Oh boy, next season looks pretty week. I think the only thing I'm really looking forward to is season 2 of Durarara!!
This was a really sweet couple of OVAs. I picked it up on a whim with zero expectations and found it a very pleasant and enjoyable watch.
The animation quality isn't that amazing, but I didn't mind that because I found the atmosphere relaxing and the characters endearing, Hori and Miyamuri in particular. There's more character development and meaningful moments in the first OVA than you find in whole series.
The story isn't anything groundbreaking but I found it to be sweet and light hearted watch. I'd definitely like to give the Manga a read now.
Oh and there's a third OVA out in 2015. Wish they'd make a full series of it though!
Season 2 confirmed! Prepare for more "will they, won't they" teasing and probably nothing resembling a resolution in sight :D
I am cautiously hopeful for this one. I like feel and the art style shown in the PV (http://youtu.be/Sk39zsayK_0) and being in the noitaminA block will hopefully mean something a little bit different. The plot doesn't sound massively original but it has the potential to do some interesting things.
I'm just hoping A-1 Pictures don't screw this one up like they have with a lot of other series recently.
I wish I had enjoyed this series more really. It had a lot going for it and a rather different premise to most anime currently airing. Plus, Shinchiro Watanabe. Hard not to expect great things there.
And it wasn't a bad series. It had a lot going for it. Interesting premise as I said, plus a very good soundtrack (as always) by Yoko Kanno. I liked the art style too, seems they went for a more "realistic" look which fit well with the tone of the series.
Unfortunately, while some of the ideas were interesting, I never found myself that invested in anything that was going on. I could often see what they were trying to do, but events often just felt "flat" to me, for lack of a better way to explain it. Part of the problem might have been that I was expecting more, for the series to have more of a bit to it. I felt they played a lot of things safe or relied on some tired tropes. These weren't just anime tropes like the whole "transfer student" thing (which was completely unnecesary and never touched on again. I know Lisa went to school and she needed to find a way to meet Twelve, but there's no reason that needed to happen inside the school), there was also stuff like the "disgraced but brilliant detective" who ended up prying too deep and got sidelined to the archives, and the whole "government secret experiments" thing.
I think the problem is I've seen all these elements before, and while they weren't presented particularly badly in this series, nothing was really done to try and put a twist on or subvert any of these elements. They also played it safe with our anti-heros, with all of their bombs never killing anybody (yeah, right...) and them being able to accomplish their goals without dirtying their own hands in the end. I think it would have been much more interesting if they had been bonafide terrorists who did end up killing people but still had a point to make. Perhaps I was hoping for a more conflicted feeling as to whether to root for the main characters (thinking back to series like Breaking Bad here really, with characters you feel genuinely conflicted as to whether to keep rooting for them or not) but this series made it too easy by having them never have to make the tough choices and kill for their beliefs.
The use of Engrish felt rather unnecessary too and it's hard not to be taken out of the moment when you hear a Japanese VA trying their very best to pull off a convincing English line, but really failing badly. Several scenes lost their impact because of that. But that's probably only a problem if you're an English speaker.
Overall not a bad watch by any means, but ultimately I was left a bit underwhelmed.
Coming this Autumn then!
Please don't be shit!
Nothing groundbreaking here, but I found it a generally enjoyable watch. I didn't like the supporting characters that much, but Riko and Miho carried it for me. Especially Riko.
Very middle of the road "cute girls etc" slice of life, but quite watchable.
Man, Atlus really need to make Persona 5 already (already announced at least). I love Persona 3 and 4 but they have been milked to the ground at this point.
I find it quite odd that they're doing another series so soon after the "original" just to cover the extra material from Golden. I mean sure, there is some, but I do wonder if there's enough to fill an entire series without a lot of filler and repeated scenes from the original series.
Oh well. I'll probably batch watch it at some point, since I'm still playing through P4G at the moment and don't want to spoil the Epilogue for myself by watching this first :P
Turned out to be an awesome series, to nobody's surprise. Even if you have no real interest in Table Tennis (like me), this series is still worth watching. As mentioned in my other shout, it has some great staff behind it and it shows.
The characters are interesting and watching them grow throughout the series in a believable way is very enjoyable. Although the series often resorts to a kind of comic-panel-not-quite-still-frame style for some of it's action pieces, the fully animated parts are very fluid and exciting to watch. Overall just a damn good show. And don't be a snob about the art style, for the love of god. Some people might not like it (I didn't mind it at all), but don't let that put you off watching it - the story and characters more than make up for it.
I'm hovering between giving this one an 8 or a 9. I've rated it 8 for now but it's something I might revisit at some point.
Mmmh. I didn't hate this one, and I quite liked the softer art style, but overall I was a little underwhelmed by it. It was cute and charming at times but the melodramatic parts were just annoying and Hase really needed to man up, especially towards the end.
Not a terrible series, but pretty forgettable. Which is amusing considering the subject matter :P
I found this rather enjoyable, despite having to suspend my disbelief quite a few times (I mean, even for a superhero movie)...
Some pretty awesome action sequences and it was great to see so many of the cast from the "old" and "young" in the same movie.
I also really like how the ending basically ret-conned the god-awful third film, "The Last Stand".
The best way I can describe the series for me personally is "mixed bag", and that's exactly what Space Dandy is. Every episode is standalone and very different in style and tone, which can be a good thing as you never know what to expect next, but also a bad thing if they very quite a lot in quality.
For me, I really didn't like some of the earlier episodes, and that very nearly put me off the entire series as a result. Fortunately, most of the later episodes are pretty decent, and a couple are even what I'd call excellent (still a couple of stinkers, mind).
