This show has definitely lost it's charm. I was really hoping to find some of the spirit of the first iteration but as the "CW" logo in the corner would already tell you... it's just a generic/cheesy fantasy show now with nothing to show for it. The new sisters have a dynamic I just don't care much about and where as the Halliwell's had a lot to work on, including their powers these ladies already decide after the first episode that they have to science the heck out of magic (which hardly ever comes up anymore). No one really cares about the "Book of Shadows" anymore (which was turned into a voice activated search device) or exploring witchcraft since their power level is just too convenient (and that is not even relying on the power of three). Heck, they even added in Phoebe's premonition power in form of a device now... Maybe it's because I'm bored at this point but they really cram a lot into the episodes but it's all moot story threads. There have been multiple episodes now with major mood whiplashes too so yeah... it's bad; and this is not even mentioning the "woke" writing which can be in a league of it's own. I should have dropped this way sooner...
When the Hellsing TV version was initially released I was really into the show's edginess. At that time we didn't even have a broadband connection and so for most episodes I was left with checking sequences from the already downloaded packets and waiting for it to complete (funny how times have changed). Despite all this I never actually watched the whole thing. So to check this off I decided to watch the OVAs instead since they have been released for some time now.
Most people with the intention of watching "Hellsing" already know this but I'm saying it again; there is little reason to check out the TV version with the existence of the Ultimate OVAs. They are not only superior in production values but also true to the manga source material. So instead of fighting ghouls and vampires created by computer chips this builds to a showdown between religious factions and an army of vampire Nazis in the middle of London.
The thing is obviously not perfect. The comedy feels a bit misplaced and the pacing towards the end a bit uneven (with a lot of focus on shots of impaled people, blood streams, crosses or ruins) and the chief Nazi was quite anti-climatic.
Still, if you're up for a ride with one of the most overpowered protagonists ever and are not put off by a rain of blood and body parts this will suffice and is probably the only show of it's kind to receive this deluxe treatment.
Higurashi is an adaptation of an independently released horror/mystery visual novel series. While those kind of games usually work in the way that you have multiple paths you can choose (and often have a "definitive" true end after you played through all of them) this one actually has an overarching mystery behind them. So instead of getting a "mixed" adaptation or only one of them you get them all.
The basic setup for the different arcs is always the same: Our protagnonists goof around in the town of Hinamizawa in your typical 'Slice-of-Life' manner until shit hits the fan on the night of the local Cotton Drifting Festival. By no later than then someone has lost all their marbles thanks to the curse of Oyashiro, smashing all their friends to a squishy red mass.
To keep the mystery flowing each of the arcs features variations within including who will be covered in blood at the end and in each of them you learn some new hints to what is happening. Most of the arcs also get an "answer arc" to them in which you see things from a different character's viewpoint covering more ground (although only two of them are present in the first season).
If you want to know the truth behind it all you will have to watch season 1 and 2 which leaves you at 50 episodes. From that point on everything is optional. Season 3 is 2/5th fanservice and 3/5th a new arc and season 4 is just an hour long action/gore fest that isn't really in the spirit of the first two seasons.
Now the reason why I watched the show is simply because I love horror and if you see recommendations within the genre it does not take long for Higurashi to pop up. It is however not exactly what I hoped for. Due to the repetitive nature it can sometimes be tedious, especially so the "The Disaster Awakening Chapter" arc in the second season. The early parts of every arc are also often really silly.
What it really does do well is building the mystery and changing the tone from cutsey to sinister.
The art itself hasn't really aged well and isn't detailed but the expressions of the maniacs are always great and I loved how the crazies sddenly et demon eyes. The sound design is OK and I guess has many taken from the game and no one can hate on an OST composed by Kenji Kawai.
The whole thing is flawed in my book but it is an interesting ride.
