Spring 2013 season

[SimmyC]

Finally gotten over my reluctance to watch Gargantia episode 3 after 4chan's blow up about the episode.

Now, MY own thoughts on the episode? It's... I want to say that 4chan overblew, and I will after hearing the reasoning for what they are doing. However, the I will say that the writing feels cliche and subpar to me. Now I'm the first to say that simply being 'cliche' isn't bad in all cases (especially since what is considered cliche keeps changing). Still, the way they tried to go about doing it felt, off. Especially when they went from hating what he did, to asking him to stay on the ship. Cliche, and rushed.

It's still relatively decent. So I'll keep watching it. But I can't say I'm enjoying it as much as the other series I'm watching.

Railgun episode 4

While this episode felt filleresque, I know it happened in the manga, a bit with some differences (which I haven't read yet.  ). Over all I enjoyed it even if it felt like they mostly spent the time away from the main arc.

*Now to rant about Raildex in general*

And in response to shade of blue assessment, I guess the issue with Railgun is that it is set up to be a sidequel of Index. Excluding some of the filler arcs, the manga (and now the anime) were meant to be Misaka's POV of some events (while the events in season 1 weren't shown in Index, it kind of sets up the Sister's arc that the anime is getting into).

http://1-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/a/image/1367/09/1367093402380.png Here is the timeline of events BTW.

As for Index S2 jumping the shark? I mostly agree. Now I still enjoy it (maybe way too much to be honest) because of the characters. But take away that... S2 just didn't work. The main thing I'd point to would be that Touma's fighting became routine. While I have no issue with him punching girls (gender equality~) it was boring because of how they played out. And the main story? The whole Magic vs. Science thing? For something that is suppose to be main conflict and not harem antics, I didn't care for it.

Again, I love the series 'way too much' because of the characters. Even though more are being added which will ONLY HURT character development. Still, when I was praising the series, it was S1. Not S2.

*And that concludes my rant on Raildex.* 

[Gaston]

I started three anime from it season this week.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W: That started okay but when in episode 5 it have that new girl in love with Cthuko, I started found the story better. I cannot wait for the next episode.

Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san: That a correct anime. Notion special but the girls are cute and some jokes work.

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai season 2: God I hate Kirino the bitch. I hope Kyousuke will kick her ass and has a lovely romance with Ruri.

[Tenchi Ryu]

I laughed so hard I cried

http://www.youtube.com/v/m3wPxFCo5L4

[Harls]

[Morgeil]

I broke down and watched the first episode of Devil Survivor 2: The Animation (Sentai Filmworks as apparently already licensed it and the first three episodes are available subbed on Hulu at the moment).

Quite good! Retains a lot of the style and feel of the game, voice cast seems well matched. Really like the music and seeing the demon battles fully animated. I'll watch the rest of the eps available and then probably just wait for the DVD release.  It's good, but I just have waaay too many other TV commitments at the moment.

ADORE the ending credits!  Need that song on my mp3 player stat.

[SimmyC]

Well, I fell behind in my anime watching due mostly to the fact I got a new phone given that my old one died. Of course that isn't the only reason (playing Tomb Raider was another big part). So I've been playing mostly catch up with the series now. And... still not completely caught up.

Funny enough. Not being caught up on anything, found time to start even more anime that I wasn't watching before.

First the anime I was watching already. I'll try to keep it short.

Hataraku Maou-sama episode 6. Lucifer is a neet. Scary picture of the landlord? More fun with Chiho? Chiho's classmate?  Great episode. Only thing is not that many amusing faces this episode (though the reaction to the picture is lol).

Railgun episode 5. Good episode. And once again showing that the clones are more amusing than Misaka herself. And Accelerator. Never liked him even with *Spoilers of Index and, while I haven't been reading them, the Light Novels*, as if the events of that happen later is supposed to make it better. Well this episode shows me why I hate him so much.

Gargantia episode 4. Well, I thought this episode was better than 3. One thing is certain, if Urobachi surprised me with anything, is that, at the moment at least, it isn't the Grim Dark series I expected it. Yet. The only tihng that will surprise me is if it continues this way till the end.

And now, the series I didn't start until now.

Valvrave episode 1. I don't know what the people I talk to are talking about. This appears to be a generic Sunrise mecha series. What do they mean it's going to be a trainwreck~  Yes. I was entertained. But knowing spoilers... it's going to get bad. But, since they're still watching it, it's going to be a 'so bad it's good' series.

