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.
Don't let the cute visuals fool you, behind this lies a comedy that can be pretty dark and effed up at times, but brilliantly so (here is a pretty good example from episode 1 which is by no means the only effed up thing in that episode ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42u4ytkzAWw). The story is anything but standard as well, this is a strange world where we are told that humans are dying out and the fairies are the new dominant species on the planet. Our nameless heroine serves as the mediator between humanity and the fairies, which as you might expect, gets her into many bizarre situations.
One of the things I really like about the series is that behind the cute visuals is a setting that is actually pretty dark. Humanity is dying out, and the fairies may look cute, but they are also rather creepy and respond rather strangely to human interaction. It's hard to know what they actually think of humans, and I at least got the impression that when humanity eventually does die out, they probably won't care or even notice.
I love our heroine in this story. Sure, she's cute like almost every girl in every anime, but she also possesses a dry/deadpan sense of humour which you see regularly when she is confronted with yet another bizarre situation. I found her very charming and it made it all the more enjoyable following her through this bizarre post-apocalyptic (kind of) world.
If you want something a bit quirky and different from your standard harem-anime-in-a-school fare, I'd definitely recommend this one. The series was written by Romeo Tanaka who has previously written some great Visual Novels (my favourite being Cross Channel). If you're familiar with his works then you might go into this knowing what to expect. Hopefully we will get to see more mainstream anime series by him in the future!
With this series, you'll know very quickly whether it's for you or not. It's a series primarily driven by one type of comedy, and that's lots and lots of sex jokes. Surprisingly, the actual content of the series isn't that explicit, just the dialogue. The jokes can be hit and miss but they're delivered at high speed so it doesn't really matter if a few fall flat.
The quality of animation is pretty high overall and makes for a pleasant watch.
The protagonist isn't the most charismatic lead in the world but he's also not a complete pushover and acts as the all-important straight man to the constant onslaught of the girls' dirty jokes.
Overall an enjoyable watch as long as you enjoy this kind of humour.
For me, Monogatari Second Season (aka Season 3) has done a great job of rescuing the series and removing the bad taste left by Nisemonogatari (Not everyone hates it, but most would admit it is the weakest material by far when compared to the rest).
I liked how the arcs shown were not done in chronological order and that we had different narrators for most of the arcs. Seeing events unfold from other characters' perspectives kept things interesting. Most of the arcs were very good, I wasn't as big a fan for Nadeko's arc but that has more to do with not really liking the character than what happened.
This second season has restored my faith in the series and I am really looking forward to SHAFT animating the remaining material now.
I am SO buying the Blu-ray that has finally been released in this country!
Possibly not quite on the level of SAC, but I'm still enjoying this version of GitS. The soundtrack by Cornelius is a massive plus too!
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.
From start to finish - an absolute joy to watch. In what I would consider a not particularly impressive anime season, this series really shines out as an example of what you can really do with a bit of creativity. The series (if you don't include the OVA and the Net Episodes from Season 1, which you don't really need to see) is only 10 episodes long but it still manages to tell a fantastic and touching story.
What really amazes me is how good this is compared to what I was expecting. Having watched the OVAs and web episodes that "aired" prior to the TV series itself, I found myself thinking "Looks cool, but doesn't really make any sense or go anywhere". The TV series was able to flesh out the previous content and weave it into a very compelling story. What's even more amazing is that from what I understand, this started out as just a small little collaberation between Toei Animation and a friggin' toy maker (Banpresto)!
I get the feeling that not everyone will be quite as smitten with the series as I was, but it just worked for me. I liked the characters, the fantasy setting, the music, everything. This absolutely shines out as my anime of the season, and possibly the whole year.
Oh, and Koto is love.
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.
My thoughts on F/SN:
Loved the original series when I first watched it. And it's thanks to the series that I eventually played the (far superior) Visual Novel. For those less familiar with Fate, this series essentially covers the first of three arcs from the F/SN Visual Novel (with sprinklings of elements from the others, but essentially its the first route). Studio DEEN later produced a movie too, which more or less covers the second arc, Unlimited Blade Works.
A problem a lot of people will have with this series now is that the prequel series, Fate/Zero (animated by studio ufotable rather than DEEN), is just so much better. I recently tried re-watching this series and just found it painful. The mood and pacing just don't seem well conveyed. The animation quality, while not terrible, isn't amazing either, and a lot of key scenes that are supposed to be pretty epic just aren't. It doesn't help that the Fate arc is generally agreed to be the worst of the three as well (A lot of people find Shirou very annoying, which he can be, but he's at his absolute worst in the first arc. He's not too bad in the other two).