PS: I called the show just "Higurashi" but the full romaji name would be "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni" for the first season and the official english title is "When They Cry". If you were to translate it directly from the Japanese you would get something like "The Moment the Cicadas Cry" which sounds just as shit so yeeah, it's easier that way :)...
I give this show one thing, it's ambitious in it's production but content wise it's terribly lackluster. Feels like Watanabe is on it's way to joining the ranks of eccentric elderly Japanese directors :rolling_eyes:...
Set in the future one of it's early themes is the idea of AI song production VS that of humans but really it doesn't do much besides raising that question. Even more so the duo of "Carole & Tuesday" felt inhuman as even towards the end they felt like blank slates which magically create new songs over night... I mean it's not like they already overproduce popular music without AI and here they champion a duo which exist as singer/songwriter in the thousands today...
After you get through what is basically the anime equivalent of a real world talent show it branches out to immigration topics (people of Mars vs. Earth) but everything t here feels forced and superficial (even stupid at times).
And really that superficiality can be found everywhere, be it an unrequited love interest (which has 0 impact on the character) or a guy basically saying he is doing his last performance for them and that they carry his hopes only to not ever come up again (???) (heck - we have TWO stalkers)...
Recommended if you like talent shows I guess..?
I looked at this and thought myself: yeeah... this is going to be another dumb action flick - you don't want to watch this. But then I saw Christoph Waltz on the bill and figured this is Quibi's attempt to create a hook*... But really all the people attached to this must have either envisioned a different version of this or just plain don't care.
The plot... is generic and predictable, the action is rather lame no small thanks to the "choreography", the "hunters" are caricatures and the whole thing is more or less shot to accommodate portrait mode and sports very little flair. Not that the production values wouldn't be sufficient for a "flick" but it just can't safe writing this bad. The scenario this plays out in is already quite unrealistic (and they even have the audacity to imply this is a long running tradition that has been going on for centuries) but there are also like 3253895725 plotholes in this. Don't get me wrong... it can be quite hilarious at times (far more than most comedies) but it's not a thrilling hunt. Maybe they thought their audience is just watching this one poop at the time (would explain all the annoying exposition dialogue) but if they can't even work within their own story to make things SEMI realistic I can't help but call this shite.
*Like 90% of all Quibi press/reviews reviews were put out for the launch with only 1/4 of the content available...
Figures I never wrote something about YowaPeda so what better moment for that than the start of it's second season (and 4th cour).
Bike racing is not exactly the usual theme for a show but Japan is capable of doing manga about just anything (it's also not the first anime of the sport). To make it's appeal a bit wider the main character of the show is well... an otaku. Because he fails to form an anime club at his school he ends up joining the bicycle club. By appearance he certainly does not look like he would be any good at that though. The twist however is that because his parents didn't want him to ride too far away they not only gave him a granny bike but also manipulated his crank so that he has a harder time to speed up. Being the otaku he is he regularly rides to Akihabara down a steep hill and then back up again (while singing his favorite anime theme song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrshPMtH0CY). So without even knowing he had quite the harsh training which translates quite well to an actual racing bike.
While I just made it sound like the otaku stuff is strongly present in the show, it's actually not at all. It hardly ever comes up or is just used in the omake. The core of the show is the bike racing and it's huge cast of characters.
Now what about the story? There isn't really all that much here except for the races which brings me to one of the show's issues: The pacing. It is all over the place! I guess it started with the training camp arc where some episodes would cover just a small piece of the route and push cliff hangers. Despite being enjoyable it is a bit tedious when watched on a weekly basis. The first big race is the Inter-High race whose whole first day and parts of day two (of 3) are covered by about 16 episodes - that are ending season 1. That's right! A race that is still ongoing when the seasonal break comes. One could argue that they fucked up rather badly OR they knew all along that another season was coming (which isn't typical).
Another issue is the formula of the show. Race -> focus on a character in the race -> flashback episode. The cast is big and it's an efficient way to go about it but you can see it coming from miles away.