Attack on Titan (Shingeki no Kyojin), episode 1. Since everyone is talking about it, might as well watch it. First episode, sets up the story. Nothing to write home about but... still a good start. Will continue to watch.

that's it. And still short.

[SimmyC]

Hmm. Maybe I should have made my reply after I stopped my mini-marathon of sorts. Which I'm not entirely done either given that I still haven't caught up with everything. Oh well... double post~

Hataraku Maou-sama episode 7
Stairs are Emi's worst enemy. It's also obvious what Kimono girl is up to, even if misunderstandings and obliviousness is abound. Still, awesome episode as always.

Railgun episode 6
Alright I guess. It's funny. I like the series, like the episode, just not much to say about it. Maybe that's a good thing since I tend to rant a lot. :p But yeah. Story advances, get to see Misaka's thoughts on the matter, the back story on what's happening, not much to comment about positively or negatively. It (IMO at least) does it's job.

Gargantia episode 5
Episodes like this one, makes it hard for me to take the series that seriously. Main character wants to feel useful. Goes around looking for a job. Okay. So what happens when he doesn't find one? Let's party to cheer him up! Again, Urobachi is one again surprising me, with how light hearted everything is at the moment.

Well, as you can see, not caught up with the series above. However... there is a reason for this double post. And that is... the one series I somehow wound up catching up on. And one that I sort of regret doing so.

Valvrave episode 2-8.
...my gawd. This is... it's a disaster. And I don't mean earthquakes, tornados, floods, etc. I mean if you just watch episode 1, you would have thought this was a normal mech series. But as the story progresses, it, they throw logic and common sense out the window. Space vampires, political shenanigans, random musical acts, Space twitter, space kickstarter, odd fanservice moments (not that I mind this one but still~), body switching shenanigans, a high school music video, people with motives that fly against common sense, THEY KILLED... who? (trying to make it seem tragic. While the audience really didn't get to know said character due to lack of major character development). The series is an utter mess in everything. Story, characters, you name it.

It's why I will NEVER recommend this series to anyone. It's just, wow. The amount of facepalming moments is unbelievable.

That being said, why am I still watching it? Well, the analogy to a train wreck would explain it. It's so horrible that, I can't look away. The enjoyment I'm feeling, has nothing to do with how great it is. But on seeing how far of a disaster they are making it.

And at least the battles are good. If still affected by the silliness above.

[Tenchi Ryu]

Man, each episode of Yahari Ore no Seishun gets more dramatic and more deeper, but in a good way. We have your typical anti-social MC, but he's not the usual dense guy. He's very perceptive, and understands his world around him VERY clear.

Here is a monologue of him explaining why he hates Nice girls....Them feels man....them feels

http://www.youtube.com/v/R1y4xILgkFk

[Dr.Soviet]

Here is a monologue of him explaining why he hates Nice girls....Them feels man....them feels
http://www.youtube.com/v/R1y4xILgkFk

Wow I never thought of it that way. Now I don't like nice girls 

[Gaston]

I started watching Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride. Is that normal some episode with censor and others not ? 

[Tenchi Ryu]

Scared shitless




Here's the scene in full
http://www.youtube.com/v/8sQ_Aofbjl4

[Tenchi Ryu]

Like the great Bishop Don Magic Juan always preaches.....control yo hoes.

[Gaston]

Someone had finished  Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride too ? I thought that was good, but I like the first season better.

[Gaston]

I had finished watching all anime from it season I had watched the last weeks (thought I had watched the first episode of Date a Live today...) and I am a bit disappointed with what I had choice. Those series had their moment, but the only anime I found memorable was Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W and I hope it will have another season because the romance was not ending and the only character development it have is that the lesbian turn bi and loves the boy too now. 

[Tenchi Ryu]

So....after being ridiculously late, gonna write my review for the Spring Season. Steam has pretty much taken over my life, and what's left goes to hentai doujins and stuff. So for the past 5 or 6 weeks, haven't really watched any anime at all unless I was collecting some Blu Ray rips off of Nyaa. And as of this post, except for DxD, don't know ANY of the current shows airing yet. Anyway, need to finally get this over with cause I'm at least 4 episodes behind on the current season now.

Hataraku Maou-sama!


Gonna just jump right in and get it out the way. Not only my favorite show of the season, but probably the favorite anime of the year so far. It just hit all cylinders perfectly, kept me entertained each episode and had all the things I like in anime, Action, comedy and small amounts of cliche. I loved the protagonist, the side characters, just everyone. I don't have much else to right because ain't much else to talk about, this show was just that perfect for me.

