Summer 2016: Anime In Review
Before I get into the thick of it, I'd like to take a moment to quickly touch on two things:
With that out of the way, let's dive into the end of this anime season. Summer 2016 had a lot to live up to, with Spring delivering a good few solid series and one or two gems. Last season also had the benefit of having the good shows sprinkled throughout the week, so there was always something new every day or two to watch. Summer decided to jam the majority of the programming into Sunday and Monday, leaving the rest of the week largely dry. Overall, I think that summer really fell a little short compared to its predecessor, but it still had a decent amount of stuff worth watching (especially if you follow Food Wars and Jojo, which I don't... yet).
I'll run through everything I watched, and give my thoughts as someone who's watched week to week. If a series is complete, I'll throw out what I think is its final score, and if it's still got an episode or two to go I'll still give some sort of tentative number, usually a range (X - Y/10). At the very least, you'll be able to figure out what you should check out if you're behind on currently airing seasons, and what you should pass on.
Show: Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
Studio: David Production
Runtime: 5 episodes, ~15 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: FUNimationNOW
I already spoke about this show at length in my previous post about length in anime, but I'll give another quick synopsis. Planetarian is a Key visual novel adaptation done in a short form style to great effect. Like a lot of Key stuff, this one will try to pull on the heartstrings, but unlike Clannad and the others that they're famous for, this one doesn't waste your time (nor does it have time to spare) with an over-abundance of melodrama and contrived scenarios. Instead we get a one-shot character story between our two mains. Lots of emotional beats here, with heavy themes about what it means to be human and how the relationship between humans and technology warps over time.
David Production gave it their all for the short time that they had with this one. Some of the background art is drop dead gorgeous, and the character designs have a large amount of love and care put into them (which is honestly expected considering there are really only 2 recurring characters). They do a great job of making the post-apocalyptic modern world of Planetarian dismal and abandoned but not completely lacking in life or action. The animation overall can be pretty stiff at times but I attribute mostly to the fact that the show actually contains a large lack of motion and is mostly dialogue. Facial animations have a good bit of time put into them to make up for this, but you'll mostly enjoy this one for the story, not for the better-than-average art. Music is stand out thought, just as great as other Key adaptations (think Clannad or Kanon 2006 quality).
Overall, a great sci-fi drama with an incredibly satisfying ending. At only just about an hour and a half total time investment, this is definitely one that you don't want to miss.
Score: 9/10
Show: New Game!
Genre: Cute-Girls-Cute-Shit, Slice of Life, Comedy
Studio: Doga Kobo
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
Ah, yes, New Game! The show with undoubtedly the most impressive animation this season. What's it about, you ask? Cute autistic girls who work at a video game company, of course. Look, I get it. Moe sells, and it sells a lot. Doga Kobo does this shit every single season, where they make something unbearably cute that you think is just something you should shrug off and not watch, and then you notice that every single hair movement is animated at a full 24 frames per second ALL THE TIME, from episode 1 all then way until the last second of episode 12. I get that Doga Kobo doesn't exactly have the track record to take on something dark and gritty, but the team is very obviously so fucking talented that I can't not get pissed at a show like this existing when it looks this damn good.
You'd think that after I just bashed this show, I'd say that I'd hate it, and to a point I do, but inside of it's genre of cute-girls-cute-shit SoL genre, it's really not that bad. It's got all the same pandering and canned jokes that every other series of this same type does, and it's a strangely warm and relaxing experience to watch. I don't know much about how a Japanese office works, but in terms of a development office, it was at least sort of relate-able to me. The programmer, Umiko, and obviously best girl Hifumi were the only two stand out characters for me. However, as you'd expect, all the character designs are unique enough and downright adorable, so I'm sure you'll find something to like if this genre is your thing. OP is also above average and has some really cute animation.
This show's biggest problem is that it's not Love Lab or Nozaki-kun while still having the same super high quality Doga Kobo constant sakuga. Just not enough laughs to carry itself despite a somewhat funny premise.
Score: 5.5 - 6/10
Show: Amaama to Inazuma (or Sweetness and Lightning)
Genre: Slice of Life, Drama, Cooking?
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
This show really walks the line between something that's just being cute to be cute and something that is trying to rip your still beating heart right out of your chest. Our subject matter here is a recently widowed high-school teacher and his young daughter. He can't cook worth a damn, so he's forced to feed his daughter on frozen food and convenience store bentos. One of his students ends up being the daughter of a famous TV chef, and after a couple chance encounters between the two, she ends up teaching him and his daughter how to cook at her mother's vacant restaurant. This ends up becoming a regular thing for the group of three and a rotating group of their mutual friends, so queue that completely inappropriate student-teacher romantic rebound relationship... right?
You'd think that would happen, but the anime goes out of its way to completely avoid it. I know the manga makes this a much bigger deal, but this is this and that is that, and honestly, I'm thankful that this show took a far more family-friendly route. This show hits incredibly close to home for anyone who's experienced loss, and having to see Inuzuka have to struggle through accepting the loss of his wife and coming to terms with raising Tsumugi all on his own is truly heartbreaking and had me on the verge of tears more than once. The relationship between Inuzuka and Kotori is still scrutinized in the show, but in a light of "mutual use" instead of romance. Both parties are selfishly using each other to fill a void in each others' lives, but still care about one another in a family type way.
Art and animation are pretty standard outside of the very well done food art, albeit above average. Music set the mood perfectly for both the lighthearted cooking sequences and gut-wrenching feelbombs. The choice to use an actual child VA for Tsumugi was a knockout decision, and really makes the show what it is. I just wish the ending would have had more of a conclusion to it, but the show did better than expected, so we may see more in the future. This is a show you could easily recommend to a family to watch together, especially if you know that family is full of 'foodies' like mine.
Score: 8/10
Show: Orange
Genre: Romance, Shoujo, Autism Simulator, "Drama"
Studio: Telecom Animation Film
Runtime: 13 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
Why in the everliving FUCK do people like this show? I just don't fucking get it. I L.O.V.E. this genre. Anyone who knows me will immediately tell you that when it comes to anime I'm the biggest fucking sap ever. It doesn't take me much to get invested in a romantic story, and even less so to get me to feel heavy emotional pangs and sympathize with the characters. More than one anime romance drama has left me in tears, but this show has me crying for completely different reasons.
This show started off fine. A dumb weak sci-fi premise where the future versions of all the characters send back letters so their earlier selves can avoid their regrets. Seems like a weak idea for a show if the characters never fuck up or create any drama, but whatever, I can roll with it. I'm a sucker for romance after all. There's this new kid in town, Kakeru, who is the express subject of nearly all of these letters. Turns out that he's sad as fuck because of some bad life stuff, and ends up offing himself because all of the core cast are just bad friends and didn't really support, or some shit like that.
Of course, our special needs MC, Naho, likes this guy, but is too cripplingly disabled to say it, like all portrayals of high school girls in anime. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, and we'd spend 13 episodes of high school bullshit getting them sort-of together and end on a half-assed, half kiss like every other shoujo ever, but now we have to save Kakeru's life. It's alright though, we'll just use the magic future letters to make sure we don't fuck up... UNTIL WE IMMEDIATELY START IGNORING THEM ON EPISODE. FUCKING. ONE. Naho is more dense than a fucking neutron star and decides to throw the magic letters that are ALWAYS RIGHT out the fucking window because she "just can't handle it".
I get why she doesn't from a story perspective; this show would have no drama at all if they just followed their future selves' instructions, but that isn't good for us as an audience. If we know what the two possible outcomes are, we just don't care, because a show like this reads from the first episode that everything is going to be OK despite a couple bumps in the road. Orange just can't fucking decide if it wants to be some sort of "we choose our own destiny" bullshit or just a normal high school shoujo romance, and it suffers heavily because of it.
