Fall 2014 Anime Season

They will be screwed in the next episode whose title is Arzenal in Flames.

It's almost like Arzenal's (main) field leader is cursed ever since Ange ended up on the island.

edited 21st Dec '14 5:47:03 PM by GrandPrincePaulII

As this season draws to a close, I humbly present my impressions of the finished or near-finished shows in this roundup:

• Amagi Brilliant Park: Not brilliant, but a theme park's worth of fun. All hail the bloodthirsty mascot trio.
• Shirogane no Ishi no Argevollen: Atypical, but not the good kind. Okay-ish overall.
• Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken: Somewhat amusing and raunchy. Adequate timewaster.
• Akame ga Kill: The anime-original content was better than expected— in particular Akame's fight with Esdeath at the end was ace!
• Yowamushi Pedal: Onoda should really stop freaking out over every little thing.
• Jinsei: Utmost thanks to SCIENCE for gracing us with her presence.
• Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai: Bog-standard harem that doesn't do anything really interesting with its other major plot thread.
• Garo the Animation: Metal. And the combat is glorious. At the end Alfonso even gets the Golden Armor, it's sweet.
• Sanzoku no Musume no Ronja: CG Ghibli art is actually rather easy on the eyes! And the relaxed ambience is nice. Though it's a bit too relaxed (I find myself blanking out at times) but this is some quality slice-of-life. Plus it has weird cute fantasy creatures.
• Psycho Pass 2: Significantly weaker than the first season. The core plot was interesting but the story failed to deliver. It still had its moments though, such as Akane's imaginary talk with Kogami.
• Yuuki Yuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Not as tight as I would've wanted, but it does do some interesting things.
• Mushishi: In my opinion, has had some of the more hauntingly beautiful episodes of the entire franchise. Episode 21 in particular was gripping.
• Cross Ange: Riddled with lolz.
• Parasyte: Several flaws here and there, but it's stellar body horror fun.
• Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso: Yes, it's difficult to swallow its earnest endorsement of the manic pizie dream girl approach to solving deep-seated emotional trauma. But man, the gorgeous art. The masterful directing. The finger-tappingly sumptuous music. It really does hit a lot of the notes right.
• Hitsugi no Chaika: Rushed, but still a great watch. It's no slouch in the action department and the Red and White Chaikas are A-grade adorable. Also Frederica provides the best GIF material.
• Gundam Reconguista in G: Obtuse dialogue but delightful worldbuilding. The retro-esque art style is a feast for the eyes.
• Selector Spread Wixoss: Equal parts so-so melodrama and abject failure of a TCG anime. Red girl seriously should have been the lead.
• Trinity Seven: Sure it's a mess of storytelling, but thankfully it doesn't really take itself seriously. The Thema magic system is cool, the lead guy is hilarious and his harem is full of girls cute, cool and quirky. That's plenty of stuff to watch for.
• Akatsuki no Yona: Surprisingly action-packed. Seriously people get stabbed and sliced nearly every other episode, it's great. Yona has also become a more appealing character thanks to the magic of character development.
• In Search of Lost Time: Decent as far as time travel plots go. Could have condensed the story in to fewer episodes, though. It's nice to see the "original" timeline get a happy end.
• Inou Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de: The superpowers quickly fade into the background in favor of the standard harem proceedings, unfortunately. But the harem stuff is good too; Hatoko's rant comes to mind, and Andou has pretty good chemistry with Tomoyo.
• Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis: It makes me wish more anime had the budget this one has. It looks and moves so good.
• Grisaia no Kajitsu: Skip straight to Amane's story arc. Play the VN if you're interested in the other girls' stories. Disclaimer: I have not actually played the visual novel myself.
• Sword Art Online: Sinon just shoved Asuna off the "My Favorite SAO Girl" position. Though the Asuna focus arc was pretty good~
• Sora no Method: Baffling grudges in the early episodes soured the experience, and I think the show lacked the merits to offset that.
• Gundam Build Fighters Try: The mecha action is on par with the previous season's (and no Build Knuckle spam!), but the gravitas is weaker, in part because there hasn't been any notable rival yet, someone like Fellini and Meijin. Fumina's excellent, though!
• Madan no Ou to Vanadis: I really wanted to like this, but as it stands it's only above average.
• Magic Kaito 1412: I hereby admit that the episodes with Conan are the ones I enjoy the most. Oh, and bravo to the titular Kaito, master of Clark Kenting!
• Nanatsu no Taizai: The Seven Deadly Sins are an entertaining bunch. And the action! Slashes, beatdowns, all sorts of asskicking in rowdy, landscape-altering glory! This show relishes in its mayhem and I love it.
• World Trigger: It's a testament to the strength of the material that this can hold my attention despite being mostly mediocre and below in all aspects of its execution.
• Log Horizon: Akatsuki's arc bored me, so thank heavens we're tackling Shiroe's side of the story now.
• Fate/Stay Night: What's there to say? It's good.
• Denki-gai no Honya-san: At its best when it's going for the laughs. The shipping ain't half-bad but it's just not as compelling as the comedy.

Phew. I hope next season is less hectic.

edited 22nd Dec '14 2:15:14 AM by fillerdude

No way I could have watched all that. I guess a salute is in order.

I really liked Barakamon so Kokkuri-san was so welcome for the angry Ono D. It's pretty funky if not as great.

