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kirtar posted:That's actually four since I had the two continuing shows on the same line. Yeah. Probably not watching Back Arrow. I've become luckier about shows due to quite limited watch time.
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Mar 30, 2021 09:48
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Since the Spring thread doesn't yet exist, I'll recommend Mars Red. In general, I'm a fan of Meiji/Taisho/Early Showa/RoC period pieces, because that's a really interesting piece of 20th century East Asian history. And sure, throw in vampires. And let's throw in some gorgeous direction, SHAFT quality cutting and vectors drawing your eyes in surprising directions. And make the vampires tragic figures being thrown about by at the mercy of European and Japanese Imperialism. Phobophilia fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Mar 30, 2021 |
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Mar 30, 2021 13:05
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The only show I managed to keep up with this season was Attack on Titan, which ruled and I am really looking forward to seeing the actual final season next winter.
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Mar 30, 2021 13:16
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cave emperor posted:Re: Zero: Somewhat disappointing end to an ambitious story arc with arguably too many spinning plates, feels like they could've scrapped two or three plot points without losing much.
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Mar 30, 2021 13:51
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rezero ftw
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Mar 30, 2021 14:20
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A rough ranking of and brief thoughts on the ten shows I watched Winter 2021. Three of these haven't aired their final episodes, but better to get this out before the new season really gets going, and I don't think the finales will change my opinions. D-tier: Otherside Picnic: The first two episodes made it clear this adaptation didn’t have the animation or direction to do justice to the eerie horror atmosphere of the source material. I struggled through the fourth episode’s incomprehensible butchery of what had been a gripping arc and then gave up. Check out the manga or novels instead. C-tier: Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon boonies moved to a starter town?: This show held my interest by reliably producing sharply-animated visual goofs that made me smile. Whenever it tried to tell its story my attention wandered. Harmless fluff. Horimiya: Horimiya started strong with some stylish animation and a likable cast of characters, but my enthusiasm waned as it became apparent how little follow-through there would be on any of their stories. This is a flaw of the source material that the anime only exacerbated by its pacing. Speaking of, binging the manga after the first episode taught me not to do that again: while I enjoyed the read, it diminished my enjoyment of the show. B-tier: Kemono Jihen: Case in point, I remained anime-only for Kemono Jihen and had a fine time with it. A fun mix of humor and horror that was reliably entertaining, and with a protagonist so blunt he puts all other ‘dumb hero’ archetypes to shame. I’d absolutely watch another season, especially with the promise of more screentime for good girl Kon. Re:Zero Season 2 Part 2: I’ll be honest, I had a hard time following the many threads in Re:Zero’s slow-paced story, but whatever was happening at any given time was confident and engaging. The lore is hard to track, but I kept coming back for the character writing and performances, and the occasional spectacular fight. Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki: Now here’s a surprise. Tomozaki (the show and the character) started mildly interesting and just kept growing in my esteem as the season progressed. This was a nuanced examination of self-improvement, self-esteem, and all kinds of other words you can attach self- to the start of. The finale made such an impact that if there’s no second season, I’m absolutely picking up the light novels to see where these characters go from here. A-tier: Jujutsu Kaisen: This is an example of an adaptation that wholly elevates the source material. I read and enjoy the manga, but the anime is a whole different monster, with gorgeously animated fights and characters that are just a joy to watch. Well-deserving of the explosion in popularity. SK8 the Infinity: What’s better than this, just boys being bois! Pure fun with thrilling skateboarding action and a healthy dollop of melodrama. Between this and my top show of the season, I’ve got a new appreciation for anime originals. Attack on Titan Final Season: It’s Attack on Titan, what is there to say?. The season covered some of the best stories from the manga and did so beautifully. It could’ve used a little more room to breathe, but I see it more as a complement to the manga than a replacement. An all-time classic, and I can’t wait for the conclusion. S-tier: Wonder Egg Priority: No other anime has grabbed hold of my heart like Wonder Egg Priority. The stunningly directed animation, compelling psychosocial themes, and perhaps above all the four girls, each a fully realized character with intricate depth and a rich friendship between them. I cannot call this a perfect show - I do have my criticisms of some writing choices in the late episodes - but it is special to me, and my clear favorite of Winter 2021.
