best. Well, whatever. It's already promising to have scenery porn and that's better than nothing. Hopefully the rest is good, too.

5

Movie

1

"Garden of Words" "Garden of Words"

815

Add - More Koufuku Graffiti All below was written prior to completion. *** Welp. It got immediately into the odd erotic eating thing. I don't really get it. Who exactly wanted this? Did someone watch Yakitate Japan and bemoan the lack of eroticism? Maybe someone wished To-love Ru had more food in it? Somewhere out there enough people exist who are into "erotic eating" so as to make this viable. And if that's your fetish, congrats? But for the rest of us, this is largely seemingly like quasi-serviceable SoL that occasionally stops to watch a teenage girl lewdly enjoy food. That's neither compelling nor amusingly terrible. It's just odd. I like SoL. I like anime that revolve around food/cooking. And so I want to like this thing, but I just can't get into its rhythm at all. It's not like it's a terrible show, although its efforts to sexualize young girls are uncomfortable but (arguably even more uncomfortably) par for the course with anime. But it's more mediocre, the sort of thing you might watch if you were particularly down with what the show was after, but I'm just struggling to figure out who exactly this particular blend of things is for when various separate elements of it are handled far better in numerous other titles. You'd have to be someone who very specifically wants this. Someone who heard about this anime and thought, finally they're making something for them. I'm sure you exist. I'm sure you'll love it. I'm sure you'll make lots of posts online about how great it is, and how you can't understand why this anime of your dreams isn't more popular. And everyone outside your circle of mastication fanatics will look at you, sigh a little while shaking their heads and move on. Whatever, man. They're eating a burrata caprese salad this week! And that's good enough for you. (Also, this show is way overselling the appeal of inari.) *** Well great, now I'm watching this dang thing again. Gotta make full use of that CR access, right? Iyashi-kei and fanservice don't really mix and there's plenty of quality iyashi-kei titles where you don't have to say "Yeah, but if you just ignore the part where it sexualizes these underage girls then it's an okay series!" And yet I'm watching it now. I feel myself drawing ever closer towards becoming one of those people who don't drop anything and watch everything in a given season. I don't know how they can stand that. Is going back and undropping underwhelming series a step on the road to deliberately putting myself through some true garbage every season? I hope not. Also seeing the same tired "Shaftisms" forcibly jammed into every show that studio produces has gotten really overplayed. But for some reason people keep eating it up, so they keep doing it. Many times it doesn't quite fit or work, but gotta have that bit of fanservice! (Anytime someone calls Shinbo an "auteur" I laugh a little. It helps dull the pain. I imagine that probably doesn't help the people who actually direct these works, though.) *** And, I mean, this approach often has the side effect of just making the food seem gross. Buffalo wings are good. Close-up footage of people eating buffalo wings is gross. This prioritization of erotic mastication (which is an odd series of words) sabotages the notion of the food being tasty enough to inspire such emotional outbursts in the first place. All below was written prior to airing. *** I'm generally down for a cooking/food anime, but after seeing examples of what the manga is like, I'm getting the impression that the food aspect is secondary to some kind of fanservice aspect and that's no longer my scene. But that seems so oddly indirect. If you just want to focus on girls making lewd faces, why do you need food to get there? I want to believe that it'll turn out different than it seems, but everything seems to consistently point towards those hopes being misplaced. Boo.

5

TV

12

This isn't quite what we meant by "food porn, " Ugh, WI2015 This isn't quite what we meant by "food porn, " Ugh, WI2015

816

Add - More Koukaku Kidoutai

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Movie

1

817

Add - More Koukaku no Pandora The Clarion Nendo looks like it's shaping up to look better than Clarion actually does in this anime. Sheesh. Also hey they're making a Clarion Nendo.

4

TV

12

WI2016 WI2016

818

Add - More Koukyoushihen Eureka Seven (Later.) All below was written prior. *** So episode 14 is a recap episode with just enough new details sprinkled in that you can't skip it? It's like you're doing this on purpose, Bones. All below was written prior to viewing. *** I'd been meaning to try this show so I could know what to do with Eureka Seven AO. So this works out pretty well! Fifty weeks of this show. Well, hope it's good, because it'll be using up a Toonami time slot for a while.

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TV

50

SP2005 SP2005

819

Add - More Koushoku Ichidai Otoko

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OVA

1

820

Add - More Kowabon

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TV

13

FA2015 FA2015

821

Add - More Kowarekake no Orgel

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OVA

1

822

Add - More Kowarekake no Orgel Special

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Special

1

823

Add - More Koyomimonogatari

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ONA

12

824

Add - More Kubo-san wa Mob wo Yurusanai

-

TV

12

825

Add - More Kujira no Chouyaku

7

Movie

1

"Glassy Ocean" "Glassy Ocean"

826

Add - More Kuma Miko I'm trusting this isn't going to double down on the bear sex jokes. *** (spoilers?) So it didn't double down on that but man did it go down some real awkward and even terrible alleys. Some real casual sexual assault of a 14-year-old, treating her as a dress-up doll for leering older men, pretty much bullying her on a regular basis, an odd idol undercurrent that never really jived with the rest of the narrative, ending on having the main character finally, after constant merry disregard for her strong social anxiety by others, completely collapsing under the weight of said social anxiety and regressing to a more childlike state as those around her refuse to try to help her but rather continue to enjoy the results of what seems like actually a pretty serious problem so that they can just continue to keep Machi as a pet and playing that all off as a cute, happy ending... I mean somewhere in all of this is slice of life/comedy stuff that borders between okay and alright but man oh man does it make some really disagreeable turns. I... I just wanted a cute anime about a young girl and her bear out in the country trying to get familiar with city life. But it seems this anime and I differ in our opinions on traumatizing and sexually abusing a child as being "cute." *** no seriously what the heck

5

TV

12

"Girl Meets Bear", SP2016 "Girl Meets Bear", SP2016

827

Add - More Kuma Miko Specials

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Special

2

828

Add - More Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho

-

Movie

1

"The Place Promised in our Early Days" "The Place Promised in our Early Days"

829

Add - More Kumo no You ni Kaze no You ni Not like anyone but me'd even notice or care if I never gave this a score or a comment. But I personally like writing the comments, so I do. Gives you a good chance to mull over an anime. Expect a mediocre score. It started off so promising, too, but was just a mess by the end.

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TV Special

1

Score later, "Like the Clouds, Like the Wind" Score later, "Like the Clouds, Like the Wind"

830

Add - More Kunoichi Tsubaki no Mune no Uchi

6

TV

13

Mal ss, Could one truly develop an attraction towards men when they've never so much as seen one? Mal ss, Could one truly develop an attraction towards men when they've never so much as seen one?

831

Add - More Kuragehime (potentially spoilering) I've said it before, I'll say it again: An anime adaptation needs to be able to stand on its own. Many series are adapted from still unfinished works and yet manage to offer resolution. Take the first season of Haruhi, for example (let us not mention its second season). That was based off an incomplete series of LNs, and yet still offered closure while more seasons remained fully possible. It can certainly be done. The thing is, Kuragehime doesn't do that well. The vexing part about that is this is a good, fresh series. There comes a part where you can absolutely tell there simply isn't enough time for this series to properly conclude, and it's absolutely despairing. What you get are a number of plot lines simply left unresolved, and you want more so you can see the rest of this story, but there just isn't more. Sure, you could read the scans of the manga (why has this not been licensed?), but if that's supposed to be an acceptable conclusion, why even start watching the anime adaptation in the first place? An anime's strength cannot be measured by how it fares when you also read the source material, but only by the anime itself. If Usagi Drop can do it in 11 episodes, so too could Kuragehime. Speaking of Usagi Drop, between that and this, it's pretty hard for me to not get excited whenever I see a josei adaptation airing in the Noitamina slot. That's because like Usagi Drop, Kuragehime is a very good and refreshingly different show. Strong female characters? Kind of. Well, take for example the one career woman we see in the series. She's portrayed as a cruel, conniving harpy who uses her body to manipulate others rather than succeeding on merit and intellect. Is the series trying to suggest this as a truism of all working women? We certainly can't conclude that from one character, but she is who she is. And Tsukimi is lead to discover that she could substantially better herself... if she just more closely follows stereotypical female gender roles. (And of course she's Hollywood Ugly, where she's not really unattractive in her "normal" state, but a makeover later and here comes the debutante.) Well, that's not the whole of it of course, but it's certainly part of the equation. It's the gateway to the rest of that equation, actually. But it's still in a way that's true to Tsukimi, isn't it? Tsukimi's a decent female character in a medium low on good ones, but she's not ideal in that department. That's still better than the usual, however. Also, a crossdressing character who isn't homosexual, isn't used for comic relief, isn't seen as perverted or deviant and is central to the story? It's like it's not even anime. Kuranosuke is a welcome member to an already pleasant if somewhat underfocused and underdeveloped cast. The fellow residents of Tsukimi's dwelling seem largely like window dressing, mere bezel for other parts of the show to be adorned upon. Side characters aren't a new thing at all, but they can still receive more attention in a series than the ones in Kuragehime do. You rarely see more of them than their respective outlets of fandom. And it's true that they are largely defined by (or define themselves by) these fandoms, but ultimately, they're people, right? Tsukimi is certainly a jellyfish otaku, but she's not just a jellyfish otaku, right? So too we must reasonably assume the others have something more beneath the surface. They work in their role, but they're very limited. It feels difficult to comment on a story that comes to an abrupt halt, leaving you feeling like its the days of yore, where an OVA might simply run out of budget and stop, finished story or no. What's blossoming is an interesting romance and some self-discovery. But just when it starts to bloom, the series ends. True, a series of course must be compelling at some level if you're frustrated that the story feels incomplete, but it's a damper on any show. For all the things Kuragehime gets right, some questionable decisions with characters, an abrupt ending and other issues make it a series that can't get any higher than an 8. And an 8 is still good, of course, but with some changes, this series could be quite a bit better. Or a season 2, at least. (If Moyashimon could get one...) Brace yourself to have the rug pulled out from under you, but Kuragehime is still worth a watch regardless.

8

TV

11

FA2010 FA2010

832

Add - More Kuragehime: Eiyuu Retsuden☆ As always, short specials like these do not get separate ratings or comments.

-

Special

4

833

Add - More Kuragehime: Soreike! Amars Tankentai

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Special

6

834

Add - More Kurenai no Buta

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Movie

1

Score later., "Porco Rosso" Score later., "Porco Rosso"

835

Add - More Kuro ga Ita Natsu Here I thought "Come on, there's no way crows eat kittens!" A quick Google search later and now I was happier when I didn't know that was actually a thing that happened.

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Movie

1

836

Add - More Kuro no Su: Chronus

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Movie

1

837

Add - More Kuroko no Basket

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TV

25

SP2012 SP2012

838

Add - More Kuroko no Basket 2nd Season

-

TV

25

FA2013 FA2013

839

Add - More Kuroko no Basket 2nd Season NG-shuu

-

Special

9

840

Add - More Kuroko no Basket NG-shuu

-

Special

9

841

Add - More Kuroko no Basket: Baka ja Katenai no yo!

-

OVA

1

842

Add - More Kuroko no Basket: Mou Ikkai Yarimasen ka

-

Special

1

843

Add - More Kuroko no Basket: Oshaberi Demo Shimasen ka

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Special

1

844

Add - More Kuroko no Basket: Oshaberi Shiyokka

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Special

1

845

Add - More Kuroko no Basket: Tip Off

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Special

1

846

Add - More Kuroshitsuji "Genres: [...] Shounen" Of course, Japan, of course. Anyway, the comic relief squad is a necessary feature that kind of doesn't work. Without them, if the show just took itself 100% self-seriously, it would become unintentionally laughable. It needs a lighter element so you can actually take the serious elements more seriously. But the funny parts aren't all that funny. They're manic and trying really hard to be zany in the sense that they seem to think bombast is cruise control for hilarity, but it doesn't work in two ways. Firstly it doesn't mesh with the tone of the series very well. This is not a lighter side of Black Butler, but comic relief characters forcibly interjected into another show drawing their inspiration from Scrappy Doo. Secondly, there's barely jokes to what they do. It's aimless, tepid slapstick and yelling. You can almost hear the laugh track being played over it. Addressing the former would likely result in also addressing the latter. They're there because they at least realized they needed something like that, but they're not truly part of the show. They just fill a quota. And that's why they don't work. They're the idea, not the execution, so they don't actually achieve what they're there to do. And that just makes their scenes awkward and kind of boring while the serious parts stay kind of unintentionally laughable, such that if the comic relief isn't going to have some actual effort put into it, it'd be better if they just didn't bother at all. Not to say that the rest of the show is great, but that's another matter. *** "Most of the humor is brought in through a great lineup of supporting characters, namely the serving staff in the Phantomhive household. The various servants and cooks are a mostly incompetent bunch, but the slapstick is never overdone and the goofiness plays well with the characters." Well, if ANN says so...

-

TV

24

"Black Butler", FA2008 "Black Butler", FA2008

847

Add - More Kuroshitsuji: Sono Shitsuji, Kougyou

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Special

1

848

Add - More Kurumiwari Ningyou

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Movie

1

849

Add - More Kusuriya no Hitorigoto

8

TV

24

850

Add - More Kuuchuu Buranko Huh. I checked into it because I couldn't shake the feeling while watching this, and yes, the director is green. It comes across when you watch it. He's still developing his voice. From a directorial standpoint, it's very rough around the edges. With practice, he could probably get pretty good. If he has the ability in him. But right now he's just showing promise. He's interesting, but inexperienced. I've seen a number of people praise this series for being "different." Ugh. I hate that kind of praise. Yes, there's something refreshing to not being tediously generic, but substanceless novelty can be even worse. This isn't completely "style for the sake of style" (I'm looking at you, Shinbo) but it's basic and at times clumsy. The symbolism, while flashy, is nothing more complex than a high school English class ought to prepare you for. (But then, there are a number of reviews on here that say FLCL is plotless, so I guess even that's a bit much to expect.) Honestly, sometimes it comes across as ham fisted. And that all falls back to the director, of course. The whole series is clumsy, really. The vibrant color palette is misused. The live-action is too often used just for the sake of itself rather than to imbue any meaning. The animation can be sloppy, lazy and technically inept. That pervades the whole work, too. Laziness. The plot is weak. The central concept isn't strong enough to support the entire series (and at only 11 episodes, you'd think they could avoid running it into the ground. Nope!). The characters aren't as interesting as they want you to think they are. Do I sound like I'm being negative? I guess I am. But I'm not calling it a bad show, just one that has faint glimmers here and there, but can't live up to its own potential. It's just okay. Nothing great, nothing special. Maybe I'm a bit disappointed because it's a Noitamina title, and I have high expectations of that time slot (I mean, it gave a home to Usagi Drop). But I'm not holding that against the show. It deserves to be judged on its own merits, after all. Don't feel compelled to see it. It's not a waste of your time, but it's low priority.

6

TV

11

FA2010 FA2010

851

Add - More Kuzu no Honkai And the person with the unhealthiest attitude towards sex in all of Scum's Wish, you ask? Why, that answer is "anime fans," of course! No character in this show could ever hope to be as ill-adjusted as many of them. And, unlike those anime fans, these characters are actually capable of growth and change in that area. *** Like basically everything below this line is to do with Amazon streaming this show/streaming anime in general rather than about Scum's Wish itself. Just ignore it if you don't care about that. (Scum's Wish is good, by the way.) *** Oh, right, this is gonna be on Amazon, isn't it. Even if I wanted to buy a month of Prime here or there just to watch their one or two anime per season, it seems like they play fast and loose with even putting them up in all regions, including my own, so I might not even be able to do that. They barely promote these shows and make them difficult to discover unless you already know to explicitly search them out. Amazon's entrance into this market only seems to have benefited companies in Japan that licensed the shows to them because Amazon is rumored to have offered relatively staggering sums of money for an anime simulcast. And yet they hardly seem to even care that they have these shows. Many fans wind up not seeing them for one reason or another, the utter lack of promotion can't be driving that many more Prime memberships and yet they're paying real money for this. Netflix promotes their exclusive anime and gets them out there to as many regions as they might. Amazon taking a markedly different approach is confusing, to say the least. *** Amazon finally revealed what they're doing with all their anime licenses in the US, and it's a $5/month streaming service. On top of the $99/year Prime membership. To get shows other territories were already getting as part of their Prime membership. Be still my beating heart! That's $160/year. Funimation had more shows each season, a richer back catalog and only charged $40/year. Paying 400% of that price for a fraction of the number of titles is not really enticing when you don't want Prime for anything else. While making these shows finally legally available in the US takes away the necessity of piracy to watch them at all, all these hoops and expenses for so little in return sure gives many the motivation to continue just pirating them. It's hard to say that this effort doesn't deserve to fail with the way Amazon's been handling it. They have plenty of economic muscle to throw around, but securing licenses can only do so much to overcome mismanagement. *** I'm relieved to see that the immediate online reaction to this is nearly universally negative. Perhaps Amazon will change their course when this doesn't work out for them. One can hope, anyway. *** I don't know that it'd suddenly become great, but this would be a lot more palatable if it was decoupled from Prime, at least. Or if the shows were just included with Prime like they are elsewhere, for that matter. As a separate subscription on top of Prime they're making it as unappealing as possible. *** "[ANN's Zac Bertschy]:What went into the decision to make this a premium channel with a $5 surcharge rather than folding the content in with the standard Amazon Prime subscription? Why is $5 extra to watch anime on Amazon? [Michael Paull, VP of Digital Video at Amazon]: Well, the definition of TV has changed a lot over the last couple years. At the highest level, there's increased customer choice with the growth of on-demand programming and the proliferation of channels and ways to get those channels. It's become all about bringing customers what they want to watch, when and where they want to watch it." A bit of an overly verbose way of saying "SVOD has grown," but okay. "That's what we've done with Anime Strike. There's a passionate group of fans who would love to have anime content all in one place, and to do that made sense – to create a separate, dedicated channel." Creating one more service people have to subscribe to get anime is actually the opposite of "hav[ing] anime content all in one place." You can't just throw out a bunch of nice sounding if longwinded corporate speak and expect that to somehow distract people from this reality. "There's much more anime content available as part of the subscription than what can be found in Prime Video, which is similar to other channels like HBO, or PBS Kids for example." Is there really? A lot of Anime Strike is just Sentai content that was previously buried on Prime alongside simulcasts that other regions were receiving at no additional cost before and continue to receive at no additional cost. And nowhere in this response was there ever any real answer to Berstchy's question of why Anime Strike is an extra $5/month. Well, beyond a rather massaged way of saying "We thought there'd be a market for it so we made a product," which is a justification on Amazon's end but not at all one that justifies to the consumer why they'd pay that premium price. If this paywall, for which the US consumer gets virtually nothing in return over what other, non-paywalled regions get, is successful, then their expressed intention that they're charging an extra $5/month solely because they believe they can get enough people to pay an extra $5/month will have been legitimized. And locking away bits of their library behind an additional paywall only benefits Amazon. The consumer is simply out more money for the same content. And Amazon wants to bring this model to other areas of content going forward. I can only hope they fail. Imagine if Netflix suddenly took away their comedy specials and said that was part of their new "Chuckle Factory" add-on for just an extra $4.99/month. You'd hopefully sooner cancel your Netflix membership than get on board with that. It's a horrible business model that many people cite as one of the reasons they cancel cable in the first place. Amazon oughtn't receive any adulation for trying to port it over to Prime Video. They're just simply trying to take more money from you for the same content because they think they can. No thanks. Not for anime, and not for any other area of content they try to bring this model to in the future. I ain't gonna financially support this sort of thing, and I'd say you shouldn't either. If you're in a region where they're simply included with your Prime membership, by all means, go ahead and watch them on there. But if you're a fellow US resident, I'll even go so far as to actively advocate getting their shows wherever else you will until Anime Strike's tiny amount of content is either folded back into Prime or Anime Strike subscriptions at least become decoupled from Prime membership. Anime Strike is their trial for this model. If it succeeds, they've outright stated other areas are next. Do you want to subscribe to Prime, or do you want to pay for Prime and then buy packages of content like cable? Your dollars and your choice. *** Huh. An anime being on Amazon has generally been considered to have a significantly deleterious effect on its viewership outside of Japan. And yet, at least on MAL, this series is the fourth most watched show this season, edging out the fifth place, Netflix latercasted Little Witch Academia by a couple thousand users. Well that's a pleasant surprise. Though, hard to say how many more might be watching both those shows if they were being simulcasted on CR right now. But an Amazon/Netflix license is clearly no kiss of death for viewership, at least. Of course, any MAL user outside Japan is obviously pirating episodes of LWA as they come out and many Scum's Wish viewers are probably pirating it as well. But there's a bit of a difference. It's fully reasonably to suppose that a meaningful number of people downloading these fansubbed releases of LWA are also paying Netflix members, but don't want to wait for Netflix to put it all up at once. As Amazon is simulcasting Scum's Wish, we should presume that virtually all people pirating it are not paying members of Prime or Anime Strike. In Netflix's case, they still get the same subscription money either way, but it'll likely negatively skew the metrics on their release of LWA if people who watched the fansubbed version don't feel inclined to come right back around for a repeat viewing. This could be avoided if Netflix chose to release the show weekly in territories besides Japan, but that's not what they're doing. So the situation is what it is. If the impact is significant enough, it could influence how much Netflix considers licensing anime to be a worthwhile venture. In Amazon's case, however, they're seeing $0 from the people who are pirating Scum's Wish. Though the metrics are probably more accurate (those paying for the membership will probably watch it via Prime). In non-US Prime territories, Scum's Wish will to a degree sink or swim based on its own merits, but Amazon's refusal to actually market their anime titles in those territories surely won't help matters. In the US, if Anime Strike isn't successful, will Amazon see it as a failure of that business model, or as a lack of demand for anime on their service? Way more money than CR, way less understanding of the anime consumer than CR. (Also I'm glad people are watching this one way or another. Scum's Wish has so far been a Good Show.) *** People might hear about how much Amazon allegedly paid to secure exclusive streaming rights for noitaminA shows and think that hey, at least that's more money going into the anime industry. And that's not necessarily incorrect, but you should think about who's actually getting that money. And like with most other streaming deals, it's probably not the anime studio. Lerche is not on the Scum's Wish production committee, and therefore almost certainly didn't see a single yen from Amazon. The production committee likely paid Lerche a typical (low) amount for their work, and kept the extra for themselves. Given the obscenely low pay and terrible work conditions most people working on animation on Japan face, it'd be nice if that money did indeed go towards them. But that's largely not the case, unfortunately. (It's a different matter in cases where the anime studio is also on the production committee, but that's rare.)

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Add - More Kyoufu no Bio Ningen Saishuu Kyoushi And then there's this. You know, it's stuff like this that makes me wonder if certain dogmatic factions of the old anime advocates are simply self-deluded or ignorant that stuff like this came out. Because there are perfectly fine older anime, to be sure, but then there's stuff like this, Plastic Little, MD Geist and so on. For every good thing that came out of the time period, there was a whole bunch of crap to go along with it. I see I've already been beaten to the punch on the "GTO only without any of the things that makes GTO good" comparison. This OVA is loaded with abortive jokes whose purpose is elusive, and yet said jokes simultaneously reek of desperate effort, as though the writers were begging for an E for effort. Action sequences mix boredom and flawed logic to produce an unenjoyable hodgepodge of failure. Do tell me how when you headbutt somebody downwards the result is that they fly upwards. Gratuitous fanservice is shunted in because something has to sell those discs, right? Only the faintest trappings of a plot are present, and no part of it ever develops to any real consequence. Numerous threads are simply left hanging, never to be revisited. I'm not sure what this has for anybody. This is a wreck. Nobody should watch this. A special low note is a black character in the background depicted with a bone through his nose. Keep it classy, Ultimate Teacher.

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Add - More Kyousou Giga (2012) Scoring Kyousogiga presents a bit of a challenge. I like it overall, but I see a number of the areas where it's lacking. Kind of. Maybe? Experimental shorts, you're fun to watch but you vex me so when it comes to quantifying you in ways like this. Even though I can only get 480p webrips of this, I'm still fond of the animation in it. Loose animation that's a bit playful with physics? Fun times. The plot is... interesting? Yeah, that's vague. I mean, there's a setting, but really these are just vignettes. And they run the gamut from simple and silly to subtle and satisfying. You've got an experienced cast of seiyuu delivering fine performances. The music is nice, too. Sure is laconic in here. This is why I never even scored the original Kyousogiga. What do I even hold against this series? Do I just approach it as exercises in animation? My brain says "6.5" but how does that even make sense when the animation, plots and sound are all good (Well yes, 6.5 is above average overall, but still)? Kyousogiga, why won't you fit into my traditional schema? When I score an anthology, I score by a composite of the various works within it. Should I approach Kyousogiga as an anthology, or a whole? Urgh. Just take your 7 and go, Kyousogiga.

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Add - More Kyousou Giga (TV) Toei chose to make an original anime that isn't PreCure and let a young woman direct it. With all due respect to PreCure, I can't find any part of that sentence that isn't a good thing. Much of the old (male) guard have earned their place, but they oughtn't hold back clearly capable directors like this show's Rie Matsumoto. This is a healthy thing for the industry. Now to hope it also turns out to be a profitable thing, or else, let's be honest, they ain't gonna be too motivated to try it again. I don't expect this or any other one show to suddenly transform the anime industry into one where young and/or female directors becomes a common thing, but if it can be a step towards bettering the situation, that'd be great. Not that being young or female will axiomatically make someone better at the job, of course. But these are underutilized pools of talent at the very least. Oh, and the show itself is pretty great, too. Maybe I'll write about it later or something.

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Add - More Lamune (Spoilers) Towards the end of this I hoped not only that he stayed in the coma, but that all the other characters fell into a coma as well. If you want to dismiss some of KyoAni's Key adaptations as "lazy moeblob" shows, come watch Lamune to get a taste of what that actually feels like.

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Add - More Legend of Lemnear: Kyokuguro no Tsubasa Valkisas Man, I was gonna point out all these parallels between this and Plastic Little but it turns out they have the same director and creator (and a bunch of other roles) so now it's just kind of obvious there'd be similarities. And they're both pretty bad for pretty much the same reasons, although this is a bit better when it comes to actually fleshing out motivations a little bit. But I suppose it's evened out by this one increasing the amount of gratuitous boobs on screen by an order of magnitude or so. The lengthy battle scene is less vapid this time, if still mostly arbitrary. Better than Plastic Little, but just like Plastic Little, still not good.

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Add - More Let's Nupu Nupu Hey, wanna hear an unfunny joke? Want to hear a few dozen slightly different versions of it? What if they were all crammed together? If you answered "yes," you'll like this. If you have taste, don't bother.

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Add - More Little Witch Academia LWA is everything I had hoped it would be. Feast your eyeballs upon this. That first scene of Akko falling through the trees would make Tex Avery proud. There's numerous playful flourishes throughout this anime and the effect is to give this just such a pleasant vibrancy that gels together with the sort of proficiency you'd expect from the staff involved. The cartoony physics are a perfect pairing for the jubilant nature of the work. There's only so much about visuals that can be communicated in words (How would you describe color to a blind man?), but suffice to say, it's just a joy, from character designs, to how they move, to every aspect. There are some constraints, and they're not unavoidable ones, brought about by the length of this. While you get enough to get a flavor of the relevant characters, you don't really get to know them too well. The plot also doesn't get too elaborate, feeling more like a first episode or a pilot for a larger series. It's pleasant and fun, but feels a bit empty. BGM is decent and boosts its scenes, but is not as standout as, say, Panty and Stocking's soundtrack (Which isn't technically a Trigger anime. But it feels like the launch of Trigger, anyway). Which is still alright, just not at the level you'd call "great." Seiyuu do an acceptable job, but you're not really given enough time with them to get a better feel of just how well they can (or cannot) do at their roles. "A television series could then be envisaged to develop stories about the secondary characters in this story." (Google translation of an interview with Trigger) Please do. I want to see so many more things continue to come out of this studio. And I'd totally be down for a whole LWA series. I think it would fill in those lacunae, presuming they could sustain the quality over an entire series (and these people have shown in the past that that's certainly something they're capable of). For now, though, this is but an 8 with something I feel has the potential to be even greater if revisited. Ha. As though an 8 were a bad score. This is good. All below was written prior. *** Studio Trigger is where some of my favorite people in the industry have migrated to. I've been very excited at the prospect of finally seeing a work come out of Trigger. Even if it's not a complete series but just a special, I'm still excited by the potential. Studio Trigger is basically the people responsible for the Gainax series I've truly loved, but now with their own studio with a stated focus on making more works like that. A tall order, perhaps, but they've certainly got the talent to deliver on that promise. *** I took a look at a video of You Yoshinari's work that was linked over on /r/japaneseanimation and now I need this yesterday. Everything about this seems entirely promising. What a talent drain Gainax has experienced as a result of Trigger, though. I know /a/ likes to exaggerate and say that Gainax is dead these days, but even if it's a little too early to start prodding them with a stick just to make sure, there's reasonable room for questioning where Gainax stands right now. After all, Gainax, Ghibli, Brain's Base and so on never made a single thing. People working there did. And without the people that made Gainax Gainax, it starts to reveal itself as nothing more than a name. (It's not like everyone who ever did anything good at Gainax left for Trigger, but it's undeniably Gainax's loss.)

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Add - More Little Witch Academia (TV) How many people are going to go in expecting OVA level animation and get disappointed when the reality of TV animation greets them instead? How many people won't even notice the difference? *** Netflix is okay with putting up episodes of Chelsea Handler's talk show one at a time, and will put up episodes as they air for select series in select regions, but remains loathe to do it in general. Which leaves people to either wait for Netflix to put up LWA all at once months after it starts airing, or just download those readily available fansubs. Which isn't too different, really, from Netflix putting up seasons of shows from other networks that viewers could've pirated while they aired. People seem to keep hoping Netflix will make an exception for anime somehow and keep being disappointed when things pan out exactly as you would expect them to. but man they're doing it for Japan come on spread the love, netflix *** While again, yes, I too would prefer that Netflix got into anime simulcasting rather than insisting on adding their anime licenses in chunks after they finish airing, those suggesting that Netflix doing so is entirely pointless as "everyone" who would be interested in the series has already watched it fansubbed is a bit misguided. The audience here isn't just those of us that watch anime simulcasts each season. LWA appeals to kids. They're not out there torrenting the latest fansubbed release of this show each week. It's something that'll show up on Netflix and they'll watch with their parents. And they'll probably watch it dubbed, which fansubs don't (presently) offer. Netflix has the data to know this full well. And making Netflix appealing to kids is important to Netflix for what should be obvious reasons. But there's also the people who get into anime in the future from now when this isn't a currently airing series or who enjoy anime sometimes but don't follow simulcasts each season. Netflix will presumably have the rights to air this series in a whole host of territories for several years. They'll not only likely subtitle and dub it in languages that don't currently have fansubs, but they'll have the show as part of a growing catalog of Netflix-licensed anime titles for customers to arrive to at their leisure. That said, I still think it'd be better if Netflix also simulcasted their anime episodes in territories outside of Japan, which I don't think would cause them to sacrifice any of the other audiences they're going after. But suggesting that them not doing so makes their license of the series "pointless" is being self-absorbed. *** Though Netflix is also gradually getting into funding original anime series for their service as well. While the two titles they've announced so far won't appeal to kids*, they should appeal to all other anime audiences and without the factor of fansubs releasing the series in advance. So there's that. *Well, I assume Perfect Bones won't appeal to kids, at least. Outside of announcing nearly a year ago that the show was slated to exist, there's been basically no news on the thing since. Devilman: Crybaby at least got announced with a trailer and a general release timeframe. Perfect Bones barely exists beyond a name. What's even happening with that thing? *** Perfect Bones got a very minor "Totally still happening!" sort of announcement, so there's that. Apparently a trailer has been shown at cons and those who've seen it say it looks impressive. I guess we can just take their word for it. Anyway, LWA...'s first half is finally up on Netflix, even if the English dub apparently isn't showing up for people correctly (but it's only been up for about two hours and will hopefully be fixed quickly). And while yes, absolutely, I'd prefer if Netflix simulcasted their anime and do agree that even more people would go with Netflix to watch their licensed anime if they did, this release being greeted with a collective "feh" from the more vocal and active part of the anime community demonstrates, again, that aforementioned myopic perspective. It is understandable to not care about it personally. But the continued insistence that this release will be relevant to all of nobody is, as explained previously, still pretty offbase. Anyway, I guess I'll at least check out a dubbed episode or two of this, whenever they get that working properly. I'm curious to see how it sounds. (but i mean come on netflix you simulcast your anime licenses in japan why not elsewhere too)

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Add - More Little Witch Academia: Mahoujikake no Parade "Expected delivery: April 2015" Yay waiting~ I'm sure it'll be worth the wait, though. *** Of course the moment I checked Nyaa after reading the email asking people not to upload the movie it was already up there. And, you know, with the actual official channel for downloading a copy of the film for some reason saying it can't be downloaded, it's tempting to just get it off of Nyaa anyway. But I'm planning for my first viewing to be when the BD arrives in around a month, so whatever, I guess. I don't know why they're limiting downloads. And I don't know who they thought daily password changes was actually going to stop. I still want a digital copy to keep around so it's actually kind of nice that there's a pirated copy more freely available since getting this thing officially is proving to be a pain. (I mean, it's bad if it negatively affects more things like this going forward like they claimed, but in the immediate short term it's useful.) I didn't have this kind of hassle getting a digital copy of Kick-heart. (Heck, the password for the video on Vimeo is probably floating around out there, too. I know it leaked easily for Kick-heart because why wouldn't it.) *** After some trial and error, I figured out an unofficial way to download my digital copy from the official source, all while I could've just grabbed the HorribleSubs release, all so I can just let it sit on my harddrive for over a month until I watch the BD first. what am i doing with my life (i mean maybe i'll crack and watch the digital version first but still) Also, why is it so much easier for people who paid nothing to get this than for those of us who actually gave them money? Heck, how many of the people torrenting this are people who gave money and are just trying to actually get the downloadable copy they were promised? And even though I'm still waiting on the physical part of this to get sent out and show up, it's refreshing to basically see all three things I've backed on Kickstarter successfully wrap up and deliver what they promised. Makes me a bit more confident to back other things going forward. *** While my copy is yet to arrive, I'm reading that the BD does not contain the promised audio commentary track. That's not okay. You asked backers to raise an additional $350,000 to get that as a stretch goal. That's a pretty substantial sum to not deliver on. The LE copies not being as nice as other copies is a valid complaint, but not as severe as just plain not delivering something you promised in exchange for a bunch of money. "Missing" trumps "underwhelming." Poor form, Trigger. (I don't yet have my own copy to personally verify this, but given there's a number of people all saying the same thing, I'm presuming it's true.) *** And, just to be clear that I'm not downplaying this matter, the difference between the $70 theater LE release and the LE release given to people who personally pledged $100 before this was even a thing to help fund its creation, even though Kickstarter indeed isn't a store or a preorder system, really doesn't feel quite right. That theater release is clearly a fair bit nicer. You would almost just presume they'd want to show at least as much appreciation to $100+ backers as they do to consumers who decided to buy the already finished product for less money. (Also, I didn't pledge enough for a LE copy, so this isn't just a matter of sour grapes on my part.) Kind of a rough Kickstarter at the end. *** Oh goodness, this whole situation just gets worse. The artbook doesn't contain most of the things they promised it would, the making of feature isn't subbed in most of the languages they said it would be, the audio commentary track indeed isn't there, they're selling a much nicer version in Japanese theaters than backers got, for whatever reason $100+ backers aren't initially getting their second artbooks, people who backed at higher tiers are reporting receiving damaged goods due to poor packaging, and, I suppose most trivially, some of us didn't even get the little "thank you" letter which isn't the most important thing, but is a little symbolic of the general disarray that has characterized the reward fulfillment end of things. And Trigger, notably poor at communicating through every step of this thing, has been silent thus far. They sure were more vocal and present back when they were soliciting backers. I enjoyed the actual film itself and don't regret backing it, but all the things around the actual work have been a poorly managed mess. It wouldn't even be out of line to start throwing around words like "fraud." Which leaves me with a conflicting set of feelings where if this same set of people started a future Kickstarter for something that seemed appealing, I'd have to really stop and think before backing it. This isn't an axiomatic truism of Kickstarters. Some people got a little disgruntled about Kick-heart touring festivals and working on its Oscar eligibility before backers got their copies, but everything else went pretty smoothly and they were far more communicative. Both Kickstarters ultimately produced works I enjoyed, but only one has left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. This would be a poor way to treat customers. It's even worse when you're doing it to people who helped fund the work's creation in the first place. *** Nobody should be receiving something like this. And yet multiple people report that they are. And still Trigger remains silent. *** Trigger owes people restitution. I'm generally patient enough to forgive some peccadilloes, but damaged goods, missing goods and not delivering on promises aren't things that can just be shrugged off. While you could argue that Trigger should've done better on a number of other things here, the three aforementioned matters are things they are truly obligated to properly deliver on. Trigger promised an audio commentary track in exchange for a certain amount of money. They got the money but did not deliver what they promised. Trigger promised subtitles in multiple languages for their making of feature in exchange for a certain amount of money. They got the money but did not deliver the subtitles. Trigger promised people who pledged enough money that they would get an artbook containing some very specific things. People gave them that money, but the artbook did not contain the things they were promised. And, of course, people pledging money and just plain receiving broken or missing merchandise is clearly not okay. As it currently stands, this is fraud. I'm not a lawyer and don't know if this is legally actionable or not, but it's certainly ethically wrong. It's poor business that has surely damaged my trust in their brand and, to a lesser extent, my trust in backing Kickstarters at all. Trigger needs to make good on this, but as complaints and anger continue to mount, they've offered only silence. I don't wish Trigger harm, but if this is grounds for legal action, I hope such course is pursued. Not to "punish" Trigger, but because it might be the only way to compel Trigger to do what they should've done to begin with and do something to meet their obligations to their backers. I just want some way for people to get what we are owed and promised in exchange for our money. What Trigger has done is wrong and should not be overlooked. *** Ahem. That said, I do recommend the actual movie itself and it's on (at least US) Netflix now where you can legally watch it without at all being affected by the way Trigger bungled their Kickstarter campaign! You should think twice about backing any future Trigger Kickstarters but go right ahead and enjoy the film.

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After how this went, you should think twice about backing any future Kickstarters from Trigger. After how this went, you should think twice about backing any future Kickstarters from Trigger.

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Add - More Love Live! School Idol Project Is it me? Am I the odd one for not thinking sexual assault is just hilarious? Am I some strange prude for being put off by the show's fixation on Nozomi repeatedly molesting her friends and its portrayal of this as a positive, fine and dandy ~so wacky~ occurrence? What's odd is that I see people who I know that, if Nozomi were male and doing the same thing, would have dropped this series and likely even mocked fans of it. And yet they seem to enjoy Love Live. I'm a touch nonplussed that I even have to spell this out but, no, the fact that it's a female character casually molesting her female friends that is getting the thumbs-up from this anime doesn't somehow make it not creepy/awful. Why is it so difficult for anime (fans) to understand that sexual assault is a negative thing? Or is it that anime aims to create an escapist fantasy where sexual assault is both okay and glorified? Because it's (and the reasons around it are) pretty terrible all around. Not that this is my only issue with Love Live as a show. It's just the most egregious one that plays into a larger awful trend. I don't think I'm making some unreasonably onerous imposition upon anime's creative liberties by suggesting that anime culture and rape culture should overlap less. (But sadly, a lot of western anime fans would say that I am.) *** A bit of Googling discovered: 1. Almost every person I could find mentioning the molestation was either fine with it or even outright enjoyed it. People sure do take a cavalier and gleeful tone when discussing depictions of sexual assault. 2. I found a whole one other person who shared my reaction. Their concerns were dismissed by others. anime fans what is wrong with you *** Although, really, it's another bullet point in support of my strong suspicion that someone saw the worst parts of "gaming culture" and decided to use that as a starting point for anime culture. But at least gaming culture can somewhat acknowledge its issues and even make tiny baby steps towards addressing them. Anime fans are so dearly attached to being awful, entitled and privileged little manchildren that the suggestion that maybe they and the works themselves ought to move a little closer towards the basic standards of human decency is met with anger. Because you're attacking something dear to them: A place where it's okay to be a loathsome piece of garbage. Where you can receive high fives for being an actual pedophile talking about how much you want to have sex with 3D little girls and oh god I'm glad I later found a place that wasn't acceptable because, y'know, for some people enjoying anime and relishing in being a pariah doesn't go hand in hand. Ahem. Sorry, I digressed a little there. Just bad flashbacks of what I used to have to wade through to find other people talking about anime. For these people, anime fandom is a bastion where they can finally find an echo chamber to support their awfulness. The works are made for people like them, bringing in more fans like them and alienating more fans who aren't like them. Any attempt to even so much as point this out is liable to be met with a hailstorm of comments such as "ugh darn social justice warriors," with "social justice warriors" being an updated, coded version of "ugh darn political correctness," which of course has to be said in code because people know that people complaining about "political correctness" are typically actually complaining about having to have a little empathy for people who aren't like them and to give up a bit of their privilege. But dress up that sentiment in a shiny new buzzword and now it's easier to ridicule those minorities. Heh. Women being uncomfortable with rape jokes. Those crazy SJWs, am I right? why is there a popular anime-related "news" site (not ANN) that fetishistically blogs about child molestation cases in an excited, aroused tone why And it's these people that are why a show like Love Live decides to make a running joke of sexual assault between friends without so much as a second thought. Because they assume correctly: Most of the people in their target audience not only won't be bothered, but they'll love it. They'll be so fine with it they'll even ridicule people who think that just maybe glamorizing sexual assault in pop culture is a bad thing, or that at the very least the show presenting it as benign should be seen as a flaw in the writing, if you're that incapable of actually feeling empathy for another human being. But they clap and cheer. Oh Nozomi, you scamp! (And also they wish they could molest girls freely like that in real life but shhh.) and people freak out when KyoAni "dares" to make a show for fujoshi because how dare women get something when these male viewers are entitled to have everything and ugh Anime fans are terrible. And anime mirrors/caters to them. Sometimes it even offers them positive reinforcement! This element of Love Live! is just a small cog in a much larger wheel. And there's zero sign of the situation improving anytime soon. Quoth the anime fan: "But let's reassure ourselves. It's too late now, it will always be too late. Fortunately!" blegh *** I didn't think I'd have to update this, but given recent events, I suppose it's fair to say that no, "gamer" culture is currently more toxic than anime culture and has some serious problems addressing its issues. Congratulations, anime fans? "Gamers" exceeding my imagination for awfulness aside, the rest stands. *** Look. I mean say what you will about Love Live, but must the dub really be advertised with such lines as "I found my new waifu" and declaring it, for some baffling and awful reason, the unofficial gamergate anime? That doesn't do the show any favors and plays into negative stereotypes about anime fans. That this may, indeed, resonate with certain anime fans is no reason to appeal to a narrow niche in a way that makes sure your customer base remains a narrow niche. Embarrassing.

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Add - More Love Live! School Idol Project 2nd Season So sales numbers for the first volume of this season are out and holy crap. The event ticket factor obviously boosted that, but still. Idol otakus, dude. So Love Live! is pretty likely to receive new content for a while, I suppose. And Sunrise is on the production committee (if I'm reading ANN's listing correctly), so they're seeing some of that disc sale money probably? Just like they're on the production committee for various Gundam series. So, they might just keep making Love Live! anime for a pretty long time! But they have students graduating and time does have to progress to some degree. You can bring in new underclassmen to replace them (and they definitely seem to be positioning their little sisters for that), I guess, and maybe even at a certain point do Love Live! College. But I don't know that they could really get the same longevity out of this franchise as they have out of Gundam. Unless they just have future Love Live! series focus on entirely different casts of idols at different schools and see if that works. But they'll do something with it. There's clearly way too much money in this franchise for there not to be more coming. The first volume of this outsold the first volume of Madoka. Gee whiz. (Disc sales aren't the only relevant thing, etc., etc.) *** Oh wow, it's actually the highest first week sales for an anime series ever. Man do I feel out of step with Japanese anime consumers at times. *** Also apparently half price and had stuff for its mobile game which makes the numbers more reasonable, but still pretty nuts. *** I mean, just to consider: While certainly a crapton of discs to move, that's not the same as being the most profitable series ever. Consider what gets divided among who in the production committee, plus other sources of revenue (merch, basically) and wonder if CDs/mobile game items/etc. combined with disc sales are outearning gunpla/shows specifically designed to sell kid's toys/etc. Is Love Live! doing well financially? Almost surely. While I don't know how many non-disc units of merchandise Love Live! has moved, I'd wager it's somewhere around "plenty." While some of those many discs are attributable to people buying many copies to get an event ticket, it's also reasonable to presume that people who are both obsessive enough to do that and can afford to do so are likely to buy a decent bit of merchandise. And the people who just bought a normal amount of discs aren't unlikely to have purchased some form of merch either. Figs, wall scrolls, that sort of stuff. So we can quite safely assume it's successful for a late-night anime. But then you start comparing it to anime that are well-greased merchandise moving machines, where ratings are perhaps a much more important metric than disc sales. Daytime anime. Kids shows. Heck, Gundam recently had a series airing in the afternoons that was pretty much meant to sell Gunpla. And whether Love Live! can become something like that is a much less certain matter, if they even plan to try to make it such a thing. It probably won't. But at least a third season? Yeah, that's pretty likely. Why has the Internet trained me to care about anime economics? *** And now there's a Love Live! film coming out. I wonder how it'll perform versus the K-on! movie and no really why do I care about these things. *** Hey, they went the whole second season without revisiting the "Sexual assault is hilarious!" angle from the first season! I can't bring myself to be optimistic enough to believe that it was a particularly deliberate choice (at best they probably just didn't want to be too repetitive), but it's still an improvement I guess? It'd be great if it stopped due to the right reasons, but if anime as a whole just coincidentally happens to stop doing it, I'd be okay with that.

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Add - More Love Live! Sunshine!! I imagine Funimation getting the rights to this series in the US/Canada is gonna upset some people, lest it's one of those situations where it's on both Funi and CR. But personally, the fact that this might mean the songs in this idol anime will actually be subbed strikes me as a positive thing. how did i get this far down the idol anime rabbit hole i don't even like real idols *** That said, there's still so much further down any of the particular idol anime's rabbit holes I could go of course, but even my current level of interest/knowledge is more than I would've expected. Also bemoaning Funi licensing a show yet clamoring for CR to license something remains silly, but I guess that's another matter for another time. *** Of course wishing CR could just have a monopoly on anime simulcasting, as many are apparently doing, is even sillier still. It may seem convenient, but you oughtn't wish that any one company should have a monopoly on that. Whichever one(s) you like, you'll benefit from them having to try harder due to the competition. There's a reason you can get manga, drama and anime on CR as well as a sub-only subscription to Funimation now for the price of what the former used to cost alone. Without once again going into my feelings on CR, if they had no competition forcing them to try at all, I highly doubt these people would be so enamored with what that CR would become. *** Though I'm wondering, if Funi dubs this show (and there's pretty good odds they will, considering they're Funi), will they dub the songs or leave them in Japanese? Love Live! seems to have a rather dedicated following that's into, among other Love Live! aspects, the music. Did whoever did the original dub (NISA?) dub the songs? I don't actually know. *** Alright, Google says NISA didn't dub the songs. But Funi isn't NISA and still sometimes even dubs the songs in a show's OP so who knows, I guess. Even if they put in a truly outstanding performance dubbing the songs, one imagines a lot of the existing fanbase still wouldn't be happy because they want the original songs. There's something odd about totally wanting your dialogue spoken in English but insisting that the songs remain in Japanese which just seems more incongruous than anything else, but what do I know, I guess. (There are other, sensible reasons Funi might not dub the songs, of course. Like not being allowed to or just not being equipped to have nine or however many voice actors available that could adequately sing the songs in the first place.) *** It just kinda seems like it's playing it safe. And I get that. By all ways I can see Love Live! is rather profitable. They want to introduce more characters so they can make more merchandise, have new songs to sell and so forth while also trying to make sure Love Live! stays in the cultural zeitgeist. And so they don't want to take any real risks that might alienate any fans and stop the money machine. If Sunshine is even half as profitable as the original series they'll probably be fine just Scrooge McDucking into a pit of money so from a business standpoint they don't need to really care. But creatively it's a bit disappointing to see "It's Love Live! again! With new but similar girls now!" instead of anything that really moves Love Live! forward or expands it in any meaningful capacity. And certainly there's an audience that's just fine and dandy with more of the same, but that doesn't make it any less unambitious or conservative. And because of that I don't know that Sunshine would really bring in much in the way of new fans to the franchise. Understandable but disappointing. *** I mean I'm a little pleased that my dumb tag for this show now works on a third level, but not as pleased as I'd be if this show were just a more original take on Love Live! in the first place. *** ha ha cool they brought back the hilarious sexual assault gag from the first season of love live "Love Live! Sunshine!!: We didn't improve at all!" grosssss *** Love Live! seems to exist in a world where men don't exist for reasons I'm sure you can guess and, for related reasons, sexuality doesn't seem to be a thing. The one exception they make is to have a girl molest the other girls. Sexual assault is the only sexual thing important enough to be allowed into Love Live!. And Love Live! fans just eat it up. But then, many of them seem very dedicated to claiming Sunshine and the first series somehow aren't extremely similar ("Well, it's not literally identical, so-") so there's certainly a degree of blind sycophancy you'll see in most any popular anime's fans. And anime fans in general are terrible when it comes to sexuality. But it does seem odd for Love Live! fans to frequently say "Love Live!'s this innocent, campy little neo-sincerity show, and we love that about it!" while also yukking it up about a running sexual assault gag in the show. But I mean Bakemonogatari had a running gag about the protagonist sexually assaulting an elementary school girl ("Well technically she's not actually a child and-") and that's a show many fans and critics hold in high esteem. "But why do people think anime is weird or perverted?" And here I've seen like all of Bakemonogatari's sequels and I'm watching Sunshine. ~joke's on me!~ *** (spoilers I guess) "Our school's shutting down, just like μs! We'll film a PV and try to get more people to apply here, just like μs! Is there anything more we can do to be just like μs?" booooooo The sheer shamelessness of this capitalism-driven cash-in, the utter creative cowardice is engendering a feeling of disgust within me. And yet as it not only refuses to step out of the original's shadow but rather desperately clings to it, lo, the faithful doth utter their refrain: "Come on guys, it's not exactly alike!" "Ha ha, no, no! They're lampshading it so it's totally different and okay!" Why pay for marketing when your adherents will trip over themselves to desperately do that job for you? "Huh? It... it kind of feels like Love Live! Sunshine!! is peeing on my shoe, but surely it must be raining!" Not even Love Live! Sunshine!! itself is this determined to pretend it's so distinct from its predecessor, what with its constant mentions of how "just like μs!" everything is. It's fine if you enjoy Sunshine!!, but that neither necessitates nor excuses this level of self-delusion. Again, when you have to continuously put in this much effort to argue that it's such a different series, that should already be telling. *** https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2016-09-08/crunchyroll-funimation-announce-partnership-to-share-content-via-streaming-home-video-est/.106234 Welp. Now that CR will have basically a monopoly on streaming subbed simulcasts, people will get the nightmare they've wished for. I'm sure CR will be constantly striving to improve their service now that they have no serious competitor. This will totally bring prices down for the consumer! Hooray! To see people celebrate CR not having to compete with another entity but be limited only by their customers' breaking point is odd. The benefits of this to Crunchyroll are immediately obvious (more content, less pressure to compete, end of any real bidding war for licenses, etc.). But for the users? Sure, more content will be all on one place. But the actual service itself has no real reason to improve so long as it can stay just tolerable enough that people will still choose it over piracy. They're not going to spend time and money making their service better or offering a better value out of charity. CR made consumer benefiting changes in direct response to Funimation. Now that pressure is gone. And you're only kidding yourself if you think you, the consumers, are the winners in this scenario. But shh, shh. You can watch Love Live $unshine!! on CR now, so don't worry about these things! This is just all great news! No negative repercussions at all! Woo! *** Also I still have several months of Subpass membership at Funimation left. Is that just worthless now or what's the deal? And I guess this is bad news if you like having songs subbed in shows like this very one. Knowing Sentai probably won't get their filthy meathooks on Sweetness and Lightning is very little consolation. *** I wonder when this got decided upon. Funimation kept pushing it back, but until recently they kept promising they were gonna transition to softsubs. An odd claim to repeatedly make if you were planning to get out of streaming subtitled anime altogether. But I suspect the full details of how and when this partnership came about will never be fully revealed. Also I'm not sure what to do with this $40 per year now. I'd never subscribe to Sentai's streaming service and it costs more than that anyway. Hulu costs more than that. Prime costs more than that. I struggle to think of a worthwhile streaming service that costs $40 or less per year. I'm sure not gonna use that to "upgrade" to a higher tier of CR and receive no meaningful benefit. Umm, I could buy a Nendo with the money, I guess. Maybe if I ever got a 4K TV I could put some of that towards the higher Netflix tier? There's not enough in WSJ I'd want to read to make that worth it. I want to use this money on something. You see, Funimation was pretty cheap because they had a competitor. Because a company not having a monopoly has benefits for the consumer. Because this really isn't something people should be cheering for. If my thoughts seem a little scattered it's because this is pretty unexpected and a little crazy. *** Although I guess owning the BD of the handful of Funimation releases whose dub I care about is now paying off again. I've got Cowboy Bebop, Panty and Stocking, FLCL and... well actually I think those might be the only dubs I care about. So I'm basically set. And don't get me wrong. From a content standpoint, if you're someone who wasn't a Funimation subscriber then getting access to their back catalog is pretty nice. It's just that the tradeoff is frightening. And also you can only watch Cowboy Bebop subbed, which I've heard is still pretty decent, but come on. Okay, look, you shouldn't watch but also you totally have to watch El Cazador de la Bruja. It's something special. It's not necessarily "good," but... okay maybe that show's just for me. Also Right Stuf licensed Galaxy Angel so maybe that'll find its way to CR. At which point you should totally watch it. It holds up really well. Oh and Excel Saga. And- Oh. I guess Shin-chan won't be coming along for the ride. Bummer. I mean as a Funimation subscriber the only difference is I'll be paying $40 less per year but for the rest of you, if CR gets Funi's full back catalog like they say, you're in for a number of solid shows that weren't on CR before. Though, Funi put up BD versions of shows when available which is something CR doesn't tend to do. So will there be dub streams of BD versions but only TV versions for the sub streams? There's still so much that isn't clear yet. Guess there's a greater chance of some CR shows making it to Toonami for what that's worth. And this is probably a bit of a knee to the stomach for Sentai. I can't find it in me to feel badly for them. *** Should you be the rare creature that subbed to Funimation and not CR and also watched both subbed and dubbed Funimation content, then this isn't great for you as you're gonna have to subscribe to both now. And if you liked the few dubs CR had... umm, where are those going? Will Funimation add them to their catalogue so you can watch NISA's Toradora dub on Funimation? too confusing right now wait and see i guess too much much information and too many questions all at once *** But to bring this back around: You still can't watch Love Live! Sunshine!! on CR yet. Guess my Funimation subscription isn't totally worthless yet! And looks like I just quietly got bumped up to being an All-Access Pass member for the remainder of my subscription. Well, that seems like a decent thing to do, seeing as it's now the only paid membership level. But now that they're getting rid of the subpass membership, I guess I should point out: The Roku app let subpass members watch dubs and bonus features the whole time. If you watched Funimation on a Roku, there was never any need to pay extra. Guess they solved that loophole~ I'd have felt bad pointing it out earlier, but there's no harm now that that's not a thing anymore. Anyway, I've pointed out earlier that Netflix, Hulu and Amazon had enough money to easily outbid CR or Funimation if they wanted to. It seems CR and Funi realized that obvious fact as well. But while pooling their resources instead of competing against each other will help in that front, it still won't be enough if any of those bigger players really want a show. Amazon was rumored to be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars per episode for a show they licensed. That's a lot. Amazon can do that if they think it's worth it. CR and Funi combined still can't realistically match that for multiple shows every season if these bigger players ever became interested in picking up more titles. They've strengthened their hand, but they're up against giants. Netflix's interest in exclusive anime content has slowly been growing. Amazon's gone from not simulcasting anime to having the exclusive rights to noitamina releases. It's no wonder CR and Funi started feeling some pressure. But these aren't just competitors that would force them to try harder. These are competitors with the cash and connections to potentially crush them if they really wanted to. It's not an enviable position. Make no mistake: If Amazon thought Love Live! Sunshine!! was worth the cost, it would be a Prime exclusive. Funimation and CR exist for so long as bigger streaming services don't feel it's worth it to bother outbidding them. *** " You can start watching PSYCHO-PASS, Cowboy Bebop [...] and Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash today" Two of those shows are not, in fact, available. Whoops. Just how sudden was this? And not all of Funi's simulcasts are yet on CR, so this Funimation subscription is still useful for now, but one imagines this is the last season that'll be the case. So basically in less than a month a Funimation subscription will only be applicable to an increasingly dwindling portion of Funi's back catalog not yet on CR, and, by their estimates, it'll be nothing but dubs on Funimation by 2017. Anyone's guess if they'll actually keep to that timetable. Now you can watch Funi's releases on CR encoded at lower bitrates. Yay? As someone who already had a Funimation subscription I'm honestly more excited about Nozomi potentially putting Galaxy Angel up on CR than I am by watching Funi's content on CR's platform. *** CR announced a home release of Gintama, Funi says they'll be releasing all the home video releases CR announced, ergo Funimation will now be dubbing and releasing Gintama. That's a lot of episodes to commit to. Some of which I think Sentai still has the rights to. Come buy Funimation's incomplete dub of Gintama? It's a bit of an awkward position. Okay I'll try to get this focused back on Sunshine!! now. *** Guess getting this focused back on Sunshine!! never happened. But now it's not even a year later and CR customers barely, after massive waves of complaints and cancelling memberships, got CR to finally stop significantly reducing video bitrates to save money. Oh, and the site goes down every weekend but hey just sign up for VRV and problem's solved, right? Seeing how CR behaves with their major competitor out of the way has surely made people reconsider their reckless enthusiasm for the notion of CR having a monopoly on streaming anime simulcasts, right? Ha ha, of course not. Instead they continue to get incensed by the few shows that still aren't on CR each season, seemingly incredulous that any other company would dare to compete with CR. It would seem nothing can break the iron will of the most dedicated adherents, not even the obvious coming to pass and the site only even being functional about five days a week. CR is directly, observably, objectively worse now than it was before this partnership, and yet so many users still giddily parrot the corporate line that this was all just swell and a real boon for anime fans. Why should CR even bother putting in any effort at all when they clearly don't need to? Just have the most anime and any other sins can be forgiven. Sure the video quality's been slashed and the subtitles are wildly inaccurate, but at least you don't have to sign up to two services, right? Having it all in one place is worth not being able to access said place on the weekends, right? CR having a total monopoly on anime simulcasting would just be great, right? Dogmatism in action.

