I actually liked this one! It wasn’t, you know, mindblowing or anything, but it moved well, had some great fight animation, and the jokes actually landed for me. This one gets to join Sinon’s introduction and the last episode of GGO in the “maybe you’re not so bad after all, SAO” pile.
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!
And Sword Art Online returns. My post on ANN is relatively polite about this episode – it’s slow and boring and basically meaningless, but I keep it civil. To get the real story of my thoughts on this episode, you really have to head to twitter. So let’s actually run this episode down:
Sorry I didn’t post this on Saturday! I’ve been absolutely buried in previews the last couple days, which I’ll link again later – so far, I’ve watched and written about fifteen new shows, including two double-length episodes, and all but two of those shows came out over the last three days. So it’s been a time! I’m also putting the finishing touches on a Zankyou no Terror piece, so that should also be in the near future, as well as my first ANN full show review.
Anyway! I actually really liked the conclusion to the GGO arc. It wrapped up both the themes and characters with a great deal of thoughtfulness and a lack of melodramatics. Nice to see SAO doing good.
GODDAMNIT SWORD ART ONLINE EVERY FUCKING TIME I CAN’T EVEN
Yep, this episode went back to the Bad Place. I had to keep it civil for the ANN post, but was somewhat less respectful on twitter. Goddamn you, SAO. God damn you.
![[HorribleSubs] Sword Art Online II - 13 [720p].mkv_snapshot_19.41_[2014.09.27_17.36.27]](https://wrongeverytime.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/horriblesubs-sword-art-online-ii-13-720p-mkv_snapshot_19-41_2014-09-27_17-36-27.jpg)
I don’t even know what to say in this intro, because nothing else this week comes close to Aldnoah’s lunacy. Everything else was fine, good shows are good, yada yada. Let’s get to the show.
Oh wait, also, I’m apparently gonna be one of ANN’s staff reviewers now in addition to my streaming work. Meaning I’ll be doing regular full-show reviews there, along with participating in their completely insane Preview Guide. Meaning I’ll be watching the first episodes of basically every goddamn full-length show coming out this season, and writing some sort of reflection on every single one of them. Meaning my hands are probably going to be bloody stumps by the end of next week.
So that’ll be fun! Something to look forward to. Anyway, Aldnoah fuckin’ Zero.
Sword Art Online pulled its classic trick this week, attaching half of a pretty solid episode to half of a really terrible one. I really don’t know how it does it – pretty much every time the show pulls itself together, it’s basically guaranteed to exist directly in the presence of some of the show’s worst bullcrap. This time it was a half-episode where literally nothing happens. But hey, at least we got to see some animation afterwards!
No crazy shakeups to report this week – my lineup’s approaching the end with relative grace, and everything I’d hoped to be good or at least okay has been good or at least okay. This is disappointing! I miss being able to tell you guys something is absolutely awful and wretched and a wonderful thing to get really childishly disappointed about! Hopefully next season will fix this – I’m planning on checking out way too many shows, and have no idea what I’ll end up covering for ANN, so there’s a solid chance I’ll have something to be a big jerk about again. Until then, please accept these humble reflections on shows that are actually pretty good.
Incidentally, I haven’t gotten to this week’s Hunter x Hunter, but I’ll likely watch that later tonight and either add my comments or make an additional mini-post. Busy week!
Sword Art Online took a long journey into exposition-land this week, while last week’s Shounen Hollywood pulled off one of the most confident concept episodes I’ve ever seen. There is no justice in this world.
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!