(no subject)
Winter Anime Season 2016:
BBK/BRNK is an interesting series that I hesitate to call mecha. It involves giant robots, yes, but the series plays out a bit more like a kaiju story (the giant robots seem to be sentient and they tend to go on destructive rampages until stopped by other giant robots being controlled by people). But that’s a small part of the show. There’s also fancy sentient weapons (actually the limbs of giant robots that take the forms of more standard weapons such as swords or guns, but also as more crazy stuff like pens or rings) and duels and humans with supernatural powers and a mystical floating island and... yeah. There’s a lot going on in this show. Thankfully it stays coherent, if a little rushed. The art is completely CG, even the characters. This works overall, as the backgrounds, weapons, and robots look fantastic. But some of the character art is a little stiff. I can look over that though, since the show has several badass lady characters who aren’t (generally) used for fanservice. The series doesn’t break much new ground, but it’s entertaining and fast-paced.
Durarara!! x2 Ketsu is the third part of what’s collectively called the second season of Durarara!!, and the first part that I’ve went into without reading the complete novels it’s based on (at the time I was reading the Drrr!! novels, these only had random chapters and scenes translated), so some of this is new territory for me. It’s interesting because it reminds me of how I felt watching the first season and not knowing what was coming next. It definitely adds some excitement. Beyond that, there’s not a lot to say about it that I didn’t say about the previous two parts. The show remains stylish and quirky and at times surprisingly deep.
Dagashi Kashi is one of the funnier shows this season (probably the funniest), and one of the most appealing lady characters in Hotaru, a crazy chick obsessed with dagashi (cheap Japanese snacks). The show revolves around Hotaru’s visits to a dagashi shop and her interaction with Kokonatsu (who’s name sounds like “Coconuts” and his friends even call him such), the son of the shop’s owner. Every episode focuses on one or two specific dagashi and will make you crave them even if you’ve never heard of them, much less tried them. These little skits are hilarious and a ton of fun, and Kokonatsu is likable enough, but the real start of the show is Hotaru. She’s a joy to watch (and she’s edged to the top of my list of “anime characters I would most want to look like”). She’s clearly a potential love interest for Kokonatsu, and I appreciated that instead of making her a rival to another female character who has a crush on him, the series was wise enough to make the two girls good friends instead. This is a trend I’ve noticed in some other shows lately too, and makes the whole “two girls in love with a clueless guy” trope a lot more bearable. But even with these lowkey relationship hijinks in the background, Dagashi Kashi remains solidly about the snacks. High on my watch list.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime season two is actually a lot better than season one, which I enjoyed but felt was a little too... safe. It seemed like nothing truly dangerous or dramatic happened. Season two changed things up by putting the characters in real danger, and it’s been a lot more exciting. The show has always had gorgeous art and likable characters (particularly it’s practical and intelligent heroine Shirayuki), but now it actually has an engaging plot too. It climbs higher and higher on my watch list every week.
Prince of Stride is a sports otome series. I don’t know anything about this sport (is it even a real sport? Seems like numerous injury lawsuits waiting to happen) except that it’s a lot like free running? I think? Regardless, it has the usual markers of a good sports anime: teams full of attractive male characters with complicated relationships, friendly rivals, not-so-friendly rivals, exciting sports action, and training sequences that are arguably more interesting than the actual matches/games/races/whatever. But since this is an otome series, it’s all seen from the perspective of a sole female character (whereas in most sports anime not about female teams, there’s one or two girls who generally drift to the background). Refreshingly for an otome series, none of the guys have tried to romance her yet and just see her as a friend and part of the team. I kinda hope they keep it that way, or else just have one of the guys fall for her, because I think having the whole team going after her would just screw up the team dynamics, and they’re great right now. The only other thing worth noting is the art and its color scheme, which have a sort of bleached out look that’s heavy on whites and bright blues. It’s not especially appealing to me, and honestly at times it kinda hurts my eyes. But it’s not so bad that it prevents me from enjoying the show.
