Discuss the Series You Just Finished

@jdvz I'm a big fan of Le Tour de France (can't wait for this years race to see if Cavendish will overtake Eddie Merckx as the overall holder for most stage wins in history) so I've been pondering whether to check out a sports cycling anime. Having read your review I think I'll give it a miss as it sounds like it would annoy me (stuff like unclipped pedals, all the pros clip into the pedals, apart from occasionally when racing on cobbles like the Paris-Roubaix). So thanks for watching it and sharing your thoughts.

@jdvz yeah Alaphilippe is always fun to watch, great racer often coming away with the combativity award whenever he attacks a stage. I see in the cycling news that he won a stage in the Giro yday. Hopefully he'll be at the tour this year.

Gi(a)rlish_Number
Hard seiyuu life. A pleasant surprise. According to the scores, reviews and scrennshots, I was expecting something plain, but I got a very exciting anime.
The characters are quite funny, they are good not so much in their depth of development, but in their combination. There is a lot of interaction between the characters, and it is even difficult to determine where the main cast ends and the supporting cast begins.
The plot is interesting not for its novelty, but for its viewing angle. In the story, a cheap studio does a passable job of getting away with it. A randomly chosen actress gets the main role, and her acting style is determined more by her self-esteem than by her abilities.
The script is not bad, with excellent pacing, even the happy ending fits in very well. It seems superfluous here, but these are the canons of the genre.
I would watch the second season, but the anime has too low ratings and it didn't find an audience.
Сomedic, sometimes a little sad 7/10
nota bene I have no idea what does '(a)' in title mean

Sore ga Seiyuu
Seiyu's Life. I'd better watch this title before the previous one. This piece was made one year earlier than Gi(a)rlish_Number, but the difference looks like 10.
Nevertheless, there are some funny moments, but overall it's a very passable anime. Even despite a bunch of star cameos.
6/10 (ova 4/10)
The songs sound like they were written for the Idolmaster franchise.

@jdvz https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/5nzu9u/giarlish_number_so_what_does_that_title_mean/

Secret of Cerulean Sand (2002) - a clear and unabashed rip off of Nadia and the Secret of Bluewater, this adventure series had some good moments early on (mostly during the 'setting out on an adventure' portion of the story), with an interesting core premise of cerulean sand and floating liquid, but the character writing and motivation for the central villain were sorely lacking. This show came out just after the advent of computer aided animation and wide spread use of 3Dcgi and it showed. The backgrounds looked like sets with the 2D characters moving in front and the 3Dcgi airships looked odd, but not as bad as the ships in Vandread. I was comparing this mentally to Noir, which came out 9 months earlier and was cell animated and has some stunning use of animation, colours and backgrounds. One saving grace for Secrets of Cerulean Sand was the strong orchestral OST and lovely ED's. Low to mid 6/10 (6.4).

Kill Me Baby (2012) - gag comedy show based on a 4-koma manga about two girls, one an assassin and the other her loud and silly friend. The kind of comedy that makes you smile every now and then, at most a light chuckle, but not really laugh out loud funny. Best aspect was the dub performance by Hilary Haag and Luci Christian for the two leads. Pleasant but simple visuals. Low 6/10 (6.3).

Sol Bianca: The Legacy (1999) - this is an alternative version of the prequel OVA with a longer runtime. The stories were decent enough and I liked the world building, but the visuals just couldn't hold a candle to the prequel OVA. This was the first pre 2000 stand alone OVA I've come across made using very early digital animation techniques and cgi. To be fair the cgi ships and vehicles looked ok, better than Vandread or Secrets of Cerulean Sands. However, the character designs were off and looked pretty fuggly at times, which is a real shame as the char designs from the prequel OVA looked superb. If the animation had been of a similar standard to the prequel this would have been very good, as it is, high 6/10 (6.9).

