Winter Anime 2015/16 Picks Plus

Just an add on to the last post, two extra anime I have started this in this season's airing anime!

Akagami no Shirayukihime 2 - If you haven't heard already, this is the second season of 'Snow White with Red Hair'. It's basically just picking up with where the last season left off. I very much enjoyed season 1 so it was definitely going to be continued by me. There's not much new I can say, the quality is pretty much the same as last season, wonderful characters, beautiful and very pleasing animation, if you liked the first season and want to see more, watch this.
      One thing that I am enjoying alot is the fact that Shirayuki is garnering quite a bit of admirers and it's fun to watch their expressions, blushes and flustered state!

Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm! - I remember why I picked this show now, I had read a brief summary of what this is about before it aired and it sounded like one of those fantasy sports like Air Gear. I really enjoyed Air Gear fyi, so I decided to give this a shot.
     So, in short it starts off with a new girl in school, she joins the Flying Circus (FC) team (sky racing basically) and has some latent talent for it or something. The team go and compete in tournaments facing opponents with unique strategies etc. etc. you know the sports drill.
     It's enjoyable actually! I figured with all those girls featured in the cover image, it wouldn't be as entertaining as I initially thought. Thankfully the dude in this sea of women doesn't seem at all interested in any of them romantically...yet. As well as that I think it's due to the amount of racing action? there is?  They just cram alot of scenes where they're just practicing flying about.. It's a fun little anime and if you don't mind a bit of fanservice (there's not buttloads (there is a lot of butts) but the FC outfits are skin-tight and leave little to the imagination) then give this a try. Hopefully the main character Kurashina doesn't get on your nerves or anything, some find it endearing, some find those characters torturous (that would be me), but I don't mind her here, which says something, in my opinion! It's a very simple, mindless anime but enjoyable none the less, be warned it's not apart of the higher-end spectrum this season so don't try to compare it with the likes of those as it will just fail, if you don't have time to fit this in, skip it.

That's it for now! Until next time! Hopefully that'll be Spring season, but we'll see...

Summer Anime 2015 Picks

So if you've scanned my previous posts, you'll notice I did skip the Spring season of anime. I actually had picked out the anime I would watch that season but never got around to it. They're just sitting in my 'plan-to-watch' list on MAL, I'll get to them eventually!
For now however, let's look at some of the anime that piqued my interest this season!

Gangsta. - I really enjoy this! The animation is great, love the style and detail on the characters and the movement and camera angles, love it all! There isn't a great amount of detail in the backgrounds, however, much of it takes place in a small office and alleyways so it works out grand! Instead the focus is on the characters and action sequences. One of the main characters does not speak and would use hand signs to communicate most of the time, which I found very interesting.
     The tone of this seems quite dark and mature? (I don't know, I'm just going with it) I think if you like the seinen genre, you should definitely give this a try, I would say this could be one of my favourites this season.

Dragonball Super - So hyped when I heard that a new Dragonball series would be airing! I mean who doesn't like Dragonball?! Dragonball holds a special place in my heart and always will, not only was it great for us Chinese kids living in a 'non-Chinese' country, this was a series I often watched with my lil' bro and my dad! We just love watching Goku fight and the interactions between the characters.
     DB Super definitely brings back that nostalgia element and kicks it up a notch.  I'm just so excited to see Goku and everyone again. By the way this picks up after Dragonball Z ended.

Snow White with the Red Hair - So I picked this one up because I found the synopsis of this anime kinda interesting. I like the heroine surprisingly and I like that she's a herbalist, a very passionate herbalist might I add. It's always great to see a heroine that has her wits about her! I like that Shirayuki is just a regular common village girl and joins a ragtag group which turns out to consist of a Prince and I'm assuming his bodyguard friends. Even though I like the set-up, I'm getting mixed feelings about the show, it could potentially be great but could also end up feeling lackluster.

Sore ga Seiyuu! - Feels like Lucky Star almost or just that general moe/slice-of-life genre. Wanted to watch this because I have a slight interest in voice-acting, don't think I have what it takes to do it but I like shows like this, that give you a bit of an inside look into the industry. It's quite a light-hearted anime with characters that are driven and passionate about what they want to do, voice-acting. There are roads to take, friendships to be made and all that stuff that comes along with following your dreams.

