3-gatsu no Lion 2nd Season Studio Shaft and their great director of Akiyuki Shinobou (Monogatari and many Shaft works) continue to bring that “Shaft” feel to their anime. The second season of dubbed “shogi depression” is back after an amazing 22 episodes for more. Our main character, by the name of Rei Kiriyama, with a depressing past and even harder task of working through life’s mental challenges starts off a bit slow. The show immediately continues where the show left off last time, so needing to watch the first 22 is a need. The second and third episodes were a step in what made ‘3-gatsu’ so good with a surprise character development episode and then back to Rei and his struggle within his own life and a bit more of his past with his adoptive family. It is more of the same with lots of artistic imagery and if you enjoyed the first 22. Grade: this is a must watch of the fall season if having already seen season 1 Black Clover  This is regarded as THE next big shounen show. With the famous shounen Studio Pierrot behind it and massive popularity in Shounen Jump, the potential is here for a massive hit. However, what we got is a show that wants so bad to be a combination of every shounen show ever without so much of an original idea, most of which is Naruto x Fairy Tail. This show basically went down a check list as to what a shounen show should be. For example: a talentless protagonist striving to be the best ever, never give up attitude, emotionless rival that is already extremely talented, coincidental god/demon-like powers, and more. Oddly enough, the manga is extremely fast paced according to readers and the first three episodes cover all of the first 50 pages or so. This means the anime is already extending the source material and adding filler, but luckily if you aren’t familiar with the manga, this is not noticeable. The studio is also making some odd choices with things like a flashback for character development in episode 2 and an orphan baby scene just non-existent within the manga. Not to mention, the Japanese voice acting for the main character Asta can only be described as “nails to a chalkboard” with a constant state of a rising amplitude in his voice. This immediately makes many viewers hate the main character, which is a disaster for any show let alone with what should be a long running series. Luckily, the English dub from Funimation tones this down well and makes the show at least watchable. It still has a long way to go before bringing hope to Black Clover. Grade: skip until further notice, sub unwatchable Code: Realize: Guardian of Rebirth  In what could have been an interesting take on a rag-tag group of talented guys with an attractive female character fighting monsters in London; this turned into one bland attempt at a bishounen show. Basically, this is a show about hot anime dudes protecting an extremely weak and emotionless doll character with a “tragic” backstory. The show’s first three episodes were weak and episodic simply introducing all the hot anime guys for girl anime fans to drool over. Now, this could be all well in good. However, the story is seemingly absent 90% of the time in place of useless boy-banter and the occasional terrible one-liner from the characters. Character names are just as unimaginative and uninteresting as the show with character like Arsene Lupin, Victor Frankenstein, Abraham Van Helsing, and more. Grade: immediate drop, only for people wanting to drool over hot dudes Dies Irae  Where to even begin with this anime? The show has an episode 0 as a prologue to the show, so the viewer can already be as confused as possible. This prologue features Nazis in battle in which an officer meets a mage whom predicts Hitler’s downfall. Meanwhile, there are random character battles occurring during this conversation between officer and mage. The audience has no earthly idea to what anything has to do with anything other than the incredibly over-the-top “deep” dialogue occurring. Somehow these people introduced remember “past-selves” and conduct a ritual to get gold death blimps into a portal that transports them into the “present” world for future domination…. Or at least maybe, my brain kind of broke half way. Episode 1 to 3 of the actual show starts off with a high school anime boy and his high energy childhood friend because of course it does with inserted panty shots and other anime tropes. During these three initial episodes, the main character occasionally has mind bending memories and a guillotine and people committing mindless murders. He knows as much as the audience knows, which equals nothing and feel nothing but confusion. Slowly, each character seemingly loses their mind, all while characters on screen whom aren’t crazy continue to have nonsensible dialogue. After a totally of four episodes, I still could not tell you what this show is even about. Grade: hard drop unless you want to see a runaway train on fire without knowing why it is on fire Fate/Apocrypha (episodes 13-25 second half)  Netflix announced the first half will be released on November 7 outside of Japan. Second half