Animation Winter 2018

It's been a while since I've read Houshin Engi. Like an I don't know how long, maybe it was in middle school to early high school while. I couldn't even tell you how actually good it was. I'm kind of excited for this, though. Those backgrounds look really dope, and if the OSTis like what they show off in that trailer, it'll be interesting. The coloring on the characters isn't really awe-inspiring, but part of that is on the original designs, so I can't fault it. I'm definitely gonna check it out, though, since I do want to consume it again in some way.

Nectar

Yes! Gakuen Babysitters! Great slice-of-life manga. High expectations for this one.

Ruin

After looking it up, the only things I'll probably check out are houshin engi and violet evergarden
Nothing else really jumps out or interests me

Wintermute

Watched a couple of shows.

I don't know how the first one of the Junji Ito stories is supposed to scare us. My brother and I were laughing our asses off at this pathetic dude and his futile hilarious shenanigans. The second story was short but legit horror though. Would never drop an Itou show anyway.

I missed the 'your name' reference in Pop Team Epic. Another keeper this season.

Devilman Crybaby started a little strange and I'd prefer a more oldschool approach artwise, but Devilman is Devilman.

And we have so many 'Cute Girls Doing Cute Things'-shows already I think I drop everything with schools and stay for the Antarctic trip and Laid-Back Camp.

Looking forward to Gintama, Basilisk, Overlord II, Hakumei to Mikochi, Houshin Engi and Killing Bites.

Sakonosolo

Pop Team Epic is kind of interesting but I doubt I'll be watching too much of it. It's just funny seeing how they chose to adapt it into an animation. Otherwise I'm just going to be watching CCS. Kind of interested in the Junji Ito one too but I'd probably prefer to just read the manga versions of the stories.

RamistaR

Too much things going on in Overlord, too much information, is my brain getting old or is it actually hard to understand ?

KageKageKing

@RamistaR:

Too much things going on in Overlord, too much information, is my brain getting old or is it actually hard to understand ?

Is it about those Lizardmen?

Hajro

Ep1 was weird introducing some characters that havent started being relevant even in the LNs.

Enzeru

Anyone else following 3-gatsu no Lion?

It's incredible how a show that started with a lighthearted and somewhat melancholic tone is now tackling heavy emotional topics while doing a splendid job at portraying them. The show's slowly but surely turning into one of the best I've seen to date.
I still don't know how to play shogi, though.

Passiopi

@Enzeru:

Anyone else following 3-gatsu no Lion?

It's incredible how a show that started with a lighthearted and somewhat melancholic tone is now tackling heavy emotional topics while doing a splendid job at portraying them. The show's slowly but surely turning into one of the best I've seen to date.
I still don't know how to play shogi, though.

Well its certainly one of my favorite Slice of Life shows and I think especially the colours and cinematography from Shaft is giving this Anime some spicy undertone.
I watched a little bit of season 2 but right now I just wait for the full season, not to mentioned that I am bored with the Anime/Manga medium so it could take a awhile for me to pick up this Anime.

Wagomu

I tried watching the beginning of the show since people kept saying it was a good exploration of depression and stuff, but I got super turned off by the first few episodes with how whacky everyone around the main character was. Does that ever mellow out or is the side cast always that amped up?

Kizuchan

I watched Devilman Crybaby and it was one of the best things I've seen in a while. The themes really stuck to me. I have to say that it really does contain some very heavy and downright repulsive content. It's not something to recommend if you can't stand very excessive gore and sexual content, but it's also emotionally very very heavy by the end.

For other stuff, I'm giving Cardcaptor Sakura and Violet Evergarden a try for now.

Sakura started up again as if it never ended - it has probably the most smooth transition into the current day out of all the recent remakes.

Violet Evergarden is extremely gorgeous. We saw it starting with it's first trailers. I'm not a fan of Kyoani sad girl stuff, but Violet could at least potentially be a much complex character than most Kyoani stories have, but despite her dark backstory, she still has that moe girl element to her character and I've never liked that stuff. Characters like that are usually simple to the point of being caricatures, but as said, right now at least she feels more understandable/complex than most Kyoani characters. You get why she is the way she is, when with other Kyoani stuff they just tend to have certain moe traits.

