Greetings to you, fair readers of this blog. This week I am happy to greet you along with my new friends who now inhabit the top shelf of my anime bookcase. The genki power in my apartment is strong…
Oh, right! Anime! Let’s get to it!
K: Return of Kings, Episode 9: Now there’s the K I know and love. Some ridiculous action sequences (Seri and Kusanagi going on an undercover mission together was wonderful), some happy happy Silver Clan home life, and one heckuva a crazy twist about the Green’s living situation put K back into the territory where I enjoy it most. Things are mostly playing out how I’d predicted they would, with the Greens winning the fight for the Slates and the rest of the clans having to figure out how to recover them. However, the most interesting thing going on right now is really with Fushimi, whose defection from the Blues and subsequent embrace of the game-style Jungle system due to the pain of dealing with the relationships says a lot both about him and about what K thinks about diving into games to avoid the trouble of dealing with people. I’m curious to see how this idea of “games” interacts with that of “power” in forming K‘s final thematic statement.
https://twitter.com/iblessall/status/670490660617789440
One Punch Man, Episode 9: If you some how missed it, this week’s Aniwords post over on Crunchyroll was all about One Punch Man 9. Genos is still my baby.
Concrete Revolutio, Episode 9: I’ll admit I didn’t expect Concrete Revolutio to start musing on the very nature of humanity this episode, but with the season’s best show tackling a topic like this I’m not going to complain. In any case, there’s very little to complain about as Conrevo continues to run away with the title of the season’s best show. Timeline-wise, this episode seems to fall between Jiro’s initial split from the Superhuman Bureau and the (I’m assuming) big incident that really turned him against them and caused him to form his own group to oppose them. As much as an episode featuring a giant acid spitting robot can, this was a subtle, thoughtful episode. Jiro’s closing thoughts—”They have surpassed humans”—are an interesting thing to consider. Is death inherently part of what makes humans human? And it’s interesting that Jiro doesn’t consider the family less than human, but superhuman. If you think about it that way, couldn’t you argue that all superhumans have surpassed humans? Or does that lose the nuance of what Jiro’s observing here?
Concrete Revolutio is an awesome show, you guys.
Mecha Sunday
Gundam Tekketsu, Episode 9: I’m pretty impressed by how quickly Tekketsu dispelled my discomfort with the whole harem thing—and that the way it ended up doing it was via parallel with the Tekkadan organization and one lecture about love to a non-comprehending Atra. Also via my own realization that perhaps part of the reason I didn’t like it was…jealousy…? Yeah, I’d marry Lafter. Moving on. In other important things, Tekkadan folding under the Turbines and Orga making a blood oath of brotherhood with continues to roll the show’s family theme forward in a compelling way. It looks like Turbines might be accompanying our Martian boys to Earth? I’d love that. Okada please.
Comet Lucifer, Episode 9: Man, this show is seriously one above-average scriptwriter from being a genuine star. Sadly, it hasn’t got that so we’re left with what ended up being a cluster of potentially evocative plot threads that don’t come together in any meaningful way because they aren’t given enough time in this episode (or in prior ones). Do Mon’s backstory, his relationship with Sogo’s mother, Gus’ obsession with Do Mon, Sogo coming to terms with his relationship with his surrogate father, Kaon and crew sweeping in to save the day…correctly handled, this could have been an emotional watershed. As it is, all of Comet Lucifer‘s cute faffing around in earlier episodes crippled its ability to be serious now. A shame. Both parts were good, but the staff couldn’t make it work.
Short Takes~
- Miss Monochrome S3, Episode 9: “We will become a delicious ramen.” I will be very sad indeed when this show leaves us.
- Noragami Aragoto, Episode 9: Here is some relationship advice from an anime blogger—if you are on a group date with a girl you’ve only met for the second time and she starts crying, DON’T KISS HER YOU JERK. Also, what in the world was up with Hiyori’s hair this week?
- Haikyuu!! S2, Episode 9: It’s kind of sad that Haikyuu!! doesn’t really do character drama all that well (with the exception of Yachi’s single-episode arc), because that’s been mostly what we’ve gotten this season. I watch Haikyuu!! for exciting volleyball action and I’m extremely thankful that it appears to be coming up next week. Finally.
