Tag Archives: Anime

Log Horizon II – Episode 9

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We jumped over to Shiroe’s camp this week, where things aren’t going terribly well. I was legitimately surprised by how solid Shiroe’s central death-reflection monologue was – after a long arc with Akatsuki that’s been about as kid-friendly as possible, I definitely wasn’t expecting a long sequence predicated on being old enough to feel embarrassed about the ways youthful insularity is actually a kind of selfishness. That by itself would have made this one of the best episodes this season, but that last repeat of the Ash Lake sequence was just too egregious of a cost-cutting measure for me to let slide. Still, I’m looking forward to where Shiroe’s arc takes us from here.

Incidentally, I’m including my actual during-episode notes below the cut for this one. They’re notes for me, not for any audience, so they’re far less “performative” than the time stamp posts, but I’ve had people ask me to post them a few times, so I’m including them anyway. Hope you enjoy!

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Parasyte – Episodes 8-9

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Double-header this week, which gave the show enough time to weave in about half a dozen small conflicts. I thought the show over-told a fair amount during these episodes, but the stuff it was conveying was actually really interesting, so I couldn’t muster too much annoyance at that. It’s kind of unusual for a Madhouse production, but this show is really leaning heavily into the strength of the source material – the execution isn’t elevating it, it’s just a perfectly reasonable articulation of a very good story. I guess that means it’s not as strong as it “could have been,” but the show’s still quite good, so eh.

Parasyte

Fall 2014 – Week 8 in Review

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Anime got pretty heavy this week, you guys. Between Shirobako and KimiUso, things were altogether a little too real in the land of Japanese cartoons. That’s how I like it, though – the sharp stuff is what I watch media for, and you can’t depict earnest triumph if you’re not willing to accept the possibility of failure. Pretty much everything else is holding steady, but my favorites are actively climbing at the moment, and it feels pretty goddamn great. Here’s hoping they both turn out to be as good as this week would promise.

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Plots Twists and Other Parlor Tricks

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Look at this rabbit in my hand. See the rabbit? Surprise! It’s actually a turtle.

Pretty impressive, huh?

Alright, maybe that one didn’t work on you. How about this one. Look at this character – she’s just a mild-mannered high school student, right? Surprise! She’s actually an evil wizard.

Still nothing? Hm.

Okay, one more. Look at this upbeat, slice of life story. Got a good picture of it? Surprise! It’s actually a dystopian sci-fi drama.

Alright, you get the picture. Let’s talk about plot twists.

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Fall 2014 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective

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I have been very busy these last couple weekends! Working on the ANN preview guide has meant I’ve had to watch and write about virtually every full-length show that premiered this fall – I believe the only ones we missed were G Reco, Amagi Brilliant Park, and Seven Deadly Sins, and I actually wrote about the first one and took notes on the second anyway. Of course, since all that was for ANN, you guys over here haven’t had heard as much from me. So in light of that, I’ve decided to do a hyper-speed mega-Week in Review rundown of my most summarized thoughts on every goddamn show, complete with links to individual ANN pages where you can find the small essays I wrote on every single one of them. If you want to hear me praise stuff, stick to the top, if you want to hear me tear shit apart, check out the bottom. There’s been a wide, wide range of shows this season, and every one of them has earned a whole bunch of words. LET’S DO THIS.

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Fall 2014 – First Episode Reflections, Part Three

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I WOULD LIKE TO GET OFF THIS RIDE NOW PLEASE. Since my last post, I’ve checked out Parasyte, Daitoshokan no Hitsujitai, Chaika: Avenging Battle, Garo the Animation, Shirobako, Psycho-Pass 2, Your lie in April, and How The Fuck Did They Approve a Show That’s Basically Just One Joke About Twintails. You can check out episodic posts about every single one of these shows on ANN.