Unlike other sports show the power ups here are not that frequent or at least not too fantastical. The cadence gets insanely high and the convenient catch up is there but it would be boring other wise.
Presentation wise it's not the prettiest show but it looks good enough. They make heavy use of 3D models for the races though which might not be everyone's cup of tea. The score is good and I found myself enjoying the upbeat OPs and EDs.
I doubt that anyone is going out of their way to catch up on the 40 episodes released so far (there is a compliation movie out) but if biking is your thing (which isn't for me) or just like sports anime it's worth it. The fujoshi will keep the show strong and I'm certain we will get more of these weird stage plays too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTrKr-iWyWs.
Attack on Titan (aka Shingeki no Kyojin in romaji) has proven to be one of the rare shows that sparks the attention from people who don't regulary watch seasonal anime. I mean, just look at the numbers on trakt alone: Two of the other more popular shows that started at the same time, Maou-sama and Gargantia don't even come close (less than a 100 watchers on the last episode). But not only that - even in the anime community itself it gained immense popularity and currently is still in the Top 10 on Myanimelist (kind of the western Facebook of anime). What is to take away from this is certainly that it seems to make for a good entry-level show but it's not one without flaws and I can't frankly understand why it gets that much praise (oh hello SAO!).
I first came into contact with it's manga because it ranked extremly high on Mangaupdates with some of the genre tags I browse. After reading the first 15 or so chapters I deceided to put it on hold. It didn't impress me and the art was everything but pretty (given that it was the authors first series and he didn't draw much before this). So when the show came around I saw potential for improvement given that the art could only get better plus action never suffers from being animated. This also means I had certain expectations and some of the early tension had been lost on me due to knowing some twists.
Now the story itself has plenty of shortcomings but is still entertaining. It starts out like your grimdark show about the struggle of mankind (in this case versus the titans) but it falls into the usual shonen trappings further down the road. I also find most of it's characters kind of stagnant in terms of developments and it's everything but subtle. The source material is still being published and is probably not even at the midpoint of which thr first season maybe adapted half of. This also means there isn't an ending yet. There is plenty of padding going around in the show and they added some filler to end it before the start of a new arc. I don't think the filler was all that bad but the padding put it's toll on it. Some episodes are extremly tedious to the point that nothing at all happened.
One the shows biggest problem for me comes in terms of animation quality. There are good looking scenes and the 3D rendered high-speed slides through the city on their 3DMG always looked great... it's just that it was inconsistent to the max. Quite early you begin to notice copy pasta and the worst possible use of stillframes with narration or dialogue over it. This is done a lot in the industry and it isn't necessarily a bad thing but the way they do it in this is so in your face and frequent you just can't help it. There was some talk about them lacking animators and that they were apparently looking for more but that couldn't have been the only issue. Around the episodes that relied on it the most a new OP hit the show with plenty of quality animation so yeah... The level of detail also decreased towards the end whenever it wasn't a closeup or something in the focus.
I guess this sounds really negative but I still gave the show a 7... it is just frustrating to see this hyped to the heavens when it really is far from perfect. If you're looking for an action show, sure - give it a go. It's just nothing great. I'm sure there will be more coming down the road (there have been spin-off stories already) and I cannot wait to see the train-wreck the live action movie planned for 2014 will be.
R.I.P. Moe titan.
Looking past the early attempts for brownie points I did not really find something to grasp onto.
I have very little memories of the previous TV adaptation but it's certainly sad to see an iconic character like Salem was be pretty much non-existent in this. This version of Sabrina not shying away from the darker implications of witchcraft is certainly one of the better aspects of the show but it was still weird to watch as it's those elements that bite with the more YA topics of it (which shouldn't be when it has a demographic of 18+ tbh).
