Final Thoughts: Spring 2015

Final Thoughts Spring 2016

Lets all chill out and talk anime

It’s that time again, time for my final thoughts list! This season had some amazing little shows that I will truly miss, but before we say goodbye let’s look at the shows that will follow us into the summer.

Cardfight!! Vanguard! G: Stride Gate- For a show that once had the characters on the moon and had the whole world be under the control of evil card games, they really know how to make things more crazy then they have made it before. This season we have a man trying to bring beings from the Vanguard home world in order to bring peace to earth by killing the vanguard planet, that same guy dying and uploading his brain into a clone child’s body, and the return of the Cardfight Sentai Vangarangers! Also the characters are going to have to go to space again. Because of course they are. One of the things I am really enjoying is that Chrono is being forced to play a different deck because he doesn’t have access to his favorite cards and win condition. So now he is forced to play something new in the same clan, which is always interesting. It’s like when Aichi was forced to use Gold Paladins instead of Royal Paladins in season 2. I look forward to seeing how they will end up in space and save two planets via the power of cardboard games.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamonds are Unbreakable- I have thoroughly enjoyed the first third of this adaptation. The first main story line of Diamonds are Unbreakable, following the hunt for Red Hot Chili Peppers and the mystical bow and arrow, is a great to start to part 4, and it is only getting better form here. The quintessential episode of the whole arc happens in this first part, at least the most quintessential for me, the Italian food episode. It is a silly episode where Josuke and Okuyasu go eat at a strange Italian restaurant that just opened up, and all hell breaks loose. It is definitely an episode you have to see, even if you’re not watching the show. Coming up in the show we have aliens, rock paper scissors battles, and one of my favorite villains ever written. I know I’ll keep watching, and so should you. 

This was honestly horrifying.

And now onto the shows that are ending. These are my final thoughts on the spring anime season.

Assassination Classroom second season- Jesus that was an effective ending. I cried a few times at the closing of this season but this show took the cake. The second to last episode was what really did it for me. The class has to kill him now or a space laser will destroy him in a few minutes. He doesn’t have time to say goodbye to each of his students personally, so he does the only thing he can, he does roll call. And after each name we cut to that person, tears in their eyes or a sad smile as they say goodbye to the person who taught them so much. I know I was crying my eyes out before he even got half way through. This is a fantastic show that builds to one of the saddest endings of the season, if not the year. While tonally it can flip flop a bit, not knowing if it wants to be a goofy comedy or a dark story of assassination, but when they balance the two it works perfectly. I know I loved this show, and I might even go back and read the manga one of these days.

Bakuon!!- I appreciate this show for what it is, a very funny and enjoyable show about girls and motorcycles. Its humor almost always hit, and even if I didn’t understand something about motorcycles I could understand from the context that the show gave and learned a bit. I really appreciate how you can tell the creator of the show is secretly the biggest self-deprecating Suzuki fan. Like, watching the show you think Rin, the Suzuki maniac, is the butt of the jokes, and to be fair she is. Her obsession with the Kantana and any Suzuki brand bike is honestly hilarious and has shades of just anyone who is just a bit into a specific thing. But as you watch you see that the Suzuki bikes are always shown in a strange light. There’s an episode where Onsa gets infected with Suzukiphilla, giving her an obsession for the brand of bikes. She talks glowingly about how much she loves all these bikes, while also hating herself for wanting to love the bikes. All the dialogue just speaks of truth of someone who has a deep obsession of a guilty pleasure.  It is something I know deeply, so I can see this ringing true. Heck, he even has Jesus ride a Suzuki. A Suzuki Intruder to be specific. That’s also something I really enjoy about the series, Jesus. In the manga Jesus really only shows up for the one chapter, where he and Hana travel together and he gave her the Holy Grail. Actually one of the additions to the anime from the manga was the inclusion of more Motorcycle Jesus, and personally I really enjoyed that. Just his small inclusions added to the show. Bakuon might be one of my all-time favorite moe girls doing stuff anime. It is silly and fun and knows how to tell a joke. I know I will continue to read the manga to this series and enjoy more girl’s und motorcycles.

God I really enjoyed this show.

