Spring 2014 Anime Season

There's only a small bit of incest tease, coming from Shiro's direction, but the lolicon pandering is worse. Which I think is far worse than the other fanservice.

There was much loli fanservice in the light novels as well, and the author himself is part of the anime staff, even going far enough to say that if the anime went wrong he'll take responsibility for it. So... blame him for trying to keep things consistent, I guess?

Final set of impressions:

Pretty Rhythm All Star Selection: Just get straight to the training. I'm not interested with recaps of previous seasons.

Hero Bank: This is much better than Majin Bone yet get less attention. The songs are still bad, though.

First episode impressions:

• Ping Pong: Quite unlike any other anime this season, and quite unlike your typical sports series. It's great.
• Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka: Cute and fluffy. Not really anything special.
• Sidonia: It's delicious.
• Nanana's Buried Treasure: This was a frickin' riot. Had a wide grin on my face the entire time.
• Hitsugi no Chaika: This was badass. Sniper rifle magic is cool as heck.
• Date a Live: Table-flippingly dumb Touka hampers my enjoyment.
• Mekakucity Actors: It's SHAFT alright.

DAL S2's first episode is mainly filler (only a few scenes were in the source material), and her actions are actually generally regarded to be an Out-of-Character Moment.

I have adapted, now I can enjoy Inugami and Nekoyama. Hehehehe.

And Ping-Pong's second episode was also great.

Inugami to Nekoyama episode 2 was also cute, and this time we met a mouse and a cow.

So, what is good this season? Besides Jojo, what can treat my Awesomeness Withdrawal, since Kill La Kill ended?

Ping Pong has awesome... well, ping pong.

No Game No Life has been the most awesome game theory available so far.

I found the art off-putting, and the plot seemed absent. All in all, none of the pieces I saw so far had the "FIVE MINUTES OF AWESOMENESS TO HOOK YOU IN" opener I was looking for. Captain Earth seems beautiful, but after the disastrously messy Eureka Seven sequel, I feel wary about investing myself in an in-house Bones production.

after watching episode 3 today , I can tell you that Captain Earth looks to be good plot-wise and it also has a great cast (except for the Salty Dog guy with the glasses, he's a TOTAL ASSHOLE). the battles are also great

Good? Plenty. Awesome? Going by the definition you're probably using... No Game No Life. Maybe Akuma No Riddle

If you're tolerant of fanservice and enticed by shows so intentionally, mind-blowingly stupid they cross over into awesomesauce, then watch Daimidaler the Sound Robot. It is quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever seen and I've loved every second of it.

Is it Hyakka Ryouran or Ikki Tousen sort of fanservice? Because, if so, I don't want any.

The phrase DAI NIPPON still gives me nausea.

edited 19th Apr '14 2:50:06 PM by TheHandle

It's Highschool Dx D sort of fanservice. Because, y'know, it's done by the same people.

edited 19th Apr '14 2:52:18 PM by KSPAM

Chaika is pretty solid, if you can get past the main character being assembled from every nerdbait trait in the book. Akuma no Riddle is good, trashy fun.

Daimidaler is really hilarious and the fanservice doesn't detract from it at all

edited 19th Apr '14 3:22:32 PM by bassgs435

Daimidaler is....oddly self aware. I mean, they laid the grounwdwork for one perverted joke for 2 episodes beforehand. It feels like it's trying to do something other than be a pure fanservice vehicle. Not sure if it succeeded or not yet.

Chaika is pretty decent.

Akuma no Riddle seems to a yuri Danganronpa. (better paced however than that anime)

Haikyuu Ep 3: That fucking four-eyes pisses me off.

edited 21st Apr '14 2:53:21 AM by HanabiraKage

You mean Tsukishima? Ohhh yeah.

That reminds me, I should start up a Haikyuu! thread. Not sure if it'll get traffic though.

Other episode 3 impressions for stuff that don't have their own threads:

• La Corda d'Oro: Still generic otome game crap with some hilarious animation-sound dissonance.
• Kindaichi Case Files: Basic sleuthing. Has yet to impress.
• Seikoku no Dragonar: The bad kind of generic LN-action-fantasy-harem. Dull action, boring plot, ho-hum powers and uninteresting characters.
• Kamigami no Asobi: Somehow keeps my attention. The manservice is so in-your-face it's funny, a la Free!. On the other hand the bachelor gods are pretty much one-note bishies. Which is sort of fun in its own way? I dunno. The only one on this list that I'm not thinking about dropping yet.

About the last one, I don't think the fanservice is more in-your-face than your average harem series. But I agree. It's not spectacular in any way, but somehow it manages to keep interest. It's a sort of show that's honest about what it is, and doesn't really try to be more than what it can manage. It's when shows tries to portray themselves as unique but once you get down to them they're as average as anything else that make at least me lose interest.

I guess it feels in-your-face because I've already built up a tolerance to standard harem girl fanservice.

That's most likely true. I think the two strongest reason for something to be that noticeable are that, in general, you're unused to it, or that you don't like it. If you're used to it, it's just standard fare, so nothing so think about. If you like it, it's easier to swallow.

M3: Aggressively dark, with a cast consisting almost entirely of broken and unpleasant people. I quite like it!

Some further impressions of other shows:

• Blade & Soul: Lost what animation quality the first episode had. Without an interesting plot or leads, there's little reason to watch it
• WIXOSS: Found it's own identity after the first episode. Still pretty decent, if you can get past the card games
• Love Live: I'm not sure if it's worse than the first season or if I've just lost interest
• Black Bullet: Second episode was better than the first, but the dissonance of mature themes and juvenile writing doesn't look like it's going away