At some point I feel like Netflix took the "we don't have to limit episode run times" moto as an excuse to just stretch out content to better fit their business model... you can watch a 10 hours long season only to get superficial storylines. Many aspects of the show are only just starting to develop (her "mortal" friends in particular) and a lot of what went on felt very contrieved. It's so inconsistent that it feels like someone forced them to do it that way. But remember, she is a bad ass witch yo..! How this comes to be does not matter. Morality jumps all over the place unlike Sabrina's powerlevel which is Mary Sue tier. Her relationship with her boyfriend is awkward to watch and must have been though for the actors as well, her friends are just background noise to randomly insert when needed... and so is a lot of the stuff (including the past of her parents)... At this point I feel like I could rant on for quite a while so I'm just going to go ahead and lower the rating further. Yes, you can watch it... but I'm not sure who really should.
Ajin is the second time Polygon Pictures got Netflix on it's production committee but just like Sidonia it's all CG again which already kills off some interested parties which is weird seeing as the manga is rather popular. This series as it is now is pretty much a cross promotion: the first half of the series, with a little less content, ran in cinemas as a limited release (https://trakt.tv/movies/ajin-demi-human-compel-2015) with the content of the second half of the TV series premiering in May as Part 2 (https://trakt.tv/movies/ajin-demi-human-collision-2016). The final arc of the anime will stay exclusive to it's cinema release only. If you're wondering what route you should pick I'd say watch this and then the final movie. They're not that self contained that you need the "movie" experience.
As previously mentioned this is all CG and that is fine by me. There are still issues but I actually enjoyed watching it a lot more than reading. The story isn't really a standout and has enough violence in it to sell the seinen but it's still worth pointing out that just after a single volume the original writer left for another series of his and left the work to his artist who then took over both roles and that isn't a bad thing as it only improved. As of now we're pretty much at a Death Note-esque duel between the protagonist and the antagonist which is sort of enjoyable considering they're both immortal and can utilize some interesting strategies.
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.
I like horror, I like anthologies... but I don't like this show.
So this show wrote "diversity" on it's blurp thus forcing me to touch upon that. This translates into either female directed and written episodes or otherwise black/hispanic/asian guys. Similar things applies to the cast... And thereby makes a strong case against the diversity hire (note: this is not me saying skin color or ethnicity is an indication either way but this project certainly seems to be based around this).
Anyways; I know none of this "viral" fiction they are based on but they are pretty much irrelevant since what do you even make of two sentences (typically connecting a statement to something eerie/bad)... Petty really is that most of these do not work well with the 20 minute episode format. I often got the feeling that they're trying to imitate horror films they've seen but just have no clue what made them work. Budget is low with often unfitting music, lots of weird edits and acting all over the place. The cap on the length also means bland stories and very few surprises. I'd say two of them are passing at best, while others like "Little Monster" are so horrifically bad that they turn into comedy.
Not recommended...
Myriad Colors of Phantom World is the most recent in-house Light Novel adaptation from KyoAni. Unlike the ones before they didn't even award it their own grand prize (after which they publish submitted works). For whatever is written in the original work not much seemed to have made it on screen besides the core concept of the phantoms (I have however little proof for this except the back blurbs google translations). The episodes are all episodic and varying greatly in quality, most of them are however bland setups for fan service and action scenes. Don't get me wrong, they can be creative... it's just that the whole cast and the battles they're put in are not engaging at all.
The characters have the depth of whatever waifu generator that is cool right now. Needles to say they don't need much of a personality. This also fits in with whatever (little) logic this world carries; each and everyone of them feels redundant as it's mostly a gamble as to whose power is able to defeat what phantom.
I have the feeling this wasn't anyone's passion project and the intended audience is probably quite young given the lengthy exposition intros every episode (or maybe that is related to them opening up an English website).
I belive "Wake Up, Girls!" was intended to be the first full series made by Yutaka Yamamoto's Ordet Studio to put them on the map or at least make some revenue? They certainly were ambitious with forming their own idol group to base their series on and open with a movie premiere a day before the show start... maybe a little too much.