I’m still behind on Starmyu. My apologies. Thanksgiving really messed up my schedule.
Mage in a Barrel 
This is turning into an “ocean wave” season for me. I catch up, I fall behind, I make up ground on one show and lose ground on another. I’m getting through things, just not elegantly enough to post week-to-week rankings like I was doing earlier in the year.
Anyway, I’m currently caught up on Comet Lucifer, Beautiful Bones, Perfect Insider, and Hacka Doll.
Hacka Doll continues to be a pleasant break from all the more serious storytelling of PI, BB, and Gundam. I enjoyed this week’s episode too, spoofing MMORPGs and SAO. You might actually want to check out episode 7, which was a very funny parody of Shirobako – and since you’ve seen that show (which I haven’t yet, though it’s on my list), you’ll probably enjoy it even more than I did. Hacka Doll is totally episodic, so you can easily watch 7 on its own without needing to see anything else.
The last episode of Perfect Insider finally took a deep dive into Moe and Souhei’s relationship. We got some glimpses that Souhei actually does care about her when he isn’t hiding his emotions behind walls of verbal BS (albeit more like a sister or daughter was my impression), and we saw some backstory that at least partly answered the question of why she’s so attached to him. And lo and behold she actually has good solid reasons for it; it’s not just cuz he’s all cool and emo and like talkz profound and stuff. The mystery’s getting more interesting too. I have a pretty firm theory about what’s going on at this point, so no doubt I’m completely wrong. We’ll see.
Pretty much agree with your take on Comet Lucifer. Any higher expectations I may have had for it sailed away a long time ago, so I’m just tuning in for the entertainment value, and that’s the one thing it does deliver basically every week, this one being no exception.
I’m still a few episodes behind on Gundam and OPM, but that will shortly be remedied. It sounds like both have some really good stuff coming up the next few episodes anyway, so I’m not about to miss that. I didn’t read your Aniwords yet since I don’t want to spoil myself on episode 9, but I will once I’m caught up.
Young Black Jack I moved over to my on hold list. I still want to come back to it at some point, but I have too many other shows competing for my attention right now, plus…
…I’m still trying to finish my MAL Anime Challenge for the year, and there’s only a month left. I knocked off two more categories this week, and have four left to go:
I completed “watch a staff member’s favorite anime” by finishing Hyouka. Loved it, will save final thoughts for after you’re done with the weeklies. Right now I have it just outside my top ten at #12 overall, between Gunslinger Girl and Trigun.
I completed “watch an anime that’s at least 1/2 your age + 7 years old” by watching the movie “Wrath of the Ninja” from 1989. The action and animation were pretty good, the story was not.
Last week I dug out the stack of ADV promo DVDs that I still have from my first anime club back in ’06-’09 to look through them, and one disc had the first two episodes of Kurau Phantom Memory (a 2004 Bones series). I saw that series once a long time ago, and that jogged my memory, so I decided to show the first episode to my kids at anime club yesterday. They seemed to enjoy it – even the one guy who usually spends every screening fiddling with his phone was actually watching and into it. Now I think I might re-watch that series sometime next year, because seeing that first episode again brought back a lot of good memories of it that I’d forgotten about. I also brought the iPad in to give them time to practice on SIF before next month’s big contest. None of them are very good at it yet, but they all seemed to be having a lot of fun playing and that’s the most important thing (that and two of the girls telling me they wanted to watch the series now – ahhhh, converts!).
Speaking of SIF, a few quick notes:
I just picked up New Year’s Kotori this morning on my personal account, my first time earning an event SR. I’m too far behind to tier this one without spending too many gems, so my goal for my first T2 is the next Honoka event. I really, really like her card for that one.
I also lucked out and drew the Snowy Mountain Kotori UR on my first 10+1 pull with this account, after getting only single SR draws with the two pulls I did for the library account – maybe some of your luck’s rubbed off on me.
Also, I played Susume Tomorrow for the first time in this event, and I almost FC’ed it first try on hard. That would’ve been a big milestone because I’ve never come close to doing that with any hard song before, but I botched the third-to-last note. Grrrr. I did FC it a few tries later, but man, so close…
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You guys summarize neatly why I dropped Comet Lucifer, except I didn’t find it entertaining. You do make me wonder if I shouldn’t go back and check out Hackadoll though.
