Fall 2021 anime

First Impressions

• Sakugan: The setting is great. Typical Adventure-Friendly World with a giant labyrinth crawling with monsters, but the attention to detail makes it feel very lived in. Also interesting to have a father-daughter pair be the main duo, not something you often see in these types of stories. The last part was rough though. Jumping straight into the city being destroyed, Walsh and Lynda getting killed, and Gagumber and Memempu setting off… not gonna lie, that felt rushed. Continuing.

Uh, so World's End Harem got pushed back a season

It was supposed to broadcast tomorrow

That’s some bad timing.

I feel bad for the fans.

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 7th 2021 at 9:21:35 AM

So, next batch.

Sekai Saikou no Ansatsusha, Isekai Kizoku ni Tensei suru: actually decent for isekai. Action was good, protagonist is not just another generic AJHSS and they pit a bit of serious s*** in the first ep. It would have been better without fanservice, but whatever. Also, pretty stylish OP. Reminded me of Rakudai.

Shin no Nakama ja Nai to Yuusha no Party wo Oidasareta node, Henkyou de Slow Life suru Koto ni Shimashita: superslow and pretty average in art department, but I'm fine with it. As long as it will be mostly So L and won't delve into drama or harem, I'm in.

Sakugan: pretty crazy start. In general it is a mix of typical Gainax-style mecha, Made in Abyss-like setting and atmosphere a-la recent Deca-Dence. May get bad later, may get great. I hope for the latter.

P.S.: Aquatop ep. 14 fixed some controversal points of the previous one, though, Kukuru's manager is still an odd one.

P.P.S.: Will probably watch Pride of Orange and MLA tomorrow as I am working today and vacation is still 5 days away.

I do think this episode of Aquatope made Chiyu seem better - she's still prickly with Kukuru, but her "test" for Fuuka was the absolute baseline Fuuka will need to do her job and is vital for making sure the penguins are happy and healthy.

Suwa is just the worst and I dread the moment they try to make this all out to be "tough love" or some kind of Freudian excuse for him. At least this time he gave Kukuru a verbal notice about what he expected her to do.

Initial Reactions: Visual Prison

I start my journey down this visual kei rabbit hole filled with enough vampires, visual kei MVs, and rock to summon my interest for goth styles as well as exposition on Ange Yuki, how he met his idol Guil, and the world of Visual Prison. This'll be one hell of a musical anime!

Edited by thuse on Oct 9th 2021 at 1:53:56 AM

Taisho Otome Otogibanashi was very cute and wholesome and I am upset that I have to wait another week to see more of it.

Edited by doomrider7 on Oct 8th 2021 at 11:55:13 AM

Sakugan... Mostly good? Father-daughter adventure, with most of the focus on the daughter. Good comedy, interesting world, good traditional animation, bad 3DCG, and major structural problems

Visual Prison: Ugly and baffling. Which is to say that it's amusingly bad. Not going to watch a second episode, but I don't regret watching the first

Meanwhile, Selection Project continues to be better than it has any right to be, and YuYuYu appears to actually be a spin-off

Edited by Hylarn on Oct 9th 2021 at 5:37:40 AM

First impressions for Visual Prison is that it panders to goth fanatics at the expense of all else. It's like someone wrote a musical and failed to properly connect the songs with story bits in between. Gonna have to bail on this one. Dropped.

Apparently YuYuYu is showing events from the spinoff light novel. I have to wonder how many episodes they'll spend on that. Heck, is there any post-S2 material at all?

Aquatope spoiled me this week with all the lovely shots of sea creatures, but man is it still making me scratch my head. Fuuka gets assigned to the breeders even though she only has a single month of experience as a caretaker. Chiyu even judges her for it. How are they assigning these positions?! Meanwhile Suwa is still a crappy boss. Even when the other departments refused to cooperate he didn't step in and instead scolded Kukuru. What the hell? I'm even gonna nitpick and call out the episode for classifying penguins under sea mammals.