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Add - More Love Live! The School Idol Movie So if I took and paid for a train, then got on the subway, then took a bus and then walked another eight minutes, I could go see this movie in a dirty theater with small screens, and then get to make the trek back. Where do I sign? Look, watching an anime movie in a theater sounds like it'd be a fun thing. But this doesn't seem like the movie that'd be worth that sort of time, expense and effort. If it was showing somewhere closer to me, then I'd probably go. But the only theater in the state that's showing it isn't that great a theater and is also hours away from me. If there was going to be a special showing of Mind Game I'd still try to find a way to get there, but for a Love Live! movie? It all just doesn't seem worth it. That's what I get for living in the suburbs instead of the city, I guess. But I mean, it'll be out on BD soon enough and I can just watch it at home. It's not like I'm missing out on the chance to view the movie altogether. Although it does get annoying that when things come to "NY," they always mean the city and never out here. It feels so close, yet it's so far away. (I didn't bother going to see it, but some live action Death Note movie did play at a theater near me once. It's not impossible for these things to come here! [Please do!]) *** Oh, subs are out and a raw is out. Hmm. Should I just grab those or wait for maybe someone to put a prettified version? It's not like I know if anyone is actually planning to do that, but Love Live is pretty popular, so you'd just sort of assume they would, right? *** Oh, FFF said at one point they were planning on doing it. They might finish that before the heat death of the universe. Or someone faster might come along. Whatever. I'll just get the best that's available whenever I want to bother watching this, I guess. Look at this excitement to watch the Love Live! movie!

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Add - More Lupin III (2015) I'm pretty surprised this isn't being simulcast. Especially given how otherwise thorough the simulcast pickups were this season. Even shows I didn't expect to get subbed at all are getting simulcast. But not this new entry in a storied franchise (something something "Dragon Ball Super"). The only other anime I need to find fansubs for from this season is Kowabon and "What's Kowabon?" is a pretty fair reaction to that name. Funi simulcasted The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. CR added a bunch of previous seasons of Lupin right around the time they were announcing new titles. It really seemed like someone was gonna end up simulcasting this, and yet here I am watching this show with subtitles translated by someone on /a/ from Italian. What a world. *** And months later it finally gets simulcast like it always felt like it was going to. Weird how this worked out. And calling it a "winter simulcast" is kind of pushing it, CR. Better late than never and leaving me to sift through which releases are the "correct" releases, I suppose. And whatever subs CR puts out will hopefully at least be on par with subs translated from Italian by some random guy on /a/. The modern state of anime subtitled in English. *** 1. Go to watch episode 2 via CR's Roku app. 2. The video won't load at all. 3. Realize that's the second video to act like this. 4. Send in a support ticket even though your first one from days ago hasn't been responded to. 5. Cancel your Crunchyroll membership because you know this won't get fixed and being unable to actually watch things means the membership is just a total waste of money. Don't. Support. Crunchyroll. (Guess it'll be longer still until I wind up seeing the second episode of this. Fun!) *** You know whose Roku app has and continues to work fine? The US anime community's punching bag, Funimation. Their app doesn't fail to load videos. Their app doesn't make you wait potentially hours after an episode premieres to watch it. Their app doesn't have vague error messages all the time. Their support staff doesn't ignore you or offer you canned responses should you have a need to contact them. Funimation isn't the buggy, antagonistic mess I can't wait to cancel my membership to that CR is. Funimation doesn't put me in the position where pirating their releases might be the only way to actually watch them via my Roku. Funimation isn't the one that puts out press releases about how much they love you while simultaneously ignoring all problems you have. Funimation responds to their users, has an app that works and costs less. But somehow they're the bad guy and CR is the hero. What a joke. *** Other than one about some current holiday sales in their store, the most popular topic on their help site is how to cancel your membership followed by the videos not working correctly. I wonder why! *** And Funimation just announced they're renovating their streaming service. While they haven't answered some of the immediate questions users are already asking ("Does this affect my current subscription? Will prices/features of subscriptions change? Etc.") and there's no guarantee there won't be steps back in the process, it certainly beats CR's stagnation and gradual rotting. CR doesn't change or improve. Things just kinda stop working and maybe if you're lucky they get fixed months or years later. But they probably just don't get fixed. If it has to do with giving them money, CR trips over themselves to promptly help you. Anything that doesn't result in a direct, immediate profit for them? Good luck. CR doesn't care about you. CR doesn't care about their service. CR only cares about money. And they'll make sure you can tell. If you're in the US and want to subscribe to legal anime services, might I suggest Funimation and/or Hulu? I recommend HorribleSubs for anything on CR you're interested in. *** Sheesh, the second episode finally loads. The other video that wouldn't load still won't load, though. Guess I won't be watching that Kiznaiver PV anytime soon. CR is the worst service I've ever subscribed to. I've had issues with Netflix, WWE Network, Hulu, Funimation and Giant Bomb before, but all of them were fixed pretty quickly and none of them were as severe or as pervasive as the issues with CR. (Well, WWE Network's livestream going down for 20-30 minutes during a PPV preshow was pretty bad. And even worse that it happened a second time. Still nowhere near as awful as CR, though.) No service I've used worked perfectly all the time. That I can understand and accept. But when a service fails to work correctly more often than it succeeds, when those problems don't get resolved, when things continually get worse rather than improve, there's only so much patience and understanding I can extend for a paid service like that. CR's communication borders on nonexistent. CR's bugs rarely get fixed. Using the service you're paying them for is at best difficult and tedious, at worst actually impossible. Not even their manga section works correctly. Pages that won't load, chapters that don't go up on time, no ability to create a manga queue, a manga lineup page that hasn't been updated in a year and a half (and yet is still shown on the lineup page because they just don't care), a subpar desktop manga reader that could be improved with small changes so obvious they were the very first thing users suggested on the day it was released (yet they haven't changed anything at all since then), etc. But it does work more reliably than their anime streaming, at least. It seems every time I use CR's service it gives me a new reason to loathe it even more. *** The airing on Toonami has the animation from the Italian airing's OP and ED and that's disappointing both because the Japanese OP and ED are quite a bit better and also the Italian OP and ED animations just aren't interesting. Does this mean Discotek's physical release also has the Italian OP and ED? What a shame. Getting (most) of the dub cast from Part II back for this show is a solid touch and clearly demonstrates, alongside previous Lupin releases from Discotek, that they care about this release. So to see the Italian OP and ED animation being used, whatever the reason(s) for that might be, is unfortunate. *** Oh. It's not just the OP/ED. The whole thing is the Italian airing. Well that explains the OP/ED, but that's even worse.

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Add - More Lupin III: Bye Bye Liberty - Kiki Ippatsu!

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Add - More Lupin the Third: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna “This is my story, after all.” If I were to bother constructing a top 5 anime of the year list, even with so much of 2012 left to go, I am positive this would be on it. This is the best thing to happen to Lupin in decades. This is brilliant. Can I just get to what’s probably the most obvious thing about this show? It looks beautiful. I want, nay, need this on Bluray. From just the art style to the technical aspects to, gee, everything, it’s stunning. Especially towards some of the later episodes. You’ve got to see this show in motion. You don’t really get the full effect of how great this can look in the first episode or so, but even then it’s pleasant. Wow that’s one dark color palette, though. The shading is different. Sometimes it works well, other times it seems a bit excessive. It’s very fitting within the general aesthetic, though. It’s a simply gorgeous show, though. I can’t stress that enough. There, now I can move on. So I consider myself a Lupin fan (even though my list doesn’t have that many Lupin titles). They’ve been largely dependable to offer basically the same thing every time. It’s not fresh, but it’s reliably fun enough. This new title, however, while still true to Lupin at the end of the day, is an incredibly fresh take. It’s Lupin meets gothic and hardboiled literature. The capers are downplayed, especially compared to traditional Lupin, instead displaying a stronger focus on character and setting. The focus on Fujiko can probably be credited for a healthy portion of the difference. Fujiko has long been the franchise’s femme fatale. She’s Lupin’s foil, his distraction. But she’s never the main focus, she’s only what she is to Lupin. Here, though, it’s who is Fujiko to Fujiko? How is that influenced by who she is to others? The series uses this focus on Fujiko to delve not only into new character exploration for long familiar but shallow characters, but to embrace such matters as identity, the feminine and the feminist. In a medium where women are often objectified as toys, reduced merely to fawning maidens, or receive “positive” portrayals by being just like masculine characters (See? Equality!), seeing something that finds the strength in femininity, that embraces its strengths and it’s honest limitations (a “prison,” shall we say?) is refreshing. (You’d think shoujo manga would be a good place to find more of this, but so many of those are actually just awful in that department) You know, equal doesn’t have to imply identical, and erasure is tiresome. Some people seem to be saying Utena is also good for this sort of thing. I really ought to watch that already. Someone who just doesn’t seem to fit is Oscar. He feels so out of place. Even if he makes sense with the themes of the show, he doesn’t mesh well with the narrative. And his character is never given satisfactory resolution. I’m not even sure what to make of the last we see of him. That’s an odd final note to leave on. (spoilers past here) The way I interpret it, it looks like Lupin ultimately liberated Fujiko to the reality of herself. Now I feel like I should watch this title a second time so I can see events in the light of knowing the conclusion. That’s an intriguing dynamic to ultimately use there. While thankfully they averted a message that the reason Fujiko wasn’t a docile female was because she was abused, but rather ultimately because that’s just Fujiko being Fujiko, the undeniable commentary on the male/female dynamic leaves me intrigued on their view of the liberator. But, when we think about it, who actually was Fujiko being liberated from? And why couldn’t she liberate herself? I won’t deprive you of the fun of analyzing the work, but think about those questions after you finish watching and you ought to reach some interesting internal dialogues if you have any knowledge of women’s studies. (If you’re in or going to college, see if you can’t cover a few of your requirements with women’s studies or gender studies classes. Feminist epistemology is interesting, okay?) Hmm. You ought to try looking at the oppressor vs oppressed dynamic as well. So, you can’t miss them: That’s a lot of breasts. But I don’t feel it’s (purely) fan service, but rather an embracing of how sexuality is so central to Fujiko. It’s an embracing of her sexuality for her, not for others. She uses her sexuality to get what she wants. She is the manipulator rather than the manipulated. And she also just has sex because she likes sex. You know, like a human. (No offense to any asexual persons out there.) She owns her sexual agency. There is a huge difference between breasts here and breasts in Eiken. One is purposeful, honest, the nude. The other is exploitative garbage. I’m of course not saying a viewer couldn’t possibly be aroused by Fujiko’s breasts, but the purpose is not to titillate the male gaze. Breasts can arouse, but that’s not the only purpose they can serve. Showing them isn’t exploitative. Forcing them to be hidden away would be exploitative and sexist in this context, however. It’s hard to talk about this show without delving into feminist theory and I’m trying to not just turn this into paragraphs of analysis, so I’m going to change gears. That roller coaster scene was classic Lupin and demonstrates that the staff behind this show can adapt the familiar Lupin tropes into their new take. Man, what couldn’t they make awesome? I want this staff to do so many more things together. I didn’t even touch on the music, did I? It’s great. The sound direction as a whole is. The seiyuu for Zenigata really matches up with his grittier characterization, too. Speaking of Zenigata, having him have sex with Fujiko is an intriguing decision. The moment it happens, he’s no longer classic Zenigata. Instead of the lovable but determined buffoon, he’s a cynical, jaded, flawed detective this side of a typical film noir detective. He’s human, but sort of typecast. It’s telling how little we see him actually attempting to arrest anyone. The way in which Jigen and Goemon were still relevant but very downplayed didn’t feel tacked on, but rather made sense given the scope already discussed. They’re used well when they are. Hmm. Lupin. He’s not as relevant as Fujiko is to this show, but he’s still an important part. He seems true to himself, but subdued somewhat from the wackier playboy of classic red jacket Lupin. Ugh. I said I wouldn’t just delve into analysis, but so much of what I want to say about Lupin is how he relates to Fujiko. But nobody likes being handed a completed puzzle, so I won’t deprive you. I have some quibbles with this series. Some episodes seem weaker than others, the shading isn’t perfectly applied, I’d rather see some character use differ and this isn’t my absolute favorite series of all time. But this isn’t just the best show of the season. This isn’t just one of if not the best show of the year. This is one of the best anime I’ve ever seen, period. I don’t hand these out too liberally, but this is a 10. You need to see this. Was this a great season or what?

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1

890

Add - More Macross Plus (spoilers) My understanding of Macross is, basically, dogfights and music. And they're both there, certainly, but not really in the quantities that Macross Frontier had lead me to expect. But then, that's really the story of Macross Plus. It's Macross minus much in the way of impact. And not just for the lack of music and aerial combat. Visually, there's not anything to really complain about. The things you would expect to be well animated are. The virtual idol looks every bit like a futuristic visualizer, moving smoothly and appropriately choreographed. So too are the aerial maneuvers and the Itano missile circus (and since trying to look up "Itano circus" on Wikipedia redirects you to the Macross entry, you really wouldn't expect any less). Oh sure, visually, it looks dated nearly two decades later, but it's not anything you can't live with. And the music itself isn't bad, either. What there is of it. It's kind of weird how you can have planes and music clearly be important elements of your OVA, and yet deliver so little of either of them. And it could be argued that it's more about the characters, but that's kind of weak, too. It's not the most innovative tale, nor are they the most interesting characters. Two arrogant, immature jerks, a love interest who doesn't really get developed any further than that, constant allusions to some important event in the past that finally gets revealed briefly and in minor detail via a flashback and doesn't matter much to the plot despite how often it came up, blah. It's more a framework of a plot than anything. I mean, the plot synopsis here on MAL is more "the entirety of the plot" than a summary. But hey, you've come to Macross for dogfights, right? And it delivers on that. Eventually. Oh, it's a solid delivery when it finally happens, alright, but you've got three episodes of what's basically lead-up to that. If you just want to see people flying planes, fighting or no, then perhaps you'll be content. But right, right, we started this by mentioning the music. You're really not going to get too many insert songs. Obviously different people are going to enjoy different music, but Yoko Kanno doesn't typically put in a sloppy effort. Having a love interest who used to sing (why she stopped is never made entirely clear [other than the obvious answer of trying to give impact to the moment where she finally sings again for a moment at the end[) and a prolific virtual idol and yet find so little opportunity to actually include songs that have clearly had effort put into them. But that's how Macross Plus is. All the pieces of the puzzle are ultimately there. None of them are really particularly awful, and some are even pretty good, but so many are so underdone that it undercuts the OVA at every turn and produces something with glimmers, but is ultimately a work that doesn't feel finished yet. This fish ought to have been tossed back into the water until it grew some more. I don't think it's due to this being four episodes long. It didn't feel too terribly time constrained. The problem, then, was the result of deliberate decisions that just didn't pan out. A pity.

6

OVA

4

891

Add - More Macross: Do You Remember Love? I'd be remiss not to link to this AWO episode where they discuss the film. I don't agree with literally every opinion stated, but it's a pretty good reflection on the film. I think they capture this better than I would've, so I'll defer to them. Also using this as another spot to recommend AWO in general. (It's the only anime podcast I know of that's worth listening to.) I was torn between a high 8 and a low 9 for this, because it's roughly an 8.5 for me. And as I always am in these situations, I'm left in the tough spot of deciding whether to round up or down. It's just not going to feel quite right either way, so I have to find the one that's less wrong. And I think, ultimately, that's a high 8 (not a choice I reached easily). Of course, any film that hovers on the border between 8 and 9 is one I'd suggest watching. It's not as high a rating as Totoro or Mind Game, sure, but films like Perfect Blue and Nausicaa got an 8 and those are really good films. They're just not quite up to the same par, though.

8

Movie

1

892

Add - More Mad★Bull 34 For a few years now, Eiken has steadfastly maintained its title as the worst anime I've ever seen. That gets the morbidly curious side of me wondering: Surely there's something worse than Eiken out there that I just haven't seen yet, right? And so I've set out to watch a number of very poorly regarded anime titles to see if I can find a new benchmark for awful. This is one such anime. *** Wait. The dub has a different soundtrack than the original Japanese audio? Why? Copyrights? They thought it sounded better? Especially since VHS tapes weren't quite known for commonly featuring multiple audio tracks, the least you could do for someone who got suckered into paying money for this is give them the original music. Sheesh. *** I'll go into more elaborate detail some time or other, but the short answer is that while Mad Bull 34 is a pretty bad anime, no, it's not worse than Eiken. The quest continues.

2

OVA

4

Operation: Worse Than Eiken? Operation: Worse Than Eiken?

893

Add - More Made in Abyss

-

TV

13

SU2017 SU2017

894

Add - More Magic-Kyun! Renaissance

5

TV

13

FA2016 FA2016

895

Add - More Magical☆Star Kanon 100% ...did I miss something? Since when does Kanon know about Elsie's raiment? (Google says "raiment" just means clothes. Then why use that specific term? English language, you still hold so many mysteries for me to solve.) I hope the third season doesn't leave me with that lost feeling like people are saying it probably will. Well, regardless, it's pretty much a throwaway OVA and a kind of crummy one at that. Unless you really enjoy Kanon's lackluster pop songs and low effort animation with a boring story, skip this one. It's TWGOK only without most of what makes TWGOK worth watching in the first place.

3

OVA

1

896

Add - More Mahoraba: Heartful Days (Rating things in a timely fashion is for chumps!) *** (So is explaining your rating once you finally settle on it.)

5

TV

26

WI2005 WI2005

897

Add - More Mahoromatic: Automatic Maiden

6

TV

12

"Actually, confusing 'gynoids' with 'androids' is a common mistake.", FA2001 "Actually, confusing 'gynoids' with 'androids' is a common mistake.", FA2001

898

Add - More Mahou no Tenshi Creamy Mami (episode 37 spoilers) So, just to reiterate, they sent a speeding truck careening towards Mami, knocked her out with chloroform, kidnapped her and made her think her coworker had been murdered. All to film a more convincing horror movie trailer. And the episode ultimately plays it off as scampish. She could have died. Their actions border on sociopathy. And also depend on a number of uncertain things happening. Like, what the heck, yo? There's a bit of an issue with the writing in this episode.

-

TV

52

I wish I were big, SU1983 I wish I were big, SU1983

899

Add - More Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Let me reiterate that 6 is not a bad score. It's just not a particularly great one, either. This season of Nanoha is, to paraphrase an old Nintendo commercial, a little bit fanservice, a little bit mahou shoujo fights, a little bit friendship, a little bit lacking in narrative strength, a little bit good. Nanoha feels like I'm watching the start of a bigger thing only it's taking too long to get going. And I suppose it's less "feels like" and more "is the case." Nanoha's narrative kind of meanders for a bit, feeling like it's stretching out its plot to fill a whole cour. Lob off a few episodes and you'd probably have something tighter. Battles in Nanoha are.... eh. They don't come across as warriors using logic to plan their attacks (see JJBA), but just characters mindlessly casting their big moves, swinging their magic around like a club. Which they're supposed to, narratively, to be fair, but that doesn't make it any more interesting to watch. I'd accept it for an opening arc, but then that would make this entire season basically an opening arc leading to more interesting fights. And that means future Nanoha installments might deliver, but when we're scoring this one, it can't be scored on the hypothetical merits of those later seasons. Their payoff is then, this score is now. You get a number of these fights and, of course, they also serve a narrative purpose, but wouldn't you like them to be visually interesting? Wouldn't you like them to feel less arbitrary? I would. The plot to Nanoha is pretty basic mahou shoujo. Girl gets magical powers, girl has to collect thing by defeating monster, big bad gets introduced, magical girls defeat it by the power of friendship and justice. That's either a thing you're interested in or you're not. The execution here seems pretty average. I'm not seeing a creator's unique voice being communicated across the formula. I'm just seeing the formula. Nanoha and Fate aren't particularly interesting characters. They only have faint traces of personalities. There's determined, pro-justice Nanoha and the maudlin Fate. Adjectives are poor substitutes for personalities. The animation gets pretty good at rare and odd moments. There is a scene of Nanoha and her family eating a meal early on that displays a fair bit of effort, for example. Most of the show is not like this, and instead contains somewhat dull animation, which is pretty disappointing when you consider they're animating magic so they have both reason and obligation to make it appear pretty dang neat and whimsical. Somewhere in six range, probably towards the lower end of that. Not a bad mahou shoujo anime, but wanting in several respects and seems more to be opening up future developments than creating something that's independently strong. All below was written prior. *** So it's a secret to nobody that PreCure has a primary audience of children, and then a secondary audience of older men (Guess why!). This, being a late night anime, and having that secondary audience as its primary audience, seems to be catering more to why that secondary audience likes PreCure in the first place. What a surprise. Not being an older, pedophiliac man, I still have my reasons to come to mahou shoujo, They just tend not to be so focused around the transformation scenes. Well, if I want them to make me my mahou shoujo, they've got to make their money. It's just one of those things I've to put up with. I do hope the pandering doesn't get too intense. Little girls momentarily reduced down to their skivvies (or less) is a somewhat more egregious version of the Doritos in the first Evangelion Rebuild. That is, I can live with it, but I know it serves no purpose other than an economic one and this matter is a touch groanworthy. But if that's it, I'll deal with it. So long as the rest is good enough to make it worth it, of course. Anime: Where you can sexualize third graders and get sequels and movies. (Yes, yes, "they're just drawings." I'm not trying to take your precious loli away. Relax.) *** Since I know, from observation, that some lolicons get particularly defensive when they feel even the slightest of slights being levied against their prurient interest, I suppose I should clarify. I don't really care if you get off on Nanoha or whatever. And yes, on some level the objectification of women, yet again, bothers me, but even though you never stop noticing it you just get inured to all the casual sexism in anime. The (main) issue is the crass, cynical, commercial nature of the pandering, in that it adds nothing of real substance to the show and is just there to be there. And that's something that's a negative not just in the case of loli content, but for women and men of any age. And hey, maybe you like leering at Nanoha's transformation scenes (They're betting that enough people do!). But there's a difference between what you might find pleasurable (I do have a libido myself. "I am a healthy young woman, after all.") and what actually contributes to the show instead of coming off as purely a measure to sell more figs and discs.

6

TV

13

FA2004 FA2004

900

Add - More Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica I want to watch a few other mahou shoujo series for perspective's sake before I comment on Madoka. *** So, not (yet?) composing a whole collected thing on Madoka, but some points: A. Madoka isn't a "deconstruction" of anything. B. Madoka didn't invent the intersection of "dark" and magical girls. C. Urobuchi didn't singlehandedly write Madoka. D. It's one thing when the "teeming masses," if you will, call Madoka "perfect" or a "masterpiece" because anime fans, as a bulk mass, tend to throw around those words pretty casually. I mean, think of how many lists on MAL have easily 70-90% of the anime on them scored 10 without a second thought. But when I see people who actually do put some thought into using those sorts of words, who really should know better, consider Madoka to be flawless, well that's just embarrassing to watch. E. Not linking it because I 100% agree with it, but because it's an interesting critical post on Madoka, check this out. The last paragraph's guess as to why Madoka has gotten the reaction it has is depressingly likely to be accurate. F. There were things you could see in the series that suggested the real what and why of Madoka and its flaws, but the third movie really pulls back the curtain and embraces all of that wholeheartedly. But of course, since it's ~Madoka~, people love it regardless. G. Once/if Shaft stops milking Madoka, it will fade from memory. It will not stand as a classic. Haruhi was huge once. Not anymore. SAO, Kill la Kill, series like that, all destined to become yesterday's news. And a lot of people don't want to believe that now. Some people even think Madoka is already influencing series (because, again, they think Madoka invented mixing "dark" with genres that aren't traditionally dark). These people want to believe Madoka is a modern Eva. But they're just like fans of any other flash in the pan. Space Dandy is the start of a new trend! Kill la Kill is saving anime! Never let yourself get swallowed up in that sort of hype, by the way. It happens pretty often and it's utter bunk a lot more often than it isn't. As stated earlier, anime fans are pretty liberal when it comes to hyping things up. Truly, masters of the art of puffery. (If at any point it sounds like I have some disdain for the canons of anime fandom, it's only because I do. If that makes me an "elitist," I'll gladly accept that [what you consider to be a] pejorative over the alternative.) *** It seems the blog post I linked to is now inaccessible. Lamentable.

7

TV

12

(Not a deconstruction of mahou shoujo, by the way), WI2011 (Not a deconstruction of mahou shoujo, by the way), WI2011

901

Add - More Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Movie 3: Hangyaku no Monogatari All below was written prior. *** I will almost certainly be skipping the first two movies since they're slated to be recaps, but new content? Sure. Madoka was an alright series, so I'm down for that.

4

Movie

1

Audibly pleasing and visually dazzling overindulgent Madoka fanfiction. Audibly pleasing and visually dazzling overindulgent Madoka fanfiction.

902

Add - More Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica Movie 3: Hangyaku no Monogatari - Magica Quartet x Nisioisin

-

Movie

4

903

Add - More Mahou Shoujo Taisen

4

TV

26

SP2014 SP2014

904

Add - More Mahou Shoujo? Naria☆Girls You know, there are very few things on MAL where my giving them a score of 4 would actually bring their average score up. Gee wilikers, MAL. Did many not get what sort of show this was, or did they understand but it just didn't grab them in the way gdgd Faeries has managed to find appeal? Because this seems like a particularly negative reaction. And whatever gulf you may wish to say exists between gdgd and this doesn't seem quite that drastic. While average MAL scores don't really matter, this is still a bit of a curious case.

4

TV

12

SU2016 SU2016

905

Add - More Mahou Yuugi 2D

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ONA

24

906

Add - More Mahou Yuugi 3D

-

OVA

1

907

Add - More Mahoutsukai Nara Miso wo Kue!

-

OVA

1

I strongly suspect the "prize-winning" light novel this is excerpting from isn't very good at all. I strongly suspect the "prize-winning" light novel this is excerpting from isn't very good at all.

908

Add - More Mahoutsukai no Yome: Hoshi Matsu Hito After viewing the second one of these, I was gonna come here and write something about how it seemed odd that this manga still hadn't been adapted to a TV anime series. But before that could happen, MAL alerted me that they'd added a new series to their database: A two-cour TV anime adaptation of The Ancient Magus' Bride. That solves that, then. (Neat!) Also now that there'll be a The Ancient Magus' Bride anime that isn't an anime original plot, I should probably pick up the pace a little with reading the manga. Unless I don't care about the anime spoiling the manga. Do I? You could argue the inverse and say reading the manga would be spoiling the anime, but I started the manga first so, eh. Though I do prefer anime as a medium to manga as a medium. Oh, whatever, it'll just work out somehow. now someone hug child chise already *** There's a PV out for the upcoming TV series and, while PVs are only ever as indicative of a full series as they are, it's optimism-inducing. And it's also multiple seasons away right now, so probably better to just shove it in the back of my mind for a bit.

-

OVA

3

909

Add - More MahoYome: Aisatsu

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ONA

1

910

Add - More Mai Mai Shinko to Sennen no Mahou

5

Movie

1

911

Add - More Mai Zhu

-

Movie

1

912

Add - More Majo no Takkyuubin At first, I thought this would be an effort from Ghibli to contrast urban areas with rural areas. But rather than that, it turned out to be a narrative about establishing one's own place in the world. A common narrative, but I'm not opposed to common narratives so long as they're done well. The main issue here is that, while alright, there's nothing particularly exceptional about the narrative. Instead, you just get another version of a story that's been retold for centuries. It comes off as more derivative than interesting. The animation can be a little questionable at points, but is generally pretty solid with great background work. You could easily guess this film was by the same studio that made My Neighbor Totoro just from looking at it, never mind the logo at the beginning (or the quick flash of the studio name on a bus, for that matter). Which is to say it's pleasing, but it doesn't quite "wow" you. The music here isn't particularly memorable, which means it was neither interesting nor awful enough to stand out much. That's not the worst thing for background music. But you don't have to take the same track as FLCL to have good background music. Look to Cowboy Bebop and you'll find an example of having memorable background tracks that don't steal the show. This is a rather low 7, but a bit too strong to be a 6. Consider it somewhere betwixt the two. It's simple, ordinary and constructed alright. Don't feel overly compelled to watch it, but you probably won't mind it if you do.

7

Movie

1

"Kiki's Delivery Service" "Kiki's Delivery Service"

913

Add - More Majokko Tsukune-chan

6

OVA

6

914

Add - More Makasete Iruka!

-

OVA

1

915

Add - More Makeruna!! Aku no Gundan!

-

TV

12

SP2017 SP2017

916

Add - More Mangirl!

4

TV

13

WI2013 WI2013

917

Add - More Mangirl!: Asobu Henshuu Girl

-

Special

1

918

Add - More Manie-Manie: Meikyuu Monogatari Neat, an anthology. The first work is largely a visual affair. Kind of a Merrie Melodies meets more modern visual aesthetic. Not much of a plot to speak of, but pretty to look at. The second work has some solid design work, but isn't visually interesting in motion. The narrative is poorly executed and shallow. The final work is the best of the three, offering pleasant visuals and an interesting, but imperfect narrative. Oh well. It was fun like these things usually are.

7

Movie

3

"Neo Tokyo" "Neo Tokyo"

919

Add - More Marginal#4: Kiss kara Tsukuru Big Bang

5

TV

12

WI2017 WI2017

920

Add - More Maria-sama ga Miteru

-

TV

13

WI2004 WI2004

921

Add - More Maria-sama ga Miteru 3rd

-

OVA

5

922

Add - More Maria-sama ga Miteru 3rd Specials

-

Special

5

923

Add - More Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th

-

TV

13

WI2009 WI2009

924

Add - More Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th Specials

-

Special

11

925

Add - More Maria-sama ga Miteru Specials

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Special

7

926

Add - More Maria-sama ga Miteru: Haru

-

TV

13

SU2004 SU2004

927

Add - More Maria-sama ga Miteru: Haru Specials

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Special

6

928

Add - More Maria†Holic

6

TV

12

WI2009 WI2009

929

Add - More Maria†Holic Alive (Later.)

5

TV

12

SP2011 SP2011

930

Add - More Marie & Gali Episode Zero

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Special

1

931

Add - More Marimo no Hana: Saikyou Butouha Shougakusei Densetsu So the importance of hiring good seiyuu really can't be understated. A lot of cartoons have women voicing young boys because before puberty, their voices are imitable by adult women. But they're not the same as a young girl's. Whoever voiced Masuru apparently missed that memo. A few other side chracters whose names I didn't bother learning had seiyuu who sounded like they didn't even want to be there. It's called "voice acting" for a good reason. Most any schlub can read lines off a script. The only problem is that it'll sound awkward, unnatural, terrible. It ought to give the impression of the character speaking. But here, it may as well just have been an intern at the office because so many of these voices are just entirely off. Speaking of off, let this be a reminder that these characters are supposed to be in the fourth and fifth grade, yet a few of them look like high schoolers in small bodies. If you're going to have generic designs, they could at least be children's designs. Rarely does this OVA miss a chance to hold back on its animation. Shortcuts are taken on a number of occasions to animate less movement. (spoilers) Forgive me for a second if I'm struggling to believe this. So these fifth graders are able to run roughshod over their school to the point that adults can't even intervene? And they just casually have a sizable stockpile of weaponry? Where are the parents? Where is the school staff? Where is the police? Where's anyone at all with some authority to step in? They're children! You're not going up against hardcore Yakuza members. This could easily be stopped but no, just let these elementary school students engage in a gang fight. These kids are ruthless, too. One of them attempted to murder the other. Over a schoolyard tiff. Murder. You don't just go 0 to murderer. This kid has clearly been a problem element for a while and nobody does anything. Again, seriously, let me just point out that the adults in this situation are either too apathetic or too cowardly to do anything about this. Fights happen at schools. But nunchucks and attempted murder? Right out on the school grounds in broad daylight during the lunch break? I'd say that elevates this past a squabble and right into a pretty serious problem. Now, not every school is as strict as the ones that ban tag for being "too competitive," but short of that one school from Battle Royale I can't see any school that would just see this as kids being kids. It's a good thing that no matter how terrible of a beating her friends take, they can easily just get back up almost instantly. And when you're so weak your foes simply shrug you off, it only makes sense that they would be intimidated when you then try to block them with a human wall. How could they possibly overpower the same people they have repeatedly overpowered with ease? They've only got all the physical strength advantages and weapons. You can find something going wrong basically constantly with this OVA. It sure made me not want to read the manga it's adapting. Garbage. A low 2.

2

OVA

1

932

Add - More Mashiro-iro Symphony: Airi ga Anata no Kanojo ni!?

-

Special

1

933

Add - More Mashiro-iro Symphony: The Color of Lovers

6

TV

12

FA2011 FA2011

934

Add - More Mashiro-iro Symphony: The Color of Lovers Picture Drama

-

Special

2

935

Add - More Mashle

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TV

12

936

Add - More Mashle: Mash Burnedead to Fushigi na Tegami

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TV Special

1

937

Add - More Masuda Kousuke Gekijou Gag Manga Biyori

1

TV

12

WI2005 WI2005

938

Add - More Mawaru Penguindrum Because I can never have too many things tagged "score/comment later," after all. They'll be tended to eventually, though. All below was written before finishing. *** Whoa. This was a Summer 2011 show? I've had this on hold for nearly a year? Sheesh. Well, it's not exactly a great season right now, so it seems like the perfect time to finally pick this back up. *** It's coming up on 500 days now. I'm terrible at finishing things, aren't I? Well, I've already decided to try to heavily limit starting new things before this watching list shrinks a bit. I think I'll pay more attention to this and Utena once I finish up the Urusei Yatsura franchise. Which only has a bit over a dozen episodes and a score of movies and OVAs left. So basically never. And I've got an important, involved paper to write that I can't get my degree if I don't do well on. Oh goddess I'm never finishing this. *** I said I'd give this and Utena more focus after I was done with Urusei Yatsura, and now the latter half is a fait accompli, and thus the former half is becoming so.

-

TV

24

SU2011 SU2011

939

Add - More Megane-bu! All below was written during airing. *** If you had told me before this season started that this was one of the shows I was going to be watching, I'd have been compelled to wonder if you'd taken leave of your senses. And yet here we are. It's a really dumb show, but it knows it is. It's so ridiculous it's actually kind of delightful. So long as it can keep that up, I'm game. I enjoyed Riding Bean and dubbed Baoh, after all.

4

TV

12

FA2013 FA2013

940

Add - More Mei to Koneko Bus I can't fairly score this. Short of having the good fortune to travel to the Ghibli Museum while this is showing and watching it there, the only method I have of watching this is a better-than-nothing camrip. Given that, I can't fairly judge the art, the sound or anything else affected by the quality inherent to being a camrip. Thus I can't fairly score this, nor can I really comment on these aspects. So this will be brief! The short surely does not live up to the film's quality, but who really expected it to? It still has a fair bit of charm to it, but it feels every bit like the sort of bonus material it is. Fun, but nothing significant or outstanding. Also, feeding a cat a piece of caramel doesn't quite make sense, since cats can't taste sugar. But then, real cats don't function as buses or trains, either. Well, I did say it would be brief.

-

Special

1

Will not be scored; see comments for explanation. Will not be scored; see comments for explanation.

941

Add - More Memories

8

Movie

3

942

Add - More Memory

-

Movie

1

943

Add - More Memory (ONA)

-

ONA

1

944

Add - More Metamorphose

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Movie

1

945

Add - More Metropolis ("When I'm up to it" is really what "later" means, you know. It's not like it takes me weeks or months to write these things [like an hour at the most for the longer ones], but it takes that long for my mind to be in just the right place to reveal to me the score and the explication. It isn't until it is.)

-

Movie

1

Score when I'm up to it. Score when I'm up to it.

946

Add - More Mezame no Hakobune

7

OVA

1

"Open your Mind" "Open your Mind"

947

Add - More Michiko to Hatchin I'm kind of impressed that after seven weeks on Toonami, with her name right in the title of the show and frequently displayed on screen during Toonami's bumpers, so many people online discussing the show while it's airing still seem to have no idea how to spell Michiko's name. Also this dub is pretty alright. Real night and day difference compared to the preceding Sentai dub of Akame ga Kill!. Which shouldn't really be a surprise. It's not like Sentai does much of anything else well, either. Also it'd been like 3.5 years since I'd last watched an episode of this and I'd kind of forgotten most of everything that happened! So Toonami airing it has been a great excuse to just start the show over again. I'll even wind up actually finishing this show! What a world.

-

TV

22

FA2008 FA2008

948

Add - More Midori no Hibi Fansub Group: KAA

5

TV

13

SP2004 SP2004

949

Add - More Mijikamon

-

ONA

12

950

Add - More Mimi wo Sumaseba

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Movie

1

Score later., "Whisper of the heart" Score later., "Whisper of the heart"

951

Add - More Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu

3

TV

12

WI2017 WI2017

952

Add - More Minami Kamakura Koukou Joshi Jitensha-bu: Kita yo, Taiwan! Perhaps the most(/only) interesting thing about this special emerges when you look at who's on the production committee. Setting the special in Taiwan rapidly makes a lot of sense as a calculated business move. And anime doing things because money isn't novel, but doing it at the behest of foreign companies to appeal to foreign audiences is an interesting thing. Also Crunchyroll is on this show's production committee. Your subscription money at work, I guess.

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Special

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953

Add - More Minami-ke

6

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13

FA2007 FA2007

954

Add - More Minami-ke Betsubara

8

OVA

1

955

Add - More Minami-ke Natsuyasumi That's surprisingly bland, considering how Tadaima was in comparison. But very little was even mildly amusing. It's like a really boring episode of Tadaima. Well, I suppose it's less "is like" and more just "is." And surprise, when this show isn't funny, there's not a whole bunch else going on that's interesting. A low 4 and totally skippable unless the fanservice elements of this episode interest you, I guess. Bummer. This seemed like a reasonably safe bet, too.

4

OVA

1

956

Add - More Minami-ke Okaeri

4

TV

13

WI2009 WI2009

957

Add - More Minami-ke Okawari

8

TV

13

WI2008 WI2008

958

Add - More Minami-ke Omatase Considering how often this franchise changes hands, the fact that its quality is all over the map shouldn't be too surprising. The fourth season is in the very questionable hands of Feel, and this OVA gives us a taste of what to expect. It's a not awful, but very samey retread of past Minami-ke series that feels more seasons 1 and 3 than season 2 (thankfully). If this OVA is any indication, this fourth season certainly will not be the highlight of the Minami-ke franchise, but should be watchable. Weak, a bit too repetitive, but still fun enough.

6

OVA

1

959

Add - More Minami-ke Tadaima I don't exactly know how Minami-ke has reached a fourth season, but I'm a bit glad that it did. Tadaima is a thoroughly decent entry in the franchise. It's rather consistently amusing. The animation isn't very elaborate, but the humor is there. The roster of characters has attention split amongst them imperfectly, but not in an overly lopsided fashion. The real flaw there might be that there's simply too many characters for this narrative to handle. There were a few who, when they appeared on screen, I knew I recognized them and had some faint idea who they were, but couldn't recall their name, their personality or who they were associated with because they had just been so squeezed out of the show. Tadaima also ups the fanservice a bit from past seasons and it just feels out of place for the show. They're uncommon, but a moment like a shot meant to accentuate Kana's wiggling butt feels utterly unnatural to the spirit of the show. Tadaima neither needs nor wants that sort of element. The music is okay if very repetitive and the seiyuu do an acceptable job. Tadaima has noticeable faults and missteps, but most elements range from okay to good. Somewhere in the seven range. I'd consider this the best anime that started in winter and I stuck with. (People say Chihayafuru's pretty good, but I haven't seen the first season. Alas.) Not the top of the heap, but certainly something worth watching. All below was written prior to completion. *** You know, most shows don't even get a second season. So you can imagine how small the number of shows that get four seasons is. And yet somehow here we are. This, an okay slice of life series, has become one of those few. I didn't really need a fourth season of this. In fact, I don't think I'd ever heard anyone at all say they were hoping for another season of Minami-ke. Not because it was bad. Well, okay, the second season was. But the overall reason was because, yeah, we already had enough Minami-ke. Imagine if you ate a meal at, let's say Fridays, and it was okay and now you're pretty full. Then the waiter comes by and says "Who wants dessert?" That's Minami-ke Tadaima. *** Wait a minute... I said here that the second season was bad, but I gave it an 8. Well that doesn't add up. It's because I goofed and confused it with the third season, which was indeed bad. Sorry, second season! (This fourth season is alright.)

7

TV

13

WI2013 WI2013

960

Add - More Mind Game

9

Movie

1

961

Add - More Mini Dragon

-

ONA

13

962

Add - More Minori Scramble! I dislike this for the same reason I dropped Hare+Guu and Potemayo. This type of humor just doesn't appeal to me at all. That said, the OVA does look alright. You can certainly see the ufotable influence. But it doesn't look that great, and it's not just an exhibition of visuals, so it doesn't get the Iblard Jikan treatment in terms of score. Although, if you did like Hare+Guu and shows with that sort of humor, you might like this one. But this is another comedy that didn't amuse me at all, nor did it have anything else to its credit, plotwise.

3

OVA

1

963

Add - More Mirai Nikki

3

OVA

1

964

Add - More Miss Monochrome The Animation

4

TV

13

FA2013 FA2013

965

Add - More Miss Monochrome The Animation 2

-

TV

13

SU2015 SU2015

966

Add - More Miss Monochrome The Animation 3

-

TV

13

FA2015 FA2015

967

Add - More Miss Monochrome The Animation: Manager

-

OVA

1

968

Add - More Miss Monochrome The Animation: Soccer-hen

-

ONA

1

969

Add - More Miss Monochrome: Music Clips

-

Music

15

970

Add - More Mitsuboshi Colors

7

TV

12

WI2018 WI2018

971

Add - More Mitsudomoe

8

TV

13

SU2010 SU2010

972

Add - More Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu!

8

TV

8

WI2011 WI2011

973

Add - More Mitsudomoe: Oppai Ippai Mama Genki

-

Special

1

974

Add - More Mitsuwano

-

OVA

1

975

Add - More Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku MAL, MAL, 4 is not necessarily "bad." It's just one point below average, after all. "Subpar" would really be a better descriptor. And that's what this almost is. It's watchable, sure, but that's about it. If this were a full-length series, you wouldn't watch it. But for a few minutes a week, it's acceptable. Although that raises the question: Now that it's over, should anyone go back and marathon it? No, probably not. There's not much to speak of in the way of animation, the music just meets the bare minimum, the humor is barely there, and if Senyuu can be funny in its runtime, this show doesn't have an excuse. Saying that this is a series you can "put up with" might be a bit overly harsh, but it's not one that offers a single compelling reason to watch it even if it doesn't do anything too awfully, either. It's just a thing that exists and that's perhaps the most praise and condemnation it can be offered. It's not noteworthy at all. A high 3. Skip it. All below was written prior. *** I don't really demand much more out of short anime like this than being watchable, and this seems to fit that bill. I'd say something about grading on a curve, but I don't understand how grade curves actually work. We learned about that in a statistics course I took, but I didn't really understand any of that stuff too well. I only got as good a grade as I did thanks to the grade curve I don't understand. (How poorly did other people do, then?) Why yes, the comments field is also my microblog.

3

ONA

10

SP2013 SP2013

976

Add - More Mizu no Kotoba

7

TV Special

1

"Aquatic Language" "Aquatic Language"

977

Add - More MM! There's nothing special about this. It's just standard Xebec fanservice. A whole host of fetishes all gravitating around S&M. You don't watch it for the plot. It works for what it is, but it's nothing more than that.

5

TV

12

FA2010 FA2010

978

Add - More MM! Specials They're just brief little snippets of pure fan service. Basically cutting out the foreplay. If you actually cared about MM's plot, this has nothing to offer in that regard.

-

Special

9

979

Add - More Mob Psycho 100 There's some speculation that Funimation and Toonami have struck a deal to air this show. And while the basis for that speculation isn't particularly strong (it's the only dub Funimation hasn't listed a premiere date for this season), the idea that Toonami would be interested in this isn't difficult to believe. One Punch Man did really well for them, and while this show is, indeed, a different show and it was a little less popular, given the amount of overlap and that being "a little less popular" than one of modern Toonami's best performing shows would still be a really solid performance, one imagines interest on Toonami's part is barely even a question. The only questions are whether Funimation has the proper television rights to make it happen (they probably do) and the price. So long as those two things can both be met satisfactorily, it's almost certainly just a question of "when" rather than "if." Also comparing Mob Psycho 100 to OPM does this show a bit of a disservice (because Mob Psycho 100 is a better show, you see), but that's another matter.

-

TV

12

SU2016 SU2016

980

Add - More Mob Psycho 100: Reigen - Shirarezaru Kiseki no Reinouryokusha

-

Special

1

981

Add - More Modern

-

Movie

1

982

Add - More Momo e no Tegami A conundrum: When someone else has offered what I feel are great insights into a work, it only feels right to share them here. No First Prize has done it again with a review that covers anything I would've said and comes to the same conclusions I reached, more or less. I don't think I'll put what's there much better than they did, so I'm not just going to put a redundant comment here. Consider it a mark of respect. Take note if you're curious: No First Prize is a good, but not exclusive, sample of what it'd be nice for most reviews to be like in my opinion.

3

Movie

1

"A Letter to Momo" "A Letter to Momo"

983

Add - More Momokuri

-

ONA

26

SU2016 SU2016

984

Add - More Monogatari Series: Second Season Oh man, it already feels like I'm watching so many more things compared to last season. I suspect I'll drop a few of them before the season ends, but even after that this should still prove to have been a more interesting season than the preceding one. *** It's kind of weird to see people pointing out that various parts of these episodes seem like Shaft ran into money or time restraints and couldn't realize their vision for the TV broadcasts. I mean, you should've just assumed that before it even aired. Bakemonogatari ran unfinished episodes. SZS (or one of the seasons) ran without it's OP for a few episodes. Shaft shows are well known for having significant differences in their BD releases, and yet there are still people who act like they've discovered something novel. Really, if you have the patience for it you should always just skip Shaft shows as they air and get the fixed/completed BD releases, but of course you miss all the discussion that way and who has the patience?

8

TV

26

The thing is, in terms of writing, Araragi is actually the weakest character in the franchise. But he's surrounded by much stronger side characters, SU2013 The thing is, in terms of writing, Araragi is actually the weakest character in the franchise. But he's surrounded by much stronger side characters, SU2013

985

Add - More Mononoke I can't proffer a score and comment for this as quickly as I could for say, Chuu2 or something like that. Not that it should take forever or anything, but a small bit of time to process it. All below was written prior (it was a bit ago, and my format for these comments has shifted) *** So according to AnimeCF (which is a neat, algorithm-based site that suggests what you'd probably like to watch next. You should give it a go if you've never been there), this is the show it thinks I would like most. Its predictions match up with my scores and tastes more often than they don't, and it is Noitamina, so I guess I almost have to. (I'm kind of planning to watch almost everything Noitamina anyway, so...) Alright, one episode in. Oh ho, what is this? I'm intrigued, but unsure what to make of it. I find it kind of vague to describe it as "odd," but that's the best I've got right now. (I just saw a comparison of the BD version to the HDTV rips I have. There's no contest between them. So I'm putting this on hold until the dust settles with those and I can swap out for a better release.) *** So a BD version came out a while ago but I never quite got around to the "picking this back up" part. Whoops!

-

TV

12

AnimeCF clause, Score later, SU2007 AnimeCF clause, Score later, SU2007

986

Add - More Mononoke Hime

-

Movie

1

"Princess Mononoke" "Princess Mononoke"

987

Add - More Moonrakers

-

ONA

1

988

Add - More Mori no e

-

Music

1

989

Add - More Morita-san wa Mukuchi

-

OVA

1

990

Add - More Morita-san wa Mukuchi.

-

TV

13

SU2011 SU2011

991

Add - More Morita-san wa Mukuchi. 2

3

TV

13

(Score represents both "seasons" as a whole.), FA2011 (Score represents both "seasons" as a whole.), FA2011

992

Add - More Morita-san wa Mukuchi. Specials

-

Special

2

993

Add - More Mormorando

-

Movie

1

994

Add - More Mouretsu Pirates (spoilers) Where do I start? I’ll go with the beginning. So I want you to take a good look at the title of this show: “Bodacious Space Pirates.” I want you to keep that in mind. That title is one giant lie for almost the entire show. Well, okay, there’s a fair bit of space. But the bodacity and piracy parts just aren’t there. But let me take you through all of the frustration before we get to that part. The show starts in all the right directions. Alright, here’s a character, she’s finding out she’s going to be a space pirate, we’re in the clear so far. Her mom has her fire a gun and warns her she might need to use that knowledge some day. And at this point, I’m looking forward to more of the show. They’re suggesting an interesting future. And then we get to Marika’s yacht club. Oh. Alright. Hey, sure, an introductory arc. A little electronic warfare before we get to some real piracy and space adventuring. Marika decides to be a pirate after all (surprise), and we’re five episodes in. During that time we learn that a non-aggression pact has been signed, thus protecting Marika. Oh, of course! Hey, she needs to get some training before a real battle occurs. Which will totally happen soon enough. Definitely. Enter episode six. Our first bit of piracy! Woohoo! Wait, what’s this? Piracy is basically just entertainment for the wealthy? They... they’re just putting on a show? Are you kidding me? No, no, calm down. I’m sure that’s just how we’re starting out before we get to some real piracy. Man, they’re sure taking a while with this whole introduction thing. And then there’s a new character who introduces a new arc where nothing happens. No real combat, no piracy, no anything. It’s like an escort mission in a video game, only in anime form and with zero challenge. It concludes with nobody hurt, everybody friends, field trip’s over. Then it’s back to Earth, and chocolate parfaits, and some kind of windsurfing or something with a whole bunch of slice of life high school antics and somewhere at this point you’ve accepted that no, this show isn’t getting warmed up, this is actually it. It’s a whole bunch of nothing. But then finally you get three episodes at the end that are actually good (not great). That’s after 23 episodes of garbage. That’s roughly 9.2 hours of awful anime to get to just three good episodes. If you think that’s worth it, you’re a masochist. (And so am I apparently for watching this whole thing.) Shows like this are why I deplore arguments about “enduring” a show to get to the small part that’s good. Here’s a tip: If at any point you’d consider yourself to be “enduring” a show, you’re watching the wrong show. I was promised bodacious space piracy. I got a bunch of Chiaki being a tsundere along with some annoying side characters in the yacht club that got way too much time. You see, those last three episodes are what the start of a good series in this genre looks like. If the show had been like those three episodes most of the time and broke it up with a few episodes of those high school antics, it’d probably be a decent show. But that just isn’t the case. By the way, the animation here is terrible too. Many times I thought it was my computer lagging, but to my surprise, I’d discover that zero frames had been dropped. It wasn’t me, it was actually the show that had such a low framerate. Characters are often off model, the CG is hideous and cheap and the animation is technically subpar. Just wonderful. Bodacious Space Pirates is a show that isn’t even about space piracy and even when it is, it has all the edges rounded off to be as docile, bland and flavorless as possible. Are those last three episodes anime original material? Because they’re like a whole different show. You see, Bodacious Space Pirates is terrible. That’s not even under debate. But there’s a movie coming out. And if it’s like those last three episodes, I’d watch it. But not if it’s like the rest of the show. Don’t watch this show. Don’t let it fool you into thinking it’s something it isn’t. You do not need to sit through 23 episodes to get to three episodes of worthwhile material. In the time it takes you to do that, you could watch entire shows that are great in every episode. Trust me on this one. There’s actually an episode where almost all of it is about Marika cleaning up garbage on her ship. Really. And it’s fitting, because the show itself is garbage. (Oh, and Luca is possibly the most worthless, noncontributing character this show could’ve had.)