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Well I think it really depends on whether you enjoy its particular style of comedy, which is a lot of spoofing and riffing on popular shows and tropes. I almost dropped it after episode 2, partly because episode 2 wasn’t that funny (and is still the worst of the series IMO) but mostly because I was expecting it to continue with the girl they were helping in episode 1 and it threw me off when the dolls were suddenly helping someone else. Now that I know what it’s doing and I’ve adjusted my own expectations accordingly, I’ve found it easy to enjoy. But I happen to like that kind of humor and it’s also fun to see how many of the various references I can pick out from week to week. Incidentally, the three Hacka Dolls are voiced by Miyu, Kaya, and Nanami from Wake Up Girls, and I’m sure that was also deliberate (and even funnier considering that Doll 3 seems to be permanently half-asleep).
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I thought ep 3 was the worst, which was the proximate cause of my drop… Yeah, the VA’s caught my eye too. 🙂
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I do agree that Comet Lucifer, for all its faults, has managed to be pretty consistently entertaining. A lot of shows can’t even manage that, so good on them.
And oh man, you’ve converted people to Love Live! You are doing wonderful work.
As far as the season as a whole goes, I’ve been going through a similar patterns of waves, although more in terms of overall time spent on anime. Three weeks ago, I watched about 20 episodes, two weeks ago I watched 49 (!!!), last week I was back down around 20, and I dunno where I’ll fall this week. MAL’s Anime History tool sure is something…
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Still Ties for First and Second places! Some of them are setting up for the final episodes !
EPISODE(S) of the WEEK 8 / 9 POSTED BELOW / EOW on RANKINGS
TIER 1 TOP FAVORITES / WEEK 8 / 9 / WED 12 / 2 Shows Not watched yet ####
A TIE For First / Second
1 Haikyuu!! Second Season EOW
1 Noragami Supernatural 2 / Noragami Aragato Funi SUB / DUB EOW
3 Seraph of the End 2 Vampire Reign FUNI SUB DUB EOW
3 One Punch Man EOW
5 RWBY Vol. 3 EOW
6 Concrete Revoltio / Choujin Gensou EOW
7 K 2nd Season / K Return of Kings
8 Heavy Object FUNI Sub / Dub
9 World Trigger / (Fugitives From Another World)
10 GARO CRIMSON MOON / Garo -Guren no Tsuki EOW
11 The Perfect Insider / Subete ga F ni Naru EOW
12 Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note EOW WK 8 MOVED UP A simple but soild postive anime. ####
13 Comet Lucifer [red]CR[/red]
14 Kagewani series EOW
15 Shomin Sample Sub / DUB ####
16 Beautiful Bones Sakurako’s Investigation Dropped a Few Not sure where it’s going. ####
17 Hidan no Aria AA EOW
18 MISS Monochrome 3 EOW
19 Hacka Doll the Animation EOW
20 Lance N’ Masques
21 Young Black Jack
22 TEEKYUU 6
OVA / ONA / Special / MOVIES
Blood Blockade Battlefront EP 12 / “Hello, World!”
Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya 2wei Herz! Specials (CAT GIRLS )
The Eden of Grisaia Specials 1 / 2
Yozakura Quartet Yoza-Quar! / Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta Specials 1 / 2 / 3
Robot Girls Z Plus EP 6 FINAL
Seraph Of the Endless / Owaranai Seraph Speciaks 1-4 / 5-7
Umaru-chan OVA
Sound! Euphonium Special 5 / ” Lots of Problems Everyday , Yo ”
Wakaba*Girl: Onsen Tsukaritai
Isshuukan Friends Specials 6-12 (Kaori’s Diary / except 12 which is Hase’s Diary)
Ghost in the Shell (2015)
Isuca: Gokuraku OVA
Noragami Aragoto OAD
Girls und Panzer: Fushou – Akiyama Yukari no Sensha Kouza # 6
Strike the Blood: Valkyria no Oukoku-hen
EPISODE(S) of the WEEK 8 / 9
Tantei Team KZ Jiken Note EP 8 / The Egg Hamburg Steak Knows Part 4
A simple yet solid postive anime all season long. Aya tells Sunahara about the meat allegry problems and he actually told his dad that driver was a problem but his dad kept him on. It got so bad Sunahara punched him and got arrested thus his juvie record. But Sunahara wants to handle it ! Befire he goes he teels Aya you have a fifth friend ! Sunahara’s dad wheb told goes to the police / health dept . Aya wants Sunahara to join the club but Sunahara’s meat closed acoubt of the scandal and he moved away! Aya wants to call him but thins it is better to wait !
