Winter 2016 Anime

The first PV for Reikenzan is out, and—

It's very rushed. Studio DEEN is very desperate for money.

• Sure Watch:
  • Koyomimonogatari: I've gotten this far and Owari still has its moments. Why not? Also with Kizumonogatari just around the corner this is the year for any Monogatari watcher.
  • Dagashi Kashi: Japanese snacks has always been an interesting topic, and some of them may unexpectedly hit you like a truck full of nostalgia, as evident by several manga chapters I've read. Also, Hotaru is so crazy it's funny.
  • Haruchika: Hyouka meets Hibike! Euphonium, with a twist: both leads has the hots for the teacher. It has P.A. Works behind it. Given their good-bad-good policy and how Charlotte was kinda meh, this one should be good. Here's hoping it can be better than the game.
  • Hai to Gensou no Grimgar: Some cry the second coming of Sword Art Online, but I've heard better from ones reading the novels. (Not that SAO was all that bad, the first 14 episodes, at least, is good).
  • Musaigen no Phantom World: Kyoani is an instant watch. They've stated that the series is more comedy than drama so expect Amagi Brilliant Park in a Kyoukai no Kanata-like setting. Hopefully does better than both. Either way, it'll be a blast to watch.
  • Ajin: A classic take on the immortality thingy. Looks promising, although I have doubts on Polygon's ability to animate 3D.
• Will give a shot:
  • Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu: Looking past the painfully generic premise, it's written by Romeo fucking Tanaka, which means it has a good chance of being the most intriguing/craziest show plot-wise in its season. That alone is worth watching the show for.
  • Sekkou Boys: This one trigger 'Oh, Japan so crazy' reactions from people who've seen it all. I haven't.
  • Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm: I never learn. This has that potential to turn out really good but will most likely fail to live up to expectations.

Durarara!!x2 Ketsu is my only "sure watch" this season. Everything else will get the 1 episode treatment to catch my interest before I drop them.

My only guaranteed watches are Fairy Tail Zero, Maho Girls Precure!, and Koyomimonogatari and that's only because they're from franchises that I'm a fan of. Durarara might have been on the list but I didn't watch the last cour because of a lack of fansubs for it.

All right, time to make me a list

Let's see, the absolute definite ones are:

• Durararax2 Ketsu
• Fairy Tail Zero (though considering it's essentially acting as a buffer arc for regular Fairy Tail, that's a given)
• Gate second season

Will check out (depending on regional availability and/or ready access to fansubs)

• Active Raid -Kidou Kyoushuushitsu Dai-Hakkei-
• Ajin
• Koukaku No Pandora - Ghost Urn (given how heavy Shirow works can get it might be interesting to see his lighter stuff)
• Luck And Logic
• Schwarzesmarken

That list will probably get trimmed a bit, especially since I've also got Iron Blooded Orphans ongoing.

Musaigen no Phantom World/Myriad Colours Phantom World episode 1 is out and it is quite entertaining so far. A Supernatural Harem Comedy where the lead is Genre Savvy enough to attempt to avoid one of the clichés (even if he did end up with a different one). It seems colourful and slightly odd (limbo dancing utility poll ghosts?)with and interesting world even if the exposition was heavy-handed. The series definitely seems interesting.

edited 6th Jan '16 3:29:20 PM by SebastianGray

Haru Chika is really mediocre edging toward below average. At least it has a gay male character who isn't treated as a joke/disgusting.

Also, the character designs in the novel illustrations looked both significantly different and about a million times more interesting.

Phantom World: Great visuals, terrible story. Like, I'd actually compare the writing fairly negatively to most other LN adaptations

Haruchika: Something about the artstyle is really off-putting to me. I can't do this

I read the manga adpatation of Undefeated Bahamut Chronicles, it has problems. But it doesn't share most of the problem that Infinite Stratos have. It has several fanservice moment, but most of Light Novels have them anyway....

... also, how can someone be undefeatable while also being the weakest? You can't just mix both together! (the English title somehow omitted "the weakest" part.)