2

TV

26

WI2012 WI2012

995

Add - More Mouretsu Pirates: Abyss of Hyperspace

-

Movie

1

996

Add - More Mousou Dairinin I'd score/comment this but it's honestly been way too long since I've seen this for me to do that.

-

TV

13

WI2004, "Paranoia Agent" WI2004, "Paranoia Agent"

997

Add - More MTV ID (Shunsuke Saitou)

-

PV

2

998

Add - More Mudazumo Naki Kaikaku: The Legend of Koizumi

-

OVA

3

999

Add - More Muramasa

-

Movie

1

1000

Add - More Murder Murder is a charming, playful little parody short. The animation is hardly technically impressive (yes, it's from the 60s, but you can find better from decades prior, so no excuses), yet the idea is simple but effective. There is not much to Murder, but it's worth your ten minutes for something that's just, ya know, fun and enjoyable. Good enough, right?

6

Movie

1

1001

Add - More Mushishi AnimeCF and MALGraph both seem to think I'll like this, so here we go.

-

TV

26

FA2005 FA2005

1002

Add - More Mushishi Zoku Shou

-

TV

10

(First halves of split cour series don't get their own scores.), SP2014 (First halves of split cour series don't get their own scores.), SP2014

1003

Add - More Mushishi Zoku Shou 2nd Season

-

TV

10

FA2014 FA2014

1004

Add - More Mushishi Zoku Shou: Odoro no Michi

-

TV Special

1

1005

Add - More Mushishi Zoku Shou: Suzu no Shizuku

-

Movie

1

1006

Add - More Mushishi: Hihamukage

-

TV Special

1

1007

Add - More Muteki Kanban Musume

6

TV

12

"Ramen Fighter Miki", SU2006 "Ramen Fighter Miki", SU2006

1008

Add - More Muybridge no Ito

-

Movie

1

1009

Add - More Nagasarete Airantou I started writing three different things here but they were all dumber than this show so I deleted them. Is there a better word than "dumb" to describe this sort of thing? People seem to take it as a derogative even though that's not the intent. *** If they can ride/be carried by flying animals they can talk to, why haven't they asked them to carry them/a boat over and past the whirlpools? *** So basically, there's an island with only women who are quite competent and things are going great. And our male main character shows up and the only things he has to offer are semen and patriarchal gender roles. And every time he brings up the latter in this society where that hasn't been normalized, the response is basically "What? That's dumb." His incessant need to protect their purity? Baffling and silly to them. His assertion that men need to protect women? Dude, they're stronger than him, they can stand up for themselves and they can also stand up for him if they want. It'd almost be charmingly subversive. Except for the part where the show somehow recognizes that these are constructs, sees their folly, but still winds up at the conclusion that they're actually totally awesome and they're what makes the main character someone special bringing the gifts of traditional gender roles to these poor, noble savages because it's apparently so axiomatic to the creators of this that those constructed gender roles are great that they've turned this cognitive dissonance into the central premise of the show. So close, yet so far. *** The show depicts the main character as stubbornly refusing to acknowledge truths that conflict with his preconceived narrative of how the world works even when contrary truths are clearly and obviously staring him in the face (ghosts don't exist, kappas don't exist, etc.). The irony here sure is something.

5

TV

26

SP2007 SP2007

1010

Add - More Nakedyouth I worry I just got added to some sort of list by Googling "nakedyouth."

-

ONA

1

MAL SS MAL SS

1011

Add - More Nana Maru San Batsu

4

TV

12

"Fastest Finger First", SU2017 "Fastest Finger First", SU2017

1012

Add - More Nanbaka

-

TV

13

FA2016 FA2016

1013

Add - More Nandaka Velonica Downloaded Episodes: 10

-

TV

10

SP2014 SP2014

1014

Add - More Nasu: Andalusia no Natsu Downloaded Episodes: 1

-

Movie

1

Score sometime. Score sometime.

1015

Add - More Natsu no Arashi!

7

TV

13

SP2009 SP2009

1016

Add - More Natsu no Arashi! Akinaichuu

-

TV

13

FA2009 FA2009

1017

Add - More Natsuyuki Rendezvous Not quite sure exactly what to make of it yet.

-

TV

11

SU2012 SU2012

1018

Add - More Nazo no Kanojo X (spoilers) Maybe it says something that it took me roughly a week to decide on a score for this series. We’ve all heard the stereotype of the outsider peering into anime. “Why did a rain drop just appear on her head?” “Why’d they just fall down?” And the most relevant here: “Why are their eyes so big?” Part of the answer to that is that their eyes are used to show emotion. A lot about how an anime character feels is portrayed using their eyes. So you can see where this is going, right? Having Urabe’s hair persistently obscuring her eyes takes away this indicator, making her more, well, mysterious. A simple but effective medium-aware approach. Speaking of character designs, it’s like they looted a 90’s anime garage sale. The show is clearly modern, but the character designs feel very out of place with modern aesthetic. I took a look at a few chapters of the manga, however, and it’s pretty true to the source material. But I wonder which is more jarring: These sorts of character designs in an otherwise modern environment that clashes with them, or bringing everything else in line with the character designs, thus forming a more cohesive whole but one that is further divorced from the visual zeitgeist? In the manga, the character designs fit in because the rest of the work looks like that as well. The anime chose not to go that direction, however. If they were going to make everything else look modern, why not the character designs? It seems like it’d be a tough battle to win no matter their choice. After all, if they change the character designs, then fans of the manga will be displeased. Decisions, decisions. I wonder if the whole saliva exchange is supposed to be representative of “swapping spit?” It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to conclude that. It’s also kind of gross to see every time, though. No, really, who just casually samples someone else’s drool? That’s not just creepy, it’s unhygienic. Well, Tsubaki’s a bit of a creep throughout the entire show, really. He’s uncomfortably possessive of Urabe. But if he’s going to be this possessive of her and claim to love her so much, why does he hide their relationship? “I love you, but I’d be ashamed and embarrassed if anyone found out we were dating.” Feel the romance. Anyway, back to the possessiveness: The show tries to play this off as though it’s fine and no big deal. But it’s not. I get that it’s Tsubaki’s first relationship and all, but that doesn’t make him any less controlling nor his actions any less selfish and unfair towards Urabe. It’s also uncool when the show just goes for its “Ha ha, men are driven by their penises!” narrative and Tsubaki starts sexually assaulting Urabe. Because that’s exactly what it was, no matter how they might try to spin it. Tsubaki at least has the common sense to realize that, hey, that was wrong, but the show just kind of brushes it off. In the real world, if you started to sexually assault your partner one day, that would fundamentally alter the relationship for a long time, maybe forever, if it didn’t end it altogether. Things like that are vexing. It automatically sours the show. You find yourself starting to actively despise Tsubaki, but you can tell that’s not the intention of the show. You’re just supposed to see these as foibles, mere bumps in the road. So then you turn your disgust towards the creators. I’m supposed to take this seriously as a story of a relationship and they’re just going to downplay this sort of stuff? That’s not suspension of disbelief, that’s hack writing. I’m not going to dwell on this too much longer since I’ve made the point, but something like this is more disgusting than a little drool. It’s something that can’t be overlooked, but in terms of this comment, I’m moving on to something else: The music gets very repetitive and it’s not really that great. You’ll tire of it very quickly. The drool receives ridiculously lavish attention and seems animated to be as viscous and gross as possible. The show’s pretty visually boring as a whole, actually. Bland looking characters, bland animation, bland all around. Throw in an ending that concludes nothing (gotta leave room for a second season!), and you have a bomb. Well, I went into this looking for a trainwreck. I’m not sure if that’s exactly what I got, but I did get something terrible. For all the boring character interaction, the poor character development, the threads left loose at the end and everything else I’ve mentioned already, this can’t be anything higher than a 2, and maybe I’m being generous in not giving it a 1. You can find better shows, better romances, better basically everything somewhere else. Don’t waste your time on this.

2

TV

13

SP2012 SP2012

1019

Add - More Nazo no Kanojo X: Nazo no Natsu Matsuri

-

OVA

1

1020

Add - More Nazotokine

3

TV

12

FA2016 FA2016

1021

Add - More Needless This is rarely the case, but I kind of want to pick up the manga where the anime left off. For some reason this is a title where I actually care that a bit over half the manga wasn't adapted. Actually, I don't think I've ever cared before. ...maybe I'll do it.

7

TV

24

SU2009 SU2009

1022

Add - More Needless+: Saint Lily Gakuen no Himitsu

-

Special

12

1023

Add - More Neko nanka Yondemo Konai.

-

TV

12

1024

Add - More Neko no Ongaeshi (spoilers) The Cat Returns seems more like an imitation of Miyazaki. Which is not to say aping Miyazaki has to lead to a bad film (it doesn’t) or that Miyazaki always delivers (he doesn’t), but this is such a pale imitation that even being so generous as to dub it “ersatz Ghibli” feels too kind, or perhaps too grave a disservice to Ghibli’s more competent staff members. It’s all the idea of a Ghibli film with almost none of the charm. The Cat Returns is dross. To its credit, it is at least well-animated garbage. Fluid, natural movement is about where the praise ends, however. The imagination just isn’t there. Now, not everything has to be Miyazaki, but since this is Ghibli and they’re doing wrong what he does right, comparing the two seems very fair here. Behold, for example, the visually and thematically drab Kingdom of Cats. Muted, dull colors everywhere for a world that, in Miyazaki’s hands, would have been a more expansive, fleshed out environment with its own realized ecosystem. But here, there’s almost nothing to it. There’s only some faint nods that hey, by the way, they’re cats. Oh boy, you put in sun and cattails. Genius. You sure exploited your whole Kingdom of Cats concept to its fullest potential. Honestly, it doesn’t even matter in the film that they’re cats. Aside from the occasional nods of fish or catnip, they could’ve been anything, even human. There’s a wealth of possible places to go with this, and they go nowhere. Rather than having an impact on the film, it’s just tacked on. That’s lazy. The film is dull. Haru is bland and nondescript, exuding no personality (something Miyazaki characters tend to have no problem with), which makes her only slightly more banal than the other characters who have only slivers of personalities. Do we wind up actually knowing Muta? The Baron? The king? The prince? Anyone? No. The Baron should stand out, they want him to stand out, but he’s so minimal. Other than giving his occasional milquetoast rendition of The Three Musketeers, he’s barely even a presence in the film despite all his screentime. The king is a cliche megalomaniacal monarch drunk with power. That’s it. That’s his entire personality. That’s seriously everything there is to know about him. Muta is curmudgeonly on the surface but a nice guy at heart. The prince, to quote from Douglas Adams, “he’s just this guy, you know?” There’s nothing to them. Nothing that makes them being cats relevant, nothing that makes them relevant. Nothing of interest happens. The castle scene is just rote checking off the list for the aforementioned “drunk with power” king, with a “bring forth the entertainment” scene so generic it’s almost impossible you’ve seen a self-important king in film (and there’s been plenty!) without seeing virtually this exact same scene countless times before. Swap this out for any of those and you’d scarcely notice the change. Zero innovation, zero effort. And it should be livened up by a fight scene, but it isn’t because that scene is so lackluster, brief and tepid before it just gives way to the joys of a labyrinth scene so you can enjoy lots of gray and brown and very little actual trial and tribulation because this is apparently simultaneously the easiest labyrinth ever devised and your typical hapless squad of goons poorly managed by a lethargic leader. It has less tension than a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. The leadup and the conclusion outside of the Kingdom are just the bread on this nothing burger, offering nothing substantive, nothing intriguing, just nothing. Character designs for the cats seem to have not evolved from 85’s Night on the Galactic Railroad. And yes, cats ultimately have to look like cats, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have options. Just go look at actual 3D cats and you’ll see there’s already some decent potential for variety. Throw in a bit of fantasy as you already have, and your options increase even further. And yet, actually, Night on the Galactic Railroad was probably a bit more creative about this. Sad. Just look at how Miyazaki handles cats and you’ll see my point. Human designs likewise lack the vibrancy you’d get from Miyazaki or Isao Takahata, being just sort of humdrum. They’re serviceable, but that’s about it. The BGM lacks punch or memorability, just getting the job done of not clashing with the film and being superior to pure silence, but while it does not detract, it does nothing further to enhance, either. The Cat Returns is a poor film not worth your time, but it raises concerns about the future of Ghibli. Namely that the studio will effectively die with Miyazaki. His son’s From up on Poppy Hill is middling and his other film is apparently even worse. This film demonstrates a lack of talent on behalf of its producer and director. Isao Takahata is good, but wow, until he was announced to be directing a film in 2013 for Ghibli, his last film for them was fourteen years ago. And he’s already 77. People don’t live forever. So it leaves the question of who will take over the reigns pretty up in the air and without any current good answers. Even though this was a dud, they really ought to let more people whose last name isn’t Miyazaki direct. Because soon enough, they’ll need them.

3

Movie

1

"The Cat Returns" "The Cat Returns"

1025

Add - More Neko Ramen

5

ONA

13

1026

Add - More Nekogami Yaoyorozu Apparently Shamo is voiced by the same person who voiced Yui in K-on!. I wouldn't have guessed that. I wish I knew how it is people manage to recognize seiyuu without having to look up who voiced what. Oh, and she also voiced another god of poverty in Noragami, but she voiced it with a different style from Shamo. Minor anime trivia, woo~

5

TV

12

SU2011 SU2011

1027

Add - More Nekogami Yaoyorozu Specials

-

Special

7

1028

Add - More Nekogami Yaoyorozu: Ohanami Ghostbusters

-

OVA

1

1029

Add - More Nekojiru Gekijou Jirujiru Original

-

TV

27

SU1999 SU1999

1030

Add - More Nekojiru-sou Cat Soup seems to be missing the fangs the series had, despite sharing a similar source inspiration. While Nekojiru Gekijou was focused around social commentary (the pigs representing minorities, for example), Cat Soup seems like a more surreal take on Iblard Jikan's goal: style without much substance. And if my 9 for Iblard Jikan demonstrates anything, it's that I can indeed appreciate that. Yet while I find myself a bit dismayed that this was made at the wrong time to ever see a real HD release, I also can't help but find myself wishing Cat Soup had more soul (no pun intended). I can appreciate experimentation, but unless it's exceptionally pulled off, I'm going to thirst for something more. And no matter how beautiful I personally think Cat Soup looks, it just doesn't have a lot of meat to it. Iblard Jikan managed to earn its marks for looking incredible, but Cat Soup isn't quite visually pleasing enough to be held in the same regard just on those same merits. Which isn't to say the movie looks bad. Oh no, it's a joy to the eye. It just didn't wow me like Iblard Jikan did. And it's not to say that I didn't like Cat Soup, either. It's just that something like Mind Game can have the same sort of beautiful art and some actual substance. And Cat Soup does have a bit of substance, yes, but it's not much . Should you watch Cat Soup? Sure. Definitely. But it's not the cream of the crop.

7

OVA

1

1031

Add - More Nekomonogatari: Kuro Felt like a *monogatari arc that was a bit condensed. Other than that, typical *monogatari. Not technically a movie, so I won't approach it as one. I'd rather get my general thoughts in the Nisemonogatari comment (since that's partly written already and anything I repeat here would just be redundant). Sheesh. There's another, full TV series coming this year and (probably) a movie. It just never ends, does it? Well, seeing as how it prints money, I don't blame Shaft. All below was written during airing *** Blah. The lull between seasons got to me and dodging spoilers is too much of a pain, anyway. The differences between the Nise BDs and TV versions weren't as drastic as Bake, anyway. In some senses I watch *monogatari because of what it is, and in somes senes I watch it despite that. It would be tempting to simply label this a harem series. AniDB would back me up on that one and the trappings are there. But, there's something different. Something that separates it from your typical Haganai or Heaven's Lost Property, despite all they share in common. For it is a harem series, MC having a girlfriend or no, and it's loaded with fanservice, and... what was the difference again? It's a certain je ne sais quoi. I wouldn't say it's an intangible, but rather maybe that I can't exactly verbally put my finger on it. Something that's more experiential. Something I could approach with words, but like a literary Zeno's dichotomy paradox, never exactly reach. Speaking of, I've got a half-written Nisemonogatari comment just sitting on Google Docs taunting me, for those very same reasons. (But of coure I take this very seriously. Anime listing is a Big Deal™.) I really should finish that... All below was written before airing. *** Because *monogatari is popular so BD releases always come out in a timely manner, right? No, no, it's fine. It's not like the winter anime season is looking incredibly barren of interesting shows and I'll desperately need something worth watching. It's much better that I save it for an already strong looking spring season. And avoiding all discussion of this for a few months so I don't see any spoilers just adds to the fun! The things I put up with for you, Shaft.

7

TV Special

4

1032

Add - More Nekopara OVA honestly the worst thing about this is just how bad it looks like it's the most successful crowdfunding of an anime to date and the animation is this poor and yes budget does not directly correlate to animation quality necessarily but for the average person i feel it'd still make for a poor impression of crowdfunded anime which would be a disappointing outcome

4

OVA

1

Reminder that *this* raised nearly one million dollars in crowdfunding. Reminder that *this* raised nearly one million dollars in crowdfunding.

1033

Add - More Neppuu Kairiku Bushi Road

2

TV Special

1

1034

Add - More Nerima Daikon Brothers

5

TV

12

WI2006 WI2006

1035

Add - More Net-juu no Susume

7

TV

10

(Score also factors in OVA), "Recovery of an MMO Junkie", FA2017 (Score also factors in OVA), "Recovery of an MMO Junkie", FA2017

1036

Add - More Net-juu no Susume Special

-

Special

1

1037

Add - More New Game!

7

TV

12

SU2016 SU2016

1038

Add - More New Game! Watashi, Shain Ryokou tte Hajimete nanode...

-

OVA

1

1039

Add - More New Game!!

-

TV

12

SU2017 SU2017

1040

Add - More NHK ni Youkoso!

8

TV

24

SU2006 SU2006

1041

Add - More Nichijou If you asked (and you didn't, but shut up), I'd tell you that my co-favorite anime of all time is Azumanga Daioh. That show is pretty much fantastic in every way. But I'll save that for whenever I get around to writing comments for that series. One of the things that makes me love Azumanga Daioh, though, is that I can watch pretty much any scene from it and wind up laughing. It takes more than that to be my favorite series, but it certainly speaks to its strengths as a comedy series. Nichijou, at its best, is funnier than Azumanga Daioh. In fact, at its best, it's one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. Unfortuantely, Nichijou is not always at its best. Sometimes a scene can be simply boring, and some of those drag on for quite a while. So even if it can surpass Azumanga Daioh at times, Azumanga Daioh is far more even. But I didn't give a 10 to a series because it was sometimes funny. I gave it a 10 in part because it's usually funny and sometimes absolutely hilarious. Few series require me to actually pause an episode and catch my breath, or to go back to something I missed because I was laughing too hard to focus. True, it lacks the pervasive charm that oozes from Azumanga Daioh. Indeed, the relations between the characters aren't as strong, either. I'm not claiming Nichijou is flawless. But it does have strengths outside of its comedy. It's beautifully animated (something that seems to be a KyoAni standard these days), the music is fitting and pleasant, and even if the characters aren't paragons of depth, they're at least more than just purely gag delivery venues. They tend to be dominated at times by their archetypes, but it's forgivable in this instance. Nichijou is not a perfect show, but it's an incredible comedy. And considering it in that light, I feel it is entirely worthy of the score I gave it. Nichijou doesn't seem to click with everyone, but if you missed this series, give it a go. It's a series that, for a while, manages to get better and better as you get further in (although it does eventually plateau at a rather incredible level).

10

TV

26

SP2011 SP2011

1042

Add - More Nichijou: Nichijou no 0-wa

-

OVA

1

1043

Add - More Nido to Mezamenu Komoriuta If you suffer from epilepsy, I advise you not to watch this. Dude, like whoaaa. (spoilers) Is it the sudden, jarring transitions that always take you by surprise? Is it the randomly cutting to a picture of a girl's face bleeding? The sudden live action footage of someone cutting themselves? The barely coherent political and social commentary being portrayed through the horribly constructed narrative? The baffling animation? The awful voice acting? The large lack of connection between various scenes? What is the biggest offense in a film this film that gets so much wrong? You know, Mars of Destruction was at least more coherent. But hey, this won an award. Maybe I just can't appreciate "true art."

1

Movie

1

1044

Add - More NieA Under 7 (No spoilers.) Hmm. The thing about Niea_7 is that it's boring. Really boring. It's heavily deflated. There's no energy. No life. Just characters doing banal things. And I know that's what people joke slice of life shows are, but that's what bad slice of life shows are. Good slice of shows succeed because the characters are interesting. Let's take an example. Studying isn't very interesting, right? But when you take that scenario and put in interesting, dynamic characters studying together, now it's interesting! Now it's fun! But give us tedious characters doing tedious things, and now it's just, well, tedious. And there's a difference between that and iyashikei, by the way. Don't confuse "relaxing" and "dull." But this isn't an iyashikei show. It's just bland, one-note Mayuko and poor man's (Azumanga Daioh's) Tomo NieA with a host of side characters who go nowhere. And for what minor growth there is, who even cares? Do you really care about minor growth in characters that aren't interesting at all? Which might make the 4 seem a bit generous, but I do think the show is only below average. Not awful. The animation is okay and the character designs are typical ABe, which is decent. The characters are boring, not grating. The music is sparse for mood reasons, but what's there is alright. The show is a dud, but not a bomb. Still, skip it. (And go watch Haibane Renmei instead, so long as you're looking into ABe related anime.)

4

TV

13

SP2000 SP2000

1045

Add - More Nihon Animator Mihonichi

-

ONA

35

1046

Add - More Nijiiro Hotaru: Eien no Natsuyasumi (Later.)

4

Movie

1

1047

Add - More Ningen Doubutsuen

-

Movie

1

1048

Add - More Ningyo

-

Movie

1

1049

Add - More Ninja Slayer From Animation Fansub Group: Horriblesubs

-

ONA

26

"What's Inferno Ninja doing in the Impact Zone?!", Never stop, SP2015 "What's Inferno Ninja doing in the Impact Zone?!", Never stop, SP2015

1050

Add - More Nisekoi CR, tense errors are something I was taught about in elementary school. The MC "had" no way of knowing about the event which he is reflecting upon in retrospect. But as he is telling us it happened, "have" is not the correct tense. The sentence as you have written it, CR, makes no sense at all. When you're asking people to pay money to view your subtitled anime, it is not acceptable for those subs to have the kinds of mistakes a grade schooler is supposed to know better than to make. I know Sentai is determined to try to prove otherwise, but there are certain minimum standards for a professional product. (If you were bothered by the bad subs CR put out for Chu-2-2 and Hamatora, don't buy Sentai releases. If you weren't bothered, then hey, just buy anything because clearly nothing is beneath your standards.) *** It's about 2.5 years later and I don't remember anymore why I dropped Nisekoi. I'm half tempted to give it another go since it'd kind of be fresh to me, but if I dropped it the first time I have to imagine whatever the issues were will just cause me to drop it again so it'd be a waste of time. Still, maybe. *** I tried this again and it's not great, but I can't figure out why I dropped it. So I guess I'm watching this thing after all? Alright then. *** Also these Aniplex subs are pretty bad! So they're typical Aniplex subs, basically.

6

TV

20

WI2014 WI2014

1051

Add - More Nisekoi OVA

-

OVA

3

1052

Add - More Nisekoimonogatari I guess if if MAL thinks it's worth adding to the DB I might as well add it to my list, but...

-

PV

1

1053

Add - More Nisemonogatari It's Thanksgiving today. I've family matters to attend to. Besides, taking some time to compose my thoughts can't hurt. Wait, did I just give a show I nearly dropped a rating of 7? It's a very low 7, though. Although that doesn't make it any less aberrant, really. All below was written more or less while watching. *** I've been willing to wait a while for UTW (it's not like I don't have other things I can watch!), but with how long it's taking them to get even one episode out, I'll probably just watch the Coalgirls rips. Which are also taking forever. It's just like the good old days! *** Impatience won. *** Well that was disappointing. But I've read the third episode is an improvement as opposed to these two episodes of Bakemonogatari: Extra Fanservice Edition. So I guess I ought to at least watch the third episode. Which, by this current pace of BD releases, will probably be released sometime in 2013! Fun. *** Welp. Coalgirls dropped it and UTW still doesn't have episode one out because they're waiting for 8thsin who seems to have vanished. Looks like there's some cobbled together mix of BDrips and Crunchy's subs. Well, it beats nothing! *** Ugh. I really ought to just drop this. I've mentioned it before, but Justin Sedakis summed it up with a good phrase: Shinbo is "visually ham-fisted." Sometimes his style is good for a show (Hidamari Sketch), other times it's just him throwing out photoshop filters and various effects with no skill, no finesse, no purpose (Bakemonogatari and here). Also, it's not at all like Bakemonogatari was devoid of fanservice, but Nisemonogatari has so far made the ratio of fanservice to plot far more in the former's favor. As the 6 indicates, I wasn't that enthused about Bakemonogatari. So what happens when you take Bakemonogatari and make it worse? A more persuasive part of me still wants to give it a bit longer and let it move through an arc, but at only 11 episodes, that seems like I might be watching most of the show before I'd be deciding whether to drop it or not. Well, even if I don't drop it, I don't foresee myself rating it highly. Shows that have me on the fence about dropping them generally aren't very good shows in the first place. People here seem to call me "too harsh" because I have a bit of a graveyard of dropped titles, but I'd think I'm actually willing to put up with quite a bit from a series so long as it gives me something in return. I watched all of Highschool DXD, after all. *** If there's one thing I apparently lack, it's the courage to drop this. (episode 8 spoiler) I... I don't think I can look at a toothbrush the same way after this. I feel dirty just for having been a witness to that. Did that really occur over an entire episode? The passage of time slipped my mind somewhere in the middle of that. I'm struggling for words.

7

TV

11

WI2012 WI2012

1054

Add - More Nisou no Kuzu

-

Movie

1

1055

Add - More Noblesse: Awakening

-

ONA

1

1056

Add - More Nobunaga no Shinobi

-

TV

26

"Ninja Girl & Samurai Master", FA2016 "Ninja Girl & Samurai Master", FA2016

1057

Add - More Nobunaga no Shinobi: Ise Kanegasaki-hen

-

TV

26

"Ninja Girl & Samurai Master 2", SP2017 "Ninja Girl & Samurai Master 2", SP2017

1058

Add - More Nobunagun

5

TV

13

WI2014 WI2014

1059

Add - More Noisy Birth

-

Music

1

1060

Add - More Non Non Biyori All below was written prior to airing. *** The PV gives me an iyashikei vibe. If that's right, this'll be a tricky matter. It seems like it's not even possible to make an iyashikei series that's just okay. Basically any iyashikei series done right is going to be incredible, because it's pretty hard to get it right and all the ones that don't are pretty awful. Anytime an iyashikei series works at all it's because the people making it were pretty talented at their jobs, so everything falls into place for a great series. But most attempts at iyashikei shows, at least from the ones I've seen, don't actually work out.

7

TV

12

FA2013 FA2013

1061

Add - More Non Non Biyori Movie: Vacation

7

Movie

1

1062

Add - More Non Non Biyori Nonstop

-

TV

12

1063

Add - More Non Non Biyori Nonstop: Bukatsu wo Ganbatta

-

OVA

1

1064

Add - More Non Non Biyori Repeat On one hand, being so calmed and charmed that I was on the verge of falling asleep is a sign this show is just as good at doing what it does as it ever was. On the other hand, I'd rather not fall asleep and miss part of the episode! I'm glad this is back for another season.

-

TV

12

SU2015 SU2015

1065

Add - More Non Non Biyori Repeat: Hotaru ga Tanoshinda

-

OVA

1

1066

Add - More Non Non Biyori: Okinawa e Ikukoto ni Natta That... that wasn't even a full 24 minutes. But there's a second season coming out at some point so I suppose I can sleep at night.

-

OVA

1

1067

Add - More Nora

5

OVA

1

1068

Add - More Nora to Oujo to Noraneko Heart

-

TV

11

(There are 12 episodes of this on CR, so...), SU2017 (There are 12 episodes of this on CR, so...), SU2017

1069

Add - More Noragami

4

TV

12

WI2014 WI2014

1070

Add - More Noragami Aragoto

-

TV

13

FA2015 FA2015

1071

Add - More Noragami Aragoto OVA

-

OVA

2

1072

Add - More Noragami OVA

-

OVA

2

1073

Add - More Nougyou Musume!

-

Special

1

1074

Add - More Nouryou Anime: Denkyuu Ika Matsuri

-

Movie

1

1075

Add - More Nurse Witch Komugi-chan R

5

TV

12

WI2016 WI2016

1076

Add - More Nyanbo!

-

TV

26

FA2016 FA2016

1077

Add - More Nyanko Days

-

TV

12

WI2017 WI2017

1078

Add - More Nyanpire The Animation

5

TV

12

SU2011 SU2011

1079

Add - More Nyoro-n Churuya-san

-

ONA

13

1080

Add - More Obake no Dokurou

-

ONA

1

1081

Add - More Oh! Super Milk-chan I saw this years ago and didn't even remember it when I first formed this list. Or at any point until now when I saw it on somebody else's list. This is the one that aired on AS, right? Because that's the one I've seen. And it's pretty awful. It's really awkward in a "every joke falls flat" kind of way. The dialogue is so very off. The animation isn't that great, either. It's weak in basically everything. It's a weird show, but not even in the good sense. Feel free to skip this. I'd wonder why AS even aired this, but they aired quite a bit of 12 oz Mouse. It fit with what they were going for at that time, actually.

3

TV

12

WI2000 WI2000

1082

Add - More Ojamajo Doremi All below was written prior to completion. This tag's esoteric observation brought to you by too much free time. *** "Reverse tombstone piledriver," fansubbers? You can hear the announcer saying "Boston crab." You can see that it's a Boston crab the character is doing. These moves don't have similar names nor do they look alike. You also must have some level of wrestling move knowledge if you're bringing in the tombstone piledriver out of nowhere, so how in the world does a mistake like this come about? Is this some sort of meme I'm not familiar with? I mean, yes, the show is technically wrong because that's not actually a "reverse" Boston crab, but that's still much closer to being correct than "reverse tombstone piledriver" is. This isn't just a really obvious mistake in a fansub script, it's a mistake about pro wrestling. It's like it was personally designed to nettle me. *** (episode 47 spoilers) "My father almost found happiness and moved on with a major part of his life, but through selfishness and childishness, I snatched that away from him and made sure only my concerns were considered! Yay!" That's an odd thing to portray as a positive and happy ending to an episode, Ojamajo Doremi. You might want to think a little harder about that one. You might be able to present that as a positive outcome overall, but implying there's nothing negative about that scenario at all seems rather off base.

-

TV

51

The music in the latter half of the eyecatch sounds uncannily like the music when you're almost out of time in Mappy's bonus stage, WI1999 The music in the latter half of the eyecatch sounds uncannily like the music when you're almost out of time in Mappy's bonus stage, WI1999

1083

Add - More Ojousama Sousamou

-

OVA

1

"Debutante Detective Corps" "Debutante Detective Corps"

1084

Add - More Omoide no Marnie

-

Movie

1

1085

Add - More Omoide Poroporo I feel like this is targeted at someone who isn't me. It's unusual for an anime to make me feel like I'm perhaps too young to yet fully appreciate it. I've only seen a small subset of Ghibli works so far. All but one before this so happened to be works Miyazaki directed, and a certain commonality between those works shows. Only Yesterday is still clearly a Ghibli film, both aesthetically and in going for some of those typical Ghibli tropes: environmentalism, sentimentality/nostalgia, glorification of childhood, exalting a mythos of a rural idyllic over perceived urban soullessness and so on. Yet, and I haven’t seen enough of his works to determine if perhaps this is characteristic of Takahata, there’s something noticeably different about this from a Miyazaki film. There’s less of the fantastical, less whimsy, more of a down-to-Earth sort of presentation. Miyazaki seems to weave fairytales, but Takahata here is going for the realistic with a tale that could almost be taken as a mid-life reflection if the character wasn’t 27 (I know, “Christmas cake,” but all the same). To clarify, it’s not a mid-life crisis. No, this film is rather perturbingly saccharine, actually. It’s something that’s been putting me off about many Ghibli works. Everyone is just so unnaturally warm and friendly and entirely free of malice. Call me cynical, but it’s such a departure from reality that I almost can’t help but suspect Ghibli characters of secretly scheming something and simply putting up a mask of friendliness. It’s genuinely unnerving. And that pulls you out of the story a bit as it’s just too strong. It harms the credibility of the characters. It has yet to be film ruining, but it makes the characters feel sort of shallow, too. Compare this or Arrietty to Spirited Away and you can see the difference (I know I just compared three different directors. Try Kiki’s Delivery Service if you want to compare Miyazaki to Miyazaki.) Thinking about that, it’s not too surprising that Disney is yet to release Only Yesterday in any form. How would you market this? It wouldn’t really appeal to children. You could try marketing it to (probably middle-aged) adults, but good luck getting them to go see/buy an animated movie like this. And even if you did, the movie is sort of aimed at people who grow up in the 60s in Japan. That’s not to say there isn’t any universality to the film, but it does hamper the potential appeal of the film to those outside that demographic. And I too am outside of that demographic. It leaves me in a position of being able to appreciate the film at a certain level, but not able to fully relate to it as as the target audience might. And maybe my score is ultimately lower for that, but I can’t artificially inflate it on an assumption of how it might have been had I indeed been a member of said target audience. What I can get out of Only Yesterday, however, is that it seems an elegantly composed bit of cinema. It would be easy to describe the film as a bit dull considering it’s largely a reflective character piece rather than a work in which things “happen.” While not an exciting film, there’s still a certain je ne sais quoi about it. Calling it a more “mature” narrative will likely come across as more of a value judgement than I mean it to, so perhaps “meditative” would be better. Without getting tediously wistful, Takahata successfully portrays a youth reflected through the lens of maturity, and an adulthood contrasted with and shaped by that childhood. It can be a bit simplistic in usual Ghibli fashion, but Takahata’s directing keeps the narrative together so that Only Yesterday doesn’t bungle the message it seeks to communicate. The animation, as you might suspect, is traditional and fully competent. It’s not a Studio 4ºC style experimental piece nor a Madhouse sakuga piece, because Ghibli simply isn’t that type of studio. While in that sense simple, it’s still well-executed and, to its credit, it’s something you likely won’t even think about much. That might seem a negative for an animated film, but it would distract from the narrative. (Whether it’s a bad thing for an animated film to be better served by its animation not standing out is another debate for another time.) The music, too, works with the film rather than standing out. So you won’t be listening to this soundtrack on your iPod, but it does exactly what it ought to do as BGM. Voice acting isn’t phenomenal here, but gets the job done. It’s not that the performances are grating or even particularly bad, they’re just okay. Because of the aforementioned calm, saccharine nature of the film, the roles often aren’t that demanding despite how much of the film centers around dialogue. Character designs are typical Ghibli fare, but what is up with the cheekbones on female characters? When they smile and expose those cheekbones, their faces suddenly seem gaunt. It adds years if not decades to their appearance. I’m not sure what they were going for there, and it seems like a poor choice. Ultimately, at 21, I can certainly appreciate Only Yesterday in an “I see what you were going for.” sort of way, but I know I’m not one of the people it’s talking to. I respect the film, but I just can’t connect with it properly. From an artistic standpoint, it’s still worth watching, but if you’re in your 30s/40s you’ll likely get more out of it. Even with that caveat, it’s still interesting to see a Ghibli film that goes in a different direction from the Miyazaki works I’m used to. It has me curious to see other (hopefully more pertinent to my own reality) Takahata works. I’m ultimately giving this a 7, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I wind up scoring other Takahata films higher than that. Maybe I’ll come back to this in a decade or two? It could be an interesting comparison.

7

Movie

1

"Only Yesterday" "Only Yesterday"

1086

Add - More On Your Mark

6

Music

1

1087

Add - More Onboro Film

-

Movie

1

1088

Add - More One Piece Movie 01 "Hey, I'm about 50 episodes into this show that has a bunch of movies. I wonder when I'll be far enough in to watch the first one?" About 20 episodes before I bothered actually checking was when. Whoops! Oh well, no real harm. Hopefully future One Piece films feel less like longer episodes and more like actual films. If I just wanted a filler episode, the series has a number of those already.

5

Movie

1

1089

Add - More One Piece Movie 02: Nejimaki-jima no Daibouken

-

Movie

1

1090

Add - More One Piece Movie 03: Chinjuu-jima no Chopper Oukoku Neither a good HD conversion nor that great of a film, but what do I expect from a non-canon One Piece movie, I guess. Whole premise is a bit flimsy (Marumba is instantly enamored with Chopper because... because... the plot needs him to be?). Animation isn't really that different from the standard you expect of the TV episodes. It's... it's really just a long filler episode of One Piece, isn't it? Like, it doesn't just feel like one, that's actually exactly what it is. I guess it meets the reasonable expectations for that. You might reasonably hope the word "movie" would imply something grander than that, but it should be clear by now what these things are and presumably will continue to be: skippable trifles. Average to below average quality side stories that unless you've just gotta get your One Piece fix or, like me, you're a completionist, you might as well not even bother with. You won't miss anything important.

4

Movie

1

1091

Add - More One Piece Movie 04: Dead End no Bouken

-

Movie

1

1092

Add - More One Piece: Jango no Dance Carnival

-

Special

1

1093

Add - More One Piece: Umi no Heso no Daibouken-hen

-

TV Special

1

1094

Add - More One Piece: Yume no Soccer Ou!

-

Movie

1

1095

Add - More One Punch Man

6

TV

12

FA2015 FA2015

1096

Add - More One Punch Man Specials

-

Special

6

1097

Add - More One Punch Man: Road to Hero

-

OVA

1

1098

Add - More Ongaku Shoujo

3

Movie

1

1099

Add - More Oniisama e... Dude. You can't just end the third episode on a note of tension and then spoil its conclusion in the next episode preview. Come on.

8

TV

39

SU1991 SU1991

1100

Add - More Onkyou Seimeitai Noiseman

8

Movie

1

1101

Add - More Ontama!

3

ONA

5

1102

Add - More Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki

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Movie

1

Score later Score later

1103

Add - More Ookami to Koushinryou (First episode spoilers) That much time featuring a naked wolf girl raises a red flag, but I've heard only good things about this series, including from people who'd have no patience for that sort of thing. *** This is seeming a lot less naked wolf girl and a lot more trading and economics. That's a good thing. It's also going to get me to burn through my supply of apples so much quicker if it keeps up like this. Which is probably a good thing, right up until I realize I'm out of apples. Then it's a source of disappointment. It's a good thing Horo hasn't craved for starfruit yet, because those are annoyingly difficult to come by here (and yet so good both ripe and unripe.) Seriously, every time I see food in anime it makes me hungry, because they always make it look incredible. Especially when they show various breads. Just makes me want to drop everything and find the nearest bakery. Well, I could probably talk about tasty food forever, but I should stop before this comment reads like the first episode of Lucky Star. (Is there something Iblard Jikan-esque that just showcases good looking anime food? I'd love that.) *** I know I'm amassing a sizable collection of titles I've marked as "score/comment later," but that's what happens when I finally start plowing through anime again! *** And half a year later I've settled on a score. Half a year. I'm terrible at this. Comment whenever that comes.

8

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"Spice and Wolf", WI2008 "Spice and Wolf", WI2008

1104

Add - More Ookami to Koushinryou II

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12

"Spice and Wolf S2", SU2009 "Spice and Wolf S2", SU2009

1105

Add - More Ookami to Koushinryou II: Holo no Short Anime

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Add - More Ookami to Koushinryou II: Ookami to Kohakuiro no Yuuutsu Netflix just had this as episode one but I'm pretty sure this and that are the same thing.

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OVA

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Add - More Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi If you know where to look for the settings, you can change Netflix's subtitles to actually be proper, white subtitles with a black outline. But by default, they're this hideous yellow color with no outline just to make sure they're hard to read. Why would you ever default to that instead of the available option of the color and format that is most readable (and not as ugly)? Well, at least that's something the user can fix. For a bit there, subtitles on Netflix were having an issue where roughly every other line just didn't display at all. Thankfully, that no longer seems to be the case. Or at least it didn't happen while watching this series, anyway. Some official DVD releases use a white font and others use yellow, but I can't think of any that don't use an outlined font. That's not just a coincidence, Netflix. The Internet says Netflix uses the DFXP format for their subs. They most tend to resemble SRT sub tracks. Which means that, like with SRT, if two characters are talking at the same time, it shows up like so: -- I'm Character One and I'm talking! -- I'm Character Two and I'm also talking! It's a bit easier to follow than Hulu's closed captions which give you no indication at all where the separation between different characters' dialogue is, but it's still not as preferable as making one of the character's dialogue temporarily a different color font or placing it elsewhere on the screen, as most fansubs with ASS tracks and some official releases do. But the primary reason I currently hold that Hulu is the best deal in legal anime streaming is the library of content they have versus Netflix. Crunchyroll can at least claim victory on the simulcast front, but no legal streaming service that I know of has even close to the same breadth of content as Hulu. But now Netflix is starting to add content from Aniplex and Viz (the two companies I've claimed as being the most forward-thinking about distribution, with this just validating that claim even more) and they even licensed Knights of Sidonia to put up very shortly after airing in Japan. Not quite simulcasting, but the closest Netflix has ever gotten. And they also don't currently simulcast anything in the US. It's licensing Knights of Siodnia that's most interesting. If they simply added the Viz and Aniplex titles, it'd be a sensible but not particularly aberrant move. Two companies that are very amenable to streaming services offering popular anime titles to the biggest streaming service and said service paying for them expands Netflix's catalogue in the most "dog bites man" manner possible. But licensing a series themselves? That's an extra step of commitment towards their anime catalogue that really does surprise me. It builds optimism for the future of their anime selection. I'd be rather happy for Netflix to become a better option for anime than Hulu. No ads, no "web-only" anime, HD versions of series, better subs. I'd like to add "subs and dubs" to that list, but seeing as how they still only have the English audio track for Squid Girl (while Hulu only has the Japanese one, curiously), I can't be sure of that. But to get there Netflix needs to keep expanding its catalogue. And part of what's necessary for that to happen is for the rest of the R1 industry to join Viz and Aniplex in realizing and accepting what the present and future of anime distribution looks like. (Also it'd be pretty swell to just be able to watch HD, ad-free Hidamari Sketch without having to double dip and buy the BDs too, but that's a side matter. I could always just pirate it, but...)

4

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12

SU2010 SU2010

1108

Add - More Ookii 1-nensei to Chiisana 2-nensei

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1109

Add - More Ore Monogatari!! You see, when people suggest that one of your scenes was a bit too contrived, the correct move is generally not to then follow it up with a second, even more contrived scene. *** W-what? He's large and not conventionally attractive, but this conventionally attractive girl likes him?! That's so utterly impossible, no wonder the show just keeps pointing it out! I get that this is the premise, but the whole exact same "Her? Him? No way!" joke has gotten really old. We get it by this point. Trust me, show. There's a number of things to like in this show but this bit isn't one of them. It can work occasionally, but it's been much too overused by this point (five episodes in). It just feels lazy. This show is clearly capable of more variety, so I don't know why they keep returning to this particular well. (I know it's an adaptation of a manga and that this may very well just be a carryover from that source, so accept "show" as a lazy linguistic carryover that also includes that if necessary, okay?) *** These two things are intertwined, really. Takeo saving people from a steel beam, from a burning building, rescuing a baby from a river, yes, that quickly gets tiresome because come on. It's both repetitive and ridiculous. But it also underscores that this show just isn't that well written. When you need to find a way for Takeo to prove to Yamato's friends that maybe, just maybe he's an okay person that someone might love despite his appearance (gasp), that the show casually jumps to something as extreme as running into a burning building, rescuing two of Yamato's friends and nearly losing his life in the process isn't just contrived, it's lazy. When this was apparently the best way they could think of to arrive at that goal, it's a worrying sign that the writer(s) can't handle nuance or subtlety. It's a bombastic moment that's apparently wowed some viewers because of said bombasticness, but it's crap writing. Especially when you consider that so many of these contrived events are basically saying "Look at how big and strong Takeo is! That's his value!" which is kind of contrary to what's supposed to be the entire message of the show so far. Like, "Look at this cute couple!" is fun and the show makes me giggle at times, but that gets really undermined by garbage like this. And while that might lead to me getting a chuckle when someone refers to this show as an "accident of the week" show, I'd much rather the show were just more competent. *** Goofily presented sexual assault is still sexual assault, you know. *** sleep is not a form of consent auuughhhh By the way, how many more episodes until the main character stops briefly on his way to school to go back in time and stop Hitler? Just another day in the life of Takeo! Don't judge that guy by his appearances! (But also isn't he so big and strong?) This show doesn't get any better. Yay~

4

TV

24

My Contrived Story, My Contradictory Story, My Poorly Written Story, SP2015 My Contrived Story, My Contradictory Story, My Poorly Written Story, SP2015

1110

Add - More Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

7

TV

12

FA2010 FA2010

1111

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ONA

4

1112

Add - More Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru I wish I had a recording of the exasperated groan I let out as the final credits hit. I'd use it as the entirety of my remarks on this series. I guess I'll just have to use words, instead. (spoilers) OreShura starts off as an amusing series that gradually builds up its harem qualities before death spiraling into the abyss of utterly botched plot and character development. When they introduced Eita's aunt to violently force the plot forward, this show was already dead. Instead of having the characters come to a realization, you throw in a contrivance to spell everything out (How convenient that she just seems to know everything!) in the most hasty "Whoops! Gotta bring this to a close!" maneuver you could've conceived of to have Eita pick the character who, if you've been watching this series, really doesn't seem like someone he'd fall in love with but, you know, ~anime logic~. And you don't even care about that or anything else at this point because the series has completely exhausted your good will. I nearly dropped it in the middle of the last episode but by the power of sunk costs, forced myself through it. I was exactly right to drop the manga, but the show did benefit some from being adapted to anime. But it couldn't polish that turd enough to make it shine. OreShura is basically a bait and switch, making you think you'll get something not great, but somewhat enjoyable in the beginning before it just entirely collapses and throws logic, proper development and quality out the window to rush towards its conclusion. I didn't come here for subpar romance and I'm not much of one for shipping, or selfinserting into Eita's role. By its earlier comedic strength, (to degrees) formerly enjoyable characters and by its technical merits, it survives as a four, even though the show worked hard to continually bring itself down from what probably would've been a six. Ugh. Don't bother with OreShura. All below was written prior to completion. *** Yup. That's pretty true to how I remember the start of the manga being. Which means there's a decent chance I'll get bored of this right around the point where I stopped following the manga as well. The future of this doesn't look particularly bright. I got bored of the manga when it was a love triangle involving a childhood friend and a fake, mischievous girlfriend. From the looks of that OP, this turns into a harem. Which means it should ultimately become even less interesting to me. So I've marked it "possibly dropping" because there's good reason for me to expect that I might. Well, at least it prompted me to get around to adding the six chapters of this I read to my manga list. Now that thing's a little less incomplete. So it won't be a complete loss, I guess. *** That OP makes this seem like it'd be something a fair bit lewder than it actually is. But it's definitely in harem territory (MAL and AniDB don't list it as such, but four female characters fitting various archetypes showing some level of attraction to the everyman MC who's gone from low levels of female attention to suddenly swarmed with paramours? Come on.) so it wasn't completely misleading. *** (episode 8 spoiler) Stop right there. You're going to tell me that not one person in the audience is going to give this rowdy bunch grief for standing up during the movie and shouting for an extended period of time? Actually, they don't seem to be bothered at all. There are people back there with big grins on their faces. You're ruining the movie experience for everyone else and they're smiling. That sure ruined my immersion in this previously totally believable story of an ordinary high schooler suddenly surrounded by girls vying for his affection. (Why no, I'm not being slightly facetious at all!) All below was written before airing *** I've actually read a bit of the manga for this, and I remember it not being that great. Certainly not something I'd have guessed would get an anime adaptation. It's always possible to transcend the source material, but I don't really expect this to be good.

4

TV

13

WI2013 WI2013

1113

Add - More Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu. All below was written prior to completion. *** I saw Tail Red's height and weight posted and, although it's an imperfect measurement when used like this, I put the numbers into a BMI calculator. The result was a BMI of 15.6, with under 18.5 being considered underweight. Only in anime, folks. And not just in this anime. Whenever you get that info for a female anime character, try putting it into a BMI calculator. It's pretty consistently been right around or under the cutoff point for being underweight each time I've checked. Healthy! *** And for a point you probably could've guessed already, keep in mind how many female characters' measurements you can find versus how many male characters' measurements you can find. The reason for the discrepancy should be obvious. *** Whoa nelly have these production values taken a dive. It'll probably be fixed up for the BDs, but that's then and right now it's looking pretty bad.

6

TV

12

FA2014 FA2014

1114

Add - More Orenchi no Furo Jijou

4

TV

13

FA2014 FA2014

1115

Add - More Oruchuban Ebichu

9

TV

24

FA1999 FA1999

1116

Add - More Osake wa Fuufu ni Natte kara

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13

"Love is Like a Cocktail", FA2017 "Love is Like a Cocktail", FA2017

1117

Add - More Osomatsu-san http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-11-04/mr-osomatsu-episode-1-to-be-pulled-from-home-video-streaming/.95018 dude That's all pretty unfortunate. I'd read that the Anpanman parody ruffled some feathers, but I didn't expect that this show would have to take such drastic actions over some parodies. If that "completely re-animated" bit is accurate, that's also more work and money which will hurt the show's profits a bit. And for arguably the show's strongest episode to just get flushed down the memory hole is sad. If they're lucky, the "controversy" will help bring more attention to the work and maybe offset whatever they're losing from making these changes. At no point during watching this show did I think I was seeing anything "over the line," but it seems I underestimated how protective certain Japanese rights-holders are of their properties. I guess the staff of this show did as well. *** http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2015-11-11/crunchyroll-to-stop-streaming-mr-osomatsu-anime-episode-1/.95241 I mean at least Horriblesubs rips will float around for presumably forever so it's not actually just gonna be lost to time but wow, they're really endeavoring to wipe away the existence of that thing. What a difference in laws. The Simpsons parodies a few popular anime characters and it merits nothing more than a passing "Huh, neat," from some fans. This show does it and the hammer gets brought down. The only real difference is that the former enjoys "fair use" protections while the latter clearly doesn't. Which, as you can see demonstrated here, can be artistically stifling in spots. American law lets The Simpsons parody anime characters without any worries, while Japanese law wouldn't allow a show like The Simpsons to have been created there in the first place. Well, anyway, I wonder if CR will also get the edited version of episode three. I know nobody here in the US who isn't already pretty deep down the rabbit hole would know who Anpanman is, but I don't know how popular or relevant that character is in other non-Asian territories where CR is also streaming this show. Kind of weird to think of a legal flap in Japan causing those of us outside that nation to also lose access to these episodes and a decent argument in Horriblesubs favor in terms of preservation. While by and large those rips are just used for piracy reasons, of course, maintaining the availability of titles that have left CR and/or Funimation for one reason or another is still a positive side effect. At least these episodes of this show won't become anime Polybius. Cultural preservation~ Ha, makes me think a little bit of some old exploitation cinema marketing: "The episode they didn't want you to see!" Only in this case it's more real and more thorough, I guess. *** Holy crap, this thing is practically printing money. I'd heard it was popular but I didn't realize it was this popular. I'd imagine we'll be seeing more Osomatsu-san after these 24 episodes end. They'd be leaving too much money on the table to not make more, after all. *** When you think back a bit, Haruhi was white hot for a bit, but you don't hear terribly much about the franchise these days. There's the odd little spinoff or pachinko machine, but you'd hardly imagine that at one point it consumed western anime fandom, that its little dance was everywhere, that -with the help of some earlier successes, granted- it helped put KyoAni on many's radars as a studio to watch. It faded away despite its immense popularity, and Osomatsu-san could do the same. But there's some important differences. One is not yet having an Endless Eight-esque situation that alienates fans, but the most important is that Haruhi didn't have enough original material coming out to justify more anime of it. Osomatasu-san isn't constrained in that way. They could make more so long as the money keeps appearing and the creative staff keeps having ideas. One way or another, this show will likely one day fade from people's minds save for rattling around somewhere in the back of their memories as a show they liked back in the day. But before that happens, they could still get plenty more out of this well. So long as they make more. And if they do, they should announce something sooner rather than later. Yet another of the things that hindered Haruhi was the three years between seasons. People can only sustain their interest levels for so long. I'd be really surprised to not see more Osomatsu-san in the future. But "when" is unknown yet important.

8

TV

25

FA2015 FA2015

1118

Add - More Osomatsu-san Special

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Special

1

1119

Add - More Osomatsu-san: Ouma de Kobanashi

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TV Special

1

1120

Add - More Osu

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Movie

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1121

Add - More Otaku no Video

4

OVA

2

1122

Add - More Otome Youkai Zakuro

6

TV

13

FA2010 FA2010

1123

Add - More Otome Youkai Zakuro Picture Drama

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Special

2

1124

Add - More Ouran Koukou Host Club (Watched on Netflix. Dubbed. Gasp!) I'm just going to refer to this as "Ouran" because I'm lazy. A gaggle of young, pretty archetypal males constantly slathering attention upon this one, rather plain and ordinary female character*? Well quoth the show itself, "It's a reverse harem!" (I do take issue with that being referred to as a "reverse" harem, but another time, another place) Really, other than inverting the dangly bits to vagina ratio, the general formula is basically the same as any other harem anime. So when you're not seeking to imagine yourself in the role of the MC, when you don't care which if any character "wins" and when you're not watching for titillation, what's left? Oh, right, "fun." Potentially, that is. My least favorite anime ever (If I say its name, blood might shoot out of my eyes in rage) demonstrates that this is not an axiomatic trait of harem shows. Many of them seem to be pretty terrible fits for me. There's clearly a market for characters that are comprised more of fetishbait than personality (or they wouldn't keep making so many of those sorts of shows, right?), but I'm not part of it. But Ouran is simple in its charms. So long as you don't take it too seriously, it's a light romp. Not anything that'll set the world on fire, but a pleasant way to while away some of your time. The show crams the end with character development episodes that feel poorly timed. Shouldn't these have been spread out throughout the show rather than tacked on after most of it? If the characters needed this development, this would mean that the vast majority of the show was lacking something important. So perhaps that explains why this development ultimately doesn't seem to be very consequential to the show. But then why even bother? Really, the airy antics of these simple, comfortably predictable characters were strong enough on their own merits. When it comes to a harem series, all the players already know what to expect. Ouran falls on the far less lewd side of things, but your shippers and general perverts, inter alia, are likely well aware of what awaits. Those seeking lowbrow, perverted humor, as many harems offer, will find themselves out of luck, however. I don't tend to watch too much meant to appease fujoshi, but I've gotten the impression reverse harem series (et al) are more heavily dependent on subtext than on overt "here's boobs in your face" sorts of gestures. Does this force them to put more effort into the personalities? I can't be sure. I mean, it seems like it might, but people say Black Butler is pretty tedious (that's on Netflix as well. Perhaps I should simply see for myself?). For someone simply in it for such things as the character interactions, I appreciate the less lewd nature of it. And being female, perhaps I'm a sign they're onto something here. Ha. I shouldn't try to speak for half the world's taste! My mind wasn't blown but the time I spent with the show was worth it. Not anything I'd call great but better than "fine." A 7 it is. *Plain and ordinary for anime, that is.