Initial Reactions: Blue Period

(At last, the wait for the legal premiere is over.)
Surely this'll provoke an interest in seeing the world of fine arts. The art teacher's pretty cool, and Yaguchi's pretty compelling! One of the series to look forward to, but it looks like it'll only have 9 episodes... Too bad...

Edited by thuse on Oct 10th 2021 at 9:46:26 PM

All 'Gama-Gama' staff besides Kukuru herself, probably, got there because of her grandpas recommendation. This is why some other staff are cautious around them.

Edited by Nachtwandler on Oct 9th 2021 at 4:41:45 AM

• Sakugan: Well this looks interesting. Bit of a fast escalation, but I guess they had to kickstart the main plot somehow. As long as the next episode doesn't start with some bullshit about this actually being a game or whatever, should be a lot of fun to follow. Or sad.

• Platinum End: "Kind, loving family dies and the surviving child now lives with the most comically evil uncle/aunt in the universe" has got to be the most lazy, tryhard edgy backstory ever conceived, and just makes things harder for me to take seriously. That said, a troubled young guy pairing up with an angel that actively encouraging killing and stealing your way to happiness? From the Death Note people? Yeah, I have high hopes for where this goes.

• Taisho Otome Fairy Tale: Another inexplicably awful family shitting on the MC for no readily-apparent reason? Sure, I guess. Not sure if I'll stick with this one, it seems cute enough, and may be willing to tackle some darker stuff than the norm, but something about it isn't quite clicking with me for some reason.

Haha, is that a reference to Deca-dence?

First Impressions

• Blue Period: A good coming-of-age youth drama needs a main character with, well, character, and Yataro passes that test with flying colors. He's good at academics and has a healthy social life, but none of it feels truly fulfilling. Then he has a chance encounter with art, discovers something raw and genuine, and thus his future is decided. Also nice to see discussions on color mixing and whatnot. An orthodox but promising premiere. Definitely continuing.
• Faraway Paladin: I haven't read either LN or manga so I can't compare, but judging on the merits of the first episode alone, this seems to be not only a good isekai, but a good fantasy anime, period. It takes the time to introduce Will to his new fantasy world and his three awesome undead foster parents. Mary is already mom of the season. The way she gets bread for Will is hardcore. Wanna learn what's up with her, Blaze and Gus. The art style has this soft, painterly quality to it that I adore. I assume next episode will have Will all grown up, and set to leave the nest. Definitely continuing.

Edited by fillerdude on Oct 9th 2021 at 9:01:57 AM

Initial Reactions: Saihate no Paladin

The first episode was pretty expository and tame. I've heard that this has the potential to be a tearjerker, and I'm reckoning that it might employ something similar to To Your Eternity, but it looks like I have been spared from that for now...

Edited by thuse on Oct 9th 2021 at 9:23:21 PM

Faraway Paladin is more gently melancholy than something that makes a mad lunge for your heartstrings. There's tragedy and suffering, but it's more a side dish than the main course.

4

They shit on him because he's crippled now and thus a broken disgrace who now needs to be cast out yet still cared for to maintain appearances. Some of them do have their own fucked up issues that come from living with a father that's like a mix of Judge Vinsmoke and Kibutsuji Muzan I read the manga and can answer questions on it.

Saihate no Paladin was fucking amazing. Throughly enjoyed the episode a great deal. Bit speedy in some parts compared to the manga, but still amazing and very much tearjerked me a good bit.

Damn I'm just happy that World Trigger is back. It remains a slow, solid Shonen with a huge cast of likeable characters and a pretty decent premise. It just really scratches that itch for long running Shonen for me. The fact that its pacing makes it feel like a series that'll have to have the runtime of hundreds and hundreds of episodes is both a strength and a minor disadvantage, seeing as its unlikely to jive with reality.

x4 It was, indeed.

I was under the impression Tamahiko was treated like shit before the accident, which just seemed a bit much to me. I guess I'll see what's up if I stick with it.