The Perfect Insider / Subete ga F ni Naru EP 8 / PURPLE DAWN
I am not going into too much depth but Sohei has a interrsting view of what is going on Moe throws the Labs progammer out after she expresses interest in Dohei ! Moe thinks Shiki is alive after her chat online with her ! The duo throws out theroies why or not this could be possible!
I kinda thought this week wasnt going as strong but The Super Ultra Anime Time Block delivered !
MISS Monochrome 3 EP 9 / Unity
In an effort to keep her Idol group from getting too big a head Miss Monochrome points out flaws on a basically a molecular level. At first I thought she was harsh but in realitly idols are judged closely ! The plan by her ans Mgr convinces them to advance more!
Hacka Doll the Animation EP 9 / The Only Thing That Can Stop Me is Tuesday Routine Maintenance
This was a great parody / satire of RPG online games like SQO ( SAO ) I was ROFL as the trio try to get a boy to come out of his room at his mom’s request! But HD # 4 is the ” Big Boss ” in the game and have to fight her! This has been a lot of fun every week . Yes there are WTH moments but vfor the most part actually brilliant satire!
Kagewani EP 9 / Flytrap
Another great creepy episode alomost a homage to ” Little Shop of Horrors ” n episode doesnt go by where I think homage uis beiing done and I like that ! Anyway four boys are at a Botantcial Garden but it;s Dark and Eerie and one boy is being picked on for li,ing plants ! But they run into a dead zone when an devcomposed body falls out and the vines / plants capure them all Only the boy that ewaxs picked on survivbes ns is beingg questioned by police with Banba there and Kimura takes over as the boy turns green and the black liquid is spilling out!
GARO CRIMSON MOON EP 8 / Brothers
Excellent backstory of Raikou. Shinbachi is seen killing an horror by slicing off an arm but then later possesses him. Yorinobu asks Seimei but she refuses. Because Yorinobu is the son of Shinbachi father of Raikou who exiled him because he wanted Yorinobu to be the Makai Knight ! But in the end Shinbachi’s always felt guiltly ans thus had to be killed!
Noragami Aragato EP 21 / The Sound of a Thread Snapping
Yato is in the cavren to find who is calling uphantoms when he finds Ebisu who is looking for Izanami to obtain an Locution Brush,Only catch one of them has to stay to keep Izanami company in which Yato loses but stiil gets away. The Gods are all summoned to reveal the traitor Ebisu much to everybody’s surprise !
On the other side Hiyori is on a outing with her friends and a boy Fujisaki,who is making her forget both Yato and Yukine. He is not all he seems as he kisses her! Brewaking the bond more but this was planned ! At this point I dont trust Nora / Yato’s father and maybe Tejim?
Attack on Titan: Junior High EP 9 / Sweet Summer
The season could be hit or miss! But having a possible romance and a suumer festival with all the cliches was played our perfectly !
Haikyuu!! Second Season EP 9 / Umbrella
The last day of practice and Karasuno shows a lot of improvement ! However Hinata / Kageyama still asre having problems but Hinata sneaks into the special practoce with Nekoma / Fukordani players and Tsukishima! Meanwhile the syrprise of an BBQ gets leaked out ! There is a mention that Coach Nekomata would like to play Karasuno one time in thbe National FIbal for the Battle of the Garbarge Dump ( Local area) as this may be his last season!
Seraph of the End 2 EP 20 / Demon’s Lullaby
CHPS 22-23 / Crowley in Control / Demon’s Lullaby
Lots going on in this EP but didnt distract from the flow!
I will focus on Kureto first ! His brother Seishiro ans finds out he has changed their fathers ( GEN Tenri Hīragi )plans ! He objects but Kureto’s aide cuts down his detail. He says to Seishiro he stiil could have a role later!
