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| Iz's WeeabooAF 2017 Entertainment Countdown, el psy despacito |
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 18th December 2017, 05:52 PM
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#1
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 I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929                
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So here is how this is going to work.
This year's EOY will contain discussion on songs, it may contain discussions on normal people's films and tv shows, so you can all keep your posting fingers tuned for that if you want to say how much you like something I do (always welcome x). But I'm not doing a countdown for these. Particularly for songs, I should explain why. It's not that I'm out of love with music, I'm doing something more extensive in the BJSC forum, but I didn't listen to enough new music outside of that (including popular music!) to justify rounding it all up and doing a countdown. I'll talk about my favourite songs and leave it at that. But first and foremost, and this is the only actual countdown that's going on here, I'm counting down my anime TV shows. Plenty of anime films, but they'll go in the film section. It's just that these 32 (total divisions: 2 are awful, about 5 are average, and 25 are really good) the only bits of entertainment I currently feel like commenting on to an extent. However, before you tune out because there's nothing here that you've seen, have a little read of my commentary. I think it's excellent if I do say so myself, I've made it fairly comedic and taking the piss out of myself, and there are no major spoilers in any of it so feel free to read on and discover the depths of my depraved mind. Might be a change from countdowns with multiple appearances from millionaire popstars. In any case, let the fun begin!  (if anyone recognises this anime, this is the first entry for the 2018 competition, I just started watching it after I downloaded the visual novel and got hooked, my god what a rollercoaster) |
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18th December 2017, 06:09 PM
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#2
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
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IZ' ANIME COUNTDOWN 2017 A brief word on rules: I must have watched at least 2 episodes of it this year – this clears out the occasional show I decided to watch a bit of the first episode before realising ‘oh this isn’t what I wanted to watch at all kill it’, and I can’t have covered it in an EOY before - if I had finished it in that EOY, this gets rid of the rewatches (which I did for Attack On Titan and Charlotte this year) while enabling me to properly evaluate the second half of Death Note. Obviously seasonal shows are separate but if I watched more than one season of the show it’s combined. As before, there are separate rankings for shows airing in what I’ve now decided will be the ‘last six anime seasons’, so that's going back to Summer 2016, because there’s still a big disconnect between shows that are new like that and older titles, I’ll put in the place on my all time list as well. Also as before, there's my patented "Tentacle Rating", which just evaluates how 'anime' and 'Japanese' the show is, a low score and you'd barely notice the difference between this and a Netflix hit were it live-action, a high score and you'd better batten down the hatches because it's raining catgirls and traps. The BAD (abandon all hope, if there's an anime I found bad, god help the rest of you, but then, collectively, I only watched 5 episodes of these two shows because they were so awful) 32/LAST. Eromanga Sensei #61 in all time (out of 61), #16 in shows this year  ‘Girls my age all love dicks’ Genre: Incestuous ‘slice-of-life’ Tentacle Rating: 12/10 – 1 score for every year of the girls that are fetishized in this piece of crap. So sometimes the dying* words of Hayao Miyazaki, ‘anime was a mistake’, seem more and more relevant to our increasingly ridiculous society. It’s not just international politics that has been f***ing up, it’s Chinese cartoons too. This ‘work of art’ hit the popular list of the anime community for all the wrong reasons during the spring season, although to be fair, it wasn’t all weirdos who watched it, some people just watch trash for the hell of it. But let’s not go straight into what I think of it and dispense with the facts. #1: It comes from the same author who wrote the similarly infamous light novel/anime My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute (which I can proudly say I have never watched). #2: The main character is a famous teenage light novel author who gets all his rather lewd artwork drawn by a mysterious internet character called Eromanga Sensei and he is definitely not a pathetic self-insert. #3: His little sister (who in the first line of the show is established to be NOT RELATED BY BLOOD NOT RELATED BY BLOOD NOT RELATED BY BLOOD) is an 12-year old shut in who demands that he make her food and then never comes out of her room, so I immediately hated her for that alone and we hadn't even got to the dodgy part yet. #4: SURPRISINGLY, it turns out that Eromanga Sensei is the little sister next door, what a coinkidench - the characters then do the typical anime embarassed routine and it's quite cringeworthy. #5: In the second episode, another girl the same age as the little sister says the phrase that I've repeated three times up until now just to let it sink in: Girls my age all love dicks. I don’t really need to comment. So at this point, not 2 episodes in, I was only watching it to see how bad it got. I only picked it up because I'd heard things about it and wanted to see how bad it was, I didn't count on it being this bad. But I took a step back, and decided for myself I had better things to do with my time than watch an unskilled writer’s ephebophiliac fantasies unfold. Basically it is the very thing that as an anime fan I’m constantly trying to prove that anime isn’t, and it’s creepy as all hell. It’s not even the incest that bothers me (that much, that stepsister kink is basically the same as what’s allegedly popular in porn these days), just that the characters are too young for the subject material. And no one was remotely likeable, which is of course important when young cartoon girls are being sexualised, poorly. So this is something that I'm rather nervous about putting as the first thing in this EOY thread but it's the worst so we're dispensing of it immediately so that we may never think of it again. At least there wasn’t much high school, though we aren’t far off that show that shows us life in elementary. Music: I did not watch this long enough for any music to stick with me Best Characters: None really but the non-little sister girl is the only one who could be remotely good if she were in another series and… at least five years older at a MINIMUM. *as he went into retirement 31. Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? #59 in all-time  ‘You save a weak female adventurer from a hideous monster’ Genre: Not Isekai but Generic Fantasy Tentacle Rating: 8/10, the excessive boobs will make anyone catching you watching it think you’re weird, which is at the heart of what the Tentacle Rating is all about. Can you sense the theme of the shows I don’t like? It’s not that I don’t enjoy lewdness, there’s certainly some shows further up that revel in it. I think anyone who says that they don’t has either been raised an excessive prude or is lying. This is however at least a bit more socially acceptable than Eromanga-Sensei. But there still needs to be a point to the lewdness and an entertaining story besides, and for the episodes I watched, DanMachi (the Japanese name for the series that I shall now call it to prevent me having to type that title again) did not give me any reason to suspect that there was an entertaining story. And I may have oversold the lewdness, despite the title (that apparently goes unanswered, because to answer it would be to give a point to this story), this is no more egregious than Sword Art Online in that department. Though its female lead, Hestia, is definitely gifted with two very generous assets and… back to the review. DanMachi is like Sword Art Online, but devoid of Sword Art Online’s premise, instead, the characters are just in a generic fantasy world. The one saving grace is that they’re natives of this world rather than some loser wish fulfilment character transported into the world (isekai) but that’s not enough to make it interesting enough to watch. I got a few episodes in, decided that there was nothing that made me want to continue, it was too boring to carry on, and even the other female lead being named Iz (well, Ais, but it’s pronounced the same) couldn’t interest me anymore. Not bad per se, just with nothing good about it. And I only picked it up because it was the most popular show in its season by some metric. Guess the influence that SAO had on anime was both good and bad – DanMachi is one of the bad, through boredom and mediocrity only. Music: I can’t recall any music and normally fantasy anime have the best music, so that was a bad sign from the start. Best Characters: I’d love to say Iz but she was pretty bland, I’d have to give it to Hestia, who was fairly cute, was named after a classical goddess (one thing the series kind of did right, but it also put me off a little because lots of characters were named after classical goddesses and there was no clear reason given as to why and I'm against symbolism for symbolism's sake. We'll revisit this conflict with another, better, anime further up) and she would have kept me watching if the plot had been slightly more interesting. |
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18th December 2017, 06:57 PM
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#3
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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The average
30. March Comes In Like A Lion #57 in all time, #15 in 2016-2017  ‘They told me to come over anytime, but did they mean it?’ Genre: Depression Tentacle Rating: 2/10, it’s a very mature anime. I only watched 3 episodes of this as well, but I haven’t officially dropped it even though this was all the way back in… something like March. It’s something I do think I might return to, at a later date, when I’m ready and in a more comfortable place in my own life. It actually has more than a few similarities with Your Lie In April, aside from the month being in the title, there’s a bespectacled main character who is a prodigy in one specific skill, and he’s very sad because of a tragedy in his past. Done by Shaft, the anime studio responsible for Monogatari and basically any ‘experimental’ artsy as f*** anime, it has a much more of that specific feel to it, and it does feel like it’s going to be building to some heavy emotions. The first 3 episodes were okay. They weren’t bad, but weren’t enough to hook me in any further. I’ve heard only good things about it since, so I do feel slightly bad about leaving it like that. Many anime that I’ve felt this way about after so soon I’ve ended up loving later, which is why I don’t often go by the much vaunted ‘3 episode rule’ and only really follow it if the genre is trash anyway. Thing is the show now has 2 seasons after seeming at the outset like something that only had one, I don’t know how feasible it would be to get through them all. Maybe something saved best for another year. Music: Bump Of Chicken, a band I only know of because Bre occasionally brings up their amazing name, did the ending, and that was rather nice. Other than that, nothing much. Best Characters: I didn’t really watch for long enough to get a sense. 29. Interviews With Monster Girls #56 in all-time, #14 in 2016-2017  ‘Just because you're a vampire doesn't mean all your exams should be red, too’ Genre: Slice Of Life Tentacle Rating: 4/10 – Surprisingly low for a ‘monster girl’ series, but aside from a teacher being rather (wholesomely) friendly with his students there’s not much, the girls look fairly normal and the subject matter is very pure. Almost too pure. The first series I’ve finished in full on this list, while fine enough, I found it a little challenging to finish Interviews With Monster Girls. It wasn’t bad, but it was just a little dull and nowhere near as fun as the ‘monster girl’ tag claimed, which is right because that’s a bit of a poor translation of what the girls are, they only have small, unmonstrous, differences from humans. I was fooled! In the Japanese, they’re called Demi-chans, so what would be more accurate would have just been to call the show Interviews With Demi-Human Girls. Though it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue or the marketing departments as well. Basically this difference, rather than the insanity that Monster Musume put us through, gives us a fairly tame show where very little interesting happens. Teachers are put into embarrassing moments with their students, everyone has a good laugh and there’s a bit of reflection on what it means to be discriminated against as these things the girls are laden with, having no head, being a vampire, are treated almost like they are disabilities. Except to my mind Katawa Shoujo did that whole thing in a far more compelling way, and that had girls with actual disabilities. It’s a cute show but I didn’t find it all that enjoyable. I’ve figured I’m cool with slice-of-life shows, but only if there’s an interesting enough plot going on in the background, and this wasn’t it. Now if this had gone full Monster Musume and had involved riots, social change and tension, then perhaps I would have been on board with it, but that wasn't the aim, the show just aimed for some comfort cuteness while only trying to tackle the serious issues it brought up through low-level 'let's all get along' anti-bullying tropes. It's a different method, but it's somewhat like watching paint dry. Music: I remember very little, the OP was more memorable for its images storyboard backgrounds, which were very visually descriptive in what was different about each ‘demi’. Best Character: The best thing about this show is Hikari, a vampire who is one of the best embodiments of ‘cute slacker’ (a character archetype I’m going to complain about later on btw) I’ve seen because everything she does is off the cuteness charts. Such a good-looking character model. |
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19th December 2017, 03:34 PM
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#4
