What Current Anime Are You Watching Version v4.0

[Gerli]

Today's Shingeki no Kyojin Episode was Incredible... AoTY Indeed.

[Focslain]

So wasn't feeling too good and binged two series yesterday. FMP IV and Mysteria Friends. I got to episode 8 on FMP, this season is dark man. I'll finish it later but this had a higher body count on the cast then I remember the series allowing.

Mysteria was just a fun cute fantasy yuri love story. Beside who won't want to sleepover with Grea.

[Seto Kaiba]

14 minutes ago, Focslain said:

So wasn't feeling too good and binged two series yesterday. FMP IV and Mysteria Friends. I got to episode 8 on FMP, this season is dark man. I'll finish it later but this had a higher body count on the cast then I remember the series allowing.

Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory adapted volumes 7, 8, and 9 of the light novel... which are some of its darkest moments thanks to

Spoiler

AMALGAM destroying MITHRIL, the reveal that Lord Mallory and Commander Kalenin were traitors, that really dark story arc where Sousuke is an AS arena fighter, the deaths of a bunch of the cast, and so on...

It actually gets a bit darker in volumes 10, 11, and 12 before the story ends on a high note and a terrible Knight Rider joke.

Spoiler

So much so that I wonder if some of it would make it into a manga adaptation, like the reveal that Leonard Testarossa's start of darkness was discovering that his mother had been cheating on his father and then her trying to sell him and Tessa when she was taken hostage.

They kinda can't get around the other grisly bits about the human experiments at the Yamsk facility that created the TAROS and the Whispered, since that kicks off the final story arc altogether with the reveal that they're living in a Bad Future timeline brought about by the Whisperer sending data back in time.

 

 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

So, I caught the latest episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero over lunch today... and I gotta admit my assessment of the show's future prospects might've been unduly pessimistic.

After reading the light novels, I was sure the anime was going to bog down in spreadsheet hell the same way the novels did once it reached the point in the story where Naofumi finds out he can use all three of the weapon level-up systems the other cardinal heroes thought were the one and only.  Some wise soul among the show's directors cut almost all of it.  The class-up ceremony is over and done with in about 45 seconds, the summit lasts maybe four minutes, and if you don't count Naofumi tormenting the weapon shopkeeper by copying every shield in the joint the level-up mechanics are given less than a minute.  They focused on character development with Raphtalia, Filo, the Queen, and Itsuki's party.

If the show's staff exercise similar discretion with the material they adapt, they might manage to make the Spirit Tortoise arc watchable... which I'd count as a miracle given what a slog it was as a light novel.

[Marzan]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

So, I caught the latest episode of The Rising of the Shield Hero over lunch today... and I gotta admit my assessment of the show's future prospects might've been unduly pessimistic.

After reading the light novels, I was sure the anime was going to bog down in spreadsheet hell the same way the novels did once it reached the point in the story where Naofumi finds out he can use all three of the weapon level-up systems the other cardinal heroes thought were the one and only.  Some wise soul among the show's directors cut almost all of it.  The class-up ceremony is over and done with in about 45 seconds, the summit lasts maybe four minutes, and if you don't count Naofumi tormenting the weapon shopkeeper by copying every shield in the joint the level-up mechanics are given less than a minute.  They focused on character development with Raphtalia, Filo, the Queen, and Itsuki's party.

If the show's staff exercise similar discretion with the material they adapt, they might manage to make the Spirit Tortoise arc watchable... which I'd count as a miracle given what a slog it was as a light novel.

Is there enough material to make a second season?

I was suprised that Bit.., sorry Malty is still around to do some minor mischief.

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, Marzan said:

Is there enough material to make a second season?

... and then some.

Kinema Citrus is adapting the first five volumes of the light novel for their The Rising of the Shield Hero anime series.  The light novel series adapting Aneko Yusagi's original web novel currently stands at 21 volumes with a 22nd coming out at the end of this month.  The web novel was over 900 chapters long, so odds are the light novel has quite a bit of run left to it after volume 22.