HaruChika is making a lot of waves now because it has an openly gay male protagonist in a shounen series. Cue butthurt fanboys dropping the show left and right and crying because they were “tricked” into watching “yaoi”. Never mind the fact that having a gay male character in no way means a show is yaoi (it’s not even shoujo, it’s freakin shounen). The gayness of the character in question, Haruta, has so little to do with the story and is so downplayed that, beyond the first episode’s reveal, you have to look long and hard for any signs of it. But that in and of itself is an accomplishment. The fact that Haruta acts like a totally normal person and his sexuality isn’t a huge sign over his head means that he’s not treated as a joke. His sexuality is not treated as a joke. He’s consistently portrayed in a positive light. But let’s face it, he has a crush on his teacher, so the odds of anything actually happening between them are pretty much zero. We’re not going to see any gay romance here, so all the idiots rage-quitting the show because of “that gross yaoi stuff” should feel pretty stupid (of course it doesn’t look like we’re going to see much in the way of any sort of romance, and that’s okay). That being said, the show is charming and has very attractive art (the way they color the eyes is just lovely). It’s not the greatest show ever, and I think there are people who are loving and adoring the show simply because of Haruta and not because of its actual entertainment value. It’s definitely worth watching though, and has had a couple of outstanding episodes. Watch it if you like slice of life anime and don’t recoil in terror from a young boy mentioning once in an offhand comment that he likes dudes.
Erased is, in my opinion, the best show of the season. Maybe the best show in the past several seasons. It’s a mature and sometimes dark story, with none of the dumb anime cliche’s we’ve come to know and hate. This is the series you show to people who think anime is childish and immature. People tend to want to show them gory horror anime, but no. Show them a nuanced, intelligent story with mature themes. Show them Erased. Because this anime has excellent art, the best opening and ending themes of the season, and an engrossing story. At several points while watching I found myself holding my breath without realizing it. Almost every episode ends with a moment that leaves you stunned and desperate for more. It actually reminds me a lot of Shin Sekai Yori, just in terms of how the story is beautifully told and often leaves me breathless (they’re animated by the same studio, so maybe that’s why). Erased is at the very top of my watch list.
Active Raid is a fun action series about a police unit that uses “Willwear”, basically fancy mechanical suits that are reminiscent of the ones in Gatchaman Crowds or Sacred Seven. They solve crimes and have adventures and sometimes go out drinking together. There’s some good looking guys and cute girls (and all of them are capable of using Willwear, apparently). The action is well choreographed and there’s just enough variety in the cases to keep things from getting repetitive. It’s a charming show that’s worth watching, but at the same time, nothing about it is especially surprising or amazing. Still, there are far worse ways to spend 20 minutes every Thursday.
Norn9 is a sci-fi/fantasy otome series based on a game that’s available in English and has been on both my birthday and Christmas wishlists (but no one has bought it for me yet - thanks a lot, family!). What sounded interesting about the game, and is definitely one of the strong points of the anime, is that there are three heroines instead of the usual one. This means instead of a group of guys all chasing the same girl (and, at least in the anime adaptations, knowing that most of these guys are going to end up heartbroken), there’s a much smaller group of guys interested in each girl. And we also get three very different heroines with distinct personalities. If Koharu’s passive, traditional-otome-heroine ways annoy you, there’s two other ladies who are quite a bit more feisty. The guys are all gorgeous, of course, as is the art (some of the backgrounds are breathtaking). The series has a unique setting and backstory, with a strong enough plot to keep even people who dislike otome series watching.
Divine Gate is... different. It’s an action series with an art style focusing on high contrast colors and lighting. It has some interesting ideas and appealing characters, but its all a bit muddled and confused. The series tends to slow down for an episode then suddenly move so fast in the next episode that you have no idea what’s going on. There are some serious pacing issues here. Aside from that, there’s a lot of voiced narration that is laughably angsty and melodramatic. It’s supposed to set the mood and introduce the characters, but it comes out sounding like a thirteen year old goth kid’s poetry (I want to go back and write some of it down and share because it’s hilarious). It’s a shame, because the show looks great and has awesome music, and I’m happy that it’s extremely low on fanservice but high on strong ladies. It just needed someone to sort out the pacing and cut out the narration. I’m still watching, because at this point I’m kinda invested in the characters, but it’s low on my watch list.