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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28. Fastest Finger First (first half)
#53 in all-time, #13 in 2016-2017  'If you think all questions connected by 'and' are parallel, you're dead wrong' Genre: Geek sports-anime Tentacle Rating: 4/10 – fairly standard highschool setting with no real ‘weird’ anime elements, although it’s rather filled with all the high school anime character archetypes you’d need to fill in a bingo sheet I haven’t finished Fastest Finger First as although I was somewhat enjoying it, I also wasn’t that interested to go to the next episodes either. There is a sports anime for every conceivable ‘sport’ out there, and they all follow much the same structure, underdog gets into a team, sport changes their life and makes them friends and teammates, they end the series winning a flawless victory, yadda yadda yadda. Most of what’s different about Fastest Finger First is that it’s a sport for NERDS (and is rather unhomoerotic as far as sports anime goes because it’s not a single-gender sport). The sport is, quiz bowl, or as we in the west call it, University Challenge. But with high schoolers. Because what f***ing else? So if you’ve seen Starter For Ten or just watch UC itself you’ll have an idea of what’s going on here, lots of quizzes with fast buzzer presses. Loser Shiki joins a quiz bowl club that is suspiciously desperate for new members despite having a very hot girl, Fukami, doing the recruiting, there’s a huge ream of monologues dedicated to the characters internally talking about how their incredible strategic minds can figure out the question being answered before it’s even finished being read, and that’s actually the part of this anime I absolutely live for. I love strategy being read out to me so I can follow the thought processes of the characters and vicariously live through them like I myself am playing the game, and when it’s about trivia quizzes, even better. So that part, the concept, I’m down for. The execution is just not quite interesting or unique enough for me to really rank it much higher as I don’t really care too much about the characters, my interest in trivia has me questioning the more bullshit plot twists when characters answer questions they could not have known the answer to and despite my love of trivia, there’s only so much emotion you can attach to trivia. It’s not fantasy or cute women, is what I’m trying to say. So naturally like the emotionless bast*rd I am, I ignore it. Music: Pretty standard anime opening but I did find it a little bit catchy, nowhere near enough to consider subjecting anyone I know to it though. Best Characters: For an anime filled with archetypes, the characters are pretty equal in blandness and can be good and bad. While Shiki, is frustratingly weak-willed he does grow a bit, and Mikuriya is rather rootable in an everyman way. Fukami, the female lead has a very pretty character design that does grab the screen, and I suppose she deserves points for publically being weird in high school when her looks should make her more popular. And not quite to Haruhi-manipulative levels, but that does make it a little less fun. 27. Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Ilya (Season 1) #50 in all-time  'She wouldn't die even if you killed her' (nice inter-universe reference) Genre: Magical Girl fantasy Tentacle Rating: 5/10 for season 1, I’ve heard later seasons really bump up this number. What’s that, another Fate anime in Iz’s anime? It must be bloody Tuesday (and what do you know, it actually is when I'm posting this). That is however not in itself, where this anime goes, there’s remarkably little blood in Fate Collide Lion Prissmillya, which already stands it in stark contrast to the rest of Fate, which kills off characters if not quite with the regularity of Game Of Thrones, certainly the brutality. But none of that in Fate Clyde Ocean Liner Prime Meridian, which takes place in a completely alternate timeline where everyone lives in a rather happy family and share little in common with their more murderous counterparts. It’s like if Breaking Bad released a spinoff show about Gus, Walter and Mike playing golf with Jesse as the comic relief bellboy and that’s all well and good, but where are my drugs and murder? And my drugs are the historical characters, which is disturbingly close to my reality but let’s ignore that. Yeah, there aren’t any new or interesting historical characters, all that happens is the girls of the cast get talking magic wands and have to hunt down cards of the normal Servants in some sort of reverse Yu-Gi-Oh, completely non-lethal despite what that gif shows you, I've been watching a lot of non-lethal anime but when it's Fate it just feels wrong, because so much of the strength of Fate is about the tragedy of countless characters not fulfilling their dreams. And then the magic wands scold the main characters so very awfully for being lazy girls which just serves to make me glance furtively around to check no one is seeing me watch something this GAY. It has a few good moments, there’s one point where Illya magically appears like F/SN’s Archer which is cool, and other SLIGHT SLIGHT shoutouts to the main series but screw finishing this, this is not the cool shit I signed up to Fate for. And apparently it gets a bit more yuri (anime code for lesbian, yaoi is the gay male equivalent) later on because it’s yet another anime where the only major characters are allowed to be girls, which means all the good male Fate characters are sidelined. The one thing that worries me is that one of the anime I constantly see recommended is Madoka Magica which is another entry in the magical girl genre. Having established that this is of limited interest to me, I hope that isn’t as drab as this. Though I’m aware that something (I have no idea what) happens in the first few episodes that I’m sure that anyone who reads this that has watched it will be grinning about right now. So that might actually be good. Music: The OP and soundtrack, as with all Fate animes, is rather epic. It also has those little references to all the Fate characters in the opening animation that gives me chills. That was a good part. Characters: Illya, she’s good in the main Fates but this is her anime and her cute personality is really given the chance to shine – for reasons this is rarely possible in the main Fates. Meanwhile, Rin, my favourite character in the other Fates, comes off a bit annoying and cold. I think that’s half my problem with this anime, I have a very clear idea who most of its characters are and because of this alternate timeline they act nothing like the personalities that I’d come to love them for, and inferior ones at that, while the characters I wasn’t so familiar with seem like an annoyance and a detractor from the Fate characters who are missing or underused here (like Irisviel PLEASE). |
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19th December 2017, 06:04 PM
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#5
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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26. Izetta: The Last Witch
#49 in all-time, #12 in 2016-2017  'Make a country where everyone chooses their own tomorrow' Genre: Historical alt-timeline WW2 where a tomboy princess steals a lesbian witch from the Nazis Tentacle Rating: 4/10, I guess, the actual WW2 part of the conflict is fairly realistic, but you also have a witch riding a machine gun into battle, and a bit of yuri/lesbian sexual tension between the two leads. Did I mention the witch riding a machine gun into battle? That is the climax of a rather exciting first episode that sells Izetta, my female red-headed witchy counterpart, as an interesting heroine at the start of an intriguing show into alternate history where witches exist, or used to exist. I actually wrote a little article on where I think the timeline must have diverged based the names of all countries being different, based on all the information the show gives us, which is something I don’t get to do often enough, because not enough shows have alternate timelines, at least not ones I can figure out, thanks Fate. It got a tad dull after the first episode as the characters weren’t really that interesting beyond one or two. But it wasn’t too bad. I think its worst crime is that it was confused on tone and even then I don’t think it’s the worst example of that, the light, fluffy, faux-lesbian bits were heartwarming and enjoyable, the dark bits were grim reminders of the horrors of war, when it went from one to the other it was a little jarring but both sides were okay. I was not so keen on most of the villains, they were too easily telegraphed and rather obviously cacklingly evil, which you might expect from something that involves witches but I digress. Plot contrivances happen to make the darkest parts of the show move forward (a particular one that stands out is two high-ranking officers making secret plans that must not be overheard in the middle of a freaking FOREST CLEARING). Izetta also gets very one-note in her love for Finé, the princess lead (no, I’m not making that obvious joke), and it starts to get a little tiring. The ending was a little disappointing and had characters dying/not dying when they should/shouldn’t have had me raging a bit. But some individual episodes were enjoyable, focusing on one or two characters and their journey through the war, and the witch background is a decent but unspectacular variant on the war. Music: The OP, Cross The Line, is probably the best song on any of the shows so far, if you heard it you’d definitely call it ‘typical anime’, but that just means a load of exciting tempo-ed Japanese female rock that has a good stop-start rhythm. Best Characters: Izetta is the best just because she’s cute, dominates a lot of the show and rides that machinegun but she also ruins it up until nearly the very end by being so subservient to Finé. Ricelt and Berkman are fairly interesting guys as they are messing around in the shadows and so have rather grey loyalties. And I'll say that the espionage/political part of Izetta is done fairly well (particularly Eylstadt’s plea for help from the Allies). 25. RWBY (Season 4) (whole show) #17 in all-time  '...but we have to try, if not for us, then for the people we haven't already lost yet' Genre: Fantasy for obscure weapon obsessives Tentacle Rating: -1/10 again, nothing weird happens and this is technically an American anime if it even is one. I still count RWBY as an anime for my countdown purposes. No one reading this will blame me for it but there are certain corners of the Internet who would scream and throw poop at such a suggestion. It's on Crunchyroll and though it's obviously American it's still too laden in the tropes of anime for me to separate it. That irrelevance aside, this was a weaker season for RWBY after a rather glorious season 3, for which I entirely blame the lack of a tournament arc and the lack of strong bold narrative choices that the end of season 3 had in spades. Volume 4 was mostly a personal, lower-key volume, as the characters, now split up from each other, went through their own personal journeys before they could move on with actually defeating the villains. It was listless and directionless for a long part of the season, there were a lot of admittedly good character revealing backstory moments, and a few well done montages towards the end but it was all building up to something that didn't really end up paying off, in this volume anyway. See I was watching this when it came out and that slower pace with the short episodes didn't leave much on me Fights still happened and were visually impressive (particular highlight was a long hair don't care man with a scorpion braid called Tyrion pretending he wasn't a dwarf and actually a threat to our main characters, his fight did leave me satisfied) but I was not shocked or excited by anything compared with what happened before and while at the time I was pleased with how it finished, that was probably largely because everyone finally stopped trying to pass arguments with their family as interesting original drama. Now I've had some time to think about, it's put me off heading into season 5 for now. I think I will wait until it's all out this time around because RWBY is a show that you go through quickly. Watching it weekly did allow me to cover it weekly on my blog and I do know that I get a lot more detail remembered by doing that but it's a big effort for something I wasn't having as much fun with it. Looking back at those articles, I was a lot more positive then but it just reads to me like I was straining to find something good about it. For example, my post on the episode A Much-Needed Talk, a title that embodies the sense of trying too hard to make it seem like the writer's character plot development is worthwhile, I wrote "not the best the show has done but some interesting things to think about". What interesting things? From what I remember, it was a bunch of unnecessary mythology info-dumping with some pretty night scenes. Most other episodes were better than that but this was a big step down for RWBY. I hope Season 5 is shaping up better. Music: Sadly, though RWBY always used to be good in this department, this didn't turn out well either. The opening song was a song I'd be embarassed to show to anyone, its lyrics are relevant but far too on the nose: 'Then it turned out life was far less like a bedtime story, than a tragedy with no big reveal of the hero's glory', though the rock sound is still rather great. And unlike with previous seasons, there was no May I Fall, Mirror Mirror, Caffeine or Neon that I noticed as a good inset song either. Best Characters: I'm giving it to my boy Lie Ren this time around, he had a great season, his backstory was done and it was the best of them all this season, who can beat a male Mulan-influenced character who's suddenly getting a ton of focus after being in the background for three seasons? |
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19th December 2017, 07:21 PM
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#6
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 Howdy, disco citizens
Joined: 16 January 2010
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As Buzzjack's #1 anime loon (sorry Iz, you'll never steal my crown), it's only right that I'm the first to comment on this. Shamefully, I can't tell what anime that gif is in your first post - at first I thought it might be My Hero Academia, but I can't place that character. 2nd guess would be My Monster Secret, which I haven't seen, but I believe the main character in that anime looks quite similar.