From an aesthetic perspective, this show leaves everything to be desired. The shoujo fat-lipped art style is incredibly generic and the animation is the farthest thing from fluid I've seen in a long time. This isn't even counting the numerous 'QUALITY' moments that line the series middle section. The consistency takes a hard drop off a cliff at episode 3 (which is also where the anime jumps the shark from the manga, BTW), and doesn't even remotely pick up again until episode 10. Literally half drawn frames are there for you to see plain as day. Music is also incredibly generic. Everything about this show is generic. And bad.
Burn this show in the dumpster fire it deserves to be left in. There are hundreds of mediocre anime romances and a handful of great ones that you could be watching instead. Avoid this like the plague.
Score: 2/10
Show: Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru!
Genre: Comedy, Romance, School?
Studio: feel.
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
This Art Club Has a Problem! is another one of those go-nowhere, more-comedy-than-romance school romcoms that pad out every anime season. And honestly, that's perfectly OK. We've come to expect this kind of stuff, and as long as this one's gimmick is good enough, it can provide some decent entertainment via a couple laughs. This one's is pretty good: our main character's love interest (note: love interest, not the MC herself) is an otaku artist who is obsessed with nothing more than drawing the perfect anime waifu. In fact, it's the only reason he's in the struggling art club.
Hilarity ensues with miscommunications, misunderstandings, and all your standard school romcom faire centering around this core gimmick. Our MC, Usami, is still hopelessly in love with this guy even though he constantly states that he's "not interested at all in 3D" which instead of being overly annoying to the viewer, just makes us root for Usami even more. The rest of the characters are all pretty standard: energetic autismo loli, ditzy teacher, sleepy/dejected senpai, pretty-but-otaku love rival, etc..., but our core two are enough to keep the comedy funny enough to make it not feel like a slog.
Aesthetically this one is better than average for it's genre. The character designs are all super cute and endearing, and help push the overall light nature of the show. Animation and art pretty standard for the setting as you'd expect; not a lot of opportunities to strut your animation stuff in a school setting unless crazy stuff is happening (which it isn't). There is, however, an almost alarming amount of care taken when showing the beginnings of characters drawing, although this doesn't happen very option. There's also some particularly horrid and unnecessary CG in a few episodes which I'll leave to you to be surprised by.
"Light" in general is a great word to describe this show, as it never starts to take itself seriously and instead just goes for the ride. If you want a break from doom and gloom and don't mind the series going fuck-all nowhere, this one can be pretty enjoyable to kick back to.
Score: 6/10
Show: Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 3rei!!
Genre: Mahou Shoujo, Action, Comedy, Fantasy
Studio: Silver Link.
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
If you're not into the Fate franchise or TYPE MOON anime stuff, just stop reading now. This show isn't for you. The entire Prisma☆Illya franchise is one big Fate fanservice dump to satisfy the otaku die-hard fan theorycrafting like "What if Saber and Caster fought but Saber somehow could use Shirou's Unlimited Blade Works and they were also both CUTE LITTLE GIRLS???". It's also sort of like a new-age Lyrical Nanoha, where it's own storyline tries to be a darker, more "mature" but not quite Madoka sort of deal and is a series made for a more general or male audience rather than the strictly young girl demographic targeted magical girl show. This series is also notorious for ridiculous lolicon pandering fanservice that caused me to originally go against my 'NoDrop' mantra and actually drop the series. Once I finally picked it back up and muscled through it all, I found a pretty satisfying Fate-joke and action fanservice romp that at the very least kept me laughing at the series' own ridiculousness.
In the first two seasons, nothing really happens plotwise other than various vehicles to get us into fights with different servants and create jokes, all for the purpose of stringing along Fate series fans. 3rei!! throws that formula out the window and decides that Prisma☆Illya really actually had its shit together all along and cracks down with appears to be an actual plot. Needless to say, I was stunned, but not unwelcoming. It got off to a bit of a rocky start, basically throwing us into a new universe to make it clear that this season is really its own story-driven package. There's also noticeably less awkward loli fanservice, which is a welcome change, but still with a large amount of best-girl Kuro screentime. The yank right out from the normal formula into something new and more driven felt almost like a slightly less effective version of what The World God Only Knows pulled over its 3 season run, only using the base and the characters from 2 seasons of formulaic so-so content to tell an actually compelling story in the last season.
The art and animation style of Prisma☆Illya can be summed up as Silver Link doing its very best ufotable impression while "moe-fying" everything it can. The designs are notably more cutesy than anything you'd see in a core Fate title, but have that noticeably Fate flair that we've come to expect from ufotable's amazing adaptations. The "budget" for the series can definitely fluctuate, but outside of some major letdowns in the most recent big fight episode, Silver Link has really cranked it up for the fight scenes and really does a good job of hyping up the fights. Nothing is ever unwatchable though, just not as good as it could be, which is honestly to be expected from a series that doesn't really have much money behind it despite getting 3 seasons of adaptation. This is actually the first season that's been a full 12 episodes; the other two have only been 10 each.
Overall, this is a Fate-fan only deal, but if you meet that criteria and have gone through the first two seasons, this is definitely something that you'll want to check out.
Score: 6.5 - 7/10
Show: Berserk (2016)
We're never going to get a worthy Beserk adaptation. This is something that fans of the manga have just come to accept after God knows how many years of waiting. The 90's anime really wasn't all that bad, but it was a slideshow even for time period, and the Golden Age films were an unsettling mix of decent hand drawn art and horrid CG, not to mention they just retold the same story that we've seen adapted twice now. The Golden Age arc is effectively a prequel to the rest of the Berserk franchise, so have twenty years where nothing but that was adapted is incredibly frustrating, especially with a series that has as strong and beautiful a piece of source material as Berserk does.
Berserk (2016) takes the terrible CG from the Golden Age movies and makes it the main focus. There are smatterings of hand drawn art mixed in, but never enough to offset the CG and just enough to remind you what this new series could have been. We're finally pushing past the Golden Age arc into the core Berserk story, but the studio took a massive liberty with the source material and condensed about 400 panels into just five minutes of animation to accelerate the story to where Guts first encounters Farnes and her group of knights. This is the "Black Swordsman" arc, which serves to introduce us to the broken and desperate post-Eclipse Guts, and like I said above, is cut to about 5% of its original content. From this point, more large changes from the source come at a rapid pace. The entirety of the "Lost Children" arc, one of the most emotionally powerful arcs from the manga, is completely cut, with the story accelerating to Guts being captured at Farnes' camp. There is also an anime original (but Miura directed) episode that fills that gap between the camp and the beginning of the "Conviction" arc, that is decent and introduces us to just how damaged Farnes really is, but is still tragically low quality compared to the source.
It's at this little-less-than-halfway point that the adaptation really starts to step it up and make you mad at what you're given. The "Conviction" arc is more or less extremely well adapted, as in true to the source, in its entirety; it's just adapted into complete garbage. Aesthetically, Berserk (2016) is about as bottom of the barrel as it gets for the CG portions. CG movement is jerky and unnatural, models "pop" jarringly out of the average backgrounds, and the texturing is incredibly low-fidelity. They try to emulate Miura's hashing-based shading by slapping a half-assed version of the effect on top of the 3D models, and it does nothing but look incredibly stupid. The small amount of 2D, hand drawn art is actually decent but nowhere near the quality that Berserk deserves. The sound design is also particularly terrible, which is a shame because the VA and music are both actually pretty alright.
Everything about Berserk (2016) is just a massive letdown, and is even moreso considering the studio seems to really wants to adapt the source into animation faithfully (outside the strangely accelerated start) but obviously does not have the budget or talent to do so. I'm not sure what has to be done for Berserk to get the high quality anime adaptation that it deserves, but I'm convinced that it must be fucking impossible.
Go read the manga, don't waste your time with this.
Score: CLANG (2) /10
Show: Love Live Sunshine
Show: Taboo Tattoo
- I rate for purposes of recommendation to others, within a show's genre. Like any piece of art, anime is subjective and I don't see any way of attaching a qualitative rating to a subjective medium unless I can categorize a show and compare it to its contemporaries. I try as best I can to keep my personal enjoyment and biases out of my scores, but that's likely impossible. This is why my personal favorites and my top scorers don't always perfectly match up; I try to keep numbers as objective as possible.
