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. 

A relaxing drink before the retrospective.

Baby Steps 2^nd Season- Baby Steps continues to be a surprisingly good sports anime. It takes its name so seriously, with literally the main character learning one tiny step at a time. The main characters growth through the series is so visible that is becomes the draw to the show. It is a realistic growth, one that actually isn’t shown in many other shows. What I liked about the last few episodes is seeing the main character come up against another wall. He’s gotten good enough to fight on the same level as his competitors. His own stamina and lack of experience is now his greatest weakness. And watching him overcome this is going to be great. Part of it something that will be overcome mostly off screen, with physical training, so instead we get to see him gain experience with every match. Every little thing is a bit of knowledge that he adapts and applies to the next match, showing clear linear growth. It makes every match interesting to watch, just seeing him take these new weapons and using them in his next conflict. Baby Steps is a great sports anime, and we are leading up to the next big hurdle for the main characters journey. I look forward to it. 

Cardfight Vanguard G- They’ve finally actually gotten to the tournament part of this series, and it’s interesting the mirroring to the first season they did. Like the first season of the franchise the team lost to who will be their big rivals through the show. What’s good about this is that it created a good opportunity for the other two parts of the team to grow. We’ve gotten the main character hitting walls and growing from them all throughout the show so far, so it’s nice that the focus changed a bit. We also are slowly getting more and more into the greater story of the show. There are so many desperate elements right now that they seem scattered but I’m sure they will come together in the end. I’m certain the stranger with the Gear Chronicle deck/being from the card that they flashed back to is somehow related to the main characters father disappearing and the owner of the shops secret back story. I look forward to them going further into this story, but I still want them to have a good tournament arc. To me, Cardfight Vanguard shines when there is a good tournament going on, so I want the show to really go in-depth into a big national level tournament.  I think that should be the next step for the show. 

Dempa Kyoushi- This show has some fundamental problems with it. It is a very otaku pandering type of show. I’m someone who thinks that a little bit of otaku pandering is fine, and can even lead to some good comedy. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san is all about references to anime and Japanese media and just pandering to people who understand it. But the difference is it does it well. Dempa Kyoushi instead of glorifying what nerds love glorifies the life of the nerd. It’s saying that all the negatives of being an otaku are actually positives, and that feels way to much like bad pandering to me. It’s like when a fanservice show is just about boobs. Shows can have fanserivce if they have something more, but if it’s just boobs and no actual content then it’s not worth the watch. This is the same problem. Another problem is that it is turning into just another harem anime. Early on I was hopeful that the student teacher interactions would stay very platonic, from both sides. And I felt they were to some extent. But as the show goes on it is more and more obvious that the students he saves, who are mostly female, are falling for him. I liked the idea of a strict student teacher relationship going on, but the more harem elements are appearing and also playing into the whole otaku fantasy pandering that is going on. And let’s not get into the voice acting for the sister. It’s her first voice acting role and it shows. But all that being said, I am still going to stick with this show. I want to see it to the end, and I hope it gets better and the even out the problems with the show. But I admit if it goes past 2 cours then I will probably drop it. 

My face through most of the sisters dialogue in Dempa Kyoushi

Ninja Slayer From Animation- This show is very inconsistent. On the one hand, it reuses animation all the time, it is all action and little substance, the greater story is kind of hard to follow, and it uses way too much fanservice just to pander. On the other hand, all of those elements are clichés and tropes of really popular, really bad 90’s ovas and anime that this series is based on, so in that respect it is entirely successful. This show is wonderful. It is silly and stupid and just off the wall insane. The reuse of animation is hilarious, usually reusing the same scene so many times that you can’t help but notice it, and it becomes part of the greater joke. The show is at its best when it is reveling in how insane it is. In one episode Ninja Slayer, the main character uses the ancient and deadly sealed ninja move, the Alabama Slammer. He uses an American wrestling move and its some big ancient jutsu or something. It’s the best. Every time I feel even the slightest bit bored with this show it does something that draws me back in and makes me laugh loudly at the ridiculesness of the show. While not as great as its spiritual big brother, Inferno Cop, this show so far is a great addition to the Studio Trigger line up.  