Yu wants to go rescue Guren but it goes badly for both squads fighting Crowley with Guren Telling Shinya to retreat ! Yu still objects and takes two more pills but appears to die !
Concrete Revoltio EP 9 / End of the Endless Family
This anime is really good! It tackles the issue of injustice to the superheroes like prejudice ripped out of current events. It points out goverments can be unjust ! Jusy like WW II we when the Japanese were put in camps some political groups want to do the same to Muslims livinng in America! The Amreicans get to be the bad guys but I am not sure we deserve it from the past or what is in the news! But really the world is full of hate right now and this show has nailed it whether designed or not !
A sailor is captured by the Americans and was put to death and experimented on > But he is from a family of Superheroes that cant die ! He joined WWII to have papers to keep his family from being noticed . They get caught up in an explosion that should have killed them but survive asnd escape only to be tracked down by goverments! The Americans make a deal to give back the missing family since they cant kiil him or use his power but it’s a ploy to kiil them just keep thinmgs quiet as they send a Robot that spews toxic chemicals to destroy them THE SHB tries to stop the Robot but the family goes to mee their fate which they do but they come back to life and the Robot destroyed it self after the mission was done !
One Punch Man EP 9 / Unyielding Justice
CHPS / 25 Glimmer of Hope / 26 Beat-Up But Shining / 27 Because It’s Raining / 28 B Class
Genos tries to save the people in the shelter and actually lets his guard down and Sea King knocks him around good ripping off one of his arms ! But Genos has fight left in him and and has Sea King in a draw just to let people escape but Sea King spits acid saliva at a young girl but Geonos saves her and is serious shape and Sea King is going to finish him off but Licenlees Rider tries his best to stop him but is beat down too! Sea King goes back to Genos to do the death blow Saitama arrive and is none too happy about what is going on ! Sea King punches him but does little damage ! One Punch takes him out in one blow and is kinda disappointed it wasnt a better fight!,The crowd cant believe a Claass C took out the Sea King and one survivor says the Heroes Asoociation charges fees and maybe a fraud ! But One – Punch says the other Heroes made it easier by wearing him out ! He gets a bunch of fan mail most good / one hate letter / but a very nice thank- you note . Also a letter from the Heroes Association that he is Class C 1st. He hasd to go to the Heroes HQDRS where he is offered B Rank BTM Rank 101. He has to go through a bunch of tests but passes On his wat home he stops at a food stand and Orders a mix of Oden . Licenlees Rider stops in too and One Punch finds out he sent the thank- you note!
RWBY Vol. 3 CHP 4 / Lessons Learned
Another good one ! Mercury Black / Emerald Sustrai versus Coco Adel / Yatsuhashi Daichi in the doubles round of the Vytal Festival.
At first it seem the CFVY duo have the upper hand but the Cinder faction Duo eventually win!
Qrow is visiting Ruby / Yang at their Dorm and beating them ! Ruby asks what he was doing and expains it but gets funny when he tals about the length of the bar keep skirt ! Byt in serious he says they are not ready for everything yet ! He also recalls Team STRQ ( up to now was called Team QROW ? )
Winter / Weiss are having a dinner before Winter leaves. She tells Weiss she is doing good but needs to be bettr at her spell casts . They also discuss the fall out with Weiis; father ! He wants her to call but Winter thinks maybe Weiis is better off being free ?
BEST OST this season / Also one of the Years best !
Team STRQ ( Rexplained from QROW )
STRQ (pronounced “Stark”) was a team comprised of four characters: The team graduated from Beacon Academy before the start of the series
Summer Rose S / ( Deceased ) Ruby’s mother and Yang’s step-mother.
Taiyang Xiao Long T / Ruby’s and Yang’s father
Raven Branwen R / Yang’s mother
Qrow Branwen. Q / Yang’s uncle by blood and Ruby’s honorary uncle.