 

Quote

I was suprised that Bit.., sorry Malty is still around to do some minor mischief.

Don't expect her to be taking her leave of the story anytime soon... she's in this one for the long haul (in one form or another).  They did leave out the bit in the light novel and manga where they made her eat the food she'd poisoned after she vehemently denied that it was poisoned.

She never does learn her lesson, and eventually it gets her punished in such a horrific manner that even the people who wanted her executed couldn't bear to watch.

Spoiler

Eventually, the ever-escalating magnitude of her crimes and complete lack of repentance lands her an indirect death sentence in the form of being dispatched to be the 10,000th bride of King Faubley by her mother.

Spoiler

King Faubley is a complete monster of a man whose nation commands the largest army in the world.  His favorite form of entertainment is raping and torturing his brides to death, which is why he's gone through 9,999 of them prior to appearing in the story.  Because no other nation has the military power to oppose him directly, the noble and royal families of the world use appeasing him as a means to divest themselves of particularly problematic female relations.  Most of King Faubley's prospective brides kill themselves rather than become the object of his attentions, but Malty isn't so lucky.

Spoiler

Yet Malty isn't completely gone after her death, because she was a fragment/incarnation of the greater scope villain Medea Pideth Machina... a self-proclaimed "god" who caused the waves to drain the energy from eight worlds she's forcibly merging.

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Seto Kaiba

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I started Nagi no Asukara and I find it interesting.  I am starting Beast Wars Neo tonight.

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I have caught up for the most part.

Isekai quartet has turned out much better then I expected.

Shield hero seems to be winding down now,  at least it didn't bottom out like slime did.

Wiseman's grandson has gotten very stale..  I haven't stopped watching it yet,  but it has gotten so generic that I don't care to keep going  I tried to binge eps. 6-9 and meh.

 

I am planning on finally watching my copy of Orguss this weekend.

 

 

 

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I started Beast Wars Neo and it seems interesting I was always a big fan of Big Convoy.

[Marzan]

On 6/5/2019 at 11:01 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

... and then some.

Kinema Citrus is adapting the first five volumes of the light novel for their The Rising of the Shield Hero anime series.  The light novel series adapting Aneko Yusagi's original web novel currently stands at 21 volumes with a 22nd coming out at the end of this month.  The web novel was over 900 chapters long, so odds are the light novel has quite a bit of run left to it after volume 22.

 

Don't expect her to be taking her leave of the story anytime soon... she's in this one for the long haul (in one form or another).  They did leave out the bit in the light novel and manga where they made her eat the food she'd poisoned after she vehemently denied that it was poisoned.

She never does learn her lesson, and eventually it gets her punished in such a horrific manner that even the people who wanted her executed couldn't bear to watch.

  Hide contents

Eventually, the ever-escalating magnitude of her crimes and complete lack of repentance lands her an indirect death sentence in the form of being dispatched to be the 10,000th bride of King Faubley by her mother.

  Hide contents

King Faubley is a complete monster of a man whose nation commands the largest army in the world.  His favorite form of entertainment is raping and torturing his brides to death, which is why he's gone through 9,999 of them prior to appearing in the story.  Because no other nation has the military power to oppose him directly, the noble and royal families of the world use appeasing him as a means to divest themselves of particularly problematic female relations.  Most of King Faubley's prospective brides kill themselves rather than become the object of his attentions, but Malty isn't so lucky.

  Hide contents

Yet Malty isn't completely gone after her death, because she was a fragment/incarnation of the greater scope villain Medea Pideth Machina... a self-proclaimed "god" who caused the waves to drain the energy from eight worlds she's forcibly merging.

 

 

 

Sweet lord, I hope we never see that animated!

[Seto Kaiba]

14 hours ago, Marzan said:

Sweet lord, I hope we never see that animated!

Oh, I agree... that was unpleasant enough in the web novel that even Malty's substantial hate-dom felt a twinge of pity for her.

