This week wasn’t as strong as the last, but it actually paid off a bunch of the work the show’s been doing so far, and its big setpiece scene was wonderful. I feel like Log Horizon 2 isn’t always hitting the mark it aims at, but it’s at least trying to do things – it’s attempting to rise to a level of drama and character development that the first season never really engaged in. I can respect that, even if the show isn’t as good as it’s trying to be.
Not much to report – this season is very easily the best of the year, pretty much every show I’m invested in is putting out stellar episodes, and I’ve dropped almost everything I’m not enjoying. At this point, the only real hanger-on is actually Psycho-Pass – I feel kind of committed to finishing it, but I’m not really enjoying the stuff it’s doing. On the other hand, KimiUso, Bahamut, Shirobako, Parasyte – any of them could comfortably be the best show of another season, and none of them show any sign of falling apart. It’s a good time to cartoon.
This week was easily, far and away the best episode of Log Horizon S2. I guess this is kind of what Log Horizon does? We slowly gather pieces, set up conflicts, establish character issues, and then all that work is paid into the conclusions. That seems like an oversimplification, though – frankly, this episode almost felt like it was created by an entirely different director. Maybe it was? The scenes bounced and built off each other, the shot framing actually elevated the mood, and there was even an impressive and well-directed fight scene at the end. More of this, please.
We apparently entered some kind of localized reality inverter this week, as absolutely nothing happened in Log Horizon while Sword Art Online was actually a bunch of fun. Bow before my ability to spin entire articles out of “this week, nothing happened.” BOW.
At the beginning of fall, this year was not really looking good. I had maybe five or six shows I’d be comfortable putting on a top shows list, and the fall season featured a lineup of ambiguous sequels and unknown originals. But holy shit has this season overperformed like crazy. This lineup is a goddamn bounty of riches – there’s at least four shows that would be comfortable top picks in any normal season (Shirobako, KimiUso, Parasyte, Rage of Bahamut), and the shows immediately below this aren’t even that far off – I could easily see Fate/stay night, Amagi, or Psycho-Pass 2 overperforming and vaulting over the competition at any time. Fall seasons tend to be fairly stacked in general, but this one in particular is one of the best seasons I’ve seen. It’s a good time to love cartoons!
Fall’s first ANN episode post is up! Starting off with Log Horizon, where in this week’s post I mainly focus on the conscience choices Log Horizon makes to sacrifice grace for clarity. It’s an interesting choice – most shows (well, most decent shows) aren’t nearly as bold as Log Horizon in overtly infodumping at their audience, but in this case, it actually feeds directly into the show’s strengths. Log Horizon wants you to understand exactly what is going on, and goddamnit it’s gonna sit you down and explain some shit if it has to!
The week in review returns! Nice to finally be back covering stuff here again. This post is gonna be all second episodes – I know some first episodes came out in the past week, but I wrote about every goddamn one of them over on the preview guide. Right now, I’m in “what the fuck can I actually drop” mode – after a slow start, this season ended up giving me somewhere around fifteen shows I wanted to continue, and the physics of that kind of schedule just don’t work out. In light of that, I’m gonna try to be pretty ruthless in what I drop throughout the week. Unfortunately, enough shows seem to be holding together that I’m likely going to be in “anime or sleep” mode for a while yet. Let’s run them down!
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.
You guys excited about some new cartoons?! This summer was very nearly the weakest season since I started this blog, so I know I’m sure ready. This fall is looking to be the Season of the Sequel – I’ve already got four sequels I’ll be checking out, along with Sword Art Online continuing on its merry way. The list of originals is looking a bit more sparse, but I’m often surprised by what ends up grabbing me anyway, so I’m not too worried about that. As always, all upcoming shows can be seen at anichart.net. And as usual, I’m only going to be covering the shows I’m actually checking out – if your favorite’s not here, feel free to make a case for it in the comments! Let’s start with my top pick and run it down…
Fell behind on basically everything this week because of Anime Boston, so I’m struggling to catch up as fast as I can. Of what I have watched, well…