Final Score: 10 out of 10

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride


The first 4-5 episodes were tough to watch, not cause it was necessarily bad, but cause it just didn't feel like Samurai girls. Don't get me wrong, the ecchi was top notch, and the comedy was great, but it just felt like something was missing. Then the second half of the show came around and reminded me what it was, the action. When it tries, Samurai girls has some of the best action scenes in anime in the last 5 years or so. And in the end, that's why I enjoy it. So yea, I know I'm biased as hell with my rating for it, and I'm cool with that. Cause in the end, this season did exactly what I hoped it would, added Matebei and Hanzo into the harem. So therefore....

Final Score: 9 out of 10

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai.


This season reminded me two things, that I can really like Oreimo at times and I can also really hate it. Kirino also reminded me why I couldn't stand her ass the first season, luckily she did kinda sorta get better around the second half, and made me almost forget me not liking her. ALMOST. Kyou also got on my nerves at times being the public punching bag, just seemingly had no issue getting kicked, slapped, punched by anyone who needed to relieve some stress. Honestly was screaming at times for him to grow some balls. But then, the good parts of the show also shined. Saori's background and character development really worked, as well as Kuroneko's screen time. And as I mentioned, seeing Kirino finally warm up after like 23 freaking episodes was nice. As we all know, the true finale of the series airs in a few weeks from now, so its kinda tough to truly rate the season. So I'll just rate the first 13 episodes.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

Suisei no Gargantia


Knowing this was written by Urobuchi, I was expecting some kind of twist that makes you question the logic of what was originally considered right not logical. And around the end of the series, we did get that. But surprisingly, we we're still able to get a nice happy-ish ending. One thing I also really liked were the character designs, especially Bellows who I thought was absolutely HAWT (the hot chick in my avatar).

Final Score: 7.5 out of 10

Photokano


From what I've been told, Photokano was a lot like Amagami, another show I have on my to watch list. That being said, Photokano wasn't a bad show, in fact, it was pretty entertaining at times. But it also lacked any innovation what so ever. The typical childhood friend scenario, the imouto, the quite emo girl, it pretty much had it all. And since every girl got an episode dedicated to the main character choosing them, it all was packed into one show. While the females felt pretty cliche, the main character honestly felt like a normal guy, and I really appreciated this. Otherwise, kinda hard to say I would recommend this, not cause I found it bad, but because I feel you have to have certain taste to enjoy this.

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Kakumeiki Valvrave


Valvrave, valvrave, valvrave. Or ValvRape if you get it  Feel divided about this show, on one hand, the action is not bad. But on the other hand, the action is the only think going for this show. With the "romantic drama", the stupid naive nature of the "friendship and kids shit beats all" theme going on, just really hard to take this show seriously when it doesn't come to the action. Luckily, the action is pretty good and definitely of Sunrise caliber. This is technically a 2 cour show, meaning we've only reached halfway and will resume the second half in the fall. And from how the cliffhanger went and what we saw in the previews, its about to get even crazier, but maybe in a good way this time.

Final Score: 6.5 out of 10

Shingeki no Kyojin


So, as everyone calls Attack on Titan in english, is technically not a Spring season anime anymore, but I'll still review the first half. Let's just get it out the way, the show is hyped as hell, and probably a little overrated. But it deserves it, cause the shit is just flat out good. The intense moments really keep you on your seat, and often times leaves you wanting more, but that also becomes one of my issues with the show, with many others apparently. One of the main criticisms is the pacing of the show, and I have to agree. For me, it just feels like the plot if taking a little too much time to move along. Yea its true that rushing the show can hurt it (Looking at you Demon King Daimao), but you don't want to be sitting there bored to death with dialogue from nothing but flashbacks for an entire 5 mins. Still, this is gonna be a damn good ride.

Half-way Score: 8 out of 10

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru.


This is the one I consider the sleeper hit of the season. I honestly wasn't expecting much, and at best thought it would be a Boku wa Tomodachi rip off, but I'm glad I was wrong. I personally think this series took the dramatic role better than Boku did, and made it very realistic. At times, when our main character Hachiman would give us one of his depressingly dead on interpretations about life, you sat there thinking how not only he was right, but how it was refreshing to see an anime of all things, tackle real life situations so realistically. I'd love another season of this, though its probably unlikely anytime soon.

Final Score: 8 our of 10

Welp, that wraps it up after all this time, literally 3 weeks after I actually finished watching the damn shows. Guess now I have no excuse and need to start researching these new shows.