Anyway, my thoughts - Eromanga Sensei - I've never seen this, and have no intention of doing so. I did watch the first season of "My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute" (or Oreimo as it's commonly known as), although it wasn't until the 2nd season that it started to actually get into the, "you know what", so I didn't venture further. Is It Wrong to Try & Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? - I only started watching this because it got a lot of coverage in mainstream media (including The Daily Mail) off the back of people copying Hestia's infamous "string". It was okay, nothing to write home about. Interviews With Monster Girls - I quite liked this one actually - I quite liked the relaxed pace, the almost natural approach taken to the monster girls' quirks (dullahan aside), Hikari is just a joy to watch, and I liked that the main character was someone older, plus it wasn't as sexually explicit as, ahem, another monster girls series. Fastest Finger First - well, I do love a good quiz, so I absolutely loved this one. |
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19th December 2017, 09:00 PM
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#7
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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QUOTE(Brett-Butler @ Dec 19 2017, 07:21 PM)  As Buzzjack's #1 anime loon (sorry Iz, you'll never steal my crown), it's only right that I'm the first to comment on this. Shamefully, I can't tell what anime that gif is in your first post - at first I thought it might be My Hero Academia, but I can't place that character. 2nd guess would be My Monster Secret, which I haven't seen, but I believe the main character in that anime looks quite similar. Anyway, my thoughts - Eromanga Sensei - I've never seen this, and have no intention of doing so. I did watch the first season of "My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute" (or Oreimo as it's commonly known as), although it wasn't until the 2nd season that it started to actually get into the, "you know what", so I didn't venture further. Is It Wrong to Try & Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? - I only started watching this because it got a lot of coverage in mainstream media (including The Daily Mail) off the back of people copying Hestia's infamous "string". It was okay, nothing to write home about. Interviews With Monster Girls - I quite liked this one actually - I quite liked the relaxed pace, the almost natural approach taken to the monster girls' quirks (dullahan aside), Hikari is just a joy to watch, and I liked that the main character was someone older, plus it wasn't as sexually explicit as, ahem, another monster girls series. Fastest Finger First - well, I do love a good quiz, so I absolutely loved this one. Of course, of course, Brett-senpai. For now x. Thanks for coming along and commenting. It's Higurashi (When They Cry). I got the visual novel in a Humble Bundle a few days ago and liked what I've seen so far there so I've started the anime version (first new anime I've started in months, my time in India was just spent finishing off other ones I've started) to see how they compare. Quite a cute... but disturbing story. DanMachi in the Daily Mail? Ha, that must have been quite a sight. Mmm, yes, I liked many of those things about Interviews too, but it was a little too relaxed for me, I was wanting a bit more action. I should finish Fastest Finger First. I loved the quiz aspects of it, I just wasn't too interested in the character arcs, I was mainly there seeing what questions would get asked. |
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20th December 2017, 06:15 PM
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#8
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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24. KADO - The Right Answer
#45 in all-time, #10 in 2016-2017  'There isn't just one answer, for one thing. We aren't God. We'll never know what was right - and what was the right answer - for our whole lives. But even if we don't know, we have to keep looking' Genre: Hard, serious sci-fi Tentacle Rating: 3/10 - it tries hard to not be lumbered with anime tropes, but ultimately, fails What a disappointment KADO turned out to be! When I picked it up in mid-spring, it was being hailed by all the big voices in the anime community as the underrated gem of the season, a CGI anime yes, but one with an intriguing plot, an incredibly well-done first' (episode zero) episode, and it did have a very intriguing and rather original premise and I wasn't sure where they were going to go. As I did with my article on it, it's hard to talk about the show without revealing what happens at the end of episode 0 that sold me on the show initially so I'm just going to fill up a paragraph or so talking about how incredibly interesting I found those government officials going round and inspecting the power plant and getting chummy with the workers so that anyone who really cares can just skip over this now I've given fair warning. I couldn't wait to see an anime about the insiders view on a branch of government of Japan and how a talented civil servant and minister works his way through it. The skill with which our dashing main character negotiates a better future for these workers is just breathtaking to watch. And then some sci-fi thing comes and messes it all up. It brings new challenges, new things to offer humanity, and a new way of life that everyone must accept or... face the consequences. And there's a creepy completely sheet white guy suddenly acting all mysterious and driving these changes and yes, I was really enjoying it for the first part of the show, because I was still in the dark, I still didn't know where this would go, who was a good guy and who wasn't. I'm not saying exactly what happened because I want to keep these reviews somewhat spoiler free, but let's just say the second half, no, not even the second half, that was good too, it was just the resolution of this anime really ruined it, it did not match what we were sold at first, being a rather lackluster, soft sci-fi explanation for the intense mystery that the first half built up. Also by then the CGI really wore me down and I was getting a little tired of the slow pace and realism that seemed so fresh at first. It's a sci-fi anime trying its hardest to be not an anime, but at the end, the writers, who had been writing anime their entire lives, didn't know how to end the thing without falling back on something that's found in about every show. What it did do well, and it's ALMOST in my good section, was that it maintained the mystery very intensely, with its more adult tone it seemed a lot more like Star Trek than most anime as we're dealing with characters competent and comfortable in their jobs up against a 'new frontier', rather than teenagers being our main characters, and it involves the betterment of humanity and there are debates and almost classically-trained grandstanding and debates about what it means to be human. Even though it's not set in space, it's the most Trek I've ever seen an anime be. It's just mostly that ending that led it falling down the rankings. Music: Again, also very trek, it's still J-pop, but it's so atmospheric and orchestral that it could almost be a Trek opening and few fans would bat an eye. Best Characters: Shindo, the lead is the best character because he's so competent at everything and he's quite fun to watch. Actually, most of the characters were done well until the final episodes, another character who was presented completely straight casually revealed he liked other men towards the end. The GOOD 23. K-On! (Season 1) #41 in all-time  'What have you been doing hogging up the music room all this time! This isn't a place to have tea!' Genre: Slice-Of-Life Tentacle Rating: 6/10, this show basically started a whole subgenre of slice-of-life known as Cute Girls Do Cute Things (CGDCT) Before Love Live, there was K-On! A show where a number of girls, the only gender apparent in their high school, come together in a club to make beautiful music. Allegedly, in K-On's case, as a common criticism or just noted point made about the series is that though the Light Music Club are in actual fact, a rock band, they spend less time with their instruments than they do with their teacups. Oh, the plot is driven by their desire to perform but they prefer to laze about more often than not and only pick up the guitars and the drums at the exact moment they need to have a good rock show and make everyone at school smile with their amazing music. It's really hard to fault K-On, because all it tries to do is to make you happy and it's certainly good at that, hence why it leads off my 'good' section, it's lower than others as I thought the length of time it took me to get through it and the fact I was finishing it in India, the happiest part of my year already, meant that it was a lot of slow-going through this one, only watching an episode as and when I needed to. It was a very good cuteness thing though. Haven't gone onto Season 2 yet although I may in time. Characters: More of a word about the characters, as they were very important to how much I liked the show. Yui, the ostensible lead, as you start out with her, I actually wasn't too keen on. It's because she's such a slacker and lazy character that I really find it hard to root for her, I kept wanting her to be less pathetic and yet she never got off her backside and did anything without sounding incredibly lethargic, I guess it might there to be relatable but I'm not that sort of person, I like being lazy but revelling in it always seems wrong. Far be it from me to complain about an anime character's work ethic but there needs to be something there for me to not want some dark-haired girl in leather with a whip to come in and get them into shape... don't get embarrassed Mio, I'll get to you. But yes, I would have liked the series a lot more had Yui's brilliant little sister Ui actually been the main character because it's not fun having a huge slacker at the lead to the extent it feels like the show is promoting laziness. Mugi is completely a blank slate of a character, I watched this mostly very recently and I am struggling to think of anything she did that was relevant besides be have her family own a guitar shop to have a convenient way for Yui to get her guitar. Fortunately Asuka, the 5th member, introduced later, is really cute and the other two members of K-On are far more interesting to watch, Ritsu is still a slacker but she's a more realistic and believable slacker, with an occasional sense of humour as well, she picks up the pace when is needed and isn't constantly letting her teammates down, and then Mio is the best character in K-On bar none. Just like Umi in Love Live, she serves as the serious thinking centre of the team and is the only one of the girls with real motivation to get things done, and her tendency to get easily embarrassed, which is her supposed less attractive trait, comes across as cute and endearing. Music: As a music show, it's not got that much music that left an impression on me. The guitar strumming and the opening is all well and good but not that memorable. However the ending, 'Don't Say 'Lazy'' is a really fun grindy rock track and I'm very much into that. |
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20th December 2017, 10:16 PM
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#9
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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22. Death Note (second half)
Whole show is #13 in all-time  'If you can't win the game, if you can't solve the puzzle, then you're nothing but a loser' Genre: Thought experiment turned thriller Tentacle Rating: 0/10 - more American-focused than the first half and let's just not remember this year's Netflix film Part of the reason the two in this post are so low is just because they aren't full parts of their respective shows and represent two big anime giants that straddle years for me. In the case of Death Note, I already gave it tons of accolades by placing it 6th last year so to give a 10-year old anime another big part in my EOY isn't entirely what I wanted to do. What also happened is for that the second part of Death Note, I find it satisfying in its conclusion and consider it a complete story that really doesn't need to be touched by the hundreds of adaptations lining up to do it, American OR Japanese, thank you very much. I also recognise it wasn't quite as good, gripping or engaging as the classic first half. Mello & Near who show up as new characters in this half aren't as engaging characters as our dear departed L, I recognise and appreciate the artistic direction that led them to being two parts of a split whole but it just means you're wishing that they were together. And Mello ended up being a waste of potential, even if Near did okay. The timeskip and the different society also take it a bit beyond what was most interesting, it was most interesting when Light was more... undercover. Light sold out and started delegating his killing and it just wasn't the same. However I will give it that in the last episode I had the most gleeful expression on my face as Light's world came crumbling around him, it was exactly all that I had hoped for and more so that at least meant this was worth watching until the end. Music: The second opening is just the most audacious and incredible (think Let Me Hear but three times as unlistenable *.*) opening song anime has ever created. So there's that. Characters: As said, Near was pretty decent but I still have to give it to Light. As awful a person as he is, it would not be Death Note without his incredible scheming and his interactions with each other character is what you're watching this show still for. 21. Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (first 12 episodes) Not ranked in all-time yet  'Human kind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost' Genre: Fantasy shonen Tentacle Rating: 4/10 - One of the most recognisable anime in recent years but still with a lot of the standard anime tropes that it uses for its comedic moments As of writing, Your Name has been knocked off the top of the MAL leaderboards by this very anime, which sits at an average rating of 9.25. That does mean that I had high expectations for it, but while I absolutely plan to continue, I didn't watch any in India, as this is one of two long-runners I knew I wasn't going to finish in time for the end of 2017, so I'm just going to rank its impact on my year so far, which brings it to roundabout #21. The Fullmetal Alchemist brothers are a powerful mage duo (but young kids) who indulge in the dangerous school of alchemy, and they've broken one of its fundamental laws, don't make humans out of alchemy. The result is that one is missing an arm and the other has nothing left but his soul and therefore must walk around in a big suit of armour because he'd prefer to scare young children when telling them not to do it again. They start on the trail of Isaac The Freezer, a cold sort of chap whose attack on the capital has them start on a number of quests at the end of which they will ultimately regain their bodies. It's very shonen in that there's a defined goal that won't be reached for a good number of episodes and Edward & Al are immature heroes to an extent but it stands out from some others by having quite the mature world and approach to storytelling. I've been quietly impressed by most things so far. Not quite blown away in that I think it deserves that #1 spot... yet, but in the new year I'll pick this back up and finish the whole thing and I look forward to doing so. Music: Yui's Again as the first opening has some excellent pop singing and guitar strumming and is rightly a classic of the anime genre, one of those beloved by everyone in the community as far as I can see. So I'm sure I'll enter it to BJSC at some point next year to see it DNQ with 30 points. Characters: Edward Elric, despite going off about being short every single time it's mentioned for comedy, is a really good main character, I like him. Maes Hughes is also a very cool character from what I've seen. |
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21st December 2017, 11:11 AM
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#10
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 FIVE YEARS OF THE TURRET 15-20
Joined: 12 March 2015
Posts: 4,754 User: 21,666
 
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Pretty good countdown so far.
