Farewell, Winter 2016; Farewell, “Farewell, Shinsengumi”

It’s that time again…the end of a season. What did we love? What did we hate? What made us cry? I’ll give you a guess on that last one…

Gintama I feel like between the anime and manga I’ve spent the last year crying at Gintama. Everything was just so perfect. PERFECT. And beautiful.

Speaking of perfect, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju was one of my favorites of the season. It entranced me from the very beginning and was one of the shows I looked forward to the most week after week. Episode 11 about did me in, though; I just wanted to live in that episode forever.

Fairy Tail has ended (again). I should be sad but I think it’ll be back once the manga gets a little further ahead. If you can’t wait then I strongly suggest the manga; the pacing is actually much better than it has been in the second season of the anime.

Ace of the Diamond So glad Coach Kataoka got his moment. My brother said, “What’s the big deal. Haven’t you seen this already?” I said, “No, it’s the end. It’s the culmination of two and half years of watching Ace of the Diamond.”

Durarara I love the insane acceleration at the end and the feeling that everything is just totally irreparably out of control. I also love Shizuo throwing heavy objects. The end of the series felt very satisfying to me.

Erased This was another favorite of the season. I actually ended up dreaming about the final episode. This is the type of show I might recommend to people who don’t generally watch anime; I think it’s capable of crossing that boundary.

Haikyu!! This whole season felt very well-paced and tightly constructed to me. I ended up losing myself in fanfic as a result because every time I watched the latest episode, I just wanted MORE. The good news is, we already know another anime season is coming soon for our volleyball boys.

Mr. Osomatsu I have to wonder if the people responsible for this show are laughing their way to the bank since I can’t imagine anyone anticipating the way this show would explode. And yes, I’m as guilty as anyone; I have plenty of Osomatsu-san merchandise and I’ve already preordered my pillow covers. I was actually surprised by how much I loved this series.

GATE This second series felt a lot darker/more intense than the first but I might have enjoyed it more because it made things more complicated. Sometimes the plot felt a bit bogged down and I might not have paid as much attention as I should have…but that didn’t stop me from pleading with Sugawara to save Sherry.

Sekko Boys I loved this. A lot. The premise was absolutely ridiculous, the voice actors my favorites, and it was all short enough to be funny without being “too much.”

Ojisan and Marshmallow I found this oddly endearing even if it made me kind of hungry whenever I watched.

Dimension W When I saw Kyoma’s dance in the opening theme of the first episode I made the statement that this anime would be a winner. I ended up really getting hooked on it. At 12 episodes it’s compact and moves along swiftly. The characters were fun and Daisuke Ono sounded great. Especially recommend if you enjoy sci-fi themes.

Prince of Stride I kinda forgot I even watched this until I was looking through my queues for this post. It was all very…predictable. But I suppose it was okay for what it was.

There are a few shows I’m sad to see end (GINTAMA!!!!!!) but I’m really excited about the Spring 2016 lineup. (Ahem…Diamond is Unbreakable.)

Kyah! Winter 2016

I decided instead of just caps and exclamation marks I was going to try to be a bit more “technical” and informative with my first impressions of the Winter 2016 Anime Season. So please bear with me…

Prince of Stride: Alternative

Funimation’s Description: From MADHOUSE, the studio behind Death Note and One-Punch Man, comes a fast-paced sports anime about Stride—competitive city-wide relay races. Nana and her classmate, Takeru, are desperate to resurrect their school’s Stride Club, but will they be able to get the prickly Riku, who insists he hates Stride, to join the team?

My description: Ryota Kise Riku Yagami is recruited by a guy who looks like Haru-from-Free!-but-wears-glasses for the Stride Club. Daisuke Ono has cool hair and a beauty mark under his left eye. A taller-version-of-Nagisa-from-Free! and a shorter-more-hyper-guy-that-looks-like-Midorima-from-KnB are also on the team. A nice generic girl named Nana Sakurai wants to be manager and Relationer (I think this is the person who coordinates when the boys high-five to relay, instead of passing a baton).

Verdict: It’s a sports anime with cute guys and some missing emotionally-damaged other cute guys and the token boring otome-game-like-girl in the middle. Of course I’m going to watch it. Boys running and high-fiving and figuring out their feelings has to be a great combination.