7

TV

26

SP2006 SP2006

1125

Add - More Ouritsu Uchuugun: Honneamise no Tsubasa (Comments soonish.) (Okay, maybe not so soonish.)

7

Movie

1

"Wings of Honneamise" "Wings of Honneamise"

1126

Add - More Oushitsu Kyoushi Heine

6

TV

12

"The Royal Tutor", SP2017 "The Royal Tutor", SP2017

1127

Add - More Owarimonogatari

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TV

12

FA2015 FA2015

1128

Add - More Owarimonogatari 2nd Season

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TV Special

7

SU2017 SU2017

1129

Add - More Pale Cocoon

9

OVA

1

1130

Add - More Pan de Peace!

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TV

13

SP2016 SP2016

1131

Add - More Pandane to Tamago-hime Alright, short of going to the Ghibli museum, the only way to see this is via a camrip, so I can't fairly comment about the audio or visual quality. That said, it's the first Ghibli thing with a story that I've seen and found to live up to the Ghibli hype.* It's charming, vibrant and well directed. It makes me want to finally see My Neighbor Totoro, because I get the feeling that would outdo this. I wish they'd release the BD for Totoro here. Get on it, Disney. You know, it kind of felt Disney-esque. Not whatever Disney is now (I'm not sure even Disney fully knows), but that Disney that made Beauty and the Beast or Snow White. Lots of whimsy in the world, celebration of nature and the mundane-turned-extraordinary. I'm not much of a Disneyphile, but I can still appreciate their works. It's a small time investment to watch this and it's fun, although not incredible. You might as well give it a go. *Okay, I liked Iblard Jikan, but that doesn't count.

7

Movie

1

1132

Add - More Paniponi Dash!

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TV

26

SU2005 SU2005

1133

Add - More Paniponi Dash!: Danjite Okonaeba Kishin mo Kore wo Saku

5

Special

1

1134

Add - More Panty & Stocking in Sanitarybox

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Special

1

1135

Add - More Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt When this first aired, I downloaded the first episode not sure of what to expect. I wound up watching it four times before the next episode aired. If the 10 didn't tip you off, let me be blunt: I love this show. This love letter to western culture is blended with anime sensibilities in an orgy of toilet humor, violence and action. Did I mention the soundtrack is awesome, too? I struggle to find the proper words to describe Panty and Stocking. It skimmed the gutter and turned up gold. Okay, I'll try to elaborate a bit (or you could just watch episode 6 and naturally fall in love with the series yourself). So I've seen from a number of fans and anime cognoscenti a form of praise for various shows that goes "Why, this could have been a live action series!" as though that were a good thing. You know, because anime is stuck in a quality ghetto and could only hope to be as good as a "real show." I take a bit of a different approach. Part of why I love this show (and titles like Mind Game) is because it's something that could only be animated. No, really, try to imagine a live action version of this. It just wouldn't translate. This is clearly the work of a director who loves animation for animation (you could look into details about him and find plenty that backs that up, too. In case it wasn't obvious from this show, he's a big fan of western animation.) That parenthetical bit reminds me of what made this show so divisive. Some people complained "But it looks like a cartoon, not anime!" and dismissed it as such. These people are terrible people. Anime isn't an art style. Stop being a weeaboo and enjoy a good show (did you know countries that aren't Japan can also make good things? It's true!) Anyway, Panty and Stocking comes at you like a flurry. It's frantic, crass, energetic and lively. Have you ever seen Dead Leaves? If so, you know what I'm talking about. If not, well, look, just go find a clip on YouTube and see for yourself how the show moves. No, really, just watch it. I'm already failing to put any of this into words properly, anyway. If you're the sort to be offended by things, I suppose this show isn't for you. It won't pull any punches. It embraces the obscene. But please don't think this is to sex jokes what Elfen Lied is to violence (a scattershot effort to be SO MATURE). I don't want to call it Tarantino-esque, because it's not like that, although it's kind of in that area. Maybe it's closer to Clerks, but more rapid-fire? That's not really it, either. Actually, the closest I can probably get is Drawn Together in the form of a furious pulp action anime (Drawn Together was apparently stated to be an inspiration, so I guess it fits!). I have a certain metric that pretty accurately lets me know how much I'm enjoying a show, and that's how often I check the time remaining in an episode. A bad show will see me checking constantly, stunned that it isn't over yet. A great show will feel like only a few minutes have gone by when suddenly the credits kick in. And time flies by when watching this title. I already mentioned that you should watch episode 6, but this show has a number of standout awesome moments. I'm not going to elaborate here because I'd rather let you experience them without a heads-up. Okay, I get it, I'm rambling. I just really, really love this show. Azumanga Daioh was my favorite show ever since I first saw it shortly after it aired, and this was the first title that actually gave it a run for its money. I loved this so much I can't even choose between the two. My words here are a jumbled mess because this show is difficult to just capture in text. It's a living, breathing sort of thing. You need to experience it. Get it wherever you can (seriously, put out the BDs already, Funi!) and watch it. It looks awesome, it sounds awesome, the script is awesome, the characters are awesome, it's all awesome. I can only hope that Studio Trigger (where most of the people responsible for this title went to) puts out more like this. This is one of the best titles I've seen in almost a decade of watching anime. Great, now I want to watch it all over again.

10

TV

13

FA2010 FA2010

1136

Add - More Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! So try to imagine Usagi Drop, only take out what made that show good and replace it with fan service for pedophiles. That's PapaKiki. Where Usagi Drop had its MC develop as a person, PapaKiki substitutes a nude toddler running around. Where Usagi Drop hinted at a relationship developing with someone who felt human, PapaKiki substitues a caricature whose existence is merely as fetishbait. Where Usagi Drop was heartfelt, PapaKiki substitutes titillation. Usagi Drop was incredible. PapaKiki can't even achieve middling.

3

TV

12

WI2012 WI2012

1137

Add - More Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! OVA

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OVA

2

I. Never. Learn. I. Never. Learn.

1138

Add - More Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai!: Pokkapoka Ugh. There's another two specials in this franchise. And I mean, sure, I could stomach them. I've found my line for "I absolutely can't watch any more of this" and this series isn't eroticizing rape (something I've only come across in two series) so it's not reaching that level of objectionableness. But while I could, I really, really don't want to. But I've put myself through this much of it, how could I just stop here? I realize the obvious flaw in this line of logic ("sunk cost fallacy") but I keep following this train of thought no matter how many times I get bitten by its obvious consequences. I even have the other OVA episode already downloaded because of course I do. If I'm far enough in a series, it's generally gonna take some pretty strong motivation to drop it at that point. And there's no good reason for that. It's not like the goal of watching anime is just to finish them, so "Well, I'm already this far in, might as well get it over with" isn't a sensible reason to watch even more of a bad anime. Really, I know this. But I keep doing it anyway because I'm a dumb human with a dumb human brain.

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Special

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"This crappy series I made the mistake of watching years ago has an OVA? Well, can't just leave it unfinished!" I never learn. "This crappy series I made the mistake of watching years ago has an OVA? Well, can't just leave it unfinished!" I never learn.

1139

Add - More Paprika

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Movie

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Add - More Paradise Kiss (Later.) All below was written prior. *** What's the word I'm looking for? I know what this is missing, but I'm not sure what the best word for it is. Energy? Life? That certain spark? Personality? Well, somewhere in that general vicinity. This feels a bit, no, quite a bit flat. If that missing element doesn't come into play within an episode or so, this show and I won't be staying together. *** It feels like it might be finding its feet. The OP and ED are pretty nice, by the way, but of course without solid substance between them it's kind of like an empty Oreo. I'm not entirely convinced the show will fully right the ship, but it's enough to at least not drop it for now.

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TV

12

FA2005 FA2005

1141

Add - More Parol no Miraijima

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Movie

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1142

Add - More Paulette no Isu

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ONA

1

1143

Add - More Peaceful Times (F02) Petit Film

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Music

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Add - More Perfect Blue (Some vague spoilers) You know what I appreciate? A lot of movies or series can become difficult to follow inadvertently because of bad writing and directing. This movie makes it difficult to follow what's real and what's not, but deliberately via some tight crafting, allowing the viewer to experience what the main character is feeling (and not in that awful Endless Eight way). It's rather effective. Fancy that, actual good directing! Making the "villains" so obviously off looking was a bit lazy. The whole aesthetic of the show is, as you'd probably expect, very typical Satoshi Kon, which is distinct enough to be recognizable, but not a wholly unique style, either. If this had been from the 80s, it would've been very impressive looking. For a 90s movie, though, it's just alright. It's not bad, but it's flawed and certainly not what you'd expect from a movie. Apparently there were budget issues, and it shows. Questions of identity aren't that unique, but can still be interesting if well executed. And it's well crafted, but not exactly new territory. I'd compare it to Hitchcock. There are certainly worse directors to be compared to than Hitchcock, though! It's probably a criticism best saved for the works which came after it, but with the benefit of hindsight, Perfect Blue does not represent Kon stepping out of his comfort zone. There's some interesting use of motifs going on with mirrors here. Perhaps it's to do with mirrors representing reality objectively no matter our subjective interpretation of it. Well, that's just me speculating. It would certainly fit, though. The commentary on Japan's entertainment industry is accurate, but not as thorough as it could've been to be truly interesting. Rather, it's more of a lens for the nature of identity to be reflected through, and it serves its purpose suitably. Perfect Blue is a film that is genuinely unsettling at times, in part because of this. Although the film does suffer from a slow start. Perfect Blue won't stun you or do anything too revelatory, but it is certainly worth a watch to see a well made, if somewhat traditionally Hitchcockian narrative. While I still prefer titles like Mind Game to this, it's a solid movie.

8

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Add - More Petit Eva: Evangelion@School What in the name of cheap cash-ins is this? I am stunned. This is hideous, cheap and technically inept. So there's enough references that you can assume the staff behind this had at least a passing knowledge of Eva, but it's so entirely off the mark. Rei is a highly emotive, cheerful girl, Gendo takes his son on a picnic. No, no, it's all so wrong. And the plots. What plots? It's incomprehensible most of the time. You will often just stare at the screen, baffled, and then the credits will roll. There's a scene in the first episode where a bird is dropping large turds on Shinji. It's a great visual metaphor for the experience of viewing the show. Turds are a running joke throughout the first half of the show, by the way. While appropriate, it's never funny. The characters appear to just be bulky blobs. Sometimes they get too lazy to actually draw characters, so they just use 3D stick figures. It's all so jittery. It could almost be a slideshow. The backgrounds look like low quality, poorly compressed JPEGs, artifacts and all. Would you believe they recycle animation and backgrounds? Because they do. There's a scene where Rei is eating a rice ball (that looks like it's made out of aluminum foil), and her hand just kind of vanishes inside her face. The music is awful. It's repetitive and mindless. It's just tossed in randomly for the sake of itself. The sound effects are inappropriate. Partway through the show, I'm guessing the budget started running out. That's because they mercifully cut the episode lengths in half. This is also the point where they've given up. They've gone from schizophrenic wrecks of episodes to just complete nonsense. There's no voice acting in this. I assume they couldn't afford it. Sometimes they use speech bubbles with pictures in them to fill in for this. Sometimes those bubbles don't even make sense. And other times, the mouths move, but you're never given any indication of what was said. Not even a context clue. This is a wreck. A heap. I don't know how this could have happened. The Eva franchise is big, isn't it? You'd think they'd have handed the reins to someone a bit more competent. There's nothing professional about this. You'd be ashamed to have your name attached to this project. It's an incredibly lazy, sloppy, headache inducing* and amateurish work. You won't laugh, you won't cry, you won't anything. Unwatchable. (And yet somehow I did anyway.) *That's not a hyperbole. This show genuinely gave me a headache.

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Add - More Piace: Watashi no Italian

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WI2017 WI2017

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Add - More Pico to Chico

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Add - More Pico x CoCo x Chico

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Add - More PiKA PiKA

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Add - More Ping Pong the Animation If you want to insist that Ping Pong isn't really a sports anime, as so many frequently do, it's likely because you don't really watch sports anime. Both in that you apparently view the term "sports anime" as some kind of derogative to be avoided and in that you don't realize that those things you use to highlight why this isn't a sports anime? Yeah, those elements are very much part of sports anime tradition. I'm going to let you in on a little secret: You don't have to know or care about sports to watch a sports anime and Ping Pong should illustrate to you exactly why that is rather than you scrambling to disavow its sports anime status lest that conflict with your preconceived narrative of what a sports anime is. It's not just silly, it's also a reason people miss out on a number of fine series because they're determined to maintain sports as some kind of "nerd boogeyman" that they can't get anywhere near, willfully blind to the reality that sports anime aren't (just) for sports fans. There's a reason a good number of sports anime explain the rules and basics of the sport during the show, you know, and it's certainly not because the sport's hardcore fans need a refresher. And really, most people aren't ninjas, pirates or ethereal samurai, but plenty of people still manage to watch the "big three" without issue. Why this myth that sports anime are somehow a special exception continues to perdure, I mean I guess I can understand, but I still let out a sigh about it. Fansub Group: Commie

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Add - More Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume Oh hey, I've actually read this VN. Considering the list of VNs I'v read is this and one route of Katawa Shoujo, this is an unusual experience for me. And, you know, the transition to anime really adds a lot to the experience.

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ONA

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Add - More Plastic Little (spoilers) How many half-baked concepts can you stuff into one OVA? We open on Tita in a hotel room, although she apparently spends all her time on board a ship so, wait, why was she in this hotel room? And I feel like I've seen this character design somewhere before. We're introduced to this notion of a lethargic Tita waking up around noon, but that never comes up again. Rather, she spends the rest of the OVA entirely contradicting that. But you can't recognize that this is a bad sign for the writing without the benefit of retrospect. But on her way to bring lunch to the ship crew, the plot bumps into her. Now, seemingly just because, she rescues this girl who is being pursued by the military. This girl could be a murderer, a foreign spy, any sort of dangerous criminal. But because she "doesn't look like a criminal" (what does a criminal look like?) she risks life and limb to abscond with her. I'm glad we've set up these compelling motivations, here. This gives the OVA the opportunity to lead to a bath scene. The bath is apparently accessed by riding down some kind of water slide, because why not? What this really is, of course, is an excuse to show off the exposed breasts on two of the female characters. You'll be seeing a lot of their boobs. Gotta sell those tapes and LDs! And to bring in someone who has a crush on Tita to come spy on her bathing. I don't remember his name. I'm not sure it even came up. He's really not consequential. Almost nobody is. Oh, they're positioned as relevant to the plot, but they're explored so little that they are of no consequence. But the OVA continually treats them like relevant figures the audience could've possibly even remotely connected with despite the nigh zero development they receive to the point that not only do you not know who they are, but you're not even sure what they do on the ship. So you watch conversations between people you barely recognize while they allude to backstory that never comes to mean anything and seem to have established dynamics between each other that, the viewer knowing none of their history or personality, have their impact just completely desiccated. When Tita and blonde girl ultimately later get caught by their pursuers, pay attention to the fact that it’s clearly established Tita’s suit offers some pretty good protection against gunshots. Because that’s going to make a later scene even dumber. You see, after their escape (which gives an opportunity for yet more of Tita’s breasts to be shown) they of course decide to try to stop the villain. Whose motivations you don’t know other than, ya know, “evil.” And they’re at this terminal trying to input a password to stop the evil plans that will cause something bad that isn’t really thoroughly hashed out. So as you’d expect, the antagonist and his goons show up to try to stop this. Keep in mind that we’ve already seen that you can destroy these terminals, too. So what do they do to stop Tita and blonde girl? The goons fire seemingly arbitrarily instead of aiming for Tita’s non-bulletproof head. You’d think maybe just a stray shot would’ve hit her, but no. In fact, blonde girl, who Tita was shielding with her body, somehow gets grazed, but Tita’s unprotected head is fine. And there’s like a dozen or so goons shooting constantly at them. Bring Tita down to Vegas. Tita, not even injured apparently, is able to make the platforms the goons are standing on fall, taking care of them. And what does the main villain do? He doesn’t shoot blonde girl who knows the password. He doesn’t try to destroy the very destructible terminal. No. He goes for Tita. And he doesn’t even shoot her head. He just sneaks out a grappling hook sort of thing and temporarily knocks the gun out of her hand. Then he decides to Bond villain the whole thing with an overly grandiose plan to drop Tita to her death, but surprise!, the gun she picked back up earlier becomes of use. And the big villain goes down with barely a fight. Thrilling! They save the area or whatever was at stake, but their trails aren’t over yet! Yes, even though the main antagonist was killed, there’s still ten minutes of OVA left. And these guys you’ve not seen before and whose identities never really get revealed are going to attack Tita and crew. The OVA takes this time to try to present a climatic battle. You’d think they’d have done that for the whole thing with the main villain and ending his scheme that was the premise for the entire OVA, but nope. And just when it looks hopeless, they bust out a deus ex machina and their nameless foes are defeated. Hooray! Lead up to a chintzy little goodbye scene, and roll credits. What a turd.

2

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Add - More Plastic Neesan This failed to click with me. Humor, subjective, etc.

3

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Add - More Pokemon Movie 01: Mewtwo no Gyakushuu I saw this when I was a kid and Pokemon was THE thing. I saw it on the opening day (because who could wait?) We went to Burger King first and got their Pokemon toys, then went to the theater, got a holographic Mew card, and sat down to see the movie. My mom fell asleep. When it shifted from static ads to video ads, the theater erupted in cheers because we were that much closer. It was magical and I won't hear a word against it.

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Add - More Pokemon Movie 02: Maboroshi no Pokemon Lugia Bakutan To be honest I don't even remember this film. But I know I saw one in theaters with Unown and Wikipedia says that was the third one, and Pokemon ran in my blood at the time so I wouldn't have missed the second film, either.

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Add - More Pokemon Movie 03: Kesshoutou no Teiou Entei Alright, I'm pretty sure this is the last Pokemon film I saw in a theater, and thus the last one I saw at all. I kind of want to play Pokemon now...

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Add - More Pokemon: Pikachu no Natsuyasumi

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Add - More Pokemon: Pikachu Tankentai This aired before the second movie, right? This one actually feels familiar.

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Add - More Pokemon: The Origin Kinda makes me want to just play through the original game all over again.

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4

Full-on nostalgia. Full-on nostalgia.

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Add - More Popee the Performer I feel like I've intruded upon somebody's nightmares. Popee doesn't seem like it would be out of place airing unannounced at 4 AM on Adult Swim. Between the crude CG that screams shoestring budget, the surreal, violent comedy and its seeming delight in maintaining only a small kernel of internal logic, it would be a perfect fit alongside, say, Xavier, wouldn't it? Sure, you can complain about the cheapness, be it the aforementioned CG quality or the recycled animation and music, and it'd be a fair and valid critique, yet there's a positive to this show, and it's something you don't seem to come across that often in anime. This show is, well, cartoony. It's Looney Tunes violence meets Adult Swim dada. Something doesn't have to be complex to succeed. Sometimes it's just a psychopathic clown lobbing cartoon bombs at someone that barely offended him, or even someone who had nothing to do with the offense at all, and that's enough. Not "masterpiece" enough, but enough to scratch a certain itch and satiate a viewer who just wants an enjoyable diversion. Brilliant? No. But an injection of a bit of madness into your day? Sure.

7

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Add - More Poputepipikku "Poputepipikku" My Anime List, you're really sure using this name is better than just going with "Pop Team Epic?" I know the site has refused to use canonical names for a while now, but that decision hasn't become any better over time.

7

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Neat, Néat, "Pop Team Epic", WI2018 Neat, Néat, "Pop Team Epic", WI2018

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Add - More Poputepipikku 2nd Season

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Add - More Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki It's not quite Chi's Sweet Home, but it's cute, mildly amusing and has a cat. You can't go too wrong with a simple formula like that.

5

TV

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WI2012 WI2012

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Add - More Pretty Rhythm: Aurora Dream

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SP2011 SP2011

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Add - More PriPara Movie: Mi~nna Atsumare! Prism☆Tours

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Add - More PriPara Movie: Mi~nna no Akogare♪ Let's Go☆Prix Paris

7

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Add - More PriPri Chii-chan!!

6

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SP2017 SP2017

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Add - More Prison School Hmm. Pretty decent grasp on its comedic writing, the animation's execution can't quite live up to the show's stylistic aspirations, oh, and, what the holy heck yo? That's a pretty significant swing from the three episodes of Aikatsu! I watched before checking out one of the last new shows of the season. Sheesh. Prison School is very aggressive at being a particular sort of thing and rather successful at it, which makes it a bit of an all-or-nothing sort of deal. If you're not explicitly into its central conceit, Prison School is going to very much not be for you. Like, to a radically offputting degree. Exploitation films are an important and relevant part of the historical film and cultural canon, but they're understandably not mainstream. They're generally not made with finesse, and revel in sleaze and raw ugliness. Crass sexuality, wildly simplistic and insensitive racial depictions, giddy xenophobia, exaggeration, pomp, visceral reactions, exploiting whatever they might to appeal directly to the lizard brain. And Prison School, as a clear sexploitation work, does not betray that lineage of intentional ugliness. Part of the charm is meant to be that very ugliness, to see something which goes beyond the pale and feels scandalous. You may well get turned on while watching a sexploitation work, given the subject matter, but like its cousins the Mondo film and the so-called "blaxpoitation film," that's not quite the core intent (although it's also not a result they'd likely object to). It's an extreme expression of taboo and repressed, darker corners of the human mind. It's a shout, a scream, a bit of graffiti scrawled on the social contract. While Prison School and its ilk certainly won't look down on you for getting aroused, if the show's true and ultimate goal was only titillation, it's going about that pretty poorly. That ugliness, that grossness extends to the show's visual stylings and its cruel, sadistic thematics. What it's reveling in is not merely pleasurable lascivious displays, but in extremity. Pejoratively labeled "torture porn" films are a more obvious and extreme example. They're frequently dismissed as ugly, crass and cynical and they'd agree with those adjectives but not their implication. Exploitation cinema is a heavily maligned body of work, but no true film historian worth their salt would dismiss them. The infamous (and fake) footage of a father being eaten alive by lions at a safari while his family helplessly watches on, beyond being a dumb bit of shlocky voyeurism, is also worth some degree of academic meditation. Exploitation cinema, in what it says about the culture that leads to its production, the culture that leads to its consumption and what its contents reveal about that culture, is an interesting thing. But its siren song of "Hey, dont'cha wanna see some real trashy stuff?" isn't always an entertaining thing to many. Its very raison d'etre means it axiomatically can't have mainstream appeal. For if it did, it would no longer be exploitation cinema. At least not in its truest essence. So I can respect what Prison School is, academically. But do I want to watch it? Maybe. If exploitation cinema isn't a barrier for you (and certainly none would reasonably blame you if it were), it does have its charms as an entry into the (sub)genre. And I'm curious to see where it goes with its efforts. Oh, heck, I might regret this, but I guess I'm watching Prison School. And writing this out let me better solidify and come to grips with what to make of that first episode, so that's neat. *** Predictably, Theron Martin hated this and didn't get it at all. That's the Theron Martin, ladies and gents. Which continues to confirm what most already knew about Mr. Martin, and is another sign about what sort of show Prison School is. (I get why ANN feels they need someone like Theron Martin but man.) *** I'm curious to hear how the broadcast dub of this turns out, for various reasons. Based on some of the past Funi dubs I've seen ("heard?") for raunchier shows, they ought to have fun dubbing this one, at least. I'm curious how they'll approach the script and, more generally, what the quality of their broadcast dubs is like. Also this show is easily the most intense thing I'm watching this season. Each episode somehow feels like it both goes by in a flash yet also lasts an eternity. The blend of hideousness and absurdity is almost hypnotic. I actually need time after an episode just to come down from that madness. I... I think I might like Prison School? Is... is this actually the thing I'm currently most looking forward to each week? That can't be. This season has the pretty and charming if somewhat rote Snow White with the Red Hair. It has the kinda average action show with a fun reluctant comrades angle in Ushio and Tora. It has a second season of Non Non Biyori and Gatchaman Crowds! So how could it be that the thing I'm most... interested in? excited by? curious about? is, of all things, Prison School? I think part of it is the novelty. Both in that I can't think of many other anime in the exploitation genre and that anime with a strong focus on sexuality generally tends to be low-effort tripe that's a short remove from softcore porn, to the point that hentai's existence almost makes it feel redundant. Which brings in the other part of the matter: That this doesn't describe Prison School is a refreshing change, but in a more general sense, Prison School's actual execution is sharp, regardless of genre. It's not the only show this season that's successful, but as aforementioned, it's also novel, which I think is what gives it the edge in terms of making me want to see more of where it's going. I mean it's only been two episodes so I shouldn't get too ahead of myself, but it is a rather bemusing entity so far. *** A. First this made me giggle, then it bummed me out because it reminded me that Gamergate is still somehow a thing that some people are actively invested in. Then I saw someone who apparently paid for the dub membership without being aware that sometimes Funimation dubs, or dubs from most providers, really, deviate a bit from the original Japanese script and giggled again. I should probably stop reading the Funimation forums, but rubbernecking at this sort of stuff is a difficult hobby to quit. Maybe I should check out the Prison School dub. It's upsetting the right people, so it seems like it'll be fun. B. I think I've gotten more used to this show rather than it having toned itself down or anything. But while it doesn't quite take me by surprise to the same degree (But oh does it still manage that at times!), I don't think my appreciation for it has lessened any because of that. Prison School is certainly more than just shock value. Or fanservice, for that matter. I'd seen the manga recommended a number of times before there was ever an anime, but it was always pitched by fans as something just to get off to. I don't know if they were just bad at selling it, or if for some, that's really the primary thing they get out of Prison School. I'd like to believe it's the former. They're missing out on so much of this show(/manga?) if it's the latter. I still don't know if this would be my personal top pick for this season, but it's certainly up there. Maybe the second season of Prison School can earn that title when it airs. There will be a second season, right? There's not a lot like this in anime and I really want more like this. *** Oh wait, I guess you can't read that link if you're not a Funimation subscriber, huh. Well, I guess that's okay. You probably shouldn't follow my mistake. But I do hope that dub is even half the dub Panty and Stocking's was. This show gives them ample opportunity to really go places with the dub script and enjoy themselves. *** I don't generally look at Twitter, so I didn't realize just how much some people were truly furious over one little throwaway line in an anime dub. It's so silly, you could almost forget this same "movement" counts issuing threats of rape and violence as one of their pet hobbies. Oh. I made myself a little sad. Now I'm sure I'm totally watching the dub of this at some point. Mission accomplished? *** Oh gosh you can't just end the series teasing a new story arc without also promising us a second season I need it *** "I-it's not this particular line that bothers us! It's that you changed the script! Just like in many other dubs we've never complained about and also we're only going to keep bringing up this one line. Also many of us don't realize that dubs frequently have different lines because we don't watch dubs, just like we never watched this one we're very upset about. This is actually important, darn it!" Cool, I think I can go back to maintaining my stance of not reading things on Twitter. Seems like a really tiresome place. *** So the Panty and Stocking dub is pretty great. It's also pretty different from the original script. It contains a number of lines that might potentially offend people. Rather than generating a mass of complaints, it was celebrated. The key difference here, as any honest party can see, is the subject of the changed line. Suddenly the joke was about them and now it was very much not okay. Not that most of them were watching this dub. Or any dub, for that matter. The cries of concerns for dub quality ring false, and even if they actually were true this would be an absurd overreaction to thinking one line in a dub wasn't that great. And to a degree you can ignore dumb people being dumb about dumb things. Until Funimation suggests those people have their ear. I don't care much about this particular line, but I do care about the potential chilling effect if they bend to this manufactured backlash. I care about never seeing another Panty and Stocking level dub because Funi fears the repercussions. I care about their artistic liberty being reigned in by people who aren't even their actual customers. A dub's agenda is not to coddle Gamergate's agenda. There's something the people who regularly watch dubs come to them for, and Funimation not standing behind them when under pressure is the wrong move. I don't want dub scriptwriters to have less artistic freedom than the people who made Prison School. *** And, of course, the notion that all the commotion is over the line being "topical" also rings false. Where was this furor when the Korezom dub referenced that "Winning!" meme? Oh, you didn't know that it did? Of course you didn't, because nobody cared just like that's not why people are actually pretending to be very upset now. *** "What many may not know, however, is that FUNimation already mocked Social Justice Warriors earlier in an episode of Ultimate Otaku Teacher." Huh, wonder why that didn't generate the same level of totally not disingenuous outrage!

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I suppose my adolescent intrigue around exploitation cinema isn't truly dead after all, Unsurprisingly polarizing, SU2015 I suppose my adolescent intrigue around exploitation cinema isn't truly dead after all, Unsurprisingly polarizing, SU2015

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Add - More Prison School: Mad Wax

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Add - More Project A-Ko (spoilers) This really isn't very good. From just an animation perspective, it's not bad for its time. There are parts that are pretty decent in that regard. Yet a number of critical faults sink it. It's great when an anime can dazzle with technique or technology, but it's not great when their plot suffers terribly. The story in Project A-ko is about as imaginative as the names of the main characters: the titular A-ko, her generic friend C-ko and the antagonist B-ko. The premise is basically the spoiled girl B-ko wants something A-ko has (C-ko, who she basically views as just another possession because she's a rich girl and she gets what she wants, even people! What elaborate characterization.) and is angry that that she can't have it. So she constructs numerous elaborate mechs to dispatch A-ko, but A-ko destroys all of them with ease. You get it? Something complex, elaborate and powerful looking actually only resulted in a brief kick! It's comedy! The writing in this is terrible. It kind of shows that this was originally slated to be a hentai. Speaking of the comedy, that's pretty universally terrible in this movie. A lot of it is composed of references to other material where either you get it and think "Oh, they're referencing that," and don't laugh because just referencing something isn't humorous, actually doing something funny with it is, or you have no idea what they're referencing and miss the attempted joke entirely. If you want a good example of how to handle parody, look at Excel Saga. A lot of the parody humor in Excel Saga is pretty broad, satirizing genres more than specific works. And even if you're not intimately familiar with what Excel Saga is parodying, you will lose some layers of the comedy, but it can still stand on its own. (Excel Saga was one of my first anime series and I had no issue getting it. You can't say the same at all about much of the humor in Project A-ko.) I'll give you an example of a joke from Project A-ko: There's a character who's a lot like Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star, only she's a high school girl. That's it. That's the whole joke. They have her imitate Kenshiro briefly, and then you basically never see her again. Hilarious! But once you get about halfway through the movie, it starts one long continuous fight between A-ko and B-ko. Owing in part to the decent animation, this part is sort of neat. It also finally brings an ultimately irrelevant matter of the plot to the foreground: C-ko is apparently an alien princess. They heavily insinuate before that reveal that it's A-ko, because she's the one who seems to have something special about her. C-ko is just an overly energetic, cute crybaby who can't cook well. I generally don't use this term, but she really is a "moeblob." (Yes, from a 1986 movie. I know that might blow some minds that seem to think this is some recent advent.) You might think this would lead to some character development, but of course it doesn't actually do so. They ultimately rescue C-ko because the aliens are incompetent (despite their ability to wipe out Earth's defenses?) and it all means nothing. There's zero resolution. Those Daicon animations had more plot development than this. If you're not enthralled by this one fight, you've got nothing. And since it's now 2012, the modern implications of that are obvious: There's really no reason to watch Project A-ko at this point. There are better battle sequences out there in movies with better plots. Project A-ko is a relic that's better off lost to history. So much of it is generic and just plain bad (from what I hear, the makers didn't really have higher expectations than that). There's nothing it has that can't be found done (often much) better somewhere else. And of course, some of that's age, but a lot of it has nothing to do with the year it was made, so there's no excuse there. Don't bother with this.

3

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Add - More Promare

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1177

Add - More Puchitto Gargantia "Puchitto," MAL? Really?

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ONA

13

1178

Add - More Pugyuru

4

TV

13

SP2004 SP2004

1179

Add - More Pukapuka Juju

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Score later. Score later.

1180

Add - More Punch Line Fansub Group: Horriblesubs

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SP2015 SP2015

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Add - More Puni Puni☆Poemii Take the crew behind Excel Saga, remove their restraints and you'll have Puni Puni Poemi. There's a thin whisper of a plot, but don't feel too compelled to follow it. The whole thing just strikes me as a group of hyperactive middle schoolers trying a bit too hard to be "so wacky." The humor is often meta, breaking the fourth wall, or sexual and a healthy dose of parody is thrown in. What did you expect from the crew behind Excel Saga? It's barely even coherent. It makes Excel Saga seem languid in comparison. Non sequiturs are common. Pay attention to background details, and you'll notice vibrating dildos and people having sex, just because. Fan service is played up for laughs. The main character refers to herself by her seiyuu's name. It's a hodgepodge of ideas with little connection, rhyme, or reason. It can make you laugh with that style of humor, but it's too disjointed for its own good. This sort of random humor has its own merits, but it's far better in something like Excel Saga where there's some common thread holding it all together. I'd rather see it applied to a narrative than be the narrative. If you haven't seen Puni Puni Poemi, you've missed nothing of consequence. But if you do choose to watch it, well, you're in for something all right.

6

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1182

Add - More Pupipo!

4

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15

WI2014 WI2014

1183

Add - More Push

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Special

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1184

Add - More Quiz Magic Academy: The Original Animation

5

OVA

1

1185

Add - More Quiz Magic Academy: The Original Animation 2

5

OVA

1

1186

Add - More R.O.D: Read or Die

8

OVA

3

1187

Add - More Rail Wars! Ordinarily I might tag a show like this with "train wreck clause," but even though there would be no pun intended, given the circumstances, it'd still be too groanworthy even for me. Every part of this that is fun or enjoyable is unintentional. But man is it pretty fun to laugh and gawk at. *** On model? Understanding human anatomy? Correct use of perspective? Rail Wars has evolved beyond such petty concerns! Just put a prominent butt on the screen and surely nobody will even notice anything else, right? Some of these "casual" poses are outright physically impossible. Do not try them at home. You will hurt yourself. I can't think of any facet of Rail Wars! that has been competently executed. I'm pretty sure just about anyone could realize this is a poorly made show. A sentence I of course wrote before checking the reviews on MAL to see a number of people complimenting the art and considering the animation to be not great, but okay. Maybe all those butts really do blind some people from noticing how many different permutations you can count of a character's face in any given episode. This is also one of the reasons most sensible people don't pay attention to the reviews on MAL, but I digress.

2

TV

12

brokebackpose.jpg, Don't watch Rail Wars, SU2014 brokebackpose.jpg, Don't watch Rail Wars, SU2014

1188

Add - More Rain Town

8

ONA

1

1189

Add - More Rakuen Tsuihou

5

Movie

1

1190

Add - More Ramen Daisuki Koizumi-san

5

TV

12

WI2018 WI2018

1191

Add - More Ranma ½ . hey this article isn't perfect but it's still pretty neat *** Why, Viz? Why did you, and seemingly only you, opt to use Hulu's closed captions for your subtitles? That's just plain inconvenient because now I have to turn them off whenever I watch anything else and turn them back on for this. First world problems! Also: Legally streaming anime on my TV? It's almost enough to dull the annoyance of paying $8/mo for a service and still having to watch commercials. Yes, I could get a Crunchyroll membership, but I don't currently plan to. Anime isn't the reason I signed up for Hulu Plus and it's just a neat side benefit. There's worse things than knowing Toei and Viz are getting "digital pennies" from my viewership. (It's seriously like 10-15 cents per episode. I heavily suspect they'd make more money from me buying the discs.) Hulu has some iyashikei shows but watching iyashikei with commercials just seems counterintuitive. Who can be healed and soothed when the stream stops every 12 minutes or so to bark at them to buy cars and fast food? *** According to Wikipedia, there's an original episode order and a Viz episode order. And the order on Hulu seems to match neither of those. Fun! Oh well, I guess it'll all just work out somehow. *** Terrible views on both homosexuality and crossdressing in just one episode? Be still my beating heart! It's sure great that anime really hasn't gotten any better about this in the over two decades sine Ranma aired. I'm sure I'll never stop having anime occasionally remind me it thinks I'm gross and less than human. Yay! Although Dirty Pair did handle the matter with far more grace just a few years later. *** Hey, as long as Viz is starting to take Netflix's money, might I suggest a certain show to join that roster? (And also not adding various chunks of seasons of shows. Who's the audience for only part of the second season of whatever Nura is?)

5

TV

161

SP1989 SP1989

1192

Add - More Ranma ½ OVA "Studio Dean?" I'm pretty sure that's actually supposed to be "DEEN," and I'm not sure why this proper noun was changed in Viz's release back... whenever this came out. That ED reminds me a bit of the endings from LOGH. That's probably not intentional, though.

-

OVA

6

1193

Add - More Ranma ½ Super

-

OVA

3

1194

Add - More Ranma ½: Akumu! Shunmin Kou

-

OVA

1

1195

Add - More Ranma ½: Chou Musabetsu Kessen! Ranma Team vs. Densetsu no Houou

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Movie

1

1196

Add - More Ranma ½: Chuugoku Nekonron Daikessen! Okite Yaburi no Gekitou-hen!!

-

Movie

1

1197

Add - More Ranma ½: Kessen Tougenkyou! Hanayome wo Torimodose!

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Movie

1

1198

Add - More Ranma ½: Yomigaeru Kioku

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OVA

2

1199

Add - More Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace How does Funi manage to make their simulcasts look so bad? And many people with mental disabilities don't "look like" they have one. They can tend not to manifest physically because they're, y'know, mental disorders. Hence the phrase "invisible disabilities." They also spent a fair bit of that first episode focusing on how Kobayashi's appearance is feminine. I wonder where they're going with that. (I mean part of me wouldn't be surprised if the answer was "nowhere," but let's give them some benefit of the doubt.) *** Oh, this is a Seiji Kishi work. That explains a lot. Now I'm 100% positive this'll be garbage going forward. Time to see how long it takes before I can't stomach any more of it. I could just drop it now, but where's the fun in that? *** (episode 3 spoilers) Wait, if he can't disguise himself as someone who's female, then how did he disguise himself as a nurse? Oh, forget it. *** Turns out I was exactly the right amount of cynical about the implications of Kishi directing a show. I've seen enough of his work --and it's been consistently shoddy enough in identical ways-- to consider his name mud now. It's painful because you can really see his ambitions and you want him to be able to pull off what he wants to be able to pull off, but you also see how his actual abilities just don't make that possible for him.

3

TV

11

SU2015 SU2015

1200

Add - More Re: Cutie Honey In the interest of testing SMA's recommendation quality, I'm taking the obvious route of watching some of the shows it recommended. This is one such anime. *** Re: Cutie Honey is just another in the menagerie of OVAs like Puni Puni Poemy or Dai Mahou Touge- wait, no. Puni Puni Poemy certainly went the distance to be the most... whatever exactly Puni Puni Poemy is. Re: Cutie Honey is just a lukewarm effort. You can see traces of staff members like Imaishi or Yashinari, but they're just not being used to their full potential as they have in previous and later Gainax works. A number of constrained battle scenes with limited, dull choreography showcase only the potential that could have been. Brief moments of almost starting to get going only serve to highlight the lackluster nature of the majority of this. It's not like the people working on this can't do better (just check their past works and see for yourself), but for whatever reason, even with more than suitable talent working on this show, they just don't. The animation rarely goes anywhere interesting or shows off anything skillful. Fights are rather basic. All this smoke, but there's just no fire. Throwing in all that fanservice isn't going to distract people from this basic reality, Gainax. It's kind of vexing to have a three episode long OVA that still has so much repetition in its music. Tut, Susumu Ueda, tut. Was it that much to expect a wee bit more effort than this? You only had to fill about two hours of runtime! And this is the most compelling BGM you could conjure? This kind of generic, limited selection of tunes? I was a little stunned to learn that there are apparently 30 tracks on the soundtrack. Where in the show had these been? But when I stopped to listen to them individually, it became pretty clear how someone could miss this: Most of them sound pretty much the same. Come on. You're killing me here, Susumu Ueda. The plot shows a lack of ambition. It's pretty rote. Protagonist defeats slightly bombastic antagonists because she's the good one and so by the value of virtue and friendship, good triumphs over evil. Since it's Gainax, most of the characters are a bit silly and bombastic. Yet they're also simple and ultimately kind of boring. Once you've seen the basic traits of Scarlet Claw, silly as they may be, you've basically exhausted everything she has going for her. And she's not around that long to really be stretched too thin, but you still notice how basic the antagonists' personalities are. Not that the protagonists are any more interesting. Unlike the antagonists, Honey does have time to become old. Considering how minimal character growth is ("But it's a short OVA!" FLCL is a six episode OVA that's almost nothing but character growth.), you're just seeing the same protagonists put through the same scenarios throughout the three episodes. I'd say you'd never put up with this in a longer series, but Bleach was a thing that existed (ho ho!). Alright, alright, cheap jokes aside, it's still a barebones plot serviced by forgettable, stagnant characters. Well done, Gainax. You snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. If you want to blow the house down, you're going to have to huff and puff harder than this. A high 4. (Consider this to be one failure so far for SMA.) All below was written while watching. *** Considering the staff members working on this whom I'm familiar with, I'm not really surprised this is how it is. And they're capable of better than this. Maybe they weren't being used correctly, maybe the staff members I'm not familiar with weren't up to snuff, or maybe it just is what it is. The magic's just not there. Well, maybe it'll turn around in the remaining two episodes. But otherwise it's just a faint echo of brilliance shown elsewhere, now diluted into something resembling past triumphs but producing a bland, rubbery taste. Boo. I had my hopes mildly up for this. (It's not terrible, it's just not very interesting so far.)

4

OVA

3

SMA Test SMA Test

1201

Add - More Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Break Time

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TV Special

11

SP2016 SP2016

1202

Add - More Rec (slight spoilers) Rec is an aggressively mediocre, thoroughly boilerplate little generic romance series. From the all-too-quick convenience of the fun, eccentric girl he just met's house burning down leading to her, of course, moving in with him (all in the span of one 12 minute episode, no less) to the nondescript build of the romance, the rushed characters that lack proper time to be fleshed out and give some meat to their relationship, it's all by the numbers. Generic male MC meets disposable attractive female MC and, wouldn't you know it, they bond. The male MC is a very unsympathetic character who pivots between thinking that allowing Aka to stay in his house leaves her sexually obligated to him and choosing to take out his frustrations on Aka, who quickly forgives him because, like every other character in Rec, she barely feels human. Interesting, that: Aka charges that the male MC would have been fine with just any woman, and yet these characters are so devoid of original personality and life, they may as well just be any other anime character. While a Shaft work, there's only two obvious giveaways of that: The characteristic headtilt and the obvious low budget (or at least the appearance of one). While Shinbo had worked with Shaft on anime before Rec, he did not direct this one, and so it does not have his well-known style that's almost presumed to be the style of the studio itself given Shinbo's ubiquity throughout Shaft projects. Everything about Rec's art screams bland and cheap. From uninspired character designs you'll be sure you've seen somewhere before to heavily lackluster and limited animation, it's as though no expense wasn't spared. A poverty of artistic creativity and talent abounds. It's not awful, however there's tons more where this came from. Really, the only thing that elevates it slightly above the Lamunes of the world is that it was short enough to not get completely tedious. A low 5 is perhaps a bit generous, actually, but it feels like a not that great, generic, average series, so that's the score it gets. There's really no reason to bother watching this if you've got other options.

5

TV

9

WI2006 WI2006

1203

Add - More Rec: Yurusarezarumono

-

TV Special

1

1204

Add - More Red Ash: Gearworld

-

Movie

1

1205

Add - More Redline So I'm just going to link to this review because I agree with so much of it that I might as well just link to someone who can say it better than I probably would've been able to. I'm not as put off by the character designs as he is and I have some other minor disagreements, but other than that, he's pretty much spot on. It's a very good looking but otherwise lazy and generic summer popcorn film. It's fun in bits but with many drawbacks. So, a 6. No, I won't rate it higher for looking pretty when so much else is wrong with it. I've looked through some positive opinions on the film and the same sentiment seems to come up. That is, this is a film you're "supposed" to like and unlike today's "shallow" anime this one is different because... it's threadbare with minimal characterization and pulpy action sequences? Yeah, it doesn't exactly make sense to me either.

6

Movie

1

1206

Add - More Renai Boukun Funi's simuldub for this series seems more or less fine but their barebones effort when it comes to typesetting remains not fine. If you're pirating this dub, there's someone putting out a dual-audio release with a signs/songs subtitle track taken from a fansub that makes for a definite improvement. But if you're watching this legally, then it's disappointing that Funi still doesn't offer even the minimal amount of effort in this area that CR does. And that's a pretty low bar to meet. (It's not even just their simuldubs. They did the same with their theatrical release of Your Name.. So the issue most likely can't be explained away as a matter of lacking time.)

6

TV

12

"Love Tyrant", SP2017 "Love Tyrant", SP2017

1207

Add - More Requiem (ONA)

-

ONA

1

1208

Add - More RideBack Many of the characters sound not like I'm listening to that character speak, but as though I'm listening to their VA dubbing over the video, if that statement makes sense. And while yes, that is in fact what's going on, that's also a failing of the acting part of "voice acting." The VAs in this dub are certainly capable of better than this. I wonder if their director is to blame. Funi's dubs range in quality, sure, but this one is on the lower end of that spectrum. Unless you're just dead set on watching anime dubbed, I really can't recommend this one. I probably should just switch over to the Japanese audio and watch this subbed but oh well. Maybe when/if I rewatch this series some day. But then I might find out that the Japanese dub isn't any better, and that'd be a real disappointment. Or it's quite probable that Funi's subs won't be very appealing. Many companies do some real dumb things to make their translations more "proper" and less actually appealing. Nonsense like trying to translate honorifics, so every student in a high school is calling their peers "Mr./Ms. So and So" which doesn't read like natural English at all. (Even worse when it's in a dub. How can you read that line out loud more than once without realizing that's not how any high schooler addresses any other high schooler where your target market lives?) Or italicizing Japanese words left in the script. Or denoting separate speakers with two dashes. All of those are deliberate, active choices that make the scripts worse and yet in 2015 Funimation is still doing the latter two for some reason. Funi's not Sentai bad (who is?), but man they really should get with the times already. (At least they're not as stiff as Aniplex's subs. And Aniplex still does the "Mr./Ms." thing, too.) And yet I keep buying anime. Yea verily, I am a well trained consumer, aren't I? But Panty and Stocking, Cowboy Bebop and Roberta's Blood Trail have pretty good dubs, so, you know. I wish there was a site that gave dubs any sort of thorough review. ANN's standard practice seems to be not even bothering to mention the dub or to just quickly say "yeah, it's basically alright." I can find a few places that mention the audio quality of dub tracks, but nowhere that gives any real attention to the acting quality. Then again, most places don't say anything about the subs unless they're particularly rotten, either. Why aren't reviews of translated media spending a little more time talking about these aspects? I don't need ANN to tell me if I want to watch Spice and Wolf. But I sure need someone to tell me if I want to own Funimation's release of Spice and Wolf. (I basically do, but I'm just making a point here.) Well, anyway, I guess some of is also that the dub is part of the package I paid for, so might as well get my money's worth. Maybe that's why I also bother listening to those dub actor commentary tracks that rarely contain anything of value. There must be a relevant market for these dubs. Funi only put out one series without a dub and assured their customers that this would be a rare thing. And I don't think they've released any other titles without a dub since, so maybe the experiment didn't work out so well for them. (I'd like to believe it's because people just didn't want to buy OniAi, but in my heart I know that's not it.) Heck, they're even getting dubs out faster so they can get closer to simulcasting dubbed anime, so they're certainly not abandoning dubbing. Also, if you care about the "subs vs dubs" debate, you're probably an unbearable person. It really doesn't matter which audio language other people watch their cartoons in! Choose whichever makes you happier and shut up about whatever someone else chooses. Now bad dubs and subs, there's something to get up in arms over. (There's something odd about hearing my native language and regarding it as an exotic experience.)

5

TV

12

Some dubs are pretty alright but this one isn't, Bipedal ballet motorcycles are a neat concept. Shame they weren't in a better anime, though., WI2009 Some dubs are pretty alright but this one isn't, Bipedal ballet motorcycles are a neat concept. Shame they weren't in a better anime, though., WI2009

1209

Add - More Riding Bean (spoilers) Oh, Riding Bean, you're nothing more than what it says on the tin. But what was advertised was a pretty fun ride and you delivered as such. 46 minutes of ridiculous car chases, a protag who can just shrug off a gunshot to the head, a thumpin', drivin' soundtrack (I swear these aren't intended as puns), gratuitous violence and just enough of a backdrop of a plot to justify all of it. Riding Bean is everything you think it'll be. And before you know it, that's your heart rate increasing a little, and you're leaning in a bit closer to the screen and Yes! Get them.... wait, "Bean Bandit?" What a name. But anyway, it's pretty dang exciting. That's it, and it's good. You can see the transition between 80's and 90's character styles here. It leans closer to the former (think Urusei Yatsura or Fist of the North Star, which of course aren't identical but share overall truisms), but it's already moving towards the sort of aesthetic that prevailed throughout the next decade. The overall art style differences are less pronounced, but it does feel a bit temporally displaced. Which isn't a good or a bad thing, just something that is so. The designs aren't particularly notable, being more stock 80s "manime" designs. That does get the job done, but while the OVA is of course more focused on its set pieces, it is something you're looking at with your eyes, you know? These things matter. Rather than being enjoyable in a somewhat ironic sense like, say, Baoh, Riding Bean's just genuinely fun entertainment. These sorts of things don't appease the pretentious "hipster anime" crowd who only want their precious art anime*, but for those who don't artificially narrow their horizons, this is a pretty good choice! *There's nothing wrong with watching such anime. Some are pretty good! But wallowing in the doldrums of snobbery just engenders a boring person. Downloaded Episodes: 1

8

OVA

1

1210

Add - More Rinne no Lagrange (Only the first half of the show. No comments until it's done.)

6

TV

12

WI2012 WI2012

1211

Add - More Ristorante Paradiso

-

TV

11

SP2009 SP2009

1212

Add - More Robo to Shoujo (Kari)

-

ONA

9

1213

Add - More Robot Carnival

-

OVA

1

1214

Add - More Robot Girls Z

4

Special

3

WI2014 WI2014

1215

Add - More Robot Girls Z Plus

4

ONA

6

SP2015 SP2015

1216

Add - More Robot Girls Z Specials

-

Special

3

1217

Add - More Robotica*Robotics

-

OVA

1

1218

Add - More Rocket Girls The animation and the plot are both a bit questionable.

5

TV

12

WI2007 WI2007

1219

Add - More Romantica Clock Pretty much just a commercial for a manga. It didn't sell me on the manga, but I would've been reading free scanlations most likely anyway, so I doubt they care!

-

Special

3

1220

Add - More Roujin Z

8

Movie

1

1221

Add - More Rozen Maiden

7

TV

12

SU2004 SU2004

1222

Add - More Rozen Maiden: Meitantei Kunkun - Duell Walzer So you know the show they're sometimes shown watching in Rozen Maiden? The one that's portrayed as a generic, mediocre kid's show? Imagine what an episode of that might look like. Congratulations, you've just imagined what this short is like. There's really no reason to bother watching this, even if you're a Rozen Maiden fan.

2

Special

1

1223

Add - More Rozen Maiden: Ouvertüre

7

TV Special

2

1224

Add - More Rozen Maiden: Träumend

8

TV

12

FA2005 FA2005

1225

Add - More Ryo Darn it, Gonzo, come on. It's like somewhere there's a full-length movie version of this and someone just ripped out massive chunks of it indiscriminately. So now you have a plot you can scarcely follow with characters that know each other but you don't know. You'd have to try very hard to form any sort of connection with this or to get emotionally invested in the fragments of story you're given. There's nothing about the animation that can let you just accept it as some sort of tech demo, either. Oh well, at least some young talent hopefully got some training out of this so it's not just a complete waste of Japan's money. It's you, Gonzo, you're the worst studio.

3

Movie

1

1226

Add - More Ryuu to Sobakasu no Hime

-

Movie

1

1227

Add - More Sabage-bu! There is a thread here on MAL with a few people currently trying to claim that despite all the facts to the contrary, this is actually a seinen anime. To make this argument, you have to not understand that "shoujo" and "seinen" are demographics rather than genres (and thus may contain anything) and also somehow think that this series is actually meant for older males because... I don't even know why they think that. Young girls can't be interested in airsoft? Friendship? School clubs? Sabagebu has so far only been a bit more mature than PreCure in its content, which would likely place it outside the "kodomo" demographic, sure, but that wouldn't make it secretly a seinen work or something young girls couldn't read/watch. This is an adaptation of a shoujo manga. Full stop. And it's just a couple people in that MAL thread who can't comprehend that in this particular instance, but this is a strain of thought that is more common than it has any reason to be. Watching people go to great lengths to deny that Hidamari Sketch or K-on! are seinen, for example, is a great demonstration of stupidity. Because this is something you can easily look up, and even if you think it shouldn't be marketed to that demographic, it still is. Nothing you say will change that fact. But it's because they have preconceived notions of what particular demographics want that they cannot accept it. K-on! can't be a seinen anime! Seinen means blood and sex for mature male viewers! Only girls would be interested in watching cute girls doing cute things! I mean, at its heart, it's a sexist argument in basically ever instance, but it's just so... idiotic. Grown men wouldn't be interested in relaxing stories about cute girls? Young girls wouldn't be interested in having fun with friends and playing games? Just what sort of bizarre notions do these people have about men and women? You've got to have an extremely sexist belief in some very rigid and narrowly-defined gender roles to think that grown men would only be interested in grimdark tales of sex and violence while young girls would only be interested in sparkles and love triangles. Especially to the point that you would keep insisting on that being true no matter how many people throw indisputably true facts in your face that prove you're wrong. If you are one of those people you are dumb. *** I mean the narrator in the first episode actually points out how this is a shoujo adaptation how can anyone believe it is actually a seinen anime? *** So, wait, was the implication that Urara sexually assaulted Momoka? Sigh. There's a number of old Warner Bros. cartoons the premise of which basically went "Ha ha, minorities!" which were always racist, and now are recognized as such by the studio and the public at large. I wonder when "Ha ha, sexual assault!" will reach that point? Why is sexual assault so commonly used as a gag in anime? Why do so many viewers either find it hilarious or unobjectionable enough to not even mention? Why does it seem like I'm in some fringe minority for having a problem with this? I mean, I guess I know the answer, but it's such an awful answer that I kind of don't want to believe it. This really shouldn't be something where I'm basically yelling into a wind tunnel, yet here we are.