Recently, I just finished the Death Note episode "Tactics". Probably my fave of the series so far. I've heard of Full Metal Alchemist and RWBY but haven't seen them. Though for the latter, I have enjoyed another Rooster Teeth animated series called Camp Camp. |
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22nd December 2017, 12:43 PM
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#11
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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QUOTE(SantaDalek32 @ Dec 21 2017, 11:11 AM) Pretty good countdown so far. Recently, I just finished the Death Note episode "Tactics". Probably my fave of the series so far. I've heard of Full Metal Alchemist and RWBY but haven't seen them. Though for the latter, I have enjoyed another Rooster Teeth animated series called Camp Camp. Oh, you're not all that far into Death Note then. Hope you continue to enjoy it, there's some really good episodes coming up so stick with it! 20. Nisemonogatari (Monogatari Season 1 Part 2) #37 in all-time  'Sharing your secret with someone means you involve them in your problems. It may make things easier for you, but your family could end up suffering for it too' Genre: mystery experimental avant-garde parody, this time with sisters Tentacle Rating: 10/10, oh so very much. Particularly for one very infamous episode involving a toothbrush. One on from Bakemonogatari, at this rate I'll finish all the Monogataris in 2030. Nisemonogatari, instead of meaning 'Ghost Story', now means 'Sister Story'. Good old perverted Koyomi Araragi, after rescuing and not so subtly flirting with all the girls around him who AREN'T related to him from evil ghost spirits in Bake, turns his attention inward to his own family, his two younger sisters. Still with the Powerpoint slides and the long episodes of very little happening besides characters filibustering at each other but there seems to be a tad more plot happening in Nise, that may just be because I've gotten used to the weird nature of the Monogatari series. This time it is his younger sisters in danger from outside supernatural forces and Araragi must do all he can to protect and save them from said outside supernatural forces, such as a creepy man who's taken to hanging around in his path as he visits his friends. Without meaning to put you off a very important dental hygiene practice, one episode, the best episode of the show because of how memorable it was, has resulted in me unable to ever look at a toothbrush in the same way again. A lot of the show is centred around Monogatari's principal agency, to break down sexuality barriers and taboos by being open and unabashed with them and yes, Araragi does come to terms with his sisters as growing into sexual beings where at the start of the story, he still thought of them as just two annoying brats, basically because they're growing older and more like the girls he's dating and/or rescuing. What initially feels gross is reasoned with and critically analysed as to whether it should be considered that and that is something that is valuable to our society, I believe. There's also an element of parody to it that means it feels like the show is laughing at those shows that do this sort of gross fanservice unironically, and to those who doubt that it is really ironic, if you'll let me spoil the whole show for you, the climax reveal is that one of his sisters isn't related to the family at all, and yet the one he does weird toothbrush stuff with is the one he IS related to, which isn't the direction an unthinking show takes, no sir.. The supernatural bit of the show is dedicated to Araragi wanting to protect his sisters from outside forces that seek to harm them, this time, creepy people rather than spirits in the same way that supernatural forces were looking to harm his friends. Also the fact he's a vampire is STILL not important right now. besides getting the centuries-old little girl, Shinobu, who lives inside his head to actually talk a bit this time, turns out she requires to be fed donuts. Essentially it's a Monogatari about strengthening family ties. In more ways than one but it ends with Koyomi making a rather mature decision that he should have made a long time ago, that strengthens his relationships for whatever the next round 'Nekomonogatari' (Cat Story) brings. Which I'll move onto soon, I enjoyed Nise and I'm getting more into Monogatari as a whole but I can only stomach one part every now and then, it's quite a heavy show that you really need to pay attention to. Best Episode: Tsukihi Phoenix Part 1, and let's say no more about that. I need to go brush my teeth. Music: Platinum Disco, the opening for Tsukihi (like with Bake, the opening changes for each character), is annoyingly sweet and catchy and really fits in my mind as a 'last main girl opening' if you treat Bake and Nise as one season. Marshmellow Justice (for Karen) is less memorable but still a good song. Best Characters: Karen (yes, a legitimate Japanese name), the older little sister, steals the show throughout Nise the strength, and most of what Monogatari has going for it is the characters, so having a forthright, bold girl leading the charge as one of the two new focus girls is great. Of course, aggressive saracastic true girlfriend Senjougahara and liberal lesbian Kanbaru still put in some great work when they make appearances, and Nisemonogatari also puts me in as a supporter of Shinobu. 19. Spice & Wolf (Season 1) #36 in all-time  'I want you to please understand the scales of my heart will always be swaying back and forth. But there is something you should know. I will never lean to one side or the other due to the weight of gold coins.' Genre: Medieval slice-of-life Tentacle Rating: 3/10, European setting, it would probably be stopped more as a live-action show by the lowkey nature of the action rather than anything anime, but then it does still have a wolf girl. Spice & Wolf is a very unique show in this countdown, and one, as a history fan, I knew I had to see. It's not a historical show, largely because sadly, wolf girls who protect the wheat of villages didn't actually exist, and the towns aren't real places. But it is set in a very reasonable fascimile of Medieval Europe, particularly the sort of Medieval Europe that existed around the German and Italian area, with lots of independent cities with their own economic systems. Because Spice & Wolf isn't a medieval tale of kings, knights and castles, it's about those making a living within the economics and though I'm not an economics student, there's a lot of complicated and intriguing things that you can apparently do with money. For example, I've learned that different types of silver coins change their value with the wind and that it's wise to invest a strong currency... yeah, this is modern economics on a medieval scale. Or there's the time when our heroes butter up a shopkeeper by buying some of his cheap stuff to get his more expensive clothes at a cheaper price, which is less to do with modern economics and more to do with building meaningful and positive relationships with people, those two things being mutually exclusive of course. What the show is actually about is that Kraft Lawrence, a young peddler and cart merchant, comes across the spirit of a wolf goddess in human form. She, Holo, a self-described wise wolf (who is wise because she knows there are things she doesn't know), is looking to get back to the north, her home after being stuck protecting the wheat of this one village for several centuries too long. Holo agrees to become Lawrence's business partner if he'll let her accompany him to the north, and they form a valuable partnership getting one over on all the greedy people of the medieval world in financial ways, and later, in ways where they must fend for their life. It's a bit of a lowkey show but a very heartwarming one. Best Episode: Wolf and a New Beginning, the finale of the first season. It's a show that took a while to get going so the finale felt . All of the episodes follow the structure 'Wolf and...' which makes them feel part of a great narrative. Music: Tabi No Tochuu, the opening, convinced me to take the plunge on this anime almost by itself! It's a very grand, old-feeling song that uses backing choral vocals, light brass and a slow building feeling, plus some lyrics 'if the world we dreamed is out there somewhere, shall we seek it out heading past the wind? The freezing daybreak, the parched afternoon, and the trembling dark night, let's go see what lies past them' that really build on the travelling and ancient feeling that this show tries to build. Best Characters: The entire show is based on the duo of Lawrence and Holo and they are a joy to watch - though they aren't officially in a romantic relationship, they act like one, playing off each other and bantering with great chemistry. Easily the strongest and most interesting of the characters, the rest fades into the background. I haven't picked up season 2 yet but if I do it will be entirely to see more of their partnership. Spice & Wolf lives and breathes off of them being one of the most entertaining and strongly bonded duos in anime. |
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22nd December 2017, 06:39 PM
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#12
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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18. Mob Psycho 100
#34 in all-time, #10 in 2016-2017  'Listen. Just because you have psychic powers doesn't make you any less human. It's the same as people who are fast, people who are book smart, and people with strong body odor. Psychic powers are just another characteristic. You must embrace that as part of yourself and continue to live positively. The truth behind one's charm is kindness. Become a good person. That is all' Genre: Fighting Shonen Tentacle Rating: 2/10 - Not quite as western-friendly as its sister show One Punch Man but still pretty available and open to anyone who's had a passing interest in anime before with nothing there to weird anyone out. The second major series from Japan's #1 mysterious manga artist ONE, who's kept his identity hidden all the way up to now somehow, followed a year on from the huge breakout hit of One Punch Man in the summer of last year. It's a different animation studio, going to fightmasters Studio Bones instead of the commitment-phobic Studio Madhouse but the ONE artstyle is readily apparent are all the way through Mob Psycho 100, not least because nearly every character looks like Saitama from One Punch Man in a wig (compare this to this, this, this and this. Mob Psycho 100 is a much more personal series than One Punch Man though, and I'll stop comparing it as I haven't yet reached OPM in this countdown, as I saw that this year too. Mob Psycho is focused on a boy named Mob, after the definition of the word in a gaming context, used for small enemies that you beat without giving any thought to their backstory or where they come from. As such, Mob is a very ordinary boy and he'd like you and everyone else to continue believing that as he stays in the shadow of his amazing younger brother and works for a dodgy businessman down town. However a mysterious countdown within Mob is ticking up to 100 and when it does so, as the first episode gleefully tells you, Mob will explode, and it won't be good. Basically Mob has incredible psychic powers that put his actual power on a par with the omnipotent Saitama from One Punch Man but he really doesn't want his powers to get under control so he suppresses and lives his life as an emotionless husk. The anime is basically about him learning to live with these powers and control them and there's a really good message in there to not hide who you are and stand up for yourself, it's okay to let go of your emotions, it's okay to be confident and prideful if you're good at something and it's really just a very positive-feeling anime. I finished it feeling mostly very satisfied, the plot could have used a bit more polish to feel complete and it wasn't quite as outstanding as One Punch Man but it's certainly an enjoyable and funny watch for anyone who's ever enjoyed an anime fight before. Best episodes: The third episode, where Mob is invited to a cult that recruits people and makes them laugh and smile (in a very sinister way) really sets the plot in motion, uses what has been done previously with Mob to make you empathise with him, and I'll never say no to an episode highlighting the dangers of cults in real life. Music: Mob Psycho 100's OP, '99', is an incredibly unique track that counts up from 1 to 99 over the course of the opening. It's hype as well in as it builds up in a very literal sense, improving your anticipation almost artificially, and it's rather wonderful. This is accompanied by the characters doing a rather Yellow Submarine like moving across the screen. The haircuts definitely help that Beatles feeling. Best Characters: I'm going to stop saying the main character because Mob does, partly by design, suffer from being a main character that has to be pushed into action and initiative. Reigen, his boss and mentor is incredibly watchable as a conman and sleazeball with good intentions, it's like he's out of an old comic sketch in some ways. I bet ONE takes influence from retro stories for this. 17. Gintama (first 30 or so episodes) #31 in all-time  (I don't believe I've got to this episode yet but I love this gif and can't wait to find out the context for it) 'Listen up! Let's say you drink too much strawberry milk, and have to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. But it's cold outside your bed. You don't want to get up, but the urge to urinate is just too strong! You make up your mind to go! You run to the bathroom, stand in front of the toilet, and let loose! You think that all your life has led to this moment! But then you realize! It isn't the bathroom, you're still in bed! That feeling of lukewarm wetness spreads like wildfire! But you don't stop! You can't stop! That's what I'm talking about! THAT'S THE TRUTH OF THE STRAWBERRY MILK! DO YOU GET IT!?' Genre: Comedy alternate history/sci-fi Tentacle Rating: 8/10 - I trust you can understand why given the gif and quote, but it's not quite a full 10/10 as a Western comedy fan who isn't put off by oblique Japanese history/pop culture references will find a lot to laugh about here Gintama is, as far as I'm aware, the only currently active long-runner comedy anime in the same way that Western animation is filled with long-runner comedies with a fairly episodic slant and irreverent humour. It's not fully episodic, there is some form of overarching plot, and it involves a lot of aliens and weird settings from all over the galaxy so I'm going to say that the closest analogue to Gintama out of the famous Western animations is Futurama. There's quite a lot of similarities, the major difference being that this is set in about 1800 rather than 3000. For the story, in the late Edo period, at the twilight of Japan's samurai age, humanity gets attacked by aliens called Amanto, and the Shogun of Japan surrenders to the aliens. Swords are banned for humans, the aliens are allowed to enter Japan freely and enough time passes so that 1800s Japan now looks partially indistinguishable from modern society, with the exception of the police still carrying swords and houses and roads still mostly looking non-modern. All I'm saying is that the characters can grab a can of generic fizzy drink from a wooden vending machine and go watch an idol concert if they so wish. Gintoki is a samurai who doesn't accept the Shogun's surrender and wants to rebel to get Japan back, but he's broke and penniless and so lives above a bar not paying the owner rent half the time. He's joined by 'straight man' Shinpachi, a young man who's job is to look confused and scared at the weird situations they find themselves in, and Kagura, a teenage alien who speaks in a very distinctive 