First Impressions: Winter 2015 Anime (Part 1)

January 9, 2015January 10, 2015iblessall 12 Comments

Winter 2015 is here. It’s so here. So far, really, so good. There hasn’t been anything that’s compelled me to drop it outright (although a few shows have come close), and most of the shows I was truly excited for showed up well. Add a crop of decent premieres to five solid to excellent ongoing shows and you’ve got a pretty darn good start to the season. Either that or, after a fall season that failed to conclude with a show above 7/10, I’m just really happy to see some new anime.

Still to Watch: Kofuku Graffiti, Durarara!! x2, Isuca, The Rolling Girls, Aldnoah.Zero 2, Fafner of the Blue Sky, World Break, Death Parade

Ongoing: Shirobako, Garo, Your Lie in April, Akatsuki no Yona, Log Horizon

Just a reminder that Shirobako is ongoing, that you should be watching it, and that it’s hard being in anime world.

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Top Fall 2014 Anime: Final Ratings

January 1, 2015January 2, 2015iblessall 17 Comments

The Fall 2014 anime season has come to a close, so it’s time to take a look at what was the best, what great, what was good, what was enjoyable, and what was none of those. It’s particularly important in this season to note that these rankings only cover shows that ended this season—if ongoing shows were counted, this list would look radically different.

I’ve also made a few changes to the awards to accommodate the decreasing number of shows I’m watching each season. All the genre awards have been reduced to a winner and an honorable mention, OST has been added as a category, and ongoing shows are eligible for the OP/ED categories. With that in mind, I’m happy to present the top shows of Fall 2014. Well, happy might not be the best word for a season as rough as this, but here’s the list anyways.

Shoutout to @ZeroReq011 for giving me this gif!

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Fall 2014, Week 11: Highlights of the Week

December 17, 2014December 17, 2014iblessall Leave a comment

Well, I’m on break from school, but that also means I’m back to my part time job, so fitting in blogging around that is going to mean a few less timely posts than before. Ah, the irony that being on break is going to interfere more with my blogging schedule than being at school. Something about not be able to control your own schedule is so…lovely.

Thank you for this gem, Argevollen.

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Fall 2014, Week 10: Highlights of the Week

December 10, 2014December 10, 2014iblessall 19 Comments

The end of the season is nigh, with Chaika being the first show to finish up this week. The crazy time of ending reviews and first impressions (and wow I need to get moving on those Toradora! posts) is almost here.

So have some Chaika while you anticipate!

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Fall 2014, Week 9: Highlights of the Week

December 3, 2014December 3, 2014iblessall 5 Comments

Best week of anime this season? Yup, best week of anime this season. It was the mid-tier shows (YuYuYu, Garo, Argevollen) that really stepped up this week, while Yona, Your Lie in April, and Shirobako continue to be one of the best season top tiers since I’ve started watching simulcasts. And, on top of that, Chaika dove into bombastic crazy weirdness with its second-to-last episode. What more could an anime fan want?

Oh, I know. How about a smokin’ hot Lucifer?

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Fall 2014, Week 8: Highlights of the Week

November 26, 2014November 26, 2014iblessall 3 Comments

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving Day, but there will still be a post coming out (bless you, WordPress post scheduling). As for this week, as I look back on it now, it was a pretty darn good one. The strong shows continue to do their thing, but a few of the mid-tier shows really showed up with some quality anime entertainment.

PSA: Akatsuki no Yona might be one of the best written shows of the entire season.

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Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta Review

November 24, 2014November 24, 2014iblessall 8 Comments

There are always a few shows each season that, for whatever reason, don’t get licensed for streaming. One of the more egregious omissions in recent memory, at least as far as I’m concerned, is Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta [Tatsunoko Production, 2013], an adaptation of Suzuhito Yasuda’s popular manga. A beautifully crafted production, YZQ is charming and tons of fun, fitting it nicely into my ratings at a 6/10 (Rankings).

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Fall 2014, Week 7: Highlights of the Week

November 19, 2014iblessall 6 Comments

This is going to be one of the shorter highlights posts I’ve ever done because I wound up dropping one show this week, but compensated by writing episodic posts for three shows. So this is what it’s like when you get to the level of being an ANN reviewer…yikes.

Oh, and on Friday I finally discovered what WIXOSS is really all about.

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Is it Okay to Like Your Lie in April?

November 17, 2014iblessall 50 Comments

If you’re dialed in to the anime fandom, particularly the simulcast-watching, blogging segment of the fandom that I inhabit, you’ve probably heard at least some hints of the controversy that’s been surrounding noitaminA’s new show, Your Lie in April, a 2-cour anime produced by A-1 Pictures and based on the Kodansha Manga Award winning manga by Naoshi Arakawa.

Near as I can tell as someone standing apart from those who are decrying the show, the bulk of the outcry surrounding KimiUso is derived from the show’s treatment of protagonist Kousei’s traumatic-abusive childhood at the hands of his now-deceased mother.

Now, I’ve always tried to form my own opinions of a show divorced from the complaints and praises of other, but KimiUso has been something of a special case for me. This is, partially, because I’m hearing these complaints from other bloggers whom I personally like and respect, but also because the criticism seems not to be directed towards KimiUso‘s technical aspects so much as it targets ethical concerns, excepting cases where the two merge together.