What Anime are you currently watching?

[WarOmnimon]

Checking in and giving my thoughts on what I'm watching in the Spring 2018 season.  First, I should list off what I'm watching.

-High School DxD Hero
-Persona 5
-My Hero Academia Season 3
-Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online
-Fist of the Blue Sky Regenesis
-Golden Kamuy
-Megalo Box

Now, my thoughts on each one.  I like all 7 shows here, but I feel that Golden Kamuy is the weakest of the bunch and I will get to that soon enough.

-Don't let DxD Hero's changed art style (Which is because they changed studios because BorN's ending went WAAAY too far off canon; Hero episode 0 is basically canon based damage control) turn you away from it.  It's still everything we love about DxD (Well, except the second half of BorN, anyway).  The Kyoto arc (Which just ended) was awesome.  Kunou is a good addition to the cast (FINALLY we get youkai in DxD), and the decisive battle of this arc was VERY satisfying.  Not gonna spoil it because it involves characters that weren't noted before coming in (Not just Issei's new powerup), but let's put it this way... a curbstomp for a curbstomp.  Can't wait for the Rating Game between Rias and Sairaorg (That's what the second half of Hero will be, by the way).

-Persona 5... admittedly, there are some pacing issues here.  Not nearly as bad as Kamuy's, but there are pacing issues.  26 episodes or so and they needed the first 4 to finish Kamoshida (The first villain)?  COME ON BRUH.  This means one of two things; either we're getting a Season 2, or there's gonna be a rushed and shoddy ending.  I hope it's the former (Season 2).

-Academia Season 3.  I mean, it's Academia.  It's awesome.  Nuff said.

-GGO.  Even if you didn't like SAO (I understand the complaints everyone has about it), give GGO a chance.  It's set in the same canon / universe as SAO, but none of the characters from SAO itself show up.  Karen / Llenn is actually a much more relatable main protag than Kirito in so many ways.

-I'll say it now... I actually like Regenesis being all CG.  It reminds me of Guilty Gear Xrd and Dragon Ball FighterZ.  Kinda unique to have an anime like that.  I'm loving the consistent pace with both the fighting and the storytelling here.

-Kamuy.  Two words: PACING ISSUES.  This one's only gonna be 13 episodes or so.  7 episodes in... and there hasn't been ANY progress to the main plot.  As soon as Sugimoto and Asirpa got 2 of the tattoos (I think they have 2 right now)... no progress on the main plot whatsoever.  Shame.  It had a strong start and now it's slowing down something VERY fierce... something that can't be afforded when they're halfway done already.  We should be expecting a Season 2 here.

-Megalobox.  THIS ONE RIGHT HERE.  In my opinion, this is THE anime of the Spring 2018 season.  If you're not watching it... stop what you're doing and get started on it already!

[WarOmnimon]

Okay, so after the past week or so of episodes, gonna chat a bit more and then note what I'm looking forward to in relates to Summer and Autumn 2018, hence the double post.  My watch list is still mostly the same right now, but I ended up dropping Persona 5.  Stuff happened elsewhere and I fell 3 episodes behind there, so... yeah.

(WARNING: This post transforms into more than a bit of a wall of text from here on out.)

Still enjoying all of what I'm watching, but yeah... Megalobox continues to prove itself as THE anime of this season every time a new episode is released.  On another note, Golden Kamuy, much to its credit, seems to finally be getting over its pacing issues... but guess what?  It's too little too late at this point given that we're only getting 12 episodes and this ended up happening in episode 8.  That's more than halfway through and a bit TOO close to the endgame for my liking; this means we're either getting a Season 2 (I REALLY hope this is what happens because there are some awesome ideas in this series, and the characters are plain awesome; Asirpa's goofier moments and the faces she makes during them are just plain smile inducing) or a rushed ending (If this happens, I'm gonna riot and yell "What a wasted opportunity!" at the top of my lungs).

