That twist is so cringey I just had to stop with this show.
Osomatsu-san was the unlikely champion of the last two seasons - at least when it came to making dosh. Based on a manga from the 80s it is mostly a reimagining by Studio Pierrot. Given this setup it seems even weirder that it got to the place it is. As it turned out it has been welcomed in fujoshi community. They tend to enjoy all male casts and given the hiki-neet attitude of the guys that are even easy to draw yourself just seemed to hit all the checkboxes (along with the censor drama around the first BD volume). Now one shouldn't blame a show for it's fandom and in this case they should get some applause. The show was pretty much allowed to do whatever it wanted. The comedy that usually plays out as multiple sketches in an episodes can get really inspired. That's not to say they're all perfect (and some are slightly lost in translation) but it's a fun ride overall.
Dimension W had the potential of being a great show but for me it didn't come together. I blame that mostly on the lack of synergy between the leads early on and the rushed, or at least strongly condensed, ending.
Studio 3Hz is still a new studio but so far they showed a lot of premise. I'm sure they can get it down at some point.
On P.A. Work's conquest of being a studio that puts out either good or awful shows, HaruChika joins the latter ones. It really comes off as a poor man's KyoAni work mixing together Sound Euphonium and Hyouka, along with the most boring mysteries ever.
This is pretty much Saekano without fanservice, and a lot more boring.
Bubuki Buranki is a bit of a hot mess. The story has good ideas in the world building but the way it was unfolding seemed to be all over the place, especially in the later episodes. The 3DCG while still odd in some places was actually quite decent and worked for the show.
I doubt the second cour/season will change much about the issues but I'm down to watch some more.
A boring procedural that makes little sense with kitsch mythology mixed and starring Lucifer as the ultimate douché. Seeing that the main hook should come from the chemistry between him and the cop lady and they're at backwood sexism there I'm not seeing any hope for the show.
Dropped as of Episode 4.
A fun but short series that brings genre sensibilities to TV. It's not without flaws but I gladly take more shows like this.
Streaming world wide at http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/600180803988/the-wizards-of-aus-honk (there is no proper index)
Sakamoto is based as fuck. This is going to be great.
Kowabon aimed to deliver horror in mere 3 minute scenarios involving a bunch of ghosts revealing themselves either through cameras or the internet. As one might have guessed this doesn't really work nor do you get any tension in that time. Apart from one or two scenes that had a cool idea there is really nothing to see here. To make matters worse immediately after the camera noise and the ghost appearing we switch to a terrible ear bleeding ending song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imBwJ2F8eLk) that features cute ghost designs and shows the behind the scenes for that particular episode. The reason for that is mostly that they wanted to showcase that they animated it by rotoscoping (drawn over live-action footage).
This is the first directing credit for the guy so I will put it to that but he has worked for Studio4°C before being a producer at the small studio that made this and other titles. Still, he should have know better (or maybe they have just been pushed into this to sell the song or w/e).
Not recommended.
How to sexualize workout routines.
Did you know that Hakone had hot springs (onsen)? They have hot springs and you (if you're Japanese) should come visit them: the show. Not that I believe the area needed more advertisement but hey, it apparently does. No volcanic action in this though!
Next to the aptly named Hakone-chan there is another weird mascot in this (from the Boxappy family) which I belive is just from one resort so my guess is they funded this.
A rather boring series featuring a set of bland characters and subpar animation.
Kagewani ("Shadow crocodile") comes from the same Director/Write combo as Yami Shibai which shows because the art and animation style is basically the same and it's also a short series with it's themes focused on horror. Where the two shows are different however is the story format. This one actually has an overarching story that comes into play in latter episodes.
I'm certain the visuals are not everyone's cup of tea but I think it works for the show. The monsters also have some cool designs that are lovecraftian inspired but suffer when they're animated.
This won't spook you but if you like horror you can't be a beggar when it comes to anime to pick from.
As a side note: The writer of this also has a second show airing at the moment called 'Kowabon' which focuses on ghosts which unlike this I would not recommend.
TRIGGER seems to like doing side jobs and short series like this inbetween their original projects (playing it quite discreet here).
Hacka doll is based on a mobile app where the dolls featured in the series #1, #2, #3 etc. serve as mascots who deliver you news to various nerdy topics from different content sites. They're supposed to be learning what content you like from which the whole "advance" aspect of this show comes from. The gang is thrown in different settings based on the users who downloaded their app. They then try to help them with their problem which usually ends up in a failure (this is a comedy after all).
I enjoyed myself with the show and the parodies were diverse, unfortunately some episodes weren't quite hitting the mark. Still, if you're looking for a short comedy series with "otaku" based humor it isn't a bad pick though!
I can't say this show engaged me in the least bit. The mystery is done very poorly and the characters are bland. There is really not much to care for here. The wrap-around can't be blamed for this except that it is overly colorful (probably just because of her name) and even has a "transformation" sequence in the earlier episodes which is odd for a show focused on bones. It's really the content that is lacking.
btw: Now that there is a TMDB link for this show - good job on the terrible screen captures... doggie dog dog dog.