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Mar 30, 2021 14:29
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Personally I thought Non Non Biyori Nonstop was the clear winner this season. It was a sublime example of mono no aware. The final season gave a satisfying conclusion to storylines build up throughout 3 seasons, with the prime example being the resolution to Renge's PTSD. Just as she was healed from a year long struggle, so were we the viewers healed from an 8 year long struggle. It fulfils the premise of Iyashikei far better then most series. Konomi's final speech perfectly elucidated the viewers feelings when she explained her vague feeling of nostalgia over moments that had only really transpired over the time of a year, and she wasn't even fully there for. Being one of the more mature of the group she was able to grasp the impermanence of the girls lives as they changed through the year. Life goes on, we all grow and it is impossible to appreciate what you truly have as a child, but how aware of this can a child, or perhaps someone else of lesser maturity like an ANN reviewer, be? The impermanence of their country life was also well illustrated by the characters finally moving on. Where the show earlier deliberately kept to a non linear format to emphasize the earlier mentioned subjects, the finale was in fact a real finale. People move away, lives change, new children are born and join the school and the seemingly static world our beloved characters live in changed forever. Its rare to see such a piece of intelligence and subtlety in anime, and I suspect it will be some time before we see one again. The only bad part of the final season was the new character of Akane, whose more standard town JK personality clashes with the other girls. Her storylines are also more generic JK fair, more fitting of lesser series. A small disappointment, but a disappointment nonetheless.
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Mar 30, 2021 14:58
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Buzzsaw Roomba posted:C-tier: The story is a joke in of itself; The big villain's plan is to make Lloyd into a hero so he can die due to how they're cursed, and the "evil" brother thinks he's helping Lloyd become the soldier Lloyd wants to be by helping create situations where Lloyd can be a big hero. The series literally ends with them both going "Bye Lloyd, we're gonna go do more evil things so you can be cool and heroic!" before teleporting away  .
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Mar 30, 2021 15:12
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Davincie posted:Personally I thought Non Non Biyori Nonstop was the clear winner this season. It was a sublime example of mono no aware. The final season gave a satisfying conclusion to storylines build up throughout 3 seasons, with the prime example being the resolution to Renge's PTSD. Just as she was healed from a year long struggle, so were we the viewers healed from an 8 year long struggle. It fulfils the premise of Iyashikei far better then most series. Interesting, thank you for the write up
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Mar 30, 2021 15:20
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Finally got around to watching the Umamusume final ep. That was ridiculously good, even though I already knew how it was going to end. Absolutely wild ride. Also a really well-animated idol concert at the end. I think I stan Nice Nature now.
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Mar 30, 2021 17:10
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the end of season post: Non Non Biyori s3 - NNB's actually funny comedy and indulgently pretty and slow-paced direction really set it apart from its genre peers. it's still my favorite slice of life anime and i feel lucky to have gotten a pretty much complete adaptation in a genre where most series don't. Yuru Camp s2 - it's still good though this season felt like it spent way more runtime on the tourism aspect of the show at the expense of the actual camping, which made it less to my tastes. Those first 5 episodes of season 1 are the highlight of the series still imo. Jujutsu Kaisen - solid battle shonen with some very cool fight choreography. had occasional moments of interesting writing but mostly felt pretty standard on that end. will definitely check out sk8 at some point, and wonder egg but that looks like it might be a wait for the blu-ray situation
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Mar 30, 2021 17:16
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Ibblebibble posted:That was ridiculously good, even though I already knew how it was going to end. Absolutely wild ride.  But yeah, it was such a fun romp. 
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Mar 30, 2021 17:49
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I caught up on Sk8 last night so I'm ready for the last ep. It went from, at the beginning of the season, a show I was just mildly curious about that I watched mostly because I was checking out all of the "boys doing sports" shows to probably my top show of the season. It's just a ridiculously fun show to watch, the characters are great, and it even has good drama without taking itself too seriously. Love these goofballs. Also the OP and ED are both very fun. Really just an all-around great show & folks should watch it.