BBK/BRNK is an interesting series that I hesitate to call mecha. It involves giant robots, yes, but the series plays out a bit more like a kaiju story (the giant robots seem to be sentient and they tend to go on destructive rampages until stopped by other giant robots being controlled by people). But that’s a small part of the show. There’s also fancy sentient weapons (actually the limbs of giant robots that take the forms of more standard weapons such as swords or guns, but also as more crazy stuff like pens or rings) and duels and humans with supernatural powers and a mystical floating island and... yeah. There’s a lot going on in this show. Thankfully it stays coherent, if a little rushed. The art is completely CG, even the characters. This works overall, as the backgrounds, weapons, and robots look fantastic. But some of the character art is a little stiff. I can look over that though, since the show has several badass lady characters who aren’t (generally) used for fanservice. The series doesn’t break much new ground, but it’s entertaining and fast-paced.
Durarara!! x2 Ketsu is the third part of what’s collectively called the second season of Durarara!!, and the first part that I’ve went into without reading the complete novels it’s based on (at the time I was reading the Drrr!! novels, these only had random chapters and scenes translated), so some of this is new territory for me. It’s interesting because it reminds me of how I felt watching the first season and not knowing what was coming next. It definitely adds some excitement. Beyond that, there’s not a lot to say about it that I didn’t say about the previous two parts. The show remains stylish and quirky and at times surprisingly deep.
Dagashi Kashi is one of the funnier shows this season (probably the funniest), and one of the most appealing lady characters in Hotaru, a crazy chick obsessed with dagashi (cheap Japanese snacks). The show revolves around Hotaru’s visits to a dagashi shop and her interaction with Kokonatsu (who’s name sounds like “Coconuts” and his friends even call him such), the son of the shop’s owner. Every episode focuses on one or two specific dagashi and will make you crave them even if you’ve never heard of them, much less tried them. These little skits are hilarious and a ton of fun, and Kokonatsu is likable enough, but the real start of the show is Hotaru. She’s a joy to watch (and she’s edged to the top of my list of “anime characters I would most want to look like”). She’s clearly a potential love interest for Kokonatsu, and I appreciated that instead of making her a rival to another female character who has a crush on him, the series was wise enough to make the two girls good friends instead. This is a trend I’ve noticed in some other shows lately too, and makes the whole “two girls in love with a clueless guy” trope a lot more bearable. But even with these lowkey relationship hijinks in the background, Dagashi Kashi remains solidly about the snacks. High on my watch list.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime season two is actually a lot better than season one, which I enjoyed but felt was a little too... safe. It seemed like nothing truly dangerous or dramatic happened. Season two changed things up by putting the characters in real danger, and it’s been a lot more exciting. The show has always had gorgeous art and likable characters (particularly it’s practical and intelligent heroine Shirayuki), but now it actually has an engaging plot too. It climbs higher and higher on my watch list every week.
Prince of Stride is a sports otome series. I don’t know anything about this sport (is it even a real sport? Seems like numerous injury lawsuits waiting to happen) except that it’s a lot like free running? I think? Regardless, it has the usual markers of a good sports anime: teams full of attractive male characters with complicated relationships, friendly rivals, not-so-friendly rivals, exciting sports action, and training sequences that are arguably more interesting than the actual matches/games/races/whatever. But since this is an otome series, it’s all seen from the perspective of a sole female character (whereas in most sports anime not about female teams, there’s one or two girls who generally drift to the background). Refreshingly for an otome series, none of the guys have tried to romance her yet and just see her as a friend and part of the team. I kinda hope they keep it that way, or else just have one of the guys fall for her, because I think having the whole team going after her would just screw up the team dynamics, and they’re great right now. The only other thing worth noting is the art and its color scheme, which have a sort of bleached out look that’s heavy on whites and bright blues. It’s not especially appealing to me, and honestly at times it kinda hurts my eyes. But it’s not so bad that it prevents me from enjoying the show.