will be watched and impression updated in time. Hopeful thoughts would include that I hope it is more Fate and the action will be solid. I have heard this is the worst written Fate series to date with a lot of anime wife bait. Grade: to be determined Food Wars The Third Plate  Food pimp extraordinaire Souma Yukihira is back for a third season. The second season being a bit of a disappointment compared to the first would be an understatement for some fans. Not to mention that a canon story OVA prequel episode to season three was never released. The first couple episodes features Souma meeting with the top chefs and he wants to challenge one of them, so he can prove his worth and climb that ladder to success. One of the elite chairs accepts his challenge. There just so happens to be a food festival starting so the contest is to whomever can sell the most over the course of the festival will be the winner. The chosen food theme is Chinese spice with a heavy flavour and emphasis on heat. Souma battles this tough cook and mostly the episodes are more of the same as to how season 2 went. He must overcome a seemingly tough situation with an even tougher opponent. The journey wasn’t anything too special, but luckily the payoff was quite good and exciting which is what viewers want out of Food Wars and shounen shows. Grade: Need to watch previous seasons, more of the same and more food Girls’ Last Tour  After the chibi character success of Made in Abyss from the summer 2017 season, fans of the show should find Girls’ Last Tour from an art and character perspective looks similar, but with a vastly different story and plot. This show can best be described of as a melancholy experience. Not much happens while these two young chibi girl characters have small back-and-forth conversations about topics revolving around their current situation the world has presented them. Music attests to a soft mood and helps with the atmosphere the show is going for. Each episode is of the episodic nature revolving around the two girls wandering from place to place in the seemingly vast and dead civilization brought on by a war of some kind. This show is a toss-up for many due to its incredibly slow pace and cute girls doing the occasional cute thing with mushed faces in all. Simple events drive the story such as the two exploring an excessively large factory with zero sunlight that goes on for what is implied as miles seen in the opening to the show. Simply finding food and driving around the empty lands on their cargo-motorrad is how the show usually goes. The two girls look around, see a thing, and then try to go to the thing. Grade: Not exciting but worth checking out Land of the Lustrous  A show focused around new lifeforms in which minerals have evolved into sentient beings has an extremely unique premise to say the least. The show is all in CG, but is done quite well. These genderless immortal lifeforms are called “Gems.” They are few in number and are hunted by another lifeform known as the “Moon Dwellers” whom use the gems for their own purposes such as slave labor or jewelry. The anime starts off describing some basic mineralogy and geologic terms to explain what these creatures we are watching are. The writing during these incredibly simplistic explanations have much to be desired and some facts are either skewed or just wrong. This could also be a translating error, so geology aside. Land of the Lustrous feels episodic, yet does have a concurring plot and story in the background. Sense of time passing in the show is a bit hard to follow at times, which attests to how these immortal beings go about their lives. There are plenty of thought provoking topics the show likes to bring up in the character’s dialogues such as isolation, time spent living, what is it to be alive, and many more. Sure, there are also the crazy anime-like antics of the main character as sort of comedic relief to these topic to not overwhelm the viewer all of the time. Strangely enough, the show is intriguing. Grade: Interesting story, unique premise, not a must-watch but give it a shot Hoozuki no Reitetsu Second Season  A different studio is working on this sequel as an FYI. Imagine if Hell was a bureaucratic society or modern Germany for some comedic sense. The anime is a comedy and it focuses around the chief-of-staff of this hell bureaucracy named Hoozuki. It follows his seemingly mundane tasks of his daily work life be it giving counsel to the King of Hell to various other missions. Each episode is stand alone, so watching the first season is not needed lucky enough. A new viewer can get into it without issue. The show does a good job setting up characters in each episode and even does a nice short introduction of Hoozuki at the start. This is a blunt and dark comedy. The jokes are referential to a lot of the social and economic norms of Japan and occasionally touches on other countries like Germany and the USA. There is a lot of characters based on Japanese legends or mythology, so it is recommended to familiarize yourself with at least a few of these in order to get a lot of