Final Thoughts: Fall 2012

 Final Thoughts: Fall 2012

It’s the end of another year, and as such the end of another anime season. This season was surprisingly emotional. But before we get the shows that ended this season, let’s look at the shows that I will continue to watch into the next season. 

Engine Sentai Go-onger

Engine Sentai Go-onger Review

When I was a kid, I loved Power Rangers. I loved the action, I loved then characters, I loved the mecha fights, I loved the villains, and basically I loved everything about the show. I watched it religiously; right up instill Power Rangers SPD. I started sleeping in more, so I would miss the initial broadcast, and I just started to drift away. I would sometimes watch a random episode if I would happen to catch it, but I was no longer invested. But then college happened. It was here that I found a love of tokusatsu, and I learned where the action scenes and some of the plots for Power Rangers came from. I was ecstatic, and decided to watch some of the more recent seasons. I watch Jungle Fury, and liked it well enough, it has some problems but overall I feel it is an underrated season. And then I watched Power Rangers RPM at the insistence of a friend, and it was amazing. A post-apocalyptic Power Ranger season with little filler episodes, good acting, a great plot, and some of my favorite characters in the show since Adam and Tommy from the old seasons, made this one of the best seasons of Power Rangers since In Space. With this knowledge, I decided to watch the RPM’s Sentai equivalent, and let me tell you I am still recovering from the whiplash. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is Engine Sentai Go-onger. 

Fall 2012 Anime Season: First Impresions

Fall 2012 Anime Season

Once again it is time to look at all the brand new releases that Japan has to offer. This season we are getting a lot of interesting shows, and some that might even become classics in the future. So let’s get right to it, these are my first impressions of the fall 2012 anime season.

Final Thoughts: Summer 2012

Final Thoughts: Summer 2012

Summer has come and gone and I am back in school. This must mean the summer anime season has ended, and it is time to look back at all I’ve watched. First of course are the shows that are still going on. Hunter X Hunter is doing an excellent job of interpreting and using the material from the manga, and we are getting some great fights from it. I really can’t wait to see the Greed Island arc, it will be awesome. Poyopoyo is still going strong, and you have to love that round cat. Polar Bear’s Café is also still going on, but it is starting to outstay it’s welcome. I fully expected this show to just end this season, but no, it will continue on. I will probably still keep up with it, but I have no clue for how long. Sword Art Online is entering its second half, and the first half was really enjoyable. I loved the MMO humor, and the world they created is very well done. I look forward to the second half. Toriko is still as enjoyable as ever. As a simple shonen action show, it does it’s job perfectly and I will keep up with it for a while. Space Brothers is also continuing. We are starting to get to some of the major NASA and JAXA parts, and I will continue to look forward to this show every week. And that’s what is continuing to air. Lets move on to the main dish proper. These are my final thoughts on the shows that ended this season.

Amagami SS

                                                      Amagami SS Review

   Harem anime are something of a bit of an oddball for me. On principle, I shouldn’t like them, and usually don’t. They are fan service ridden pieces of banality that usually have a main character that annoys me. They treat women like objects and usually send the message that all a woman wants and needs is a boyfriend. Now when I say harem anime, I mean shows that are built fully around the romantic story line of a bunch of girls chasing a main character. A show like Accel World or Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, which definitely has elements of a harem, is not included because the harem is not the purpose of the show. But there are quite a few harem shows I really like. The World God Only Knows is an excellent show that completely rewrites the details of a harem show, and I Don’t Have Many Friends is one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in a while. So when a harem show can transcend the boundaries of its cursed origins, then it can be good. Which segways perfectly to this little review. A show that is six romances in one, a show that goes far beyond that of any harem anime before it, a show that captures the heart and mind of its viewer. But I might be getting a bit ahead of myself. This is Amagami SS.