It's not exactly a race to the bottom in terms of depicting dark and disturbing content, but apart from That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and KonoSuba the top Isekai series don't seem to be shy about animating the dark and disturbing content.  Overlord left in the frankly horrific treatment of the prostitutes in the brothel the Eight Fingers run in Re-Estize both times it came up in the Men of the Kingdom story arc, the massacre of the Workers in the Invaders of the Great Tomb arc, and Ainz's killing of over 180,000 of the Re-Estize Kingdom's soldiers with one spell in the Caster of Destruction arc.  Goblin Slayer kept most of how rapey the goblins are, though they thankfully left out describing in detail the horrific fates of the party who tried to oust the goblins from the old Elf fortress (even if it did still animate the end result).  If it gets another season, we'll have to see if they remain faithful to the novels when it comes to the arc with the goblin paladin.  The Rising of the Shield Hero left in the horrific treatment of demihuman slaves including what happened to Raphtalia and her friends after their village was destroyed.

I wouldn't bank on them not animating that if the anime gets that far.

 

 

On a lighter note, I marathonned the hell out Isekai Quartet this afternoon.  It's... weird.  As weird as you'd expect a short comedy crossover slice of life school comedy about the characters from KonoSuba, Re:Zero, Overlord, and The Saga of Tanya the Evil to be.  It's got a bit of a fridge horror aspect for an Overlord fan, what with Ainz and co. being brought over to the alternate world pretty much immediately after Ainz killed 180,000 enemy soldiers on the Katze plains, and having him joke about using his instant-kill spell Grasp Heart.  Some of the humor definitely comes from the characters whose horrible personalities compliment each other getting along a little too well... like Tanya and Demiurge, Rem and Albedo, or Albedo and Aqua.

Also took another whack at Mobile Suit Gundam UC: Re:0096 while I was at it.  Its animation is so beautiful... but its story is such a dumpster fire.  It's got that usual Universal Century side story problem where it's impossible to like anybody because everyone's an a-hole.  Banagher's the wettest blanket in an underwater laundromat, and everyone else has more angst than a 24 hour emo rock playlist.  It's not as bad as Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt, but it's still pretty obvious it's a gunpla commercial masquerading as a show.  There's a strong argument to be made that Syam Vist and the Vist Foundation are bigger villains than the entire Zabi family, Principality of Zeon, and all of the Neo-Zeons.  They had the original Federation Charter all along and could've resolved the entire spacenoid rights crisis at ANY TIME... but they waited until there'd been THREE wars over the subject before doing anything, and all they actually did was pass the buck.

Struggling through a rewatch of Nobunaga the Fool as well.  The premise is interesting, but boy does it drag in the middle after the fight between the Takeda under Caesar's command and the Oda forces ends with Nobunaga totally wrong-footing Caesar with an invitation to a tea ceremony when a surrender was demanded.

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Origin: Advent of the Red Comet has been consistently good.  When it's not ham to ham combat featuring Ramba Ral and the Black Tri-Stars in mobile suit prototypes, it's Char being a magnificent bastard.  I haven't had a show featuring a villain protagonist this good since Code Geass's first season.  Who'd have thought Gundam without Gundams would be a winning formula?

 

(The best part of catching up has been that I discovered my office's switch from MS Office to Google's G Suite means that services like Crunchyroll, YouTube Premium, and Google Play Movies aren't blocked by their firewall anymore... so I can watch over lunch on my office's big damn 1080p monitors without using up my MiFi's data plan.)

Edited June 10, 2019 by Seto Kaiba

[505thAirborne]

I've been wanting to see this one for a while now, the very end is not how I hoped it would have ended but overall a very good movie, the animation is topnotch and the story is pretty good too. Available on Netflix right now. 

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san  is my favorite show of the season by far, this show really makes me feel good.  Tate no Yuusha is a far second.

[Seto Kaiba]

Isekai Quartet is still very much a "for fans only" series ten episodes on, but it still manages to be entertaining nevertheless in no small part because of how many terrible people are in the typical isekai anime's story.

