Spring 2016 Anime Season: First Impressions

First Impressions Spring 2016

For a better view of the list, click here

It has been a little while since I wrote in this blog. Life got busy and the winter season fell though. But now we have what could be one of the best anime seasons of the year. Let’s see if I have any ring rust after being gone so long. These are my first impressions of the spring 2016 anime season. 

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.

Final Thoughts: Fall 2014

 Fall 2014 anime Season

I still miss this series

As the year comes to an end, as does the fall 2014 anime season, our last anime season of the year. Let’s not waste any time and get right to it, these are my final thoughts for the fall 214 anime season. But first, let’s look at the shows that will be sticking around into next season. 

Best 10 Anime Openings of 2014

Top Ten Anime Openings of 2014

This would have won, but it technically came out last year. 

As many others do this time of the year, it is time for a top ten list. This year, I decided to do a top ten opening themes this. The criteria was really simple. It had to be a song I liked, a song that was memorable in some way, and it had to be from an anime from 2014 that I watched. This is a very subjective list, and I am sure it would change in some way or form depending on how I am feeling, but these are a good base. Also I should add that I know nothing about music, what is good and what isn’t, or anything like that. I will probably say some stuff that are completely unfounded or untrue just because I think they apply to one song or another, and I am just misusing the word or phrase. But leaving that aside, let’s begin. This is my top ten anime openings of 2014.

12 Days of Anime Christmas - Day 11

Day 11 – Gugure! Kokkuri-san

Gugure Kokkuri-san is about a fox demon who finds a little girl who has emotionally isolated herself, acting like a doll and consuming only instant ramen. The fox takes pity on her and decides to become her guardian, feeding her home cooked meals and trying to make her becomes more human, instead of the doll like she acts. Eventually a cursed dog spirit who is in love with the little girl shows up, and hates everything in the world except for the girl, creepily worshiping her, and a tanuki spirit, who drinks, gambles and hits on woman at the drop of a hat. Together the four characters make a pretty great comedy filled with good references, decent gags, and some very stupid humor. The show is also one of the most heartfelt shows I have seen all year.

12 Days of Anime Christmas - Day Eight

Day Eight- Space Brothers

One of my favorite anime of all time has ended this year. Well, actually two, but I will get to the second one in time. The first series I will talk about though was so good that I decided a few months ago to read the manga, and as of today I am all caught up on said manga. That series was Space Brothers.

12 Days of Anime Christmas - Day Six

Day six- End of Naruto

                Naruto has a very old connection for me. I’ve told this story before, but I first found manga through Shonen Jump. I was obsessed with Yugioh, and I saw Yugi on the cover of a strange magazine and I had to get it. But in that magazine I discovered so many new things. I read One Piece, my manga series of all time. I found Sand Land, a mange done by the incredible Akira Toriyama. And I found a little manga about a ninja in orange with a fox demon in him. I discovered Naruto 12 years ago. And this year it just ended. 

12 Days of Anime Christmas - Day Five

Day Five- Studio Trigger

I’ve never really been a big follower of any particular animation studio. While I could recognize Studio Bonez or J.C. Staff or in the very least knew the names, I never considered myself a fan of any particular one or another, or a follower of any particular studio. But in the past year that has changed. I might actually consider myself an actual fan of Studio Trigger. 

12 days of Anime Christmas - Day Four

Day Four- Orenchi no Furo Jijou

As you may know, I watch a lot of micro series. A micro series, for those who don’t know, are any show that is unrealistically short, around 5-10 minutes, but usually less than 5. There have been a few this year, Tonari no Seki-kun makes the cut in my mind, Strange + and its sequel, the lesbian animal girl show Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, but the show I want to talk about today is the homoerotic merman anime, Orenchi no Furo Jijou.

Twelve Days of Anime Christmas - Day Three

Day Three- Majin Bone

The bands all here

After two days of talking about transforming five man bands and guys in armor fighting monsters and other armored guys, let’s talk about a five man band who transform into armor and fight other guys in armor. Wait… But anyway, let’s talk about Majin Bone.