Sailor Moon Crystal 2- This was defiantly the best season of Sailor Moon Crystal so far. It was a great adaptation of the original manga and anime. The animation looked amazing compared to its previous season, and allowed for the more comedic and silly moments to shine through. On a functional level the story is a bit clunky. For instance, the reason the three outer planet Sailor Scouts don’t work with the main Sailor Scouts is something along the lines of their original jobs are to be protectors from a far, as opposed to the main Sailor Scouts who protect the princess and kingdom close at hand. But their job, just by being Sailor Scouts, is to obey and work for the princess, in this case Usagi. All Usagi has to do is order them to all work together on this problem and they should step in line. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Usagi basically does this, and they still disobey her. It is a bit of a plot hole that I never have understood. Also the villain is just kind of there, he doesn’t do much and is defeated by being sucked into a time hole of some sort. Also, Sailor Pluto is a problem. Her whole role in the cosmos is to be the one who destroys everything so that life can start anew, I think. But if she is that powerful, she probably doesn’t need to use her full power and destroy everything, at least I would think so. It’s a design flaw in your powers when you can only use all of them or none of them. Mind you, these are far from the worst of problems. The characters are still enjoyable, the story is functional, and the action is fantastic. Watching Sailor Moon become Super Sailor Moon is worthy of cheering. I hope they decide to adapt the next part of the story, and the last moments of the anime seems to hint at a new season coming up one day. Honestly I can’t wait for more Sailor Moon in my future.

Boku no Hero Academia- This was a fantastic adaptation of the manga. It was able to successfully bring the emotions of the first big arcs of the manga to life. Deku’s journey from a powerless lover of heroes to someone who will become the pillar of justice for this world is something slow but enjoyably so. I think the one major fault of the anime is just its short run time. It is only a 13 episode anime season, and while they choose a good place to end the first season, after the introduction of the Villains Alliance and their attack on the school, that is far from the end of the story as the manga is still going on. The story only ramps up after the attack and the ending just makes you want more. On the one hand it works, because there will be a second season and this brings you back, but if you know where the story is going it makes you feel a bit unsatisfied because there is still so much to go. But as I said, this is a great adaptation of a great manga. The joke is that it is the next Naruto or One Piece, the next big Shounen Jump manga and anime that goes on for a long time. But honestly, that’s a good thing and I can’t wait for the next episode. Always remember to go beyond, Plus Ultra!

This comic makes me so happy

Bungou Stray Dogs- This show is a surprising dark horse for the best show of the season. What started out as a show about super powered people having fun quickly turned into a narrative about what it means to be a hero. I might have been looking too far into it but the main characters arc seems to follow this. He follows people who don’t believe themselves to be heroes but at all times are always doing and trying to do the right thing. They save a poor kid who has nothing to live for, they do their best to protect those they feel they’ve harmed accidently, and they have the hearts and minds of heroes. They are influencing this kid who literally had no purpose in life, a child who is told he was worthless his whole life. He sees people who were in similar situations and while people tell him he can’t do anything or he himself thinks he can’t do anything he finds himself moving and fighting to save lives. The last three or four episodes really makes this theme apparent, which I really enjoy. It is the culmination of his character arc and it really ties the series together. I really enjoyed this show, it was always a highlight of my week. I am also happy to hear that it will be getting a second season, where we will hopefully see more of the Port Mafia and the Armed Detective Agency fighting each other and out powering everyone else. I said this before but if you liked Kekkai Sensen you will probably enjoy this also.

Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou – The Last Song- Whenever I watched this show I couldn’t think how the real original Kamen Rider would have handled this world. Like if he was magically transported to this world, what would he do? I think he’d ignore the entire plot and do his best to fight against evil and actually do stuff while everyone else sits around and tries to figure out who the real villains are. This show is an amazing amount of work for something that doesn’t quite work for me. I’ve seen people make graphs and images to show how deep the references go and how they have lined up the events in the show with real life events and that is an insane amount of work they did. But for some reason this is a show I could not ever feel passionate about. I think the problem for me is that it tries to be incredibly philosophic about something I am passionate about and love and goes about it in a direction that I disagree with it. Outside of a fun scuffle between heroes I hate it when heroes fight. I dislike when people who want to do good and protect people have to fight each other. Like, I understand heroes having disagreements and stuff but I hate when heroes are just straight up fighting and then never reconcile and work together to fight the same foe. That is something that I have seen enough of in fiction and that is essentially what this show is about. That is until the last episode and the last fight. When they have the main hero finally fight the main villain and we get a true heroes speech that the reason he will fight this villain is because he is a hero and that is what heroes do I cried. The whole build up to that final fight was terrible and most of the time it felt contrived to me, but that final fight made me forget it, and made me root for the hero and made me cry. I love heroes so much, and if you enjoy heroes this show is probably necessary to watch for the philosophical discussion about what it means to be a hero, but that doesn’t mean it’s enjoyable. Maybe one day I can look back at this show and be happy with it, but for now, it was a minor disappointment.

Strangers fetishes exist. Not many but some do.