Gakkou Gurashi! - I honestly thought I was watching the wrong anime and was wondering why I even picked this show to watch. I really don't watch much slice-of-life school anime, and I was ready to drop it halfway through the episode. I also had forgotten the synopsis before I started the episode, one thing I will say though, the opening and just the majority of that first episode is misleading and you have to watch to the end!

Okusama ga Seitokaichou! - Yes, yes those are what you think they are....
Another anime that I thought was going to be something but turned out to be completely the opposite.
I'll watch it to the end though, since the episodes are so short, about 5 minutes long, but really....this anime is just about bordering that line into the hentai genre.

Ranpo Kitan - Game of Laplace - The main character in this just confuses me so much, I want to believe so badly that the main character is a trap and he's really a girl. His voice is waay too cute and the way he is drawn, portrays, acts, dresses and speaks is too feminine! It's not even in the same line of 'loli-shota', I can accept that, I'm just confused by all of him really. That's pretty much what I think of this anime whenever I watch an episode.
     The content is somewhat interesting if mysteries and puzzles are your thing, it's got a detective-solving kind of thing going on and I'd like to see where the series goes, I'll most likely finish watching this, but possibly rather slowly
.

Rokka no Yuusha - Ahhh this anime!!! I actually did not start watching this until the third episode was out, I don't know why but I just didn't want to start it, I'm so glad I finally did though! I really like the character designs and the animation style. There is CG in it but I think it looks nice, so if that bothers you, alot of the fiends and weapons are in CG.
     The set-up is pretty good I must say, 6 are chosen to fight this demon lord thing that will rise and wreck havoc on the world (ya know the drill) and are marked with the flower symbol. However this time around 7 appear with the symbol and the group have to figure out who is the imposter, before they are killed? I think that's what the fake does, I honestly don't remember, but I think the fake is planted by the demon lord...somehow. Anyway it'll be interesting to see how it all unfolds. And since I've already started shipping characters, yup definitely one I have already become invested in.

Sailor Moon: Crystal up to episode 14

It's been awhile since my last post! I've been trying to finish my other post which combined a few anime together but just haven't gotten around to actually finishing it, so most likely it's just going to be split into several posts. I've got a few other posts lined up that also need to be finished......or started I should say, but for now if you haven't watched Sailor Moon Crystal yet, you can read below what I, who has only seen the original anime, think of it.

I have watched up to just before the Black Moon arc starts, so all that I'm recounting from is up to then. So here we go, flashback feels!
       Ahhh! When I heard that Sailor Moon was getting a reboot, I was so excited! Better yet, it would follow more closely with the manga, which I never read. So it'd be nice to see how the story/events change if at all, I imagined there would be less fights or filler episodes I suppose or something to that degree. I remember the first teaser or something of that sort I saw related to Sailor Moon: Crystal was the new transformations! At first I did not like the new transformation sequence at all! The 3D models looked off and a few other things in it just didn't appeal to me. However after having seen it in action contained within the episodes, it's grown on me! I've come to actually really enjoy them! Sailor Moon's transformation still looks kinda weird, mostly the feet and ribbons I think. One thing I love is when they all have that cosmic colour fill in, it's just oddly beautiful and majestic to look at! I also really like the BGM that each of the transformations come with, I think I enjoyed the BGM to Sailor Mars' the most!
      Which brings me to one of the things I love about Crystal, it's so beautiful, very shoujo, dreamlike, there's a softness to the style and just makes everyone beautiful.....except for Luna and Artemis, I'm sorry but they are some weirdly drawn cats. I have read that people were a bit miffed that all the characters were super thin, which I can see what they mean, I mean in the original anime Usagi did seem to have a bit more meat on her and considering how much she likes to eat, it's nice to see she was portrayed with a more realistic figure. I don't know how I feel about it, I mean I'm ok with both and I do see Crystal as a more stylized show than the original. It's not like they've messed with the characters themselves! Usagi's still a klutz and loves to eat and just a lovely girl, making friends with everyone! Another thing I really enjoy in Crystal is that everyone's attacks looks like they pack a punch! I mean in the original series, sure I love it but the attacks and fights do become quite repetitive. However in Crystal, I really like how it is paced, doesn't feel too fast or too slow....well, other than the bi-weekly release for an episode thing.
All in all though, Sailor Moon: Crystal is a good watch, whether you've only read the manga or watched the original anime, there should be something in there for Sailor Moon fans and even if you're not a fan (yet) but like magical girl/romance/shoujo anime, give it a try!

