The Anime / Manga Thread (MK2) | Beware Spoilers

[Fishin]

Is it bad that I like Qualidea Code more after every episode?

Like, episodes 1-3 were awful, but then the plot shifted and it has become a show which I am actually kinda looking forward to each week despite it's action being entirely actionless. I could talk about it in detail, but it's kinda difficult to explain why I like the show as a whole 'cause it isn't exactly spectacular (that an noone'll read it if I go too in-depth), but two of the aspects that I like about it are the dynamic between Asuha and Kasumi and

hints at plot developments

the fact that it isn't afraid to cut out the influence of key protagonits (by killing them off in some way or another) to change the direction of the plot. (For the sake of comparison, being afraid to kill protagonists is one of the bigger reasons among hundreds for why SAO is awful (it creates a setup where death is meaningful (if you're dead you're dead) and then saves Yui through the power of bullshit) while a lack of fear is a major strength of other shows like FMAB (the death of Maes Hughes means that the show can no longer lean on him to help advance the plot).)

The show is just more enjoyable than crap like Taboo Tattoo for various reasons that I won't list now, and I just thought I'd mention it 'cause I've not seen anyone talking about this show at all anywhere on the internet other than episode-specific MAL threads which I don't really like contributing to or reading.

late but yeah, I'm enjoying it. It definitely had enough self-awareness to set it apart from the generic LN adaptions it seemed like from the beginning. I haven't watched the most recent episode but I'm not entirely sure it'll be able to really handle the twists that it's been building up to well, we'll see though.

speaking of shows being better than they seemed, I was iffy on Mob Psycho 100 initially but it's more than redeemed itself and gotten really good, probably my 2nd favorite this season after Soma. I kinda blame the focus on Reigen in the first couple episodes, he's fine as since then but he gets really repetitive and grating if given too much screentime.

 

[newtonja]

double posting to point out that kimi no na wa is now #1 on MAL (it's a recent release) so there's a truckload of hype behind this movie. it's making a ton of money in japan from what I hear

I just watched the move and I have to say. It was absolutely perfect. Let's get the obvious out of the way, yes the movie is absolutely gorgeous beyond compare with the animation and being absolutely breath taking at times. But that's not all it has to offer. It has an incredibly engaging story that abandons the 3 part structure of begging middle and end and it does it in a way that doesn't completely confuse the watcher which it gets serious bonus points for pulling that off. I really loved the romance element as well. It also ends very satisfying. I would recommend everybody give it a watch when you can. If not for the story just the animation alone is worth it.

 

[RODAN]

kimi no na wa was nothing special honestly, it reuses a bunch of the same thematic moments of 5cm/s. It feels like they are making the movie over again but fixing some of the complaints.

 

[Jebus McAzn]

how are you all watching it? i thought it hasn't had a western release yet

 

[RODAN]

i watched a bootleg chinese copy on kissanime

 

[newtonja]

Yeah, same. It's fairly crappy quality though. I'll be excited to watch this in good quality when it actually come out in the west.

 

[Martin]

This season's coming to an end soon, so we might as well start talking about what we're hyped for next season. After this week's episode any trace of doubt in my mind that 91 Days is AoTS was erased from my mind.

Just glancing down, I can see a lot of hype sequels, including a number of sequels to 2016 shows that I'mmpersonally looking forward to in Ajin 2, Bubuki Buranki: Hoshi no Kyoujin and Bungou Stray Dogs 2. There's also Haikyuu but I've not gotten around to watching any of that yet so I can't get hyped for it. Probably the three sequels that I'm looking forward to the most are Hibike! Euphonium 2, Ajin 2 and Lostorage Incited WIXOSS. There's also a sequel to a show that I've never heard of called 12-sai so... if yiu know what it is and enjoy it you can look at that too?

Ajin is the most underrated show of the year and if you've not seen S1 from winter you should definitely watch it before the start of next season. The CGI start feeling fitting later on with the demihumans so yeah that's enough to excuse it, and the antagonist is so blatantly evil/two dimensional as a villain that it's hard to think of him as a bad villain (honestly my favorite character from the series 'cause the others--most notably the MC--are complete assholes whereas he is just a particularly entertaining/sinister asshole). I'm personally a big WIXOSS fan, and it has done a really good job of being a card game series that isn't just a walking commercial for it's game--taking a much darker route that I really enjoyed despite it being, as a number of people who I've talked to have put it, Madoka Lite. IDK if it's gonna follow the same characters from the Selector Infected WIXOSS like was the case in Selector Soread WIXOSS and Selector Destructed WIXOSS, but regardless of if it does I'm looking forward to it. As for Hibike, if you didn't like the first season idk what to say to you honestly. Regardless of whether you liked it tho you have to admit it's op theme is incredible. Hyped for this and think that if anything could maybe challenge 91 Days for AotY it's this.

