Summer season has begun! This may turn out to be just a depressing chronicle of me dropping a whole bunch of shows the moment I continue them, but hey, I gotta do what I gotta do. Basically everything I started this season was in the “okay I guess, I’ll give it another episode” range, and second episodes rarely end up being dramatic improvements over first ones. They often give you a better indication of where the show will consistently go now that it’s gotten over its hook/pilot, but they don’t tend to dazzle as much as the premier. So let’s run down a bunch of also-rans, and see if I end up watching anything more than my sworn writeup duties!
Author Archives: Bobduh
Paranoia Agent – Episode One
SO. This season I get to do some classic episodic reviews for ANN, diving into Satoshi Kon’s one full-length series. I was excited to start this one, and the first episode definitely didn’t disappoint – we’re already playing in some compelling psychological headspace and front-and-center themes, all elevated through Kon’s excellent direction. Anime rarely managed to do horror well, but Kon makes it look easy, consistently setting an atmosphere of distrust and hinted violence. This should be a fun ride!
You can check out my full writeup over at ANN, as well as my full notes below!
Summer 2015 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective
Here we go again. With preview week basically over (I’ll add the last couple if/when they show up), it’s time to run down every last goddamn show I’ve watched, including basically every full-length non-sequel premier of the season. That is a disturbing amount of anime, and so today you will be receiving a disturbing amount of High Quality Content. Not high quality anime, mind you, but certainly plenty of Content. Although actually, this season’s premiers largely turned out much less disappointing than I’d expected – there were disappointments and surprises, but the overall crop was fairly reasonable. That comes with a couple caveats, of course. First, there’s the plain that that first episodes lie – they trick you and torture you, stringing you along with one good idea and then collapsing into mediocrity. And second, while there were plenty of “good enough” shows, there were basically no highlights, and many of the reasonable shows are just “good for this genre.” So, like, I gave a three to Monster Musume and Actually, I Am…, but that’s a three harem and a three harem-romcom. Plenty of the shows I think are “generally fine” I will not actually be following – in fact, there’s a decent chance I only stick with the top three.
Anyway! I’ll run things down by broad category, and you can make your own judgments from there. LET’S GET TO IT.
Summer 2015 – First Impressions, Part Two
The ridiculous anime onslaught continues! Debuts are popping up faster than I can possibly review them, but review them I shall, and drag back my findings to place gently at your feet. Though my body may be broken by the weight of a thousand cursed MCs and Nii-sans, I shall not falter in my duty. I’m gonna watch a whole lot of cartoons.
We’ve got more hits and misses in this second wave, including a few surprises. Shirayuki unfortunately failed to grab me, in spite of its top-notch production, but I was actually pretty fond of the ostensibly mundane Actually, I Am… (Jitsu wa Watashi wa). Chemistry’s a tricky thing!
Here’s a link to all the pieces so far, and you can check out my new ranked listings below. Woo anime…
Summer 2015 – First Impressions, Part One
The preview guide has begun! The first couple days were a little slow, but we’re really in the thick of it now, with shows coming out way too fast for me to actually review everything goddamnit how am I gonna do this what the hell I quit anime forever.
ANYWAY. I’m a good eight or so shows in at this point, so it seems like as good a time as any to take stock of what we’ve run through to date. The season has actually been vastly outperforming my expectations so far, offering a few shows I’m likely to keep watching and a number of others that keep up some level of respectability regardless. I was expecting both GATE and Charlotte to be the Worst Things Ever, and at least their first episodes were only Bad and Pretty Alright I Guess. Things could very, very easily be worse!
Here’s a link to the overall preview guide, and you can check out numbers and specific review links to what I’ve hit so far below. Anime, ho!
Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer, Vol. 5-6 – Review
Back to the manga front, with some more Biscuit Hammer. This story is just getting consistently better at this point, with the story and characters gaining complexity and poignancy as everyone moves towards the endgame. The art is also improving, though it’s still a mix of highlights and lowlights – some of the shots of the horse in particular made me kinda wince. If you can’t draw a horse, it is pretty ambitious to make a Horse Knight one of the main characters of your story. But that’s beside the point – this story is great, and you should buy it. I hear the manga hasn’t been a success for Seven Seas, which is a shame, because they really deserve to be lauded for bringing this one over.
Anyway. Here’s my full review over at ANN, and you can check out my chapter notes below!
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan – Episode 14
Aaand we’re back to same old regular Nagato. This episode wasn’t the worst, but it sure did feel like an automatic letdown after the consistent highs of the disappearance arc. There were some nice scenes, though – the first one, where the two Nagatos “met,” was an endearing sisterly conversation, and the last bits with Haruhi made solid use of narrative mirroring both between characters and across Haruhi scenes. But still, the majority of this episode was more of the will-they-or-won’t-they stuff I’ve grown more than tired of. With only two episodes to go, I kinda doubt this show will end up offering much more, but I’m actually perfectly happy to leave with just the disappearance arc to remember this by.
Here’s my full writeup over at ANN. Notes below!
Sound! Euphonium – Episode 13
And the best new show of the season comes to a close. Sound! Euphonium was a polished accomplishment from the first episode to the last, and likely one of the most consistent shows I’ve ever seen. Nearly every episode was full of engaging aesthetic tricks, poignant character moments, and an underlying level of execution that just demolishes most anime out there. This was a finale worthy of the show, one more episode that worked hard to ensure it had a strict internal tone that matched the headspace of the characters. It’s a little sad to see it go, but I’m always happy to see good shows end well. You did good, Sound! Euphonium.
Here’s my full ANN piece. More notes below!
Spring 2015 – Week 13 in Review
The final week has arrived! And there’s… basically nothing to talk about. With JoJo already over and Blood Blockade Battlefront resting up before its oversized finale, the only non-ANN shows I actually had to watch this week were Unlimited Blade Works and Ore Monogatari!! And I didn’t even watch OreMono! Sorry OreMono, I just couldn’t find the time/interest for you – as I’ve said before, OreMono isn’t one of those shows that fills me with desire to catch up when I’m not watching it, and considering the sort of static rhythms it’s gotten into over time, it’s just hard to muster up the enthusiasm. So we’ve got a mini-sized Week in Review this week, but don’t worry – with the summer season about to begin, there’ll be pleeenty to talk about soon enough. The preview guide is waiting. I can hear its call. Soon, soon, all will burn.
Alright, let’s run down what we’ve got!
Criticulous (ANNcast) – Podcast
So, just showed up on ANNcast for the first time! This one was mostly about criticism philosophy, what sort of shows we like to cover and how, our history in criticism, and all that good stuff, and featured me, Zac, Hope, and Gabriella. Then there were a bunch of listener questions, including stuff like what shows we’d theoretically want to cover weekly, etc. A fair amount about our various approaches to writing, too. Check it out if you’re a podcast-liking person, and I hope you enjoy it!
