Fall 2015 Anime Season: First Impressions

First impressions: Fall 2015

Click here for a better view of the season chart.

The new anime season has quickly started and there are a ton of shows to talk about. What’s interesting about this show is that a lot of the shows are connected to other series or franchises in some way or another. They are either straight up sequels, or connected to an older show and expanding on them. It’s interesting, and it makes the new shows all the more obvious. Let’s not waste any more time. These are my first impressions of the fall 2015 anime season. 

Final Thoughts: Summer 2015

Final Thoughts: Summer 2015

The people I fight with!

There are times I am really conflicted at the end of the anime season, especially ones like this. I am always happy to see so many great shows come to a satisfying conclusion, but I also almost always want most of the shows to continue on and just stay for a little bit longer. And when a season like this has so many shows ending the feeling is doubled. Only two shows are following us into the new season, with so many more coming to a close, some after an entire year. So before we get to those shows, let’s look at the ones that are going to stick around. 

Nerima Daikon Brothers

Nerima Daikon Brothers

As I mentioned before, I used to watch anime on something called Anime OnDemand. It was a strange little service that had tons of anime that were less then mainstream. Sure it had classics like Baccano once in a while, and introduced me to my favorite anime Super Gals, but it also introduced me to Magi-fucking-cano. But there was one show they had that really stuck with me. It was an insane little musical comedy with some catchy tunes and some really strange characters. This is The Freshly Grated Musical, Nerima Daikon Brothers. 

Summer 2015 Anime Season: First Impressions

First Impressions: Summer 2015

For a better look at the chart, look here

One of the best parts of summer for me is having a relaxing week or two of just watching all the new shows that come out in the summer anime season. I get to watch all the new shows with little interruptions and just enjoy them. But the time for solely watching them is over. These are my first impressions of the summer 2015 Anime Season.

Final Thoughts: Spring 2015

Final Thoughts: Spring 2015

Punk versions of characters are cool.

The spring anime season has ended so it’s time for me to do my big end of season wrap up. Let’s look at the shows that are following us into the next season before saying goodbye to the ones that are leaving. These are my final thoughts on the 2015 spring anime season. 

Spring 2015 Anime Season: First Impressions

First Impressions: Spring 2015

For a better look at the chart, click here.

It’s spring, and amidst the pollen and allergies we find a new season of anime waiting for us. I have to admit, there isn’t a lot of a shows that reached out and grabbed me this season. There are a few shows that I really would like to see, but many others on the list of new shows just don’t look that good. This list will probably be a little short compared to others, but let’s not waste any more time. These are my first impressions of the spring 2015 anime season.

Final Thoughts: Winter 2015

Winter 2015 Anime Season

This is the entire cast. I love each and every one of them.

Our first anime season of the year is coming to a quick end. There are honestly a huge amount of shows ending this season, so let’s not waste any time. These are my final thought on the winter 2015 anime season. But first, as per tradition let’s look at the shows that will be following us into the new season.

Garo Honoo no Kokuin ep 23

Garo Honoo no Kokuin

We’ve finally reached the second to final episode of Garo, the animation. While the finale of Garo is usually huge, this second to last one has been a great ride also. Let’s not hesitate and look at the penultimate episode. 

                In a way this episode really sets up the final fight. Now that might sound super obvious, but let me explain a bit more. We split up the fight practically into three ways, the first being Alphonso attacking the castle/watchdog center in order to save the town. I really liked this bit, Alfonso slashing against an entire large castle, his armor crackling and breaking apart and him being pushed back, and after taking all this punishment and more, he takes a step forward. He pushes back. It sums up Alfonso’s character perfectly. Alfonso is almost the ideal Knight, a true protector who will save every last life. He is a shield that, no matter how much it is cracked and dented, will never break. The second fight technically has Alfonso in it, but it is really Ema’s fight against Octavia, in her weird monster armor form. After Octavia orgasm’s while inserting Mendoza’s cut off arm into her body, a sentence I never wanted to write, Ema steals and adapts Mendoz’s weird future world machine, the thing from last episode, and uses it to fight Octavia. Again, no one makes mention of the sky scrapers and roads and helicopter pads that appear and don’t exist yet, but it is just so strange I can’t even really complain. But it is a good fight, and after Ema has nearly killed or at least capacitated Octavia, her false leg comes off, a futuristic looking laser pistol is found at her stump and she shoots Ema in her stomach. Now I am assuming that Ema will survive this thing over all, but still that was a shocking moment. I didn’t expect it and even gasped. And then Ema’s monologue about the true nature of a Makai Knight is something that is honestly wonderful. It is one of the best moments of this series, especially how it is done over Alfonso’s attack on the castle. It was great. The final fight is Leon verses Mendoza, and to be fair it’s an easy victory. But Medoza has already killed German, making him the last piece in the resurrection of the giant end of season Horror, and the Anima, the name of the Horror, wakes up. Also props to the series for making the final villain topless with exposed boobs. It is a Garo tradition that has been with most final villains, and I am happy that the anime is following it. It’s not my favorite tradition, but it is a one that I fully expected. We end on Leon finding one of German’s blades stabbed into the monster, and Leon ready to fight. 