the humour or else much of the show will fall flat. The first three episodes were based on the formula mentioned and does not do much other than Hoozuki gets a task and then dark blunt humour commences during said task. How much of this comedy resonates is entirely up to the viewer. Grade: Dark comedy with a lot of Japan references, watch if looking for “low humour” otherwise skip Inuyashiki  From the mind that brought the world “Gantz” brings another anime about shitty humans being shitty in a shitty society. It is all in CG and by Studio MAPPA, so at least that is solid. This is not a show for the faint hearted. It focuses around two characters. One is the protagonist whom is a 58 year old man that has a family that neglects him and a dude just overall down on his luck without much hope for the future. The other character is the antagonist whom is an emotionally confused teenager that just wants to feel because he has trouble feelings anything, and he likes manga and anime. The twist to all this is randomly at night on a hill side, due to circumstance the two of them become super terminators. In response to this we get two episodes showing how each react to their new bodies. The old man finds hope and feeling again by saving a homeless man from being murdered by asshole teenagers. In the next episode the high school kids uses his body to brutally terminate a helpless random family and he finally feels emotion of his own. The third episode has the two meet briefly, but then diverts into the two of them using their bodies in their own way as to “feel” again. Inuyashiki tends to use a lot of references to anime and manga during the breaking a fourth wall such as the old man trying to use his jets to fly while singing the Astro Boy theme song. There is a bit of light humour during all of these shitty events, but doesn’t deter from the fact many people could have some visceral reactions to seeing children brutally murders by a super terminator. Grade: Be careful of the show’s gruesome nature and sub-par writing. Otherwise a must watch 12 Wars  12 Wars is from the mind of the person that made the Monogatari series. This is a show with quite a bit of dialogue, yet well written dialogue. There are also some fantastically animated action scenes. The premise is not anything new with a battle royal last man standing takes all scenario. 12 warriors are gathered together each bearing a name and costume in relation to the signs of the Chinese zodiac. The winner of this tournament will be granted one single wish to their heart’s desire. In order to be the winner, one must collect these purple jewels that each character ingested. The jewel slowly dissolves within their body unleashing a slow acting poison, so time is a factor. 12 Wars has a great introductory episode around the “Boar.” It shows off her backstory and the introduction to what this tournament is including a brief look at the other contestants. Lots of cool action mixed with showing how awful some of these characters are or even their mental instability. The formula thereafter focuses around a new character and a backstory of their own followed by an action scene to wrap that character up and move onto the next one. Be prepared for long rants about that characters situation, what brought them there, and inner monologues. Not saying it is dull, but it could wear on the audience. A Funimation dub came out and is a good alternative for somebody wanting just a bit more focus on the show. Grade: Surprisingly engaging despite long rants and has fun action scenes. Recommended watch Blood Blockade Battlefront & Beyond  Impression pending as the Funimation dub will be viewed. Hoping the show is just as unique and colourful as the first season, but will have more focus on a story this time around. As a fellow anime watcher and podcast describes it: it is Gintama but in New York. Grade: to be determined Kino’s Journey The Beautiful World: The Animated Series  First off, this is not a sequel to the show from 2003. It is more of a “greatest hits” rendition of the “best” stories voted on by the readers of the light novel. This iteration of Kino’s Journey is about a girl Kino and her talking motorrad wandering from country to country and experiencing the nuance that each country has to offer. It is a simple premise, and very much effective to how the show presents it. Each country and how it is governed and/or the uniqueness to said country are single episode focused. There is a faster pace compared to the 2003 show as expected to having each country arc be toned down to a single episode. The theme in which each one brings a very thought provoking topic well made for discussion for high level education such as a country where murder is legal or gladiatorial battles for entertainment. The show does well in not so much presenting Kino, but more about the emotion brought out with the events of each episode. If the viewer wants more backstory, more detail, and more Kino, then the 2003 show is highly recommended. Kino’s Journey is all about the adventure to each and every new place and lots to think