Thoughts on Garo: The Animation So Far...

So I have watched up to episode 16 or so, so far in Garo, I had planned to put this into part 2 of my 'Thoughts On Ongoing Fall Anime part 2' but I just haven't gotten around to completing that post, so decided to just post my thoughts on Garo so far separately! 

      I must apologize for the format of my blog posts, I know they're quite incoherent and though I try to edit them into a more understandable format, I'm just terribly awful at it, again sorry v.v

Garo: The Animation (16) - With knights, witches, magic and horror! Starts off with introducing us to the main characters in the show and some action scenes. Pretty good first episode if I remember right, paced well. Although I have heard people talk about how they don't like the armour design, I quite like it, I suppose it is over the top and a bit jarring to see the 3D armour in the show but I still think it looks quite cool haha! I also like the artstyle in this anime, it's a bit simpler but I like the angles of the lines, jagged or sharp, I don't know something about it makes it feel a bit 'edge-y'....sorry, it fits well with the dark tone of the show. One thing I am in love with, is the OST, love love love the music for this anime, it kinda reminds me of Nier's OST as well, definitely my favourite part of this anime!
      Onto the characters, I like the juxtaposition in personality between the father and his son, his son wanting to have nothing to do with his father's pursuits to find the next woman he'll sleep with, and his actions are too cute when the topic of being with a woman comes up! Ema's pretty cool, loves to tease Leon, I'd like to see her more in the show honestly. There's alot of brooding from Leon, he tends to lose control of his power when his emotions go a bit haywire, resulting in a berserk-like mode, not being able to tell friend from foe.
      As it is now, where I am at in the show, Leon is lost and I'm guessing, trying to find himself, now that he no longer has his armour. I quite like where Leon has ended up, just in small house in the country, working with the family there, the show has a nice mix of action and comedy in this dark atmospheric anime.....honestly not sure what else to say, so I'm just going to end it here.

Winter Anime 2014/15 Picks

A bit late to the party but here it is, sharing what I'll be watching/keeping up with during this season's anime line-up. The following are just what I thought of them from their first episode.

Tokyo Ghoul √A - Continuing straight from the end of season one of Tokyo Ghoul, at first I was wondering if there was any timeskip cause I couldn't exactly remember what happened in the last episode, other than Kaneki torture and then him turning all badass. 
      It seems to start off well, quality seems the same, I don't know if there will be any censorship this season, I honestly didn't notice it much in the first season until later episodes. The new Kaneki is quite different than the one we saw in the majority of the first season, so I'm interested in seeing where the show goes.

Koufuku Graffiti - Food porn?
Are you a foodie though? Love looking at images of food? Well this anime may just be for you to watch this season. Mouth-watering food images and beautiful animation just might satisfy you, or just make you want to eat....which is how I felt watching this anime.
      Other than that I don't know what to expect from the show honestly, perhaps some heart-warming moments. I don't expect any cooking battles like in Cooking Master boy or Yakitate Japan! What they all have in common though is making me wish I could reach into my screen and grab their food!

Death Parade - I quite like the tone and atmosphere of this anime. I never saw the episode/ova/movie? this was continued on from but I really like these episodic type shows. Although most of them I know are from manga, to name a couple of my favourites, Pet Shop of Horrors, Skyhigh series and the manwha, Tarot Café. I have watched Hell Girl but wasn't as into it, probably would've liked it more as a manga. Anyway, the feel of the show is similar to those I've listed and again I love that sort of theme, the people who seem to get brought to the room also do not remember what happened to them to end up in there, so that concept is quite interesting and they can only recall events when they play a game. So I'll be watching more and anticipating what pair will be sent to that room in the next episode!