Next week is our final episode and I can already tell you what’s going to happen. The fight will take place miles above the ground with Leon falling constantly, the monster will use giant laser blasts, and Garo will take on another final form. I am almost willing to bet money on it. So until next time, keep on watching.

Garo Honoo no Kokuin eps 21-22

Garo Honoo no Kokuin

These past two episodes have been heavy on the action. That’s not to say that nothing about plot happened, but with the amount of action to plot in these past two there isn’t exactly a lot to talk about. Lets takes a look at episodes 21 and 22 of Garo Honoo no Kokuin.

Episode 21 starts with German being confronted by our band of scoobies. He tells them that the whole plan, the reason he is protecting Mendoza, is that Mendoza plans on opening a portal to Makai, the place Horrors are made, and unleashing a shit ton of Horrors on the world, using the city and its inhabitants as the sacrifice. The remaining Knights and Priests would then kill Mendoza and all the Horrors, considerably lessoning the amount of Horrors in existence, for a short time at least. This is a bad plan to start with, and one that I don’t think many Knights would agree to, given their code to protect the innocent. But it is a very Garo series villain plan. There have been attempts to do something like this in past seasons or movies, and it is an interesting moral dilemma for the heroes of the series. But good and common sense usually win out. The episode also has an amazing fight between German and Leon. Peppered though are flashbacks to Leon’s childhood, showing German as a mixed parent at best but obviously wanting the best for his son as a father and a Makai Knight. At the end we learn of Mendoza’s real plan, which is to revive an ancient Horror of legend. If the original plan is a good Garo plot, then this is the standard Garo finally plot. I swear every season has this as it’s finally. It’s not bad, it’s just expected at this point. Almost traditional. I fully expect the final battle to take place hundreds of miles above the town while falling the entire way. 

Epsidoe 22 is German turning his back on Mendoza which was apparently the plan the entire time. He fights a ton of basic Horrors and is badly injured. With the villains the loyal servant has a transformation of her own, turning into an armored demon of sorts. She looks pretty cool minus the large spikes coming out of her nipple regions. It just looks ridiculous and doesn’t work in modern day character design. On our heroes’ front, the strangest thing happened. Mendoza set a trap for them that sent them to a fake dimension. That isn’t the weird part. The weird part is that the dimension looked exactly like the modern day. Like it was a major city. And the characters didn’t notice or act like it was a big thing at all. Why would they through that in? There is no point in having it be a sky scraper city in a series that obviously takes place in the past. Unless there saying something crazy like the show takes place in the far distant future where everything went circular and we returned to the middle ages, but that’s just crazy. Outside of the set up for the final fights coming up in the next two weeks, there wasn’t much this episode outside of shear mindfuckery. 

We are quickly coming to an end to our little Garo animation and the finally is shaping up to be a great fight, but I’m not sure if anything else will be done. But until next week, keep on watching.

Garo Honoo no Kokuin EP 20

Garo Honoo no Kokuin 

This episode really focused on Octavia, the assistant to Mendoza that had maybe three lines before this episode. Apparently as a child her family was killed by a pack of wolves, and her little sister wouldn’t run away without her parents because she believed that God would save her family, and then they all died. This fully destroyed Octavia’s faith in god, but allowed for a faith in Mendoza to replace it. We see to what lengths she is willing to go to protect the one person who has promised to never throw her away. When she is almost caught by our heroes, she uses a Makai tool, one given to her by Mendoza that summoned a Horror under her control. She then orders the Horror to first kill an innocent woman who she had started to befriend and even treat as a sister, and then had the Horror consume her own leg in an attempt to get rid of the thing that marked her as an enemy. She killed her only friend and gave up a leg just to protect one person, because he has promised to never sacrifice her. That is some insane dedication. We see that her dedication is also turning into hate for Makai Knights, even though it was her that chose to kill her friend. 

Speaking of her friend, I really liked her. She was this honestly nice character in a world filled with monsters that consume those who have darkness. She was a beacon of light, and damn it I wanted her to end up with Alfonso, but now she is dead. This is not the first time I have saw an honestly nice character die way before there time, but I am always sidelined by it. I am not good at anime all the time. But other than the death of a character introduced in one episode and still had a large amount of development, and a character with about the same amount of screen time getting equal amounts character development, this was a good bridge episode. Also I liked how flustered Leon still gets when he thinks people are talking to him about sex. It is a character trait I like. So until next week, keep on watching.