The story follows a newly formed idol group from Sendai which isn't as lively as Tokyo and thus isn't used to something like an idol group. The format is the usual underdog story that ends early enough for them not having their breakthrough, leaving space to whatever they want to follow up with.
Initially we see a certain degree of criticism of the idol industry like the rival idol group being presented as an army under a draconian leadership, a girl being kicked-out of the group for a romantic relationship or the WUGs being pimped out to a concert in skimpy outfits (no shaved heads though). To really be the anti-idol show though it would have needed more of that because as the show progresses it doesn't concern itself with that anymore. (Let's just hope the AKB48 director does not book his own group for the Olympics in 2020 at this point.)
The biggest issue I had with the show is the Studio itself. They're only about 10 guys or so and they do not manage to keep the visual standards they set themselves in the movie. Every episode has plenty of animation outsourced and gradually increases the QUALITY. The dances look absolute shit at times to the point where you often don't recognize certain characters or only by hairstyle and color (ex. http://i.imgur.com/nhAy9jN.gif). The CG effects are also not pretty nor well integrated (ex. http://i.imgur.com/ctqlB8h.jpg). Certainly does not speak for your "animation" studio.
Overlooking all that, the characters were diverse enough and not just a "product" and the drama worked well enough. It's not something I'd recommend though unless you want a little insight on the idol industry and not the girls being super heros like in AKB0048 (http://trakt.tv/show/akb0048) or your typical worship/moe-blobb show like iDOLM@STER (http://trakt.tv/show/the-idolmster) and it's various spin-offs.
This show is a beautiful lie...
I don't think there was a show recently that sported it's insanity like a badge of honor. The easiest way to describe the story initially would be that it's Kick-Ass for Toku shows (those live action rubber suit shows like Power Rangers).
Masayoshi (our main) grew up loving these kind of shows but keeps his passion under wraps in favor of his modeling carrier. At one point he decides to follow his dream and becomes a "hero" himself. His ideals of justice include the tiniest things like littering or moving the trash out in the middle of the night. It's all rather trivial with the public adjusting to their new found hero, an idol group forming a squad of side-kick heroines and the general mystery of Samurai Flamenco's identity for everyone. Then after a couple episodes, Flamenco cooperates with the police and something known as the "Guillotine Gorilla-incident" happened and with it the arrival of his first nemesis. From here on out the show was never the same again. It's like the safety barriers on a roller coaster closed down and the breaks cut loose and you go down the ride full speed. What first appears to be a drug-infused hallucination turns out to be reality and nothing is off limits. There are aliens (From Beyond), a secret base below Japan for Flamenco, a full on Flamengers squad with the usual colors and transforming robots, heroes becoming real, plenty of twist reveals, a battle in space and a talk with god of the universe.
I can understand that the direction for the show wasn't all that fun for everyone and there is a reckless disregard for logic (and drops in animation quality) but it's great to have something this unpredictable to sit through. The only way to top the whole thing would have been a live-action finale at the end.
Fucking Umetsu is all I can say. After delivering the train-wreck that is Galilei Donna last season which was according to him the fault of the studio cutting the episode count in half - here he is again with a new show. One might think that after his pedo rape-fest that is Kite getting a movie adaptation with Samuel L. Jackson he would be fired up. That is apparently not so.
The story follows Cecil who is a Wizard Barrister; a lawyer for magic users. The first episode makes the impression that this will be a Law and Order but with magic and some action... it even had decent action but once the show progressed it became just a big mush of nothing (it doesn't help that the magic law is ridiculous anyways). This could have been just a mediocre show with a slightly annoying MC but somebody wanted to make sure that the train crashes. The overarching mystery gets concluded in such a stupid and pointless way that I can say for certain that it's really bad (you can't make this shit up). Supported gets the whole thing by a disastrous episode 11 with the worst "animation" and plot I've seen in a while. It's a bad omen when two of your shows end in a courtroom...
