Summer 2016 Anime

Planetarian is well made but it feels like it wants me to care about Yumemi which isn't going to happen. Girl is creepy

Amanchu is even slower than the original manga. I can't do this

91Days is good but not my speed

Alderamin desperately wants to be good, but just isn't that well written. Might be worth giving another episode to see if it improves once the plot gets going

Thunderbolt Fantasy is technically impressive, but there's only so much you can do with puppets. Entertaining piece of camp, though I'm not sure if this is enough to carry a series

edited 8th Jul '16 8:41:32 PM by Hylarn

Made a Regalia thread.

Planetarian was interesting but you can see its VN origins. Much better than Re-Write though.

91 Days is great, a proper mafia story.

Amanchu! is as good as the manga was, a good competitor in the healing genre.

Alderamin on the Sky was interesting. Fantasy setting, but not much use made yet of the spirits/imps they all carry, nice mix of likeable but different characters, good introductionary episode with a hook that makes me want to continue.

Thunderbolt Fantasy: I'd forgotten this was a puppet show rather than a straight anime and to me it felt more like a Chinese kung fu movie than anything else. Technically it's a great achievement, even if they resort to the old Gerry Anderson trick of using real people in close ups on body parts.

The first episode of Alderamin cut out a lot of the world-building from the light novel. That may or may not be a good thing - it'll be interesting to see if it addresses it later on.

Time Travel Shoujo: Mari Waka to 8-nin no Kagakusha-tachi... Not quite sure what to think of this one after the first episode. What the hell was that baseball? And Translator Microbes, were they hiding in that pedant too?

Still, a few things shown in the 'past' are rather accurate. E.g., noblewomen that wore corsets of that epoch often suffered from deformed chest, which caused some serious health problems.

Alderamin on the Sky Episode 1: This seems quite good. The setting has an interesting tech level (swords, air guns, crossbows, blimps) combind with spirits and magic. The main character seems quite cool and am guessing is either a member of the princess's family or some previous royal family judging by his reaction to her.

Qualidea Code Idea is good, but I hate the apparent protagonist. I suspect there will be Character Development for him in the future, but I won't last long enough to see that... Dropped.

edited 9th Jul '16 10:52:42 AM by NHunter

I'm the opposite and am glad it turned out exactly as I wanted it to since its so far the only thing I'm watching this season.

I'm sincerely sad that it appears I'm unable to enjoy DAYS (not 91). I'm usually a sucker for these sport shows, just because they're so easy to do right. DAYS seems to be playing the formula so incredibly straight yet strangely keeping a bit of a distance from the characters so it's not at all enjoyable.

Alderamin on the Sky: Well, that was interesting. Cool looking setting, interesting characters and gripping plot right from the start. Definitely gonna keep watching. maybe make a thread later.

Qualidea Code is sort of a standard LN on a grander scale. Does have some of the worst elements removed and some new stuff, but still very LN. I'll be giving it another episode, but I'm not sure I'll keep watching if the focus stays on the air force

Ange Vierge isn't very good

So, everything I'm interested in has aired. Pretty certain I'll be watching Macross, Sunshine, and Regalia. Less certain about Zestiria, Taboo-tattoo, Alderamin, Thunderbolt, and Qualidea

I'm watching Masou H x H and Food Wars 2. Only other thing I care for this season is Active Raid 2.

91 Days, Taboo Tattoo, Qualidea Code, and maybe Servamp

Mine would be Puzzle & Dragons X and New Game!. Speaking of the former, the reviewers at ANN gave it get at least 3 out of 5, which quite surprised me because it is the first little boys anime that they previewed. Having high production values and animation quality helped too.

edited 9th Jul '16 11:01:09 PM by murazrai

Qualidea Code had an entertaining first episode, nothing particularly special but executed well with some cool powers and fun characters (I particularly like the Idiot Head with the BFS and the Idol Support Mage main girl was good as well).

Ange Vierge is rather basic but has nothing too offensive. It reminds me of ZX Ignition

edited 10th Jul '16 1:08:04 PM by SebastianGray

Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru - Wow, the first episode was even better than I hoped. I've read the manga and with the exception of few small parts cut out I think, it felt like it came straight from the pages of the manga itself. This has one of those premises that seem pretty ordinary, but its charm pretty much relies on the art club members just being odd and driving the comedy into amusing situations. Plus it has a nice little touch of romance that I like. But ultimately I gotta say I'm most impressed by the animation/art and it has some surprisingly good music in the background and for both themes.

Berserk (2016) episode 2: After the first episode's disappointments, I thought that the second episode surprisingly didn't suck. As I had hoped, the first episode was the result of them trying to awkwardly cram too much backstory, exposition, and character introductions from multiple Arcs into one episode, and they can slow down a bit now that they're already into the Chapter of the Binding Chain storyline. As a fanatical Berserk fan, I am biased both to compare it unfavorably to the original manga, and to forgive certain faults just because it's Berserk; hopefully the two will cancel out. Even I have to admit that this is a flawed adaptation right from the get-go, and the first episode made me worry that it would turn out even less faithful than the movies, but now I am hopeful that this will not be a chore to watch.

