anime catchup
I pretty much accidentally gave up on all the media I was supposed to be consuming for WisCon because I got distracted by 2 very long anime series (Fairy Tail, and A Certain Magical Index, both of which I should comment on once I catch up), but I did manage to catch up with airing anime. A victory is a victory?
Akuma no Riddle eps 3-7: This show is still so into its concept that it's almost adorable.
I'm mostly enjoying learning about the other assassins' pasts and motivations ("mostly" because I was very mehed by the serial killer one) but at the same time, we're getting all that development and backstory for characters who are going to be gone by the end of the episode, and I keep wishing some of that time was being spent of Tokaku and Haru's backgrounds (especially Haru's). That said, I was very into the assassin plots for the last 2 episodes. Particularly the "Romeo and Juliet" episode. Which went about as well as you can expect things to go for a pair of rival lesbian assassins in love who are secretly enemies and playing Romeo and Juliet in a school play.
Atelier Escha and Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky eps 1-6: I don't often watch anime based on video games, but this sounded interesting. Escha and Logy are young alchemists working for the local government branch. Escha is a local and her mother was also an alchemist, and so she's both well known and well liked in the area. She uses a cauldron to create things. Logy, who combines his alchemy with a forge to disassemble things and figure out how they work, apparently comes from a much larger city, and thought being an alchemist for the local government meant that he and his sword were going to dash around the countryside, slaying dragons. Instead, he and Escha go around finding out why a village's river has dried up, what's poisoning the crops, helping to create new medicines, etc. (It's ok, though. Sometimes their missions means that Escha has to dart off into the wilds for a rare plant, and then he gets to fight wolves and such.) Logy has the markings for an angsty anime male lead with a mysterious past, but there's been very little of that so far, with the focus being slightly more on Escha (who has Dead Mother Angst, though it isn't overdone at this point) as they run around fixing things and eating alchemy-produced deserts and gathering an oddball collection of friends.
This is based on the 15th game in the "Atelier" series, though familiarity with the others (of which I have absolutely none) isn't needed. Looking things up, I see that 4 of the female supporting characters are carryovers from the previous game in the series, and one, Nio, is the younger sister of the protagonist of that one, and is looking for her sister. The plot apparently involves the older sister searching for Nio, who disappeared pre-game, so now I kinda want to see an anime adaptation of that.
You can tell it's based on a game-there are "character cards" for everyone, a few events that clearly started out as a goal the player had to achieve, and various backgrounds and scenery shots appear to be directly lifted from the game. It's not overly intrusive though, and I find it to be a relaxing, enjoyable series with low stress and enjoyable characters and animation.
Black Bullet eps 2-6: I'm not overly interested in the "post-acopalyptic action/conspiracy" stuff that's going on (I mean, there's nothing wrong with it or anything, but...) am looking forward to the increased focus on the cursed children, and the mystery of what really happened to Kisara's family. There isn't a whole lot to set it apart from all the other "futuristic world with monsters and superpowers" anime out there, but I like it. I really wish, though, that there was an explanation for how civilization and society are still functioning fairly normally (by modern standards) when most of humanity was wiped out by monsters and the survivors have to live in closed off cities. Just saying.
Also in the "just saying" category: There's an evil scientist named Ayn Rand. I thought some of you might want to know.
How is Rentaro still alive, much less fine, after episodes 3 and 4, anyway?
The World is Still Beautiful eps 3-6: The first few episodes of this series were "This is very good, but I don't feel a just drive to watch it this very second," but I think it really kicked off around the middle of episode 4. Assassination attempts will do that?
I really hope the narrative is as aware of how easily Nike could destroy the Sun Kingdom as I hope it is. Many of the people appear to have never even seen rain before, and aren't aware of it or what it means "water comes from the sky and makes it a lot easier to grow crops," without being aware of what heavy rain-or worse-can do, especially to a region that doesn't normally get any rain. Nike, OTOH, seems to know exactly how rain and cycles work, and is well aware of how her powers can affect the kingdom, both good and bad, which is an awareness of power and responsibility for power that I feel we don't often get in teen protagonists. (But someone really needs to clue a few characters in on what a bad idea it is to piss off the person who literally controls the weather.)
I really want to know, though, why it is that a kingdom whose royal family has had the power to control the weather for generations is a tiny country few people have heard of, as opposed to, you know, ruling the world.
And, uhm, I know Livius is 15 and Nike only a couple years older, and that they draw Livius so young-looking to emphasize that he became king when he was 12, but they draw him as 12 and Nike at her actual age, and so the age difference that's actually perfectly fine starts looking a bit awkward the more the series emphasize the romantic aspect.
I'm also still watching Tonari no Seki-kun and Mushishi, but don't have anything in particular to say about them. (Except "wtf grafting episode, Mushishi!") I'm also still watching Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, which isn't great, but it's entertaining, and has improved now that they've stopped trying to cram enough action for a 24 minute episode into 3 minutes.