Damn I thought I watched a lot (usually 16-20 per season including ongoing) but I guess I was wrong.

Personal impressions

Ongoing stuff:

G-Reco: Interesting and stylish. Also a monument to why we have dedicated writers. The dialogue is terrible, things happen that don't make sense, there's no sense of characters controlling the plot, etc.
GARO: All around well-made (though I find the action scenes a bit ridiculous), but very standard. Which gives me a lot of trouble in actually caring about it

Finished shows:

WIXOSS: Well-made, but kind of slow at times. Also rather unpleasant, but that's the point
Sora no Method: Pretty, well-directed, good dialogue^note not that it's clever, but that it carries feelings and feels like something people might say, and kind of tiresome after a while. Still, don't regret watching it
Shingeki no Bahamut GENESIS: Way too much budget, some clever dialogue, and not much else. Despite enjoying it, I was remarkably unengaged throughout
Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de aru: Sort of a more anime, upbeat Madoka. Worse in most respects (better fights, and much funnier), but that's not saying much. I actually really enjoyed it. Definitely my pick for the season and up there for the entire year

G-Reco in general is hilariously terrible. There may be a plot somewhere, but I'm more focused on the awful dialogue. Nobody seems to respond to what others are saying, nobody seems to talk at times a normal person would talk, and characterization fails as a result.

It also taught me that 2D mechs are inferior in every way to CG mechs.

I'm of the opinion that the majority of the dialogue would be more tolerable if whoever was translating it actually sat down and did some honest-to-goodness editing on it. I watched all the Universal Century Gundam shows (IE all of Tomino's Gundam work other than Turn-A) and they all had the same issue in large part because the subs were so wooden.

We can never be friends.

edited 29th Dec '14 7:26:02 PM by ComicX6

Eh, you could edit out some of the stiltedness, but the disjointed conversations and bizarre placement of exposition would require some wholesale rewriting to remove

Oh there's no saving some of it I agree, but it can be mitigated.

I doubt subs are to blame. Even taking into account the meaning of, say, "the world is not square", there was no particular reason for that particular character to say that at that particular time. It's not addressing other characters nor it is acknowledged by other character. It just existed.

And yes, every other line of dialogue was like that.

This is only reinforced by the pacing. Too much exposition and stuff happens in one scene, and because it's delivered by the worst dialogue ever, it's utterly confusing. Also not helping is that scenes cut off at awkward times, making otherwise important scenes feel pointless.

TL;DR: It's like Genshiken, but for drama.

Also, watch Akito the Exiled and be amazed at the almighty power of CG mechs.

edited 29th Dec '14 7:44:25 PM by Logograph

For the 2D/3D thing, 2D mechs shine when they're required to interact with the environment, which is some of G-Reco's best moments. but they have some noticeable limitations, and do nothing for the sky and space battles, which are some of G-Reco's dullest moments

Just because you can't understand a show doesn't mean it's bad.

Also, CG automatically makes any mech look three times more horrible.

Yeah, CG is much better at creating big badass battle sequences than regular hand drawn animation. See: Sidonia, Arpeggio, Bahamut.

Did you actually read my critique? I didn't say "I don't understand it", I said "it's disjointed, clumsy and nonsensical".

edited 29th Dec '14 8:16:50 PM by Logograph

I don't see the point you're trying to make here. So rather than not understanding it, you... didn't understand it? :/

It's not a case of "not understanding" its "poor writings makes it harder to understand than necessary".

Episode 13 of Cross Ange is up and I didn't watch because I semi-dropped it.

It goes something like Chris (I used to like her, now I hate her) gets her head shot but not quite dead as some guy saved her and some guy that looks like Julio killed Julio. Also, there's probably fanservice like rest of the episodes.

I thought the show Julio will driven to suicide when he revealed to be a Norma, instead of some guy that looks like him just kills him that again, never had high hopes with Cross Ange after Episode 1 anyway.

edited 5th Jan '15 9:09:49 PM by flamemario12

Now for my impressions not including the ongoing ones:

Grisaia no Kajitsu: In an ideal world, this should have been my #1 of the season but alas we don't live in such a world. Eps 4-7 don't exist so it's decent enough
Gugure! Kokkuri-san: Surprise of the season. Didn't follow it initially but started after seeing Kohina faces. Definitely the best decision I've made
Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis: Never thought I would enjoy a fantasy series this much. Favarro x Kaisar FTW
Yuuki Yuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Never should have bet money on this series yet I actually liked the ending. The yuri made it better
Girlfriend BETA: Speaking of yuri, this needed more of it. But Chloe aka Sakura Tange speaking French was more than enough for me
Amagi Brilliant Park: Kanye West is the best part of the show. But Kyo Ani fanservice is a major plus
Hitsugi no Chaika: Needed more episodes but definitely worth it. It inspired me to make a mod of it for civ 5
Ore Twintail ni Narimasu: Best premise of the season. Sadly the budget really held it back
Selector Spread WIXOSS: The yuri made up for the ridiculous dark theme that I can't take seriously
Sora no Method: Dull. Needs more aliens invading. Noel was cute though and the yuri kept me watching
Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai: My greatest regret. Should have dropped it when I had the chance

Chaika mod? Do keep me posted.

Moved to infinity and beyooond... and to the Winter thread.

edited 11th Jan '15 6:41:04 AM by Lyendith