Kyoani adapted the fuck out of Phantom World, but even the most beautifully-polished turd can't get beyond being a mildly endearing one-episode curiosity. I'm sure the author is super hyped that his crappy, derivative amateur work got treated to such superb craftsmanship, but there's not really anything in it for the rest of us.

• Phantom World: Proves that good execution and production values can breathe new life to a tired premise. They seem to be in a hurry to get the cast together. The OST is top-notch. The As You Know exposition Ichijou threw at Reina could've been done better, though. For what it is, a very good way to start the season.
• Haruchika: They put less effort into this than they do to Charlotte, and it's pretty telling. While the titular duo has their moments, the mystery itself and the solution felt a bit too contrived to my liking. I guess I set my expectations a bit too high for this. Will follow several more episodes to see if the mysteries hold up.

Phantom World seems interesting. Maybe not as action-y as I wanted but I laughed and I suppose that's good enough. I still hunger for a full out action series done by Kyoani that takes the hype and awesome of chuu2's delusion battles and realizes them in full. Beyond the Boundary didn't come close and that made me a bit sad.

edited 7th Jan '16 4:13:10 AM by Silentedge89

@flamemario: I can think of a couple ways: He's the weakest out of all those who remain undefeated. And all these people who've never lost have never fought each other. Or his offensive capabilities suck (hence he's weak), but his defensive capabilities make him essentially invincible, meaning all he has to do is whittle down his opponent and he'll win every time.

edited 7th Jan '16 8:21:34 AM by HanabiraKage

So out of things I watched thus far...

Musaigen no Phantom World: One word I'd use to describe this - fun. Right from the start the episode was brimming with energy -the characters, the dialog, the action, all of it was full of energy and very entertaining. The basic set up - super powered teenagers dealing with mysterious creatures - is a well known one but they are definitely putting their own twist on it having lots of fun with it. I mean a Limbo competition? is crazy, but somehow still makes sense in context. Also, after the first episode I like every single character, which doesn't happen all that often.

The anime looks amazing, the character designs are great, the animation is Kyo Ani at it's best and the movement was just incredible. They are going full throttle with this.

Haruchika: Haruta to Chika wa Seishun Suru: Ugh, getting thought this was a chore. It wasn't aggressively bad, just uninteresting and bellow average in all respects. A boring, unfocused mess that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be - a music series, school club slice of life, mystery, romantic comedy? It isn't any good at any of those. The biggest sin of it is that it fails to garner any interest for what going on. I could bring myself to care for the main character desire to change herself, or the other guy wish to for the club to reach the top, or the mystery in the episode, or the bigger mystery behind the teacher, or main character crush on the teacher... It's not like there's a problem with any of the elements on paper, it's just the delivery that falls flat on it's face before even taking the first step.

Visually there's nothing to write home about. The animation is passable but the art style and character designs are somehow unpleasant to look at. I can't even pinpoint what exactly is the problem, they just are.

...

So, one hit and one miss so far, but it's still way to early to get an impression for the season as a whole. I'll report later after watching some more first episodes.

Myriad Colour Phantom World - I want to like this, but all that boob-rubbing spellcasting and the utterly stupid... uh... boob-bounce-limbo scene? Are not filling me with confidence. The characters are fine enough, and the animation is obviously great, but... bleh.

Mura Chika - I'm... not seeing what's off about the animation here. Looks perfectly fine to me. Anyways, I'm not really sure why it's on my watch list, since music-club stuff is not my thing, but I liked the episode well enough. Fun characters, laidback show, and I guess I can tolerate the music stuff. Surprisingly going to follow this, at least for a couple more episodes.

You know I think this is the first season in like 5 years without a Manga Time Kirara series in it... damnit I need my light slice of life fix.

Nothing in this season seems to even become close to it.

edited 7th Jan '16 11:34:16 AM by Memers

Active Raid: Seems like a nice setting with some cool tech and the political element is interesting but the pacing was far too fast for my liking and I'm not liking the main female character much. Some of the other characters seem interesting though and it was definitely had some funny moments, even if I felt it was trying a little to hard to be funny in places. A very mixed bag all told.