- I'm 'No Drop'. That means I never drop something that I start watching, no matter how bad it gets. This is good for you, because it means you don't have to watch garbage because I'll do it for you. I just hate leaving things unfinished, even if they aren't really worth finishing. Honestly, I just love complaining so much that I turned to terrible anime to provide me with endless material.
With that out of the way, let's dive into the end of this anime season. Summer 2016 had a lot to live up to, with Spring delivering a good few solid series and one or two gems. Last season also had the benefit of having the good shows sprinkled throughout the week, so there was always something new every day or two to watch. Summer decided to jam the majority of the programming into Sunday and Monday, leaving the rest of the week largely dry. Overall, I think that summer really fell a little short compared to its predecessor, but it still had a decent amount of stuff worth watching (especially if you follow Food Wars and Jojo, which I don't... yet).
I'll run through everything I watched, and give my thoughts as someone who's watched week to week. If a series is complete, I'll throw out what I think is its final score, and if it's still got an episode or two to go I'll still give some sort of tentative number, usually a range (X - Y/10). At the very least, you'll be able to figure out what you should check out if you're behind on currently airing seasons, and what you should pass on.
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| Do Waifus Dream of Electric Sheep? |
Show: Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no Yume
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
Studio: David Production
Runtime: 5 episodes, ~15 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: FUNimationNOW
I already spoke about this show at length in my previous post about length in anime, but I'll give another quick synopsis. Planetarian is a Key visual novel adaptation done in a short form style to great effect. Like a lot of Key stuff, this one will try to pull on the heartstrings, but unlike Clannad and the others that they're famous for, this one doesn't waste your time (nor does it have time to spare) with an over-abundance of melodrama and contrived scenarios. Instead we get a one-shot character story between our two mains. Lots of emotional beats here, with heavy themes about what it means to be human and how the relationship between humans and technology warps over time.
David Production gave it their all for the short time that they had with this one. Some of the background art is drop dead gorgeous, and the character designs have a large amount of love and care put into them (which is honestly expected considering there are really only 2 recurring characters). They do a great job of making the post-apocalyptic modern world of Planetarian dismal and abandoned but not completely lacking in life or action. The animation overall can be pretty stiff at times but I attribute mostly to the fact that the show actually contains a large lack of motion and is mostly dialogue. Facial animations have a good bit of time put into them to make up for this, but you'll mostly enjoy this one for the story, not for the better-than-average art. Music is stand out thought, just as great as other Key adaptations (think Clannad or Kanon 2006 quality).
Overall, a great sci-fi drama with an incredibly satisfying ending. At only just about an hour and a half total time investment, this is definitely one that you don't want to miss.
Score: 9/10
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| "Welcome to EAGLE JUMP! We make games I THINK" |
Genre: Cute-Girls-Cute-Shit, Slice of Life, Comedy
Studio: Doga Kobo
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
You'd think that after I just bashed this show, I'd say that I'd hate it, and to a point I do, but inside of it's genre of cute-girls-cute-shit SoL genre, it's really not that bad. It's got all the same pandering and canned jokes that every other series of this same type does, and it's a strangely warm and relaxing experience to watch. I don't know much about how a Japanese office works, but in terms of a development office, it was at least sort of relate-able to me. The programmer, Umiko, and obviously best girl Hifumi were the only two stand out characters for me. However, as you'd expect, all the character designs are unique enough and downright adorable, so I'm sure you'll find something to like if this genre is your thing. OP is also above average and has some really cute animation.
This show's biggest problem is that it's not Love Lab or Nozaki-kun while still having the same super high quality Doga Kobo constant sakuga. Just not enough laughs to carry itself despite a somewhat funny premise.
Score: 5.5 - 6/10
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| This is what weaponized adorableness looks like. |
Genre: Slice of Life, Drama, Cooking?
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
You'd think that would happen, but the anime goes out of its way to completely avoid it. I know the manga makes this a much bigger deal, but this is this and that is that, and honestly, I'm thankful that this show took a far more family-friendly route. This show hits incredibly close to home for anyone who's experienced loss, and having to see Inuzuka have to struggle through accepting the loss of his wife and coming to terms with raising Tsumugi all on his own is truly heartbreaking and had me on the verge of tears more than once. The relationship between Inuzuka and Kotori is still scrutinized in the show, but in a light of "mutual use" instead of romance. Both parties are selfishly using each other to fill a void in each others' lives, but still care about one another in a family type way.
Art and animation are pretty standard outside of the very well done food art, albeit above average. Music set the mood perfectly for both the lighthearted cooking sequences and gut-wrenching feelbombs. The choice to use an actual child VA for Tsumugi was a knockout decision, and really makes the show what it is. I just wish the ending would have had more of a conclusion to it, but the show did better than expected, so we may see more in the future. This is a show you could easily recommend to a family to watch together, especially if you know that family is full of 'foodies' like mine.
Score: 8/10
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| Get used to this face, because this is all this bitch does. |
Genre: Romance, Shoujo, Autism Simulator, "Drama"
Studio: Telecom Animation Film
Runtime: 13 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
Why in the everliving FUCK do people like this show? I just don't fucking get it. I L.O.V.E. this genre. Anyone who knows me will immediately tell you that when it comes to anime I'm the biggest fucking sap ever. It doesn't take me much to get invested in a romantic story, and even less so to get me to feel heavy emotional pangs and sympathize with the characters. More than one anime romance drama has left me in tears, but this show has me crying for completely different reasons.
This show started off fine. A dumb weak sci-fi premise where the future versions of all the characters send back letters so their earlier selves can avoid their regrets. Seems like a weak idea for a show if the characters never fuck up or create any drama, but whatever, I can roll with it. I'm a sucker for romance after all. There's this new kid in town, Kakeru, who is the express subject of nearly all of these letters. Turns out that he's sad as fuck because of some bad life stuff, and ends up offing himself because all of the core cast are just bad friends and didn't really support, or some shit like that.
Of course, our special needs MC, Naho, likes this guy, but is too cripplingly disabled to say it, like all portrayals of high school girls in anime. Normally, this wouldn't be an issue, and we'd spend 13 episodes of high school bullshit getting them sort-of together and end on a half-assed, half kiss like every other shoujo ever, but now we have to save Kakeru's life. It's alright though, we'll just use the magic future letters to make sure we don't fuck up... UNTIL WE IMMEDIATELY START IGNORING THEM ON EPISODE. FUCKING. ONE. Naho is more dense than a fucking neutron star and decides to throw the magic letters that are ALWAYS RIGHT out the fucking window because she "just can't handle it".
I get why she doesn't from a story perspective; this show would have no drama at all if they just followed their future selves' instructions, but that isn't good for us as an audience. If we know what the two possible outcomes are, we just don't care, because a show like this reads from the first episode that everything is going to be OK despite a couple bumps in the road. Orange just can't fucking decide if it wants to be some sort of "we choose our own destiny" bullshit or just a normal high school shoujo romance, and it suffers heavily because of it.
From an aesthetic perspective, this show leaves everything to be desired. The shoujo fat-lipped art style is incredibly generic and the animation is the farthest thing from fluid I've seen in a long time. This isn't even counting the numerous 'QUALITY' moments that line the series middle section. The consistency takes a hard drop off a cliff at episode 3 (which is also where the anime jumps the shark from the manga, BTW), and doesn't even remotely pick up again until episode 10. Literally half drawn frames are there for you to see plain as day. Music is also incredibly generic. Everything about this show is generic. And bad.
Burn this show in the dumpster fire it deserves to be left in. There are hundreds of mediocre anime romances and a handful of great ones that you could be watching instead. Avoid this like the plague.
Score: 2/10
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| This isn't a joke caption. This is the actual script. |
Genre: Comedy, Romance, School?
Studio: feel.
