The preview guide is once again nearing its end, meaning it’s time to run down every single one of these goddamn cartoons that never stop coming out for one second ever. The actual hits this season were pretty limited, but that’s pretty much what I expected going in – even in my preview post, I was only actually looking forward to a bare handful of shows. Most of those shows turned out to be either solid or display some potential, though there weren’t any real positive surprises outside of just how nicely composed One Punch Man turned out to be. But what the hell are we even doing here if we’re not watching cartoons, and I gotta earn my too-many-words keep, so let’s run ’em all down anyway. TAKING IT FROM THE TOP!
Tag Archives: Anime
Giant Robo and the Beautiful Night
A new essay has arrived! I finished Giant Robo a little while back, but it took me some time to really hammer down a piece on it. I’m happy with the result, though, and certainly happy with the show. Giant Robo is a titanic, triumphant series, a glorious melodrama that revels in old-fashioned adventure and giant robot storytelling while crafting a narrative pretty much anyone could appreciate. It’s both soulful and beautiful, full of riveting characters and gorgeous visual compositions. It’s a masterpiece, basically – you may not be the biggest fan of its style of storytelling, but it is essentially a perfect version of what it is trying to be.
My piece is up now over at ANN, so please check it out, and I hope you enjoy it!
Giant Robo and the Beautiful Night
I also wrote notes that got more and more thorough as I made my way through the series. You can check those out below!
Owarimonogatari – Episode 1
Monogatari is back, again (again). This new arc already seems far more compelling than Tsukimonogatari though, so I’m very ready to see where it leads. I already wrote a full piece on this episode over at ANN, but I also took a pile of episodic notes, and figured someone might get some use out of those. So here we go!
Fall 2015 – First Impressions, Part Two
Season previews continue, and hey, we’re finally into some shows worth watching! With the majority of the light novel premieres out of the way, this second set is full of shows I either fully recommend or at least feel succeed within their genre. Okada Gundam starts off strong, Comet Lucifer and Concrete Revolutio display reasonable promise, and One Punch Man just fucking dazzles with wonderful animation, art design, and humor. Things were looking kind of dire for a minute there, but seasons have a way of pulling themselves together. Now if only Sakurako and Perfect Insider can pull through as well, we might have a legitimately impressive season on our hands.
Once again, you can check out the full guide over at ANN, or click below the jump to see my added scores and individual links. ANIME HO!
Paranoia Agent – Episode 13
Yeah, this is how you end a series. Paranoia Agent’s finale completely discarded any ambiguity regarding the reality-versus-fantasy questions of the series proper, instead just directly embracing its fantasy leanings in order to create one of the most dramatically satisfying conclusions I’ve ever seen. Pretty much everything in this finale was perfect, from the gorgeous, heartrending conclusion to Keichi’s arc to the thematically thunderous finale of Sagi’s story. This was the ambiguous but optimistic closer Paranoia Agent needed, broadcasting Kon’s anger and desire to make people embrace the hard knocks of life as loud as it possibly could. Kon fucking hates artifice, and through this finale, Paranoia Agent established itself as a screeching ode to truth and sincerity. God damn. What a great show.
You can check out my full writeup over at ANN, or my notes below!
Fall 2015 – First Impressions, Part One
Preview week has begun, and I’m already knee-deep in anime no one should be forced to suffer through. Actually, this first wave honestly hasn’t been that bad – there hasn’t been much I’ve actually enjoyed watching, outside of the obvious Owarimonogatari, but there also hasn’t been much that’s so terrible I felt ready to forsake the medium altogether. Well, there’s been a bit of that. But less than expected! Plus I’ve already powered through a good portion of the light novel adaptations, and with them out of the way, I’m pretty confident nothing else can really hurt me anymore. All I need now is some shows I actually want to watch…
You can check out the full review guide here, or check below for a rundown of my scores so far and links to specific reviews. LET’S ANIME.
Monster Musume – Review
Yeah fuck it I reviewed Monster Musume. Hey, I’ve already watched the thing, right? It was actually easy to critique this one, since in spite of the hyperbole you may or may not have witnessed on twitter, Monster Musume is a pretty simple show with obvious strengths, weaknesses, and limitations. It’s a harem, but because it’s so absurd, it’s both a much better comedy than most harems and a show you can enjoy even if you’re not identifying with the derpy protagonist. There’s definitely some creepy sequences where it gets into uncomfortably voyeuristic/gropey territory, but most of it’s just a silly fun time, and many of the episodes are also elevated with some really terrific animation. Monster Musume was a light, enjoyable bright spot in a lousy season.
You can check out my full review over at ANN, or… wait, I covered this one weekly. I guess that’s it, then!
Summer 2015 – Week 13 in Review
Hot damn it’s Wednesday. And a very special Wednesday at that – the final Wednesday of summer season 2015, possibly the weakest anime season since I started doing week in review posts. That’s actually worked out okay for me, though – given the relative scarcity of airing shows I cared about, I’ve been able to burn through all sorts of backlog and review material, getting through Love Live S2, Saekano, The Idolmaster, and Turn A Gundam all in record time. Plus I’ve gotten to watch Paranoia Agent weekly, and there still have been a couple airing shows worth their salt. So let’s start right there, with a show that’s consistently worked to engage its audience on multiple levels and challenge our conceptions of what anime can really be about.
Paranoia Agent – Episode 12
We had another stellar episode of Paranoia Agent this week, one that pulled together three of the show’s central characters, along with the private realities they’re each inhabiting, building up towards a dramatic faceoff with the demons they share. Mitsuhiro was an excellent choice of primary focus character for this sequence; his combined old-detective profession and willingness to go along with the fantasies of the younger generation mean he’s essentially the sole invested bridge character, the only person who can bring all these elements together. And it was also nice to bring Sagi back into the focus again; in contrast to Mitsuhiro’s conviction, she feels more overwhelmed than anyone by the events going on around her, meaning the scenes stuck in her head felt even more frightening than they would otherwise. Just one more great episode of a truly fantastic series.
You can check out my full writeup over at ANN, or my notes below!
Gatchaman Crowds insight – Episode 12
G-G-G-GATCHAMANNNNN is over 🙁
I can’t really feel that sad, though. This was an excellent conclusion to an excellent series, tying up the show’s existing ideas and character journeys well while giving us a few final standout conversations to remember it by. That melancholy conversation between Tsubasa and Gelsadra in the first half had to be one of my favorite sequences of either season, and the actual battle with Hajime wasn’t far behind. The show really pulled out all the visual stops for that one – Hajime finally got to have a Big Damn Hero moment, and it was glorious. insight has challenged the messages of the first season and swept in more ideas besides, and its thoughts on group culture could not be more relevant to our modern world. Even if this show is aimed specifically at Japanese culture, anyone who uses the internet could probably learn something from this show’s example. HURRAY FOR LEARNING AND EMPATHY AND STUFF.
Anyway, you can check out my huge-ass review over at ANN, or my notes below!