The Rolling Girls - Crazy colourful, just spectacularly beautiful, can I imagine all my fights to be just flower-y explosions please? The first episode confused and just bedazzled me, I honestly loved all those effects, the glitter, the sparkles, all that flora imagery, intense vivid images. The style reminds me a bit of Summer Wars, I think just all the colours and again it's just all round crazy, like those battles in Oz. Definitely the highlight of the show and why I'll be watching this one.

Juuketsu no Maria - Ah, sweet little Maria, this show is off to a great start! A cute style, interesting witch designs, love the details, some fanservice (although I don't really care for it) and oh my the innuendos. Honestly I thought that Maria was going to be the one that is all sex'ed up but even though her clothing says otherwise, she's the most innocent. I quite like the first episode, to Maria and her succubus to battles and a dragon! I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to watching more ^_^

Seiken Tsukai no World Break - .....I actually decided to drop this after the first episode, which I have not done before, I can't believe I decided to pick this one up, thought it could be something good, even though from preview images it was a typical chosen hero, harem type thing. I think without the ecchi elements, I could've possibly kept this up but really when I got to that boob scene with the purple haired girl who does not seem to have any emotions, I said nope. I mean....maybe it would've been more tolerable if that scene was brought out in later episodes and we got to know the characters a bit more, too soon and just it was all handled wrong, presented wrong, all was just not good. I finished the rest of the episode, didn't just turn it off but yea I can't. It's too bad and weird and wrong, I'm not one for incest either sooooo no, sorry.

Thoughts on Ongoing Fall Anime 2014

As I've mentioned in my previous post, most of the anime I picked out from the Fall line-up ended up being longer than I expected, so I decided to share my thoughts so far on the ones I have watched and kept up with. There will be either another 1 or 2 posts on this. The number beside the anime titles is the number of episodes I have watched since putting down my thoughts.

Akatsuki No Yona (12) - I was intrigued when I first heard of this or read the summary of this, mainly because it reminded me of The Twelve Kingdoms, which is one of my top favourite series (even though it's unfinished). I guessed it wasn't going be the same story obviously and considering the bishounens and the pretty/cute art style, it wouldn't leave the same impact on me as The Twelve Kingdoms did.
       The first couple of episodes the protagonist is portrayed as a weak, spoilt princess and I have read that alot of people didn't like that, not surprised. But again having seen Twelve Kingdoms, knew better than to judge from just the first couple of episodes of this sort of story, I had hoped that our protagonist, Yona, would leave that little girl behind and grow up and thankfully, she did!
      Stick with it a few more episodes and we see her gradually develop into a stronger character. Even though I'm 12 episodes in, we still have to meet a good few characters. There's a nice balance of comedy mixed in with the adventure and plot advancement. Although there's this nagging feeling inside me that there's aspects of reverse harem tropes and at the moment I'm rooting for a Hak and Yona ship. Alot of times there are these nice moments between the two of them but then it's usually interrupted, usually because of Yona's naivety. Ideally there should be other characters that the other guys can fall in love with....but how often does that happen in harem animes?

Parasyte (12) - What can I say about the show? I love it! Read the manga a long while back, so I don't remember alot of it just that it was definitely one of my favourite horror mangas or even just in general that I've read. The adaptation is great, wasn't sure at first, if I would like it but I've taken to it and honestly it's MadHouse so I really shouldn't have any doubts. It's pretty much all that I remember from the manga, the events anyway.
      The show paces well, the animation is great, as well as the music, though I could do without the dubstep parts, but I've taken to that too. Since we're onto music, I'm quite enjoying the opening after the first couple of episodes, really gets me in the mood for the episode and the ending song, just the same, perfect song to end an episode of Parasyte. Someone mentioned it brings them a sense of nostalgia and I can totally  agree! I like to think it's like before the parasites landed on Earth. One of the things I love about this series is the psychological aspect of it, the conversations between Migi and Shinichi are so interesting, and the way it's presented to us, all in all, it's definitely a show you should be watching.