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
This Art Club Has a Problem! is another one of those go-nowhere, more-comedy-than-romance school romcoms that pad out every anime season. And honestly, that's perfectly OK. We've come to expect this kind of stuff, and as long as this one's gimmick is good enough, it can provide some decent entertainment via a couple laughs. This one's is pretty good: our main character's love interest (note: love interest, not the MC herself) is an otaku artist who is obsessed with nothing more than drawing the perfect anime waifu. In fact, it's the only reason he's in the struggling art club.
Hilarity ensues with miscommunications, misunderstandings, and all your standard school romcom faire centering around this core gimmick. Our MC, Usami, is still hopelessly in love with this guy even though he constantly states that he's "not interested at all in 3D" which instead of being overly annoying to the viewer, just makes us root for Usami even more. The rest of the characters are all pretty standard: energetic autismo loli, ditzy teacher, sleepy/dejected senpai, pretty-but-otaku love rival, etc..., but our core two are enough to keep the comedy funny enough to make it not feel like a slog.
Aesthetically this one is better than average for it's genre. The character designs are all super cute and endearing, and help push the overall light nature of the show. Animation and art pretty standard for the setting as you'd expect; not a lot of opportunities to strut your animation stuff in a school setting unless crazy stuff is happening (which it isn't). There is, however, an almost alarming amount of care taken when showing the beginnings of characters drawing, although this doesn't happen very option. There's also some particularly horrid and unnecessary CG in a few episodes which I'll leave to you to be surprised by.
"Light" in general is a great word to describe this show, as it never starts to take itself seriously and instead just goes for the ride. If you want a break from doom and gloom and don't mind the series going fuck-all nowhere, this one can be pretty enjoyable to kick back to.
Score: 6/10
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| Oh, so you want to have a REAL story now? You just want to throw away 2 WHOLE seasons of lolicon pandering? |
Genre: Mahou Shoujo, Action, Comedy, Fantasy
Studio: Silver Link.
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
If you're not into the Fate franchise or TYPE MOON anime stuff, just stop reading now. This show isn't for you. The entire Prisma☆Illya franchise is one big Fate fanservice dump to satisfy the otaku die-hard fan theorycrafting like "What if Saber and Caster fought but Saber somehow could use Shirou's Unlimited Blade Works and they were also both CUTE LITTLE GIRLS???". It's also sort of like a new-age Lyrical Nanoha, where it's own storyline tries to be a darker, more "mature" but not quite Madoka sort of deal and is a series made for a more general or male audience rather than the strictly young girl demographic targeted magical girl show. This series is also notorious for ridiculous lolicon pandering fanservice that caused me to originally go against my 'NoDrop' mantra and actually drop the series. Once I finally picked it back up and muscled through it all, I found a pretty satisfying Fate-joke and action fanservice romp that at the very least kept me laughing at the series' own ridiculousness.
In the first two seasons, nothing really happens plotwise other than various vehicles to get us into fights with different servants and create jokes, all for the purpose of stringing along Fate series fans. 3rei!! throws that formula out the window and decides that Prisma☆Illya really actually had its shit together all along and cracks down with appears to be an actual plot. Needless to say, I was stunned, but not unwelcoming. It got off to a bit of a rocky start, basically throwing us into a new universe to make it clear that this season is really its own story-driven package. There's also noticeably less awkward loli fanservice, which is a welcome change, but still with a large amount of best-girl Kuro screentime. The yank right out from the normal formula into something new and more driven felt almost like a slightly less effective version of what The World God Only Knows pulled over its 3 season run, only using the base and the characters from 2 seasons of formulaic so-so content to tell an actually compelling story in the last season.
The art and animation style of Prisma☆Illya can be summed up as Silver Link doing its very best ufotable impression while "moe-fying" everything it can. The designs are notably more cutesy than anything you'd see in a core Fate title, but have that noticeably Fate flair that we've come to expect from ufotable's amazing adaptations. The "budget" for the series can definitely fluctuate, but outside of some major letdowns in the most recent big fight episode, Silver Link has really cranked it up for the fight scenes and really does a good job of hyping up the fights. Nothing is ever unwatchable though, just not as good as it could be, which is honestly to be expected from a series that doesn't really have much money behind it despite getting 3 seasons of adaptation. This is actually the first season that's been a full 12 episodes; the other two have only been 10 each.
Overall, this is a Fate-fan only deal, but if you meet that criteria and have gone through the first two seasons, this is definitely something that you'll want to check out.
Score: 6.5 - 7/10
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| Gatts goes CLANG |
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Studio: Millepensee, GEMBA
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
Studio: Millepensee, GEMBA
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
We're never going to get a worthy Beserk adaptation. This is something that fans of the manga have just come to accept after God knows how many years of waiting. The 90's anime really wasn't all that bad, but it was a slideshow even for time period, and the Golden Age films were an unsettling mix of decent hand drawn art and horrid CG, not to mention they just retold the same story that we've seen adapted twice now. The Golden Age arc is effectively a prequel to the rest of the Berserk franchise, so have twenty years where nothing but that was adapted is incredibly frustrating, especially with a series that has as strong and beautiful a piece of source material as Berserk does.
Berserk (2016) takes the terrible CG from the Golden Age movies and makes it the main focus. There are smatterings of hand drawn art mixed in, but never enough to offset the CG and just enough to remind you what this new series could have been. We're finally pushing past the Golden Age arc into the core Berserk story, but the studio took a massive liberty with the source material and condensed about 400 panels into just five minutes of animation to accelerate the story to where Guts first encounters Farnes and her group of knights. This is the "Black Swordsman" arc, which serves to introduce us to the broken and desperate post-Eclipse Guts, and like I said above, is cut to about 5% of its original content. From this point, more large changes from the source come at a rapid pace. The entirety of the "Lost Children" arc, one of the most emotionally powerful arcs from the manga, is completely cut, with the story accelerating to Guts being captured at Farnes' camp. There is also an anime original (but Miura directed) episode that fills that gap between the camp and the beginning of the "Conviction" arc, that is decent and introduces us to just how damaged Farnes really is, but is still tragically low quality compared to the source.
It's at this little-less-than-halfway point that the adaptation really starts to step it up and make you mad at what you're given. The "Conviction" arc is more or less extremely well adapted, as in true to the source, in its entirety; it's just adapted into complete garbage. Aesthetically, Berserk (2016) is about as bottom of the barrel as it gets for the CG portions. CG movement is jerky and unnatural, models "pop" jarringly out of the average backgrounds, and the texturing is incredibly low-fidelity. They try to emulate Miura's hashing-based shading by slapping a half-assed version of the effect on top of the 3D models, and it does nothing but look incredibly stupid. The small amount of 2D, hand drawn art is actually decent but nowhere near the quality that Berserk deserves. The sound design is also particularly terrible, which is a shame because the VA and music are both actually pretty alright.
Everything about Berserk (2016) is just a massive letdown, and is even moreso considering the studio seems to really wants to adapt the source into animation faithfully (outside the strangely accelerated start) but obviously does not have the budget or talent to do so. I'm not sure what has to be done for Berserk to get the high quality anime adaptation that it deserves, but I'm convinced that it must be fucking impossible.
Go read the manga, don't waste your time with this.
Score: CLANG (2) /10
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| 13 whole episodes and not a single fucking Gundam in sight. Sunrise really dropped the ball with this one. |
Genre: Idols, Cute-Girls-Cute-Shit, Music, Slice of Life
Studio: Sunrise
Runtime: 13 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: FUNimationNOW, Crunchyroll (UK & Ireland ONLY)
After slogging through this show, I just had one question on my mind the entire time: where are the fucking Gundams? I started getting worried after like 8 episodes in how Sunrise was going to work giant robots into the series, but as it turns out, they animate one other thing that isn't Gundam these days.
