No complaints about this week in anime – my favorites were great, my second-strings were either solid or great, and I’m barely even watching anything beneath those. Aldnoah continued last week’s “wait, let’s try to be actually good again” streak, Zankyou recovered from its wonky Hollywood interlude, and Hunter x Hunter is just making me too emotional right now. Also, Shounen Hollywood whipped out one of the most absurd, confident concept episodes I’ve seen in… ever? A long time, at least. Let’s run them down!
Tag Archives: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
Summer 2014 – Week 9 in Review
A very convenient week in anime this time, since two shows didn’t actually air and oh wait that didn’t matter because I wrote three thousand goddamn words for Anime News Network anyway. Actually, that might be its own kind of “reprieve” – normally my writing motivation is “keep writing you goddamn word-monkey you’re wasting hours and drawing closer to death,” but my crazy output the last couple weeks (including writing a big friggin’ editorial that I’ll hopefully finish by this weekend) allowed me to briefly experience the feeling of not feeling guilty for relaxing. That’s actually a pretty rare thing for me, so I guess I got a mental vacation after all.
Incidentally, those ANN posts seem to have gone over very well over there, though I know you guys are understandably sad about the lack of timestamp SAO posts. It seems like ANN is more okay with some snark than I’d initially worried, so I’ll try to hit some kind of balance more of you can be happy with – I’ve only ever written for myself and my own audience before, so I’m still figuring out how to express my voice in a more official context. I hope you all stick with me as I figure this crap out! You’re an awesome, extremely supportive group of readers, and I want to be worthy of that support.
Alright, that’s enough blogging, I’m sure you’ve all got stuff to do. Let’s run down this week’s shows!
Summer Podcast – Individual Details versus the Big Picture
Hey guys! I was on Deadlight’s podcast a little while back, where we talked about the summer shows in the context of “individual details versus the big picture,” a theme that was kind of sidetracked by Zankyou no Terror deciding to become all about those individual details in its most recent episode. I guess I’d characterize the tone of the podcast as “everyone else thinks everything sucks, I kind of enjoy everything.” You can find more info and timestamps for the various shows discussed over at Deadlight’s blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlcwrX0ZjAg
Summer 2014 – Week 8 in Review
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!
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.
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 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!