Spring 2019 anime

So I got through like 3.5 episodes of the new Ultraman. It sounded interesting at first, but then I got bored like halfway through episode 4. It felt like a cliche subversion of the superhero genre, only with Ultraman instead.

And episode 3 made me cringe with how it's the popular pretty girl encouraging the reluctant, but good-hearted teenage hero to man up and fight to protect the people.

Like I said, show's basically a cliche.

EDIT: In hindsight, I should expand on what I mean by cliche subversion. By that I mean the typical good-hearted teen or young adult gets to become a superhero, only to realize it's not all sun and roses.

Edited by RedRob on Apr 3rd 2019 at 6:20:40 AM

Fruits Basket 2019 - Now, I never watched the original Fruits Basket, nor am I a great fan of Shoujo anime or manga, so I went into this blind and with not the greatest of expectations. Sadly, this doesn't look like it'll be the show that gets me into the genre, but it still looks like a very good show, with some great comedic timing, good animation and fun characters, and even some interesting direction. The only real concern I have is that the show seems to have some difficulties with tone at some parts, but it's not a serious problem in itself. Shoujo fans will probably enjoy this quite a bit. Myself, I think I'll give it a second episode just because it did amuse me enough on this first episode.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Apr 5th 2019 at 3:59:15 PM

Yeah, I just watched the first episode of the new Fruits Basket and can't say I enjoyed it. It wasn't bad, but something just felt off, balance wise. I did watch the original back when it came out and I've read the manga, plus I loved it enough to do a rewatch some years back, so I kind of feel like chalking it up to simply it being simply not quite similar, but it does feel like there are more fundamental problems.

Noted the tonal inconsistency and Fruits Basket always was this balance act between silly, heartwarming and depressing. Even if the older versions didn't always manage the balancing act perfectly, they did it pretty well by front loading the work with the first two and keeping the dark stuff in the periphery until it becomes more relevant later.

If I remember correctly the older works moved really fast early on, to establish the status quo of the show, and then slowly revealed the surrounding situation informing character actions. We got to see the leads interact before we learned details about their past.

The new version is pushing that background to the front with the opening bit, for example with Tooru's mother being present way more than I remember, and I think that's slowing the show down, which then throws off the tone.

Or it could just be that they changed it so now I don't like it.

Again, not bad, I'm just not feeling any of the magic of the original.

Edited by GabrieltheThird on Apr 5th 2019 at 10:30:49 PM

So I tried out Ao-chan Can't Study and it's… eeeh? Seems like just another variant of the "quirky high-school girl doing funny things" premise, without much appeal. Not a huge fan of Ao herself, and her… dad? (seriously, he looks like he's 85) is apparently a piece of shit but it's supposed to be funny.

So yeah, I won't bother. But, eh, at least it's 10-minutes shorts.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 5th 2019 at 9:48:51 PM

The only time the tone weirdness really bothered me was when the main girl (can't remember her name, sorry) went digging for her mother's photo on the landslide. It was all comedy and light tone before, but then it suddenly made a hard turn to what the episode seemed to be trying to pass as a sad moment, but really didn't come across too well.

I can't say I greatly enjoyed the episode, but I had fun watching it, at least. Laughed a couple times, which is more than most of these premieres generally get out of me.

Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu - Not in a long time have I ever identified with a protagonist so quickly. This girl is amazing. I empathize with her on a spiritual level. Also, her childhood friend is an asshole.

Anyhow, meet your dose of cuteness for the season. It's pretty good, although I doubt it'll blow anybody's socks off. The show goes more for the cuteness than for the comedy, which is a bit hit-and-miss after the initial jokes are worn down, but it's still undeniably cute. The character designs do an especially good job of that, although they also make it immediately obvious which characters are going to be important later on. Overall, it's a fine, cutesy comedy with some light yuri elements thrown in, which I'm certain will please at least some people here and everywhere.

The show also kind of reminds me of Kiniro Mosaic, which probably means I'll learn that it's made by the same people at some point. Maybe it's just the presence of too many blondes in a cutesy show.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Apr 5th 2019 at 7:04:19 AM

Bocchi is definitely going to be the meme girl of the season

Thought you'd like that one

Yeah, Bocchi is a meme mine. The first five minutes of the episode alone provide a bountiful amount of material already.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Apr 5th 2019 at 8:09:50 AM

I've read some of the manga, so I'm familiar with what this show brings to the table. Walking social disasters like Bocchi and last season's Miyako inspire my protective instincts like nothing else, probably because I suffer from social anxiety myself.

I'm planning on creating a work page for Hitori Bocchi once I've read more of the manga, I'll post a link to it here once it's up (unless someone else does it first)

I'm just gonna say that I actually want to read Bokuben manga and watch its anime at a later future. Is the manga good though?

Also, Fruit's Basket looks interesting

Bokuben's pretty good if you like fluffy, episodic harem hijinks. It's not particularly heavy on plot development or drama, but it's cute and funny and gets points because every single character is likeable.

Also, Fruits Basket's ending (opening?) is adorable.