World Trigger (12) - I knew nothing of this show before I watched it and I still only have a vague idea of what this show is about. To get straight to it, this show isn't great, I don't really enjoy watching it, actually I kind of dread having to spend time watching it. If not for the opening, I would've dropped this waaay sooner and probably asked myself much earlier 'why am I still watching this?'
      You see the interesting thing in the opening that made me continue the show is the image above, I was intrigued with these cubes and the size of them, they seem to have some sort of significance to them and I wanted to know why. Eventually we do find out the reason why the little girl has the biggest cube also why she is holding a gun in the opening sequence (only found this out in the last episode I watched). The character designs aren't great and the first time they change their uniform to their special suits, trigger form, I was expecting to see some awesome design but was greeted with a lackluster combat suit of some sort....I don't even know, it just was way too ordinary for me :l. The only one of interest was maybe in the ep. 12, Konami, least she gets a haircut when going into her trigger form.
      The show does way too much explaining as well, I'm sure other series do this too but, World Trigger does too much! It isn't presented well either which just makes me lose interest in what's being said and hence not know what's going on. Another thing that is off is the comedic timing, I know it's trying to be funny at some points and even though I see it and understand why the situation would be regarded as funny or should make me laugh, it doesn't, doesn't even make me crack a smile.
      I know I've said alot of negative points about this, but it's the only things I can put my thoughts into words for, unfortunately it's not a show that's keeping my attention, so I will have to drop this or put it on-hold.

Thoughts on Finished Fall Anime 2014

So having looked at the Fall anime line up, I decided beforehand what anime I was going to watch/keep up with during the season. Apparently I didn't pick many that completed within the season, most of them are still ongoing at the moment. However the few I did complete, I wanted to share what I thought of them ^^

Gugure! Kokkuri-san - Quite a fun series! This series totally grabbed me from the first episode right away, in the end thought it was a good comedy anime. There were a few episodes here and there, that were better than the rest, more comedic, made me laugh just a little more. This is definitely up there for one of the best I've seen out of what I've watched so far from the Fall line-up.
      I think one of the reasons this show caught my attention was how the main character, Kohina describes herself and acts in that doll-like way that she associates herself as. I mean she's so cute and adorable and the fact that she her favourite thing is ramen and will do anything for it, I don't know I just love that about her haha. I liked the other characters in the show too and wanted to see a bit more of the side characters. At the end though I kinda wished Kohina made friends with other people that weren't supernatural beings. I mean I think it would've just brought the anime to another level.

Donten Ni Warau - An alright anime that had it's moments, for me anyway. I found the second half of this series alot better than the first half. When it hit the halfway mark, I got more invested and wanted to know more, whereas the first half I was kinda just watching cause I picked it out to watch this season...
      I think it was all the twists and turns it held in the latter half and alot of times I was like 'Omg! What?! No Way!' but in a good way. Maybe it's something you might not enjoy however, it might seem like they're just making it up as they go along. It was just one revelation after another so I was like 'yep, ok, I'll just go along with it now'. Although I really loved the episode with Botan's past, I just love backstories haha! So all in all, it's probably an anime you can skip, if the synopsis doesn't interest you, but if you don't mind having a good few surprises in this short series, check it out!

Hi-sCool! Seha Girls - One I didn't hear many talking about from the Fall line-up, which from the first 2 episodes (which I really enjoyed) was surprised at. I assumed people might be interested in it because there would be alot of Sega game references, that's what caught my interest anyway. Personified Sega consoles that have to pass school by participating in different game worlds! Definitely a series you'll enjoy if you're a Sega fan I think, I don't even own any Sega consoles and only played a few of their games but I still enjoyed it quite a bit! Again the first 2 episodes were the ones I got the most out of and the last episode, for some reason I got such a nostalgia kick even though I did not grow up with much Sega stuff O.o, so it was weird that I got that feeling but ya know I still liked it and I'm ok with that ^_^/