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Mar 30, 2021 18:08
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Everything Burrito posted:I caught up on Sk8 last night so I'm ready for the last ep. It went from, at the beginning of the season, a show I was just mildly curious about that I watched mostly because I was checking out all of the "boys doing sports" shows to probably my top show of the season. It's just a ridiculously fun show to watch, the characters are great, and it even has good drama without taking itself too seriously. Love these goofballs. Also the OP and ED are both very fun. Really just an all-around great show & folks should watch it.  Probably a top 3 show for me this season
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Mar 30, 2021 18:09
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Weirdly, I love NNB but find Yuru Camp unwatchably boring. I guess because NNB is more of a comedy.
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Mar 30, 2021 18:14
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The Colonel posted:grouchio going through dozens of all ages doujin game circles and wondering when the sex will happen lol
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Mar 30, 2021 18:29
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The Colonel posted:grouchio going through dozens of all ages doujin game circles and wondering when the sex will happen
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Mar 30, 2021 18:33
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yeah that's the joke, try to keep up
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Mar 30, 2021 18:46
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One of the most ridiculously dope winter seasons in recent memory, gotta say.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:00
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Pootybutt posted:One of the most ridiculously dope winter seasons in recent memory, gotta say.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:01
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wonder egg priority will get its actual last episode in june. there's stories of massive overwork/exhaustion coming from the production. this week's episode, 12, was only finished like 2 hours ago. wonder egg looks gorgeous but the anime industry sure is fuckin busted.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:06
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Endorph posted:wonder egg priority will get its actual last episode in june. there's stories of massive overwork/exhaustion coming from the production. this week's episode, 12, was only finished like 2 hours ago. wonder egg looks gorgeous but the anime industry sure is fuckin busted. Guess I'll wait until June now.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:17
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Here are the shows I watched. They're not in order but I left the worst for last for reasons you'll soon see: Back Arrow: A cool sci-fi series with a retro feel to it. The protagonist with amnesia cliché is normally something of a red flag for me because it usually indicates that they’ll be a boring blank slate but Arrow as well as a good portion of the show’s massive cast manage to be distinctive and interesting, and the central hook of the wall and its mysteries is a good one. Otherside Picnic: I can’t speak for the changes it made to its source material- apparently there were a lot of them, and fans aren’t happy- but I thoroughly enjoyed it for what it was. It does a better job than most horror stories of presenting a world and creatures that are truly alien to human understanding, rather than slotting neatly into preexisting labels like “ghost” or “demon”. I’m A Spider, So What?: A very enjoyable show but also very incomplete. I can’t fairly judge it as this was definitely just act one of a much larger tale, but it does a good job of setting the scene for whatever is to come. I even enjoyed the parts with the other reincarnators as I felt they served to flesh out the world beyond the cave the protagonist was stuck in. Kemono Jihen: This is something I went into with some doubt, as the first few episodes didn’t exactly grab my attention, but once it found its footing it never slowed down. Kabane made for a fascinating protagonist because of how deceptively smart and perceptive he was, despite coming off as a bit weird and naïve. Basically he had the role and powers of a typical shonen hero but with a completely different attitude. Jobless Reincarnation: There’s some quite messed-up poo poo in this anime and if that puts some people off, then fair enough, but I welcomed the change in tone from the usual isekai series. On paper it sounds like it should be the most generic crap imaginable but it really nails the details in a way its many imitators seldom did, creating a believable, and believably flawed, world and characters. Wonder Egg Priority: I was never captivated by this series the way a lot of people were. I had the feeling that the formula of introducing a new rescue target every week with a new problem to fix would mean a lack of development for them and the main cast, and I stand by that assessment now, especially as the writers try to cram in all sorts of crazy twists into the final episodes. Reincarnated as a Slime: I wasn’t too thrilled by the first season of this but I decided it was just barely good enough to keep going, since I was watching fewer shows than normal this winter. And it took a while, but it did eventually pay off, culminating in a few genuinely amazing episodes. I’ll be watching the next season, but I’m still thinking of it as a very hit-or-miss series. Log Horizon:: Oh boy. I’d call this a disappointment but honestly, what did I expect, given the show's track record? Boring, boring, boring. The first arc of the new season involves some of the most tedious political bullshit I’ve ever seen in an anime as characters engage in