Durarara X2 The Third Arc

Crunchyroll’s Description: Mikado Ryugamine is a young man who yearns for the city like no other. At the invitation of his childhood friend, Masaomi Kida, he moves to Ikebukuro, Tokyo and enters school there. My edit: (MOST MISLEADING DESCRIPTION EVER?!)

My description:

Verdict: This episode was awesome and this series is awesome. I ended up laughing so hard at this episode. If you aren’t watching Durarara you are really missing out.

Active Raid

Crunchyroll’s Description: Set in a futuristic Tokyo, Active Raid tells the story of “The Eighth,” a rash and careless unit of power-armored police called the “5th Special Public Security Section’s Mobile Assault Division.” After the Third Quicksand Disaster sinks Tokyo into a quagmire, the city’s reconstruction efforts are carried out using high-output, reinforced exoskeletons called Willwears. But they can also be misused, and to combat the crimes involving them, the National Police Agency establishes at its Kichioji Branch the Special Public Security Fifth Division Third Mobile Assault Eighth Unit, AKA Unit 8.

My description: Psycho-Pass, Tiger & Bunny, and Rail Wars had a baby and that’s Active Raid. Beautiful people in futuristic suits fight criminals in futuristic suits and there’s lots of computery-things and holoscreens and data. A new investigator lady joins the group and she’s a real stick-in-the-mud and in the first half of the episode she uses random English.

Verdict: I fell in love with this guy’s face so I kept watching. And thanks to his face, I’ll watch the next episode. But if the story doesn’t pick up I doubt his face will convince me to watch the whole series.

Erased

Crunchyroll’s Description: Satoru Fujinuma is a young manga artist struggling to make a name for himself following his debut. But, that was not the only thing in his life that Satoru was feeling frustrated about…he was also living with a strange condition only he was able to experience. – REVIVAL A strange phenomenon where one is transferred back to the moment right before something life-threatening occurs. This continues to happen until the cause of the threat is erased. It is as if somebody is forcing Satoru to stop it from happening.

My description: A guy with glasses has this experience he calls “Revival” where he relives a few minutes of time before a tragedy occurs in order to prevent it. Then some stuff happens that I don’t want to spoil…and anyway, things kinda get out of control and just maybe the dude is going to go wayyy back to his childhood to prevent a tragedy that’s haunted him his whole life.

Verdict: I honestly thought this was going to be pretty boring and predictable and then I went, “Holy shit!” and THEN I was like, “I can’t wait for the next episode.” I’m curious how they’re going to maintain the suspense through an entire cour but I really hope it continues and doesn’t fizzle out.

Ojisan and Marshmallow

Crunchyroll’s Description: None (?!?!?!)

My description: A short about an office lady who has a crush on her chubby mustachioed co-worker and he has no idea and they fight over marshmallows.

Verdict: Pretty ridiculous so I’ll keep watching.

Please Tell Me! Galko-chan

Crunchyroll’s Description: Galko, Otako and Ojou are a trio of unlikely friends in high school with three very different perspectives. Each episode embarks on a day in the life of a trendy girl, an otaku, and a lady, as they discuss their “girl problems.”

My description: This is another short one about high school girls talking about goofy stuff. Oddly realistic, as in I could see people I know having these conversations.

Verdict: This pretty much sums it up. Of course I’ll keep watching:

Sekko Boys

Crunchyroll’s Description: None

My description: A short about a girl who got tired of drawing sculptures in art school and became a showbiz manager instead…except she’s managing an idol group made up of four sculptures.

Verdict: Tomokazu Sugita + Daisuke Ono + absolutely ridiculous premise + singing/idols = HELL YEAH I’LL WATCH THIS I LOVE IT.

Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju

Crunchyroll’s Description: None!

My description: A guy gets out of prison and wants to apprentice to a storyteller who had performed for the prisoners. He’s not very good but he’s very enthusiastic and the storyteller takes him in.

My verdict: I loved the shit out of this. From the beginning I thought it was beautiful. And Akira Ishida’s voice…he is so perfect for this. (Yu Kobayashi sounds extra-wonderful too.) At certain points in the episode I was legitimately enthralled and felt like I was inside the show, watching the performance with the people in the crowd. Super excited for episode two.

GATE

Crunchyroll’s Description: On August 20XX, a gate suddenly appears in Tokyo’s Ginza district, unleashing a portal where monsters, medieval knights and other fantasy beings come from another world and wreak havoc on Tokyo. The Japanese Defense Force take action against these monsters and push them back into the “Gate”. Third Reconnaissance Team is dispatched to the “Special Region” lead by officer (and otaku) Youji Itami. On their travels, they are joined by a beautiful elf girl who is a survivor from the dragon’s rampage and guide the group across the dangerous new world.