'bratty' way but also has superhuman strength. They form an 'odd jobs' team and therefore get called into doing any kind of 'odd job' you can think of and that's the launching point for those three to get caught up in a new batch of craziness every episode. I was basically watching an episode whenever I felt like it throughout the year, when it's funny it is uncontrollably side-splittingly funny but it's episodic and it's hard for me to keep that up for long periods at a time. It'll probably be ages until I catch up, there's 99 episodes in the first season and it's on season 6 now (though the episode counts for seasons do decrease as it goes on, but that just means more MyAnimeList entries for it to take up the top spots, this show is ADORED by its fans, and for good reason, it's rather incredible once you care about its large expansive cast of characters). Best Episode: An episode that started announcing it was going to do a recap, episode #25, A Shared Soup Pot Is A Microcosm Of Life. I thought, okay, better skip this, but that was obviously a fake-out, and it then turned into a beautiful mind-game of the main characters wanting to eat a pot of nabe but considering etiquette, their actions and competing with their friends in order that they got the most. It's the drama that's seen in most anime over fights and it was just rather glorious. Probably best place to say that if one ever starts this, start on episode 3 which is where the story starts, the first two episodes were a rather overenthusiastic mess that were made to celebrate the show going from manga to anime and I still don't know what was going on in them. Music: I got really into the first opening, Pray by Tommy Heavenly6, those opening chords are always going to BE this show for me. Ending #2, Mr Raindrop (falling away from me now) is a endearing little song as well. I'm sure there's more to come. Characters: Gintoki is everything I ever wanted from a animated comedy protagonist. While he's still occasionally a bit dumb and lazy, another reason this feels quite like a Western comedy made for Japan, as is demanded by animation conventions, he's more often than not very competent when he puts his mind to it and his tough veneer turns up when his friends are threatened. He's always funny to watch and has a bit of humour within him rather than existing to be dumped upon by the humour, although he gets that as well. Kagura is also very watchable, especially when paired with her ferocious giant dog Sadaharu who looks cute but seems on the verge of eating Gintoki half the time. |
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24th December 2017, 12:17 AM
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#13
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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16. Fate/Apocrypha
#26 in all-time, #9 in 2016-2017  'I will kill. I will let live. I will harm and heal. None will escape me. None will escape my sight. Be crushed. I welcome those who have grown old and are lost. Devote yourself to me, learn from me and obey me. I am light and relieve you of all your burdens.' Genre: Battle Royale Tentacle Rating: 5/10 - Less weird and Japanese than the other Fates, partially by virtue of being set in Romania rather than Japan, with the Grail War's rules that Japanese heroes are (officially) disallowed still in effect meaning that there's a lot of Western culture on display here. But they still use some anime tropes a lot, although the most obvious, Astolfo as a trap, is a net positive to the show, I'll explain him later. I have a lot of things to say about an average Fate show - which is exactly what Apocrypha is. It's nowhere near as great as Zero or Stay Night but it's also a lot easier to get into. There's going to be nobody yelling at you that you got the watch order wrong and if you can handle loads of characters being thrown at you, then Apocrypha is probably a really good starting point for Fate, although it will dump you in pretty fast and there are double the amount of characters normally used in a Fate series so there's that. Okay. Back to the beginning (or read my expert beginner's guide if this explanation confuses you). In the Fate universe(s), a Holy Grail war appears every so often, but in the Third Holy Grail War, which took place during WW2, Nazis interfered and raided the lost grail, without it burning off their faces, and it ended up in Romania. This didn't happen in Fate's Prime timeline (where Zero and Stay Night live) so Apocrypha takes place in an alternate timeline to the main Fate stories. A few of the same characters are in the background but mostly it's a completely new set of characters. This time, a group of mages called Yggdmillennia are rebelling against the establishment of mages, the Association, and a SPECIAL Holy Grail War is taking place in Romania in this timeline's modern day. So instead of there being 7 mages and 7 servants of heroic nature throughout history, it's 14 of each, facing off against each other in two teams, Red and Black. Plus it's a great show for any fans of teenage Catholic martyrs, as Jeanne of Arc shows up as a 'Ruler', to keep the rules followed. Fate villains have a nasty habit of trying to bend the iron-clad rules to their advantage. TL;DR: Lots and lots of fights and a battle royale that's double the normal size of a Fate one. This means there's less time on each individual character and given I was watching this weekly (get screwed Netflix, let us westerners be like Japan and get it weekly legally), it's the only show that's been airing during the Fall season I've watched at all because of being away during most of it. There's still a little bit more of the show to go but I've mostly made up my mind on it so I'm not going to wait for the ending to come along. Given Fate/Zero was and is my #1 and I've always said I hold Fate in high regard because of that, that Apocrypha is as low as #16 is a bit of a comment on how it compares, it absolutely doesn't. There's some real problems with it. The most obvious problem is pacing, at the start all of the characters were introduced with very little chance for someone watching to keep up as Chiron and Frankenstein's Monster are introduced to the Black Faction with seemingly non-descript masters, then another non-descript master is talking to Vlad III while yet another master starts torturing Astolfo and there are more masters in the background and Assassin is missing and then you go over to the red side and Shirou and Semiramis are in a church and some booming voice describing himself as 'The Bard' wanders in and do you get my point? Those first few episodes, even for me, I'm normally good at this, were a nightmare to navigate when I didn't know who was who. Once that was sorted out, there were some good battles and I really enjoyed the show for a time. Then there was a multi-episode detour where those left decided to go hunt down the rogue Black Assassin Jack The Ripper (appearing as a little girl because anime, and while we're there Sir Mordred as well as Frankenstein's Monster also appear as female because anime but they're both far better characters so I give them a pass) and that entire sub-plot about Jack had almost no good relevance to the overarching story and it wasn't even that interesting, I got put off by that. The other bad thing about this show, and this is even worse, is that the alleged main character is entirely unnecessary. Here you have a cast of 28 people, half of them historical legends, half of them mages with a long career and troubled backstories and they make the main character NONE OF THESE. Instead, a homunculus, a being created by mage experiments, Sieg, someone who is a LITERAL blank slate at the start of the story, gains emotions and feelings and tries to discover what it means to be human. He pairs up with Jeanne Of Arc, who's slightly more interesting but only because she was referenced in Fate/Zero and is almost as boring as him. And of course, every one of the hot girls in the cast (and Astolfo) wants to jump his bones for no particular reason and every time he's on screen I wish someone else was. This whole thing, anything to do with Sieg, is entirely unnecessary and detrimental to the rest of Apocrypha, which does have some really good conflicts and characters besides Sieg and Jeanne. Astolfo, a knight of Charlemagne famous for crossdressing, deserves special mention, even though he embodies the most blatant of anime tropes and really only has a penis for gags, because he looks and sounds exactly like a woman in all other aspects, but he really cheers me up whenever he's on screen and provides me with someone I really care about and want to see succeed, even if he is rather attached to all the characters I'm not so keen on. And yes, I haven't quite finished this anime as it isn't quite finished, so there's still time for it to redeem itself with a decent ending. It's good fun, but it's the mainstream Fate release this year, it should be better than just good fun, it should get an automatic spot in my top 10 because of all of the historical characters having huge overarching moral dilemmas and cool fights. It's still given me some of those, but that it's quite a bit lower is indicative of some major structural problems with it. Best Episode: The Holy Man Returns Triumphant, episode 12, the climax of the first half, it has a great confrontation of characters, a really great 'villain' reveal (there are no true villains in Fate, but this character's close), a great sense of desperation, and most importantly, minimal Sieg. Music: As always with Fate, there's some really good soundtrack music backing the anime, and then of course there's the inset songs. Both openings are great, LiSa's Ash gives me chills because the opening now shows characters I'm familiar with, including finally giving Astolfo a deserved spot on his pegasus, but EGOIST's Eiyuu Unmei No Uta is the highlight because it's an exquisite grower and a beautiful song. Best Characters: I've made it fairly clear who the worst characters are, Sieg mainly, Jack The Ripper otherwise, but the fact is this is still an enjoyable show and it is because there's so much opportunity to explore a large number of historical figures with a large legacy. Astolfo is the most entertaining, but Vlad, Karna, Chiron, Achilles, Mordred and her master, and the priest Shiro Kotomine are very interesting and deep characters who deserve more time to explore each of their own pasts, this show is rich in talent and historical potential, it could be a lot better than it is. But these characters are still a huge highlight whenever the show is focusing on them. As I haven't gotten quite to the end, I fell behind a couple of episodes and it still hasn't aired its final episode, I am very hyped for the final confrontation between master and student of Chiron vs Achilles in particular, and I also am keen to see William Shakespeare in action as a Servant, as though he's wonderfully verbose and is a great depiction of our Bard, by his own admission he doesn't do much fighting and has had only one partial battle scene so far. |
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24th December 2017, 11:30 PM
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#14
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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15. One Punch Man
#25 in all-time  'I'm just a guy who's a hero for fun.' 'If you really want to become strong, stop caring about what others think about you. Living your life has nothing to do with what others think.' Genre: Superhero parody Tentacle Rating: 0/10. This is probably the most accessible anime to non-anime fans of the last two years, mostly because it could be a lost Marvel/DC/random superhero TV show, while Saitama is effectively a 12A-rated Deadpool. If you liked that, give this a try, it's a short comedic show that is guaranteed fun for anyone who likes superheroes. What do you do when you're a hero who can kill anything in one punch? The answer seems to be according to One Punch Man, get nihilistic and go on a fruitless search for that opponent who can give you a proper fight. And in Saitama's case, when he can level city destroying monsters with a quick right jab, mooch around in a drab apartment living a normal life (while being a hero as a side gig, for fun, not for power) in the hope that villains will show up out of nowhere to test his skills, or compliment his shiny bald head, either will do - but all of the world-destroying villains that do come his way cannot stand up to his punch. Of course, this is the problem of an omnipotent hero, you have to do something fun with them or the show will be boring. And Saitama is a very fun if sarcastic hero to watch, and his plight, despite his omnipotence is quite relatable as no one gives him any recognition for his accomplishments, mostly because no one ever sees his fights, they're all over in such a flash that spectators don't realise they've been saved. An aspiring hero and cyborg named Genos seeks to learn from Saitama, despite not realising that Saitama's a bit of an ass and doesn't really care to be seen as a master, he's only a hero as a hobby, after all. One Punch Man, the other series from ONE and by far one of the most popular anime of the 2010s so far, feels a lot like a test of concept that would lead into a more in-depth show later down the track (which exists), but nevertheless, it's peerless in audacious superhero fights, villain imagination, and everything's presented with a hefty dose of irony. The one serious thing it does is introduce a realistic world where a hero is a job, and the public cheer on their favoured heroes. Of course, as I said, despite being the most capable, the problem is that the public never see Saitama DOING anything, so more arrogant and corrupt heroes seeking power for power's sake occupy the top spots, and as such, when a real crisis that they can't handle appears... One Punch Man is a fairly basic anime. It goes back to the roots of TV shows, despite the one-upping that exists within its universe, it just tells the story it wants to tell and not much more, analogising heroes to jobs in society, where skilled and determined people are put below people who know how to play the system, but that makes it super accessible and a great gateway anime. And it is incredibly funny and self-aware, I don't think that 12A-rated Deadpool thing is all too inaccurate, if you liked him (and especially if you wanted a more 'traditional 50s style look superhero setting' to go along with that, you'd probably like this. Best Episode: Unyielding Justice, a climaxing episode where Saitama and Mumen Rider engage the enemy known as the Deep Sea King. Music: The opening is, if not the best, certainly one of the most memorable anime openings ever, a singer yells out ONE PUNCH as Saitama's arm stretches across the screen, and the vistas that follow show the scope of the show, though it doesn't show its settings in detail, the fights happen over a large expansive area, as you might need when one punch can kill anything in your path. Best Characters: Mumen Rider, a hero whose has no special power and just rides a bike to save people is a great example of someone who is a hero through the force of their will to help people, and as for the funnies, Saitama steals the show with his nonchalant expressions and lines and the way he makes ferocious villains who play their villainy completely straight and hammy (THIS IS BASICALLY THE MAIN APPEAL OF IT) suddenly start to sweat. The show's also good for side characters, Sonic, a 'deadly ninja', and Puri-Puri Prisoner, a flamboyantly gay masculine criminal are enormous fun to watch. (more after christmas) |
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27th December 2017, 12:25 PM
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#15
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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14. Keijo!!!!!
