For whatever it's worth:

One episode or less:
Musaigen no Phantom World (Wed Jan 6)
Dagashi Kashi (Thu Jan 7)
Oshiete! Galko-chan (Fri Jan 8)
Fairy Tail Zero (Sat Jan 9)
Luck and Logic (Sat Jan 9)
Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle (Mon Jan 11)
Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii Desu Kara (Mon Jan 11)
Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm (Mon Jan 11)

Watch:
Gate (Fri Jan 8)

It's possible some of the first list will get promoted to "Watch" but it's unlikely. It's more likely that I'll bag most of them without even finishing the first episode. (Moan...)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 08:30 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The sub of the second (and last) episode of the StB OVA came out today, so I can post a review.

It isn't very good.

Sometimes a series OVA is excellent. (Just wait a moment; I'll think of one.) But usually they amount to a curtain call for the cast of the series, and everyone has to show up and get a moment in the spotlight, plus all kinds of things that happened in the main series have to be reprised in the OVA.

And that's what was going on this time. And that's the problem. There was too much they felt they had to dump in for just two episodes, and it felt cluttered. It also felt rather considerably contrived, because the situation they created had huge potential to change the basic canon.

Most specifically, the canon is that Nagisa and Asagi don't know that Kojou is a vampire. Now that can be handwaved for Nagisa. The spirit of Avrora has possessed Nagisa, and she has the ability to jump in and take control any time she wants. It's likely that she can also manipulate Nagisa's memories. So she can make sure Nagisa doesn't find out. But that explanation doesn't work for Asagi, and entirely too much happened in the OVA which could have given away the game to Asagi.

We know from the main series that eventually Asagi figures it out, but this OVA isn't part of the normal story line and it wasn't the right time for it.

Leaving that alone, the ultimate solution to the big problem was really stupid. The solution to Kojou being controlled by the bad guy was the smell of a sweaty school girl? Right.

Anyway, it's pretty clear that someone sat down and made a list of all the things that had to be in the show to avoid angering the fans, and you can almost see them ticking off the entries on the list as the show proceeds.

The only thing I really liked was how Kanase Kanon was handled. That was really neat, and long overdue. But that wasn't enough to save the show.

NOT recommended.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 08:58 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Man, someone (this director) needs to take some lessons in pacing. There are limits to how much plot you can fit into 3 minutes without leaving the audience lying on the floor.

Before this there have been a couple of girls, one dressed like a miko and one like a school girl, who have shown up briefly a few times and don't seem to be friendly. In ep 10 we find out who they are. The miko is Goura, and the schoolgirl is Ashinoko. And they are also hot springs spirits.

In ep 11 we find out who they are. Originally there were 7 hot springs in that area, and each one had a spirit. But later there was a lot more development and now there are 20 hot springs resorts, and 20 spirits. Since it's all gotten divided, the old time spirits (like Hakone and Miya) have been weakened, and they all ended up unconscious. Hakone and Miya are the only ones to have wakened.

Hakone thinks they can get help at the shrine where all the hot springs spirits are born. Which, it turns out, is in Ashinoko, which is the schoolgirl spirit's domain.

So in ep 12 we ride on the Tekkousen, a tour boat which looks like a European galleon. And they get attacked by Goura and Ashinoko, who want to steal the magic boxes which contain a lot of Hakone and Miya's power. So we get a fight in the rigging. And it is a stalemate, but it lasts long enough to reach the other side. End of the episode has Hakone and Miya running towards the shrine.

So ep 13 wraps of the series. In three minutes we get all of the following: Hakone and Miya reach the shrine and regain their power (and grow to adult size), Hakone lectures Goura and Ashinoko about the fact that a hot spring heals not just the body but also the soul, and you cannot heal a soul with stolen power, Goura tries to convince Ashinoko to give up, Ashinoko blasts Goura, Ashinoko and Hakone have another battle, Ashinoko's powers go out of control, Hakone sacrifices herself to bring Ashinoko back, Hakone goes flying and lands in the lake and they don't see her again, months pass, Miya and Goura and Ashinoko are all working back at Dreamgirl's resort, Our Hero is cleaning Hakone's shrine, he accidentally drops a steamed bun in the water, just like he did in the first episode, Hakone appears again, and we get a happy ending.