My description: In this second season, negotiations are kind of underway and there’s an earthquake and whores and Pina’s brother abuses rabbit girls. Things seemed a bit darker right off the bat; I wasn’t really prepared.

Verdict: I’m glad GATE is back. I really do enjoy Itami as a character (and I love his voice). I plan on seeing this one through to the end.

Norn9

Hulu’s Description: A nameless girl with a mysterious past is chosen to join the crew of Norn: a flying ship whose mission is to maintain peace throughout their world. As she adjusts to the wonders aboard the ship, with its tiered gardens, crystal waters, and highly-gifted crew, she finds that each discovery seems to yield more questions than answers. Even more mysterious, she learns that each member aboard Norn has one thing in common: they wield otherworldly “special abilities” similar to her own powers.

My description: A pink-haired girl doesn’t know her name but has some powers and ends up on a giant ship with cute boys who also have powers. There are a couple girls there too, a tsundere and a Rei Ayanami clone. At least, I think they’re girls. Pink-Girl falls while picking peaches and sees her life flash before her eyes but she ends up in a lake all wet with her blond guy friend and remembers her name.

Verdict: I’m a sucker for otome-games-turned-anime so yes, I’ll keep watching. Besides, Tomokazu Sugita’s character hasn’t shown up yet and I have to see/hear him. Though I will say that I was excited for this show and now I’m…a bit disappointed.

So that’s it for now. What did I miss? What are you watching that I’m not?

Updated:

So I wasn’t going to include Haikyu!! because it’s not new to this season but starting its second cour. But about three seconds into the new opening theme I started slobbering so…

Verdict: Haikyu!! is still perfect. Watch it!

Endless Summer 2015

Welcome to my Endless Summer 2015 Wrap-Up! Why is it “endless”? Because it seems like every series I watched for the season ended in the middle of nowhere! *dies*

My most-anticipated series of the summer was Gangsta. I love the manga, I love the drama CDs, and I loved the shit out of the first episode. I loved all the episodes! Even that weird one that the art is kinda screwy for half of it and you’re wondering if the animators went on strike or something (then I read about the bankruptcy of Manglobe and wondered if the two were related). From the very beginning, I knew that it would have to end “incompletely” if it followed the manga closely…but I didn’t expect quite the sudden non-ending-feeling of episode 12. However, for all my bitching about the non-ending, the art was great (overall, forget that one episode) and the acting was great and seeing Worick and Nicholas animated was wonderful. I’m having a hard time letting go.

I’m also resisting the end of The Heroic Legend of Arslan. Daryun kept getting more amazing This show kept getting better as it went, I felt, with more intrigue and plot and characters. I was really looking forward to seeing Arslan take on Silver Mask and reclaim the capital and—well, it doesn’t matter, because apparently the series doesn’t go that far. But I loved it anyway.

GATE was the first new summer show I watched based solely on scheduling reasons. Suwabe-san’s voice sucked me in and the premise made me stay. It felt a lot like Outbreak Company at first but I enjoyed the art and the “military conundrum” aspect of GATE a bit more, I think. Or maybe I’m just shallow and like to ogle animated men in uniform. Episode 12 is titled “What Would Itami Do?” and I bitterly think, “We may never know because…it’s over!” I’d like to think Itami would come back for a second season!

Aoharu x Machinegun was another of my “anticipated shows.” It met my expectations by being cute, funny, crazy, and having hot well-drawn guys that were a pleasant surprise. I’m always on board if the show has a host character or a eromanga character and hey, this show had both! Throw in that girl-everyone-thinks-is-a-guy a la Ouran High School Host Club and you can’t lose. Except we never actually get to the part where the guys find out she’s a girl… But hey, I’d probably watch it again anyway.

Rokka -Braves of the Six Flowers- I was really excited about this anime…up until halfway through the first episode when it got bogged down with dialogue. Still, when we started meeting other characters I thought it could really bounce back but it never did for me. I didn’t care what happened to any of them. There seemed to be so much potential but the show itself fell short. The “reveal” was…validating? except that anyone who’s watched enough Scooby Doo could probably see it coming.

Monster Musume I don’t really know why I watched this–let alone twelve episodes of it. But I did and I might’ve actually enjoyed it more than Rokka.