Hibike OP

As for new shows, right at the top of the chart there's a show with a synopsis I like the sound of called 3-gatsu no Lion. I feel like it's gonna be a character driven show that I'll enjoy provided that it doesn't do everything wrong like Amaama to Inazuma did this season. There look to be lots of "cute girls doing cute things" shows for us to look forward to (whether they are SoL or have an actual plot), including Brave Witches, Girlish Number, Long Riders!, Shakunetsu no Musume, Stella no Mahou and Soushin Shoujo Matoi. Most will prolly suck but I'll prolly try to watch at least one (probably Stella no Mahou 'cause it's about making doujin video games). Udon no Kuni no Kiniro Kenari is prolly gonna be this season's Barakamon equivalent and as such, like I said with 3-gatsu no Lion, I'm looking forward to it and crossing my fingers that it doesn't do an Amaama on us. Beyond this there are a few other shows that show promise but I'll let you look them up 'cause that's a hell of a lot of reading that I'm not prepared to do at half past midnight. http://anichart.net/fall

 

[RODAN]

wixoss is soooooo fucking bad i cant believe they are making more of it

 

[BLOOD TOTEM]

the only good anime of 2016 has been shouwa rakugo genroku shinjuu

 

[Jebus McAzn]

re:zero is probably going to end up around a low 8/10 for me unless the last episode is absolutely stellar.

shokugeki is almost certainly going to be a 7, the stagiare arc is good but it's not going to boost the show much unless, again, the last two episodes are incredibly done

I also keep comparing MP100 to One Punch Man and I'm not enjoying it as much as I enjoyed OPM. I actually feel really similarly about Ping Pong and The Tatami Galaxy where one of the creator's works is just clearly better in my mind than the other one

other than that I'm really not watching much else this season, just dragon ball which is actually quite good now. also picked up Tanaka-Kun and I really like it so far (4 episodes in)

I'm excited for Hibike S2 but a big part of me feels that how good it's going to be is entirely dependent on whether it miraculously manages to deliver a well-done lesbian romance or whether it just turns into two seasons of yuri bait, which is what most people are predicting

the last great anime I remember watching was owarimonogatari, though to be fair I didn't watch shouwa genroku

 

[Fishin]

about all I know about Wixoss is that it's Okada

then again Gundam IBO s2 is one of the few shows next season that I have any concrete expectations for and that's Okada too, but Kiznaiver and Mayoiga made it pretty clear that she's still the same as she always was

Sangatsu no Lion instantly turns me off since it reminds me heavily of Your Lie in April except with uglier art. Admittedly they don't seem to actually be related so I guess I should try it at least, and it is SHAFT so that's something.

Euphonium will probably be good in a boring way, and from what I've heard Keijo sounds like some good dumb trashy fun which is welcome. Maybe Soushin Shoujo Matoi will be good, it's afaik White Fox's first original project and they're a studio I've always liked and who have gotten a lot of attention recently with RE:Zero. I'll probably find some more shows to be interested in once the random curiosity preview comes out since that lists a lot of staff information in a single useful page.


also, I gave Girls und Panzer another try recently after dropping it initially and ended up liking it. Kinda like Haifuri (I think they're made by the same people?) except without the dumb plot and tank battles are a lot more fun to watch than boat battles, but it's definitely a slow starter and gets better as the show goes on, the movie sequel in particular was really good.

also also, shouwa rakugo bored me pretty heavily

 

[Blue_Tornado]

Jebus: Ping Pong isn't a Yuasa original. Actually, Tatami Galaxy isn't a Yuasa original either according to MAL. It didn't have any source material so maybe Yuasa was involved, but the guy who wrote Uchouten Kazoku is listed as the creator. Aaaanyway, they're really different in a lot of ways and it's a matter of taste. That's all. Not like I was miffed or anything by you calling it inferior.

 

[Jebus McAzn]

oh yeah absolutely, I'm not calling Ping Pong the inferior series either, it's more that TTG resonated a lot more strongly with me. plus yuasa directed both so I have a hard time separating him from either series because his style is so distinct. i have a few things on my backlog that he directed too (Kaiba, Mind Game) that I should probably get to at some point...