All jokes aside, this is the first time I've watched any idol anime, so I'm new to this whole idea of moe blobness musical funfests. I'm aware that Love Live is ridiculously popular, and honestly after watching this I can see why. It's colorful, the girls are cute and have a pretty well defined moe-autismo "personalities" for people to latch on to, and the music is all kinds of J-pop infectious good (if you're into that kind of music). Sunshine is a spin-off of the main Love Live franchise, focusing on the creation of the "Aquors", a real-life Japanese idol group. The shtick with these idol shows is that all the actual idols of the real group voice act for the in-show group, effectively granting them anime avatars. This is a big part of the draw of these show, and although I'm not into it in the slightest, I get why it causes these idol shows to skyrocket in popularity.
Aesthetically, the show is pretty alright. The art style is incredibly... washed out? I don't know how to describe it, but the colors are overly bright to the point where they obscure detail. Character designs are overly cutesy, like, instant diabetes level, but considering that Love Live is first and foremost a product and not art, this is to be expected. Sunrise knows what they're doing to create boatloads of money with this franchise, and who am I to complain if they keep using the funding to keep making kick-ass Gundam OVAs?
One thing I do have to praise this show for is its use of CG. Love Live is a perfect example of how you can use CG in even the most important scenes and still have absolutely no one give a single fuck: perfect execution. Sunrise is straight up with you that parts of the dances WILL be CG, but the models are incredibly detailed and are constantly shot at angles that make you question whether or not they are CG. The backgrounds are also styled to make the models "pop" less off of them, and the blending is done very well. If you like J-pop, you'll love the music. If you don't, you're going to want to kill yourself. This alone will probably be the deciding factor in you watching this show.
Storywise, Sunshine is criminally formulaic. The first half of the show is about recruiting all the 9 different members of the group, with sprinklings of "drama" placed about, and then ending in dreamlike song and dance sequence. There's a strong recurring theme of facing your fears and putting yourself out there even if you might fail, trying your best despite that. The moe "comedy" is alright at best, with 99% of it being tired spins on the same gags you've seen in every SoL show. The term generic is something I keep coming back to when trying to describe the plot and character elements of this show, and I think it describes that aspect of Sunshine pretty well.
Despite all this bullshit, I still found myself guiltily enjoying this show, and for the life of me I really couldn't figure out why. But then, a shocking realization came to me...
Love Live is literally the anime equivalent of Glee.
As someone with a history in performance, this song and dance spectacle shit is always entertaining to me. Glee and Love Live follow the same sort of formula and almost cater to the same type of demographic, except that you replace Glee's celebrity spotlight shit with Love Live's moe otaku pandering. The shows are even structured the same. Every episode is set up -> contrived school drama -> resolution -> song and dance, Glee just went out of its way to try to edgy sometimes with its drama while Love Live tries to be as diabetes level cute as it can while also being anime.
As much as I ended up guiltily enjoying it, I still can't bring myself to recommend it. It's still painfully average and generic even as just a slice of life, cute-girl-cute-shit show, just with a little more musical flair. Also there really aren't any Gundams in the show, which for a Sunrise production was really a massive letdown.
Score: 5/10
Show: 91 Days
Studio: Sunrise
Runtime: 13 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: FUNimationNOW, Crunchyroll (UK & Ireland ONLY)
After slogging through this show, I just had one question on my mind the entire time: where are the fucking Gundams? I started getting worried after like 8 episodes in how Sunrise was going to work giant robots into the series, but as it turns out, they animate one other thing that isn't Gundam these days.
All jokes aside, this is the first time I've watched any idol anime, so I'm new to this whole idea of moe blobness musical funfests. I'm aware that Love Live is ridiculously popular, and honestly after watching this I can see why. It's colorful, the girls are cute and have a pretty well defined moe-autismo "personalities" for people to latch on to, and the music is all kinds of J-pop infectious good (if you're into that kind of music). Sunshine is a spin-off of the main Love Live franchise, focusing on the creation of the "Aquors", a real-life Japanese idol group. The shtick with these idol shows is that all the actual idols of the real group voice act for the in-show group, effectively granting them anime avatars. This is a big part of the draw of these show, and although I'm not into it in the slightest, I get why it causes these idol shows to skyrocket in popularity.
Aesthetically, the show is pretty alright. The art style is incredibly... washed out? I don't know how to describe it, but the colors are overly bright to the point where they obscure detail. Character designs are overly cutesy, like, instant diabetes level, but considering that Love Live is first and foremost a product and not art, this is to be expected. Sunrise knows what they're doing to create boatloads of money with this franchise, and who am I to complain if they keep using the funding to keep making kick-ass Gundam OVAs?
One thing I do have to praise this show for is its use of CG. Love Live is a perfect example of how you can use CG in even the most important scenes and still have absolutely no one give a single fuck: perfect execution. Sunrise is straight up with you that parts of the dances WILL be CG, but the models are incredibly detailed and are constantly shot at angles that make you question whether or not they are CG. The backgrounds are also styled to make the models "pop" less off of them, and the blending is done very well. If you like J-pop, you'll love the music. If you don't, you're going to want to kill yourself. This alone will probably be the deciding factor in you watching this show.
Storywise, Sunshine is criminally formulaic. The first half of the show is about recruiting all the 9 different members of the group, with sprinklings of "drama" placed about, and then ending in dreamlike song and dance sequence. There's a strong recurring theme of facing your fears and putting yourself out there even if you might fail, trying your best despite that. The moe "comedy" is alright at best, with 99% of it being tired spins on the same gags you've seen in every SoL show. The term generic is something I keep coming back to when trying to describe the plot and character elements of this show, and I think it describes that aspect of Sunshine pretty well.
Despite all this bullshit, I still found myself guiltily enjoying this show, and for the life of me I really couldn't figure out why. But then, a shocking realization came to me...
Love Live is literally the anime equivalent of Glee.
As someone with a history in performance, this song and dance spectacle shit is always entertaining to me. Glee and Love Live follow the same sort of formula and almost cater to the same type of demographic, except that you replace Glee's celebrity spotlight shit with Love Live's moe otaku pandering. The shows are even structured the same. Every episode is set up -> contrived school drama -> resolution -> song and dance, Glee just went out of its way to try to edgy sometimes with its drama while Love Live tries to be as diabetes level cute as it can while also being anime.
As much as I ended up guiltily enjoying it, I still can't bring myself to recommend it. It's still painfully average and generic even as just a slice of life, cute-girl-cute-shit show, just with a little more musical flair. Also there really aren't any Gundams in the show, which for a Sunrise production was really a massive letdown.
Score: 5/10
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| QUALITY LASAGNA |
Genre: Action, Drama
Studio: Shuka
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: FUNimationNOW, Crunchyroll
We don't get to see mafia dramas much in anime, which is kind of weird to think about considering that American TV and movies are rich with mafia content. 91 Days started late this season, so at the time of my writing this there are still 3 whole episodes left, so I'll reserve much of my judgement on the plot and just give a wider range for my tentative score. The ending with a heavier drama such as this is of paramount importance, so recommending or discounting the series without having seen it wouldn't be doing the series justice. What I will say however is that 91 Days has had a consistently engaging plot from episode 1 onward. I regularly when watching show find myself thinking, "Wait, that's it? It's already over?" because I am so interested and invested in what is happening on screen. The plot in terms of a mafia drama is your standard revenge story on a prohibition era backdrop, but it's refreshing to see that kind of story in an anime and it's been well executed so far.
The aesthetics department is where this show really falls short. The art is wonky looking at times, and the animation outside of a few key scenes is overall pretty stiff and unnatural. The music also isn't much to write home about, especially when comparing it to another mafia period piece of anime like Baccano. The OP in particular feels really out of place, with the ED feeling more in line with what a show such as this should have for "bookending" music. Speaking of Baccano, I really wish FUNimation had picked this up for a broadcast dub starting earlier, because I think it would definitely help this show's immersion factor. Something about the 1930s and 1940s just feels off with Japanese VA, even if the voice work for the show is above average.