Junjo Romantica I’m not gonna lie, my rotten friend and I were too excited for season three. “It is what it is”–and I say that with love. Three seasons in we still have major miscommunication, denial, and misunderstanding between beautiful boys in love. What more do you people want?! Well, if you’re like me, you want another season or OVA with the story of that dark-haired guy you always see around Ijuin-sensei. But that aside, Usagi was hilarious, Misaki was neurotic, and everything is right in the BL world.

Prison School ended up being one of my favorite shows of the season. I almost didn’t watch it because that girl’s huge boobs were a turnoff but I am soooo glad I did. Pretty sure I laughed til I cried every episode. Also, contrary to most of the summer shows, the last episode felt satisfying to me, like we’d actually reached a reasonable “end.” Typing this writeup is hard, though, because I keep thinking of different scenes and just start shaking my head. Prison School definitely gets my “Fucking Hilarious” endorsement.

Man, I love Durarara!!. All it takes is two seconds into the opening theme and I fall in love all over again. Every damn episode. It’s so twisted and complicated and strung out and strung together I almost have a little headache from watching it but it’s so good. Thank goodness for the blip at the end telling me Chapter Three is coming in January before I threw my computer across the room in frustration. Now instead of being furious I’m just…full of Durarara happiness and patiently waiting for January…

MY love STORY!! This was adorable. I’m sure I’ve mentioned that I love the manga and about died from happiness when the anime started. It never disappointed, staying adorable and funny all the way through. The final episode was appropriate and satisfying. I totally recommend this one.

Okay, I think that’s it for the shows that ended this summer. There are a few I still have to finish that probably won’t make it in this post like Gatchaman Crowds Insight, Shimoneta, Actually, I Am, and Snow White with the Red Hair. I will finish them sometime…I just got too far behind. 😦 And I’ve been saving up makuranodanshi because I didn’t want it to be over!

And of course I have my ongoing shows…Fairy Tail, One Piece, Ace of the Diamond, Naruto Shippuden, Ushio & Tora, and my all-time favorite GINTAMA!!!!! Gintama Gintama Gintama…

So what’s coming up for Fall 2015?!

Woo! Summer 2015!

What new stuff did I watch? Will I keep watching it or did it suck? Let’s see!

GATE: I didn’t even know this show existed, no hype, knew nothing about it. But I wanted to watch Summer Season shows and this was one of the new ones on crunchyroll so I thought I’d try it. Originally I actually just planned to have it on in the background while I did some other stuff but then this happened in the first two seconds: “Is that…is that a normal-sounding, non-playboy-type Junichi Suwabe?!” Turns out, even his normal, non-sexified voice makes me drool! But I do want to say that while his voice was the hook for me to actually pay attention, I think the show has merit. The general concept reminds me of Outbreak Company, which I initially really enjoyed. So I’m excited to listen to see the next episode.

Aoharu x Machinegun: This was actually way more satisfying than I expected. I enjoy shows with survival game themes (maybe from my years paintballing?) and I love girls dressed as guys and I love hosts. So what was not to love about this? The show is nice to look at (both the boys and the art in general) and had a few laugh-out-loud moments. I’m actually kind of excited about this one.

Durarara!! x2 is BACK! Did I get goosebumps during the opening theme? Of course I did! No lag, no boring, just jumped right into Durarara goodness. Typical of my previous experiences with this show, I sat the whole time thinking, “Man, I fucking love this show.” SO HAPPY!

Rokka-Braves of the Six Flowers- I loved the look of this and the costumes and locations really drew me in. However, the prison scene was…way too talky and boring. I understand we need some context, some backstory, and this sort of characters verbally rehashing old lore thing is pretty typical for a fantasy/quest setting like this one. I do think that as we get more of the crew rounded up and meet more characters it’ll regain the initial oomph from the beginning. I hope.

Ushio and Tora this show has a very “shonen” feel from the very beginning and I mean that in the best of ways. Very upfront, relatively simple, and enjoyable.

SHIMONETA: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn’t Exist is pretty much exactly like it sounds and is totally hilarious. This is a show I was really excited about going into the summer season and the first episode does not disappoint.

GANGSTA my most-anticipated show of the season and OMG I LOVED IT! IT WAS PERFECT! The voices and the art and the voices and the music and the voices…totally wonderful and amazing and I can’t wait for more. I love the manga and it makes me so happy to see it get an anime.