First off, the CG art style isn't going to get substantially better, and that's a loss that any of us who stick around will have to accept. I've already learned to ignore it, which doesn't excuse it since it's way below the quality established by its peers, but I can actually have fun watching the action sequences because I've simply lowered my expectations. The 2D sequences of flashbacks to the Golden Age, while nothing to write home about on their own merits, are refreshing in comparison. The cinematography is trying to take advantage of the 3D medium for lots of Matrix-style moving camera effects, which enables some cool stuff but also lends itself to overuse. Whatever turns out good mostly owes its success to the source material. The pacing and plot in episode 2 hew closely to the manga in contrast to the first which took a lot of liberties, and the action scenes feature a lot of shot-for-shot recreations of panels from the manga, which hardcore fans are more likely to appreciate.

The sound design is a bit of a problem: the sword sound effects vary from pretty good to sounding like smacking somebody with a frying pan. The ost is also a tad off. Sagisu did great in the movie trilogy when conducting a more romantic orchestral score, but this time his insertion of lots of electric guitar and noise is distracting. At least I like the OP and ED.

Farnese and Serpico are well-introduced, and I think that Farnese's VA in particular sells her to the audience as a complex character. It's a shame that we skipped a whole Arc of Guts' character development, and that Puck and his relationship with Guts got the short end of the stick, but at least they're inhabiting their roles now.

The inter cutting of the past and present to tell the story seems to me like a viable way to go. We got the hundred man fight, one of Guts heart-to-hearts with Griffith, and images from the Eclipse in various flashbacks that were inserted about as naturally as they could be. The way that Farnese recapped the history of the Band of the Hawk to Guts was a little ham-fisted, but at least it will help catch up new viewers. I am interested in where we're going with episode 3, because the preview makes it look like there will be even more original content.

I have lately begun to believe Digibro's maxim that a show will usually reveal most of its problems in the very first episode, and the first one was definitely pretty bad, but I think this show might have pulled out of its nose-dive. I'll be tuning in this week again.

edited 10th Jul '16 9:07:39 PM by TheBigBopper

As a Berserk fan I just find the animation unacceptably bad and refuse to watch the 2016 anime any further because of that.

I can't really relate to the attitudes of a lot of Berserk fans defending it (not anyone here, mind you) saying it's "better than nothing". I guess my perspective is just that the manga is already the ultimate, complete version of the story so I'm really not starved for an anime adaptation to the point where I'd just accept anything that comes my way or be especially forgiving of something with as many problems as the 2016's anime first episode.

Not commenting on their quality here — hopefully Thunderbolt Fantasy and The Outcast means CR will bring more Chinese animation to the West.

Wermacht, far be it from me to suggest you watch what fails to meet your minimum standards of quality. I readily admit that this is not the adaptation Berserk deserves, and almost anyone else could have animated it better. There is just something about this ugly baby that I find charming, that's all there is to it.

Alderamin on the Sky Episode 1: Sometimes the dialogue is stiffer than the character design, but otherwise managed some decent worldbuilding. The world itself is familiar, but distinct enough from the usual fantasy fare to be interesting. Seems to promise a focus on military tactics, but jury's out on whether it'll deliver.

Time Travel Shoujo Episode 1: Funnily enough, it IS possible to cause ventricular fibrillation by blunt trauma to the chest, though in this case the baseball should have fractured a rib or two instead! It was a kick seeing William Gilbert in an anime, hahaha. Can't wait to meet the other great thinkers... Anyway, the girl sure is chill about being potentially trapped in the past, but at least we can get right to the edutainment, complete with a Quick Science segment! Love it.

91 Days Episode 1: An atmosphere soaked in the fumes of the Prohibition Era married to the classic revenge plot, backed up by style and elegant writing. This one's a keeper.

Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru! Episode 1: One of those comedies that rely on the collisions between cast members to work, and so far it's proven to be super charming. Apart from the panty gag which was just outright harassment. Also: production quality is high, which is a plus.

edited 11th Jul '16 9:05:17 AM by fillerdude

I'm still baffled on why they decided to let Berserk be animated by the same studio that did Teekyu. Then again, the studio that animated the 1997 anime is quite busy doing Pokemon.

Mob Psycho 100: This seems fun but so far doesn't seem quite as good as the other series by the author. It does seem to have some potential though so it could be interesting.

Well, the difference is that One-Punch Man doesn't have Reigen.

The central joke in both series is that the main character is completely invincible, but that doesn't improve their life in any way.

Taboo Tattoo's second episode came out. Getting into the plot set-up with this one

Basically the long and short of it is that Stalker girl and her companion are U.S Army looking to keep the Triggerless Tattoo under watch due to the simple fact that he would be used as a lab rat by the Kingdom/or he would get killed by his own Tattoo

Mood Whiplash doesn't even begin to describe this episode. It literally goes from comedy to disturbingy/creepy/bloody scenes in just about a few minutes to reveal our antangonists. The main one seems to be a female Psychopathic Manchild along with her two subordinates one of which is a sadist and the other of which looks disturbingly young and she seems to have a brainwashing power....

edited 11th Jul '16 12:58:54 PM by Ecrivan