Tag Archives: Active Raid

Active Raid – Episode 3

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Active Raid continues with an episode featuring annoying moe apps, nefarious hackers with willing harems, and dancing idol mechas. And yet, in spite of that, it’s apparently also trying to be some kind of political drama. I don’t really know how Active Raid’s many ridiculous and often contradictory variables will shake out, but so far I’m actually having a solid time with it. It has a sense of fun, which shouldn’t be underestimated – many of the jokes feel fresh or endearing, and the characters are building up well. It’s a mess of a show, but it’s an enjoyable mess.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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Winter 2016 – Week 2 in Review

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And with preview week firmly in the past, it’s time to return to our scheduled week in review. So far, this season is actually turning out better than I’d hoped – I didn’t really expect most of the shows in my own preview post to actually end up doing well, and having two legitimately excellent shows in a season is basically all I can hope for from any season. Between Erased and Genroku Rakugo, we’re already there – both of those shows impressed with strong premieres and followed through with consistent second episodes. And even beyond the highlights, there’s a reasonable crop of middle-tier shows as well, depending on your own genre tastes. The season is strong enough that I’m currently deciding to be truly ruthless, and cut off both Utawarerumono and Iron-Blooded Orphans until I feel compelled either personally or through general fan noise to pick them back up again. There are too many good shows in the world to waste time watching things I’m not enjoying.

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Active Raid – Episodes 1-2

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Active Raid didn’t fall apart! In fact, it actually got better! I was extremely worried this was going to end up being my obvious Beautiful Bones of the season, a show that started with middling potential and only nosedived from there, but so far we haven’t run into anything so dire. In fact, these first two episodes were actually a lot of fun to talk about – there’s all that moral ambiguity and grey character stuff that I like so much, all wrapped up in a generally pleasing visual/genre package. I don’t have sky-high expectations for this show or anything, but it’d be nice if it turned out to be a generally solid show, and so far it’s holding to that course.

You can check out my full writeup over at ANN, or my episode two notes below!

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Winter 2016 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective

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All of our new shows have turned in their final assignments, and the testing period is over. Who will rise, who will fall, who will entertain us mightily for a few weeks only to slowly sink into a mire of mediocrity and disappointment – all these questions lie ahead, but for now, we can already viciously judge the labor of thousands of animators based on our first impressions of their new creations. I knew from before this season even began that it would be a relatively light one, but with that in mind, the haul here is actually pretty solid. We had a couple truly great premieres, a few more shows that demonstrate either potential or reasonable genre chops, and The Rest. There’s always going to be a The Rest, but as long as anime continues to produce just a couple shows that justify our nostalgic Stockholm Syndrome every season, this unhealthy relationship can keep chugging merrily along. Let’s start right at the top of the list and RUN ‘EM DOWN!

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Winter 2016 – First Impressions, Part One

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A new season has begun, and I’m already well into the friggin’ preview guide. I mentioned back in my initial season preview that this looked to be a particularly dire season, and the shows so far have unfortunately born that out even more emphatically than I’d assumed. That list of shows only had eight new entries in the first place, and of those eight, two have turned out strong so far, three have disappointed me, one hasn’t been picked up for streaming yet, and one likely isn’t even airing this season. It’s a hard time for all of us, but as long as backlogs exist, I should be the only person who actually has to suffer. There have been a couple strong premieres so far, and there’s always the chance one of the season’s wildcards will impress, so there’s no reason to give up hope yet. Let’s keep the anime faith alive!

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You can check out the full list of shows covered so far over at ANN, or check below for my list of scores and links to individual reviews. LET’S GET TO IT.

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Winter 2016 Season Preview

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We’re approaching the last act of the fall season, which means it’s time once again to shift an eye towards winter and see what the future might bring. This winter season is not looking good, frankly – there are basically no shows I have strong confidence in, and even the potential hits are pretty sparse. But every season has its surprises, and it’d be hard for a season to be as barren as this past summer anyway, so I’m sure it’ll all work out in the end. Winter seasons are historically pretty lousy, anyway; last winter was a fantastic outlier, but with nothing like Shirobako carrying over and nothing as promising as Death Parade or Yurikuma awaiting us, we’re going to have to forage our way through the lean months. Check out your backlog, finish shows you fell behind on, and maybe spare a minute or two to check in on a few of these potential titles

As usual, I won’t be running down every upcoming title here – you can read synopses as well as I can, and there’s only so much I can say about Crappy Light Novel Adaptation #375. You can check out the full list over at anichart, but I’m just going to be hitting the stuff that actually looks interesting to me, and explaining why. Let’s get right to it!

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