6

TV

12

SU2014 SU2014

1228

Add - More Sabage-bu! Specials

-

Special

6

1229

Add - More Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata: Ai to Seishun no Service-kai

-

TV Special

1

1230

Add - More Saint☆Oniisan

4

OVA

2

1231

Add - More Saint☆Oniisan (Movie)

-

Movie

1

1232

Add - More Sakamichi no Apollon Sakamichi disappoints in that it does a lot of things well, but is let down by one crucial element. The direction is as tight as you’d expect from Shinichiro Watanabe, the animation delivers, Yoko Kanno does a fine job with the music, but the plot. Ah, there’s the rub. This anime cannot transcend the limitations of its narrative. True, we do not see this setting very often, but the plot is the same love triangles, same angst, same typical bildungsroman, same, same, same. Despite the great talent working on this show, it ultimately grows tedious as it lazily drifts through its humdrum, boilerplate, premasticated plot. The talent behind the show can certainly bring out some strong scenes (see almost anytime they’re seriously playing music), but are ultimately beholden to the source material. I want to bring up a short work by the director called “Baby Blue.” It’s part of the “Genius Party” anthology (if you haven’t seen the short, go take 15 minutes and watch it. It’s worth it). That short clearly demonstrates that the man is more than capable of delivering the sort of experience, exploring these sorts of relationships that this show wants to. I do not blame the director for the limitations of what he was working with, but rather credit him for carrying it as far as he did. Great talent, bad source.

6

TV

12

SP2012 SP2012

1233

Add - More Sakamoto desu ga?

-

TV

12

"Haven't you Heard? I'm Sakamoto", SP2016 "Haven't you Heard? I'm Sakamoto", SP2016

1234

Add - More Sakamoto desu ga? Sakamoto deshita?

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Special

1

1235

Add - More Sakasama no Patema

-

Movie

1

1236

Add - More Sakasama no Patema: Beginning of the Day It's just sort of a preview for a movie, so I won't be rating it or writing any real comments. Well, maybe I will after I've seen the movie to have some more perspective on how these all fit in, but I won't do it presently, anyway. That said, I've enjoyed other works by the director, so I'm looking forward to seeing the actual movie.

-

Special

4

1237

Add - More Sakura Quest

-

TV

25

SP2017 SP2017

1238

Add - More Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru

-

TV

12

FA2015 FA2015

1239

Add - More Samurai Champloo Wait, this wasn't already on my list? If I could've missed this, what else am I forgetting to add? *** "Oh, it's airing on Toonami? Ha ha! This will be the time I finally watch this whole show!" There was an issue with my cable service tonight where Adult Swim stopped coming in right when an episode of this started and started coming in again right when it ended. It's like it just wasn't meant to be. Good thing I'm subscribed to Funimation and Netflix so I can still watch the episode one way or another, but come on, man. And I only moved up three spots in my cable company's chat support queue, too... (And they wonder why cordcutting continues to gain momentum.)

-

TV

26

SP2004 SP2004

1240

Add - More Sankarea (No spoilers.) What a complete and utter joke of a show. Misplaced awkward fanservice with a zombie angle that never really goes anywhere important despite hints that maybe it would, particularly because the ending is all so much nothing. So you have multiple plot lines just left to dangle while you get halfbaked, one note characters (They never change meaningfully. At all.) who receive no resolution. Somehow they even added in filler. Filler. In a 12 episode show. It set up a potentially interesting premise and just did almost nothing with it. Maybe it's telling that this comment doesn't contain spoilers, because there's so little that actually could be spoiled. It's lazy, incompetent and a garbage show that is beneath your time. EDIT: I just checked and this is a DEEN series. That explains so much. (DEEN is terrible.) Everything written during the airing of the show, recorded for posterity: "Hey, we just met under really awkward circumstances, and you've basically been a complete jerk and a bit of a creep the entire time. So naturally, I fell for you." Whatever, I'll give it another episode to see where it goes. My hopes are very low, however. Two episodes in: Well that got bleak quickly. I'm more intrigued now, though.

2

TV

12

SP2012 SP2012

1241

Add - More Sansha Sanyou The same voice actress that played Sumire in Aikatsu!, playing a character that looks like Sumire, sounds like Sumire and even has some personality overlap with Sumire, and I had no idea until someone else pointed it out. I can recognize Yuasa by seeing a walk cycle but can't recognize a voice actress even when it's been made this easy and obvious. I mean there's a certain nicety to hearing only the character and not such-and-such voice actor, but how am I this hopeless at recognizing voices? Also you're seeing the staff that also worked on GJ-bu bringing the same expressive character -and particularly cat- animation to this show. It's nice. Helps make the show stand out from the field a little.

-

TV

12

SP2016 SP2016

1242

Add - More Sansha Sanyou Specials

-

Special

3

1243

Add - More Santa Company

4

Movie

1

1244

Add - More Saraiya Goyou

-

TV

12

"House of Five Leaves", SP2010 "House of Five Leaves", SP2010

1245

Add - More Sasami-san@Ganbaranai You'd never guess this was adapting something already laid out, given how absolutely lost it gets. The first episode makes you think the animation would at least be decent, but later episodes rely heavily on stillshots and other ways to avoid actually animating, as well as a number of artistic shortcuts that, yes, I do suppose are Shaft's "style," but having a style of lazy blemishes doesn't make them any less of lazy blemishes. This plot. What... I don't... I've read the Kojiki. I get what they're drawing from. The problem is not that the plot is too "deep" or foreign, but that it is so shoddily constructed together that while you can intellectually follow it, it becomes difficult and utterly unrewarding to do so from a narrative standpoint. Nothing seems to flow into anything else. The plot does not develop most of the time. Events happen, but typically not ones connected to other things. People in the know say Shaft changed around a number of things from the source material. This was clearly a mistake. By the time you reach the ending everything is such a black hole of internal logic and good writing or direction that it just doesn't matter what happens anymore. Character designs are fetching and the show has the occasional artistically interesting moment, The characters are kind of okay, although very, very one-note. That's about as far as praise for Sasami can go. This really, really is not a good show. But I watched the whole thing anyway! Joke's on me. Avoid. All below was written prior. *** I'm not even sure what I just watched. At a point I feel like it's pointing towards being a harem series, ultimately, but heavily filtered through the lens of Shaft until it turns into whatever exactly this is. If for nothing other than figuring out their angle, I'm in for another episode or two. You've caught me off guard, Shaft. But will you actually deliver? *** So if you have no idea about even Shinto 101 and are clueless about your kami, you should read the Kojiki. Chamberlain's isn't my preferred translation, but the Philippi translation (which I think makes things clearer) seems to be going for $200 on Amazon while Chamberlain's can be found for free online. Well, you can always check your local library. Ideally, I think they work best in tandem than either does separately. Regardless of which translation you use, it's a neat read and should give you the background knowledge this show seems to presume you'd have. Or you could just watch without that knowledge and probably not miss too much, but reading won't kill you. *** So yeah, let's upgrade that to "You should totally read the Kojiki if you want to fully appreciate this." Shaft, did you really have to spend the entire third episode on infodumping and exposition? The first half of that episode was more of an audiobook adaptation than an anime adaptation. It could be that you're trying to conserve some of the budget for the action scenes, but then what on Earth are you doing with all that Madoka and *monogatari money? If I just wanted to read the book, I'd do that. (Well, okay, only a third or so of the first volume has been translated into English, but you get the point.) All of this telling instead of showing in a visual medium is pretty boring, you know? *** I wonder what happened there in episode 8. Was it a lack of time, or a lack of budget? Because there were scenes with very noticeable shortcuts. Then again, you could find some of the same stuff going on in the TV broadcasts of Madoka or Bakemonogatari, so maybe I should just chalk it up to Shaft. (The amount of stuff Shaft changes and fixes for their BDs is nuts.) Anyway, I can't shake the feeling this show is kind of lost. And it's working off of an already extant source material, so it should know exactly where to go. But it seems muddled, confused, lacking direction. If sales are actually as low as the estimates I've seen, I can't say I blame people for not shelling out for this one. It hasn't really had it together for a while now. All below was written before airing. *** Please be good. Please be good. Please be good. It's a very dismal looking season coming up and this is one of the few (if not the only) series I can't get a good read on. I'm not sure if it's going to be dreadful imouto ecchi romcom shenanigans, or something more passable. Shaft can certainly be a mixed bag, which doesn't help me speculate. And I need some kind of hedge here. Because I only really have faith in Tamako Market this season, since KyoAni's spent years consistently earning that trust. Which just leaves new seasons of Haganai and Minami-ke, and those are just alright series. Something could surprise me, but still. Well, I still have Jojo's carrying over. Other than that, I guess it's time for a catch-up season. I've entertained the idea of during a particularly dismal season I'd make my own season, either with my backlog or old favorites or probably a mix of the two. Then I could look forward to Panty and Stocking on Tuesdays and Beck on Wednesdays. Better than this wreck, right? (Of course, I'm terrible at sticking to schedules and will probably just marathon some things, but let me lie to myself a little.) Winter is usually a bad season, anyway. This upcoming spring, on the other hand, is shaping up pretty nicely. But that's then and this is now. And I need as many watchable shows as I can squeeze out of this season. So please be good. *** Saw the PV at the end of Hidamari Sketch. It didn't make me very optimistic for this. (And I lose more faith in Prism Nana with every PV, too.)

2

TV

12

WI2013 WI2013

1246

Add - More Saseum Kkoch

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Movie

1

1247

Add - More Sayokyoku

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Movie

1

1248

Add - More Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (Contains two minor joke spoilers) Such is the benefit of coming back to something with more experienced eyes. SZS wasn’t the first Shinbo work I’d seen (that would be ‘05’s Pani Poni Dash), but it is the show that caused Shinbo (and Shaft) to really register on my radar. It, coupled with Pani Poni Dash, made me perk up my ears at this style that was pretty (but not wholly) unique to what I had seen before. That was then, nearly six years ago. By now, I’ve become so familiar with Shinbo’s style that I could recognize his work almost instantly. The intoxifying effects of the new shiny are gone and I’ve had ample exposure to Shinbo to see what his strengths and weaknesses are. So the lustre is gone from SZS and a more honest experience of the show is evinced. Which I guess sounds like it’s leading into a disillusioned thrashing of the show, but that’s not quite where this is going. It’s just that SZS isn’t catching me off guard at this point. I know its tricks and know them well. A professor of mine said “Never return to a pearl.” The memory I had of SZS was a quick, witty, sometimes biting dark comedy. Now I can realize the reality of a show that’s nice, but not particularly special. That is where this is going. I will not be singing this show’s high praises. Probably what gets SZS the most attention are its quirks. The zany OPs (which in typical classic Shaft fashion weren’t even done in time for the TV broadcast), rapid background gags (oh how Shinbo loves that. You can find things in the background changing between shots in a fair amount [if not all] of his works), unconventional artistic choices and basically everything that comes with the Shinbo package. Shinbo is a double-edged sword. He has an iconic style that people quite like when it works, but he applies that same style to every show regardless of whether or not it actually makes sense or works well. Luckily, SZS is exactly the right sort of show to throw Shinbo at. If you want zany, Shinbo’s idiosyncrasies lend themselves well to something that’s supposed to be a bit screwball. (I’ll avoid the derail of a larger meta-Shinbo discussion.) And this show does need someone who can keep up with it, stylistically. But the actual meat of the show leaves you a bit wanting. Being somewhat offbeat does not necessarily engender an interesting comedy. Novelty is not necessarily its own virtue. Humor is subjective and so forth, but it’s not particularly funny. I’d rather a brilliant if thematically redundant farce than an acceptable but erudite satire on some esoteric topic. Going to uncharted waters to be middling is still being middling. And it’s not even that new of territory, honestly. Indeed, you can see some of the ripples left behind from those who have already been treading around these waters. I wouldn’t call SZS derivative per se, but it’s no grand innovator. Does it make me laugh? Sometimes. A bit. Is it offering any real probing insight into the social phenomena it addresses? No. Not really. It treats them like window dressing. To extend this water metaphor, SZS is only dipping its toes in. Yes, there’s a hikkikomori. And that sums that up. Yes, there’s a stereotype of a rude, brash foreigner. And again, you’re done. Yes, there’s a stalker. And the trend continues. I’m hoping the second season went somewhere more with this (I don’t remember it, either) but I doubt it. But if the characters aren’t going to take us anywhere too interesting, will the dialogue? Not really. To be sure, it’s going further places than how to eat a chocolate coronet, but to only the shallowest of places with them. What praise does a show deserve for bringing up novel concepts but not really delving into them? The bare minimum. Bringing up suicide or broad notions of human folly is not inherently clever or interesting, lest you’re the sort to find great fascination in scribbles on the bathroom wall. It takes no great genius or wit to merely point at the morbid or the societal ill. Actual talent is demonstrated in how these are utilized. And SZS never advances too far beyond “Look at this! This is a thing! We included it!” and hopes the audience will take away their own impression of savvy, wry humor from a show “daring” enough to deduce humor from from slightly taboo subjects. No sale, Shaft. Kefuka donning her rose-tinted glasses to see suicide by hanging as merely an effort to become taller? Funny! A literal escape route to show people fleeing from personal responsibility? Wackity schmackity doo. I couldn’t even generously call that droll. It’s just nothing more than the most basic of observations rendered in a way that isn’t fun, clever, amusing or anything I could really ascribe a positive adjective to. It’s not that humor couldn’t be derived from this, it’s that this show doesn’t attempt to do so, instead assuming the situation itself is humor enough. Not even an E for effort. The animation is limited enough to the point that the show itself makes jokes about the paucity of it and the quality therein. It’s very much a dialogue-driven show. The art style tries to make up for this but, while somewhat visually interesting, just isn’t making up the lost ground. (If Shinbo was directing SZS now it’d probably have turned out better in this regard. His works may feel samey in their style, but he has in fact improved.) What you get are visuals that are okay and occasionally please, but are obviously lacking. If it’s your eyeballs you want to please, this is not the Shinbou work you’re looking for. The OPs and EDs are as notable and interesting as I remember them being (both visually and musically), but the rest of the music is just alright. It certainly works, but it’s forgettable (to wit: I just finished watching it this morning and I already can’t remember much of any of it). The seiyuu get their job done acceptably, but only the titular character’s MC really stands out, offering a convincing delivery of the high strung pessimist. SZS is worth watching but it’s really more like a $10 watch in a $500 watch’s case (do watches come in cases?). It’s okay, or to put it in MAL terminology, “fine.” And that equates to a 6. (Which is not a bad score. I wouldn’t be set to rewatch the second season if I thought this was a bad show. It’s just one that really needs to improve in basically everything.) All below was written before rewatching. *** So there's a reason I haven't scored this yet: I watched it so long ago I barely remember it other than generally liking it. AnimeCF seems to think I'd still like it quite a bit now and since it's almost fresh to me, sure, why not rewatch it?

6

TV

12

FA2011 FA2011

1249

Add - More Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Special Whoops, missed this one. For some reason it wasn't on the AniDB relation graph (great resource, by the way. If you didn't already know about them, enjoy your simpler life now that you do.) Not sure if this will be covered separately or covered under season three/season three's specials. *** Consider it covered under other entries.

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Special

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Add - More Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Special Omake I think what I watched was this, but I'm not 100% sure. The synopsis on MAL wasn't very clear. But it was a very short special from this series that I hadn't seen before, so, maybe?

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Special

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1251

Add - More School Days Nice boat.

3

TV

12

SU2007 SU2007

1252

Add - More School Days: Magical Heart Kokoro-chan And in just further proof that I don't know to spend my time wisely, I watched this. You see, School Days didn't become an infamous series people would try to trick others into watching because that series was good. Indeed, the only reason you probably know about it is because it was a pretty bad show that, unpredictably, went off the rails towards the end. And it's certainly a bit of a spectacle, but honestly not worth watching School Days for. Take away that, and you're just back to a terrible anime again. Or this, basically. Sometimes I almost laughed at it, but never with it. It's almost like watching Petit Eva again. The plot barely holds together disparate elements: A bit of fanservice here, zero-effort jokes there (Ha ha, he's naked! The jokes are slightly lewd! Woo boy!), anachronistic callbacks to the ending of School Days elsewhere, it's just one giant slurry of failure. Animation is extremely limited in quantity and movements are jerky and stiff, characters get so embarrassingly off-model you'll wonder if their faces are melting or if perhaps one eye is simply trying to run away from the other, never mind the shoddy designs in the first place. SFX and music barely even display an attempt on the part of the studio, only rising above the likes of Mars of Destruction in that department because it'd be pretty hard to actually do worse than Mars of Destruction. I thought maybe I'd be able to give this a low 2 but it just kept getting worse. For not only having nothing of value I can identify but for being a poorly directed and animated mess that'll actively turn viewers away, you've earned this 1, Magical Heart Kokoro-chan. Thanks for not even trying.

1

OVA

1

1253

Add - More School Days: Valentine Days Apparently I'm a glutton for punishment. I could've just deleted this. But no. I'd already downloaded it, so I finally mustered up the willingness to subject myself to this OVA. I've lost all control. Please send help. The OVA starts with a scene at an outdoor bath. There's no thematic reason for this. It doesn't tie into the rest of the OVA in any way. It's just there to have a bit of fanservice with the girls. That's really all it is. Then after the OP, surprise!, it's Valentine's Day. Cue a bunch of uninteresting material about making chocolate and harem dialogue 101, progress to some "Who are you gonna choose among us? (You'd better pick me!)" hijinks with your typical feckless MC, progress to some casual homophobia and you're almost there. The final cherry on top is that the OVA just ends in the middle of a line. There's no reason for this, either. It just happens. Just right in the middle of a monologue it cuts to a black title card. Just one last laugh at the viewer's expense. Throw in some lazy character designs, low quality animation (Nothing says effort like pans and still shots!) and there you have it. That's the OVA. A low 2. Why do I watch these things?

2

OVA

1

1254

Add - More Seihou Bukyou Outlaw Star

3

TV

24

WI1998 WI1998

1255

Add - More Seihou Bukyou Outlaw Star Specials

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Special

2

1256

Add - More Seikai no Danshou: Tanjou

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TV Special

1

1257

Add - More Seikai no Monshou Part of Operation SciFi, an effort to find more quality SciFi.

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TV

13

Score later. Operation SciFi., WI1999 Score later. Operation SciFi., WI1999

1258

Add - More Seikaisuru Kado: Ekwari

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TV Special

1

1259

Add - More Seikaisuru Kado: Ninovo

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ONA

1

1260

Add - More Seiren That there's so much upset/furor over the ending of this show's first arc and the stated reasons behind it are unsurprising because the vocal part of anime fandom is, in their majority, embarrassing and terrible. It's disappointing seeing this many people flabbergasted that a show's ending wasn't their exact, desired wish-fulfillment/escapism (nearly directly quoting here) isn't a surprise but just business as usual. Truly, everything must pander directly to them and compromise its narrative for the sake of appeasing their immediate wants. Good thing that sort of attitude is just Internet chatter and surely has no impact on the success of a sh- Oh. I wonder if these are the same people endlessly complaining about all anime being the same or that the medium is in creative peril and heralding the latest seasonal savior. Wouldn't surprise me one bit. *** (If you have other, more substantial objections to that ending then this of course doesn't apply to you.)

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TV

12

WI2017 WI2017

1261

Add - More Seitokai Yakuindomo Sex joke? Sex joke sex joke. Sex joke, sex joke sex joke! SEX JOKE. (Sex joke.) That out of the way, does anyone else think the word "sex" looks and sounds a little weird? Not because of its meaning, just the word itself. I think this about some words. Well, whatever. It's nonstop. This show is nothing but sex jokes. I really mean that. I can't recall any other type of joke showing up. I can't recall any other anything showing up. Just 13 episodes of "Sex. That's the joke." The entire premise is that you'll automatically laugh at anything sexual, and that this will never grow old. Oh wait, I think there's a few jokes about one of the characters being short (which itself is sometimes turned into a sex joke). I'm not a prude. I can laugh at sex jokes. But I need more substance. I could mention that the show looks okay or things like that, but there's no aspect so strong that I can say "ignore the lack of a plot, just watch it for this." But if you just absolutely love sex jokes, they've got your back. Bonus! Seitokai Yakuindomo version of this comment: "Periods breasts penis masturbation vagina."

5

TV

13

SU2010 SU2010

1262

Add - More Seitokai Yakuindomo Movie

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Movie

1

1263

Add - More Seitokai Yakuindomo OVA Is it odd that out of all the breaches in journalistic ethics throughout this series, I was most bothered by a photojournalist asking two subjects to pose? (You're really not supposed to do that, by the way.) *** Oh /a/, you (rightfully) tear various fansubs apart for solecisms and translation choices, and then you translate something as "googl'ing?" When's the last time you saw an English speaker write that term as "googl'ing?" Never, because it's wrong. Also, that karaoke font choice was terrible. And this from the same community that actually went so far as to release those [autism] edits of gg's Binbougami releases. *** I thought I was almost done with this, but now there's actually going to be seven of these. It's like Seitokai Yakuindomo is going to be part of my life forever. And then it reminds me that the studio behind this is the same one behind the upcoming K that has a lot of big names and animation that certainly looks expensive. And I have to wonder where they got that kind of money, because you don't see it in anime like this one. *** The answer to where they got that money is that they didn't, but that's for another time. Now the mystery is how a one-note show like this apparently did well enough for them to make seven OVAs. GoHands, you just keep baffling me. *** More of the same means you can just extrapolate the same score from the main series to these OVAs. *** Ha. Ha ha. Ahahahaha. They added yet another one. I'm going to be watching this series for the rest of my life, aren't I? *** And now there's a second season. I'll never be free. *** And a ninth OVA! It... it really won't ever end, will it?

5

OVA

8

1264

Add - More Seitokai Yakuindomo* I will never be free of this series.

5

TV

13

WI2014 WI2014

1265

Add - More Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda

7

TV

12

WI2014 WI2014

1266

Add - More Sekai Seifuku: Bouryaku no Zvezda - Shin Zvezda Daisakusen All below was written prior to completion. *** But as we seem to edge ever further towards a reality where if CR doesn't pick it up, it doesn't exist, I have to wonder if that significant boost in speed won't ultimately come at the price of thoroughness. I guess I could put in the effort to learn Japanese and make all of this a moot point, but there's yet to be enough unsubbed anime I'd care about to make it worth learning a language just for that purpose. It's not like I'd have any use for knowing Japanese outside of anime/manga.

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Special

1

1267

Add - More Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi

6

Movie

1

"Spirited Away" "Spirited Away"

1268

Add - More Sengoku Choujuu Giga: Kou

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TV

13

FA2016 FA2016

1269

Add - More Sengoku Choujuu Giga: Otsu

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TV

13

WI2017 WI2017

1270

Add - More Sengoku Majin Goushougun: Toki no Etranger

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Movie

1

Score later. Score later.

1271

Add - More Sennen Joyuu Tired. Sleep now. Score/comment later. Tomorrow? Maybe.

-

Movie

1

"Millennium Actress" "Millennium Actress"

1272

Add - More Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi

6

TV

12

1273

Add - More Sensei no Ojikan: Dokidoki School Hours Rote. Animation is just kind of blah, a light foundation of humor has been layered on, the characters mostly ring hollow. It's never really that funny or interesting and there's nothing to quite get attached to. Watchable, but rather ho-hum. Nothing new or noteworthy. Not quite up to par. A high 4. All below was written prior. *** I knew it was you, JC Staff. The vibe is too similar to Best Student Council for it not to be. And if it mirrors that show in quality, then it will stay a mediocre but watchable series. Hopefully it transcends that. But whatever, I watched all of Yurumates. And then even sought out more of it. The things I'll accept! *** MAL and AniDB list this as 13 episodes, but A-P and ANN list it as 20, counting the OVAs within the main entry. More than reason enough for me to suspect they're less OVAs and just more episodes. (Yes, there's a difference.)

4

TV

13

SP2004 SP2004

1274

Add - More Sensei no Ojikan: Dokidoki School Hours OVA An inferior version of the regular show, frequently diverting into various lengthy genre parodies that aren't funny or interesting at all.

3

OVA

7

1275

Add - More Senyuu. Senyuu is okay. It's not particularly funny or interesting, but like Yurumates before it, at a few minutes per week, yeah, it's watchable enough. If you go in expecting little, it'll deliver about the same. Mildly funny with minimal animation and what seems like a rather quick art style. It's a quick bit of fluff that isn't around long enough to overstay its welcome. MAL considers 4 to be "bad," and while I'd peg this for below average, "bad" isn't the term I'd use. A 4 can certainly be worth watching to enough of a degree, and this silly series is a pleasant enough diversion. But that's all it is. It's like a sorbet between meals, not actually a standout show in its own right. Take it for what it is. A high 4. All below was written prior. *** Ehhh... It could be passable. Which, for short series, is generally good enough for me. Yurumates was just acceptable but it was only a few minutes a week, just like this. I wouldn't really accept that from a full length series, but shows like this or Inferno Cop can be carried with their material through their short running times. I'll need another episode or two to be sure on this one.

-

TV

13

WI2013 WI2013

1276

Add - More Senyuu. 2

4

TV

13

SU2013 SU2013

1277

Add - More Senyuu. Specials

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Special

4

1278

Add - More Serial Experiments Lain I saw this many years ago. I'd like to rewatch it before rating or commenting on it. *** Hmm. I've been wanting to rewatch this, and what's promised to be an authentic HD version is coming out soon. Why, it's pretty much a perfect occasion. *** And now /r/anime's club is watching it. I have zero excuse to put this off any longer.

8

TV

13

SU1998 SU1998

1279

Add - More Servant x Service (Later.) The below was written during airing. *** Yay. Finally I found the first anime this season I'm actually sure I want to keep watching. I didn't really expect less of a work that had the same mangaka as Working!! and the same studio behind it, but I'm not complaining that it met expectations.

7

TV

13

SU2013 SU2013

1280

Add - More Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san "hey what if suddenly you came home and there was a cute fox girl there cooking you dinner and insisting on spoiling you while asking for nothing in return???" ...is that really it? Cause that just seems like some real heavy wish fulfillment fluff which hey okay I guess, but I figured by the end of the episode there'd at least be some sort of hook that suggested a bit more substance in the future yet no such hook ever materialized. And it's just... I mean it's comfy enough and all but it just seems a bit empty, y'know? Like I'm not gonna crap on a show for just trying to be pleasant but considering this show has full-length episodes, I'd really hope for there to be more to it. And maybe there will be! But the first episode gives zero indication of that and it's just kind of surprising. I like fluffy shows but I could go rewatch plenty of just as fluffy ones with more merit to them if that's really all this show is. My HIdamari Sketch DVDs are sitting right there... *** Also, hey, Funimation exclusive simulcasts again. That's... something. Good: More competition for CR. Great! Put pressure on them to try harder! Bad: Funi's simulcasts used to have subbed OPs and EDs but this one doesn't. Maybe/hopefully they're still working that out and will start subbing it partway through the season cause the normalization of having 1/8 of every episode of anime unsubbed isn't great. Even Netflix has started doing it. Awful: Their simulcasts still have the absolute least effort put into their typesetting and that's frustrating. It makes the subs difficult to read when I'm trying to figure out which lines are supposed to be typsetting and which are dialogue and what signs are even being translated in the first place. I'm not expecting the highest-effort fansub levels of TSing here. Just some actual effort. Even CR does that much.

6

TV

12

...is that really it?, Potentially dropping, SP2019 ...is that really it?, Potentially dropping, SP2019

1281

Add - More Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume

5

TV

12

"Scorching Ping Pong Girls", FA2016 "Scorching Ping Pong Girls", FA2016

1282

Add - More Shelter (Music)

-

Music

1

1283

Add - More Shichinin no Nana Visual approximation of episode 21:

4

TV

25

WI2002 WI2002

1284

Add - More Shichinin no Nana: Oshougatsu da yo! 7 x 7 = 49-nin no Nana?

-

Special

1

1285

Add - More Shigeru

-

ONA

1

1286

Add - More Shin Atashin'chi Based on the loose understanding I can glean from a Google translation of the show's twitter page, it looks like MAL's right and the show's over. Didn't even realize that while watching it. Suppose that's an appropriate level of climax for this show.

7

TV

26

FA2015 FA2015

1287

Add - More Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis The most surprising thing is that this is based on a card game. People I trust to know more than me on the matter say the game company provided a sizable budget for this, which explains some things, but to get from a card game to this they surely must be taking some substantial liberties. Hasn't even been any cards, really. No complaints here, though. *** (episode 6 spoiler) Out of curiosity, I checked out Funimation's release on Hulu and they're either really screwing up their encode or they're getting a different source than Eraser is using. For example, in the scene towards the end of episode 6 where the cloaked guy is talking to Amira, you clearly see his face in Eraser's release. In Funimation's version, you don't see his face at all. Whether the encode is just so bad you can't see it or it's not there in that version I'm not sure, although I think it's the latter. Colors are noticeably off, causing everything to look wrong and detail to be lost in dark scenes. I know people on MAL want to say "But it's basically the same script!" but it sure ain't basically the same video. My condolences to anyone who pays for Funimation's streaming service. If you're getting the Horriblesubs releases, you really should wait for Eraser instead. Whatever the reason for this is, it's quite disappointing and I don't know why people are defending Funimation's release of this title when it's unquestionably a bad release in significant visual ways. (Yes, I'm a Hulu Plus member and am not pointlessly comparing an SD stream to an HD fansub. No, HD anime titles from other companies on Hulu aren't messed up like this, so it's not just a Hulu thing. I tried looking at it on various TVs/monitors, and unless all of them are somehow screwed up such that all other titles display fine, including Eraser's release of this episode, except for Funi's release of this episode, it's not just on my end.) *** I mean, seeing who she's talking to is an important detail here. If you're watching Funimation's release it doesn't just look much worse, you're actually missing relevant information. I really wonder why this is the way it is.

-

TV

12

FA2014 FA2014

1288

Add - More Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis - Short Story

-

ONA

2

1289

Add - More Shinryaku! Ika Musume

8

TV

12

FA2010 FA2010

1290

Add - More Shinryaku! Ika Musume Specials

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Special

2

1291

Add - More Shinryaku!! Ika Musume Normally I'd just write a comment about the OVA itself, but since I've yet to write one about the Squid Girl franchise in general, I'll do that here. (I will refer to the show as Squid Girl and the character as Ika Musume to avoid confusion.) Anyone could dismiss this series, derisively calling it "yet another moe slice of life series, only this time with a squid," but it's easy to make anything sound bad when you simplify it like that. Fullmetal Alchemist becomes "two kids looking for some rock," for example. If we just look at it from a perspective like that, it's easy to just start lumping shows like Eva and Macross Frontier together, which works at some more general levels, but isn't adequate at all at the more truly relevant levels. So likewise, if you're to take K-on!, Squid Girl, A-Channel and other series that fall under the same umbrella and consider them all basically alike, as seems often done by detractors of a genre, it's not a fair comparison in the slightest, anymore than it is to say that the latest Final Fantasy is basically Dark Souls since they're both RPGs. Squid Girl doesn't aim for anything very complex. You might certainly personally find Ika Musume moe, but the show seems much more grounded in comedy like Ichigo Mashimaro than "healing" like Hidamari Sketch. The jokes aren't full of intricate wordplay or cultural references like, say, Joshiraku. It's the rather stock sitcom formula of throwing quirky characters into various situations, usually ones that ought to be ordinary (playing outside, working at a restaurant, etc.), but get elevated by the characters involved. It's not groundbreaking stuff, but even if the basic formula is well-worn, there's still a spectrum of quality within that space. Stating the obvious, a series that relies heavily upon character-driven humor needs good characters. It's also probably little surprise that the main driving force is the titular Ika Musume. Officially an invader determined to conquer mankind and make them pay for their abuse of the sea, she's really more of a churlish but endearing child, akin to Miu from the aforementioned Ichigo Mashimaro. A fair portion of the humor is derived from the fact that she is an anthropomorphized squid and new and alien to human life and norms, leading to Yotsuba-esque moments of charm such as Ika Musume playing with an umbrella, but she's also able to drive the show forward purely with her personality, squid or no. The combination of these two elements works effectively. Supplementary characters, such as Sanae or the Three Stooges, would probably be weak on their own, but act as useful foils for Ika Musume to play off of. It's unfortunate that side characters such as Chizuru and Eiko aren't particularly interesting on their own, given how much we see of them. Still, they're not awful characters, they just don't have much in the way of individual charm. If you took Ika Musume out of the show, it would suffer tremendously for it as the strength of the other characters would not be enough to carry the show. Fortunately, Ika Musume makes everything else click. Squid Girl doesn't have a complex plot, it's not particularly innovative, the animation and music aren't special, but the show is a good amount of fun from skillful but imperfect handling of fundamentals. The show can lay on the charm with segments like the mini-Ika ones, too. I don't imagine any season of Squid Girl will ever reach heights worthy of such descriptors as as "phenomenal" or even "masterpiece," but Squid Girl is very consistently good. So Squid Girl's not a must-see, but if you're looking for a fun little series to watch, this one's a safe bet. *** The above comment reflects the first episode, as the second episode wasn't even listed on MAL at the time. I've chosen to leave it as is because it still works fine. But here's something I neglected to mention: It's obvious enough from watching, but man, Sanae is pretty dang creepy. *** And after a third episode materializing: Comment still stands, Sanae's still creepy. Ika Musume is right to be weary of her.

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OVA

3

1292

Add - More Shinryaku!? Ika Musume

8

TV

12

FA2011 FA2011

1293

Add - More Shinsatsushitsu

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Movie

1

1294

Add - More Shinseiki Evangelion

6

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26

FA1995 FA1995

1295

Add - More Shinseiki Evangelion Movie: Air/Magokoro wo, Kimi ni

7

Movie

1

1296

Add - More Shiranpuri (Special) You know, the plot here feels rather cliche in general but I'm struggling to think of other anime in particular that are topically similar. But it's every bit the same stand up for yourself and what's right cudgel that's at the heart of most endless shounen if you think about it. (It may not be a schoolyard, but aren't most villains in, say, Bleach or DBZ honestly just bullies when you boil it all down to its most basic essence?) Throw in an anti-bullying message that, in the west at least (and probably in the east as well) is something kids hear for years from their educators and it honestly just seems like a thematic retread. It's not like recycling themes is new or exclusive to anime. Yesterday's The Story of O is today's Fifty Shades of Grey, after all. If we'll only accept anime that are wholly original, we'll find ourselves with very little to watch. Rather, an anime hopefully takes that familiar core and builds upon it in an interesting way. It's why, say, Haruhi or TTGL works while, of course, there are many more series in their respective genres that fail terribly. And in this area, Shiranpuri fails not just to do anything innovative, but anything even interesting. It's very cut and dry. As said, good titles take a core and build upon it in an interesting way, but Shiranpuri just offers you that core. What's better is the animation style. It's unique and pleasant, even if Shiranpuri never goes for animation that seems very demanding or complex. Still, you don't see this sort of sketchy style very often. Getting away from the traditional style is fresh, even if it doesn't work for every anime that tries it. That's not enough to make this title great, but it's a point in its favor. There's nothing else particularly interesting to say about this one. You've no need to waste your time on something that's largely so bland.

5

TV Special

1

1297

Add - More Shirokuma Cafe Because it's really mellow, that's why. Fansub Group: Horriblesubs

6

TV

50

SP2012 SP2012

1298

Add - More Shitcom In a way, it's like an unintentional visual metaphor for a lot of anime communities. Not giving a score.

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ONA

1

1299

Add - More Shizuku

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Movie

1

1300

Add - More Shogi Hour

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ONA

1

1301

Add - More Shoka

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TV Special

1

1302

Add - More Shokugeki no Souma

5

TV

24

I can't say finding ways to actually subtract from the foundation of your predecessors is praiseworthy, "Food Wars", SP2015 I can't say finding ways to actually subtract from the foundation of your predecessors is praiseworthy, "Food Wars", SP2015

1303

Add - More Shokugeki no Souma OVA

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OVA

2

1304

Add - More Shokugeki no Souma: Ni no Sara

5

TV

13

This isn't quite what we meant by "food porn, " Recycling this tag like Food Wars recycles plot beats, SU2016 This isn't quite what we meant by "food porn," Recycling this tag like Food Wars recycles plot beats, SU2016

1305

Add - More Shokugeki no Souma: Ni no Sara OVA

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OVA

2

1306

Add - More Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara You know, I was wondering why I'd forgotten the events they were flashing back to in this first episode. Turns out they were from an OVA that hadn't been subbed until today. Good stuff, English-subtitled anime in 2017, good stuff.

-

TV

12

"Food Wars! The Third Plate", FA2017 "Food Wars! The Third Plate", FA2017

1307

Add - More Short Peace Opening

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Special

1

1308

Add - More Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Even if I wasn't tired, I'd still want to take a little breather after three straight days of marathoning Utena.)

-

TV

39

SP1997 SP1997

1309

Add - More Shoujo Kakumei Utena: Adolescence Mokushiroku You see, I saw a film that just took a big, runny dump on the series, but then I see it has generally positive reactions, so maybe some further pondering will elucidate the matter. Or it'll just strengthen the resolve of my initial convictions.

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Movie

1

Score later. Score later.

1310

Add - More Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou

8

TV

12

"Girls' Last Tour", FA2017 "Girls' Last Tour", FA2017

1311

Add - More Shounen Ashibe: Go! Go! Goma-chan

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TV

32

SP2016 SP2016

1312

Add - More Shounen Maid I... Look, this feels like a giant red flag made out of other, smaller red flags. The promotional material kind of pitched it as "Adult takes advantage of little boy's financial dependency on him to turn said little boy into his personal fetish toy" which is not the most appealing thing in that it would be actively awful. And in a season where Super Lovers went all in on that sort of thing, I was on a bit of a high alert going into this show. But... I mean there's some weirdness ("No, no, he's just having him wear that maid outfit because he likes frilly clothes!") but nothing overtly terrible. Well, I mean beyond the certain subtext and minor fanservice involving a minor, but... you know it's kind of an awkward statement about anime that one can be relieved that a show's appeal to pedophiles is "tasteful." But insofar as you can accept that uncomfortably common element of anime, I mean it's not like it's worse than Black Butler, I guess. If I sound hesitant here, it's because I know anime isn't great at the whole "restraint" thing and could so easily go from straddling along the side of the line to crossing right over it at any given moment. And for a show that's kinda on the lower side of "okay" it's maybe not worth sticking around to see if it does transgress, but I'm gonna stick with this show, I suppose. (Feel the excitement!) Help.

-

TV

12

SP2016 SP2016

1313

Add - More Shounen Maid Kuuro-kun: Tenshi no Uta One just has to see what all the fuss is about, after all. This and Boku no Pico are probably shocking if you're not familiar with hentai/anime, but are honestly rather benign compared to just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

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OVA

1

1314

Add - More Shousei Shikisai Gensou

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Movie

1

1315

Add - More Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

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TV

13

WI2016 WI2016

1316

Add - More Show By Rock!! Fansub Group: Orz

6

TV

12

SP2015 SP2015

1317

Add - More Show By Rock!! #

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TV

12

FA2016 FA2016

1318

Add - More Show By Rock!! Short!! I see that Funi's gonna have a broadcast dub of this and hey, good on 'em and all, but that almost seems like more hassle than it's worth. Oh well. Their time and money, I suppose. Anyway, this just feels like a tease for the second season. It's too short to really be anything more than a weekly reminder that Show by Rock!! exists.

-

TV

12

SU2016 SU2016

1319

Add - More Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku?

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TV

12

1320

Add - More Sidonia no Kishi Netflix calling this a "Netflix Original" feels like a bit of a stretch. Really, they should refer to things like this and Derek as "Netflix exclusives." Hulu already makes that distinction. It's a small, pedantic point, but still worth thinking about.

-

TV

12

SP2014 SP2014

1321

Add - More SKET Dance

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TV

77

SP2011 SP2011

1322

Add - More SKET Dance: Imouto no Nayami ni Nayamu Ani ni Nayamu Imouto to Sono Nakama-tachi

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OVA

1

1323

Add - More Sketchbook: Full Color's Just because I had this on hold for one year and 6.5 months doesn't mean I wasn't planning to finish it, you know! (I'm scared to check how long I've had Dirty Pair on hold.)

6

TV

13

FA2007 FA2007

1324

Add - More Sketchbook: Full Color's Picture Drama

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Special

6

1325

Add - More Sky Girls OVA

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OVA

1

1326

Add - More Slam Dunk

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TV

101

FA1993 FA1993

1327

Add - More Slam Dunk (Movie)

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Movie

1

1328

Add - More Slam Dunk: Hoero Basketman-damashii! Hanamichi to Rukawa no Atsuki Natsu

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Movie

1

1329

Add - More Slam Dunk: Shouhoku Saidai no Kiki! Moero Sakuragi Hanamichi

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Movie

1

1330

Add - More Slam Dunk: Zenkoku Seiha Da! - Sakuragi Hanamichi

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Movie

1

1331

Add - More Slow Start

7

TV

12

WI2018 WI2018

1332

Add - More Smile Precure! Tenuous resolution: Actually finish this before I have to increment that tag by a year. I like the show and I don't know why I've been moving through it this slowly! *** Didn't meet that. I'm gonna be real disappointed in myself if this somehow takes me over four years to finish watching. That'd be an average pace of less than one episode per month. Why? Why has it taken it me this long to get through this show? *** I know the English language is choc-a-block with obscure and uncommon words, but I'm pretty sure "mechaficated" isn't a real one, even if it should be. *** "Video games will be on the curricular!" Actually, at my alma matter, I did take a course like that. We were assigned games instead of textbooks, watched King of Kong (fun movie, by the way), played Street Fighter against a local professional player, etc. The class was fun and easy. But I also didn't learn much from it. Maybe this show is right and it's not such a great idea. *** Oh hey, it's licensed! A licensed Precure series! Smile! isn't my first choice, but whatever. Oh, it's been renamed Glitter Force? Well, that's okay, i guess. It's 40 episodes? But... but this is a 48 episode show. How can you- the cast has been changed to be preteens? Was that really- the episodes are only 22 minutes instead of the original 24, ensuring even more content will be missing? Great! Thank you, Saban, for making sure the official version of Precure in my country is something that's simultaneously undesirable by Precure fans and patronizing to children by insinuating that they somehow couldn't handle or care about straight-up Precure, an innocuous and fine show that was already made for children. I get that America isn't Japan and there are cultural differences, but this is also 2015 instead of 4Kids' heyday. I recognize that I care more about this than the children watching Glitter Force probably ever will, but you'd've liked to think Smile could've made it through unscathed. It doesn't really affect me too much if Glitter Force is a hatchet job that destroys Smile. The original Smile doesn't go anywhere. But it does seem silly, and it does mean I'm very unlikely to get a proper release of Smile here anytime soon. Unless it catches on like Sailor Moon did and the child fans grow up into adult Glitter Force fans who know about the original version and demand the purity be maintained and a BD release come out with the original, uncensored Precure and then there's fans who insist the "original" is better and- well, probably not. Glitter Force not only has to succeed under its own merits, but it has to compete against Minecraft videos on Youtube. Sailor Moon probably had a little easier go of it. And even if it does succeed, and more Precure gets licensed as a result, that just means more Glitter Force'd versions of Precure on the market and zero versions I'd actually want coming out. "Magical Do Re Mi" never resulted in a version of Ojamajo Doremi I could or would want to own. I'm just as optimistic about Glitter Force. *** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JadCoGRkVag It hurts. I get that Precure is children's cartoon and they're trying to market it to children but it already was a harmless children's cartoon. I can understand maybe localizing some names, but this sort of wholesale repackaging honestly seems like unnecessary extra work to produce a worse result. I know they don't give two craps about pandering to adult fans of the original work, but even for what they're aiming for this seems misguided. *** There's a number of reasons to object to Glitter Force, but probably the most embarrassing is its desperate effort to wipe any trace of Japanese culture from the show, even something as recognizable as origami. It's, I mean, it's nearly 2016 and this is somehow still a thing. And it surely wasn't the result of pressure from Netflix to change it. No, Saban feels that their target audience is both so sheltered and so xenophobic that any trace of foreign culture would be baffling and off-putting to them. Kind of a cynical presumption to make about children. Kids couldn't possibly grasp or be interested in elements of another culture, right? Semper cultural hegemony! ... ... Oh, sorry. I blacked out there for a moment. When I came to my eyes had rolled back in my head and there was just this gurgling noise coming from my throat. Weird. Fansub Group: Aesir-Anxious

6

TV

48

You couldn't (glitter) force me to watch the Saban adaptation of this, WI2012 You couldn't (glitter) force me to watch the Saban adaptation of this, WI2012

1333

Add - More Smile Precure! Movie: Ehon no Naka wa Minna Chiguhagu!

4

Movie

1

1334

Add - More So Ra No Wo To

5

TV

12

WI2010 WI2010

1335

Add - More So Ra No Wo To Specials

-

Special

2

1336

Add - More Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru

8

TV

12

1337

Add - More Sora no Otoshimono Why read my poorly written comments when you could go read my poorly written review? All bellow written while watching. *** Well this certainly is what it is. I wouldn't normally watch an ecchi show like this, but who am I to tell my Secret Santa no? Anyway, it's the same deal as with Hanasaku Iroha. Should all go according to plan, I'll be posting a review of this over on Anime-Planet on 12/24. I'll link to it from here when the time comes. (I mean, it would make sense to also post the review here on MAL too, right? But I don't know how all the copyright matters play into that, so it's just less potential trouble to only post it on one site.)

5

TV

13

A-P SS, Review on A-P, FA2009 A-P SS, Review on A-P, FA2009

1338

Add - More Sore ga Seiyuu! You could debate the merits of "seiyuu" versus "seiyu" but the real odd thing is the company that feels you have to italicize honorifics because them's foreign words doesn't just use "voice actor" in their script. *** According to the Internet, interesting things are being said during the ED and anime simulcasting companies in other territories are translating it. But Funi isn't. Yay~ *** Oh hey, seems Funi cleared up whatever was preventing them from subbing the ED and even went back and subbed the first episode's ED. That deserves a more sincere "yay." I mean, there's dialogue in there. If you're relying on Horriblesubs, you're missing an explanation of what a voice acting term used in that episode means. But you're also pirating the show, so I guess you don't get to complain. Of course, this is a little annoying for those of us watching the thing on Funi's service as it airs, particularly considering there wasn't even any indication that the first episode's ED had been subbed after the fact, but better late than never, at least. Well, anyway, with the ED now subbed, I can also now tell that the ED revolves around their radio show. Which suggests it's going to be a significant focus of the show. O/A has a lot of differences from this show, but the central notion of running a radio show is something I wanted to see more of in anime/manga after reading that, so I'm interested to see this show's take on it. I also don't know much about anime's voice actors -I can't even recognize them between roles- so the informative aspect of this show is also neat. Those both elevate an otherwise cute but standard show for me. *** If Funimation can have episodes of this available on their Roku app the same time it's up on their website, why does CR need multiple hours to do the same? But no, Funimation's the bad one! Because it's cheaper, crashes less, gets its episodes up across multiple platforms simultaneously and, should you want to pay extra for them, offers "broadcast dubs" and special features? Oh, no, right, sometimes their subs aren't so great (unlike CR, of course!) and their videos look wonky if you watch pirated versions on your computer. The monsters. Even their support is leagues better. You get actual personal, human responses. Crazy, right? Funimation's service certainly has issues, but this notion that they're awful while CR is so much better just doesn't seem to mesh with reality. When Funi's subs contain errors, people pounce on them gleefully. When CR's subs contain significant errors (as multiple shows from this season do), there's largely silence outside of those within the fansubbing scene. They're consistent, at least. When Funi screws something up, it's right to hold them accountable. But CR ought to face that same level of scrutiny. Once you step outside of the preconceived narrative, CR doesn't look so great in comparison. Also the fact that I haven't recognized a single one of the celebrity voice actors guest starring in this series continues to reconfirm that I will never ever be able to recognize a voice actor. I'm starting to vaguely be able to tell with Funimation's roster because it's so much smaller, but not to the point of actually being able to attach names to voices. Just sometimes "Hey, isn't that the same guy who voiced Dandy in Space Dandy?" but even that's rare. This seems like a hopeless endeavor for me. Looking up some of the guest stars on MAL is always a journey of surprise. Character A was voiced by the same person as Character B?! And it does seem to make sense once I'm being told that, but I'd never guess while watching the various shows. Oh well. *** I don't really know where else to put this (I hit the character limit that apparently exists on the last comment section I started writing about CR/Funi in), but, what's going on here? The OP points out a very legitimate issue and the response of Funimation's paying customers can be summed up as "Yeah, whatever." The deflections range from "I personally can't see the difference, so why should it be fixed for anyone?" to "Funimation has other problems they're not fixing, so they shouldn't bother fixing this either," to "Video quality only really matters on the BD releases." Which are all pretty terrible justifications! These simulcast episodes aren't released as a free little novelty, they're a for-profit product. People either have to pay money or sit through revenue generating ads to watch them legally. You'd think as a customer you'd have standards instead of just shrugging you shoulders. Even if you truly don't care or think it looks fine as it is, shouldn't the question "Would you like this product to be of higher quality at no additional cost to you?" always have the easy, obvious answer of "Yes, of course?" When the video is objectively incorrect, why is there such hesitancy and resistance to the suggestion that it be fixed? And so unanimously, too! No wonder they haven't fixed that yet. Their customers are apparently telling them not to bother. And I can't wrap my head around why. *** And this isn't to say those other problems aren't genuine or important. They are! When episodes have donked up frame rates, or audio from the wrong episode or garbled subs or typesetting that stays on the screen a full minute after the text itself went away (and all of that's just drawing from this season), that's clearly not right. And they've gone on to fix at least some of that. And there's no reason that just because those problems exist that they shouldn't also fix this issue. Why is this being framed as some kind of either/or scenario? Funimation customers pay $40/$60 a year. In turn, Funimation should have proper subs, audio and video. That's not an absurd or inane expectation. It's the bare minimum you ought to expect. If you bought meat at the grocery store and found it had maggots in it, would you really dismiss that as a pressing concern because the store was also dirty and poorly lit? Really, that should make you reconsider even shopping there in the first place (or subscribing to Funi in this analogy), but at the very least you'd presumably demand that this be addressed. Just because Funi fails to meet your basic expectations on a number of occasions doesn't mean you should or need to abandon having any expectations of them at all. Part of their sales pitch is watching anime in HD, making video quality an implicit part of what they're promising. Yes, despite popular misconception, video resolution alone is no actual promise of video quality as some terrible upscales will demonstrate, and nowhere on their subscription page does it actually mention "proper color ranges" or "intelligible subtitles," but there's the implication and the basic reasonable expectation that follows from that. (I.e. it should go without explicitly stating.) And yet one of their forum mods is actually on Twitter mocking the guy for raising the issue. At least on CR users are willing to acknowledge issues, even if they seldom actually get addressed. This... this is just baffling.

5

TV

13

The source material predates Shirobako by years, by the way, SU2015 The source material predates Shirobako by years, by the way, SU2015

1339

Add - More Sore ga Seiyuu!: Petit Uchiage

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Special

1

1340

Add - More Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru In the interest of testing SMA's recommendation quality, I'm taking the obvious route of watching some of the shows it recommended. This is one such anime. *** (Score and such later. Consider my reaction to be positive until then.)

8

TV

12

SMA Test, FA2010 SMA Test, FA2010

1341

Add - More Sotsugyou: Graduation

3

OVA

2

1342

Add - More Soukihei MD Geist So should I just defer to AWO by default for things like this because sheesh. Magic for all the wrong right reasons bad anime ever is.

2

OVA

1

1343

Add - More Soul Eater All below was written prior. *** Just looked up how the manga handled things on Wikipedia and man, that sounds so much better. *** I know they ran out of original material to adapt and had to come up with their own ending, but come on. (No, of course the overall score isn't based just upon the godawful ending.) *** Funimation! I know this isn't the subbed version, but if there's Japanese text on the screen telling the viewer something it should be, you know, translated. Because I have no clue what that said now. Thanks a bunch! *** I fear the more I see this Black Star character the greater my antipathy towards him will grow.

6

TV

51

SP2008 SP2008

1344

Add - More Soul Eater NOT!

4

TV

12

SP2014 SP2014

1345

Add - More Souseiki

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Movie

1

1346

Add - More Soushin Shoujo Matoi

5

TV

12

FA2016 FA2016

1347

Add - More Sousou no Frieren Whether intentional or not, myself and others get autism vibes from Frieren. Kinda neat as someone on the spectrum having a relatable character. *** It has been years since I even considered giving an anime a 10. I started to wonder if my standards for a 10 were too strict. But finally, along comes a series that just does so many things right that I can't say it doesn't deserve that distinction. It's not number 1 but it's definitely up there with the likes of Usagi Drop. I am thrilled to finally be able to award a new anime a 10. Now hopefully it won't take years again for another one to join those ranks.

10

TV

28

1348

Add - More Space Neko Theater

-

ONA

1

1349

Add - More Space☆Dandy

-

TV

13

(As usual, the first halves of split-cour series don't get their own scores.), WI2014 (As usual, the first halves of split-cour series don't get their own scores.), WI2014

1350

Add - More Space☆Dandy 2nd Season

-

TV

13

SU2014 SU2014

1351

Add - More Speed So-so presentation of the same concept smugly peddled around for millennia (not even an exaggeration).

5

Movie

1

1352

Add - More Spy x Family

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TV

12

1353

Add - More Spy x Family Movie: Code: White

8

Movie

1

Please come to a theater near me Please come to a theater near me

1354

Add - More Spy x Family Part 2

-

TV

13

1355

Add - More Spy x Family Season 2

-

TV

12

1356

Add - More Starmyu

5

TV

12

FA2015 FA2015

1357

Add - More Starmyu OVA

-

OVA

2

1358

Add - More Steamboy (Seen dubbed. Encore doesn't air their anime movies subbed!) "Underwhelming" is really the term. For all the time, money and effort clearly put into the animation, it seems little things like plot and characters fell to the wayside. Steamboy is just plain boring. Characters are barely outlines of human beings with barebones motivations ("Capitalism bad!" "Money good!" "Me like science!") that just do things because oh who even cares, just look at this animation! A turd is okay as long as it's shiny, right? There's barely even a plot to Steamboy. It's like they actually want you to not care. If you're going to be all flash and no substance, don't try to pass yourself off as something else. It's okay to have something that's just an animation showcase (Iblard Jikan), but when you present it as something that's actually supposed to be a full movie with a narrative and everything, then that's what I expect. Wikipedia says this had a budget of twenty-two million dollars. Just as a contrast, 5cm per Second had a budget of around a quarter million dollars. I just want you to keep that contrast in mind because when it hits you that this empty shell of a film got a budget like that and only managed to produce this, you'll almost be forced to confront a mixture of sadness and anger. Steamboy could've at least tried to be something and failed. If there had been some sense of ambition, of ideas, of any sort of creativity, I could be a bit more forgiving. But there isn't. They got the whole animation thing down and then they ran out of steam (oh ho) and put out a generic action scene that somehow lasts nearly two hours and hoped that was good enough. It's hard to comment on this film because there really is just nothing there. Avoid this.

