Another new season of anime is kicking off, the Winter 2014 season, and so we get to sift through another batch of premieres to find what’s Quality, what’s just Entertainment and what’s dropped. The list will be updated until final decisions are made on all shows, and my current watchlist can be found here. Let’s get to it!
EDIT: For anyone coming into this review, make sure that you read the edit at the end of the post first. It will give you a bit of an update on my more current thoughts on the series before you read through the entire review.
Consider this a sequel to “How Not to Do Endings.” Except, this is much, much worse. Spoilers ahead. Ranking undetermined at this time, as I decide how angry I am. When it’s up, you can find it here.
White Album 2 is based off a visual novel and, while set in the same town and referencing some of the characters from the first White Album, is basically not linked at all. For any hope White Album had of getting a potential watch from me, that’s a good thing.
Due to the ending of the current fall anime season and the resulting influx of new anime into my Ongoing Anime Rankings, as well as a fascinating discussion about the 1-10 ranking scale over on the Crunchyroll forums, it came to my attention that my current ranking system, while good, needed some fine tuning. Below you will see the new system, but first, I want to share some of the philosophy and general standards that have been considered as I put together the new system. Continue reading
It contrast to my most recent review of Galilei Donna and Beyond the Boundary, which unfortunately had to focus on the the failings of those two shows, I would like to focus this review on what the two most relaxing anime I have ever seen did right. Those series are Gingitsune: Messenger Fox of the Gods and Non Non Biyori, and you can see their current rankings here. I am actually quite troubled by their current placement and am considering redoing my ranking system to better accommodate the differences between shows. (After all, how does one compare Non Non Biyori to Attack on Titan?)
When I first started Gingitsune, I didn’t really know what I was in for. I had seen shows with slice of life elements in them before, but had never really ventured into pure slice of life before. What I found was a relaxing, heartwarming show that gave me my favorite OP of the season, fhána’s “tiny lamp.” While we could have an entire discussion on what defines the slice of life genre, Gingitsune pretty much fits the genre no matter how you look at it. 
Continue reading
It would be far too painful to force myself to write individual reviews for Galilei Donna and Beyond the Boundary, so I have decided to combine these two disappointing series together due to a common element: bad endings. Bad endings KILL shows, and although I usually try to look on the positive side, the endings to these shows so throughly wreck anything the shows had going for them that I can’t recommend either as watches beyond simple entertainment. And you can find many more entertaining shows out there without having to put up with the weakness of these two anime. Both shows are low tier III shows, see their rankings here. Continue reading
Literally just finished Puella Magi Madoka Magica within the last hour, and here is my first response to the show as a whole. Knee-jerk ranking can be found here. It is impossible to justify putting PMMM any lower than tier II.
It’s incredibly difficult to really gather my thoughts on this show so soon after watching, but there was no way I was going to be able to just sit on it without typing out just a bit. This was my third attempt at watching this show (the first attempt ending after two episodes and the second after only the first), and I did kind of have to gut it out through the first three episodes. After the fourth, however, I was sufficiently engaged to finish out the series and the final 6 episodes were the first in a long time to get me to legitimately marathon something, one episode after the next. I don’t know that it is fair to say that it has a slow start, it just took a while for me to engage.
Part of the reason, I think, for this is that I am get a bit nervous when shows start fooling around with fate–but it’s not really even possible to divine that from the first couple episodes. Maybe it’s not something I can explain, but it’s just a fact that the show took a while to grab me.
That being said, Madoka Magica has a sense of atmospheric creation unlike anything I’ve seen before. Almost from the beginning of the show, I had an intense feeling of doom and foreboding, a sensation that only grew as the show went on. Looking back, I cannot point to anything specific and say, “That was the reason.” It just was, and it was an incredible experience and impressive to see.