Stay away. And if you want to see why episode 11 was so wrong feel free to suffer: (SPOILER ALERT) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhmBnaEcbfA.
Oh Pupa, such a weird little thing. I doubt there was a show that pissed off more people this season (following into Aku no Hana's footsteps)! The key factor to the problem is the episode runtime - just four minutes (with about two of those being taken up by the OP and ED). With this little time Studio DEEN deceided it would be a good idea to adapt a vore-themed story about a brother and a sister that was originally told in a three volume manga. Helmed by a not unexpirienced director (Tomomi Mochizuki) it leaves many questions about their true intentions. The art is not pretty, the episodes rather disconnected, the voice acting not very good and even the SFX sound rather low quality. Then there is also it's content; with cannibalism being a core theme airing them anyways but censoring the shit out of them with shadow/light-overlays... what is the point? They should have released these as OVAs but with a longer runtime or something like that. Nothing is resolved and the last episode is a flashback to when they were little kids and being all cute... It was never a good story anyways but certainly more coherent than this. Maybe they just wanted to take the piss out of some of the more energic fans obssession over little sisters or something (which 1x06 Encroach seems to hint at). If you want to watch it I'd suggest waiting for an uncensored release, it only takes you half an hour anyways.
For those looking for anything deep behind sibling relationships I'd suggest to take a look at this behind the scenes to see that Sayaka Mogi didn't have much in mind when thinking this thing up: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/tv/imagine/flv20140213_archive.html
I'm dropping this show as of Episode 7. I gave it a chance but especially with the last two they only made it much worse.
Taking the now age old concept of people being trapped in video games, these folks wake up with no recollection of their pasts and little desire to change anything about that. This setup however is only a cheap way to help with self-insert as it hardly plays a role in the show (just to pad the time with sometimes lengthy expositions about boring abilities). Instead Grimgar is focused on keeping everything as mundane as possible within it's fantasy setting: the protagonists are poor, suck at fighting, spend their time cooking and dwelling in teenage drama. The only enemies they fought so far are goblins, goblins, goblins... and goblins. Everything proceeds at snail pacing and that with only 12 episodes in total. There are other people that woke up in this world too but they all progressed much further in rank in the same time so there is no excuse to keep them as trashy as they are.
The problem however isn't just that it's slow but also that it's presented quite badly. Instead of ranting about the immature dialogue here or other shit they pull it is probably best to point to the production side of this show: it's further ruined by the urge to get money. Grimgar wasn't exactly a popular light novel and it seems they added in quite a lot of ways to generate revenue (kinda similar to how MARVEL markets it's universe). The edgy as fuck traumatic episode featuring a fight to death with a poor, lonely goblin ends with the boys trying to peek at the naked girls bathing. It was totally out of place and guess what, that part is sold as a BD special with the first volume.
In similar ways the insert songs work for the show. You get whatever plot in the first half and then montages of whatever mood the cast is in overlayed with insert songs. It totally fails but figure what; the band belongs to the production company of the anime and they're releasing the OP and ED discs...
While there were enough reasons to drop this one earlier I was kind of hoping for something unique. The visuals did that in a way with lush water color backgrounds but the animation ended up being mostly absent in many scenes further hinting at the lack of dedicated talent to this show.
After the last two episodes of truly autistic teenage problems I can safely say that this show has no potential at all and you're better of watching something else.
Ranpo Kitan is apparently commemorating the 50th year since the passing of Edogawa Ranpo; a famous Japanese mystery writer. I'm saying apparently because I hope that the guy never wrote anything as bad as this. I've only seen https://trakt.tv/movies/rampo-noir-2005 that was based on stories of his which lead me to believe that they were all a lot more grotesque (having ero guro influences) but this show is probably more a nod to his detective stories.
I honestly would be hard pressed to find any praise for the show*... The build up mysteries were sort of tolerable but it is really the main arc involving an alias called "Twenty-faces" bringing "Justice" to alleged criminals that is really bad.