Akuma no Riddle eps 3-7: This show is still so into its concept that it's almost adorable.
I'm mostly enjoying learning about the other assassins' pasts and motivations ("mostly" because I was very mehed by the serial killer one) but at the same time, we're getting all that development and backstory for characters who are going to be gone by the end of the episode, and I keep wishing some of that time was being spent of Tokaku and Haru's backgrounds (especially Haru's). That said, I was very into the assassin plots for the last 2 episodes. Particularly the "Romeo and Juliet" episode. Which went about as well as you can expect things to go for a pair of rival lesbian assassins in love who are secretly enemies and playing Romeo and Juliet in a school play.
Atelier Escha and Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky eps 1-6: I don't often watch anime based on video games, but this sounded interesting. Escha and Logy are young alchemists working for the local government branch. Escha is a local and her mother was also an alchemist, and so she's both well known and well liked in the area. She uses a cauldron to create things. Logy, who combines his alchemy with a forge to disassemble things and figure out how they work, apparently comes from a much larger city, and thought being an alchemist for the local government meant that he and his sword were going to dash around the countryside, slaying dragons. Instead, he and Escha go around finding out why a village's river has dried up, what's poisoning the crops, helping to create new medicines, etc. (It's ok, though. Sometimes their missions means that Escha has to dart off into the wilds for a rare plant, and then he gets to fight wolves and such.) Logy has the markings for an angsty anime male lead with a mysterious past, but there's been very little of that so far, with the focus being slightly more on Escha (who has Dead Mother Angst, though it isn't overdone at this point) as they run around fixing things and eating alchemy-produced deserts and gathering an oddball collection of friends.
This is based on the 15th game in the "Atelier" series, though familiarity with the others (of which I have absolutely none) isn't needed. Looking things up, I see that 4 of the female supporting characters are carryovers from the previous game in the series, and one, Nio, is the younger sister of the protagonist of that one, and is looking for her sister. The plot apparently involves the older sister searching for Nio, who disappeared pre-game, so now I kinda want to see an anime adaptation of that.
You can tell it's based on a game-there are "character cards" for everyone, a few events that clearly started out as a goal the player had to achieve, and various backgrounds and scenery shots appear to be directly lifted from the game. It's not overly intrusive though, and I find it to be a relaxing, enjoyable series with low stress and enjoyable characters and animation.
Black Bullet eps 2-6: I'm not overly interested in the "post-acopalyptic action/conspiracy" stuff that's going on (I mean, there's nothing wrong with it or anything, but...) am looking forward to the increased focus on the cursed children, and the mystery of what really happened to Kisara's family. There isn't a whole lot to set it apart from all the other "futuristic world with monsters and superpowers" anime out there, but I like it. I really wish, though, that there was an explanation for how civilization and society are still functioning fairly normally (by modern standards) when most of humanity was wiped out by monsters and the survivors have to live in closed off cities. Just saying.
Also in the "just saying" category: There's an evil scientist named Ayn Rand. I thought some of you might want to know.
How is Rentaro still alive, much less fine, after episodes 3 and 4, anyway?
The World is Still Beautiful eps 3-6: The first few episodes of this series were "This is very good, but I don't feel a just drive to watch it this very second," but I think it really kicked off around the middle of episode 4. Assassination attempts will do that?
I really hope the narrative is as aware of how easily Nike could destroy the Sun Kingdom as I hope it is. Many of the people appear to have never even seen rain before, and aren't aware of it or what it means "water comes from the sky and makes it a lot easier to grow crops," without being aware of what heavy rain-or worse-can do, especially to a region that doesn't normally get any rain. Nike, OTOH, seems to know exactly how rain and cycles work, and is well aware of how her powers can affect the kingdom, both good and bad, which is an awareness of power and responsibility for power that I feel we don't often get in teen protagonists. (But someone really needs to clue a few characters in on what a bad idea it is to piss off the person who literally controls the weather.)
I really want to know, though, why it is that a kingdom whose royal family has had the power to control the weather for generations is a tiny country few people have heard of, as opposed to, you know, ruling the world.
And, uhm, I know Livius is 15 and Nike only a couple years older, and that they draw Livius so young-looking to emphasize that he became king when he was 12, but they draw him as 12 and Nike at her actual age, and so the age difference that's actually perfectly fine starts looking a bit awkward the more the series emphasize the romantic aspect.
I'm also still watching Tonari no Seki-kun and Mushishi, but don't have anything in particular to say about them. (Except "wtf grafting episode, Mushishi!") I'm also still watching Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san, which isn't great, but it's entertaining, and has improved now that they've stopped trying to cram enough action for a 24 minute episode into 3 minutes.