Winter 2018 Anime

The shows I'm watching or planning to watch go as follows:

Pop Team Epic: I love shit-post the anime.

Hakumei to Mikochi: Tiny gnome women live life and it's adorable. This show has a talent for making even mundane stuff genuinely interesting and compelling.

Overlord II: Still need to catch up past episode 1, but season 1 was great and I'm very curious at all the new stuff the first episode hinted at.

The Seven Deadly Sins 2: Watched all of season 1 and kind of keeping up with the manga, so might as well.

Gakuen Babysitters: Easily the most slept on show of the season by a wide margin. This show has equal parts cuteness and sadness, and it pulls off both of them incredibly well.

Honestly, this season seemed very slow coming off of last season with hits like Made In Abyss, but it's really shaping up very strongly around the midpoint. Here are my thoughts on what I'm watching so far, if people are interested.

Hakumei to Mikochi: A lazy, fun little show. Even when big things happen, they don't shake things up too badly, but there are plenty of little continuity nods that help keep things feeling connected. Hakumei and Mikochi are cute together in several senses for both those words, and while it's not the warm-and-fuzziest show on my list, it's always enjoyable.

Yuru Camp: Speaking of warm-and-fuzziest, this show is on track to take show of the season. It's just so, so good - the scenery is pretty, the girls are cute, the voice acting is great, and the character interaction is funny. I can't think of a single thing I want from this show that it doesn't deliver except possibly more Ena, and I think this week's episode handles that. Yuru Camp is the highlight of my Friday night, and usually the highlight of my anime week as well.

Sora Yori Mo Tooi Basho: Another CGDCT slice of life-style show, but the adventure vibe and the sheer scale of what the girls are trying to do keeps it fresh and exciting. There are some points where plot convenience has stepped in and smoothed things out to keep everything on track, which is understandable, but does shave a tiny bit off my score. That said, HanaKana and Iguchi Yuka are doing great work.

Darling in the FranXX: Wait, not another slice of life show? This one is actually the weakest of my crop for this season so far. It has potential, but so far it's proving willing to leave it at potential. There are a lot of ifs and maybes - if if discusses this, if it takes things in that direction - but it's hard to say so far, and so far it's definitely a show more about ideas than about characters, and annoyingly sparse on detail at times. The fact that it's the only 24-episode anime on my docket isn't helping the plot speed either. It is shaping up better than Little Witch Academia had at this point, though it suffers in comparison to Kill La Kill in presentation, characterization and plot momentum.

Violet Evergarden: And finally, my sleeper hit of the season. Probably weird to call a KyoAni show a sleeper hit, but KyoAni shows done in this art style have historically never worked for me, and usually end up being massive disappointments because of the initial good impression their art and animation make. I'm glad to say that VE has pleasantly surprised me on almost every front, and the most recent episode gave me such sappy feels that I had to gush about it with a friend at 2AM. In some respects it makes me more nervous - there are still nine episodes left for them to drop the ball and drop it hard - but so far, I couldn't be happier to finally have a KyoAni show I can enjoy.

edited 9th Feb '18 5:30:33 AM by RedSavant

The Winter Olympics has starts and it has already been stated that March Comes in Like a Lion is going on hiatus because of it. Does anyone know if any other series are having schedule changes?

edited 9th Feb '18 7:12:25 AM by SebastianGray

I'm watching

• Sora Yorimo Tooi Basho - I watched the first episode just because there was nothing better at the time but this one turned out to be quite an enjoyable anime and a sleeper hit with me.
• Citrus
• Darlinginthe Franxx
• Violet Evergarden
• Fate/Extra Last Encore - though, I'm not sure I will stick with this one to the end.

I also started Beatless since the preview summary made it look like it had a promise. Alas, the show ended up being quite a disappointment for me. Similarly Grancrest Senki was too fast paced to not end up a mess. Also dropped.

edited 9th Feb '18 7:11:59 AM by NHunter

I highly recommend watching Gakuen Babysitters. Yeah, it's another relaxed slice-of-life, and there's a ton of that this season, but it pulls it off really well and it has some very strong sad moments interspersed among the cuteness. I can also attest that it captures the experience of childcare very accurately, having been raised with my mom running one.

edited 9th Feb '18 7:36:12 AM by PushoverMediaCritic

I'm watching Teasing Master Takagi-san, Killing Bites, and Darling in the Fran XX. Well, it's more like I'm reading Killing Bites as the manga updates with new chapters, while I watch the anime to see the fights animated. I'm also reading Citrus, but it looks like I'm almost done with the 35 translated chapters.