Grand Blue Dreaming (2018) - basically a Japanese version of frat boys get drunk and enjoy some diving, usually while naked. I'd steered clear of this show for a while as I didn't think it looked or sounded very funny from the clips I'd seen, but it was actually pretty damn funny. I've learnt that even the worst scenarios and premises can be good if delivered with suitable poise and attention, most of the time. Some really good reaction faces that reminded me of the titans in Attack on Titan. Solid 7/10 (7.5).

Mouse (2003) - a bad copy of Cat's Eye and Lupin where the MC is a phantom thief known as Mouse (actually a rich playboy) who announces he's going to steal an item so he can pinch it from under the cops noses. He has 3 sexy assistants and most of the show is about their master-servant relationship and overt ecchi fan service. This really was rather rubbish, shows like this, if delivered with a tongue in cheek tone with some nudity can be worth watching, but it just doesn't work here. It feels like a flimsy excuse to have the MC (can't even remember his name) surrounded by women who all want to be his servant and let him use them however he wishes, and there's plenty of suggestive scenes showing what they mean, plus a few extra scenes hinting that he takes them up on their offers, but off screen ofc. Just makes a 5/10 for some nice boobs, but that's about it. Felt like a crappy OVA rather than a TV show, and as a fan of crappy OVA's (so bad it's good variety like Lemnear) that's being rather generous.

Elfen Lied (2004) - there's the foundation of a good premise here but the execution is too blunt and relies on shock value, gore and fan service, the latter of which comprised mostly minors, including the rape of a 13 y/o girl by her step father (seriously the way it was staged was just like a hentai/JAV and so fucked up, it wasn't edgy just sickening). Characters were pretty weak. I'm not a fan of watching cute anime girls suffer, although shows like Freezing and Cross Ange manage to pull it off. Backgrounds for the location were nice. There was enough build up to make some of the emotional beats land in the final climatic episode. Mid to high 6/10 (6.7).

Mushi-shi Path of Thorns (2014) - special between first and second parts of the second season about a mushi that has the power to absorb life and needs to be sealed. Calming, thoughtful, lovely visuals, high 7/10 (7.8).

Hunter x Hunter: The Last Mission (2013) - this spinoff original film centres on the persecuted descendants of a covert group of Hunters that were disbanded after their actions got out of control. The descendants hatch a plan to take revenge against the Hunter Association and chairman Netero and Gon and Killua come to his aid. Story was ok, Madhouse always bring solid visuals and OST. Both Hunter x Hunter films seem to have cracked the formula for a spinoff movie and have been pretty good, wish Madhouse would teach Toei as the One Piece films are always disappointing. Low 7/10 (7.3).

Mushi-shi: Next Passage Part 2 (2014) - the second part of season 2 continues same as the first, thoughtful, calming, sometimes melancholy, tidy self contained episodic stories, amazing visuals and OST. A very impressive story of the supernatural world, this franchise has been consistently solid from beginning to end. Same score as part 1, high 8/10 (8.7).

Mushishi: The Next Chapter - Belldrops (2015) - two episode length movie about a girl who becomes the chosen mountain lord. Good story, which benefited from the extra runtime giving it room to take root. Low 9/10 (9.0).

Magical☆Shopping Arcade Abenobashi (2002) - an isekai adjacent show where our two leads, Sasshi and Arumi are transported to various versions of their hometown shopping arcade, brimming with anime, movie and game parodies. You've got the fantasy version, sci-fi/mecha one, hard boiled detective, highschool dating SIM, wartime, movies, fairy tales etc. As they pass through each version they try and find the reason for their predicament and a way back to their own reality. Each episode had different art styles reminding me of Gainax works like Panty & Stocking, also some of the mecha designs looked very similar to the ones for the as-yet-unreleased Gurren Lagann. This show was created by studio Madhouse but Gainax are listed as producers and they are labelled all over the opening and end credits, so guessing they must've had a large creative input into this original production. Wacky, crazy but not especially deep. Mid 7/10 (7.4).