In short, I don't think F/SN is a bad series and had it not been overshadowed by the far superior adaption of F/Z I doubt many people would think so either, but ufotable have shown us just how good this particular franchise can be if put in the right hands.
ufotable have said that they will be working on a new Fate project in 2014. Whether it's a full reboot of F/SN or someone finally animating Heaven's Feel (the third arc) remains to be seen, but regardless I'm excited!
Incidentally, the F/SN Visual Novel was recently released on the Vita, and each arc has a new opening video animated by... ufotable! Maybe a little teaser of what's to come...? ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biL1Dbe6BC0 (Fate)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGSRdtExzkw (Unlimited Blade Works)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cp3EfuYJ9d8 (Heaven's Feel)
"Surprisingly good" best sums this one up. I know, take one look at the premise and you'll think "Oh boy, it's one of THOSE", and it kind of is, but with a couple of twists. Here it's actually the girl's the perverted lead of the show, stringing along the clueless guy who really doesn't get what's going on in her head 90% of the time (and who can blame him - she's nuts!). This role reversal provides a lot of the humour for the show. It's also rather sweet at times. Despite proclaiming to become the ultimate slut and get 100 sex friends, poor Yamada struggles to get even one!
Overall a surprisingly enjoyable watch and something a little bit different from harem fare. A little bit.
I actually quite enjoy this. It's another series of 2-3 minute comedy shorts but unlike, say, Cyclops Girl Saipu (which was awful), this one can actually be funny. Probably because I actually like Asuka and her reactions/behaviour isn't what you'd typically expect.
The episodes were originally only "aired" via download to mobile platforms I believe, but they seem to now be getting re-aired on AT-X and are already being worked on by a certain fansub group.
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.
Finally after almost a full seasons worth of OVAs, an actual second season has been confirmed :D
Aw man, that was very short and sweet. Very Makoto Shinkai too.
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!
I should probably dislike this more, as it really does feel like they're milking the Fate franchise for all it's got. However, I found it quite enjoyable. The battles were pretty good and the Yuri not-so-undertones are fun too, if you're into that kind of thing... ;)
A second season will be coming soon, so the story's not over yet!
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!
The plot was a little bit convoluted but I enjoyed the romance aspect of it and the animation quality was amazing.
So far I'm enjoying this series. It isn't without its problems (and is probably hyped more than it deserves), but I am still finding it genuinely enjoyable and at times unexpected. The combat scenes generally are fast, well animated and exciting. I also love the soundtrack. Some of the songs are really good (composed by the same guy who did the Guilty Crown one, I believe). Also, Mikasa is badass.
Things I'm not enjoying: Whilst the combat scenes look epic, the rest is fairly lacking. The backgrounds are especially bad, there is a LOT of copypasta, and I normally don't notice stuff like this. Seriously, look at any of the scenes with crowds or lots of buildings and you will see some VERY obvious copypaste. Spending so much time/money on the combat scenes has obviously affected the budget elsewhere in other ways too. There are a lot of still images when people are talking etc. Fairly standard in anime anyway I guess, but it's just a lot more noticeable here when compared to the aforementioned action scenes. And of course, there's the angst, which I could do with much less of. It's one thing to establish that mankind is on the losing side, but sometimes it really goes overboard with the "waaah waaah, we're done for" scenes. Finally, Eren is an annoying protagonist. He seems to have two modes: Angsty and Angry.
In spite of all this, as I said, I'm still enjoying this series. It's just not quite as amazing as it perhaps could be.
Season 3 starts soon. I really hope it lives up to the first 2 series because I really enjoyed those.
Utter crap. Why the hell did I watch this?
Overall a very confusing story that probably doesn't make a lot of sense. I enjoyed the show for the characters more than anything. The plot was just all over the place.
Upped my rating from 6 to 7 after watching most of the second series. I'd say it's a lot better (and funnier) than the first. It's still quite a hit and miss series, and a LOT of the references are going to go way over your head. Still, it's quite enjoyable in it's own way.
Wow, talk about a hidden gem. I really am loving the charm and the humour of the series. The characters are fun and likeable. Each episode is usually split into 2 smaller stories and they work quite well and are varied and engaging. On top of that we have the usual SHAFT art style.
It's a real shame that this one apparently bombed in sales and we'll probably never get more :(
So far, trashy but fun. The plot is as standard as you'd expect from a show like this, but the animation looks very nice, the characters are likeable and cute and it can be quite funny at points too.