glacially-paced schemes for poorly-explained stakes, all the while the show’s central plot does not move forward a single inch. And then it gets really good for a couple of episodes, where we cut away from Shiroe and the Boring Brigade to follow a completely different group of characters who are actually… having an adventure!? Fighting one of the main villains in an epic confrontation!? Exploring the nature of an AI turned human and managing to give him more character development in one episode than most people on this show get in an entire season!? Yeah, this arc, like some others that have come before it, manages to offer a tantalizing glimpse at what Log Horizon can be when it can manage haul itself out of the quagmire of tedium. And then the next arc is all about characters talking endlessly about the logistics of MMO raiding, something I found to be the most boring poo poo imaginable even back when I was playing Everquest ages ago and was my primary reason for quitting that game. Yes, interesting stuff does technically happen including (eventually) another fight against a genuinely dangerous villain, but the constant raid talk actively works against the sense of danger and urgency the show is trying to create. Maybe the final episode will end it on a high note... but probably not. I dunno why I felt like going on a longer rant for that one. I guess it’s just that, unlike an obviously lovely show like Ex-Arm, this one comes so, so close to being amazing only to sabotage itself at almost every opportunity.
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Mar 30, 2021 19:21
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Bakeneko posted:Reincarnated as a Slime: I wasn’t too thrilled by the first season of this but I decided it was just barely good enough to keep going, since I was watching fewer shows than normal this winter. And it took a while, but it did eventually pay off, culminating in a few genuinely amazing episodes. I’ll be watching the next season, but I’m still thinking of it as a very hit-or-miss series. 
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Mar 30, 2021 19:52
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Wark Say posted:Same. You could say I'm just not a big fan of this slime. Yeah the pacing was pretty off in a bunch of episodes and even then they had to trim some stuff off from the manga(Blumund Trip, Beretta's Summoning). There's a few bits and pieces as well, but overall it was still pretty good.
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Mar 30, 2021 21:08
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The first episode of Mars Red came out early. It is very, very good.
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Mar 30, 2021 21:37
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Did the first episode of that Godzilla thing show up anywhere? It aired already right?
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Mar 30, 2021 22:41
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Yes it is out there.
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Mar 30, 2021 22:44
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here's my list, not gonna go too in depth cause i watched more than i thought this season. Back Arrow: Pretty good, nothing groundbreaking but i like the mild ideon vibes it has. Tomozaki-kun: i knew this was liked by LN likers but i get why people latched onto it, first episode's a bit rough vibe-wise but it gets very good after that. Cells at Work Black: i knew i liked this cause i read the manga but did not get to the gout chapter so them making it act like ramiel from eva was very funny. Cells at Work: it's more cells at work. Dr Stone: stone war is a good arc, they adapted it well. Horimiya: i meant to read the manga forever ago and never did and honestly i'm glad i didn't cause i like the general anime's structure a lot more than the one episode that's more like the manga. good romance. Kemono Jihen: i was gonna watch this just beacuse suwabe's in it, but i got a good shonen monster of the week too. Non Non Biyori: it's more NNB, really liked the episodes where renge made a new friend and candy shop background story. Otherside Picnic: i didn't read the source material so i wasn't as disappointed as others but it's not great, just fine. Re:Zero 2: the pacing's not great but it would have stood out less if it didn't have to do the split cour thing thing. other than that i really like this season. Scar on the Praeter: as a gohands fan, this is such a let down. it's got the style of their previous works but it's so much more tame compared to what handshakers and w'z were doing and feels hollow for that reason. SK8 the Infinity: haven't finished this one but they'd have to go off the tracks really bad (and i don't think that's gonna happen) for me to not recommend it. Spider Isekai: great show, it's very fun listening to aoi yuuki talk and kumo is a cute spider. i don't hate the human part of the show like others but it is less fun than the kumo parts. the CG monsters look bad but i can forgive that. Slime Isekai: not a lot happened in this first cour but they didn't have the magic kids involved and the events that did happen were pretty hardcore so i liked this a lot. Promised Neverland s2: lmao Quintuplets s2: some weird small reordering stuff happened but i think if you liked season one you'll like this. Umamusume s2: anime of the season. cutting down on jokes and just leaning into the sport aspect was the smartest thing to do after season one. if you like sports anime you should watch this
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Mar 30, 2021 22:47
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Sakurazuka posted:Did the first episode of that Godzilla thing show up anywhere? It aired already right? It is in Netflix jail. There are no established fansub group doing this at the moment. The subs that are out are one from someone who is not committing to do and another is a machine translated one.
