(no subject)
Spring Anime Season 2016: Here’s what I’m watching
The Lost Village is at the top of my watch list this season (though to be totally fair, this is one of the weakest seasons I’ve seen since I started watching anime as it aired). It’s mysterious enough to keep you hooked and handles having a huge cast (thirty+ characters) fairly well. You won’t exactly love or grow attached to all of them, but you will at least remember who they are within the story (even if you can’t remember their names). The series also relies on flashbacks as it gets further in, making it feel a lot like an anime version of Lost (a group of strangers stuck in a remote place with vague supernatural occurrences and character development dished out via flashbacks). The art is nice but the opening and ending songs didn’t really leave an impression on me, so I usually skip them. The protagonist has an interesting back story and it’s rather strongly implied that every single character has some sort of painful past they’re trying to escape from (though I doubt we’ll get to see everyone’s). It’s not the typical anime you see every season, and it’s not based on anything, so no one knows what’s going to happen next.
Rinne Season 2 is a nice, fun, comfortable series. The drama never gets too serious but at the same time, it’s more than just a comedy. I haven’t read the manga so I have no idea how things go, but I like the fact that the show has a more relaxed pace. I like that the closest thing we have to a “big bad” villain is the hero’s deadbeat dad who is admittedly a shitty father who steals from his own son, but most often works as comic relief. I like that the romantic hijinks are rather lowkey (and both the hero and heroine have other people in love with them, so it’s more balanced than the usual love triangle stuff we see). So you keep doing you, Rinne. And please never turn into a generic shounen fighting series.
My Hero Academia was hyped up quite a bit. I saw people talking about it on Tumblr and Facebook that usually don’t talk that much about anime (especially upcoming series). So I went into it with pretty high expectations. I’ll be honest: It’s not as great as I expected. But it’s still a charming, quality show. The art style is cartoony but cute, and so far I haven’t noticed any drastic dips in animation quality (unlike several others I could name from this season). The music is good, and the protagonist is lovable. The only real problem for me is that it doesn’t really tread any new ground (and for something so hyped up, I expected it to). It’s your typical shounen formula of an underdog protagonist pursuing his dream armed only with potential and his strong will to make his dream come true, meeting friends and enemies-turned-allies along the way. You have your typical “school of whatever the protagonist wants to do” (in this case a school for super heroes). Your typical classes that end up being competitions/tournaments and your typical teachers that dislike the protagonist at first but end up supporting him after seeing his undying determination. You also get your typical hotheaded rival and your typical female love interest/teammate with powers that don’t easily lend themselves to violence and kicking ass but instead to being useful in other ways. Just... *sigh* I would really like this show if I hadn’t already watched it over a dozen times. I mean, as far as generic shounen fighting anime goes, this is one of the better ones, to be sure. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a generic shounen fighting anime.
Joker Game is as unique as My Hero Academia is generic, but it’s only half as fun. I honestly found the first episode so boring that I fell asleep, twice. But I kept watching because I adore the setting (1930‘s Japan). I’ve seen other anime and even played games (the Raidou Kuzunoha SMT games) that are set roughly in the same period, and I just love the visuals of the two starkly different worlds (Eastern and Western) colliding. The imagery of streets filled with people wearing kimono walking beside people in Western-style suits is just lovely. The show has excellent art and music, with catchy opening and ending themes. It’s also full of handsome male characters in dapper suits (and a slow pan across one of them with his shirt unbuttoned in episode two is basically what convinced me to give the show another shot), all of whom have sexy voices (and I have a weakness for sexy male voice actors). The series as a whole really picks up starting with episode three, when it begins focusing on stand-alone stories that are, so far, a lot more interesting than the overarching plot/setup. The show would be near the top of my watch list if only it had some cool lady characters. We’ve had a few ladies here and there, and while so far none of them have been annoyingly weak or used for fanservice, they’re also not very memorable. It’s a fairly minor complaint, since I can’t imagine this series was made without considering their female audience (just watch the ending theme for proof - it features each of the men in states of distress, with their hair wet and falling across their faces).