#24 in all-time, #8 in 2016-2017   'If anyone's impressed, it's me, 'cause I thought I'd won! I didn't expect you to pull your jaw back and slam your face into my butt!' Genre: Butt sports anime parody Tentacle Rating: 9/10. Read on for why. As a partial parody, it also makes a lot of references to popular anime that should be seen or at least be made aware of first. We've covered, or more accurately, I've spent my free time watching, some pretty strange shows so far. Yet of all of them, this is the one where I feel the most need to explain myself and my reasons for watching this. Because Keijo is not an anime for the faint-hearted. It is a show set in a world where there is a strange new sport, an incredibly popular sport, Keijo, a sport where huge gambles are made every day. It's a sport open only to women, a sport where... the combatants must use only their boobs and their bum to knock their opponent off a platform and into the water. And... the entirety of the sane human race has turned away from this post and now thinks I'm an insatiable pervert. Yet what started as me ironically watching a show that was obviously so terrible that it could only be cheap titillation (that is how it started, I was in one of those 'I need something very bad to watch' moods, the same mood that led me starting Eromanga and Hundred from last year, so I was expecting this to be about the same quality and that I'd only get about 3 episodes in) turned into, somewhere along the way, after I'd eagerly watched every episode, unironic adoration for this masterpiece of a show, a show that breaks boundaries in unique ideas, presents powerful female characters being themselves and working together to overcome odds in the same way that guys do in other sports anime. And most importantly, it is hilarious as a parody of sports and fighting anime, that as I noted down at Fastest Finger First, often have the same plot and the same underdog up and coming story. Keijo doesn't shy away from doing exactly that, but it approaches both that plot and the ridiculous concept it's created with its tongue firmly in its cheek. I mean, one of the moves that one character can do, seen in the intro, is named 'Gate Of Bootylon', which is an obvious riff of Gilgamesh from Fate, visually as well as in name. As soon as I saw that, I knew I was in for a fun ride. And it was a ride I absolutely did not expect. More than I ever expected to learn about butt physics, weight balancing, how giving yourself a wedgie increases your speed, etc etc. The funniest thing, that I'll spoil because it came out of nowhere and only works in context, is a climactic move named Buttack On Titan. I was floored. Arguably it's an incredibly feminist show. FOR WHAT IT'S SHOWING, the boobs and butts aren't particularly sexualised (though I'm not denying there's a male gaze thing to a few shots), more as an enabler to the empowerment of the Keijo players, which is treated in the show as if it is a real professional sport, and the few men who show up are in the traditional female position of being merely love interests with no other defining characteristics while the female characters are all really strong independent women following their dreams. Okay, it's more gender flipped roles than feminism then but with all the male examples of this, it's refreshing to see a female-focused one in a realm, sports, where you might expect men. Nozomi, the lead, is the closest I've ever seen to an actual female counterpart to the generic male anime protagonist who has great power, is driven and has her own independent ambitions, very relatable, as is Miyata, the deuteragonist, who is the heir to a famous judo line but has chosen to go for this sport as she wants to follow her dreams and prefers Keijo. The other two members of the main four are a bit more traditionally shy and feminine but that just serves to make a nice balanced cast, and with the rivals that show up in the same manner as any other fighting/sports anime, there's a lot of well-written girls with their own dreams, living them out by being proud of their bodies. I realise that calling the show a parody harms this argument a little, but my enjoyment of it goes alongside the pride I take in seeing these characters I've grown to care about living out their dreams... by learning the best way to bodyslam their butts into each other. Not denying I still felt incredibly guilty when watching it but it was a fun guilt. Best Episode: Miyata's focus episode, Ruler Of The Jungle Gym - at the start of the final arc where she shows of everything she's learned from this sport in front of her disapproving father... and an entire audience of course. Music: Both the inset songs are really nice, Dream X Scramble, the OP, has a great riff of 'splash in my dreams', and other lyrics that make it like an epic sung addition to the collection of booty songs, while I really like the ED, which has some great nostalgic views of Japan's hilly landscapes, and the main four acting like a great friendship group. Best Characters: Uh, yeah, as I've said, the characters are really good here. Particularly Miyata and Nozomi who the show focuses around as their dreams being achieved, and Kazane Aoba who also has a bit of a growing role as she comes out of her shell. 13. Kill La Kill #23 in all-time  'Fear is freedom! Subjugation is liberation! Contradiction is truth! Those are the facts of this world. And you will all surrender to them, you pigs in human clothing!' Genre: Fighting shonen with extra female empowerment and clothes that grant enhanced fighting abilities Tentacle Rating: 7/10. Not really something that's easy to explain watching, and it owes a lot to switching up expectations of other shonen so it's something to watch once you're into the whole anime thing for sure. There is one word that always seems appropriate to describe Kill La Kill, and that is jawdropping. When the series opens with a physically giant member of the student council interrupting a high-school class to root out a traitor to the academy, before bodyslamming him across a truly expansive school courtyard, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Kill La Kill likes playing with the abstract and unrealistic, indeed, it revels in it. That high school sits at the top of a town where all lives revolve around the high school, accommodation in better quarters of the city is reserved for those who are loyal to Honnouji Academy, while the slums are for slackers. And their families. The person running this show is even a student, Satsuki Kiryuuin, the iron-willed leader of the Student Council. But that's not even very much a part of the show. You see, it's called Kill La Kill, but in Japanese, Kiru Kiru Kiru, it's a pun on 'to kill' and 'to wear', so it pretty much means 'Dressed To Kill'. This is important. And on to the show. Ryuuko Matoi arrives at this tyrannical highschool, armed only with one half of a scissor blade, looking for the person who killed her father. Early on, she makes friends with a slacker at this high school, Mako Mankanshoku, and makes enemies of the student council, whose clothes make her battling her way through to the top to reach Kiryuuin difficult. She finds, in the wreck of her father's house, a sailor girl uniform that her father made for her. Only this sailor uniform can talk to her and can drink her blood to grant her greatly enhanced fighting abilities, only if she lets go of all feelings of embarrassment and wears the uniform like she is proud to. Then and only then can she start to take on the Student Council and get revenge for her father. Along the way, many enemies will show up, all wearing differently enhanced pieces of clothing, and she can defeat them if she takes a 'life fiber' from their magically enhanced clothing and strips them naked. I've just read all of that plot completely straight because if I was to start reacting to every part of that plot that is incredulous this would be unreadable. Because of the design choice that sees Ryuuko and Satsuki fight in pretty revealing clothing, yes, this could be another ecchi, but even more so than Keijo, this seems more than that, both men and women are treated positively and get to show their bodies on display in a proud fashion, and then there's one subset of characters from an organisation called Nudist Beach who are almost entirely men, and the plot focuses more on how to jawdrop you with the next explosion or clothing ability or whatever rather than focusing on the fact breasts are almost entirely on display, you honestly forget that, and I even watched it in India with one of my friends able to look over from the next bed. It took a while for me to get past, not that, but more the abstraction of it. Studio Trigger, the studio, are good with abstraction but it really doesn't feel like a real setting, so it took until I was into the characters for me to really love it, but the last set of episodes completely changed the tone of the series and made me love it even more. So there's definitely that to look forward to. It's a really fun ride if a little less genre-changing than I was led to believe. Best Episode: I think I'll have to go for Past The Infinite Darkness, a great finale with all the loss, victory and epic feeling that you'd expect from a shonen. This show just keeps getting better until the end. Music: The OPs, both of them, Sirius by Eir Aoi and Ambiguous by Garnidelia (yes those two really get around in this industry), are perfect nostalgic pieces of pop-rock that make me long for the mid-00s, even though this is from 2013. That's just a testament to how well done the music is. Also a special mention to Before My Body Is Dry, a Paramore-alike song which plays 'don't lose your way' at climactic moments and never gets old even when you expect it coming. And Nonon Jakazure, the school's band leader, does some great work with bringing classical music to the fights, which makes her focus episode almost as good as the finale. Best Characters: Jakazure is a highlight among the side characters for her music and her weird cutesy voice but I have to give it to Ryuuko, I like strong characters and strong women and this anime is all about her and her journey in fighting against this insane world and she's such an interesting and watchable protagonist that I was really able to cheer with her from the start and that's what kept me going with watching this because at times, the abstraction got a little much for me but pushing on through and seeing Ryuko succeed against her challenges was really rewarding. Mako got a little annoying by the end but she had her place in the show as moral support, while Gamagoori takes the highlight among the men for being a loyal and dependable servant to Satsuki and just being hilariously gruff when Mako starts messing with him. (what a duo to have in the same post eh) |
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29th December 2017, 01:18 PM
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#16
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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12. Gabriel Dropout
#22.5 in all-time (I missed it out), #7 in 2016-2017  'If I work more than once a week, I'll die from exhaustion, so no way!' Genre: Comedy with religious tones Tentacle Rating: 5/10 for a CGDCT show, but with angelic and demonic references to make it a bit more accessible, if you know Judeo-Christian mythology you can get a lot more of the jokes and I guess that makes it probably more Western than Japanese-focused... However, one of the first things I noticed when watching Gabriel Dropout, subbed of course, is that the Japanese lines are very different to what the translation is showing in the subtitles. In so much as I actually know Japanese. There was one point where Vigne said 'Let's eat/thanks for the food' in Japanese, but the translator read it as 'Thanks to the Dark Lord'. And then there's a ton of heaven/hell puns and idioms that clearly can't be translated and so the subtitle translators just shoved English ones in wherever it might be appropriate. I've gotten ahead of myself. What is Gabriel Dropout? Well, it's about a star angel named Gabriel, who passed her (it's anime, they're all girls in this one) angelic classes with flying colours and is off to Earth with her angelic friend Raphael, or Raffie to learn from humans. However once she gets there she discovers MMORPGs and instantly drops everything to become a lazy shut-in, not attending the human highschool and becoming a lazy bum. Also present visiting from Hell are Vignette, a conscientious neat demon and Satania, or to give her her full title, Kurumizawa Satanichia McDowell, the next Lord of Hell. Basically, Gabriel is lazy, Raphael looks like the perfect angel (she even visually looks like and has the same voice actor as Tenshi from Angel Beats just to really sell it) but is a massive troll and gadfly to Satania, Satania is hopelessly trying to be grandiosely evil and never gets taken seriously, and Vigne is the only one of the cast you'd actually want to be friends with, she has a great smile, is friendly to all living things and is just adorable (have just one guess at who my best girl is from this show). Hijinks occur, with the first three messing around and Vigne cleaning up their mess like the responsible teenage notdemon she is. And it's a huge load of fun. There's fun religious references, because this isn't made by Christians or non-Christians really, it's all pretty chill with no real judgement as to what's going on. Obviously one inference you can make is the incredibly slothful Gab belongs more to Hell, as does the almost bully Raffie, while Satania's evil attempts are often harmless "evil" like littering (for comedic purposes) and Vigne is clearly a virtuous sort despite having demon horns and a pitchfork in her true form. But it's mostly just fun heaven/hell puns with the fact that the girls involved could destroy the world if they so chose. I came away from it with a lot of my religious needs sated (I like them in my media because they give amazing context and backdrop) and my cute girl needs sated too. The religious angle made me more interested than ever before in a show that is just about cute girls fooling around. Best Episode: Vigne's Demonic Life. Obviously. The synopsis for this mid-season 'day in the life' episode: Vignette: a demon who gets up the first time her alarm clock goes off, puts out her trash early in the morning, keeps her apartment squeaky clean, and goes to bed on time. Gabriel: an angel who won't wake up until past noon if she can help it, plays MMO holiday quests while dining on instant cup noodles, and games until she passes out at her laptop. These two friends seem to have little in common... until you take a peek inside their bankbooks - pretty much sums up the whole series and it has a lot of Vigne. Music: I did a whole analysis on the rather wonderful but chaotic OP if you want to check out one of my more detailed analytic works. The ending, Hallelujah Essaim is rather good too. I mean up here I'm probably going to be loving all of the songs but yeah, good stuff as the music used the religious theme and the fact it was in a comedy to its full advantage, you could tell both from both the OP and ED without knowing that's what they're being used for. Best Characters: Obviously Vigne was amazing to watch and I always had fun seeing Satania and Raphael on board too, their rivalry was fun and each livened up the scenes. The only problem I had with the main cast was Gabriel herself and it's the same problem I had with Yui of K-On, completely unmotivated slothful characters aren't fun to watch as you just want to slap them a bit and tell them to grow up and at least tidy up after yourself. Therefore the slovenliness of Gabriel's apartment was depressing to see. I mean, I play my share of video games and I love seeing my room and myself squeaky clean. It's not an excuse. 11. The Devil Is A Part-Timer #21 in all-time  'If you feel the ends justify the means, how does that make you any different from us demons, exactly?' Genre: Comedy with religious references (I did well with these two in the same post again, this was not ENTIRELY planned) Tentacle Rating: 2/10 - Recommended in the official list of starter anime. Now because of the way that "The Devil" is a protagonist it gets a couple of points but basically this is a very accessible comedy that will introduce a new anime watcher to the concept of other worlds, anime-style, quite nicely. Somewhat different from Gabriel Dropout, although it seems in hindsight that THAT was the lovechild of this one and K-On, Devil Is A Part-Timer is a lot more of a realistic anime, in as much as an anime about a once tyrannical demon ruler who has been overthrown in his dimension escapes to earth and subsequently works in a McRonalds with his right-hand being a stay-at-home husband is a realistic anime. Also they're not gay but they Best Episode: No real episode stands out above the rest, they were all very strong pieces of live-in comedy. Music: I'd almost forgotten the OP but it, Zero , just watching it again gives me chills as the imagery flicks between the fantasy world and the real world with orchestral music and nostalgic sounds, and then finishing with an empty fast-food worker cap hanging next to a demonic cape, it's almost emotional. Almost makes you forget the characters are demons. The ED isn't quite as good but focuses on the one human member of the main cast and how alone she'll be when all her friends disappear to the fantasy world. Best Character: It may seem a bit hypocritical of me, since I've slammed characters like Gabriel from GD and Yui from K-On, to pick Lucifer (different character from Satan) in this anime. Maybe it's his purple hair and androgynous body (I have a habit of falling for androgynous men in anime (see also: Astolfo from F/A) and yes I'm still straight), but he is a slob and hikikomori and never goes outside and is basically rude and unpleasant to the rest of the cast and will probably betray them at a moment's notice. But he's a tech support guy and he's snarky and this is the real reason, he's always at his computer providing the snark and that's a fun character to have around, especially when the rest of the cast hate him and react to his presence with annoyance. I like an underdog (extra quote from him: Heaven is a place on Earth. It exists in a six tatami mat, second floor apartment. Being a bum is the best). Emi's a pretty entertaining tsundere and as the resident neat freak I love Alciel too. |
