Winter 2015 Anime Season

By "Saturday Morning Cartoon villain" I mean how one-dimensional and uninteresting Embryo is.

Everyone in Cross Ange is boring and uninteresting.

Embryo stands out as particularly boring and uninteresting. He comes off to me as a bad copy of Shogo Makishima.

Who comes across as a cultured cross between The Joker and Tom Riddle.

With a dash of crass and a pinch of edge.

Crass Edge instead of Cross Ange then?

Indeed. Embryo's excessive Moral Myopia and Values Dissonance is really grating.

He complains that pre-mana humans are disgusting because "when they want something, they steal it" yet, in setting up the mana system, he captures/kidnaps Aura, locks her up and uses her as a power generator. (And keeps killing her kind in the process.)

He complains that the current bunch of humans are "evil" because they're COMPLETELY obedient to his orders without independent thought, yet, the moment someone tells him "no," he responds with MIND RAPE, and cold-blooded mental torture until the other person says "yes, Embryo-SAMA."

Lastly, he claims to be utterly disgusted by the Norma massacre in episode 13, yet he's not only willing to do the same thing on a much more massive scale (completely destroying TWO worlds in the process), but completely refuses to even consider other options (like freeing Aura) and responds to any and all objections with violence.

Sorry, Embryo, but as long as YOU are twisted and rotten, any society you create in your own image is going to be twisted and rotten too. Mind-enslaving Ange is not going to change that.

Now comes Cross Ange episode 21, and boy oh boy. He actually has the audacity to ask why Angelise doesn't want anything to do with him! Remember all that truly unbelievable fantastic racism that keeps being hammered into the story? Well, let's just say being able to use mana is nowhere near as nice as everyone believes. "Big Brother," you've got NOTHING on Embryo. Poor Emma, she's going to have to be locked up too, through no fault of her own.

Momoka and Tusk, nobody could ever accuse you of being negligent in your duties.

edited 1st Mar '15 5:20:42 AM by Harem-author

The Cross Ange thread seems to exist again, so perhaps you could talk about that show there instead of here?

O tried to give Shinmai Maou no Testament another shot but nope, it still insist on being creepy and uncomfortable to watch. A shame too, since if you threw all that out, it would be pretty decent show.

We could probably consider the excessive fanservice the author's fatal flaw. The anime also leaves out some combat-related stuff such as the "job classes" in favor of milking the fanservice. Should have imitated Junketsu no Maria and made the succubus an adult woman.

I could even stand the fanservice if it wasn't so sleazy about that. If we could go through an episode without Basara being told that she needs to forcibly "tame" Mio and how that's what women really want, I could keep watching it.

Okay, since the season is pretty much over, what are your impressions?

My favorite show has to be Junketsu no Maria. Original, imaginative, smart, heartwarming, well researched, funny, I could go on all day about this show. If you still haven't seen this do yourself a favor and go watch it.

Runner ups would include Koufuku Graffiti and Dog Days'' both very fun and well made shows, though not as ambitious as Maria. I would also recommend Absolute Duo, the best of this season many LN adaptations.

The worst show I watched was probably Isuca which made me hate every single character very quickly. Then there's Shinmai Maou no Testament which could be good if only it wasn't so clearly aimed at pandering to horny teenagers.

Over all this wasn't a bad season, better than I expected for sure.

I didn't get to watch as any as I had originally wanted to. Even had to delay a few I still haven't seen.

Dog Days and Log Horizon are as they have been, although not quite at their best. KanColle is stereotypical and cliché, but isn't bad and is very watchable despite that.

Junketsu no Maria and Koufuku Graffiti are two I saw the beginning of, but ran out of time. Would like to see them. And Yona of the Dawn.

Dog Days'' I gave up on halfway through. Just didn't feel as charming as the earlier seasons, and it's a show that runs pretty much entirely on charm

Yoru No Yatterman starts fairly well and ends fairly well, but in-between that is six episodes of terrible filler

Koufuku Graffiti is a SHAFT series with Food Porn. The comedy isn't much to speak of, and the characters are only okay, but the direction is top-notch

Rolling Girls is a complete mess. Sometimes this works okay, others it doesn't. Never really worse than mediocre, though

Kantai Collection is an excellent comedy. Things work less well when it's trying not to be one (ie, the last three episodes)

Yuri Kuma Arashi is good

Yoru No Yatterman for anime of the season.

Log Horizon is pretty okay for the most part, sometimes pretty good but some arcs drag way too long.

Cross Ange is irredeemable garbage.

Rolling Girls best episodes were the first two and those are just decent, the series just gets worse as it goes along and end in a complete whimper, very few character focus to makes this road trip work.

Yuri Kuma Arashi is style over substance, to which is to say the only substance that is has is the style. Easily the weakest Ikuhara show with the only things working is the weird stylistic choices that worked better in either Utena or Sailor Moon.

Fafner Exodus is easily the best show nobody watched, which is understandable considering the investment needed, but I'd say it's actually one of the best mecha shows in the last 5 years.

Though I'm not sure whether that speaks more for the quality of Fafner, or for the quality of the mecha genre in recent years.

edited 30th Mar '15 5:39:41 PM by Eschaton

Probably the latter. It's been a long time since I can recall watching a mecha series I'd consider good

Suisei no Gargantia is the only one I'd add to that list, and I wouldn't really say that's a pure mecha series anyway.

When I was thinking it over, the first one that came to mind was Gundam Build Fighters. Though not perfect, it was overall just good, which makes GBF Try's middling quality all the more disappointing. This was likely because attention was split between it and G-Reco, which I also found disappointing, mostly because it was very inconsistent, though there were occasional bits of greatness that shined through.