Enzeru

@Wagomu:

I tried watching the beginning of the show since people kept saying it was a good exploration of depression and stuff, but I got super turned off by the first few episodes with how whacky everyone around the main character was. Does that ever mellow out or is the side cast always that amped up?

That whacky side of things is amplified a bunch of times due to SHAFT doing this show and while it's still present here and there, I'd say it's gone down.

You do make me curious though- which chars in particular turned you off?

maxterdexter

Violently annoyed with Houshin Engi's new anime. They crammed the whole first volume into chapter one, sacrificing any cool moments and agency that Taikoubou had against Dakki there, into "oh, you are just dumb", instead of the weird "oh, this awkward plan might work and save the world on volume 1!".

The first kill, Dakki's sisters being something more than background wenches and Taikoubou being somewhat competent were traded for.. Having Nataku in chapter 2 instead of 4?

I mean, leave the first chapter a little more space to breathe, put the first "kill" in the end, then chapter 2 dedicated to make the Zou capital be as shitty as possible, and the battle against Dakki's sister, and then chapter 3 the mindgames and planing and snake pit, and then chapter 4 the marketing plan! You can even keep the random useless flashforwards in chapter one.

SOMEONE has to die early to show how the Soul realm thingie works! Dakki's sisters are important characters (Kibbi and… shut up it has been like 10 years, I don't remember their names!)

Wagomu

@Enzeru:

That whacky side of things is amplified a bunch of times due to SHAFT doing this show and while it's still present here and there, I'd say it's gone down.

You do make me curious though- which chars in particular turned you off?

Honestly I didn't get far enough in to start really recognizing characters, and though this was a few weeks ago, the details are fuzzy to me. I think it just boils down to most of the side characters. In theory, I like the idea that this depressed dude has a lot of people invested in his well-being since it's got a refreshing positivity to it, but they're handled in such a goofy manner that it clashes tonally. Like the family, for instance, who have a sweet relationship with the main, but the children and pets are super cartoony. The pudgy rival character was also a miss to me, since he's really exaggerated (at least in the first few eps. again, all of this is based on the first few eps).

I know a lot of people love this as a dramatic story, and I was excited to dive into it, but the beginning threw me. I guess I'm wondering if this is a problem only I've had cause I'm a grumpy old goat, or if it's a common sentiment that goes away in time.

CaptainAppleJack

The thing is that, when you feel like there is a tonal clash, that it's very deliberate. The Kawamoto household especially has very warm colors and a bubbly atmosphere with the cats talking and such because for the depressed Rei, who lives in this empty cold apartment, that is how he perceives it.

Wagomu

Well there's juxtaposition and then there's clashing. I get the former is what they're going for, but the result really undermines the tone for me. The goofy stuff comes off as material written to be genuinely goofy as opposed to complimenting the dramatic focus, so it ends up distracting and makes the product as a whole kinda toothless.

Again, I only got a few eps in, so I'm not making any statements on the series as a whole. Plus, I don't like overly cartoony anime children and animals on the best of days (absolutely hated the main child in Barakamon, for example), so there's definitely some bias here. I just kinda got salty watching the beginning of the show and not sure if I should continue.

maxterdexter

Another rant at Houshin Engi (I'm cutting out the U right now).

Someone called Taikoubou "generic as asta", well I can't disconect myself from the full story, and how he keept manipulating enemies and allies into victory, but the chapter went like:

Hyper Dense Info Dump -> Check out the kill list -> complete defeat vs the strongest dude in the kill list -> sad flashback -> try to defeat the other strongest person on the list without a plan -> fail and get captured and get like 20 people killed by a pit of snakes -> be saved by a random dude and the strongest dude -> decide to find allies

The manga goes something like:
From the info dump to the sad flashback is ch1

! Ch2: Defeat a minion with an army while defending a town by getting the town drunk so they are easilly captured, and then killing the minion
! Ch3-4: The strongest woman on the list does evil torture of hot metal, while her sister tries to kill the protagonist, the sister gets defeated and captured to be used as hostage
! Ch5-8: The protagonist infiltrates palace as "musician" to taunt the villain with the life of her sister, he meets the general dude, and gets to observe the villain on her natural state of complete manipulation of the situation, and while she gives tons of openings for him to attack, they are all traps, eventually she tries a direct approach and THEN he gets a lucky shoot and tries to escape with the emperor, all predicted by the villain who placed a safegurad, recovers the hostage and disarms him.

