I really enjoyed this series.
The title and artwork suggests this would just be another "monster girl" fanservice show, and I suppose to some degree it is. What I wasn't expecting was that in addition to that it also had a lot of heartwarming and charming moments. Rather than just being a continuous stream of raunchy jokes, we end up with Kobayashi and Tohru (the titular Dragon Maid) basically creating a kind of surrogate family together (with the adorable loli dragon as their "daughter"), which leads to a lot of genuine "aww" moments as they settle into living together. There is still a fair amount of fanservice but it's pretty tame compared to a lot of anime. The source material is by the same author as the series "I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying" (https://trakt.tv/shows/i-can-t-understand-what-my-husband-is-saying) and like this series it ends up being a lot more heartfelt and sweet than the name and premise might otherwise suggest.
Of course this being a KyoAni show it shouldn't be surprising to learn that the animation quality is great as always. It's not as noticable here due to the art style being a bit more subdued, but it still looks great and is directed really well.
Probably one of my favourites this season and I was really glad to see this one being great and not another Phantom World.
Yeah, I love this series. I've always been a fan of Key anyway and I remember being so stoked when I heard about this new project. For what it's worth this ranks in my top 3 Key works (along with Clannad and Rewrite, the latter of which sadly doesn't have an anime adaption(yet...?))
If you've seen other Key works like Clannad, Kanon or Air, you probably already know that they tend to enjoy mixing comedy with tragedy, often whiplashing you between the two very quickly. Whilst these elements are certainly present in Angel Beats, and whilst the pasts of some of these characters are still pretty horrible and tragic, I don't think the series generally wallows in it as much as other Key works perhaps did.
The series has a nice mix of action, comedy, music and drama and it works really well. It also has TONNES of characters (A trait it shares with Little Busters I guess) which sadly, due to the series only being 13 episodes long, don't all have time to be developed to their full. Still, they are all a fun and silly bunch generally, and watching their antics is very enjoyable indeed.
Finally some good news for anyone who wanted more. Key have finally announced that an Angel Beats Visual Novel will be released in 2014. By the looks of it, it will be released in separate chapters (or beats), but hopefully this will give people a chance to learn more about the characters that didn't get much screen time in the anime (well, assuming it ever gets translated :D)
http://key.visualarts.gr.jp/angelbeats/index.html
This series was certainly an interesting watch. From the synopsis alone you may be forgiven for assuming this could turn into another raunchy high school love comedy, but nothing could be further from the truth. This series is dark and twisted, and a brilliant watch because of it. The main character is a thoroughly unlikeable, cowardly (and pretentious) wimp, which may sound like a turn-off for watching the series, but stick with it, because the series basically revolves around him being tormented by the messed up girl, Nakamura.
What I really liked was that this series took scenarios that, in other series, would be played for comedy, only here they're not funny and cause a great deal of angst and torment for all involved.
Another thing that sets this series aside from most other anime is the style of animation which uses rotoscoping. This style sadly was enough to make a lot of snobs turn their noses up at the series without ever giving it a chance. Personally I have no problem with the animation style and in fact wish more series would do this. (Trapeze is the only other example I can think of off the top of my head http://trakt.tv/show/trapeze)
It's a shame that the series hasn't done too well in sales because that means we probably won't get a second season. This really is unfortunate, because whilst stuff definitely does happen in this series, by the end you are definitely left with the impression that things are only going to get more twisted and messed up and that we've only started down the path of depravity (and in fact, the last episode makes this very clear). This series is adapted from a Manga though, so if you do really like what you see you can read that to find out what happens next.
Much as I wish I could rate the series higher, there are a few things stopping me from giving it a better score. The animation quality is sadly somewhat lacking. There are lots of crowd shots where nobody is moving at all, which is all the more frustrating because if anything, it should be easier to animate crowds in this style. Some scenes were drawn out a big too long to the point where you just want something to happen already (a good example would be the walk home after the infamous "classroom" scene. Yes building atmosphere is fine and everything but 5+ minutes of just walking? Come on...). And even though there's a lot of schadenfreude to be had from watching Kasuga suffer at the hands of Nakamura, he is still pretty insufferable and cringeworthy to watch at times.
In spite of all it's flaws however, this is still a very interesting and different show that I would definitely recommend. Just be aware that if you want to know what happens next, you'll probably have to read the manga.
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!
Another weird and wonderful entry from Masaaki Yuasa. This shares characters and a visual style with the series "The Tatami Galaxy" (https://trakt.tv/shows/the-tatami-galaxy) so if you're a fan of that series you will definitely enjoy, and know what to expect with this one - although the film works just fine as a stand-alone piece if you haven't seen it (although you really shoud!).
Whilst I still think I prefer Tatami Galaxy more this is still a very fun and enjoyable romp, following the unnamed girl with the black hair through the crazy nightlife of Kyoto. Lots of drinking, trippy visuals and hilarious moments as we go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole.