about along the way. It is a mature anime and a breath of fresh air here in 2017. Grade: A must watch despite being a bit inferior to the original. Children of the Whales  What happens when you mix nice unique art and a story with extremely vast world building? Well, Children of the Whales has an amazing environment and world that just hooks the viewer. It is set on a floating island while the sea is a vast scape of lustrous sand. This island is called the “Mud Whale” and it is home to this utopia like society where the people have an ability to make objects float as sort of an anti-gravity power of sorts. This comes at a price though in which their life spans are dramatically cut short. One day, another island appears off in the distance and our main character finds a lone girl almost devoid of all emotion. The main character name Chakuro basically befriends this girl and he also has a large sentiment to emotion which does play a role. The society and world that has developed over the three episode emphasizes the usefulness, uniqueness, and even uselessness of emotion. Episode three leaves off on a major cliff hanger to why these people on the Mud Whale are there? Why do they have enemies outside of their utopia? What is the motivation for all of this? Just many questions are put out there but all seemingly loop back to a select few as to keep to viewer hooked and not overwhelmed. The world building is utterly engrossing and the story unfolding is captivating. Grade: Extremely artistic and a unique outlook for what is ahead. A must watch of the season The Ancient Magus’ Bride  Despite what Wit Studio is in the anime industry, their shows they put out are generally quite successful. Here in comes Ancient Magus’ Bride. It is a melancholy dark emotional story focused around a 16 year old girl named Chise. Life has been hard on her to say the least and the show makes sure the audience is aware of this fact. This only helps captivate the viewer onto Chise herself as a character. By fate, Chise in a moment of desperation and events finds herself being taken in by a magus called Elias whom is more demon than human or at least by appearance. Events unfold at a slow pace, yet never feels slow itself due to the fact that one is so focused on Chise and what she is going through. Being part of her journey in itself is a treat to the world building, each episode if character building for Chise, and the cast around her is never seemingly over used. This show in its start is a masterpiece of art and storytelling. During these first few episodes, what is in story for Chise? Will her new life finally bring light to her dark world, or is there some nefarious plot happening in the background that is going to have her fall further into the darkness? If this sounds intriguing enough, there was a three episode OVA that exists as a sort of prequel to the world and Chise herself that is highly recommended. Grade: Fall in love with Chise and hope for her to be happy. Currently the number 1 show, a must watch Mr. Osomatsu 2  How well does a show that first aired in the 60’s translate to the modern era? By simply adjusting the comedy to the time while keeping the core point of the characters and cast intact. This is a second season to the rebooted comedy series. There is no entry point required for this show. An anime fan can jump in at any time for this high energy comedy. This follows the sextuplet NEET brothers and their crazy antics each and every episode. It is a straight up parody series all about being self-aware and having plenty of modern anime and timely references. Each episode seems to have multiple parts as to keep the viewer guessing to what comedy-thing will happen next. Will the brothers ask a girl out on a beach? Will the brother help their father find love again with their mother? Will the brothers become cavemen and invent the next best penis pleasure tool? The show is all over the place and gets pretty raunchy at times. The art is unique and even though it maintains that retro feel, it still has a place in 2017 as possibly a comedy we will continue to see more of like Gintama. Grade: How much nonsense comedy do you want? Otherwise skip. King’s Game  We are going to play a little game. A high school members of this class must abide by the rules the “King” set or face the consequences which usually end in death. Sure, this sounds like it could gruesome and a fun gore-porn type of show. Seeing characters slowly lose their minds and doing anything to survive should be an easy win. All there has to be is a set of events and character attitudes that make sense and focus on the game itself. Instead, King’s Game opens at a break net pace and showcases a cast of characters that make strange assumptions and even stranger choice to what they believe is happening. On top of this the main character is pretty insufferable. He has played the game before and should be more broken then what the show is presenting which is simply teenage angst if anything. This guy is mostly a self-insert blank slate character as well that likes a good cry about his past. Speaking