Ch9: gets captured, pit of snake, gets saved by general and strongest dude, decides to find allies.

He tries the gambit of trying to end the empire on chapter one, sure if Dakki fell then and there, other colorful villains would have taken her place and she'd be the Pilaf, or the world would have ended because reasons. But at this point I had the knowledge of the first anime, so I knew of Dakki's role going forward, so it was like going to world 8-4 right after 1-1, not Bowser getting to your doorsteep, but him actually invading the capital, with a fucking hostage, and by the skin of his teeth surviving way more than he should be able to.

RamistaR

I don't dig animes that force the characters into a relationship with stupid powers or robots that work only with a male and a female…..
With that said Darling in the Franxx had quite the amazing fight and animation, that alone convinced me to watch episode 2.

Kokkuku and Hakata Tonkutsu Ramens are very thrilling. The latter reminds me of Durarara.

Overlord is being very weird right now, boring kind of weird.

fana

Pop Epic Team is the best anime of this season.

Besides that gem, I gave a few anime a shot (on top of the sequels I already planned on watching) and the one I liked most is Kokkoku.

maxterdexter

Whomever is the director of Houshin Engi should be demoted, at the very least.

! For the first half of the chapter they showcassed the plot in two scenes, following the protagonist trying to gain an ally, and the antagonist returning home to see all that has gone wrong while he was away, how did they archive this? Cutting between these two paralell, but unrelated and unconected thematically stories, every around 2 minutes, at seemingly random intervals.
! There are other issues, like that the giant creatures were represented by closeup stills of their faces, and that Nataku killed the fish of the river without focusing on what he actually did, giving hints on his weird cloth magic weapon that does "something" to liquids, but the slaying of pacing was too clumsy.

Way too many things make me feel like this series is pre-abridged.

Also, last week seemed random enough, the opening scene was a battle way down the road, almost near the end of the story, and now it started with another battle down the line, the question is why? how? Why random insertion of spoilers?

Black Leg

It really is quite subtle, but there might be some sexual undertones in Darling in the Franxx :ninja:

KageKageKing

I am not ashamed to say that I am into Killing Bites.

RamistaR

@Black:

It really is quite subtle, but there might be some sexual undertones in Darling in the Franxx :ninja:

Darling in the Franxx when I am alone in the living room
Darling in the Franxx when my roommate comes home and asks me what the hell I am watching

@KageKageKing:

I am not ashamed to say that I am into Killing Bites.

Didn't like a single thing about this one :sad:

RoboBlue

I'm enjoying Junji Ito collection (it gets better after the first episode).

maxterdexter

(Slowpoke meme)

I'm OK with Konosuba, but the level of sexual harassment is starting to bother me.

–- Update From New Post Merge ---

I'm giving time amazon Spain to put Made in abyss for me to watch legally, other than let re:creators, madoka and cowboy bepop play in the background to up their watched numbers, I guess that Re:zero is supposed to be good.

Kizuchan

Violet Evergarden is one of the best-looking TV anime ever and I couldn't get through episode 2 because of how boring it was.

Halfmetal-lich

Oh hey, High School DxD, the guiltiest of guilty pleasure anime is coming back.

maxterdexter

The last Houshin Engi chapter was the best of the bunch, while still being terrible.

Halfmetal-lich

Just watched the three episodes of Darling in the Franxx

WTF did I just watch?

It's like Eva, wrapped in Eureka Seven, divided by every after school sex commercial ever.

