A low week in anime, my friends. Barakamon, Aldnoah, and Zankyou all had lesser episodes, meaning it was pretty much up to JoJo and Hunter x Hunter to keep things together. Fortunately, JoJo rallied magnificently, and Hunter x Hunter is just always friggin’ good, so I guess I can’t really complain. But damn, I really, really hope Zankyou keeps it together. Anyway, let’s get to the shows!
Tag Archives: Aldnoah.Zero
Summer 2014 – Week 7 in Review
A pretty consistent set of episodes this week, although Sword Art Online’s doubling down on its “We’re at war with PTSD, we were always at war with PTSD” new history is resulting in some serious growing pains. But Barakamon and JoJo both had stellar episodes, and Zankyou and Hunter x Hunter continue to be the great shows they are, so I can’t really complain about friggin’ Kirito having inconsistent motivations. Let’s run them down!
Summer 2014 – First Half in Review
We may already be halfway through August, but fortunately, it appears the anime season shares my overwhelming fear of death, and is dealing with that by denying the summer is ending altogether. I respect that, and will honor the season’s wishes by today placing all of the shows I’m watching in a reductive, nigh-meaningless hierarchy of Objective Worthiness. Unfortunately, it turns out I got tired of most shows’ shit even more efficiently than usual this season… so to pad out my list, I’ll also include the unlucky casualties of the first several weeks. Let’s run them down!
Summer 2014 – Week 5 in Review
So I guess what happens when you drop all your mediocre shows is you end up with only good shows to talk about every week. Fascinating. Let us explore this phenomenon at greater length.
Aldnoah.Zero – Episode 5
Like the second episode, this one started off by bouncing an idea from a few angles – this time, it was “what you gain from fighting.” The defeated martian knight was probably the most childish in his desires here, scoffing at Slaine’s reasons for fighting while bemoaning his loss of “honor” on the battlefield. The childishness of this desire was then pretty much immediately highlighted by framing it in the actual voice of a child, as Inko mused over how nice it’d be to get a medal in battle. Their instructor was quick to provide the cynical counterpoint there – “dying for honor isn’t so bad when you’re living in misery.” He’s talking about his own regrets, of course, but if you’re not living in the war-story dreamland of the martian knights, “using yourself for the cause” may be the only way to actually gain the will to fight.
Summer 2014 – Week 4 in Review
Good episodes all around this week! “Sacrifice all mediocre performers to your dark god” is serving me well this season, as I’ve now reduced my lineup to “the shows that consistently impress me plus Sword Art Online because I apparently don’t actually value my time in the slightest.” Barakamon has proven itself generally consistent at this point, Zankyou continues to be the most ‘flawless’ show I’m watching, and Aldnoah has apparently taken it upon itself to be both a satisfying Urobuchi show and my replacement popcorn entertainment. Good work, cartoons.
Summer 2014 – Week 3 in Review
Welp, we’re a third of the way into the season now, and this season’s looking pretty damn predictable. The top shows continue to impress, the speculative picks have pretty much all fallen off the wagon, and Barakamon stands alone as the one surprise hit. It’s looking like I’ll be reduced to my usual half-dozen shows a little quicker than usual this season, which may just mean I’m getting better at dropping things efficiently, but I’m not really complaining. All I need is a couple standouts to be happy, and this season’s certainly got those – let’s run them down!
Summer 2014 – First Impressions, Part Two
And with the second week complete, all our new challengers have appeared! I’m very happy with this week’s performance – though none of my speculative picks really impressed me, the two shows I was most excited for either picked up the slack (in Aldnoah’s case) or started off with a bang (Zankyou no Terror). The roster isn’t looking deep this season, but if the highlights can keep up this level of quality, I’ll be content either way.
Summer 2014 – First Impressions, Part One
Summer is here! A wonderful time to hide on your computer and watch cartoons so other people don’t have to. This first week has had some hits and some misses, but overall it’s looking like I’ll have a healthy mix of genres to replace our dear departed Ping Pong. Let’s run down some first episodes!
Summer 2014 Season Preview
We’re three quarters of the way through the season now, meaning it’s once again time to first tremble at the reality of our encroaching deaths and then swiftly distract ourselves with the thought of new cartoons. I don’t think this summer will be able to match this spring’s selection, but this spring had possibly the best crop of shows since I started this whole blogging business (competing fiercely with last summer’s Uchouten Kazoku, Monogatari, and Gatchaman Crowds), so that’s not really a fair complaint. It’s certainly no last season, either – we have some real potential gems to look forward to, and if worst comes to worst, Jojo will carry us through the dark times on his broad yet secretly nurturing shoulders. So let’s start with the obvious, top-tier, serious-reasons-to-expect-greatness contenders.
Oh right, first I should explain how this list works. For my previews, I only really highlight shows I’m actually excited about – I don’t think anyone would get much out of me saying I’m gonna be skipping thirty-some shows, and if you want premises or staff, you can always check anichart.net. Anyway!