Ore Monogatari- This is probably one of the cutest romance anime I’ve seen in a while. The main couple are honestly just adorable and perfect, but strangely not unrealistically so. There is enough conflict between the characters that they still have to work for their romance, it isn’t just readymade and perfect. Our lead is a bit dense when it comes to romance and woman, but he knows he is and tries his best despite it. I admit most plot points can be solved by the tried and true method of having the characters talk to each other for a few seconds, but it is understandable why they don’t talk every so often, from the perspective of young love. You get wrapped up in your own head, not realizing that any problem you think is big is actually not a problem at all. I am a bit worried for the next part of the show. Most romance anime in some capacity have a moment where the main couple break up and have to get back together. Hell, romance anime where the two characters aren’t together yet have to do that. But this show has usually either played with clichés like that before or just gone right past them. It is one of the reasons this show is so interesting. But I do believe that if they have to do that storyline they’ll do it pretty well. I know I’ll be keeping up with it till it finishes. 

Hello, I am Ninja Slayer. *cut to seven minutes of explosions*

Shokugeki no Soma- We are finally past the glut of this series early on fanservice. While it is something that never completely disappears, it does become more manageable as the show goes on. Either that or I started mentally blocking it out. Either way, we are now into the real meat of the series. The main character always teetering on the edge of expulsion but saving his ass with some crazy cooking idea. This is such a recurring thing that it becomes an actual joke as the series goes on. The past arcs have been pretty well done in introducing characters and some concepts to the greater world of the show. The food battles and what not, what the characters can and can’t bet for it, and some characters cooking styles. One of the things that’s interesting to me is how the anime keeps showing characters that haven’t been introduced yet into crowd scenes. The biggest example of this is in the third episode where Souma is giving a big speech to the freshman class, basically saying he will be the best at this school. In the manga they showed shadowy close ups to a bunch of characters who never really showed up again. You can tell that some of their designs later would be changed and reused to some extent, or just thrown out entirely. In the anime, they showed characters that are actually in the show, but aren’t named till much further down the line. They did something similar in a big crowd scene more recently. I really like it, it shows how this is an adaptation thinking beyond just the manga, and isn’t afraid to make additions that strengthen the show. Stardust Crusaders did something similar when they showed Dio with a hawk, and made the hawk Petshop, unlike in the manga where it was just a random hawk. I look forward to the next big arc of this show, which will be a more traditional tournament arc, though there are some stuff in-between to give the audience and the characters a rest. I look forward to the shows next meal. 

Tribe Cool Crew- One of the things that this show hasn’t really done like other children show is have some type of strange power connected to the thing that the show is about. In some of the early episodes there was hints at some dance aura thing, but they haven’t touched it since, until recently. They have introduced a forbidden dance style of sorts called Crowd High that, like the name implies, gets the crowd really into the dancing and the dancers, but apparently is very intense and can hurt the dancer if they’re not careful. The story of the show is slowly turning into Tribe Cool Crew versus this style of dance. But what’s interesting is the Crowd High produces an aura whenever the dancers do a move or something. I think this is the first steps to the whole strange power thing. It’s actually really cool. I thought that was a dropped plot line, something that they introduced and wanted to do something with but never found the space for it. I look forward to seeing how the dance aura thing plays in. And even if it doesn’t, the overall story of the Dance Road and Crowd High is very interesting. I look forward to the next cour. 

I just think the Galaxy walk looks really cool.

And now for the shows that are ending.

Ansatsu Kyoushitsu- Assassination Classroom continues to be a surprisingly good show, even up to the end. The whole final arc was really well done. It was just building on itself the whole time perfectly, from when one of the students sold out the teacher and almost got the other students killed, to the big final exam story line which introduced a new enemy for the main characters. That led perfectly into the student’s big assassination attempt, which was a really good way of showing all the students’ growth from the beginning of the show. What surprised me was that wasn’t the finally, the big assassination attempt that they had been building up for a while now. Instead they do a storyline that actually tied up all the loose ends and even have the main character reach the peak of his character development so far. It was a good final few episodes to the series. This show keeps surprising me with how good it is. The overall story builds well on itself, though the first half is a bit slow and uses the gimmick of the teacher a bit too much. But once they actually move the plot a bit forward the show can be a good mixture of comedy and action. It’s very likely that the show will be getting a second season eventually, probably once the manga actually finishes up, and when it does I look forward to watching it. 