Hidan no Aria AA EP 9 / Home Visit
The anime has beem mostly lighter fanservice filler but things took an ominous turn when things turn to the action / intrigue . That drean of Nonoka was enough of a nightmare wondering what really happened in the past! Aria takes up Akari’s offer to visit and is quite amazed how friendly Akari is with everybody in the neighborhood. Shino / Urara are tailng them but Aria knows it and exposes them Soon everybody is staying over! Next day Aria / Akari are out and Aria knows she is being tailed . So she sends Akari to get drinks and the friendly duo of Shino / Urara shes Ariain trouble and get Akari and the others to help! Aria holds off them but more arrive. Akari catches up and makes some some blunders the most failing to shoot a hostile ! In the end Aria dimmises Akari as her Amica in training becuase of that ! Aria makes Akari fire her gun into an alley where a target is and has killer direct hits . Akari explains that she is deadly and wiil kill ! Meanwhile Riko and her partners plan to take out Aria / Akari . Next week looks very ominous.
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I am, of course, very glad to see Conrevo up near the top of your rankings, but the other thing that caught my eye was RWBY, which has a bad rap among a lot of the people I usually hang out with. Nice to see that it’s got some fans around (I assume many, since it usually seems to chart pretty well on Crunchyroll).
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And now… the irregular wall… Hopefully, soon I’ll be back where I can post weekly, though there’s not really much wall worthy this season.
Anti-Magic Academy: The 35th Test Platoon; Still in the character roulette (though the last week may finally have given us the final plot point and arc). Still a train wreck I can’t keep my eyes off of.
Doamayger-D; Still hilariously stupid.
_Lovely Muuuuuuuco!; If this gets any funnier… I’ll have to start dialing 911 before hitting ‘play’.
Miss Monochrome 3; Honestly, I’m getting more and more disappointed with this season. There’s not enough ‘stuff’ there to support their attempts at being serious, and last eps reach back for a well worn gag just drove that home. Stick to the surrealist humor guys, that’s your forte.
One-Punch Man sigh Where to begin? I appreciate the social commentary, but not it’s leaden delivery. And especially not dragging it out across two episodes. As an action/mystery series, One Trick Man was going pretty well… Now it’s veering off onto thin ice.
Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan Remains cute even though it’s veered away from having a plot and back into one-gag-per-ep territory.
The Asterisk War Still remains better than it has any right to be… Though the Phoenix Festa is pretty much a generic magical tournament at magical battle high school, they’ve tossed in some interesting ringers.
And that’s it for this week… Have to run a bunch of errands before the windstorm hits. (The fourth this year!)
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Yay, you’re out of the woods! Welcome back!
And we’re kind of on the same same page re: OPM. Delivery is leaden. Animation is anything but. The rest is somewhere in between.
I’m on the opposite side of the spectrum for you re: Miss Monochrome, though. I like it’s extended explorations of single jokes a lot. Kind of one of those things where the more you repeat the joke, the funnier it gets.
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I’m finding this season very blah. The only shows I’m really looking forward to each week are Noragami, Ushio to Tora, One Punch Man and Concrete Revolutio. And frankly, I have doubts that Concrete Revolutio will be able to stick the landing.
Beautiful Bones, Perfect Insider, and Utawarerumono are particularly disappointing. Beautiful Bones is leaning too much on “Look, isn’t our main character quirky!” and is usually “telling, not showing”.
Perfect Insider is getting very convoluted. When the most probable solution for the crime so far involves a daughter born and raised in secret in a locked room for 15 years, it’s a sign that the mystery has gone off the rails in some fashion.
Utawarerumono started off very well. But it has decided to waste its time on fanservice, standard anime tropes, and cameos from the first show. To put it in perspective, in the first show the main character had already conquered a country by this point.
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I’m keeping up my hopes for Conrevo! I like where it’s going and I think they’re shown they have the directing and writing chops to pull it off. Hopefully we just get their best writer, episode director, and material for the big moments that are sure to be coming.
I’m pretty glad my decision to drop the last three shows you mention seems to be paying off. They exist kind of in that awkward spot between trying to be good and succeeding, and just regular entertainment stuff…at least from what I’ve heard about them.
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Here’s the write up I did on my blog (inspired by your posts):
http://mythopoetlovesanime.tumblr.com/post/134469074362/my-week-in-anime-november-25-december-1
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Oh, that’s nice—it just embeds the post in the comment! ^_^ Very convenient.
Oh, right! Fairy Tail still exists! I wish the sequel series still had the verve and production quality of the first—I’d totally still be watching it if so (also, your strategy of watching a few all at once is super smart!).
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