Katanagatari

Katanagatari Review

You know, I’m having a bit of trouble starting this little review. I mean, right around epsidoe 8 I had a whole beginning thing about how this show is one of those strange sub-genre shows that I really love, in this case it is a strange sword show, and I was going to use that to talk about my love of strange weapons, and how that ties back into anime and what I watch. But then the show ended, and it was just great. But it completely blew away anything I was going to use to start this. I mean, this is a good show. And the ending works so well. And well, I think I might be getting a bit ahead of myself.  This is Katanagatari.

Summer 2012 Anime Season: Frist Impressions

                                               Summer 2012 Anime Season

You realize that I’ve been doing this little dumb blog for about a year now? That snuck up on me, I honestly didn’t realize it, or even that I would continue to do it. I figured I would get bored or busy with life and such. But no! I am still going strong. And in honor of this, lets get right to it. These are my first impressions on the summer 2012 anime season!

Final Thoughts: Spring 2012

                                               Final Thoughts: Spring 2012

Well it is the end of the Spring2012 anime season, and man was there a lot of shows this season. Lets get the ones that are still going on out of way first so we can get to the good parts. Accel World, the virtual fighting game anime with a pudgy main character, is doing alright. It’s nothing really special, but it is decent, and the fighting is pretty good. The main character is completely getting on my nerves though. He is spineless and depressing and has so little confidence that I find it hard for him to be a main character. But the first season ended with a pretty good bang and a promise for some interesting conflict next season. Knight in the Area is getting really boring. I liked it at first, but it is starting to get a bit to unrealistic for me. I mean, if they were throwing out super moves right form the beginning, I feel it would be better somehow. But now they main character is calling up the spirit of his dead brother to play, and it just feels oddly forced. That and half the characters are starting to get really creepy about the dead brother. But I will stick to it for a while yet. I think the real problem is that I watched Giant Killing, a truly good soccer anime. Hunter X Hunter is sticking to the manga, and this is working well for it. And they are finally starting to get to the Yorknew arc, the arc that I consider the arc where the story really started. I look forward to watching more. Phi Brian: Kami no Puzzle 2 is an odd beast. I love the concept of Phi Brain, and the characters are fun. But when it gets serious or way too into the plot, it becomes uninteresting. I feel I said this before but I think this show would be better with a more shonen anime structure with the plot becoming something more of an over arching story and less of an episode to episode thing. I still like it, but I am starting to see more problems with it. Poyopoyo, on the other hand, has been consistently one of the best shows I’ve been watching. Every episode is funny, the characters are interesting, and it just keeps being good. It is a fun little 3 minutes that I look forward to every week. Polar Bear’s Café has also been a consistently funny show. It is just a pun filled, strange, yet relaxing show that I find hard to get tired of. It is the one show that I watch to just relax. My only complaint is that they keep changing he ending theme. In one season they changed it three times. But that is seriously a minor complaint. Sket Dance seems to becoming a bit more serious. It is still silly and like Gintama in every way except vulgarity, but it seems to be leaning more into a romantic side that high school anime seem to go. It is still far from a harem anime, and the they way they are doing it seems natural, so I have no real complaints. My hope is that the show stays true to its odd jobs/ helping people origin, but still go ahead with the romantic subplots they are setting up. Toriko is over the top, really dumb at times, and I still love it. There is not much to say about the show. They are still hunting food, the powers are still incredibly ridiculous, and the characters are getting stranger and stranger. But it is still just as good as when it began. But man is it a stupid show. Unlike Space Brothers, which is one of more interesting shows this season. I said before the I really identify with the character, and fell like this still stands. But outside of that, the journey of a man trying to become an astronaut has been of the most intriguing plots this season. I like that we are still learning about characters who might be selected to go into space. I like that we are moving forward with the process, and that everything about the process just seem real. Yes it’s a bit into the future, but the process the main character is going through just seems like what real astronaut would have to go through. It is that realism, with the perspective of the main character, that makes this show so good. And that’s what I am currently watching. Lets go on to the stuff that just finished. These are my final thoughts of the shows that ended this season.