of which, each episode likes to show long flashbacks to a previous King’s Game focusing around random events. These flashback are almost the entire episode, and to make matter worse, we already know what happens to the characters in the past, they all die. Why would the audience be invested? Sure, seeing the sequence of how they died is the appeal, but it doesn’t work. This is a disappointing result. Grade: This show is a total mess and not worth it, drop it. The King commands it. Urahara  Made and created by Crunchyroll itself and their first real project at that. Urahara is about three cute girls at a part-time shop in Japan’s Harajuku. Each episode is about a different alien arriving on Earth to steal the culture surrounding Harajuku. Why the aliens want to steal culture is anyone’s guess. Maybe they are from an alternate Macross universe? While the first alien attacks a mystery alien girl appears and grants the three girls magical powers to fight said monsters. Basically, the formula this show goes by is there cute girls doing cute things for a bit like shopping and eating sweets and then the monster of the week shows up. They do their magical girl transformations and defeat the monster. All while the mystery girl and her horrible tempura shrimp pet mascot character learn about culture. The show is rough is many areas due to this being a first try such as crude art, crude and/or overly simplistic character designs, rough animation sequence in what could be fun little action scenes, and lazily imaginative monsters that a child would come up with. This is not the worst show, but it will take an open mind to get past a lot of the show’s shortcomings. Grade: A good first attempt, but ultimately drop it or skip it all together GARO: Vanishing Line  Yet another MAPPA show this season and another rendition into the GARO universe. This GARO is more modern in the sense of the world, and focuses around a large burley hunk of man meat called Sword. He fights these demon-like creatures that used to be humans while along the way searching for clues to a puzzle in which nothing in known about. There is also a girl briefly introduced whom is looking for the same puzzle, but with little to nothing to go on as well. That clue is the word “El Dorado.” Your guess is as good as mine. The first few episodes are episodic in nature with nothing progressing what little plot there is. It is all about Sword and his sweet bike meeting/working with a supporting cast of characters like the girl searching like him, an emo-ish sniper, and a femme-fatale sex goddess. Not much has really happened then the monster of the week and even though the action is fairly sweet, there just isn’t much here to go on. Grade: A shallow plot with shallow characters, with cool action. Skip or otherwise drop later Welcome to the Ballroom (episodes 13-24 second half)  Usually sports anime fall into two categories: they are either a total slam dunk or they go all out by falling hard to the ground. A ballroom dancing anime is unique at the minimum. The second half continues with our main character Tatara now looking for a dance partner of his own. Tatara has new found motivation in reaching the stage the other cast of characters are already on. His impatience shows heavily, and he is constantly down on himself about being a novice compared to the season veterans the other dancers he knows are. He does by total chance end up finding an extremely attractive dance partner and has much in common with her despite their surface level differences. Of course, even she has her own gripes about her to overcome in order to reach the next dancing level as well. The pairing works well. What does not work is still Tatara. He is a moody guy that really levels up in his teenage angst in this second half. This is wearing and takes so much away from the completion, training, and story unfolding before the audience. What is also a negative is the sheer absence of dancing being animated most of the time, many re-hashed scenes, still frames galore, and music disappearing. For an anime about dancing and music either being hard to notice or just absent is unacceptable. Tatara better man-up or the show better focus more on the journey of his new partner or this show will be in further trouble. Grade: It is hovering in borderland drop territory, but has shown high points in rare instances Shows not covered: Love Live Sunshine Second Season – been told it is an idol anime with zero ideas Blend S – cute girls doing cute things with one dimensional characters Himouto Umaru-chan R – hear this show is cancer and now anime was a mistake Recovery of a MMO Junkie – woman gets addicted to a MMO but focuses too much within the game itself when the reality scenes are where it shined Just Because – the romance comedy junior high show that will likely be highly overrated All You Need is a Little Sister – fucking your sister is wrong and anime is now a mistake |
BowlingJDNov 5, 2017 3:37 PM
| Too-too-roo! "We'll do some culture afterwards" -Macross (1982 Ep 36) |
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