Asking here because I don't think we have a thread for it... but is anyone else having problems with Beatless? Was just talking Prime Video tech support before and apparently I'm not the only one who hasn't had episode 4 (and now 5) show up when they went to watch them.

Kokoku and other stuff (The Grand Tour for example) works fine, but Beatless just seems to have stopped updating after episode 3.

I'm watching:

• The Ryuo's Work is Never Done: I admit I only started watching because Yūma Uchida and Hisako Kanemoto, some of my favorite voice actors, were working on it but over time I started enjoying the shogi matches and character interactions. The series is also setting up a nice rivalry between the two Ais, which will hopefully further develop Yaichi's character and relationship with them.
• A Place Further Than The Universe: Some of my favorite voice actors were working on it, so I thought "why not?" The show manages to hit a sweet spot between slice-of-life and epic adventure, not to mention the visuals and music further enhance the experience.
• Märchen Mädchen: Sometimes I think the show focuses too much on Hazuki's borderline romantic relationship with Shizuka, when it could devote more time in Worldbuilding, or at least develop the secondary characters, but I really like the music, voice performances and overall premise.
• Beatless: Five episode in and Arato hasn't evolved beyond being a generic goody two-shoes who just wants everyone to get along and the relationship between Lacia and her sisters has been developing at a glacial pace. So far, it gives the impression that Arato and Lacia's acquaintances will be moving the show forward and the main two are just there to represent the audience.
• Record Of Grancrest War: For me, the main draws are Theo and Siluca's relationship and the setting's warring and politics. That's the most authentic response I have in regards to this show.
• Killing Bites: I might be watching it for the wrong reasons. The action setpieces and comedy are what makes the show for me, otherwise I have nothing else to say.
• Seven Heavenly Virtues: The show tries to have fun with its premise, and that's something I can understand. I stopped watching Seven Mortal Sins because there was a major difference between the two shows: if Seven Heavenly Virtues treats everything as a joke, then Seven Mortal Sins takes the joke way too seriously.

I dropped DARLING in the FRANXX after the pilot and I missed a few episodes of Death March and Violet Evergarden.

I'll need to set some time to watch Shinkalion 'cause of transforming Shinkansens.

Woohoo! Amazon finally fixed the issues with Beatless. Just watched 4 &5

With the release of the Macross Delta movie, is a page for the movie warranted or can we just include its trope in the main page? Argument for the former: it's a retelling of the story with a few differences.

You may consider creating a folder for tropes that only apply to the movie. If it grows big enough, it'd still be easy to split the page.

Alright, I guess I can wait. Also, the page for Marchen Madchen is up and running.

So I'm very late to the party and I've only just recently sampled the first episodes of every show that caught my interest. And some of them I'm kind of ambivalent on, so I'd like to hear your opinions on whether they're worth sticking with:

• Basilisk: Overall... made me want to watch the original series. My memories of that one are foggy at best, but it was probably more interesting than whatever this is.
• Beatless: Generic and boring.
• Marchen Madchen: Inoffensive. Will probably give the second episode at least a peek to learn about this Maedchen business, but doesn't seem like something I'll stick with.
• Pop Team Epic: I'm no stranger to strangeness but dear god is this one out there. Neat references but otherwise a whole lotta nothing.
• Ryuuou no Oshigoto: On one hand, I do so love my competitive sports/board game anime. On the other hand... cookie cutter characters and obvious loli pandering. Not to mention we just had the excellent 3-gatsu no Lion which more than satisfied.

Inoffensive = Not very engaging...

That's all...

PTE's first episode is probably the weakest one to be honest. I think it gets better when they start to implement longer segments (in episode 3 or 4 I think).

Is there no killing bites this week or is Amazon shitting the bed again?

There was a new episode of it this week.

I'll try PTE for a bit longer then. Second episode still has me unimpressed, though.

The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done is actually legit good

Made by the same dude who did Nourin

I cannot decide which of the openings from the shows I am watching I like the best. I have narrowed it down to Fate/Extra Last Encore:

Or Overlord 2

I see Two Big reasons for Fate/extra.

The hand gesture in your avatar seems very appropriate for that comment.

Daddy knows best.

Extra song is good even if the OP animation is lackluster

But considering how the show is, they probably wanted to make it more mysterious