How to sexualize workout routines.
A bishi parody of the "Magical Girl" genre. Not even a bad one.
No idea how I finished this show but that was totally not my thing...
At it's core Kiniro Mosaic is your typical 4koma adaptation featuring cute girls doing cute things and if you don't like these kind of shows this won't change your mind (I'm usually not too fond of them either). The twist to this are the two blondes Alice and Karen who move to Japan to visit their Childhood friend so you get a good dose of Engrish in every episode. The show also starts and ends in an unique way so that's a plus. It's really too cute as to hate on it.
I was avoiding this when it aired because I got the impression this was an Otaku-b8 loli show but dancing gifs of Dekomori somehow got me looking into it again (yup). While it's topic certainly is Otaku friendly it wasn't really exploitive. Instead it's a suprisingly fun story about growing up and keeping your imagination alive. It wades of to melodrama towards the end but that's to be expected. I'm looking forward to the movie and S2.
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.
I've tried to enjoy the show but I give up now too. It's a rather dull show most of the time and hardly anything is funny and the episodes are just too uneven in style. J.B. Smoove (terrible actor name, really) plays one of the most annoying characters I've ever seen and the daughter got replaced by a different actress a couple episodes ago... nice adapting to it by PRETENDING NOTHING HAPPENED. No wonder this airs after Big Bang Theory.
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).
I've added my two cents about the show previously and I'm happy to say it hasimproved (even my wish of a better OP was granted). Where as most anime play it save in an detached setting, Silver Spoon keeps it's Slice of Life grounded and has characters dealing with real-life issues. The start was a bit slow imho but Hachiken keeps on growing throughout the show. If we're lucky another season will be made but this would still be an ending I could live with. It's not selling that well but the manga is still ranked highly.
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!
With the first half of the show over I can safely call the show generic. For a LN adaptation it is however surprisingly adventure oriented or at least they take themselves the time.
If you're going to watch the show it is for Chaika bullying and her weird language and character kinks though. I doubt anyone will remember the show once it's finished airing.
I don't have any strong feelings about Silver Spoon but I thought I'd give my two cents about it now that the first cour is over: It does what it sets out to do pretty well. Given that there are kids today that don't even know where their food comes from it's nice to see that something on the topic of agriculture can get an anime adaptation (helps that the mangaka wrote Fullmetal Alchemist though). One of the topics that the plot always seem to come back to is the breeding of live-stock and being able to eat it afterwards. I felt that this always got treated a bit one-sided. The Japanese way is always the right one so for example when the chickens are kept in tiny cages no one questions it. The only thing I wish for is that the second cour gets a better OP because the current one is kinda akward.
Peepoodo is a quite raunchy and explicit sex comedy that also tries to be educational to a certain degree by spoofing the format of kids shows (more by means of putting things out there rather than being particular in depth). While often entertaining the show sometimes tips the balance a tad bit too much towards crudeness, reminding you of the fact that this might as well be interpreted as beastiality porn...
Still, it's short and I feel like everyone who looks at this should easily be able to tell if they are going to dig it or not.
While being initially produced for the French Blackpills streaming service (which was at the time mobile online) they transitioned to their own website for FR & EN audio https://peepoodo.bobbypills.com/. Season Two has been crowdfunded.
I wasn't sure what to expect from a Shonen Jump adaptation airing in NoitaminA's programming block but I got pleasantly surprised. Doing this kind of story with kids is a very easy hook and while mainly twist based it works quite well for the most part. Really loved the conclusion of the arc in regards to Mama too. I'd imagine further seasons to be more in line with regular shounen fare so we'll see how this goes.
I'm really liking this second season. Watched most of the first one without any strong feelings to it but it really improved all around with fun guest stars and ever creative animation work. Mårten Tedin joining as a cinematographer is also a perfect fit.
While I didn't hate the show it has a weird tone as if your parents were trying to be edgy & cool but are still settling for family friendly goofs... The episodic nature keeps things somewhat interesting as it's the local residents whose interactions end up being especially cringeworthy.