Giant Killing

                                                            Giant Killing Review

Alright, full disclosure time. Last time, when I said I wanted to get a bit more digital, I originally wanted to review the fifth Digimon season, Digimon Savers. I did watch about half of it, but then something happened. Something that happens just about every year to me, finals. When ever those accursed tests roll around, I usually have to temporarily shelve whatever show I am currently watching. And after I finish those finals, I usually just can’t get back into whatever show I shelved. I try, but I just don’t want to watch it anymore, which is very unfortunate. Savers was a good show, it’s over all plot was interesting, and I liked how the main character would punch Digimon, who are a couple stories high, right in the face without even thinking about it. But for now, the show is dropped. And instead, I decided to watch a soccer anime. A soccer anime that completely changed the way I look at sports anime, a show that had me cheering in my seat, a show that was just… well I might be a getting a bit ahead of myself. This is Giant Killing.

Spring 2012 Anime Season: First Impressions

First Impressions Spring 2012  

Well it’s time for another season of new shows. This season there are a ton of new shows so there is a lot to get through. So lets get right to it. These are my first impressions on the spring 2012 anime season. 

Final Thoughts: Winter 2012

Final Thoughts Winter 2012

As time goes on, another anime season comes to an end. Funny story, the site where I usually watch all the new shows for a season went down, I assume not surviving the fall of Megaupload. So I had to scramble to find any sites that would still have all the shows I had been watching, fearing I would have had to drop all the good shows I had come to love this season. Turns out I was fine, and all the shows I did end up dropping I realized I was going to drop anyway. So anyway, to the reviews! Like last season, there are a few shows going on through this season, so I will give a quick update on what I am watching. I’m still keeping up with Hunter X Hunter, it is a great show keeping up really well with the manga. I am a huge fan of the manga, so I am impressed with how they are adapting it so far, and now that they are past the Exam arc, the real story is going to start, and I am so excited.  I’ve been watching Tokiko too, and while I haven’t been reading the manga, I am still excited for the next step of the grand food adventure. Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki, a short three minute show about a round cat, has stolen my heart and has quickly become my favorite show if its type. It is just a perfect three minute show, great characters, nothing complicated, and not only one joke, which is really impressive. Mouretsu Pirates, the one with the pirates in mini-skirts, is by no means perfect. But it is fun, and I really like the characters and the art design is still really fun. I am also watching Sket Dance, a show that hits that perfect niche of anime for me. Fun characters, good comedy, and just good people doing good things, everything about the show just makes me smile, or in the case of its more serious and somber moments, tear up. And then there is Knight in the Area, a fun soccer anime, which seems to be something I am slowly getting into. And now, for my final thoughts of the shows that ended this season!

Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger Review

Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger Review

Personally, I love kung fu films. There is just a beautiful feel to an old kung fu movie. The choreography is delicate and precise, the stories are fun, and the characters are people you want to get behind and root for. And this weeks fair is no different. It has some incredible characters, a fun story, and just great fighting, but I might be getting a bit ahead of myself here. This is Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger.

Slayers Review

Slayers

In all mediums there are pieces that are considered classics, and this is no different in anime. These are anime that every fan should know, anime that are just plain good, that people remember for years after they finish and will rewatch over and over again for many years to come. These are shows everyone has seen or in the very lest should see at some point in their lives. Some anime that fall into this category are Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Gundam, Beck Mongolian Chop Squad, hell, even Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon fall into this category. These are shows that everybody know, and today’s fair is defiantly a member of this list. A classic show form the 90’s, a show of swords and fantasy, of underground passageways and large fire breathing reptiles, but I might be getting a bit ahead of myself. This is Slayers.

Winter 2012 Anime Season: First Impressions

Winter 2012 Anime season, First Impressions.

