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Post by Darthtabby on Apr 2, 2014 21:18:05 GMT -7
Random Curiosity posted a preview for the Spring 2014 anime season that is about to start. Seikoku no Dragonar takes the award for worst light novel based series. Some of the others don't sound all that great either but at least I have a bit more hope for them. Some of the new mecha series have potential, but as far as that genre is concerned I'm more enthusiastic about the ongoing Nobunaga: The Fool and Buddy Complex which are my top picks from last season's new shows. I'm actually rather interested in Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns and Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii. They're not from genres I'm that heavily into but they seem like they could be good. Not the strongest looking line up ever so far, but I usually find at least some shows I like each season. Quite a few of the shows I've ended up liking over the years have been ones I wouldn't have put much stock in based on their descriptions. Also, Funimation is streaming Ben-to (a "supermarket survival battle" comedy that was my favorite show of 2011) so if you find you're short on stuff you want to watch this season it might be worth a shot. It can be rather ecchi at times but the supermarket brawls are awesome.
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Post by the_kumatei on Apr 3, 2014 4:00:27 GMT -7
I'll be honest, I only read the synopses' of the mecha shows. - Captain Earth: This was painful to read.
- Break Blade: Doesn't look exciting.
- Fuuun Ishin Dai Shougu: Like the synopsis says, this can be really good or really bad.
- Sidonia no Kishi: I've seen some artwork for this, and I think it could be good. They seems to have put more thought into the plot. The site has short commercials. The movement in the animation looks very low-budget, but I'm excoted about this one.
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Post by Darthtabby on Apr 5, 2014 12:03:01 GMT -7
I tend to like some variety in my anime diet. I often find its nice to have a good, down to earth drama in the mix somewhere (particularly if it has a good sense of humor).
If you meant to survey all the new mecha shows you actually missed a couple. Granted I can see why you might be inclined to just skip over the one about the ecchi powered mecha, but you might want to take a look at the synopsis for M3.
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Post by Misha on Apr 7, 2014 8:02:28 GMT -7
Fairy Taaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllll. It's baaaaaaack~!
Usually I can't stand series that go on for an eternity, but Fairy Tail is going strong and just getting better and better. I'm so excited that it's back, caught the first episode and it's beautiful and promising to be intense ^^
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Post by Darthtabby on Apr 9, 2014 12:11:13 GMT -7
Some takes on the new shows I've watched so far this season:
Akuma no Riddle: I was kind of interested in this one based on the Random C preview, but I'm finding the set up and characters a bit much.
Baby Steps: Man, the protagonist of this series is ridiculously anal retentive. And yet somehow I find I can kind of relate to him. (This site really needs an embarassed/sweatdrop type smiley.) I enjoyed the first episode of this but I'm not particularly keen on where it seems to be going.
Black Bullet: You'd think the survival/horror genre would be a good one for breaking out of the tired environments and conventions of otaku oriented material, but this series seems to have preserved them pretty well -even though a large portion of humanity has been wiped out.
Blade and Soul: I went into this one concerned that it could be shallow and vapid. Despite some rather generic elements and unnecessary fan service, it turned out to be surprisingly good. Will have to see how things work with the revenge focused plotline and cold, largely silent main heroine though.
Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou: I had some hope for this show during the first few minutes, but it evaporated rather quickly. This and Black Bullet are my picks for the worst shows I've watched so far this season.
Captain Earth: The serious drama and over the top camp clash a bit and there were an awful lot of characters introduced for a single episode, but overall I enjoyed the first episode of this one.
Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns: There are some things I liked about the first episode of this show and some I didn't. I think I'm going to have to wait until the first mystery is unravelled before I can make a good judgement on this show.
Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii: This one's hard to judge at this point because we've barely met one of the main characters. The other main character is quite likeable however. Not too big on some of the meta elements, but generally pretty enjoyable even though I wasn't blown away.
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Post by Darthtabby on Apr 12, 2014 12:18:27 GMT -7
Still at the part of the new season where my anime buddies and I are sampling stuff:
Coffin Princess Chaika: A bit reminiscent of Blade and Soul in some regards, but with a magic gun wielding loli and two zany siblings instead of a hot assassin chick. More moe but perhaps works a bit better in terms of story.
Fuuun Ishin Dai Shogun: This one has some amusing stuff like the ninja granny, but it also has a lot of excessively large boobs. Not too enthusiastic on it at the moment.
Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san: Er... what?
Is the Order a Rabbit?: I'm not a huge fan of the cute girls doing cute things genre.
Knights of Sidonia: One of the more interesting shows this season, but uses CGI characters.
Mushi-shi Season 2: Its basically more Mushi-shi, though the ending of the first episode invites comparison to tripping on LSD. Definitely something a bit out of the ordinary though.
Nanana's Buried Treasure: This one's a bit of an odd duck. Its got shades of harem show, but also a strong dose of mystery/adventure. Oh, and the main girl is a ghost who's bound to a single room in the main character's apartment. Despite some cliches I think it could be a fun adventure series.