Overall, a strong and enjoyable drama series with a mafia flair. Chances are you already know if you'll enjoy a series like this. FUNimation is doing a broadcast dub now, so I'd check that out first if can wait for it all to release.
Score: 5.5 - 7/10 (tentative, series unfinished)
Studio: Shuka
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: FUNimationNOW, Crunchyroll
We don't get to see mafia dramas much in anime, which is kind of weird to think about considering that American TV and movies are rich with mafia content. 91 Days started late this season, so at the time of my writing this there are still 3 whole episodes left, so I'll reserve much of my judgement on the plot and just give a wider range for my tentative score. The ending with a heavier drama such as this is of paramount importance, so recommending or discounting the series without having seen it wouldn't be doing the series justice. What I will say however is that 91 Days has had a consistently engaging plot from episode 1 onward. I regularly when watching show find myself thinking, "Wait, that's it? It's already over?" because I am so interested and invested in what is happening on screen. The plot in terms of a mafia drama is your standard revenge story on a prohibition era backdrop, but it's refreshing to see that kind of story in an anime and it's been well executed so far.
The aesthetics department is where this show really falls short. The art is wonky looking at times, and the animation outside of a few key scenes is overall pretty stiff and unnatural. The music also isn't much to write home about, especially when comparing it to another mafia period piece of anime like Baccano. The OP in particular feels really out of place, with the ED feeling more in line with what a show such as this should have for "bookending" music. Speaking of Baccano, I really wish FUNimation had picked this up for a broadcast dub starting earlier, because I think it would definitely help this show's immersion factor. Something about the 1930s and 1940s just feels off with Japanese VA, even if the voice work for the show is above average.
Overall, a strong and enjoyable drama series with a mafia flair. Chances are you already know if you'll enjoy a series like this. FUNimation is doing a broadcast dub now, so I'd check that out first if can wait for it all to release.
Score: 5.5 - 7/10 (tentative, series unfinished)
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| No, you didn't go far enough. The trash can is all the way on the other side of the room. |
Genre: Audio/Visual Torture, Action, Comedy?, Mystery
Studio: J.C. Staff
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
I like to think that I've sat through some terrible anime in my time. Black Bullet, Comet Lucifer, Mayoiga, Another, you name it. I'm a 'NoDrop' watcher, so I've seen my fair share of shit shows. Never did I think that a show would come along that was so incredibly bad, so intellectually bankrupt, that it would completely redefine what I would consider a "bad anime series".
I'll spoil the score for you right now: Taboo Tattoo is a legitimate 0/10. It has zero merit as a piece of art, animated work, or general entertainment. I would have much rather gouged out my own eyes than watched this series, and given the choice I'd have reached for the nearest rusty spoon in an instant. This show has no idea where it's going, what it's doing, or what it wants to do. At first, I thought this show was going to this season's Bungou Stray Dogs, where the story is retarded but at least the character designs and fights were cool enough to keep me halfway interested, but the animation quality for Taboo Tattoo took a complete nosedive after episode 1, devolving into commonplace CG and slideshow-like animation from that point forward. I distinctly remember a scene where a walking character simply didn't have an animated walk cycle, and instead her drawing translated about the screen freely. The music and art are also incredibly generic and bad, especially for a studio like J.C. Staff who at the very least produces consistently endearing character designs.
With a show this bad, you'd think that it was trying to be some sort of parody, but it's not. The characters of the show are it's standout terrible feature, with all of them having contrived and ridiculously plot convenient super powers that manifest out of tattoos of all things. Our MC is literally named "Justice", and has the best super power that is activated for free by the nature of him being the biggest, most tired trope. We have childhood-friend-big-tits McGee who is overused for the short half of the series that she is alive for the purposes of otaku pandering fanservice shots and light novel powertrip fantasies. We have Rin Tohsaka look-alike Antagonist Hime, who is incredibly gay and not much else. Like, no, she's actually a lesbian and the occasional yuribait jokes (of which there are maybe 4 or 5 total) are the only thing that even got me to look up from my phone. There's also the best fucking character ever, Bluesy Fruesy, the American secret services agent that's been sent to Japan to oversee tattao collection. Bluesy. Fruesy. That is a characters fucking actual name.
This show is an absolute dumpster fire. It regularly set new lows for the entire medium every single fucking week. Avoid it like the plague. I sat through it so you don't have to. The worst about it is that MAL won't let me rate it a 0 because the site doesn't support a rating that bad.
Score: 0/10
Show: Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu
This is a spring season holdover series, and it was definitely the most popular show in the anime community in a long, long time. Like anything popular, opinions on the show are divisive, with people either singing its praises or saying that it's utter garbage. As any fan of anything has come to expect, it's truly neither A nor B. Re:Zero is far from a perfect show, but White Fox definitely did an incredibly job with this light novel adaptation, and watching it week to week from the beginning was an absolute treat. They are truly the masters of week-in, week-out cliffhangers, keeping us all chomping at the bit for more each week.
It's also worth remembering the genre in which Re:Zero lives, and just how much utter and complete trash anime fill this genre. We're not comparing Re:Zero to Evangelion or Madoka or Bakemonogatari, anime that many people consider stand above all others outside of their genres and considered "good anime" as a whole. No, Re:Zero is best compared to its contemporaries, just like anything else, and within that space, I don't think that it could have been much better. Yes, the series has some character and plot issues, but it goes out of its way to try to justify and make you care about these things far better than it's compatriots (think SAO and NGNL).
With that out of the way, lets talk some brief specifics. Subura is a dude who gets thrust into a fantasy world for no rhyme or reason. The first thing the guy does is try to be genre-savvy, asking where the princess is who summoned him there and things like that, and he gets fucked up for it. Killed in fact. As it turns out, Suburu's only special ability is that he can respawn, and its this horrifying power that he's cursed to use to solve problems and advance through the story. Throughout the action and adventure, we're introduced to a pretty large cast of characters, all with their own personalities and motivations which we'll get to see at least briefly in the spotlight throughout our 25 episode run. Speaking of runtime, one of the major criticisms with this show is the early pacing problems that the show has. Episodes 3 through 6 in particular can be an incredible slog as they are almost pure world and character building with no action or plot advancement in the slightest, especially if someone isn't sold on the premise yet. The pace picks up significantly from episode 7 and onward but the dip in quick action is worth noting to those thinking about checking this series out.
Re:Zero isn't all flash though, it takes a good bit of time to examine just how mentally exhausting and terrifying it is for Suburu to be killed over and over again, having the power drive Suburu nearly completely insane. This is a far more dramatic examination of the trauma someone might experience from this kind of power than even Steins;Gate dared to explore with Okabe's character, and is a welcome big of emotional content among the quickly paced action sequences. The show also deals thematically a lot with what it means to be "fake" and what it truly means to be a hero, with Suburu in actuality being a giant dickbag that is only looking out for #1, despite touting that he cares for everyone and wants to save them out of the "goodness of his heart". Episode 18, where this all comes to a head, is one of the most masterfully delivered dialogues I've had the pleasure of watching in anime yet. It was welcome to see some attempts at true character development over the course of the series instead of just mindless action sequences.
Aesthetically, this one is a drop dead knockout. Gorgeous visuals, fluid animation both in dialogue and fight sequences, and far above average music to boot. White Fox really knows what they're doing and I'm glad that they pick and choose which series that they will adapt full force instead of just taking a bunch of cash grabs as many newer studios do. Although the series is 25 episodes, White Fox regularly omits both the OP and the ED from the show, giving Re:Zero a complete length of almost 29 full 24 minute episodes. For a TV anime, this level of detail and passion for the material is unfounded, especially in this day and age, and deserves to be acknowledged.
I could talk about this one a lot longer but that's not the point of this kind of post. Just remember that the scores are based on a show's genre, and that Re:Zero is one of the best action adventure and fantasy series that we've seen in a long time. It's not for everyone, but it can definitely be an enjoyable ride. It even ends in a satisfying way, which is unfounded for an anime adaptation of an ongoing light novel series.