HaruChika is making a lot of waves now because it has an openly gay male protagonist in a shounen series. Cue butthurt fanboys dropping the show left and right and crying because they were “tricked” into watching “yaoi”. Never mind the fact that having a gay male character in no way means a show is yaoi (it’s not even shoujo, it’s freakin shounen). The gayness of the character in question, Haruta, has so little to do with the story and is so downplayed that, beyond the first episode’s reveal, you have to look long and hard for any signs of it. But that in and of itself is an accomplishment. The fact that Haruta acts like a totally normal person and his sexuality isn’t a huge sign over his head means that he’s not treated as a joke. His sexuality is not treated as a joke. He’s consistently portrayed in a positive light. But let’s face it, he has a crush on his teacher, so the odds of anything actually happening between them are pretty much zero. We’re not going to see any gay romance here, so all the idiots rage-quitting the show because of “that gross yaoi stuff” should feel pretty stupid (of course it doesn’t look like we’re going to see much in the way of any sort of romance, and that’s okay). That being said, the show is charming and has very attractive art (the way they color the eyes is just lovely). It’s not the greatest show ever, and I think there are people who are loving and adoring the show simply because of Haruta and not because of its actual entertainment value. It’s definitely worth watching though, and has had a couple of outstanding episodes. Watch it if you like slice of life anime and don’t recoil in terror from a young boy mentioning once in an offhand comment that he likes dudes.
Erased is, in my opinion, the best show of the season. Maybe the best show in the past several seasons. It’s a mature and sometimes dark story, with none of the dumb anime cliche’s we’ve come to know and hate. This is the series you show to people who think anime is childish and immature. People tend to want to show them gory horror anime, but no. Show them a nuanced, intelligent story with mature themes. Show them Erased. Because this anime has excellent art, the best opening and ending themes of the season, and an engrossing story. At several points while watching I found myself holding my breath without realizing it. Almost every episode ends with a moment that leaves you stunned and desperate for more. It actually reminds me a lot of Shin Sekai Yori, just in terms of how the story is beautifully told and often leaves me breathless (they’re animated by the same studio, so maybe that’s why). Erased is at the very top of my watch list.
Active Raid is a fun action series about a police unit that uses “Willwear”, basically fancy mechanical suits that are reminiscent of the ones in Gatchaman Crowds or Sacred Seven. They solve crimes and have adventures and sometimes go out drinking together. There’s some good looking guys and cute girls (and all of them are capable of using Willwear, apparently). The action is well choreographed and there’s just enough variety in the cases to keep things from getting repetitive. It’s a charming show that’s worth watching, but at the same time, nothing about it is especially surprising or amazing. Still, there are far worse ways to spend 20 minutes every Thursday.
Norn9 is a sci-fi/fantasy otome series based on a game that’s available in English and has been on both my birthday and Christmas wishlists (but no one has bought it for me yet - thanks a lot, family!). What sounded interesting about the game, and is definitely one of the strong points of the anime, is that there are three heroines instead of the usual one. This means instead of a group of guys all chasing the same girl (and, at least in the anime adaptations, knowing that most of these guys are going to end up heartbroken), there’s a much smaller group of guys interested in each girl. And we also get three very different heroines with distinct personalities. If Koharu’s passive, traditional-otome-heroine ways annoy you, there’s two other ladies who are quite a bit more feisty. The guys are all gorgeous, of course, as is the art (some of the backgrounds are breathtaking). The series has a unique setting and backstory, with a strong enough plot to keep even people who dislike otome series watching.
Divine Gate is... different. It’s an action series with an art style focusing on high contrast colors and lighting. It has some interesting ideas and appealing characters, but its all a bit muddled and confused. The series tends to slow down for an episode then suddenly move so fast in the next episode that you have no idea what’s going on. There are some serious pacing issues here. Aside from that, there’s a lot of voiced narration that is laughably angsty and melodramatic. It’s supposed to set the mood and introduce the characters, but it comes out sounding like a thirteen year old goth kid’s poetry (I want to go back and write some of it down and share because it’s hilarious). It’s a shame, because the show looks great and has awesome music, and I’m happy that it’s extremely low on fanservice but high on strong ladies. It just needed someone to sort out the pacing and cut out the narration. I’m still watching, because at this point I’m kinda invested in the characters, but it’s low on my watch list.