 

[Martin]

So many shows are doing later episodes really well, it's great. It's a complete contrast to what I just watched today's Mob Psycho and I think that the only way that it isn't AotS is if 91 Days somehow tops this week's episode (seriously this show has been so good right the way through, and while it started weaker than 91 Days it has far surpassed it in terms of raw quality for a long time now to the point where the drop in consistent quality throughout the whole series is made up for), and the way that they ended episode 11 was just so well handled that it is. Like, before this point Reigen just felt kinda pointless, but yeah he had to have a major role in the story (both the flashback near the end and how the episode ended) and my god was it good.

I think that it would be difficult for a show set up like New Game to improve over it's ending. Like, I think it was definitely a good show for the most part (I didn't like all of it but it was good on the whole) but just given the type of show it is it definitely ended precisely the way that it should have ended. The episode really put the emphasis on Yagami and Aoba's depth as personalities (Yagami was by far the best character in the series) and it was just a really nice ending in general. The major characters's personalities felt mostly fleshed out from their simple stock bases and just in general something which the few cute girl shows that I've seen fail at is how they handle the characters--which is precisely what this show did well. That said I do think that Nene and Umiko could have been handled far better.
Also (putting primary focus on personality with some reference to appearance): Kou>Aoba>Rin>Hifumi>Hajime>Yun>Shizuku>>Nene>>>>Umiko.

Probably got some other comments to make about shows but I'll save that for an end of season roundup if I ever do it. FWIW I think a lot of shows are getting better the further into the series you get.

 

[Jebus McAzn]

for anyone reading the One Punch Man murata redraw, they're adding in some new stuff that wasn't in the webcomic...

Hide

* entire tournament arc is way more fleshed out now especially with this suiryuu dude
* new monster association big bads, mainly this Gouketsu dude and the new leader Orochi (is Psykos an underling/figurehead now?)
* more exposition about the secondary heroes, showing us why metal knight/genos are out of commission

overall it looks like there's going to be a lot of content to get through before we even get close to the Garou fight, which is a little disappointing, but I don't mind too much

 

[newtonja]

So I'm taking a look at anichart for fall and I'm not seeing anything that interests me right off the bat. Does anybody know what the anticipated stuff this season are?

 

[Martin]

So I'm taking a look at anichart for fall and I'm not seeing anything that interests me right off the bat. Does anybody know what the anticipated stuff this season are?

Hibike! Euphonium 2 is what everyone is looking forward to afaik. There's also a new season of Haikyuu if that's up your alley.

 

[brightobject]

hello? keijo!?!?!?

 

[Blue_Tornado]

3-gatsu no Lion

 

[Jebus McAzn]

shokugeki finale was actually really great, i'm now in the school of thought that the tournament arc as a whole just doesn't translate very well to the anime format

i'm also 9 episodes through k-on, mio is clearly the best girl, how is this even a discussion

 

[Karxrida]

Tuned in to Toonami tonight on a whim and watched DBZ Kai and One-Punch.

I never really watched DBZ before (DBZ Abridged notwithstanding) but I know the plot, so I felt like I got gipped because it was focused on Mr. Satan fucking around during the Cell Games. Loved the Pokémon shout-out the dub gave. Speaking of the dub, I'm way too used to hearing the DBZ Abridged voices because all of the characters sounded wrong to me.

Is it weird that I think the old DBZ animation is better than the new animation in the opening and closing credits?

I was able to follow the One-Punch episode (aliens attack and shit happens) well enough despite not really knowing anything about the plot or characters bar basic stuff about the premise, and it looked good. The dub sounds fine, so I'll stick with that if/when I watch more later.

I also watched like 5 minutes of whatever Gundam show was on, but the lack of any giant robots and the plot + character drama I couldn't follow due to lack of knowledge made me bored.

 

[Jebus McAzn]

SPEAKING OF ONE PUNCH MAN

SEASON 2 CONFIRMED

 

[newtonja]

Mad house, second season? Is this real life?

 

[Mr.E]

I'm officially an animefag now, spent the past couple days watching Shirobako. Cried at the end of Ep 23. :(

Fishin says I'm cool to watch Madoka next on Saturday. Sadly I do still need to work half a day tomorrow (Fri).

Edit: Turns out I don't have to work after all but I've already made plans to run through my entire EDM playlist (of roughly 14 hours) and game today, so Madoka is still tomorrow probably.