Interestingly unlike Tatami Galaxy which almost exclusively followed the male protagonist's POV, here we spend a lot of time with the girl (voiced perfectly by Kana Hanazawa <3) and not so much with "Senpai", which is fine by me as she is joy to be around and is definitely the focal point of the story.
If you're a fan of Masaaki Yuasa's work this is definitely worth a look. Possibly not the easiest entry point into his works but not as bad as Tatami Galaxy and its infamous rapid-fire speech right out of the gate.
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.
Oh wow, what a terrible movie this was. I watched this in the cinema with 5 other people and we all hated it.
My main issue is that the characters are unlikable and the story feels completely inconsequential and pointless. From the trailer I was expecting something more akin to AnoHana (e.g. Nazuna dies and he tries to save her by changing the past) or maybe even a bit of Steins;Gate with the reality marble thing, but instead it used for the most mundane, unimportant and inconsequential changes. I kept thinking "there must be more to it than this", but no, the guy basically just wants to go out with the girl and keeps jumping back in time/rewriting reality when things don't go his way. Not exactly high-stakes.
Then there's the fact that the Nazuna just comes across as a brat, rather than the mysterious girl I think they were going for. Again, I kept thinking that there must be more behind her trying to run away from home, but no, she's just being an immature brat. The main guy's friend was awful too, acting like a jealous jerk when he didn't get to go with her to the fireworks (even though you've already seen that given the opportunity, he chickens out anyway!) and all the other characters barely had any personality or involvement in the story.
And good lord, I got so sick of the stupid "are fireworks flat or round" conversations. I guess that was supposed to be profound/the motif of the film, but it was just stupid.
The animation was pretty poor too. There were a few well-animated segments but in general it just looked like a TV anime - and the CG, oh god the CG. It was absolutely terrible and cringeworthy whenever they used it, e.g. when they were riding bikes around looking like stiff, low-polygon aliens. How anyone can look at that and think it's okay is beyond me. It doesn't surprise me when I see that kind of thing in TV anime but for a movie you'd expect them to try a bit harder. I don't expect every anime movie to match that level of visual quality, but good god did this look cheap.
This is easily the worst thing I've seen by SHAFT and it's even more disappointing as a big fan of the studio myself. I've never seen them as a "big budget" studio but they're normally pretty good at still making their works look good even on a small budget (fans will be familiar with their unusual visual quirks - there were very few in this either), hell at the time of this comment "March Comes in Like a Lion" (also by SHAFT) is airing and it looks gorgeous by comparison and probably cost a lot less to produce too.
It feels like this was SHAFT attempting to create an answer to the likes of Your Name/A Silent voice etc and falling incredibly short.
Quite a ballsy move going for a bad end after all that. I see a lot of people are upset about it since this bad end was basically a combination of about 3/4 other route endings, but with only 13 episodes I don't see what else they could have done really. This makes sense, and it looks like there will be a Season 2 covering the Moon and Terra arcs (which are the true route of the story anyway). Hopefully it'll be a bit better in terms of quality too.
As a big fan of the VN I can't say this series is completely without merit, but I do think it makes for poor standalone piece and is definitely a "for fans only" series. So little time is spent explaining a lot of the elements of the plot that only someone who's read the VN will get it. The same thing happened with Grisaia and the same studio was behind that too. I'm not blaming them specifically, I just think it's a shame that the last few Key properties have ended up with sub-par adaptations that don't hold up on their own.
I will of course be watching the second series but I wouldn't blame anyone for not bothering after watching this. All I can say is that as if often the case with these things, the source material is far better and I would urge anyone who is willing to give it a chance - there's a reason I was initially looking forward to this adaptation so much and it's because the VN itself is great. If you do plan to check it out, be aware that whilst the original Rewrite VN has been fully translated, Key are also planning a release of Rewrite+ (the original game and the fandisc, plus some tweaks to the original story) in English in the future.
Whilst this series does occasionally feel like a bit too much of a wish fulfilment fantasy (especially considering a lot of the target demographic will probably be around the age of our main character and may or may not have particularly good or rewarding jobs), I was surprised at how enjoyable and sincere it was, considering what is quite a silly premise if you think about it.
Animation is fairly standard and to be honest the music too for the most part (although it was cool having a different ED song every episode), but the characters were well fleshed out and fun to be around and for me this was where the series really stood out - the characters and the drama. It also delved a lot deeper into some of the psychological issues certain characters face a lot more than expected. Whilst it usually maintained a fairly light and comedic touch (with the occasional but not too frequent journey into teen melodrama), there were a few unexpectedly poignant and deep issues brought up, one in particular towards the end which I won't spoil.
