I agree with ManiacB:
The first season is fun to watch. Adapted from novels they did a good job to keep the talking heads interesting. This means lots of weird angles, different art styles, live action sequences and usage of colored text cards (appearing for split seconds only). By the time we get to the second season the direction changes for the show. The flashing text cards only appear occasionally and the direction is rather tame. The pace of the arcs slows down and were left with TONS of fanservice (in dialogue and visuals). It is already present in the first season but it's better mixed in so it's bearable. Every female poses like a slut, a loli vampire bathing with the MC and it doesn't stop at his sisters. Much of it also feels like a dating sim: there is hardly any interaction between the girls and they only appear alone in scenes with the MC. It also hurts the supernatural side of the story, there is hardly an tension built up. Thankfully the Nekomonogatari (Black) arc feels more like the first season but is not that exciting because it is a prequel and the events during "Golden Week" already happend once in the first season.
Since SHAFT will probably animate all the "Monogatari" there will be ten or so more to come so I hope they can keep the level of the first or this will be a painful experience.
Bakemonogatari = 8
Nisemonogatari = 5
Nekomonogatari (Black) = 7
Arguably better than the show itself are the countless OP mashups:
Attack on Bollywood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDHCLjuOzXY
Attack on Snuggle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvq0RaaMck8
Attack on Pingu: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC2okqCGMg4
Attack on Witch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rDT0bjojZo
Attack on Eva: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XCZoRI0YFw
Attack on Christopher Walken: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGDzKZoh1K8
Attack on Anon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLImJOIl2D8 (which basicly says everything)
There are tons more (hundreds) on Nicovideo (http://goo.gl/OlXbD) but you'll need an account to watch these. Of course potato-girl has her own tribute http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2n4TBef0aws.
Great, slow-burn series about a man readjusting to life after spending 20 years in prison. With visuals often reminding of Malicks style it's certainly unique next to the other shows airing.
Trakt gets it's episode information from TVDB and there it's according to FOX (http://www.fox.com/americandad/recaps/season-9/episode-19) and not the scene naming. You would have to name them like this: http://thexem.de/xem/show/93.
For as many things the show did right, there are also some issues that plague it which took away from my overall enjoyment of the show. The biggest one for me were some of the later episodes. We take detours from the main story with the excuse that some proxy is causing it. These episodes hardly offer anything new to the story or are an excuse for some forgotten exposition. In addition to that there is no start or end to it. The following episodes are like these things never happend. The second big thing is it's sometime borderline pretentious philosophical dialogue. Some of these work as a oneliners but that's about it. It's in the same way like everyone on CSI is a smartass about something on demand. Not only that, most people and many locations have been given a name from mythology.
Still, the art is good and there are some fine episodes in there. And let's not forget the best token loli I've seen, Pino :). If you're looking for an action show with the anime Amy Lee shown on the fanart you might want to stay away from it.
This is seriously entertaining. A mix of real and staged "reality tv". The saddest part is probably that his faked "Pig rescues baby goat" Youtube-video got more views than all the episodes together. Looking forward to Season 2!
Wow, that came out of nowhere:
http://www.deadline.com/2013/04/guillermo-del-toro-is-hatching-a-monster-of-a-series-at-hbo/
A Monster Life-Action adaptation on HBO? This could be good! I know that the anime isn't that popular but the manga is great. It can only be better than the three 20th Century Boys Life-Action films.
I guess you watched http://trakt.tv/show/delocated/specials/episode/1
-> http://splitsider.com/2013/02/adult-swims-delocated-is-ending-its-run-with-a-special-series-finale-episode-march-7th/
Well said @jumpingforcoins! I had initially watched some episodes but they have left me rather unsatisfied (for being a Gainax show). Now that I've finished the show I gotta say, the levels of awesome they reach in later episodes is a joy to watch!
If you're still unsure if you should watch the show, the A.V. Club wrote an article to get you to do so :):
Enlightened is TV’s best show right now—and it needs more viewers http://www.avclub.com/articles/enlightened-is-tvs-best-show-right-nowand-it-needs,92934/
The manga (which I've read) started in 2006..:
Future Diary (未来日記 Mirai Nikki?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sakae Esuno. The manga was serialized in the Kadokawa Shoten's Shōnen Ace between January 2006 and December 2010.
I was looking forward to watching this but it's been a big let down. Perfect example of a concept that sounded good on paper but the execution failed big time. Not that it is that innovative.. it's basically a Future Diary rip-off.
At first I was impressed they didn't fail with Engrish and I enjoyed the Taxi Driver reference but from there on there on not much happend to build some kind of suspense. The story goes nowhere and it only runs for 11 episodes (and two movies later on). The writing is unsatisfactory and lazy including tons of things that make no sense AT ALL (!!). It doesn't help that I could have cared less about the "characters". I get the feeling that the target audience is the lower end of teenagers despite having enough things in there to not warrant that (has somebody counted how often the word "Johnnys" falls?). The art itself was nice but I hated the sporadic use of the "gag-style" which ruined the mood and some of the character designs are somehow weird aswell.
Not sure if I'm going to watch the movies.. looks like the first one is set in NYC? Does not seem like these are going to be much better :I?
Don't get fooled by the first episode. This show is pretty bad (at least if you expect quality writing out of it).
The main problem for me was the lack of story. They setup a life or death siutation but instead of showing the players coping with it we get a timeskip and a chronological adaptation of the source material (light novels) which means lots of irrelevant side stories. The stakes are mainly ignored and hardly anyone works toward the goal of completing the game (clearing all 100 floors). When the SOA story arc comes to an end it is abrupt and makes no sense at all due plotarmor. The second arc is still airing but luckily it'll be over soon. All changes have been for the worse.
Another issue are the characters; cardboard cutouts and personality changes on demand. Most of the women (or better girls) tend to exist to form a harem for our MC. Speaking of which, this show goes full-shonen as far as his powers go. It is ridiculous what he can pull off (getting his own skills in an mmo, hacking, highest leveled player in the game when all you see is him idlying and helping lowlevel players.. it get's even worse in the second arc).
Given that it is an action show you would at least expect the fights to be good. Unfortunatly these are a letdown. The bossfights usually look rather bad. Not only because of the CGI but the way they animated it. There is hardly a battle choreography and they overuse still frames. You can literally see that the only things animated are the flashing lights which are supposed to represent sword strikes.
Add to this the ever increasing fan-service, silly dialogue, unbelievable romance and countless things that make no sense.
Due to reasons I cannot understand this show is popular and sells really well so a second season could happen.
It has a Gantz vibe to it.. violence, t&a. Not sure where they're gonna take it.
The protagonist doesn't seem too bright, it took him forever to figure out how to use the bomb (even thought he is the country's top player). At least he has godmode as far as Bombs-Exploiding-In-Your-Face goes.. The perv outro and episode preview for the second one have my expectations set low - the busty female has of course been raped...
I watched up to episode 3 with the fitting name "Wasting Time" - Seriously, all those titles would reflect my opinion if I'd keep on watching :).
The show is just far too generic and doesn't excel at anything. It's saving grace is that most shows had their season finale when this one started. There are better ways to waste your time imho :)!