Flying Witch- Crunchyroll described this show as a warm blanket on a cold snowy day, and there is no better description for this show. It is the softest, nicest show this season. Every episode has this amazingly calm and nice atmosphere that enhances the jokes. Healing anime are some of my favorite. They help me relax after a long day and this show is one of the best. One of my favorite jokes of the whole series is the story of the friend of the main characters sister. She got drunk one night with the sister one night and ate some experimental candy that turns her into a half dog girl during the day, like a reverse werewolf. So the main character is tasked by her to help fix this affliction of hers, and after a long day of working on a potion to cure it, the dog girl takes it and then turns her into a full dog. The joke it just perfectly built up, and the punchline is amazing. I really enjoyed relaxing to Flying Witch and it made my Saturdays something to look forward to.

Joker Game- I really enjoy realistic portrayal of spies and espionage. While I like a good James Bond flick from time to time a much slower and more realistic picture of what is going on can be even more thrilling. Joker Game gives us that more realistic portrayal of espionage during the Second World War and it really helps the show become something different then its compatriots. Each episode creates a different set of circumstances or a different angle for us to see these spies put to work all their skills. I personally always enjoyed the episodes that focused on characters other than the main spies, and watching how they work and manipulate whoever the episode focuses on. This show was always incredibly atmospheric, making it feel like a more realistic pulp novel, which really fits the time period. This is was an enjoyable show, it was something different from what we usually get in anime, and it is something I hope to see again one day.

Got to love an anime that dances to its own opening theme.

Kuma Miko- This show started off so strong. It was a very funny little show about a girl and her talking bear for a pseudo parent. But then it slowly turned into something cringe worthy and a little gross at times. The main plot turns into the uncle of the main character forcing her to become an idol to help bring prosperity back to the town. It is a lot of forcing the girl to do things she obviously doesn’t want to do, and making her wear embarrassing outfits and it just gets more and more uncomfortable. And the worst part is that any growth that the two main characters have is destroyed. In the end the miko girl decides that her whole dream of moving to the city is terrible and she promises to stay in the village. Any growth she has had over the past 12 episodes was thrown out the window. This show had potential but it squandered it in the name of fan service.

Pan de Peace- The cute girls ate the bread. For what it’s worth the bread looks tasty.

Honestly I've just wanted to use this picture for a while.

Sakamoto Desu Ga?- This show was a blast of fresh air that I was not expecting. It was funny, heartwarming, and made you really appreciate the little silly things that you do that you can’t help but think make you cool. It makes you want to do all the things Sakamoto does and stop caring what other people think. It’s inspiring actually. The show itself is just wonderful to watch. The lack of an overall story but the inclusion of strong continuity from episode to episode really helps the show. I was honestly surprised at the inclusion of a villain in this show. The show introduced someone who liked to tear down those who stand out and get popular, like Sakamoto, and he works to destroy Sakamoto by manipulating others. He is like an anti-Sakamoto. But he doesn’t do much, he is basically only in 2 and half episodes. His inclusion seems strange, but his defeat, by having Sakamoto force him to confront his fear of the future, is fitting and really well done. We honestly don’t know anything about Sakamoto, but that’s for all the better. It means he can be whatever we want, whatever we need in our hearts. He will be missed, as this show will be.

Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge- This was another of the softer, slice of life anime this season that really worked for me. I felt as if the two main characters were really close to who I am. On the one hand you have Ohta, who loves sweets and is a kind person who is always willing to help his friends. And on the other hand you have Tanaka, who is lazy and only wants to live an easy simple life. I am both of these people at the same time. It was honestly very enjoyable and relaxing watching Tanaka and his friends just hang out and deal with Tanaka and his laziness. This was one of the shows that really made my Saturdays something to look forward to, along with Flying Witch and Sakamoto Desu Ga. There’s not really a lot to say about this show other then it is funny, sweet, and definitely worth a watch.

Definitely the coolest

Tonkatsu DJ Agetaro- I think this is the show I am most disappointed to see ending this season. I actually didn’t know it was ending until the actual final episode. But this is definitely a highlight of the spring anime season. A show about classic turn table DJ culture and also fried pork cutlets should not be as good as it is but it really is. The music is always pumping and really fun to listen to, which is good because it is a music based anime. The animation is also really funky and works for the series. As a self-professed anime hipster elitist douchbag, this show hits all the marks of a great underrated series.

Uchuu Patrol Luluco-  Studio Trigger continues to make amazing little shows. Space Patrol Luluco is all about Studio Triggers two favorite things, references and the power of love. Every episode past the half way point was just references to their past works, to the point where even the original Inferno Cop shows up for an episode. This was a fast paced little show that perfectly shows what Trigger is able to do both writing wise and animation wise. I also enjoyed the Super Sentai style passing the torch between this series and Triggers next series, Little Witch Academia the series. And I know I can’t wait for that.

Words to live by, yo.

And that is the spring anime season! Tune in next time for my first impressions list of the summer anime season, and we get to see just how gay this summer really will be. So until next time, keep on watching. 

Thanks for watching!