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29th December 2017, 11:43 PM
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#17
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Howdy, disco citizens
Joined: 16 January 2010
Posts: 12,775 User: 10,455
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Kill La Kill is a near-perfect anime. Great story, great music, great action sequences, and a near faultless mid-season twist that turned the entire series on its head. It was the first Nendoroid I bought as well, of Ryoko. I had a few minor quibbles - Mako could get annoying very quickly, and I found the scene where Ryoko first puts on Senketsu to be a bit wrong, but was a great series that told a complete story over its episodes (plus OVA). Of course, it still doesn't hold a match to my favourite Studio Trigger anime, which is of course Little Witch Academia, which one hopes is still to come.
Gabriel Dropout was a pretty nice anime when I watched it off your recommendation earlier this year (I still have the counting Gabriels song stuck in my head), and I watched "Devil is a Part-Timer" when it originally aired, and really enjoyed it then. It's also the series that made me fall in love with nano.RIPE, the band that performed the closing theme - I've since watched a lot of series since then just because they've been responsible for one of the themes. I find it interesting when anime incorporates Christian themes & imagery in its series. Because Japan is only around 1% Christian, whenever Christian themes pop up in them its normally from an exotic viewpoint, or only scratches the surface and only takes small things like names or tiny concepts and then takes them in a completely different direction. It's a bit like Western TV taking bits of Japanese culture in its fiction, and due to its not knowing much about it, present it in a way that Japanese people might not recognise. There was one anime that I had considered watching in 2017, which was Vatican Miracle Examiner, because I would have loved to see a Japanese take on Catholicism (because of my obvious biases), although in the end I didn't see it, as a) Amazon Strike got the rights, and I'm not paying extra for it, and b) the reviews of it were rather poor, and some of the storylines seemed a bit crass from what I heard of it. |
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30th December 2017, 02:05 PM
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#18
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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QUOTE(Brett-Butler @ Dec 29 2017, 11:43 PM) Kill La Kill is a near-perfect anime. Great story, great music, great action sequences, and a near faultless mid-season twist that turned the entire series on its head. It was the first Nendoroid I bought as well, of Ryoko. I had a few minor quibbles - Mako could get annoying very quickly, and I found the scene where Ryoko first puts on Senketsu to be a bit wrong, but was a great series that told a complete story over its episodes (plus OVA). Of course, it still doesn't hold a match to my favourite Studio Trigger anime, which is of course Little Witch Academia, which one hopes is still to come. Gabriel Dropout was a pretty nice anime when I watched it off your recommendation earlier this year (I still have the counting Gabriels song stuck in my head), and I watched "Devil is a Part-Timer" when it originally aired, and really enjoyed it then. It's also the series that made me fall in love with nano.RIPE, the band that performed the closing theme - I've since watched a lot of series since then just because they've been responsible for one of the themes. I find it interesting when anime incorporates Christian themes & imagery in its series. Because Japan is only around 1% Christian, whenever Christian themes pop up in them its normally from an exotic viewpoint, or only scratches the surface and only takes small things like names or tiny concepts and then takes them in a completely different direction. It's a bit like Western TV taking bits of Japanese culture in its fiction, and due to its not knowing much about it, present it in a way that Japanese people might not recognise. There was one anime that I had considered watching in 2017, which was Vatican Miracle Examiner, because I would have loved to see a Japanese take on Catholicism (because of my obvious biases), although in the end I didn't see it, as a) Amazon Strike got the rights, and I'm not paying extra for it, and b) the reviews of it were rather poor, and some of the storylines seemed a bit crass from what I heard of it. Yes on that twist! I was finding it a little slow at times, certain action sequences like the Symphony Orchestra battle aside but that twist made me race it through to the end as fast as I could. Agreed on your quibbles, it's been quite a while since I started it but I do remember the more dodgy parts being earlier on. I've really gotten into Trigger it seems this year, picking up their two biggest series, they've got a quite standout animation style and certainly know how to pick up good music. I almost seek out anime that has religious themes in it for that reason, it's so different and exotic and it's a really weird prism to view it through. As I come from an Evangelical Christian background (now lapsed and Anglican if anything) I'm used to depictions of Christianity in media being these incredibly biased depictions aimed at converting the audience - while mainstream Western media pretty much ignores Christianity except when the story calls for it and then does it all as dry as possible to not offend anyone. So something that's showing me religion but is focusing on how cool the artwork or the mythologies are without trying to convert me is something I really appreciate it because I have a huge interest in how religions operate and work and the stories that they've built up over centuries. Basically I'll just like anything where there are characters named Gabriel/Sariel/Uriel/Azaroth/Lucifer et al fighting heavenly battles no matter the context because of the history behind those names and that Japan can make these without huge controversy is something I really appreciate. I didn't realise nano.RIPE were on that closing theme, I really like them too though, I should also search out anime they're on - although I think my favourite is anime with Eir Aoi, LiSa or Garnidelia on them, which is basically any given fantasy anime out there but... I was thinking about picking up that one, Vatican Miracle Examiner, too for similar reasons but I never got around to it because of the poor reviews that started surfacing too - never researched enough to learn it was one of those caught by the Amazon Strike thing. Which is a shame on both fronts as a show with that title seems fairly hard to mess up  Otherwise, what perfect timing: 10. Little Witch Academia #21 in all-time, #6 in 2016-2017  'I'll work hard to become a witch who can make everyone smile. Because to me, magic is the most wonderful thing in the entire world!' Genre: Magic Boarding School Tentacle Rating: 1/10 - this is set in England, at a school of Copy from the current version of Wiki: Little Witch Academia is a 2017 anime (the best anime EVER)[citation needed] television series created by Yoh Yoshinari and produced by Trigger, based on the original short films released in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Little Witch Academia is not Harry Potter. It's certainly got more than a few similarities to it and the world will feel pretty familiar if you are a Potter fan, certainly more so than any other anime but there are at least two key differences. 1) There's no Voldemort analogue, the battle of good and evil is a little less life-threatening than that and 2) Akko can't ride a broom for shit. Akko is a girl from a non-magical background who joins the ailing boarding school for witches of Luna Nova with the aim to become a great witch like her idol Shiny Chariot (and Akko is, the series makes references to this a couple of times which I found rather interesting, the only Japanese girl in a cast of non-Japanese, yes, anime does have ethnicities sometimes, the other main girls are Finnish (Lotte), Filipino (Sucy), German (Constanze), American (Amanda), Russian (Jasminka) and British (Diana) - I only actually picked up on Diana, Akko and Constanze from watching it, I had to get the info on the others from Wiki, yes, I missed that Lotte was Finnish despite the episode where they visit her home being in a Lapland-esque wasteland). Only thing is she really finds magic hard and struggles to make an impact, but she does make good friends in her roommates Lotte and Sucy, Lotte being a studious young girl who's quite shy, while Sucy is hilariously almost-malevolent and quite the snarker. Early on she finds the wand, Shiny Rod, of her idol Chariot and that keeps her noticed. She's trying to show that magic is a wonderful thing and can be used to make so many people happy as it did her as a young girl, and she and her friends go on many episodic adventures and misadventures in order to prove this. Oh and she also finds a rivalry in star student Diana, who really does appear to be as if Hermione and Malfoy were combined into one character with her two sidekicks Hannah and Barbara shadowing her every move and all of the teachers being wowed by her abilities. It is as I've said fairly episodic and that made it hard to go through in the beginning as I've found with everything, you need to care about the characters and it took a few episodes for that to click in, so the first few episodes I watched ages apart from each other. What helped was me focusing on it as an anime to finish while in India, and by about episode 8 it had clicked and I was loving everything and the second half of the show hit, the overarching plot that had been building quietly in the background, a lot about magic being an outdated part of this world (it's interesting how everyone knows magic exists but no one outside of the witches really care because technology can do everything better) became more apparent and it built to a wonderfully happy and beautiful climax. I was really rather impressed by the ending, it took things to places that I never imagined this anime could go and in the intervening period the episodes were of a strong episodic quality and that's for one key reason, instead of the episodes JUST being on the problem of the week, they also used the opportunity to give a focus to a number of the characters. Each of the main seven girls (aside from poor Jasminka) got at least one strong focus episode on them and their background, like Constanze, who doesn't speak and seems so unimportant for long periods of time, gets an entire episode devoted to her, and that part reminded me a little bit of Assassination Classroom, less characters to do it with of course, but also why I love Star Trek, you learn so much about a character when an episode is entirely about them and it changes your perception of the character - Sucy's one definitely made me understand her a bit more and the same for Constanze as mentioned, while Diana's ones are tied in with the plot and are very interesting for that reason. And through it all Akko is stumbling through life being adorable and yet always trying to get better and it's just a really rather lovely show. There are rivalries but they're mostly nice rivalries and it ended up really cheering me up - not that I needed cheering up so I think the net result is that it was something to look forward to at the end of a long day. Best Episode: Tough choice. Though I don't really prefer episodic shows as a rule, having them be episodic makes each individual episode stand out a lot and there's definitely competition from Sleeping Sucy and Changing at the Edge of the World, the finale. But I have to give it to the mid-season finale, The Magic of Samhain, as that, the culmination of Akko's plans for the Samhain Festival, is the first time we really see Akko's strength in magic and her work pulling itself off in a blaze of glory and it is probably this that first really left me with a great happy feeling as episodes of Akko failing or succeeding by only dumb luck start to be replaced after this by her actually starting to be a somewhat competent character. It's both a major turning point, highlights the differences between her and Diana (there are two kinds of competence) and a spectacle to see. Music: The first OP has a great classical riff that opens up the show with a feeling of brightness and happiness, plus the night vistas are rather incredible in the opening animation. I thought I'd miss it when the mid-season rolled around but the second OP was even better. Now with all of the characters firmly established, a shot of them all flying past on their broomsticks in their own characteristic manner before Akko comes along flying in her own... unique way is great chills-inducing stuff, and it does some great visual cues to indicate how Akko still looks up to Chariot and looks at Diana as a rival to be surpassed still. It's not quite as good a song but it gave me more good feelings if that makes sense. The rest of the OST was some really good orchestral & classical sound-pieces, there's a great set of music if you needed another reason to love it. Best Characters: Sucy hands-down, I'd look forward to her requisite line every episode because it was so on point, she was self-aware at times, her focus episode is something I need to rewatch because given an entire episode of her there's no shortage of her snark, on-point 4th-wall breaking and her rather unique vocal tone just makes every line she says even more funnier (even when it's in Japanese, it just works) - best quote: 'Hang on... maybe I should test it first on my guinea pig, but if this works... Akko will end up becoming a successful and talented witch... which would make everything boring'. Of course Akko was the sort of character you just feel motivated and cheered up by when she's on screen so she was a great lead and Diana was really interesting as well once we got a few episodes about her. By the end every main witch girl was really great and I cared about seeing them on and that's needed for the final arc of the series to work. |
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31st December 2017, 01:30 PM
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#19
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Howdy, disco citizens
Joined: 16 January 2010
Posts: 12,775 User: 10,455
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I think it goes without saying that I absolutely loved Little Witch Academia. I've just finished marathoning the series again over Christmas (this time in the dubbed version), and have found even more things to love about it this time around. There were a few Easter eggs hidden in the series which quite tickled me - one of the rioters bore a striking resemblance to Vicki Pollard from Little Britain, one of the shops Akko runs past at one point is called "Marks & Sponcers", and one of the books mentions a past pupil by the name of "Salem Saberhagan". Funnily enough, I didn't really consider Harry Potter to be a main touchstone for the series, I felt that it owed more to another British book series (and TV series), "The Worst Witch", and its main protagonist, Mildred Hubble, although then again that book series was supposedly influential on the writing of Harry Potter.