Garo Honoo no Kokuin ep 5

Garo Honoo no Kokuin

The new episode of Garo really focuses on a topic that I haven’t talked about much in these weekly logs, and that was the Prince. The story seems to be having two separate story-lines that at some point will meet up and then both groups will go after the final boss. The Prince’s story is the Shakespearean tale of a disposed prince who will go out, raise an army, and come back home taking the throne and saving the day. He is teaming up with the Purple Knight, who we now know is the Knight of Defense Gaia. For now at least the Prince will be training under the Knight to gain the skills and powers to defeat the Horrors. I really like this, because it creates a good mirror for Leon, especially since Leon and the Prince are cousins. I am reminded of the mirror storyline from Gekiranger, which turned out really great, though that had the added benefit of the mirroring being much deeper, it involving the main character and the main villain. I hope this dual storytelling works out, as it will be something new for the Garo franchise to do and it can make for a really great story.

The Prince and his Knight

The other big thing I wanted to talk about from this episode was the idea that armors are passed down through bloodlines. This is interesting, to say the least. Before, armors weren’t necessarily passed down via blood. While the Garo armor itself is passed down this way for the most part, it was never confirmed Ryoga, who is the main character of Garo: The One Who Shines in the Darkness, is in any way related to the previous Garo, Kouga, though to be fair it isn’t said he isn’t related. The third season takes place so far in the future that Ryoga’s ancestry might be forgotten. And even if the Garo armor is passes down, we have seen other armors that are not. The Zero armor is passed down to adopted son Rei in the original series. So that makes the whole idea of blood lines in this kind of questionable. I think it is more like it is common to pass down one armor to another through a family, but it isn’t 100% necessary. And I think that means that the Prince will take up the Gaia armor before the series is over. 

This dude is seriously cool.

The anime is still going strong and has yet to, in my opinion, make a misstep. I think my only big complaint so far is that the shows focus on the overall story might eventually impede the more standalone episodes, but that has yet to be shown. So until next week, have fun watching.

Garo Honoo no Kokuin Episode 4

Garo Honoo no Kokuin

I might still be on a Zaruba kick.

I really like the way this series is teaching the audience the ins and outs of Makai Knights and the Garo franchise in general. This episode showed the Horror checker of the season, usually a lighter with a special flame but currently a bell, which is a good of way of showing the temporal setting of the show for long time watchers and is good to explain how Knights tell the difference between Horrors and regular humans. Also brought up is the Knights non-confrontational nature when it comes to anything not related to the Horrors they hunt. It is something important for the show to establish. It explains why these people with amazing magical powers get easily caught and killed by regular humans, and also why those same super powered people aren’t ruling the world. It is something important. 

The third Makai Knight of the series, who ever he is.

One of the things Garo has always been good at is showing just how horrible humans are. Yes, Horrors torture and maim their food, just to make it sweeter to them, but humans can be just as cruel and for less reasons. We have seen humans feed others to a Horror, human’s that rape and murder before they were Horrors, and this time we see a whole village of people who have no association to the monsters ritualistically sacrificing their own members. While there is a Horror involved, everyone in the episode was working fully independent of that, acting like horrible people, keeping secrets and always looking for the next excuse, the next person to sacrifice in the name of purity. And showing how awful humans are fits into the theme. It is the darkness that we create that brings to life the Horrors. If it wasn’t for us, there would be no monsters.

Example of the darkness of humans? or Just sage fatherly advice? You decide!

The other thing this episode did was really highlight Leon’s inexperience with being a Makai Knight. Combat wise he is fine, with the exception of his suit breaking apart from the inside. What he lacks is experience dealing with people. He is young and foolhardy, and almost always willing to believe anyone. When the villagers said everything was fine, he was ready to move on. That was partially because of his lust for revenge against those who killed his mother, something that this episode also touched on, but we also see that he can’t see past other people’s lies. He believed the mother outright, and I am pretty sure his father didn’t. He also hesitated whenever the Horror showed him the face of the child. This is natural for humans to do, but a Knight can’t hesitate against a Horror, no matter what. One wrong move and it will be over, and that Horror will go and kill many more innocent lives. This is a good way of showing Leon’s inexperience, but also hopefully showing that he will grow as the season progresses. 

The anime has been progressing well over the past four weeks, with each episode being both an interesting look at this new world and also a good introduction to the overall world of Garo for new viewers. Next week though we get to start something brand new, the exploration of a new Makai Knight, a purple knight who is helping out the main character of the secondary plot, the son of the King who was manipulated into killing all those Priests and Knights. It looks like it will be a good time. So until next time, have fun watching. 

I still really like this image.