Ping Pong: The Animation: Not my cup of tea.
Soul Eater Not!: This is essentially a moe version of Soul Eater with a yuri (or at least borderline yuri) love triangle.
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Post by Darthtabby on Apr 23, 2014 15:03:29 GMT -7
Fairy Taaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiillllllllllll. It's baaaaaaack~! Usually I can't stand series that go on for an eternity, but Fairy Tail is going strong and just getting better and better. I'm so excited that it's back, caught the first episode and it's beautiful and promising to be intense ^^ I've been a bit tempted to check Fairy Tail out, but isn't the first season over 150 episodes? That seems like a bit much.
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Post by Misha on Apr 23, 2014 15:08:24 GMT -7
Ahahah, yes, it is, but it's actually really good. Normally I get bored or lost in the ridiculously long anime (I'm looking at you, Bleach and Naruto...) but this one I simply adore~ The first... 14 episodes or so have too much exposition and the series almost lost me, but right when it started to get unbearably annoying, it went away, and I fell in love with it hard ^^ But yeah, the first season (I hesitate to call it a single season but I guess that's how it's officially addressed ) is 175 episodes XD
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Post by Darthtabby on Jul 1, 2014 21:01:33 GMT -7
So the season is basically over, and here are the shows I recommend from it.
Captain Earth: This is one of those shows with a horrible sounding premise that is actually pretty good. Its a two cour series so its only about halfway done. So far its concentrated a fair bit on developing/introducing characters so its a bit hard to judge the rather convoluted main story. But its been consistently enjoyable, with a generally competent cast (though so far the main love interest has been rather shallow ) and solid production values. My top pick of the season. Coffin Princess Chaika: This one seemed kind of mediocre to begin with (despite the first episode featuring the most demonic unicorn ever), but its grown on me due to a generally solid performance and an excellent finale arc that upped the ante. Its reminiscent of 2003's Scrapped Princess -which perhaps shouldn't be surprising since both series have the same director and are based on source material by the same author. Chaika is more in line with modern otaku sensibilities than its predecessor, but its still a good adventure story with some pretty badass fight scenes. And despite her moeblob characterization and broken speech patterns Chaika is a lot more useful thank Pacifica was. Looking forward to season two in the Fall. The World is Still Beautiful (Soredemo): I'm not normally one for shoujo series, but this one gets by on the strength of its lead characters. Nike is awesome, and Livi has plenty of guile (though he's also a shota). Nanana's Buried Treasure: This show has charisma but I found it hard to follow, which is part of the reason I'd rate the other three shows above it (like Coffin Princess Chaika this is based on a series of novels, but it doesn't seem to be as well adapted as Chaika is). The main character in this series is not the ordinary high school student he initially appears to be.
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Post by Misha on Jul 1, 2014 21:52:18 GMT -7
I enjoyed Hitsugi no Chaika. It definitely reminded me of Scrapped Princess, which I also enjoyed. Guess now I know why XD Definitely looking forward to the sequel, especially considering that finale. I really enjoy the fighting styles in it, too. Though it could do with less of the sis-con, or however you want to label it. I know they weren't sibs by blood, but it's obvious he sees her as a sis, and considering she calls him brother, it's... too much for me, lol.
No Game, No Life was also enjoyable, though the fanservice is rampant. If you look at the premise from the outside, it sounds pretty dumb, but I felt like it made up for it in execution. Definitely not a series for deep thoughts, but it does provide excellent mindless entertainment.
That's all I really watched this season, not including Fairy Tail. And I watched them pretty much all at once, I didn't follow them from the start.
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Post by Darthtabby on Jul 2, 2014 12:38:14 GMT -7
I actually thought the thing about Akari being bro-con for Toru was a joke -after all the first time I remember it coming up was when she told "Dominica" an outrageous pack of lies about why they'd come to the forest (iirc she claimed they were eloping). Later developments do seem to indicate she actually is a brocon, though if so she's a rather bizarre one since most sisters with a brother complex don't tell people its okay to kill their brother as long as he's intact enough that she can have him stuffed afterwards. Actually the Chaika/Toru pairing the show seems to be moving towards kind of bothers me to, since Chaika seems so young -that spear wielding mercenary who captured her even told her she had nothing to fear from him because he wasn't into kids! Interestingly I'm a lot more comfortable with the idea of Toru pairing with {Spoiler}Red Chaika but that has basically no chance of happening. I think some of that kind of stuff is an indication of how the anime industry has changed in the last decade though. Given the similarities in story and creative staff and the ten year gap between them I think Chaika and ScraPrin are interesting shows from a trends standpoint. As for No Game No Life, I actually watched that one as well (among others). I rather liked Sora's deviousness, and I think there actually is stuff that might be worth some thought under the surface level stupidity. However, if I claim that the otaku pandering in Chaika isn't that bad compared to other modern shows then its shows like No Game No Life I'm comparing it to. That's a big part of the reason I didn't include it with the list I posted earlier.
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