3

Movie

1

1359

Add - More Steins;Gate Number 3? Of all time? You've got to be kidding me. Steins;Gate is a bad show. I just want to get that out of the way right now. But why? Oh, for so very many reasons. Read on, possibly outraged stranger, and I'll share with you why I didn't care for this. (Some spoilers) I'll start on a positive note. I like the character of Okabe. He's interesting, vibrant and one of the better characters I've seen recently. He has complexity, depth and genuine humanity (although this is weakly done in some areas. Yet sadly, that's above average for most anime characters). Too bad every last one of the other characters in this show is a shallow caricature utterly devoid of value. I'm going to go through a few of them and demonstrate exactly what I mean. Mayuri. No. What a worthless waste of a character. If you replaced her with a sentinent broom that could spout a catchphrase, it wouldn't really be any different. I cannot stand that a character that serves only to be a plot point and be ~so moe~ is thrust upon me as a major character that I'm supposed to care about. Oh, her parents died? What a throwaway detail that never comes to mean anything. It's just there to create the illusion of depth in Mayuri and let us believe there is some reason for Okabe to care about her. Ignore this feint, Mayuri is hollow. Kurisu? Oh boy! A token tsundere and love interest! And that's it. In one curt phrase, I just told you everything you need to know about Kurisu. Her being a genius is, again, just a way for her to fit into the plot. Daru? Ha ha, he's a sterotype of otaku! Woo boy, never seen this before! And aside from spouting various otaku memes and stock phrases, there is nothing else to him. He has no heart, no soul, no humanity. Yet again, an empty shell. Feyris? Oh come on, you've got be kidding me here. Another plot device character who tries to pack on the moe with a thin veneer of a backstory? She's even more worthless than Mayuri. I'm going to stop at those characters, because it's basically the same for all the rest of them. Plot devices wrapped in cliches with nothing inside. Just terrible. And speaking of the characters, let's touch on their designs. Just look at Kurisu's face. What on Earth is that? It looks like a rough sketch, not a final character design. Why is it like that? Okabe's face isn't like that, so it's not a constant of all the characters. Mayuri's face isn't like that, so it's not the way they draw female faces, either. It's just bad like that for some reason. Faces or no, these designs range from "acceptable" to "bad and lazy." So many of them are simply uninspired. What a let down. Oh, but how about the plot? This is where I'm sure you're all having a laugh at my expense. "Deep?" Stop right there. There is nothing deep about this. Why is it deep? Because it includes some time travel elements? Have you people never read or seen anything to do with time travel before? This is a very shallow dipping of the toes into the pool of time travel narratives. Why, Tatami Galaxy employed this mechanic better and that was just a "Groundhog Day" style mechanic! Time travel is just kind of there. I mean, yes, it gets used in the plot, but not in some kind of mind blowing new fashion. It's all heavily tread ground. Or is it the romance angle that you like? Your standards are pretty low. Okabe and Kurisu fall in love seemingly because they're supposed to. Nothing about it feels natural. It's all so forced and contrived. And speaking of the story, the pacing is abysmal. This didn't need to be two-cour. It drags its feet getting started, seems like it has a chance of getting interesting, but then just sloppily hacks through the rest of the story. I blame the director. If the plot is going to be this simple and formulaic, you'd think they could've at least done it properly. They had plenty of sources to crib from, after all. I don't think I need to go through every aspect of this show to demonstrate the overall theme here. Steins;Gate is a bad show and it isn't worth watching. There is nothing here that makes me say "Most of it's terrible, but at least watch it for this part." No, it's just lackluster. Call it otaku heresy, I call it honesty.

3

TV

24

One of many convenient reminders not to take MAL's top anime list too seriously, SP2011 One of many convenient reminders not to take MAL's top anime list too seriously, SP2011

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6

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1361

Add - More Stella no Mahou

4

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12

FA2016 FA2016

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Add - More Strange Dawn (Later. Very low 3, almost a high 2.)

3

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SU2000 SU2000

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Add - More Stranger: Mukou Hadan

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Movie

1

"Sword of the Stranger" "Sword of the Stranger"

1365

Add - More Stratos 4 Later.

3

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Add - More Stratos 4 OVA: Stratos 4.1 - Dutch Roll

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Add - More Subete ga F ni Naru I knew, of course, that Asano's character designs being adapted by others into anime would potentially result in some changes, but the characters in the trailer look more like they were inspired by Asano's designs than actually designed by him. And I mean, they don't look bad, but it's just that I like Asano's character designs and seeing characters he designed that don't quite look like characters he designed is disappointing. Of course, that's not as big of a concern as the director's questionable body of work. Or the, let's say "idiosyncrasies" of the script writer's work that have meshed well enough with Nakamura's directorial style but are a bit of a gamble as to how they'll suit this series' director. In a sense, the realization of Asano's character designs could function as a metaphor for the realization of the series as a whole. I'd like for this series to work out (why wouldn't I?), but there are some red flags that have me worried.

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Add - More Sugio: Mori de Koi wo Shite

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ONA

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Add - More Suisei no Gargantia (Later. All below was written prior. *** (episode 5 spoilers) There's perfectly valid arguments to legitimate episode 5 as a whole, but nothing really makes the throwaway gag (that got far too much time) that was both homophobic and transphobic any less groanworthy, out of place or disappointing. That sort of thing really sabotages what has been an otherwise enjoyable show. Not like it's the first time anime has gone the route. Not like it'll be the last. But it's depressing every time. (If anyone offers a "but Japanese culture!" defense of that somewhere, I'll die inside.) *** (episode 6 spoilers) I could understand people complaining about parts of this show but what they're complaining about shows they've failed to understand the intent of certain parts of this show (or in some cases, the show entirely). And the reason they've probably failed to understand is due to the real problem they should be complaining about: this show is clumsy and sloppy in places. The purpose of the fixation on Amy's dancing isn't just to say "Hey, check her out, audience!" but to show what Ledo is focused on. But a number of people don't come away with that because it isn't communicated as well as it should to the point that it seems more voyeuristic (not to say that there was zero intent to arouse the audience. It is a lithe young girl doing a belly dance, and the camera spends a noticeable amount of time throughout the show highlighting her butt, so...). The problem is that they're communicating one thing but doing it poorly enough that it's not getting through to people and they walk away with the wrong message. A number of parts of this show are good or decent. But some parts, and they're important parts, just demonstrate a lack of finesse. Still my favorite thing this season, but it has some glaring faults. *** This is still my AOTS not so much because it's great (it isn't) but because it's still better than the other three shows I'm watching this season. Gargantia mostly hovers around "alright" with moments where it's great and moments where it's pretty awful. Which is still a bit better than Maou-sama (which is more stable in its quality), Attack on Titan (it's watchable, but not anything special) and leagues better than Valvrave, not counting the ironic pleasure I and so many others seem to be getting out of it (and it is a beautiful wreck, to be sure). Slow season, woo~

6

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13

SP2013 SP2013

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2

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Add - More Suisei no Gargantia: Meguru Kouro, Haruka Fansub Group: Vivid

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Add - More Suki desu Suzuki-kun!!

2

OVA

2

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Add - More Suki ni Naru Sono Shunkan wo. Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai

3

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Add - More Summer Wars (It's past 4 in the morning right now. Why am I even still awake? I'll address this later when my brain has more sleep to work with.)

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Score later. Score later.

1376

Add - More Super Seisyun Brothers

5

TV

14

FA2013 FA2013

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Add - More Suteki desu wa, Sakura-chan! Tomoyo no Cardcaptor Sakura Katsuyaku Video Nikki!

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Add - More Suteneko Tora-chan It's a work that came out during the Golden Age of American animation, and it could blend right in. A lot of Betty Boop and Merrie Melodies vibes. The story is simple but charming, with suitable character development. It's a typical three act structure. Seems like a "family" short. The writing is also very, very Golden Age. If you're familiar with animation from that time, you know exactly what I mean. The musical numbers are okay. They're not great works or anything, but they're absolutely fine. Voice acting outside of that is sparse, but very in line with the voice acting of the time, in that kind of awkward way. If there's any proof that a lack of modern technology is no excuse for an anime to look bad, this is it. This looks absolutely fine by my modern standards and it was made in the 40s. Man, even the style of movement in this anime makes me think of Golden Age animation. It's no secret to anyone with even a passing knowledge of anime history that American animation (especially Disney) was an initial seed of inspiration. Considering how old this is, it's no surprise that the apple isn't falling very far from the tree. Golden Age animation has a certain historical charm to it, but this is something that would easily be lost to history. It's an alright Golden Age work with nothing standout about it. It might be worth it to you to watch for the historical novelty, and you won't mind that you did, but it's nothing essential.

6

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1

1382

Add - More Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu

9

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1

1383

Add - More Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu

8

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14

SP2006 SP2006

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Add - More Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (2009) You probably know what's going on here. Yes, that score is almost directly resultant of Endless Eight. I don't think I need to say too much about Endless Eight. Plenty has been said already. If you're coming at this after the fact, try and understand our position here: You can just skip past them. We had to go through eight weeks of this, each time wondering if the arc would end. As time went on, the rumblings went along the lines of "Ha ha, come on, they wouldn't really repeat this episode eight times, right?" and eventually became "Oh no. They're really doing it. They're really going to repeat this eight times. They've lost their minds." Many people complained, some of those involved with the show apologized for the arc and it gained its infamy. It was awful. That said, there are still a few good episodes of Haruhi here, and it offers a necessary bridge between the first season and the movie. But, Endless Eight. There is no looking past that. It's all anyone ever seems to mention when you bring up Haruhi's second season. Almost nobody talks about those other episodes. That's just the kind of shadow Endless Eight casts. Oh, and keep in mind that those of us who saw Haruhi while it was airing waited three years for this. And they gave us Endless Eight. Endless Eight. *** You seem to get two different reactions to Endless Eight depending on when you watched it. Those of us who watched it as it was airing generally don't seem very fond of it. Those who seek to dismiss the criticism generally seem to have come to it afterwards, already knowing about it, and either just marathoned through it or even skipped some episodes. And these are obviously two significantly different experiences of that arc. The latter seems to approach it as a concept, liking it on paper, while the former more fully experienced the actual implications of it. And as such its difficult for me to take the arguments of the latter camp as fully legitimate, at least in relation to the reactions of those who didn't know in advance that it would be like that, who didn't get to just marathon it, who didn't get to just skip most of it. They watched the same thing, yes, but they all too often forget or overlook that they didn't watch it in the same way. And that is a relevant factor. For any work, really.

4

TV

14

SP2009 SP2009

1385

Add - More Suzumiya Haruhi-chan no Yuuutsu

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ONA

25

1386

Add - More Sweat Punch

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OVA

5

1387

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4

WI2016 WI2016

1388

Add - More Taiko no Tatsujin: 15-shuunen Kinen Short Animation

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CM

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1390

Add - More Taishou Yakyuu Musume. An examination of Taisho era gender roles in a sports anime? No, not quite. More an excuse to go to the "cute girls do a thing" well than any real reflection on the time period. The anime may be set in that time period, but it serves more as ornamentation. Their act of playing baseball may not gel with a chauvinistic and patriarchal society in a mixed milieu that's got one foot in the past, one in the future, but that's largely secondary. In truth, it's just middle school girls being friends and doing something together. This time it's baseball. The show isn't looking to seriously tackle anything with any real weight, but rather is a SoL in sports anime's clothing. And it's okay at that. But just okay. The ensemble cast fall into predictable, well-worn roles that they do little to advance beyond. Despite many of them being on screen fairly often, they manage to somehow receive little exploration to the point that you'll probably struggle to even remember the names of a few of them. And this serves to make their interactions that much less rich, with fewer possible dimensions to their dialogue. It's so by-the-books you could almost write it yourself. Which is a shame, because the premise at least sounds like something that could've been explored to reveal a much more sophisticated tapestry if only the actual show were in more ambitious (or perhaps more talented) hands. I feel like we went back to the Taisho era to get exactly the same thing we've in the modern era. What a bummer. I was actually looking forward to the historical aspects of this. (spoilers) While I'll give the show some credit for ending on them losing a close game after a gutsy performance rather than just handing them the victory to complete the entire feel-good picture, it comes off as too cloyingly pat for its own good to stand on anything but its character interactions, which, as aforementioned, are pretty basic and milquetoast, much like the series itself. It doesn't have to be the perhaps tendentious, nigh-feminist work the premise kind of sets it up for, but the show lacks bite, and just lazily limps along towards its mildly satisfying conclusion, never reaching a crescendo, always content to remain purely so-so. While the character designs are a bit vibrant if predictable, the clothing is a stronger point. A proper reflection of the time period (Well, to be fair, I wasn't even alive during the Taisho period, but it feels like this'd be accurate), the outfits manage to both portray the influence of their society's gender roles and to just be a bit nice in their own right. That sort of thing doesn't make a show good as a whole, of course, but it's still pleasant. For the briefest moment during the start of the first episode, I thought this was going to be a campy musical anime. That would've been neat. Instead it's a somewhat offensively ordinary SoL pushed from a 5 to a low 6 by its animation and art. Not an awful series, sure, but I can't think of any particular reason you should spend your time watching it. There's so many other series that do what it does and do it better. (While the notion of getting a BD release versus a DVD release seems obvious, I really must stress not to get Saizen's release of episode 7. The rest are fine, but something went horribly wrong with their encode for that episode and it looks like hot garbage.)

6

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12

SU2009 SU2009

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Add - More Takamiya Nasuno desu! Teekyuu Spin-off

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12

SP2015 SP2015

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Add - More Takanashi Rikka Kai: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie

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Movie

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Mostly recap Mostly recap

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Add - More Takanashi Rikka Kai: Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! Movie Lite

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5

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12

WI2018 WI2018

1395

Add - More Tama Gura Abayo: Moki Yumokyu Superdeluxe

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Music

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1396

Add - More Tamako Love Story "Tamako Love Story licensed..." Yay! "...by Sentai Filmworks." Not yay! Fansub Group: Coalgirls

9

Movie

1

Apology accepted, Tamako Market. Apology accepted, Tamako Market.

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Add - More Tamako Market Tamako Market, you're a show that just refuses to let me fully like you. I haven't seen Star Wars, but if I'm understanding my nerd outrage correctly, I believe "Jar Jar Binks" is the most analogous comparison to Dera. He's an annoying "silly" animal mascot character who gets shoehorned into a show that really doesn't need or want him and he just ruins scenes for the sake of schmaltz. KyoAni, I know you're better than this. I saw Nichijou. I saw Chuu2. You have people there with a much better understanding of comic timing than this would bely. But were it just the bird that grated on me, that would not reduce the show to a five. Rather, it's because this show just can't get off the ground, to the point that Dera himself almost becomes symbolic of the anime's state. Being a show as heavily reliant on atmospherics as this is, you'd think they'd put some more effort into that. But characters just sort of limp through inconsequential situations, partially imbued with sound and fury, signifying nothing. Any traces of anything ever in the way of development are just discarded as though they never happened. Characters trot out dialogue, but they're not actually saying anything most of the time. It's utterly directionless, lest "nowhere" were to be considered a direction. "But that is how iyashikei shows are!" you might bemoan. Balderdash. Just because they do not go for complex plots or high energy action does not mean they are, by necessity, void of content. When you watch Aria, the ship does not appear rudderless. An episode of Aria heads in a very clear, recognizable direction, its purpose clear. It does not, like Tamako Market, trip over itself at every turn. That is because Tamako Market is a clumsy effort that never establishes the warm, tranquil feeling it so wishes it could, producing a world that does not seem fully formed, characters that seem like loose threads which refuse to be properly tied together and were it not for the upcoming positive points, would seem like so much dead air. Yikes. Let's give his show a chance to recuperate by going over its better points. As you'd expect of KyoAni, the animation is at their typical level of technical proficiency, producing what would probably be more enjoyable if there was more actually going on to benefit from it. But small moments like Choi dancing are granted an extra bit of charm from the quality level on display. The art style is no big venture for KyoAni, immediately recognizable from their prior works both in character designs and the general aesthetic of the world. Not the most unusual thing, considering the reuse of staff from said past projects. It's not like you couldn't tell Hidamari Sketch and Madoka had the same character designer, after all. Still. A character like Choi is distinctive looking, but I'd hardly be the first to point out certain strong similarities between Tamako and Hyouka's Chitanda (some also bring in K-on!'s Mio, but that seems like more of a stretch to me). They're not unpleasant character designs at all, though. Cute, a little bit playful, but not quite so inventive. Seiyuu do an okayish but not great job. KyoAni's continuing their trend of using largely new faces and it shows in this production. For all my gripes about Dera, I'd say the voice acting for his character is probably some of the best in the series, and he's one of the characters voiced by a more experienced seiyuu. Other characters seem bereft of the emotion they ought to have, coming across as flat. It's another fault that serves to pull you out of the show. It's not Chaos Wars level of terrible, but it's certainly not very appealing. The most generous term for Tamako Market is "tolerable." You're going to have put up with countless failures and dashed hopes from a series that's practically out to spite you for your patience with it, and you will not get much reward for it. You have to fight this show to trick it out of some small pleasures. But no, Camus, I would not like to be Sisyphus. KyoAni's still my favorite studio, but this particular anime isn't worth it. A high 4. Avoid. All below was written prior. *** I sure got tired of that bird pretty quickly. He was incredibly overused and he's not shown himself to be an an enjoyable character at all. If they scaled back their use of him roughly 100%, it would be an improvement. Other than that, it's KyoAni being KyoAni. I suspect this will be one of their weaker shows, however. *** On the positive side, there has come to be less bird. On the negative side, he is still there and still awful. Subtract him from the show and you have an imperfect but pleasant, atmospheric series. With him, you have said series being interrupted for his schlocky schtick too often when the show is actually getting some momentum going. It's really that simple. Without the bird, I'd have no qualms considering this a good show. With him, I'm forced to have these reservations. He's just that terrible of a character. All of the moments I've found good in this show so far either didn't involve him or were ruined by him. Why won't you let me just enjoy this show, Dera? *** "Suffocation deaths are caused by mochi every year in Japan, especially among elderly people. According to the Tokyo Fire Department which responds to choking cases, mochi sends more than 100 people to the hospital every year in Tokyo alone. Between 2006 and 2009, 18 people died from choking on mochi in the Japanese capital, according to city's fire department. In 2011, Japanese media reported eight mochi-related deaths in Tokyo in January."-Wikipedia Well that puts a more morbid spin on mochi than Tamako would have you believe. But it is pretty good... also go watch the movie it's much better

4

TV

12

WI2013 WI2013

1398

Add - More Tamako Market Specials

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Special

6

1399

Add - More Tamala 2010: A Punk Cat in Space If I watch too much of any one series, unless it's just really that great, I'll get burned out on it. So I decided to space out my Black Lagoon watching a bit. I figured a quick movie would be good for that. You know, something short and self-contained. With no knowledge of what it was about, I picked... this. I refer to it like that, because my reaction at the end was mostly "What on Earth did I just watch?" Look, I don't "get" Andy Warhol all that well. Maybe that statement says enough about this movie, but I'll expound as best I can. I get kind of a Fritz the Cat vibe from this. There's no surprise it was made by some artists. And I mean that in the lifestyle sense. Probably the Bohemian sense, in this case. I think there's a statement here about capitalism, and maybe one about religion. Probably something about the state, too, and the sort of triadic structure of the three. I decided to Google this movie, to see if anyone else had more of a clue, but there was nothing. Just equally confused people. Apparently they expected Tamala to have two more movies, a TV show, the works. They planned for this to be the next big thing. I'm going to guess that was some ironic artist statement, because this movie isn't marketable at all. This is very much a festival film. It's perhaps the sort of film you namedrop, that you discuss with a knowing air, so as to establish your credibility. It's a hipster movie, is what I'm saying. It's not 485 minutes of the Empire Sate Building, but it's in that ballpark. It looks pretty decent for 2002. The CG looks cheap by now, but that's what you get with the progression of technology. The Astro Boy style is interesting, but I don't know if it ever really served a point other than to be different. Maybe it was some sort of kitschy, retro thing? There are brief moments where you see they can certainly pull off some nice looking visuals, so it's clearly a deliberate move. The sound can be sparse at times, repetitive when used, and isn't that special. The sound effects seem kind of off, perhaps deliberately so. It's hard to tell what's deliberate with this sort of film. I'm not good with these things. I took an art history course in college, and just that made my brain hurt. If you're a hipster you'll probably love it. If you don't get hipster things, you won't get this, either. I prefer my "artsy" to be like Mind Game. This one just isn't for me.

3

Movie

1

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OVA

4

1401

Add - More Tamayura: Hitotose

7

TV

12

FA2011 FA2011

1402

Add - More Tamayura: Hitotose - Attakai Kaze no Omoide, nanode

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Special

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1403

Add - More Tamayura: More Aggressive

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TV

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SU2013 SU2013

1404

Add - More Tamayura: More Aggressive - Tsuitachi dake no Shuugakuryokou, nanode

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Special

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1405

Add - More Tamayura: Sotsugyou Shashin Part 1 - Kizashi

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Movie

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1406

Add - More Tamayura: Sotsugyou Shashin Part 2 - Hibiki (spoilers) I appreciate Norie first writing "No More Seats" and then attempting to correct by changing it to the still incorrect "No More Sweats." I don't know if that's just a mistake on the staff's part or if they deliberately had Norie screw up writing that word twice, but I enjoy this minor detail either way *** I think two characters just teleported. Or it was a poorly communicated jump forward in time. Or an animation error. I'm going with teleportation. That's the more fun answer.

-

Movie

1

1407

Add - More Tamayura: Sotsugyou Shashin Part 3 - Akogare

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Movie

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1408

Add - More Tamayura: Sotsugyou Shashin Part 4 - Ashita

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Movie

1

1409

Add - More Taneyamagahara no Yoru There are interesting ways of doing this. A series of still images laid over a hum-ho narrative in this field isn't one of them.

3

Movie

1

1410

Add - More Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (spoilers) Oh boy! It's that time again! It's the time where all the shows we've grown so comfortable watching every week begin to end and make way for a field of unknowns. I find it exciting. Technically the first one to end was Kore wa, but I'm going to consider this my first real sign of the season ending. Well, let's get on with it then: This was a letdown. I stuck with it because I was curious to see where it would go, and it didn't go far. The issue is that it drug its heels the whole way to its conclusion. It was painfully slow. I read some discussion of this show elsewhere, and apparently the manga moves on much quicker than this. So I can determine that Silver Link was determined to only animate this arc. Do you know what's wrong with this? It's hard to keep caring when a show is determinedly not going very far and without any valid reason. So I got bored with the show. I went from mildly interested to displeased while watching the later episodes. If I hadn't been so far along, I would've just dropped it. I had simply lost my patience for the series. Which was part of the problem with the ending for me. Instead of being interested in seeing how it ended, all I could think was "They're still doing this?" and "Ugh, just end already." I didn't care anymore about the relationship or anything else going on in this show. I did actually facepalm when they showed Yuuko come back, rendering what had been around half the episode pointless just so they could leave the possibility of a second season open. Thanks for the slap in the face! Hey, did you know that Silver Link is largely composed of former Shaft employees? Because they really want you to know that. With this much playing around with frame and colors and shadows and general artsiness for the sake of artsiness, I almost could've been watching Ef. I'm not quite complaining; it's certainly visually interesting (Ugh, I used a semicolon). Yet it's the same issue I often have with Shinbo: Too much of it exists only for its own sake, just to be visually different rather than to serve a grander purpose. Which, again, isn't quite a criticism. Many shows are content to simply go with the status quo. It's not wrong to be artsy. I'm simply saying that seeing them make the effort here makes me wish that they (and other shows) would go even further with more intelligent applications of this sort of stuff. Anime is a visual medium. Let's not be afraid to experiment with how it's presented to us. (I've seen some intriguing experiments with panels in manga, for example. Stuff like that should be encouraged.) It's very clearly about the MC and Yuuko's romance. The subtle hints of harem seem misplaced. I'm not sure why they're there if not but to please fans. Speaking of pleasing fans, get a load of all that fanservice. How many times did the MC grope Yuuko's breasts? How many times were girls put into fetish outfits? It's lazy and exasperating, cheapening the narrative, and yet it is common in this show. For a show that was already tedious, so much fanservice just brought it ever closer towards the edge of inanity. What a bunch of dross nonsense. Had this fanservice been elided, the show would've been much better for it. Aside from Silver Link's visual flourishes, there's nothing special about this show and in fact a number of strong flaws. It's a typical romance (no, Yuuko being a ghost does not elevate it above the ordinary) weakly rendered and stalled for no valid reason with too much pandering. That's a bad show, so 4 it is. Don't bother watching this. *** For posterity, everything I wrote about the show while it was airing: Huh. I don't really know what to make of this quite yet. *** What's nuts is that its' been five episodes, and the best I've deduced is that it might be a romance series, maybe vaguely haremish. I don't really like it that much, either. I'm not quite dropping it, but it's kind of underwhelming.

4

TV

12

SP2012 SP2012

1411

Add - More Tasogare Otome x Amnesia: Taima Otome

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Special

1

1412

Add - More Techno Police 21C

3

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1

1413

Add - More Teekyuu

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TV

12

FA2012 FA2012

1414

Add - More Teekyuu 2

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TV

12

SU2013 SU2013

1415

Add - More Teekyuu 2 Specials

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Special

2

1416

Add - More Teekyuu 3

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12

FA2013 FA2013

1417

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Add - More Teekyuu 6 The Crunchyroll experience: Go to watch this show. Realize that like many other titles, it's missing the first 8-10 seconds when you watch it via an app. That's about 7.5% of each episode of Teekyu, so that's not okay. You contacted support, had to go through multiple people who were determined to only give you generic, copy and pasted responses that actually contained zero information, only to finally be told by someone that it was a "known issue." You know that "known issue" means "will never be fixed" because of other "known issues" that have continued to persist for years. You go to watch it on their web player because of course you paid $60 a year to watch anime on a laptop screen. The video is watermarked with CR's logo and your username because trying to stop pirate streaming sites from using CR's bandwidth is more important to them than your viewing experience. Realize that you could just work around all of this by downloading rips of their releases, throwing them into a Plex library and watching it for free because even though you're willing to pay and do it officially, the free piracy route is the only one that would actually work correctly. Despair. This is why people don't like Crunchyroll. Not because they're "too cheap" or too void of morality to "support the industry."

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Add - More Teekyuu 8 That this season, which contained exactly no playing of tennis or any other sport, which barely even mentioned tennis, is still labeled as part of the sports genre here on MAL suggests that that part of the database might need a bit of work.

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Add - More Tekkon Kinkreet You know, there's some important problems with this film. Like fellow Studio 4ºC film Mind Game, it's visually great. The animation is impressive on a number of occasions, the art style a bit cliche Studio 4ºC but still pleasant and the overall art direction well-executed. Were this simply a display of technical and artistic merits like Iblard Jikan, it would be a success. But it sets broader goals and fails to adequately achieve them. You can really pick up on the fact that the director is both green, and not someone who actually wants to be a director. A bit of research reveals that the director is a talented CG artist who sort of had the role thrust upon him. You can feel his lack of passion. Of course he's not going to be an optimal person for the role. Coupled with a green scriptwriter, the inexperience clearly shows through. Is it great that Studio 4ºC is giving new guys opportunities to work on projects like this? Certainly. Every time a well known person and beloved person in the industry dies, it's a reminder that those guys won't be around forever. There has to be talented people who can take over, or there won't be much of an anime industry in the future. That said, not everyone can go from 0 to 60, so to speak, and not everyone is ever going to actually get there. So it's good that these guys got to work on this project, but the actual end result isn't that great. And it's actually a bit of a waste that the director here seems to have been chosen out of convenience rather than someone who actually wants to break into directing anime getting the role (but apparently nobody else really wanted it that much, so it can't be helped). (vague spoilers past here) The poor directing is evident in scenes where you can tell there should be emotional impact or a connection with the characters, but it just falters. Such as the scene towards the end with Black and the Minotaur. It just goes on too long for too little payoff. It looks great, but the strength of the narrative isn't worth sacrificing for some more eye candy. But really, the bond between White and Black always seemed poorly developed. You get that it's there, of course, but more on a conceptual level than an emotional level. In a good film, you would feel that bond. But here, it's just such a benign seeming entity. You know, "They live in Treasure Town," "They have a generic sibling bond," The sky is blue." It just feels like another bit of miscellanea when it's supposed to be one of the central parts of the film. That's bad directing. It sabotages the viewer's ability to become emotionally invested in the film and thus fundamentally hinders any potential for payoff. It's only natural that when your foundation is weak, anything you try to build on top of it will suffer the consequences. To return to my earlier comparison with Mind Game, part of the chief reason that film succeeds is because of Yuasa’s much more competent direction. If you ever want an easy example of the impact a good director has on a project, the juxtaposition between these two works is pretty much perfect. It honestly feels like a waste for a film so haphazardly put together to look as good as this does. It’s not the worst film ever or anything like that, but it’s such a letdown. You’ll feel it when you watch it. Mind Game is what happens when all sides of the equation are talented. Tekkonkinkreet is what happens when only some parts of the team are. I’m not even sure if I’d actually recommend watching it. Sure, the visuals are impressive, but why settle for just that when Mind Game has (arguably) better visuals and can deliver elsewhere as well? Although both films are certainly evidence of one thing: Studio 4ºC needs to make more movies. Consider this sort of a high 5, but not quite enough to be a low 6. (I can't use decimals here, so that's how it has to be.) *** I'm updating this comment just to say that you should really read this review of the movie. It's solid, thorough and one that mirrors a lot of my own thoughts on the film. I wish reviews on MAL in general looked more like this. (It's actually a better written review than a good number of that site's other reviews, too.)

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Add - More Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (spoilers) "Kick reason to the curb and do the impossible." It's a common theme, actually. The whole "oppressive power is overthrown by rebels who find that they don't belong in politics, that their new system is becoming too much like the old system, and ultimately discover their true selves again on the battlefield." You can see it a lot in revolution and rebellion narratives. It's a commonplace plot in that respect. And, oh boy, it's your everyday shounen "Power of friendship!" narrative, too. And how do you beat the enemy? By increasing your power level. I'm sure we've all seen that. It's hard to believe at times that most of their enemies are supposed to be taken as serious threats. They just kind of swat them down like flies by choosing to get stronger. There's more genuine tension about whether Ichigo will ultimately win a fight in Bleach. Yoko's a bit ridiculous in the fan service department. Gainax, we both know that's not what a fourteen-year-old girl looks like. All those complaints, and I still gave it a 9. Oh no! My apparent cynicism is crumbling! Why would I give it a 9? Because it manages to take a number of those flaws and turn them into a strength. Gainax took a look at the most common shounen tropes and decided to turn those up to 11. The result is delightfully ridiculous. You can't possibly take TTGL seriously. If you can hear that somebody just fired "probability-altering missiles" and keep a straight face, you've got quite the strong ability to suspend your disbelief. But it's a good thing. It's a popcorn, pulpy action series. You don't need to be a big mecha fan (I'm certainly not) to laugh when you see characters throwing two giant pairs of boomerang shades. That's because TTGL doesn't care about being believable. I mean, there's a moment where the protagonists literally survive being attacked by the big bang as their heroic battle is transmitted by way of technobabble science to their fellow humans back on Earth. This is nuts. So when the answer to tougher enemies is simply "bigger drills," "more drills," or some combination thereof, when they're making up ridiculous attack and mecha names, when they're shouting some of the most cliched shounen protagonist lines while piloting mecha that are powered by burning spirit, you don't roll your eyes. You laugh. You might even do a fist pump or two. Yes, Yoko is a big pile of fan service in the looks department, but she can be kickbutt. She's right there in the fray. I can't ignore the pandering, but Yoko's more than that, so there's some redemption. It was a let down to see a character that is basically just a gay stereotype. I don't demand that TTGL be a paragon of LGBT representation, but come on. It's almost as bad as it was in Macross Frontier. The show would've lost nothing by not including that. It's just kind of lazy. Oh, Kamina, you shone too bright for this world. Could there be more of a caricature of masculine shounen protagonists? Splendid, for this show. I never really got into Simon. I know it's brought up in the plot, but it's really noticeable that he can't fill the gap Kamina left. Even at his most absolute burning spirit state, he's not Kamina. He's just okay. I never really cared about Nia. She just seemed like the cookie-cutter shounen protagonist love interest. For a work as self-aware as TTGL, maybe that's the way it should be. Hmm. I wish I could include an image here of Simon's crazy multi-shades towards the end. It would basically illustrate everything I want to communicate about the nature of this show. The show looks good with distinctive character and mecha designs and serves the absurd nature of its fights pretty well. You can feel the constant energy coming from the show. It's not a showy art piece, but it works for what it is. By the by, I don't usually get excited about mecha designs, but for a pleb like myself, I enjoyed these ones for being ridiculous. The soundtrack works. Not as memorable as FLCL's or Cowboy Bebop's, mind you, but it fits nicely into the show, mixing with the action and lending it that appropriate "anime battle" feel. The sound effects are fine. They never stand out for good or bad reasons, which is okay enough. "Row row, fight the powah." This show feels entirely different after the timeskip. It's interesting before that. It's off the rails after it. Luckily, that first half is good enough to carry you along to wanting to watch it until the timeskip happens. Too bad it can't be that good throughout. But it certainly does manage to ratchet up the madness as it goes on. I'm glad that it was recommended I pick this back up finally. It's a great show to turn off your brain and watch. I was getting a bit burned out on highbrow series and was looking for something dumb and fun. This fit the bill. I'd totally recommend it. All that's left now is to figure which of the movies and specials and what have you are worth watching (I don't want to watch a recap movie). The show is too flawed for me to give it a 10, but certainly "great," which MAL associates with a 9. Watch this.

9

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SP2007 SP2007

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Add - More Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Parallel Works Anthologies like this are usually fun. You get to see a lot of individual voices given mostly free reign. (Spoilers, I guess) In order: The first one wasn't that impressive. Kind of like a music video for "Row Row" (or whatever that song is actually called). Eh. The animation wasn't anything special. The second was pretty boring. I get that pachislot is a bigger deal in Japan, but watching really underwhelming pachislot animations isn't my idea of a good time. I liked the third one. Stylized, vibrant, energetic. I hope for Gainax's sake this isn't one of the guys who jumped ship to Studio Trigger. I can't even remember the fourth one and I just saw it a few minutes ago. Yeah, not that great. The fifth one. Oh boy, the fifth one. I haven't seen that much little boy penis since Boku no Pico. Um, it was interesting? I guess? Or maybe it was just dumb and weird fan service. I don't even know, man. I kind of want a pair of those shades now. I'd bet someone's making some. If not on Etsy, somewhere. Wait. Was the song in the sixth one even in the show? It sounds like something they lifted off of a Nickelback album. And the animation is sloppy and rough. No thanks. So for the seventh one it looks like they got an art student to set some opera song over her vacation slideshow, and then she threw in a bit of "Row Row" when she remembered this was supposed to be TTGL related. Are you kidding me? And the last one. Yay. Pretty, stylish and, unlike a certain preceding bit, very TTGL. It's good. So where does that leave us? Two good ones, three meh ones and three bad ones. Also way more little boy penis than I expected. That's not everything I could've hoped for. I have to score this work as a whole, and the good works are overwhelmed by the other six. So despite those two, the collection as a whole is bad. 4 it is. (No, really. Did the person behind the seventh one even see TTGL? It wasn't about clouds and skulls in the desert.)

4

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Add - More Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Parallel Works 2 Alright, round 2. Here we go. In alphabetical order (because that's how the files were arranged and I don't know what the original order was): Big Building: Splendid. The creator's unique voice was carried through, it was visually interesting and it remained true to the spirit of TTGL. Well done. (I looked into it, and apparently no, I couldn't use "well met" in that context no matter how tempted I was.) Dai-Gurren, Goodbye: Right. Aside from using two TTGL characters, this is clearly its own thing. It's reminiscent of many other "artsy" auteur type shorts, right down to the sentimentality and artistic gimmickry. But it's not bad. It's just not that great, either. Gunmen Symphonia: First of all, a special tip of the hat to the fansubbers here for using an almost unreadable font. Thanks for that. The short itself is basically just a little informational bit on the Gunmen set to a song that's probably from the public domain. The art looks like the main show. Very boring and uninspired. Kittan Zero: Genius. This is incredible. Were I rating it by itself, I'd almost certainly give it a 9. Maybe even a 10. I'm totally serious. I was certain this was an Imaishi work (of P&S), but I did some digging and it's actually the work of a guy who goes by the name of Sushio. Unsurprisingly, he also did work on P&S. Keep an eye on this guy, because he's apparently great. This is honestly one of the best things I've ever seen. (I gave P&S a 10. You probably could've seen this coming.) Kiyal's Magical Time: Quick: What's the difference between this, and the OP of a bad moe show? Most OPs are only 90 seconds, while this is four minutes long. Not even my post-Kittan Zero high could save this. My XXX is the best in the Universe: I couldn't shake it when I was watching this. "Hey, this is totally by whoever did those witch segments in Madoka." This time I was actually right. It's neat. Visually interesting, some different animation techniques (I think they used cutout here. I could be wrong). Well done. If not for Kittan Zero, this might've been the best in the anthology. But nothing's competing with Kittan Zero. (Go watch Kittan Zero.) The Sense of Wonder: Eh. Nothing special. Nothing all that terrible, either. Alright, conclusion time: One mindblowing, incredible short, two good ones, two meh ones and two bad ones. It pains me to have to even consider all those others alongside Kittan Zero when I score this, but it's a collection, Kittan Zero or no. This is the better of the two parallel works, without question. If I averaged it out, it's probably in 6-7 territory. Probably closer to 7. So I'm going with that. Did I say Kittan Zero enough times? Because Kittan Zero. If you watch nothing else from these two collections, watch Kittan Zero.

7

Music

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Add - More Tenkuu Danzai Skelter+Heaven Alright, you're making an anime! You've got 19 minutes. First, you should spend about a minute on a basically still shot of the Earth. It's fine, you've got time to spare! Then barely introduce the viewer to the plot, and cut to an OP! This OP doesn't relate too much to what actually happens, but just throw in some jpop and everything'll be fine. Don't bother properly introducing or developing your characters. In fact, don't even bother mentioning most of their names. Don't bother using proper sound effects, either. Just use something in a reasonable ballpark. And be sure to throw in cheap CG that clashes with the aesthetic of the rest of your show. Now, animation is expensive, and you just blew your budget on those CG models. So animate as little as possible. Draw a few frames for lip flaps, and then just loop those. Oh, a character stopped talking? It's fine, loop those lip flaps a bit more anyway. Then maybe people won't notice how little things actually move. Be sure to make everything janky. Let's say you put a blonde character in your anime. Have her, oh, I don't know, just kind of float into a mech. And have those mechs move like they're in a slideshow. And don't understand how perspective works, either. Don't bother with shadows. A giant space squid? Nope. No reason that'll cast a shadow. But do put in long, contrived flashbacks to establish a love interest. And then dedicate only a brief amount of time to that (hey, you just used up all that time on those flashbacks). And just because you have 19 minutes doesn't mean you can't do what others use a whole season to do! Ignore your time constraints, and just cram all your ideas in as fast as possible. Will this make the plot very difficult to follow? Will it require you to quickly and randomly jump between ideas? Will it turn the whole thing into an incoherent mess? Yeah, probably. But come on, what are you supposed to do? Listen to a competent director? Make sure you throw in lots of fanservice. Otaku love that, right? Don't bother with interesting or unique character designs, that would cost too much. And don't worry about getting talented seiyuu, either. Why should voice actors actually act? And be sure you end your anime on a cliffhanger, even though you know you'll never make more. Perfect! You're ready for a job at Idea Factory!

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Add - More Tenkuu no Escaflowne Funi's kickstarter for a new dub for this series is... uncomfortable? It's money they kinda say they don't really need and they're pretty much using Kickstarter as an ersatz preorder system. Which is kind of gross. Not unique to Funimation (sadly using Kickstarter like that is nothing new), but gross. I don't know that I'd go so far as saying people outright shouldn't contribute to it and support this sort of negative trend, but this is a cynical move that certainly shouldn't be met with any sort of praise or excitement. By all means they seem pretty set to meet their goal with ease. Which is presumably only going to encourage them to do more things like this in the future. And it's exploitative, not really what Kickstarter is for and yet people apparently want it. Being successful doesn't make it any less gross. Profitability is not the measuring stick for ethics. "So it's not really looking at fans to help us do something that we couldn't do or couldn't achieve, it's more "hey! If you really want this, almost consider this a preorder." It's not that we see it as a risk, this is more we wanted to create something neat where fans could be a part of bringing it back to life, this thing they've asked us for, and we've heard, like Jennifer mentioned, through forums or in person, it's more kind of creating a platform where they can be a part of bringing it back. It's more saying "I helped Kickstart this to make this happen, I was part of this tier or part of that tier," it's allowing a little more ownership, and maybe not going the traditional route and just redubbing something and putting it out, that works great for certain titles. We're basically going a bit of a different route that just allows fans a little bit more ownership." -Funimation's social media coordinator Lauren Moore Bit of chutzpah to frame taking $150k+ from fans as a fun little activity for the community. "Really, the 150k is not what it costs us to make it, it's more we benchmarked to get to that number and we think that's pretty reasonable. We're going to be funding the rest of it. We just can't really say how much more or less it is." -Funimation brand manager Jennifer Fu So they figured $150k was low enough that they'd probably get it, but still high enough to be worth bothering. Aren't they nice to "let" the community give them money they don't actually need? Thanks, Funimation! *** This kickstarter is an example of a number of the things people say are wrong with how Kickstarter is being used and so... Kickstarter endorsed it. Great. *** Animeigo launched a Kickstarter for a Riding Bean BD release. An older, niche title from a small publisher. A release that really seems like a passion project, with all sorts of extra little bits of polish and involvement from the original manga author to make it as definitive a release as possible and please fans. This release probably wouldn't happen without crowdfunding. This is a good use of Kickstarter. While money has come in at a rapid clip and the project was funded within hours, Kickstarter didn't endorse it. Instead they endorsed a project from a company that will have you know they are the largest publisher and distributor of anime in North America, that's only looking to redub a newer version of a show, that outright says it doesn't need the money, that basically says it's just using Kickstarter as a glorified preorder system. That is the one they endorsed. Ugh. *** Well now they've endorsed both. Yay? *** Reading the comments section for their Kickstarter reveals numerous complaints of missing items, damaged items, improperly shipped items and, least important but perhaps most symbolic, even the little certificate suffers from a lack of quality control. Meanwhile, contrary to what backers were led to believe, regular customers can just go purchase a nearly identical product for significantly less money. So the backers got hoodwinked into backing Funimation's cashgrab and couldn't even properly get what little they were promised in return while everyone else will be able to get it just fine. So now this has succeeded in being gross and awful every step of the way. *** In just the time it took me to write that, two more complaints came in on their Kickstarter comments page. You'd have maybe expected more competency from a company of Funimation's size and scale, but apparently you'd have expected too much.

8

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26

Funi's dub kickstarter for this is *gross*, SP1996 Funi's dub kickstarter for this is *gross*, SP1996

1434

Add - More Tenkuu no Shiro Laputa I mean, I guess I could cover the score and comment today, but eh.

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Score later., "Castle in the Sky" Score later., "Castle in the Sky"

1435

Add - More Tenrankai no E The trick isn't just having something that visually stands out from the ordinary. Having an anime that was nothing but Flash tweens would be unusual, sure, but I'd hardly consider that to be in a good way. What's relevant is finding the art style and method of animation which best conveys your narrative. That is the benefit of being able to step out of the mold. Not the stepping out, but what is accomplished with it. Not everything is best communicated by looking like K-on!, for example. And the narratives in this, which so relies upon being able to show you what it wants to say (as comes with the silent film territory) utilize their respective styles to much success. For the style of narrative changes with the art and animation style. The narratives are not particularly interesting, but are presented quite well. You can see the impact of competent direction here, as well. Consider this a low 8. It's not a particularly significant work, but one you can certainly appreciate.

8

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1

"Pictures at an Exhibition" "Pictures at an Exhibition"

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9

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"Angel's Egg" "Angel's Egg"

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1438

Add - More Tesagure! Bukatsumono

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FA2013 FA2013

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WI2014 WI2014

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Add - More Tesagure! Bukatsumono Spin-off Purupurun Sharumu to Asobou Fansub Group: Horriblesubs

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And then next someone will actually sub Narihero and the gdgd movie, right? Right?, SP2015 And then next someone will actually sub Narihero and the gdgd movie, right? Right?, SP2015

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Add - More Tetsuwan Birdy It's like it just doesn't want to work. There are powerful antagonists, you say? Who are they? What are their motivations? Oh, you won't tell us that? But you have a pretty female protagonist, robots and action sequences. Why, that's 80's OVA gold only this is a 90's OVA, but that's just a technicality. Oh, the action sequences make up an unsatisfying minority of the OVA because more time is spent on boring dialogue about the plot you refuse to develop (gotta leave potential for another disc open!)? Well, I'm sure those action sequences are at least pretty good, right? Oh, they're so-so at best? You're just trying to spite me, aren't you, Tetsuwan Birdy? Tetsuwan Birdy has so many places it could go right but it just refuses to.

4

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Add - More Texhnolyze Most of the Lain staff? I'm in. *** No, no, what did I just get myself into? I could describe the events of that first episode to you. I could not explain them. This one isn't going to make it easy, it seems. Well, I figured as much given the staff. I feel like I walked away from Lain understanding it decently enough, though, so hopefully this one isn't entirely over my head.

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(The score I'm contemplating requires further consideration), SP2003 (The score I'm contemplating requires further consideration), SP2003

1443

Add - More The Animatrix

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Add - More The Baby Birds of Norman McLaren

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Add - More The Big O (Later.) All below was written prior. *** So he's Batman only he pilots a giant robot and Robin's a gynoid? Splendid.

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FA1999 FA1999

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Add - More The Chocolate Panic Picture Show

5

OVA

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Add - More The Embryo Develops into a Fetus

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Add - More The iDOLM@STER

4

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SU2011 SU2011

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Add - More The iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls 2-shuunen Kinen PV That this is labeled by the fansub group as a BD release would possibly imply that they released a BD containing just this 2.5 minute music video. That's not the case, right? And it's not the case that such a BD sold nearly 20k discs, right? I'm sure that can't be accurate, because that would be absurd. Something else came on the disc with this, didn't it?

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Add - More The iDOLM@STER Live For You!

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Add - More The iDOLM@STER Movie: Kagayaki no Mukougawa e!

4

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Add - More The iDOLM@STER Prologue SideM: Episode of Jupiter

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Add - More The iDOLM@STER Shiny Festa

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Add - More The iDOLM@STER: 765 Pro to Iu Monogatari

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Add - More The Supergal

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Add - More Tiger Mask W Anime Okada status: Confirmed. Rainmakers delivered: Zero. Toei, you know what must happen. Do not fail us. *** So seeing Tiger Mask W vs Tiger the Dark happen as the first match at Wrestle Kingdom 11 complete with Haruna's VA coming out cosplaying her character while the commentators talked about how they watch the show on Crunchyroll was a bit surreal. Also, if you like professional wrestling, go watch Wrestle Kingdom 11 if you haven't yet. While it's an overall good card, if you for whatever reason only have time to check out one match, at least watch the main event between Okada and Omega. It's really good. And yet Omega doesn't appear in this anime. Truly, a crime against wrestling. *** !!! Justice. *** I mean it's maybe not the best rendition of Kenny Omega, but still, it's finally Kenny Omega! All below was written prior to airing. *** I've read that NJPW is cooperating on this anime and some of their talent will feature in it. While I want that to mean we'll see the birth of anime Kenny Omega, that's maybe already too hopeful. We don't get a lot of pro wrestling anime, so please, Toei, don't screw this up. Also if you like 3D pro wrestling and haven't checked out NJPW yet, you should! Even if you just give the latest Wrestle Kingdom event (basically NJPW's WrestleMania) a shot, you're gonna be in for some solid ringwork. WK10 has, among others, a great match between Nakamura and AJ Styles, both of whom you're likely familiar with if you watch WWE's product. And if you want more 2D wrestling, well, Kick-Heart is pretty great. *** "The site also revealed a new visual, featuring the anime likenesses of real-life New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) wrestlers Kazuchika Okada [...]" Now you're not allowed to break my heart, Tiger Mask W.

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"Look in my eyes, what do you see? The lack of animation quality.", FA2016 "Look in my eyes, what do you see? The lack of animation quality.", FA2016

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Add - More Time Slip Ichimannen: Prime Rose

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TV Special

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Add - More To Be Hero

5

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FA2016 FA2016

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Add - More Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo

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"The Girl who Leapt Through Time" "The Girl who Leapt Through Time"

1462

Add - More Tokyo Ghoul

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SU2014 SU2014

1463

Add - More Tokyo Ghoul √A

3

TV

12

Score applies to both cours as a collective whole, WI2015 Score applies to both cours as a collective whole, WI2015

1464

Add - More Tokyo Godfathers

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1465

Add - More Tokyo Loop

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Add - More Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 I might write a final, summarizing thing for the final club discussion of this later, but for now there's already basically a blow-by-blow account of my mounting disdain for this title and I don't presently feel like writing anything further about it. It's pretty dang awful, but it's still not Eiken or Petit Eva bad. Don't watch this. All below was written while watching. *** (episode 1+2 spoilers) And I can't even begin to take this show seriously any further. Rather than showing a devastated landscape right at the beginning along with a bunch of disclaimers about how, hey, this anime is about a big earthquake, you'd think that maybe you'd keep that a bit of a surprise so that there's some kind of shock when it happens. But this show doesn't seem to understand things like that. But by all means, expect me to empathize with some brat. You see, the trick is they surround her with complete jerks so that when one woman shows up who pretty much literally says "Hi, I'm the social contract!" she's cast in an even better light against these strawmen. Even our bratty MC changed how she acted what with the earthquake, but not the disposable effigies of the average person. Thanks. That's really subtle. But where I lost any and all ability to respect this show was when they found her brother safe and sound. I mean, you knew he was going to be okay because they show him in the ED with the other two characters, which kind of sucks all the dramatic tension out of the second episode (and makes it obvious they're not seeing their parents again any time too soon), but I wished the show had the balls to kill him off or at least have him be injured. But no. They wouldn't miss a single chance to pull every last punch. Trapped under rubble after a massive earthquake and not even a scratch. Well why don't you just spit in the viewers' faces while you're at it? What a joke. This is ordinarily where I would drop a show. But since /r/anime's club is watching it, no, I'm going to stick with it and excoriate it every time it insults the viewers even further with its hackneyed writing and direction. [Redacted. Honest, but not worth it.] *** (episode 4+5 spoilers) This show's just having a go at me now, isn't it? It becomes hard to tell if this is Japan or Lord of the Flies. People descend into barbarism over taking a dump even though portable toilets seem readily available. That's what I've noticed. There seems to be plenty of resources available. It's not like there's too much competition out there. But they apparently live in a society of greedy, self-centered monsters (according to reports, this is nothing like how Japan actually acted when that big quake happened). I think it's all done just to make the atmosphere more bleak and negative and it's so hamfisted you could just laugh. The show just constantly goes out of its way to paint almost everyone as rude and entitled. Maybe they want you to feel bad for Mirai, who the show loves to punish? Whatever exactly they're going for, they're doing a terrible job. Who has been not terrible so far? Mirai's brother, Mari, a few random old people (totally caught me off guard. I figured they'd yell at them for not sucking it up. It'd fit with the rest of the show) and the old guy who actually had a reason to be upset or bitter. Basically everyone else has been just awful for no real reason. I feel like I'm watching something written by a misanthrope. At least they're starting to show some actual, serious fallout from the earthquake instead of making it seem like just an inconvenience. The writing in this is pretty terrible. I don't know what they were thinking to donk it up this badly. You have kids separated from their home and parents after a massive earthquake. The drama almost seems to write itself, and yet they chose the route of needless histrionics while eschewing basically anything that'd actually be sensible to focus on. Who could watch this without shaking their head? And they beat you over the head with the same nonpoint over and over, as though the show had a fetish for people being butts to Mirai. This really isn't a good show. *** (episodes 7-9 spoilers) Let me rephrase that: This show is awful. Terrible. An insult to the viewer. Toothless. Garbage. A joke. Abysmal. Just when those who haven't been paying attention might have been tricked into thinking this show was actually going to have some sort of emotional punch, any at all, the unbearable, zero-personality Yuuki chimes in with "Ha ha, just foolin!" and it turns out everything's fine, nobody's hurt and joke's on you for thinking you might to get to experience some sort of connection with the characters, that you might have anything to empathize with them about, that this might be an actual disaster with these things called "consequences," that the show wouldn't just pull something out of its buttocks so that it might spit in your face for still watching it. This was after the previous episode's killing off Yuuki twice only to have that just be a dream and actually he was just fine a mere day later. Watching these episodes made me genuinely angry at the show and the writers. I may have said, or rather lightly shouted some unkind remarks out of pure exasperation. Every time you think they're finally starting to bring in some weight they rush to undo it lest a show about a massive earthquake causing heavy damage to infrastructure and people might be the slightest bit depressing. Every time someone tells me "You can't drop a show after an episode or two! That's too quick to judge!" I'm going to think back to this show and carry right on with my ways. As stated earlier, I wanted to drop this after the second episode. Looks like my instincts are trustworthy, because this is exactly what I suspected it would be. Well, just two more slaps to the face and then it's over. And it's not even getting discussed in the club threads so I don't know why I'm subjecting myself to this. In actually talented hands, this show could've been something. Unfortunately for it, it's stuck with a staff that wishes to hamstring it at every turn. And that's the only thing about this show that's actually depressing. *** (episode 10) Ha. Ha ha. This dang show. Could it have been deceptively positioning itself as a giant turd just to mask its big swerve? And to think, it only took nine episodes of garbage to get to this hasty, unrewarding moment of finally attempting to have some impact. Psych! He's been dead for a while and Mirai was just in denial. Please, show, keep relying on dreams and delusions to bring about the scenes you want. I just love repetition and hate actually clever writing, don't you? It's great when characters lack personalities. It's the best when every episode seems like you just reused the script from the last episode. Give us more nonsensical plot developments! Jerk us around with your constantly shifting, insincere narrative! Never develop personalities for your characters, lest I lose my ability to project a multitude of realities onto them! I'd hate it if anyone in this show felt like an actual human being or if this show felt like it had any connection to reality! Yes, keep crapping all over your viewers! Not even the guy who nominated this and runs the club is watching it. I guess I'm the sucker. *** (only tangentially related rant) [Redacted again. Nobody who needs to hear it will read it, anyway.]