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/
So, the first season is actually just part one... great. I would have prefered this ending to another season to be honest - Not everything has to be resolved.
Imho it kind of derailed with the last episode. Not only the forced drama with his wife but also how he let himself get baited like that.
Without the second half in sight there is not really a point in actually watching this right now if you havn't already.
Robot Girls Z boils down to cute girls bullying each other. There is that tendency that they get sexualised a tad bit too much but the cuteness prevails. It's an easy and short watch if you're bored.
Remember that edgy thing called "Elfen Lied"? Yup, this is by the same author and while I'm fuzzy on the details on that it certainly is similar in the way of inflicting violence to teenage girls. It is also probably the only 1-cour show that changed openings on the second last episode and then even to a terrible crunkcore-thingy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C__joUsxAPw).
Despite rating it just a "4" I want to stress that I got plenty of enjoyment out of it... just for all the wrong reasons - or maybe not! Going by the anime alone one has to either believe this is a work by hacks (which it kinda is) or well versed people intentionally taking the piss out of genre conventions.
Anyways, you should not watch this show if you expect any kind of logic or common sense. The story is ridiculous and badly paced. It also follows the same pattern up until the end where they just throw in an ending because they can. What made the show for me was it's schizophrenic tone, switching between comedy bits set to goofy music with some romance to heavily censored action - with a straight face. Really, it's amazing how much bullshit they managed to stuff in there. If you want to watch something so bad that it's good give it a go.
Inferno Cop is insanity. The plot is crazy and all is presented in a minimalistic flash-animation style. Despite being made in Japan the look resembles more the one of American comic books (the reporter even looks like April). All except the last episode are not longer than three minutes so it's really short. They accomplish what they set out to do and as long as you're not expecting something serious you'll enjoy it.
Eff me, this is a 2 cour show... going to drop this then. Really hoped for this to be an above average isekai but it really isn't. Any promise of individuality in the first episode was not touched upon and it instead went the boring Gary Stue-lets-be-friends-with-everyone route without a hint of an interesting story to be found.
(If you haven't seen a few of these enjoy yourself, be my guest but I'm too old for this now ;))
Crunchyroll is looking to release all of the episodes on July 1st where as in Japan it will be broadcast weekly (http://cal.syoboi.jp/tid/4218/time) but was already released in comico at 360p.
Not that you're likely to produce anything substancial with 3 minute episodes but this show is pretty much scraping the bottom barrel of "cute girls doing cute things".
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.
A short and innocent show. Interestingly enough you get a wall of text after each episode explaining every single reference... It's supposedly about Hideaki Anno but how much of him really is in here is up for debate but it's about the only selling point here. Did I mention his wife is a baby?
Despite my "6" rating I recommend skipping this as it's appeal is really niche.
Too bad this show got the Firefly treatment... canned after six episodes and aired out of order. Sucks for Tim Minear... The show itself might not have been perfect but is surprisingly gruesome, has some interesting characters and is not as "profiling" heavy as Criminal Minds. It does however overuse the stick of Rebecca's past and has a tendency to go a bit over the top so some of the incidents are unintentionally comic.
Let down of the season! Not recommended.
(I've already posted my thoughts on multiple episode pages if anyone needs more reasoning)
As others have pointed out, this one has to be commended for the presentation as well as some fantastic tunes. When it comes to the story however it doesn't really go very deep as the world building is lacking and Matsumoto is kinda annoying and the secret "hero" here. Still, some of the episodic entries were quite good so I'll give it to them.
For me this turned out to be somewhat of a guilty pleasure. While the general logic and setup is somewhat flawed (alongside the weird interaction of the "Enemies of Humanity" threat), the actual manipulation and deductions making up the runtime are quite fun and you get the killer POV for most of these. Unfortunately this ends just after introducing a major point of conflict for Nana so you'll most likely have to read the manga for a proper resolution. RIP Michiru - hard to phantom why they would even leave someone with her powers on the island.
