Winter 2017 Anime

It doesn't have detailed artwork but I would rec Kono Suba for its massively snarky humor and there are moments of badassness.

Its a straight up comedy but I would rec Gabriel Dropout, Satania straight up channels Jo Jo style poses and such when she gets cocky.

edited 1st Mar '17 5:36:12 AM by Memers

The Food Porn is not a flaw. It's pretty

It is still subdued, but that's also a good thing, not a bad things. As for "lowest ranking people"... with all that focus they put on the king?

. . . . I never understand people who think things like Acca's cakes and bread are pointless. They're nice to look at. They add characterization - to the characters, and to the show itself. Atmosphere.

Also, if you're dismissing... who? Rail? Schwan? as comic relief, then...

Yeah, you're just completely missing the point of this show.

The fluff is the point. The Food Porn is the point. The point is to get you to fall in love with these characters.

I'm not making value judgements by calling it subdued and bureaucratic. I'm merely describing, and acknowledging those aren't things that appeal to everyone.

What I referring to with the 'lowest ranking people' comment, by the way, is that the story royal intrigues last episode was told mostly from the point of view of the son of a bodyguard's manservant. It was a very deliberate choice on the show's part to make the flashback primarily about how it affected the person who had the least power and influence out of everyone involved.

Don't tell me I'm missing the point of the show when you fail to acknowledge that and say 'look how much focus the King got' with his, what, three lines last episode?

Curse you Seo, always defying expectations like that!

I thought I was I was prepared for this week's Fuuka but nooooooo Seo you just have to troll us all don't you. *sigh*

Did what I think happened happened in the latest episode of Fuuka

Please tell me, I"ll be so happy if it is

From what I heard, it's the opposite.

Holy cow, did Fuuka destroyed a truck?

10 episodes in and Odile is still the only good thing about Schoolgirl strikers. I need to get it off my chest. Meanwhile Kemono friends another so-so show based on a phone app is getting a crapton of art in pixiv and Danbooru.

edited 11th Mar '17 10:23:34 AM by aliastheabnormal

I confess, I'm one of those idiots who needs a plot synopsis/sample of the art style first in order to decide which anime to watch. I keep getting long lists of just "here's 20 titles, just go watch it—" and I haven't even gotten around to older stuff like Evangelion or Kill La Kill (or Tiger and Bunny, or Hellsing, or Gurren Lagann) yet. I'm sorry.

It wasn't the fanservice that made me unsure whether I wanted to watch KLK, it was the fact that Panty and Stocking was the only fanservice anime I'd felt comfortable watching, and I still feel burned by that ending. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to watch anything that might have a similar ending.

edited 11th Mar '17 8:03:54 PM by GovernorExplosion

In that case, I can assure you that Panty & Stocking's ending is uniquely terrible and by no means representative of how that studio normally works. Panty & Stocking is a super atypical anime by any standard, really.

Although Gurren Lagann's ending also burned me. It was a letdown

Gurren Lagann's ending was good to me.

Re: ACCA:

I just wanna say that if I were Jean Otus, my endgame would be to marry Mauve, let her run the country, then spend all my time smoking and eating desserts.

That or dying my hair, leaving Rail in a ditch with a new haircut, and becoming a Pranettan miner.

If I were Jean Otus, I'd stop smoking because it's bad for the health and coup leaders try to bribe you with cigs, then stop Rail from stalking my sister.

If you ask me what my impressions of that show are six months from now after my memory of it fades, I'm probably going to respond with something like "everyone eats unhealthy food and stalks Jean's sister".

Some thoughts about the threadless shows:

ACCA: Sort of calming what with how laid back it is. The political intrigue falls short of actually being intriguing, unfortunately. Most people just enjoy Jean being Jean, Lotta being cute, and the bread looking sumptuous.

YowaPeda: It's our second time seeing the first-year race, and it's still exciting. Sugimoto a.k.a. that one first year who didn't ride in the Inter High is raring to step up from the role of minor character. Jury's out on whether circumstances will let him, though...

MinaKami: The anti-thesis to YowaPeda above, by having an all-girls cast who ride bikes for road trips. Nice and comfy and considerably better than expected.

elDLIVE: Terrible.

Piace - Watashi no Italian: If you're into Italian food, this will do for a quick snack.

Chaos;Child: Chaotic indeed. Just reveal after reveal after reveal with no semblance of weight. The jargon doesn't help either; it tries to dress up the story and make it sound more complicated than it really is.

Hand Shakers: Is it just me or has it become a lot less garish? Which makes the visual experience more tolerable.

Tiger Mask: I'm not sure if this pyramid-ring thing actually happened in wrestling at some point, but it's appropriately over-the-top fun. Certainly better than a few of the, err, off-focus episodes.

Rakugo: Simply amazing. Yakumo's last performance is Jugemu. For his grandson. I'm not tearing up at all.

edited 21st Mar '17 9:25:08 AM by fillerdude

PSA for fans of Rakugo: The manga is being sold on the digital manga storefront Bookwalker.

If you love Rakugo, but are forced to lending link it because fuck Crunchyroll, you can support it by buying the manga there.

Also, thoughts on the second season of Rakugo up to episode 9- It's still great, but I don't think it's as good as the first season.

The rakugo scenes, the art, the fucking muuusic is so on point, but I have a few personal niggles with how the story went. Rakugo S1 had a bunch of timeskips, some large and some wide. I feel like S2 jumps all over the place a bit too much? Time passes a lot, between episodes, and it can get a bit hard orienting yourself as to when you are at any given moment.