Score: 9/10
Show: ReLIFE
Studio: J.C. Staff
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
I like to think that I've sat through some terrible anime in my time. Black Bullet, Comet Lucifer, Mayoiga, Another, you name it. I'm a 'NoDrop' watcher, so I've seen my fair share of shit shows. Never did I think that a show would come along that was so incredibly bad, so intellectually bankrupt, that it would completely redefine what I would consider a "bad anime series".
I'll spoil the score for you right now: Taboo Tattoo is a legitimate 0/10. It has zero merit as a piece of art, animated work, or general entertainment. I would have much rather gouged out my own eyes than watched this series, and given the choice I'd have reached for the nearest rusty spoon in an instant. This show has no idea where it's going, what it's doing, or what it wants to do. At first, I thought this show was going to this season's Bungou Stray Dogs, where the story is retarded but at least the character designs and fights were cool enough to keep me halfway interested, but the animation quality for Taboo Tattoo took a complete nosedive after episode 1, devolving into commonplace CG and slideshow-like animation from that point forward. I distinctly remember a scene where a walking character simply didn't have an animated walk cycle, and instead her drawing translated about the screen freely. The music and art are also incredibly generic and bad, especially for a studio like J.C. Staff who at the very least produces consistently endearing character designs.
With a show this bad, you'd think that it was trying to be some sort of parody, but it's not. The characters of the show are it's standout terrible feature, with all of them having contrived and ridiculously plot convenient super powers that manifest out of tattoos of all things. Our MC is literally named "Justice", and has the best super power that is activated for free by the nature of him being the biggest, most tired trope. We have childhood-friend-big-tits McGee who is overused for the short half of the series that she is alive for the purposes of otaku pandering fanservice shots and light novel powertrip fantasies. We have Rin Tohsaka look-alike Antagonist Hime, who is incredibly gay and not much else. Like, no, she's actually a lesbian and the occasional yuribait jokes (of which there are maybe 4 or 5 total) are the only thing that even got me to look up from my phone. There's also the best fucking character ever, Bluesy Fruesy, the American secret services agent that's been sent to Japan to oversee tattao collection. Bluesy. Fruesy. That is a characters fucking actual name.
This show is an absolute dumpster fire. It regularly set new lows for the entire medium every single fucking week. Avoid it like the plague. I sat through it so you don't have to. The worst about it is that MAL won't let me rate it a 0 because the site doesn't support a rating that bad.
Score: 0/10
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| Regardless of whether you like or hate this show, we all at least can agree that Rem is best girl |
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Thriller, Drama
Studio: White Fox
Runtime: 25 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
Studio: White Fox
Runtime: 25 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
This is a spring season holdover series, and it was definitely the most popular show in the anime community in a long, long time. Like anything popular, opinions on the show are divisive, with people either singing its praises or saying that it's utter garbage. As any fan of anything has come to expect, it's truly neither A nor B. Re:Zero is far from a perfect show, but White Fox definitely did an incredibly job with this light novel adaptation, and watching it week to week from the beginning was an absolute treat. They are truly the masters of week-in, week-out cliffhangers, keeping us all chomping at the bit for more each week.
It's also worth remembering the genre in which Re:Zero lives, and just how much utter and complete trash anime fill this genre. We're not comparing Re:Zero to Evangelion or Madoka or Bakemonogatari, anime that many people consider stand above all others outside of their genres and considered "good anime" as a whole. No, Re:Zero is best compared to its contemporaries, just like anything else, and within that space, I don't think that it could have been much better. Yes, the series has some character and plot issues, but it goes out of its way to try to justify and make you care about these things far better than it's compatriots (think SAO and NGNL).
With that out of the way, lets talk some brief specifics. Subura is a dude who gets thrust into a fantasy world for no rhyme or reason. The first thing the guy does is try to be genre-savvy, asking where the princess is who summoned him there and things like that, and he gets fucked up for it. Killed in fact. As it turns out, Suburu's only special ability is that he can respawn, and its this horrifying power that he's cursed to use to solve problems and advance through the story. Throughout the action and adventure, we're introduced to a pretty large cast of characters, all with their own personalities and motivations which we'll get to see at least briefly in the spotlight throughout our 25 episode run. Speaking of runtime, one of the major criticisms with this show is the early pacing problems that the show has. Episodes 3 through 6 in particular can be an incredible slog as they are almost pure world and character building with no action or plot advancement in the slightest, especially if someone isn't sold on the premise yet. The pace picks up significantly from episode 7 and onward but the dip in quick action is worth noting to those thinking about checking this series out.
Re:Zero isn't all flash though, it takes a good bit of time to examine just how mentally exhausting and terrifying it is for Suburu to be killed over and over again, having the power drive Suburu nearly completely insane. This is a far more dramatic examination of the trauma someone might experience from this kind of power than even Steins;Gate dared to explore with Okabe's character, and is a welcome big of emotional content among the quickly paced action sequences. The show also deals thematically a lot with what it means to be "fake" and what it truly means to be a hero, with Suburu in actuality being a giant dickbag that is only looking out for #1, despite touting that he cares for everyone and wants to save them out of the "goodness of his heart". Episode 18, where this all comes to a head, is one of the most masterfully delivered dialogues I've had the pleasure of watching in anime yet. It was welcome to see some attempts at true character development over the course of the series instead of just mindless action sequences.
Aesthetically, this one is a drop dead knockout. Gorgeous visuals, fluid animation both in dialogue and fight sequences, and far above average music to boot. White Fox really knows what they're doing and I'm glad that they pick and choose which series that they will adapt full force instead of just taking a bunch of cash grabs as many newer studios do. Although the series is 25 episodes, White Fox regularly omits both the OP and the ED from the show, giving Re:Zero a complete length of almost 29 full 24 minute episodes. For a TV anime, this level of detail and passion for the material is unfounded, especially in this day and age, and deserves to be acknowledged.
I could talk about this one a lot longer but that's not the point of this kind of post. Just remember that the scores are based on a show's genre, and that Re:Zero is one of the best action adventure and fantasy series that we've seen in a long time. It's not for everyone, but it can definitely be an enjoyable ride. It even ends in a satisfying way, which is unfounded for an anime adaptation of an ongoing light novel series.
Score: 9/10
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| "FUCK. I KNEW THEY WOULD SQUEEZE HIM IN WHILE I WASN'T LOOKING." |
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Slice of Life, School
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Runtime: 13 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
This series is the one that dropped all at once at the tail end of the spring anime seasons, but MAL considers this one to be summer and I watched it, so here we go. I went into this one with bated breath, with my opinion already heavily influenced by the description of the series. The plot is almost identical to 17 Again, and by "almost", I mean exactly. Dude who peaked in high school and now has what he thinks to be an unfulfilling life is given a chance to relive his high school years. By then end of it, he'll probably learn something about himself and that he should cherish what he has, all with some awkward high school drama and comedy along with way to keep us interesting. Now, I wouldn't say that my preconceived notions about ReLIFE were wrong, but they definitely weren't completely accurate, with the show thankfully being less about Zac Efron flirting with high school girls and doing hair flips than I expected.
ReLIFE takes a pretty grounded approach to going back to high school as a 27 year old jobless man. There might be some magical technology to get him to "look" 17, but he's still out of shape, addicted to cigarettes, and completely out of touch with his classmates. The ReLIFE program that our MC Arata is enrolled in dictates that he must socialize himself with the younger generation and make friends. If he fails to re-integrate, he'll be left right on his ass where he started, while succeeding will result in the possibility of a well paying job. Of course, our boy Arata ends up falling for a 17 year old girl who is also a completely socially awkward mess, and the story focuses on them trying to both complete their goals of making new friends. Overall, the plot ends up boiling down to a pretty basic twist on the standard high school romance, but its fresh enough to keep me interested. The writing also plays on its shtick very well (which was honestly unexpected, I blame Zac Efron), and the comedy that comes flowing from that is honestly very enjoyable.