Overall, the series (so far, I'm aware there is a second season coming) gets a hard earned 7 from me. I can't say I'd recommend it entirely as I really didn't like or outright hated some episodes, but there are some pretty good ones in there that are still worth checking out (and hell, if you wanted, you could just cherry pick the good ones and ignore the rest, as each episode is fairly standalone anyway). The animation quality is pretty good and there are some pretty cool looking action scenes (bravo, Bones) and the soundtrack is pretty cool too and for the episodes that worked for me, they were very well done.
One last thing - For me the weakest part of the series (and probably why some episode don't just "not work", but outright fall flat on their faces for me) is the main characters. Dandy especially. I don't find him to be an interesting character, nor does there appear to be much dimension to him. All the interesting things that make the series worth a watch just kind of happen around him. QT and Meow at least get some character development, so far Dandy just kind of walks into things and they happen through no skill or involvement of his own.
I expect my opinion will be much the same by the end of season 2, but we'll see!
It's described as a side story but it really felt like 3 side stories, 2 of them may as well have been completely unrelated. It was nice to see another Kara no Kyoukai movie but it felt a bit underwhelming and disappointing overall.
Based on the title/subject matter, I wasn't particularly interested, until I saw that this will be by the guy who brought us Tekkonkinkreet (http://trakt.tv/movie/tekkonkinkreet-2007) and will be directed by the guy who, amongst other things, brought us The Tatami Galaxy (http://trakt.tv/show/the-tatami-galaxy).
This will also air in the noitaminA time slot, which admittedly isn't always a measure of quality, but normally does promise at least something a bit different!
I sense potential here!
And here is a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmZVuMDlw-w
This is a series I really wanted to like more than I ended up doing. I like KyoAni, and their works tend to have very high production values and (usually) pretty solid writing. I wouldn't say the writing was bad here, but it always felt to me like the story was aspiring to be more epic than it actually ended up being. The fight scenes were pretty good, but part of me kept thinking back to the imaginary ones in Chu2Koi, a series which kind of took the piss out of that sort of thing, and here we are now presenting it in an unironic and serious way. Perhaps it's not fair to compare the two series like this just because they're by the same studio, but that's how I felt. And it probably didn't help that they attempted to cram a lot of "comedy" in too, like Chu2Koi, but here I felt the comedy fell flat more often than not and just made the differences between the goofing off and the serious parts all the more jarring.
Overall certainly not a terrible series, but sadly it left me feeling underwhelmed.
I am SO buying the Blu-ray that has finally been released in this country!
Another "cute girls doing cute things" series. Quite an enjoyable watch and some moments are genuinely quite unexpected and funny. The girls are generally quite likeable and Nobue (the older sister of one of them and unofficial babysitter most of the time) is pretty cool as well.
Not a mindblowing series, but a relaxing and enjoyable watch with some quite funny moments.
I'm enjoying this series but I wonder what kind of "ending" it will have. From what I can see this series is covering the events of the "Introductory Chapter". There is then a "Closing Chapter" set 3 years later that seems a lot longer and introduces a bunch more characters. I wonder if the plan is to have another season to cover this at some point.
Quite enjoyable. The movie and it's themes reminded me of Chu2koi somewhat (http://trakt.tv/show/love-chunibyo-and-other-delusions), but this one takes the more realistic route with bullying etc. I wasn't too sure what to think at the start and it did take a while to get going, but it was enjoyable and I was definitely behind Satou as he was standing up to the bullies and trying to help the girl out. There are a few silly parts and the animation quality isn't amazing - It's not far above what you'd see in an average anime TV series so there's a lot of unmoving backgrounds etc. Even so, definitely a worthwhile watch.
Great list so far. I love all of Satoshi Kon's films and it is such a shame that he died before being able to make more. Millennium Actress was amazing.
Of your list so far, the only one I haven't seen is Grave of the Fireflies, which I know I absolutely should. I just need to mentally prepare myself for it, I think.
Hi guys, just FYI F/SN and F/Z are now separate entries.
F/Z can be found here http://trakt.tv/show/fatezero
Welp, I gave this series 3 episodes and just couldn't get into it. For me, the premise just stretches suspension of disbelief too far and I don't find any of the characters engaging in the slightest. This has the "honour" of being the first noitaminA show I've dropped.
More people should be watching this. Best anime of the season imo.
It's even been picked up by Crunchyroll so there's no excuse now!
Finally after almost a full seasons worth of OVAs, an actual second season has been confirmed :D
This was a series I found very polarising personally. There were times when I sympathised with Tomoko and times when I cringed with embarrassment on her behalf. I'm not sure I've seen any other anime that invokes "cringe humour" so well.
Overall I liked it, although it was a bit trying at times. I liked the random art shifts and some of the BGM. And the wonderful Imae-san with her late entrance in eps 11 and 12. I hope she and Tomoko become friends.
Welp, season 2 is now over. It added more girls, Issei kind of got closer to some of the existing ones, lots of ridiculous Dragonball Z level powerups occured, and Boobs. Lots of Boobs.
Just as enjoyable as the first season, if a bit more silly. I wonder if we'll get a season 3!
Have you seen the Kyousougiga episodes so far? Think there's 5-6 short ones that were web streamed or something. They were alright, but not much substance to them. Maybe a TV series will sort that out.
Other than that, I'd say your list is very similar to mine.
Yeah, people seem to love adding one-shot OVAs and Movies to TVDB. Then they get all upset when they're deleted, even though there are perfectly good entires on TMDB.
I haven't seen all that many of these. Guess I'm not cool and edgy enough :P
Man, the goddess arc (this season) has been great. Best season so far!