Biggest niggle is personal; I wanted more Yotaro and Konatsu. It felt like the bulk of the latter half is focusing on Sukeroku's past demons haunting him, and his fatigue with the art and life. It's a good story, and really from the beginning Rakugo is his story, but I wanted more of the other main characters, Konatsu especially.

edited 22nd Mar '17 6:33:11 AM by mrsunshinesprinkles

My roundup of this cour's shows (with internet medals for the standouts):

• ACCA: I liked it, but at the same time I can't recommend it. It's a subdued, political suspense-oriented show, and its writing is not good enough to rise above its niche appeal. Most of the intrigue fails to hit the mark because either the reveal is extremely obvious, or the clues were offscreen. Save for a pretty good one at the end. I would have also preferred if the story resembled more of a countrywide tour, with Jean maybe spending 2-3 episodes in each state, but that's probably too much budget for too little sales. But I loved the illogical mishmash setting, Jean is one of the most suave guys around, and there's bundles of lovingly rendered bread. Yes, bread, for some reason.
• Akiba's Trip: A charmingly goofy anime that knows how to take an absurd premise and run with it. Expect plenty of stripping-style special moves. I particularly liked how it delved into one or two geek subcultures per episode, so if geeky humor is your thing then check this one out. The audiophile gag still makes me laugh. Oh, and it also has some surprisingly solid action sequences.
• Chaos;Child: Suffers the same fate as Occultic;Nine: feels more like a bulleted list of plot elements than a cohesive tale. The funny thing is, when you strip away the jargon the story is actually quite easy to follow, and there are some good solid twists in there, but it doesn't resonate, because the show doesn't— can't— spend time building up intrigue, so it just hits you again and again with exposition.
• elDLIVE: Terrible, and I have a high tolerance for shonen schlock. The lead is annoyingly wimpy, his love interest is annoyingly tsun, and the rest of the cast forgettably one-note. The character designs come in two flavors: 1) 100% hotness for fan appreciation or 2) rubber alien costume from 1970s sci fi. The one good thing I noted was the creative transitions, which could be anything from books being set down on a table, to a scene being "wiped away" by a pair of legs.
• Demi-chan wa Kataritai: My favorite non-sequel of the cour. Hell, it would still be a strong contender even if we counted the sequels, which is saying a lot. Seriously: stellar voice acting, fluid animation, fantastic directing, good production, well thought out story tackling the issues of being just a little bit different. Hikari is the correct way of portraying a lovable sunny idiot. Hah, a sunny vampire, who would've thought? Ahem. Anyway, from what I hear the anime is better than the manga. Go give this a watch if you haven't already.
• Hand Shakers: No two ways about it— awful, awful art and direction. Lots of weird angles and perspectives inserted for no good reason other than to show off. Except what they're showing off is B-grade character art and CGI that clash horribly with backgrounds that got on the bad side of a Photoshop filter. The story: Boy Gets Power and Uses It to Save Girl from Enemy of the Week. There's some crap about fighting God and realizing wishes but none of that actually comes up in the show proper. Boo.
• KonoSuba: Comedy gold. Do I even have to say anything, chances are you've watched this. and would give more for more EXPLOSIONS
• MinaKami: Comes with a surprisingly in-depth knowledge of the cycling scene (complete with after-credits trivia segments). The protagonists get into a couple of hot-blooded races, but they also spend a lot of time just touring cities on their bikes, which I found rather refreshing. A good blend of, well, YowaPeda and CGDCT.
• Onihei: Standard police procedural in a feudal Japan setting. Some cases were cool, some were a bore. I don't really have much to say about it.
• Piace - Watashi no Italian: Want something short and sweet and make you want to get some Italian grub? Here.
• Seiren: Falls short of replicating the success of the AmagamiSS formula, and this is because there is a lot of clutter. Too much screentime given to secondary characters (particularly the exasperating repeating gag of that one guy being a furry), too many pseudo-fetishes, too many plot tangents that fizzle out and hurt the conclusion. The actual romance, on the other hand, there's too little of. A big shame, given that the heroines do a good job of being attractive (why hello smart and sexy gamer girl), even if they edge a bit too much into outright wish fulfillment.
• Yowamushi Pedal: This time our protagonists are also the defending champions, which is a neat little twist on the typical sports anime paradigm. The author then deftly injects tension by tackling a relatively unexplored plot thread in these kinds of shows— namely, what happens when the third years graduate, and the former kouhai have to take up the mantle of leaders? All in all, this show is not hitting the brakes just yet.

Part 2 coming right up. Get ready for some pure unadulterated opinion.

edited 31st Mar '17 9:04:26 AM by fillerdude

So what's the best stuff this season?

You know me, I'm a sucker for the Classics. GAINAX, Studio TRIGGER, Legend of Galactic Heroes, Madoka, Jojo... Give me depth or give me insanity, but, above all, give me genuine emotion.

Scums Wish is nice.

I think the best stuff is Yojo senki, maid dragon, and kono suba.

Scum's Wish seems heartbreaking from the very start! Is the tone anything like Utena?

Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju is also a real treat this season.

Demi Chan Wa Kataritai, Gabriel Dropout, Kono Suba, and Kobayashi San Chi No Maid Dragon were the highlights of the season for me.