Prince of Stride seems good.

Shoujo-tachi: Starting off with poorly-acted yuri drama, an excellent start indeed. (At least they're into it.) Then we got repetition of the name Bunta, finally a name I can remember. That is a lot of Bunta. Yep, Yuuka is a gem all right. Don't quite care about Mysterious Black-haired Girl yet. Atomu's an all right guy.

"A true bitch clads herself in innocence for the sake of bitchiness" - Bitch Queen 2016

Okay now I care about Kuroda-san. I would never go on one of those drop rides.

Yeah, go do something fun, couples are lame.

Yesss let's make a Bishoujo game yeessss!

And Kuroda loves yuri too. She also is a great girl.

This is probably gonna be good.

edited 7th Jan '16 12:12:27 PM by Ruise

Made a thread for Phantom world.

in order of having watched tonight:

Musaigen no Phantom World: light novel nonsense given the Kyo Ana treatment so it looks gorgeous at least, while the setting is a bit more original than most, the and while there was the obligatory bit of dumb even when lampshaded fan service we at least got a novel excuse for a bit of Gainaxing later on.

Active Raid: wanted to do too much at the same time to fully succeed as a fluffy action sci-fi series, but at least the writer put some nods to police procedure in it.

Boku Dake ga Inai Machi: failed mangaka has the involuntary power to leap backwards in time to right things that are going to go wrong, usually only a few minutes, but then something big happens. Excellently done so far and I liked the main character's mother; shame she got murdered at the end how often do you actually see mothers in anime, especially mothers of grownup characters? The overall mystery is barely explained at this point but the way the first episode was build up was promising. Best series start I've seen so far this season.

Prince of Stride: decently done sports anime featuring some souped up parkours like sport. A slight homo erotic undertone in places, not that that's a bad thing.

Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya o Mezasu: mostly character introduction leading up to the great revelation of what the series is going to be about. It's mostly a collection of archetypes so far: there's genki girl/friend of main character, side bro and of course mysterious slightly warped long black haired loner girl Kuroda driving the plot. Main character Bunta is not your average loser geek given a chance at redemption but seems well socialised and even somewhat popular in his class; liked the riajuu comment sidebro & genki girl made before they abandoned their snooping. This could be a great otaku bait(ing) series and I always like the archetype Kuroda represents so will definately follow.

Musaigen no Phantom World Episode 1: While it's nothing original for its genre it does manage to be genuinely funny which is something I can't say applies to the rest of them. Makes me glad I decided to give it a chance. I'll probably keep watching it so long as it keeps getting decent fansubs.

Erased is superb, and should be watched if you have any love in your heart for supernatural thrillers. That was a hell of a first episode.

Active Raid: Pretty nice Sci-Fi action series about an experimental unit of cops that use advanced body armor to fight crime. I liked how the newbie was trying to act important but was constantly ignored and proved wrong. The suits look pretty cool, and the unit has this "bunch of misfits" feel to it. Will follow this.

Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya o Mezasu: Definitely a set-up type episode, we don't find out what the series will be about until near the end. Done pretty well too, we got to knew the characters pretty well, especially the male lead who amazingly for this type of series isn't a total loser, but a capable, well adjusted guy who was simply still searching for some goal in life. The female lead too, while fitting the mysterious black haired loner girl archetype is pretty interesting and not nearly as abrasive as those types tend to be. Whatever this anime succeeds or fails depends on what will happen next, but the first episode alone got me hooked. Will follow.

Active Raid: Not really feeling this one for whatever reason. I'll probably give it another episode, though

Boku dake ga Inai Machi: This is probably good, but I can't stand it. It's the narration, I think

Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya o Mezasu: On one hand, this seems to be quite well made. On the other, it's not really in a genre I like. Will probably watch this if I'm short on other interesting series

Norn9: Great when it's being atmospheric, mediocre whenever the characters open their mouths

Boku Machi seems likely to be the standout of the season.