Otherwise it's been a real roller-coaster of quality, with some big OVA series (Gundam Unicorn, Break Blade, Gundam Origin), entertaining series of debatable quality (Valvrave, Aldnoah), total messes (Gundam Age), VERY contested sequels (Aquarion EVOL, Eureka 7 AO), mediocre series with some redeeming aspects (Buddy Complex, Captain Earth), and decent series with certain highlights (Majestic Prince, Gargantia, Sidonia).

But the best sci-fi anime in recent years would Space Battleship Yamato 2199, and I am very looking forward to seeing the new movie.

I thought Gargantia was alright, and the sci-fi slice-of-life angle was interesting, but a lot of people were expecting the whole show to be more like it's first 10 minutes, desperate battle by humanity against an inhuman foe and so on. Which is exactly the kind of series Fafner is, so it's nice to see that done well.

edited 30th Mar '15 6:40:06 PM by Eschaton

Shows I've dropped:

• Yatterman Night: The first episode was excellent, but subsequent episodes failed to capture its spirit.
• Yuri Bear Storm: It's style-over-substance, and it tries to pretend it's deep and meaningful when it's not. It lacks interesting characters or a strong plot and/or setting, and it's only bait for yuri fans who want to think they're watching Shakespeare.
• The Rolling Girls: The animation is pretty, but the overall plot is a mess and the characters are aggressively bland.
• Unlimited Fafnir: As the representative of all the LN shit this season, it sucked as much as I expected. Did not go past the first episode.

Top 3 (incl. leftovers)

• 3. Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!: This one is actually a pretty good Foil to Yuri Bear Storm. While the one about lesbian bears spends most of its time trying to pretend something it's not and coats itself in pretentious styling and bland social commentary, Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! knows what it is and what its audience wants and wholeheartedly embraces it, opting instead to stand out with its vibrant characters and excellent comedy while shamelessly and openly pandering to its audience. I didn't expect it to enjoy it as much as I did, but holy hot damn it's easily the best non-leftover of this season.
• 2. GARO: The Animation: It's pretty generic, yes, but it prides itself in its execution. The characters are excellently development and have entertaining dynamics, the fights (and CG) are epic, and the overarching plot is a bit weak but it works because it was a thrilling. emotional
• 1. Parasyte: But of course. I'll probably parrot the entire Internet by this point, so I'm just going to say it's probably AOTY.

Overall, this season was a disappointment. Bleh. At least there's spring.

What?

I think I explained my point much better later, but yeah, that wording was something of a brainfart.

Carryovers from Fall 2014:

Cross Ange: "Bizarre it's, from start to end." It's a trainwreck, and there were times where it was entertaining, but there were also times where it wasn't. It says something when the parody manga is better than the anime.

Gundam Build Fighters Try: It probably says something that I haven't watched last week's ep yet. Just boring compared to the first season.

Log Horizon 2: Pacing issues all around, which I can blame DEEEEEEEEEEEEN for. However, some the late series twists left me cold, and that's what I blame the author for. Liked the Arc Welding ending though.

Shigatsu Wa Kimi No Uso: There were times when watching each episode felt like a chore, but I actually liked the ending to this one.

Winter Series I find that the main theme of this season is "I am disappointed by the ending"

Aldnoah Zero 2: After the Shocking Swerve ending of S1 I expected a trainwreck of a season. But no, it was worse. It wasn't a trainwreck season, it was a filler season. I did not feel attached to any of the characters, and felt the plot was pointless.

Death Parade: Actually a fairly good series. There were some shaky moments, but overall it knew what it wanted to tell and told it.

Koufuku Graffiti: This show made me hungry. Again, it knew what it wanted to do and set out to do it. And what it wanted to do was Moe food porn.

Rolling Girls: First two eps I didn't understand, then suddenly something clicked around ep 3 and it became good, and then ep 9 happened and it crashed. I stand by my belief that the premise needed more eps than it got.

Samurai Warriors: Average. Just average. Final battle probably should have been a bit longer.

Yoru No Yatterman: DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE SEASON. It had an extremely strong start, and the basically blew it. Final ep even had reused footage for it's fight scenes. Probably would have done better with budget.

Yuri Kuma Arashi: So this series started out crazy confusing. Then it tried to explain itself, though I sort of felt the explanations did not match up with the initial crazy confusing. And the ending was a trope so well worn it's become boring. So it was just okay.

And now I bring you what I think is the best anime I watched in the season:

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu LOVE!: It probably says something that I felt the parody Magical Boy series had a stronger plot than many other shows this season. I dunno if that says something about the season or something about me. In any case, it was silly, it was funny, it had an ending that felt like every Magical Girl finale rolled into one. It worked.

Still Ongoing

Fafner Exodus: I have no idea if it ends next episode, if it's split-cour, or if it will keep going. In any case, it's an extremely solid series and I say this as someone who never watched the original.

Assassination Classroom: It's a straight up adaptation of a manga I think is very good, and the anime is able to capture that.

Sailor Moon Crystal: Still not sure why I'm watching this...

World Trigger: When things actually happen in this show, it's good. But otherwise the bad pacing makes it not good.

Go Princess Precure: I was pleasantly surprised when this turned out to be a better show than I thought it would be, based on the premise. This Pretty Cure season holds a lot of promise...but then that's what I thought about Doki Doki and Happiness Charge, and their endings disappointed me. We'll see...

edited 30th Mar '15 7:34:12 PM by universalperson

Read the World Trigger manga instead. Vast improvement.

Haven't finished a lot of the Winter shows, so I'll be posting my impressions later. ...There will be a lot of them.