This was a fun but short series that is a bit disjointed. Some of the episodes focus on the "spirit medium teacher" in school while the others focus on some cats (whose acclaimed king she is too). Both areas have their highlights but I feel like it would have been a lot better if they stayed with students more often. The chaotic music added to the insanity!
Another cute and harmless 4-koma adaptation from the same author as "I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying". Why does Komori have a giant rack? I would like to know that too... they're totally out of place.
Sort of surprising to see almost no fans of the main show showed up for this. This was alright for a cash grab parody to be honest. Given it's generic school setting and episode themes they could have cut the episodes shorter than the 17 minutes they now had without much loss (it's all due to giving the huge cast screentime).
I read that this was a reverse C3bu (or just Ouran with airguns) but as it turns out it isn't... It's perma edge X bad drama.
I didn't care for this show at all which you sort of have to given the pace and non-resolution after season 1. I'm still not quite sure if a more careful watch wouldn't have made the mystery even more obvious as it has been imho quite on the nose...
Reading the title, getting expectations: doing it wrong. You get the cover here which in the beginning are some fun spoofs of RPG tropes but after a few episodes always end up being more blunt with the bikinis.
From what I head Monster Musume has it roots deep in the fetish market... being about monster girls and all. With each iteration of the story/characters this got a little tamer. This isn't saying much though as it's still quite racy. That is also my main gripe with the show: making a little girl a bird monster shouldn't be an excuse to sexualize lolis. Same applies for mental potato heads.
Looking past all that we have a colorful cast of monster girls forming a harem around the main character allowing for some alternate takes on tired antics. Not a masterpiece but sort of fun.
Couldn't feel any less visual novel-y. They skipped quite a bunch of character work to get through more story and also focusing a little too much on not so interesting characters.
The Wakaba Girls 4koma strip is written by the same guy as Kiniro Mosaic whose adaptation I quite enjoyed. Unfortunately I didn't find the same charm and chemistry here. While the episode runtime here is a lot shorter I highly doubt that would have evaluated the "jokes" in a meaningful way. Maybe non-pandering tropes for the characters would help here?
J.C. Staff delivered a fun adaptation of Prison School even if censored on TV - consider me pleased! This series is driven by immature and sexual humor but also has a lot of absurd qualities to it. This is mainly highlighted by everyone being batshit crazy in some way but no one thinking much of it.
I can understand everyone that is put off by the racy artwork but unlike other ecchi shows with ^those sort of racks Prison School aims for more than just sexual gratification. Can't be that bad when there is also a live-action TV show launching this month, no?
Anno's Animator Expo showcases a diverse range of short movies with different approaches when it comes to animation. The amount of CG heavy productions gets bigger every year and certain advances can be seen here as well (with various degree of success). As with any collection of shorts there are some standouts (which even gathered some attention outside the project) and some not so great entries. Given the size those are very few though.
The project seems to have been vastly ignored by everybody which is understandable, I hope however that these kind of projects keep on coming (like Ani*Kuri, Anime Mirai, etc.).
Ninja Slayer sees Studio TRIGGER (or more likely just Akira Amemiya) pursuing the steps of Inferno Cop. Lots of cutout cheap ass giggle animations and not so serious plot. Unlike the former series they sometimes do "regular" scenes but not for very long.
The occasional YEEEEEEEARTTTTT shenanigans, the traditional ninja DOMO introductions and SAYONARA deaths are probably the high lights. Not really recommended.
A gotta give it to TRIGGER tho for having 26 different ending songs by various alternative Japanese bands (mostly rock but even shoegaze 👍).
With the slab of S2 specials coming out I just wanted to leave a little warning here. The Fruit of Grisaia is not a good show. It's a hot mess of a visual novel adaptation that decided that it's a good idea to combine all the different routes you can play into 2-3 episode arcs. Not only does this mean these routes are heavily condensed but you also get mood whip-lash and 5 times the traumatic backstories in a short time which is more funny than anything else.
The second season also ends in a harem lovers dream which is not a pretty sight. The specials also make it apparent that a huge part of the VNs is the porn as those try really really hard not to be hentai (the MC is quite the pussy slayer).
Can't sleep? Maybe these weird looking bishi will do the trick. At least that is what the show is about... 3 minutes of guys throwing suggestive & corny lines at you. Target demo? Fujoshi ("you" are referred to as a woman). Why did I watch this? The lulz m8y.
With Wes Craven's recent passing this show can't be considered a honor to his work. Luckily he didn't do much else than let them use his name for the show.
You can't do a slasher movie as a TV series.
The above is an actual quote from a character in this show which certainly applies here. There is little "slasher" in this show! Instead they took some basic ideas from the genre and paired it with Pretty Little Liars whose fans also seem to be the target audience.
No one does a decent job acting, the dialogue is often cringey, the story sucks and they make absolute no use of the runtime to build the characters or go past the cliché. They even had the balls to go for a second season.
For anyone who liked the movies and thinks that the TV series is the logical continuation you have to watch: don't do it.