Like the light novel it's adapting, The Rising of the Shield Hero definitely feels like a much weaker series now that the first major story arc is over.  Naofumi feels a lot more generic and uninteresting once his grudge against the Kingdom of Melromarc is settled by the Queen.  He still thinks the other cardinal heroes are morons (and he's not wrong), but he is not the same jaded misanthrope who made such an interesting protagonist early in the story.  Now he's just a Stalwart Hero of the Land.

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Re:0096 feels like a critical failure of editing.  Every episode starts with a four minute long recap of the unnecessarily convoluted story thus far, which gets pretty redundant after a while when it's recapping all the way back to episode one and events that aren't even directly connected to the episode.

[AN/ALQ128]

11 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Every episode starts with a four minute long recap of the unnecessarily convoluted story thus far, which gets pretty redundant after a while when it's recapping all the way back to episode one and events that aren't even directly connected to the episode.

Episode recaps might've made sense back in the 80's and 90's, but now that we have the ubiquity of the internet to look up the plot so far, they totally seem redundant and are a waste of screen time, IMO.

[Seto Kaiba]

7 hours ago, AN/ALQ128 said:

Episode recaps might've made sense back in the 80's and 90's, but now that we have the ubiquity of the internet to look up the plot so far, they totally seem redundant and are a waste of screen time, IMO.

Kinda my feeling, yeah.  It makes sense in an OVA where your individual episodes might be separated by six months to over a year the way Gundam Unicorn was in its original format, but for a weekly TV anime series like Gundam Unicorn Re:0096 it's just a transparent attempt to pad the series by extending that ~3 minutes of reused animation from the OP and ED out to 7 or 8.

[Seto Kaiba]

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Origin: Advent of the Red Comet episode 8 was, if anything, slightly more of an audience punch than the OVA version was.

Origin's version of the One Week Battle was, if anything, worse than any previous description of it in books or manga.  Even MS IGLOO never actually showed the Principality of Zeon's assault on Side 2, and in this version instead of gassing colonies we see the Dozle fleet bombarding them with mega particle cannons until they either break up or totally decompress.  The added punch comes from that little side arc about the inhabitants of Iffish that was in OVA ep5.  They split it in the middle so the episode ends on a falsely optimistic note for Yuki and his girlfriend, which feels a lot more cruel than the OVA's take of going straight into the gas attack and Iffish being used in the attempted colony drop on Jaburo.

(It is a bit annoying that the translator doing the subs hasn't figured out that "bunch" is a word... they keep romanizing it "banchi".)

[Marzan]

Dororo ended pretty well and it was a good ride, I hope we can get more adaptations of old school manga like this one.

Finished Yamato 2202 too (underwhelming) and will of course now do an Evangelion rewatch with it being on Netflix and all.

 

[Seto Kaiba]

The Rising of the Shield Hero is limping towards its end... and unless they deviate from the light novels it's going to end with more of a whimper than a bang.  The Cal Mira breather arc is such a weird place to decide to end the series, since Naofumi doesn't actually win that battle, L'Arc Berg and co. just sort of get bored of beating his ass and go home while the other three heroes start whinging themselves inside-out about being substantially weaker than Naofumi.  It offered some pretty good action this time though, so maybe they'll make more of the fight than the novel did.

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I am nearing the end of Nagi no Asukara and it is a great show that I am glad i watched.

[Seto Kaiba]

@BlackRose and I started watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure today.

Four episodes in, and certainly can't argue the show has a non-indicative title.  It's about a man named JoJo, it's an adventure for sure, and it is most definitely bizarre.  Watching this series is like a bullet time mugging by a gang of burly male fashion models in costumes stolen from the set of a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie during a catastrophic fire in a warehouse full of fireworks and theatrical glitter.  I not 100% certain what's going on, but it's certainly stylish in an incredibly flamboyant and eccentric sort of way.

EDIT: I'm starting to think this series might be Abridged-proof... surely abridging it would only make it more coherent, not less.

Edited June 25, 2019 by Seto Kaiba

[kajnrig]

If you're watching the Netflix show, it almost certainly slows down in subsequent seasons. This first 2X-episode season blows through the first two major story arcs, whereas the third story arc is the more well known one. I myself am still stuck somewhere in that second story arc. I believe the rest of the show is on Crunchyroll.