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Mar 30, 2021 22:48
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Ah, rip
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Mar 30, 2021 22:49
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Gonna go ahead and do my rankings a little early, don't expect any of these remaining final episodes to do anything to radically change these results. --S Tier-- Yurucamp Season 2 - I've thought for a while that the mark of a truly great Iyashkei is that it makes the extremely difficult work of creating a sense of atmosphere and mood look extremely easy. It's hard for me to describe precisely what that entails, but it's something you've maybe felt if you've watched the likes of K-On, Aria, or Amanchu (season one, anyway....). Yurucamp has definitely entered into that elite club, perfecting the art of cozy. It's been so specific in its focus and consistent in its approach and execution that it might feel like a bit of a boring choice for my Anime Of The Season, but sometimes the boring choice is only boring because it's easy and clearly correct. Uma Musume Season 2 - As someone who found season one of the horsegirls show to be perfectly pleasant but middling, I don't know if I'll have a better surprise all year than Uma Musume season 2. It doesn't abandon the gags inherent to its obviously silly premise, but embraces and transcends them as it becomes a goddamn dynamite straight-up sport running show. Emotional, cathartic, romantic, and surprisingly well produced all in just the right places and amounts. The gap between here and third place is pretty wide. --A Tier-- Non Non Biyori Nonstop - A warm, cozy, low-stress conclusion to a warm, cozy, low stress franchise. Suffers a little bit from airing in the same season that Yurucamp displays its mastery of the form - Non Non Biyori is very sweet but clearly lacks that ever so slight step forward in narrative momentum and production quality that Yurucamp brought to the table this year. Still a lovely time, bittersweet to think that this is likely the last we see of the franchise now that the manga has ended. Otherside Picnic - This is inflated a bit both by my affection for the source novels and the final episode navigating the harsh constraints the rest of the show's run imposed on it a lot more gracefully than I expected, but hey, it's my list, I can boost whatever I want for whatever reason I feel like. The anime really didn't quite have the production chops to hit any of the novel's creature horror, while the often breakneck pacing it had to adopt in order to cover reasonable amounts of material in any given episode really short-changed the novels' talents for both more nuanced slow-burn character work and slow-building dread. But that said, I also genuinely really liked the core anime designs even if the staff rarely had the chops to render them as lovingly as I wanted, the voice work was a lot of fun, and the ending managed its...non-ending nature with a shocking amount of grace, fitting in some anime-original callbacks to the first episode that put the core themes of the franchise in a far tidier bow than I would have expected. For all its warts I'm glad I watched, and I highly recommend the novels to anyone who was even passingly intrigued by any of the ideas the anime raised. --B Tier-- D4DJ - I feel like Sanzigen's really starting to get into a comfortable groove with these bushiroad music projects. D4DJ feels like a comfortable improvement on Bandori S3 which itself was a clear step forward from S2 - Sanzigen's first effort on this sort of project. The characters are cute and narratively fleshed out in just the right places, the music's fun, and while it's not going to unseat Houseki No Kuni or Beastars or anything for achievements in TV CG anime the character models are really starting to display a lot of vibrancy that makes them a lot of fun to watch. I'm happy to add a new Bushiroad franchise to the list. Reincarnated As A Slime Season 2 - still a fun popcorn isekai IMO. I have mixed feelings about the tone shift into a more serious invasion arc in the latter half of this cour, but nothing to stop me from enjoying as a casual follower. Cells At Work: Code BLACK Cells At Work Season 2 - enjoyed both of these as the somewhat goofy metaphor action shows that they are, nothing life-changing. BLACK benefitted from a more focused narrative even if S2 had a bit more production heft to it. Show By Rock!! Stars!! - Not as good as Mashumairesh was a couple years back - more