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Add - More Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun (spoilers) Guess how much I hate it when shows end with "Hey, this isn't the end of the story and we're totally setting up for another season!" especially when there's no confirmation of a second season? The answer is a lot. Especially since this show is apparently selling terribly which means it's very likely the only actual resolution is to go read the manga, and that's never an acceptable resolution for an anime series. Because if I have to go read the manga to actually finish the story, why shouldn't I just begin with the manga, too? And yes, there are certainly ways to adapt only part of a manga without making it feel like you're only seeing part of a story. Heck, I'd prefer an anime original ending to a "To be continued! (Never)" ending. I'm obligated to get mad every time that happens, so I had to get it out of the way upfront. And because it's the source of some problems in this anime. Namely, two love triangles that go nowhere, including some characters that are clearly pretty important but basically just serve as footnotes. The anime suggests this all gets developed at some later point. Great! Except I'm watching all this setup that's never actually going to be resolved in the show. So I'll trust that it goes somewhere in the manga, but in the anime, it's just nothing. A good deal of time gets devoted to one of those love triangles but its payoff never actually gets incorporated into the show. A potential rival to Mizutani barely even gets screen time. You're left wondering why she was even introduced at all. And then you find out it's because they delve into that at a later point that the anime doesn't cover and then that's it. All you have is frustration left over that you had this dangled in front of you for naught. They took time from what's a genuinely fun relationship to watch and you don't even get to reap the reward. This is why I hate these kinds of endings. And why must it happen to shows I actually care about? I'm genuinely interested to follow Natsume's relationship efforts, to see Haru and Mizutani interact, to see this show the rest of the way forward. It's because it's as good as it is that I'm as frustrated as I am. Haru saying he doesn't understand why people are afraid of him as the camera pulls back to show the body shaped blood stain he left on the school wall? That's good! An anime relationship that doesn't take a whole season for characters to realize they like each other? That's good! Mizutani doesn't let Haru walk all over her and actually acts like and expects to be treated as a human being? That's good! Everything just gets left dangling at the end? No. Terrible. Confirming a season two would abate a lot of my anger about that ending, of course. (Please.) And then I struggle to recommend shows like this. Because it's a fun ride right up until it stops abruptly. You're making me hesitate to recommend a show I'd give an 8, Brains Base. Look what you've done. Blah. I don't even want to comment more on the series. That's how bummed that ending has me. Unless a second season should come about, I guess go ahead and watch it, but realize what you're getting yourself into. EDIT: An OVA arises. Maybe it'll fix this matter. I hope so. All below was written while the show aired. *** Sold. My experience with Brain's Base hasn't been the greatest. Indeed, MALGraph places them as one of my least favorite studios. Yet this first episode shows some good promise. Three anime in (even if Kyousogiga isn't airing weekly) and I've dropped nothing after its first episode so far. This season's going well already. I'm hoping being simulcasted gets a group that isn't Hadena to pick this up. FansubDB is looking kind of barren in general, actually. *** So I didn't bring it up because, yes, it was distasteful, but you sort of come to expect this sort of thing as an incidental of the anime watching reality. I'd have probably covered it in a concluding comment, especially if it became a regular thing (I'd probably drop the show if it did), but as a one-off, it's just one of those "Sigh. Anime," deals that I put up with. That said, I recommend reading this. It's a good read about the "rape" line. (Actually that blog is pretty good in general.) *** Thinking about it, it's kind of sad that this sort of rape culture factor is something that's as generic as cat ears in anime. What a world in which this is something I'd describe as "incidental" rather than "horrifically aberrant." Yet, if I refused to watch any anime that in one way or another was sexist, that'd eliminate the vast majority of anime. It shouldn't be so, but that's how it is. So when I continue to watch this show despite that, it's not an endorsement of it, it's not condoning it. It certainly lessens the show to me. You can see my reaction to Mysterious Girlfriend X and its, I'd argue, much worse transgression. These are things I expect at some level, and it is axiomatic that, by not choosing to not watch anime at all, I'm going to come across it in shows I watch. You know, it's actually an interesting and relevant conversation. I don't want to just leave a massive comment here about this in general, though. I guess I could... make a blog post here? Whoa. (Although reactions to "Hey, rape culture and sexism against women are bad things." tend to be pretty hostile! I'll think about it.) *** Oh hey, this is pretty good too! *** More here if you want. *** Honestly, as long as it keeps staying away from that first episode bit of creepiness, I'm pretty taken with this series. Not my favorite so far (That's Jojo's, but most series have only aired one episode [and some haven't aired any], so that's a title of questionable meaning at this point), but certainly a fun one. Seems like a pretty solid romcom anime, and I quite like my romcom anime. A good second episode gives me confidence the first episode wasn't a fluke, so I have some trust the series will stay strong. Outside of, again, those events in the first episode, I adore this show.

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"Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood.", FA2018 "Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood.", FA2018

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Add - More Tonari no Seki-kun All below was written prior. *** That's pretty much exactly the voice I've been reading Yokoi in my head (sans my Long Island accent, natch).

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Add - More Tonari no Totoro (Very vague spoilers) A Ghibli film actually mostly living up to the hype? Finally, I can see in a Ghibli film what others are seeing. There's something whimsical in this film, and it's brought about by embracing very basic facets of human experience. Familial bonds and nature are explored in apparent Japanese favorite, the quiet but close-knit rural areas. It's a very fitting stage for the blissfully naive innocence of childhood to play out, and the reciprocal nature of exploring the magic in the everyday, particularly nature, and the naturally explorative and imaginative nature of childhood works to produce a sublime, understated harmony. Maybe it's just me, but everytime I see that "Afro Circus" ad for Madagascar 3, it feels like I'm being assaulted by its constant barrage of loud noises and profusion of colors that look like someone vomited onto the screen. While that film abrasively shouts "Look at me! Look at me!" directly in your ear, Totoro is notably more muted and relaxed. This lack of hyperactivity in a family film is appreciable. Which is not to say that Totoro is dull! It's just that rather than going for the cheap, simplistic "wacky" of the bombastic, it takes the ordinary and injects a truthful child's perspective. For as much as I love my various gizmos, not a one of them trumps the inherent beauty of nature so far as I'm concerned. Yet with increasing urbanization and development, children are increasingly deprived of pure nature (and could you imagine parents living in the "Stranger Danger" bubble letting their children just sincerely explore the world around them?). I grow genuinely envious when watching films like this. For all the conveniences of my modern existence, I'd still appreciate somewhere to explore, to frolic, to lose myself amidst the world. And the titular Totoro embodies the pervasive charm in nature which so enchants me. Actually, considering the name of the film, you actually don't see (the) Totoro very much. He adds a bit of magic to the film when he does appear, but so much of the film is based upon the actual, managing to downplay supernatural elements like Totoro while still being enhanced by them. And that's one of the things that makes My Neighbor Totoro feel like a mature children's narrative that reminds me more of Winnie the Pooh or Watership Down than it does of more cartoonish films that invoke the image of sugary cereals and food dyes. Having seen a 720p HDTV rip of the film, it looks great. One of the benefits of the time period when My Neighbor Totoro was produced (and Ghibli's well known hostility towards digital animation) is that the original source is well beyond 1080p, allowing for genuine HD versions of the material. That just accents intelligent art direction and very technically capable animation. The down-to-Earth human character designs still maintain their own personality, and make things like Totoro and the catbus really stand out in contrast. When you look at Totoro, his design seems so simple and obvious, as though but of course that's what this would look like. But that's not because Totoro is generic, but because he is expertly crafted, fully earning his iconic status. (I really want a Totoro plush, but they seem to be pretty expensive.) There's something about My Neighbor Totoro that's just right. It's a beguilingly pleasurable movie. It doesn't really do anything too wrong, but it lacks a certain "oomph" that would carry it to a 10. Should you watch it? Yes, totally. Especially if you have children to watch it with. But, there's a Bluray version coming out on July 18, so you should probably hold off a bit until it comes out. The BD is slated to have English subtitles and an English dub, so if you're in Region A, you ought to pick it (and it's beautiful cover art) up, because all that extra bitrate and the 1080p ought to make the film look even better. At $60-70, it's not too outrageous to import and... oh who am I kidding? You're just going to pirate it, aren't you? Well, here's to more like this in the future when I watch other Ghibli films. *** As I'd expected the BD outclasses that HDTV rip by a good margin. At least the Disney release was only ~$28, which, for a film, is a pretty good deal if you enjoy price gouging. Geez. I could've gotten two seasons of Spice and Wolf on BD for that price. Oh well, it does look great. Although I'm not sure why the song in the opening credits wasn't subbed. If you watch the original trailers on the disc, there's one that has that song and they've subbed it there. So they had a translation and they had the rights to sub it for at least that trailer, but for some reason it's not subbed during the movie itself. It's not the end of the world, but it's weird and for as much as this dang thing cost, you'd expect that not to be an issue. Also, there's a few lines early on with really bad timing in the subs. Like, so bad I thought a line hadn't even been subbed at one point. You're not some small start-up, Disney, I think you can afford professionals to get that sort of thing right. And how come only the DVD has disc art? I mean, I know it's a small thing and you can't even see disc art when it's in your player, but it feels like in a BD release the BD should be the one to get the full treatment. And the BD is the only one that has all the extras, yet it just has this plain design that makes it seem like some bonus item that was tossed in. And why is there a DVD in there in the first place? If I'm buying a BD, what would I want that for? To take with me to someone who doesn't have a BD player? I'd rather you keep the DVD and pass the savings on to me, thank you very much. Well, I've clearly no issue complaining about things, but despite those gripes it's still a nice release. The special features are interesting if disappointingly short, the video and audio are of a solid quality and it certainly feels like Disney put effort into this. Just maybe wait for it to be sale because, seriously, $28 for a movie? Or get it via Netflix if you have the disc option where they charge you $2 extra for BDs out of pure greed. They have a streaming deal with Disney, so I don't know, maybe there's some chance Ghibli films will be available to stream some day? Eh, there's probably something in the agreement preventing that because Miyazaki is well known for being pretty strict with licensing terms. And "super HD" absolutely pales in comparison to actual HD as you get from a BD. But it'd still be neat if that did happen. Fansub Group: PerfectionHD (or wherever they might've gotten these subs from, if it wasn't their own work.)

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Add - More Tonari no Yamada-kun The film sometimes feels (narratively) like an animated version of The Lockhorns or Baby Blues, but carries more of the charm seen in the second of the Ghiblies shorts. My Neighbors the Yamadas (which I'll just refer to as "Yamadas" henceforth out of laziness) is simple in its ambitions and successful in its efforts. The result isn't wildly impressive, but still pleasant. The animation does not have the playfulness exhibited in the aforementioned Ghiblies, but still falls outside the traditional Ghibli style, giving more of a newspaper comic vibe. It won't dazzle technically, but it does look pleasant, and, perhaps more importantly, suits the style of narrative far more than something that looked like Nausicaa would have. The narrative never feigns to be more than it is: a light-hearted reflection of Japanese family life (although to an extent, you could extend it out to a number of countries). It's far more interested in being beguiling than poignant. And in its laid-back manner, it accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. There's not much to honestly complain about in the film. Its only "fault" is how low it aims. Because you certainly get what feels like a good version of a cute newspaper comic, but that's it, really. That's not bad, but it's not anything that special, either. The result is a decent film worth watching, but not anything too impressive.

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"My Neighbors the Yamadas" "My Neighbors the Yamadas"

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Add - More Top wo Nerae 2! Diebuster Part of Operation SciFi, an effort to find more quality SciFi. *** "I don't imagine it'll take too long for a score/comment to materialize," I say before taking over a month to accomplish that. It's because, honestly, I'm not entirely sure what I make of Diebuster. As a sequel to Gunbuster, it's basically a failure. The connections to Gunbuster are tenuous, some references are shoehorned in, there's massive plot issues between the two and it just really doesn't even feel like a sequel to Gunbuster at all. As its own series? Well... it's better than Gunbuster? Diebuster shares some staff with FLCL, and it's noticeable. The director better knows how to handle a series of this length than Gunbuster's did, although Diebuster still feels somewhat rushed. It is, at least, a fully cohesive narrative, unlike Gunbuster. Still, plot elements have a tendency to get rushed through, with seemingly critical details being merely glanced over. It's enough that you almost want to just give up on following the plot and simply take it in as a visual spectacle (it's not a very fresh story at its heart, so you wouldn't be missing much). If you did that, you'd once again feel the influence of the numerous FLCL staff members involved (including Sushio, who, if his name is unfamiliar to you, is someone whose work you should really become familiar with!). And it's immediately obvious. Just look at those character designs! If you can look at Lal'C and not see Kitsurubami from FLCL, I'd have to call your integrity into question. In fact, you can see FLCL everywhere from the art style down to the way the animation itself moves. It's to the point that if you've seen one of these two series, you already know your opinion of the art in the other. As someone who likes the art in FLCL, this is a good thing. It works well for the battles, particularly. I don't find these characters terrible like I found Gunbuster's characters terrible. They're not great, mind you, but they're at least not awful. But they're also uninteresting. I never once found myself honestly caring about any of them, and a number of characters seemed important to the plot, but I couldn't even connect with them because I was not given time to properly understand them. Diebuster's staff handle this series better than Gunbuster's did, but they sure don't handle it perfectly. Dull characters with small personalities and improperly fleshed out characters mix with a weak, somewhat rushed story to produce many significant flaws. If you just want to see things go boom, it can deliver fairly enough in that area, but as someone who cares about the whole package of an anime, it's not really doing it for me. Honestly, I can't think of anything in Diebuster that Gainax hasn't ultimately done better in another series. I prefer the plot and animation of FLCL. If I want ridiculous battles, I can watch TTGL. Diebuster isn't terrible, but has significant weaknesses that pleasant animation doesn't make up for. I'm giving this series a 6. That's not a stellar score, but it's still over 5, so I'm calling this one in Operation SciFi's favor. One win, two losses. Come on, at least one of these has to be great, right?

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Add - More Top wo Nerae! Gunbuster Part of Operation SciFi, an effort to find more quality SciFi. No, no, no. You work within your time constraints, not against them. If you only have six episodes, you don't race through a plot that doesn't fit in six episodes. If FLCL can understand this, I won't settle for it in any other short OVA series. This is a train wreck. The plot, as generic as it is, is sloppily paced, constantly tripping over itself to fit into the running time. Instead of proper developments, the show just rushes on to its next idea. It often fails to even properly bridge these ideas, practically reducing the series to vignettes. Before I touch on how unlikable every single character is, can I just take a moment to to point out how terrible the designs are? Amano's face looks like it's melting. Line art is sloppy and facial expressions are portrayed as though they were drawn by a blind man who had heard a general description of what those expressions look like. Most things in this series are just plain ugly. And not because of some technological limitations, but because the art is simply displeasing to the eye and incompetent. Speaking of faces, why is everyone so constantly angry and conniving? You can’t just substitute characterization with personality disorders. So many motivations go entirely unexplained. Why is so-and-so in love with this other character? Other than the main character’s initial motivations, everything else just kind of happens. Instead of A leading to B, it’s simply “So this is what’s happening now.” Why even try to follow the plot when they’re not interested in constructing one? And back to characters. A special nod goes to the lazy and not even particularly accurate name of “Jung Freud” for a Soviet woman. For a moment I thought that maybe the cross she was wearing would come to mean something, but especially after seeing that Anno was on the staff, I’m certain it was really just there for being “foreign.” Wouldn’t want to actually do something interesting, after all. These characters barely even seem human. They just act randomly, using their almost singular emotion (irrational rage) and acting with zero nuance. These characters completely lack dimensions. If you're an actual person, none of them are relatable. And how could you ever come to enjoy any of these characters when they're just hastily thrown together shells of anger and angst? Am I the only one bugged by all the fan service? And not just the copious Gainax bounce, but the needless bathing scenes and constant breasts. Yes, real humans bathe and all that, but humans do lots of things that anime doesn’t bother showing because, wisely, you only focus on the things that matter to your narrative. Which means that all these (what I believe are) teenage breasts were put in there for people to gawk at. I’m not some prude who says you can’t ever have sex or nudity, but I don’t think I’m being too outrageous in expecting something to be done with it. If it’s something like High School of the Dead aping exploitation films, that makes sense. If there’s a good reason for someone to be nude or doing something sexual, that works too. But when it’s just thrust into a narrative that has no real place for it, it’s just lazy pandering. How utterly unsatisfying. This opening salvo to Operation SciFi leaves me at one failure on my quest for good SciFi. Next, please.

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Operation Scifi. Operation Scifi.

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Add - More Tora-chan no Kankan Mushi Other than noting a bit of recycled animation, there's really nothing to be said here that I haven't said of the two preceding shorts.

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Add - More Tora-chan to Hanayome Like the short preceding it, this is a perfectly fine piece of Golden Age era animation. While definitively anime, it bares little resemblance to today's Narutos and TTGLs. It's a good rebuke to the popular notion that anime is a style. And of course, at least on the copy I saw, there are film blemishes, and it can be shaky at times, and the animation is jerky and many of the techniques antiquated. Yeah, it's from the 40s. That was to be expected. It's still definitively Golden Age, including your typical Golden Age style of antics. This one works a bit better than the one preceding it, but there's not much to be said here that wasn't to be said there.

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Add - More Toradora!: SOS! Kuishinbou Banbanzai

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And then I find myself thinking Gosenzosama Banbanzai never left anyone writing an essay desperately defending its wholesomeness, WI2015 And then I find myself thinking Gosenzosama Banbanzai never left anyone writing an essay desperately defending its wholesomeness, WI2015

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Add - More Tsurezure Children Apparently the interaction between the student council president and the delinquent girl went over well with people. Huh.

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Add - More Tsuritama (No spoilers.) Somewhere along the way I fell in love with this series. A steadfastly silly and upbeat portrayal of personal growth in the form a show about fishing with aliens, Tsuritama offers a unique cast of main characters who might've benefitted from some greater depth. Specifically, even though she was a side character, Koko felt somewhat underexplored. True, many of the side characters weren't allowed much development, but Koko really felt like she was prominent enough to the plot to call for more attention than she got. The main characters do grow noticeably, although this can sometimes be a bit forced. They're pretty strong together, though. You can believe them as a group of friends. It's an attractive but not stunning looking show. It's the director's usual color palette, but applied sensibly. So of course, you can expect a brightly colored show, which works with the playful nature of the show. The music is fitting but can get very, very repetitive. It's an overall charming series. Consider this a high 7. I can't use decimals, you know? Which is a good step up from Trapeze's low 6. I don't think this guy has peaked, though. So long as this director keeps getting work, I suspect that in a few years, he's going to show us something great. It's not revolutionary, but it's a fun ride that'd probably be worth your while to go back and marathon. *** For posterity, everything that was written during the airing of this show: What. (But in a hesitantly positive way.) Right. After two episodes, it's looking a lot more positive with a lot less of the hesitant. Somewhere between Trapeze and here, the director has clearly improved. You can still recognize it's one of his works, but it's more focused, cleaner, better composed. Instead of a sloppy "Here's my big chance to go nuts!" affair, it's a more honed work by a more confident and experienced director. Perfect? No. But a noticeable improvement. He still favors a bright color palette, but he's learned how to use it. He still likes eccentric characters with defining oddities, but he's reigned them in and created what have the potential to be actually strong characters. He's improved in every relevant way. This could be a great title when all is said and done. But I don't think this is the best this director has to offer. Even though this work isn't over yet, he's still pretty new. I'm sure he still has more room to grow. And if he does, he's going to be great.

7

TV

12

SP2012 SP2012

1501

Add - More Tsuru Shitae Waka Kan

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Movie

1

1502

Add - More Tteotda Keunyeo!!

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ONA

5

1503

Add - More Turning Girls Turning Girls is this small chunk of clever little amusing moments. It'd be generous to even call this animated,, but it can make you laugh. Just a quick, silly comedy. That's good enough, really, considering the runtime. But that only makes it worth watching. It doesn't make it anything special. There are funnier anime that can also deliver in all the areas Turning Girls and its budget of "What budget?" doesn't. And I can't honestly peg this as above average, which leaves the lower half of the scores. And comparing it to others, it makes me notice that Lamune really shouldn't be rated a 4, but more like a 3. Guess I'll fix that. But this can take its place. It feels right at home with gdgd Fairies in that area. I mean, sure, watch it, it's not a huge time commitment, but don't set your expectations radically high.

4

ONA

7

1504

Add - More Twilight Q

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OVA

2

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Add - More Twin Angel Break "Her class is full of wacky people like a transgender girl (whom people still call a boy)"-ANN's Rebecca Silverman ...sigh. In real life, there are people who present female but identify male. There is nothing wrong with this. In some anime, including this one, there are characters who present female but identify male. There is nothing wrong with this. In attempting to read ignorance/transphobia into the existence of this character, Ms. Silverman is, herself, indulging in transphobia by implying that people/characters who present female must also identify female. This character identifies as male. Their friends are not misgendering them. By insisting that they're a girl regardless, however, Ms. Silverman is misgendering them. Gender identity is not dictated by presentation. Could this character be handled poorly in this area as the series goes on? Maybe. It is anime, after all! But is the mere existence of this character a problem? Absolutely not. Please don't treat it as if it is, thanks.

3

TV

12

SP2017 SP2017

1506

Add - More Twinkle Heart: Gingakei made Todokanai

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OVA

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Add - More Twinkle Nora Rock Me! oh hey some youtube guy made a video about how awful twinkle nora rock me is and it went from obscure garbage to less obscure garbage now you all get to suffer through this thing too! enjoy! (mike toole covers it on ann? nobody notices. some guy makes some youtube videos mocking it? one of them is coming up on one million views. pretty telling difference right there.) (the first nora ova is kind of okay if just really bland but this... this is something special.)

1

OVA

1

Hey, if you're already not bothering with inbetweens, why waste time on art consistency, character development, a plot or any other basics? That's just solid logic. Hey, if you're already not bothering with inbetweens, why waste time on art consistency, character development, a plot or any other basics? That's just solid logic.

1508

Add - More Uchuu Kaizoku Mito no Daibouken

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TV

13

WI1999 WI1999

1509

Add - More Uchuu Kazoku Carlvinson You probably haven't heard of this. There's no reason why this oughtn't have been lost to history. Carlvinson is a very simple OVA in which not much happens, and yet it still manages to have plot inconsistencies. The animation also has errors and inconsistencies that aren't too difficult to spot (just keep your eye out for whenever you see 中, for example, and you'll spot a few). It just comes across as a bit of absolutely pointless fluff. It's cute, but that's really it. A part of me suspects it was made for children, because of the simplistic plot and the easy Japanese. That would make a lot of sense, if it was. You're not missing anything if you haven't seen this.

5

OVA

1

1510

Add - More Uchuu Patrol Luluco

-

TV

13

SP2016 SP2016

1511

Add - More Uchuu Show e Youkoso

9

Movie

1

1512

Add - More Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kemari

6

TV

12

"Poco's Udon World", FA2016 "Poco's Udon World", FA2016

1513

Add - More UFO Princess Valkyrie Somewhere in my mind there's this recollection of people saying "Well, if you like Excel Saga, you've gotta watch UFO Princess Valkyrie! They're so similar." I quite like Excel Saga. This is nothing like Excel Saga. This is standard early-to-mid oughts "dumb and mediocre," a recognizable style. And I don't hate such things necessarily, but finding out this isn't in the style of Excel Saga after all these years is disappointing. I would've been fine with a lesser Excel Saga and/or a slightly sleazy Excel Saga (for a lesser and much sleazier Excel Saga, check out Puni Puni Poemi). Instead it's just "Oh, another one of these." Feel free to watch Girl's High, Best Student Council, Midori Days or anything of that ilk. They all blend together a bit at their core even if their outer shells are different. If you're down for one, you're probably down for any of them. But they're never more than shows where you say "Oh. This is okay. I don't mind watching this." They're shows you accept, just agreeable enough to pass the time yet ultimately rather unfulfilling. You'd have nothing to regret skipping shows like this or Nana 7 of 7, but, you know, they're not bad per se. Time Travel Girl is actually quite in the same style and yet it's airing in the Summer 2016 season. It feels like an anachronism. But I kind of appreciate seeing such a thing still getting made now. There's just, and this is gonna sound like an odd phrase but, something compellingly mediocre about them. Sure they're kind of banal but, you know, they're also just so empty they're pretty easy to watch. They're easily digestible fluff, I suppose, and I don't mind it. It's easy to binge through shows like this in a way that isn't true of shows with more to them. Well, that's also true of something like SYD, but that's not the same sort of show.

5

TV

12

SU2002 SU2002

1514

Add - More UFO Princess Valkyrie: Shichiten Battou Hanayome Shuugyou

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1515

Add - More Uma no Friends

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1

1516

Add - More Under the Dog I mean Project A-ko already exists, looks better and forms a better cohesive whole without the whole "saving anime!" marketing schtick. Might as well just watch that. *** This seems to be the result more often than not when something sets out to be just like a thing rather than be its own thing. It's catnip to people who like that other thing but don't realize what a big red flag that is. The whole "Let's save anime!" marketing was almost as embarrassing as people actually buying into it when it should've been a second red flag. From the start this end product was the most likely result and it's why I (thankfully) didn't back this project. While hopefully the number of backers feeling burned by this release will have learned something from it, I'd have preferred they come to that realization without having to spend dozens or even hundreds of dollars in the process. If someone backed Under the Dog and feels the end result is what they hoped for, then great! But many are now grousing online that they feel misled and that the end product doesn't match what they feel they were promised. Angst they could've avoided by approaching the project more critically. I'm certainly not saying not to back anime projects on Kickstarter! But like any Kickstarter project, please think about who's behind it, how much they're asking for and the realities of what they're claiming they will deliver. There's no 100% safe way to go about it. If you back enough projects, it's likely that eventually one will have something go wrong or not turn out satisfactorily. But if you pump the brakes a bit, you'll significantly reduce your chances of feeling burned at the end of the day. (If you want a Kickstarter with a bit more "classic" action, you can still back that Riding Bean BD release. Riding Bean is fun!)

3

OVA

1

"And down here in small print it says 'They're funding it, they're funding it. I can't believe it.'", If this is anime's "salvation" then long may it stay imperiled. "And down here in small print it says 'They're funding it, they're funding it. I can't believe it.'", If this is anime's "salvation" then long may it stay imperiled.

1517

Add - More Urara Meirochou

6

TV

12

WI2017 WI2017

1518

Add - More Urawa no Usagi-chan With every passing episode, my groan at the end of it and my anger at myself for continuing to watch it both grow in intensity. Clearly a sign that I'll probably watch this whole semi-coherent mess, of course. ugh why

2

TV

12

SP2015 SP2015

1519

Add - More Urusei Yatsura Where do I start? There's a number of things I could bring up about Urusei Yatsura. I guess I'll start with the basics. While Urusei Yatsura has a decent sized cast of main characters, there's also a dizzying number of infrequently and frequently recurring side characters. That tends to happen with long shows. Look at Bleach or LOGH. You've got an array of characters, too. From hopeless womanizer Ataru to whimsical go-go alien princess Lum with a seemingly infinite reservoir of patience but a short fuse, to Ataru's rival Mendou whose pride would never let him admit he's much more like Ataru than he lets on, to Lum's vengeful, spiteful childhood freind Ran and on and on. Attempting to walk through each character individually would be a nightmare. None of them are very complex, but most come with distinctive, strong personalities that are important to the structure of this show. See, Urusei Yatsura is an episodic series that cares little for continuity. Bring in the factor of aliens to open up any fictional scientific avenue your story requires, and Urusei Yatsura gets to function as what it truly is: just a platform. You see, you can actually just discard or temporarily ignore what seem like key elements for the sake of an episode. In Urusei Yatsura, the creators could basically do whatever they wanted. They could craft any situation and just throw some of their vast array of characters in or introduce a new one, and they were good to go. The result is a bit of a mixed bag. You have pretty good episodes and pretty bad episodes, with many falling somewhere between those two quality levels. This also allows some episodes of Urusei Yatsura to depart from the comedic formula entirely, bringing you odd, out of place feeling philosophical moments. You also get a number of different episode directors producing something that isn't wildly divergent from episode to episode, but there's a certain disconnect. Things are largely the same, but just different enough among various episodes to not quite feel like the same show. This seems like it should result in refreshing variance, but actually produces something akin to an uncanny valley. This show has a very rough early batch of episodes. Everything (and I do mean everything) improves later on, but it's a bumpy ride. The early art is awful. Just pause around here in the first ED and take a look at Lum's face. What is that? It makes Lum look more like an animal than some kind of humanoid alien. You can imagine what the art in the show looks like. These crude, malformed drawings give way to much more competent designs. One test for character designs was proposed by Matt Groening. You ought to be able to to recognize a character from just their silhouette. Does Urusei Yatsura pass? You tell me. (Yes.) While you can spot a number of animation errors during the show (a briefly bald Kintaro, a moment where Sakura is talking but they're still animating Shinobu's mouth flaps the whole time, etc.), what you ultimately come away with is a sense of love for the craft. Crammed with blink-and-you'll-miss-it visual gags and a number of moments that go beyond the strictly necessary, you can feel the effort. The animation isn't cutting edge for its time, as you might expect of the temporal and budgetary realities facing a series this long, but it's still fully functional and has its small joys. You can forgive the occasional bit of looped or recycled animation and uses of tricks to keep the budget down. To a degree, Urusei Yatsura gets repetitive. While the writing picks up from its dire early condition, you're still seeing a lot of the same ideas play out in different scenarios. Urusei Yatsura is a bad idea to marathon. Rather, it has a benefit of being very low commitment viewing. If you feel like watching something but aren't really in the mood to watch less episodic titles, Urusei Yatsura is palatable enough and simple enough that sure, you can just watch an episode or two and not really think anything of it. You may be familiar with Urusei Yatsura as a series that helped launch the careers of famous directors. Here's a list of episode directors. You've indeed probably heard of Mamoru Oshii. But do you honestly know who Masuji Harada, Tamiko Kojima or Keiji Hayakawa are? Possibly, but probably not. Let's dissuade ourselves of this notion of Urusei Yatsura as some font of famous directors. If you believe the stories, Oshii was kicked out for taking Urusei Yatsura in directions the original mangaka didn't approve of. A pity, since some of the more interesting episodes were ones he directed. The show does make a small but noticeable shift towards its latter half, but is ultimately still recognizable despite the shuffling of directors. While there's more music in this series than you'll even realize, your'e still going to hear some of the same songs very often. To be fair, 195 episodes would require a substantial amount of music to remain consistently fresh and there's certainly valid applications for reuse of music. However, the songs in question are ones you'll hear in most episodes and then you notice it as "this again." And instead of working as background music to enhance a scene, it has now distracted you and pulled you out of the show. It's not just tedious, but actively diminishes your enjoyment. While it would help to have a basic understanding of Japanese mythology and historical literature (nothing you can't pick up in a semester), you don't actually need to. There will always be more to a show of such a length than I could reasonably begin to comment on, but the reality of Urusei Yatsura is that it's a simple, light, easily accessible series that isn't great, but works well as a sort of anime "snack" between meals. It's just so easily watchable. Don't even think of it as committing yourself to watching a long series. Just watch individual episodes whenever you're bored or the mood stikes. It will offer small chuckles and a quick, disposable dose of diversion. It's no must-see, but certainly something you could work into your main anime diet. A low seven. EDIT: And of course less than two months after I finish watching this show that came out decades ago, they announce a BD release (for a scant $1800). No way I'm rewatching all of this just because of HD, but unless they screw it up badly that should be a nice upgrade for the show. So those of you with this still in your backlog might not have to put up with all the ghosting, rainbowing, macroblocking and general master course in encoding flaws that is the current DVD batch. I'd say it's too bad the movies/OVAs aren't getting the same treatment, but CDJapan says the fourth box includes up to episode 218, which doesn't exist of course, so anything's possible. Well, maybe if I ever watch Maison Ikkoku someday, since that's getting a BD too (so is Ranma). But I'm not even fully done with Urusei Yatsura yet. All below was written while watching the show. *** .So this isn't something on the show's end, but the subs here are kind of odd !They tend to place the punctuation at the beginning of the sentence ?What's up with that (It is surprisingly distracting.) Ugh. This feels like everything wrong with 80's comedy. No subtlety, entirely over-the-top in the wrong way. And, oh great, it already looks like a male punching bag MC with dumb gags. And there's only 195 episodes of this gold! I hope it stops being terrible soon. I'm not masochistic enough to watch ~80 hours of garbage. (And don't start with any "it was good for its time" or "but it was influential!" arguments. I don't care if it was influential, that doesn't change the quality. And even if you think it was good for its time, I live in 2012. I can go watch a good show without having to compromise my standards in some false notion of "fairness.") *** Right. So a few more episodes in, and I don't know that I'd call this "good." Maybe something more like "not awful?" It feels like its constant repetition of the same jokes is going to get old pretty soon. There's some very noticeable and fundamental problems with this show, at least six episodes in. I have no idea if I'll actually watch all of the 189 remaining episodes, but I'm not dropping it yet. I do hope it moves away from this "monster of the week" type format and expands the show a bit more, but I'm not getting my hopes up. (Oh, and there's apparently a sub track that doesn't have that punctuation oddity, but it's vobsub, which is unpleasant. And there's a third one that seems to be some kind of Morse code, which can't be right. Then again, Puni Puni Poemy had a pig latin sub track.)

7

TV

195

FA1981 FA1981

1520

Add - More Urusei Yatsura (2022)

-

TV

23

admittedly skeptical of this reboot of a classic admittedly skeptical of this reboot of a classic

1521

Add - More Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer

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Movie

1

Score later. Score later.

1522

Add - More Urusei Yatsura Movie 1: Only You My thoughts on this don't differ much from those about the main UY series. The higher budget and bigger scope are evident, but it feels a little bit like it's just a deluxe version of a UY episode rather than having that movie feel. It's still good, but it's not quite what you'd expect in the context.

7

Movie

1

1523

Add - More Urusei Yatsura Movie 3: Remember My Love Two Urusei Yatsura movies lacking scores and comments. Decisive!

-

Movie

1

Score later. Score later.

1524

Add - More Urusei Yatsura Movie 4: Lum The Forever A marked step down from the films which preceded it, the fourth Urusei Yatsura film is like a deluxe version of one of the bad episodes from the main series. The plot is a scarcely coherent mess of undeveloped, hastily slapped together ideas offering no valid resolution to a conflict hardly established in the first place. I'd have preferred successfully applied fluff to what this film has the audacity of calling "plot." Animation is typical of the other films as is most other aspects, while the plot and direction represent Urusei Yatsura at some of its weakest moments. An utterly skippable entry in the series.

3

Movie

1

1525

Add - More Urusei Yatsura Movie 5: Kanketsu-hen I criticized the fourth movie as representative of a bad episode of the main series. But this isn't an example of a good episode of Urusei Yatsura. Rather, it's a decent example of an actual Urusei Yatsura movie. Yay. Honestly, that fourth film is so pitiful almost anything would've seemed solid after that. (spoilers) "Cut the crap and say you love her already!" Indeed, Urusei Yatsura, indeed. But it's not really Urusei Yatsura anymore if he says that, is it? That would feel like the absolute end. Yet the film still has closure and resolution, showing Ataru's feelings for Lum in a cute way. While this represents a decent movie in the franchise, it's not anything out of the ordinary in the franchise, so there's not much to be said that's outside of what's to be said of the franchise in general. Anyone fond of Urusei Yatsura (and I can't imagine you'd be at the fifth movie of this franchise if you weren't) will very likely enjoy this as well for the same reasons they ever enjoyed the series. It's not something you'd consider "great," but it's a solid film. The animation, music, sound and most other things aren't particularly upped for the film, but it certainly has that grander feel you'd expect of a movie.

7

Movie

1

1526

Add - More Urusei Yatsura Movie 6: Itsudatte My Darling I'd have expected something a little more conclusive to the narrative from a final movie, but the fifth movie did better at delivering on that. Which makes sense, since it's actually titled "Final" and adapts the end of the manga, while this is... where is this supposed to fall, again? I know it's pointless to question timelines in a purely episodic series, but it's just we already got some decent closure in the previous film. Coming after that makes this feel a little out of place. Well, it still allowed us to see the benefits of technological progression on Urusei Yatsura. It's only a few years difference between this and the fifth film, but the difference is noticeable. Well, getting production assistance from Madhouse probably helped, but there's a number of telltale visual signs of an early 90s anime here that make it stand apart from its predecessors. Some are irrelevant (minor stylistic differences), but the movie overall looks cleaner, crisper and smoother for it. It's like a small facelift for the franchise. Other than that, it is, yet again, standard Urusei Yatsura. It's the fifth film's lesser in terms of "movie feel" and not as satisfying, but it's still a decent, if awkwardly anachronistic feeling film. A low 7.

7

Movie

1

1527

Add - More Urusei Yatsura OVA So let me see if I have this situation correct: Someone would go to the shop and plop down their hard earned cash for a shiny new Urusei Yatsura special, and the first two were recaps? Recaps that cost money to buy? That just seems cruel. Anyway, I don't see any particular value to going through these OVAs one-by-one. They're varying levels of quality but they're basically just more Urusei Yatsura episodes, the two recaps excepted. If you like Urusei Yatsura, it's worth watching.

6

OVA

11

1528

Add - More Urusei Yatsura: Haru da, Tobidase!

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Special

1

1529

Add - More Urusei Yatsura: The Shougaibutsu Suieitaikai Seeing Urusei Yatsura with modern animation is kind of weird. I'm not really sure it works. Character designs, movement, it's all a bit off. I'd expect a facelift, but it's stylistically different, and the result is negative. I feel that in trying to honor the occasion they went for a bombastic that lacked the charm of the original. This is less fun and more like something that's just trying too hard to be manic. It's fake. Urusei Yatsura pulled off actual manic pretty well on a regular basis, and this just isn't that. It's something that's trying to imitate that and not really pulling it off. On a positive note, the opening cross-over of various Rumio Takahashi properties was fun. It'd probably have been a little better on my end if I were more familiar with Ranma, but that's for another time (maybe when the BDs come out?). Oh well. Not with a bang, but a whimper. But so finally ends Urusei Yatsura for me.

5

Special

1

1530

Add - More Usagi Drop

10

TV

11

SU2011 SU2011

1531

Add - More Usagi Drop Specials Oh hey, there's a comments section. Anyway, geez, even the quick little specials for this series are great. I already gave the main series a 10 so I'm not going to give these a score, but seriously, Usagi Drop is a gem. Honestly, up until Guilty Crown, Noitamina has been a pretty great block of shows. Hopefully it gets back on its feet starting with the Spring 2012 season. I may seem stingy with my 10s, but I'd love to have lots of series I felt deserved the title of "masterpiece," and series like this make me feel Noitamina is one of the better bets for that sort of thing. Oh, and pretty much everyone should watch Usagi Drop. Seriously. Go watch it.

-

Special

4

1532

Add - More Usagi ga Kowai

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Movie

1

1533

Add - More Usagi-chan de Cue!!

2

OVA

3

1534

Add - More Usakame

3

TV

12

A Grossly Inferior Version of Teekyuu with Kouhai, SP2016 A Grossly Inferior Version of Teekyuu with Kouhai, SP2016

1535

Add - More Usakame Special

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Special

1

1536

Add - More Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen

3

TV

25

FA2015 FA2015

1537

Add - More Utsu Musume Sayuri

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Movie

1

1538

Add - More Vampire Hunter D (2000) A few places on the Internet assure me I don't need to have seen the previous Vampire Hunter D film first, so I sure hope they're right or this is gonna be awkward.

-

Movie

1

1539

Add - More Venus Project: Climax

3

TV

6

SU2015 SU2015

1540

Add - More Video Girl Ai (spoilers) This series, in its first few minutes, gave me the impression it would be a lazy Sudden Girlfriend series. Thankfully, it quickly turned around from that and became a kind of charming romance series. Part of what vexes me in series like this is that I just want to grab the characters by the shoulders and shout "Can't you read the atmosphere?" For most of the series, Youta seems like an absolute lost cause as the girl he likes naively twists the knife in his broken heart while ignoring the reality before her. Just make a move already, you idiot! The whole transition to his love for Ai reminded me a bit of a certain series*, but that series handled it more smoothly, possibly because it had more episodes to work with. It wasn't out of nowhere, but it was still a bit rushed. That other series also had a more satisfying conclusion about the change in love interests. Ai is a fun character. She's not the deepest or the most fleshed out, but she's interesting if not a bit cookie cutter tomboy character. You've certainly seen a character like her in another romance series somewhere. But I personally like this character type. I still wish they could've done more with her, though, even if she's just supposed to be a "video girl." Moemi is kind of boring and comes off like a bit of a plot device, as does her love interest. They're more of a frame, or maybe for a foil for Youta and Ai to work off of. Youta frustrates me. Tremendously. He's a doormat that won't grab any of the numerous hands ready to pull him out of the friend zone. If he could've mustered just an ounce of courage around Moemi, he could have solved his problems. Instead, he actively helps her woo another guy. Pathetic protagonists vex me. What's up with Moemi's love interest's haircut? It looks like he has horns. That aside, these character designs are solidy early 90s, but they're solid. The animation is competent and colors are well applied, but has that sort of muted feel a lot of series from this time had. Part of that's to do with technology, but it's something that could've been better overcome. The music doesn't really stand out as particularly great, but it gets the job done. I'm kind of fond of the voice the seiyuu used for Ai. It seems fitting for a tomboy character. There isn't really anything in Video Girl Ai you haven't seen done elsewhere by 2012, and often better at that, but it's still a fun and short series. At just six episodes, you might as well watch it. *I didn't want to break up the main comment with a spoiler tag, so I put it down here to tell you what series I'm referencing. It's Toradora. But if I mention that outside of a spoiler, I give away a plot development in that series, you know?

7

OVA

6

1541

Add - More Violet Evergarden So, if I have this right, Netflix seems to have confirmed that they'll be simulcasting this show in the UK with English subtitles. Meaning nothing would stop them from doing the same here for my territory, the US, except that they opt not to. Why are they okay simulcasting this show in the UK but not in the US? I wish I knew. (Or those PR releases were in error and someone's really gonna have to have a word with their marketing department.) ...at least Anime Strike is dead? *** Okay, hold up. Netflix is not only simulcasting this in the UK/Canada, but they're even simuldubbing it? Every justification I've heard for why Netflix doesn't simulcast anime is falling apart here. They've got English subs and a dub ready, they seem to have managed to market it just fine, they have the rights to simulcast the show here and, of course, they're currently simulcasting it. So, again, why aren't they simulcasting this show in my country? I honestly can't guess why. Also some people who do live in territories where Netflix is simulcasting this show are opting to pirate the show because they still feel that Netflix is "holding back" its release by putting it up at midnight the next day like any other show instead of racing to beat fansubbers. And, I mean, really? It's one thing if you just don't care at all and want to pirate the show because piracy's free, but if you're complaining about waiting like half a day I struggle to find any real sympathy for your complaint. Not just because some of us are being asked to wait multiple months if we'd like to watch this the purely legal way, but also because you're complaining about waiting a handful of hours for a simulcast and simuldub of a show. Which is something Netflix is less likely to bother offering in the future if people just pirate the show instead of watching it on Netflix. If you have the option of legally watching this simulcast in your territory, by all means, go for it. As for the rest of us, it's sadly still business as usual. *** I haven't bothered watching the entire episode dubbed, but the bits I heard of the dub seemed rather underwhelming. That's disappointing.

-

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13

WI2018 WI2018

1542

Add - More Violet Evergarden: Kitto "Ai" wo Shiru Hi ga Kuru no Darou

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Special

1

1543

Add - More Visions of Frank: Short Films by Japan's Most Audacious Animators

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OVA

9

1544

Add - More Viva Namida

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Music

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Add - More Vividred Operation "Friendship, perseverance, victory." Wait, no. Vividred is what happens when you loot a mahou shoujo garage sale and have no idea what to do with all the junk you just bought. The show meanders through a hastily woven plot that goes absolutely nowhere until the end where it goes for the most formulaic and obvious conclusion possible which, despite all its effort to be impactful, has been utterly desiccated by the rest of the series with its own stunning lack of effort the final death blow. Add a few servings of characters with less personality than a sack of potatoes, forcibly inserted fanservice, dull, repetitive fight scenes, shake until it has no sense of direction, bake for 12 episodes and there you have it: a turd. Half the series is just squandered. Entirely squandered. Hastily done introductions of new characters (Sailor Moon put in more effort than this. Smile Precure put in more effort than this. Almost anything but Mars of Destruction put in more effort than this.) and an episode of pointless antics because, you know, they've got plenty of time since there won't be much plot to get in the way. The latter half drags its heels to the most telegraphed plot development (singular) this side of the protagonists winning in a battle shounen. Goodness me, I tried to at least get my quota of "magical girls doing friendship things," but even that felt scarce and that was the entire purpose of the show. Could an anime be any more confused about what it's supposed to do? Not since Rinne no Lagrange's second season, I tell you. It is almost impressive how they manage to achieve so little in all that time. Did they even try? I'm fighting the urge to give this a high 2 instead of the low 3 it's getting. It's pretty borderline. But I mean, it's not 1 bad at least. The animation is free of any significant number of major goofs, the voice acting is fine and other basics that keep it from being one of the worst of the worst, and the plot is only barren and trite, not a confused trainwreck or something actively repellant. But a 3 is not a good score. Don't waste your time on this anime. All below was written prior. *** So wait, is this a mahou shoujo series? (Yes, pedant, it's actually technology, not magic. But "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," right?) *** Yup, this is definitely a mahou shoujo. It's also a bit fanservicey and not exactly the most intelligently written show. I'm still not sure if I'll be sticking with this or not, but it hasn't given me any particular reason to drop it yet. *** Vividred, what did pants ever do to you? *** So it's a good thing every time they happen to transform it's in front of someone who also so happens to be a magical girl, because apparently none of them understand the concept of "confidential information." Also, sheesh, this show. I signed up for magical girls doing magical girl things. Not so much middle school girls in their underwear. Oh well. Gotta sell those figs and BDs, right?

3

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WI2013 WI2013

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Add - More Wakaba*Girl Blegh. I was too curious about starting a new show to wait for CR to get this out, but Mori's release of the first episode completely destroyed some jokes. To the point that they didn't even make sense anymore. Even if you don't know a word of Japanese, you should be able to notice there's a problem. And you don't need to know much Japanese to understand what the original joke is (literally something you'd learn in your first semester of Japanese), which makes it all the odder that something this simple would wind up lost in translation. And while, yes, if you know just some basic info about Japanese pronouns, you can understand the joke despite the subs, you oughtn't have to know any Japanese at all to understand a proper English translation. I don't actually know if CR will wind up handling this any better, but I'd be surprised if they screwed it up as well. I'd advise not getting Mori's releases for this series.

6

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Add - More Wakaba*Girl: Onsen Tsukaritai

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Add - More Wakako-zake This is pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be except for the part where it's shorter than I'd want. After a few food related anime got my hopes up and dashed them, I'm pretty glad this has come along to right their wrongs.

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Add - More Wake Up, Girls! Shichinin no Idol

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Add - More Wanna-Be's

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Add - More Warau Salesman New

5

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Add - More Wasurenagumo Well, it is supposed to be a project for amateurs to get some training and exposure, so I can't be too disappointed. The plot is only vaguely interesting, with so little meat to it that it likely could not have sustained a longer runtime. It was barely enough to fit 25 minutes. In an effort not to be overambitious for a modest time allowance, they went too far in the other direction, leaving something almost threadbare. Now, a simplistic story can work, but there has to be something to hook you, something of any real interest at all. And there just isn't. A few events play out, there's an attempt at a twist, and the credits roll with very little accomplished. The characters are incredibly shallow. A short runtime doesn't excuse that. 25 minutes is ample time to have fleshed out the characters a bit. Instead you just have very basic descriptors for characterization and minor notions of their relations. And when I have no way to connect to or care about your characters, it's difficult to care about any events involving them, either. Colors are applied sensibly, although it's not a standout work in that department. There's nothing too interesting going on visually, but it's not poorly done or anything. It's simply acceptable. The seiyuu are lackluster, and the music, sparse as it is, is nothing you haven't heard before or will remember afterwards. The background music is really the bare minimum you'd expect. Above Mars of Destruction's public domain sampler pack, to be certain, but still rather humdrum. Given the context it was made in, I can understand why it came out the way it did. Even though it won't take much of your time, you can still easily afford to miss it. It's just sort of what you'd get if you had a can labeled "anime" and poured out the contents. Nothing special, kind of bland, common and something you could easily find a higher quality alternative to.

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Add - More Wata no Kuni Hoshi

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Add - More Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui! (Later.) All below was written earlier. *** Oh man, that OP. This episode is basically entirely what I would've hoped a Watamote anime would be like. Through all the bad things I've said about Silver Link for a while now, the one not disparaging remark was that I consistently believed a show like this or Bakatest was where their strength lay (lied? Urgh, that's material from high school English. I should really know which one it's supposed to be!). Hopefully they can keep it up. Don't let me down, Silver Link. All below was written before airing. *** There's really only two ways for this to realistically go: Either as one of those short anime, or a number of vignettes per episode. My intuition suspects the former but people say precedent suggests the latter. This is the first time I'm going into an anime adaptation having actually read the source material beforehand. People (if you'll generously call /a/ "people") seem to say anime adaptations generally subtract from the source material. I think Usagi Drop's manga (from what I've read of it) isn't as well executed as the Usagi Drop anime, but I saw that first. Maybe that's the ticket? Well, time to expand some perspectives. *** Seems those people citing precedent were right. If this isn't divided into vignettes I'll be genuinely surprised. I just can't imagine it in the form of one, continuous ~22 minute story per episode (unless they're doing original material, but the PV doesn't suggest that). They should be able to adapt a fairly good chunk of the manga now that these are confirmed to be full length episodes. This is how bored I am with the spring season of anime. I'm idly speculating about stuff like this. (The start of a new season is fun!) *** Silver Link is a studio that's bad at a lot of things but this sort of show is actually the only sort of show they've shown themselves to be able to potentially handle. They handled BakaTest well enough and while that Oniichan show was terrible and probably would've been better in another studio's hands, I'm pretty sure the source material for that could never have actually been turned into something good. I want to believe Silver Link won't screw this up, okay? And there's a sliver of a reason to believe they can do it, so I'm grasping at that straw.

8

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Add - More Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!: Motenaishi, Nazomeite Miru

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Add - More Working!!

7

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Add - More Working!!!

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SU2015 SU2015

1561

Add - More Working!!! Lord of the Takanashi

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Add - More Working'!!

9

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FA2011 FA2011

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Add - More WWW.Working!!

3

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Add - More WXIII Kidou Keisatsu Patlabor What, me rate anime?

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Score later. Score later.

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Add - More X Densha de Ikou

6

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Add - More Yakitate!! Japan The show's right: If you've never had naan with your curry, you're really missing out. And this show just decided for me that dinner was going to be in sandwich form so I could use some of this nice Italian bread. And maybe I could pick up some supplies and bake my own bre- This is why I shouldn't watch cooking anime or read cooking manga. Look what it does, dude, look what it does. Anime always makes the food seem so amazing. Can't even watch, say, Spice and Wolf without wanting apples, and that's not even a cooking anime. Now how am I supposed to keep watching these sorts of shows when I stopped right in the middle of typing this sentence to Google where my nearest local bakery is? (Panera Bread and Whole Foods? Come on, Google, don't break my heart like that. Why are you telling me I'm 30-40 minutes away from my nearest non-chain local bakery? Because your listings weren't as thorough as Yelp's, that's why. Phew!) *** Oh gosh I've gone through like 2/3 of a loaf of sourdough while watching this. This is your fault, Yakitate!! Japan! Are you happy now? Is this what you wanted? Okay, it is pretty nice bread, and I actually think there hasn't been a single loaf of sourdough in the show so far, but still. Seriously though, it's a fun show. And this loaf of bread really is pleasant. It's got a bit of that nice, sour flavor a number of fermented things have. Like kimchi. Try kimchi. Kimchi's really good. They also sold these rolls that were basically unsalted soft pretzels but in sandwich bun form. Instantly elevated my sandwich experience. Didn't have a comically exaggerated and flamboyant reaction to them, alas, but still delicious. What's not good? Oscar Mayer bacon. Bleh. True, I've gotten used to good bacon, but that stuff's not just a step down, it's barely even bacon. There's zero pork flavor to it. It's 100% artificial smoke flavor and the bacon just crumbles to dust in your mouth. Gross. Don't let it near your BLT. Glad I wasn't the one here who got snookered into buying it. Believe you me, even though quality bacon costs a bit more, the difference is truly worth it. ...and I'm moving away from the show and into just talking about food. I told you, dude, this is what cooking anime/manga do. *** Rice Dream a top quality ingredient? Whatever you say, Yakitate!! Japan. (I've had better store brand rice milk than that stuff.) *** Whoa, whoa, hold up. Mangosteen, one of the three best fruits in the world? Your praise of Rice Dream was one thing, but now this? Yakitate!! Japan what are you even doing.

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Bakers: The modern-day samurai, FA2004 Bakers: The modern-day samurai, FA2004

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Add - More Yama no Susume It's like the first episode of a mediocre series. The characters barely get anything more than the faintest of actual characterization, the plot hardly starts going, the atmosphere isn't anything worthy of note, the animation is sparse and littered with errors (at one point in the first episode a main character's eyes practically melt off her face), the music is dull and repetitive. A low 3.