As for the Summer 2018 season.  Only 2 seasonal shows really have my attention there, and those are Hi Score Girl and Grand Blue.  Zoids Wild is likely to be at least a 2 season deal like the seasons before it, so I'm not noting that one as a seasonal anime (I'll be watching it though).  I can't jump into most of Summer's offerings though, given that they are mostly sequels to shows I haven't even jumped into in full yet.  That means stuff like Attack on Titan Season 3 and Free!... nope, not caught up, so YOU'RE DISQUALIFIED!  My watch list there will probably be Hi Score Girl and Grand Blue Dreaming, and that's it (Zoids Wild and Ultraman R/B notwithstanding).

The good news is that this actually works to my benefit.  That'll give me the time I need to catch up on Sword Art Online (Yes, I am already aware that the second half of Season 1 brings some serious cringe in numbers, so I'm already bracing for impact), A Certain Magical Index (Along with A Certain Magical Railgun), and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attourney.  Gotta get caught up on those because SAO Season 3 and Phoenix Wright Season 2 are both confirmed for Autumn 2018, and we know that Index Season 3 is coming in 2018... which means given that Summer 2018's cards are already on the table, that's likely Autumn 2018 territory as well.

Let's close it out with my tentative watchlists for the next two seasons...

Summer 2018
-Hi Score Girl
-Grand Blue
-Zoids Wild
-Ultraman R/B (It's toku, not anime, but I've noted toku in my lists here before, SOOO...)
-"Warm and cozy catchup slot" (Basically means me going back and watching SAO, Index, Railgun, and Phoenix Wright)

Autumn 2018
-Sword Art Online Season 3 (And yeah, I am NOT looking forward to having to deal with SAO Season 1's second half in preparation for this)
-SSSS Gridman (OH MAN, I am SERIOUSLY looking forward to this one!)
-Phoenix Wright: Ace Attourney Season 2 (OBJECTION! )
-Hinomaruzumou (Hey, a sumo wrestling anime... this oughta be interesting!)
-A Certain Magical Index Season 3 (If it happens here... please let it happen here...!)

P.S. I'll say it one more time.  Index Season 3 is NOT confirmed for Autumn 2018, but it IS confirmed for 2018... so Autumn is likely where it will be.

[WarOmnimon]

PHEW... dang, it's really sad to see the Spring 2018 anime season go, because two season deals such as My Hero Academia Season 3 (That, as you all know, I'm watching) and sequels such as Attack on Titan Season 3 (None of which I'm caught up for) aside, Summer 2018 doesn't have much variety at all.  In my opinion, my top 3 shows of the previous season would have to be Megalobox, High School DxD Hero, and Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online (And in that order, too).

As much as Summer 2018 is cursed with both "most of this season is sequels, we hope you're caught up!" and "by the way, if you're not caught up for those sequels, too bad because there isn't much genre variety with this season's new shows!", I AM watching 2 of this season's new offerings, those being Grandblue and High Score Girl.  And gosh darnit, am I VERY glad that these are the 2 I went with.

Grandblue - Crazy fun for all the right reasons.  Went in expecting a typical slice of life series in a college setting where the main cast is part of a scuba diving club... ended up getting a slice of life series in a college setting where the main cast is part of a scuba diving club AND said main cast just so happens to be filled with wacky zany nutty funsters.  The first episode alone had me VERY close to busting a gut laughing a couple of times.  I did laugh a couple of times, but no gut busters yet.  This series is gonna be GOOD.

High Score Girl - Gamers.  RIGHT HERE.  This is your anime.  Real video games show up having been licensed to appear by their devs.  Tips, tricks, and so forth get explained (In episode 1, they talk about Guile's turtling in Street Fighter II and the "alchemy" trick in Final Fight).  And in my opinion, Akira very well might have already become my pick for best girl of 2018 in terms of new shows that aren't sequels.  Waiting to see what way she's gonna beat up Haruo next is always fun, and oh, she gets HUGE bonus points from me for being a Zangief main.  I usually main grapplers in fighting games, so I find Akira to be VERY relatable.