Sailor Moon Crystal- The show isn’t over yet but I am considering it over because we have at most two more episodes and it will end in the middle of the season so I’m considering it over for the purposes of the big retrospective. The second big storyline the show is covering is one that introduces the existence of other Sailor Scouts other than the main five and the character of Chibi-Moon, who many consider to be the sixth ranger of sorts for the franchise. The story itself is a bit convoluted when looking at it as a whole, but that can go with any story involving time travel being introduced into a story without it before. But it isn’t as strong as the first half of the show. This might be because the first half has a bit more focus on what are beloved characters for me, while the second had to do the task of introducing new characters and plot elements and didn’t really do it too well. I have a feeling if I watched this arc when I was younger more I would have a better attachment to it, but because I didn’t it just isn’t as interesting of an arc for me. Also, the villains are given less real characterization then the previous season, which says a lot because the first arc doesn’t really characterize its villains. Over all, I consider Sailor Moon Crystal as sort of an experiment of rebooting classic series. While it wasn’t out right bad, it needed too many improvements to be actually recommended. It makes me worry about the potential of future remakes of classic anime, but not enough to never want them to make them again. 

Hello! Kiniro Mosaic- I am entirely tempted to only rite the words, ‘same as last season’ and just move on with my life, but that is a disservice to this show. While it is more of the same as the previous season, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  This is a fun, cute little show about lesbians being nice to each other and a few of them being from England. This season they introduced one of the girl’s siblings and a new teacher, and a previous character from the last season who got a little screen time grew as a character. On that metric this was a successful season. This is a cute but ultimately toothless show. It gave me a few laughs and it was harmless. If you like adorable things, you might like this show. 

So who's excited for the new season of Dragon Ball?

Hibike! Euphonium- Kyoto Animation is an animation studio people tend to love or hate. And for the most part I am in its former camp. Hibiki! Euphonium is another great addition to their catalog of shows. There are two main draws to this series, the fact that it actually deals with the characters playing the music in some way shape or form, and the budding romance between two girls. The first half of that is arguably more important. Kyoto Animation has done girls music anime in the past the K-On and that show is notorious for pretending to be about music while instead being about girls eating cake and being nice to each other. There’s music in there but that’s not what’s important. Euphonium is a bit different. The band, the music, the people playing the music is much more important to the series. While it is still humans pushing the drama it keeps the drama all focused on how it effects the concert band both as a whole and on the individual. K-on is music taken cosmetically, Euphonium is music taken dramatically. The other half of the show is the more romance driven aspect. The main two girls of the show are obviously romantically tied to one another. They set the whole thing up of them starting off as distant and slowly becoming closer and closer to the point where they are saying that they are going to stand up for one another no matter what. They even say that they have a love confession for one another, though nothing is made incredibly explicit.  While a bit queer baity, it is a bit of a step in the right direction. Maybe I’m just a shipper at heart and I want the two girls to be together, but I feel the show is set up for them to be together, and it is social constraints or whatever that is stopping the final push. I couldn’t really say. But romantic or platonic, the relationship between the two main female leads is definitely one of the big draws of the show that work. This is one of those shows I hope that gets a second season in a few seasons. This might be one of Kyoto Animations best works all said and done. It is a show I definitely recommend. 

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders- The second half of Stardust Crusaders is what makes people love it. Every fight outmatches the previous one, building and building until we reach Dios mansion and then everything goes crazy. Main character shields stop mattering and people start dying left and right. We have amazing battles that push every character to their limit. And then we have Dio. We have Dio messing around with Polnereff on the stairs. We have Kakyoin figuring out how Dio’s stand works. We have Joseph passing on the message and confronting his family’s age old nemeses. And we have Jotaro in an amazing battle with Dio to the death. It is one part chess match, one part Dragon Ball Z battle, and all incredible. Dio is the star of the entire finale. It is this very interesting role reversal of hero and villain. Usually the heroes have be super cautious and deal with the villain one step at a time, and the villain usually pulls out some crazy trump card. This time it’s the villain who has to be cautious, who pulls out of combat the second something seems even the slightest bit fishy. Dio knows that while Joestar’s eventually die, they go out swinging and taking out every bad guy close to them. So the whole battle he has to be incredibly careful. It makes for a really fun fight. And the deaths of some of the main characters really hit you hard. Araki, the creator of the franchise, starts doing something here that really gives weight to the characters deaths. Both we as the audience and usually the closest main character gets to see the dead character in the sky, their soul appearing as clouds and they sometimes get a last word. It gives the death of a character a really good impact and it is something that he uses more in the future. Stardust Crusaders is an amazing show, and I can definitely see why so many people consider it their favorite arc in Jojo. The first half is a bit slow, but the fights are fun. And the second half has much better pacing, better, bigger fights, and one of the coolest fights I’ve seen in a long time in anime. Now we just need for the next arc, Diamonds are Unbreakable, to actually be made and I’ll be very happy. 