Man, it was like watching a normal story at 4x speed (if not even faster). You kind of have to breath hard at the end. They apparently felt that they needed to have some sort of story, but it was a distraction from the travelogue and they didn't want to waste any more time on it than absolutely necessary.

So, was it worth watching? Ordinarily I'd say "no" but watching the entire series only takes three quarters of an hour, and it is fun. It really is. But it has zero rewatch potential. The only reason I went through it twice was so I could plunder it the second time.

Goura, Ashinoko, Dreamgirl's father, Miya, Our Hero, Hakone, Dreamgirl, Dreamgirl's sister, Dreamgirl's mother.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 10:25 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Every season going in I complain that there's nothing worth watching, but it seems that most seasons end up pulling a surprise on me. So just for the hell of it I thought I'd go back and review the Neregate charts for this year and review how I actually ended up feeling. (I first thought of this about a week ago, but the Neregate site was infected by malware, which has now been cleaned up.)

Winter 2015:

Absolute Duo was a near miss. It could have been a lot better than it was.
Shinmai Maou no Testament was a near hit. Same comment.
Dog Days 3 hit it out of the park.
Isuca was reasonable for plundering but it had a weak story.

Spring 2015:

Re-Kan was unexpectedly good. What made it work was making Hibiki a Yamato Nadeshiko.
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha Vivid also hit it out of the park, but I seem to be the only one who thinks so. Sadly, it didn't finish the story, and there's no sign of a continuation. Worse, it never came out on BD, and that's a very bad sign. I think this franchise might be dead.
I didn't care for Shokugeki no Souma but it just made a big contribution to the top rotation.

Summer 2015:

For me the prize was GATE: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri. And we're getting the sequel in the upcoming winter 2016 season.

Fall 2015:

This season really was a disaster. I followed two or three shows for a couple of episodes and then dropped them like hot rocks. The only show I watched all the way through was Shinmai Maou no Testament BURST and that only out of sheer desperation, and fan service, which was its major virtue. Had there been anything with the quality of GATE or Nanoha Vivid I wouldn't have bothered with SMnTBURST at all.

Please note: these are my opinions. (Mine! Mine! No one else would want them.) I am aware that other people found other shows they really liked, even in the Fall season, but that doesn't change my opinions, which is what is written here.

And the only thing I'm really looking forward to in the upcoming season is the continuation of GATE. However, There are a couple of shows which have a slight chance of being decent, particularly Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm (AKA "Flying Shoes").

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 10:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Merry Christmas!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Cheesecake at 08:26 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Sorry for not posting about anime much in the last month, but this season has been bleak-and-a-half. The two shows I originally thought I'd follow both turned out to be complete garbage, and I dropped them. I started watching Shinmai Maou no Testament: Burst and have posted about it a couple of times, but it looks like it might be over with episode 10.

Time was when a one-cour series would routinely be 13 episodes, but we've settled into a pattern in the last couple of years where it will be 12. But are we moving towards 10 episodes? Metanorn seems to think this is the end (NSFW) and I have to admit it felt like a series-ender.

After ep 9 I thought we were in for a huge battle that was going to last a long time, but they finished it all up neatly in the first half of this episode, and then everyone went home. Basara, Mio, and Leohart finished off the big-bad without too much difficulty, which made all the nasty giants he summoned disappear. The "Council", the five bad-bad guys, were all about to push magical buttons to summon a doomsday weapon, and then that babe up there one-shotted them. We didn't see what, exactly, she did to them; all we saw was flying heads. And she didn't even get any blood on her.

So who is she? Apparently she's Leohart's older sister, and for a while I thought they were setting her up to be an even worse big-bad for the rest of the series. But that doesn't seem to be what happened; as long as Leohart is winning, she seems to be happy, and it looks like he's going to be the new Maou since Mio doesn't want the job.

Mondaijitachi was also 10 episodes, and if this becomes the new standard it's going to be a real problem for the broadcast channels. For them a cour is 13 weeks, and how do they fill out the slot?

In a couple of days the next Hakone travellog will be out and I'll visit that again, but aside from that there just isn't anything to write about in anime. So I guess I'll keep going with the cheesecake.

UPDATE: I should say that Shinmai Maou no Testament: Burst is also garbage. Ep 10 ended with another orgy, which I could seriously do without. But it should make a generous contribution to the top rotation, come the day. If there is another episode we'll see it on Saturday...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 05:04 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I went through a preliminary version of the new chart a few weeks ago, but now we're near and the chart is pretty much complete.