Well its that time again. The snow starts to fall, the wind gets colder, and I pray for class cancellations every day, to no avail of course. But more then all that, it is time for new anime. Here are my first thoughts of the shows that I have seen of the winter 2012 anime season.

Recorder and Randosru: First show out of the gate and it’s one of those three minute long episode type shows. They are just randomly popular now a days, aren’t they? This show is about a pair of siblings, an elementary school age boy who looks like he should be in college, and his high school age sister who looks more loli then loli. And the jokes write themselves. Form what I have seen, this looks like to be a fun, if simple show. The little brother is hilarious, but I have a soft spot for older characters, or at least older looking characters, acting like little kids. And seeing him get arrested for looking like a pedophile was just funny. The older sister seems more plain, her main joke looks like it will be about her height, but she seems realistic. And I am just waiting for the joke where the older sister’s friend starts hitting on the 11 year old because she thinks he is her age. The awkwardness will be hilarious. I plan on keeping up with this show, it looks like it will be nice at the very least. Also, in the first episode there was a cameo from some of the girls from Morita-san wa Mukuchi, which I loved.

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki: This is a show about a cat that is round, and its loving family of humans. That is all this is really. It is another one of those three minute shows, and like the rest it is simple and basically fun. This show seems more overly cutesy then funny, but the show still has jokes. This show is just simple, easy, but I have to admit I am really digging it. I like the strangest of the cats design, the thing is basically a pillow that meows, and the human characters seem to be actual humans, and not just cardboard to react to cuteness. I plan on following this show, it is only three minutes so I won’t exactly be losing anything if it goes the suck route. 

Daily Lives of High School Boys: When I first heard about this show, I automatically called it as another season of Kimi to Boku. Male moe at its moeist. But then you watch the show. And it is not male moe, it is not even close. This is Gintama, a show I highly recommend, (even though I need to start watching again myself) in high school, with even more insane comedy. The character interactions are perfect. The jokes have me rolling on the floor laughing. I love everything about this show. It is funny, stupid, and awesome all rolled into one. The scene where the main character is trying on his sisters skirt, because he thinks both of his friends are doing the same, and the immediate aftermath, are some of the funniest things I have seen in a while. If I had ever lost my faith in anime, this would be the show to bring me back into the fold. I love this show, and already I hope it gets multiple seasons for a good while. I think you can guess if I am following this show or not.

New Prince of Tennis: In my youth, many years ago, I watched all of the original Prince of Tennis. I loved that show, it was fun, over the top, and had some really great characters. I loved the stupid super moves and I loved how unrealistic they made tennis by the shows end. And I admit it got me back into tennis as a real sport. New Prince of Tennis brought all this back to me in the course of 20 some glorious minutes. This show is pure nostalgia for me, and it is still fun. I plan on following this show, and look forward to seeing the dinosaurs being killed again by tennis.

Mouretsu Pirates: It’s the future, and space is everywhere. Because there are space ships, there are space pirates, and because there are space pirates there are space privateers, or legal space pirates. It is fun to say space pirates. We follow a young girl who is propositioned to be the next captain of a space pirate group whose captain, her father, has just recently died. This is a bit of a mix of high school life and futuristic space opera, and I love space opera. This seems like it will be a fun show, but really it all depends on two factors, the characters and the level of fan service.  The characters at this point in time seem interesting, all having actual personalities and seeming like people I want to know more about. The show is called bodacious, or miniskirt depending on who you ask, pirates, so this seems to be letting on that this will be a fan service type anime, but I have yet to see any of that, which is whole heartedly a good thing. I think if this show keeps up a good pace, keeps the character interesting, and doesn’t go into complete and utter fan service style, I will like it, and I plan on keeping up with it.
Inu X Boku SS: The SS stands for Secret Service. Just thought I would let you know that, seeing as there is another show with SS in the title, and I admiringly have no clue what that stands for in that show. Inu X Boku is about a rich girl who hurts all those she sees with a condescending, better the you attitude, but really wants to be liked, and wants to be kind to others, but her attitude problem has become a habit too strong to break. When she moves to a new fancy apartment building, she finds out she has her won personal secret service agent, who has sworn to protect and serve this girl, or die trying. And if she tries for fire him he will kill himself. The character interactions are great, we really see some interesting, and very individual characters right from the get go. My personal favorite is the lesbian who hits on our main heroin. For perspective, our main heroin looks loli-ish, and the women said out loud that her intentions is sexual. She was hilarious. But beyond that you really feel for the characters, until all hell breaks loose and you find out the twist to this little show. And it was done incredibly well. While this show looks like a Toradora type romantic comedy, it really departs from anything close to that. This is another show I plan on following, but I have to admit, if I have to cut something for time, this show might be high on that list.

Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai!: This show should be the story of a college age boy who is just entering the real world. He goes to class, has friends, has a girl he is really interested in, the usual. In his youth, he was raises by his older sister, who now has a family of her own. Because of circumstances however, the brother now has to take care of his young nieces, ranging in age from around 14 to 3. He must balance taking care of his sisters children, staying in school, and still trying to have a life of his own. This show should be Usagi Drop with a college student and three girls instead of one. This show should be good. This show even has good in it. But then, BUT THEN, it goes the fan service route. And it is loli-esc fan service. This show can be good. I see glimpses of goodness in this show. The first part of the first episode is great, and the last minute of the second is just plain good. But the rest is just not good, and really makes me uncomfortable at times. I will probably watch another episode or two of this, but unless it is just keeps drawing me in every week, like the second episode did in its last minute, I plan on dropping it.

Brave 10: This is a stylized, sword and sorcery, fantasy version of the classic tale of the 10 warriors gathered by a warlord to fight during the Sengoku Period of Japan. And I really like it. It has really good action, again the character interactions are fun, the fighting styles are all very individual and very interesting, and there is just this feeling of Samurai Champloo that the show radiates, without out right stealing from it. It is an action packed show, and I plan on following it for a while at least. I can see a show like this becoming boring eventually, but as long as it keeps the plot moving, and keeps the characters interesting, I will keep watching.

Kill Me Baby: I read the manga for this a long time ago. It is a simple four koma manga about an assassin, her idiot best friend, a ninja, and there antics. There might more, but I never got that far, truth be told. It was funny and entertaining, but nothing to write home about. This show isn’t bad, but it is a bit strange. The jokes don’t always work for me, I feel like they worked better in manga form, but others just really crack me up. I honestly don’t know how to feel about this show. I do think it would have worked better as one of those three minute long episode type shows. I will keep watching it for a while, but I don’t know, I may just have to drop it.

High School DxD: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBS!!!!
But on a serious note, I realized something while watching this show. I haven’t watched a bad anime in quite a while. And High School DxD is defiantly a bad show. It has blatant big boob fan service, a main character completely obsessed with boobs, devils and angels with big boobs. This show has a lot of boobs in it. This looks like it will be a dumb show, but I plan on watching it all, just so I could say I have suffered through it. Though it is completely possible that this show will turn around and not be a derivative fan service harem slightly magic girl type show. There is also a possibility that I can fly, and that I am secretly the most popular man on the internet. But most likely, this show will suck, but the fun kind of suck.

And those are the shows I have watched so far of the new season. This season might just be a very weird one, but it looks like it will be a fun ride at least. I hope you enjoy. Until next time, have fun watching.

Final Thoughts: Fall 2011

Final thoughts: Fall 2011

Most of the anime from this season that I decided to watch are still going on, so this final thoughts list is going to be a little short. Most of the shows that are still going on into the winter 2012 season though are pretty good. Hunter X Hunter is very good, Chihayafuru is good fun if a bit shoujo-esc, Phi Brain is interesting, but might not last if I am being completely honest, and Mirai Nikki is insane, but in the best way possible. But enough of those, on to the stuff that actually had an ending.