• The Faraway Paladin: Interested enough to keep watching at least, though I dread the plot moving away from the undead trio, I like them a lot. Will himself hasn't shown himself to be especially interesting yet, because plunging your hands into holy fire is just so blasé these days. Also, this show better not imply famine exists in a setting where a goddess is willing to give even a corpse some bread.

• My Senpai Is Annoying: Oh look, Doga Kobo doing a cute show full of cute and fluff. Loved this one a lot, can't wait for more. Futuba and Harumi are great together.

First Impressions

• My Senpai Is Annoying: He’s not annoying at all. He’s a great guy. I don’t think I like how child-like Igarashi is, in both looks and personality. She’s still an adorable kitty, though. Continuing.
• Build Divide: Code Black: Exactly the kind of edgefest I wanted it to be. Man, card games are so complicated these days. Continuing.
• Shikizakura: Very typical. Monsters, sentai, yadda yadda. The 3DCG is decent, I like how it’s used in the action scenes. Continuing.

——— — —

The hiphop aesthetic of Muteking is fantastic, and some of the songs are super catchy. But while there’s this overarching theme of resisting mainstream homogenization, the actual per episode plot is so random. It’s almost like a gag anime, but it isn’t funny at all. And they just recycled the footage for the alien fight this episode. Dropped.

Digimon Ghost Game: Gammamon is the most precious little brother. And I still love how active the MC is. He’s the one who made Mummymon stand down.

At what part is the World Trigger anime at, anyway?

Edited by fillerdude on Oct 9th 2021 at 9:15:42 AM

Paladin: Good. A more literary take on fantasy. And it looks pretty

Build Divide: Mostly bad. The story is entertainingly chuuni, but it spends more of the episode on card games, and absolutely does not know how to make them interesting. And the game itself seems kinda bad

Shikizakura: Okay? Decent animation, middling script. You'd think the fights would be more dynamic, given that it's 3DCG, though. Might give another episode?

Season selection is technically finished for me. I may still try Pride of Orange, Deep Insanity and Blade Runner but chances are pretty small, so...

Saihate no Paladin: for now it looks like actually good fantasy series. I am not even sure why author added the whole isekai shtick (probably just because it sells better). Let's hope it wont turn in something generic and be more in vain with spice and Wolf or Grimgar.

Muv-Luv Alternative: the first ep. was made in the same vain as a start of Total Eclipse (a gruesome side-story with one of female characters as MC). It was decent (people complain about 3D monsters but it looks way better than Total Eclipse for now). I have not read original VN (I have it but never got to reading it), though I heard a lot of good things about it. My only concern is 12 eps. announced. Let's hope they just plan to adaopt part of the story with a possibility of S2 and not cramp the whole plot in one season like it was with Schwarcesmarken (I liked them in general, but they were way to rushed).

Senpai ga Uzai Kouhai no Hanashi: for now it looks like a decent work-romcom in wain of Servant x Service. I do not hope for any decent romantic development but as long as it is cute and funny, I will watch.

I really like the vagueness of gender of the MC of Paladin, with the clearly female VA and body type but them being signalled male. Hoping that'll continue through the whole series without it never being commented on.

x3 In World Trigger, Hyuse, or what ever his name is, just joined the team. That hopefully promises a few more interesting rank fights, they've been pretty fun thus far. I enjoy how the show approaches combat.

Nah, Will's just a very young kid using the common animation technique of Crossdressing Voices. They're not going for anything of any particular significance with his present androgyny, so don't expect anything much.

Now, the gods, on the other hand...

I'm familiar with the practice. As I said, I was hoping. Wasn't doing much expecting. :P

Initial Reactions: Gyakuten Sekai no Denchi Shoujo

The introduction seems to play out straight on the hero's journey. I guess I could boil it down to: Kudou's gonna need the power of anime, mecha, and contemporary Japanese pop culture to save the world. Couple that with the cast list, and it looks like I got sold!