Kekkai Sensen- Like Sailor Moon I am writing this without seeing the final episode, though this time it is because the final episode has been delayed and I don’t know when the final episode will come out. So take anything I say with that grain of salt. This might be the best show this season. Blood Battle Blockade is a surprise from start to relative finish. One of the things I love about it is that it has this casual relationship with the supernatural. Because the show has the premise that the rift between dimensions open up in New York and the New Yorkers acted like average New Yorkers and just adapted, it makes this fantastical world of monsters and magic into something that the people just have to live with. It makes the world seem normal, so when the characters panic and something big happens we can know it is actually serious. It also means we can’ fully expect anything. One second they’re fighting vampires the next they’re playing nth dimensional hyper chess, and both fit the themes and setting of this world. Also it is just insanely creative. Every episode added something new and interesting into the show, from the mundane to the wondrous.  And every character is interesting and fun. This is a show that builds and builds on itself to make something truly great to watch. Again, I haven’t seen the final episode as of writing this, but that doesn’t stop this show from being an amazing piece of work already. I hope it gets a second season, and that the final episode doesn’t counteract everything I said so far. 

Look how cool these nerds look.

Kuroko no Basket 3^rd Season- It’s finally over! After three long seasons and countless matches this incredibly long battle anime in the disguise of a sports anime is finally over! Our long national nightmare has finally come to an end. Alright, enough over reacting. All in all this was a good season of Kuroko. Unlike the second season it wasn’t super reliant on the super Sayain ability of the zone, only really using it for the final battle, and that made the matches leading up to it that much better to watch. But of course the real draw of the final season isn’t those matches, but the final one, the championship match between Kuroko and his old friend turned enemy Akashi. The final fight was good in that everyone involved got a chance to shine. Every character had a great moment where they changed the course of the game. Even the first years had a few moments on the court, I really appreciated that. One of the big events of this match was Akashi actually being crushed and having to deal with the event that caused him his pseudo split personality. On the one hand, that was ridiculous and impossible and just not how the mind works. On the other hand, having your personality fracture is a classic anime trope and fits this show when viewed as a big battle anime. In that sense it made sense, and the original personality returning and even possibly suppressing or destroying the second one was a good bit of growth for the character. He is no longer the person who wins at any cost. He is the person who wants to win with his friends again. And then Kagami unlocks super Sayain two and defeats Akashi in one swift move with the help of his team. It’s ridiculous and over the top, but for some reason I can’t fully hate it. That statement also applies to my thoughts on the show as a whole. It’s a silly, ridiculous, over dramatic show about people playing basketball. It has a weak middle bit but the beginning and the ending are strong enough to support it. If you like silly sports anime, this one is worth your time. 

Show by Rock!!- I love this show. This might be my favorite show of the season, not counting Jojo or anything that isn’t ending. What definitely could have been a stupid little show about cute girls sitting around talking about music like any other slice of show with music, turned out to be an amazing show with great songs, fun characters, and some really crazy action. The strong suit of this show is just how funny it is. There is a secondary band, SHINGEN CHRIMSONZ, and they are the best thing about this show. Each member of the band has an insane quirk and are completely different yet they feel like an actual group of friends who made a band. The main four girls feel like an anime band, and that’s not inherently bad, but the boys from SHINGEN CHRIMSONZ feel like real group of friends who decided hey, were all idiots who love music, let’s make an awesome band. And they become this great group of comedic relief that I still want to take serious. That is something that is very hard to do but I think they pull it off. To help the show the music is varied and all fun. There are a ton of different bands and each one has its own music and feel. This is a bright, fun, silly show that I loved watching.  

Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love Revolutions- When I first watched this little random show about a boy band who are all in love with the same girl I thought this show was insane but funny. What I wasn’t expecting was to be watching this show for years, and having multiple seasons. I wasn’t expecting third season, and I know I wasn’t expecting a fourth, but now I know were going to get one. Yes, it ended on a cliffhanger. STARISH the band finally got their shot to sing at the not-Olympics and suddenly, out of nowhere, comes the band from last season with a bunch of new members. So assuming that these new characters are also in love with the main character that means Haruka has a harem that is 18 people big. She has a harem that could be their own baseball team. I think half the reason I am going to continue watching this show is to just see how big her harem gets. Uta no Prince-sama is an insane little show that is silly and fun. The music is ok and the characters are usually pretty good. There are worse music anime, though to be fair it is the worst music anime this season. 

Now look at how cool these nerds look!

And that was the spring 2015 anime season. Music and lesbians seem to the run the show, and I even got to watch a show that might become the next classic anime. I hope next season doesn’t disappoint. So until next time, have fun watching. 

God this show is just so fun.