Spring Anime 2016 Picks

Third week into the season now but these impressions will just be based on the first episode that I have seen! There was 3 more that I wanted to include here as well 'Sousei no Onmyouji', 'Sakamoto desu ga?' and 'Re:Zero'. The first 2 I'll start at some point, as for Re:Zero, I was recommend that I should marathon that so have moved it to my watch later list!

Anyways, continue below to check out what I will be following this season and my thoughts so far =D

Ace Attorney - The anime adaptation of the first game, was excited when they announced this, after watching the first episode though, I'll be watching this only because I'm a fan. The animation is not great, I find it a bit too over the top even though that's how the game is. It just flowed alot better and it handled the comedy and serious tones better. I will enjoy seeing the characters again and listening to new music arrangements, which is great, I honestly can't wait to see Maya again, after her trial, I just want to see Maya and Phoenix work on a case again!

Mayoiga - Just telling you, that first episode gave me nothing but a bunch of self introductions. The episode just throws a whole lot of names and generic faces at you and tell you that they're all gathered here on this bus to start a new life. It's definitely going to be one where you will have to watch a couple of episodes before you decide if you want to stick with it or not. I kind of wanted it to be along the lines of 'Bokurano' but it seems more likely it'll be like 'Another', not caring for half the characters but just seeing who will disappear, you'd need to watch a couple more episodes I think to see if you would like it. Honestly because it's only going to be 12 episodes and like I said there are alot of characters, I thought the first episode would kill off half of them at least. It is an original anime, so it'll be interesting to see what it brings.
      EXTRA NOTE: There's a character called 'Valkana' (the back of his head pictured above) and I thought I recognized the voice actor but when I looked him up, it was someone completely different, he voiced Makoto Tachibana in Free! He did not even register with me as the seiyuu, well no wonder I love his voice, Makoto being my favourite boy in Free!

Kuma Miko - Glorious, hilarious, cute, mountain raised, bear-loving girl wants to attend middle school in the city. This anime gives me the giggles and feels. I for one really love this, I love this type of comedy, right up my alley. Ya know from a glance I thought it'd be one even a kid could enjoy.....and although they could, I wouldn't recommend it...due to suggestive material.

Kagewani: Shou (second season) - Not much to say here, I enjoyed the first season, it's short, an experimental animation style bringing us themes of horror and suspense, let's do it!!!!

Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3 - This season they introduce the super cool Outer Senshis, as in Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, pretty sure it'll be true to the manga so no more being 'close cousins' censorship!
      Animation is better, though there's still some things I could nitpick. People say that the designs have changed? I honestly cannot say what the design changes are, they're not noticeable right away for me, I'd have to see a side by side comparison. They got rid of the 3D transformation sequences and went back to 2D, I don't mind either way, they were both pretty in their own way. One thing that majorly bothered me before were the damn frickin' cats (Luna and Artemis), they finally learned how to draw cats without them looking like deformed creatures, least I can say they are cute now!
      Another huge improvement is that the characters, especially Usagi, display a huge range of OTT reactions/expressions, thank you animators, this is the Sailor Moon we love and everyone should love!

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress - Um I thought it was going to be like Snowpiercer but then it went on to be like Attack on Titan (this could just be put into my head though, since I've heard AoT being brought up alot when anyone was talking about this Kabaneri). If you like to treat your eyes once in awhile to great looking animation, give this a go, a bit more of an effort is made than the other animes this season to have it look really good. I didn't really get the whole choking one's self to stop the infection though and I kinda made this face O_< when watching it.

Bungou Stray Dogs - Bleh, kinda boring :l I didn't really like what I saw in the first episode. The comedy chibi moments just starts getting awkward to watch after like half a second. I don't have a good sense of the characters yet and all I can say is 'ah they're just kinda weird/eccentric/wacky what you'd expect from a stereotypical anime character'. The powers they have though, do seem interesting, so there's that, getting to learn about their powers and how they will use it is usually the most interesting thing to look out for. I'll continue to watch it but it's a 'not recommended' so far.
NOTE: This series does seem to have quite a bit of references to Japanese literature, which I am in no way familiar with, so I guess that's another factor that could contribute to how well you will like this.

Flying Witch - Another favourite this season for me. I think we all agree, that the mandrake scene at the end of the episode was the best part right?! I like that being a witch and doing witch-y things is completely normal for Makoto and she doesn't really try to hide the fact that she is one, so whenever she does something odd or 'supernatural', everyone around her is just like '.....is this real life?'. In the end they do just accept it though and carry on with their lives.
     I think this will be a very laidback show that you can watch when you need to just let your mind relax.

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
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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.