Problems I had: what felt like an information dump in the final few episodes. I felt like I went from knowing nothing to being given everything, rather than have it revealed in pieces. And the ending came across as poorly explained. Not rushed, just something that was given to the audience to see and believe. Because it was so without precedent in the show (and so transcendent in nature) I felt a little left out in the cold, not really sure if I could accept the way things ended up.
So, to sum it all up for now, did I think Puella Magi Madoka Magica was a good anime? Yes, I did. It is excellent. Did I like it? Now, that’s another question and its still up in the air. I haven’t decided yet. Perhaps the movies will help me decide, but for now I am not really leaning one way or another.
Each season, it’s a dogfight for the title of best OP. With numerous songs coming out with each new show, it can be tough to wade through all the sounds to distinguish what’s really good, what’s bad disguised as okay and what is truly mediocre.
Rising above the morass is the OP for the seinen anime, Gingitsune. By fhána, the band responsible for The Eccentric Family‘s lovely EP last season, the title of the song is “tiny lamp.”
Driven by lead singer towana’s beautiful voice, “tiny lamp” is quintessential fhána, mixing pop rock with electronia and adding in effects like bells. Just watch the video, because its tough to really describe their sound. All I can say for sure is that their brand of pop rock unique enough to separate them from the mob this season, although they’ll have tough competition from shows like Beyond the Boundary and Log Horizon.
“tiny lamp” is available for purchase worldwide on iTunes.
It’s generally against my philosophy on reviewing shows to do any sort of review after one episode (other than drops), but Kyousougiga‘s episode 00 is something I just couldn’t let go by without saying something. After Crunchyroll so graciously picked up the show a few episodes in, I gave it a shot out of boredom, knowing nothing about the plot, characters or anything else. I could try to describe the episode, but it’d be better for you to just watch it. Click the picture to take off on 25 minutes of excellence.
http://www.crunchyroll.com/kyousougiga/episode-0-646481
In case you need more convincing, allow me to highlight the strengths of this episode. Continue reading
It can be tough sometimes to sum up the overall impression of a show in a single sentence. So, instead, I’m just going to throw out a few words that represent Working!! (also known as Wagnaria!!): Smiles, laughs, kindness and, ultimately, joy. I’d be hard pressed to find another show that is simultaneously bursting with such energy without crossing into the realm of the absurd. Working!! straddles this line, and the fusion of comedy, romance and true-to-life workplace relationships blends into an energetic, heartfelt experience that is truly deserving of the descriptor “joy.” To see where Working!! ended up in my list of ongoing rankings, click here. It’s cracked my top ten, with potential to be moved up.
There are a few important things that Working!! is not. It’s not a romantic comedy. It’s not a harem. It’s not an ecchi. It’s a workplace comedy, although it might be more appropriate to call it a relational comedy set in a workplace (with the typcial shades of romance). Despite the fact that Working!! spends most of its time set in the family restaurant Wagnaria (adapted to be the working English title for the series), the food service setting provides relatively few gags. Most of the jokes come from the cast of characters themselves, each of whom have one dominant characteristic. Continue reading
A little late, but here were my votes for the Best of Summer 2013 in several different categories for the Crunchyroll voting.
Best Story
1. Attack on Titan Most immersive and intense plot of the season. Say what you want about pacing, but the actual story itself is inventive and told in a way that keeps you wondering How? Why? That’s good enough for me.
2. The Eccentric Family Delicate, wonderful storytelling throughout, backed by a great POV & superb writing.
3. A Certain Scientific Railgun S Highlighted by the incredible Sisters Arc, Railgun was in the lead until it ended. Although Silent Party wasn’t bad, it just couldn’t keep up with the rest of the show.
1. Free! Spectacular animation from sexy hair to sexy toes. Everything in the water was beautiful.
2. Sunday Without God Loved, loved, loved the ethereal color pallete they chose.
3. Gatchaman Crowds Not as amazing all the way through, but it’s delightfully colorful and has moments of brilliance. Continue reading
Mage in a Barrel 