As for prepping for Autumn 2018, which we now know that both A Certain Magical Index Season 3 AND JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 5 (AKA Golden Wind, AKA Vento Aureo) are gonna be there.  Because of JoJo being over 100 episodes and Index being close to 100, I had to drop my plans to catch up on Phoenix Wright so that I could get caught up with both of those AND SAO, and JoJo is what I'm catching up on first.  After that, I'll move on to SAO and then Index and Railgun.  As for JoJo, I already got through the first 3 seasons and am a few episodes into Part 4 (AKA Diamond is Unbreakable).

One thing that I love about JoJo that I noticed most people don't mention is that the changes in the art's tone between each part is probably done intentionally as a sign of the changing times.  Granted, it's not too noticeable in transition from Part 1 (AKA Phantom Blood) to Part 2 (AKA Battle Tendency), but it is kinda noticeable from Part 2 to Part 3 (AKA Stardust Crusaders, AKA "the most iconic story in the franchise" which I can definitely see why; enjoyed the heck out of this one!), and DEFINITELY noticeable from Part 3 to Part 4.  Consider this; Part 3 takes place in 1988 and 1989 while Part 4 takes place in 1999 and 2000.  There's a 10 year timeskip there and I just LOVE that the look of the show changes to basically wag the fact that there was a big timeskip in your face.

But let's be real... JoJo is GOAT material. 

[royce.cooker]

Currently tracking the 3rd season of Boku no Hero Academia. It's fucking great so far.

Also am currently going to get into Overlord, especially since they got a third season airing right about now. Maybe also rewatch Ryo-Ohki 1 & 2.

I'm also hoping later I can hop back on to the tokusatsu train I abandoned for far too long with Kamen Rider Blade, Build, and Dekaranger. The last thing I watched was I think Ex-Aid and ToQger.

[WarOmnimon]

Currently tracking the 3rd season of Boku no Hero Academia. It's fucking great so far.

Also am currently going to get into Overlord, especially since they got a third season airing right about now. Maybe also rewatch Ryo-Ohki 1 & 2.

I'm also hoping later I can hop back on to the tokusatsu train I abandoned for far too long with Kamen Rider Blade, Build, and Dekaranger. The last thing I watched was I think Ex-Aid and ToQger.

My name is WarOmnimon and I already approve of this guy right here.    I seriously want to check out Kamen Rider Build when I finally get a breather from having to watch other stuff though; been hearing good things and as much as I want to check it out now, I have catching up to do for Autumn 2018 that is holding me up, and Autumn 2018 itself is a holdup because I'm watching quite a LOT there.

Anyway.  My thoughts in relates to my Summer 2018 watchlist so far (Not counting Super JoJo SAO Index Catchup Time)...

Academia Season 3 - Loving it.  Just as royce said.

High Score Girl - Like I said in my previous post, if you're a video game person, you NEED to watch this.

Grandblue - 3 episodes in, and yeah, the humor is just so over the top in so many random directions that it's crazy.  I'm getting a surprising kick out of it, and I'm seriously glad I picked it up.

Ultraman R/B - The general tone of R/B is a bit more upbeat than Orb and Geed were, but it's still just as enjoyable.  Albeit for different reasons.  To reference the Super Mario Bros. Super Show theme song, "you'll get hooked on the brothers" definitely applies here.

[takahata]

MY hero Academia
Black Clover
FLCL Progressive
Attack on Titan.

[WarOmnimon]

Okay, so this is a massive post; hopefully, everyone can keep up.

Leading up to the super stacked Autumn 2018 anime season (I will talk about those shows once that season starts and we get to start watching them), I've been watching My Hero Academia Season 3, Grand Blue Dreaming, High Score Girl, and Kamen Rider Zi-O (That started last week).  I've already spoken on Academia, Grand Blue, and HSG (All 3 are awesome).  As for Zi-O... it's basically everything Decade (Which is very similar in base concept to Zi-O; both are anniversary seasons for the Heisei Riders, and Decade, Zi-O, and Geiz's form changes are all based on previous Riders) wishes it could have been, albeit with time travel instead of world hopping.  As one person elsewhere said, Zi-O is basically trolling Decade and saying "I'm doing everything you did, but better".  Granted, Decade's flaws mostly stemmed from it being a shorter series, but still... a better series with the same base concept is still a better series with the same base concept. 