My favourite episodes of the series were two that were more or less standalone episodes (so anyone reading this who might want to dip into LWA might consider going straight to these episodes), were "Orange Submariner", which was the most out & out hilarious episode (the moments where Akko realises 3 months too late that her teacher is actually a goldfish, and her ill-fated attempts to bribe her is one of the greatest comedy set-pieces I've seen in anime), and "Sleeping Sucy", which I loved because despite the apathy-to-snarky hostility Sucy had shown towards Akko up to that point, it showed that she really does care for Akko. The only weakness I felt the series had was it just didn't have a strong enough antagonist. The introduction of Professor Croix came right out of the blue, and it wasn't really signposted during the opening episodes (I noticed a few more allusions to it in the first half during the re-watch, but it still didn't satisfy me), and I felt that her redemption wasn't truly earned. I'm hoping they make a second series, because even though it's ending was quite self-contained, there were still a few dangling threads left hanging - Ursula/Chariot still hasn't recovered her magic powers, Andrew still hasn't given Akko her hat back, Akko's magic is still quite weak in spite of her finally being able to fly in the final moments, & I'd like to see the Lotte/Frank relationship developed a little further). |
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31st December 2017, 08:46 PM
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#20
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I'm a paragon so don't perceive me
Joined: 3 February 2011
Posts: 37,417 User: 12,929
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QUOTE(Brett-Butler @ Dec 31 2017, 01:30 PM) I think it goes without saying that I absolutely loved Little Witch Academia. I've just finished marathoning the series again over Christmas (this time in the dubbed version), and have found even more things to love about it this time around. There were a few Easter eggs hidden in the series which quite tickled me - one of the rioters bore a striking resemblance to Vicki Pollard from Little Britain, one of the shops Akko runs past at one point is called "Marks & Sponcers", and one of the books mentions a past pupil by the name of "Salem Saberhagan". Funnily enough, I didn't really consider Harry Potter to be a main touchstone for the series, I felt that it owed more to another British book series (and TV series), "The Worst Witch", and its main protagonist, Mildred Hubble, although then again that book series was supposedly influential on the writing of Harry Potter. My favourite episodes of the series were two that were more or less standalone episodes (so anyone reading this who might want to dip into LWA might consider going straight to these episodes), were "Orange Submariner", which was the most out & out hilarious episode (the moments where Akko realises 3 months too late that her teacher is actually a goldfish, and her ill-fated attempts to bribe her is one of the greatest comedy set-pieces I've seen in anime), and "Sleeping Sucy", which I loved because despite the apathy-to-snarky hostility Sucy had shown towards Akko up to that point, it showed that she really does care for Akko. The only weakness I felt the series had was it just didn't have a strong enough antagonist. The introduction of Professor Croix came right out of the blue, and it wasn't really signposted during the opening episodes (I noticed a few more allusions to it in the first half during the re-watch, but it still didn't satisfy me), and I felt that her redemption wasn't truly earned. I'm hoping they make a second series, because even though it's ending was quite self-contained, there were still a few dangling threads left hanging - Ursula/Chariot still hasn't recovered her magic powers, Andrew still hasn't given Akko her hat back, Akko's magic is still quite weak in spite of her finally being able to fly in the final moments, & I'd like to see the Lotte/Frank relationship developed a little further). Oh yes all of the British things in the series were quite lovely. I enjoyed how the climactic bit was set around a huge 'goal controversy', that seemed both making fun of football hooliganism and felt funny because it was entirely possible. Aye, Croix was a rather weird antagonist, I thought she felt more like a protagonist who was doing some contractually obligated 'evil' stuff to make her a bit more present as a threat. I get what they were trying to do with the friendly rivalry that Akko and Diana had that supposed to be echoed up through the generations but it ended up being that Croix would do something good and then the next minute deredeem herself by going back to shady antagonism. Great looking character though, she commanded the screen alright I'd definitely support seeing a second series, it's something I could easily watch more of now I know and like the characters, and as the second half sped by it felt like they could have fit a few more episodes in there, like you say there's plot threads hanging and they could explore the backstory of all of the other witches quite easily, Sucy's crying out for a bit more development. 9. Food Wars (Season 2) (whole series) currently #9 in all time, this season #5 in 2016-2017  'repeating trial and error and failing many times...it's that process which makes the dishes shine.' Genre: Food Tentacle Rating: 9/10 - Not quite as bad as the first season where the first episode opened with literal tentacles but it's still Food Wars - and we wouldn't have it any other way Food Wars had a shortened second season late last year but I didn't pick it up as it aired for a few reasons. Firstly, I know that I have to be in a very specific mood (i.e. full so I don't get hungry and not so full that I don't want to look at food, those times don't come around too often for me) to watch this anime, secondly, I loved the first season so much in retrospect that I knew I'd get around to it at some point because more and even higher stakes battles for season 2 was something I wasn't going to miss and finally, I know that because of its addictive nature bingeing this anime in a very short space of time would be incredibly possible and indeed, of all of the anime that I finished on this list, I think Season 2 of Food Wars I completed in the shortest amount of time. It has a Season 3 now out (with a season 4 premiering next year) that I will be catching up on at some point in the next few months and I'm looking forward to it very much. So what happened in Season 2 that made it improve upon Season 1? I have mixed feelings about the reduced number of episodes, it made the action feel a lot tightly packed together but I just really wanted more of it and the short amount given here really wasn't enough. Yet I enjoyed it so much because for what little there was, there was a really fun tournament where red-haired brash protagonist chef Souma yet again is tested to his limits in the most fun and adrenaline-pumped way a cooking tournament can be. And it's not just him. See, the climactic curry tournament of the first season wasn't even the beginning of true skill. Seven of the most skilled characters from the first season and one mysterious figure who we haven't seen before (I wonder if he'll be important) now line up in a knockout tournament where they must battle to be the ultimate student chef of Tokugeki Academy and there is going to be a lot of sauce, umami and recipe plans spilled in the interim. One full episode is dedicated to all seven matches of the knockout tournament and this is where the season truly shines. Each battle can therefore go into detail about the backstory behind the cook and their dishes, the strategy each is thinking in their mind as they struggle to impress the judges the most and put out huge FEATS (and feasts) of cooking while barely breaking sweats, at least at first. And if you think that doesn't sound too interesting, you haven't heard this series accompanied with its adrenaline building music that puts you in the right frame of mind to get incredibly HYPED. Or the insane comparisons it makes while reminding you that this is still a cooking anime (my personal favourite is when they compare Soma's battle to being Yoshitsune meeting Benkei, a warrior monk, on the bridge, a very famous event from medieval Japanese history. Like Robin Hood meeting Little John, that sort of folklore gravitas to it). The same way that you might get hyped over a superhero fight, you get hyped over these kids presenting posh elegant cooking to hoity-toity judges and it is really something to watch. First season definitely needed to get into the whole idea, start you off a bit small and low-key (although it won't feel small and low-key when a newcomer watches it, it certainly didn't feel that way to me), and then you'll just be converted. And again it made me want to try more cooking for myself, not quite as much as the first season did because the dishes are a little more arcane but still, a little bit, I wouldn't mind trying to make something sort of similar to what they dish up. And then at the end there's a little arc about the characters doing an internship in the real world which brings it back to normality a little. I'd mind considering the series revels in its audaciousness but this arc does give some great life advice on how to make yourself shine and standout in the workplace, so that you never stop innovating even when you're not in direct competition with anyone. It's a quiet yet quite fitting end for an inspiring series... TO BE CONTINUED WHENEVER I PICK UP SEASON 3 IN THE NEW YEAR Best Episode: Dawn Will Come Again, I am not revealing any details about the battles but this is one of them and it's an incredibly intense one as the combatants one-up each other all the way. The next episode, Beasts Devouring Each Other, is a real highlight too. I could probably mention all of the battles but those two stand out. Music: As mentioned the OST music is so important for this, it ensures that you are feeling the right feelings at each point of the fights and it's worth just letting yourself go in a flood of hype. My personal favourite is the victory music The Dish Towards Tomorrow, taking on the mantle from The Secret Ingredient Called Victory from season 1. The OP was high quality as normal with the usual Food Wars deep-voiced male pop song which is just rather gorgeous. Food Wars is one of the few anime that includes its character's names in the opening which is incredibly helpful given the large number of them and it gives them all a chance to shine as they stand on kіtchen knives pointing towards the sun... it does abstract things rather well believe me. Best Characters: Oh there's a whole list of them. I grew to like Ryo and Akira over the course of this season where I didn't really pay much attention to certainly Ryo before, he's a lot more interesting than his fearsome look and apparent lapdog to Alice might suggest. Soma is of course still a fantastic protagonist and Megumi is as cute as ever. I think my ultimate favourite for this season has to go to Hisako, who has to go through quite a journey this season and quite a relatable one at that for me. And she's also really cute but ssh. |
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