In addition to that most of the characters are shallow or caricatures like the main character being maximum autistic and a trap for no reason or a imprisoned female thief that helps with intel who is keeping her submissive slaves in her cell for on-demand whipping.
Airing in the Noitamina the show does things slightly different visually like shading out people until they're relevant to the story and doing theatrical stage sets for exposition. While I usually like these sort of things it has that weird subpar Lerche look like on Danganronpa or AssClass. Certainly doesn't help to set the mood when something looks silly.
I'm cutting short here with a simple tip: don't watch this.
*Okey, the opening and ending songs are good fits ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Space☆Dandy is an unique project within the anime industry. Japanese licensors have never been too eager about getting their shows distributed globally and the ones that got the rights had to work their connections only to have them for a limited time-frame with strict rules enforced about how to release it (including translations). Due to this the medium has probably one of the most active communities of translators and fansubbers investing their free-time to get shows localized in an alternate way (same goes for scanlating in manga). The right-holders seem to have realized the massive loss of revenue over the recent years and now supply simulcast services like Crunchyroll, Funimation, Daisuki, etc. with the new episodes (and scripts) to allow for a timely online release after airing in Japan. So along comes Dandy, licensed in multiple countries but also airing on Adult Swim, dubbed in English and premiering a couple hours before Japan - that is a surprising leap! This could pave the future for other shows being tailored at a wider audience outside of Japan. So far it is doing alright and I'm curious for a rating comparison once the last episode aired.
I haven't said anything about the show yet heh? Well, one of the reasons why the project was chosen for this kind of release is the involvement of Shinichiro Watanabe who directed Cowboy Bebop which did exceptionally well in the US. When looking at the individual credits though his involvement isn't that big technically. I don't really know that details of how it got produced but the setting bears a strong influence of American culture, intentionally or not. The obvious one is of course Dandy's style and his obsession with BooBies (a fictional Hooters) but also the references within show (Planet of the Apes, George A. Romero, etc.).
The story plays out episodic and even introduces different time lines. Due to different people being involved each episode, they all have a different feel to them (and sometimes even a new artstyle). It can range from goofy to some with actual drama. I enjoyed most of those but there were also some bad ones in there.
Space Dandy will continue it's run in the summer which will probably advance the overarching story of the show and if not... well it doesn't matter. I can't say how it's mainstream appeal is but I'm not sure if the Bebop fans for example would enjoy it (they take place in the same universe though). With proper expectation of a comedy I'd say most people will find something here just not something substantial.
As for the age old question of dub versus sub: They're actually both good. The most obvious difference is their robot companion QT which sounds a lot more feminine in the Japanese dub. A small thing is also the OP which in the Japanese version packs a lot more punch (but I think they used it later episodes for the dub too).
Battleships that take the form of girls in a time where Kancolle is popular in Japan... what happens? It sells like hotcakes. The local fanbase is sometimes realllllly weird.
While my initial expectations were quite low the show didn't turn out that bad. The basic gist of the story goes like this:
Global warming caused large areas of land to get flooded and shortly after, a mysterious fleet of ships called "The Fog" appeared on earth and claimed the waterspace for themselves and pushed the humans away. Serval years later our protagonist gets visited by one of the Fog, taking form of a little girl asking him to be "her captain". In the process, he and his crew become fugitives and get on the task of transporting the weapon that is key on fighting back against them to the US for mass production.
I take it they departed quite far from the source material by leaving the politics of the various nations and "The Fog" aside and focusing instead on the interactions between them and the main sub and crew, I-401 then somehow that seems to mess up their reason of existance as weapons and causing them to develop more human traits.
What is most noteable about the show is it's visuals. While there has been a constant increase of 3D blended with regular 2D animation they went a step further here and made the 3D the core. The result of this is sometimes weird to look at but works generally well enough and even more so for the action-sequences.
I would not straight up recommend the show but if loli-subs and shipbattles are your thing give it a go.