On the other hand, I unfortunately ended up dropping Ultraman R/B.  I was loving it, but the release for English subs hasn't been consistent at all.  *Shakes fist at Crunchyroll for NOT licensing R/B even though they licensed Orb and Geed*

As for catchup.  Fully caught up on Sword Art Online (GAAAH, that second half of Season 1 was just SOOOOO cringy; I can see why people hate on it, thank goodness Season 2 stepped back a bit on doing stuff like that so frequently!) in preparation fo Alicization and am also caught up on as much as I need to be for JoJo (Watched all of Parts 1 to 3 and most of Part 4).  Unfortunately, with Index and Railgun being almost 100 episodes put together, I don't have time to catch up on it now that I'm watching 4 shows at once (Admittedly, I'm behind on both Grand Blue and HSG), and I didn't start catchup yet... so yeah, had to drop Index Season 3 from my Autumn 2018 watchlist.  I'm also catching up on Kamen Rider Build, and have watched 31 episodes out of 49 so far, so I'm almost done.  I'm also going to play catchup with Senran Kagura Season 1 before Season 2 kicks off in Autumn 2018, which should be VERY easy (Only 12 episodes; MUCH easier and actually possible to finish with this little time than Index and Railgun's almost 100).  I have also been watching Hajime no Ippo here and there whenever I get a moment where I'm NOT catching up on other stuff, current or not; if you want to blame something for me jumping into Ippo, blame how awesome Megalobox was.

Gonna close it out with some bullet point lists for stuff I'll be watching for various reasons at various times...

My Autumn 2018 anime season checklist
-JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind (JoJo Part 5)
-Sword Art Online: Alicization
-Goblin Slayer
-Golden Kamuy Season 2
-Senran Kagura Season 2
-Release the Spyce
-Hinomaruzumou
-Fist of the Blue Sky Season 2
-SSSS Gridman
-Kamen Rider Zi-O (Yes, it's tokusatsu and not anime, but I'm still putting it here as I always do)
-My Hero Academia: Two Heroes
-Dragon Ball Super: Broly

Older stuff that I want to catch up on or rewatch and am doing so right now
-Kamen Rider Build (Almost done here, starting Unlimited Blade Works afterward)
-Hajime no Ippo

Older stuff that I want to catch up on or rewatch but won't do so until the Autumn 2018 season
-Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works (Gonna start this after finishing Build)
-Kamen Rider Gaim (Very likely that I'll start watching Gaim at some point after finishing Fate)
-Mobile Fighter G Gundam (Been meaning to rewatch this for a while now, actually)
-Comic Party & Comic Party Revolution (Same deal as with G Gundam)

I'd put the usual goofy speech about a wall of text doing overkill damage here... but I'm leaving for breakfast shortly, so NAAAAH.  Not this time. 

[WarOmnimon]

Alright, so the Summer 2018 anime season has come to a close and we're gonna get some REALLY good stuff soon (I already noted what I'm watching in the previous post).  Figured that I'd give closing thoughts on this season and also talk a bit about Kamen Rider Zi-O.

First, My Hero Academia Season 3.  Yeah, that ending was literally a non-ending, but at least the final episode ended with confirmation of a Season 4, which means we won't be waiting TOO long to continue this awesome roller coaster ride.  This is the same thing that Golden Kamuy Season 1 did (Season 2 was confirmed at the end of Season 1's finale and they even noted that it would be in October), something that I REALLY appreciate was stuck out there immediately.  Someone elsewhere noted Academia as being like Dragon Ball and Naruto, but without the filler.  That's definitely accurate; Academia being a seasonal anime and not just ongoing REALLY helps with this IMO.  As for Grand Blue Dreaming... admittedly, I still have to watch the last 5 episodes.  Probably going to do that in a marathon or something.