Of this group, I strongly recommend Parasyte and Shirobako, also enjoyed Garo and Your lie in April, and was perfectly content with both the Chaika and Psycho-Pass sequels. Daitoshokan and Twintails have essentially no reason for existing, and their continued existence in spite of this is baffling and faintly disturbing. So yeah, Of these eight shows, I actually solidly enjoyed six of them – I’m pretty happy with that ratio!

KimiUso

Fall 2014 – First Episode Reflections, Part Two

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The ride NEVER EVER ENDS. I have watched a truly madness-inducing quantity of anime, and the fruits of my labors are here for you. Since the last update, I’ve put up first episode reviews for In Search of the Lost Future, Fate/stay night, World Trigger, CROSS ANGE, Wolf Girl and Black Prince, Celestial Method, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis, The Fruit of Grisaia, Gugure! Kokkuri-san, When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, Laughing Under the Clouds, Akatsuki no Yona, and Trinity Seven. That is way too much goddamn anime.

Of that formidable list, the only shows I’d actually recommend for everyone are Fate/stay night and Rage of Bahamut: Genesis. More genre-specific fare would Celestial Method, Gugure! Kokkuri-san, When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, and The Fruit of Grisaia. That is, if you like feelsy dramas, 4koma comedies, Haruhi-style club shows, or nicely animated drama/harem-things, those would be my choices respectively. EVERYTHING ELSE WAS PAIN. Nah, just Cross Ange, but seriously – way too much anime. Fortunately, my next update should be more proportionally positive. I’ll let you know!

Gugure! Kokkuri-san

Top Shows Addendum

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So I wrote my Top 30 Shows of All Time list, and that was great and super convenient for a while, until I came to a startling revelation – there are more than thirty good shows, and even worse than that, people keep making new ones. Clearly there’s no way I could have predicted this turn of events, but I’m doing my best to take it in stride. And in the spirit of promoting More Good Things, I’ve decided to create this Additional Top Shows supplement.

I don’t really want to cut off shows when they fall out of the thirty – I’d rather recommend more good stuff than less, and the number was initially envisioned more as a quality marker than a hard, arbitrary line. And so instead of having shows disappear and be gone forever, shows that drop out of the thirty, or that just barely don’t make it, will instead find their home here in the Top Shows Addendum. I hope you enjoy this jumbled list of Slightly Less Top But Still Pretty Great Shows!

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New Podcast – Spring 2014 Mid-Season Discussion

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Yep, I was on another podcast this week, discussing season impressions with a bunch of other bloggers. I gush about Ping Pong, we argue about Sidonia and Titan, and basically everybody takes a few cheap shots at Mahouka. You can check out the whole thing over at Deadlight’s blog, which includes time stamps for specific show discussions and links to everybody else’s blogs. And if you enjoy the podcasts, it turns out I’m actually going to be a regular on these ones from now on, so, uh, lucky you!

Once again, here’s the link to the podcast. I don’t have anything else to say, so here’s Star Platinum punching a shark.

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Top 30 Anime Series of All Time

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Yep, I’ve finally put together a top shows list. As I hopefully made clear in part one and part two of my critical biases post, this is obviously my list – it represents the things I think are most valuable in stories in the way I think they’ve best been articulated. It’s also just a list of shows I enjoy – there’s no hard criteria here, so I wouldn’t stress the numbers too much. Also, it’s a bit front-loaded – I only started watching anime seasonally about two years ago, so the last couple years are disproportionately represented. Incidentally, I’m not including movies here either – I think direct comparisons between shows and films are a bit of a stretch, but if they were included, this list would certainly be somewhat different. And finally, I’m absolutely (and thankfully) certain this list will change over time – there are still piles of widely beloved shows I’ve never seen, so I’m sure the current rankings will be filled out in the years to come. So with that all said, let’s get to the list – Bobduh’s Top 30 Anime of All Time.

-edit- I have now created a Top Shows Addendum for shows that have either fallen off or just barely missed this list. Please enjoy these additional almost-top shows!

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