Un-Go: I didn’t talk about this show in my original First Thoughts list, but at a fiends request I gave the show a shot, and it was pretty good. The show takes place in a post war Japan, not post WWII though, a future war with the internet and Idol girls playing important parts. But that can’t be the focus of the show, that would be way too interesting. Instead we follow Yuuki Shinjuurou, a detective who always looks for the truth. Along him is the demon Inga, who both lives in the body of a small boy and a busty women. I believe there is something Freudian there, but who am I to say. The show is a series of one episode, almost all unrelated mysteries, until we get closer to the end, where we actually start to see more and more connections. This show is interesting, it is fun to see how all the mysteries unfold and how the new futuristic world works. I really think they did a great job of showing how a past war Japan would be with how modern day Japan is like, with all the otakus and crazed fans, and insane internet subcultures. Overall I think this show was ok, but I can honestly see it annoying people. There were times I wanted to know about the war, the world outside of Japan, or anything else really, and we get almost nothing. Still, it is a good show.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai: “I Don’t Have Many Friends”  is one of the two shows this season I really want to see continued for a second season. On the surface, this is just your normal harem comedy, one male with a plethora of women who he can be paired with. And it has every fetish you could want, there is the little sister, the loli nun, the busty probably-a-bit-of-a-lesbian-and-budding-otaku-tsundere, the dominating childhood friend who is also kind of tsundere, the trap in a maid outfit, and my personal favorite, the completely perverted scientist girl. This should have been a stupid show, but it has this heart with it, where all the characters are more then the little description I put above, though in all honesty not much deeper for some. I really wanted to keep watching the interactions between the characters, which was just perfect. I liked the messed up sex jokes from my favorite scientist girl, Rika Shiguma, I liked the banter between the characters, and just how shy they all are in actual social interactions, like when they are saving each others numbers on their phones for the first time. The look on Kodaka’s and Yozora’s faces when they first save each others numbers is priceless. I really love this show, it was great fun.

Kimi to Boku: Male moe at its core but like all good moe, it has great character interactions and fun, if simple stories. I really liked the calming art style, and this little gag they did, where they would cut to a group of cats to represent the characters, and show the cats interaction to mirror what the characters themselves were doing. But there isn’t much to this show. I’ve already started to forget this show. It didn’t leave any great impact on me, but for what it was, it was enjoyably, simple, short, and not bad.

Ben-To: I mentioned earlier that this season there were two shows I wanted to have a second season. This is the second one. Actually no, this is the first show I wanted to have a second season. I love this show. It is bombastic, over the top, and just plain fun. It is just that type of show that you watch and just want to punch the air because of how insanely awesome it is. This show did what I want it to do, just stay a show about people fighting for cheap food. We did get more complicated characters and a surprisingly deep subculture though, but that is just working on building off of its core of, well, people beating the crap out of each other for half-priced food. Actually the subculture they create is something I want to touch on. It is a deep, complicated, but actually realistic subculture, one that I compare to street racing. While nothing is said explicitly, it is not impossible to see how this subculture has come about, how the intricate bits work, and you can make explanations about just about everything that fits into this world. I really like this show. The characters are vibrant and fun, the stories are over the top, the music fits beyond perfectly, and the fight animation is top notch in my opinion. This is one of those shows I really want to see more of, and I hope it gets a second season. This was probably one of my favorite shows this year, and really was just a fun ride from beginning to end.

So those were my thoughts on the 2011 fall anime season. It wasn’t a bad season, but the amount of shows continuing onto 24 episodes or even more makes this list very small. I’ll give a more in depth, or in the very least, longer, look at the shows I mentioned above. Next season we have a whole bunch of new stuff to look forward to, and I’ll be giving my first looks at all of all the first episodes I see, once I get to them all. But until next time, have fun watching.