Now, about Kamen Rider Zi-O.  I like how Zi-O has basically been taking what Kamen Rider Decade did and doing it better... ESPECIALLY the story.  It's the ultimate tribute, but at the same time the ultimate "take that!".  The time travel aspect actually leads to a better take on a story with the same idea as Decade's, which was alternate world hopping based rather than time travel based.

[Ryo-Okay]

I watched all of Sunohara-sou no Kanrinin-san over the last couple of weeks. This was the first anime I've watched in a while. I really enjoyed it, it reminded me of all the shitty harem anime I watched when I was first getting into anime.

I also plan on watching the Conception anime this season.

[Ryo-Okay]

One Outs - I rewatched One Outs a little while ago. Tokuchi is a great main character. I love seeing how everyone is dancing around in the palm of his hand.

Conception - I planned on watching it because I enjoyed the Conception 2 game, but I didn't have high hopes because it was trying to cram a 40 hour rpg with 12 heroines into 12 episodes. It actually turned out pretty fun somehow. It was definitely a rushed mess like I expected, but they made it work somehow. I'm surprised they went for the harem ending though. I would have thought they would have went with the cousin route.

Kyou Kara Ore Wa!! - This was a live-action adaptation of the manga, but I'm putting it here anyway. I don't watch many J-dramas, but I really enjoyed this one. Kyou Kara Ore Wa!! is my favorite manga, so I was likely going to enjoy this show from the start. I definitely have a lot of complaints, like how they pretty much butchered the Akehisa invasion arc, but with it being only 10 episodes it managed to be pretty great. I do wish Nakano was in it though.

[Nemo]

I am currently watching Slayers. I bought the boxset when Funimation released it a while back. It has the first three seasons. Now when I first watched this series it was owned my a now defuct company. I borrowed it from a library that had all the first season. I also used to rent the slayers movie back when blockbuster was a thing. Lately I have been trying to track down all the anime in the franchise and I have to say it is getting annoying the movies and ovas are currently not liscenced over here and Funimation has only gotten rights to the first five seasons which only the last two can be obtained as blueray. That being said the first three seasons the have the gall to sell for 45 dollars on a low quality cut of the show which has been around since it was first released on DVD years ago. I mean like it has to be at least 15 years or older.

[WaitoKon]

Pretty cool Nemo, glad you found a copy of that one.

I think Google Video was at some point trying to scan / upload a lot of library VHS and DVDs. Not sure what became of that...

[WarOmnimon]

Kind of a lull period for current anime right now, so I've been going back to watch some stuff I missed previously.  Currently, I'm spending most of my time watching One Punch Man (To prepare for Season 2 in April of course) and Hajime no Ippo.  It'll obviously take me a while to get through the latter, but I'm enjoying the heck out of it (Remember, Megalobox is my personal non-sequel anime of the year for 2018, so it's no surprise that I'm enjoying the heck out of Ippo).  And in addition to that, I also have to catch up on literally everything for Senki Zesshou Symphogear in preparation for Symphogear XV in July.  That, and I'm also jumping into everything Lyrical Nanoha just in case they do something big for its 15th anniversary this year (Watch, they're probably gonna announce something big on Friday because that's Nanoha's birthday, LOL).

As for what I was previously watching but am currently taking a break from; Hinomaru Sumo, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, and Sword Art Online: Alicization, all 3 of which I have already started.  I'm getting back to them, but only once they finish airing (Because yeah, preparation for OPM Season 2 and Symphogear XV).  Darnit 2019, why is your sequel hype tech too strong?  I was seriously enjoying Hinomaru Sumo and JoJo especially, gosh darnit!

And yeah, while not anime... I'm still watching Kamen Rider Zi-O, no surprise there.

[WaitoKon]

Are you watching Sword Art Online: Alice(in NGE Wunder) via Toonami? 

[onimono]

Started watching Lupin III. Not sure what other anime to try.