Overall a very enjoyable series that was quite hard to put down. Not helped by the fact that, as others have said, every episode was released on the same day, which is quite interesting and not something we see often with anime. It will be interesting to see if this distribution method was a one-off or if there will be more series like this in the future.
This series seemed to get a LOT of hate from people and some pretty low ratings too, but I honestly don't see why. It's not groundbreaking by any means, and certainly not as good as the original Haruhi series, but I found it to be a pleasant enough watch anyway.
Personally I think a lot of the hatred comes from the fact that it's been years since KyoAni's last Haruhi adaptation and people wanted more of that, rather than this which is more of a retelling by a different studio without the Sci-Fi elements that elevated the original above just being a simple slice-of-life show. And I suppose looking at it that way explains the negativity.
Personally, as a big fan of the original Haruhi series, I too, would have preferred some more material in the original universe by KyoAni. But I still enjoyed this one. It was nice to see the cast again, even if they were a little watered-down compared to their original counterparts. I liked the nods and callbacks to the original series and the romance was cute enough. It didn't look as good as KyoAni's version either but I wouldn't call it bad looking. It was competently animated and looked pretty decent.
I'm not sure I could outright recommend this to everyone. If you're new to the series, the original Haruhi (http://trakt.tv/shows/the-melancholy-of-haruhi-suzumiya) is definitely better (but maybe skip most of Endless Eight :P), but if you like the Haruhi series and wanted a bit more... well it's not the sequel we necessarily wanted, but it wasn't terrible either and is probably worth a watch, in my humble opinion.
Oh boy, was this one a disappointment.
I saw the warning signs straight away and I was never expecting it to be as good as Soul Eater, but it's just so "meh" that, had it not been for the Soul Eater connection, I doubt I would have started watching it in the first place.
First and most importantly - this is nothing like Soul Eater. It may have been animated by the same studio (Bones), but everything is different, including the art style (there's no better example than what they did to poor Maka. Maka in Soul Eater: http://i.imgur.com/xKkDU0d.jpg vs Maka in Soul Eater Not: http://i.imgur.com/bdc2brV.jpg - ugh), theme and just overall tone. Rather than Shounen fighting, you have some pretty lackluster slice of life adventures with a lot of Yuri teasing. There is an antagonist, but it's not a particularly impressive one and nothing really comes of that arc (which considering this all happens before the events of Soul Eater isn't a big suprise, I guess).
The few action scenes that you do see are pretty lame and not very well animated at all, further evidence that the B Team at Bones worked on this, considering that Bones is quite well known for being capable of very impressive action scenes (Cowboy Bebop and Sword of the Stranger for example). You get a few cameos from the cast of Soul Eater proper, but all that does is remind you how much better it was and makes you wish you were watching that.
All in all a massive disappointment. If you haven't seen Soul Eater, for the love of god don't start with this - watch the proper thing instead. If you have seen Soul Eater, I still wouldn't bother.
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)
And it's over.
I do think the second half was better than the first. As they were adapting Moon and Terra, which is the "true" end to the VN, it does make sense they would do a better job as the story is far more linear, but in the VN part of the reason Moon and Terra worked so well is that you had played all the other routes and knew a lot more about the characters. I still appreciated the nods to them here and there in the anime but I wonder if a lot of it made any sense to someone not already familiar with the source material.
As always a lot was missed out due to adapting a long VN into a short anime (I don't recall them spending any time at all exploring the relationship/similarities between Kotaro and Sakuya for example, even though that's a pretty big deal in the VN) but the story did work on a basic level for me. Disappointingly cheap looking and not particularly memorable in terms of direction though. Pretty sub-par overall :(
I do hope Key start to use some of the better animation studios again going forward. I can't help but feel that this would have ended up being a lot better in White Fox's (who did one of the game OPs) hands. I guess they were busy with Re:Zero but even so.
Ah well, there's still the VN (which will get an official English release at some point in the future).
Weird that they're delaying the final episode for an entire month. God Eater style delays or a deliberate decision I wonder?
Sadly my enthusiasm for the series has waned a bit in the second half. At first I was glad to see them deviate from the game's plot a bit as it meant not necessarily knowing what to expect, and of course it makes sense for it to be tied more into Berseria's storyline now that the game is out and all. But the second half does feel pretty rushed, like they suddenly decided they needed to sprint to an ending after a wasting a bit too much time on Rose's angst past (which sucked) and Alisha's conflict (which wasn't as bad). Dezel's sacrifice seemed a bit hasty and in the context of the plot unnecessary too (I know he dies in the game too but it made a bit more sense there).
Ah well, it wasn't terrible - and ufotable's animation quality made it an enjoyable experience. Just didn't end up being something groundbreaking or anything. Definitely better than a lot of game/VN adaptations end up though.
Of course one thing that really hurt was the series showing Alisha armatizing. I feel like it's mocking players of the game there :P
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.