[Mazinger]

21 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

@BlackRose and I started watching JoJo's Bizarre Adventure today.

Four episodes in, and certainly can't argue the show has a non-indicative title.  It's about a man named JoJo, it's an adventure for sure, and it is most definitely bizarre.  Watching this series is like a bullet time mugging by a gang of burly male fashion models in costumes stolen from the set of a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie during a catastrophic fire in a warehouse full of fireworks and theatrical glitter.  I not 100% certain what's going on, but it's certainly stylish in an incredibly flamboyant and eccentric sort of way.

EDIT: I'm starting to think this series might be Abridged-proof... surely abridging it would only make it more coherent, not less.

I'm on the latest season of JoJo's on Crunchy roll and it's been a wild ride to say the least.

It's just so creative in so many ways.  I really didn't know what to expect at first besides dudes fighting with special abilities, but I'm glad I stuck to it.

I think this studio has done a good job.  Certainly helps that the manga has basically laid out all the plot and even art for them to follow.

I'm fearing the inevitable end of this broadcast season because it's gonna be at least a couple of years till we get the next chapter in anime, the manga appears to be at least two seasons ahead.

I'll be the roundabout...

[nathans82]

I'm going back and watching the old Super Robots shows from the 70s & 80s starting with Mazinger Z from 1972.

[505thAirborne]

Me: 

 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-06-25/isekai-quartet-crossover-anime-gets-2nd-season/.148269

 

They are adding more characters.  I want either Isekai wa Smartphone or Tate no Yuusha.

Edited June 25, 2019 by Hikaru Ichijo SL

[Seto Kaiba]

20 hours ago, kajnrig said:

If you're watching the Netflix show, it almost certainly slows down in subsequent seasons. This first 2X-episode season blows through the first two major story arcs, whereas the third story arc is the more well known one. I myself am still stuck somewhere in that second story arc. I believe the rest of the show is on Crunchyroll.

Crunchyroll appears to have the whole thing, or at least everything produced thus far for the 2012 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series.

We just finished the first story arc, "Phantom Blood", a few minutes ago.  

This was f*cking weird.  The art style itself doesn't really do anything for me, but the way it's executed is so damned stylish that it doesn't end up being any impediment to enjoying the ride.  It's completely over the top in a way that feels almost like a tongue-in-cheek parody of the shonen genre.  If Frank Zappa were to make an anime, he would make this.  It's weirdly captivating in a way I can't quite describe.  Somewhere in the JoJo-verse there is a knob marked Drama that someone turned up to 12 and then broke.  Even boring things become entertaining when everything has to be executed with maximum flamboyance.

 

4 hours ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-06-25/isekai-quartet-crossover-anime-gets-2nd-season/.148269

 

They are adding more characters.  I want either Isekai wa Smartphone or Tate no Yuusha.

Not sure what to think of that news.  It's been weird, but the idea didn't feel like it had that much life to it.

[JB0]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

It's completely over the top in a way that feels almost like a tongue-in-cheek parody of the shonen genre. 

It gets better/worse. Every successive JoJo seems dedicated to being more ridiculous than the last.

Personally, I actually like how Johnathan's arc is all straight-laced and very serious while ALSO being over-the-top bananas. Later arcs just go for the bananas right from the start.

[Seto Kaiba]

11 hours ago, JB0 said:

It gets better/worse. Every successive JoJo seems dedicated to being more ridiculous than the last.

Two episodes into Battle Tendency, and so far this feels like "better".  Joseph is a MASSIVE troll protagonist, and it WORKS.

[Focslain]

2 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Two episodes into Battle Tendency, and so far this feels like "better".  Joseph is a MASSIVE troll protagonist, and it WORKS.

Joseph Joestar is one of the best, if not the best of the family line. 

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

I finished Beast Wars Neo and wasn't that bad in the end.  I found it strange that the last episode is just a clip show. 

[Stampeed Valkyrie]

I am finally catching up on all the Series I was following as they finally wrap up.