Twin Star Exorcists has a really cool-looking color pallette and one of the more badass ladies this season (Benio is a rare lady ass kicker who so far hasn’t been demoted to sidekick or fanservice-bait while having her strength slowly diminished). The central plot is a little tiresome (the whole “forced engagement” idea is TIRED) but it’s had some interesting moments. Benio makes up for a rather annoying male lead (he’s not unbearable, but I find him hard to root for in general). The animation was great at first, but it’s been dipping in noticeable ways, which is a shame since it has such awesome colors and fun character designs. It’s not high on my watch list, and in a better season, I might have dropped it, but for now it’s worth the twenty minutes a week to keep up with Benio being a badass.
Bungo Stray Dogs is very high on my list. It has fantastic art (with no noticeable dips in quality so far), great music, a wide range of quirky and likable characters, and an intimidating villain. The show can be hilarious at times, but also thrilling, with violent, exciting battles. It reminds me quite a bit of shows like Karneval and Hakkenden, so I was surprised to find out it’s seinen. It feels so much like a Zero Sum title, it’s ridiculous. Lots of good looking guys who are very close and/or preoccupied with each other plus a small number of cool lady characters who aren’t used for fanservice and don’t seem to be positioned as love interests (so far). A slightly older black haired guy taking a special interest in a younger white haired guy. Cool but vaguely defined special powers. It just screams Zero Sum. Regardless, it’s highly entertaining and a fun watch.
Super Lovers has been stirring up a bit of controversy, and I can definitely understand why. I myself have some conflicting feelings about it. On one hand, I’m always happy to see more Boys Love series get animated. It seems like we’ve been seeing more and more over the past couple of years and that’s great. Super Lovers certainly has some good points. The art and character designs are gorgeous (though a couple of episodes have had questionable animation quality). The opening and ending themes are great and the characters are charming. The problem is the setup, which actually would have been extremely heartwarming if not for the BL elements (which is ironic). It’s not really the age gap between the two leads that’s the problem. We see pretty wide age gaps in fictional romances (not to mention real life!) all the time. And the youngest character is supposedly 16 according to the manga (I don’t remember them mentioning his age in the anime, if they did and he’s younger, well... I hope they didn’t). Which, yeah, is still pretty young but at least he’s not a little kid. The problem is in the setup and the roles the characters fit into. The younger character, Rin, was adopted into the family of the older character, Haru, and thus goes to live with him. Haru insists that they live together as brothers, but since this is a BL series, there’s obviously romantic and sexual tension. Haru is way too physically affectionate, like when he kisses Rin on the lips every morning before sending him off to school. Since Rin is okay with this, and clearly likes him back, it’s not as gross as it could’ve been. But it’s still a little unnerving, just because they’re supposed to be brothers (even if they’re adopted brothers) and Haru is in the position of taking care of Rin and sometimes even seems like a father figure. If they had just met at a cafe and started dating, it would have been perhaps a little racy because of the age difference, but not nearly as troubling without the whole brothers/family angle. I’ll keep watching until it goes from “cute but slightly uncomfortable” to “downright disturbing”.
Big Order is this season’s trainwreck, because let’s face it, every season has one. The first two episodes were fantastic, and I was ready to knock The Lost Village down a peg to make room for this series at the top of my watch list. But then the rest of the episodes happened. To paint you a picture of what this show is like, allow me to quote some random comments about it that I stumbled upon online: “Quickly climbing my worst anime list, but at least it’s a fun sort of worst” and “i’m just going to accept that this is a nonsensical dumpster fire but a fucking awesome one and stop trying to figure it out”. I think those two comments sum the series up pretty well. It’s a terrible show with a mess of a plot but it still manages to be entertaining, against all odds. It has so many facepalm-inducing moments of non-logic that at some point you just give up hope of the series making any kind of sense and just go with the crazy flow. The art is fine and the music is awesome. That story though....