time spent on frankly kinda boring side bands and I felt like the production wasn't quite as sharp this time around - but still charming enough to enjoy in a casual capacity. So I'm A Spider, So What? - So it's got a lot of production jank in odd places - the CG is obviously hit or miss but there were frankly a lot of action scenes where I struggled to parse what the audio editing was even going for - and a cast of human characters that feel almost entirely vestigial and undefined after a full cour, so what? It's also got Aoi Yuuki narrating her way through a particularly harsh Isekai scenario with all the bombast of your favorite vtuber, and that's entertainment enough IMO. --B- Tier-- Hanyou No Yashahime - I dunno I didn't hate it like some people but it meandered around a lot so I got bored and dropped about halfway through. --C- Tier-- Wonder Egg Priority - crushing to see it end up down here - and maybe lower, by the end! - after one of the strongest first halves I've ever seen in a television show, but a dynamite production has been absolutely swallowed by an absolutely dreadful, cynical, self-obsessed screenplay here. That first half makes a lot of promises with regard to quiet, nuanced, thoughtful character drama that the back end has absolutely failed to deliver on, giving way to a cavalcade of increasingly thoughtlessly-used gruesome imagery, tokenistic representation, batshit and emotionally-inert technobabble, and a weird fixation on the sexual availability and maturity of middle school girls that, whatever the script's half-considered attempts to pin purely on its villains, has come to pervade the show even when there's no reason to think that we're looking through the villains' perspective. The mountains of needless complexity, skeevy undertones, and cynical posturing undermine whatever progressive intent the project might have had as far as I'm concerned, no matter how much it hurts to say that about one that I was absolutely rooting for to begin with. Oh, and of course even the gorgeous production is only being made possible by deathmarch working conditions that, by all reports, are egregious even by the famously miserable standards of TV anime. With all respect to the efforts of the individuals trying to power this thing to the finish line, from a management and overall conception perspective I can only describe Wonder Egg Priority as one of the most fundamentally ill-conceived TV projects I can remember actually watching. --??? Tier-- Vlad Love - Vlad Love carries itself with all the confidence I'm used to seeing from the sorts of projects that believe that they're absolutely nailing what they're going for, so I can only assume that it nailed it. Unfortunately, even after watching the whole show I'm left with no goddamn idea what that "it" is.
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Mar 30, 2021 23:57
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Erg posted:lmao
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Mar 31, 2021 00:02
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People actually watched vlad love after that first episode?
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Mar 31, 2021 00:11
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Kwyndig posted:People actually watched vlad love after that first episode? I didn't even dislike it! I just didn't get it!!
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Mar 31, 2021 00:12
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vlad love is mostly just oshii telling you hes seen a lot of old french movies
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Mar 31, 2021 00:18
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vlad love is a goofy gag anime that oshii wanted to make it's not really that deep
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Mar 31, 2021 00:19
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Aurora posted:vlad love is a goofy gag anime that oshii wanted to make
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Mar 31, 2021 01:29
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Vlad Love definitely peaked around it's middle(knockoff Castlevania school play!), but I mostly loved my time w it! It's one of those weird niche things were even if its actual jokes were real hit or miss, there were so many weird lil tics and details and just its whole vibe that just killed me more often than not.
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Mar 31, 2021 01:39
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