Aesthetically the show is pretty average to slightly above average. For the equivalent of a straight-to-DVD movie, the budget honestly didn't seem to be effected, with the quality being pretty consistent throughout. There's not a lot of action here, but there was a lot of care put in to making the characters' facial expressions stand out during dialogue and comedy sequences. Music wasn't anything to write home about, but it made the romance parts feel a lot more important, so at least there's that.
This one definitely isn't breaking any new boundaries, but that's alright, as it's a pretty enjoyable ride if you're into those more relaxing romcom shows. This is an adaptation of an ongoing web-manga, and the anime definitely doesn't finish in a satisfying way, AND there's a pretty big plot twist that gets dropped on you in the last two or three episodes, but it was still a pretty enjoyable ride. The novelty of saying that anime did it better than Zac Efron could might just be worth it on its own.
Score: 6.5 - 7/10
Show: Mob Psycho 100
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Runtime: 13 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
This series is the one that dropped all at once at the tail end of the spring anime seasons, but MAL considers this one to be summer and I watched it, so here we go. I went into this one with bated breath, with my opinion already heavily influenced by the description of the series. The plot is almost identical to 17 Again, and by "almost", I mean exactly. Dude who peaked in high school and now has what he thinks to be an unfulfilling life is given a chance to relive his high school years. By then end of it, he'll probably learn something about himself and that he should cherish what he has, all with some awkward high school drama and comedy along with way to keep us interesting. Now, I wouldn't say that my preconceived notions about ReLIFE were wrong, but they definitely weren't completely accurate, with the show thankfully being less about Zac Efron flirting with high school girls and doing hair flips than I expected.
ReLIFE takes a pretty grounded approach to going back to high school as a 27 year old jobless man. There might be some magical technology to get him to "look" 17, but he's still out of shape, addicted to cigarettes, and completely out of touch with his classmates. The ReLIFE program that our MC Arata is enrolled in dictates that he must socialize himself with the younger generation and make friends. If he fails to re-integrate, he'll be left right on his ass where he started, while succeeding will result in the possibility of a well paying job. Of course, our boy Arata ends up falling for a 17 year old girl who is also a completely socially awkward mess, and the story focuses on them trying to both complete their goals of making new friends. Overall, the plot ends up boiling down to a pretty basic twist on the standard high school romance, but its fresh enough to keep me interested. The writing also plays on its shtick very well (which was honestly unexpected, I blame Zac Efron), and the comedy that comes flowing from that is honestly very enjoyable.
Aesthetically the show is pretty average to slightly above average. For the equivalent of a straight-to-DVD movie, the budget honestly didn't seem to be effected, with the quality being pretty consistent throughout. There's not a lot of action here, but there was a lot of care put in to making the characters' facial expressions stand out during dialogue and comedy sequences. Music wasn't anything to write home about, but it made the romance parts feel a lot more important, so at least there's that.
This one definitely isn't breaking any new boundaries, but that's alright, as it's a pretty enjoyable ride if you're into those more relaxing romcom shows. This is an adaptation of an ongoing web-manga, and the anime definitely doesn't finish in a satisfying way, AND there's a pretty big plot twist that gets dropped on you in the last two or three episodes, but it was still a pretty enjoyable ride. The novelty of saying that anime did it better than Zac Efron could might just be worth it on its own.
Score: 6.5 - 7/10
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| Reigan's "Special Moves" are definitely my favorite part of the show. |
Genre: Action, Comedy, ONE
Studio: Bones
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
I think this show is probably the biggest thing for this season overall (not counting Re:Zero since it's a summer holdover), and for good reason. It's endearing, hilarious, and incredibly hype every single week. Studio Bones has been really knocking it out of the park lately with stuff like this and last season's Boku no Hero Academia, which I found enjoying much more than I normally would for a shounen series. Anyway, this is yet another adaptation of web comic writer ONE's work, but it definitely isn't the same kind of series as One Punch Man. Yes, it's still incredibly hilarious and has a similar type of humor, but Mob Psycho 100 is far from a parody. It's a far more focused experience that focuses on our main character Mob's growth and him learning what he wants to do, whether that concerns his psychic powers or not.
This show is just about what you'd expect from ONE, it's off the wall while still perpetuating a pretty well thought out and engaging story. The cast of characters is colorful, refreshing, and large, with not a single one feeling redundant or unnecessary. Mob is a confused but all powerful psychic kid with a strong sense of right and wrong, which was partially fostered by his con-artist but good-natured mentor Reigan, and Mob's brother Ritsu is a perfect foil for him. I don't really want to spoil much, as this show is honestly pretty straight forward and doesn't really require much of an analysis from a plot or character respective. Mob Psycho 100 is more about the complete package, which you can really only experience for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
The art style is definitely a unique, seemingly low-detail aesthetic that permeates almost all of ONE's work, and Bones did a great job of bringing it to life in animation. The simple art makes the hilarious facial expressions all the more funny, and the exaggerated action stand out even more than it already would. This isn't to say that Mob Psycho 100 doesn't look good, because it definitely does, especially in action scenes. Specific scenes can get incredibly detailed and "trippy", with lots of crazy animation happening on screen at once. The music and sound are all also pretty great but they definitely take a back seat to the unique visuals. However, the VA is definitely stand-out, with Mob and Reigan in particular being a hilarious to listen to.
This is definitely my weakest "review" of the bunch because this show is just really, really hard to write about. You really just need to sit down and give it a shot for yourself. If you even thought One Punch Man was even slightly funny or interesting, I can guarantee you'll find something to like here.
Score: 9/10
Studio: Bones
Runtime: 12 episodes, ~24 minutes per episode
Where to Watch?: Crunchyroll
I think this show is probably the biggest thing for this season overall (not counting Re:Zero since it's a summer holdover), and for good reason. It's endearing, hilarious, and incredibly hype every single week. Studio Bones has been really knocking it out of the park lately with stuff like this and last season's Boku no Hero Academia, which I found enjoying much more than I normally would for a shounen series. Anyway, this is yet another adaptation of web comic writer ONE's work, but it definitely isn't the same kind of series as One Punch Man. Yes, it's still incredibly hilarious and has a similar type of humor, but Mob Psycho 100 is far from a parody. It's a far more focused experience that focuses on our main character Mob's growth and him learning what he wants to do, whether that concerns his psychic powers or not.
This show is just about what you'd expect from ONE, it's off the wall while still perpetuating a pretty well thought out and engaging story. The cast of characters is colorful, refreshing, and large, with not a single one feeling redundant or unnecessary. Mob is a confused but all powerful psychic kid with a strong sense of right and wrong, which was partially fostered by his con-artist but good-natured mentor Reigan, and Mob's brother Ritsu is a perfect foil for him. I don't really want to spoil much, as this show is honestly pretty straight forward and doesn't really require much of an analysis from a plot or character respective. Mob Psycho 100 is more about the complete package, which you can really only experience for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
The art style is definitely a unique, seemingly low-detail aesthetic that permeates almost all of ONE's work, and Bones did a great job of bringing it to life in animation. The simple art makes the hilarious facial expressions all the more funny, and the exaggerated action stand out even more than it already would. This isn't to say that Mob Psycho 100 doesn't look good, because it definitely does, especially in action scenes. Specific scenes can get incredibly detailed and "trippy", with lots of crazy animation happening on screen at once. The music and sound are all also pretty great but they definitely take a back seat to the unique visuals. However, the VA is definitely stand-out, with Mob and Reigan in particular being a hilarious to listen to.
This is definitely my weakest "review" of the bunch because this show is just really, really hard to write about. You really just need to sit down and give it a shot for yourself. If you even thought One Punch Man was even slightly funny or interesting, I can guarantee you'll find something to like here.
Score: 9/10
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Thanks for taking the time to check out my season-in-review for this summer's anime. I really enjoy getting my thoughts out there so I'll probably make this a regular thing for every end season. This is a much better place to leave my thoughts than the unformatted MAL comments field.