The Lost Village is at the top of my watch list this season (though to be totally fair, this is one of the weakest seasons I’ve seen since I started watching anime as it aired). It’s mysterious enough to keep you hooked and handles having a huge cast (thirty+ characters) fairly well. You won’t exactly love or grow attached to all of them, but you will at least remember who they are within the story (even if you can’t remember their names). The series also relies on flashbacks as it gets further in, making it feel a lot like an anime version of Lost (a group of strangers stuck in a remote place with vague supernatural occurrences and character development dished out via flashbacks). The art is nice but the opening and ending songs didn’t really leave an impression on me, so I usually skip them. The protagonist has an interesting back story and it’s rather strongly implied that every single character has some sort of painful past they’re trying to escape from (though I doubt we’ll get to see everyone’s). It’s not the typical anime you see every season, and it’s not based on anything, so no one knows what’s going to happen next.
Rinne Season 2 is a nice, fun, comfortable series. The drama never gets too serious but at the same time, it’s more than just a comedy. I haven’t read the manga so I have no idea how things go, but I like the fact that the show has a more relaxed pace. I like that the closest thing we have to a “big bad” villain is the hero’s deadbeat dad who is admittedly a shitty father who steals from his own son, but most often works as comic relief. I like that the romantic hijinks are rather lowkey (and both the hero and heroine have other people in love with them, so it’s more balanced than the usual love triangle stuff we see). So you keep doing you, Rinne. And please never turn into a generic shounen fighting series.
My Hero Academia was hyped up quite a bit. I saw people talking about it on Tumblr and Facebook that usually don’t talk that much about anime (especially upcoming series). So I went into it with pretty high expectations. I’ll be honest: It’s not as great as I expected. But it’s still a charming, quality show. The art style is cartoony but cute, and so far I haven’t noticed any drastic dips in animation quality (unlike several others I could name from this season). The music is good, and the protagonist is lovable. The only real problem for me is that it doesn’t really tread any new ground (and for something so hyped up, I expected it to). It’s your typical shounen formula of an underdog protagonist pursuing his dream armed only with potential and his strong will to make his dream come true, meeting friends and enemies-turned-allies along the way. You have your typical “school of whatever the protagonist wants to do” (in this case a school for super heroes). Your typical classes that end up being competitions/tournaments and your typical teachers that dislike the protagonist at first but end up supporting him after seeing his undying determination. You also get your typical hotheaded rival and your typical female love interest/teammate with powers that don’t easily lend themselves to violence and kicking ass but instead to being useful in other ways. Just... *sigh* I would really like this show if I hadn’t already watched it over a dozen times. I mean, as far as generic shounen fighting anime goes, this is one of the better ones, to be sure. But it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a generic shounen fighting anime.
Joker Game is as unique as My Hero Academia is generic, but it’s only half as fun. I honestly found the first episode so boring that I fell asleep, twice. But I kept watching because I adore the setting (1930‘s Japan). I’ve seen other anime and even played games (the Raidou Kuzunoha SMT games) that are set roughly in the same period, and I just love the visuals of the two starkly different worlds (Eastern and Western) colliding. The imagery of streets filled with people wearing kimono walking beside people in Western-style suits is just lovely. The show has excellent art and music, with catchy opening and ending themes. It’s also full of handsome male characters in dapper suits (and a slow pan across one of them with his shirt unbuttoned in episode two is basically what convinced me to give the show another shot), all of whom have sexy voices (and I have a weakness for sexy male voice actors). The series as a whole really picks up starting with episode three, when it begins focusing on stand-alone stories that are, so far, a lot more interesting than the overarching plot/setup. The show would be near the top of my watch list if only it had some cool lady characters. We’ve had a few ladies here and there, and while so far none of them have been annoyingly weak or used for fanservice, they’re also not very memorable. It’s a fairly minor complaint, since I can’t imagine this series was made without considering their female audience (just watch the ending theme for proof - it features each of the men in states of distress, with their hair wet and falling across their faces).