3

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Add - More Yama no Susume Second Season So this sort of turned into a dumping ground for my frustrations with/flabbergasted reactions to CR which is only indirectly related to this show. Since it's so long and barely related, I'm just going to put it behind a spoiler tag. Feel free to toggle it if you want to wade through that rambling. Also the show is available legally again, so watch it. Or don't! Anime. CR, no. I understand that you can't always get every show in every season. Of course. But when you tell people you've totally got the rights to simulcast Yama no Susume and then it turns out that whoops it's only the first episode and you thought you'd get more, that's not okay. You promised your paying customers something you could not yet actually promise them on the hope that everything would fall into place and you'd be able to keep that promise. And now that you haven't, maybe you better understand why that's a bad idea. If you can't get the show, fine. If you're upfront and tell your customers you only have the one episode, hey, sure. But to pretend you've got the rights to simulcast the whole show and then hide why you don't have the rest of the episodes ("production issues?" Really? Like it's the studio's fault?) is flat out wrong. Anyone who purchased membership time on the basis that they would be able to watch that show ought to be refunded, although I doubt that'll actually happen. You promised people something in exchange for their money and then failed to give it to them. I'm not a lawyer so I can't say if that's actually criminal, but it's certainly dishonest and improper. Knowing that a show you promise will be simulcast may not actually wind up being simulcast completely undermines my ability to trust you. It makes me more reticent to ever pay for a CR membership. I was actually strongly considering signing up for an anime membership on CR around Black Friday this year (in hopes of a deal), but they keep giving me reasons not to. I was on the fence but leaning no before this, and now I'm pretty sure I'll just be putting that money towards something else this year. Get it together, CR. *** Because, I mean, I want to like CR. This isn't some nose-thumbing at legal anime sources so I can feel better about downloading fansubs (I don't feel any need to justify doing that!). I watch legal anime streams and I very much like the idea of CR, but the execution is kind of stunningly lacking. I can understand that it doesn't have fancy karaoke subs (who cares) or the fanciest in typesetting (that's a bit disappointing, actually), but when basic things aren't done right, that's not something I can just look past when you're also asking for money. The PS4 app has memory leak issues that they're aware of but haven't fixed in a long time with nothing suggesting they're going to fix it any time soon either. That's not okay! CR's own subs tend to be pretty okay, but a number of shows have subs done by third parties and those subs can be pretty awful. They give you no advance notice of when that's happening. That's not okay! And now being very misleading about actually having the rights to simulcast a show? That's not okay! I was really close to buying a year membership based off of how compelling the idea of CR is, but I just can't justify paying money for service like this. *** Also their copy of Gankutsou is of a lower visual quality than the one on Hulu. What's up with that? *** Just saw someone on a forum I visit who only finally gave up on CR delivering what they promised now, after episode six aired a bit ago. I don't blame them. I mean, CR told them they'd have the show, and you'd like to think you could trust a professional outfit you gave money to. This isn't how it should work. I don't think anyone would really defend this. But because this isn't a big show, this is pretty much flying under the radar. If this had happened with something like No Game No Life, you bet there'd be a big stink about it. CR's image is just lucky this didn't happen with something higher profile. They're going to get away with it and they really shouldn't. That person waited over a month in the hopes they'd actually get what they were paying for. They didn't. Real people are being actively cheated by Crunchyroll here. And because they'll get away with it this time, maybe they'll try it again. And maybe it'll happen with a show more people care about. And even more paying customers will get burned. Which makes it sad that CR is the best choice for simulcasts. The anime simulcasting industry as a whole really needs to improve. Well, Aniplex seems to be handling things alright, actually. Unless they've had some big screwup I'm not aware of. So at least a small minority of shows in a season are in good hands. That's something. But that still leaves a long way to go. *** Just looked at the series comments section on CR for this and, yeah, about what I'd expect. People wondering where the episode is, people complaining that they felt compelled to get fansubs of a show they were supposed to get a legal simulcast of. But none of these paying members mentioned the critical element: Asking for their money back. If they're cheating you and you keep paying them, you're not giving them much incentive to do better. Asking for your money back when you don't get what you paid for isn't "entitlement," it's common sense. They don't care how many negative things you say about them as long as they keep getting your money. I think they've made it pretty clear multiple times that they really don't care about complaints or suggestions! It's money, money, money. Go for their purse and CR will eventually have to respond. You're not asking them to do anything even remotely beyond their means when you demand actual transparency and accountability. They have no excuse other than their own apathy. CR's customers have withstood neglect for ages. Fraud ought to finally incense them to action. "Supporting the industry" doesn't mean wiring your jaw shut while they turn you upside down and shake. Demand better. *** Having had a chance to test it again, it would seem CR finally issued a patch for their PS4 app that either fixes the memory leak, or at least stops it from being so immediately and obviously noticeable. Which is an improvement. But in the course of that, I watched an episode where the top half of a two-line subtitle was almost entirely off the screen, rendering it unreadable. The subtitle font constantly changed size, even when the same line was on the screen. CR's site was having problems, so therefore their videos did too. Trying to read manga? Not when CR's whole site is down! Woo. Also the quality level of the editing and QC varies pretty wildly between shows. Nozaki-kun was basically fine with only one typo or so per episode. Haikyuu was basically a mess. Tons of typos that should've been caught and the sort of unnatural English that a better editor would fix. And that really shouldn't be the case. I'm going to assume they have multiple people filling those roles because the alternative is kind of nuts. And this would mean that the skill/caring level of some of them is just too low to justify their continued employment. CR should not be paying these people money for output like that. There's this kind of worrying thought that they're making the same money as the actually competent editors/qcers at CR. Is it that hard to find better ones, or are they being paid less and CR is just getting what they're paying for? I'm pretty willing to believe that CR would look to cut costs at the expense of quality, but I don't actually know the exact nature of their hiring decisions. But whatever the logic, the results are obvious. *** Like, I'm just kind of flabbergasted that rather than people looking at all this and reconsidering if they want to pay for CR, they actually get really defensive about it and act aggressively towards anyone who suggests not subscribing to CR. You can't even begin to dress these up as good things, so they don't bother and instead just mock people for even being concerned about these things as though they were exaggerating the importance of the matter just so they could justify not paying for anime. They're clearly arguing in bad faith, and it's such this odd black and white argument. Sure, some people aren't going to pay for anime ever if they can get it for free. Such is life. But a lot of people are willing to pay for simulcasts. We just also expect a basic level of competence from a service that's asking us for money. I guess that CR's most ardent defenders are kind of like the company itself: All that really matters to them is the money, not the quality. They've built this false dichotomy between heroic supporters of the anime industry (the amount that your individual subscription contributes to the industry is tiny, of course, but in aggregate it's still infinitely more than nothing) versus scrupleless anime thieves who'd care not if the industry withered. CR itself would seem barely relevant to the equation! By putting the focus on "supporting the industry," you can just dismiss all of the actually really valid points about CR's quality issues. Which will actually damage your case with anyone who's not already in your camp, mind you. It's not just a false argument, it's not even an effective one. This sort of blind dogmatism confounds me a bit. Shouldn't CR's paying customers want the service they pay money for to improve? Where have they gotten the idea that they must serve the company rather than the company serve them? They're not only failing to change anyone's minds, they're also making the situation worse for themselves. This defensiveness gives CR no impetus to bother improving all that fast, if at all. If you can put in the bare minimum effort and your customers will still keep paying and go to the mat for you rather than reasonably ask for better service, why bother trying harder? *** You'd think this could be discussed without falling back on sophistry and casuistry but this is the Internet. *** Wait. Did CR only update their Roku app to support HD in August of 2014? I... Wh- how- you can't be serious about this. Up until about a month ago, CR did not offer paying users of one of the most popular streaming devices HD video? I mean, that's something that you'd just presume would be there day 1. It wouldn't even cross your mind that this might not be the case. Have you seen CR's SD video? It looks awful. And it was the highest quality Roku users could pay them to get until a month ago. We're not talking fancy typesetting or karaoke subs. We're talking HD. One of the basic selling points of a CR subscription in the first place. And it wasn't available for all that time. How does this company manage to trick people into giving them money? *** The thing is that what surprises me more than CR's numerous failings is this cult that's built up around them and believes that CR is above criticism. Today I had another experience with CR's PS4 app. The page that was supposed to list simulcasts in order of last update didn't work the whole time, just giving an error message that offered no way to solve the matter beyond "send CR's support a message and hope for the best." The streaming was flaky, occasionally juttering and unstable in quality, despite my internet connection being fine the whole time. Some hours later I came back to it, and an episode of something just froze about 10 minutes in. I tried to restart the episode, but it just wouldn't play. It wasn't worth this much hassle to watch a bad encode of that show that was exhibiting technical issues even when it was playing, so I just gave up. If I went to watch an anime on Netflix or Hulu, it would've worked fine. This wasn't an isolated incident. This is typical of how that thing has performed every time I've ever tried to use it. It has never once actually worked properly. Yet somehow people who don't want to pay CR for that kind of experience are all just filthy, industry-killing pirates. What a joke. I own DVDs, BDs, manga and a nendo, and I'm actively planning to acquire more of all of the above. I'm even waiting for Amazon to ship me a volume of manga as I type this. I pay Netflix, Hulu and WWE more than the cost of CR every month for their services. If CR could approach a level resembling basic competency, I'd already be a member. But that's just it. We're not against the notion of paying for simulcasts. We're against the reality of paying for apps that don't work, for streams that don't work, for subtitles that either don't work correctly, are incorrect, are in desperate need of editing so that they might actually resemble English, for encodes of back catalog titles that are somehow worse than the same encode on other platforms, for issues that are known to the company but don't get fixed and for all the other signs that indicate that CR just doesn't care about the product, only the revenue. And to have all that routinely shouted down with the handwavey "But CR supports the industry!" is both very aggravating and a strong indicator that CR will stay like this, so long as it can continue to trade on winning the hearts of customers on some flimsy moral pretext rather than convincing them to stay due to quality. In this way, CR has convinced them that it's worth it to put up with such things in exchange for getting to "support the industry." And in light of this, all legitimate complaints and grievances are dismissed as immaterial, as this moral argument is declared paramount. CR dogmatists argue that your obligation is to the "industry" and not to yourself as the consumer. What's unintelligible subtitles in the face of what ANN termed "digital pennies" going back to someone or other on the show's production committee? M-maybe they'll even start considering western tastes when making anime (ahahaha)! And that's the divide. It's between being blinded by a supposed moral imperative and not feeling that a company axiomatically "deserves" your money until they deliver something that actually deserves it. And when the threshold for that is "make the dang thing actually work like it's supposed to," it seems like a rather reasonable position to me. I'm ready to join CR whenever they can actually deliver what they promise to. Until then, it'd be nice not to be demonized for having some sort of standards. *** That said, the reality that the only other real options for simulcasts are one or two titles each season from Aniplex on Hulu (fine in quality, but much too limited in quantity) and a smattering of "Just like a plan" simulcasts from Funimation is really disheartening. If CR's customers won't force them to improve, some actual competition might, but they barely have that and one of those competitors is actively worse than them somehow. It all just feels so very hopeless. *** If Netflix worked like this, Blockbuster would still be in business. *** I've seen a few complaints about the subs for World Trigger, but fewer people seem to know the reason for their issue: It's because CR didn't do the subs for that show. Not that CR mentions this. No, you only find this out once you actually attempt to watch it (and they already have your money) and realize the subs are not at all in the style you generally expect from CR and are notably worse. Inconsistency and a lack of transparency. If the show you're expecting me to pay for a simulcast of isn't being subtitled by you, tell me. That's very relevant information. Whoever subs Aniplex shows has their own style. Sentai have their own style. And this is the style of whoever subs for Toei. I'm familiar with their various practices, and know which ones are worth totally avoiding (Sentai and Toei). Finding out only after the fact that the subtitles do not follow the level of quality or editorial direction I might expect from subs done in-house at CR is too late. I doubt they'd offer any money back for this. And that shouldn't be. I shouldn't get whiplash going from one show's subs to another's. I shouldn't go from one show with serviceable subs to another with barely coherent English, as in the aforementioned case of Nozaki and Haikyuu. I shouldn't have no idea what to expect from the subs in any given title. At least let me know in advance that a show's subs are gonna be different from the usual. You could wait until every show you're interested in has its first episode out before subscribing, but that would both cost more than subscribing for longer at once and detracts from the "simul" part of "simulcast." And you shouldn't be faced with such a choice in the first place. You expect a DVD from Funimation to be different than a DVD from Sentai. But when all the shows says "Crunchyroll" on the tin, you expect them all to be the same in that regard. When they're not, they should be labeled as such. But I guess expecting that is really just me trying to justify pirating anime, according to CR idolatry, rather than a reasonable expectation of knowing what they're asking me to pay for. There's no legitimate reason not to pay for CR, after all! *** I'm not the only person to notice these things or gripe about them, of course. It's just frustrating to see them shouted down and dismissed instead of approached honestly and maybe even improved. It's not like I'm actively hoping for CR to fail. It's because I want it to become better and live up to its own promise. Defending it blindly from any and all criticism isn't the same as supporting the site at all, and I really wish these people would realize that because what they're doing is counterintuitive. *** Since we're on the subject of Crunchyroll, I've noticed that my new TiVo has an app that's just the sort of kind of broken and byzantine in its navigation and operation to give one the "Is this actually a legitimate app?" vibe. And if you somehow navigate your way through the frustrating maze that is its interface, you can find a number of Crunchyroll videos on it like some weird vestigial structure. CR isn't on their list of channels, but in a different section you can find a CR app. It's weird. But what's weirder is that when CR puts up the free, ad-filled and low quality versions of episodes on their site a week later, this app seems to add the 1080p, ad-free version for anyone and everyone, CR subscription or no. It's enough of a pain to try to navigate that it's probably not that big of a deal, but I'm pretty sure this is unofficial and CR should probably look into shutting that down. This is run by an actual company that works with major companies, so they'd probably have better luck seeking legal recourse there than with any of the fly-by-night illegal streaming sites. I don't know how many people have a device that supports this app, are willing to work through its laughably backwards menu design and wait a week for episodes to go up so they can watch some of the simulcasted anime and a bit of back catalogue (it only lists titles #-D for whatever reason), and I imagine the number isn't that large, but I'm pretty sure nobody is supposed to be able to do this for free short of having a guest pass. I'm not going to mention the name here because I'd feel badly about directing people to this, even as thoroughly as inconvenient a thing as it is. But I wonder where the video is hosted. Somehow, this service has the official HD version of a bunch of CR videos that you can stream even though they're not officially supported, or at least really don't seem to be for a number of reasons. Is this somehow streaming from CR's servers and actually costing them money? Does the company that makes this app grab the video off their servers somehow and then host it themselves? Or are they somehow getting official, approved access to these videos and CR somehow is either wholly unaware or just doesn't care that they're making the HD videos available for free a week later? I feel like I should contact CR and tell them about this, but I'm struggling to muster enough good will towards them to take the time and effort to bother. And you know what's kind of sad? As barely usable as the app in question is, the video and subtitles, from a technical standpoint, actually work better than they do via CR's official PS4 app for their paying customers. (I just watched one episode out of curiosity to see how it would perform. I seriously doubt I'll actually use this as some sort of free, ersatz CR subscription.) *** And really, I should stress that I don't recommend actually using this thing as some sort of free Crunchyroll workaround. From a practical standpoint, while the video seems to work fine, using the app itself is such a frustrating and unintuitive venture that CR's app, for all its foibles, is really quite a bit better than this thing. And ethically, if at this point you're willing to go through an inferior app and wait a week to watch CR's video with CR's subs on your TV, just give them their dang $5 a month and use their app. I brought it up because it really caught me off guard that this was even a thing on a legitimate app that comes preloaded on a legitimate device. Their website says they're on Rokus too, so I guess the number of people who might be using this for that purpose could be even larger than I first guessed. I get the appeal of free, but the reason not to give CR money is because their service doesn't live up to a quality level that justifies it. That you can get the same product slower through a worse delivery method is not at all a valid reason to poopoo the idea of subscribing to CR. I mean, I don't want CR to fail. I just want them to offer a more professional-feeling service. But if you're someone who finds "CR but worse" to be a fully acceptable alternative, at this point you'd really only be objecting to paying for the service, not the service itself. And at that point the whole thing would be a little silly, considering you both have better unofficial free options and are now just being greedy. That said, if this somehow is legitimately supported by CR, that'd be a really odd and poor business decision by them, but I suppose it'd be ethically fine then. And if it's not, then really, why is a legitimate business offering illegal streams of CR's videos? That's the thing about this whole equation that bewilders me. Neither answer makes sense so I must be missing something, but I don't know what. (I could kind of guess that they're supposed to be getting the versions free members get, but due to an oversight are getting the full quality versions, but that's just speculation.) *** Apparently there's a barely used subforum on CR's forums for support with this service, so, against all common sense, although CR isn't involved with developing this app, they apparently have granted their blessing to an app that allows users to stream their full quality videos without ads one week later than members who are paying them actual money. How is CR even a business? Well, since they're apparently legitimate, I'll name the source: If you have an app from Samba TV on your device, you can probably watch a number of CR shows for free. You just have to wait a week and put up with an awful interface to do it. Seems like a bit more hassle than its worth, really, but it's a legal way to stream free HD CR videos on your TV if you want. Enjoy it until CR realizes how absurd that is and puts a stop to it. Myself? I probably won't bother as it only improves one of my issues with CR a little (the technical aspects of the stream and the subtitles) and the other issues are the same or made worse while also losing part of CR's appeal in the first place, the speed. It's an option, sure, but it's not a very appealing one. Although I guess CR's flaws would be more forgivable at a price point of $0, but even still. *** CR video you can legitimately watch in full quality for free right now: All of Gintama. (Which is probably worth the hassle, actually.) All of Bleach. (Not worth it no matter how easy.) All of Naruto Shippuden. All of the first season of Chihayafuru. A number of last week's simulcasts. Among others. W-what are they even doing? How does this make financial sense? Is Samba TV paying them for this? I can't wrap my head around their reasoning. *** Oh, and the latest episode of One Piece as well as several hundred past episodes. Because I'm sure that show isn't a revenue driver for CR or anything. Upon further inspection, there seem to be brief moments in an episode where it cuts to black for a second or two, presumably cutting away for the ad breaks that are supposed to be there for free users, but no ads ever play and the video just continues. That makes me lean much more heavily towards this being an oversight. Which makes much more sense. And clouds the ethical considerations a bit. You're probably not supposed to have this sort of access, but they're giving it to you whether they meant to or not. If your cable company somehow mistakenly gave you free HBO, would it be wrong to watch it? A lot of people probably wouldn't have any issue with it. People pounce on pricing errors and glitches constantly. They do so knowing full well the site might not honor that purchase because they know they weren't meant to be able to get it for that price, but they still try to get it. "Bank error in your favor." It's certainly legal and it's not your fault if they're screwing up in a way that advantages you. Ethically, it's probably wrong to exploit something you know is an error, but as a consumer, are you really going to care when it doesn't feel like you did anything wrong? As someone who has pirated a lot of anime over the years, this somehow feels like it'd actually be an improvement ethically in that it's at least legal. But again, it's so utterly inconvenient to use that this is really just a minor meditation on the matter rather than an active concern due to my sheer unlikelihood to actually make any use of it beyond probing it a little out of mere curiosity over its existence. And that it exists is another bit of evidence in favor of the point that CR really needs to pay a bit more attention to their product. And that they probably shouldn't give third party apps that they don't work on or look at access to these sorts of things because why would you do that? Seriously, you should be restricting access to these videos to just your official apps. I know with Horriblesubs it's basically a joke to get CR releases for free within minutes of them being available so an even less convenient and much slower way of doing that isn't as much of a concern, but that's no reason to actively make it even easier for people to get your product without paying you for it. *** (This season of Yama no Susume has been a pleasant bit of cute fluff and you should watch it if you enjoy such things. There. Now at least something in all of this is about the show and not just Crunchyroll.) *** Looking into it even further, because this whole thing just becomes more confusing the more I learn about it, apparently Samba TV co-founders have invested in Crunchyroll and serve on the board of directors. So... maybe this is deliberate, after all? I don't know anymore. Freeish premium CR access is out there if people want, it seems like a really bad idea for CR, I guess you can feel ethically okay about using it but at that point you might as well just pay CR for proper access anyway, I don't want to write about CR anymore because every time I learn something new about them I become increasingly baffled that they are somehow a successful company. *** I didn't want to write about CR anymore. I really didn't. But they've managed to jerk their users around again in such a way that really seems so egregious that it's managed to once again renew my aggravation with people who pooh-pooh any criticisms of CR as merely the justifications of pirates. Until recently, CR had a few separate tiers of product. They offered manga memberships, anime memberships, drama memberships and an all-access plan that, as the name would imply, offered access to all of those. Fair enough, right? But then they rolled manga into all premium memberships. This was great for anime members, sure, but it lowered the value of the all-access membership that people had already paid for. This was shortly afterwards followed by CR announcing they would be phasing out the vast majority of drama titles on their site so as to have them on a separate service instead. Members were given one week's notice that most of the content they were paying for was going to be gone, that they had better binge watch whatever they could and after that their money was basically going to be wasted. CR got their money and then took away what they were paying extra for in the first place with very little head's up. When Netflix tried to launch "Qwikster" and there was a revolt among their customers, Netflix fans didn't rush out in droves to dismiss those concerns as merely people looking for an excuse to pirate content. Netflix fans were the ones holding Netflix's feet to the fire and Netflix listened. When Netflix eventually raised their price a whole $1 a month, they sent out apologetic sounding emails and grandfathered everyone in for two years at the original price. CR told their all-access members their extra money was going to be wasted in a week, no refunds. "But CR supports the industry!" *** Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that a site that initially made its name as an illegal streaming site acts in shady ways. *** (Also that app doesn't show CR video in HD anymore and sometimes runs a preroll ad, which makes way more sense. Still fewer ads than the official CR apps, though.) *** And the thing is, you can see plenty of reasonable complaints about these things on CR that get no response, either verbally or in the form of action, from CR staff, but those people complaining still have those little stars or crowns next to their name that reveal that even though they're rightfully angry at CR for the way CR treats them, they're still paying them. And that's why their complaints and suggestions keep getting ignored. *** CR should also be recognized for the times when they do something positive: I contacted CR's support just to ask a question about their free trial (it automatically enrolls you in a monthly rather than an annual membership once the trial ends, if you're wondering) and though I requested no such thing, they just gave me a 30 day anime membership for no charge to check out CR. While CR has a lot of issues properly communicating with their customers and does a number of things that give me the impression they're successful despite themselves, it's not like they're wholly inept. Getting guest passes isn't much of an incentive to join CR, but their real purpose is that they want you to give them away. People will get a risk-free taste of CR and some of them will probably sign up. Giving myself or others who express an interest in the product 30 days of membership is a good will gesture that doesn't cost them very much, but might get people on the fence about joining CR to sign up and generates positive vibes towards them from those people, further making them more likely to sign up. Yes, of course it's a calculated move. There's nothing wrong with that. When both the company and its customers benefit from something, that's a positive thing. Much more so than when CR jerks its customers around. In none of this have I ever meant to imply that CR are clueless or evil. I think there's a number of instances in which they've dealt poorly with their customer base and that while of course they want to make money, they shouldn't take the people who pay them that money for granted by taking away things they paid for with little notice or ignoring them when they raise concerns. But CR also does good things. The subs they make themselves are generally "alright," the video quality is generally pretty watchable even if it could be better, they generally provide their customers with a lot of a season's shows (although not quite as much this season), the guest pass program is pretty clever and so on. The reason I've written as much as I have here about CR is because I'm so frustrated because I really want to like them for the right things their service does. It's just that the bad things are pretty crummy and disappointing. Heck, they've even improved their apps slowly but surely. I just want them to learn to more consistently treat their customers better, so that more of their interactions with users are like the one they just had with me, and fewer are like the ones where customers feel swindled out of their money and ignored by CR's staff. Talk to your users, CR. I think they'll really appreciate the communication. *** Of course, when I say they've "improved" their apps, I don't mean their apps have actually become good or pleasant to use. The Roku app takes a while to load sections even with a Roku 3, the loading bar is postage stamp sized and unreadable, the "next episode" box displays the wrong episode and if CR's site is having problems, apparently the app just starts crashing and freezing. I thought maybe I should try to delete and reinstall the app, but when I had to reactivate my account, I couldn't because CR's site kept giving me errors, which is the only way I even realized what was going wrong with the app in the first place. Some simulcasts say their newest episode is being added "soon" with no indication of when that is. There's supposedly an option to change video quality settings, put pushing the button in question actually does nothing. On the plus side, at least from a UI standpoint it's not a hideous, convoluted mess like Amazon's Roku channel. I just wish they'd put some of that same effort into making the thing actually work correctly. Maybe some of the money/time spent on that new gimmicky dice feature could've been used on the apps instead? *** The Roku app updated and now actually displays the correct next episode. All of those other problems are still there, but hey, it's something at least. *** 10.5 seconds. That's how long it takes to load the anime section on their Roku app. 10.5 seconds. Every time. 10.5 seconds. If you have something older than a Roku 3, I can only imagine how much worse it is. But it's made up for by the relentless error messages that consistently blame you when it's actually CR's fault something went wrong. No wonder people praise CR's app while bemoaning Funimation's app that loads faster and doesn't constantly spew error messages. Oh yes, this is clearly better. Remember, CR supports the industry (but probably not the people you actually want that to mean) so you can't criticize them. But Funimation, who actually use "supporting the industry" as one of the marketing points for their premium service? For some reason, with them it's okay. With Funimation, you're not required to have "supporting the industry" override all legitimate complaints about the quality of the service. Do people think CR is some scrappy little startup they've got to rally behind lest it die off before returning us to the heyday of the anime bubble? CR's not in any danger. They keep growing their customer base, they have rich investors behind them, they're owned by a big company. CR's dealing with tens of millions in gross profit annually just from subscriptions alone, not accounting for ad revenue and whatever they make off of their store (and its wildly inflated prices). Sure they're not Apple or Google huge, but this isn't just some little passion project. CR is a capital-B Business. You "support the industry?" Hey, neat. How about "supporting your apps?" Broken, slow messes aren't okay from Crunchyroll Inc., you know. How about "supporting your users?" When a premium user is having a service issue, having your support take over a day to get back to them only to basically tell them "Yup, that's a thing that happens." isn't the standard of quality expected from multi-million dollar Chernin Group property, Crunchyroll. How about "supporting your subtitle quality?" Wading through terms like "ero-hon" isn't something that should be occurring when you're being paid to have paid, professional translators and editors work on these subs for your paying customers. You say "We don’t always translate the shows on our site; some of the titles are actually translated by our partners and licensees, and we are contractually obligated to use them. If there are mistakes, we do contact them to get a revised version of the subs." But the latter part of that either isn't true at all, or has a success rate of nearly zero. How about "supporting your servers?" The site shouldn't be this unreliable to actually be accessible, especially when if the site goes down, you can't watch anime on any of the apps either. I get that a chunk of those millions are eaten up by salaries, bandwidth, licensing and other concerns. But CR isn't a tiny company, it's just an incompetent one. (Also, seriously, don't buy anything from their store. You can find whatever it is cheaper somewhere else, I assure you.) *** Oh cool, now the sound is dropping out at points. That's a new one. I'd love to be able to say that complaints about CR's technical quality are overblown or that I just got unlucky those times I'd tried their apps in the past, but having used it for weeks now, I'm just even more sure that this is par for the course. Fansubs don't have their audio drop out. My BD/DVD collection doesn't stop working if something goes wrong at the companies I bought them from. I could pirate the things I watch on Netflix/Hulu/WWE Network if I wanted to, but I use their services because they're convenient and they work pretty consistently. I would never consider myself to be "enduring" or "putting up with" them. I still have just two requests of CR: Make your apps work correctly and talk to your users a little more. These seem pretty reasonable to me! The latter of those two isn't even that difficult. *** This Roku app is so unstable that for the first time I had to look up the button combo to make the Roku restart since it just froze the whole thing. Nothing else has done that. It's no exaggeration to say to that this is the worst Roku app I've ever come across from a technical standpoint. Apps from major services work better, apps designed by "some guy" work better. There's no real excuse for this. *** "Premium+," eh? "Free shipping!" Now you can buy any amount of overpriced merchandise and get the shipping free? It's surely worth paying more to get the best worst deal! "Faster Premium+ support." The old premium model promised faster support that was actually slow and bad, but pay even more and this time they'll actually get back to you quickly with unhelpful answers. They promise! "Special badges." Pay us more to have a special symbol on our site that says you make poor financial decisions! "Exclusive contests and raffles!" You probably won't win, but at least your membership level actually has some remote chance of having been worth it. "Even more stuff." Just take their word for it! It's not like CR would ever promise something and then not actually deliver it, right? And they'll even let you pay to be their beta testers? How generous! Regular CR is so stable already, so I'm sure these unfinished features will be even better. All for only an extra $40 a year? Be still my beating heart. *** I giggled a little when the membership expiration notice ended off with promising that they're totally working on fixing the service, so please keep giving them money. That's putting the cart before the horse, CR. *** Paying an extra $20 per year at Funimation gets you (simul)dubs, special features and unspecified "store promotions" for Funi's generally overpriced store (Why can I buy Funimation releases cheaper on Right Stuf than from Funimation themselves?). The former two at least have actual value. Paying an extra $40 per year CR gets you a remote chance to win a contest and free shipping at their wildly overpriced store. One of these higher tiers actually seems to have a reason to exist. The other one almost feels like charity. Although for anyone who was paying for all-access to get manga or drama titles in addition to anime, at least now you don't have to. And you won't get any prorated refunds for paying extra in advance for access to those dramas, either. Yay! *** For something that works as poorly as CR, telling your already paying customers that if they want actual, faster help they should pay you even more is pretty messed up! You should work on fixing your technical problems, not turning them into financial opportunities. CR support was already slow for premium members even when "VIP support" was supposed to be one of the features of premium membership. It makes you wonder if Premium+ support will actually be any faster, or if they'll just make Premium support even slower. I know what my guess is. *** "Premium+ (International customers need not apply)" *** Who exactly are these people excited about the free shipping on select items for Premium+ members? In order to even break even, you'd need to be saving $40 per year on shipping costs. If you're buying enough from them for that to be the case, you could just wait a little and purchase multiple things at once to get the free shipping they already offer for orders over $75? Unless they end that promotion to try to drive more people to Premium+. Of course, the obvious point is that free shipping doesn't make up for the inflated prices. It takes seconds to comparison shop at Amazon or somewhere else, and many of those places don't make you be annual members to get free shipping if your order is of a certain size. I've never once paid shipping at Right Stuf. One time I paid them for a year of Got Anime? membership because the 10% discount on that order covered more than the price of the membership. That was immediately a good value. If you buy a year's Shounen Jump Alpha subscription there, you could also get one of those Got Anime? memberships at no extra cost. That's also a good value (if you want Shounen Jump Alpha). Free shipping at CR is, I mean it's something, but it's not $40 worth of something and certainly not something to be excited about at that price. *** Well, maybe with their upcoming "30% off everything" deal it might be more useful. Convenient that gift memberships seem to be "out of stock" during this upcoming sale. It's not a wildly great deal, with something like Non Non Biyori's BD only being $3 cheaper than on Amazon even with that 30% discount, but hey, at least it's something. And I'd just like to reiterate that: A 30% off sale only makes that BD $3 cheaper than the everyday price on Amazon where you could also get it shipped for free if you ordered another 51 cents worth of stuff with it. This is how ridiculously inflated the prices on CR's store are. It takes a 30% off sale just to bring it in line with other places. (That price reflects the premium member discount. Without that, it would actually still cost more than it does on Amazon.) *** Used their Roku channel months later. Plenty of vague error messages with no information on what the actual problem is or how to solve it, per usual. New was the part where instead of starting an episode, it just crashed back to the Roku's home screen. Twice in two days, no less. It really, really isn't just a case of trying this thing at a bad time, except I guess any time is a "bad time" with this thing. You're not a pirate streaming site anymore, CR. You're a professional entity, just like you wanted. Using your service should reflect that difference. And their first Premium+ beta test is... an updated release calendar. You can pay them an extra $40 a year to use this unfinished feature and offer them free feedback. That's normally the sort of thing they would have to pay others for, but they've turned that equation around and made some people think it's a beneficial feature. Kudos? (How many people actually even use that release calendar instead of the "coming soon" sidebar on the homepage?) Curiously, when I went to their homepage, a little poll popped up asking me what my top five anticipated summer series were. Have they done that before? With Funimation announcing their "biggest simulcast season ever," it seems like a reasonable guess that they're looking to see which series might be worth going to the mat for in a bidding war, although it does feel a little late to be asking that now. Unless they're just going to use that info for an interest article on their site, but that'd be silly. But as a consumer, you should certainly be glad that the pressure seems to be on. Funimation didn't start offering a cheaper subs-only tier and CR didn't merge manga and drama into a cheaper tier just to be nice. Funimation got serious about competing with CR and CR had to get serious about defending itself. While there is the drawback that you can't subscribe to one monolithic service and get basically every simulcast anymore, two companies getting serious about trying to one up each other with better value and service is ultimately to your overall benefit. Of course, there is a limit to this. It's fine and good with two, but if you started having to subscribe to five different services to get all the simulcasts you wanted? Yeah, people might just not bother at all. But as long as it's only like this, the customer's a winner. (Maybe Funimation will even stop farming out some of their simulcast subs to incompetent people? Sounds just like a plan.) (Also the poll directed me to Anichart for a list of upcoming series. They don't have some kind of partnership with CR, right? I'm guessing they just picked them because they're the popular one, even if Livechart is both better and even has links to the series' CR pages. And Funimation taking on more shows than ever is worrying when they apparently don't have enough people to take on even fewer shows and, again, have had to farm them out to others with less than impressive results. I'd rather my main concern about Gangsta. wasn't the subs, darn it.) *** Funimation's comparison image for membership levels promises that the All-access pass gets you limited anime with ads. Oh, Funimation! You might want to fix that chart. But the little disclaimer in tiny print that some shows will still have ads even if you're a paying member is off-putting. Especially with no indication of which or how many shows will still serve ads to paying customers. At least when you sign up for Hulu+, you know full well which titles have ads (basically all of them). Funimation is asking you to pay first to find out. That's not how this is supposed to work. I'm not gonna sign up for a year in advance only to find out that half the shows are riddled with ads and it wasn't worth the money. Is "half" far too high of an estimate? The thing is, who knows? Funimation ain't saying. This is the same company that apparently makes even their paying customers buy a separate premium mobile app to use the service they're already paying for without additional ads. What the heck, Funimation? That's pretty hostile to your customers! "Anytime Anywhere (additional fees may apply)" "Ad-Free HD Video (but not all of it and in some cases you have to pay us again)" Licensing a bunch of shows and offering a sub only tier that's cheaper than CR are both solid ways of presenting yourself as a serous and viable competitor to CR. Hiding in tiny print that you're still going to foist ads on your paying customers (while promising no ads in the big, shiny print) and making them buy a premium mobile app to not see ads are both ways to make sure you never actually surpass CR. It's like Funimation can't do something good without cocking it up somehow. They have simuldubs! But with no clear indication of which series have them, nobody's really gonna know unless they're already seeking out that information. They sub the OP and ED! But they don't seem to believe in subtitle placement and will happily garishly layer karaoke/translated credits over text on the screen, creating a barely readable mess and covering most of the show's visuals in the process. Their Roku channel lets you sort series by genre! But their genre sorting is basically worthless, lest you're the sort to list One Piece as one of your favorite "fan service" titles. They license a bunch of shows to simulcast! But then a number of those simulcasts start late with no indication of when they'll finally start airing a given show. And so on. Funimation does some things better than CR. And if they could actually get their crap together, they'd be a very serious threat to CR. But since they're apparently dedicated to pursuing some really dumb ideas and practices despite almost universal condemnation from customers both current and potential, CR can let out a bit of a sigh of relief. But you, dear legal anime consumer, are the one who loses. (In some regards, it's clear Funimation is actually dedicated and serious about trying to make this thing work for them. And yet, in other aspects, you'd almost think they want it to fail. Darn it, Funimation, I basically just want to stream your back catalogue titles! [One of the places Funimation is better than CR]) *** holy crap the app is $10 The dang annual subscription is only $40/60 and the iOS app is $10?! Ten! Ten dollars! For an app to use the service you're already paying for! Ten whole US dollars. And apparently it's buggy! I complain about CR's Roku channel and that thing comes at no additional cost. An app that costs $10(!?!?!?) ought to at least work like a charm. ten dollars are you kidding me funimation *** Also Sentai has a streaming service and ahahaha come on, let's be serious here. A. It's Sentai. B. It's $7 a month. That's only a bit shy of the combined cost of CR/Funi. Or Hulu, which basically has Sentai's catalogue anyway. And Viz. And some of Funi's. And other companies still. Plus plenty of not anime things. (And you can just get it free via Bing if you want.) C. Again, it's Sentai. D. You probably forgot Anime Network even existed because it's so irrelevant. I'd rather throw away $7 a month on lotto tickets because at least those have a slim chance of giving me something of value. *** There's generally a pronounced difference between CR announcing a simulcast and Funi announcing a simulcast. The former is met with excitement or, at worst, indifference. The latter is met with anger and grief. Not necessarily because people don't or can't have a Funimation subscription (although that is the case for some), but because even in the best case scenario that release is going to be worse than what CR would probably put out. And at worst? It will be irredeemable garbage with the subtitles farmed out to a less than adequate third party. The video will look like crap, too. CR has implemented some very basic typesetting, but Funimation has done nothing of the sort. Funimation's subs will follow practices from the 90s, like italicizing foreign words or setting off separate speaker's lines with an emdash. CR at least takes a more modern and common sense approach of producing subs that read like they were made with humans, not a textbook in mind. If Funimation had only put out one distressingly subpar release, there might be a weariness towards them but they could regain confidence by moving past it and continually putting out quality releases. But when garbage is the norm, people rightly expect more of the same going forward. Funimation's name is mud in the simulcast scene. Funimation has earned every bit of this antipathy and it's refreshing to see them actually treated with the reputation their slapdash product should earn them. The question remains, though, why CR escapes the same honest appraisal of its faults. (Yet Funimation's physical releases are generally pretty alright! A shame their simulcasts don't get the same level of effort and care.) *** I contacted Funimation a week ago to ask if there was a list or some other way to know which titles still showed ads to paying members. I've yet to hear anything back from them. Either they're not willing to answer that question or their support is just this slow to get back to people. Neither is a particularly inspiring answer. CR's replies aren't prompt, but they're faster than this. CR's replies aren't always useful, but at least they get back to you. And it's embarrassing that the choice is between "lackluster" and "barely trying" but that's how it is and, if anyone can actually be said to be "winning" that competition, it's CR. But once again, the real loser is you, the legal anime consumer. And again, I don't understand why people rally to defend this. It's just, you know, "Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem," as Gabe Newell put it. And if you want to convince people to pay $40 a year for something they can easily pirate the second it comes out, the least you should be doing is actually responding to users' questions. 'Cause they ain't paying you just for the same content they could pirate off of basically anywhere. A good part of what they're paying you for is a service. Nobody needs Funimation, Hulu, CR or any other purveyor of legal anime streams in order to watch anime. Many people are willing to watch anime via legal platforms, but you have to give them reasons to want to do that. And when your customer support is a joke, when your subtitles read like something Google Translate spat out, when your apps don't work correctly, well, you're mounting up reasons to disincentivize people from converting from piracy to becoming your customers. Do you know why Netflix is booming? It's because the thing actually works. Stuff comes out on time, the video quality's alright, there's no $10 app to watch it on a device, their customer support is prompt, using it is generally painless and it's convenient. Funimation, you've certainly got the content part down. But you're not even close on the "service" end of things. Ask yourselves: Why are there so many people who wouldn't use your service even if it was free? *** CR apparently ended support for various devices and didn't think it was worth telling their paying customers until after the fact. Some customers, understandably peeved, wrote in to CR and were basically told "tough noogie." While "sit and spin" is at least an answer as opposed to Funi's silence, it's a pretty terrible response! The primary way you watch CR could just cease to be available without any warning. While Netflix is working to be available everywhere, CR is slashing options and letting its customers know just how much they aren't valued. You have CR who doesn't care at all, and Funi who somehow cares even less than that. If you're really so married to "supporting the industry," go import a fig or a BD with the money you would've thrown away on these corporations who have nothing but contempt for you. This sort of behavior shouldn't be rewarded, and money is the only thing they actually listen to. *** If Funi's forums are a reliable indicator (and they're probably not, actually), things are far more lopsided in favor of All-access memberships as opposed to sub only memberships. I'd have guessed the split would be equal, but it was so uneven that for a bit there I was starting to wonder if sub-only members even got a special forum badge (they do). Maybe the people who are vested enough to actually be posting on Funi's forums are the same who are vested enough to pay the extra dosh for the whole package? Or maybe that really does indicate the general trend for Funi subscriptions. That'd be surprising. Are there more dub fans than it would seem? Is Funimation more popular among people who are primarily looking for dubs but not as popular amongst those who are only looking for subs? (I mean, of course it's more popular among the dub crowd, but the lack of sub fans is odd.) Huh. Also, does the beta release calendar on CR actually list which shows are airing when? Because right now some shows aren't even showing up at all until the episodes come out, and most of that calendar is just blank. Do you have to pay an extra $40 a year to actually get a schedule or does nobody get that "luxury?" And Funi's should really let you toggle between sub and dub releases. A sub-only member has no reason to care about when dub episodes get released, and someone who only wants the dubs has no reason to care about subbed releases. And their release calendar doesn't have this season's shows on it, either! Come on, guys. I shouldn't have to be going to other websites to try and see if ANN or someone knows when you're broadcasting your shows. That's just silly. Funi's queue feature, at least on the Roku, doesn't actually seem to tell you when new episodes have been added, which is dumb and renders the feature pretty useless. With CR, you can tell at a glance if a new episode has come out. Because of course that's how it should work. And it's weirdly difficult to get a list of what new shows Funi is simulcasting in a season. On CR, you can just go to their lineup page which generally isn't too out of date. On Funimation, I have to track down a blog post and then go to other sites to see which simulcasts they've kind of quietly and secretly also confirmed, and pretty much nothing has a confirmed airing time. Figuring out when that Ranpo show airs was far more difficult than it should've been because it was buried in a blog post and wasn't even on the release calendar and arghhhhh why. it shouldn't be this difficult just to find out when i can watch something *** Does Funimation realize Sub-pass members can watch all of the dub-only title Shin-chan without commercials? Because that doesn't seem like how it's supposed to work. Surely nothing to complain about on the customer's end, though. (Dubbed Shin-chan is a fun show, dang it.) *** Okay, I checked out the latest episode of Show by Rock dubbed, and it's playing in 1080p without any commercials with an account that I'm absolutely certain isn't supposed to have access to dubbed episodes. ...does the Roku app not differentiate between sub members and dub members, making paying the extra $20 a year pointless? That's sure something. Maybe the sub-pass includes some dubs anyway, for some reason? I know free users can watch some dubbed episodes with ads, but episode five of Show by Rock isn't one of them. (The Show by Rock dub sounds alright from the little I listened to while seeing if it would work, by the way.) *** So with Funimation, there's indication of what the last episode you watched is. Opening the show page just takes you to the first episode. Adding it to your useless queue makes no difference. Awesome! When you add a show to your queue on CR, it displays whatever the latest episode you haven't seen is. On Funimation it's... just a shortcut to the show page. And if you fast forward, rewind or resume an episode? For a few seconds sound plays but there's no picture. Amazing! Well, congratulations on licensing all those shows, Funimation. You've forced yourselves to be relevant to people who want legal simulcasts, even if they don't necessarily want you. *** Like, as fun(ny) as it is that the Roku channel can't tell if you're a sub-only member or not, the site and the Roku channel shouldn't be this woefully disconnected. According to Funimation's site, this account has watched no videos (not true). It seems like maybe the queue does remember the last episode you watched on the site. Which is how it should work, but also how it should work on a Roku. Getting access to dubs may be a nice little unexpected bonus for sub-only members, but it's also a worrying sign of how much Funi is neglecting their Roku channel if it's giving people access to content they're not even paying for. If they're not even giving that thing enough attention to protect their bottom line, why should we believe they're paying attention to anything else? Back before CR threw all its content into one tier, their Roku channel knew full well what content you were supposed to have access to or not. When you watch a video via a Roku, CR's site reflects that. When you fast forward or resume a video on CR's Roku channel, it doesn't play sound without video for a bit. These are Funimation things, not Roku things. But you know, I think if Funimation paid more attention to their Roku channel, it'd only be to stop sub-only members from getting free access to dubs, not to actually improve anything. I could be nice and point this out to them, but since they just seem to ignore customer emails, why bother? It'd just be a waste of my time to try to help a company that's done nothing to earn my good will. I'd rather some of their poor customers get a little bonus instead. If you won't help your customers, don't expect any help in return, Funimation. "Respect is a two-way street." (Maybe I should check out some of the broadcast dubs this season? What even is getting a broadcast dub this season? Gah! It's so impossible to figure out what Funi is doing!) *** I don't know why they advertise the subscriber forum as a "feature." All that's in there is a bunch of reports of issues, a few unreasonably specific requests/demands and, reassuringly, a 12 page thread about Funimation not being worth subscribing to. It's really not very interesting. *** Finally did find a page that lists broadcast dubs, although it's not in an obvious location, at least, but it's there. Kudos? holy crap i think i hit a character limit Text isn't getting added anymore. Welp.

-

TV

24

SU2014 SU2014

1569

Add - More Yama no Susume Second Season Specials

-

Special

2

1570

Add - More Yama no Susume Third Season ha ha it's funny because she's sexually assaulting her look you can see she's in distress and crying lol and hey cool another depiction of a lesbian character as a pervert/dangerous sexual assailant anime is the best!!! (projectile_vomiting.mp4)

-

TV

13

SU2018 SU2018

1571

Add - More Yama no Susume: Kabe tte Kowakunai no?

-

Special

1

1572

Add - More Yama no Susume: Omoide Present

-

OVA

1

1573

Add - More Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo Fansub Group: Horriblesubs

5

TV

12

SP2015 SP2015

1574

Add - More Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo: Mou Hitotsu no Suzaku-sai

-

OVA

2

1575

Add - More Yami wo Mitsumeru Hane

-

Movie

1

1576

Add - More Yoake Tsugeru Lu no Uta

-

Movie

1

1577

Add - More Yofukashi no Uta

7

TV

13

1578

Add - More Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei

9

TV

11

"The Tatami Galaxy, " SP2010 "The Tatami Galaxy," SP2010

1579

Add - More Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei Specials

-

Special

3

1580

Add - More Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

3

OVA

2

1581

Add - More Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou: Quiet Country Cafe

-

OVA

2

A Kotonoba Drive anime might be neat. A Kotonoba Drive anime might be neat.

1582

Add - More Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san. (TV)

-

TV

13

SP2011 SP2011

1583

Add - More Yoru no Yatterman Fansub Group: Cthuko

-

TV

12

WI2015 WI2015

1584

Add - More Yoru wa Mijikashi Arukeyo Otome

-

Movie

1

"The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl" "The Night Is Short, Walk on Girl"

1585

Add - More You Shoumei Bijutsukan Line

-

OVA

1

1586

Add - More Youchien Senshi: Hanamaru Girls

-

Special

3

1587

Add - More Youkoso Uchuujin

-

Movie

1

1588

Add - More Yousei Florence

-

Movie

1

1589

Add - More Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta

6

TV

13

FA2013 FA2013

1590

Add - More Yozakura Quartet: Hoshi no Umi

-

OVA

3

1591

Add - More Yozakura Quartet: Tsuki ni Naku

-

OVA

3

Lazy characterization 101 Lazy characterization 101

1592

Add - More Yu Bang Xiang Zheng

-

Movie

1

1593

Add - More Yukidoke

-

Movie

1

1594

Add - More Yumedamaya Kidan

-

TV Special

1

1595

Add - More Yumekuri

-

OVA

1

1596

Add - More Yuri Kuma Arashi Anime fans before Yuri Kuma: "Everyone knows Ikuhara is a genius, auteur director! Only idiotic casual fans, too dense to understand his works, think otherwise!" Same anime fans after Yuri Kuma: "Everyone knows Ikuhara is an overrated hack director! Only pseudo-intellectual casual fans, beguiled by "deep" symbolism, think otherwise!" As fickle as ever, anime fans, as fickle as ever.

-

TV

12

~symbolism~, It shouldn't be this hard for some to grasp that depictions of eros aren't inherently erotica, WI2015 ~symbolism~, It shouldn't be this hard for some to grasp that depictions of eros aren't inherently erotica, WI2015

1597

Add - More Yuri Seijin Naoko-san

-

OVA

1

1598

Add - More Yuri Seijin Naoko-san (2012)

-

OVA

1

1599

Add - More Yuri!!! on Ice (episode 2 spoilers, I guess) Yuuri is Japanese. Victor is Russian and seems to have a firm grasp on Japanese. Why did the two of them briefly speak to each other in shaky English? *** Also it's been three episodes, and a show could always implode for various reasons, but so far this has been a pretty well crafted production. *** Any time an anime is popular on MAL, its reviews demonstrate one truism: If your review starts off with one or more paragraphs about how everyone who does/doesn't like this anime is a rube and only you, the one true High Lord of Anime can come here to set the hoi polloi straight, just go ahead and highlight all those paragraphs and press the backspace key. There, now your review is much better!

8

TV

12

FA2016 FA2016

1600

Add - More Yuri!!! on Ice: Yuri Plisetsky GPF in Barcelona EX - Welcome to The Madness

-

Special

1

1601

Add - More Yuru Camp△

8

TV

12

WI2018 WI2018

1602

Add - More Yuru Camp△ Movie

-

Movie

1

1603

Add - More Yuru Camp△ Season 2

-

TV

13

1604

Add - More Yuru Camp△ Season 3

-

TV

12

1605

Add - More Yuru Camp△ Specials

-

Special

3

1606

Add - More Yuru Yuri

7

TV

12

SU2011 SU2011

1607

Add - More Yuru Yuri Nachuyachumi!

-

OVA

1

1608

Add - More Yuru Yuri Nachuyachumi!+

-

TV Special

2

1609

Add - More Yuru Yuri San☆Hai!

-

TV

12

FA2015 FA2015

1610

Add - More Yuru Yuri: Doushite, Tomaranai, Tokimeki, Dokidoki, Paradox, Eternal

-

Special

1

1611

Add - More Yuru Yuri♪♪ Yuru Yuri Doot Doot, like so many others in the genre, expanded upon its first season by expanding its focus to a greater degree beyond the main three characters. The show differentiates itself a little bit by having some touches of outright lesbianism for humor, but otherwise you've probably seen something very similar to this before if you're not completely new to anime. It's just another alright SOL series. (You might think I should be rating this closer to 5 then, but for the alright and good ones that come out, there's also plenty of mediocre and bad ones, too!) That's still good enough for me, but there's nothing very unique about the series, nor anything rather unique to say about it. It's alright, it does what it sets out to do, but if you're looking for something that isn't "yet another SOL series," this won't offer anything compelling for you.

7

TV

12

SU2012 SU2012

1612

Add - More Yurumates I'm not sure how something so average has been popular enough to result in (soon to be) three OVAs and a weekly three minute series. Other than being all in one OVA rather than in small weekly installments like Yurumates 3D, and a different art style, these OVAs are basically just more Yurumates. There's almost nothing to say about these that's different than what there's to say about Yurumates 3D. They're still every bit as middling in all aspects. Yurumates is something that's really just best described as "watchable." You won't feel like it was a complete waste of your time to watch it, but it's not actually good. It's just okay. There's nothing awful or great about it. A thoroughly average franchise.

5

OVA

1

1613

Add - More Yurumates 3D Well, it's heading right into a 14th episode next week apparently. I'd hesitate to actually call that "completed," but MAL has no entry for the other episodes, so I guess here we are. The art's not that great, the animation isn't that great, the humor isn't that great, the characters aren't that great, the show isn't that great. But at three minutes once a week, it's watchable. It feels like a much weaker Hidamari Sketch. But that just makes me want to watch actual Hidamari Sketch. It feels like they took an episode or so worth of vignettes and then just aired them in three minute chunks so it could be a weekly thing instead of an OVA. It's an okay show to watch weekly, but I don't know that you'd actually want to go back and marathon it, even if it would be pretty short (especially if you skip the OP each time). If MAL just adds the new episodes to this entry or there's a new entry or however that's ultimately handled, I'll adjust the scoring as such to reflect the entire show. For now, this is the best that can be done.

-

TV

13

SP2012 SP2012

1614

Add - More Yurumates 3D OVA (Migoto put out two three minute episodes that they said were this, and the synopsis says there should be two episodes, so I'm guessing MAL's listing this as one thirty-minute episode is wrong.) (And it's been fixed. Well, never mind then. At least I can be sure now this is the right thing.) Fansub Group: Migoto

-

OVA

1

1615

Add - More Yurumates 3D Plus (Score applies to both seasons as a whole.) There's nothing different to say now that the show is over that wasn't to be said at the end of the first "season." What a lackluster final episode, though.

5

TV

13

Score applies to both "seasons" as a whole. SU2012 Score applies to both "seasons" as a whole. SU2012

1616

Add - More Yurumates 3D Plus: Natsuyasumi Maison du Wish Report

-

OVA

1

1617

Add - More Yurumates wa? What has been said of Yurumates 3D and the other OVA goes for here, too. There's absolutely nothing distinct to add about this particular one.

5

OVA

1

1618

Add - More Yutori-chan

-

ONA

25

1619

Add - More Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru "A Chrome Experiment," you say? I do suppose that's one way to get realistic looking source code. *** Ponycan USA (Why not "Ponycanyon USA?") is selling a four episode volume of this show for $72, or $18 an episode. I've quite recently bought entire series for less than $18. And that's going to rile some consumers up, I suppose, but there's no real reason to be perturbed by that. Would I personally pay that much for any series? No. I couldn't afford to buy anime at those prices. But media distribution is increasingly heading in a direction where physical discs are just for collectors, and anime much more so. That's because of digital streaming services. While there's a large swath of film content that's presently only available on discs, with anime, the vast bulk of shows in a season these days are simulcast, and companies make their back catalog readily available on streaming services for free/cheap. Does the visual quality equal that of a decent BD? No, certainly not. But for many people, it's good enough. If people just want to watch a recent show, they don't need to buy a disc and probably don't even want to buy a disc. They take up space, they can damaged, you have to get up and change discs (not the worst burden, sure, but still less convenient), etc. And even the more mainstream priced ones get you one show for the cost of numerous months of CR and/or Funi's streaming services that will get you a boatload of titles for the same cost. It just makes more sense these days to have streams as your form of mainstream distribution. Discs are people who want to own something or are more obsessive about quality. It's a niche item at a premium price, and Ponycan's bevy of extras in the package reinforce that attitude. Would it be nice to get that at a more affordable price? Sure. But that's just not the business model. It'd be one thing if these shows weren't put on streaming services, but they are, so there's no compelling reason to gripe. As discs become more and more irrelevant, selling them at mainstream prices becomes both less appealing and less feasible. Companies like Aniplex, Ponycan and NISA are just embracing the modern distribution climate. They know exactly who they're targeting with these physical releases, and the prices and products reflect that. These companies shouldn't get more in line with companies like Funi, others should follow their lead and more fully embrace streaming as the main distribution method. It's 2015. It's time to get used to the idea that digital streaming services have easily usurped discs.

6

TV

12

FA2014 FA2014

1620

Add - More Yuyushiki

3

TV

12

SP2013 SP2013

1621

Add - More Yuyushiki: Komarasetari, Komarasaretari

-

OVA

1

1622

Add - More Yuyushiki: Nyanyashiki

-

Special

6

1623

Add - More Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Nothing worthy of note not already covered by prior seasons. Downloaded Episodes: 13

7

TV

13

SU2009 SU2009

1624

Add - More Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Bangaichi

7

OVA

2

1625

Add - More Zawazawa

-

Movie

1

1626

Add - More Zen: Grogu to Makkuro Kurosuke

-

ONA

1

1627

Add - More Zenchuu Maite

-

Movie

1

1628

Add - More Zero no Tsukaima

3

TV

13

SU2006 SU2006

1629

Add - More Zetsumetsu Kigu Shoujo: Amazing Twins

-

OVA

2

1630

Add - More Zettai Shougeki: Platonic Heart

1

OVA

5

I really need to stop letting the phrase "infamously terrible" be a selling point to me. I really need to stop letting the phrase "infamously terrible" be a selling point to me.

1631

Add - More Zipang

5

TV

26

FA2004 FA2004

1632

Add - More Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei There's nothing markedly different to say about this than the first season other than that it improved in various respects (humor, animation, etc.) somewhat. So more of the same, just a better version of it. Oh, and there was a Boku no Pico reference. Didn't see that one coming.

7

TV

13

WI2008 WI2008

1633

Add - More Zombieland Saga (episode 8 spoilers) Alright, let's see here. This anime just revealed that one of its characters is trans. Well that always goes great so nothing to worry about! Huh. No "...but she's a boy?" No "they just like dressing and being treated as a girl but they're a boy?" No treating her as gross, predatory or a fetish object? Just actually showing a basic understanding of a trans girl while the other characters in the show aren't bothered by the fact that she's trans? Oh, wait. They actually did do a decent job. Meeting the basic standards of decency shouldn't be impressive, but alas, for anime, it is. So hey, congratulations, Zombieland Saga! You weren't awful about this! I'm sure the fans are also taking this well an- Oh. They're virulently defending why they're misgendering her and referring to her with slurs while also desperately trying to pretend a clearly trans character isn't actually trans. Anime fans are awful. But this show is okay, at least! *** huh maybe i should check crunchyroll's website more often also cool spoiler right on the homepage, cr (you can find the article it links to here. and, as always, remember: "Don't read the comments!") *** presented without comment https://twitter.com/woke_teen/status/1123729608367575042 why can't i embed tweets here

6

TV

12

FA2018 FA2018

1634

Add - More Zonmi-chan: Meat Pie of the Dead

-

Special

1

1635

Add - More Zutto Mae kara Suki deshita. Kokuhaku Jikkou Iinkai

4

Movie

1

1636

Add - More _Summer

-

OVA

2

1637

Add - More _Summer Specials

-

Special

2

TV: 657, OVA: 268, Movies: 327, Spcl.: 205, Eps: 0, Days: 230.21, Mean Score: 5.4, Score Dev.: -1.72