SO...

Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! -- an otaku from our world ends up in a fantasy realm, fighting a demon lord, accompanied by several gorgeous girls. We've seen this before, lots of times. It's otaku wish fulfilment and it's virtually certain to be crap.

Ajin -- a kid is (or rather, isn't) killed in a traffic accident, and is thus revealed as being an "Ajin", an immortal demi-human. A price is put on his head. He looks more sullen than the lead in Evangelion, and I fear this is going to be a major league angst fest. Oh, and nearly all the cast are guys.

Fairy Tail Zero -- is a prequel. The manga just revealed the Mavis back story, and this series is supposed to fill that in a bit more. The problem is that we already know the ending and... it ain't pretty. For one thing, of the five main characters, four are dead by the current point in the manga, and the fifth one is a loon. Yuri is Makarov's father and he died a long time ago, though we don't know how. Pureshito turned evil and attacked Fairy Tail, and was eventually killed by Zeref. Mavis ended up cursed and undead. Zera was the mother of Makarov and was killed by Mavis's curse. Warrod was on the Council and then retired; right now he lives alone and is completely nuts.

Musaigen no Phantom World -- A high school boy and his harem use extraordinary powers to fight against a mystical foe, and where have we heard THAT before.

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar -- or maybe "Sword Art Offline"? Sheesh.

Sushi Police -- well, at least it's original. WIth the popularity of Japanese cooking around the world, three men are tasked to make sure the world's sushi is up to standards. I think that's what it was about.

Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm -- Double-talk techno-magical boots get invented that permit people to fly. It becomes the basis for a sport. According to the series website the four main characters are all girls. #5 is a guy. Unfortunately, the girls do not wear flouncy skirts when they fly, which means this isn't going to be the mother of all panty-shot series. (Anyway, Najica Blitz Tactics retired that trophy a long time ago.)

Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaeri - Enryuu-hen -- Is the only show I'm really looking forward to. It's the continuation of the first Gate series, and the main plotline is going to be fighting the Fire Dragon. I expect it to tell the story in the manga up to chapter 46.

Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii Desu Kara -- The description of it makes it sound like a comedy version of Madoka. A pervy alien recruits a human girl to become a magical girl, but when she transforms she's wearing a bikini. Not counting the aliens, all the main characters are lolis. As the sage said, "I have a bad feeling about this."

Oshiete! Galko-chan -- looks like a "cute girls doing cute things" series, except that the title character has exceptional jugs. (She makes Super Sonico look inadequate.) The summary says that it's all about girl-talk -- but if so, it's also going to be exceptionally dull.

Nijiiro Days -- is cute boys doing cute things. Include me out.

Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut -- is The Only Guy At The Girls' School Who Forms A Team For Combat. In this case the harem is five girls, three of whom are DFC's. This is not exactly an original concept, to put it mildly.

This isn't a complete list, of course; see the chart. But the others seemed even less enticing. As usual I lament finding something worth watching. But it isn't a total loss; the second season of GATE is certain to be good.

And there are several other shows which... give me "awful" vibes but I could be wrong. Active Raid, Red-haired Snow White, Divine Gate, Luck and Logic, Dagashi Kashi, Dimension W -- is there any hope that any of them are even slightly worthwhile? probably not.

There are a few of these I'll probably watch one episode of which (such as Magical Bikini Girl), just to witness the beginning of the trainwreck. But as usual, trainwrecks are going to badly outnumber worthwhile shows.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 12:22 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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...nor snow nor dark of night shall stay this courier from her appointed rounds.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 01:39 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Whoo boy, have we had some reveals the last few chapters. Remember how it turned out that Star Wars was actually the story of Darth Vader? Well, it's beginning to look like Fairy Tail is actually the story of Zeref, the black mage. Spoilers below the fold. more...

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 12:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So we're finally moving forward again. They just changed direction. There was a tournament, with the bad guy challenging the good guys to 7 individual duels, with the majority winner getting the prize. Coming into this episode, the good guys won twice and the bad guys won twice. This is the fifth duel, between Basara (Our Hero) and Leohart (the usurper).

It's kind of hard to keep track of the players without a scorecard, so it's below the fold.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 08:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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