Edited by IniuriaTalis on Apr 5th 2019 at 9:54:18 AM

Makes sense... Hopefully the anime is pretty good though. Watch it for the replacement of Kabukicho Sherlock since it got moved to Fall.

I would love to watch 7Seeds too. But the problem is with Netflix so no comment

I'm about to create Hitori Bocchi's work page, but I just realized that there are a few different ways to write the title:

• Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu
• Hitoribocchi no OO Seikatsu
• Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu
• Hitori Bocchi no OO Seikatsu

ANN and the manga use Hitori Bocchi, but Crunchyroll uses Hitoribocchi. I tend to try and go with the officially localized name when editing even if I personally use other names or terms, so I would be inclined to the first option, but I would like some advice on how to proceed.

Edited by Uninstall on Apr 5th 2019 at 10:58:45 AM

Way I figure this, the first chronological one takes priority. Since the manga came first, my suggestion is to follow the spelling there, unless we have some official source making a definitive claim. Maybe there's something on the show's twitter page that can clarify it?

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Apr 5th 2019 at 12:13:59 PM

Both the anime and manga in the original japanese use Hitoribocchi no OO Seikatsu, although since the title is in japanese (ひとりぼっちの○○生活) it can be difficult to tell if Hitoribocchi is one word or two. For what its worth, the translation available on Dynasty-Scans uses Hitoribocchi no OO Seikatsu, and it's the version I like the best aesthetically, so I guess I can just use that one.

Edit: Here is the work page: Hitoribocchi no OO Seikatsu. Feel free to give it some love, because Bocchi deserves love.

Edited by Uninstall on Apr 5th 2019 at 11:56:40 AM

Hitori Bocchi no OO Seikatsu is a bit cringier than I like, but still well enough made that I'll at least be giving it another episode

ANN and the manga use Hitori Bocchi, but Crunchyroll uses Hitoribocchi

With the way TVT handles titles it really doesn't matter at all. The big decision is whether to use OO or marumaru

Kimetsu no Yaiba is off to a solid start. A visual and musical treat, with some pretty slick direction. The only hiccup to me is Hanae Natsuki, whose vocal performance feels a bit tonally off at times. Hopefully he gets better.

I don't know if we should make an anime-only thread for this one, considering the manga thread isn't very active…

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 6th 2019 at 6:44:32 PM

The manga start a little slow at first, it start pick up pace when the other 2 guys in the OP( lightning and boar guy) and join the main character.

I know, I read the first three volumes. Then the French publication stopped abruptly and I didn't read the scans, so I'll be anime-only after that point.

Episode 1 of Bokuben is out and, well, it's everything a Bokuben anime ought to be. It's funny, cute, a bit cliché and doesn't take itself overly seriously. The color palette isn't as off-putting as I expected, except for a slightly excessive use of shojo filters. The opening is also very catchy, I must say.

Now it seems to blast through the manga pretty fast, as the first episode covers more than half of volume 1 I think? The ending also features Ashumi, who is introduced around volume 4 or 5 if I remember.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 6th 2019 at 9:28:26 PM

Kimetsu no Yaiba - Well, there's an interesting one. A very sober and serious story, which has been kinda rare these days for the kind of story it seemed to be selling. Even the more over-the-top elements are toned down and played with a more cautious hand here. I like it. The animation is gorgeous, too. I swear some shots are touched-up photos. They look very realistic. This seems like a good story, and it appears to be very well produced. I strongly recommend at least taking a look.

We Never Learn! - And here we have Quintessential Quintuplets' slightly less capable sibling. Seriously, that's pretty much what it is. Mostly the same plot and setup, but with weaker comedic timing, slightly dodgier animation, and less creativity. It's a perfectly serviceable romcom, but if Quints wasn't your thing last season, this won't be your thing this time around, and if you did like Quints last season, depending on what your reasons for liking it were, you might not like this either. Give it a try, but don't expect to be amazed by this one.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Apr 6th 2019 at 4:46:57 PM

That's alas a pretty accurate description… although Bokuben is more episodic and comedy-focused so they still end up pretty different to me. It aims at a slightly younger audience I think.

Edited by Lyendith on Apr 6th 2019 at 10:29:52 AM

Kimetsu no Yaiba would be great if it had, like, a quarter of the dialogue. It's gorgeous, has good fights, and would be really moody if the characters would just shut up for five goddamn seconds

i have decided on the anime i'm gonna watch this season: Isekai Quartet, Hitoribocchi, Senryuu Shoujo, Fruits Basket and hopefully get time to binge Attack on Titan season 3 part 1 and 2

i'll probably also start on Quintessential Quintuplets and finish my Flip Flappers rewatch pretty soon

Edited by MABfan11 on Apr 6th 2019 at 12:12:00 PM

Senryuu Shoujo got an anime? How did I miss that? I love that manga! Gimme a minute here.

Edited by TheLovecraftian on Apr 6th 2019 at 7:17:17 AM

So far I've seen Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO which is interesting if a bit confusing, and Senryuu Shoujo which is just adorable.

A good start to the season.