Sakonosolo

maxterdexter

Housin engi still garbage, seemingly removed another good character that will cause plotholes later, as while Raishinshi wasn't important in the manga Youzen used his wings a lot later, and he was upgraded to main cast in the first anime, so just removing him is a dick move for sure. Well, there is still some chance for him to show up in a while, but after this battle, the series is railroaded to it's main flow. Also Dokuson is also introduced around this point, he's a moleman dude who gets some development and half of a boss battle later. And the Water Lady is introduced as well, who is a supporting character with relevant roles down the line.

Also removed another low key fight with some random honorable mooks, that while not very strong, showcased the personality of the characters very well, as them were the first opponents that thay fought together, a dude with a megaphone that paralizes people after saying their name, and another with a rosary of buhdist prayer beads that grew up to people's size and attacked as red pac-men and captured people like pokeballs (this chapter is post pokemon).
The mooks had a list of the 10 people party that Hiko is traveling with, and are out of breath after calling their name
Then youzen shows up and doesn't want to fight as he's famous and he'd be captured easily
Taikoubou is captured easilly because of that
They don't know Supu's name, so Taikoubou gives them a very long fake name to distract them

Now, this chapter, finally, after 3 other, granted those had like 2-3 houshin deaths, the souls of the "houshin" are starting to show up and fly to the Houshin Pilar, the whole purpose of Taikoubou's mission is to defeat the people on the list, who's souls get sealed there to avoid breaking the taboo of inmortals killing eachother. At the begining it's supposed to be an inmortal only club, but we soon find out that Hiko's wife and sister's souls also flew there, so it's including people with strong wills as well. None of that was in the anime up to now, so today when the first 4 souls started to fly (with a very lame fx and sound effect) anyone who didn't read the manga would be completelly lost.

So, still terrible adaptation.

Sakonosolo

Wow, that page flip Hellshake Yano segment in Pop Team Epic was great.

AfroSamurai

Sooo… This just happened

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf655uvFf0T/?utm_source=ig_embed (pink mecha-series skinsuit alert, mildly NSFW)

Kim Kardashian is apparently loving Darling in the FranXX and ummm… Zero Two is her Waifu. She even coloured her hair pink to show her love. Now, can someone help me find my original Universe? I seem to have stumbled into an alternate one that's slightly more insane at some point in 2015.

RamistaR

This season wasn't baaaad. But you know…there are no shows that I would blindly recommend to my friends.

In the end, only Kokkoku, Mahoutsukai no Yome and Nanatsu no Teizai still have my attention. But I'd hardly say they are amazing.

fana

I binge watched "B The Beginning" last week-end and I loved it. It's been a while since I've enjoyed a drama anime as much as that one.

CaptainAppleJack

Also just watched B: The Beginning and I can't really say that I'm a big fan. It had very good animation and sound (especially a kick-ass ending by Man with a Mission), but man…it really felt like they shoved two anime into one. I would have been content with just the detective story side with Keith, but the whole demigods/artificial humans plot with Koku fell rather flat - and the connections between both plots are too flimsy to really make it feel like a whole package.
The main villain was rather predictable also but enjoyable, especially seeing how he has the same voice actor as two of my favorite characters in anime.

Overall, the show still was pretty okay, even if rather disappointing. Oh, and the sequel hook was kinda laughable imo.

RamistaR

Just watched it too and I can say I am a big fan.
I take back what I said about this season having nothing amazing.

Halfmetal-lich

I was really shitting on FRANXX at the start for being so boilerplate, it still is, but 9 episodes in I am finding it quite endearing and interesting.

Probably change my tune when shit starts going insane halfway through, we'll see.

RoboBlue

Apparently Funimation is simuldubbing Junji Ito Collection, and they're up to episode 8.

I'd recommend giving it a watch, they did a good job.

MajinArekkusu

Problem is the series itself is shite. Junji Ito deserved more.

Wagomu

The greatest anime of the season just ended today. I'm hyped for the announcement, though. I can't wait for Hoshiiro Gumdrop season 2!

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