Twin Star Exorcists has a really cool-looking color pallette and one of the more badass ladies this season (Benio is a rare lady ass kicker who so far hasn’t been demoted to sidekick or fanservice-bait while having her strength slowly diminished). The central plot is a little tiresome (the whole “forced engagement” idea is TIRED) but it’s had some interesting moments. Benio makes up for a rather annoying male lead (he’s not unbearable, but I find him hard to root for in general). The animation was great at first, but it’s been dipping in noticeable ways, which is a shame since it has such awesome colors and fun character designs. It’s not high on my watch list, and in a better season, I might have dropped it, but for now it’s worth the twenty minutes a week to keep up with Benio being a badass.
Bungo Stray Dogs is very high on my list. It has fantastic art (with no noticeable dips in quality so far), great music, a wide range of quirky and likable characters, and an intimidating villain. The show can be hilarious at times, but also thrilling, with violent, exciting battles. It reminds me quite a bit of shows like Karneval and Hakkenden, so I was surprised to find out it’s seinen. It feels so much like a Zero Sum title, it’s ridiculous. Lots of good looking guys who are very close and/or preoccupied with each other plus a small number of cool lady characters who aren’t used for fanservice and don’t seem to be positioned as love interests (so far). A slightly older black haired guy taking a special interest in a younger white haired guy. Cool but vaguely defined special powers. It just screams Zero Sum. Regardless, it’s highly entertaining and a fun watch.
Super Lovers has been stirring up a bit of controversy, and I can definitely understand why. I myself have some conflicting feelings about it. On one hand, I’m always happy to see more Boys Love series get animated. It seems like we’ve been seeing more and more over the past couple of years and that’s great. Super Lovers certainly has some good points. The art and character designs are gorgeous (though a couple of episodes have had questionable animation quality). The opening and ending themes are great and the characters are charming. The problem is the setup, which actually would have been extremely heartwarming if not for the BL elements (which is ironic). It’s not really the age gap between the two leads that’s the problem. We see pretty wide age gaps in fictional romances (not to mention real life!) all the time. And the youngest character is supposedly 16 according to the manga (I don’t remember them mentioning his age in the anime, if they did and he’s younger, well... I hope they didn’t). Which, yeah, is still pretty young but at least he’s not a little kid. The problem is in the setup and the roles the characters fit into. The younger character, Rin, was adopted into the family of the older character, Haru, and thus goes to live with him. Haru insists that they live together as brothers, but since this is a BL series, there’s obviously romantic and sexual tension. Haru is way too physically affectionate, like when he kisses Rin on the lips every morning before sending him off to school. Since Rin is okay with this, and clearly likes him back, it’s not as gross as it could’ve been. But it’s still a little unnerving, just because they’re supposed to be brothers (even if they’re adopted brothers) and Haru is in the position of taking care of Rin and sometimes even seems like a father figure. If they had just met at a cafe and started dating, it would have been perhaps a little racy because of the age difference, but not nearly as troubling without the whole brothers/family angle. I’ll keep watching until it goes from “cute but slightly uncomfortable” to “downright disturbing”.
Big Order is this season’s trainwreck, because let’s face it, every season has one. The first two episodes were fantastic, and I was ready to knock The Lost Village down a peg to make room for this series at the top of my watch list. But then the rest of the episodes happened. To paint you a picture of what this show is like, allow me to quote some random comments about it that I stumbled upon online: “Quickly climbing my worst anime list, but at least it’s a fun sort of worst” and “i’m just going to accept that this is a nonsensical dumpster fire but a fucking awesome one and stop trying to figure it out”. I think those two comments sum the series up pretty well. It’s a terrible show with a mess of a plot but it still manages to be entertaining, against all odds. It has so many facepalm-inducing moments of non-logic that at some point you just give up hope of the series making any kind of sense and just go with the crazy flow. The art is fine and the music is awesome. That story though....