Isekai Quartet..  except for the last 2 episodes turned out much better then I expected.. happy to see a 2nd season in works.

Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari..   This title consistently held my interest,   I'd like to see more if it if they decided to ever keep going.   Another example of anime never telling the full story and just being an advertisement for the light novels.

Kenja no Mago..  Started out pretty well,  but got Dull quickly.   It seemed to revel in being completely generic with all the standard tropes.    While not a stinker,  not worth a pickup or a rewatch.

Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai..  Your typical Harem/School Rom-com anime.    The manga IMO is much better.    I have yet to watch the final episode but I am not expecting greatness from it.

Dororo..  I am waaay behind on this,  just started watching the 2nd cour now.     What I have seen so far I have enjoyed so I am hoping the latter half doesn't go downhill.

Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!?...   I don't even know what to say about this one..  more censorship then anything else.     A friend of mine is telling me this is Korean in origin...  way to go Korea!

Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san..  This is a safe title to watch with the Significant other.. unlike the last title I listed above.    If you like Moe your good with this one.    I still need to watch the last episode.. but pretty harmless.

Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai...   Actually not bad at all.   This series ended up being popular with some of the female members of the viewing group,   and the OP was pretty catchy.

Fairy Gone...   Dunno Dropped after the 3rd episode.   2nd season announced..

Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO...   on my list to watch probably will get to it after AX this year.   Apparently the VN it is based off of is getting a western release,  and has been recommended to me.

Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin..   On the fence with this one,   while not bad it wasn't great either.     Too many loose threads left over for a 12 episode series.   Probably could use another season to flesh out it's core concepts..  unlikely I would watch it though.

Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma..   no  just no

Chou Kadou Girl ⅙: Amazing Stranger..   AOTY!  lol  seriously though I wanted to see more of this.   It was enjoyable and was this seasons guilty pleasure.

Shoumetsu Toshi...  Another title I dropped fairly early on in the season.   With my current backlog its unlikely I will come back to it.

 

 

And that was my list.. give or take some stuff from previous seasons.

Speaking of Previous seasons,  I have been reading Domestic Girlfriend..   Which I nominated for Anime Train Wreck of the Year 2019..  and the manga is surprisingly good.   I am well past where the series ended,  and hopefully it wraps up soon.    With everyone out of High School now its getting long in the tooth.

 

 

 

[Seto Kaiba]

The Rising of the Shield Hero stumbled to a halt this week.

Normally, if you give the final episode the title of the series as a whole, you expect a pretty exciting and bombastic ending.  Shield Hero wrapped up the battle against the heroes from another world in the first eight minutes or so and spend the remaining fourteen minutes or so faffing about with bookkeeping like Naofumi getting himself appointed lord of Seyaette, picking up the useless girl, and so on.  It's like they wrote the final episode in expectation of getting renewed for a second season right away and then it didn't happen.

[Focslain]

15 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

The Rising of the Shield Hero stumbled to a halt this week.

Normally, if you give the final episode the title of the series as a whole, you expect a pretty exciting and bombastic ending.  Shield Hero wrapped up the battle against the heroes from another world in the first eight minutes or so and spend the remaining fourteen minutes or so faffing about with bookkeeping like Naofumi getting himself appointed lord of Seyaette, picking up the useless girl, and so on.  It's like they wrote the final episode in expectation of getting renewed for a second season right away and then it didn't happen.

It seems that the season did in fact end at ep22, the last three was to setup the next season if they get one. Odd way to do it, but we'll see if they get a new season later. 

[Seto Kaiba]

1 minute ago, Focslain said:

It seems that the season did in fact end at ep22, the last three was to setup the next season if they get one. Odd way to do it, but we'll see if they get a new season later. 

My guess would be that The Rising of the Shield Hero was banking on the popularity of the light novel to sell the series and structured the series around the assumption they'd get their second season green-lit early, but the show's viewership share wasn't quite high enough to get pre-approval.

The story arc they're headed into is pretty dull, and Naofumi loses a lot of his distinctiveness as a protagonist now that he's the overpowered one among the Cardinal Heroes.